intermediate egret

Vis-à-vis our last post, here’s a bit of a coda on avian nomenclature in this extensive thread of birds named by ornithologists who were clearly frightened by birds as young children and have since worked through that trauma hurling insults at select members of the group. There were too many funny names to mention them all but some of our tragic favourites were the Monotonous Lark, the Red-Rumped Bush Tyrant, the pictured Perplexing Scrubwren (our poster birb), the Rough-Faced Shag and the Smew. What’s your favourite and which would be a suitable stage name for you?

bird box

Via Waxy, not only do we learn that delightfully on classic Korean operating system and file storage utility, that a newly created folder was assigned the name of a type of bird (the Korean for “new” 새로운 saelon being homonymous with bird, 새 sae) and if one made too many folders (on the order of the hundreds) they would pled by starting to call them things like “I’ve run out of bird names,” “You’re still making folders” or “Please stop,” based on this Easter egg and programming artefact, there’s now an extension for Macintosh that draws on a list of over ten-thousand avian species at random and gives those names to new folders.

dial up the ambiance

Via Kottke, for those of us missing the sounds and atmosphere of the everyday, here’s a nice afterhours compliment to this office simulator as a transporting sonic experience for those missing their old bar—with adjustable sliders to tailor the mood to one’s personal preference. Once adjusted and running, it can be used as a video call background for a virtual evening out and includes a jukebox selection of ambient music.

8x8

penne, named for the nib of a quill: a trilingual exploration of past etymology—see also 

i’m live—i’m not a cat: kitten-filter mishap for attorney’s teleconference is could become this era’s poster image 

so this is how liberty dies… with thunderous applause: the honourable senator from Naboo was the deciding vote that allowed the Palpatine to become Emperor as explored scene-by-scene by a group of screenwriters constructing the finest Star Wars story that will be never made
 

opmerkelijke zaken: mushroom bricks, bricks reinforced with plastic waste plus more from the peripatetic Pasa Bon!  

pelagic zone: winners of the 2021 Underwater Photography contest announced 

cosy web: the Multiverse Diary project, a collaboration that celebrates the old school blog and wiki aesthetic for branching out  

pov: Ancient China on Rome, the Islamic world on India and other historical perspectives narrative on Voices of the Past 

uunifetapasta: where the phenomenon of TikTok Pasta came from and where it might lead

no vacancy

Whilst not the first time that the Grifter-in-Chief sought to capitalise on conspiracy theories with room rates at Trump’s DC hotel, the former Post Office Building, jumping to over five thousand dollars per night for single-occupancy just ahead of the certification of the US Electoral College vote interrupted by the violent insurrection, there’s one last desperate attempt to siphon money off these useful idiots the first week of March. With prices nearly tripled over the massively over-priced going rate, the suggestion is that the United States of American was secretly and incontrovertibly turned into a corporation in 1871 (occasioned by the passage of legislation that turned the country into an asset of the city of London) and that Ulysses S. Grant, inaugurated on 4 March 1869 was the last legitimate president. QAnon followers are dangling the prospect that Trump will be invested on this day as the nineteenth president, rather than the forty-fifth pretender, and the country will revert back to its original form, an argument to moot any subsequent legislation and render sovereign citizens immune to enforcement. Whether or not this date draws crowds, it’s assured that they will need to equivocate over their next rapture.

safe countries of origin

Surreal and more than a bit menacing—via Maps Mania—we are referred to No Fly Free Zone and its regular recitation of flight guidelines and entry-restrictions and rule-making exceptions issued by the International Air Transportation Association for member states. The globe with air routes is interactive and a public-address system jingle is used to punctuate announcements.

jimoto made

Though not a big fan of the coffee magnate and its café culture hegemony, we can support this latest collaboration with local artisans to create distinctive mugs and tumblers that reflect the ceramic and pottery vernacular of the areas where it’s produced—and only available at local outlet. The title and project (地元) refers to the Japanese concept of being locally sourced, and pictured is porcelain cup from Ehime prefecture whose signature indigo patterns on bold white backgrounds are meant to be seen only when one takes a sip. More to explore with Spoon & Tamago at the link above.

the riot between town and gown on saint scholastica’s day

A dispute over some supposed subpar wine served in an Oxford tavern erupted into a violent and deadly unrest on this day in 1355 with some thirty townspeople and sixty students and professors dead by the end, testing the protected status of the benefit of the clergy and authentica habita—that is, the rules, rights and privileges of universities in medieval Europe, institutions that enforced a trial by one’s peers with punishment for infractions far less severe than in civil courts, which the was the jurisdiction of the ordinary public, and carceral facilities.

The bar brawl quickly escalated with armed gangs coming into the countryside to aid the townsfolk in overcoming the university, with king and commission (oyer and terminer) siding with the institution of higher learning, placing religious interdict on the town and an annual penance payable each year on the anniversary—Saint Scholastica’s Feast Day, the fifth century Italian nun who founded the Benedictine order and whose patronage includes reading, quizzes and book fairs, which was kept until 1825. On the six hundredth anniversary in 1955, with an act of reconciliation, the mayor was given an honourary degree from Oxford and the university chancellor was bestowed with the freedom of the city—equivalent to being given the key.