rest in power (13. 020)

Via Laughing Squid, we are directed to the dedicated visual eulogy from Chris the Barker (see previously) with his memorial montage in the style of the cover art for Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band with his tenth and final instalment of the series, beginning the project in 2015 after the deaths of Leonard Nimoy, Cilla Black, Christopher Lee and Lemmy Kilmister). It’s surely a taxing task to relive all these deaths at the end of the year, hopefully with no revisions or additions. Click through for the complete obituary, which features prominently Manianne Faithful, Hulk Hogan, Val Kilmer, Diane Keaton, Patricia Routledge, Prunella Scales, George Foreman, Ozzy Osbourne, David Lynch, Pope Francis, Ruth Buzzi, the Aga Khan, Rob Reiner, Loni Anderson, Jane Goodall and Dick Cheney among many others.

9x9 (13. 016)

brought to you by the inkjet lobby: the amount of redactions in the US justice department’s release of the Epstein files sparks outrage  

christmas and commerce: a David Sedaris holiday classic—see previously  

global building atlas: an ambitious project mapping all three-billion built structures worldwide  

grabenanlage: rescue archaeology in southwestern German town of Herxheim in 1996 suggests ritual cannibalism on a massive scale with research still ongoing  

your attention is all you have—wasting it is annihilating: Blackbird Spyplane on a life of screen-time—via Kottke

pithos: Roman amphora of sardines found in Switzerland 

orthorectified panorama: the Apollo transforming printer that developed cartographically accurate photographs of the Moon 

a christmas memory: Truman Capote recalls holidays past  

formerly known as the kennedy center: the history of the US national stage for the performing arts—see previously

rock on gold dust woman (12. 844)

Missing this gift exchange during the last leg of Trump’s Asia in the chaos of last week—which netted no concrete trade deals other than a tepid tariff rapprochement with China—it seems in poor taste at first blush for South Korean president Lee Jae Myung to have presented the US president with a replica of an ancient gold crown, particularly right after the No Kings demonstrations, and bestowed on him the Grand Order of the Mugunghwa (Pink Hibiscus) and it’s of course pandering to his doltish vanities. A little low-effort research reveals, however, a possibly deeper meaning that’s half again cleverer than the copy of the birth certificate that Germany gave Trump of his ancestor who fled to avoid the draft and was subsequently stripped of his citizenship. Dating from the Silla dynasty (see previously) and designated among Korea’s National Treasures these delicate gold crowns, with the tensile strength of a tin-foil hat, which were discovered during an excavation of a royal tomb in the old capital city of Gyeongjuwere likely crafted as funerary wares and not to be worn by the living, due to their inherent flimsiness and impractical design, with this lavish headdress a burial good. That’s some apt diplomacy (see also), especially after the US deported all those South Korean workers.

synchronoptica

one year ago: private language creation among twins (with synchronopticæ), the Collins’ Direction Word of the Year, assorted links to revisit, caesaropapism plus the Balfour Agreement of 1917

twelve years ago: an operatic live-stream

fourteen years ago: Palestine is admitted to UNESCO 

 

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 

8x8 (12. 775)

toastbusters: Florida woman relates the story of her demonically possessed appliance on nationally syndicated morning television in 1984 

less cowbell: short-form AI generated videos flooding social media incite confusion, nihilism  

hot stuff, hot postula: vintage American cheerleading calls and college yells  

dob, doa: statically, one is slightly more inclined to die on one’s date of birth—via Nag on the Lake—see previously 

ghost waltz: a Louie Zong spooky season tradition—see previously 

in this economy: venerable coffee roaster—also under assault from tariff-pricing—changes its name to something more achievable  

uav: mysterious drone sightings across Europe are signs of collective anxiety (see more) and echo the panic over Chinese spy balloons over North America  

workplace etiquette: the story of the woman who xeroxed her bottom, becoming front page news

10x10 (12. 746)

the dominator model continues to run the world: Lydia Lunch’s timeless feminist manifesto 

jut: a new way to measure the magnitude and magnificence of mountains—via Metafilter  

and i’m floating in the most peculiar way: a cover of Major Tom by Magdalena Bay—via Nag on the Lake’s Sunday Links  

bequest: an assortment of old customs and curious donations and charities 

red noise: the French musical underground’s decade of synths and situationists—via { feuilleton }  

𒀾: writing lessons in Cuneiform  

being of sound minds and body: collection of captivating wills and last testaments—via Strange Company  

you’ve really made the grade: a scroll through the archives of David Bowie  

pathfinder: a look into the inner-workings of Google Maps  

me and bobbie mckee: the forgotten inspiration for the gender-swapping ballad of Kris Kristofferson and Janis Joplin—see previously

synchronoptica

one year ago: Weird Al parodies Bob Dylan with palindromes (with synchronopticæ) plus more gerrymandering

twelve years ago: a possible clue to hidden Nazi loot hidden on sheet music 

fourteen years ago: the Pope comes home to Germany 

fifteen years ago: GMO salmon 

goodbye england’s rose (12. 702)

With two thousand invited guests in attendance in Westminster Abbey, the route through London lined with over a million and two-and-a-half-billion viewers worldwide, the funeral of Diana, Princess of Wales (previously), took place on this day in 1997—although not an official funeral but rather a royal ceremony, organisers relied on the plans, rehearsed for the previous two decades, codenamed Operation Tay Bridge (see also) for the Queen Mother, and was accorded the pageantry and liturgy usually reserved for the royal family. The dean of the cathedral had personally appealed to senior palace aides to secure Elton John’s performance at the service—to include something modern. Diana and John were last together only a few weeks prior, attending the funeral of mutual friend Gianni Versace in Milan, and immediately upon learning of the princess’ death, John reached out to lyricist Bernie Taupin to rework his 1973 tribute to Marilyn Monroe to honour Diana. A quarter of a century later to the day in 2022, Queen Elizabeth the second held an audience with outgoing and incoming prime ministers, Boris Johnson and Liz Truss respectively, at her residence in Balmoral as her last official acts before her death.

weekend at esptein’s (12. 685)

Following a virtually silent period with suspiciously few tweets from the White House and zero public events scheduled (though Trump would be the easiest figure to reanimate through AI given all the braggadocio, vindictive nonsense and non-sequitirs he’s said and could be truly perpetuated forever by the party in the fashion of Lenin or the Kim dynasty), rumours—probably wishful thinking and premature—began to circulate on the president’s preferred platform and elsewhere of his death or disability, which would be doubly iconic given it’s the Labour Day long weekend, having destroyed the morale of the federal workforce, dismantled trade unions and lurched the American worker towards technocratic feudalism and the forced exodus at the Centres for Disease Control and accepting medical advice from the likes of RFK Jr. No official statement was put out to the contrary, coming after weeks of JD Vance saying he is ready to take on the presidency should need arise, which in fairness is his job description though woefully ill-equipped to hold the coalition of the vile, the expendable, opportunists and useful idiots plus with Trump talking about getting into Heaven, convinced that a Noble peace prize would persuade St Peter (tariffing India fifty-percent for not sponsoring his nomination) and for now there’s only one grainy photograph of Trump golfing, perhaps a body-double—at the course where he buried his ex-wife in order to earn a tax-exemption by designating the property as a cemetery—having been snuffed out to keep her from dishing on Trump’s relationship with Jeffrey Epstein, perhaps foreshadowing his own new tactic for delay and distraction, by dying—“it will be the biggest death of all time!” Though very much of a tool and pliable like Trump, Vance has a deficit of the charisma to fill the power vacuum and there will be a violent crisis of succession. We won’t believe it until Russian state media is preempted with Swan Lake and announces the death of long-time operative Krasnov. THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION IN THIS MATTER!  We now return to regular programming already in progress.

the king in the carpark (12. 672)

After exhumation and reinterment with honours befitting, the mortal remains of Richard III, the last English monarch killed in combat—on 22 August 1485 during the Battle of Bosworth Field, the final skirmish of the Wars of the Roses—and the last Yorkish ruler of the Plantagenet dynasty, discovered (see also) on this day in 2012 beneath a parking garage on the site of the former Greyfriars friary in Leicester, were confirmed following an extensive and exhaustive scientific battery of tests that built solid consensus over the identity of the skeleton. The original tomb in the care of a Franciscan brotherhood lost with the Dissolution of the Monasteries and subsequent subdivisions of land and modern development, and triangulating historical records, forensic archaeology (the remains showed evidence of severe scoliosis and a deadly blunt wound to the back of the skull as well as other posthumous “humiliation injuries” consistent with the king’s disposition), radio-carbon dating as well as mitochondrial DNA lineages of descendants. Excavation and studies were granted on condition that if Richard was found, his remains were to stay in Leicester, the infamous king given a place in the cathedral. A legal controversy followed this condition with counter-claimants proposing alternate sites proposed deemed more in keeping with tradition, like Westminster Abbey or York Minster, though the courts eventually, after much consideration, recused themselves—judging they had no say in public matters having had exercised their due diligence, absent a last will and testament. Reburial ceremonies took place during the last week of March 2015 with a requiem mass and a prayer for all souls fallen in battle and distant relative Benedict Cumberbatch read a poem for the service with special Latin missals composed for the occasion.

arguably the most famous and celebrated cnidarian of all time (12. 634)

Outliving her discoverers and with a career spanning the Victorian Era, under the care of a succession of Edinburgh naturalists, the beadlet sea anemone (Actini equina), affectionately known as Granny passed away on this day in 1887 at the advanced age of sixty-seven—though reports of her death were embargoed for the public good until October, with lengthy obituaries first published by The Scotsman and then The New York Times. Receiving many distinguished visitors, as evinced by a guest book with over a thousand entries, Granny, whom was collected as a mature specimen off the shores of North Berwick, is credited with educational reform, igniting popular interest in the sciences outside of professional and specialist circles, and inviting Victorians to bring nature into their homes, with various fashions from houseplants to terraria and aquaria and imparted a sense of curiosity, albeit kept, that advanced understanding and appreciation of marine ecology.

tavoletta (12. 626)

Courtesy of Strange Company, we are directed to the curious lay brotherhood charged with allievating the spirits of those facing imminent execution with painted panels held by a stick. From the Latin for small tablet (and carries in modern Italian among other meanings a bar of chocolate or toilet seat) the wooden panel decorated with scenes of the Crucifixion meant to assuage the dying and imbue the condemned with the final mortal thoughts of Jesus and resurrection and distract his mind from the gathered crowd of jeering gawkers and tearful loved ones. With prisoners often denied the sacrament of last rites, these chapters of comforters served an important role as counsellors—each company had a manual with a specific protocol for addressing stages of grief and protestations of innocence and mistrial (of which there were certainly numerous with heresy and sacrilege the most common capital crimes), they admonished, regardless of guilt, it was more important to get into Heaven and preserve the order of society—maintaining a justice system where all might be redeemed in the hereafter but were deemed worthy of death in this life.  More from JSTOR Daily at the link above.

synchronoptica

one year ago: eye-chat with a stranger (with synchronopticæ),  a pommel horse champion plus an anagram generator

poisoning pigeons in the park (12. 612)

Language Log directs our attention to the obituary and encomium of the recently departed satirist noted for his nimble lyrics and insufferably cheerful accompaniment with a decidedly dark streak, Tom Lehrer (1928 - 2025)—dropping the act in the 1960s but going on to teach mathematics and musical theatre and was a regularly contributor of political lampoons for That Was the Week that Was and an inspiration for Randy Newman, Dr Demento and “Weird Al.” Relinquishing all copy- and performance-rights of his songs in 2022, Lehrer’s music is in the public domain and probably best known for his “Elements”—itself often repurposed for any given subject, set to the tune of Pirates of Penzance and the particularly maudlin “We Will All Go Together When We Go” about universal bereavement—an inspired achievement should someone drop the bomb. In keeping with the Log’s mission, here’s an orthographic track produced for The Electric Company. Much more at the links above.

qin shi huang mausoleum (12. 570)

Having been discovered by a group of farmers, Wang Puzhi and his neighbour Yang Zhifa (with his five brothers), in March of the year prior, the archaeological community marked a pivotal moment on this day in 1975 in the excavation of the site, unearthing the central burial pits around the tomb of Qin dynasty’s founder and first emperor (皇帝, huángdì) of a unified China to reveal a retinue of some eight thousand life-sized terracotta figures of soldiers and horses standing guard for his journey into the afterlife.  The necropolis is a microcosm of the imperial palace with halls, offices and the thousands of replica units, armed, standing in formation. The tomb itself at the centre of the terracotta army (previously) is hermetically sealed and remains unopened to prevent degradation of the body, artefacts and grave goods inside as well as out of concerns for safety of researchers, with artificial rivers of mercury and other toxic decorative elements suspected to be contained within—possibly also an element of revenant superstition. Aside from the Qin emperor, a mass though ceremonious grave holding the remains of one-hundred-twenty-one individuals has been uncovered, whom researchers believe to have been labourers and artisans that built the necropolis.

synchronoptica 

one year ago: double-click jargon (with synchronopticæ), more on the zombification of the legacy web plus Biden vows to stay in the US presidential race   

thirteen years ago: a hundred-handed cactus plus subversive stickers 

fourteen years ago: odious debts 

ossuaire de douaumont (12. 545)

On our way back to southern Bretagne, we took a beautiful and peaceful campsite in the countryside near Verdun.

While there, we took a sombering drive through the World War I battle field on the trenches dug through the fields and forest amid destroyed villages and saw some of the remnants of the three hundred day and night slaughter that killed three hundred thousand with four hundred thousand more injured in a small area covering less than twenty square kilometers.

Surrounding devastated farmland was replanted with trees—the ancient forest lost—and the core of the battlefield left to Nature, restored in the intervening century.

At the heart of the slaughter lies the national ossuary and necropolis with sixteen thousand marked graves of the French dead and the former containing the unidentified bones of an estimated one hundred thirty individuals, both French and German combatants, president François Mitterand and West German chancellor Helmut Kohl famously held hand here at the memorial dedicated in 1932 in September of 1984 to honour the fallen in an act of reconciliation, understanding and friendship.

synchronoptica

one year ago: hair shavings as battery components (with synchronopticæ) plus more mysterious monoliths 

ten years ago: assorted links worth revisiting, Hell is other people plus more links to enjoy

twelve years ago: tiny museums plus social contagion

thirteen years ago: willow shoots, the US army in Germany plus Switzerland’s hidden defences

fourteen years ago: using Google search to transmit secret messages 

tabella defixionis (12. 386)

Popular and widely employed during Greco-Roman times well into the Christian era, curse tablets (κατάδεσμος—a binding spell) were often discretely or surreptitiously buried with the dead to settle a grudge with surviving competitors over business and romantic affairs and even among rival sports teams as a way to petition the chthonic gods or place spirits to compel malediction for the after life. Like the cache of twenty-two curses recently discovered in an ancient cemetery near Orleans, the most common media was thin lead scrolls as due to their malleability could be easily inscribed and were also an element associated with the underworld deities. What makes this particular discover unique is that one grave contained a curse written in Gaulish, the vulgar language of the region in common parlance (though really preserved in written form) for centuries after the Roman conquest. Because of the paucity of documentation for Gallo-Roman translating is a challenge but there is a another class of curse tablets called Voces mysticae (vox magica) which do not seem to be rendered in any known language and are a secret invocation that only demons can decipher—with scholars teasing out palindromes (previously here and here) and boustrophedon. Much more at The History Blog at the link above.

aplicó (12. 208)

The amazing mastery of Andean weaving and dyeing that surpassed the craft as known to Europeans at the time of contact is showcased in the vivid patchwork tunics of the Wari (Hurari) tribe, centred in what is now the western province of Ayacucho in Peru, which were well-preserved in desert burials. Surviving textiles also including hats and tapestries as grave goods, featured abstract motifs—possibly coded and too make through geometric distortions to make the wearer appear larger and more imposing befitting of their rank. These garments, whose requisite skills and traditions predate the Conquista by hundreds of years (circa the sixth to the tenth century) and have been transmitted and appropriated to an extent by successor cultures, both pre-Columbian and settlers, imparted as tribute along with treasure, but none can compete with this ancient that involved the multidisciplinary practise that involved exotic pigment-sourcing and precise llama husbandry for the ideal substrate, revealing social stratification and hierarchy. View a whole gallery at Public Domain Review at the link above.

synchronoptica

one year ago: assorted links worth revisiting (with synchronoptica) plus Saint Mél

seven years ago: women’s suffrage in Britain (1918), MLK, Jr on capitalism, more links to enjoy plus a vocabulary lesson

eight years ago: amoeboid robots

nine years ago: the evolution of corporate logos, high-definition rewatches plus threatening dust bunnies

ten years ago: vaccine scepticism plus even more links

8x8 (12. 165)

all the things that we’ve amassed sit before us, shattered to ash: interviews from celebrities who lost their homes in the Los Angeles megafire, which is still burning out of control  

facechan: some words of advice for disillusioned social media employees  

bepicolombo: final flyby of the space mission beams back extraordinary photos of Mercury’s polar region

obit.: Bob Canada’s two volume tribute to celebrity deaths of last year we may have overlooked  

erfolgreich abgemeldet: German and Austrian government and academic institutions leave X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, following the summit between Musk and Weidel  

chip off the old block: apparently in some families, it’s customary to nickname a son named after his father the former, a son named after his grandfather Skip and one named after all three Trip  

you’re so woke—diet coke: corporate America abandoning DEI (diversity, equality and inclusion) programs ahead of Trump’s return, hoping to curry favour with the new administration 

delta smelt: fact-checking the fallout over water shortage for emergency responders in California

synchronoptica

one year ago: David Lynch’s 1984 unfinished Dune sequel (with synchronoptica) plus assorted links with revisiting

seven years ago: John Wayne as Genghis Khan (1965), time and dark energy plus more links to enjoy

eight years ago: even more links, misinformation about the refugee situation in Germany plus an anti cow bell campaigner denied Swiss citizenship

nine years ago: the elegance of heliocentrism, RIP David Bowie plus the performer as internet pioneer

ten years ago: a slow news day (1922) 

sgt pepper’s 2024 (12. 131)

Continuing a tradition started in 2016, Chris the Barker has made another collage (see previously), frequently updated and up to the last minute to eulogise Olivia Hussey and Jimmy Carter, in tribute to those passed away this year. 

The field more crowded than ever it seems, there are two hundred and eleven personages featured including Maggie Smith, Bob Newhart, Phil Donahue, Dr Ruth, OJ Simpson, the Tory Party and American Democracy. Much more at the artist’s web presence (including complete liner-notes) at the link above.

the ghost of christmas yet to come (12. 066)

The final resting place too far weathered by the centuries in the churchyard of St Chad’s in Shrewsbury (named for a seventh century Mercian monk and bishop—Charles Darwin was baptised there) was repurposed as the burial plot for the fictional Ebenezer Scrooge for a 1984 adaptation starring George C Scott and subsequent ones of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol—previously. The third spirit showed Scrooge his fate should he keep to his miserly ways. After discovering the vandals had overturned and smashed the headstone in late November, local stonemasons promptly repaired it free of charge, restoring the beloved attraction and quelling some of the outrage over the act.

9x9 (12. 057)

globetrotter—more like globetriggered: a wrap of 2024 in therapy  

new doge, old tricks: Musk and Ramaswamy present their plan to rapture three-quarters of the government workforce but it’s going to be a challenge to achieve real cost-cutting or improved efficiency  

vote de censure: French government collapses after legislature moves to eject controversial prime minister Michel Barnier—see previously 

field of vision: the challenges of bringing the Vera Ruben perched high in the Andes on online includes unidentified intelligence agencies screening images before they are released to the public  

my empathy is out of network: Americas respond to the assassination of a major medical insurance CEO  

ekistical portrait: Rob Stephenson is documenting all the three hundred and fifty neighbourhoods of New York City’s five boroughs—via Kottke  

what just happened: South Korea’s declaration of marshal law, parliament’s rejection and the ongoing political crisis  

stonks: Bitcoin just hit $100 000 a piece  

hot topic: the year in Wikipedia, recent celebrity deaths topped the list again

 synchronoptica

one year ago: the Michelob Music Hour (with synchronoptica) plus modern art presented as a fun-fair

seven years ago: noisy GIFs, assorted links worth the revisit plus 52 more things

eight years ago: the origins of Play-Doh

nine years ago: red cup controversy, a trip to Rosenau plus our faithful chronicler

ten years ago: troublesome ideas in the marketplace plus an A-ha! reunion concert