fiscal forecast (12. 818)

As the shutdown of the US federal government drags on and Donald Trump appears far more interested in razing the White House, betraying the ranching community that voted him back in office by touting Argentinian beef over domestically sourced (added to the bailout of the peso to ensure that the Trump crime family has a safe space for exile like Nazis in hiding) and uncharacteristically, charitably silent for a few hours perhaps embarking on another Weekend at Bernie’s, Washington and Ontario have suspended trade talks over an advertisement aired on social media at the behest of the province’s premier which excerpted a portion of a 1987 speech by Ronald Reagan denouncing tariffs—counter-programming a series ran by Trump lauding their supposed benefits. Insisting that Reagan’s quote that “trade barriers hurt every American worker” was taken out of context and politicised (messaging also used by China), Marco Rubio, the secretary of state—charged with diplomacy but focused on economic issues and destabilising the government of Venezuela and who pointedly during the 2016 Republican primary debates called tariffs a tax on the American people—announced that negotiations have been put on hold, later echoed by the US president, calling the ad fake and fraudulent and declaring talks “hereby terminated.” Moreover the a group called the Reagan Foundation cried foul over the misrepresentation and is exploring legal options against Canada—to which Ontario released an extended version of the address—in the public domain—to differentiate it from Trump’s AI slop and distortions. This derailment comes ahead of the mandated six year reassessment of the NAFTA redux negotiated by Trump and the announcement of the Canadian federal budget, expected to emphasise a pivot away from reliance on its neighbour to the south.

kvennafrídagurinn (12. 817)

On this day in 1975, Icelandic women—some ninety percent of the demographic that makes up half of the population, went on strike for twenty-four hours for a showing of the indispensable place of women for the economy and society, organisers touting the action to protest wage disparity (a pay-gap of around sixty-percent less compared to male coworkers in the same profession) and unfair employment practises as Women’s Day Off. Participants called out of their jobs outside the home and also refused to do the added tasks of housekeeping or activities associated with child-rearing, many husbands having to do these chores for the first time. Whilst the international attention for the demonstration prompted legislative reforms and equal rights, the struggle continues half a century on and there have been other mass walk-outs (see also) and on the Friday closest to the anniversary, women are dismissed early, incrementally later commensurate with the progress made towards their goals from 14:05, 14:08, 14:25 and most recently 14:38 to quit at a time when they could have earned their daily wage had they been paid the same as men—the World Economic Forum’s global gender-gap index rating Iceland the most egalitarian country for the past sixteen years. Much more from Reykjavík Grapevine at the link up top.

synchronoptica

one year ago: assorted links worth the revisit (with synchronopticæ)

thirteen years ago: all the gold in Fort Knox plus the Stammtisch

fourteen years ago: the Phonetic Major System for better memorisation

fifteen years ago: impressions of Ireland

7x7 (12. 816)

east wing: for a nation that’s precious about conserving its precious little history, there’s not much outcry over Trump’s extensive remodel of the People’s House—see more  

west bank: US vice president and secretary of state angry over a bill advanced in the Knesset to annex the larger of the two Palestinian territories against Trump’s twenty-point plan  

parallax view: a glasses-free three-dimensional mapping demonstration 

fairytale of new york: a tribute to the recently departed Alfa-Betty Olson and her Sin City Fables  

schleicher’s pie: revisiting the constructed Proto Indo-European apologue—see previously  

yerkökü və çubuq: Russo-American summit in Budapest is cancelled and a raft of new sanctions are imposed on Moscow 

arc de trump: plans drawn up for a triumphal arch over the Potomac

yo, el tarot (12. 815)

Much in the same vein as these previous collected aphorisms can be a good sounding-board for creative thinking, so to is this form of storyboarding with the major and minor arcana as presented by filmmaker Alejandro Jodorowsky (see previously here and here) is a heuristic for self-discovery in the present rather than prognostication and his own narrative style of magical-realism. There’s an element of magical-thinking of course but things can sometimes manifest through insight. More from Open Culture at the link above.

*     *     *     *     *

synchronoptica

one year ago: AI learns to point and click (with synchronopticæ), London’s mortality weekly plus the life of Boethius 

twelve years ago: more diabolical architecture plus Russia cracks down on homosexuality

thirteen years ago: Germany losses a neighbourhood retail anchor 

fourteen years ago: artistic crucifixes, the tale of dread pirate Störtebeker plus superlative t-shirts

estrella de la esperanza (12. 815)

Altas Oscura’s Place of the Day directs to a cosmodrome located outside the village of Cachi in the northwestern Salta Province, an ovnipuerto, a landing strip for extraterrestrial visitors built by Swiss artist and traveller Werner Jaisli (*1949 - †2021) between 2008 and 2012 after an alleged alien encounter, claiming to have received telepathic instructions to come to Argentina and build the runway from local stones, bleaching them for greater visibility. In a Field of Dreams moment, Jaisli laboured on his Star of Hope (designated an architectural and heritage landmark by the provincial council of deputies in 2020) with the promise, “if you build it, they will come.” Residents refer to the construction the Swiss guy’s stars—“las estrellas del suizo.”

8x8 (12. 813)

vampira: the obscure made-for-television title by George Moorse with a atmospheric score by Tangerine Dream 

concrete progress: a demonstration project for turning the rubble of war torn Ukraine into cement 

overton window: a measured approach to AI—via Kottke—see also  

spoiler-alert: William Castle’s Homicidal, a hammy, gimmicky film capitalising on the success of Psycho, gets reviewed by Poseidon’s Underworld

 
atira asteroids: a constellation of interior-Earth objects in our orbit and hidden by solar glare are uncomfortably close—via Damn Interesting 

it’s awfully strange to make a decision where i’m paying myself—but i was damaged very great and any money i would get i would give to charity: Grifter-in-Chief demands two-hundred and thirty million dollars in restitution from the US department of justice for past convictions  

billionaires’ row: a supertall residential tower on Manhattan’s Park Avenue is riddled with stress-fractures that may lead to its condemnation

the vampyre: Lord Byron’s unremembered manservant who invented the modern form of the genre—via Miss Cellania

synchronoptica

one year ago: assorted links to revisit (with synchronopticæ) plus the Berlin Crisis of 1961

fourteen years ago: exploring the past with the Retronaut

project west ford (12. 812)

Though we’ve wrote quite a few times on the rather audious joint US Airforce-Massachusetts Institute of Technology mission (see previously here and here) to ensure the continuity of communications in the era before satellites in case of Soviet sabotage on underseas cables by seeding the upper atmosphere with a half a million copper dipoles to create an artificial ionosphere, the natural but unpredictable one being the primary sounding board for international correspondence via shortwave, we think the story bares repeating on the anniversary not of the deployment of the payload of “Westford needles” but rather on date that the first abortive experiment failed in 1961. After the initial set-back, it’s amazing that there was another trial.  Hundreds of thousands of tiny copper pins, thinner than a human hair (scaled to amplify target signals) in orbit would, as the theory went, would form a ring to collective provide passive support to a parabolic transmission dish located on the grounds of MIT’s multidisciplinary observatory. Carried aloft in tandem with the launch of a MiDAS 4 satellite the diodes failed to disperse. A second attempt in May the following year was successful. Though unknown at the time how quickly the needles would deorbit and that the debris field was temporary and diminishingly small, the secret experiment enraged the international community and although the fears of the a catastrophic grounding were unfounded, Project West Ford did prompt an inclusion of a consultation provision in the 1967 Outer Space Treaty.

synchronoptica

one year ago: airport geolocation codes and shared abbreviations (with synchronopticæ) plus Musk selling votes

thirteen years ago: a visit to Sigmaringen

fourteen years ago: Eurozone crisis talks plus more on digital rights management

sixteen years ago: diploma mills 

seventeen years ago: nostalgia and intellectual property 

 

8x8

tor’s cabinet of curiosities: a collection of weird hagiographies 

photographie de rue: photography student Lionel Derimais’ impressions of New York City in the winter of 1980 

non-generative ai: artist Pablo Delcan responds to human prompts  

canary in the coal mine: the collapse of US private equity firms echoes the collapse of the sub-prime real estate market that caused the Great Recession of 2008  

to catch a thief: reconstructing the Louvre heist  

grattacieli: the medieval skyscrapers of Bologna—see previously 

breaker one-niner: the computer industry’s first challenge from the US federal communications commission was over frequency interference for citizens’ band radio—see previously  

elevator pitch: podcasters debate listening to episodes at 2x speed

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 

stop making sense (12. 809)

Using footage from the previous year of the band promoting their latest album, Speaking in Tongues, the Jonathan Demme directed documentary is considered among the best concert films of all time and was released on this day in 1984. Including performances of “Psycho Killer” and “Burning Down the House,” frontman David Byrne enters alone on a bare stage introducing the first number on a portable cassette tape player and joined successively by additional members of the band, session players and backup vocalists with each new track. During “Girlfriend is Better” (whose lyric is the origin of the title) Byrne appears in an oversized suite, informed by Noh theatre, that became an icon of the film and of Byrne himself. With many tributes and homages, the piece is considered a cult classic with frequent screenings with the audience dressed for the occasion.

the holtermann nugget (12. 808)

Unlike another individual who immigrated to avoid the draft with a mild, tangental case of the gold bug, leaving his native Hamburg some fourteen years prior, Bernhardt Otto Holtermann, who thrived in his adopted homeland of New South Wales and left a positive legacy, on this day in 1872, as an independent prospector under contract with the Star of Hope Mining company, discovered the eponymous gold specimen, a contiguous vein of the precious encased in quartz, the largest ever unearthed, the find weighed ninety-three kilograms, over three-thousand troy-ounces. Already wealthy from successful ventures in mining and sound investments (a shareholder in a residential hotel) and with a controlling interest in the corporation, Holtermann attempted to purchase his discovery for over the going value but was rebuffed by the company, only to have the nugget smelted for bullion—who disheartened prompted Holtermann to change careers and become a philanthropist and pursue his hobbies. Taking up residence in Sydney and building a mansion with a high turret for taking panoramic photos of the harbour, he followed his passion for photography and helped finance campaign directed at potential migrants (for needed labour and hoping to pass on the entrepreneurship that helped him) with his series of panorama images of the city and environs and became alderman for his ward, residing the second city for the remainder of his days.

le séance double (12. 807)

For the onset of the spooky season—we’re over midway through without much planning thanks to the horror of the headlines but cosplay, costumed dictators are no match for the truly infernal and menacing—we are referred by { feuilleton } to a playlist of ten pioneering French classics of the genre from the British Film Institute. From the pcitured 1960 masterpiece, whose hurdy-gurdy leitmotif adds an element of absurd menace to the psychological thriller, to Georges Méliès’—magician turned cinematographer after seeing what the Lumière brothers could do—silent short work at the very dawn of the media, Le Manoir du diable, considered the first horror movie and innovative for its use of special effects, to the 1929 Luis Buñuel surreal work Un chien andalou and back to the 1960s and beyond, there’s sure to be something in the catalogue to frighten and unnerve any viewer.

synchronoptica

one year ago: the Cin script (with synchronopitcæ), the British India Ocean Territory and the loss of its top-level domain plus images of passengers going through a car-wash

fourteen years ago: art expositions of the Third Reich 

no kings ii (12. 806)

In more than two-thousand seven-hundred rallies across the country—with support from international affiliates—more than seven million protesters took part in the redux demonstrations against the unitary executive of Donald Trump and his blatantly magisterial policies that undermine democracy and the rule of rule and proxy warfare conducted conducted on American streets with assaults against immigrants and unbidden occupation that verges on martial law. Since June’s demonstrations, prompted by Trump’s full authoritarian military birthday parade, the organisers have only been able to add to their agenda with retributive arrests against political opposition (in line with Stalinist era tactics and maxim, “Show me the man and I’ll show you the crime”), threats of more violence against Democratic strongholds, aggressive gerrymandering, undermining federal services, virtual parliamentary suspension, abandonment of public health, science-based medicine and environmental regulations, the shutdown of the federal government and regime change in Venezuela. The assembly was peaceful and no arrests were made in Washington, DC or New York City as participants were engaged in the highest form of patriotism against their traitorous government.

i like the city of san juan—i know a boat you can get on (12. 805)

Via our faithful chronicler, we are reminded that the cinematic adaptation of the Broadway musical by Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim premiered on this day in 1961 (on the anniversary of the island’s takeover in 1898, ceded as part of the Treaty of Paris that settled the Spanish-American War) in New York City. The film from Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins and Ernest Lehman (the team also behind The Sound of Music, Hello, Dolly! and Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?) and starring Rita Moreno, Natalie Wood, George Chakiris and Richard Beymer was true to book, in turn inspired by the Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet, some numbers were re-ordered in appearance from the to better fit the narrative and lyrics changed to avoid censorship—particularly in “Jet Song” and “Gee, Officer Krupke,” “sperm to worm” was changed to “from birth to earth”—and in the brilliantly mixed-metre song “America” (the alteration inspired by a supposed visit to Puerto Rico and the “Habanera,” L’amour est un oiseau rebelle from Carmen) for a message deemed too harsh on fellow citizens and instead emphasises more of the perks of living on the mainland, ignoring the fact that the criticism was directed at their mistreatment and unwelcome. The 2021 Steven Spielberg version includes the revolutionary anthem La Borinqueña and restores some of lines from the original. I’ll give them new washing machine! What have they got there to keep clean?

first instance, last resort (12. 804)

As promised in his campaign focused on retribution for his political critics and opponents, Trump’s weaponisation of the US justice system seems nearly complete with the most chilling headlines going to the recent string of indictments of former FBI director James Comey, New York attorney general Letitia James who led a fraud investigation against the president during the interregnum and most recently former national security adviser John Bolton for mishandling of classified material (the accusations admissions to the letter), we would be ill-disposed to not recognise the scope of the miscarriage of the law is not limited to personal attacks but is also manifest in the dismantling of the separation of powers among the coequal branches of the federal government in the recision and reprogramming of funds, cowing courts into submission to facilitate the illegal firings and shutterings of congressionally mandated agencies, and abusing the power of the pardon to rewrite the history of the January Sixth insurrection and attack on the US capitol and just now the commutation of the prison sentence of George Santos, disgraced New York Republican ejected from the House of Representatives by his own caucus.  The art deco sculpture to the left in the great hall of the Robert F Kennedy, Senior DOJ headquarters is the Spirit of Justice, infamously given a modesty smock in 2002 by then attorney general John Ashcroft to cover her exposed breast.  Her companion across the aisel, scantily clad in only a loin cloth, is called the Majesty of Justice.     

synchronoptica

one year ago: animated artefacts (with synchronopticæ) plus a collection of apotropaic plants 

fourteen years ago: swapping allegiances to shore up economies 

sixteen years ago: stoking the hearth 

crypt of civilisation (12. 803)

With the suggestion of the belief in reincarnation over hundreds of generations following the Platonic theory of metempsychosis with rebirth coming in thousand year cycles and setting the unsealing date six millennia in the future, calculated to be the difference from the height of Egyptian culture until the present, courtesy of Strange Company, we learn that the hermetically preserved installation (entombed in an unused swimming pool on campus)—inspired by the same contemporary craze of Tutmania (see previously here, here and here) and the notable dearth of information that the Ancients left for the Moderns—organised by history professor Thornwell Jacobs of Oglethorpe University in the American state of Georgia gave us the coinage time-capsule. Finally shunted away in 1935 after five years of careful, considered archiving and curation, the collection includes over eight hundred books, The Iliad, the Bible, a manuscript of Gone with the Wind among others, a seed vault, contemporary scientific instruments, cultural artefacts like Lincoln Logs, dental floss, fashions, an electric toaster, a radio—a windmill is also supplied to provide electricity to the appliances and equipment—as well as vocal recordings from Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini and FDR with a hand-cranked device called the mutoscope for playback and teaching the eighty-second century openers of the crypt the English language. Designated to be unsealed in the year 8113 CE at noon US Eastern Time on Thursday 28 May, with the assumption being human beings (see also) are conducting the ceremony and a request that they respect and adopt this legacy for future generations.

sister cities (12. 802)

Via Web Curios, we discover a pretty keen interactive visualisation of the globe’s twinned towns (see previously here and here), though I’m given to understand not yet complete—in Iceland there are certainly vinabæir, though one can contribute to the underlying dataset and it’s not wholly intuitive at first how to navigate along the arc that links communities across nations and continents. The effect of zooming in through all those ascendant lines, especially in areas where the twinning is dense is quite impressive. Although this kind of relationship has existed throughout history through trade and cultural exchange, the first official twinning was a pact between municipal leaders of Toledo Ohio and Toledo Spain in 1931, with the idea gaining momentum towards the end of World War II to establish solidarity and promote reconciliation and understanding.

synchronoptica

one year ago: the first private rocket company (with synchronopticæ), first presidential photo-op (1924) plus the Fool’s Cap Map

fourteen years ago: more travels in Ireland plus more on the Greek financial crisis

10x10 (12. 801)

press credentials: all major US media outlets surrender their badges granting them access to the Pentagon rather than consent to only reporting on approved releases—see previously  

pomalo: embracing the unhurried lifestyle of the Dalmatian coast 

🚀: a huge archive of international space agency logos and patches, including private and fictional ones—via Kottke 

my my my my michell: a tribute to Joe Don Baker 

dear new york: an installation featuring the city’s denizens in Grand Central Station  

doxxing and the doxxed: a roundup of hateful boosterism from American Republican youth organisations  

un embarras du choix: perhaps options and avenues are a poor surrogate for being free 

farshoring: Luxembourg’s role as a space hub allows prospectors to claim asteroids—though profits may never pan out  

κόπος: Greek parliament passes thirteen-hour work days amidst strikes and labour shortages  

reframing: an exhibit inspired by WEB Du Bois’ infographic “data portraits”

for jointly having negotiated a cease fire in vietnam in 1973 (12. 800)

Co-laureates announced on this day of the same year, the Norwegian Nobel Committee controversially decided to award the prize, following the Paris Peace Accords, to the delegates of the United States of America and North Vietnam, Henry Kissinger and Lê Đức Thọ respectively. The treaty negotiated and signed without the input or endorsement of the senate or the government of South Vietnam, having been derailed several times over the demands that all prisoners of war be released, American intervention in the war was ended and troops withdrawn (see previously) leading to an almost immediate resumption of the conflict. Thọ outright refused the questionable honour and Kissinger accepted it only in absentia, fearing the optics of protesters at the ceremony. Kissinger subsequently tried to return the award but the Nobel committee did not want it back. Consideration given to forty-four other nominees that year, deliberations included author Pearl S Buck for work in humanitarian projects and championing racially mixed children, Indira Gandhi, the Hague, Spurgeon Milton Keeny for work in family planning and reproductive choice and Luis Kutner for advocating for a universal law of habeas corpus to counter arbitrary imprisonment and exile, Josip Broz Tito, Universala Esperanto-Asocio and sponsored by several members of congress Richard Milhous Nixon for accomplishments promoting lasting world peace. Further criticism includes recipients Jimmy Carter, the European Union, Shimon Peres with Yasser Arafat and Barack Obama, whose, in the minds of some, electoral award pressed Donald Trump to the to pursue the same circuit of honours. 

synchronoptica 

one year ago: Rocky & Bullwinkel and the Cuba Missile Crisis (with synchronopticæ) plus assorted links worth the revisit

sixteen years ago: home-heating units 

7x7 (12. 799)

do not comply in advance: many news organisations are refusing to sign on to new US department of war rules to report on only officially vetted items 

haibao: a look back at the 2010 Shanghai world Expo plus a menagerie of other mascots  

touched by an angle: more biblically accurate heavenly hosts—see also here and here  

the lighthouse, the prioritiser and the flashlight: dozens of strategies for safeguarding one’s attention in an exhausting environment—via MetaFilter 

xeno canto: a geocaching tutorial for birdsong—from a revamped Maps Mania  

zoomorphic stereotypes: the 1806 human-animal hybrid caricatures of Charles Le Brun 

sos: Save our Signs project aims to preserve ten thousand placards in US national parks threatened with deletion for telling uncomfortable truths of the past for present and future generations

acervo (12. 798)

Via It’s Nice That we are referred to the repository, living archive of vernacular graphic design curated by one Alagoas native, Victor Yves, who began his collection after encountering the paucity of visual archives of Brazil’s northeast and resolved to create his own. The personal project of gathering “eye exercises” (exercícios para os olhos) gleaned from posters, prints, pamphlets and other ephemera informed by naïve- and folk-art soon developed into an academic obsession by its own inertia of filling what would become an obvious gap in the region’s creative heritage, amassing a sizeable portfolio of influential contributors whose credit was missing from the national canon. There are over five thousand (and growing) artefacts to peruse in the gallery, each with a short biography of its provenance and artist plus a selection of other exhibits with similar energy.

synchronoptica

one year ago: an incredible Trump rally (with synchronopticæ) plus a creepy featurette

fourteen years ago: adventures in Ireland 

sixteen years ago: blogging-block 

latent belief (12. 797)

A very low-stakes example (see here for a somewhat more consequent one) of human hubris and machine over-confidence seems to be uncovered in queries about the existence of a seahorse emoji—much depending on how one broaches the question. Whereas a straight yes-no answer elicits false assurances, a more casual manner of asking incites a sort of freak-out including citations of the Mandela effect to disabuse the questioner, the variety of other marine life in emoji form, how to convey the sense of seahorse by a combination of symbols, and how petitions and appeals for its inclusion failed in 2018 (in the same release as the dodo, which did make the cut)—with means of redress for submitting one’s own ideas to the steering committee. It seems a simple question yields the hallucinatory false memories and goes the way of other proposed but declined representatives, like the yurt, triceratops, wind turbine, wheelie bin, tattoo, lighthouse, face with laser eyes but yet four types of waffle and five variations on the polar bear.

rhapsody in green (12. 796)

Though released in 1976 with the impressive credentials of synth music pioneer and eclectic composer of genres ranging from easy-listening to the occult space age electronic pop Mort Garson, his anthology album of Moog sounds formulated for plants and plant-lovers failed to sell a single record for decades that is until a bootleg copy was put online and subsequent vinyl pressings. Its obscurity owed to the fact of its limited, exclusive release only as a free gift for those purchasing a houseplant from the eponymous store on Melrose Avenue in Los Angeles—and to those who purchased a mattress from a local Sears outlet. A touchstone of of the era also on account of the interest in horticultural communication and well-being, Plantasia is more celebrated and cerebral for human enjoyment as a forerunner of electronic music. More from Kraftfuttermischwerk including an intense analysis of the complex contrapuntal composition due in part to the to limitations of the Moog with a single voice, monophonic instrument and its virtuosity in the ability to layer those effects.

*    *    *    *    *

synchronoptica

one year ago: Pulp Fiction (with synchronopticæ), a simplified LED typeface plus a mysterious visit from Mr Babbage

fifteen years ago: Jesus H Christ 

oblique strategies (12. 795)

Though I am reluctant to add many executive toys to my physical desktop, I do catch myself staring off quite a bit in moments of tension or feeling overwhelmed at a collection of juggling practise bean bags, a memory match game wherein one tries to pair dogs with their owners (I think the idea is supposed to be pretty open ended and there are no wrong choices) to jar or dislodge or alleviate something, and so very much appreciated this new deck of cards to put in one’s rolodex to seek out a positive reframing rather and “avoid falling into the slipstream of prevailing trends” and performative expectations. Ambagious Tactics contain an aphorism or question to ponder on each cue-card, a prompt to cleanse the palette, following the format of the above worthwhile dilemmas co-created by Brian Eno (most famously used during the recording sessions of David Bowie’s Berlin trilogy) and Peter Schmidt in 1975 to encourage lateral thinking and help creatives—or anyone—break through an impasse. Only ever released in limited runs, physical copies of Strategies are hard to come by but are available on-line to shuffle through for suggestions—this cartomancy (see previously here, here and here) carefully crafted to be trusted even if the appropriateness is unclear, and with signicant cultural impact, many books, songs and film make oblique reference to the cards, including the bit of advice, “Withdrawing in disgust is not the same thing as apathy,” a lyric in REM’s What’s the Frequency, Kenneth? Other suggestions run along the lines: Emphasis repetition; Try faking it; Restate the problem as clearly as possible; What would your closest friend do? More to explore from { feuilleton } at the link above and perhaps the inspiration to make one’s own set for yourself or as a gift.

penmanship (12. 794)

We throughly enjoyed this introduction to the Zaner-Bloser method for teaching handwriting through a collection of satisfying alphabet and type specimens that were instructors’ aides used at the Zanerian College of Penmanship of Columbus Ohio from around 1904 to 1910. Originally developed with the intent of making the transition from block-print to cursive script, advanced slides also dealt with different typefaces and incorporated elements of graphic design. Likely one of the only professional efficiency hacks worth attending to is speed and accuracy in typing—just so with with one’s manuscript in whatever medium.  Though the institution of higher education is no more and in the US the D’Nealian method (of Donald Neal Thurber with its monkey-tail flourishes) developed in the mid-1960s is more familiar to generations of pupils, the educational duo’s later incarnation as a publishing house still produces such classroom materials and Highlights—a once favourite in practise waiting rooms. Conceived at first to educate illiterate enlisted soldiers, the magazine is no longer in print, but its legacy carries on in a children’s podcast featuring Goofus and Gallant. More samples from Flashbak at the link above.

continuing resolution (12. 793)

In order to dull the pain or inconvenience that the average member of the American public associates with the furlough and partial government shutdown and avoid the optics of service members in uniform queuing at food pantries on pay-day, the administration has proposed, akin to the rescission-process from earlier in the year, re-programming funds already committed, still in defiance of authorisations, to other projects, like army research and development or monies generated from sources outside the process of congressional appropriations, so air-traffic controllers, airport security agents and soldiers do not miss their next pay cheque. Whereas travel disruptions may be more relatable than the potential for mutiny over breach of contract, both are still within the realm of possibilities. Despite having virtually insurmountable control over the three branches of the federal government, Republicans persist in blaming the closure on Democrats—though perceptions are changing and the public and the federal workforce, in many cases not working or deemed essential and working for the promise of delayed pay, seeming more tenuous, know that the layoffs and evisceration of programmes were planned well in advance of the 30 September deadline and are something that the GOP would have carried out regardless.

synchronoptica

one year ago: university commas (with synchronopticæ), Peabody visual aides, an out-of-season bloom plus Dungeons & Dragons as group therapy

fifteen years ago: tabloid news 

sixteen years ago: the most beautiful object in the world 

mixed-media (12. 792)

Via fellow internet peripatetic Messy Nessy Chic (with some more interesting ephemera in this collection), we are directed towards this fascinating Edwardian era scrapbook lovingly curated by a young girl in New York City—circa 1902 to 1906. Filled with magazine clippings, theatre programmes and postcards, the montage includes an advertisement for Triscuit crackers—the electric biscuit (see previously) and the source link includes some genealogical research into the possible origin of this incredible social document (the primordial Pinterest board, see also)—purchased for a whole dollar at a used book store. Much more at the links above.

the garden of forking paths (12. 791)

Via the always engrossing Quantum of Sollazzo newsletter, we were at first a bit repelled by this project by Sean Goedecke to build a never-ending Wikipedia, tens of thousands of articles generated by AI—not really understanding what was happening under the hood. The constellation of seed entries of course branch off like a neural network, be that organic or synthetic and contain links, a potential daisy-chain to topics adjacent, like the typical experience of falling down a research rabbithole, except there are no red ones to click on. If the article does not yet exist, it is summoned into being with the user’s interaction and the freshly generated page has its own set of potential connections. Though no replacement for the genuine encyclopaedic project, it does make the paracosm of the large language model a bit more scrutable—like how getting to Philosophy and related challenges illustrate its architecture as well as the nature of interdisciplinary studies. Goedecke, with ample caution for the visitor, compares EndlessWiki to the Library of Babel of Jorges Luis Borges, a pocket universe of stacks holding every permutation of book possible, which by the laws of probability contains a lot of gibberish but also every title ever written and that might be written. Some new languages could also be proposed to make sense of the seemingly random texts—however, despite the search for meaning, the librarians remain functionally ignorant and cultist behaviour and superstition arises that confound and frustrate the infinite task of curation and of culling.

synchronoptica

one year ago: assorted links worth the revisit (with synchronopticæ) 

fifteen years ago: a secret Cold War West German bank bunker 

not-ready-for-primetime players (12. 790)

Although there has already been much celebration marking the long-running topical and comedy sketch show’s fiftieth season, its actual semicentenary anniversary occurred on this day in 1975 when the network aired the first episode of NBC’s Saturday Night Live (to distinguish it from competing time slot Saturday Night Live with Howard Cosell—see above). Hosted by comedian George Carlin with Billy Preston (“Will it Go Round in Circles,” “Nothing from Nothing”) and Janis Ian (“At Seventeen,” “Society’s Child,” “Fly Too High”) were the first musical guests. The cast lived in the studio for the first season and had their footing and direction by the fourth episode, introducing regularly occurring segments and characters.