From the Hopi term for world out of balance, Koyaanisquatsi (part of a trilogy of experimental documentaries) scored by Philip Glass with cinemato-graphy by Ron Frick has a striking trailer, which as Nag on the Lake reminds (previously—I thought this seemed vaguely familiar but certainly worth revisiting plus we think there’s been an improvement on the filter since) remarkably pliable and the right tonal framework for any number of random GIFs. Run it through a few iterations to convince yourself of the true ridiculously random nature of it and for comparison, check out the original theatrical preview at the link above.
Saturday, 11 January 2020
gifaanisqatsi
catagories: ๐ฌ, ๐ถ, environment, networking and blogging
Thursday, 9 January 2020
warp and weave
Tantalisingly, Kottke gives us a tour of the prototype settlement, Woven City, that Toyota will be building at the base of Mount Fuji beginning in early 2021—which is interlaced with a network of three types of lanes, one for faster vehicles, a mixed-used land and meandering garden paths for pedestrians to enjoy. The fabric of this zero-impact, sustainable experiment includes hydroponic agricultural as well as photo-voltaic cells integrated throughout, with machine and anticipatory-intelligences a fully developed and articulate infrastructure to enhance the lives of residents and their relationship with their broader home. More to explore and brainstorm at the links above.
catagories: ๐ฏ๐ต, ๐ก, environment, transportation
Wednesday, 8 January 2020
7x7
franking privileges: Royal Mail (see previously) will issue postage stamp sets based on classic arcade games—via Boing Boing
cajun court: a resplendent Louis XV tower sequestered in the heart of Louisiana—via Messy Nessy Chic
cosmodrome: the busiest space ports in the world charted out—via Maps Mania
conurbation: the world’s largest megalopoli tracked on a bar-chart race
yugo.logo: a growing visual archive of brand enblems from Yugoslavia
team rodent: an intricate link diagram illustrating the connections between Disney properties and merchandising from 1967
tomorrow’s on fire: Australia needs our help and needs us to heed this stark warning—via Waxy
the ballad of rocket robin hood: a Canadian animated children’s show that aired from 1966 to 1969 featuring a team of Merry Men living in the “astonishing year 3000” and committed to protecting the poor and innocent from exploitation by Prince John and the Sheriff of NOTT (National Outer-Space Terrestrial Territories)
catagories: ๐จ๐ฆ, ๐, ๐ช️, ๐ฌ, ๐, ๐บ, ๐ญ, ๐บ️, architecture, environment, sport and games
Saturday, 4 January 2020
๐ค๐
catagories: ๐, ๐ค, environment
Monday, 30 December 2019
smygflyga
We completely understand and empathise with the fact it’s hard to settle on a favourite—especially when one is spoilt for choice, so we are enjoying pouring over this list of notable neologisms that Sweden’s top linguists at the Institutet fรถr sprรฅk och folkminnen have identified that helped define the past year. The gretaeffekten of course looms large having rightly been recognised for their overwhelming importance to the age by no less than two august language authorities and with the derivative title word—flying on the sly, not disclosing one’s travel itinerary because one failed to plan ahead so one could train-brag so as to avoid flight-shaming—plus other well-deserved honours besides, shared amongst all allies. We further enjoyed how the registry included internet terms like deplatformering and ASMR, clarified to readers as a hjรคrnorgasm and not some further Marvel Cinematic Universe appropriation of Norse mythology.
catagories: ๐ธ๐ช, ๐ฌ, environment, transportation
Sunday, 15 December 2019
8x8
it putteth away dumpishness & sadness, and bringeth mirth: a 1559 recipe for mulled wine
fox and liberty forever: the chaotic General Election of 1790, the polling and purdah lasting from 16 June to 28 July, via Strange Company
the power of youth: the photographer Evgenia Arbugaeva behind the iconic image of Greta Thunberg’s TIME cover—we personally found this honour to be pretty moving as well
link in bio: the insidious nature of Walled Gardens (see previously) and social media’s attempts to corral the free Internet
the land of the asuras: a Buddhist monk leads a solemn ceremony to eulogise untaken time off from work in Japan—hardly done despite legislation that all workers take a minimum of five paid vacation days per year
๐: this feline face filter underscores how poorly we understand our cats’ cognition
flight and blight: a survey of some of the historic character lost in New York City over the past decade
your branches green delight us: a tour of London’s Christmas trees
catagories: ๐ซ๐ฎ, ๐ฌ๐ง, ๐น, ๐, ๐ผ, ๐ท, architecture, environment, networking and blogging
Sunday, 8 December 2019
9x9
ideograrch: the iconic works of architecture abstracted in Kanji-like calligraphy by Federico Babina
quasi-modo: a Russian DJ that combines his skill with bell-ringing with techno music
head in the clouds: a look at cities in the sky
dreigroschenoper: a gallery of playbills and references that cover the works of Bertolt Brecht—via Strange Company
pelagic zone: a deep sea explorer from Neal.fun (previously), via Kottke
fine html products: a survey of superlative links of the 2010s
apotropaic charms: stunning enamel pins from Lydia Daum, via Swiss Miss
you have the right to hush-up: Slaw & Order, courtesy the Art of Darkness
ๅฌ: Aoi Huber Kono’s 1972 picture haiku book Winter
catagories: ๐ฉ๐ช, ๐ฏ๐ต, ๐ท๐บ, ๐ณ, ๐ถ, ๐, ๐บ, architecture, environment, networking and blogging
Sunday, 24 November 2019
low poly
In addition to the all-terrain mobile unit as an accessory to Elon Musk’s newly released prototype Cybertruck—which people joke looks like a computer rendering from a time when graphics processing with polygon mesh (see also) wasn’t nearly so advanced as it is presently—will have the optional package outfitting the cargo bed as a pop-up camper for exploring the actual outdoors and not CGI side-scrolling.
What do you think? Critics are bashing the design, forgetting about the experimental wedged wonders of the Italian automotive tradition that were all the rage not so long ago, but we’d seriously support getting such a car for our next vehicle—especially considering a range of nearly eight hundred kilometres to a charge and over-engineered performance that allows the truck to zip about faster than finest luxury cars, not to mention the target price that’s half of the suggested manufacturer’s asking-price.
catagories: ๐️, ๐ก, ๐, ๐, environment
Saturday, 16 November 2019
mmxxix
Though we can know one event to happen ten years from now with some certainty, A Message from Earth was beamed by a high-powered radio signal towards exoplanet Gliese 581c in 2008 will be in reception range, it bears recalling the adage, via the always engaging Things Magazine, by scifi author William Ford Gibson that “The future is already here—it’s just not evenly distributed”—with nearly a year’s worth of 2019 headlines focusing and informing how 2029’s reporting might look if we continue on this same trajectory. While perhaps not in the expected milieu and sacred settings of blockbuster movies no epic flooding yet of New York City or London but we are on the cusps of experiencing such cinematic disasters Delhi or Jakarta and instead of delivering us to a life of leisure and a forty-minute workweek, we are instead fretting over mass robotic-redundancy and unemployment, so Gibson’s quote resounds with perspective. What do you think about these predictions? The past is good council but the present may make us all come up short.
catagories: ๐ก, ๐ผ, ๐️, ๐งฌ, environment, lifestyle, networking and blogging
Saturday, 26 October 2019
8x8
best in breed: national banks in Turkmenistan under presidential decree to fund efforts to enhance the pedigree of the country’s Alabay dog
call of the wild: scientist record the mating sounds of the Amazonian bellbird, which can exceed the noise-level of a chainsaw at very close-range
zodiac killer: a treasury of Persian demons
not the doral: Number One Daughter celebrates her tenth wedding anniversary at Camp David
yip yip: a couple’s admirably coordinated costumes
major arcana: Salvador Dalรญ’s tarot deck re-issued
augmented roman: a truly phonetic-spelling reform measure for the English language, bringing the alphabet up to forty-three distinct letters
roaming costs: researchers tracking migrating Russian eagles are hit with hefty data tariffs once the birds cross borders, via Slashdot
catagories: ๐ท๐บ, ๐, ๐จ, ๐ฌ, ๐ , ๐บ, environment, myth and monsters
Saturday, 19 October 2019
weltanschauung
Via our peripatetic friends at Strange Company, we are reacquainted with the figure of polymath and explorer Alexander von Humboldt (previously here, here and here, *1769 - †1859) through his educationally enhanced maps and charts (see also).
The naturalist’s perhaps greatest legacy as a science communicator was his ability to unleash information formerly discrete and disperse (relatedly) and compile figures and synthesise them visually, like this cross section that imparted vegetation topographically and appealed to curiosity through presentation. More to explore at the links above.
catagories: ๐, ๐, ๐บ️, environment
eurorando
Founded on this day in 1969 in a lodge on a popular hiking trail through the Swabian Jura (Schwรคbische Alb), the Europรคishce Wandervereinigung, the European Ramblers’ Association, la Fรฉdรฉration europรฉenne de la randonnรฉe pรฉdestre was formed by founding members representing walkers’ clubs from West Germany, Switzerland, France, Luxembourg and Belgian. Now headquartered in Kassel and with offices in Prague, more than fifty-eight area- and regional-organisations from thirty European states sponsor regular outings and maintain, marking and signposting a vast network of long distance hiking trails (some seventy thousand kilometres worth across an active membership of some three million individuals, see previously). The so called E-Paths are not for virtual exploration, but rather are trails that cross a minimum of three countries.
catagories: ๐จ๐ฟ, ๐ฉ๐ช, ๐, 1969, Baden-Wรผrttemberg, Bavaria, environment, lifestyle, Rhรถn, sport and games
Friday, 18 October 2019
greta grotesk regular
Inspired by her now iconic signature hand-lettered protest placards, an up and coming foundry, we learn via Kottke, has issued a free typeface based on the script of climate champion Greta Thunberg (previously), suitable for making one’s own posters. In typography, a grotesque refers to the family of serif fonts with irregular qualities that were particularly favoured by sign-painters for their ability to stand out.
catagories: ⛓️๐ฅ, ๐ธ๐ช, ๐ก️, ๐ฃ, environment
Monday, 14 October 2019
low-res
catagories: ๐ฏ๐ต, ๐, environment
Thursday, 26 September 2019
a christening
During a naming ceremony for the eponymous RRS Sir David Attenborough—a polar research vessel (see previously), attended by the esteemed naturalist with thousands of onlookers and hosted by the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge at the shipyard at Cammel Laird, poet laureate Simon Armitage commemorated the occasion with a special commission entitled Ark, with a very powerful and haunting refrain:
They sent out a dove: it wobbled home,
wings slicked in a rainbow of oil,
a sprig of tinsel snagged in its beak,
a yard of fishing-line binding its feet.
Bring back, bring back the leaf.
They sent out an artic fox:
it plodded the bays of the northern fringe
in muddy socks
and a nylon cape.
Bring back, bring back the leaf.
Bring back the reed and the reef,
set the ice sheet back on its frozen plinth,
tuck the restless watercourse into it bed,
sit the glacier down on its highland throne.
put the snow cap back on the mountain peak.
Let the northern lights be northern lights
not the alien glow over Glasgow or Leeds.
A camel capsized in a tropical flood.
Caimans dozing in Antarctic lakes.
Polymers rolled in the sturgeon’s blood.
Hippos wandered the housing estates.
Bring back, bring back the leaf.
Bring back the tusk and the horn
unshorn.
Bring back the fern, the fish, the frond and the fowl,
the golden toad and the pygmy owl,
revisit the scene
where swallowtails fly
through acres of unexhausted sky.
They sent out a boat.
Go little breaker,
splinter the pack-ice and floes, nose
through the rafts and pads
of wrappers and bottles and nurdles and cans,
the bergs and atolls and islands and states
of plastic bags and micro-beads
and the forests of smoke.
Bring back, bring back the leaf,
bring back the river and bring back the sea.
catagories: ๐ฌ๐ง, ๐, ๐, environment
Friday, 20 September 2019
7x7
foreverspin: a lovely film exploring the cross-cultural phenomenon of tops by the design duo Ray and Charles Eames (previously) with a playful, cinematic score by Elmer Bernstein
empire state of mind: re-examining the legacy of the Russian Revolution for Central Asia
bereitschaftspotential: an abiding experiment refuting free will seems to have been overturned, via The New Shelton Wet/Dry
east enders: Spitalfields Life celebrates its tenth anniversary revisiting some of the Gentle Author’s favourite posts
long play: a major drinks conglomerate pledges to spin plastic straws into vinyl records in the transition away from single use items
rendered environments: ambient animations from Georgian artist Sandro Tatinashvili
axis of rotation: a master-class in the art of the yo-yo
catagories: ⛓️๐ฅ, ๐ฌ๐ง, ๐ท๐บ, ๐, ๐ถ, ๐ญ, environment, networking and blogging, sport and games
Monday, 16 September 2019
cfc
Despite far less consensus and surety regarding the exact culprit among the scientific community compared to the unity that we have for anthropogenic climate change today, the world’s nations unilaterally came together to draft and enforce a protocol to the Vienna Convention for the Protection of the Ozone Layer, the outcome of a convention held in Montreal which became an international and universal priority on this day in 1987.
Depletion of atmospheric ozone first discovered and researched, with its grave implications limned and communicated during the intervening years, within just a little more than fourteen years public and political will aligned and overcame deniers and those in impacted industries—aerosol and cooling, with a managed phase-out of the most harmful compounds that fostered willing partnerships and commitments for reform. Among the few environmental success stories to hold up as examples of what we can achieve (though we should also be vigilant to avoid losing those gains and there’s unfinished business yet), human change has allowed the ozone layer to repair and replenish itself.
catagories: ๐จ๐ฆ, ๐ก️, environment
Friday, 6 September 2019
brauรฐklefinn
Sensitive to the huge problem of food waste, an enterprising bakery in Iceland has installed a superannuated telephone booth on its premises in which to deposit the leftovers from the end of the day and offer them for sale to late-comers on a trust system at a deeply discounted price. Local patrons are delighted with the idea of being able to get fresh breads afterhours and help reduce what would otherwise end up in landfills. I hope more small businesses might take a cue from this bakery and invest in the honour and integrity of shoppers and right-sizing production.
catagories: ๐ฎ๐ธ, ๐, environment
Wednesday, 4 September 2019
genomkรถrning pรฅ svenska
Whilst some organisations have taken to deputising fast-food franchises with plenipotentiary and consular powers, we discover that a few such outposts in Sweden (fifty-five at least) are installing drive-thru charging stations for electric vehicles to supplement the coverage of state-sponsored infrastructure that leaves just enough gaps as to dissuade some drivers from committing to this other mode of transportation. While a full re-charge takes a bit longer than fulfilling one’s order, it still offers a nice alternative and adds extra value to queuing up.
catagories: ๐ธ๐ช, ๐, environment, transportation
Sunday, 11 August 2019
orbis terrarum
Always worth the visit for some artistic intervention, Hyperallergic directs our attention to a stunning atlas of greed and empire charted out by accomplished gazetteer Dan Mills. His paradoxically brilliant representations of rather bleak facts and figures on the displaced, over-burdened and contested really makes one face the uncomfortable topology that human ambition creates. We found especially poignant this familiar scramble for Antarctica whose claimants’ boundaries radiating out from the South Pole are constantly shifting (see also) not because of politics and sovereignty disputes but purely over melting ice. Much more to explore at the link up top.
catagories: ๐, ๐จ, ๐บ️, environment