Saturday, 22 December 2018

latimeria chalumnae

On this day in 1938, the a trawler on a fishing expedition in South Africa caught the first specimen of what would later be identified as an extant species of a type of primitive, limbed fish though to have died out in the Cretaceous Era, some sixty-five million years ago. Having more than a passing interest in the sciences, the captain of the vessel often shared unusual finds with the curator of a local natural history museum, Marjorie Courtenay-Latimer, who eventually recognised the sample as a coelacanth, coining the phrase a “living fossil.”

5x5

their santatanic majesties request: the Rolling Stone album had the working title of Cosmic Christmas

tinsel: a gallery of Mid-Century Modern aluminum Christmas trees

tinsel town: 1930s Hollywood in its heydays recreated as a diorama

brick & mortar: a bookshop in Tokyo now has a cover-charge

aรฐventuljรณs: a handy guide to the holidays in Iceland

Friday, 21 December 2018

twelfth night

Driving home for the holidays, we really enjoyed listening to this Royal Christmas Special from Rex Factor (previously) that examines the celebration, traditions and historical happenstance—births, coronations, etc.—from a courtly point of view. We think you’ll like this entertaining and informative episode as well, travelling or otherwise.

early modern

Though the buildings’ host nation rather disturbingly broke ranks with the international body that has not stopped eight examples of Frank Lloyd Wright’s architecture from being nominated for inclusion on the registry of UNESCO World Heritage Sites, possibly to be inscribed during the next year. If approved Wright’s iconic structures, including the Falling Water House and the Guggenheim, will join a panoply of architectural wonders both ancient and more contemporary.

contact print

Our thanks to the always terrific Nag on the Lake for the introduction to the impressive portfolio of artist and photographer Damion Berger through his series of compositions Black Powder that re-contextualise pyrotechnic displays by presenting them as black-and-white negatives, whose exposure properties can be chalked up to a chemical reaction like the subjects. Pictured is a scene from the annual fete of Saint Clair (patroness of laundry, television and needleworkers) celebrated in Sant Pau on the French Riviera.   Much more to explore at the links above.

Thursday, 20 December 2018

oversharing

Examining the beleaguered missteps of a social media platform through the lens of the integrity dividend, Evan Osnos’ analysis in The New Yorker is a sobering reminder that when the service is free, you are the product and that none of us are immune to the manipulation and exploitation until we’ve attained the tipping point of herd immunity that unseats those outlying, extreme opinions.
I think the graver danger lies in the fact that many dismiss the latest in a tranche of scandals—with surely more to follow—as people getting what they deserved. One so easily swayed by sophistry doesn’t deserve to participate in politics in the first place, one might argue, ignorant of their own selective bias. In general, people are not poles apart on issues and reasonable civility would otherwise prevail but by amplifying small differences in opinion we all become polarised and made to take sides. In a business model based on trust and reputation, it seems perhaps something too easily squandered and forgiven.

typesetting

Via Kottke, we are treated to the extensive and evocative portfolio of artist and advocate Lenka Clayton through her ongoing series of drawings created on a Smith-Corona Skyriter. Clayton’s art and interventions nudge conventions and propel one to the poetic and inspired, like getting to know every resident of a small Slovakian town that shares her name or her Artists’ Residency in Motherhood project that helps to empower and recognise gifted moms. See more of Clayton’s work at the links above.

quod erat demonstrandum

Having devoted a rather joyful semester of study to Oliver Byrne’s masterful and lucid textbook adaptation of Euclid’s Elements during college, I am finding myself genuinely delighted and nostalgic to see that there’s going to be a re-issue of the authoritative 1847 tome on geometry, illustrating his proofs with colours rather than letters.
The geometer himself provided no pictures and relied on his pupils’ imagination—causing poet Edna St. Vincent Millay to extol that “Euclid alone has looked on Beauty bare” and I even semi-seriously contemplated getting a tattoo of the Pythagorean theorem or another of Byrne’s elegant diagrams—across my back where if I flexed and brought my shoulder blades together (or some such nonsense) the axiom would reveal itself—QED. More to explore at the link above, including a nice primer on the subject.