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Einstein on the Bleach
“I had gone to install a dishwasher in a loft in SoHo. While working, I suddenly heard a noise and looked up to find Robert Hughes, the art critic of Time magazine, staring at me in disbelief. ‘But you’re Philip Glass! What are you doing here?’ It was obvious that I was installing his dishwasher and I told him I would soon be finished. ‘But you are an artist,’ he protested. I explained that I was an artist but that I was sometimes a plumber as well and that he should go away and let me finish.” from The Blue Collar Jobs of Philip Glass by Ted Gioia [more inside]
US Response to Gaza
US officials say Gaza deal on edge of collapse. Reportedly Donald Trump is advising Netanyahu to avoid a ceasefire, fearing that it would help Kamala Harris' election chances; if true, this would also violate the Logan Act. The DNC held the first-ever panel on Palestinian human rights. Multiple pro-Palestinian protesters were arrested after clashing with police during a protest that started in front of the Israeli consulate and on the second night of the DNC. Uncommitted movement delegates are asking delegates pledged to Harris to sign on to a Ceasefire Delegate letter, and so far have netted 240 delegates. The current Democratic party platform features an extensive section on US support for Israel, and does not mention support for an arms embargo or permanent ceasefire. The University of California is imposing encampment and mask bans on campus. [more inside]
How to Build a 50,000 Ton Forging Press
In the 1950s, the U.S. Department of Defense undertook the Heavy Press Program, funding the construction of ten colossal forging and extrusion presses, powerful enough to create entire aircraft components as single pieces of metal, replacing hundreds of smaller parts. Not only did the large parts produced by the presses greatly reduce the cost and increase the performance of military aircraft, the presses also proved useful for making parts for things like helicopters, submarines, spacecraft, and commercial jets. Six of the ten presses are still operational today. [more inside]
"The whole world is watching."
No facts have been checked
Monoprinting with the Gel Plate
Monotypes have been around for a long time and have been invented and re-invented several times. Lasting Impressions: The Monotype Medium from Edgar Degas to Elizabeth Peyton.
Currently they're undergoing a revival of sorts thanks to the Gel Plate which has made it very easy for the beginner (like me!) to make their own prints and papers. [more inside]
Sing, goddess
“A New Century Dawns! McKinley Ushers in Bold New ‘Coal Age’.
The Onion has put the entirety of its classic book Our Dumb Century online as part of its website redesign. For the unfamiliar, Our Dumb Century was a collection of fake Onion front pages from the 20th Century, with headlines such as “World’s Largest Metaphor Hits Iceberg”, “Feds Gun Down Nixon Outside Arizona Motel”, “Drugs Win Drug War”, and, of course, “WA- (headline continued on page 2)”.
Minuscule timing (6)
Maybe you're the sort of person who likes to start the day with the New York Times Mini Crossword, but perhaps you're looking for a new sort of challenge. Minute Cryptic is a new website that features one UK-style cryptic crossword clue to solve each day, with hints available. New to cryptic crosswords? Here's an explainer video from the New Yorker that covers the way they work, with plenty of examples. It takes a while to get used to them, but it's incredibly satisfying to find yourself learning to speak their wordplay language over time.
Ǔnáùlǔtu̐
2024 Bulwer-Lytton winners announced
The contest to write the worst opening lines to non-existent novels have been announced. The grand prize winner is Lawrence Person of Austin, TX: "She had a body that reached out and slapped my face like a five-pound ham-hock tossed from a speeding truck."
"This song is one of the few hit singles in the key of M"
Canadian couple takes their family to someplace they will truly be free?
The Thin Purple Line
Doc Brown without the DeLorean
Even Lee’s washing machine collection began with his wife. As he often tells the story, the couple bought an RV when Lee retired in 1985, and they planned a road trip from Colorado to Maine. Somewhere in Iowa, they stopped at a farmer’s estate sale. There, among the implements and tools, Lee spied a 1907 Maytag Model 44. He loved the machine’s beauty and the mechanics of it. Over time, he began to love the idea that these machines changed women’s roles at home. Barbara didn’t object when Lee paid $100 for the contraption and loaded it into their ride. She didn’t complain much, either, when he kept stopping and buying up antique washers. “We bought 12 more all the way to Maine,” Lee says. “We came home with a mobile home and a new trailer filled with washing machines.” from The Charming, Eccentric, Blessed Life of Lee Maxwell [5280]
Wheels within wheels
Like the Enigma, the HX-63 was an electromechanical cipher system known as a rotor machine. It was the only electromechanical rotor machine ever built by CAG, and it was much more advanced and secure than even the famous Enigmas. In fact, it was arguably the most secure rotor machine ever built. I longed to get my hands on one, but I doubted I ever would. from The Scandalous History of the Last Rotor Cipher Machine [IEEE]
Encounters with the Maverick Archaeologist of the Americas
Hakai Magazine: Then in 1976, a 27-year-old American anthropological archaeologist named Tom Dillehay uncovered the campsite, now called Monte Verde, and found that the small group had made it nearly to the bottom of South America 14,500 years ago. This was 1,500 years too early: established archaeologists thought people didn’t even arrive in North America, up in Alaska, until around 13,000 years ago. The discrepancy seriously undermined the leading theory, and moreover came from a young Dillehay who hadn’t yet finished his doctorate. What followed was decades of academic warfare, sometimes nasty, which made Dillehay famous and in which he turned out to be right.
Got any grapes?
The Duck Song (YouTube). The version with the most views, 636 million so far, was originally posted to YouTube on March 23, 2009. The official site, The Duck Song Trilogy, has more info about the song by Bryant Oden (YouTube channel) and animated by Forrest Whaley (YouTube channel). If you want more backstory about this enduring meme (like my pre-teen child said "got any grapes?" in front of a younger friend, who immediately started singing it) you can read this Q&A with Bryant Oden from 2015. (And here's a version of the joke that I think inspired the song.) Both KnowYourMeme and Dictionary.com have entries about it, and here's a positive critical review from earlier this year in Hillsdale College’s Collegian, written in response to the release of "The Duck Song 4".
renaming
When we look at the Northeast, we see familiar places: New York, Philadelphia, Syracuse, Rome, Lancaster, York. All of these names are imports: New York designated the dominion given to the Duke of York, others recalled the powerful ruling families of England, or were echoes of the classical world. Yet beneath these names sites an older and very different cultural landscape. Some Indigenous place names survive: Oneonta, Chittenango, Canandaigua. But much more of this landscape and its names have been reinscribed. [zooniverse] [more inside]