the köln concert (12. 177)

Recorded on this day in 1975 at the West Germany city’s opera house Keith Jarrett’s live double-album went on to become the best-selling solo jazz and the best-selling piano record in history despite some inauspicious beginnings. Problems with booking pushed the hour-long performance (attended by a sold-out audience) to late Friday night, and the requested concert grand was not available and so the musician, who was fatigued from touring, had to make due with an out-of-tune and meek sounding baby grand that was only used for rehearsals. Jarrett however was able to lean into the instrument’s shortcomings (see also) and improvised in such a way that celebrated its disrepair.

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synchronoptica

one year ago: the Family of Man (with synchronoptica)

seven years ago: A Fashionable Melange of English Words, website traffic, RIP Ursula Le Guin, an AI generated concert lineup plus the Babylon Bee

eight years ago: a conflict of interest 

nine years ago: an X-Files reboot plus the Ronnie Horror Picture Show

ten years ago: Hildegard of Bingen, canine astronauts plus Charlie Hebdo wine labels

lapidary capitalis (12. 176)

Aptly illustrated with this calligram of the she-wolf who nursed Romulus and Remus—via Pasa Bon!, we are referred to project ARETE (ἀρετή, the concept of excellence in any field—the ‘polity van’ used for sanctioned field trips of my college had the license plate H ARETH, with the proper article and transliteralisation) from the University of Applied Sciences of Potsdam of a visual and interactive study in the network of influences, interventions and inscriptionsthat led to the genesis of Roman Capitalis to Antiqua and Grotesk font families and how manuscripts continued to inform the look of typefaces even after the printing press came into being in the West, injecting a typographical angle into scholarly discourse. Each font sampler has extensive details on its provenance and how it relates to other points of inflection.

i18n/l10n (12. 175)

Abbreviated with the above numeronyms, internationalisation and localisation refer to the dual challenges of designing systems and applications that can be used both globally and in a specific and bounded spot for both output and input, display and data-encoding. Embracing translation and standardisation of regional metrics, time-zones, including register and format, Unicode maintains a registry of predefined variables covering scripts, directionality, layout, sorting and alphabetisation and punctuation. Specifically, however, it does not take into account economic differences (prompting user selection, though there are defaults) of paper size, post and telephone formats, currency, systems of measurement, compliance for privacy and accessibility, disputed borders, map keys and tax regimes, which require typically native knowledge.

you can basically just be gay and you are fine in thailand (12. 174)

Joining Taiwan as the only other country in the southern Asia to recognise marriage equality for same-sex unions, hundreds of couples in Bangkok and elsewhere held wedding ceremonies as the legislation passed by the National Assembly in June 2024 came into effect, written into law by King Maha Vajiralongkorn following a long campaign and petition decades in the making by the country’s community for rights and respect. Though many obstacles and ostracism remain domestically and regional, this moment sanctified of the movement marks historic progress.

supersize ma déesse (12. 173)

After a successful commission petitioning the automaker Citroën to adapt its multi-wheeled DS line as a less cumbersome, high-speed delivery vehicle, contributing to the design of the extra axles for this load-runner—originally made to carry newspapers, civil servant Pierre Tissier secured a role with the company as an authorised conversion specialist, helping to engineer and customise several models of utility station wagon (Familiale) as ambulances, hearses, camera cars for filmmaking, towing and hauling vehicles as well as introducing the custom CX Penthouse in 1980, a “camping car” with a pop-top roof at the Paris Auto Show in 1980.

synchronoptica

one year ago: more on the adventuresome Piccard brothers (with synchronoptica) plus thoughts on a prodigious birth

seven years ago: more links to enjoy, war and cheese plus photographer Tugo Chen

nine years ago: ring anxiety, assorted links worth revisiting, vampiric bacteria plus Star Trek in living colour

ten years ago: the epochs of the world as a time spiral

twelve years ago: an outing for austerity, digital sabotage plus the Brexit referendum

11x11 (12. 172)

concrete feats: the landmark Våga Water Tower on coast Varberg, Sweden  

ſpy v ſpy: a look at the world of espionage in the Middle Ages—via the new Shelton wet/dry 

obelisks: researchers discover a new form of life with circular RNA—that appear less alive than viruses  

we were wrong that day—we broke the law: convicted January Sixth capitol rioter known as MAGA Granny rejects clemency offer  

winning odds: a collection of vintage Japanese lottery tickets  

cinematic universe: The Goonies and Back to the Future happened on the same day in 1985—via Kottke  

шрифт: foundry excavating Ukrainian fonts from the underground  

dark web: Trump has granted an unconditional pardon to Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht 

red team: research students—under supervision recreate—viral pathogens identical to those that caused the 1918 influenza pandemic  

lexicon: a glossary of medieval words from Middle English whose meanings have shifted  

solar gate: 4D printed blinds mimic plants to open and close on their own

crash course (12. 171)

This is ghoulish and possibly what’s in store for the American educational system, its department defunded and tasked with eliminating itself and focused on removing all trace of guilt or bad feelings from school curricula (getting rid of critical race theory—as the MAGA party understands it, see previously here and here)—and other fields of study to preserve the pride of white Christian settlers and their ilk): via Damn Interesting’s Curated Links, we learn that a Utah-based edutainment start-up has summoned up an AI emulation of diarist Anne Frank, murdered at the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp aged fifteen in 1945. Not only does the experience to be marketed to young pupils have the uncanniness of a tireless, overly accommodating docent and is unconscionably disrespectful to her memory and other victims, it gets biographical information incorrect and seems with some prodding to twist one of Frank’s more famous quotes, “in spite of everything, I still believe that people are really good at heart,” as a directive to deflect blame for the Holocaust on the Nazis. School districts seem quick to adopt these models with no regard for the philosophical implications, educational value (it seems rather antithetical to the entire lesson) or whether or not educators have any input or remedy for what such avatars dispense.

synchronoptica

one year ago: Arthur Miller’s The Crucible (with synchronoptica), artist Iris Wildros plus an art artefact

seven years ago: more colour stories, ecological treats plus Dr Seuss’ commercial work

eight years ago: Trump to eliminate the National Endowment for the Arts, famous songs using borrowed tunes, global Hyper Loops plus American Carnage 1.0

nine years ago: the Mind Expanding programme of Hans-Rucker Co 

ten years ago: Euro/USD parity plus ageing and rejuvenation

pangram (12. 170)

In recreational and trivial mathematics, a pandigital number is value that uses its digits at least once (usually without redundancy), the first of which in base ten radix is 1 023 456 789 (one billion, twenty-three million, four hundred sixty five thousand seven hundred eight nine) and chiefly have applications in fiction and commercial advertising to display a sample credit card or identification document or phone number—reserved in many cases so they are associated with any real individual. The smallest number in Roman numerals is 1444—that is, MCDXLIV. A pandigital number in base thirty-six notation (heexatrigesimal) would use all numbers and all letters—except zero. Despite their non significant nature in terms of maths, they do possess some interesting and unexpected properties, such as the zeroless palindromic pandigital number 12345678987654321 is the square of 111111111—called a repunit—that is a number with only one digit.