Two perplexing roofs, by Kokichi Sugihara of Japan’s Meiji Institute for Advanced Study of Mathematical Sciences.
I suppose these could be designed at scale!
Oddities
The Inquisitive Artist
“Van Gogh Observes” by Joe Fafard. Found outside Mayberry Fine Art in downtown Toronto. from r/Damnthatsinteresting
This sculpture, by Canadian artist Joe Fafard, has been scrutinizing passersby on Dundas Street in Toronto.
The principle is somewhat the same as Binary Arts’ mistrustful dragon.
A Stand of Seats
High Wycombe, a town of furniture makers, historically celebrated important visitors with arches of chairs. The most famous marked the arrival of Prince Edward in 1880; three years earlier a similar arch had arrested Queen Victoria on her way from Windsor Castle to Hughenden to visit Lord Beaconsfield.
“It was made up of chairs of all kinds, and bore the words, ‘Long Live the Queen,'” read the Annual Register. “Her Majesty’s attention was specially attracted by this curious structure, and the Royal carriage was stopped that its occupants might have a better view.”
Irregular
New Zealand woodworker Henk Verhoeff makes whimsically broken furniture.
“It’s hard to say how long each piece takes me,” he says. “It’s unset times during the week, and it could easily be 80 to 100 hours.”
“I started creating them for the pure love of it, without the intention of selling them. But when I run out of space, there will be an eBay auction or two. Everything is for sale … except for my wife.”
His daughter posts photos on Facebook.
Podcast Episode 324: The Bizarre Death of Alfred Loewenstein
In 1928, Belgian financier Alfred Loewenstein fell to his death from a private plane over the English Channel. How it happened has never been explained. In this week’s episode of the Futility Closet podcast, we’ll describe the bizarre incident, which has been called “one of the strangest fatalities in the history of commercial aviation.”
We’ll also consider whether people can be eaten by pythons and puzzle over an enigmatic horseman.
“Sleeping Man a Suicide”
BANGOR, England, August 14. — Evidence that he may have cut his throat while asleep was given at an inquest at Bangor on the body of Thornton Jones, a lawyer. ‘Suicide while temporarily insane,’ was the verdict.
He lived 80 minutes after the infliction of the wound, during which time, it was stated, he cried out to his wife and son, ‘Forgive me! Forgive me!’
Then motioning for a paper and pencil, he wrote: ‘I dreamt that I had done it. I awoke to find it true.’
— Washington D.C. Evening Star, August 14, 1924
MIThenge
Around January 31 and November 11 each year, the setting sun illuminates the “Infinite Corridor,” the 251-meter hallway that runs through five main buildings at MIT.
The hallway isn’t optimally aligned, so the phenomenon lasts only about 2 minutes. MIT maintains a page with predictions, etiquette, background, and more photos.
The Isdal Woman
In November 1970, a man and his daughters came upon the charred remains of a woman in the foothills near Bergen, Norway. Some personal items were nearby, and two suitcases were later found at the railway station, but all identifying marks had been removed from all of these.
An autopsy showed the woman had been incapacitated by phenobarbital and poisoned by carbon monoxide, and she’d consumed 50 to 70 sleeping pills. A notepad found in one of the suitcases suggested that she’d traveled throughout Europe using at least eight false identities. She’d last been seen alive when she’d checked out of her room at the Hotel Hordaheimen two days earlier; she’d paid in cash and requested a taxi. During her stay she’d appeared guarded and kept to her room.
The woman has never been identified. Her death was attributed to the sleeping pills, and she was interred in a Bergen graveyard. A 2017 analysis of her teeth suggested that she’d been born in Germany around 1930 and had perhaps moved to France as a child. In 2005 a resident of Bergen said he’d seen a woman hiking on a hillside outside town five days before the discovery of the body, dressed lightly and followed by two men. She’d seemed about to speak to him but had not. He’d reported the encounter to the police, but no investigation was made.
O Canada
In October, Mason Zeinali bicycled 101 km through downtown Toronto to draw the shape of a moose on Google Earth.
The waterfront segment runs along Lake Shore Boulevard, and the moose’s entire back is one street, Davenport Road.
More details at Cycling Magazine.
The Chrysler Norseman
For Chrysler’s 1957 auto show, designer Virgil Exner prepared a one-of-a-kind prototype: the Norseman, a sleek four-seat fastback coupe with a sloping hood, cantilevered roof, and aerodynamic underbody.
After 15 months’ work, the fully drivable $150,000 concept car missed its shipment date and was put aboard the next available transport.
That was the SS Andrea Doria. The unique prototype was lost in the sinking, and the car was never produced.