rëşt ộf wŏrld (13. 141)

DJ Earworm’s (previously) reprised mashup, Tops of the World, features the number one song in one hundred forty nine countries from the past twelve months, showcasing some one hundred five hits (obliviously some cross-over) is back online. This lesson in geography, music and culture expressed through dance, instrumentation and fashion as a global exchange is ambitious and inevitably ran into some legal entanglements and take-down notices due to the range of copyright laws that one would expect to have to navigate. Annotated, click through for a full listing of the samples and learn more about each source track and artist and inclusion methodology. This compilation might end the need for international song competitions. Let us know your new favourites and what you have learnt.

life in a day (13. 103)

Contributing footage captured all on a single day, 24 July 2010, some eighty thousand participants from one-hundred-ninety-two countries answering the call-for-submissions on the video hosting platform, the Ridley Scott and Kevin Macdonald (director also of biopics Whitney and Marley, State of Play, The Last King of Scotland and Touching the Void) collaboration is a crowd-sourced feature length documentary, revelatory at the time, and was previewed on Youtube (conceived in part as a commemoration of its five-year anniversary) one week prior to its premiere at the Sundance Film Festival on this day in 2011. Inspired and informed—with new media and technological possibilities—by a 1930s British sociological and ethnographical project called the Mass Observation movement—asking respondents around the UK to share their diary entries for one day per month, anonymously and answering a few basic demographic questions, in order to highlight the complexities and fullness of the seemingly mundane—and to demonstrate that everyone’s the main character in their own narrative, a touch lesson to learn, the director began the appeal for clips with a column in The Guardian, asking simple questions about people’s passions, what was in the pockets and their fears—also dispatching video cameras to people in the developing world. That particular day was chosen as it was the first Saturday following the World Cup. Several countries including Panama, Canada, India and Spain made their own national versions in the following years and a sequel was made in 2020 for 25 July during the height of the COVID-19 global pandemic and premiering just after the inauguration of US president Joe Biden.

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synchronoptica

one year ago: a planetary alignment (with synchronopticæ), the side projects of Vangelis, a longitudinal study of love songs plus more trivial maths

twelve years ago: more data breaches 

thirteen years ago: kitchen implements, self-healing construction plus workplace distractions

fourteen years ago: geopolitical meme templates 

sixteen years ago: privatising student debt 

seventeen years ago: house-hunting 

agnes english (13. 101)

The one-hit wonder from John Fred and the Playboy Band reached the top of the US singles charts on this day in 1968, holding the number one spot for two weeks with their best known song, whose title is a mondegreen of the Beatles’ track “Lucy in the Sky” which Fred initially misheard. Although never achieving the same success as the lead from their sophomore album—performing well on international markets too with Argentinian singer Anthony Swete’s version of “Judy Disfrazada” among South America’s best-selling singles of the year, very much influenced by the British Invasion, the group hailing from Baton Rouge had a sizeable discography and were active for decades in the local music scene as session performers and openers.

*    *    *    *    *

synchronoptica

one year ago: Reagan’s second inaugural (with synchronopticæ), planetary alignment plus Trump’s second inaugural  

twelve years ago: the Treaty with Respect to the Final Settlement on Germany plus psychoanalytic comics

thirteen years ago: tinkering with DNA, organic wine plus more yarn bombing

fourteen years ago: piracy and copyfight 

fifteen years ago: regional rights 

señor coconut (13. 076)

By turns curses and blessed, we are introduced to the concept album by the eponymous cultural appropriator, a techno and euro-dance producer by the name of Uwe Schmidt (aka Atom Heart), titled El Baile Alemán (The Dance of the Germans) that sought track by track to force and fuse two polar opposite genres with Latin covers of Krautrock standards—calling it electrolatino, it’s Kraftwerk meets Buena Vista Social Club. Issued in 1999 on his private label Rather Interesting, a catalogue of his solo projects under various aliases, Schmidt was inspired to experiment after living in Costa Rica for six months, having exported the rave canon he’d helped to create.

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 

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.

one unidentified sleigh powered by eight reindeer (13. 029)

Although the US Air Force had issued a communiqué on Christmas Eve in 1948 that their emerging early warning radar net to the north had detected the above interloper, the former festive report was a one-off event and it was not until this day 1955 that the North American Aerospace Defence Command launched its annual NORAD Santa Tracker, as our faithful chronicler informs, an annual tradition since spawning many homages, in response to a newspaper advertisement with a misprint. A Sears department store affiliate in Colorado Springs invited children to call Kris Kringle with their wishes but ME 2-6681 directed them actually towards the switchboard of the Continental Air Defence Command Centre, a call reaching a commanding colonel, whom after speaking to the little girl’s mother, assessed the situation and directed operators relay the current location for Santa’s sleigh, and recognising the public relations opportunity pledge to continue to monitor and if necessary defend this “undoubtably friendly” against possible attack from those who do not believe in the spirit of Christmas, a hotline crewed by volunteers to keep the commanders’ red-phone free.

brekekekèx-koàx-koáx (12. 659)

Via ibīdem, we are directed to a retrospective look at an unusual best-selling album—reminiscent of this extensive audio survey giving voice to the voiceless in this conchological glossary or the perennial fascination of music for plants—reprised on several occasions due to popular demand in noted herpetologist Charles Bogert’s 1958 recording Sounds of North American Frogs. Fifty-seven sample tracks include the cries and calls like the scream of the Southern Leopard Frog or the rain song of the Squirrel Treefrog and moreover the look at the label and provenance of this immersive, natural experience—the Folkways Records was an accession of the Smithsonian Museum for the public good—and bringing the great outdoors to one’s ears. Much more at the links above including factors that prompted reissues for such field recordings.

our great indian people, in massive numbers, want to have this (12.596)

Although unclear how the US president could interfere with the multi-billion dollar development project already allocated by the Washington, DC city council and signed into law, Trump is threatening to derail the planned new stadium under construction for the National Football League franchise, the Washington Commanders, unless the team brought back their old name, finally changed from the Redskins in 2022 after decades of controversy and criticism. Playing at a venue located in Maryland while the their ageing home RFK arena in the capital underwent renovations, the team was originally founded in Massachusetts in 1932 as the Boston Braves—again not in deference to actual indigenous people but to the disguises that American separatists wore during the Tea Party and thus even more demeaning, moving to Washington the following year. It is unclear whether the funding approval was tied to the name update. Trump further argues that the Major League Baseball franchise the Cleveland Guardians should also revert back to their old identity.

synchronoptica

one year ago: an entrepôt on the Seine (with synchronopticæ), assorted links worth revisiting, more from Marshall McLuhan plus Joe Biden steps down as the Democratic presidential nominee

patrimoine mondial (12. 590)

As NPR reports, twenty-six new sites from all over the world have been inscribed into the UNESCO list of World Heritage (see previously) for 2025, including many we’d have thought would have already been among them like the ensemble of castles commissioned by King Ludwig II of Bavaria, Jamaica’s Port Royal, the memorials of the Cambodian genocide and the coasts of Morbihan with the megaliths of Carnac, necropolises in China and Sardinia and Minoan archeological sites in Crete. Click through at the link above for a full list of the new additions with extensive information about each location.

7x7 (12. 581)

latam-gpt: frustrated with the limitations of hegemonic AIs, Latin America is building its own inclusive, nuanced version  

whatever files she thinks are credible: amid backlash and reversing a reversal of previous postures, US congress moves to release the Epstein files  

þjóðvegur 1: a twelve day summer road-trip on Iceland’s Route One worthy of a saga  

percussion section: a word-search drum machine for selection of literary classics—via Waxy  

what’s the story, morning glory: every Oasis song visualised—via Quantum of Sollazzo  

not our war: MAGA revolts over Trump’s decision to supply weapons to Ukraine, realising his fawning respect for Putin is not reciprocal 

 lived experience: editors engaged to fix AI copy 

synchronoptica

one year ago: assorted links worth revisiting (with synchronopticæ) plus the Trump-Vance ticket

fourteen years ago: a periodic table of typefaces plus holidays in France

sixteen years ago: IKEA nomenclature 

boule de lille (12. 572)

Having purchased the bright orange cheese—owing to the natural seasoning and colourant annatto, derived from the seeds of the achiote tree native to the tropics, similar to nutmeg but from more accessible climes in the American tropics and adopted by cheesemakers to imbue their product with the more intense colours of summer time cheeses year around (the higher carotene content in fresh grass that cows grazed on would pass through to the milk)—in slices at a supermarket during vacation—as opposed to a fromagerie, thinking it was the equivalent of cheddar, we were not aware that traditionally that Mimolette, originating in Nord and Lille, was created as a native substitute for the very popular variety of Edam cheese from the Netherlands. To distinguish it from the import, it was coloured, first with carrot juice and then later with the rise of the French East India Company (see previously) the more exotic spice—as are many other cheeses—and is aged as a ball, appearing like a a cantaloupe when sliced—the rind, grey-coloured, is infested with mites (see also) during the ripening process which enhances the flavour. The name comes from the French mi-mou for “semi-soft” referring to the slightly oily texture to the otherwise hard cheese.

synchronoptica

one year ago: plural forms of compound expressions (with synchronopticæ), assorted links to revisit plus Disco Demolition Night (1979)

eleven years ago: our VW bus plus the cost of camouflage 

el pueblo de nuestra señora la reina de los ángeles del río porciúncula (12. 520)

In response to rallies against US immigration and customs enforcement (ICE) raids in Los Angeles over the weekend, Trump has federalised the Californian National Guard, deploying two-thousand troops to quell the protests. Over a dozen individuals have been arrested as agitators and insurrectionists for attempting to impede law enforcement activities as ICE agents clash with residents and have apprehended more than one hundred individuals suspected of being undocumented immigrants in sweeps that have so far been limited to isolated areas in the Paramount City, the garment district and the Civic Centre. Defence secretary Hegseth also threatened to mobilise marines if the violence continues. The state’s governor counters (whom Trump referred to as Gavin Newscum for his inability to control RIOTS and LOOTERS) that there is no shortage of law enforcement officials and that Trump only wants a spectacle and an excuse to escalate the situation and urges advocates to remain peaceful and not give the administration what it wants. Preparing for such raids and mass-deportations since Trump’s reelection, the ACLU and other groups championing immigrants have been coordinating efforts for outreach and advocacy as well, with city councilmember Eunisses Hernandez pushing back on the pledge that ICE would focus their efforts on dangerous criminals, coming at the time of graduation season and Pride Month celebrations: “It’s never, ever, ever been the case, because when they come for one of us, they come for all of us—and we have to remember that.”

el arte peruano en la escuela (12. 512)

We enjoyed learning about the career and works of illustrator, textile designer and educator Elena Izcue through her 1930 inclusion of Incan and other pre-Columbian works into the curriculum of Lima’s National School of Fine Arts, much to the displeasure of some of her fellow academics aired with a very public debate—detractors finding nothing redeeming in native culture and a surrogate for a larger question of Peruvian identity. In the face of this resistance and aesthetic judgement, Izcue’s insistence and advocacy ultimately led to appreciation and a syllabus that included a set of workbooks she produced drawn from the motifs of Indigenous ceramics and fabrics and archaeological finds. Much more from Public Domain Review at the link up top.

neuspanien (12. 473)

Recalling how their leak of the covert Zimmermann telegram with the German Empire promising to award the lost territories of Texas, Arizona and New Mexico to Mexico if they invaded the United States and created a new front in the Great War in early 1917 pushed the US to engage in World War I, British intelligence forged (see also here and here) and publicised counterfeit attack plans allegedly by Nazi Germany for Central and South America—still very much considered within the US bailiwick as part of the Monroe doctrine—to motivate the administration of FDR to abandon its policy of neutrality in 1941 as Axis forces reached the French coast. The operation likely conceived by Canadian veteran flying ace and spymaster William Samuel Stephenson, responsible for British security on the continent who oversaw covert intelligence and propaganda efforts in South America, originally intended to leave a copy of the map in somewhere in Cuba in the hopes that American authorities would come across it of their own accord but it appears that Britain presented it to Roosevelt through intelligence channels directly, reportedly seized from a diplomatic courier in Buenos Aires. Presented to the American public as cautious not authentic bur rather secret (note the marking GEHEIM), it is unclear if the president was aware of its true nature.

10x10 (12. 449)

shooting the messager: the AP reporter fired and blacklisted for scooping the story of Nazi Germany’s surrender eight years ago—via Strange Company  

🚏: Shanghai metro lets riders design their own bus routes  

vision cantos: Denis Cooper on filmmaker Jud Yalkut—via { feuilleton }  

grave of the fireflies: Ze Frank (previously) on what’s happening with our bioluminescent friends  

the poyais scam: confidence tricker Gregor MacGregor’s con to lure investors in a fictional central American territory 

that’s why the apostrophe is single and not plural: the story of Anna Jarvis—the creator that later sued for the abolition of Mother’s Day 

flugsteighalle: a digital exhibition of Berlin’s monumental Tempelhof airport—previously—via das Kraftfuttermischwerk  

the madison avenue beat: a selection of vintage advertising jingles presented as a dance remix 

 corner of the city: street photographer Tong Ho Chung Howard’s most famous image captures the traditional tong lau (唐樓) architecture of Hong Kong, gradually being replaced by urban renewal programmes  

root causes: competing narratives for WWII Victory Day celebrations

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.

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.

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

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 Bogotá   

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