day one-hundred thirteen (13. 543)

Keir Starmer tenders his resignation as prime minister and leader of Labour, following a series of political crises and rifts internal to the party over economic and immigration policy and election strategy after the success of conservative Reform UK in the general election. Starmer is expected to be replaced by Andy Burnham before the end of parliament’s summer recess. The Iran delegation leave Switzerland after a day of productive talks, with a sixty day waiver on oil sanctions granted and agreeing with the US in principle to a roadmap for peace, allowing the IAEA to inspect its nuclear facilities. With secretary of state, Rubio headed to the region to allay security fears, it remains unclear what US vice president Vance and special envoy Witkoff and Kushner have accomplished, the president’s son-in-law preoccupied with massive demonstrations in Albania over a planned property development deal that would damage fragile swampland and corruption in the government that acquiesced to this project in the first place. Sticking-points regarding Iranian restitution and possible conditions being placed on unfrozen assets also remain—though the negotiations have settled on an island of optimism that a final peace settlement could be in place by February.

day one-hundred twelve (13. 541)

Despite yesterday’s indefinite postponement and Iran closing the Strait of Hormuz over deadly strikes in Lebanon (American forces in the region dispute this claim saying ship traffic continues to flow), diplomatic delegations scrambled to reach Lucerne to begin formal talks. Trump publically admits that the US is is four-weeks away from an even more debilitating oil shock. The US team consisting of the same ineffectual members, Vance, Witkoff and Kushner, dispatched in a succession of negotiations that quickly spiralled into war is in attendance. Israel announced it refuses to withdraw from its security zone south of Beirut, neither side directly represented in the talks. Discussions are expected to carry on for days with side sessions addressing maritime security, but the main focus is on the sticking points of deescalation and Iran’s nuclear programme—the proposal presently being to not allow inspectors and to dilute the existing stockpile to well below weapon-grade. Fuel sales are suspended in Crimea after a wave of attacks by Ukraine on the illegally annexed territory.

day one-hundred eight (13. 525)

As the G7 summit concludes, Trump lashed out at a media reports of the publication of a leaked copy of the MOU furnished by CNN—telling world leaders that Obama bribed his way to secure the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (the 2015 plan these governments supported and were not pleased with the unilateral and ultimately violent withdrawal from) in order to deflect from the fourteen-point memo’s commitment for restitution and relief from sanctions, squandering whatever political capital and goodwill he had accrued by retreating from the war he started, spending unaccounted billions and causing the death of thousands to not achieve the objectives cited for the conflict—chiefly preventing Iran from building atomic weapons, which it was not doing in the first place but definitely sees the need for now. Rather than apologising or offering thanks to allies and mediators for their patience and suffering, Trump only strangely A much worse and more brittle settlement than the JCPOA, the White House had pledged to release the details prior to Friday’s signing ceremony at the Bürgenstock Resort above Lake Lucerne—the Qatari-owned property chosen for its remoteness—but we are unlikely now to get much of a preview, if privy to the terms at all, I thought though the leak prompted a partial read-out. Threatening to return to bombing if Tehran backslides, Trump admonished them to “behave,” repeating a line from early failed negotiations headed by the US vice president, “if it works out, I’m going to take the credit—if not, I am blaming JD,” Trump suggests he might he stick around to sign himself with Iranian counterpart Pezeshkian (update: which they did). Meanwhile, Hezbollah and the IDF continue to clash in Beirut (Netanyahu says he has not seen the document and has not asked); the IAEA approaches Kazakstan to potentially store Iran’s supply of enriched uranium as negotiations continue, though Iran now pledges to destroy its stockpiles through dilution—this truce only extends the ceasefire for sixty days—and the first tankers leave Iranian ports, the US blockade suspended.

7x7 (13. 390)

crash blossoms: mentalist MC of the White House Correspondents’ Dinner guessed the name of expectant press secretary’s baby’s name seconds before shooting—via Super Punch 

akte x: a German expression to file something away, to bring a matter to conclusion from the Latin ad ācta  

a show of swords: direct democracy on display in the canton of Appenzell Innerrhoden  

cartel: the United Arab Emirates to quit OPEC after a sixty year membership  

euromaxxing: Hungary’s turn around—via Quantum of Sollazzo  

clausal stacking tolerance: a new test to parse the limits of lexical ambiguity—see previously

lihop, mihop: the language of manufactured crises and phoney outrage (now and then), the tone set by an individual vying for the Nobel Peace Prize yet threatening to destroy civilisations and celebrated the deaths of Rob Reiner and Robert Muller

nichts besonders (13. 363)

Having also covered the etymology and evolution of the semi-fantastical coinage of the term invented by the author of The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows, we thoroughly enjoyed this examination of the trademarking and corporatisation of the made-up word sonder, a sort of trendy afterlife and meta-reading of the linguistic lacuna defined as the “realisation that each random passerby is the main character of their own story—living a life just as vivid and complex as your own, while you are just an extra in the background,” an important lesson to be sure and a check on ego-centrism but also with a bit of sinister connotations both historical and possibly hijacked, as with these other startup ventures with the pedigree of another made-up thing in the unicorn, as the spotlight syndrome and non-playable characters. The emergent brandscape includes Sonder breweries as well as job-placement services and a capital investment fund, and any number of accommodations, cafes and restaurants all in varying states of solvency. The title is from the German phrase for “nothing special”—a response to what’s going on—and with sonderbar as an adjective conveying strange or remarkable, there is an endless amount of taverns and clubs in the Sprachraum that have taken advantage of that code-switching, though not subject to copyright as a vocabulary item. Maybe one should have added diacriticals with heavy metal ümlauts to register it as IP.

11x11 (13. 268)

epistemic cocoon: filters, bubbles, synthetic friends and the personal theatre of disinformation—via Web Curios  

no yokes: a quarter of a century in market fluctuations  

semantic drift: the etymological and entomological history of the word drone  

belated blogoversary: Kottke turns twenty-eight  

wet shelter: the house photographer of the aid mission in the crypt of St Botolph’s 

le salaire de la peur: in a demonstration project to expand research partnerships with other laboratories, CERN attempts to transport a microscopic payload of antimatter for the first time—see previously  

caged lorries: Singapore, despite pressure from businesses that rely on migrant labour, is moving towards banning the dehumanising way workers are transported to job sites  

unbirthday: salutations and reflections from veteran blogger Diamond Geezer  

áfram með smjörið: delightful Icelandic idioms—via friend of the blog Nag on the Lake  

what’s that got to do with the price of tea in china: US egg cost down forty-two percent—hope it was all worth it  

ai is african intelligence: the exploited workers who tutor and moderate chatbots fight back

day sixteen (13. 267)

Rebuffing calls from allied Gulf states under attack for their hosting of American assets (materiel and business interests declared legitimate targets and intimating that some strikes are being carried out covertly by US and Israeli aggressors) for ceasefire negotiations, Trump rejects talks outright saying that Iran is demanding too much and expresses surprise that the conflict spread, insisting again he has decimated the oil export hub of Kharg Island and may destroy more facilities for target practise. US federal communications commission chair has accused media outlets of putting out fake news and hoaxes regarding the special operation and threatens to take away their broadcasting licenses unless they correct course. Separately, the Pentagon announces a major overhaul for the journalistically independent military newspaper Stars and Stripes, labelling it a “woke distraction.”People are being arrested for posting images of war damage in the Emirates and elsewhere. Formula One grand prix scheduled for Bahrain and Saudi Arabia in April have been cancelled as the Iraqi national team prepares to travel to Mexico for play-offs for the upcoming World Cup, FIFA ignoring overtures to call off the North American venue. The Iranian national women’s soccer team withdraw their applications for asylum in Australia and plan to return home. The supplies of anti-ballistic missile interceptors continue to dwindle. Ukraine says Russia is replenishing drones. Switzerland denies request by the US for fly-over rights. Over eight hundred civilians have been killed in Lebanon by Israeli bombardment.

synchronopticon

one year ago: assorted links to revisit (with synchronopticæ), the four pillars of consumer rights plus veto through inaction

twelve years ago: everyday objects rendered useless 

fourteen years ago: impressions from Prague plus UAVs in warfare

fifteen years ago: buried news and hidden connections 

 

9x9 (13. 226)

strength is not strong: it takes more than might to make right 

right of reply: Palantir sues small Swiss media outlet for accurately reporting of the government’s rejection of their surveillance and analytic services offers  

lifeguard on duty: annual design competition to reimagine Toronto’s beach rescue stations as public art during the winter break  

a tuba to cuba: the travelogue of a jazz band’s trip to Havana to explore their musical roots  

visual variable: a free library of thousands of cartographical icons that can be scaled down to the head of a pin—via the Map Room  

the tamizdat project: a library curating literature smuggled into the Soviet Union as part of US spycraft (“published abroad”) to destablise the Bloc from within 

site specific: a roundup of some of the most garish public art installations in the world—via Miss Cellania   

homily: Pope Leo urges priests to stop using AI to write sermons 

brother fire: reflections on a war of choice and the dashed hopes of the Arab Spring

the concept of a deal (13. 106)

Though met with scepticism and denial—and a protracted drama that allies will not soon forget or forgive—NATO secretary general Mark Rutte at Davos somehow managed to talk Trump back from the brink of calamity and relented on additional tariffs for European countries sending troops and materiel to Greenland and agreed himself not to authorise the use of force for its seizure. One of course needs to question the strength of Trump’s word and whether the rhetoric, ratcheted up with the invasion of Venezuela, is over now that he can claim a win, though the outcome and details of the discussion are unknown and the reasons for backing off unclear—Greenlanders and Danes not part of the conversation. Not much different in kind than the arrangement that the US has had for the autonomous arctic territory since 1951, rumours have it that the framework proposes (hardly a negotiation since if true, it would be unilateral and the other parties have not yet been informed, reminiscent of the Russian peace plan for Ukraine when Kiev has not been at the table) that a small parcel of Greenland might be ceded to the US, similar to the arrangement that the UK has with Cyprus for the Sovereign Base Areas of Akrortiri and Dhekelia, former crown colonies retained as part of the island’s independence treaty—which Britain had planned on withdrawing from completely from the mid-1970s but stayed on, mostly due to pressure from America whom wanted to keep a strategic foothold in the region—see also. After Trump’s interminably berating and bellicose opening remarks, a litany of self-congratulatory bravado and petty attacks, we’ll see what emerges but we certainly don’t believe that this crisis is over yet.

synchronoptica

one year ago: AI-aided edutainment (with synchronopticæ) plus assorted links worth revisiting

twelve years ago: phone hygiene plus the advertisements of Dr Seuss

thirteen years ago: bent icicles   

fifteen years ago: bird houses 

10x10 (13. 100)

the cameraman’s revenge: a 1912 stop-motion film featuring taxidermied insects by Ladislas Starevich—see previously  

collateral damage: Trump’s seizure of Venezuela has deliberate knock-on effects for Cuba 

the monkey’s paw curls: prediction markets and betting on everything  

a spirit of dialogue: the World Economic Forum begins its summit in Davos (previously) in moment of geoeconomic warfare 

il tormento di sant’antonio: an examination of Michaelangelo’s juvenilia, the painting (more on the subject) not attributed to the artist for half a millennium  

bic cristal: the flagship product of the French sundry firm turned seventy-five—see previously  

mercator projection: famed Flemish cartographer believed that there was a magnetic mountain, Rupes Nigra, at the North Pole, accounting why compasses point towards the arctic—see also  

snow crash: Facebook quietly discontinues the Metaverse  

vanity project: Trump has formed an intergovernmental agency to oversee reconstruction in Gaza called the Board of Peace as an alt-UN with billion dollar membership dues—see previously here and here 

how now, brown cow: back-scratching bovine causes animal behaviourist to reassess their intellect—see also

9x9 (13. 016)

brought to you by the inkjet lobby: the amount of redactions in the US justice department’s release of the Epstein files sparks outrage  

christmas and commerce: a David Sedaris holiday classic—see previously  

global building atlas: an ambitious project mapping all three-billion built structures worldwide  

grabenanlage: rescue archaeology in southwestern German town of Herxheim in 1996 suggests ritual cannibalism on a massive scale with research still ongoing  

your attention is all you have—wasting it is annihilating: Blackbird Spyplane on a life of screen-time—via Kottke

pithos: Roman amphora of sardines found in Switzerland 

orthorectified panorama: the Apollo transforming printer that developed cartographically accurate photographs of the Moon 

a christmas memory: Truman Capote recalls holidays past  

formerly known as the kennedy center: the history of the US national stage for the performing arts—see previously

estrella de la esperanza (12. 815)

Altas Oscura’s Place of the Day directs to a cosmodrome located outside the village of Cachi in the northwestern Salta Province, an ovnipuerto, a landing strip for extraterrestrial visitors built by Swiss artist and traveller Werner Jaisli (*1949 - †2021) between 2008 and 2012 after an alleged alien encounter, claiming to have received telepathic instructions to come to Argentina and build the runway from local stones, bleaching them for greater visibility. In a Field of Dreams moment, Jaisli laboured on his Star of Hope (designated an architectural and heritage landmark by the provincial council of deputies in 2020) with the promise, “if you build it, they will come.” Residents refer to the construction the Swiss guy’s stars—“las estrellas del suizo.”

ribeauvillé et hunawihr (12.767)

 

 

Going a bit further afield, we toured the commune historically known as Rappoltsweiler / Ràppschwihr after the eighth century town passed from the ownership of the Bishopric of Basel to the countship of Rappoltstein (Ribeaupierre), the hereditary king charged with the protection and patronage of the itinerant minstrels of Alsace, who paid a busking tribute to their lord in exchange—the office of the Pfeiferkönig eventually was inherited by the ranks of the prince-electors of Bavaria, and made an annal pilgrimage to their sainted patronness Maria von Dusenbach, a chapel in the Capuchin cloister complex just outside of Ribeauvillé dedicated to the Presentation of Jesus. The Gothic centre with preserved medieval houses is overlooked by a primeval forest (re-seeded much later in its history with giant sequoia—see also—and containing the largest stand outside of North America) and the ensemble of three ruined castles, Saint-Ulrich, Girsberg and Haut Rappoltstein.

 

Next we visited Hunawihr on the way back to Riquewihr—also with a beautifully preserved layout from the 1300s—it was named after the residence of another Frankish lord called Huno, built on the foundations of a Gallo-Roman villa. Renowned for her piety and charity, the sainted lady of the estate, Huna, took it upon herself to do the laundry for the poor and the sick in the fountain at the base of the village, imbuing the clean clothes with powers to restore the health of the ill—with one instance of the dirty wash-water transformed into wine during a particularly bad harvest year. The hilltop fortified church (Kirchenburg, l'église fortifiée) in view of the legendary spring became a pilgrimage site and became, like many of the sacred buildings of the region what’s called a simultaneum, following the Treaty of Westphalia that guaranteed religious liberties for the people of Alsace, and holds both Catholic mass and Protestant services.

käsegruppe (12. 655)

Of course we like to have a sample of the local culinary heritage when on holiday and while the herbal liquor (Kräuterlikör, Schnapps) from the Müritz might be a unique concoction to try as well as the smoked fish—we learnt that the cheese label, which is fairly common in stores throughout Germany but not certain if we had ever tried it is not a product with a protected geographical indication but rather a style of mild cheeses marketed for its flavour profile, rather than its location—partially to distinguish it from the neighbouring Holsteiner variety that is afforded such legal status—as a German Tilsit (Tilsiter) cheese. Similar in taste and texture to Havarti, cheesemaking practises were introduced to the region of East Prussia by waves of immigration from Switzerland’s Emmental region, fleeing religious persecution and at the bidding of the kingdom’s rulers in order to repopulate Mecklenburg area after a decimating outbreak of the plague in the eighteenth century. The recipe was eventually reimported to Switzerland but the new settlers created distinct styles with the ingredients and conditions of their new home. The method and tradition was named after the dairy operation centred in the city of Tilsit in the former Borussian province, where the original buildings exist to this day—under the rule of the Teutonic Knights from the eleventh through sixteenth centuries there was already a robust cheese-making industry—with not less than seventeen towns and villages named Milchbude, milking stall, in their domain but little standardisation existed beforehand. Once Prussia was formally dissolved and the easternmost lands ceded to the Soviet Union as reparations for World War II, the territories became Kaliningrad oblast and the town on the border with Lithuania renamed Sovetsk (Сове́тск) but retains the name Тильзи́тер for the cheese, also produced in Poland, Estonia and Ukraine.

chrysopoeia (12. 443)

Although the aims of alchemists of transforming base metals into gold has been previously achieved through synthetic transmutation first in 1941 by heavy bombardment of mercury with neutrons—though the resulting isotopes were extremely radioactive and again in 1980 by Glenn Seaborg at Lawrence Livermore labs by surgically removing protons and neutrons from bismuth atoms, these demonstration projects were prohibitively expensive and would need to be scaled up a trillion-fold in order to produce a microscopic speck of the precious metal. We learn, however—via tmn—that researchers working on the ALICE programme at the Large Hadron Collider at CERN, the acronym somewhat disappointingly only standing for A Large Ion Collider Experiment designed to study conditions immediately after the Big Bang with by creating exotic plasma phases of matter, have recently detected the mass albeit very short-lived conversion of lead into gold as the extremely hot and close-packed conditions cause dissociative reactions that can cause the target element to eject a small number of protons and neutrons, producing gold (the similar densities probably what inspired the study of alchemy in the first place). The above quick-silver and thallium were also temporary by-products of nuclear transmutation. Related to the title term, χρυσοποιία, ἀργυροποιία (argyropeia) refers to artificial silver-making, usually trying with copper.

9x9 (12. 412)

crytophasia: eye-witnesses to an accident, twins speaking in unison yield insights about language acquisition   

keep your cool: a 1967 garage rock number appropriate for our times by Terry and the Chain Reaction   

swiss pavilion: the country’s contribution to the Osaka Expo evokes the spirit of the original venue—see previously here and here   

all dams are temporary: an interesting look at the limitations of hydrological regimes   

universi dominici gregis: the faithful and world leaders gather at the Vatican for the pontiff’s funeral   

buying access: Trump offers largest holders of his meme coin exclusive dinner date 

 hilma’s ghost: a monumental glass mosaic installed in New York’s Grand Central Station—in homage to the mystic artist   

on the corner: Myles Davis’ rock and funk, at first panned but now considered a masterpiece 

rampant pedantry: an overview of prescriptivism and hyper-correction

synchronoptica

one year ago: assorted links worth revisiting (with synchronoptica), a massive gallery of Star Trek images plus ancient scrolls deciphered with the help of AI

seven years ago: Brutalist Tetris, Macron addresses the US congress, the mythological namesakes of the Chinese lunar programme plus conspicuous consumption and the Diderot effect

eight years ago: Japanese manhole covers, journalism from Wikipedia, more links to enjoy, the Turkish-Syrian border, a Nazi-era bronze back on display plus more persuasive maps

nine years ago: bat nurse, the Sykes-Picot agreement, US tax-havens plus cataclysmic anniversaries (caution flashing image)

ten years ago: American founding fables

charted territory (12. 348)

First issued in 2022, Kottke extols the redesign of the coveted Swiss passport from Geneva based studio RETINAA which excels at the intersection of aesthetics and enhanced security features, an homage to the sleek and simple branding of the country, travelling through each of the twenty-six cantons like driving atlas on his pages for entry- and exit-stamps, visas and other endorsements. Authentication measures (see also) that burst out under ultraviolet inspection reveal the cartographic traditions of the alpine ranges, valleys and passes, resulting in an identity document that the holder can be proud of and cherish through its expiry date, for which there is no reason, like classic diplomas and commendations, should not be the case with all official documents.

synchronoptica

one year ago: a visit to Neuseenland (with synchronoptica) 

seven years ago: the magazine Children’s Land,  a trip to a local shrine plus No Mates Nigel

eight years ago: the collected landscapes of Bob Ross,  new cloud designations plus German contractors bid to build Trump’s border wall

nine years ago: German flea-markets and other scavenger hunts, the referendum on Scottish independence plus the LGBTQ+ corner of the US congressional cemetery

ten years ago: the last crusades, the etymology of tidings plus assorted links worth revisiting

liber novus (12. 286)

The manuscript named after its original leather binding, the folio penned by psychiatrist Carl Jung between 1914 and 1930 documents a series of personal observations and self-experimentation following the dissolution of his partnership with his interlocutor Sigmund Freud moreover reflects a psychotic break with reality and the journey of re-establishing an albeit tenuous connection with his soul and psyche. Although considered Jung’s main contribution, expounding such ideas as dream-interpretation, visions, the collective unconscious, common fate and the notions of introversion and extroversion, the work was meant never to be published in the traditional since and locked away in a vault until 2009. And whilst not intended for public consumption and still not available in a comprehensive volume freely accessible, Open Culture presents a variety of sources to learn more about the Red Book, including a relaxing, hour-long paging through the massive personal account with a definitive autonomous sensory meridian response (ASMR), a certain frisson and auditory-tactile synaesthesia which we’re sure that the author would have appreciated.

verkehrshaus der schweiz (12. 247)

Delightfully, we discover courtesy of Present /&/ Correct that the Swiss Museum of Transport in Luzern has a wing (Halle Strassen-verkehr) clad in street signs. One of the most popular exhibitions in the country (see also), the museum campus features displays of historic railroad engines, automotive exhibits (with tunnels and mountain passes), cable cars, maritime navigation and aerospace, including the European Retrievable Carrier (EURECA) an uncrewed science laboratory, one of the few satellites successfully deorbited and returned to the Earth undamaged.

nackte und naturnah (12. 221)

Via fellow internet caretaker Messy Nessy Chic, we are directed to a profile of Karl Wilhelm Diefenbach, whom whilst rubbished by critics as the Kohlrabi (turnip) Apostle is regarded as the forefather alternative movements, championing naturism, vegetarianism and pacifism from a commune outside of Vienna and cooperative on Monte Verità on Lago Maggiore, established by protégés. His first moment of transcendence happened on this day in 1882 came at sunrise in the alpine foreland of Bavaria with the vocation of being a prophetic reformer, travelling to

München shortly thereafter in a woollen habit and sandals (though often unshod) and delivered his message, turning away from society’s institutions. Authorities suppressed his teachings and Diefenbach retreated to the countryside to focus on his paintings, though his fame did not materialise as with another follower’s, Hugo Höppener called Fidus and praise from the contemporaries like Egon Schiele, with the public focused on his unorthodox ways and a series of failed exhibitions though finally establishing a studio on Capri. Much more at the links above.

synchronoptica

one year ago: assorted links to revisit, Lunar New Year plus Death of a Salesman (1949)

seven years ago: rewilding plus notes on adulting

eight years ago: the official White House photographer, parliamentary procedure plus more links to enjoy

nine years ago: a van Gogh retreat and retrospective 

ten years ago: Werner Herzog motivational posters, Deutschland 1983, reputed time-travellers plus social media and net-neutrality