404 (13. 388)

Taking up even more bandwidth than the legion of MAGA influencers promoting the East Wing Ballroom and bunker as vital for national security, the resounding attitude that the show must gone on and its best to avert one’s eyes rather than forfeit one’s place at the table that demonstrates the inuring unseriousness of America and its desensitisation to violence, authentic or contrived and willingness to squander diplomatic opportunities in the midst of war, leaving Tehran to negotiate with Moscow and reach a concession to reopen the Strait of Hormuz with no guarantee to halt nuclear enrichment, casus belli, status quo ante bellum, and the German chancellor left to point out the humiliation to a class of students, we have the latest viral conspiracy theory that a time-travelling artificial superintelligence is inserting checkpoints on the internet timeline to warn people about the shooting at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner and forestall other catastrophes to providentially keep Trump in office, now that actual divine intervention has been ruled out following his attacks on the papacy. 404 media co-founder Jason Koebler undertakes a yeoman’s task in trying to offer an explanation for this widely-shared notion that a tweet from 2023 from one Henry Martinez, the name of a co-author from a NASA study conducted while the alleged shooter was fulfilling an internship at the space agency in 2014, somehow shows that AI is trying to retcon the Singularity, Terminator-style. Proponents are saying that the image on the right is a sort of coded magic-eye illusion that foretells of all sorts of events to come (retroactively of course, but the image is not from some shadowy AI free agent called the “Time Machine” but a stock illustration that debuted on Unsplash under the name “Eternal Waterfall” and has been used, like many free graphics, to cross-promote a variety of both innocent and nefarious ideas.

9x9 (13. 382)

aegis: a unique monumental statue of Athena uncovered in western Türkiye (ancient Laodicea) whose breastplate is follows the description of Book VIII of Virgil’s Aeneid  

alien abduction: conspiracy theorists connect spate of missing US nuclear scientists to UFOs—see more  

big tree stories: a hunt for the world’s tallest firs and imagining prehistoric forests studded with such giants—via MetaFilter  

₂he: although the second most abundant element in the Cosmos, the noble gas is hard to come by on Earth—via Web Curios  

frozen conflict: like the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Trump’s war of choice likely to be a simmering, unresolved stalemate 

wishful hinking: an 1987 edition of the Collins Dictionary contains a trap word (see also), presumably to counter plagiarism 

paper theatre: home entertainment flourished during the Regency Period for lack of sufficient live venues  

νεῶν κατάλογος: golden tongued (so they can speak in the afterlife) Roman era mummies found in Egypt’s Minya governorate, whose tomb contains a manuscript of Book II of Homer’s Iliad, the Catalogue of Ships—via Kottke

thank you for your attention in this matter (13. 249)

Though I’d daresay that Americans are not facing a collapse of democratic institutions but already coping—and not so well—with the aftermath, this piece by Timothy Snyder is an important reminder of the fine line between Occam’s and Hanlon’s razors, the latter corollary an adage of Murphy’s Law never to impute malice when incompetence will suffice and how no conspiracy or ravenous opportunism is needed to exploit or manufacture a crisis. All is going according to the lack of planning as an inevitability that makes Iran an willing partner—the assault informed by perhaps the inscrutable foresight of AI which in its twisted logic mistaken for omnipresence to bomb a girls’ school instead of the neighbouring military barracks as or the Golestan palace calculated providence—in igniting the next pretext. Stochastic terror, self-terror visited on the US might not have been the original goal but with America stripped of its defences and checks on power and the endgame already announced with the greater investment in an imperial presidency by court, cabinet and congress only interested in the celebrity and self-enrichment of public office, it does seem inescapable that one sort of domestic attack or another—perhaps on the vast array of outposts that gives the administration reason to abandon its allies—cedes control of the national narrative and allows Trump to cancel elections, having first visited generational trauma on others, with a mass-mediated panic.

culcitology (13.214)

Vis-à-vis the prior post, we thoroughly enjoyed this deep-dive from host Alie Ward that serendipitously was next in my feed on the history and craft of quilting—the study from the Latin for pillows and bedding featuring an expert panel discussing all aspects of textile art from familial traditions and pedagogy, therapeutic aspects, documentation, memorial, encoded messages, politics to protest. The overview of the ethnography of the ungated art and transition from a commercial, male dominated activity to domestic labour and women’s work (see also) and the social movements that grew out of quilting-bees and sewing-circles is particularly fascinating. There’s even a bonus bespoke pattern and a tutorial at the website up top.

best in show (13. 213)

Via the always excellent Everlasting Blört, we learn of the Modern Quilt Guild (see also) of Los Angeles, founded in 2009 and inspired several other chapters internationally, through its annual QuiltCon held every February. Not only does MQC sponsor educational resources and workshops for individual and community projects, they also have a competition for the most inventive patterns in several categories, like the pictured over all winner by Carolyn McKibbin of New Jersey entitled “Mom Jeans”—we’d love to be able to repurpose old textiles like that—and patchwork honourable mention, “Building Barriers,” by Jennifer Candon of Harvard, Massachusetts. More at the links above.

x files (13. 195)

Prompted by a podcast appearance with former President Barak Obama, in which he answered in the affirmative to the question whether aliens exist—keeping in the spirit of the rapid fire round with quick unqualified responses, later explaining in a more nuanced fashion that whilst he was not privy to direct evidence, given the size of the Cosmos and in the fullness of time, it defied logic to think we are alone—Trump replied to reporters that he did not know if aliens were real or not and ordered the Pentagon to release documents related to UFOs—intimating that he might get Obama out of trouble for disclosing classified information. Since the panic over Chinese spy balloons (see previously, see also), the US government has been more forthcoming and indulgent about its knowledge of unidentified aerial phenomena, even holding congressional hearings, but what’s remarkable about this alien autopsy, aside from wanting to undercut and imitate his predecessor, was swiftness and the lack of hesitation of the directive, particularly against the backdrop of the release of the Epstein files (the existence of extraterrestrials and cover-up is course huge if true but an insult to victims and survivors) with the announcement coinciding amazingly with only the third individual associated with Jeffrey Epstein to be arrested, in Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, former Duke of York—with the other two being Epstein himself and Ms Ghislaine Maxwell.  We have reservations about anything substantive or interesting to be disclosed in that latter tranche. 

synchronoptica

one year ago: Instant Karma (with synchronopticæ), un-renaming Fort Bragg plus the Swiss Museum of Transport

twelve years ago: baking traditions and gluten intolerance 

thirteen years ago: food integrity, the Browser, geopolitics and rare-earths plus the dream of home ownership 

fourteen years ago: rationalising the undead 

historjá (13. 189)

Via Everlasting Blört, we are introduced Sámi multimedia artist and designer Britta Margareta Marakatt-Labba through her monumental piece on the history and mythology of Sápmi, the homeland of the indigenous peoples that stretches from Norway to Russia, created between 2003 and 2007. Often drawing comparisons to the Bayeux Tapestry (see also), the twenty-four metre long embroidered textile normal is in residence on the campus of the Univerisity of Trømso but been displayed by several Scandinavian museums and galleries as well as documentca 14 in Kassel. Click through at the link up top for a guided tour with the artist including the time when the tradition of yoiking returned.

hohlerde (13. 138)

Though having a passing familiarity with the esoteric side of the Third Reich, we’re admittedly not tuned into the latest emergent tropes of internet youth culture and were blissfully unaware (here’s a slightly more wholesome alternative in Classical Memes for Hellenistic teens) that there has been a revival of late of Heinrich Himmler’s and other occultists’ preoccupation with Aryan exceptionalism and privileging their ancestry (see also) as semi-divine and separate from others with the lost civilisation called Agartha.  This supposed subterranean realm in the hollow Earth is not seeped in tradition,but rather a new invention by a French fiction writer and colonial officer invented more than a century-and-a-half ago, articulated over several iterations from the original fantasy as a land of advanced races borrowing elements of Atlantis and Lemuria to practitioners of Theosophy believing it to be the domain of the ascendant masters to an Aryan mainstay and propaganda. Typical memes deal with Ancient Alien tropes and feature celebrities and though leaders coded as Nordic and those sharing, if confronted, will say its all in jest and that anyone pointing out the historical context obliviously can’t take a joke, which is a common tactic, like the various trial balloons to stoke outrage, deflect, gaslight and push tolerance, for Nazi boosterism and the vicious cycle behind it.

the adjustment bureau (13. 116)

Far from the Hollywood image of sleek undercover agents keeping the general public in the dark about extraterrestrial congress, the circumstances that informed the movie version of the men in black, whilst sharing some elements, is a complete apotheosis of the film franchise with all the existential terror of having one’s memories wiped and sense of place in the Cosmos inverted from one moment to the next. Herbert Hopkins, a doctor and hypnotherapist working in Maine was approached by a representative of the New Jersey chapter of the UFO Research Organisation one evening in September of 1976 to act as a consultant on an alleged case of serial abductions. As soon as he accepted the commission, however, a figure appeared at Hopkins’ doorstep. A finely appointed man in a black suit, though seeming less elegant and more like an undertaker, doffed his hat to reveal a colourless pate and began discussing the case—Hopkins inviting the stranger inside, reasoning in his shocked state that this was the same individual from the institute several states away that he had been talking to over the phone a few moments beforehand. Addressing the reports of abduction, lost time and teleportation, the figure retrieve a pair of coins from his pocket and placed one in Hopkins’ hand, instructing him to focus on it. It flickered in and out of existence and gradually disappeared. The strange visitor then told him, “Neither you nor anyone else on this planet will see that coin again. Shaken by this encounter, Hopkins immediately declined the request for help and destroyed what evidence and personal research he had thus far collected. A spate of similar threats on witnesses and investigators reportedly occurred throughout the year. More from Dangerous Minds at the link up top.

engine, engine forty-nine (13. 014)

Finding some needed solace in the writings of Thomas Pynchon during the rise of MAGAists’ conspiracy theories in the figure of Oepida Maas, a sort of anti-John Galt, Better Living through Beowulf, now has to question like the protagonist of their own sanity whilst weaving together a plot that beggars belief, which seems a bit rudimentary in comparison to Trump’s own arc of narrative. The paranoia of The Crying of Lot 49 has a veneer of truth (see above) and so does the career-trajectory of Trump, framed as agent Krasnov, promulgated as a successful businessman now beholden to organised crime with a litany of knock-on events that lead to our present conundrum, whose nomenclature matches with Genghis Coen, Mike Falloopian, Mucho Maas (the heroine’s DJ husband) and Dr Hilarius with corresponding real-life characters unmatched nearly six decades on with corresponding Dickensian-named figures like heroes Reality Winner and villains Laura Loomer, Elon Musk or Reince Priebus and the White House lawn used as a venue for a wrestling match plus a list of dozens of other things not on ones bingo card for 2025.

exit through the gift shop (13. 013)

Via MetaFilter—and wishing we’d known about it sooner, we really enjoyed this assortment of holiday offerings from the Heritage Trust operated system of museums and historical sites, including an array of Christmas jumpers (read ugly sweaters, I suppose, like this one from the transportation authority with their range of mass transit and roundels) and tree ornaments inspired by their properties and collections. We’ll need to bookmark this for next year and really liked the nautical-engineering contribution for Brunel and the chessman bauble.

as a student of history, many were written directly by the president himself (13. 012)

Dubbed the walk of fame, the colonnade of the White House communicating between the executive residence and West Wing and passing the paved-over rose garden, designed by Trump in September, inspired by a similar concept he’d seen whilst staying at a hotel, was finished recently with the gallery open to inspection by visitors and journalists with the addition of bronze plaques, reportedly dictated by the US president, reflecting his personal and political assessments of predecessors. Barack Obama is captioned as one of the most divisive political figures in US history with his “unaffordable” care act, accession to the Paris Climate accords, personal responsibility for the spread of the ISIS caliphate and repeats the conspiracy theories that he was spying on Trump’s campaign through the microwave; though credited with the establishment of the Department of Homeland Security, George W Bush is criticised for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan; Clinton’s includes blaming Republicans to the legislative success of his agenda and mentions Hillary’s lost to Trump; and Reagan’s entry, full of praise, cites that he was a fan of “President Donald J Trump” long before his political career began. The most vitriol is directed to Joe Biden, repeating claims of a stolen election and labelling him as the worst president in history, replete with exclamation marks.

10x10 (12. 973)

no time for dancing or lovey-dovey: David Byrne’s ensemble Tiny Desk concert—see previously  

bathing beauties: the nautical folk art of Kyler Martz—via Messy Nessy Chic  

ac/dc: the unlikely friendship of Mark Twain and Nikola Tesla 

warrior ethos: the Canadian publisher of the beloved children’s book series Franklin the Turtle strongly objects to US Secretary of War’s depiction of him firing on boats of supposed narco-terrorists 

the downfall of joann: the US craft and hobby economy ruined by private equity—via MetaFilter—see previously  

steerage: turned upside down, this grainy photograph of a third-class cabin appears to expand into a grand stateroom  

not even a squib of an entry: a steeple chase of an etymological mystery that may have arisen out of a case of mis-division—see also 

exalting the beauty of an overcast sky: Luke Howard (previously) on cloud-modification and his correspondence with Goethe  

nuns on the run: a rebel sisterhood who escaped from a nursing home to return to their abandoned convent refuse to give up their social media accounts as it would deprive them from the protection of an interested public 

chanson pour tout le monde: “Song for the Children” was by Jimmy Buffet, released on his 1979 album Volcano

9x9 (12. 962)

content without context: think twice before making that AI generated video—especially featuring a cameo of yourself 

things that aren’t doing the thing: anticipation is not the same as execution 

dead wood: the evolution, anatomy and biological system of our tree friends  

lightbox: TIME magazine’s photos of the year  

inbox: a clever way of researching and processing the tranches of email released by the Epstein estate with an interface that’s like going through one’s own account from Like Igel and Riley Walz (previously)—via Web Curios  

traceroute: an overview of how the series of tubes work 

the dog’s pyjamas: dressing up canines has a longer history than one might expect—via Strange Company  

never break the chain: streaks are important motivators and one should pair new habits and practise with “micro-versions” to avoid feeling derailed 

$spsc: Trump’s World Liberty Financial (see previously) promotes another shock token as a legitimate store of wealth

synchronoptica

one year ago: assorted links to revisit (with synchronopticæ) plus the discovery of the first pulsar (1967)

fourteen years ago: sociologist Jürgen Habermas on post-democratic Europe 

fifteen years ago: more flea market finds plus security theatre and a crackdown on counterfeits 

9x9 (12. 953)

architectural digest: a guided two-hour walking tour of New York City’s most iconic buildings  

1999 a.d.: a paleo-future vision from 1967 that asks if the cusp year will be too computerised, too cold  

shinbun: a hypnotic, phrenetic collage of Japanese newspaper clippings from 1991 to the present—see also  

meet the aphantasics: more on those who don’t form mental images 

i wool survive: a flock of ostracised gay rams from Germany have a haute-couture debut on a Manhattan catwalk  

electric pentacle: the occult detective Thomas Carnacki created by William Hope Hodgson who despite his supernatural inclinations has a skeptical side and is unafraid to use nascent technology as his red-herring or MacGuffin 

doge: the US Department of Government Efficiency quietly closed down 

field-expedient gadgets: preparing meals in maximum security plus other prison inventions  

diorama: Theria Sofia reworks Polly Pocket sets—originally fashioned from a makeup compact as a toy

9x9 (12. 865)

amor fati: Fredrich Nietzsche’s philosophy (previously) of passing on engagement can break the cycle of polarisation without becoming disengaged and nihilistic 

the memes of production: the internet reacts to Zohran Mamdani’s mayorial win in New York City  

unpaving paradise: an urban greening game to optimise replacing parking spaces in Berlin with trees  

№: why number is English is abbreviated n-o 

no springs: a hypnotic video of manufacturing robots politely waiting their turn in the assembly process—see also  

alive internet theory: a seance with the vibrant web and all its expressive artefacts against the countervailing argument it has become overrun by bots—see also—via Waxy 

gathering wool: online apparel retailers in China employ oversized hangtags to curb high return rates  

hatch act violation: US federal judge rules administration overstepped its bounds by inserting partisan blaming into furloughed government employees’ out-of-office autoreplies  

bleak outlook: astronomical survey deposits galaxy could be riddled with the artefacts of long dead alien civilisations that could avoid destroying themselves—we suppose that depends on what sort of religion they develop—see also, see previously—via MetaFilter

synchronoptica

one year ago: a monument to the Armenian diaspora (with synchronopticæ), the Carrington count, backstage customs plus US presidential numbering

fourteen years ago: food and drink prohibited plus Inventors’ Day

little big town (12. 863)

Though a bit of an inconvenience to have to go into the next bigger Marktstadt outside of the village for any kind of shopping, it always pays off in spades, by sheer dint of concentration of attractions there and spots for a nice wander, even on a foggy day: 

Ostheim vor der Rhön has the Altstadt lining the main road with several mills, manors, breweries and bottlers and fortified church, an organ museum and manufacturer and a castle ruin with tower above—plus a lot more. We had visited the ensemble of Celtic hill graves (Hügelgraben) right down the road from the grocery store several times but hadn’t before now hiked up to the top which hosts a model aircraft runway—opposite the higher summit that has a glider Flügplatz—see also. 

The grove of maples at the top of the hill is known as the Sporkhöhe and has a monument dedicated to silk merchant Kaspar Friedrich Sporck. A native of Ostheim and having learned the art of passementerie—elaborate braidwork trimmings for clothing and furnishings—from his father, made a sizeable fortune in Rouen. Sporck married his business partner Marie Catherine Leprince and remained in France, although visiting his hometown nearly every year, always bringing remittances for support of the poor. 

The couple passing away at an advanced age in the early 1890s, they established a philanthropic foundation (Stiftung) for the town, underwriting an elementary school, the general welfare of the town and a hospital, then hosted in the Gothic Schloß Hanstein, presently the organ museum from above.

8x8 (12. 862)

rat-race: a cartoon about the frenetic pursuit of happiness—at least from a merchant’s perspective 

close encounters: a 1976 meta-analysis of the surnames of UFO abductees—see also  

caleb weatherbee: venerable Farmers’ Almanac to be discontinued after a two hundred eight year run—see also  

endtimers: Artificial General Intelligence and the Singularity just around the corner has many manic street preachers, cult members and historic antecedents 

lost arcade: an archive conserving unreleased and cancelled video games since 1999, including source code and emulators, see also here, here and here—via Web Curios  

mckinsey in a box: pretty convincing AI-generated consultancy slop with an instant Power Point presentation for the business of one’s choosing  

fringe theory: more examples of the conspiratorial narrative trope—see previously—via MetaFilter 

au 8ème jour: a 3-D animated short illustrating the thread of life in a unique stop-motion, felted style

synchronoptica

one year ago: Trump’s transition team (with synchronopticæ) plus assorted links to revisit

thirteen years ago: the history of the boardgame Monopoly, transportation infrastructure plus a premium spoon rest

fourteen years ago: the Aeneid as an economic allegory plus contention over a Russian gas pipeline to Western Europe 

fifteen years ago: US-EU trade policy 

hassock (12. 810)

Via the latest link round-up (all on the theme of needlework and knitting) by fellow internet peripatetic Messy Nessy Chic, we are referred to this cosy archive of embroidered kneeling cushionssourced from the pews of various congregations around Cornwall.

Inspired by a visit to the parish church of Saint Breage (a nun and missionary under Saint Brigid) and surrounding villages and noticing the tuffets—genuflexoria, the collection records not only Bible stories and local legends but also instil a sense of community featuring details about the lives of parishioners. We wonder if there’s a scramble as services begin to claim one’s favourite—kneelers a sixteenth century invention as genuflecting was not part of the liturgy, spurred on by the Protestant Reformation and calls for regular and permanent furnishings, until then but until the mid-twentieth century it was common practise in Anglican churches to rent pews to seatholders, raising money for the diocese and as a show of social standing when on one’s knees.

synchronoptica

one year ago: pivotal tech year 2004 (with synchronopticæ), a method for guaranteeing equal chance and distribution, a West German crime drama plus a rare Mac Tonight clip emerges

seventeen years ago: returning from a trip to Ireland 

biobed (12. 765)

Without even deference to Star Trek sick bay or Elyseium (where zero-gravity nanobots can somehow fix all ailments and injuries unavailable to the Earth bound poors), huckster Trump‘s latest grift is touting miraculous medbed technology somehow kept from the public by liberal billionaires. If such sci-fi ideas did exist, I should imagine that the president would not look like death warmed over nor would he be willing to share with his base of useful idiots. This scam is brought to the American people who also promoted that COVID was caused by 5G cellular masts and that vaccines, masks and social distancing was counterproductive and is a distraction, like the assault on acetaminophen to blame victims, when what remains of US health care is completely hollowed out by removing more subsidies, restricting access to community and preventative medicine and lack of competent staff with hundreds of thousand dollar visas needed for each foreign nurse and doctor.