distinguishing signs of vehicles in international traffic

Aside from a brief period in the tumult of the 1980s when the Republic was coerced into an uneasy compact with other Polynesian nations formerly claimed under the domain of the United States and treated as a trust territory, receiving development assistance in exchange for hosting nuclear testing and forward operating bases, when national plates were issued since devolved again to the responsibility and oversight of the several states, each island and atoll group of Palau is free to design and determine the conventions of its vehicle registration system.
Varying highly by composition, remoteness and population, fourteen out of sixteen states have populations of under five hundred and there are a little over seven thousand cars and trucks registered and roadworthy. This sample from the state of Ngiwal (population 282) and features the coat-of-arms and the registry number—all of which begin with the prefix K79, first K for the native Kiuluul people and their reputation as gourmands, reportedly eating seven meals and nine soups daily, having originated from the stomach according to legend from a mythical figure known as the Insatiable Uab. A parable on sustainability, especially from an insular perspective threatened by sea-level rise, the creature with the prodigious appetite had to put down, dramatically exploding into the map of Palau after seeing the effects of his greed. There’s a gallery of plates to explore at the link above, in that same constellation and further afield as well, but none I think with quite such a developed narrative.

monuments men or statue of limitations

As corroborating evidence comes in that indeed Trump knew of Russia bounties on foreign troops in Afghanistan and that the contracts did indeed result in the death of American service members and the EU bans travellers from the USA due to its atrocious job controlling the spread of the pandemic, more are dying and the economy is lurching towards total collapse,
the administration is shifting priority with the formation of a Department of Homeland Security special task force to protect statues and memorials, the DHS director answering the call issued in an executive order to safeguard history and heritage with the full arsenal of law enforcement. Moreover, Trump is also threatening to defund the Department of Defence should the military branches proceed with renaming installations named in honour of war heroes of the Confederacy.

be cool, honey bunny

Writing for Mel Magazine, correspondent Miles Klee expertly and unflinchingly deconstructs the iconography of the new American Gothic and all it says about the country’s caste and class system—despite attempts to paper-over it with fables of exceptionalism and reluctance to couch itself in terms reserved for places held, by the beholder, in graver contempt like apartheid, gun culture, entitlement and fragility.
Grant Wood’s original—like all enduring images, though I hope that this armed couple defending their McMansion, deciding to take matters into their own hands before dialling their personal racism valets, from a peaceful rally, does not become more than a meme as this is not their story, reveals more about the viewer than it does about itself and drew out widely varied interpretations—as does this spectacle. The contrast of architectural backdrop also speaks volumes to the fact that patriotism is weaponised like the arsenals stockpiled and triggered to unleash for the sake protecting what’s staid, complacent and hideous.

bl 23

Ostensibly to prevent interference in territorial affairs and required under the twenty-third article of the Special Administrative Region’s Basic Law, police authorities had the chance to inaugurate the newly enacted security legislation by conducting mass arrests of demonstrators marking the anniversary of the transfer of sovereignty of Hong Kong (see previously) from the UK to China in 1997.
Protesters were arrested and detained for unlawful assembly and for advocating for Hong Kong independence. Globally the response to what is perceived as heavy-handed encroachment in reaction to ongoing civil unrest that began around March 2019 over proposed changes including extradition to the mainland for those accused of sedition and other crimes to stand trial instead of facing justice in local courts has been one of consternation with UK pledging to fast-track citizenship for residents born under British rule who seek to leave.

ketikoti

Meaning the chain is broken in the Sranantongo English-Dutch creole language, the annual commemoration held in Suriname, the Dutch Antilles and the Netherlands is a time for celebration and remembrance as well as education and as well as a prompt for research, reparation and reconciliation began on this day in 1863 when the institution of slavery was abolished.
Though also presently referred to Emancipation (Maspasi) Day, actual freedom for most formerly enslaved individuals would be deferred for a full decade as part of a transition period which still tethered people to their plantations, curtailing their liberties as indentured servants until this obligation was discharged. Landowners were further compensated by the government for their loss monetarily, the Dutch being one of the last of the colonial powers to end enslavement—with Abraham Lincoln issuing the Emancipation Proclamation that liberated those in America’s capital city about a year earlier while across the British Empire, full emancipation came at midnight on 1 August 1838.

yōkaigaku

One of the latest episode of 99% Invisible is a fascinating and wide-ranging survey of the fantastical menagerie of legendary creatures—this bestiary captured in community and corporate mascots and games—including the Amabié, other mythical characters and yōkai.
There are more guides for reference plus a profile of the academic and philosopher Inoue Enryō (*1868 – †1919) self-appointed superstition dispeller (embarking on the above field,  妖怪学, of research) of the Meiji Restoration and the opening of Japan when it became obvious at least to him that Japanese folk beliefs were putting it at an economic and political disadvantage. I am reminded of the words of Ursula K. Le Guin: “People who deny the existence of dragons are often eaten by dragons—from within.” Despite Inoue’s reputation as an agent of debunkery and responsible for ending many local customs in the name of enlightenment, it is also thanks to his extensive research that we have as much documentation and knowledge about yōkai, an ethnographer much like the Brothers Grimm and burdened with similar baggage, that we presently enjoy.

moskvich xrl

Via the always engaging Things Magazine, we are introduced to one commission by the design genius Raymond Loewy (see previously) that failed to take the world by storm as so many of his other innovations and interventions had in the Москвич XРЛ (the model sequence standing for Experimental Raymond Loewy—see more about numbering conventions here), designed and engineered in 1974 as a flagship, global automobile for export markets to demonstrate Soviet talent in the field. Production problems condemned the concept car, however, and only models and mock-ups were ultimately produced.

die erste internationale dada-messe

Lasting through the end of August, the first Dadaist art exhibition opened on this day in Berlin in 1920, the movement having originated four years earlier during the war with the establishment of a bar in Zürich called the Cabaret Voltaire—invoking the namesake’s view that society was a theatre of arrogance and error.
The original salon and adherents only lasted for six months but parallel associations and artists like Man Ray and Marcel Duchamp (alter-ego of Rrose Sélavy) helped forward this approach to the discipline and practise which rejected sense and meaning and was a counterpoint to Expressionism—which espoused the global conflict as judgment from God and an earned punishment. Bertolt Brecht joined the Dadaist as they held a touring art fair through major German cities, the playwright styling himself as an engineer in line with the overarching idea that works of art weren’t more ingenious or inspired than technological creations and were amenable to fusion and recombination.