heesch’s problem (13. 083)

Ranging from zero (in the case of the circle) and infinity for squares—with seemingly few values in between—in the study of tessellations (see previously here, here and here) a Heesch number pertaining to a geometric shape is the maximum number of layers of identical copies of the same figure will bear with no gaps or overlaps. Named for the geometer and mathematician Heinrich Heesch, who also made significant contributions to the field of tiling patterns and then unproven for colour theorem (the first mathematical proof by a computer) for mapping boundaries, he noticed that a one sort of planar shape, a square fused with a triangle would only accommodate one extra layer, as illustrated with these spandrels (from an architectural space between the top of arch and the ceiling) term referring to the teardrop arranged by contemporary Walther Lietzmann, and posed it as a general puzzle. Beyond the core, one can only form a signal corona of identical shapes—and whilst blocky polyominoes and tetrominoes seem to hold limitless promise at first glance, there still seems to be a limiting factor with no more than six deep.

8x8 (13. 069)

leturfræði: an exploration of the graphic design heritage of Iceland through its greatest, recently departed historian  

shoyu-tai: a fibre-based soy sauce single-serve container as an alternative to disposable plastic droppers  

unfcc: Trump administration announces withdrawal from dozens of United Nations chartered organisations, saying their mission does not align with the US agenda  

i’m t?w?e?n?t?y?-f?i?v?e?: artist records one word per day for a reflection on the passage of time 

amour-propre: Chinese buzzword of the year 爱你牢记 (ai ni laoji, love yourself, my dear)—see previously 

hemlock: Texas university has forbidden a professor from teaching a course on Plato  

anodyne: a Singapore based technology company invents biodegradable, paper batteries that rely on no rare earths  

gobelins: the famed French school of animation has a YouTube channel that features student films

ten-forward (13. 058)

Via Kottke, wee enjoyed exploring these 360° panoramas of the interiors of several ships of vessels from the Star Trek franchise—the bridges, engine rooms, quarters, sick bays and corridors from ships from different series—see previously, see also. Sets include USS Voyager, and the original USS Enterprise plus -D and -E.

9x9 (13. 043)

the unforgivable sin of ms rachel: Tedium’s Online Video Awards and the problems with platforms 

grunt work: AI has the potential to destroy career ladders—via Damn Interesting  

grove press: the Mid-Century Modern covers and jackets of Roy Kuhlman  

turbo moka: a thermodynamic redesign of the classic Italian coffee pot—see previously  

gânditorul de la hamangia: reflections on a palaeolithic pair of artefacts  

ieee spectrum: top climate tech stories of 2025—including atmospheric ammonia harvesting 

i dislike dune with some intensity: JRR Tolkien was not a fan of Frank Herbert’s work  

the imperfect homework machine: students’ experience with AI mirrors a Shel Silverstein poem 

 the year in search: more of Miss Cellania’s annual superlatives

living flower (13. 036)

Masterful at marketing and self-promotion across all media, Salvador Dalí never encountered an art form that caused him to shy away from disrupting with his signature surrealism. Though his career in jewellery design spanned for several decades, one could be forgiven for thinking it was a one-off project (see also) as his most radical creations were exhibited as a contemporary collection, with a forward for his 1959 catalogue calling them a protest against emphasis on precious materials. Craftsmanship was not reserved for costume jewellery, however, with diamonds, rubies, platinum and gold and some broaches and pendants were motile, as can be seen on the Pathé newsreels clicking through to the source above. Modelling an ensemble of Dali´’s pieces is Madelle Hegeler including a leaf-veined hand, the Eye of Time Watch and a pair of garnet and pearl lips inspired by Mae West’s come-hither smile. More from Open Culture at the link up top.

agitprop (13. 019)

Hacker emeritus, Jamie Zawinski, presents quite a memory dump sharing the original, mostly forgotten logo designs for the open source web-browser Mozilla that was created on commission by graphic designer Shepard Fairey to create a corporate brand back in 1998—a spin off of Netscape that would eventually become Firefox, featuring the dinosaur mascot and backgrounds and colour schemes inspired by the Soviet propaganda of Vladimir Mayakovskii and visual contemporaries. One banner encouraging one to download the code even contains in translation the reference to the Proverbs chapter six: ПОРАБОТАЕШЬ БУДЕТ МУКА; ПОСИДИШЬ СЛОЖА РУКИ БУЛЕТ НЕ МУКА́ А МУ́КА—Sit with crossed arms and there will not be flour, the verse admonishing to not give into slumber. Much more from JWZ at the link above.

synchronoptica

one year ago: the Southern Solstice (with synchronopticæ), president Musk plus assorted links to revisit

twelve years ago: Bjork’s private island, the blog is dead—long live the blog, Star Wars embraces fan-art plus saintly hand gestures

fifteen years ago: more unseasonable weather

department of the interior (12. 987)

Having encountered some of these brilliant and iconic Depression Era posters sponsored by FDR’s Works Projects Administration, we appreciated learning about the landscape architect and graphic designer behind the strategic and unified tourism campaign to promote US national and state parks, Dorothy Waugh, through an exhibit of seventeen of her placards—particularly at such a fraught time for these preserves, understaffed, subject to revisionist histories, corporate encroachment and surge-pricing. Due to the scope and scale of her work for the Civilian Conservation Corps’ infrastructure projects for the parks system, Waugh went from being the sole artist to hiring and supervising a team of draughtsmen and also produced easy to follow diagrams and designs, most workers unable to interpret blueprints and formal specifications, for the construction picnic areas and campsite conveniences as well as other basic structures. Much more from Print magazine at the link above.

sounds about white (12. 984)

In contrast to last year’s officer holder, Pantone’s Colour of the Year (see previously—it’s truly not an annual tradition to keep a close eye on, though in this case, it’s not just the lower the stakes, the stronger the conviction) of Cloud Dancer seems a rather bland, neutral choice at first blush and a reversal of its previous pick of “Mocha Mousse” (someone said 2025: poop 2026: toilet paper) but then an interesting one given the political climate in the US specifically and has instead courted controversy, given the election of Trump to a second term, accidental Nazi salutes, immediate assaults on programmes working towards diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility both in the federal government and then followed by private industry, revisionist histories including erasure of Black contributions and America’s past of slavery, enabling racial-profiling and unleashing armies of immigration officers on cities to terrorise people whom appear to have non-caucasian heritage, freezing immigration while offering refugee status to Afrikaners and the courts again set to hear the administration’s argument in favour of overturning birthright citizenship, just focusing on the solely racist actions. It seems the trend institute was not just throwing in the proverbial towel—though we contend that they well could have just been calling it in with the selection and exalted copy sounding suspiciously machine-generated.

synchronoptica

one year ago: America’s first electric vehicle (with synchronopticæ), celebrating a century of Dick van Dyke, St Ambrose, the fallout of AI replacing hyperlinks plus Scrooge’s tombstone

fourteen years ago: US state department announces it will no longer tolerate homophobia plus an end-of-the-year-figure-with-wings

fifteen years ago: disingenuous transparency 

sixteen years ago: COP 15 plus cable conglomerate to acquire NBC

9x9 (12. 953)

architectural digest: a guided two-hour walking tour of New York City’s most iconic buildings  

1999 a.d.: a paleo-future vision from 1967 that asks if the cusp year will be too computerised, too cold  

shinbun: a hypnotic, phrenetic collage of Japanese newspaper clippings from 1991 to the present—see also  

meet the aphantasics: more on those who don’t form mental images 

i wool survive: a flock of ostracised gay rams from Germany have a haute-couture debut on a Manhattan catwalk  

electric pentacle: the occult detective Thomas Carnacki created by William Hope Hodgson who despite his supernatural inclinations has a skeptical side and is unafraid to use nascent technology as his red-herring or MacGuffin 

doge: the US Department of Government Efficiency quietly closed down 

field-expedient gadgets: preparing meals in maximum security plus other prison inventions  

diorama: Theria Sofia reworks Polly Pocket sets—originally fashioned from a makeup compact as a toy

10x10 (12. 889)

trip hop: frustrated with his limited role in Massive Attack, Tricky embarked on his independent project Maxinquaye  

chud atlantis: more regional car-dealership rococo from McMansion Hell  

linguistic zombie hunting: a revival of the old prescriptivist superstition against ending a sentence with a preposition and the grammarians that support it 

state capture: the revolving door between government and industry creating the post-democratic world order—via Quantum of Sollazzo 

♾️ series: visual proofs that 1/4 + 1/16 + 1/64 + 1/256… yields ⅓  

circlesquare: filmmaker Jaron Albertin’s rather disturbing music video for “Seven Minutes” 

artful dodger: Victorian mugshots of juvenile offenders—via Nag on the Lake  

stay puft: some facts all about marshmallows sealab: project Tektite and experimenting with submerged human habitats  

giscardpunk: Fifth Republic techno-futurism reimagined—see previously 

synchronoptica

one year ago: farming by lottery (with synchronopticæ) plus assorted links to revisit

twelve years ago: coded correspondence

thirteen years ago: Thanksgiving salutations  

fourteen years ago: Bretton Woods and monetary unions 

fifteen years ago: privacy and Google Maps plus trade unions and Ricardian economics

ежедневник (12. 877)

Though many fall after the period of the Soviet calendar, which was in use along side traditional ones from 1918 to 1940 (see previously), the aesthetic and layout of the alternating five- and six-day weeks and schedule of continuous production and colour-coded match this collection of pin-up ephemera featuring industrial prowess match closely with that original reform initiative—the design meant to endure not as perpetual or eternal as some outside sources reported the system to be but rather naturally cyclical and upon consultation regular and predictable and still planned around non-work days and “whose sore task does not divide the Sunday from the week.” The set is also an interesting observation on the artefacts of progress and commemoration and what society embraced as contemporary achievement. Much more from Print magazine at the link above.

synchronoptica

one year ago: assorted links worth the revisit (with synchronopticæ) plus Matt Gaetz nominated for US attorney general 

twelve years ago: US corn policy, the Victorian internet plus timing vs on-demand

thirteen years ago: the phobia illustrations of John Vassos plus the Oxford Word of the Year

fourteen years ago: outlawing parody 

seventeen years ago: phantom rings 

patent pendency (12. 851)

A long established fact about the US Patent Office is its signature agnosticism regarding submissions and filings, only the competent authority of whether a proposal can be trademarked and copyrighted “to promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries” and not a judge of an idea’s quality or utility, though happy to collect registration fees, with any surplus above overhead operating costs being diverted to the general Treasury. Accordingly we appreciated this context-free gallery—via Things Magazine—of the figures and schematics (for applications recently submitted—see previously). There’s something that defaults to a little sinister when trying to surmise what’s being conveyed in this illustrations. Of course the details behind the pictures and prototypes can be easily and fully researched on the registry. Examiners, whilst specialists in their respective fields, are not necessarily lawyers, whereas trademark attorneys field work involving intellectual property.   

hey mabel black label (12. 847)

Founded in 1898 in Philadelphia Pennsylvania, the Fenton Label Company Incorporated specialised in commercial stickers, makers’ marks and gummed labels (see previously) and produced these wonderful sample sheets, like the pictured image from a 1940 catalogue, to advertise their range to potential clients. A wonderful graphic design and typological specimen, we can’t tell if all these North American businesses were actual brick-and-mortar shop fronts or were mock examples meant to demonstrate their printing possibilities but it proved to be a fun exercise to try to trace them down. The Hotel Barlum of Detriot did exist but it’s more of a challenge to track down the more generic brands, shops, services and agents and there are some choice vintage products to be found, such as non-poisonous salmon eggs, fruit tingle and something called original Canadian lotion. More from Present /&/ Correct at the link above.

13x13 (12. 845)

norwalk platform: architect Jackie Ferrara ends her life, aged 95  

antedating: lexicographers talks lexicography through canonical form  

spoiler alert—some counties pronounce it as rhyming with stone: further exploration on British toponymy

index of multiple deprivation: UK office of government statistics releases its deciles of the most under-served  

willy and the poor boys: Creedance Clearwater Revival (previously) released their third studio album on this day in 1969 

loss-leader: an image editing tool on par with Adobe makes itself freely available to appeal to non-professionals  

holy war: Trump readies troops for action in Nigeria to protect Christian popular despite a paucity of evidence for persecution 

perfectly al dente: a research roundup of scientific investigations nearly overlooked 

body horror: biopolitics, the body politic and David Cronenberg  

police brutality: Sting and company release their debut album Outlandos on this day in 1978 

county stripes: visualising US demographics and distribution—see also 

anthimeria: the verbification of mystery writers—see previously 

first woman of fluxus: Alison Knowles passes away, aged 92—see more, see also

mummers parade (12. 830)

Featured in full on Spitalfield’s Life, we found this abecedary by illustrator Marion Elliot of folklore and superstition to be an absolute delight whose risograph alphabet on exhibit is perfect for the height of the spooky season. 

From the Abbots Bromley Horn Dance to the Cornish legend of the Mermaid of Zennor, with everything in between ranging from sin-eaters, corn dollies and The Wicker Man (see previously here and here). 

Adopt a letter and research further into the custom or myth each panel represents, but be cautious as these collections were not only regarded as didactic aides by the clergy, it was also believed that the alphabet possessed supernatural powers itself.

modernity in metal and mirrors (12. 820)

With a mission to curate a vanishing aesthetic referred to as millennial or Chinese dreamcore—nostalgic but a bit mordant with the energy of moribund malls, architecture student Liu Yujia has crisscrossed the country on foot, bike and train documenting the building boom of the 1990s and 2000s that echoed the beginning of the era of economic prosperity and unprecedented growth as told through vernacular towers, industrial parks and ageing apartment blocks dismissed by many as ostentatious and ugly, with little regard afforded for their demolition as relics of China’s rise, cleared away to make room for more growth and development. Liu’s catalogue is focused on some ten-thousand structures already slated for the wrecking-ball, hoping to create an archive of these high-rise enclaves that were once important symbols of China’s ambitions for progress. More from Sixth Tone at the link above.

synchronoptica

one year ago: cruise packages and Gen Z (with synchronopticæ) plus international maritime signal flags

fifteen years ago: handmade heraldry 

low life (12. 819)

Via Strange Company, we appreciated the chance to revisit a divisive, geometrically confounding interior design trend of the tiered- or sunken living room. Invented by architect Bruce Goff and championed by the likes of Eero Saarinen and others, these intimate spaces enjoyed a cosmopolitan popularity from the late 1950s to late 1970s as sectional venues for social gatherings and while out of fashion and mostly the subflooring has been covered over with renovations, some choice conversation pits have been preserved. Pictured is another view from inside the 1958 Miller House of Columbus Indiana by Saarinen (see above) with designer Alexander Girard—now preserved as a historical site of the industrialist’s commission for a “very, very modern home.” More from Mental Floss at the link above.

7x7 (12. 816)

east wing: for a nation that’s precious about conserving its precious little history, there’s not much outcry over Trump’s extensive remodel of the People’s House—see more  

west bank: US vice president and secretary of state angry over a bill advanced in the Knesset to annex the larger of the two Palestinian territories against Trump’s twenty-point plan  

parallax view: a glasses-free three-dimensional mapping demonstration 

fairytale of new york: a tribute to the recently departed Alfa-Betty Olson and her Sin City Fables  

schleicher’s pie: revisiting the constructed Proto Indo-European apologue—see previously  

yerkökü və çubuq: Russo-American summit in Budapest is cancelled and a raft of new sanctions are imposed on Moscow 

arc de trump: plans drawn up for a triumphal arch over the Potomac

8x8

tor’s cabinet of curiosities: a collection of weird hagiographies 

photographie de rue: photography student Lionel Derimais’ impressions of New York City in the winter of 1980 

non-generative ai: artist Pablo Delcan responds to human prompts  

canary in the coal mine: the collapse of US private equity firms echoes the collapse of the sub-prime real estate market that caused the Great Recession of 2008  

to catch a thief: reconstructing the Louvre heist  

grattacieli: the medieval skyscrapers of Bologna—see previously 

breaker one-niner: the computer industry’s first challenge from the US federal communications commission was over frequency interference for citizens’ band radio—see previously  

elevator pitch: podcasters debate listening to episodes at 2x speed

acervo (12. 798)

Via It’s Nice That we are referred to the repository, living archive of vernacular graphic design curated by one Alagoas native, Victor Yves, who began his collection after encountering the paucity of visual archives of Brazil’s northeast and resolved to create his own. The personal project of gathering “eye exercises” (exercícios para os olhos) gleaned from posters, prints, pamphlets and other ephemera informed by naïve- and folk-art soon developed into an academic obsession by its own inertia of filling what would become an obvious gap in the region’s creative heritage, amassing a sizeable portfolio of influential contributors whose credit was missing from the national canon. There are over five thousand (and growing) artefacts to peruse in the gallery, each with a short biography of its provenance and artist plus a selection of other exhibits with similar energy.

synchronoptica

one year ago: an incredible Trump rally (with synchronopticæ) plus a creepy featurette

fourteen years ago: adventures in Ireland 

sixteen years ago: blogging-block