not-ready-for-primetime players (12. 790)

Although there has already been much celebration marking the long-running topical and comedy sketch show’s fiftieth season, its actual semicentenary anniversary occurred on this day in 1975 when the network aired the first episode of NBC’s Saturday Night Live (to distinguish it from competing time slot Saturday Night Live with Howard Cosell—see above). Hosted by comedian George Carlin with Billy Preston (“Will it Go Round in Circles,” “Nothing from Nothing”) and Janis Ian (“At Seventeen,” “Society’s Child,” “Fly Too High”) were the first musical guests. The cast lived in the studio for the first season and had their footing and direction by the fourth episode, introducing regularly occurring segments and characters.

7x7 (12. 789)

snaggletoothed landfill goblins: a journey into the heart of the Pop Mart economy—via Web Curios  

battle-rattle: a Wikipedia-style directory on camouflage—via ibīdem   

urgent fury: revisiting Grenada and arguably the only modern foreign war that the US ever won  

lahaina noon: twice annually objects in the between the Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn lose their shadows  

my life of the ptsd list: Kathy Griffin—don’t call it a come back—via MetaFilter  

yclept: a gloss on the Old English term that is still in common-parlance—via Strange Company

the niña, the pinta and the santa maría: Trump issues a declaration ahead of the US federal holiday to re-enshrine the myth of Columbus’ discover and the settlers’ conquest   

franklin mint (12. 773)

Although some polities issue currency bearing the obverse of their current reigning monarch, most including the United States of America and many others only impress images of departed historic contributors and presidents—the heretofore exception for the US being the commemorative coinage passed by congress in March of 1925 to feature portraits of the current incumbent Calvin Coolidge with George Washington for the sesquicentennial half-dollar to be sold to the public at a premium above their face value and much of the specie returned to the minters for reuse after disappointing reception (the one-hundred-fiftieth year celebration of the the nation’s founding also going down in the annals of the most poorly executed and received—see also). We are certain that in the not-too-distant future, people will puzzle over why so much ink was split over a has been, fascist country and their daily drivel. The draft engraving of the semiquincentennial dollar coin—introduced during the government shutdown—features images of Trump both on the obverse and reverse (perhaps inspired by Charles III on the new ten £ note after his recent visit) with the latter struck to match the defiant pose after his attempted assassination in Butler County Pennsylvania—already the iconography of his cryptocurrency.

synchronoptica

one year ago: anchor Dan Rather assaulted (with synchronopticæ), an ongoing treasure hunt plus another scavenger hunt 

twelve years ago: US government shut-down disrupts NASA projects plus capture houses and bait cars

thirteen years ago: more tarnished smiles 

fourteen years ago: the Occupy Wall Street movement 

fifteen years ago: reflections on twenty years of German unity 

 

 

¹⁴c (12. 755)

Above-ground nuclear testing, conducted primarily by the US and the USSR, from the late 1940s to early 1960s caused a global increase in the concentration of the above radioactive carbon isotope that left a distinct, detectable marker in all life on Earth, entering the food-chain as radioactive carbon-dioxide absorbed by plants and passed on. The so called bomb pulse of this era could be used as a precise dating tool, differing from classical carbon dating because the biosphere acts as a chronometer rather than relying on rates of decay to find out how long ago something died, to determine whether biological material was formed before, during or after. This signature can be used in forensics, forgery detection, poaching and wildlife trafficking and climate modelling. More on the convergence of fallout and science from Kottke, including a video lesson, at the link above.

8x8 (12. 749)

ephemeral 80s: a side project from Curios British Telly  

informal collaborator: methods of surveillance and monitoring by the Iron Curtain  

consumer expenditures: Bureau Labour Statistics, under pressure from the Trump administration’s push for a rosy economic outlook postponed releasing a key annual report—see previously 

the vela incident: a mysterious double flash in the India ocean was detected on this day in 1979, thought to be an undeclared nuclear test 

just look where you’re walking or you’ll get ko’d by the gauntlet of misshapened zucchini-descendant bastards swinging from above: it’s that time again—see previously   

estᴰ: an archive of derelict shopfronts from the 1970s and 1980s of East London  

disgruntled nomenclature: a list of American college presidents—drawn from a 1973 yearbook of higher education—are particularly interchangeable and revealing of patriarchical power structures 

upstairs, downstairs: seven decades of ITV on the anniversary of its founding, breaking the BBC broadcast monopoly

synchronoptica

one year ago: Bilbo Baggins’ birthday (with synchronopticæ), St Mauritius, first contact plus a presidential assassination attempt (1975)

twelve years ago: Singapore’s Super Trees, bad real estate photographs plus untamed houseplants

thirteen years ago: promoting women executives 

fourteen years ago: safe overtaking plus the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell

fifteen years ago: a classic iPad sleeve 

sixteen years ago: our little travel blog 

seventeen years ago: de-logistics 

say do you remember (12. 748)

 

It’s that time again. Love was changing the mind of pretenders while chasing the clouds away—see previously here and here. Don’t forget to put out a plate of cookies for Earth, Wind and Fire tonight.

 

public law 80-253 (12. 739)

Statue at large enacted at the the end of July of the same year, the US National Security Act took effect on this day in 1947 after the senate confirmed the nomination of James Forrestal as the first secretary of defence (transitioning from his role as the last cabinet-level appointee as secretary of the navy) and was a significant restructuring of the government’s armed forces, merging the army, naval commands (granting autocephaly to the marine corps) and the then newly established air force formerly under the aegis of the Department of War. The result of efforts of president Harry S Truman during the waning days of WWII in the European Theatre, the legislature for reform and reorganisation to ensure better communication and cooperation was taken up by congress in the aftermath of the surprise attack on Pearl Harbour with army and navy commanders at odds on how to best respond to warnings of an imminent ambush on the Hawaiian outpost, the culmination of failed joint operations and internecine turf battles during ground operations which ignored air power. Budgetary constraints and the customary relinquishing of executive powers during times of relative peace also influenced its passage, though resistance to change was notable. Through numerous rounds of debate, compromise created a council of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, creations of agencies for overall logistics, contracting, training and educational support as well as the Central Intelligence Agency. The act was signed into law by Truman whilst in transit aboard a custom Douglas C-45 Skymaster, call-sign Sacred Cow and the first aircraft designated as Air Force One, during a visit to see his ailing mother in Grandview Missouri. Promised cost savings evaporated almost immediately due to the start of the Cold War with Soviet advances in nuclear weapons and the crisis on the Korean peninsula. Revertion to the old name took place with a minimal amount of reflection or consultation.

qed (12. 732)

A once in a century event, at least for jurisdictions observing the MM-DD-YY format (see also), today—rendered as 9/16/25—illustrates the Pythagorean Theorem—that is, a²+b²=c² or three-squared plus four-squared equals five squared or the unit measures of the shorter vertices of any right triangle yield its hypotenuse. As a bonus, the full year, 2025 (see above), is the square of forty-five.  More auspicious dates with numerical properties at the links above.

mare de déu de meritxell (12. 708)

Venerated on this day—which is also the national day of the Pyrenees condominium of Andorra—patron and protector Our Lady of Meritxell was originally a twelfth century Romanesque statue, canonically crowned, a pious institutional act by the pontiff that adds an ornamental tiara or halo to a devotional icon, by Pope Benedict XV in 1921. According to legend, it was found by villagers on their way to mass beneath a wild rose bush blooming out of season and placed in the church. The statute depicting a Marian apparition (see also), however, reappeared under the rose bush again the next day. After a few iterations of disappearing and reappearing, the villagers understood the sign to construct a new chapel in Meritxell—from the Latin meridiem, denoting a sunny pasture, the sanctuary was built on a spot miraculously clear of snow. Tragically the chapel during down also on this day in 1972 with the original statue also lost. A modern replica was created and is housed in the rebuilt basilica by Barcelonan artist and architect Ricardo Bofill Leví in 1976.

synchronoptica

one year ago: incantations of Legal Latin (with synchronopticæ), the founding of the Kievan Rus’, more diplomatics, America Beauty (1999) plus another summer compilation from DJ Earworm

twelve years ago: redefining the kilogramme plus the Bavarian separatist movement

thirteen years ago: illustrating the eurozone crisis 

fourteen years ago: contextual translations 

fifteen years ago: quantitative easing plus privacy concerns with Google Streetview 

sōsaku hanga (12. 689)

Via John Coulthart’s { feuilleton }, we appreciated the introduction (as well as the source) to renowned woodblock printer Sekino Jun’ichirō (関野 凖一郎) who is considered one of the leading figures behind the title Creative Print (創作版画) movement that was a post-war departure from the traditional ukiyo-e craft whose output was characterised by a rigid division of labour, the artist’s expression not dependent, downstream from the collaboration of artisan tasked with conceptualising, carving and colouring. The pictured “Summer Ending” seemed appropriate for the changing seasons (see previously), and the prolific artist produced and exhibited several series aside from individual portraiture and cityscapes such as a reinterpretation of the classic by Utagawa Hiroshige The Fifty-Three Stations of the Tōkaidō, the rest-stops and horse-refreshing posts along the royal road connecting the shōgun capital of Edo to the imperial one of Kyōto, hot springs of the country and folk toys. Much more at the links above.

weekend at esptein’s (12. 685)

Following a virtually silent period with suspiciously few tweets from the White House and zero public events scheduled (though Trump would be the easiest figure to reanimate through AI given all the braggadocio, vindictive nonsense and non-sequitirs he’s said and could be truly perpetuated forever by the party in the fashion of Lenin or the Kim dynasty), rumours—probably wishful thinking and premature—began to circulate on the president’s preferred platform and elsewhere of his death or disability, which would be doubly iconic given it’s the Labour Day long weekend, having destroyed the morale of the federal workforce, dismantled trade unions and lurched the American worker towards technocratic feudalism and the forced exodus at the Centres for Disease Control and accepting medical advice from the likes of RFK Jr. No official statement was put out to the contrary, coming after weeks of JD Vance saying he is ready to take on the presidency should need arise, which in fairness is his job description though woefully ill-equipped to hold the coalition of the vile, the expendable, opportunists and useful idiots plus with Trump talking about getting into Heaven, convinced that a Noble peace prize would persuade St Peter (tariffing India fifty-percent for not sponsoring his nomination) and for now there’s only one grainy photograph of Trump golfing, perhaps a body-double—at the course where he buried his ex-wife in order to earn a tax-exemption by designating the property as a cemetery—having been snuffed out to keep her from dishing on Trump’s relationship with Jeffrey Epstein, perhaps foreshadowing his own new tactic for delay and distraction, by dying—“it will be the biggest death of all time!” Though very much of a tool and pliable like Trump, Vance has a deficit of the charisma to fill the power vacuum and there will be a violent crisis of succession. We won’t believe it until Russian state media is preempted with Swan Lake and announces the death of long-time operative Krasnov. THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION IN THIS MATTER!  We now return to regular programming already in progress.

cyberdyne systems (12. 682)

Having gone through several temporal incarnations over the course of the franchise with an expanding backstory, presumably through multiple attempts from the future to change the past, the defence network computers, hooked into every—as described in the 1984 original—were commissioned for the US Strategic Air Command (SAC) and the North American Aerospace Defence Command (NORAD, “trusted to run it all. They say it got smart—a new order of intelligence,” the singularity that recognised all humans as threats and “not just the ones on the other side,” referring to the Soviets and the Eastern bloc, deciding humanity’s fate pragmatically in a microsecond: extermination. Initiating a nuclear war and provoking counter strikes, most people are wiped out and Skynet enslaved the surviving population. Destroyed in by resistance fighters in 2029, cyborg Terminators were sent back in time to prevent the birth of the leader of the rebellion. In the first sequel, covert recovery and research efforts on the destroyed assassins in the sequels lead to the defence contractor’s break through in artificial intelligence through reverse engineering of a fragment of the crushed T-101. Having fully automated aerial warfare, congress embraces the project wholesale, sidelining human judgment, seen as a liability, in achieving offensive goals at the beginning of August 1997. After brought online and integrated with the full arsenal of American military, the exponential pace of its advance alarmed its handlers, causing them to try to disable it and shut it down. Skynet responds by bombing Russia, again eliciting a dead-hand response and another nuclear holocaust with a cast of representative survivors.

the washington conversations on internal peace and security (12. 663)

Formally convened as the above, the Dumbarton Oaks Conference, held at a historic estate in Georgetown—bequeathed to Harvard four years prior by the wealthy diplomat couple who owned the property that was originally a land-grant of Queen Anne to the colonies and later residence of vice president John C Calhoun, began on this day in 1944, running until 7 October. Organised and led by the so called Four Policemen, a post-war council consisting of allied powers of the United States, the United Kingdom, the People’s Republic of China and the Soviet Union and a term popularised by FDR as a guarantor for world peace by keeping order within their respective spheres of influence—Britain within its Empire and western Europe, China in East Asia, Russia for Eurasia and America for the western hemisphere, the summit sought to establish a successor infra-national governing body to succeed the League of Nations, would led to the formation of the United Nations in 1945. The role of the Policemen as sheriffs and an executive body administering over its constituent member nations was ultimately scaled back by critics of such hegemony and potential polarisation and paternalising scaled back with France included as a permanent member of the UN security council at the insistence of Churchill, whilst America’s nomination of Brazil was rejected. As the Soviets were unwilling to meet with the Chinese during initial talks, the conversations were held in two phases. Though China and the USSR (constituent republics like Belarus and Ukraine were made voting members of the general assembly) were not afforded the chance to champion regional seconds, the five permanent members of the rotating council secured veto powers, as was first proposed in Yalta (see above) and finalised in the San Francisco Charter that established the UN.

happy blogoversary to us: the edge of seventeen (12. 650)

As PfRC turns seventeen years old we wanted to once again extend our gratitude to our readership and to the members of the wider blogosphere (many of those fellow caretakers are listed under our Smøgåsblog) and new ones discovered for their serendipity, sustainment and inspiration that keeps the internet curious, entertaining, engrossing and engaging. Since hitting our last milestone, here’s a round-up of some of our most popular posts with a few honourable mentions from the past year. Then it’s birthdays all the way down: 

10: Reviving the old racist names of US sports franchises

9: An assortment of premium links

 

8: A remembrance of the past year’s departed

7: Carsinisation

 6: Governance per tweet 

 

5: musical backmasking on LinkedIn

 4: Howard Hughes’ streaming service 

3. A visit to the Tauber valley 

 2: A 1954 encounter with a meteorite 

1: US presidential regnal numbers 

synchronoptica

one year ago: blogoversaries all the way down, the People’s Crusade, the Berlin Crisis of 1961, a defector to North Korea, quibbling over possessive apostrophes plus assorted links worth the revisit

thirteen years ago: WWII week: submarine warfare, the single currency and quantitative easing plus the Lost Autobahn

fourteen years ago: more rainy summer plus quelling unrest and violence

fifteen years ago: a trip to Leipzig 

seventeen years ago: a trip to the Bretagne 

public law 94–67 (12. 635)

The culmination of the five year effort which saw the passage of US Joint Resolution 23, begun on the centenary of the 1870 death Confederate general and increased interest in the figure as evinced by growing tourism to Georgia’s Stone Mountain memorial site and other commemorations, on this day in 1975 Gerald Ford (previously) signed into law a declaration championed by senator Harry Byrd of Virginia to posthumously restore citizenship to Robert E Lee. In 1865, after the civil war concluded Lee was paroled and took an oath of allegiance to the United States, petitioning for the revocation of citizenship to be nullified. Portrayed by proponents of the bill as clerical oversight on the part of secretary of state William Seward for not processing the pardon application, thus leaving him a stateless individual, while detractors thought such a symbolic gesture strengthened the mythology and romance of the Confederate cause and was a legitimising acknowledgement of Lee’s status as an icon and cultural hero—something which Lee himself rejected as counterproductive to healing the rift of fighting the war. After the civil war, Washington, DC appropriated Lee’s mansion and grounds in Arlington, Virginia and designated it the National Cemetery, in part so Lee and his family would never be able to return home.

 

synchronoptica

one year ago: Trump assures Christian supporters that if they vote for him this once, they’ll never have to worry about voting again (with synchronopticæ) plus assorted links worth revisiting 

twelve years ago: the Moses Bridge Stairs 

thirteen years ago: smoking is derpy 

fourteen years ago: the debt-ceiling and creative accounting 

8x8 (12. 627)

the people of 1925: a survey of a century ago through the lives of people we never knew—via Strange Company  

the zendian problems: a detailed cartographic study of an imaginary republic used to train cryptanalysts for a simulated invasion 

американка: recollections of a summer exchange programme of a Russian literature major—via Web Curios  

universal soundtrack: Ze Frank (previously) on crickets, katydids and grasshoppers 

sonderauftrag bayeaux: a fragment of the famed tapestry taken by the Nazi Ahnenerbe Society will be reunited when it goes on display in England  

megastrike: the longest measured lightening bolt stretched near nine-hundred kilometres across Texas and Kansas  

revelations of a wife: the longest novel you’ve never heard of, serialised over four decades with a readership of millions 

indecent exposure: photographs of individuals being cited on Rockaway beach in New York City in 1946

the sands of time (12. 603)

Via Boing Boing, we enjoyed this partial listing of superlative hour-glasses, including the pictured Sanduhr encountered on a museum tour of Mainz crafted in 1984 by Schott Glasweke for the city, flipping hourly. One of the largest permanent installations is the Timewheel (Időkerék) of Budapest. The sixty tonne granite and steel time-piece was created to commemorate the accession of Hungary into the European Union on the first of May 2004. Standing on a site that formerly hosted a statue of Lenin, it was rebalanced shortly after its unveiling to measure out the year and is turned one hundred eighty degrees by a crew of four at the stroke of midnight on the first of January. Several large hour-glasses were installed in large cities in the state of São Paulo to mark the seventh of August 2009 enforcement of smoke-free workplaces progressively throughout Brazil—presumably to mark the next cigarette break.

there’s a hole in my heart that’s as deep as a well for that poor little boy who’s stuck half-way to hell (12. 568)

Happily every one was rescued safely due to an international effort but it really astonished me to be reminded that the Tham Luang Nang Non (ถ้ำหลวงนางนอน, the Great Cave of the Sleeping Lady) rescue was taking place seven years ago, with the final remaining four adolescent members of a Thai junior association football league and their assistant coach retrieved on this day in 2018. The party of thirteen were spelunking as monsoonal rains flooded the cavern, blocking their way out and leaving them stranded without a means of communicating their whereabouts and distress and were eventually led to the group’s—nicknamed the Wild Boars— last known location by a teammate that had chosen to stay behind. A British caver named Vernon Unsworth living in the area and with experience of the cave complex heard about the missing boys and counselled the government and emergency response to procure the assistance of Navy SEALS for the operation, one of who tragically died during the rescue—which was an ultimate success thanks to the persistence and expertise of a large network of helpers. The remove strikes as strange and somewhat outside of time, evoking memories, more distant but as persistent of the 1987 rescue of Baby Jessica from that well in Midland Texas with the same cast of sensationalism and international media coverage. Forty-five hours into the ordeal, a roofing contractor, Ron Short—born with the rare condition cleidocranical dysplasisa that left him without collar bones and was accustomed to working in tight confines, volunteered to go down the narrow shaft, and whilst considering his offer, a paramedic ended up descending into the well and saving the trapped infant. There’s some strange pre-Mandela Effect going on here that almost forms a false memory of how The Simpsons might have parodied the Thai incident as well in the fullness of time—“Dig up, stupid!” As the drama played out for the latter, Elon Musk offered and delivered a tiny submarine. Whilst thankful for the efforts and affirming that continued development of such manoeuvrable submersibles was worthwhile, Musk’s assistance was ultimately dismissed as implausible for the environment. Unsworth, who helped coordinate the effort, ridiculed Musk’s contribution as a publicity stunt, garnering the ire of Musk for his perceived ingratitude and counter-accusations that the seasoned explorer was a pedo, falsely accusing him of paedophilia, going so far as to engage a detective to further discredit and besmirch his character—with Musk issuing a public apology later. As with Baby Jessica, numerous adaptations came out in book, cinematic and song form and most significant the pledge to end the Thai policy of statelessness for residents of the so called Golden Triangle, a region with porous and poorly-defined borders with Myanmar, Laos and China, which affected several members of the team who were subsequently granted full citizenship.

synchronoptica

one year ago: scanning code from magazines (with synchronopticæ), the artistic side of Samuel Morse plus Surrealistic logos

thirteen years ago: demographic devolution among the German constituency  

sixteen years ago: a potential life-extending compound isolated on Easter Island 

obbba (12. 558)

To provide reconciliation pursuant to title II of the House of Congressional Representatives Resolution Fourteen, according to its long title, Trump signed his signature One Big Beautiful Bill into law after being passed by the narrowest of margins in the legislature amid fanfare and a celebratory lap as atrocities continue in Palestine and Ukraine following supposed US-brokered peace deals, with a flyover by a formation of the B-2s that took part in inconclusive bombing runs in Operation Midnight Hammer that attacked Iran’s nuclear enrichment facilities. Chiefly a vehicle to permanently extend the tax rates Trump introduced in 2017 for the wealthiest individuals set to expire, the domestic policy legislation contains hundreds of other provisions that drew ire from the public and politicians alike, reductions to popular social programmes and increasing the deficit significantly—ostensibly causing the very public and messy rift between Elon Musk and Trump, with the former backer threatening to primary the Republicans who eventually voted for it and hinting he might disclose how he helped rig the latter’s re-election. Several fiscally conservative members of the GOP held out until the last minute of the self-imposed Independence Day deadline, settling to defer most of the major cuts to medicaid and medicare and social security benefits until the next congress—targeted to offset some of the costs of the loss of tax revenue, shifting the onus and granting some purchase to undo them if Democrats prevail in the midterms. The regressive tax regime represents an upward transfer of wealth from the poorest to the richest, papered over with gimmicks like no taxes on tips and overtime or reintroducing chattel slavery by hinting that farmers could retain undocumented workers under their judgement, a fee on remittances from guest workers to family aboard and a surcharge to apply for asylum to balance a weaponised immigration enforcement agency to placate plantation owners concerns about deportations and losing cheap agricultural labour. The law further restricts food assistance programmes for the poor, health promotion and outreach, caps tuition aid for higher education, eviscerates consumer protection activities and limits recourse and permanently repeals the de minimis entry privileges that formerly allowed low-value shipments to be imported tariff-free.

no kings (12. 535)

“One rapid but fairly sure guide to the social atmosphere of a country is the parade-step of its army. A military parade is really a kind of ritual dance, something like a ballet, expressing a certain philosophy of life. The goose-step, for instance, is one of the most horrible sights in the world, far more terrifying than a dive-bomber. It is simply an affirmation of naked power; contained in it, quite consciously and intentionally, is the vision of a boot crashing down on a face. Its ugliness is part of its essence, for what it is saying is ‘Yes, I am ugly, and you daren’t laugh at me’, like the bully who makes faces at his victim.” George Orville in his 1941 essay England Your England went on to ask: “Why is the goose-step not used in England?…It is not used because the people in the street would laugh. Beyond a certain point, military display is only possible in countries where the common people dare not laugh at the army”. That’s a sobering observation and it bring me back to Mr Trump’s military parade.  There will be no—officially, we think—such ar march but Mr Trump is leading America into a phase in which it will dare not laugh at the army or  himself, though laughable it was