das tritt nach meiner kenntnis …ist das sofort… unverzüglich

On this night in 1989, the Berlin Wall came down through the cumulative actions of countless brave individuals and a shift towards political reform and market liberalisation but the flash point occurred due to a press-conference held earlier in the day with a spokesperson who hadn’t bothered to attend the full internal party briefing.
Having just forced out long-term party leader Erich Honecker in favour of Egon Krenz, Günter Schabowski (*1929 – †2015), chief of the Politbüro and trained journalist, was installed as the care-taker government’s public affairs officer. Schabowski took a cigarette break during discussions that outlined proposals for a temporary relaxing of travel restriction and was given notes by Krenz to prepare him for reporters’ questions. Schabowski, however, improvised under pressure and built up expectations that the East German government had not intended. One reporter asked when would these new travel policies go into effect—to which Schabowski replied, “Right away, as far as I know—effective immediately without delay.” Upon on hearing this, thousands massed at border access points in Berlin, demanding that they be let through.

7x7

a gender-neutral zombie: representation is important, via Kottke’s Quick Links

flotsam and jetsam: an ingenious barrier of air bubbles traps plastic waste in Amsterdam’s canals

ok boomer: a powerful and withering epithet

rurikids and romanovs: traditional Russian female garb, via Everlasting Blört

book of dreams: Argos back-catalogues from 1974 on, via Things Magazine

merijää: a combination of rare weather conditions converged to cover a beach on Bothnia bay with ice eggs

equine anatomy: rating every horse emoji across different platforms (see also), via Waxy

minor arcana

For the eighteenth iteration of James Bond in the film Live and Let Die (1973), producer Albert Romolo Broccoli (not to be confused with an Alan Smithee credit, a pseudonym adopted by individuals wanting to disown the movie) commissioned from Salvador Dalí a deck of tarot cards to be used as a prop for a pivotal scene featuring a psychic played by Jane Seymour. Over budget, the studio went with another artist in the end but Dalí nonetheless completed his assignment, limning all the seventy-eight trump and numbered suites.

geometria et perspectiva

From Public Domain Review, we are introduced to the strikingly modern and abstract art work of illustrator and scholar in the traditions established by Albrecht Dürer in his only known, extant publication, Lorentz Stöer (*1530 - †1621).
The 1567 volume is thin on words, the full title being Hier Jnn Etliche Zerbrochnen Gebeẅ, den Schreiner in eingelegter Arbait dienstlich, auch vil andern Liebhabern zu sonder gefallen geordnet vnd gestalt, Durch Lorentz Stöer Maller Burger Jnn Augspurg—that is, Geometry and Perspective: containing various ruined buildings useful for parquetry as well as for the enjoyment of other aficionados, so arranged and presented by the painter and Augsburger himself, and the colophon that labels the polygons and with the oddly challenging motto “Who would do right by everyone? No one would dare try!” and no other text, just a series of brilliantly coloured architectural studies, the geometric solids ideal subjects to demonstrate multi-point perspective, shadowing and foreshortening. Explore the entire book at the link above and learn how to order these images as prints.

crtl-alt-right

A bit late to the party for International Caps Lock Day, a social engineering media giant has announced its new preferred form of address, a shouty, all majuscule style, the preferred copy of over-amplified right-leaning demagogues and their supporters, who assuredly need more accommodation.
And a platform—representation is important. Though brand-redesigns (see also here and here) are not always the bellwether of imminent collapse, one can pray for the sweet release of oblivion and hope that FACEBOOK will go the way of once-pioneering, ubiquitous America Online, that brought in mixed case plus punctuation, stylised as Aol., a decade ago shortly before its downfall.

monster mash

While somewhat deflated to learn that the secret ingredients of horror icons Boris Karloff’s and Vincent Price’s respective recipes for guacamole sauce (a redundancy since the spread is Nahuatl for avocado sauce) was not the exotica of a magic potion or witches brew, I was quite happy to encounter another instance of people engaged and enraptured not by what’s on the menu per se but rather by how one does food and how there are given set of norms for behaviour and etiquette.
I can’t say whether or not it’s a phenomenon specific to any one culture or subset but it strikes me that Americans are particularly sensitive to it—with the deportment of presidential candidates scruntised for “authenticity” by the way they wield fairground fare more memorable than any excerpts from debates. I wonder what that says about the state of the polity. Do check out the recipes at the link up top but also know that placing the avocado pit in the bowl of guacamole, contrary to testimony, will not keep it from turning brown.

heliosheath

Some six years after its companion probe (a lot of erata and embarrassment here but worth remembering for the government shutdown) crossed the threshold into interstellar space, Voyager 2 (having taken the scenic route) some nineteen billion kilometres (sixteen light hours) from Earth exited the heliosphere, the protective envelop of charged particles emanating from the Sun that demarcates our star’s sphere of influence, one year ago. Transmitting valuable telemetry on the shape and nature of this bubble that in one sense defines the Solar System, researchers have been pouring over the data from Voyager 2 during the ensuing months and have gained some insights what little eddies and gyres that our Sun produces in the vastness of space.