power pellet

First appearing in limited release in Tokyo arcades on this day in 1980 and originally called Puck Man (see also) from the onomatopoetic gobbling om-nom paku paku taberu—though that was changed once developers realised that the potential and temptation for defacement would be high, especially in foreign markets, Pac-Man was an instant and transformative hit with players, helping to expand and legitimise the video game industry. Working for Namco, programmer and game designer Toru Iwatani was inspired to make the protagonist by a pizza with a slice taken out. Much more gaming history and lore at Kotaku at the link above.

it is a dark time for the rebellion

Sharing its anniversary with many other things great and good, as our faithful chronicler records, the sequel (now Part the Fifth) to the highly successful space opera Star Wars: A New Hope, The Empire Strikes Back, had its general release in cinemas in the United States (Memorial Day Weekend) and the UK on this day in 1980 (as it had an earlier debut at Washington, DC’s Kennedy Center on 17 May, it also had a special showing the day prior at London’s Odeon Theatre, for Commonwealth Day, formerly known as Empire Day)—story by-line George Lucas and directed by Irvin Kershner.  Busy with other projects including Raiders of the Lost Ark and handling the finances of the franchise, Lucas relinquished control on this instalment of the saga, critically parsed and well-received, winning numerous industry and fan accolades and consistently rated by audiences among the best films ever made.

9th street art exhibition

Running from this day in 1951 until 10 June, the historical art show that showcased the avant-garde portfolio of the movement collectively known as the New York School, organised by curator and gallerist Leo Castelli, was a landmark moment in of the post-war era and signalled an important resurgence for the visual arts and their ability to engage and enlighten in general. A veritable who’s who snapshot of the community, participants without deference or sonority in placement or listing (neither here or at the exhibit, most of the exhibitors though not all being professional artists and war veterans or those displaced by the fighting and were kindred) included Elaine and Wilem de Kooning, Jackson Pollock, Aaron Siskind, Milton Resnick, Helen Frankenthaler, Ad Reinhardt, Franz Kline, Robert Rauschenberg, Lee Krasner, Herbert Ferber, Joop Sanders, Philip Guston and Robert De Niro, Sr.

got a whole lot of money that’s ready to burn so set those stakes up higher

Sharing one of our nostalgic, impossible but transporting travel fantasies of visiting mid-century Las Vegas before it was sanitised into some contradictory, kidult theme park, we are quite enjoying pouring over the branding and logos from Regan Ray’s (see previously) recent addition of the city’s vintage casinos and resorts.
Some of the most venerable ones, like Caesar’s Palace, are still there of course and a few are preserved in indelible memory or ghost signage, like the Stardust (1958 – 2006) but there are some real gems to discover, like The Mint (1957 – 1989)—one-time sponsor of a big road-off race and infamous as the host for the first night of Hunter S. Thompson’s weekend trip as portrayed in his Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas or Hotel El Rancho Vegas (1941 – 1960) with its Midnight Chuck Wagon restaurant and venue for big entertainers.

meck dec day

Drafted by the patriotic, separatist county Committee on Safety on this day in 1775 and adopted by the same organisation at the end of the month, the Mecklenburg Resolves, whilst falling short of an actual declaration of independence from Great Britain by the colony of North Carolina, the list of grievances did reject the authority of crown and parliament, and were transmogrified over the decades and romanticised as a break with England that preceded the United States’ declaration by over a year.
Though no longer celebrated as a state holiday (regrettably North Carolina also selected this anniversary in 1861 to secede from the Union and join the Confederacy) and not brought to light until republication forty-four years after the fact much to the consternation and scepticism Declaration of Independence author Thomas Jefferson whom by dint of similarity of language and tone might have been accused of plagiarism or cribbing—in fact accused of doing so by John Adams, the date is referenced on both the state flag and seal (see also here and here) not without some enduring controversy regarding the authenticity of the claim and tarnish on the Founding Father. The second date April 12 th 1776 refers to the Halifax Resolves of a neighbouring county whose historic legitimacy are better attested

theatrum orbis terrarium

First printed on this day in Antwerp in 1570, the collaboration “Theatre of the Orb of the World” from Abraham Ortelius and Gillis Hooftman van Eyckelberg is considered the progenitor of the modern atlas and informed charting, seafaring and to a large extent the Golden Age of Exploration—transforming worldview from older, staid conceptions.
The edition of some seventy uniform, bound maps with keys, legends and explanatory text with a section called a nomenclator that was a registry of place names from Antiquity as well as table of endonyms and exonyms. Though more immediate literacy accrued with this publication and plate tectonics and continental drift would not be articulated or scientifically accepted until l centuries later, it is believed that Ortelius, while compiling his work, was one of the first people to notice the correspondence of the landmasses and postulate that they might be mobile.

svetovni dan čebel

Born on this day in 1734 (†1773), professionally trained painter become beekeeper to the Viennese Hapsburg court, Anton Janša cultivated expert knowledge on their care and maintenance and published authoritative manuals and delivered lectures on apiculture across the Empire in order to maximise their yield of honey and wax and pollination of crops. In addition to the rotation of hives in pastures, Janša’s designs for bivouacs with stacked combs (see also) are the still the modern standard today, and since a bid to the United Nations from Slovenia was accepted in 2017, Janša’s birthday has been memorialised as World Bee Day.

pizza arbitrage or avoid the noid

First rejecting the characterisation of the whole house of cards of mail order schemes that pushes no cost merchandise in exchange for favourable reviews and nights on the town fuelled and funded via recommendations as too unsustainable to be believed and then learning of the seemingly contradictory exorbitant fees that food delivery aggregators charge to restaurants for membership, I was really taken aback by this bit of trading and markets incongruity that seems to be an example of business working for exposure.
Essentially the delivery service that a pizzeria proprietor uses undercuts the price paid per pizza taken from the order-in diner—the result being, experimentally verified, it being more profitable for the eatery to order their own pizzas and netting the difference. Of course, this mismatch and spreading out risk wouldn’t be sustainable with a network of restauranteurs capitalising on this sort of scheme but it’s the bubble and burst cycle that’s reflected in macroeconomics all the time—strange as it seems on this level. These platforms and the exploitative gig empire, a sheen of refinement, sophistication and technical skill but all held together with great effort and with the most precarious and vulnerable doing the most work, are subsidised by bigger platforms and by our own delusions of taking part and conceits of convenience.