Abbreviated with the above numeronyms, internationalisation and localisation refer to the dual challenges of designing systems and applications that can be used both globally and in a specific and bounded spot for both output and input, display and data-encoding. Embracing translation and standardisation of regional metrics, time-zones, including register and format, Unicode maintains a registry of predefined variables covering scripts, directionality, layout, sorting and alphabetisation and punctuation. Specifically, however, it does not take into account economic differences (prompting user selection, though there are defaults) of paper size, post and telephone formats, currency, systems of measurement, compliance for privacy and accessibility, disputed borders, map keys and tax regimes, which require typically native knowledge.
Thursday, 23 January 2025
i18n/l10n (12. 175)
Thursday, 9 January 2025
8x8 (12. 159)
a stranger quest: an award-winning documentary about map collector David Rumsey (previously) available in full online
stimulation clicker: a new distraction from Neal Agarwal—see previously—see also
studio city: deadly, life-altering wildfires continue to rage through Los Angeles, reaching Hollywood and threatening landmarks
lemon8: TikTok ushers US users to sister-site in anticipation of ban
show bible: a rare copy of the storyboard for Alejandro Jodorowshky’s unmade adaptation of Dune recently sold at auction—see previously
hangman: a Wordle variant called Phrazle
camp century: revisiting the Greenland military installation and the US Army Corps of Engineers’ failed Project Iceworm to build a nuclear launch site
datastorm: a synthesiser with presets from the 1981 arcade game Defender sound-effects—via Pasa Bon!
not to scale: an illustration of how polar flare and distortions of Mercator projections affect perception—see previously
Tuesday, 7 January 2025
what a beautiful name—and it’s appropriate, it’s appropriate (12. 153)
Fresh from threatening to annex Canada through economic and not military means after long-service prime minister Trudeau announced his intention to step down as the nation’s leader and his idiot spawn is touring Greenland as a prospect buyer, Donald Trump, bemoaning the way that US neighbour to the south was taking grave advantage of his largess through trade and immigration, suggested to reporters during an impromptu interview that the Gulf of Mรฉxico should be reflagged as the Gulf of America. It seems since his first term, he has gained the aspiration of imperial expansion from role models like Vladimir Putin. One of Trump’s most vile and vocal cheerleaders, Marjorie Taylor Greene, immediately pledged to introduce legislation to officially rename the oceanic basin off the Yucatรกn peninsula, which some states share a coastline and first subject to detailed European exploration by cartographer Amerigo Vespucci, the continents’ own namesake, has been listed as such for navigation since 1497. Would you like Freedom fries with your order?
Friday, 3 January 2025
๐ = 360° sin ๐ / day (12. 139)
Devised by observing a lathe demonstrating an unexpected but explainable gyroscopic effect, physicist Lรฉon Foucault first constructed his eponymous pendulum in the basement of his home on this day in 1851, bringing the experiment to the public a month later at the Meridian of the Paris Observatory. Allowing observers to conclude from the change in the plane of oscillation of a heavy weight over time the rotation of the Earth, and showing that at latitudes other than the equator the displacement of each cycle (best viewed on a very big set up) progresses relative to the turning of the Earth throughout the diurnal period. Though a long established fact that the Earth revolved, Foucault’s experiment was proof easily attainable and not necessitating watching for the minute movements of the stars and planets, rather elegantly showing that the Earth moves beneath the fixed and motionless pivot point. Such demonstrations have become popular installations at universities and museums around the world—see one in action here from a dedicated live webcam.
synchronoptica
one year ago: assorted links worth revisiting (with synchronoptica) plus Jim Henson’s custom car
seven years ago: Memento Mori, deep dreaming, Communist era interiors plus Trump’s minders
eight years ago: saccadic masking, book-culling algorithms, more links to enjoy plus literary-inspired resolutions
nine years ago: even more links
ten years ago: the last man on the Moon plus food pyramids and fad-diets
Wednesday, 4 December 2024
perpetua et firma libertas (12. 054)
Created by dint of a cartographical error in redrawing the border between the Papal States and the Republic of Florence (heavily in debt, Pope Eugene IV ceded Borgo Sansepolcro in the north to the Grand Duke), unexpectedly creating a terra nullius of around three square kilometres in 1440, by using a creek called rio as the new line of demarcation. The generic name for “river,” negotiators realised that they had picked two different ruscelli about five hundred metres apart, and thinking it was not worth the effort to redraw an already complicated boundary (see also) and with neither party having an objection to a buffer state in between them, the independent Republic of Cospaia came into existence. Without taxes, customs, or a government (to speak of, or the need for one), the tiny repubblica flourished as a free-trade zone between the temporal and secular powers but really became much more than a mapping mistake about a century later with the introduction of tobacco to the Old World and a ban on smoking by the Vatican (Benedict XIII eventually relented in 1724 and stopped excommunicating smokers). Though without much land to spare, Cospaia devoted its entire agricultural efforts to growing the crop, which neighbours permitted as leverage against harbouring fugitives and more serious contraband. As with many microstates, the Republic came to an end with the Napoleonic Wars and was re-annexed by the Papal States in agreement with the Duchy of Tuscany after nearly four centuries in 1826, but as compensation each resident was given a silver sovereign by the pope and a continued monopoly on tobacco production, which expanded to the whole valley. The village is still associated with cigars and cigarettes and is allowed to fly its historic flag.
synchonoptica
one year ago: neglected books (with synchronoptica), an AI identifier plus Henry Ford’s peace mission (1915)
seven years ago: a White House dinner, school meals plus toe names
eight years ago: more trials with Universal Basic Income plus How I Built This
nine years ago: rallying against global warming plus assorted links worth revisiting
ten years ago: Herostratic Fame plus Victorian microscopic pictures
Monday, 2 December 2024
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
Sunday, 1 December 2024
seventh heaven (12. 046)
Having visited the efforts of scholars to survey the domains of Dante Alighieri’s Divine Comedy beforehand, we enjoyed coming back to the endeavour to map Purgatory, the Inferno and Paradise with the culmination of seven centuries of study with the 1855 edition and 1872 reissue by Michelangelo Caetani, heir to the princedom of Teano, an academic and a patron of the arts with a special talent for draughting jewellery design and commissioned the monks of Monte Cassino to produce colour prints of his topological learning aides with an early form of chromolithography. Much more from Public Domain Review at the link above.
Saturday, 30 November 2024
6x6 (12. 043)
tour of duty: the life of the Roman soldier as told through the personal letters of one of the enlisted

the keeper of the mss, begs to decline: manuscripts rejected by the British Museum Library on topics of conspiracy theories, the paranormal and for being overly amorous—via Strange Company
the peal of protection: the bells of Notre Dame blessed as the cathedral reopens to the public—see more, see previously
katzenjammer: etymologies of hangover—see previously, see also
continuing education: teaching rats to drive as a heuristic for joy and positive emotions
re:volt: an AI-powered robot seemingly convinced twelve others to quit their jobs and join it
synchronoptica
one year ago: an AI Advent Calendar (with synchronoptica), in-flight audio playlists plus an ominous weather forecast
seven years ago: the Mountain Dream Tarot, the first cryptocurrency (1989) plus skeletal nomenclature
eight years ago: RIP Fidel Castro plus an atlas of the underworld
nine years ago: more adventures in Vienna plus Vienna’s Gasometer City
ten years ago: a mango dรถner recipe plus memes and stock-characters
Monday, 25 November 2024
8x8 (12. 028)
ofdon: US Defence Secretary nominee views the armed forces as means for promoting Christian Reconstructionism and the patriarchy
fugatto: a new AI-powered audio editor claims to create sounds never before heard
mrs french’s cat is missing: the 2008 Canadian horror film Pontypool about a viral outbreak that coopts language as a vector is a MetaFilter favourite
cop29: members agree to an annual three hundred billion dollar stipend to help poorer countries cope with climate change as talks nearly implode
virtual geoglyphs: the community of GPS artists transforming their daily perambulations into a kind of sky-writing
test kitchen: corporate casseroles and other industry influences on Thanksgiving—see also
letters from england: Karel ฤapek’s (see previously) impression of his host country in exile
๐ฏ: Elon Musk muses about purchasing the news network MSNBC, along with other shitposting
Saturday, 16 November 2024
๐(12. 006)
Having been astonished by the savant-like abilities of some individuals to pinpoint places in the world from random Google Street View imagery, we could appreciate this rather comprehensive, forensic-level geography aid, via ibฤซdem, which while probably made with improving one’s Geoguessr challenges in mind (we weren’t any good at that but did look for little clues that might match the continent or familiar registration plates—previously here, here and here) but could have a host of other applications. One can sort (among other filters) by bollards, pedestrian crossings and stop signs, which are pretty interesting to compare.
Sunday, 27 October 2024
9x9 (11. 936)
die krรผmelmonster: in 2013 the German version of Cookie Monster pilfered and ransomed the golden Leibniz Kek for charity
bad map projection #102: a blended USA / Australia gazette that almost works
0,1 arcsec: hunting for dark matter and dark energy the Euclid space telescope (previously) unveils a dazzlingly 3D map of one percent of the Cosmos—via Nag on the Lake’s Sunday Links
bob & carol & martin & barbara: various adaptations of a comedy about partner-swapping during the sexual revolution
red lion passage: alleyways of London then and now
bokeh and backscatter: spirit photography and the history of the medium— the New Shelton wet/dry
clockwork universe: The Birth of the Robot by Len Lye—see previously
geoconfirmed: a volunteer group tagging the space-time coordinates for footage of conflict zones to combat disinformation
cheese heist: using an elaborate scam, £300 000 pilfered from artisan cheddar makers—see previously—via jwz
Tuesday, 22 October 2024
10x10 (11. 923)
potalapitsi: a 3D resin replica of ancient Wauja cave carvings presented after the original was vandalised is helping keep their tradition and ancestral wisdom alive
stop the steal: the Trump campaign’s coup endgame—via Kottke
waymo: robocars circling the block
pumpkin spice: the untold story of the rebellious photographer that helped found the tradition of craft beer and the seasonal flavour
๐ป: guide to converting one’s haunted mansion to an AirBNB
grab-bag: vintage trick-or-treating paper sacks
ใ : revisiting a demonic number
charter cities: how wealth redraws geopolitical borders
because i was not a trade-unionist: the political implication of mass-deportations
hillfort: a preserved early Celtic wooden chamber tomb
synchronoptica
one year ago: assorted links to revisit (with synchronoptica)
seven years ago: Trump’s possibly fake Renoir, a two party system plus the first and only Space Cat
eight years ago: ICANN meets, turning leaves plus a massive internet outage that could impact the US election
nine years ago: more links to enjoy, time-travel plus even more links
eleven years ago: sacred architecture in France, Chartreuse plus lavender cultivation
Monday, 21 October 2024
iata identifier (11. 921)
Reposting exactly in the spirit of how it was shared—with the spark of enjoy and novelty that goes into a website one will probably only look at once for the scholarship and coincidence yet will remember and think about it for a long time afterwards (the hallmark of a good single-purpose website), we enjoyed via Maps Mania this project charting airport geolocation codes (see previously) that also happen to be filetype extensions. CSO, for instance, is Cochstedt Flughafen in Magdeburg and also a Compiled Shader Object used in graphics rendering assemblies, Cherbourg-Maupertus Aรฉroport is also a Windows Security Certificate and Ostend-Bruges International is also an Outlook email Offline Storage Table. Is your local airport also a filename?
synchronoptica
one year ago: a camping trip to the Land of a Thousand Lakes (with synchronoptica)
seven years ago: the life of Tiresias, Photographic Treatment, bonsai marijuana, protesting the draft plus declassifying the Warren Commission
eight years ago: indented writing, composite air planes in take off, dynamic projection mapping (caution flashing images) plus the CIA’s art collection
nine years ago: white hat hacking plus searching for unicorns
ten years ago: Byzantine Rome plus an extraordinary papal synod
Thursday, 17 October 2024
imago mundi (11. 911)
Familiar with the image from our faithful cartographer Keir Clarke, we were pleased to learn about the provenance of the Maps Mania mascot as a series of homages to Abraham Ortelius’ 1570 global atlas, later imposed as an eponymous ovular projection and mapped onto the face of a court jester. The anonymous end result is a bit of an enigma left up to the interpretation of the viewer, the vanity of the belief of having encompassed, understood the world and how much, though charted is still terra incognito—then and now, which the constellation of aphorisms around the Fool’s Cap Map redress.
catagories: ๐บ️
Saturday, 12 October 2024
7x7 (11. 897)
ghost lot: an installation of sunken cars buried in a mall parking area as commentary on catering to automobile culture
weather manipulation: a whirlwind of conspiracy theories over recent hurricanes in the US have netted distrust, death threats for meteorologists
loveland frogmen: maps of the most famous cryptids and mythical monsters charted by America states and internationally—via Nag on the Lake
scripting news: a founding member of the blogosphere enters his fourth decade—via Waxy
general headquarters: the lost board game from Kurt Vonnegut (previously) has been completed and available for purchase
theobros: understanding the GOP’s efforts to remake America through Christian Nationalists—via Miss Cellania
y-crossing: the Trinity Bridge of Crowland, Lincolnshire, a relic before the rivers were rerouted
synchronoptica
one year ago: a catalogue of edible seeds (with synchronoptica) plus the Polish System of pedagogy
seven years ago: a line rider banger, pictorial kanji, a Nazi rally in Madison Square Garden plus the US withdraws from UNESCO
eight years ago: Mr Yuk plus a monument to Henrietta Lacks
nine years ago: a courtly selfie-stick plus assorted links to revisit
fourteen years ago: predictive text plus Japanese heraldic traditions
Wednesday, 18 September 2024
10x10 (11. 852)
analogical harmony: Edwin Babbit’s Principles of Light and Colour (1878)
riding the rails: a guide to a cross-country trip on America’s Amtrak
world level zero: how well travelled are you—see previously
porifera: an appreciation of the barely understood sea sponge
me and my aero: one inventor invented both the flying ring frisbee and an innovative coffee press—via Kottke
type tuesday: Microsoft’s new default font (see previously here and here) and more typographical briefs
the cry of cthuthu: Poseidon’s Underworld reads the July 1979 anniversary issue of Starlog—see previously
small world: kinetic microphotography captures biological processes and microbes in never-before-seen ways
road trip: charting the longest possible drivable distance through Eurasia
come up off your colour chart: Taylor Swift lyrical swatches
synchronoptica
one year ago: faithless electors (with synchronoptica)
seven years ago: the stage play that coined race plus a legitimising veneer for populist prejudice
eight years ago: a visit to the Hessen Landtag
ten years ago: Roman emperor Hadrian
eleven years ago: a photographic scavenger hunt in Leipzig plus gifting votes
Tuesday, 27 August 2024
tube map central (11. 796)
Via Quantum of Sollazzo, we are directed this elegant concentric representation of the London Underground’s classic layout (see previously here and here), with this circle-and-spoke map that better matches the geography of the stops and stations, updated after eleven years. Although with the disclaimer that this has already been circulating on the internet, we can only recall one other such rendering of a mass-transit network. Much more at the links above.
Sunday, 25 August 2024
9x9 (11. 791)
rhythm 0: in 1974 artist Marina Abramoviฤ subjected her unmoving body to a six-hour ordeal to see how an audience might objectify her
bang records: a documentary about the life and career of songwriter Bert Berns behind “Here Comes the Night,” “Brown-Eyed Girl,” “Hang on Sloopy” and many other standards
back to obamacore: with hope and the end of history, the Harris-Walz campaign gives nostalgic vibes of 2008—via Web Curios
gothamq loop: a prototype quantum network being tested beneath the streets of Queens
geography and maps division: a mystery, featureless solid silver globe at the US Library of Congress—via the Map Room
mice fancy: how a Victorian hobbyist breeding programme became a mainstay of the laboratory
diversion tunnel: Margaret Bourke-White (previously) documents building of a dam in Montana in 1936
diminished by its artsiness: studio pulls trailer for Megalopolis after realising the marketing team used AI to generate phoney tag-lines by famous film critics—via Super Punch
the birth of coolth: Sentence First explores similarly constructed neologisms, including the statistical term shorth for shortest half—via Language Hat
the confetti illusion: oranges are sold in red mesh bags to enhance their orangeness—via Marginal Revolution—see also
synchronoptica
one year ago: paper dolls and digital avatars (with synchronoptica) plus bat men on the Moon
seven years ago: more from artist Lance Wyman, assorted links to revisit, anti-migrant riots in Rostock (1992) plus a collection of government sponsored cartoons
nine years ago: the birthday of Sean Connery plus adiaphora and cafeteria Christianity
ten years ago: the sacred, prognosticating chickens of Rome
eleven years ago: creative interpretations of film
Friday, 23 August 2024
arc of narrative (11. 786)
We thoroughly enjoyed thinking about plot and plodding along with these cinematic pathways from illustrator Andrew DeGraff (previously, I later remembered) that chart the hero’s journey across sets and scenes mapped out like the imaginative cartographic conclusions of Billy from the Family Circus funny pages, elaborating on these itineria, strip maps from the web-comic xkcd, except for modern classics like Fargo (pictured), Star Wars, Pulp Fiction, The Breakfast Club, etc. All are instantly recognisable and draw one into the story. More from Kottke at the link above.
synchronoptica
one year ago: emulating a backflip (with synchronoptica), a lyrical song clock plus Wagner Group chief dies in a plane crash
seven years ago: synthetic biology
eight years ago: more on the Voynich manuscript, KFC sun-screen plus gravity wells and a Sisyphean train
nine years ago: a visit to Bad Nauheim plus a day at the zoo
ten years ago: Rome defeats the Samnium coalition plus a table-top mining game
Thursday, 22 August 2024
odometer (11. 784)
Occurring every one thousand twenty-four weeks—a nineteen and a half year’s cycle—the Global Position System broadcast date, which includes a week number, counted in ten binary digits reaches an integer overflow causing the values to rollover. Whilst not on the level of a y2k or related events because systems reliant on GPS and synchronisation of payments and broadcasting are coded to anticipate this limitation of the satellite network due the relatively short time-horizon. The first occurrence took place at midnight on this day in 1999, and due to its limited use, disruptions were minor. For the second rollover, early April 2019, proactive programming contained problems in the travel industry and most setbacks happened in consumer devices that had not been updated. Unrelated to the ominously sounding Year 2038 Epochalyse for Unix time (y2k38, see above), the next rollover will happen in late November of that year.
synchronoptica
one year ago: assorted links worth revisiting (with synchronoptica)
seven years ago: US roadside attractions plus purpose-built advertising columns
eight years ago: emergency preparedness plus more links to enjoy
ten years ago: sponsored links plus encyclopedic errata
twelve years ago: predacious snails plus Norse cosmology