total reset (12. 453)

Whilst not wholly unrolling all barriers to trade nor unable to undo the disruption already wrought on global supply chains and proffer any sort of future security and certainty when it comes to relocating both manufacturing and sourcing, businesses, investors and consumers welcomed the deescalation following talks among intermediaries in Switzerland which defused, at least temporarily the retaliatory brinksmanship that Trump’s Liberation Day of reciprocal tariffs started with China the only party willing to raise the stakes. Washington and Beijing have retreated back to less punishing levies of thirty and ten percent respectively, discounting other measures already in place. Both delegations conceded that a decoupling of the two major economies benefited no one, with sanctions heretofore approaching the level of a trade embargo and hoped that this initial pause might gain a purchase on negotiations that would promote the predictability needed by all parties, despite the magnanimity for which the ordeal was played, appealing to Trump’s vanities to let him claim credit for solving a crisis of his own making. This deal follows talks between Starmer and Trump that while the blanket duty of ten percent remains on most international exports to the US removed tariffs on UK steel, aluminium and automobiles, in exchange for relaxing regulatory limits previously imposed on American beef and chlorinated poultry. The truce with Xi pointedly does not extend to those same heavy industry items or pharmaceuticals, the same day pledging an incredulous ninety-percent drop in medicine prices, aiming to “equalise,” redistribute drug costs with other countries, saying Europe and the rest of the world will apid more so the US can pay less.

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

paper doll (12. 436)

Coinciding with tactics being employed by several toy manufacturers to mitigate the worst impacts of the US administration’s ruinous trade war—addressing specifically the comment from Trump that for Christmas that “maybe the children will have two dolls instead of thirty dolls and maybe they’ll cost a couple of dollars more”—including “pricing action” and differing “price points” for consumers, we enjoyed this latest comic from Ruben Bolling that’s an excellent alternative stocking stuffer for MAGA cultists with this printable dress-up Donald, though card-stock and printer cartridges will probably get pretty scarce as well by the time the holidays roll around, so it might be best to make one’s own.

synchronoptica

one year ago: assorted links worth the revisit plus a treasury of unsolved mysteries

seven years ago: a visit to Nordheim vor der Rhön, Go Fact Yourself plus EULA boilerplate

eight years ago: aggressive cuts to funding for the arts,  concept low-cost housing communities plus Trump’s Dark Triad undermining the government

ten years ago: Nazi kidnappings, more links to enjoy, wisdom from Poor Richard’s Almanack plus US resistance to engaging in WWII

eleven years ago: a trip to Hannoversh Münden plus strained US-German relations over survelliance

11x11 (12. 431)

hot, cold, clash and burn: some performances from candidates for the 2025 Dance Your PhD contest with real EuroVision vibes—see previously 

man in motion: a biography of Eadweard Muybridge (previously) as a graphic novel   

pc connection: the raccoon mascot that made the catalogue stand out amongst industry uniformity—via Nag on the Lake   

popemobile: the pontiff’s conveyance used for his 2014 visit to Bethlehem to be converted into a mobile health clinic for Gaza   

oaf of office: arguing that due process is cumbersome, Trump defers to his legal team on whether it his duty to uphold the constitution 

pamflyt compiled of cheese, contayninge the differences, nature, qualities, and goodnes, of the same: an early Renaissance book on the staple food digitised and made available to the public

architecture of choice: AI buttons and the fat-finger economy pushing redesign and showhorning of non-options into everything   

sustained presence: Israel expands operations, evictions in the occupied territory   

papabili: the College of Cardinals’ report and coverage of the upcoming conclave—via Web Curios 

mingkwai: the rediscovery of an incredible antique mechanical typewriter prototype for printing Chinese characters—via Neatorama—with a video demonstration 

marge inalia: alert the grammar police, the Errorist strikes again

synchronoptica

one year ago: Expo '74 (with synchronoptica), the Cabbage Patch Kids’ maternity ward, assorted links worth revisiting plus the Grammies

seven years ago: more links to enjoy, lampooning mid-morning television, doggie bags plus election by Borda count

eight years ago: potential jail time for protesting the US attorney general, the Cornell carillon plays a tribute to the Grateful Dead plus even more links

nine years ago: gorillas sing little tunes as they eat, maps of Middle Earth, a market hall in Rotterdam plus a popular French tonic wine

ten years ago: Hee-Haw and the cancellation of Star Trek plus utopian thinking

first one hundred days (12, 422)

Though adopted as an arbitrary yet studied milestone by every subsequent US presidential administration, the phrase coined by the FDR administration was not meant to mark the anniversary of his inauguration in 1933 but rather his immediate summoning of congress back in session for three months of legislation and the passage of laws to counter the devastating economic effects of the Great Depression through fifteen major bills regarding work-programmes and reforming financial regulations. Roosevelt also signed ninety-nine executive orders during that period, a number unsurpassed by any president until Trump’s first day of his second term, albeit no significant legislation has been enacted with the involvement of the legislature. Despite celebrating his first one hundred days, lauding successes with little evidence to back it up and quite overwhelming indications of the contrary and declaring himself “unstoppable,” the campaign-style rally held in Michigan was punctuated with retribution and repetition of old grievances and lies regarding the stolen 2020 election, and while ostensibly winning on certain fronts of the culture wars and immigration with ending affirmative action, suppressing opposing viewpoints and generally affecting regressive social policies and making the prospect of coming to America—both for migrants and guests—more fraught (a serviceable PR smoke screen that few buy outside of the staunchest loyalists and probably none privately), Trump’s return has been viewed as a grift and abject failure on all counts: a burgeoning constitutional crisis with ignoring and threatening judges and sidestepping the senate, a foreign policy that abrogates the post-war world order that the US helped built and benefited greatly from with attendant loss of trust from allies and partners, rubbishing the global trade system with punishing tariffs and no way to extricate ourselves as well as retreating from its responsibilities from environmental stewardship and duty-to-care. Even the single issue that the administration can point to as a qualified success, controlling the borders, is being tainted with accounts of expulsions without cause and exporting what are considered undesirables—again with no due process—to foreign concentration camps, acts which are becoming increasingly unpalatable to even strong advocates. Detractors and even polls that indicate Trump’s approval ratings are underwater on his handling of the economy—the markets are one thing he cannot cow into submission or have “bend the knee”—and foreign policy, overplaying his hand with Putin and Xi, are dismissed as lies and fake news. The knock-on effects of blanket and threats of reposing reciprocal tariffs are just starting to be felt by average consumers, outside of the agricultural and shipping sectors and will present a rude surprise.  After reports circulated that Jeff Bezos would be displaying tariff surcharges on Amazon items (see previously), then backing off after attracting Trump’s ire, it seems like the oligarch now has no choice but to go forward with the plan and commit to the bit. 

10x10 (12. 420)

america’s war: a special report from the Verge for the fiftieth anniversary of the Fall of Saigon   

leaflet: an Art Nouveau study of botanical forms and their application in decor—see previously  

mangajin: an appreciation of the month English-language publication for students of Japanese language and culture—full archives from the entire run from 1988 to 1997 here   

do: inspirational words from artist Sol LeWitt to fellow creative pioneer Eva Hesse 

chisanbop: the Korean technique of fingermath   

i have to push the pram a lot: Monty Python and the Holy Grail at fifty   

animal spirits: what felines, bovines, porcines, etc on the label say about wine quality   

you wouldn’t right-click a car: US anti-piracy campaign filled with hypocrisy, including a stolen font—see also   

bus error collective: a WSIWYG primer on oscilloscope music—via Waxy   

worst one-hundred days: assessments of Trump first months in office for his second term—more here and here

synchronptica

one year ago: Pennsylvania 6-5000 (with synchronoptica) plus naming world wars 

seven years ago: a corollary to the Bechdel test plus a visit to Stockheim

eight years ago: archaeology with trace DNA, Islamic gateways plus responding to nuclear extortion 

nine years ago: crowd control robots, language acquisition plus a hand-held DNA sequencer

ten years ago: visiting FDR’s Georgia retreat, ribald limericks, assorted links to revisit plus pontoon bridges to alleviate traffic congestion

[citation needed] (12. 416)

Taking longer than expected after Musk cast aspersions against what he styled as “Wokepedia”—though remember with these unimaginative and incurious MAGA toddlers every accusation is a confession—the Wikimedia Foundation is joining good company for a very bad precedent with the Trump administration’s Department of Justice issuing a boilerplate letter to the free encyclopaedia, threatening to strip it of its non-profit status for facilitating the spread of propaganda. Following the memory-holing of entire programmes and purging US government websites of any established science, from vaccine efficacy, the climate catastrophe to the spectrum of sex and gender identity—as well as any affirmative action—and pressuring any corporations contracting with the government to do the same, department lawyers levy that Wikipedia permits and promotes the manipulation of historical events and the biographies of American political leaders, subverting Trump’s agenda and undermining the interests of US taxpayers, who subsidise the international consortium in the same way that tariffs equal economic prosperity. As with other respected scientific institutions, like the New England Journal of Medicine and universities that have seen federal funding withheld, Wikipedia has been audited for proof that they have sufficient counter measures in place to suppress partisan disinformation edited by foreign nationals and measures to include competition viewpoints, such demands being another tactic to silence dissent and control the dissemination of knowledge that does not align with administration’s narrative and agenda.

a1 is number one (12. 411)

Even as Trump has directed the responsible party to dismantle the institution, and is clawing back payment plans in arrears administered under department, he is encouraging the promotion of literacy in artificial intelligence, which the secretary so charged with making herself redundant referred to as the steak sauce, with the integration into the curriculum to teach the next generation of AI workers. Aside from sounding like a dystopian effort to drain human handlers of original, non-recursive thought, expendable once exhausted or replaced with a level of sycophancy useless to all parties, prioritising such initiatives following other governments stated reforms, which strike as far more feasible and responsible imbued with a functioning bureaucracy, Trump will need his DOE extant in some form to administer his Presidential AI Challenge and form partnerships within the industry, an unacknowledged tension for the organisation that he ordered dissolved and remanded to state school districts as the Supreme Court appears more focused on granting parental carve-outs for objectionable curricula rather than a hands off approach as promised.

10x10 (12. 405)

hug, marry, kill: internet roasts muttonhead JD Vance for his audience with Pope Francis—more here  

kegsbreath: US defence secretary poised to be replaced and other news and developments from Superpunch—see more  

trump slump: populist politicians over the globe are distancing themselves from MAGA  

yolo: search data for Anglophone texting abbreviations  

oh aunt jess: Angela Lansbury in fine art—via Miss Cellania  

technics: an obstacle course for LEGO walkers  

zwiebelfisch: a treasury of printers’ terminology, as in the German for a character misprinted with a dif𝚏erent font, and more including wayzgoose 

one if by land, two if by sea: Heather Cox Richardson speaking at the two-hundred fiftieth anniversary of the midnight ride of Paul Revere  

education for death: Walt Disney’s 1943 film on how fascists are made 

a good book can help us weather the storm: Francis’ defence of literature for spiritual and mental enlightenment—see also this papal playlist

maga maoism (12. 376)

Though government officials, members of the armed services and civil servants are not yet subject to an explicit loyalty oath, pledging fealty to Trump, we learn—via Boing Boing—that there’s been an unsubtle change in dress-code on the Hill and in the Cabinet in the form a garish oversized golden lapel pin, replacing the usual flags and other charges, of a bust of the president. As China is adopting America’s own tactics when it comes too punishing tariffs that disrupt the global economic order (after relenting for most other nations, which is a positive sign but the vacillation runs counter to any of the stated aims of attracting foreign factories when such longterm commitments betray a capacious time horizon with the real objective seemingly to create a fire-sale on commodities by crashing the market), the US has reached back to the days of Chairman Mao and the Cultural Revolution for a show of allegiance and blind faith as regressive policies, urging unwarranted patience for a big gamble that is certain to fail spectacularly. The latest escalation was in part prompted by JD Vance referring to the Chinese workforce as peasants, which is not only insulting but a deflection of the US’s own feudalism and indenturedness, beholden to Trump’s ruinous ego and incompetence.

synchronoptica

one year ago: the opposite of Schadenfreude (with synchronoptica) plus assorted links worth revisiting

seven years ago: Trump and the Saudis plus the toads are spawning

eight years ago: Russia and LiveJournal

nine years ago: swanky office attire plus Jedi stew

ten years ago: a trip to the US, from whale oil to petroleum plus a monopoly on sainthood

8x8 (12. 365)

museum of now: This American Life invites us to sit with and reflect on the artefacts of day and hour 

rift valley: a Trump appointed special envoy to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Tiffany’s father-in-law, seeking to make a deal on mineral resources in hopes of securing peace with Rwandan rebels 

fay wray: a swarm of drones recreate the iconic scene of King Kong scaling the Empire State building  

toast malone: a short clip of the singer performing Circles, animated on one hundred thirty-three slices of bread  

altair 8800: a retrospective of Microsoft at fifty 

the bronx is up and the battery’s down: new NYC subway map is an homage to an early digrammatic version  

blanket non-fraternisation policy: US bans government personnel stationed in China from forming relationships with locals 

national endowment for the humanities: US museums, libraries and archives see their grants terminated—see previously

i rise with the intention of disrupting the normal business of the united states senate for as long as i am physically able—i rise tonight because i believe sincerely that our nation is in crisis (12. 356)

As New Jersey Democratic Senator Corey Booker continues a marathon speech in the Senate, addressing the chamber for as long as he physically endure, beginning on Monday night and passing well into Tuesday to highlight the disruptions and dangers that the first seventy-one days of the Trump administration has wrought, he emphasised that these are not normal times in America and should not be treated as such, concluding this good filibustering on election day for three special elections, which normally would not garner much attention but are now seen as referenda on Trump’s performance and Musk’s clout in politics and the administration. Though the two districts in question in Florida are regarded as solidly Republican and are not up for competition normally, polling shows that Democrats could eke out a win, further narrowing Republican control of congress. One of the seats formerly was represented by Matt Gaetz, who vacated it prematurely to stand for attorney general before withdrawing his candidacy, and as a sign of caution over losing their hold on all three branches of government, Trump rescinded the nomination for UN ambassador for a congress woman from New York, owing that she was more important in the House of Representatives rather than the United Nations—“anyone can do that job.” The second seat was held by Mike Waltz, leaving to become a security advisor for the White House and apparent fall-guy for Signalgate. Outside of Florida, the other, supposedly non-partisan race that has become outsized is to fill a vacancy on the state supreme court of Wisconsin. While limited in jurisdiction, over one-hundred million dollars has been spent to secure or shift the ideological alignment of the justices that could impact voting rights, reproductive rights and the power of public unions nationally. Much of the backing for the conservative candidate has come from cheerleader for fascism Elon Musk, recognising the crucial nature of the swing-state for upcoming elections and to preserve the status quo through gerrymandering, and who also has a personal stake in the outcome, with a pending lawsuit filed against Wisconsin to allow direct sales of automobiles to consumers, without going through a dealership as state law requires, which Tesla practises.

la a note to follow doge (12. 346)

Releasing yet another executive order aimed at whitewashing the country’s past, Trump’s “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History” is aimed at museums and other cultural institutions to remedy what MAGA regards a concerted effort by the radical left of revisionism geared to deepen societal divides and promote national shame. The Smithsonian has been politicised and weaponised, ordered to halt exhibits and articles featuring “race-centred ideology,” calling examination of marginalisation effectively anti-American, with vice president Vance deputised with the power to review all publications, projects and presentations to ensure compliance. One wonders when Americans might have their fill of liberty—it seems like a line has already been crossed yet new horrors come. The order also implies that like with earlier dictates that there are only two genders, that race is a biological reality, rather than a social construct playing into the pseudoscience that justifies eugenics and segregation and directs the administration’s secretary of the interior to begin reinstalling and rededicating Confederate and racist statues and monuments toppled or taken down in the course of the Black Lives Matter movement. Attempts to erase the past follow the wholesale assault on present postures diversity, inclusion, equity and access is a regression of decades of struggle against hate and oppression but unlikely to determine the future shape of society.

synchronoptica

one year ago: a biblical epic (with synchronoptica) 

seven years ago: an earlier Trump portrait plus GDPR compliance

eight years ago: the basement level kiosks of Bulgaria, more long German words plus mapping facial measurements

nine years ago: more state flags that could use an update,  the Sir Vival auto plus garlic dreams

ten years ago: telepathic technology plus redefining the kilogramme

9x9 (12. 339)

debonair: an amazing and comprehensive collection of flight attendant uniforms—via Things Magazine  

contrapoints: a documentary contextualising misinformation to point out it is misinformation 

shortened itinerary: second lady’s tour of Greenland (now joined by her husband) is limited to inspecting the troops at Pituffik Space Base  

seagram’s vo: pallets of American alcohol being returned to the manufacturer  

jug band: a fun cover of Beat It!—with a powerful solo bridge by the Bottle Boys 

boilerfaker: a new trend in microdosing alcohol—via tmn  

duty to report: the 1890 attempt to coerce Canada into joining the US backfired spectacularly  

signalgate: The Atlantic editor inadvertently added to a national security counsel group chat publishes transcript in full after Trump administration downplayed the seriousness of the breach 

hmnd: an incomplete bestiary of humanoid robots

the eagle has landed (12. 329)

Dropping its own diversity, equality and inclusion plans announced for the return trip to the Moon back in 2019, NASA administrators are left on a backfoot struggling to comply with the executive orders memory-holing real and perceived affirmative action and the original symbolism that the crew would include the first woman on the lunar surface and “the first person of colour” for the third mission of the Artemis programme, named after Apollo’s twin sister. One of the last official acts of his first term, NASA had ironically developed a graphic novel series celebrating the contributions of women to space exploration, including a fictional understudy to lead the diverse crew for the upcoming journey, slated for November 2027 but likely delayed further due to not having choose the landing crew and further cuts to the space agency’s workforce under DOGE—which has expressed a shift in priorities to go straight to Mars.

i love king charles—sounds like a great idea (12. 327)

In between issuing two new executive orders designed to further undermine recent judicial decisions against the assault on the administrative state to void rulings that the OPM could not order another agency to terminate employees and affirm loyalty oaths and that DOGE could not be refused access to “siloed” data, Trump, on his social media website, linked to an article from a UK tabloid suggesting that during his upcoming, second state visit, Charles will make a “secret offer” for the United States to join the Commonwealth as its fifty-seventh associate member, connected as former territories through historic and cultural ties, in order to dampen tension over pulling in Canada as the fifty-first state and escalating trade disputes and might be received as an alternative to the tenuous relationship to NATO and the EU. While floated and endorsed by the Queen, reportedly, during Trump’s first term, claims that it is being entertained at the highest levels challenge veracity. Charles III as the titular head of state with the wanna be king in fealty sounds preferable however symbolic and outside the realm of possibility and would possibly deflate tariffs by placating his ego. PfRC has reached out to the Commonwealth for comment.

oh zaporizhzhia—i don’t know (12. 322)

Following a telephone call with Putin ostensibly securing a ceasefire on Ukrainian energy infrastructure and rather unrelenting overtures for the embattled nation’s mineral wealth, Trump called Zelenskyy to dictate the terms and to introduce a new dimension to the deal, suggesting that the United States (as with Gaza now exploding back to a state of war) assume ownership of nuclear power plants. The proposal was met with surprise, Kyiv politely mooting the offer, saying that the reactors were state-owned and could not be privatised, having only discussed during the call the one facility under Russian control but again reenforcing the idea that American economic stakes are their best protection—as with his earlier bid for control of country’s rare Earth resources. American defence conglomerate Westinghouse was in talks, prior to the start of the war, but the deal has since fallen through.

polygraph (12. 313)

In an angry late-night post to his social networking platform, Trump said that Joe Biden’s preemptive pardons for individuals associated with the investigation of the January Sixth Capitol insurrection were “hereby declared VOID, VACANT AND OF NO FURTHER FORCE OF EFFECT, because of the fact that they were done by Autopen.” Unclear if the clemency grants were not signed by hand in the first place, the claim is baseless, because if so, the exercise of this broad and magisterial presidential power requires no signature, just that the recipients accept the pardon—Trump then pivoting his accusation that Biden’s diminished mental capacity meant he was unaware that his endorsement was being mimeographed. The tool has been used by many in high office to personalise correspondence as well as by institutes of higher learning to confer diplomas and certificates and at least once—that we know of—to sign legislation, Obama telegraphing his approval of the extension of the Patriot Act whilst in France in 2011. And while bills have been flown around the world for the executive signature in order to suppress any doubt of legality, still the language of the constitution stipulates that legislation is to be accepted or returned, vetoed without outlining how it is recorded. Patented under the title trademark, Thomas Jefferson was an early-adopter of this prototype, allowing two pens to move simultaneously and doubling efficiency. The pseudo-scientific technique of lie-detection shares the name because of its range of physiological indicators.

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

pocket veto (12. 308)

As of this posting (timestamps are important as we’ve gleaned from every episode of the NPR Politics podcast), the continuing resolution to keep the US government funded and in operation has yet to be signed into law by Trump. Normally a failure to endorse after a ten day period, de facto the bill becomes law, but the titular technicality occurs when the president cannot return the bill to congress because it is adjourned, as it is for Monday (Sundays also excepted)—and the language of the CR has the provision that for the purposes of the bill that the remainder of the fiscal year constitutes one congressional day (with no pro-forma members present to keep the legislature open) despite returning in session on Tuesday, meaning that deadline never arrives—an unusual proviso perhaps to hedge his bets. Something legally ambiguous that cannot be overridden that Trump could keep in his quiver to exercise at will, the GOP were perhaps expecting more resistance from the Democrats, which could explain the reversal of party leadership—with a shutdown, which is in effect, and solely owned by the Republicans.