neurodiversity (12. 835)

Whilst the term seemingly entered popular parlance with the COVID lockdown and gradual reemergence addressing the range of ways that people cope and adjust, neurodivergence originated in the late 1990s coined by then high school student Kassiane Asasumasu who went on to become a champion for autism rights and recognition, using in her AOL email signature line in forums for the autistic community. Not a clinical term, though often mistaken for one—as it also conflated with the title word, like the hapa-haole descriptor applied, unbidden, to her own multiethnic heritage that was imposed by Christian missionaries in Hawaiʻi uncomfortable with all the people who did not fit into their categories—it filled a lacuna that the above understanding of being within spectrum of dominant norms fell short of addressing, including those who deviated from accepted social bounds. Advocating for acceptance and pushing back on the idea that some outsiders have that such populations need to be readjusted, Asasumasu also later came up with the phrase caregiver benevolence to reframe best-intentions.

951 gaspra (12. 834)

Discovered in 1916 by astronomer Grigori Nikolaevich Neujmin, one in a catalogue to his credit of hundreds of minor planets and comets, and named for the Crimean spa town near Yalta that was favoured by Neujmin’s contemporaries like Tolstoy and Gorky, the asteroid was visited by the Galileo space probe on a close fly-by on this day in 1991 en route for its mission to explore the Jovian system (see also), the first time such an object was encountered at close range and studied, the rendezvous a technically challenging one since only its approximate location was known by projecting its orbital path. The irregular shaped silicate-rich asteroid is approximately the size of Guam and has the pictured astronomical symbol, a simplification of the resort town’s coat of arms.

synchronoptica

one year ago: a mascot for the Vatican (with synchronopticæ) plus IKEA acknowledges forced labour in East Germany

thirteen years ago: media ownership under threat

11x11 (12. 833)

krasnaya polyana: luxury Black Sea ski resort under development linked to Aleksandr Lukashenko—the town makes a good name for the Russian asset in the White House 

bride of frankenstein: tour guide uncovers unknown grave of silver screen legend and horror icon Elsa Lanchester decades after her death 

parlour of prestidigitation: a visit to Hollywood’s Magic Castle in 1978 with tour guide Orson Welles  

kunstformen der natur: the discovery of microscopic marine life informed one of the most influential illustrated books published in the work of Ernst Haeckel  

heptarchy: the realm of the Anglo-Saxons could have just as easily turned out being called Sexland  

🌀:potentially unprecedented in terms of strength and destruction, Hurricane Melissa makes landfall on Cuba and Jamaica  

open house: the real estate industry has entered the era of AI slop for virtual tours

turing patterns: the hypothetical evolutionary mechanism that might explain the emergence of complex geometries in Nature 

fiend without a face: a 1958 scifi horror feature 

if you are a werewolf—and very likely you may be—for lots of people are without knowing: a comedy of manners about a coven of witches is considered a classic of early feminist writing 

neunundneunzig luftballons: Lithuanian forces shoot down dozens of balloons invading their airspace dispatched by Belarus

thirteenth pharaoh of the eighteenth dynasty (12. 832)

After a pause of more than three year after the discovery of the undisturbed burial chamber, the mummified remains of Tutankhamun were discovered on this day in 1925 by Egyptologist Howard Carter and his team. Over three thousand years after his death, the king is notably the only mummy yet found completely intact and with no sign of tampering and despite the famous find and iconic nature of his gold and lapis lazuli death mask, very little is known about the individual’s circumstances or cause of death, other than a reign of about a decade dedicated to undoing the much the cultural and religious reforms enacted by his predecessor and father Akhenaten and expiring only as a young adult, hence referred to a the boy-king. Laid to rest in a series of nested coffins which we carefully opened to reveal the golden sarcophagus—the headdress crafted to give him the likeness of the god Osiris. Inlaid with faience and precious stones, the back of the mask is inscribed with a chapter from the Book of the Dead, a collection of creation and resurrection texts, spells and incantations used in funerary rituals. Studied forensically for nearly a year, the body was indelicately separated from the gold coffin and reinterred within one of the larger ones and stays in repose in Luxor in the Valley of the Kings. Although contributing much to public awareness of the field of archaeology, Tutankhamun’s treasures and alleged curse—published and propaganda in the following decades, turned out to be more captivating than his mortal remains.

synchronoptica

one year ago: a tarot card inspired garden (with synchronopticæ), more air-based food plus a Trump rally in Manhattan

twelve years ago: the NSA espionage in Germany 

thirteen years ago: a Halloween greeting plus a seasonal recipe

fourteen years ago: China relations plus a gathering of the Common Wealth realms

fifteen years ago: polarised politics plus US government budgetary outlays  

seventeen years ago: proving you are not a robot 

blue collar boom (12. 831)

Via Boing Boing we are directed to a rather blatant display of christo-fascist propaganda (generated by AI of course but with typical machine wokeness filtered out and the implicit message baked-in) in a series of US government sanctioned advertisements from Trump’s labour department recruiting campaign, encouraging the white and male, virility virtually without exception despite some tokenism and a few women and darker-complected individuals appearing as subordinates and somehow more dated and fantastical in this Norman Rockwell vision that’s far from just benighted in its subtext, to skill-up and enter into apprenticeship programmes, as the acolytes did who propped up the president himself and saved him from television obscurity and his own deserved reputation as a bad businessman. No second glance is necessary to recognise the message not as some retro-styled call to action but rather as erasure of the reality of the populace that drives America and cued into the same aesthetics and ideals of the Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda of Joseph Goebbels.

mummers parade (12. 830)

Featured in full on Spitalfield’s Life, we found this abecedary by illustrator Marion Elliot of folklore and superstition to be an absolute delight whose risograph alphabet on exhibit is perfect for the height of the spooky season. 

From the Abbots Bromley Horn Dance to the Cornish legend of the Mermaid of Zennor, with everything in between ranging from sin-eaters, corn dollies and The Wicker Man (see previously here and here). 

Adopt a letter and research further into the custom or myth each panel represents, but be cautious as these collections were not only regarded as didactic aides by the clergy, it was also believed that the alphabet possessed supernatural powers itself.

giorno poetry systems (12. 829)

Courtesy of Weird Universe, not only do we learn about the public multimedia experiment (see also here, here and here) started by artist and activist John Giorno in 1968—initially introduced as an installation before being deaccessioned by the Museum of Modern Art in New York after complains over its catalogue being weighted towards counter-cultural polemics and a subsequent FBI investigation into potentially subversive language before retreating into different iterations and media, we learn that the service is still active and one can dial-a-poem—or visit the its web presence for a random selection (or with directory assistance per app), sourced from the original exhibit (collaborating with John Cage, Allen Ginsberg, William S Burroughs, Patti Smith and others) with many more contributors added in the decades since.

the farthest shore (12. 828)

As for other authors of the genre, the business of world building is a key first step, and no exception for godmother of high fantasy-fiction Ursula K LeGuin (previously here and here) who meticulously charted out her complex, layered narratives before populating them with her characters. Along the same lines as Le Guin’s pithy quote about how people who deny the existence of dragons are often eaten by them—“from within”—mapping out her domains has an immediate impact: “I saw and named Earthsea and all its islands. I knew almost nothing about the but I knew their names. In the name is magic.” More on the exhibition from Hyperallergic at the link above.