11x11 (13. 450)

o’dark ocho: an interesting linguistic coincidence  

wildlife gusher: a mysterious structure found in the middle of nowhere—click through to read some delightful and illuminating explanations, via Miss Cellania  

thomas jerome newton: a rereading of the novel The Man Who Fell to Earth in preparation for a rewatch of the David Bowie film  

富くじ: Present /&/ Correct’s collection of Mid-Century Japanese lottery tickets—see also 

spook hotel: the de facto capitol of US administered Venezuela  

kleptocracy: Trump drops his ten billion dollar lawsuit agains his internal revenue service and department of commerce in exchange for a two billion dollar slush fund to award loyalists and exempt himself and associates from future tax audits—via Kottke  

œnology methodology: the study and enjoyment of wine—see previously  

special envoy: Trump sends governor of Louisiana to Greenland to make “friends”  

night nurse: the forgotten author Dora Macy behind the Barbara Stanwyck classic  

public health emergency of international concern: World Health Organisation declares west Africa outbreak of ebola viral haemorrhage fever highly dangerous with the US CDC still not allowed to communicate with the UN body  

cowcumbers: the courgette was previously called so as they were only considered fit for bovines

day seventy-six (13. 432)

Taking a pragmatic approach to the region, China lobbies for a lasting ceasefire for the region and oppose the militarisation of the Strait of Hormuz as the Beijing trip concludes. Trump expresses more frustration with Tehran but seems to soften on demands regarding taking the stockpiles of enriched uranium, as the vote on the war powers act, which would require the president to withdraw forces from the Persian gulf, fails to pass the lower house of congress by a single vote. Taipei takes silence as the best possible outcome following private talks between Xi and the US president. The only clear winners were the entourage of business executives, including the family syndicate, who secured investment deals in microchips and aerospace, with no indication that China, which purchases ninety-percent of Iranian petroleum exports, would alter its arrangement. Twice this week, Venezuela has been referred to as America’s fifty-first state, with Caracas rather nonplussed at this announcement. Renewed negotiation between Israel and Lebannon will begin over the weekend, despite intense fighting between the IDF and Hezbollah.

synchronoptica

one year ago: pigeon bells (with synchronopticæ), the Volstead Act of 1925, assorted links to enjoy plus an ancient Roman mosaic

thirteen years ago: search results and word association 

fourteen years ago: bank bailouts plus continued opposition to increasing farm yields with GMOs

hairsplitting (13. 429)

US secretary of state Marco Rubio was able to accompany Trump on his brief visit to Beijing despite being under sanctions from China—a manoeuvre more favoured by the Americans to confer status non gratis to critics—thanks to, we learn via Super Punch, to a diplomatic workaround put in place shortly after Trump’s return to the presidency and installing Rubio in his cabinet. As a senator, the Cuban-American who staunchly opposes Communism, Rubio had a long track record of stances against China, including speaking out against posture in Hong Kong and legislation that condemning allegations of slave labour and oppression of the Uyghur population and reaffirming US quasi-support for Taiwanese self-governance, garnering his ban as a possible contender for high office. Though the embargo still stands against 馬可·安東尼奧·鲁比奥 (Mǎkě Āndōngníào Lǔ Bǐào) for his words and deeds, according to the embassy, a slight linguistic, tonal shift, with a different character to transliterate lu (from 卢 to 鲁, reflecting his policy shift away from human rights issues and full alignment with Trump and possible heir apparent)—was enough to grant him entry for officials, whereas the slightest discrepancy between what’s presented one’s identity documents and voter registration rolls would merit disenfranchisement if not arrest (see also, see previously). Trump himself is referred to variously as telangpu or chuanpu by the state and in the media.  Moreover, Rubio was also seen lounging on Air Force One’s redeye flight in the track suit worn by Venezuela’s Nicolas Maduro after the US kidnapped him—steal his look. Despite the urgent focus on trade, AI-dominance and a peace settlement in the Middle East, the US softening its support for Taiwan, major producer of the advanced chips needed for advancing artificial intelligence, seems to be the objective, changing the official language from America “not supporting” Taipei independence to “opposing” it.

the shield of the americas (13. 242)

As war continues to rage in the Middle East—Trump promising to unleash unseen devastation on Iran after Tehran’s gesture of contrition for misfiring on its neighbours as a sign of weakness and imminent surrender, though the apology didn’t really signal a real change in tactics with exceptions for American assets and which may make it their eyes data centres legitimate targets, Amazon cloud services severely depreciated after servers in Bahrain were damaged—the US president is hosting a summit with like-minded leaders from Central- and South America at his Doral golf resort outside of Miami, also the venue slated for the G20 later this year. Leaders from Bolivia, Chile, the Dominican Republic, Argentina, Honduras, Paraguay and strangely given Trump’s threats over control of the canal Panama are scheduled to attend. Not invited to are three of the hemisphere’s largest economies in Brazil, Colombia and México and neighbours to the north over ideological differences as Trump tries to rally support for his Donroe Doctrine and sphere of influence among a cohort of the apparent willing whom have joined the alliance (see also) with a multinational military cooperative to counter cartels and organised crime, spearheaded by Kristi Noem. After the kidnapping of the Venezuelan president and affecting a hollow regime change, leading up to the event, Trump told the press that Cuba was on the brink of collapse and were actively negotiating for a reprieve from the crippling embargo imposed by the US, intimating that secretary of state Rubio—Lil Marco as Trump referred to him during their 2016 presidential runs, the son of Cuba immigrants, would be the country’s viceroy, a prize he has always strived for. Afterwards Trump jets off to Dover Air Force base to receive the dignified transfer of the bodies of US soldiers killed so far.

mission creep (13. 231)

McSweeney’s contributor Carlos Greaves presents a handy checklist, decision-tree answering the question does your country need a regime change with a list of binary quizzes, such as: 

Is your country a notoriously bad actor in the Middle East?
Has your leader deployed the country’s military domestically against civilians protesting peacefully?
Is your nation’s frail, kleptocractic economy being propped up, thanks in part to being a major oil exporter?
Do your leader’s supporters claim that he was ordained by God to rule? 

It reads sort of like a Jeff Foxworthy routine—you might be living under a totalitarian regime, and whilst the redneck punchline was kind of unfunny itself to begin with except as a snowclone, it’s now turned tragic and all enveloping. More at the link above.

we had boats landing there, also (13. 099)

I know that the world is growing weary of his antics and shed little insight into the chaos he is unleashing and it is best to ignore narcissists but this turn of events really floored us: the biggest DEI hire, an entitled, incompetent white man, motivated by a personal grievance that his predecessor earned a Nobel Peace prize in large part by dint of hope and relief, accepted the honour from the Latina individual who earned it, with no reciprocation. The committee refrained from comment other than to say that the award was non-transferable—nor revokable, with their decision being “final and for all time.” The only precedent for this exchange was in 1943 when novelist Knut Hamsun of Nazi occupied Norway gave his literature medal from 1920 to propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels, ostensibly in order to be granted an audience with Hitler and petition for the release of political prisoners and fairer administration on the part of the puppet government installed. The Führer was merely irritated by this arranged meeting, and Hamsun, a vocal supporter of the invasion and critical of British forces trying to undermine the occupation, was after the war tried for treason as a collaborator but due to his advanced age and perceived senility, Hamsun’s sentence was commuted from imprisonment to a significant fine. In response to being roundly shamed and rebuked at large for declaring himself acting-president of Venezuela and for continued threats to annex Greenland, whilst still touting his soi-disant credentials as a peace-maker, and levee more tariffs on anyone who disagrees with him, Trump justified his actions with a letter to Norwegian Prime Minister Støre (previously) through diplomatic channels (which frankly to my mind made it seem like a hoax—why would he choose now to go through the ambassador and not just put it out on social media, and albeit another text-book definition of Poe’s Law, did actually just happen) with being rejected for the Nobel and thus freed from the obligation to “think purely of Peace.” Trump goes on to repeat that Denmark cannot protect Greenland from Russian and Chinese incursions (Beijing called out the US and denied any such ambitions and to quit using that as an excuse and Moscow pointed out the hypocrisy though welcoming the potential collapse of the NATO alliance), also repeating his doubts about the Danish kingdom’s “right of ownership,” slightly changing his rant to there are no written documents and that a boat landed there hundreds (more specific and false figure of five hundred years hit a bit too close to Columbus, we suppose). Denmark’s sovereignty over the territory was acknowledged and confirmed by the United States government in 1917 when president Woodrow Wilson purchased the Danish West Indies by mutual agreement for what would become known as the US Virgin Islands, the Caribbean chain including Little Saint James, Epstein’s island. In his complaint, Trump also boasts he has done more for NATO since its founding, implying that American ownership would significantly boost world security.

synchronoptica

one year ago: a natural version of the Colombian national anthem (with synchronopticæ), the soundscapes of David Lynch, an interview with the filmmaker plus Trump’s memecoin

twelve years ago: bridging the air-gap 

thirteen years ago: moving day 

fourteen years ago: bypassing EU emission standards plus EU member creditworthiness 

fifteen years ago: the slow media movement 

sixteen years ago: god and guns 

9x9 (13. 089)

crisis actors: Trump supports protests of any authoritarian regime except his own 

wikipedia@25: the Free Encyclopaedia project was started on this day in 2001—see previously, see more  

demumu: popular Chinese app, “Are You Dead?” is a safety tool aimed for a growing demographic of one-person households  

fafo: thousands of World Cup fans are cancelling their tickets, prompting an emergency meeting of the football association  

the revolution won’t be televised: acute disappointment from “liberated” Venezuela—plus Trump was gifted the Nobel peace prize  

limited deployment: contingents of soldiers from European allies arrive in Nuuk to demonstrate NATO resolve  

legacy media: looming challenges for journalism outlets and studios  

mouseover title: xkcd (previously) on sailing rigs 

heimat: US Department of Homeland Security adopts another Nazi slogan

9x9 (13. 061)

flu season: experimentation with gene-editing tools suggest CRISPR may be able to stop the virus from replicating—see also

i want my mtv: a service that rebroadcasts the cable channel from its first day until they stopped playing music, including vintage commercials—via MetaFilter 

l’etat, c’est moi: Trump makes the case for his own impeachment with his Mar-a-Lago press conference on Venezuela  

fire with fire: stopping a rogue AI with an instinct for self-preservation may call for turning off the internet—or more drastic measures 

a day of love: a plaque commemorating Washington, DC police for their actions during the Capitol insurrection has gone missing on this fifth anniversary—see below, see also  

monkeybranching: Gen Z dating and relationship terminology  

donroe doctrine: Denmark demands Trump quit his designs on seizing Greenland, risks the end of NATO  

gomrath: a forgotten psychedelic masterpiece rediscovered fifty years on  

home-brew: researchers develop a vaccine deliverable by beer

synchronoptica

one year ago: European Cultural Capitals (with synchronopticæ), certifying the vote of the electoral college plus the coat of arms of Denmark changed to signal Greenland is not for sale

twelve years ago: repeating history’s mistakes

thirteen years ago: cocoa and Christmas chocolates plus the threshold of discoverability for actors

fourteen years ago: debates over fluoridated water plus American empire

sixteen years ago: boxing up the Christmas stuff 

seventeen years ago: a faded superpower 

8x8 (13. 057)

the gift of the magi: Better Living through Beowulf shares a Godfrey Rust poem for the Feast of the Epiphany  

wegmans: NewYork grocery store chain collecting biometric data, conversations of shoppers  

year of the fire horse: zodiacal facts about the upcoming annual cycle 

heavy sour crude: how realistic Trump’s designs on Venezuela’s reserves are—see more  

pea-brained: organoid culture research and experimentation raises ethical, philosophical concerns 

big brother and the holding company: the numerological and business significance of six-and-twenty  

john players’ special: the tobacco purveyor presents the celebrated gates of London 

mother superior jumped the gun: convert Elizabeth Ann Seton feted as first American saint for establishing the parochial education system in the New World

synchronoptica

one year ago: Trump does not want lowered flags for his inauguration (with synchronopticæ), the chaotic twin of Pi, the right attacks Wikipedia plus Mussolini’s Black Shirts

twelve years ago: vaping regulations, landmarks lost to progress, miniature artists plus hyperobjects

thirteen years ago: the push for green energy plus fake smiles

fourteen years ago: marginal victories plus Three Kings’ Day 

sixteen years ago: holidays unwrapped

seventeen years ago: New Year’s resolutions 

operation nifty package (13. 056)

With clear parallels to current events in Venezuela with the kidnapping and extraction of Nicolás Maduro for trial in the United States, codenamed Absolute Resolve and carried out by the same elite unit, Delta Force, the removal and rendition of Panamanian military dictator Manuel Noriega—which took place on this day in 1990 and far from the only other US intervention in the region, has some important differences, especially in terms of the timeline and chance for international bodies to process developments. On the pretext of the death of a US marine, shot in Panama City—though planning had been taking place for months in advance—America invaded on 20 December 1989, deploying nearly thirty thousand troops supported by three-hundred aircraft, targeting the weapons and drug smuggling and money laundering facilities of Noriega, a long time source and correspondent of US intelligence agencies but never president of the country, the unelected individual amassing wealth and connections through trafficking facilitated by the national army and propping up politicians favourable to the CIA until they suddenly weren’t. The United Nations, whilst not mourning over the potential ouster of Noriega, convening and condemned the invasion as a flagrant violation of international law and the sovereignty of Panama—biased polling conducted at the time by CBS news claimed to overwhelming support for US intervention, surveying only wealthy dissident populations. Unwilling to believe that after the coup he had fallen from American favour and loathe to believe tips on the impending invasion, Noriega eventually went into hiding, evading capture. The capital overrun with US troops, Noriega and four compatriots sought refuge in the Apostolic Nunciature, the embassy of the Holy Sea—granted conditional sanctuary for giving up most of his weapons and pledging not to flee to the countryside and launch guerrilla warfare. Prevented by papal concord from entering the grounds, US forces conducted a campaign of psychological torment to dislodge Noriega, blasting the compound non-stop with rock music, a limited playlist of Public Enemy’ “Fight the Power,” “Panama” from Van Halen, “Danger Zone” and Tom Petty’s “Refugee.” Ten days into the ordeal, Noriega surrendered and was detained as a prisoner of war. For his trial, all evidence from the defendant that had anything to do with payments from the US government or work with intelligence services was deemed inadmissible, Noriega spending the rest of his life behind bars.

a safe, proper and judicious transition (13. 055)

United States attorney general Pam Bondi announced that Nicolás Maduro and his wife will face charges of nacroterrorism, facing the full wrath of the US justice system on US soil. Trump has indicated that American will occupy and ‘run’ (see previously) Venezuela until it can form its own stable government and that US petroleum companies will overhaul the country’s industry so that “stolen oil can be returned.” The invasion was postponed for a few days on account of the weather.  Global reactions to this extrajudicial kidnapping and forced regime change are a chorus of condemnation with multiple calls for an emergency meeting at the UN. The US secretary of state has been in contact with Marxist Venezuelan vice-president Delcy Rodriguez, who apparently—under duress and presently in Russia—agrees to work with American occupiers—to which Trump said, sifting a sliver of facts from a load of rhetoric that includes threats to Mexico, Cuba and other liberal democracies in Latin America—Trump saying, “She’s I guess the president. She had a long conversation with with Marco and said we’ll do what you need. She had no choice.” Of Nobel peace prize laureate and exiled opposition leader, Maria Corina Machado, answering questions from the reporters for his press-conference in Florida—flanked by the usual ghouls, Rubio, Miller and Hegseth—Trump said he thinks it would be very difficult for her—“she is a very nice woman but does not have the support,” dumping her like Marjorie Taylor Greene despite her dedicating her Nobel prize to Trump and vocal support of his action.

the technate of north america (13. 054)

Given the recent invasion by the United States on the southern limit of this hypothetical map of a continental federation, a sphere of influence, self-sufficient and only requiring minimum trade with outsiders, aligned with the recently published Trump Corollary, the technocracy movement, founded chiefly by engineer Howard Scott after World War I, flourishing in the minds of many as a genuine alternative political ideology, more popular than fascism or communism, up through the Great Depression and the entry of the US in World War II—though suffering many internecine breakups and dogmatists at odds in the steering committees of the various groups and factions under this umbrella, just like Scott’s own falling out with the unionists and the IWW that first fostered his ideas, has again been garnering attention. Understandably with propagandised charts showing US influence stretching from Greenland to the north, through Panama all the way down to Venezuela, people are worried that Trump may make good on his threats of annexation by force, but Technocracy Incorporated, administered by besuited technocrats with legions of working-class followers, including one chiropractor (a suspect pseudo-science itself) from Regina, Joshua Norman Haldeman, the maternal grandfather of Elon Musk (members were required to adopt numbers in place of names, which may have inspired great-grandson XÆ A-12 as well as other notions of Musk’s), was not premised on utopian technology that would make labour superfluous and end scarcity but rather its opposite, suggesting that progress would never outpace population-growth and that the monetary system needed reform—proposing an energy theory of value to replace the price based systems of economy, privileging exchange and property and believed to perpetuate market inefficiencies. Energy input and output would replace fiat currency as a metric of labour and worth, non-fungible rationed allotments distributed to regulate the flow of energy that could not be bartered outside the system—tied to an individual’s productive credit account—and having an expiration date to discourage hoarding and accumulation of capital, as a form of technological feudalism.

news at eleven (13. 053)

Multiple large explosions registered Saturday just after midnight at the airport of Caracas and a military base within the capital, reportedly destroying the mausoleum housed there of party founder Hugo Chávez, and pre-dawn the White House, via Trump’s social media platform announced a series of airstrikes launched against Venezuela, also claiming that Nicólas Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, were apprehended and removed from the country—apparently by the counter-terrorism unit Delta Force. In the aftermath of the strikes, the president urged his compatriots to resist the imperialist invasion, which hit civilian areas as well as defence infrastructure. Trump’s message also promised a news conference to be held this morning from Mar-a-Lago, his Florida residence, possibly enough time to deliver Maduro to Trump personally.

synchronoptica

one year ago: Foucault’s pendulum (with synchronopticæ), assorted links work revisiting plus US-Cuban relations

twelve years ago: perishable items plus scouring the internet for time-travellers 

thirteen years ago: communication infrastructure 

fourteen years ago: 2012 and the long-count calendar 

fifteen years ago: the US espionage act of 1917 plus US-Norwegian partnership for spy satillites

pdvsa (13. 047)

Founded on this day in 1976 in concert with the nationalisation of the oil industry and the take over of more than thirty foreign operations, including Exxon, Mobil and Gulf, the state owned Petróleos de Venezuela (Sociedad Anónima, a limited public company) manages the largest hydrocarbon reserve in the world and oversees day-to-day of the fifth biggest exporter of petroleum, formalised as a promise of the ongoing social movement of the Bolivarian Revolution begun by Hugo Chávez and continued by his successor Nicolás Maduro as a stand against neo-colonialism, record profits generated during the OPEC embargo by Middle East producers from three years earlier. Although many cite focus on political programmes to the detriment of technical know-how and inefficiencies in extraction and refining—as well as fostering endemic corruption—the accusations do seem rather pedestrian and rather like a projection for those excluded from exploiting this resource and relentless attempts to thwart the enterprise with sanctions and diplomatic isolation. 

synchronoptica 

one year ago: a Parisien pocket interpreter, more future forecasts, Public Domain Day plus assorted links to revisit

two years ago: a tribute to celebrity deaths (with synchronopticæ) plus cinema and literature set in 2024

nine years ago: New Year’s salutations, more Public Domain Day, the International Date Line, seed banking, vintage disruptive technology plus the Japanese art of not sleeping

ten years ago: more New Year’s greetings, more links to enjoy plus more on animal cognition

eleven years ago: a past year pop-quiz, the Eurasian Economic Union plus the power of admitting contraction

twelve years ago: pig dogs plus the Order of the Ursulines

thirteen years ago: a 1987 retrospective plus guided by an occult hand

fifteen years ago: champagne and krimskoye 

operation golden dynamite (13. 000)

Though absent from the traditional pre-ceremony press conference with the prize to accepted on her behalf, awarded in absentia, Nobel peace laureate María Corina Machado (previously) did make it safely to Oslo thanks to a fraught extraction mission, codenamed with the above for the medallion and Alfred Nobel’s explosive legacy, carried out in large part by members of the Grey Bull Rescue Foundation, a group of US military veterans and expatriates that have pulled off hundreds of such operations globally. In hiding for years, the team deemed it was too risky to travel overland for the opposition leader and decided, with only a week to plan and despite the presence of the US navy off the coast and the targeting of supposed drug-trafficking boats entering international waters, to take a sea-route and rendezvous with a larger ship in the Caribbean. Secreted into the United States, a flight originating in Bangor, Maine brought her to the Norwegian capital in time for breakfast with St Lucy.

esto no es un simulacro (12. 967)

Although commercial flights had been restricted coming in and out of the country for weeks over concerns of insurance liability following the deployment of a fleet of carriers to the Caribbean and intensified rhetoric over regime change, Trump made the additional step of announcing the closure of Venezuelan airspace, hinting that ground operations would begin soon. Whilst a tried and tired tactic of the US president is too cry wolf (as outlined in his Art of the Deal) and accelerate before negotiating, it is becoming more and more apparent that his object is to secure the South American nation’s vast petroleum reserves under conditions more favourable to the US—if not exploit them entirely, as he has attempted to do with property and natural resources in Gaza and Ukraine. Counter to the narrative of drug-trafficking used to justify the extrajudicial murders of alleged smugglers on speedboats in international waters—indefensible actions currently under investigation as breaches of international law and the Geneva Conventions, especially given the secretary of war’s order to eliminate survivors from on of the strikes—and to give grounds for his regime of tariffs long recognised as idle and specious and now void with his suggestion of pardoning the actual, convicted drug-runner, former Honduran president Jose Orlando Hernandez, extradited and serving a long sentence in a federal penitentiary for bringing caches of weapons and four hundred tonnes of cocaine to the US. Clemency is furthermore contingent on election interference. Deportation flights have also been indefinitely suspended. Trump’s targeting of the administration of Nicolás Maduro is based on alleged ties to the drug trafficking gang Cartel de los Soles, which like Antifa seems to be either an unorganised collective or possibly the stay-behind elements of a operation orchestrated by the CIA assembled earlier for other purposes and both declared a terrorist group. THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION TO THIS MATTER!

u sank my battleship (12. 822)

On the anniversary of the liberation of Grenada, as the US is trying to move the USS Gerald R Ford aircraft carrier and its strike group of five destroyers to the Caribbean Sea ostensibly to launch a ground invasion to affect regime change in Venezuela with the pretence of quelling drug-trafficking by narco-terrorists (scores already killed by highly dubious and extrajudicial strikes on boats in international waters)—with support ships in the Red Sea and the Arabian Sea needing to transit through the Bosphorus and Black Sea in order to rendezvous with the carrier presently at port in Croatia—maybe the future might reckon this deployment as the opening salvo of World War III. Other countries might take advantage of a distracted America operating under the capricious orders of incompetent leadership, and the passage already dicey to say the least with the Russian assault on Ukraine and Türkiye perhaps unwilling to grant the destroyers access to the straits (see previously here and here) after being excluded from the twenty point peace process in Gaza negotiated by Trump. This announced military buildup also comes one day ahead of Argentinian parliamentary elections, which could threaten the coalition government of MAGA acolyte and ally Javier Milei—that is, if the voters aren’t persuaded otherwise.

for her tireless work promoting democratic rights or the people of venezuela and for her struggle to achieve a just and peaceful transition from dictatorship to democracy (12. 783)

Despite Trump’s laudable though contrived truce between Israel and Hamas—may the peace hold—with Netayahu leveraged to hedge in favour of a refusal on the part of the Gazan authorities to take part—and risking the ire of the American president when he realises that there are some Venezuelans remaining that he hasn’t blown up, the Nobel Committee in Oslo announced that their prize will be presented to laureate María Corina Machado, politician and activist ousted during the regime of Nicolás Maduro Moros in 2014. Although in hiding and operating an underground effort for government reform and social justice since, Machado attempted to run against Maduro in 2024, and though blocked from running lent support to the candidacy of the opposition, whom would have unseated the incumbent, according to international election observers yet refused to yield power. Nominations closed in March, with over three hundred qualified contenders put forward, individuals and organisations, including Pope Francis, champion of the plight of the Uyghur people Li Ying, Elon Musk, Donald Trump nominated by representatives of the governments of Israel, Pakistan, Cambodia and Argentina, the January Sixth congressional select committee, the Hague and NATO. Coincidentally Machado had some praise for Trump himself earlier in the year in August when the administration announced a fifty-million dollar bounty on Maduro for allowing drug trafficking into the US, carrying out a series of deadly strikes on boats in international waters said to be operated by gang members running narcotics, countering these accusations as a pretext for America-led regime change. Sore loser, Trump says that this proves that the Nobel Committee places “politics above peace,” and despite this qualified miscarriage of justice that Trump who has “the heart of a humanitarian, and there will never be anyone like him who can move mountains with the sheer force of his will,” according to a White House spokesperson, continues to be a peace-maker.

synchronoptica

one year ago: a visit to Himmelpfort and Fürstenberg (with synchronopticæ)

twelve years ago: departing for southern France 

thirteen years ago: the grammar of ornament, flowcharts plus a blank slate

fifteen years ago: Double-Ten Day and currency wars 

klein-venedig (12. 341)

Established on this day in 1528 as an outcome of the Treaty of Barcelona in which Holy Roman Emperor Karl V—also king of Spain—seeking relief from debts incurred and privately financed, granted to the Welser family of Augsburg and Nuremberg, a banking firm who claimed ancestry with the famed Byzantine general Belisarius, who reclaimed much of the land of the vestiges of the Western Roman Empire from the Vandals under Justinian I, a charter to rule, explore and colonise the territory known as Little Venice, later Weslerland (the exonym originally from Amerigo Vespucci after the Spanish equivalent), and seek out the legendary El Dorado and seven cities of gold. Governed from abroad, the colony was the German’s most significant stronghold in the Americas and though not lasting two decades before given to Spanish rule over mismanagement and the death of many German settlers and enslaved people dispatched to develop the land, the Welsers’ privilege was propagandised in later years to promote German imperial expansion in the 1880s and 1890s.

alien enemies act (12. 312)

Over the weekend, Trump deported over two hundred alleged Venezuelan gang members to an infamous prison in El Salvador, despite the a temporary stay issued by a judge stating that the right to due process for the detainees, the president saying the block was not lawful, delivered verbally and not in writing and coming after the planes had already departed the US (which according to flight records seems not to be true). Marking perhaps the first time Trump ignored a ruling, lost in the midst of everything else going on, these expulsion seem to inform—re-enforce if not merely signal loudly (though out-shouted by other news) the constitutional crisis on display in America. Citing an 1798 law codified when tensions were high with France that has only been invoked during times of war, all “subjects of the hostile nation or government shall be apprehended, restrained, secured and removed as alien enemies,” with the infamous Japanese interment camps of World War II. Gang membership or criminal association was not established during immigration proceedings and this initial dragnet detention and deportation seems based on national origin rather than a substantiated threat to the country.

synchronoptica

one year ago: a maglev train on existing tracks (with synchronoptica), a chatbot on a spreadsheet, an arch insult generator plus revisiting some abandoned settlements along the former border

seven years ago: Japanese lessons 

eight years ago: the Spanish civil war and WWII, assorted links worth the revisit plus tensions on the Korean peninsula

nine year ago: EU appeals to Türkiye to stem immigration, the distribution of primes, the knock on effects of food waste plus stochastic engineering

ten years ago: Mister Linea, a partial solar eclipse plus more links to enjoy