t-1500 (12. 975)

In anticipation of the fiftieth anniversary of the introduction of its first digital wrist watch, the world’s first multifunction model, the Casiotrom X-1, the company has curated a gallery of all its models from 1976 to today with a brief history for each point on the timeline. I have my retro classic but am also really intrigued about their innovative wearables, like the 1985 “Data Bank” that had a rolodex and calendar function or a universal remote for TVs and VCRs and analogues of contemporary smart watches with pedometer and pulse-check capabilities and even a calculator with touch-sensitive display and an advanced horologium decades ahead of its time. Check out the whole catalogue from Casio at the link above. The model with a face that flips open like a compact for extra features and input is pretty cool but apparently not currently on offer.

fifty two weeks make a year (12. 972)

Tom Whitwell treats us to another catalogue of facts, lessons and observations—see previously below—gleaned from the past twelve months. It’s well worth your while to peruse the retrospective list in its entirety and some of things new to us included (5) the use of meteor bursts in point-to-point terrestrial communications, harnessing the ion trails of microscopic debris burning up in the Earth’s atmosphere to transport compressed data-packets with fidelity over thousands of kilometres, used to keep in touch with off-shore rigs and with other applications, (29) to encourage tax compliance and accurate reporting, every printed receipt in Taiwan bears a lottery number with a quarter-million pound jackpot and (45) the government of Denmark pays an honorarium to amateur metal detectorists for archaeological artefacts in accordance with a law on the books since 1241 called the Danefæ. A few others we had come across in our own meanderings—like how a gram of silica gel has the surface area equivalent of two basket ball courts but there is not much cross-over—and yet very much appreciated learning how another arrived at these fascinating and unexpected facts.

synchronoptica

one year ago: the Ludlow Typograph (with synchronopticæ), assorted links to revisit plus more obscure words

twelve years ago: China’s lunar missions plus poverty thoughts 

thirteen years ago: seasonal hot drinks 

fourteen years ago: EU sovereign debt crisis 

sixteen years ago: the iconoclasm of climate change 

world aids day (12. 970)

Whilst instructing US officials not to commemorate it, despite the first Trump administration proclaiming the day for remembrance and awareness as had been done since 1988 and since 2007 with a prominent banner hung from the portico of the White House as a symbol of George W Bush’s commitment to combat the disease and the landmark and hugely successful president’s emergency plan for AIDS relief (PEPFAR) that has saved millions of lives, following cuts to crucial HIV prevention programmes carried out under the aegis of USAID, the global public health campaign continues with this year’s theme overcoming disruption and transforming response.

synchronoptica

one year ago: the Utah teapot and other graphics benchmarks (with synchronopticæ), more mapping of Dante plus a contentious, contingent election

twelve years ago: on this day in PfRC history, expanding the charitable works of the Church plus pareidolia

thirteen years ago: legal advice plus a brief hagiography of Saint Nicolas

fourteen years ago: Belgium forms a government plus expertise attacked in the US

fifteen years ago: a pay-freeze for US federal employees 

sixteen years ago: immigration and integration in Switzerland 

seventeen years ago: a visit to Leipzig 

καιροί (12. 968)

For this first Advent, marking the transition from Ordinary Time (tempus per annum, that is the countdown weeks of the big seasons of Christmas- and Eastertide, Better Living through Beowulf, via the lens of the End Times and popular-eschatology that’s become as much part of the holiday counter-insurgency as anything else, introduces us to a second concept of time that the Ancient Greeks had, at the same time offering some solace to contextualise and countenance such rapture fantasies. As opposed to χρόνος in the sense of chronological or sequential time, kairos, personified as opportunity or proper timing in the figure of Zeus’ youngest son, depicted with the iconography of a razor or scales balanced on a sharp edge to symbolise fleeting fortune and though eternally youthful is completely bald save for one lanky lock of hair that hangs over his face (let me adjust my bang) to suggest one can catch him on the approach by this tuft of hair but ungraspable once he has moved past. Also the sense of skilled professionals, an altar to Kairos was at the athletes’ entrance to the stadium of Olympia, in rhetoric and debate it is a passing instant that must be seized upon to turn an argument and in medicine and in media, the right dose administered at the right time. Despite how rapture fiction, and we’re reminded not to underestimate its readership, might be set in the familiar and predictable realm of ordinary time—so to is the more secular run up and trappings of the holidays—it is time-out-of-time for reflection, vigilant anticipation to be ready for chance to present itself.

synchronoptica

one year ago: assorted links worth the revisit (with synchronopticæ) plus surviving a meteor strike (1954)

twelve years ago: fostering children from Nazi Germany plus Cicada 3301

thirteen years ago: Christmas deadlines 

fourteen years ago: a Star Wars/Rankin/Bass mash-up plus The War of Wealth

fifteen years ago: the fall-out of the diplomatic cable leak 

ежедневник (12. 877)

Though many fall after the period of the Soviet calendar, which was in use along side traditional ones from 1918 to 1940 (see previously), the aesthetic and layout of the alternating five- and six-day weeks and schedule of continuous production and colour-coded match this collection of pin-up ephemera featuring industrial prowess match closely with that original reform initiative—the design meant to endure not as perpetual or eternal as some outside sources reported the system to be but rather naturally cyclical and upon consultation regular and predictable and still planned around non-work days and “whose sore task does not divide the Sunday from the week.” The set is also an interesting observation on the artefacts of progress and commemoration and what society embraced as contemporary achievement. Much more from Print magazine at the link above.

synchronoptica

one year ago: assorted links worth the revisit (with synchronopticæ) plus Matt Gaetz nominated for US attorney general 

twelve years ago: US corn policy, the Victorian internet plus timing vs on-demand

thirteen years ago: the phobia illustrations of John Vassos plus the Oxford Word of the Year

fourteen years ago: outlawing parody 

seventeen years ago: phantom rings 

the festival of reason (12. 870)

On this feast of Saint Monitor, fifth century bishop of Orléans of whom nothing is known, Pope Leo I, also active during the mid-four-hundreds, called the Great and a diplomat perhaps best remembered for his embassy with Attila the Hun that successfully persuaded him to turn back his armies and not invade Italy, and many others, revolutionary France declared a national Fête de la Raison on this day in 1793 (An II, 20. Brumaire), organised by humanist philosopher Antoine-François Momoro under the Cult of Reason, as a state-sponsored atheistic religion to replace the Catholic church (a policy of agnosticism and god-building or la construction de dieu as a surrogate as opposed to outright abolition), which was seen as a major catalyst for the uprising, arguing that deifications of such ideas as liberty and truth diminished the autonomy and self-determination of the individual. Former houses of worship were transformed into Temples of Reason, stripped of icons and idols—the largest event hosted in Notre Dame in Paris. Women dressed in togas and tricolour sashes of the republic tended a symbolic flame on the altar representing the values of the First Republic. Described by detractors with the lurid hallmarks of Roman excess and misplaced ritual, the holiday did not see a repeat, supplanted with the rival tradition, slightly more deistic and promoted by jurist and statesman Maximilien Robespierre with the Cult of the Supreme Being. Both sects were banned by Napoleon Bonaparte with the Law on Cults of 18 Germinal, Year X—re-privileging the old order.

$ {time} (12. 860)

Via Web Curios, we are given the opportunity to revisit another AI blindspot in this real-time experiment by Brian Moore that queries an array of large languages models to generate a new analogue clock displaying the current time—with a uniform prompt that is reissued to each LLM by the minute, if numbers or numerals optional.

Not only is this an interesting ranking of capabilities, most seem to be consistently (with some just giving up) wrong with only strong performer being the Kimi chatbot, an open weighted model known for supporting over a hundred-thousand tokens of context—we’ve no idea what that means—from Beijing, one can minute by minute observe the coding challenge and watch how the results accrue or devolve into a jumble. 

Clock the results now and see what recursive improvements are on display.

saint cesario deacono (12. 843)

A deacon originally from the Roman province of Africa, Caesarius began preaching the gospel to the poor of the ancient harbour town of Terracina along the Via Appia between Naples and Rome, accidentally arriving their after a shipwreck brought him providentially to a receptive audience, is feted on this day on the occasion of his martyrdom in year 107 AD. Critical of the long-standing pagan custom—“Alas for a state and emperors who persuade by tortures and are fattened on the outpouring of blood”—of this community under the direction of the priest of Apollo of choosing every first of January a sacrifice, a young man to be indulged all material delights and luxuriated for a span of eight months to become a fit propitiatory offering for the god and on the kalends of the ninth (novem), ceremonially regaled in finery and mounted on a generally recalcitrant steed, made to throw himself from the clifftop into the sea. For refusing to honour their patron and protector (though the pictured temple on the promontory is actually dedicated to Anxurus, a youthful avatar of Juno) and sowing heresy among the community, the priest of Apollo, Caesarius and a local presbyter called Julian were incarcerated and ultimately sentenced to the same fate as the sacrifice, without the pampering beforehand and unceremoniously bundled in a sack and flung off the mountain top. His name meaning “devotee of Caesar,” prompting his sainthood was seen by the early Church as a way of replacing the cult of emperors with their own pious servants—particularly after the daughter of Valentinian I Galla was healed after a visit to his shrine in the fourth century, translating some of his relics to Rome, building a basilica for them on Palatine Hill. With reference to his manner of death, Caesarius is the patron invoked against drowning and protector of Caesarean sections—though Galla would later die during childbirth. Bone fragments are preserved in churches throughout Italy and around the world, including Germany, the United States, the Philippines, Croatia and England.

951 gaspra (12. 834)

Discovered in 1916 by astronomer Grigori Nikolaevich Neujmin, one in a catalogue to his credit of hundreds of minor planets and comets, and named for the Crimean spa town near Yalta that was favoured by Neujmin’s contemporaries like Tolstoy and Gorky, the asteroid was visited by the Galileo space probe on a close fly-by on this day in 1991 en route for its mission to explore the Jovian system (see also), the first time such an object was encountered at close range and studied, the rendezvous a technically challenging one since only its approximate location was known by projecting its orbital path. The irregular shaped silicate-rich asteroid is approximately the size of Guam and has the pictured astronomical symbol, a simplification of the resort town’s coat of arms.

synchronoptica

one year ago: a mascot for the Vatican (with synchronopticæ) plus IKEA acknowledges forced labour in East Germany

thirteen years ago: media ownership under threat

familiar in his mouth as household words (12. 821)

Occurring on this day (the feast of St Crispin’s) in 1415 in the fields in the fields outside of Azincourt in north France, the decisive and surprise English victory, out-numbered by troops of the opposition marked a turning point in the Hundred Years’ War (Guerre de Cent Ans), humiliating France and boosting the morale of England, leading to the latter’s dominance in the protracted conflict over the duchy of Aquitaine and French throne (see previously here and here) for the next fourteen years—until English defeat during the Siege of Orléans. Henry V re-invaded France in the spring of the same year after negotiations with French court fell apart, with the English king asserting his claim to the kingdom of France through his great-grandfather Edward III—arguably the heir through his mother, Isabella, sister of the last Capetian monarch, Charles IV, but French Salic Law excluded matrilineal succession. For the past couple of iterations of this dispute, the English king would relent and back off the claim provided the French acknowledged English dominion over Aquitaine, Calais and other territories. Henry, however, demanded in exchange for renouncing the crown, a generous dowery for his marriage to Charles VI’s daughter, Catherine of Valois, a literal king’s ransom (payment in arrears for the release of John II—Jean le Bon—held as a hostage in London a century before) and in addition to the settled lands, Anjou, Brittany and Normandy as well. Although France was ready to make some concessions to the deal, it proved to be too bad of a bargain, especially since England had little to leverage—other than squandering peace and stability—and a series of pitched battles commenced, stretching out, with periods of interruption due to plague and other factors, for a hundred and sixteen years. Despite the ultimate loss of continental territory and the rejection of a joint monarchy that saw the rejection of all things French and vice versa (English becoming the official language and French no longer used in court and the classroom), the monarchy of England and Great Britain styled themselves sovereigns of France until 1802, the end of the French Revolution.

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.