bahn-verspätungsschal

Via the always excellent Nag on the Lake with a bit of an update from Colossal, we learn about a loyal but frustrated rail commuter who, much like Andean quipu or the zealous knitter who got carried away with the Doctor’s scarf, documented delays experienced in coloured wool bands during her daily trip (two a day—round-trip, hin- und züruck) between Moosburg an der Isar and München, which should take approximately thirty minutes on regional trains—once infrastructure repairs and diverting to buses meant that long interruptions became the norm.
Her one hundred-twenty centimetre long handiwork (reminiscent of a DNA test result in the rawest form) garnered a lot of attention after her daughter, a prominent journalist and news editor, posted it on social media. The knitter decided the auction off the “train-delay-scarf” for the charity Bahnhofs Mission, an outreach and assistance programme for the homeless, transient and precarious based in train stations, raising several thousand euro. Claudia Weber, the creator, is working on a new shawl for 2019.

decimated

The Ten Year Challenge would be an otherwise harmless trend if the internet had not become such an awful, prying panopticon where all the fun and frivolity is siphoned out of things and we pressure each other to participate in a training module that teaches algorithms to account for and better predict age progression, criminal tendencies and uncorrected personality traits, so we enjoyed seeing it re-appropriated by environmental activists. Stark and depressing—though with at least a few signs of positive rehabilitation—side-by-side images that compare and contrast (previously) the myriad ways humans are destroying ecosystems are becoming a powerful call to action. Learn more and help stop the clock at the links above.

you said it would last but i guess we enrolled

Our faithful chronicler informs that on this day, among many other momentous occasions, during a US Super Bowl commercial break—a showcase and vehicle for maximising the exposure of new releases—Apple aired its “1984” advertisement (previously) directed by Ridley Scott. Thought police pursue a rogue runner through a monochrome, dystopian landscape but fail to prevent her from hurling a sledge hammer at the main telescreen where Big Brother—portrayed by David Graham (voice actor who played the Darleks and several characters on Thunderbirds Are Go!—is addressing the gathered throngs of labourers:

Today, we celebrate the first glorious anniversary of the Information Purification Directives. We have created, for the first time in all history, a garden of pure ideology—where each worker may bloom, secure from the pests purveying contradictory truths. Our Unification of Thoughts is more powerful a weapon than any fleet or army on earth. We are one people, with one will, one resolve, one cause. Our enemies shall talk themselves to death, and we will bury them with their own confusion. We shall prevail!

The screen shatters into smithereens at the Big Brother proclaims victory and the grey scenery is replaced with the company’s rainbow logo.

be kind, rewind

The Verge directs our attention to videographer and animator 4096 whose collection of projects celebrate the bookended beauty of obsolete media storage formats (previously), vintage video game consoles, etc. It’s not only vinyl album covers that are canvases that deserves attention but also the sleeves meant to archive one’s film library for the ages.

avatar

We very much enjoyed being introduced courtesy of BOOOOOOOM’s illustrator spotlight to the rather extensive and featured portfolio of Berlin-based illustrator Max Guther, whose collages are limned by architectural elements and explore how the human body is framed and engages with constructed spaces. Though his figures and environments are far more bespoke, Guther’s work reminds us a little bit of the Sims life simulation worlds. Much more to discover at the links above.

9x9

aaron burr, sir: Alexander Hamilton’s mostly fraught relationships with the first five US presidential administrations

four baths in the course of a month: how to bathe in January, according to seventh century philosopher Hierophilus the Sophist

faux châteaux: drone footage reveals surreal failed real estate development project between Ankara and Istanbul

messrs. 1569 and 1571: some of the strangest declassified artefacts that are stumping the investigative team at Muckrock

got to catch ‘em all: custom-tailored Pokémon dress shirts

népzene: a quick-sort algorithm demonstrated by Hungarian folk dancing

heatseekers: night time skiing guided by overhead flares, via Memo of the Air

muzzy von hossmere: a fond appreciation of the life and career of the late Carol Channing (*1921 – †2019)

the president shall from time to time give to the congress information of the state of the union: until 1913, most State of the Union addresses were delivered in writing