8x8 (11. 884)

glamos: Switzerland and Italy agree to redraw their borders due to melting glaciers 

a purrfect storm: the childless cat lady trope goes back to the origins of female suffrage and political participation—see previously  

main character syndrome: a need for recognition and validation fuelled by technological change drives self-mythologising whether or not there’s an audience—see also  

daily affirmation: fifty years of Saturday Night Live title cards and graphic design  

viscawide-16: a Wiki dedicated to vintage and antique cameras—via Pasa Bon!  

ultraviolence: Trump proposes sanctioning a day of lawlessness, akin to the plot of The Purge or Kristallnacht to end criminal behaviour  

we are the trampions: the annual European street car driver competition—see previously  

industrial age: UK shutters last coal-fired power-plant, ending a one hundred forty two year era

mauritius (11. 863)

Fêted on this day on the occasion of his martyrdom in 287 by execution for refusing to kill local Christians under order of Emperor Maximian, this disobedience punished with decimation—killing one out of every ten rebellious soldiers, at the Roman outpost of Agaunum (present day Saint-Maurice in the canton of Valais, and not to be confused with St Moritz in the Engadine, also named for the same leader of the Theban Legion), Maurice (Ⲁⲃⲃⲁ Ⲙⲱⲣⲓⲥ) is a popular and widely venerated saint whose patronage includes multiple kingdoms, municipalities and professions. Depictions and iconography of Maurice have been contentions throughout the centuries, with some suggesting that Holy Roman Emperor (who the saint champions with some crowned before his altar in St Peter’s) Frederich II in the eleventh century initiated the darker-complected trope as a symbol for the Crusades, and that the Christian mission was a universal and non-discriminatory one. Others argue Maurice was never turned Black, though the otherness (see also) went through periods of acceptance and intolerance, including the Nazis’ forbidding the city of Coburg’s coat of arms (since 1493) for glorifying another race and temporary replaced the Wappen with a sword (as guardian of sword-makers) with a swastika on its pommel. Patronage also include armorers, Alpine troops, infantry soldiers, cloth-makers, weavers, dyers and the Pontifical Swiss Guard, Austria, Piedmont, Sardinia, the Houses of Savoy, Lombard and the Merovingians and is invoked against muscle cramps and gout.

entspannt und achtsam (11. 846)

Labelled an imbecile and cretin during his lifetime, though the latter with some charity in the sense of a pious, holy fool, for his weak constitution and shy, withdrawn and compliant behaviour, Swiss artist assistance and apprentice Gottfried Mind really came into his own following the death of his master Sigmund Henderberger of Berne known for his sentimental pastoral scenes. Mind accidentally discovered his precocious virtuosity for the faithful feline study, usually drawn from memory with exacting detail, eventually earning him the reputation as the Katzen-Raffael—or the Raphael of Cats. Click through for more of the artist’s portfolio at the link above.

10⁶⁰⁰ (11. 819)

Via Things Magazine (lots more to explore there), we get the chance to revisit the electromechanical rotor cipher machine, the advanced HX-63 developed by a private Swiss firm, which would prove difficult to crack even by contemporary standards and in 1952 was exponentially more secure than the CIA’s top model. Over the course of a decade, only about a dozen of the units were manufactured and though most clientele remained anonymous, the French defence ministry was one known buyer and a defence contractor found the device in a Cold War communications bunker and restored it to working order. The potential of those above undisclosed purchasers to be forces not aligned with Western interests caused the intelligence agency to intervene and not only eventually stop their sales but also to enter into a partnership with the company to produce a model with a backdoor so the CIA could decrypt any transmission. More from IEEE Spectrum at the link above including a video demonstration of the restored, uncompromised model and more on how the technology works to encode messages.

synchronoptica

one year ago: INTERPOL (1923)—with synchronoptica—plus divination through cheese

seven years ago: an appreciation of composer Edvard Grieg,  a meditation on the dacha plus cabmen’s shelters

eight years ago: restoring the Houses of Parliament, the debut of Star Trek, a Buddha-inspired knitted cap plus the debut of Voyager

nine years ago: a partially submerged art installation in the Thames is a statement on climate change

ten years ago: window displays, NATO talks on the Russian invasion of Ukraine plus a visit to Bad Vilbel

alpine passes ii (11. 663)

Reluctantly we headed back home after our adventures in Italy and Switzerland, this time consulting more local sources and news, discovered that the portion of the Swiss Autobahn washed away by a rockslide had in less than two weeks been made once again navigable for traffic with engineers incorporating material that had destroyed the roadway.

Navigation services had not yet cottoned onto the completed repairs and the way was notably clear and without congestion for the beginning of high season for the preferred San Bernardino Pass connecting Bellinzona with the Mesolcina Valley of the canton of Graubünden, the watersheds of the Po and Rhein river basins and high-road parallel to the ancient bridal path—mostly restricted to donkeys—known as Viamala (in Romansh, the bad route due to the treacherous nature of the gorge) and made open to wheeled conveyance to undercut Austrian-controlled trade.

This snapshot above was not an atypical Swiss highway rest stop with lowing cattle and cow-bells.

synchronoptica

one year ago: Nasty Boys (with synchronoptica), Tynwald Day on the Isle of Man, assorted links to revisit, the Tiny Web awards plus the pop-top can

seven years ago: an extra prosthetic thumb plus more on public education in America

eight years ago: what’s across the oceans, timber architecture, Olympic demands plus a giant radio telescope in China

nine years ago: a distraction for a hot day plus more links to enjoy

ten years ago: a game of geographic trivia

castelli di bellinzona (11. 657)

Returning to Ticino, we visited the UNESCO World Heritage site, the ensemble of fortifications, of the cantonal capital and strategically important location occupied and defended since Neolithic times as the place where several Swiss rivers converge and near the Alpine passes of San Bernardino, San Gottardo and Lukmanier, and maintaining hold of Bellinzona meant control of traffic and trade between northern Europe and the Mediterranean. 

 

It was not however until the reign of Augustus in the first century that a stronghold was built on the rocky outcropping in the middle of the city, and while the garrison was neglected for several hundred years, Castelgrande was expanded into its present form as the defence of Helvetia under Diocletian and Constantine.  Under Frankish rule in the 700s, the second castle, Montebello, was constructed as a chain of watchtowers and as part of expansionist

ambitions of the Duchy of Milan, the third and highest, Sasso Corbaro, was added in the sixteen century with reinforcement on the lower existing structures, and is now a symbol of Swiss unity and identity.

synchronoptica

one year ago: a venerable Viennese newspaper folds (with synchronoptica)

six years ago: negotium and otium

seven years ago: an AI names cats, moss walls, the Tour de Trump plus the Hong Kong transfer of sovereignty (1997)

eight years ago: on listicles plus the fantastic illustrations of François Schuiten

nine years ago: West Germany’s NATO accession (1955), grail candidates plus assorted links to enjoy

ponte dei salti (11. 653)

Driving back through Ticino near Locarno, we headed through the Verzasca valley, punctuated with a monumental reservoir, Lago di Vogorno. Completed in the mid-1960s by the same civil engineer, Giovanni Lombardi, who designed the Gotthard Base Tunnel, the dam makes a cameo in the 1995 film Goldeneye, with James Bond parachuting from the wall. No bungee jumping was on offer today, however.

We went on towards Lavertezzo with the arched pedestrian crossing, built originally in the 1700s for donkeys bearing burdens, over the turquoise river. 

The route was dotted with villages with traditional slate and granite houses. The rapids are treacherous but the shallows in this spot with bathers made it seem like a prehistoric water park from The Flintstones.

synchronoptica

one year ago: paronomasia (with synchronoptica) plus a critique of the Latin alphabet

seven years ago: America’s retaliatory strike on Syria, Salvador Dalí exhumed plus the TSA empowered to check one’s reading material

eight years ago: US supreme court upholds Trump’s travel ban plus the history of America’s Pledge of Allegiance

eleven years ago: Snowden granted asylum 

twelve years ago: drone warfare 

carmine superiore (11. 652)

Traveling back to Luina—which inherited market privileges from Maccagno—but not quite the showcase of local food and craft week expected, we returned to Laveno to take a ferry ride to the Piedmontese side on the lake at the port of Intra by Verbania and between the stretch of coast known as the Cannero Riveria—with same Mediterranean flair—and city of Cannobio, we stopped to explore an abandoned village—the lower settlement named inferiore though still populated. 

Though visible from the campground perched midway up the mountain and only about a kilometer away, was quite a journey to get to the well-preserved medieval ghost town, with a hike through the woods and cascades for the final ascent, Carmine Supreiore was originally built as an escape castle and observation post for Carmine below and the harbor of Cannobio, with a commanding view of the lake and Lombard mountains. 

This better-defended retreat saw its significance wane and was depopulated after the First World War, but subsistence farmers and vintners had the foresight to ensure that it did not fall into complete ruin and had a series of caretakers. Dominated by a church from the thirteen hundreds dedicated to St Gotthard, invoked, among other thing, for relief gout and still sees regular pilgrimages from sufferers. Afterwards we went to Cannobio, a pre-Roman city that rebelled against fascism by establishing the independent Republic of Ossola, with its extensive lakefront piazza before heading back the long way around through Switzerland.

 synchronoptica

one year ago: assorted links worth revisiting (with synchronoptica) plus the Pied Piper of Hamlin

seven years ago: low-Earth orbit being crowded out, mobile check-up units, more links to enjoy plus an IBM featurette

eight years ago: a camera carriage frame for car morphing, secessionist groups plus a potential UK constitutional crisis

nine years ago: more links to enjoy

ten years ago: the Wicked-isation of classic fairy-tales

 

alpine passes (11. 647)

H and I were headed off for a couple of weeks of vacation in Italy via Austria, Liechtenstein and Switzerland but were turned back by authorities positioned along the road for the San Bernardino and to go back and take the Gotthard Pass direction Zürich. 

Uncertain and a bit frustrated, we set off but paused to look for better directions and if the famously high passage was suitable for cars towing a camping trailer and a friendly local advised us on the safest route, chancing by on her bicycle and registering that we were lost. We continued through the valley of the canton of Graubunden, passing through every settlement. It wasn’t until en route, still a bit unconvinced, that we realised that our misdirection (of which we garnered a few details from the above informant) was due to a rather catastrophic landslide that necessitated closure of the highway (washing away a section of the Autobahn) and several hundred residents needed to be evacuated, ashamed that I had been cursing AI search results on popular but outdated information when disaster had just struck and was still developing—though I maintain that artificial intelligence still played a major role with suggesting popular searches over timeliness and relevance. 

Climate change is the culprit for these increasingly common disruptions. Given the turning weather and long detour we stayed at a campsite on the way to the Lukmanierpass, safe passage which we later confirmed (the woman who stopped to help was absolutely right), in a beautiful spot by the chief tributary of the Rhein at Rein da Medal, from the Romansch for source.

8x8 (11. 632)

anabolics: the mainstreaming of casual steroid use  

cover model: the identity of the individual on the iconic Duran Duran album revealed four decades on—via Miss Cellania  

rank and file: a woodland-themed chessboard that rolls up into a log 

the imitation game: researchers claim that GPT-4 has passed the Turing Test—see previously 

london underground: spelunking through the strata of the ancient city  

non-playable character: determinism versus emergence and the question of free will  

ticino: a cache of five-thousand photographs spanning from 1900 to 1930 taken by a poor seed-peddler captures life in a remote, Italian-speaking Swiss canton  

food that makes you gay: stereotypes and gender in what we eat—via Web Curios

pacific 231 (11. 547)

The most often performed of his orchestral arrangements and originally given the working title Mouvement Symphonique for the compositional exercise in building momentum whilst slowing tempo, the tone poem by Arthur Honegger, a member of Les Six—a group of composers working in Montparnasse who collaborated on projects and produced albums during the interbellum and WWII when audiences could not attend live performances—had its premiere on this day in 1924. A tribute to steam locomotives and named for a class of engines with two axles for pilot wheels, three for the driving wheels and two for the trailing, Honegger was a noted train enthusiast, declaiming that “I have always loved locomotives passionately. For me they are living creatures, and I love them as others love women or horses.” The below 1949 award-winning short by director Jean Mitry of the same name scores railyard operations to Honegger’s music.

graphical symbols for use on equipment (11. 512)

Via Present /&/ Correct, we are directed to the International Organisation for Standardisation’s (ISO, see also) Online Browsing Platform (OBP) that publishes an annual catalogue of pictograms and other deliverables (coordinates, vocabulary, terminology, industry norms) for manufacturers and municipalities to license (most, however, have been made freely available to the public) commercially for a nominal fee. The annex of ISO 7000 is a registry of systematised and universal icons appearing on machine parts, cables and consoles with different subcategories covering building construction, surgical instruments and implants, woodworking, fishmeal and identification documents.

9x9 (11. 230)

unwound: a cartoon that speaks to the time-dilation of the Winterval—and the year in general 

politics or otherwise: year’s end Can’t Let Goes from NPR’s podcast contributors 

fast-forward: a century of New Year’s men’s party fashions

aitana lopez: the virtual, machine-generated influencers stealing jobs from humans  

cap d’agde: the restoration of the Art Nouveau Chateau Laurens—a palace also known for its connections with Catharism  

like a fridge in reverse: a visualisation of the science of heat-pumps—via Nag on the Lake’s Sunday Links

fondue chinoise: a variation on the Swiss holiday tradition inspired by the Asian hot pot 

favourite global tech stories from publications not named rest of the world: like Bloomberg’s Jealousy List, staff compiles articles they wish they’d written—via Waxy  

cartoon cryptozoology: explore a chaotic archive of the earliest animations

8x8 (10. 951)

egress: the oldest door in Britain, a side-entrance to Westminister Abbey—via Strange Company  

hold on to my fur: another collaboration with the Kiffness—this time with a talkative orange cat from China  

isokon estate: Lawn Road Flats housed those displaced by WWII and its share of espionage  

i want to believe: vintage UFO photos taken by Eduard Albert “Billy” Meier in Switzerland in the mid-70s made iconic when featured on the X-Files up for auction—via Things Magazine 

meow-practise: a limited-run series in the tradition of American day-time soap opera classics like General Hospital and All My Children but with a feline twist   

countdown: both Russia and India have Moon missions next week with the goal of being the first to reach the lunar south pole—via Super Punch  

no dark sarcasm in the classroom: impressively, researchers recreate Pink Floyd’s “Another Brick in the Wall” by analysing listeners’ brain scans but we wonder—like in the above duet—there isn’t an element of backmasking and suggestion—via Kottke  

ingress: the oldest known cat door at Exeter Cathedra

synchroptica

one year ago: the daguerrotype process is gifted to the world (1839) 

two years ago: the Ninety-Five Theses as an email, the Treaty of Rawalpindi (1919) plus the Lithuanian sun goddess

three years ago: the launch of Sputnik 2 (1960) plus the album cover art of Milton Glaser

four years ago: more Brexit omnishambles plus the Pan-European Picnic of 1989

five years ago: assorted links to revisit

6x6 (10. 869)

kherson herbarium: botanists risked their lives in war-torn Ukraine to save a unique plant collection—see also  

public access: cute stuffed animals jam to vintage records at Otto’s Shrunken Head Tiki Bar & Lounge  

mctrains: a look at the fast food giant’s failed ventures 

föhnkrankheit: alpine downdrafts attributed to outbreaks of madness—via Strange Company  

msg sphere: a colossal orb covers an events venue in Las Vegas  

weedwork: a tour of the first cannabis coworking space in New York City

synchronoptica 

one year ago: Tron (1982), the first animated adaptation of The Hobbit, Chroegraphy for Copy Machine (1991), the Charles Bridge of Prague (1357) plus assorted links to revisit

two years ago: past life regression for pets, the presidency of Millard Fillmore plus transiting through Denmark

three years ago: more adventures along the Moselle plus independence for the Republic of Palau (1981)

four years ago: electromagnetic pulse experiments (1961) plus the minimal republics of Rubén Martín de Lucas

five years ago: spider ballooning, salterns from above, the Brexit Bulldog resigns plus artist Joshua Reynolds

 

contrafactum (10. 855)

Lyrics written by Andover, Massachusetts seminarian Samuel Francis Smith to the melody of the British royal anthem, God Save the King, the above adaptation reworking the tune from a symbol and trapping of monarchy to a statement about American democracy, “My Country, ’Tis of Thee,” was first performed for Independence Day celebrations in 1831 and became one of the two de facto national anthems (along side the patriotic number “Hail Columbia”—the march of the vice-president) until the adoption of the “The Star-Spangled Banner” exactly a century later. The implementation of the tune and musical salute (which also exists in Latin, peace-time and Republican—God save the Guillotine—versions) for another national song, however, was not new and contrafacta arrangements were used, usually connected with royal ceremony, and still used in Liechtenstein (Oben am jungen Rhein), Norway (Kongesangen) and Switzerland (Rufst du, mein Vaterland, until 1961 when replaced the National Hymne) formerly used in the kingdoms of Prussia, Saxony, Bavaria and imperial Russia.

synchronoptica  

one year ago: nebulas were known as guest stars

two years ago: Occupied Austria (1945) plus flowers in the woods

three years ago: American Top 40 (1970), Nixon’s Honor America Day (1970) plus more on spelling conventions

four years ago: Annual Reminder (1969) plus the Sky Disc of Nebra discovered (1999)

five years ago: more adventures on Lake Garda

8x8 (10. 820)

north american aerospace defence command: cache of Cold War era briefings and slide show presentations scanned and shared on the Internet Archive—via Super Punch  

yellowhammer: Alabama enshrines an official state cookie  

clipart: AI generated images disrupting the portfolio of stock photos that helped create it 

playlist: fish music may help revitalise coral reefs  

lui, sait juste ken: a clever double-entendre in French ad-copy for the Barbie movie 

the killer rabbit caerbannog: more on the trope of deadly bunnies in medieval manuscripts—see previously  

apple core: computer giant taking on venerable Swiss Fruit Union, other in a trademark dispute—via Slashdot  

sci-fi edition: Poseidon’s Underworld reviews a 1979 issue of Starlog