We are directed to a rather engaging evolution of a logo via the Chicago-based trade journal, formerly published under the titles Business Equipment and National Stationer, Office Appliances: The Magazine of Office Equipment, in regular circulation from 1904 to 1993.
synchronoptica
one year ago: cellular pathology (with synchronopticรฆ) plus vice president Nelson Rockefeller
thirteen years ago: the German energy revolution
seventeen years ago: an old car tuckers out
Via ibฤซdem, we are directed to a retrospective look at an unusual best-selling album—reminiscent of this extensive audio survey giving voice to the voiceless in this conchological glossary or the perennial fascination of music for plants—reprised on several occasions due to popular demand in noted herpetologist Charles Bogert’s 1958 recording Sounds of North American Frogs. Fifty-seven sample tracks include the cries and calls like the scream of the Southern Leopard Frog or the rain song of the Squirrel Treefrog and moreover the look at the label and provenance of this immersive, natural experience—the Folkways Records was an accession of the Smithsonian Museum for the public good—and bringing the great outdoors to one’s ears. Much more at the links above including factors that prompted reissues for such field recordings.
Via Clive Thompson’s latest Linkfest, we are afforded the chance to revisit the myth of Hermaphroditus through modern scientific conjecture that eponymous spring lake, after the predatory nymph—Salmacis, actually existed at Halicarnassus (modern Bodrum Tรผrkiye of the Hanging Gardens fame) by the accounts of ancient writers like Ovid whose waters might have had natural “emasculating” endocrine disrupters, suggesting the archetypal tale was not just the product of a productive imagination but the actual concentration of emasculating chemicals. A popular cult developed for Hermaphrodius as the ideal of beauty as well as a symbol for holy matrimony, perhaps reflected in Paul’s Epistle to the Ephesians—the community located between Pergamon and Halicarnassus—that included the instruction, “Therefore, shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh,” a benediction of the Greek orthodox marriage ceremony that repeats the words of the apostle.
synchronoptica
one year ago: a remote Icelandic movie theatre (with synchronopticรฆ) plus the overthrow of the democratically elected government of Iran
twelve years ago: the EU and Gibraltar
thirteen years ago: a logographic alphabet of untranslatable words
fourteen years ago: US regulations for foreign banks plus a visit to cloister Ebrach
fifteen years ago: the US army leaves Iraq
Following Trump’s rather hollow and anti-climatic summit with Putin in Alaska, European leaders upend their summer schedules—including holiday-making—to rush, realising the stakes and how there are moments when history pauses and looks at us dead in the eye and asks do we know what is happening, to Washington to lend moral and materiel 
support for Volodymyr Zelenskyy, hoping to avoid the previous melt-down in the Oval Office and stop the US administration from further undermining the continent’s security signalled by Trump’s vacillation over the peace process with a ceasefire no longer a prerequisite for negotiations and that a treaty can be struck simply by ceding Russia the Donbass, capitulating to a one-sided deal with Ukraine demilitarised and Russian subject to no further sanctions. This time, appearing in formal apparel, the same conservative reporter who questioned his usual attire of military fatigues complemented the Ukrainian president on his suit, to which Zelenskyy quipped that the journalist was wearing the same outfit as last time. Already, however, Trump is apparently rehashing tired stab-in-the-back conspiracies about a stolen election and mail-in ballot fraud, a sentiment echoed by Putin as well as citing the dissolution of the Soviet Union as the biggest geopolitical betrayal of all time, on display by foreign minister Lavrov’s CCCP sweatshirt at the prior meeting.
synchronoptica
one year ago: a philosophical cartoon (with synchronoptiรฆ) plus amplified contagion
twelve years ago: landscaping inspirations plus freelance hotels
thirteen years ago: WWII week: Nacht und Nebel plus international traffic signs
fifteen years ago: weather control machines
sixteen years ago: blogging non-sequitirs
Of course we like to have a sample of the local culinary heritage when on holiday and while the herbal liquor (Krรคuterlikรถr, Schnapps) from the Mรผritz might be a unique concoction to try as well as the smoked fish—we learnt that the cheese label, which is fairly common in stores throughout Germany but not certain if we had ever tried it is not a product with a protected geographical indication but rather a style of mild cheeses marketed for its flavour profile, rather than its location—partially to distinguish it from the neighbouring Holsteiner variety that is afforded such legal status—as a German Tilsit (Tilsiter) cheese. 
Similar in taste and texture to Havarti, cheesemaking practises were introduced to the region of East Prussia by waves of immigration from Switzerland’s Emmental region, fleeing religious persecution and at the bidding of the kingdom’s rulers in order to repopulate Mecklenburg area after a decimating outbreak of the plague in the eighteenth century. The recipe was eventually reimported to Switzerland but the new settlers created distinct styles with the ingredients and conditions of their new home. The method and tradition was named after the dairy operation centred in the city of Tilsit in the former Borussian province, where the original buildings exist to this day—under the rule of the Teutonic Knights from the eleventh through sixteenth centuries there was already a robust cheese-making industry—with not less than seventeen towns and villages named Milchbude, milking stall, in their domain but little standardisation existed beforehand. Once Prussia was formally dissolved and the easternmost lands ceded to the Soviet Union as reparations for World War II, the territories became Kaliningrad oblast and the town on the border with Lithuania renamed Sovetsk (ะกะพะฒะต́ััะบ) but retains the name ะขะธะปัะทะธ́ัะตั for the cheese, also produced in Poland, Estonia and Ukraine.
First reported by Norwegian news outlet Dagen Nรฆringsliv—and possibly the rather sad and pathetic intimation was even thought fit to print at all because dictator Trump brought up the topic again during his counterproductive, slapdash meeting with Putin—the president of the United States of America cold-called Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Stรธre, ostensibly to discuss trade and tariffs—as well as when he might receive his Nobel peace prize, hinting that a more favourable levy might be in play should he be bestowed with the high honour. 
Former NATO secretary general and current finance minister Jens Stoltenberg was also in on the conversation, confirming it took place, adding it was not the first time that Trump brought up the topic. Shopped around before the joint Russian-US summit took place as more proof of his peace-making credentials, some countries, including Israel, Armenia, Pakistan, Cambodia and Azerbaijan have submitted nominations for Trump, letting him take the credit for brokering ceasefires in exchange for more punishing tariffs for their competitors—see also. Laureates are chosen by a committee of five members appointed yesterday the parliament of Norway with the announcement of the short-list coming in October. The hits don’t stop coming so it is hard to take a moment to reflect, but one has to wonder how such shameless deportment strikes the rest of the world with Americans with such a deficit of awareness of the consequences of their words and actions and could have elected this blithered, meritless man-child twice and lack the courage for course-correction. This global trade war is blatantly extortion as well with no substance behind it.
There are certain signifiers of general human etiquette like unshodding one’s shoes at home, not littering, wearing one’s safety belts—and returning shopping carts to their corral after use, rather than leaving a exit hazard for drivers and pedestrians. Most German grocery stores have a nominal Pfand, deposit to encourage this behaviour—though a few franchises rely on the honours’ system, initiated during the pandemic and a hold-over from COVID times to enforce some extra social-distancing and as a way to easily count and control the number of shoppers inside at any one time having dispatched with the coin or token slot (usually taking just a basket personally) and requiring a cart—and one local market still has not brought back needing a coin to unlock a cart and seems to be still functioning in a civilised way. 
We however were not aware, until seeing this clip via MetaFilter, that there were competitive leagues of buggy bowlers—see also—or in this case the portmanteau of cart plus archery and at least for trying to best a celebrity with one’s hidden talent—going for accuracy and style in landing it back its pen from a distance.
synchronoptica
one year ago: design one’s own Amsterdam (with synchronopticรฆ), AI or Die, license to serve plus assorted links to revisit
twelve years ago: a visit to Frankfurt
thirteen years ago: a trustworthy typeface plus a precarious doomsday stone
fourteen years ago: sovereign debt crises plus Earth’s ring of antimatter
