Friday, October 25, 2024

Hey, welcome back to Wolmania. I have some interesting things for you this week, if I do say so myself. For example: do you know about how they painted stripes on boats in the early 20th century?

Item 1: a link

The 99% Invisible podcast recently released an episode comprising several old pieces on the general theme of "designs meant to fool you". The episode's sections were all rescored, remastered, updated, etc., which is all well and good - but the important thing is that one of them is about razzle dazzle. I'll let you listen to the podcast (or just check it out on Wikipedia), but the basic idea is that regular camouflage doesn't work out on open water, so during WWI (and for a while after) they started painting boats with these fun patterns to befuddle those wishing to shoot torpedoes at them, because the geometric mess made it difficult to estimate the ship's speed and direction. Or maybe they just wanted to spice things up a bit?

It's kind of weird to listen to a podcast about a visual phenomenon so I would suggest that you also look at all the photos on the podcast's website - in particular, don't miss the "Dazzle-inspired bathing suits".

Item 2: a list

Beatles Albums, Ranked:

1. The Beatles (The White Album) (November 22, 1968)
2. Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (June 2, 1967)
3. Abbey Road (September 26, 1969)
4. Let It Be (May 8, 1970)
5. Rubber Soul (December 3, 1965)
6. Magical Mystery Tour (December 8, 1967)
7. Revolver (August 5, 1966)
8. Help! (August 6, 1965)
9. Please Please Me (March 22, 1963)
10. With The Beatles (November 22, 1963)
11. A Hard Day's Night (July 10, 1964)
12. Beatles For Sale (November 4, 1964)
13. Yellow Submarine (January 17, 1969)

Item 3: a media recommendation

I already recommended that podcast, but I guess I'll give you something else...

Item 4: word of the week

Sough

It's peaceful out here. If you really focus, on a quiet day you can hear the gentle breeze soughing through the field of Sale Advertising 18 Foot Tall Inflatable Tube Man Guy Replacement Body ONLY Promotion Flailing Air Powered Waving Puppet, Red Sale Car Lot Dealerships.

Item 5: a photograph

See ya!

Thanks for reading. See you next week.