Going to the next village from home, Hermannsfeld, we saw a little airshow in the fields that was a reunion of sorts for a certain model of biplanes from all over Germany, the sports-craft built from kits (every one unique) and named Kiebitze after the lapwing (peewit, Vanellus vanellus) as the wings are designed to fold up, like the birds, for easy transportation and can be towed by a car. We got to see quite a few take-offs and landings and some aerial acrobatics.
Saturday 13 July 2024
Thursday 20 June 2024
8x8 (11. 642)
crazy logic: a rather seamless mashup of Gnarls Barkley, Rockwell, Pink Floyd and Sumpertramp
ัาปัะฐั : the Yakut people of arctic Siberia celebrate New Year on the Summer Solstice
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baggage carousel: an animated journey of checked airline luggage
the phrygian cap: the Paris Games’ mascot with a revolutionary past—via Miss Cellania
the beige begins early here folks: McMansion Hell (previously) presents another instalment of the American Medieval Revival—via Things Magazine
re-alignment: just ahead of Solstice celebrations, activists with Just Stop Oil douse the megalithic calendar with orange paint power
chiroptera: a ballet chroegraphed by Thomas Bangalter, formerly of Daft Punk—via tmn
Saturday 15 June 2024
roll subsidence mode (11. 631)
Jargony reporting on some scary turbulence and skilled piloting that led to subsequent recovery, a yaw and tumble sustaining a Dutch roll, resulted in some discussion on etymology and more broadly the label with possibly pejorative connotations, as in going Dutch or Dutch treat rooted in the general enmity of the English for the Netherlands dating to the Anglo-Dutch Wars of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries over maritime trade and overseas colonies. Whereas the righting manoeuvre, borrowed from term originally applied to an ice skating move (twentse schoorijders), may have been the optimal correction for the aircraft as well as for the skater, phrases like Dutch courage implies something less than authentic. More at Language Log at the link up top.
synchronoptica
one year ago: a small piece of the US in the UK, assorted links worth revisiting plus Rembrandt’s Danaรซ
two years ago: potatoe, more on Eadweard Muybridge, a false dandelion plus Sukiyaki
three years ago: another MST3K classic, a mysterious notebook of Outsider Art, a chronology of the New York Times, the Rashomon effect plus the Durgan script
four years ago: the Magna Carta (1215)
five years ago: a pristine Peel Trident plus anatomical maps
Wednesday 5 June 2024
8x8 (11. 608)
i’m too busy helping plot world domination to bother with such run-of-the-mill liberal brainwashing: a day in the life of Mister Anthony Fauci, according to one Congressional representative
syllabus: a reading list spanning nine-decades—via Messy Nessy Chic
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foreign accent: TWA’s 1968 campaign to introduce cosmopolitan flair for US domestic flights
zoonotic: cross-species viral transmission cases is an ominous warning for the public health community—see previously
the rot-com bubble: the deterioration of tech began with iterative, virtual fetishes—starting with the gig-economy, moving on to crypto, NFTs, the metaverse and now AI, substitutes and replacements that no one asked for
anagnosology: the science of reading from Alie Ward
look at me, i’m mtg, lousy with stupidity: one of the latest from Randy Rainbow
one year ago: The Truman Show (1988) plus a follow-up on an Italian archaeological discovery
two years ago: Uncle Albert (1971) plus a selection of British tongue-twisters
three years ago: a preliminary report of the disease that would become known as AIDS (1981), St Boniface, a sophisticated place name generator plus disco lessons
four years ago: generative copy, assorted links to revisit, a zany public service campaign plus a classic from Crash-Test Dummies
five years ago: US national park typography, the palette of dying coral plus clearing up space junk
Saturday 4 May 2024
8x8 (11. 539)
an elegant weapon for a more civilised age: the physics and power demands of a lightsaber
defective fleet of fly sky-wreckage: nothing good has the acronym MRSA (Material Review Segregation Area)
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wopr: US urges China and Russia to pledge that AI will never have command and control of nuclear weapons
poultice: an orangutan observed self-medicating a wound in the wild with a paste made of plants with healing properties
serenity amid disaster: a short animation from Amanda Forbis and Wendy Tilby, “The Flying Sailor,” examines the wonder and fragility of existence
peak wtf: gun-mounted flashlights popular with American police officers
oh, the asthma guy: a conversion with that one friend who’s never seen Star Wars
Friday 26 April 2024
8x8 (11. 514)
flightline: stunning visualisations of air traffic
splinternet: ByteDance does not plan to divest itself of TikTok following US ultimatum
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mtv buzz: a surreal montage of audio and video clips arranged by Mark Pellington (1990)
celebrity endorsement: musicians, artists and novelist pose with the Sears’ appliances in this 1969 ad campaign for Kenmore—see also
undiscovery: the Map Men chart phantom islands—including some that have made it into the era of Google Maps—see previously
22,5 light hours: engineers debug a forty-seven year old computer remotely from twenty-four billion kilometres away to revive the data stream from Voyager I—see previously
embarking: a luxury airline that caters to canines above their human companions
one year ago: assorted links worth revisiting
two years ago: dismantling Soviet-era monuments
three years ago: more links to enjoy plus a special issue of LIFE magazine
four years ago: fantasy urban map generators, more links worth the revisit plus geopolitical optics
five years ago: an elegant and modern personal seal, even more links plus a Victoria houseplant
Tuesday 23 April 2024
7x7 (11. 509)
betteridge’s law: the legacy of Alfred Harmsworth, Viscount Northcliffe, and commoditising fascinating factiods to sell newspapers
congestion pricing: overtourism and its consequences
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grace period: America’s addiction to credit cards
zoonosis: concern rises over avian flu as it appears in cows and wild animal communities
nonstop flight: the epic migration of the Bar-tailed Godwit and the engineering of feathers—via the New Shelton wet/dry
catch-and-kill: deal to bury stories unfavourable to Trump by tabloid The National Enquirer was an “agreement between friends”
Tuesday 9 April 2024
8x8 (11. 480)
chambre de bonne: disappearing top-floor tiny apartments of Paris
semifreddo: the origin of Neapolitan ice cream
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court dress: the pink sleeves of the supreme courts of Labrador and Newfoundland are in deference to the former summer robes for sittings in England and Wales—via Super Punch
geoengineering: Tennessee legislature outlaws (see also) so called chemtrails
bpm: Chechnya announces ban of music considered too fast or too slow
backsplash: mosaic of the day
warehouse-to-loft-conversion: a tribute to the last of New York’s artists’ dwellings—via Messy Nessy Chic
Sunday 31 March 2024
boac (11. 459)
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one year ago: the musical stylings of Pascal Nuzzo plus ASCII art by AI
two years ago: Cรฉsar Chรกvez Day, Maltese Freedom Day, mass resignations at Hong Kong’s high court plus South Ossetia votes in favour of annexation
three years ago: satanic sneakers, The Matrix (1999), retronyms plus assorted links to revisit
four years ago: museum cosplay, graphic designer Fortunato Depero plus presidential advisor myPillow Guy
five years ago: Urbano Monte’s planosphere, Sony World Photo awardees plus graphic designer Herman Bayer
Saturday 23 March 2024
8x8 (11. 444)
going in style: fantastic custom sarcophagi from Ghanaian coffin-maker Paa Joe
tiamat: the misremembered series finale of the Dungeons & Dragons Saturday morning cartoon—see previously
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cincyflags: neighbourhood banners for all of Cincinnati’s fifty-two communities—via Pasa Bon!
mergers and acquisitions: Trump expected to see a windfall from the sale of social media network
coal holes: cast iron plate covers for the chutes of London—see also
infantile amnesia: early childhood memories may not be lost and yield insights to brain development—via the New Shelton wet/dry
regeneration: a look at the jurisdiction practising human composting
synchronoptica
one year ago: sampler silhouettes, punctuation in headlines plus scrimshaw from oceanic plastic trash
two years ago: assorted links worth revisiting
three years ago: AI-generated pick-up lines, a variation of the Medusa myth, the controlled-deorbit of the Mir (2001), lockdown on year on, vintage GIF buttons, pole tossing plus REM’s Out of Time (1991)
four years ago: dissolution of the African Economic Union (1985)
five years ago: the musical stylings of Carsie Blanton, a town’s strong connection to the number eleven, Nick of Time (1989), the tarot of Pamela Colman Smith, Robert Mueller concludes his investigation plus the UK votes
Saturday 24 February 2024
flag carrier (11. 375)
From 1965 to 1967, JAL—once the jet age was firmly established and the airline had a full schedule of international routes, launched a marketing and public outreach campaign and printed a series of thirty-two pamphlets for passengers on all aspects of Japanese and Asian Pacific culture and industry. Entitled “New Views,” they have absolutely frame-worthy covers. More at Present /&/ Correct at the link above.
synchronoptica
one year ago: an Ibsen premier (1876), more beautiful infographics plus how uu became w
two years ago: a Midnight Moment in Times Square
three years ago: your daily demon: Belial, assorted links to revisit, a Monteverdi premier (1607) plus architectural illustrator Margarethe Frรถhlich
four years ago: common areas of Hong Kong housing, the Battle of Los Angeles (1942) plus revisiting I, Claudis
five years ago: the Icelandic calendar plus a Ukrainian folk band
Tuesday 20 February 2024
10x10 (11. 365)
royal mews: King Charles’ one of a kind electric Jaguar up for auction—via Miss Cellania
ppe: the portable nuclear bomb shield, patented by Harold Tiff
got clearance clarence: after embarrassing blunder over bad travel advice, Air Canada advocates personhood (and limited liability) for its chatbot customer representative
1776 days: Julian Assange’s long detention and fight against rendition to the US for Wikileaks
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tigers blood: new singles from Waxahatchee
daddy daughter day: breakdancing, bitcoin father revealed as a veteran of member of the Christian Coalition and conservative speech writer
the second in line: Swedish illustrator Mattias Adolfsson—via Messy Nessy Chic
body armour: Casimir Zeglen, the priest who invented the bulletproof vest
motorcade: Joe Biden’s Cadillac sedan for sale—via tmn
synchronoptica
one year ago: artist creates a prosthetic extra digit plus assorted links to revisit
two years ago: more links to enjoy, the subterrene (1972) plus The Shape of Things to Come (1936)
three years ago: introducing the Jeep (1941), a Nyan Cat NFT plus a suite of Japanese pictograms
four years ago: more mass-transit upholstery, RIP Larry Gordon Tesler who invested copy-and-paste, superannuated map styles, the possible extradition of Julian Assange plus the new US ambassador to Germany
five years ago: all the presidents’ meals, a secret meeting between industrialists and the Nazi government (1933), more links worth the revisit, the US emergency broadcast system (1971), vintages mazes plus the bokeh technique
Sunday 11 February 2024
callsign (11. 345)
Via the always excellent Maps Mania, we are referred to the rather infamous interactive flight tracker from Jack Sweeney that amalgamates real-time, crowd-sourced transponder data that follows commercial and
controversially the flight-plans of private jets belonging to well-known figures, the open-source forum used by other aggregators to publicise and monitor the itineraries and environmental footprint of celebrities who would rather their outsized impact, hypocrisy and whereabouts to be known. Some believe that keeping tabs on soi-disant free-speech champion Elon Musk motivated him to purchase Twitter and try to silence his critics. Taylor Swift also recently expressed feeling her privacy and security violated by Sweeney’s site—but in response sold one of her private aircraft, possibly for an upgrade. We were surprised to see the quite a number of smaller, non-commercial flights over our airspace. More at the links above.
Monday 5 February 2024
terminal procedure publications (11. 327)
Via Kottke, we are directed to the detail-dense and exacting business of charting America’s airspace with this appreciation of the comprehensive and regularly updated tranche of publications from the US Federal Aviation Agency.
Multiple editions specialising in airport arrivals and departures, as well as maps designed for use under instrumental and visual flight rules—the latter comprising the most impenetrable and engrossing examples of cartographical excellence. Intended for conditions and altitudes when the pilot can guide themselves by monitoring the landscape below, they are filled with markers and features that can be used as landmarks for orientation, most crew use apps, of course informed from the FAA charts, on a refresh-cycle of fifty-six days. Particularly interesting are the waypoints, invisible zones that planes transit into and out of managed by air-traffic controllers corresponding to latitude and longitude but to nothing earth-bound and are assigned five-letter mnemonic call-signs (fixes), and reference local culture or fandom, like MATAG near Newton, Iowa where the appliance manufacturer was founded or SATAN near Portland, Maine in honour of author Stephen King. Much more at the links above.
Thursday 25 January 2024
11x11 (11. 292)
liar’s dividend: digital propaganda and implausible deniability—via the New Shelton wet/dry
working cows dairy: a collection of superlative cheeses—via Kottke
the blazing world: a 1666 novel considered the first world of science fiction by a woman author
everglades jetport: uncovering the ruins of a failed supersonic runway floundering in the in the Florida wetlands—see previouslythe furby panic: US National Security Agency compelled to release a trove of documents outlining their ban of the toy as a potential instrument of espionage—via Waxy
press-gang: while most news outlets block AI crawlers used to scrape training data, right-wing media welcomes them—see previously
mac@40: a website showing every model of the Apple computer as it enters its fifth decade
winter in aizu: a woodblock series from Sosaku Hanga artist Kiyoshi Saito
you are both so much more than kenough: Hillary Clinton weighs in the Oscar nominations for Barbie—via Super Punch
time in a bottle: one bar’s water-clock has drained—though we’d not be adverse to a Harvey Wallbanger
white stork: the Ukraine war-sandbox and the rise of the AI-Military Complex—see previously
synchronoptica
one year ago: data-scrapping and copyright
two years ago: MediaWiki Day, more custom cars, Roman milestones plus an inexplicable fast food mascot
three years ago: your daily demon: Valac, assorted links to revisit plus the Torlonia Marbles
four years ago: vintage virtual dressing rooms, happy birthday Volodymyr Zelenskyy, more on the US Space Force plus Mendelssohn’s Wedding March
five year ago: photojournalist Jessie Tarbox Beals, a Droste homage, more links to enjoy, a Trump associate arrested plus cardinal notions
Sunday 21 January 2024
8x8 (11. 285)
80s chillpill: a nostalgic, slow-dance playlist
topdressing: an appreciation of the world’s “ugliest” utility airplane, the Airtruk, designed for crop-dusting in New Zealand—via Clive Thompson’s Linkfest
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgt_mYGcZIQ8wodaqvAouw2QEk8WYQP5Q-Pzydoe2vfVM7-KX8O6Ya-AJf-ttlDmlnTCezJXkx1UEngQxAdgzvINtbaMYjcbAD98Jk0fctH7HR0fYUPrEz51zWK3ijMSpdpOKmKQ3DRSbj-M6CFYAyFhvG_-Z-dMI2b5PJ6b1UcbZC6Iv90_LZYLchElkE/s320/one-letter-words-pen-ink.jpg)
these children aren’t french—they’re american: a retrospective look at the BBC’s language learning mascot Muzzy
night-climbers: John Bulmer’s photographs of a secretive group that scaled the campus of Cambridge under the cover of darkness—more here
crochet coral: an evolving nature and craft hybrid project to memorialise and raise awareness about our disappearing reef—see previously—via Nag on the Lake’s Sunday Links
money pit: a tour of the world’s abandoned airports
doses & mimosas: a remix by Vintage Culture featuring Zerky
Thursday 30 November 2023
blackbox (11. 151)
Via the always interesting Things Magazine, we are given some insight into in-flight entertainment with the audio selections until very recently and probably still on some airlines being a curated mix-tape played on a loop arranged for the different channels, stations that one could choose from. Such a technical legacy endures in part because of flight regulations (sort of like the armrest ashtrays and coffee-maker that runs on jet-fuel), reliability and ease of maintenance.
Wednesday 11 October 2023
9x9 (11. 052)
bennu: scientist reveal recovered sample of primordial dust from an asteroid (see previously) may help us better understand the formation of the Solar System
mansions, pensions: revisiting the dwellings of Leonora Carrington (previously) and how they informed her art
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pimeyes: the reverse image search technology that can retrace one’s digital detritus
decide which elvis is king: the consequential public debate over a commemorative US postage stamp
the golden horseshoe: UK’s Natural History Museum unveils the winners of Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition—via Nag on the Lake
beasts: Nigel Kneale’s 1976 horror anthology has a book companion to the series
tower to cockpit: listen live to airport radio transmissions around the world—via the new shelton wet/dry
panspermia: a thought-provoking conjecture about alien life emerging with the Big Bang
Saturday 30 September 2023
8x8 (11. 031)
11/9/1989 - 9/11/2001: a thoroughgoing, reflective essay examining the fateful decade defined, bookended by the fall of the Berlin Wall and the September 11 Terror Attacks—via Web Curios
hail and well met: the surprisingly radical roots of the Renaissance Fair that emerged during McCarthyism and the Red Scare—via Miss Cellania
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imperial airways: Harry Beck’s iconic Underground map for scheduled flight routes—via Things Magazine
tapped out: a passive approach to desalination that can produce safe and cheap potable water without disrupting the ocean’s natural haline balance—via Kottke
wassermusik: a tonal analysis of waterfalls
mr dressup: a documentary about world of make-believe of Ernie Coombs, the Canadian counterpart to Mister Rodgers (previously)
sleepless in seattle: a scrolling narrative on the invisible epidemic of loneliness and isolation experienced by many Americans—via Waxy
one year ago: ethernet, Business!, assorted links to revisit, more on the Scunthorpe problem plus Putin addresses the nation
two years ago: a very distasteful sitcom plus revisiting the Colossus of Rรผgen
three years ago: memorialising the shame of Canada’s residential school policy, International Translation Day, passive voice and reflexive forms, digital world address maps, deconstructing American exceptionalism plus more botanical epithets
four years ago: a farewell to Bauhaus, a remedial lesson on separating one’s trash plus the World Clock of Berlin’s Alexanderplatz (1969)
five years ago: a recipe for mushrooms, BBC Radio 4 (1967), a Chinatown edition of Monopoly plus Leoind and Friends cover Earth, Wind and Fire
Monday 11 September 2023
ฮถ ursae majoris (10. 995)
Still awaiting flying cars (aka roadable aircraft) we were promised, the first pair of fatalities occurred on this day in 1973, when co-founders of AVE (Advanced Vehicle Engineers) Henry Smolinski and Harold Blake were test-piloting a Mizar prototype (named after the lodestar in the Big Dipper) in Oxnard, California. Mating a Cessna airframe to a Ford Pinto, an earlier test-flight had revealed stress of the struts and the deadly crash succumbed to the same design flaw, setting the field back significantly, though one-off developments continue.
synchronoptica
one year ago: an important battle in the Scottish War of Independence (1297)
two years ago: 80s automotive dashboards, avian photograph of the year, the Dead Internet conspiracy theory plus Midcentury Modern home-entertainment consoles
three years ago: a memorable, perfectly timed photograph, Disintegration Loops, fiery skies plus assorted links to revisit
four years ago: US pulls funding for the UN migration agency, more on the art and writing of William Blake plus imagining what’s beyond the frame
five years ago: a web-cam aimed at the North Tower, an international trombone festival, corporate sponsored space exploration plus the US attacks the International Criminal Court