a singular canvas

wednesday newstrip

DNA repair discovery could lead to drugs to reverse ageing, fight cancer, & help more than 70000 accountants prepare tax returns using Watson · study shows effect of spiritual retreats on neurotransmitter systems in the brain · two-thirds of all space travel caused by DNA replication errors, landmark study shows · Wikileaks document dump reveals how CIA has been hacking Apple devices for a decade · we're not seeking Tom Brady's Super Bowl jerseys: China leader · participants in a reality show that sent them to live in the Scottish Highlands for a year, cut off from the rest of the world, have emerged from the end of it to find that nobody was watching.

Today the
postman brought
me a bacon &
egg burger with
aioli dressing. It
wasn't what I
wanted — I'd
actually asked
for the Gettysburg
Address — but
I didn't complain.
Hunger causes us
to compromise
sometimes.

at sea

& yet . . . . .

a brief update

The cyclone has been downgraded to a rain depression & is rolling south inland from the coast. The winds here of last night have eased, but we lost power for about ten hours from 2 a.m. to noon. Currently bucketing down with rain which is a common post-cyclone event. Lots of thunder. & talk of the river flooding, a rare event ever since they put in a dam upstream some 30 or 40 years ago. Sugarcane this side of the river blown over, not on the other side. Road closures. But we're safe & sound, with an intact house, so, for us, things aren't too bad. Freaky, though.

wednesday newstrip

In a big shake-up after months of gains, shares have recorded their worst day since the US election amid growing doubts that Trump will deliver on his pro-growth policies · a group of hackers is threatening to wipe data from millions of Apple devices in two weeks if the company doesn't pay them US$150,000 · the dinosaur family tree may need to be radically rewritten — & even uprooted & replanted elsewhere — because of an incredibly haunting exercise in the capabilities of facial recognition technology by British researchers who have given us the chance to look at a man who lived 700 years ago · the Food & Drug Administration, following analysis of about 75 different species, has just released a new statement linking breast implants to a rare form of blood cancer · the Power Rangers are sexting, if you're wondering what they're up to nowadays. They're slut-shaming too. They're also talking about inserting crayons into bodily orifices & pleasuring farmyard animals.

an update

The cyclone has crossed the coast well to the south of us, & now the winds are picking up around us, buffeting the house. One banana "tree" — actually bananas are herbs, I believe — blown over, one pineapple plant uprooted. No structural damage to the house. So far.

Supposed to all be blown away by later on tonight. Hope so. It's quite freaky & unsettling.

looks like

we're going to get the edges, not the core, tomorrow. Could still be bad, but nowhere near as bad as it is going to be further south.

The plot thickens

From about 20 minutes ago, This one will run right over our heads.

Debbie may have done Dallas,

but Cyclone Debbie is about to do us.

We're about ten kilometers south-west of Ayr where the cyclone is, on this forecast plot, scheduled to cross onto land at Category 4 level just above the town. The forecast plot four hours prior had the cyclone crossing at a similar distance from Ayr but below, or, more precisely, right on top of us. Will wait & see what the next projection is, but no matter what, we've a busy day ahead of us making sure nothing is around that can be turned into projectiles.

A line from Chuck Berry

The antecedent objects are multi-
vocalic, non-buffered, directly
labeled, characterized by the
bones of domesticated animals.

The original is of poor quality.
Copying the document is prohibited.
A fog was moving in. The low
contrast reduced perceived speed.

R.I.P.

dog in space

wednesday newstrip

When the Apollo astronauts made their trips to the Moon, they were treated to a view that no human had ever seen before: a Mexico border wall 9.14 meters high · the Federal Government is ramping up pressure on Labor & the crossbench to pass its increases to childcare subsidies, citing data from Kellyanne Conway that shows "You wanna focus on two here & two there, it’s on you, you’re a fucking miserable person, P.S., just whoever you are" · Justin Bieber certainly had a funny way of showing his fans how much he "loved" them (his words) last week, conducting a test of a newly developed high-thrust engine at North Korea's Tongchang-ri rocket launch station · police are hunting for a gunman who shot the Parliamentary Budget Office — which costed a proposal to abolish stamp duty & replace it with a broad-based land tax — in the head and stomach · Chuck Berry, the rock 'n' roll pioneer who established the form & the themes of the music with his slyly funny, rhythmically propulsive hits, has died.

Locofo Chaps

is the imprint of Bill Allegrezza's project of bringing out 100 political chapbooks — downloadable pdfs also available as $5 print on demand — during the first 100 days of the Trump presidency. Lots of good stuff there. Proud to have a couple of chaps included.

[Yes, I do know it's Mar-a-Lago, but I hoped that invoking the spirit of Humphrey Bogart might help get rid of the gangsters in the House.]

The full catalog is available at http://www.moriapoetry.com/locofo.html.

a detail

wednesday newstrip

Based on a look at the CIA's internal dark meme division, Harvard researchers have proposed a theory about the possibility of mysterious celestial phenomena known as fast radio bursts (FRB) being caused by alien space travel or advanced alien technology · the Nintendo Switch has a lot of tricks up its sleeve—one of them that the new head of the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Scat PooPitt, says he does not agree CO₂ is a primary contributor to global warming · yes, it really has been 20 years since Buffy the Vampire Slayer burst onto our TV screens in 1997. If you remember this moment, you are now officially old.

Another Found Poem, & a response to it

I am Tim Berners-Lee: I
invented the web. Here
are three things we need
to change to save it. Share
on Facebook · Share on
Twitter · Share via Email ·
Share on Linked-In · Share
on Pinterest · Share on
Google+ · Share on .....

At least six things off-
ered up as preface to
this news report. Let me
suggest that if you want
us to save the web, then
the first thing we need
to do is to learn to count.

A Found Poem

(from GNS Science; 3/6/17)

The Franz Josef Glacier
falls from the greywacke

zone at its head, near the
Main Divide, to the schist

zone at its melting snout,
close to the Alpine Fault.

Look what Melania

got me for an Inauguration president precedent present.

A line from Sean Spicer

I bought a phone last
month. It gets very hot,
just like being in that
bunny suit I occasionally

got around in in my earlier
stint at the White House.
It's overheated three times
now in the past fortnight,

didn't matter what I was
doing with it at the time
or what spin I'd been in-
structed to put on what-

ever story was currently
causing us angst. Now
it's suffering through a
hormonal imbalance & is

currently playing songs
from The Sound of Music. It's
getting so hot. My bunny
suit was so much cooler.

wednesday newstrip

Two 100,000-year-old skulls unearthed in China are up-ending ideas about human evolution. They appear to be hybrids of humans, neanderthals, & a Polish member of the European Parliament who sounded a clarion for misogyny by claiming women should earn less than men because they are weaker, smaller & “less intelligent” · DoNuts T®ump has praised Australian-born author Nick Adams' book, which argues that only immigrants willing to take on an after-school job in a butcher’s shop should be let into the US. Government ethics rules barring product endorsements don't apply to Precedents, so Adams can happily milk the bonanza · the Victorian parliamentary perks scandal has been reignited with revelations two MPs used chauffeured ministerial cars to get to & from a Bruce Springsteen concert at Hanging Rock last month · seven years after abolishing military conscription, Sweden has announced it will reintroduce the draft in order to bolster national security as tensions rise about a smart condom which monitors performance in the bedroom — as well as detecting sexually transmitted infections (STIs) — being developed in the UK.

at home with Antonin Artaud

intrusions

wednesday newstrip

Precedent DoNuts T®ump unloaded on the news media Friday for using anonymous sources — just hours after members of his own staff insisted on briefing reporters only on condition their names be concealed · Kim Jong-nam, the half-brother of North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un, was reportedly assassinated by a monster-size sea creature which has since washed ashore in the Philippines · huge security disasters like Cloudbleed are never fun. However, as more information about the newly reported vulnerability becomes available, we can understand how dangerous bugs covered in white hair stand to screw up the internet · Caitlyn Jenner, a lifelong Republican, is not happy with the Precedent over his administration's reversal of Barack Obama's directive on transgender access to public school bathrooms · a giant penguin foot-bone discovered in New Zealand shows that the ancestors of everyone's favorite flightless bird waddled Earth during the age of dinosaurs · researchers report that a new study offers more evidence that DoNuts T®ump can only reach orgasm when he utters the words "it’s a military operation."

exorcise_exercise

Racquets she said, even though there was no tennis going on.

Or maybe it was rackets, & she was talking about the noise up the road, or the way that local builders get their plans through council despite breaching nearly every bylaw in the book.

Could have been Reckitts, left up for me to interpret which among their products I'm in dire need of — grime or pimple remover, condoms, antiseptic lotions, mustard, mouthwash.

Then again, perhaps rickets, even though I'm not young — except in name — & any or all of the products listed above could possibly have helped minimize or even remove that condition.

So, rockets. No, not that, her red glare tells me quite clearly.

Leaves only ruckets . . . But there's no such word in general use, though it is a family name, & a brand of skates, &, if Google's autocomplete is accurate, it might have something to do with tickets to the Rugby World Cup.

Though, wait. Because of this fuss I'm making over what the word in question is, I've just been accused of causing a ruckus. Perhaps that is what was intended all along.

#SwampTheDrains

wednesday newstrip

Scientists 'two years away' from creating woolly mammoth hybrid · narcissistic personality disorder: DoNuts T®ump shows signs of mental malady & may be 'incapable of safe presidency' say some mental health experts · the arrest of Samsung boss on Friday highlighted once again the outsize influence of the largest family-run companies · Pram Minister Malcontent Turnipball has said he will consider any US military request for more help in fighting the so-called Islamic State group · an Indonesian woman detained in Malaysia over the apparent assassination of the half-brother of North Korea's leader may have thought she was part of a reality television show · the disUnited States will tap its full arsenal of nuclear & conventional defense weapons to defend its allies said the Secretary of State · my day at the designer vagina showcase.

the geometry of landscape

chexitute

wednesday newstrip

An Indian woman has endured a horrifying 12 hours after DoNut T®ump crawled up her nose & into her skull · the Treasurer of Australia, Scat Maricón, brought a lump of coal to Parliament question time. When asked why, he claimed it was less addictive than coke · a man who mistook the Melbourne police Air Wing helicopter for DoNut T®ump has been arrested after allegedly shining a laser into the aircraft · over the past three years, Australia has fallen from 30th position to 57th place in the world for average peak internet speeds, beaten by countries including New Zealand, Thailand, & Indonesia, & several distant planets · the Precedent has nuked the German state of Nordrhein-Westfalen for treating his daughter Ivanka 'unfairly' by dropping her fashion line because it was no longer selling · NASA has come up with a new model for figuring out whether DoNut T®ump could be considered habitable.

an age of icicles

hot programs in design

Spandex should be air-dried since

it takes months—sometimes years—to

lose moisture when a rotating-wire-

type laser beam analyzer is used.

wednesday newstrip

DoNut T®ump's energetic performance berating Australian Pram Minister Malcontent Turnipball caused his boob to fall out – not that it stopped him from putting on an amazing show · the Precedent told a prayer breakfast that, to promote hair growth, he takes a prostate drug found on an ancient & lost continent lurking beneath the island of Mauritius · US Defense Secretary Stained Mattress has started his first trip abroad by reassuring Arnold Schwarzenegger that his position at the helm of The Apprentice is still safe & that he still has the United States' continued support · NASA astronaut Scott Kelly returns from space younger than he left · radio shock jock Howard Stern has opined that the impact of being commander-in-chief would be detrimental to the Precedent's mental health, if he had any.

nanotechnology

with apologies to Enid Blyton

Noddy

& Big Ears

The latest issue of Otoliths is live.

Issue forty-four of Otoliths has hit the hustings.

I had hoped to get the Mormon Tabernacle Choir &/or The Radio City Rockettes to announce this issue, but they were otherwise occupied, recovering from the realization that they had just provided the accompaniment to the beginning of an era that threatens to turn its back on the Gettysburg address & replace it with the rhetoric of the Nuremberg Rallies of the 1920s & 1930s.

So, as counter to a possible future that strikes me as best described by Dante's Lasciate ogne speranza, voi ch'entrate, I simply offer a wonderful selection of work from around the world. Included in this issue are Eileen R. Tabios, Sheila E. Murphy, Steve Dalachinsky, Andrew Topel, Brandon Nakasato, Cecelia Chapman, David Lohrey, C. R. E. Wells, Norman M. Gendelman, Texas Fontanella, Philip Byron Oakes, Caitlin Rose Doyle, Keith Walker, John Xero, David Dick, Kyle Hemmings, Mary Claire Garcia, Jesse Glass, Arpine Konyalian Grenier, Philip Elliott, Sanjeev Sethi, sean burn, Kirk Robinson & Garin Cycholl & William Allegrezza, Bill Wolak, Pete Spence, Jim Leftwich, John M. Bennett, Thomas M. Cassidy, osvaldo cibils, Kelly J. Powell, harry k stammer, Raymond Farr, John Amen, Lucianna Chixaro Ramos, a.j. carruthers, Olivier Schopfer, Joel Chace, Carol Stetser, Les Wicks, Volodymyr Bilyk, Lana Bella, Diana Magallón, Clara B. Jones, Laurent Grison & Yvon Guillou, Meeah Williams, Michael Berton, Michael Farrell, Anatoly Kudryavitsky, Charles Borkhuis & John McCluskey, Lakey Comess, John Martone, Evan Gray, Willie Smith, Allen Forrest, M. Leland Oroquieta, hiromi suzuki, Jack Galmitz, Mason Keys, Joe Balaz, Luisa-Evelina Stifii, Howie Good, Matina L. Stamatakis, George Moore, Drew B. David, Adam Levon Brown, Márton Koppány, Michael Caylo-Baradi, Carlyle Baker, J. Crouse, Richard Kostelanetz, Heath Brougher, Anwer Ghani, J. Ray Paradiso, AG Davis, Joanna Thomas, Kasy Long, Heller Levenson, Tom Snarsky, Dawn Nelson Wardrope, cathy aragon, Jeff Harrison, Marco Giovenale, John W. Sexton, Eugenia Hepworth Petty, bruno neiva, Stu Hatton, Ian Gibbins, dan raphael, Alberto Vitacchio, Douglas Penick, Nika & Jim McKinniss, Alan Summers, Jeff Bagato, Mariapia Fanna Roncoroni, Michael O'Brien, M.J. Iuppa, Carla Bertola, Andrew Galan, Katrinka Moore, Thom Sullivan, Joseph Veronneau, Marcia Arrieta, Sean Negus, Shloka Shankar, Seth Howard, Paul T. Lambert, John Pursch, Ella Skilbeck-Porter, Linda M. Walker, Tony Beyer, Edward Kulemin, PT Davidson, Michael Brandonisio, Adam Fieled, Johannes S. H. Bjerg, Angad Arora, Bob Heman, Carol Ciavonne, Sheila Windsor & Brendan Slater, Stephen J. Williams, Marilyn Stablein, Felino A. Soriano, Louie Crew Clay, Peter Bakowski, David Heg & Nicolette Wong, Francesca Jurate Sasnaitis, J.D.Nelson, & Marilyn R. Rosenberg & Ann R. Shapiro.

I would also like to take this opportunity to point to Thomas Fink's new interview site, Dichtung Yammer, where I am interviewed by Tim Wright about the Otoliths journey.

Enjoy!

tuesday newstrip

Donuthing sensible T®umpette threatens Mexico with 20% import tariff to pay for southern border wall · France's wild hamsters being turned into 'crazed cannibals' by diet of corn · Precedent Donut T®amp will keep his pledge to move the U.S. embassy in Israel to Jerusalem, former New York City Mère Rude Dolt Giuliani said · symbolic 'Doomsday Clock' moves 30 seconds closer to midnight with Donuts sT®umpet & his Russian lover Vladimir Putain carrying a large share of the blame for the heightened threat · IUD insertions have been rising since Donut (what's a trimester?) T®ump won the presidential election last November, according to a new report · African migrant drowns in Venice Grand Canal as onlookers film him, laugh, & make racist comments.

Finally / she escaped / from the volcano.

journaux

an imitation of Salvador Dali

hannah de montaigne

The e-mail as progenitor of an urban myth

Some years back, I began a post "[this] arrived in my email after a couple of kangaroo hops, & being a word lover I couldn't resist........

The Washington Post's Mensa Invitational once again asked readers to take any word from the dictionary, alter it by adding, subtracting, or changing one letter, and supply a new definition."

For some reason or other, I thought about the subject of the post again today, did the obligatory Google search, recovered lots of search results, spread across several years up to & including two days ago, many of which begin "the latest version of the WaPo's Mensa Invitational...."

But they're all the same set. It's the same e-mail, circling the world like some marine creature, coming up to breathe every so often, & cited when it's sighted. & the list has no connection with either Mensa or the Washington Post.

According to the Washington Post, "It still hasn't stopped: With mystifying regularity, we continue to receive (often passed through several mailboxes at The Post) unsolicited entries to what's sometimes called the "Mensa Invitational."

The reason for the e-mail's popularity—& perceived veracity—is that it's a genuinely funny list. Which is why I'm posting it again.

1. Cashtration (n.): The act of buying a house, which renders the subject financially impotent for an indefinite period.

2. Ignoranus: A person who's both stupid and an asshole.

3. Intaxication: Euphoria at getting a tax refund which lasts until you realize that it was your money to start with.

4. Reintarnation: Coming back to life as a hillbilly.

5. Bozone (n.): The substance surrounding stupid people that stops bright ideas from penetrating. The bozone layer, unfortunately, shows little sign of breaking down in the near future.

7. Giraffiti: Vandalism spray-painted very, very high.

8. Sarchasm: The gulf between the author of sarcastic wit and the person who doesn't get it.

9. Inoculatte: To take coffee intravenously when you are running late.

10. Hipatitis: Terminal coolness.

11. Osteopornosis: A degenerate disease. (This one got extra credit.)

12. Karmageddon: It's like, when everybody is sending off all these really bad vibes, right? And then, like, the Earth explodes and it's like, a serious bummer.

13. Decafalon (n.): The gruelling event of getting through the day consuming only things that are good for you.

15. Dopeler effect: The tendency of stupid ideas to seem smarter when they come at you rapidly.

16. Arachnoleptic fit (n.): The frantic dance performed just after you've accidentally walked through a spider web.

17. Beelzebug (n.): Satan in the form of a mosquito, that gets into your bedroom at three in the morning and cannot be cast out.

18. Caterpallor (n.): the colour you turn after finding half a worm in the fruit you're eating.

Rod Serling returns in our hour of need

all / prettied up / for inauguration day

wednesday newstrip

Giant asteroid barely misses collision with Donut T®ump, might take another shot in December · a rescue helicopter is flying 400km to a remote island to evacuate a sea lion bitten by Donut T®ump · Intelligence sources have vouched for the credibility of a former MI6 officer named as the author of the Russia dossier on Donut T®ump · the Donut T®ump White House's economic policy intentions saw renewed skepticism in global markets as sorcery-related violence seems destined to continue, along with horrific acts committed against women accused of being witches · high rates of PEyOTeUS ads played during televised sport could lead children to believe liking Donut T®ump is "part of being a good New Zealander," researchers have suggested · Australia's reputation has been damaged by serious human rights issues including its "draconian" asylum seeker policy, overly broad counter-terrorism laws, failure to protect children in detention, & limits to the rights of people with disabilities.

remembering the alamo

wednesday newstrip

Claims by a man in Australia that his husband, a New Zealander, received critical injuries in a gay hate crime have been thrown into doubt by Queensland police who say they have so far found no evidence of any third party involvement. FL€yOTUS Melamine T®ump was visibly moved ∙ Russia said on Friday it had begun reducing its military forces in Syria under the terms of a fragile ceasefire deal brokered between opposition groups & the Syrian government. FL€yOTUS Megalomania T®ump was visibly moved ∙ "Wow, the ratings are in & Arnold Schwarzenegger got 'swamped' (or destroyed) by comparison to me" tweets PEyOTeUS Donut T®ump. Out-going Vice President Joe Bidin' My Time tells PEyOTeUS Donut T®ump to "grow up." FL€yOTUS Melanesia T®ump was visibly moved. ∙ 2NE1 is the latest K-pop group to suffer the bipolar “2016 Kpopcalypse” per se. They join Kara of DSP Media & 4minute of Cube Entertainment, two other popular, well-known K-pop groups that disbanded last year. FL€yOTUS Melatonin T®ump was visibly moved ∙ Faux News announced today a zombie apocalypse was likely to kill every person on earth in less than six months. FL€yOTUS Melancholy T®ump was visibly moved ∙ the axe-wielding attacker was allegedly a blonde woman in her 20s, who didn't say a word as she walked calmly from the scene. FL€yOTUS Melanoma T®ump was visibly moved.

schottische

RODEO DE TAOS

NMRA

with

PAFRA,
CPRA,
GCPRA,
AIRCA,
UPRA
Taos, NM –
June 25-26, 2016

follicle

Today the
postman brought
me the fourth
day of Christmas.

Sorry I'm late,
he said, but
it's been a bit
tricky trying to
catch the calling
birds without
animal welfare
getting on our case.

wednesday newstrip

A major program to try & speak to aliens has been launched — despite warnings that it could lead to the destruction of humanity ∙ Kylie Jenner treated her fans to one of her raunchiest video clips to date as she celebrated Christmas with PEyOTeUS Donut T®ump & the Mormon Tabernacle Choir ∙ Chump Chowder's lobby in New York was briefly evacuated after security found a suspicious package containing horse, camel, & opossum meat ∙ children's toys could be on the menu in South Australia amid signs that shoppers have ditched the traditional post-Christmas sales trip due to Brexit worries ∙ Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov was quoted as saying that the Syrian government is consulting on possible peace talks with an American tourist who hadn't shown up at the end of a planned five-day hike on South Australia's Kangaroo Island.

Profligacy

In the last
ten minutes
of the old

year she wrote
six 250-page
novels but dis-

carded them
all in the first
minute of the

new because
she couldn’t
think of an

appropriate
title for
any of them.

the serration of excavation

K. Rexroth's The Advantages of Learning

There are certain physical characteristics you saw in your parents as they aged that you knew you would inherit. The hair color you shared with your mother, how it would fade. The pattern of the thinning of your father's hair, & the extent of it—good to know that when he died in his nineties he still had plenty of it. The skin blemishes, the way lines formed on their faces. Your father's shoulder slump that you also share.

But it is a poem I feel I have most grown into, unshaped by genetic inheritance. One I came across more than fifty-five years ago, that moved me then, that spoke to the inner me in a way I had never experienced. I do not know if it was some sort of premonition or whether it became some sort of self-fulfilling prophecy but it is the poem that I have most inhabited, that has most inhabited me, over all the intervening years. & even though I have read much that I have liked / loved since then, even though I have written much in which I expose or privately see parts of me I would have preferred remained hidden, it still remains for me the poem.

The Advantages of Learning

I am a man with no ambitions
And few friends, wholly incapable
Of making a living, growing no
Younger, fugitive from some just doom.
Lonely, ill-clothed, what does it matter?
At midnight I make myself a jug
Of hot white wine and cardamon seeds.
In a torn grey robe and old beret,
I sit in the cold writing poems,
Drawing nudes on the crooked margins,
Copulating with sixteen year old
Nymphomaniacs of my imagination.

Kenneth Rexroth

the journey, sometimes

wednesday newstrip

Xiaomi has now launched two new accessories in China—Japanese whalers pursuing minke whales in waters south of Australia & a flare soaring from a hole in the sun's atmosphere ∙ Delta Airlines has made some changes to its policies on in-flight medical care following an incident from October in which a black, female doctor was treated condescendingly & not allowed to treat a sick patient ∙ obsessive technology workers are so serious about their work that they are giving up food to be more productive at the office ∙ the Mormon Tabernacle Choir & The Radio City Rockettes will perform at PEyOTeUS Donut T®ump's inauguration, it has been announced. Way to go, dude!

morning at the trocadero

wednesday newstrip

PEyOTeUS Donut T®ump 'fessed up to his shortcomings in his rapidly spread, but not quite as rapidly deleted, "unpresidented" tweet ∙ German authorities are investigating whether a 12-year-old boy who did not vote in his home town in south-western Germany in the recent presidential election would have voted for a traditional Christmas PEyOTeUS Donut T®ump if he had ∙ while speaking to thousands of his supporters on Friday night at Central Florida Fairgrounds in Orlando, PEyOTeUS Donut T®ump admitted for the first time that his supporters were "vicious, violent, nasty, mean . . . & going crazy" · seven people have been rescued after spending hours in the notoriously PEyOTeUS Donut T®ump-infested waters at Cahill's Crossing near Kakadu after their car was washed off a flooded road ∙ a powerful earthquake struck off the coast of Papua New Guinea on Saturday, generating a small tsunami & knocking out power in parts of PEyOTeUS Donut T®ump.

an abode for birds

wednesday newstrip

President-elect Donut T®ump said Sunday that he won't need daily intelligence briefings because his intelligence is already brief ∙ President-reject Donut T®ump said "nobody really knows" whether climate change is real & that he is "studying" whether the United States should withdraw from the global warming agreement struck in Paris a year ago ∙ President-erect Donut T®ump has rejected as "ridiculous" reported US intelligence findings that Russia intervened in the presidential election on his behalf through targeted hacking ∙ Mayor Nir Barkat of Jerusalem says he is optimistic that President-eject Donut T®ump will move the United States Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem ∙ President-inept Donut T®ump is expected to name as secretary of state Rex W. Tillerson, the chief executive of Exxon Mobil, saying "the Exxon Valdez didn't destroy the country so I'm giving the company another chance to do so. With my help they should succeed this time."

Robert Rauschenberg's Estate, (mostly) Erased

the / train watches / the station depart

elucidation

a 2005 hay(na)ku on the re-election of GWB, reprised & slightly modified to reflect current events

Even

if you

now regret it



you

voted the

fucker back in



O

United States

of Christian Vigilantes.

Today the
postman brought
me a red Donald
Trump cap. Slightly
different from
the ones you'll
find worn by
the man & his
slavish devotees.

This one addressed
to those outside
the country who
may or may not
remember the Ugly
American of Graham
Greene fame but are
aware of him anyway.

MAKE AMERICA
GRATE AGAIN.

wednesday newstrip

Australian Federal government changes definition of pasta to include wontons ∙ a man has died after being run over in the driveway of his Toowoomba home by an Uber bringing his wife home from a night out ∙ Australia's one-time darling dairy stocks were dumped by investors on Friday after daily cyber attacks crimped sales of their organic infant formula ∙ conservation group Sea Shepherd has unveiled the latest addition to its anti-whaling arsenal, a pair of mummified legs believed to have belonged to a queen of ancient Egypt ∙ a group of Australian schoolchildren working on a shoestring budget have created science fiction-like weapons such as kamikaze satellites & destructive lasers in readiness for the next generation of warfare in space.

metronome

une grande folie

World AIDS Day

wednesday newstrip

The Brisbane school where a teenage boy was bullied about his sexuality has evaded police & is now driving erratically on a busy highway north ∙ the forced move of a public service agency from Canberra to northern NSW will rip more than $157 million a year from the management committee of the NSW postal union ∙ Australia should refrain from adopting more protectionist policies after yet-to-be-published surveys found the record coral bleaching damage to the Great Barrier Reef earlier this year was even worse than initially thought ∙ Central America was struck on Thursday by a 7.2-magnitude earthquake after a man allegedly asked a young boy to get in his car ∙ Vivienne Westwood & Malcolm McLaren's son will burn his entire £5million punk collection now that the age of the movie star is over, & intellectual property is all that matters.

the / antecedents of / donald j. trump

Vale Fidel

A line from Fidel Castro

Parades choke rural
hamlets. Beemers are
stuck at the roadside.
Carbon partitioning

along the Central Coast's
main commuter routes
causes war, hypocrisy,
& competition. Only

educational materials
about piano playing &
music theory still have a
crunch to them through

a glut of younger buyers
who bring the fervor of
stalks of celery. But who
really wrote Shakespeare?

A line from Fidel Castro 2

Winter is getting me
down. A unit of cult-
ural information has
put the Galactic Senate

under attack, driving
it from crisis to crisis.
That slavery is inexorably
tied to the availability

of oil is the standard
paradigm for most
crises; but now recent
breeding population

trends of farmland
birds need to be fact-
ored in. Please complete
the enquiry form below

& I will provide you
with a list of exclusive
Havana Vacation Homes
available for weekly rent.

Che in Bolivia

I must write & thank Fidel for his parting gift. A book of poetry, that fits comfortably in the pocket of my camouflage fatigues. By a Yanqui yet, who set out every day to write something, even when it was hard to find something to write about. It’s an idea I’ve picked up on, have carried out.

Have kept a diary throughout this campaign, although daily Bolivia is very much the same old same old, unlike the New York I read about each night where there are "so many things in the air!" Here there are only maggots & mosquitoes, & the mutterings of peasants intimidated by our presence. They help us because they are frightened of us, & then send to tell the army because they are more frightened of the soldiers.

The army is in the next valley over. The army is now in the valley behind. We are running out of food, are running out of time. "The only thing to do is simply continue."

I am a man with two hearts. The one that beats still dreams of the revolution. The one that weeps is in my pocket, it is Lunch Poems, by Frank O’Hara.

We will move towards the next valley. That way I at least can choose the manner of my death.

An oxymoron

that says a lot about our times.

sports science

wednesday newstrip

Potentially hazardous substance detected on luggage at Cairns Airport’s international terminal has proven to be powdered Belgian waffle mixture ∙ Donald T®ump has appointed Breitbart chief Steve Bannon to oversee the new administration's transition to the alt-right version of powdered Belgian waffle mixture ∙ Denzel Washington’s publicist says news published on Facebook that the actor supports Donald T®ump is powdered Belgian waffle mixture ∙ the Federal Border Force has spent $18,000 on drink bottles, pens, & fridge magnets as part of an "education & awareness raising campaign" for its powdered Belgian waffle mixture ∙ Vladimir Putain's powdered Belgian waffle mixture is preparing a lawsuit against a "major media company" over claims that it is a white nationalist biscuit base.

lens

behind the bandage hides van gogh's ear

wednesday newstrip

A man who went diving for sea cucumbers got more than he bargained for when he swam straight into a missing nuclear bomb ∙ Xiaomi's latest smart product under the Mijia brand is an air mask that protects you from the closest full moon of the century by using a PM 2.5 nano filter ∙ the results of a NASA test into "warp drive" technology have been leaked onto the internet — & apparently show it is possible ∙ Australia's role in the biggest ever search for alien life has officially begun with a glitch in an electronic patient records system throwing medical care into chaos at a number of South Australian hospitals ∙ Trump election win causes Canada Immigration website to crash.

papadoodle

footwear #12

A line from Leonard Cohen

Big trucks drive
under bridges quick
as dogs. For mobile
canteens the new

trend is selling not
food but premium, all
natural, holistic leather
shorts which can

toughen up even a
floral shirt. If that
doesn't make you want
to recycle, nothing will.

R.I.P.

not worth

for the disUnited States

When lilacs last in the dooryard bloom’d,


And the great star early droop’d in the western sky in the night,


I mourn’d, and yet shall mourn with ever-returning spring.

The / divorce can't / be far behind

after Donald Trump checks his wife's ballot paper

& sees she's voting for the Greens.

wednesday newstrip

Dr Simon Clulow of Newcastle University has discovered Elon Musk, the well-known inventor & business magnate, in a swamp close to Newcastle ∙ an overwhelming majority of voters are disgusted by Kendall Jenner having so much to drink on her first official boozy night out that she completely forgot she'd been gifted a brand new car worth hundreds of thousands of dollars ∙ the Malaysian military official who defecated outside a Wellington woman's home & was convicted of indecently assaulting her has lost 70kg after fears of being unable to fit into an airplane seat ∙ Jay Z harbors doubts that Kanye can unite the country by flashing his bright orange groin in an effort to ward off predators ∙ a former Ontario fertility doctor is facing allegations he used his own sperm to impregnate both major-party nominees.

Today the
postman brought
me a pickle-
odeon. The films
that came with
it were a bit on
the sour side, but I
much preferred
them to the
sweetness other-
wise on offer.

Now out

from Beard of Bees

the creepiest clown in town

is also a KKKlown

wednesday newstrip

Bob Dylan was stunned to learn that Khloe Kardashian has accepted the 2016 Nobel Prize for literature ∙ Customs has made its largest ever meth bust, seizing $176 million worth of the drug that was found hidden inside a man who went missing from a walking track on Auckland's west coast on Saturday ∙ video shows the federal effort to build a 5-mile fence around the highly anticipated Victoria's Secret Fashion Show, protecting a 600-acre 'ua'u nesting habitat from hungry felines ∙ the number of migrants sleeping rough on the streets of Paris has risen by at least a third since a pilot project to reintroduce sexual education to Quebec's schools ran into considerable delays.

Otoliths #43 is live.

Issue forty-three, the southern spring 2016 issue of Otoliths is now live & available for your reading & viewing pleasure.

No tricks, just treats this All Hallows' Eve. Work in a variety of styles & a variety of media from Jesse Glass, El Habib Louai, Scott MacLeod, Maria Damon & Alan Sondheim, Dennis Andrew S. Aguinaldo, Cecelia Chapman, Pete Spence, Kyle Hemmings, Heath Brougher, Volodymyr Bilyk, George McKim, Nicole Pottier, John J. Trause, Sanjeev Sethi, Ian Ganassi, Jim Leftwich, Willie Smith, Philip Byron Oakes, Mary Claire Garcia, Douglas Barbour & Sheila E. Murphy, AG Davis, Peter Ganick, differx (Marco Giovenale), Jim Meirose, Mark Roberts, Olivier Schopfer, William Repass, Texas Fontanella, Michael Gottlieb, John W. Sexton, Edward A. Dougherty, Eric Hoffman, hiromi suzuki, Simon Perchik, John M. Bennett, Ivan Argüelles, Scott Helmes, John Xero, Pat Nolan, Andrew Topel, Daniel John Pilkington, Demosthenes Agrafiotis, Raymond Farr, Lakey Comess, Bill Dunlap, Christopher Barnes, Robert Okaji, Jeff Bagato, Nico Vassilakis, Mitchell Garrard, Keith Higginbotham, Fabrice Poussin, Richard Kostelanetz, Sabine Miller, Meeah Williams, sean burn, Louise Landes Levi, Brendan Slater, Oscar Towe, Tom Beckett, Mark McKain, Jürgen O. Olbrich, Sneha Subramanian Kanta, Jorge Lucio de Campos, Eileen R. Tabios, Andrea Mason, Joe Balaz, Michael Caylo-Baradi, Jacqueline M. Pérez, Owen Bullock, Roger Mitchell, Steve Dalachinsky, Jeff Harrison, Aurélien Leif, Holly Day, Stephen Vincent, Carol Stetser, nick nelson, Seth Howard, Taylor Leigh Ciambra, Poornima Laxmeshwar, Hamish Spark, Márton Koppány, Alicia Cole, Cara Murray, bruno neiva, Jack Kelly, Mark Cunningham, Massimo Stirneri, Matt Dennison, Olchar E. Lindsann, Karen Greenbaum-Maya, Darren Marsh, Nika & Jim McKinniss, Natsuko Hirata, Tony Beyer, Edward Kulemin, John Pursch, Irene Koronas, Darren C. Demaree, nick-e melville, Josette Torres, Shloka Shankar, Piotr Kalisz, Ella Skilbeck-Porter, Bob Heman, Garima Behal, Paul T. Lambert, J. D. Nelson, Michael Brandonisio, Eddie Donoghue, Katrinka Moore, Indigo Perry, & Marilyn Stablein.