W Is For White.

White.

Birch bark is white. The contrast with the landscape not yet green and no longer white is stark. This was taken in early April 2017 in Helsinki, from the park behind the congress and event venue Finlandia Hall towards the Linnunlaulu cliffs.

As a bonus picture (taken mid-November 2017), another birch, in a less bright shade of white and one corner of Finlandia Hall (completed 1971), designed by the architect Alvar Aalto (1898–1976), who is still, over 40 years after his death held in a very high regard about the aesthetics of his work.

However his acoustics design and construction technical choices have been criticised. The façade of Finlandia Hall is made of white Carrara marble from Italy. The marble plates will bend with time because of the climate and they have to be replaced every 20–30 years. They’ve been replaced once so far, in 1998–1999.

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© Ice Swimmer, all rights reserved.

Wake: The Hidden History of Women-Led Slave Revolts.

Page from Wake by Rebecca Hall and Hugo Martinez (all images courtesy Hugo Martinez).

Page from Wake by Rebecca Hall and Hugo Martinez (all images courtesy Hugo Martinez).

In 1712, New York City witnessed a dramatic uprising when over 20 black slaves, fighting against their unjust conditions, set fire to several houses of white slaveowners and fatally shot nine. Known today as the New York Slave Revolt of 1712, the insurgence resulted in the conviction and public execution of 21 slaves, as well as more severe slave codes. While sources often state that these rebels were all men, the historian Dr. Rebecca Hall has identified four women who were captured during the clashing and were tried. Their names were Amba, Lilly, Sarah, and Abigail.

Erased from history books, their stories will now be told in vivid form by Hall, who has devoted much of her career to unearthing the roles of women in slave revolts. Hall is currently working on her first graphic novel, which will highlight female rebels in various 18th-century uprisings, from three in New York to those that broke out on slave ships. Titled Wake: The Hidden History of Women-Led Slave Revolts, the 150-page work emerges out of Hall’s 2004 dissertation on the same topic. She is now collaborating with independent comic artist Hugo Martinez to produce the storyboards and, through Friday, May 4, is raising $5,900 on Kickstarter to realize it for submission to publishers.

“The way the history of slave resistance has been written, this very gendered narrative developed about how manly and masculine enslaved men actually were, which served to elide the role that women played,” Hall told Hyperallergic. “I was going against everything being taught in women’s roles in slave resistance by insisting that, if I looked, I bet I would find these women.” She recalled how her dissertation advisor had told her that she wouldn’t find any sources to realize her chosen topic; how one archive claimed that it had no related material.

This is a fascinating, and I think, a necessary work. You can read and see much more at Hyperallergic, as well as on the kickstarter page, where there’s also a video. They are close to their goal, but could use a bit more help, so if you can’t donate, you can help to spread the word!

V Is For Vår.

Vår.

Vår is Swedish for the season spring. In the South Coast of Finland, spring can start in March or in April and end in late May. The first two pictures are taken from Ursininkallio in late March 2018. The sea ice had started to melt. Bays and areas shielded by islands were still frozen apart from places with strong currents. However, spring progresses haltingly and some areas already thawed would refreeze and then melt again.

The third photo was taken on the eastern shore of Laajalahti in Munkkiniemi, Helsinki about one year earlier than the first pictures. The bay Laajalahti was frozen, but the ice was porous, rotten ice. There was little snow left on the ground.

The fourth photo was taken in mid-May 2017 in the park Kaivopuisto in Helsinki. Many deciduous trees were still bare but there was already green grass for barnacle geese to eat.

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© Ice Swimmer, all rights reserved.

Listen to the Rhubarb!

Forced rhubarb, which is made to mature in near total darkness, grows at such an alarming rate—as much as an inch a day—that it actually makes squeaks, creaks, and pops as it gets bigger. It makes for sweeter rhubarb, growers say, and sick beats.

I had no idea. I don’t care for rhubarb much, but this is fascinating, and you can read all about it at Atlas Obscura.

It’s Universal Soldier!

Rick Wiles seems to have decided we have gone with Universal Soldier, for real or something like.

End Times broadcaster and right-wing conspiracy theorist Rick Wiles warned that the United States government has secretly created “soldiers without a soul” and has unleashed them in Syria, which is a sign that Jesus will soon return.

“Is it conceivable that we have bred soulless creatures, soldiers without a soul, with no remorse, no conscience, no fear—you can go in, you can cut a baby in half, you can cut out the hearts of Christians and eat them—there is no conscience, there’s no fear, there’s no fear of God?” Wiles asked. “Is that what we have created? Have we turned these monsters loose in Syria?”

Oh FFS. There’s no need to go for melodrama when it comes to war, or the travesties committed by people on all sides in any given war, at any time throughout history. It’s not as though soldiers aren’t already trained to kill without thought or hesitation. That’s what war is all about, killing. No one has a soul, so that’s of no import, and throughout the ages, it would be a “fear of god” which has motivated wars more than the opposite. People tend to be especially vicious when they think they are fighting for a fucking god.

“This is Hitler on steroids,” Wiles added. “The Americans have become worse than the Nazis.”

I don’t think we’re quite there yet, but the spectre of nuclear war is hanging over our heads once again. It certainly would be nice to see the U.S. military sit the fuck down for once though.

“It’s the end of humanity,” he said. “If these things get loose, it’s the end of humanity.”

These “things”? When you start to think of people as things, it’s the start of all evil. And there are no ‘universal’ soldiers, or engineered critters wandering around in a terminator style lust for killing. Just regular soldiers and all the usual players, all sides. Perhaps it would be more to the point to get governments to stop thinking of war as a game.  As for the end of humanity, we’re doing a fine job of that one all by ourselves, no gods needed.

Wiles went on to explain that when Jesus said that he would return when the world is as it was “in the days of Noah,” that was a reference to the Nephilim, which were a race of giants mentioned in the book of Genesis that were supposedly born as the offspring of fallen angels and human women. God was so displeased with this corruption that He had to wipe out the entire world with a flood and the same thing will soon happen again, Wiles warned.

Yeah, except it didn’t end, did it? Your dumbfuck god kept a fair amount of the corrupt people, and it started all over again, going by the fairytale. There’s genius for you.

“We’re at the days of Noah,” he said. “God is about to say, ‘Enough is enough, the human race has got to end.’”

No, we aren’t at the days of Noah, those days never actually happened. Anyroad, I fail to see what Mr. Wiles is moaning about. He starts out with Jesus coming back, which they are always yelling about, but never actually seem to want it to happen. So, is Jesus a comin’ back, or is Jehovah about to burn the world with fire? And what the fuck would a christian care, anyway? Aren’t you all supposed to be ever so eager to go live in paradise mansions with your gods? Aren’t you supposedly living this life for the afterlife, the only one which truly counts? I’d think you’d all be lining up to be a martyr, but it does rather seem you’re all very attached to this life.

RWW has the story.