Having made the acquaintance of singular artist and writer Leonora Carrington (see previously here and here) through her surreal paintings informed by Celtic and Mesoamerican folklore and her own lived experience, we were excited to discover a special exhibition that curates Carrington’s works in other media—chiefly through large scale bronze figures sculpted using the lost-wax casting technique, her mythic and primordial figures walking off the canvas but also jewellery and vases and platters. 
Though many of these characters are untitled and pass unnamed, whose story was only known to their creator, one is pressed to give a narrative and lore to these apparitions and wonder what they portend. Much more from Colossal at the link above including the departed artist's personal website, lovingly maintained by her estate, and more details on showings and public art, like the title fabulist, monumental sculpture gifted to Ciudad de Mรฉxico depicting the Lewis Carroll poem, Alice reciting the parody as she attempts to memorise the Isaac Watts’ moralistic litany “Against Idleness and Mischief”—how doth the little busy bee improve each shining hour...
Wednesday, 24 June 2026
cรณmo hace el pequeรฑo cocodrilo (13. 552)
pause for station identification (13. 551)
Via Swiss Miss, we are invited to tune in to a range of virtual televisions that host programming by decade from the 1950s though the aughts with thousands of channels on the dial. There is a guide to consult and one can select from a list of genres, soap operas, cartoons, drama, trailers, commercials, music, sitcoms, news, talk shows, game shows, etc—though those modern day luxuries does not factor into the nostalgia and we think it’s much more rewarding to sit with the random shuffle as one surfs to see what’s on already in progress. 
The ads alone make this worthwhile. It’s of course saturated with mostly North American broadcasts but I think there’s some UK shows as well—the individuals behind this project seem to have crafted it with care and new media is being added on a regular basis. Let us know what forgotten gems you find.
8x8 (13. 550)
add to dictionary: a remembrance of the departed Tony Krueger, the software engineer that introduced red squiggles to word-processing to indicate a potential error
seen by the machine: AI scores one’s relative importance by billions of datapoints called “the weights”—please consider the environmental impact before googling oneself—via MetaFilter
drain the swamp: a meme roundup on the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool
reading the room: a moment of silence observed before interviews with filmmakers to take in the room tone as a supercut from Criterion
a la carte: US history told in early restaurant menus—see previously
able mabel: a robotic maid from 1966
usa a-ok: more than amplifying random statistical noise, an interesting look at Americans’ misspellings mapped
synchronoptica
one year ago: the Carnac Stones (with synchronoptica) plus a trip to Belz
two years ago: exploring Maccagno
three years ago: artist and freedom fighter Willem Arondรฉus, a revolt and march toward Moscow plus the last Emperor
four years ago: Germany legalises abortion plus a work cruise on the Rhein
five years ago: artist Robert Rotar, the goddess of luck, the bells of Bad Hersfeld, assorted links to revisit plus Cubist cars
six years ago: an orchestra for houseplants, the Battle of Bamber Bridge (1943), tourists not welcome plus the Pontiac Ghost Car
Tuesday, 23 June 2026
day one-hundred fourteen (13. 549)
US senate narrowly votes to halt conflict in Iran without congressional authorisation, though Trump is expected to veto the war powers resolution. 
The US president announces that IAEA nuclear inspectors will go to Iran at “an appropriate time”—Tehran countering the claims on commitments made earlier by Trump and Vance, whilst secretary of state Rubio maintains that Hormuz must remain toll-free as UN takes action to evacuate sailors stranded in the Strait. Russia puts the annexed territory of Crimea under lockdown as a swarm of drones approaches. Belarus strives to remain neutral after Kiev issues an ultimatum and warms of consequences.
404 (13. 548)
Having had the tragic but increasing common experience of clicking on a dead link, most recently the personal webpage of evolutionary biologist and science historian Stephen Jay Gould to find it appropriated by gambling company, the sort that is guaranteed to give one’s computer a venereal disease—
we were brought up on the belief (of stranger-danger and) that the internet is forever when it turns out it’s very ephemeral and there are old, moribund sites I don’t dare click to avoid the inevitable heartbreak—and I’d much prefer it to be broken or have succumbed to the usual dilapidation of linkrot, we appreciated the referral courtesy of Tedium to this Wisconsin death trip, deathwatch vigil, a project that ironically looks abandoned as well, called RIPSO, a digital graveyard with obituaries. Wings of the catacombs that date back to the 1980s mostly entomb discontinued services, platforms and messengers, apps rather than outlets and websites (maybe impossible to catalogue), but gives a sense of what’s died the death (with indignities or otherwise—with or without resuscitation notices) and stresses the importance of the work that archivists do.
orkopedic (13. 547)
Courtesy of Miss Cellania, we are directed towards this short quiz from Alamo Drafthouse, which for a certain demographic that grew up with the line of Mattel toys and animated franchise, a half-hour “cartoon commercial” that spawned many to adopt the same marketing strategy and whom now as adults shop at the Swedish home furnishings giant, may either prove a breeze to ace or become frustrating with how similar the names become. Eternia or Ikea combines one of our favourite topics, the store’s nomenclature—see previously here, here, here, here and here, with the sword-and-planet paracosm of He-Man (don’t forget She-Ra) and the Masters of the Universe, characters we never identified with but were certainly aware of and have since gained an encyclopaedic appreciation for. How many can you guess? The incidental is music “Tijuana Taxi” by Herb Alpert.
face-value (13. 546)
A pair of back-to-back podcasts had an interesting that addressed the subject of minting money from different angles and both touching on seigniorage from Planet Money and 99% Invisible presented an interesting correspondence. First the Indicator episode explored the pros and cons of introducing a commemorative two-hundred fifty dollar bill for the upcoming US birthday celebration, which notwithstanding actual and potential hurdles over decorum and legality, would be a boom for criminal activity, money laundering and tax avoidance—the EU got rid of its largest denominated five-hundred euro bill, nicknamed the bin Laden and favoured by smugglers and traffickers for its portability. 
Most other governments have followed suit and there is even pressure to remove the current largest American note, the one-hundred dollar bill by the same reasoning, though the argument that the US treasury cites for keeping it is that the some twenty billion outstanding, through seignorage, a promissory note redeemable and fungible at any time, the positive return or carry for issuing money, represents a two trillion dollar, interest-free loan for the US, as long as they stay in circulation, particularly internationally—or stored in a vault, or in the next example, lost in the couch cushions, mellowing in a change jar or held as collectors’ items. As 99% Invisible reports, though public reaction to the debasing of American coinage from 1964 to 1965 was frictionless acceptance of face-value despite that specie had been removed and replaced with a slug clad with a shiny coating, the price of metal meant minting incurred more demurrage, depreciation, and so inspired by the commemorative issues, like the Kennedy half-dollar or the 1976 bicentennial quarters, the mint got permission, not wholly out of civic pride, in 1999 to produce twenty-five cent pieces honouring each state—and eventually Washington, DC and the territories over a ten year period, the government earning a profit for each that went coin that went into a collection, the mint itself only absorbing the fractional production costs.
@bitnic (13. 545)
Building off of the concept of distribution lists developed for IBM mainframes to handle email aliases, software engineer รric Thomas studying at รcole Centrale Paris released the stable version of his modified application, with his own code, LISTSERV with automated features that allowed subscribers to join or leave groups without human administration as postmasters, edit templates and create auto-replies for system and welcome messages. Still foundational architecture, Thomas’ programme also included the first double opt-in methods and spam filters for junk- and grey-mail (bulk mailers at one point solicited but now considered a nuisance).
synchronoptica
one year ago: the menhirs of Bretagne (with synchronoptica) plus the Quiberon peninsula
two years ago: Lukmanier pass plus arriving at Lake Maggiore
three years ago: assorted links worth revisiting
four years ago: a banger from The Knack, Logan’s Run plus the sterling area
five years ago: harvesting solar power plus Mid-Summer celebrations
six years ago: more links to enjoy, satisdiction plus scratching an itch
