N.N. Scott

@nnscott

Archives and Records, Chicagoland. Inappropriately esoteric interests. "A chimera bombinating in a vacuum is, nowadays, only too capable of producing secondary causes." -- Rudyard Kipling, 1905

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N.N. Scott@nnscott· Jul 15

I am not ashamed that I immediately went to this wiki to learn more about the new Copilot assistant character "Mico" who hasn't been seen much since users deluged forums with posts calling it The Cumsquirt. Almost no info available; was disappoint

On October 23, 2025, Microsoft announced major changes to Copilot, which include the introduction of Mico, an assistant character that acts similarly to Microsoft's old assistant character Clippy.

Image of Mico, affectionately known as "the cumsquirt" under the headline "Microsoft Copilot now has a face"

N.N. Scott@nnscott· Jul 13

Come on, no one's ever going to guess 1902

Frame from Georges Méliès 1902 motion picture "A Trip to the Moon" showing the iconic image of the man in the moon with the space capsule lodged in his eye, flanked by the gun that shot it, some dancing girls and a soldier.

N.N. Scott@nnscott· Jul 12

Issuing correction

Notice reading "This article was corrected on 24 July 2023. The number of atoms in the sun is 10 (superscript) 57, not 1057 as previously stated"

N.N. Scott@nnscott· Jul 12

Fragment of a portrait bust of Marcus Aurelius, in the Louvre

photograph of a broken fragment of a portrait sculpture of a bearded man, including his mouth, nose and one eye, which seems to regard the world with a weary, detached expression.

N.N. Scott@nnscott· Jul 12

"Is it loathing of the thought that this evil Mein Kampf theory, this vulgar violence, may triumph...? Or does my depression come from the fact that I have no power and so little influence? That my lack of combative instincts make me merely write comments upon statesmanship without being able to influence or grasp it?”
-- Harold Nicholson, in a diary entry, December 29, 1938

N.N. Scott@nnscott· Jul 12

My best hibiscus flower tea recipe, so far:
• Two chunky handfuls of dried whole hibiscus flowers (calyxes)
• A few fresh mint leaves, chopped up
• Half a teaspoon ground cinnamon
• A hunk of common fresh ginger with the bark peeled off, grated
• Sweetener – I use some no-calorie junk from Costco, but whatever

• Boil about eight cups of water and pour it over the above. Let it sit about three minutes, no more than five. Pour it through a strainer into a pitcher about half full of ice cubes.

N.N. Scott@nnscott· Jul 11

Good morning from the Field Museum, Chicago, circa 1900

black and white photograph of a concrete columned building of vaguely Greek Classical design in the distance, isolated on barren land at the Chicago lakeshore, with some railway trains in the foreground.

N.N. Scott@nnscott· Jul 9

The 1965 version: "Even my DOG has gone commercial!"

Frame from the TV show "A Charlie Brown Christmas" showing Snoopy decorating his dog house with lights to win a contest, while Charlie Brown laments the materialism that infects the holy season

N.N. Scott@nnscott· Jul 6

"The Good Place" meme of Chidi saying "You do see how that's worse, right?"

N.N. Scott@nnscott· Jul 5

He looked OK when he was younger

N.N. Scott@nnscott· Jul 5

Good morning it's Sunday, July 5, 2026

N.N. Scott@nnscott· Jul 4

Flag, by Jasper Johns, 1955. In the Museum of Modern Art, New York

Photo of Jasper Johns' 48-star American flag (painted 1954-55) in the Museum of Modern Art, New York. An American flag painted in encaustic over a collage of found papers, newsprint and the like on panel, the stars and color areas crisply ruled, but with brush strokes and color variations visible throughout.

N.N. Scott@nnscott· Jul 4

“United States! The ages plead, --
Present and Past in under-song, --
Go put your creed into your deed,
Nor speak with double tongue.

For sea and land don’t understand,
Nor skies without a frown,
See rights for which the one hand fights
By the other cloven down.”

-- Ralph W. Emerson, 1857

N.N. Scott@nnscott· Jul 3

“Nothing’s good, the news is bad
The heat goes on and it drives you mad
Scornful thoughts that fly your way
You can’t turn away
‘cause there’s nothing more to say…”
-- Eric Woolfson & Alan Parsons, 1980

N.N. Scott@nnscott· Jul 3

“My architects, forsaking me,
Submit designs for a bombproof mansion;
My scholars of the fourth dimension
Complain they starve to death in three;
My correspondents write all day
The business of the enemy.”
-- Stanley Kunitz, 1944

N.N. Scott@nnscott· Jul 2

We've returned to the days when if you want a portrait it had to be hand-painted, and realism wasn't the objective

Stiff, detailed but wooden and non-realistic portrait painting of an unidentified upper-class lady wearing fancy clothes and a huge ruff, by George Gower, done circa 1598.

N.N. Scott@nnscott· Jul 2

Never underestimate the powers of the cat

2019 meme image of a cat that has managed to lie across the top of a flat panel TV, with two legs dangling over the screen

N.N. Scott@nnscott· Jul 1

"It is written here that the lot of man is pitiful, since the odds are against him, and he can command the success he deserves only if an infinite number of circumstances work in his favor, and existence shows no trace of such a bias."
-- Rebecca West, 1940

N.N. Scott@nnscott· Jun 30

"From time to time, however, a librarian remarks a solitary child, still of tender years, who wanders from the children's room and at last deserts it entirely. Such a child eventually discovers, on some low but obscure shelf, The Book of Gold. You have never seen this book, and you will never see it, being past the age at which it is met."
"It must be very beautiful," I said.
"It is indeed...”
-- Gene Wolfe, 1980

N.N. Scott@nnscott· Jun 29

"And if, in his time, he added materially to the lists of inmates in various asylums and almshouses, it must be acknowledged that he bore his victims no malice, and that on every Sunday morning he confessed himself to be a miserable sinner, in a voice that was perfectly audible three pews off."
-- James Branch Cabell, 1909

N.N. Scott@nnscott· Jun 29

Computer, enhance

Same scene, cropped to focus on a lifeguard seated on a high chair, wearing a hoodie, looking out across the empty water

N.N. Scott@nnscott· Jun 29

Problems are temporary. Lake is eternal.

Lake Michigan on a cloudy day, a mostly empty beach with no swimmers, seen from the bluffs above, framed by trees

N.N. Scott@nnscott· Jun 24

I found the Law Dork statement and the WaPo article it refers to: www.washingtonpost.com/style/2026/0...

A little past 1:00 a.m. Saturday, a much-rumored tarp began being affixed to the top of the scaffolding and the mood among the dedicated crew that remained — still well over 100 people — shifted yet again, as cries of “Cover up!” and “Traitors!” rung out. Over the course of the next hour, the white tarp was extended to cover all of the scaffolding — and all of Trump’s name.

By 4:00 a.m., reporters still on site confirmed by looking along the wall beside the edge of the tarp that the name was down — and Beatty was there to declare victory.

As the sun came up, Cooper granted the extension, and, before noon, DOJ certified compliance — with a new Floca declaration.

N.N. Scott@nnscott· Jun 23

A photo I took of his commemorative statue in Manchester

A bronze statue of Alan Turing, depicted wearing a business suit, seated on a bronze park bench, holding an apple in his right hand.

The plaque at Turing's statue which reads "Alan Mathison Turing 1912-1954 - Father of Computer Science, Mathematician, Logician, Wartime Codebreaker, Victim of Prejudice"

N.N. Scott@nnscott· Jun 21

A woman in a brown jacket is looking at Hokusai's "Great Wave Off Kanagawa" (actually a print, not a painting, but oh well). The photo is taken from so far back that the art work itself is almost unrecognizably small.

N.N. Scott@nnscott· Jun 21

I honored the perfect weather today with a long ride through the forests and wetlands around scenic -- and apparently rather underpopulated -- Grayslake, Illinois. Beautiful all the way.

The Metra station at Grayslake, Illinois, a small building with a flag

View over bike handlebars, of a plank roadway diminishing ahead across a wetland thick with reeds.

View over bike handlebars, of a trail junction amid small trees, grass and flowers, with a log fence nearby

View across a broad wetland, partly open water and partly reeds, toward distant trees under partly cloudy sky

N.N. Scott@nnscott· Jun 21

Kowloon Illegal City for the win

Aerial view of the Kowloon Illegal city, an extremely dense mass of buildings on a compact area of land

N.N. Scott@nnscott· Jun 20

I used to work in the building next to the LBJ library. It was explicitly designed to be a flashy backdrop for his funeral. In line with your point, people there would joke that the fountain was supposed to represent the "Masculinity of Lyndon Johnson."

Photo of the Johnson library with its fountain, a single tall jet of water rising from a large circular basin amid a grassy lawn

N.N. Scott@nnscott· Jun 19

Apropos of nothing, if anyone ITT does visit Mt. Rushmore, take advantage of that fact that in summer they open it at 5:00 a.m. and go then. You'll have the place almost to yourself, in awesome silence broken by an occasional bird cry, and can watch the sunrise reflected on the sculptures.

Mount Rushmore at dawn, the sunlight reflecting on the faces of the Presidents

N.N. Scott@nnscott· Jun 19