amidakuji (11. 918)

A way of establishing 1:1 correspondence with any number of random pairings of equal size—for instance assigning roles to actors or chores to a group of helpers—the lottery game of chance, guaranteeing equal chance and distribution is called the above in Japan (阿弥陀籤, after the aspect of the Buddha associated with discernment and perception), in Korean as Sadaritagi (사다리타기, ladder climbing) and in Chinese as Guijiaotu (鬼腳圖, a ghost leg diagram). Participants’ names are listed in the row above with vertical lines dropping down to an assignment directly below. Concealing the names and jobs, the lines are hashed with random horizontal detours that must be taken on to the next column until reaching the bottom. Revealing the lines to the players but still keeping the other names and jobs concealed, they choose their path downward, the permutations in the snaking path ensuring all tasks are taken—unlike with drawing lots, flipping a coin. Aside from practical applications, such lottery elements can be found in the bonus rounds in video games to randomise one’s chances of getting the best prize.

roll for insight (11. 901)

As Dungeons & Dragons marks its fiftieth anniversary—the tabletop role-playing game that invites players to invent and articulate their own narrative arcs, psychiatrists are increasingly prone to recognise the benefit of play as a heuristic for group therapy. Whilst research is ongoing regarding improving social skills and empathy, many patients and counsellors (in the loose role of Dungeon Master, despite or because of the attendant Satanic Panic) alike have accepted the approach as effective.

7x7 (11. 897)

ghost lot: an installation of sunken cars buried in a mall parking area as commentary on catering to automobile culture 

weather manipulation: a whirlwind of conspiracy theories over recent hurricanes in the US have netted distrust, death threats for meteorologists 

loveland frogmen: maps of the most famous cryptids and mythical monsters charted by America states and internationally—via Nag on the Lake  

scripting news: a founding member of the blogosphere enters his fourth decade—via Waxy  

general headquarters: the lost board game from Kurt Vonnegut (previously) has been completed and available for purchase 

theobros: understanding the GOP’s efforts to remake America through Christian Nationalists—via Miss Cellania  

y-crossing: the Trinity Bridge of Crowland, Lincolnshire, a relic before the rivers were rerouted

synchronoptica

one year ago: a catalogue of edible seeds (with synchronoptica) plus the Polish System of pedagogy

seven years ago: a line rider banger, pictorial kanji, a Nazi rally in Madison Square Garden plus the US withdraws from UNESCO

eight years ago: Mr Yuk plus a monument to Henrietta Lacks

nine years ago: a courtly selfie-stick plus assorted links to revisit

fourteen years ago: predictive text plus Japanese heraldic traditions

schnelling points (11. 816)

Humans have a seemingly uncanny knack for solving complex coordination problems when communication and prior planning is limited by uncovering the shared cultural or knowledge-based default in a such situation, concerting the intentions and expectations and land on the above foci, named after economist and game-theorist Thomas Schelling. 

Cooperative experiments demonstrate that a team of individuals acting towards shared end will pick the same time and place for a rendezvous. Part of the allure of AI models is that they seem also quite good at coordination problems—from predictive text, to routine emails to proofreading to peer-review, insofar as they have been trained on the social norms that we draw on as well to achieve a common goal. Artificial intelligence has a worse track record when it comes to something genuinely innovative or unprecedented, and moreover may erode the implicit social bargain that underpins cooperative efforts. The routine is also ritual and outsourcing them, like the above onerous tasks, dulls not only the refining practise when it comes to composing an email—which is also the author’s assessment of their audience—but of course lands as disingenuous and meritless when one can’t be bothered to dash off a good reference or buy someone a gift that was not generated by algorithm. What do you think? We’ve always been taking short-cuts but subverting ceremony altogether seems more serious. More from Henry Farrell at the link above.

night owl (11. 812)

Wanting to garner greater influence in Nevada feeling past his prime in California, a reclusive and withdrawn Howard Hughes (see previously), at sixty, took up permanent residence at the Desert Inn of Las Vegas, occupying both upper storeys of the hotel—eventually to the proprietor’s consternation over the extended stay to which Hughes responded by purchasing the entire building—and remained holed up there. An avid fan of television, particularly movies, Hughes’ tendency towards insomnia turned into an acute frustration, given the limited choice of three networks and broadcasters signing off at 2300. Leaning heavily on his preferred local CBS affiliate KLAS (channel eight on the dial), Hughes had his employees often make requests to the station, Westerns or aviation dramas, and even would have regularly scheduled programming preempted or replayed if he happened to miss a part. Rather than dealing with upset sponsors, the network’s manager eventually suggested that Hughes buy the station and run things his way, which in 1967 he did, essentially turning it into a personal streaming service. The daytime schedule mostly stuck to CBS shows but late nights (the station airing on a twenty-four schedule) were Hughes’ playlist, to the confusion of other viewers, with films (including ones still in theatres through special deals with studios, owning RKO Pictures personally) sometimes paused, rewound or switched to an entirely different one without warning. It sounds like a more benign version of other contemporary vanity projects though just as audacious. More from Mental Floss at the link above.

synchronoptica

one year ago: the life of a DJ (with synchronoptica)

seven years ago: a top-down review of quantum mechanics plus a trip around the Rhön

eight years ago: the Frank Reade Library specialising in the genre of science fiction

nine years ago: the myth of medieval torture chambers, assorted links to revisit plus the Albigensian Crusade

ten years ago: the gig-economy versus registered taxis, accommodations 

mister boddy (11. 797)

Vis-à-vis a recent post, we learn via Messy Nessy Chic (lots more to explore there) that the 1985 adaptation of the board game Clue (Cluedo) with Tim Curry, Madeline Kahn, Christopher Lloyd and Martin Mull was released with three different ending, randomly screened to cinema audiences. The VHS- and Betamax-versions for home consumption had the three variations among the uncountable permutations—Colonel Mustard with the candlestick in the conservatory—with all characters blackmailed and with a motive, and prompting “how it could’ve happened,” “how about this” and “here’s what really happened.” Recently toy company Hasbro has been in talks seeking a new rights deal for another adaptation after a series of failed reboots and remakes.

monty hall enlightenment (11. 733)

Via Quantum of Sollazzo, we are invited to revisit the sometimes fiercely and vehemently counterintuitive probability puzzle based on the TV game show Let’s Make a Deal. Though it is easy to demonstrate that one should always switch doors, have a two out three chance of winning rather than staying with one’s original choice, there are an array of perfectly unreasonable factors that at play that make people stick with their original bet and believing the odds to be even, whereas they’re only ⅓ as likely to not walk away with a prize goat, the dilemma and its trenchant nature says a lot about human bias and errors of commission. Even mathematicians and physicists come to the wrong conclusion until being disabused (sometimes it never takes as our original selection is endowed by magical thinking and those times when we switch and lose cling to our minds more) by brute repetition or by positioning themselves as host and realising that certain protocols are followed in games of chance. This is a specific and tenacious example which illustrates our withering capacity for judgment but I wonder if there are analogous other odds that we similarly misunderstand.

schachmatt (11. 605)

Archaeologists have discovered a nearly millennium old gaming collection preserved in the rubble of the ruins of Burgstein fortress near the village of the Holzelfinger in the Lichtenstein district south of Tübingen. Pieces include dice, flower-shaped tokens and a chessman (see below) carved from deer antler and have been remarkably well preserved.  One of the seven skills that knights (Ritter, the game piece is called Springer—see previously) were expected to master (fencing, archery, hunting, swimming, riding and poetry being the other disciplines), researchers hope that further analysis of the find will lead to insights in play in Europe during the Middle Ages. While studies continue, the pieces will be on display at a special exhibition hosted in the Schlösspark in Pfullingen near Stuttgart. More at The History Blog at the link up top, including videos and three-dimension recreations of the artefacts.

synchronoptica

one year ago: extended frames by AI, assorted links worth revisiting plus an overview of fan-fiction

two years ago: Poltergeist (1982), the Rotel plus more links to enjoy

three years ago: vintage Japanese electronics

four years ago: the Free Republic of Wendland (1980),  Roquefort cheese (1411), a counter-protest photo op, spagetty images plus more on the colour of money

five years ago: the thirty-fifth of May (1989), more on the Lewis Chessmen, an AI names cats, an innovative airplane design plus flight-shaming

8x8 (11.542)

komoot: one testimonial for the international route-finding applicant to which we can personally endorse for its hiking trails recommendation and active community of contributors 

zillow gone wild: absurdist real estate listings go mainstream

dodecahedron: more on the mysterious Roman artefact puzzling archaeologists—see previously  

eidophone: a Welsh singer in 1885, wanting to give flower, fern and tree a voice, pioneered the discipline of cymatics 

democracy dies in darkness: amid faltering peace-talk, Israel shutters al Jazeera bureau in Israel  

live people ignore the strange and unusual. i myself am strange and unusual: a trove of behind the scenes stills from the 1988 production of Beetlejuice—see previously 

finsta: photo-dumps circa 2006 are the new chaotic and authentic social media trend—via tmn  

trudge: an arduous animated journey of many flights by Stephan Schabenbeck through the lens of taking relatable longer than expected excursions

elasticity of demand (11. 507)

A bit of disheartening news coming out of the Coming Attractions Department that is part of growing trend—and admittedly we haven’t yet watched the Barbie movie because I’d rather live with the idea of it a little longer—but hearing of the announcement that director Margot Robbie will capitalise of the success of the film by partnering with rival toy company Hasbro, as with Mattel for the previous feature, for a big-budget nostalgia and marketing ploy with a cinematic adaptation of the board game Monopoly. Though the Barbie film freighted with a message may be an outlier, consumer capitalism is dominating the industry and cadet branches in the form of branded collaborations and appeal to test audiences—nothing wholly new or novel with infinite accessories, legacy films and reboots with a series of LEGO movies already a decade old and various examples of cross-paracosm productions, cannibalisation of back catalogues can sometimes result in the satisfying, entertaining and even poignant. All elements of narrative are derivative to a measure as part of their appeal and connection but the familiar and wistful are not the pinnacle of art and storytelling.

 

synchronoptica

one year ago: assorted links worth revisiting plus space-based cocktails

two years ago: Earth Day

three years ago: more links to enjoy

four years ago: the first Earth Day (1970), the shortest river around the world plus ambient noises from the office

five years ago: don’t mess with mother, ugly Belgian houses plus Alien vignettes

neocities (11. 473)

Via the Verge, we are directed toward a fine little interior decorating pastime for iPads in the form of Rooms—inviting players to cultivate and share their cozy cubbyholes—in the tradition of the old school web and good old fashioned building-blocks or paper-dolls putting together a pixellated diorama put together with modular elements voxel by voxel—see previously. It’s like dressing up and perfecting one’s avatar within predefined but expansive parameters and features a social aspect to meet one’s virtual neighbours and follow their home improvements.

7x7 (11. 421)

triple word score: the undisputed champion of competitive Scrabble  

boyard cigarettes: unused geisha footage for an Offworld advertising campaign

statutory interpretation: a forthcoming book on the ideology of originalism and its malleability 

the apprehension engine: custom suspenseful sounds for horror movie incidental music—via Things Magazine  

penmanship: the resurgence of cursive—see previously  

raktajino: a supercut of Klingon coffee in Star Trek: DS-9  

game theory: selfishness and enlightened self-interest through the lens of novelist and philosopher Iris Murdoch

person-alysis (11. 419)

This 1957 board game from Lowell Toy Manufacturers of Long Island (a prolific maker whose catalogue includes mostly versions tied to contemporary popular culture—Bat Masterson and Steve Canyon and Gunsmoke being among their best-selling) is advertised with the tagline “Everyone’s a psychologist! …” and described as the most original adult game on the market, encouraging amateur psychoanalysis with eighty “ink-blot” cards and an explanation of their interpretations, “lending themselves to an exciting, hilarious and thought provoking game! Arrestingly packaged with attractive accessories.” We wonder how many fights (see also) this caused finding the family sociopath and other undiagnosed personality traits. More from Weird Universe at the link above.

synchronoptica

one year ago: an Albanian Spring Festival

two years ago: assorted links to revisit, Czech and Slovak history plus goblin mode

three years ago: Andorra, the Mir programme, St Matilda plus Nazis erotic toys

four years ago: origins of the Panama Canal, an urban lagoon plus Disney’s White Wilderness

five years ago: end of the broadcasting day, geopolitical narratives, a coin honouring Stephen Hawking plus cross-border commutes

a roll of the dice (11. 399)

Via Clive Thompson’s latest Linkfest (lots more to check out there), we not only learn of the crazy in the 1920s for mechanical dice cards that generated pseudorandom numbers for you—dominoes and playing cards developed from casting lots in ancient times in China and Japan—there is a project in the works to revive these steampunk clicker gadgets. More at the link above—be sure to read about Joy Division’s Unknown Pleasures cover, contranyms and revisit our friend, the Michelin Man.
Whilst researching, we came across another variant of Roman die in the form of a spinning top called a teetotum—still used in gambling in Latin America and later adapted into a dreidel (to distance itself from the wages or wagers). In varying accounts, a four- or six-sided playing piece determined the player’s fate: T for totum when winning the whole pool, A for aufer to draw, D for depone signifying a discard or N for Nihil Dabis when nothing happens. Compare to the Ferengi roulette and certainly rigged game of skill and chance of Dabo and the card-sharks associated with it from Deep Space Nine.

7x7 (11. 186)

itsy-bitsy: a performance on the SpiderHarp, a large scale model originally developed to study vibrations and triangulation on a web  

origin story: how Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer began as a department store promotional giveaway  

owl001: BBC hacked live on the air in 1983—see also—via Damn Interesting’s Curated Links  

marie mathématique: the adventures of the younger sister of Barbarella, scored by Serge Gainsbourg—see more  

ggwp: the E3 gaming conference has been shuttered permanently  

the great toy robbery: an animated classic from the National Film Board of Canada 

ikea monkey: the happy life of Darwin the macaque after its moment of fame—previously

9x9 (11. 010)

⏈: play around for a moment with the Water web toy—via Miss Cellania and the Everlasting Blört  

green new deal: modelled on FDR’s Civilian Conservation Corps, US president Biden creates a federal jobs training and climate protection force  

won’t someone think of the children: UK passes Online Safety bill—see previously  

piramida: architectural photographer Danica O Kus documents the newly-repurposed monument in the Albanian capital of Tirana

nine-man morris: archeologists discover a board game carved in the ruins of an ancient Polish castle  

qed: a tiny Irish child has a brilliant solution to the trolley problem—see previously  

the mascot of ascot: the magnificent millinery modelled by Gertrude Shilling—via Messy Nessy Chic

once i played a tanpura: electronic music from India from the early 1970s—via Things Magazine  

written on water: physicists using an ionic pen and Brownian motion can draw lines and letters in liquid

 

synchronoptica

one year ago: assorted links to revisit 

two years ago: the Global War on Terrorism declared (2001), photographer Charles Cylde Ebbets plus more links to enjoy

three years ago: St Eustace plus running out of hurricane names

four years ago: an AI names mushrooms,  exploring a local wayside chapel, more links plus Randy Rainbow for the Emmy

five years ago: retro web bumpers, a then-and-now of New Zealand’s government, modern-day occupations plus the board game Careers

5x5 (10. 917)

scream real loud: Paul Reubens, actor who portrayed Pee-wee Herman has died after a private struggle with cancer

nudge theory: top behavioural science researchers fabricated data about engineering honest responses  

platonic solid: the enduring mystery of Gallo-Roman dodecahedra 

maxwell’s demons: plans to use AI to detoxify speech only dial up the rhetoric

live at the roxy: the 1981 HBO special that introduced the character Pee-wee

synchronoptica 

one year ago: a classic from The Eurhythmics, assorted links to revisit plus an antique celebrity abecedarium

two years ago: a potentially perpetual time crystal, the photography of Lora Webb Nichols, a new Olympic motto includes togetherness, assorted links worth revisiting, vintage internet radio plus David Bowie Halloween costumes

three years ago: more links to check out, China’s moon mission plus a new, smaller batch of emoji

four years ago: more Brexit omnishambles plus reforesting efforts in Ethiopia

five years ago: Franklin Armstrong (1968), more links, an exoplanet survey plus bands as football clubs

9x9 (10. 696)

precariat: the antithesis of job security—via Miss Cellania 

le jeu de monde: a seventeenth century geography-themed board game 

sell ∀ ∃ as ∃ ∀ scam: AI “prompt engineering” distilled—via the new shelton wet/dry  

ad infintum: a survey of the websites that ChatGPT and other large language models glean from to appear smartly confident 

fox and friends: rightwing ideologue Tucker Carlson abruptly announces he is leaving the network  

reductio ad hilterium: fake diaries to go on public display after forty years since their spurious authorship  

mister hepster: Cab Calloway’s jazz lexicon  

tea and sympathy: the Teasmade museum—via Messy Nessy Chic  

permission slip: inside the wave of American legislation looking to overturn laws restricting child labour

9x9 (10. 667)

pass****123: a visualisation of pilfered passwords aggregated from various leaks and breaches

event horizon: a streak of young stars may be the wake of a supermassive black hole ejected from its host galaxy  

pop: speeding locomotives in an animated short by Yoji Kuri—see previously  

you sank my battleship: leaked NATO plans for bolstering Ukraine’s military were first circulating on a Minecraft gaming forum—more here  

what, me worry: a celebration of the long life and career of cartoonist Al Jaffee 

bierpulver: the Neuzeller Klosterbräu, known for other innovative libations, introduces a dehydrated beer that one needs only add water to   

example handshake: a look at the squelch of the dial-up modem  

trapezoidal flux deviation: an alternative proposal for the non-existence of exoplanets—via the New Shelton wet/dry  

a generator and a discriminator: AI can crack most users’ passwords in under two minutes—via Dam Interresting’s Curated Links

6x6 (10. 657)

locus ludi: play ancient Greek and Roman board games and more—via Pasa Bon! 

carriage-return: an illustrated appreciate of maintenance trains of the Japan’s railways  

you, me and ui: the logoff button is defunct king kong (your song): Bobby “Boris” Pickett’s other attempts to recapture the success of Monster Mash  

castaway huts: a guide to shelters for shipwrecked sailors 

組み紐; the traditional Japanese art of making chords and braids  

never bet against the house: a group of in tune gamblers find a way to beat the odds with Roulette with preternatural timing—via Damn Interesting’s Curated Links