release the kraken

Though popular culture dictates that the head of Medusa was retrieved for one specific purpose, another variant myth has Perseus going through the ordeal as a sort of fool’s errand, with King Polydectes of the island of Seriphos wanting to rid himself of an over-protective son after he became enamoured with Danaë after she and Perseus were salvaged by the king’s brother the fisherman Dictys (this aprotonym means Mister Net), the king of Argos Acrisius having cast his daughter and the infant Perseus to sea in a wooden chest to avoid the prophesy that he would be killed by his grandson. Polydectes announced his betrothal to a certain Hippodamia and ordered everyone in his kingdom to supply him with suitable wedding gifts, mostly on the registry were horses but Perseus came late and was assigned by his presumptive step-dad the head of the gorgon after bragging he was fit for a task so demanding. Perseus departed on his quest and Polydectes proceded to woo Danaë who tried her best to reject his advances. Using his shield as a mirror to avoid the gorgon’s gaze, Perseus slew Medusa and returned to Seriphos. Disbelieving that Perseus accomplished this trial, Polydectes demanded to be shown the head, which Perseus produced at court, turning the king and his nobles into stone and rescuing his mother. As for Acrisius who banished mother and son and exiling them to the elements, the old king did eventually die at Perseus hand albeit an accident when he was hit in the head by a stray discus that Perseus threw during a tournament.

you look like a thing and I love you

Resident artificial intelligencer Janelle Shane (previously) early on trained a neural network to generate pick-up lines with the titular gem shining through a mostly confused and incoherent jumble of words and called her book after it. Since then, machines have become more literate and sophisticated cads and can slather on some pretty good introductory ice-breakers.

I love you. I don’t care if you’re a doggo in a trenchcoat.
I will briefly summarise the plot of Back to the Future II for you.
CAPE FASHION
Can I see your parts list?

Cool your jets Babbage, Ada—things are moving a bit quickly. Check out the whole list at the link up top and learn more about the programming and protocols of machine learning.

7x7

møbler, belysning, rumdesign: another dip into the iconic designs of Verner Panton—see previously  

fortuitous numbers: a few sums with the rare property where a number equals its letter count multiplied together 

avondklok: a photo-essay on the curfew in Amsterdam during the heights of the pandemic  

digital only trainers: Gucci is selling a virtual sneaker for augmented reality photographs  

yoshizawa-randlett system: rocket scientists and engineers are turning to origami for inspiration 

screen-time: a comic panel from 1997 about high school in 2021 A.D., see also

in memoriam: a pair of obituaries celebrating the life and work of designer Zeev Aram from Things Magazine

darerca of ireland

 

A sister to Saint Patrick and mother of perhaps seventeen sons who became prominent bishops and one future king of Brittany, the legendary Gradlon the Great, and daughters who married well, Darerca is venerated on this day as patron of Valentia (An Bhaile) Island, the most westerly part of County Kerry.  Pictured is the seastack known as Downpatrick Head along the Wild Atlantic Way.

puramo

The world’s plastic model capital west of Tokyo, Shizuko City is sponsoring the installation of monuments that reference the industry (the title プラモ, see previously). Home to Bandai and Tamiya, eighty percent of model kits are sourced and supplied from this area.

the gallery of regrettable food

Awarded with the honour of Blört old school site of the day, we were pleased to make the acquaintance of Lileks—a self-described antechamber of the web’s most idiosyncratic curated museum (see also) through its Institute of Official Cheer and some of its recent acquisitions—or de-accessions depending on one’s perspective—exhibited in the Orphanage of Cast-Off Mascots (coming soon), Interior Desecrators and the Permanent Collection of Impermanent Art, dedicated to presenting ephemera and advertising in frames. There’s also a daily weblog to peruse with lots to discover going back to 1998.

code napoléon

Whilst not the first civil law legal codex introduced in Europe to make the system more equitable, comprehensive and self-consistent—replacing a framework of local feudal laws and microjurisdicitions in place prior to the Napoleonic Wars with the kingdoms of Bavaria and Prussia setting precedent, this set of laws drafted and enacted by a quorum of jurists on this day in 1804 represents one the most influential and wide-reaching change in early modern history, malleable and amenable to change adopted throughout the Western world and a template for developing and emerging nations. Rather than building on the medival laws that informed French courts and jurisprudence previously, framers reached further back to the sixth-century codification of Roman law, the Institutes of the Corpus Juris Civilis of Justinian the Great. Whereas previously civil life was governed by custom and privilege, the rule of law going forward prevented secret rules and application relied on due publication and promulgation, and while rulings could be cited as precedent, legal judgments carried no legislative weight, courts were encouraged to interpret the law by the prohibition of justice denied or dismissed due to insufficiency of the law.

your daily demon: bael

The first Goetic spirit listed on the calendar of demons, the infernal and principle king that commands sixty-six legions and rules from this day, the beginning of Aries, until 25 March, is probably a syncretism of the Canaanite deity Ba’al and presents in the forms of a cat, man or toad simultaneously. Sometimes conflated with Beelzebub—Lord of the Flies—Bael’s office is to impart the power of invisibility to the exorcist and is countered by the Shem HaMephorash angel Vehuiah.