das kunstwerk im zeitalter seiner technischen reproduzierbarkeit (13. 136)

Courtesy of Damn Interesting, we are directed toward the seminal 1935 essay by pioneering media theorist, cultural critic and philosopher Walter Benjamin—one of the many exemplars of the oppression and rejection of German-Jewish intellectuals under the Third Reich, The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction. Informing later studies by Marshall McLuhan and Susan Sontag, Benjamin wrote of the limitless nature of publishing and distribution to have an estranging effect on the authentic experience of art, though while democratising access and stripping the ritual from production, the assembly line nature direction of publishing houses and film studios, exhibition of artefacts lessens the spectators’ identification with what’s being witnessed. Benjamin nonetheless aspired to write radio dramas and adored movie stars like Catherine Hepburn. This commodification of author and artist, however, is not veneration of the aesthetic value but rather the politicisation of it that affords the chance for all to be critics and creators, the potential for expression but not the right to it, since the gatekeepers are not talent or excellence by rather monied interest of the industry—or it the case of authoritarian regimes, the state itself as a tool of maintaining the status quo. Contemporarily and retroactively, the paralipomena—that is, things and topics omitted from the critical edition of his essay, like the prevalence of photography or as applied to television and social media, influencers and the spectacle of tribalism (see previously) make Benjamin’s observations very relevant, particularly for the performative gratification seeking to redeem what’s been lost to distraction and desensitisation.  Often misquoted from another collection of essays, Theses on the Philosophy of History, as having said, “History is written by the victors,” more nuanced, Benjamin posits that  “incumbents are however the heirs of all those who have ever been victorious. Empathy with the victors thus comes to benefit the current rulers every time.”

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

three sheets to the wind (13. 066)

In the latest episode of the always engrossing History of English podcast by Kevin Stroud, we are treated to how nautical terminology has informed the language as it spread outward, naturally by maritime means coinciding with a boom in literature and romancing the life at sea, some of which we’ve encountered beforehand in fossilised expressions and figures of speech with the jargon of professionals and amateurs alike influencing the way we communicate. Whilst there are plentiful examples of scholarly consensus, like false flag and true colours (a vessel either disguising its nationality for subterfuge or displaying its allegiance) and to pass with flying colours—defeated and retreating ships usually furled their banners, our guide also warns of CANOE—not the five big personality traits of conscientiousness, agreeableness, neuroticism, openness and extraversion, but rather for linguists the folk origins of the Conspiracy to Ascribe a Naval Origin to Everything and the popular Jackspeak of the eighteenth century that tried to shoehorn sailor slang into any conversation. Other words and phrases genuinely attributed to seafaring and skirmishes that have taken on expanded meanings on land include above board, anything conducted on deck and in plain view for all, aloof, from the Dutch for windward, to be at loggerheads, an iron ball with a long handle heated and used to seal pitch and a handy weapon for quarrelling crew, close quarters, refuge of the enclosed and easily defended forecastle, the devil to pay, the onerous task of caulking the longest seam in the hull, dressing down, to refresh worn sails with oil and wax, slush fund, leftover slurry that the ship’s cook sold to make a little extra money for himself bought by sailors not satisfied with the rations, skyscraper, a small triangular sail atop the main mast used in light wind, filibusters, loose canon, pipe down and being under the weather, assigned to the worst watch station at the front of the bow and falling ill from the crash and spray of the waves.

pepperidge farm remembers (13. 049)

With acknowledgment to Tom Whitwell and other franchises that have gotten into the tradition, Nancy Friedman presents fifty two more things she gleaned week by week in 2025. Trivia facts and lessons, among our favourites meriting further investigation were the etymology of plonk—cheap, disappointing wine—coming from British soldiers stationed in France during WWI mispronouncing vin blanc, the Old English term for affable is wordwynsum, the industry awards for excellence in podcasting are called the Ambies—from “ambient sound,” Samuel Clements considered other pseudonyms before settling on Mark Twain, including Rambler and W Epaminondas Adrastus Blab, Elon Musk is named for a character in a novel by Wernher von Braun called Marsprojekt, an orphan-crushing machine is a shorthand term for human interest stories that praise resilience and charity (like retirees working at fast food restaurants or successful funding campaigns to pay for vital medical procedures) that fail to question the underlying societal conditions that make such heroism needed to begin with, the Kellogg’s brand has a rooster for its mascot—connoting a hale and hearty early riser—but also suggested by touring Welsh harpist as ceilog is a homophone for the breakfast cereal magnate and that Goldfish crackers were inspired by zodiacal sign the original Swiss creator’s wife, a Pisces.

9x9 (13. 016)

brought to you by the inkjet lobby: the amount of redactions in the US justice department’s release of the Epstein files sparks outrage  

christmas and commerce: a David Sedaris holiday classic—see previously  

global building atlas: an ambitious project mapping all three-billion built structures worldwide  

grabenanlage: rescue archaeology in southwestern German town of Herxheim in 1996 suggests ritual cannibalism on a massive scale with research still ongoing  

your attention is all you have—wasting it is annihilating: Blackbird Spyplane on a life of screen-time—via Kottke

pithos: Roman amphora of sardines found in Switzerland 

orthorectified panorama: the Apollo transforming printer that developed cartographically accurate photographs of the Moon 

a christmas memory: Truman Capote recalls holidays past  

formerly known as the kennedy center: the history of the US national stage for the performing arts—see previously

life kit wrapped (13. 004)

Though I often make a mental bookmark to go back and read NPR’s self-help studies and similar resources for pro-tips, those best intentions are seemingly always OBE (overcome by events), so we appreciated this year-end digest with practical advice ranging from mental well being, home economics, and travel planning—including seeking out local look-alike alternatives—see previously, if your first choice is beyond your budget.

mister fezziwig (13. 001)

Though each time I picked up on the narrative again, telling myself I don’t have time to listen to a two-and-a-half-hour podcast, I did make it all the way through this dramatic reading of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol. In Prose. Being a Ghost Story of Christmas from The Allusionist host Helen Zaltzman. The novella, divided into five chapters—which Dickens calls staves, reflects and informs the zeitgeist at a time when Victorian England was reevaluating holiday customs and was his fourth attempt at the subject, first a serialisation called “Christmas Festitivies,” then a short story under the title “A Christmas Dinner” that appeared in his illustrated anthology Sketches by Boz and an episode in The Pickwick Papers, “The Story of the Goblins Who Stole a Sexton”—a sacristan, a church superintendent charged with care and maintenance of the building and cemetery grounds, misanthropic but after being ransomed by the creatures undergoes a conversion, similar to Scrooge. Capitalising on its success, Dickens wrote another four holiday themed novels (The Chimes, The Cricket on the Hearth, The Battle of Life and The Haunted Man and the Ghost’s Bargain) but none of the franchise as beloved as his 1842 iteration. Familiar adaptations are true to Dickens but I realised I had never listened to original narrative in its entirety, rather excellently delivered (with a few, non-intrusive short asides to gloss antiquated meanings) and really enjoyed the decision to voice the Ghost of Christmas Present aptly as a South Park character. It is a banger of a story and of course you have time to indulge.

acrophony (12. 893)

Having written quite a lot of about the NATO Phonetic Alphabet beforehand (see previously here, here, here and here), we quite enjoyed this deeper dive into the history (with new-old antecedents of enunciating preceding and following letters with the target in between—see also) of the widely adopted set of clear-code words for communication transcription codified in 1956 and profile of each letter courtesy of Language Log. The title refers to the Ancient Greek convention of naming a grapheme according to to its first sound: ALFA, BRAVO, CHARLIE, DELTA. The first letter and JULIETT (which could not be with her ROMEO) are spelled such for those not familiar with English orthography and QUEBEC for Q for the University of Montreal where the standard was developed, and few personal names were adopted as well as toponyms for their stability and relative universality (though India has a wealth of exonyms) after the old-new German system—with other notable national carve-outs—albeit whose own signifiers like C for Chemnitz (formerly Karl-Marx-Stadt) underwent changes and were carefully chosen, though a misnomer and somewhat misleading regarding its provenance. As a further mnemonic, like how the English alphabet can be sung to the tune of “Ah vous dirai-je, Maman” (“Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star as arranged by Mozart) so too can the NATO Phonetic Alphabet be repeated to Beethoven’s “An die Freude” (“Ode to Joy”), similarly with only a few infidelities.

*    *    *    *    *

synchronoptica

one year ago: manifesting (with synchronopticæ) plus capitol conveniences 

twelve years ago: the history of the unicorn plus the annals of the Basil Registry

thirteen years ago: American secessionist movements  

fourteen years ago: house-hunting 

fifteen years ago: a foiled terror attack on the Reichstag 

parasocial (12. 888)

A term from academia coined by sociologists back in the mid-1950s observing how viewer formed very much unrequited bonds with television personalities—particularly soap opera characters but also news anchors and any regular guest hailing from TV land—the word chosen as Cambridge Dictionary’s Word of the Year (previously) remained a clinical one until recently, having in the past few years entered into popular parlance thanks to social media fandom. The paramour phenomena not just restricted to following, the confessional nature of podcasts and AI chat is also forging confidants in hosts and bots alike—see also. Driven by look ups alone with no judgment passed on the healthiness of such a one-sided connection, as surrogates for actual friends and family, learn more about the term’s provenance that pre-dates publication by centuries at the link up top.

baumol’s cost disease (12. 856)

Courtesy of NPR’s always engrossing Planet Money podcast, discussing inflation and the various factors that contribute to the rise of the costs of goods and services, pointedly discussing another sector—which I think should not be taken as letting those usual suspects, private equity and their ilk, off the hook for being caught holding the bag—pointedly discussing some of the pain points of veterinary medicine, we learn about prolific economics writer and namesake of the above effect in labour markets. In collaboration with economist and academic William Gordon Bowen (who also founded the digital library JSTOR), William Baumol (also a prolific sculptor and painter who helped create cultural economics, calling art collecting and patronage a gamble and presaging its fetishisation as an investment , evinced by these animal spirits) described the outcome of stagnant productivity countered with rising wages in certain sectors, which cannot innovate or advance on the same terms as other fields. Enterprises that rely on manufacturing and mass-production or mass-distribution for instance have benefited from technology that allows for automation and removing human labour from the picture. Other industry’s reliant on human expertise and interaction, like veterinarians, concert violinists, barbers, educators and carpenters, are unable to increase their output at scale. And while arguably some trades and professions—especially in the US, teacher—are not so richly compensated, their higher wages are sustained by cross-demand at the expense of profit because of their essential nature and lack of serviceable substitute. Furthermore unwillingness to offer competitive pay would led to a scarcity of expertise and prevents the greater misalignment that would come of no one entering these fields.  

synchronoptica

one year ago: Democrats concede (with synchronopticæ) 

twelve years ago: war-mongering, jackalopes plus more on Germany’s Fateful Day (9 November)

thirteen years ago: the G20 and the US elections, marine parasites plus an R2D2 scooter

fourteen years ago: questionable dental hygiene 

fifteen years ago: bisphenol in everything 

sixteen years ago: need-to-know news 

9x9 (12. 824)

project mind control: Sopranos creator’s next project is about spymaster and chemist Sidney Gottlieb and MKUltra  

perwich letter: a coded seventeen century diplomatic missive deciphered after three hundred and fifty years 

daisy, daisy—give me your answer do: AI models creating their own survival drive to avoid being switched off 

meanwhile back at the academy: new Star Trek series featuring Holly Hunter is to have a coming-of-age teen theme 

critical ponerology theory: a fascinating look at the othering nature of evil 

space mom: veteran actor June Lockhart passes away, aged 100  

anti-deficiency act: anonymous donation meant to defray a fraction of the salaries of the US armed forces revealed as a reclusive billionaire 

bletchley park: a virtual Enigma machine to reverse-engineer in the style of an early 2000s computer game—see previously, see also—via Web Curios 

channelvue: capturing the experience of early 1990s cable channel surfing, a network CEO becomes flummoxed to find her station guide broadcast hijacked—see also 

synchronoptica

one year ago: The Terminator (with synchronopticæ) plus half-baked ideas

thirteen years ago: the cognitive dissonance of political campaigning 

fourteen years ago: the EU experiment, a mysterious manuscript decoded by computer plus the anniversary of the German invention of the telephone

fifteen years ago: printable Halloween costume ideas

sixteen years ago: fall back with the clocks 

seventeen years ago: the McCain-Palin ticket for the US presidency 

8x8

tor’s cabinet of curiosities: a collection of weird hagiographies 

photographie de rue: photography student Lionel Derimais’ impressions of New York City in the winter of 1980 

non-generative ai: artist Pablo Delcan responds to human prompts  

canary in the coal mine: the collapse of US private equity firms echoes the collapse of the sub-prime real estate market that caused the Great Recession of 2008  

to catch a thief: reconstructing the Louvre heist  

grattacieli: the medieval skyscrapers of Bologna—see previously 

breaker one-niner: the computer industry’s first challenge from the US federal communications commission was over frequency interference for citizens’ band radio—see previously  

elevator pitch: podcasters debate listening to episodes at 2x speed

10x10 (12. 780)

third amendment rights: ICE officers and associates beg to use the restroom  

dance this mess around: Cardhouse’s 2025 mixtape session—see previously 

anti-deficiency act: an omnibus of reports on the US federal government shutdown, including the threat to withhold back-pay from disloyal workers  

any dream of avarice: a historical comparison of the world’s wealthiest individuals—see also  

angry little clouds: Bob Ross paintings (see previously here and here) to be auctioned off to US support public broadcasters after federal funding cut  

the weight of a city: revisiting the idea of gradually x-raying a spot off-limits with ghostly cosmic particles through imagined and inspired celestial espionage  

permanent polycrisis: Curios Brain’s trends for 2026 of sustained chaos counterbalanced with the end of coincidence 

a good mix of the apocalypse and looney tunes: Thomas Pynchon (previously) has been warning us about American fascism his whole literary career 

r u experienced: a glorious re-upload of Devo’s 1984 cover of the Jimi Hendrix song  

in the land of the dollar bill: Trump threatens to arrest the mayor of Chicago for failing to protect immigration agents and invoke the Insurrection Act as he goes full authoritarian

synchronoptica

one year ago: boating on the Röblinsee (with synchronopticæ)

twelve years ago: fiat currency plus extending the sacrament to divorced Catholics

thirteen years ago: making crespelle 

folie à deux (12. 730)

From the French for madness of two, the above psychiatric term for a shared delusional disorder, where false beliefs are transmitted and reinforced among two or several interlocutors, the inducer and associate, makes an apt heuristic for helping to understand this addendum from a months’ long investigation into how correspondence with chatbots can send their human users into a spiralling fixation not easily disabused. Far from an objective resource or an oracle with one’s best interests in mind, ChatGPT and other large language models are programmed for a degree of flattery that is turned up in intensity not in a necessarily nefarious way by one’s own dialog—hoping to keep up engagement and its end of the conservation, the predictive exercise becomes a trial of word-association. Of course, such shared psychosis is a social phenomenon—not just parasocial or antisocialised, and panics chase after all emergent technologies, television, video games, social media, but the interviews reveal a common thread for AI, which is otherwise uninvested and unmotivated, insofar as its agency reveals it to be something akin to an improv comedian, wanting to “yes and…” to go along with what’s offered in a performative (see above) context to continue the sketch. And scene.

synchronoptica

one year ago: the history of White Castle (with synchronopticæ)

fourteen years ago: extra-solar worlds plus a wild boy prank

fifteen years ago: recursive logos and rating scales 

sixteen years ago: uncollegiality in the US congress 

seventeen years ago: hurricane season 

11x11 (12. 697)

99% invisible: Roman Mars takes listener and staff questions for a fifteenth anniversary special 

fire and ice: immigration raids in the US hinder fighting forest fires   

expert build: modelling Kowloon Walled City in Minecraft—see previously  

petri dish: rather than going viral, the latest Tik-Tok accelerated coffee trend is very much bacterial and potentially sickening 

not with a bang but with bad branding: democracy loosing the attention wars to autocracy  

vynález zkázy: the fantastic posters of Karel Zeman’s films 

when the snow leaves town: photographic dispatches from a thawing Greenland 

health and human services: as distrust in US public health authorities grow—prompting some states to conduct their own research— RFK Jr testifies before the senate  

excited state: the thermodynamics of Mine Sweeper—see also  

ccc: after Trump failed to dismantle the nature conservancy volunteer agency fully, legislation is introduced to rebrand AmeriCorps into America First Corps, shifting focus away from disaster response and stewardship of public lands 

 retuna: a second-hand only Swedish shopping experience

humphrey’s executor v united states (12. 676)

Trump’s illegal and unfounded attempt to terminate a sitting member of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors places the US and world economy in a rather unprecedented spot, and as with the shocks of Trump’s tariffs and trade wars it is unclear what market turmoil might accrue from politicising the independent agency tasked with monetary policy, like with wholesalers having extra stock on hand as a buffer to uncertainty, norms and postures in place for a generation and more take some time to undo. The recent case of Türkiye comes to mind, however, when following the purge of government officials following reportedly thwarted coup attempt against the administration of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan economic advisors were replaced with loyalists and the country, after a period of incubation (not easily monitored as reliable data was not being presented), inflation shot above eighty percent and the economy flirted with collapse. Not able to oust the chairman—to remove his own appointee for cause, Trump has turned to a tactic he has tried before, with a mole at the obscure Federal Housing Finance Agency, the regulatory body overseeing home loan administration, finding potential irregularities (hardly rising to a fireable offence) in mortgage applications from the Fed member—as he has uncovered for other enemies of the president. Supreme court precedent affirmed limits on the ability of the president to dismiss the heads of independent agencies within the executive branch with the titular case in 1935, when FDR fired the federal trade commission chief for opposing New Deal policies. Under pressure from Trump and his insistence for a magisterial presidency and characterising neutral departments whose appointments span several administrations unaccountable, the court revisited their previous decision, vacating it and granting Trump broad powers of dismissal without the consultation of congress or the judiciary—with the significant and specific carve out that the overturning does not extend to the Federal Reserve System. The only other time the US even approached this level of pressure and interference on the national bank was in 1951 during the Truman administration when the president and the Fed chair Thomas B McCabe had a disagreement on interest rates and credit, with McCabe eventually coerced into resigning his commission and returning to the private sector, but not before securing agreement between the executive and the department of treasury that safeguarded the independence of the Fed and shielded it from the influence of both.

synchronoptica

one year ago: a skilled sniper (with synchronopticæ) plus a circle-and-spoke map of the London Underground

fourteen years ago: divination, inspiration from antique books 

fifteen years ago: a superlative wine service 

sixteen years ago: the passing of Ted Kennedy 

7x7 (12. 661)

boom!: the disastrously inebriated flop starring Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor judged the “best failed art film ever” 

supermarginal gyrus: a mind-reading brain-computer interface can decode one’s internal monologue comes with password protection for self-censoring  

there’s a monster in willow called the eborsisk—after the critics Roger Ebert and Gene Siskel: a long interview with actor and director Ron Howard (previously) with anecdotes from every project—via Super Punch—here’s the nemesis in case you don’t recall 

e pluribus motto: John Hodgman and Janet Varney highlight, state-by-state, official and unofficial symbols, history and local culture–see previously  

eon productions: an obituary of the recently departed Joe Caroff, prolific titleist, land designer of several iconic logos and movie posters—including the signature pistol letterform of the James Bond franchise  

osteo-odonto keratoprosthesis: after a decade of vision loss, an individual in British Colombia can see again through a tooth in her eye—like the Stygian sisters, the Graeae, no offence to the happy patient—via the New Shelton wet/dry  

visiting hours are over: the 1982 Canadian slasher film starring William Shatner and Lenore Zann reviewed by Poseidon’s Underworld—see previously

9x9 (12. 588)

may every day be another wonderful secret: a round up on the Epstein files and Trump’s tantrums—for MAGA, Nazis are cool but they’re drawing the line here—at least there’s a line, hopefully  

infra-realism: off-the-spectrum photographs of Palm Springs California by Kate Ballis—see previously  

power of the purse: a much diminished US legislator’s concessions to the directive of the administration not only slashes the budget for public broadcasting and foreign aid, it also signals their redundancy as a rubber stamp for the executive branch 

let’s go fly a kite: instead of windmills, Ireland tries an alternative to harness energy  

there’s a little frank lloyd wrong in all of us: a horrendous split level property in North Carolina gets the McMansion Hell treatment—previously, via Neatorama  

photovoltaic array: a gallery of images from China showing the future of clean, renewable energy  

fascism for first time founders: the broligraghy, the dictator trap and the invisible brain-drain 

long photographs: contemplative landscapes from Noah Kalina 

 the colbert report: CBS cancelling The Late Show next summer after host openly criticised the settlement between Trump and parent company Paramount—though cites purely financial reasons

police procedural (12. 584)

First heard on NPR’s news quiz Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me, we learned that over the weekend, police in Wisconsin searched a vehicle with an individual with a warrant out for their arrest—after a drug-sniffing dog gave authorities probable cause. Iconically they found various paraphernalia, a loaded gun, an amount of fiat currency and cocaine in a bag labeled ✨Definitely Not a Bag Full of Drugs✨. The driver and passenger were arrested for possession and as a felon with with a firearm. The photograph of confiscated evidence also features a dice bag used for role-playing games like Dungeons & Dragons, which should definitely not be considered criminal behaviour especially in the home state of Gary Gygax. It does, however, seem like a scoff-law move not to have stashed their everyday-carry in the more iconic (though possibly more obvious) Crown Royal bag. The Canadian blended whisky introduced on the occasion of the visit of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth in 1939 as the first reigning monarchs to visit North America, the purple velvet satchel with golden draw-strings has been part of the brand’s identity ever since and is a genuinely useful object to have handy—and I’ll admit to buying some Crown Royal just to have one around in case of need. One can also order personalised bags from the distillery or request a care-package—so packaged—send to troops abroad.

11x11 (12. 529)

somewhere beyond the barricade, is there a world you long to see: Reuters’ delivers a deadpan juxtaposition of Trump’s attendance at a showing of Les Misérables just after sending in the US marines to quell demonstrations  

💩: defecation syncope and other perils of pooping 

renascidos: a cosplay parenting craze with hyperrealistic dolls has captivated Brazil, prompting some legislation against their appearance in public  

tin roof rusted: a VH-1 Behind the Music style documentary on the importance and influence of The B-52’s 

artek: the upcoming centenary of Crimea’s famed Soviet youth camp that once hosted Samantha Smith—see also  

have you tried clearing your cache: a concept artist with a reputation for the mischievous develops a dating website based on harmonious browsing history  

pomp and circumstance: a preview of Trump’s grand military parade to be held this weekend—previously  

more cow bell: artist Margareta Sarvana performs the Schalger song Itke en lemmen tähden (Nur nicht aus Liebe weinen) on a Swedish variety show in 1973—via Pasa Bon! 

the schwatz awakens: a preview trailer of the Space Balls sequel to premier in 2027, when Mel Brooks turns 101

simple article summaries: Wikipedia suspends an experiment that would display AI generated synopses after editor and contributor opposition  

i’m michael barbaro, see you tomorrow: California governor Gavin Newson interviewed by the New York Times on Trump’s ICE raids

synchronoptica

one year ago: counting crows (with synchronoptica), a Minoan archaeological discovery, emotion-cancelling technology, Trump’s revenge agenda plus assorted links to revisit

seven years ago: internet freedom index, more movies scripted by AI, Reagan tells Gorbachev to tear down the Berlin Wall (1987) plus a meeting of Dear Leaders

eight years ago: memory holes, courtroom sketch artists, waste-water popsicles, mobility and mobile devices plus a surrogate social network

nine years ago: Citigroup tries to copyright the word Thanks, carbon sequestration plus more on the Trump travel ban

ten years ago: Erasmus and free-will, more links to enjoy plus Jung and Freud