TimB

All images © Luciano Cian, shared with permission

Rio de Janeiro-based artist Luciano Cian (previously) has an affinity for the bold blocks of color that compose his minimal portraits. Although he recently expanded his practice to include acrylic paintings and collage, Cian works primarily digitally, rendering anonymous figures with thin lines and vibrant, geometric shapes like in his MAGNA series. “It has this name because it is big, both in dimensions and in purpose,” he tells Colossal. “I always work with images that allude to ethnicity. This series, like the others, talks about the miscegenation of races and peoples, with diversity as the central focus.”

Cian teamed up with the nonprofit Prints Against Poverty to sell a collection of 15 works, and you can purchase more of his available pieces on Saatchi Art, Artsper, and The Artling. Find an extensive archive of his portraits on Behance and Instagram.

All images © Daniel Kordan, shared with permission

Russian photographer Daniel Kordan (previously) is adept at locating extraordinary environments around the world—he captured this dazzling series of Japan’s firefly mating season a few months ago—and his recent excursion to the Socotra archipelago is similarly enchanting. Situated between the Guardafui Channel and the Arabian Sea, the remote island is populated by dragon blood trees, an evergreen species with upturned branches that splay outward and produce a bristling canopy.

Kordan’s photographs, which are shot at dawn, golden hour, and under a star-illuminated sky, frame this unique growth pattern that leaves the trees’ gnarled wood underbelly exposed. Combined with the deep red sap that seeps from its trunk, this otherworldly feature ties the species to local lore. “According to legend, the first dragon blood tree was created from the blood of a dragon who was wounded in a battle with an elephant,” the photographer says.

Kordan details the techniques and equipment he used in Socotra in a post about his travels, which you can follow on Instagram. He also has dozens of photographs of the white-sand deserts and life on the Yemeni island available as prints in his shop.

“Mother Mycelium.” All images © Jon Ching, shared with permission

Artist Jon Ching strikes a balance between texture and color in his meticulously detailed oil paintings that make fantastic creatures—owls with plumes of mushrooms and fuzzy molds, seahorses sprouting leafy twigs, and fish with striped tulip fins—appear natural in their environments. This vague distinction between the realistic and surreal saturates Ching’s body of work, which imagines a magical ecosystem that visualizes the symbiotic relationships between flora and fauna. “I am inspired by the worldview of many Indigenous cultures that revere the natural world and see god in every aspect of our living world,” he tells Colossal. “I believe that perspective is key to their sustainable societies and one that must be reawakened in our colonized societies.”

While he dreams up the hybrid forms, the Los Angeles-based artist still roots each piece in the existing world. He has a keen sense for finding the enchanting and unusual in his own experiences, whether from watching David Attenborough documentaries or spending his childhood in Kaneohe, Hawaii. “My more surreal creatures, where the line between flora and fauna are blurred, is in part my attempt at depicting some of this unseen magic,” he writes. “By placing them in a realistic setting among species we’re familiar with, I’m envisioning them into the real world. Maybe if we look close enough or long enough, we’ll catch a glimpse of them and my work won’t seem surreal anymore.”

You can see Ching’s paintings at Corey Helford Gallery in Los Angeles starting August 14 and find prints, stickers, and postcards in his shop. Check out his Instagram for glimpses into his process and the real-life animals and plants that shape his works. (via Iain Claridge)

“Sheila Ann”

“Razzle Dazzle”

“Sprite”

“Aquaria”

“Homestead”

“Nectar”

“Chasing Summer”

“Puhpowee”

Image © Laura Rowe, shared with permission

While chasing a tornado near the small town of Earth, Texas, earlier this week, amateur photographer Laura Rowe captured this enormous cloud filtered with pastel sunlight. The candy-colored mass swells above the dusky expanse in the midst of a thunderstorm, and as Kottke notes, the serendipitous shot evokes the saturated, trippy swirls in Milton Glaser’s 1966 poster of Bob Dylan. Prints are available on Rowe’s site.

All images © Wolfgang Fröhling, shared with permission

When the once burgeoning coal industry in Ruhrgebiet, Germany, began to decline, many of the workers’ apartments were sold off. Oftentimes, new owners only purchased half of the building—miners maintained a lifelong right of residence to their quarters—creating a stark split between the left and right sides of the structure. Photographer Wolfgang Fröhling captures this visually striking divide in a series of images framing the renovated and original designs juxtaposed in a single structure. See the full collection of half-painted facades and disparate landscaping on Pixel Project, and find more of the Bottrop-based photographer’s work on his site. (via This Isn’t Happiness)

“Street Dragon I” (2018), shoes, wire, and screws on a metal stand, 64.5 x 16 x 15.5 inches. Photo by Joerg Lohse. All images © Willie Cole, courtesy of Alexander and Bonin, New York

Artist Willie Cole juxtaposes readymade footwear and African tradition in his series of sculptural masks. The figurative assemblages stack women’s heels into clusters that are expressive and distinctly unique, an effect Cole derives from the shoes’ material, color, and pattern rather than a preconceived plan or sketch. Depicting exaggerated toothy grins, pointed brows, and outstretched tongues, the sculptures span more than a decade of the artist’s career and influence a new collaboration with Comme des Garçons that’s comprised of headpieces made with black pumps.

Each piece is layered with cultural and societal markers, including those that comment on mass consumerism, fashion trends, and notions of femininity. This context is situated in time and place, which Cole describes as “a subtle catalyst for perception. I have discovered that high heels purchased in New York are very different than high heels purchased in Georgia,” he says. Cole explains:

I guess you could call the high heel both an anxious object and a readymade aid. ‘Anxious’ because as a symbol, it is fully loaded with history and a story all its own even as just a shoe. ‘Readymade aid’ because that history adds so much to your interpretation and/or reaction to these pieces. As for fashion, these pieces speak about the abundance of discarded high heels in the world as well as the various styles and trends.

The New Jersey-based artist is involved in a variety of projects at the moment, including a commission for Kansas City International Airport that’s an homage to Charlie Parker and a series of sculptures made with 75 acoustic Yamaha guitars that’ll raise money for music education. His work is currently on view at Alexander and Bonin in New York City and Beta Pictoris Gallery in Birmingham. This summer, he’s participating in a show at Hauser and Wirth and is involved in an installation celebrating a former Black neighborhood that’s opening at the Metropolitan Museum of Art this fall. See more from his expansive body of work that largely explores Black identities on his site and Instagram.

“Sole Brother 1” (2007), shoes, wire, washers, and screws, 18 x 18 x 19 inches. Photo by Jason Mandella

“Ashley Bickerton” (2016), shoes, wire, and screws on a metal stand, 63.5 x 16 x 15.5 inches. Photo by Joerg Lohse

“Street Dragon II” (2018), shoes, wire, and screws, 19.5 x 15.5 x 10.25 inches. Photo by Joerg Lohse

“Shine” (2007), shoes, wire, washers, screws, and shelf 16 x 15 x 16 inches. Photo by Jason Mandella

“Fly Girl” (2016), shoes, wire, and screws on a metal stand, 65.5 x 15.5 x 15.5 inches. Photo by Joerg Lohse

“Sole Brother 2” (2007), shoes, wire, washers, and screws, 19.5 x 16.75 x 18 inches. Photo by Jason Mandella

All images via X+Living

X+Living is known for its deceptively designed Zhongshuge bookstores that mimic M.C. Escher woodcuts and trippy infinite spaces. The latest iteration is this dreamy location in Chengdu featuring bold archways, a reflective tile floor that makes the display tables appear like floating boats, and a mirror embedded in the ceiling to create a seemingly endless loop of stairways and shelving. Completed in 2020, Dujiangyan Zhongshuge has a cafe on the first floor, along with a children’s area occupied by a bamboo forest and pandas climbing the bookcases. In the rest of the two-story space, the uppermost shelves lining the winding walkways are covered in a decorative print, adding to the illusion of countless volumes and ensuring all 80,000 available titles are within a customer’s reach.

See more of the Zhongshuge locations, in addition to the Shanghai-based studio’s cinemas, family parks, and retail spaces, on its site.

All images © WASP

Last summer, The New York Times Magazine published a series of articles declaring that climate migration—a global exodus that’s predicted to displace between 50 and 300 million people worldwide—has begun. As more regions surrounding the equator become uninhabitable due to rising temperatures, crop losses, and disasters, entire populations will be forced to relocate to regions with more stable environments and economies. This impending movement coupled with an ongoing lack of affordable housing has sparked a wave of conversation about how best to remedy the looming crisis.

As a partial antidote, a Bologna-based studio, Mario Cucinella Architects, teamed up with the 3D-printing company WASP to design a low-carbon home that’s easily and quickly reproduced. Called “Tecla,” the prototype is a pair of sloping domes that can be built in only 200 hours using an average of six kilowatt-hours of energy. It’s made of 350 layers of coiled clay, which is sourced from a nearby river, that serves as thermal insulation for the earthen structure complete with a living area, kitchen, and sleeping quarters. Two skylights embedded in the roof of the 4.2-meter-tall domes allow light to enter the 60-square-meter space.

A short video from WASP documents the construction technique in Massa Lombarda, which involves two synchronized printing arms that glide back and forth to layer the walls. Producing almost no waste, the process is adaptable to other raw materials, making it a viable option for housing beyond the Italian region.

Find a larger collection of Mario Cucinella Architects’ and WASP’s climate-focused projects and looks into their processes on Instagram. You also might enjoy this 3D-printed home by Rael San Fratello. (via Dezeen)

“Oasis,” watercolor and gouache on paper, 20 inches x 20 inches. All images courtesy of Nucleus Portland, shared with permission

Sinuous branches half-submerged in water, fish swimming through the treetops, and plant life spearing small birds compose the intricate entanglements rendered by Teagan White. Through gouache, watercolor, and colored pencil, the artist merges plant and animal life in delicate scenes that focus on the interconnectedness and beauty of the natural world.

Having just moved to the Pacific Northwest, much of White’s work draws on their years spent biking throughout the Midwest and viscerally experiencing life and death on the region’s roadways. The artist describes their recent series, Things As They Are & As They Could Be, which includes many of the mixed-media pieces shown here, as “meditations on peril and possibility; what has been lost and what remains; dystopian presents and improbable futures.” It’s on view now through May 3 at Nucleus Portland.

Find glimpses into White’s process and see works-in-progress on Instagram, and pick up prints, stickers, and other goods in their shop.(via Supersonic Art)

“Citadel,” watercolor, gouache, and colored pencil on paper, 20 x 20 inches

“Yield,” watercolor and gouache on paper, 11 x 14 inches

“Waver,” watercolor and gouache on paper, 8 x 10 inches

“Wander,” watercolor and gouache on paper, 8 x 10 inches

“Territory,” watercolor and gouache on paper, 18 x 24 inches

FPTs: Pure Fungibility on the Blockchain

You may have heard a lot about NFT speculative mania in the news and how people are shelling out millions of dollars of monopoly money for digitally signed URLs. And I too initially thought this was an absurd farce and that the emperor was running around with no clothes, up until I realised a way I could personally profit from it, and then it all made perfect sense. It’s time to lean into the crypto grift but with purity.

The key idea of this functional pearl is based on the simple notion that we shouldn’t be trading URLs to Nyan Cat GIFs for millions of dollars, but instead we should be trading pointers to functions for billions of dollars!

Now say you wanted to do some super complex logic, like printing to stdout. Normally we would perform the arcane dark category theory rites and summon the IO monad from the nameless void with the following incantation:

main :: IO ()
main = print "Hello World"

Now this works just fine, but it has a serious problem. It doesn’t involve blockchain. Let’s fix that:

import Control.Monad.Fpt

helloWorld :: FPT '[IO] ()
helloWorld = bid $ 100000 (print "Hello World")

There we go, now this this function involves a monadic wrapper which encodes what we call an FPT (Functional Programming Token) represented at the type level. It is a higher kinded type that wraps a type-level list of effects of the functions we wish to bid on for evaluation. In this case we’re bidding $100,000 for the exclusive rights to print “Hello World” to the screen. This is probably too low an ask, but it’s just an example.

Now instead of just evaluating the IO function directly, we want to evaluate it exclusively using the paradigm-shifting power of the blockchain to write to stdout. We do this by providing our bitcoin private key in the first argument to the runFpt function which evaluates the auction monad to bid on the evaluation of the function we wrote.

main :: IO (Either MoarMoney ())
main = runFpt privKey $ embedToFinal @IO helloWorld
  where
    privKey = "$PRIVATEKEYHERE"

This function will run for about 32 hours while your transaction propagates through the bitcoin mempool, then through a bunch of coal-guzzling server farms in Xinjiang. This ultimately burns through an acre of rainforest in the Amazon, but we can ignore that because it’s an unobservable side effect. If the market is good it will eventually evaluate and yield a response. The result is wrapped in a Either value where the right success value will contain the result of your function or a left failure value in the case where you’ve been outbid. If you’ve been outbid, you’ll simply have to bid higher to evaluate your code because that’s how code under capitalism works.

Many people claim that lazy evaluation is actually a misfeature. Au contraire, consider the real world application of computing the nth Fibonacci number. Since every call to fib will cost us upwards of tens of thousands of dollars (depending on rapidly fluctuating exchange rates) we want to minimize the evaluation of unnecessary calls to the market. With FPTs we’ve finally found the only killer application of laziness: not draining our bank account with useless computation.

fib :: FPT '[IO] ()
fib 0 = pure 0
fib 1 = pure 1
fib n = liftM (+) (fib (n-1)) (fib (n-2))

In the brave new frontier of cryptocurrency our business logic will probably involve some combination of money laundering, ransomware, securities fraud, puppy smashing and IO. It’s important to note that effects aren’t necessarily commutative, we don’t necessarily want to smash the puppies before we launder money, but we can do securities fraud and launder money commutatively. And we’ll probably end up adding a logging interface after-the-fact if our budget affords that level of luxury.

To facilitate with money laundering there is a set of wrappers provided by Control.Monad.WireFraud module which provides a high-level streaming interface for cleaning money tied to crime in a space-efficient way. Simply chain together a bunch of sources and sinks using the launder combinator, which will compose the dirty funds through a series of seemingly legit business and the output will be squeaky clean and run in constant memory.

import Control.Monad.WireFraud

launder :: DodgySource m o -> LegitSink i

Using the effect system of FPT we can magically combine all of this business logic together locally into a single token and then put it up for auction.

cryptoBusinessLogic :: FPT '[IO, Puppy, LaunderMoney] ()
cryptoBusinessLogic = bid $ 10000000 $ do
  profits <- runRansomware
  launderMoney profits drugCartels
  void $ smashPuppies

As with NFTs this token can itself become a laundering instrument, so an FPT can become a higher-order money laundering token in which we launder money through money laundering, just like we do with higher order functions. This “Internet Computer” is vastly more advanced than just shuffling art for organized crime around in a freeport in Switzerland.

Perhaps it’s a valid criticism that functional programmers aren’t concerned with the side effects of their work, and fair enough … only time will tell on that. But at the very least we should be able to use the type system to abstractly model the harm we do to the world at a more granular level using advanced type system features. Because at the end of the day purity and fancy types are what really matters.

The FPT token presale starts next week. To the moon. 💎🙌🚀

Writing code that is reusable is an important part of software development. In a way, we're not simply solving the problem at hand, but we're building tools we can use to solve similar problems in the future. Now, that's also a risk: premature abstraction is its own source of WTFs.

Daniel's peer wrote some JavaScript which is used for manipulating form inputs on customer contact forms. You know the sorts of forms: give us your full name, phone number, company name, email, and someone from our team will be in touch. This developer wrote the script, and offered it to clients to enhance their forms. Well, there was one problem: this script would get embedded in customer contact forms, but not all customer contact forms use the same conventions for how they name their fields.

There's an easy solution for that, involving parameterizing the code or adding a configuration step. There's a hard solution, where you build a heuristic that works for most forms. Then there's this solution, which… well…. Let me present the logic for handling just one field type, unredacted or elided.

for(llelementlooper=0; llelementlooper<document.forms[llformlooper2].elements.length; llelementlooper++)
          {
            var llelementphone = (document.forms[llformlooper2].elements[llelementlooper].name)

            if ( llformphone == '' && ((llelementphone=='phone')
              || (llelementphone=='Phone')
              || (llelementphone=='phone')
              || (llelementphone=='mobilephone')
              || (llelementphone=='PHONE')
              || (llelementphone=='sPhone')
              || (llelementphone=='strPhone')
              || (llelementphone=='Telephone')
              || (llelementphone=='telephone')
              || (llelementphone=='tel')
              || (llelementphone=='si_contact_ex_field6')
              || (llelementphone=='phonenumber')
              || (llelementphone=='phone_number')
              || (llelementphone=='phoneTextBox')
              || (llelementphone=='PhoneNumber_num_25_1')
              || (llelementphone=='Telefone')
              || (llelementphone=='Contact Phone')
              || (llelementphone=='submitted[row_3][phone]')
              || (llelementphone=='edit-profile-phone')
              || (llelementphone=='contactTelephone')
              || (llelementphone=='f4')
              || (llelementphone=='Contact-Phone')
              || (llelementphone=='formItem_239')
              || (llelementphone=='phone_r')
              || (llelementphone=='PhoneNo')
              || (llelementphone=='LeadGen_ContactForm_98494_m0:Phone')
              || (llelementphone=='telefono')
              || (llelementphone=='ntelephone')
              || (llelementphone=='wtelephone')
              || (llelementphone=='watelephone')
              || (llelementphone=='form[telefoon]')
              || (llelementphone=='phone_work')
              || (llelementphone=='telephone-number')
              || (llelementphone=='ctl00$HeaderText$ctl00$PhoneText')
              || (llelementphone=='ctl00$ctl00$cphMain$cphInsideMain$widget1$ctl00$viewBiz$ctl00$phone$textbox')
              || (llelementphone=='ctl00$ctl00$ContentPlaceHolderBase$ContentPlaceHolderSideMenu$TextBoxPhone')
              || (llelementphone=='ctl00$SPWebPartManager1$g_c8bd31c3_e338_41df_bdbe_021242ca01c8$ctl01$ctl06$txtTextbox')
              || (llelementphone=='ctl00$ctl00$ctl00$ContentPlaceHolderDefault$MasterContentPlaceHolder$txtPhone')
              || (llelementphone=='curftelephone')
              || (llelementphone=='form[Telephone]')
              || (llelementphone=='tx_pilmailform_pi1[text][phone]')
              || (llelementphone=='ctl00$ctl00$templateMainContent$homeBanners$HomeBannerList$ctrLeads$txt_5_1')
              || (llelementphone=='ac_daytimeNumber')
              || (llelementphone=='daytime_phone')
              || (llelementphone=='r4')
              || (llelementphone=='ctl00$ContentPlaceHolderBody$Phone')
              || (llelementphone=='Fld10_label')
              || (llelementphone=='field333')
              || (llelementphone=='txtMobile')
              || (llelementphone=='form_nominator_phonenumber')
              || (llelementphone=='submitted[phone_no]')
              || (llelementphone=='submitted[phone]')
              || (llelementphone=='submitted[5]')
              || (llelementphone=='submitted[telephone_no]')
              || (llelementphone=='fields[Contact Phone]')
              || (llelementphone=='cf2_field_5')
              || (llelementphone=='a23786')
              || (llelementphone=='rpr_phone')
              || (llelementphone=='phone-number')
              || (llelementphone=='txt_homePhone')
              || (llelementphone=='your-number')
              || (llelementphone=='Contact_Phone')
              || (llelementphone=='ctl00$CPH_body$txtContactnumber')
              || (llelementphone=='profile_telephone')
              || (llelementphone=='item_meta[90]' && llfrmid==11823)
              || (llelementphone=='item_meta[181]' && llfrmid==26416)
              || (llelementphone=='input_4' && llfrmid==21452)
              || (llelementphone=='EditableTextField100' && llfrmid==13948)
              || (llelementphone=='EditableTextField205' && llfrmid==13948)
              || (llelementphone=='EditableTextField100' && llfrmid==13948)
              || (llelementphone=='EditableTextField166' && llfrmid==13948)
              || (llelementphone=='EditableTextField104' && llfrmid==13948)
              || (llelementphone=='cf2_field_4' && llfrmid==23878)
              || (llelementphone=='input_4' && llfrmid==24017)
              || (llelementphone=='cf_field_4' && llfrmid==15876)
              || (llelementphone=='cf5_field_5' && llfrmid==15876)
              || (llelementphone=='input_9' && llfrmid==17254)
              || (llelementphone=='input_2' && llfrmid==22954)
              || (llelementphone=='input_8' && llfrmid==23756)
              || (llelementphone=='input_3' && llfrmid==18793)
              || (llelementphone=='input_6' && llfrmid==24811)
              || (llelementphone=='input_3' && llfrmid==19880)
              || (llelementphone=='input_6' && llfrmid==19230)
              || (llelementphone=='input_3' && llfrmid==24747)
              || (llelementphone=='input_4' && llfrmid==25897)
              || (llelementphone=='text-481' && llfrmid==14451)
              || (llelementphone=='Form7111$formField_7576')
              || (llelementphone=='Form7168$formField_7673')
              || (llelementphone=='Form7116$formField_7592')
              || (llelementphone=='Form7150$formField_7645')
              || (llelementphone=='Form7153$formField_7655')
              || (llelementphone=='Form7119$formField_7600')
              || (llelementphone=='Form7123$formField_7608')
              || (llelementphone=='Form7161$formField_7665')
              || (llelementphone=='Form7176$formField_7690')
              || (llelementphone=='Form7172$formField_7681')
              || (llelementphone=='Form7113$formField_7584')
              || (llelementphone=='Form7106$formField_7568')
              || (llelementphone=='Form7111$formField_7576')
              || (llelementphone=='Form7136$formField_7628')
              || (llelementphone=='Form6482$formField_7621')
              || (llelementphone=='Form6548$formField_6988')
              || (llelementphone=='submitted[business_phone]')
              || (llelementphone=='tfa_3' && llfrmid==23388)
              || (llelementphone=='ContentObjectAttribute_ezsurvey_answer_4455_3633')
              || (llelementphone=='838ae21c-1f95-488f-a511-135a588a50fb_Phone')
              || (llelementphone=='plc$lt$zoneContent$pageplaceholder$pageplaceholder$lt$zoneRightContent$contentText$BizFormControl1$Bizform1$ctl00$Telephone$txt1st')
              || (llelementphone=='plc$lt$zoneContent$pageplaceholder$pageplaceholder$lt$zoneRightContent$contentText$BizFormControl1$Bizform1$ctl00$Telephone')
              || (llelementphone=='ctl00$ctl00$ctl00$ContentPlaceHolderDefault$ContentAreaPlaceholderMain$ctl02$ContactForm_3$TextBoxTelephone')
              || (llelementphone=='plc$lt$Content2$pageplaceholder1$pageplaceholder1$lt$Content$BizForm$viewBiz$ctl00$Phone_Number')
              || (llelementphone=='ctl00$ctl00$ContentPlaceHolder1$cphMainContent$C002$tbTelephone')
              || (llelementphone=='contact$tbPhoneNumber')
              || (llelementphone=='crMain$ctl00$txtPhone')
              || (llelementphone=='ctl00$PrimaryContent$tbPhone')
              || (llelementphone=='ff_nm_phone[]')
              || (llelementphone=='q5_phoneNumber5[phone]')
              || (llelementphone=='TechContactPhone')
              || (llelementphone=='referral_phone_number')
              || (llelementphone=='field8418998')
              || (llelementphone=='ctl00$Content$ctl00$txtPhone')
              || (llelementphone=='ctl00$PlaceHolderMain$ucContactUs$txtPhone')
              || (llelementphone=='m_field_id_4' && llfrmid==15091)
              || (llelementphone=='Field7' && llfrmid==23387)
              || (llelementphone=='input_4' && llfrmid==22578)
              || (llelementphone=='input_2' && llfrmid==11241)
              || (llelementphone=='input_7' && llfrmid==23633)
              || (llelementphone=='input_7' && llfrmid==22114)
              || (llelementphone=='input_4' && (llformalyzerURL.indexOf('demo') != -1) && llfrmid==17544)
              || (llelementphone=='input_4' && (llformalyzerURL.indexOf('contact') != -1) && llfrmid==17544)
              || (llelementphone=='field_4' && llfrmid==24654)
              || (llelementphone=='input_6' && llfrmid==24782)
              || (llelementphone=='input_4' && (llformalyzerURL.indexOf('contact-us') != -1) && llfrmid==16794)
              || (llelementphone=='input_3' && (llformalyzerURL.indexOf('try-and-buy') != -1) && llfrmid==16794)
              || (llelementphone=='input_4' && (llformalyzerURL.indexOf('contact-us') != -1) && llfrmid==23842)
              || (llelementphone=='input_4' && llfrmid==25451)
              || (llelementphone=='input_5' && llfrmid==24911)
              || (llelementphone=='input_3' && llfrmid==13417)
              || (llelementphone=='input_4' && llfrmid==23813)
              || (llelementphone=='input_4' && llfrmid==21483)
              || (llelementphone=='input_3' && llfrmid==25396)
              || (llelementphone=='input_3' && llfrmid==16175)
              || (llelementphone=='input_7' && llfrmid==25797)
              || (llelementphone=='input_4' && llfrmid==15650)
              || (llelementphone=='input_3' && llfrmid==22025)
              || (llelementphone=='input_3' && llfrmid==14534)
              || (llelementphone=='input_4' && llfrmid==25216)
              || (llelementphone=='input_5' && llfrmid==22884)
              || (llelementphone=='input_6' && llfrmid==25783)
              || (llelementphone=='text-747' && llfrmid==16324)
              || (llelementphone=='vfb-42' && llfrmid==24468)
              || (llelementphone=='vfb-33' && llfrmid==24468)
              || (llelementphone=='item_meta[57]' && llfrmid==25268)
              || (llelementphone=='item_meta[78]' && llfrmid==25268)
              || (llelementphone=='item_meta[85]' && llfrmid==25268)
              || (llelementphone=='item_meta[154]' && llfrmid==25268)
              || (llelementphone=='item_meta[220]' && llfrmid==25268)
              || (llelementphone=='item_meta[240]' && llfrmid==25268)
              || (llelementphone=='item_meta[286]' && llfrmid==25268)
              || (llelementphone=='fieldname5' && llfrmid==12535)
              || (llelementphone=='Question12' && llfrmid==24639)
              || (llelementphone=='ninja_forms_field_4' && llfrmid==19321)
              || (llelementphone=='EditableTextField' && llfrmid==15064)
              || (llelementphone=='form_fields[27]' && llfrmid==22688)
              || (llelementphone=='ctl00$body$phone')
              || (llelementphone=='ctl00$MainContent$txtPhone')
              || (llelementphone=='FreeTrialForm$Phone')
              || (llelementphone=='text-521ada035aa46')
              || (llelementphone=='C_BusPhone')
              || (llelementphone=='ctl00$ctl00$templateMainContent$pageContent$ctrLeads$txt_5_1')
              || (llelementphone=='ctl00$Modules$ctl00$rptFields$ctl06$1204')
              || (llelementphone=='ctl00$Modules$ctl00$rptFields$ctl06$1320')
              || (llelementphone=='ctl00$Modules$ctl00$rptFields$ctl07$1242')
              || (llelementphone=='ctl00$Modules$ctl00$rptFields$ctl07$1202')
              || (llelementphone=='ctl00$Modules$ctl00$rptFields$ctl08$1242')
              || (llelementphone=='ctl00$MainColumnPlaceHolder$uxPhone')
              || (llelementphone=='ctl00$MainContent$DropZoneTop$columnDisplay$ctl04$controlcolumn$ctl00$WidgetHost$WidgetHost_widget$IDPhone')
              || (llelementphone=='ctl00$ctl05$txtPhone')
              || (llelementphone=='ctl00$Modules$ctl00$rptFields$ctl07$1219')
              || (llelementphone=='LeadGen_ContactForm_33872_m419365:Phone')
              || (llelementphone=='F02220803')
              || (llelementphone=='h2c0f')
              || (llelementphone=='your_phone_number')
              || (llelementphone=='Question7')
              || (llelementphone=='Question51')
              || (llelementphone=='Question59')
              || (llelementphone=='Question35')
              || (llelementphone=='Question67')
              || (llelementphone=='field9740823')
              || (llelementphone=='message[phone]')
              || (llelementphone=='dnn$ctr1266$ViewKamakuraRegister$Phone')
              || (llelementphone=='phone1')
              || (llelementphone=='inf_field_Phone1')
              || (llelementphone=='hscontact_phone')
              || (llelementphone=='data[Contact][phone]')
              || (llelementphone=='fields[Phone]')
              || (llelementphone=='contact[PhoneNumber]')
              || (llelementphone=='phonename3')
              || (llelementphone=='UserPhone')
              || (llelementphone=='ctl00$MainBody$txtPhoneTech')
              || (llelementphone=='Telephone1')
              || (llelementphone=='PhoneNumber')
              || (llelementphone=='work_phone')
              || (llelementphone=='jform[contact_telephone]')
              || (llelementphone=='form[phone]')
              || (llelementphone=='RequestAQuote1$txtPhone')
              || (llelementphone=='06_Phone')
              || (llelementphone=='txtPhone')
              || (llelementphone=='field_location[und][0][phone]')
              || (llelementphone=='your-phone')
              || (llelementphone=='cmsForms_phone')
              || (llelementphone=='Txt_phonenumber')
              || (llelementphone=='businessPhone')
              || (llelementphone=='boxHomePhone')
              || (llelementphone=='HomePhone')
              || (llelementphone=='request-phone')
              || (llelementphone=='user[phone]')
              || (llelementphone=='DATA[PHONE]')
              || (llelementphone=='ctl00$ctl00$ctl00$cphContent$cphContent$cphContent$Phone')
              || (llelementphone=='ctl00$MainBody$Form1$obj11')
              || (llelementphone=='LeadGen_ContactForm_90888_m1467651:Phone')
              || (llelementphone=='Users[work]')
              || (llelementphone=='Question43')
              || (llelementphone=='aics_phone')
              || (llelementphone=='form[workphone]')
              || (llelementphone=='ctl00$ctl00$ContentPlaceHolder1$cphMainContent$C006$tbTelephone')
              || (llelementphone=='cntnt01fbrp__47')
              || (llelementphone=='submitted[phone_number]')
              || (llelementphone=='flipform_phone')
              || (llelementphone=='txtPhone')
              || (llelementphone=='ctl00$ContentPlaceHolder2$txtPhnno')
              || (llelementphone=='ctl00$ctl00$ContentPlaceHolder1$ContentPlaceHolder1$mainContentRegion$BizFormControl1$Bizform1$ctl00$Phone')
              || (llelementphone=='inpPhone')
              || (llelementphone=='j_phone')
              || (llelementphone=='m6e81afbrp__53')
              || (llelementphone=='item_meta[119]')
              || (llelementphone=='ctl00$ContentPlaceHolder_Content$dataPhone')
              || (llelementphone=='ctl00$generalContentPlaceHolder$ctrlContactUs$tbPhone')
              || (llelementphone=='ctl00$ctl00$ctl00$ContentPlaceHolderDefault$ContentPlaceHolder1$Contact_6$txtPhone')
              || (llelementphone=='ctl00$MainContent$tel')
              || (llelementphone=='dynform_element_3')
              || (llelementphone=='telephone_1')
              || (llelementphone=='cf_phone')
              || (llelementphone=='Lead_PrimaryPhone')
              || (llelementphone=='p_lt_zoneContent_wP_wP_lt_zonePageWidgets_RevolabsMicrosoftDynamicsCRMContactForm_1_txtBusinessPhone')
              || (llelementphone=='si_contact_ex_field2')
              || (llelementphone=='dnn$ctr458$XModPro$ctl00$ctl00$ctl00$Telephone')
              || (llelementphone=='ctl00$ctl06$txtTelephone')
              || (llelementphone=='dnn$ctr458$XModPro$ctl00$ctl00$ctl00$Telephone')
              || (llelementphone=='ctl00$ctl00$mainCopy$CPHCenter$ctl00$QuickRegControl_2$TBPhone')
              || (llelementphone=='LeadGen_ContactForm_38163_m457931:Phone')
              || (llelementphone=='LeadGen_ContactForm_29909_m371524:Phone')
              || (llelementphone=='LeadGen_ContactForm_32343_m395611:Phone')
              || (llelementphone=='LeadGen_ContactForm_31530_m388101:Phone')
              || (llelementphone=='LeadGen_ContactForm_27072_m349818:Phone')
              || (llelementphone=='LeadGen_ContactForm_28362_m354522:Phone')
              || (llelementphone=='LeadGen_ContactForm_28759_m358745:Phone')
              || (llelementphone=='LeadGen_ContactForm_32343_m395611:Phone')
              || (llelementphone=='LeadGen_ContactForm_33631_m415978:Phone')
              || (llelementphone=='LeadGen_ContactForm_30695_m380436:Phone')
              || (llelementphone=='LeadGen_ContactForm_29958_m372138:Phone')
              || (llelementphone=='LeadGen_ContactForm_31471_m387422:Phone')
              || (llelementphone=='LeadGen_ContactForm_32514_m397613:Phone')
              || (llelementphone=='LeadGen_ContactForm_29152_m362772:Phone')
              || (llelementphone=='LeadGen_ContactForm_32540_m397908:Phone')
              || (llelementphone=='pNumber')
              || (llelementphone=='organizer_phone')
              || (llelementphone=='ctl00$PlaceHolderMain$TrialDownloadForm$Phone')
              || (llelementphone=='ContactSubmission.Phone.Value')
              || (llelementphone=='ctl00$body$txtPhone')
              || (llelementphone=='p$lt$ctl03$pageplaceholder$p$lt$zoneCentre$editabletext$ucEditableText$widget1$ctl00$viewBiz$ctl00$Telephone$textbox')
              || (llelementphone=='ctl01_ctl00_pbForm1_ctl_phone_61f3')
              || (llelementphone=='ctl01$ctl00$ContentPlaceHolder1$ctl15$Phone')
              || (llelementphone=='p$lt$zoneContent$pageplaceholder$p$lt$zoneRightContent$contentText$ucEditableText$BizFormControl1$Bizform1$ctl00$Telephone$textbox')
              || (llelementphone=='ctl00$ctl00$ContentPlaceHolder$ContentPlaceHolder$ctl00$fPhone')
              || (llelementphone=='pagecolumns_0$form_B502CC1EC1644B38B722523526D45F36$field_6BCFC01A782747DF8E785B5533850EEB')
              || (llelementphone=='cf3_field_10')
              || (llelementphone=='r_phone')
              || (llelementphone=='c_phone')
              || (llelementphone=='cf-1[]')
              || (llelementphone=='frm_phone')
              || (llelementphone=='Patient_Phone_Number')
              || (llelementphone=='ctl00$PageContent$ctl00$txtPhone')
              || (llelementphone=='dnn$ctr398$FormMaster$ctl_6e49bedd138a4684a66b62dcb1a34658')
              || (llelementphone=='id_tel')
              || (llelementphone=='field_contact_tel[und][0][value]')
              || (llelementphone=='Phone:')
              || (llelementphone=='ContactPhone')
              || (llelementphone=='submitted[telephone]')
              || (llelementphone=='ctl00$ContentPlaceHolder1$ctl04$txtPhone')
              || (llelementphone=='ctl00$ContentPlaceHolder_pageContent$contact_phone')
              || (llelementphone=='264')
              || (llelementphone=='form_phone_number')
              || (llelementphone=='field8418998')
              || (llelementphone=='phoneTBox')
              || (llelementphone=='pagecontent_1$content_0$contentbottom_0$txtPhone')
              || (llelementphone=='application_0$PhoneTextBox')
              || (llelementphone=='submitted[phone_work]')
              || (llelementphone=='data[Lead][phone]')
              || (llelementphone=='a4475-telephone')
              || (llelementphone=='ctl00$Form$txtPhoneNumber')
              || (llelementphone=='signup_form_data[Phone]')
              || (llelementphone=='WorkPhone')
              || (llelementphone=='lldPhone')
              || (llelementphone=='web_form_1[field_102]value')
              || (llelementphone=='LeadGen_ContactForm_114694_m1832700:Phone')
              || (llelementphone=='phoneSalesForm')
              || (llelementphone=='fund_phone')
              || (llelementphone=='Phonepi_Phone')
              || (llelementphone=='field343')
              || (llelementphone=='cntnt01fbrp__48')
              || (llelementphone=='contact[phone]')
              || (llelementphone=='ctl00_ContentPlaceHolder1_ctl01_contactTelephoneBox_text')
              || (llelementphone=='ctl01$ctl00$ContentPlaceHolder1$ctl29$Phone')
              || (llelementphone=='plc$lt$content$pageplaceholder$pageplaceholder$lt$bodyColumnZone$LogilityContactUs$txtWorkPhone')
              || (llelementphone=='ctl00$ctl00$ctl00$cphBody$cphMain$cphMain$FormBuilder1$FormBuilderListView$ctrl4$FieldControl_Telephone')
              || (llelementphone=='ctl00$ctl00$ctl00$ContentPlaceHolderDefault$cp_content$ctl02$RenderForm_1$rpFieldsets$ctl00$rpFields$ctl04$126d33a3_9f7f_4583_8c94_5820d58fc030')
              || (llelementphone=='tx_powermail_pi1[uid1266]')
              || (llelementphone=='si_contact_ex_field3')
              || (llelementphone=='inc_contact1$txtPhone')
              || (llelementphone=='item2_tel_1')
              || (llelementphone=='LeadGen_ContactForm_15766_m0:Phone')
              || (llelementphone=='ctl00$ContentPlaceHolder1$txtPhone')
              || (llelementphone=='Default$Content$FormViewer$FieldsRepeater$ctl04$ctl00$ViewTextBox')
              || (llelementphone=='Default$Content$FormViewer$FieldsRepeater$ctl04$ctl00$ViewTextBox')
              || (llelementphone=='ctl00$SecondaryPageContent$C005$ctl00$ctl00$C002$ctl00$ctl00$textBox_write')
              || (llelementphone=='_u216318653597056311')
              || (llelementphone=='_u630018292785751084')
              || (llelementphone=='data[Contact][office_phone]')
              || (llelementphone=='ctl00$ctl00$cphMainContent$Content$txtPhone')
              || (llelementphone=='ctl00$ContentPlaceHolder1$txtTel')
              || (llelementphone=='item_5')
              || (llelementphone=='ques_21432')
              || (llelementphone=='phoneNum')
              || (llelementphone=='CONTACT_PHONE')
              || (llelementphone=='ff_nm_cf_phonetext[]')
              || (llelementphone=='WorkPhone')
              ) )
            {
              llformphone = (document.forms[llformlooper2].elements[llelementlooper].value);
              if (llfrmid == debugid ) {alert('llformphone:'+llformphone+'  llemailfound:'+llemailfound);}
            }

If the name property of the form element is equal to any one of the many many many items in this list, we can then extract the value and stuff it into a variable. And, since this will almost certainly break all the time, it's got a convenient "set the debugid and I'll spam alerts as I search the form".

Repeat this for every other field. It ends up being almost 2,000 lines of code, just to select the correct fields out of the forms.

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“The Lesson” (2020), oil on canvas, 130 x 170 centimeters. All images © Paco Pomet, shared with permission

In Beginnings, Spanish artist Paco Pomet (previously) visualizes a series of jarring and absurd scenarios born out of an equally concerning event. He juxtaposes disparate elements—a mushroom cloud erupting in a classroom, women cavalierly poking at a tabletop sunrise, a mountain range lying on an operating table—in a series of satirical commentaries infused with pop culture references and nods to art history.

Generally contrasting a black-and-white scene with a recurring, full-color sunrise or sunset, Pomet’s compositions merge time periods and situations to mark the start of a new reality, a broad theme tied to the current moment. “Romanticism with a twist of irony is a very powerful visual engine,” he says about the series.

If you’re in Santa Monica, Beginnings is on view through May 8 at Richard Heller Gallery. Otherwise, find more of Pomet’s humorous and bizarre compositions on Artsy and Instagram.

“Little Big Grief” (2020), oil on canvas, 51 1/5 × 66 9/10 inches

“Hesperides” (2020), oil on canvas, 51 1/5 × 66 9/10 inches

“Melancholy School” (2020), oil on canvas, 51 1/5 × 59 1/10 inches

“The Art of Scaling” (2020), oil on canvas, 51 1/5 × 59 1/10 inches

“Headstrong” (2020), oil on canvas, 23 3/5 × 28 7/10 inches

“Classicism” (2021), oil on canvas, 60 × 73 inches

“Das Erhabene Büro (diptych)” (2020), oil on canvas, 59 1/10 × 102 2/5 inches

“Purple Mountain” (2020), oil on wood panel, 48 x 36 inches. All images © Seth Armstrong, shared with permission

“Color and light are basically all I think about when I’m painting,” says Seth Armstrong. Working with oil paints on wood, the Los Angeles-based artist renders the sloping hills of his native California county in bold, saturated tones. Depicting the staggered houses and vegetation in the glow of golden hour or just after sunrise, Armstrong balances both hyperrealism and more sweeping, gestural strokes. He includes the occasional candy-colored hue to veil the densely populated landscape—the artist notes that small details can be difficult to perceive when not viewing the works in person—with a layer of magic. “The paintings do become, for me, more than a depiction of light and color,” he writes. “But that’s a personal relationship we have.”

A limited-edition print of “Purple Mountain” releases on April 12 through Unit Drops, and Armstrong will have a solo show at Unit London this fall. Check out his Instagram for a larger collection of his paintings and glimpses into his home studio, where he works alongside ceramicist Madeleine Pellegren. (via This Isn’t Happiness)

“5:30,” oil on wood panel, 12 x 12 inches

“Green House” (2020), oil on wood panel, 14.5 x 14.5 inches

“Pink Moment” (2020), oil on wood panel, 12 x 12 inches

“November” (2020), oil on wood panel, 19.75 x 27.5 inches

“September” (2020), oil on wood panel, 18 x 18 inches

“March” (2020), oil on wood panel, 36 x 36 inches

If Democrats manage to escape the traditional midterm curse and don’t drop a single vote from 2020 to 2022, they would still lose control of the House of Representatives simply as a consequence of Republican gerrymandering following the census. Unless, that is, there’s a change to current laws or an overwhelming Democratic wave on par with 2006 or 2018.

The decisive impact of gerrymandering is well understood by campaign operatives and party leaders but is barely acknowledged in national political conversations — the elephant’s weapon in the room, so to speak — even as analytic focus narrows to the details of particular voter suppression bills.

Yet Democrats are in a peculiar position: With control of both chambers of Congress and the White House, they have the opportunity to ban gerrymandering, restore a semblance of democratic balance to House races, and at the same time give themselves a fighting chance to hold on to the lower chamber. But it’s far from a guarantee that the party will do it. Democrats may choose instead to voluntarily march themselves into a political abyss for no reason other than their own inertia and lack of imagination.

The bill that could stop this, the “For the People Act,” has already passed the House of Representatives as H.R. 1. The dawning reality of the upcoming gerrymander heightens the importance for Democrats of passing the Senate version and signing it into law. To do so would require reforming the filibuster, as Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has vowed to oppose the bill with everything he has. Sen. Joe Manchin, the deciding Democratic voter on filibuster reform, penned a Washington Post op-ed on Wednesday swearing that he would never vote to eliminate or “weaken” the filibuster, but a reform he suggested previously — mandating that senators actually occupy the floor in order to use it — could strengthen it as an institutional device, forcing engagement by the minority. Under current rules, as Manchin has noted, all a senator has to do to “filibuster” is send an email to a floor staffer, and everything shuts down.

Republicans’ ability to simply redraw their way into the majority comes partly as a function of their overperformance in 2020. Democrats had expected to expand their 36-seat majority, but instead they now hold just 222 seats — or they will once all the vacancies are filled — meaning that they can only lose four and hold on to a bare 218 majority.

A precise number is impossible to land on, but if gerrymandering remains legal, the best estimates suggest that if the 2020 margin remained constant in 2022, Democrats would lose at least 15 to 20 seats. In 2012, the last midterm after a census, Democrats won more than 51 percent of the House vote, yet Republicans held on to the lower chamber comfortably.

In 2012, the last midterm after a census, Democrats won more than 51 percent of the House vote, yet Republicans held on to the lower chamber comfortably.

Once the new census numbers are out — and recall that the Trump administration installed political operatives to game the count for partisan advantage — congressional seats will be reapportioned, with states that have lost relative population losing members of Congress and states that have grown getting more.

The losers: California, Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and West Virginia.

West Virginia will go from three Republicans and zero Democrats down to just two Republicans, but in the other eight states, Democrats risk losing ground. New York, depending on the final count, may in fact lose two seats. Democrats will work hard to make sure that those losses are Republican seats in the states they control, but it will be no easy task. Many of them, such as California, have independent redistricting commissions.

Texas, meanwhile, is picking up a full three seats. Republicans will hold 23 seats to Democrats’ 13 before the three new ones are added, and the Texas Legislature, dominated by the GOP, gets to redraw the lines with no input from Democrats. Republicans could plausibly pick up all three while also drawing a handful of those 13 Democrats out of their positions, flipping a 10-seat cushion to 15 or more.

Texas alone, with or without the voter suppression measures currently making their way through the state Legislature, could flip the House to Republicans, even if Democrats again win a majority of votes nationally.

Texas alone could flip the House to Republicans, even if Democrats again win a majority of votes nationally.

The same can be said for Florida, which is also picking up two new districts, and Republicans there can likely take both and knock out a few Democratic ones, netting another four seats or more.

Additional seats will likely go to Arizona, where Republicans control the redistricting process, and to Colorado, Montana, North Carolina, and Oregon. Democrats could net a seat each in Oregon and Colorado, but Montana and North Carolina are likely to go Republican, and the latter will have a chance to redraw its lines. Republicans would have a strong chance to pick up 15 or more seats among those states.

Aside from the states picking up or losing members of Congress, Republicans have other opportunities for mischief. In Kentucky, for instance, the party, which holds a veto-proof majority in the General Assembly, is eyeing the Louisville seat held by Democratic Rep. John Yarmuth since 2006, which could be redrawn to include conservative voters from northern Kentucky — though that would make nearby Republicans vulnerable. Republicans are also looking at Rep. Jim Cooper’s district in Tennessee. The Blue Dog Democrat is facing a primary challenge from Odessa Kelly, who was recruited by Justice Democrats, but it might not matter: Republicans could eliminate his seat. Republicans in Georgia, too, will be looking to blow up districts held by suburban Democrats.

Democrats, meanwhile, have a few redistricting opportunities, such as in Maryland, which could see its last Republican, Rep. Andy Harris, drawn out of a seat. Oregon, which is in Democratic hands, is likely to be able to add a Democratic seat, cramming as many Republicans into Eastern Oregon as possible.

The 2020 House election was unusual in that its outcome accurately reflected voters’ preferences. In 2012, Democrats won 51.1 percent of the House vote yet were rewarded with just 46 percent of the seats, thanks to effective Republican gerrymandering after the 2010 census. That resulted in a 21-seat gap compared to what they ought to have controlled based on their vote share. With Barack Obama’s reelection to the White House and Democratic control of the Senate, the party would have controlled all three bodies and been able to legislate in any reasonably democratic outcome. In 2014, the gap was 18 seats, and in 2016, it was 23. That year, Democrats won 49.8 percent of the vote yet claimed just 45 percent of the seats.

In 2020, Democrats won 51.3 percent of the vote, but unlike in 2012, they walked away with 51 percent of the seats. The reason for the different outcome was that people are constantly in motion, moving from town to town and region to region, with new housing developments going up endlessly. Demographic preferences changed along the way too: While a suburban voter was more likely to be a Republican in 2012, by 2018 they were pulling the blue lever.

The districts methodically drawn after 2010 can no longer be counted on for precision. Yet the technology has improved exponentially since the last round, with significant strides made in mapping and voter data, and if Republicans are given another chance to redraw the lines, there’s no reason to believe they can’t at least recreate that 20-seat gap between what voters ask for and what they get.

Democrats may be on such a heightened sense of alert about all manner of Republican electoral perfidy that they may behave as if they are out of power.

In 2018, Democrats were able to gain huge numbers largely because of that demographic flip in the suburbs but also because Pennsylvania’s courts redrew the commonwealth’s unconstitutionally gerrymandered lines. That year, Democrats won 53.7 percent of the vote and controlled 54 percent of the seats in the House.

It’s not out of the question that Democrats could buck the midterm curse. Popular conception of the midterm drop-off is misunderstood. The president’s party doesn’t lose seats primarily because voters change their minds or disapprove of the president’s performance, or even because they’re unhappy with the economy. All of those elements are a factor, but the biggest variable in the equation is who shows up to the polls. And members of the party out of power are more driven to show up to the polls: They’re angry at having lost the previous cycle and have endured two years of frustration, so they turn out at slightly higher rates. The party in power tends to be more comfortable, so they’re less likely to bother to show up. All of that could change in 2022, though. Nobody knows whether the irregular voters inspired to go the polls by former President Donald Trump will show up for a generic Republican in a midterm, and 2018 suggests that they might not, especially if the economy is humming on the back of Biden’s stimulus and the reopening of the economy post-vaccination.

And Democrats may be on such a heightened sense of alert about all manner of Republican electoral perfidy — from the storming of the Capitol to Georgia’s voter suppression legislation and beyond — that they may behave as if they are out of power. That’s certainly what Democratic leaders hope.

With Republicans in need of just five more seats to flip the House, Democrats will need to either run up 2018 wave-like numbers or ban gerrymandering if they want to retain control. There’s no other option.

The post Republicans Are Poised to Gerrymander Their Way Back to the Majority appeared first on The Intercept.

All images © Vitor Schietti, shared with permission

In Vitor Schietti’s Impermanent Sculptures, thick treetops and branches are swollen with light that appears to drip down in incandescent rays. Each photograph frames the nighttime scenes in a dreamy, energetic manner as the glowing beams both outline and obscure the existing landscapes. Schietti shot the pieces shown here in February and March of 2021 around his hometown, Brasília, but the ongoing series first was developed in 2015.

Although some of the long-exposure photographs are taken in a single shot, many are composites created from various light paintings. He explains:

Apart from this process and color and contrast adjustments, the result is conceived entirely from real action with fireworks, a performance that shifts between spontaneity and control… To paint with light in a three-dimensional space is to bring one’s thoughts from unconscious realms into existence, only visible as presented through long-exposure photography.

Schietti sees the luminous series as a celebration of the Brazilian city, which he describes as a tree-filled oasis of birds and cicadas that’s “often integrated with the genius architecture of Oscar Niemeyer…Appreciating their hidden expressions, or imagining the life force that pulsates and emanates from them maybe a little less ordinary, so here (the) images play an important role: inspire and foster imagination.”

Check out the catalog of available prints on Schietti’s site, and head to Instagram for more of his photographs featuring Brazil’s lush landscapes and natural life.

Dan was reviewing some PHP code written by a co-worker, as part of taking on a project. The code was in “support” mode, rarely receiving changes, getting bug fixes only when absolutely necessary, and nobody really wanted to be the person responsible for it.

One of those “not absolutely necessary” bugs was that sometimes, it just didn’t save data. The user would enter a product listing, hit save, get a success message back, but the listing wouldn’t actually be saved. No one had really dug into it, because having the end user do double data entry didn’t bother anyone but the end user.

While thinking about that, Dan found this:

if ($query!=false) {
    $msg = 'This listing has successfully been saved!';
} else {
    //$msg = 'There was an error saving the listing. Please try again later.';
    $msg = 'This listing has successfully been saved!';
}

At some point, someone complained about getting too many error messages when saving. So the previous developer “fixed” this, by making sure that they never saw an error message again. This code had been in production for years.

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The Tulip nebula. All images © J-P Metsavainio, shared with permission

Twelve years and 1,250 hours of exposure time later, Finnish photographer J-P Metsavainio stitched together a massive, 1.7-gigapixel composite detailing every fiery burst and starry expanse dotting the Milky Way. The stellar mosaic documents the 125-degree stretch between Taurus to Cygnus and is comprised of 234 individual images that extend across 10,000 pixels. Nearly 20 million stars are visible in the expanse.

The ongoing project began in 2009, and Metsavainio knew it would take at least a decade to realize. “As a visual artist, the composition of the image means a lot. During the years, I have shot hundreds of individual targets from the Milky Way. Each image taken is an independent artwork. At the same time, I always kept in my mind the needs of the final large composition,” the photographer said, noting that he captured the more pronounced elements, like supernovae, first before filling in the gaps.

After shooting with relatively short focal length instruments the last few years, Metsavainio plans to use this incredibly high-resolution panorama as a map as he shifts to longer focal length tools in the coming months. Find details on Metsavainio’s entire process, along with specifics on the equipment used, on his site, where you also can find a larger portfolio of his galactic projects. (via PetaPixel)

The full composite image in mapped colors from the light emitted by ionized elements. Hydrogen = green, sulfur = red, and oxygen = blue. (click to zoom)

The 125-degree stretch from Taurus to Cygnus

Detail of Wolf Rayet Shell around the star WR 134

California Nebulam NGC 1499

Sharpless 124 & the Cocoon Nebula

All images © Enoch Ku, shared with permission

Suit-inspired landscaping, overgrown shrubs, and misaligned stripes are just some of the scenes that comprise Enoch Ku’s Ordinary Sacramento, an ongoing project documenting the visual language of the Californian city. Ku is adept at identifying humor and quirkiness among the otherwise mundane urban landscape, framing a street sign or bike rack in a playful manner. Generally taken during a quiet moment, the compositions are evidence of the photographer’s keen sense of awareness and ability to observe what others might not.

Prior to launching Ordinary Sacramento, Ku worked as an actor and wedding photographer, two jobs that required him to rush from one place to the next. The pace of that lifestyle, in addition to the performative nature of the work, sparked his desire to slow down and document the world through a different lens. He explains:

In an Instagram world of stylized photos, highly processed photography, advertisements, and emotional conditioning, I want to convey and elevate the beauty of the ordinary and mundane… Staying silent, going slow, and being present is going against the grain, and I want to encourage people that they can choose that. The world is a beautiful and funny place.

Prints of Ku’s photographs are available on the Ordinary Sacramento site, and keep an eye on his Instagram for his first book, My Neighborhood Rosemont, CA (우리 동네 로즈먼트), a visual love letter that’s slated for release later this year. (via Ignant)

Guizhou, China. All images © RK, shared with permission

Traveling from his home in Tokyo to cities and small villages across Asia, Ryosuke Kosuge is adept at spotting the textures and patterns that occupy local life, whether through the rocky formations surrounding Heaven’s Gate Mountain in Zhangjiajie, an array of birdcages created by a woman in Guizhou, or the wires crisscrossing a market in Nanning. His arresting images approach everyday moments from a place of curiosity and display the beauty and wonder inherent in both natural and urban environments. The photographer, who works as RK, tells Colossal that he chooses destinations based on the specific mood he hopes to convey, although sometimes those decisions are spurred by a personal desire to experience local customs and cuisine.

RK is also behind this book-filled series shot inside Tokyo’s Kadokawa Culture Museum. You can follow his travels on Instagram.

Vietnam

Vietnam

Hong Kong

Nanning, China

Keelung, Taiwan

Japan

Heaven’s Gate Mountain, Zhangjiajie, China

Vietnam

Castelar, Buenos Aires. All images @ Fio Silva, shared with permission

Fio Silva tucks clusters of oversized birds and botanicals into otherwise stark urban spaces, creating striking murals awash in puffs of feathers, petals, and leaves. The Buenos Aires-based artist focuses largely on movement, a thread that runs through both the vivid renderings of winged subjects as they appear to take flight or perch for just a moment. “It was that lack of stillness through work and searching for walls to paint that I found meaning in my time,” Silva tells Colossal.

When working in color, the artist starts with blues, yellows, and reds before expanding the palette based on the “moods and to intensify, in some way, what I want to convey, if it is something rather clear, bright, or something… more subdued or desolate,” Silva says. “When I paint, I try to convey a certain force, that by seeing it or sharing it I can move someone, in whatever way.”

Silva plans to complete a few murals in Argentina during the next few months and will travel to Europe during the summer, with an exhibition of smaller paintings slated for October in Paris. Keep up with the artist’s monumental public works on Instagram.

Olivos, Buenos Aires

General Roca, Rio Negro

Olivos, Buenos Aires

Left: Berlin, Germany. Right: Belsh, Albania

General Roca, Rio Negro

Patos, Albania

Patos, Albania

All images © Allison May Kiphuth, shared with permission

Allison May Kiphuth (previously) shrinks the expansive landscapes found throughout the eastern United States into picturesque dioramas brimming with natural life. Through layered watercolor and ink renderings, the Maine-based artist creates a mix of quiet forest scenes and ocean habitats often under a dark, nighttime sky. She then stacks the outfitted wooden boxes, blending the marine and land-based pieces in varying positions that create new ecosystems with every combination.

Although Kiphuth derives much of her subject matter from the area around her home, she shares that experiencing new scenes is essential to her practice. “I haven’t been outside of Maine in over a year, and while this landscape is usually so expansively beautiful to me, without the contrast of other landscapes for perspective, it’s been feeling incredibly small,” a feeling that’s amplified by her living and working from a tiny home that’s just 8 x 20 feet.

The artist will have work at Paradigm Gallery in Philadelphia in May and has a solo show slated for August at Antler Gallery in Portland. Limited edition prints of the piece above are available from Nahcotta. Get a glimpse into Kiphuth’s process and views of the scenery she references in her works on Instagram.

“Bond,” watercolor, paper, and pins in antique box, 4 x 6 x 2 inches

“Defense,” watercolor, paper, and pins in antique box, 4.625 x 7 x 3.75 inches

Left: “Den” (2019), watercolor on layers of hand-cut paper, sealed with encaustic, 6 x 6.5 x .5 inches

“Nightlight 2,” Watercolor, paper, thread, and pins in antique box, 6.25 x 4.875 x 3.25 inches

“Observation” (2019), watercolor on layers of hand-cut paper, sealed with encaustic, 6 x 6 x .5 inches

“Defense” in progress

All images © Obvious Plant

Unless you want a distraught child, double-check the packaging of your next purchase in case you accidentally snag a one-off toy by Jeff Wysaski, aka Obvious Plant. For years, he’s been littering supermarket and drugstore shelves with his action figures and small games that cleverly comment on capitalism and the harsh realities we all experience, from a birthday for one—it “includes one party blower because that is all you will need”—to a “childless couple” riding matching jet skis. Sometimes parodying pop culture, the elaborate designs are paired with witty copy and a slew of intentional spelling errors, including warnings that “everybody dies, even bird.”

Many of the subversive products, shirts, and other goods are available in the Obvious Plant shop, although they sell out quickly. To stay up-to-date on the latest designs, follow Wysaski on Instagram.

The last time Joe Biden was in the White House, Boston Mayor Marty Walsh seemed an unlikely nominee for a future labor secretary. Carmen Ortiz, President Barack Obama’s U.S. attorney for the District of Massachusetts, had Walsh in her crosshairs. One summer dawn in 2016 she sent FBI agents to arrest two of his staff under a federal racketeering indictment.

The Boston Globe, New England’s most powerful news outlet, known for its coverage of the Roman Catholic Church child abuse scandals, laid siege to the mayor’s office over his labor practices and union ties. The Globe had named Ortiz its 2011 “Bostonian of the Year.” Its reporters dug their foxholes wherever she pointed, and the paper cheered on her prosecution of Walsh’s staffers.

When “Top Chef” had filmed in Boston two years earlier, Walsh visited on set with the show’s host Padma Lakshmi. Outside, the Teamsters picketed for union jobs. Ortiz indicted them, also for racketeering extortion. And in a city obsessed with haute cuisine, Ortiz leveraged star power: At trial, Lakshmi would take the stand for the prosecution.

In Boston, Ortiz was considered a rising star and was expected to run for mayor herself, a task made easier by softening Walsh up. Hey, this is Boston. If you want finesse, watch a Bruins game; if you want blood, watch a City Council race. She was regularly talked of as a top-tier statewide candidate. The only question was whether she was destined for attorney general, the Senate, the governor’s mansion, or beyond.

Fortunately for Walsh, by then Ortiz had lost strong allies and upset powerful enemies. U.S. Sen. Ted Kennedy, D-Mass., passed away after championing Ortiz for her U.S. attorney role. U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, who toiled beside Ortiz in their early days at the Justice Department, had returned to the private sector, dogged by a high-profile Ortiz prosecution gone wrong.

A humbler U.S. attorney might’ve noticed the ground shifting beneath her and tempered her ambitions. Ortiz instead stubbornly brought on her own downfall. Under Biden, her loss would become Walsh’s gain.

Between Kennedy’s funeral and Holder’s exile, Ortiz and her then-chief of cybercrime, Stephen Heymann, indicted internet freedom activist Aaron Swartz on 14 felony counts for allegedly downloading too many academic journal articles. Swartz had used a simple script to download academic journal articles from the platform JSTOR, which provided its articles free to anyone on the MIT network. It’s not clear Swartz even violated the company’s terms of service; finding a crime anywhere in what he did took an awfully creative prosecutor.

An expert defense witness who never got to testify about MIT’s site license for JSTOR  for “unlimited” use of the JSTOR library containing the articles would have made the conviction that much more difficult. The articles themselves were produced at taxpayer expense but then paywalled to limit taxpayer access. Neither MIT, where Swartz registered his laptop for the downloads, nor JSTOR wanted to press charges. And Swartz was well known for his work on the RSS standard, helping seed RECAP (now CourtListener), as well as for the credits he’d earned as a co-founder of DemandProgress, Creative Commons, and Reddit.

Those facts seemed immaterial to Ortiz, who told the press after the July 2011 indictment: “Stealing is stealing,” she said, “whether you use a computer command or a crowbar, and whether you take documents, data or dollars.”

Swartz likely intended to republish the articles for free, and Ortiz made sure that would never happen. She and Heymann pushed for a maximum federal prison sentence of 35 years.

Looking to avoid a trial, Heymann compared Swartz to a rapist. By refusing to plead guilty, the line went, Swartz had “revictimized” MIT. Swartz fervently resisted, but Ortiz and Heymann had a trump card.

Attorney Carmen Ortiz gives an interview to local media in Boston on Dec. 21, 2016.

Photo: Jonathan Wiggs/Boston Globe via Getty Images

The Honorable Nathaniel M. Gorton is well known to the Massachusetts Bar, whose members whisper he rarely meets an indictment he doesn’t like. He’s noted as a hanging judge; prosecutors go out of their way to get high-profile cases assigned to him. A legacy admission from the Gorton’s Seafood family to Dartmouth and then Columbia Law School, he was appointed to the bench by President George H.W. Bush after Bush campaigned beside his brother Sen. Slade Gorton.

After Swartz drew Gorton, his defense lawyers told Heymann the pressure of the case had rendered Swartz suicidal, his attorney later said he told prosecutors.

“Fine, we’ll lock him up,” Heymann responded.

Swartz killed himself shortly thereafter, in January 2013.

Within days of Swartz’s death, over 61,000 people digitally signed a White House petition to fire Ortiz — a singular distinction for a U.S. attorney. The Senate and House judiciary committees pilloried her.

Ortiz told the media that she and Heymann hadn’t known Swartz was on the brink of suicide and that if they had known, things might’ve been different. (Heymann’s knowledge only surfaced much later, along with his “Fine, we’ll lock him up” response.)

Ultimately Obama refused to sack Ortiz. She in turn refused to sack Heymann, though she did pick a new chief of cybercrime. Obama thus allowed Ortiz to save face, but she never recovered politically. Try as she might, it all went downhill for her from there, eventually culminating with Biden nominating Walsh for labor secretary.

Outside the Boston Globe and Ortiz’s few remaining allies, the racketeering charges against Walsh’s staff garnered Ortiz all the wrong attention.

Merriam-Webster defines a racketeer as “a person who obtains money by an illegal enterprise usually involving intimidation.”

But Ortiz never accused Walsh or his staff of pocketing anything for themselves, or for his campaign, or for his administration. The indictment instead alleged that Walsh’s staff required a producer to hire local union stagehands for an outdoor rock concert. That’s business as usual for many in the heavily unionized capital of America’s bluest state.

“Is this illegal now?” mused CBS Boston anchor Jon Keller.

Legality aside, requiring experienced stagehands familiar with the particular outdoor venue was arguably a prudent public safety measure. A few years earlier, an outdoor stage collapsed during a Sugarland show in Indiana, killing seven.

A much deadlier incident eight years before that hit closer to Boston. One hundred people perished in smoke and flames in nearby West Warwick, Rhode Island, when a nightclub named The Station burned to the ground; over 200 were injured. The blaze started when the manager of a rock band ignited indoor stage pyrotechnics.

Yet when Walsh’s office insisted on better-vetted stagehands, Ortiz tried to make a federal case out of it.

In July 2016, the Huffington Post headlined a hard-hitting feature about Ortiz with “This Federal Prosecutor Is Building a Career Indicting the Good Guys.” Therein a chorus of prominent members of Ortiz’s own party denounced her. Retired federal judge Nancy Gertner, for example, labeled Ortiz’s indictment of Walsh’s staff an “abuse of power.” Martha Coakley, the former Massachusetts attorney general, also publicly challenged Ortiz. “What is the focus of this?” she asked. “And not only what are you choosing to investigate and indict, but how are you handling that process in terms of your obligations as prosecutors — and fairness?”

For Ortiz, however, the worse had yet to come. The negative coverage eventually led her allies at the Boston Globe to muse in print, “Why is Carmen Ortiz Being Cast as a Revengeful Cruella de Vil?”

By December 2016, the U.S. Court of Appeals seemed to have had enough. During the lame-duck months of the Obama administration, the high court threw out what had been Ortiz’s signature case — the one, more than any other, that made her Bostonian of the Year; it was another thin case that turned the regular operation of government into a crime. Ortiz announced her resignation the next day, though there was no escaping the court’s tongue-lashing that she’d overstepped her bounds prosecuting government workers for conduct that wasn’t criminal. The ruling foreshadowed similar problems for her cases against the Teamsters and Walsh’s staff.

Those cases would continue for years after Ortiz left office. Ortiz, however, had more immediate concerns. She had to find a job outside government. The Senate was no longer in the cards.

At or near the top of Ortiz’s list was Harvard Kennedy School. Philip Heymann, Ortiz’s mentor and the father of her former cybercrime chief, was a longtime Harvard professor. And of course the school is named after the family of her late supporter, Theodore E. Kennedy. Harvard nonetheless rejected Ortiz.

It turns out Swartz was a Harvard research fellow at the time of his arrest. And Ortiz had indicted a close political ally of a key school administrator.

Thankfully for Ortiz, she had a safety school. Her first new gig outside government was as a visiting professor at the Boston College Law School. This too was curious because as U.S. attorney Ortiz had controversially raided a prized audio archive housed at Boston College containing candid interviews with Irish Republican Army members. In order to coax cooperation for the sake of history, the interviewees were promised the recordings would remain private as long as they were still alive. Shortly after Ortiz raided it, former militant Dolours Price, who had contributed an interview, was found dead from a drug cocktail.

After her semester at Boston College, Ortiz joined the small Boston firm Anderson & Kreiger LLP, where she had connections from her time in government. It wasn’t exactly the big-firm board seat or political campaign one might expect of a former U.S. attorney. The Boston Globe, ever supportive, billed it as a “coup” for the small firm. Perhaps, but Ortiz’s slide into political irrelevance had begun.

A while later, Padma Lakshmi failed to fully convince a Boston jury. All four Teamsters tried were acquitted.

U.S. District Judge Leo Sorokin at first threw out the separate case against Walsh’s staff. It required a trip to the U.S. Court of Appeals before it made it to trial. The second time around Sorokin deep-sixed it beyond any likely reinstatement. He ruled that the aides hadn’t received anything of benefit, so couldn’t be charged with anything.

Now Biden has driven the final nail into Ortiz’s political coffin by nominating Walsh for labor secretary despite Ortiz’s indictments — or perhaps to signal his loyalty to union organizers, he nominated Walsh because of her indictments. Either way, Ortiz is now the former prosecutor who is linked to the suicide of a once-in-a-generation talent and who fought Biden’s labor secretary nominee over his labor practices and lost. Not exactly where one wants to start a Democratic primary or confirmation hearing.

The post In Biden’s Nomination of Marty Walsh, Aaron Swartz Prosecutor Gets Her Final Comeuppance appeared first on The Intercept.

Deep within Leang Tedongnge, a cave tucked away on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi, archaeologists discovered this mulberry-hued painting of a warty pig and two hand silhouettes potentially belonging to the artist, which is now believed to be the oldest figurative work in the world. A study published in Science Advances this week says the impeccably preserved rendering is at least 45,500 years old, which predates previously discovered depictions of mythical creatures in the region. Those prior findings date back about 43,900 years.

Questions remain about the exact age of the work and who made it. Archaeologists from Griffith University, who helmed the mission, utilized uranium-series dating to determine how old the speleothem, or mineral deposits, of the cave is rather than the actual painting. There’s also debate about whether modern humans are responsible for the renderings, a question that’s complicated by the fact that the only skeletal remains that date back at least 45,500 years in Sulawesi belong to early hominins.

Dr. Adam Brumm, who co-authored the study, told The New York Times that researchers expect to discover similar artworks in the region, although the cave paintings are deteriorating at a rapid rate and could fade before they’re ever uncovered. “It is very worrying, and given the current situation the end result is likely to be the eventual destruction of this ice age Indonesian art, perhaps even within our lifetime,” Brumm said.