7x7 (12. 074)

watermark: a year in illustrations from Cory Doctorow’s Pluralistic  

大年三十: due to a quirk in the lunisolar calendar, Chinese New Year’s Eve will disappear for the next five years 

<div>: web designer demonstrates the virtuosity of cascading style sheets—via Boing Boing

you have died of dysentery: a cinematic adaptation of the Oregon Trail computer game—via Kottke  

liquidation: a bankruptcy judge voids the Onion’s purchase of Infowars, arguing there was money left on the table  

dalgona challenge: McDonald’s Australia introduces a Squid Game Happy Meal  

special perils policy: the brilliant, dynamic typography of the Sanborn Fire Insurance maps—see previously

synchronoptica

one year ago: another MST3K classic (with synchronoptica), DJ Riko’s X-Mas mix, Messiah of Evil (1974) plus a cosmetic automat

seven years ago: the French Revolutionary calendar, curvature blindness plus linguistic eggcorns

eight years ago: IKEA retail therapy, emoluments and self-dealing plus the legacy of Bauhaus design

nine years ago: LEGO Inferno plus assorted links to revisit

eleven years ago: It’s A Wonderful Life

deny, defend, depose, diarrhea (12. 073)

Symptomatic of far greater endemic problems with America’s labour and healthcare problems, individuals are submitting scathing reviews of one of the three McDonald’s franchises in Altoona, Pennsylvania that tipped off authorities regarding the whereabouts of the fugitive suspected of killing the CEO of a major insurance provider—see previously. Whilst his life is undergoing vivisection by the police and the press for his apparent act of retribution, the public is lamenting the selling out by an informant of folk-hero Luigi Mangione whose Monopoly money and manifesto speaks for everyone who has had a negative interaction with their insurance carrier by addle-brained employees who will never have coverage either (nor likely any other basic benefits, like paid leave or a pension) and won’t see the bounty as the tip went through local authorities and not the FBI hotline, no CEO stepping forward to reward this act of killing one of their own. PfRC does not condone this type of lawless vigilantism no matter how resonant and righteous, nor do we condone the above-the-law framework of for-profit healthcare and corporate welfare that props up businesses that rely on a woefully insufficient government safety net to make money and a parasocial system that is a feedback loop undermining people’s physical and mental well-being.

spes non confundit (12. 072)

Pope Francis has issued the bull of indication that the 2025 Jubilee, which will last from Christmas Eve this year to Epiphany of 2026, fulfilling the declaration made by John Paul II at the conclusion of 2000’s Great Jubilee, with the above convocation from the verse of the book of Romans “hope does not disappoint” and understanding that the youths attending the millennial celebration would be the leaders a quarter century later. Recognising the need, Francis had an intervening Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy a decade ago and this time all four mercy gates of the basilica of the Holy See, Saint Paul Outside the Walls, Saint Mary Major, St John Lateran and St Peter’s, are being unbricked to be opened is succession through Christmastide. A fifth door will be added for the first time in a tradition dating back to the fourteenth century with the entrance of Rebibbia prison, one of the chief incarceration facilities in Italy focused on social reintegration and rehabilitation of its inmates (including John Paul II’s attempted assassin Mehmet Ali Ağca, Costa Concordia captain Francesco Schettino and numerous mafiosi) symbolically representing all jails.

synchronoptica

one year ago: Pantone’s colour for 2024 (with synchronoptica), AI illustrated Christmas carols plus unit abbreviations

seven years ago: Dr Who villains, a space-faring micronation, curios British telly plus AI authored Christmas carols

eight years ago: mistaking the bad guys, more on netiquette plus A Charlie Brown Christmas (1965)

nine years ago: assorted links to revisit, nuance in language plus colonial powers vie for Africa

ten years ago: the commodification of foodstuffs, set designs for Kubrick films, an appreciation of clipart plus avocados and megafauna

american minerva (12. 071)

Originally founded on this day by lexicographer and text-book publisher Noah Webster under the above name with the extended subtitle Patroness of Peace, Commerce and the Liberal Arts, the daily was NewYork City’s first in circulation. Undergoing a series of rebrandings in its first few years of publication, it finally settled The Commercial Advertiser in 1803. Politically the paper was generally leaning towards support of the nationalist, conservative Federalist Party. A century later in 1904 it was again renamed The New York Globe, defunct with its consolidation in 1923 with the New York Sun, ending its run.

10x10 (12. 070)

willow: Google’s quantum computing labs unveil a new microchip that operates at amazing speeds by being in many states simultaneously  

skin-deep: a look at the tattoos of Defence Secretary nominee Pete Hegseth 

mind-machines: Arthur C Clark (previously) forecasts the rise of artificial intelligence in 1978 

yuletide classics: a treasury of ten great holiday action movies—see also  

saturday night bath in apple valley: Something Weird features the very best in exploitation film from the 1930s through the 1970s—via Obscure Media 

they see your photos: an app that assesses one’s images, opposite to a picture is worth one thousand words  

free syria awaits you: Hayat Tahrir al-Sham enters Damascus as Bashir al-Assad flees to Moscow and political prisoners are freed  

mocha mousse: a defence of Pantone’s colour for 2025—it’s first brown hue  

pratfall: the history of slipping on banana peels—see previously here and here  

undercoat: solar paint developed by Mercedes Benz could revolutionise EV charging

synchronoptica

one year ago: underappreciated cinematic masterworks (with synchronoptica), multifunction gadgets plus The Wicker Man (1973)

seven years ago: prospecting for bitcoin plus transparency in airfare

eight years ago: dinosaur plumage, no memory for sickness, Italy’s efforts to reduce government gridlock and promote efficiency plus assorted links to revisit

nine years ago: an extraordinary Jubilee Year, chain of command plus 3D face masking

ten years ago: lucky charms, visualising the passage of time plus a first, fatal shooting by police in Iceland

in media res (12. 069)

Having recently learned about the origin stories of some of the characters of the Illiad and how these narratives would have been known to ancient audiences though known canonically as prequels and supplement material, we quite enjoyed reading about this incredible archeological find in Durocortorum (Reims) in the form of a luxurious Roman-Gallo villa recently excavated, no expense spared to showcase the residents’ affection for culture and refinement, including the likeness of Achilles dressed as handmaid (a rare example from Zeugma pictured). Prior to enlistment to fight with the Achaean armies against Troy, in this post-Homeric episode, well-known to imperial attendees, Achilles’ mother, the sea nymph Thetis, despite her efforts to help him knew her son’s fate and Achilles’ heel and so had him hidden away at the court of Lycomedes, king of Skyros, disguised as a young woman, on the premise that her daughter was raised with an Amazon upbringing and now needed to learn more feminine ways from young women her own age—called Pyrrha (Red)—and while sitting out the draft, had a relationship with princess Deidamia, siring two boys by her—originally opposed to his mother’s plan, the hero relented once meeting his inmates. Odysseus tricked Achilles into revealing himself, dragging his compatriot off to the front. Other exquisite artefacts found at the site also attest to the owners Romanophilia and education.

who, where, what (12. 068)

Via Nag on the Lake’s always outstanding Sunday Links, we are directed to the annual challenge in the King William’s College Winter Break quiz (see previously)—which never fails to baffle and probably never, honestly at least broke a cross of two. Our almanac activities are seeming to pay off at least a little bit in helping know a few answers from a century ago including: In the renaming of which city was a leading apostle replaced in honour of a revolutionary leader?  The publication of which forged document may have influenced a Conservative landslide?  The one-page assignment issued since 1904 is no longer formally graded as homework but rather as an opportunity or pupils and their families to think about research strategies over the holidays.

ampel aus (12. 067)

The Committee for the German Language (Gesellschaft füe deutsche Sprache—see below) has announced its Wort des Jahres for 2024 as a nod to the collapse of the Red, Yellow, Green party coalition in the government and the call for snap-elections, but there were several other words being monitored as contenders, including Klimaschönfäberei—essentially the German rendering of “green-washing,” kriegstüchtig, war-like, Rechtsdrift, a shift to more conservative and populist politics, die Selbstbestimmung in Bezug auf den Geschlechtseintrag (abbreviated SBGG), a update to the outdated 1980 law on transgender identity enacted in November that allows non-binary individuals to register under a new first name and sex without the bureaucratic onus and Messerverbot, in reference to a few incidents of knife-attacks at public events earlier in the year and the response of authorities.

synchronoptica

one year ago: assorted links to revisit (with synchronoptica), the spelling of Christmas and Hanukkah plus Germany’s Word of the Year

seven years ago: the fraught and racist history of square-dancing, net-neutrality under threat plus a catalogue of spomenik of the former Yugoslavia

nine years ago: a real world copy of the Simpsons’ home

ten years ago: the historical Snow White plus the History of the World in 100 Objects 

eleven years ago: decorating for Christmas, spies in the skies plus the languages of Switzerland