Maximilian Schich
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schichmax.bsky.social
Maximilian Schich
@schichmax.bsky.social
2.2K followers 1.8K following 1.4K posts
Professor for #CulturalDataAnalytics at Tallinn University in #Estonia
#complexity #netsci #arthistory #aesthetics
#culturalanalytics #compsocsci #infovis

"My PhD is in Art History" – Dr. Zoidberg

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schichmax.bsky.social
"Pandora's birth, vase image in Oxford"
"Pandora's birth, vase image in Oxford"
January 21, 2026 at 10:25 AM
schichmax.bsky.social
The Onion post suggesting a "Segregation Score" on the Zillow real estate platform looks satirical and funny ...

... until you realize: It's #NotTheOnion but bitter reality. Such data is readily available in the US and used to buy homes, develop effectively segregated services, and to gerrymander.
Screenshot from https://www.city-data.com/#data featuring a drop-down menu to color choropleth maps of city neighborhoods, indicating the % of "races", here exemplified in "Races – White alone (%)" in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul metro area.
January 13, 2026 at 6:57 PM
schichmax.bsky.social
The original paper is much better than the news item:

"Fig. 3: Systems model of sustainable development illustrating the layering, nestedness and key linkages between nature, economy and society."

Hurray!

www.nature.com/articles/s44...
Fig. 3: Systems model of sustainable development illustrating the layering, nestedness and key linkages between nature, economy and society. / The core model is in the center in bold text and arrows: nature forms the foundation, with material contributions (through direct use of NCP (=nature’s contributions to people)) flowing directly into the economy, which generates societal benefits to actors in society. Actors in society hold values that influence the indirect drivers determining how the economy operates, and thus the scope and intensity of direct drivers impacting on nature. The form of the model reinforces concepts of circular economy. The fuller model (normal text, lighter arrows) includes broader values that are poorly addressed in the sustainable development paradigm: intrinsic, non-economic instrumental and relational values, and reciprocity of interactions between people and nature. Source: https://www.nature.com/articles/s44458-025-00009-3
January 8, 2026 at 12:17 PM
schichmax.bsky.social
Fun fact: Classic Venezuelan typewriters have a BS key.

@callingbullshit.bsky.social
Photo of a keyboard of an Olivetti Studio 44 typewriter produced in the 1960s: "Italian-made for the Venezuelan market, this typewriter has currency symbols for bolivares (Bs) as well as dollars or pesos ($), and the necessary keys and diacritical marks for typing in Spanish." Source: https://typewriterdatabase.com/196x-olivetti-studio-44.12441.typewriter
January 3, 2026 at 10:53 PM
schichmax.bsky.social
Brought the original #chocoladehagel from Amsterdam, and now I have to think about #percolation #theory every morning (and #finite #resources). 🤷
De Ruijter Royaal extra puur chocoladehagel on two slices of bread with butter. The bread is whole grain but does not quite live up to Mandelbrot.
December 29, 2025 at 9:37 AM
schichmax.bsky.social
Happy holidays @elisabethbik.bsky.social
Literal "grotesque horror vacui" in the 2025 Oval Office wall decoration at the White House in Washington, DC. Gold ornament, as available via a Chinese mail order retailer, fills all wall space between gold-framed paintings and around a crammed niche where even the crowning conch is decorated with an additional vase. The gold ornament is clearly cut in arbitrary places and recombined without sense for symmetric composition or even asymmetric organic harmony. Green, magenta, and blue box annotations indicate the arbitrary repetitions. Note that the overall grotesque style of wall decoration seems to be inspired by Emperor Nero's original "Domus Aurea" (literally "Golden House"), which was found resembling a vast grotto under the Baths of Trajan besides the Colosseum in Rome, covered by the latter to officially forget Nero the tyrant, who let Rome burn down to the ground. All that said, even Nero would not need additional food or feather to vomit in the face of such a rampant molestation of classical architecture. [PS: Yeah, nobody needs to follow the rules of classical architecture, unless you're a tyrant who literally demand classical style in public buildings].
December 25, 2025 at 8:26 AM
schichmax.bsky.social
Meanwhile, you can experience the full Voyager Golden Record message, including all images and sound recordings at
goldenrecord.org

Enjoy while it lasts!
Image "100. Woman with microscope." in Carl Sagan et al. Voyager Golden Record (1977). [Woman of color in lab coat, headscarf using a microscope, prominently wearing a big golden earring]. Source: https://goldenrecord.org/png/100.png
December 25, 2025 at 4:50 AM
schichmax.bsky.social
In case you would like to see the full message: NASA provides a good making-of documentation of the Golden Voyager Record, yet the agency does not reveal all images on the record to most currently known intelligent beings in the galaxy, citing copyright reasons:
science.nasa.gov/mission/voya...
A woman looking through a binocular microscope performing an "Inspection of the center engraving on the nickel plated mother record" during the production of Sagan et al.: Voyager Golden Record (1977).
December 25, 2025 at 4:50 AM
schichmax.bsky.social
For context, the Voyager Golden Record was a liberal and inclusive product for its time, sent to space in 1977, signed by 94 men and 2 women (Marilyn L. Lloyd & Corinne C. Boggs).

The only other female explicitly mentioned is "Jane Goodall with chimps" in image 60 [captions not sent to space?].
Image "60. Jane Goodall with chimps." in Carl Sagan et al. Voyager Golden Record (1977). [A group of chimps grooming each other in the foreground, observed by Jane Goodall and an assistant operating a camera on a tripod in the background, all within a scene of forest vegetation]. Source: https://goldenrecord.org/png/060.png
December 25, 2025 at 4:50 AM
schichmax.bsky.social
"Hello from the children of planet Earth."

It is a good time to contemplate our nativity diagram in image 52, which we sent to space on the Voyager Golden Record: The gazelle top-middle is a prey animal, ganged up on by two male hunters in images 60 & 61. Woman bystander says hi.

goldenrecord.org
Image "52. Diagram of Vertebrate Evolution." in Carl Sagan et al. Voyager Golden Record (1977). [from bottom to top: a shark, a fish, an amphibian, a frog, a reptile, and in top row from left to right: an eagle, a prey gazelle, a man and a woman, the latter two similar to the Pioneer plaque, but now the women greeting); all figures are given in black outline with sketchy light grey pencil filling]. Source: https://goldenrecord.org/png/052.png
December 25, 2025 at 4:50 AM
schichmax.bsky.social
"PAULUS V BURGHESIUS ROMANUS"

#CounterReformation
The central pediment inscription of New Saint Peter's Basilica in Rome does not mention god, Jesus, or the patron saint, but the name of the grifting nepotist cardinal under which the facade was completed in larger than life letters: "Paul V. Borghese". Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f5/Basilica_di_San_Pietro_in_Vaticano_September_2015-1a.jpg (detail)
December 22, 2025 at 9:58 AM
schichmax.bsky.social
Please behold this classic logo of the Biomolecular Engineering Department at the University of California, Santa Cruz. PS: They sequenced the full genome of the species earlier this year.
A 100x100 pixel logo featuring a banana slug wearing sun glasses while typing on a laptop computer on its lap, set in front of the letters BME.
December 21, 2025 at 12:05 PM
schichmax.bsky.social
US Dept of State "returns" to Times New Roman,
because Calibri is "woke". 😂🎃😱

I once had a 85 year old colleague teaching typography, who told their students: Yes, policy says you must use Times New Roman, but if you hand in your final thesis using it, you have learned nothing in my course.
"Times New Roman is narrow-minded" [Always has been]
December 10, 2025 at 6:52 PM
schichmax.bsky.social
Before people from bright areas look down at shaded areas, one should of course take into account population density, which would reveal that some rural areas, such as the Baltic countries are much brighter than expected.
Density of Population in Europe in a NUTS-3 map with national data from 2017. Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Population_density_by_NUTS_3_region_(2017).svg
December 9, 2025 at 8:35 AM
schichmax.bsky.social
Still amazing: radio.garden

cf.
radio.garden/visit/trevig... 🇮🇹 🎶
radio.garden/listen/kera-... 🇺🇸 🦋 🗣️
radio.garden/listen/radio... 🇦🇹 🇩🇪 🇬🇧 🎶
radio.garden/listen/pidgi... 🇳🇬 🎶
radio.garden/listen/coule... 🇨🇭 🇫🇷 🎶

#Radio #MediaWithoutBorders #UnitedWeStand

🦉 🌎🌍🌎 🌊 🌈 🏄 🎶 🦤

pls reply with your favorites 🧵
Screenshot from https://radio.garden/ showing a minimalist satellite picture background of natural earth, centered on Lake Bolsena north of Rome. A green circle (without cross-hairs) indicates the focus area from which radio stations are received, in this case "Trevignano Romano". Browsing stations via moving on the map is as fluid as a large heavy almost friction-less volume knob on a top tier 1970s radio receiver; fine-tuning is possible via channel selection in the focus area using the intuitive controls in the lower left.
December 7, 2025 at 8:59 AM
schichmax.bsky.social
Had a really good dinner, but then I found Kwame Onwuachi's "My America" in my bookshelf – and now, I can't sleep as it all sounds so delicious (even the simple stuff, such as Garlic Aioli with GGP aka Ginger-Garlic Purée).

Also, just read the foreword! 😍

cf. www.foodandwine.com/chefs/kwame-...
"My America In his latest book, chef Kwame Onwuachi explores the foods, flavors, and family traditions that compose his experience of what it means to be an American. By Kwame Onwuachi Chef Kwame Onwuachi Kwame Onwuachi Kwame Onwuachi is the chef of Tatiana in New York City and competed on Top Chef season 13. In 2019, he was a Food & Wine Best New Chef, the James Beard Foundation's Rising Star Chef of the Year, and Esquire's Chef of the Year. Kwame's the author of Notes from a Young Black Chef and My America: Recipes from a Young Black Chef. Food & Wine's Editorial Guidelines and Joshua David Stein Published on May 17, 2022 Show me an America made of apple pie and hot dogs, baseball and Chevrolet, and I won't recognize it. My America is a country of countless flavors and endless adaptation. The Bronx, where I grew up, contains multitudes: the Jamaicans of Gun Hill Road, where my father, himself half Jamaican and half Nigerian, lives; the West Indians from Wakefield; the Puerto Ricans and Dominicans of the south side, where I lived with my mother and sister; and countless more. With language, music, fashion, and, most importantly, food, they proudly proclaim that though they belong there, they are from elsewhere." Source: https://www.foodandwine.com/chefs/kwame-onwuachi-my-america
November 23, 2025 at 9:33 PM
schichmax.bsky.social
"some reason" probably
Dürer's "Four Books on Human Proportion" (1532/34):
www.themorgan.org/exhibitions/... &
D'Arcy Wentworth Thompson's "On Growth of Form" (1905):
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_Grow...
"Albrecht Dürer's face transforms (1528) were among Thompson's inspirations" Source: Wikipedia "Thompson illustrated the transformation of Argyropelecus olfersi into Sternoptyx diaphana by applying a shear mapping." Source: Wikipedia
November 17, 2025 at 6:43 PM
schichmax.bsky.social
First contact. Can't wait. ❄️🎿
A pair of Season Eqpt Kin_skis on 5mm of snow on Saturday, November 15, 2025 on a Balcony in Tallinn, before the sun burned away the snow again.
November 16, 2025 at 12:46 PM
schichmax.bsky.social
"Der Friedrichsdorfer Bürgermeister Lars Keitel (Grüne) musste handeln."

"'Dass die Verwaltung entschieden hat, ausschließlich weibliche Formen zu verwenden, entspricht nicht der Intention unseres Antrags', sagte Fraktionsvorsitzende Katja Gehrmann."
Der Grüne Lars Keitel [der kleine Drache Grisù] hat das Feuer gelöscht und wird vom CDU Fraktionsvorsitzenden Katja Gehrmann [blonder weisser Mann mit Schnauzer] zurechtgewiesen. [Symbolbild]
October 25, 2025 at 10:31 AM
schichmax.bsky.social
#space program (highly recommended)
Sun Ra – Space is the Place (vinyl record cover) Marshall Allen Presents Sun Ra and his Arkestra – In the Orbit of Ra (vinyl record cover) 'Thesda – Spaced Out (vinyl record cover) Sun Ra – Nucler War (vinyl record cover)
September 17, 2025 at 7:16 PM
schichmax.bsky.social
"Academia" is click-baiting me with an email, claiming my formal interest in architectural motifs is related to recent politics in Hungary and Austria. The algorithm doesn't seem to know me at all (or very well). 👀 🤷 🙃
Email text from "Academia": "You read the paper 'Astragal und Eiförmige Motive auf Stuckdekor der Wandmalerei Sirmiums'. We found a related paper on Academia: 'Soziale Veränderung in der ungarischen und östereichischen Gesellschaft der K(reisky)- und K(ádár)-Ära und Danach' Author Photo Valuch Tibor"
September 17, 2025 at 8:35 AM
schichmax.bsky.social
Had the pleasure to hang out with some old friends last weekend: Laid-back Faun, Grumpy Medusa, and Queen Apollo say hi. The #Glyptothek café (aka the outdoor office) is still accessible for 1 Euro, much like 25 years ago. The double espresso with ice cube is the lazy Italian's Greek frappé.
@schichmax with the Faun Barberini in the Munich Glyptothek. @schichmax with the Medusa Rondanini in the Munich Glyptothek. @schichmax with the Apollo Barberini in the Munich Glyptothek. The Munich Glyptothek courtyard café seen from a table in the corner on a sunny afternoon.
September 14, 2025 at 1:42 PM
schichmax.bsky.social
Forgot to say "Good Morning!" 🙂

☀️💦⛷️ #skiing
Footprints in the morning dew from an intensive "skiing" session on a France Trampoline.
September 5, 2025 at 12:15 PM
schichmax.bsky.social
#Florida verbietet das Tagebuch der Anne Frank!

www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

Wer ist jetzt die #Gesprächspolizei, Herr Scheuer?

cf. www.sueddeutsche.de/bayern/csu-d...
Ein Masskrug als Gastgeschenk: Andreas Scheuer (li.), Dorothee Bär und Florian Hahn (re.) bei Floridas Gouverneur Ron DeSantis. aus: "Scheuer kritisiert die 'grüne Gesprächspolizei'" Süddeutsche Zeitung, 9. Mai 2023. https://www.sueddeutsche.de/bayern/csu-desantis-florida-dienstreise-andreas-scheuer-kritik-1.5846982?reduced=true
August 26, 2025 at 10:15 AM
schichmax.bsky.social
To whoever thought it was entertaining
to build & display a sculpture of the orange fascist turd
at the Munich airport #Lego store,
please know that the unavoidable has happened:
A Lego sculpture of the orange fascist turd in the signature blue suit, red tie, and golden wig, built and displayed by an unknown customer at the Munich airport Lego store, August 21, 2025. The Lego sculpture of the orange fascist turd, built and displayed by an unknown customer at the Munich airport Lego store, now seen from behind after another customer, August 21, 2025. The addition resembles a supportive tree trunk as frequently found in ancient Roman sculpture. At the same time the attribute seems to signify that the orange facist turd was full of shit, took an uncontrolled dump, now resting on his own shit, and is as a consequence is surrounded by shit.
August 22, 2025 at 10:38 AM