The BBC reports that the Florida principal pressured to resign after introducing pupils to the artist’s masterpiece, David, without prior parental approval of the curricula, has travelled to Florence with her family and saw the colossal marble statue in person at the Accademia Galleria, at the invitation of the museum’s director. The biblical figure whose nakedness and vulnerability represent the triumph of purity over the forces of evil was originally destined as an ensemble lining the roof buttresses of the cathedral but once finally realised, authorities instead decided, due to its size and grandeur, to place the statue in the public square of the seat of the Florentine government in 1504. A fig leaf (foglia di fico, a loin-garland) was added shortly after installation and though not a permanent addition, the practise was perpetuated by Victoria after expressing shock over the nudity of a full scale replica presented to the Victoria & Albert Museum. The original was removed from Palazzo della Signoria to the gallery in 1873, with a copy on public display, to protect it from the elements.
Saturday, 29 April 2023
in the room the women come and go, talking of michaelangelo (10. 706)
catagories: ๐ฎ๐น, ๐บ๐ธ, ๐, ๐จ, libraries and museums
Thursday, 30 March 2023
8x8 (10. 645)
maximum fun: Jessie Thorn is turning the podcast network into a worker-owned cooperative
gearing-ratio: a nifty explainer on the physics of riding a bike—via Waxy

stop making sense: David Byrne on his Big Suit
retrotopia: Berlin’s Kunst-gewer-bemuseum explores Socialist design—see previously here and here
sit up & listen: a Thames Television station closedown (see also) routine
the panopticon effect: 99% Invisible explores the nineteenth century prison of Breda—see also
Thursday, 23 March 2023
cameo appearance (10. 629)
Having previously explored the advent and the economy of the medium, we enjoyed this profile of the work of the nineteenth century travelling portrait artist William Bache, whose extensive portfolio of commissioned and sampler silhouettes not only reveal celebrities in profile but reveal the stories of hitherto anonymous sitters. Moreover at a time when fear and risk of communicable disease was rampant in the Americas and Caribbean, which was inclusive of Bache’s territory, the entrepreneur in the undeveloped industry of keepsake avatars distinguished himself from the competition with a device—since defamed for its association with eugenics for its reputed ability for scientifically-sound racial profiling—the physiognotrace which could create a faithful silhouette contact free. More at Hyperallergic at the link above.
catagories: ๐ก, ๐, ๐ท, libraries and museums
Tuesday, 21 March 2023
goodwill sample displays (10. 626)
Reversing his tone from a wide-ranging and contentious press conference delivered five days before that forbid the Federal Bureau of Investigations from turning over its findings to a special congressional committee investigating the Watergate burglary and threatened to re-enter the Vietnam War and eliciting such a negative public response that a law was passed prohibiting the US from engaging in conflict in Indochina without the approval of Congress, Richard Nixon on this day in 1973 distributed fragments of lunar rocks to the fifty states of American and every country of the world collected during the final Apollo mission. Presented on wooden plaques with a miniture flag that went into the orbit around the Moon and back, each gift (see also) included a message of peace, acknowledging that the exploration of our satellite was an international effort and than humankind could surely achieve harmony on Earth.
Sunday, 19 March 2023
๐๐๐ฒ (10. 622)
Finally returning to the excavations and adventures of his academic years after serving as a reporter and secret agent in the Balkans for the Manchester Guardian and a long stint as the keeper of the curiosities for the Ashmolean of Oxford, organising the collection into a museum with many restrictions for conducting archeological digs imposed by the Ottoman Empire removed with the establishment of the Cretan Republic, Arthur John Evans (see previously) and crew began exploring a flower-covered hill in the central part of the island on this day in 1900. Over the course of three years, albeit with some creative liberties (see above), Evans discovered the Minoan civilisation, so named for the maze-like quality of the Palace of Knossos—which was a series of a thousand cells for artisanal work, storage and food processing—that invoked the myth of King Minos and the captive Minotaur.
catagories: ๐ฌ๐ท, ๐บ, ๐ , libraries and museums, Wikipedia
Sunday, 5 March 2023
8x8 (10. 594)
parasols: brief animations on Marie Paccou’s sun-shades when spun
the misalignment museum: an art installation dedicated to the future AI apocalypse serves as a warning to the present

banana for scale: a handy converter—via Pasa Bon!
curious crumbs of history: rating Nation Trust sites by their scones
future archeologists: Funko Pop! is disposing of hundreds of thousands chibi pop-culture icons
eliza doolittle: a 1966 chatbot had the same warnings as out modern experiments
grand canons: stop-motion of everyday objects by Alain Biet
catagories: ๐, ๐ด๓ ง๓ ข๓ ฅ๓ ฎ๓ ง๓ ฟ, ๐ฑ, ๐, ๐ค, libraries and museums
Wednesday, 1 March 2023
gui (10. 579)
Offered with a portrait-oriented monitor matching a sheet of paper and the first commercially available for lease with a graphical user interface after the desktop metaphor, the Xerox Corporation released its Alto model on this day in 1973. Prohibitive costs ($32 000 for a basic version) meant that only around two thousand units were produced but were ahead of the rest of the market by a decade in terms of its operating system. Apple Computer personnel received exclusive demonstrations from Xerox PARC (Palo Alto Research Centre) in exchange for the company to option Apple stock. Several peripheral devices were created for the Alto, including a mouse, a television camera, a printer and a parallel port.
catagories: ๐พ, 1973, libraries and museums
Tuesday, 28 February 2023
7x7 (10. 578)
for love of the glove: a revival of the unauthorised musical biography about the King of Pop

davy and goliath: smaller AIs recom-mendations on how to hack a more dominant one—see previously from AI Weirdness
girl with the pearl earring: whilst the original is on loan as part of a comprehensive Vermeer exhibition, the Mauitshuis is displaying a set of reinterpretations—see previously
steak & ale: the Midcentury Medieval aesthetic—via Messy Nessy Chic
diamonds are forever: tiny spherical chambers could help harness the power of the sun—see also
zone improvement plan: more on the Swinging Six and Mister Zip—via Weird Universe
catagories: ⚛️, ๐จ, ๐ญ, ๐ถ, ๐ฏ, ๐ค, architecture, libraries and museums
Sunday, 19 February 2023
7x7 (10. 559)
wolf-whistle: the lexical corpus of canines and US supreme court justices
deportment: how to act around books
meres, lochs and llyns: regional variations in names for alleys and narrow walkways in the UK

official state crap: legislature of New Mexico introduces a bill to create a state aroma, the first of its kind
cher and charo: a duet of “America” from West Side Story—see previously
nachtrรคglichkeit: Jude Stewart on sticking with German and the pursuit on bilingualism
Monday, 30 January 2023
7x7 (10. 510)
loft apartment: a unique flat inside St Louis’ City Museum up for rent—via Miss Cellania
relaxed minimalism: a happy medium combining clarity and comfort

nocebo: even when the patient is aware of taking an inert pill, a substance designed with no therapeutic value can lessen feelings of guilt and loathing—via the new shelton wet/dry
synodic and sidereal: the question of lunar standard time is a challenge—particularly with multiple missions operating at once—via jwz
kurashi: tidying guru Marie Kondo have accepted messiness after the arrival of her third child
arragon mooar: the purportedly the most complicated home ever built—by inventor John C Taylor—on the market—via Things Magazine
Thursday, 26 January 2023
statistical breviary (10. 499)
Currently on exhibit at the National Arts Club in New York City, we are finding ourselves preoccupied with the presentation of Greg Colson and his studies in pie charts that reflect our collective and dissected anxieties and fear, surveyed as they are suggesting that each wedge might be susceptible to reduction or expansion in a way that’s wiser than the format seems at first glance. More at Hyperalleric at the link above.
catagories: ๐จ, ๐ฅ, ๐️, ๐ง , libraries and museums
Tuesday, 24 January 2023
8x8 (10. 495)
super 8: Kodak background orchestral ensemble for home movies (1961) would make a good soundtrack for any clip
memory hole: unearthing—with surprising difficulty—an iconic, defining moment of 90s US political pop culture

whw: an interview with the ousted Kunsthalle collective who wanted to showcase all sides of Vienna
poissons de diverses couleurs et figures extraordinaires: exquisite disco fish (1719)
geyser relays: a rather pie-in-the-sky proposal for irrigation using a series of water canons
parade route: revisiting the would-be arrival and presentation of Ganda the Rhinoceros
sympawny № 4: a short arrangement to pay tribute to a beloved cat
Thursday, 29 December 2022
7x7 (10. 368)
press pool: NPR station photographers swap memorable images from 2022

pre-bunking: intelligence agencies should engage in more public outreach to fight disinformation
mallory gallery: top exhibitions of the year
golden eye: reindeer retinas change colours with the seasons—via Nag on the Lake
fido: dogs with human names—via Waxy
mmxxii: year in review—news and journalists
Thursday, 1 December 2022
dwa (10. 349)
Organised by VisualAIDS in New York City in 1988 and first observed the following year, Day Without Art (corresponding with World Aids Day), now a global event observed by art institutions, is a day of action and mourning for those who have died of the disease. Museums close their doors and send staff to volunteer at AIDS services centres or sponsor special exhibitions that confront the visitor with the chilling prospect for a future without art or artists, one of the most arresting displays hosted in 1991 by the Museum of Modern Art that featured a gallery of empty frames and pedestal.
catagories: ⚕️, ๐จ, ๐ณ️๐, 1989, libraries and museums
Friday, 25 November 2022
7x7 (10. 334)
the winnowing oar: an itinerant floating city in the Pangeos Terayacht and other mega projects from Saudi Arabia—via Things Magazine
mรถnitรถr nรธn: previously unheard audio from the first gigs of British rock band The Fall
imperial isolate: gold coin in a museum cupboard proves existence of Sponsian, an emperor heretofore dismissed as fake—via Digg

purple tomato: an anthocyanin-rich vegetable is a heuristic for exploring the distinction between genetic modification and selective-breeding—via Damn Interesting’s Curated Links
feed-back loop: schema for artificial neural networks from the 1940s up to the present—via Web Curios
anyox: an abandoned copper mining operation in British Columbia is Canada’s largest ghost town
catagories: ๐จ๐ฆ, ๐ฌ๐ง, ๐, ๐ค, ๐งฌ, ๐ข, libraries and museums, Middle East
Sunday, 13 November 2022
recursive centaur alert (10. 301)
We quite enjoyed perusing this growing gallery of bad book covers (see previously) from our friends at Pulp Librarian. This omnibus post has too many choice works to pick favourites but we did quite like this anthology from author Ray Bradbury, referencing the Walt Whitman Leaves of Grass collection—whose title was not added just over a decade later, as which each poem, though in this case being that the term was not yet common currency. Originally in turn entitled “My Beautiful One is Here,” the eponymous story accounting a family selecting a robotic grandmother as a surrogate nanny to a brood of recently motherless children and their revelation that they won’t again be abandoned. Much more to explore at the links above.
catagories: ๐จ, ๐, libraries and museums
Tuesday, 1 November 2022
8x8 (10. 261)
allhallowtide: the artwork of Mike Egan that references elements of Dรญa de Muertos—via Everlasting Blรถrt
famous artist dies penniless and all alone: the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s archives of artists’ obituaries

forma: Federal Occult Range Management Administration
mapping out the month: the thirty day charting challenge returns
eleiรงรตes gerais: Brazilian artists herald the return of President Lula
ghost bride: a centuries-old tradition practised in some communities in Kerala
ofrenda: a guide to making an altar to celebrate the lives of loved ones who’ve passed
Friday, 14 October 2022
whistle-stop tour (10. 222)
On this day in 1872, a century and a half ago, the first rail-route—between Shinbashi and Yokohama—went into service, and to mark this occasion and everything that trains represent in terms of very freighted culture and technology the Tokyo Station Gallery has collected and curated artwork and ephemera from around Japan from your consideration.
catagories: ๐ฏ๐ต, ๐ , ๐, libraries and museums
Thursday, 13 October 2022
catalina caper (10. 218)
Also released under the alternative title Never Steal Anything Wet, the 1967 comedy musical mystery starring Tommy Kirk and featuring the talents of Little Richard and Mary Wells, the Lee Sholem property was subjected to the MST3K treatment (previously) for the first time on this day in 1990. The movie features a group of swimsuit clad old teens investigating the theft of a museum artefact, an ancient Chinese scroll, discovering in the process that the parents of one of the beachgoers are responsible. “Ok—now everybody wear eye-protection, there’s a lot of loose-ends flying together all at once.”
catagories: ๐ฌ, ๐, ๐บ, 1967, libraries and museums
Wednesday, 28 September 2022
7x7 (10. 176)
moonage daydream: an interview with Brett Morgen on the subject of his latest documentary—see previously

afforestation: a volcanic eruption is helping to rewild island
eyewall: Hurricane Ian’s path of destruction as it reaches Florida
omnishambles: the budget plan of PM Truss and Chancellor Kwarteng garners rebuke from Germany, the US and the IMF as the Pound Sterling approaches parity with the dollar
mahsa: the death of a young woman in the custody of Iran’s morality police has touched off protests against the government
let all the children boogie: an Australian museum brought the original hand-written draft of David Bowie’s Starman at auction