discharge

Studying the anatomy of the electric eel informed Alessandro Volta’s first synthetic battery and over two centuries later, the creature (Electophorus electricus, and technically a kind of knifefish) is still contributing to scientific innovation, as The Atlantic reports (not pictured but drawing off the same idea of scalability), with a Swiss team making soft and pliable energy storage units that act like the highly specialised electricity producing organ. Potentially compatible with our own bodies, some recognise the bionic potential, powering and self-sustaining medical implants and microscopic machinery that our metabolism and internal chemistry can keep charged.

alternativity

BBC 2 will air a collaboration between street artist Banksy and director Danny Boyle on Third Advent billed as a “festive spectacular” held at the venue of the artist’s own self-described worst hotel in the world at the foot of the wall dividing Bethlehem.

self-medication

I began reading this essay on the portrayal of cartoon characters with alcohol problems because I was intrigued with the term sadcom—an apt name for the genre that consumers can hold at arm’s length with their anti-heroes—and reading further, it quickly careened to a demanding place I was not quite expecting.
Though not myself a connoisseur of the crop of shows mentioned here, I can imagine how the storylines would go and appreciate the analysis of how the parodied, cynical characterisation of coping looks filtered through the cultural movement we are experiencing in recognising that masculinity (and they’re all men) can be a toxic thing. I suppose part of the appeal is that these programmes are unchallenging to watch on a superficial level and a little irony is a tempting lure but I wonder if and how such sadcoms invite reflection and lubricates a difficult discussion or creates the framework and trope that allows us to rebuff it and dismiss it. What do you think? I did like the aside that there’s ultimately hope to be found in these narratives (as in most things, I suppose) but one has to work for it and awards come across as earned—in as much as in subjecting oneself to the arc of exhaustion of a prestige drama which takes much more of an investment.

flugverkehr

On this day in 1917, the German Air Shipping Company (der Deutsche Luft-Reederei) was incorporated to service a mail route between Berlin and Weimar (regular passenger flights came two years later) and a series of mergers pre- and post-war eventually led to the establishment of Luft Hansa—presently Lufthansa. The scope and mission of the company has certainly changed over the years but the stylised crane (Kranich) designed by architect and graphic designer Otto Firle has remained a constant.

focal length

Our gratitude to TYWKIWDBI for revisiting the Small World Micro-Photography Competition sponsored by Nikon whose winners were announced back in October. There are many alien details to investigate of what’s just beyond the scope of our perception and galleries to explore. One specimen that we found particularly intriguing and unexpected on taking a second look was this magnified image of the leathery skin of a sea cucumber, which looks like gelatinous, colourful little anchors.

optotype

German-born optometrist George Mayerle developed a rather comprehensive and inclusive eye chart whilst practising in San Francisco that reflected the diversity of his adopted home.
The radiant dials above test for astigmatism and the bars at the bottom can be used to reveal colour-blindness. Different scripts are represented as well as pictorial characters and geometric symbols for the pre-literate and is nearly contemporaneous with the Snellen table that we’re probably best acquainted with. Learn more about this striking diagnostic tool at Public Domain Review at the link above and find out how to purchase a copy of your own.

worshipful company

Despite not entering into common-parlance unlike some of the other phrases he turned like Boston Brahmin or anesthesia, the term epeolatry coined by poet, physician and polymath Oliver Wendell Holmes, Senior (Junior was the US Supreme Court justice) that means the adoration of words deserves a champion. Holmes’ Breakfast-Table series of essays, where the concept was first elaborated, were the foundational dialogues of The Atlantic Monthly—a publication that Holmes named and helped establish.

7x7

figgy pudding: 1970s era Sainsbury’s Christmas dinner packaging

fun-size: definitive ranking of convenience store movie scenes

dalí atomicus: teacher and photographer Karl Taylor recreates the 1948 iconic, action-filled photograph of the artist with flying cats

the shape of water: a Hollywood theme park produced a Creature from the Black Lagoon musical

ghost of christmas future: retro-future ventriloquist Paul Winchell brings the War on Christmas to the Moon

alta vista: a look at some of the internet’s memorable relics

and a happy new year: a curated collection of the New York City Public Library System’s cartographic greeting cards