- A story that truly deserves the adjective “extraordinary” in many ways: who the book collector was, the volume and variety he collected, that he read and summarized the books…and that some of that index survived. → ‘Extraordinary’ 500-year-old library catalogue reveals books lost to time Thanks, Reader K! ※ Linked within that story is another worth reading: How Christopher Columbus’s son built ‘the world’s first search engine’
- See the first image ever taken of a supermassive black hole. Just to provide some context since it’s easy to forget how big “supermassive” is: this black hole has the mass of 6.5 billion of our suns. And our Sun could contain 1.3 million Earths! ※ I’m agog that some people are actually complaining about the photo’s quality, but just in case: In Defense of the Blurry Black Hole Photo.
- The strange politicization of cursive writing (and its conflation with handwriting). → Cursive Seemed to Go the Way of Quills and Parchment. Now It’s Coming Back.
- The Visible Poetry Project “pairs 30 poets and filmmakers to collaborate on short films for the month of April.” The results are awesome.
- From cannabutter to the connectome and bawbag to sprunt, there are a bunch of (mostly) interesting new words going into the OED in March. ※ See the full list.
- “The newly discovered Malagasy amphibians have brains that could sit on a pin.” → New staple-size frog is one of the tiniest ever discovered ※ Related, in the sense that I hope the bees in question were really tiny too: Doctors find four bees in woman’s eye, feeding on her tears.
- Artificial Intelligence seems like one of those things that is quietly transforming our world in mostly overlooked ways while we’re all distracted debating—or waiting for—the garish apocalyptic visions to be realized. → Visualizing the AI Revolution in One Infographic
- Quacks of the Week → The Fake Sex Doctor Who Conned the Media Into Publicizing His Bizarre Research on Suicide, Butt-Fisting, and Bestiality and Bret Easton Ellis Thinks You’re Overreacting to Donald Trump.
- Famous Movie Scenes you probably didn’t realise were Borrowed from Paintings ※ Pairs tastily with The Secrets of the World’s Greatest Art Thief.
- Today in 1894, the first public kinetoscope parlor opens in New York City. The kinetoscope, the precursor to modern motion picture in both camera and ultimately projection, was a product of Thomas Edison’s workshop. Though Edison claimed credit for the device, most of the work creating it was performed by William Kennedy Laurie Dickson and Charles A. Brown under Edison’s leadership. That first parlor featured ten kinetoscopes set up in two parallel rows of five that viewers would sequentially watch for twenty-five cents per row. To provide some context, one dollar in 1894 was the equivalent nearly thirty dollars today. Edison’s company generated nearly 2.5 million (in today’s dollars) in its first eleven months of selling the machines and films. ※ You can ► watch some of those early kinetoscope films including the scandalous The Kiss as well as ► Monkeyshines, the first film recorded in the United States.
WEB
Links, links, links…from a certain, uncertain mind.
Links: March 31, 2019
- Get ready! In addition to being the cruelest month, April is also (National) Poetry Month and, hot on the heels of InCoWriMo, (National) Card and Letter Writing Month. I like to celebrate both poetry and snail mail every month, as victims of my epistolary acts can attest to, but make a special effort to combine the two in April. ※ In the US, April is also the official month of: Jazz Appreciation, Parkinson’s Awareness, Cancer Control, Mathematics and Statistics Awareness, Arab American Heritage, Grilled Cheese, Pecans, Soft Pretzels and Soyfoods.
- How scammers employ “plagiarism, book-stuffing, and click-farms” to game the Kindle Unlimited system…some earning up to \$100,000 per month.
- Read or listen to the downright amazing Emily Wilson in conversation with Tyler Cowen on Homer, The Odyssey, The Iliad, Socrates, Silicon Valley’s love of Stoicism, electing politician by lots, using Twitter to get real about translation and much more. ※ Also from Emily Wilson (and barely skirting my self-imposed ban on explicit politics, so don’t @me): What Beto O’Rourke’s love of the Odyssey says about him.
- Dope and Sex and Rock ‘n’ Roll: Slang Lexicography with Jonathon Green: Part I and Part II
- “What does this mean for AI? ¶ First, it suggests there’s no particular reason to study or try to mimic the columnar structure of the primate cortex; bird brains have a different structure and do just as well, neuron for neuron, as we do. ¶ Second, it means that if we ever get AIs that are ‘on the intelligence ladder” — doing the same thing as animal brains — we should expect that their abilities may scale linearly-ish with available computing power. Which dectuples every 5-12 years. Great.'” → Neuron density in humans, birds and other animals—and its implications for development of artificial intelligence.
- “Mike Kelly, curator at the Archives and Special Collections of Amherst College, explores highlights from their Emily Dickinson collection, a huge variety of manuscript forms — from concert programmes to chocolate wrappers…” ※ See also: The complete Emily Dickinson collection at Amherst.
- Millennials have created a form of written English that’s as expressive as spoken English (original title: “Millennials destroyed the rules of written English — and created something better”)
- When I sharpen a pencil, I see a mess. Haruka Misawa saw a method for creating beautiful, delicate, literally unique paper shaving flowers. ※ More information on Misawa’s site.
- Some weird links found me this week: How Russia Fell in Love with Candy Bars Made of Blood & Porcupines are being poached for their stomach content & Judge makes quick decision in Melbourne’s ‘serial farter’ case
- Today in 1959, Jetsun Jamphel Ngawang Lobsang Yeshe Tenzin Gyatso, better known as the (14th) Dalai Lama—aided by the United States CIA’s Special Activities Division—flees Tibet for India and begins what he describes as “freedom in exile” following China’s brutal defeat of the Tibetan Rebellion that had begun just three weeks earlier. The Dalai Lama’s exile continues as does China’s refusal to recognize Tibetan independence.
Web: March 24, 2019
- Wave reviews: Under — Norway’s new underwater restaurant.
- “Softer foods from agricultural lifestyles may have changed the human bite, making it easier to form certain sounds.” → Did Dietary Changes Bring Us ‘F’ Words? Study Tackles Complexities of Language’s Origins
- “Depression Quest is an interactive fiction game where you play as someone living with depression.”
- Julie Phillips on The dangerous shifting cultural narratives around suicide
- The “Mandela Effect” is a collective misremembering, named after the phenomenon of people around the world falsely remembering, in often vivid detail, Nelson Mandela’s death in the 1980s, though he was alive at the time. Other common examples of this kind of group false memory, both of which I’ve been victim of, include the name of the “Berenstein” Bears and Sinbad’s non-existent genie movie. Thanks to the web and social media, examples of the effect are easier and easier to discover. My latest: the “flesh” colored crayons of my childhood which, thanks to this exhaustive history of Crayola Crayon colors, I am highly unlikely to have experienced for myself since the name was changed many years before I was born. Indian Red? Not so much…those were around until 1999.
- I’ve tried listening Joe Rogan’s show. I just don’t get it. But…can his weird influence be ignored? → “So how did Rogan—the Fear Factor guy!—become the Larry King of the Intellectual Dark Web?”.
- Not into college basketball’s March Madness? How about a bracket of 100 new(ish) English words duking it out for domination? That’s what Daniel Donoghue does in his “History and Structure of the English Language” course. ※ See the live bracket (I’m betting on snerfle or salty).
- “The World Wide Fund for Nature funds vicious paramilitary forces to fight poaching.”
- For yr eyeholes: Alia Bright’s paper sculpture typography pieces & Bian Xiaodong’s anti-gravity ceramics & Winners of the 2018 Skypixel Aerial Photo and Video Contest & Pippa Dyrlaga’s exquisite paper cuttings ※ Related: Munch’s iconic work “The Scream” might not be screaming.
- Today in 1853, the first issue of The Provincial Freeman is published in Windsor, Ontario. Co-edited by Mary Ann Shadd Cary (the first black woman publisher in North America and one of the first black lawyers in the U.S.) and the Reverend Samuel Ringgold Ward, the fiery, anti-slavery paper (its masthead declared it to be “Devoted to anti-slavery, temperance and general literature”) documented the activities of African-Canadians, many of whom were recent arrivals fleeing slavery in the States. Its run would last nearly five years. ※ Read some notices from the paper.
Links: March 17, 2019
- Birding bop. Should I bird or should I go? You get the idea… → Welcome to Birdpunk
- I think I meant to share this a few years ago but forgot… → Why forgetting is really important for memory: U of T research ※ Also: How the Brain Creates a Timeline of the Past. ※ But, and, because I’m feeling sprawly this morning, “You will not own what you think you will own. You will borrow it. That is raw and beautiful, right now. It’s not sad and hollow.”
- Check out Raija Jokinen’s wonderful art, created using a technique that fuses “painting, drawing, papermaking, embroidery and textiles [to] explore the borderlines of physical and immaterial feelings.” → Raija Jokinen Works.
- Thich Nhat Hanh’s final mindfulness lesson: how to die peacefully
- It seems like it should go without saying that ending an addiction (or addictive behavior) is the first part of a process, not a meaningful activity in itself? → Why beating your phone addiction may come at a cost
- “According to Elgammal, ordinary observers can’t tell the difference between an AI-generated image and a ‘normal’ one in the context of a gallery or an art fair.” → The AI-Art Gold Rush Is Here ※ Pairs directly with A philosopher argues that an AI can’t be an artist and tastily with The Human Brain Is a Time Traveler.
- De-platforming was a thing long before social media… → Auden on No-Platforming Pound
- “Why so many men online love to use ‘logic’ to win an argument, and then disappear before they can find out they’re wrong.” → The magical thinking of guys who love logic
- Paper(y)(ish) art links, in no particular order: Vox Poplar (a generative, collaborative project), Chie Hitotsuyama’s stunning art made of rolled and twisted ropes of wet newspaper, Tiffany Miller Russell’s molded, layered paper scenes and portraits, and Calvin Nicholls paper sculptures.
- Today in 1958, The Champs’ song “Tequila” hits #1 on the US Billboard pop chart. It would be The Champs’—in reality the Danny Flores Trio, who only concocted a name for themselves, inspired by Gene Autry’s horse Champion, after the recording session—only hit. Written by “Chuck Rio” (actually Danny Flores, who used a pseudonym because he was under contract to a different record label at the time), who also shouted the song’s one-word lyric, tequila!, and recorded the memorable saxophone solo, the song was a B-side of an album that had little success and only saw the light of day thanks to a Cleveland DJ.
Links: March 10, 2019
- Ranging in size from a few millimeters (really) to a few inches, New York City’s Grolier Club is holding an exhibition of more than 950 miniature books. → Behold, the Tiniest of Books
- Have fun playing with this computeiful inventorface of portmanteaus and rhymes! → Portmanteau & Rhyme Generator
- This thread about a strangely browsable, occasionally accidentally beautiful compendium. → Helen Rosner: There’s this incredible book…. ※ You can dip into it yourself on Project Gutenberg: Fifteen Thousand Useful Phrases by Grenville Kleiser
- As Reader B. puts it, “The concept here is amazing, but I also love the phrases: transient anus, warty comb jelly.” → Animal with an anus that comes and goes could reveal how ours evolved
- Recently discovered: a book of “literary confessions” with amusing, witty, occasionally cutting handwritten contributions from Virginia Woolf, Virginia West, Hilaire Belloc and others. → Really and Truly: A Book of Literary Confessions (Thanks, Reader C.)
- This link is everywhere, but for good reason. I find it mesmerizing. → This Person Does Not Exist ※ Pairs with, because…tasty, ironic, weirdness: Man angry his photo was used to prove all hipsters look alike — then learns it wasn’t him, which is based on this research: The hipster effect: Why anti-conformists always end up looking the same
- A revealing con that didn’t take nearly long enough! → I Made My Shed the Top-Rated Restaurant on TripAdvisor
- Loving the pictures of Cal Cullen’s typewriter art installation in Cincinnati’s Contemporary Arts Center in this article… → Typewriter repair at the museum. ※ While I’m talking typewriters: if you are in or near enough to Rockford, Illinois on March 29-30, consider checking out the Paper Fingers: Mechanical Typewriting in the Digital Age event.
- “Don’t worry, the colleague you’ve never met isn’t trying to kiss you over email.” → ‘XX’? But I Hardly Know Her! ※ Related: How “XOXO” Came to Mean “Hugs and Kisses”
- Today is Mario Day (celebrated on MAR 10 because, written that way, the date resembles MARIO), celebrating the iconic mustachioed Nintendo video game franchise character who debuted as the jumping man in the 1981 Donkey Kong game. Mario Mario (yes, his last name is also Mario, at least according to the IMDB; he was named after Mario Segale, Nintendo America’s landlord, who burst into a development meeting demanding overdue rent) is a busy guy, appearing in more than 200 games, multiple film and TV shows, the 2016 Summer Olympics closing ceremony, and soon amusement parks in Japan and the United States. And that signature hat-and-mustache look? Turns out they were pragmatic choices: the artist found hair difficult to draw and the mustache was easier to see than a mouth, particularly on the low-resolution screens at the time. If all this is too newfangled for you, today is also International Bagpipe Day.
Links: Feb. 17, 2019
- I love Robyn O’Neil’s large scale (one piece is 14 feet long!) pencil drawings that remind me (and many others, apparently) of Bosch and Bruegel. ※ I actually discovered Robyn thanks to her delightfully conversational, personal podcast Me Reading Things.
- “Letters reveal how language changes. They also offer a peek into the way people–especially women–have always constructed their private and public selves.” → The Ladylike Language of Letters ※ Also, since InCoWriMo continues: Find a Local Letter Writing Society.
- “…some of our favourites from the first hundred years of the book cover (as we commonly understand it today)…” → The Art of Book Covers (1820–1914) [Thanks, Reader C.!]
- Fascinating reading as more and more implications of DNA testing, research and history emerge. → Is Ancient DNA Research Revealing New Truths — or Falling Into Old Traps?
- I want to be snarky about this, but maybe there’s something to the idea… → Why we need to bring back the art of communal bathing
- Old news, but new to me. And delightful. At least for the dolphins. → Dolphins Seem to Use Toxic Pufferfish to Get High ※ See video and more pics: What does a dolphin use to get high?
- “…we refresh and refresh every tab, and are not sated. What are we waiting for? What are we hoping to find?” → Reading in the Age of Constant Distraction (Yes, I see the irony).
- “It is engraved with 13 verses from the poem recounting the adventures of the hero Odysseus after the fall of Troy.” → Homer Odyssey: Oldest extract discovered on clay tablet [Thanks to a different, but related!, Reader C.]
- I haven’t read linguist Lisa Smartt’s Words at the Threshold: What We Say as We’re Nearing Death (and naturally have my own thoughts on what these words might mean or point to), but it’s fascinating to consider the words people choose in their last moments. → Final Words Project
- Today in 1876 in Eastport, Maine, Julius Wolff cans the first sardines (in North America, anyway, the earlier history is disputed by avid sardinophiles). Sardine isn’t a specific species, but a name given to a variety of small, oily herring. Canned sardines are an often underrated food both for their taste and nutritional value, but also merit distinction as one of the few canned foods I am aware of that have an active community of enthusiasts (search for yourself and see). And because word nerds need to know, the words sardine and sardonic are most likely related: the former is thought to have come from the island of Sardinia, while the latter derives from a Sardinian herb, Sardonia, which was reputed to “produce facial convulsions resembling horrible laughter, usually followed by death,” and which Homer rendered as sardanios, or scornful laughter.
Links: Feb. 10, 2019
- In less than 12 minutes, A Sonic Conjuring explores how audio producers re-created the sound of the final moments of World War I—and the ensuing peace—using “using audio shadows captured on film.” And it is, as a friend said, astonishing.
- Typewriter Cartography‽ Yes, please.
- Each week in What’s the Difference?—Brett Warshaw’s newsletter “for the curious and confused”—a concise exploration and explication of a wide range of potentially confusing things such as “Jails and Prisons,” “Cement and Concrete,” and “Cremini, Button, and Portobello Mushrooms.”
- It’s easy to fall into (or hard against) the ongoing tech backlash. Not so fast… → My disabled son’s amazing gaming life in the World of Warcraft
- [Via Reader S.] comes this intriguing and creepy “fur mirror” (really a kind of fur display/monitor) by Daniel Rozin. ※ See also: Rozin’s similar piece that uses 450 rotating penguins in place of fur and more information about Rozin and this exhibition at the bitforms gallery.
- The Museum of Forgotten Art Supplies features more than 700 images of art and office supplies and tools now forgotten (or nearly so).
- “The public service of black cops, for some, has become equal to aiding the enemy. That’s why Edwards took up a project he calls ‘Black Outlined Blue.’ He wants to tell the stories of black cops in the Atlanta Police Department who deal daily with the duality of life in their skin and life in their uniform.” → The Burden They Share
- Excellent longform journalism pieces this week, each of which is sad and bonkers in its own way. → “Down The Rabbit Hole I Go”: How A Young Woman Followed Two Hackers’ Lies To Her Death ※ A Suspense Novelist’s Trail of Deceptions
- I’m skeptical of the “Intellectual Dark Web” label, which seems like the kind of shorthand that logically eats itself, but I do think there’s something to embracing honest assessment of ideas and our relationship to them…as Meghan Daum does. → Nuance: a Love Story ※ See also: A conversation with Meghan Daum.
- Today in 1962, the Soviet Union exchanges pilot Gary Powers and student Frederic Pryor for Soviet KGB Colonel Vilyam “Willie” Fisher in Berlin. Powers’ U-2 spy plane had been shot down nearly two years earlier over Sverdlosk by the Soviet air force using a “Divina” surface-to-air missile, and Powers was serving a ten-year prison term. Fischer, convicted as part of the “Hollow Nikel” espionage case in New York City, was four years into his thirty-year sentence. Pryor—arrested in August, 1961, was, by all accounts, just a student in the wrong place at the wrong time, used as extra leverage to force the US into a trade. Powers, who initially faced a groundswell of criticism for both failing to engage the self-destruct explosives in his plane and not making use of his suicide pill (actually a coin with shellfish toxin embedded in its grooves), was later recognized for his service and bravery. In 1977 Powers was piloting a news helicopter when it ran out of fuel. Going down in a heavily populated area near Encino, California, Powers diverted his emergency descent to avoid a group of teens playing baseball, resulting in a crash that killed him and the cameraman just 50 yards from the baseball diamond. ※ See also: Gary Powers: The U-2 spy pilot the US did not love || Francis Gary Powers, Jr.’s “A Few Words of Defense” || Steven Spielberg’s dramatization, Bridge of Spies.
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