squalene

Rotten and selfish to the core—not to mention our ocean alpha-predators being a personal target of America’s impeached, superspreader idiot-in-chief who was not even willing to join a global coalition to develop a vaccine pooling resources and trying to go forward with production as responsibly as possible—humans will be, if left to their own devices, reliant on a compound harvested from the livers of sharks. It was not bad enough it was formerly an ingredient used in cosmetics, the filler ingredient used to cut inoculations so a little of it goes a longer way it triggering an immune response, there are alternative solvents available—such as olive oil. The irreplaceable species already under threat from human activity could be driven to extinction if we were to cull hundreds of thousands more to jockey for cure, throwing the rest of the oceans’ ecosystem towards turmoil.

♆

Discovered by brewer by trade and amateur astronomer by passion William Lassell just weeks after the confirmation of the new planet Neptune at the advice of his friend polymath John Herschel to search for moons, the largest and what was considered until 1949 to be the lone satellite came to be named after Triton. 

The son of sea god Poseidon and Amphitrite—was half man and half fish his name was broadly used as term for merfolk generally in classical scholarship.  Triton’s relatively substantial size, as big as the Earth’s moon, and uniquely retrograde orbit suggest Triton was a dwarf planet, like Pluto, captured by the gas giant. Composed primarily of water ice and frozen nitrogen with a rocky core, it is one of the few known satellites to be geologically active and has cryovolcanic activity and ice geysers that give the moon uniform but ridged terrain described as akin to the surface of a cantaloupe.

rosinenbomber

Born this day in 1920 in Salt Lake City, Utah, Gail Seymour “Hal” Halvorsen, fighter and freight pilot for the United States Airforce during the Berlin Airlift (Berliner Luftbrücke—otherwise known as Operation Vittles) is best known for his goodwill missions as the Candy Bomber, pooling the rations of his flight crew and dropping them from the air, landing gently thanks to tiny improvised parachutes, as they passed over the divided city during the Soviet blockade of West Berlin. With each run, more and more children gathered at the drop-zone and word soon reached Halvorsen’s superiors that supported and expanded operation Little Vittles. Since his retirement in 1974, Halvorsen has continued his humanitarian work, fostering a spirit of charity and home to warzones around the world.  Hearty birthday wishes and congratulations on this new milestone—Alles Gute zum Geburtstag!

wuchang clan

Under the pictured banner that would go on to become that of the People’s Revolutionary Army circa 1913 to 1928, the eponymous uprising that began on this day in 1911 in the Hubei capital city marked the beginning of the revolution that deposed the Qing dynasty. Originally designed by revolutionaries in exile in Japan, the “iron-blood flag” had eighteen stars, representing each of the imperial provinces at the time.

These actions and decisions ushered in the establishment of the Republic of China, the resentment and dissatisfaction of the people with ruling dynasty focused and galvanised by the government’s announced intentions to nationalise local railway development projects and cede, sell control to foreign investment banks, in part to generate capital to pay indemnities and reparations incurred from the Boxer Rebellion of 1901 to oust Christian missionaries and the earlier Opium Wars. Seizing advantage of the popular sentiment, the revolutionary forces stormed the viceroy’s residence, the regional plenipotentate of the emperor with oversight of military and civil affairs, who quickly fled the province and the united protesters established a provisional military government for Hubei and Hunan, quickly taking more ground and encouraging vast swaths of territory in central and southern China to secede and join their cause over the next two months.

6x6

like a version: a brilliant cover of the 1998 Massive Attack hit Teardrop 

the goldilocks paradox: a preliminary survey of superhabitable exoplanets understood to be far more stable and conduscive to life as we know it  

smudge, sharpen, blur: an exhibit that encourages visitors to adjust levels for masterpieces 

 travis touchdown: paparazzi in Croatia snapped a few pictures of Nicolas Cage in costume filming his upcoming The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent  

all mimsy were yᵉ borogoves: an animated reading of Lewis Carroll’s Jabberwocky—illustrating how the reader makes meaning for nonsense words  

sign o’ the times: a review of the Super Deluxe release of Prince’s (previously) 1987 masterpiece

opéra populaire

It is theatre season, and on this day in 1986, the Andrew Lloyd Webber, Richard Stilgoe, Charles Hart stage musical adaptation of the 1910 novel by Gaston Leroux (primarily a writer of detective fiction of equal stature and influence to Arthur Conon Doyle) that relates the narrative of disfigured musical genius haunting the maze of passageways beneath the opera house of Paris and becomes obsessed with a beautiful soprano had its opening night at Her Majesty’s Theatre in London. One of the longest-running productions of all time, it has been performed by troupes all over the world. 

 

the watcher in the woods

After a significant delay following its debut showing in New York City (with some major revisions needed after a poor reception by audiences) until it was picked up by Walt Disney Studios for distribution and general release more than a year later, the supernatural thriller was shown in cinemas across the US first on this day in 1981.
Targeting a young adult demographic and starring Bette Davis and David McCallum, it tells the story of an American family that move into a Buckinghamshire estate, whom are received warmly by the owner of the manor whose has since downsized and resides in the guest cottage—only the proprietoress comments how much the teenage daughter Jan looks so much like her own Karen who disappeared without a trace in the surrounding woods thirty years before. Settling in with the occasion blindfolded apparition haunting the many mirrors and eerie blue lights coming from the forest, the mother adopts a puppy to keep her company—inexplicably naming it Nerak. Catching a glimpse of the dog’s name inverted, Jan realises that it’s Karen spelled backwards. Growing emboldened by curiosity, Jan ventures further into the woods, accompanied by Nerak and encounters a hermit, who relates the story of a coven and how Karen, decades ago, was convinced to take part in a séance and was spirited away, entranced, when lighting struck the chapel tower during a lunar eclipse.   All tropes covered.  Here’s a preview below with the full movie here.