sometimes it snows in april

Included on both their eighth studio album and the soundtrack to the self-made film Under the Cherry Moon, the song by Prince in collaboration with Wendy Melvoin and Lisa Coleman (The Revolution) is a recounting of the death of the character Christopher Tracy (played by Prince) and their desire to be reunited in Heaven and was recorded on this day in 1985. Often performed as an encore during concerts, the song received renewed circulation upon the artist’s death in 2016, falling on the same day, thirty-one years later.

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Leaning heavily into the idea that the Earth is a simulation (see also) has the natural consequence that its creators are hungry for feedback, Neal Agarwal (previously) invites us to rate anything and everything—to help improve the content and UX and what might be kept or removed in the next patch. Your feedback counts!

foia foil

Via Waxy, we are directed to a deviously difficult daily challenge in the Wordle vein to puzzle out a randomly, heavily reacted Wikipedia article—a skill to hone that could prove useful when confronted with sanitised, sensitive documentation, censored or anonymised for public consumption.

curtail call

On this day, Easter Monday, in 1992 Wembley Stadium, broadcast live to an estimated global audience of one billion spectators, hosted a tribute concert to Freddie Mercury (previously), whom had died of AIDS-related complications the previous November with proceeds launching an AIDS charity trust. The first part of the concert featured musicians performing short-sets of songs influenced by Queen and the latter section featured performances with the remaining members of the band, including Elton John on piano for “Bohemian Rhapsody” the iconic duet of Annie Lennox and David Bowie singing “Under Pressure.” The final number, “We are the Champions,” was led by Liza Minnelli and included everyone who had participated in the concert.

dgim

 Founded in Wiesbaden on this day in 1882, the Congress for Internal Medicine (present headquarters as die Deutsche Gesellschaft für Innere Medizin pictured) was held in the Kurhaussaal and attended by some one hundred and eighty physicians with the aim to champion science and research in applied medicine and to highlight and harmonise best-practises across the discipline. Working closely with professional credentialing organisations, membership over the past century, a tumultuous one that endured world wars, Nazis, partition and reunification and new the challenges of scepticism of expertise, has swelled to nearly thirty-thousand with special focus on mentorship and attracting young people to the field through honours and incentivisation. 

 

kodak moment

Whilst preparing for renovations, the new owners of an ensemble of buildings on the Eastman-Kodak Business Park campus in Rochester, New York have uncovered a brilliant mosaic hidden behind the drywall of a conference room in an R&D building out of sight for decades. Absent any living memory of the installation to consult, architects and employees of the film company are realising that the hand-hewn tile decoration is an homage to photography with references to exposure and developing. The new tenants will showcase this work in their own research hub.

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Some anonymous though obviously astute researcher left this decal on a lamp post a few weeks back coinciding with the return of testing stations which were prematurely removed in hopes that the unavailability of free screenings would encourage individuals to get their booster shots only to quickly learn and recover that one does not winnow down the arsenal in one’s quiver when facing a global pandemic. Medical authorities confer and confirm vaccination status with a QR-Code and a national app, though this has expanded, splintered into a suite of application and new codes to scan unique for every affiliate station. Feeling a bit under the weather with the arrival of Spring and the too-quick change in temperature, I wanted to be responsible and rule out a case of COVID and so availed myself of said near-by mobile PCR centre. I was relieved to learn that the results were negative and was given a mask (oh no) for my troubles, noticing the label on the packaging later on…

you are not drinking a piña coladas at trader vic’s, young man, you’re just not old enough

First aired on this day in 1997, the 1957 b-movie I Was a Teenage Werewolf starring Michael Landon (Bonanza, Little House on the Prairie, Highway to Heaven) as troubled youth Tony Rivers was lampooned by MST3K. A fight in school garners Tony (Landon) the attention of the local detective who persuades him to speak with a staff psychologist who proposes a regimen of hypnotherapy to help deal with his bouts of anger.  Reluctant at first but then convinced he needs to seek help to curb his violent (often dairy-based) inclinations after another brawl during a Halloween party, Tony submits to seeing the doctor, who has the patient pegged rather as the ideal test-candidate for an experimental serum developed to regress personality and bring out primitive instincts. One side-effect of the treatment is of course lycanthropy.