• • • an aural noise • • •
word salad: Saafi Brothers – The Quality Of Being One. Released June 23, 2017. Liquid Sound Design – LSD101. Liquid Sound Design Records is very pleased to introduce the legendary Saafi Brothers. They are formed in the spirit of chillout & dub, and they have a mystical connection when placing with their audience into higher spheres.
Their new album “The Quality of Being One” goes deep into soul turning ambient-dub and adds drum thrills that get the tunes rocking. The secret of their “danceable speed” in ambient tracks is a higher density of their unique ambient-electro sounds and rhythms to experience feelings through their deeply emotive music.
• • some of the things I read in antisocial isolation while eating breakfast • •
Yeah, I was woken on the wrong side of the bed again today. I’d be mad if they didn’t feed me when they do this. Once again I ate breakfast in antisocial isolation sitting at the counter in the middle of an empty restaurant.
How a Long-Planned Pandemic Exhibit Adapted to COVID-19
A Dutch science museum was set to showcase the horrors of contagion. Then came coronavirus.
A quarantine sign in front of a tulip field in the Netherlands. Embiggenable. Explore at home.
FROM 2017 TO EARLY 2020, DR. MIENEKE te Hennepe prepared to warn the world about the devastating potential of viral outbreaks. Dr. te Hennepe is a curator at the Netherlands’ Rijksmuseum Boerhaave, a museum in Leiden dedicated to the medical sciences, research, and innovation. The exhibit she was working on, Besmet! (“Contagious!”), was scheduled to open in March 2020 as an immersive experience of a world ruled by contagion. The curator brought in objects she thought visualized the scary, sobering truth of managing infection. Visitors would be able to stare into the goggles of a Personal Protection Equipment (PPE) suit used during the 2014 West African Ebola epidemic. A gas mask would teach them about airborne pollutants. Dr. te Hennepe even rustled up a 14th-century style plague mask replica, stuffed with historically accurate herbs, so all ages could dress as a doctor treating the Black Death.
Of course, Dr. te Hennepe and the museum were too late to issue their warning. In February, just one month before the exhibit was scheduled to debut, Dr. te Hennepe began to worry that Besmet! was already out of date. The macabre warning of the pandemic exhibit was playing out in real life; from declarations of an outbreak to frequent alerts of cases cropping up across the globe, disease was no longer a subject safely contained within the walls of Besmet!. The snowballing outbreak, which would be classified a pandemic by the World Health Organization on March 11, was unprecedented, underestimated and more deadly than many of the ominous contagions on display.
“As it evolved in China, already it became clear that we had to include it in our exhibition,” she says of COVID-19. Exhibits come together over the course of years, so te Hennepe’s team could only make minor text edits. But when the Netherlands went on lockdown just a week before the scheduled opening, ultimately forcing a four-month delay, the curator realized she had a novel opportunity.
Curator Mieneke te Hennepe stands beside medical suits dating centuries apart in a section of the exhibit dedicated to treatments.
In four months, Besmet! went from chasing the news cycle to leaping ahead of expectations, becoming one of the world’s first museums to feature and curate the unfolding coronavirus pandemic. The exhibit’s creative team altered the exhibit in a matter of months to connect the histories of past outbreaks to today’s global crisis, all while collecting items that demonstrate treatments, research, and the dramatic real-life impact of the virus. “A major message is, science is doing its utmost to make us healthy again, to take care of us, and we have to follow this scientific instruction,” says Annelore Scholten, a creative leader on Besmet! and the museum’s chief public engagement, education, and exhibitions manager. …
White clicktivism: why are some Americans woke online but not in real life?
Amidst a ‘great awakening’, white Americans overwhelmingly voted for Trump. Are liberals really doing the groundwork they claim?
Why are some Americans ‘woke’ online but not in real life?
In the winter of 2018, Gwen Kansen, a 33-year-old self-professed liberal, met a man called Elias in a bar. Within minutes, she knew he was intense. His phone screensaver was of Pepe the Frog – a symbol of the alt-right movement. His style reminded her of a Confederate soldier, and he wore badges proudly proclaiming his hatred for political correctness.
It was not long before he disclosed he was a member of the Proud Boys, a far-right, male-only political organization. Still, Kansen didn’t put an end to the date. They drank rum and cokes; spoke about music, books, and exes; and that night, he walked her home. The two had a brief fling. Later, Kansen wrote an article about coming to terms with her so-called liberal beliefs while still choosing to entertain the affair.
The article was met with backlash. People spammed her Twitter, questioning her morals, dating standards and self awareness. How could a so-called liberal woman choose to date a member of a group known for its anti-Muslim and misogynistic rhetoric, associations with extremist gatherings, and a white nationalist agenda? The consequences of this group are real-life harm: death threats, racial slurs, violence and even murder, and yet Kansen saw it as an opportunity to dabble in a forbidden experience.
The story might sound extreme, especially following a summer of “listening and learning”. Following the deaths of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, and Breonna Taylor, many white Americans have spent the past year taking part in a social justice movement online and on the ground, combating systemic racism and opposing police brutality. Bookstores sold out of race education books, social media timelines were consumed with Black Lives Matter support, and protests drew diverse crowds.
But then we saw the election results. …
Mount Everest is 0.86 metres higher than previous measurement, announce Nepal and China
Both the countries share a border on Mount Everest and there has been a long-running conflict over its height.
A view of Mount Everest in Nepal. For perspective, I suppose.
Nepal and China on Tuesday jointly announced that the world’s highest mountain, Mount Everest, is 8,848.86 metre high. This is about 0.86 metre higher than previous calculations, Reuters reported. Both the countries share a border on Mount Everest and there has been a long-running conflict over its height.
In 2005, China’s measurement of 8,844.43 metre had put the mountain about 3.7 metre lower than Nepal’s. Despite being home to the world’s highest mountain, Nepal had never previously measured the height on its own. Reports said the most commonly used estimate by Nepal came from a survey conducted by India in 1954, which includes snow.
Tuesday’s announcement came after Kathmandu and Beijing sent an expedition of surveyors to the summit to calculate Everest’s precise height above sea level. Nepal Foreign Minister Pradeep Kumar Gyawali declared the findings of their surveys on a video call with his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi. “Everest is an eternal symbol of friendship between Nepal and China,” Gyawali said.
Meanwhile, Susheel Dangol, Nepal’s chief survey officer, head of the measurement project, said they were confident that this is the “most accurate height” of Everest, according to The Washington Post. “It was a huge responsibility on our part. It is a moment of great pride for us.” …
RELATED: Monster Hunter Pulled in China After Backlash to Racist Line
It seems the devil er, Brute Wyvern has been in the details when it comes to Monster Hunter‘s highly anticipated release. After first making headlines back in October after eagle-eyed fans caught a pretty massive weaponry-related error in one of the movie’s initial movie posters, the video game’s film adaptation is in hot water once again for a glaring oversight so bad it prompted the film to be pulled from Chinese cinemas — a pretty darn racist pun.
The joke in question is a ten-second quip from a soldier played by rapper and actor MC Jin (a.k.a Jin Au-Yeung), Variety reports. “Look at my knees!” he allegedly asks his white comrade as they drive through the desert. “What kind of knees are these? Chi-nese!” The joke, which appears to reference a racist playground chant used to taunt Asian children, quickly garnered flack on Chinese social media site, Weibo under the hashtag “Monster Hunter Insults China” as users flocked to accuse the film of “humiliating China,” and depicting “naked racism,” with some even calling for Jin to apologize, according to CNN. Chinese regulators also seemed to take issue with the scene, pulling the movie days following its December 4 release.
“Starting today, cinemas around the country will stop playing the movie Monster Hunter,” Theater company Xinjiekou International Cinema said in a statement over the weekend. “Xinjiekou International Cinema will refund all Monster Hunter tickets, and all refunds will be returned through the original payment methods.”
Yet not everyone agreed with this call. Notable film critic, Uncle Yuan took to the networking site, critiquing the decision. “Why was the movie pulled? Because [we are] not confident about our culture?” …
RELATED: The Idiotarod Shopping Cart Derby: Real-Life ‘Wacky Races’
Every winter in Alaska, teams of grizzled dog sledders gather to compete in the most grueling race known to man. Over a span of days and of 1,000 miles, teams of haggard huskies drag their masters across blizzard-pocked tundra to win tens of thousands of dollars, fame, and the glory of competing in the fabled Iditarod race.
But I’m here to talk not about the Iditarod, but the Idiotarod, a yearly race where self-proclaimed dinguses race each other in the finest chariots that the Walmart parking lot has to offer. Starting in 1994 in San Francisco, the shopping cart race has since spread to Brooklyn, Chicago, Austin, and every other place in America where hipsters have gotten bored with microbrewing.
Aside from the name, there are few similarities between the simulated Alaskan survival trek and the Williamsburg supermarket sweep. Since no inner city has a thousand miles of unforgiving wilderness to plow through for up to ten days, Idiotarod races are usually limited to a couple of miles, which can still take several hours depending on the amount of uncontrollably loose shopping cart wheels — and pub crawl stops by the contestants.
And instead of a team of 12 determined huskies, each shopping cart is also manned by a team of five-ish costumed “idiots” tasked with Jackass-ing their way down icy city roads. But while the Iditarod claims several canine casualties every year, so far, no one has ever risked severe injuries competing in an Idiotarod race — discounting those risking frostbite from running around in Borat mankinis in the middle of January. …
Cabin fever: Singapore cruise passengers stuck in rooms after COVID-19 case
A Royal Caribbean “cruise-to-nowhere” from Singapore confined nearly 1,700 passengers to their cabins in port for more than 16 hours after a COVID-19 case was detected on board, before allowing some to disembark on Wednesday.
All passengers aboard the Quantum of the Seas vessel had cleared a mandatory polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test for the virus up to three days before the four-day cruise began on Monday.
Authorities said close contacts of the COVID-19 patient among the 1,680 guests and 1,148 crew members on board had so far tested negative. The passengers were stuck in their rooms while contact tracing was being conducted.
“I feel relieved, it was obviously a very boring wait,” said Isaac Lung, a 16-year-old student, who had taken the cruise with his parents. …
Ed. Read on about the diarrhoea.
Video Goodnesses
and not-so-goodnesses
and not-so-goodnesses
The U.K. administers its first corona vaccine, Trump turns down the option to buy more vaccines from Pfizer, and South Africa, Rwanda and India find new ways to enforce pandemic rules.
THANKS to Comedy Central and The Daily Social Distancing Show with Trevor Noah for making this program available on YouTube.
The president was counting on the Supreme Court to side with Republicans and toss out all 2.5 million of Pennsylvania’s mail-in ballots, but today the high court rejected the GOP’s lawsuit in a move that might prove fatal to the president’s effort to hang on to power.
THANKS to CBS and A Late Show with Stephen Colbert for making this program available on YouTube.
Hot Take breaks down the latest news about the Covid vaccine, the Georgia recount, and more with actor and activist Kal Penn. Plus, Tyler Templeton asks Uncle Squirrel to donate his organs to Rudy Giuliani. Watch the full segment on CBS All Access.
FINALLY . . .
Mystery of the monoliths: if only it were aliens
The strange, reflective objects that have appeared in wildernesses worldwide were an inspiring stunt but are now just a tedious prank.
Time to stop standing for it? A monolith on a hill outside Piatra Neamt, northern Romania.
Someone had to spoil it. That could be the motto of the social media age when things that begin as wonders become mere memes. Now our inability to let well alone is turning the most mysterious art happening of 2020 into another tedious prank.
Strange metal monoliths are materialising everywhere, in California, Romania, the Isle of Wight and, according to the latest reports, the Netherlands, Germany and Spain. Their rate of appearance is quickening: barely 24 hours separate photos of the lone sentinel on the Isle of Wight’s Compton Beach and the new European manifestations. As these silent messengers follow those seen at wider intervals in Utah, California and Romania it seems that their message is becoming more urgent, the time of their revelation imminent.
Getting the point … visitors inspect a metal monolith in a field in Baasrode, Belgium, this week.
Except no one believes that. They are certainly a great global diversion at the end of a wretched year. But as with a brilliant stunt by Banksy, we are all in on the joke. There’s even speculation Banksy is behind them, naturellement. And he might as well be, for all the apocalyptic terror the monoliths arouse. The social media chat is about “aliens”, not aliens.
It would be ironic if these structures really are the work of highly intelligent extraterrestrials trying to make first contact – but we’re so jaded by art pranks and sci-fi cliches that we’re taking it for an elaborate stunt. “Earthlings, we wished to impart the secret of the universe, but you are too cynical,” they’ll lament as they obliterate us. …
Ed. Yay! I’m almost done.
Ed. More tomorrow? Possibly. Probably. Maybe. Likely, if I find nothing more barely uninteresting at all to do.
ONE MORE THING:
This is about Trump, of course, but it's also about you personally.
— God (@TheTweetOfGod) December 9, 2020
Ed. I’ll bear this in mind when I get around to shaming the tardy employee who caused me to be gotten up on the wrong side of the bed today.
ONE MORE ONE MORE THING:
The “Stop the Steal” Movement Is All About Money
It’s not just Trump. They are all in on it.
On Wednesday, President Donald Trump’s campaign apparatus announced that Trump has raised more than $207.5 million since Election Day. Most of these donations have come from “small-dollar donors” who responded to the nearly 500 e-mails that the Trump campaign has sent its supporters since the election.
The amount is staggeringly high, even under normal circumstances. By contrast, the Trump campaign’s previous best fundraising month was in September, when it raised $81 million.
Losing campaigns normally do not continue their fundraising efforts in perpetuity. Therefore, the recent influx of e-mails to Trump supporters needed to reflect a sense of urgency, employing capitalized words such as BOGUS and RIGGED. Trump’s Twitter feed has been almost exclusively dedicated to baseless allegations of massive voter fraud for the past month.
There were already indications that Trump’s motivation was primarily financial. The fine print of these fundraising requests reveal that the majority of the donations would be dedicated to Trump’s new “Save America” PAC, with smaller amounts being siphoned off to the RNC’s coffers. Trump’s supporters might have thought they were supporting his election defense fund; in reality, they were victims of his grift. …
You gotta read all the way to the bottom. Happy birthday mom.