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.

7x7 (12. 789)

snaggletoothed landfill goblins: a journey into the heart of the Pop Mart economy—via Web Curios  

battle-rattle: a Wikipedia-style directory on camouflage—via ibīdem   

urgent fury: revisiting Grenada and arguably the only modern foreign war that the US ever won  

lahaina noon: twice annually objects in the between the Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn lose their shadows  

my life of the ptsd list: Kathy Griffin—don’t call it a come back—via MetaFilter  

yclept: a gloss on the Old English term that is still in common-parlance—via Strange Company

the niña, the pinta and the santa maría: Trump issues a declaration ahead of the US federal holiday to re-enshrine the myth of Columbus’ discover and the settlers’ conquest   

spreekwoorden (12. 788)

Having a passing familiarity with how the artwork of Pieter Bruegel the Elder could be read as an illustrated catalogue of Flemish proverbs and idioms to puzzle out, we appreciated this bit of art history presented,
via Web Curios, as an interactive canvas to explore each interpretation of the 1559 painting originally titled The Blue Cloak for the striking bit of contrast in the lower middle of the ensemble with the Max Rebo-looking figure representing a cuckold—Zij hangt haar man de blauwe huik, literally another proverb of pulling the wool over his eyes to hide her deception and faithlessness, see above. There are a hundred or so to parse and figure out one’s native equivalent.

♪Ø (12. 787)

Having been previously acquainted with several esoteric programming languages (here, here and here), we enjoyed this introduction to Velato courtesy of Futility Closet. Using MIDI files as source code, compiled by Daniel Temkin (see above) in 2009, the syntax provides a unique challenge with constraints (see also) for achieving the desired output and something melodious. The pictured lines of code produce, “Hello World,” the standard programming benchmark plus sanity check to make sure the logic holds. Hear the programming and find related languages at the link above.

slice of time (12. 786)

Whilst having been demonstrated through several experiments—the central consequence of Albert Einstein’s special theory of relativity—as an object accelerates close to the speed of light it experiences time differently and becomes stretched through time dilation, the Doppler effect, spaghettification, etc, one conjecture, independently concluded by physicists James Terrell and Roger Penrose (see previously here and here), evaded observation: that the fast moving object out to appear not elongated nor contracted despite the physical deformation but rather rotated. Utilising a battery of tricks to simulate light speed slowed down to two-metres per second in the laboratory, we learn via Damn Interesting, recording the flashes of a laser reflected off a target wire frame cube with an advanced high-speed camera, researchers at the Technical University of Vienna have reproduced the rotation for the first time. Despite the object approaching head-one, instead of seeing one face of the cube distorted, one sees a corner formed at the convergence at the vertices of two faces. This simulation is akin to photographing a rocket whizzing by at ninety-percent the speed of light with the resulting panoramic image twisted as Penrose predicted. It is a pretty nifty set-up and a way to magnify or minimise the unachievable but seems strange to have arrived at (not discovered) this anticipated effect through brute force of better lenses rather than by reason and the scientific method.

heavy petting (12. 785)

Despite (or because of) its ban by the BBC and refusal to air the chanson on the radio or on Top of the Pops for its overtly sexual content, the song whose title translates to “I love you … me neither”—originally composed by Gainsbourg for Brigitte Bardot in 1967—the Serge Gainsbourg and Jane Birkin duet rose to number one on the UK and Irish charts on this day in 1969, the first foreign language one to do so. Prolific and iconic songwriter Gainsbourg (previously) was ordered after a particularly bad date by his then-girlfriend Bardot (see also) to write the ultimate love song as penance—which the two later recorded in a studio together. After the session Bardot begged Gainsbourg to never release it—he complied but was upset that his singular attempt at writing a love song would go unheard. Breaking up with Bardot the next year, Gainsbourg’s on-screen tryst with English actress Birkin during the filming of the romantic comedy Slogan turned into a real-life affair—at first for the sake of the project—with Gainsbourg latter seducing her with the private recording made with his ex. For admittedly selfish reasons, motivated by the fact she wanted no one else to record it, Birkin agreed to perform the track. The title «Je t'aime... moi non plus» was inspired by a quotation of Salvador Dalí that “Picasso is Spanish, me too. Picasso is a genius, me too. Picasso is a communist, me neither.” Despite Birkin’s lasting imprint (Gainsbourg directed her in an erotic film of the same name in 1976), it was revealed later that Gainsbourg also approached Marianne Faithfull to do the duet and by 1986, Bardot had reconsidered her position and persuaded Gainbourg to release their original recording. An instrumental version was played during the opening ceremony of the 2024 Paris Paralympics.

*    *    *    *    *

synchronoptica

one year ago: Texas Chainsaw Massacre (with synchronopticæ) plus a last day on the Havel

sixteen years ago: an awful trollish post on Obama winning the Nobel Peace prize that we’re ashamed we made and feel very differently now

seventeen years ago: fleeing interconnections to a new Dark Age 

9x9 (12. 784)

readme.txt: an experiment to assess whether AI can parse the drastic downfall of the United States and pen near-term speculative fiction that forecasts the next four years based on the daily news cycle—via Web Curios  

citation needed: famous cognitive truisms that fail replication 

take the a-train: a data-driven tribute to the New York City subway  

peso convertible: despite US government shutdown impasse and soaring inflation, the US is bailing out the Argentinian economy  

out of all the clergy, why did ice target the hot priest: minister scoured with pepper ball ammunition rebukes US administration’s narrative about lawlessness in Chicago  

dead reckoning: quantum sensing of the magnetic field of the Earth’s core could prove to be a more reliable method of aerial navigation in the age of GPS spoofing and jamming, see also—Via Clive Thompson’s Linkfest  

rezagado: Trump suggests ejecting Spain from NATO for their failure to show commitment snail’s pace: a sculptural statement on the frenetic everyday  

coo-coo-ca-choo: birds across all species seem to understand the universal cry of warning of predatory nesters  

babystar: a cautionary influencer tale with echos of The Truman Show

for her tireless work promoting democratic rights or the people of venezuela and for her struggle to achieve a just and peaceful transition from dictatorship to democracy (12. 783)

Despite Trump’s laudable though contrived truce between Israel and Hamas—may the peace hold—with Netayahu leveraged to hedge in favour of a refusal on the part of the Gazan authorities to take part—and risking the ire of the American president when he realises that there are some Venezuelans remaining that he hasn’t blown up, the Nobel Committee in Oslo announced that their prize will be presented to laureate María Corina Machado, politician and activist ousted during the regime of Nicolás Maduro Moros in 2014. Although in hiding and operating an underground effort for government reform and social justice since, Machado attempted to run against Maduro in 2024, and though blocked from running lent support to the candidacy of the opposition, whom would have unseated the incumbent, according to international election observers yet refused to yield power. Nominations closed in March, with over three hundred qualified contenders put forward, individuals and organisations, including Pope Francis, champion of the plight of the Uyghur people Li Ying, Elon Musk, Donald Trump nominated by representatives of the governments of Israel, Pakistan, Cambodia and Argentina, the January Sixth congressional select committee, the Hague and NATO. Coincidentally Machado had some praise for Trump himself earlier in the year in August when the administration announced a fifty-million dollar bounty on Maduro for allowing drug trafficking into the US, carrying out a series of deadly strikes on boats in international waters said to be operated by gang members running narcotics, countering these accusations as a pretext for America-led regime change. Sore loser, Trump says that this proves that the Nobel Committee places “politics above peace,” and despite this qualified miscarriage of justice that Trump who has “the heart of a humanitarian, and there will never be anyone like him who can move mountains with the sheer force of his will,” according to a White House spokesperson, continues to be a peace-maker.

synchronoptica

one year ago: a visit to Himmelpfort and Fürstenberg (with synchronopticæ)

twelve years ago: departing for southern France 

thirteen years ago: the grammar of ornament, flowcharts plus a blank slate

fifteen years ago: Double-Ten Day and currency wars 

we have always been at war with portlandia (12. 782)

Checking in on the war-zone in the Oregon city, we find the antics of peaceful protestors have been quite withering for the narrative that the Trump administration is trying to push with selective and many times false footage claiming to be facing down an Antifa army with a force majeure of images circulating showing that grave threat to be joyful resistance to protect people in their community from being expelled or disappeared and their third amendment rights to not be compelled to suffer or quarter cosplay soldiers shipped into their town unwelcome.

The following is REAL footage from Portland, 2025. Viewer discretion is advised.

[image or embed]

— The Daily Show (@thedailyshow.com) October 9, 2025 at 10:23 PM

*    *    *    *    *

synchronoptica

one year ago: punting along the Wolblitz (with synchronopticæ) 

thirteen years ago: bulletin boards plus a visit to Kelheim

seventeen years ago: reflections on Iceland’s insolvency 

värvilind (12. 781)

Courtesy of Weird Universe, we enjoyed this introduction to Soviet-era artist and director Rein Raamat through his 1974 work Firebird, with obvious inspiration from Yellow Submarine. Whereas the Beatles were faced with the challenge of thawing the frozen Pepperland and restoring its vitality, the drab denizens of Raamat’s animation are brought to life by the arrival of the titular character brings colour and growth—much to the indignation of a black cat who seems to have embraced the status quo.

10x10 (12. 780)

third amendment rights: ICE officers and associates beg to use the restroom  

dance this mess around: Cardhouse’s 2025 mixtape session—see previously 

anti-deficiency act: an omnibus of reports on the US federal government shutdown, including the threat to withhold back-pay from disloyal workers  

any dream of avarice: a historical comparison of the world’s wealthiest individuals—see also  

angry little clouds: Bob Ross paintings (see previously here and here) to be auctioned off to US support public broadcasters after federal funding cut  

the weight of a city: revisiting the idea of gradually x-raying a spot off-limits with ghostly cosmic particles through imagined and inspired celestial espionage  

permanent polycrisis: Curios Brain’s trends for 2026 of sustained chaos counterbalanced with the end of coincidence 

a good mix of the apocalypse and looney tunes: Thomas Pynchon (previously) has been warning us about American fascism his whole literary career 

r u experienced: a glorious re-upload of Devo’s 1984 cover of the Jimi Hendrix song  

in the land of the dollar bill: Trump threatens to arrest the mayor of Chicago for failing to protect immigration agents and invoke the Insurrection Act as he goes full authoritarian

synchronoptica

one year ago: boating on the Röblinsee (with synchronopticæ)

twelve years ago: fiat currency plus extending the sacrament to divorced Catholics

thirteen years ago: making crespelle 

flinders street station, elizabeth street exit (12. 779)

Located outside of the busiest train stop in Melbourne and having been in operation continuously since 1961 gaining the celebrated status of a local landmark, owner Alan Adler maintained the iconic photo booth for the entirety of its existence up through his retirement in 2023 with a team of technicians now carrying on his legacy to keep the machine in good working order. A green-grocery by trade and self-taught in the antique and rarefied mechanics, Alder branched out purchasing more photo booths (see also) in different areas of the city—his business undercut by the entrance of larger super market chains but the coin-op enterprise remained a profitable one. Over six decades of repair, testing and calibration of his fleet of booth, Adler collected countless images, holding the title of the most photographed individual even in the age of the selfie and of course millions of visual keepsakes for residents and visitors. More from Flashbak at the link above.

dilemma of the video age (12. 778)

Via MetaFilter, we are directed to this odd cinematic time-capsule from a 1991 Entertainment Week listing of a hundred superlative obscure titles. It’s a pretty solid catalog that stands the test of time, although many have become better known as a cult classics in the intervening decades, like The 5000 Fingers of Dr T, Zardoz, Withnail and I and Xanadu, there are yet critical acclaimed sleeper hits to be rediscovered. The language and tone of the summaries seems more dated than one would have expected and the titular scenario is described as the following: “You walk into the local rental store, see that all sixty copies of Ghost are rented out and scan the aisles with dread,” which is both a reflection of our currently curated embarrassment of choices and an indictment on the siloing of content across channels and streaming services and media with many movies otherwise unavailable and the concept of owning a film library a legacy out of reach for most—the coda of the article inviting cinestes to invest in membership in a mail-order club, predating Netflix. Which of these films do you remember?

synchronoptica

one year ago: Suddenly (with sybchronopticæ) plus more boating adventures

thirteen years ago: life lessons from mythology

fourteen years ago: cruciform variations plus corking fun

sixteen years ago: travels in the States 

 

aura farming (12. 777)

A meta-analysis of Google search terms reveals America’s most queried slang terms for 2025, the majority of which were an enigma to me, though was happily pleased to find the rather more traditional term mogging (from to decamp) overtaking the sense of looksmaxxing and we’ve encountered clanker previously as a derogatory word for robot. Huzz as a term of endearment rather than an insult is also an interesting development.  With some other AI slop inspired words on the list and AI overlays dominating search results we wonder how many neologisms might be left out by dint of a lack of association and fossilised by outmoded context with less non-synthetic material to scrape and might yet influence common-parlance in a retrograde way.

we now return to regularly scheduled programming already in progress (12. 776)

For the first time in television history in the United States on this day in 1975, the three major television networks declined a request to interrupt broadcasts and pre-empt their line-up for a speech delivered by the American president. Gerald Ford’s nationwide address was only carried by ABC and was a relatively anodyne presentation regarding fiscal discipline for an economy just emerging from a recession, laying the blame of inflation and job scarcity squarely on an “overzealous bureaucracy” and urged congress to make federal tax reductions permanent to encourage hiring with a commensurate cut to government spending, threatening to veto any legislation passed in in keeping with a balanced budget. This decision by TV executives was seen as the first challenge to the use of the bully pulpit of the president and the reach of high office to the public ear. The next day, congress and the senate overturned Ford’s veto by an overwhelming margin bi-partisan support to extend federal school lunch and nutrition programmes.

synchronoptica

one year ago: more adventures on the Mecklinburgischer Seeplate (with synchronopticæ)

thirteen years ago: the Venetian independence movement, more flea market finds plus twinned-towns

fourteen years ago: computer lab plus thirty-one days of Halloween

fifteen years ago: customary Nobel cool-off period 

8x8 (12. 775)

toastbusters: Florida woman relates the story of her demonically possessed appliance on nationally syndicated morning television in 1984 

less cowbell: short-form AI generated videos flooding social media incite confusion, nihilism  

hot stuff, hot postula: vintage American cheerleading calls and college yells  

dob, doa: statically, one is slightly more inclined to die on one’s date of birth—via Nag on the Lake—see previously 

ghost waltz: a Louie Zong spooky season tradition—see previously 

in this economy: venerable coffee roaster—also under assault from tariff-pricing—changes its name to something more achievable  

uav: mysterious drone sightings across Europe are signs of collective anxiety (see more) and echo the panic over Chinese spy balloons over North America  

workplace etiquette: the story of the woman who xeroxed her bottom, becoming front page news

time after time after time (12. 774)

Beginning with comic books in mid-1970s Yugoslavia before working as a graphic designer for journals and political weeklies, we enjoyed this introduction to Mirko Ilić through a retrospective of his work, which would go on to include album art for the Croatian punk scene, Métal Hurlant, Marvel then TIME, The New York Times and the Wall Street Journal as art director. Working with Milton Glaser (see previously), Ilić created the title sequence of You’ve Got Mail and presently in a teaching role has co-authored several books on the principles of design with Print magazine’s own Steven Heller. More of the artist’s work including several iconic covers at the link up top.

synchronoptica

one year ago: circumambulation (with synchronopticæ) plus a houseboat on the Havel

twelve years ago: the mysterious Codex Seraphinianus, US government shutdown plus universal basic income

thirteen years ago: the Bond franchise, dissecting partisan politics plus photographer Bastian Kalous

fourteen years ago: one-percenters plus travels in Ireland 

fifteen years ago: terror threats across Europe 

franklin mint (12. 773)

Although some polities issue currency bearing the obverse of their current reigning monarch, most including the United States of America and many others only impress images of departed historic contributors and presidents—the heretofore exception for the US being the commemorative coinage passed by congress in March of 1925 to feature portraits of the current incumbent Calvin Coolidge with George Washington for the sesquicentennial half-dollar to be sold to the public at a premium above their face value and much of the specie returned to the minters for reuse after disappointing reception (the one-hundred-fiftieth year celebration of the the nation’s founding also going down in the annals of the most poorly executed and received—see also). We are certain that in the not-too-distant future, people will puzzle over why so much ink was split over a has been, fascist country and their daily drivel. The draft engraving of the semiquincentennial dollar coin—introduced during the government shutdown—features images of Trump both on the obverse and reverse (perhaps inspired by Charles III on the new ten £ note after his recent visit) with the latter struck to match the defiant pose after his attempted assassination in Butler County Pennsylvania—already the iconography of his cryptocurrency.

synchronoptica

one year ago: anchor Dan Rather assaulted (with synchronopticæ), an ongoing treasure hunt plus another scavenger hunt 

twelve years ago: US government shut-down disrupts NASA projects plus capture houses and bait cars

thirteen years ago: more tarnished smiles 

fourteen years ago: the Occupy Wall Street movement 

fifteen years ago: reflections on twenty years of German unity 

 

 

riquewihr ii (12. 772)

For our last day in Alsace, we walked back through Riquewihr and wandered the ancient streets and the alleyways. Completely enclosed by a medieval wall in 1291, with three of the four cardinal towers still standing—the Thieves’ Tower, the Anabaptist Tower and the twenty-five metre half-timbered Dolder Tower, considered the landmark in a village with an overabundance of architectural gems and serving as a watchtower and bellfry.

The walls remained after the advent of gunpowder and were reinforced in the seventeenth century with ramparts. The Hôtel de Ville lies in the Place Voltaire and the fairy tale setting—amalgamated with Ribeauvillé were the inspiration for animators in the Disney adaption of Beauty and the Beast for Belle’s fictional home. While certainly a spot popular with tourists and for good reason, the place certainly was not Disneyland and we are all looking forward to returning soon.

synchronoptica

one year ago: a banger from Maurice Williams and the Zodiacs (with synchronopticæ), the Berlin Freedom and Unity monument plus thirty-one days of Halloween

thirteen years ago: ohaguro

fourteen years ago: flag-counters plus der Tag der Deutsche Einheit

éguisheim (12. 771)

H and I next drove a bit further on to make a return visit the the ancient commune whose estate lies on the borderlands where the Vosges intersects the plain of the Upper Rhein valley, the Gallo-Roman settlement referred to as Exsa or Exa, meaning a fortified withdrawal or retreat from a thoroughfare—the Wine Route—and seemingly preserved in the code-switching nickname for the three donjons, die drei Hexe (the three witches) for the ensemble of castles, watch-towers on the slope of the mountain, sparking to more etymological interest in the toponym and its continuum of cognates, ultimately with the accent and u added to give it more of a French sound.

The historic centre includes numerous well-preserved medieval buildings as well as the château with a chapel dedicated to Bruno von Egisheim-Dagsburg, cousin of St Odile future Leo IX whose pontificate oversaw the schism with the Orthodox Church, the mandate of celibacy for the clergy down to the rank of sub-deacon and promulgating the legitimacy of the Donation of Constantine. The surrounding vineyards produce exceptional varieties of wine.

synchronoptica

one year ago: The Taking of Pelham 123 (with synchronopticæ) plus a giant hybrid sheep

seventeen years ago: out-of-body experiences