ptable (13. 922)

Via Quantum of Sollazzo, we are redirected towards a suite of interactive data tables in development since 1997—quite a change log to keep apace with increasing sophisticated user interfaces and scientific discovery— that cleverly lets one explore the chemical elements by any number of parameters of properties and then, as an encore, applies the data visualisation and organisation to taxonomy to survey the entire Tree of Life, every Kingdom, Phylum and Class down to families and species, accessible and with links to Wikipedia articles for the whole inventory. The resources and network is maintained by Michael Dayah.

*    *    *    *    *

synchronoptica

one year ago: a banger from Baccara (with synchronoptica), the fantasy maps of Ursula K Le Guin, Dial-a-Poem, an abecedary of British folklore plus more AI christo-fascist propaganda

two years ago: Bezos’ owned Washington Post declines to endorse a US presidential candidate, a temporary monument for the January Sixth rioters, a seasonal treat from Louie Zong plus assorted links worth revisiting 

three years ago: outsider artist Robert Martiensen, more links to enjoy plus the discovery and development of the petroleum industry presented as the Bayeux Tapestry

four years ago: another MST3K classic plus further adventures in Crete

 

five years ago: Antarctic outposts plus a funicular escalator to revitalise a historic resort

six years ago: an experimental solar sail, artist Mary Moser, a smart safety helmet plus a commemorative camera styled after Bond’s Q

seven years ago: toying with time

eight years ago: a counter-march in Wiesbaden, AI Halloween costume ideas plus Yoko Ono’s Warzone

 

day two hundred twenty (13. 884)

Following more dementia-laced claims, Trump posts that drilling will soon begin in our Greenland. Increasing surveillance and sinking more ships, Tehran vows to keep fighting until the US concedes to their conditions. The UN issues more warnings of a food crisis as as plans to allow shipments of fertiliser through the Strait of Hormuz stall. Houthi rebels are positioned to take the city of Taiz as residents caught in the crossfire of the civil war experience deteriorating conditions. After raids on her home, the Trump administration seeks to strip congressional representative Ilhan Omar of her citizenship and deport her. Russian attacks leave hundreds of thousands without power in Kyiv and Ukrainian forces find their military response hampered over throttling Starlink access. Israel blocks the construction of key base to house one hundred fifty international troops for Trump’s Board of Peace in Gaza.

day two hundred thirteen (13. 860)

Canadien separatist party wins provincial elections in Quebec—promising another referendum on leaving the nation, but not whilst Trump remains in office. The internationally recognised government of Yemen claims gains in counteroffensive with the Houthis, retaking the port city of Mocha. Washington issues further warnings to foreign financial institutions doing business with Tehran, saying they may be subject to sanctions without notice. Garnering strong denouncement from the state’s governor, Trump intimates that Iran could “take out Los Angeles or San Diego,” maintaining that the pain at the pump is a small price to pay to ensure that the Islamic Republic never obtains a nuclear warhead. At the same rally in Nebraska, the American president brings auto-pen Natalie Harp on stage to sign an impromptu executive order rescinding the federal excise tax on so called red-dyed diesel and allowing any one to purchase it, whereas beforehand, it was the reserve for agriculture. Whilst this manoeuvre may temporarily lower prices by the 24¢ per gallon that government taxes, it does nothing to increase supply or address delivery shortfalls, and perhaps worse than doing nothing, it could create shortages for farmers who use the off-road formulation (it is normal fuel, just coloured to differentiate it from non-tax exempt sales and not at all related to that bizarre hoax a decade ago involving “red mercury” in hopes to extract the mythical substance from antique Singer sewing machines in hopes of miniaturising atomic weapons) during harvest season, stripping the Department of Transportation of revenue for highway maintenance and perhaps increasing prices overall with new demand pressure. Despite the weak US dollar, the euro looses value as contagion fears spread over the French bond market. IDF storms Bethlehem and demolishes homes in East Jerusalem.

synchronoptica

one year ago: US television networks decline request to pre-empt programming to carry a presidential speech from Ford (with synchronoptica) plus aura farming

two years ago: more adventures on the Mecklinburgischer Seeplate 

three years ago: touring the Mainschliefe plus island universes

four years ago: more research in the paranormal plus a 1975 McDonaldland mascot specification manual

five years ago: more streamlined designs,  a unique underpass plus a beloved Soviet cartoon character

 

six years ago: Trump emerges recovered from COVID, fascist nihilism, assorted links to revisit plus the first exoplanet confirmed (1995)

seven years ago: German-American Day

 

eight years ago: more fascist nihilism plus Carter debates Ford (1976)

 

day two hundred twelve (13. 858)

The Revolutionary Guard command claims that US forces in the Persian Gulf have retreated to a distance of a thousand kilometres from Iran’s borders and that the amount of oil transiting the Strait of Hormuz under American naval escort is negligible, pledging that the water will remain closed until Washington satisfies the pre-conditions it agreed to. Israeli developers have diverted water from Palestinian farmers in the West Bank for a tourist attraction called “Herod’s Pools.” The head of the Yemeni government in Aden announces major escalation in fighting Houthi rebels to wrest back control of Bab al-Mandeb. US pulls out B-2 bombers stationed RAF Fairford following arrests in foiled terror plot. The US is closely monitoring a suspected case of the pneumonic plague after the death of a technician in a Siberian research laboratory, fearing a genetically modified strain of the bacteria has escaped containment and prompting travel restrictions. Brazil heads to a presidential run off with polling between challenger Flávio Bolsonaro and incumbent Lula too close to call. A Kelvin Wave caused by El Niño conditions creeps towards southern California and Alaska, expected to raise coastal sea-levels by half-a-metre with a single crest and trough.

synchronoptica

one year ago: graphic designer Mikro Ilić (with synchronotpica) plus assorted links worth the revisit

two years ago: circumambulation plus a houseboat on the Havel

three years ago: a hike through the vineyards of Escherndorf 

four years ago: the tarot of Austin Osman Spare, the world’s mass transit systems plus Breakfast at Tiffany’s (1996)

five years ago: more links to enjoy plus Tubular Bells

 

six years ago: Civilisation comes to American audiences (1970), Athens’ underground, the blessed Rosario Longo, a glass model of the coronavirus, IKEA’s back catalogue plus apologies in good standing

seven years ago: late Thursdays in Germany, more links to check out plus more poetic graffiti

 

eight years ago: an outstanding collection of vintage travel posters, legislating Scotland on maps plus more memorable fonts

 

 

10x10 (13. 807)

the alignment problem: the insincerity of Big Tech on the pause and the incoherence of fascism (a bundle of sticks) 

aspect ratio: using a train or ferry as a massive flatbed scanner  

coliseum: Trump administration may just demolish the Kennedy Centre, replacing the national stage with an amphitheatre  

new harmony: the failed utopian commune of southern Indiana—see previously  

pokémon sleep: giant ball opens as guest lodging in the woodlands of Hokkaido 

joe cool: Hallmark’s custom university posters that played to institutions’ reputations as party schools  

safety curtain series: each year, the Vienna State Opera brings large format art to its proscenium—see also regarding fire curtains 

the apprentice: a biography of Roy Cohn (see previously here and here) and his influence on Trump’s politics of resentment

vinkenzetting: a DIY electronic-ink picture frame sketches birds by identifying them by their call  

the chinese room: a thought experiment by philosopher John Searle in 1980 arguing that a computer executing a programme cannot have a mind, understanding or consciousness

synchronoptica

one year ago: Trump, Epstein and a State Visit to the UK still on schedule (with synchronoptica), the US National Security Act of 1947 plus the Ig Nobel laureates

two years ago: assorted links worth the revisit 

three years ago: contingency elections to bypass the US electoral college 

four years ago: a photo from Voyager I that puts everything in perspective, St Joseph of Cupertino, photographer Harold Feinstein plus triangulating Instagram

five years ago: your daily demon: Stolas,  anthrax in the mail, arcade animations, more on Wikipedia edit-wars plus post-Brexit UK planning to return to Imperial Measurements

six years ago: vaporware and its antecedents, “producing geese,” “without worries,” the Interkosmos Group plus AI tries to create a universal and enduring warning for the ages

seven years ago: US congress debates abolishing the Electoral College, taboos surrounding talking about death, Germany Calling! (1939) plus flight-shaming and train-bragging

eight years ago: keep-sakes,  more links to enjoy plus a hydrogen powered locomotive

 

lüneberger heide (13. 699)

Departing Leipziger Neuseenland and the city, we continued on the second leg of our trip towards destination with an overnight stop at the Lüneberg heath. We were in part motivated to pick Denmark for this vacation out of a sense of guilt for having bypassed the country on more than one occasion and wanted see what it had to offer, but it’s always a matter of making decisions and compromises especially when one is on a schedule and has an agenda and driving with a caravan in tow which is not so conducive to impromptu detours We passed through some very beautiful landscape for a windshield tour of Niedersachsen, Celle and environs with its picturesque Altstadt, Baroque palace and block upon block of Fachwerk houses, went through the former checkpoint between West and East Germany at Helmstadt-Marienborn, the largest and most transited Grenzübergangstelle on the Bundesautobahn linking Saxony-Anhalt with the reconstituted state (Land) of Lower Saxony with its high DDR guard tower, aware only of our own nearby one, once divided and drove past the memorial site of the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp and the village of Klein Amerika on the edge of the Wietzendorf moor, the location of a potato starch extraction factory, with the Stadtschilder among the biggest draw and interestingly where the streets have no names, only house numbers—requiring some orientation for visitors and deliveries. 

We’ll be back one day to see more of the heath, the nature reserve that comprises the hinterlands of Hamburg, Hannover and Bremen, created by clearing woodland and overgrazing on sandy soil—most areas reforested, urbanised or given over to other forms of agriculture, the landscape surrounding Lüneberg keep in this state by a specialised breed of moorland sheep called the Heidschnucke. We mostly explored from our short-term camping pitch, afforded the amenities of the connected resort that had the clashing aesthetic of campground kitchen, which is perfectly acceptable for any length of stay, and the self-promotional sort peppered with AI generated art work and instructional material, posters of the region in the style of WPA-era works clearly generated and dumb and unnecessary guidance, like zero-effort machine made menus and daily specials, that made me hate it a little bit in spite of the nice location.  The grounds were quite nice, with plots of heather, a natural bathing pool and some pigs with a little wooden sty that made me wonder if they were Odysseus’ crew transformed by Circe. 

*    *    *    *    *

synchronoptica

one year ago: Markkleeburger See (with synchronoptica)

two years ago: more on teletext pages plus US vice presidents’ day

three years ago: a classic from The Small Faces 

four years ago: a promotional short from Bell Labs plus an homage to the history of film

five years ago: assorted links worth the revisit plus the 1975 Song of the Summer

six years ago: disabling automatic formatting, a coffee table book on tarot, more links to enjoy plus the martyrdom of Edith Stein

loosdrechtse plassen (13. 683)

Via our fellow internet peripatetic, Messy Nessy who’se got a flashy new revamped site, we discover the Dutch community where residents reside on narrow islands on a vast shallow lake in a water sports park and nature reserve between Amsterdam and Utrecht between the canals of Hilversums and Tienhovens. 

Originally the area was a peat bog considered too soggy for agricultural purposes or to excavate for fuel purposes and dredging and removal of dry peat (vervening or turfwinning), with natural weathering and erosion taking its course after usable material was exhausted creating plassen—puddles between in the furrows between, expanding to their present size. 

It reminds us of Leipziger Neuseenland (previously here, here and here), created out of industrialisation and since returned to a more natural state and the Himmelsteiche, a product of centuries of geo-engineering of the more traditional sort. More images and curiosities at the links above.

esl (13. 667)

First compiled and distributed by teacher and researcher Michael Philip West in 1953 whilst working in India, the General Service List of essential words for English learners based on a longitudinal survey of frequency and semantics that would facilitate a basic understanding and at the same time, narrowing an educator’s focus. Edified rather than rejected for its shortcomings and inadequacies and the basis for quantitative linguistics and Google N-gram Viewer for modelling a corpus, the list has only undergone two updates, once in 2013 and again in 2023. This exploration of the vocabulary changes from between the first edition and latest revision, seven decades, illustrates how in an anglophone environment it has become even harder to avoid exposure to abstractions whilst what is made, grown, worn and worked has been winnowed away as well as feelings and sensations, shifting from something manifest, embodied and experienced—ache, courage, loyalty, greed, mercy—replaced with clinical, disorder, therapy, treatment as something that is managed, rather than inhabited. It is not as if bargain suddenly became synonymous with budget and moonlight turned to solar, with pollution edging out harvest, but choices were made and some high-minded concepts are tossed out for more functional parlance to preserve the list’s some two-thousand head-word limit. Granted that concrete terms are naturally stickier and easily acquired, we still enjoy a lesson in how to buy a postage stamp or bus fare and are a little sad to live in a world that privileges platforms and institutions above what sustains and enriches us.

day one-hundred thirty-one (13. 613)

Ukraine nearly completely cuts off the annexed territory of the Crimean peninsula during the height of tourist season, whilst Russia targets Ukrainian cropland with incendiary bombs to destroy its grain harvest. The US launches a fresh wave of attacks as Iran announces that the Strait of Hormuz is closed and continues to strike as ships attempt to transit—American negotiators speaking for Iran the day prior, saying that the Revolutionary Guard Corps regretted targeting tankers and expressed a willingness to return to dialogue. Accused of enabling illegal settlement in Gaza and the West Bank, the EU moves to place restrictions on the export of building materials and construction equipment to Israel.  

day one-hundred sixteen (13. 557)

Lebanese-Israeli ceasefire negotiations in Washington are extended. FIFA allows Pride flags for Iran-Egypt match in Seattle despite objections from national football federations. Trump claims that unfrozen Iranian funds will be used to buy US crop staples, saying the country is experiencing a famine and the deal will be mutually beneficial. Tehran denies any arrangement to purchase US agricultural products.  The UN Maritime agency pauses evacuation efforts after a vessel came under attack in the Gulf of Oman. Oil prices—though the affect does not immediately translate to the petrol pump—have fallen to pre-war levels.

les étoiles d’ivry (13. 511)

Via ibīdem, we are directed to the ensemble housing estate of Ivry ˢ/ Seine, a Parisian suburb just southeast of the capital, designed by architects Renée Gailhoustet and Jean Renaudie constructed between 1969 and 1975, happily still standing though in need of some care and attention. The name of the mixed-used complex with forty residential units for social housing with commercial and office spaces refers the stellar rays of the triangular points of exposed concrete and whilst the overall style could be described as Brutalist (see also here and here), the open form structure with staggered verdant terraces and ramps and platforms connecting public and private spaces has an element of social engagement and spontaneity of interaction not found in all projects of the genre. See more photographs and floor plans from Architecture Lab at the link above.

bocca di verghiu (13. 476)

Passing again through the Spelunca gorge, we drove the highest mountain pass on the island, linking the two Corsican départments of Sud-Corse in the west and Haute-Corse in the east. The forested way tops out at an impressive elevation of 1470 metres but the surrounding snowcapped peaks, Punte Licciola, are much higher than the col of the Rotondo massif. A monumental statue of Christ Roi by Corsican sculptor Noël Bonardi stands at the summit of the ascent (the previous picture is of a smaller shrine with votive offerings at the gorge at the foot of the mountain).

The profusion of yellow blossoms are shrubs called immortelle (Helichrysum stoechas, the straw flower or common shrubby everlasting or the curry plant for the smell it excudes whilst moisture-proofing for the summer) for their reputation for hardiness and medicinal properties. The twelfth day of the month of Vendémiaire of the French Revolutionary calendar is named after the plant and generally corresponds to 3 October.

synchronoptica

one year ago:  Trump Always Chickens Out (with synchronopticæ) plus assorted links to revisit

fourteen years ago: language acquisition plus US and Israel launch a cyberattack on Iran’s nuclear infrastructure

fifteen years ago: plutocracy plus the US unveils its Cyber Command

sixteen years ago: language translation with context 

seventeen years ago: a surfeit of pillows 

drôme (13. 455)

For the second leg of our journey, we stayed outside of Châteauneuf-sur-Isère, a commune of the Drôme near the city of Lyon. I liked this new take of bird on a wire that greeted us at the campsite—drunk in a midnight choir. Lying on the forty-fifth parallel, equidistant from the equator and the North Pole, the department fed by the river Rhône has been since prehistory the fruit-growing region of France.

It is also the birthplace of sainted bishop Hugh of Grenoble, invoked against headaches for reasons, and cofounder of the Carthusian order.

synchronoptica

one year ago: antique perfume bottle blueprints (with synchronopticæ), fake books by real authors, German troops deployed to Lithuania plus Trump meets with his South African counterpart

twelve years ago: a trip to Tuscany 

thirteen years ago: Bayesian logic  

fourteen years ago: a devastating earthquake in Italy plus weed-killer in Germany

sixteen years ago: delicate constitutions plus missing links and living fossils

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-four (13. 425)

As figures for the cost of the war so far are revised modestly upwards, Trump tells reporters that the financial situation of the American people is not a factor in his strategy with Iran just before embarking on a trip to Beijing to meet with his Chinese counterpart to discuss trade and a durable peace plan for the Middle East (though downplaying the need for help from China and its influence in global affairs)—the projected two-hundred billion dollar price tag of Bush II’s Iraqi adventure quickly overshot the mark and ended up costing around five trillion and it was this two-decade long quagmire that many economists and historians attribute to the cause for the US loss of productivity and its competitive edge, ceding output and innovation that allowed for the ascendency of China. Oil is expected to remain over a hundred dollars per barrel for the remainder of the year with derivatives including fertiliser remaining prohibitively expensive for farmers. Trump also reaffirmed he is considering resuming major combat operations over Tehran’s unwillingness to accept the terms of the US deal. Saudi Arabia and the UAE have been conducting covert, undeclared attacks on Iran, and Israel, keeping up its assault on Hezbollah elements in Lebanon, have reservations about the US negotiating position, worried that Trump will strike a bad deal with the Revolutionary Guard, as Pakistan’s role as intermediary faces criticism for strategic opportunism rather than being an honest broker in mediation by some.

synchronoptica

one year ago: the Episcopal church breaks with the US government over immigration policy (with synchronopticæ) plus Qatar gifts Trump an airplane

 

thirteen years ago: darlings of oblivion plus delving into ASMR 

 

fourteen years ago: Mothers’ Day greetings plus fruit of the vine

 

fifteen years ago: White House agrees to stop staging photo ops plus a hot air balloon lift off

 

sixteen years ago: German Fathers’ Day 

day sixty-eight (13. 407)

As the assault continues in Lebanon—with a small moment of unexpected joy for local priests when the Pope jumped in on their Zoom call to lift their spirits with tidings of peace coming soon for the border region—Israel claimed no foreknowledge of the Trump administration’s predictions of imminent settlement and were poised to resume air raids in the Iranian theatre. Apparently Trump reversed action on Project Freedom over objections from Riyadh and denying US forces use of Saudi bases and airspace to carry out escort operations. Still blocking Iranian ports, Trump claims Tehran is desperate to make a peace deal, threatening another ultimatum to agree to his terms within forty-eight hours or strikes will resume. Global demand for oil is falling at the fastest rate outside of the COVID pandemic when the price briefly turned negative, through derivatives products like gasoline and fertiliser continue to climb. Damage sustained by US assets and infrastructure in the gulf region has been underreported, with major repairs needed at American military installations.

synchronoptica

one year ago: anticipatory austerity (with synchronopticæ), the giallo genre plus assorted links to revisit

fourteen years ago: diplomatic dysfunction plus France’s new president

but all of those points don’t matter compared to allowing nuclear power to be in the hands of such volatile, difficult, unpredictable people (13. 344)

Making a bad situation of his own creation far worse, following the failure (by design) of the peace summit hosted by Pakistan, American president Trump lightly elaborated on his plan to simultaneously open the Strait of Hormuz with a coalition from the NATO countries he has disparaged, led by the UK—which Trump said earlier has no navy—and to blockade it, stopping any ships from entering or exiting the vital waterway and further placing an interdict on all vessels in international waters that had paid a toll to the Iranian government for passage. The threat, which is not conducive to further talks (Tehran had no pretensions that a treaty would be reached in a day, Obama’s 2015 nuclear settlement, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, JCPOA—nullified by Trump, took twenty months of negotiations during times of relatively less tension and not twenty hours under duress), would reignite hostilities should Iran remain obdurate over US demands or intervene militarily should US ships try to enter the strait and, if carried out, would embargo tankers from France, Japan, the Philippines, India, South Korea and China that have successfully obtained passage, likely already subject to US sanctions for the breach and with attendant economic consequences, affecting global supplies of not only oil and natural gas but also helium for semi-conductors and phosphate, urea and sulfur for agriculute. After walking back from the brink of destroying the entire culture, from an individual lobbying for the Nobel Peace prize not too long ago, Trump again reiterated his options of targeting civilian energy infrastructure and wantonly commit war crimes.

katzenkopf iii (13. 281)

Taking advantage of the nice weather, H and I got the camper from storage and prepared for the season with a weekend trip back to the Frankish wine islands, staying in the village of Sommerach. The vineyards waking up too for the spring, we took a long hike crossing the island and over the canal of the Main river through fields and pine forest in protected environment known as the Sandfluren (inland dunes, the sandy areas reminding me of trekking from Wiesbaden to Mainz under the bridges and over the islands) outside of Volkach on the mainland. 

Reaching the village of Dimbach, we headed back to the island over the lock and weir at the southern part of the river loop at the Mainkanal. In the distance, we could spy the twin steeples of the cloister Münsterschwarzach with a cruise ship docked at the weir. Exploring more of the landscape on the way back, we walked around the village a bit, trying out that wine automat we saw on our last visit—it wasn’t dumped out like a soda machine but rather a mechanical arm guided our selection down to the flap—and had a late lunch before going back to the camp grounds.

More details about the history of these places and impressions at the links above.