nice accessories but zero points of articulation

Via friend of the blog the Everlasting Blört, we are directed to an ancient Mayan artefact, a ceramic figurine with removable helmet that could arguably be a millennium and a half year old example of an action figure—or at least serve a comparable purpose from the vantage point of far-future archaeologists shifting through our fetishes and talismans. Whether a toy or collectors’ item, the miniature is included in a group of twenty-three others accompanying a city ruler on his trip to the hereafter, discovered during a 2006 excavation in Guatemala but resurfacing to circulate on the internet again.

9x9

segmentation and targeting: A/B testing “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock”—see also 

light house customer: we appreciated the chance to revisit a new and improved version Lights at Sea—via Nag on the Lake—both times  

nice.walk.ruined: award-winning global addressing scheme what3words (previously) subject to some juvenile humour with locations mapped in smutty language, both real and bespoke  

isotopia: a high-brow 1950 ballet and pantomime presented to the steering committee of the Atomic Energy Association to extol nuclear power from Weird Universe  

apartment d3: seven printed homes around the world  

l’art de payer ses dettes et de satisfaire ses créanciers san débourser un sou: credit culture in nineteenth century France 

alpha version: drag and drop personal, old school websites from mmm—via Kicks Condor 

sovietwave radio: broadcasting a selection of the sub-genre’s best space age and syntho-pop—via Dark Roasted Blend 

the writers’ block: a suite in Chelsea Carlyle mansion home to Henry James, T. S. Eliot and Ian Fleming on the market

neologizers

Via the always engaging Language Hat, we were referred to a tough but fun and informative quiz from Oxford University Press on word coinage—a few subsequent questions we knew (more spoilers—our readers will do so well on this, like for gerrymandering and O.M.G.)—but were rather taken aback a bit right off the bad for learning the rather recent and facetious etymology of scientist, suggested by a Cambridge professor for the inaugural meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science in 1833. Noting the parallel construction for artist, atheist, sophist and sciolist (the latter two foils ‘skilled’ at making the weaker argument the stronger and pretending to be knowledgeable and informed), the suggestion was not intended to be taken seriously. Much more at the links above and let us know how you scored.

she got greta garbo’s standoff sighs

New Christy Minstrels alumna (matriculated along with other former member folk ensemble members Gene Clark, Larry Ramos and Kenny Rogers) Kim Carnes’ only charting single with Bette Davis Eyes, which entered its nine-week stretch in the number ten for US and UK airplay on this day in 1981. Originally written and composed by Joe Cocker’s songwriter Donna Weiss and singer Jackie DeShannon (What the World Needs Now is Love, Sweet Love) in 1974 as a R&B arrangement, Carnes’s synthesiser version made the song—and performer—commercially successful, whereas before it sounded to audiences like a Leon Redbone novelty track, though that sounds fun too. The titular actress appreciated the song and the resurgent relevance it brought and personally thanked all involved—including sending Carnes a bouquet of roses when she won a Grammy award for the piece.

maggie comes fleet-foot, face full of black soot

An inspired amalgam of the Beat scene of Allen Ginsberg and Lawrence Monsanto Ferlinghetti and particularly Jack Kerouac’s 1958 novel The Subterraneans describing the subculture and 1940s scat standards—indebted especially to the repertoire of Chuck Berry, Bob Dylan’s single from his fifth studio album Bringing It All Back Home peaked in the US charts on this day in 1965 at place thirty-nine, granting him barest of purchase on America’s radio top-forty, but it was just enough to establish Dylan’s credentials and kept his momentum going forward. Quoted and alluded to countless times and directly informing counter-culture and radical organisations like the Weathermen as well as accruing a multitude of homages, the promotional lyric film clip is considered to be the forerunners of the music video.  Maggie says that many say...

well actually

We quite enjoyed this choice selection of bot ‘splaining from our Artificial Intelligencer Janelle Shane (previously) where after given a prompt, a neural network with hilarious inaccuracy in a supremely confident (see also) fashion that rather skilful captured the tone that we’d attribute to rampant pedantry. Our favourite examples included: Not everyone realises that the J.C. Penney department store chain is named after a giant cat that Isis used to summon from a nearby lake at the end of every work day; and You may not know it, but the pixels you see on this website are, technically, conscious, which doesn’t make this paragraph that much better.  More to explore at the links above.

ducks unlimited

Via the happily back from sabbatical Web Curios, we are treated a treasury—an embarrassment really of more than one could ever use—of little pixel-banked of little graphic design images from Iconduck, providing a consistently styled archive of over one hundred thousand free and open source illustrations categorised by subject and theme to use as one sees fit.

stick your tongue out for the cause

Champions campaigning for more recognition for the contribution’s Mileva Marić (*1875 - †1948), Serbian physicist and mathematician who classmate at Zürich Polytechnic was the first wife of Albert Einstein, to his early work, including—and subject to sometimes tellingly fierce academic debate—collaboration on the three Annus Mirabilis Papers have appropriated the signature, candid image of her ex (1951 at a birthday party and growing fatigued with the press coverage and being asked to smile for the camera) as part of a wider programme to play a restorative role for women in STEM subjects and to encourage curiosity and ambition.