This Is Lacquer Like You’ve Never Seen It | Mine Tanigawa’s Japanese Urushi Sculptures

YouTube description:

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This film follows her meticulous process – from watercolour sketches and digital refinement to the careful layering, curing, and polishing of lacquer. 

Her work captures urushi in motion, expressing its fluid nature through forms inspired by flowing water, drifting clouds, and the landscapes of southern Kyoto.

We also visit Tsutsumi Asakichi Urushi, a traditional lacquer supplier, to see how raw sap is refined, coloured, and prepared using time-honoured techniques and machinery.

Once limited to just five natural colours, modern urushi now offers a rich palette, yet remains deeply rooted in tradition. 

Each sculpture takes around three months to complete, with countless layers, polishing stages, and precise environmental control required to achieve its flawless finish.

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See this piece in the "Urushi Now: Contemporary Japanese Lacaquer" display at the V&A South Kensington in London until April 30, 2027.

BeyondTheMedspeak: Door Gym

I have long believed that gravity is, in the end, the thing that brings us down.

Now, prolonged periods of weightlessness are no one's best friend: witness the state of astronauts and cosmonauts when first they return to Earth after sustained periods in orbit — they need to be carried from their spacecraft, so weak have they become as a result of the absence of gravity to work against.

The inexorable pull towards the center of the planet from the moment we stop growing, allowing that downward movement to proceed unopposed, causes all sorts of havoc.

Pinched nerves, the result of narrowing of the outlets between the bones of the spine wherein lie the motor and sensory conduits of motion and sensation, are a result of gravity.

The first line of treatment is thus to open up those narrowed channels: traction — stretching the spine so as to elongate it — is successful in a surprisingly large percentage of cases involving the cervical (neck) vertebrae.

I speak from personal experience: I had a terrible cervical disc problem about 15 years ago.

I could not sleep, I could not think straight, the dull, throbbing pain and ache were 24/7.

Medications left me woozy.

My hand was numb and weak which meant the clock was ticking: after a certain period of time nerve damage is permanent.

Surgery to relieve the nerve compression (it was at C3/C4 on the right, if you must know) seemed imminent.

I visited Dr. John Jane, the chairman of Neurological Surgery at UVA Medical School.

He examined me, told me what I had, sent me for an MRI to confirm it (which it did) and prescribed cervical over–the–door traction, four times a day, 15 minutes per session.

Long story short: you buy a kit at CVS or wherever containing a big plastic bag, a rope, a harness for your chin and head, and a pulley that rests on top of a door.

You fill the bag with 20 pounds of water (there's a red line that indicates that amount as well as lesser volumes), put the harness under your chin and skull, sit down in a chair, and let the weight — via the rope and pulley — exert a steady pull upward under your head.

That's it.

Nothing happened until about the fourth day, when I suddenly noticed that the pain seemed less intense while I was sitting there.

And it stayed diminished after I was done.

With each subsequent session it got better.

After another week or so the pain and ache were gone and strength started to return to my hand.

I asked Dr. Jane how something so simple could have so profound an effect.

He told me that nerve compression — or its absence — is a matter of fractions of a millimeter: the tolerances at the level of function vs. pathology are that critical.

Stretching the spine just enough to open up that tight space just the tiniest amount was enough to relieve the problem and allow healing.

Which brings us all the way back around to the door gym (above and below).

I don't use mine to do pull–ups: rather, I simply dangle from it for 5–10 seconds whenever I'm nearby.

It feels great and I believe it provides relief from the day–long assault of gravity on the spine and the rest of the body.

I have one upstairs and one downstairs.

I'm 5'9" tall and the bar itself is 6'4" above the floor so I can't fully extend when I dangle: I try to let my spine and shoulders and hips get as loose as I can, then bend my knees so my feet just touch the floor while I hang there.

So pleasant and, I believe, good for things that don't yet — and who knows, may never — ail you.

From a number of websites:

The Door Gym mounts in one second in your doorway, making pull–ups possible

• No fasteners required

• The simple device uses the weight of your body leveraged against the door frame and requires that you have a doorway with trim

• When used properly it will not damage doorway and can be installed and removed in 1 second.

• You can also do deep push-ups with the Door Gym by placing it on the floor

Door Gym door size requirements:

• Face molding around door: minimum 1-1/2" — maximum 3-1/2"

• Molding distance from wall: minimum 1/4" — maximum 3/4"

• Wall thickness: minimum 4-1/4" - maximum 6-1/4" (trim to trim)

• The Door Gym has been designed to fit residential (framed) wooden doorways 24" to 32" and support up to 300 lbs.

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An excellent investment in terms of cost vs. potential benefits.

$34.99.

Spy thrillers and phones

As I watched the 2022 five-episode British spy thriller series "Treason" on Netflix, a clue phone of sorts started ringing in my pea brain.

Without phones the whole thing would collapse.

Every couple minutes someone picks up their phone to send a message/receive one/make a call/receive one/track someone's location/listen to what surreptitious recording devices are picking up/watch live or recorded security camera footage etc.

How did it happen that there were great spy thrillers* long before mobile phones?

One more thing: the cast of "Treason" is excellent with one exception: the lead actor, Charlie Cox [above in the thumbnail], is completely miscast: he's a total lightweight and in no way, shape, or form plausible as assistant chief and then C at MI6.

He looks and acts more like the towel guy at a fitness gym.

Wait a sec — what's that song I'm hearing?

*"The Third Man," starring Orson Welles, Joseph Cotten, Alida Valli, and Trevor Howard, directed by Carol Reed with a screenplay written by Graham Greene,  premiered in 1949.

One iPhone Stand To Rule Them All

I bought this accessory many years ago and it's still as effective as it was the day it arrived.

No flaws: it's perfect, a beautiful piece of industrial design.

Heavy steel base keeps it rock steady; easy to adjust precisely to hold your phone firmly with and without a case without marring it.

Instantly and smoothly moves from portrait to landscape.

It's a pleasure to interact with this tool because it's so well designed.

$54.99-$69.99 depending on finish and color.

On the fence? Watch

the video.

Just published: A biography of my sensational calico cat VANTA

This new novel was published last month.

Copies will go fast so don't dally: get yours here.

More VANTA?

Your wish is my demand.

WikiArquitectura

"The world's largest architecture encyclopedia."

Search by Buildings/Architects/Places/Dates/Typologies.

Fair warning....

Wait a sec — what's that song I'm hearing?

Underwater Volcano Eruption in the Solomon Islands

YouTube description: "We went on an expedition to capture Kavachi — one of the world's most active underwater volcanoes — erupting beneath the Pacific Ocean in the remote Solomon Islands."

"Steam explosions, sulfur-rich plumes, and superheated sea water collide in one of the most extreme environmments on our planet."

All possible love to Perplexity Pro

Above, what no amount of time over the past few years spent asking Apple Support how to sync my MacBook's Chrome bookmarks with Chrome on my iPhone could achieve: simple, understandable instructions that worked!

The more I use Perplexity (Pro costs $17/month and works on both phone and computer) the more I appreciate it, as it takes what used to be endless deadening iterations of Google Search and compresses them into nearly instantaneous answers that far surpass Google's results, in terms of precisely addressing the question asked and providing clickable sources and references.

You can talk to it and it's like talking to a person who's smarter than all the people you'll ever know — combined.

It responds in a manner indistinguishable from a real person using your choice of voices.

I've even had long conversations — 30-40 minutes — while out running: nice change from hearing the same old songs for the zillionth time.

I'm learning a lot about the Roman emperors that we didn't cover in high school Latin.

But I digress.

Just as Google Search seemed magical in its early days, so does this AI now.

Lagniappe: The phone bookmarks even have the favicons present on my computer!

Is my blue your blue?

Find out here.

Quantum Superposition Made Simple

"Said the Queen, 'When I was your age, sometimes I believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast!'" — "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland," Lewis Carroll (1865)

The Rolling Stones Recording of 'Beggars Banquet'

Blast from the Past: Coca-Cola BlāK

On Monday, April 3, 2006, Coca-Cola introduced Coca-Cola BlāK, "a carbonated 'coffee-essence' drink."

It came in glass bottles like the one pictured up top; 45 calories/8 oz serving; a middling amount of caffeine (46 mg/8 oz compared with classic Coke's 23 mg and coffee's 80 mg).

Wait a sec — what's that song I'm hearing?

8 Things I've Done Once That I'll Never Do Again

1. Ride in a helicopter

2. Ride on the back of a motorcycle

3. Ride Space Mountain at Disney World

4. Ride a Ferris wheel

5. Run the New York City Marathon

6. Set a brand-new pickup truck on fire*

7. Trek to an altitude of 18,000 feet in the Himalayas

8. Eat durian

Wait a sec —what's that song I'm hearing? 

*Age 12 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin; I was trying to smoke some ham in the glove box and the wiring caught fire and suddenly I was running for my life!

Eye Contact with a Humpback Whale

Wrote Kottke:

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I've never seen anything like these photos before.

In October 2024, underwater photographer Rachel Moore had a close encounter with a humpback whale in French Polynesia and took these photos of the whale's eye.

She wrote of the experience: "This moment of eye contact was beyond my wildest dreams. I've never encountered a whale like this one, and it was the most profoundly beautiful experience of my life."

Joist Hanger

Clever.

Also called rafter hooks, these steel grippers have red rubberized plastic handles that let you easily attach or release them from wood joists, beams, rafters, and wall studs of up to 1-5/8" thickness and static loads up to 80 lbs. in your garage, basement, attic, etc.

• 7"H x 3.5"W

• No moving parts

• Easy to attach or remove

• No tools or fasteners required

• Hang a rod with two joist hangers: instant closet

• Black powder-coated finish for both indoor and outdoor use

• The heavier the weight attached, the more tightly the hangers grip

• For bicycles, garden tools, hoses, extension cords, paint cans, lawnchairs, holiday decorations, fishing gear, pool equipment, luggage, toys, etc.

Set of 4: $10.

How Homer's 'Iliad' May Have Sounded to its First Listeners

YouTube description:

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The famous Iliad was composed by Homer or unknown author(s) (800-700 BCE) and was likely orally transmitted before being standardized in the contemporaneously developing Greek script [Robert L. Fowler 2004]. The Iliad by Homer is the oldest European poetic and liturgical tradition, and has been significant in historical linguistics for its striking similarities with the Rigveda of Ancient India and the Gathas of Ancient Persia [John J. Lowe 2015]. 

 This recitation of the Iliad Book 1:1–27 with pitch accents and dactylic hexameter in Homeric Greek is an original reconstruction of ‪@perquunos‬​ which synthesized comparative and diachronic analyses of morphophonetic developments in attested Ancient Greek dialects and reconstructable Proto-Hellenic and Proto-Indo-European stages of the language. 

 The digamma Ϝ/ϝ is reconstructable intervocalically, word-initially and finally but never in clusters with the yod /j/, whereof assimilation yields in geminated /jj/. E.g. PIE *h₃éwi- → PH *hówi- + *ōnós = *owjōnós → PG *ojjōnós → HG ojjōnós (not ojwōnós or owjōnós); PIE *diwjós → PH *dijjós → HG dĩjjos (not dī̃wos!). Additionally, digamma Ϝ/ϝ is not reconstructable where it breaks the meter and when the etymology does not require a digamma reconstruction.

 The phonetic value of Zeta ζ is debated but is metrically always a cluster in Homeric Greek, and is result of PIE *j in certain clusters, e.g., PIE djḗws → PH dzews → HG dzews; PIE h₁jeǵjómh₁nos → PH hjədzómɘnos → HG hadzómenos.

 The following phonetic values are reconstructable for each Greek character: υ = [ʊ]; ῡ = [uː]; η = [ɜː] ~ [æː]; ω = [ɔː] ~ [ɒː]; ϝ = [w]; j = [j]; ζ = [dz]. 

 This recitation uses four pitch accents namely the acute ά (high), the circumflex ᾶ (falling), the unaccented α (medium) and the grave ὰ (low).

 English Translation is from Anthony S. Kline, William Cowper, Robert Fagles and Augustus T. Murray.

Joanna Stern's great iPhone hack

Joanna Stern was a personal technology columnist for the Wall Street Journal for nearly thirteen years until she dropped the safety net this past February and went out on her own with her new website/newsletter, "NEW THINGS WITH JOANNA STERN."

I immediately subscribed — I mean, it's free, the way we like it! — and happened on a wonderful tech tip toward the end:

"On the iPhone, you can hold the spacebar and it functions as cursor control."

It's TechnoDolt©®™ friendly and it works!

This hack makes it much easier finding the exact spot you want to correct spelling/punctuation/grammar/syntax/whatever before you send out an email or text that makes you look stupid.

Wait a sec — what's that song I'm hearing?

Caramel Corn Throwdown

I got a caramel corn jones recently and after having Perplexity Pro look into brands and reviews, I chose 5 to try out: 3 widely available (i.e. on Amazon with free shipping) and 2 "boutique" brands — Carroll's Caramel Corn and Berco's Popcorn — sold only by their makers and requiring additional shipping charges.

Below are my ratings, best to worse, along with prices:

1. Werther's Original Caramel Popcorn — $13.00 for 10 oz [$1.30/oz]

2. Popcornopolis Caramel Corn — $6.99 for 9.5 oz [$0.74/oz]

3. Carroll's Caramel Corn — (many large multiple-kernel clusters which I found annoying) $5 for 8 oz [$0.63/oz; additional cost for shipping]

4. Cretors Caramel Corn (huge chunks encompassing multiple pieces required significant physical force to break them down into edible sizes) — $9.99 for 8 oz [$1.25/oz]

5. Berco's Popcorn [self-proclaimed "Best Caramel Corn Ever," it has by far the most expensive and elegant packaging of them all] (same flaw as Cretor's but also way too much caramel; the only brand of the five with old maids (8 in one 8 oz bag!) — $20 for 32 oz — [$0.63/oz; additional cost for shipping] 

Price/oz is proportional to quality with the exception of Cretor's, the second most expensive brand, which came in next to last.

Bottom line: After considering the not-insubstantial additional shipping costs for Carroll's and Berco's — as well as the fact that they were slowest to arrive compared to Amazon — I'm going with Werther's and Popcornopolis.

'La Cara Oculta' — The Hidden Face

I happened on this 2011 Spanish film while browsing the zillions of films under various "If you liked that, you might like these" headings that Netflix/Prime Video/AppleTV/etc. now feature.

You could spend your whole evening just virtually wandering through all those TV movie and show listings.

Anyway, I added the movie to "My Stuff" and decided to have a look last night.

One great thing about streaming is that you don't feel obliged to sit there and watch the whole thing like in the old days when you bought a ticket at the theater and paid $5 for a box of Whoppers guaranteed to make you wish you'd instead bought Raisinets or Nonpareils (oops, I'm dating myself).

Even if you paid to rent the film, it's not all that painful to abandon it after 10-15 minutes when you're sitting at home all comfy, because you can just go back into the listings and try something else.

Long story short: I rented "The Hidden Face" on Prime Video for $3.99 (same price on YouTube) and it turned out to be very good.

In Spanish with English subtitles, featuring three excellent Spanish actors none of whom I'd ever seen nor heard of and — bonus: 97 minutes long!

The joy when movies are around an hour and half long compared to the increasingly common drawn out contemporary releases that go over two hours, sometimes over two and a half hours... get an editor!

How to hack a missing K2r Spot Lifter plastic nozzle: use one from a can of SURE deodorant!

I couldn't find my can of K2r spot lifter (I hadn't used it in many years) so I bought a new one: I was shocked at the price ($20.25) because I vaguely remembered it was less than half that when I bought the now-missing can.

"New Larger Size - Better Value" — who cares when you only use it every 10 years or so?

But I digress.

I read the directions:

"Shake can well. Hold upright - do not invert - Spray 6-8 inches from spot. Depress button fully for 1-2 seconds."

OK then, all set. 

I took the item (top) with the spots I was trying to eradicate — a white terry cloth bathrobe one of whose sleeves I inadvertently dragged through something yellow which didn't come out in the wash — outside 'cause I remember this stuff is irritating when inhaled.

I shook the can as directed, removed the plastic soft-bristled top that you use to brush away the dried K2r powder after 10 minutes, and was dismayed to see there was no plastic nozzle to depress, just a slender short plastic stem on which the outward-facing spray nozzle was supposed to rest.

What?

Did I somehow knock off the nozzle while unboxing the can?

Or was the nozzle missing before I received it?

Arrggghhhh.

Time to move to Plan B, which you will recall from an earlier post can be stated as "Solve the problem with what's in the room."

In this case I moved to the laundry room where I keep all my spray cans. 

I rummaged through them all, uncapping them to see if I could find one whose plastic nozzle could successfully substitute for my missing original.

The SURE deodorant nozzle came closest, though it didn't sit securely atop the plastic thingie on the K2r can.

I was so fired up I didn't bother putting on disposable latex gloves though I was sure... the less than ideal fit would result in spray going everywhere.

As any fool can plainly see in the video up top: my kludge worked!

'Coyote vs. Acme' is finally getting released

Warner Bros.’ bizarre 2023 decision to shelve its live-action/animated film, Coyote vs. Acme, sparked outrage both in the industry and among fans online. But the film is finally being released, and Ketchup Entertainment, its new distributor, recently released the trailer. All I can say after watching that trailer is, what the heck was Warner Bros. even thinking? Granted, a killer trailer doesn’t automatically mean it’s a great film, but all the winning elements are here.

The concept alone is sheer brilliance: Wile E. Coyote, after decades of ACME equipment failing him in his efforts to catch that darned Road Runner, decides to sue the corporation. It’s based on a well-known satirical piece by Ian Frazier (also titled “Coyote vs. Acme”) published in The New Yorker in 1990. Development of a film version didn’t start until 2018, but some pretty talented people worked on the script, including James Gunn. Big stars signed on for the main cast, and the film was completed and slated for release in July 2023.

Then Warner Bros. changed its mind and scheduled Barbie in that slot. Now, Barbie is a brilliant film, and that decision gave us the summer of “Barbenheimer,” so it’s hard to argue with the marketing strategy there. But rather than simply rescheduling Coyote vs. Acme, the studio canceled it to take a tax write-off. (The same fate befell two other Warner films, Batgirl and Scoob! Holiday Haunt.)

The collective outrage caused the studio to waver and allow the filmmakers to shop Coyote vs. Acme to other studios. Netflix, Amazon, and Paramount all submitted bids, and Warner Bros. turned them down because they didn’t meet its $75–$80 million price range. Co-star Will Forte even released a statement in February 2024, admitting that, without having seen the final cut, he’d just assumed “this thing must be a hunk a junk. But then I saw it. And it’s incredible!” Eventually, Warner Bros. sold the rights to Ketchup Entertainment for $50 million — less than their original asking price. But I’m not gonna quibble, because at long last, everyone will have the chance to see the film.

Per the official premise:

......................................

After decades of being blown to bits by bombs, demolished by dynamite, mangled by magnets, battered by boulders, trampled by trains, tricked by tunnels, sprung by springs, steamrolled by steamrollers, maligned by misfires, bedeviled by bungees, rattled by rockets, backstabbed by bat suits, rocked by rocket skates, upended by unicycles, quaked by quake pills, rubberized by rogue bands, and hurled headlong off every cliff in the Southwest, Wile E. Coyote (Genius) finally fights back. Teaming up with billboard accident lawyer Kevin Avery (Will Forte), he takes on slick corporate counsel Buddy Crane (John Cena) and ACME, Inc., the profit-obsessed conglomerate behind every one of the Coyote’s chaotic catastrophes.

.....................................

In addition to Forte and Cena, the cast includes Lana Condor as Kevin’s niece, Paige Avery; P.J. Byrne as ACME lawyer Bill Pellicano; and Luis Guzman as the judge presiding over the trial. Director Dave Green even tapped longtime voice actor Eric Bauza — a longtime fixture for Looney Tunes — to voice several classic characters, including Tweety Bird, Daffy Duck, Bugs Bunny, and Foghorn Leghorn. 

Coyote vs. Acme finally (finally!) hits theaters on August 28, 2026. We can’t wait.

[via Ars Technica]

New Optical Chip Can Project Video the Size of a Grain of Sand

Above, a roughly 125-micrometer (1/8 mm)-wide image of the Mona Lisa projected by a new MEMS array designed to steer lasers for a quantum computer.

The MEMS array (below) 

is a 1-square-millimeter photonic chip.

Full IEEE Spectrum story here.

BeyondTheMedspeak: Why your joints sound like Rice Krispies

"The human body's 'joint music' is a natural, normal thing."

So says Susan Saliba, a professor in the University of Virginia's School of Education and Human Development and co-director of the Exercise and Sports Injury Laboratory.

More:

Q. What makes your joints crackle, crinkle, and clatter?

A. There are two causes of snapping and popping. 

One is like cracking your knuckles. There are microscopic gas bubbles within the synovial/joint fluid, and when the joint is 'distracted,' the suction creates a negative pressure, and the gas bubbles consolidate and 'pop.'"

Lots of joints pop. Often, it relieves pain and pressure around a joint temporarily. If you've ever baked a cake, you gently slam the pan to consolidate and pop the gas bubbles to make the cake smooth, a process called cavitation. Cavitation in the joint takes pressure away from joint receptors, and almost immediately there is a sense of relief.

The second cause of joint noise is friction. We're designed to have bursae — synovial fluid-filled sacs — over bony projections to allow gliding and sliding. But just like a blister, frictional overuse makes the structure produce more fluid, and sprains and strains make tendons and bursae swell.

We may feel the friction but we keep going, and the bursa swells, and now there's limited space. It may not hurt after it heals, but the clicking and popping often remain.

Q. If you have osteoarthritis, should you keep exercising?

A. Osteoarthritis is not a reason to stop moving. It's a reason to get moving, or keep moving, so that overall health is maintained and the joint fluid can do its job to reduce friction and provide nutrition to the surfaces.

Often, we're told to pay attention to pain and avoid it, so many people just shut down. This approach can result in a devastating loss of motion, pain, less mobility, worsening strength, poorer health as a result of decreased mobility, and weight gain. Millions of people are in this situation, and general health decline is often associated with this cascade of events.

Q. Are there specific exercises or programs that help keep joint flexible?

A. Anything you like. Yoga, walking, hiking, swimming: movement is fundamental. 

Specific directed exercise, biomechanical evaluation, and coaching help guide a person through recovery from an injury. Athletic trainers and physical therapists are skilled at this and can suggest modifications that are well tolerated and will help restore joint fluid.

Even if movement doesn't prolong your life, it will definitely improve its quality.

Strangeness — John Koethe

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Constant readers will recall last month's appearance of Elizabeth Jacobson's 2025 poem "Quantum Foam."

I knew I'd seen a poem by John Koethe also invoking that foam but couldn't think of the title, so I had my Crack Research Team©®™ (I know I haven't referred to them in a while but I'll save that back story for another post) drill down.

Above, their excellent find.

Koethe's poem originally appeared in the May 8, 2000 issue of the New Yorker.

Amazon Reviews FTW!

Since forever I've read Amazon reviews of products I'm thinking of buying.

They can be very amusing, surprising, and/or informative.

The ones with photos submitted by the reviewer are the most entertaining.

Usually they're variations on a FAIL! theme.

Then there are those mildly critical, like the one pictured up top.

Full disclosure: I bought one of these jar openers from Amazon in 2022 — a month before Jay published his review — and it's fo shizzle, works great, besides being a beautiful piece of industrial design which is said by the manufacturer to have "... not changed in 75 years."

The diameter of mine is 4-7/8", exactly that of reviewer Jay's.

You can too!

$13.49.

More?

Your wish is my demand.

View the original 1941 patent and learn more on the company website.