7x7 (12. 652)

tariff tango: Canada’s claymation response to Trump’s thirty-five percent levy on exports and other affronts 

modulator-demodulator: a tribute to AOL’s decision to discontinue its dial up service and how technologies gradually fade out rather than disappear overnight  

periphrasis: the search for the perfect English infinitive   

a sunday in the park with georges: the symbolism of class and segregation on display in Seurat’s Bathers at Asnières—see previously—via Damn Interesting  

koń jaki jest, każdy widzi: the Polish language’s first encyclopaedia was an eccentric compilation that didn’t have time for the manifestly obvious 

silicon doodles: a gallery of microchip art added by engineers for fun and whimsy—see also  

comprehensive internal review: Trump orders Smithsonian museums to highlight American exceptionalism

synchronoptica

one year ago: a gallery of images that look like AI but are not (with synchronopticæ) plus the proposed state of Absaroka

twelve years ago: ligature letters 

thirteen years ago: auspicious births, WWII week: D-Day, more Wikileaks extradition manoeuvrers plus plumbing and public conveniences 

fourteen years ago: a balance siphon coffee maker 

fifteen years ago: Lutherstädte 

6x6 (12, 643)

levi strauss waltz: fledging Jefferson Airplane’s commercials for blue jeans 

moral high-ground: despite what justice we might entrust to AI, ethics remain a human responsibility  

whittle: a reductive word challenge—via Web Curios  

keygen.exe: the soundtrack of internet piracy  

si te fata ferunt, fer fata, ferere: the inscribed joists of Montaigne’ tower of his favourite classical aphorisms   

the cube: Jim Henson’s experimental 1969 teleplay for NBC

8x8 (12. 641)

practically perfect people never permit sentiment to muddle their thinking: the Art Room Plant presents multiple vignettes on author PL Travers and her most famous character, Mary Poppins  

savage garden: this year’s Edward Gorey envelope art competition has a sinister botanic theme—see previously—via Web Curios 

catsup and fries: potatoes evolved from tomatoes 

🌀: a two-part episode on tempestology—the study of hurricanes, typhoons and cyclones

drowned in sound: reflections on the current state of music discovery and serendipity in general 

liberation day: Trump’s tariffs go into effect—see more hapax: a project tracking every unique English word uttered on Bluesky, including those yet to be used—via Waxy  

society for the protection of underground networks: SPUN has created a subterranean global atlas to map the mycorrhizal connections (previously) under our feet that support the ecosystem above  

傘: the spiritual underpinnings of the umbrella in Japanese society

8x8 (12. 618)

eight limes, no more: a list is a map, a compass, a prayer—via MetaFilter  

ключевская сопка: volcanic eruption in Russia’s far east sets off earthquake and tsunami warnings  

windrunner: turbine manufacturer—in defiance of Trump’s claim that windmills are killing us—building world’s largest aircraft (see also) to transport huge blades to remote wind-farms  

foredone: useless etymology and some very cromulent words

twin primes: pairs that only are separated by an even number in between grow rarer as one looks at greater ranges of values but no one knows if they run out altogether  

evrópusambandið: Iceland considering resuming accession talks with the supranational body  

this guy is taking people from the spa: Trump reveals to press-pool that falling out with Epstein was over him stealing staff  

an oral history of atlantis: a conversation about metafiction with author Ed Park

mama appelsap (12. 616)

Delving the depths of Wikipedia, we learn that in Dutch, with a much more contemporary and relatable mishearing than the seventeenth century Scottish ballad The Bonnie Earl o’ Moray (see previously), the concept of mondegreen is customarily referred to as the above, “Mommy apple juice,” from the 1982 Michael Jackson song Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’ with the lyrics “Mama-se mama-sa ma-ma-coo-sa”—popularised by a long-running radio call-in segment where listeners were encouraged to contribute their own misheard music under that name. More formally referred to auditieve pareidolia, the Jackson song’s coda is sampled from Cameroonian saxophonist Manu Dibango’s 1972 disco hit hit “Soul Makossa,” whom later sued for a monetary settlement for copyright infringement. Although I am disinclined to believe the prevalence of the name—it sounds like something I would make up in my head, the Wikipedia goes on to inform that in Germany mondegreens are informally called Agathe Bauers—misinterpreting the refrain from the song from Snap!

poisoning pigeons in the park (12. 612)

Language Log directs our attention to the obituary and encomium of the recently departed satirist noted for his nimble lyrics and insufferably cheerful accompaniment with a decidedly dark streak, Tom Lehrer (1928 - 2025)—dropping the act in the 1960s but going on to teach mathematics and musical theatre and was a regularly contributor of political lampoons for That Was the Week that Was and an inspiration for Randy Newman, Dr Demento and “Weird Al.” Relinquishing all copy- and performance-rights of his songs in 2022, Lehrer’s music is in the public domain and probably best known for his “Elements”—itself often repurposed for any given subject, set to the tune of Pirates of Penzance and the particularly maudlin “We Will All Go Together When We Go” about universal bereavement—an inspired achievement should someone drop the bomb. In keeping with the Log’s mission, here’s an orthographic track produced for The Electric Company. Much more at the links above.

henohenomoheji (12. 600)

Convinced that this subject was one that we had visited before for its relation to emoticons, emoji and ASCII art and surprised to find that we had not, we enjoyed this short introduction to the generic human face made up of hiragana letter forms, seven characters (arranged to spell out the title へのへのもへじ). Originally the doodle was a classroom exercise for school children of the late Edo era, following the turn of the century reform that reduced the syllabary down to forty eight characters from hundreds as a sort of mnemonic device for reenforcing valid glyphs out of the many retired ones, the characters traditionally sung as they were written. The nose, jaw and left cheek would be pronounced moji (文字 in katana) as in the above “picture writing.”

synchronoptica

one year ago: assorted links worth the revisit (with synchronopticæ),  the Commodore A1000, dark oxygen, everything is context plus attempts to keep Trump off the ballot and Biden on it

8x8 (12. 594)

; ): the correct use of the semicolon—see also  

if you try to humanise the place, you will lose your mind: a journalist reflects on her unconscionable trip to Dubai  

dream logic: the surreal illustrations of Garrett Davis  

bubble house: space age, Mid-Century Modern brownstone off Central Park on the market for the first time in half a century—see also  

the sounds of summer: the soundtrack of nostalgic memories of the season by prolific composer Joe Hisaishi (久石 譲) reimagined as a short visual film  

jumbotron: Coldplay concert kiss-cam incident (and memes) underscore the practice’s awkward history  

kiss of death: US vice president flew to Montana for a secret meeting with News Corp head Rupert Murdoch, aged 94, to discuss reporting of Trump—maybe he dies soon like when Vance had an audience with the Pope—or fawning MAGA fan Truss with the Queen  

the only free cheese is in a mousetrap: the Ukrainian equivalent of the English idiom there is no such thing as a free lunch

hapax legomenon (12. 579)

Via Waxy, we found this project from by Josh Sucher to create a cinematic lexicon of infrequent words from a data-set of prolix, dialogue-heavy films. Unsurprisingly, the top tier of one-in-a-billion words come from adaptations of Shakespeare with a close runner-up being the move version of The Pirates of Penzance and coming in at third overall was the TV new drama Network, the logophilia of the screen-writer Sidney “Paddy” Chayefsky (Marty, The Americanization of Emily, Paint Your Wagon, The Hospital and Altered States) inspiring the endeavour, which includes such terms as oraculate, chateaubriands and auspicatory. The project’s website gives definitions and the lines of dialogue from the film, cross-referencing other uncommon words used in the same production.

synchronoptica

one year ago: a storied gay bar in Seattle (with synchronopticæ), the Great White Way, an unavailable lecture by Grace Hopper plus assorted links to revisit

fourteen years ago: East Bloc architecture plus reading the comments below the fold

bears will be boys (12. 563)

Via Waxy, we found this meta-analysis from the Pudding of gendered characters in children’s literature to be quite engrossing and seeing the stereotypes anthropo-morphised reveals deep and engrained associations we find not only in the first characters that many of us were exposed to (see also) but also in myth (think of all the women in Greek legend who get transformed into birds) and in language, pet names for one another and some fossilised but still carrying a lot of cultural currency. Much more on the data and methodology, including some surprising exceptions to the prevailing, at the link above.

synchronoptica

one year ago: the 1948 London Games (with synchronopticæ) plus the Thirteen Colonies’ attempt to avoid open conflict with Britain (1775)

thirteen years ago: a classic car show tradition plus Jack of All Trades (1900)

fourteen years ago: German austerity policies plus the loss of a flagship for space exploration

fifteen years ago: getting ready for a trip to the Baltic Sea 

8x8 (12. 561)

willis wonderland: an appreciation of an influential designer that defined the aesthetic of the 80s 

 

husband-and-wife slices: the thorny problem of translating Chinese dishes—the apotheosis of Chinglish on menus 

 

social mountaintop: a hot-take about the rise of MAGA and its charismatic figurehead 

destiny of the republic: a new biography on James Garfield, US president for two hundred days 

border control: Norwegian visitor barred entry for verboten JD vance meme 

crockett and tubbs: a compelling Miami Vice and Star Wars crossover 

borenstein back to blogging: an appreciation of the format and schedule—via Language Hat 

kunstler tapeten: wallpaper inspired by the Michael Powell and Emerich Pressburg classic film The Red Shoes—via Nag on the Lake

wasserstoff (12. 555)

Having always been fascinated by the depth and breadth of the German language and the seeming disconnect in scientific terminology, as with the above hydrogen (waterstuf in Dutch) or Sauerstoff (zuurstuf) for oxygen. While there is good reason for maintaining plain language in scientific parlance and keeping it accessible for all, there’s also compelling arguments for fossilising something eternal and universal in dead languages, augmented by Latin and Greek roots, hedging the unchanging against the malleability and evolution of a living tongue. We enjoyed this illustration of the matter from science fiction writer of Danish extraction Poul Anderson in his 1989 essay Uncleftish Beholding attempting to relay atomic (and quantum) theory using only Germanic words and berefting English of its other influences. The text begins: “For most of its being, mankind did not know what things are made of, but could only guess. With the growth of worldken, we began to learn, and today we have a beholding of stuff and work that watching bears out, both in the workstead and in daily life”—going to define uncleft (atomic elements) with firststuffs (those lighter ones created in the cauldrons of stars that fuel stellar fusion) and the heavier ones like ymirstuff (uranium) synthesised from supernova, as well as bulkbits (molecules) and bindings , bindings (compounds) that arise through chemical reactions. There’s an outline of the periodic table drawn the Norse rather than the Greco-Roman pantheon as well as Old English derived terms for isotopes (samesteads) and other nuclear states and particulars. The conlang element of the exercise with similar ones constructed since—the glosses referred to as “Ander-Saxon”—and is a special class of constrained writing, much in the spirit of recognising pantheons and nomenclature outside mainstream Western traditions. Click through at the link for Futility Closet above for much more.

synchronoptica

one year ago: visiting Carmine and Cannobio (with synchronopticæ)

twelve years ago: the EU and Club Med 

fourteen years ago: the problems with packaging 

fifteen years ago: bees and bailouts 

mor-bihan (12. 547)

Departing from Chion by Orléans, we made it to our primary destination in Morbihan (Breton for small see) and one of the few departments that retained its historic designation after the French Revolution reflagged subnational classifications in order to promote beyond the city of Vannes and on the gulf coast in the commune of Belz.

Legend has it that there are three hundred sixty-five islands here and the number of islets and jetties depends on how one counts them, with many too small for development much less visitors, it probably only numbers forty or so, far less than one for each day of the year, but who‘s counting?

We only took a short walk along a narrow footpath leading out of the campsite beyond its own saltwater basin and have a lot to explore and experience in this beautiful place.

synchronoptica

one year ago: Putin and Kim hold a summit (with synchronopticæ), the premiere of Evita plus the estate of Jim Henson selling off its Hollywood lot

thirteen years ago: the quasi-public character of private pensions 

fourteen years ago: more on the Greek economic crisis 

7x7 (12. 510)

hero’s journey: researchers conducting a meta survey of fictional narratives find a consistent language patterns for compelling plots—see previously  

world’s tiniest violin: researchers make a functioning instrument smaller than a dust mote to test the abilities of nanolithography  

demi-troglodyte: cave homes for sale in France plus assorted miscellany from Messy Nessy Chic—including Edward Hopper in Paris, a David Lynch auction and a tactile picture book for the seeing impaired  

dangerous foreign agents: Trump imposes a new travel ban on citizens from twelve countries  

gipfel: German chancellor Merz to meet with Trump to discuss tariffs and trade and defence  

intransitive hand game: some interesting facts about rock paper scissors—see previously de facto, de jure: a survey of the world’s official languages

synchronoptica

one year ago: assorted links to enjoy (with synchronoptica) plus civilised memorial regulations

seven years ago: the North Korean art market, a map of Prohibition Era Chicago plus trans-Atlantic relations

eight years ago: interoception, more on Trump’s tour of the Middle East plus making policy per tweet look more official

nine years ago: unbuilt architecture from Gaudí, a modern twist on the player piano, a mantis named after Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg plus hidden messages in ancient manuscripts

ten years ago: more links to enjoy, contagious yawning plus a visit to Dreieich

voice writers (12. 494)

Having known just a little about the development and integration of closed-captioning technology, we really appreciated this fascinating deep dive from Radio Lab into its history and struggle for equal access that followed, with accommodation, advances in hardware and software, representation and mandates all intertwined and informing one another, concluding with a reflection on how the process is being automated with artificial intelligence and how in training the machine, we ourselves are transformed through the collaboration. Of course the story didn’t end with triumph of accessibility through the above first demonstration, as the advances for the hearing impaired community were not widely accessible: most programming was not captioned and for those that were an expensive decoder was required as a television peripheral. The situation gradually improved and after the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act, TV sets were required to include closed captioning technology and all broadcasts were mandated to include subtitles. A workforce of thirty thousand transcriptionists were at work to capture all stations’ content and in order to reach all of the growing market with the rise of cable programming, institutions providing the service turn to emerging voice recognition systems. These early versions were too bug-prone to be useful, especially for realtime applications and failed to keep pace with live dialogue, seizing up at the slightest accent. Researchers, however, discovered that they were more responsive and accurate with the voices of the trial participants, and soon one devised helping the computer by reading back the words in a steady, well-enunciated manner that it could manage. A team of voice writers across the States repeated scripted shows and news reports as they were aired and achieved a pretty good level of fidelity by 2003. Even with only their master’s voice, the programme still had its shortcomings and the voice writers developed a code of substitute words to clear up homophones and short prepositions, for example: echoing, “She has tootoo daughters inly college comma tootaloo period” would yield the yield the desired text, “She has two daughters in college, too.” Two decades on, the software has advanced to the point where it can transcribe instantly without the help of an interpreter and is improving with AI refinements.

bottle episode (12. 493)

Traditionally made for bottling Chianti, the style of glass vessel from Tuscany with a rounded body and wrapped tightly in a straw basket—designed for ease of transport (see also), cushioning the wine and stackable with inverted bottles fitted into a row of upright ones—over the centuries became subject to various regulations to discourage counterfeiting and filling used bottles with new wine by fiascaio (fiasco-makers) resulting in substandard containers, hence bare from the shoulders up to show the vintner’s label and seal.  The etymology in English usage for failure or scandal was perhaps transferred via the French faire fiasco from Italian theatre jargon for botching a scene—to “make a bottle—a glassmaker humiliated when an intended more elegant piece didn’t come together and they settled with the simpler but utilitarian form. The sense could also come from card play in which the loser having to buy the next round of drinks. Fiaschi are mainly nowadays for decorative purposes or souvenirs, the Bordeaux-style of bottle (bordolese—see previously) becoming more popular with automation and easier to manufacture.

synchronoptica

one year ago: an epic murder-mystery puzzle book (with synchronoptic) plus US women allowed to wear pants in public

seven years ago: more customary units plus the EU bans plastic drinking straws

ten years ago: the US special envoy to Britain during WWII 

thirteen years ago: American propaganda turns inward

fourteen years ago: extraterrestrial prospecting

you may need rendering support (12. 490)

Despite being last updated in 2012, the announcement from Japanese wireless carrier Docomo (a subsidiary of Nippon Telegraph and Telephone) that it is officially discontinuing support for its emoji set marks the end of an era that spanned decades and played a foundational role in emoji communication and native texting environments. Beginning in 1995 with the simple inclusion of a ❤︎ icon that could be displayed on pagers (see previously)—and the user outcry when the option was quietly removed in a subsequent update demonstrated to the concern public interest not only in symbolic shorthand but also a way to accent missives when not communicating face-to-face, the reaction informing the glyph collection to come. In 1999, Docomo introduced a set of one hundred seventy-six character syllabary of supplemental monochrome, twelve-by-twelve pixel icons designed by Shigetaka Kurita (栗田 穣崇), which inspired by universal street signage, pictograms and the mood and emotional cues employed for manga protagonists called manpu (漫符, a bead of sweat to signal accomplishment or apprehension), created the base lexicon and grammar that Unicode adopted later. Although limited to the network, the emoji set, growing colourised and more articulated, saw its legacy enlivened by platforms with greater interoperability and customisation and is honoured as a linguistic fossil and the emoji equivalent of Latin.

synchronoptica

one year ago: more adventures in the Thüringer Forest (with synchronoptica) plus a notable Shiba Inu passes away 

seven years ago: between distraction and anxiety, Dune product tie-ins plus digitising the Munch Museum

eight years ago: Elton John and Bernie Taupin, Trump calls NATO partners deadbeats plus preparing for a short sabbatical 

nine years ago: shooting stars on demand,  Wundarr the Aquarian plus rabbits doing violence in medieval manuscripts

ten years ago: a visit to the Neckar valley plus assorted links to revisit

in a word (12. 488)

Courtesy of Futility Closet, we enjoyed this moment of logophilia with an selection of obscure words from the personal collection of Eric Albert, frequent contributor to Butler University’s journal of recreational linguistics, Word Ways, specialising in research and demonstrations on palindromes, tautonyms (reduplication like aye-aye or namby-pamby), anagrams, pangrams and lipograms. We especially liked supermuscan defined as having the qualities greater than which is typical of a fly; alkahest, a universal solvent—chiefly in the alchemical sense; titivil—a demon who collects dropped or mumbled parts of the mass and bears them off to hell as evidence against the offender—see previously; brotus, any extra measure given without charge, as in a baker’s dozen; ecdysiast, one who rhythmically disrobes as in a strip-tease artist; holmgang, a duel fought on an island; velleity—the lowest degree of desire, a slight wish; microlipet, one bothered by trifles; palinode, retracting or recanting something formerly praised; supellectile, pertaining to furniture; and poliad, a nymph that lives in the city. Some in the catalogue were familiar to us but there’s a surplus of choice news terms to be found clicking through. Let us know your new favourites.

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

unparalleled misalignments (12. 462)

Evoking a similar feeling to this recent shopping list of anachronisms from xkcd, we enjoyed very much—via Web Curios—this catalogue of non-synonymous phrases whose constituent words are in fact close matches but convey as a whole very different meanings. One can toggle between family friendly and NSFW entries—a nice bit of wordplay, like crossword clues, and basis for a game—many of which were a challenge, a satisfying one at that, to work out, like Travel Expense vs Venture Capital, Lady Luck vs Misfortune, Fever Pitch vs Sick Note or Okay Boomer vs K-Pop.  We think this sort of might be a case of applied collocation, resulting in a paronomasia or a case of double-entendre, but that’s best left to the expert cruciverbalists.

synchronoptica

one year ago: assorted links to revisit (with synchronoptica) plus more on umari

seven years ago: separation of church and state in Bavaria, more links to enjoy, the depiction of California as an island on old maps plus the medical benefits of psychedelics

eight years ago: proxy wars and Kompromat, antique film and television logos plus White House past precedents

nine years ago: from Calais to Cornwall plus photography at speed

twelve years ago: political polarisation