calendrical correspondence (12. 123)

In addition to aligning dates and days to the years 1986, 1997, 2003 and 2014, 2025 matches up with the calendar for 1975, due to its periodic nature. I wonder what events from a half-a-century might resonate and repeat for the upcoming year. Proximate to other quinquagenaries, we have touched on some of the anniversaries already, like the rise of Margaret Thatcher, the reopening of the Suez Canal, the fall of Saigon and the end of the Franco dictatorship, but we wonder what else the past might say about the present.

synchronoptica

one year ago: Dry January (with synchronoptica), 2023 in review, Sweden’s Words of the Year, defining the syllable, a look towards 2024 plus professional measurers

seven years ago: happy birthday to a veteran scientist, more on making God gender-neutral, CB operators plus New Year’s Eve eve

eight years ago: assorted links worth revisiting plus Rankin and Bass theology

nine years ago: more links to enjoy, lampooning MAGA plus Fermi’s Paradox

ten years ago: new top level domains plus molybdomancy

the boy who wouldn’t grow up (12. 122)

Released almost twenty years to the day after the stage adaptation on this day in 1924, J M Barrie’s novelisation of Peter and Wendy, the Paramount feature—then called Famous Players-Lasky, was considered to be a lost film for decades. The only known fragment of footage was in the promotional compilation, The House that Shadows Built, put together by the studio in 1931 to celebrate its twentieth anniversary and exhibit movies that never had a proper theatrical release which featured scenes from several silent-era pictures that only are extant as clips, sort of like the lost plays of Ancient Greece that only are referenced in footnotes. A well-preserved copy was found, however, in 1950 and prompted the Disney animated version a few years later. With fidelity for the original story, the Darlings ultimately adopt the Lost Boys and Wendy is allowed to return to Never Never Land once a year to assist with Spring Cleaning. Peter is played by Betty Bronson and George Ali acts as Nana the Dog (a Doug Jones, Andy Serkis of that time and a far better nursemaid than the Lost Boys had) and Crocodile.

6x6 (12. 121)

glimmer vs trigger: political, cultural and business trends to expect for 2025 

geospatial: NATO’s Project HEIST to ensure telecommunications architecture from accident and sabotage or caprice—see also—via Damn Interesting’s Curated Links  

achive.today: some methods for getting around paywalled articles  

elo rating: grandmaster Magnus Carlsen quits World Internation Chess Federation (see previously) over dress code 

teotwawki: y2k preparations and people getting ready to bug out—see previously  

🍿: an omnibus list of list on movies and television from the past year

pop-tarts bowl (12. 120)

Amazingly held annually (at different venues and with different sponsorship arrangements) since 1990 the college football play-off tournament, now under the patronage of the Kelloggs / Kellanova brand beginning in 2020 to promote its snack-crackers and toaster-pastries (previously), a vote was put to fans for which flavours were to serve as the game’s main mascot. The winner, Strawberry, was ritually sacrificed in a giant oven but was resurrected during a half-time tribute. Superpunch has a highlights reel from yesterday’s event.

synchronoptica

one year ago: assorted links to revisit (with synchronoptica) plus the Trail of Tears (1835)

seven years ago: the US and the Metric System, stop using Facebook and start using your browser, more links to enjoy plus The People’s History of Tattooine

eight years ago: sumptuary laws, RIP Debbie Reynolds plus the legacy of the Cathars

nine years ago: more on monomyths, de-icing, re-post for luck, no one’s watching week plus the US-Iranian Hostage Crisis

ten years ago: the Art of Asking,  Dürer’s Rhinoceros, the shortest river in France plus questions to librarians

frickenhäuser see (12. 119)

Incorporated as part of the town of Mellrichstadt since secularisation, the parish village falling previously under the authority of the monastic community of Kloster Wechterswinkel, we took a little walk around the namesake lake, a bit more than a hectare and the largest natural body of water in Lower Franconia—this flooded funnel shaped crater (a sinkhole from a collapsed cave with no tributaries or outflows) and not originally a mine shaft like many of the ponds in the area. 

 Dating from the triassic era and rich in fossils across strata of limestone, the lake is designated as a protected geotope (Geotop, compared to Biotop or biome) and is counted among the hundred finest geological formations that gives insight on the history of the Earth and the course of development of life on it.

11x11 (12. 118)

nuclear dawn: a 1984 mural in Brixton, part of the Londonist tour of great public art in the city  

winterval: a spot on take of the week between Christmas and New Year’s  

tedium’s tedium awards: celebrating the protest songs of Jesse Welles, beating Tetris and more  

omnibus: more year end lists from Miss Cellania—this one focussing on science  

designated checkpoint: document-free travel being trialled, the passport replaced by one’s phone biometrics  

holiday helper: repurposing classic cocktails for the festive season  

encomnia: remembering the celebrities and artists lost in 2024  

pizza day: recreating a school cafeteria staple with pourable crust—via Boing Boing 

h-1b visas: requested immigration carved-outs for the tech sector pit Musk against MAGA  

post-holiday blues: anticipating returning to work can evaporate that time off peace of mind  

our century hasn’t been as free with words of wisdom as some others: Kurt Vonnegut Jr’s 1988 address to people living a hundred years later

synchronoptica

one year ago: a banger from Andrew Bird (with synchronoptica) 

seven years ago: the aphorisms of Syrus, vintage London Underground posters plus a compendium of dark magic

eight years ago: celebrating the life and career of Carrie Fisher plus reflections on post-truth

nine years ago: feudalism and engaged citizenry, remote human settlements plus a look back at phony outrage

ten years ago: Pangea with current geopolitical borders, space-time fossils plus a Grumpy Cat Christmas

open letter (12. 117)

Though sad to learn of the artist’s passing earlier this month, we very much appreciated learning of the extensive repertoire of Anna Banana (see also) and the movement that the helped pioneer and propel referred to postal or correspondence art focused sending and receiving smaller scale works via post. A spin-off of Fluxus in response to invitations to draw Tommy the Turtle and Petey the Pirate and antecedents that generally commercialised creativity, mail artists eschewed traditional markets and display spaces with their exchange that didn’t necessitate though often elicited reciprocation and expansion on a theme. As with the proliferation of zines, the genre and medium anticipated the loose collective of web communities that riff and remix the creation of others with established norms of attribution and curation. Much more from Hyperallergic at the link above.

mmxv (12. 116)

Numerically speaking, the coming year has some compelling arithmetic properties—albeit some are classified as amusing puzzlers without mathematical significance, though nonetheless worthy of exploration—foremostly being that it is a square that remains square if all its digits are incremented: itself a square (45²), the sum of three squares (5² + 20² + 40²) and the product of two squares (5² x 9²), the sum of a 9x9 multiplication table, and split as (20 + 25)² = 2025. Moreover by both American and European calendar conventions (because of the communicative property of addition) 24 July is a Pythagorean Day, with 24² + 7² = 25², like the last one on 16 December 2020. More from Futility Closet at the link above.