6x6 (10. 433)

shift happens: a comprehensive history of keyboards by Marcin Wichary—via Waxy  

luni-solar: the people who are living in multiple timelines—see previously  

poly canon: a showcase of strange, experimental architectural students senior projects at scale  

hydraulic press interpretive dance: the impressive choreography of Sarah “Smac” McCreanor—see previously  

nangajo: prominent figures of the Japanese design community present their greeting cards for 2023 (see previously), the Year of the Rabbit 

franklin ace 100: the Apple clone (see previously) with a bizarre users’ guide—via Waxy

you’re on mute (10. 432)

Guilty of restoring to a zealous “absolutely” myself when question is a binary one and not a gauge of enthusiasm, we can fully get behind this banished words list put out annually by the faculty of Lake Superior State University in Michigan—in a tradition that dates back to 1976 as a curative declaration again misuse, overuse and redundancy. Culling from a thousand entries submitted yearly—past examples including “classic,” “viable alternative,” “zeroise,” “no worries,” “bespoke,” ♥︎ and strangely in 1985 the German phrase “in der Tat” (indeed) in 1985, those retired or otherwise banned for 2023 also include GOAT and inflection point, as well as some contenders for words of the year, like quiet quitting and gaslighting.

6x6 (10. 431)

your posture is correct if you can lift your right foot in the air and rotate it effortlessly without falling: a Finnish tutorial from 1979 on the proper way to open doors—with subtitles in several languages

gebrausgraphik: the ornament and logo design of Max Körner 

de laudibus sanctae crucis: the medieval pattern poems—that reference the Phaistos Disk and anticipate calligrams—of Magister Rabanus Maurus (see previously here and here)  

sword out of the stone: King Tut’s space dagger and other superlative archaeological finds—see previously  

wood wide web: ethereal ghost flower forgoes photosynthesis—via Damn Interesting’s Curated Links  

inside story: an appreciation of Slim Goodbody

global village coffee house (10. 430)

Reddit contributor and conservator of varied projects called Forever Mozart 11 presents a vast design directory of graphic artist that perfectly encapsulates the 1990s aesthetic as filtered through the lens of American consumer culture with single page portfolios with selection illustrations of commissions and print interstitials.

The offset typography invoke, subject and style invoke a strong sense of nostalgia that informs the retro trend that’s seen a resurgence in recent times. I had a difficult time tracing the career of any one of these artists but could definitely extrapolate an entire gallery’s worth of advertising and ephemera from these signature samples and is definitely worth one’s time scrolling through and sharing your favourites.

9x9 (10. 429)

run with us: Lisa Lougheed vocal talents showcased for the Canadian animated television series The Raccoons—1985 to 1992  

the number 23: Tedium looks forward to the dawning year  

artisanal bitcoin: crypto mined with only slide rules and graph paper  

rip: this more inclusive, Sgt Pepper’s style (previously) obituary of those we lost in 2022—to include the very recently passing of Anita Pointer, Barbara Walters and Pope Benedict 

next week you can begin paving hell with them as usual: a literary guide to New Year’s resolutions and more from Nag on the Lake’s Sunday Links 

web 1.0: a clarion call to bring back personal blogging—also the upteenth time this appeal has circulated since 2007—via Kottke’s Quick Links  

penny-farthing: a pocket-sized battery that can enhance a mechanical bicycle  

magic clock: a 1960 Mel-O-Toons classic reminds us it’s late than we think  

fever ray: a selection of new musical artist from Super Punch

oh don’t be stupid, darling—i’m sure they could send over a selection and i could pick one (10. 428)

There’s been a paucity of posts lately, but for a good reason: H and I adopted a New Year’s Baby from the animal shelter after a couple of weeks nearly daily visits to the Tierheim for walkies and a couple of day-excursions to get used to her new home. Animal welfare authorities in Germany take this business seriously and inspect future living arrangements to make sure they’re appropriate for the type of canine and decide by panel on prospective human parents.
She’s a rescue originally from Romania—my Mom made a reference to that episode of Absolutely Fabulous where Eddie threatens to adopt a Romanian baby to call Saffy’s bluff and forgets to stop proceedings—and we’re keeping the name the home gave her since it fits and she seems to respond to it, at least the cadence—but we’re not, in the interest of not having a future password breached, disclosing it other than to stay the staff picked a Street Fighter character as namesake.

implants—those aren’t your memories, they’re someone else’s—they’re tyrell’s niece’s (10. 427)

Courtesy of Super Punch, we learn that the publisher of the 1985 video game for Commodore 64 and ZX Spectrum home computing systems loosely based on the 1982 film was unable to obtain a tie-in licensing deal and so declared that it was inspired by the Vangelis soundtrack instead—obliging players to listen to an unskippable opening sequence of two minutes of tinny, MIDI music. Gaming reviews were mostly unfavourable, calling it derivative of the hit adaption of Ghostbusters! from the year before.

colour-by-number (10. 426)

Among the first detailed satellite views of an extraterrestrial planet came in the form of telemetric data from the Mariner IV probe as it passed over the surface of Mars, but absent a technique to quickly encode and render that information as a picture—for a public eager to confirm or be disabused of the prospect of Little Green Men—mission engineers plotted the imaging data on a grid and buying a set of pastels from a nearby arts and crafts shop (told that their desired shaded chalk was for hardware stores), in preternaturally accurate tones of sienna, umber and buff, and filled in the landscape nearly instantaneously from the point of view of the awaiting, at-home audience—something we take for granted today. More to see from Kottke at the link above.