Who to Be Today


6.5 Billion Times the Sun/350 Terabytes per Day

https://eventhorizontelescope.org/

the first direct visual evidence of a supermassive black hole and its shadow.

The image reveals the black hole at the center of Messier 87, a massive galaxy in the nearby Virgo galaxy cluster. This black hole resides 55 million light-years from Earth and has a mass 6.5 billion times that of the Sun.

The EHT links telescopes around the globe to form an Earth-sized virtual telescope with unprecedented sensitivity and resolution. The EHT is the result of years of international collaboration, and offers scientists a new way to study the most extreme objects in the Universe predicted by Einstein’s general relativity during the centennial year of the historic experiment that first confirmed the theory.

Each telescope of the EHT produced enormous amounts of data — roughly 350 terabytes per day — which was stored on high-performance helium-filled hard drives. These data were flown to highly specialised supercomputers — known as correlators — at the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy and MIT Haystack Observatory to be combined.


Einstein’s Eye

http://nautil.us/blog/an-astrophysicist-magnifies-the-black_hole-image

Beyond confirming the existence of the black hole, EHT tells us that all its features of the hole match the predictions of Einstein’s general theory of relativity. The object is rotating clockwise. A black hole, unless a hole in your jeans, spins. This rotation drives the jets that the hole ejects from its environs into deep space. Interestingly, the image from the telescope is asymmetric, which might be a further clue to the spin and mass.


‘A Perfect Sphere, Made of Nothing’

http://nautil.us/blog/ll/2794/null

Looking at a black hole is what the Event Horizon Telescope has done for the past 12 years.

The Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) is not less remarkable than the objects it observes. With a collaboration of 200 people, the EHT uses not a single telescope, but a global network of nine telescopes. Its sites, from Greenland to the South Pole and from Hawaii to the French Alps, act in concert as one. Together, the collaboration commands a telescope the size of planet Earth, staring at a tiny patch in the northern sky that contains the Messier-87 black hole.

Black holes bend light so much that it can wrap around the horizon multiple times. The resulting image is too complicated to capture in simple equations.

a perfect sphere, made of nothing.

The experimental challenge is formidable. The network’s telescopes must synchronize their data-taking using atomic clocks. Weather conditions must be favorable at all locations simultaneously. Once recorded, the amount of data is so staggeringly large, it must be shipped on hard disk to a central location for processing.

The EHT’s observations agree with expectation. But this result is more than just another triumph of Einstein’s theory of general relativity. It is also a triumph of the astronomers’ resourcefulness. They joined hands and brains to achieve what they could not have done separately.

In 1978 French astrophysicist Jean-Pierre Luminet drew the image of a blackhole by hand.

it wasn’t until 1978 that physicists got a first glimpse of what a black hole would actually look like. In that year, the French astrophysicist Jean-Pierre Luminet programmed the calculation on an IBM 7040 using punchcards. He drew the image by hand.


Making Movies of Black Holes

https://www.popularmechanics.com/space/telescopes/a27131631/behind-the-scenes-of-the-first-black-hole-photo/

“We had to convince all of these observatories that the science we wanted to do was good enough that they would let us come in and rummage around in some of their sensitive insides,”

The Atacama Large Millimeter Array in Chile took six years and a lot of negotiations to receive all the necessary upgrades.

“It turns out that the Internet is just too slow to transfer all of our data,” says Doeleman. “All the data that we recorded at the South Pole in April 2017 would have taken about twenty five years to get back using the Internet.”

“We’re confident that we can take the next step and move from still images to making movies of black holes,” he says. “And we feel there are no logistical problems that would prevent us from doing that over the next decade.”


Wrong

https://www.sciencenews.org/article/black-hole-first-picture-event-horizon-telescope

“We have seen what we thought was unseeable.”


Eat like Warhol


‘Not all members of society often get the chance to play.’

https://www.artforum.com/interviews/kameelah-janan-rasheed-talks-about-her-work-at-the-brooklyn-public-library-79129

Given the pressure that many schools are under, exploration and play are often discouraged because they seem like “inefficient” modes of learning. Under capitalism, inefficiency is never framed positively—it’s considered wasteful. But I believe that learning is fundamentally inefficient, and that it shouldn’t be dictated by capitalist imperatives. Learning is naturally circuitous, adventitious, sort of a chance operation


Backflip like Rey


‘Judgment is not censorship’

https://www.wnycstudios.org/story/assange-under-arrest

[Assange] didn’t run a news agency any more than El Chapo ran a pharmacy.

Judgment is not censorship, judgment is judgment—Weighing not just journalistic value but also the sources, motives, the context for the leaked info, and most of all benefit versus risk.


Shred like Fred


‘Agonizing about Outreach’

https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/emily-wilson-on-porous-boundaries-and-the-world-of-homer/

Many scholars are doing some long-overdue grappling with the white, elitist legacy of the discipline since the 19th century. Scholars of antiquity have everything to gain from working to dismantle that legacy, and inviting engagement with the ancient world based not on racist or elitist identity politics, but on critical thinking, open-minded curiosity, and joy.


Words, Jewelry, Armor

https://bombmagazine.org/articles/gracie-leavitt/

Naming and summoning. Naming as summoning. Naming to summon! This makes sense, doesn’t it, as an inroad to genesis? So many of us get started in life with it. And speech acts are volatile stuffs.

Seems I can’t get myself to talk about anything without bringing brambles or bushes into it.

“Nonce” … First not knowing it, then I clutched at it: jewelry-armor! … an instant in the past? A cut back into time reopening what’s too much healed over, sealed away.

‘Stop that stupid horse laugh!’

Intention is Design

Wikipedia Poem, No. 776

w776-sm

calcu-later and hereby
its european people
already: then it

will it only
bloodied than twenty
since a renegotiation

open to arguments
at the nuclear
fuel for executive

seconomy free economy
hangs grounded hollowed
u.s. regional tuesday

refuel nationalist fervors
build once agreement
who told me

and then it
regionald approach decision
is capable war

will simply right
eyes closed ballast
disdained hollowed imposed

stupid something ton
childhood politics diplomacy
any legislative hanger

up at style
cocus or legitimate
understanding agencies alcohol

the modern notion
crucifix constitution poem
were a will

a critic’s own critic
a judge who
does not demeter

the most remarkable
thing about me
is i refuse

i cannot follow
the neat line
sky to wing

Megaloceros (He Suggested I Pray to the Muse)

Wikipedia Poem, No. 769

w769b-sm

i can’t say bog
or longéroux four
out of four caravans
on the corner of poplar
and grand i can’t say
four out of four caravans
on the corner of poplar
and grand i can’t pray
four out of four caravans
on the corner of poplar
and grand caravans on the
corner of poplar local local
local my heart was inducted
around 17,000 years bp
lascaux was inducted caves
of the setting covers 600 parietal wall
paintings of the prehistoric site list
in 1979 so elemental complex
the unesco world heritage of dordogne
in 1979 elemental of the
vézère vallenerations and ceilings
cover 600 parietal wall paintings cover
600 parietal walls and ceilings are estimated
around 17,000 years bp lascaux was inducted
washed caves of the setting complex
of a complex of a complex of
a combined effort of many generations
and ceilings covering 600 parietal
wall paintings such as the grotte de lascaux

Against Culture

Wikipedia Poem, No. 748

GRESS

grass grows gross    in  being whether its exploitative     media
of dogs  has  found        itself      at things from other its          cultural
exploitative of the centre     of culture it homages that being appropriation        
but support segregation their careers by male        drag begins        
queens who have  been         accused          of         a new vanguard  broken        
of dogs has        found itself at things   silence       

from other cultural  appropriation      their careers        silent
debating up as women new  west and race (especially white) medium
means things from other its  exploitative of the world culture
allowed  to  adopt the       centre  of culture appropriation
it  homages            things from the other  culture  began         
in segregation and race (especially  white)  mean broken

that          being but support        segregation broken
by         male drag       artists  silencing
and race (especially white) means the ridiculous notion        mediate
that being but         support     segregation culture
that  being of        a controversy in punching up female  appropriation
the new vanguard  of a different week begins

with some            viewers male drag  artists      begin      
and        hinder progress         in recentre or racism broken
new        vanguard of the     centre silence
race (especially white) means  the centres   medium       
or  race  (especially white)    means the centre of dog culture
has          found itself at  the         world appropriation

allowed to  do is to do           to adopt the word appropriation
allowed to  adopt  the centre of  culture           controversy  begins
in that being their careers male drag artists break  
progress in  their careers  by male  drag artists silence
and hinder progressing up  the female media
new west and hinder progressing but          culture what of culture

support segregation by male drag culture
and hinder           progress in recent weeks    appropriate      
with          some    viewers          but male    begins    
drag queens who have bees  broken
upon notion  whose  being but supports segregation silence
and  racism  the          centre of a new  vanguard media

of    a         different weakness with some viewers medium    
dress careers by dressing  whether  its exploitative cultural
controversy            recentred as       dontroversy       appropriation
in recentring of a new      west  begins
isle of controversy          recentre cultural appropriation        broken
careers           male drag artists daze wander gander gaze silent

progressing whether culture homages silence
their       careers debate  whether its exploitative of     medium
a different week with some viewers by male drag artists cultured
and georgie  bee are notions that the     worlds     appropriation    
allows   adoption          things    begin      
from other exploitations    broken    

of  a  different week with some  broken
viewers by male      drag artists hinder  progressive silence
recentre racism their          careers by   artists media
hinder progress recentre racism           queens cultural
who  are  bees of notion appropriation
the  cultural appropriation begins

the mediums cultural appropriation 
begins with broken silence

 

Hizb al-Kanaba (Neoliberaling on el-Sisi’s Slacks)

Wikipedia Poem, No. 679

128

 

can subscribe to the cause of death before
their relative’s body could be caricature
in

modern egypt it is closer to reportage
i have personally seen the medical files
of

polished brass shaimaa el-sabbagh
hizb al-kanaba “in many other contexts
this would

be caricature in modern egypt it is
closer to reportage i have personally
seen the

cause of death before their relative’s body
could be caricature in modern egypt
it is

closer to reportage i have personally
seen the anti-capitalist can subscribe to
the cause of

death before their relative’s body could be
caricature in modern egypt it is
closer to

reportage i have personally seen the
anti-capitalist can subscribe to the
anti-capitalist can

subscribe to the medical files of protesters
killed by live ammunition and looked on
as family

members were told they must accept a
certificate giving ‘cardiac arrest’ as the
cause of death

before their relative’s body could be
caricature in modern egypt it is
closer to reportage

i have personally seen the cause of
death before their relative’s body could be
caricature

in modern egypt it is closer to
reportage i have personally seen the
medical files of

polished brass shaimaa el-sabbagh
hizb al-kanaba “in many other contexts
this would

be caricature in modern egypt it is
closer to reportage i have personally
seen the

anti-capitalist can subscribe to the medical
files of polished brass shaimaa
el-sabbagh hizb

al-kanaba “in many other contexts this
would be caricature in modern egypt
it is

closer to reportage i have personally
seen the cause of death before their
relative’s body

could be caricature in modern egypt
it is closer to reportage i have
personally seen

the medical files of polished brass
shaimaa el-sabbagh hizb al-kanaba “in
many other

contexts this would be caricature in
modern egypt it is closer to reportage
i have

personally seen the cause of death before
their relative’s body could be caricature
in

modern egypt it is closer to reportage
i have personally seen the medical files
of

protesters killed by live ammunition and
insidious trick that the anti-capitalist can
subscribe

to the medical files of protesters killed by
live ammunition and insidious trick that
the

medical files of polished brass shaimaa
el-sabbagh hizb al-kanaba “in many other
contexts

this would be caricature
in modern egypt it is closer to
reportage

spacer1

Sources: 

Shenker, Jack. “The bullet mistakenly came out of the gun.” Rev. of The Queue, by Basma Abdel Aziz, translated by Elisabeth Jaquette. London Review of Books 39.23 (2017): 17-20. 8 Dec. 2017 <https://www.lrb.co.uk/v39/n23/jack-shenker/the-bullet-mistakenly-came-out-of-the-gun>.

Bakry, Adham. Hisb El-Kanaba. Digital image. This Is Not Graffiti. N.p., 4 Feb. 2011. Web. 8 Dec. 2017. <http://thisisnotgraffiti-cairo.blogspot.com/2011/11/hisb-el-kanaba-couch-party.html>.

 

Personal Poem About My Sterility and How All I Wanted Was To Be The Good Father I Never Had

Processed with VSCO with b1 preset

“I try / not to think about the animal / rearranged in unnatural configuration / its head visible in profile / one eye / refracting the last light it glimpsed” Lena Khalaf Tuffaha

Each trustworthy cone proves the main, charged image is true: The girls in suspension  iridesce. They paint drivers license numbers with wrists onto the side of the most beautiful American battleships. 102 347 0603, for example. They hang like high-rise window washers. Here’s the kicker: I’m still the news. Suggestive might have been black bears crawling up from the damp earth to maul the president. Or one of those twenty-seven thousand ton dreadnoughts pinched flat between two fingers. Or an erotic tax, now that’s highly suggestive. Girls painting through all that maraschino cherry string, that’s modernist, for sure, but it’s also known as good practice. And far from suggestive. That’s just the ax we’re living in.

From there in the bay they, the beetle-like girls blueberry-brushing battleships, do something eminently televisable for its arable non-controversy: They paint what all the world in its lust for voyeurism desires. Each trustworthy cove of medium provides a darker, salty, more complex shadow. O, I am prepared to write in light about those earnest girls with suggestive might. The wire will pick up the news with watery glee. Easy clicks. Phone it in from Atlanta. Experience our mother living out there in the godless ruin of celiac disease. Strung up, afraid of girls painting their oblique dominion. Have a beer, America. Or better yet, apologize. Who reads what’s poetry for essays anyway, O, pungent painting girls?

Celebrity Birthdays

Wikipedia Poem, No. 650

w650
“Oarsmen must put out their eyes, and ram a skewer through their necks; usage pronouncing that they must have no organs but ears, and no limbs but arms, in these critical moments.” Melville

starred dawn mid-stream much
i also within the queer film canon
dawn starred war materials

spoil impair disfigure scar national psyche
all up in my candy he discovers what shall i hog
tie and hang from the ceiling to tease with flame

eviscerate back of the head mere’d and marred
door to known passage flamingos possible now
of consecutive lemonade and dragon stacks

a status a clerical marriage ants’ horizon
one thousand angles pitched from a spear
anger bends toward compelling texture sufficient no much