6x6

peak curtains: Swedish furniture purveyor concedes that we’ve got enough junk

man on the street: Latin American media giant purchases a controlling share of the Onion

ladders of light: rare phenomenon projects one icy village into the night sky

algorithmic: beautifully elegant approach to filtering out prime numbers

il tempo sepolto: gorgeous art nouveau era daytime hotel below the streets of Milan

rewritten by machine on new technology: the output of presenting sitcom scripts to neural networks

5x5

we’re walking in the air: a fine retrospective on David Bowie’s magical Christmas classic

random-access memory: a lesson in boosting one’s rote and recall from a eidetic, Major System grand champion

resolutions: adorable and mesmerizing animated work-out GIF

monkeyshines: an update on that dapper primate that ran amok in an IKEA three years back

darth trump: seamless mash-up of megalomania

5x5

queen of the nile: Egyptologists are most assured that Nefertiti is buried in a newly discovered chamber in Tutankhamun’s tomb

lorentz invariance: next month, the European Space Agency will launch a probe to confirm or deny the last major phenomenon predicted by the General Theory of Relativity—gravitational waves

bulla bulla: one linguist takes on the nomenclature and naming-conventions of a Swedish furniture giant

pretty maids all in a row: the brilliant BLDGBlog ponders further on the cyborg plant trials

arachne: genetic analysis of spider webs reveal that they incorporate the DNA of their prey in their weaving

smål, smol

Swedish furniture and lifestyle emporium solicited plush toy drawings from children and have transformed ten winning visions into to stuffed animals for sale in their stores worldwide. Part of the their Toys for Education campaign, which has been active for over a decade but never before asked kids for their creative input, proceeds will also help benefit charitable organisations that help young people and their families.

and you will know them by their trail of pine-needles

I think it is a little sad to take down Christmas decorations prior to Three Kings' Day, the twelfth day of Christmas—especially considering the preparation and the investment of time to trim ones home and then to have to acknowledge that it's all over and back to normal schedules and especially too when the weather has yet to deliver anything seasonal.
It is, however, a little bit unseemly to have public decorations too far after that date. This year, we waited a little too long to take down the Christmas tree. It looked ok and not overly dry, provided that one did not disturb the boughs. After removing the lights and the ornaments there was a thick halo of needles on the floor, raining down every time you touched the branches like one of those sand-paintings. Even more exploded off once the tree was tossed over the balcony, so it could be drug—with due ceremony, mind you, ritualised like every aspect of the holidays (in Sweden, the ceremony is named Julgransplundring—publicised in part by a Swedish furniture giant—when the family plunders the tree for edible ornaments and launches the tree out the window but takes place on the Feast Day of St. Knut, which roughly corresponded with Epiphany under the Julian calendar), to the composting lot, the Christmas tree grave yard.

no asssembly required

mimicry

Ambitious counterfeiters (flatterers, really I suppose) have moved beyond mere knock-off goods, Austrian villages and amusement parks and have managed to emulate entire retail franchises. Authorities have closed down no less than 22 fake Apple retail outlets in the country (EN/DE) that were made to appear to be the genuine article. A few months back, there were reports that someone had managed to create an entire unsanctioned furniture store, based off the Swedish model.

keening

Lately, H and I have been regularly patronizing the latest affiliate of a multi-national, multi-verse chain of home furnishing store that opened in a town close to home. We swept down on this local outlet for some quick and dirty shopping sprees. I just get a kick out of the whole store culture hanging off of it—the nomenclature and the mobbing and the hugeness of it all that makes one feel on a separate astral plane. I have heard that the founder of the company started with the cute names because of struggles with dyslexia and an inability to cope with numbers. When H and I next visit Sweden, I think we should speak a pidgin that’s entirely composed of the names home décor. Holmbo bestå vika kivsta ekarp Stockholm? Is it jibberish, sweded? I knew a waitress from there once who thought the Swedish Chef from the Muppetts was the funniest thing in creation. I wonder if it is at all intelligible. I wonder if my houseshoes, named Njuta, are in any way suggestive of houseshoes.