katexic, Author at Katexic Clippings (ARCHIVE)

palaver

palaver /puh-LAV-ər/. noun and verb. A conference, dispute or contest (originally, primarily West African). Tedious, time consuming or idle talk or other activity. Loud or confused talk. Flattery. From Portuguese palavra (talk), from Latin parabola (a parable, words, speech). See also: bunk, bunkum, hokum, cajolery, wheedling, jabbering.

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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.

The Mysterious Geographic Explorations of Jasper Morello

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VPpy652NylU

The steampunk, gothic, “anymation” story of Jasper Morello, a “disgraced aerial navigator who flees his plague-ridden home on a desperate voyage to redeem himself.” → ► The Mysterious Geographic Explorations of Jasper Morello.

Tsinelas

“…cook the rice, anak!” → ► Tsinelas – A Short Action-Comedy Film.

from Dreyer’s English (Benjamin Dreyer)

As a serial abuser of parentheses, I warn you against their overuse, particularly in the conveyance of elbow-nudging joshingness. One too many coy asides and you, in the person of your writing, will seem like a dandy in a Restoration comedy stepping down to the footlights and curling his hand around his mouth to confidentially address the audience. One rather needs a beauty mark and a peruke to get away with that sort of thing.
—Benjamin Dreyer
—from Dreyer’s English : an utterly correct guide to clarity and style (2019)

apotropaic

apotropaic /ap-ə-trə-PAY-ik/ /apətrəˈpeɪɪk/. adjective. Something that prevents—or is intended to prevent—evil influence or bad luck. From Greek apotropaios (averting evil), from apo (away) + trepein(turning).

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WEB: February 3, 2019

The discovery that a microbe involved in gum disease is the cause of Alzheimer’s not only might yield treatments, but could lead to a vaccine → We may finally know what causes Alzheimer’s — and how to stop it
Cal Newport, author of the insightful (and admittedly imperfect) book Deep Work, has a new book out (Digital Minimalism: On Living Better with Less Technology) that is interesting and a little maddening. This interview captures the gist → Why We’ll Look Back at Our Smartphones Like Cigarettes
If great scientists had logos…
I lean heavily away from prescriptive grammar books, but occasionally a titles comes along that manages to avoid off-putting pedantry and show a deep love of words in happy order. Benjamin Dreyer’s Dreyer’s English: An Utterly Correct Guide to Clarity and Style is one of those rarities → Meet the Guardian of Grammar Who Wants to Help You Be a Better Writer ※ See also: The Hedonic Appeal of “Dreyer’s English”
Digitizing the vast ‘dark data’ in museum fossil collections
Hyperlocal, micro-publishing, “pomenvylopes” and postcards…the delights of small-scale, under-the-radar publishing are myriad → A Writer’s Choice to Be Borderline Invisible [Thanks, Reader K.!]
Owen Earl, of indestructible type*, wants to (and does) “make high quality, versatile, modern typography that’s accessible to everybody.” And he’s just released *another* amazing “pay what you want” (all the way down to zero), open source, meticulously detailed and documented font → Indestructible Type Bodoni*
A film trope I hadn’t thought about before → The Art (or Non-Art) of the Cinematic Dictionary Open
An essential quiz → Tolkien Character or Antidepressant?
Today is Setsubun, the day before the first day in Spring in Japan. Though the name literally means “the division between seasons” and is more properly called Risshun, Setsubun is celebrated as part of the Japanese Spring Festival. Celebration of Setsubun is accompanied by mamemaki, a ritual of throwing roasted soybeans (“fortune beans”) out the door, warding off evil spirits—sometimes impersonated by mask wearing family and friends—and initiating a fresh Spring start to the year. Modern Setsubun celebrations, naturally, sometimes involve televised festivities with celebrities tossing not just soybeans, but also peanuts, candy and even envelopes of money. Other Setsubun practices include silently eating futomaki (“fat” sushi rolls) while facing in that year’s lucky direction, drinking ginger sake, and putting up small decorations of holly and sardines above doorways to prevent bad spirits from entering.