berufsbeamtengesetz (12. 372)

The full formal title in English having a familiar ring, The Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service was enacted on this day in 1933 two months after Hitler’s rise to power is among the earliest examples of racist and anti-Semitic legislation in the regime, the main thrust of decree was to establish and promote a “national” and expert administrative state by dismissing certain groups of tenured employees, compelling those with Jewish or “non-Aryan” origins to retire or resign and terminating members with ties, real or suspected, to the Communist Party and affiliate organisations. Forbidding these individuals from holding teaching positions or judgeships at first before being expanded to a range of jobs including lawyers, tax consultants, doctors and notaries public, the law and harsh conditions spurred many to flee the country before being expelled, due to heritage or political beliefs. While briefly offering functionaries who had been employed since 1918 and had not yet attained the training and skills to faithfully execute their office should be let go, the text in the main concerned itself with presenting a false narrative of races and how to gauge non-Aranan descent and putting the onus of proof on individuals wanting to keep their positions—Arienachweis, Ahnenpass. Civil servants could be made redundant without cause and forced into retirement to advance the “simplification of administration” with vacancies eliminated. Pensions for this dismissed class of employees were also eventually phased out.

synchronoptica

one year ago: Italian cafe culture accoutrements (with synchronoptica), pixelated dioramas,  assorted links worth the revisit plus a banger from Rick James

seven years ago: the Smooth-Hawley Tariff Act of 1930

eight years ago: unmasking Trump critics plus more links to enjoy

nine years ago: a sonnet generating algorithm, more on the Panama Papers and other tax havens plus a German comedian fined for insulting Turkish leadership

ten years ago: criminal mastermind Adam Worth, a double dose of assorted links, grocery shopping without packaging plus Cyprus joins the eurozone

ley de aguas (12. 371)

Arising from necessity over a thousand years ago and held every Thursday up to the present day, the Tribunal of the Waters of Valencia among farmers and public works (nine by tradition called the Comunitat de Regnant) seeking access to the irrigation system of the extensive network of canals diverting water from the Túria sourced from the Iberian Montes Universales watershed to the plain for agricultural and domestic use, it is the oldest customary court in the world also counting as the most venerable democratic institution in Europe. Proceedings are held orally, called by the bailiff to hear out disputes and the council to pass judgment, and no written records are kept, and begun during the age of the Caliphate to manage water resources, the tribunal originally held in the city’s central mosque, the venue replaced by a cathedral during the Reconquista are held out-of-doors and open to the public to ensure all plaintiffs have access to a fair hearing with decisions being final and not up for appeal outside the unique justice system.

etsomnia (12. 370)

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

desiccant (12. 369)

Via Web Curios, we appreciated learning about the pervasive packets of silica gel we’ve mostly encountered inside bags of doggy treats (not a prize per se and while not necessarily harmful to handle made of the same silicon dioxide that makes up glass for drinkware, wind shields and screens for electronic devices, a less device and porous form of glass but definitely not to be eaten) and sometimes lining the pockets of new clothes and soles of shoes—which although we’ve been rather compliantly socking in linen drawers for sometime now (the pictured sachet of an oxygen scavenger is materially something totally different but also extends the sell-by-date and keeps content fresh) based on something once read about how they can combat dampness and mildew, we realised we knew nothing about the history and growth of the industry that mirrors global trade and just-in-time delivery. The process for the manufacture of the nodules was mature by the 1930s, the beads exhibiting the rather remarkable property of absorbing forty percent of its weight in water vapour but there was not really a market for the pouches of wicking agent until the age of globalisation when everything from garments to crisps to gadgets where subject to a range of environmental factors air and sea and overland before getting to retailers and consumers. Rather than making packaging or shipping containers more robust to withstand these changing conditions, silica gel distributors began offering a less expensive alternative—complete with a protocol of how many packets might be needed depending on a product’s composition and journey—to stave off despoiling moisture. While the material can be recharged, regenerated (see also), stuck in a drawer, they have limited effect. More from Scope of Work at the link above.

synchronoptica

one year ago: 1974’s Eurovision finale (with synchronoptica) plus Annie Lennox’ debut solo album

seven years ago:  assorted links to revisit, a coup in South Korea, the rediscovery of Pompeii plus Florida restricts public beach access

eight years ago: textile artist Dorothy Grebenak, protesting Putin, Sweden’s failure museum, designing Trump’s border wall, animated antiques plus the MAR-A-LAGO act

nine years ago: mapping Mt Fuji plus an exercise in character building

ten years ago: Motor City Mannheim

greed (12. 368)

The unapologetically bold and unyielding typeface by Neil Summerour for foundry Positype—perfect for this twentytwentyfive moment—is based on the typography of US banknotes, originally planned as a series of fonts illustrating the Seven Deadly Sins. Released on inauguration day, that singular vice seemed an all encompassing symbol for capturing the enshitifying gilded age we’ve been thrust into. Among the challenges the designer faced (aside from possible arrest from this administration for defacing legal tender) was crafting a lower case equivalent since dollar bills are all-caps, ANNUIT COEPTIS—God favours our undertaking!—no need to shout, NOVUS ORDO SECLORUM, and crafting a complete set of numerals outside of 0, 1, 2 and 5. The typeface has the complete set of Latin glyphs and diacritics for every language, including Vietnamese and others often left out of bespoke fonts not as a testament of universality but rather to be inclusive. More from Print Magazine at the link up top.

first contact (12. 367)

Observed on this day to celebrate both the flight of the Phoenix (repurposed from a nuclear warhead at a US Air Force missile complex outside of Bozeman, Montana) that broke the light-speed barrier and attracted the attention of a passing Vulcan survey ship, the T’Plana-Hath, with its warp-signature—and immediately following the test-launch humanity’s first encounter with an alien race. The 2063 event was introduced as a holiday in 2021 during the COVID pandemic a virtual pick-me-up during lockdown and social-distancing but was established in franchise canon outside of the feature film with the crew of the Next Generation thwarting sabotage by the Borg and preserving the timeline—Geordi and Riker need to go further back in the past to fix our timeline—and Voyager marking the occasion from the Delta Quadrant with Naomi Wildman and Neelix hosting a gathering (see also) for the three hundred fifteenth anniversary with a party and rock-and-roll music (pilot Zefram Cochrane’s favourites) from Tom Paris’ antique jukebox. Science officer Tuvok delivered the salutation, reluctantly not seeing the point, of “Live long and prosper,” to the applause of the guests. A decade after First Contact, during the dedication of Earth’s first Warp 5 complex, Cochrane—who was initially motivated to create the warp drive for ‘women and money’—addressed the crowd: “Don’t try tp be a great man, just be a man, and let history make its own judgments,” it never being clear it the later retcon whether the test-flight was successful due to the intervention of the Enterprise and the Borg attempt to prevent it, and “This engine will let us go boldly where no man has gone before.” Ooby dooby.

synchronoptica

one year ago: Carrie at fifty-plus (with synchronoptica)

seven years ago: another hit from Melanie, Lustron steel homes plus the Pillars of Creation

eight years ago: optical character recognition, amending the US constitution plus the news is fake but the leaks are real

nine years ago: the Panama Papers, Star Trek inspired cosmetics, manhole apartments, a gallery of Mid-Century Modern homes plus David Bowie as Abraham Lincoln

ten years ago: Easter greetings

will a fosse neck do it? (12. 366)

Via fellow internet peripatetic, Messy Nessy Chic, we really enjoyed this celebration of the choreography of Bob Fosse (previously) taken from the 1969 cinematic adaptation of his Sweet Charity—based off of Fellini’s Le notti di Cabiria featuring the narrative of a sex-worker in Rome and lightly sanitised as the story of a call-girl, dancer-for-hire in Times Square’s Fandango Ballroom, its sleaziness illustrated by “Hey, Big Spender,” portrayed by Shirley MacLaine. Invited home by a celebrity guest on the mends from an apparent breakup, the protagonist finds herself in his apartment for dinner, “If They Could See Me Now,” whilst pursuing an ill-fated romance with a claustrophobic elevator-operator.

8x8 (12. 365)

museum of now: This American Life invites us to sit with and reflect on the artefacts of day and hour 

rift valley: a Trump appointed special envoy to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Tiffany’s father-in-law, seeking to make a deal on mineral resources in hopes of securing peace with Rwandan rebels 

fay wray: a swarm of drones recreate the iconic scene of King Kong scaling the Empire State building  

toast malone: a short clip of the singer performing Circles, animated on one hundred thirty-three slices of bread  

altair 8800: a retrospective of Microsoft at fifty 

the bronx is up and the battery’s down: new NYC subway map is an homage to an early digrammatic version  

blanket non-fraternisation policy: US bans government personnel stationed in China from forming relationships with locals 

national endowment for the humanities: US museums, libraries and archives see their grants terminated—see previously

agency for defence against hallucinatory disruptions (12. 364)

Via Web Curios, we are directed towards this AI generated music video from artist called Igorr from the Meat-Dept collective that displays a directorial continuity through storyboarding that we didn’t think was possible with current models—the inability for character permanence or the ability to tweak the outcomes, edited or otherwise. There’s no real narrative quality to the short piece but the underscoring of the percussion track and the unexpected series of strangeness holds one’s attention despite its unsettling visuals and übercanniness. Neurodivergence is virtuosity, particularly in this setting.

*     *     *     *     *

synchronoptica

one year ago: assorted links worth revisiting (with synchronoptica) plus The Good Life/Good Neighbours (1975) 

seven years ago: Capella Sansevero, askance satellite views, more on seamstress Agnes Richter plus antique Friendship Books

eight years ago: an open air gallery in Amsterdam, tensions over North Korea, Gibraltar and Brexit plus a march against alternate facts

nine years ago: an MST3K reboot plus mesh churches

ten years ago: more links to enjoy plus Norway mothballs a secret arctic seaport

cacoëpy (12. 363)

Via the always wonderful source for a vocabulary boost, Futility Closet, we learn a new useful term with derivatives of something I think I can quite relate to in the above for something poorly pronounced. From the Greek κακός plus ἔπος (bad word), I tend to think I am inclined to laziness on getting enunciation and delivery right, which is no excuse especially when it comes to what someone calls themselves, though even the dictionary example of autodidacts sometimes end up being cacoëpists recalls the important adage not to hypercorrect.

the wisdom of the crowds (12. 362)

A bit of social media sleuthing and reverse engineering suggests that the Trump administration contrived its nonsensical tariff formula by asking AI and set those custom rates per the confident suggestion of a chatbot, which are not reciprocal to import duties at all but rather their trade surplus divided by total exports. Economist and frequent financial contributor to The New Yorker and other publications James Surowiecki obtained similar solutions when prompting various AI models with the question “how to fix trade imbalance.” We suspected that infusing artificial intelligence into everything and the attendant slop produced eventually would drive us collectively over a cliff but wasn’t suspecting such a mark, like a kid rushing to get an overdue homework assignment completed, would be its agent, native and wilful ignorance, shortcuts and retribution conspiring to further fray the global supply chain whose brittleness was on display not too long ago during the pandemic and unleash havoc on world markets and international relations.

eighty-nine seconds til midnight (12. 361)

Via the New Shelton wet/dry, we are directed to this scrolly-telling essay (in the style of the artists from the sadly former Nib, from the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists (previously) blog entitled “Mars Attacks” about how Elon Musk’s and his colonial aspirations for the Red Planet, as a part of a general aversion towards rules, could transform into a flagrant violation of the Outer Space Treaty, which far from a relic of the Cold War has served to preserve humankind here on Earth by preventing weaponisation of the higher ground and includes liability rules for damage caused by spacecraft, the safe return of fallen astronauts, an international rocket registry and the prohibition of projecting national sovereignty or claiming domain. Surely it is the intent of Muskovite Martians to proclaim their independence from terrestrial entanglements, however that first Virginia Dare might be reliant on Earth-based resources and wealth, and even if the flag nation does nothing to stop this assertion, other signatories will, launching a new geopolitical conflict over extraterrestrial claims.

10x10 (12. 360)

kapmifmif: a study morphological emic distribution classes through a constructed language—see previously   

murder on flight 502: the star-studded 1975 television disaster movie gets the Poseidon’s Underworld treatment 

blanket rate: bad assumptions and arithmetic informs Trump tariff regime, which is tanking markets globally

mira calligraphiae monumenta: paging through a sixteenth century illuminated model book on scribal excellence rebelling against the standardisation of the printing press—with embellishes reminiscent of the Voynich manuscript and Codex Seraphinianus 

clickens: judge chicken portraits on various personality traits and harness the wisdom of the masses—via Kottke   

salmon run: a beautifully crafted early home arcade game speaks to swimming upstream 

sala di consultazione: free access to the Vatican Library’s digital archives 

elbows up: Canada plans retaliation over US punitive duty deal plus GOP senators side with Democrats to rebuke the proposal to levy additional tariffs on its northern neighbour 

real id: US government is beginning to require an internal passport, which is not automatically issued   

mezameta: the role of katakana in loan words, gairaigo, scientific binomials and transcription and the problem with conveying the shifting meaning of woke

synchronoptica 

one year ago: assorted links to revisit (with synchronoptica), standard lunar time plus vulgar expressions of indifference

seven years ago: Iran’s faux Western fast foods, bi-lingual Braille plus a North American medicinal plant map

eight years ago: more links to enjoy

nine years ago: vintage Canadian tourist posters plus a Rosary ring

ten years ago: the Anthropocene plus the architecture of folklore

liberation day (12. 359)

With years of lead time and staking his presidency and the system of global trade on his counterintuitive instincts, Trump announced sweeping tariffs on trade partners across the world with a flat duty for most foreign goods and custom levels for countries labelled the worst offenders. Countries subject to a ten percent base rate for all or most items include the UK, Brazil, Singapore, El Salvador and Saudi Arabia. There are no additional reciprocations for Canada and Mexico but no relief either—Cuba, Belarus, North Korea and Russia, already subject to heavy sanctions also were exempted. For removing all duties on US exports, Israel was also excepted. A quarter tariff is imposed for all imported automobiles worldwide. Declaring a national economic emergency in response to trade deficits, the European Union, China, Vietnam, Taiwan, Japan, Cambodia and South Africa face some of the highest rates—with not only tariffs counted as barriers to trade but also regulations like quality and safety standards. Australian imposts were received as “not the act of a friend,” but met with bemusement as the tax-regime was broken down regional, including targeting the overseas territories of Heard and McDonald islands, uninhabited barren volcanic islands off on Antarctica. Poised to fall short of its aim of stimulating domestic manufacturing, these developments have rattled both markets and consumers with the global community reluctant to start a trade war and a race to the bottom that leads to price rises and slow growth.

cn tower (12. 358)

Topping off on this day in 1975 with last segment of the antenna installed by helicopter skycrane, the Toronto communications and observation spire held the title of the tallest free-standing structure in the world until overtaken by the Burj Khalifa of Dubai in 2007. At just over five hundred fifty metres high, it remains the tallest in the Western Hemisphere, (see also, a member of the World Federation of Great Towers) opening to the public in June of the following year. The CN stands for Canadian National and was conceived by the state railway’s desire to build a large radio and television broadcasting platform to serve the area. Plans were expanded to include the observation gallery—originally the Space Deck but later renamed the SkyPod with a revolving restaurant.

synchronoptica

one year ago: the Fabiola Project (with synchronoptica) 

seven years ago: the premier of 2001, assorted links worth revisiting plus the money plant

eight years ago: sculpting with cheese plus a doomsday archive

nine years ago: an appreciation of artisanal signage, a disturbing hack plus hybrid husbandry

ten years ago: epic and pioneering roadtrips,  David Rumsey’s map collection plus more links to enjoy

9x9 (12.357)

gondor assault small group: a poem for the first of April  

unitedhealthcare: US attorney Pam Boni general will seek the death penalty in the slaying of company CEO  

yield my time: Senator Cory Booker’s speech on the chamber floor at eighteen hours and counting 

dataviz: an infographic challenge round to recreate the WEB Du Bois economic and demographic charts as presented during the 1900 Paris Exposition using modern tools—via Quantum of Sollazo  

nearby jobs: Chinese omni-app points flexible users to local gig opportunities and side-quests—shake it ’til you make it 

unabhängigkeitserklärung: from Der Zeit, Europe frees itself from American hegemony but starving their attention—via Kottke  

wyld stallyns: texting conversation demonstrates that we’re in the wrong timeline  

mora, negare, deponere: archaeologists uncover fresco foretelling the coming of Saint Luigi 

 i scorn the morn: ‘conjugated nouns’ by linguist Arnold M Zwicky

i rise with the intention of disrupting the normal business of the united states senate for as long as i am physically able—i rise tonight because i believe sincerely that our nation is in crisis (12. 356)

As New Jersey Democratic Senator Corey Booker continues a marathon speech in the Senate, addressing the chamber for as long as he physically endure, beginning on Monday night and passing well into Tuesday to highlight the disruptions and dangers that the first seventy-one days of the Trump administration has wrought, he emphasised that these are not normal times in America and should not be treated as such, concluding this good filibustering on election day for three special elections, which normally would not garner much attention but are now seen as referenda on Trump’s performance and Musk’s clout in politics and the administration. Though the two districts in question in Florida are regarded as solidly Republican and are not up for competition normally, polling shows that Democrats could eke out a win, further narrowing Republican control of congress. One of the seats formerly was represented by Matt Gaetz, who vacated it prematurely to stand for attorney general before withdrawing his candidacy, and as a sign of caution over losing their hold on all three branches of government, Trump rescinded the nomination for UN ambassador for a congress woman from New York, owing that she was more important in the House of Representatives rather than the United Nations—“anyone can do that job.” The second seat was held by Mike Waltz, leaving to become a security advisor for the White House and apparent fall-guy for Signalgate. Outside of Florida, the other, supposedly non-partisan race that has become outsized is to fill a vacancy on the state supreme court of Wisconsin. While limited in jurisdiction, over one-hundred million dollars has been spent to secure or shift the ideological alignment of the justices that could impact voting rights, reproductive rights and the power of public unions nationally. Much of the backing for the conservative candidate has come from cheerleader for fascism Elon Musk, recognising the crucial nature of the swing-state for upcoming elections and to preserve the status quo through gerrymandering, and who also has a personal stake in the outcome, with a pending lawsuit filed against Wisconsin to allow direct sales of automobiles to consumers, without going through a dealership as state law requires, which Tesla practises.

whistle-stop tour (12. 355)

With a similar route transversed just after World War II, proposed by the attorney general under FDR and Truman who feared that Americans were taking the principals of liberty for granted in the post-war years and the project becoming a model for future outreach efforts during the Cold War, the second American Freedom Train, twenty-six cars conveyed by a stream locomotive outfitted with a special livery, began its twenty-month long journey criss-crossing the continent and visiting all the forty-eight contiguous states on this day in 1975, arriving in Wilmington, Delaware in a lead-up to the country’s bicentennial celebrations—see previously. The display cars carried more than five-hundred pieces of America on loan from various institutions, artefacts including: the original constitution, the Louisiana Purchase, Jesse Owens’ Olympic medals, a Moon rock, Martin Luther King, Jr’s pulpit, George Washington’s fire engine and Judy Garland’s dress from The Wizard of Oz, and was visited by over seven million people in near one hundred forty cities. Afterwards, the cars (without their contents, see also) were purchased by National Museums of Canada and reflagged as the Discovery Train for a similar rail tour.

*    *    *    *    *

synchronoptica

one year ago: Germany legalises marijuana (with synchronoptica) plus April Fools

seven years ago: more early Easter greetings, a monopoly on local media, a vintage April calendar plus Granny’s University of the Imagination

eight years ago: alphabetic architecture, Trump’s supporting cast, more AI pranks plus the proposed Analemma Tower

nine years ago: precision crowd formation plus a once lost species makes a comeback

ten years ago: assorted links worth revisiting, the roots of monotheism plus an overview of heraldic charges

man in motion (12. 354)

Our gratitude to Language Log for giving us a chance to revisit the truly inexhaustible figure of Eadweard Muybridge (see previously), pioneering photographer for his studies of motion, film processing and motion-picture projection, through the vagaries and variations of his name.

Born Edward James Muggeridge in Kingston upon Thames in Surrey, he tried out several modification of his surname with Muggridge and Muygridge before settling, also using the pseudonym of the Sun titan as a trademark for his studio, bestowing it on his only child, Florado Helios Muybridge. Most famously commissioned to settle a gentleman’s bet between two California ranchers, the former governor and railroad magnate Leland Stanford correctly surmising that at a gallop, all four hooves were suspended off the ground at points in their stride, Muybridge was able to provide photographic evidence for the claim. The first pictures yielded only blurred images of the racehorse at speed but later trials were interrupted by Muybridge’s arraignment on murder charges at a court in Calistoga, having killed one fellow photographer, Harry Larkyns, suspecting he was having an affair with his recently wed wife and was the true father of the above Florado. Muybridge calmly shot Larkyns in the heart and surrendered himself to authorities, awaiting sentencing. This did not spoil his relationship with the ex-governor, who funded his defence, and the jury was sympathetic, returning a verdict of not guilty on the grounds of temporary insanity as justifiable homicide. The case itself was of scholarly interest because of relative rarity of the judgment at the time and extensive testimony regarding Muybridge’s mental state. Philip Glass (previously) adapted the trial transcripts as a chamber opera in 1982. After that episode, he returned to England for a visit, and inspecting the monument of his hometown, the coronation stone of seven Saxon kings had been rededicated recently with a plinth bearing their names, Muybridge adopting the spelling of Edward the Martyr’s name for his own. After this long, eponymous and circuitous voyage, his headstone in Kingston bears the misspelling Eadweard Maybridge.

liathróid laimhe (12. 353)

Fellow internet peripatetic Messy Nessy Chic directs us to a recent photographic safari by the award-winning Kenneth O Halloran on the disappearing legacy of handball alleys of Ireland. Played in Ireland since the sixteenth century (first documented as Galway had to make a law banning the pastime and thus restricting it to designated areas in 1527 but probably dating back to Celtic times and boomeranging through trade with the Basques back to the isles as wallball or fronton) with shared origins of more formal games like tennis and squash, these abandoned courts are relics, hidden in plain sight, are testament of socialisation and meeting places before television and modern transportation as a focus for gathering, sport, discourse and flirtation, erected at crossroads and in the open countryside. Much more of O Halloran’s work at the link above.

meet me by the fountain (12. 352)

First spotted by Nag on the Lake, we really enjoyed this expanded preview of a documentary about a group of eight people who built a secret apartment inside a mall in Providence, Rhode Island and were residents there for nearly four years from 99% Invisible after having watched the colossal structure slowly come together—with cautious optimism that this development might revitalise the state capital’s downtown but encountered increasing horror as construction began to swallow up everything around it, including the home of the plan’s future leader. They found a neglected entryway that led to a hidden cavity within the building and slowly, at first as an art project, began smuggling in furniture and materials to convert the space and felt vindicated for using this empty and forgotten room just as the developers had left no inch unclaimed as Providence Place was coming together. The remainder of the episode is devoted to an equally fascinating discussion on the origin of the mall, with Victor Gruen (previously here and here) wanting to recreate the community feeling of Vienna’s Altstadt for American suburbia and keep shoppers engaged and captive, a surrogate downtown with all the amenities, ample parking and perfect weather, the rise and decline and near demise of the consumer institution and pastime, its causes and while it’s not quite dead.

synchronoptica

one year ago: Imperial Airways (with synchronoptica) plus more on leap-seconds

seven years ago: artist Květa Pacovská   

eight years ago: reusable booster rockets plus the vice president requires a chaperone

nine years ago: a collection of Ouija boards plus vanishing languages reincarnated as music  

ten years ago: medieval machines of war plus ancient automata

as american as apple pie and school-shootings (12. 351)

Via JWZ, whilst trying to further belittle and harass transgender individuals, through an emergency measure the governor of the American state of Idaho (see also), ahead of planned Pride celebrations later this summer, signed into law that would classify as misdemeanour indecent exposure any display of female breasts or likeness thereof (breastfeeding mothers exempted but with no further guarantees of privacy and no protections for animals nursing heroes or demigods), extending to toys or other paraphernalia resembling genitalia (as carefully worded as a commandment from the Duniverse against think machines and the consequences)—opposition leader from the Democratic party successfully attaching a rider to extend the ban to replica scrota hanging from trailer hitches and tailgates—“they call them ‘truck nuts.’ They are gross and offensive (agreed—though one would have thought such accessories would have ossified by now like Confederal flags and Cybertrucks) and kids on the highway see them.” America is a profoundly dumb and unserious nation, at the same time clawing in international industry but applying the same sweeping discriminatory measures) and we’d like to have not truck with these internal, performative squabbles and are best ignored until they come to a head, but sometimes stupidity is best fought with stupidity and any win counts.

confessions of a young exile (12. 350)

Via friend of the blog sans pareil, Nag on the Lake, we are directed to the reissue of the classic guide to fleeing America by Mark Ivor Satin, neopacifist and radical centrist and expatriate himself, displaced from university in Texas in the late sixties for refusing to take a loyalty oath to the constitution and escaping to Toronto to avoid conscription in the Vietnam War and founding a post-immigration assistance programme for other US refugees, eventually publishing a manual with practical advice on immigration, an underground bestseller with over one hundred thousand copies distributed during the first printing in 1968. Back in circulation since 2017 during Trump’s first term, the guide is garnering greater readership as relations strain and students, educators and scientists (who cannot learn, teach or research in this environment) are pledging to move to Canadian institutions and there are many parallels with the original impetus of the author and current times, though Canada—and other US allies—was never before the target of conquest and punishment, and instead of draft-dodging as a response to vindictive and destructive US policy, it’s a brain-drain and boycotts (regardless of the outcome of capricious tariffs one could give up US-produced goods, streaming services, fast food, apps ecosystems—and make ones own—and branding point-of-sales systems, you’ll survive) or the account of enslaved individual who made it to Canada in 1853 on the Underground Railroad that prefaces and contrasts the original foreword. The stakes are high for the American Project, and there’s much more ponder at the from LitHub at the link above.

catbus and content policy (12. 349)

Though circulating for less than a week, the relatively low benchmark which has been picked up by several prominent posters, OpenAI’s latest chat-to-image feature can faithfully filter pictures in the style of Studio Ghibli. While again encroaching on a signature look without credit or attribution is hardly anything new, mainstreaming a disregard for infringement on intellectual property does seem to be an inflection point not to be celebrated—especially as it comes on the cusp of a US court decision, reversing earlier judgments, that AI works of art can be copyrighted as long as a human prompter is involved, a seemingly backchannel approach as derivative works would instantly overwhelm and bury their original corpus. Far from thrilled to see their creative process automated, the studio’s co-founder filmmaker Hayao Miyazaki responded that he was utterly disgusted with these developments that can in virtually instantaneously animate the results, something that illustrators and colourists take weeks and months to achieve. This news comes at the same time an AI voice generator, with thirty-six years of dialogue of Homer or Moe Szylak, could effective replace the actors behind The Simpsons franchise.

charted territory (12. 348)

First issued in 2022, Kottke extols the redesign of the coveted Swiss passport from Geneva based studio RETINAA which excels at the intersection of aesthetics and enhanced security features, an homage to the sleek and simple branding of the country, travelling through each of the twenty-six cantons like driving atlas on his pages for entry- and exit-stamps, visas and other endorsements. Authentication measures (see also) that burst out under ultraviolet inspection reveal the cartographic traditions of the alpine ranges, valleys and passes, resulting in an identity document that the holder can be proud of and cherish through its expiry date, for which there is no reason, like classic diplomas and commendations, should not be the case with all official documents.

synchronoptica

one year ago: a visit to Neuseenland (with synchronoptica) 

seven years ago: the magazine Children’s Land,  a trip to a local shrine plus No Mates Nigel

eight years ago: the collected landscapes of Bob Ross,  new cloud designations plus German contractors bid to build Trump’s border wall

nine years ago: German flea-markets and other scavenger hunts, the referendum on Scottish independence plus the LGBTQ+ corner of the US congressional cemetery

ten years ago: the last crusades, the etymology of tidings plus assorted links worth revisiting

strangers with candy (12. 347)

Born on this day in 1961 in Endicott, New York, writer, comedian, actor and sister of author and humorist David Sedaris, Amy Louise Sedaris. Disposed to making pranks and working as a waitress in a comedy club in Chicago, Sedaris toured with Second City’s company by the late 1980s, eventually moving to New York and joined with fellow member Stephen Colbert a fledgling cable television venture, Comedy Central, as a sketch artist, eventually given her own series, portraying a middle-aged woman, Jerri Blank who goes back to high school, based on her impression of 1970s era motivational speaker Florrie Fisher, a cautionary cult figure who lectured to students about her lurid past warning them about sex and drugs and falling under the influence of radical charismatics—a sort of scared straight scenario. More active than even, Sedaris has multiple roles, titles and accolades to her name.

la a note to follow doge (12. 346)

Releasing yet another executive order aimed at whitewashing the country’s past, Trump’s “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History” is aimed at museums and other cultural institutions to remedy what MAGA regards a concerted effort by the radical left of revisionism geared to deepen societal divides and promote national shame. The Smithsonian has been politicised and weaponised, ordered to halt exhibits and articles featuring “race-centred ideology,” calling examination of marginalisation effectively anti-American, with vice president Vance deputised with the power to review all publications, projects and presentations to ensure compliance. One wonders when Americans might have their fill of liberty—it seems like a line has already been crossed yet new horrors come. The order also implies that like with earlier dictates that there are only two genders, that race is a biological reality, rather than a social construct playing into the pseudoscience that justifies eugenics and segregation and directs the administration’s secretary of the interior to begin reinstalling and rededicating Confederate and racist statues and monuments toppled or taken down in the course of the Black Lives Matter movement. Attempts to erase the past follow the wholesale assault on present postures diversity, inclusion, equity and access is a regression of decades of struggle against hate and oppression but unlikely to determine the future shape of society.

synchronoptica

one year ago: a biblical epic (with synchronoptica) 

seven years ago: an earlier Trump portrait plus GDPR compliance

eight years ago: the basement level kiosks of Bulgaria, more long German words plus mapping facial measurements

nine years ago: more state flags that could use an update,  the Sir Vival auto plus garlic dreams

ten years ago: telepathic technology plus redefining the kilogramme

put down artist (12. 345)

There’s a Chinese expression in romanji that’s curiously enunciated, masticated as its acronym, spelt out P-U-A for pick up artist which entered common-parlance a few years ago but still very much circulating and having acquired more nuance synonymic with the concept of gaslighting, manipulative but perhaps not on the same level of flattery, though with same ends, and maybe more akin to the retired, superannuated phrase being owned or pwn’d (pronounced poned). The prescribed antidote is to not have ambitions party to seduction. More on leetspeak and linguistic disabusement with a sample in context from Language Log at the link above.

quale and qualia (12. 344)

Having come to a similar epiphany at a point in life I considered fairly late and doubting maturity—but perhaps this sort of realisation needs time to incubate and couched in inexperience—that everyone was their own hero and main character, I found this curated list of introspective descriptors (with an invitation to readers to submit their own) from Marco Giancotti to be quite resonant. Although I don’t normal think to believe that my own subjective experience to be radically different from the next individual nor informed by some prodigious synthesis of sensations and neither compensated by recently coined conscious lacunas like aphantasia, imagination without mental images or internal monologue, the notion that we’re all naked aligned with the Emperor’s New Clothes is a really fascinating and engaging notion to ponder, nomothetic, broad generalisations versus the idiographic and the idiocentric. I like to think of myself capable of imagining in all these avenues and could accept that others do not but there is a measure of scepticism for divergence from the norm. Among the shared experiences that spoke to me, was a short interview with physicist Richard Feynman, as self-diagnosed with a benevolent form of arithromania, about how people count and calculate mentally in various ways. Much more—with growing contributions at Æther Mug at the link above.

sashiko, boro and bunka (12. 343)

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

where is everybody? (12. 342)

Being obsessed with the philosophical and cosmological question of Fermi’s Paradox and having considered the Great Filter beforehand, we enjoyed revisiting the proposal that no one makes it—that is succeeds as a spacefaring civilisation with a constellation of lesser filters setting up intractable hurdles to the accomplishment, progress sabotaged by biological limitations, superstition, self-destructive tendencies of a society, pollution or a misguided Singularity. In that unlikely loneliness, however, there also lies an equally improbable (though less so than intelligent life evolving no where else in the Universe) of a grand conspiracy of those that have made it exercising and enforcing a sort of Prime Directive to cloak their evidence and activities. While that might seem patriarchal (but who knows what challenges and dangers could await) and demotivating in terms of reaching for the stars, humans—on any others on the cusp—might have never had the ambition to invent and explore with gods in the sky.

synchronoptica

one year ago: a Euro Pop playlist (with synchronoptica) 

seven years ago: a yōkai primer, assorted links to revisit, transhumance plus an AI suggests April Fools’ pranks

eight years ago: more links to enjoy plus Mr Roger’s Conflict Series

nine years ago: Easter origins, a venerable guesthouse plus a sinister lullaby

ten years ago: night-vision eye-drops plus even more links

klein-venedig (12. 341)

Established on this day in 1528 as an outcome of the Treaty of Barcelona in which Holy Roman Emperor Karl V—also king of Spain—seeking relief from debts incurred and privately financed, granted to the Welser family of Augsburg and Nuremberg, a banking firm who claimed ancestry with the famed Byzantine general Belisarius, who reclaimed much of the land of the vestiges of the Western Roman Empire from the Vandals under Justinian I, a charter to rule, explore and colonise the territory known as Little Venice, later Weslerland (the exonym originally from Amerigo Vespucci after the Spanish equivalent), and seek out the legendary El Dorado and seven cities of gold. Governed from abroad, the colony was the German’s most significant stronghold in the Americas and though not lasting two decades before given to Spanish rule over mismanagement and the death of many German settlers and enslaved people dispatched to develop the land, the Welsers’ privilege was propagandised in later years to promote German imperial expansion in the 1880s and 1890s.