untitled (12. 410)

Via Just a Car Guy (to demonstrate he is Trainspotting Spice—smashing—How about Sporty-but-interested-in-other-things Spice? And then there’s the little ginger one, full of useless information about manta rays… We can relate) we are treated to the highlights from an excellent New York photography retrospective featuring some superlative street scenes, images of Keith Haring, Peggy Guggenheim and the pictured Georgia O’Keeffe with a tumbler of wine and slice of cheese whilst being chauffeured in the American southwest. The latter two were captured by the world-class visual documentarian Tony Vaccaro (see previously), a scout during World War II in the European theatre and remaining to document post-war life before returning to the United States to work primarily as a celebrity and fashion photographer.

kvinnan med handväskan (12. 387)

Photographed on this day on 1985 in Växjö by journalist Hans Runesson features the subject of Danuta Danielsson protesting against a Neo-Nazi rally with her handbag, captured at a decisive moment of resistance when Communists were prepared to deliver their rebuttal to Nordic Realm Party supporters and drove out the latter, the residents driving them to hide in the train station toilet until authorities transported them away. Danielsson was of Polish Jewish heritage and her mother survived internment in a concentration camp during the Holocaust, but kept her identity anonymous until 2014 when a number of statues were proposed and commissioned illustrating her act of defiance.

 

synchroptica

one year ago: a self-righting ship cabin (with synchronoptica), a return visit to a local castle plus the cats of the Mexican presidential palace

seven years ago: homonyms, assorted links to revisit plus day names in north west Africa

eight years ago: cultural ambassadors, the overview effect, the Summer of Love, doodling with AI plus a real life medical tricorder 

 

nine years ago: fashematics plus a visit to a local museum

 

eleven years ago: internet gods plus a collection of map pins

 

 

man in motion (12. 354)

Our gratitude to Language Log for giving us a chance to revisit the truly inexhaustible figure of Eadweard Muybridge (see previously), pioneering photographer for his studies of motion, film processing and motion-picture projection, through the vagaries and variations of his name.

Born Edward James Muggeridge in Kingston upon Thames in Surrey, he tried out several modification of his surname with Muggridge and Muygridge before settling, also using the pseudonym of the Sun titan as a trademark for his studio, bestowing it on his only child, Florado Helios Muybridge. Most famously commissioned to settle a gentleman’s bet between two California ranchers, the former governor and railroad magnate Leland Stanford correctly surmising that at a gallop, all four hooves were suspended off the ground at points in their stride, Muybridge was able to provide photographic evidence for the claim. The first pictures yielded only blurred images of the racehorse at speed but later trials were interrupted by Muybridge’s arraignment on murder charges at a court in Calistoga, having killed one fellow photographer, Harry Larkyns, suspecting he was having an affair with his recently wed wife and was the true father of the above Florado. Muybridge calmly shot Larkyns in the heart and surrendered himself to authorities, awaiting sentencing. This did not spoil his relationship with the ex-governor, who funded his defence, and the jury was sympathetic, returning a verdict of not guilty on the grounds of temporary insanity as justifiable homicide. The case itself was of scholarly interest because of relative rarity of the judgment at the time and extensive testimony regarding Muybridge’s mental state. Philip Glass (previously) adapted the trial transcripts as a chamber opera in 1982. After that episode, he returned to England for a visit, and inspecting the monument of his hometown, the coronation stone of seven Saxon kings had been rededicated recently with a plinth bearing their names, Muybridge adopting the spelling of Edward the Martyr’s name for his own. After this long, eponymous and circuitous voyage, his headstone in Kingston bears the misspelling Eadweard Maybridge.

liathróid laimhe (12. 353)

Fellow internet peripatetic Messy Nessy Chic directs us to a recent photographic safari by the award-winning Kenneth O Halloran on the disappearing legacy of handball alleys of Ireland. Played in Ireland since the sixteenth century (first documented as Galway had to make a law banning the pastime and thus restricting it to designated areas in 1527 but probably dating back to Celtic times and boomeranging through trade with the Basques back to the isles as wallball or fronton) with shared origins of more formal games like tennis and squash, these abandoned courts are relics, hidden in plain sight, are testament of socialisation and meeting places before television and modern transportation as a focus for gathering, sport, discourse and flirtation, erected at crossroads and in the open countryside. Much more of O Halloran’s work at the link above.

7x7 (12. 294)

wikiportraits: a group of photographers offering their services to furnish the free encyclopaedia with better celebrity images  

good enough: the rising phenomena of vibe coding, AI text-to-programming  

any one, any one: how US tariffs might play out—see more

march madness: a bracket face-off of the best literary villains 

stand up to a bully: a profile of Canada’s new prime minister, former governor of the Bank of England, Mark Carney   

i’m using an exclamation point so you know i’m friendly and excited: email etiquette   

ask jeeves: the International Butler Academy of Simpelveld in Limburg

synchronoptica

one year ago: Marlo Thomas and Friends’ Free to be You and Me (with synchronoptica) plus a lightly edited royal portrait

seven years ago: propagandist Axis Sally 

eight years ago: toasting the newly discovered TRAPPIST exoplanet system

nine years ago: a moving McDonald’s ad plus odd British toponyms

ten years ago: more protests against refugees in Germany, assorted links to revisit, folk etymologies and false cognates plus recycling e-waste

ambuluwawa temple (12. 290)

Via Messy Nessy Chic’s regular roundup, we discover a singular multi-faith centre in Sri Lanka extending the eponymous peak (අම්බුළුවාව) of the strategically important mountain range separating the north and south of the island nation and protecting the historic capital of Kandy from colonial powers. The spiralling fairytale white tower with a narrowing staircase winding around takes a hour to ascend, affording spectacular vistas of the highlands. At the base of the pinnacle some fifty metres below is a complex opened to the public in 2007 (built at the urging of a former prime minister from this area to uphold both religious tolerance and harmony with nature) including a Buddhist stupa, a Hindu kovil, Muslim mosque and Christian chapel so all denominations can commune together above this biodiversity reserve.

sticktok (12. 284)

A cross-platform movement that’s particularly wholesome and encourages taking a walk in the woods really for its own sake and not needing add needless gamification and augmented reality called Stick Nation features participants from all over the globe, sharing remarkable sticks (see previously) they come across—generally showcasing where it was found, its provenance a bit of lore. The community accept both organic finds and ones with light modifications to enhance their inner excellence.

synchronoptica

one year ago: water worlds (with synchronoptica) plus squabbles among AI thought leaders

seven years ago: the fourteenth amendment of the US constitution

eight years ago: US Republicans go after Obama Care, the CIA spies on Germany, germ-repelling materials plus reversing the genders of the US presidential candidates

nine years ago: a conspiracy theory album cover, the actor who played the Alien plus the philosophical implications of faster than light travel

ten years ago: assorted links to revisit

7x7 (12. 243)

tvwishes: a reappraisal of digital preservation—via Waxy  

wasp 121β: ultra hot Jupiter exoplanet has a uniquely layered and roiling atmosphere—see previously  

unitary executive theory: latest Trump EO reigns in independent agencies, testing the limits of presidential power  

the doors of kypseli: the intricate entrances of an Athens neighbourhood  

gesserit jazz: a 1977 funk album inspired by Frank Herbert’s epic novel—see previously 

jikipedia: the rise and fall of China’s Urban Dictionary of internet slang  

dark entry records: queer album cover art from Gwenaël Rakkte

12x12 (12. 237)

little sisyphus: a challenging NES-style side-scrolling game—see previously—via Waxy  

behind every robot that turns evil there’s an engineer that installed red diodes in its eyes in anticipation: Meta wants to create AI powered robots to do your chores 

quipu: the largest known superstructure in the Cosmos, named for the corded knot accounting of the ancient Inca culture—via Strange Company  

parataxis: storytelling loves a list  

i will say this only once: John J Hoare responds to a video take-down notice for reposting an old clip—that suggests that YouTube is focused on hate speech against Nazis  

pantograph engraving: the unseen typeface all around us—via the new Shelton wet/dry 

pump and dump: nothing to see here, just another perfectly normal president pulling the rug out from under his country with a memecoin 

return to forever: Chick Corea and friends at the forty-third Jazzaldia festival 

stairwell of the quarter: more on the design efficiency of alternating tread stairs  

nanook of the north: Robert J Falherty’s 1922 documentary on the Inuit  

how many department of government efficiency employees does it take to screw in a lightbulb: a look at DOGE at work—via Nag on the Lake  

windows, icons, menus, pointers: a cursor dance party—via Pasa Bon!

coming attractions (12. 197)

As a little preview for Tuesday’s apparent planetary alignment in case the weather isn’t cooperating tomorrow, in the predawn western skies of Germany, one can see, so far, Venus (♀—the Morning and the Evening Star due to its proximity to the Sun but at its most elongated orbit currently), Mars (♂—on the wane and appearing dimmer than the gas giant), Jupiter (♃), Uranus (⛢) and Saturn (♄) staggered along the great arc of the elliptical. 

Ideal views are expected to peak on the twenty-first of this month but can be seen for a few preceding days and for a few days afterwards. Consult local guides for the rise and setting of the planets and share what you see of our solar system.

identified aerial phenomenon (12. 185)

Trying to take a photo of the full Moon the other night that didn’t turn out so well (Moon says “don’t blame me for not looking good in pictures, I’m just too brilliant”), I zoomed in later and saw that I had accidentally captured a passing constellation of Starlink satellites* seen to the right of the lunar body (the other mysterious objects, those green globs at the bottom are the bokeh’d Christmas lights on the neighbours’ house through the hedges). 

Had I not known about the the low orbiting communications satellites and the flare and related effects that they can produce, I would have mistaken them for UFOs and can completely empathise with those who get a little hysterical witnessing the like. *Correction—I think those might be the planets starting to line up, check back on Tuesday.

keogram (12. 179)

Via the always data-driven Quantum of Sollazzo newsletter, we are referred to another incredible bit of astronomical imagery from star-gazer Cees Bassa, a professional astronomer working for ASTRON, the Dutch institute for radio astronomy, presenting their all-sky image above the Netherlands, a composition of nighttime photos taken at fifteen second intervals that illustrates the lengthening and shortening of the days, weather and phases of the Moon. Their fourth annual almanac, the title term, from the Inuit word keoeeit (ᑭᐅᐱᑦ) for aurora, originally applied to a method for graphing the intensity of the Northern Lights and is in broader use as a way of documenting the changing night sky in narrow bands for the entire hemisphere. Much more at the links above.

earthstreak (12. 178)

Though the crew of the Apollo missions who captured Pale Blue Marble and Earthrise might take exception to the accolade of best photo ever, we do think that this image of cities whizzing by taken by veteran astronaut Donald Pettit, on his third tour aboard the International Space Station having spent over five hundred days in orbit, is pretty spectacular. The dazzling nature of the foreground in motion belies other details, like the galactic core on the horizon and the streaks of other satellites and the transition from night to day on the world’s edge. A gifted science communicator making the most of his stints onboard the ISS, Pettit is well equipped with cameras and lenses and has conducted numerous experiments and demonstrations for the curious and enquiring as well as his regiment of assigned tasks and holds the first patent for an object invented in space, the Zero G Cup, a coffee mug that uses the wetting angle, the incline where a liquid and solid meet, to avoid the need of using a straw.

8x8 (12. 176)

cryptobiosis: a nematode was reanimated when pulled out of the Siberia permafrost after forty-six thousand years 

fresh air, town square: Mastodon is becoming a non-profit organisation—via Waxy  

wrack and ruin: a superlative gallery of abandoned places  

a sprained ankle on a country walk is allowable but you must not go very far beyond this: in praise of Jane Austin 

hollywood hills: architects reckon with the scale of destruction from the Los Angles fires—more here 

luthersadt eisleben: a horde of coins found hidden in a statue’s leg in the reformer’s home church 

the joe rogan experience: Elizabeth Lopatto summarises the three-hour interview with Zuckerberg 

 ™: Sweden’s attempt to copyright Sweden thwarted plus other assorted legal stupidity

instavest (12. 079)

In 1962, Kenneth V Anderson (whom we imagine to be a prolific inventor) of La Crosse, Wisconsin secured a patent for his filing of a literal photo-jacket, an outer garment with pockets for displaying “friendship pictures” and shared snapshots, marketed specifically to teenagers and college students. Written to exacting tailoring details, Anderson suggests that the photographs could be turned inward facing at the wearer’s discretion and an empty sleeve could be used to convey a “hint” or invitation (see also, see previously) to another that it should be filled.

9x9 (12. 057)

globetrotter—more like globetriggered: a wrap of 2024 in therapy  

new doge, old tricks: Musk and Ramaswamy present their plan to rapture three-quarters of the government workforce but it’s going to be a challenge to achieve real cost-cutting or improved efficiency  

vote de censure: French government collapses after legislature moves to eject controversial prime minister Michel Barnier—see previously 

field of vision: the challenges of bringing the Vera Ruben perched high in the Andes on online includes unidentified intelligence agencies screening images before they are released to the public  

my empathy is out of network: Americas respond to the assassination of a major medical insurance CEO  

ekistical portrait: Rob Stephenson is documenting all the three hundred and fifty neighbourhoods of New York City’s five boroughs—via Kottke  

what just happened: South Korea’s declaration of marshal law, parliament’s rejection and the ongoing political crisis  

stonks: Bitcoin just hit $100 000 a piece  

hot topic: the year in Wikipedia, recent celebrity deaths topped the list again

 synchronoptica

one year ago: the Michelob Music Hour (with synchronoptica) plus modern art presented as a fun-fair

seven years ago: noisy GIFs, assorted links worth the revisit plus 52 more things

eight years ago: the origins of Play-Doh

nine years ago: red cup controversy, a trip to Rosenau plus our faithful chronicler

ten years ago: troublesome ideas in the marketplace plus an A-ha! reunion concert

10x10 (12. 049)

strapline: Cory Doctorow’s review of books for 2024  

week-by-week: Tom Whitwell’s gleanings from the past year—see previously—via Kottke 

bad precedent: the power of the pardon was never meant to condone crime 

the birthday paradox: illustrating the veridicality of coincidence—via Quantum of Sollazzo  

a boring roundup: a look at geotechnical investigations and advances in harnessing the Earth’s internal energy  

whamhalla: why Germans love and hate Last Christmas—see also  

the travelling salesman problem: a new Geotripper challenge to find the optimal route to take to a number of cities and return to the point of origin  

press-gang: Moscow authorities raid popular night clubs, seemingly detaining hundreds of men to draft for the war effort 

take time—it’s brief: one hundred superlative photos of the past twelve month—via Memo of the Air  

anthology: Lit Hub’s poetry recommendations for the year

9x9 (11. 997)

dr tj eckleburg: how The Great Gatsby influenced Robert Moses and transformed New York City  

tether: although the material technology is not quite there for a terrestrial one, a lunar space elevator might be feasible  

ssccatagapp: Russia moves to ban all content deemed to promote a childless-lifestyle—via tmn  

cleromancy: spiritual taverns that combine tarot and I Ching with cocktails are seeing growing popularity in China 

jeu de puce: fleas, chips and other observations on the 9ᵉ édition du Dictionnaire de l’Académie française just published 

talking head: Pentagon and US allies in shock over Trump’s intent to nominate a Fox News commentator as secretary of defence 

sobriquet: the twenty-eight European cities claiming to be Venice of the North—see also—via Messy Nessy Chic 

collectives: a series of aerial photographs of junkyards and graveyards neatly organised by Cássio Campos Vasconcellos—via Things Magazine  

a remembrance of things past: Proust and The Breakfast Club

synchronoptica

one year ago: a medieval large language model (with synchronoptica),  a new family of goblin spiders, a novel way to hack light pollution plus block printing personal narratives

seven years ago: tariffs on Chinese aluminium, revolutionary terrariums plus using AI to minimise road-kill, disruption to migration

eight years ago: RIP Leonard Cohen

nine years ago: assorted links worth revisiting plus emoji syntax across different platforms

ten years ago: more on the spread of Indo-European languages

tatik-papik (11. 984)

Following the forced displacement of the indigenous Armenian population in Azerbaijan’s Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) region last year—including the destruction of religious and cultural heritage sites in a continuation of the genocide against the ethnic group, the monument “We Are Mountains” (Տատիկ-Պապիկ or locally as Debo-Babo, Դեդո-Բաբո), a memorial executed in the traditional, signature volcanic tuff stone of the diaspora in 1967 by artist Sargis Baghdasaryan to commemorate an earlier wave of expulsions, still stands but has disappeared from Wikimedia Commons, citing that the territory does not afford acceptable freedom of panorama (see previously) and hosting such images could land Wikipedia in legal trouble. Relying on the internet to remember their homeland lost, for those resettled, having their symbols vanish online is almost as painful as their outright destruction—or re-appropriation as something sanitised and acceptable to the de jure government of this region that has been struggling for recognition and autonomy. More from Hyperallergic at the link above.

 synchronoptica

one year ago: an AI brooch (with synchronoptica), a rare echidna rediscovered plus a survey of international traffic signs

seven years ago: assorted links worth revisiting plus a double-standard for acceptable language

eight years ago: Nightline and the Iranian Hostage Crisis plus parlour game apparel

nine years ago: the collages of Augustine Kofie 

twelve years ago: the separation of church and state plus serve at room temperature

prêt-à-porter (11. 979)

Via Messy Nessy Chic, we are directed a curated trove of US military uniforms (over fourteen thousand) given the studio and cat-walk treatment—recently declassified but providing no clue about the purpose of the catalogued collection which spans from the 1970s to the 1990s. Artist and photo researcher Matthieu Nicol came across this find whilst browsing for vintage pictures of food (see also) and decided to salvage the pastel-coloured intersection between lethal functionality and the world of fashion and design from archival obscurity. Though not professional models for these prototype suits and ceremonial dress, the certainly look like any glossy fashion show montage produced today. Many more images at the links above.