Mosaic

Mosaic (pronounced moh-zey-ik)

(1) A picture or decoration made of small, usually colored pieces of inlaid stone, glass etc.

(2) The process of producing such a picture or decoration.

(3) Something resembling such a picture or decoration in composition, especially in being made up of diverse elements (in general use, often confused with a collage or montage).

(4) In surveying, a number of aerial photographs assembled as a continuous photographic representation of an area (commonly called a mosaic map, aerial mosaic or photo-mosaic).

(5) In architectural plans, a system of patterns for differentiating the areas of a building or the like, sometimes consisting of purely arbitrary patterns used to separate areas according to function but often consisting of plans of flooring, reflected ceiling plans, overhead views of furnishings and equipment, or other items really included in the building or building plan.

(6) In the plant pathology field in biology, any of several diseases of plants, characterized by mottled green or green and yellow areas on the leaves, caused by certain viruses (also called mosaic disease); an organism exhibiting mosaicism.

(7) In television production, a light-sensitive surface in a camera tube, consisting of an insulating medium (a thin mica sheet) coated on one side with a large number of granules of photo-emissive material (small globules of silver and cesium insulated from each other).  The image to be televised is focused on this surface and the resulting charges on the globules are scanned by an electron beam.

(8) Of, pertaining to, resembling, or used for making a mosaic or mosaic work.

(9) As a general descriptor, something (physical, abstract or conceptual) composed of a combination of diverse elements (in this sense mosaic, collage & montage are often applied in undifferentiated fashion).

(10) To make a mosaic; to decorate with mosaic.

(11) In theology, of or pertaining to Moses or the writings, laws, and principles attributed to him (always initial capital).

(12) In genetics an alternative name for chimera (an individual composed of two or more cell lines of different genetic or chromosomal constitution, but from the same zygote).

(13) In graphical production (or as a tool of censorship), a pixelization of all or part of an image.

(14) An early web browser developed by the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA), the name an allusion to the integration of multiple components including HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol), FTP (File Transfer Protocol) and Gopher's search & communications protocols.  It was the first widely adopted browser which used an implementation of the user interface still in use today.

(15) In palaeontology, as Mosaic evolution (or modular evolution), a theory that evolutionary change can occur in some body parts or systems without simultaneous changes in other parts.

1350–1400: From the Middle English, from the Old French mosaicq (mosaic work), from the Middle French moysaique & mosaïque, from the Italian mosaico, from the fifth century Medieval Latin mōsaicus & musaicum, a re-formation of the Late Latin musīvum (opus), from the Latin musēum & musaeum (mosaic work) of unknown origin.  The variants are assumed by etymologists to be linked to the Late Greek Μουσεῖον (Mouseîon) (mosaic work; shrine of the Muses; museum) by analogy with archivum & archīum (archive) although the classical Greek is nowhere attested in the sense “mosaic”.  The Ancient Greek mouseios (of the Muses) was from Μοῦσα (Moûsa) (Muse).  Because of the influence of both Moses and the Muses, the history is tangled.  The word was formed in Medieval Latin as though from the Greek, but the Late Greek word meaning "mosaic work" was mouseion (and further to twist the tale etymologists note this sense in Greek was borrowed from Latin).  The meaning "a piece of mosaic work" dates from the 1690s while the figurative form (anything resembling a mosaic work in composition) had been in use since the 1640s.  The familiar adjectival use in English in the sense of "made of small pieces inlaid to form a pattern" dates from the 1580s.  The spellings mosaick & musaic are listed by dictionaries respectively as obsolete & archaic.  Mosaic is a noun, verb & adjective, mosaicked is a verb, mosaicing, mosaicism & mosaicist are nouns, mosaiced & mosaicking are adjectives and mosaically is an adverb; the noun plural is mosaics.  All forms use an initial capital if used in association with Mosaic law.

Mosaic of Bruce McLaren (1937–1970) by Nikki Douthwaite (1973-2022); car is a 1968 Mclaren M7A, still fitted with the adjustable spoilers which (of course) the FIA banned.  The late Ms Douthwaite used a technique called pointillist hole punch art, the mosaics crafted by individually placing (using tweezers) colored paper dots which are the waste material from office hole punches.  Her mosaics, containing sometimes hundreds of thousands of dots, were constructed over weeks and finished with a preservative varnish.

Although the specific technical meanings are respected in science, in art & design, the terms mosaic, collage and montage are often used interchangeably and that’s sometimes understandable because the three can be visually similar and close examination can be required to determine the correct form.  In the visual arts, a mosaic is created by locating & fixing small (classically square tiles), usually colored pieces of inlaid stone, glass etc to create a pattern.  A collage is a picture created by using items of different shape, composition etc to create a (hopefully) thematically integrated result.  A montage is a work created by in some way assembling a number of separate components which are conceptually or thematically similar (even to the point of being identical.

Portrait by Lindsay Lohan by Jason Mecier (b 1968).  His work is crafted using discarded items and he attempts where possible to use objects in some way associated with his subjects.  Although described by some as mosaics, his technique belongs to the tradition of college.

The use in theology dates from 1655–1665, from the New Latin Mosaicus, the construct being the Late Latin Mōs(ēs) (Moses) + (the text-string) -aicus, on the model of Hebraicus (Hebraic).  In writing relating to Mosaic law or ethics, the adjectival forms Mosaical (which pre-dated Mosaic) and post-Mosaic are common.  The Ebionites were a Jewish Christian sect during the first two centuries after the crucifixion of Christ.  Ebonite was from the Latin ebonita, from the Greek Ἐβιωναῖοι (Ebionaioi), from the Hebrew אביונים‎ (ebyon; ebyonim; ebionim) (the poor, the poor ones) and the sect’s name was chosen to reflect their belief that poverty was a blessing and plenty a curse.  Their Christology was adoptionist, maintaining Jesus of Nazareth was mere human flesh & blood and therefore Christians continued bound by the Mosaic Law, the adherence to which was why God choose Jesus to be a messianic prophet in the vein of Moses himself.  While within the sect there were theological differences but the central tenet was that the essential Christian orthodoxy of the divinity of Jesus was a heresy and that he was the natural born son of Joseph and Mary.

Montage created with fragments from Lindsay Lohan's Playboy Magazine photoshoot, 2011.

The Ebionite world-view obviously shares much with Judaism but to mainstream (indeed almost all) thought within Christianity they are wholly heretical, the rejection of Christ’s divinity the objection rather than and technical points of difference with the Mosaic code of law.  Islam of course objected to Christian theology because it distorted the purity of monotheism, the doctrine of the Trinity a dilution of the Abrahamic God and really a type of iconography.  However, the Ebionites were faithful to the original teachings of the historical Jesus and thus shared Islamic views about Jesus as a prophet yet still mere human flesh and blood, leading to the intriguing situation of the Jewish Christianity which vanished from the early Christian church being preserved in Islam.  The particular Ebionite teaching of Jesus as a follower of Mosaic law was later reflected in the Koran which were the words of the prophet Muhammad.

Detail of the pointillist hole punch technique.  There are a number of pointillist methods using devices as varied as lasers and Sharpie brand pens.

Natation

Natation (pronounced ney-tey-shuhn or na-tey-shuhn)

(1) The act of swimming

(2) The craft or skill of swimming.

1535-1545: From the Latin natātiōn(em) (nominative natātiō) (a swimming; a swimming-place) noun of action from the past-participle stem of natāre (to swim), from the primitive Indo-European root sneh & neh- (to flow, to swim).  The –ion suffix was from the Middle English -ioun, from the Old French -ion, from the Latin -iō (genitive -iōnis).  It was appended to a perfect passive participle to form a noun of action or process, or the result of an action or process.  The construct of the Latin natātiō was natō (swim, float), the construct being the frequentative of nō +‎ -tiō.  Nō was used in the sense of “to swim” or “to” and as a poetic device “to sail”, “to flow”, “to fly”) and was from the Proto-Italic snāō, from sneh-yé-ti & neh-yé-ti, from sneh & neh- (to flow, to swim).  It was cognate with the Ancient Greek νάω (náō).  In English, “swimming lessons” sound mundane but to English-speaking ears, the French leçons de notation sounds poetic; a French swimming pool is a natatorium.  Natation, natatorium, natator & natatory are nouns and natant, natatorial & natational are adjectives; the noun plural is natators.

Lindsay Lohan in a natatorial image, floating in the azure waters of the Aegean, June 2022.

Although notation does have some technical uses in scientific publications, it’s most often used as a poetic or literary device to refer to swimming, floating in water or some imagery of floating, flying, drifting etc.  In poetry, as well as often searching for words which rhyme or suit the rhythm of the text, poets need to avoid repetition unless obviously it’s a deliberate device; even in epic-length works a too frequent appearance of a distinctive word can be jarring.  Natation can hardly be thought a common word so a poet must be sparing in its use; they might speak of a subject’s slow notation through their Beoetian life.  Boeotia was a region in Ancient Greece and the cosmopolitan Athenians would disparage the place’s inhabitants as provincial, dull and lacking cultural refinement (their district was one of the “flyover” states of Antiquity).  Nor need the word be applied only to people because the “silent notation” taken by the reflection of a full moon gliding across the silvery waters of a placid lake is an image evocative enough to appeal to any poet.  While in verse natation can be used of those actually splashing about, it’s as metaphor or symbolism that it’s more effective: a life can be a natation through the endless tides of life which can wash one onto sharp rocks or a tranquil shore.  Structurally, it is too just another word and one which a poet must use to construct the sounds which build the lyrical quality of the text and the act of notation is not an abstraction because just as a swimmer can flow with the currents, they can be compelled also to fight those tides and sometimes those battles are lost; often swimmers drown in the depths.

Model Adriana Fenice (b 1995) in bikini, ready to enjoy some natation (cautiously).

One not uncommon criticism of the literary novel is that authors are sometimes inclined to use obscure or archaic words for no reason other than "showing off", what Henry Fowler (1858–1933) in his A Dictionary of Modern English Usage (1926) damned as "pride of knowledge".  Done well, it can make reading an exhilarating experience but over done, it becomes just hard work.  In prose, use is more difficult than in a poem because, although usually a longer form which makes repetition less intrusive, with such rare words, they're most effective if used but once in a text.  Natation is is though distinctive and can be an evocative choice , even if a reader has to turn to a dictionary, an imposition most readers of literary novels will likely forgive in exchange for an elegant passage.  It can be deployed as something merely descriptive; a synonym for “swimming”, there to add a splash of novelty but used carefully, it can convey a the quality of movement in water as well the movement: somehow the path of a swan’s natation suggests a peaceful and picturesque setting.

Two natators in a natatorium.  Mosaic floor of a bath from the Roman villa of Pompianus in Cirta, Algeria, fourth century AD.  In historical writing, being a word of Latin origin, it can be used to add a sense of authenticity: a discussion of a Roman mosaic showing athletes or soldiers swimming might mention it being a depiction of a "natatorial setting".

Patterns of use (lower case, initial capital & all capitals): Because of the way Google harvests data for their ngrams, they’re not literally a tracking of the use of a word in society but can be usefully indicative of certain trends, (although one is never quite sure which trend(s)), especially over decades.  As a record of actual aggregate use, ngrams are not wholly reliable because: (1) the sub-set of texts Google uses is slanted towards the scientific & academic and (2) the technical limitations imposed by the use of OCR (optical character recognition) when handling older texts of sometime dubious legibility (a process AI should improve).  Where numbers bounce around, this may reflect either: (1) peaks and troughs in use for some reason or (2) some quirk in the data harvested.

Boulle

Boulle (pronounced bool)

(1) In woodworking, furniture design, cabinet making and bibelots, denoting or relating to a type of marquetry of patterned inlays of brass and tortoiseshell (and occasionally other metals such as pewter or silver), widely used in French (and later Italian) furniture from the late-seventeenth century.

(2) Something ornamented with such marquetry; furniture having ornamentation of this kind.

Circa 1680s: Named after André Charles Boulle (1642–1732), the French cabinet-maker much associated with the style although Boulle was noted also for his work in the intarsia (an Italian form of decorative wood inlaying (and (in knitting) a design resembling a mosaic)) of wood.  The alternative spellings are buhl and the less common boule; Boulle (and buhl) are the common short forms for the product (often with an initial capital letter) but among historians of furniture, antique dealers et al, boullework, boulle work & boulle-work are all used as descriptors.  Boulle is a noun & proper noun and an adjective, the verb form usually spelled bouled; the noun plural is boulles.

Armoire (circa 1700) by André-Charles Boulle, Royal Collection Trust, London.

Variation of the type of marquetry which came to be known as boulle work had been around for centuries before it was brought to an extraordinary standard fineness and intricracy by French cabinetmaker André Charles Boulle (1642–1732).  His most memorable creations were veneered furniture with tortoiseshell inlaid primarily with brass, pewter and silver, his elaborate designs often incorporating arabesques.  The large pieces by Boulle and his imitators are a staple of museums and the high-end of antique market but the technique was used also on countless bibelots.  Those personally crafted by Boulle are the most prized but because (1) the sheer volume of the eighteenth and nineteenth century imitations and (2) Boulle not signing or imposing some verifiable marking, it can at the margins be difficult definitively authenticate the works.  For this reason, the sign “attributed to André-Charles Boulle” is often seen in museum collections and is not unknown in antique shops.

Pair of oak cabinets by Pierre Garnier (circa 1726-1806) a Master Ébéniste, veneered with ebony and boulle marquetry in brass, pewter and tortoiseshell, representing a later neoclassical rendering of the Boulle technique, Royal Collection Trust, London.

Boulle was appointed furniture-maker, gilder and sculptor to Louis XIV (1638–1715; le Roi Soleil (the Sun King), King of France 1643-1715) and his work adorned the palaces and other royal places of the L'Ancien Régime but most of the furniture in the Royal Collection made by, or attributed to, Boulle was later acquired by George IV (1762–1830; King of the UK 1820-1830).  A Francophile and noted for the extravagance of his tastes, the king had been furnishing the royal palaces with French furniture since the 1780s and this habit he was able to indulge more and more after the French Revolution (1789) because, for a variety of reasons, in the aftermath of that and during the Napoleonic years, much more fine French furniture came onto the market, much of it shipped to England.

A boulle tortoise shell inkwell with brass inlays, circa 1870.

Marquetry is the use of small pieces of different materials (including burl timber, tortoiseshell, pewter, silver, brass, horn, mother-of-pearl) to create elaborate designs inlaid upon furniture.  So skilled was Boulle at pictorial marquetry he became known as a “painter in wood” but it was his use of tortoiseshell and brass that made his reputation and established him as a favourite of royalty and the nobility.  Pewter or brass inlay on tortoiseshell was known as premier-partie, while tortoiseshell inlay on brass or pewter was contre-partie but the most sumptuous pieces included mother-of-pearl, stained horn and dyed tortoiseshell.

Bikini

Bikini (pronounced bih-kee-nee

(1) A two-piece bathing suit for women.

(2) A style of brief fitted low on the hip or slightly below.

(3) The name of an atoll in the North Pacific; one of the Marshall Islands and the site of two-dozen odd US nuclear weapon tests between 1946-1958 (with initial capital).

(4) As Bikini State, the UK Ministry of Defence's alert state indicator (1970-2006).

(5) In the retail coffee trade, barista slang applied to smaller variations such as a demitasse (or demi-tasse (half cup), used traditionally to serve espresso).

(6) In engineering & design, a casual term used sometimes for any shape deemed even vaguely bikiniesque. 

1946:  Although known as the Eschscholtz Atoll until 1946, the modern English name is derived from the German colonial name Bikini, adopted while part of German New Guinea and was a transliteration from the Marshallese Pikinni (pʲi͡ɯɡɯ͡inʲːi), a construct of Pik (surface) + ni (coconut or surface of coconuts).  Bikini is a noun and bikinied, bikinilike and bikiniless are adjectives (bikiniesque is non-standard); the noun plural is bikinis.

1970 Monteverdi Hai 450 SS.

In medicine, the “bikini-cut” or “bikini line incision” is doctor’s slang for the “Pfannenstiel incision”, a surgical incision permitting access to the abdomen, the exact location chosen for the optimal aesthetic outcome; it was named after German gynaecologist Hermann Johannes Pfannenstiel (1862–1909), who in 1900 invented the technique.  The modern slang is a reference to the “bikini line” (the part of a woman's pubic region not covered by a swimsuit (the fashion being it’s usually waxed, lasered or shaved to be free of pubic hair)).  In the UK, the technique was popularized by Professor John Munro Kerr (1868–1960) who published his results in 1920 (having first applied the method in 1911) and that's why in the English-speaking world the terms “Kerr incision” “Pfannenstiel–Kerr incision” are sometimes used.  In the slang of fat-shaming, a “fatkini” is a bikini larger a certain size and regarding the cut-off point where bikini becomes fatkini, some critics are more uncompromisingly stern than others.  The skimpiness of the fabric used in a bikini's construction meant it could be used as a point of emphasis.  When in 1970 the Swiss boutique manufacturer Monteverdi displayed their prototype Hai (German for "shark"), one journalist acknowledged the stunning speed but noted the lack of practicality, storage space judged to be sufficient for a “topless bikini”.  

Proliferation; variations on the theme of bikini

Bikinis: Lindsay Lohan (right) with former special friend Samantha Ronson (left), (both with bare feet), Los Cabos, Mexico, October 2007.

The swimwear was first so named in 1946, the brief as a stand-alone garment adopting the term in 1960 while the trikini, dating from 1967, was a variation with separate bra cups fastened by Velcro.  A lack of structural integrity doomed the design for the mass-market but trikinis continue to be used by the fashion industry, mostly in static photography where movement is minimalized.  Trikini was at the time etymologically wrong because falsely it presumed bikini a compound with a bi prefix, an assumption not unreasonable because the English prefix bi is derived from the Classical Latin bi, which, like the Ancient Greek counterpart di, means “two”.  However, trikini is now etymologically correct because (1) bikini and its variations have been wholly been absorbed into English with compounds coined as needed and (2) progress in the fashion industry proved so prolific a new suffix (apparently first suggested by US author Bill Safire (1929–2009)), emerged: -kini.  Those thus far seen have included:

Monokini (a one-piece swimsuit in a variety of designs which tends to be variations on the notion of a bikini top and bottom in some way connected with (a usually minimal) piece of fabric although for the catwalks, designers have showed "bikinis" in which coverage is afforded to only one breast.

Bikini (a two-piece swimsuit with top & bottom)

Trikini (a type swimsuit which uses three, strategic-placed fabric triangles, sometimes achieved with the use of an adhesive)

Facekini (a piece of swimwear worn on the head and covering the face and head)

Burkini (a full body bathing suit which includes a hood; a kind of figure-hugging Burqa for swimming of which not all muftis & mullahs (and certainly no ayatollahs) approve)

Mankini (a kind of sling bikini for men)

Bandkini (a swimsuit consisting of strapless bandeau top and bikini bottom)

Halterkini (a swimsuit consisting of halter top and bikini bottom)

Tankini (a bathing suit composed of tank top and the lower half of a bikini)

Skirtini (a two-piece swimsuit consisting of top and short, skirted bottom)

Microkini (a very skimpy bikini)

Nokini (an casual identifier for beach which permits toplessness for women)

Slingkini (a one-piece swimsuit resembling the Y-shape frame of a slingshot which is supported by fabric at the neck)

Stringkini (a two-piece swimsuit attached by strings that is scantier and more revealing than a regular bikini)

Sidekini (a swimsuit designed to optimize the side-boob effect)

Camikini (a swimsuit consisting of thin-strapped camisole top and bikini bottom)

Flagkini (a swimsuit top informally created by the wrapping of a flag)

Duckini (a swimsuit made of a stick-on material (not to be confused with Kim Kardashian's endorsement of gaffer’s tape for use as ad-hoc corsetry))

Numokini (a bikini worn without the top (also called Unikini))

Underkini (a swimsuit designed to optimize the under-boob effect (not suitable for all))

Seekini (a translucent or semi-translucent swimsuit)

Hikini (s swimsuit with a higher-profile bottom)

Poligrill's helpful identification chart which illustrates the bikini's mix-and-match potential, wearers able to choose the styles best suited to different parts of the body and no longer is it expected (except by dictatorial types like Vogue's editors) the color or fabric of top need match bottom.

Louis Réard (1896-1984) was a French engineer who took over his mother's lingerie business, the bathing ensemble he designed debuting in 1946; as a concept it wasn’t new, such things documented by many cultures since antiquity but Réard’s design was minimalist by the standards of the time.  It was at the time suggested he choose the name because an exploding A-bomb was his preferred simile for the effect on men but in subsequent interviews he claimed his mind was focused on what he expected expected to be an "explosive commercial and cultural reaction" to his design.  That's a significant distinction but both were based on the detonated device.  Although originally Réard’s registered trademark (patent number 19431), bikini has long been generic. When first displayed at Paris's Piscine Molitor (a large swimming pool complex) in July 1946, so scandalous did the established catwalk models find the notion of exposed navels that all declined the job so Monsieur Réard was compelled to hire Mademoiselle Micheline Barnardini (b 1927), then an exotic (ie not infrequently nude) dancer from the Casino de Paris.  For Mlle Barnardini even the skimpiest bikini was more modest than her usual professional lack of attire.   

Model Adriana Fenice (b 1994) in olive green bikini.

Le Monde Illustré in August 1947 applied a little of their bourgeois intellectual thuggery in comparing the denuding of the surface of Bikini Atoll by the bomb’s blast wave with the near-elimination of flesh-covering material in the swimsuit:  “Bikini, ce mot cinglant comme l’explosion même...correspondait au niveau du vêtement de plage à un anéantissement de la surface vêtue; à une minimisation extrême de la pudeur”.  (Bikini, a word now of explosions, compares the effect of the state of the clothing at the beach to an annihilation of the dressed surface; an extreme minimization of modesty.)  Even then however it wasn't something all that novel, two-piece swimwear often seen since at least the 1930s and French fashion designer Jacques Heim (1899–1967) early in 1946 had staged a re-launch of his pre-war two-piece swimsuit which he named the Atome, (atoms then much in the public imagination as something very small yet possessing great power) advertising it as "the world's smallest bathing suit".  However, unlike Réard's creation, it covered the navel, most of the buttocks and more of the breasts, enabling M. Réard truthfully to claim the bikini was "smaller than the smallest bathing suit".  The rest is history.

Land yachts: 1972 Imperial LeBaron two-door hardtop (left) and 1978 Chrysler New Yorker two-door hardtop (right).  Although even at the time derided by critics as wastefully absurd, for those inside they were a cosseting cocoon which appealed to many.

The term “land yacht” came into use in the 1970s to describe the huge, luxury automobiles which the major US manufactures all produced and they were strong sellers in early Nixon-era America, surviving the first oil shock (1973-1974) to remain a profitable segment until late in the decade driven extinct by the government edict, the CAFE (corporate average fuel efficiency) dooming the breed.  The Cadillacs and Lincolns were the most emblematic and numerous of the breed but on the basis of length, at 235¼ inches (5975 mm), the 1973 Imperial was actually the biggest.  All were highly inefficient and, despite the dimensions, frequently were transport only for one or two although, once inside, passengers enveloped by leather or velour and the driving experience, although not fast by the standards of today was truly effortless, smooth and quiet.  So isolated from the outside world were occupants from that a frequent comment was they seemed “to float down the road”, hence the term “land yacht”.

Ford Australia advertisement for Landau (1974).  By the time of its release in August 1973, nobody else in Australia did make anything quite like it and the industry's consensus was Ford was welcome to the uncontested market sector.

In the US, the term “land yacht” tended to be applied derisively by those who disapproved of the excess, inefficiency and general environmental thuggery the ownership of such things was thought to convey.  It was only in the twenty-first century when they were close to a vanished species the term became almost affectionate as their dubious qualities meant they came to be thought charming nostalgia pieces.  While they were in production however, in promotional material, the manufacturers never called them “land yachts”, preferring words like “luxury” or “exclusive” but in Australia, Ford did run one such associative advertisement for its take on the land yacht: the Landau (manufacturer’s code JG70, 1973-1976).  The advertisement with juxtaposition of Landau and yacht ran in 1974 and there’s nothing to suggest the agency’s idea was anything other than wishing to associate the car with another product on the shopping lists of the rich (or at least the “lease list”, the tax accountant’s tending to provide clients with the “3F Rule” (“If it flies, floats or fornicates, rent or lease, don’t buy.”).  Still, unlike some other cars which might have appealed to the “yacht demographic”, once fitted with a tow bar, the Landau would have been better than many at towing a decent-sized boat.

1973 Ford Landau and 1975 Ford LTD.  The bright colors were not typical of the time and only six Landaus were finished in Wild Violet (paint code Z, Shade 13305).

With only some 1400 made, commercially, the Landau was impressively unsuccessful although the companion four door model (LTD) enjoyed not only solid sales but high profitability because, structurally, it was little more than an elongated Falcon laden with gorp (the word “bling” not then in use).  Dating from the late 1950s, the pleasing “gorp” was a re-purposing (as a noun & verb) by US car designers of the acronym GORP which stood for “granola, oats, raisins, peanuts”, a popular nutritional mix carried by hikers, bush-walkers and such (the designers' notion being the adding of a bit of every decorative thing).  In that spirit, like the LTD, the Landau gained lashings of velour or real leather, fake wood, hidden headlights, a coat of arms of dubious provenance, the novelty of a 24-hour analogue clock and a padded vinyl roof (one of the high points of 1970s fashion).

Ford LTD (P5 & P6) and Landau (ZG70) air-conditioning controls.

Actually, the padding was a really bad idea because the foam tended to trap moisture (especially in the country’s more tropical northern regions) and rust thus became inevitable; on the Landau the use of a vinyl roof was particularly cynical because it was cheaper to glue one on than it would have been properly to finish the “plugs” crudely welded in to reduce the size of the rear side windows, rendering a more “formal” roof-line.  The LTD and Landau did though have some worthwhile features including four-wheel disk brakes (a first for Australia and they were very good) and a set of aviation-style sliding controls for the air-conditioning, dismissed by some as “an affectation” but really quite fetching.  Surprisingly, although built on the “compact” (in US terms) 111 inch (2819 mm) wheelbase rather than the full-sized platforms of the US land yachts which could have a wheelbase almost 18 inches (457 mm) longer, except in width, the Landau’s interior space was little different.  The dinosaurs of the 1970s however weren’t the first of the species, a US-French hybrid the MRCA (most recent common ancestor).  

1948 Le Yacht de la Route "Bikini" by Henri Chapron on the chassis of a 1937 Packard Super Eight.

Before in 1940 taking over his mother’s lingerie business, Louis Réard was an automobile engineer for Renault and one with a flair for publicity so to promote his new swimsuit, he in 1948 commissioned coach-builder Henri Chapron (1886-1971 and in the 1960s to become famous for his various lines of Citroën DS & ID coupés & cabriolets) to build what he called Le Yacht de la Route (the yacht of the road).  Chapron’s design included an actual boat bow, a cabin with portholes, a mast from a yacht and a rear deck where models would pose in bikinis when the car was driven around France on promotional tours.  Originally the coachwork was mounted on the chassis of a 1948 Hotchkiss Artois but its 3.5 litre (212 cubic inch) straight-six proved inadequate to propel to heavy load so it was swapped for that of a 1937 Packard Super Eight, the torquey 6.3 litre (384 cubic inch) straight-eight able effortlessly to cope.  It may have been someone in Detroit was taken with the Portholes because in 1956 a pair appeared (as a “delete option”) on the 1956 Ford Thunderbird’s fibreglass hard-top.  On the Thunderbird they were added to enhance rearward visibility but by the 1970s, reshaped first and ovals before assuming other shapes, they were re-named “opera windows” and became an almost inevitable addition to two-door land yachts.

Model Adriana Fenice in another bikini, created ad-hoc with a neon-green & black combo.  Note the difference in the fabric of the two pieces, the mix-and-match "ensemble" approach often taken by bikini-wearers because when, sold in sets, the size which accommodates one part, isn't always a good fit for another.

The curiously named "Bikini State" was the system by which an alert state was defined by the UK's Ministry of Defence (MoD) to warn of non-specific forms of threat, including civil disorder, terrorism or war.  Introduced in 1970, it was in use until 2006 and the MoD's official position has always be "bikini" was a code name selected at random by a computer; those who accept that story are presumably not familiar with the long military tradition of providing misleading answers, either to amuse themselves or confuse others.  There were five Bikini alert states: (1) White which meant essentially there was no indication of a specific or general threat, (2) Black which referred to a situation in which there was heightened concern about internal or external threats, (3) Black Special which indicated an increased likelihood of the conditions which triggered a Black Alert, (4) Amber which confirmed the existence of specific threats or the higher probability of entering a state of armed conflict and (5) Red which covered everything from a specific threat (including the target(s) to actually being in a state of war and at risk of a nuclear strike.  The need for a system which was better adapted to providing advice to the whole population rather than just the military & civil service was acknowledged after the 9/11 attacks in the US when it was recognised the threat environment had shifted since the Cold War and that the whole country should be regarded as "target rich" in much the way the security services treated Northern Ireland.  Accordingly in 2006, the Government adopted a new five layer system: (1) Low, last seen in the brief, optimistic era between the end of the "troubles" in Northern Ireland (1998) and the week of the 9/11 attacks, (2) Moderate which is about as close to "normal" as anyone now reasonably aspires to achieves and suggests folk should be "alert but not alarmed", (3) Substantial which indicates some event is likely, (4) Severe which indicates a heightened level of threat beyond the substantial and (5) Critical which suggests there is intelligence to indicate an imminent attack and security precaution should be elevated to their highest level.

Many countries have similar systems in place although most maintain different arrangements for civilian & military purposes, the latter always tied to specific protocols and procedures.  Some are trans-nation such as those used by the European Union (EU) and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and five-layers used to be the preferred option although this has changed.  In the US the military's DEFCON (defense readiness condition) uses five color-coded levels ranging effecting from "stand easy" to "global thermo-nuclear war is imminent or already begun".  The now defunct civilian Homeland Security Advisory System (HSAS; 2002-2011) used a five-level approach but it was much criticized and since 2011 the US has used National Terrorism Advisory System (NTAS) which is event specific and defined by start and end dates, rather than maintaining the country in some nominal state of alert.

Sala delle Dieci Ragazze (Room of the Ten Girls), a first century AD mosaic in Villa Romana del Casale, Sicily.  For whatever reason, it was a later addition, added atop what's thought to be a conventional geometric mosaic.  

The bikini might in the popular imagination be thought a symbol of Western freedom and something which liberated women from the demands they remain as invisible as possible but the concept of the garment is truly ancient.  Some 2 miles (3.2 km) from the Sicilian town of Piazza Armerina lie the ruins of what would once have been the impressive Roman villa, Villa Romana del Casale.  A UNESCO World Heritage Site thought to have been built early in the fourth century AD, it contains one of the most extraordinary collections of ancient Roman mosaics, all though the works of African artists and artisans.  One creation which has proved of great interest is that which sits in what is popularly known as the Sala delle Dieci Ragazze (Room of the Ten Girls), depicting ten women, nine of whom wearing something in the style of two-piece bathing suits, archeologists suggesting the bottom being a loincloth made cloth or leather and known as a subligaculum, a scanty version of the male perizoma worn both as underwear and sometimes by athletes and slaves.  It was a design which is thought to have spread throughout the empire because archaeologists in Britain discovered during the dig of an old well a leather “thong” that was found to date from shortly after the time of Christ.  Its size and shape was exactly that of a modern bikini bottom and it’s now an exhibit at the Museum of London.

The top part was essentially a breast-band, known also to have been worn in Greece where the garment was known as a mastodeton or apodesmos (a strophium to the Romans).  In deference to comfort, mastodetons are thought often to have been made from linen and they were in essence the "sports bras" of Antiquity.  The contribution to fashion is one thing but what interested historians was that the women are clearly participating in sports, their “bikinis” activewear and not swimwear.  Some of the activities are ambiguous but it’s obvious some are running, another is in the throes of throwing a discus while two are engaged in some form of ball sport.  Interestingly, the ball is multi-colored but whether this reflected the nature of sporting equipment in Antiquity or was a piece of artistic license isn’t known.  Of political interest are the young ladies with crowns of roses and palm-fronds, traditionally the prizes awarded to those victorious in athletic competitions so the events were, to some degree, apparently structured.  It’s a myth women in the Roman Empire were always banned from sport although there were restrictions in that men and women competed separately and while, in Athenian tradition, men generally competed naked (something outside the home not permitted for women), the ancient “bikinis” were a compromise which afforded comfort while avoiding unduly exciting any man whose glance might fall upon female flesh.

That the US nuclear tests at Bikini Atoll made the swimsuit a world-wide success was noted by one Australian entrepreneur who, after the British conducted their own tests in October 1952 in the Montebello Archipelago, some 60 miles (100 km) off the north-west coast of Western Australia, attempted to promote his own variation: the Montebello suit (actually a bikini under another name.  The tests, known as Operation Hurricane, came about because the British, fearful of (1) a nuclear-armed Soviet Union, (2) a possibly resurgent Germany and (3) a one-day un-interested United States, were anxious to possess their own independent nuclear deterrent.  The British project proved a success and the UK to this day maintains a boutique-sized but strategically significant array of nuclear weapons and a delivery system which permits them to be aimed at any target on the planet.  The Montebello swimsuit of the early 1950s was not a success but the name has be revived and bikinis using the name are now available.

Obscurantism

Obscurantism (pronounced uhb-skyoor-uh n-tiz-uhm or ob-skyoo-ran-tiz-uhm)

(1) A state of opposition to human progress or enlightenment.

(2) Deliberate obscurity or vagueness.

(3) Opposition to the increase and spread of knowledge.

(4) Deliberate obscurity or evasion of clarity.

1825-1835:  From the French obscurantisme in the sense of "opposition to enlightenment", from the German obscurantismus.  The source was the Latin obscűrans, present participle of obscűro (cover, darken, hide), derived from obscūrus (shadowy, obscure), thus the construct obscűrans + ism.  The English obscure was from the Middle English obscure, from the Old French obscur, from the Latin obscūrus (dark, dusky, indistinct), the construct being ob- (towards; against) +‎ scūrus (a form of scuru (dark), from the Proto-Italic skoiros, from the primitive Indo-European skeh.  The –ism suffix was from the Ancient Greek ισμός (ismós) & -isma noun suffixes, often directly, sometimes through the Latin –ismus & isma (from where English picked up ize) and sometimes through the French –isme or the German –ismus, all ultimately from the Ancient Greek (where it tended more specifically to express a finished act or thing done).  It appeared in loanwords from Greek, where it was used to form abstract nouns of action, state, condition or doctrine from verbs and on this model, was used as a productive suffix in the formation of nouns denoting action or practice, state or condition, principles, doctrines, a usage or characteristic, devotion or adherence (criticism; barbarism; Darwinism; despotism; plagiarism; realism; witticism etc).   Obscurantism, obscuration & obscurantist are nouns and obscurantic is an adjective; the most common noun plural is obscurantists.

Protecting us from ourselves

Plato & Socrates at the academy, a mosaic from Pompeii.

Leo Strauss (1899–1973) was a German-American political philosopher and classicist.  Although the western tradition has produced not a few philosophers whose writings have been difficult and beyond immediate understanding, Strauss was rare in that he not only admitted being an obscurantist but wrote also of the history of the style and reasons for adapting it to his work.  In writings from antiquity, Strauss found hidden meanings, difficult, almost encoded knowledge which would be unnoticed by all but the most widely-read and highly educated few.  He pondered that while some philosophers might write esoterically to avert persecution by political or religious authorities, he was more taken with the idea the style is uniquely proper to philosophy, which can of course prove as dangerous for reader as writer.   What he argued was that what to most seemed obscurantism, was a means of enticing the select few capable of such things to abstract their thoughts from the text, thus to derive the meaning.  He noted too the importance of dangerous ideas being things the young might too quickly be able to grasp because they’d not pause to consider the implications, recalling the trial of Socrates, condemned to death for corrupting the mind of youth.  Beyond poisoning the minds of students, he warned there had been philosophers who had visited their dangerous ideas upon entire nations because their work was both accessible and seductive.  Strauss didn’t think Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900) a Nazi but he understood how compelling his words had been for them.

Lindsay Lohan and her lawyer in court, Los Angeles, December 2011.

So there is obscurantism good and obscurantism bad.  As a caste, regardless of denomination, priests were long notorious for deliberately keeping information, knowledge, or understanding hidden or difficult to access, often insisting foundational documents of the faith must never be translated into the vernacular languages used by most people, it being better that they rely on the clergy for what was written as well as what was meant.  Even when translations became readily available and literacy levels improved, it was not uncommon for people to be told not to read the texts because they would become confused.  In the case of the Christian Bible, that's probably true for most folk although the priests had their own motivations which centred on the retention of power.

Sarah Palin.

In democratic politics, obscurantism has evolved to discourage questioning.  As late as the 1980s, it was to a degree still possible for authoritarian regimes to repress the flow of information from external sources but even in systems described as “hermetically sealed” (such as the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (North Korea, the DPRK)) this has become difficult, especially when external forces are deliberately trying to subvert the government line.  The internet has made it impossible for Western governments wholly to suppress inconvenient truths so the process have been refined to what is essentially a process of (1) manufacturing fear and (2) instilling doubt.  That’s well understood and it’s done because it works, fear and doubt probably the most successful electoral strategy pursued in the modern era and one given renewed validation because on the rare occasions anyone offers hope and optimism (such as Barack Obama (b 1961; US president 2009-2017)), they have always disappointed.  Obscurantism should not be confused with incoherence or sheer insensibility.  The tortured and sometimes mangled syntax of figures such as Sarah Palin (b 1964; Republican vice presidential nominee 2008) and George W Bush (George XLIII, b 1946; US president 2001-2009) was a gift to humorists and meme-makers and the consensus among the political science community seemed to be that neither often attempted to be deceptive or misleading; it was simply that the longer they spoke the less what they were trying to say could be understood.