earthrise

During the Apollo 8 mission, the first manned voyage to orbit the Moon, astronaut William Anders (it was a collaborative among him and his crewmates) on Christmas Eve 1968 photographed the emerging penumbra of the Earth rising into daybreak with nightfall crossing at the Sahara. This breath-taking image is credited as one of the most influential pacifistic and environmental photographs taken up until that point, preceding Voyager’s Pale Blue Dot by two decades, and brought with it acute awareness of the fragile beauty of our planet.

rebel for life

Prior to the formation and demonstrations of the environmental activist group Extinction Rebellion at the end of October this year, I thought I recognised the symbol suggestive of an hourglass somewhere before—finally recalling this bleak and powerful installation that pealed out a dirge for each taxon of life as they blinked out of existence at the hand of man.
The group had recently made headlines over its blockading the headquarters of one influential media outlet for its policies that accommodate climate change denial and advocate for the status quo under the auspices of equal-time. Working towards a culture and economy that is regenerative and sustainable, the group’s manifesto must acknowledge the hard truths of ecological collapse and empower those they govern the means to reframe their consumer and lifestyle choices in the significant and enduring ways that will affect real and radical change for the better.

flickering signifier

Reporting for the New York Times, Caity Weaver takes us down a rather unexpectedly fascinating rabbit-hole with an investigative piece on the nature and source of glitter that proved unexpectedly controversial and secretive for an ostensibly frivolous product. The product is examined in all facets, from its festive sparkle, surprising applications, cultural use and connotations to its environmental impact. As Weaver found out, it is anything but a flippant business and remains on some levels an enduring and abiding mystery.

þorláksmessa

Though not officially recognised as part of the Calendar of the Saints until Pope John Paul II made it official in 1984 and followed up with a visit to the island, Saint Þorlákur Þórhallsson—Thorlak Thornhallsson, Bishop of Skálholt, had been considered the patron of Iceland for the greater part of a millennia.

His feast day, today, the anniversary of his death in 1193, marked the end of the customary Christmas time of fasting and signaled for households to prepare for Christmas in earnest, doing the last-minute shopping and finishing decorating the tree. Traditionally, Icelanders have skate, a sort of ray-like fish, on this evening—Thorlak also being the patron of fisherman and currently under consideration, informal investigation for being nominated as the patron saint of Autism, apparently as his interventions (we’re not exactly sure why but everyone needs a cause and a champion) have proved especially helpful for those on the spectrum.

wiener methode der bildstatistik

Having had a previous encounter with the ISOTYPEs of Marie and Otto Neurath (*1882 – †1945), we appreciated revisiting this subject with an in depth exploration from Open Culture that regards the universal character set as yet another among many earnest attempts to foster peace and empathy through an international language, a utopian effort like Esperanto and others. With the help of woodcut artist Gerd Arntz, this visual vocabulary grew to over four thousand pictograms to structure and address every facet of society and of course prefigures our contemporary use of symbols and data visualisations.