The Weird Universe labs have been especially prolific of late it seems and now direct us to a February 1951 newspaper article that documents the clinical imaging of the brain of Dr Albert Einstein.
The neuro-tomography was intended to be like a psychiatrist lounge of sort and jotted down his brain activity when thinking about his theory of relativity (special or general not specified unfortunately) and not thinking about relativity in the hopes that future generations of scientists who be able to recognise and read genius encoded. I’m glad Einstein’s thoughts were preserved and reminds us of learning about the secret contributors to the Golden Records committed to the Cosmos in the Voyager space probes and how one segment is the pattern of electrical impulses of the nervous system of a mediating Ann Druyan, writer and explorer and Carl Sagan’s widow.
Monday 31 July 2017
grey matter
goldilocks
Back in 2013, professor and biophysicist Jeremy England stirred some controversy with the theory that life is not some happy accident of biology or necessarily the collusion or just the right conditions but rather the natural conclusion of the laws of thermodynamics.
As organised and coherent as life is in comparison to the chaos surrounding it, living things are also the most efficient vehicle, according to Professor England’s on going models, to increase the level of disorder—that desired state of entropy. It is still very much a chicken-or-egg question and I am sure many physicists would be inimical to the suggestion that the follies of biology are the inevitable, highest expression of the rules of physics—rather than just bound by them and the theory does hold that the outcome is universal nor a forgone guarantee but it is something to ponder that the Cosmos might entertain such emergent fine-tuning and flagrancies to conserve energy.
Sunday 30 July 2017
emily post
Fancy Notions informs of the superstitious etiquette that the best way to rid one’s household of vermin or other pests (like today’s practise of leaving an anonymous notes on the windshields of car to comment and correct the atrocious parking job of others—or the phenomena of pet-shaming) is to take down a letter and put them on notice. For rats, the Ancient Greeks recommended a threatening tone, whilst households of nineteenth century New England took the approach of laying out to the rodents the distinct advantages of decamping their homes and instead taking up residence at their neighbours.
serรงe saray
Colossal directs our attention to a photo-essay by Caner Cangรผl whose work skilfully brings to the fore architectural elements and embellishments that might be lost in the monumental scale of some the buildings and bridges where his subjects are found.
The detail of this particular greebling are the surviving examples of Ottoman-era avian palaces, meant to give shelter to pigeons and sparrows in urban centres that might be lacking in safe accommodations for birds. Not only were households eager to host such guests, the additions also ensured that the faรงade of the surrounding structure was spared from birds roosting all over the place. These mansions are certainly grand ones and many designers lavish attention on the architecture of birdhouses but we suspect that the next talent showcase—prestige project will be in insect hospitality. Check out the link up top to learn more and see more of Cangรผl’s photography.
Saturday 29 July 2017
strongly-worded letter
The copier company has a well-established history of resisting efforts to make its brand a proprietary eponym and not to use it in a generic way—like Kleenex or Q-Tip or Zipper or google—but this letter (via Nag on the Lake) that a long-time literary correspondent for the The New York Times received is surprisingly stern in tone. Ms Kakutani (misidentified as a mister in the missive) is berated for having used the company’s as a verb and in lower case for an article she wrote (now the trademark appears in lower-case since 2008 and with this logo, which itself may be a copy). The veteran reporter is penning a memoir and found the letter among other ephemera whilst researching for her book.
Friday 28 July 2017
g-mark of approval
In celebration of supporting six decades of competition to improve ergonomics and functionality the Good Design Awards (here’s one of last year’s winner) has opened up a boutique store in Tokyo that features a expertly selected range of the annual contest’s best in show.
With some forty four thousand honoured entrants, the shop couldn’t accommodate the entire inventory but this emporium is surely going to be a place to go to for inspiration. The awards have its origins in the mandate by the country’s Ministry of International Trade and Industry in 1957 to establish a rating system (the G-Mark) to recognise, commend and promote excellence in design and the chief factor for inclusion is whether an object or concept can make people’s lives more prosperous and enriches society as a whole. So many abstract and otherly-versioned things get transformed into amusement park rides, put on stage or otherwise repackaged with questionable judgment but this idea—to showcase talent in a retail setting that’s closer to a museum-going experience—strikes me as brilliant and inviting.
tabula rasa
Why you never wear GREEN on TV๐ค pic.twitter.com/IsC8TuE3Ei— Jesse McLaren (@McJesse) July 28, 2017
wayback machine
Brilliantly, as Waxy informs, the Internet Archive (previously here and here) is curating daily snapshots of a dozen of major internet properties (CNN, Reddit, YouTube, Amazon, the BBC, Yahoo! News, et al.) of how these web sites looked a decade ago. The historical chronicle elicits a sense of nostalgia and contextualises where we stand now.
