day two hundred six (13. 840)

US troops completes its withdrawal of troops from Iraq after two decades. Frustrated that the White House press pool isn’t covering his daily activities non-stop, the American president has launched Trump TV, whilst tax-payer funded propaganda spots are aired on commercial networks, justified as public service announcements. Hegseth announces a further twenty percent reduction in generals and admirals. US tariffs on Canadian exports go into effect. Settlers attack villagers, burn homes in the occupied West Bank and IDF planes continue the bombardment of souther Lebanon. US fuel economy standards are considerably relaxed, in hopes of making new automobiles cheaper, more expensive to operate.

synchronoptica

one year ago: the Chicago Tribute switches to standard spellings (with synchronoptica) plus more adventures in the Alsace

two years ago: sea birds in a hurricane plus a Schoolhouse Rock!-style explainer for Project 2025  

three years ago: another fiscal cliff edge for the US 

four years ago: the Mayak disaster (1957) 

five years ago: assorted links to revisit

six years ago: Star Trek tarot,  the Feast of the Archangels, the cartoons of R Cobb plus more links to revisit

seven years ago: more Theremin maestros plus more Middle English vulgarities

eight years ago: the Munich Agreement (1938) plus the Suprematism movement

 

day two hundred five (13. 839)

Iran denies a role in the apparent plot to bomb an airbase in England. Indirect talks between Washington and Tehran continue in New York via Qatari mediators with both sides rejecting reports of compromise—Iran not pausing its nuclear programme and the US not offering sanction relief. The Supreme Leader issues a statement reasserting that Iran is the sole custodian of the Strait of Hormuz. A comprehensive framework for the withdrawal of Israeli forces from southern Lebanon stalls at the American department of state, whilst US senator Bernie Sanders calls for an end of military aid to Israel following the state banned Arab parties from elections, disenfranchising Palestinians and leaving them not representation in the Knesset. Netanyahu holds secret meetings with the United Arab Emirates. Russia strikes Ukraine Academy of Sciences as ten-thousand North Korean troops prepare to mobilise. Ebola cases surpass eight thousand in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Europe braces for the next energy shock as fuel prices continue to climb and the US diesel export ban looms. OpenAI scraps the release of its latest frontier model over safety concerns.

copyfight (13. 838)

Under the aegis of IP—intellectual property—the three prongs that activists rally against in terms of ownership over subscription and right-to-repair movements and portability of profiles of copyright, trademarks and patents with their attendant clauses and legal contours are radically different from one another—stemming from US policy with global export and consequence. Enshrined in the American constitution, copyright is only joined with the right to bear arms as the foundational provisos that the framers thought justified an explanation other than “self-evident,” with the latter being a for the sake of maintaining a well regulated Militia and the former being to promote the Progress of Science and the useful Arts and thus incentivise creative works, situationally and not in perpetuity no matter licensors might take issue. Trademarks, in contrast, were established as a form of consumer protection—enabling a company to sue competitors on behalf of customers for engaging in infringement on their brand, counterfeiting and deceptive marketing, but with the disarming disclaimers and eventual expiration of copyrights, forwarded so long as the company and product are in existence. Patents, in turn, are a sort of hybrid embracing the best and the worst parts of the bargain between society and the inventor, the limited period of exclusivity in exchange for making it public but with the same spirit of litigiousness to enforce patent rights. Those who best know the precise distinctions leverage this ambiguity against customers and competitors whom don’t understand these limits to advance their extractive models, playing champions of the public domain and open-source against one another. More from Cory Doctrow’s Pluralistic at the link above.

synchronoptica

one year ago: a return to Riquewihr (with synchronoptica) plus Trump hocks medical biobeds

two years ago: ranking the gods, Chilean Antarctica plus more brief papacies 

three years ago: the Sycamore Gap Tree is no more 

four years ago: assorted links to revisit plus St Leoba

five years ago:  your daily demon: Halphas plus more links to enjoy

six years ago: Pope John Paul I plus Trump’s taxes

seven years ago: hitchhiking returns to Brussels 

eight years ago: William the Conqueror crosses the Channel (1066) plus the #MeToo movement

 

day two hundred four (13. 837)

Israeli attacks on Gaza intensify as settlers again storm the Al-Aqsa mosque complex in occupied East Jerusalem. Trump’s Board of Peace excludes UNRWA from participation in any future rebuilding plans for Palestine, fulfilling a long-standing demand from Tel Aviv as the country’s far-right finance minister calls for all out war in the West Bank. Following Trump’s rejection of Tehran’s roadmap to reopen the Strait of Hormuz in seven days if Washington honours their promises and continues negotiations in good faith and awaiting reports from intermediaries rather than the American president’s verdict for an official response, Iran is securing alternative overland trade routes with Türkiye and through the Caspian Sea on its northern border. Renewed military action seems a distinct possibility, an inevitably as the US naval blockade of Iranian ports continue and the Islamic Republic claim the seizure of an American autonomous submarine. Five individuals are apprehended plotting a suspected terror attack on RAF Fairford, which hosts US airforce bombers engaged with attacking Iran—Tehran already citing third-country cooperatives as legitimate targets.

9x9 (13. 836)

cyberselfish: Paulina Borsook’s 2000 book about the libertarian, uncharitable culture of high tech is back in print after a reevaluation of its foresight 

the full english: breaches of British etiquette no one will ever call you out for transgressing—via Nag on the Lake  

el niño: the coming weather pattern, climatologist predict, will be the most powerful in recorded history  

familect: jargon and running-jokes only understood within one’s extended household—what are some of your examples? 

i want an explanation—why is there a child on the bridge: the series finale of the 80s sitcom Webster had a cross-over with Star Trek: TNG—see also   

artist’s bigature: Grace Baldwin’s larger-than-life junk drawer  

deliquesce: of a solid structure or lattice, to melt or dissolve by absorbing moisture from the atmosphere—like exposed salts or wilting mushrooms  

nor’easter: powerful, unseasonably early storm slams eastern seaboard  

symphonie magnétophonique: a profile of Else Marie Pade, the first Danish composer of electronic and concrete music

the great canon of yongle (13. 835)

Commissioned by the Yongle Emperor, the third ruler of the Ming Dynasty circa 1403, the ambitious scope and size made it the largest general encyclopaedia in the world (technical a leishu—類書, literally a category book, a genre of East Asian reference materials different from the modern concept and more akin to anthologies though containing the same comprehensive, encyclopaedic knowledge) despite there only four hundred extant volumes, a small percentage of the original eleven thousand, until surpassed by Wikipedia in 2007. Over one hundred elite scholars versed in all subjects, poetry, literature, philosophy, arts and the natural sciences were recruited for the project, mostly written by manuscript though printing technology already existed at the time of its publication in 1408, the emperor so pleased with the finished product, he wrote the lengthy preface, highlighting the importance of learning and preservation, himself. Most the rolls were lost during the Opium Wars and Boxer Rebellion, and whilst the most complete editions (representing only four percent of the whole) are kept at the national libraries of Beijing and Taipei, with a few rolls held by the British Library, the Bodleian, and the US library of congress, it was this story of a textile tycoon and antiquarian’s quest to reunite two rediscovered volumes at a dear price from a rare books auction in Paris that provided us with a gateway to explore the cultural compendium. More from Sixth Tone at the link up top.

synchronoptica

one year ago: a return to the Alsace (with synchronoptica)

two years ago: hotel darkrooms for hobbyist photographers, a very short papacy plus Dawn: A Portrait of a Teenage Runaway (1976)  

three years ago: assorted links worth the revisit 

four year ago: for the Queen to use, the Discovery of the True Cross, Marimekko Oyj plus assorted links to revisit

five years ago: France’s TGV goes into service (1981) plus a change in UK license plates post Brexit

six years ago: Art Povera, pet diplomacy plus Trump’s latest nominee to the US Supreme Court

seven years ago: the flag of China plus US-Germany relations

eight years ago: more links to enjoy plus the economics principle of chartalism

 

show dna (13. 834)

Though suspect of the network presently as a tool of state propaganda, we were intrigued by this gala group photo staged for the fiftieth anniversary of the Columbia Broadcasting System to spot the cross-overs and continuity of retained actors in recurring roles and cameos plus producers, directors and anchors.
The key was a bit morose, prompting one to consider the talents we have lost, though many are still with us, like Bill Macy, Dick Van Dyke, Carol Burnett, Lynda Carter, Julie Kavner (as Rhoda’s sister) and Ran Rather from CBS News. The last one made me wonder if one could use AI to generate a Sgt Pepper’s type template for any group photo (one can apparently, which takes away from the encomium) or if it was just a typo.  How many celebrities do you recognise?

day two hundred three (13. 833)

Though smacking somewhat of appeasement, Denmark’s placating of Trump’s ego with the signing ceremony of the Greenland treaty by granting the American president the arrangement that the US has always had since 1951—it is more masterful than at first glance, with one clause, easy to overlook—that it only remains valid if the US remains a member, albeit an unreliable one at present, in the NATO alliance. Reportedly Trump rejects the Iranian offer to reopen the Strait of Hormuz within seven days if the US honours the conditions of the MoU, signed by Trump’s own hand at the Élysée Palace back in June, announcing bombing will likely resume in November. We think at least that is what he is saying as, despite a federal injunction against stripping CNN’s and other news outlets White House credentials, Trump is ignoring the order and his statement was unprofessionally captured by an aide under whirling helicopter blades, other agencies in the press pool refusing to cover the president in solidarity. Declaring Iranian airspace closed and diverting all civilian flights, the US is hopeful that Operation Economic Outcast will further squeeze the Islamic Republic into further concessions, and personally benefitting from the chaos jointly with Israel through markets manipulation and stock-flipping to the tune of a couple of billion dollars, the corrupt regime is not motivated for a swift end to the conflict. Rumours circulate in the US military regarding a possible to deployment to the Caribbean and presumably the invasion and annexation of Cuba, emerging just after Trump hosts Xi in Washington—suggesting that action on Taiwan might be imminent and one might be cover for another. We don’t suspect, however, that Trump could keep quiet about such a conspiracy. Denied by the courts his efforts to curtail voting-by-mail—though judges allow the sharing of registries with ICE and DHS to track down non-existent, non-citizen voter—we wonder what the October Surprise will be ahead of elections. To avoid War Powers Act limitations, Trump has already downgraded Iran to a forever conflict, Venezuela went too swiftly, but a hot war with Havana might, in the estimation of the administration qualify as a national emergency to suspend voting. Trump likes to cite Ukraine’s skipped elections, ignoring the fact that it is in their constitution, whilst the US has no such provisions. All of this is just speculation on the internet but in this dumb timeline, we wouldn’t be surprised if in the situation room, someone whispers to Trump, “Mister president, the Germans are on to us.” The US approves a four hundred million dollar weapons package for Ukraine, though no Patriot missiles for the batteries it has been licensed to build, and destroys another Russian oil refinery in Krasnodar, ignoring Trump’s earlier call for a ceasefire on agriculture and petroleum infrastructure.