yetinsyny

One of Weird Universe’s latest entries is a strangeness multiplier, not only introducing us to the art and underlying cosmological theories of painter and sculptor Stanisław Szukalski (*1893 – †1987), who aimed to create a whole new Polish art movement based on his mythos of Zermatism, a theory positing that human civilization can be sourced to a group of antediluvian survivors from Rapa Nui (Easter Island)—from which all of culture and language derives.
Humanity’s ongoing struggle for dominance over competitors like the Yeti and human-yeti hybrids (see also) are what characterizes humans’ uneasy, conflicted relationship with the natural world and their place in it, also bringing related cryptids into popular culture. Most of Szukalski’s work—whose fans and patrons included Leonardo DiCaprio and his father, was informed by these origin stories—but he also interested in other contemporary subjects and the celebrity culture of his adopted homeland of America—having immigrated to Chicago in the 1920s where he honed his artistic skills until deciding to return to Poland in 1934 to further develop his doctrine only to be evacuated (as a US citizenship) the next year when the country was invaded by Nazi Germany, and through this we learn the story behind that image that appears often as catch-penny marginalia: the young woman with the blue chin tattoo.
Szukalski painted a portrait from the well-circulated carte de visit of Olive Ann Oatman (*1837 - †1903). Most of the Oatman family were killed while trying to settle in Arizona territory, well outside of the area where settlement into Native American lands was already incurring. Though circumstances are unclear and Oatman’s story is uncorroborated, she was eventually raised by the Mojave and given this traditional marking—returning to her own society years later and presenting her “memoir” on the speaking circuit along the eastern seaboard of the US.  Though Oatman related her experience ultimately in a favourable light, her account was still far from an enlightened one.  Read more about Szukalsky and see more of his works plus the trailer for a biopic at the link above.

8x8

bouquet: floral masterpieces recreated with living flowers

plenary session: climate activist Greta Thunberg delivers a powerful message to those gathered at Katowice

coming attractions: a mashup of all the biggest movie trailers of 2018

the notorious rbg: supreme court justice is amazingly resilient

rebel scum: gorgeous, retro Star Wars style propaganda posters

hot neptune: researchers locate an exoplanet that’s slowly being evaporated by its host star—via Slashdot

patchwork pojagi: the beautiful kimonos and accessories of South Korean textile artist and educator Chunghie Lee

please enjoy responsibly: funny suggestion for a Christmas time drinking game

smart compose

Whilst most of the deserved animosity towards technology comes in the flavour of resent towards the busy work it’s created at the margins and the sine cure, meaningless jobs it’s responsible for, the opposing category of directed vitriol is even more fraught, I suppose: that technology is too uncannily clever and works too well, as Atlantic contributor Derek Thompson expounds on predictive powers pervading more and more of our routines. What do you think? Though a lot of automation is meant to spare us from the tedium that’s in part technology’s own creation, so much hinges on anticipation and serving us back our own patterns and preferences.

suomen kuningaskunta

Declaring and securing its independence on 6 December 1917 as it succeeded from the Russia Empire embroiled in revolution and civil war, Finland had originally proclaimed itself republic but the intervention of monarchists elements and Germany—despite being occupied with World War I itself—who thought the newly minted nation should be a protectorate, a client state, as it did with other territories formerly part of Russian Empire by plying them with surplus royalty, Finland was for a short time a constitutional monarchy.
On 9 October of 1918, Prince Friedrich Karl von Hessen (*1868 - †1940) Landgrave and brother-in-law to the soon to abdicate Wilhelm II was voted by Finnish parliament to the throne. In light of the dissolution of other royal houses with the cessation of fighting, the king-elect judged the situation untenable and Friedrich declined his commission on this day just over two months later—having never set foot in his kingdom much less establishing his court. This decision led to democratic reforms and the re-establishment of a republic by the following summer.

piciformes

While it’s always advisable to fact-check and confirm for yourself, I think it’s rather delightful that when one solicits for weird trivia, the internet rarely fails to deliver.
Our absolute favourite new fact that we can vouch for—perfect for small talk at the office for as an icebreaker or ellipsis during lulls in conversation at holiday family gatherings—is regarding the anatomy of woodpeckers. The birds have quite long, sticky tongues not only for probing and slurping up insects and sap from bored holes but are wound around the skull through a specially evolved cavity to act as a cushion to protect the bird’s brain from the repeated, traumatic impact of pecking wood.

toponymy

 Via a Maps Mania post on the topic of place names, we were introduced to an interesting interactive application that allows one to discover geospatial patterns for the naming conventions of human settlements. Like the in the source article, I wanted to illustrate something like the isogloss of the Speyer/Main or Apfel/Appel line (or plotting the different ways we identity navigable passages of mountains), but I couldn’t summon up something as geologically typological (a toponym is a place name and the study of their origin is called typology) for Germany to chart just now.
I’ll be sure to play around some more with “Places” when I do think of a regionalism to examine but for now here is the frequency and concentration of settlements with the prefix Bad (bath, a spa town) in their Ortsname (oikonym) in the top map and those incorporating –stadt (town) in the bottom. Data is beautiful.  Give it a try yourself and show us your cartographic handiwork.