After exhumation and reinterment with honours befitting, the mortal remains of Richard III, the last English monarch killed in combat—on 22 August 1485 during the Battle of Bosworth Field, the final skirmish of the Wars of the Roses—and the last Yorkish ruler of the Plantagenet dynasty, discovered (see also) on this day in 2012 beneath a parking garage on the site of the former Greyfriars friary in Leicester, were confirmed following an extensive and exhaustive scientific battery of tests that built solid consensus over the identity of the skeleton. The original tomb in the care of a Franciscan brotherhood lost with the Dissolution of the Monasteries and subsequent subdivisions of land and modern development, and triangulating historical records, forensic archaeology (the remains showed evidence of severe scoliosis and a deadly blunt wound to the back of the skull as well as other posthumous “humiliation injuries” consistent with the king’s disposition), radio-carbon dating as well as mitochondrial DNA lineages of descendants. Excavation and studies were granted on condition that if Richard was found, his remains were to stay in Leicester, the infamous king given a place in the cathedral. A legal controversy followed this condition with counter-claimants proposing alternate sites proposed deemed more in keeping with tradition, like Westminster Abbey or York Minster, though the courts eventually, after much consideration, recused themselves—judging they had no say in public matters having had exercised their due diligence, absent a last will and testament. Reburial ceremonies took place during the last week of March 2015 with a requiem mass and a prayer for all souls fallen in battle and distant relative Benedict Cumberbatch read a poem for the service with special Latin missals composed for the occasion.
Monday, 25 August 2025
the king in the carpark (12. 672)
catagories: ⚰️, ๐ด๓ ง๓ ข๓ ฅ๓ ฎ๓ ง๓ ฟ, ๐บ, ๐งฌ, ⓦ
Thursday, 7 August 2025
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
๐: 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
ๅ: the spiritual underpinnings of the umbrella in Japanese society
Tuesday, 5 August 2025
homoplasy (12. 637)
Having recently pondered the convergent instances of evolution that birthed multiple iterations of the crab and crab-like, we quite enjoyed this corollary from MetaFilter on new findings that show that among mammals, by dent of the food source’s sheer abundance—a ready and steady diet, have developed specialisation for eating ants and termites at least a dozen separate times. Myrmecophagous species have occurred independently, from aardvarks to pangolins to armadillos to echidnas (a monotreme), but the rate and occurrence of this adaptation has happened far more frequently and at a much faster pace than the above carcinisation. Everything becomes anteater.
Thursday, 31 July 2025
11 x 11 (12. 622)
ped x’ing: an urban hawk takes advantage of a crosswalk signal to shield it from view as it stalks its pigeon bounty—via Clive Thompson’s Linkfest
whispering gallery mode: peacock plumage can be induced to emit lasers—via the New Shelton wet/dry
pix: US government going after Brazil’s native digital payment platform—calling it an unfair barrier to trade—meanwhile only President Lula da Silva is standing up to Trump’s tariff bullying
showrunner: Amazon investing in AI start-up Fable that allows subscribers to make their own TV shows
pro-somnolence: the technique of cognitive shuffling to quiet the mind and get back to sleep
the candy factory: the unique artists’ commune in New York City founded by Ann Ballentine—via Messy Nessy Chic
query-agnostic adversarial triggers: feline-related textual asides cause marked increase in AI error rates
one year ago, america was a dead country, now it is the hottest country anywhere in the world: Trump escalates trade war with Canada as Carney suggests they may miss the deadline
living batteries: cable bacteria thriving in muddy harness chemical gradients to create and electrical circuit and get oxygen in an anoxic environment
starling network: Benn Jordan saved a .PNG image to a bird by turning a drawing into audio which could be mimicked and reproduced, see also—via Waxy
Monday, 7 July 2025
everything becomes crab (12. 562)
We really enjoyed this essay from Aeon Magazine contributor Cameron Allen McKean that looks below the fold of the memes and tropes to examine the freshly rediscovered phenomena of carcinisation and convergent evolution generally that been observed by biologists for centuries and dates back much further in mythos with the resonant niche that we humans occupy as fellow increasingly armoured “intertidal scavengers” and crablike representatives of this extended phenotype. These liminal beings not only inform a common motif in contemporary science fiction but also inhabit our eldest stories, like the zodiacal sign—the Sun’s most northerly position in the sky during the solstice, the Tropic of Cancer (though now shifted to the constellation of Taurus due to the procession of the equinoxes) named for ฮฮฑฯฮบฮฏฮฝฮฟฯ, the pesky crab that played distraction whilst Hercules fought the Hydra of Lerna. Slain after pinching the hero’s foot, Hera—not a fan—placed the crab amongst the stars or the Norse tradition of the Kraken, usually depicted as a crustacean sea monster. Reaching even further into the past, fishing practises yield one of the most readily manifest examples of natural selection with the seemingly unnatural and superstitious cast-off and release that resulted in a population of crabs with angry samurai faces. Much more to explore at the links above.
synchronoptica
one year ago: assorted links worth revisiting (with synchronopticรฆ), a forgotten pioneer of cinematography, swimming with Benjamin Franklin plus France at the polls
twelve years ago: advertising via bone-conduction, the Pope visits refugees on Lampedusa plus a proposal to drain the Mediterranean
thirteen years ago: Julian Assange granted sanctuary plus food additives
fourteen years ago: houseplants thriving
Sunday, 8 June 2025
shocking advantage (12. 522)
First spotted by Clive Thompson’s Linkfest back a few months ago, we were happy to be reminded of this rather incredible evolutionary adaptation of the tonka bean tree of central Panama that we’ve been intrigued about ever since, which not only appears to have selected traits that allow it (Dipteryx oleifera) to sustain lighting strikes but to actually benefit from them. Not only does its electrical encounters discharge them from their host of parasites—particularly choking vines that would otherwise be an impediment to their thriving (this argiculturally important resource having an internal structure like a well-insulated wire), these lanky individuals that tower above the canopy are a hazard to live next to, thinning out the competition. More about the findings and the research methology at the links above.
Tuesday, 20 May 2025
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 herethere 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
Tuesday, 22 April 2025
olo (12.402)
A rare genetic mutation allows some individuals to distinguish ten-fold more colours than most humans’ range of ten million but even those possessing the extra retinal cone receptors are not true tetrachromats as the brain, with limited exposure to colours in the wild and the limitations of display screens far less granular than the hundred million upper limits, a seemingly sad, self-handicapping comment on our perception—see also. An experiment conducted on five test subjects hot-wired biological and mental-mapping constraints, however, to stimulate a specific cone, a study named “Oz” for the emerald glasses of the film adaptation, to cause it to encode for a brilliant green hue—appearing like a super-saturated teal for the rest of us—never before experienced, the colour named the above from the binary 010 (for the one targeted photoreceptor, isolated from neighbouring cones) and visible only to those participants for a fleeting moment. Aside from the wonder of surpassing vision, the test also hints at medical and therapeutic applications for degenerative diseases of the eye or for colour blind individuals, rerouting inputs to interpret missing shades.
synchronoptica
one year ago: more theatrical adaptations of toys and games (with synchronoptica)
seven years ago: more kakistocracy, the first Earth Day plus a visit to Willmars
eight years ago: antique German African travelogues, more Liartown, USA, populism in France plus revisionist history on Wikipedia
nine years ago: lucid dreaming
twelve years ago: sovereign debt in the Eurozone
Monday, 14 April 2025
9x9 (12. 391)
field of vision: the evolution of eyes branching out as on a tree of life
land-grant college: the federal-funding based model for American post-secondary education is based on a deliberate post-World War II decision to outsource expertise and experimentation rather than compartmentalise it within government consortia
habeas corpus: relenting to the idea that some people have no rights is siding with authoritarianism and hoping you aren’t next
under construction: transform any modern website a late 90s GeoCities masterpiece—via Clive Thompson’s Linkfest
thank you easter bunny—bwak, bwak: more on the controversial, re-constructed, retcon of the holiday mascot
⌂: the tiny house in the middle of IBM’s eight-bit character set, adopted by PC clones with the 1981 Code Page 437—see previously—and its possible relation to Blissymbolics
rinki-tink in oz: deportation and administrative oversight in L Frank Baum’s paracosm
uniwersytet latajฤ cy: US institutions higher education can defy Trump’s crackdown by outreach and going underground, as Polish universities did under Communism—via Kottke
recaptcha: corvids demonstrate surprising mental acuity for identifying outlier shapes and geometric regularity—via MetaFilter
synchronoptica
one year ago: St Liduina (with synchronoptica) plus assorted links worth revisiting
seven years ago: US refusing Syrian refugees, American kakistocracy plus some local prehistory
eight years ago: bunking busting bombs, the White House Easter Egg Roll plus a grim future vision of US national parks
nine years ago: animated viruses, solar sails, more chatbot failures plus a walk from Wiesbaden to Mainz
eleven years ago: Ukrainian break-away republics
Wednesday, 9 April 2025
all-hands (12. 377)
Not in attendance myself so I can’t exactly vouch for the veracity, but according to someone present at a virtual US Department of the Interior virtual townhall, the dire wolf has become a political animal. Though I had seen this deextinction pilot circulating regarding the sabre-toothed creature, I was skeptical regarding the claims that the offspring were anything more than a hybrid, like as one commenter put it, breeding a featherless chicken and calling it a dinosaur, and there’s been quite some hype and promise to bring back other megafauna from the Pleistocene for some time. Apparently the lauded accomplishment, taken at face-value, was offered as a reason why the Endangered Species Act and the bureau tasked with enforcing it was obsolete, the department secretary giving a wide-ranging talk on AI, law-enforcement and Jurassic Park. This logic and misplace optimism echoes another cabinet member says that laidoff (read: illegally terminated) government employees could take jobs at all the factories Trump’s tariffs will bring.
Sunday, 23 March 2025
8x8 (12. 331)
fork in the road: AI misapprehension of a machine translated simple yes/no survey from Spanish rendered ‘i griega’ (upsilon) as a y-junction and all affirmative responses as the utensil
hunter-gatherer: the handbag theory of human advancement—via Strange Company
signature authority: after declaring his predecessor’s pardons invalid over the use of autopen, Trump faces scrutiny over unsigned deportation orders

spring issue: the fourth instalment of the achingly beautiful HTML Review—see previously—is out, via MetaFilter
vexatious lawsuits: mob boss Trump partially reverses executive order rescinding law firm’s contracts and security clearances for millions in pro bono services, prompting mass resignations
schlachthof: ancient butchery for mammoths discovered in Austria
cousin german: a comparison between English and Lower Saxon
synchronoptica
one year ago: assorted links worth revisiting, Cityspeak in Bladerunner plus The Grateful Dead’s Wall of Sound
seven years ago: the Ecosia web browser, an ancient passing red dwarf plus Cambridge Analytica
eight years ago: Trumpland, Trump’s triumphs, recreating the bedroom from 2001 plus more on concrete poetry
nine years ago: the christening of Boaty McBoatface, humorist Richard Littler plus a tubular tree house
ten years ago: God Bless You Mr Rosewater plus the crusades and the reconquista
Sunday, 2 February 2025
zona-free hamster oocyte (12. 202)
Routinely created for two reasons: avoidance of legal issues for working with pure human embryonic stem cells and to assay the viability of donor males for in vitro fertilisation—the hybrid cells used to map and predict genetic traits and inheritance—and to test for infertility on the part of prospect fathers, what’s colloquially known as the hamster test is considered highly unreliable yet remains a benchmark test in the US and UK. Sperm subject to assessment are incubated with hamster ova which have had the outer cell coat removed (zona pellucida, the protective membrane in place to only allow species specific penetration to occur) and considered to have passed muster if they fuse with the eggs. Generally destroyed during the conclusion of this rather monstrous exercise (like the early Friedman Test for pregnancy that involved sacrificing a rabbit or culling male chickens and the GOP’s preoccupation with being bathroom monitors) and not allowed to continue dividing, the unviable chimeric embryos are referred to as humsters.
Wednesday, 22 January 2025
11x11 (12. 172)
concrete feats: the landmark Vรฅga Water Tower on coast Varberg, Sweden
ลฟpy v ลฟpy: a look at the world of espionage in the Middle Ages—via the new Shelton wet/dry
obelisks: researchers discover a new form of life with circular RNA—that appear less alive than viruses
we were wrong that day—we broke the law: convicted January Sixth capitol rioter known as MAGA Granny rejects clemency offer

cinematic universe: The Goonies and Back to the Future happened on the same day in 1985—via Kottke
ััะธัั: foundry excavating Ukrainian fonts from the underground
dark web: Trump has granted an unconditional pardon to Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht
red team: research students—under supervision recreate—viral pathogens identical to those that caused the 1918 influenza pandemic
lexicon: a glossary of medieval words from Middle English whose meanings have shifted
solar gate: 4D printed blinds mimic plants to open and close on their own
Monday, 13 January 2025
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

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
Monday, 16 December 2024
11x11 (12. 086)
top fifty: a review of the biggest literary stories of 2024—including the Brontรซ sisters getting their diaeresฤs
we all live in the ruins of the rot economy: a long-read about the abusive and exploitative ways that the tech industry treats people at scale—see previously
bottle episode: the amazing dioramas of folk artist Carl Worner—via Messy Nessy Chic
emporia: Kottke’s 2024 gift guide
chirality: scientists warn strongly against research into synthetic biology and “mirror life”—compare to the handedness of thalidomide
do not obey in advance: in agreeing to settle a defamation lawsuit brought by Trump, the network is courting further nuisance claims over critical coverage, forgetting the first lesson of On Tyranny
body-horror: an AI-generated impossible gymnastic routine
velben goods: premium and surge-pricing
sovereign citizens brigade: group in England claiming extrajudicial standing tried to kidnap county coroner, accusing the officer of the Crown of necromancy
the network effect: social media fire-exits
home box office: the cable network’s December 1982 previews
Friday, 13 December 2024
le livre qui dit la veritรฉ (12. 078)
According to his own account, courtesy of our faithful chronicler, Claude Vorihon—now known as Raรซl, fortieth and final prophet and founder of the international movement, first encountered the extraterrestrial guardians referred to as the Elohim (see also) whilst hiking in the ancient crater of an extinct volcano in the Clermont-Ferrand mountains. A space ship appeared and summoned Vorihon to return the next day with a Bible, which he did and over the course of the next year, was taught the aliens’ benevolent role in guiding human history. Although incorporating elements from Judaeo-Christian iconography (like the pictured “wormhole of David”) and Eastern traditions, Raรซlianism is atheistic in so far as previous encounters and interventions were misapprehended as miracles and visits from gods. Vorihon was eventually taken to their home world and attended by a bevvy of cyborgs, learned their techniques of sensual mediation and tantric practises to produce a clone, after the philosophy of the quasi-immortal beings who have eschewed procreation in favour of limiting their population to ninety-thousand undying ones refreshed by clonal copies. Tenets of the movement, which numbers a membership of about ninety thousand worldwide (the same number as the individual Eloha) include advocacy for a single government modelled after Plato’s Republic, a technocracy and geniocracy, free love, gender fluidity and malleability, and various ventures such as Clonaid, rejecting the notion of an eternal and transcend soul and stressing that salvation is only secured through technological advances and an enlightened society.
synchronoptica
one year ago: more on the game of Life (with synchronoptica), assorted links to revisit plus Operation Red Dawn
seven years ago: microphotography plus the founding of Lufthansa
eight years ago: a new spider species discovered, the Rex Factor podcast plus Brexit negotiations
nine years ago: looking forward to the next episode of Star Wars plus Project ECHELON
eleven years ago: Germany’s Word of the Year
Friday, 6 December 2024
now chitans are a type of molluscs that nature uses to bedazzle things like rocks and shells (12 059)
Courtesy of Ms Cellania, we are afforded the opportunity to to catch up on our intrepid science presenter Ze Frank (see previously) with his surprise invitation to join the taxonomical committee of Frankfurt’s Senkenberg Ocean Species Alliance and his humorous tour (to find out if the offer was legitimate or a hoax) of the facility with an introduction to its scientific mission to describe and catalogue the overwhelming understudied forms of life under the waves. Frank will serve on the committing naming newly discovered species and certainly brings a lot to the table and reminded us of this impressive oratory feat in classifying the sea shell of North American beaches.
synchronoptica
one year ago: The Final Countdown (1986—with synchronoptica)
seven years ago: a private spy network, medical marijuana in Italy plus the philosophy of ikigai
eight years ago: the Chรขteau d’Aubiry plus repurposing love-locks
nine years ago: รsop’s Fables
eleven years ago: non-English tongue twisters, Snowden’s home town plus infographic native advertising
Friday, 22 November 2024
consul junior (12. 023)
Via Friend of the Blog par excellence Nag on the Lake, we are introduced to the esteemed French-Russian surgeon, Serge Voronoff (see also, though we were hoping they were one in the same personage) who gained international fame for his xenotransplantation experiments (see previously) as a meanings of restoring virility and vitality by grafting simian glands onto human recipients. Controversial and subsequently debunked as quackery, Voronoff’s practise and outrageous claims made him very wealthy—initially he moved from research on the thyroid to transplanting testes from executed criminals onto millionaire clients but soon demand surpassed donors and the doctor turned to using chimpanzee (see above) tissue instead. We learn about this work, which has echoes of modern rejuvenation movements and seemingly similarly ill-informed courtesy of a defiant letter to the editor penned by playwright George Bernard Shaw in May 1928 on behalf of the titular London’s Regent’s Park zoo’s most famous resident of the monkey house, not keen on donating—ahead of Voronoff’s much-anticipated visit to the UK in response to detractors maintaining that the implantation would cause humans to take on the baser attributes of their close relative—as read by Andy Serkis (previously—here’s an alternate source as the original link has been sadly zombified by AI slop)—Golem and Caesar from Planet of the Apes.
Friday, 15 November 2024
xenograft (12. 002)
Tragically on this day 1984 Baby Fae, the first infant recipient of a non-human organ transplant from a baboon donor, died a month after her birth, though having lived by several weeks any other trial preceding hers and surviving the rare and fatal congenital disease, hypoplastic left heart syndrome that would have left her circulatory system untenable outside the womb. The radical operation, as no suitable human heart was available, became the subject of ethical debate, though demonstrating a proof of concept, which the administering surgeon built upon to safe further lives with this experimentation, albeit informed consent on the part of Baby Fae’s parents was questionable. Baby Fae’s death was attributed to rejection by her Type-O blood to the new heart culled from the female baboon population of type AB. Several pop culture encomia came afterwards with for instance from the Paul Simon Graceland album lyric, “Medicine is magical and magic is art / Thinking of the Boy in the Bubble / And the baby with the baboon heart.”
synchronotpica
one year ago: the musical stylings of King Solomon (with synchronoptica)
seven years ago: assorted links to revisit plus the Day of the Imprisoned Writer
eight years ago: a retractable pedestrian bridge, recreating snapshots over the decades, more tributes to Leonard Cohen plus an unusual museum collection
nine years ago: a history of safe-spaces, English is weird, collectors’ items plus Je suis Charlie
ten years ago: the Rosetta mission to probe a comet, the Frisian language, sight and colour in Nature plus obscure units of time
Friday, 8 November 2024
10x10 (11. 983)
chonkus: a cyanobacterium discovered in a underwater volcanic vent gobbles up CO₂ at prodigious levels—see previously
attentat im bรผrgerbrรคukeller: the meticulously planned attempted assassination of Adolf Hitler and other Nazi principals, foiled on this day in 1939—see also here and here
off-course: an Emperor Penguin recovering after a epic trip from Antarctica to Australia

files’s done, goodbye: Elwood Edwards—who voiced AOL’s “You’ve got mail” greeting—passed away, aged 74
bj blazkowicz: Wolfenstein franchise is enjoying a resurgence among those wanting to smash Nazis right now
the tiktok electorate: Facebook got the blame for Trump’s win in 2016 so it follows that P’Nut the Squirrel’s influencer status might be in part responsible for 2024—via tmn
๐ฆ: when the last 747 of Quantas’ fleet departed Australia for retirement, its flight path drew its logo
mauerfall: juxtaposing photos of Berlin then and now thirty-five years after the Wall came down
cells and organelles: thousands of professionally made vector illustrations and icons from the US National Institutes of Health—via Web Curios