Dangerous Minds curates a truly bizarre gallery of antique Christmas greetings cards, gathered from various sources, whose message and associations with cheer and the season are rather—through the filter of a given vintage—lost on modern audiences.
There’s Krampus, of course, who’s a much greater deterrent to naughtiness than a lump of coal—which I’d wager that some Victorian street urchin would be very grateful to receive, but beyond this cautionary example these salutations are just fraught with surreal imagery—duelling frogs, dead sparrows, revolting sparrows, murderous emus and polar bears. What’s truly classic is universal and enduring (kittens, perhaps) and maybe these cards illustrate the consequences of things passing out of style and humour becoming obsolete. Be sure to check out Dangerous Minds to pursue the full selection.
Friday 18 December 2015
ghost of christmas weird
klaxon or blues and twos
I vaguely recall learning that emergency response vehicles—ambulances, fire-trucks, police cruisers—in the States at least bore complementary flashing lights in red and blue to shine at the most visible spectrum both during the day and at night—though I could not remember which colour was best for either condition.
In Germany (and for the UK as well), those same beacons are just blue—arrayed for each kind of dispatch a bit differently with distinctive sirens but only on the one wave-length. If the two-coloured light system had a higher visibility profile—I wondered, why it had not been adopted everywhere. It turns out that the insight into the discernability of different spectra—which figures in traffic lights as well, and the reason for Germany’s blue lights date to 1938, like much of the German infrastructure—the Autobahn and the people’s coach. It does not have anything to do with psychological colour associations or some Doppler effect, but rather anticipating the possibility of air-raids as Europe once again began to take a belligerent posture, field-engineers experimented with different colours and discovered that while red lights sent up a beacon high into the atmosphere, attracting the attention of bomber-pilots, blue light dissipated at a much lower altitude. The convention, like equipping windows on homes with Rollladen (roller shutters) to effectively black out the lights, has endured.
catagories: ๐ฉ๐ช, ๐ฌ๐ง, ๐บ๐ธ, transportation
Thursday 17 December 2015
parkour and pageant
may the force be with you (and also with you)
Amid rumours and parallels some are wont to draw, saying that Jedis are prone to radicalisation like jihadists (I am covering my ears because I don’t want any come across any spoilers—and still to this day, I feel a pang of regret when I think how I spilled one of the surprises to a nurse while at a doctor’s appointment right after seeing Return of the Jedi and informing her that Luke and Leia were brother and sister), Atlas Obscura, with its signature daring-do, reports how for the Fourth Advent the Zionskirche in Berlin will host a special Star Wars service—like the Nine Lessons and Carols celebration that I attended last week, I suppose but with morals drawn from the saga. The accomplished organist will also of course be performing a selection of the film soundtrack.
catagories: ๐ฉ๐ช, holidays and observances, religion, Star Wars
5x5
purl two: upon request the BBC would send out the knitting instructions for the Fourth Doctor’s iconic scarf
food pyramid: Vox examines at different ways nutritional guidelines are influenced and imparted globally
zodiaco: Salvador Dalรญ’s astrologic menagerie plus a hint into the obsession the artist had with his departed elder brother, Salvador Dalรญ
tween: proposed EU rules would raise the social media age of majority to sixteen
catagories: ๐ฌ๐ง, ๐ฎ๐ธ, ๐, ๐, ๐, ๐งถ, food and drink, networking and blogging
Wednesday 16 December 2015
grand moff tarkin
Writing for The Atlantic, David Sims presents us with a wonderfully literate appreciation of one of the minor conscientious bureaucrats who manages to survive amid the toxic leadership of the vast galactic Empire in the character of Admiral Piett (portrayed by the actor Kenneth Colley who is arguably most recognised for his role as Jesus in the Life of Brian—I wonder what the Kevin Bacon Number is for that connection).
Highlighting the original banality of evil—oriented towards dominance and tyrannical to be sure but otherwise nebulous, formalised and diametrically opposed to the rebel scum—Piett was elevated to the next rung of the enormous hierarchy after Darth Vader impulsively telepathically strangled his predecessor for his shortcomings and manages to keep his head about him until the Battle of Endor and the destruction of the second Death Star. There’s little virtue in keeping one’s nose clean and walking on egg-shells, but the admiral’s veiled disgust for his boss’ methods and sheer tenacity does warrant a bit of a cheer.