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.
Thursday, 27 March 2025
klein-venedig (12. 341)
Friday, 21 March 2025
tv.garden (12. 326)
Via the always stupendous Web Curios we are directed to a rather amazing resource that brings together thousands of live-streaming stations from around the world, covering nearly every country with dozens of free-to-air broadcasting for each. Point to a country and flip through the channels for a compelling glimpse of local reporting, talk-shows, soap operas, music videos and commercials with the obligatory home shopping networks. I’m not one to have television on in the background generally or with the patience to channel-surf but found this surprisingly absorbing and like a mini-vacation with a much broader selection than on hotel tv.
Monday, 17 March 2025
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 Tรผrkiye 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
Wednesday, 12 March 2025
9x9 (12. 297)
ei-ei-o: a comparison onomatopoetic words for animal sounds across different languages—via Waxy
acrostic: textile company’s branding has the aesthetics of concrete poetry
destiny narrative: an omnibus post on the horrors and avoidability of war
analog society: a British group performs live mash-up of notionally similar songs
tectonic independence: why Greenland is an island and Australia a continent—see also
360: Manhattan’s only revolving restaurant to reopen
telephone game: Russia demands details from US before agreeing to any ceasefire agreement in Ukraine
cross-walk: mimes direct traffic in Bogotรก
an old error has more friends than a new truth: proverbs and idioms from around the world
synchronoptica
one year ago: assorted links to revisit (with synchronoptica) plus more FOIA follies
seven years ago: raising awareness for prosthetic limbs, Japan’s residential towers plus more links to enjoy
eight years ago: provisions requiring employees submit to DNA screenings
nine years ago: what if the Singularity already happened, the doorway effect plus colourful ancient statuary
ten years ago: Disney reboots, even more links plus more made-up jobs
Saturday, 1 March 2025
eo 10924 (12. 269)
Established on this day by executive order from John F Kennedy and authorised by the US congress later in September, the Peace Corps is an independent agency of the federal government that trains volunteers and deploys them to local communities around the world to assist developing countries in health and environmental programmes, education, empowering women and the marginalised and making resilient polities that enshrine American values of democracy, free markets and entrepre-neurship, respecting local customs and norms by embedding participants with a command of the prevailing language and living under the same general conditions as their outreach group. Pitched as missionaries of democracy to provide technical advice and assistance, the Corps dispatched some nine hundred volunteers to fifty-two partner countries in its first year, Kennedy committed to its formation in the final days of his presidential campaign—realising the potential to genuinely help people in post-colonial Asia and Africa and counter stereotypes of US imperialism and hegemony—against his opponent Nixon who called the proposal a magnet for draft dodgers and a “cult of escapism.”
Tuesday, 18 February 2025
10x10 (12. 241)
bustin by numbers: bizarre 1990 edit of a Peter Greenaway film featuring an instrumental version of Young MC’s hit
mazinibaganjigan: the art of birchbark bitings, practised by the Objiwe and Algonquian peoples
twenty-two nautical miles: Mexico threatens to sue Google over the change to the gulf’s name

acolyte: a profile of the actual Nazis overrunning the US government—via Kottke
paypal mafia: Trump administration is clawing back funds already disbursed and has designs to gain control over banking and wire-transfers
the molotov-ribbentrop pact: historic examples—with devastating consequences—of not inviting all parties to the negotiating table—via Damn Interesting
deemed accomplices: Sheinbaum warns us renewed legal action for US gunmakers over complicity if drug cartels are designated as terror groups
a very large faucet: water-sharing treaties between Canada and its neighbour to the south have attracted unwanted attention
you say neato, check your libido and roll to the church your new tuxedo: that’s Flea from the Red Hot Chilli Peppers on jazz bass
Sunday, 16 February 2025
12x12 (12. 237)
little sisyphus: a challenging NES-style side-scrolling game—see previously—via Waxy
behind every robot that turns evil there’s an engineer that installed red diodes in its eyes in anticipation: Meta wants to create AI powered robots to do your chores
quipu: the largest known superstructure in the Cosmos, named for the corded knot accounting of the ancient Inca culture—via Strange Company
parataxis: storytelling loves a list
i will say this only once: John J Hoare responds to a video take-down notice for reposting an old clip—that suggests that YouTube is focused on hate speech against Nazis

pump and dump: nothing to see here, just another perfectly normal president pulling the rug out from under his country with a memecoin
return to forever: Chick Corea and friends at the forty-third Jazzaldia festival
stairwell of the quarter: more on the design efficiency of alternating tread stairs
nanook of the north: Robert J Falherty’s 1922 documentary on the Inuit
how many department of government efficiency employees does it take to screw in a lightbulb: a look at DOGE at work—via Nag on the Lake
windows, icons, menus, pointers: a cursor dance party—via Pasa Bon!
elizabeth peratrovich day (12. 237)
Civil and indigenous people’s rights activist (born with the Tlingit name แธดaax̲gal.aat, “person who packs for themselves”) Elizabeth Peratrovich (nรฉe Wanamaker) is celebrated on this day in the state of Alaska for championing the Anti-Discrimination Act of 1945—on the anniversary of the passage of the bill in 1945, which was the first law of its kind enacted in any state or territorial possession of America. Overt racism from white settlers towards native peoples was widespread and included segregation in public spaces, shops and schools along with diminished job prospects and exclusion from white neighbourhoods. Several attempts beginning in 1941 to pass legislation failed in the district’s senate with the campaigner and her tribe characterised as primitive—a lot of “white man’s burden” theatrics. Nevertheless Peratrovich persisted, responding to the insults: “I would not have expected that I, who am barely out of savagery, would have to remind gentlemen with five thousand years of recorded civilisation behind them, of our Bill of Rights.” The bill passed and signed into law by the governor nearly twenty years before one was adopted on a national level. It is unclear whether Alaska, in the current political climate, gets to keep the holiday and the history behind it—with it being dictated what it can call its mountains and Denali being re-flagged again after a populist president with imperial ambitions and a penchant for tariffs.
synchronoptica
one year ago: AI does text-to-video (with synchronoptica) plus Russian opposition leader found dead
seven years ago: US school shootings plus nominative determinism
eight years ago: cognition in non-human animals
nine years ago: subversive merit badges, rodeo tailor Nudie Cohn plus upper- and lower case
eleven years ago: an action figure collection plus the state of education in the US
Thursday, 6 February 2025
aplicรณ (12. 208)
The amazing mastery of Andean weaving and dyeing that surpassed the craft as known to Europeans at the time of contact is showcased in the vivid patchwork tunics of the Wari (Hurari) tribe, centred in what is now the western province of Ayacucho in Peru, which were well-preserved in desert burials. Surviving textiles also including hats and tapestries as grave goods, featured abstract motifs—possibly coded and too make through geometric distortions to make the wearer appear larger and more imposing befitting of their rank. These garments, whose requisite skills and traditions predate the Conquista by hundreds of years (circa the sixth to the tenth century) and have been transmitted and appropriated to an extent by successor cultures, both pre-Columbian and settlers, imparted as tribute along with treasure, but none can compete with this ancient that involved the multidisciplinary practise that involved exotic pigment-sourcing and precise llama husbandry for the ideal substrate, revealing social stratification and hierarchy. View a whole gallery at Public Domain Review at the link above.
synchronoptica
one year ago: assorted links worth revisiting (with synchronoptica) plus Saint Mรฉl
seven years ago: women’s suffrage in Britain (1918), MLK, Jr on capitalism, more links to enjoy plus a vocabulary lesson
eight years ago: amoeboid robots
nine years ago: the evolution of corporate logos, high-definition rewatches plus threatening dust bunnies
ten years ago: vaccine scepticism plus even more links
Friday, 31 January 2025
12x12 (12. 196)
happy to be hard core: a sampling of the genre produced on Amiga computers—via Web Curios
biodiesel: grassroots efforts opposing plans to transform Hungary into an EV battery manufacturing hub—see previously
pc gamer: vintage scans of computer and arcade hobbyists’ magazines
eureka moment: the account of the rediscovery of one of Archimedes’ lost manuscripts—see previously
signature block: as part of Trump’s attempt to redefine gender as a sexual binary and “defend women,” US federal workers are directed to remove preferred pronouns from their emails
the cruel kids’ table: a look at the resurgent fratocracy of Americans under thirty, as witnessed at Trump’s inaugural parties
hexaflexagons: fun with paper models—via MetFilter
m23: Rwandan-backed rebel forces take provincial capital of Goma in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, possibly with designs on annexing the eastern region
hold the line: the new legal council of the US Office of Personnel Management (previously and under new management) is a soi-disant “raging mysogynist”
clu clu land: the Video Game History Foundation opens its archives to the public—via Ars Technica
doggerland: archeological exploration of the submerged North Sea region
mixolydian mode: compose chords and compare output in a range of dozens of scales—see previously—via ibฤซdem
synchronoptica
one year ago: a film by Rosa von Praunheim (with synchronoptica), assorted links to revisit plus another banger from ABBA
seven years ago: telepresence, more links to enjoy, credit for the discovery of x-rays plus an executive order from the desk of Richard Nixon
eight years ago: film-strip leader ladies
nine years ago: even more links plus perspectives in price-lists
ten years ago: chance decision-making, the mad monk plus electromagnetic moats
Friday, 24 January 2025
alasitas (12. 178)
Derived from the Aymara word “buy from me” and evolving from an annual event pre-dating European contact that involved communal prayer for good crops and an exchange of staple goods, evolving over time to accommodate missionary teaching and colonisers’ sense of acquisition, the month-long fair in La Paz—and other Bolivian communities—honouring Ekeko (Iqiqu), the indigenous god of abundance, begins today at noon. Similar to the paper votive offering given and received for Lunar New Year’s celebrations, people purchase miniature plaster representations of luxury items that they hope to get in the coming year from artisans and have them blessed by shamans and local priests.
Wednesday, 25 December 2024
the fees being charged by panama are ridiculous, especially knowing the extraordinary generosity that has been bestowed to panama by the us—this complete 'rip-off' of our country will immediately stop (12. 111)
Though US president-elect Trump’s stupid antics are already too much to keep up with, they become too hard to ignore once the enter the territory of diplomatic crises and quashing internationally agreed upon norms of behaviour. A bundle of such instances can be traced to a recent assertion that America can and should reclaim the Panama Canal because of perceived unfair transit fees applied to US flagged vessels (never mind how America tanked British supremacy over a similar squabble in the Suez)—which seem to have antecedents in a Trump branded hotel in the capital that failed to pay Panamanian income taxes and social security for employees. The operation and management is administered (since New Year’s Eve 1999 when the US handed over the concession) by the Panama Canal Authority, a government agency which considers the waterway inalienable patrimony. Per the Torrijos-Carter treaties (see above) negotiated in 1977, America retains a right to defend the canal from threats to neutral operations but holds no claim to it. While there are two ports in the isthmus operated by China, there are no indications that American ship traffic has been affected, though imposing higher transit fees on non-US carriers might be seen as a way to bolster planned universal tariffs. At the same time, Trump is also renewing calls for the sale of Greenland to America (following offers to annex Canada as the fifty-first state), calling ownership and control of the Danish autonomous territory “an absolute necessity” for reasons of national security and global freedom. Neither property is for sale.
Saturday, 21 December 2024
solstice (12. 099)
Also referred to as the Southern Solstice not to privilege the Northern Hemisphere (see previously, see below) when the Sun pivots directly over the Tropic of Cancer, marking the shortest and longest day of the year depending on one’s climes, at the extremes nearest the poles in the Baltics and Russia there are zero hours of daylight as compared to fifteen plus in Australia, Oceania and South America, NPR has a list of suggestions for observing this change in seasons occurring today from the Stonehenge live-feed, special concerts to sampling traditions and customs (see more) from around the globe plus tips for a little self-care as we cannot opt just to hibernate this time out.
synchronoptica
one year ago: Midwinter Night traditions (with synchronoptica), Strange Paradise plus Christmas cards from Dan Quayle
seven years ago: Trump moves the Israeli embassy to Jerusalem, what do you call a world that can’t learn from itself, a sleek sedan plus no more email signature blocks with motivational quotations
eight years ago: assorted links to enjoy, Christingle plus the VR experience
nine years ago: a new HTTP status code that calls out censorship plus the sewers of Wiesbaden
ten years ago: the Russian rouble and the Dutch Disease plus 2014 in review
Tuesday, 22 October 2024
10x10 (11. 923)
potalapitsi: a 3D resin replica of ancient Wauja cave carvings presented after the original was vandalised is helping keep their tradition and ancestral wisdom alive
stop the steal: the Trump campaign’s coup endgame—via Kottke
waymo: robocars circling the block
pumpkin spice: the untold story of the rebellious photographer that helped found the tradition of craft beer and the seasonal flavour
๐ป: guide to converting one’s haunted mansion to an AirBNB
grab-bag: vintage trick-or-treating paper sacks
ใ : revisiting a demonic number
charter cities: how wealth redraws geopolitical borders
because i was not a trade-unionist: the political implication of mass-deportations
hillfort: a preserved early Celtic wooden chamber tomb
synchronoptica
one year ago: assorted links to revisit (with synchronoptica)
seven years ago: Trump’s possibly fake Renoir, a two party system plus the first and only Space Cat
eight years ago: ICANN meets, turning leaves plus a massive internet outage that could impact the US election
nine years ago: more links to enjoy, time-travel plus even more links
eleven years ago: sacred architecture in France, Chartreuse plus lavender cultivation
Saturday, 5 October 2024
dromomania (11. 887)
Returning to his hometown of Waseca, Minnesota from the west, having departed on his journey accompanied by his brother and a mule nearly four years earlier and setting forth eastward, on this day in 1974, having walked just over twenty-three thousand kilometres, Dave Kunst became the first independently verified individual to have circumambulated the globe. Received by Princess Grace in Monaco and by chance meeting fellow adventurer Thor Heyerdahl in a restaurant in Italy, the epic walkers solicited donations to UNICEF along the way. Denied entry into the Soviet Union, about midway through their journey, the team continued through India and Afghanistan, where the two were tragically ambushed by bandits who believed they were carrying the monies pledged to the United Nations’ emergency children’s fund, killing his brother John, but Kunst finished after months recuperation, joined by his older sibling Pete. After the loss of his mule in the Australian Outback, a schoolteacher, who Kunst became enamoured with and eventually married, towed his supplies with her car for a thousand miles at walking pace, Dave keeping up alongside. Kunst’s trip consisted of twenty million steps and went through twenty-one pairs of shoes.
synchronoptica
one year ago: wine and quinces (with synchronoptica)
seven years ago: drawing logos from memory plus biofuels from moss
eight years ago: turning Twitter into a public utility, ghost signs plus an unpopular file format
nine years ago: the Norman Conquest and the Divine Right of Kings
ten years ago: Roman tax regimes
Saturday, 28 September 2024
antรกrtica (11. 879)
Established in April of 1984 with the second person born on the continent in November of that year, we learn via Nag on the Lake of the larger of two permanent settlements just north of the Antarctic Circle on King George Island that is not a research outpost. With about one hundred fifty inhabitants during the summer and eighty hardy souls in the winter, the remote Villa Las Estrellas which arguably seems to exist in order to legitimise the Chilean claim against the overlapping British and Argentine ones—the latter having founded Base Esperanza in 1953,
the community of fourteen homes has several amenities, though some like the school, souvenir shop, hostel and the post office which formerly was a significant draw for philately fans seeking to have a stamp cancelled with an Antarctic post mark seem to have closed in recent years at least temporarily, but the infirmary, fitness facility/cultural centre and library remain to support the community. More southerly and significantly smaller with a civilian population of only ten families, the Argentine settlement seems better outfitted.
Thursday, 26 September 2024
9x9 (11. 874)
must contain the characters #@^*!: US regulatory body that sets standards for government agencies issues guidance that urges the end of vexing password compliance rules
landscape of faith: church-to-residential development is in some places easing the housing crisis
ertunet crater: planetoid Ceres may harbour potentially life-sustaining oceans like Europa
hippopotami: the phenomenon of Moo Ding seems likely the natural conclusion of art history—see also
regency era: unofficial Bridgerton Ball Experience leaves attendees feeling scammed—drawing parallels with another disappointing and pricey event
outrรฉ west: eight radical architectural works from western America (see previously)
huaca de la luna: brilliantly painted throne room of a seventh century Moche female leader discovered in northern Peru
the creepy hallways of the built environment: American suburbs are a horror show
universal media disc: the challenges of conserving good data in the age of AI and shuttered, zombified outlets—via Damn Interesting’s Curated Links
geoglyph (11. 872)
With the aid of AI, researchers have uncovered three hundred new Nazca Lines previously unknown—nearly doubling the number of these ancient, massive figures impressed in the ground of the Peruvian desert only discovered with the advent of air travel—bringing older, faded and weathered ones into sharper focus. The cultural purpose of these designs that are only appreciable from a bird’s eye perspective are an enduring mystery but this new cache of images (we hope they’re not machine hallucinations) will provide insights into the people who created them and include fantasy creatures, orcas, llamas and a depiction of human sacrifice.
synchronoptica
one year ago: AI on fake virality (with synchronoptica), the tarot art of Leonora Carrington, the thermodynamic history of the universe plus a solar observatory in Potsdam
seven years ago: self-marriage, assorted links to revisit plus US Homeland Security monitoring social media
eight years ago: Keats’ To Autumn, mirror spiders plus remediative meditative sessions for elementary school
ten years ago: lexical gaps and the European Day of Languages
eleven years ago: German fondness for abbreviation
Sunday, 11 August 2024
7x7 (11. 758)
pop quiz: extended CVs of classic game show hosts
pass the mayo: condiment’s dynamic nature could help solve containment challenges for nuclear fusion
wingnut: a South Berkley salvage store turned museum—via Nag on the Lake’s always excellent Sunday Links
cocรณnonรณs: a Bogota-based fusion band—possibly named after the ill-fated Tiki drink shared with Geordi La Forge and Christy Henshaw on their first date
bias towards coherence: Trump’s latest on rally attendance and his greatest hits
the type specimen of humanity: the designated permanent reference for Homo sapiens is Carl Linnaeus
magick show: Richard Metzger’s latest occult project
synchronoptica
one year ago: cutting archived content for the sake of SEO (with synchronoptica), a racist brawl in Alabama plus multi-hyphenates
seven years ago: reproductive awareness
eight years ago: ant wars, Martian landscapes, disproportionate and xenophobic calls for burqa bans, a floating home in Canada plus Facebook and clickbait
nine years ago: Liberia and the US
ten years ago: a party at Neuseenland plus the geopolitics of terrorism
Saturday, 13 July 2024
beaumont slope (11. 686)
In anticipation of eventual ratification of the 1994 UN treaty, the Convention of the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS, see more), the United States quietly staked claim last month to its extended continental shelf in the Arctic so were it to become a signatory, it would be joining on its own terms with boundaries already delineated. The move did not go unnoticed as other member nations have also tried to assert, under the treaty, their own territorial reaches in the far north and the American declaration of what’s theirs by dint of geological affiliation, an area of the seabed the size of California which overlaps with the exclusive economic zones of Canada, Norway, Denmark and Russia, rather than political flag-planting and is seen as contentious and a sign of continued American exceptionalism, manifest destiny flouting customary and international law. More from Radio Free Europe at the link above.
synchronoptica
one year ago: the search for past life on Mars (with synchronoptica) plus the Hollywood sign (1923)
seven years ago: assorted links worth revisiting plus a million dollar heist
eight years ago: camping in Metz
nine years ago: missing the Dalai Lama plus the Bechdel Test
eleven years ago: a furlough for US federal workers, psychiatry and sainthood plus a choreographed panopticon