January 24
Why'd you have to go and make things so complicated?
"The timepiece is a gold, double-dialled and double-openfaced, minute repeating clockwatch with Westminster chimes, grande and petite sonnerie, split seconds chronograph, registers for 60-minutes and 12-hours, perpetual calendar accurate to the year 2100, moon-phases, equation of time, dual power reserve for striking and going trains, mean and sidereal time, central alarm, indications for times of sunrise/sunset and a celestial chart for the nighttime sky of New York City.” - * [more inside]
Language book reconnects a community to its culture
Teen's dream to inspire her nephews and nieces with language book reconnects a community to its culture. Wirangu teen Mia Speed say she treasures the difference her book is making to empower and inspire her younger family members.
A rare chance to gain deeper understanding of design as discursive tool
The Nokia Design Archive is a graphic and interactive portal designed by researchers from Aalto University in Finland. It currently hosts over 700 entries, curated from thousands of items donated by Microsoft Mobile Oy and representing over 20 years of Nokia’s design history — both seen and unseen. You can freely explore the archive, learn about designers’ experiences working in Nokia and discover interesting topics surrounding design and mobile technologies.
"Bringing and arranging sticks is part of their bonding process."
Did you know that a bald eagle makes a sound like a teakettle when it is laying an egg? I know that now, thanks to the Friends of Big Bear Valley (CA) Eagle Cam, going in to its seventh year. More about the eagle nest and the camera. [via]
Storm Éowyn
Public Good: Libraries and well-being
"Findings from a 2023 survey of NYPL patrons show that the vast majority of responding patrons report that the Library positively contributes to their well-being. ... While this report directly draws upon the experiences of NYPL patrons, it presents a theoretical model of how and in which ways libraries impact well-being—which is likely relevant to libraries across the nation." Libraries & Well-Being: A Case Study from The New York Public Library. (The report; .pdf.) [more inside]
the intellectual self-annihilation of mankind by means of its press
"An equally blunt assessment today would conclude that a large part of the digital media, trafficking in fake news and conspiracy theories, is now systematically dishonest. The mainstream press, often owned by big business tycoons, maintains its pretensions to political and ethical responsibility, claiming to be a beacon in the darkness where democracy supposedly dies. But the evidence of its inadequacy and even corruption has accumulated rapidly and ominously during my own three decades in journalism. [...] We are seeing some kind of collapse in the free world. The evidence has accumulated with ominous frequency since then. Perhaps it should not be surprising." Pankaj Mishra, The Last Days of Mankind.
Dial-a-Blog
Ontario Premier Doug Ford announces snap election
Ford tells a reporter his PC party needs the largest majority it has ever had to make its voice louder amid a period of political turmoil. (slCBC, live coverage) [more inside]
The Man who used Nazi propaganda to help the Allies win
The Man who used Nazi propaganda to help the Allies win
" The German soldiers and civilians listening to the station knew the Soldatensender was a British station masquerading as a German station. And the British who broadcast the station wanted the Germans to know it was the British. Their aim was not to deceive the listener, but to give ‘cover’ to German listeners. “Cover” so that if the Gestapo or commanding officer caught you listening—you could claim they thought it was a real Nazi station. Cover psychologically: it was easier to hear criticism of German leadership when it was presented as coming from “us” and about “our boys.” And cover to do what deep down many Germans wanted: surrender, defect, shirk and disobey the Nazis." [more inside]
Martin Scorsese's "The King of Comedy"
"We’re talking about a black comedy that hardly delivers any laughs. A comedy that isn’t funny because it portrays the hilarious albeit sad constituent of our everyday lives, something we don’t find funny because we’re a part of it, because we give our best to help the carousel continue spinning. That’s why The King of Comedy hit a little too close to home to be universally admired at the time of its release. In its portrayal of celebrity worship and the American media culture, it’s honest, sharp and cuts deep, hurting the viewer, forcing him to think, offering the truth about society and the media bluntly, directly, without any euphemism or regard." - Cinephilia Beyond [more inside]
Traditional owners in WA celebrate new position of strength
Traditional owners in WA celebrate new position of strength for stunning stretch of country.
Janella Isaac's elders have fought for nearly 20 years to ensure the deep cultural and environmental significance of their homeland in Western Australia's north is recognised.
fracking/finance
My book, Petroleum-238: Big Oil’s Dangerous Secret and the Grassroots Fight to Stop It [protectpt], due to be published by Simon & Schuster the following spring, was the product of a seven-year investigation into the radioactivity brought to the surface by oil and gas development, and the various threats it posed to the industry’s workers, the public, and the environment. KKR’s purchase of Simon & Schuster meant that the book would be owned by a publishing house that was owned by a private-equity company that owned an oil and gas company. A few days after receiving the email, I spoke to my editor over the phone and told him I intended to pull the book. [harper's/ungated] [more inside]
A solar pond is a solar energy collector that looks like a pond.
Solar ponds use a large, salty lake as a kind of a flat plate collector that absorbs and stores energy from the Sun in the warm, lower layers of the pond Driven by the impetus of the dark days of the 1970s oil crises, many nations looked to their own natural resources to reduce dependency on imports and provided increased support to renewable energy. One proposed technology was the solar pond. This is basically a pond with layers of saline solution which get more saline with depth. Sunlight passes through and heats the bottom layers but its relative density prevents it from rising as normally heated liquids would (in theory anyway). The heat can then be used for heating and cooling buildings, but the heat differential is enough that it can even support electrical generation. [more inside]
There is an immersive and psychotropic quality to great opera
I believe that opera is not merely pleasurable but necessary, and keeping it alive means transforming institutions like the Met into palaces of the people: places where the productions are accessible to anyone in need of the succor and catharsis that great opera can provide. This doesn’t mean we should all throw money at already wealthy institutions with incoherent and outdated industrial nonprofit funding models. But just as we have progressive think tanks coming up with methods of costing out Medicare for All and a Green New Deal, we can simultaneously be thinking about how we will structure our arts institutions of the future. from Opera is for Everyone [Current Affairs; ungated]
January 23
Garth Hudson, 1937-2025
The last surviving member of The Band, keyboardist, multi-instrumentalist, musical genius, and gloriously weird old man Garth Hudson passed January 21st at the age of 87. A magisterial eulogy in The Ringer by fellow keyboard/accordionist Franz Nicolay traces "the ever-expanding breadth and depth of his musical reference—Anglican hymns, Bach, country polka, parlor song, jazz, R&B—broadening what had been a very good bar band into a group which, at its best, seemed capable of summoning the whole of American vernacular music." as well as his peculiarities and eccentricities, the Band's rustic image contrasting with the realities of '70s rock stars, the dynamic of "a slick social climber, 3 good-time Charlies, and a genius", his later career as a prolific session musician, and technical innovations in recording and sound tinkering.
Soundtrack for reading: The Genetic Method/Chest Fever, an improvisational tour through icy ranges of the Lowery organ culminating in one of the greatest organ riff-driven songs in all of rock 'n' roll. [more inside]
Soundtrack for reading: The Genetic Method/Chest Fever, an improvisational tour through icy ranges of the Lowery organ culminating in one of the greatest organ riff-driven songs in all of rock 'n' roll. [more inside]
Bob Dylan’s Christian period
"These things in the Bible seem to uplift me and tell me the truth." - Bob Dylan addressing a Toronto audience in 1980 [more inside]
Singing Glass
64 years ago the multi 100 Kflop/s IBM 7094 mainframe, usually employed in things like correcting satellite orbital calculations, took time to sing a song. [more inside]
Aged care centre recognised as the best in rural Australia
Aged care centre recognised as the best in rural Australia. So what is it doing differently? A lack of aged care facilities in WA's far north often means Indigenous elders have to leave their country and culture behind, but an aged care provider in Roebourne is helping them see out their final days.
Collapse Music
r/CollapseMusic has a wonderfully varied collection of music all somehow related to the collapse of the biosphere and civilization. [more inside]
Freed Pirate Roberts
The Salvation War
Stuart Slade's "The Salvation War," humanity-fuck-yeah fiction in which the human race devastates Hell and fires a thermonuclear warhead at Jesus. In two parts, Armageddon and Pantheocide [more inside]
Khong Guan Biscuit Tin
Most people come to vintage-Ladybird-appreciation after using the books in childhood. A few people come to appreciate them as adults. But one of the strangest routes I’ve yet come across is via an Indonesian biscuit tin.
Did the explosion under Giant Rock cause its cleaving 58 years later?
Wikipedia:
Giant Rock is a large freestanding boulder in the Mojave Desert near the 29 Palms Marine Corps Center and Landers, California (whose residents are sometimes referred to as "Landroids"). The rock cleaved in the year 2000, the day after a group of devotees held a Long Dance at the nearby Integratron... but the story really begins in 1931, when Frank Critzer arrived. He burrowed out a space underneath the rock where he lived for many years, until he "perished in a self-detonated dynamite explosion in his underground rooms on July 24, 1942, while being investigated by local police." [more inside]
Oscar 2025 Nominations are in!
Would you like a drink?
Yes, excessive alcohol consumption is harmful. But the advice on moderate drinking can seem bewildering. [more inside]
I'm here, said the wolf
Wolfskin, a short comic about love. A lovely little story, written and illustrated by Jessica Boehman. (FYI, a friend and schoolmate of mine.) And as a bonus, another little comic about an unusual student appearing in one of her classes.
Doctor Explains Why The Neurodivergent Feel Younger Than Their Age
Doctor Explains Why The Neurodivergent Feel Younger Than Their Age [Youtube 13 Mins] A video made by a clinician based in the U.S.A - who works with Autistic people, and is also Neurodivergent themselves. "I am neurodivergent, and so is my wife and others in my life. I love to identify autism in others who have been misdiagnosed for years, have not been taken seriously, or have been told that their problems are a choice. I operate two clinics and we are one of the few clinics that test and diagnose autism and other areas related to mental health. " [more inside]
Brancalonia Campaign Setting
Brancalonia is a campaign setting for 5E "based on Italian tradition, folklore, history, landscapes, literature, and pop culture". But the setting might be just an excuse for the art. (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7)
Now's your chance
If you want to become the next Prime Minister of Canada, today is the last day to get your application in for the Liberal Party of Canada leadership race. You'll need to pay a lot of money, though, and you'll be up against some heavy hitters. If you want to vote for the next Prime Minister, you have four more days to join the party. Previously.
Moderate apocalypses
Better without AI explores moderate apocalypses that could result from current and near-future AI technology. These are relatively overlooked risks: not extreme sci-fi extinction scenarios, nor the media’s obsession with “ChatGPT said something naughty” trivia. Rather: realistically likely disasters, up to the scale of our history’s worst wars and oppressions. Better without AI suggests seven types of actions you, and all of us, can take to guard against such catastrophes—and to steer us toward a future we would like. [more inside]
January 22
The War That Almost Broke a Classic Fandom
The War That Almost Broke a Classic Fandom. Blake’s 7 fans and actors mixed regularly at cons and on the pages of zines—until an anonymous letter changed everything.
Led by Donkeys making light protest
url links to streetartutopia.com of a recent scene in Berlin Led by Donkeys leave me speechless. I', reasonably certain this this is a real image of a real event in Berlin today or yesterday as Led by Donkeys only do real things. They acknowledge Zentrum für Politische Schönheit /Political Beauty [link to org website].
John Bonham, drummer
Putricia
An endangered plant known as the "corpse flower" for its putrid stink is about to bloom in Australia - and captivated the internet in the process, with thousands already tuned in to a livestream ahead of its grand debut.
Yo dawg, I heard you like Vangelis and Microneurosurgery
In 1998 Greek neurosurgeon Dr. Stergios Tegos published a documentary of his work in the field of microneurosurgery. Nearly 11 hours across three VHS tapes and accompanied by a 253 page book, Tegos' film Μικρονευροχειρουργική με βίντεοταινίες, or "Microneurosurgery With Video Tapes", shows- in graphic detail-educational footage of brain surgery techniques over 35 separate surgical cases. Sensing that 10 hours of spinal lesion surgery footage was maybe a bit much even for seasoned doctors, Tegos decided to set the film to music and asked his longtime friend Ευάγγελος Οδυσσέας Παπαθανασίου- better known to the world as Vangelis- if he would create a soundtrack. [more inside]
In 2024 I saw 1,289 movies...
"And it seems that I’m just getting started." Hanan Levin (MeFite growabrain) has watched more than 4000 movies in the last four years and shares short reviews, favorites, and bits of film history on an extensive and engaging set of Tumblr posts (with a bonus spreadsheet of movies watched). [via mefi projects] (growabrain previously) [more inside]
An abundant legacy across a range of artistic media
Mr. Feiffer was primarily known as a cartoonist. His syndicated black-and-white comic strip, “Feiffer,” which astringently articulated the cynical, neurotic, aggrieved and ardently left-wing sensibilities of postwar Greenwich Village, began in The Village Voice in 1956 and ran for more than 40 years. But his career also encompassed novels, plays, screenplays, animation and children’s books. from Jules Feiffer, Acerbic Cartoonist, Writer and Much Else, Dies at 95 [The New York Times; ungated] [more inside]
The Pushback Thread
In the beginning, I thought Biden was going to do a second term. When doubt crept in, I began to sink into despair at an-all-but-unthinkable Trumpian future. But before I ever needed to really grapple with that possibility, Harris popped up. For a little while, I dreamt of a modern American presidency. Ugly doubt crept back in when her numbers started to stall. Early in the evening on election night, it was clear that Harris was a goner — and my mood sank in tandem. Ever a compulsive news reader, after Trump won I found far too much of it distressing, even maddening. Then I stumbled across an article on the democratic governors organizing to resist. For the first time in days, my mood lifted. [more inside]
Life in another light
a brief history of countercultural advertising
"Challenger brands always went up against an enemy: either a competing brand, or something more nebulous like social conformity. The first question for the ad agency to answer was not, what should this brand say or sell to people, but what should this brand stand for? The second was, what should it stand against? (In fact, it was often the other way around – start by identifying a social ill you want to overcome and then define yourself as the remedy)." Ian Leslie tells the story of countercultural advertising--from Coca-Cola's hilltop victory to Pepsi's cringeworthy loss (with a lot of Steve Jobs in between): How advertising consumed the counter-culture.
We Only Have Ourselves: The How-Tos and DOs and DON’Ts of Mutual Aid
Kim Kelly Offers Advice and Reading Suggestions for How We Might Survive the Depredations to Come We can go one step further, though, because it shouldn’t take a catastrophe for people to care for one another. Mutual aid—a voluntary, collaborative exchange of resources between members of a community—is a daily practice, and an act of everyday resistance.
eyelet, nubbin, plunger, bobbin, totem
The Peppermills of Jens Quistgaard Over the course of his prolific and varied design career, Jens Quistgaard created a series of peppermills for Dansk Designs. Taking the dispersal of salt and pepper as the jumping off point, JHQ's designs are a meditation on the possibilities of shape for a common household object. This website intends to serve as a guide for collecting these peppermills and to tell the story of the designer and company who brought them into our homes.
Martin Scorsese’s “The Color of Money”
How The Color of Money’s “One For Them” Assignment Reignited Martin Scorsese’s Hunger for the Work [more inside]
Mawuyul Yanthalawuy: a teacher and a movie star
Born in the bush, Mawuyul Yanthalawuy survived Japanese bombs before becoming a teacher and a movie star.
Award-winning actor, educator and community leader Mawuyul Yanthalawuy, who starred in the film Manganinnie, is being remembered as an Australian national treasure after her death at the age of 85.
Let’s focus on the immediate deliverables first
January 21
Henry Moore
Gone With the Wind?
Since the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act... the U.S. wind industry, especially manufacturing, has been enjoying a renaissance. ... That growth is now in question, as just this week, [Donald] Trump stated that he plans to ensure "no windmills" are built during his term in office. [more inside]
“Nice hole Tim”
It's 2026 and you wonder what your friends are up to [SLMastodon thread]. In which Dan Fixes Coin-Ops on Mastodon gives us a taste of would could still become true if we only could make it so in one, long, delicious fever-dream of a toot-thread. (Dan, previously.)