11x11 (12. 724)

out damn spot: the attempted erasure of a Banksy mural shows one cannot scrub away complicity in genocide  

free return trajectory: acting NASA administrator faces the space press on getting intriguing rock samples from Mars to Earth for further study 

canonically accurate: Spirit Halloween corrects the spelling on their Betelgeuse prop sign—see previously here and here 

jawsome: the promotional hyping of some thing as “awe dropping” connotes rather the opposite for me     

maternity ward: track new website launches by category in real-time—a lot of click-bait landing sites being cloned badly by AI but some genuine births as well—via Web Curios  

goodbye computer: a sad little send off from April Clucks about a machine she adored until they became unlovable

me＇te.o.ra: ambient music generated by local weather conditions—via Clive Thompson’s Linkfest, which also features a defence of the em-dash 

midway: the aesthetics of arcade game marquees 

cornutam: Moses’ depiction in art as having horns is a mistranslation from the Vulgate perpetuated by centuries of tradition

an asymmetrical curiosity: physicists construct a tangible demonstration of time-crystals  

what sophistry is this: at the advice of legal counsel, Jezebel pulls an article from early in the week about hiring some Etsy witches to curse a right wing influencers and conservative activist—see previously, see also

8x8 (12. 714)

idf: Israel airstrikes target Hamas officials in Doha—with no forewarning to Trump—as it orders the evacuation of Gaza City 

ripped from the headlines: a Centipede style arcade game played by doomscrolling New York Times articles—via Waxy  

hurdy gurdy: covers performed on an electro-acoustic modified sewing machine—see previously  

2025 pn7: the quasi satellites of the Earth—see previously  

succession: the appointee to the Murdoch media empire 

przestrzeń powietrzna: in a test of NATO solidarity, Poland downs Russian drones violating their airspace   

the evening truth: a resonate 1932 novel about yellow journalism employing a secret weapon called the composograph to fabricate sensational stories  

never again: LA’s Holocaust Museum retracts an denunciation on Israel’s attacks on Palestine—plus the genealogy of the phrase 

synchronoptica

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

fourteen years ago: wildfires worldwide

fifteen years ago: modular furnishings plus America’s competitive edge slipping

 

great* trust (12. 692)

Realising that that’s hardly the point of the proposed redevelopment scheme under the above acronym for Gaza Reconstitution, Economic Acceleration and Transformation, the suggestion of creating a US mandate charged with rebuilding the occupied enclave as a chain of high-tech megacities—in the spirit of the Line in Saudi Arabia, is the cover for large-scale ethnic cleansing and land appropriation, expelling the Palestinian population (given a digital token for their land, redeemable elsewhere) as Israeli forces gather for siege warfare on the population already dying from hunger and encroach further into the West Bank—though typical of Trump—the leaked prospectus being circulated looks so shoddy and grifty to be nothing more than a real-estate scam cooked up by the self-described business mogul himself for beach-front time-shares. It’s like getting irrationally angry seeing maps showing the Gulf of America, knowing that’s not the half of it, instead of how the USA would sell out Palestine and Ukraine and Taiwan if they stood to profit. The conceptual images are so poorly executed without even the hint of effort—the whole thing obviously slapped together by AI, like something generated by a ChatGPT knock off before the platforms were widely available—and worse betrays no familiarity with Palestinian geography or politics, only pandering to Israeli settlers’ ideas of manifest destiny and divine entitlement with the revealing subtitle from “From a Demolished Iranian Proxy to a Prosperous Abrahamic Alley” and includes an “Elon Musk” industrial estate.

si vis pacem para pactum (12. 536)

As if Trump’s low turn-out, low-energy birthday parade was not already overshadowed by the poor juxtaposition of the crack down on protests in Los Angeles and the ongoing conflicts in Gaza and Ukraine, with no boots on the ground though America can hardly claim it’s not deeply entrenched, the politically motivated assassination of a Minnesota state legislator by a crazed MAGA evangelist still at large and with a kill-list of other politicians, the surprise from Israel on Iran gave some in the administration a chance to try to have it both ways. Like the false claims last month of brokering a cease fire between India and Pakistan over Kashmir, despite vehement disavowal of having anything to do with the strikes on Iranian cities and infrastructure, Trump is insisting that peace is contingent upon Iran settling the nuclear deal—talks scheduled to continue in Oman next week—as if Israeli incursions were leverage in the negotiations, if anything possibly a provocation to draw the US into the situation. The last time Washington DC hosted a military parade of comparable scale was in 1991 as a premature victory celebration for the hundred-day Persian Gulf War, what became a multipart quagmire squandering many lives and much treasure, the US resuming its push to remove Saddam Hussein after premised on the untrue narratives of Baghdad involvement with the 9/11 terror attacks and Iraq’s possession of weapons of mass destruction. America should have lost global trust and confidence back then. Now, with Iran having been only five years away from producing a ballistic nuclear missile for the past thirty years (and surely have been capable of making an arsenal but chose not to despite decades of conflicts with neighbours including Iraq and Israel), the Trump administration and his negotiators are using the WMD playbook once again and this time, the world is far more skeptical of their motives to stoke forever wars.

synchronoptica

one year ago: the Dutch roll (with synchronoptica) plus assorted links worth revisiting

seven years ago: more links to enjoy, Trump’s migrant detention centres, fear of palindromes plus Stephen Hawking interred with honours

eight years ago: Ford’s soybean car plus the feast of Corpus Christi

nine years ago: the UK’s proposed withdrawal from the EU, even more links, machine dreams plus the long-s

ten years ago: a visit to Gemünden am Main, the internet of trolls plus a church that resembles the courthouse from Back to the Future

11x11 (12. 431)

hot, cold, clash and burn: some performances from candidates for the 2025 Dance Your PhD contest with real EuroVision vibes—see previously 

man in motion: a biography of Eadweard Muybridge (previously) as a graphic novel   

pc connection: the raccoon mascot that made the catalogue stand out amongst industry uniformity—via Nag on the Lake   

popemobile: the pontiff’s conveyance used for his 2014 visit to Bethlehem to be converted into a mobile health clinic for Gaza   

oaf of office: arguing that due process is cumbersome, Trump defers to his legal team on whether it his duty to uphold the constitution 

pamflyt compiled of cheese, contayninge the differences, nature, qualities, and goodnes, of the same: an early Renaissance book on the staple food digitised and made available to the public

architecture of choice: AI buttons and the fat-finger economy pushing redesign and showhorning of non-options into everything   

sustained presence: Israel expands operations, evictions in the occupied territory   

papabili: the College of Cardinals’ report and coverage of the upcoming conclave—via Web Curios 

mingkwai: the rediscovery of an incredible antique mechanical typewriter prototype for printing Chinese characters—via Neatorama—with a video demonstration 

marge inalia: alert the grammar police, the Errorist strikes again

synchronoptica

one year ago: Expo '74 (with synchronoptica), the Cabbage Patch Kids’ maternity ward, assorted links worth revisiting plus the Grammies

seven years ago: more links to enjoy, lampooning mid-morning television, doggie bags plus election by Borda count

eight years ago: potential jail time for protesting the US attorney general, the Cornell carillon plays a tribute to the Grateful Dead plus even more links

nine years ago: gorillas sing little tunes as they eat, maps of Middle Earth, a market hall in Rotterdam plus a popular French tonic wine

ten years ago: Hee-Haw and the cancellation of Star Trek plus utopian thinking

11x11 (12. 263)

broadband equity, access and deployment: Trump administration thinks the BEAD programme of the Infrastructures Investment and Jobs Act is too woke   

fermata: a thousand artists release a ‘silent’ album to protest changes to UK intellectual property rights to attract AI companies interesting in training their models on copyrighted material—via the New Shelton wet/dry—also more music without sounds 

late stage capitalism: Washington Post owner Bezos will only allow editorials that defend “free markets” and “personal liberties”—see also   

annual reformulation: important meeting of the US Centres for Disease Control to discuss strains for next season’s influenza vaccine cancelled, confirming fears that the new health secretary will pivot away from proven preventative medicine 

rif me daddy: what Trump’s AI enhanced shitpostings reveal about the administration and plans for the future of Palestine 

absalom, absalom: William Faulkner’s record-setting run-on sentence 

torus and tokamak: a German fusion startup is lauded for its plans, peer-reviewed, to launch a functioning power plant   

only the markets can save us: America’s total economic boycott planned for the last day in February 

touch grass: an app that blocks screentime and doomscrolling until one has proven one’s gone outside—via Waxy  

snoopers’ charter: Apple’s capitulation to the UK’s Investigative Powers Act is Chekov’s Gun for privacy worldwide   

by the people and for the people: dossiers of the people working for the Department of Government Efficiency

synchronoptica

one year ago: ceramicist Yoonmi Nam (with synchronoptica) plus the age of ludicrous inventions 

seven years ago: A Million Random Digits plus assorted links to revisit

eight years ago: more misattributed quotes 

nine years ago: Sàmi tone poems

ten years ago: theodicy, get anything delivered, more links to enjoy plus RIP Leonard Nimoy

beach front property (12. 205)

Hinted at a couple weeks ago with the territory characterised as a demolition site and floated the idea of encouraging neighbouring countries to take in more refugees displaced by the war, during a meeting with Israeli president Netanyahu, Trump made clear that those comments were not idle speculation and has made profoundly clear he intends to finish the process of ethnic cleansing for Gaza—resettling all Gazans in Jordan and Egypt and taking “ownership” of the territory and transforming it into the “Riviera of the Middle East.” This vision for Gaza Lago aligns with aspirations of ultranationalist Israelis for more territorial expansion as well as Trump’s own manifest destiny and aspirations for Greenland and the Panama Canal, again not ruling out the option of military force. Pressed by reporters on whether Palestinians might return to this real estate development programme after rebuilding (unclear by what authority a long term occupation), Trump answered that the “world’s people” would live there—“an unbelievable, international place,” finally adding “also Palestinians.” Condemnation of this proposed deal was swift and global.

synchronoptica

one year ago: 1980s edutainment screen-grabs (with synchronoptica), Fleetwood Mac Rumours (1978), Goodwin’s Law, cultural genocide in Gaza plus more McMansion Hell

seven years ago: a kiss by wire 

eight years ago: the names of fingers and toes, moral relativism, consciousness as a by-product of entropy, a flat-pack solution plus a Mondrian make-over

nine years ago: the Frinkiac Simpsons image search 

ten years ago: a bit of prose plus the Christian text book publishing industry

politically conditioned funding (12. 181)

Pursuant to an executive order issued on his first day in office calling for a ninety-day pause in foreign development assistance pending a review of alignment with US policies and efficiencies, the Department of State head Marco Rubio notified diplomatic staff worldwide that there will be stoppage to all work, according to a leaked memo, affecting all development aid and military assistance—with certain carve-outs for Israel, Egypt and emergency food programmes. Heretofore, America has been the largest donor country of global support (not without serious missteps and certainly not the only country with such largess—see previously, see also), disbursing some sixty-eight billion dollars annually for a range of projects from access to clean water, infrastructure, population health and disease monitoring, educational outreach, disaster relief, sanitation and shelter and defence, and comes at a crucial juncture for Ukraine and during the surge for humanitarian assistance for Gaza after the ceasefire, as well as hunger crises in Africa and elsewhere. The “stop work” order further is not forwarding US geopolitical influence in abandoning its network of international partnership nor serving its commercial interest as the majority of goods and services financed are sourced from US suppliers.

synchronoptica

one year ago: assorted links worth revisiting (with synchronoptica) plus more lit crit terms

seven years ago: more links to enjoy, the hidden history of saffron cultivation plus early casualties of Trump’s policies

eight years ago: sophisticated gene therapies, alternate truths plus even more links

nine years ago: first flight of the Concorde plus the chemistry of body-wash

ten years ago: NPR’s Invisibilia podcast

9x9 (12. 188)

:): :an emoticon generator to create custom expressions—unless your interface automatically turns them into emoji—via Web Curios 

amicus brief: US supreme court upholds TikTok ban—whose enforcement is punted to Trump—in violation of right to free speech but fact-checking is now censorship 

optics: Trump inaugural to be held inside the capitol rotunda, citing the weather—see Monday’s post  

my dear, clawsette, i love you very much: the 2018 SNL sketch ‘Diner Lobster’ garnered numerous accolades including an award from the People for Ethical Treatment of Animals and inspired many sequels  

artist in residence: the rotating helm of a digital creator’s demesne 

hall of fame: though a bit premature, Bob’s Big Boy’s (a favourite haunt of his) obituary for David Lynch is superlative in detail, a believer in reincarnation, Lynch “life is a short trip. We’ll all meet up again”—via Super Punch  

boosterism: EU orders X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, to surrender it recommendation algorithm with a retention directive for purview on future changes  

lol’d into submission: general reaction to the recent shooting death of the pizzagate theorist suggest that there has been a paradigm shift regarding conspiracy 

the war of iron swords: Israeli security council ratifies Gaza ceasefire agreement after a dicey delay with Trump taking credit but not responsibility if the multi-part deal crumbles, like the agreement to withdraw troops from Afghanistan, which cursed his successor 

.---- ----. ----- ....- ..--- —..: a Morse Code clock—with optional sound—via ibīdem

philadelphi corridor (12. 182)

US president Joe Biden and Qatari prime minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al Thani separately announced that Hamas and Israeli, after fifteen months of fighting and incursions into Palestinian, Lebanese and Iranian territory, have reached an agreement for a multiphase ceasefire, committing to end the war with the truce beginning on Sunday. Hostages will be freed and the end to violence will allow a surge of humanitarian aid to reach Gaza. Although basically the same peace plan proposed and endorsed by the UN Security Council last May by the Biden administration, some are crediting the pressure that in-coming president Trump exerted on the Israeli government (envoys from both teams involved in the negotiations) but significantly, the terms of the treaty are expected to be ratified under Biden’s watch—see previously. More importantly, those kidnapped and held will be reunited with their families in exchange for a thousand Palestinian civilians held by Israel and the suffering caused by this long and deadly conflict which has claimed nearly fifty-thousand lives will begin to ease. Still the consequences of all this death and destruction will have lasting effect for a seemingly intractable generational clash that has lasted decades and the killing continues up until the last minute.

a/res/3236 (12. 021)

On this day in 1974 during the General Assembly, the United Nations adopted a resolution recognising and reaffirming the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination (after the 1917 and 1948 agreements) “without external interference; the right to national independence and sovereignty and the inalienable right of return to homes and property from which they have been displaced and uprooted.” Simultaneously, the UN officially regarded the Palestine Liberation Organisation as a representative of the Palestinian people and granted observer status.

synchronoptica

one year ago: Freigeld, money with an expiration date (with synchronoptica)

seven years ago: DC’s Bible museum, dismantling net neutrality plus UK water utilities employ dowsing

eight years ago: Xerox and zines, a forthcoming Dune remake, an experimental electromagentic propulsion drive plus Trump’s dictatorial tendencies

nine years ago: the Parable of the Puddle plus assorted links worth revisiting

eleven years ago: the Noun Project

 

11x11 (12. 020)

enemy of the people: veteran journalists expect Trump to go after the press by every possible means  

net elevation: calculate the differential between the birth place and the death place of the good and the great—via Waxy 

panda diplomacy: Russia donates seventy animals to North Korean zoo with a plane sanctioned by the US normally dispatched to Syria—via Super Punch

jellyfish dream theatre: a visit to the Kamo Aquarium in Yamagata prefecture, home to the largest collection of medusazoa 

cryptobro: investigating undisclosed financial interest in various schemes, BBC trolled by Paul Logan impersonator 

icc: the International Criminal Court has issued warrants for the Israeli president, former defence secretary and Hamas’ military leader on charges of war crimes  

ai pimping: the growing industry of machine-generated influences  

exclusive gladiator experience: AirBNB’s booking at the Colosseum incites outrage  

test-fire: in response to strikes with Western missile systems, Putin orders the firing of experimental hyper-sonic armament deep into Ukraine  

allotted to companionship: a look at how a certain demographic spent their time in the 1930s as compared to today—via tmn  

grim meat-hook future: resistance to Trump’s authoritarian regime could result in a military coup—read the comments

synchronoptica

one year ago: assorted links worth revisiting (with synchronoptica) plus a lost demo tape rediscovered decades later

seven years ago: endangered elements plus more links to enjoy

eight years ago: more fun with shadows plus Eigengrau and colour perception

nine years ago: Alan Moore’s Star Wars

ten years ago: ransomware plus dialect and distinction

10x10 (11. 988)

the moral arc of the universe is buffering: an update on where we stand 

intermission: Cardhouse’s 2024 mixtape  

chimera: archaeologists re-examine ancient Roman burial and realise skeleton is composed of bones from eight different individuals that died thousands of years apart from one another  

inactivity reboot: Apple quietly introduced a security patch in its latest OS update that makes it harder to police to break into confiscated iPhones—via Super Punch  

plutocracy: the Elites have finally been defeated by the Billionaires 

text-to-brainrot: convert any PDF into an engaging TikTok-style audio summarisation overlaid with video-game footage—see previously—via Web Curios  

ye olde cheshire cheese: a gallery of the pubs of Old London  

changing narratives: new genetic evidence of Pompeii victims suggest that they were strangers comforting each other during the world-ending calamity   

the sounds of ramallah: techno Insomnia Fest in Tromsø rallies for Palestine and Lebanon  

venture alchemists: Wall Street and the broader economy brace for Trump tax-cuts, tariffs and retribution

 synchronoptica

one year ago: paper lanterns for St Martin’s Day (with synchronoptica), Republican primary debates, a banger from Frankie Goes to Hollywood plus assorted links to enjoy

seven years ago: illusion of confidence

eight years ago: snail matchmaking, a national nightmare plus Europe’s Alt-Right

nine years ago: carbon foil that mimics muscles

ten years ago: an art exhibition for octopi plus an abandoned nuclear test site just outside of Paris

the balfour agreement (11. 959)

In anticipation of control of Mandatory Palestine from the Ottoman Empire as a result of ongoing negotiation and with the express understanding that “nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities,” the British government proclaimed its support of a “national home for the Jewish people” in a missive from Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfoud to Baron Lionel Walter Rothschild on this day in 1917. The pledge to this community leader appeared in the press a week later. First drafted three years earlier to secure Jewish support in a wider war by appealing to ambitions for statehood, an exploratory committee was launched by Sir Mark Sykes (see above) but without consultation with the local Palestinian population. Although Israel did come into existence until after World War II concluded (the term used, “national home” was intentionally ambiguous and had no basis in international law, unclear how it might manifest, as a republic, a territory within the mandate or a spiritual centre), the declaration of support (with approval from the US and other Allies) strengthened the movement and has led to one of the most intractable geopolitical situations of the twentieth century and beyond.

blue line, red line (11. 855)

In a statement delivered amid the sonic booms of Israeli fighter jets conducting mock air raids in the skies over Beirut and actual strikes on the southern border, Hizbollah secretary general Hassan Nasrallah addressed for the first time publicly the coordinated denotations of booby-trapped pagers and walkie-talkies Tuesday and Wednesday that killed three dozen supposed operatives and seriously maimed thousands as low-tech communication devices exploded in orchestra after receiving the trigger signal at the same time. Israeli intelligence manufactured and distributed the rigged handheld pagers through a series of Taiwanese and Hungarian shell companies beginning in 2022 once it surmised that Hizbollah were avoiding cell phones for fear that their messages could be intercepted, and whilst this surprise simultaneous assault is arguably more targeted and discriminating than the bloodshed in Gaza, the injuries sustained happened in public, in the markets and in traffic and not on individuals actively carrying out the business of the organisation, in violation of the on prohibition on landmines and similar traps, causing mass panic and overwhelming Lebanon’s and Syria’s emergency care infrastructure. Potentially six thousand of people could have been killed all at once in this unprecedent attack. Nasrallah called the sabotage an act of war, vowing to keep fighting until aggression in Palestine ends. Though not acting during the immediate chaos, Israel is committing to this “new phase” of the war in order to return settlers to the north of the country on the countries’ disputed border region and the occupied Golan Heights.

18 usc § 953 (11. 785)

Although blunted somewhat by the clarification that the remarks were not based on original reporting but anecdotal information (just as likely to be true) that Trump has been in talks with Israeli leadership to discourage a ceasefire in Gaza prior to the election as he believed a truce—just like the US-Mexico bipartisan border security that was torpedoed in fear a solution would diminish a GOP grievance—once learned that both parties denied such conversations, these comments made amid the backdrop of protests outside of the Democratic National Convention are not only telling of the contender’s mindset but, if substantiated, in violation of federal law, namely the Logan Act, prohibiting correspondence of a private citizen with a foreign government in relation to any international dispute which could undermine the government’s position. Enacted in 1799, the law—and the only eponymous one I can think with its perpetrator  (see previously, see also)—came about in response to a diplomatic fiasco the year prior when John Adams sent a delegation to France during the Quasi-War (over America’s stiffing the French for loans that financed the revolutionary war against England) to negotiate a settled peace. Where these envoys had failed, Dr George Logan, a Quaker and state representative from Pennsylvania and member of the minority Democratic-Republican party (see previously here and here) whose platform and priorities were seen to run counter to the Federalist administration, achieved a settlement that avoided wider conflict. Trump is no George Logan. The Biden administration is working to end the violence and genocide, albeit not applying the right leverage. Subsequently made a senator for the state, Logan himself petitioned to have the act repealed but was unsuccessful and despite the association was appointed as a special emissary to Britain to stop the War of 1812 but that mission proved deficient.

9x9 (11. 776)

reduced to rubble: the razing and rebuilding of Gaza—via Maps Mania  

anniversary vinyl: Andy Baio presses a limited edition of his chiptune homage, Kind of Bloop—see previously  

hooked on phonics: New Zealand’s requirement for structured literacy in the classroom threatens bilingualism—see previously  

dnc: parallels between the 1968 Chicago convention and the upcoming one 

isogloss: the geography of the pronunciation of scone in Britain—see previously here and here—rhymes with gone  

fredkin’s paradox: thirty useful concepts to help understand the world—via Duck Soup—see also

triplicate: researchers find that the brain keeps three copies of each memory—via the new Shelton wet/dry 

von trapp: overtouristed Salzburgers air their ambivalence about the sixtieth anniversary of The Sound of Music (see also here and here)  

east jerusalem: Israeli finance minister renews call for the annexation of the West Bank

8x8 (11. 755)

hillbilly eulogy: the producer’s apparent misjudgement in adapting JD Vance’s memoir—and suggestion that Ron Howard might be playing the long-game to torpedo the MAGA ticket’s chances of ever returning to power—via Miss Cellania  

feint and parry: Ukrainian incursions into Russian territory catches Moscow off guard  

rarissima: bibliolyte, a destroyer of books, and other bookish terms  

veepstakes: the question of casting the nominees on the upcoming season of Saturday Night Live—see previously  

grit and glitter: new Museum of London logo of a pooing pigeon is dividing opinions—via Strange Company—see previously  

schrimp jesus: the origins and drivers (including Meta’s own incentives) of Facebook AI slop—see previously   

human shields: Israeli air strike on Gaza school sheltering the displaced leaves almost one hundred dead—the IDF claiming the building was being used by Hamas agents 

tim walz will teach you how to parallel park: the VP pick’s Midwestern dad energy plus the not so Midwestern origins of ope

8x8 (11. 693)

priscila, queen of the rideshare mafia: the tale of a gig-economy pyramid scheme  

fête nationale: a comprehensive list of what Americans and the French know about each other 

80s lifestyle icons: health and fitness guru Richard Simmons and sex therapist Dr Ruth Westheimer pass away  

stillsuits: researchers develop Fremen inspired garments for astronauts that improve comfort, hydration and hygiene  

my israel home: US real estate companies profiting off expanded, illegal settlements in the West Bank—see also 

paranormal phenomenon: Japanese terms for déjà vu, telepathy and incredulous serendipity 

🛒: the trend of grocery store tourism really resonates with us and a cultural experience we always are sure to have—via Nag on the Lake 

kein brot und keine ehre: Georg Christoph Lichtenberg’s correspondent’s categories of human endeavour

11x11 (11. 552)

syntax error: AI co-pilots are changing the way coders operate 

baby lasagne: a preview of Eurovision acts to watch for—see also here and here  

spaghettification: a NASA simulation shows what it’s like to be sucked into a Black Hole  

high-fidelity photogrammerty: how Google’s enhanced Street View with 3-D panoramas could again change the world of navigation and virtual exploration—see also 

breakfast of champions: the drawings and doodles of Kurt Vonnegut, Jr—see previously 

not a shared universe: a meta study on the perceived beliefs of fictional characters regarding other fictional characters  

early machinations: development notes on xkcd’s collaborative Rube Goldberg machine, an annual tradition—via Waxy 

my colours are blush and bashful, mama: Poseidon’s Underworld rewatches the 1989 star-studded Steel Magnolias  

coronal mass ejection: strongest solar storm in two decades lights up the night sky in Europe  

hind’s hall: the refreshing and unexpected entrée of Macklemore’s protest rap—see more  

syntax error: English being proposed as the new top-level coding language with the ability to articulate one’s wishes (as with a jerk genie) is of utmost importance

 synchronoptica

one year ago: Sweden passes world first personal data protection law (1973), those omnipresent cafe celebrity murals, a Trump townhall plus Nixon tries to strengthen the powers of the executive branch (1973)

two years ago: assorted links to revisit plus M (1931)

three years ago: more links to enjoy, Cats (1981), more on the Ice Saints plus the revival of night trains

four years ago: St Gangolf plus more links worth the revisit

five years ago: a sleep-over cinema plus a classic from Ottawan (1979)