The unrecognised, break-away region of South Ossetia, in northern Georgia on the border with Russia willhold a referendum shortly for the fifty thousand residents of the militarily occupied territory to decide whether or not to begin the accession process to and be absorbed by its neighbour. The other break-away region, Abkhazia, maintains it has no such plans at the present. Declaring independence in 1991 with the dissolution of the Soviet Union, Russian forces have held de facto control since the 2008 Georgian-Russo conflict. The last time the Russia Federation annexed the land of another sovereign country was when it took Crimea from Ukraine in 2014, incorporating the independent Republic of Crimea and the federal city of Sevastopol after a much shorter period of transition lasting only weeks.
Thursday 31 March 2022
Monday 28 March 2022
for my military knowledge, though i’m plucky and adventury has only been brought down to the beginning of the century
Caveats against drawing parallels respected, we quite enjoyed this lyrical military assessment of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine at a month on, which not only highlights how the aggressor is doing a reverse of what they did to Napoleon—as expounded by history and Tolstoy, but as one commentator finds, the rank inexperience and hubris of the Gilbert and Sullivan character (see previously). Here’s a couple of stanzas for an excerpt:
I am the very model of a Russian Major General
My standing in the battlefield is growing quite untenable
My forces, though equipped and given orders unequivocal
Did not expect the fight to be remotely this reciprocal
I used to have a tank brigade but now I have lost several
My fresh assaults are faltering with battle plans extemporal
I can’t recover vehicles but farmers in a tractor can
It’s all becoming rather reminiscent of Afghanistan
Friday 18 March 2022
you have the true heart of russia
prank calls
Both the UK defence minister and and home secretary took video calls earlier this week from imposters claiming to be the Ukrainian prime minister and were posed leading questions in an attempt to solicit inappropriate and provocative responses but quickly saw through the hoax. Though unclear what party was behind it, officials are blaming Russian disinformation campaigns and the fact that fraudsters could gain access to top ministers is worrying regardless of motive—the report ending with a linguistic coda touching on the topic of shibboleths and that future callers should be credentialed or outed by how they pronounce palianytsia, a traditional kind of roll, that Russian speakers pronounce with a soft <ฤญ> instead of <ะธ>.
Monday 14 March 2022
7x7
be kind, rewind: the miniature dioramas of Marina Totino—via Waxy
doobly doo: recreating a Hallstatt period hair-style
wck: more on Josรฉ Andrรฉs’ World Central Kitchen (previously) and its work in Ukraineit is better to conquer our grief than to deceive it: solace from the Stoics and other timeless words of wisdom—via Messy Nessy Chic
blogoversary: Kottke turns twenty-four
the wife of ฯ: a Pi Day (previously) round-up—plus this one
family pictures: artist Martha Naranjo Sandoval reanimates antique stereoscopic photos
Sunday 13 March 2022
6x6
choose your own adventure: the character-driven photography of Grzegorz Kurzejamski invites the viewer to create a narrative for them
warp and werf: the Scottish Register of Tartans welcomes a new Ukrainian pattern
(oh what a night): reaching number one on American charts on this day in 1976, the Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons hit was originally called “Fifth December 1933” and about the end of Prohibition
cat naps: Hosei University researches what humans can glean from feline sleep patterns
toad town: an exhaustive collection of level maps from many video game franchises—via Things Magazine
photovoltaics: the photographic portfolio of Catherine Canac-Marquis
Tuesday 8 March 2022
7x7
hopeful seals: the Cinderella stamp art of Nina Dzulkska
rock, paper, scissors: the colour-coded courtship of male side-blotched lizardsunrest: the harp jazz of Brandee Younger
sessho-seki: a volcanic rock on Mount Nasu said to contain a malevolent spirit has split open
heardle: a Name That Tune style game—via Kottke’s Quick Links
ten times incalculable: The Atlantic correspondent Ed Yong speaks to our collective numbing to the news
potemkin stairs: the Odessa Opera in 1942 and today
Monday 7 March 2022
forwarding order
Though not quite undertaken as an official act of righteous odonymy just yet (see previously here and here), we discover that a group of peaceful protesters have re-addressed the Russian embassy in Washington, DC so that correspondence and directions point to Zelenskyy Way. We’ll see if this temporary re-designation might become something permanent.
Sunday 6 March 2022
8x8
wayfinder: Polynesian palm frond and seashell navigational charts
zoned for resimercial: reaction offices and the future of the workplace
the final nail in the coffin: a proposal for a casket one drills in the groundsuch freedom: a convoy of truckers whose grievance is less clear picks up some hitchhikers along the way in the form of a la carte conspiracy theories
fashion forward: RIP to Elsa Klench (*1930) host of the long running Style segment on CNN
don’t know much about geology: James Sowerby’s 1884 illustrated study of catastrophic British mineralogy
the neutra house: the hilltop compound that belongs to Red Hot Chilli Pepper Flea has strong evil villain lair energy—and is on the market—via Nag on the Lake’s Sunday Links
glonass: mapping tools and satellite imagery as a prelude to the information war over Ukraine
Saturday 5 March 2022
black tulip
Premiered in 2019 during the Venice Film Festival and the country’s Oscar entry for 2021, the Ukrainian dystopian, post-apocalyptic Atlantis by Valentyn Vasyanovych is set in 2025 and profiles the trials of a recovery organisation in a desolate wildness rendered arid and nearly uninhabitable after a protracted war with Russia and securing an arguably pyrrhic victory with asymmetrical fighting—with the message ultimately hopeful and optimistic rather than the cynical echoes of the reputed words of Caledonian chieftain Calgacus who fought the Romans in Scotland: they make a desert and call it peace. Categorised at least formerly as science fiction, the movie is available for streaming and to invoke another loose quotation, this time by Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, “There are decades where nothing happens; and there are weeks when decades happen.”
Thursday 3 March 2022
callsign cossack
Originally designed to transport Buran orbiting vehicles in the mid-1980s, the strategic airlift cargo plane, Antonov AN-225 ‘ะััั’ (Inspiration) was a unique aircraft boasting the greatest weight of any flight-worthy piece of equipment and longest wingspan. Aside from its impressive capacity (the hold at 44 meters in length could contain the first flight of the Wright Brothers at Kittyhawk), there were proposals to retrofit the plane as a mid-air launch pad. The freight vehicle only which saw commercial applications aside from a single test-flight in 1989 with the space shuttle, drawing many spectators to watch its scheduled take-offs and landings, was destroyed in its hangar at the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine during the battle for Antonov Airport outside of Hostomel.
8x8
wild chapluns and pea beasts: the vibrant art of Maria Prymachenko, via Kottke
ill-gotten assets: those who are tracking the jets, yachts and other property of sanctioned Russian oligarchs, via Maps Mania (with more resources)
subway hands: a collection by Hannah La Follette Ryan—via Everlasting Blรถrt
blades & brass: a 1967 short to commemorate the first indoor hockey match, held on this day in 1875
nostromo: a sixty-second Alien remake using household items (see also)
try to keep up: five news take-aways for today
megamix: Hood Internet (previously) celebrates entering the Naughts with a 90s retrospective, via Boing Boing
world central kitchen: chef and humanitarian Josรฉ Andrรฉs helps out in Ukraine, via Super Punch
Tuesday 1 March 2022
6x6
serenade: French illustrator Gaspard portrays musicians harmonising with feathered friends in lush settings
bon temps roulez, mes amis: New Orleans celebrates its first full-scale Marti Gras in two years
donzig: a rather clever mashup of Donna Summers and Danzig’s cover of The Doors’ Mother
complications: a clock face engineered to make telling the time a challenge—see also
displaced persons: a historical pamphlet on the situation in Ukraine following World War II
aux in: a superlative collection of boom-boxes from Japan
Monday 28 February 2022
horodecki house
Via the always excellent Everlasting Blรถrt, we learn about the remarkable Art Nouveau structure that has been the backdrop of President Zelenskyy’s latest dispatches to the nation and the world, opposite his office at № 10 Bankova Street in Kyiv. Also known as the House with Chimaeras, it was created by architect Wลadysลaw Horodecki in 1902 as a luxury apartment block and features a number of ornate decorative elements of rhinoceros, elephants, lotuses, giant catfish grotesques and frog battlements by sculptor Emilio Sala, earning the collaboration high praise and comparison to Anton Gaudรญ. With occupants including a safari club, sugar baron and exclusive clinic for party elite, it is presently used as a governmental residence and conference centre. More at the links above.
catagories: ๐ต๐ฑ, ๐บ๐ฆ, antiques, architecture
Saturday 26 February 2022
uncontrolled deorbit
Unhinged and counter to the continued spirit of competition and cooperation that sustained a polarised world—at least until billionaires started sucking all the air of the room with their ambitions, the chief of the Russian space agency (Roscosmos) suggests that a not asymmetrical response to mounting sanctions levied against Russia for invading Ukraine would be to crash the International Space Station with North America, Europe, India or China all being within the path of impact. While Russia modules do help keep the five-hundred tonne structure aloft and help to dodge space debris, the process would note be immediate and orbit would degrade over several years, with time for it to be restored.
8x8
squirrel monkey: imagining Wordle vintage 1985—see also
ะผะธััะตััะฒะพ: Ukrainian art community despairs as invasion advances
rumble: the overlooked musical virtuosity of Link Wray
snake island: Ukrainian soldiers stand their ground and face off a battleship defending a military outpost on Zmiinyi, the rocky islet where Achilles was entombed
regression to the mean: a spate of controversial laws passed in the US to curtail discussions in classroom that would make straight, white cis people uncomfortable (previously)
existential crisis: dread creeps into the everyday and makes it difficult to focus on what’s vital and the ultimately inconsequential
ะฐัั ััะตะบัััะฝะพั: Ukrainian designers and architects fight back against Russian incursion
acrophobia: sociable early internet word game that solicited wrong answers only plus several contemporaries
Tuesday 22 February 2022
7x7
orientation: Ivan Reitman’s (RIP) student film
times contrarian: Neil Young (previously) publishes his own digital newspaper
twosday: a once in a life-time quirk of the calendar—be sure to celebrate this mirror day
a notoriously unpredictable english tetragraph: all the different ways to say -ough
genehmigung gestoppt: German halts approval process for pipeline (previously) bypassing Ukraine after Russia invades
mother-in-law-doors: elevated thresholds in Newfoundland have a questionable origin (see also)—via Miss Cellania’s Links
Sunday 13 February 2022
format cells
Though admitted one to slightly whinge at idea of spreadsheet software being used to make sign-in rosters as its highest calling, we are rather taken with the Excel art (see also) of Oleksiy Sai that provides commentary on corporate culture and office politics, noting that the hierarchy and norms while perhaps the youngest iteration of courtly etiquettes are probably the best-defined and most condemned in their breach of protocol. More at the artist’s website and Calvert Journal at the link up top.
Thursday 11 November 2021
♡̂
Although one might be forgiven that the initial summary conclusion of semiotician—a student of processes and signifiers, like flow-charts and equations—Charles K. Bliss (*1897 - †1895, born Karl Kasiel Blitz in the Austro-Hungarian Empire but migrated to Australia after the war and release from concentration camps via Shanghai) was that the strife in his homeland was caused by the inability to communicate, we suppose that one only need look at his Blissymbols as a precursor (see also) to our extended character-set of emoji. The constructed ideographic writing system first expounded in 1949 and elaborated subsequently, even assigned its own ISO script block. Originally championed as a heuristic for teaching grammar to those with learning challenges, a set of Blissymbols were adapted into the universal suite of directional and informational glyphs found at train terminals, airports, stadia and hotels following the tourist explosion and jet-setting of the 1960s. More to explore at the links above.
Saturday 6 November 2021
9x9
the audience effect: fellow blogger and internet caretaker Duck Soup passes a million page-views
ะณัะฐัะธัะบะธ ะดะธะทะฐัะฝ: celebrating the works of three pioneering Serbian graphic designers and topographers
mountain view: a prop gravesite used for film and television, interred and disinterred thousands of times, in a very real cemetery
subject matter expert: the street photography of Eric Kogan—via the morning newsutter rubbish: traumatising photographs of the garbage, sometimes neatly knolled, that humans produce
the briefing: a definitive guide to COP 26
greased falcon: a fan-channel dedicated to Star Wars! The Musical (2008)
time in a bottle: hackers are amassing encrypted data in the hopes that within a few years, quantum computers will be able to unlock it—via Slashdot
return to comfort town: more on brilliant housing development in Kyiv inspired by building blocks—see previously