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 previously 

re-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.

Published in six volumes the following April, the recom-mendations led to a presidential executive order banning the killing of foreign leaders (like with pictured dart gun loaded with shellfish toxin, as an untraceable and lethal weapon) issued by Ford and reaffirmed by Carter and Reagan (watch the numbering—they are sequential and skipping a few means it is classified, starting with EO 14147) and the publication of an NSA watch list that included activists, journalists, actor and Church himself. After briefing before congress (testimony was not unauthorised by the Ford administration’s advisors), Senator Church appeared on the news programme Meet the Press (previously)—discussing No Such Agency without mentioning it by name, warned:

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  

winning odds: a collection of vintage Japanese lottery tickets  

cinematic universe: The Goonies and Back to the Future happened on the same day in 1985—via Kottke  

ัˆั€ะธั„ั‚: 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 (ๅฐ็ด…ๆ›ธ, 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)

Hired by the New York Times in 1972 to compete the scoop of the Watergate scandal by the Washington Post, the first big headline by investigative journalist Seymour Hersh for the paper (having previously exposed the cover-up of the My Lai massacre in Vietnam and American participation in the overthrow of the Chilean government the year prior) broke on this day in 1974, in the Times Sunday Edition, revealing that the US Central Intelligence Agency had turned its gaze inward against its jurisdiction and was conducting a massive covert domestic spying operation on anti-war protestors, wire-tapping the phones of tens of thousands of US citizens and infiltrating groups. Operation CHAOS was originally chartered under the administration of Lyndon B Johnson in 1967 but was greatly expanded by Nixon even after initial findings indicated no link between prominent peace movements and foreign embassies in the US or abroad—the prefix MH designated the area of operation to be global—and this secret redux of McCarthyism, given Nixon’s deportment, proved highly unpalatable to the public. Although ending the programme, Hersh felt betrayed after subsequently learning of secret meetings between the Ford administration and the editors that censored material, including political assassinations never disclosed to the reporter, prompting Hersh to distance himself from investigating the agency in the future.


synchronoptica

one year ago: an AI Nativity (with synchronoptica), a monumental Beethoven debut, a cloned feline plus another Tennessee Williams’ classic (1965)

seven years ago: Ockham’s razor and aliens plus assorted links to revisit

 
nine years ago: more links to enjoy
 

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  

superman is bleeding: the teaser trailer for the new cinematic adaptation 

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 Superstarsee 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

Monday, 11 November 2024

minority report (11. 991)

With the possibility for insight but far more likely to skew towards red-herrings, misassociation and even dangerous omission, Anthopic’s Claude AI model (see previously) will partner with Palantir and Amazon Web Services to process and analyse classified information for undisclosed US defence and intelligence agencies. 

Accredited to scrape data up to secret, the contract is being criticised for being in opposition to Anthropic’s motto of “show, don’t tell” oriented toward safe and ethical use of AI, and comes after a demonstration project by Peter Theil’s analytics platform (named for the magical, scrying palantรญri, the far-seeing stones, of The Lord of the Rings used for communication across space and time—or to spread propaganda) for an insurance underwriter which cut down claims processing time from weeks to hours—the company also not disclosed and with no independent assessment of its success rate—and strikes one as something akin to a credit score and equally non-perspicacious. Another way of saving on man hours it takes to conduct this type of undertaking is to throw one’s workload in the garbage.

synchronoptica

one year ago: a WWII musical documentary (with synchronoptica), an ancient supermassive black hole discovered plus the diplomatic tactic of constructive ambiguity

seven years ago: Carnival season begins plus the outsized influence of Futurama

nine years ago: the retirement crunch

ten years ago: more on the Fifth Season 

eleven years ago: extremophile bacteria that survive in space, a trip to Oppenheim plus more on combatting light pollution

Sunday, 10 November 2024

10x10 (11. 988)

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

intermission: Cardhouse’s 2024 mixtape  

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

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

plutocracy: the Elites have finally been defeated by the Billionaires 

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

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

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

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

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

 synchronoptica

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

seven years ago: illusion of confidence

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

nine years ago: carbon foil that mimics muscles

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

Thursday, 7 November 2024

10x10 (11. 981)

peer pressure: Australia proposes a ban on social media for under sixteens 

this is the hour of lead: a few cathartic, consoling verses  

affiliate marketing: the banal world of recommendation-culture—via the New Shelton wet/dry  

airborne microplastic: our pollution influences more than sealife and can facilitate cloud formation and disrupt a whole of ecological systems 

club dei 27: a profile of the very exclusive group of Giuseppe Verdi super fans—via tmn  

augury: from the Greek for “bird talk” plus bonding with poultry 

you won’t believe this: research suggests that people can be inoculated against misinformation by warning them that they might be manipulated and eyebrow-raising antibodies  

die dame von kรถlleda: Merovingian burial chamber in Thรผringen shown to the public  

word of the day: recrudescence: n— the return of something terrible after a time of reprieve 

bytedance: Canadian government orders TikTok to shut down operations in the country but still permits the app and users license to create content

Saturday, 2 November 2024

10x10 (11. 957)

รพjappaรฐ vinnuviku: Iceland’s experiment with a shorted working week  

dรฉnouement: examining the kishลtenketsu arc of narrative and its structure in world literature 

indirect allorecognition: injured comb jellies will fuse with another to allow one to heal—via Clive Thompson’s Linkfest

climate solutions: just a shower thought probably better shared on this website, could we reduce CO₂ concentration by making the atmosphere bigger?  

celestial symphony: the icon and ingrained theme from the 1986 Chinese television adaptation of Journey to the Westsee previously  

oracles of astrampsychus: ancient tools of divantion included drawing lots, bibliomancy and a sort of algorithm—via Strange Company  

goonies in space: the latest Star Wars spinoff, Skeleton Crew  

denaturalised: Elon Musk could have his US citizenship revoked if it’s confirmed that he lied on his immigration application—via the New Shelton wet/dry  

the gaudรญ of mita: Keisuke Oka’s hand-built tower, the Arimaston Building in east Tokyo  

sweethearting: AI-powered facial recognition monitors for suspicious friendliness between customers and staff may be the next phase in retail security theatre

Tuesday, 1 October 2024

upselling (11. 888)

Although to an extent we get why both websites and increasingly waitstaff, dependent on positive reviews, recommendation, and the former sidelined, scraped, abandoned, bereft of revenue and cajoled into a subscription model, places and spaces one has given a minute of their attention to voluntarily are not enough and demand another minute amongst the vortex of algorithmically curated feeds and forced notifications—and the minute after that, no longer allowed to engage and explore on one’s own terms. Nick Heer presents the very apt allegory of a dining experience ruined by an aggressively intrusive server:

Would you like to see the menu again? Here, try this new thing. Here, try this classic thing we brought back. Here is a different chair. How about we swap the candles on the table for a disco ball? Would you like to hear the specials again? Have you visited our other locations?

Such an encounter is highly relatable and corresponds with newsletters, paywalls, diversions that lock one into walled-gardens and promoted content and detract from the whole venture.

bop spotter (11. 887)

Via JWZ, we learn of Riley Walz’ project that coopts the rather depressingly insidious programme called Shotspotter (™️ presumably and run by subcontractor touting benefits for public safety and security but failing to deliver) that detects and ranges gunfire by arrays of microphones installed in cities across America—though some police forces have cancelled their subscriptions due to cost and the diminishing returns on investment of random bullets—with a hidden phone attuned to picking up songs from street level perched somewhere high above San Francisco’s Mission District. Shazam is an application that can identify music from a short clip and adds the song to the playlist. When first launched in 2002 in the UK, people would text “2580” on their mobile phones and hold it up to the radio or television to get a piece recognised, getting a text back with the title and artist.

Sunday, 22 September 2024

suburban fury (11. 865)

Joining the only other American female would-be presidential (let’s not forget Fanny Kaplan and the long tradition of Russian attempts) assassin with the mutual target being Gerald Ford inside of a month from each attempt, Sara Jame Moore tried to kill the US president on this day in 1975 as he was leaving a San Francisco hotel. Preoccupied with Patricia Hearst (maybe a case of Stockholm Syndrome by-proxy), Moore and volunteered as a bookkeeper and informant for the the organisation founded by William Randolph Hearst to rebuff the claims by the Symbionese Liberation Army that they had kidnapped and inculcated his daughter for his crimes against the poor up until the moment of her plot foiled by the FBI. Picked up by local authorities the day prior on suspicion of having an illegal handgun and a large supply of ammunition, Moore acquired a new revolver and shot at Ford from a distance of twelve metre as he exited the St Francis Hotel and misjudging the sightings on her new and untested weapon missed by a narrow margin. Moore said later that her motive was to incite revolution and bring about positive change in America. Remanded for life in prison and with an interim escape and re-apprehension, Moore was paroled at the end of 2007 and is living in Tennessee, aged 94.

Saturday, 7 September 2024

10⁶⁰⁰ (11. 819)

Via Things Magazine (lots more to explore there), we get the chance to revisit the electromechanical rotor cipher machine, the advanced HX-63 developed by a private Swiss firm, which would prove difficult to crack even by contemporary standards and in 1952 was exponentially more secure than the CIA’s top model. Over the course of a decade, only about a dozen of the units were manufactured and though most clientele remained anonymous, the French defence ministry was one known buyer and a defence contractor found the device in a Cold War communications bunker and restored it to working order. The potential of those above undisclosed purchasers to be forces not aligned with Western interests caused the intelligence agency to intervene and not only eventually stop their sales but also to enter into a partnership with the company to produce a model with a backdoor so the CIA could decrypt any transmission. More from IEEE Spectrum at the link above including a video demonstration of the restored, uncompromised model and more on how the technology works to encode messages.

synchronoptica

one year ago: INTERPOL (1923)—with synchronoptica—plus divination through cheese

seven years ago: an appreciation of composer Edvard Grieg,  a meditation on the dacha plus cabmen’s shelters

eight years ago: restoring the Houses of Parliament, the debut of Star Trek, a Buddha-inspired knitted cap plus the debut of Voyager

nine years ago: a partially submerged art installation in the Thames is a statement on climate change

ten years ago: window displays, NATO talks on the Russian invasion of Ukraine plus a visit to Bad Vilbel

Sunday, 18 August 2024

trial balloon (11. 778)

Much in the same way as Brexit provisioned and prefigured the politics of MAGA and the election of Trump, the same amplified contagion unchecked

that fuelled violent race riots is subjecting Britain to an experiment by omission and testing the bounds of social media advocacy for by an arbiter of truth who is incautious about dissemination of falsehoods and faces few challenges or repercussions in the echo chamber, star chamber for being critical of a government whose policies he is in disagreement with. With the guardrails removed and no consequences for weighing in on political matters—over that stay of contrition of four years ago during the insurrection went social networks promised to do better about policing dangerous and illegal content, ranging from political violence, interference operations, disenfranchisement to COVID conspiracies—indeed what is to stop influence peddlers and grifters and avowed agents of chaos from forecasting or declaring that the US (or any other polity) is on the brink of civil war? Such outrageous and irresponsible punditry has always existed but now has an insurmountable volume.

Friday, 2 August 2024

eyechat (11. 739)

Via the always marvellous Nag on the Lake, we are directed to the latest project from Neal Agarwal (see previously) that pairs random strangers’ eyes in a video call, with no audio and no chatter, just focused on the narrow slit of one’s face, in order to appreciate the quiet and how much expression, connection happens within this band. I am no sure how matches are made—whether pre-recorded or two people live checking in at the same time but feel confident it’s above-board.

synchronoptica

one year ago: American Graffiti (with synchronoptica) plus backlinks and hat-tips

seven years ago: generative inspirational quotations, mapping the globe’s most spoken languages post a possessed podcast

eight years ago: assorted links to revisit plus a vertical forest in Milan

ten years ago: a deck of cards, Taishล Era art, disobedient objects plus wine maps

fourteen years ago: filming locations in Germany

Wednesday, 24 July 2024

topographic map non-linear confidentiality algorithm (11. 719)

Lured by the slightly hyperbolic title Every Map of China is Wrong—with one’s mind going elsewhere to Tibet, Taiwan and maritime trade routes at first, via ibฤซdem, we are directed to a rather fascinating look at geodesic reference points (see also), international standards and those conventions that are the exception. China’s coordinate system is informed by Global Positioning System and the US National Geospatial Intelligence Agency surveys but has inserted an obfuscating formula when it comes to matching satellite telemetry with digital maps and is proprietary (in the name of economic and national security, restricted to a handful of domestic companies which foreign interests must partner with) and cannot be aligned because of the randomness of the algorithm. The drift is especially apparent at border regions and for those travelling between Macau, Hong Kong and the mainland, as those special administrative regions are on the international standard. Much more at the links above.