synchronoptica
one year ago: an Albanian Spring Festival
two years ago: assorted links to revisit, Czech and Slovak history plus goblin mode
three years ago: Andorra, the Mir programme, St Matilda plus Nazis erotic toys
four years ago: origins of the Panama Canal, an urban lagoon plus Disney’s White Wilderness
five years ago: end of the broadcasting day, geopolitical narratives, a coin honouring Stephen Hawking plus cross-border commutes
Via tmn, we discover that from 1790 to 1880, the US Patent Office uniquely required filers to include with each application a model of their inventions, which were later curated and exhibited in the agency’s miniature gallery, established ahead of Washington, DC’s other museums as the top attraction of the capital city. Long ago deaccessioned and largely lost (as a form of crowd control), some artefacts have been collected and put on display, including the exquisitely impractical and unmarketable hull of Abraham Lincoln’s boat design with inflatable and evacuatable ballast to improve navigation (6469, the only patent granted to a US president—though I suspect that Trump has registered an unfashionable number of trademarks administered by the same authority) along with dozens of other ambitious artefacts of ingenuity.
synchronoptica
one year ago: the network effect
two years ago: assorted links to revisit plus Saint Ansovinus
three years ago: more links to enjoy, snowdrops plus a classic number from Brewer and Shipley
four years ago: a coup attempt in Germany (1920)
five years ago: the world wide web (1989), noise-cancelling, plant mobility plus more Olympic pictograms
In collaboration with the Electronic Free Foundation, Muckrock (previously) has just announced its annual Foilies award winners, recognising the most egregious instances of US government violating the precept of the public record. Ahead of their also recurring Sunshine Week to champion the importance of transparency and access, this tenth iteration really featured some strong resistance to FOIA requests, doubly depressing considering the death of local journalism and advocacy outlets, flouting disclosure requirements of the law. From attempt to tag a cache of email correspondence with the label “NO FOIA” in hopes to keep fraud from the public eye or attempts to reveal corruption and mismanagement met with ingratitude to zealous librarians checking out books themselves to keep them out of circulation while bans for certain literary works were still pending court challenges and politicians trying to keep secret their travel expenses. These achievements, both large and small, have impact, and are not bailiwick of lawyers and reporters, only requiring determination. Learn more at the link above.
studio nue: the meticulous and immersive sci-fi illustrations of Naoyuki Kato
landsat lens: virtual rewinding maps created with historic satellite imagery
drawing for nothing: a growing e-book of storyboards and character studies from unfinished, shelved animation projects—via Waxy hag horror: Poseidon’s Underworld explores the genre with 1971’s Blood and Lace
แนs (t → ♾️) = 0: researchers find algorithms that only quantum computers can solve—via Damn Interesting—see previously
all these worlds are yours, except europa: NASA reveals the plaque its probe will carry to Jupiter’s icy moon later this year
rednaxela: unusual toponyms, including the named terrace in Hong Kong believed to be Alexander transcribed right-to-left, as was the practise in the past
fantomah: outsider comic book artist Fletcher Hanks
synchronoptica
one year ago: assorted links to revisit, domino theory (1947) plus more words with no English equivalent
two years ago: more links to enjoy, World Day Against Cyber Censorship plus Mamma Mia (1975)
three years ago: the cosmography of William Fairfield Warren (1915), artist Caterina van Hemessen, St Maximilian of Tebessa, occultist Austin Osman Spare, listening to maps, more isogloss maps plus a celebration of veteran memes
four years ago: St Serafina plus COVID travel bans take effect
five years ago: resurrection plants
Whilst speculation about the whereabouts and fate of Kate Middleton not seen in public since a Christmas 
engagement has run rampant, with alleged sightings in the unlikeliest of places including the Wonka Experience, a family photograph posted on Mothering Sunday has backfired and done little to quiet the rumours after the wire-services issued a mandatory kill-notice to remove the image released by Kensington Palace due to an editorial issue and possible manipulation. The Princess of Wales later admitted to doing the touch-up work herself and apologised for the lightly edited portrait taken (see also) by the prince for causing such controversy and at a time when all the principal royals are out of the picture and not performing public duties, it only fuels conjecture, sometimes to wild conclusions.
Courtesy of our faithful chronicler, we are reminded on this day in 1974, ABC first broadcast the award winning children’s television special conceived and produced by Marlo Thomas and friends, adapted from a record album with activity book published sixteen months earlier. The songs and stories sung or acted out by contemporary celebrities including Carol Channing, Dustin Hoffman, Roberta Flack, Diana Ross, 
Alan Alda, Harry Belafonte, Cicely Tyson, Rosey Grier, Shirley Jones, Michael Jackson and Mel Brooks champion values of inclusion, individuality and comfort with one’s identity and reject gendered stereotypes, hailing that anyone can achieve anything, despite or because of the circumstances of their birth and was inspired by an uncomfortable incident in a bookstore where Thomas wanted to show her niece that it was acceptable and encouraged to flaunt traditional roles but only found materials reinforcing then—namely in a picture book that suggested boy grown up to be pilots and girls stewardesses, doctors, nurses, etc. Though predictably it drew criticism from certain circles at the time for indoctrination and emasculation, but the special and recording have endured, garnering both an Emmy and Peabody award, going Platinum within two years of release. A sequel, co-produced in the both the Soviet Union and the US—the first such primetime variety show collaboration, Free to Be… a Family, aired in 1988—featuring a new cast including Robin Williams, the Muppets, Lily Tomlin, Russian children’s television host Tatyana Vedeneyeva, JonBon Jovi and the magicians Penn and Teller.
synchronoptica
one year ago: assorted links to revisit, Queen Anne’s army plus the Lend-Lease Act of 1941
two years ago: The Kick Inside (1978) plus a pioneering photographer
three years ago: your daily demon: Dantalion, more links to enjoy, a Van Gogh up for auction, Oprah interviews other princesses plus a gallery of bad and misleading book covers
four years ago: more phonetic spelling alphabets plus more links worth revisiting
five years ago: a flag supercut, even more links plus scripturiency
The revitalised linkroll of Mx Tynehorne’s cabinet of hypertext curiosities reminds of another venerable old school Wunderkammer, very much en vivant and worth checking out on a regular basis, in the aperiodic blog of Peter Blinn, Curious Notions. Covering anniversaries and superlatives and obscure but useful tools in the main, it’s easy to get lost down a rabbit hole of shifting and surprising facts, which is undoubtedly a good feature for this sort of curation. Starting with a Monty Python-inspired cheesemongers’ survey of the rarest and most precious varieties just published for us turophiles, we learn that the among the most dear are traditionally caciocavallo—that is, transported by horseback, and derived from the milk of donkeys, derived from a tiny herd in the Balkans, a small-batch production influenced by folkways and the fact that the milk of an asinine jenny is counted as one of the leanest in the mammal family and produce sparingly compared to bovine sources.
With a two-hour made-for-television pilot airing the previous November to establish the antihero’s origin story, the CBS network series The Incredible Hulk, staring Bill Bixby as Dr David Banner and professional bodybuilder Lou Ferrigno as his alter ego, debuted on this day in 1978. Based off of the Marvel comic book character by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, a widowed and presumed dead physicist hitchhikes across the country, taking odd jobs and helping others in need whist trying to hide his condition, exposure to gamma radiation causes him to transform in stressful situations into a creature with superhuman strength, usually managing to do good by those he encounters despite his violent rampages. All the while, the Hulk is pursued by tabloid journalist Jack McGee, determined to expose Banner as a dangerous menace to society. The series ran until 1982, continuing in syndication and with several specials following the run that reprised the principals’ roles and spinning off the franchise with other super hero prodcutions.
synchronoptica
one year ago: a once-in-a-lifetime exhibition of Dutch paintings plus child-birth in Early Modern Europe
two years ago: assorted links to revisit
three years ago: Silent Running (1972), happy Mario Day, filibustering, the touchdown of Perseverance plus jamming with Nintendo Wii
four years ago: direct-dial telephones (1891), global stock markets respond to COVID, the origins and iconography of quarantine plus just wash your hands
five years ago: RIP Keith Flint
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