a cautionary tale

Though exploitative and terribly, predictably misogynistic, via Super Punch, we enjoyed learning about the popular late medieval trope of the Frankish thirteenth century story le Lai d’Aristote / Aristoteles und Phyllis depicted in numerous media in art and artefacts spanning into the modern era and upheld to a degree in academia. The conceit, with some significant variation depending on the version, is that the seductive can over take the greatest intellect, countering a dominatrix with the great philosophical mind with their attendant gendered roles—see also Socrates and Xanthippe. Caught by the royal retinue undergoing the humiliation of being ridden, Aristotle excuses himself with Amour vainc tot, & tot vaincra / tant com il monde durea—Love conquers all and all shall conquer as long as the world lasts.

up and atom

Via Present/&/Correct, we are referred to a curated cache Nuclear Engineering Wall Charts and vintage reactor diagrams from the collection of the University of New Mexico. The pictured diagram features the Biblis B Kernkraftwerke (AKW) near Worms, both A and B blocks were closed in March 2011 following the Fukushima and since permanently shut-down and slated for decommissioning. More to explore at the links above.

the incredible hulk

First appearing in the first issue of the comic published on this day in 1962, the super hero’s co-creators Stan Lee and Jack Kirby lists their influences for the character including Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde for their dissociative alter-egos, Frankenstein’s monster and the Golem of Jewish mythology. An accidental exposure to gamma radiation received whilst trying to save a colleague from an experimental munitions blast causes his transformation, often uncontrolled and triggered by emotional distress with these unplanned destructive rampages disrupting civilian life. Initially cancelled after just six instalments in March 1963, Dr Bruce Banner / the Hulk made an immediate cameo appearance in an issue of the Fantastic Four and went on to become a founding member of the Avengers team.

your daily demon: gusion

The eleventh spirit on the Demonological Calendar ruling from today through 14 May presents as either a baboon or as having the chimerical condition defined as xeno- or theriocephaly (from the Greek for beast-headed). Controlling forty-five legions of devils and giving the powers of prophesy and reconciliation of friendships, Gusion is countered by the Shem HaMepohrash angel Lauviah and can be summoned with aloe vera.

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Via Boing Boing, we are afforded a very exclusive peek in a very elite gallery with a inimitable exhibition which you and you (most likely) alone get to experience with This Art Work Does Not Exist—see previously here, here, here and here—created spontaneously through an artificial intelligence using a generative adversarial network. Refresh the screen to get another one-of-a-kind—quite unique but in a different way than a non-fungible token—piece of art, once again begging the question what it means to copy, up-sample, create and own the creative process.

prestavba

Once again via Waxy as part of a year-long celebration on a half-century of text games (previously) we are directed towards the BASIC narrative distributed on cassette tape from programmer Miroslav Fídler commemorating the twentieth anniversary of the suppression of the Prague Spring by Warsaw Pact troops, allowing players to relive events and make different choices for potentially better outcomes. Such subversive software (see also) was of course not tolerated by the government and many risked their livelihoods and lives in creating and sharing such programs.

skyline

We quite enjoyed this historical survey of the ever-upwardly mobile skyscrapers of New York City commencing with the Latting Observatory, a wooden tower erected the 1853 World’s Fair and decreased in stature afterwards in deference to the steeple of Trinity Church, which held the title of tallest building in the United States until 1869. The pictured 15 Park Row (Wolkenkratzer) was completed 1908 and was a pioneering edifice for its use of structural steel and was accorded protected status as a historic monument in 1999. More to explore from design boom at the link up top.

show dna or presque vue

In what looks to be (for now) a one-off investigation into sitcom set recycling from the always excellent Poseidon’s Underworld into the earlier cameo appearance of the Golden Girls’ kitchen in a short-lived show with Richard Crenna, Helen Hunt, Patty Duke and Billie Bird—It Takes Two (1982), which became the focal point of the long-running series. No other screen memories seemed to be shared under that particular tag but I for one would like to see more comparisons—recalling myself (though this like the term screen memory might be a false one—though the former was notoriously popularised in support of suppressed trauma) an interview with Margaret Cho after her show All-American Girl (1994) was cancelled and her being a bit miffed that her kitchenette was recycled wholesale into the apartment of Rachel and Monica on Friends. Cho herself was a regular on The Golden Palace, a spin-off where Blanche, Rose and Sophia run a hotel, with the help Don Cheadele and Cheech Marin.