hastings rarities or slaty white-throated fairy-bellied ground tyrant

In response to popular demand from bird-watchers (birder is the preferred term for those who take the activity seriously)—and given our tendency to give our avian encounters strange and elaborate names as it is, the creative team at Lewis and Quark (accompanied by the brilliant illustrations of Carin Powell) gave their neural network the task of generating plausible bird names.
We’ve probably set that bar pretty low. Some of course came out ridiculous but most came across as majestic and legitimate-sounding, like the Cape Babbler or the Red-capped Lynert’s Leafbird and turning the license up a few notches resulted in fine and rare specimens like the Dusky Sicky-faced Petrel, the Iceland Reedhaunter, the Fawn-bellied Flowerpecker and our favourites, the Slender-eared Chat and the Mountain-rumpting Finch. Which one among these would you consider ornithologically likely enough to be common-name of the next newly-discovered species of feathered-friend?

inside voice

A major computer manufacturer is seeking to patent its plans for a virtual personal assistant to inhabit its range of gadgets that can detect and match the volume of the user, to reply with a whisper if the question or command is given in hushed tones.
The technical details are proving to be somewhat more of a challenge than expected and a filing does not mean the feature will be forthcoming. Perhaps Siri was taught to whisper in a saw-mill, not unlike some of the people that I work with who forget others can hear what they’re saying. While it may be more decorous for one’s secret-sharer to not broadcast questions that were meant to be discrete—even though in not sharing with our immediate company, we might be issuing missives to a potential audience of billions forever and ever—at the end of the day, state-of-the-art tools that prevent our needing to talk to or interact with another human does not impress much.

7x7

bbc dad: via Kottke, the five or so times that the internet was collectively fun over the past year

stratagem: Sun Tzu’s the Art of the War on Christmas

earworm: the United States of Pop 2017 Edition

data discrimination: US attorneys general and congress mount legal challenges to the Federal Communication Commission over Net Neutrality

holiday jumpers: the history of the garment and the Vancouver get-togethers that launched the Ugly Christmas Sweater phenomenon

a matter of timing: more Comedy Wildlife Photo Awards winners

luke starkiller: concept trailer for Ralph McQuarrie’s original 1975 vision for Star Wars

brooding and blissful halcyon days

Thanks to our faithful chronicler Doctor Caligari we not only learn that the period of time seven days on either side of the Winter Solstice, the shortest day of the year, are referred to as halcyon days for a time when the seas are calmed but also the term’s etymology: from the Latin form of Alcyone, the hapless daughter of Æolus, the god of the winds, and his wife Enarete. Alcyone met and fell in love with a sailor called Ceyx—who also had divine parentage as a son of Phosphorus, the Morning Star. Husband and wife were very happy together but the king and queen of the gods took umbrage at the fact that their pet-names for each other were Zeus and Hera. I could imagine better terms of endearment than evoking a philandering, incestuous relationship but couples can be peculiar, and this sacrilege earned the scorn of Zeus, who wielded a thunderbolt at Ceyx’ ship. Alcyone was of course inconsolable and the other gods (their parents and in-laws presumably) took pity on them both by transforming them to kingfishers (taxonomically speaking, Halcyon) who migrate from Africa to Greece at this time of year to roost and the weather is fair so that they can nest in peace.

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.