wormsign

From the extensive archives of JWZ, we are reminded what a golden age the 1980s were for up-and-comer sandworms. Shai-Hulud (1985) as they are called by the Fremen of Arrakis (not to scale) grow to gigantic proportions, hundreds of metres in length and forty metres in diameter and ply the desert sands as whales do in Earth oceans, and extending the comparison, as with flensing and whale oil, were the source of the spice melange—the most valuable commodity in the Cosmos. The sarlacc that inhabits the Great Pit of Carkoon (1983) is classified as non-sessile arthropod though shares a similar physiology to its companions.

zen den

As a bonus, through the final act of the most recent episode of This American Life, we are acquainted with the delightful yoga instructional videos (see previously) and classroom lesson plans from the studio of Cosmic Kids. The enthusiasm is contagious and some exercise routines are based on based on fairy stories, nursery rhymes and the contemporary re-tellings, and for this movie night themed show, they had the instructor take on a film for grown-ups, Thelma & Louise—not presented here but rather a quick regiment of basic poses (asanas) to practise and limber up to.

movie night

In an exploration of how film informs our sympathies and limn the present through memory and reinterpretation over the years, couching the present of the movie-makers in our own, This America Life producer Sean Cole digs up an obscure title from 1968, which despite its all-star ensemble cast was singularly bad to have not garnered much attention or conservation heretofore though presently in the redemptive and consoling way that cinematic homeopathy can arise to, even if the inversion of current climate. With several points of resonance to today (that year was also a particularly tumultuous time) we cycle through distrust in science, mask-mandates, downplaying the contagion (the vector being instead of bats a toucan), negative implications for the economy, retreating to a bunker and the suggestion that the virus was manufactured in a laboratory for nefarious ends—though the infection and its attendant co-morbidities result in euphoria and an altered outlook that is particularly communicable.

biomarker

Researchers—with due restraint and caution—have made the announcement that the concentration of the toxic gas phosphine (phosphane, PH₃) in the Venusian atmosphere, which should not be present at the levels they have detected in accordance with known chemical and geologic reactions, consistent with the presence of anaerobic bacterial life suspended (see also) at a tolerable zone within the thick atmosphere. There’s a selection of nice primers and more details of the unexpected finding at Phil Plait’s Bad Astronomy at the link up top.

popish plot

Promoted and promulgated by English priest Titus Oates, born on this day in 1649 ( †1705), the ungrounded conspiracy theory gripped England and Scotland with an anti-Catholic hysteria from its 1678 circulation and was not easily dispelled despite, Oates’ eventual arrest and conviction of perjury for giving false testimony that led to the execution of twenty-two individuals. Capitalising on fear and suspicions—and guilt by affiliation, real or attributed—of the foiled Gunpowder Plot of 1605 and fuelled by the Thirty Years’ War, framed as a Hapsburg effort to stamp out German and British Protestantism, Oates’ sermons accused one hundred Jesuits and their supporters of plotting an assassination attempt against Charles II. Owing to the recent restoration of the monarchy, the government took any accusation with gravity and led to legislation excluding Catholics from the throne with the Act of Settlement of 1701, further giving rise to two political party factions, the Tories who were opposed and the Whigs in favour of prohibiting Catholics from rule.

recapitulation theory

Having before seen some of the precocious handiwork of Charles Darwin’s children, we enjoyed this curated collection from Open Culture of the early drawings of the immanent scientist whose offspring matured beyond test subjects and objects of academic curiosity into laboratory assistants and apprentice researchers themselves with several becoming scientists in their own right. Interest born to a degree out of melancholy and self-preservation, these illustrations and what they prefigure provides a nice counter-balance.  Much more to explore at the link above.

pon farr

One tune that I keep in my mental play-list, like the Tetris song or the Night on Bald Mountain or any number of Sophisti-Pop melodies, has been the scherzo that is the Star Trek fight motif. Composed in 1967 by Hollywood arranger Gerald Fried in first for the episode “Amok Time” airing on this day in that year in which Captain Kirk indulges the mating rites (the incidental music sampled from, informed by Igor Stravinsky’s 1913 riot-inciting symphony) of his otherwise completely logical first officer, Mister Spock, by defending his insubordination in diverting the ship’s course to Vulcan to spawn as it were and fulfil the obligations of his arranged marriage, both for biological and societal reasons.
Spock’s betrothed T’Pring has fallen in love with another during his absence and invokes her right to a ritual duel, the kali-if-fee, between Spock and a pugilist of her choosing, which to the surprise of all assembled is Kirk, who agrees to enjoin in hand-to-hand combat despite Spock’s warning against it. After accepting his role as champion, Kirk learns that it a duel to the death. In order to level the playing field, Doctor McCoy convinces the referee, the overseer to allow him to inject Kirk with a compound to counteract the thinner atmosphere of Vulcan. It is permitted and the fighting ensues, underscored by Fried’s incidental music called The Ritual/Ancient Battle/Second Kroykah.
Fried also scored numerous other television programmes (the episodes to his credit are quite extensive) including Gilligan’s Island and created the signature leitmotifs for the characters. Kirk is beaten down and McCoy pronounces him dead and the two beam back to the Enterprise immediately. Spock renounces T’Pring, released of his obligations, who then explains her strategy, afraid of losing her beloved in battle to Spock, she chose Kirk as her second in order to ensure she gets her choice regardless of the outcome of the challenge. Spock compliments her flawless logic and issues a warning to T’Pring’s new mate that “having is not so pleasing a thing after all as wanting,” giving the Vulcan salute and motto of “Live long and proper” for the first time. Expecting to be charged for killing the captain, Spock returns to face justice and is visibly relieved to find Kirk alive and well and merely drugged by McCoy to simulate death in combat.

leave the driving to us

While not exactly pleased with the idea of after having finished the fraught task of packing house and home to be presented with a record album to bear away and figure out how to transport, we do rather like this novelty arrangement presented to families in the 1960s whom chose Allied Van lines to handle the logistics of their change of address. These orchestral variations on the company’s jingle, a network of independent contractors formed in the 1930s to reduce dead-heading—that is, the movement of empty trucks—in the shipping business, embraces the range of genres popular at the time.