synchronoptica
one year ago: university protests (with synchronoptica)
seven years ago: Turkish Star Wars plus assorted links to revisit
eight years ago: security keys, the EPA’s graphic charter, a mismanaged Monopoly, war-drums plus Trump’s daughter at the G20
nine years ago: pop stars and the early internet plus a pioneer of information theory
twelve years ago: architecture of choice for supermarkets
Via our faithful chronicler we learn that on this day in 1961 (along with many other events of pith and circumstance) the single by Charles Weedon Westover (better known by his stage name Del Shannon, which he adopted reluctantly later in his career after his favourite car, the Cadillac Coupe de Ville, and a regular from the his first venue) began a four week run at the top of the Billboard charts. 
Like Elvis Presley and Johnny Cash, honing his instrumental skills whilst stationed in West Germany during the post war period, Del Shannon found a part time gig after returning stateside and was a rhythm guitarist for the Moonlight Ramblers at the Hi-Lo Club in Battle Creek, Michigan and found himself band-leader after the organiser was fired for consistent drunkenness, regrouping at the Big Little Show Band with the addition of keyboard artist and electronic music pioneer Maxfield “Max” Doyle Crook, the song’s signature bridge performed on a Musictron, an early synthesiser that predated the Moog and Univox of his own invention. Covered by Elvis, Bonnie Raitt, the Small Faces, it was an instrumental version released the following year by Lawrence Welk and his Orchestra that made the lament about an unamicable break-up an international hit.
synchronoptica
one year ago: a treasury of weird words (with synchronoptica), AI running out of data to scrape plus the ISO’s Online Browsing Platform
seven years ago: filmmaker Miloลก Forman, a different meaning for heart-shaped plus Trump on the rampage
eight years ago: cherry blossom season, speech-recognition to screen asylum-seekers, the photographic-eye of Melania Trump plus political dynasties
nine years ago: finally getting iPhones, our tented house in the papers, lรจse-majestรฉ plus a stay at Elsinor
eleven years ago: a visit to Alzey
Print Magazine’s Daily Heller invites us back to The Peculiar Manicule (see previously) to peruse through the curated collections of semi-retired graphic designer David Day’s mod and Day-Glo-adjacent artefacts and ephemera, particularly the series of psychedelic calendars produced by the Hallmark greeting card company in the 1960s—under the influence of illustrator R Crumb—growing chronologically more abstract and subversive as the months and years passed until the aesthetic, parallel with Mid-Century Modern, changed and an unexpected part of the company’s portfolio. Much more at the links above.
hug, marry, kill: internet roasts muttonhead JD Vance for his audience with Pope Francis—more here
kegsbreath: US defence secretary poised to be replaced and other news and developments from Superpunch—see more
trump slump: populist politicians over the globe are distancing themselves from MAGA
yolo: search data for Anglophone texting abbreviations
oh aunt jess: Angela Lansbury in fine art—via Miss Cellania
technics: an obstacle course for LEGO walkers
zwiebelfisch: a treasury of printers’ terminology, as in the German for a character misprinted with a dif๐erent font, and more including wayzgoose
one if by land, two if by sea: Heather Cox Richardson speaking at the two-hundred fiftieth anniversary of the midnight ride of Paul Revere
education for death: Walt Disney’s 1943 film on how fascists are made
a good book can help us weather the storm: Francis’ defence of literature for spiritual and mental enlightenment—see also this papal playlist
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by Jane’s Addiction) an absolute banger, I do remember the original educational computer game, Carmen Sandiego, released on this day in 1985 by Brรธderbund software (whose catalogue includes Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing). Though upon reevaluation deemed edutainment, Carmen Sandiego and later incarnations were meant to teach geography in response to a significant portion of US children demonstrating a lack of basic knowledge when it came to the globe and atlas and questions were vetted and fact-checked by the National Geographic Society, a major underwriter of both the game and television version from 1991. The objective was for fledgling gumshoes of the ACME detective agency to thwart the organised crime ring of international art thieves headed by the titluar character using geography. The series was rebooted 2021 (see above) and Rockapella reprised their theme, though the production team criminally used another song. She’s a double-dealing diva with a taste for thievery.
one year ago: the lost mixtape (with synchronoptica) plus assorted links worth revisiting
seven years ago: more links to enjoy, David Bowie’s self-portraits plus Plain People on vacation
eight years ago: more bad flags, more terror attacks in Germany, a concept flying car, Trump dismisses the surgeon general plus Billy Butcher on love power ballads
nine years ago: breathing exercises plus pavement level pedestrian signals
eleven years ago: populist politics plus TTIP and reciprocal tariffs
Via Waxy, we are treated to a duet from Homestar Runner and Strong Bad celebrating their quarter of a century of dot coms with “Back to a Website” on the origins of the World Wide Web and nostalgia for the days of surfing the internet without a shakedown or mugging for one’s personal information and digital footprints. 
The original animated web series folded with the discontinuation of support for Adobe Flash but most episodes are archived above through an emulator and the team behind the characters and their expanded universe have collaborated with They Might be Giants and MST3K on different projects, including previous holiday reunions and anniversary specials as well as inspiring and informing other web comics. So does this mean our website is going to have more frequent updates featuring our hilarious adventures? What—no, no—not at all!
A rare genetic mutation allows some individuals to distinguish ten-fold more colours than most humans’ range of ten million but even those possessing the extra retinal cone receptors are not true tetrachromats as the brain, with limited exposure to colours in the wild and the limitations of display screens far less granular than the hundred million upper limits, a seemingly sad, self-handicapping comment on our perception—see also. 
An experiment conducted on five test subjects hot-wired biological and mental-mapping constraints, however, to stimulate a specific cone, a study named “Oz” for the emerald glasses of the film adaptation, to cause it to encode for a brilliant green hue—appearing like a super-saturated teal for the rest of us—never before experienced, the colour named the above from the binary 010 (for the one targeted photoreceptor, isolated from neighbouring cones) and visible only to those participants for a fleeting moment. Aside from the wonder of surpassing vision, the test also hints at medical and therapeutic applications for degenerative diseases of the eye or for colour blind individuals, rerouting inputs to interpret missing shades.
synchronoptica
one year ago: more theatrical adaptations of toys and games (with synchronoptica)
seven years ago: more kakistocracy, the first Earth Day plus a visit to Willmars
eight years ago: antique German African travelogues, more Liartown, USA, populism in France plus revisionist history on Wikipedia
nine years ago: lucid dreaming
twelve years ago: sovereign debt in the Eurozone
After a reign of thirteen years and recently overcoming a serious bout of double-pneumonia, Pope Francis has passed away from a stroke at the age of 88. Having recovered and returning to a full schedule which included a busy Holy Week and a public Easter mass just the day prior, the first leader of the Catholic 
church from Latin America and first member of the Jesuit order elected to the office, Jorge Mario Bergoglio, taking the regnal name in tribute to Francis of Assisi, throughout his life and career—quickly rising in the ranks though hierarchy did not seem to matter much to him, archbishop of Buenos Aires and created a cardinal and thus papabile by John Paul II in 2001—his pontificate was characterised by personal humility and a focus on mercy, too progressive for some, particularly the conservative and regressive American church with his support of immigrants, environmental stewardship and strong condemnation of nationalist politics and whilst promising failed to deliver for many liberal congregants who welcomed Francis’ message of inclusion for the LGBTQ+ community, the divorced and recalcitrant and expanded roles of women in governance, failing short of doctrinal change. Francis, however, was transformative for the institution, leaving a legacy of like-minded appointees who may one day be able to affect the reforms that he began, eschewing clericalism and authority, saying the Church’s shepherds should “smell of sheep.” Francis willed he be interned in an unadorned grave outside the Vatican proper in the cemetery of Santa Maria Maggiore with a simple headstone bearing only Franciscus. During the sede vacante until the papal conclave, the Irish-American prelate Kevin Farrell, camerlengo, master of the household, will act as regent of the Holy See. The pope chose the motto Miserando atque eligendo, lowly but chosen, from the homilies of the Venerable Bede glossing on St Matthew’s writings on vocation and service.
synchronoptica
one year ago: assorted links to revisit (with synchronoptica), David Lynch’s pavilion for Milan Design Week, Footloose plus Cartoon All-Stars to the Rescue
seven years ago: North Korean nuclear capabilities plus a visit to Neustรคdtles
eight years ago: more links to enjoy, revisiting Paradise Lost plus IKEA’s emergency relationship stations
nine years ago: the Queen’s birthday, dirty money plus the heckler’s veto
eleven years ago: in the flow
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