i’ll tell you my sins and you can sharpen your knife (12. 725)

Released on this day in 2013, the debut single from Irish singer-songwriter Andrew John Hozier-Byrne (professionally known by the mononym Hozier) is a soulful hymn that uses religious terminology to describe a forbidden relationship as an invective against discrimination with attendant shame and trauma promulgated by the Catholic Church. With the help of the music video that is somewhat of a departure lyricly and the recently introduced platforms of Shazam (as a cataloguer and registry to discover new songs) and Spotify, it became an international chart-topper, spending a then record twenty-three consecutive weeks at the top, tying with Imagine Dragons’ 2012 Radioactive. Written and demo recording made in the attic of his parents’ home in County Wicklow, it caught the attention of an independent label and turned the artist’s career prospects around. Hozier’s body of works all share social conscious themes and both his songs and continued advocacy have a strong message of justice and champion the poor and marginalised.

the first fifty years (12. 713)

As a humiliating way for Tiffany, Erik and Don Junior to find out that their father sends out birthday cards, coinciding with a speech delivered at the Museum of the Bible in which Trump rather heinously downplayed domestic violence, saying “crime would be down a hundred percent if law enforcement did not count “things that take place in a home” (without even quoting verses that might back up his argument, only wanting to brag about his invasion of problem cities) and House speaker retracting his claim that Trump was a deep-cover FBI informant, the bipartisan congressional oversight committee released several documents from the estate of Jeffrey Epstein after issuing to the executor a legal summons, including in all lewd detail, the birthday book inscribed by Trump and others. Bank records were also obtained. Republicans accuse Democrats of putting politics above the welfare of survivors, refusing to acknowledge any were victimised by Trump, even as a photograph of Epstein presenting an oversized novelty cheque to Trump implying that the future US president sold him a young girl for $22, 500.

separation board (12. 709)

On the fiftieth anniversary of the expose by TIME magazine on decorated veteran Leonard Matlovich who outed himself in protest of the US military’s ban on gay and lesbian service members, the Trump administration has moved forward with its efforts to remove transgender soldiers with a disqualifying medical discharge of gender dysphoria, reversing a 2016 decision that lifted a previous ban. Between the first and second administrations, several policy and posture changes occurred and the paper trail, attestations and doctor’s visits, directed at the time, are now being used as an incriminating paper-trail to push more out as the rules change again.

9x9 (12. 704)

the free encyclopaedia: why Wikipedia works—see more 

steeple with tyneham: 1970 reportage on the ghost village taken over by the Ministry of Defence in 1943 as a firing range  

john deere: venerable American agricultural equipment manufacturer struggling with tariff chaos, decreased demand for US crops  

primary residence: investigators find several Trump cabinet officials guilty of the same mortgage fraud leveraged against his enemies—see previously   

the fyurry byerds of the night: Ze Frank (previously) on bats  

fifty basis points: the US Fed signals it will cut interest rates due to successive poor jobs reports 

homeland security: Seoul sends diplomats to a Hyundai, LG factory in Georgia after immigration raids which saw the arrest of nearly five hundred workers, ICE dismissing claims that such actions deter foreign investments   

città dei balocchi: the abandoned Las Vegas of Italy  

gptzero: Wikipedia style guide that outs AI agents

synchronoptica

one year ago: a electromechanical rotor cipher (with synchronopticæ), the ugly, car-centric focus of American urban planning plus assorted links worth revisiting

twelve years ago: mapping US/Soviet bases in divided Germany, proposals for a permanent venue for the Olympics plus an act of bioterrorism by sabotaging harvests

thirteen years ago: some castles of Berlin-Brandenburg, visions of the Apocalypse plus honest book covers

fourteen years ago: the EU economy and the single currency plus facial-recognition and dragnet surveillance 

central casting (12. 703)

Though Trump only has the power without congress to bestow a nickname on a federal department and insist that those are their pronouns—requiring a delicate manoeuvre of double-speak, shifting tenant organisations to a new playable nemesis, from Mario to Wario, with Defence Finance and Accounting Agency to WFAS or DARPA to WARPA or Defence Acquisition University to WAU or Department of Defence Education Education Activity to DOWEA—the change, something only a draft-dodger could get behind, does have up- and downstream effects, not least the expense of all this rebranding, plus getting to revert to the old name once this administration overstays their welcome. Meanwhile, to counter mounting pressure to release the files with the community of surviving victims poised to publish their own list, Trump sycophant, Mike Johnson, speaker of the house of representatives, is making the claim that the president’s relationship with Jeffrey Epstein was based on Trump’s covert work as an FBI informant. Maintaining simultaneously that the dossier of child-rapist is a hoax instigated by the Democratic party to undermine the administration, Johnson offers that ongoing contact was part of deep-cover operation to entrap and reveal Epstein’s clientele. The White House has yet to verify the speaker’s claim—Robert Mueller would have been the FBI director during the time of Trump and Epstein’s falling out, over head-hunting Trump’s own pleasure-staff—with the alibi straining credibility. Never mind that such stool-pigeons are not whistle-blowers but are generally seeking a lighter punishment for cooperating with authorities, an asset like Krasnov surely didn’t have the time to be a double-agent.

all the way alive (12. 698)

On this day in 1975, Manson Family cult member Lynette “Squeaky” Fromme (previously) attempted to assassinate US president Gerald Ford (see previously) in Sacramento on the grounds of the California state capitol to set an example for those refusing to stop environmental pollution and its effects on Air, Trees, Water and Animals (ATWA, also the acronym above—the ecological belief system expounded by Charles Manson and his followers) as the interrelated life-support network of the Earth with attendant acts of civil disobedience and eco-terrorism. The then new Democratic governor Jerry Brown had refused an invitation to address an annual gathering of wealthy business leaders of the state. Members of the politically powerful group called “Host Breakfast,” upset with the shun wanted to teach the recently elected Brown, considered to be an obstacle to industry with a host of regulations and taxes that were unpopular with the lobby, a lesson for his “dilatory response” and had instead invited Ford, a Republican and ally, to deliver the opening speech—which Ford accepted as a chance to appeal to more local voters in the upcoming election and retain office. Preceding his arrival, Ford had asked congress to relax certain provision of the Clean Air act of 1963 and pressure California to roll-back some of its automobile emissions standards, already garnering threats from environmental activists. Feeling personally responsible for the fate of California’s giant redwoods, in danger from smog and urban sprawl, Fromme resolved ambush Ford (studying the agenda of his visit) and demand that respect be paid to nature. Making her way through the crowd, Fromme raised her pistol but the weapon failed to discharge and was immediately apprehended by the Secret Service. A few months following Fromme’s trial and sentencing, director George Lucas was prompted to change the name of his protagonist mid-production from Luke Starkiller for unpleasant connotations and a perceived connection to the Manson Family. After thirty-four years in prison and two years after Ford’s death, Fromme was released on probation in 2009. The malfunctioning gun was donated to the presidential library in Grand Rapids, Michigan and is on display there.

synchronoptica

one year ago: America begins its bicentennial celebrations (with synchronopticæ), coordination problems plus Trump announces the Department of Government Efficiency 

twelve years ago: German license plate naming conventions 

thirteen years ago: some castles of Hessen plus open all hours

fourteen years ago: a visit to Rohr 

seventeen years ago: TGIF 

invisible hand (12. 691)

As an appeals court affirms the decision of a lower court addressing the legality of Trump’s reciprocal tariffs—staying the enforcement until mid-October in order to give the administration the opportunity to appeal—jeopardising some hundred billion dollars in duties collected from exporters, which in reality is a tax on the consumer, that may need to be refunded, the presidency has meanwhile been taking another tactic on revenue-generation which some economists are acknowledging a generational shift away from free-market capitalism and some critics regard as a dangerous pivot toward socialism by MAGA and the conservatives. Of course the US economic landscape is ripe with subsidies and tax-incentives for choice businesses, engaging what outsiders may classify as protectionism for vital industries—and what America would definitely call barriers to trade and given domestic businesses an unfair advantage—and the US has become stakeholders in businesses beforehand—primarily with its bailouts and interventions for banks and automakers during the 2008 Financial Crisis and for small businesses during the COVID pandemic, but government ownership through a controlling share of a public company is a bit unprecedented in non-emergencies. First the US Defence Department bought stock in a rare-earth metals operation, then Trump conceded to a large microchip maker’s argument that sales of less advanced components to China would increase competition and innovation and most recently ten percent of chip maker Intel—the latter tech firms settling up with mildly extortive deals. Whilst not uncommon practice elsewhere with government invested in private industry, the US has generally eschewed such involvement, heralding the above free-markets (albeit the source of dissatisfaction for billions, exploitative and destroying the world) as the driver of progress and the hallmark of capitalism, and if the trend continues—and perhaps it should—one must come to terms with redefining what open competition means. Governments would be partial to businesses and bidders that they own in one way or another, and while previous administrations saw a significant return on investment with bailouts, grants and other aid but the public, aggressively attacked on other fronts—in believing it’s getting back from these companies and contractors, an indirect tax on corporations which Republicans would never own up to—may end up more impoverished and indebted if investment decisions are carried out poorly or in the spirit of cronyism.

synchronotpica

one year ago: union label (with synchronopticæ) plus assorted links worth the revisit

twelve years ago: a visit to Offenbach plus prunk and posh

thirteen years ago: the castles of Thüringia plus a botched restoration job

fourteen years ago: large demoninations 

fifteen years ago: immigration debates in Germany 

10x10 (12. 683)

advisory committee on immunisation practises: following an attack on the Centres for Disease Control campus by a crazed gunman, RFK Jr forces out the CDC director and renders the government agency untrustworthy  

nephilim: right wing antipathy for the Smithsonian began with a conspiracy theory that the national museum was hiding the bones of biblical giants in the basement  

pick-a-brick: thanks to Trump tariffs, LEGO no longer shipping some items to North America  

kodama: sacred trees in Japan and beyond—via Strange Company  

the real macguffin: AI is only good for prioritising “me first” problems—not for solutions—see also  

from west philly to west swig̴̙̕g̷̤̔͜y: audience scenes from Will Smith’s concerts are authentic by a YouTube experiment (previously) makes them look fake  

best in show: a selection of entrants for London’s Natural History Museum’s annual Wildlife photographer awards—via Damn Interesting 

executive overreach: appeals court rules that most of Trump’s reciprocal levies, enacting under emergency powers, are not legal—see previously and may need to refund over a hundred billion collected in duties 

¡presente!: Smithsonian museum closes its Latino gallery, ostensibly in preparation for next year’s bicentennial celebrations—see previously 

social security administration: chief data officer of the SSA abruptly resigns with a mass email that was memory-holed within half-an-hour, citing security concerns and a culture of panic and dread

synchronoptica

one year ago: the K-Pop Fab Four (with synchronopticæ) plus weird academic book jackets

fourteen years ago: moving beyond the incandescent bulb 

by all means, tread on these people (12. 681)

Revisiting the poem by Martin Niemöller as the framework for understanding the descent of America (and elsewhere) into fascism, Cory Doctorow introduces to an unsympathetic and insightful corollary in Wilhoit’s Law (misattributed to Drake university political science professor but actually formulated by an Ohio composer called Frank Wilhoit in a blog post):

Conservatism consists of exactly one proposition, to wit: There must be in-groups whom the law protects but does not bind, alongside out-groups whom the law bind but does not protect. 

The succinct post from 2018 speaks to our long present of wage-theft and corporate welfare, freedom of speech maximalism—and the entire gamut of “me but not for thee” double standards that MAGA has enveloped with conservatism.

synchronoptica

one year ago:  assorted links worth revisiting (with synchronopticæ) plus correspondence from the complaints department

thirteen years ago: taking a job in Wiesbaden 

fourteen years ago: senior citizens taking up street art plus meteorological terrorism

fifteen years ago: a souvenir from a medical scare 

humphrey’s executor v united states (12. 676)

Trump’s illegal and unfounded attempt to terminate a sitting member of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors places the US and world economy in a rather unprecedented spot, and as with the shocks of Trump’s tariffs and trade wars it is unclear what market turmoil might accrue from politicising the independent agency tasked with monetary policy, like with wholesalers having extra stock on hand as a buffer to uncertainty, norms and postures in place for a generation and more take some time to undo. The recent case of Türkiye comes to mind, however, when following the purge of government officials following reportedly thwarted coup attempt against the administration of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan economic advisors were replaced with loyalists and the country, after a period of incubation (not easily monitored as reliable data was not being presented), inflation shot above eighty percent and the economy flirted with collapse. Not able to oust the chairman—to remove his own appointee for cause, Trump has turned to a tactic he has tried before, with a mole at the obscure Federal Housing Finance Agency, the regulatory body overseeing home loan administration, finding potential irregularities (hardly rising to a fireable offence) in mortgage applications from the Fed member—as he has uncovered for other enemies of the president. Supreme court precedent affirmed limits on the ability of the president to dismiss the heads of independent agencies within the executive branch with the titular case in 1935, when FDR fired the federal trade commission chief for opposing New Deal policies. Under pressure from Trump and his insistence for a magisterial presidency and characterising neutral departments whose appointments span several administrations unaccountable, the court revisited their previous decision, vacating it and granting Trump broad powers of dismissal without the consultation of congress or the judiciary—with the significant and specific carve out that the overturning does not extend to the Federal Reserve System. The only other time the US even approached this level of pressure and interference on the national bank was in 1951 during the Truman administration when the president and the Fed chair Thomas B McCabe had a disagreement on interest rates and credit, with McCabe eventually coerced into resigning his commission and returning to the private sector, but not before securing agreement between the executive and the department of treasury that safeguarded the independence of the Fed and shielded it from the influence of both.

synchronoptica

one year ago: a skilled sniper (with synchronopticæ) plus a circle-and-spoke map of the London Underground

fourteen years ago: divination, inspiration from antique books 

fifteen years ago: a superlative wine service 

sixteen years ago: the passing of Ted Kennedy 

most sacred and cherished symbol (12. 673)

Though just another feckless executive order and virtue signalling (plus a distraction) to his base—as President Bartlett said there’s no epidemic of flag-burning in protest after entertainer Penn Jillette stirred controversy with sleight of hand trick and asks deputy chief of staff, “What if we burned a flag, not in protest, but in celebration of the very freedoms that allow us to burn a flag—the freedoms that everyone who has ever worked in this magnificent building has pledged to preserve and protect?”—and against the 1989 landmark supreme court decision that affirmed such actions as protected speech under the first amendment, the Trump administration has directed officials in the justice department to prosecute flag burning in a way that does not violate the constitution, directing the attorney general to prioritise laws against desecration in connection with other crimes to allow for revocation of visas and deportation of foreign nationals, promising jail time for the offence and suggesting loss of citizenship. Describing the act as “uniquely offensive and provocative,” Trump has always had a particular preoccupation with such acts (see above case protecting “fighting words”)—whilst rubbish the principles behind it—and when a regime tells one what flags cannot be burned, it will next tell one which flags cannot be waved. Creeping—nay galloping—despotism aside, those who insist a symbol is sacrosanct and inviolable also keep it off their crappy merchandise. “Did you go to law school?” “No, clown school.”

7x7 (12. 671)

many happy returns: belated happy blogoversaries to Miss Cellania and Art for Housewives 

then they took him and brought him to a meeting of the areopagus: Peter Thiel’s lecture series sponsored by Acts XVII Collective  

oh the huge manatee: dugongs are making a return to the South China Sea after being declared functionally extinct  

cavlinball court: Justic Kentanji Brown Jackson has a name for her lawless SCOTUS  

no brat, no hot girl, no barbenheimer: trudging through the exhausting Summer of Nothing 

sadopopulism: Trump and the Marquis  

diastros, emergencia, ruin: a weather spot from The Fast Show, a BBC2 sketch comedy airing from 1994 to 1997

synchronoptica

one year ago: assorted links worth the revisit (with synchronopticæ) plus a visit to Hermannsfeld 

fourteen years ago: junk drawers and stockpiling 

fifteen years ago: a medical scare 

won’t someone think of the children (12. 667)

With the death of a monster like James Dobson whom advocated for corporal punishment to reenforce an inverted, hollow and self-serving Christian ideology through a lens of pseudo-psychology and encouraging behaviour that left religious-cum-political scars on a generation, Metafilter directs us to relatively recent debate and legislation in Japan that would classify forced indoctrination and participation in sectarian activities as child-abuse. The impetus for the change was fomented by the assassination of former Prime Minster Shinzo Abe by an individual with a history of complaints with controversial cult the Unification Church back at the end of 2022 and has since gained momentum with additional sponsors in the Diet. Of course the US is more interested in grooming in general, peddling the cult of MAGA conservatism and preaching the gospel of prosperity theology (at the expense of spiritual poverty or bankruptcy—concept image courtesy of Takashi Mifune) and although with a deficit of hegemonial cachet Russian too, if such a stance were adopted elsewhere, it could end the vicious cycle of hand-me-down prejudice, superstition and revival abuse that upholds not only evangelicalism but capitalism as well in only a few years, although the counter-forces are strong and well funded, rife with distraction and undermining choice in the same breath as they rubbish expertise.

splinternet (12. 665)

Rather than comply with an onerous, invasive and crippling supreme court decision affirming a Mississippi law that would require social media platforms to implement age verification for all users, obtain consent for minors and track the age and status of everyone, Bluesky has decided to block all IP addresses from the state trying to access the site. Although a further example of hysteria and moral panic, Mississippi’s new regulatory framework and the UK Online Safety Act (see previously, see also) are vastly different and the former requires a digital services provider to collect and maintain government identification and other sensitive information for all users and vet them before granting ingress to anyone, whereas under the latter the platform does not know or track their identities and who might be under the age of majority (a pretty bold demand of a backwards jurisdiction condoning child marriage and baby beauty pageants) and adolescences are only restricted from certain sensitive material and services. Bluesky will remain unavailable for Mississippians until legal challenges are resolved.

i could know about it, i could be the one starting it—i’m actually the chief law enforcement officer (12. 664)

The FBI and other federal agents launched a pre-dawn raid on the Maryland home of former national security adviser John Bolton, whom notably attempted to be one of the adults in the room briefly during the first Trump administration by discouraging the president from broadcasting his intent to use the justice department as his personal retribution service and going after political enemies as it would undermine the credibility of the rule of law for the United States—the war hawk and would-be minder somewhat rehabilitated through his catty tell-all account of his time in that role In the Room Where It Happened (a reference to the Hamilton number apparently) which was subject to pre-publication review for potentially compromising and politically embarrassing information and which Trump himself sued to stop its release during his first impeachment trial. Though initially denying any knowledge into the search of the premises, Trump in his next breath launched into an indictment that Bolton was not a smart guy but he could be “a very unpatriotic guy—we’re going to find out,” with the implication that Bolton had top secret government documents in his possession, similar to the case brought against Trump during his interregnum for bringing home a box of files on US nuclear capabilities and dossiers on dozens of foreign leaders after his 2020 loss (which upon re-election promptly retrieved and brought back to Mar-a-Lago). Perhaps Bolton, whom Trump also immediately after beginning his new term stripped of his security detail despite active attempts on his life by Iranian agents for involvement Trump’s ordered assassination of their military leaders, absconded with the Epstein files.  Meanwhile, a transcript was released of recent testimony of Ghislaine Maxwell stating that she never witnessed Trump engage in any illegal acts and downplayed Trump’s relationship with the infamous figure, claiming that no client list exists.  This raid also follows Bolton’s public rebuke of Trump’s summit with Putin in Alaska for the losing and subservient theatre it was. The purge of Trump’s critics and enemies is already ongoing and the judiciary branch and the supreme court are manifestly at his beck and call but this seems to suggest a new level of authoritarianism and performative democracy that makes one wonder who might be next on the hit list and what fabricated evidence might be planted.

synchronoptica 

one year ago: GPS epochs (with synchronopticæ) plus a potential violation of the Logan Act

fourteen years ago: street art in Bamberg 

fifteen years ago: a visit to the Memmelsdorfer Seehof plus the return of 3-D cinema

seventeen years ago: sabotaging crops with wartime bio-terrorism 

public law 94–67 (12. 635)

The culmination of the five year effort which saw the passage of US Joint Resolution 23, begun on the centenary of the 1870 death Confederate general and increased interest in the figure as evinced by growing tourism to Georgia’s Stone Mountain memorial site and other commemorations, on this day in 1975 Gerald Ford (previously) signed into law a declaration championed by senator Harry Byrd of Virginia to posthumously restore citizenship to Robert E Lee. In 1865, after the civil war concluded Lee was paroled and took an oath of allegiance to the United States, petitioning for the revocation of citizenship to be nullified. Portrayed by proponents of the bill as clerical oversight on the part of secretary of state William Seward for not processing the pardon application, thus leaving him a stateless individual, while detractors thought such a symbolic gesture strengthened the mythology and romance of the Confederate cause and was a legitimising acknowledgement of Lee’s status as an icon and cultural hero—something which Lee himself rejected as counterproductive to healing the rift of fighting the war. After the civil war, Washington, DC appropriated Lee’s mansion and grounds in Arlington, Virginia and designated it the National Cemetery, in part so Lee and his family would never be able to return home.

 

synchronoptica

one year ago: Trump assures Christian supporters that if they vote for him this once, they’ll never have to worry about voting again (with synchronopticæ) plus assorted links worth revisiting 

twelve years ago: the Moses Bridge Stairs 

thirteen years ago: smoking is derpy 

fourteen years ago: the debt-ceiling and creative accounting 

pending adjournment (12. 633)

Though both Republicans and Democrats regularly engage in gerrymandering, depending on the party in power when it comes time for redrawing the boundaries of voting precincts (normally conducted during a pre-set period follow a national decennial census—which some states attempting to remove partisanship from the process of re-districting altogether by soliciting a neural third party to set apportionment), rarely has such a push been made off-cycle and so transparently to disenfranchise Democrat-leaning districts than what is now happening in Texas with Democratic state legislators having fled to Chicago in order that the bicameral congress does not meet quorum and cannot proceed with voting to affirm the changes to the electoral map. Through the state’s governor, Trump has explicitly ordered redistricting in order to eliminate solidly Democratic areas and redistribute a sixty-forty percentile spread over all voting precincts so as markedly reduce the chances of Democrats of the Congress retaining their seats in the mid-terms and not dilute historically GOP-leaning areas—based on a calculus of by what percentage Trump carried the districts. This extreme measure by Texas Democrats is only a temporary delay tactic as they cannot wait out the entire special session called for deciding this issue and face daily fines for the absence. Had they remained within the state and not this self-imposed exile, state troopers could summon them to the capitol and compel their participation. With only the narrowest of majorities in both the House and the Senate, state legislators of other jurisdictions may try this manoeuvres after seeing how Texas combats truancy and forces the matter. Meanwhile, the Democratic caucus is entertaining countermeasures in kind, acknowledging that changing the rules and demographic landscape ahead of the election in eighteen months is not how democracy works, but also realising that further sidelining the minority party by minoritarian strategies is more unacceptable and they can’t roll over again and again.

tavoletta (12. 626)

Courtesy of Strange Company, we are directed to the curious lay brotherhood charged with allievating the spirits of those facing imminent execution with painted panels held by a stick. From the Latin for small tablet (and carries in modern Italian among other meanings a bar of chocolate or toilet seat) the wooden panel decorated with scenes of the Crucifixion meant to assuage the dying and imbue the condemned with the final mortal thoughts of Jesus and resurrection and distract his mind from the gathered crowd of jeering gawkers and tearful loved ones. With prisoners often denied the sacrament of last rites, these chapters of comforters served an important role as counsellors—each company had a manual with a specific protocol for addressing stages of grief and protestations of innocence and mistrial (of which there were certainly numerous with heresy and sacrilege the most common capital crimes), they admonished, regardless of guilt, it was more important to get into Heaven and preserve the order of society—maintaining a justice system where all might be redeemed in the hereafter but were deemed worthy of death in this life.  More from JSTOR Daily at the link above.

synchronoptica

one year ago: eye-chat with a stranger (with synchronopticæ),  a pommel horse champion plus an anagram generator

endangerment finding (12. 621)

Not only has the world’s biggest polluter under the Trump administration sought to abrogate its responsibilities for damage to the planet that does not respect borders through rolling back of regulations and cancelling vital science programmes that monitor and measure greenhouse, it has undone the underpinnings of the accepted science that conducted during the Obama era that is the foundation of a host laws and environmental regulations. The EPA investigation determined, pursuant to several court cases, that six key greenhouse gases (see previously) threaten both the health and welfare of current and future generations and is the basis for the US Clear Air Act. Industries at the time raised strong objections but most businesses have since made peace with the posture for their image and the public good (see also) and have built in mitigating factors into manufacturing and distribution to lessen their impact. After failing during Trump’s first term, the current EPA administrator rescinded the landmark finding at a truck stop in Indiana to much fanfare, an ideological win for staunch denialists which make up much of the MAGA base that stands in stark contrast to decades of evidence and near global consensus. For its part, the agency charged with protecting the environment and averting the climate catastrophe has resigned its commission, offering that because climate change is not localised, it lacks jurisdiction for enforcement, maintaining that the finding failed to balance adverse impacts on manufacturers and distributors (see negative externalities above), or alternately giving up, saying that no policy could make a dent in the problem anyway. Not yet finalised, the decision is already facing legal challenges.

8x8 (12. 614)

ieepa: class action lawsuit from small businesses affected by Trump’s tariffs could prove to be a significant challenge to his economic model 

lambretta boogaloo: a new single from Big Boss Man Los Res and the Bongo Fuzz label   

geodesy: astronomers triangulate Earth’s location in the Universe using black holes but WiFi is interrupting the signal  

at most ten-percent syncopation: Nazi era rules for jazz musicians—via Nag on the Lake  

aldeh: Greater Manchester chain keeping temporary name in honour of Oasis reunion tour after attaining status as cultural landmark  

sing what happens: a sedately risqué Japanese karaoke televised game show—via Memo of the Air 

tas: Strange New Worlds to have a fully Muppetised episode courtesy of Jim Henson’s Creature Workshop—still, cancel Paramount 

church and state: US to allow federal workers to evangelise in the work place