prepared piano

We were happy to be introduced to a new type of technique, intervention signature to French composer and pianist Benoît Delbecq’s style and showcased in his latest album “Weight of Light.” Inspired by John Cage’s 1938 Bacchanale, the preparation involves careful selection and placement of items, reeds and twigs being Delbecq’s preferred disruptors, between or on the strings and hammers to create a mysterious, uncanny timbre outside of the instrument’s characteristic range, as illustrated in the video below.

near wild heaven

Topping the charts this week in 1991, R.E.M.’s seventh studio album Out of Time including the tracks Losing My Religion with Grammy-winning music video, “Radio Song,” “Texarkana” and “Shiny Happy People” helped raise the band’s profile from a cult following to the international face of alternative rock. The packaging in the form of a CD longbox included a petition in support of the Motor Voter Act (previously) in support of a less onerous registration process for franchisement.

phys ed

From Weird Universe we learn that in 1943 the University of St. Louis added utility pole tossing to the curriculum as a general conditioning exercise, demanding strength, rhythm and coordination as a group to pass around these ninety kilogram logs. The coach who instigated this regiment was inspired by the Highland Games and the traditional caber toss, said to have been developed out of a need to throw timber over streams and ravines in order for lumberjacks to cross them. More at the link above.

88x31

Via Pasa Bon!, we are directed towards a gallery of thousands of vintage GIF button ads—some call to action ones as well, technically micro bar banner advertisements—from the nineties and the noughts. How many of these do you remember? When space was more at a premium, it was a challenge fitting one’s message within these confines. 

shelter-in-place

This day marks the one-year anniversary of the United Kingdom imposed with a national lockdown to quell the spread of COVID-19 so that health services would not be overwhelmed, reversing earlier thinking once we were better informed epidemiologically that suggested we should aim for herd-immunity rather than curfews and quarantines. The announcement coincided with the restrictions on movement placed on residents of Wuhan were being cautiously rolled back after two-months of total shutdown and followed measures enacted earlier in the month in Italy and France. The stay-at-home order banned non-essential travel and in person contact, the closure of most businesses with the mandate to telework when possible and those with symptoms to self-isolate. Measures were gradually eased in June through July with a resurgence in October, a so called second wave, that resulted in another month-long shutdown.

deorbit

After fifteen years of service, funding running out its orbit degrading and the International Space Station crewed for the first time, on this day in 2001 over the course of five hours, Mir (previously) was decommissioned by a series of manoeuvres that caused the craft to graze the upper atmosphere and break up over the southern Pacific Ocean. Though no significant debris hit land or populated areas, residents in New Zealand and Japan were told to stay indoors as no object of this size had been subject to re-entry prior.

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.