day two hundred twelve (13. 858)

The Revolutionary Guard command claims that US forces in the Persian Gulf have retreated to a distance of a thousand kilometres from Iran’s borders and that the amount of oil transiting the Strait of Hormuz under American naval escort is negligible, pledging that the water will remain closed until Washington satisfies the pre-conditions it agreed to. Israeli developers have diverted water from Palestinian farmers in the West Bank for a tourist attraction called “Herod’s Pools.” The head of the Yemeni government in Aden announces major escalation in fighting Houthi rebels to wrest back control of Bab al-Mandeb. US pulls out B-2 bombers stationed RAF Fairford following arrests in foiled terror plot. The US is closely monitoring a suspected case of the pneumonic plague after the death of a technician in a Siberian research laboratory, fearing a genetically modified strain of the bacteria has escaped containment and prompting travel restrictions. Brazil heads to a presidential run off with polling between challenger Flávio Bolsonaro and incumbent Lula too close to call. A Kelvin Wave caused by El Niño conditions creeps towards southern California and Alaska, expected to raise coastal sea-levels by half-a-metre with a single crest and trough.

synchronoptica

one year ago: graphic designer Mikro Ilić (with synchronotpica) plus assorted links worth the revisit

two years ago: circumambulation plus a houseboat on the Havel

three years ago: a hike through the vineyards of Escherndorf 

four years ago: the tarot of Austin Osman Spare, the world’s mass transit systems plus Breakfast at Tiffany’s (1996)

five years ago: more links to enjoy plus Tubular Bells

 

six years ago: Civilisation comes to American audiences (1970), Athens’ underground, the blessed Rosario Longo, a glass model of the coronavirus, IKEA’s back catalogue plus apologies in good standing

seven years ago: late Thursdays in Germany, more links to check out plus more poetic graffiti

 

eight years ago: an outstanding collection of vintage travel posters, legislating Scotland on maps plus more memorable fonts

 

 

soroptimist international (13. 854)

Founded on this day in 1921 in Oakland, California, (SI, from the Latin soror, sister, and optima, the best) by Violet Richaradson, Eloise Cushing and Stuart Morrow, the first chapter of the movement has grown into a global volunteer organisation with nearly seventy thousand members advocating and championing women’s causes, providing educational grants, domestic violence shelters and healthcare. Richardson (pictured below—the shotgun was for dispatching with rattlesnakes for the hiking association she also started), as first president of the club, was an early pioneer of physical education for adolescents and established the Berkley Women’s Gymnasium for adult females whilst pursuing her master’s degree in general education. A chapter in London was founded in parallel and Madame Suzanne Blanche Gros Noël of Paris, the first female cosmetic surgeon who performed countless reconstructive operations for veterans disfigured in World War I and invented the face-lift, was instrumental in starting clubs in France and ten other European capitals, expansion of the movement interrupted by the outbreak of World War II when members shifted their efforts towards helping those fleeing the Nazis. Since the early 2000s, SI has garnered status as an NGO with consultative capacity with the United Nations and maintains official relations with the World Health Organisation. Other members of note include classics scholar Mary Creighton Bailey of Canterbury whom went on to join the British High Commission for Germany with the remit of de-nazifying school curriculum, teacher, conductor and composer Juliette Nadia Boulanger whose students included Aaron Copland, Quincy Jones and Philip Glass, Australian Mary Campbell Dawbarn, pioneering nutritionist and biochemist whose research on B-complex vitamins fundamentally shaped our understand of biochemistry and militant Scottish suffragette Flora Drummond.

day two hundred five (13. 839)

Iran denies a role in the apparent plot to bomb an airbase in England. Indirect talks between Washington and Tehran continue in New York via Qatari mediators with both sides rejecting reports of compromise—Iran not pausing its nuclear programme and the US not offering sanction relief. The Supreme Leader issues a statement reasserting that Iran is the sole custodian of the Strait of Hormuz. A comprehensive framework for the withdrawal of Israeli forces from southern Lebanon stalls at the American department of state, whilst US senator Bernie Sanders calls for an end of military aid to Israel following the state banned Arab parties from elections, disenfranchising Palestinians and leaving them not representation in the Knesset. Netanyahu holds secret meetings with the United Arab Emirates. Russia strikes Ukraine Academy of Sciences as ten-thousand North Korean troops prepare to mobilise. Ebola cases surpass eight thousand in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Europe braces for the next energy shock as fuel prices continue to climb and the US diesel export ban looms. OpenAI scraps the release of its latest frontier model over safety concerns.

blinded me with science (13. 796)

With everything else going on the world, we managed to miss the thirty-sixth first annual Ig Nobels held in Zürich at the beginning of the month. A little late to the party, we still enjoyed reviewing the laureates and their award-winning studies. Top honours were handed out in the Biomechanics category to a multinational team for devising a more precise definition of the act of kissing as “non-agonistic interactions involving directed, intraspecific, oral-oral contact” in ants, birds, polar bears and humans, to a finding that cockroach milk has three-fold the proteins than that of bovines for chemistry and the vaunted peace prize was presented to a group documenting how individuals value the friends most who are vicious to their enemies. Learn more about the awards show and contenders from the Annals of Improbable Research at the link above.

synchronoptica

one year ago: a resumption in nuclear weapons testing (with synchronoptica) plus a high-concept music video from OK Go

two years ago: Dresden’ Kulturpalast mural and Soviet Realism, outsider artist Gottfried Mind, Mexico’s new president, Saks Fifth Avenue (1924) plus generating a podcast based on one’s notes 

three years ago: assorted links worth revisiting 

four years ago: Our Lady of Sorrows plus more links to enjoy

five years ago: forest mascots (1971) plus a Star Trek: TAS classic

six years ago: more Trek with “Amok Time,” illustrations from the children of Charles Darwin, rousing public sentiment following the Gunpowder Plot, life signs on Venus plus a COVID movie-night

seven years ago: more on Jupiter’s moons, a hot Colonel Sanders, public crucifixes, Lovecraft in the style of Dr Seuss plus Graphis Press

eight years ago: an AI names apples, the Ig Noble Awards, the Great Recession’s Lost Decade plus legalising marijuana confounded by travel regulations

 

11x11 (13. 790)

hospoda: Czech tavern etiquette and drinking culture  

70up: following the death of Michael Apted, the cast of longest running documentary series is bowing out after the next and final instalment  

god’s own hand: the role of animacy in English genitive formation, X’s Y vs the Y of X  

area marker balls: those giant fishing bobs on power lines  

hexagonal close-packed: researchers form high pressure, high temperature ice, suspected to be present in the core of Uranus and Neptune 

dermatoglyphics: palm-reading and traditional medicine have always had a common intersection 

tacuini ægritudinum: the journey of a mysterious medical manuscript, supposedly from the legendary island of Hy-Brasil, from Baghdad to Ireland—via Strange Company  

short imaged monologues: Anthropic’s Claude responds to call to slow down AI research to prevent us from being wiped out by a paperclip maximiser—more here   

i pledge to the greatest president in the history of the united states that loves us so much he cant’t even breath: Trump urges crowd at the Republican Midterm convention to cheat like hell    

and although death is represented in the form of a human skeleton, yet this is only an emblem for death is not a being but a state: early modern flap books aimed at young readers with a special format for transformations   

between the sheets: a 1930s recipe for a cognac sour sees a resurgence in popularity

synchronoptica

one year ago: animated vignettes from Plantopia (with synchronoptica), assorted links worth revisiting plus a banger from Hozier

two years ago: more links to enjoy, nights on Earth, the Ig Nobel prize, prayers vs spells plus Cloud Appreciation Day 

three years ago: Putin and Kim meet 

four years ago: the Poet Laureate’s tribute to the Queen, the Beatles’ Apple Electronics venture plus even more links worth the revisit

five years ago: your daily demon: Marchosias, more links to enjoy, the first teenage all music and dance show plus the release of Super Mario Brothers (1985)

six years ago: dissecting the original COVID hotspot, more on radio alphabets, The Stand, the stately manor that inspired Wuthering Heights plus St Venerius

aal11 (13. 782)

Shortly after taking office in January of this year, Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s staff found a tranche of documents, sixty-four boxes, never released that suggest that residents of Lower Manhattan were misled about the safety and air quality in the immediate aftermath of the 9/11 terror attacks and for years following. The mayor directed his staff to upload these documents and make them available on a portal that anyone can search, coming online earlier this week. One can see environmental surveys for any given neighbourhood and learn more about the actual risk, exposure with resources about filing a claim for compensation. In a rush to get businesses in New York running again and to not “let the terrorist win”—reminiscent of the resistance to social-distancing schemes, shuttered shops and restricted gatherings and the push by some for a return to normality that was premature and had far-reaching consequences—public officials at the city, state and federal levels assured that the air was safe to breathe and the water safe to drink for those living next to ‘the Pile’—rescue workers avoiding the term ground zero favoured by the media, the rubble of the Twin Towers, burning concrete, lead, asbestos as well as hazards from the some two thousand automobiles buried in the underground parking. Three times the number of individuals, not only first responders, who died that day a quarter of century ago have now died as a result of illnesses caused by living with the toxic debris. The terror attacks were declared an act of war to limit the city’s legal liability. The resource, courtesy of Web Curios, also includes a wealth of information documenting the social impact, search and recovery efforts and perhaps most importantly how institutions respond to something so unimaginably of world-changing magnitude and violence.

synchronoptica

one year ago: a 1970 documentary on Kenneth Anger (with synchronoptica) plus artist Ivan Aivazovsky

two years ago: search engine optimisation, transcribing presidential debates plus tales of Chemical Romance 

three years ago: the Hoover Dam comes online (1936), an actual flying car from 1973, bird photograph of the year plus a manliness calibrator

four years ago: an important battle in the Scottish War of Independence (1297)

five years ago: 80s automotive dashboards, avian photograph of the year, the Dead Internet conspiracy theory plus Mid-Century Modern home-entertainment consoles

six years ago: a memorable, perfectly timed photograph, Disintegration Loops, fiery skies plus assorted links to revisit

 

😱 (13. 778)

In a fascinating panel discussion with the hosts of Tiny Matters, Helen Zaltzman’s latest episode of the Allusionist presents a thoroughgoing historical, linguistic and cultural survey of our concept of phobias, now defined as an anxiety disorder characterised by a persistent and irrational fear of an encounter or a situation.Although first described in detail and subject to clinical diagnosis since the Middle Ages, likely first Persian polymath Abu Zayd al-Balkhi who accurately attributed them to a psychological imbalance that manifests itself with physical symptoms like trembling, fainting or paleness, their debut in common-parlance during the Enlightenment came thanks to the correspondence that American revolutionary, founding father, social justice advocate and physician Benjamin Rush had with Dr Diederik Janssen of the University of Maastricht in 1786, the pair of letters half-humorously (in the same spirit of the fanciful books of venery that gave us collective terms like a murmuration of starlings), half in earnest explores specific phobias and manias that give us the modern, if informal, sense of aversion and affection as suffixes, though without the double-barrelled Greek binomials. Whereas in Rush’s day phobic disorders were used to describe diseases—like hydrophobia, the old name for rabies, for the avoidance that late-stage patience displayed for drinking water, those messages helped inspire others to name dread and panic in a clinical manner with Victorian interest in psychotherapy becoming recognised and wide spread over the ensuing decades, hitting at just the right time. Being able to name something can be a gateway to healing, community and sympathy. The legacy of word play however also gave rise to non-medical and political use as in xenophobia and transphobes, which really have nothing to do with a debilitating fear of anything and are rather euphemistic attempts to categorise unjustified bigotry and discrimination and to trivial uses, both in making light of those with serious conditions in hyperbolic empathy and a profusion of -phobias that cause little to no distress. Do give the show a listen and discover a myriad of others at the website up top.

ordinary abundance (13. 741)

Via Things Magazine, we quite enjoyed this cozy turn about a tiny apartment that showcases all the features and amenities which were out of reach or unimaginable to generations just a few removed from the comfortable and sheltered lives that many of us live—taken for granted—scrolling through short vignettes that are inexhaustive, not giving the complete the history behind the unseen conveniences, but in those brief anecdotes we come to appreciate what’s not fully articulated that underpins their engineering and the larger systems behind them. Of course we knew about the savings in labour but it isn’t something that presents itself with enough regularity, particularly when bemoaning doing a chore that used to occupy a whole day, the work that went into a single garment, distances transversed and the cost of candlepower. We also liked how the suite looks like an IKEA showroom.

ebov (13. 739)

Beginning on this day in 1976 in the village of Yambuku in the northern part of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (then Zaire), the first known outbreak of ebolavirus occurred when Mabalo Lokela, the headmaster of the local mission school sought treatment for what was mistaken at first for malaria, then the Marburg virus (see previously) at a clinic.  Later named for the French corruption of the rather distant Legbala river (Ngbandi for white water), pathologist not wanting to associate the remote village with the legacy and stigma of the haemorrhagic disease it causes, the US Centres for Disease Control Epidemic Intelligence Service and the World Health Organisation helped local medical personnel to quarantine the village. Out of a total three hundred eighteen cases, two hundred eighty resulted in death, an eighty-eight percent fatality rate, and though better monitoring, access to sanitation and containment has resulted in marginal improvements to treatment and survival, the highly infectious disease still has no vaccine or cure and kills on average half of those who encounter it.

synchronoptica

one year ago: assorted links worth the revisit (with synchronoptica) plus challenging conventional wisdom on Big Data

one year ago: the era of AI photography plus the death of Charles Lindbergh (1974)

three years ago: Gaberboccus press plus midcentury modern embassies and consulates 

four years ago: more links to enjoy plus measuring time 

five years ago: pandemic saints plus promotional material for the film AI

six years ago: the Isle of Wight Festival (1970), millions of photoplay plots, US Space Force command structure, IKEA catalogues in virtual space, Top Value Television plus more unbuilt architecture

there will come soft rains (13. 687)

Notwithstanding a 1997 retcon of the author’s canon that advanced the future time settings by thirty-one years, unconvinced of his prescience, the title of Ray Bradbury’s 1950 short story is taken from a poem by Sarah Teasdale published at the end of World War I and the beginning of the influenza pandemic of 1918, takes place on this day. It chronicles a lone automated home that by chance survived the destruction of Allendale California in a nuclear attack. Daily routines continue with robots attending to household chores and meal preparation, acknowledging their former residents and masters though they mistake their presence for silhouettes burnt on to the walls by the atomic blast. The absent family’s pet dog, starving is blocked from entering the kitchen whilst the systems are whirring away, eventually dying of hunger and exhaustion before being unceremoniously incinerated by the clean-up module. The house recites a selection of the hostess’ favourite poetry, choosing the above. Later an errant wind gust blows a branch through the kitchen windows, causing a fire that the robots are unable to extinguish with the house itself consumed, save for a single wall and an automated clock, registering the date and time.

 

synchronoptica

one year ago: a UFO sighting in Scotland (with synchronoptica), UNESCO status for Neapolitan pizza, battling gerrymandering with gerrymandering plus a celebrity sea anemone 

 

two years ago: Trump refuses to debate Harris plus assorted links to revisit

 

three years ago: more links to enjoy plus Sir Arthur Conan Doyle channels a dead president

 

four years ago: the invention of champagne, the Zone of Avoidance plus even more links worth revisiting

 

five years ago: an ingenious Cold War bugging device, the Lady of Elx, a series of tubes plus con-man affiliates

 

six years ago: the Feast of Saint Sezni, more miniatures from Tatsuya Tanaka plus White House press corps journalist Helen Thomas

legionella pneumophila (13. 661)

Recognised in retrospect by epidemiologists as the first outbreak of the lethal atypical pneumonia and upper respiratory tract infection, the first delegates who had attended the America Legion convention of US veterans of foreign wars concluding a couple of days prior at the luxury Bellevue-Stratford Hotel in central Philadelphia began dying from a mysterious disease on this date in 1976.  A total of one hundred eighty two cases, resulting in twenty nine fatalities, the only common factor among the identified infected was presence at the hotel, whose occupancy rate plummeted subsequently due to negative publicity and would close permanently in November of the same year. Over the next months, public health researchers identified the reservoir and vector of the illness as a particularly pertinacious, hitherto unknown bacterium in a symbiotic relationship with amoebae that thrive in industrial water systems like water tanks, hot tubs or in this case the evaporative condensers of large air conditioning units. Despite lessons gleaned from this deadly event, many cases of legionellosis have occurred throughout the world—including outbreaks in an apartment complex in Murcia, Spain, a nursing home in Toronto, a hospital in Lisbon and prison in northern California, all traced to contaminated rooftop cooling towers for climate control systems. 

synchronoptica

one year ago: Dashiell Hammett’s anti-heros and Trump loyalists (with synchronoptica) plus RIP humorist Tom Lehrer 

two years ago: American theocracy plus a lunar archbishopric 

three years ago: the Indian diamond exchange plus cities with signature psychological disorders

four years ago: lesser known lochs plus assorted links to revisit 

five years ago: a banger from Stevie Nicks,  Nick at Nite’s line-up, portrait photographer Masayoshi Sukita, Maneki-Neko, English’s inconsistencies, Avant Garde magazine plus AI generated Tarot cards

six years ago: Saint Pantaleon, Bugs Bunny’s catch-phrase (1940), more non-words plus GIF-artist Katy Daft 

9x9 (13. 655)

all the queens houses: the eclectic architectural vernacular that makes up the New York City’s most diverse borough  

everything counts in large amounts: the moral imperative to understand big numbers, however unimaginable—via Kottke   

incendie de forêt: over a quarter million residents in France and Spain are evacuated from encroaching wildfires  

question de forme: the geometric animation of René Jodoin—see also, see previously

concurso de belleza: Trump cites his beauty pageant credentials to claim to be the competent authority when Venezuela is ready for elections  

plotlines: charting the journey of the protagonist in select classic novels with period maps—via Language Hat 

devil dog: Poseidon’s Underworld (previously) reviews the 1978 made-for-television star-studded spectacular about a satanic litter  

interstitial: Western science seems to recognise the meridians and subtle body of acupuncture and Ayurvedic traditions with a popular article on human anatomy’s third circulatory system  

cornell, 1965: filmmaker Lawrence Jordan’s 1978 profile of peer and colleague Joseph Cornell of Utopia Parkway, Flushing Queens

abdominal quadrants (13. 654)

We enjoyed studying this small collection of antique nineteenth century ukiyo-e prints that illustrate the inner-anatomical functions, to promote good health and moderation as well as a civics lesson with bodily fitness as an allegory of not necessarily of industry (see also) but of an ordered society. The pictured woodblock is by artist Utagama Kuisada (歌川 国貞), among the most prolific designers and commercial successive artists of the medium who in his own time was far better known than contemporaries Hokusai and Hiroshige, and is titled the “Mirror of the Physiology of Food and Drink.” Much more from Open Culture at the link up top.

synchronoptica

one year ago: Battle Beyond the Stars (with synchronoptica), cheese advocacy, Trump seeks to fire the Federal Reserve chair for cause plus a completist’s drinking adventure

two years ago: the arch of Constantine plus assorted links worth revisiting

three years ago: more links to enjoy 

four years ago: Ullapool and environs plus a historic NATO outpost

five years ago: the first colour advert on monochrome TVs (1967), Einstein on the Beach, St Thomas à Kempis plus an epic mosaic along the Thames

six years ago: cognitive fitness, Wikipedia 1.0, the US Space Force, St Cucuphas, Sino-US tensions plus enduring character tropes

deadpool (13. 631)

As Superpunch informs, popular and controversial predictions market platform Kalshi (previously) is expanding its betting profile from economic indicators, political and legislative outcomes and armed conflict to now include sports-like wagering in biotechnology, gambling on clinical trials and regulatory approval of new drug therapies. Already a highly speculative market subject to wild swings, opening up new contracts with Big Pharma, companies like Gilead, is expected to motivate traders to put their thumb on the scale, out of self-interest to improve their odds, with assuredly unscientific and deadly consequences. Kalshi, for its part defends its ethical stance, arguing, without scholarly consensus since the pool numbers are never disclosed, that the wisdom of the crowds and their investment on being right (or at least less wrong than the competition) more efficiently and accurately—a counterbalance to the greed, fraud and corruption endemic to the industry—steers optimal outcomes.

synchronoptica

one year ago: historic images of NASA’s research campus (with synchronoptica), assorted links to revisit, the flags of Iran plus new additions to UNESCO’s world heritage register

two years ago: American’s AI-military complex plus an evil cocktail

three years ago: Trump investigated for falsifying business records 

five years ago: your daily demon plus the island of Kållandsö

six years ago: Operation Jade Helm, unpopular essays plus more corporate sing-alongs

seven years ago: Les Horrible Cernettes, Wiesbaden’s Deutsches Filmhaus plus Trump’s disdain for the press

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

welcome to the coolest summer of the rest of your lives (13. 584)

A heat wave in the British Isles, drought conditions and extreme temperatures extended through a period lasting from the end of June until the end of August, reached its climax on this day in 1976 with a then record peak of 35,9°C (97°F) registered in Cheltenham in the Cotswolds. Leading towards water rationing, impacts on wildlife and agriculture, mortality displacement (excess deaths) and a twelve-percent increase in food prices caused by crop failure, that summer was considered a reference point for stiflingly hot weather in the UK and Ireland, with temperatures just shy of the height over most of England for fifteen consecutive days, a plague of ladybirds and unprecedented forest fires, since rivalled by 2003, 2006, 2014, 2022 and the present season, amplified by anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions resulting in self-reenforcing feedback loops.

synchronoptica 

one year ago: Jargeau and St Denis de l’Hôtel (with synchronoptica)

two years ago: the ancient quarter of Maccagno

three years ago: superlative drone photography, Ziggy Stardust retires, assorted links to revisit plus composer György Ligeti

four years ago: Dog Days of Summer, Double Indemnity (1944), more links to enjoy plus early AI image generation

five years ago: the Phaistos Disk (1908), US report on Unidentified Aerial Phenomena plus the offspring of Hermes and Aphrodite

six years ago: EXP TV, Mount Rushmore plus US support for the mujahideen in Afghanistan 

vague de chaleur (13. 558)

Reminiscent of the restrictions placed on the tradition of shooting off fireworks in Germany for New Year’s during the height of the COVID pandemic in order to not put more pressure on already overburdened hospitals, Paris has imposed a temporary ban on the sale of off-license (take-away) alcohol and public consumption as the country swelters under an unprecedented heat wave as emergency services is being overwhelmed by heat-related incidents. The weekend’s prohibition does not apply to restaurants and cafés but may be extended as the forecast for France and the rest of the continent bodes of more stifling temperatures.

synchronoptica

one year ago: Uncleftish Beholding (with synchronoptica) plus oyster-culture

two years ago: visiting Carmine and Cannobio

three years ago: assorted links to enjoy plus the Pied-Piper

four years ago: the end of the Soviet calendar plus mermaiding

five years ago: a Frank Gehry twisted tower plus a morphine substitute (1896)

six years ago: more links to revisit, the first UPC code plus a protest anthem

accessibility settings (13. 524)

Via Boing Boing, we learn that the operating system for iPhones have had a feature for a couple of years now called Vehicle Motion Cues that makes it more comfortable for a car passenger and potentially lessens the effects of motion sickness from staring at one’s phone by taking readings from the device’s gyroscope and accelerometer and placing flecks on the edge of the screen that harmonises with the motions of the automobile. When I am the passenger seat, lately, I am usually too enamoured with the passing scenery to even glance at my phone, but the author, whom road-tested it during an extended excursion—a working-vacation, swears by the magic dots and it could offer some relief (see also) during a bus ride or for a moment’s research and consultation, when I can feel the nausea creeping up trying to focus on one thing for too long.  Motion sickness comes about when our own gyroscope, the inner ear, detects that we are moving but the eyes, fixed on something static, presents a contradiction.

11x11 (13. 450)

o’dark ocho: an interesting linguistic coincidence  

wildlife gusher: a mysterious structure found in the middle of nowhere—click through to read some delightful and illuminating explanations, via Miss Cellania  

thomas jerome newton: a rereading of the novel The Man Who Fell to Earth in preparation for a rewatch of the David Bowie film  

富くじ: Present /&/ Correct’s collection of Mid-Century Japanese lottery tickets—see also 

spook hotel: the de facto capitol of US administered Venezuela  

kleptocracy: Trump drops his ten billion dollar lawsuit agains his internal revenue service and department of commerce in exchange for a two billion dollar slush fund to award loyalists and exempt himself and associates from future tax audits—via Kottke  

œnology methodology: the study and enjoyment of wine—see previously  

special envoy: Trump sends governor of Louisiana to Greenland to make “friends”  

night nurse: the forgotten author Dora Macy behind the Barbara Stanwyck classic  

public health emergency of international concern: World Health Organisation declares west Africa outbreak of ebola viral haemorrhage fever highly dangerous with the US CDC still not allowed to communicate with the UN body  

cowcumbers: the courgette was previously called so as they were only considered fit for bovines

vox humana (13. 442)

Severely traumatised during his conscription during World War I as a stretcher-bearer and subsequently diagnosed with shell-shock, haunted by from persistent auditory hallucinations of the screaming of injured and dying soldiers, Alfred Wolfsohn did not respond well to treatments offered. We learn, courtesy of Weird Universe, taking his health and mental well-being into his own hands by vocalising an extreme range of sounds, the timbre and flexibility of his voice dramatically augmented by his practise of self-therapy, eventually resulting in what was described as exorcism and catharsis. Amazed that he was able to mitigate his suffering despite no formal training as a singing teacher or psychologist, though well read in Jungian thought, Wolfsohn—fleeing Nazi Germany—wanted to help heal others with his techniques, believing that the added expressiveness to the voice corresponded to increased potential, aptitude in all areas of life. His pedagogy and later performance pieces were considered highly influential and counted Aldous Huxley, R D Laing among others.