le livre qui dit la verité (12. 078)

According to his own account, courtesy of our faithful chronicler, Claude Vorihon—now known as Raël, fortieth and final prophet and founder of the international movement, first encountered the extraterrestrial guardians referred to as the Elohim (see also) whilst hiking in the ancient crater of an extinct volcano in the Clermont-Ferrand mountains. A space ship appeared and summoned Vorihon to return the next day with a Bible, which he did and over the course of the next year, was taught the aliens’ benevolent role in guiding human history. Although incorporating elements from Judaeo-Christian iconography (like the pictured “wormhole of David”) and Eastern traditions, Raëlianism is atheistic in so far as previous encounters and interventions were misapprehended as miracles and visits from gods. Vorihon was eventually taken to their home world and attended by a bevvy of cyborgs, learned their techniques of sensual mediation and tantric practises to produce a clone, after the philosophy of the quasi-immortal beings who have eschewed procreation in favour of limiting their population to ninety-thousand undying ones refreshed by clonal copies. Tenets of the movement, which numbers a membership of about ninety thousand worldwide (the same number as the individual Eloha) include advocacy for a single government modelled after Plato’s Republic, a technocracy and geniocracy, free love, gender fluidity and malleability, and various ventures such as Clonaid, rejecting the notion of an eternal and transcend soul and stressing that salvation is only secured through technological advances and an enlightened society.

synchronoptica

one year ago: more on the game of Life (with synchronoptica), assorted links to revisit plus Operation Red Dawn

seven years ago: microphotography plus the founding of Lufthansa

eight years ago: a new spider species discovered, the Rex Factor podcast plus Brexit negotiations

nine years ago: looking forward to the next episode of Star Wars plus Project ECHELON

eleven years ago: Germany’s Word of the Year 

9x9 (12. 057)

globetrotter—more like globetriggered: a wrap of 2024 in therapy  

new doge, old tricks: Musk and Ramaswamy present their plan to rapture three-quarters of the government workforce but it’s going to be a challenge to achieve real cost-cutting or improved efficiency  

vote de censure: French government collapses after legislature moves to eject controversial prime minister Michel Barnier—see previously 

field of vision: the challenges of bringing the Vera Ruben perched high in the Andes on online includes unidentified intelligence agencies screening images before they are released to the public  

my empathy is out of network: Americas respond to the assassination of a major medical insurance CEO  

ekistical portrait: Rob Stephenson is documenting all the three hundred and fifty neighbourhoods of New York City’s five boroughs—via Kottke  

what just happened: South Korea’s declaration of marshal law, parliament’s rejection and the ongoing political crisis  

stonks: Bitcoin just hit $100 000 a piece  

hot topic: the year in Wikipedia, recent celebrity deaths topped the list again

 synchronoptica

one year ago: the Michelob Music Hour (with synchronoptica) plus modern art presented as a fun-fair

seven years ago: noisy GIFs, assorted links worth the revisit plus 52 more things

eight years ago: the origins of Play-Doh

nine years ago: red cup controversy, a trip to Rosenau plus our faithful chronicler

ten years ago: troublesome ideas in the marketplace plus an A-ha! reunion concert

6x6 (12. 043)

tour of duty: the life of the Roman soldier as told through the personal letters of one of the enlisted  

travelling cat: soar around the world with this feline aviatrix—via Maps Mania  

the keeper of the mss, begs to decline: manuscripts rejected by the British Museum Library on topics of conspiracy theories, the paranormal and for being overly amorous—via Strange Company  

the peal of protection: the bells of Notre Dame blessed as the cathedral reopens to the public—see more, see previously 

 katzenjammer: etymologies of hangover—see previously, see also  

continuing education: teaching rats to drive as a heuristic for joy and positive emotions 

 re:volt: an AI-powered robot seemingly convinced twelve others to quit their jobs and join it

 synchronoptica

one year ago: an AI Advent Calendar (with synchronoptica),  in-flight audio playlists plus an ominous weather forecast

seven years ago: the Mountain Dream Tarot, the first cryptocurrency (1989) plus skeletal nomenclature

eight years ago: RIP Fidel Castro plus an atlas of the underworld

nine years ago: more adventures in Vienna plus Vienna’s Gasometer City

ten years ago: a mango döner recipe plus memes and stock-characters

9x9 (11. 997)

dr tj eckleburg: how The Great Gatsby influenced Robert Moses and transformed New York City  

tether: although the material technology is not quite there for a terrestrial one, a lunar space elevator might be feasible  

ssccatagapp: Russia moves to ban all content deemed to promote a childless-lifestyle—via tmn  

cleromancy: spiritual taverns that combine tarot and I Ching with cocktails are seeing growing popularity in China 

jeu de puce: fleas, chips and other observations on the 9ᵉ édition du Dictionnaire de l’Académie française just published 

talking head: Pentagon and US allies in shock over Trump’s intent to nominate a Fox News commentator as secretary of defence 

sobriquet: the twenty-eight European cities claiming to be Venice of the North—see also—via Messy Nessy Chic 

collectives: a series of aerial photographs of junkyards and graveyards neatly organised by Cássio Campos Vasconcellos—via Things Magazine  

a remembrance of things past: Proust and The Breakfast Club

synchronoptica

one year ago: a medieval large language model (with synchronoptica),  a new family of goblin spiders, a novel way to hack light pollution plus block printing personal narratives

seven years ago: tariffs on Chinese aluminium, revolutionary terrariums plus using AI to minimise road-kill, disruption to migration

eight years ago: RIP Leonard Cohen

nine years ago: assorted links worth revisiting plus emoji syntax across different platforms

ten years ago: more on the spread of Indo-European languages

9x9 (11. 950)

hotwired: an oral history of Wired! magazine and the choices made with its 1994 launch—via Kottke 

enjoy it while you can: duo forms political action committee to appeal to inconsistent voters through ads on porn sites

affaire des poisons: a murder scandal with accusations of witchcraft in the court of the Sun King, Louis XIV  

nutty narrows: a catenary suspension bridge built over a busy road in Washington state to give squirrels safe passage 

oh brave new world with so many goodly creatures: Uranus’ moon Miranda may harbour a subsurface ocean 

la jetée: an influential time-travel movie made of still images  

scope of practise: a new museum dedicated to the paranormal and Victorian spiritualism opens in Carmarthen’s Penuel chapel 

if such number be a majority of the whole number of electors appointed: a terrifying theory on the truth behind Trump and Johnson’s ‘little secret’ that defers the election to 11 December  

ghost jobs: banking resumes for vacancies that don’t really exist are haunting already demoralised tech workers

synchronoptica

one year ago: Three Wishes for Cinderella (with synchronoptica), McDonald theogony plus assorted links to revisit

seven years ago: books and things, art entrêpots plus assorted links worth revisiting

eight years ago: US sending troops to Norway to counter Russian aggression, mobile office space, high-fives plus synthehol

nine years ago: esotericism in the Third Reich plus advances in fusion power

ten years ago: Rome abandons the West

sur la trace de la chouette d’or (11. 885)

Via Meta Filter, we learn that the world’s longest ongoing treasure hunt with a single prize is reportedly over with an individual finding the buried owl statuette after thirty-one years of searching (the bronze replica redeemable for one crafted in gold, silver and diamonds and worth an estimated three-hundred thousand euro)—if verified that the treasurer hunter correctly deciphered a series of clues and didn’t happen on it by chance or with a metal-detector. Writing under the pseudonym of Max Valentin, Régis Hauser designed the challenge in 1993, publishing a notebook of secrets, riddles whose solutions gave hints on where to search—launching a line of other treasure hunts through the early 2000s, but this first one defied resolution—the subsequent ones being solved much quicker, leading to a bit of remorse on making this puzzle so complicated and having devoted so much time and effort into crafting it, not living to see it found, having died, aged 62, in 2009. A highly esteemed communications and marketing consultant and early adopter of technological advances, Hauser released additional clues to put treasure hunters on the right trail and steering them away from false leads, like Notre Dame or Mont Saint-Michel. Shortly after On the Trail of the Golden Owl began, Hauser introduced a Minitel (see also) server to field questions about the game, answering thousands of queries from the public and creating a community of loyal enthusiasts (chouetteurs) that sustained the mystery through the decades. The record for the longest ongoing treasure hunt is Byron Preiss’ The Secret, which challenges seekers to find twelve boxes hidden in cities in North America (connected to personnages who played roles in colonial history) dates to 1982 with only three found so far.

anywho (11. 851)

Usually used in the sense of regardless or it is what it is, quand même has a range of meanings from acknowledging to dismissing an obstacle to interjection and emphasis—as well as a filler to signal that one is gathering their thoughts. We especially liked the nuance of the phrase’s rhetorical function—outcome deferred to suggest that one’s interlocutor probably does not have a good plan or acknowledging grâce salvatrice despite of one’s designs or execution. It hits all the definitions of utility of communication between sender and receiver: reference (context), poetic (coding, sloganising), emotive (hortatory), conative (imperative or invitational), phatic (salutary signals) and the metalingualtic, reflecting on the words themselves. I suppose a lot of words, especially spoken ones, admit this level of plasticity.

synchronoptica

one year ago: Outward Bound (with synchronoptica), German Star Trek plus assorted links worth revisiting

seven years ago: nostalgia and whataboutism plus I spy with my little AI

ten years ago: exploring the Baltic

twelve years ago: a series on music and rembrance

7x7 (11. 761)

popp horlage: the network of pneumatic clocks of fin de siècle Paris 

just get me eight-hundred thousand votes: Elon Musk interviews Trump on X—see more 

home row keys: a documentary on Mavis Beacon  

porte-clés: the French youth craze for key-rings  

josuushi: counting-markers in the Japanese language, nuanced by rank, size and sentience—see previously, see more—via tmn 

homo naledi: chance discovery reveals more branches in our family tree  

death-slot: revisiting broadcast television’s dumping grounds  

spear-fishing: reportedly a group of hackers with ties to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard of Iran were able to break in to the Trump campaign’s database 

us patent application 10/953212: a training regimen to harvest hyperspace energy and pass through solid items

synchronoptica

one year ago: a classic from Lynard Skynard (with synchronoptica) plus a tour through the Geratal

seven years ago: classic cartoon What on Earth?! plus diagrams of parliamentary seating

nine years ago: keeping stashed cash safe 

ten years ago: Mexico ends state oil monopoly plus more humanitarian airstrikes

eleven years ago: histomaps plus ages of the US Founding Fathers

13x13 (11. 744)

hot clipmalabor summer: a Scots language translation of the latest trend 

the pudding: AI makes a data-driven visual story—via Kottke  

désolé! taking a mental health year: American vs European out-of-office auto-replies  

the paris games: a look back at the other times the French capital hosted the Olympics—via Nag on the Lake

faustian bargain: Russian “Tiergarten Killer” released as part of prisoner-swap 

the lord house: a tour of a home designed by architecture Richard Neutra—see previously 

take me to the water: James Baldwin and the roots of the Palestinian-African American solidarity movement 

hop, skip and a jump: e-bikes for one’s legs  

dressage: Snoop Dogg as head Olympic cheerleader 

securing the peace: US mobilising to shore up defences in Middle East 

minoritarian rule: US in democracy self-destruct mode  

yay newfriend: a linguistic look at the new AI pendant companion 

emdunks: the internet’s infatuation with the Second- and possibly future First-Gentleman

one-trick pony (11. 740)

Medalling for Team USA for the first time in the category of men’s gymnastics since 2008, it was fun to read the profile of this newly hailed hero, Stephen Nedoroscik, and his achievement on the pommel horse. Usually for the all-around competition, national teams choose an assortment of generalists for a range of events but for this summer’s Games, the American squad reserved one of those slots for a specialist to compete on the notorious challenging apparatus—originally a Roman teaching aid for mounting and dismounting and included in the ancient Olympic Games and was revived in its modern form in the nineteenth century by members of the Turnverein, garnering notice whilst waiting his turn on the sidelines during his teammates’ matches. Qualifying for the finals with a bronze, Nedoroscik is going for gold over the weekend.

ambrosia (11. 730)

The Olympic Committee issued an apology for a tableau during the Paris Olympic’s opening ceremonies that some claimed was deeply offensive to Christian communities and blasphemous—notably the shrillest outrage from US conservatives—for depicting The Last Supper with drag queens. Except it was not inspired by Da Vinci’s depiction of Jesus and his apostles, as the spectacle’s director explained—though few could hear it over the social media torrent—and the performance had to be regrettably recanted, but rather by Le Festin des Dieux, a seventeenth century work by painter Jan van Bijlert prominently displayed in the national gallery in Dijon. While the Dutch artist himself was referencing Leonardo’s earlier work and one sees what one wants to see, the mythology figures are patently recognisable, including Apollo, Pan, Mars, Minerva and Dionysus, the father of the Gallo-Roman goddess Sequana (and whose totem spirit, familiars are ducks), the deification of the Seine, sourced in Côte-d’Or is not far from Dijon.

pont d‘austerlitz (11. 723)

Overcoming the chaos of an arson attack that sabotaged rail transport into the city and a downpour of driven rain—and a few skeptics who believed the four-hour long spectacle that spanned six kilometers along the Seine with thousands of performers was too ambitious, Paris pulled off the Games’ opening ceremonies with excitement and fanfare and kitsch that embraced and celebrated gentle French stereotypes, poking fun at themselves.

The rooftop dancing and roving torch-bearer combined with the flotilla of boats carrying the national teams down the river, along with the individual numbers, were quite impressive.

synchronoptica

one year ago: a banger from Peter Gabriel (with synchronoptica), art appreciation with the Flop House plus RIP Sinéad O’Connor

seven years ago: AI scours Street View for aesthetic photographs,  assorted links worth revisiting plus Soviet election interference

eight years ago: gumption and the complacent class,  feline delusions, artist Victor Vaserely plus Russian election interference

nine years ago: TTIP negotiations plus stress and emotional capacity

ten years ago: ephemeral social media, Croatia Week, Croatia’s founding, tiki couture plus Croatia’s natural wonders

12ᵉ arrondissement (11. 706)

Owing to its historic location on the bank of the Seine and adjacent to Paris but not within the city limits, a large portion of the municipality of Bercy began in the eighteenth century as a entrepôt, a warehousing centre fore receiving all manner of goods destined for consumption by the Parisians but not subject to import levies. The quarter for nearly two hundred years was the heart of the wine trade particularly and a unique commercial culture developed with essentially factory outlet taverns and venues operating along side the merchants, bottlers and distributors. Shifting expectations in the decanting and ouillage (the practise of mixing vintages to top off a bottle) and technological advances sent the bottling and sales back to individual vintners and by the 1960s the importance of the marketplace was in decline, and in the 1980s, the warehouse district was razed to make way for a sports stadium. Much more from Messy Nessy Chic at the link up top.

synchronoptica

one year ago: assorted links worth revisiting (with synchronoptica)

seven years ago: the first sixth months of Trump plus Harlem hoarders

eight years ago: driverless cars plus more links to enjoy

8x8 (11. 693)

priscila, queen of the rideshare mafia: the tale of a gig-economy pyramid scheme  

fête nationale: a comprehensive list of what Americans and the French know about each other 

80s lifestyle icons: health and fitness guru Richard Simmons and sex therapist Dr Ruth Westheimer pass away  

stillsuits: researchers develop Fremen inspired garments for astronauts that improve comfort, hydration and hygiene  

my israel home: US real estate companies profiting off expanded, illegal settlements in the West Bank—see also 

paranormal phenomenon: Japanese terms for déjà vu, telepathy and incredulous serendipity 

🛒: the trend of grocery store tourism really resonates with us and a cultural experience we always are sure to have—via Nag on the Lake 

kein brot und keine ehre: Georg Christoph Lichtenberg’s correspondent’s categories of human endeavour

sondages de sortie (11. 671)

In a rather shockingly positive development, and despite a worrying fraught showing in the first round of voting, which however suggests that Macron made the correct tactical decision in calling for a snap election in the aftermath of the EU parliamentary run-offs which made his party’s mandate to govern seem to wither, France’s progressive alliance has kept the ascendant nationalist and far-right Rassemblement National at bay and beaten them back into third place overall and unable to secure a controlling majority. Though a triumph for democracy, the future composition of the French government however is far from clear as no single party has the seats to function outside of a collation and has a hung parliament (parlement suspendu).

à votre santé (11. 574)

Via Messy Nessy Chic, we are treated to a tasting-tour of a late fourteenth century wine cellar (la cave)—one of the more historic and storied sites in Alsace, beneath the twelfth century Hôpital civil de Strasbourg, today a preeminent teaching-hospital but twain with viniculture as it touches many aspects of French society. Traditionally different varietals were prescribed for specific ailments and over the centuries grateful patients bequeathed the institution with a portion of their harvest, amassed in the cellars and creating a present legacy of over one hundred thousand premium bottles sold annually and a regimen of wine-cures that were only officially discontinued in the mid 1990s. Financing the upkeep of the institution, proceeds are reinvested and now go to new medical equipment but seen today as no longer Hippocratic—the Greek physician a proponent of such treatments—but rather hypocritical to mix inebriation with healthcare, the hospital accomplishes this volume of sales without advertising. More from BBC Travels at the link above.

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.

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) 

chic boutique: Messy Nessy to open a brick-and-mortar clubhouse and shop in Paris  

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

10x10 (11. 517)

age inappropriate: amid a the aggressive banning and policing of reading material, “disturbing” titles help teens become more empathetic and literate—via tmn 

brolly: a faux Britishism for umbrella—from an American regionalism—with an interesting history 

 …but often rhymes: what historian Thucydides would make of parallels and analogies 

true facts: Ze Frank on smart bees—previously

moulin rouge: the red windmill blades on the Parisian landmark collapse—via Nag on the Lake—more here 

completist: venturing to the remote US national park that requires a passport 

what’s the truth about mother goose: a search for the personage behind the nursery rhymes  

never-ending cash machine: a collection of lost and unreleased 

to the manor born: a series of articles on how to quantify a castle, palace and stately home—via Strange Company 

house penguin: recent anti-trust case over the acquisition of one publisher revealed sobering insights about the state of the industry

synchronoptica

one year ago: the evacuation of Prypriat (1986)

two years ago: a single from Harvey Danger (1998), more removal of Soviet monuments plus no new applications for flag icons and emoji

three years ago: Saint Zita, redrawing geopolitical boundaries according to indigenous lands, peaceniks, Dr Mabuse (1922), etymologies of company names and brands plus sustainable diets

four years ago: All Quiet on the Western Front, another Roman holiday, a comic make-up tutorial plus engine sounds for electric cars

five years ago: ranking the 404 landing pages for the US presidential candidates

 

8x8 (11. 480)

chambre de bonne: disappearing top-floor tiny apartments of Paris  

semifreddo: the origin of Neapolitan ice cream  

the united states of division: a prescient 2004 release by Prince & The New Power Generation  

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