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Tag: history

morning computer pluriverse

Published March 26, 2025 by Warren Ellis

Leonora Carrington, whom people are complaining about, again.

Ancient sculptures were scented.

…visiting ancient sacred sites would have been a rich olfactory experience. Sculptures in ancient Greece were covered with perfume just as bodies were. The practice was known as kosmesis, a “super-adornment” that also involved applying textiles and jewelry. Among the nearly 3,000 stone inscriptions found on Delos are those that record the ingredients necessary for kosmesis for the statues of Hera and Artemis. The list included sponges, oil, soda carbonate, linen, wax, and rose perfume.

Super-adornment!

Kerstin Brätsch.

This idea that there can be at any one given time multiple intersecting, beautiful in some cases, conflicting worlds in which design occupies, operates, and works is a really powerful concept that is driving where design is heading.

This links to a podcast episode that I haven’t listened to yet, but I like the term pluriverse. There’s a transcript lower down the page, which is great for me as I read faster than people talk.

Pluriversal design, the concept of a world of many worlds as design practice, is not a new idea but one that has drastically increased in influence. First, here’s Renata Marques Leitão explaining how the pluriversal design paradigm can restart discussions of change:

I think that we have to start to identify what I name theories of change, how change happens. What are our assumptions about how change happens and what’s the final result? What do we want to produce? What is the pathway towards change? And then our partners, they also have their theories of change. They also have their pathways. And you can’t really imagine that your pathway, just because you are a very educated person, is better than their pathway. So it’s a lot about recognizing our assumptions, especially assumptions about how change happens.

The idea that we all live in intersecting worlds is worth picking apart a bit: it’s either blindingly obvious or it’s a useful filter to look at life through, and I’m not sure which yet.

Sometimes it’s very difficult to separate what is real help and what is simply oppression. 

morning computer: some useful things first thing in the day.

My free weekly newsletter is at https://orbitaloperations.beehiiv.com/

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morning computer stones

Published March 25, 2025 by Warren Ellis

John Riepenhoff.

The Good Plastic Company:

One hundred percent recycled and recyclable, The Polygood Growth panels are made from post-consumer and post-industrial waste, with elements from discarded refrigerators, washing machine enclosures and consumer electronics creating accents in the mix.

Found while slowly removing plastics from my daily use. Plastic spoon in the brain has been haunting me for weeks now.

Ancient grinding stones:

The hand-held grinding tools used to process cereals that the first European Neolithic societies buried in deposits had a high symbolic value for the women who used them, related to time and the cycles of human life, nature and settlements. 

morning computer: some useful things first thing in the day.

My free weekly newsletter is at https://orbitaloperations.beehiiv.com/

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morning computer symbology

Published March 17, 2025 by Warren Ellis

“Folk Traditions, Quotidian Items, and Spiritual Symbolism Merge in Haegue Yang’s Sensory Sculptures.“

A new scientific study is challenging long-held beliefs about Jackson Pollock and his iconic “drip paintings,” suggesting that the Abstract Expressionist may have embedded hidden images, or what researchers call “polloglyphs,” into his compositions. While some experts argue this is merely a case of pareidolia—seeing patterns in randomness—the findings reignite debate over the psychological depth and hidden symbolism in Pollock’s revolutionary art.

The researchers refer to these “recognizable” images as “polloglyphs,” and believe that they may have been camouflaged by Pollock’s “drip technique.” They claim, for example, that the 1945 work Troubled Queen can be rotated to reveal various images, including a “charging soldier holding a hatchet and a pistol with a bullet in the barrel; a Picasso-esque rooster; a monkey with goggles and wine; and one of the clearest images, the angel of mercy and her sword.”

I am enjoying “polloglyphs.”

By integrating data from four key fields—stone tool production, hunting strategies, symbolic behavior, and social complexity—the study argues that different human groups, including Neanderthals, pre-Neanderthals, and Homo sapiens, engaged in meaningful interactions.

“Symbology” should go next to “polloglyphs.” The protagonist of Dan Brown’s books is a “symbologist,” but Brown made up symbology. It’s a mix of iconography, semiotics and symbolic anthropology.

morning computer: some useful things first thing in the day.

My free weekly newsletter is at https://orbitaloperations.beehiiv.com/

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morning computer there is a light

Published March 7, 2025 by Warren Ellis

Popular in European brothels between 1880 and 1905 – used as a timer, once the wax is consumed, the session ends.

NASA astronaut Don Pettit used a camera with low light and long duration settings to capture this Jan. 29, 2025, image of the Milky Way appearing beyond Earth’s horizon.

googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display(‘div-gpt-ad-1449240174198-2’); });

At the time, the International Space Station was orbiting 265 miles above the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Chile just before sunrise.

there’s a light

over at the frankenstein place

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IN OUR TIME: Nizami Ganjavi

Published March 5, 2025 by Warren Ellis

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0025l1q

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss one of the greatest romantic poets in Persian literature. Nizami Ganjavi (c1141–1209) is was born in the city of Ganja in what is now Azerbaijan and his popularity soon spread throughout the Persian-speaking lands and beyond. Nizami is best known for his Khamsa, a set of five epic poems that contains a famous retelling of the tragic love story of King Khosrow II (c570-628) and the Christian princess Shirin (unknown-628) and the legend of Layla and Majnun. Not only did he write romances: his poetry also displays a dazzling knowledge of philosophy, astronomy, botany and the life of Alexander the Great.

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morning computer cults circles caves

Published March 2, 2025 by Warren Ellis

A massive bacchanalian frieze spanning three walls has been discovered in a banquet hall in the ancient Roman city Pompeii, the archaeological park announced in a press release.

And:

The frieze is located within the Casa del Tiaso or House of Thiasus in Regio IX in Pompeii. Thiasus is associated with the presence of Dionysus and followers. To become part of the ancient cult of Dionysus, initiates were required to participate in secret rituals.

The thing about these cults, like the Eleusinian Mysteries, is that much of their material is lost.

Archaeologists reveal the enigmatic burial practices of the Southern Jê people of Brazil. There was a time when they buried their dead in caves, before moving on to mounds.

The researchers noticed a potential pattern: most (88%) of the analyzed caves were located near water features such as waterfalls, rivers, and streams. According to Southern Jê mythology, water is the only element that connects all three levels of the universe: the underground realm of the dead, the earth-level realm of humans, animals, and untouched forests, and the celestial world of the stars, sun, moon, and gods. This connection to water may have thus helped the deceased souls transition from the earth level into the underground realm. While still preliminary, future geostatistical studies may help determine if this is a mere coincidence of geography or a deliberate act. Interestingly, the researchers also determined that burial caves were usually hidden in hard-to-reach areas and not visible to surrounding villages.

It’s tempting to associate this with the River Styx, and some kind of ur-myth around water and the dead.

A timber circle has been found in the Vesthimmerland region in Denmark, marking a significant discovery of a Neolithic cultural site much like the famed Stonehenge in England.

Timber circles are a circular arrangement of wooden posts or tree trunks set in pits and postholes that were likely used for rituals, ceremonies, astronomical observations, and social gatherings. This particular timber circle dates to 2600–1600 B.C.E. with a diameter just shy of 100 feet and consisting of at least 45 wooden posts spaced over six feet apart.

We have a “Woodhenge” in Britain. There seems to be a link between Woodhenge and this place, The Bell Beaker Phenomenon:

The Bell Beaker phenomenon was a widespread cultural movement from around 2800–1800 B.C.E. that spread across Europe, marked by distinctive bell-shaped pottery, advanced metalworking, and changes in burial customs. Archaeological evidence suggests it played a key role in the transition to the Bronze Age, influencing trade and social structures.

Everything is connected.

CONNECTED:

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In Our Time: The Antikythera Mechanism

Published February 17, 2025 by Warren Ellis

The Antikythera Mechanism

In Our Time

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the 2,000-year-old Greek astronomical computer, one of the most important discoveries in marine archaeology.

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Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the 2000-year-old device which transformed our understanding of astronomy in ancient Greece. In 1900 a group of sponge divers found the wreck of a ship off the coast of the Greek island of Antikythera. Among the items salvaged was a corroded bronze object, the purpose of which was not at first clear. It turned out to be one of the most important discoveries in marine archaeology. Over time, researchers worked out that it was some kind of astronomical analogue computer, the only one to survive from this period as bronze objects were so often melted down for other uses. In recent decades, detailed examination of the Antikythera Mechanism using the latest scientific techniques indicates that it is a particularly intricate tool for showing the positions of planets, the sun and moon, with a complexity and precision not surpassed for over a thousand years.

And now I finally know how to pronounce the word Antikythera!

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The Cat’s Meat Man

Published February 14, 2025 by Warren Ellis

As cats evolved from feral ratters into beloved Victorian companions, a nascent pet-food economy arose on the carts of so-called “cat’s meat men”. Kathryn Hughes explores the life and times of these itinerant offal vendors, their intersection with a victim of Jack the Ripper, and a feast held in the meat men’s honor, chaired by none other than Louis Wain.

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morning computer othering

Published December 17, 2024 by Warren Ellis

Lorenzo Tonda.

Archaeologists have analyzed more than 3,000 human bones and bone fragments from the Early Bronze Age site of Charterhouse Warren, England, concluding that the people were massacred, butchered, and likely partly consumed by enemies as a means to dehumanize them.

Were they killed for food? This is unlikely. There were abundant cattle bones found mixed in with the human ones, suggesting the people at Charterhouse Warren had plenty to eat without needing to resort to cannibalism.

Instead, cannibalism may have been a way to “other” the deceased. By eating their flesh and mixing the bones in with faunal remains, the killers were likening their enemies to animals, thereby dehumanizing them.

Albright’s reign of terror began in October 1988, when 30-year-old sex worker, Rhonda K. Bowie, was found dead with more than 20 stab wounds on her body.

In December 1990, Albright struck again, shooting and killing 33-year-old veteran sex worker Mary Lou Pratt. She was shot in the back of the head with a .44 Magnum and severely beaten.

However, it was what investigators found—or rather, didn’t find—that shocked them: Pratt’s eyes had been meticulously removed with surgical precision.

THE EYEBALL KILLER

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Berserker Coke Spoons

Published November 29, 2024 by Warren Ellis

In ancient conflicts, courage and resilience were essential qualities for warriors venturing onto the battlefield. However, a recent study has uncovered evidence suggesting that these attributes did not always rely solely on physical strength or emotional fortitude. Recent research published in the journal Praehistorische Zeitschrift suggests that Northern European barbarian warriors during the Roman period may have used stimulants to enhance their performance in combat.

At various archaeological sites in Scandinavia, Germany, and Poland, researchers have discovered small spoon-shaped objects attached to belts, dating back to the Roman period. These objects, featuring handles between 40 and 70 mm in length and cavities just 10 to 20 mm in diameter, lacked any practical purpose for the belt but were found alongside other war-related artifacts.

According to the study led by archaeologist Andrzej Kokowski and a team of biologists from Maria Curie-Skłodowska University in Lublin, Poland, these small spoons might have been used to measure precise doses of stimulant substances before battle.

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