Recalling how their leak of the covert Zimmermann telegram with the German Empire promising to award the lost territories of Texas, Arizona and New Mexico to Mexico if they invaded the United States and created a new front in the Great War in early 1917 pushed the US to engage in World War I, British intelligence forged (see also here and here) and publicised counterfeit attack plans allegedly by Nazi Germany for Central and South America—still very much considered within the US bailiwick as part of the Monroe doctrine—to motivate the administration of FDR to abandon its policy of neutrality in 1941 as Axis forces reached the French coast. The operation likely conceived by Canadian veteran flying ace and spymaster William Samuel Stephenson, responsible for British security on the continent who oversaw covert intelligence and propaganda efforts in South America, originally intended to leave a copy of the map in somewhere in Cuba in the hopes that American authorities would come across it of their own accord but it appears that Britain presented it to Roosevelt through intelligence channels directly, reportedly seized from a diplomatic courier in Buenos Aires. Presented to the American public as cautious not authentic bur rather secret (note the marking GEHEIM), it is unclear if the president was aware of its true nature.
Tuesday, 20 May 2025
neuspanien (12. 473)
Wednesday, 30 April 2025
siloed data (12. 425)
Unseriously I‘ve often said that none of us would have jobs if the various platforms we used could talk to one another. Since the rampage of DOGE through the US federal government, I’ve thought differently about this segregation of information is a function of bureaucracy, like the checks and balances of power amongst the three coequal branches. Even if the Department of Government Efficiency were to happily sublimate into an awkward memory and their designs to purge and private equitied were all ultimately foiled and reversed, the damage is still done with copying formerly cordoned off databases to an unsecured server (in the name of efficiency, and not chiefly for me risk of the information getting into the hands of ransomers or nogoodniks though that’s a bad enough prospect) but that the aggregate data points create a custom and comprehensive dossier on every single US citizen—the sort of thing that American social media providers shrilly decried with with integrated platforms like WeChat and lately with TikTok, hurling warnings in the gravest of language that it poses a national security risk and inculcates Americans with Chinese communist propaganda. Again every accusation is a confession, and DOGE‘s legacy despite any thing else will be cementing a surveillance state without equal.
Thursday, 27 March 2025
9x9 (12. 340)
us agency for global media: Voice of America director files lawsuit over ordered closure—a federal judge issues a temporary stay
pecksniffian paragraph: Trump as a Dickens’ stock character over his sermonising on transgender military service members
entomological adultery: the 1912 Cameraman’s Revenge painstakingly animated by Wลadysลaw Starevicz
the memes have entered the chat: the internet responds to Signalgate (aka whiskeyleaks)
arts dรฉcoratifs: rediscovering Betty Joel, Britain’s forgotten maven of Art Deco design—part of a centenary celebration of the movement—see previously
the population of an old pear tree: an 1870 work by Belgian author Ernest van Bruyssel celebrating biodiversity and insect life
import/export: ahead of the planned tariff action for 2 April “Day of Liberty” Trump announces twenty-five percent duties on foreign cars and components, triggering retaliation
are you sure ms kerger—because he is red: NPR and PBS testify before congress with its federal funding at stake—see previously
synchronoptica
one year ago: anatomised police lineups (with synchronoptica), assorted links to revisit, a classic from U2 plus a Nordic Easter witch
seven years ago: the dynamic Cosmos, more links to enjoy plus Everything’s Coming Up Simpsons
eight years ago: backmasking and the Satanic panic, the show with the mouse plus the Bombay Sapphire distillery
nine years ago: Easter greetings, revisiting the Leipzig Panometer plus a canting dialect
ten years ago: Holy Blood, Holy Grail, even more links, poet Paul Verlaine plus affecting a holiday accent
Wednesday, 26 March 2025
9x9 (12. 339)
debonair: an amazing and comprehensive collection of flight attendant uniforms—via Things Magazine
contrapoints: a documentary contextualising misinformation to point out it is misinformation
shortened itinerary: second lady’s tour of Greenland (now joined by her husband) is limited to inspecting the troops at Pituffik Space Base

jug band: a fun cover of Beat It!—with a powerful solo bridge by the Bottle Boys
boilerfaker: a new trend in microdosing alcohol—via tmn
duty to report: the 1890 attempt to coerce Canada into joining the US backfired spectacularly
signalgate: The Atlantic editor inadvertently added to a national security counsel group chat publishes transcript in full after Trump administration downplayed the seriousness of the breach
hmnd: an incomplete bestiary of humanoid robots
Tuesday, 25 March 2025
cruelties, collusions, corruptions and crimes (12. 336)
Via JWZ, the crew at McSweeney’s Internet Tendency has regrouped after that initial and unending force majure of flooding the zone to again catalogue the daily horrors instigated by the Trump administration, like last time around, lest we forget. The atrocity legend has been updated with several new and dreadful categories to work into the schedule.
synchronoptica
one year ago: the calculus of Easter (with synchronoptica)
seven years ago: Woozle hunting plus a local beverage
eight years ago: art projects informed by the Rijksmuseum collection
nine years ago: digital colonialism, an AI chatbot comes to a disastrous end plus the Satan-Leaf Gecko
ten years ago: assorted links worth revisiting plus hipster animals
Monday, 24 March 2025
6x6 (12. 335)
reading between the lines: Trump regime shutters access to border-straddling opera and library, the Haskell House, which served as neutral territory for family reunions and marriages during his first term’s travel ban

kennedy center honors: Conan O’Brien awarded the Mark Twain prize for American humour, embracing the irony and tension of the moment
backstroke of the west: an incomprehensible translation and re-translation of a Star Wars bootleg DVD
free spaced repetition scheduler: geography with positive reinforcement—via Maps Mania
opsec: Trump administration inadvertently shared its plans to to bomb Houthi targets in Yemen with a journalist from The Atlantic
Wednesday, 19 March 2025
8x8 (12. 318)
first comes the performance, then comes the repetition, then comes the integration: thirty lonely yet beautiful acts of defiance—even including social media—via Kottke
fubar: Muckrock presents its FOIA Foilies awards for 2025—probably too early—see previously
not shuttered, per se, just considered complete: venerable UbuWeb started back up after closure last year
audible enclaves: researchers have discovered how to beam sounds to a targeted listener—via the New Shelton wet/dry
it’s peanut butter jelly time: froghorn.exe is an homage to what used to be the internet’s biggest draw
programmable mutterer: the allure of magical thinking and how the displaced grace of AI could prove more analogous to markets and institutions steering better than individuals
smoking gun: Trump declassifies a tranche of documents on the JFK assassination, unredacted and “ushering in a new era of maximum transparency
greeks bearing gifts: Senator Schumer votes to let the wooden horse into Troy
Sunday, 9 March 2025
and i’m going to use that bill for myself too—if you don’t mind—because nobody gets treated worse than i do online, nobody (12. 289)
Though drafted with the unimpeachably serious aim of curbing the distribution of non-consensual intimate imagery (NCII—also known as revenge porn) online, the piece of legislation, the so called “Take It Down Act,” whose immediate passage Trump urged during his address to a joint-session of congress earlier in the week overly-broad language and is blatantly a recourse of the powerful to pressure host platforms to remove content critical of the administration, censoring and silencing dissent. Sponsored in the senate by Ted Cruz of Texas, the act would further require social media to have procedures in place to comply with a takedown request upon notice from a victim and enjoys support from the first lady, who is known for championing a rather unoriginal online safety campaign “Be Best” during her husband’s first term, opponents fear it could easily be extended to political speech and journalistic reporting that leadership does not like, with no penalties for lodging a false or frivolous notice and a requirement for hosts to monitor content shared over end-to-end encryption, potentially leading to platforms abandoning privacy measures in order to align with the law.
Thursday, 27 February 2025
11x11 (12. 263)
broadband equity, access and deployment: Trump administration thinks the BEAD programme of the Infrastructures Investment and Jobs Act is too woke
fermata: a thousand artists release a ‘silent’ album to protest changes to UK intellectual property rights to attract AI companies interesting in training their models on copyrighted material—via the New Shelton wet/dry—also more music without sounds
late stage capitalism: Washington Post owner Bezos will only allow editorials that defend “free markets” and “personal liberties”—see also
annual reformulation: important meeting of the US Centres for Disease Control to discuss strains for next season’s influenza vaccine cancelled, confirming fears that the new health secretary will pivot away from proven preventative medicine
rif me daddy: what Trump’s AI enhanced shitpostings reveal about the administration and plans for the future of Palestine
absalom, absalom: William Faulkner’s record-setting run-on sentence
torus and tokamak: a German fusion startup is lauded for its plans, peer-reviewed, to launch a functioning power plant
only the markets can save us: America’s total economic boycott planned for the last day in February
touch grass: an app that blocks screentime and doomscrolling until one has proven one’s gone outside—via Waxy
snoopers’ charter: Apple’s capitulation to the UK’s Investigative Powers Act is Chekov’s Gun for privacy worldwide
by the people and for the people: dossiers of the people working for the Department of Government Efficiency
synchronoptica
one year ago: ceramicist Yoonmi Nam (with synchronoptica) plus the age of ludicrous inventions
seven years ago: A Million Random Digits plus assorted links to revisit
eight years ago: more misattributed quotes
nine years ago: Sร mi tone poems
ten years ago: theodicy, get anything delivered, more links to enjoy plus RIP Leonard Nimoy
Tuesday, 25 February 2025
eye opener (12. 259)
Via Clive Thompson’s always excellent Linkfest (lots to explore there), we are directed to a revealing tool created by the photo app-maker Ente that discloses what the Google Vision API (Application Programming Interface) sees when it sees your photos. Intrigued by the idea of seeing myself how the algorithms see me and not having a standard headshot handy, I snapped a quick selfie and uploaded
it—not the best picture and obviously it got a few things right but didn’t think I necessarily presented as fatigued or wary—or particularly agnostic (I like to think of myself as a vaguely Jesus-y bon vivant, thank you), and not only did it zero in on my location, it also annoyingly focused on the pile of laundry in the background and decor and makes up a little narrative of insights for targeted advertisements, which are way-off base. I understand that’s how the commercial ecosystem works and people are algorithmically pigeon-holed and typecast all the time—sometimes with consequence, but seeing it in action, all the good and bad bits to be gleaned even from information and artefacts that are not public-facing, is a bit of off-putting fun.
synchronoptica
one year ago: Austria’s national anthem (with synchronoptica), assorted links worth revisiting plus Hitler’s first official postion
seven years ago: a Trump-branded property in Panama, street debater kits plus animator Len Lye
eight years ago: signals to the stars, a cruel captivity called off, our privileged view of the Cosmos, a flatpack pavilion for urban gardening plus a fast food franchise with a view of a Roman road
nine years ago: where are my flying cars, attentive listeners plus a Beaux Arts apartment in Manhattan
ten years ago: a tarot deck inspired by the art of Edward Gorey
Saturday, 22 February 2025
star turn (12. 253)
Via the always engrossing Things Magazine, we are directed towards the vexing but useful author and astrologer of German extraction employed by MI5’s Special Operations Executive—an agency established by Churchill best known for sabotage and helping the resistance in occupied territories—Louis De Wohl (having changed it from Ludwig von Wohl when he fled Berlin) for psyops purposes during the darkest days of World War II. Despite his reputation as a vain and flamboyant “bumptious seeker after notoriety,” as one of his handlers described him and a real risk to compromising the security service’s mission through his indiscretion and high opinion of himself, officials were persuaded that his horoscopes might be an effective way to influence Hitler and his advisors. Dispatching De Wohl on a US lecture tour in 1941—already a figure of certain renown as a dozen of his early books were adapted as films from the late 1920s to the mid 1930s (mostly crime and romance novels, after his spy career, De Wohl continued writing but mostly hagiographies, following his conversion to Catholicism), Britain wagered that American audiences might be more receptive to and sympathetic for these fringe believes and might bolster public endorsement for joining the war effort. While there was certainly occult elements of the Nazi regime, Hitler’s confidence in and reliance for signs in the stars and cadre of astrologers was an elaborate fabrication, supported by the press to make De Wohl’s predictions seem accurate with supernatural corroboration on the part of the media, even reviving a German defunct horoscope newsletter (edited by De Wohl) and surreptitiously distributed in the country. Not foreseen though the propaganda campaign seemed to be paying off with American attitudes more accepting of such beliefs (see also here and here), the attack on Pearl Harbor rendered the efforts redundant, and recognising the potency of his charisma and power to influence the superstitious, De Wohl was quietly retired to write his stories about the lives of the saints, the extent of the operation not revealed until 2008 in a document release from the National Archives.
Saturday, 8 February 2025
11x11 (12. 214)
traitor tots: Musk’s merry band of pickpockets and the corporate raids behind the Putsch and purge
temper tantrum: extinction burst behaviour is one accounting of the ascendancy of MAGA intolerance
fifty-first: Trudeau warns Trump is serious about annexing Canada—insultingly offering it statehood before Puerto Rico and DC
isolation mode: after three decades, Baltic nations are switching to the EU power grid, getting off the Russian network
nosotromo: the high school play adaptation of Alien
endless jeopardy!: hourly answers, honours go to the best, most creative questions—via Waxy
expo 67: revisiting centenary celebrations in Montreal—see previouslyre-apartheid: Trump administration launches volley of complaints against South Africa, cutting of foreign aid and promote the “resettlement of of Afrikaner refugees”
center for the performing arts: Trump declares himself chairman of the Washington, DC cultural institution and dismissing board members who disagree with his taste
hr@opm.gov: unencrypted mass email to CIA operatives offering them the chance to resign may have compromised the agents’ identifies with serious counterintelligence concerns
federal communications commission: Trump threatens to shut down the CBS television network, calls for the firing of journalists critical of the administration and for doxxing one of Musk’s minions
synchronoptica
one year ago: vintage hotel luggage tags (with synchronoptica) plus a banger from Billy Ocean
eight years ago: assorted links worth revisiting plus augmented metrics
nine years ago: the Electronic Frontier Foundation’s charter, neologisms and nomonyms plus the Lunar New Year
ten years ago: LARPing at large plus more links to enjoy
eleven years ago: targeted political advertisement, Russian ban on genetically modified foods plus sugar-based batteries
Monday, 27 January 2025
senate select committee (12. 188)
Created on this day fifty years ago by a vote of eighty-two to four in the US upper house of congress, sponsored and chaired by namesake, Democrat senator Frank Church of Idaho, the bipartisan group charged with investigating various allegations of abuse and overreach of the CIA, the NSA, the FBI and the Internal Revenue Service as the opening of a series of such inquiries earning the monicker for 1975 as the “Year of Intelligence,” whose findings resulted in the establishment of a permanent panel on espionage and reconnaissance. Among the more shocking revelations were of the existence of MKULTRA, involving unwitting citizens in mind control experiments, operations that infiltrated political, pacifist and civil-rights organisations, dragnet domestic spying abetted by telecommunication providers and Family Jewels, a covert programme that targeted foreign leaders for assassination, many of these projects uncovered by the press though the government agencies maintained plausible deniability and the the public was unaware of the full scope of them.

In the need to develop a capacity to know what potential enemies are doing, the United States government has perfected a technological capability that enables us to monitor the messages that go through the air… Now, that is necessary and important to the United States as we look abroad at enemies or potential enemies. We must know, at the same time, that capability at any time could be turned around on the American people, and no American would have any privacy left: such is the capability to monitor everything—telephone conversations, telegrams, it doesn’t matter. There would be no place to hide.
If this government ever became a tyranny, if a dictator ever took charge in this country, the technological capacity that the intelligence community has given the government could enable it to impose total tyranny, and there would be no way to fight back because the most careful effort to combine together in resistance to the government—no matter how privately it was done, is within the reach of the government to know. Such is the capability of this technology…
I don’t want to see this country ever go across the bridge. I know the capacity that is there to make tyranny total in America, and we must see to it that this agency and all agencies that possess this technology operate within the law and under proper supervision so that we never cross over that abyss. That is the abyss from which there is no return.
Wednesday, 22 January 2025
11x11 (12. 172)
concrete feats: the landmark Vรฅga Water Tower on coast Varberg, Sweden
ลฟpy v ลฟpy: a look at the world of espionage in the Middle Ages—via the new Shelton wet/dry
obelisks: researchers discover a new form of life with circular RNA—that appear less alive than viruses
we were wrong that day—we broke the law: convicted January Sixth capitol rioter known as MAGA Granny rejects clemency offer

cinematic universe: The Goonies and Back to the Future happened on the same day in 1985—via Kottke
ััะธัั: foundry excavating Ukrainian fonts from the underground
dark web: Trump has granted an unconditional pardon to Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht
red team: research students—under supervision recreate—viral pathogens identical to those that caused the 1918 influenza pandemic
lexicon: a glossary of medieval words from Middle English whose meanings have shifted
solar gate: 4D printed blinds mimic plants to open and close on their own
Saturday, 18 January 2025
fight for the future (12. 189)
On this day in 2012, over one hundred thousand popular (and unpopular, we figured out how to draw the curtains too) sites joined Wikipedia, Google and other prominent social media platforms in solidarity with a twenty-four hour web blackout in protest, formalised and coordinated under the above grassroots aegis, against two bills in the US congress, the Stop Online Piracy Act and the PROTECT IP Act. Privileging copyright security over online freedom of speech and making hosts, particularly non-domestic ones liable for infringement, the mass movement garnered millions of signatures for a petition as well as millions of constituents contacting their representatives in the American government to express their opposition and ultimately defeated both SOPA and PIPA as senate sponsors withdrew their support.
synchronoptica
one year ago: theosophical Though Forms (with synchronoptica) plus assorted links worth revisiting
seven years ago: White House imposes creative input on mission patches
eight years ago: the relics of war plus an atmospheric death ray
nine years ago: the Cosmological Constant plus more links to enjoy
ten years ago: Lovelace and Turing, the Satanic Children’s Big Book of Activities plus German currency harmonisation
Friday, 17 January 2025
little red book (12. 186)
The expected consequence of the looming TikTok ban in the United States was for users to find alternative outlets, but an unexpected one is happening with the influx of Americans, some seven hundred thousand, flocking to a similar social media and e-commerce app called RedNote (ๅฐ็ด
ๆธ, literally translated as the above, as in Chairman Mao’s collected sayings). Despite the US wanting to ban the former because of national security concerns and worries that the personal data of its citizens could be harvested and shared with the Chinese government, many, out of spite and feeling the charges to be trumped-up and parochial at best, are turning to this networking platform, not subject to the usual firewall placed on the outside world, and interacting and communicating with three hundred million native users and with the surprising outcome of forging new friendships, cultural exchanges and even some language learning. The trend may not last and the platform could become subject to the same suspicions that it could become a tool for espionage and indoctrination by the Chinese government.
synchronoptica
one year ago: a classic from Joni Mitchell (with synchronoptica) plus assorted links worth the revisit
seven years ago: more links to enjoy, a false alarm in Hawaii, the Matt Drudge breaks the Clinton-Lewinski scandal (1998) plus museum doppelgรคngers
eight years ago: gas for Europe and Russian aggression in Ukraine plus global net worth
nine years ago: Medieval Death Trip, boreal rings, degrees of temperature plus microscopic detail
ten years ago: artist Aubrey Beardsley, long receipts plus the magic of the Google Translate app
Wednesday, 8 January 2025
ufo/uap (12. 157)
Released the first week of January in 1950, we are directed to the independent feature by Mikel Conrad and Howard Irving Young, via Miss Cellania, which first addressed the subject of flying saucers but not as heralds of an alien invasion but rather an attempt to limn how the paranormal follows the paranoid. Capitalising on the moniker that captured the public imagination coined by pilot Kenneth Arnold to a reporter in 1947 on seeing a group of silvery discs silently flying in tight formation, the movie plays on the phenomena of repeated, copycat sightings, the narrative focuses on the US intelligence learning of a covert Soviet-lead investigation into appearances of mysterious aircraft sourced to Alaska, commencing a series of spy encounters and eventual counter-espionage, double-agents and stolen technology. The psychology of misapprehension and anxieties is also a major theme but light on acting performance and special effects, stock and B-roll footage of the tundra upstages (much from the director’s acting role in Arctic Manhunt from the previous year) the movie’s impact and legacy. Re-released three years later as a double feature with 1941’s Man Made Monster (the first sci-fi billing—not a willing nepobaby as a decision of the studio—of Creighton Tull Chaney as Lon Chaney, Jr to associate him with his father though already an established actor in the genre) about a nuclear mutant, the film has been largely forgotten, replaced by the abstract tropes of extraterrestrial visitors and kaiju. More from Inverse at the link up top.
Sunday, 22 December 2024
operation mhchaos (12.102)

one year ago: an AI Nativity (with synchronoptica), a monumental Beethoven debut, a cloned feline plus another Tennessee Williams’ classic (1965)
Saturday, 21 December 2024
11x11 (12. 101)
boughs of holly: a gallery of Edwardians dressed up as Christmas trees—via the Everlasting Blรถrt
gifcities: the Internet Archive’s gallery of vintage animations
hb3:
Pornhub is pulling out of Florida over a new law that requires age
verification on adult websites with a government issued form of
identification—don’t say you weren’t warned
diplomatic corps: Trump pre-appoints a slew of woefully unqualified ambassadors

neolithic octopoid: revisiting the Silurian hypothesis through cephalopods—via Clive Thompson’s Linkfest
by-line: Pulitzer’s year in news stories
perfect fit content: Spotify ghosts human artist, avoiding royalties
the campaign for economic democracy: Jane Fonda’s political action committee was funded through sales of Workout, inspired by serial presidential candidate and entrepreneur Lyndon LaRouche
a court of thorns and roses: sexual congress with supernatural beings is illegal in Sweden—via Strange Company
retrospective: around the world in the exhibitions of 2024
and the blue and silver candles that would just have matched the hair on grandma’s wig: Postmodern Jukebox’ take (previously) on a reviled holiday tune
Saturday, 16 November 2024
9x9 (12. 004)
if you really care about women having autonomy, you should stop questioning our decision to elect a guy who wants to take it away: sure, I voted for someone whose policies might kill you, but now’s the time to put aside our differences
with some account of the judicial “congress”: John Davenport’s 1869 collected essays on Aphrodisiacs and Anti-Aphrodisiacs
operation bear claw: four Los Angeles residents charged with insurance fraud for dressing in a costume and damaging luxury cars
goldeneye: a tour of Ian Fleming’s estate in Jamaica where the author wrote all the Bond novels
blue days, all of them gone—nothing but blue skies from now on: the alternative social network’s growth is attributed to privileging user choice over algorithmic engagement
ai granny: telecom O2 has created a scambait protocol to keep fraudsters on the line as long as possible and away from potential human victims
feat. rowlf as king herod: Muppet Christ Superstar—see also
lysistrata: as Trump’s next term approaches, more women are seeking to disassociate themselves from the men in their lives, withhold sex
subway therapy: the exhibition inviting New Yorkers to share their thoughts on the presidential election returns after eight years
synchronoptica
one year ago: The Sound of Music (with synchronoptica)
seven years ago: The Book of Life: The Spiritual and Physical Constitution of Man
eight years ago: the lost art of correspondence plus WoTY: post-truth
ten years ago: lucid dreams plus a selection of random t-shirts
eleven years ago: the Asylothek, retro Christmas cards plus more fallout from US dragnet espionage tactics