eighty-five seconds to midnight (13. 121)

The Washington DC based Bulletin of the Atomic Sciences advanced their Doomsday Clock four seconds forward, announced in a press release citing failure of global leadership to contain or reverse an array of existential threats including record-breaking climate trends, rogue AI, reframed nuclear pacts and bald dereliction when it comes to disease control and prevention. Inaction and lack of a cooperative framework signal that time is fast running out, though the organisation still maintains that the clock can be turned back in their annual assessment, although collapse of hard-won progress into more tribalism and nationalistic posturing does not seem very reassuring. More from the board at the link up top.

the porkkala concession (13. 117)

Operated as a Soviet naval base, leased to the USSR under the terms of the Moscow Armistice of 1944, the peninsular for a period of fifty, originally scheduled for repatriation in 1994, was returned to Finland early after eleven years of service on this day in 1956 with the displaced former inhabitants of the communities of Kirkkonummi, Ingå and Siuntio restored their lands. Hosting the bulk of the Baltic fleet and some sixteen thousand sailors and submariners at one point on the borderlands just some thirty kilometres from Helsinki, the withdrawal was based on several political factors in including the Finno-Russian Agreement of Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Assistance of 1948, Khrushchev’s shift away from Stalinism, other basing opportunities and Finland’s own post-war policy of neutrality, which also precluded its accession to NATO. Presently the Pokkala peninsula is home to main base of the Finnish naval forces at Upinniemi.

synchronoptica

one year ago: Welsh labyrinths (with synchronopticæ), assorted links to revisit plus a real life Voight-Kampff test

twelve years ago: nursing shortages, all-inclusive vacation packages plus more on the monomyth

thirteen years ago: tavern etymologies 

fourteen years ago: the potential of 3D printing plus the right to be forgotten

sixteen years ago: crafty advice plus Davos security chief found dead

8x8 (13.110)

board of peace: German chancellor declines to be a party of the administration of Mandatory Palestine, joining several other regrets-only by world leaders, and Canada being disinvited 

irl: attempts at recreating sloppy AI-generated advertisements  

📺: as the medium celebrates its centenary with the first public demonstration in 1926, we reflect on one hundred of its greatest moments  

fighting nazis since 1996: former special prosecutor Jack Smith (previously) inadvertently re-platformed and given the chance to argue his case that Trump engaged in criminal activity that was removed from the docket—more here—via Meta Filter—and thanks a Capitol police officer in the gallery wearing a Drop Kick Murphys shirt 

snowmageddon: half the US braces for a colossal winter storm  

controlling share: TikTok parent company divests itself to avoid US ban—see previously 

a word on thinking for yourself: the existential threats of AI eschatology—via Duck Soup 

stayed a little back from the front lines: a global chorus repudiates Trump’s remarks about NATO contributions in Afghanistan

the concept of a deal (13. 106)

Though met with scepticism and denial—and a protracted drama that allies will not soon forget or forgive—NATO secretary general Mark Rutte at Davos somehow managed to talk Trump back from the brink of calamity and relented on additional tariffs for European countries sending troops and materiel to Greenland and agreed himself not to authorise the use of force for its seizure. One of course needs to question the strength of Trump’s word and whether the rhetoric, ratcheted up with the invasion of Venezuela, is over now that he can claim a win, though the outcome and details of the discussion are unknown and the reasons for backing off unclear—Greenlanders and Danes not part of the conversation. Not much different in kind than the arrangement that the US has had for the autonomous arctic territory since 1951, rumours have it that the framework proposes (hardly a negotiation since if true, it would be unilateral and the other parties have not yet been informed, reminiscent of the Russian peace plan for Ukraine when Kiev has not been at the table) that a small parcel of Greenland might be ceded to the US, similar to the arrangement that the UK has with Cyprus for the Sovereign Base Areas of Akrortiri and Dhekelia, former crown colonies retained as part of the island’s independence treaty—which Britain had planned on withdrawing from completely from the mid-1970s but stayed on, mostly due to pressure from America whom wanted to keep a strategic foothold in the region—see also. After Trump’s interminably berating and bellicose opening remarks, a litany of self-congratulatory bravado and petty attacks, we’ll see what emerges but we certainly don’t believe that this crisis is over yet.

synchronoptica

one year ago: AI-aided edutainment (with synchronopticæ) plus assorted links worth revisiting

twelve years ago: phone hygiene plus the advertisements of Dr Seuss

thirteen years ago: bent icicles   

fifteen years ago: bird houses 

there is no doubt that china and russia have notice this act of total weakness (13. 104)

Shifting tactics, Trump has now cited the UK’s decision last year to hand over sovereignty of the Chagos Islands (see previously, we wonder who is putting these thoughts in his head) to Mauritius as justification for the US annexation of Greenland. Characterising the decision that the administration supported at the time of ceding control as an act of “great stupidity” because of the archipelago’s strategic location in the Indian Ocean, the terms of repatriation—generous as Britain resettled the native population in 1971 to make way for the military installation—include a ninety-nine year extension of the lease of the joint US-UK base on Diego Gargia (most of the map is water with only the outline of the tropical atoll enclosing the lagoon) so the two countries will retain ownership and access, just like in the case of the arctic island where no invasion or seizure is necessary—except after the tantrums and histrionics, American might get the boot altogether.

10x10 (13. 100)

the cameraman’s revenge: a 1912 stop-motion film featuring taxidermied insects by Ladislas Starevich—see previously  

collateral damage: Trump’s seizure of Venezuela has deliberate knock-on effects for Cuba 

the monkey’s paw curls: prediction markets and betting on everything  

a spirit of dialogue: the World Economic Forum begins its summit in Davos (previously) in moment of geoeconomic warfare 

il tormento di sant’antonio: an examination of Michaelangelo’s juvenilia, the painting (more on the subject) not attributed to the artist for half a millennium  

bic cristal: the flagship product of the French sundry firm turned seventy-five—see previously  

mercator projection: famed Flemish cartographer believed that there was a magnetic mountain, Rupes Nigra, at the North Pole, accounting why compasses point towards the arctic—see also  

snow crash: Facebook quietly discontinues the Metaverse  

vanity project: Trump has formed an intergovernmental agency to oversee reconstruction in Gaza called the Board of Peace as an alt-UN with billion dollar membership dues—see previously here and here 

how now, brown cow: back-scratching bovine causes animal behaviourist to reassess their intellect—see also

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 

hands off kalaallit nunaat (13. 098)

In response to the limited deployments of eight European and NATO partner nations over Trump’s continued threats and overtures to annex Greenland in Operation Arctic Endurance and Trump’s retaliatory levee of an additional ten percent tariffs on the participants and any country opposing the US ownership of the semi-autonomous territory of the Kingdom of Denmark, a three-hour emergency meeting was held in Brussels with strong rebukes for America’s behaviour, igniting yet other trade war when the aggressor has full-access to the strategic island in the north Atlantic. The EU, UK and Canada were united in solidarity and refused to be blackmailed further—the extra punitive tariffs on top of the not insignificant ones of ten percent for the UK and Canada and fifteen percent for the rest of Europe from a deal reached in July now void, demonstrating that they were not wrong to roll-over on this earlier appeasement plan. Russia, which stands to benefit from the turmoil in the trans-Atlantic alliance surely pleased its agent is doing its bidding, even called out the US for its double standard over sovereignty. Macron and several other EU leaders have advocated utilising the so called “trade bazooka,” the untested Anti-Coercion Instrument that bypasses the required unanimity on negotiations for the infra-national bloc and makes available an arsenal of countermeasures to deploy including sanctions, embargoes, boycotts, reciprocal tariffs and procurement, with some ninety-three billion euro in leverage on stand-by, not to be bullied into submission by dumping US debt holdings, some nine trillion in bonds and equity. Canada, meanwhile, freshly returned from China with new trade deals, announced it will open an embassy in Nuuk.

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. 084)

foreverware: Eerie, Indiana was the Stranger Things of the late 1990s 

correlation is not causation: the mullet index of South American regime change—via Quantum of Sollazzo  

thirty-six views of the eifel tower: Henri Rivière’s woodblock prints inspired by the ukiyo-e scenes of Hokusai—via Messy Nessy Chic  

yakity-yak: prolific toy inventor Eddy Goldfarb at 104—via Damn Interesting  

the high price of exceptionalism: America’s problems are solved problems  

classifieds: an appreciation of the enduring earnestness of Craigslist, one of the few remaining refugees of the early internet before everything was commodified  

waggle dance: an optical compass inspired by bee navigators  

business in front, party in back: an annual hairstyle competition at the Pennsylvania Farm Show in Harrisburg  

mr burns: a post-electric play: post apocalyptic Simpsons stage show to have cinematic adaptation

unwörter des jahres (13. 082)

The jury that selects the German Un-Word of the Year (see below) went with one of the candidates from Deutschland’s Word of the Year in Sondervermögen, meaning special assets and sparking a lot of political debate but whose nuance isn’t immediately apparent and is intentionally misleading or euphemistic language used for investment and public debt. Runners up include the metaphoric Zustrombegrenzungsgesetz, the “inflow limitation act” using terminology associated with low-flow shower heads and the like to address immigration concerns and Umsiedlung for the “resettlement” of Palestinians advocated by Israel and the US.

synchronoptica

one year ago: Unwort of the Year (with synchronopticæ), a non-alcoholic glossary, the American Dialect Society’s Word of the Year plus assorted links worth revisiting

twelve years ago: a time cafe plus terms for family members

thirteen years ago: a trillion dollar coin 

fourteen years ago: monitoring social media 

fifteen years ago: winter flooding 

sixteen years ago: a devastating earthquake in Haiti 

novus ordo seclorum (13. 081)

Though the Donroe doctrine and new world order is disruptive and regressive enough as it is with its spheres of influence and manifest destiny—as well for the unrestrained impulse for branding, there’s likely something more sinister underpinning it, though a noble joke to supporters, with the geopolitical goal aligned with the nationalist and expansionist policies of Lebensraum of the second and the third Reich. The ideology of course has antecedents in colonialism and settler mentalities, perfected in the melting-pot of America, which informed Nazism with eugenics and segregation as tools of tribalism and othering. Also saying the quiet part out loud, the principle was used as justification for Hitler’s territorial extension into central and eastern Europe, a necessity for security and survival with the mass-deportation of native populations to places like Siberia and ultimately extermination, supporting similar narratives espoused by other Axis powers, spazio vitale and hakkō ichiu, shifting dependence for trade to their own imperial hinterlands, and during a speech in December of 1940 delivered at the Berliner Sportspalast: “He who does not possess the force to secure his Lebensraum in this world and, if necessary, to enlarge it, does not deserve to possess the necessities of life. He must step aside and allow stronger peoples to pass him by. This was so at all times. The world will not be an empty one because one Volk renounces its life. Rather the Lebensraum will be filled up by other peoples, other beings. There is no vacuum in nature.” By dint of political expediency, the definition of who was German and who was not was fluid though always undergirded with a quasi-religious sense of fate.

electoral collage (13. 078)

Via Nag on the Lake’s Sunday Links, we are referred to this hypothetical map (see previously)—which albeit premised on a lot of assumptions, like the United States actually annexing Canada as its fifty-first state and continuing to having free and fair elections—illustrates what the addition of the nation’s population would mean demographically and for the political landscape. It was long assumed Washington, DC might become a state jointly with Puerto Rico but now that the latter has turned less conservative, establishment Republicans don’t want to take the risk of ceding minoritarian rule. Assuming also rules governing the apportionment of representatives as outlined in their constitution and redistricting procedures controlled by individual states hold, the enlarged America (with different scenarios played out) would decidedly skew blue in favour of the Democrats and blunt the outsized power and influence of senators from rural, low-population polities. More at the links above.

troll state (13. 070)

Though we had heard that, weather permitting, Trump finally decided to invade Venezuela and abduct the first couple after months of maintaining a standing army in the Caribbean over Maduro’s posts of him dancing after US airstrikes on a harbour, copying Trump’s signature moves, was perceived as a mocking taunt, we hadn’t had the opportunity to sit with this motivation. And so we appreciated this analysis, via Web Curios, of how political capital is content and the feedback loop of engagement, posters rather than protesters and activism, which the administration has fully embraced with cinematic announcements, a continuum of grievance, martyred influencers, re-branding and omnipresence, and seeing Maduro defiantly encroaching, not from the standpoint of national security but rather over the sovereignty of the attention economy. Diplomacy and governance per Tweet and Truth is bad enough but this polity driven by sensationalism is a step beyond and dilutes, supplants reality with propagandistic memes and betting, scandal incentivised and privileged over policy and investigation. The pictured situation room of Mar-a-Lago was a split-screen of live footage of the operation but also a social media centre and is stark contrast to the capture of Osama bin Laden. The past is another country.

synchronoptica

one year ago: the neon lights of Eastern Europe (with synchronopticæ), assorted links to revisit, revisiting the Internet of Things plus planning for Trump’s inaugural 

twelve years ago: a smart vide-poche 

thirteen years ago: a new addition to the family 

fourteen years ago: turbulence in the eurozone plus cellular tariffs

fifteen years ago: artist Robert Atkinson Fox 

8x8 (13. 069)

leturfræði: an exploration of the graphic design heritage of Iceland through its greatest, recently departed historian  

shoyu-tai: a fibre-based soy sauce single-serve container as an alternative to disposable plastic droppers  

unfcc: Trump administration announces withdrawal from dozens of United Nations chartered organisations, saying their mission does not align with the US agenda  

i’m t?w?e?n?t?y?-f?i?v?e?: artist records one word per day for a reflection on the passage of time 

amour-propre: Chinese buzzword of the year 爱你牢记 (ai ni laoji, love yourself, my dear)—see previously 

hemlock: Texas university has forbidden a professor from teaching a course on Plato  

anodyne: a Singapore based technology company invents biodegradable, paper batteries that rely on no rare earths  

gobelins: the famed French school of animation has a YouTube channel that features student films

utilising the us military is always an option at the commander-in-chief’s disposal (13. 064)

Yesterday’s summit hosted in Paris attended by a dozen EU nations—“the coalition of the willing”—during which Macron, Starmer and Merz pledged to station troops as peacekeepers in a post-armistice Ukraine, with such security protocols endorsed by the Trump administration was a significant accomplishment even though the meeting itself was rather a split-screen of trust and distrust. Russian opposition to a permanent NATO defence force makes the deployment seem unlikely to materialise and pointedly leaders, after having issued a rather vague and tepid strongly worded statement in support of Denmark and Greenland’s right to self-determination and freedom from outside interference, were questioned by the press what value the commitments carried when Washington, a threat from within, is scheming to forcibly annex the sovereign territory of another NATO partner. The overtures have turned into unveiled threats (particularly unnerving after the abduction of Venezuelan president Maduro—Afghanistan has vast untapped mineral wealth which the US was occupying but abandoned under a deal set up under Trump and few would mourn the kidnapping of the Taliban now) despite the fact the US already has a space base on the world’s largest island and has access to Greenlandic resources already with Trump arguing untruly that the Arctic sea lanes are congested with Russian and Chinese ships and that America needs a firmer foothold and greater, exclusive dominance for hemispheric security.

synchronoptica

one year ago: moderating social media (with synchronopticæ), president-elect tries to rename Gulf of Mexico plus England’s Home of Mystery

twelve years ago: skeuomorphism plus phrenological projections

thirteen years ago: an Art Nouveau candelabra 

fourteen years ago: plant updates, a typeface identifier plus a trip to the spa

fifteen years ago: global economic woes 

sixteen years ago: a look back at the Millennial Bug 

 

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