five-by-five

chizukigou: check out these lovely Japanese map legend symbols

système vidéo domestique: French artist repackages contemporary series and films in VHS wrapping

SMPTE bars: a look behind the scenes at the calibration tools of our seemingly seamless electronic world

maki-maki: sushi roll bath-towel concept

mirror, mirror: a look at Star Trek’s departures into an alternate reality

cartogram or far, far away

Some additional two-thousand fantastic pictorial maps of all subjects and styles have recently been acquired to supplement the already impressive resource and collections of Cartographer David Rumsey. There are endless curated galleries to wander down on his website and too many jewels to showcase so don’t pass up the chance to visit.

long-haul or get your kicks

The first trans-continental road-trip across North America—from San Francisco to New York City, was undertaken by pioneer and doctor Horatio Nelson Jackson on a bet and as a publicity stunt to demonstrate that the automobile was not just a passing-craze. In 1903, when he and his driving partner got off to a start, there was only about three hundred kilometers of paved roadways between the end points, virtually no maps and naturally no filling- or service-stations along the way. Once, a ranch hand misdirected the travelers on a lengthy, dangerous detour so her family, it was later revealed, could see a real live car. After some harrowing adventures and many break-downs, the company—which now included a mascot—arrived on the East Coast to fanfare. Jackson’s feat was certainly an impressive one and parallels the trail-blazing journey of Bertha Benz, whose hundred kilometer trip in the summer of 1888 from Mannheim to Pforzheim marked the first time in history anyone had driven a significant distance in an automobile.
Jackson’s wife, who was also called Bertha but no relation, was a wealthy heiress who helped him finance his hobbies—as was the business partner and later wife of inventor Karl Benz, but Bertha Benz is credited as an accomplished mechanic and expert promoter, feeling her husband was inadequately marketing his prototypes. With the excuse of going to pop off to visit her mother, Benz gathered her children and off they went, without telling her husband. They made quite an impression, and although they fewer hardships that Jackson’s team, did run out of petrol—for which Benz had the wherewithal to get a suitable catalyst from a pharmacy. The success was a great boon for the name and the industry. Incidentally, the make of the car Jackson drove was a Winton—a name not around anymore, though insanely popular after Jackson’s road-trip, was vindictively driven out of business by an upstart named Henry Ford, who the proprietor of the motor carriage company would not hire. Both accomplishments transformed the landscape of the world, how we work and live and paved the paths in between.

per dexter, checky and fesse or worth 1000

 

Though we have already established that the arcane language of heraldry was constructed and preserved so as to transmit the design of emblems, devices and coats-of-arms accurately without necessitating drawing the whole pattern all over again, I am enjoying immensely looking through a pretty comprehensive handbook of heraldic design, researched and illustrated by one Hubert Allcock—who does not share his family’s crest. The above about not wasting time, ink and tincture on reproduction being true, the book’s one drawback is that it is rendered in black and white sketches, so one needs to colour by number.
 And maybe that’s the point, pouring over the descriptions and exacting terminology, I can remember how when I was young, I’d often return to the reference section of the school library and look through an encyclopedia of symbols with the objective of increasing the vocabulary of my own secret, coded short-hard. Now, I am finding myself just as enchanted with the descriptive words.
Maybe we ought to adopt the same naming-conventions when it comes to tagging the photos we share. Eagle, displayed—or spread-eagle.  Deer, at gaze—looking straight at the viewer, like a deer in headlights. Other common charges (poses) include caboshed or erased, headed with nothing else visible, rampant or segréant, standing on its hindlegs rather than statant or on all fours, addorsed is back to back and regarding is eye to eye.
Blazonry—that is the background composition of the shield is told in even more fantastic ways. Figure 21 is instructed as Paly of six, argent and sable (silver and black), a fesse counter-charged. 34 is Lozengy, argent and azure. 42 is patterned as Gyronny of eight, or (gold) and azure. 47 is per pily barwise, reversed pall (white) and azure. Of course, every design in this retinue was chosen to impart specific and readily recognisable virtues of its standard-bearer and the symbolism is nearly itself inscrutable.