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 

prosopagnosia (13. 194)

Scoring the average ourselves and not much better than chance, we found this research project from the British Journal of Psychology and the University of New South Wales, pitting control participants with verified super-recognisers, we found some upbuilding ironies—via MetaFilter—to the self-selecting experiment to identify authentic human faces among AI-generated ones. First there was some gatekeeping to take put with a series of CAPTCHA verifications to prove one is a human by identifying traffic features to covertly train autonomous vehicles, and then, I wanted to repeat the trial to test my own biases, wondering if I was giving women and non-white presenting personae (a rejection of the Mar-a-Lago look to embrace our faults and asymmetries) pass or whether I was actually detecting certain tells. Glancingly as profile pictures or avatars, we wouldn’t have questioned the authenticity of any of these and erring on the side of voting human versus depersonalising is much preferable to being deemed a composite image but were nonetheless disturbingly off-putting judgments to make and revealing the tells only will make the masquerade harder to detect.

untamed (13. 193)

As part three of an equine series for Spring Festival, we learn about Przewalski’s horse—

ᠲᠠᠬᠢ

, тахь (pronounced like “taxi”) also called the Dzungarian horse, and named after the celebrated Russian explorer Nikolay Przhevalsky who was the first Westerner to travel through Bod and Amdo (now the autonomous regions of Tibet and Northern Xinjiang Uygur) and contributed substantially to European knowledge of Central Asian flora and fauna and geography—the truly wild horses in the world, American mustangs and Australian brumbies are the feral descendants of domesticated animals. Once considered extinct outside of captivity this rare and endangered breed with a complex social hierarchy has been reintroduced successfully back to the steppes of Mongolia and China in a concerted campaign that has spanned four decades. More from Sixth Tone at the link above.

synchronopticon

one year ago: rooting out non-existent fraud (with synchronopticæ), assorted links to revisit plus King Trump

fifteen years ago: a visit to Berlin 

the power of the people is stronger than the people in power (13. 192)

As we are informed by MetaFilter, for Ash Wednesday, Irish band U2 released a surprise extended play collection of six tracks called Days of Ash—their first recording since 2017 originally planned for later this year but decided that they couldn’t wait as the songs were growing more and more impatient and urgent by the day. The below lead is dedicated to Renée Good and the resistance of Minneapolis and others deal with the conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza, also paying tribute to Iranian teenager Sarina Esmailzadeh killed during protests and Palestinian activist Awdah Hathaleen. Postcards from the present moment, the album reaffirms the group’s political boldness and combines biblical allegory with partisan messaging. “The Tears of Things” and “Yours Eternally” was especially powerful.

8x8 (13.191)

sandboxels: a fun construction simulation with hundreds elements and building materials from Neil Agarwal—see previously, see also  

tax-payer funded settlement: Trump is suing the US government for billions  

innermost ward: a 3D reconstruction of the thousand year history of the Tower of London—via MetaFilter   

pantone 222: test one’s memory for colour—via Miss Cellania  

shallow fakes: historic image manipulation—see also  

canary wharf: a visit to the impounding station of the West India docks 

forbidden paradise: as Trump renews threats on the Chagos deal, a look at the mysterious atoll—see previously, via Damn Interesting  

a sense of getting closer: a music video by Max Cooper and Conner Griffin about spectacle that isn’t inspired

htlm goodies (13. 190)

Honestly, we haven’t been motivated to overhaul our little spot on the internet for quite some time—and still have no intention of changing the format, except for maybe making it easier to swat away annoying ads or getting rid of the clutter altogether, since the passing of the era of hypertext mark-up language and still maintaining that obituary is very premature and the pivot towards hierarchical widgets and and features reliant on the longevity of whatever new hotness is dominating coding at the moment.

we blog about at PfRC.

Hover to Reveal

Though we had varying levels of success with these templates—assuredly due to this site’s own frankenstein formatting of keyframes and dividers, for the first time in a long time, courtesy of Quantum of Sollazzo, in this catalogue of very good components that are purely HTML and don’t depend on a non-native source. As said, not all features worked as expected—particularly liking the comparison slider and the masonry grid for images and some of the text effects, WSIWYG on the phone but not on the laptop, and while there’s somewhat of a vibe coding vibe to these plug-and-play applications, some assembly is required.

synchronoptica

one year ago: a landmark nuclear disarmament protest (with synchronopticæ) plus assorted links to revisit

thirteen years ago: a proposed Robin Hood tax on financial transactions 

fourteen years ago: Faschings customs 

sixteen years ago: a Greek bailout 

seventeen years ago: home improvement 

 

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.

9x9 (13. 188)

all lawful uses: Pentagon labels Anthropic AI a supply-chain risk for refusing to activate Skynet  

digital humanities: platforms, ethnographically, can only deliver two out of the three trilemmas  

skimo: newest Olympic sport combines uphill and downhill action 

⻢: etymologies of the year of the Fire Horse—more here 

rainbow push coalition: tributes for Jesse Jackson (RIP)  

the great breath: Christian Waller’s theosophical fairy tales 

sơng: author Ocean Vuong is suspiciously talented as a photographer as well  

project cardinal: turnaround management, corporate restructuring codenames and other euphemisms 

most energy storage solutions: inspired by DNA, a liquid forming molecular bonds can hold potential heat for months until it’s needed

synchronoptica

one year ago: protests against DOGE (with synchronopticæ) plus European emergency summit convened immediately following the Munich Security Conference

thirteen years ago: regional franchises plus more former enclaves and exclaves

fourteen years ago: the neocolonialism of finance 

fifteen years ago: academic dishonesty in the German government 

sixteen years ago: upcoming trips