big wiggy bool

Revisiting an experiment from last year, AI Weirdness (previously) attempts to train a neural network to come up with cat names, ranging from the fussy and fancy to dark and foreboding. The new monikers (see also) were given to cats up for adoption at an animal rescue shelter in the Philadelphia area. Among our favourites were Beep Boop, He Glad, Elle Fury and Tom Glitter. Much more to explore at the links above.

♚

Tucked away in a drawer for the better part of five decades, a family in Edinburgh has learned that their treasured heirloom conversation piece is one of the five legendary missing pieces from the Lewis Chessmen (previously), a medieval set from the twelfth century unearthed on the Isle of Lewis in northern Scotland in 1831. A shrewd antiques dealer got the artefact for a bargain of £5 and it has been appraised at over a million pounds—hopefully auctioned off to join its team mates.

the thirty-fifth of may

The Tiananmen Square protests, prompted by the death of reformer and voice of liberalisation Hu Yaobang (*1915 – †1989), forced once again to resign in disgrace after a life-long series of purges and recalls, and demanded the government reassess and rehabilitate his reputation and legacy on his death, concluded on this day and into the following day in Beijing three decades ago and precipitated a violent crackdown that resulted in a massacre of protestors and the imposition of martial law, with upwards of ten thousand activists killed or disappeared.

This movement, fomenting the revolutions of the autumn in Eastern Europe but abortive domestically, had originally sought the platform of a visit earlier in May by Soviet Premier Mikhail Gorbachev to normalise Sino-Soviet relations but was not picked up by the international press and failed to garner the desired attention and draw attention to their plight. Though subsequent rallies received heavy coverage, famously the unknown protester called Tank Man who faced down an approaching column once the People’s Army was activated, the movement was suppressed, heavily censored, revised, rewritten and ultimately crushed.

looky loo

Via the ever-interesting Everlasting Blört, we are treated to a rather insightful peek into the dirty and idle differences of gender public-private expression as revealed through an ethnographic look into the graffiti scrawled in restroom stalls.
Clinical and behind a sanitary screen, this study comes complete with evidence and methodologies and illustrates a stark difference between men and women (in a segregated environment) when it comes to messaging, content and audience. One wonders what other factors, biological accommodations, etc come into play and how these differences are magnified or muted in other venues. 

6x6

someday my prince will come: life lessons gleaned at the Princess Academy

decolonise this place: a collection of maps presented from an aboriginal perspective, via Nag on the Lake

bathyscope: a ten-hour montage of mesmerising ocean footage

if you just smiled more: an epic discussion thread uses classical paintings to illustrate everyday sexism

the master and margarita: a compelling reading recommendation for Mikhail Bulgakov’s Soviet satire

берёзка: the floating step of a ballet ensemble founded by choreographer Nadezhda Nadezhdina 

performance triad

Goals and milestones are important and something to focus our efforts but sometimes marketing or marketing ennobled as a rule of thumb can establish norms that make the underlying mission of well-being more opaque—rather than a positive and progressive marker.
One such metric is the adage of getting in one’s ten-thousand steps daily—something that I ascribe to and challenge myself to surpass, but it turns out that the origins of the idea go back to a 1965 campaign by a Japanese pedometer manufacturer (see also), capitalising on the fact that the ideogram, character for ten-thousand (pronounced man or ichi-man) resembles a person taking a stride: 方.