The wind is growling around the house and through the trees. Our fire is keeping us warm and sleepy.
TERRIBLE SEMANTIC CONFUSION IMPERILS MILLIONS
It seems that the International Atomic Energy Agency has determined that it must needs stand up for terrible design and design by committee with the release of the eye-poppingly fucked-up ‘improvement’ to the extant rediation symbol. Seriously, how stupid can an international bureaucracy be?
The long-held symbol, the well-known three-wedge-on-yellow design, effectively combined the four dark areas of a death’s head with a clear and elegant visualization of both radiation and half-life, the dark areas occupying one half of the radiating circle about the node’s center point.
The ‘improved’ symbol places a much-reduced-in-size old symbol (presumably the source of the agency’s design need, as incomprehensible or insufficient) at the apex of a less-generally-known sign shape, ‘hazard triangle,’ against an unfamiliar red background, lessening the contrast between the darker and lighter areas of the symbol at the same time as the overall size of the emblem is reduced by about three quarters.
Then the rest of the triangle is filled with a cornucopia of inharmoniously-combined elements. From top to bottoms and left to right, the old radiation symbol at the apex of the triangle sheds a bouquet of downward-pointing spermatozoa, which menace to the leaft of the triangle a peculiarly-spindly-boned jolly roger (black bones on a red field, certain to confuse aline intellegences, vast, cool, and unsympathetic who will note that most mammal bones are greyish white), an international dot-head figure in flight, apparently from the giant black skull, and an arrow rendered at the same density as the running dot-head figure and possibly indicating that one should flee large black skulls when menaced from the sky by wriggling arrowhead spermatozoa.
Seriously, this is the most terrible international signage ever envisioned. If they really thought the old symbol was no good, why the fuck would you bother to keep it in the new ‘improved’ symbol?
The new, uh, design, combines no fewer than SIX (hazard triangle, radiation badge, rays, death’s head, running man, arrow) independently existing symbols and changes the color scheme of the existing and most effective symbol to a less effective scheme. Furthermore, presumably someone on the committee that came up with this horrible menace to communication is at least familiar with the transition, 20 years gone, from the death’s head to Mr. Yuk?
Honestly, if that’s the quality of work that comes out of the IAEA these days, then I can state that the GWB objective of hollowing out the agency in order to enable more plausible invasion scenarios in Iran and Korea is well in hand. An agency that promulgates this logo has the credibility of a hungry toddler and the threat capacity of an enraged grizzly bear.
It’s so awful, in fact, that I suspect a hoax.
Attention Seafarers and Chanteyists
I regret to report that the New Yorker double-issue of this week, Feb. 19-26, 2007 contains a dynamite main course in Mark Singer’s long piece, The Castaways. Why the regret for a terrific piece? Well, it ain’t online, so I can’t extract or link. You, dear reader, will be forced to the extremis of commerce to chime with or reject my observations on the composition.
The issue is the annual Eustace Tilley cover number, for those taking note. Act now, supplies are limited.
In the article, Singer recounts the tale, verging on a year gone, of the Mexican Pacific Coast fishermen found over nine months adrift and five thousand miles west of their port, San Blas, Mexico. I recall reading the initial coverage of the rescued men and the nearly-immediate skepticism of the men’s tale in the press. Reading a long-form sympathetic retelling of the men’s months adrift is nothing sort of remarkable even if it does not provide a prescriptive verdict on the truth or fiction of aspects of the tale. The men appear to be the exception to those we build mariners’ memorials to, and the detailed recounting of their time adrift may serve as proxy for the countless others never found out upon the trackless main.
Warm and sweet
It was as warm and clear as promised, temperatures nearing seventy as the day wore on. Viv and I accomplished a great deal, with her attending a class on dogmanship in the morning while I did load after load after load of laundry. On her return, she straightened a couple rooms in the house and I tidied up the gardening area on the porch prior to departing for the long-delayed housewarming party of some friends.
While at the party we discovered not only that the dog trainer is someone we already have known peripherally for several years but that her husband is a project manager at the firm who did the house remodel. The remodel, by the way, was really stunning, easily one of the best domestic spaces I have ever seen and as spacious as one could possibly hope for.
Laughter ensued
nyt_02162007.jpg 1008×1117 pixels (via BB): Oh, they don’t look all THAT divided. Perhaps some fresh black metal ‘zine subscriptions would pick them right up.
Bumpy Headed Greek
Nouri posted an intriguing look at Alcibiades that caught my attention. I wrote this as a comment for his blog, but my age must be showing as the spam-defeating measures were beyond my patience. I emailed it to him and eventually decided it was a blog post in-and-of, etc. I assume the essay is something he posted in the just pride of scholastic accomplishment. I was engaged by it, as I enjoy the classics very much and always appreciate a contrary view. As the response below was composed as a comment, please forgive any pompous blowharding. 😉
Indeed, there is a fiercely individualistic character to this robe-dragging, lisp carrying Athenian, but, at the root, this is all a mask for the imperatives of the city-state of Athens.
I’m intrigued by Nouri’s choice of subject for contrarian rehabilitation. Taking it as granted that we might challenge the narrative of Plutarch, a first point of consideration might be that an advisable course of challenge would be grounded in direct sources apart from that well-beloved talespinner. Granted that resources may be tight, I’ll adopt a primary-sourced close-reading model and proceed in yoke with him.
First, it interests me that Nouri might choose to view the life choices of a man that clearly valued both dominant cultures of his socioeconomic circle as worthy of service such that the Athenian traitor (the conventional position on Alcibiades’ Athenian and later Trojan political service) becomes the Athenian patriot rather than considering or expounding the possiblity that Alcibiades’, um, flexibility of mind might have led him to serve each in turn and both at the same time, and just possibly, himself before either (my own opinion).
I do grant that my view supports the conventional verdict on the man; but I must confess, when I review what know of his character I also find many compelling things about him and his acts in Athens. However, I wholeheartedly endorse the viewpoint that Alcibiades’ foolish and self-serving interest in an imperial Athens essentially destroyed the city-state (plague or no plague – if there had been no plague, the undermined economy would have failed at the next catastophe), and I certainly do draw the lessons for today that one might expect.
One wonders if exile might not be well-suited in today’s world, for the evidence is that it broadens the mind, yes?
But I tease. I love the classics, and I love them for the very reasons the plays remain important to us today: studying the events of the past and the personalities involved can give us a wonderful set of tools for interpreting the events of today. I hope Nouri keeps that eye on the classics, and keeps looking for a contrary interpretation.
With regard to celebrating Alcibiades’ imperial vision as patriotic, though, in my view, since his time (and undoubtedly before – alas for the undeciphered, lost, or nonexistent tablets of Mojeno-Daro and Catal Hyuk) each deployment of that vision has been by self-serving criminals, and the cost of that vision has exceeded its’ benefits since at least the time of Athens. The cost upfront is to the contested locale in blood and economic opportunity and the longer-term cost has been the ultimate failure of both the social and economic structures of the wannabe empire. I am sure that we all concur on this, although I admit my certainty stems from an inability to understand how a reasonable person can view the facts otherwise.
On a side note, may I suggest for your amusement that you seek out the Cartoon History of the Universe, Vols I and II? The author is very amusing and his scholarship – and enthusiasm for Petrarch – is strong. He generally presents the recieved wisdom / standard interpretation, followed by his own take, often quite original and always originally presented.
I’m embarking on the Fagles Aenid this week and expect to be really pissed off every week I explore it. I wouldn’t miss it for the world.
On another side note, Nouri’s (and later the pros’) news of resurgent bombings in the Kabilye has me heartsick. Your own trajectory, on the other hand, lightens my day even when I suspect we may not share political perspectives in every detail. Hope you’re doing well.
Apple Torrrent
Cringely pulls some amusing speculation outta his piehole on why a) iTV has a hard drive and b) iTV, Mini, and the new-model Airport all are designed as stackable components. Where others would boldy solve the conundrum with cries of ‘design obsessives!’, der Cringler connects the dots via Unca Stevie’s recently declared jihad on DRM and foresees Apple edging out the cable companies via install-base numbers and cheap-ass hard-drives.
I’m not buying it, but the case is solid enough that someone is going to be shipping 200+ gb drives wrapped in networkable set-top boxes that cost nothing except a subscription promise by the end of the year. i think I’ll sign up for all of them, just to to strip-mine the drives and sell ’em on ebay for the first year.
Yoornalista
I totally missed the memo, but TCJ editor emeritus Dirk Deppey has bravely picked up the banner of the sorely missed Journalista chez fanta. Several years ago, Dirk launched the site embedded in the upolished confies of the Fantagraphics website and within months, due simply to absurd internet diligence, had transformed the site into not only the single-best comics news-roundup site on the web, but in many ways, into the single-best topic-focused newsblog on the web. When he was rightly selected to head TCJ, the site was understandably suspended; now that’s he’s back at it, who knows what will happen. If Fanta doesn’t see how to properly capitalize on Deppey’s magnificent obsession, I am sure someone shall. I am sure that his TCJ stint has if anything sharpened his capacity for the job.
Dirk, what you do with Journalista is formally astounding considered simply from a blogging perspective. the fact that it is comics which inspires your labors is a credit to Fanta, and to you.
Accommodations
…but you can never leave.
Unleashed
Seattle Parks & Recreation: Off-Leash Areas in Parks. For reference. Golden Gardens, Magnuson, and Northacres look closest. Still need to find a zero-density area to go for non-pack offleash time.