qr-trees (13. 747)

Admittedly perhaps a bit pointless and we are still, perhaps unqualifiedly, a bit wary of scanning some random, inscrutable code on the street that we don’t know where it goes just like for anything else that we don’t know where its been, we did however, courtesy of Web Curios, appreciate the aesthetic of these customisable quick-response codes represented as trees in the season of one’s choosing. A tap on the sharable image reveals the grid. The QR just links to PfRC, we promise. The matrix barcodes have been around since 1994 and were invented by a Japanese company specialising in machine readable labels called Denso Wave for stock control of automotive parts. The website also sells products in the form of other images to decode in different genres and styles—some of which are marked nonsensically as sold-out.

operation paul bunyan (13. 719)

On this day in 1976, in an assignment taking place on the southern side of the “Bridge of No Return” near Panmunjon (see previously here and here), the joint security area of the DMZ where both sides were allowed access and freedom of movement in the shared Peace Village, to prune a tree that was obscuring the view from South Korea from their northernmost observation post, two soldiers were killed by North Korean forces trying to stop the trimming job, despite being pre-approved by both governments. DEFCOM was raised from three to four for the first time since the Arab-Israeli war three years prior. In response, three days later, the US carried out a show of force, consisting of a detachment of three-hundred American servicemen supported by helicopter gunships and B-52 fighter-bombers, to reemphasise US to protect the territorial integrity of South Korea, finished the job of felling the twelve-metre tall poplar that had caused the international incident, which otherwise would have only lost a few branches.

 

synchronoptica

one year ago: a more cordial meeting of the leaders of the US and Ukraine (with synchronoptica) plus the Society for the Verification and Enjoyment of Fascinating Names of Actual Persons

two years ago: a philosophical cartoon plus amplified contagion

three years ago: divine connections plus more mushrooming

four years ago: the Feast of St Helen, a historic glider flight plus more unuseless machines

five years ago: your daily demon, more disfluent typefaces, masking mandates, Schoolhouse Rock! plus the promise of a fully phonetic font

six years ago: AI generated Roman emperors, Michelle Obama virtually addresses the Democratic National Convention, women’s suffrage in the United States (1920), Republican Nation Convention guest speakers, more constructed languages, data-visualisations as art plus forty adaptations of Hamlet

terra deserta (13. 673)

Mid-grade curious as to why the descriptor wilderness was likewise applied to the deserts spaces of the Bible and to our more conventional understanding of untamed forests, we found this excerpt from a new book by Cal Flyn on the savage landscape rather inexhaustibly fascinating. Though these habitats might seem poles apart—with only spirtual challenges lurking in the former, medieval monks in the Europe after the collapse of the Western Roman Empire solidified parallels between the tribulations of the prophets, the desert mothers and fathers, and the rewilding of vast swaths of land in Provence, Bretagne, Burgundy and Transylvania and other former colonies saw a sharp decline in population and many villages, villas and fortifications abandoned along with fallow fields that allowed the return of the forest primeval. Returning from the brink of extinction, with attendant lore and literature surrounding the liminal woodlands at the edge of cultivation and urbanisation became an allegory for the trepidation of earlier time out of mind, causing a stark rebellion against the encroachment of the undomesticated with commiserate suspicion for its denizens both human and non-human, transmogrifying contemporary fears of famine and pestilence to remote dwellers, bears and werewolves, though counter-narratives also prevailed with the ancient masonry of ruins repurposed as churches and city walls.

9x9 (13. 621)

space jam: erythrulose, a simple sugar found in raspberries and fake-tan lotion, detected in an interstellar cloud  

vindolandia: a Roman “genius”—a familiar and household spirit sculpture discovered at Hadrian’s Wall  

the kingdom of hyrule: hand-drawn maps of the The Legend of Zelda, the land inspired by the Kyoto countryside, with a bestiary of monsters 

our lives are woven together in a fabric—but the connections that make society strong also make it vulnerable: the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists on the legacy and lessons of Threads—via tmn  

médicos sin fronteras: US launches a global pressure campaign against Cuba’s last lifelines, exporting expert physicians 

the escherian stairwell: the invented legend of an impossible campus architectural feature and a perpetual downward loop 

clipart.studio: make and share cut-out collages from the Internet Archive’s magazine collection—via Waxy  

the lore of the rings: science is only beginning to appreciate the richness of the archives inside trees  

pop iii: astronomers scan the skies for elusive non-metallic behemoths, the first stars in the Cosmos

9x9 (13. 570)

general magic: an ambitious project to create the smart phone (see below) in the early 1990s failed over lack of constraint and too much freedom, not lack of vision, talent or technology

odyssey: charting the great journeys of fiction—see also  

humphrey’ executor: US supreme court strikes down federal laws that prevent the president from firing heads of (some) independent agencies—see previously  

don’t swear jerry—and don’t bleed in the sink, i’ve just cleaned it: actor and comedian Penelope Keith has died, aged 89  

🧸: Nuigurumi Jinja (Plushie Shire) dedicated in northern Kyoto for honouring beloved stuffed animals—see also here and here 

keedoozle: the grocery store vending machine of the 1930s 

 île de peliz: the solitary natural islet of Lake Geneva, with room for a plane tree  

hypergraphia: history’s most prolific writers 

how about this: 1960s housewife and the pocket phone of the future

synchronoptica

one year ago:  a walk along the beach at Gârves (with synchronoptica) plus assorted links to revisit

two years ago: a visit to the Rocco di Caldè 

three years ago: animatronic Trump, an updated We Didn’t Start the Fire plus US supreme court strikes down affirmative action for college admissions

four years ago: goodwill ambassador Samantha Reed Smith 

five years ago: cartoonist Thornton Hee plus a record-setting Van Gogh auction (1987)

six years ago: Quo Vadis,  the feast of SS Peter and Paul, the debut of the iPhone (2007), a chiptune classic, exotic crisps plus Japanese train station jingles

the green mile (13. 555)

In the forest near the settlement of Klevan, Rivne Oblast, in northwestern Ukraine there is a leafy green corridor referred to as the Tunnel of Love (Тунель Кохання), a favourite spot for couples to take a romantic stroll, a section of industrial railway as their walk is only interrupted by freight trains three or four times a day. The verdant arches owning their existence to these routine crossings rather than the design of any intentional Edward Scissorhands landscaping—the track’s shoulders of this three-kilometre section not maintained relying on the locomotives to do the trimming of any errant growth blocking the path. More impressions from Kuriositas at the link above.

synchronoptica

one year ago: a stroll along the beach (with synchronoptica)

two years ago: a visit to a historic hermitage  

three years ago: Belarusian intervention halts march to Moscow, the struggle to keep journalism solvent, The Firebird (1910) plus the primary confessions of the Lutheran faith (1530)

four years ago: assorted links worth the revisit 

five years ago: jimoto Starbucks,  McDonaldland and other trippy ads plus word jazz

six years ago: demonyms,  Rhode Island renamed, Blade Runner (1982), butterfly spotting plus a repatriated painting

9x9 (13. 533)

biometrics: the after effects of gamification of physical activity—sometimes I want to launch my pedometer and everything else into the Sun 

sovereign wealth fund: Bernie Sanders’ proposal to cede control and profits of AI to the American public  

cinecope: an archive of rare and rarefied films—via Web Curios  

battle of the bit: an authoritative archive of chiptune and MIDI renditions  

otome: the rise of synthetic, choose-your-own-adventure romance  

a privet matter: a farmer hacks down China’s lonely tree—see also here and here  

chromacity: the colours on the spectrum that your screens cannot deliver—via MetaFilter  

a show of hands: designing more finger-friendly haptics for our devices—plus dispelling old myths, via Waxy  

dark flow: how your scrolling addiction was built off casino gambling

mare e monti (13. 480)

 

Driving to the clifftop of Col de la Croix in Osani, we took a hike down the verdant slope through the nature reserve of the peninsula of La Scandola, the oldest on the island and included in the UNESCO registry, down in the direction of the gulf of Girolata. There are three such “mountain and sea” trails in Corsica and our short walk was only a tiny portion of the system of long-distance trails along the western coast.

Though we didn’t quite make it to the isolated, former fishing village—touted by boating excursion operators as an abandoned pirate town, most of whom are not allowed to lay anchor there, we discovered, and so a little suspect as a tourist trap—accessible otherwise only by foot, we nonetheless had a very nice walk through the woods punctuated with stretches of marquis shrubland of savanna-like evergreens, myrtle and oleander—called machja in Corsican, the ground cover gives off a distinctive piney aroma, and discovered a pebble beach in one of the coves which we had all to ourselves, sharing it only with a couple of sedate cows.  

the navy vs the night monsters (13. 446)

Produced by Jack Broder and Roger Corman (see previously here and here and here) and starring Mamie Van Doren, Billy Gray and Anthony Eisley, the B-movie on the trailing end of a spate of films about botanical beasts premiered in theatres on this day in 1966. The plot involves an expedition returning from the Antarctic with samples of ancient flora, stopping off a remote US navy weather station in the South Pacific for refuelling—the thawing cargo awakens as nocturnal, motile trees that decimate the crew of the station.spewing acid on their victims. Once communications to the outside world is reestablished, the handful of survivors are rescued when napalm is dropped on the island. Whilst not faring well with contemporary audience nor upon reevaluation, not amounting to anything like a cult classic, cast and crew in part were persuaded to take part in the project on the credentials of the author of the sci-fi novel that the movie was based on—albeit it loosely and considerably padded post-production to get it to ninety-minutes in length—and almost quit en masse upon learning the title and that the US military would be the calvary. Adapted from the 1959 The Monster at the Earth’s End by prolific writer Murray Leinster, reviving the trope of what’s frozen at the South Pole is best left frozen there, Leinster’s catalogue of plot devices and imagination mark the first instance of the use, with enduring influence, of several standards of the genre: first contact (over which the writer’s estate tried to sue Star Trek), universal translators, parallel universes and timelines, a networked computer that would provide a media for communication, commerce and entertainment—the terminal called a logic and servers called tanks—orbiting space stations, tractor beams, terraforming, panspermia as well as the television series Time Tunnel and Land of the Giants.

bamberger bürgerpark (13. 396)

Taking a short stroll through the village of Bug, we crossed the bridge south of the city to the massive public green space bordered by the Main-Danube canal and the Regnitz called the Theresienhain and took a long walk around the park’s perimeter. 

 The Franciscan order was donated the village palace with its mansard roof for its missionary work in India and Sri Lanka, the former royal forestry office of the Kingdom of Bavaria—and is the only branch of the brotherhood in operation in Germany. 

Designed in the style of Munich’s English Garden in 1803, the commission of Maximilian I, the area was preserved during renovations and expansion of the inland waterway and shipping channel, and the forest, rewilded, true to the route that writer ETA Hoffmann took through the Hain on his brainstorming walks for inspiration, and is dotted with pavilions, monuments (including one to the author himself) and a so called druid temple, Monopteros (see also) as well as sports facilities and a botanical garden. 

We stopped at a former boathouse that was converted into an open air tavern and sampled some more beers as a band played before returning to the campsite.

9x9 (13. 382)

aegis: a unique monumental statue of Athena uncovered in western Türkiye (ancient Laodicea) whose breastplate is follows the description of Book VIII of Virgil’s Aeneid  

alien abduction: conspiracy theorists connect spate of missing US nuclear scientists to UFOs—see more  

big tree stories: a hunt for the world’s tallest firs and imagining prehistoric forests studded with such giants—via MetaFilter  

₂he: although the second most abundant element in the Cosmos, the noble gas is hard to come by on Earth—via Web Curios  

frozen conflict: like the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Trump’s war of choice likely to be a simmering, unresolved stalemate 

wishful hinking: an 1987 edition of the Collins Dictionary contains a trap word (see also), presumably to counter plagiarism 

paper theatre: home entertainment flourished during the Regency Period for lack of sufficient live venues  

νεῶν κατάλογος: golden tongued (so they can speak in the afterlife) Roman era mummies found in Egypt’s Minya governorate, whose tomb contains a manuscript of Book II of Homer’s Iliad, the Catalogue of Ships—via Kottke

8x8 (13. 334)

queen bee: the fascinating life-cycle of bumblebee matriarchs includes the ability to breath underwater  

zweeeeëg: dizygotic, fraternal words and other Danish and Luxembourgish orthography, including vanilleijs  

pork johnson: the spoof trailer for the feature film on Gimp, the Photoshop alternative, starring a puppet warthog and reminiscent of Social Network  

ranger danger: the Trump administration eviscerates the US forest service, see previously—via Kottke  

byline: World Press photos of the year  

₿: the investigator who unmasked the creator of the cryptocurrency—see previously  

to wit: the lost intimacy and nuance of extinct Old English pronouns  

regina apoidea: the brilliant physical acting of Joan Crawford presented as slap-fest

rundweg rhönblick (13. 223)

For a warm and sunny day on this first meteorological day of Spring, H and I returned to Höhe Geba (see previously, see also) and explored a circular path named after Helmershausen native son, novelist, physician and avid wanderer Dr Theo Malade through a juniper heath, past the source of a mountain spring and to a shelter on the western slope of the plateau, overlooking the Leichelberg (see above). 

 Inside the Hütte, there was an information board with the lyrics to Das Rhönlied, the 1912 regional anthem by Andreas Fack (“Zieh an die Wanderschuh / Und nimm den Rucksack auf, / Und wirf die Sorgen ab / Marschier zur Rhön hinauf!”—see also) and a stamp for one’s hiking card. 

The path led back through the eponymous village on the plateau, remote and with only fifty-seven residents even smaller than our hometown, which had an interesting octagonal church and historic schoolhouse.

jardin del edén (13. 093)

Via tmn, we are taken on a tour of the groves of the Todolí foundation on the east coast of Valcencia, which produces over five hundred varieties of uncommon citrus, the largest collection in the world, fostering a natural refuge for endemic frogs, birds and pollinators—whilst supplying markets and gourmet restaurants, promoting biodiversity and conducting research to bear these usual fruits through the changing climate and to come out on the other side with more harmonious and sustainable farm to table strategies. Humans are the only primates that have lost the ability to produce vitamin C internally and need to supplement their diet accordingly. There are twelve groupings: citrons, pummelos, mandarins, papaya, sweet and bitter oranges, lemons, limes, grapefruit, kumquats and trifoliate with exotic examples of the latter in the Buddha’s Hand and exquisite finger limes. Much more on the wide spectrum of citrus at the links above.

9x9 (12. 962)

content without context: think twice before making that AI generated video—especially featuring a cameo of yourself 

things that aren’t doing the thing: anticipation is not the same as execution 

dead wood: the evolution, anatomy and biological system of our tree friends  

lightbox: TIME magazine’s photos of the year  

inbox: a clever way of researching and processing the tranches of email released by the Epstein estate with an interface that’s like going through one’s own account from Like Igel and Riley Walz (previously)—via Web Curios  

traceroute: an overview of how the series of tubes work 

the dog’s pyjamas: dressing up canines has a longer history than one might expect—via Strange Company  

never break the chain: streaks are important motivators and one should pair new habits and practise with “micro-versions” to avoid feeling derailed 

$spsc: Trump’s World Liberty Financial (see previously) promotes another shock token as a legitimate store of wealth

synchronoptica

one year ago: assorted links to revisit (with synchronopticæ) plus the discovery of the first pulsar (1967)

fourteen years ago: sociologist Jürgen Habermas on post-democratic Europe 

fifteen years ago: more flea market finds plus security theatre and a crackdown on counterfeits 

9x9 (12. 865)

amor fati: Fredrich Nietzsche’s philosophy (previously) of passing on engagement can break the cycle of polarisation without becoming disengaged and nihilistic 

the memes of production: the internet reacts to Zohran Mamdani’s mayorial win in New York City  

unpaving paradise: an urban greening game to optimise replacing parking spaces in Berlin with trees  

№: why number is English is abbreviated n-o 

no springs: a hypnotic video of manufacturing robots politely waiting their turn in the assembly process—see also  

alive internet theory: a seance with the vibrant web and all its expressive artefacts against the countervailing argument it has become overrun by bots—see also—via Waxy 

gathering wool: online apparel retailers in China employ oversized hangtags to curb high return rates  

hatch act violation: US federal judge rules administration overstepped its bounds by inserting partisan blaming into furloughed government employees’ out-of-office autoreplies  

bleak outlook: astronomical survey deposits galaxy could be riddled with the artefacts of long dead alien civilisations that could avoid destroying themselves—we suppose that depends on what sort of religion they develop—see also, see previously—via MetaFilter

synchronoptica

one year ago: a monument to the Armenian diaspora (with synchronopticæ), the Carrington count, backstage customs plus US presidential numbering

fourteen years ago: food and drink prohibited plus Inventors’ Day