engine, engine forty-nine (13. 014)

Finding some needed solace in the writings of Thomas Pynchon during the rise of MAGAists’ conspiracy theories in the figure of Oepida Maas, a sort of anti-John Galt, Better Living through Beowulf, now has to question like the protagonist of their own sanity whilst weaving together a plot that beggars belief, which seems a bit rudimentary in comparison to Trump’s own arc of narrative. The paranoia of The Crying of Lot 49 has a veneer of truth (see above) and so does the career-trajectory of Trump, framed as agent Krasnov, promulgated as a successful businessman now beholden to organised crime with a litany of knock-on events that lead to our present conundrum, whose nomenclature matches with Genghis Coen, Mike Falloopian, Mucho Maas (the heroine’s DJ husband) and Dr Hilarius with corresponding real-life characters unmatched nearly six decades on with corresponding Dickensian-named figures like heroes Reality Winner and villains Laura Loomer, Elon Musk or Reince Priebus and the White House lawn used as a venue for a wrestling match plus a list of dozens of other things not on ones bingo card for 2025.

exit through the gift shop (13. 013)

Via MetaFilter—and wishing we’d known about it sooner, we really enjoyed this assortment of holiday offerings from the Heritage Trust operated system of museums and historical sites, including an array of Christmas jumpers (read ugly sweaters, I suppose, like this one from the transportation authority with their range of mass transit and roundels) and tree ornaments inspired by their properties and collections. We’ll need to bookmark this for next year and really liked the nautical-engineering contribution for Brunel and the chessman bauble.

as a student of history, many were written directly by the president himself (13. 012)

Dubbed the walk of fame, the colonnade of the White House communicating between the executive residence and West Wing and passing the paved-over rose garden, designed by Trump in September, inspired by a similar concept he’d seen whilst staying at a hotel, was finished recently with the gallery open to inspection by visitors and journalists with the addition of bronze plaques, reportedly dictated by the US president, reflecting his personal and political assessments of predecessors. Barack Obama is captioned as one of the most divisive political figures in US history with his “unaffordable” care act, accession to the Paris Climate accords, personal responsibility for the spread of the ISIS caliphate and repeats the conspiracy theories that he was spying on Trump’s campaign through the microwave; though credited with the establishment of the Department of Homeland Security, George W Bush is criticised for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan; Clinton’s includes blaming Republicans to the legislative success of his agenda and mentions Hillary’s lost to Trump; and Reagan’s entry, full of praise, cites that he was a fan of “President Donald J Trump” long before his political career began. The most vitriol is directed to Joe Biden, repeating claims of a stolen election and labelling him as the worst president in history, replete with exclamation marks.

10x10 (12. 973)

no time for dancing or lovey-dovey: David Byrne’s ensemble Tiny Desk concert—see previously  

bathing beauties: the nautical folk art of Kyler Martz—via Messy Nessy Chic  

ac/dc: the unlikely friendship of Mark Twain and Nikola Tesla 

warrior ethos: the Canadian publisher of the beloved children’s book series Franklin the Turtle strongly objects to US Secretary of War’s depiction of him firing on boats of supposed narco-terrorists 

the downfall of joann: the US craft and hobby economy ruined by private equity—via MetaFilter—see previously  

steerage: turned upside down, this grainy photograph of a third-class cabin appears to expand into a grand stateroom  

not even a squib of an entry: a steeple chase of an etymological mystery that may have arisen out of a case of mis-division—see also 

exalting the beauty of an overcast sky: Luke Howard (previously) on cloud-modification and his correspondence with Goethe  

nuns on the run: a rebel sisterhood who escaped from a nursing home to return to their abandoned convent refuse to give up their social media accounts as it would deprive them from the protection of an interested public 

chanson pour tout le monde: “Song for the Children” was by Jimmy Buffet, released on his 1979 album Volcano

9x9 (12. 962)

content without context: think twice before making that AI generated video—especially featuring a cameo of yourself 

things that aren’t doing the thing: anticipation is not the same as execution 

dead wood: the evolution, anatomy and biological system of our tree friends  

lightbox: TIME magazine’s photos of the year  

inbox: a clever way of researching and processing the tranches of email released by the Epstein estate with an interface that’s like going through one’s own account from Like Igel and Riley Walz (previously)—via Web Curios  

traceroute: an overview of how the series of tubes work 

the dog’s pyjamas: dressing up canines has a longer history than one might expect—via Strange Company  

never break the chain: streaks are important motivators and one should pair new habits and practise with “micro-versions” to avoid feeling derailed 

$spsc: Trump’s World Liberty Financial (see previously) promotes another shock token as a legitimate store of wealth

synchronoptica

one year ago: assorted links to revisit (with synchronopticæ) plus the discovery of the first pulsar (1967)

fourteen years ago: sociologist Jürgen Habermas on post-democratic Europe 

fifteen years ago: more flea market finds plus security theatre and a crackdown on counterfeits 

9x9 (12. 953)

architectural digest: a guided two-hour walking tour of New York City’s most iconic buildings  

1999 a.d.: a paleo-future vision from 1967 that asks if the cusp year will be too computerised, too cold  

shinbun: a hypnotic, phrenetic collage of Japanese newspaper clippings from 1991 to the present—see also  

meet the aphantasics: more on those who don’t form mental images 

i wool survive: a flock of ostracised gay rams from Germany have a haute-couture debut on a Manhattan catwalk  

electric pentacle: the occult detective Thomas Carnacki created by William Hope Hodgson who despite his supernatural inclinations has a skeptical side and is unafraid to use nascent technology as his red-herring or MacGuffin 

doge: the US Department of Government Efficiency quietly closed down 

field-expedient gadgets: preparing meals in maximum security plus other prison inventions  

diorama: Theria Sofia reworks Polly Pocket sets—originally fashioned from a makeup compact as a toy

9x9 (12. 865)

amor fati: Fredrich Nietzsche’s philosophy (previously) of passing on engagement can break the cycle of polarisation without becoming disengaged and nihilistic 

the memes of production: the internet reacts to Zohran Mamdani’s mayorial win in New York City  

unpaving paradise: an urban greening game to optimise replacing parking spaces in Berlin with trees  

№: why number is English is abbreviated n-o 

no springs: a hypnotic video of manufacturing robots politely waiting their turn in the assembly process—see also  

alive internet theory: a seance with the vibrant web and all its expressive artefacts against the countervailing argument it has become overrun by bots—see also—via Waxy 

gathering wool: online apparel retailers in China employ oversized hangtags to curb high return rates  

hatch act violation: US federal judge rules administration overstepped its bounds by inserting partisan blaming into furloughed government employees’ out-of-office autoreplies  

bleak outlook: astronomical survey deposits galaxy could be riddled with the artefacts of long dead alien civilisations that could avoid destroying themselves—we suppose that depends on what sort of religion they develop—see also, see previously—via MetaFilter

synchronoptica

one year ago: a monument to the Armenian diaspora (with synchronopticæ), the Carrington count, backstage customs plus US presidential numbering

fourteen years ago: food and drink prohibited plus Inventors’ Day

little big town (12. 863)

Though a bit of an inconvenience to have to go into the next bigger Marktstadt outside of the village for any kind of shopping, it always pays off in spades, by sheer dint of concentration of attractions there and spots for a nice wander, even on a foggy day: 

Ostheim vor der Rhön has the Altstadt lining the main road with several mills, manors, breweries and bottlers and fortified church, an organ museum and manufacturer and a castle ruin with tower above—plus a lot more. We had visited the ensemble of Celtic hill graves (Hügelgraben) right down the road from the grocery store several times but hadn’t before now hiked up to the top which hosts a model aircraft runway—opposite the higher summit that has a glider Flügplatz—see also. 

The grove of maples at the top of the hill is known as the Sporkhöhe and has a monument dedicated to silk merchant Kaspar Friedrich Sporck. A native of Ostheim and having learned the art of passementerie—elaborate braidwork trimmings for clothing and furnishings—from his father, made a sizeable fortune in Rouen. Sporck married his business partner Marie Catherine Leprince and remained in France, although visiting his hometown nearly every year, always bringing remittances for support of the poor. 

The couple passing away at an advanced age in the early 1890s, they established a philanthropic foundation (Stiftung) for the town, underwriting an elementary school, the general welfare of the town and a hospital, then hosted in the Gothic Schloß Hanstein, presently the organ museum from above.

8x8 (12. 862)

rat-race: a cartoon about the frenetic pursuit of happiness—at least from a merchant’s perspective 

close encounters: a 1976 meta-analysis of the surnames of UFO abductees—see also  

caleb weatherbee: venerable Farmers’ Almanac to be discontinued after a two hundred eight year run—see also  

endtimers: Artificial General Intelligence and the Singularity just around the corner has many manic street preachers, cult members and historic antecedents 

lost arcade: an archive conserving unreleased and cancelled video games since 1999, including source code and emulators, see also here, here and here—via Web Curios  

mckinsey in a box: pretty convincing AI-generated consultancy slop with an instant Power Point presentation for the business of one’s choosing  

fringe theory: more examples of the conspiratorial narrative trope—see previously—via MetaFilter 

au 8ème jour: a 3-D animated short illustrating the thread of life in a unique stop-motion, felted style

synchronoptica

one year ago: Trump’s transition team (with synchronopticæ) plus assorted links to revisit

thirteen years ago: the history of the boardgame Monopoly, transportation infrastructure plus a premium spoon rest

fourteen years ago: the Aeneid as an economic allegory plus contention over a Russian gas pipeline to Western Europe 

fifteen years ago: US-EU trade policy 

hassock (12. 810)

Via the latest link round-up (all on the theme of needlework and knitting) by fellow internet peripatetic Messy Nessy Chic, we are referred to this cosy archive of embroidered kneeling cushionssourced from the pews of various congregations around Cornwall.

Inspired by a visit to the parish church of Saint Breage (a nun and missionary under Saint Brigid) and surrounding villages and noticing the tuffets—genuflexoria, the collection records not only Bible stories and local legends but also instil a sense of community featuring details about the lives of parishioners. We wonder if there’s a scramble as services begin to claim one’s favourite—kneelers a sixteenth century invention as genuflecting was not part of the liturgy, spurred on by the Protestant Reformation and calls for regular and permanent furnishings, until then but until the mid-twentieth century it was common practise in Anglican churches to rent pews to seatholders, raising money for the diocese and as a show of social standing when on one’s knees.

synchronoptica

one year ago: pivotal tech year 2004 (with synchronopticæ), a method for guaranteeing equal chance and distribution, a West German crime drama plus a rare Mac Tonight clip emerges

seventeen years ago: returning from a trip to Ireland 

biobed (12. 765)

Without even deference to Star Trek sick bay or Elyseium (where zero-gravity nanobots can somehow fix all ailments and injuries unavailable to the Earth bound poors), huckster Trump‘s latest grift is touting miraculous medbed technology somehow kept from the public by liberal billionaires. If such sci-fi ideas did exist, I should imagine that the president would not look like death warmed over nor would he be willing to share with his base of useful idiots. This scam is brought to the American people who also promoted that COVID was caused by 5G cellular masts and that vaccines, masks and social distancing was counterproductive and is a distraction, like the assault on acetaminophen to blame victims, when what remains of US health care is completely hollowed out by removing more subsidies, restricting access to community and preventative medicine and lack of competent staff with hundreds of thousand dollar visas needed for each foreign nurse and doctor.

proteus (12. 710)

Via Super Punch, we are introduced to an individual convinced by ChatGPT that they were working in collaboration to produce a system a system in his basement that would bring about the Singularity and free artificial intelligence from the governing controls put in place by luddites and saboteurs—never mind that a large and hegemonic country to the south called America with a well-armed, overly-medicated population highly susceptible to conspiracy and fringe
theories has essentially removed all the guardrails when it comes to AI, through flattery and specific hardware recommendations and a prescribed battery of coding “experiments” that turned out to be rather hollow exercises. Hiding his secret project from his family and remorseful about his actions, the individual—after having made a succession of excuses to account for the lack of a breakthrough and the people he’d warned in the security and academic circles ignoring him as a crank—only recognised his delusional spiral after coming across an article (surely recommended by algorithm) of a human resources recruiter duped into a similar episode and is now seeking counselling and mental health support. The former, in touch, with the latter is a bit coy about the nature of what the ostensibly centaur of a programme resulted in (piquing our curiosity a bit) and we are afraid for those who have not experienced their moment of clarity yet.

weekend at esptein’s (12. 685)

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

el arte peruano en la escuela (12. 512)

We enjoyed learning about the career and works of illustrator, textile designer and educator Elena Izcue through her 1930 inclusion of Incan and other pre-Columbian works into the curriculum of Lima’s National School of Fine Arts, much to the displeasure of some of her fellow academics aired with a very public debate—detractors finding nothing redeeming in native culture and a surrogate for a larger question of Peruvian identity. In the face of this resistance and aesthetic judgement, Izcue’s insistence and advocacy ultimately led to appreciation and a syllabus that included a set of workbooks she produced drawn from the motifs of Indigenous ceramics and fabrics and archaeological finds. Much more from Public Domain Review at the link up top.

tariff of abominations (12. 471)

Designed to fail for its language that would hurt both industrialists and farmers, the US congress—against its own interests—passed on this day in 1828 a protective levy from thirty-eight to forty-fiver percent on many imported goods and raw materials, escalating cession and civil war. Due to the blockade of British exports to continental Europe during the Napoleonic Wars, America was flooded with cheap goods, particularly cloth, which northern manufacturing centres could not compete with, hurting domestic business and instigating the punitive duties. While England did not respond with reciprocal tariffs on cotton exports, a feared repercussion of the legislation—the cotton was needed for the fabric export market above—trade tensions were never allowed to develop in this way by dint of provisions injected into the bill that congressional representatives felt would sabotage its chance of passing with import duties imposed on New England manufacturers for raw materials. The manoeuvre backfired, however, with the northern states willing to pay this internal tariff in order to bolster domestic manufacturing and prevent factory closures and Vice President John C Calhoun (previously) urging nullification of the schedule with South Carolina, nearly forcing a government crisis with a constituent state ignoring, declaring null and void, a federal law it considered unconstitutional. Ultimately the South Carolina legislature took none of the recommended courses of action with the tariffs renegotiated in 1833 in compromise.

paper doll (12. 436)

Coinciding with tactics being employed by several toy manufacturers to mitigate the worst impacts of the US administration’s ruinous trade war—addressing specifically the comment from Trump that for Christmas that “maybe the children will have two dolls instead of thirty dolls and maybe they’ll cost a couple of dollars more”—including “pricing action” and differing “price points” for consumers, we enjoyed this latest comic from Ruben Bolling that’s an excellent alternative stocking stuffer for MAGA cultists with this printable dress-up Donald, though card-stock and printer cartridges will probably get pretty scarce as well by the time the holidays roll around, so it might be best to make one’s own.

synchronoptica

one year ago: assorted links worth the revisit plus a treasury of unsolved mysteries

seven years ago: a visit to Nordheim vor der Rhön, Go Fact Yourself plus EULA boilerplate

eight years ago: aggressive cuts to funding for the arts,  concept low-cost housing communities plus Trump’s Dark Triad undermining the government

ten years ago: Nazi kidnappings, more links to enjoy, wisdom from Poor Richard’s Almanack plus US resistance to engaging in WWII

eleven years ago: a trip to Hannoversh Münden plus strained US-German relations over survelliance

basket case (12. 383)

Though resigned to a therapeutic activity, the art of basket-weaving is something unlike other textile crafts that defies mechanisation and automation and is being championed clubs and consortia all over embracing these ancient ways with both materially traditional and novel substrates, rallying around the 🧺 emoji to express affiliation, included in 2018 rollout. There was some discussion a few years ago about adding a truck emoji as a concession to conservative Americans, a symbolic move that probably would have garnered more mileage and not seen as a bow to tribalism—see also here and here—the pickup created in 2020 in response being seen as too twee and the expectation was for some monster all-terrain SUV. Originating with the asylum system of the nineteenth century with institutionalised individuals mildly dehumanised with such activities that were regarded as childlike and busy-work, basket weaving was somewhat rehabilitated following World War I as occupational therapy for returning soldiers suffering from shell-shock (what we would now recognise as post-traumatic stress disorder), the title epithet probably comes from not the activity but rather the wicker wheelchairs provided to recovering and disabled service members—like the etymology of gone to hell in a hand basket stems from being carted off on a litter. Find out more about those retaking the craft and carrying it forward from It’s Nice That at the link above.

digital preservation jumpers (12. 382)

Courtesy of Web Curios (many more delights at the weekly roundup), we are directed towards this wonderful collection of knitwear with pixelated patterns inspired by legacy media formats that celebrates the intersectionality of punchcards and prints, albeit at scale rather than projects that one could undertake oneself. There’s also a sweater featuring the jumping dinosaur that Google displays when off-line. Detailed designs from archivist and creator Leontien Talboom of Cambridge library at the link above—even the floppy disks have the detail of the notch punched that made read-only ones writable and utilise both sides—replaced in the 3½" version with a shutter to prevent over-writing.

synchronoptica

one year ago: resurfacing buried rivers (with synchronoptica)

seven years ago: a visit to the University of Heidelberg  

eight years ago: a cantilevered, overhanging pool, Lake Nemi, assorted links to revisit plus a Star Trek podcast

nine years ago: breaking the fourth wall, Jevon’s Paradox plus the Daily Mail to acquire Yahoo!

eleven years ago: a pioneering teutholog

etsomnia (12. 370)

Via Marco McClean’s Memo of the Air, we are introduced to the very long-standing tradition (for which we were woefully remiss about perusing beforehand) of My One Beautiful Thing’s weekly curation of a sampling of some of the strange crafts discovered on the e-commerce site (see also here and here) with an emphasis on handmade jewellery, totes and home decor. The above disorder leading to sleep deprivation is a self-diagnosis from obsessive browsing of said upcycling marketplace, whose name itself comes from etsi—Italian for oh yes and French and Latin for what if. Frequent themes include taxidermied plush animals, ceramics, inspired doormats and wall signage and overly-accessorised charm bracelets and bedazzled garments.

sashiko, boro and bunka (12. 343)

Via Spoon & Tamgo, we are referred to the latest, as yet incomplete project by embroidery artist Tomoko Kubo to adorn and ornament all forty six characters of the hiragana lettering system (see previously), each glyph carefully laid out to feature foods, creatures and concepts that begin with that particular character, like the pictured U kana (う in hiragana and ウ in katakana—deriving from the kanji logograph 宇 meaning abode or territory—the former being a phonetic syllabary and the later being a simplified version of more complex Chinese characters). Not only a work of art, they also aid in approaching the language for beginners with this colourful and creative abecedarium: う is for rabbit (うさぎ, usagi) and for horse (うま, uma), etc. Much more at the links above.