-Via David Thompson, Cristobal Vila and Infinite Patterns. Speaking of connecting geometry, (N)ature and architecture, a reader links to Penrose tiles.
There’s good discussion of the Alhambra at the Infinite Patterns link; which contains wonderful and intricate tilework (including and aside from the important Moorish influence, I just want to remind that the Spaniards are among the best visual artists in the world ((El Greco, Goya, Velazquez, Picasso)).
Imagine yourself high above Grenada, a hot summer day winding-down. Your feet are tired. Your back aches and the straps on your bag, where they meet your shirt, even they are covered in sweat.
Evening breezes cause the trees to rustle on the surrounding hillside. This is worth it. This must be why I came. The sun’s light reflects off a thin, now visible, moon. The sky is deepening to dusk; a royal blue. There are a few traces of snow up in the Sierra Nevada. Is that the smell of oranges on the air? Roses? Jasmine?
Is this real?
Other links:
-Christopher Caldwell from August 15th on ‘Why Hasn’t Brexit Happened‘ (Will it happen by October 31st, 2019?).
What if you just kept going, out into space?
-Via kottke.org via Vimeo, a composite of photographs depicting ESA’s Rosetta’s hard-landing on comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. I play it without the music.
-A pancake-shaped object, traveling for eons through interstellar space, likely becomes coated with regolith. Where did it come from? Probably some other solar system, ejected during planetary formation, long ago. How long has it been out there? A long, long time.
An uncoventional theory is floated. For a brief time, available evidence supports that this could be a light-sail on a reconnaissance mission; some kind of non-self-replicating von Neumann probe. It’s a clever bit of science, really, and couldn’t we send out light sails in a bottle, pushed from our shore?
Statistically such a thing is unlikely, and intuitively, many sense that such a thing is statistically unlikely, but it manages to arouse public interest and excitement.
What are you doing with your hope?
Farewell, Oumuamua, we hardly knew ye. The object accelerates, outgassing a bit as it leaves (on its sunward side), fading back into a deeper darkness.
How many of these things are out there?