"When you reach into the dark / I can hold you / can I hold you now?"

The Known Universe, being a film that zooms out then in through the Digital Universe Atlas. As Kottke says, it's worth watching in as high definition as you can manage on your system.

It's electronica with recursion and frame-breaking -- how can you resist?

Or if you prefer, how about an emoticon stamper. Okay, kaomoji stamper. But now you too can has \ ^ _ ^ / (and thousands of other combinations) on your papers, as well as your monitor.

Möbius bagel. Mmm, bagel. (via)

Look at the Milky Way in x-ray, visible, hydrogen-α, far IR, microwave, and radio spectra, all at Chromoscope. (via)

A eccentric collection of 19th century Japanese illustrations of mermaids in books about marine biology.

Study finds that hedge funds managed by women outperform those managed by men, but a large margin. Risk management at work. (via)

ROADS! (via)

Using a d20 saving throw to game your smoking abatement campaign. (via)

Because it's been a while since I last linked to it, once again it's "Edward Gorey"'s The Trouble with Tribbles. (via)

One guitar, four hands. (via)

And finally, blog devoted to oddly specific signs.

---L.

"When you reach into the dark / I can hold you / can I hold you now?"

The Known Universe, being a film that zooms out then in through the Digital Universe Atlas. As Kottke says, it's worth watching in as high definition as you can manage on your system.

It's electronica with recursion and frame-breaking -- how can you resist?

Or if you prefer, how about an emoticon stamper. Okay, kaomoji stamper. But now you too can has \ ^ _ ^ / (and thousands of other combinations) on your papers, as well as your monitor.

Möbius bagel. Mmm, bagel. (via)

Look at the Milky Way in x-ray, visible, hydrogen-α, far IR, microwave, and radio spectra, all at Chromoscope. (via)

A eccentric collection of 19th century Japanese illustrations of mermaids in books about marine biology.

Study finds that hedge funds managed by women outperform those managed by men, but a large margin. Risk management at work. (via)

ROADS! (via)

Using a d20 saving throw to game your smoking abatement campaign. (via)

Because it's been a while since I last linked to it, once again it's "Edward Gorey"'s The Trouble with Tribbles. (via)

One guitar, four hands. (via)

And finally, blog devoted to oddly specific signs.

---L.

Lifting up the hood and showing off the machinery

Modern edition text of Kokinshū #314:

竜田川 錦おりかく 神無月 時雨の雨を たてぬきにして

Romanized transliteration:

tatsuta gawa   nishiki orikaku   kannazuki   shigure no ame o   tatenuki ni shite

Word-for-word literal:

Tatsuta | River || brocade | weaves-toward || Godless Month || late autumn rains/drizzle/sleet | <-of | rain | <-dir.obj. || warp and weft | <-in-this-way | doing

Prose recension:

The Godless Month weaves [into] Tatsuta River a [leaf] brocade using as its warp and weft the (seasonal) rain/sleet.

Commentary: The first of Kokinshū's winter poems, author unknown, showing the transition from autumn: kannazuki (lit. "Godless Month") is an old name of the tenth month, roughly November in the former lunisolar calendar, when the eight million Shinto gods left their local shrines to attend a convention in Izumo (where it was called the Month of Gods). Tatenuki is an archaic term for the warp and weft of cloth. Left implied, making it hard to interpret unless you know to supply it consult Japanese commentaries, is the word "leaves" -- but aside from that it's fairly straightforward (to order of an odd verb form), with few poetic devices aside from the striking metaphor.

My final translation:

    The Godless Month weaves
a brocade of leaves into
    Tatsuta River,
using the rains of early
winter as its warp and weft.

---L.