the size of life (12. 993)

The latest from Neal Agarwal (see previously) evokes the chain-reaction of the zero-player Game of Life and is well worth playing on your desktop with the volume up to appreciate the stirring cello score with increasing intensity and tempo as you scale up. As one advances, there are interesting facts about the largest examples of the small and the smallest of the big, including long extinct species like the Arthropleura, an invertebrate as big as a tiger that roamed steamy oxygen rich forests during the Carboniferous period three-hundred million years ago and the extant but threatened giant barrel sponge, the Red Wood of the Reefs, that could hold a human and can live for two-thousand years.

9x9 (12. 981)

on average there are only 0.061 haunted locations per square mile in the uk: ghost mapper 

forty winks: an appreciation of sleep and everyday aesthetics  

married to the sea: CEO of US military contractor Palantir argues case for making war crimes constitutionally allowable  

grunts and thwops: cetologist share their first chat with a humpbacked whale named Twain—see previously 

the dangerous christmas of red riding hood: a 1965 revisionist fairytale from the Wolf’s perspective, starring Liza Minnelli  

ar 4294: giant sunspot cluster on par with the concentration that sparked the Carrington event pointed directly at Earth—via Damn Interesting  

mixtape: a growing repository of found cassettes from around the world with content and provenance—via Web Curios   

enhanced vetting: Trump’s state department directed to deny visas for fact-checkers and content-moderators in defence of free-speech absolutism  

mycology mapped: an engrossing explainer of the fungi kingdom and its place in the ecosystem 

 

synchronoptica

one year ago: Ze Frank on molluscs (with synchronopticæ), a digital advent calendar plus gift ideas for the holiday office party

thirteen years ago: a gaslit whistle-blower 

fourteen years ago: Eurozone credit downgrades 

fifteen years ago: net neutrality and IMF priorities 

seventeen years ago: Christmas decorations 

ginx’ baby (12. 950)

Whilst working on commission for Charles Darwin for his third volume—a masterpiece overshadowed by his other works on evolutionary theory The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals—Swedish-British photographer Oscar Gustave Rejlander captured this unnamed image of what would be the poster-child of “Mental Distress” around 1871. Due to publishing technology at the time, photographic plates were prohibitively expensive but all representative pictures were used, making the book one of the first scientific illustrated treatises.  At the same time, using the reproduction methods for inexpensive postcards, Rejlander was able to capitalise on his proto-meme, building off the popularity of barrister and Liberal Party politician J Edward Jenkins’ satirical novels, the instalment, Ginx’s Baby: his birth and other misfortunes—about an unwanted thirteenth child, coinciding with the black-and-white print, christened after the title character, amassing a small fortune—praised for its expressive quality and good-timing—beating out of studio-sessions of contenders, only emerging decades after its sensation that the image was not exactly genuine but a series of tracings. For the naturalist’s part, Darwin was particularly keen on raw feelings prior to socialisation (see also), confident that the discomfort of children would be a particularly useful heuristic to explore the role of non-verbal communication in the survival of individuals. Rejlander’s picture was seen by reviewers as threatening to overshadow both the other examples and the author himself, the postcards selling in the tens of thousands and referenced in calling cards and other contemporary literature and even a polka by the same name that long outlived the popularity of Jenkins’ books.

congrès solvay (12.838)

The preeminent series of annual alternating conferences organised by philanthropist and industrialist Ernest Solvay hosted in Brussels started in 1911 to address unsolved problems in physics, biology and chemistry, concluded its fifth and most notable session on this day in 1927, captured with this class photo (see also, referred to as the most intelligent picture ever taken) of attendees. With some tension over the participation of German scientists lifting, Albert Einstein, Max Born, Erwin Schrödinger, Werner Heisenberg and Max Plank were able to join colloquia and workshops with Niels Bohr, Auguste Piccard, Paul Dirac, Marie-Skłodowska-Curie and others to explore the topics of electrons and protons, hammering out the finer details of the newly formulated discipline of quantum mechanics. The congresses continue (on the legacy of Solvay’s fortune derived from an improved process for carbonating beverages) to this day with latest iteration on biology in scheduled for next month with talks on the subject epigenesis.

11x11 (12. 833)

krasnaya polyana: luxury Black Sea ski resort under development linked to Aleksandr Lukashenko—the town makes a good name for the Russian asset in the White House 

bride of frankenstein: tour guide uncovers unknown grave of silver screen legend and horror icon Elsa Lanchester decades after her death 

parlour of prestidigitation: a visit to Hollywood’s Magic Castle in 1978 with tour guide Orson Welles  

kunstformen der natur: the discovery of microscopic marine life informed one of the most influential illustrated books published in the work of Ernst Haeckel  

heptarchy: the realm of the Anglo-Saxons could have just as easily turned out being called Sexland  

🌀:potentially unprecedented in terms of strength and destruction, Hurricane Melissa makes landfall on Cuba and Jamaica  

open house: the real estate industry has entered the era of AI slop for virtual tours

turing patterns: the hypothetical evolutionary mechanism that might explain the emergence of complex geometries in Nature 

fiend without a face: a 1958 scifi horror feature 

if you are a werewolf—and very likely you may be—for lots of people are without knowing: a comedy of manners about a coven of witches is considered a classic of early feminist writing 

neunundneunzig luftballons: Lithuanian forces shoot down dozens of balloons invading their airspace dispatched by Belarus

the king in the carpark (12. 672)

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.

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 

🌀: 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  

傘: the spiritual underpinnings of the umbrella in Japanese society

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.

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 

manifesto antropófago: a 1928 counter-colonialism and counter-appropriation movement venturing out of São Paulo 

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

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 Καρκίνος, 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 synchronopticæ), 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 

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.

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 here 

there 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

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

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 latający: 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

 

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.

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 

certificato di buona salute: pope discharged from hospital and sent home after five dicey weeks   

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

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.

11x11 (12. 172)

concrete feats: the landmark Våga Water Tower on coast Varberg, Sweden  

ſpy v ſpy: 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  

winning odds: a collection of vintage Japanese lottery tickets  

cinematic universe: The Goonies and Back to the Future happened on the same day in 1985—via Kottke  

шрифт: 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

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

11x11 (12. 086)

top fifty: a review of the biggest literary stories of 2024—including the Brontë sisters getting their diaeresēs 

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