itc kristen

Being unabashed font snobs ourselves, we thoroughly enjoyed this piece by Jonah Lehrer for Lithub on the utility of Comic Sans and other similarly disfluent typefaces, how they are demonstrated to aid in retention and recall, jarring mental laziness and how corporate logos—in their quest for refinement—may be preening their brands to be instantly forgettable. The excerpt goes on to examine how the disquieting defamiliarisation plays a big role in oral tradition and the recitation, transmission of sagas and epic poetry.

your daily demon: forneus

Presenting as a dread sea monster and governing from today through 22 August, our thirtieth spirit is an infernal marquis whose office it is to endear individuals to friend and foe alike and impart skills in the rhetorical arts. Countered by the Shem HaMephorash guardian angel Omael, Forneus (from the Latin fornus for oven, crucible and can take many forms) rules over twenty-nine legion. 

 

terra incognito

Via the always brilliant Maps Mania, we are treated to a thorough-going survey of the interventions and fillers that cartographers of the past used to cover gaps in their geographical knowledge (see also here, here and here) informed of course by their contemporary understanding of the world and what possibilities it supported. Another technique applied to atlas obscura were the bordering clouds of Edward Quin’s 1830 historical gazetteer with receding overcast skies paralleling humanity’s growing world-view.

the life of π

Whereas astrophysics suggest that extending out the significant digits to thirty-nine decimal places would be at the level of precision to measure the circumference of the known Universe to within the breadth of a hydrogen atom, we quite enjoyed the overkill and ambition, as reported by the Guardian, of a team of Swiss mathematicians that have calculated out the transcendental, irrational number, also known as Archimedes’ Constant and whose use of the Greek letter to symbolise it first attributed to Welsh professor William Jones in 1706, to sixty-two trillion places for the accomplishment in itself plus the bonus facts and anecdotes. Not only is it fiendishly useful to understand and is embedded in all sort of applications, there’s quite a bit of lore attached to pi. There’s its elegance in comprehending a bit of the Cosmos, cameo appearances and an infamously misguided attempt in 1897 by the Indiana state legislature to round it up to 3.2 and be done with it.

fantasmagorie

Caricaturist and member of the mostly forgotten art movement the Incoherents (les arts incohérents in opposition to les arts décoratifs—contributions later described as surreal) Émile Cohl (*1857 - †1938) created was is commonly accepted as the world’s first animated film, debuting at the Théâtre du Gymnase in Paris on this day in 1908. Consisting of seven hundred hand-drawn images on glass-plates (cels) and running about two minutes, it is evocative of the magic lantern shows from which it takes its title and is executed in a stream of consciousness style without narrative.

7x7

lowering the bar: a trial lawyer’s endorsement in a whiskey ad illustrates by-gone regulatory period in the US 

blotter art: an LSD museum in San Francisco 

spraycation: Banksy works appear at UK seaside towns Great Yarmouth and Lowestoft  

middle-age spread: comprehensive study finds metabolism stable throughout life and crashes after sixty—via the New Shelton Wet / Dry  

bureau of land management: a celebration of the striking landscape photography of Bob Wick  

o’zbekiston line: a tour of Tashkent’s underground galleries—see also 

 kriegswaffenkontrollgesetz: gentleman outside of Kiel fined for unregistered Panzer

wormwood star

We very much appreciated the introduction to actress, artist, poet and occultist Marjorie Cameron Parsons Kimmel—known by the professional mononym Cameron by way of the short film by friend Curtis Harrington, the eponymous piece featuring Cameron’s paintings and recitations and the sole documentary source for much of her work as much of her fame came posthumously. The title is also in reference to the name she choose for her first child, the first of many moonchildren devoted to the veneration of Horus, Cameron being adherent of Thelema and becoming a convert from her first husband, rocketry pioneer Jack Parsons having also worked at the Joint Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) during World War II, to be breed according to magick sex rituals called “Babalon Working” that Cameron herself oversaw, like a Bene Gesserit mother superior. Instead, Cameron’s surviving child, born on 24 December 1955, from a subsequent marriage though paternity is uncertain was named Crystal Eve. Cameron was also in the film Inauguration of the Pleasure Dome.

mind the gap

Featured on Open Culture, we quite enjoyed this audio-sampler of departure and arrivals announcements and assorted warnings, jingles beeps and chimes of mass-transit systems from around the world. While I am grateful for the luxury of choice, I am not quite yet comfortable to go back to taking public transportation regularly but am looking forward riding the bus again and leaving the driving in more capable, punctual hands. Passing by the Bahnhof pretty regularly, I’m often within earshot of the familiar, reassuring bing-boom (I am looking for a single ideophone that embraces all of these automated audio signals) of the train doors closing. Much more at the link up top.  What is your local onomatopoeia?