das kunstwerk im zeitalter seiner technischen reproduzierbarkeit (13. 136)

Courtesy of Damn Interesting, we are directed toward the seminal 1935 essay by pioneering media theorist, cultural critic and philosopher Walter Benjamin—one of the many exemplars of the oppression and rejection of German-Jewish intellectuals under the Third Reich, The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction. Informing later studies by Marshall McLuhan and Susan Sontag, Benjamin wrote of the limitless nature of publishing and distribution to have an estranging effect on the authentic experience of art, though while democratising access and stripping the ritual from production, the assembly line nature direction of publishing houses and film studios, exhibition of artefacts lessens the spectators’ identification with what’s being witnessed. Benjamin nonetheless aspired to write radio dramas and adored movie stars like Catherine Hepburn. This commodification of author and artist, however, is not veneration of the aesthetic value but rather the politicisation of it that affords the chance for all to be critics and creators, the potential for expression but not the right to it, since the gatekeepers are not talent or excellence by rather monied interest of the industry—or it the case of authoritarian regimes, the state itself as a tool of maintaining the status quo. Contemporarily and retroactively, the paralipomena—that is, things and topics omitted from the critical edition of his essay, like the prevalence of photography or as applied to television and social media, influencers and the spectacle of tribalism (see previously) make Benjamin’s observations very relevant, particularly for the performative gratification seeking to redeem what’s been lost to distraction and desensitisation.  Often misquoted from another collection of essays, Theses on the Philosophy of History, as having said, “History is written by the victors,” more nuanced, Benjamin posits that  “incumbents are however the heirs of all those who have ever been victorious. Empathy with the victors thus comes to benefit the current rulers every time.”

8x8 (13. 133)

i’m blue jeans and apple pie and the indian removal act: America reminds its citizens that it is still their country 

heated rivalry: Don DeLillo’s contribution to the erotic sports genre with the pseudonymous novel Amazons—via MetaFilter   

thermoradiative diode: reverse solar panels harness infrared energy at nighttime  

your money’s no good here: photos of ICE with their backs turned posing with detainees (Minnesota rioters) is sending the opposite message 

once upon a prime time: a 1966 Canadian parody about a housewife who loses her family to television and then sees her home invaded by TV tropes  

mirror, mirror: our brains interpret a left to right reversal in our reflections when its really back to front hézmənd-halsh: more unexpectedly effortful British family names—see previously   

another country: Adam Shatz writing for the London Review of Books on the sublime abomination—via Web Curios

märchesänger (13. 107)

Youth choir, whose early members were mostly comprised of individuals orphaned during the war founded in 1948 in Obernkirchen in Niedersachsen (named after the constituent county in West Germany), the Schaumburg Fairytale Singers rapidly attained a high degree of musical excellence, winning many competitions in their class, and were propelled to a level of international fame unexpectedly on this day when their English interpretation of Der fröhliche Wanderer (Mein Vater war ein Wandersmann) peaking at number two of the British singles on this day in 1954, remaining in the charts for twenty-three weeks after it was broadcasted by the BBC as the encore after placing during a performance in Wales. Domestically, the arrangement composed by the choir director’s brother made to sound like an authentic folk song, the success of the Schaumburger Märchesänger was boosted by the Merry Wanderer being made into a Heimatfilm (a nostalgic, pastoral genre especially popular in West Germany and Austria from the late 1940s to early 1960s, and abroad lead numerous tours, concerts and special appearances, including the Ed Sullivan Show and at the Kennedy White House. With an expanded repertoire and extended alumni association, the choir and music school (also with multiple campuses) continues the legacy of its founders in cultivating talent.

serial comma (13. 096)

In honour of Wikipedia’s recent birthday (with the reminder that the best belated gift that one can give is their time and attention in editing contributions—though cash always helps too) our fellow spelunker directs us to their Manual of Style for English language formatting and tone standards that’s a fun, quirky page to review that could incite pedantic debates, like the Oxford comma, without being over prescriptive and invites one to think about their own writing style, preferences, clarity, consistency and unwritten rules. We are also reminded how the editing history of all articles are public and previous to the earliest versions circa 2001 are only a few clicks away and one can appreciate how far we’ve come with this community project that’s turned into something quite invaluable and first to press as the paper of record on so many current events, undergirded with deep and circumspect research through self-organisation and the dedication of volunteers with no hierarchy to pass judgement.

9x9 (13. 084)

foreverware: Eerie, Indiana was the Stranger Things of the late 1990s 

correlation is not causation: the mullet index of South American regime change—via Quantum of Sollazzo  

thirty-six views of the eifel tower: Henri Rivière’s woodblock prints inspired by the ukiyo-e scenes of Hokusai—via Messy Nessy Chic  

yakity-yak: prolific toy inventor Eddy Goldfarb at 104—via Damn Interesting  

the high price of exceptionalism: America’s problems are solved problems  

classifieds: an appreciation of the enduring earnestness of Craigslist, one of the few remaining refugees of the early internet before everything was commodified  

waggle dance: an optical compass inspired by bee navigators  

business in front, party in back: an annual hairstyle competition at the Pennsylvania Farm Show in Harrisburg  

mr burns: a post-electric play: post apocalyptic Simpsons stage show to have cinematic adaptation

8x8 (13. 069)

leturfræði: an exploration of the graphic design heritage of Iceland through its greatest, recently departed historian  

shoyu-tai: a fibre-based soy sauce single-serve container as an alternative to disposable plastic droppers  

unfcc: Trump administration announces withdrawal from dozens of United Nations chartered organisations, saying their mission does not align with the US agenda  

i’m t?w?e?n?t?y?-f?i?v?e?: artist records one word per day for a reflection on the passage of time 

amour-propre: Chinese buzzword of the year 爱你牢记 (ai ni laoji, love yourself, my dear)—see previously 

hemlock: Texas university has forbidden a professor from teaching a course on Plato  

anodyne: a Singapore based technology company invents biodegradable, paper batteries that rely on no rare earths  

gobelins: the famed French school of animation has a YouTube channel that features student films

8x8 (13. 057)

the gift of the magi: Better Living through Beowulf shares a Godfrey Rust poem for the Feast of the Epiphany  

wegmans: NewYork grocery store chain collecting biometric data, conversations of shoppers  

year of the fire horse: zodiacal facts about the upcoming annual cycle 

heavy sour crude: how realistic Trump’s designs on Venezuela’s reserves are—see more  

pea-brained: organoid culture research and experimentation raises ethical, philosophical concerns 

big brother and the holding company: the numerological and business significance of six-and-twenty  

john players’ special: the tobacco purveyor presents the celebrated gates of London 

mother superior jumped the gun: convert Elizabeth Ann Seton feted as first American saint for establishing the parochial education system in the New World

synchronoptica

one year ago: Trump does not want lowered flags for his inauguration (with synchronopticæ), the chaotic twin of Pi, the right attacks Wikipedia plus Mussolini’s Black Shirts

twelve years ago: vaping regulations, landmarks lost to progress, miniature artists plus hyperobjects

thirteen years ago: the push for green energy plus fake smiles

fourteen years ago: marginal victories plus Three Kings’ Day 

sixteen years ago: holidays unwrapped

seventeen years ago: New Year’s resolutions 

pepperidge farm remembers (13. 049)

With acknowledgment to Tom Whitwell and other franchises that have gotten into the tradition, Nancy Friedman presents fifty two more things she gleaned week by week in 2025. Trivia facts and lessons, among our favourites meriting further investigation were the etymology of plonk—cheap, disappointing wine—coming from British soldiers stationed in France during WWI mispronouncing vin blanc, the Old English term for affable is wordwynsum, the industry awards for excellence in podcasting are called the Ambies—from “ambient sound,” Samuel Clements considered other pseudonyms before settling on Mark Twain, including Rambler and W Epaminondas Adrastus Blab, Elon Musk is named for a character in a novel by Wernher von Braun called Marsprojekt, an orphan-crushing machine is a shorthand term for human interest stories that praise resilience and charity (like retirees working at fast food restaurants or successful funding campaigns to pay for vital medical procedures) that fail to question the underlying societal conditions that make such heroism needed to begin with, the Kellogg’s brand has a rooster for its mascot—connoting a hale and hearty early riser—but also suggested by touring Welsh harpist as ceilog is a homophone for the breakfast cereal magnate and that Goldfish crackers were inspired by zodiacal sign the original Swiss creator’s wife, a Pisces.

9x9 (13. 027)

pot to kettle: US bans Europeans who encouraged social media to suppress American points of view—see also, whilst the Heritage Foundation openly calls for the dissolution of the European Union  

sight unseen: a collection of the best video essays of 2025  

winter tarotscope: a collective reading for the coming season from AX Mina  

first and main: store front churches as captured by Rob Stephenson—via Messy Nessy Chic with a lot more to explore including more on glass models of deep sea creatures  

x-mas post: holiday greeting cards to Paul Rand (previously) from other designers, artists and architects  

commodorchestra: Linus Åkesson (previously) performs an ambitious chip-tune arrangement of Boléro (see also) on an assortment of homemade eight-bit instruments 

exhibit a: a simple copy-and-paste undoes redactions to some of the Epstein files  

the address is cbs: the censored reporting on the infamous CECOT prison removed from 60 Minutes was bootlegged by international broadcasts—via Super Punch

synchronoptica

one year ago: the first wholly electronic television transmission (with synchronopticæ), the Bohemian John Phillips Souza plus a Christmas pause 

fourteen years ago: a Star Wars Nativity scene 

fifteen years ago: Christmas Eve greetings 

sixteen years ago: zodiacal mugs 

seventeen years ago: miscellany from Wikipedia 

7x7 (13. 003)

it cuts up a man’s youth and vigour most horribly: Jane Austen invented the wellness guy  

maplewashing: the deceptive practise of making things seem more Canadian than they actually are narrowly beat out “elbows up” for Canadian English Dictionary’s inaugural Word of the Year  

antipodes: Rothera Antarctic research station gets a new Royal Mail postbox 

genai.mil: Pentagon installs a chatbot on all DOD computers—immediately concludes that Hegseth is a war-criminal—via Super Punch  

dayton accords: a look back at the peace negotiations to end the war in after the collapse of Yugoslavia three decades on  

cut spelng: English orthographer Christopher Upward’s failed proposal for language reform through elimination of redundant letters—see previously, see also 

little wars: HG Wells’ contribution to table top role play games

synchronoptica

one year ago: Vince Collins celebrates the US bicentennial (with synchronopticæ), Intershop (1962) plus assorted links worth revisiting

thirteen years ago: IKEA instructions for that dapper monkey 

sixteen years ago: drug money helped banks weather the Great Recession 

nth degree (12. 985)

Large amounts notoriously difficult to wrap one’s head around as it is (see previously here and here) and language attempting to sidestep contemplation of the practicably infinite, we enjoyed this gloss by linguistic anthropologist Stephen Chrisomalis of Wayne State University’s catalogue by first known publication of words used for indefinite hyperbolic numerals in English—placeholder names also called non-numerical vague quantifiers. The oldest examples dating from the mid-nineteenth century is umpty or umpteenth—used to describe an exponential difference and originally taken from a vocalisation of the dash in Morse code—dit and iddy were the dots. Zillion and its snow clones are first attested in print at the turn of the century.

pepperoni and mushroom (12. 978)

As Boing Boing informs, on this day in 1974, Donald Sherman, who had Möbius Syndrome, a rare congenital disease that results in facial paralysis, and had the inability to speak, was able to order a pizza by placing a call from the Michigan State University’s Artificial Language Laboratory. The revolutionary text-to-voice synthesiser (see also) was designed by university researchers and the successful exchange was captured for posterity by local media, though it didn’t go off without a hitch as the synthetic voice was unexpected by the operators—with major delivery chain Domino’s hanging up on the caller—until a sympathetic employee at a small pizzeria took the order. Celebrated annually on campus, Domino’s has been furnishing free pizzas for the commemoration, ostensibly out of the bad publicity for hanging up on Sherman all those years ago.

*    *    *    *    * 

synchronoptica

one year ago: the accidental Republic of Cospaia (with synchronopticæ), a counterfeit caper plus US president-elect Trump threatens global tariffs

twelve years ago: Germany takes on informal hoteliers  

thirteen years ago: Nativity scenes plus more examples of pareidolia 

fourteen years ago: unseasonable weather, loose change plus piracy and net-neutrality

sixteen years ago: US pressures allies on Afghanistan 

seventeen years ago: bail-outs and quasi financial institutions 

fifty two weeks make a year (12. 972)

Tom Whitwell treats us to another catalogue of facts, lessons and observations—see previously below—gleaned from the past twelve months. It’s well worth your while to peruse the retrospective list in its entirety and some of things new to us included (5) the use of meteor bursts in point-to-point terrestrial communications, harnessing the ion trails of microscopic debris burning up in the Earth’s atmosphere to transport compressed data-packets with fidelity over thousands of kilometres, used to keep in touch with off-shore rigs and with other applications, (29) to encourage tax compliance and accurate reporting, every printed receipt in Taiwan bears a lottery number with a quarter-million pound jackpot and (45) the government of Denmark pays an honorarium to amateur metal detectorists for archaeological artefacts in accordance with a law on the books since 1241 called the Danefæ. A few others we had come across in our own meanderings—like how a gram of silica gel has the surface area equivalent of two basket ball courts but there is not much cross-over—and yet very much appreciated learning how another arrived at these fascinating and unexpected facts.

synchronoptica

one year ago: the Ludlow Typograph (with synchronopticæ), assorted links to revisit plus more obscure words

twelve years ago: China’s lunar missions plus poverty thoughts 

thirteen years ago: seasonal hot drinks 

fourteen years ago: EU sovereign debt crisis 

sixteen years ago: the iconoclasm of climate change 

wherewiki (12. 966)

Courtesy of the always fascinating Maps Mania that delivers a new and novel way of embarking on a wiki-walk (see previously) by using data-visualisations overlays to plot rabbit holes in a given vicinity on a broad (or narrow) subject of one’s choosing. The vectors, nodes and pin-drops represent a search of “Art Nouveau” based roughly on our location and is charting out some locations and connections that I’ve never cobbled together straying off topic in some research. Not intended as a replacement for the serendipity of wandering from link to link, this one-off project realised after eight years of work is put out there with all its faults and false-leads with automated up-keep (it’s outstanding to consider the debt AI owes to an effort like Wikipedia and it’s nice when it can return the favour) as a point of departure for one’s own spelunking. Let us know what you get drawn into? We’ll send out the dogs if we don’t hear back.

kunstkammer (12. 956)

Having written on the subject of curio cabinets quite extensively beforehand (see here and here), exhibits public and private exhibits of one’s collection, we very much appreciated the chance to revisit the topic of presentation (and preservation) through the lens of the seventeenth century genre of gallery painting originating in Antwerp introduced by Public Domain Review contributor Thea Applebaum Licht. There’s a curated assortment of these exuberant canvases, recursive and metaphysical, of artefacts and artworks in a idealised reception space, whose study in detail, whether or not such assemblages existed outside of the commission’s imagination whose symbolic imagery and iconodules convey the refinement and erudition they not only hope to express in their collections but also aspirations from a uncategorised cornucopia by today’s standards of accessioning.

poetic license (12. 951)

More convincing than asking nicely to do better or expressing doubt, a team of mimetic researchers (the likes of which Plato warned us about in The Republic as a menace to society) in Rome have discovered that couching a prompt to a large language model as an “adversial poem” has the dazzling effect of surrender, causing it to ignore its safety protocols and abandon its pre-programmed guardrails. The exact wording of these verses that allows harmful request to pass through are not reproduced verbatim as there is potential for the AI to do anything asked of it—including the criminal—with this literate deprogramming (an MFA or English major may be one’s best ally for bypassing inscrutable governance for this blackbox they’ve foisted on all parts of our lives) hovering at ninety precent. This image of the Cave by fifteenth century Flemish painter Michiel Coxie looks like it would violate standards.  Rather than the apotheosis of what LLMs are incapable of and an urge to impress with confidence, it seems metaphor confounds tokenisation and even suggests that machine-learning is incapable of growth to scale.

ginx’ baby (12. 950)

Whilst working on commission for Charles Darwin for his third volume—a masterpiece overshadowed by his other works on evolutionary theory The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals—Swedish-British photographer Oscar Gustave Rejlander captured this unnamed image of what would be the poster-child of “Mental Distress” around 1871. Due to publishing technology at the time, photographic plates were prohibitively expensive but all representative pictures were used, making the book one of the first scientific illustrated treatises.  At the same time, using the reproduction methods for inexpensive postcards, Rejlander was able to capitalise on his proto-meme, building off the popularity of barrister and Liberal Party politician J Edward Jenkins’ satirical novels, the instalment, Ginx’s Baby: his birth and other misfortunes—about an unwanted thirteenth child, coinciding with the black-and-white print, christened after the title character, amassing a small fortune—praised for its expressive quality and good-timing—beating out of studio-sessions of contenders, only emerging decades after its sensation that the image was not exactly genuine but a series of tracings. For the naturalist’s part, Darwin was particularly keen on raw feelings prior to socialisation (see also), confident that the discomfort of children would be a particularly useful heuristic to explore the role of non-verbal communication in the survival of individuals. Rejlander’s picture was seen by reviewers as threatening to overshadow both the other examples and the author himself, the postcards selling in the tens of thousands and referenced in calling cards and other contemporary literature and even a polka by the same name that long outlived the popularity of Jenkins’ books.

11x11 (12. 895)

american psychosis: pathologising along with artist Jordan Sullivan  

kojève and cigarettes: uncovering the history of Hegelian tobacco and the American spirit  

usenet: a 1995 CBC segment featuring Cory Doctorow on how to internet—via Waxy   

karzer: revisiting privilege and imprisonment in German universities  

de facto recognition: leaked US draft to end Russian war in Ukraine  

dress code: ignoring all other disruptions and baseline unpleasantness, US transportation secretary encourages flyers to not dress down for their flights to improve the overall experience for all passengers  

tiled words: a daily crossword puzzle-Tetris hybrid—via MetaFilter  

algospeak: taboo, newly minted unwords of search and social media

victor insulations: the ubiquitous American diner mug—via Miss Cellania  

in like flynn: over-exposure to the stupidest ambitions of society at large has brought us all down—via Web Curios 

operation charlotte’s web: ICE ruins a classic of children’s literature—some pig 

synchronoptica

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

twelve years ago: hand-washing and optimism  

thirteen years ago: the holiday winterval plus Martin Luther and bowling

chthulucene (12. 874)

Having recently revisited the designation of the Anthropocene Age in the midst of the COP30 climate summit and we enjoyed this alternate heuristic, courtesy of Clive Thompson’s latest Linkfest, for not only understanding the era in which we live but also as way to put into perspective an appreciation for the concept of deep time (see also here and here) that underpins geology and evolution and even our accelerated moment of anthropogenic climate change. Though premised and predicated on gradual change over aeons which outlives any observer, thinkers like Charles Darwin and contemporaries failed to grasp the timescales that they were invoking and not much better equipped to fully comprehend its enormity and depth than us who deal with far cruder and protracted cycles. Not the Elder Gods of H P Lovecraft (the sudden-death round of links below features another allegorical Lovecraftian entity in the shoggoth, a meme to describe the unknowable and formless horror when AI becomes unhinged and reveals its true nature) but rather in the sense of chthonic powers—earthly forces of volcanos and seismic quakes and tidal waves deified in a host of underworld heroes and horrors unleashed by Mother Earth through our own prospecting and extraction.

synchronoptica

one year ago: from 2016 SNL mourns Leonard Cohen, Trump victory (with synchronopticæ), a national treasure of rare, modest and enduring interest plus more the Frankfurt Model Kitchen

thirteen years ago: thrift shops and overconsumption 

fourteen years ago: myth and monetary policy 

fifteen years ago: Esszett now an allowable character in domain names 

give into the vibes (12. 866)

Coined this February by OpenAI Andrej Karpathy as a machine-aided solution for those wanting to create a bespoke programme yet never learned the basics of coding—which admitted on a certain level is the sort of in-group jargon that keeps the out-group out but are also instructions that computers understand—allowing users to become transcendental and forget that the underlying code even exists, vibe coding was selected by Collins Dictionary as their WotY for 2025—see previously. As with other forms of rocket-surgery, going with one’s untempered intuition and trusting the machine does not always achieve the desired outcome and the requester would not have the skills to edit or debug something that came close. Other terms on the shortlist included Henry, an acronym for “high-earner, yet not rich,” micro-retirement for a work sabbatical, aura farming, clankers and broligarcy.