grand prix (12. 992)

Joining Spain, the Netherlands, Slovenia and Ireland, Iceland’s national broadcaster, RÚV, has voted to boycott the 2026 Eurovision Song Contest scheduled to be held in Vienna over the decision of the organising committee, the European Broadcasting Union, not to expel Israel for its conduct of the war against Hamas and occupation of Gaza. The announcement coinciding with International Human Rights Day, Iceland cites that “give public debate in the country…it is clear that neither joy nor peace will prevail” regarding participation. Members of the EBU voted in a general assembly last week to adopt stricter rules regarding alleged ballot manipulation favouring Israeli contestants during the last Eurovision but fell short of banning them, with the mounting walk-outs casting a pall over what’s supposed to be a feel-good cultural exchange (though it has never been wholly apolitical) with diminishing acts and those remaining seeming like a whitewashing of recent events.

8x8 (12. 990)

boîte aux lettres: a gallery of modernist mailboxes found around France—via Messy Nessy Chic  

áramótaskaupið: two decades of explaining the smells and bells of the holiday season in Iceland  

semiquaver: “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen” is a fine carol but lacks punctuation—via Miss Cellania 

k-id: Australia begins to enforce the world’s first social media ban for under sixteen-year-olds  

there is consensus to merge republican makeup into this article: Mar-a-Lago face, a plastic surgery trend among American conservatives has its own Wikipedia entry—via Nag on the Lake 

zipf’s law: a collection of nearly universal facets of human language  

linus and lucy: A Charlie Brown Christmas premiered on this day in 1965—see previously here and here  

intermodal container: the history of compartmentalised freight and how one innovation in transportation can influence another

kvennafrídagurinn (12. 817)

On this day in 1975, Icelandic women—some ninety percent of the demographic that makes up half of the population, went on strike for twenty-four hours for a showing of the indispensable place of women for the economy and society, organisers touting the action to protest wage disparity (a pay-gap of around sixty-percent less compared to male coworkers in the same profession) and unfair employment practises as Women’s Day Off. Participants called out of their jobs outside the home and also refused to do the added tasks of housekeeping or activities associated with child-rearing, many husbands having to do these chores for the first time. Whilst the international attention for the demonstration prompted legislative reforms and equal rights, the struggle continues half a century on and there have been other mass walk-outs (see also) and on the Friday closest to the anniversary, women are dismissed early, incrementally later commensurate with the progress made towards their goals from 14:05, 14:08, 14:25 and most recently 14:38 to quit at a time when they could have earned their daily wage had they been paid the same as men—the World Economic Forum’s global gender-gap index rating Iceland the most egalitarian country for the past sixteen years. Much more from Reykjavík Grapevine at the link up top.

synchronoptica

one year ago: assorted links worth the revisit (with synchronopticæ)

thirteen years ago: all the gold in Fort Knox plus the Stammtisch

fourteen years ago: the Phonetic Major System for better memorisation

fifteen years ago: impressions of Ireland

10x10 (12. 639)

we don’t serve their kind here: “clanker” from the Star Wars franchise has become a universal slur for robots 

jeanine, you’ve changed: a thread about how a consultancy firm in 1987 was responsible for making late 80s and 90s cartoon characters bland and unanimated—via Super Punch 

retrospective: an interview with photographer Dennis Morris whose expansive portfolio of music royalty and documentation of the East End offer a correspondence and symmetry  

do you take this burger to be your dinner: the return after a long hiatus shows that King of the Hill was always about food 

regolith: former reality TV star, Fox News anchor and acting NASA administrator (plus also US Secretary of Transportation) announces the acceleration of the building of a lunar nuclear reactor, as well as freeing commercial drones from line-of-sight supervisor requirements 

ásatrúarfélagið: the resurgence of Norse paganism in Iceland 

bakeneko: superstition and myth regarding cats in Japanese culture—via Nag on the Lake and Everlasting Blört—see previously, see also 

hamburger royal ts: some facts about the McDonald’s Quarter-Pounder  

just another way to claim our attention, so that beautiful certainty we had starts to fade: set in 1984 California during Ronald Reagan’s reelection campaign, the critically polarising 1990 Vineland by Thomas Pynchon (previously) speaks to the present 

flivverboob: a 1922 slur for a careless driver that didn’t not seem to catch on

8x8 (12. 618)

eight limes, no more: a list is a map, a compass, a prayer—via MetaFilter  

ключевская сопка: volcanic eruption in Russia’s far east sets off earthquake and tsunami warnings  

windrunner: turbine manufacturer—in defiance of Trump’s claim that windmills are killing us—building world’s largest aircraft (see also) to transport huge blades to remote wind-farms  

foredone: useless etymology and some very cromulent words

twin primes: pairs that only are separated by an even number in between grow rarer as one looks at greater ranges of values but no one knows if they run out altogether  

evrópusambandið: Iceland considering resuming accession talks with the supranational body  

this guy is taking people from the spa: Trump reveals to press-pool that falling out with Epstein was over him stealing staff  

an oral history of atlantis: a conversation about metafiction with author Ed Park

7x7 (12. 581)

latam-gpt: frustrated with the limitations of hegemonic AIs, Latin America is building its own inclusive, nuanced version  

whatever files she thinks are credible: amid backlash and reversing a reversal of previous postures, US congress moves to release the Epstein files  

þjóðvegur 1: a twelve day summer road-trip on Iceland’s Route One worthy of a saga  

percussion section: a word-search drum machine for selection of literary classics—via Waxy  

what’s the story, morning glory: every Oasis song visualised—via Quantum of Sollazzo  

not our war: MAGA revolts over Trump’s decision to supply weapons to Ukraine, realising his fawning respect for Putin is not reciprocal 

 lived experience: editors engaged to fix AI copy 

synchronoptica

one year ago: assorted links worth revisiting (with synchronopticæ) plus the Trump-Vance ticket

fourteen years ago: a periodic table of typefaces plus holidays in France

sixteen years ago: IKEA nomenclature 

royal achievement (12. 151)

Ascended to the throne one year ago after the abdication of his mother, Margrethe II, King Frederik X. has changed the coat of arms of the monarchy, last lightly adjusted in 1972, that better reflects the composition of the Danish realms from a historical and heraldic perspective, giving formerly colonies and present autonomous regions of Greenland and the Faroe Islands equally billing with their own fields (quartered shield with the update per dexter, represented by a polar bear and ram respectively—the escutcheon supported by a pair of woodwoses, vildmænd, a symbol for the patron protector Silvanus of the woodlands). Decreed in late December, the change signals (see also) that Greenland is not for sale after repeated overtures by the incoming Trump administration and internal calls for the territory’s independence, which with the US involvement has not always worked out well (see previously here, here and here), and the de-mothballing of American military installations in Iceland.

10x10 (11. 957)

þjappað vinnuviku: Iceland’s experiment with a shorted working week  

dénouement: examining the kishōtenketsu arc of narrative and its structure in world literature 

indirect allorecognition: injured comb jellies will fuse with another to allow one to heal—via Clive Thompson’s Linkfest

climate solutions: just a shower thought probably better shared on this website, could we reduce CO₂ concentration by making the atmosphere bigger?  

celestial symphony: the icon and ingrained theme from the 1986 Chinese television adaptation of Journey to the West—see previously  

oracles of astrampsychus: ancient tools of divantion included drawing lots, bibliomancy and a sort of algorithm—via Strange Company  

goonies in space: the latest Star Wars spinoff, Skeleton Crew  

denaturalised: Elon Musk could have his US citizenship revoked if it’s confirmed that he lied on his immigration application—via the New Shelton wet/dry  

the gaudí of mita: Keisuke Oka’s hand-built tower, the Arimaston Building in east Tokyo  

sweethearting: AI-powered facial recognition monitors for suspicious friendliness between customers and staff may be the next phase in retail security theatre

herðubíó (11. 779)

Originally built as a as a meeting house for the people of Seyðisfjörður under the auspices of the Herðubreið community council (broad-shouldered after the nearby tuya, a mesa-like, steep-sided volcano formed when lava erupts through glacial ice and considered national landmark and Queen of the Mountains) in 1923 and transformed into in movie theatre a quarter of a century later, Herðubíó as a cinema and cultural venue remains the only one in Iceland’s east, and we really enjoyed the feature from Grapevine contributor Iryna Zubenko on the labour of love it took to restore this region’s fixture and anchor after shuttering in 2020. The port town of seven hundred, but audiences come from all over for the single screen, is also home to the only car-ferry service into or out of Iceland with connections to the Faroes via Hirtshals, Denmark. The refurbished movie house was designed Gísli Halldórsson, the architect of numerous public buildings, stadia and hotels in Reykjavík.

 synchronoptica

one year ago: assorted links to revisit (with synchronoptica) plus the first Saturday morning television programming block for kids

seven years ago: Trump’s imperial ambitions plus a mass resignation from the US National Endowment of the Arts

eight years ago: perpetual calendars, the 1968 Summer Games plus more links to enjoy

nine years ago: the Digital Star Chamber

ten years ago: the displaced head of Vladimir Lenin

9x9 (10. 915)

polly pocket: following the success of Barbie, all the Mattel branded toys promised their own feature films 

freshmen fifteen: a nifty conversion tool in the style of Neal.Fun—via Pasa Bon! 

ugly american: the dark side of trends in tourism—via Nag on the Lake’s Sunday Links (lots more to check out here) 

a sunday in the park with georges: the pointillist work by Seurat recreated in Wisconsin—see previously

eimreiðin: what became of trains in Iceland 

you gotta pay your dues if you wanna sing the blues: we appreciated this reminiscence about the Ringo Starr tune  

meteorological optical phenomenon: more on the Sun’s green flash as it disappears from the horizon  

seybold seminars: the outsized influence of desktop publishing conferences—see also 

return to tender: another exquisite John and Faith Hubley short courtsey of Fancy Notions

7x7 (10. 897)

equity: UK’s actors’ union in solidarity with American counterparts in protest

spatula city—where your thirteenth spatula is free: the Weird Al Yankovic (previously) tribute to public-access television premiered this day in 1989—via our faithful chronicler 

litli-hrútur: Icelandic volcano watch  

magical mystery tour: revisiting the ‘lost’ Ashram of the Beatles in the Himalayan foothills

american songbook: Tony Bennett, crooner, Nazi hunter, civil rights champion, RIP—via Super Punch

barbie once commanded the stage with the rockers—now, the last thing she wanted to do was talk: channelling Ernest Hemingway on his birthday to narrate modern happenings  

watership down: disturbing film adaptation given a PG rating after forty-five years of indelible nightmares

  synchronoptica 

one year ago: a concert to commemorate the Fall of the Berlin Wall plus more adventures in Scotland

two years ago: the experimental nuclear cruise ship NS Savanna, the Scopes Monkey Trial plus Sweden’s Bohus Fortress

three years ago: more on The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World plus some scream therapy in Iceland

four years ago: Japan’s broadcast daily constitutional

8x8 (10. 575)

of bunkers and bridges: the government fall-out shelter behind Reykjavík’s Bústaðakirkja 

the outfit says soundgarden, and the zine says bikini kill but the bedroom set definite says chemical brothers: the new historical American Girl Doll is from the 90s  

hobbyist for hire: a tribute to the amateurs that inform so much of our professional base knowledge 

tiger by the tail: exploring the forgotten history of the big cat on the edges of Hong Kong  

a project for a metropole: the impossible, monumental architecture proposed eighteenth century influencer Étienne-Louis Boullée—see also 

ahh ridiculous: the 1960 space exploration film 12 to the Moon, with an international crew, which also received the MST3K send-up 

internyet: a look inside the obscure Russian agency charged with censoring the web

9x9 (10. 526)

famous one hundred twenty-three metre spire of salisbury cathedral: Polish coast guard rescues divers near critical infrastructure who were searching for amber 

macroagression: some GOP members in the US congress have switched their American flag lapels for tiny assault rifles—see also  

backbox: watch composer and sound designer Suzanne Ciani, Diva of the Diode, create a soundscape for a pinball game  

donks: a new animated short from Felix Colgrave explores lost cargo, avatars and adaptive bottom feeders  

mastodon flock: find your following—via Waxy  

cel-ray: a peppery, celery soda that one can still find for sale  

rosetta stone: two trilingual ancient clay tablets rediscovered help scholars decipher a lost Canaanite script  

brought down by the left-wing economic establishment: Liz Truss attempts to revive her political career with a long screed in the Sunday Telegraph  

sæstrengur: Iceland developing contingency plans in case the undersea cables connecting it to the rest of the world are severed

8x8 (10. 400)

gadgetbahn: displacing solid public transportation networks with amusement park rides won't address underlying traffic problems 

senior superlatives: the most interesting fonts and typefaces of the year  

👍: the ten best films of 2022  

seneca falls: the altruistic act that is said to have inspired It’s A Wonderful Life and other festive adventures in audio with Josie Long  

fæðingarsaga: listen again to an eleven-year-old Björk Guðmundsdóttir recite the Nativity Story in Icelandic  

as it was: some the most popular songs of the year  

shot sage blue marilyn: the most expensive works of art trading hands this year  

chief twit: abiding by results of a poll, Elon Musk announced he will step down as CEO of the social media platform as soon as a replacement can be identified

the modal nodes (10. 193)

Joining musicians whose signature sound spans from Cold Play to the Animal collective, Björk—promoting her new album, Fossora, also cites Figrin D’an and band as inspiration—an ongoing celebration of the Cantina Band that had its start with a disco remix. An unfortunately named interpretation of Dixieland, the number likely is the connection that many have with that particular genre of jazz.

8x8 (10. 174)

on pointe: an Australian ballet company recites an alphabet of foot poses  

detour: experts urge adding a Venus-flyby to first crewed mission to Mars  

suaviter in modo, fortiter in re: the Royal Mail’s Investigative Branch is the oldest recognized crime fighting organisation in the world—via Messy Nessy Chic  

puffling: with blása Icelanders help to reset sea bird chicks internal compass  

bisexual lighting: the story of a strange picture and other Wikipedia articles in need of an illustration—via Super Punch  

only you could be so bold: whilst Putin invades Ukraine, a studio in Kyiv is creating the voice of Darth Vader

asteroid! coming in from the void: ripped from the headlines 

tiptoe: performer dazzles with their bottle-walking routine

8x8

city in a bottle: a bit of micro-coding from Frank Force (previously) decoded—via Waxy    

kr: the Icelandic Graphic Design Association (FÍT, Félag íslenskra teiknara) issues a challenge to come up with a glyph for their króna  

nécessaire: a French borrowing—see also—for kit and carry  

enough: TIME magazine’s cover lists the two-hundred thirteen US cities that have had mass-shootings this year, so far  

social sentinel: a look at the dubious pre-crime predictive software that ill-serves society and the reliance on tech to come to the rescue in general  

party line: last bank of public phones removed from New York City—see also here, here, here and here  

swiss miss: Tina Roth Eisenberg celebrates her seventeenth blogoversary tesserae: MIT Lab develops autonomous modular tiles to create structures and habitats in space

per my last email

Courtesy of JWZ, we are treated to another campaign from Visit Iceland (see previously here and here) that invites travellers to relax and back up that Out-of-Office auto-reply by Out-Horsing one’s email and truly disconnect and enjoy vacation. Select equine understudies are equipped with giant keyboards to prance and stamp on and answer all one’s work inquiries. The tourism authorities campaign also highlights some of the outstanding natural beauty of the island and the their native breed of horses. More at the link above, including some video demonstrations.

land of fire and ice

Architect Arnhildur Palmadottír revealed a monumental lavaforming proposal that would harness and redirect volcanic eruptions in order to create durable and sustainable buildings and pavements. While there are scaling and technical hurdles—plus ensuring that these controlled eruptions don’t release more carbon into the atmosphere than they save and sequester, this radical reassessment of geothermal potential as something bold and innovative, engineering a closed system, like a reverse Dyson Sphere.

7x7

homo loquax: Futility Closet refers us to an expanded listing for the taxonomical name sapient human with some choice Latinate adjectives to describe us 

crate-digging: Jimmy Carter’s grandson is exploring the White House’s surprisingly hip vinyl collection—via Messy Nessy Chic  

le bestiaire fabuleux: a 1948 artists’ collaboration of a surreal and abstract menagerie—see also  

sabbatical: Jason Kottke takes a break from blogging and poses the questions that probably haunt everyone in this community—come back soon  

mörkrets makter: the very different (though retaining the epistolary format) unauthorised translation of Bram Stoker’s Dracula familiar to Icelanders  

stratification: exploring the historic map layers of London—via Things Magazine  

word-horde: daily vocabulary lessons in Anglo-Saxon words