jónsmessa (13. 553)

The celebration coinciding with the Feast of John the Baptist, this second night of Mid-Summer, according to Icelandic tradition when the midnight sun returns, barely dipping below the horizon and never setting, is one of the four miraculous eves when magic happens, the others occurring during Yuletide with Christmas, New Years and Twelfth Night. Wishing stones may be found as well as healing herbs and grasses mature and are at the height of their potency. The evening due heavy, rolling around in it naked guarantees a year’s inoculation from all ailments. Cows gain the capactiy for human speech, though their utterances can drive the hearer mad so it is best not to listen. Lore also states that sitting at a crossroads with all paths leading to a church invites elves, who will attempt to seduce one with food and gifts.

cómo hace el pequeño cocodrilo (13. 552)

Having made the acquaintance of singular artist and writer Leonora Carrington (see previously here and here) through her surreal paintings informed by Celtic and Mesoamerican folklore and her own lived experience, we were excited to discover a special exhibition that curates Carrington’s works in other media—chiefly through large scale bronze figures sculpted using the lost-wax casting technique, her mythic and primordial figures walking off the canvas but also jewellery and vases and platters.
Though many of these characters are untitled and pass unnamed, whose story was only known to their creator, one is pressed to give a narrative and lore to these apparitions and wonder what they portend.  Much more from Colossal at the link above including the departed artist's personal website, lovingly maintained by her estate, and more details on showings and public art, like the title fabulist, monumental sculpture gifted to Ciudad de México depicting the Lewis Carroll (previously) poem, Alice reciting the parody as she attempts to memorise the Isaac Watts’ moralistic litany “Against Idleness and Mischief”—how doth the little busy bee improve each shining hour...

pause for station identification (13. 551)

Via Swiss Miss, we are invited to tune in to a range of virtual televisions that host programming by decade from the 1950s though the aughts with thousands of channels on the dial. There is a guide to consult and one can select from a list of genres, soap operas, cartoons, drama, trailers, commercials, music, sitcoms, news, talk shows, game shows, etc—though those modern day luxuries does not factor into the nostalgia and we think it’s much more rewarding to sit with the random shuffle as one surfs to see what’s on already in progress. The ads alone make this worthwhile. It’s of course saturated with mostly North American broadcasts but I think there’s some UK shows as well—the individuals behind this project seem to have crafted it with care and new media is being added on a regular basis. Let us know what forgotten gems you find.

8x8 (13. 550)

add to dictionary: a remembrance of the departed Tony Krueger, the software engineer that introduced red squiggles to word-processing to indicate a potential error  

seen by the machine: AI scores one’s relative importance by billions of datapoints called “the weights”—please consider the environmental impact before googling oneself—via MetaFilter 

drain the swamp: a meme roundup on the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool  

cancon: musical acts propelled to stardom over minimum requirements for domestic content on Canadian airwaves—via Miss Cellania and Nag on the Lake  

reading the room: a moment of silence observed before interviews with filmmakers to take in the room tone as a supercut from Criterion  

a la carte: US history told in early restaurant menus—see previously  

able mabel: a robotic maid from 1966  

usa a-ok: more than amplifying random statistical noise, an interesting look at Americans’ misspellings mapped

synchronoptica

one year ago: the Carnac Stones (with synchronoptica) plus a trip to Belz

two years ago: exploring Maccagno  

three years ago: artist and freedom fighter Willem Arondéus, a revolt and march toward Moscow plus the last Emperor

four years ago: Germany legalises abortion plus a work cruise on the Rhein

five years ago: artist Robert Rotar, the goddess of luck, the bells of Bad Hersfeld, assorted links to revisit plus Cubist cars

six years ago: an orchestra for houseplants,  the Battle of Bamber Bridge (1943), tourists not welcome plus the Pontiac Ghost Car

day one-hundred fourteen (13. 549)

US senate narrowly votes to halt conflict in Iran without congressional authorisation, though Trump is expected to veto the war powers resolution. The US president announces that IAEA nuclear inspectors will go to Iran at “an appropriate time”—Tehran countering the claims on commitments made earlier by Trump and Vance, whilst secretary of state Rubio maintains that Hormuz must remain toll-free as UN takes action to evacuate sailors stranded in the Strait. Russia puts the annexed territory of Crimea under lockdown as a swarm of drones approaches. Belarus strives to remain neutral after Kiev issues an ultimatum and warms of consequences.

404 (13. 548)

Having had the tragic but increasing common experience of clicking on a dead link, most recently the personal webpage of evolutionary biologist and science historian Stephen Jay Gould to find it appropriated by gambling company, the sort that is guaranteed to give one’s computer a venereal disease—we were brought up on the belief (of stranger-danger and) that the internet is forever when it turns out it’s very ephemeral and there are old, moribund sites I don’t dare click to avoid the inevitable heartbreak—and I’d much prefer it to be broken or have succumbed to the usual dilapidation of linkrot, we appreciated the referral courtesy of Tedium to this Wisconsin death trip, deathwatch vigil, a project that ironically looks abandoned as well, called RIPSO, a digital graveyard with obituaries. Wings of the catacombs that date back to the 1980s mostly entomb discontinued services, platforms and messengers, apps rather than outlets and websites (maybe impossible to catalogue), but gives a sense of what’s died the death (with indignities or otherwise—with or without resuscitation notices) and stresses the importance of the work that archivists do.

orkopedic (13. 547)

Courtesy of Miss Cellania, we are directed towards this short quiz from Alamo Drafthouse, which for a certain demographic that grew up with the line of Mattel toys and animated franchise, a half-hour “cartoon commercial” that spawned many to adopt the same marketing strategy and whom now as adults shop at the Swedish home furnishings giant, may either prove a breeze to ace or become frustrating with how similar the names become. Eternia or Ikea combines one of our favourite topics, the store’s nomenclature—see previously here, here, here, here and here, with the sword-and-planet paracosm of He-Man (don’t forget She-Ra) and the Masters of the Universe, characters we never identified with but were certainly aware of and have since gained an encyclopaedic appreciation for.  How many can you guess?  The incidental is music “Tijuana Taxi” by Herb Alpert.

face-value (13. 546)

A pair of back-to-back podcasts had an interesting that addressed the subject of minting money from different angles and both touching on seigniorage from Planet Money and 99% Invisible presented an interesting correspondence. First the Indicator episode explored the pros and cons of introducing a commemorative two-hundred fifty dollar bill for the upcoming US birthday celebration, which notwithstanding actual and potential hurdles over decorum and legality, would be a boom for criminal activity, money laundering and tax avoidance—the EU got rid of its largest denominated five-hundred euro bill, nicknamed the bin Laden and favoured by smugglers and traffickers for its portability. Most other governments have followed suit and there is even pressure to remove the current largest American note, the one-hundred dollar bill by the same reasoning, though the argument that the US treasury cites for keeping it is that the some twenty billion outstanding, through seignorage, a promissory note redeemable and fungible at any time, the positive return or carry for issuing money, represents a two trillion dollar, interest-free loan for the US, as long as they stay in circulation, particularly internationally—or stored in a vault, or in the next example, lost in the couch cushions, mellowing in a change jar or held as collectors’ items. As 99% Invisible reports, though public reaction to the debasing of American coinage from 1964 to 1965 was frictionless acceptance of face-value despite that specie had been removed and replaced with a slug clad with a shiny coating, the price of metal meant minting incurred more demurrage, depreciation, and so inspired by the commemorative issues, like the Kennedy half-dollar or the 1976 bicentennial quarters, the mint got permission, not wholly out of civic pride, in 1999 to produce twenty-five cent pieces honouring each state—and eventually Washington, DC and the territories over a ten year period, the government earning a profit for each that went coin that went into a collection, the mint itself only absorbing the fractional production costs.

@bitnic (13. 545)

Building off of the concept of distribution lists developed for IBM mainframes to handle email aliases, software engineer Éric Thomas studying at École Centrale Paris released the stable version of his modified application, with his own code, LISTSERV with automated features that allowed subscribers to join or leave groups without human administration as postmasters, edit templates and create auto-replies for system and welcome messages. Still foundational architecture, Thomas’ programme also included the first double opt-in methods and spam filters for junk- and grey-mail (bulk mailers at one point solicited but now considered a nuisance).

synchronoptica

one year ago: the menhirs of Bretagne (with synchronoptica) plus the Quiberon peninsula

two years ago: Lukmanier pass plus arriving at Lake Maggiore

three years ago: assorted links worth revisiting 

four years ago: a banger from The Knack, Logan’s Run plus the sterling area

five years ago: harvesting solar power plus Mid-Summer celebrations

six years ago: more links to enjoy, satisdiction plus scratching an itch

la mano de dios (13. 544)

Held on this day, the quarter final-match of the 1986 World Cup, pitting Argentina against England—the Falklands War still a recent memory and fuelling the heated rivalry between the two nations, included two of the most memorable goals in the history of football. Both scored by team captain Diego Maradona, first came the Hand of God manoeuvre, technically a foul though unpenalised, as none of the referees on the pitch could see him dribbling the ball towards the goalpost, which Maradona admitted in 2005 was not fair-play, some outlets saying the apology came too late but on balance still acknowledging the importance of the symbolism of an act of cheating caught on film as a defiant reassertion of sovereignty and dignity, the embodiment of viveza criolla, native cunning—the legacy being cited in other famous plays that providential strain the rules of the game and lapses in judgment, including by Lionel Messi and more recently in the New York Knickerbockers’ win attributed to divine intervention. Four minutes later came the Goal of the Century, with Maradona overtaking four English outfielders during a sixty-yard dash and kicking a ball past the goalkeeper, Argentina would go on to win the finals, defeating West Germany.

day one-hundred thirteen (13. 543)

Keir Starmer tenders his resignation as prime minister and leader of Labour, following a series of political crises and rifts internal to the party over economic and immigration policy and election strategy after the success of conservative Reform UK in the general election. Starmer is expected to be replaced by Andy Burnham before the end of parliament’s summer recess. The Iran delegation leave Switzerland after a day of productive talks, with a sixty day waiver on oil sanctions granted and agreeing with the US in principle to a roadmap for peace, allowing the IAEA to inspect its nuclear facilities. With secretary of state, Rubio headed to the region to allay security fears, it remains unclear what US vice president Vance and special envoy Witkoff and Kushner have accomplished, the president’s son-in-law preoccupied with massive demonstrations in Albania over a planned property development deal that would damage fragile swampland and corruption in the government that acquiesced to this project in the first place. Sticking-points regarding Iranian restitution and possible conditions being placed on unfrozen assets also remain—though the negotiations have settled on an island of optimism that a final peace settlement could be in place by February.

(13. 542)

We are introduced to one of Clippy’s ancestors in this advertisement from the classifieds of a 1864 volume of The Telegrapher: A Journal of Electrical Progress courtesy of Cardhouse. Helpful like his descent, this security message hook promises to pay for itself many times over with the assurity and peace-of-mind that a missive won’t be lost or misplaced again.

synchronoptica

one year ago: a shipwreck beach (with synchronoptica) plus St Cado

two years ago: master medium Patience Worth plus a blocked alpine pass

three years ago: an Underground safety campaign plus a missing person case at the Vatican

four years ago: Man of La Mancha plus assorted links to enjoy

five years ago: your daily demon,  a vintage electric microcar, Galileo found guilty of heresy (1633) plus windowless homes

six years ago: Heritage Minutes, dad flavour plus canines who smell COVID

day one-hundred twelve (13. 541)

Despite yesterday’s indefinite postponement and Iran closing the Strait of Hormuz over deadly strikes in Lebanon (American forces in the region dispute this claim saying ship traffic continues to flow), diplomatic delegations scrambled to reach Lucerne to begin formal talks. Trump publically admits that the US is is four-weeks away from an even more debilitating oil shock. The US team consisting of the same ineffectual members, Vance, Witkoff and Kushner, dispatched in a succession of negotiations that quickly spiralled into war is in attendance. Israel announced it refuses to withdraw from its security zone south of Beirut, neither side directly represented in the talks. Discussions are expected to carry on for days with side sessions addressing maritime security, but the main focus is on the sticking points of deescalation and Iran’s nuclear programme—the proposal presently being to not allow inspectors and to dilute the existing stockpile to well below weapon-grade. Fuel sales are suspended in Crimea after a wave of attacks by Ukraine on the illegally annexed territory.

give us magnification vince (13. 540)

Via Marco McClean’s Memo of the Air, we enjoyed finding this vintage vinyl abridgement of the profoundly strange Disney feature The Black Hole as an audio LP. I remember such adaptations were popular and a way to tide one over with a teaser when a rewatch was something not so easily summoned up and an extra vehicle to showcase dialogue and sound effect through a radio drama that relied more on imagination than memory. The voice actors who played V.I.N.CENT. LF-396 (Vital Information Necessary Centralised Labour Force) and Old BO.B. LF-28 (Bio-sanitation Battalion), however, respectively Roddy McDowall and Slim Pickens, respectively, went uncredited in all versions. Sigourney Weaver was initially considered for the role of Dr Kate McCrea, the expedition’s ESP-sensitive scientist, but the casting director found her name too unusual going instead with actor Jennifer O’Neill, despite her reluctance to cut her hair for the zero-gravity scenes  Eventually relenting after the studio agreed that O’Neill could bring own hairdresser on set, Vidal Sassoon, she allowed her hair to be cropped short, easing the trauma by consuming several glasses of wine, resulting in a drink-driving accident after the first day of filming.  O’Neill was removed from the project and replaced with understudy Yvette Mimieux as the ship’ psychic.

9x9 (13. 539)

criterion collection: a roundup of dirigible-themed movies, featuring, among others, Fay Wray and Ronald Reagan as secret agent Brass Bancroft  

the camelot of africa: a tour Ethiopia’s Gondar castles 

binomial coefficients: some numbers in Pascal’s triangle make very few cameos and no one is sure why  

lost world: museum docent Louis Gratacap pioneered the genre—see previously  

fast-track enlargement: talks begin for EU accession for Ukraine and Moldova  

ger:gre: Monty Python’s Ancients v Moderns football match  

planetary-mass companion: the famous Pink Planet may be a failed binary star system  

a tisket, a tasket: an update on the headquarters building of Longaberger baskets—see previously  

sac pour mal de l’air: a collection of air sickness bags from a variety of airlines

four colour theorem (13. 538)

The heretofore unverified but practically applied in cartography conjecture that no more than four colours are needed to distinguish bordering regions on a map was announced as proven on this day in 1976 after more than century since it was first proposed by two mathematicians at the the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign campus. Not feasible to perform the brute calculation by hand, this topology problem (see previously) was solved with the aid of a supercomputer, the first instance of a technical assist for a math problem, the claim rejected by some peers at the time because they couldn’t check the work.

synchronoptica

one year ago: arriving in Morbihan (with synchronoptica)

two years ago: Putin and Kim hold a summit, the premiere of Evita plus the estate of Jim Henson selling off its Hollywood lot

three years ago: California v Miller plus assorted links worth the revisit

four years ago: pioneering parachutist Tiny Broadwick (1913), Texas v Johnson plus more links to enjoy

five years ago: the Stonehenge Free Festival (1974), the introduction of the LP record (1948) plus Return to Oz (1985) 

six years ago: a CNN competitor (1982), EU proposes a digital services tax, remixing the Bayeux tapestry, setting the record straight, AI-generated perfumes plus Internation Yoga Day

my god, it’s full of stars (13. 537)

Courtesy of Miss Cellania, we are directed to this delightful and a bit exhausting collaboration between Postmodern Jukebox (previously—now that’s a name I’ve not heard in a long time—a long time) and choreographer, burlesque artist and tap-dancer, Demi Remick performing to a jazzy, swing medley of sci-fi theme songs. Not their first dance, Remick also was featured on a assortment of arcade music, including the Zelda and Mario franchises. You’ll be sure to recognise them all from TV and film.

forget it, jake—it’s chinatown (13. 536)

As our faithful chronicler informs, the neo-noir classic directed by Roman Polanski and starring Faye Dunaway, Jack Nicohson, John Huston, Diane Ladd and Burt Young was released on this day in 1974 to critical acclaim. Over the milieu of the California water wars, a series of political conflicts over water rights at the turn of the last century with the expansion of Los Angeles and the construction of aqueducts to divert resources from Owens Valley and Mono Lake used by ranchers and farmers, a woman, calling herself Evelyn Mulwray, engages a private detective to keep on whom she says is her husband, a civil engineer with the California public utility department. The investigator photographs the subject with another woman, exposing their apparent affair, but then is confronted by the engineer’s real wife, concluding that the impostor set up her husband in order to discredit him and prevent the discovery of a complex conspiracy to hoard water whilst the city is experiencing a drought. Parallel to Dunaway’s scripted revelation “My sister! My daughter!”—the film could be read as a retelling of Oedipus Rex, a plague exploited to gain power ultimately reflecting the endemic corruption of society, misidentification, and a maimed protagonist who realises the truth too late to affect the outcome—genealogists working for Time magazine informed Nicholson after the making Chinatown that his sister was, in real life, was actually his mother, raised by his grandparents as their own son when the actor was born out of wedlock to showgirl June Frances Nicholson. On learning this fact at age thirty-seven, he acknowledged it was a “pretty dramatic event but it wasn’t what I’d call traumatising…I was pretty well psychologically formed.”

addendum (13. 535)

Underwriter Lloyd’s of London intelligencer branch that tracks maritime shipping data reports that Tehran’s and Muscat’s newly created Persian Gulf Strait Authority are mandating that vessels transiting the Hormuz take out special coverage through government approved providers. This insurance requirement is regarded as a prelude to tolls, which is probably the least worst thing to come out of the stultifyingly bad grand deal of Trump’s— a nominal fee factored into the cost of doing business that would be passed along to the consumer but a tax we think anyone would happily pay in exchange that Trump and his minions don’t embark on more empire-building adventures with the tolerance, forethought and follow-through worse than a package tourist. Despite the ceasefire announced yesterday between Hezbollah and the IDF, strikes continue with dozens more dead in southern Beirut, pressuring Iran to take action and respond to what hardliners are calling a blatant violation of the MOU with Washington unable to reign in Israel, whose minister of national security declared that “all of Lebanon must burn.” Direct negotiations stalled with the US, Pakistani interior minister Mohsin Naqvi returns to Tehran for meetings with high level officials.

day one-hundred eleven (13. 534)

Unveiling the new Air Force One, a used Qatari 747 gifted to the US president, Trump will hold cabinet meetings at Camp David over the weekend (he’ll make the short trip to upper Maryland by Marine One) as peace talks with Tehran scheduled to begin in Switzerland have been postponed, having only gone to the disfavoured official retreat one other time during his second term to discuss ending the war in Gaza. Defending his diplomatic blunder which at best solves some of the problems he started with the war and gives away too much to Iranian, putting the US in a far weaker position, Trump says, “We didn’t negotiate out of desperation—Iran did, they’re done. We’ll go through sixty days. They won’t get any money, not even ten cents.” The paint job ordered for the capitol reflecting pool on the Washington DC ellipse, costing fourteen million dollars, to turn it “American flag blue” for America’s birthday celebration is chipping and algae blooms have turned it toxic green.

synchronoptica 

one year ago: camping opposite Chinon (with synchronoptica) 

two years ago: Ursula K Le Guin’s webpages plus assorted links to revisit

three years ago: the Stars On cover series, promotional marketing for 2001 plus article spinning

four years ago: the Glastonbury festival (1971) plus the formula for streaming series

five years ago: Germany consolidates its capital, wandering lonely as a cloud, the gap in the Watergate tapes, the V2 rocket plus a unique Olympic medal

six years ago: North Korean UNICODE, Cher does West Side Story plus Jaws (1975)