annual reminder

Staged at Philadelphia’s Independence Hall yearly since 1965 to admonish the government and the public that gay people did not have basic civil protections and reputations and careers were precarious and subject to the caprice and prejudice of others, the final march of picketers took place on this day in 1969. After Stonewall, organisers decided to hold the subsequent parade on its anniversary, the last weekend in June, to commemorate the riots and moved the venue to New York City, holding the first Christopher Street Liberation Day in 1970.

time to make the doughnuts

Having famously unyoked itself from one fast-food giant several years back—with the artefacts to prove it—one doughnut (kleinuhringjum) chain has already come and gone and now with a second one to follow, having grossly over-estimated the market demand in Iceland.
I hope that this trend continues and such invasive, unnecessary operations kindly remove their toe-hold in train stations and the high street in cloying hopes of being seen and establishing brand loyalty. Placeholder-boutiques, having dispensed with initial curiosity if the appeal was ever there much less sustaining, are a huge drag on resources and real estate that could be put to much better use.

7x7

the farmer and the cowhand can be friends: a racy revival of Oklahoma! as a heuristic tool for exploring identity

eggcorn: celebrating malapropisms (see also) and mixing of idioms

horologium floræ: botanist and taxonomist Carl Linnaeus noted the opening and closing times of different species of flowers and proposed that one could reliably tell time by their routine

do not pass go: the downfall of Atlantic City (previously) reflects the psychopathic Schadenfreude of Trump’s evangelic of opportunism

skin deep: facial recognition payment systems will start applying beauty-filters so users don’t feel self-conscious

brick-and-mortar: anchor retailors offer to help US government scrutinise their online arch-rivals

toypography: 1990s play things turned into letters of the alphabet—see also

cola wars

The always engaging Messy Nessy Chic reminds us of the time that soft drink giant Pepsi held temporarily the distinction of being one of the world’s largest naval powers, taking ownership of seventeen obsolete diesel-powered submarines, a decommissioned crusier, destroyer and frigate and a fleet of oil tankers from the quickly disintegrating Soviet Union in 1990.
The relationship of the rival cola company vying for market dominance and the Eastern Bloc goes back to the cultural, domestic-science exchanges held between Nikita Khrushchev and Richard Nixon back in July of 1959, these kitchen debates netting among other things a photograph of the Soviet Premier enjoying a cold, refreshing beverage. Pepsi executives recognised a monumental opportunity to break into new markets. Straightforward expansion, however, was hindered by US sanctions and a Soviet restriction on the export of rubles abroad but worked out a deal to trade syrup for Stolichnaya vodka. The monopoly was negotiated in 1972 and would expire unless renegotiated in 1989. The USSR was a very different place when the terms of the trade deal were coming to an end and with little else of value to barter with, the Soviets offered part of its navy. Sweden and Norway bought the tankers while the tactical vessels were scrapped and sold as salvage, the president of the company quipping to then US president George HW Bush that they had managed to disarm the USSR at a faster pace than the American administration.

fondant

To highlight the absurdity that may follow the enforcement of Article 13, the EU mandate that hosting services monitor use-submitted content for possible copyright infringement or lack of attribution—presumably policed by algorithms and upload filters—once the sharing of memes or children’s birthday cakes decorated with proprietary characters might be outlawed—proscriptively—artist Fabian Mosele, having studied the tolerances and triggers of such systems, has created a series of contorted and abstracted frosting works. We especially liked the Captcha-style piping. Much more to explore at the links above.

ponzo/poggendorff

A variant on Gianni Sarcone’s Op Art illusions, this coffer illusion (referring to the sunken panel elements that most people perceive first) but if one focuses on the x, an array of sixteen circles begin to emerge. Having more than just ornamental value, coffering was a common feature of domes and vaulted ceilings as a load-bearing decoration, each of the lacunaria (openings) making up a strengthening framework.

pilotage

The always excellent Nag on the Lake directs our attention to a quite visually captivating coast chart of the world’s lighthouses to include differentiation by their distinctive signal patterns. Lights at Sea not only shows the location of these navigational beacons but also the light class and characteristics, fixed, flashing, coloured or encoded, that help ships triangulate their location upon approaching land.

7x7

general strike: Wikipedia co-founder Larry Sanger calls for a boycott of social media as a Declaration of Digital Independence, via Slashdot

imts: an exploration of mobile telephony (see also) from the 1940s onward

move fast, bank things: a helpful primer on a social media giant’s currency roll-out

a different kind of energy: US presidential contender Marianne Williamson

hang a yield sign in your rear window to prevent cars from passing: driverless vehicles are highly susceptible to spoofing

soffa sans: IKEA releases a new font in response to people testing the limits of their Vallentuna sectional planning tool

one of these things is not like the others: nepotism is not easy on the eyes