trade wars are good—and easy to win (12. 181)

Here’s a compelling argument for Canada, in particular though it could apply to other economies under a capricious threat of tariffs, not to introduce retaliatory measures in kind—NAFTA and its successor under a different name plus America’s most-favoured nation seal of approval was on balance beneficial to corporate barons by enabling chasing cheap labour and off-shore environmental damage and in its latest incarnation enforced a hallmark of the rentier economic model with the proviso that enshrined IP and forbade the circumvention of digital locks and greatly eroded the right to repair for manufacturers and consumers. As with car parts, printer ink, streaming-services and charging plugs, this inability to seek out third-party solutions, this subscription system locks people into leases over ownership and ensures a steady stream of rents rendered and fears of sunk costs for everything invested in activating the extra features. As much as the US is seeking Canadian raw material and natural resources and exploitable manpower elsewhere, for which embargoes would be a pyrrhic victory at best as reliant on exports, any target could instead invoke a regime of jailbreaking, a domestic app store that bypasses American-based fees, kits that would overcome non-original parts, carve-out to warrants (this is not technologically difficult to do) and offer ways to get out of lease contracts and not experiencing reciprocal price-rises, which is a proven accelerant for populism.

8x8 (12. 103)

beige and confused: with the democratisation and de-fetishisation of graphic design, Elizabeth Goodspeed questions the role of Colour of the Year  

diamond in the rough: researchers perfect nuclear-powered battery that lasts ten-thousand years—see previously  

heroön: monumental ancient shire discovered in western Greece 

now go away or he will taunt you a second time: former Homeland Security advisor is not retracting her criticism of FBI director nominee Kash Patel—see previously  

naughty, brutish and short: philosophers on Santa’s good and bad lists

continuing resolution: the stop-gap spending bill to fund the US government through March hints at a revolt by Republican congressional members, refusing to entertain provisions to eliminate the debt ceiling (which Trump needs to enact his agenda) and postpones the budget battle to a time when the GOP has a even narrower majority  

demonstration project: MIT-linked charter company plans world-first grid-scale fusion reactor 

party city holdco inc: with every report on a company going bankrupt, there are at least four paragraphs citing inflation, consumer sentiment and competition before mentioning it was private equitied to death

stop-gap (12. 096)

A month prior to taking office at the end of the Biden administration, Trump and his unelected lieutenants are already bringing upheaval and chaos by cowing Congress in not allowing the legislature to vote on a carefully crafted, bipartisan funding measure that would have kept the government running through March (effectively punting the budget fight to the midpoint of new administration’s first hundred days and an onerous distraction from the MAGA team’s barn-burning agenda) that the Speaker of the House agreed to bring to the chamber’s floor, a pared-down version hastily put together failing to pass. Using his platform and influence, Musk argues that no bill should be passed prior to the inauguration and the US government will shut down on midnight Friday—see previously. Non-essential employees will be furloughed and most services suspended, and whilst House Republicans are working to draft another version without buy in from the Democrats without compromise no bill will be able to pass the Senate. This campaign of terror is ostensibly another tactic in the quiver of the Department of Government Efficiency to illustrate who could be made redundant, closing shop over the holidays with no guarantee of restored pay.

startpaket (12. 090)

Two weeks ahead of the introduction of the new currency, the mints of the Economic and Monetary Union of the European Union began on this day in 2001 to distribute starter kits of coinage in Greece, Portugal and Germany in order to familiarise citizens and cashiers in advance of their upcoming €-Day (see previously, see also). With a face value of 10,23 or 20 DM, five thousand drachma or two thousand escudo, around fifty-four million sealed plastic sachets were given out through local banks. Having moved to Germany just after the transition that took place on New Year’s 2002, I remember it being a strange time with the sentiment that prices had doubled overnight—or one’s worth suddenly halved—and many retail outlets were still in the process of changing over, accepting both Mark and US dollars at parity.

the haves and have yachts (12. 089)

Via tmn, we are directed to a brief chronology of the superyacht (its definition and the more exclusive class of gigayacht) and how that history corresponds with the larger world of oligarchy and status, beginning with (of course with acknowledged antecedents) shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis’ Christina O, a surplus Canadian anti-submarine frigate purchased in 1954 and outfitted with swimming pool that could be converted into a dance floor an appointed with furnishing crafted from the leather of whale foreskin and pornographic scenes from the Odyssey carved in whale teeth. Only keeping it for three years, the Trump Princess is flipped to another Saudi prince in 1991 after one of the previous owner’s casinos went bankrupt. A boasted new yacht, the Trump Princess II, which will be “something in excess of four hundred feet long—closer to five hundred feet” fails to materialise. There are dozens of other data points and anecdotes to consider on how that unattainable lifestyle informs the everyday reality of us all.

9x9 (12. 057)

globetrotter—more like globetriggered: a wrap of 2024 in therapy  

new doge, old tricks: Musk and Ramaswamy present their plan to rapture three-quarters of the government workforce but it’s going to be a challenge to achieve real cost-cutting or improved efficiency  

vote de censure: French government collapses after legislature moves to eject controversial prime minister Michel Barnier—see previously 

field of vision: the challenges of bringing the Vera Ruben perched high in the Andes on online includes unidentified intelligence agencies screening images before they are released to the public  

my empathy is out of network: Americas respond to the assassination of a major medical insurance CEO  

ekistical portrait: Rob Stephenson is documenting all the three hundred and fifty neighbourhoods of New York City’s five boroughs—via Kottke  

what just happened: South Korea’s declaration of marshal law, parliament’s rejection and the ongoing political crisis  

stonks: Bitcoin just hit $100 000 a piece  

hot topic: the year in Wikipedia, recent celebrity deaths topped the list again

 synchronoptica

one year ago: the Michelob Music Hour (with synchronoptica) plus modern art presented as a fun-fair

seven years ago: noisy GIFs, assorted links worth the revisit plus 52 more things

eight years ago: the origins of Play-Doh

nine years ago: red cup controversy, a trip to Rosenau plus our faithful chronicler

ten years ago: troublesome ideas in the marketplace plus an A-ha! reunion concert

one-trick pony (12. 056)

After threatening Mexico, Canada and China with punishing tariffs less for economic reasons but rather to staunch the flow of illegal immigration and illicit drugs—Trudeau as a seeming by-stander had an emergency dinner-date with Trump for damage control to which Trump offered an easy way out, to unify with American, politely declining, I wish the prime-minister had spit in his face—Trump is now threatening the BRICS nations with hundred percent export levies should they continue to entertain the idea of de-dollarisation and choose the path of less dependence to trade, hypothetically, in another reserve currency or pursue their own monetary union. Certain members of this cohort, whether or not contemplating an alternative (see also) whose negotiations would extend beyond current regimes, have already been effectively pushed out thanks to sanctions and manipulation that leverages American interests and priorities.

banco de portugal plot (12. 055)

Presenting a letter of introduction, credentialed and endorsed by the Royal Joh. Enschedé of the Netherlands, chartered maker of banknotes and other security documents, on this day in 1924 Artur Virgílio Aves Reis instigated one of the biggest financial frauds in history when he entered the offices of Waterlow and Sons Ltd, another respected and venerable printer of stock certificates, currency and postage stamps, and claiming to be on a secret mission on behalf of the governors of his native Portugal’s central bank, sought to fill a commission of two-hundred thousand, five hundred escudo notes (the cifrão $, from the Arabic for zero is a double-bar dollar sign, is the currency symbol and is used as the thousands and decimal point separator) for circulation and fund an infrastructure project in colonial Angola. Conceived during a short prison stint for illegal arms trade where he encountered his future associates and amid an absolute printing frenzy in Germany to counter hyperinflation, Aves Reis correctly wagered he could pull off a grand counterfeiting scheme, approaching both printers to produce the high denomination notes with identical serial numbers, then hiring an army of drones (zangões) back in Porto to launder the illicit millions, eventually establishing his own bank to expedite the process and avoid suspicion. The massive infusion of forged money, after having purchased a controlling share of stock in the central bank and nearly taking it over, was uncovered exactly one year and one day later with grave repercussions for the country’s economy and the ensuing financial crisis promulgating a collapse of the fragile first republic for a series of dictatorships.

overwintered (12. 041)

Hardly redemptive though having read about municipalities getting dual-use out of the massive amounts of energy expended on bitcoin mining before, it took me a couple of readings to get how this news article was a “bit too on the nose,” about how a Dutch tulip farmer was offsetting their heating costs by hosting crypto servers in the greenhouse. We realised however reading the completely unironic reportage that it was a very apt commentary on the original mania, speculative bubble (see also) albeit now a relatively benign one is being fuelled by one in the series of benighted ventures.

high concept (12. 024)

Though I would too defend Maurizio Cattelan piece of a banana duct-taped to a wall as legitimate art in the route of Duchamp or Warhol (and not an object with actual permanence like the hyper-realistic and satirical sculptures in the artist’s repertoire but rather a perishable piece of fruit and a roll of duct tape that need replacing with a certificate of authenticity and instructions on how to display the work—see also), the sale of a third edition (the first two were acquired by museums for a more reasonable sum of one-hundred and twenty thousand dollars) to an entrepreneur for just over six-million— well over its million dollar reserve price and paid in Bitcoin, one of the only lots for which the auction house would accept payment in that form—makes me think that the resurrection of the Trump regime, for all the obvious nefariousness, was also a vehicle to bring back the grift of crypto and NFTs. The main element of the work was purchased the morning of the auction from a local fruit vendor for 35¢, appreciating in value fifteen-million fold, by the end of the day. The two other copies were eaten while on exhibitions, as will this one, whose new owner is happy about the portable nature of the work that could be mounted anywhere.

synchronoptica

one year ago: an apparent breakthrough in general artificial intelligence (with synchronoptica) plus a counter-culture Thanksgiving tradition

seven years ago: more Thanksgiving greetings

eight years ago: another pause for Turkey Day 

nine years ago: recommended gift catalogues  

ten years ago: poetry and language

11x11 (12. 020)

enemy of the people: veteran journalists expect Trump to go after the press by every possible means  

net elevation: calculate the differential between the birth place and the death place of the good and the great—via Waxy 

panda diplomacy: Russia donates seventy animals to North Korean zoo with a plane sanctioned by the US normally dispatched to Syria—via Super Punch

jellyfish dream theatre: a visit to the Kamo Aquarium in Yamagata prefecture, home to the largest collection of medusazoa 

cryptobro: investigating undisclosed financial interest in various schemes, BBC trolled by Paul Logan impersonator 

icc: the International Criminal Court has issued warrants for the Israeli president, former defence secretary and Hamas’ military leader on charges of war crimes  

ai pimping: the growing industry of machine-generated influences  

exclusive gladiator experience: AirBNB’s booking at the Colosseum incites outrage  

test-fire: in response to strikes with Western missile systems, Putin orders the firing of experimental hyper-sonic armament deep into Ukraine  

allotted to companionship: a look at how a certain demographic spent their time in the 1930s as compared to today—via tmn  

grim meat-hook future: resistance to Trump’s authoritarian regime could result in a military coup—read the comments

synchronoptica

one year ago: assorted links worth revisiting (with synchronoptica) plus a lost demo tape rediscovered decades later

seven years ago: endangered elements plus more links to enjoy

eight years ago: more fun with shadows plus Eigengrau and colour perception

nine years ago: Alan Moore’s Star Wars

ten years ago: ransomware plus dialect and distinction

die osingverlosung (12. 011)

Inscribed on the UNESCO register of intangible cultural heritage in 2016, we had never heard of this five hundred year old custom, that takes place every decade (in years ending with four) on the arable plateau called the Osing near Bad Windsheim in Middle Frankonia after the harvest when lots are drawn by farmers of the four villages that share the land to determine who will work which parcel for the next ten years, until the next lottery. This unique system dates back to the late Middle Ages and ensures that fertile and less desirable fields are distributed equitably, this tradition surviving no where else in Germany has been upheld as the community appreciates the element of fairness—one farmer consigned to a poor allotment will have an equal chance to work more high-yielding patch of land next time, instead of selling off the commons to the highest bidder. Even taking place in 1944 when other long-standing traditions were put on hiatus, the custom is said to date back to around the year 1020 when Kaiserin Kunigunde von Luxemburg went on a hunting expedition in the then densely forested area of the Osing. Her party got lost but thanks to the pealing of church bells of the four villages surrounding the woods at the cardinal points, Herbolzheim, Humprechtsau, Krautostheim and Rüdisbronn, they were able to find their way, and in gratitude, the empress deeded the land to the people to share in perpetuity.

*    *    *    *   *

 

synchronoptica

one year ago: terraforming Mars (with synchronoptica)

seven years ago: bioluminescence

eight years ago: majestic sandcastles, a particular aesthetic, the uncanny mantis shrimp, digitising archival photos plus a collapsing bike helmet

nine years ago: saving the bees  

ten years ago: linguistic redundancy plus high-fructose foods

peoples’ choice (12. 003)

Polls open now through 28.November, the OED presents its shortlist of nominees for the Word of the Year for 2024, with only one actual neologism in romantasy (see previously, albeit the portmanteau for the literary genre dates back to 2008 when the German arm of publisher Random House tried to categorise its translations of English romance romances with an element of fantasy). Other contenders include brainrot, a term first used by Henry David Thoreau in his 1842 Walden; or, Life in the Woods, and dynamic pricing, a calque of the Swedish coinage of economist Gunnar Myrdal in 1927 as dynamiska prisbildning which has also seen a revival this past year with heightened public awareness of surges, gouging and exploitation in retail spaces and for gig-workers. More older words with new meanings are lore, slop and demure. Which one is your pick?

10x10 (11. 988)

the moral arc of the universe is buffering: an update on where we stand 

intermission: Cardhouse’s 2024 mixtape  

chimera: archaeologists re-examine ancient Roman burial and realise skeleton is composed of bones from eight different individuals that died thousands of years apart from one another  

inactivity reboot: Apple quietly introduced a security patch in its latest OS update that makes it harder to police to break into confiscated iPhones—via Super Punch  

plutocracy: the Elites have finally been defeated by the Billionaires 

text-to-brainrot: convert any PDF into an engaging TikTok-style audio summarisation overlaid with video-game footage—see previously—via Web Curios  

ye olde cheshire cheese: a gallery of the pubs of Old London  

changing narratives: new genetic evidence of Pompeii victims suggest that they were strangers comforting each other during the world-ending calamity   

the sounds of ramallah: techno Insomnia Fest in Tromsø rallies for Palestine and Lebanon  

venture alchemists: Wall Street and the broader economy brace for Trump tax-cuts, tariffs and retribution

 synchronoptica

one year ago: paper lanterns for St Martin’s Day (with synchronoptica), Republican primary debates, a banger from Frankie Goes to Hollywood plus assorted links to enjoy

seven years ago: illusion of confidence

eight years ago: snail matchmaking, a national nightmare plus Europe’s Alt-Right

nine years ago: carbon foil that mimics muscles

ten years ago: an art exhibition for octopi plus an abandoned nuclear test site just outside of Paris

the volfefe index (11. 945)

Despite heavy financial losses since its inception and low overall traffic (monthly users are estimated to be between six and eight hundred thousand), Donald Trump’s TRUTH Social platform (and its parent company) has surged recently in terms of stock price and presently has a higher valuation reportedly than Elon Musk’s X. The former US president first launched a website called “From the Desk of Donald J Trump” for sending out tweet-like dispatches (despite having a press secretary and a pool of journalists dedicated to covering him) after being banned from Facebook and Twitter in the wake of the 6 January attack on the US Capitol but the venture failed to attract many visitors and folded less than a month later, founding the social network by late February—with the help of two former contestants from Trump’s reality television show The Apprentice. The title refers to the portmanteau of volatility and covfefe for the disruptive market swings that Trump tweets caused, and of course the high stock price, more than tripled in the course of weeks, has little to do with fundamentals or inherent worth but is rather speculation on the election outcome.

as safe as fort knox (11. 866)

With the exception of a brief tour granted to FDR in 1943 and a similar junket in August of 2017 to dispel the same rumours that the vaults had been emptied out, no members of the public had been admitted to the national gold bullion depository until when on this day in 1974 a contingent of journalists and a dozen congressional representatives were guided inspection by members of the American Mint (director Mary Brooks pictured) and the Treasury Department.

Requests to visit Ft Knox are summarily turned down but pressure by the House to conduct an independent audit of US gold reserves in response to the publication of a book, Conspiracy Against the Dollar: The Spirit of the New Imperialism by Peter David Beter, that attacked international monetary reform and cited the usual culprits, global elites, Bolsheviks, the Rockefeller-cartel, Soviet space lasers, important public figures were dead and had been replaced with “robotoids”—and most resoundingly with the public, that most of America’s gold had been trucked away and sold at depressed costs to European speculators—all claims without evidence or merit. Beter’s AM radio show gave him a platform to continue his allegations, making the military installation’s standing policy suspicious and proof that they had something to hide. The delegation was delighted with the tour and mostly cleared up the false speculation—largely imputed to America’s leaving the gold standard three years prior when the reality was that movement of gold had effectively halted (US silver bullion is stored at the military academy of West Point) and most gold is still in New York City—that is, until the rumours started circulating again and Kentucky senator Mitch McConnell visited with treasury secretary Steven Mnuchin, proclaiming the nation’s stockpile to be secure. 

synchronoptica

one year ago: David Bowie’s Heroes (with synchronoptica), robinsonades plus urban wildlife photography

seven years ago: shibboleths 

eight years ago: smart carts for airport security, windpipes plus point-of-sales machines

nine years ago: algae-based membranes as liquid containers 

eleven years ago: a census of house plants

semi-obscure, guilty pleasure, cultural punchline (11. 850)

Planet Money directs us to an engrossing cross-over podcast episode from 99% Invisible on the fast-food enterprise that was singly responsible for the phenomena of the chain restaurant with its often copied by but no means faithfully reproduced White Castle System of Eating Houses, which was able to overcome a strong public aversion to the idea of eating ground beef—in patty form as a hamburger—directly attributable to the influential work by Upton Sinclair, The Jungle, about the unsanitary business of meat-packing by establishing a rigid regime of uniformity for its eateries, instilling assurance in customers with consistency and cleanliness through a range of programming and marketing. Though not as celebrated as another chain that opened later in the same city, White Castles first opened in Wichita, Kansas in the 1920s and expanded regionally to other college and factory towns but its innovation and legacy was overtaken by second-wave imitators usually given credit for the business model with their more aggressive expansion propelled by car-culture, restaurants built not in urban centres but along highways and byways, and franchising, something that the family-owned business never did lest the experience and reputation be sullied by out-sourcing the name. Whilst a bit of an insult for the misattribution of globalisation, in terms of menu and McWorld, White Castle has cultivated a different definition of success and has built a loyal fandom.

synchronoptica

one year ago: an old school webring (with synchronoptica) plus a logic-based constructed language

seven years ago: the Ig Noble Prize plus Big Tech to disrupt the corner shop

eight years ago: subway etiquette plus no assembly required 3D printed machines

eleven years ago: navigating new technology plus the problem with biometrics

twelve years ago: the Pope in Lebanon 

doge (11. 817)

Trump has announced that Elon Musk has agreed to head a commission for his potential administration, named the Department of Government Efficiency in reference to Musk’s favoured meme-based cryptocurrency, tasked with reducing US federal spending and the deficit. Musk’s businesses not only benefit from government subsidies and also counts NASA, the Pentagon and several intelligence agencies among his direct clients, which raises the spectre of a conflict of interest in line with Trump’s imperial presidency. Musk was formerly a member of a White House advisory council but resigned in protest in 2017 after the US withdrawal from the Paris Climate Agreement, although has recently recanted that decision, saying the climate catastrophe was not in need of immediate attention and has softened his opinions of the petroleum industry.

schnelling points (11. 816)

Humans have a seemingly uncanny knack for solving complex coordination problems when communication and prior planning is limited by uncovering the shared cultural or knowledge-based default in a such situation, concerting the intentions and expectations and land on the above foci, named after economist and game-theorist Thomas Schelling. 

Cooperative experiments demonstrate that a team of individuals acting towards shared end will pick the same time and place for a rendezvous. Part of the allure of AI models is that they seem also quite good at coordination problems—from predictive text, to routine emails to proofreading to peer-review, insofar as they have been trained on the social norms that we draw on as well to achieve a common goal. Artificial intelligence has a worse track record when it comes to something genuinely innovative or unprecedented, and moreover may erode the implicit social bargain that underpins cooperative efforts. The routine is also ritual and outsourcing them, like the above onerous tasks, dulls not only the refining practise when it comes to composing an email—which is also the author’s assessment of their audience—but of course lands as disingenuous and meritless when one can’t be bothered to dash off a good reference or buy someone a gift that was not generated by algorithm. What do you think? We’ve always been taking short-cuts but subverting ceremony altogether seems more serious. More from Henry Farrell at the link above.

9x9 (11. 814)

unpodcasted: one hundred ninety nine ideas about etymologies, idioms and eponyms that Helen Zaltzman has not produced an episode for—yet  

book club: Oprah Winfrey’s upcoming special on Artificial Intelligence with Sam Altman, Bill Gates and other AI-evangelists has critics of the tech sector up in arms  

blue chip index: Intel’s earnings slump could see it removed from the Dow, possibly putting a wrench in plans to increase US domestic manufacturing

sleepy grendel’s mother: Beotrump by Christopher Douglas  

jevons paradox: even if autonomous vehicles worked perfectly, they will still lead to more pollution, congestion and accidents—see previously—via tmn  

oslo—is it even a city: a wonderful bit of anti-advertising for the Norwegian capital plus more news and jokes 

intel inside: Pentium microprocessor as Navajo weaving—via Waxy 

nanowrimo: the organisation behind National Novel Writing Month criticised over labelling aversion to generative texts as classist and ableist 

unblogged: fellow flâneur Diamon Geezer lists a month’s worth of explorations not posted

 synchronoptica

one year ago: The Eye of the Tiger (with synchronoptica),  Kenneth Anger’s first film plus hot labour summer

seven years ago: the Little Ben of Victoria station

eight years ago: a visit to Churfrankenland plus an ant colony thriving in nuclear waste

nine years ago: assorted links to revisit plus algorithmic eavesdropping

eleven years ago: Germany votes plus pirate patches