8x8 (11. 799)

heatwave toolkit: applying yogurt to one’s windows to cool homes and offices  

calculating empires: an exploration of the genealogy and evolution of technology and power from the fourteenth century on—via Pasa Bon!  

better than binary: a look at the potential for base-three in computing applications and security—see previously  

coriander, comfits, confetti: Italian cuisine, shifting tastes and etymology  

campaign photo op: Trump staff had a violent altercation with Arlington National Cemetery officials—see previously  

chaos rainbow: an unusual monochrome optical meteorological phenomenon over a baseball stadium  

license to travel: the three thousand year history of the passport, linking bureaucracy with our hopes and aspirations  

süßwarentechnik: Swiss researchers discover a way to produce chocolate using the whole cocoa fruit rather than discarding most of it

synchronoptica

one year ago: assorted links worth revisiting (with synchronoptica)

seven years ago: an optimised crash-test dummy, the backstory on the distracted boyfriend meme plus a villa modelled on the White House in Germany

eight years ago: moving a museum plus Calais’ Jungle encampment

nine years ago: the reproducibility crisis, more links to enjoy plus a squishy map

eleven years ago: Italian Ghostbusters 

nickle, nickle (11. 798)

Originally sold in the inventor’s drugstore in North Carolina in 1893 as Brad’s Drink, Caleb Bradham rebranded his tonic as Pepsi-Cola on this day in 1898, as our faithful chronicler informs, to emphasise its reputed benefits in aiding digestion (not the enzyme pepsin but rather as a relief for being dyspeptic, the former never being an additive, neither cocaine). Expanding bottling operations and recovering from bankruptcy—during which a merger was proposed with rival soda brand Coca-Cola, the drink especially flourished during the Depression by undercutting the competition and doubling its serving size, the thrifty and smart shopper vindicated by the above radio jingle. Afterwards, Pepsi pursued sports and entertainment sponsorships and received several celebrity endorsements, beginning with Joan Crawford who was married to the company president and agreed to product-placement in her films (a tradition carried on) as well as being a general spokesperson and appearing in advertisements, followed by Duke Ellington and others. The soft drink in 1972 became the first Western product to be given official sanction by the government of the Soviet Union (see also), PepsiCo granted export rights in exchange for marketing and import of Stolichnaya in the US.

synchronoptica

one year ago: a tour of a nuclear waste depository (with synchronoptica) plus AI versus a giraffe with no spots

seven years ago: climate change and tourism, forced reunions in Chechnya plus maths in corals and crochet

eight years ago: a Victorian pumping station, the Wright Brothers’ sister plus spying on Turkish diaspora

ten years ago: Rome against Carthage

eleven years ago: consulting medieval texts for modern advice

mister boddy (11. 797)

Vis-à-vis a recent post, we learn via Messy Nessy Chic (lots more to explore there) that the 1985 adaptation of the board game Clue (Cluedo) with Tim Curry, Madeline Kahn, Christopher Lloyd and Martin Mull was released with three different ending, randomly screened to cinema audiences. The VHS- and Betamax-versions for home consumption had the three variations among the uncountable permutations—Colonel Mustard with the candlestick in the conservatory—with all characters blackmailed and with a motive, and prompting “how it could’ve happened,” “how about this” and “here’s what really happened.” Recently toy company Hasbro has been in talks seeking a new rights deal for another adaptation after a series of failed reboots and remakes.

tube map central (11. 796)

Via Quantum of Sollazzo, we are directed this elegant concentric representation of the London Underground’s classic layout (see previously here and here), with this circle-and-spoke map that better matches the geography of the stops and stations, updated after eleven years. Although with the disclaimer that this has already been circulating on the internet, we can only recall one other such rendering of a mass-transit network. Much more at the links above.

lady death (11. 795)

Arriving in Washington, DC on this day in 1942 as a part of a tour of the US, Canada and the UK to encourage the Allies to open up a second front against Nazi Germany, at the invitation of Eleanor Roosevelt, Lyudmila Pavlichenko (Людмила Михайлівна Павличенко) of Odesa became the first official Soviet guest in the White House. Credited with killing three-hundred nine Axis soldiers—likely an undercount as confirmed kills required a witness and included thirty-six enemy snipers—after being retired after a blow from shrapnel, Pavlichenko was reassigned as a trainer and propagandist for the Red Army. Not particularly fond of her new role as a diplomat, shy and quiet and only wanting to get on with beating the fascists, Pavlichenko complained that she was not taken seriously by the press, but her blunt responses to sexist questions were well received by the public. Calling on Chicago with the First Lady, citing her credentials, she chided, “Don’t you think, gentlemen, that you have been hiding behind my back for too long?”

synchronoptica

one year ago: the Guinness World Records (with synchronoptica)

eight years ago: ghost malls plus duped by Brexit

nine years ago: assorted links worth revisiting plus the oracle of Delphi

ten years ago: work-life balance plus Austria hosts the Bilderberg conference

eleven years ago: social media and credit scores

lone eagle (11. 794)

Famed aviator, conservationist, isolationist and anti-Semite Charles Augustus Lindbergh died (*1902) on this day in 1974. Although like his father, congressional representative of Minnesota’s sixth district who was one of the few lawmakers to oppose America’s entry into World War I, and many other members of the public who promoted a non-interventionalist stance prior to Pearl Harbour, Lindbergh never explicitly endorsed the Nazi regime though his overarching comments on race seemed to suggest otherwise, a platform won by his historic transatlantic crossing, and public adoration was immense not only for his skilled piloting and goodwill tours but also in promoting transport and air-mail, with the enterprise expanding significantly during the 1930s with more than a fifty-percent increase of individuals seeking licenses to fly and a virtual Renaissance virtuosity demonstrated by contributions to the advancement of medical sciences co-authoring a procedure that made organ transplants more viable and charting routes that still make up airline itineraries to this day. US president Ford eulogised him, “In later years, his life was darkened by tragedy,” referring to the kidnapping and murder of his infant son, “and coloured political controversy, but, in both public and private life, General Lindbergh always remained a brave and sincere patriot.” A couple of weeks before his death at his seaside home in Maui, Hawaii from lymphoma, Lindbergh reached out to his secret families, seven children from three different women in West Germany and asked the mothers not to reveal his identity, only known by the alias Careu Kent—either the alter-ego of Superman or picked in honour of the place in England where he and his wife retreated after the abduction of their child and media circus—from annual visits—which all three women complied with and was not discovered by his offspring until over a decade after his demise.

not ready for this (11. 793)

Though since the advent of photography, there has always been doctoring and outright fakes to promote one agenda or another from the paranormal to propaganda, the media was always accorded the social consensus of a level of proof beyond a reasonable doubt be it evidentiary and exculpatory to illustrative, inspirational, aspirational, enlightening to transporting. Now, however, we have all been forcibly aged out of that universal cohort with the default setting on our gadgets—beginning with one particular model—switched to AI enhancement and open manipulation, seamless and with few effective safety controls in place. A dose of skepticism is healthy, especially in an environment that’s actively trying to pass off fake news and keep journalism and other institutions under siege but seeding doubt strips photography of its objective permanence and with this kind of saturation and ease of use—a feature like the automatic focus and flash we take for granted—it is difficult to forecast our collective credence going forward.

 synchronoptica

one year ago: an independent press for the stateless (with synchronoptica) plus the architecture of diplomacy 

seven years ago: a podcast mini-series on witchcraft plus Babylonia trigonometry

eight years ago: 1980s animated production logos, super-recognisers plus assorted links worth revisiting

nine years ago: conscription, impressment and universal taxation

ten years ago: repentful paintings

sunday drive: fasanerie u deutsch-deutsch grenze (11. 792)

Taking advantage of the cooler weather, H and I went to the next village over (see previously here and here) of Hermannsfeld to see a classic car show held on the grounds of the Jagdschloss Fasanerie—a pheasant-hunting lodge built for Duke Georg I of Sachsen-Meiningen from an existing menagerie at the end of the eighteenth century and by turns a nature reserve, a refugee encampment, accommodations for the border police, a teacher training facility and then back to a park and place for excursions. 

Afterwards we took the long way home over Henneburg and stopped again at the sculpture park at the former Inner-German border. With an expanded and changing selection of artworks and installations on division, reunification and freedom, the Friedensweg lining the crossing from Thüringen and Bavaria was dedicated by Bundeskanzler Helmet Kohl in 1996 and began with the central construction of the Golden Bridge and features contributions from children and artists from both East and West coming together.