day seventy-eight (13. 439)

As former leader Raul Castro faces possible indictment, charged in absentia, the Cuban people brace for imminent invasion by the US as the country runs out of oil. The aircraft carrier group, the USS Gerald Ford, leaves the Persian gulf to return to the Americans. Pakistani interior minister Moshin Naqvi travels to Iran to resume indirect talks with America. Taiwan reiterates its de facto independence after Trump warns Taipei not assert itself separate from mainland China. Counter-rallies occur in London as marches to commemorate Nabka Day, the displacement of the Palestinians, are met with far-right, ethnonationists Unite the Kingdom demonstrations, with calls to prepare for the second battle of Britain.  Putin and Xi will meet next week.  Israeli defence minister Katz criticises Spain and other European nations for boycotting the Eurovision song contest over his country’s participation.

synchronoptica

one year ago: a Baywatch spinoff (with synchronopticæ), assorted links, Trump in the Middle East plus former FBI director James Comey accused of threatening the president’s life

twelve years ago: generative journalism, immortal jellyfish plus the motivating factors of video game scores

thirteen years ago: EU assault on communal condiments

fourteen years ago: letterpress cities plus EU-US tax treaties

fifteen years ago: puritanical essences

powers of darkness (13. 424)

Though we couldn’t quite place the memory at first something familiar about this intriguing side-quest from the Allusionist hooked us immediately with a literary mystery regarding the Icelandic language version of Bram Stoker’s Dracula (see previously, see also) discovered more than a century after its publication, first serialised in the magazine Fjalkonan (The Mountain Lady) by Valdimar Ásmundsson in 1900—three years after the original, was determined in 2014 not to be the translation of the novel it purported to be but rather a work of fan-fiction that took several liberties with the plot. A third of the length of Stoker’s work, Makt myrkanna did not preserve the epistolary format and is by degrees raunchier, racist and political, and—moreover—was itself found to be an almost direct adaptation of a Swedish serialisation, Mörkrets Makter, authored by an anonymous individual going by the initials A.—E., with both Nordic vampires championing social Darwinism and leading an international conspiracy to take Great Britain down a notch as the world power and undermine Western democracy as degenerate for not recognising those on the fringes of society as the true leaders. Listen to the first chapter from our dungeon-master and guide Helen Zaltzman (with excellent plot synopses and fun insights) at the link above and take many different tangents on the esteem of the fanfic genre, the shadowy business of editors and popular fiction and monsters as a vehicle of allegory.

day seventy (13. 413)

Moscow and Kiev agree to a seventy-two hour truce over the Victory Day observance. Labour faces stunning losses in UK local elections with the Reform UK party gaining significant seats in another act of generational self-harm that closely corresponds with Brexit. Expecting a response to Tehran regarding the US terms for a peace proposal, Trump promises settlement within the coming hours, hoping for “a serious offer” of concessions. Though absent from the public eye, it is believed that the new Supreme Leader is playing a key role in crafting Iranian strategy and ongoing negotiations with the US naval embargo a major sticking point that could lead to renewed military engagement, Tehran unwilling to submit to American demands under economic duress as Trump entertains the idea of restarting “Project Freedom”—like the mayor of Amity Island from Jaws insisting (like with all of his promises and solutions really) that it’s safe to go back into the water and keep the beaches open—though there have been few takers among shipping concerns to make the perilous crossing even under escort. Trump’s sons are major investors in a new drone-interceptor manufacturing company. 

synchronoptica

one year ago: know your Italian Brain Rot (with synchronopticæ), alchemy achieved plus interoperability problems

fourteen years ago: gas tank chirality plus Victory Day observances

fifteen years ago: quantum fuzziness 

sixteen years ago: getting a used camper 

day sixty (13. 391)

The United Arab Emirates announces it will quit OPEC in order to increase exports, seen as a victory by some for Trump who opposes the cartel’s caps on production and price controls. Although the conflict remains essentially frozen and tensions still remain high among allies, during a state visit to the US, King Charles delivered a masterful address to a joint-session of congress in the semiquinncentennial year of the American declaration of independence, apolitical but a model of using soft power to heal rifts. Neighbouring gulf states hold a summit in Riyadh and issue a statement that Tehran must make serious efforts to rebuild confidence and trust following “treacherous” attacks on the region. Russia reiterates financial and materiel support for Iran, as Trump claims that the country is on the verge of collapse and eager to submit to a deal under America’s terms, whilst threatening new sanctions on China for refining Iranian crude oil exports and goes after Iran’s network of shadow banking.

synchronoptica

one year ago: droodles (with synchronopticæ), Trump’s first hundred days plus more e-moluments for the Trump family syndicate

twelve years ago: European far-right parties affinity for Moscow 

thirteen years ago: Iceland’s Jedi party 

fourteen years ago: an intemperate island plus fortress London

fifteen years ago: macroeconomics 

seventeen years ago: German traffic signs 

day fifty-six (13. 380)

For some time we’ve been dealing with Schrödinger’s Strait, is it open or is it closed, and the on-again, off-again peace talks—which Tehran denies requesting and remains insistent that there will be no direct negotiations under duress, the blockade of the blockade. The Trump administration is sending Kushner and Witkoff without Vance to Pakistan, whilst the latest situation report from the US secretary of war says that limited transit is occurring through the Strait of Hormuz but at risk due to Iran’s threatening of vessels and the uncertainty of the sea mines, reiterating that American force are poised to resume their air campaign at a moment’s notice.  US secretary of state is drafting more sanctions against Iranian economic interest, and meanwhile, though other European leaders are not bought in and call the proposal premature, Chancellor Merz has suggested the easing of the overall embargo as a peace offering (see previous post). 

Switzerland reopens its embassy—which has served to represent American interests since 1979 when relations were broken off—in Tehran in anticipation of supporting renewed diplomatic initiatives. Despite there being no mechanism for giving demerits to members of the transatlantic defensive alliance, a leaked memorandum is exploring ways to kick Spain out of NATO for refusing to allow the US to use its bases to prosecute its war of choice and disparages other members generally. The memo also attacks the UK for its lack of enthusiasm and again brings up its decision on Diego Garcia. Claiming to have killed six terrorist fighters in southern Lebanon, Israel is accusing Hezbollah of sabotaging the fragile truce.

synchronoptica

one year ago: US products get a tariff label in Canadian markets (with synchronopticæ), celebrities in cars plus artificial intelligence literacy

fifteen years ago: post-war Trümmelbergen plus foot mittens

day forty-five (13. 347)

UK’s Keir Starmer reiterates that his country wants no part of the blockade of the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz. Oil prices and other commodities are surging back to levels before the ceasefire with the potential of the cost of petrol to double, the failure of the talks attributed at least in part to Israeli pressure wanting the fighting to continue until they’ve finished the job decapitating Hezbollah, a claim put forward during the war in Gaza despite evidence to the contrary like Trump’s boasts of eliminating the capacity for Tehran to respond militarily or conduct nuclear research and development and looking for any pretext for walking out. Following Leo XIV’s criticism of warmongering, Trump launched into an extraordinary attack on the Pope, accusing him of being bad at his job and to “stop catering to the Radical Left” adding he is weak on crime and does not want a spiritual leader who thinks that it is acceptable for Iran to pursue its nuclear ambitions.

synchronoptica

one year ago: standing up to Nazis (with synchronopticæ), Freelandia airlines, a new music video from OK Go plus a bleak series about incel culture

thirteen years ago: eurozone instability plus a visit to Bad Soden-Salmünster

fifteen years ago: quantitative easing 

sixteen years: the right to be forgot 

 

but all of those points don’t matter compared to allowing nuclear power to be in the hands of such volatile, difficult, unpredictable people (13. 344)

Making a bad situation of his own creation far worse, following the failure (by design) of the peace summit hosted by Pakistan, American president Trump lightly elaborated on his plan to simultaneously open the Strait of Hormuz with a coalition from the NATO countries he has disparaged, led by the UK—which Trump said earlier has no navy—and to blockade it, stopping any ships from entering or exiting the vital waterway and further placing an interdict on all vessels in international waters that had paid a toll to the Iranian government for passage. The threat, which is not conducive to further talks (Tehran had no pretensions that a treaty would be reached in a day, Obama’s 2015 nuclear settlement, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, JCPOA—nullified by Trump, took twenty months of negotiations during times of relatively less tension and not twenty hours under duress), would reignite hostilities should Iran remain obdurate over US demands or intervene militarily should US ships try to enter the strait and, if carried out, would embargo tankers from France, Japan, the Philippines, India, South Korea and China that have successfully obtained passage, likely already subject to US sanctions for the breach and with attendant economic consequences, affecting global supplies of not only oil and natural gas but also helium for semi-conductors and phosphate, urea and sulfur for agriculute. After walking back from the brink of destroying the entire culture, from an individual lobbying for the Nobel Peace prize not too long ago, Trump again reiterated his options of targeting civilian energy infrastructure and wantonly commit war crimes.

oilfield units (13. 341)

Somewhat preoccupied with the engineering diglossia of customary and scientific units of measurement (see previously here, here and here)—no longer encountered pervasively as the UK have given up the Imperial system almost in totality (with a few outliers like fuel efficiency is still expressed in miles per gallon), we really enjoyed this rant about drilling a borehole of Babel over the petrodollar and US-imposed standards and conversions, courtesy of MetaFilter, which whilst maddening don’t lead to catastrophic miscalculations on a regular basis—punished for our own ambition and avarice with a confusion of the tongues in the form of ten thousand different metrics whose meaning can vary a lot in a discipline where precision counts. A barrel of crude is, incidentally, abbreviated BBL, after the blue barrels that Standard Oil adopted as its standard, with a volume of forty-two American gallons (approximately one hundred and fifty nine litres or thirty five Imperial gallons at standard temperature and pressure), with a thousand barrels not enumerated as KBBL (further Simpsons references below) but rather Mbbl (from the Roman mille) and a million barrels as MMbbl then returning to Greek prefixes for a billion barrels with giga- in Gbbl. In contrast, a barrel of beer is thirty six Imperial gallons or half a hogshead and the wine industry also has its own standards, though most of the world has adopted DIN of the Euro Keg of fifty litres. As for density, it is confusingly measured in MW, not megawattage but “mud weight,” pounds per gallon or pound cubic feet.  More insanity, pidgin and jargon to follow.  

9x9 (13. 340)

sen̓áḵw: the return of a Squamish Nation village exempt from zoning laws and an elegant solution to Vancouver’s housing shortage—first heard on NPR  

patience: a meditation on Solitaire—see previously  

tanker war: veterans of the 1981-1988 Persian Gulf crisis share flash-back inducing parallels  

granny shelf: an appreciation of the overlooked products in one’s grocery aisle—via Web Curios  

rückenfigur: a retrospective exhibition of Expressionist artist Gabriele Münter  

season ticket: brilliant vintage bus passes of the Milwaukee metro  

easter armistice: attacks continue as thirty-six hour truce for the Orthodox holiday between Ukraine and Russia approaches  

phreak box: an emulation of tones that hacked payphones—via Kottke—see previously  

diego garcia: US opposition forces UK to abandon plans to return the Chagos islands to Mauritius

day thirty-six (13. 320)

Permanent members of the UN security council France, Russian and China have rejected the Bahraini proposal for military intervention to reopen the Strait of Hormuz as some ships are granted safe passage, including Japanese and French flagged vessels—unclear what negotiations are taking place. Tehran rejects a US request for a forty-eight hour Easter armistice as a rescue mission is underway for the pilot of a crashed advanced F-35 E fighter jet that originated from RAF Lakenheath brought down in Iranian territory by a missile. Following a massive joint US-Israeli airstrike on the campus of Iran‘s premier university, Trump reminds that time is running out on his extended ultimatum, promising that unless shipping lanes are restored ”all hell will rain down on them—glory be to God!“

synchronoptica

one year ago: music from the Meat Department collective (with synchronopticæ), assorted links worth the revisit plus an appreciation of Bob Fosse

thirteen years ago: camouflage for facial identification 

fourteen years ago: taxation treaties plus a solution for the eurozone currency crisis

fifteen years ago: the toll of unemployment 

there were plants and birds and rocks and things (13. 294)

Recorded in Doric mode and composed whilst the trio was staying with shock-rock artist Arthur Brown in Puddletown, Dorset, the track, originally called “Desert Song” was not included on the band’s eponymous debut album, achieving only modest success for its European release, “A Horse with No Name” began a three-week run on the US singles charts on this day in 1972, achieving similar commercial achievements in the UK and the Netherlands. America’s song writer Dewey Bunnell (all members were army brats that met while their fathers served in the US Air Force at RAF Ruislip outside of London) wrote the lyrics as a reminiscence of his time where his family was stationed at Vandenberg Airbase and his childhood travels through Arizona and New Mexico, the nameless conveyance being a metaphor for escaping life’s confusion and finding refuge in peace and quiet. Some stations refused airplay as they thought “horse” was a reference to heroine use, and whilst the band maintains there was no illicit allegory, the above catalogue was written under the influence, the band a little embarrassed in the recording studio over the awkwardness of “the heat was hot” and “cause there ain’t no one for to give you no pain” but were convinced to stay true to their final draft.

day seventeen (13. 270)

Contrary to boasting that the war has already been won and telling a UK reluctant to enter this illegal war of choice, Trump is now calling for a coalition of nations to send battleships to protect the Strait of Hormuz and restart transit. Specifically calling out Japan, China, South Korea, Australia, the UK and France as reliant on unblocking this vital maritime artery, all of whom have reservations and are refusing to commit at this juncture—Britain is sending mine-sweeping drones—Trump says refusal to cooperate has dire implications for the future of the NATO alliance, only the latter two being members of the mutual defence pact, without cooperation, which is probably exactly the objective. Iran is calling the joint US-Israeli bombing of its oil infrastructure an act of ecocide and a war-crime.

synchronoptica

one year ago: an AI-enhanced Billy Bass (with synchronopticæ), rewilding one’s browsing experience plus DC socialite Pearl Meste

fifteen years ago: Germany debates discontinuing nuclear energy plus On the Beach

sixteen years ago: spring break hot spots and no-go zones

day nine (13. 243)

Returning from Dover to receive the first of the war dead, Trump told reporters on Air Force One that he was not ruling out sending in ground troops to Iran, deploying a third aircraft carrier ground, the Gerald R Ford, from the Caribbean to the Red Sea, teasing that at a later stage that the objective would be to take over Iran’s nuclear stockpile.
US and Israeli attacks have targeted several fuel storage facilities across Tehran and institutional office towers in Dubai and Kuwait are engulfed in flames and a desalinisation plant for drinking water, cooling servers was disabled. Accused of joining wars after they’ve already been done, Trump renews condemnation for the UK for Keir Starmer’s initial reluctance to participate in the effort for this illegal act of aggression, saying their belated contributions were no longer needed. Iranian foreign minister Abbas Araghchi stated that openness to deescalation was summarily ruled out by Trump’s miscomprehension of the country’s capabilities and intent as the clerical council announces consensus and is ready to appoint the next Supreme Leader.

 

synchronoptica

one year ago: Stick Nation (with synchronopticæ), linguistic divisions plus Carl Jung’s Red Book

twelve years ago: the visual perception of the mantis shrimp 

fourteen years ago: headlines from 1912 

fifteen years ago: prescribing placebos 

seventeen years ago: office small talk 

let’s take this offline (13. 239)

Though properly, despite its obscurity to outgroups of a given profession or industry and reputation as gatekeeping and kind of an insult to expert language, jargon is not the same as non-technical corporate lingo, we rather enjoyed this omnibus of laments and grievances of the register of vicious terminology that has seeped into common-parlance as reviled words and phrases. I think I am guilty during a meeting or in an email of using many of these—except for the most egregious in synergy and let’s circle back, most of them euphemistic in nature covering up a lack of actionable knowledge and blunting direction or a method for looking like a team-player and acknowledging, repackaging previous contributions. What do you think? Tell us your most odious malapropisms and mixed-metaphors.

the white witch of burley (13. 222)

Courtesy of Weird Universe, we are introduced to the enigmatic figure of Sybil Leek (*1917 - †1982) who made an enduring mark on the quaint New Forest village first with a robust chain of antique shops that dominated the local market, astrologer and then occult practitioner through her latter day cookbook and dietary guide according to one’s zodiacal sign—some people appreciate the nudge. Her eccentricities generated a lot of attention for the village from the 1940s to the early 1960s but not all the publicity was well-received as an early advocate for women’s rights, environmental stewardship and her generally stoic philosophy when it came to embracing what most liberated women (see below) were accused of being, with her landlord ultimately refusing to renew her leases, prompting Leek to emigrate to the United States and settling in Florida, where her penchant for the esoteric had more receptive audience, turning to prediction and her capacity for premonition and mediumship, authoring more books and appearing regularly on the psychic and parapsychology circuit—though astrological readings were still her mainstay. Trained in the dark arts, Leek did not believe in curses and only channeled the benevolent side of her power, she had a genius level IQ and argued that her spiritual practise was not a dramatic thing, as most perceived it—just quiet mediation instead of prayer. More at the link above.

synchronoptica

one year ago: assorted links to revisit, the Covenant of the Goddess (with synchronopticæ), US Peace Corps founded (1961) plus pastel studies of the planets

twelve years ago: GCHQ’s operation Optic Nerve, Andy Warhol’s album cover art, storing energy in massive marbles plus Agnes of God

fourteen years ago: privacy and social media plus more dragnet surveillance and the US security jabberwocky

fifteen years ago: complimentary vexillology plus spaghetti rice

sixteen years ago: naming storms  

seventeen years ago: the month’s namesake 

bye-bye, honey, bye-bye (13. 210)

Performed by the Brotherhood of Man, the pop-schlager tune was selected as the UK’s entry on this day in 1976 to represent Britain at Eurovision Grand Prix held later in the spring in the Hague, winning the song contest, the single going on to become a best-seller. Describing the conflicted emotions of someone leaving for the day for work, the song ends with the twist that the singer was saying good bye to their infant daughter.

8x8 (13. 198)

the mckinley colonies: the US settlement on Cuba’s Isla de la Juventud 

„…“: another omnibus listing of aphorisms and sage quotations  

manannán: 1940 sci-fi Irish language novel that contains the likely first use of a mecha outside of Japanese literature  

in the realms of the unreal: outsider artist Henry Darger—see previously 

spring has sprung: early heralds of the coming season—see previously 

archive.yesterday: Wikipedia bans controversial news and features article mirror for citations after the service launches denial of service attacks on websites linking to it—via MetaFilter  

lapsis muris: linguists uncover another usage case of uh—see previously  

tron/troff: explore your neighbourhood in the virtual grid

synchronoptica

one year ago: Ukraine and Europe excluded from peace talks (with synchronopticæ), an enigmatic online diary plus an ancient cistern in Naples

thirteen years ago: elision and mishearing 

fourteen years ago: graphic artist Tim Doyle 

etaoin shrdlu, esaitn ruoldc (13. 181)

Again via Web Curios, we are pointed to an addictive little bilingual (I wasn’t up to trying in French however) word game that is agreeably one of the best we’ve come across in some time and as likely to return to after our streak with Wordle clones. Simple and straightforward, each round presents three lettered tiles to build words from in order of the letters presented and are awarded points based on Scrabble rules, in turn derived from the titular letter frequency. There are daily challenges and play can continue with random combinations. Gently timed, once one runs out of chances, there’s a break down of one’s score and the optimal word from the dictionary, though one can’t dispute the lexicon.

the world's richest man and the world’s poorest boy are getting it ready now… and everybody, everywhere, will be a little worse off for it (13. 166)

As our faithful chronicler reminds, the pinnacle of British satire was first exposed to the public on this day in 1970 with Peter Sellers as an eccentric billionaire (personal wealth not imagined by Averice in those days) and Ringo Starr and his adoptive son and prospective heir—the plot followed by the 2000 episode of the Simpsons, “Homer v Dignity,” when Mr Burns tries to adopt Bart—Sir Guy Grand attempts to demonstrate to his new son, Youngman Grant (formerly unhomed) through a series of increasing specific and elaborate practical jokes, bribing individuals with irresistible amounts of money that everyone has their price and will disavow what they hold dear. With score by Badfinger, the film chose for the final hoax luring wealthy passengers onto a stimulated shipwreck aboard the eponymous cruise, and the film was generally panned by critics and audiences alike for being too harsh and heavy-handed on capitalism.

general directions (13. 156)

Via the weekend links of { feuilleton }, we enjoyed this profile of Margaret Calvert whose work in graphic design and typology brought together road signage in the UK under a standard for uniformity and visibility still in use today, in Britain and beyond. Her pictograms and eponymous typeface, the slab-serif Transport font, the result of a survey that reformed protocols more in line with European conventions with the expansion of expressways, shifting away from traditional fingerposts are used not only for motorways, the rail system, airports and for warning of potential hazards, the farm animal caution based on a cow called Patience Calvert recalled from her childhood and the wildlife iconography inspired by Eadweard Muybridge’s studies of animals in motion. More from the Guardian interview at the link above.