white house arcade (13. 786)

The already doltishly defaced White House web site, we can only hope the content is one day jettisoned into the Sun—and perhaps the whole presidential palace raised to the ground and begin anew, inshallah, though increasingly it looks like America may never recover from this grift and mean hatefulness—has, we learn through the litigious threats of the Tetris Company against the Trump administration for copyright infringement, wanting no association with the “Build the Wall” knock-off and successfully managed to get the game taken down, a bit of the Streisand Effect but drawing attention to the particularly pathetic and embarrassing, added a suite of video game clones, slapdash AI-generated, propagandised versions that are guaranteed to be unplayable with poorly designed mechanics that just pander to the xenophobia of the MAGA base.  Though the now gone Tetris mini-game (replaced with a place-holder) was probably the most offensive one—and dumb as the point of play is to remove blocks and not construct a barrier to repeal a zombie invasion at the border and the wall stacks up quickly, likely not in court to be ruled a violation of intellectual property due to its rules of play—there’s cheap points too for a Flappy Birds imitation of a bald eagle navigating a bill through Washington, a Snake-like game called Rio Run with border patrol agents blocking immigrants (OK, this is as bad as the Tetris takedown), a Roller Coaster Tycoon counterfeit with the goal of funding one’s children’s Trump Savings Accounts, gamified but without any educational content to help parents make informed investment decisions and lastly appealing to the MAHA wing, a Burger Chef knockoff to sort school lunches and Make America Healthy Again.

10x10 (13. 777)

futura is a favourite and we’re always going to root for her, but then for legibility you can’t go wrong with frutiger: the very model of a modern day typographer—see previously  

if every girl had a diary: filmmaker Sadie Benning’s quiet confessions to her confident Pixel Vision camera delivers a powerful message from the shelter and safety of her bedroom  

leisurama: the prefabricated Mid-Century Modern vacation home of Montauk, Long Island  

learning to live with an elephant: a 1968 animated short from Terry Gilliam—see previously  

 

movie maps: worldwide cinematic address—comprehensive but missing our village’s cameo—via Nag on the Lake 

insecta odonata: dragonflies migrate over long-distances, comparable to Monarch butterflies 

 🛂: the world’s current one hundred ninety-nine passports mapped as a data-visualisation—via Quantum of Sollazzo  

last and first men: the 1930 science fiction work from Olaf Stapledon who examined humanity from a height of two billion years  

only major western capital without a monumental arch: groundbreaking to begin for the Arc d’Trump in two weeks—see previously

synchronoptica

one year ago: Stravinsky’s Serenade in A (with synchronoptica), protests in Nepal plus more revelations on the closeness of Trump and Epstein

two years ago: voting from space, split-screen campaigning plus British holiday camps 

three years ago: assorted links worth the revisit plus traditional Palestinian embroidery 

four years ago: a banger from The Stone Temple Pilots (1994) 

five years ago: statehood for the US capital district, the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest (9), a rewilded oasis in DC plus more links to enjoy

six years ago: the founding of Washington, DC (1791), the dispute over Hans Island, a celebrated lighthouse plus AI-generated super villans

day one-hundred forty-nine (13. 681)

The EU is to host an emergency meeting of interior ministers over migrants massing at the north African frontier of Spain at Ceuta.  As the illegal joint Israeli-US war on Iran continues to spiral out of control with its expansion into Saudi Arabia and Iraq, Trump announces that he has decided to “hold off” on further attacks, with the “perimeters of a deal” agreed upon by Tehran—adding that Tel Aviv was joining the US in committing to giving negotiations time to work.Condemned as rank corruption and a tool of market-manipulation, Trump is trying to sell a premium membership plan to his social network that offers the top tier early access to his missive so they can buy and sell stocks accordingly.  An exchange with Saudi crown prince Mohammed bin Salman reportedly persuades Trump to cancel operations. Dialogue, of which there is only scant evidence from Pakistani and Emirati envoys other than Trump’s vacillating threats, only concerns reopening the Strait of Hormuz to avoid a global economic recession over the energy crisis.

day one-hundred forty-eight (13. 678)

Kyiv is pummelled by Russia raids as Ukraine awaits promised permission from the US to produce their own Patriot air defence batteries, America expressing some reluctance now over releasing the licenses. As rhetoric intensifies, both Washington and Tehran threaten to attack vital infrastructure in gulf nations hosting America bases, oil fields, refineries and commercial assets and bridges, highways and power plants in the Islamic Republic, the latter in Trump’s sites speaking during a cabinet meeting called at Camp David, the US president whilst admitting Iran did have a few missiles left, was militarily defeated: “All you can do is keep winning, and the eventually something will happen.” Houthi rebels deny accusations that they plan to place tolls on passage to the Red Sea, insisting that the Bab el-Mandab strait will remain free. The Revolutionary Guard disables more tankers attempting to cross the Hormuz as US naval forces hold the blockade on Iranian ports. Fifty thousand migrants in the span of twenty four hours attempt to enter the exclave of Ceuta through Morocco as the EU moves to suspend member Spain from the Schengen free-movement zone to control immigration.

kkk-mart (13. 616)

Disbanded in 1869 by general consensus of its members, the secret order founded by US civil war veterans of the Confederacy in order to terrorise formerly enslaved individuals, the fraternity, the Ku Klux Klan—also styling itself as a secret empire with the same attendant hierarchy and bureaucracy of a cosplay kingdom—reconstituted itself and hateful message as an America-First society in 1915 after the premiere of DW Griffith’s The Birth of a Nation. After experiencing the natural consequences of public marches unmasked, Klonvocation rallies adopted robes and headdresses for their knights to maintain anonymity whilst displaying rank and seniority of members’ allegiance, with the associated merchandising being big business aside from ideological position. The merch soon became a prerequisite, with mandated nancying and homosocial symbols at every Klan event, the garb, a ceremonial sword representing white Christian nationalism, sanctified Klan water for absolution and used to baptise new members. Items were available in a full-colour glossy catalogue, which also included banners, emblems, figurines and literature like the Kloran, the Klan’s book of scripture. still in circulation today, hate having kept up with inflation but sales and dues siphoned off by other contemporary movements.

birthright citizens’ brigade (13. 573)

On the final day of the judicial session before summer recess, the US supreme court, in a six to three ruling delivered a sharp rebuke to Trump’s long-standing interpretation of the constitution, rejecting the executive order issued on the first day of his second term which sought to bar citizenship, against the guarantees of the XIV. amendment, for babies born on US territory of parents in the country without legal status or who are living or working here only temporarily. Chief justice John Roberts, writing the majority opinion, contended that the legislation adopted during reconstruction after the civil war purposefully defined citizenship broadly as a buffer against those who wanted a more limited and narrow standard of who counts, and does not apply only to recently the emancipated enslaved and their descendants according to legal norms and precedent that have held for over one hundred sixty years since its enactment. The only substantive legal challenge, the court cited, reaffirmed this understanding with the 1898 case of Wong Kim Ark, a young cook in Chinatown born and raised in San Francisco, to Chinese immigrant parents—who were undocumented as no documentation was required at the time. Ark’s parents eventually returned to China with their son visiting them and denied reentry upon his return to California on the grounds Ark was not a citizen, a claim disputed all the way up to the supreme court with Ark winning his appeal at another juncture in history when sentiment against outsiders was very high and the Chinese exclusion act just coming into force. The amendment itself was in reproach to the odious Dred Scot decision that said persons of African heritage could not be citizens, vacating the previous ruling and denying it was “blood and not soil” that make an American. Conservative justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito and Neil Gorsuch filed dissenting opinions, premised mostly on the argument that children of foreigners have split and competing allegiances.  The court should not be given much credit, however, for siding on justice in this instant with all the other regressive stances they have affirmed lately.

synchronoptica

one year ago: the Quiberon peninsula (with synchronoptica)

two years ago: the Holy Mountain of Varese

three years ago: US supreme court nullifies Biden student loan forgiveness plan plus the Night of the Long Knives (1934)

four years ago: International Asteroid Day, Snake Island, documenta 5 plus assorted links to revisit

five years ago: more links to enjoy plus leap seconds 

six years ago: France’s video-text service, Wuthering Heights, a Dadaist art exhibition (1920) plus a failed world car prototype

9x9 (13. 563)

pennsylvania dutch: an ethnographic profile of the Deitsch speaking Amish—see also  

it’s 1100 pm—do you know where your ai agent is: Janelle Shane (previously) on agentic artificial intelligence, vibe-coding and the need for guardrails  

hunshandake sandy land: battling creeping desertification with an army of chickens 

ethnic cleansing: US supreme court rules that the country can refuse asylum-seekers at the border and can begin the deportation of Syrian and Haitian refugees under temporary protected status        

⚙️⚙️⚙️🦑⚙️⚙️⚙️: manoeuvre your marine mollusc through an environment resembling dungeon levels from Zelda with Bubble Bobble type puzzles—via MetaFilter  

rainbow plaques: an alternative to Blue historical markers appear across London, honouring LGTBQ+  personages

final descent: the iconic airliner, the Boeing 747, is being phased out 

jerry’s world: a map of an imaginary land limned over decades using a deck of cards for procedural generation—see also  

despicable me: the influence of Minionese on the slang of Gen Alpha—see previously

public law 119-98 (13. 503)

Concluding a record-breaking agency shutdown of one hundred fifteen days, with lawmakers withholding money from immigration and customs enforcement hoping to pressure the weaponised bureau to reform after the death of two American citizens, congress, by the slimmest of margins along party lines voted to fund ICE and its parent department of Homeland Security. Arguably worse and further reaching than the Democrats securing no concessions to curb the agency’s thuggery and predatory practises, however, is the way the legislation was passed: with negotiations deadlocked, the GOP moved to sideline the Democrats entirely, bypassing the usual funding process of annual appropriations that require department heads to submit their yearly budget request and argue it before the competent congressional committee—a process that guarantees more oversight on the part of lawmakers—and giving DHS a three-year budget package that will last through the end of Trump’s term, seventy-billion dollars, through a process called reconciliation, an expedited parliamentary procedure used primarily safeguard presidential policy priorities, like the Big Beautiful Bill or Biden’s environmental laws or domestic microchip production, but not to fund government programmes out of cycle from being dismantled by the opposition. The Secure America Act was sponsored by Senator Lindsey Graham and signed by Trump immediately upon passage. With only a vanishingly small majority in the House and Senate, more departments and activities favoured by Trump—or the next administration—under this precedent could turn to reconciliation to keep budgets unbeholden going forward and nullify the minority’s ability to leverage influence through a lapse of appropriations.

day eighty-six (13. 462)

Whilst acknowledging that some progress is being made, Tehran is denying that a deal with Washington has been reached. Trump, expressing his desire to make the settlement an even more historic event, he insists that the signing ceremonies include Saudi Arabian and Qatari assent to the Abraham Accords, recognising the state of Israel—implying stability in the region for the joint US-Israeli war of aggression might be a precondition for his Board of Peace members.  Mexico offers to host the Itanian national football team during the FIFA World Cup, though matches may still take place in Arizona.

hairsplitting (13. 429)

US secretary of state Marco Rubio was able to accompany Trump on his brief visit to Beijing despite being under sanctions from China—a manoeuvre more favoured by the Americans to confer status non gratis to critics—thanks to, we learn via Super Punch, to a diplomatic workaround put in place shortly after Trump’s return to the presidency and installing Rubio in his cabinet. As a senator, the Cuban-American who staunchly opposes Communism, Rubio had a long track record of stances against China, including speaking out against posture in Hong Kong and legislation that condemning allegations of slave labour and oppression of the Uyghur population and reaffirming US quasi-support for Taiwanese self-governance, garnering his ban as a possible contender for high office. Though the embargo still stands against 馬可·安東尼奧·鲁比奥 (Mǎkě Āndōngníào Lǔ Bǐào) for his words and deeds, according to the embassy, a slight linguistic, tonal shift, with a different character to transliterate lu (from 卢 to 鲁, reflecting his policy shift away from human rights issues and full alignment with Trump and possible heir apparent)—was enough to grant him entry for officials, whereas the slightest discrepancy between what’s presented one’s identity documents and voter registration rolls would merit disenfranchisement if not arrest (see also, see previously). Trump himself is referred to variously as telangpu or chuanpu by the state and in the media.  Moreover, Rubio was also seen lounging on Air Force One’s redeye flight in the track suit worn by Venezuela’s Nicolas Maduro after the US kidnapped him—steal his look. Despite the urgent focus on trade, AI-dominance and a peace settlement in the Middle East, the US softening its support for Taiwan, major producer of the advanced chips needed for advancing artificial intelligence, seems to be the objective, changing the official language from America “not supporting” Taipei independence to “opposing” it.

moot court (13. 314)

The first for a sitting US president, Trump will attend oral arguments as the supreme court holds a hearing on a lower court ruling that struck down his executive order limiting birthright citizenship (see previously here and here). The appeal, if upheld and overruling the earlier verdict, will upend the established view that under the fourteenth amendment to the constitution, all individuals are conferred US citizenship regardless of the status of their parents whom are born on US soil. Though unclear whether his attendance will intimidate the justices and put a thumb on the scales but we can presume to know what Trump’s objective is. Previously, the president had entertained attending a hearing which ultimately ruled his reciprocal tariff scheme illegal but decided against it, saying it would be a distraction. The case on today’s docket won’t be decided likely until the early summer but this preliminary session will shape the trajectory of the arguments. Much more at the links above.

hypothecated tax (13. 297)

Though the US air travel industry faces chaos and imminent collapse as the government shutdown of a single agency, the Department of Homeland Security to force reform in enforcement practises, surpassing a month in duration—ICE agents themselves unaffected by the lapse in appropriations and the insertion of untrained helpers, whom are being paid, is only adding injury to insult—with unpaid transportation security agents and screeners unable to keep showing up for work uncompensated, not only unable to afford basic necessities but also fuel for their commute to and from work more costly—there was a funding mechanism outside of congress to specifically pay for the TSA within the massive department created in response to the 9/11 terror attacks. A service fee of up to eleven dollars was added to the ticket price of each American domestic fight and a pooled airport fee paid by carriers in order to offset costs enhanced flight security—this process of ring-fencing also known as the above, wherein a specific surcharge, say for the flying public, tv taxes to support public broadcasters or historically seaports to fund the navy is earmarked for a specific service rather than directed to the coffers of the general fund. In times of relative stability, this revenue, however, tends to get raided by legislators and put to different use, as was the case with the passenger fee, the funding stream redirected in 2013 to help pay off the national debt, a higher political priority at the time. As the situation worsens for flyers and agents, the money cannot be restored without the intervention of congress, at the same impasse that’s holding up funding, and until compromised is reached—which also requires the approval of the president who has announced refusal to sign any bill into law unless it includes election reform as well—it is likely to only degrade further before it gets better, with more absenteeism, quitting and the summer travel season, including an expected influx of visitors for the World Cup.

day twenty-three (13. 284)

As Iran opens the Strait of Hormuz to tanker traffic to non-enemy ships, Trump faces duelling deadlines with two ultimatums delivered Saturday: one either Iran allow all cargo through the vital waterway or face destruction of all domestic energy infrastructure; and two, political but very much related, to congress, either pass voting reforms that would federalise elections or ICE agents will be deployed in US airports. Rather than being cowed into submissions, both opposition parties seem to be taking the longer view, Trump the sole owner of this chaos and its consequences. Despite a near total internet blackout for Iran with start of the war, a carry over from government protests, Tehran seems to be able to strike back on that front as well. The remaining peace-keepers from the NATO mission to Iraq have been evacuated to western Europe.  Israel, Iran and Hezbollah continue to exchange missile strikes, with the UN calling for restraint following bombardment of nuclear facilities and demolition has begun on neighbours near the Israeli border with Lebanon. The US administration roll back more sanctions on Russian petroleum to ease supply pressure.

synchronoptica

one year ago: Sylvanian Families (with synchronopticæ), returning to the Moon facing delays over DEI and DOGE plus a pioneering simulcast

twelve years ago: encrypting one’s DNA, fairs of East Germany plus bio-tech harvests

thirteen years ago: the Cypriot financial crisis 

fifteen years ago: World Water Day

sixteen years ago: reading movies 

5x5 (13. 280)

north oaks: mapping the wealthy Minnesota exclave that has remained virtually unmapped due to the way the municipality defines easement and public property

wikicity: the free encyclopaedia visualised as a three-dimensional metropolis of connected apartments to explore its densest articles—via Web Curios  

 

the way of the warrior: legendary action movie star Chuck Norris passes away unexpectedly, aged 86  

centuripe: viewed from above, this Sicilian village looks like a human figure  

border jumper: this cat does not care about your international boundaries

day sixteen (13. 267)

Rebuffing calls from allied Gulf states under attack for their hosting of American assets (materiel and business interests declared legitimate targets and intimating that some strikes are being carried out covertly by US and Israeli aggressors) for ceasefire negotiations, Trump rejects talks outright saying that Iran is demanding too much and expresses surprise that the conflict spread, insisting again he has decimated the oil export hub of Kharg Island and may destroy more facilities for target practise. US federal communications commission chair has accused media outlets of putting out fake news and hoaxes regarding the special operation and threatens to take away their broadcasting licenses unless they correct course. Separately, the Pentagon announces a major overhaul for the journalistically independent military newspaper Stars and Stripes, labelling it a “woke distraction.”People are being arrested for posting images of war damage in the Emirates and elsewhere. Formula One grand prix scheduled for Bahrain and Saudi Arabia in April have been cancelled as the Iraqi national team prepares to travel to Mexico for play-offs for the upcoming World Cup, FIFA ignoring overtures to call off the North American venue. The Iranian national women’s soccer team withdraw their applications for asylum in Australia and plan to return home. The supplies of anti-ballistic missile interceptors continue to dwindle. Ukraine says Russia is replenishing drones. Switzerland denies request by the US for fly-over rights. Over eight hundred civilians have been killed in Lebanon by Israeli bombardment.

synchronopticon

one year ago: assorted links to revisit (with synchronopticæ), the four pillars of consumer rights plus veto through inaction

twelve years ago: everyday objects rendered useless 

fourteen years ago: impressions from Prague plus UAVs in warfare

fifteen years ago: buried news and hidden connections 

 

8x8 (13. 255)

should make you think: the Ig Noble commitee and ceremony (see previously) moves to Zürich permanently out of fear for its international laureates coming to the US  

multisource authentication: the madding task of logging on to any platform, ostensibly for security reasons, also is unpaid labour to train AI  

ʰ-bomb: a typographical mystery surrounding one of Frank Lloyd Wright’s most celebrated sacred spaces—via MetaFilter  

asterisms: learn about the night sky by creating one’s own constellations with Neal Agarwal (previously)  

saint-michel d’aiguihe: the chapel of St Michael of the Needle built atop a volcanic plug and has a secret reliquary—via Miss Cellania    

diacritics: kernels, ʻokinas and curly quotes 

short imagined monologues: the void would very much like you to stop screaming into it—see also  

rebel alliance: Minnesota’s badge of resistance to ICE terror

the shield of the americas (13. 242)

As war continues to rage in the Middle East—Trump promising to unleash unseen devastation on Iran after Tehran’s gesture of contrition for misfiring on its neighbours as a sign of weakness and imminent surrender, though the apology didn’t really signal a real change in tactics with exceptions for American assets and which may make it their eyes data centres legitimate targets, Amazon cloud services severely depreciated after servers in Bahrain were damaged—the US president is hosting a summit with like-minded leaders from Central- and South America at his Doral golf resort outside of Miami, also the venue slated for the G20 later this year. Leaders from Bolivia, Chile, the Dominican Republic, Argentina, Honduras, Paraguay and strangely given Trump’s threats over control of the canal Panama are scheduled to attend. Not invited to are three of the hemisphere’s largest economies in Brazil, Colombia and México and neighbours to the north over ideological differences as Trump tries to rally support for his Donroe Doctrine and sphere of influence among a cohort of the apparent willing whom have joined the alliance (see also) with a multinational military cooperative to counter cartels and organised crime, spearheaded by Kristi Noem. After the kidnapping of the Venezuelan president and affecting a hollow regime change, leading up to the event, Trump told the press that Cuba was on the brink of collapse and were actively negotiating for a reprieve from the crippling embargo imposed by the US, intimating that secretary of state Rubio—Lil Marco as Trump referred to him during their 2016 presidential runs, the son of Cuba immigrants, would be the country’s viceroy, a prize he has always strived for. Afterwards Trump jets off to Dover Air Force base to receive the dignified transfer of the bodies of US soldiers killed so far.

7x7 (13. 235)

back alley: the Canadian (purported) regionalism laneway and its distinctions—see also  

butterfly net: a magnetic mount turns insect encounters into digital entomological specimens  

mctuscan heaven: a spectacular Garage Mahal—see previously  

special envoy for the shield of the americas: Trump reassigns Kristi Noem from DHS secretary in first major personnel shake-up of his second term  

＊: following its refusal to compromise its ethics rules on autonomous weapons with no human involvement, Pentagon declares Anthropic a supply-chain risk—see also  

hypercard: more hypermedia projects from Apple’s development kit that predated the World Wide Web, including an emulation of Brian Eno’s Oblique Strategies—see previously  

from cork to kingston: politician’s speech is a linguistics lesson in the influences of colonialism

class action (13. 234)

A senior judge of the US Court of International Trade has ruled that following the Supreme Court’s decision that the duties imposed under the 1977 emergency powers law were illegal tariffs all “importers of record” are entitled to refunds and that the judge himself has sole legal subject matter jurisdiction over cases involving paying back the IEEPA levies. The US government collected more than one hundred thirty billion dollars in tariffs under the overruled provisions, and whilst exports that are subject to controls under the currently unfunded (due to demands for reform for ICE tactics) US Customs and Border Protection have a process for seeking remedy called “liquidation,” a limited window of time to contest accounting and appraisal, there is no mechanism for mass appeals—something which the agency must come up with.

a child of europe (13. 180)

Although greeted with relief and applause, mounting the low-bar of last year’s gathering which seemed like the nadir of transatlantic relations with much transpiring in the intervening twelve months, the tone of the speech delivered by US secretary of state Marco Rubio on the second day of the Munich Security Conference was hardly conciliatory and sent the telegraphed the same message of no partnership among equals but rather an alliance framed in Trump’s vision and terms. Saying the president did not want a weakened continent saddled with guilt and shame, Rubio went on, “We in America have no interest in being polite and orderly caretakers of the West’s managed decline”—seeking not to cause division but to revitalise and renew civilisation, stoking old tropes of racisms and xenophobia and replacement. “What we want is a reinvigorated alliance that recognises that what has ailed our societies is not just a set of bad policies but a malaise of hopelessness and complacency”—citing as among those shared historic missteps for which now the US has made amends was the “climate cult,” prioritising the welfare state over national defence, globalisation and a belief in staid institutions no longer fit for purpose, with a final plug for Trump’s Board of Peace as a more effective and agile replacement for the United Nations. These are hardly soothing words.