📎 on newsletters and websites
Newsletters; or, an enormous rant about writing on the web that doesn’t really go anywhere and that’s okay with me:
https://www.robinrendle.com/essays/newsletters
(a beautifully designed essay)
💡 tetraxenonogold
A highly unusual compound of four xenon atoms bound to a gold atom.
“Tetraxenonogold(II) is unusual in that it is a compound of the notoriously inert atoms xenon and gold. It is also unusual in that it uses xenon as a transition metal ligand, and in that it contains gold in the +2 oxidation state. It can be produced by reduction of AuF3 in the presence of fluoroantimonic acid (the strongest superacid) and xenon, and crystallised at low temperature.
It was the first description of a compound between a noble gas and a noble metal. It was first described in 2000 by Konrad Seppelt and Stefan Seidel.”
via Wikipedia
💬 secrets, stories, logic and disco
The following quote from Disco Elysium (one of many notable examples) sounded vaguely familiar in its wording:
Secrets are the currency of human relations.
A quick search unearthed this strikingly similar one:
“Stories are the currency of human relationships.”
— Robert McKee, Story: Substance, Structure, Style, and the Principles of Screenwriting (1997)
And of course, as is fitting for such a game, we have a possible inspiration from Karl Marx with his “Die Logik ist das Geld des Geistes”, or “Logic is the money of the mind.”
So which is it then – secrets, stories, logic? Or disco?
💡 word of the day: poioumenon
poioumenon:
A specific type of metafiction in which the story is about the process of creation (sometimes the creation of the story itself). [Wiktionary]
🎨 universum, or a quest for knowledge
A coloured version of the Flammarion engraving, a wood engraving by an unknown artist, so named because its first documented appearance is in Camille Flammarion’s 1888 book L’atmosphère: météorologie populaire.
💬 the four Gs
“Success in research needs four Gs: Glück, Geduld, Geschick, und Geld [luck, patience, skill, and money].”
— Paul Ehrlich
📎 pictures of band theory: a real space view
...or bringing down the tyranny of reciprocal space
(a really awesome blog about condensed matter physics)
📎 nature soundmap
A group of professional nature recordists from around the globe have collaborated to develop Nature Soundmap, an enjoyable and interactive way of exploring the natural sounds of our planet. Combining high-quality field recordings with the latest satellite imagery, the project brings together some of nature’s most beautiful, interesting and inspiring sounds.
🎨 les choses de la vie
from The Mighty Millborough - Les choses de la vie, Christoph Mueller (2019)