7x7

drolatic dreams: 1565 series of woodcuts illustrating the bizarre and bawdy figures referenced in François Rabelais’ La vie de Gargantua et Pantagruel

rat race: after a five-year hiatus, Banksy returns to New York City

compagnons: perfect, model staircases made by apprentice French carpenters to showcase their talents

we are, then, gas engines: a selection of some of Alan Turing’s childhood reading

have we left this haunted house: reflections on the fiftieth anniversary of the delivery of Martin Luther King’s last public address

undersea kingdom: amazing claymation display of the ocean floor by Romane Granger synchronized to the music of Stevanna Jackson

mister fusion: Massachusetts Institute of Technology pledges to build a nuclear fusion power plant in fifteen years

antipodal

Amusing Planet brings us the story of the planet’s loneliest tree, a stunted Sitka spruce, and how this transplant is the perfect candidate to mark the separation of the Anthropocene geological epoch. While on a survey expedition, Uchter Knox, Earl of Ranfurly and Governor of New Zealand, visited the remote Campbell Island and was possessed for to plant a tree on this otherwise treeless piece of land, whose climate is hostile to anything growing above ground level.
The specimen that Knox choose, however, is indigenous to a strip of coast in British Columbia—from the opposite ends of the Earth almost—and while not exactly qualifying as an invasive species, the spruce having taken root but never matured to produce cones, it does demonstrate the effect that humans have on the environment. Moreover, the tree is a contender for a “golden spike,” a symbolic milestone like the ceremonial final spike driven that marked the completion of the North American transcontinental railroad that arraign other epochal transitions like the asteroid strike that ended the Paleocene and age of the dinosaurs sixty-six million years hence, as the tree is also a living record of humanity’s attempt to harness and weaponise nuclear fission and fusion. In order to demonstrate that the impact of nuclear testing was truly pervasive and global—that no one was out of range, no matter how isolated or removed—researchers took core samples of the Sitka spruce and found traces of the radioactive carbon isotope that is the signature sign of atomic explosions especially concentrated in the growth rings that corresponded to the mid-1960s when testing was at its peak.

bluff and blunderbuss

Not that America had not already squandered any modicum of faith and confidence that the rest of the world might have held for it, Trump managed to destroy all traces of esteem and trust in a rambling, confusing speech at a party fund-raising event—having never made the transition from campaigning to governing—with the boast that he fabricated the trade imbalance between the US and Canada while meeting with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, claiming that America had been put at a disadvantage when the opposite was true and the country’s northern neighbour had been an honest and true broker all along.
Though it’s to be expected that the Grifter in Chief and his apologists will traffic in lies and low information, repute (especially one based on garbage and insincerity) does not replace facts and the rest of the world is not having it and will not suffer these dumb antics. Aside from this maneuver, Trump lashed out at other allies and trading-partners, including South Korea with the implied threat that the US would recall its thirty-thousand service members from the peninsula if the country does not pivot towards more American exports and Japan for its unreasonable (and imaginary) bowling ball impact standard that keeps American-made cars out of its markets but failed to address the protectionist embargo he enacted to impose tariffs on steel imports, which conversely make manufacturing outside of the US more attractive to industry and will most certainly translate to more jobs going overseas. His remarks also omitted the dismissal of his chief diplomat, the dangerous repeal of banking regulations put in place after the last global recession to try to stave off another one, the ongoing investigation into his regime’s ties to Russia, his affair with a porn star and rebuffed any hint of blame for the state of the Republican Party.

indelible

In circulation from 1883 to 2011, Inland Printer was among the first periodical to change its cover with every new issue and was instrumental in spreading the Art Nouveau movement in the US, itself launched in response to the booming Mid-Western print industry. The venerable trade magazine highlighted and heralded changes in design and style, showcasing new talent, and helped usher in other movements as it kept publishers abreast of the latest advances in colour printing and engraving—both for promotional ephemera and books meant to last. Check out a whole gallery of cover art and vintage advertisements from the magazine curated by Dangerous Minds at the link up top.

in the temple of science there are many mansions

To mark what would have been his one hundred-thirty-ninth birthday, Aeon magazine features an engrossing and retrospective essay on the life and times of Albert Einstein and his contributions to science and social justice and his rather fraught and puzzled relationship to fame and celebrity. Speculating on why such rarified pursuits touching the nature of the Cosmos with rather destructive practical application resonated with the public, Einstein eschewed worship and was himself highly skeptical of appeal to authority, though owning he’d been duly punished for his distrust by becoming the expert witness for himself.

grøtmelet or the breakfast of champions

We enjoyed learning of the great Norwegian Porridge Feud of the mid-nineteenth century that was sparked by “scientific” thought encroaching on traditional foods. Domestic science—which did not always ascribe rigorously to the scientific method with opium and cocaine and sugar considered safe active ingredients or breakfast cereals promoted as a remedy against autoerotic excess and has a history of crazes, ulterior motives and a rather spotty reputation—sought to overhaul kitchen-witchery and folkways.
The first perceived assault came in the form of a cookbook that presumed to tell housewives that they’ve been making their porridge (grøt) and other staples wrong all along, authored by the well-meaning Peter Christen Asbjørnsen (under the pseudonym Clemens Bonifacius—the Gentle Helper). Would you have taken sides? This controversy, seen by many to be a grave insult to homemakers but alternately drew many to companion the new science, forwarded the debate between traditional wisdom and expert application in view of the evolving realities of the way we live and eat—both ushering in a greater variety for Scandinavian diets but also the ills of processed and refined foods.

ad astra

As we mark the passing of Professor Hawking, we are confident that his legacy and inspiration will endure for ages to come and it’s a testament to human perseverance and advances in health care that he survived and thrived for decades and upheld a career both as a scientist and personality.
While we’re of course privileged and richer for having shared this existence with Professor Hawking, it is also a bit disheartening to imagine what’s left unfinished, bittersweet knowing there are others to come to champion mathematics and the sciences and take up the gauntlet of pondering the mysteries of the Universe. Although plenty of marvels (some by his own contributions) have been revealed—like our conception of Black Holes, gravitational waves and the profusion of exoplanets—we had hoped that Professor Hawking would have lived to see planetary colonisation and first contact. And while most of his charismatic appearances have been cameos, Professor Hawking’s final role (that we were just enjoying yesterday, in fact) was playing the next edition of the eponymous Hitchhikers’ Guide to the Galaxy (the audio book version of the guide) in BBC’s radio drama of Douglas Adams’ work—reprised with continuing adventures forty years after the original serialisation. Per aspera ad astra. Per ardua ad astra.