chrysopoeia (12. 443)

Although the aims of alchemists of transforming base metals into gold has been previously achieved through synthetic transmutation first in 1941 by heavy bombardment of mercury with neutrons—though the resulting isotopes were extremely radioactive and again in 1980 by Glenn Seaborg at Lawrence Livermore labs by surgically removing protons and neutrons from bismuth atoms, these demonstration projects were prohibitively expensive and would need to be scaled up a trillion-fold in order to produce a microscopic speck of the precious metal. We learn, however—via tmn—that researchers working on the ALICE programme at the Large Hadron Collider at CERN, the acronym somewhat disappointingly only standing for A Large Ion Collider Experiment designed to study conditions immediately after the Big Bang with by creating exotic plasma phases of matter, have recently detected the mass albeit very short-lived conversion of lead into gold as the extremely hot and close-packed conditions cause dissociative reactions that can cause the target element to eject a small number of protons and neutrons, producing gold (the similar densities probably what inspired the study of alchemy in the first place). The above quick-silver and thallium were also temporary by-products of nuclear transmutation. Related to the title term, χρυσοποιία, ἀργυροποιία (argyropeia) refers to artificial silver-making, usually trying with copper.

ballerina cappuccina (12. 442)

A series of AI-generated memes featuring a cast of surrealist chimeric characters, usually a visual portmanteau of animals with vehicles or fruit with anthropo-morphic features emerged a few months ago and the phenomena is called Italian brainrot (see previously) for the accompanying text-to-speech voiceover in not-quite-nonsense Italian (see also) for rhyming effects to low-effort static images, which nonetheless seemed primed to evoke a feeling of uncanniness. Minted as volatile meme coins, they seem to be employed to underscore aggressively self-aware shitposting as well as the amount of AI slop inundating the internet. The original Tralalero Tralala and Bombardino Crocodilo have been cancelled as Islamophobic but have returned in a more satirical form and all are subject to remix and revision as well as commentary about the impermanence problem of AI image creation when an input is subject to the telephone-game. The trend is also ostensibly in response to mainstream studio entertainment, franchises sorely lacking in originality.  Chimpanzini grappalini

@eliotmediaoficial Todo lo que debes saber de los personajes del brain rot italiano #chismecito #tik_tok #tiktokers #creadores #trends ♬ sonido original - Eliot Store

synchronoptica

one year ago: AI-generated cityscapes (with synchronoptica) plus Swedish PhD traditions

seven years ago: US-Iranian tensions plus US withdrawal from the Iranian nuclear deal

eight years ago: Belphegor’s Prime, Trump’s interference with the justice system, Banksy’s Brexit mural plus a suitably gilded property

eleven years ago: a hoard of paintings of unknown provenance plus the question of Scottish independence

twelve years ago: Nazi Germany’s capitulation and a fateful date

6x6 (12. 441)

αντίδωρον: brilliant wrapping paper makes presents appear as loaves of bread  

impact statement: for the first time, an AI avatar of a murder victim testifies in court 

heptapods: imagining alien languages reveals insights into the nature of our own ways of communicating—see previously 

picking fights: while Trump declares a ceasefire with the Houthi militant group—which we only know about because of Signalgate—the administration signals it will not get involved over the dispute in Kashmir  

orrery: a centenary of planetariums still inspiring awe—via tmn—see previously  

decomposing: lab-grown mini-brains of a deceased musician create posthumous compositions

origami mouse: a pointing device that folds flat when not in use—via Clive Thompson’s Linkfest—along with a few more fun items on arcade classics

ubi et orbi (12. 440)

Admittedly the headline briefly turned me Anglican, and like many who could not countenance the idea of an American pope—especially after the brashness and endorsement of Trump and Vance and the near-schismatic behaviour of the American conservative Church—with its ugly superpower status and general cultural hegemony—reading a bit into the newly elected Pope Leo XIV, walked back my aversion and apprehension somewhat.  Aside from his chosen namesake, as lately created a cardinal by his successor and appointed to the important clerical office of the prefect for the Dicastery of Bishops, charged with selecting new senior advisors after serving as the head of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America and before that general of the Augustinians, Robert Francis Prevost from the South Side of Chicago, son of immigrants of French, Italian and Spanish heritage, spent many of his formative years in Peru, earning robust credentials in seminary as well as an educator. After elevation to cardinal-deacon, the lowest rank whose appointment derives from administrators of the Papal Household and assigned governance of one of the districts of Rome, Prevost was made protector of the chapel Santa Monica delgli Agostiniani just outside of the Holy See, designed by architect Giuseppe Momo, most celebrated for his Scala Momo which visitors descend to the Vatican Museum, as a dormitory for the order and those attached to the mother church. His first messages of peace, love and understanding were reassuring and one has to hope his fellow nationals can’t make too much hay out of this incidental kinship or smuggle in nationalism and authoritarianism under the guise of being a good Christian.

tag der befreiung (12. 439)

Berlin, for the first time since reunification, observed a public holiday for this eightieth anniversary of VE Day with political leaders—pointedly excluding the ambassadors of Russia and Belarus—gathering in the Bundestag to commemorate liberation from Nazi dictatorship. President Frank-Walter Steinmeier told guests assembled in the chamber that Germany must never downplay its burden of responsibility for the second world war and the Holocaust as the perpetrators that caused the Shoah and were unwilling or unable to resist the regime orchestrating these crimes against humanity. Steinmeier went on the acknowledge the role of the Red Army, comprised of Russians, Ukrainians and many others, in freeing Europe from the regime—but adds that the “liberators of Auschwitz have become the new aggressors,” rubbishing long-standing regional peace and security which stood as a sign of hope that we had retained some lessons from the past and revising and inverting the historical records—excusing his war of aggression as a fight against neo-Nazism—with imperial ambitions. That war casting a pall over solemnities that were otherwise celebrating the beginning of an unprecedented period of liberty and freedom, many others recognising the dire need for recommitting to the defence of democratic values and harmony.

synchronoptica

one year ago: the Hard-Hat Riot of 1970 (with synchronoptica) plus locomotive music

seven years ago: a Prohibition Era Isle of Pleasure charted plus assorted links worth revisiting

eight years ago: HH Holmes’ murder castle, the French far-right, PC clones plus the cartographic trope of the land octopus

ten years ago: a utopian factory town plus an ingestible password 

eleven years ago: a self-massage technique called she-do

7x7 (12. 438)

kanzlermehrheit: Bundestag selects Friedrich Merz chancellor after secure a majority in the second round of voting, averting a constitutional crisis  

rococo and its discontents: McMansion Hell on Trump’s gaudy transformation of the White House—via Kottke 

fuzzy maths: an unsure calculator that produces a range of histograms to assess one’s unknown factors—via Pasa Bon!—from home economics decisions to the Drake equation

reaction time: a car brake engaged by one’s eyebrows  

top billing: the movie poster and album cover art of Dick Ellescas that fuses Art Deco and Mod  

architektonisches gesamtkunstwerk: the Junkerhaus of Lemgo articulated over the decades whilst the jilted artist awaited his betrothed who would never return—via Messy Nessy Chic—more here 

habemus papam: first round of voting fails to produce consensus—plus live chimney cam

spaghetti thriller (12. 437)

The cinephiles of the Flop House with a special guest deliver a very thoroughgoing treatment of the Italian murder-mystery film genre called giallo (the title an alternate native term) popular from the 1960s through the late 1970s—which although declined subsequently with other exploitation movies leaves a lasting legacy and influences in subsequent movements like slasher and supernatural narratives. Derived from a series of crime pulp novels published by the Milano-based Mondadori house who distinguished book themes by their cover colours, in this case yellow—including in their catalogue translated titles from Agatha Christine, whose And Then There Were None (originally called Ten Little Indians or Dieci piccoli indiani) was widely read and considered the template for the genre, laying out the essential elements later adopted by filmmakers of a killer hidden amongst a cast whose identity and motive are not revealed until the end—translated to the screen with psychosexual horror, an atmosphere of suspense, camp, lurid Technicolour, bombastic scoring (see previously here and here) and gratuitous violence. Suspiria is sometimes included for its stylistic similarities but rejected by purist for its supernatural character, though director Dario Argento made other films, with typically baroque and non-revealing titles, like The Bird with the Crystal Plumage and Four Flies on Grey Velvet, that are considered classic gialli. Another interesting artefact was the prevalence of J&B scotch whisky in the films across the range of directors as a signifier of sophistication and manliness—Justerini and Brooks Ltd, founded in Bologna in 1749 and receiving a royal warrant to supply wine and spirits to the aristocratic households of London and later purveyors to hotels and restauranteurs. With shifting values, condemned as misogynistic, gialli fell out of favour but their later homage has occasioned a reevaluation of their consistent, if not indirect, message of the victims, almost exclusively women, not being listened to when airing their suspicions and fears.  Be sure to listen to the podcast for expert movie recommendations.

paper doll (12. 436)

Coinciding with tactics being employed by several toy manufacturers to mitigate the worst impacts of the US administration’s ruinous trade war—addressing specifically the comment from Trump that for Christmas that “maybe the children will have two dolls instead of thirty dolls and maybe they’ll cost a couple of dollars more”—including “pricing action” and differing “price points” for consumers, we enjoyed this latest comic from Ruben Bolling that’s an excellent alternative stocking stuffer for MAGA cultists with this printable dress-up Donald, though card-stock and printer cartridges will probably get pretty scarce as well by the time the holidays roll around, so it might be best to make one’s own.

synchronoptica

one year ago: assorted links worth the revisit plus a treasury of unsolved mysteries

seven years ago: a visit to Nordheim vor der Rhön, Go Fact Yourself plus EULA boilerplate

eight years ago: aggressive cuts to funding for the arts,  concept low-cost housing communities plus Trump’s Dark Triad undermining the government

ten years ago: Nazi kidnappings, more links to enjoy, wisdom from Poor Richard’s Almanack plus US resistance to engaging in WWII

eleven years ago: a trip to Hannoversh Münden plus strained US-German relations over survelliance