10x10 (13. 807)

the alignment problem: the insincerity of Big Tech on the pause and the incoherence of fascism (a bundle of sticks) 

aspect ratio: using a train or ferry as a massive flatbed scanner  

coliseum: Trump administration may just demolish the Kennedy Centre, replacing the national stage with an amphitheatre  

new harmony: the failed utopian commune of southern Indiana—see previously  

pokémon sleep: giant ball opens as guest accommodations in the woodlands of Hokkaido 

joe cool: Hallmark’s custom university posters that played to institutions’ reputations as party schools  

safety curtain series: each year, the Vienna State Opera brings large format art to its proscenium—see also regarding fire curtains 

the apprentice: a biography of Roy Cohn (see previously here and here) and his influence on Trump’s politics of resentment

vinkenzetting: a DIY electronic-ink picture frame sketches birds by identifying them by their call  

the chinese room: a thought experiment by philosopher John Searle in 1980 arguing that a computer executing a programme cannot have a mind, understanding or consciousness

synchronoptica

one year ago: Trump, Epstein and a State Visit to the UK still on schedule (with synchronoptica), the US National Security Act of 1947 plus the Ig Nobel laureates

two years ago: assorted links worth the revisit 

three years ago: contingency elections to bypass the US electoral college 

four years ago: a photo from Voyager I that puts everything in perspective, St Joseph of Cupertino, photographer Harold Feinstein plus triangulating Instagram

five years ago: your daily demon: Stolas,  anthrax in the mail, arcade animations, more on Wikipedia edit-wars plus post-Brexit UK planning to return to Imperial Measurements

six years ago: vaporware and its antecedents, “producing geese,” “without worries,” the Interkosmos Group plus AI tries to create a universal and enduring warning for the ages

seven years ago: US congress debates abolishing the Electoral College, taboos surrounding talking about death, Germany Calling! (1939) plus flight-shaming and train-bragging

eight years ago: keep-sakes,  more links to enjoy plus a hydrogen powered locomotive

 

day one hundred ninety-four (13. 806)

The Trump administration relents on its earlier effort to prevent the Iranian delegation from attending the upcoming UN General Assembly, granting visas to the ombudsmen, though Palestinian attendance is still blocked. Following a fact-finding mission by the United Nations, preliminary evidence suggests that the joint Israeli-US offensive constitutes war crimes with the indiscriminate targeting that lead to civilian death and the destruction of non-military infrastructure. The sweeping sanctions bill against Moscow crafted to pressure countries buying Russian oil lingers on the president’s desk awaiting his signature, whilst Trump harshly criticises the European Union for making Canada an associate member, calling it an act of aggression and threatening more tariffs—Carney in turn says that Canada picks its own partnerships. Petrol and diesel prices soar in Europe. After the Revolutionary Guard attacks a Togolese flagged tanker under US naval escort, Trump weighs “annihilating” his foes. Skirmishes between Saudi and Houthi forces intensify.

you got to know how to pony, like bony moronie (13. 805)

As our faith chronicler reminds, on this day in 1966, Wilson Pickett’s cover version of the “Land of a Thousand Dances” topped the US Billboard Charts on this day in 1966. Originally recorded by R&B performer Chris Kenner in 1962, mentioning sixteen moves including the Mashed Potato, the Jerk, the Tango plus the Slop and the Bop, it featured the gospel introduction: “Children go where I send you,” with the call and response, “Where will you send me?” “I’m gonna send you to that land—the land of a thousand dances.” For the sake of airplay on the radio, the invocation was left off and the title (along with the invocation) was never mentioned in any version afterwards—though later hooks like the na-na-na chorus (later borrowed for the 1994 “Here Comes the Hotstepper”) were added. Though knowing the song beforehand, I think that the John Candy, Dan Akroid vehicle The Great Outdoors, Dirty Dancing with camping holidays in Upstate New York conflated with a certain brand of margarine made me think the song was referring to a specific geographical location. Pickett’s cover only mentions six dances.

fleuron (13. 804)

Named for the ornamental hedera symbol or printers’ flower, this growing gallery of historical, pictorial letterpress work, ranging from the fifteenth to the mid-twentieth century, curated by category, the Garden of Flowers from Heikki Lotvonen—via discover via fellow internet peripatetic Messy Nessy—is a fantastic homage to the typographic and ingenuity in the outlines, shading and hashing of the printed glyph as a precursor to ASCII art (Lotvonen’s own bachelor’s thesis was on the subject of the Amiga moveable type—see also),
like this eighteenth century demonstration of transfer printing for decorating ceramics, requiring an arduous and precise level of typesetting to prepare the printing plate first which according to the sources never quite turned out to everyone’s satisfaction, or this rather arresting view of the city of Valencia rendered in letterforms from the 1870s, painstakingly formatted by Castilian compositor Andrés Ferrer. There are thousands of examples of broadsheets, mastheads and spot illustrations to peruse that show the ingenuity and inventiveness of print-setting to use existing slugs in the workshop, letters rotated but still sticking to the script. Much more at the links above.

synchromy № 4 (13. 803)

Piggy-backing from a recent post, we are pleased for having made the acquaintance of pioneering experimental filmmaker Mary Ellen Bute, who created some of the first electronically generated montage for her visual music, whose abstract shorts, many in collaboration with Scottish-Canadian animator Norman McLaren, whom also produced commissions for the National Film Board (NFB) and UNESCO outreach projects, were shown in special venues, like Radio City Music Hall as well as projected in cinemas before the main features. Influenced by contemporaries like Len Lye and Oskar Fischinger together creating a whole new genre that culminated in Fantasia and derivatives, a selection of Bute’s compositions are at the link above from MetaFilter contributor peppercorn, including her 1958 non-musical, non-animated short film The Boy Who Saw Through starring a young Christopher Walken with x-ray vision.  

*    *    *    *    *

synchronoptica

one year ago: hedgehog highways (with synchronoptica), impossible captchas, an outrageous exchange rate error, a pivotal moment in the life of Frida Kahlo plus the radical left

two years ago: a versatile French pronoun 

three years ago: Outward Bound (1923), West German Star Trek plus assorted links to revisit

four years ago: the debut of M*A*S*H* (1972), assorted links to revisit, Emperor Norton I plus a consequential forgery

five years ago: The Persuaders!,  rewilding one’s attention plus more links to enjoy

six years ago: Hildegard von Bingen, tour guides, words with only plural forms, the musical stylings of Ady Zehnpfennig, the illustrations of Rex Whistler plus the microscopic world announced

seven years ago: The Handmaid’s Tale, previously unreleased pictures of David Bowie, spoon-hanging plus more language hapaxes

eight years ago: the space shuttle Enterprise (1976)

 

day one hundred ninety-three (13. 802)

Hundreds protest IDF destruction of villages and cultural heritage sites in occupied Lebanon. Following the damage to the East-West pipeline crossing the Arabia peninsula overland, the Saudis attempt to reassure customers by seeking alternate routes through Oman. Without evidence, Trump tells reporters that direct talks with Tehran are ongoing, hopefully resolving the crisis soon and reopening the Strait of Hormuz. South Korea vacillates on troop deployment to the vital waterway, earlier succumbing to pressure by Trump to withdraw military assets from Asia with the US ally did not help in the Middle East. The America president approves the sale of sixty thousand one tonne bombs to Israel. US department of transportation relaxes rules on mandatory rest periods for long haul-truckers as a way to stave off fuel shortages and supply disruptions as petrol and diesel prices continue to rise, above eight dollars per gallon in some areas.

talk of the town (13. 801)

For over a decade, David O has been blogging the Manhattan weekly from the beginning in 1925 on a schedule that mirrors when each issue would have gone to print, placing the current posts in the mid-1930s, we learn courtesy of MetaFilter. Though founded as a more sophis-ticated humour magazine originally, distinguished from cornier publications, with reviews and reportage about local happenings, it established itself as a preëminent forum for fiction, essays and long-read journalism after World War II, and has been lauded as an effective conduit for introducing a sizeable readership to modern literature. We didn’t have a stack of back issues at home—National Geographic, yes—but I know I had a subscription at one point and am drawn to any article that revisits an old catalogue or periodicals (I think it was The Awl, also based in New York City that had a regular segment about flipping through magazines from the early 1990s), but this guided tour of editions receding from living memory is even better than sifting through the archives, with context and a bit of history and contemporary analogues, like highlighting the first instance of the Medusa trope for its cartoons followed up with other artists carrying on the tradition through the decades. Scrolling along with Eustace Tilley (see above) a far better use of one’s time with more potential for serendipity than one’s social feeds.

piece of the puzzle (13. 800)

We quite enjoyed this in depth look at the aesthetics and design elements of Wikipedia, whose user-experience focused on exploration and discovery predates the attention-economy and remains distraction-free, no infinite scroll but plenty of branching off with intention, side-quests, tangents and rabbit holes. There are customisable readers however to render the layout to one’s specifications. We’ve visited the gift shop and know about its sister products and incubators, all with the same accessible branding and we enjoyed learning about the evolution of the logo, the puzzle ball from a selected for a competition for its predecessor site Nupedia and being reminded of mascots past, like the sightly sinister Wikipede. Though essentially finished with undergraduate education by the time the Free Encyclopaedia was becoming widespread, I do recall the professors and researchers nudging paper citations away from Wikipedia as not a reliable source since the information could be contributed or edited by anyone—which did strike me as absurd then as it does now, when people are more prone to just ask AI, built on the backbone of thousands of ardent, amateur Wikipedians and their volunteer scholastics. Much more from It’s Nice That at the link above.

synchronoptica

one year ago: AI-inspired delusions (with synchronoptica), assorted links to revisit plus a Pythagorean date

two years ago: a history of White Castle  

three years ago: webrings plus an unambiguous constructed language 

four years ago: the Mexican War of Independence, The Hounds of Love (1985) plus more links to enjoy 

five years ago: the founding of Harvard, a wild orchid plus a Wikipedia digest

six years ago: narrative yoga not just for kids, a comparison of sci-fi worms plus the beginnings of Big Data

seven years ago: fleeing East Germany by balloon (1979),  the Montreal Convention to eliminate CFCs (1987), RIP Ric Osasek plus more Brexit omnishambles

eight years ago: culling social studies curriculum, the untrodden path plus repurposing an Italian protest anthem