watershed moment

Via Web Curios, we are directed towards an application for our fans in the continental United States of America (for the present) called River Runner that allows one to drop a raindrop anywhere and trace its path to the sea through run-offs, watercourses, creeks and rivers and explore the precipitation cycle drip by drip, navigating their path over the terrain and residence times through reservoir, adjacent table and flow.

to russia with elton

Starting with a venue in Leningrad on this day in 1979, Elton John gave the first of a series of eight concerts in the Soviet Union, marking the largest-scale tour thus far of a Western artist (see also), preceded by smaller shows by Boney M and Keith Richards. A subsequent live broadcast from the Rossiya Concert Hall in Moscow (the evening of 28 May) that was also carried by BBC1 marked the first satellite link-up between the USSR and the West and helped diffuse geopolitical tensions at he height of the Cold War.

your daily demon: beleth

Ruling from today until 25 May this thirteenth spirit is an infernal king who presents as a feline riding a pale horse with a retinue of bewitching musical instruments. The exorcist must accord this demon due deference accorded to his high rank and office and must maintain courage though Beleth will try to frighten the summoner. Citing the Pseudomonarachia Dæmonum, the first conjurer to call on him was Noah’s son Ham after the Great Flood, who then co-authored a treatise on mathematics. Beleth commands eighty-five legion and is opposed by the angel Iezalel.

bombylildæ

While in Europe we don’t have humming birds (Kolibris), we are lucky enough to have these uncanny important pollinators called the fly bee or the humblefly (Wollschweber). Our garden is absolutely full of them but I’ve never managed to capture a picture of one until now when I spied one resting on a flower (see also), which by the end of the season can grow quite substantially and present like their avian cousins but less so than the equally camera-shy Hummingbird Hawk-Moth (Taubenschwänzchen) that hovers and has a proboscis for nectaring. We’re visited by them too and maybe if I’m patient, I’ll be able to get a photo.

notorious rgb

Via ibīdem, we are directed towards a campaign to name every colour (see also) in web space, approaching seventeen million shades, sourced from all contributors. With only about fifteen percent assigned a particular appellation, suggestions are accepted so long as they are descriptive, useful and non-offending. Some recent ones include Orange Bruno, Pearlescent Lavender and Every Whale Mascot Ever.

constrictula rugosa

From the cabinet of hypertext curiosities of the illustrious Mx van Hoorn, we find ourselves immersed in study and classification of the great taxia of the diverse and ubiquitous synthetic phylum Plasticæ with the annals of the Holotypic Occlupanid Research Group. The pictured subspecies of the family Haplognathidæ (‘half jaw’) with the characteristic single, squared-off dental process with a high degree of internal variation may be happily endangered in their native habitats but we will be dealing with their fossils for the foreseeable future.

brood x

For the emergence of the seventeen-year cicadas in North America—what was going on in the early summer of 2004, we are treated, via Messy Nessy Chic to this graphic depicting the stages of conventionalisation, deconstruction of the periodic insects (Magicicada septendecula and two other closely related species, tribes, see previously) as illustrated by Hugo Froelich (the periodical being from Syracuse, New York and the contributor not the classical German actor) in 1905 (that year being an emergent one for Brood XXX on a thirteen-year cycle as assigned by entomologist Charles Lester Marlatt at those geographical climes) for Keramic Studio Magazine

alfa beta

One foundry has—for the centenary plus one of the graphic designer’s birth—plans a re-issue of the authoritative style guide by Turinese type artist Aldo Novarese (*1920 - †1995, also credited with ITC Symbol, Eurostile and Microgramma) plus a revival of his signature font Stadio from 1974, which was formerly lost to the ages, existing only in dry-transfer, rub-on lettering form. More on this extra bold grotesque and Zetafonts at Print Mag at the link above.