home on the range

Via Web Curios, we are directed to the rather outstanding and one-of-a-kind insight of the twentieth century American western frontier through the lens of Lora Webb Nichols (*1883 - †1962), postal worker, cook and journalist running her own local newspaper, The Echo, who took over twenty-four thousand photographs over the course of six decades, most

of the environs of a copper mining town in the state of Wyoming called Encampment. Nichols early in her career established a photo studio with a dark room to develop and finish film and would loan out equipment for other aspiring picture-takers. Her images, articles and diaries are curated by the state university library system for one to peruse.

perpetuum mobile

Via Kottke’s Quick Links, we are led to a tantalising research project that if it fully pans out bypasses the second law of thermodynamics (see also, that energy in a system tends to wind down and dissipate) and have created “time crystals” as predicted by Richard Feynman in 1982. An exotic state of matter produced and maintained within a quantum computer, the matrix of atoms continually flips between two states without expending any energy, forever—like a perpetual motion machine.

after dark

Via Boing Boing, we are directed to a suite of classic screen-saver recreations in Cascading Style Sheet (CSS) mark-up language in homage to Berkeley Systems’ Flying Toasters, Randomiser and other visualisations. For some time, my default snooze or sleep mode has been a gallery of our pictures but it’s fun to cultivate and reconfigure settings periodically, like swapping out ringtones and other sound-effects.  Find more projects from Brian Braun at his website.

tgif

Twin brother and complementary to the Norse goddess Freyja (‘Lady’ and name-giver to Friday) the fertility deity Freyr (‘Lord’) is the patron of virility, sacral rule—in other words theocratic kingship whereby the monarch is also priest and judge—as well as fair weather, a good harvest, peace and prosperity.  Granted domain by the gods over Álfheimr, realm of the light elves as an infant as a teething gift, Freyr’s steed is a mechanical boar called Gullinbursti, a tribute from the dwarves and from the magic of Odin the fine ship Skíðblaðnir that can be folded up and kept in a pouch when not in use plus arms including an enchanted sword that fights on its own.  Having little truck with man, Freyr seems a mythological figure belonging to the other legendary races and perhaps signals the weekend for elven kind.  In one of the better attested sagas, Freyr is besotted with a giantess named Gerðr (Old Norse for Fenced-In). His advances rebuffed, Freyr grows despondent and lovesick and recruits one of his footmen, Skínir, to go to Jötunheimr (the Realm of the Giants) to woo Gerðr on his behalf. Even though as a Vanr is gifted, cursed with foresight and knows bereft of his magic sword his fate is to be vanquished at Ragnarök, Freyr promises it to his surrogate as a reward.

the treachery of images

We really enjoyed these philosophical Captchas (see also) from the always brilliant Jason Kottke that in addition to referencing, name-dropping the classical metaphysical conundrum of Heraclitus and Plato in the Ship of Theseus also appeals to René Magritte.

lotr

Preceded by The Hobbit and followed by The Adventures of Tom Bombadil, the fantasy epic by J. R. R. Tolkien was first released on this day in 1954 in London by the publishing house of Allen & Unwin—familiar to most as a trilogy but originally intended to appear as a single volume and accompanying The Silmarillion. The highly influential and academically parsed for its mythology, philology and personal allegories experiences of World War I has enjoyed an enduring legacy and continued acclaim, inspiring many adaptions and derivative works. Mainly told from the narrative perspective of the above mentioned Hobbits, the book begins to the follow the quest to find and destroy the One Ring and keep it from Dark Lord Sauron.

stamina potion

Directed towards an engrossing economics side-quest to ponder from NRP’s Planet Money, we learn how a cadre of rather ingenious individuals, to stave of the worst effect of a collapsing national currency and exponential inflation which strips money of one of its defining pillars as a store of value, to farming for computer game gold, since collecting and trading those virtual coins for primarily euro or US dollars was at a far better rate of exchange than the bolívar soberano and paid a better wage. Choosing the MMORPG (massively multiplayer on-line role-playing game) platform of Old School RuneScape because of its low bar to access, straightforward and relatively easy to play (especially for repetitive, income-generating tasks) and would run on older computers and not be too data intensive, their activity (not allowed according to house rules, selling to third-parties, but can’t really be stopped) has drawn supporters sympathetic to their real world plight and detractors complaining of encroachment and how it skews the in-game economy.

olaf ii haraldsson

Posthumously proclaimed eternal king and rapidly acclaimed as patron for Føroyar (the Faroe Islands) and a popular saint for greater Scandinavia, Norwegian realms extending over most of the region, the Vestfold ruler is venerated on this day, the anniversary of his death on the battlefield of Stiklestad in 1030, elevating his younger, half-brother Harald Hardrada to the throne. Olaf’s sainthood, saga and symbolism (attributed with qualities of Thor and Freyr) encouraged the widespread adoption of Christianity in the territory—though in his lifetime, after his own baptism in Rouen, wintering there with Duke Richard II of Normandy (see previously), was given the epithet “the Lawbreaker” for the forceful and exploitative means he used to win converts amongst the population.