monty hall enlightenment (11. 733)

Via Quantum of Sollazzo, we are invited to revisit the sometimes fiercely and vehemently counterintuitive probability puzzle based on the TV game show Let’s Make a Deal. Though it is easy to demonstrate that one should always switch doors, have a two out three chance of winning rather than staying with one’s original choice, there are an array of perfectly unreasonable factors that at play that make people stick with their original bet and believing the odds to be even, whereas they’re only ⅓ as likely to not walk away with a prize goat, the dilemma and its trenchant nature says a lot about human bias and errors of commission. Even mathematicians and physicists come to the wrong conclusion until being disabused (sometimes it never takes as our original selection is endowed by magical thinking and those times when we switch and lose cling to our minds more) by brute repetition or by positioning themselves as host and realising that certain protocols are followed in games of chance. This is a specific and tenacious example which illustrates our withering capacity for judgment but I wonder if there are analogous other odds that we similarly misunderstand.

7x7 (11. 732)

autotopia 2000: a consumerist satire from animation team Halas and Batchelor, best-known for their adaptation of Animal Farm 

broligarchs: the Trump-Vance tax proposal that is courting the support of Silicon Valley billionaires 

supermarket sweep: a monograph on graphic designer Ted Eron, who was responsible for the aesthetics of the food aisle  

kamal holding vinyls: Ms Harris will display your favourite album covers—via kraftfuttermischwerk  

run: an appreciation of the consequential and formative programming language BASIC—see previously—via Damn Interesting’s Curated Links  

i’m a little teapot, short and stout: the analogy from Betrand Russell that shifts the philosophical burden of proof to the party making unfalsiable claims  

goalball: a team of animators illustrate explainers for Paralympic events

synchronoptica

one year ago: Christian comics (with synchronoptica), assorted links worth revisiting plus Molson Ice Rocks for Canada

seven years ago: Ottoman bird palaces plus superstitious etiquette

eight years ago: the Vegetable Lamb of Tartary and other mythical beasts plus custom automatons

nine years ago: Esperanto enthusiasts plus a helpful cheese chart

ten years ago: William Barker’s Schwa

midnight special (11. 731)

As our faithful chronicler informs, the Dick Ebersol production for NBC, previously in the role of Director of Late Night programming, debuted the music video and variety programme to capitalise on the popularity of MTV on this day in 1983, airing for nearly two decades though in the end mainly featuring stand-up comedians. Having co-created Saturday Night Live with Lorne Michaels and displacing the Canadian-import sketch-show SCTV, this segue block on broadcast television was far more widely available than its cable originator and was further simulcasted on affiliate radio for a stereo listening experience. Popular segments included the “Video Vote” request line and celebrity cohosts, often pairing network celebrities, like the casts of The Cosby Show, The Facts of Life, Kate & Allie, Growing Pains, Cheers and Family Ties as well as prominent musicians as video-jockeys.

ambrosia (11. 730)

The Olympic Committee issued an apology for a tableau during the Paris Olympic’s opening ceremonies that some claimed was deeply offensive to Christian communities and blasphemous—notably the shrillest outrage from US conservatives—for depicting The Last Supper with drag queens. Except it was not inspired by Da Vinci’s depiction of Jesus and his apostles, as the spectacle’s director explained—though few could hear it over the social media torrent—and the performance had to be regrettably recanted, but rather by Le Festin des Dieux, a seventeenth century work by painter Jan van Bijlert prominently displayed in the national gallery in Dijon. While the Dutch artist himself was referencing Leonardo’s earlier work and one sees what one wants to see, the mythology figures are patently recognisable, including Apollo, Pan, Mars, Minerva and Dionysus, the father of the Gallo-Roman goddess Sequana (and whose totem spirit, familiars are ducks), the deification of the Seine, sourced in Côte-d’Or is not far from Dijon.

and always twirling, twirling, twirling towards freedom (11. 729)

In more meme news, the presumptive Democratic nominee made a surprise showing during the conclusion of the San Diego Comic-Con panel on The Simpsons, reciting a slogan from the Treehouse of Horror VII special from 1996, the short Citizen Kang, about the recurring alien characters interfering in the then upcoming contest between Bill Clinton and Bob Dole, eventually replacing the candidates with themselves. While unclear if Harris endorsed this message specifically for the weekend’s forum—or if it was an older clip that a group of political science students arranged when tasked with getting a politician to make a statement about America’s two-party system (see above), her appearance nonetheless energised the crowd. A self-described superfan of the long running show—and maybe this fellow GenXer also pretends it ended circa 1997 instead of entering its thirty-sixth season, which is probably the best approach—Harris’ other solid Simpsons association comes from the 2000 episode Bart to the Future, wherein a similarly dressed Lisa succeeds Donald Trump as US president—which seems a bit more prescient than it was, Trump having been a serial candidate before finally securing the Republican party’s nomination in 2016.

ad copy (11. 728)

Via Web Curios, we enjoyed perusing this gallery of mostly—but not exclusively—vintage Anglophone print advertisements that make the exception to the curator’s collection entitled, “Nobody Reads Ads” from Miguel Ferreira, who writes a lot about commericals and creativity. There are some really effective and arresting ones, though not the ones that everyone remembers as indisputable examples, that are lost in the data of engagement and targeting and each demonstrates a subtle hook to an audience that is not exactly self-selecting. What are some of your favourites or ones you think have been overlooked and should be included?  Much more at the links above.

couch gag (11. 727)

In some strange conflation between Trump’s running-mate, Trump’s supreme court pick Brett Kavanaugh and the Mandala effect for the spectrum of possible things that’s allowing the memes of production to take over, the episode was not recorded in JD Vance’s memoir and the whole thing was a joke, but the temporary virality revealed some ever weirder hang-ups and proclivities which are on the record. Vance in a 2021 bemoaned how the Democratic party was led by “a bunch if childless cat ladies who are miserable with their own lives,” specifically naming Kalama Harris, Pete Buttigieg (his prospective challengers) and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, rehashing the interview’s soundbite with the argument that childless people are unfit to govern because they have no stake in the future. Other classic talking-points have emerged regarding what Vance—including universal childcare—as a threat to traditional families.

synchronoptica

one year ago: St Martha of Bethany (with synchronoptica)

seven years ago: Xerox wants you to stop genericising its brand

eight years ago: a millennium of food and drink in art, a dog train, punctuation in road signage plus an artificial leaf

nine years ago: nature vs nurture plus assorted links worth revisiting

ten years ago: the monuments of Croatia

bright lights city gonna set my soul, gonna set my soul on fire (11. 726)

Via friend of the blog, the marvellous Nag on the Lake, we learn about the origins of the classic Elvis Presley officiated wedding tradition—sourced to the time that The King and Priscilla visited a beautiful sanctuary in Las Vegas, and though declining the venue over the lack of room for the planned guest list, Presley gave his blessing, subject to later disputes disputes by his estate and record label over copycat ceremonies but now apparently litigation has relented in order to uphold the tradition, to rebrand the little chapel as Graceland, spawning the destination matrimony up and down the Strip and much further afield. We did not realise, however, despite our upbringing in Texarkana replete with local lore ranging from literary and musical mentions Ross Perot, Scott Joplin and ragtime plus a historically prosperous Black centre of commerce that was devastated Tulsa-style, that the first recorded professional impersonator hailed from the Arkansas-side in the figure of one Carl “Cheesie” Nelson who had a special knack for impersonation and was even invited to perform alongside the genuine article once in Memphis in 1954. Topical singer Philip Ochs first made parodies of Elvis’ discography into protest anthems in the late 1960s, well ahead of the artist’s death and joining a long line of enthusiasts of varying talent. Much more at the links above.

 

synchronoptica

one year ago: sculptor Vinne Ream (with synchronoptica) plus assorted links worth revisiting

seven years ago: an archive of daily internet snapshots from a decade ago, never wear green on television plus Japan’s Good Design Awards

eight years ago: Bexell’s Talking Stones, a look at the backlash to women’s voting rights plus tubular floating bridges for Norway

ten years ago: a NATO doomsday bunker plus more adventures in Croatia

eleven years ago: copycat blockbusters, German weather plus a visit to Gelnhausen