Released into the wild on this day in 1999, the destructive macrovirus whose vector was infected email Word documents that propagated itself through accessing its victims’ Outlook address book established the articles of faith in cyber-security that are still prescribed to today of not clicking on unsolicited links, opening attachments and that Windows OS was and remains an open-target for hacking despite the fact that Apple operating systems are not immune. Contemporary IT support reckoned that the Melissa virus cost hundreds of millions in man hours to contain damages and rebuild email servers, posted to a pornographic newsgroup by a hacker with the monicker Kwyjibo which quickly spread to corporate networks. Lingering and still actively trying to exploit vulnerabilities since paved over with multiple software patches to achieve herd immunity, it was the fastest spreading email worm.
Awarded a patent on this day in 1846 for his most well-known but not most successful and certainly not his only eponymous instrument, Adolphe Sax was already a respected faculty member of the Paris Conservatory. The eldest son of a husband and wife team of brass and woodwind specialists in Dinant (present day Belgium) and amazingly surviving a notoriously accident prone childhood—recovering unscathed from a fall of three storeys, swallowing a pin, mistakenly drinking an acidic solvent somehow not dying of asphyxiation from sleeping in a room nightly that doubled as a storage space for drying varnished instruments—the prolific tinkerer’s most widely adopted improvement was for valve controls for the bugle, which he tried unsuccessful secure rights on as the Saxhorn, which led to the development of the euphonium and flugelhorn, adaptations particularly useful outside of the concert hall for marching bands. Later during the Crimean Conflict, Sax also patented two inventions for the war effort in support France and her allies, though never field-tested, in the Saxotonnerre–an organ powered by a locomotive engine loud enough in theory to be heard across an area the size of Paris and in response to the stalemate during the Siege of Sevastopol, the Saxocannon capable of launching half-tonne rounds with the aim of curtailing protracted standoffs. Sadly the upkeep of intellectual property and fighting infringement by challengers and rivals in later life took a huge toll on Sax‘ finances and health.
north oaks: mapping the wealthy Minnesota exclave that has remained virtually unmapped due to the way the municipality defines easement and public property
wikicity: the free encyclopaedia visualised as a three-dimensional metropolis of connected apartments to explore its densest articles—via Web Curios
the way of the warrior: legendary action movie star Chuck Norris passes away unexpectedly, aged 86
centuripe: viewed from above, this Sicilian village looks like a human figure
border jumper: this cat does not care about your international boundaries
Though punctuated with sanctions on Nazi Germany and naval blockades, the eight-month period from the invasion of Poland up until the evacuation Dunkirk was referred to the title (en franรงaise) by the press or the Phoney War (also Sitzkrieg auf deutsch—earlier in British papers as the “Bore War” though the Americanism came to be preferred so as not to confuse with the Boer War barely a generation removed) for its notable lack of military action on the part of the Allied forces in response, despite extensive war-gaming and drawing up battle plans that became obsolete as Germany continued its expansion with the invasion of France and the Low Countries and the Soviets attacked Finland, hoping that negotiations would lead to peace and appeasement. Allegiances strained and uncoordinated in the current situation prosecuted by US and Israeli forces against Iran and Hezbollah in Lebanon, the reluctance of America’s allies to materially support an offensive campaign peddled in no way to the Gulf states nor partners is understandable and even advisable—given that the foreign policy catastrophe came at a substantive juncture of negotiations between the US and Iran in Geneva and a nuclear deal seemed within reach, talks progressing in the final stages that could have averted conflict that was by no means imminent or inevitable. Whether coerced or bored deal-making, Trump chose violence with global repercussions with no clear off-ramp, as a consequence that was far from unpredictable the world is stymied between TACO and the strategic deficit captured by eighteenth century Prussian military theorist Karl von Clausewitz’ adage that the adversary gets to vote, objectives however poorly defined unmatched by defiance resistant to might.
From property then belonging to Asa Ward before becoming his Aunt Effie’s farmstead in Auburn, Massachusetts, pioneering jet propulsion engineer and physicist Robert Goddard launched the first liquid-fuelled rocket on this day in 1926. With a mixture of gasoline and liquid oxygen, the projectile, christened as Nell, only reached an altitude of sixty metres but in less than three seconds and was a solid demonstration of proof of concept. Reserved and painfully shy since, Goddard was criticised by contemporaries as dabbling in an undignified field not worthy of serious scientific investigation, his contributions only posthumously recognised—thanks in large measure to his habit of keeping a daily diary of experiments and imbued early on with a sense of curiosity and awe, first captivated by the electrification of his hometown at the turn of the century and then a transcendent experience, referred to in his journal as his “cherry tree dream” aged seventeen, when perched in the branches to prune some dead limbs in the autumn all of a sudden, imagining his ascent higher and higher above the Earth and intuited the basic principles of combustion and propulsion, coming down from the tree a changed adolescent. That vision never left Goddard, for the rest of his life keeping the anniversary of that event, 19 October 1899, as a private commemoration of his greatest inspiration.
Via Web Curios, we are directed to an engrossing project from Riley Walz (previously) that scrapes the representative header image from all the three-hundred plus language editions of Wikipedia, chosen by that version’s editors, to represent a given topic or concept—see also, see previously—to present an interesting array of how different cultures symbolise and genericise an idea. When there’s not a media commons, sometimes I switch between different languages to scour for a better photograph on a specific subject but its really interesting to see what illustrative examples are used around the world. Try looking up automobile or dog or comedy or art or see where random entries lead.
Born on this day in 1926, Alan Greenspan served on the US Federal Reserve board of governors from 1987 to the 2006, under presidents Reagan, Bush, Clinton and Bush, the chairman reappointed after each four year term and advising on monetary policy. Despite a subdued public demeanour, the press accorded the long serving economist celebrity status as a strong advocate for international trade, though he courted many critics who cite his low interest rates and increased cash supply for creating the dot-com bubble and the subprime mortgage crisis that lead to worldwide recession—occurring shortly after he left office—and blame Greenspan for encouraging George W Bush to reengage Iraq and depose Saddam Hussein for the sake of stability in the global oil supply. A fan and personal friend of objectivist philosopher Ayn Rand, Greenspan dated anchor woman Barbara Walters in the late 1970s and is married to journalist Andrea Mitchell (matrimonial ceremony officiated by Ruth Bader Ginsburg) and currently runs a financial consulting firm with several honorary posts with investment banks.
Referred to at the time Eskimaux, a delegation of the leadership of the fifteen thousand member strong community of Inuit peoples appealed to the ministry of Pierre Trudeau with a petition to designate a large portion of the North Western Territories as indigenous land, leading to the creation of what would eventually become the autonomous Canadian territory of Nunavut in 1999. The second largest subnational subdivision in North America after neighbouring Greenland and ahead of Alaska, the self-governing region covers most of the arctic archipelago with the people of Ellesmere Island (แ แฅแแชแ แแ, Umingmak Nuna, the land of the muskox) and faced with forced relocation during the Cold War due to the islands’ strategic position, the accord was seen as an act of contrition and reconciliation for the displaced and historically disenfranchised native population. The flag unveiled in 1999, close to the anniversary of the initial meeting twenty-three years later features an inuksuk, a stone cairn built as a landmark used by the Inuit and other peoples of the North American artic region and the colours represent the riches of the land, sea and sky.
An alleged mental disorder, reportedly diagnosed by German physicians, though with no clinical description and a paucity of case studies, zero stroke dysfunction was experienced by patients during the period of hyperinflation of the Weimar Republic (see previously here and here) with otherwise well-balanced individuals compelled to write out unending strings of zeros (see also here and here, also called ciphers after the Arabic root) as a coping mechanism for the rapid and exponential increasing of prices and depreciation of paper marks when the buying-power of one’s wages became essentially worthless by the end of one’s shift. Most common among those working in finance, accounting and sales, sufferers also had a tendency to retreat into complicated mental computations whose solutions were logarithmically fleeting.
archive.yesterday: Wikipedia bans controversial news and features article mirror for citations after the service launches denial of service attacks on websites linking to it—via MetaFilter
In a round-about vocabulary lesson (courtesy of Curious Notions—such a journey down rabbitholes is referred to as a desire path as a metaphorical extension of an unplanned trail caused by foot-traffic as a shorter route, and now one can better document those strayings in Wikipedia at least—though often not short-cuts), we learn that the eponymous anatomical feature of the human wrist is named for the Lyonnaise sculptor, anatomist and pioneering radiologist รtienne Destot. Within months after Rรถntgen announced his discovery of clinical uses for x-rays, our good doctor was taking thousands of diagnostic radiographs of patients (see also) to develop better treatment strategies and in many cases eliminating red herrings to tackle true ailments. Destot’s enthusiastic adoption of the new technology, however, led to severe radiation damage in his hands, forcing him to abandon his work and his eventual death. The namesake void the doctor identified through crisper x-ray imaging of the hands between the hamate and lunate bones is not chiefly cited in medical literature, but rather for discussing the critical historicism of Jesus, proposing that this was the site of the stigmata during the Crucifixion—the study, quest (quรชte) as an academic effort started by contemporary Alsatian physician and fellow multi-hyphenate Albert Schweitzer. For his contributions to medical science and lab safety, Destot is commemorated along with the Curies, inscribed on the Monument to the X-Ray and Radium Martyrs of All Nations on the campus of Sankt Georg Hospital in Hamburg along with some one hundred sixty other doctors, chemists, physicists, technicians and assistants who sacrificed their lives in the advancement of medical science commissioned by the Deutsche Rรถntgengesellschaft in 1936. The memorial was expanded in 1959 to include the names of many of the victims of the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Courtesy of Weird Universe through another one of the artist’s short experimental montages, we are introduced to the National Film Board of Canada’s acclaimed visual essayist Arthur Lipsett. Working as an editor in the animation department, his first solo project Very Nice, Very Nice came about collecting random scene from the cutting-room floor pieced them together as an audio-video montage and was nominated for an Academy Award in 1961. The technique attracted the attention of Stanley Kubrick, who asked Lipsett to produce a trailer for his upcoming Dr Strangelove. Lipsett politely declined and Kubrick directed the preview himself by the inspiration was obvious and acknowledged. The 1963 short 21-87 employed a similar method of found footage but also combined shots of Montreal and New York which Lipsett filmed himself to create an outline of narrative. Though reception was more mixed now that the artist had a reputation, with some critics thinking that it was too much like Free Fall (at the link at the top), it caught the notice of aspiring director George Lucas, influencing THX 1138, its spiritual successor America Graffiti and Star Wars—the concept of the Force itself was informed by an NFB colleague discussing the contemplative and revealing—animistic and pervasive—aspect of his works, speaking in terms that echo how Obi Wan explained the source of Jedi power to Luke Skywalker. Though the two never met, there’s a continuity of tributes throughout the saga with Princess Leia imprisoned on the Death Star in detention block AA-23 cell number 2187 and Finn’s original stormtrooper designation of FN-2187.
The short form of the United Nations sponsored treaty named for the lake at the tripoint of the borders of Greece, the then Republic of Macedonia (referred to by the exonym FYROM, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia to avoid controversy of the appearance of endorsement or sometimes heavy-handedly as the Republic of Skopje) and Albania, Final Agreement for the settlement of differences as described in the UN Security Council resolutions 817 (1993) and 845 (1993), the termination of the Interim Accord of 1995 and the establishment of a strategic partnership between the Parties came into effect on this day in 2019, resolving a long-standing dispute beginning in 1991 following the dissolution of Yugoslavia into its constituent nations. Stemming from the ambiguity of the neighbouring Greek Balkan region and the ancient kingdom of Macedon, Greece insisted upon a geographic qualifier to be used erga omnes (by all…and for all purposes, internal and external), citing concerns of border disputes and the cultural appropriation, symbols like the Vergina Sun (now the icon of the parliament of the Hellenes) and the legacy of Alexander the Great, to stoke sentiments of irredentism (ะธััะตะดะตะฝัะธ́ะทะผ, ฮฑฮปฯ ฯฯฯฯฮนฯฮผฯฯ—coined from the Italian, unredeemed, for territory of the Austro-Hungarian Empire that they felt belonged to “Greater Italy” and should be rightfully annexed on the basis of ethnic continuity). Contingent on the terms of the agreement, Northern Macedonia entered NATO.
Beginning on this day in 1976 at the venue of Vancouver’s Pacific Coliseum to promote his Station to Station album (see previously), the series of concerts given by David Bowie were more commonly referred to as the Thin White Duke tour. The spectacle began without interlude with a screening of the Surrealist short film Un Chien Andalou with the artist appearing on an empty stage immediately following its conclusion, jarring the disoriented audience. Whilst some audio samples were rebroadcast by the King Biscuit Radio network, the only complete recorded footage is courtesy of a bootleg edition captured by a concert goer at the end of the month during a show in Cleveland, since remastered and reissued as the definitive experience, the set list including the tracks “Fame,” “Queen Bitch,” “Life on Mars,” “Changes” and “Diamond Dogs”—with encores of “Rebel Rebel” and “The Jean Genie.” Regarding the tour’s name, some speculate it is an anagram of one of Bowie’s favourite words sailor, or alternatively, in his own words: “Isola is Italian for island. Isolation plus solar equals Isolar—if I remember correctly, I was stoned.” The last shows were a two-night (the scheduled third one was cancelled) performance in mid-May at the Pavillon de Paris.
Operated as a Soviet naval base, leased to the USSR under the terms of the Moscow Armistice of 1944, the peninsular for a period of fifty, originally scheduled for repatriation in 1994, was returned to Finland early after eleven years of service on this day in 1956 with the displaced former inhabitants of the communities of Kirkkonummi, Ingรฅ and Siuntio restored their lands. Hosting the bulk of the Baltic fleet and some sixteen thousand sailors and submariners at one point on the borderlands just some thirty kilometres from Helsinki, the withdrawal was based on several political factors in including the Finno-Russian Agreement of Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Assistance of 1948, Khrushchev’s shift away from Stalinism, other basing opportunities and Finland’s own post-war policy of neutrality, which also precluded its accession to NATO. Presently the Pokkala peninsula is home to main base of the Finnish naval forces at Upinniemi.
Youth choir, whose early members were mostly comprised of individuals orphaned during the war founded in 1948 in Obernkirchen in Niedersachsen (named after the constituent county in West Germany), the Schaumburg Fairytale Singers rapidly attained a high degree of musical excellence, winning many competitions in their class, and were propelled to a level of international fame unexpectedly on this day when their English interpretation of Der frรถhliche Wanderer (Mein Vater war ein Wandersmann) peaking at number two of the British singles on this day in 1954, remaining in the charts for twenty-three weeks after it was broadcasted by the BBC as the encore after placing during a performance in Wales. Domestically, the arrangement composed by the choir director’s brother made to sound like an authentic folk song, the success of the Schaumburger Mรคrchesรคnger was boosted by the Merry Wanderer being made into a Heimatfilm (a nostalgic, pastoral genre especially popular in West Germany and Austria from the late 1940s to early 1960s, and abroad lead numerous tours, concerts and special appearances, including the Ed Sullivan Show and at the Kennedy White House. With an expanded repertoire and extended alumni association, the choir and music school (also with multiple campuses) continues the legacy of its founders in cultivating talent.
Contributing footage captured all on a single day, 24 July 2010, some eighty thousand participants from one-hundred-ninety-two countries answering the call-for-submissions on the video hosting platform, the Ridley Scott and Kevin Macdonald (director also of biopics Whitney and Marley, State of Play, The Last King of Scotland and Touching the Void) collaboration is a crowd-sourced feature length documentary, revelatory at the time, and was previewed on Youtube (conceived in part as a commemoration of its five-year anniversary) one week prior to its premiere at the Sundance Film Festival on this day in 2011. Inspired and informed—with new media and technological possibilities—by a 1930s British sociological and ethnographical project called the Mass Observation movement—asking respondents around the UK to share their diary entries for one day per month, anonymously and answering a few basic demographic questions, in order to highlight the complexities and fullness of the seemingly mundane—and to demonstrate that everyone’s the main character in their own narrative, a touch lesson to learn, the director began the appeal for clips with a column in The Guardian, asking simple questions about people’s passions, what was in the pockets and their fears—also dispatching video cameras to people in the developing world. That particular day was chosen as it was the first Saturday following the World Cup. Several countries including Panama, Canada, India and Spain made their own national versions in the following years and a sequel was made in 2020 for 25 July during the height of the COVID-19 global pandemic and premiering just after the inauguration of US president Joe Biden.
Unexpectedly elevated to the papacy by popular acclaim whilst attending elections in Rome following the brief reign of Anterus as an observer but not a candidate when a dove landed on him—which delegates took as the sign of the choice of the Holy Spirit—Pope Fabian is fรชted on this day (shared with St Sebastian in Catholic traditions) on the occasion of his martyrdom during the Decian persecutions in the year 250. On good terms with the imperial government for a stint of fourteen years, loathe to stir up discontent or crack down on Christian upstarts, Fabian was able to arrange the repatriation of earlier exiled Pope Pontian and Anti-Pope Hippolytus, whom had died at hard labour in the mines of Sardinia, dispatched apostles to Gaul, including Saturnin, to christianise the population, reformed Church bureaucracy, establishing hierarchy and jurisdiction and appointing subdeacons as officers of the ecclesiastical court to document the acta of the martyrs and collect proceedings and judgements of oppressed and introduced the clerical orders of acolyte, porter, lector and exorcistand reportedly baptised Emperor Philip (called “the Arab” and the first convert well before Constantine) and his son, whose successor in 249, Trajan Decius, decided he’d had enough of this kumbaya moment plus the bread and circuses of his predecessor, vanquished during an uprising. Decius, elected by the Senate on account his suppression of revolts in the provinces, sought to strengthen state religious conformity, directed that all residents of the empire would have to commit sacrifice before the magistrate of their ward in order to prove their loyalty and and ensure the security of the empire. While possibly not an attempt to impose the cult of the pantheon on all inhabitants, Decius was pressured to legitimise his position as the Empire approached its millennial anniversary and promote Pax Romana, calling out several bishops, Fabian included, of refusing to indulge prescribed idolatry. The Seven Sleepershibernated until Rome had a more tolerant attitude towards Christians.
