netscape navigator (10. 885)

Declared defunct on this day in 1993 by its owners AOL TimeWarner after losing market dominance to Internet Explorer early on as a casualty of the first browser war, Netscape Communications Corporation (previously), which introduced the JavaScript programming language that transformed webpages and the HTTP cookie, proceeded on the same day to establish the Mozilla Foundation, having released the source code of its signature suite of products to allow continued and independent development of its internet tools. Pioneering features to enhance user experience included tabbed browsing, private mode, bookmarks, autocomplete (incremental search) bundled with email (equipped with a spam-filter) and newsgroups as well as interoperability for Mac and Windows-based systems—many of which are preserved in later iterations of the Firefox browser, considered the spiritual successor of Netscape and overtaking Explorer as the most popular search engine in 2009.

6x6 (10. 884)

purl 2.0: performative social media is symptomatic of influencer culture and won’t get better until we do  

flag of convenience: the secret language of ships  

extended character set: contenders for inclusion on the new Emoji list include a Phoenix and a broken chain 

new normal: a third of the US under a dangerous heatwave  

sag-aftra: members of the Hollywood actors’ guild join the writers’ strike—see previously, see more 

eternal september: the Threads bandwagon, matriculation is “a contradictory mixture of earnest online community building and craven creator-brained growth hacking”

synchronoptica

 one year ago: “Hanoi Jane” (1972) plus Gangam Style (2012)

two years ago: the elder Fuþark and the runestone of Rök plus the Stone Ship of Nässja

three years ago: a variant line-rider animation with a synchronised roller coaster, Pollux and Castor plus more official American state junk

four years ago: Trump attacks the Squad, honouring Alan Turing plus finding Bob Ross’ lost landscapes

five years ago: assorted links to revisit, Trump’s Scottish golf course, Nintendo made a sewing machine game plus more Brexit fun—aren’t we having fun yet

qu’ils mangent de la brioche (10. 883)

Though likely never uttered by Marie Antoinette, having been coined by Jean-Jacques Rousseau in his autobiographical Confessions, quoting an unnamed “great princess,” in 1765—when she was aged just nine and the archduchess of Austria had not yet been to France and was never cited contemporaneously as a grievance against and denouncement of the Ancien Régime, only garnering parlance a half a century later to rail against Napoleon’s restoration, the phrase “let them eat cake” nonetheless became an important and instigating example of the aristocracy’s obliviousness. While maintaining a lavish royal household was not the sole or even primary cause of the economic plight of France, and as queen, she was charitable to fault, the country had suffered successive famines and food staples like bread exceeded half a peasant’s salary and became one of the most cited or paraphrased quotations of all time. Marie Antoinette, after her husband’s execution in January and with her children forcibly removed so they might be inculcated with revolutionary ideals, appeared before a tribunal and guillotined in mid-October of 1793. Madam Tussard’s wax-works was commissioned for her death-mask, and her body was interred without ceremony in an unmarked grave, in a Parisian cemetery deconsecrated and paved over after the burial of her accusers, the Exaggerators, les Héberists, who rallied for the nationalisation of wine and grain.

doxbin (10. 882)

Via ibīdem (plus a lot more worth pursuing), this sort of profile, social summary that analyses one’s tweets and online affiliations generated by GPT might have been more fun and interesting back before the social media platform’s exodus and imminent implosion—and apologies for not being rid of these sharing buttons, it’s some fossilised code that I can’t seem to extract from my Frankenstein of a website without breaking something—but its nonetheless humourous and probably has pretty accurately sized me up and is a nice snapshot of one’s past presence and gift registry. 

 

🜂🜃🜁🜄 (10. 881)

Via the always excellent Web Curios, we are referred to quite a grand and ongoing project soliciting nominees and showcasing one molecule per month, without fail, since 1996, which is not only impressive for its longevity but also for its accessible scholarship for each chemical compound. Recently showcased molecules include the alchemists’ White Phosphorus, Androstenone, the porcine pheromone that can stop dogs barking, wine lactone that gives the drink its fragrant notes and astaxanthin, the ingredient responsive for making flamingoes pink. Check it out and let us know what you’ve learned or what molecule you’d like to know more about.

more songs about buildings and food (10. 880)

Their second studio album and the first of three collaborations with Brian Eno, released on this day in 1978, overseeing the shift in focus to the rhythm section and music one can dance to and was a critical and commercial success for Talking Heads (previously). The below track was the band’s first top thirty hit in the US and UK and is a cover of the Al Green hymnal.

synchronoptica

one year ago:Dr Spock’s guide for expectant mothers (1946) plus assorted links to revisit 

two years ago: a commanding view of Sweden’s second largest lake plus “MOMS” tax

three years ago: an introduction to satanist and film maker Kenneth Anger

four years ago: half-staff, Chekov’s gum plus more on endonyms and exonyms

five years ago: one party system (1933), the Alien and Sedition Act (1798), an AI names bespoke nail polish colours plus engaging the rumour mill

geoglyph (10. 879)

Originally erected on this day in 1923 as a temporary advertisement for a real estate development of the Santa Monica Mountain’s Beachwood Canyon in the hills above the Los Angeles’ district, the nine by fifteen metre wooden block letters were first adorned with four thousand flashing light bulbs and hauled on site by a team of pack mules, the sign was only intended to remain up for eighteen months, but coinciding the rise of the US film industry, the city kept the landmark in its uncut form for over a quarter of a century. Neglected and dilapidated by the early 1970s, a public campaign championed by Hugh Hefner convinced the Chamber of Commerce to replace the wood structure with steel lettering, with the new monument dedicated (minus the -land dropped in 1949, the remaining parcels eventually becoming an extension of Griffin Park) in 1978, with various celebrities donating to the cause and sponsoring letters:

H: publisher of the trade paper, the Hollywood Independent, Terrence Donnelly
O: singer Alice Cooper, in memory of comedian Groucho Marx
L: Blue Book auto appraisal guide publisher Les Kelley
L: actor Gene Autry, the Singing Cowboy
Y: Hefner himself
W: singer Andy Williams
O: movie producer Giovanni Mazza
O: Warner Bros Records
D: Gribbitt graphic design company entrepreneur Dennis Lidtke 

The target of guerilla alternations for political statements, the sign has been partially obscured and reshuffled a number of times, including in 1976 and again in 1987 to HOLYWOOD for papal visits, again in 1987 to OLLYWOOD during the Iran-Contra hearings and OIL WAR in 1990 in protest of the Gulf War.

ask sherloc (10. 878)

Whilst not definitive proof of past life in the form of preserved or residual biological matter, exploring the Martian Jezero crater the Perseverance rover has detected organic molecules, gaining insights about the Red Planet’s carbon cycles and the potential to host life as we know it—utilising its deep ultraviolet laser instrumentation with the title acronym for Scanning Habitable Environments with Raman & Luminescence for Organics & Chemicals. The non-uniformity of these deposits—which will be sampled and hopefully returned to Earth for further study in 2030, suggests that different catalysts were in action to synthesise or metabolise these chemicals over time, preserving them under distinct conditions, possibly consistent with biological processes.  Learn more at the links above.

synchronoptica 

one year ago: a Brian Adams power ballad (1991) plus a summer research project on artificial intelligence from 1956

two years ago:  your daily demon: Aim, plus more adventures in Sweden as we drive to the Glass Realm

three years ago: assorted links to revisit plus a review of audio recording and playback formats

four years ago: remixed Gregorian chants, assorted links worth revisiting, Manhattanhenge plus artist Judith Jans Leyster

five years ago: White House recording device revealed (1973), Karlheinz Stockhausen’s musical zodiac, Trump Baby, the book cover art of Manuja Waldia plus reimagined propaganda for the current state of civil discourse