jules vernacular (13. 873)

Via Satyr’s Link Roll, we are directed towards this inventory of antique hand-painted and machined lettering of French public signage, a brilliant archive of examples that one can filter and peruse by a range techniques, regional flair and styles from émail to embossage and soupirs (punch-outs) to sablage (funerary fonts). This growing collection with new, brilliant exemplars  and samplers added regularly is a journeyman’s exploration and a genuine catalogue of singular signage has been celebrating popular trends and hyper-local, vernacular aesthetic since 2006, recently revamped to make the archive more accessible.

give me a bouncy c (13. 872)

Though I appreciate musical synthesisers and mixers as a genre of web toys, I admit I don’t have the patience or native talent to stick with a project usually after a few discordant notes.

This exercise in open scoring—courtesy of Web Curios (lots more to explore there)—however, is rather enthralling and one will want to sit with and to listen to the original 1964 minimalist composition by Terry Riley that defined the movement, In C, wherein any number and any kind of instruments (voices and electronic keyboards are welcome too) in an orchestra are directed to play a series of melodic fragments in an improvised way, drawing on traditions of jazz and Indian classical music, with the repetition intended as a way for live musicians to play in the style of tape loops and delays—placing the conductor, in Riley’s description, in a shamanistic, transporting role. One can layer performances and vary the tempo. A bit reminiscent of Ravel’s Boléro for the progression, it was a major influence on Philip Glass and other postminimalists.

pointer party (13. 871)

Speaking of neal.fun, our congratulations to Mr Agarwal and collaborators for winning this year’s Tiny Awards for their hand-rendered, multiplayer summer camp experience that’s a real digital demesne to poke around in and a place to get-away that’s not trying to monetise anything. Check out the honourable mentions and the archives of this celebration of the inspired, small, poetic, handmade web, exactly the sort of thing we need much more of.

day two hundred sixteen (13. 870)

South African jurist who fought apartheid and called out Israel’s genocide in Gaza, Navi Pillay, is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Saudi Arabia suspends commercial air traffic following deadly attacks on the capital’s airport by Houthi rebels as forces vie for control of the Yemen. The Revolutionary Guard strike more tankers attempting to transit the Strait of Hormuz. Hurricane Isaias intensifies en route to US gulf coast. Former German Chancellor Gerhardt Schröder attends Putin’s birthday party as the scope of the treachery at the BND is still unfolding.  Secretary of war Hegseth announces that the execution by firing squad of the former US army major who killed thirteen fellow soldiers in 2019 will be live-streamed for the public. Trump reverses his earlier calls to bomb Iran before the midterms, the American president now saying he will wait until after the elections.

brewster’s billions (13. 869)

Neal Agarwal (previously) invites us to spend an outrageous fortune to better get our heads around the idea of how much a trillion of anything is—like the adage about the difference between a million dollars and a billion dollars being about a billion dollars. Through big ticket item purchases, sports stadia, luxury yachts (1000x), fast food franchises and too many hamburgers—funnily enough the “Big Mac Index” is no longer a reliable economic indicator and following Jeff Bezos’ recent comments rejecting the idea that no one could become a billionaire without exploiting workers or resorting to monopsony or buying senators saying that many burger joints have expanded from a single restaurant to a worldwide enterprise by offering products and services genuinely valued by customers. We especially liked how we couldn’t donate to charitable causes or cleaning up the environment—we think Elon would have wanted it that way. This latest game was sponsored by Wired! Magazine which has a companion article with write up here.

synchronoptica

one year ago: peaceful protests against ICE agents in Portland (with synchronoptica)

two years ago: punting along the Wolblitz (with synchronopticæ) 

three years ago: assorted links to revisit, an archaeological discovery in Naples plus a station wagon camper

four years ago: more links to enjoy, World Postal Day plus to slander one’s good reputation

five years ago: even more links, happy birthday John Lennon, Karl-Marx-Stadt, drag queen tarot plus a visit to the Osterburg

six years ago: The Watcher in the Woods, more Phantom plus more links worth revisiting

seven years ago: major military exercise in Germany planned by US forces plus other European trade colonies in China

eight years ago: Trump’s legacy of failed businesses, more on the fight to save an ancient woodland plus moving Tokyo’s historic fish market

 

audentes fortuna iuvat (13. 868)

The popular slogan that privileges courage on the verge of foolhardiness, “Fortune favours the bold,” is a translation of the Latin proverb attributed by Pliny the Younger to his uncle, Pliny the Elder—see previously here and here and perhaps paraphrasing from a verse in Virgil’s Aeneid deifying Fortune as grace and luck and appreciating bravery—on the occasion of dispatching his fleet for a rescue and recovery mission to Mount Vesuvius (previously here, here, here and here) to search for friend, senator Pomponianus, who was in Stabiae just south of Pompeii, also to satisfy his own scientific curiosity. The rescue party crossed the Bay of Naples amidst the unfolding disaster, waiting overnight for the winds to change so they could depart. The prevailing winds never shifted to their favour, standing them and left to face either sheltering in the senator’s villa, knowing the roof would collapse eventually under the weight of the accumulated ash and pumice or try to escape overland and risk being poisoned by toxic gases from the eruption. Variations include Louis Pasteur’s reformulation Fortuna Eruditis Favet (Fortune favours the prepared mind) and Machiavelli’s dictum that it is better to be adventurous rather than cautious—extending the metaphor with, “because Fortune is a woman, it is necessary to beat her into submission and thus ill-used allows herself to be mastered by the daring.” It is the motto of several military units worldwide and a leitmotif in Star Trek canon.

pluto lamps (13. 867)

Via fellow internet caretaker, Messy Nessy’s Cabinet, we learn that for the 1897 Great Exhibition of London an inventor by the name of H M Robinson installed a number of gas street lights with a vending machine built into the base of them—dispensing everything from a hot cup of tea, beef broth, hot cocoa to cigarettes and postcards—the company variously known about town as the “Hot Water Supply Syndicate” or the “Refreshment Lamp Syndicate.” Some models further contained a telegraph relay connected to Scotland Yard for police use. Within the space of three years, however, locals got wise to the fact that a slug could be substituted for half-pennies and the innovative concessionaires were unceremoniously dismantled and nearly forgotten about with such conveniences uncommon for decades afterwards.

day two hundred fifteen (13. 866)

Israel forces the closure of the UK consulate in occupied East Jerusalem over sanction threats directed at illegal settlements in the West Bank. Hurricane Isaiah takes a quarter of oil refineries in the Gulf of Mexico off-line. Tankers, including those cleaving to the route off the coasts of Oman and Qatar, come under fire, slowing maritime traffic through the Strait of Hormuz to a trickle again. Fighting rages between Yemeni regulars and rebels as Houthis launch deadly strikes at Saudi airports. Newly obtained footage reveals the extent of damage sustained to US bases across the Middle East as troops posture towards abandonment and retreat. Despite issuing new demands, including the possibility of compromise of nuclear enrichment, the American president declares he has no interest in making a deal with Tehran and orders the military to prepare to resume hostilities imminently.

synchronoptica

one year ago: assorted links worth the revisit (with synchronoptica) plus cartoonist Rein Raamat

two years ago: boating on the Röblinsee 

three years ago: spiralling landscapes, vintage text book cover art plus LEGO art

four years ago: the cast of Star Trek in an energy company advert plus Saint Reparata

five years ago:  your daily demon: Raum, Baghdad’s House of Wisdom plus a bi-directional typeface

six years ago: more links to enjoy, Les Misérables (1985), poorly drawn animals plus Trump requires wildlife conservationist organisations to celebrate America’s hunting heritage

seven years ago: visualising Wikipedia updates in real time, Trump abruptly withdraws from the Syria-Turkish border, Call Me By Your Monet, The Million Eyes of Sumuru plus discouraging frivolous lawsuits in the Middle Ages

eight years ago: the degrading web plus calling attention to the problem of space junk