passo del lucomagno (11. 648)

Crossing the Lepontine Alps between the cantons of Graubunden and Ticino, we made it up the Lukmanier Pass and though navigable for hauling a camper trailer—lorries and buses also use the road—and with far fewer switchbacks than the Gotthard Pass, the hour-long drive was pretty daunting at points with curving inclines and construction but beautiful up the mountain and through the valley and we made it into Italy, taking in views of Lago di Maggiore from the banks on the Swiss side.

synchronoptica

one year ago: assorted links (with synchronoptica) to revisit

five years ago: Mitja and the Microbes plus the world’s first time-free zone

six years ago: the US Nazi party plus the first gay marriage in Britain’s extended royal family

seven years ago: an innovative nest-box, propriety camouflage, alternative keyboard layouts, designing new fulfilment centres plus continuity of government contingency plans

eight years ago: German regionalisms, author Dan Brown sponsors the digitalisation of ancient texts, a snake shedding its skin did not go as planned plus Kill Billy

alpine passes (11. 647)

H and I were headed off for a couple of weeks of vacation in Italy via Austria, Liechtenstein and Switzerland but were turned back by authorities positioned along the road for the San Bernardino and to go back and take the Gotthard Pass direction Zürich. 

Uncertain and a bit frustrated, we set off but paused to look for better directions and if the famously high passage was suitable for cars towing a camping trailer and a friendly local advised us on the safest route, chancing by on her bicycle and registering that we were lost. We continued through the valley of the canton of Graubunden, passing through every settlement. It wasn’t until en route, still a bit unconvinced, that we realised that our misdirection (of which we garnered a few details from the above informant) was due to a rather catastrophic landslide that necessitated closure of the highway (washing away a section of the Autobahn) and several hundred residents needed to be evacuated, ashamed that I had been cursing AI search results on popular but outdated information when disaster had just struck and was still developing—though I maintain that artificial intelligence still played a major role with suggesting popular searches over timeliness and relevance. 

Climate change is the culprit for these increasingly common disruptions. Given the turning weather and long detour we stayed at a campsite on the way to the Lukmanierpass, safe passage which we later confirmed (the woman who stopped to help was absolutely right), in a beautiful spot by the chief tributary of the Rhein at Rein da Medal, from the Romansch for source.

patience worth (11. 646)

Via Weird Universe, first contacted on this day in 1913 after reluctantly taking up the Ouija board at the insistence of her neighbours, we learn of the correspondence with the above departed soul who lived from the mid- to late-seventeenth century in Dorsetshire (migrating to colonial America only to be killed by Native Americans) and thoroughly ordinary and unambitious (her biography giving those traits special emphasis) Pearl Lenore Curran of Missouri, whose channeling and mediumship eventually produced for this amanuensis several novels and much prose and poetry that was published and well-received. Dictation at first came slowly through the planchette one letter at a time but eventually Worth furnished whole paragraphs telekinetically. There were of course skeptics and accused Curran of the authorship but the phenomena coincided with the infatuation with spiritualism on both sides of the Atlantic.

synchronoptica

one year ago: new London Underground safety posters (with synchronoptica) plus a disappearance in Vatican City

six years ago: Cantril’s Ladder, money-laundering plus Seth Godin’s blog

seven years ago: surveying Mars, lèse-majesté, more on soundscaping, the Deseret syllabary plus Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966)

eight years ago: the importance of numeracy plus transposed pottery

nine years ago: Arab scholarship links the Ancient and Modern, the right of panorama plus digital displays

happiness hotel (11. 645)

Founded in 1919 as Charlie Chaplin Studios (with a fitting homage to the Little Tramp of Kermit with top hat and cane), the Henson Estate is selling off the storied and iconic lot it has occupied since 2000 as part of a strategy (yet to be disclosed) to consolidate production and Creature Workshop operations. During the central Hollywood’s incarnations over the decades it was not only home to Chaplin’s classics but also the television series The Adventure of Superman and Perry Mason with the in-house recording studio used by Lady Gaga and Daft Punk following “We are the World” before its distinction as Muppet headquarters. Let’s hope the new buyer continues this chain of creativity.

don’t cry for me argentina (11. 644)

Originally conceived as a rock opera concept album two years prior to popular and critical acclaim, the collaboration by Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber (see previously here and here) was adapted for the stage and debuted on this day in London’s West End on this day in 1978 and relates the life and political career of of the wife and widow of Juan Perón. Rice, interested in philately in his childhood, was somewhat taken by her images on stamps but knew nothing of her significance to the country’s history, social reform and charitable works until intrigued by catching the end of a radio biography and became highly interested on the verge of obsession, research, traveling to Buenos Aires and even naming his first born daughter Eva after her before pitching the idea to Webber, whom at first rejected the idea in favour of producing a musical based on Jeeves, the PG Wodehouse character—a decided flop—before reconsidering Rice’s proposal.

dmz (11. 643)

Unnerved by just concluded two-state visit by the Russian president to strengthen alliances with North Korea and Vietnam and fears that the pact may see flows of munitions not only for Russia to continue to prosecute its invasion and occupation of Ukraine but also concerns that Seoul’s neighbour would be receiving technical assistance in developing its nuclear and aerospace programmes and emboldened border incursions, South Korea is considering augmenting its support to the beleaguered nation with lethal weapons, which it has so far not provided. As counter-programming to the recently held gathering in Switzerland of eighty nations reaffirming their commitment for Ukraine support and condemnation of Putin’s war, the Russian leader re-emphasised that materiel aid for Ukraine makes other countries direct belligerents and reserves the right to do the same against the West and its allies.

synchronoptica

one year ago: the US supreme court sets benchmarks for obscenity (with synchronoptica) plus assorted links worth revisiting

six years ago: regional linguistic delicacies plus RIP Koko the Gorilla

seven years ago: soylent, structural fungi plus procrastination and motivation

eight years ago: Sigur Rós, neighbourhood archaeology, Wedgwood heels plus more on gun violence in America

nine years ago: Max Richter’s Sleep

8x8 (11. 642)

crazy logic: a rather seamless mashup of Gnarls Barkley, Rockwell, Pink Floyd and Sumpertramp  

ыһыах: the Yakut people of arctic Siberia celebrate New Year on the Summer Solstice  

culicidology: a fascinating two-part discussion of mosquitoes with Alie Ward 

baggage carousel: an animated journey of checked airline luggage 

the phrygian cap: the Paris Games’ mascot with a revolutionary past—via Miss Cellania  

the beige begins early here folks: McMansion Hell (previously) presents another instalment of the American Medieval Revival—via Things Magazine  

re-alignment: just ahead of Solstice celebrations, activists with Just Stop Oil douse the megalithic calendar with orange paint power 

chiroptera: a ballet chroegraphed by Thomas Bangalter, formerly of Daft Punk—via tmn

space crone (11. 641)

Via tmn, we are directed to an attempt to better understand the pioneering science-fiction author Ursula K Le Guin (†, previously)—and more generally all writers through their routines, chapbooks and other faded ephemera—and chancing upon her digital demesne in her websites, one curated by her estate and the other archive-only, as reflection of an author’s public-facing persona, from a time when websites took effort and imagination and no standard templates were available or enforced and provides insights how people want to be remembered extra-cannon. More from Dirt contributor Meghna Rao at the link above.

synchronoptica

one year ago: compilation albums (with synchronoptica), more marketing tie-ins for 2001 plus academic SEO

five years ago: the Munker-White optical illusion

six years ago: the Coconut Song, the EU enacts Article 13, electronic assistants for hotel rooms, the US withdraws from the UN Human Rights Council, Canada legalises recreational marijuana use, unique churches in southern India plus reflections on World Refugee Day

seven years ago: assorted links worth revisiting plus the unwritten rules of the English language

eight years ago: sense of direction and handedness plus conserving the historic record in the digital age