botober (11. 886)

Back by popular demand, our trusty AI Wrangler, Janelle Shane (previously), produces a list of art prompts for the month of Drawtober, traditionally a daily sketching challenge (see below), generated by AI. This time however the list is an homage to the early days of very tiny language models and neural networks—not gluttonously siphoned from the public internet but rather hand-feed from carefully curated data, including past exercises like heirloom apples and Halloween costumes. Predictably no fun, here is the illustration that ChatGPT came up with for today’s cue, Collide Loopstorm. Maybe it would be more perplexed by some of the others like Deathmop, Hallowy Maples or Hobbats but these must be worked in chronological order, lest one awakens the curse. Much more at the links above.

digital divinity (11. 885)

Via Waxy, we enjoyed reading excerpts from this series of articles from the Rĕst ôf Ŵǭrld’s correspondents on how technology intersects with religion and is transforming the way people around the world worship and find communion in an illuminated manuscript that documents how communities are using platforms for outreach and influence as well as revitalise ancient faiths. The accounts are categories by faith and topic, presented in the the Book of Altered Reality, the Books of Apps, the Book of the Unexpected, the Book of AI and the Book of Influence. The virtual shires, electronic tithing and the TikTok monks and nuns seem especially interesting.

 synchronoptica

one year ago: botober (with synchronoptica), the life and times of Claire Rayner plus an introduction to the Holy Roman Empire

seven years ago: a master of disaster, tweets into poetry plus turning leaves

eight years ago: continuing resolution plus a celebration of physical knobs, dials and buttons

nine years ago: Count Lucker—Sea Devil,  assorted links to revisit plus electric cars dominate trade shows

ten years ago: a celebration of grandparents, venerable trees plus slabs of the Berlin Wall

8x8 (11. 884)

glamos: Switzerland and Italy agree to redraw their borders due to melting glaciers 

a purrfect storm: the childless cat lady trope goes back to the origins of female suffrage and political participation—see previously  

main character syndrome: a need for recognition and validation fuelled by technological change drives self-mythologising whether or not there’s an audience—see also  

daily affirmation: fifty years of Saturday Night Live title cards and graphic design  

viscawide-16: a Wiki dedicated to vintage and antique cameras—via Pasa Bon!  

ultraviolence: Trump proposes sanctioning a day of lawlessness, akin to the plot of The Purge or Kristallnacht to end criminal behaviour  

we are the trampions: the annual European street car driver competition—see previously  

industrial age: UK shutters last coal-fired power-plant, ending a one hundred forty two year era

sede vacante (11. 883)

Having recently happened upon this sort of rather singular seating chart with the shortest pontificate, it was serendipitous, via Strange Company, to discover that the conclave blueprint, a programme for interested parties to monitor the intrigues and progress of the electors (the papabili and ineligible amongst them) confined to the Sistine Chapel until a new pope was chosen, like the handwritten gossip tabloids called avvisi that reported on votes with a fair degree of speculation and imagination. Such reconnaissance was indispensable for influence-peddlers, like monarchs and bankers and lower clergy who tried to sway the outcome. As the process wore on, conditions for the cardinals was made less comfortable, outside observers had a detailed, God’s eye view of the proceedings, able to track the odds, see whom their delegate was bunked next to and who had the better accommodations, some spots being considered more auspicious than others.   More from JSTOR Daily at the link above.

 synchronoptica

one year ago:assorted links to revisit (with synchronoptica)

seven years ago: Mid-Century control rooms plus Hurricane Maria

eight years ago: professional hermits

nine years ago: the ongoing process of German reuinification 

ten years ago: East Germans sought asylum on the grounds of the Czechoslovakian Embassy plus Rome’s Secular Games

and that my friend is only the beginning of how this makes america great—you’ll be so overwhelmed with all the winning that you won’t know what you’ve lost until it’s too— (11. 882)

Via Memo of the Air, we are directed towards this rather brilliant reminder of the illiberal horrors contained in Project 2025—which Trump disavows though his agenda fits the blueprint point-for-point—as an homage to Schoolhouse Rock, which despite reaching the series fifth decade, the 1950s that it would transport back the United States to is far darker, distant and regressive. For the rest of the world, enduring America’s seemingly endless whinging about its democracy is taxing, and it will be over within weeks—either with the country crowing with pride as the untoppled beacon for freedom, when even at the best of times its record is not so perfect, or else an insular and fascist theocracy with the hollow procedural trappings of free elections—but either way, America will throw its weight around and have serious consequences globally, impacting everyone. The lyrics (though missing some major curtailments of rights and norms, like support for the arts, banning pornography, support for veterans, etc but I guess the song would never end otherwise) helping cite the pages where each proposal appears and has the coda of how to overcome this bleak future. Draping the Statue of Liberty in a Handmaid’s costume was a nice touch too.

eye of the storm (11. 881)

As Hurricane Helene moved inland levelling destruction across Florida, Georgia and North Carolina from the Gulf of Mexico, satellite radar revealed a splotchy mass in the normally calm and clear centre of the cyclone. Meteorologists soon realised that they were seeing the signature of thousands of migrating seabirds caught in the middle of the towering thunderstorms that make up the boundaries of the eyewall and were circling the moving tranquil region unable to escape. The flock at the focus of this unusual but not undocumented phenomenon will dissipate as the storm weakens.

synchronoptica

one year ago: an impending shut down of the US government (with synchronoptica) 

seven years ago: another photogenic tree chopped down, more on the gig-economy plus Garbage Patch passports

eight years ago: the Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards plus assorted links worth revisiting

nine years ago: more links to enjoy

ten years ago: philosopher Alan Watts on timing and being present plus Leipzig 1989

il sorriso di dio (11. 880)

Speaking of brief pontificates, Albino Luciani (who assumed the first regnal double name of John Paul in honour of his predecessors and adopted by his successor) was discovered dead on this day in 1978 on what would have been his thirty-third day in office. Given the above monicker, the smile of God, for his contagious gregariousness his death proved quite a shock and due to very real scandals happening in the Vatican Bank at the time, inconsistencies in the Church’s account—and the fact that it marked the end of the long dynasty of Italian popes—gave rise to unfounded conspiracy theories surrounding the papacy. John Paul was beatified by Pope Francis in September of 2022, after the confirmation of a miraculous recovery through his intercession after the medical and scientific explanations of the Devil’s Advocate were overruled by members of the Congregation for the Causes of the Saints.

antártica (11. 879)

Established in April of 1984 with the second person born on the continent in November of that year, we learn via Nag on the Lake of the larger of two permanent settlements just north of the Antarctic Circle on King George Island that is not a research outpost. With about one hundred fifty inhabitants during the summer and eighty hardy souls in the winter, the remote Villa Las Estrellas which arguably seems to exist in order to legitimise the Chilean claim against the overlapping British and Argentine ones—the latter having founded Base Esperanza in 1953, the community of fourteen homes has several amenities, though some like the school, souvenir shop, hostel and the post office which formerly was a significant draw for philately fans seeking to have a stamp cancelled with an Antarctic post mark seem to have closed in recent years at least temporarily, but the infirmary, fitness facility/cultural centre and library remain to support the community. More southerly and significantly smaller with a civilian population of only ten families, the Argentine settlement seems better outfitted.

gods and monsters (11. 878)

Having to unfortunately access our dear Blört by proxy (get me to a hotspot, anon, and wishing a belated, incredible twenty-fourth blogoversary), courtesy Web Curios we are directed towards another veteran website (established in 1999), the portal (please mention it by name when praying) not only offers a daily deity, information for various and obscure panthea, a running tally of the most popular divinities but also extensive mythological resources and research material. We enjoyed very much learning of the Greek mountain nymph Chelônê (Χελώνη) who is considered the personification of lateness, for failing to show up at the wedding of Zeus and Hera, an occasion for which the groom dispatched his messenger to summon all animals, men and gods to the event. Secretly disdaining their matrimony and mocked Zeus for his sister-wife, Chelônê chose to sit it out and fearful of attracting the ire of the couple, Chelônê said she never received an invitation. Clearly on the guest list but not bothering to RSVP much less to show up, Hermes took this accusation as personal affront and transformed this attested home-body into the creature that would forever bear her name, tortoise (via the Latin testudo)—an condemned to carry her house on her back since she liked it so, and would never have to leave home again. A variant on the curse—or blessing—comes from a later fable in which Momus, satirist of the gods, questioned the wisdom of giving man the gift of architecture for building shelters for their otherwise vulnerable bodies since they were fixed and had no wheels for escaping troublesome neighbours, and praised the snail’s petition to carry her home—when Zeus was doling out gifts at the dawn of creation—which proved to be no burden at all.

 synchronoptica

one year ago: the Sycamore Gap tree chopped down (with synchronoptica)

seven years ago: the anniversary of the premier of Star Trek: TNG, more custom cars from George Barris plus rice paddy landscape art

eight years ago: the Voice of America radio service

nine years ago: passports for the stateless,  a Blood Super Moon plus mushroom season

twelve years ago: illustrating the international date line

urbanus vii (11. 877)

Despite having the shortest reign of any pope, Urban VII, dying on this day in 1590 of complications from malaria, nonetheless after a long and illustrious career as archbishop of Rossano in Calabria, papal legate and apostolic nuncio made notable impact. Elevated during the conclave following the death of Sixtus V less than two weeks prior, Urban fought vigorously against nepotism, competing against a Medici and his predecessor’s grand-nephew—instituting a standing policy in the Curia, and continued his subsidies to bakers to feed the poor under costs. The papacy of Urban also saw the first public smoking ban—levying excommunication for anyone partaking of tobacco in any form inside a church or within proximity of its entrance. His successor, Gregory XIV—also a short-timer with just under a year in office—still had the chance, no small feat, to order the emancipation of native Filipinos consigned to enslavement by colonisation, also under pain of casting out of the religious community and thus a legitimate compliance factor as the ousted were not allowed to continue commerce with Catholic members in good standing.

it‘s all a rip off! i can't even get a lousy babysitting job—everybody wants references! (11. 876)

Courtesy of our faithful chronicler, we are reminded that on this day in 1976, NBC aired the made-for-television drama by Randal Kleiser (directing credits include Grease, Big Top Pee-wee) starring Eve Plumb, playing the principal fifteen-year-old who leaves home for Hollywood, following an embarrassing incident with her alcoholic mother during a school dance. Naïve and with no prospects, protagonist Dawn turns to prostitution under the tutelage of a cohort of fellow sex-workers and their pimp and protector, Swan. Though not part of the original series run (this was quite a disabusing Mandela Effect moment for me and always remembered the understudy the same way as Darren on Bewitched or Becky on Roseanne), Plumb’s commitment to shooting the special did not allow her to appear on the continuation of the franchise, The Brady Bunch Hour, and caused the producers to enlist another actor, Geri Reischl, to play “Fake Jan,” a label Reischl (later cast as the original Blair in The Facts of Life pilot but forced to relinquish the role due to obligations to breakfast cereal company General Mills) embraces as her personal brand.

safelight (11. 875)

As part of an interesting ensemble of back to back posts from Kottke bookended with the explanation why older photographs or indoor sporting events have a nice hazy blue filter that one does not see on contemporary images (the ambiance is caused by cigarette smoke) and a nice primer on point-and-shoot technology that ushered in the age of the amateur shutterbug (amateur comes from the Latin to love originally and not a non-professional), we learn that at the turn of the last century, that the hotel amenity most in demand was a darkroom for guests (so called “Kodak fiends”) for developing their holiday snapshots. Starting as far back as the 1850s, innkeepers would accommodate itinerate photographers by allowing them space to rig up their own studios and labs, covering up windows, to supplement portable but possibly less reliable set-ups. By 1902, there was even an effort among hoteliers to come to a consensus on an international symbol that a darkroom was on the premises, like for fitness facilities, a pool and later television and wifi. By the mid-twentieth century, most hotels no longer offered such services and traveling photojournalists were issued kits that touted around in a suitcase that expanded into a sheltered workspace for developing film. Much more from Daniel J Schneider at the link above.

 synchronoptica

one year ago: assorted links worth revisiting (with synchronoptica)

eight years ago: kinetic art, an Art Nouveau hotel in Brussels plus neighbourly civil engineering hacks

nine years ago: a visit to Bonn and environs, thanksgiving for a good harvest plus Queen Zenobia

eleven years ago: US government shutdown

twelve years ago: the Bavarian separatist movement 

9x9 (11. 874)

must contain the characters #@^*!: US regulatory body that sets standards for government agencies issues guidance that urges the end of vexing password compliance rules  

landscape of faith: church-to-residential development is in some places easing the housing crisis  

ertunet crater: planetoid Ceres may harbour potentially life-sustaining oceans like Europa  

hippopotami: the phenomenon of Moo Ding seems likely the natural conclusion of art history—see also  

regency era: unofficial Bridgerton Ball Experience leaves attendees feeling scammed—drawing parallels with another disappointing and pricey event 

outré west: eight radical architectural works from western America (see previously) 

huaca de la luna: brilliantly painted throne room of a seventh century Moche female leader discovered in northern Peru 

the creepy hallways of the built environment: American suburbs are a horror show  

universal media disc: the challenges of conserving good data in the age of AI and shuttered, zombified outlets—via Damn Interesting’s Curated Links

toichography (11. 873)

As much as an aficionado as I am of street art and knowing the disciplines of study and what things are called, I was surprised never to have encountered the above field from the Greek τοίχος for wall plus writing, and really enjoyed this recent episode from the always engrossing and enlightening podcast Ologies on the subject of all things pertaining to graffiti, public art and murals—both commissioned and non-commissioned—in this guided tour of the installations of the city of Philadelphia, considered the birthplace of the genre. It’s a funny, informative and thoroughgoing look at the nature of expression, the politics and policing thereof, and the place of sanction in common spaces and emphasises the importance of celebrating what’s in situ (see previously here and here) and local artists tied to their locale.  Take a field trip in your city to appreciate the murals and graffiti.

geoglyph (11. 872)

With the aid of AI, researchers have uncovered three hundred new Nazca Lines previously unknown—nearly doubling the number of these ancient, massive figures impressed in the ground of the Peruvian desert only discovered with the advent of air travel—bringing older, faded and weathered ones into sharper focus. The cultural purpose of these designs that are only appreciable from a bird’s eye perspective are an enduring mystery but this new cache of images (we hope they’re not machine hallucinations) will provide insights into the people who created them and include fantasy creatures, orcas, llamas and a depiction of human sacrifice.

synchronoptica

one year ago: AI on fake virality (with synchronoptica), the tarot art of Leonora Carrington, the thermodynamic history of the universe plus a solar observatory in Potsdam

seven years ago: self-marriage, assorted links to revisit plus US Homeland Security monitoring social media

eight years ago: Keats’ To Autumn, mirror spiders plus remediative meditative sessions for elementary school

ten years ago: lexical gaps and the European Day of Languages

eleven years ago: German fondness for abbreviation 

we’d live the life we choose—we’d fight and never lose (11. 871)

Adapted from the 1920s standard by Boris Ivanovich Fomin Дорогой длинною (By the Long Road) by playwright, professor and song-writer Gene Raskin, the rendition from Welsh performer Mar Hopkins topped the charts on this day in 1968. A number-one hit in the UK and Canada, Hopkin’s debut single was produced by Paul McCartney and in the Billboard Hot 100 was only second to the Beatles’ own Hey Jude. Husband and wife duo, Gene and Francesca played folk music at several venues in New York and toured internationally, including in their rotation, often the encore, Raskin’s version, which McCartney heard on one occasion at London’s Blue Angel club. After pitching the song to other groups including the Moody Blues, McCartney finally found a muse in Hopkins. The nostalgic number with the traditional instrumentation of balalaika, cimbalom and a choir of children (keeping with the original arrangement) also was recorded with German, Spanish and Italian version. At the height of the “Those Were the Days” popularity, an unauthorised jingle was put out, a New York advertising firm releasing, “The perfect dish, Rokeach Gefilte Fish,” which Raskin successfully sued to take off the air.

cuteness aggression (11. 870)

We enjoyed this gloss on the rapid descent of Moo Deng (the glossy Thai baby pygmy hippopotamus whose name translates into “Bouncy Pork”—just saying) from adorable celebrity to an object of transgression and focus of violent urges through obliviously trolling and attention seeking but also the psychological coping mechanism of intrusive thoughts to counter a cuteness overload, those fleeting flashes of thoughts of wanting to mash, drop or barbecue something sweet and innocent that we are normally a bit embarrassed and bothered by and would never, never admit to for fear of being called a monster—but of course some are willing to get voice to those involuntary and (usually) never acted on ideas.

sword of damocles (11. 869)

On this day in 1961, US president John Fitzgerald Kennedy delivered his address to the UN General Assembly, amidst the recent and unexpected death of Secretary General Dag Hammarskjöld and anxiety over posturing and sabre-rattling over the paused negotiations towards disarmament. In his forty-five minute exhortation, Kennedy praises the intra-national organisation and challenges the bipolar world to turn an arms race into a race for peace:

But to give this organisation [the Troika, the principals, the US, the Soviet Union and the United Kingdom, on nuclear test bans] three drivers—to permit each Great Power to decide its own case, would entrench the Cold War in the headquarters of peace. Whatever advantages such a plan may hold out to my own country, as one of the great powers, we reject it. For we far prefer world law, in the age of self-determination, to world war, in the age of mass extermination.

Today, every inhabitant of this planet must contemplate the day when this planet may no longer be habitable. Every man, woman, and child lives under a nuclear sword of Damocles, hanging by the slenderest of threads, capable of being cut at any moment by accident, or miscalculation, or by madness. The weapons of war must be abolished before they abolish us.

Men no longer debate whether armaments are a symptom or a cause of tension. The mere existence of modern weapons—ten million times more powerful than any that the world has ever seen, and only minutes away from any target on earth—is a source of horror, and discord, and distrust. Men no longer maintain that disarmament must await the settlement of all disputes—for disarmament must be a part of any permanent settlement. And man may no longer pretend that the quest for disarmament is a sign of weakness—for in a spiralling arms race, a nation’s security may be shrinking, even as its arms increase.

For fifteen years, this organisation has sought the reduction and destruction of arms. Now that goal is no longer a dream—it is a practical matter of life or death. The risks inherent in disarmament pale in comparison to the risks inherent in an unlimited arms race.

Listen to or watch the entire stirring speech at the link above. We think the rhetoric could also speak to contemporary events and the climate catastrophe, also hanging by a thread over us all and severed by wilful ignorance, neglect and misinformation.

 synchronoptica

one year ago: a blogoversary of note (with synchronoptica) plus some ruinous remixes

seven years ago: right wing elements gain influence in the Bundestag plus film cuts mimic visual perception

eight years ago: Idiocracy was not supposed to be prophetic plus phantom islands

nine years ago: data-plans and Roman calendars plus innovations in 3D printing

ten years ago: an early version of the Line (with greenhouses), Roman emperor Caracalla plus a graffiti gallery

the tanaka memorial (11. 868)

First introduced to English readership on this day in 1931 in the Shanghai journal China Critic, the alleged Imperial Japanese strategic plan supposedly authored by Baron Tanaka Giichi in 1927 for Emperor Hirohito was summarised with the postulates that: 

• In order to take over the world, one must take over Asia 
• In order to take over Asia, one must take over China 
• In order to take over China, one must take over Manchuria and Mongolia 
• Success in conquering China will cause the rest of Eastern Asia and Oceania to surrender 

Despite occasional citation in some Chinese school textbooks to this day, most scholarship now regards the memorial (Tanaka Jōsōbun, 田中上奏文) as inauthentic but a potent anti-Japanese piece of propaganda forged by either the Communist Party or Kuomintang nationalists to forward their own ends but the prevailing consensus during the 1930s and 1940s was that the document was genuine and reflected ambitions of the Imperial government, equated to Hitler’s Mein Kampf by the West, conflated with real war time slogans like Hakkō ichiu (八紘一宇, “eight crown cords, one roof”—or roughly, “All the world under one roof,” understood as a manifest destiny to unify the eight corners of the planet rather than the sanctioned translation of universal brotherhood) and the plot (the sequential steps often projected out to the conquest of Siberia and the Soviet Union—the Soviets also suspected to have fabricated and leaked the plan to instigate conflicts in that theatre to advance their own interests, establishment of bases in the Pacific and the take over of the United States) of several American propaganda films, like Frank Capra’s War Department commissioned Know Your Enemy: Japan and the 1945 James Cagney dramatisation Blood on the Sun exploited the purported document (no original was ever sourced) as a MacGuffin. Scientology founder L Ron Hubbard, elaborating the conspiracy as the “Tenyaka Memorial” an international effort for global domination devolved to a network of pharmaceutical companies, psychiatrists and banks, believed himself to be personally targeted and cited that persecution as one of the principle drivers of the church and its operations.

synchronoptica

one year ago: the remixes of DJ Earworm (with synchronoptica), early home entertainment, assorted links worth revisiting plus The Love Boat

seven years ago: voting in Germany

eight years ago: commemorative Agatha Christie stamps, early Neuralink trials plus pigeon-texting

nine years ago: more links to enjoy plus emissions scandals

ten years ago: cash is king plus delivery by drone

7x7 (11. 867)

urban glitch: a series of nostalgic, hyper-detailed paintings from Jeff Bartels 

ganz kleine nachtmusik: a previously unknown work by Mozart discovered in a Leipzig library archive  

promptographs: Mister François presents three hundred imaginative “secret car” models with the help of AI—Lamborghini school buses and Ferrari caravans  

warchitecture: the language of urbicide was developed to address the wanton destruction of Sarajevo’s build environment and continues in contemporary conflicts—see also  

do not show this travel pack to gdr or soviet officials: a 1989 British guide for West Berlin  

papyrological discovery: for his birthday in 480 BC, new lines of Euripides’ lost plays Ino and Polyidus uncovered—via Clive Thompson’s Linkfest (much more to explore there)  

8-bit garden: dissolving digital artwork from Karol Polak of Gdańsk

as safe as fort knox (11. 866)

With the exception of a brief tour granted to FDR in 1943 and a similar junket in August of 2017 to dispel the same rumours that the vaults had been emptied out, no members of the public had been admitted to the national gold bullion depository until when on this day in 1974 a contingent of journalists and a dozen congressional representatives were guided inspection by members of the American Mint (director Mary Brooks pictured) and the Treasury Department.

Requests to visit Ft Knox are summarily turned down but pressure by the House to conduct an independent audit of US gold reserves in response to the publication of a book, Conspiracy Against the Dollar: The Spirit of the New Imperialism by Peter David Beter, that attacked international monetary reform and cited the usual culprits, global elites, Bolsheviks, the Rockefeller-cartel, Soviet space lasers, important public figures were dead and had been replaced with “robotoids”—and most resoundingly with the public, that most of America’s gold had been trucked away and sold at depressed costs to European speculators—all claims without evidence or merit. Beter’s AM radio show gave him a platform to continue his allegations, making the military installation’s standing policy suspicious and proof that they had something to hide. The delegation was delighted with the tour and mostly cleared up the false speculation—largely imputed to America’s leaving the gold standard three years prior when the reality was that movement of gold had effectively halted (US silver bullion is stored at the military academy of West Point) and most gold is still in New York City—that is, until the rumours started circulating again and Kentucky senator Mitch McConnell visited with treasury secretary Steven Mnuchin, proclaiming the nation’s stockpile to be secure. 

synchronoptica

one year ago: David Bowie’s Heroes (with synchronoptica), robinsonades plus urban wildlife photography

seven years ago: shibboleths 

eight years ago: smart carts for airport security, windpipes plus point-of-sales machines

nine years ago: algae-based membranes as liquid containers 

eleven years ago: a census of house plants

suburban fury (11. 865)

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

starlight suppression (11. 864)

As part of a fascinating series called “Who is Government?” (see also), Washington Post columnist Dave Eggers confidently asserts that with the next quarter of a century, humanity will have conclusive evidence of extra-terrestrial life, thanks to the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope—giving a thoroughgoing profile of the astronomy pioneer who is the soon to be launched observatory’s name sake—which features a system of tiny pistons designed to occult the light of a host star, a coronagraph that can dynamically deform the reflecting mirror, that will enable with this shadow-casting technique far better imaging of any exoplanets orbiting it—an alternate yet untenable proposal (among other competitors) would be to use our Sun as a telescope through gravitational lensing (see also here and here) but the focal point is three times the distance that Voyager I has travelled. Aside from the answer to the existential question of are we alone, the essay goes on the explore the importance of tax-payer funded science (with dedicated government workers generally maligned) and return on investment in knowledge—projects that billionaires would never finance as there’s no money to be made in such endeavours. Much more at the links above.

mauritius (11. 863)

Fêted on this day on the occasion of his martyrdom in 287 by execution for refusing to kill local Christians under order of Emperor Maximian, this disobedience punished with decimation—killing one out of every ten rebellious soldiers, at the Roman outpost of Agaunum (present day Saint-Maurice in the canton of Valais, and not to be confused with St Moritz in the Engadine, also named for the same leader of the Theban Legion), Maurice (Ⲁⲃⲃⲁ Ⲙⲱⲣⲓⲥ) is a popular and widely venerated saint whose patronage includes multiple kingdoms, municipalities and professions. Depictions and iconography of Maurice have been contentions throughout the centuries, with some suggesting that Holy Roman Emperor (who the saint champions with some crowned before his altar in St Peter’s) Frederich II in the eleventh century initiated the darker-complected trope as a symbol for the Crusades, and that the Christian mission was a universal and non-discriminatory one. Others argue Maurice was never turned Black, though the otherness (see also) went through periods of acceptance and intolerance, including the Nazis’ forbidding the city of Coburg’s coat of arms (since 1493) for glorifying another race and temporary replaced the Wappen with a sword (as guardian of sword-makers) with a swastika on its pommel. Patronage also include armorers, Alpine troops, infantry soldiers, cloth-makers, weavers, dyers and the Pontifical Swiss Guard, Austria, Piedmont, Sardinia, the Houses of Savoy, Lombard and the Merovingians and is invoked against muscle cramps and gout.

eleventy-first (11. 862)

Canonically on one of the few dated events in the trilogy, The Lord of The Rings opens with the birthday celebrations on this day held in in honour of Bilbo and cousin Frodo Baggins, the latter who upon attaining his thirty-third year legally comes of age, six decades after the beginning of The Hobbit. Funny, therapeutic, relatable and a bit cathartic, we recommend attending this recent hearing of this case, family law, from one superfan Tom Bombadil, plaintiff, seeking judgment to turn a harvest festival into a Bilbo Baggins Birthday Bash (listen or watch the proceedings below) and wants the participation of his partner, who finds the idea a bit too cringe for her tastes.

*    *    *    *    *

synchronoptica

one year ago: assorted links to enjoy (with synchronoptica) plus a galactic grouping

seven years ago: more links to revisit

eight years ago: Jovian moons

nine years ago: even more links worth revisiting plus more on colonial trade

ten years ago: a new front in the Cola Wars plus Altweibersommer

second congressional district (11. 861)

Though GOP efforts to change balloting procedures in crucial swing states like Georgia and North Carolina are likely to fail and have no impact on the outcome with laws in place preventing last-minute alterations given that early voting has already started, a pressure campaign in Nebraska could prove pivotal, this state and Maine being the only jurisdictions that don’t allocate electoral college votes by the spoils system where the winner takes them all but by congressional districts. Not splitting the ticket between rural and urban areas, could according to some strategists’ calculations of several scenarios, increase the chances of resulting in an electoral college tie, which sends the vote to the House of Representatives, which by some estimates advantages Trump over Harris. Democrats, for their part with the party in power setting the conditions, would also be be emboldened to change the rules in order to prevent such bald gamesmanship, further eroding confidence in the process.

may a moody baby doom a yam (11. 860)

Beginning with the palindromatic title, this 2003 homage to Subterranean Homesick Blues by Al Yankovic (previously) is brilliantly hilarious with all the lyrics reading the same forwards and backwards, soundly cryptic enough to be Dylanesque, especially with the delivery of the pseudo-poetic rhymes with harmonica accompaniment. Judging at an inaugural palindrome competition, along with John Flansburgh of They Might Be Giants (I Palindrome I), Yankovic mentioned his favourite line as “Oozy rat in a sanitary zoo” as one of his proudest moments and that. The winner was “Todd erases a red dot.” A dog, a panic in a pagoda.

*    *     *     *     *

synchronoptica

one year ago: nostalgia for the dark (with synchronoptica) 

seven years ago: lanterns of the dead plus diabolical engineering

eight years ago: the Berlin Airlift headquarters, functional Transformers plus the 1937 Paris World Expo 

nine years ago: a visit to Salò, the Italian capital during the puppet government under Nazi control, plus crossing the Alps

ten years ago: Rome’s nemeses, a visit to the memorial park at the former inter-German border plus education in the Empire

hell is other people (11. 859)

With apologies to Sartre, we learn from Web Curios’ lede link that a new social media platform has been launched that’s either a withering piece of metacommentary on personal branding and curation or actual hell. As the main (and only) character, one can create a private place for announcing status updates, “reflect, post, feel heard,” like one’s daily diary except with an infinite host of generative followers, tailored either as fans, foes, trolls, cheerleaders, haters, etc. While having a personal sounding board may be helpful sometimes for those feeling lonely or isolated, it’s too easy to conflate regurgitation with connection and seems to be the realisation of the Dead Internet Theory. This does not seem like a market place of ideas, nor constructive feedback and only contributes to the echo-chamber and tribalism. More at the links above, including this user’s perspective of the experience.

6x6 (11. 858)

second-hand baloney boys: director Bong-Joon-ho’s Mickey17 explores indentured immortality with his expendable space colonists—like the duplicates paradox of teleportation 

r/no burp: a Redditor community brings recognition to an undiagnosed but pervasive syndrome 

ultimate world cruise: the social media coverage of a trip to seven continents plays out like reality television  

the ladies annual journal; or, complete pocket book for the year: the 1776 diary of Susannah Dalbiac kept in the back of an almanac 

twenty-eight years later: latest instalment of Danny Boyle’s zombie franchise was filmed entirely on iPhones 

sanewashing: how journalists can resist normalising outrageous and radical ideas—via the New Shelton wet/dry

building fires (11. 857)

Via Quantum of Sollazzo, we are directed to a highly visual piece of reporting from Reuters highlighting the dangers and deficiencies in construction codes (see previously) in many jurisdictions that don’t mandate the removal of polymer (essentially solidified gasoline) cladding from residential and office buildings. Driven by the energy crisis of the 1970s, architects were pressured into reducing heating costs with ventilated façades that provided extra insulation to improve energy efficiency. That intermediate panelling which creates an air gap for the structure are now recognised as combustible and for their failings in terms of safety and yet remain with evacuation strategies tragically outdated. Much more at the links above.

 synchronoptica

one year ago: assorted links to revisit (with synchronoptica) plus the stock market panic of 1873

seven years ago: more links to enjoy,  Trump at the UN General Assembly plus the lives of Lucy Schwob and Suzanne Malherbe

eight years ago: a telescopic mountain-finder in the Swiss Alps, even more links worth revisiting plus AI jingles

nine years ago: a visit to Lake Garda plus regional vintages

ten years ago: Roman timekeeping

megaslump (11. 856)

The expanding Batagaika crater is a thermokarst depression in the northeastern Siberia taiga, presently about one kilometre long and growing at an alarming rate, beginning as a small gulley in the 1960s when the permafrost thawed (see previously) after the surrounding forests were cleared and since 1990, swallowing more and more land and becoming known as the Gateway to Hell. On a vicious trajectory, feedback loop, more thawing occurs as the gash gets bigger and the ground is bereft of tree cover and releases more ancient organic stores of carbon that further contribute to the planet’s warming, making more unstable sinkholes.