• • • something google suggested • • •
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• • • some of the things I read while eating breakfast • • •
AngelBrix, produced by the Albermarle China Studio, were religiously themed statuettes that could be combined to form various structures. No longer made, they were endorsed by televangelists throughout the 1980s and were even used to build an entire church in Missouri.
— Fake Atlas Obscura (@notatlasobscura) February 18, 2019
The Man Who Turned His Home Into a ‘Mosaic Palace’
Yossi Lugasi spent decades making portraits of famous people out of smashed ceramics.
Political leaders in tile form, created by Yossi Lugasi. Embiggenable.
YOSSI LUGASI WAS TIRED DURING during the final months of his life. He had a hard time getting out of bed, moving or eating. His wife, Yaffa, begged him to finish the portrait of Donald Trump he started working on when he was still feeling better. Lugasi would get up, drag himself to his work table, glue some orange, pink and yellow mosaic pieces to a net, and go back to bed.
Lugasi passed away a year ago. The small mosaic portrait of Trump hangs in a discreet corner of the living room in his apartment, in the Israeli port city of Jaffa. It is hidden among hundreds of such portraits, mostly of Zionist leaders, Jewish historical figures, and Israeli pop culture icons. The portraits cover the walls, doors, door frames and floors of the humble housing project apartment. They spill out onto the roof: artists and actors, prime ministers, presidents and philosophers, Holocaust martyrs, war heroes, members of failed American peace conferences, and the spy Eli Cohen, portrayed by Sacha Baron Cohen in the Netflix series The Spy. The portraits hang on walls on the roof, overlooking the Jaffa projects, blending into a landscape of solar water heaters and clothes lines.
There are over 600 tile portraits in and on Lugasi’s apartment building. Embiggenable.
Over four decades, Lugasi—who left school during the 5th grade, was barely literate and never studied art formally—created no less than 1,090 mosaics.
Yaffa Lugasi, who retired a few years ago from her position as a departmental secretary at the Electric Company, gives tours of her home for a modest fee, which also includes a film about her husband’s life. She says the house is the world’s largest mosaic creation. According to her, the family contacted Guinness World Records to have it included, but was turned away under the pretext that the house belongs in a new category, which Guinness has yet to define. …
Hannah Stover’s Death Engine served as the foundation for medieval England’s centuries-long remote viewing program.
— Fake Atlas Obscura (@notatlasobscura) February 18, 2019
Have Zombies Eaten Bloomberg’s and Buttigieg’s Brains?
Beware the Democrats of the living dead.
I’m in Spain right now, talking about zombie ideas — ideas that should have been killed by evidence, but just keep lurching along. In the modern United States, most important zombie ideas are on the right, kept undead by big money from billionaires who have a financial interest in getting people to believe things that aren’t true.
But sometimes zombie ideas also manage to eat centrists’ brains. Sure enough, some of the most destructive zombies of the past dozen years have shambled their way into the Democratic primary fight, where a couple of centrists are repeating ideas that were thoroughly debunked years ago.
And as it happens, the experience of Europe, and Spain in particular, provides some of the bullets we should be using to shoot these particular zombies in the head.
So let’s start with the origins of the 2008 financial crisis, a topic that remains relevant if we want to avoid repeating past mistakes.
Although few saw 2008 coming, in retrospect it was a classic banking panic, the type of thing that happened frequently before the 1930s. First, lenders got caught up in a gigantic housing bubble; then, when the bubble burst, much of the financial system just froze up.
What made this panic possible, after two generations of relative financial calm? The answer, clearly, was the erosion of effective financial regulation over the previous few decades. …
Are plastic containers safe for our food? Experts say it’s hard to know
The plastics industry says its containers are safe but some experts advise consumers to avoid heating them and advocate using glass or metal instead.
There are thousands of compounds found in plastic products across the food chain, and relatively little is known about most of them.
Many of us have an overflowing kitchen cupboard of plastic containers to store our leftovers.
But as awareness grows over the health and environmental pitfalls of plastic, some consumers may be wondering: is it time to ditch that stash of old deli containers?
Only 9% of all the plastic waste ever created has been recycled. From its contributions to global heating and pollution, to the chemicals and microplastics that migrate into our bodies, the food chain and the environment, the true cost of this cheap material is becoming more apparent.
There are thousands of compounds found in plastic products across the food chain, and relatively little is known about most of them. But what we do know of some chemicals contained in plastic is concerning.
Phthalates, for example, which are used to make plastic more flexible and are found in food packaging and plastic wrap, have been found by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in measurable levels across the US population (including in the body of Guardian journalist Emily Holden). They have been linked to reproductive dysfunction in animal studies and some researchers have suggested links to decreased fertility, neurodevelopmental issues and asthma in humans. …
America’s ‘recycled’ plastic waste is clogging landfills, survey finds
Many facilities lack the ability to process ‘mixed plastics’, a category of waste that has virtually no market as new products.
Fewer than 15% of recycling facilities surveyed could process plastic clamshells, like these.
Many plastic items that Americans put in their recycling bins aren’t being recycled at all, according to a major new survey of hundreds of recycling facilities across the US.
The research, conducted by Greenpeace and released on Tuesday, found that out of 367 recycling recovery facilities surveyed none could process coffee pods, fewer than 15% accepted plastic clamshells – such as those used to package fruit, salad or baked goods – and only a tiny percentage took plates, cups, bags and trays.
The findings confirm the results of a Guardian investigation last year, which revealed that numerous types of plastics are being sent straight to landfill in the wake of China’s crackdown on US recycling exports. Greenpeace’s findings also suggest that numerous products labeled as recyclable in fact have virtually no market as new products.
While the report found there is still a strong recycling market for bottles and jugs labeled #1 or #2, such as plastic water bottles and milk containers, the pipeline has bottomed out for many plastics labelled #3-7, which fall into a category dubbed “mixed plastics”. While often marketed by brands as recyclable, these plastics are hard for recyclers to repurpose and are often landfilled, causing confusion for consumers.
“This report shows that one of the best things to do to save recycling is to stop claiming that everything is recyclable,” said John Hocevar, director of Greenpeace’s Oceans Campaign. “We have to talk to companies about not producing so much throw-away plastic that ends up in the ocean or in incinerators.” …
5 Monopolies That Hate The Average American
There are few businesses as noble as utility companies. They keep us warm, clean, and connected, and prevent us from drowning in our turds. Sure, the fact that they require billions of dollars of singular infrastructure means you can’t make them as capitalistically competitive as cupcake stores, but they’re all just run by workaday Joes trying to do right by the people, right? Well, no. It turns out that any market with an impossible barrier of entry and which 100% of the public has be a customer of (or else they, y’know, die) doesn’t attract the most humanitarian of money-lovers. In fact, by the looks of the American public utility system, it’s Mr. Burnses all the way down. For example …
3. California’s Oldest Power Company Switches Off Whenever There’s A Stiff Breeze
With its earthquakes, wildfires, and unreasonably long waiting times at Nobu, California isn’t the most welcoming of places. So you’d think that the state’s utilities would be equipped to handle these constant calamities, making sure the water and your fridge keep running. But that would require a lot of money and upkeep, and no monopoly would ever let a silly thing like having to do their job get in the way of turning a profit.
Pacific Gas & Electric earned its monopoly the old-fashioned way: It was there first. Established in 1852, most of California’s power has been provided by PG&E since before the E was even invented. The 19th century was also apparently the last time the investor-owned utility updated any of its infrastructure. In the home of the American bush fire, its transmission lines are so old and sparky that they caused the 2018 Camp Fire, the most destructive wildfire in California history, costing $16 billion in damages and 86 lives.
After that tragedy, PG&E vowed to never let that happen again — being liable for damages, that is. Now, at even the slightest hint of dry and windy weather, PG&E simply shuts down power to hundreds of thousands of households, in what they call preemptive blackouts. That sounds more like something a bored trophy wife does 20 minutes before her terrible stepchildren come home from soccer practice.
While Californians are used to dealing with blackouts whenever the sky turns orange or Lex Luthor is trying to sink half of the state into the ocean for real estate reasons, it’s a whole other fuck-you when your fridge fails or the gas pumps won’t work just because your energy company doesn’t feel like putting in the work. And because these outages are “preventative,” citizens can’t even get disaster relief from their insurance, as the damage isn’t caused by an act of God, but an act of greed. And if they had to pay out every time an American company stabbed its customers in the back, AT&T and Verizon alone would’ve bankrupted every insurance company in the world.
Why doesn’t PG&E just spend its billions on safeguarding its power lines and updating its infrastructure? Well, it has more important uses for that money. Like getting its shareholders massive payouts. And of course, since their callous endangering of thousands of lives has given them a bit of an image problem, they’ve needed to spend hundreds of millions on the most expensive lobbyists and image consultants in the U.S.
But not even with half of the former Clinton PR team (they know how to defend a boss infamous for fucking over pretty people) could they grease enough wheels to allow them to plunge the entire state into darkness whenever they feel like it. As of 2020, the state is trying to pass a bill to municipalize the firm. And if you need government bureaucrats to step in to streamline and modernize your infrastructure, you’re doing something wrong. …
LEAVING THE BLEAK for a while, how about something more upbeat barely uninteresting at all to listen to? Crank it and feel free to leave that first thing Google suggested streaming.
Ed. These people might help you make sense of this. Word to the wise, Elon Musk isn’t the only guy making really stupid music that Google wants me to share in these errant ramblings barely uninteresting at all things.
INTERMISSION’S OVER. Feel free to leave some or all of it streaming.
Why the Restoration Hardware Catalog Won’t Die
The surprising persistence of the mail-order business
When you enter the RH (formerly Restoration Hardware) megastore in New York City’s Meatpacking District, you might think it’s a place to buy furniture. Technically it is, with tens of thousands of square feet filled with dining-room sets and king-size beds and couches, upholstered in shades of gray and beige and beiger, and accessorized with plush rugs and metal-armed lamps. Or maybe you’ll mistake it for a hotel lobby, with its high ceilings, ample seating, and smiling concierge.
But on either side of the store’s broad central path, you’ll see its true spiritual, if not practical, purpose: as a temple to the high-end furniture chain’s infamous “source books.” On twin circular tables large enough for an extended family’s Thanksgiving dinner (yours for $7,995 each), eight different editions sit in neat stacks and offer inspiration tailored to ski chalets, beach getaways, or nurseries for rich babies, depending on the tome. Bathed in golden light from enormous $12,000 chandeliers, the gods of direct-mail marketing beckon enticingly from their “carbonized split bamboo” altars.
The biggest of RH’s 2019 catalogs was 730 glossy pages—from a few feet away, you might think it’s the September issue of Vogue. The company would not reveal how much it spends on the lavish compendiums, but in 2012, an industry expert estimated that they would require a multimillion-dollar budget, with each individual book costing as much as $3 to print and ship—a figure that doesn’t include the tab for photography or page design. RH’s catalogs, and its price points, were similar to Pottery Barn’s and Crate & Barrel’s until the late aughts, when the source books and opulently appointed stores began to be introduced. Both are part of what longtime Chairman and CEO Gary Friedman has described as a strategy to project abundance and turn the heads of wealthy customers; apparently, it’s worked. In 2001, the company was teetering on the edge of bankruptcy. While there have been bumps along the way, RH’s sales since then have increased dramatically, and in December its stock price hit an all-time high.
All the pageantry for catalogs might seem puzzling, given that print media and retail stores are struggling to compete with the infotainment hub of the smartphone. But although the number of catalogs mailed in America has fallen since its high of 19 billion in 2007, an estimated 11.5 billion were still sent in 2018. As retailers become ever more desperate to find ways to sell their stuff without tithing to the tech behemoths, America might be entering a golden age of the catalog. …
DEGREE OF OPPORTUNTY: “You can’t make me open your email, you can’t make me open your website, you can’t make me go to your retail store, but you can send a large-format mail piece I have to pick up. It’s invasive, but it’s welcome.”
Mushroom Advocates Eyeing Boulder As Next Decriminalization Target
First Denver, now Boulder.
Denver made history in May 2019 by becoming the first place in America to decriminalize psychedelic mushrooms. After that, the dominoes started to fall. Oakland was next, and then came Santa Cruz, California.
Now it’s Boulder’s turn.
“Boulder makes sense just because it seems like the path of least resistance,” says Matthew Duffy, a Boulder resident who was part of the Denver decriminalization campaign.
On Tuesday, February 11, around twenty advocates of psychedelic mushrooms, including Duffy, gathered at an office building in Boulder for the first meeting of Decriminalize Nature Boulder County (links to Facebook).
The group, which has already registered as a lobbying organization, is aiming to decriminalize psychedelic mushrooms — as Denver did in May, when voters approved Ordinance 301, the Psilocybin Mushroom Initiative — while also decriminalizing other natural psychedelics, such as peyote and ayahuasca, throughout Boulder County.
Beyond including more substances, the decriminalization efforts in Boulder will differ from Denver’s in other ways. In Denver, proponents launched a signature-gathering campaign to get their proposal on the city’s ballot. In Boulder, advocates plan to skip the petition path and instead lobby elected officials in municipalities throughout Boulder County to decriminalize the natural substances. …
Video Goodnesses
and not-so-goodnesses
and not-so-goodnesses
In ancient times, wildcats were fierce carnivorous hunters. And unlike dogs, who have undergone centuries of selective breeding, modern cats are genetically very similar to ancient cats. How did these solitary, fierce predators become our sofa sidekicks? Eva-Maria Geigl traces the domestication of the modern house cat.
Ed. I still have the 528Hz piece streaming. The effect is barely uninteresting at all.
The Atacama in northern Chile is the driest desert in the world, and may be the oldest. It also holds 40% of the world’s lithium – an essential ingredient in the rechargeable batteries used in green technology. Indigenous leaders and scientists say Chile’s plans to feed a global green energy boom with Atacama lithium will kill the desert. As violent protests rock the country, they are fighting for the mining to stop.
CAUTION: Some language may not be appropriate for work or children.
Me critical analysis of creepy clowns!
Before he was a famous writer, Charles Dickens was a passionate monster hunter who made it his life’s goal to acquire the head of a Lummagog
— Fake Atlas Obscura (@notatlasobscura) January 18, 2018
FINALLY . . .
What Is the Hardest Language in the World to Lipread?
There’s a whole lot we don’t know vision and speech perception.
Lipreading might be more art than science.
LIPREADING HAS AN ALMOST MYSTICAL PULL on the hearing population. Computer scientists pour money into automated lipreading programs, forensic scientists study it as a possible source of criminal information, Seinfeld based an entire episode on its possible (mis)use at parties. For linguists, it is a tremendously controversial and fluid topic of study. What are lipreaders actually looking at? Just how accurate is the understanding of speech on the basis of visual cues alone? What language, of the 6,000-plus distinct tongues in the world, is the hardest to lipread?
This last question, though seemingly simple, resists every attempt to answer it. Every theory runs into brick walls of evidence, the research is limited, and even the basic understanding of what lipreading is, how effective it is, and how it works is laden with conflicting points of view. This question, frankly, is a nightmare.
WHEN WE THINK of lipreading, generally we’re assuming that a lipreader is operating in complete silence, which is not, thanks to the popularity and technical improvements in cochlear implants and hearing aids, often the case. Seattle-based professional lipreader Consuelo González started to lose her hearing at a very young age, beginning at about four-and-a-half. “Over a period of about four years it went down to off the charts,” she says. (We conducted an interview over video chat, so she could read my lips.) Today she is profoundly deaf, and without hearing aids, she hears no sound at all. With them, she can pick up some environmental sounds, some tonality in speech, but not enough to understand what is being said to her—without seeing it, that is.
It turns out that we all do a bit of what González does—that is, use what we see to understand what is being said to us even if we can’t hear it well. “As far back as the 50s, there were classic studies that showed that people are better at perceiving speech in the presence of background noise if you can see the face of the talker,” says Matthew Masapollo, who studies speech perception at Boston University. There is a profound connection between the auditory and visual senses when understanding speech, though this connection is just barely understood. But there are all sorts of weird studies showing just how connected vision is to speech perception. …
Winifred Rotham, of Worm, devoted her life to constructing ornate shrines for dead robots. Twenty-one are known to still exist
— Fake Atlas Obscura (@notatlasobscura) January 18, 2018
Ed. More tomorrow? Possibly. Probably. Maybe. Not? Likely, perhaps.