baby’s on fire

Duck Soup directs our attention to an interesting meta-study whose aim is to explore the notion of a winning-streak and whether or not there’s something to idea of success having momentum.
I’ve been wondering myself about the more accustomed inertia of regression and how much of a boost one win can give one to persevere—which to a degree makes sense as a universal truth but research inserts factor chance back into the equation, demonstrating that perhaps counterintuitively that successes come at random intervals. Surveying the careers of thousands through the lens of one of the biggest winning-streaks of science, Albert Einstein’s prolific Annus Mirabilis (previously here, here and here), researchers found that despite the overarching random nature of when fortune visits, back-to-back triumphs do indeed seem to occur and accrue in all fields.

canonical consent

Though possibly polyandrous on the actress’ part in light of her earlier, coerced nuptials with Betelgeuse, we learn that the co-stars of the 1992 Francis Ford Coppula adaptation of Bram Stoker’s Dracula—Keanu Reeves and Winona Ryder—might have actually been married during the movie’s production.  Shot in Romania, the ceremony was reportedly presided over by an authentic priest who may or may not have understood his role on set. While the likelihood of a marriage considered legal and binding without the backing of substantiating documents strikes one as the stuff of sitcom tropes, it’s nonetheless a fun bit of trivia to consider and speculate if there are instances of fictional matrimony having legal consequence.

think different

Though we are all probably intimately familiar with his branding work, we might not have recognised the name of the individual Paul Rand (Peretz Rosenbaum, *1914 - †1996) who was one of the first Americans to adopt and champion the Swiss Style, a typographical offshoot of the Bauhaus movement, of graphic design without news of an upcoming auction of his creations. Rand fashioned iconic logos, the cohesive and unifying stuff of corporate identities, and advertising campaigns for Westinghouse, Yale University Press, the United States Postal Service, and Apple as well as for IBM and ABC television, whose emblems in one form or another are still in use.

rosy fingered dawn

Reopened to visitors after restrictions were lifted due to damage sustained by an earthquake strike two years hence, an inaugural group of photographers hiked into Kikuchi Valley nature preserve before the sun rose to capture the elusive effect of rising mists broken by divine beams of light. Known as kobo (光芒), witnessing such rays certainly provide a transfixing experience and would be well worth the early morning trek to experience and share. Visit Spoon & Tamago at the link above for more.

7x7

tarnkappe: world’s first graphene jacket gives it wearer super-powers

like my mom used to say, if you need calcium, eat a milkman—yep, she said it: Ze Frank (previously) returns with true facts about carnivorous plants, via The Art of Darkness

67/p churyumov-gerasimenko: peruse one hundred thousand striking images of the alien landscape of the comet that the Rosetta probe rendezvoused with

global statesman: former United Nations Secretary-General and Nobel laureate Kofi Annan has passed away

forever blowing bubbles: a look back at the financial crash of 2008 and realising how little things have changed

pulsars: instructive and interactive coding tutorials on creating generative art (previously here and here), via Waxy

take care, tcb: some superlative obituaries and appreciations on the passing of Aretha Franklin