Known as the Bohemian Sousa for his vast body of works including marches, polkas and waltzes, we are introduced to the military bandmaster, conductor and composer Julius Ernest Wilhelm Fuฤรญk outside of 
Czech ceremonial and patriotic music via his opus sixty-eight, written in October 1897 whilst stationed in Sarajevo for the Austro-Hungarian Army, originally titled “Grande Marche Chromatique,” in reference to the climbing and descending scales used throughout, but retitled based on his personal interest in the Roman Empire and impressed by a particular scene in Quo Vadis? to Vjezd gladiรกtorลฏ (Entrance of the Gladiators). Adapted for piano and later for woodwind orchestra, the air renamed to “Thunder and Blazes,” became up tempo synonymous by the turn of the century with circuses and anticipated the procession of clowns. Despite this well-established and enduring association (see also, see above), the popular piece was used accompany the arrival and departure of SS commandants in Nazi concentration camps.
Tuesday, 24 December 2024
send in the clowns (12. 107)
forschungslaboratorium fรผr elektronenphysik (12. 106)
Autodidact in applied physics and prolific inventor, Baron Manfred von Ardenne, after presenting to the 
public his concept of Fernsehen a year and a half earlier, achieved his first wholly electronic transmission of television pictures, using a cathode ray tube (see more) for both transmission and reception, on this day in 1933. Following trial runs on broadcasters, Ardenne’s technological advance progressed quickly with the private station of Paul Nipkow culminating with the live airing of the 1936 Berlin Games. Having also conducted pioneering experiments in the fields of radar, radio, isotope separation and inventing the scanning electron microscope, Ardenne’s research facilities in Berlin-Lichtenfelde were put a protective order by Soviet occupying forces in April 1945 and Ardenne and his colleagues were reassigned to laboratories in Abkhazia to work on the atomic bomb project (see also)—like the Russian version of Operation Paperclip. Realising that participation in such a plan would jeopardise his eventual repatriation to East Germany, Ardenne convinced authorities to focus on uranium enrichment rather than weaponising the programme, slowly development until the Americans bombed Japan and an extensive espionage network determined that it was more than theoretical possible. Once Ardenne returned to the DDR and assumed an advisory role in the government, he applied his study and resources to medical diagnostics, inventing an early form MRI scanner and radiotherapies to treat cancer.
synchronoptica
one year ago: Christmas Greetings (with synchronoptica), Aida (1871) plus more accidental Renaissance art
seven years ago: Sleighrunner, Trump’s challenge coin plus more Season’s Greetings
eight years ago: A Human Document, internet court plus a collection of Yule Logs
nine years ago: more Yule Logs
ten years ago: a visit from Father Frost
eleven years ago: 2013 wrapped plus a holiday reckoning
Monday, 23 December 2024
fruitcake (12. 105)
Language Log featured recently a duo of Christmas confections from Italy and Germany and while the latter in the Stollen might have a more robust etymology, derivative of the verb stellen—to put—and from 
the Ancient Greek ฯฯฮฎฮปฮท, stฤlฤ, to support, as in the beams constructed in a mine shaft to prevent a tunnel from collapsing (see also here and here), it is the former in the mildly sweet and far less dense (fluffy as compared to the Stollen’s consistency of a neutron star) the panettone that has a more intriguing composition as a augmentation of a diminutive, big little bread. Fettuccine is the reverse formation in little big slice, and there’s a single-serving variant called a panettoncini, a diminutive of the augmentative of the diminutive. More at the links above.
a555 (12. 104)
Via Things Magazine year-end round-up we are invited to take an epic road-trip (which we managed to somehow miss earlier) for the fiftieth anniversary of Kraftwerk’s Autobahn, a twenty-two minute musical tribute to the German 
road network (previously here and here) that transformed the entire electronic music landscape—achieving international chart success the following year once pared down to three-minutes and twenty-eight seconds for radio audiences. Legend has it that the group were inspired by a stretch of West German highway from Kรถln to Bonn, a main artery from the international airport, a Brutalist masterwork who band member Florian Schneider’s father designed, to the capital and just a few junctions from their Dรผsseldorf studios. Much more from Tim Jonze’ pilgrimage at the link above. You need to unmute for this one.
synchronoptica
one year ago: miscellany from the depths of Wikipedia (with synchronoptica), assorted links to revisit plus Hansel and Gretel (1893)
seven years ago: keep watching the skies plus misappropriating a Secessionist motto
eight years ago: combatting fake news
nine years ago: a cavalcade of holiday customs, Christmas ghost stories, lip balm recalled over high THC levels plus Seasons’ Greetings
ten years ago: Ship of Theseus
Sunday, 22 December 2024
demi-conductor (12. 103)
Via Damn Interesting’s Curated Links, we are directed to a class of quasiparticles in condensed matter physics—the field of study that focuses on the difference of properties and behaviours on macroscopic versus microscopic scales—that has the unexpected quality of carrying mass and charge in one direction 
only and when turned 90° suddenly become massless. Though the scholarship has been established for about a decade regarding such topological behaviour, researchers believe that harnessing such novel semi-Dirac fermions (with a strangely definitive level of certainty for the quantum realm) could have revolutionary applications for quantum computing and transcend the restraints of traditional circuitry that’s too blunt to wire reliably for qubits on a nano-scale. The semi- and super-conductors of solid state electronics do not corral energy in orderly or predictable ways for such a delicate set-up but if the circuit could be a virtual one comprised not of wire but of a particle with switching properties, quantum computations (see previously) could quickly become very robust. More from Popular Mechanics at the link above.
8x8 (12. 103)
beige and confused: with the democratisation and de-fetishisation of graphic design, Elizabeth Goodspeed questions the role of Colour of the Year
diamond in the rough: researchers perfect nuclear-powered battery that lasts ten-thousand years—see previously
heroรถn: monumental ancient shire discovered in western Greece
now go away or he will taunt you a second time: former Homeland Security advisor is not retracting her criticism of FBI director nominee Kash Patel—see previously
naughty, brutish and short: philosophers on Santa’s good and bad lists
continuing resolution: the stop-gap spending bill to fund the US government through March hints at a revolt by Republican congressional members, refusing to entertain provisions to eliminate the debt ceiling (which Trump needs to enact his agenda) and postpones the budget battle to a time when the GOP has a even narrower majority
demonstration project: MIT-linked charter company plans world-first grid-scale fusion reactor
party city holdco inc: with every report on a company going bankrupt, there are at least four paragraphs citing inflation, consumer sentiment and competition before mentioning it was private equitied to death
operation mhchaos (12.102)
that the US Central Intelligence Agency had turned its gaze inward against its jurisdiction and was conducting a massive covert domestic spying operation on anti-war protestors, wire-tapping the phones of tens of thousands of US citizens and infiltrating groups. Operation CHAOS was originally chartered under the administration of Lyndon B Johnson in 1967 but was greatly expanded by Nixon even after initial findings indicated no link between prominent peace movements and foreign embassies in the US or abroad—the prefix MH designated the area of operation to be global—and this secret redux of McCarthyism, given Nixon’s deportment, proved highly unpalatable to the public. Although ending the programme, Hersh felt betrayed after subsequently learning of secret meetings between the Ford administration and the editors that censored material, including political assassinations never disclosed to the reporter, prompting Hersh to distance himself from investigating the agency in the future. 
one year ago: an AI Nativity (with synchronoptica), a monumental Beethoven debut, a cloned feline plus another Tennessee Williams’ classic (1965)
Saturday, 21 December 2024
11x11 (12. 101)
boughs of holly: a gallery of Edwardians dressed up as Christmas trees—via the Everlasting Blรถrt
gifcities: the Internet Archive’s gallery of vintage animations
hb3:
Pornhub is pulling out of Florida over a new law that requires age
verification on adult websites with a government issued form of
identification—don’t say you weren’t warned
diplomatic corps: Trump pre-appoints a slew of woefully unqualified ambassadors
superman is bleeding: the teaser trailer for the new cinematic adaptation neolithic octopoid: revisiting the Silurian hypothesis through cephalopods—via Clive Thompson’s Linkfest
by-line: Pulitzer’s year in news stories
perfect fit content: Spotify ghosts human artist, avoiding royalties
the campaign for economic democracy: Jane Fonda’s political action committee was funded through sales of Workout, inspired by serial presidential candidate and entrepreneur Lyndon LaRouche
a court of thorns and roses: sexual congress with supernatural beings is illegal in Sweden—via Strange Company
retrospective: around the world in the exhibitions of 2024
and the blue and silver candles that would just have matched the hair on grandma’s wig: Postmodern Jukebox’ take (previously) on a reviled holiday tune
