radio bubble (13. 449)

Via tmn, we enjoyed contemplating how much we’ve contributed to the cosmic conversation with the ever expanding shell of signals, every form of broadcast communication that has escaped the ionosphere and into the void of space. Though only a few missives were intentional and the vast scale of galaxy means that despite the impressive sounding volume of the bubble, two-hundred and forty light years across (the radius cubed of radio history multiplied by π times four-thirds, dating back to Marconi’s experiments at the turn of the last century, beamed out at the speed of light) only covers a vanishing small fraction of our own galactic local neighbourhood, still the silence (see above) is humbling and lonely. Our vision far outpaces our voice.  More from the Scientific Drop at the link above.

powers of darkness (13. 424)

Though we couldn’t quite place the memory at first something familiar about this intriguing side-quest from the Allusionist hooked us immediately with a literary mystery regarding the Icelandic language version of Bram Stoker’s Dracula (see previously, see also) discovered more than a century after its publication, first serialised in the magazine Fjalkonan (The Mountain Lady) by Valdimar Ásmundsson in 1900—three years after the original, was determined in 2014 not to be the translation of the novel it purported to be but rather a work of fan-fiction that took several liberties with the plot. A third of the length of Stoker’s work, Makt myrkanna did not preserve the epistolary format and is by degrees raunchier, racist and political, and—moreover—was itself found to be an almost direct adaptation of a Swedish serialisation, Mörkrets Makter, authored by an anonymous individual going by the initials A.—E., with both Nordic vampires championing social Darwinism and leading an international conspiracy to take Great Britain down a notch as the world power and undermine Western democracy as degenerate for not recognising those on the fringes of society as the true leaders. Listen to the first chapter from our dungeon-master and guide Helen Zaltzman (with excellent plot synopses and fun insights) at the link above and take many different tangents on the esteem of the fanfic genre, the shadowy business of editors and popular fiction and monsters as a vehicle of allegory.

8x8 (13. 423)

all roads lead south: US Democrats disadvantaged further by gerrymandering and redistricting reversals ahead of mid-term elections with rules tossed out—more here  

jeppe on the hill: on Swedish surnames and patronymics  

if only i had a little humility, i’d be perfect: Tedium’s obituary of Ted Turner and a bygone era of benevolent billionaires and media magnates  

straight from the horse’s mouth: a patented animal-human communications helmet  

some call it a war, i call it renovating my middle east ballroom: Operation Epic Fury as a 1990s RPG, playable arcade consoles set up at the DC War Memorial—via MetaFilter  

clipart: everyday objects by Philograph Publishers of London  

gleemonix: the regulations driving the poetry behind brand name pharmaceuticals—see previously here and here  

sortition: democracy by lottery could improve our civic nature—see previously

one nation underground (13. 409)

Beginning their studio recording session on this day in 1967 for their debut record, recently signed to ESP-Disk of New York City, the psychedelic folk garage band—the group’s name from the Book of Matthew passage “Give not that which is holy unto dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine,” meaning do not cede things of value to those who will not understand or appreciate them, the concept album of tracks on the themes of protest, elan and mysticism was quickly mired in controversy, leading to many stations banning it from airplay. A troop of boy scouts correctly deduced that in the song “(Oh dear) Miss Morse,” the chorus was coded with the expletive f-u-c-k, prompting the scout master to phone in a complaint. Despite not receiving any royalties from the label after selling two hundred thousand copies, Pearls Before Swine remained with ESP for their next album the following year, Balaklava, inspired by Charge of the Light Brigade with strong anti-war themes against involvment in Vietnam. With eclectic instrumentation, sampling from classical recordings, literary references ranging from Herodotus to Tolkien and album art featuring Bosch and Bruegel, the band kept producing new music and garnered quite a cult following.

baby, if you’ve ever wondered—wondered what became of me, i’m living on the air in cincinnati—cincinnati, wkrp (13. 408)

With programming already similar to the classic rock roster of the original sitcom, we learn from veteran disc-jockey Miss Cellania that an Ohio-based radio network recently acquired the call letters of a small station with limited range in North Carolina auctioning off its broadcast identifier to raise funds (sad to learn that they were in financial straits, like the fictional station, but at least it wasn’t a struggling NPR affiliate). Airing only for four seasons on CBS from 1978 to 1982 (in the timeslot following M*A*S*H—the transmission tower featured in the opening credits actually belonged to local NBC channel, WLWT), it achieved unexpected success in syndication, the show featured Gary Sandy and Lori Anderson with an ensemble cast of hosts and personalities, Gordon Jump, Howard Hesseman, Richard Sanders, Tim Reid, Jan Smithers, running a small AM station that catered to contemporary radio Top 40 hits. I recall the reruns and when it was added to the Nick-at-Nite line up—but due to licensing difficulties, the latter iteration was without the songs, which could be the best parts, edited around the music, replacing them with public domain stock-tracks or dubbing in extra dialogue and no one wants to encourage a chatty DJ.  I swear I thought turkeys could fly!

8x8 (13. 372)

first flush: Shizoka region’s campaign to reclaim its status as the world’s number one tea producer

tippy the turtle and cubby the bear: the long history of drawing short-cuts before AI  

portraits of population: in 1971 and 1981, the Indian government conducted a people’s census with accompanying illustrated volumes to explain the motivation for collecting data—via Quantum of Sollazzo 

top of the hour: programming schedules and regular segments for a veteran blogger influenced by a career in radio  

the books are open: following a distressed shoe company’s pivot to LLMs, pasta sauce maker Prego releases a table top device to record family dinner conversations to cherish for all time—via Super Punch  

extrapolated futures: a reverse look-up archive of speculative fiction to explore how science-fiction authors of the past assay a real world scenario of the present—via Kottke  

the edge of sentience: the theory of mind, our history of underestimating the internality of others and how we might be diminishing the conscience of the machine  

hanami: Kyoto gets a new caretaker for the records of cherry tree blooms (see previously) that goes back to the ninth century, one of the oldest, continuous archives of climate data in the world

9x9 (13. 340)

sen̓áḵw: the return of a Squamish Nation village exempt from zoning laws and an elegant solution to Vancouver’s housing shortage—first heard on NPR  

patience: a meditation on Solitaire—see previously  

tanker war: veterans of the 1981-1988 Persian Gulf crisis share flash-back inducing parallels  

granny shelf: an appreciation of the overlooked products in one’s grocery aisle—via Web Curios  

rückenfigur: a retrospective exhibition of Expressionist artist Gabriele Münter  

season ticket: brilliant vintage bus passes of the Milwaukee metro  

easter armistice: attacks continue as thirty-six hour truce for the Orthodox holiday between Ukraine and Russia approaches  

phreak box: an emulation of tones that hacked payphones—via Kottke—see previously  

diego garcia: US opposition forces UK to abandon plans to return the Chagos islands to Mauritius

8x8 (13. 334)

queen bee: the fascinating life-cycle of bumblebee matriarchs includes the ability to breath underwater  

zweeeeëg: dizygotic, fraternal words and other Danish and Luxembourgish orthography, including vanilleijs  

pork johnson: the spoof trailer for the feature film on Gimp, the Photoshop alternative, starring a puppet warthog and reminiscent of Social Network  

ranger danger: the Trump administration eviscerates the US forest service, see previously—via Kottke  

byline: World Press photos of the year  

₿: the investigator who unmasked the creator of the cryptocurrency—see previously  

to wit: the lost intimacy and nuance of extinct Old English pronouns  

regina apoidea: the brilliant physical acting of Joan Crawford presented as slap-fest

9x9 (13. 308)

ruina montium: an striking landscape in Spain created by the ancient Romans fracking for gold—via Miss Cellania  

13 ｘ 7 = 28: Abbot and Costello try to meet their sales quota—via MetaFilter 

i’m your hell, i’m your dream—i’m nothing in between: a linguistic and semantic history of the term bitch 

anatoly kolodkin: US waives sanctions to allow Russian tanker to deliver crude oil to Cuba  

coalition of the willing: recalling the legacy Icelandic PM Davíð Oddsson of committing the nation to the unjustified invasion of Iraq in 2003, juxtaposed with contemporary Spain  

cocktail nation: Spy Vibe’s regular segment on swank vintage soundtracks  

lip-filler accent: influencers inform the way we speak—via Nag on the Lake, see also  

gigo: AI is an accelerant for academic fraud, selling papers and citations to pad one’s portfolio  

unoosa: a profile of the director of the UN Office for Outer Space Affairs who alerts the world of impending asteroid impacts

tavajjoh, tavajjoh, tavajjoh (13. 266)

Since the onslaught of US-Israeli joint attacks on Iran began, a mysterious signal has been broadcast twice a day, prefaced by the above announcement in Farsi of “attention” repeated three times and followed by a recitation of seemingly random numerals, ۷, haft, seven, ۵, panj, five, ۳, de, three, ۸, hasht, eight and so on, a classic numbers station, air-gapped and virtually unbreakable encoding dating back to the Cold War. Speculation by intelligence enthusiasts deemed the cipher as possibly a wake-up call for sleeper-cells around the world—embedded terrorists whom Trump claims to be closely tracking, yet the past year was squandered with terrorising domestically and deporting citizens and residents instead—until the fifth day of the unlawful offensive came and the transmission began to be squelched with jamming technology. The whole exchange being open and easily captured on short-wave and triangulated to somewhere in north-western Europe, with interference a signature of both American and Soviet methods for blocking propaganda, made the community wonder where the broadcasts were originating from, who was the sender and who was trying to suppress it and questioning if it weren’t some opportunistic ploy for attention, with some concluding that the transmissions were directed towards US sources and double-agents within Iran was an equally likely cause—though after firing all the experts, replaced with enablers, it does not seem that the US is game for the long game.

any observed statistical regularity will tend to collapse once pressure is placed upon it for control purposes (13. 256)

Revisiting an classic episode, Planet Money repackages a clutch of workplace adages, observations and eponymous laws as potential indictments of office culture—with an inflammatory demotivational poster fit for framing in one’s breakroom, I could cite several poster children for each among my own coworkers and colleagues. Particularly relatable was Goodhart’s Law (see previously, see also), reformulated from the above as when a measure becomes a target, it ceases being a good metric, resonating with how we’re encouraged to cook the books to get fill-time down and play a numbers game that doesn’t reflect other extenuating factors though exceeds the standard—in other words, those who know the indicators will game them. Also depressingly resonant was the Peter Principle, a management concept articulated from intended satire that individuals within a hierarchy tend to be promoted to “a level of respective incompetence,” that a worker’s talents are recognised and advanced through the ranks and find themselves eventually in over their heads with expectations and responsibilities outside of their skill-set, plateauing at usually conspicuous placement with a supervisory role. The phenomenon which Germans call “falling up the ladder” is also addressed in the source material by Canadian educator Laurence Peter and screenwriter Raymond Hull when the progression seemingly does not stop despite graduated ineptitude, this apparent exception is an example of “percussive sublimation” and a move from one unproductive role to another, with other instances of pseudo-promotion being the “lateral arabesque,” retaining an individual to buy their silence but moving them out of the spotlight with a longer job title.

8x8 (13. 217)

guesse and the automaton: a long lost film by George Méliès (previously) featuring a magician battling a robot in slapstick fashion discovered in the stacks of the US Library of Congress  

pizzagate: Hilary Clinton deposed behind closed doors for seven hours of repetitive and off-topic questioning by House Oversight Committee  

spazieren in berlin: walking the streets of the metropolis with committed flânuer (see previously here and here) Franz Hessel in the 1920s 

lubbock lights: an unexplained sighting from 1951  

the cruelty is the point: the state of Kansas invalidates the drivers’ licenses of all transgender individuals—via Miss Cellania  

once posted: a growing curation of vintage post cards—via Web Curios  

let fly the claudes of war: a round up of AI ethics and pressure from the Pentagon  

mergers and acquisitions: Netflix drops its bid for Warner Bros Discovery with Paramount Sundance poised to take over the studio—see previously

culcitology (13.214)

Vis-à-vis the prior post, we thoroughly enjoyed this deep-dive from host Alie Ward that serendipitously was next in my feed on the history and craft of quilting—the study from the Latin for pillows and bedding featuring an expert panel discussing all aspects of textile art from familial traditions and pedagogy, therapeutic aspects, documentation, memorial, encoded messages, politics to protest. The overview of the ethnography of the ungated art and transition from a commercial, male dominated activity to domestic labour and women’s work (see also) and the social movements that grew out of quilting-bees and sewing-circles is particularly fascinating. There’s even a bonus bespoke pattern and a tutorial at the website up top.

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.”

9x9 (13. 089)

crisis actors: Trump supports protests of any authoritarian regime except his own 

wikipedia@25: the Free Encyclopaedia project was started on this day in 2001—see previously, see more  

demumu: popular Chinese app, “Are You Dead?” is a safety tool aimed for a growing demographic of one-person households  

fafo: thousands of World Cup fans are cancelling their tickets, prompting an emergency meeting of the football association  

the revolution won’t be televised: acute disappointment from “liberated” Venezuela—plus Trump was gifted the Nobel peace prize  

limited deployment: contingents of soldiers from European allies arrive in Nuuk to demonstrate NATO resolve  

legacy media: looming challenges for journalism outlets and studios  

mouseover title: xkcd (previously) on sailing rigs 

heimat: US Department of Homeland Security adopts another Nazi slogan

three sheets to the wind (13. 066)

In the latest episode of the always engrossing History of English podcast by Kevin Stroud, we are treated to how nautical terminology has informed the language as it spread outward, naturally by maritime means coinciding with a boom in literature and romancing the life at sea, some of which we’ve encountered beforehand in fossilised expressions and figures of speech with the jargon of professionals and amateurs alike influencing the way we communicate. Whilst there are plentiful examples of scholarly consensus, like false flag and true colours (a vessel either disguising its nationality for subterfuge or displaying its allegiance) and to pass with flying colours—defeated and retreating ships usually furled their banners, our guide also warns of CANOE—not the five big personality traits of conscientiousness, agreeableness, neuroticism, openness and extraversion, but rather for linguists the folk origins of the Conspiracy to Ascribe a Naval Origin to Everything and the popular Jackspeak of the eighteenth century that tried to shoehorn sailor slang into any conversation. Other words and phrases genuinely attributed to seafaring and skirmishes that have taken on expanded meanings on land include above board, anything conducted on deck and in plain view for all, aloof, from the Dutch for windward, to be at loggerheads, an iron ball with a long handle heated and used to seal pitch and a handy weapon for quarrelling crew, close quarters, refuge of the enclosed and easily defended forecastle, the devil to pay, the onerous task of caulking the longest seam in the hull, dressing down, to refresh worn sails with oil and wax, slush fund, leftover slurry that the ship’s cook sold to make a little extra money for himself bought by sailors not satisfied with the rations, skyscraper, a small triangular sail atop the main mast used in light wind, filibusters, loose canon, pipe down and being under the weather, assigned to the worst watch station at the front of the bow and falling ill from the crash and spray of the waves.

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. 016)

brought to you by the inkjet lobby: the amount of redactions in the US justice department’s release of the Epstein files sparks outrage  

christmas and commerce: a David Sedaris holiday classic—see previously  

global building atlas: an ambitious project mapping all three-billion built structures worldwide  

grabenanlage: rescue archaeology in southwestern German town of Herxheim in 1996 suggests ritual cannibalism on a massive scale with research still ongoing  

your attention is all you have—wasting it is annihilating: Blackbird Spyplane on a life of screen-time—via Kottke

pithos: Roman amphora of sardines found in Switzerland 

orthorectified panorama: the Apollo transforming printer that developed cartographically accurate photographs of the Moon 

a christmas memory: Truman Capote recalls holidays past  

formerly known as the kennedy center: the history of the US national stage for the performing arts—see previously

life kit wrapped (13. 004)

Though I often make a mental bookmark to go back and read NPR’s self-help studies and similar resources for pro-tips, those best intentions are seemingly always OBE (overcome by events), so we appreciated this year-end digest with practical advice ranging from mental well being, home economics, and travel planning—including seeking out local look-alike alternatives—see previously, if your first choice is beyond your budget.

mister fezziwig (13. 001)

Though each time I picked up on the narrative again, telling myself I don’t have time to listen to a two-and-a-half-hour podcast, I did make it all the way through this dramatic reading of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol. In Prose. Being a Ghost Story of Christmas from The Allusionist host Helen Zaltzman. The novella, divided into five chapters—which Dickens calls staves, reflects and informs the zeitgeist at a time when Victorian England was reevaluating holiday customs and was his fourth attempt at the subject, first a serialisation called “Christmas Festitivies,” then a short story under the title “A Christmas Dinner” that appeared in his illustrated anthology Sketches by Boz and an episode in The Pickwick Papers, “The Story of the Goblins Who Stole a Sexton”—a sacristan, a church superintendent charged with care and maintenance of the building and cemetery grounds, misanthropic but after being ransomed by the creatures undergoes a conversion, similar to Scrooge. Capitalising on its success, Dickens wrote another four holiday themed novels (The Chimes, The Cricket on the Hearth, The Battle of Life and The Haunted Man and the Ghost’s Bargain) but none of the franchise as beloved as his 1842 iteration. Familiar adaptations are true to Dickens but I realised I had never listened to original narrative in its entirety, rather excellently delivered (with a few, non-intrusive short asides to gloss antiquated meanings) and really enjoyed the decision to voice the Ghost of Christmas Present aptly as a South Park character. It is a banger of a story and of course you have time to indulge.