internet explorers club | sounds, sulphur, and secrets (oh my!)

The Internet has been doing pretty well the past few days, and as a result I’ve been completely drawn in to quite a few things, so here goes!

The Atlantic looked into mapping the acoustics of ancient Byzantine churches to better understand the music of the era. The project alone is great, but the implications are incredibly far-reaching:

“So you can take chanters with the original [Byzantine] era music and put them in a studio that has no acoustics,” Kyriakakis said. “They can sing a chant, and then we can process it ... and all of the sudden we have performances happening in medieval structures. It’s like time travel to me.”

That piece references Emily Thompson’s work at creating a sound map of 1920s-30s New York City which is just a delight to explore.

For a chaser, an article on 1930s matchbook design, which is far more complex than I ever would have imagined, with printing on the matches themselves, to peek-a-boo windows and more:

Scientists have discovered how to better predict rogue waves, and have now gotten to the point where they can predict when one will form 2-3 minutes before it does!

Gorgeous photos from Reuben Wu of the liquid sulphur from the Kawah Ijen crater that burns blue. The story behind the photos is a bit terrifying (the lake is hydrochloric acid, the fumes are toxic!) but the result is incredible:

As someone that last week had her plans to travel downtown from the UWS to Chelsea stymied by MTA track work, I was fascinated by this piece in New York Magazine about how a mechanical failure at Union Square cascaded into the longest continuous delay the MTA has ever experienced.

Finally, there have been quite a few pieces popping up around the rise and fall of The Latitude Society, a secret society in San Francisco. It begins with a member inviting you with a card that asks for absolute discretion, and you go through a series of Myst / Sleep No More experiences to enter, including showing up at unmarked buildings, crawling through spaces into a small library, and wandering around San Francisco, following spray painted symbols and messages. The creator shut it down entirely last Fall, which means that former members are now coming out into the open. I’m not sure exactly what the purpose was (besides joining a secret society) but the pieces are a fascinating peek into what happened.

Today in Miniature: Miniature cinder blocks and bricks to build with. Miniature tools to admire.

Etcetera: Chihuahua or Muffin?
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emilyhummel.com | @hummeline