xxvii

To mark the ratification of the Twenty-Seventh Amendment to the US Constitution on this day back in 1992, we’re reprising the story of a college sophomore determined to vilify his case and made it his decades long mission to revive a tabled vote and see it through to passage and enactment, an inspiring and wonky story that illustrates the role that the resolve and passion of individuals play in government and policy.
 Intended to be incorporated into the Bill of Rights by drafter James Madison in 1789, among the first proposed but last adopted, the language states succinctly, “No law, varying the compensation or the services of the Senators and Representatives, shall take effect, until an election of Representatives shall have intervened.” In other words, a sitting Congress can’t vote on giving itself a pay-raise and has to defer matters to the next one. Proffering the idea that the pending amendment had no statute of limitations (period of prescription) curried our ambitious pupil not favour academically and a barely passing grade, but it gave him the motivation to turn his paper into a proof-of-concept campaign, which eventually put the amendment to a nationwide vote.

botantical mysogyny

Though admittedly a simplification of a host of factors and vectors coming together to exacerbate seasonal allergies and tree sex and gender are far more complex, we learn via the always excellent Kottke people experience outsized hay-fever and respiratory responses in part in America at least (and there’s surely counterpart problems created unintentionally elsewhere) because of a misguided appeal to urban planners decades ago to line the streets with greenery exclusively of the male variety, reasoning that then we could dispense with messy blossoms, fruits and pods that female tree would produce.
Not that trees were not incorporated into cities and sidewalks prior to the 1940s—but many of the stately, oldest residents had been blighted with the outbreak of Dutch Elm disease when production demands of World War II made the usual quarantine process that kept the pests at bay infected all American elms—and the reforestration effort was thought out along more deliberative but short-sighted lines, perhaps tidier and have a certain aesthetic like our ridiculous, manicured lawns but unbalanced with row upon row of bachelor trees spewing out too much pollen and making us noticeably suffer. What do you think? Sexism in the plant kingdom is not the same as the attitude that excludes women from medical studies and clinical trials as they are deemed unfit control subjects and most treatment and dosage comes from a pointedly male perspective but has consequence nonetheless.  I wonder what the second- and third-tier effects are that we can’t even begin to appreciate.

chunnel

A quarter of a century ago on the day, French president François Mitterrand (*1916 – †1996) and Queen Elizabeth II boarded the royal Rolls Royce, their spouses following in an inaugural Citroën, the cars loaded onto the autorack of a train—which would eventually ferry passengers and haul freight, to mark the opening of the Channel Tunnel with their fifty kilometer journey one hundred meters below the bed of the English Channel (la Manche). Despite being beset with delays and cost-overruns, this feat of engineering that significantly cuts transit time between the UK and the continent has proven itself to be an enduring success and is the culmination of project first envisioned over a century ago during the reigns of Victoria and Napoleon III exploring the idea of a mined tunnel under the water. Learn more at the link above.

may the fourth be with you—always

As we mourn the passing of actor Peter Mayhew, Miss Cellania happily reminds, that although twenty years late, Chewbacca is finally recognised as a hero of the Rebellion and bestowed a medal by Princess Leia, at a Lifetime Achievement Award ceremony with highlights reel at the 1997 MTV Movie Awards.

de minimis non curat lex

Lowering the Bar reports that a US district court judge has struck and dismissed a frivolous and miscellaneous “pile of papers” that “serves no conceivable, legitimate legal purpose.
There’s speculation that filing an exhibit of random junk mail and utility bills was an attempt to have the court affirm the plaintiff as a sovereign citizen and thus outside of their jurisdiction, and while I agree that it is a major legal failing that businesses can get away with this by setting up letterbox companies in offshore tax havens, I don’t think that by dent of having a mailing address entitles one to be an outlaw and a nuisance.

8x8

shuudan koudou: the Japanese art of synchronised, precision walking

how happy we could be if we’d only listen to our kitschy teacups: cheerfulness is not a virtue and rather an equal opportunity vice

shortlisted: a curated selection of submissions to National Geographic’s travel photography competition

the wookie roars: RIP Peter Mayhew (*1944 – †2019)

tiger on tour: during the height of the Space Race, Esso gave away maps of the Moon

deplatformed: garbage social media ejected a bunch of garbage provocateurs, though the stunt is more publicity for the banned

klimaanlage: researchers in Karlsruhe study enlisting air conditioning units to pull carbon dioxide out of the air

yijin jing: watching Shaolin Kung Fu training from above (previously)

sun day

Though not as enduring as the other observance conceived and coordinated by Denis Hayes, Earth Day in 1970, this day in 1978 was proclaimed as Sun Day by US president Jimmy Carter, with international events staged around the world to advocate and promote solar power and prompt conversations about alternative sources of energy. If only we had sustained that level of enthusiasm, just imagine how much better our planet could be. We ought to revitalise this holiday and help us get back on the right trajectory.