deadpool (13. 631)

As Superpunch informs, popular and controversial predictions market platform Kalshi (previously) is expanding its betting profile from economic indicators, political and legislative outcomes and armed conflict to now include sports-like wagering in biotechnology, gambling on clinical trials and regulatory approval of new drug therapies. Already a highly speculative market subject to wild swings, opening up new contracts with Big Pharma, companies like Gilead, is expected to motivate traders to put their thumb on the scale, out of self-interest to improve their odds, with assuredly unscientific and deadly consequences. Kalshi, for its part defends its ethical stance, arguing, without scholarly consensus since the pool numbers are never disclosed, that the wisdom of the crowds and their investment on being right (or at least less wrong than the competition) more efficiently and accurately—a counterbalance to the greed, fraud and corruption endemic to the industry—steers optimal outcomes.

synchronoptica

one year ago: historic images of NASA’s research campus (with synchronoptica), assorted links to revisit, the flags of Iran plus new additions to UNESCO’s world heritage register

two years ago: American’s AI-military complex plus an evil cocktail

three years ago: Trump investigated for falsifying business records 

five years ago: your daily demon plus the island of Kållandsö

six years ago: Operation Jade Helm, unpopular essays plus more corporate sing-alongs

seven years ago: Les Horrible Cernettes, Wiesbaden’s Deutsches Filmhaus plus Trump’s disdain for the press

double-six (13. 626)

Translated as the above, sugoroku (雙六 or 双六) historically referred to two different classes of board game, ban-sugoroku akin to Western backgammon, and e-sugoroku, picture games similar to snakes-and-ladders. With the proliferation and increasing sophistication of wood-block printing, beginning in the Edo period (the late thirteenth century), the former meaning became nearly obsolete, a retronym like “acoustic guitar” or “landline,” with the colourful boards produced under thousands of variants with the same basic rules of play on subjects ranging from religion, career-progression, geopolitics, adult-themes and culture, meant to educate and to a degree inculcate—see also. Via Kottke, we are directed to an appreciation of the format through a recently expanded collection from the Rumsey archives (previously) of nineteenth century tabletop entertainments, which still leave an imprint of society in family game night traditions and mini-games within arcade franchises like Super Mario Brothers.

synchronoptica

one year ago: understanding light pollution (with sychronoptica) plus definitely not a bag full of drugs

two years ago: the asteroid Pallas plus Lonesome (1928)

three years ago: a vintage workwear catalogue,  an experimental overland train plus the Trinity nuclear test (1945)

four years ago: the flag of Estonia plus assorted links to revisit 

five years ago: along the Gota canal plus a hike over an extinct waterfall

six years ago: Disney theme parks reopen during the pandemic plus more links to enjoy

 

 

i spy with my little eye (13. 529)

The latest from Neal Agarwal (previously), Wiki Spy, invites one to explore nearly forty-thousand images from Wikipedia (see also) as chaotic collages that reshuffle with every visit. Clicking on the picture brings one to the source article, as in off-centre, William Hogarth and his pugnacious pug, Trump, who has his own entry and category in the Commons. Let us know what pops out for you and piques your curiosity.

synchronoptica

one year ago: a visit to Verdun (with synchronoptica)

two years ago: hair shavings as battery components plus more mysterious monoliths 

three years ago: Rocky Horror Picture Show (1973) plus assorted links to revisit 

four years ago: more links to enjoy, Juneteenth, SS Gervasius and Protasius plus designer Lutz Colani

five years ago: rendered realities plus generative textile patterns

six years ago: unclergyable offenses, more dazzle camouflage, Trump censored on social media plus the dance of the queen bee

6x6 (13. 491)

common loon: one hundred greatest bird names—see previously—via Nag on the Lake  

continue y/n: test how carefully one reads AI agent requests and permission fatigue—via Quantum of Sollazzo  

weather rothkos: meteorologically up-to-date, location-based abstract art—via Web Curios  

the seduction of ingmar bergman: a concept album involving the abduction of the famed Swedish director pressed into making American cinema  

descartes against humanity: games reimagined as designed by philosophers  

apartment birds: recent avian visitors

ludus coriovalli (13. 251)

Though our knowledge of the history of gaming of in Antiquity is somewhat obscured by the absence of manuals, we have plenty of artefacts (see previously here and here) that hint at rules of play. One more mysterious board game discovered at the Roman site of Coriovallum in city of Heerlen in the present day Netherlands, is a rounded limestone tablet with grid marks that did not seem to follow any known rules. A wear-use analysis informed an AI-driven simulation of all possible permutations and can trace out the order of play based on other blocking games from the region. More from Open Culture at the link above.

etaoin shrdlu, esaitn ruoldc (13. 181)

Again via Web Curios, we are pointed to an addictive little bilingual (I wasn’t up to trying in French however) word game that is agreeably one of the best we’ve come across in some time and as likely to return to after our streak with Wordle clones. Simple and straightforward, each round presents three lettered tiles to build words from in order of the letters presented and are awarded points based on Scrabble rules, in turn derived from the titular letter frequency. There are daily challenges and play can continue with random combinations. Gently timed, once one runs out of chances, there’s a break down of one’s score and the optimal word from the dictionary, though one can’t dispute the lexicon.

parousia (13. 172)

Whilst one might be excused for thinking that the rather jarring news of the odds that Jesus Christ’s second coming will happen during this calendar year climbing might contain some wisdom of the masses how we are hurtling towards the End Times or how the Anti-Christ incarnate has seemingly arrived in the figure of the US president, in truth the cause of the growing likelihood is stultifyingly disappointing. Wagering in favour of such a black swan event seems nonsensical, especially if the faithful believe that they will be raptured—you can’t take it without, and without getting youth pastor theological, against scripture, with the Apostle Paul writing in his epistle to the Thessalonians, “For you are fully aware that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night,” unpredictable and something no one knows. Rather than any of that, and with a touch of Dostoevsky, it is pure manipulation of the betting pool with secondary markets with gamblers trying to cash out on their odds for the over/under of their primary bet—and it isn’t even the first time that such grift as occurred. More from Gizmodo at the link up top.

8x8 (13. 097)

galactic resource utilisation: unfortunately named San Francisco startup’s designs for a lunar luxury hotel  

byob: meeting minutes from your local wine moms gang  

go: an obituary of Niè Wèiping (聂卫平) who helped restore Chinese interest in the ancient game of strategy—see previously

vmware: the history of virtualisation 

time’s arrow: the implications of shifting our concept of time from cyclical to linear  

urjo: an infinite series of logic puzzles to solve of red and blue dots on a grid—via MetaFilter  

the party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears—it was their final, most essential command: protests, ICE raids and false narratives 

artemis ii: giant rocket positioned on the launch pad for the first crewed mission to the Moon since 1972

synchronoptica

one year ago: a 2012 internet blackout in protest of US regulations privileging copyright over access (with synchronopticæ), The Jeffersons (1975) plus assorted links worth revisiting

twelve years ago: an encounter with a comet, artisanal signage, more on dragnet surveillance, more Unwörter plus desserts that have shaped history

fourteen years ago: more on the protest blackout plus a deeper look at the threatening legislation 

fifteen years ago: uprisings in Tunisia 

 

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 

warmth is for sorry! this is not a hug (12. 995)

Via Kottke, we are directed to a gem of a McSweeney’s contribution from Robert Rooney, on par with their perennial offerings, with an imagined dialogue amongst the marketing and development staff of Invicta Games, LTᴰ on their packaging for Mastermind, a two-player board game for breaking code invented in 1970 by an Israeli postmaster and telecommunications specialist and later refined and released by the UK plastics company after debuting and unsuccessfully shopped at the Nürnberg International Toy Fair. The resulting box art since 1973 featured this photograph of a mature man in a suit jacket in the foreground seated with a young woman in the background—the two amateur models, Cecilia Fung and Bill Woodward, reuniting in 2003 to pose for a publicity photo. “Yes. Let the box look like it could pass a doctoral defence and start a coup d’etat at the same time.”

the size of life (12. 993)

The latest from Neal Agarwal (see previously) evokes the chain-reaction of the zero-player Game of Life and is well worth playing on your desktop with the volume up to appreciate the stirring cello score with increasing intensity and tempo as you scale up. As one advances, there are interesting facts about the largest examples of the small and the smallest of the big, including long extinct species like the Arthropleura, an invertebrate as big as a tiger that roamed steamy oxygen rich forests during the Carboniferous period three-hundred million years ago and the extant but threatened giant barrel sponge, the Red Wood of the Reefs, that could hold a human and can live for two-thousand years.

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

most other two-digit numbers had no meaningful trend over that period (12. 891)

For its WotY, Dictionies.com has selected “6-7” from its list of contenders for terms capturing the Zeitgeist of language and culture over the past twelve months, not just about confusion, neologism or popularity but moreover as a socio-linguistic mirror to visage. In the shortlist of other reference authorities, the meme, phrase and accompanying hand gestures from a nonsense lyric in a song by Philadelphia rapper Skrilla, titled “Doot Doot (Six-Seven).” And while grammarians have tried to apply several interpretations as to its meaning and etymology—from a reference to a street in the artist’s hometown or police code, which despite being incorrect have increased its rather enduring lore as opposed to recent marketing campaigns by fast food franchises and rumours that the next AI model will be called GPT-6-7 (surely a sign the trend is about to plummet)—it is genuinely a meaningless phrase though positive among cohorts who can share it together. The Wikipedia entry for the much older, fourteenth century English idiom to describe a situation in disarray—“at sixes and sevens”—from the proto-version of gambling dice game craps called hazard has not been updated to reflect this new phenomenon.

synchronoptica

one year ago: the events that inspired The Wicker Man (with synchronopticæ), an ancient amulet discovered, a thousand days of the war on Ukraine, shifting through default video titles plus Mister Plow (1992)

twelve years ago: digital footprints 

thirteen years ago: market bubbles 

fourteen years ago: in for a penny, in for a pound 

fifteen years ago: free-range exoplanets 

sixteen years ago: preppers and doubters 

oblique strategies (12. 795)

Though I am reluctant to add many executive toys to my physical desktop, I do catch myself staring off quite a bit in moments of tension or feeling overwhelmed at a collection of juggling practise bean bags, a memory match game wherein one tries to pair dogs with their owners (I think the idea is supposed to be pretty open ended and there are no wrong choices) to jar or dislodge or alleviate something, and so very much appreciated this new deck of cards to put in one’s rolodex to seek out a positive reframing rather and “avoid falling into the slipstream of prevailing trends” and performative expectations. Ambagious Tactics contain an aphorism or question to ponder on each cue-card, a prompt to cleanse the palette, following the format of the above worthwhile dilemmas co-created by Brian Eno (most famously used during the recording sessions of David Bowie’s Berlin trilogy) and Peter Schmidt in 1975 to encourage lateral thinking and help creatives—or anyone—break through an impasse. Only ever released in limited runs, physical copies of Strategies are hard to come by but are available on-line to shuffle through for suggestions—this cartomancy (see previously here, here and here) carefully crafted to be trusted even if the appropriateness is unclear, and with signicant cultural impact, many books, songs and film make oblique reference to the cards, including the bit of advice, “Withdrawing in disgust is not the same thing as apathy,” a lyric in REM’s What’s the Frequency, Kenneth? Other suggestions run along the lines: Emphasis repetition; Try faking it; Restate the problem as clearly as possible; What would your closest friend do? More to explore from { feuilleton } at the link above and perhaps the inspiration to make one’s own set for yourself or as a gift.

police procedural (12. 584)

First heard on NPR’s news quiz Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me, we learned that over the weekend, police in Wisconsin searched a vehicle with an individual with a warrant out for their arrest—after a drug-sniffing dog gave authorities probable cause. Iconically they found various paraphernalia, a loaded gun, an amount of fiat currency and cocaine in a bag labeled ✨Definitely Not a Bag Full of Drugs✨. The driver and passenger were arrested for possession and as a felon with with a firearm. The photograph of confiscated evidence also features a dice bag used for role-playing games like Dungeons & Dragons, which should definitely not be considered criminal behaviour especially in the home state of Gary Gygax. It does, however, seem like a scoff-law move not to have stashed their everyday-carry in the more iconic (though possibly more obvious) Crown Royal bag. The Canadian blended whisky introduced on the occasion of the visit of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth in 1939 as the first reigning monarchs to visit North America, the purple velvet satchel with golden draw-strings has been part of the brand’s identity ever since and is a genuinely useful object to have handy—and I’ll admit to buying some Crown Royal just to have one around in case of need. One can also order personalised bags from the distillery or request a care-package—so packaged—send to troops abroad.

11x11 (12. 472)

higher power: traditionally anodyne, new Chinese spaceflight mission patches (see also) might betray some secrets 

triple word score: fun variants, house rules and more Scrabble-related news—see previously 

a stra ze neca: no, the multinational pharmaceutical concern name does not mean “a road to death” in Latin 

hamburgervons: a flip book of font specimens to build the perfect typeface—the heading a typographer’s tool to test layout and legibility—see also   

revenge of the sith: a retrospective for the prequel twenty years on—see also here and here 

there i ruined it: interesting mashup of US national anthem to the tune of Soundgarden’s “Black Hole Sun” 

kyphosis bicyclistarum: an 1893 warning from the Lancet for wheelmen on the bad posture and stoop that frequent cycling can cause—see also   

sunny days: after Trump defunds PBS and NPR, Netflix is championing Sesame Street   

micro-camper: a well-appointed mobile tiny home in the bed of kei truck—via Things Magazine (much more to discover there)   

fan theory: Doctor Who’s “Interstellar Song Contest”—Eurovision counter programming—teases the return of a classic arch-villainess  

pinball wizard: the 1976 NBC gameshow flop, The Magnificent Marble Machine, with celebrity players 

niallia tiangongensis: evolution on display in novel bacteria found aboard China’s space-station—via Damn Interesting

synchronoptica

one year ago: more on the Kessler Effect (with synchronoptica), AI overviews plus two classes of typos

seven years ago: Pentecost, for-profit colleges plus a ride on a steam locomotive

eight years ago: reforming the US electoral college, the Global Seed Vault is flooding, protesting Trump’s bribes plus an AI names bespoke colours

nine years ago: a visit to Tintagel

ten years ago: a time lapse of climate change, assorted links to revisit plus the making of The Shining

big bucks, big bucks and no whammies! (12. 470)

On this day in 1984, as Damn Interesting informs, television game show contestant in front of a live studio audience, Michael Larson, netted an incredible and record-setting cash prize in excess of one hundred thousand dollars. Although eliciting anxiety from his fellow panelists and host, Larson’s winning streak continued despite risking it all with each spin of the big board, dodging ruin for an improbable thirty-six rounds before ceding his surplus turns. It was not, however, luck that resulted in this sizeable fortune but rather a calculated modus operandi, gleaned from a long history of side-deals and schemes, an ice cream truck driver who during the off-season poured through media for get-rich quick ideas—maximising his productivity with an array of twelve tv sets tuned to different channels. Eventually a new game show called Press Your Luck captured Larson’s interest, realising it paid out better than others and confident he could beat the odds, studied the behaviour of the supposedly random squares and (with the help of a video cassette recorder to advanced the board frame by frame and practising with the pause button as a stand-in for the buzzer) detected the limited patterns that the gameboard followed. There were no rules restricting card-counting of this sort and Larson kept his winnings but his proclivity for easy opportunities left him outsmarted by a Ponzi scheme involving real estate flipping, relieving him of a chunk of the prize money. In response to a local radio station contest that offered a prize of thirty-thousand dollars to any individual who could produce a dollar bill with a matching serial number—which seems to have vanishingly small odds of occurring—Larson, with some objection from the bank—withdrew the rest of the prize money as singles. Larson and his common-law wife spent hours sorting through the cash in hopes of finding a match for this daily call-in segment.

synchronoptica

one year ago: more camping on the farmstead (with synchronoptica)

seven years ago: American apartheid plus an auditory illusion

eight years ago: a history of the t-shirt,  a Norwegian prison plus the release of Chelsea Manning

nine years ago: the posters of the 1968 Paris Riots, a visit to Portsmouth plus coming attractions

ten years ago: automating trucking plus a visit to Fort Morgan in Gulf Shores Alabama

a pair ⁊ ſequence (12. 254)

Via Language Hat, we are directed to multilingual list of the historic catalogue of card and dice games that Rabelais includes in the twenty-second chapter of his 1534 Gargantua (see previously, see also)—possibly some of the over two hundred mentioned invented by the author or lost to time and no one knows how to play any longer. Some old favourites, likely best forgot are a la boutte foyꝛe—shitty yew twigs, a la boutte foyꝛe—flay the fox, a pet en gueulle—top and tail or fart-in-the-throat and a pillemouſtard—pestle the mustard, which all sound likely as inventions of Pantagruel and the other horrid, grotesque cast of characters. See the link above for more actual games with instructions for play.

synchronoptica

one year ago: 1984’s inaugural TED (with synchronoptica), Chinese name connotations on US ballots, best acting over a landline and other Oscar categories that should exist plus assorted links to revisit

seven years ago: a seventeenth century treatise on sign language plus a German language version of America’s national anthem

eight years ago: the Washington Post adopts a new motto, Colin’s barn plus more links to enjoy

nine years ago: a strange sound during Apollo X, a fifth suite for playing cards plus a 3D printer for the International Space Station

ten years ago: more on Pope Urban II’s crusade plus the origins of hold muzak

the gourd question (12. 195)

First documented around two thousand years ago in divination manuals, the tradition of playing the race game called huluwen (translated as above but has many regional variations and diverse and contemporary themes, also called “to drive away eight snakes,” “bureaucratic promotion table or “chaos at dragon palace” for example) during family gatherings for the Spring Festival has endured and evolved over the centuries with the gods and political or career ambitions. Players advance according to a roll of the dice (or a spin of a dreidel-like top) a certain number of spaces landing on an image and then must jump forward or back to an identical square, the first reaching the centre winning. Though the seemingly humble gourd was not always the goal, in Taoism the calabash (互录, also a homophone for “interactive recording,” hence the streaming service) symbolises longevity through medical or miraculous intervention and can also represent a portal to another realm or be interpreted as a scapegoat or pharmakós, a object that could absorb bad luck and be cast out—from the same Greek root as drugs, potions and spells.

the way of fragrance (12. 053)

Via tmn, we learn about the broader tradition of kōdō (香道, see previously), the art of incense appreciation through the parlour game called Genji-kō (源氏香) a pastime cultivated originally to demonstrate refinement and discerning sense of smell—sort of like the story of the Princess and the Pea—where the object was not to just identify a scent but to distinguish from a sampling of five which are the same and which are different and can be in any combination. Players of this palette-cleansing challenge which can border on the fiendish record their answers with a special notation, vertical lines representing the five scents and group them with a bar. The geometric patterns are a popular decorative motiff for kimono, pottery and lacquerware. Inspired by an incense party that takes place in the literary classic The Tale of the Genji, a skilled host will try to reference the current season and recent events in the solution. Much more at the links above.