12x12 (12. 191)

dyson trees: lesser known than his eponymous sphere, a hypothetical genetically engineered plant could be grown inside a comet and provide a self-sustaining habitat for space-faring 

cold case: US retailer regrets installing advertising screens in its frozen food section and is struggling to get out of the contract—see also 

fourth-wall: a filmmakers’ dilemma about the unseen camera’s point-of-view  

decipherment: a solicitation for cursive users to transcribe and classify two centuries of undigitised documents—check the comments section—see previously  

why this is hell, nor am i out of it: Trump, like Satan, doesn’t get away with it 

drawing board: the Nokia Design Archive of prototypes never put in production

twentytwentyfive: George Orwell is to be honoured with a commemorative ￡2 coin for the seventy-ftfth anniversary of his death

erythrosine: US federal drug administration bans Red Dye 3 as food colouring and other business news—see previously  

onite clam discrepancy: personal AI-chatbots yield more problematic advice—see previously 

a stone only rolls downhill: a new music video from OK Go shot on sixty-four phones for sixty-four one take pieces  

the toasters are flying: a history of screen-savers—see previously  

☄️: meteorite strike caught on a doorbell camera in Prince Edward Island

cultural attache (12. 184)

It was refreshing how in the Roman Empire dictators would prolong their term by declaring a holiday, instead we have a president-elect in the United States as Los Angeles continues to smoulder and burn appoint three special envoys to Hollywood, not to help with repair and recovery from the devastation but rather act as celebrity legates to revitalise a failing industry and bring back its Golden Age. Ceremonial sine cure titles were awarded to actors, known for their MAGA boosterism, to Mel Gibson, Jon Voight and Sylvester Stallone (see previously)—assuredly to the disappointment of others to hitched their star to that movement—Trump announced his special ambassadors to “a great but very troubled place” which has “lost much business over the last four years to Foreign Countries” as his eyes and ears, pledging to get done what they suggest. The equivalent of DOGE for the movies, its unclear how they might brooch this situation and what countries are undermining Tinsel Town and whether it is a problem at all and not another manufactured crisis that’s in their modus operandi to invent and then pretend to solve with a new code of standards to appeal to grievances—if anything the industry is under threat from AI, studio greed and independent cinema.

10x10 (12. 183)

compliments of the season: Poseidon’s Underworld reviews 1973 British anthology series Orson Welles’ Great Mysteries 

hagiography: breathtaking hidden murals in the Cathedral of Angers depicting the life of local saint called Maurille, who fled due to embarrassment for failure to perform a miracle, unveiled for the first time 

wmw: a list of endangered historic and cultural sites for 2025, around the world and beyond 

infinite nonsense honeypot: a lure for AI scrapers  

there is a plot—what would be the point of just a bunch of things: legendary director David Lynch dies, aged 78—see previously

run the bricks: a mother in New Zealand completes a hundred metre sprint barefoot over a track of Legos—setting a Guinness Record—via Metafilter 

but is it like the old playboy magazine—do you have essays there by the modern day equivalent of gore vidal and william f buckley jr: US supreme court justice Samuel Alito asks if people visit PornHub (previously) for the articles—via Super Punch 

cozy rewatch recommendation: the 2003 New Wave film The Dreamers (Innocents) that follows the exploits and adventures of an American university student in Paris during the 1968 riots—via Messy Nessy Chic  

𒀸𒋩𒆕𒀀: a paranoid ruler’s illiteracy and a torched library behind a glimpse of everyday life in the Assyrian Empire 

celebrity is a broad church: BBC1’s 1985 entertainment magazine Friday People

synchronoptica

one year ago: artist Monica Sjöö (with synchronoptica), generational perceptions, an ethnographic study of bathroom graffiti, another banger from ABBA plus words for lighthouse

seven years ago: laser-cut note pads, Madrid reinstates direct rule on Catalonia plus free-floating exoplanets

eight years ago: theatres protest the inauguration of Trump 

nine years ago: a slipper-shaped wedding chapel

ten years ago: misattributed quotations plus McDonald’s new slogan

8x8 (12. 165)

all the things that we’ve amassed sit before us, shattered to ash: interviews from celebrities who lost their homes in the Los Angeles megafire, which is still burning out of control  

facechan: some words of advice for disillusioned social media employees  

bepicolombo: final flyby of the space mission beams back extraordinary photos of Mercury’s polar region

obit.: Bob Canada’s two volume tribute to celebrity deaths of last year we may have overlooked  

erfolgreich abgemeldet: German and Austrian government and academic institutions leave X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, following the summit between Musk and Weidel  

chip off the old block: apparently in some families, it’s customary to nickname a son named after his father the former, a son named after his grandfather Skip and one named after all three Trip  

you’re so woke—diet coke: corporate America abandoning DEI (diversity, equality and inclusion) programs ahead of Trump’s return, hoping to curry favour with the new administration 

delta smelt: fact-checking the fallout over water shortage for emergency responders in California

synchronoptica

one year ago: David Lynch’s 1984 unfinished Dune sequel (with synchronoptica) plus assorted links with revisiting

seven years ago: John Wayne as Genghis Khan (1965), time and dark energy plus more links to enjoy

eight years ago: even more links, misinformation about the refugee situation in Germany plus an anti cow bell campaigner denied Swiss citizenship

nine years ago: the elegance of heliocentrism, RIP David Bowie plus the performer as internet pioneer

ten years ago: a slow news day (1922) 

ufo/uap (12. 157)

Released the first week of January in 1950, we are directed to the independent feature by Mikel Conrad and Howard Irving Young, via Miss Cellania, which first addressed the subject of flying saucers but not as heralds of an alien invasion but rather an attempt to limn how the paranormal follows the paranoid. Capitalising on the moniker that captured the public imagination coined by pilot Kenneth Arnold to a reporter in 1947 on seeing a group of silvery discs silently flying in tight formation, the movie plays on the phenomena of repeated, copycat sightings, the narrative focuses on the US intelligence learning of a covert Soviet-lead investigation into appearances of mysterious aircraft sourced to Alaska, commencing a series of spy encounters and eventual counter-espionage, double-agents and stolen technology. The psychology of misapprehension and anxieties is also a major theme but light on acting performance and special effects, stock and B-roll footage of the tundra upstages (much from the director’s acting role in Arctic Manhunt from the previous year) the movie’s impact and legacy. Re-released three years later as a double feature with 1941’s Man Made Monster (the first sci-fi billing—not a willing nepobaby as a decision of the studio—of Creighton Tull Chaney as Lon Chaney, Jr to associate him with his father though already an established actor in the genre) about a nuclear mutant, the film has been largely forgotten, replaced by the abstract tropes of extraterrestrial visitors and kaiju. More from Inverse at the link up top.

9x9 (12. 155)

pacific palisades: southern California wildfires kept at bay from the Getty compound and vast holdings of antiquities  

we still dance on whirling stages in my busby berkeley dreams: the kaleidoscopic visions of the 1930s Hollywood visionary—see previously  

snap-back: Europe signals that they will not allow Trump to besmirch their sovereignty  

in search of: dark oxygen (see previously) in the world’s deepest mines in South Africa  

how nietzche came in from the cold: the unlikely rehabilitation of the philosopher banned in East Germany and silenced in the West over his championing by National Socialism—via the new Shelton wet/dry 

fine hypertext products: HTML is a programming language—via Kottke 

morning joe: the health benefits of coffee are most evident early in the day  

lake of the woods: a retired Minnesotan forester pre-satellite maps planted a forest in the shape of the state

fps: attend a MoMA opening with DOOM: The Gallery Experience—via Waxy

synchronoptica

one year ago: a massive collection of card games (with synchronoptica)

seven years ago: border stories, a reconstructed astrological clock plus photographs of social decay

eight years ago: votive devotionals plus Waiting for Godot chatbots

nine years ago: New Year’s fireworks, assorted links worth revisiting, built environments on Mars plus the ethics of genetic chimeras

ten years ago: the Triadic Ballet, a collection of Do Not Disturb signs, the Restoration of the Icons plus distributed content

sgt pepper’s 2024 (12. 131)

Continuing a tradition started in 2016, Chris the Barker has made another collage (see previously), frequently updated and up to the last minute to eulogise Olivia Hussey and Jimmy Carter, in tribute to those passed away this year. 

The field more crowded than ever it seems, there are two hundred and eleven personages featured including Maggie Smith, Bob Newhart, Phil Donahue, Dr Ruth, OJ Simpson, the Tory Party and American Democracy. Much more at the artist’s web presence (including complete liner-notes) at the link above.

the boy who wouldn’t grow up (12. 122)

Released almost twenty years to the day after the stage adaptation on this day in 1924, J M Barrie’s novelisation of Peter and Wendy, the Paramount feature—then called Famous Players-Lasky, was considered to be a lost film for decades. The only known fragment of footage was in the promotional compilation, The House that Shadows Built, put together by the studio in 1931 to celebrate its twentieth anniversary and exhibit movies that never had a proper theatrical release which featured scenes from several silent-era pictures that only are extant as clips, sort of like the lost plays of Ancient Greece that only are referenced in footnotes. A well-preserved copy was found, however, in 1950 and prompted the Disney animated version a few years later. With fidelity for the original story, the Darlings ultimately adopt the Lost Boys and Wendy is allowed to return to Never Never Land once a year to assist with Spring Cleaning. Peter is played by Betty Bronson and George Ali acts as Nana the Dog (a Doug Jones, Andy Serkis of that time and a far better nursemaid than the Lost Boys had) and Crocodile.

6x6 (12. 121)

glimmer vs trigger: political, cultural and business trends to expect for 2025 

geospatial: NATO’s Project HEIST to ensure telecommunications architecture from accident and sabotage or caprice—see also—via Damn Interesting’s Curated Links  

achive.today: some methods for getting around paywalled articles  

elo rating: grandmaster Magnus Carlsen quits World Internation Chess Federation (see previously) over dress code 

teotwawki: y2k preparations and people getting ready to bug out—see previously  

🍿: an omnibus list of list on movies and television from the past year

smultronstället (12. 113)

Considered not only as one of the director’s best works but also counted among the greatest films of all time, Ingmar Bergman’s Wild Strawberries premiered on this day in Stockholm in 1957. Conceived during a long drive from the capital to Dalarna via Uppsala, Bergman’s hometown, he imagined how it might be if one could open a door and be transported back to one’s childhood—realising that his medium could make such a transporting experience a reality and began the screenplay. Similar to Bergman’s own cross-country journey, he places his protagonist in the passenger seat of a lengthy car ride, a disaffected county doctor who gave up his practice to pursue a specialisation in bacteriology, to Lund to accept his Doctor Jubilaris (jubeldoktor) degree from his alma mater fifty years after the original conferring, driven by his daughter-in-law, who share a mutual dislike for one another’s company. Nodding off, a series of daydreams and nightmares set off by a succession of hitchhikers picked up along the way that cause the veteran academic to reminisce and reevaluate his life and choices. Half-dozing, one of the hitchhikers is transformed into an examiner from his dissertation committee, asking he defend his thesis but is suddenly unable to muster any rebuttal. The dream examiner then recites his proposition for him: “A doctor’s first duty is to ask forgiveness,” concluding, “You are guilty of guilt.” Idiomatically the title of the film (the Wild Strawberry [Patch]) signifies a hidden place with sentimental value.

an irwin allen production (12. 085)

Premiering on this day in 1974, the disaster film (see previously) directed by John Guillermin (King Kong, The Bridge at Remagen) and featuring the all-star ensemble cast including Faye Dunaway, William Holden, Steve McQueen, Paul Newman, Dabney Coleman, Richard Chamberlain and OJ Simpson had the highest grossing domestic box-office of the year and would go on to win numerous awards, among them the Academy Award for Best Music, scored by John Williams with the Oscar going to duo Al Kasha and Joel Hirschhorn for “We May Never Love Like This Again” who also collaborated for “The Morning After”—see above. The plot involves the return of a prize-winning architect to over see the dedication of the mixed-used skyscraper—at just over five hundred metres, the world’s tallest—in San Francisco. Concerns over potentially dangerous inadequacies in the electrical work by a subcontractor are ignored and the gala continues in the building’s Promenade Room, one hundred thirty five storeys above street level. As the male leads all wanted top-billing (see also), credits were staggered for posters and promotional material.

*    *    *    *    *

synchronoptica

one year ago: assorted links to revisit (with synchronoptica) 

seven years ago: façadism plus the art of Patrick Nagel

eight years ago: Sylvester Stallone to head the US National Endowment for the Arts, the microseasons of Japan, the EU’s headquarters plus recreating ancient soundscapes

nine years ago: an appreciation of the Galactic Empire’s bureaucracy

ten years ago: a feature length painted film about van Gogh plus the Witch of Endor

general audiences admitted (12. 075)

Coming into effect in November 1968, the first theatrical release to be given a G-rating by the Motion Picture Association of America—replacing the Hays Code as a voluntary, self-policing scheme for parental advisement—was the Monkees’ movie Head and the classification has been on a steady decline since with only documentaries able to secure it, having gone from general genres to niche, recalling those films that really pushed the envelope of decency and age-appropriateness (some seeking the restricted). Once the most prevalent rating for popular movies with non-objectionable if not exactly family-friendly themes like 2001: A Space Odyssey, The Andromeda Strain and Star Trek: The Motion Picture (each retroactively given PG status), it fell to a quarter of releases by the mid-1980s, pivoting to children’s films and with only a smattering of the box-office, posing the question of whether the current criteria are still fit for purpose. Much more from Tedium at the link above.

10x10 (12. 070)

willow: Google’s quantum computing labs unveil a new microchip that operates at amazing speeds by being in many states simultaneously  

skin-deep: a look at the tattoos of Defence Secretary nominee Pete Hegseth 

mind-machines: Arthur C Clark (previously) forecasts the rise of artificial intelligence in 1978 

yuletide classics: a treasury of ten great holiday action movies—see also  

saturday night bath in apple valley: Something Weird features the very best in exploitation film from the 1930s through the 1970s—via Obscure Media 

they see your photos: an app that assesses one’s images, opposite to a picture is worth one thousand words  

free syria awaits you: Hayat Tahrir al-Sham enters Damascus as Bashir al-Assad flees to Moscow and political prisoners are freed  

mocha mousse: a defence of Pantone’s colour for 2025—it’s first brown hue  

pratfall: the history of slipping on banana peels—see previously here and here  

undercoat: solar paint developed by Mercedes Benz could revolutionise EV charging

synchronoptica

one year ago: underappreciated cinematic masterworks (with synchronoptica), multifunction gadgets plus The Wicker Man (1973)

seven years ago: prospecting for bitcoin plus transparency in airfare

eight years ago: dinosaur plumage, no memory for sickness, Italy’s efforts to reduce government gridlock and promote efficiency plus assorted links to revisit

nine years ago: an extraordinary Jubilee Year, chain of command plus 3D face masking

ten years ago: lucky charms, visualising the passage of time plus a first, fatal shooting by police in Iceland

directors’ cut (12. 063)

What an absolute gift to be able to watch an individual being paid tribute while they can still be part of it. Via Nag on the Lake, we are directed to this brilliant music video from Spike Jonze and Mary Wigmore from Coldplay’s new album, Moon Music, for the track “All My Love,” which together with the band they turned into a moving early birthday celebration for Dick Van Dyke (*1925) who sang and danced and was joined by his extended family. Chris Martin on piano delights at the end with an impromptu song about growing old for Van Dyke.

creative commons (12. 051)

Leading up to Public Domain Day in the United States (see previously) and other jurisdictions, Boing Boing is putting together a virtual Advents Calendar showcasing each significant work of literature, cinema and visual art whose copyrights expire 1 January 2025, protections terminate typically in America and the European Union (with some notable exceptions) seventy years after the calendar year when the author died—post mortem auctoris. Among those properties that become free to use however one sees fit include the pictured Chop Suey by Edward Hopper and Magritte’s The Treachery of Images, as well as writings from Virginia Woolf, Wittgenstein, Bertrand Russell, Erich Maria Remarque and Ernest Hemingway.

 synchronoptica

one year ago: the OED’s WoTY shortlist (with synchronoptica), assorted links to revisit, A Streetcar Named Desire (1947) plus Winchester Cathedral (1966)

seven years ago: a collection of UK WWII propaganda posters

eight years ago: Ancient Lights, more links to enjoy, Belgian brewing traditions added to UNESCO registry plus Vantablack

nine years ago: Vienna’s Schönbrunn palace

ten years ago: searching for Krampus, more unbuilt architecture, a pre-crime pilot, Alfred the Great plus the Carolinian dynasty

eleven years ago: launch codes and the Nuclear Football 

9x9 (12. 036)

to john dillinger and hope he is still alive: William S Burroughs’ Thanksgiving Prayer  

sampler-sized: iconic electronic music remixes by year  

silent poems: a weird and wondrous, non-WYSIWYG word processor from graphic designer Lavinia Petrache—via Clive Thompson’s Linkfest 

blacklisted: Musk publishes names of federal workers he wants to eliminate, a terror-inducing tactic that may force them to resign in lieu of being fired  

well, please post the rebuttal—then community notes will take care of the rest: Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg explains to Elon Musk how EV charging works 

sortes vergilianae: a particular form of bibliomancy drawing random passages from The Aeneid (see also here and here) and other works by Roman poet Virgil  

anacyclosis: the rise and fall of civilisation and the undermining of democracy  

the nine lives of dr mabuse: avant garde pop band Propaganda celebrate the filmology of the chaotic villain—see previously  

pay no attention to that man behind the curtain: a political reading of Wicked

synchronoptica

one year ago: the Battle of Versailles (1973—with synchronoptica) plus assorted links worth the revisit 

seven years ago: Tom Baker returns as Dr Who plus Trump celebrates Native American Heritage Month

eight years ago: emoluments and more

eleven years ago: the debut of MST3K (1998) plus Germany’s Goldfinger tax-model

twelve years ago: :D for Düsseldorf

8x8 (12. 028)

ofdon: US Defence Secretary nominee views the armed forces as means for promoting Christian Reconstructionism and the patriarchy  

fugatto: a new AI-powered audio editor claims to create sounds never before heard  

mrs french’s cat is missing: the 2008 Canadian horror film Pontypool about a viral outbreak that coopts language as a vector is a MetaFilter favourite  

cop29: members agree to an annual three hundred billion dollar stipend to help poorer countries cope with climate change as talks nearly implode  

virtual geoglyphs: the community of GPS artists transforming their daily perambulations into a kind of sky-writing

test kitchen: corporate casseroles and other industry influences on Thanksgiving—see also 

letters from england: Karel Čapek’s (see previously) impression of his host country in exile 

🎯: Elon Musk muses about purchasing the news network MSNBC, along with other shitposting

𝚒𝚖𝚐_𝟶𝟶𝟶𝟷 (12. 016)

Via Waxy, we are directed towards this fascinating clip-culling project from Riley Walz, which scoured the video-hosting service for the default naming convention that the iPhone camera app employed for their feature “Send to YouTube,” circa 2009 until 2012. The service saw a whopping seventeen hundred percent increase in uploads but Apple eventually parted ways after sharing became less technically encumbered and bandwidth was less of an issue. Randomised they make interesting for snapshot of moments from the lives of strangers, unrehearsed and unedited. There’s a lot of baby and pet antics, trips to amusement parks, concerts, talent shows and even forgotten trends, like the Ice Bucket Challenge—anonymous scrapbooks. Although there are a few actual accidents, natural disasters and surprise proposals, most of these short videos are wholesome and wholly unspectacular although one feels a bit of tension building for the unexpected that fails to materialise but are nonetheless fascinating to watch, as a time-capsule barely seen and hardly searchable—see previously.

summerisle (12. 013)

Having previously looked into the movie, The Wicker Man, inspired by true events, we enjoyed this interview with the documentary filmmaker Rupert Russell’s latest project in The Last Sacrifice investigating this unsolved murder from 1945 and the repressed mindset of inherently destructive natures, thrown into sharp contrast through the genre of British folk horror that the killing and subsequent reportage established and informed. Much more from Dangerous Minds at the link above.

synchronoptica

one year ago: German mite cheese (with synchronoptica) plus the first laser show

seven years ago: dragnet surveillance unsecured on the cloud plus heritage per photograph

eight years ago: a hangover recovery bar, a referendum on public education plus how the parties got their colours

nine years ago: assorted links worth revisiting, the OED selects an emoji as Word of the Year plus Chinese hackers infiltrate the US Office of Personnel Management

ten years ago: legendary voyages plus a parting gift from Steve Jobs

8x8 (12. 012)

hundreds of beavers: an anarchic slapstick comedy about a drunken salesman lost in the wilderness who has to trap his way out  

this is for you, human: a student seeking homework help from a chatbot receives a chilling threat  

fold, spindle and mutilate: after five years in development, LG introduces a prototype stretchable digital screen  

i got the worms workin’ under my skirt: Nate and Hila the Earth compose raps about composing and ecology—via MetaFilter 

worry stone: pre-fab pet rocks with a name, backstory and MTBI personality type are the latest craze among China’s youth  

zoom room: in 1916, just a year after the first transcontinental telephone call, the American Institute of Electrical Engineers (predecessor to the IEEE) held a teleconference with over five thousand attendees across the US—via tmn  

butlerian jihad: Dune-franchise television series finally portrays the rise and downfall of the Thinking Machines—see previously 

dr horrible’s sing-along blog: a fun, definitive listing of best movie musicals