happy blogoversary to us—we are sixteen going on seventeen (11. 765)

As PfRC turns sixteen years old we wanted to once again extend our thanks and gratitude to our readership and to the members of the wider blogosphere (many of those fellow caretakers listed under our Smøgåsblog) and new ones discovered for their serendipity, sustainment and inspiration that keeps the internet curious, entertaining, engrossing and engaging. 

Since hitting our last milestone, here’s a round-up of some of our most popular posts with a few honourable mentions from the past twelve months.  Then it’s birthdays all the way down:

 10. Watercolour estates of rural Manhattan 

 9. The 1939 World’s Fair

 8. A history of book banning

 

7. more on nominative determinism

 

6. a transcendental animation from Jordan Belson

 

5. Attribution etiquette

 

4. A rebellious printing collective

 

3. an assortment of links

 

2. A Tennessee Williams’ classic drama

1. The 1961 biblical epic Barabbas

Honourable mentions go to Three Hazelnuts for Cinderella and a return to the Wine Island of the Main.

Wishing you all the best for the balance of the year and don’t be a stranger!

  synchronoptica

one year ago: our blogging birthday (with synchronoptica), Trump guilty on racketeering charges, the first Bauhaus exhibition plus the Feast of the Assumption

seven years ago: our ninth blogoversary, parked electric vehicles as an extension of the power grid, Bosch-inspired piñatas, the Wow! signal plus Big Ben silenced for repairs

eight years ago: a visit to Goslar

 

nine years ago: assorted links to revisit, AI Singularity plus local, artisanal currency

 

eleven years ago: JFK in Wiesbaden

 

a maximal truth-seeking ai (11. 764)

The social media platform X (formerly Twitter) has introduced a new feature for its chatbot, Grok—for premium subscribers—a text-to-image generator comparable to Bing’s service (which would rather infamous refuse the prompt “please make me a picture with the winner of 2020 US presidential election) or Facebook’s but apparently with the safety protocols turned off. Whilst users can find boilerplate guidelines and guardrails, presented in the first-person, proffering caution when it comes to making deceptive, provocative or plagiarised pictures, a cursory trial yielded some messages surely none would endorse. Though all tinged by that particular, cutting-corners AI patina that’s far from a watermark, a trial yielded far more offensive and topical content ready to be shared.

a sunken dream (11. 763)

Poring through volumes of data taken over the course of four years when the Insight Lander touched down on the surface of the arid Red Planet back in 2018 shows on further analysis of the seismic survey that there are reservoirs of liquid water deep within the rocky outer crust of Mars. Studying the little quakes measured by the probe reveals the signature of significant pockets as it passes through various strata. Whilst there is ice at the poles and evidence of vapour in the thin atmosphere, none in liquid form had heretofore been detected outside of Earth, which too has vast subterranean aquifers. Buried some ten kilometres deep, researchers can extrapolate from Insight’s readings, which were limited to the depths directly beneath it, that there is potential enough water to form a surface ocean extending almost a kilometre down.  This discovery also may hint at possible life on Mars subsurface.

 synchronoptica

one year ago: La Linea (with synchronoptica)

seven years ago: a chapel of the Seven Sleepers, Male Fantasies plus never-before-seen photographs of David Bowie

ten years ago: Marie Curie goes to war

eleven years ago: insightful maps plus the etymology of drug names

twelve years ago: a look back at Peenemünde plus a lily in a glass

lethonomia (11. 762)

Incorporating the element of Lethe, the Underworld river of forgetting one’s mortal existence, via Kottke we are introduced to the term for a tendency to not recall names that falls under wider concept of Carl Jung’s lethological and loganamnosis, a compulsion to recall a specific word that’s slipped one’s mind. I can especially relate to the latter tip-of-the-tongue phenomena—a recall not limited to conversation but also research and trying to wrest something from the archives and memory banks, fishing around for a file name or increasingly a descriptor that algorithm might understand and coming up against a slew of dead-ends and googlewhacks (I had to reach to remember that one) but will keep hunting—despite sometimes feeling gaslighted when I can’t find something I know I posted about or photographed—until thoroughly exhausted.

7x7 (11. 761)

popp horlage: the network of pneumatic clocks of fin de siècle Paris 

just get me eight-hundred thousand votes: Elon Musk interviews Trump on X—see more 

home row keys: a documentary on Mavis Beacon  

porte-clés: the French youth craze for key-rings  

josuushi: counting-markers in the Japanese language, nuanced by rank, size and sentience—see previously, see more—via tmn 

homo naledi: chance discovery reveals more branches in our family tree  

death-slot: revisiting broadcast television’s dumping grounds  

spear-fishing: reportedly a group of hackers with ties to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard of Iran were able to break in to the Trump campaign’s database 

us patent application 10/953212: a training regimen to harvest hyperspace energy and pass through solid items

synchronoptica

one year ago: a classic from Lynard Skynard (with synchronoptica) plus a tour through the Geratal

seven years ago: classic cartoon What on Earth?! plus diagrams of parliamentary seating

nine years ago: keeping stashed cash safe 

ten years ago: Mexico ends state oil monopoly plus more humanitarian airstrikes

eleven years ago: histomaps plus ages of the US Founding Fathers

the philadelphia experiment (11. 760)

Alleged first trialled on this day in 1943 on the US navy vessel the USS Eldridge at the city’s shipyard and coming to public attention over a decade later with a detailed account by supposed witness, a former merchant marine Carl Meredith Allen, the secretive project involving poorly understood extraterrestrial technology carried out with the intention of cloaking an escort ship. The outcome however was unexpected: while the Eldridge did vanish, it reappeared instantly in the naval docks of Norfolk, Virginia, some four hundred and fifty kilometres away, with the crew (no one else corroborated Allen’s story) sustaining bizarre side-effects from the teleportation, returning to Philadelphia minutes later. The navy disavows any knowledge of such research and the story and conjecture gained currency in the late 1970s with the resurgence in interest of paranormal phenomena like the Bermuda Triangle and Project Montauk. The 1984 film adaptation with Michael Paré added an element of time-travel and was generally not well-received by the fringe scientific community.

synchronoptica

one year ago: deadly and illegal border barriers (with synchronoptica) plus assorted links to revisit

seven years ago: sabre-rattling, crown shyness plus old neologisms

eight years ago: more links to enjoy

nine years ago: the velocity of money

ten years ago: thoughts on Dune and redundancy

the herculoids (11. 759)

Better known by his stage name of DJ Kool Herc, Clive Campbell of the Bronx is credited with the invention of hip-hop, alternating between two turn-tables to isolate percussive instrumental portions of recordings, switching from one breakbeat to another overlayed with his rhythmic, syncopated announcements and exhortations to his dance troupe of break- boys and girls (further anticipating rap and competitive breakdancing when the house parties were taken to the streets) on this day in 1973, co-hosting an event in their apartment building’s recreation room with his younger sister Cindy to raise some funds (with a small entrance fee) for back-to-school shopping. Herc played staggered copies of James Brown’s funk album Sex Machine and his emceeing indelibly influenced artists like Grandmaster Flash and the Sugarhill Gang who forwarded the genre. His crew were named after the 1967 Hanna-Barbera animated series about space barbarians.

7x7 (11. 758)

pop quiz: extended CVs of classic game show hosts  

pass the mayo: condiment’s dynamic nature could help solve containment challenges for nuclear fusion  

wingnut: a South Berkley salvage store turned museum—via Nag on the Lake’s always excellent Sunday Links  

cocónonós: a Bogota-based fusion band—possibly named after the ill-fated Tiki drink shared with Geordi La Forge and Christy Henshaw on their first date  

bias towards coherence: Trump’s latest on rally attendance and his greatest hits  

the type specimen of humanity: the designated permanent reference for Homo sapiens is Carl Linnaeus  

magick show: Richard Metzger’s latest occult project

 synchronoptica

one year ago: cutting archived content for the sake of SEO (with synchronoptica), a racist brawl in Alabama plus multi-hyphenates

seven years ago: reproductive awareness

eight years ago: ant wars, Martian landscapes, disproportionate and xenophobic calls for burqa bans, a floating home in Canada plus Facebook and clickbait

nine years ago: Liberia and the US 

ten years ago: a party at Neuseenland plus the geopolitics of terrorism

ῑ̓χώρ (11. 757)

Pathologically-speaking, the antiquated term for watery discharge, especially with an offensive odour, was deliberately given in negative connotations by early Christian writers to dispel the last vestiges of pagan veneration for the old gods by turning the ethereal fluid that flows in the veins of the immortals of mythology into something foul and corrupt. Classically ichor was understood to be the blood of the Olympians and—unlike the blood of Christ—was deadly toxic to humans if they came in contact with it. A Cretan myth, later appropriated by the Greeks in the Colossus of Rhodes, told of a giant bronze automaton made by Hephaestus at Zeus’ request to protect Europa and the island from invaders and pirates, this sentinel called Talos circling the shores three times a day, lobbing boulders at approaching ships. The robot was powered by a single circuit vein that ran from its head to its ankle filled with ichor, and was eventually defeated by Jason and the Argonauts with the help of Medea, who told them to unscrew the retaining plug at the base and exsanguinate it. In modern Greek, ichor is also used for the words gravy and naphtha, an older term for petroleum, probably due to the belief it was a by-product of decaying giants.

♨︎ (11. 756)

We very much enjoyed revisiting artist and drafter Honmai Enya’s work (previously) in her newest book of detailed isometric renderings (see also here and here) of Japanese cultural institutions. Honing her architectural illustrations skills at local establishments, Enya’s repertoire spread from her favourite sentō to area laundromats, salons, cafés and kissaten (a quieter version of the former to contemplatively drink one’s coffee or tea). More from Spoon & Tamago at the link above.

8x8 (11. 755)

hillbilly eulogy: the producer’s apparent misjudgement in adapting JD Vance’s memoir—and suggestion that Ron Howard might be playing the long-game to torpedo the MAGA ticket’s chances of ever returning to power—via Miss Cellania  

feint and parry: Ukrainian incursions into Russian territory catches Moscow off guard  

rarissima: bibliolyte, a destroyer of books, and other bookish terms  

veepstakes: the question of casting the nominees on the upcoming season of Saturday Night Live—see previously  

grit and glitter: new Museum of London logo of a pooing pigeon is dividing opinions—via Strange Company—see previously  

schrimp jesus: the origins and drivers (including Meta’s own incentives) of Facebook AI slop—see previously   

human shields: Israeli air strike on Gaza school sheltering the displaced leaves almost one hundred dead—the IDF claiming the building was being used by Hamas agents 

tim walz will teach you how to parallel park: the VP pick’s Midwestern dad energy plus the not so Midwestern origins of ope

garm to ongoing matter (11. 754)

Whereas the prerogative of commercial sponsors is the very definition of free speech, Elon Musk—who previously dismissed advertisers leaving the platform back in 2022 when he took over Twitter and significantly changed the tenor of the dialogue—has sued a small cross-industry initiative run under the non-profit organisation called the Global Alliance for Responsible Media by the World Federation of Advertisers, a consortium of about a hundred member companies, including Unilever, Mars, CVS (an American pharmacy chain) and Ørsted (a Danish energy company, out of existence (at least temporarily), citing anti-trust violations by conspiring to impose an embargo and “demonitise certain viewpoints in order to limit consumer choice.” Founded in the aftermath of the tragic 2019 Christchurch Mosque shootings, livestreamed on Facebook and lingered for an uncomfortable amount of time before being taken down, GARM works to promote responsible content moderation to help avoid members’ ads from appearing alongside hate-speech or harmful content. This is not Musk’s first lawsuit against media watchdogs, whose analysis and reporting on content on the platform has led to a mass exodus by users and sponsors and loss of revenue for the company.

synchronoptica

one year ago: language and idiolects (with synchronoptica) plus assorted links to revisit

seven years ago: a visit to Castle Frankenstein, workplace diversity, the roots of Nintendo plus geopolitical alternatives for a united Europe

eight years ago: lipogrammatical literature plus presidential plushies

ten years ago: embargoes and boycotts

eleven years ago: St Lawrence plus America’s unique global taxation scheme

vpotus (11. 753)

Set aside as an occasion in the US to reflect on the line of succession, the executive branch of the federal government and the constitutional role of the office also empowered to preside (president pro tempore of the legislative branch) over the senate and cast a vote in the case of a tie, National Veep Day recognises all vice presidents, but falling on this date, the observance coincides with the elevation of Gerald Ford at noon on this day in 1974 following the resignation of Richard Nixon—an individual who was elected to neither high office. The twenty-fifth amendment to the American constitution enumerates the order of precedence for filling the vacancy through removal by impeachment or disability, the order next going from speaker of the house of congress, president pro tem of the senate (the most senior member of the majority party) and then to the presidential cabinet: secretary of state, treasury, defence, attorney general, secretary of the interior, agriculture, labour, health and human services, housing and urban development, transportation, energy, education, veterans’ affairs and finally Homeland Security.

ceefax (11. 752)

Via Web Curios, we are referred to a rather stupendous gallery of screen-grabs of broadcast teletext pages (see previously), first introduced in 1974 in data hidden in the signals at the extremes of the TV screen, with an assortment of nostalgic advertisements, closed-captions, games, viewing guides, alpha-mosaic art and news supplements whose rollout preceded and provisioned the internet with this ASCII grid of twenty-four by forty characters with some limited interactive capabilities (in partnership with a phone call usually) accessed by remote control. I remember exploring occasionally these embedded channels (which are mostly still available and offer programme synopses and transcripts) when the parallel online world was not so readily accessible.

synchronoptica

one year ago: a classic from The Small Faces (with synchronoptica)

seven years ago: work makes us passionate quitters plus reflections on a total eclipse

eight years ago: misadventures in tourism, Dr Who remixed plus Dr Teeth live in concert

nine years ago: assorted links worth revisiting

eleven years ago: the origin of kids’ menus and the family restaurant

hasenpfeffer incorporated (11. 751)

While pursuing the long-tail of a rumoured solution to try to satisfy two Hollywood egos both demanding top-billing and one possible and now pervasive compromise, known in the industry as the Laverne & Shirley card, we got the opportunity to revisit The Art of the Title (see previously here and here) and explore some of the creative and contractual considerations that go into opening sequences. And while fascinating to learn about the more elegant and efficient way to make concessions to rising talent (bottom left and top right gives two stars more or less equal prominence), the hook was really the unique stalemate of the 1987 Arthur Hiller Outrageous Fortune comedy featuring Bette Midler and Shelley Long (or Long and Midler) with neither willing to concede to be second-billed. Strangely aligned with the film that takes its title from Hamlet’s “…slings and arrows…” about two acrimonious acting students who are dating the same mysterious individual, unbeknownst to each other, and manages to keep their shared tryst secret, the production studio commissioned two sets of promotional materials and title sequences for distribution in US East Coast and West Coast markets, in the respective actors’ home turf presumably with neither being the wiser—movie lore confirmed by a visit to the last video rental shop in Atlanta. Much more from 99% Invisible at the link above.

 synchronoptica

one year ago: artist Karla Knight (with synchronoptica)

seven years ago: a proposed canal in Malaysia plus radio for dogs

eight years ago: assorted links to revisit, mass-transit upholstery plus Olympic typography

nine years ago: the Happy Birthday song plus presidential merch

eleven years ago: US government lapse in appropriations plus thoughtful souvenirs

sesquicentennery (11. 750)

Incredibly, especially considering the bureaucracy and controversy that besets modern questions of statehood, as our faithful chronicler informs, on this day in 1953, US president Eisenhower signed a petition from the Ohio general assembly retroactively making it the seventeenth state of the union, backdated one hundred and fifty years and some months to the date when the legislature first convened in 1803. Although president Jefferson had approved the territory’s boundaries and constitution at the time, congress had not formerly ratified the recognition. This oversight was discovered during preparations for Ohio’s upcoming founding anniversary, and while at that point in history, no formal resolution was required for admission, Ohioans wished to correct the record.  This place earning the moniker “mother of presidents” for being the homeland of seven wants to make sure its contributions were legitimate.

 synchronoptica

one year ago: a geopolitical map of the internet (with synchronoptica)

seven years ago: architect Renzo Picasso plus assorted links to revisit

eight years ago: a puzzle book, ancient air-wells, universal phonetics for numbers plus the art of Clive Barker

nine years ago: psychological terms to be wary of, more links to enjoy, illustrated Moby Dick plus even more links

ten years ago: controversy over a simian selfie

thank you for bringing back the joy (11. 749)

Ninety-one days before the election, Kamala Harris introduced her running mate, Minnesota governor Tim Walz, during an energetic rally in Philadelphia. A progressive, Democratic leader of a more conservative leaning state since 2019, the charismatic figure earlier represented Minnesota in congress (he was moved to run for office when as a social studies teacher a field trip to a local political rally ended in the group of students not being admitted due to one member having a discrete campaign sticker for the opposition and the whole group was deemed a threat), and previously served in the US national guard and had a successful educator, including exchange programmes with students in China, football coach and has a demonstrated platform supporting LQBTQ+, women’s, consummer and labour rights as well as being the architect of the state’s liberalisation of cannabis policy, infrastructure and environmental improvements and advocacy for the right to protest US-support for Israel in its war on Gaza. Walz is further credited with coining the descriptor “weird” for MAGAists, which has quickly gained currency and widespread use among Democrats.

⊙ (11. 748)

Denoted by the above symbol in international chess notation, we are remembered by New Shelton wet/dry of the term in its literal and metaphorical senses of the disadvantageous requirement to move or otherwise respond in Zugzwang. Although imprecise in its use in the game (a player is said to be in such a prelude to a checkmate when an open option when in a turn-based game each side is compelled to move will worsen their position, the concept is well understood), endgame studies from the eighteenth century on formalised the unsatisfactory compulsion or obligation—Zugpflicht—to make a move that yields to the offence.

saturday nite at the duck-pond (11. 747)

Despite (or possibly because of) a ban by the BBC, the surf-rock 1963 single from The Cougars, a short-lived collaboration of rhythm and bass guitars and percussions, that sampled from Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake (the theme of Act II commonly known as the Dracula motif for its first use in sound cinematic adaptations of the vampire story and as a trope for other horror films), spent several weeks in the charts. The band also produced other instrumental variations on the composer’s body of work, including “Red Square” and “Caviar & Chips.” Cited as a travesty of a major classical piece and a distortion of melody and harmony, other reasons for the prohibitions on the airwaves included slushy sentimentality, innuendo and alleged drug references with the banned discography ranging from Mott the Hoople, select Beatles’ and Rolling Stones’ songs deemed too suggestive or political, Cher’s “Bang Bang,” “Dinner with Drac” from John Zacherle, “Monster Mash,” “I Don’t Like Mondays,” “In the Hall of Mountain King” the Nero and the Gladiators’ instrumental version and Bobby Darin’s and Louis Armstrong’s “Mack the Knife” takes on The Three Penny Opera. They really seemed to have it out for the undead and adulterated versions of the classics.  After mass protests following the broadcast of a censored version of The Pogues’ Fairytale of New York in 2007, BBC officially dropped its policy of cultural gatekeeping.

* * * * *

 synchronoptica

one year ago: a classic from Lisa Loeb (with synchronoptica) plus a wagon train to space

seven years ago: more meltdowns at the White House, landscaping by AI plus when Americans were weird with science

eight years ago: empty mansion hunting in the Loire valley, emoji as art, more on the birthplace of King Arthur, the first website plus Trump as a Manchurian Candidate

ten years ago: liminal beings plus vanishing New York

eleven years ago: the Church goes after predatory loans plus the German census

8x8 (11. 746)

divi recap: the obfuscating vocabulary of finance and corporate take-overs 

ch₄: methane removal may prove as the most effective way to curb the climate collapse  

anima and archetype: an overview of the thought of Carl Jung—see previously  

mamala: Maya Rudolf returning to the cast and reprising her role as Kamala Harris for the fiftieth season of Saturday Night Live—via Miss Cellania  

v. to remove monks from: demonachise and other infrequently used words  

wall flowers: increased appreciation of complex and nuanced botanical behaviour leads a new branch of plant philosophy  

rewiring: if billionaires truly wanted to save the planet, they’d buy heat-pumps for every home—via Kottke 

big brother and the holding company: the spiteful origins of Berkshire Hathaway and corporate hard-pivots

après moi, le déluge (11. 745)

We recall how a few weeks ago how Trump chillingly implored a group of Christian supporters to vote just once more and they’ll never need worry about doing it again, implying that he would bring about a theocracy, not just a breech of democratic norms—and although we should not dismiss this as hyperbole since he’s shown us who he is and what he’s capable of, Trump cannot run for an additional term and might presumably not care about his political heirs and what happens afterwards. On multiple occasions, however, and without the media attention Trump is telling crowds at his rallies not that they won’t need to cast ballots in the future but that they don’t need to bother showing up at the polls because Trump already has enough votes. Whether saying the quiet part out loud is a sign of delusion or misunderstanding (“My instruction: we don’t need votes—we’ve got plenty of votes.”), it suggests that Trump plans to claim victory regardless of the outcome and belies the fact that behind the scenes election officials have been installed strategically in counties in crucial wing states sympathetic to the narrative of the stolen 2020 election and have a demonstrated record of manipulation and could withhold certification, which would have cascading effect for statewide electors and cause chaos, likely sending the outcome to the US supreme court to decide.

 synchronoptica

one year ago: the Anomaly Observatory (with synchronoptica), assorted links worth revisiting plus a very incriminating recording from the Watergate scandal

seven years ago: a musical tailpipe plus the movie role Trump turned down to run for US president

eight years ago: more links to enjoy, a simple political message, an economic nudge plus hybrid airships

nine years ago: even more links, a Norwegian monument plus loosing the plot

ten years ago: yeas and nays plus public health and disease drift

13x13 (11. 744)

hot clipmalabor summer: a Scots language translation of the latest trend 

the pudding: AI makes a data-driven visual story—via Kottke  

désolé! taking a mental health year: American vs European out-of-office auto-replies  

the paris games: a look back at the other times the French capital hosted the Olympics—via Nag on the Lake

faustian bargain: Russian “Tiergarten Killer” released as part of prisoner-swap 

the lord house: a tour of a home designed by architecture Richard Neutra—see previously 

take me to the water: James Baldwin and the roots of the Palestinian-African American solidarity movement 

hop, skip and a jump: e-bikes for one’s legs  

dressage: Snoop Dogg as head Olympic cheerleader 

securing the peace: US mobilising to shore up defences in Middle East 

minoritarian rule: US in democracy self-destruct mode  

yay newfriend: a linguistic look at the new AI pendant companion 

emdunks: the internet’s infatuation with the Second- and possibly future First-Gentleman

say it to my face (11. 743)

After Trump’s initial refusal to participate in a debate with his new challenger was seen as weak, particularly in the racist harangue following shortly afterwards Trump delivered during a panel discussion arranged by the National Association of Black Journalists calling Harris a DEI candidate (an insulting reference to Diversity and Equality Initiatives in the workplace that has become shorthand for the allegation that power and position for people from minority or marginalised groups is unearned), going on to expound that, “I didn’t know she was Black until a number of years ago when she happened to turn Black and now wants to be known as Black. So I don’t know—is she Indian or is she black?” The multiracial former chief prosecutor, senator and sitting US vice-president is of multiracial background and is both and is only a rehashing of the equally false birtherism rumour that questioned the legitimacy of Barack Obama—and another example of authoritarians othering and defining others instead of allowing them to define themselves. After backing-out didn’t play well with the public, Trump arranged to spar with Harris albeit changing the conditions, pushing back on the new format—from an ABC moderated forum to a townhall-style one with a live studio audience hosted by Fox News, Harris noted how “any time, any place” became “one specific time, one specific safe space,“ for the conservative network’s noted favour for the Republican candidate. Fewer than one hundred days before the election, it is uncertain whether there will be a public parlay in any format.

 synchronoptica

one year ago: assorted links worth revisiting (with synchronoptica) plus Arthur Conan-Doyle on tour

seven years ago: Trump’s transcripts, the evolution of trust plus an austerity cookbook for a divided Germany

eight years ago: the first private mission to the Moon

nine years ago: more links to enjoy plus Japanese myth and folklore

ten years ago: dazzle-camo plus novel ideas for carbon-sequestration

katzenkopf ii (11. 742)

Over the weekend, H and I returned with our neighbours and dogs to Frankish wine island of Sommerach, on the loop of the River Main. As the namesake of our campsite, it has one of the more famous and well-distributed vineyards of the region and dating from 1901, the one of the oldest cooperatives (Winzergenossenschaft) in Germany—we get most of our wine from the grocery stores from this area.

Landscaped by the creation of the canal connecting Volkach and Gerlachshausen (see above), the steep sloping hills and unique conditions of the soil, loamy and ancient limestone have made this spot particularly well suited for viticulture for untold generations. 

 For this visit, we toured more of the town and wandered the streets lined with individual wineries (Weingüter)—including a few with vending-machines after attending one tasting—which came to our campsite—and another in the historic Zehnthof, which delivered the cases we selected to the campground the next morning. Many of these buildings sourced to bureaucracies and tax regimes, began in medieval times because these “tithe farms,” originally storehouses for a tenth of harvests (see previously) collected by governing monasteries and other beneficent organisations from farmers individually were later given to a commissioned decimator to collect from tenants—the warehouses (see also) becoming stately manor homes for the overseers. 

 With the the end of ecclesiastical estates, this institution fell in the hands of prominent vintners representing the local industry. According to local lore, the name Katzenkopf comes from a woman who tried to dissuade her husband from drinking wine straight from the barrel and succeeded finally by frightening him into sobriety with a stuffed cat—otherwise a quick swat as a term for light corporal punishment of blow with the knuckles to the forehead.

 synchronoptica

one year ago: a banger from Madonna (with synchronoptica) 

seven years ago: Russia displeased with continued sanctions, emotional granularity plus drone delivery

eight years ago: a poem by Brian Bilston, a elevated superbus plus Thomas Edison’s clickbait

nine years ago: a visit to the Rennsteig plus more on Venus Flytraps

ten years ago: armchair coaching, Israel eavesdropping plus indoctrinating radio

mara nags mara sang mara snag (11. 741)

Courtesy of Web Curios, we are directed to this wonderful little tool that lets you type in any word or phrase you like and it will generate all possible anagrams (see previously here and here)—also in German, French and Spanish. Who knew that PfRC contained such substantial words as superhero, heretofore, theretofore, prosecutor, prefecture and usherette? Out of more than a hundred thousand three-word solutions, I haven’t found the perfect phrase yet—but perhaps creeper effects roofer quoth or scoffer croquet thereof peer are pretty good candidates. In addition to an aid for word puzzles, I think that this could also be useful for creating memorable passwords, or finding the hidden epithet in your name. Jeremy’s Hammer?

one-trick pony (11. 740)

Medalling for Team USA for the first time in the category of men’s gymnastics since 2008, it was fun to read the profile of this newly hailed hero, Stephen Nedoroscik, and his achievement on the pommel horse. Usually for the all-around competition, national teams choose an assortment of generalists for a range of events but for this summer’s Games, the American squad reserved one of those slots for a specialist to compete on the notorious challenging apparatus—originally a Roman teaching aid for mounting and dismounting and included in the ancient Olympic Games and was revived in its modern form in the nineteenth century by members of the Turnverein, garnering notice whilst waiting his turn on the sidelines during his teammates’ matches. Qualifying for the finals with a bronze, Nedoroscik is going for gold over the weekend.

eyechat (11. 739)

Via the always marvellous Nag on the Lake, we are directed to the latest project from Neal Agarwal (see previously) that pairs random strangers’ eyes in a video call, with no audio and no chatter, just focused on the narrow slit of one’s face, in order to appreciate the quiet and how much expression, connection happens within this band. I am no sure how matches are made—whether pre-recorded or two people live checking in at the same time but feel confident it’s above-board.

synchronoptica

one year ago: American Graffiti (with synchronoptica) plus backlinks and hat-tips

seven years ago: generative inspirational quotations, mapping the globe’s most spoken languages post a possessed podcast

eight years ago: assorted links to revisit plus a vertical forest in Milan

ten years ago: a deck of cards, Taishō Era art, disobedient objects plus wine maps

fourteen years ago: filming locations in Germany