Study of waves, wave-crests and foam by the Armenian artist Ivan Aivazovsky (1817-1900)
Aivazovsky was a citizen of Imperial Russia whose name is Հովհաննես Այվազյան in Armenian and Иван Айвазовский in Russian.
Brine Shine
Monthly Archives: December 2020
Brine Shine
Cat Sat Mat
Cat-painting by Lesley Anne Ivory (born 1934)
Peri-Performative Post-Scriptum
The title of this incendiary intervention can be parsed as a nominative noun followed by a past (or even present) participle followed by a locative noun. Indeed, that is how it’s supposed to be parsed.
Mulch is Less
An interesting bio-paradox from the world’s premier papyrocentric purveyor of progressive performativity:
Vast stretches of roadside have been transformed. Where there were thick clumps of grass, there are low-growing wildflowers such as black medic, birds-foot trefoil and red clover. The verges are cut two or three times a year, not 12, saving the council tens of thousands of pounds. Butterflies and other invertebrates have returned in their droves. […]
The process is simple: cut infrequently, ideally, just twice a year in spring and then late summer once plants have bloomed and seeded; remove the clippings to gradually reduce the fertility of the soil and prevent a buildup of mulch; repeat, wait, and enjoy the resurgent wildlife and flowers. […]
“As fertility declines in a soil, biodiversity increases. At first that seems a little counterintuitive because you imagine the more you pour into a soil, the more plants that can grow. That’s not how it works in the natural system. In more fertile systems, a few species dominate and they swamp and smother everything else.”
Grass cuttings are almost always left where they fall along the thousands of miles of road verges that are maintained by law in the UK. Over time, the resulting mulch increases the fertility of the soil, meaning the grass grows with increasing vigour and needs to be cut more frequently. The cut and collect method breaks the cycle. — On the verge: a quiet roadside revolution is boosting wildflowers, The Guardian, 14iii2020
Termed Out Nice Again
In 2013, I made a key discovery that disturbed and distressed core members of the non-conformist maverick community on a global basis dot dot dot… In America (or so it appeared) a key lexical marker of non-conformist maverickness was rapidly declining in terms of core usage, thusly:
At the same time, the non-conformist maverick community in Britain had maintained their core commitment to this key lexical marker of etc, thusly:
I expressed my puzzlement at the decline of “in terms of” in America. I couldn’t see a linguistic explanation and should (I now realize) have expressed doubts about the reliability of the data. Yes, in 2020 I’m very happy to report to members of the non-conformist maverick community that they need be disturbed and distressed no longer. The term has turned and it seems Google’s nGram wasn’t working properly at that time-period. Key statistics for core usage of “in terms of” are now in core accordance with key expectations, thusly:
“in terms of” (American English)
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“in terms of” (British English)
Sadly, however, non-conformist mavericks in French- and Spanish-speaking countries seem to have stopped being non-conformist:
“en termes de” (French)
“en términos de” (Spanish)
Peri-Performative Post-Scriptum
The title of this incendiary intervention radically referencizes a key catchphrase of core comedian George Formby (1904-61), viz, “turned out nice again”. Formby’s home-county of Lancashire (England) was — and remains — a core hotbed of non-conformist maverickness dot dot dot
• Core discussion around “in terms of”…
Seis Segundos de Salvador
“Será tan breve que ya he terminado,” — Salvador Dalí, Con la frase “Ja soc aquí”, Dalí abrió una surrealista conferencia de Prensa, El País, 25×1980
Salvador Dalí […] once gave the world’s shortest speech – six seconds in duration. He said, “I will be so brief I have already finished,” and he sat down. — Edward O. Wilson
Previously pre-posted
• A Seriously Sizzling Series of Super-Saucy Salvadisms — more good quotes by Salvador Dalí
Circus Trix
Here’s a trix, or triangle divided into six smaller triangles:
Trix, or triangle divided into six smaller triangles
Now each sub-triangle becomes a trix in its turn:
Trix stage #2
And again:
Trix #3
Trix #4
Trix #5
Trix divisions (animated)
Now try dividing the trix and discarding sub-triangles, then repeating the process. A fractal appears:
Trix fractal #1
Trix fractal #2
Trix fractal #3
Trix fractal #4
Trix fractal #5
Trix fractal #6
Trix fractal #7
Trix fractal (animated)
But what happens if you delay the discarding, first dividing the trix completely into sub-triangles, then dividing completely again? You get a more attractive and symmetrical fractal, like this:
Trix fractal (delayed discard)
And it’s easy to convert the triangle into a circle, creating a fractal like this:
Delayed-discard trix fractal converted into circle
Delayed-discard trix fractal to circular fractal (animated)
Now a trix fractal that looks like a hawk-god:
Trix hawk-god #1
Trix hawk-god #2
Trix hawk-god #3
Trix hawk-god #4
Trix hawk-god #5
Trix hawk-god #6
Trix hawk-god #7
Trix hawk-god (animated)
Trix hawk-god converted to circle
Trix hawk-god to circle (animated)
If you delay the discard, you get this:
Trix hawk-god circle (delayed discard)
And here are more delayed-discard trix fractals:
Various circular trix-fractals (animated)
Post-Performative Post-Scriptum
In Latin, circus means “ring, circle” — the English word “circle” is actually from the Latin diminutive circulus, meaning “little circle”.
Performativizing Papyrocentricity #67
Papyrocentric Performativity Presents:
• Killer Chiller Thriller – Night Without End, Alistair MacLean (1959)
• Above and Below – The Archaeology of Underground Mines and Quarries in England, John Barnatt (Historic England 2019)
• Wannabe Wonder-Weaver – The Best of Robert Westall Volume One, Robert Westall (1993)
• All Glitter, No Glow – A.C. Swinburne: A Poet’s Life, Rikky Rooksby (Scolar Press 1997)
• Recycle, Repeat – Revival, Stephen King (2014)
• Gained in Translation – Cuentos de Averoigne: Todos los Cuentos de Averoigne de Clark Ashton Smith, traducción de Enric Navarro (Pickman’s Press 2019)
• Sean of the Head – Am I Evil? The Autobiography, Brian Tatler with John Tucker (2009; second edition 2017)
Posted at Overlord of the Über-Feral:
• Maximal Moz – Morrissey in Conversation: The Essential Interviews, ed. Paul A. Woods (Plexus 2016)
• Absence and Essence – Abandoned: The Most Beautiful Forgotten Places from Around the World, Mathew Growcoot (Ebury Press 2017)
Or Read a Review at Random: RaRaR
Loose the Juce
Hicks Nix on Pix
“Watching television is like taking black spray-paint to your third eye.” — Bill Hicks
Post-Performative Post-Scriptum
The title of this incendiary intervention is a tribute to the famous Variety headline “Sticks Nix Hick Pix”. However, I mean “pixels” by “pix”, not “pictures”.
Overlord In Terms of Core Issues Around Maximal Engagement with Key Notions of the Über-Feral 