Having previously looked at the linguistic phenomenon of boomerang terms, we were intrigued by this post on Japanese borrowings and re-borrowings inspired by the recent addition of a couple dozen loanwords by the OED, whose lexicographer nominated them partially due to their propensity for being reincorporated with nuance. We found it especially fascinating that “no good” is in usage on par with OK in Japan—even appearing adjacent in emoji sorting, collation (see also) as its antonym—despite not being in common parlance or even recognisable in its source language. Many of the new inclusions are cuisine- and cultural-related, like kintsugi and omotenashi, the fusion of hospitality and circumspection that become more widely known by the 2020 Summer Games in Tokyo. The whole list and more discussion from Language Log at the link above. How many are you acquainted with, hontลni?
Saturday 20 April 2024
Thursday 18 April 2024
10x10 (11. 496)
the cloud under the seas: the fleet of secret submarine cable repair ships
sarbox: US Supreme Court appears skeptical about charging January Sixth rioters with obstruction of justice as defined by a law made in the aftermath of the Enron accounting scandal
mix-and-match orthography: how Japanese writers navigate a choice between four writing systems (see also)—via Cardhouse
walled gardens have deep roots: the imperative of rewilding (previously) the internet lest the duopolies take over—via Waxybongo bash: Wild Stereo Drums (1961)
embroidered surveillance: cross-stitch works of closed-circuit security camera footage
the questor tapes: a 1974 television sci-fi drama about an android with incomplete programming by Star Trek alumni Gene L Coon, D C Fontana and Gene Roddenberry—via r/Obscure Media
tegelwippen: Dutch towns compete to remove garden paving and embrace weeds—via Miss Cellania
voir dire: jury selection continues for the criminal trial of Donald J Trump—with some potential jurors being unintentionally doxed by the media
atlas 2.0: Boston Dynamics’ new humanoid robot
synchronoptica
one year ago: Atelier Elvira, an unwoke chatbot plus assorted links worth revisiting
two years ago: more gachapons plus an introduction to risography
three years ago: the launch of the Disney Channel (1983), an experimental light house plus Wham in China (1985)
four years ago: more links to enjoy, the International Amateur Radio Union plus The Spirits Book (1897)
five years ago: concrete monoliths moved by hand plus Mueller Report redactions
Sunday 24 March 2024
11x11 (11. 448)
inauspicious beginnings: a rift opens up in a group of official astrologers employed by the Sri Lankan government to pick ideal dates for new years rituals
disco arabesquo: record label Habibi Funk aims to introduce Middle Eastern vintage music to wider audiences
typecraft: a transformative font foundry in India
the allegory of the cave: on the twenty-fifth anniversary of the film’s premiere, we may be still trapped in the Matrixbanjaxed and bockety: two curious Irish terms
der buch der hasengeschichten: Tom Seidmann-Freud’s 1924 collection of hare fables
working for tips: bizarrely robot baristas will accept gratuities, in a service sector landscape already fraught with insecurity and precarity—via tmn
the juice is on the loose: a sequel thirty-six years in the making, reuniting the original cast—via Miss Cellania
international system of typographic picture education: an archive of the pictograms of Gerd Arntz—see previously
pocket full of kryptonite: the preponderance of alternative rock songs about Superman in the 1990s, 2000s
prosopometamorphopsia: a new study on generalised social anxiety disorder tries to see from the perspective of those with a rare condition that causes faces to appear distorted, demonic—via the New Shelton wet/dry
Thursday 14 March 2024
7x7 (11. 421)
triple word score: the undisputed champion of competitive Scrabble
boyard cigarettes: unused geisha footage for an Offworld advertising campaign
statutory interpretation: a forthcoming book on the ideology of originalism and its malleabilitythe apprehension engine: custom suspenseful sounds for horror movie incidental music—via Things Magazine
penmanship: the resurgence of cursive—see previously
raktajino: a supercut of Klingon coffee in Star Trek: DS-9
game theory: selfishness and enlightened self-interest through the lens of novelist and philosopher Iris Murdoch
Saturday 9 March 2024
8x8 (11. 411)
๐ซ: the origins of the circle-and-slash prohibition symbol, its adoption as an ISO standard coinciding with 1984’s Ghost Busters
return to sender: as part of the Prize Papers Project, a pristine Faroese hand-knitted sweater was discovered in an impounded parcel from 1807
electronic labyrinth: the 1967 student film from George Lucas that would be later reworked into the featuresnowdrops: Robert Marsham’s Indications of Spring (1789)
clairaudient: more on Rosemary Brown with other classical compositions from beyond the grave
if it doesn’t exist on the internet, it doesn’t exist: as of the beginning of the year, the venerable repository, the Ubuweb whose founder Kenneth Goldsmith is famous for the axiom, of the avant-garde has gone into archive-mode—via Web Curios
sella rotalis: Paul de Livron crafts beautiful wooden wheelchairs, including one for the Pope
belinda new: exploring the typography of Oscar nominated films
Sunday 25 February 2024
11x11 (11. 380)
sure, write stuff for free—but write it for yourself: maintaining one’s creativity in the bleak media sector brickwalling and the loss of journalistic records
rage-baiting: viral Tik-Tok couple troll influencer culture with such precision most don’t realise it’s satire—via Super Punch
the paint explainer: a primer on the twenty-seven amendments to the US Constitution—via Memo of the Air
dark dimensions: there’s a new theory about where dark matter might be hiding
the sony smartwig: a 2016 patent granted for a connected hairpiece one pairs with their phone for tactile feedbackthe navel on an orange is a mutation that created a conjoined twin: weird information to dispense on a first date—via Nag on the Lake’s Sunday Links
the riker manoeuvre: small towns with monuments to Star Trek characters—via Marginal Revolution
selectric funeral: the Boston Typewriter Orchestra hopes to appear in NPR’s Tiny Desk Concert with this submission
awful yet lawful: US Supreme Court to entertain grievances on social media moderation for deplatforming hateful and dangerous content
multi-level marketing: a supercut of huckster Donald Trump’s merchandising scams
you can out-buzzfeed buzzfeed after all: media group in takeover talks with UK’s The Independent—see previously
Friday 23 February 2024
10x10 (11. 374)
walden 7: photographer Sebastian Weiss captures the epic nature of an outstanding apartment block in Barcelona
shootball: January Sixth themed pinball machines and other Republican swag at the Conservative Political Action Conference—see previously
swimming with sharks: an overview of the hidden terror that’s haunted, informed humanity for millenniagoogle blobs: the animated emoji character set that ought to be brought back—via Web Curios
38°n: a news source on North Korea rex melly: the riches of Mansa Musa of the Mail Empire—adjusting for inflation and other factors, possibly the wealthiest person in history
shift to socials: Vice Media is folding, laying off hundreds of journalists—via Waxy—see more
pale usher: introducing a blog mini-series on Moby Dick with a curious etymology
every sperm is sacred: following the ruling in Alabama that grants personhood to frozen embryos—and the subsequent suspension of IVF treatment for fear of legal implications—conservative think tank forming Trump’s policy wants to end recreational sex
batpole: homes with alternate stairwells—see previously
Saturday 10 February 2024
7x7 (11. 338)
homing: Nikola Tesla’s love for pigeons and telepathy—via Strange Company
‽: more on the interrobang—see previously
stringe-watching: the opposite of binging a series to indulge in the experience
hash mark: the works of artist Ding Yi coinage: TikTok has seen an (irritating) explosion in linguistic novelties to promote niche microtrends—via Miss Cellania
in the aeroplane over the seas: Neutral Milk Hotel covers for the album’s anniversary
castro street: Bruce Baillie films Riverside, California in 1966
synchronoptica
one year ago: assorted links to revisit, Tapestry (1971) plus a pioneering hypertext novel
two years ago: the Dread Pirate Roberts plus a geographical challenge
three years ago: the Simpsons’ intro, the feast of St Scholastica, vernacular ceramics, no fly free zones plus profiting from conspiracy
four years ago: more Orange Menace
five years ago: more links to enjoy
Thursday 1 February 2024
we don’t service your type here (11. 311)
Incredibly just introduced in 1994 (we thought that font snobbery and people, ourselves included, being so vested in these details had been going on for much longer), we enjoyed this excerpt from a new book outlining the history of the much-maligned Comic Sans, designed by Microsoft employee Vincent Connare (also creating the typeface Trebuchet and the rather cryptic levitating businessman emoji) in order to give a friendlier look for a new user interface the company was developing, more legible and scalable than the default Times New Roman, inspired by comic book captions and speech bubbles. Despite its reputation as ugly, ubiquitous and misuse, studies have shown that its superior legibility can help with retention and comprehension, particularly for those with dyslexia and Connare takes no offence to the endless barrage of insults. More on Thomas Steeles’ book at It’s Nice That at the link above.
synchronoptica
one year ago: The Bird Cage (1973) plus assorted links worth revisiting
two years ago: Bush meets Yeltsin (1992), more links to enjoy, Late Night with David Letterman (1982) plus a classic Neil Young album (1972)
three years ago: Kepler’s Cosmic Bowl, Anglicisms in Greek, Imbolc, more links, a historical sci-fi glossary plus a huge graphic design archive
four years ago: Trump on trial by a jury of his peers, the overcrowded mail-order mattress field, AI facial morphs plus an immersive art experience
five years ago: Iceland’s prime minister, disembodied intelligence, more mass-transit upholstery plus women’s suffrage in Switzerland
Wednesday 31 January 2024
8x8 (11. 309)
that spells primbci: Neuralink begins trials on human volunteers—see previously
infinite craft: drag and drop fundamental elements to make new materials, from Neal Agarwal—previously
gboard caps: search engine Japan team designs a hat (ๅธฝใใผใธใงใณ) that typesdouble feature: more command-line movies from ASCII Theatre—see previously
once you pop, you can’t stop: the weird and secretive world of crisp flavours—via Present/&/Correct
vier-tage woche: German companies experimenting with a four-day workweek to ameliorate labour shortages
zetetic astronomy: a mid-nineteenth century experiment that spanned the Flat Earth movement
beta-testing: a few well-reasoned counterpoints for the mechanical Turk hucksters and AI-evangelists
Tuesday 30 January 2024
8x8 (11. 307)
1,44mb: some Japanese ministries are phasing out the requirement of submitting official documents on physical media
forensic linguistics: language experts and crime-solving
jurassic lark: Poseidon’s Underworld recaps the 1960 cinematic experience Dinosaurs!painting with plasticine: Olive Harbutt, daughter of the medium’s inventor, creates art in this 1958 short
▧: Letraset fill patterns—see previously
throwing eggs: popular Chinese card game Guandan may receive sanction for the classroom
esperantido: linguist Manuel Halvelik created an auxiliary diglossia to make translations sound more archaic
omnichord: Suzuki brings back the portable music-maker from 1981
Saturday 20 January 2024
dropcat (11. 282)
hough easily accomplished with publishing and word processing software—adding epigraphic letters or initials (from the Latin intialis, meaning that which goes first), the dropcap poses particular challenges for web typesetters, we learn via Good Internet, between scaling and kerning. And while not completely typographically satisfying (but it’s our feline friends so willing to overlook a few gaps in formatting in this exacting science), this experiment to generate figurated majuscule headers with AI illustrates how challenging it can be to get a font, wrapping and layout right—and although automated and tailorable, printers and sorters are not obsolete. Much more about about the methodology and the chance to create one’s own typeface Gwern at the link above.
Saturday 13 January 2024
nuance (11. 264)
Via Kottke, we discover the Emoji Kitchen by Jennifer Daniels that allows one to combine and remix emoji (see previously here and here) as symbols for different accents, ranges of expressions and moods for angry kisses, pensive cowboys and forlorn robots to capture all the feels as well as some truly surreal abstractions (available directly only for certain platforms), like monkey cactus or monocled dustbin. See what you can come up with.
Tuesday 9 January 2024
⢹⣇ (11. 255)
Via the latest instalment of Clive Thompson’s Linkfest, having explored ambigrams in the past, we were quite taken with this compilation of braille transformations collected by Sean M Burke (in Unicode) that convey a certain unexpected poetry and symmetry—like pondering the I-Ching for those unfamiliar, and would be a worthwhile effort to be able to re-orientate and read them for oneself. Much more to explore and contemplate at the links above.
Tuesday 26 December 2023
9x9 (11. 218)
inukshuk: CGP Grey grades the flags of the Canadian provinces—see previously
omnibus: a compilation of the best books of the year52 things: Kottke shares some inspired, superlative gleanings from the past twelve months
black smokers: hydrothermal vents evolved to prey on benthic Santas
editors’ picks: some of NPR’s favourite, possibly overlooked stories of the year
in a big country, dreams stay with you: assessing the size of YouTube—via Waxy
there are two kinds of bubbles: speculation on the speculative nature of artificial intelligence from Cory Doctorow
font foundry: the year in typography
first nations: the contentious, selective display of tribal flags at the Oklahoma state capitol
Sunday 10 December 2023
conte du pourquoi (11. 178)
Generally in the International System of Units, as Futility Closet informs, the abbreviation of metrics are only afforded an uppercase character when the unit of measure is a personal namesake—see also—like the newton, ampere, joule, siemens, volt, hertz and kelvin, but the litre, particularly for jurisdictions with the inheritance of the Imperial System and one still singularly holding-fast, the litre was especially fraught for researchers for its potential to be confused with the digit 1. To avoid this confusion, most scientific and labelling authorities adopted a scripted โ as a volumetric symbol, but conventions still held in the US, Canada and Australia. Originally as an April Fools’ Day hoax, Kenneth Woolner of the University of Waterloo created the fictional heir to a sixteenth century wine bottle manufacture concern who purposed an industry standard (famously conventional), Claude รmile Jean-Baptise Litre, to promote the use of an upper-case L. I do hope that Litre had a full, fake biography. The account was re-printed as fact by an IUPAC journal in 1978 as factual, and though subsequently retracted, the exception is now allowed.
Monday 4 December 2023
sparkle, sparkle (11. 164)
OpenAI and services offering AI powered recommendations and enhancement, like conference transcription and summaries (quite literally turning a meeting into an email) are representing their synthetic-backed features with the emoji ✨ to convey a non-lexicographically sanctioned sense of wonder and magic—which of course is a nice corollary to Arthur C Clark’s “indistinguishable from magic” law whereas any sufficiently opaque process might impel one to conclude the same. This friendly little flourish also begs the question, like with the distinction between online and IRL activities, what it means to label something becoming ingrained and manifest in everything.
Thursday 9 November 2023
button copy (11. 106)
Via Curious Brain, we enjoyed this short montage from Daniel McKee (previously) to music by Resonate that cycles through international traffic signs, showing the variations through different countries on warnings and restrictions. The title refers to the retroflective elements that follow the contours of sign legends caught by oncoming headlamps.
Sunday 29 October 2023
colly (11. 083)
Via Waxy, we are directed to a rather brilliant 1995 undergraduate thesis on Amiga-based ASCII art (previously) and its use in BBS in the late 1980s to early 90s. With a friendly competition emerging among enthusiasts, a typographer’s repertoire was brought together in a volume—a text file—referred to as collies, and due to the display constraints of terminals accessing the bulletin boards, custom logos, indices and menus were limited to grids of eighty-by-twenty-five characters but were also meant for scrolling through. The bachelor candidate accentuates their essay by creating their own collection of type-specimens documenting work (and procrastination) on this paper, intended to be viewed continuously, with an addendum on the challenges of finding and hacking a suitable dot-matrix printer to accomplish the effect in hardcopy.
Friday 1 September 2023
the perils of penelope (10. 975)
Via ibฤซdem, we are referred a seemingly endless, seemingly exhaustive (there must be a reason for the particular signage and an attendant tale of tragedy) and international gallery replete with all pictogram figures in all variety of calamities as cautionary tales (see also) about potential dismemberment, electrocution, restricted areas and especially slips, trips and falls.