256 byte boundary

First encountered here, we really appreciated learning about Memories and the economy of engineering that went into coding this MS-DOS demonstration, via Waxy, and wonder if anyone else is practising constrained programming, sensitive to limitations, legacy and backwards compatibility. Considering how enduring Voyagers’ primitive operating systems are or the two-bit viruses that can bring the world to a stand-still, tiny code can have outsized implications.

deaccession

Delightfully temporarily shuttered museums are holding a virtual curatorial showdown to reveal the world’s creepiest exhibit or object in their collection. Entrants, all hideous and artefacts to make one’s skin crawl began with a ancient Roman woman’s burial hair bun and include taxidermied mermaids, talismans and torture devices—like this one pictured from the Tower of London, touted as an executioner’s mask but subsequent research suggests it’s purpose is even darker: an iron muzzle called a Scold’s Bridle, meant for public humiliation. See more ghastly, cursed objects at The Guardian article at the link up top.

spqr

Though there are competing and incompatible origin myths—neither of which square with the archaeological evidence that suggest human settlement in the area is far older, the traditional date for the founding of Rome was on this day in 753 BC (Ab urbe condita 1), eschewing the other candidates for founding father, Aeneas who fled from Troy or Greek Evander from Arcadia or Romos, the son of Circe and Odysseus, by Romulus.
Born along with his twin brother Remus in Alba Longa not far from where the future city would be, the pair were the offspring of Rhea Silva, a vestal virgin and holy priestess, and a visitation by the god Mars (Ares), the king and maternal uncle Amulius who had displaced his own brother Numitor ordered them abandoned to the elements, fearing that they could challenge his claim on the throne and set them adrift on the Tiber. The twins were adopted and suckled by a she-wolf and sheltered in a cave dubbed the Lupercal. Eventually fostered by the shepherd Faustulus and civilised, both became partisans, not knowing anything of their parentage or history, becoming involved in a dispute between supporters of Numitor and his usurper Amulius. With both king and dethroned grandfather suspecting his true identity, Remus was captured and imprisoned. Learning of their past and succession disputes, Romulus launched a campaign to free his twin brother and reinstate Numitor as ruler of Alba Longa. The twins were dispatched afterwards to found a new settlement disagreed over its location, with Remus favouring the Aventine Hill and Romulus preferring Palatine (Mons Palatinus). Omens and augury failed to settle matters definitively and the conflict escalated, resulting in the death of Remus, either by his brother’s own hand or one of his supporters.

dum spiro spero

With a total land area of some seventy-five kilometres—making the micronation larger than some recognised microsates—the Principality of Hutt River (originally called a province) was founded when Leonard Casley (*1925 - †2019) declared his farm to be an independent entity on this day five decades ago and seceded from Australia over a dispute concerning wheat quotas, banding together with four other families who worked the land of the floodplain, lodging a formal objection with the state’s governor.
One item of corres- pondence inadvertently addressed Casley as the “administrator of the Hutt River Province,” which Casley asserted as recognition of his sovereignty. Believing that styling himself as prince would legally shield him from charges of treason as well as levy punishment on those who would interfere with discharging his duties as leader, based on his reading of a thirteenth century law, the principality further claimed that outside of Australian jurisdiction, subjects were not required to pay Australian taxes. After a reign of forty-five years in 2017, Prince Leonard abdicated in favour of his son, Graeme. The principality has no legal status under Australian law and has no diplomatic representation. The title refers to the Principality’s motto—“While I breath, I hope.”—attributed to Andrew the Apostle.

🤬 or the dutch disease

Not to be confused with the economists’ coinage or this other economic hysteria attributed to the Low Country, we find ourselves directed to a pair of articles on Dutch curses—which tend not to fixate on the social taboos of religion (see also these fantastic French Canadian swears) sex and other bodily functions, but rather on illness.
For a proper telling-off, one might be called poxy or told to get consumption (krijg de tering), and witnessing the deserved misfortune of a rival, one might laugh oneself into pleurisy (lachen je de pleuris) and so forth. There are competing theories about how this might have arisen, the chief being that health and hygiene reflected virtue and prosperity—indeed that cleanliness was next to godliness, and it seems even as a lot of these maladies are antiquated and vanquished to be circumspect to keep terms for old ailments fossilised in common-parlance. The typographical universal stand-ins for profane language are called grawlixes—a term thought up by illustrator Mort Walker in his 1980 Lexicon of Comicana that examined some of the conventions (see also) employed by cartoonists. Another coinage from the same source—though perhaps not as widely used are plewds, the name giving to droplets of sweat emanating from a physically taxed or emotional distressed character.

and the word mini

Via friend of the blog, Nag on the Lake, we are directed towards this set of spot the difference games from the museum and gallery consortium Europeana with this works of fine art altered in eight subtle ways for you to puzzle out.

 Each round is fiendishly busy with a lot of details to pour over but we really liked The Merry Family (Het vrolijke huisgezin, 1668) by Jan Havicksz Steen which resides in the Rijksmuseum. This colourful and boisterous scene is typical of the Dutch Golden Age painter’s portfolio—including Peasants before an Inn, Woman at her Toilet, Rhetoricians at a Window, and A Burgomaster of Delft and his Daughter—and the note hanging from the mantle sums up the situation: “As the old sing, so shall the young twitter.” See if you are able to find all eight changes in eight pairs of paintings.

for the nonce: goatforsaken

The Ancient Greek word αἰγίλιψ (aigílips) to flatten the metaphor means steep or sheer and literally a place “destitute even of goats,” sure-footed as they might be.  Homer’s Odyssey includes this epithet as an island in the Ionian Sea near Ithaca and part of the titular character’s dominion whose modern name is Μεγανήσι (Meganisi)—meaning rather unprosaically Big Island.

the majesty of nature

Via Memo of the Air (lots of other excellent and enlightened diversions to find here as well), we are directed to a growing gallery of failed attempts at wildlife photography (see also here and here) that are exquisitely bad and sure to incite a grin at the very least if not inspiring you to go on your own backyard photographic safari with our animal friends getting a bit bolder now that we are all shut-ins.