u.c., unwilling companion

Our gratitude once again to internet custodian Everlasting Blört for reacquainting us with the illustrated reflections of Art for Housewives.
Do hang out there and surely you’ll find something resonant, insightful and engrossing immediately but as good a gateway as any are the author‘s impressions of intrepid journalist Martha Gellhorn (*1908 – †1998), whom referred to her first husband, Ernest Hemingway by the above term of endearment. I want to know more about Gellhorn, especially after reading the three lessons that the author gleaned from her autobiography: without memory, experience is useless, perseverance is our excellence and sadly no matter how celebrated a woman is in her own right, society accords her helpmeet extra attention.

as I testified previously, with regard to the requested white house call and white house meeting, the answer is yes

Per my previous post indeed, we’re wondering if that minor (comparatively) diplomatic gaff that involved first diminishing and dissing the European Union at the beginning of the year before quietly re-credentialing the supra-national organization was not some sort of premonition, previsioning of how the testimony of his own ambassador to the EU (the slightly amnesic and fellow billionaire hotelier appointed by Trump himself) might lead to downfall of the whole regime, pulling all his creatures of the court under with him. The undeniable implication that all were party and privy to the motivations behind Trump’s conditional and transactional foreign policy, driven on self-interest alone, leaves the administrative completely exposed and defenceless. Just as superior orders (Befehl ist Befehl) is not an exculpatory argument, placing wrong-doing out in public does not make it right or more palatable.

climate emergency

Collegially following the lead of its peer (though ever peerless in many regards, the Oxford English Dictionary (previously) defines its above selection as Word of the Year as “a situation for which urgent action is required to reduce or halt climate change and to avoid potentially irreversible environmental damage resulting from it.”  The nomination, backed up with irrefutable scientific evidence as well as trending tracking, is attended by other shortlisted terms including ecocide and eco-anxiety.

indians of all tribes

Under the terms of surrender in the 1868 Treat of Fort Laramie negotiated between the United States and the Arapaho Nation and the Lakota peoples all federal holdings declared surplus were to revert to Native Americans (see also) and the prison island of Alcatraz in San Francisco Bay closed since 1963 should have qualified for repatriation.
And while there was significant advocacy and agitation in the interim, issues of social justice and representation came to a crescendo when on this day in 1969, a group of eighty-nine protestors embarked for what would become a nineteen-month, peaceful occupation of the island—spurred to action in part due to the loss of a community centre to a fire a month earlier. Activists hoped to establish a residential institute of Native American studies, a museum, an ecology centre and a spiritual retreat. Despite the tenacity of leaders like Mark Martinez, Garfield Spotted Elk, Adam Fortunate Eagle and Kay Many Horse and celebrity support from Jane Fonda, Marlon Brando and Credence Clearwater Revival, the occupiers were ultimately removed, power-cuts and the blockade by the coast guard ultimately making their situation untenable. Bureau of Indian Affairs employee and amateur film-maker Doris Purdy captured some of the scenes early during the event. The island and its historical buildings subsequently were designated as part of the Golden Gate Recreational Area and managed by the National Park Service, though groups of protesters return annually to commemorate Indigenous Peoples’ Day and Unthanksgiving.

☔️

Via Kottke‘s Quick Links and quite resonant of a couple of recent demonstrations (here, here and here) of coding and data visualisations in real-time, we are introduced to this Emoji Storm from programmer and software engineering Robert Lesser which culls characters and decontextualises Twitter reactions as they happen.  Off-hours, it can be a meditative, steady downpour but during peak hours, it can be a real torrent.  Après nous le déluge.  Methodology and full instructions given allowance—as well as other empowering tutorials—at the link above.

8x8

mudras: nifty exercises for your hands and wrists

holy rollers: A reformed, formerly anti-LGBTQ fast food franchise announces it will make amends

konmari: life style guru and evangelist of de-cluttering now wants to fill that tchotchke-shaped void in your soul

flea circus: the marvelous performing Savitsky cats, via Everlasting Blört

between two ferns: eight-two famous and infamous interviews animated

anti-archiv: a massive cache of photographs and home movies from the DDR, via Things magazine

discerning audiences: light entertainment from 1972

self-policing: a browser extension uses machine learning to highlight AI generated content, via Waxy

chaîne de télévision

Coinciding with the Principality’s National Day (La Fête du Prince) chosen by the reigning sovereign, Albert II, to mark his investiture ceremony in 2005, his father Rainer III on this day back in 1954 held the inaugural broadcast of the oldest extant private television network in Europe (the first, the regional Télé Saar started broadcasting in February of that year and was also funded by the Prince and his backers), Télé Monte Carlo, established to showcase his upcoming wedding to Grace Kelly—nearly two years in the planning.  Due to an arrangement with then French president François Mitterand, the joint Franco-Monégasque venture reached viewers as far away as Montpellier in south-central France. Though the airwaves are far more crowded these days, TMC continues to show a variety of programmes, including quite a bit of original material covering the royal family and aspects of politics, culture and economics in Monaco.