auto-stitch: winners and honourable-mentions in the Epson panoramic photography competition
members elect: a set of emojis illustrates the stark contrast in diversity between the newly elected Democrat and Republican representatives matriculating in the 116th US Congress in January
peak curtains: IKEA updates its 2002 lamp advertisement with the same principal prop
introducing the hemimastix: researchers in Nova Scotia uncover a microbe radically out of place in defined biological kingdoms, via Marginal Revolution
drei haselnüsse für aschenbrödel: legendary German actor Rolf Hoppe, who played iconic and memorable roles as fairy tale kings, cowboys and frightful villains, has passed away
coal in your stocking: classy company (previously—not really I think but just as tasteless) is producing a knock LEGO set of Trump’s border wall
fully-interlocking: jigsaw puzzle manufacturers tend to use the same patterns for multiple puzzles—resulting in surreal compositions, via Nag on the Lake
Saturday 17 November 2018
7x7
catagories: ๐จ๐ฆ, ๐ฒ๐ฝ, ๐, ๐ท, ๐️, environment, networking and blogging
a sucker born every minute
Scams that appeal to one’s vanity or the hopeful and resourceful spirits of inventors are of course nothing new and we’re all prone to be had in one way or another, but this investigation by Planet Money at the instigation of a local journalist who has dedicated months to this story is really telling of the mindset of people who’ll go to extraordinary lengths to cheat and deceive and defend what they’ve done.
While the adage if it’s free then you’re the product is patently true and gratuitous services are ubiquitous with the corollary that one pays for quality might make us blind to obvious rackets, it’s telling that the individual that the US Grifter-in-Chief installed after he fired his obsequious Attorney General as acting chief of the Department of Justice was a paid shill for the fraudulent invention promotion firm and evangelised for the company to lend it an air of legimacy. Do give the whole episode a listen and subscribe to their podcast.
founding fathers
Historian of Japan Nick Kapur shares his discovery of an 1861 publication called Osananetoki Bankokubanashi (็ซฅ็ตต่งฃไธๅฝๅบ) by writer Kanagaki Robun and artist Utagawa Yoshitora that brilliantly indulge America’s foundational myths from a very different perspective (previously), filling in details that did not quite translate.
Here is a relatively sedate scene of George Washington and his wife “Carol consulting with a young and spry Benjamin Franklin but other, more fantastic scenes include Washington and John Adams battling fiercesome tigers and an enormous serpent—that earlier devoured Adams’ aged mother during a picnic and a younger Washington taught the skill of archery by the Goddess of America. This book show that interest in the fledgling republic were still enduring at the cusps of its own civil war and nearly a decade since US Commodore Matthew Perry forcibly opened up Japanese ports to trade. Be sure to visit Nag on the Lake and Open Culture at the links above to learn more.
Friday 16 November 2018
imbued with poison
The Oxford English Dictionary has announced its selection for word of the year (previously) as toxic.
With etymological roots in the Greek warrior practise of applying poison
to arrowheads (though ฯฮฟฮพฮนฮบฯฮฝ refers instead to the bow), the word has
depressingly gained exponentially more cachet in several contexts
including toxic masculinity, toxic workplace and toxic relationship and
beat out other shortlisted terms such as gaslighting and neologisms like incel (involuntary celibate), cakeism (having one’s cake and eating it too) techlash and overtourism.
6x6
lysergsรคurediethylamid : Swiss chemist Albert Hofmann first synthesised LSD at Sandoz Labs on this day in 1938, taking his first trip four and a half years later
under construction: photographer Peter Steinhauer captures the colourful bamboo scaffolding of Hong Kong
delay, deny and deflect: a look at the devious playbook of a social media giant
omnishambles: continued Brexit chaos
minimals: animated block creatures from Lucas Zanotto
excelsior: celebrating the incredible career of Stan Lee
catagories: ๐จ๐ญ, ๐ฌ๐ง, ๐, ๐ท, architecture, myth and monsters