Wednesday 16 June 2021
Tuesday 15 June 2021
durgan script
The always engrossing Language Log of the University of Pennsylvania acquaints us with a endangered and diffuse language—spread across Kazakhstan, Russia, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Ukraine and Mongolia—in the Sinitic (Chinese) family but written with Cyrillic and uniquely not Sinographic characters (see also). The continuum of Gansu, Mandarin and Dungan (Kansu) is mutually intelligible to a large extent. Tones are marked with the glyphs front yer and back yer (ะฌ / ะช) from the Old Church Slavonic (see above and here too) and the current orthography is a compromise dating back to the 1920s when the Soviet Union banned Arabic and Persian-based writing systems, looked on disfavourably from the beginning as merchants along the Silk Road could conduct trade deals in a language that was secret to their neighbours.
Saturday 12 June 2021
pcัcp
Called the Day of the Adoption of the Declaration of State Sovereignty of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (RSFSR, a transitional state during the dissolution of the USSR) or Russia Day for short, this national holiday of the Russian Federation commemorates the passage of structural reform by the First Congress of People’s Deputies on this day in 1990, establishing primacy of the constitution, equal rights for all citizens and political parties and the separation of powers among three co-equal branches of government: the executive, legislative and judicial. The acclaim is not universal with quite a lot of ambivalence towards celebrating this declaration but the holiday is generally marked with awards assemblies, firework displays, parades and concerts.
Friday 21 May 2021
to russia with elton
Starting with a venue in Leningrad on this day in 1979, Elton John gave the first of a series of eight concerts in the Soviet Union, marking the largest-scale tour thus far of a Western artist (see also), preceded by smaller shows by Boney M and Keith Richards. A subsequent live broadcast from the Rossiya Concert Hall in Moscow (the evening of 28 May) that was also carried by BBC1 marked the first satellite link-up between the USSR and the West and helped diffuse geopolitical tensions at he height of the Cold War.
Sunday 2 May 2021
ะฟะต́ัั ะธ ะฒะพะปะบ
The symphonic fairy tale by Sergei Prokofiev that introduces young people to the instrumental sections of the orchestra while extolling the virtues of Soviet bravery and boldness and daring to question the dictums of the past generation (embodied in the scolding character of Grandfather) had it premier on this day at the Moscow Philharmonic in 1936. Later in the month, a much better attended performance took place at the Pioneers’ Palace, Peter being a member of this youth scouting organisation. Peter protects his animal friends (except for the duck—that is) as well as tames a fierce wolf with their help and working as a team. A 2003 recording with narration from Mikhail Gorbachev, Bill Clinton and Sophia Loren won a Grammy for best spoken-word album.
Monday 26 April 2021
7x7
and the oscar goes to: highlights and surprises from the 2021 Academy Awards
zauberwald: Robert Mertl’s forest photographer captures the aesthetic I aim for during my woodland walks
canzone russa italianizzata: the Russian Italo-Pop musical stylings of Alla Pugachevacards against humanity: the brilliantly sullen poetry of John Giorno
yahoo the destroyer: maligning the cannibalised early internet for contributing to the Digital Dark Ages via Waxy—plus a different approach to archiving going forward
the trouble with tribbles: marketing Flatcat as one’s next robotic feline companion
art of the title: film lettering over the decades
Monday 19 April 2021
dos-1
Also known by the technical designation in the acronym for long-duration orbital station, to the public and press the first launch of the Salyut (ะกะฐะปัั, salute or a hail of fireworks) programme occurred on this day in 1971, becoming the first space station (see also) from the Soviet Union and was aloft, crews conducting experiments, astronomical observations and docking manuevers until October when deorbited and replaced by the new generation module, The final vessel of the programme (DOS-8), called Zvezda, became the core of the Russian section of the International Space Station.
Monday 12 April 2021
off we go!
On this day in 1961, a Vostok I spacecraft was launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome under the call sign ะะตะดั (Siberian Cedar, see also) piloted by Yuri Gagarin (ะะฐะณะฐัะธะฝ, ะฎัะธะน *1934 - †1968), the first human to journey into outer space (previously), holding a short dialogue with flight operations during take-off. Mission control over the radio announced: “Preliminary stage… intermediate… main… Lift-Off! We wish you a good flight. Everything’s all right.” To which Gagarin replied, “ะะพะตั ะฐะปะธ! Goodbye, until soon, dear friends.” The enthusiastic interjection becoming a popular expression for Soviet progress and the start of the Space Age. Once the final stage of the rocket finished firing, the craft and cosmonaut orbited the Earth for one hundred-eight minutes, ejecting from the vessel during re-entry over Kazakhstan and descending to the ground safely harnessed to a parachute.
Wednesday 7 April 2021
7x7
silvagunner: an appreciation of the remixing collective from Kicks Condor
film festival: curate one’s own streaming series from a vast, public domain archive
re-branding: artist FAEL redesigns corporate logos with a perfect balance of retro and progressprompts and cues: remedies to exhausting monologues and fostering better conversations
metronome: a fascinating look at synchronicity
ะฑัะฐัััะฒะพ ะบะพะปััะฐ: a 1991 Russian television version of The Fellowship of the Rings (see also) resurfaces on the internet—including an appearance by Tom Bombadil whose otherwise left out of the adaptations
the only post-punk supergroup: the musical stylings of the New Age Steppers
Tuesday 23 March 2021
deorbit
After fifteen years of service, funding running out its orbit degrading and the International Space Station crewed for the first time, on this day in 2001 over the course of five hours, Mir (previously) was decommissioned by a series of manoeuvres that caused the craft to graze the upper atmosphere and break up over the southern Pacific Ocean. Though no significant debris hit land or populated areas, residents in New Zealand and Japan were told to stay indoors as no object of this size had been subject to re-entry prior.
Tuesday 16 March 2021
typhoon class
Though the working-outcome of the navy going into receivership with Pepsi was more improbable than the suggestion to retrofit a fleet of Soviet nuclear submarines as tanker ships to transport oil and natural gas was probably the less technical tenable, advisable alternative to generate capital after the nation’s dissolution. Back in 1995, at the suggestion of the governor of Arkhangelsk oblast, the location of the Russian submarine yards, one experiment was with underwater cargo shipping was undertaken—albeit with a non-strategic vessel and a manifest of foodstuffs—but not explored further due to cost-overruns and lack of funding. The logistics pitch, however, to fill-up directly from off-shore rigs and to travel the globe swiftly and virtually unimpeded (also without burning said fuel) was worth considering. Learn more at Weird Universe at the link above.
catagories: ๐ท๐บ, ๐ก️, transportation
Sunday 14 March 2021
mir eo-18
Tuesday 9 March 2021
vostok-3ka no. 1
Also known by the designation Sputnik 9 (see previously), the Soviet spacecraft launched on this day in 1961 carried a complement and crew of mice, guinea pig, a dog called Chemushka (“Blackie”) and a realistic human dummy, mannequin called Ivan Ivanovich (the equivalent of Joe Doe or Max Mustermann) that was so distressing uncanny thus prompting technicians to affix a label to his visor lest someone finding Ivan after a mission might not mistake him for an incapacitated cosmonaut or extra-terrestrial. Ivan was auctioned off after the dissolution of the Soviet Union and purchased by Ross Perot, who subsequently donated him to the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum. The mission only consisting of a single trip around the world, it was deorbited shortly
catagories: ๐ท๐บ, ๐ญ, libraries and museums, ⓦ
ัะฐะฝะธัะฐัะฝัะน ะฟะพะตะทะด
Via Messy Nessy Chic, we are exposed to the impressive portfolio of photographer Emile Ducke through his series on medical trains that service the vast reaches of Siberia with annual whistle-stops at each station to perform diagnostic exams and prescribe medicine to remote communities who otherwise go without regular health car. The locomotive Saint Lukas (Luke of Antioch, patron of surgeons and physicians) has for its caboose a chapel wagon. More to explore at the links above.
Sunday 7 February 2021
drahtfunk im amerikanischen sector
From the first broadcast on this day in 1946 from the switchboard exchange of the Reichspost on Winterfeldtstraรe in West Berlin for the next several months until a medium wave transmitter could be procured and installed, news and political reporting from the US occupational authorities for the German people, counterprogramming to what was regarded as a propaganda put out by the Soviets, could only be distributed over telephone lines, hence the original DIAS call-sign before becoming RIAS—Rundfunk in the American Sector. Following the Berlin Blockade (previously), the terrestrial sender broadcasted each Sunday at noon the chimes of the Freiheitsglocke installed in the Schรถneberg Rathaus, modelled off the Liberty Bell, followed by a short recitation from the “Declaration of Freedom.” Expanding into entertainment with the station’s own orchestra and choir, RIAS and related stations came to cover almost all of West and East Germany (see link up top), on the air until 1993, when facilities and frequency slots were handed over to Deutsche Welle, Germany’s international broadcaster.
Monday 1 February 2021
7x7
japandi: a lookbook overview of interiors that combine Japanese and Scandinavian aesthetic elements
six arms strong and true: more machinalia from Boris Artzybasheff—see previously
pharmaduke: re-captioning the Brad Anderson comic strip with psychedelic trip narratives, via Things Magazine
high stakes: revisiting a quarter-century old public wager that technology would destroy society—via Slashdot
vaccination venues: the architecture of public health promotion
house of style: supermodel Cindy Crawford guides us through Paris Fashion Week in 1992 on her MTV show
gradation: moving from binary to blended, a study of the spectrum of everyday objects commissioned for Japan’s award-winning children’s education programme Design Ah
Friday 29 January 2021
8x8
testi stampati: the riotous typographical illustratrations of Lorenzo Petrantoni
painterly realism: Nathan Shipley trained a neural network to turn portraiture into convincingly true-to-life photographs
civilian climate corps: a vision of how putting people to work on conservation projects can help save both the environment and the economynarratology: a purportedly exhaustive list of dramatic situations—see also here and here
stonx: a long thread explaining the GameStop short-squeeze—via Miss Cellania
paradoxical undressing: National Geographic forwards a new theory to account for the Dyatlov Pass Incident (previously) of 1959
butler in a box: before digital assistants there was domestic aid in the late 1980s
will success spoil rock hunter: Art of the Title looks at the opening montage of the 1957 CinemaScope classic
Tuesday 26 January 2021
7x7
paradiplomacy: an intricate Tajik teahouse in Boulder, Colorado
nivotone: brilliant restoration of a 1930s Soviet optical-analogue, electronic music synthesis—via Things
❄️: a snowflake generator—see previously
soon may the wellerman come: more sea shanties—see previously
twitchable: discovering a drive for birding under lockdown
topographic prominence: an interactive version of Switzerland’s 1845 Dufour Survey Map from Maps Mania, see also
putin’s palace: a gallery of photographs and digital renderings from blueprints of luxury property that is allegedly the Russian president’s personal retreat
Saturday 16 January 2021
ัััััะธ
First articulated out the Cyrillic script (see previously) in the Bulgarian Empire in the tenth century following a long established Greek, Ionian convention to differentiate numerals from letters when context was not exactly clear with spacers, dots and a diacritic over the glyphs called a titlo ҃ or as a prefix signalling a long string of numbers to follow ҂, like a tilde or macron. Still sometimes seen in Slavonic Church publications and in old monuments and coinage, the system was in use until the civil reforms (see also) of Peter the Great in the early seventeen hundreds when Hindu-Arabic representations were introduced and because of this centuries-long custom continued well into the early modern era, elaborate signs were developed to express powers of magnitude and in terms of both a long and short scale (lesser and greater count multiplier) for accounting and scientific purposes. Align with the Greek (rather than alphabetically), one through ten, correspond with the Cyrillic letters: ะ, ะ, ะ, ะ, ะ, ะ , ะ, ะ, ัฒ and ะ. The pictured powers of ten using the older alpha form, with the Myriad (ะขัะผะฐ) encircled ⃝ either ten-thousand or a million and Many Myriad ꙲ either one billion or 10⁵⁰.
Wednesday 30 December 2020
to moscow chicks he was such a lovely dear
In a strange twist of fate, Russian mystic Grigori Rasputin (previously) was killed on this day (New Style, 1916) coinciding with the passing with the Aruban performer Bobby Farrell (2010), whom with the disco ensemble Boney M. produced possibly the finest musical homage in the 1978 hit single (see link above) from their album Nightflight to Venus, often dressed as the charismatic for concerts. Farrell died of heart failure whist on tour in Saint Petersburg. Here is a video from the variety show TopPop.
catagories: ๐ณ๐ฑ, ๐ท๐บ, ๐ถ, ๐บ, the Caribbean