This Vaginal Photoplethysmograph, used to measure sexual arousal in women, is one of many unusual devices photographed by Sarah Sudhoff at the Kinsey Institute for Research in Sex, Gender and Reproduction.
In this video, Dr. Demetrios Matsakis, Chief Scientist for USNO’s Time Services at the US Naval Observatory (located in Washington DC), explains in detail how the US Naval Observatory Master Clock works, including how the time gets communicated to your phone. All forms of digital communication – military operations, banking systems, the internet, cell phone networks – depend on the Observatory’s precise time. Over 100 atomic clocks are used to compute the time. There are three types of timekeeping used: Cesium clocks, laser based clocks and atomic fountains (which use lasers as well). These technologies are combined together to provide...
It’s often said that a solid navy or grey merino sweater is the most versatile knit you can own, but I rarely wear mine. Smoothly finished, solid colored sweaters work well underneath sport coats, but for anything more casual, I like things to have a little more texture or pattern. A cable knit or Fair Isle can add some important visual interest, as can the subtle textures of a tightly knit linen sweater or spongy Shetland.
SNS Herning also makes some wonderful casual sweaters. The Danish manufacturer was founded in 1931 and is named after the initials of its founder, Søren Nielsen Skyt, and the Danish town where it’s still based. Over the years, the company has had its ups and downs, and until relatively recently, the company survived on selling just a few classic models. That’s when the grandson of the original Søren Skyt, who is also named Søren Skyt, decided to quit his job teaching philosophy at Aarhus University in order to revive his family’s company.
And what a revival it’s been. Skyt has moved the company to a new premise, brought in some old German knitwear machinery from the 1950s through ‘80s, and greatly expanded the company’s range of designs. After being picked up Rei Kawakubo’s Dover Street Market, the company’s knitwear can now be found in almost any major fashion boutique.
The great thing about these sweaters is their three-dimensional quality. Originally designed to protect fishermen from the harsh seas, these knits are made with a unique bobble stitch to help with insulation. That design was born more out of function than fashion, but it’s found favor among non-seafarers for its comfort and aesthetics. These sweaters are nice and stretchy, and although the fabrics feel a little wirey, they’re still reasonably soft to the skin. The beautiful, multi-colored yarns and heavy texture also look great when layered underneath casual outerwear.
This past season’s fall/ winter stock is mostly sold out (though, what’s left is now on sale). Some places are starting to get their new spring/ summer arrivals, however. I favor the colder season’s designs since they’re made from wool, rather than cotton, but if you need something lighter for the warmer months, you can keep an eye out for coming collection. You can find SNS Herning at Mr. Porter, End, East Dane, Unionmade, and kapok.
Odds are that you are not familiar with the name Kari Voutilainen, but let me tell you more about this name you from “the path less traveled”, so to speak. Kari Voutilainen is a highly regarded independent watchmaker, having blazed his own path for several decades now after stints at Parmigiani and the WOSTEP watchmaking school (as both student and instructor). Voutilainen also occasionally works with other brands or independent watchmakers and has collaborated with the likes of Maîtres du Temps (Chapter Three) and MB&F, to name a couple.
His watches are of a traditional style, with immaculate finishing and modest egos — they are some of the finest watches money can buy, for discerning collectors. Voutilainen creations include a the first repeater with a double strike indicating not the more usual quarter-hours but ten-minute intervals (aka, a decimal repeater). He also developed Calibre 28 (Vingt-8) with two escape wheels and direct impulse to the balance, requiring no lubrication, and a tourbillon with detent escapement.
Now, to the objet d’art at hand. This year, he will introduce a new model, the GMR. It is quite simply an irresistible timepiece for lover’s of independent horology.
Voutilainen GMR
Limited edition 12 pieces (total)
39 mm white gold, rose gold, or platinum case
Limited to just 12 pieces, the GMR is based on the Vingt-8 (Twenty-8) chronometer caliber. Crafted in German silver, it is completely designed and handmade in his workshop. Ingeniously, it allows you to adjust the second time zone by the crown, which then advances by jumping an hour each time rather than rotate freely, thus avoiding any loss of accuracy compared to local time. A sapphire crystal caseback provides the opportunity to admire the traditional finishings of the movement and its finishes which include Côtes de Genève and hand chamfering (unfortunately no pics of this yet).
The dial also distills a refined elegance, as we see Voutilainen’s in-house dial making capabilities put to good work in the GMR, notably its distinctive dark green dial with guilloche finish and red accents. The GMT indication is at 6 o’clock, concentrically set just outside of the small seconds subdial (itself with a cubic guilloche finish); at 12 o’clock, the retrograde power reserve indicator. The hands, the dial, the colors, even the applied Romans — exquisite.
The GMR is priced at 118,000 Swiss francs in platinum and 108,000 Swiss francs in gold.
A good example of what you mind find on the road less traveled, if you dare to venture.
As anyone who's made valentines for a whole elementary-school class knows, kids are often pushed into social groups not of their choosing. Scientists tried the same thing with wild birds and found it pretty easy to coax them into new cliques. The birds hung out with their new social circles even when they didn't have to. But once the experiment ended, those friendships dissolved faster than a candy conversation heart.
To create new social groups in birds, researchers essentially controlle
I’ve known Filson bags for quite a few years now, but only got to know the management back in January when I met the President, Gray Madden (above).
The aesthetic of Filson bags has a lot to recommend it, with its rugged mix of bridle leather and heavy canvas. The finish is not as clean as some other canvas/leather bags, such as J Panther, and certainly not in the luxury bracket of Troubadour, Lotuff or the big fashion brands. But they work and age very well.
In fact, that’s probably the biggest reason for including them on Permanent Style: the graceful ageing, backed up by a lifetime guarantee.
Filson regularly repairs bags that come back to it after years of year, with the most common repairs being replaced zips and tears in the canvas, which are vigorously over-stitched. Again, this is a rather rugged finish, but anyone that likes the look of jeans that are well-worn and well-loved will appreciate it.
“It’s one of the advantages to making so much ourselves – 90% is made by us in Seattle or Idaho,” says Madden. “We tend not to repair clothes though, as it’s usually not worth it. Those we usually replace.”
And does he get many people taking advantage of the repair policy – by buying them second-hand and immediately sending them back? “That does happen a bit, yes, but it’s the same work we’re doing to keep a bag going. And you have to accept there will be people who try to take advantage.”
Filson has actually only been making bags for 20 years; the clothes have a much deeper provenance, going back to the Alaskan gold rush in nineteenth century. Today, however, about 60% of the production is bags and accessories.
The standard canvas is a 22oz Millerain twill, and there is also a ‘tin’ cloth that is slightly lighter and waxed to make it more waterproof. The zips are largely YKK and the fittings are treated brass.
The Millerain ages the better of the two – as you can see in the image of the 15-year-old bag above. It’s always nice to have brass hardware as well, although personally I’d prefer one that is allowed to naturally tarnish – it’s just as beautiful as the ageing canvas. (I’m clearly in the minority here though – almost no one does untreated brass on bags any more.)
“One nice thing is we don’t order our zippers pre-cut, which would be easier and cheaper,” comments Madden. “We order the rolls and then cut them ourselves, which takes longer but gives us flexibility in getting the fit right, and makes those repairs easier.”
Filson opened their first store outside the Northwest United States in 2013, on London’s Newburgh Street (just off Carnaby St). It’s worth checking out, particularly for the old Filson luggage that the brand are offering.
Shinola, which is part of the same group as Filson, also just opened across the street, selling its watches and related accessories – and they will be making a Filson range of watches that launches later this year.
As soon as I looked at the sign I burst out laughing. Once I recovered my breath, I had two thoughts:
the typography and design are too neat and professional to have been done by a workaday jobber in Chinese-speaking East Asia
it reminded me of another sign I wrote about recently: "Everywhere, anywhere " (1/29/15)
This kind of sign falls into the category of genuine Chinglish wording picked up by a commercial signmaker for retail, entertainment sale. Indeed, I found the identical sign, the very same photograph as the one pictured above here (4th line).
Signs like these are produced in Australia, but the copy for them comes from all over Chinese-speaking East Asia.
We have a lot more ground to cover, but before going further, it is incumbent upon me to provide the usual Romanization, transcription and translation of the Chinese text:
shīgōng zhōng 施工中 ("under construction")
bù zhǔn shǐyòng 不准使用 ("use not permitted")
Nothing out of the ordinary here.
Now let's take a look at some real examples of this type of sign in use:
This instance has a very Singaporean look to it. Notice that on this one they put a conspicuous comma after the third character and a bold exclamation point at the end. I found it on this linguist's website with detailed analysis of the English and the Chinese. Here (third photograph) it is at an actual erection site, with scaffolding in evidence:
The last two characters have been smudged beyond all recognition, but this copy comes from the same signmaker as the previous one, so in all likelihood the missing characters are shǐyòng 使用 ("use"). Given the situation, however, it would have been better if a version were available that had one of the following pairs of characters at the end:
chuānxíng 穿行 ("pass through")
jīngguò 经过 ("pass over")
jìnrù 进入 ("enter")
rùnèi 入内 ("enter")
Here is a list of twenty things that are not permitted / allowed (bù zhǔn 不准) at construction sites (most of them have to do with rebars).
About five years ago these monolingual safety signs became quite popular when juxtaposed with leering or ecstatic males. A variant, "CAUTION: STEEL ERECTION IN PROGRESS" also appeared.
Once the "Danger! Erection in Progress" sign became a hot item on t-shirts, it went global (things didn't yet go viral so quickly in those days). Somewhere along the way, a clever person thought that the warning would be more explicit if a picture were added. Judging from the precise placement of the X, the humorous intent was probably there from the beginning, even when the bilingual "Erection in Progress" with picture added was used on actual worksites. Normally, signs of interdiction or prohibition consist of a red line surrounding the action or person that is forbidden, with a single, diagonal red line passing through the image or verbal warning.
To make this Language Log post complete, I can't avoid mentioning that "Erection in Progress" / shinkō-chū no senkyo 進行中の選挙 signs have probably been posted more than once at voting stations in Japan.
[Thanks to Fangyi Cheng, Rebecca Fu, and Hiroko Sherry]
My seven year old daughter saw the cover of Rhin's Bastard and asked me “Why does that guy have a horn on his head?” I told her I didn't know. It didn't immediately dawn on my that it could have something to do with Rhin being an “o” short of “rhino” but then again it was the crack of dawn and I wasn't all with it yet. After some listening an explanation could also be because he's horny for riffs and charges hard. Or the rhino thing.
But I'm more stoked about the riffs. The non-stop, heart-racing riffs raining down like a monsoon. Right from the get-go Rhin are all ahead full with the kind of energy that gets you going more effectively than the strongest cup of joe. And with bassist/vocalist Dominic Gianninato screaming his coarse fool head off, it's the sort of thing you just can't ignore.
I've seen their sound referred to as hardcore sludge and I suppose that's true but I'm more likely to describe it as hard rock for the adrenaline junky. “I Want More” fills that hardcore slot with razor-sharp riffing cramming speed down your throat but that's also where you can hear a touch of the Melvins. Follow-up “Man is Bastard” utilizes the same elements.
“Shovel” really brings the sludge heaviness and bruising mentality. Speaking of bruising, drummer Ben Proudman terrorizes his kit. If the skins still had working blood vessels, his would be every shade of black and blue. Not only does he hit VERY hard but he's got groove, man. No where is this more evident than on “Consumed”. It's a slow burner and at over twice the length of any other track it's like the cool down at the end of the workout.
The other band they can be compared to at times is Helmet. “Gravy” and “Bull Doze” are fine examples of that influence with the latter flashing similarly styled riffs and guitarist Tucker Riggleman digging into his inner Page Hamilton for those solos. That's some AA shit right there. As in, Always Approved.
I'm not sure what kind of moonshine they're brewing out in “Ted's Shed” (they are from West Virginia after all) but it's potent enough to cause blindness and is infused with an addicting essence. This may be a bastard but it'll get you up in the morning and keep you going through the night. Rhin are for sure a band to keep an eye on. Brow-beating and slick as silk, Bastard will run you over and back over your shattered bones. And watch out for that horn.
Mastery's first full-length, Valis, doesn't offer an easy entry point. The very first track, "V.A.L.I.S.V.E.S.S.E.L.," opens with what sounds like the soundtrack to a malfunctioning, hellish carnival ride, and after that follows over 17 minutes of delightfully batty, black metal madness. That's not 17 minutes for the whole album, mind you--that's 17 minutes for the first track alone. The lone artist behind Mastery, Ephemeral Domignostika, crams more riffs into this track than most bands have in their entire back catalog. It's breathtakingly weird, but perhaps the weirdest part is that it works.
The promo materials describe Valis as "free jazz black metal twisted and complex," and that's pretty apt. The full album takes you on a journey that appears to be at least in part improvisational. No verses and choruses here, just unrelenting riffage, accompanied by Domignostika's raspy croak. Lucky for us, the riffs themselves are just so damn good. The promo also mentions "unique fingerstyle playing." As a guitarist, I can think of a few things that might mean, technique-wise, but whatever Domignostika is doing, the end result is a fiery playing style that remains remarkably clean sounding in execution.
I think a lot of people, at first listen, will find this music to be off-putting and hard to follow, but I honestly think there's an underlying narrative and structure here that pulls the listener along, even if I'd be hard pressed to articulate it. I do know that, even during the 17 minutes of brutality of that first track, I never once thought, "Where is this going?" Somehow the journey makes sense, even though there's very little in the way of conventional song structure to hang your hat on. Even when the first track abruptly breaks into a lovely acoustic jam at the six-minute mark, accompanied by quiet drumming that sounds like a far-off locomotive--with nothing really like it appearing again on the album--it somehow fits in.
The second and fourth tracks are much shorter than the others, and they mostly feature quiet ambient and electronic sounds. Never have two interludes been so well planned and placed. Breathing room is a must on this album, as the third and fifth tracks of the album are just as perplexing and unrelenting as the first. Interestingly, they both share the first track's density while having their own subtle, interesting character. The third track, "L.O.R.E.S.E.E.K.E.R.," has roughly the same density of restless riffing as the first, but the riffs are less crunchy and growling than the first track. They're generally higher in pitch and a bit more gossamer, if using the word "gossamer" even makes sense for an album as brutal as this. This is a simplistic differentiation, at best, but I think attentive listeners will hear the subtle difference in texture. Domignostika manages the same feat with the album closer, "S.T.A.R.S.E.E.K.E.R.," where the riffs are at their most jagged and twisty. There's even an occasional staccato passage, letting a little air into the wall of sound that's permeated the album so far.
It's possible I was personally more susceptible to this album's charms because of my love of avant garde and free jazz, but I think there's a lot for adventurous metal listeners to dig here. I once heard a quote about how some music teaches you how to listen to it. I kept coming back to that idea with Valis. I'm not sure if the music taught me how to listen to it, of if it just dragged my brain into a dark alley and made me follow along by knife point, but either way, this is a striking piece of art. Iggy Pop once described jazz legend John Coltrane's sound as one that was "hard to get close to." That definitely applies here, but like Coltrane, I think it's worth the effort to get close to Mastery.
I don't know how you can write this entry without referencing that Batman strip, but there you go
“Can you believe they had a character called ‘Beaver Cleaver’ on a wholesome television show?!”
As I self-righteously mocked the naivety of an older generation, it occurred to me that mine also grew up watching a character with a name we’d now consider inappropriate. Andrew Koenig played Richard “Boner” Stabone, best friend to Kirk Cameron’s Mike Seaver, on Growing Pains. Looking at how the show got away with using that nickname offers us a fantastic case study of semantic change.
Boner is attested as early as 1830, when it was used in the UK to refer to body snatchers, but that definition never caught on. Nor did the US definition of boner as a hard-working student—someone who regularly boned up on knowledge.
After the US Civil War, touring minstrel shows became a popular form of entertainment, and a recurring character in these performances was Brudder Bones or Mr. Bones, a slave character played by a white actor in blackface and so named because he carried around bones he used as musical instruments. Mr. Bones was frequently portrayed as a dim-witted buffoon, and “pulling a boner” came to mean “making a mistake,” while “bone-headed” meant “stupid.”
This definition of boner as a blunder or, less frequently, a person responsible for a blunder, persisted even as the word gained a new meaning—the one we’re most familiar with today—that made its way into writing in the 1960s. Interesting that although boner has now become indecorous, its less provocative definition is actually more offensive, in that it was spawned in an era of not-so-casual racism.
A search of the Corpus of Contemporary American English shows that in the mainstream media, the shift from “error” boner to “erection” boner started in the early 1990s, missing Boner’s Growing Pains appearances (1985–1989) by just a couple of years, and really took hold around the mid 1990s.
Some sources had fun with the double entendre as they reported on President Bill Clinton’s “boners,” and by the late 1990s, especially when Viagra was introduced, the “erection” sense of boner had pretty much taken over, with the occasional use of “pull a boner” as a fixed expression. Now boner refers not only literally to erections but also figuratively to obsessions, as in “He has a boner for vintage cars.”
The semantic shift we saw in the 1990s happened quickly—so much so that it’s created a generational divide: many people over 60 will say “What a boner!” to refer to errors or idiots, without erections even crossing their minds (any more than usual). It’s also given us a fun game: interpreting old boner quotes with today’s sensibilities:
“This Government has made about every boner possible.” —Spectator, October 7,1960*
“The chiselers, with no independent means of their own, all made the same boner.” —Jack Lait & Lee Mortimer, USA Confidential, 1952**
“In signing on the dotted line with Florence I had made the boner of a lifetime.” —P.G. Wodehouse, Much Obliged, Jeeves, 1971**
“Lett’s boner helped Miami: If not for Leon Lett’s bonehead play of the year, Miami would have lost its last six games.” —Houston Chronicle, January 9, 1994***
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*From the Oxford English Dictionary
**From Green’s Dictionary of Slang (Thanks to Mister Slang)
***From the Corpus of Contemporary American English
From Earth, the Sun basically looks like a featureless, burning yellow ball — and one that we obviously shouldn't look at directly.
But from its geosynchronous orbit 22,236 miles from Earth, NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory spacecraft has been doing just that. More specifically, SDO has been capturing a highly detailed image of the Sun more than once a second, building up 2,600 terabytes of data.
And now, in celebration of the spacecraft's fifth anniversary in space, NASA has compiled
Jason Carey and Luke Meier from McKenna Long & Aldridge LLP, join host Roger Waldron to discuss the uptick in bid protests and what that means for government and industry.
February 16, 2015
A friend of mine recently scanned these wonderful images from the early days of Esquire. These were originally published in 1934 and ‘35, just a year or two after the magazine’s first issue debuted. You might not be able to tell from the illustrations, but Esquire in those days was a bastion of chest thumping masculinity. They featured a mustachioed cartoon character named “Esky” on their covers, who was often drawn doing macho things such as sailing yachts or diving off cliffs. In the 1940s, they also published pin-ups by Alberto Vargas. Those illustrations were quite scandalous for their time – so scandalous, in fact, that the FDR administration took Esquire to court for distributing “lewd images.” (As you can probably guess, Esquire won on the grounds of free speech).
What’s funny is that – while Esquire has always been a men’s fashion publication – they’ve also always tried to bill themselves as much more. Their initial subtitle was “The Magazine for Men,” and the editors reserved a third of each issue for big name fiction writers such as F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemmingway. As Esquire’s co-founder Arnold Gingrich put it, this was to “sugarcoat the fashion pill.“ “Men,” he said, “would feel a bit sissyish carrying away from a store a magazine that had in it no content whatever than, let us say, a foppish devotion to the subject of clothes.”
Despite not wanting to seem like a sissy clothing magazine, Esquire for many decades was the last word on menswear. They told men what to wear and when to wear it through illustrations such as these. Covert coats with silk foulard mufflers, we’re told, are good for wear in the country, while dark navy double-breasted suits made from hard finished worsteds are perfect for drinking in town clubhouses.
All this was written at a time when there was still such a thing as having proper clothes for certain environments. Outside of weddings and funerals, those norms have mostly disappeared now, but these illustrations remain great if you’re interested in classic men’s style. If you commission things from bespoke tailors, you can use them to drum up ideas for future projects (perhaps be inspired to put that flapped breast pocket on an overcoat). Or you can simply use them to get ideas for how to put things together. Some looks are a bit anachronistic, admittedly, but most are still very wearable. When I saw Will from A Suitable Wardrobe two months ago, he was wearing something similar to what’s seen in the first image below. His brown glen plaid suit had a faint blue overcheck, and it was paired with some brown suede loafers and a grey cashmere rollneck. The combination looked so good that I’ve been eyeing the (more affordable) Geelong version by William Lockie ever since.
The word classic is so abused these days, but it’s nice to see that some style advice from eighty years ago is still useful today.
Glitch aesthetic meets sleight of hand -- or games of chance. Rather good glitch-aesthetic and varied across each card. ($14)
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