Via Pasa Bon! we are directed to the Digital Museum of Plugs and Sockets which gives in extensive detail information regarding domestic and heavy-duty electricity standards and outlet types for countries all over the world, including exhibits on rare and superannuated for different kinds of current and low-voltage applications. There’s considerably less variation nowadays, but camping we’ve encountered a lot of these alternative groundings and have a kit of adapters and converters for contingencies, and it’s interesting to see how hybrid models incorporate USB standards for one’s personal electronics. The International Electrotechnical Commission published the above specification for plugs that look similar but are not identical in terms of pin number and spacing, wattage tolerance, etc with an eye towards a universal standard for the European Union (see Schuko design has a friendly face) and though harmonisation has continued apace since the 1990s, enforcement of the project has been put on hold.
Thursday, 17 April 2025
iec 60906-1 (12. 397)
Sunday, 13 April 2025
freelandia (12. 388)
Not to be confused with the micronation formed by the terra nullis of along the borderlands of Serbia and Croatia but apparently both inspired by the Fredonia of the Marx Brothers’ Duck Soup, courtesy of Weird Universe, we are directed toward the ascend and crash of the alternate airline conceived by young venture capitalist Kenneth Moss and in operation from from 1973, folding the next year after only fifty flights due an unsustainable business model. Those few passengers, however, the experience was one of a kind and never again to be emulated by even the most exclusive luxury air-carriers. Cashing out of the stock market at the right moment, Moss found himself incredibly wealthy and sought to do something fulfilling with his life. After a brief and abortive stint as a holy man in Spain failed, Moss returned to California and brainstormed with his future business partner Darcy Flynn about a sojourn to Bali, musing it would be nice to have a whole retinue of friends and like-minded people coming along, just as one might plan a caravanning road-trip. After a year, Moss and Flynn secured landing rights at major airports from the US Federal Aviation Administration, bought a used Douglas DC-8-20, secured a well trained pilot and cabin crew, avoiding high airport surcharges by declaring it to be a travel club instead of a commercial airline and positioned itself as a no-profit with all after-cost proceeds going to worthy causes, like food banks and free clinics. Fare prices, offset by annual membership fees of fifty dollars, were about one third the price of tickets offered by major carriers. Voting on destinations by ticketed passengers, even with rather epic stories of en-route changes of course with a scheduled flight from Newark, New Jersey to Brussels adding a stop-over in Rome and a second one in Bangor, Maine for a lobster dinner, future itineraries were planned including round the world-trips ($400 per passenger) but financial difficulties had already begun as it was a problem to fill flights. This proved to be a problem despite the well-appointed interior of the jet, no class distinction, most of the banks of seats removed and replaced with oversized pillows fitted with safety harnesses, waterbeds and an arcade with home-cooked organic fare on the menu—and surely over favours to create a cross-continental party. Stewards were outfitted in black and creme berets and donned uniforms reminiscent of Flash Gordon. Unable to fill sets and with the oil crisis making cheap flights untenable, Freelandia went out of business and was sued for false advertising.
Thursday, 20 March 2025
auswรคrtiges amt (12. 319)
Following the detention and expulsion of three nationals (two tourists and a green-card holding permanent resident), the Foreign Office has issued a travel advisory for Germans travelling to the United States. While in most cases residents of the EU can enjoy visa-free travel in America for up to ninety-days, the decision on whether a traveller can enter ultimately lies with the host country’s border authorities, the enforcement reciprocated. Tantamount to a warning only in degree, Berlin advises prospective vacationers to prepare for arrest, holding (in the cited cases, for periods exceeding two weeks in austere conditions, far beyond just ruining one’s holiday) and deportation even with documentation and pre-flight vetting through ESTA (their Electronic System for Travel Authorisation visa-waiver programme).
synchronoptica
one year ago: an intemperance scale (with synchronoptica)
seven years ago: the Game of Life, an evacuation collection plus a profile of Atlantic City
eight years ago: mandalas from sifted red earth, plans for a paperclip skyscraper plus more on map projections
nine years ago: duelling constitutions plus belated pi day
ten years ago: assorted links to revisit plus collaborative human-robot experiments
Wednesday, 1 January 2025
duo lingo (12. 132)
Having always found foreign language phrase books either a bit sinister and/or absurdist (see previously), we enjoyed this excerpt taken from a 1937 edition of Collins’ Pocket Interpreter series for visitors to Paris, which makes any excursion outside of one’s comfort zone sound particularly fraught, and as described by author James Thurber as singularly tragic in an overwhelming and original way.
I cannot open my case.
I have lost my keys.
I did not know that I had to pay.
I cannot find my porter.
Excuse me, sir, that seat is mine.
I cannot find my ticket!
I have left my gloves (my purse) in the dining car.I feel sick.
The noise is terrible.
Did you not get my letter?
I cannot sleep at night, there is so much noise.
There are no towels here.
The sheets on this bed are damp.
I have seen a mouse in the room.
These shoes are not mine.
The radiator doesn’t work.
This is not clean, bring me another.
I can’t eat this. Take it away!
The water is too hot, you are scalding me!
It doesn’t work.
This doesn’t smell very nice.
There is a mistake in the bill.
I am lost.
Someone robbed me.
I shall call a policeman.
That man is following me everywhere.
There has been an accident!
She has been run over.
He is losing blood.
He has lost consciousness.
Hopefully you’ve never been in a situation to have such phrases at one’s ready disposal. Much more from Futility Closet at the link above. Ces chaussures ne sont pas ร moi.
Friday, 25 October 2024
costa-del-home (11. 929)
Dissecting this article about the trending popularity of cruise vacations by people identifying with the cohort of Millennials and GenZ—via Web Curios—left me depressed and angry, not knowing whether to lay the onus on the industry catering to a different demographic, sensational generational baiting characterising progenitorial peers as stay-ins and homebodies or latch it to the holiday-makers finding appeal not in the port-of-call but never leaving the house, reliably fed and bed with the opportunity for a few no stakes sharable moments. What do you think? What hit as really was the commiseration over vacations that had no gone to plan and finding such a preferable alternative in the safe and secure with all the familiar comforts, especially after revolts against this mode of tourism.
synchronoptica
one year ago: assorted links worth revisiting (with synchronoptica)
seven years ago: crony capitalism hindering Puerto Rico’s recovery
eight years ago: a half-buried church in Helsinki
nine years ago: banksters sentenced in Iceland, Germany’s little reunification plus Dutch bubble houses
twelve years ago: vampiric gourds
Thursday, 24 October 2024
9x9 (11. 928)
star crystal, 1986: the manifesto of the Committee to Abolish Outer Space—via jwz
sorry charlie: a 1961 patent for advertising on fish—perfect for aquariums in waiting rooms

bear and lampshade: an electronic medley of hits from Queen
ghost with the most: the psychological profile of people who cut off communication
carbon capture: a covalent organic framework that binds CO₂ in ambient air—via Damn Interesting’s Curated Links
vแปi vร ng: the legacy of Edgar Allen Poe in Vietnam
extra-toppings: Pizza Hut is offering to print one’s CV on a box and deliver it (along with a pizza) to prospective employers—via Pasa Bon!
the city of orion: Hannsjorg Voth’s monumental structures in the Moroccan desert like the Earth and sky—via Messy Nessy Chic
synchronoptica
one year ago: Bob Sinclair’s Stardust (with synchronoptica) plus a data-poisoning tool to fight against AI scraping
seven years ago: the typography of Vinicius Araujo, cheese in China, innovative underground maps, an underwater restaurant in the works, Japanese delivery boxes plus more presidential merchandise
eight years ago: problem-solving paradigms plus a thriving orchid
nine years ago: grand tours, assorted links to revisit plus a Lenin monument transformed
eleven years ago: German chancellor’s phone tapped
Friday, 11 October 2024
fรผrstenberg / havel (11. 896)
Leaving Himmelpforte on the Stolpersee, we headed back slowly towards our home port on Rรถblinsee for an early departure the next morning.
catagories: ๐งณ, Brandenburg, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern
Sunday, 6 October 2024
vom ellbogen see bis pรคlitzer seeplatte (11. 889)
synchronoptica
one year ago: more adventures in Frankonia wine country (with synchronoptica) plus proof of galaxies beyond our own
seven years ago: De Dion-Bouton four-wheeler, the storyboards of Sergei Eisenstein plus Trump visits Puerto Rico
eight years ago: Japanese joinery, a French driving hazard, a Mexican Bat Woman plus combatting typographical tofu
ten years ago: the demands of the Olympic Committee
eleven years ago: the Rushmore Syndrome
catagories: ๐งณ, Brandenburg, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern
Saturday, 5 October 2024
bundeswasserstraรe obere havel (11. 888)
H and I travelled north for a houseboating holiday on the Havel, which intersects with a few different national parks crossing the borders between Berlin, Brandenburg and Mecklenburg Vorpommern.
catagories: ๐ฉ๐ช, ๐งณ, ๐ข, Brandenburg, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern
Friday, 27 September 2024
safelight (11. 875)
As part of an interesting ensemble of back to back posts from Kottke bookended with the explanation why older photographs or indoor sporting events have a nice hazy blue filter that one does not see on contemporary images (the ambiance is caused by cigarette smoke) and a nice primer on point-and-shoot technology that ushered in the age of the amateur shutterbug (amateur comes from the Latin to love originally and not a non-professional), we learn that at the turn of the last century, that the hotel amenity most in demand was a darkroom for guests (so called “Kodak fiends”) for developing their holiday snapshots. Starting as far back as the 1850s, innkeepers would accommodate itinerate photographers by allowing them space to rig up their own studios and labs, covering up windows, to supplement portable but possibly less reliable set-ups. By 1902, there was even an effort among hoteliers to come to a consensus on an international symbol that a darkroom was on the premises, like for fitness facilities, a pool and later television and wifi. By the mid-twentieth century, most hotels no longer offered such services and traveling photojournalists were issued kits that touted around in a suitcase that expanded into a sheltered workspace for developing film. Much more from Daniel J Schneider at the link above.
synchronoptica
one year ago: assorted links worth revisiting (with synchronoptica)
eight years ago: kinetic art, an Art Nouveau hotel in Brussels plus neighbourly civil engineering hacks
nine years ago: a visit to Bonn and environs, thanksgiving for a good harvest plus Queen Zenobia
eleven years ago: US government shutdown
twelve years ago: the Bavarian separatist movement
Monday, 23 September 2024
7x7 (11. 867)
urban glitch: a series of nostalgic, hyper-detailed paintings from Jeff Bartels
ganz kleine nachtmusik: a previously unknown work by Mozart discovered in a Leipzig library archive
promptographs: Mister Franรงois presents three hundred imaginative “secret car” models with the help of AI—Lamborghini school buses and Ferrari caravanswarchitecture: the language of urbicide was developed to address the wanton destruction of Sarajevo’s build environment and continues in contemporary conflicts—see also
do not show this travel pack to gdr or soviet officials: a 1989 British guide for West Berlin
papyrological discovery: for his birthday in 480 BC, new lines of Euripides’ lost plays Ino and Polyidus uncovered—via Clive Thompson’s Linkfest (much more to explore there)
8-bit garden: dissolving digital artwork from Karol Polak of Gdaลsk
Thursday, 12 September 2024
222 west 23rd (11. 835)
The historic Queen Anne Revival accommodations in the Manhattan neighbourhood of Chelsea was originally a housing cooperative through the early 1980s before being gentrified into its present form, and the residential hotel was home to many up-and-coming luminaries until such time, including Jack Kerouac, Andy Warhol, Sherwood Anderson, Henri Chopin, Quentin Crisp, Ethan Hawke, Miloลก Forman, Joan Baez, Leonard Cohen, Marian Faithfull, Bette Milder, Isabella Rosallini, Eddie Izzard, Jane Fonda and numerous others. In 2011, we learn, a lesser-known but long-term resident, Jim Georgiou and his dog Teddy, was evicted for failing to pay his rent and was temporarily unhoused. The following year during renovations on the building, he saw construction workers tossing out some of the old, white-washed and graffitied doors, which Georgiou managed to salvage and research, connecting them to the suites of different neighbours. After years of work, fifty-two doors were auctioned off, with the proceeds going to organisations that help New York City’s homeless in 2018.
Monday, 9 September 2024
holidays are jollidays (11. 829)
Via the always excellent Nag on the Lake, we are directed to a retrospective exhibition of nostalgic photographer John Wilfrid Hinde whose carefully staged compositions influenced the style of picture postcards made famous through his commissioned series of Butlin’s holiday camps from the 1960s through the early 70s. Founded by Billy Butin in 1936 after a frustrating stay at a bed-and-breakfast in Wales during which he found himself locked out of the
accommodations by his landlady during the day (common practise at the time) and was inspired to create seaside resort destinations that were affordable or the working-class with plenty of amenities and excitement. During the immediate post-war period, they were extremely popular with the franchise spreading across Britain, Ireland and the Bahamas but succumbed in the 1970s and 1980s to cheap package holidays to the Mediterranean. Most of the facilities are closed and long demolished or repurposed (see previously), with a few exceptions like the pictured pool lounge of Bognor Regis, but all the parks with attractions like heated pools, monorails, gondolas, sports facilities, stages for theatrical performances and rides but have a living legacy in the millions of postcards meticulously framed by Hinde.
Sunday, 1 September 2024
the tour of dr syntax through the pleasures & miseries of london (11. 806)
Published anonymously in 1820 but believed to be authored by William Coombe and illustrated by Robert Cruikshank (see previously), the popular comedy epistolary series is about a rural school master and pastor who attempts to make his fortune by travelling and then writing about it.
Coombe—or often Combe—was himself an adventurer produced most of his works from debtors’ prison, with his first success dispatch from behind bars was a satire called The Diaboliad that attacked and defamed his creditors with thinly veiled allegory, and due to others trying to capitalise and plagiarising his Dr Syntax character (including as Derby porcelain figurines), the author, in the style of Cervantes and the false Don Quixote, put out a collection of spurious letters attributed to the fictional late Lord Lyttelton of Syntax’ continuing misadventures aboard—the plagiariser’s supposed correspondence taken as an admission to seditious speech against the government of King George III but later scholarship confirmed it was another tout to push pamphlets. More from Spitalfields Life at the link above.
Friday, 23 August 2024
the cruise of the kings (11. 787)
Disembarking this day in 1954 from Marseilles with a retinue of over one hundred royal dignitaries from twenty five current and former reigning families aboard the Agamemnon, the ten-day excursion through the Mediterranean was conceived and organised by Frederica of Hanover, queen consort of Greece, with the aim of not only promoting tourism in the region and economy recovery after World War II and the country’s civil war but also, as the granddaughter of Kaiser Wilhelm II (see previously), to repair family ties among Europe’s royals after decades of conflict and turmoil.
Ports of call included Naples, the Ionian islands, Corfu, Heraklion, Santorini, Mykonos, Rhodes and Athens with guests including Simeon II of Bulgaria, Prince Axel of Denmark, Duke Franz von Bayern, Prince Otto of Hesse-Kassel, Duke Peter of Schleswig-Holstein, Prince Antoine of the Two Sicilies, Umberto II of Italy, Charlotte Grand Duchess of Luxembourg, the royal families of the Netherlands, Norway and Sweden along with Prince Dimitri Romanov of Russia and Infanta Pilar, duchess of Badajoz. Protocols were abolished aboard the cruise ship and at any stop so guests might be freed from royal order of precedence and could mingle amongst themselves and with locals, and though there were designs on solidifying love connections (reality tv-style), only two engagements resulting from onboard encounters—Prince Alexander of Yugoslavia and Princess Maria Pia of Bourbon-Parma and Princess Sophia of Greece and Prince Juan Carlos of Spain. A second cruise was planned for two years later be had to be cancelled due to the Suez Crisis and the invasion of the Sinai peninsula.
Wednesday, 24 July 2024
big chris, little chris (11. 717)
Venerated on this day in German-speaking dioceses (the following day on the General Roman Calendar of the Saints) on the occasion of his martyrdom in 251 in Anatolia, the Canaanite of legendary stature, imposing and standing at five cubits (2,3 metres), called Reprobus (reprobate and also by some accounts and portrayals, dog-headed due to a misunderstanding of the Latin demonym Cananeus for suggesting cynocephaly) was determined to be in service to the greatest king of all, and upon seeing his ruler blessing
himself with the sacrament of the sign of the cross at the mention of Satan and reasoning that the devil able to inspire such trepidation must certainly be more powerful abandoned his post and sought out this master to service. Falling in with a gang of robbers claiming to be in league with the devil, the giant of a man was again disappointed by seeing the leader avoiding Christian iconography and sought out the faith under the guidance of a hermit he had encountered. Responding with prayer and fasting when asked how to best serve Christ, Reprobus answered that would be unable to comply with either of those tasks. The hermit reasoned due his size and strength he could please Christ by helping people ford a treacherous river. One day after many successful and easy crossings, a young boy sought passage with the burden becoming almost too much to bear and the river difficult to trudge across, the rapids becoming leaden around his legs. After the arduous journey, the passenger revealed himself to be Christ his king, whom was well served by this work. The ferryman henceforth was known as Christopher (ฮงฯฮนฯฯฯฯฮฟฯฮฟฯ, the Christ-bearer), ultimately beheaded in Lycia for his evangelising and refusing to sacrifice to the local pagan gods. Patron saint of Baden, Mecklenburg and Braunschweig, Rab in Croatia, Vilnius, Riga and St Kitts, Christopher is also the protector of athletes, mariners and travellers, as well as invoked as an intercessor against sudden death (owing to the dangerous river-crossing) an toothaches. This spurious association comes from a donation of a supposed relic in the form of a giant moral to a group of friars in the Piedmontese town of Vercelli in the late Middle Ages. Described by one of the numerous pilgrims seeking relief over centuries, the silver and gold reliquary as dena molaris pugno major (a tooth bigger than a fist), the inheriting order of the Barnabites had the attraction examined scientifically in the late eighteenth century and was determined to have belonged to a hippopotamus. The object was summarily deaccessioned and forbidden to be treated with idolatry. The community apparently keeps the tooth out of public view as a curiosity in their monastery.
synchronoptica
one year ago: the death of Twitter (with synchronoptica) plus AI and dragnet surveillance
seven years ago: a Tagalong word for overwhelming cuteness plus an act to prevent pernicious political activities
eight years ago: acts of terrorism across Europe, visiting Chรขteau d’Olรฉron, a coup in Turkey, presidential commercial interests, colouring black and white photos per algorithm, lanterns of the dead plus punditry in America
nine years ago: a Venus flytrap, assorted links worth revisiting plus Samuel Taylor Coleridge on Cologne
eleven years ago: the frequency illusion
Sunday, 14 July 2024
8x8 (11. 693)
priscila, queen of the rideshare mafia: the tale of a gig-economy pyramid scheme
fรชte nationale: a comprehensive list of what Americans and the French know about each other

stillsuits: researchers develop Fremen inspired garments for astronauts that improve comfort, hydration and hygiene
my israel home: US real estate companies profiting off expanded, illegal settlements in the West Bank—see also
paranormal phenomenon: Japanese terms for dรฉjร vu, telepathy and incredulous serendipity
๐: the trend of grocery store tourism really resonates with us and a cultural experience we always are sure to have—via Nag on the Lake
kein brot und keine ehre: Georg Christoph Lichtenberg’s correspondent’s categories of human endeavour
Saturday, 6 July 2024
9x9 (11. 665)
won’t back down: Biden committed to remain his party’s candidate for the US presidential election
wall∙e: facing a labour shortage, Japan railways deploys a colossal humanoid robot to maintain train tracks
conspiracy theory rock: the 1998 Saturday Night Live TV Funhouse cartoon that may or may have not been banned by the network

shadow secretary: the political upbringing of Sir Keir Starmer
wish you were here: beforehand postcards to prepare prior to departing for vacation—see previously
oberheim ob-1: a short documentary on the revolutionary analogue synthesiser that allowed musicians to record and save patches for playback
a face to a name: researchers create life-like robotic skin to express emotion and self-healing from harvested juvenile foreskin cells
dark brandon: Democrats backing Biden’s decision to run
synchronoptica
one year ago: advice for urban day-trippers in the countryside (with synchronoptica)
eight years ago: gameifying one’s wellbeing
nine years ago: pushing Greece out of the EU plus assorted links to revisit
ten years ago: more dragnet surveillance
eleven years ago: a history of fireworks
Thursday, 20 June 2024
8x8 (11. 642)
crazy logic: a rather seamless mashup of Gnarls Barkley, Rockwell, Pink Floyd and Sumpertramp
ัาปัะฐั : the Yakut people of arctic Siberia celebrate New Year on the Summer Solstice

baggage carousel: an animated journey of checked airline luggage
the phrygian cap: the Paris Games’ mascot with a revolutionary past—via Miss Cellania
the beige begins early here folks: McMansion Hell (previously) presents another instalment of the American Medieval Revival—via Things Magazine
re-alignment: just ahead of Solstice celebrations, activists with Just Stop Oil douse the megalithic calendar with orange paint power
chiroptera: a ballet chroegraphed by Thomas Bangalter, formerly of Daft Punk—via tmn
Sunday, 28 April 2024
cafรฉ rouge (11. 520)
Often performing in the title nightclub of the Hotel Pennsylvania in midtown Manhattan along with other Big Band ensembles that the spacious venue could host, Glenn Miller and his orchestra recorded his instrumental version of the tune (originally by Jerry Gray with lyrics by Carl Sigman—Numbers I’ve got by the dozen, everyone’s uncle and cousin but I can’t live without buzzing…) on this day in in 1940 at the RCA Victor Studios in New York. One of the oldest telephone exchanges still in use, the accommodations closed permanently in 2020 during the COVID pandemic and lost efforts to declare the building as a candidate for historical preservation (the club itself converted into a basket ball court in its final decade), currently being demolished to make way for new skyscrapers on Penn Plaza. Only Sigman’s refrain was retained after the telephone sound effect, shouted by band members. The foxtrot hit would go on to be recorded by many other artists, with homages and parodies, including Transylvania 6-5000 and Weird Al’s Plumbing Song with the number “Roto-Rooter 6-5000.”
synchronoptica
one year ago: a pocket phonograph plus assorted links to revisit
two years ago: Rome’s Cinecittร plus more links to enjoy
three years ago: the impasses of Paris, antique furniture trade cards plus the animated Dutch version of Lord of the Rings
four years ago: wargaming the next US civil war
five years ago: Ukrainian Easter, the stained glass hall of fame of The Champion pub plus mutiny on the Bounty