In deference to the silver anniversary of the Peter Benchley and Steven Spielberg and Peter Benchly collaboration—which agreedly holds up and worth a rewatch—Clive Thompson’s Linkfest (lots more great stuff there) directs us to a text-based adventure game inspired by the film authored by programmer and designer Matt Round, that follows the plot pretty faithfully scene by scene but from the point of view of the titular shark with some pretty compelling internal monologue (see also).
Saturday, 12 July 2025
Friday, 11 July 2025
qin shi huang mausoleum (12. 570)
Having been discovered by a group of farmers, Wang Puzhi and his neighbour Yang Zhifa (with his five brothers), in March of the year prior, the archaeological community marked a pivotal moment on this day in 1975 in the excavation of the site, unearthing the central burial pits around the tomb of Qin dynasty’s founder and first emperor (็ๅธ, huรกngdรฌ) of a unified China to reveal a retinue of some eight thousand life-sized terracotta figures of soldiers and horses standing guard for his journey into the afterlife. The necropolis is a microcosm of the imperial palace with halls, offices and the thousands of replica units, armed, standing in formation. The tomb itself at the centre of the terracotta army (previously) is hermetically sealed and remains unopened to prevent degradation of the body, artefacts and grave goods inside as well as out of concerns for safety of researchers, with artificial rivers of mercury and other toxic decorative elements suspected to be contained within—possibly also an element of revenant superstition. Aside from the Qin emperor, a mass though ceremonious grave holding the remains of one-hundred-twenty-one individuals has been uncovered, whom researchers believe to have been labourers and artisans that built the necropolis.
synchronoptica
one year ago: double-click jargon (with synchronopticรฆ), more on the zombification of the legacy web plus Biden vows to stay in the US presidential race
thirteen years ago: a hundred-handed cactus plus subversive stickers
fourteen years ago: odious debts
Saturday, 7 June 2025
ce qu’elle a dit, ce soir-lร (12. 517)
A few members having trialed an early version of the song at CBGBs in December of 1975 opening for the Ramones, refining it further over the next two years for their debut performance at the same venue in 1977, the Talking Heads (previously) have released an official music video for their hit number in the lead up to the fiftieth anniversary of their debut studio album. Featuring Saoirse Ronan in very relatable circumstances with those inuring but burdening routines that can become a trigger that has a resolution over the short arc of narrative that is neither violent nor obvious.
synchronoptica
one year ago: assorted links worth the revisit (with synchronoptica)
seven years ago: fantasy video games, duty to be informed, the Day of the Tiles (1788), a kei truck decorating competition plus more links to enjoy
eight years ago: David Foster Wallace’s commencement speech, amplifying random noise plus the Roman road network as a tube map
nine years ago: a geopolitical flow-chart, Italy’s industrial heritage plus former German royals as ceremonial presidents
ten years ago: textiles and technology, farming birds plus the Rod Pyramid outside of Frankfurt
Sunday, 11 May 2025
the war is over (12. 448)
Just following the announcement of the cessation of fighting after the Fall of Saigon by US president Gerald Ford, one hundred thousand spectators gathered in New York’s Central Park for a final rally with congress member Bella Abzug and concert organised by Paul Ochs (previously) with a lineup featuring Pete Seeger, Odetta, Harry Belafonte, Paul Simon, Bob Dylan, Joan Baez and others. After a duet with Baez of the ballad “There but for Fortune”, the concert closed his Ochs’ famous protest anthem, overshadowed by but not to be confused with John Lennon’s song with a similar same name, which was inspired in part by poet Allen Ginsberg’s 1966 declaration that the Vietnam war was over and that it could be ended by simply saying so (“if you want it” like the above) and stripping it of legitimacy—Och’s final public performance, though Lady Gaga sang it for Hillary Clinton during the 2016 Democratic National Convention.
Angry artists painting angry signs
Use their vision just to blind the blind
Poisoned players of a grisly game
One is guilty and the other gets the point to blame—pardon me if I refrain
With the choral response: I declare the war is over
It’s over, it’s over
Suffering mental health problems exacerbated by heavy drinking that ultimately led to his suicide in April of the following year, friends and family say that Ochs died many deaths, lastly taking on the persona of one John Butler Train, telling people that this impersonator had murdered him and had replaced him—and in 1968, politically with the violence of the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, in 1972, professionally, after being strangled in Tanzania and deciding he could no longer sing, on 11 September 1973, spiritually, when the government of Chile was overthrown by US involvement and finally mentally with this psychotic break. Ochs’ legacy continues with numerous tributes and cultural references as well as a strong influence on subsequent artists.
synchronoptica
one year ago: assorted links worth the revisit (with synchronoptica) plus the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (1927)
seven years ago: Muggertonian star charts, Russian electioneering plus Gaslight (1944)
eight years ago: wood libraries, Trump deflects from ties to Putin, bringing back the Microlino plus mathematical music
ten years ago: the brotagonist of this story, a visit to Hanau plus a visit to the Leipzig Zoo
eleven years ago: rebooting Star Wars plus Kierkegaard’s Either/Or
Friday, 4 April 2025
8x8 (12. 365)
museum of now: This American Life invites us to sit with and reflect on the artefacts of day and hour
rift valley: a Trump appointed special envoy to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Tiffany’s father-in-law, seeking to make a deal on mineral resources in hopes of securing peace with Rwandan rebels
fay wray: a swarm of drones recreate the iconic scene of King Kong scaling the Empire State building
toast malone: a short clip of the singer performing Circles, animated on one hundred thirty-three slices of bread
altair 8800: a retrospective of Microsoft at fifty
the bronx is up and the battery’s down: new NYC subway map is an homage to an early digrammatic version
blanket non-fraternisation policy: US bans government personnel stationed in China from forming relationships with locals
national endowment for the humanities: US museums, libraries and archives see their grants terminated—see previously
Wednesday, 2 April 2025
cn tower (12. 358)
Topping off on this day in 1975 with last segment of the antenna installed by helicopter skycrane, the Toronto communications and observation spire held the title of the tallest free-standing structure in the world until overtaken by the Burj Khalifa of Dubai in 2007. At just over five hundred fifty metres high, it remains the tallest in the Western Hemisphere, (see also, a member of the World Federation of Great Towers) opening to the public in June of the following year. The CN stands for Canadian National and was conceived by the state railway’s desire to build a large radio and television broadcasting platform to serve the area. Plans were expanded to include the observation gallery—originally the Space Deck but later renamed the SkyPod with a revolving restaurant.
synchronoptica
one year ago: the Fabiola Project (with synchronoptica)
seven years ago: the premier of 2001, assorted links worth revisiting plus the money plant
eight years ago: sculpting with cheese plus a doomsday archive
nine years ago: an appreciation of artisanal signage, a disturbing hack plus hybrid husbandry
ten years ago: epic and pioneering roadtrips, David Rumsey’s map collection plus more links to enjoy
Tuesday, 1 April 2025
whistle-stop tour (12. 355)

synchronoptica
one year ago: Germany legalises marijuana (with synchronoptica) plus April Fools
seven years ago: more early Easter greetings, a monopoly on local media, a vintage April calendar plus Granny’s University of the Imagination
eight years ago: alphabetic architecture, Trump’s supporting cast, more AI pranks plus the proposed Analemma Tower
nine years ago: precision crowd formation plus a once lost species makes a comeback
ten years ago: assorted links worth revisiting, the roots of monotheism plus an overview of heraldic charges
Sunday, 16 March 2025
the hostess with the mostess (12. 311)
Dying on this day in, aged 76, in 1975 at her home in Oklahoma City, Perle Meste heiress to an oil fortune from her late husband—widowed since 1925 from the one of the original participants in the Land Rush of 1889 on the former Indian territory (Boomer-Sooner)—is best known in Washington, DC high society for her lavish parties that included artists, celebrities and national political figures from both parties and was portrayed in the title Playhouse 90 CBS anthology feature by Shirley Booth, as well as by Ethel Merman on Broadway and the cinematic adaptation of the Irving Berlin musical Call Me Madam. Eventually relocating to the capital in 1940, feeling out of place elsewhere, Mesta was active in the National Women’s Party, an early champion of an Equal Rights Amendment and an ardent campaigner for Harry S Truman—for which the administration awarded her the ambassadorship to Luxembourg out of gratitude. An invitation to one of her many gala parties was highly coveted and a sign that one had reached the upper echelons of DC high political society, bringing together senators and congressional representatives from both sides of the aisle. And while continuing to host glamorous soirรฉes through the 1960s, Mesta ceded her role to Jacqueline Kennedy when it came to bipartisan entertainment. Featured on the cover of Time magazine (note the candelabra on the Washington monument), the Black Russian was created by barman Gustave Tops in 1949 as Mesta’s signature cocktail, who frequented the Hotel Metropole in Brussels during her time as ambassador.
Wednesday, 5 March 2025
homebrew computer club (12. 278)
Meeting for the first time in the garage of founder and organiser Gordon French in Menlo Park California on this day in 1975, this informal association of electronic and programming enthusiasts was chartered as a forum for hobbyists to exchange ideas and create DIY personal computing devices to make the emerging technologies more accessible to everyone. Present for this inaugural gathering, Steve Wozniak (previously here and here) credited the demonstration and reverse-engineering of an Altair 8800 microcomputer as inspiration for designing the Apple I. Running regular meetings through 1986, Steve Jobs, John Draper (former phone phreak), Paul Terrell (proprietor of Byte Shop, the first hardware retail outlet), Jerry Lawson (creator of the first cartridge-based video game system, the Fairchild Channel F) and Liza Loop (who saw the potential to supplement classroom and distance learning and opened the first public-access computer labs) were also members.
Saturday, 1 March 2025
covenant of the goddess (12. 268)
The cross-traditional Wiccan organisation was founded on this day in 1975 by forty elder witches from fifteen different covens in Oakland, California in order to secure for practitioners and adherents the same rights and legal protections extended to other religious communities. Affiliate congregations, numbering presently over one hundred, focus on education, philanthropy, theology and ritual worship of the Goddess and the Old Gods, operating largely by consensus and with autonomy for separate chapters. In 2007, the group successfully lobbied the US Department of Veterans Affairs to recognise the pentacle as one of its suitable headstone emblems in national cemeteries, though this is probably not the case any longer with the establishment of the White House Faith Office and task force to eradicate anti-Christian bias. High priest and priestesses solemnise lifelong relationships among members in “handfasting” ceremonies, which transcending traditional marriages can include numbers greater than two.
synchronoptica
one year ago: an undiscovered marine ecosystem off the coast of Chile (with synchronoptica), assorted links worth the revisit plus Operation Crossroads
seven years ago: an Italian-designer cargo-droid plus a Brutalist housing estate outside of Amsterdam
eight years ago: more links to enjoy, an extensive logo archive, legalising WiFi squatting, Obama for the president of France plus historic events on this day
nine years ago: the origin and development of the shopping buggy, the predictions of Nostradamus plus a planet populated by robots
ten years ago: the Caliphate and cultural destruction plus the nature of misconceptions
Tuesday, 28 January 2025
be my valentine, charlie brown (12. 190)
Premiering on this day in 1975 on the CBS television network, the thirteenth prime-time animated special based on the Peanuts comic strip, deals with the subject of rejection and heartbreak when Sally first misinterprets Linus’ heart-shaped box of chocolates for his teacher as an overture
for her non-requited affection and our protagonist receiving only one treat, a chalky candy heart with the message “FORGET IT KID!” during the class party—the teacher departing early with her boyfriend. A belated greeting arrives from the Little Red Haired Girl and Charlie Brown gets a regifted card from Violet. Optimistic that these pity Valentines might sustain a trend and he’ll get more next year, but Linus warns his friend not to get his hopes up. The score with the opening theme “Heartburn Waltz” was recorded by Vince Guaraldi’s Orchestra. The card which Sally reads and acted out by Snoopy is the entirety (see also) of Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s Sonnets from the Portuguese (№ 43), which opens with “How do I love thee? Let me me count the ways.”
synchronoptica
one year ago: USA for Africa’s We are the World (with synchronoptica) plus the zombification of the abandoned internet
seven years ago: pedometers and privacy, Thamesmead Housing Estate plus Aloha Wanderwell
eight years ago: governance per Tweet, assorted links worth revisiting plus Little Englanders
nine years ago: a time-capsule apartment in Chicago, ranking passports plus the game Go
ten years ago: hydrophobic materials plus a superb cartographical collection
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.
Friday, 24 January 2025
the kรถln concert (12. 177)

one year ago: the Family of Man (with synchronoptica)
seven years ago: A Fashionable Melange of English Words, website traffic, RIP Ursula Le Guin, an AI generated concert lineup plus the Babylon Bee
eight years ago: a conflict of interest
nine years ago: an X-Files reboot plus the Ronnie Horror Picture Show
ten years ago: Hildegard of Bingen, canine astronauts plus Charlie Hebdo wine labels
Saturday, 18 January 2025
movin’ on up (12. 190)
One of the longest-running sitcoms in television history and the second spin-off of All in the Family—after Maude—Norman Lear’s The Jeffersons follows the lives of the former neighbours of the Bunkers who were able to relocate from Queens to Manhattan (a deluxe apartment in the sky) due to the success of the couple’s dry-cleaning chain. The Jeffersons itself had one short-lived spin-off featuring their housekeeper, Florence, who takes a job as the team chief of a luxury hotel cleaning crew, and has continuity with the hospital drama E/R (the CBS production, lasting only one year, before being picked up by NBC a decade later in 1994 as ER, as developed by writer Michael Crichton, with the same cast of principals of George Clooney and Mary McDonnell). A traditional sitcom, the show occasionally had episodes covering serious subjects, like racism, gun-control, gender-identity and alcoholism and generally high ratings—though suffering from switching time-slots—it was ignominiously cancelled by the during the summer-break of its eleventh season in July 1985 without warning to the cast, Isabel Sanford and Sherman Hemsley, and without a series finale.
Sunday, 5 January 2025
ease on down the road (12. 145)

one year ago: assorted links to revisit (with synchronoptica), Book Review (1946), more on nominative determinism plus more on the Fermi Paradox
Monday, 30 December 2024
calendrical correspondence (12. 123)
In addition to aligning dates and days to the years 1986, 1997, 2003 and 2014, 2025 matches up with the calendar for 1975, due to its periodic nature. I wonder what events from a half-a-century might resonate and repeat for the upcoming year. Proximate to other quinquagenaries, we have touched on some of the anniversaries already, like the rise of Margaret Thatcher, the reopening of the Suez Canal, the fall of Saigon and the end of the Franco dictatorship, but we wonder what else the past might say about the present.
synchronoptica
one year ago: Dry January (with synchronoptica), 2023 in review, Sweden’s Words of the Year, defining the syllable, a look towards 2024 plus professional measurers
seven years ago: happy birthday to a veteran scientist, more on making God gender-neutral, CB operators plus New Year’s Eve eve
eight years ago: assorted links worth revisiting plus Rankin and Bass theology
nine years ago: more links to enjoy, lampooning MAGA plus Fermi’s Paradox
ten years ago: new top level domains plus molybdomancy
Monday, 23 December 2024
a555 (12. 104)
Via Things Magazine year-end round-up we are invited to take an epic road-trip (which we managed to somehow miss earlier) for the fiftieth anniversary of Kraftwerk’s Autobahn, a twenty-two minute musical tribute to the German road network (previously here and here) that transformed the entire electronic music landscape—achieving international chart success the following year once pared down to three-minutes and twenty-eight seconds for radio audiences. Legend has it that the group were inspired by a stretch of West German highway from Kรถln to Bonn, a main artery from the international airport, a Brutalist masterwork who band member Florian Schneider’s father designed, to the capital and just a few junctions from their Dรผsseldorf studios. Much more from Tim Jonze’ pilgrimage at the link above. You need to unmute for this one.
synchronoptica
one year ago: miscellany from the depths of Wikipedia (with synchronoptica), assorted links to revisit plus Hansel and Gretel (1893)
seven years ago: keep watching the skies plus misappropriating a Secessionist motto
eight years ago: combatting fake news
nine years ago: a cavalcade of holiday customs, Christmas ghost stories, lip balm recalled over high THC levels plus Seasons’ Greetings
ten years ago: Ship of Theseus
Saturday, 14 December 2024
200 (12. 080)
Though without the nudity and slightly brain-melting morphing of characters of the animator’s best known short in 1982’s Malice in Wonderland, we appreciated being able to attribute the style to director Vince Collins (still actively creating) through this tribute to the United States’ then upcoming bicentenary (see previously)—commission by USIA—with a psychedelic review of its history through iconic symbols of Americana (caution flashing images). Maybe there will be a follow up for 2026.
synchronoptica
one year ago: Hyperalleric’s Year in Memes (with synchronoptica)
seven years ago: cartoon characters with alcohol problems, alternate Nativity plus Volta’s battery
eight years ago: more Trump appointees, assorted links to revisit, a sad Christmas tree for Rome plus Wonder Woman dropped as a UN goodwill ambassador
nine year ago: Fermat’s last theorem plus more links to enjoy
eleven years ago: double-meaning in genetic code, an alcohol periodic table plus bad signing
Sunday, 1 December 2024
platonic solid (12. 045)
We are informed that the Utah Teapot has escaped its containment unit once again to appear in Dublin’s Lower Smithfield Square. We like how the checked pixels seem to imply transparency. Created in 1975 and released to the public domain by computer graphics researcher Martin Newell at the state university, it is considered one of the standard reference models (see also) for 3D modelling and computer animation, Newell rendered their Melitta tea set at the suggestion of his wife Sandra. A benchmark and one of the first programming primers assigned as an exercise to coders, the teapot has enjoyed a number other of cultural references and tributes—see more at JWZ at the link up top.
synchronoptica
one year ago: BBC BASIC (with synchronoptica), fifty-two things from Tom Whitwell, early computer art from Barbara Nessim plus assorted links worth revisiting
seven years ago: Trump and May plus more links to enjoy
eight years ago: a DIY cheese Advents calendar, a shuttle mission to retrieve space junk, a superlative bridge in China, translating vs interpreting, a phosphate monopoly plus Network (1976)
nine years ago: Secessionist Vienna, even more links plus Vienna at night
ten years ago: Nordic happiness
Wednesday, 30 October 2024
extra, extra (11. 944)
Headlines covering a statement delivered the evening before by US president Gerald Ford pledging to veto any federal aid for New York City to save it from bankruptcy, The Daily News, as we are informed by our faithful chronicler, lead with the front page story on this day in 1975 for its morning edition. Though Ford never said this line (the paper is known for its pithy and blunt copy), the sentiment was there and made a lasting impression among business and political leaders, demanding that the city make austere cuts to social programmes, raising transit fares and abolishing rent-controls in exchange for nationalising municipal debt. Two months later, Ford relented and gave New York loans, to be repaid with interest. Like Marie Antoinette (who never said “Let them eat cake”), Ford was haunted by this infamous misquotation (and unlike the Trump campaign that actually has said all the taunts, slurs and insults imaginable but will hopefully met the same indecorous fate) with career-ending consequences one year later, New Yorkers remembering, when the state pivoted narrowly to elect Jimmy Carter.