After last weekend’s walk up the hill to the model airplane field, we realised we had never shared actual impressions from wandering around the larger landing strip for gliders, small, self-launching motorised planes and ultralight aircraft on the opposite end of town at Bรผchig. Taking advantage of break in the fog and overcast skies, we made a circuit around the summit.
Though a bit of an inconvenience to have to go into the next bigger Marktstadt outside of the village for any kind of shopping, it always pays off in spades, by sheer dint of concentration of attractions there and spots for a nice wander, even on a foggy day:
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 synchronopticรฆ)
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
the coffer illusion: studies in cross-cultural perception have insights behind their controversy—see previously
rolling stock: new homeowner shocked to find a hidden model train alcove in the basement and has a new, unexpected restoration project—via Nag on the Lake
reading the minutes: AI note-takers outnumber human participants in virtual meeting spaces
remastered: British Film Institute hosts a rare screening of the original 1977 Star Wars on Technicolour reels
no undo button for our fallen democracy: a chorus of responses to the cathedral-, not-in-our-lifetimes thinking that has replaced American exceptionalism
hello stranger: a signature work of scrolly-telling from The Pudding of people who don’t know each other holding conversations—via Quantum of Sollazzo
they’re all good boys: the golden retriever, Gilbert, assassinated along with the state congress representative and her husband lay in state at the Minnesota capitol
heaven and earth magic: a 1962 cutout animation short by avant-garde filmmaker Harry Everett Smith made in residence at the Chelsea Hotel
static spin: a superlative optical illusion
synchronoptica
one year ago: returning via Switzerland (with synchronopticรฆ) plus a new Labour government for the UK
twelve years ago: the US Mail-Cover Programme, Stars Wars as written by Shakespeare plus America policing the world
thirteen years ago: a geography challenge
first comes the performance, then comes the repetition, then comes the integration: thirty lonely yet beautiful acts of defiance—even including social media—via Kottke
fubar: Muckrock presents its FOIA Foilies awards for 2025—probably too early—see previously
not shuttered, per se, just considered complete: venerable UbuWeb started back up after closure last year
audible enclaves: researchers have discovered how to beam sounds to a targeted listener—via the New Shelton wet/dry
it’s peanut butter jelly time: froghorn.exe is an homage to what used to be the internet’s biggest draw
programmable mutterer: the allure of magical thinking and how the displaced grace of AI could prove more analogous to markets and institutions steering better than individuals
smoking gun: Trump declassifies a tranche of documents on the JFK assassination, unredacted and “ushering in a new era of maximum transparency
greeks bearing gifts: Senator Schumer votes to let the wooden horse into Troy
A cross-platform movement that’s particularly wholesome and encourages taking a walk in the woods really for its own sake and not needing add needless gamification and augmented reality called Stick Nation features participants from all over the globe, sharing remarkable sticks (see previously) they come across—generally showcasing where it was found, its provenance a bit of lore. The community accept both organic finds and ones with light modifications to enhance their inner excellence.
synchronoptica
one year ago: water worlds (with synchronoptica) plus squabbles among AI thought leaders
seven years ago: the fourteenth amendment of the US constitution
eight years ago: US Republicans go after Obama Care, the CIA spies on Germany, germ-repelling materials plus reversing the genders of the US presidential candidates
nine years ago: a conspiracy theory album cover, the actor who played the Alien plus the philosophical implications of faster than light travel
ten years ago: assorted links to revisit
Already taking certain cues from the dog when it comes to a vigorous shake of the head and big stretches as a reminder, from the New Shelton wet/dry comes another behaviour that maybe it’s wise to incorporate in that chewing wood may boost memory and brain antioxidants. Previous studies suggest that mastication has a positive influence on blood flow and brain function but new research points to how chewing wood—like a popsicle stick—as opposed to gnawing on piece of gum might stimulate production of glutathione, an important restorative that helps the brain repair oxidative stress, neutralising reactive chemicals. More longitudinal studies are needed to see if the correlation nets improved cognition and overall help.
Having encountered the topic of animals on trial beforehand, we found intriguing this court docket, via ibฤซdem, on how canine familiars (obviously falsely accused, they were all good boys and girls) were implicated in the Salem Witch Trials. In superstitions predating the tribunal dogs had garnered associations with the sinister and while there are no records of dogs standing trial, those folklore traditions echo in testimony with dogs being bewitched and in league with the devil, evinced by the power of prayer to encourage obedience. Historical sources suggest that their implication was a shaggy dog story read into the record after the fact and sadly led, as with their feline and feminine cohort, to abuse and injustice.
Via Web Curios, whilst much kinder to the canines—though transposing their colours for some reason—and generally a bit unsettling in that spirit of AI body horror that we’ve seemed to have moved beyond expectation-wise even though 
we were only entrenched in it just bare months ago and only for a very brief time, we still had fun playing with this synthetic artist that runs your images through a poorly-executed standard Windows raster graphics editor, glitchy and hallucinating using the limited palette, brush styles and arguably ham-fisted fill-tools (a sort of constrained painting) in its quiver. Give it a try but be aware your ugly mugs are put in a public gallery for all to see.
one year ago: the art movement the New Objectivity
two years ago: assorted links to revisit
three years ago: another MST3K classic, more links to enjoy plus the Vatican’s catalogue of banned books
four years ago: a preview of OpenAI’s capabilities, ghost towns along the former inter-German border plus poppies in bloom
five years ago: encoding data in DNA
on covfefe day no less: a meme roundup on Trump’s felony conviction
canine rainbow: dogs’ visual spectrum and how they see perceive the world
love exposure: the acclaimed, sprawling 2008 comedy-drama by Sion Sono
the scary ham: proper late rites for an aged cut of pork
leftovers: five thin volumes on post-apocalypse Briton
nondescript fern: researchers find the largest genome (fifty times the genetic material of humans) in a small plant on an Australian island
why be dragons: the origins of the universal mythological creatures
evening standard: venerable London newspaper to suspend daily publication after almost two hundred years—see previously
today is my birthday, please like me: a Twitter feed of some the revolting, disturbing but morbidly compelling AI-generated slop inundating Facebook—via Web Curios
one year ago: Crazy Frog (2005) plus Adobe’s Generative Fill
two years ago: Scotch whisky (1495) plus the Stresa Convention on Cheeses (1951)
three years ago: your daily demon: Eligos, The Ship of Fools (1497), more on monopolies and monopsonies plus a Simon and Garfunkel classic
four years ago: seasonal dormancy, more King Ubu, St Rรณnรกn plus elections matter
five years ago: re-creating TV living rooms with IKEA furnishings, Japan’s first folklore museum, the Lennon-Ono Honeymoon Suite plus a robot job interviewer
super easy, barely an inconvenience: if cats had podcasts
minor arcana: a metaphysically intelligent™️ tarot reading—via Web Curios
fleeting moments: a concept camera that only delivers ephemeral poetry based on the subject in the view-finder—via Clive Thompson’s Linkfest
the ghana must go: as ubiquitous as the IKEA bag but more practical, this tartan sack from Japan by way of Hong Kong contains multitudes
god’s influencer: following a second miracle attributed to his intercession, the first Millennial saint is canonised
atlas shrugged: AI-apocalypse Jennifer Lopez vehicle from James Cameron garners negative reviews but we found it enjoyable—going in blindly and wondering if it wasn’t part of the Duneiverse and setting up the Butlerian Jihad
long averages: advances in the understanding of probability fuelling casino gambling—via Damn Interesting
planchettes and re-enchantment: LLMs are haunted things toc-cat-a in b-major: Noam Oxman personalised musical pet portraits—via Waxy
one year ago: a portrait of a dog, Berlin’s Mouse Bunker, a study of incomplete cubes plus men and women duelling in the Middle Ages
two years ago: a pact between NATO and Russia (1997), a dragon in Essex plus assorted links worth revisiting
three years ago: mojibake, font sizes, the Golden Gate Bridge (1937), relocating geese plus Dune manga
four years ago: more links to enjoy, a rock-climbing inspection, weasel iconography plus Trump 2.0 would be far more fraught
five years ago: getting around in Swiss Saxony
Already having to deal with the loss of Grumpy Cat in 2019 and encountering a feline with similar markings, it was a bit mournful to mark the passing of the Shiba Inu named Kabosu—albeit at the ripe and respectable old age of eighteen human years and suffering from various rather chronic ailments (such is the toll of an unnaturally long life)—who was recruited into internet celebrity and launched numerous memes as Doge and a crypto currency that has generated real value for some despite its parody origins.
Once the top-vetted hopeful for Donald Trump’s ticket for vice-president who has since seen her reputation tarnished (but probably irreparably—amazing that one could recover from something so heinous—due to 
the American values wars and backlash against cancel culture) by an autobiographical account of killing a family dog and a problematic goat as well as exaggerated or outright fabricated geopolitical meetings, South Dakota governor Kristi Noem has been banned from twenty-percent of the state’s territory as six Native American reservations exercise their sovereign right to declare Noem an outlaw and refuse her entry. The Tankton Sioux Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate joined the Oglala, Rosebud, Cheyenne River and Standing Rock tribal branches for on-going jurisdictional feuds that began with suppressing the opposition to the Keystone XL pipeline in 2019 and recently suggesting that the independence reservations were dens for organised crime—drugs trafficking and illegal migration.
one year ago: assorted links worth revisiting, the Pantheon plus a classic from Boney M
two years ago: Our Lady of Fatima (1917), more links to enjoy plus Gรถdel and Einstein
three years ago: common areas of Singapore’s public housing plus St Glyceria
four years ago: anonymous scholarship, a quiet black hole, unmasked assailants plus an ancient herbal
five years ago: mushrooming traditions, technological middlemen plus open-sky requests from the incarcerated
flightline: stunning visualisations of air traffic
splinternet: ByteDance does not plan to divest itself of TikTok following US ultimatum
megadeath: modelling the destruction caused by a nuclear bomb on a major city
mtv buzz: a surreal montage of audio and video clips arranged by Mark Pellington (1990)
celebrity endorsement: musicians, artists and novelist pose with the Sears’ appliances in this 1969 ad campaign for Kenmore—see also
undiscovery: the Map Men chart phantom islands—including some that have made it into the era of Google Maps—see previously
22,5 light hours: engineers debug a forty-seven year old computer remotely from twenty-four billion kilometres away to revive the data stream from Voyager I—see previously
embarking: a luxury airline that caters to canines above their human companions
one year ago: assorted links worth revisiting
two years ago: dismantling Soviet-era monuments
three years ago: more links to enjoy plus a special issue of LIFE magazine
four years ago: fantasy urban map generators, more links worth the revisit plus geopolitical optics
five years ago: an elegant and modern personal seal, even more links plus a Victorian houseplant
On the way back from grocery shopping, we walked the dog (car rides are still not her favourite and we like to reward her and ourselves with a little adventure en route) on a hiking trail called the “Kirschberge” (cherry mountains) to a fourteenth century signal tower a few kilometres outside of town with the central stronghold of the area, the Lichtenburg of Ostheim vor den Rhรถn, between there and the Stockheimer Warte in the woods near home. 
The “Amt”—an administrative unit of the County of Henneberg—changed ownership and allegiance often and subject to dispute over rights to impose taxes and tariffs on trade through the region (see above) and so this series of watch-towers was erected to secure their holdings for the next five hundred years. Like the one within the line of sight of Stockheim, the quarried-stone tower is seven metres high with re-enforced walls almost four metres thick and built a top a commanding height.
synchronoptica
one year ago: the peculiar properties of the letter r plus assorted links to revisit
two years ago: more links to enjoy
three years ago: medical trains in Siberia, St Frances of Rome, The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahogany (1930), Sputnik 9 (1961) plus a colourful neighbourhood in Kyiv
four years ago: the musical stylings of Jackie Manface Opel, the pandemic continues, a more mindful approach to recycling plus Nintendo LEGO
five years ago: the musical stylings of The Skaggs, Luke Perry guest stars on The Simpsons (1993), more links to enjoy, the introduction of Barbie (1959) plus the magic of bread
Via Nag on the Lake and Memo of the Air, we enjoyed these collection of canine figurines from ancient Assyria, circa 650 BC, with the dogs’ names inscribed on them, and they are some rather epic monikers, including Muลกฤแนฃu Lemnลซti, “Expeller of Evil” and Dan Rigiลกลกu, “Loud is his bark,” probably carved in the Ashuriscript rather than the older cuniform. While perhaps more to the point than these other pet names, we liked contrasting it with this list of medieval ones for one’s furry companions.
synchronoptica
one year ago: a Chinese spy balloon in US skies, the border reopens between Gibraltar and Spain (1985), Tomorrowland, assorted links worth revisiting plus graphing calculator emulators
two years ago: Laker Airways, more links to enjoy, Telegram Sam (1972) plus more AI Valentines
three years ago: a Bubble Palace, more Tulip Mania, MTV’s Liquid Television plus the @-sign
four years ago: the State of the Union, one hundred years of the Greenwich Time Signal plus outsider artist James Edward Deeds, Jr
five years ago: United Artists (1919), more links worth the revisit plus snow-rollers
Turning our attention to past movies set in the then future of our present (hopefully not prophetic), the first round goes to the 1975 darkly, problematically comedic post-apocalyptic adaptation of the Harlan Ellison novella of the same name. A teenager portrayed by Don Johnson (Miami Vice) scavenges through the wastelands of the US southwest following a nuclear war accompanied by his telepathic dog (voiced by Tim McIntire). Orphaned at an early age with no formal education or socialisation, the adolescent is focused on survival, interested solely in food and sex—conquests secured with the aid of his canine companion in exchange for meals as the genetic modifications that bestowed super-intelligence leaves him incapable of tasks like hunting. After numerous run-ins with bandits, mutants and rogue androids, the teenager is eventually recruited by an aristocratic scout of a subterranean colony as a stud to help with low viable breeding population. A preview and links to the whole movie available at Weird Universe above. Most other selections seemed to be based in 2024 for purely arbitrary reasons and only two to three years behind when they were produced—with the exception of the 1999 Josef Rusnak and Roland Emmerich 
vehicle that was overshadowed by the similarly themed Matrix and was a victim to the strange echo-phenomena of “twin films”that sometimes happens in Hollywood (due to screenplay shopping and submission to multiple studios, industrial secrecy and espionage), like the asteroid flicks Armageddon and Deep Impact, Dante’s Peak and Volcano, 1981’s The Howling, Wolfen and An American Werewolf in London, Olympus Has Fallen and White House Down, or on stage Godspell and Jesus Christ Superstar. A multibillion dollar computer company in then present-day Los Angeles is experimenting with a virtual reality simulation of the city in 1937 populated by individuals unaware that they are part of a program. Entering the simulation in order to solve the mysterious death of the company CEO, the protagonist and heir to the enterprise (and a prime suspect) finds clues that lead to the revelation that thousands of parallel virtual worlds exist but there is only one reality whose inhabitants have developed a virtual world of their own, but having a pocket metaverse within another does not necessarily result in privilege or insight. The protagonist disconnects and emerges into reality advanced a quarter of a century.
Born on this day in 2001, the product of a collaboration between researchers at Texas A&M (Agricultural 
and Mechanical College) University and Genetic Savings & Clone, Inc, a brown tabby kitten called CC was the world’s first clone pet. A demonstration project to see if it was commercially viable and safe, CC—pictured with her genetic donor, Rainbow (bottom centre), displays an interesting discrepancy in the calico pattern due to random differences in tortoiseshell phenotypes from epigenetic re-programming on implantation (having dispensed with the usual determinants of fertilisation), lived a healthy and happy life, a perfectly normal feline giving birth to her own litter of kittens in 2006, dying aged eighteen years in March of 2020, still residing in the laboratory in College Station with her human caretakers.
falling for fall: an epic attempt to capture the Christian Girl Autumn aesthetic—via the morning news
paradox: NASA climate group issues a bleak warning on climate change—controversially suggesting that a reduction in aerosol pollution will accelerate warming
the hunting of the earl of rone: one individual’s quest to catalogue the folkways and traditions of the United Kingdom
they’re all good dogs: the winners of the annual world canine photography award presented—plus a bonus vocabulary term for one who is favourably disposed to dogs—via Nag on the Lake
ja-da, ja-da, ja-da, jing jing jing: a soothing 1918 jazz standard covered for decades after
mechanical turk: exposing autonomous cars’ vast human support network to maintain an illusion of safety, reliability
roll on: a clever phonophore logo for a transport and logistics company in Hong Kong
cape canaveral: a 3D animated billboard recounts the chronology of the Kennedy Space Centre
momiji tunnel: a stunning section of the Eizan railway showcases the turning foliage—via the ever excellent Nag on the Lake’s Sunday Links
one year ago: the Gun Powder Plot, a Commodore accordion, more McMansion Hell plus a Wikipedia list of common fallacies
two years ago: the Saint Felix Flood (1530)
three years ago: a tri-lingual dictionary (1499), a flashpoint labour strike (1916), a sรฉance on a wet afternoon plus the Rebel Rabbit GIF
four years ago: more on Guy Fawkes, Voyager 2 leaves the Solar System, ghoulish guacamole plus Facebook’s shift to the right
five years ago: representative Shirley Chisholm, an ancient boardgame, photographer Denise Scott Brown, words for the Winter Blues plus mapping the US mid-terms
page rank: the SEO trend of naming establishments X Near Me seems to actually drive customers—via Waxy
cyanea pohaku: a species of tree discovered right before it was driven to extinction
saint eom: the psychedelic compound of folk artist and fortune-teller Eddie Owens Martin outside of Buena Vista in the US state of Georgia and listed on the National Register of Historic Places
usonian homes: a pair of Frank Lloyd Wright (see previously) houses on the market in Kalamazoo in the US state of Michigan
saob: the official Swedish dictionary published after one hundred forty years of work
the united states of guns: another sadly evergreen post about how an armed society is not a free society
happiness hotel: a luxury kennel once occupied the grounds of New York City’s Lincoln Center
report
of my death having been most industriously circulated by several of the
london daily newspapers, would the times permit me to contradict the
same through your valuable columns and refute the account: sculptor John Ternouth, designer of the plinth for Nelson’s Column, was surprised to learn of his premature demise—via Strange Company
i am altering the deal—pray i don’t alter it any further: Amazon’s Alexa is ending inoperability support with severe punishment for those who try to hack their way around it
