Via Kottke, we learn that a genus of goblin spiders native to the forests of Brazil and described in 2012 has the above taxonomical designation in honour of the 1987 movie Predator, owing to their facial resemblance to the unmasked extraterrestrial hunting party, with individual species like Predatoroonops schwarzeneggeri named for the creatures, quarry and guerilla fighters.
Monday 13 November 2023
predatoroonops (11. 117)
Sunday 8 January 2023
praรงa dos trรชs poderes (10. 400)
Despite concession by the defeated far-right former high office holder Jair Bolsonaro and the lapse of more than a week since the election, there are yet grim echoes in the storming of the presidential palace, congress and the supreme court in Brasรญlia of the Washington January Sixth insurrection just over two years ago by thousands of his backers, spurred to action in part by relentless rumour-mongering of voter-fraud, against president Luiz Inรกcio Lula de Silva. Security forces rebuffed the invasion and called for the extradition of Bolsonaro—who has been granted refuge in Florida.
Tuesday 1 November 2022
8x8 (10. 261)
allhallowtide: the artwork of Mike Egan that references elements of Dรญa de Muertos—via Everlasting Blรถrt
famous artist dies penniless and all alone: the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s archives of artists’ obituaries

forma: Federal Occult Range Management Administration
mapping out the month: the thirty day charting challenge returns
eleiรงรตes gerais: Brazilian artists herald the return of President Lula
ghost bride: a centuries-old tradition practised in some communities in Kerala
ofrenda: a guide to making an altar to celebrate the lives of loved ones who’ve passed
Monday 7 June 2021
orelhรฃo
Referred to as “big ear” in Portuguese, Design Boom celebrates fifty years of the iconic egg-shaped public telephone hoods that were configured for privacy, discretion and to parabolically focus sound by architect Chu Ming Silveira (*1941 – †1997). Though now the installations are mostly ornamental—though also subject to repurposing, just like the red telephone booths of London, are an essential part of the streetscapes of Rio de Janeiro, Sรฃo Paulo and dozens of other metropolitan areas in in Central and South America, Africa and China. The open shells were created in response to complaints of compromised reception with traditional call-boxes that took up too much real estate on the sidewalks and were prone to vandalism and expensive to replace, whereas the acrylic hoods were compact and low-cost.
Tuesday 5 May 2020
lusofonia
Comprised of over two-hundred and seventy million people across the globe that share a linguistic or ethnographic connection to Portugal and its formerly extensive imperial holdings, Lusophone Culture Day is observed today in Brazil, Angola, Mozambique, Guinea-Bissau, East Timor, Goa, Macau, Sรฃo Tomรฉ and Prรญncipe and Cape Verde.
The designation is derived from the Latin term Lusitania (after the demigod Lusus, companion of Bacchus, the deity of wine and divine madness), the Roman Iberian province that roughly corresponds with modern Portuguese borders. Comunidade dos Paรญsesde Lรญngua Portuguesa—the Community of Portuguese Language Countries—representing the commonwealth of diaspora selected this day during a summit in 2005.