lay all your blood on me (11. 949)

Writer, actor, musician (multi-hyphenate) and Youtuber Brian David Gilbert, in addition to making a comedy musical out of Stranger Things (Stranger Sings), has released a series of classic monster themed ABBA covers under the label AAH!BBA. His scariest video, by critical and popular consensus was entitled Earn $20K Every Month by Being Your Own Boss in October of 2020, though we think the accolade ought to go to a 2022 overview of the US health care industry.  Check out the artist’s website at the link above to discover the whole anthology.

the candy man (11. 948)

On this day in 1974 in Deer Park, Texas, optician and Baptist deacon Ronald Clark O’Bryan poisoned his eight year old son Timothy with a Pixy Stix laced with cyanide, ostensibly collected during neighbourhood trick-or-treating, to collect on a life-insurance claim and ease the family’s financial difficulties, O’Bryan having accumulated one-hundred thousand dollars in debt having problems holding a job longer than six-months and defaulting on several loans. While fears over tainted Halloween loot and accepting candy from strangers had been on the minds’ of parents beforehand, this gruesome, callous and senseless murder has perpetuated anxieties and is why candy is x-rayed for razor blades and carefully inspected for signs of tampering. Despite trunk-or-treat, the only occurrences have been cases of filicide with parents pretending it was the work of some mad poisoner. In order to make his crime seem plausible, O’Bryan and his son and daughter accompanied their neighbours and their children on the outing, and visited an apparently vacant house. No one answered the door and having grown impatient, the party left with O’Bryan catching up a few moments later, producing five packets of the sweet and sour powered confection that one pours into one’s mouth. Saying that they came to the door, O’Bryan distributed them amongst the children. On returning home, O’Bryan urged his son to eat some of the candy, claiming he chose the Pixy Stick—an unlikely first choice. Less than an hour after consuming the poison, a dose large enough to kill three adults, the son died, convulsing on the way to the hospital. The other children had not touched the poisoned candy (again, garbage candy). There was panic nationwide over the possibility of poisoned treats and investigators did not suspect O’Bryan initially, until his story began to fall apart—none of the homes in the two block radius of their trick-or-treating had given out Stix (...) and eventually locating the house with authorities that was slow to answer, O’Bryan maintained that the door only opened a crack and a man’s hairy arm emerged with the deadly candy but in implicating the owner, an air-traffic controller who had been working late that evening and had a solid alibi, police began to doubt his version of events. Undertaking a thorough inspection of his accounts and career history, authorities learned that O’Bryan was about to be dismissed from his current job and hid assets were on the verge of foreclosure and repossession—plus the high value of the policies he had taken out on his children and the purchase of two kilograms (the smallest unit of sale) of potassium-cyanide. O’Bryan was sentenced to death (given the title monicker and “the Man who Ruined Halloween”) and a decade later was executed by lethal injection.

synchronoptica

one year ago: International Savings Day (with synchronoptica)

seven years ago: a mythological horror plus the CIA and wax museums

eight years ago: campaign music, phreaking and toll-fraud plus Tales of the Unexpected

nine years ago: pale blue dot plus the hunt for the tomb and treasure of a Visigoth king

ten years ago: a prototype ambulance drone

 

if you can meet with triumph and disaster and treat those two impostors just the same (11. 947)

This is premium advice from Better Living through Beowulf. Though I did cancel our subscription over the decision for a non-endorsement and this is no apologetic for the owner’s behaviour, we could be swayed to rejoin by one disappointed but not defeated columnist’s argument that cites not only the accolades that the publication has been awarded and the as yet relative newsroom independence that the paper has enjoyed (the agnostic Bezos is no Musk and the Washington Post is no vanity project) but also the stoical 1895 poem “If—” by Rudyard Kipling—not only as a stance and signal for freedom of the press but moreover a way to combat election anxiety:

If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
    Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
    And stoop and ‘em up with worn-out tools…

“If you can keep your head when all about you  /  Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,” recalls those above false councillors are not the ultimate arbiters and no victory or defeat is ever final; the struggle goes on and we have work to do.

the rumble in the jungle (11. 946)

Organised by the then relatively unknown Don King in collaboration with record producer Jerry Masucci, sixty thousand fans gathered on this day in 1974 in Kinshasa to watch the championship boxing match between George Forman and Muhammad Ali, hailed as the greatest sporting event of the century. With a purse of five million dollars—an enormous sum of money which the promoters had not yet secured—King sought a venue and sponsor outside of the United States, eventually convinced Mobutu Sese Seko (see previously) to host the event, possibly with the financial assistance of Muammar Gaddafi. A three night long music festival was held at the same stadium beforehand to build excitement and included performances by Miriam Makeba, BB King, James Brown, Bill Withers and the Fania All-Stars, the supergroup of Masucci’s label. Watched by a further television audience of a billion, including many by pay-per-view and in specially reserved theatres, the fight generated over a hundred million dollars in revenue. More from the Avocado at the link up top.

the volfefe index (11. 945)

Despite heavy financial losses since its inception and low overall traffic (monthly users are estimated to be between six and eight hundred thousand), Donald Trump’s TRUTH Social platform (and its parent company) has surged recently in terms of stock price and presently has a higher valuation reportedly than Elon Musk’s X. The former US president first launched a website called “From the Desk of Donald J Trump” for sending out tweet-like dispatches (despite having a press secretary and a pool of journalists dedicated to covering him) after being banned from Facebook and Twitter in the wake of the 6 January attack on the US Capitol but the venture failed to attract many visitors and folded less than a month later, founding the social network by late February—with the help of two former contestants from Trump’s reality television show The Apprentice. The title refers to the portmanteau of volatility and covfefe for the disruptive market swings that Trump tweets caused, and of course the high stock price, more than tripled in the course of weeks, has little to do with fundamentals or inherent worth but is rather speculation on the election outcome.

extra, extra (11. 944)

Headlines covering a statement delivered the evening before by US president Gerald Ford pledging to veto any federal aid for New York City to save it from bankruptcy, The Daily News, as we are informed by our faithful chronicler, lead with the front page story on this day in 1975 for its morning edition. Though Ford never said this line (the paper is known for its pithy and blunt copy), the sentiment was there and made a lasting impression among business and political leaders, demanding that the city make austere cuts to social programmes, raising transit fares and abolishing rent-controls in exchange for nationalising municipal debt. Two months later, Ford relented and gave New York loans, to be repaid with interest. Like Marie Antoinette (who never said “Let them eat cake”), Ford was haunted by this infamous misquotation (and unlike the Trump campaign that actually has said all the taunts, slurs and insults imaginable but will hopefully met the same indecorous fate) with career-ending consequences one year later, New Yorkers remembering, when the state pivoted narrowly to elect Jimmy Carter.

7x7 (11. 943)

kenopsia: from the Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows, dead mall walking evokes a fear of empty spaces  

korg-n-nord sound: an interview with the electro-synth band The Faint 

tiki-torch nazi, go back to high school: another mysterious sculpture appears in DC—see previously  

pegged: more clothesline creations from artist Helga Stentzel—previously 

touchpad: an wearable device that turns any surface into an extension of one’s desktop  

wake up babe, a new waltz just dropped: a lost work of Frederic Chopin discovered  

account of a terrible superstition: an 1865 study on lycanthropy and its origins—see also

sacro bosco (11. 942)

Mentioned in a recent post, we thoroughly enjoyed this tour of the sixteenth century Park of Monsters in Bomarzo. The mannerist style complex set amongst the wooded hills was commissioned by Duke Pier Francesco Orsini, designed by Pirro Ligorio and Simone Moschino, and is considered to be among the oldest sculpture gardens in the world. Intended to shock visitors, grotesques include many figures from classical mythology (see also) as well as fearsome real creatures represented like bears, lions and Hannibal’s alpine-crossing war elephants. The pictured god of the Underworld, Orcus, punisher of broken oaths in Etruscan and Roman traditions, and bears the inscription “Ogni pensiero vola” (All thoughts fly) on his upper lip—demonstrated by the fact that when one enters this Hell Mouth, the acoustics amplify and project any whisper—and was a favourite dining spot for guests. The gardens fell into disrepair during the nineteenth century and it was due to a painting and short documentary by Salvador Dalí in the 1950s that the park was rediscovered and rehabilitated.

synchronoptica 

one year ago: assorted links worth the revisit (with synchronoptica)

seven years ago: AI generated people, vanlife, the Genius of Evil plus transforming blighted trees into sculpture

eight years ago: more links to enjoy

nine years ago: heritage railways plus even more links

ten years ago: TTIP

möbelhaus (11. 941)

Voluntarily IKEA is pledging six million euro to a fund to compensate East German prisoners forced to make furniture for the company. As was the case with several western firms during the 1970s and 1980s, the Swedish lifestyle purveyor subcontracted production to the GDR, including forced labour of the incarcerated, many imprisoned by the regime for political reasons, a misdeed that the company has been trying to redress through government channels since it first came to light in 2011, hoping other companies would follow their example. The first store in West Germany opened in Eching, near Munich in 1974 and the first outlet in the former East in 1990 within a month of reunification.

funkopope (11. 940)

Though scheduled to debut at a comics con to be held in Lucca this week, the selected mascot for the Vatican’s upcoming jubilee Luce, a guiding light for the theme of 2025: Pilgrims of Hope will have her real premiere alongside another iconic anime figure in Sanrio’s Hello Kitty in a collaboration to bring awareness on the diversity of algae during the Osaka Expo, albeit in a separate pavilion under the auspices of the Vatican’s Dicastery for Evangelisation (Praedicate evangelium, a department of the Roman Curia, under the leadership of pro-prefect Salvatore ”Rino” Fisichella), hosting a space for “Luce and Friends”—Fe, Xin and Sky with her dog Santino. Dressed in hiking gear with mud-stained galoshes, there’s a shimmer of shell in her eyes, recalling the scallop symbol of the Camino de Santiago and organisers hope the group will resonate with the youth. The jubilee year begins on Christmas Eve with the opening of the Holy Door of St Peter’s and runs through Epiphany 2026.

synchronoptica

one year ago: Don Giovanni (with synchronoptica), a thesis paper on ASCII art plus The Devil’s Ball

seven years ago: more clever compositions from Christopher Niemann plus the US Stock Market Crash of 1929

eight years ago: Tabby’s Star, Geocities archived, Swiss Rail accepting bitcoin, new neighbours, more map projections plus an x-rated haunting

nine years ago: Odysseus and Circe, phenakistoscope animations plus IKEA plush toys

ten years ago: Roman Wiesbaden, paintings of big-eyed children plus a German gag political party

a night at the garden (11. 939)

With clear echoes of a 1939 held at the same venue advertised as a pro-America rally presented by the German-American Bund (see previously here, here and here), the Trump campaign and surrogates presented their one of their final (the US respects no concept of purdah) appeals with one full week left to try to secure votes, we are given a noteworthy look at the statements given that the committee to reelect Trump did not distance themselves from after taking exception with the characterisation of Puerto Rico as a “floating island of garbage in the ocean” apparently levelled as the denizens cannot vote in federal elections but retracted as not to offend the diaspora of this historically misadvantaged territory, though not condemning racist language from the same presenter and successively crass and disturbing characterisations and threats by other speakers, including an appearance by disgraced former New York City mayor, Rudy Giuliani. Though many in the opposition and the media could draw the parallels to the late 1930s gathering above, the only explicit reference during the event was made by wrestler Hulk Hogan, making a dramatic entrance and exclaiming, “I don’t see any stinking Nazis here!”  The headliner teased about our “little secret” with the Speaker of the House, leaving the audience to draw their own conclusions, ostensibly telling on himself and plans to declare a victory regardless of the outcome.

manna from heaven (11. 938)

Via the New Shelton wet/dry we are directed to an omnibus article on the research and development of producing food out of air, profiling some of the two dozen firms around the world seeking to transform carbon dioxide and water (see previously here and here) into an alternative protein-source, flavouring a substrate of desiccated cell walls of autotrophic, soil-dwelling bacteria. Using a fermentation process already well established in the production of insulin and the rennet enzymes for cheesemaking (eliminating the need to harvest it from the stomach lining of calves), scientists working for these biotech startups have isolated a highly palatable bacterium that thrives in captivity and have launched demonstration farms to show the concept’s viability to mill a nutritious flour and meal using a fraction of the land—allowing more opportunities for the rewilding of fields and pastures—and resources it required for traditional farming. While commercial-scale production is in sight, the largest hurdle remaining may be convincing the public to adopt such a diet of microbes that foregoes the folkways of cooking.

il giardino dei tarocchi (11. 937)

Messy Nessy Chic correspondent Francky Knapp turns our attention to artist Niki de Saint Phalle through her monumental landscaping project, one of her final works, that transformed a an ancient Etruscan quarry (preserving the ruins) into an esoteric park open to the public informed by figures in the tarot deck. The sculpture garden was inspired by de Saint Phalle’s visits to Gaudí’s Parc Güell and Parco dei Mostri (the sixteenth century sacred grove in northern Lazio filled with monstrous figures) and was begun in 1979 and opened in 1998. Mirrors and mosaics adorn the twenty-two greater Mysteries (the major arcana—see previously here and here) in this corner of Tuscany, and much more about the artist can be found at the link above and the garden’s website.

synchronoptica

one year ago: the coat of arms of Bill Clinton (with synchronoptica)

seven years ago: the passage of an interstellar comet, Trump in Korea, public sparkling water fountains in Paris plus AI suggests costume ideas

eight years ago: assorted links to revisit 

nine years ago: micromorts plus more links to enjoy

ten years ago: a condensed history of quarantines

9x9 (11. 936)

die krümelmonster: in 2013 the German version of Cookie Monster pilfered and ransomed the golden Leibniz Kek for charity  

bad map projection #102: a blended USA / Australia gazette that almost works 

0,1 arcsec: hunting for dark matter and dark energy the Euclid space telescope (previously) unveils a dazzlingly 3D map of one percent of the Cosmos—via Nag on the Lake’s Sunday Links  

bob & carol & martin & barbara: various adaptations of a comedy about partner-swapping during the sexual revolution  

red lion passage: alleyways of London then and now  

bokeh and backscatter: spirit photography and the history of the medium— the New Shelton wet/dry  

clockwork universe: The Birth of the Robot by Len Lye—see previously  

geoconfirmed: a volunteer group tagging the space-time coordinates for footage of conflict zones to combat disinformation  

cheese heist: using an elaborate scam, £300 000 pilfered from artisan cheddar makers—see previously—via jwz

ghosta nova (11. 935)

The latest musical animation from Louie Zong (see previously) brings back our departed duo for a harmonising session under the Brazilian moonlight with a distinct Rio bossa nova flair—including the nice detail of a looming ghostly statue in the background towards the end. Find all the iterations of this seasonal serenade at the artist’s Youtube channel and website. ¡Laiálaiá!

pooped in peolsis desk (11. 934)

Inspired by a spurious claim (confessed in a group-chat) by one of the January 6 rioters and Trump’s latest hailing the insurrection on the US capitol as a “day of love” following praise for those patriots, a bronzed sculpture of an emoji-style faeces on the desk of then Speaker of The House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, will remain on view through 30 October opposite Congress. While the artist and intention remain unclear, apparently the installation was given official sanction by the National Park Service which vets public art on the Mall in DC. Much more at Hyperallergic at the link above.

non-endorsement (11. 933)

Following on from the decision of The Los Angeles Times not to support the Harris-Walz ticket for the US presidential election, ostensibly owing to the newspaper’s billionaire surgeon’s possible appointment as a health care reform tsar in a second Trump administration, Jeff Bezos has reportedly killed the notion of his media outlet taking any stance in the vote, despite the Washington Post’s rigorous reporting on Trump’s misdeeds and Trump’s exposing Bezos’ infidelity that led to the breakup of his marriage—again owing to government contracts that Amazon holds. Meanwhile Trump himself pretended to work as a fry-cook for a staged event (see previously) at a closed-to-the-public fast-food franchise—we guess to rebuke his opponent’s bona fides for having worked there as a teenager and show he can do the same—while McDonald’s has backed away from the stunt, maintaining they are “golden,” not Red or Blue. While political endorsements are not necessarily a hallmark of journalistic independence, this suppression certainly does speak to the integrity of management and interference with the editorial board and how the spoils system is subject to intimidation. PfRC is certainly backing Kamala.

synchronoptica

one year ago: artist Robert Martiensen (with synchronoptica), assorted links worth revisiting, a petroleum tapestry plus location-based podcasts

seven years ago: the osage orange plus more links to enjoy

eight years ago: the Vatican on last rites

nine years ago: The Sea Devil Raids America, even more links plus tensions in the South China Sea

ten years ago: charting languages, a dive from space plus matchbook collecting

🥐 (11. 932)

Again via Web Curios, we find ourselves directed to a venerable web forum (circa 2000) that’s still active with the simple premise that anyone can submit an idea—no matter how rough and not thought through, hence the half-baked—of dumb to occasionally brilliant inventions, business models, policies and practises and frankly pranks and have them up- or down-voted by the community and invite feedback. Spare a moment to browse around the incubator—just from recent submissions art that reacts to viewers’ feelings about it, hedonistic tax schemes, graphic sugar warnings on food items, a crown-shyness relaxation regiment, a breakdance stage for chickens—and find your calling to bring one of these notions to fruition, just be sure to give credit.

t-800 (11. 931)

Released on this day in 1984 in the United States cinemas, the James Cameron and Gale Anne Hurd (Roger Corman’s assistant) production starring Arnold Schwarzenegger and Linda Hamilton, and conceived from the former screen-writer’s credit in a fever dream (a metallic torso wielding kitchen knives and made of liquid metal and impervious to conventional weapons but deciding that special effects were not that advanced, deferred the T-1000 to a later instalment) experienced with the release of Cameron’s first movie, Piranha II: The Spawning two years prior. The film franchise is premised on the idea that a cyborg assassin is sent back from 2029 to prevent the birth of John Connor, who in the Terminator’s time-line saves humanity from destruction by Skynet, an out of control and hostile artificial intelligence bent on self-preservation at all costs. Shooting scenes was delayed due to the principle’s commitment to Conan the Destroyer (OJ Simpson was also in consideration but the director thought he wasn’t a convincing killer), affording Cameron a chance to work on the script for Rambo: First Blood Part II and Aliens, and when filming finally began, it was mainly on location in Los Angeles and without permits—leading to low expectations (coupled with the low budget and other problems)—but was received as a cult classic and launched a franchise and multiple careers.

*     *     *     *     *

 synchronoptica

one year ago: a rare Japanese-made electronic synthesiser (with synchronoptica) plus AI-generated Halloween candy

seven years ago: sonic sands, plates for classic cars, an infernal dictionary plus the royal we

eight years ago: hoop earrings plus some notes

nine years ago: Adam’s first wife

eleven years ago: kettling, Art as Therapy plus precarious jobs

k kilo (11. 930)

 

Via Kottke, we thoroughly enjoyed this hand illustrated overview of international maritime signal flags—developed and standardised to facilitate communication between ships over distances and language barriers, like the radio spelling alphabets (for both letters and numbers) which follow similar conventions to the same ends. The exercises in morphology and conveying more complex messages with heraldry (the above, per pale or and azure, has the lone syntax, “I wish to talk with you”—see previously on how such language has shifted) were fascinating and Rabbit Waves gives similar treatment to day-signs, markers used in lieu of signal flags, and semaphore. 

costa-del-home (11. 929)

Dissecting this article about the trending popularity of cruise vacations by people identifying with the cohort of Millennials and GenZ—via Web Curios—left me depressed and angry, not knowing whether to lay the onus on the industry catering to a different demographic, sensational generational baiting characterising progenitorial peers as stay-ins and homebodies or latch it to the holiday-makers finding appeal not in the port-of-call but never leaving the house, reliably fed and bed with the opportunity for a few no stakes sharable moments. What do you think? What hit as really was the commiseration over vacations that had no gone to plan and finding such a preferable alternative in the safe and secure with all the familiar comforts, especially after revolts against this mode of tourism.

synchronoptica

one year ago: assorted links worth revisiting (with synchronoptica) 

seven years ago: crony capitalism hindering Puerto Rico’s recovery 

eight years ago: a half-buried church in Helsinki

nine years ago: banksters sentenced in Iceland, Germany’s little reunification plus Dutch bubble houses

twelve years ago: vampiric gourds 

9x9 (11. 928)

star crystal, 1986: the manifesto of the Committee to Abolish Outer Space—via jwz 

sorry charlie: a 1961 patent for advertising on fish—perfect for aquariums in waiting rooms  

ghost mall: the story of Spirit Halloween bear and lampshade: an electronic medley of Queen songs 

bear and lampshade: an electronic medley of hits from Queen

ghost with the most: the psychological profile of people who cut off communication 

carbon capture: a covalent organic framework that binds CO₂ in ambient air—via Damn Interesting’s Curated Links 

vội vàng: the legacy of Edgar Allen Poe in Vietnam  

extra-toppings: Pizza Hut is offering to print one’s CV on a box and deliver it (along with a pizza) to prospective employers—via Pasa Bon!   

the city of orion: Hannsjorg Voth’s monumental structures in the Moroccan desert like the Earth and sky—via Messy Nessy Chic

synchronoptica

one year ago: Bob Sinclair’s Stardust (with synchronoptica) plus a data-poisoning tool to fight against AI scraping

seven years ago: the typography of Vinicius Araujo, cheese in China, innovative underground maps, an underwater restaurant in the works, Japanese delivery boxes plus more presidential merchandise

eight years ago: problem-solving paradigms plus a thriving orchid

nine years ago: grand tours, assorted links to revisit plus a Lenin monument transformed

eleven years ago: German chancellor’s phone tapped

rota fortuna (11. 927)

Though limited in recognition to his home diocese of Pavia (Ticinum, the capital of the Kingdom of the Ostrogoths, officially Regnum Italiae, after Theodoric the Great killed Odoacer following the deposition of Romulus Augustulus—the final Western emperor and entombed alongside fellow philosopher Augustine of Hippo), Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius is fêted on this day, according to tradition on the occasion of his martyrdom in 544 AD, ostensibly put to death by bludgeoning for treason for his outreach to the court of Constantinople in attempts to harmonise their divert practises with the traditions of the Roman See (the Great Schism did not happen for another five hundred years) but likely for being critical of the extravagances and corruption of both. A senator, consul and advisor to Theodoric, Boethius came to age during the fall of the Western empire and well educated, fluent in both Greek and Latin, sought to reconcile the teaching of Plato and Aristotle with Christian theology, translating the entirety of the classics along with a great volume of glosses, commentaries and original scholarship, keeping the great thinkers . Imprisoned for a decade awaiting his sentence—also on the order of the king, Boethius completed his final and best known work, The Consolation of Philosophy, written in the style of Platonic dialogue and premised on the condemned’s fall from grace and questioning how injustice can prevail in a world governed by God, the author’s interlocutor is Philosophy represented by a wise and beautiful woman. In response, Lady Philosophy says that fate is a capricious thing and the only force not reduced to dust by this Wheel of Fortune (conceptualised as the cycle of history, both personal and on the macroscopic scale), a trope informing thought through the Middle Ages to the modern day.

kild by severall accidents (11. 926)

With casualty data drawn from the London weekly “mortality bill,” reporting on the causes of demise from most of the city’s parishes during 1665, Open Culture directs us to a morbid little diversion in a seventeenth century death roulette, which delivers the croupier (originally meaning rump or one who stands behind the gambler with extra cash reserve to back them up during play but now spins the wheel—that too originally a study in perpetual motion machines from Blaise Pascal) their grim fate. Given the state of medical science, the causes listed are vague at times and ring more like curses than disease but provides an engrossing glimpse at historical demographics and record-keeping (compare to this treasury of antique prescriptions and treatment plans that may or may not have improved one’s condition). Spin at your own peril and probably it is best to remain ignorant of what such terminal ailments like the riſing of the lights (lung disease, using the term for the organ as an ingredient), strangury (the inability to empty one’s bladder despite the urgent need to do so), surfeit (over indulgence), kingſevil (scrofula, an infection of the lymph nodes supposedly cured by the touch of the sovereign), etc. as those were that compiled these list. There was also the Plague and any number of environmental hazards.

technological redundancy (11. 925)

While I used to joke about most of us having jobs because these systems can’t talk to one another—and albeit there have always been keyboard macros and batch scripts and more recently sophisticated programmes, without the fraughtness of AI hallucinations after repetitive, reflex tasks—relatably getting bored at one point and surfing the internet, for more complex, multistep routines, news that Anthropic (makers of large language models Haiku and Claude) has publicly released a tool that can accept any number of procedures to finish tasks by looking at the contents of a screen, moving the mouse, clicking buttons and typing text. Though still being trialled in the wild, automation of menial jobs, quality-control and optimisation—if it proves effective (and more than hype and cheerleading) and relatively reliable could make a significant number of jobs that involve translating and transcription from one platform to another something of the past in terms of human labour.

 synchronoptica

one year ago: Happy Mole Day (with synchronoptica) 

seven years ago: assorted links worth revisiting

eight years ago: a mock crime scene real estate open house, the slowest, punch-cardiest computer in government, social media choking off news sources, more links to enjoy, a Trumpian typeface plus Brexit and Northern Ireland

nine years ago: nine life lessons distilled from years of reading plus history through flour-sack dresses

ten years ago: author Paul Auster

berlin-krise (11. 924)

Instigated by a relatively routine control stop that quickly escalated into an international incident following the construction of the Berlin Wall and increased tension among the occupying forces, culminating with the partition of the city and the Soviets seeking a separate peace with East Germany. Resulting with the standoff between Russian and American tanks eventually withdrawn in stalemate five days later, the crisis was sparked on this evening in 1961 when US Deputy Chief of Mission in West Berlin, Edward Allan Lightner, Jr and his wife were asked to present their identifications at Checkpoint Charlie en route to attend an opera in East Berlin. Refusing to comply (Khrushchev had relented on earlier demands of restricted movement of the Allies) and thought their USAREUR plated vehicle was sufficient proof for passage. In response to this dispute, US president JFK recalled Lucius Clay from retirement as a show of American resolve, dispatching several armoured vehicles to the crossing along with a retinue of troops and a military police escort for the Lightners. A plan by the Americans to bulldoze the inchoate wall was countermanded, but there was a face-off nonetheless, which in addition to the tanks included US soldiers armed with Davy Crockett guns, an over the shoulder personnel launcher for tactical nuclear warheads. Under terms negotiated by spy, diplomat and back-channel contact Georgi Bolshakov, both sides stood down. Bolshakov later helped dispel thoughts that Khrushchev and the USSR conspired in the assassination of Kennedy for the public, his brother RFK and widow.

10x10 (11. 923)

potalapitsi: a 3D resin replica of ancient Wauja cave carvings presented after the original was vandalised is helping keep their tradition and ancestral wisdom alive  

stop the steal: the Trump campaign’s coup endgame—via Kottke  

waymo: robocars circling the block 

pumpkin spice: the untold story of the rebellious photographer that helped found the tradition of craft beer and the seasonal flavour  

👻: guide to converting one’s haunted mansion to an AirBNB  

grab-bag: vintage trick-or-treating paper sacks 

ㅛ: revisiting a demonic number  

charter cities: how wealth redraws geopolitical borders  

because i was not a trade-unionist: the political implication of mass-deportations

hillfort: a preserved early Celtic wooden chamber tomb

 synchronoptica

one year ago: assorted links to revisit (with synchronoptica)

seven years ago: Trump’s possibly fake Renoir, a two party system plus the first and only Space Cat

eight years ago: ICANN meets, turning leaves plus a massive internet outage that could impact the US election

nine years ago: more links to enjoy, time-travel plus even more links

eleven years ago: sacred architecture in France, Chartreuse plus lavender cultivation

winner, winner chicken dinner (11. 922)

Calling the sweepstakes a means to “maximise awareness of our petition to support the Constitution,” the world’s richest man and ardent Trump supporter, Elon Musk, has founded a political action committee (PAC) that is awarding a prize of one-million dollars to a random signatory, pledging to upload the US founding document’s first two amendments, freedom of speech and the right to bear arms, each night until the election. Awardees must also live in crucial swing-districts, like Pennsylvania, which may decide an election essentially in a dead-heat between the two candidates, and be registered to vote—potentially in violation of federal voting laws as coercion with a financial incentive—but no one at the townhall seemed too concerned about statue or norms. Musk, whom holds several multibillion dollar contracts with US government agencies, has had an overture from the campaign to take a grace-and-favour within the administration as a sort of cost-cutting tsar under the executive branch.

iata identifier (11. 921)

Reposting exactly in the spirit of how it was shared—with the spark of enjoy and novelty that goes into a website one will probably only look at once for the scholarship and coincidence yet will remember and think about it for a long time afterwards (the hallmark of a good single-purpose website), we enjoyed via Maps Mania this project charting airport geolocation codes (see previously) that also happen to be filetype extensions. CSO, for instance, is Cochstedt Flughafen in Magdeburg and also a Compiled Shader Object used in graphics rendering assemblies, Cherbourg-Maupertus Aéroport is also a Windows Security Certificate and Ostend-Bruges International is also an Outlook email Offline Storage Table. Is your local airport also a filename?

synchronoptica

one year ago: a camping trip to the Land of a Thousand Lakes (with synchronoptica)

seven years ago: the life of Tiresias, Photographic Treatment, bonsai marijuana, protesting the draft plus declassifying the Warren Commission

eight years ago: indented writing, composite air planes in take off, dynamic projection mapping (caution flashing images) plus the CIA’s art collection

nine years ago: white hat hacking plus searching for unicorns

ten years ago: Byzantine Rome plus an extraordinary papal synod  

time to head for, golden lights (11. 920)

Discovered amidst footage for a media event for the grand opening of a McDonald’s in Boca Raton, Florida attended by the fast food franchise’s new crooning mascot (previously) arriving in the JFK limousine—whatever that means, at timestamp 06:08 (the rest of the coverage is interesting and encapsulates the time), you can hear a full-minute rendition of Mac Tonight from actor Doug Jones. A lawsuit brought about by the estate of Bobby Darrin and the alt-right’s unfortunate and revolting adoption of the Moon Man meme contemporarily sort of ruins the chances we’ll see another debut like this one, regardless of the success of the campaign in terms of increased dinner-traffic but a good excuse too to listen to the original.

fernsehkrimiserie (11. 919)

Hugely popular and enjoying cult-status outside of West Germany, the crime drama featuring Horst Tappert as Kriminaloberinspekktor Stephan Derrick focussed on solving murder cases in the München area. Airing until 1998 when the principal actor attained the age-limit he’d set for himself announced his retirement, all episodes of the twenty-five season run had the same cast (with prominent guest stars) and were all written and produced by the team of Herbert Reinecker and Helmut Ringelmann. There were fan clubs internationally and as one of the first television programmes from the West broadcast in China, Derrick was reportedly used as part of police training curriculum. Like “Beam me up Scotty,” the tag line associated with show the show, “Harry, hol schon mal den Wagen,” (to his assistant, “Harry, bring the car around,”—to imply we’re done here”) the phrase is never actually said on screen though there are close occasions of it. The title melody for the establishing sequence (see also) is from English-German pop singer Les Humphries.

amidakuji (11. 918)

A way of establishing 1:1 correspondence with any number of random pairings of equal size—for instance assigning roles to actors or chores to a group of helpers—the lottery game of chance, guaranteeing equal chance and distribution is called the above in Japan (阿弥陀籤, after the aspect of the Buddha associated with discernment and perception), in Korean as Sadaritagi (사다리타기, ladder climbing) and in Chinese as Guijiaotu (鬼腳圖, a ghost leg diagram). Participants’ names are listed in the row above with vertical lines dropping down to an assignment directly below. Concealing the names and jobs, the lines are hashed with random horizontal detours that must be taken on to the next column until reaching the bottom. Revealing the lines to the players but still keeping the other names and jobs concealed, they choose their path downward, the permutations in the snaking path ensuring all tasks are taken—unlike with drawing lots, flipping a coin. Aside from practical applications, such lottery elements can be found in the bonus rounds in video games to randomise one’s chances of getting the best prize.

welcome to the future (11. 917)

The Verge presents a series of interesting articles about the pivotal tech year two decades ago that informs our present with a thoroughgoing survey of Napster and KaaZa and successor music sharing sites and the question of copyright and ownership of one’s media, the launch of the social web, Gmail and one’s permanent digital demesne, podcasts, migration to the cloud and more. The piece on the gap in photos from circa those years was particular resonant and relatable, like this grainy snapshot of the one time I visited Schloß Neuschwanstein in 2004 from among about forty or so bad pictures I could scrounge up.  Whilst there have been innovations and choices in the interim, a lot of this architecture and underpinning infrastructure is locked in and legacy that we are living with today.

synchronoptica

one year ago: Big Foot on film (with synchronoptica)

seven years ago: tonal passkeys, the dangers of know thyself, French naming trends, a utopian city plus GIF mashups

eight years ago: the immunology of Tasmania Devils

nine years ago: story-telling and maths serving the same human need 

thirteen years ago: coin collecting plus the occupy-movement