wednesday newstrip

Australia must consider bringing back conscription as ‘all-out war’ with Russia looms, expert says · NotJustAnyahoo is defiant after UN court ruling, says Israel presses offensive for 'complete victory' · Rip Curl joins Australian swimwear companies in heavy pivot to growing trans market · women over 50 are the new gamers · Pram Minister Anthony Overeasy has been booed by the crowd at the Australian Open tennis men's final · North Korean leader Kim supervises tests of cruise missiles designed to be fired from submarines · activists throw soup at Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa in the Louvre in climate protest.

What AI is up to these days

aka The six-fingered demon who wants to rule the world.

Today the post-
woman brought
me Tropical Cy-
clone Kirrily. I
was blown away.

wednesday newstrip

Israeli Prime Minister BeenJammin’ NotJustAnyahoo rejects US calls for Palestinian state after Gaza war · Māori leaders & others in New Zealand attend a rare national meeting called by the Māori King due to concerns about the new government’s policies on indigenous rights · ex UK Prom Minister Bore-us Johnson says T.®ump back in White House is ‘what the world needs’ · Microsoft discovers state-backed Russian hackers accessed emails of some senior employees · Palworld, aka ‘Pokémon With Guns,’ is tearing up the steam & twitch charts · Jodie Foster is showing us all how to age naturally.

waiting in the wings

We're the red X.

Today the post-
woman brought
me a leporidae
farm. It had

been beautifully
maintained,
not a hare
out of place.

wednesday newstrip

Former New Zealand PM Jacinda Ardern ties the knot with Clarke Gayford, as anti-vaxxers picket the wedding · Australian students handed ‘wellbeing shots’ made by subsidiary of British American Tobacco · DoNuts T.®ump returns to court for new E Jean Carroll trial – & it could prove costly · recovering the ‘Aryan worldview’: the Western Australian book publisher under scrutiny over far-right texts · console owners played more Fortnite than GTA V & Call Of Duty combined · “Chicest” is not a proper word, would not even be the best word to suit your intended meaning &, most of all, it's just such an ugly word · UN says Gaza war 'staining humanity' on eve of 100th day as Houthis vow to retaliate against US strike.

Now Out From Otoliths

Otoliths has just released David Jalajel’s Snapshots from the Ark.

David Jalajel
Snapshots from the Ark
b&w
illustrated
138 pages
ISBN: 978-06455483-1-0
$US17.95
Direct URL: https://www.lulu.com/shop/david-jalajel/snapshots-from-the-ark/paperback/product-655yzjy.html?page=1&pageSize=4

Until midnight this Friday, Lulu have a 10% discount running. Promo code: SNOWDAY10. Promo codes for future weeks can be found each Monday at the Lulu Press Facebook page.

Here is a bestiary with a weird taxonomy of “Dead Ducks”, “Dead Dinos” and “Dead Bugs”, describing the bizarre relationships people have with the animals it catalogues. Partially inspired by player mechanics involving video game animals, the relationships portrayed are exploitative, often abusive and always focus on people’s needs and concerns.

Snapshots from the Ark takes John Shoptaw’s maxim that “[h]uman interests cannot be the be-all and end-all of an ecopoem” and turns it on its head by taking human interests as the “nature” poet’s single-minded concern. Each poem zeroes in on a different way people act as if their interests are all that matter. The animals are opportunities to present unflattering and painful portraits of our worst anthropocentric tendencies.

So are they ecopoems? By holding a mirror way too close to our noses, they show us the ugliness of acting with indifference to the creatures who share the world with us. In this way, the poems raise our awareness about the consequences of our actions. Yet, they do so while being zany and fun, like when people clear-cut a forest using a giant crab that whacks down trees with dinosaurs clasped in its claws.

These poems unsettle us, make us uncomfortable, challenge the way we think, and hopefully inspire us to change the way we behave.

     — Flamur Vehapi, from his review on Otoliths

Blurbs

We live in a post-Ark world. And said world’s a bit (or more) messed up. But why would we think the messed-up world that caused the flood would be different after the floodwaters recede? Humanity is… humanity, nothing more and nothing less. David Jalajel’s Snapshots from the Ark is but a metaphor for that comprehension, except that it contains humour. The poet is wise to understand how one of the most effective weapons against evil is humour, and such is also what makes these poems worthwhile:

It has the dead-eyed stare of someone
who’s seen death and lived to tell the tale —

Plus it’s Scottish. And it grins up at you
like a little boy seeing his first pair of boobs.

     — Eileen R. Tabios

Imagine that David Jalajel were in Noah’s shoes, receiving instructions from the deity to form an ark of “gopherwood” covered “inside and outside with pitch” (Genesis 6:14) in which to place pairs of species. We would soon learn the who’s who of beings to be rescued from the ensuing flood: survivors, sea monsters, dead dinos, dead beasts, dead ducks, dragons, and dead bugs. How fitting that David Jalajel employs couplets mirroring the pairs. Each poem speaks to the reader in conversational tone with clarity, caveats, and hilarity. “Ammonite” begins:

That sucker’s
a total crybaby

Just give it
a good slap—

And from “Pegomastax”:

If you see one of these, aim it at
the nearest national bank and run.

They say the perfect pegomastax
can steal your credit card details.

Snapshots from the Ark is a brilliantly envisioned work encompassing all manner of life lessons from observing each being.

     — Sheila E. Murphy

Today the post-
woman brought
me a mid-
life crisis

& a Ferrari
in a color that
matched my
blood’s hot eyes.
  

wednesday newstrip

Israel's Prime Minister BeenJammin’ NotJustAnyahoo says military seeks full control of Gaza-Egypt border · heiress to the L’Oreal cosmetics throne becomes first woman to amass $100 billion · Kanye West’s Aussie wife Bianca Censori ‘laid the smackdown’ before his shock apology after a series of anti-Semitic tirades · Australia went to war in Iraq based on ‘oral reports’ to cabinet from then Pram Minister John Howard · new Queensland dangerous dog law won’t have enough bite, claims RSPCA · nearly 200 names linked to Jeffrey Epstein expected to be made public · the phallus on a prominent Māori sculpture in Te Āpiti – Manawatū Gorge has been cut off by vandals, shocking the stakeholders of the popular reserve.

wednesday newstrip

Apple has been barred from selling one of its best known products amid claims it stole the technology from a much smaller company · Israeli minister hints at retaliatory actions taken in Iraq, Yemen, Iran · Chinese chess champion stripped of title after defecating in hotel bathtub, alleged anal beads cheating · The New York Times sued ChatGPT-maker OpenAI & Microsoft in a US court on Wednesday, alleging that the companies' powerful AI models used millions of articles for training without permission · a frustrated regional council in Western Australia has erected signs warning drivers against using Google maps after GPS-based directions repeatedly sent travelers down unsafe roads · Maine bars DoNuts T.®ump from ballot as US Supreme Court weighs state authority to block former prissygent.