Codenamed after the 1984 World War III invasion scenario of the US by a coalition of the Warsaw Pact and Latin American countries—starring Jennifer Grey and Patrick Swayze as resistance-fighters—a task 
force of American soldiers apprehended deposed Iraqi president Saddam Hussein on this day in 2003, having disappeared and gone into hiding shortly after the US invasion, discovered in his hometown of ad-Dawr near Tikrik, holed up in a foxhole or spider-whole with guns and three-quarters of a million dollars in cash. The site where Hussein was captured, Wolverine 2, is also a reference to the teenaged band of guerrilla fighters of the movie. Put before a special tribunal called by the provisional authority and interim government (which many characterised as a creature of American jurisdiction and a show trial not representative of an independent Iraq) six months later and found guilty of crimes against humanity for genocidal campaigns against the Kurdish and Shiite populations during the war with Iran and subsequently executed at the trial’s conclusion and having exhausted appeals in November of 2006.
Wednesday, 13 December 2023
operation red dawn (11. 187)
7x7 (11. 186)
itsy-bitsy: a performance on the SpiderHarp, a large scale model originally developed to study vibrations and triangulation on a web
origin story: how Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer began as a department store promotional giveaway
owl001: BBC hacked live on the air in 1983—see also—via Damn Interesting’s Curated Links
marie mathรฉmatique: the adventures of the younger sister of Barbarella, scored by Serge Gainsbourg—see more
ggwp: the E3 gaming conference has been shuttered permanently
the great toy robbery: an animated classic from the National Film Board of Canada
ikea monkey: the happy life of Darwin the macaque after its moment of fame—previously
life is omniperiodic (11. 185)
Via Good Internet, we are directed towards a research paper that posits that in Conway’s Game of Life, the 
cellular automata within a defined framework of an environment demonstrates periodicity over a vast amount of generations and this repeating pattern is called an oscillator. Complex behaviour emerging from simple rules on a grid, oscillation (the hunt for these stable organisms, a wandering jam or mould pictured, beginning in the 1970s with such taxonomy as pulsar, tumbler, pinwheel, glider gun, queen bee shuttle, dirty splitters, toad hasslers) over all periods of the game. The full cycle of only two catalysts remained elusive until just recently with the final two being cribbage and 204P41, another reflector loop that looks like a circuit of marching insects.
Tuesday, 12 December 2023
10x10 (11. 184)
arrows of time: a timeline tracing the evolution of human understanding through various magisteria—via the new shelton wet/dry
horary quandrant: oldest dated English time-keeping instrument goes under the hammer—see previously
guten morgen: the newly launched Nightjet service between Berlin and Paris marks a return of sleeper trains—see previously
the beef and dairy network: industry delegates and lobbyists triple at COP28
theory of mind: researchers reveal a deep chasm in how perception varies from individual to individual
animation v physics: Alan Becker’s follow on video to Animation v Maths—via Waxy
oed: the joys of exploring the authoritative dictionary—see previously
rewind: carbon removal technology is also a time-machine—though presently only able to move the needle a little—via Good Internet
the year in search: Google presents its annual review
the great scrollback: the Verge’s features the best archived tweets
you’re going the wrong way—dammit—the bow’s underwater (11. 183)
As our faithful chronicler informs, the Irwin Allen disaster drama based on the eponymous novel by Paul Gallico from three years prior and capitalising on a spate of star-studded survival misadventures of the decade, like Airport and The Towering Inferno, had its debut in the US on this day in 1972. The acclaimed and high-grossing film featuring the talents of Shelley Winters, Ernest Borgnine, Roddy McDowall and Gene Hackman follows the passengers and crew of the SS Poseidon on its final voyage during New Year’s from New York City to Athens, where it will be decommissioned and scrapped. An undersea quake in the Aegean triggers a tsunami and the ship is capsized and turned upside down. Scored by conductor John Williams, the performance “The Morning After” (garnering an Oscar for best original song) became a hit single, prompting an album of the soundtrack to be released.
synchronoptica
one year ago: a modernist sanctuary plus more advances in fusion technology
two years ago: assorted links to revisit, the satellite Uhuru, the Human League plus Tilda Swinton as libraries
three years ago: your daily demon: Caim, vaccines and alcohol don’t mix, more Breton saints plus a daytrip to Bedheim
four years ago: Authority is a Necessary Evil, more words of the year, the Heritage Trust and Stonehenge, another UK General Election plus the etymology of Antwerp
five years ago: Persons of the Year, Beyoncรฉ as HTTP codes, an auto graveyard plus a computerised sneaker
Monday, 11 December 2023
schminkautomat (11. 182)
Via Messy Nessy Chic’s peripatetic findings and although originally staged as a hoax (Aprilscherz from the photo archives of the Sรผddeustsche Zeitung), such acoin-op beauty dispensary must certainly be a contemporary, inevitable reality regardless of whether the calibre of the technology has seen much improvement over the intervening century.
Prospective users are invited gauge the colours to right tones and style, insert 10₰, face the portal and turn the hand crank. A bell sounds when the makeup (the word comes from the Late Middle High German verbs for smearing and stroking) has been applied.
we sit in the sun and wait. we sleep. and we dream. each of us dying slowly in the prison of our minds (11. 181)
Via a recent post on Dangerous Minds, we received a recommendation to pass along of an under-rated, under-seen vintage surreal and creepy supernatural horror movie with Lovecraftian elements to pass along, which premiered in 
limited-release on this day in 1974 in Paris, Texas. In the film by Gloria Katz and Willard Huyck—having recently finished the treatment for American Graffiti and would go on to Howard the Duck—a young woman journeys to a seaside artist colony to visit her estranged father but only finds his beach house abandoned with only a journal addressed to his daughter, urging her not to search for him with ominous warnings about a darkness consuming the community and to only seek out the local gallery owner. Denying having any commission from her father and hardly knowing him, the young woman encounters a trio of other visitors, collectors with some additional insights, speaking of a “messiah of evil” to return after a century, with locals gathering on the beach to ritually stare at the Moon in a preparation that the is referred to as “The Waiting.” The town subsequently begins to be populated (in spaces that should be considered epitomes of domesticity and safe havens) and shortly overrun by the cannibalistic undead as evangelicals of a fringe religious movement.
merry mixmas (11. 180)
Via Pluralistic, we are reacquainted with the seasonal tradition of DJ Riko that’s spanned two decades and is still going strong. Begun as CD mix-tape sent to friends as a very special Christmas card, his unadulterated but refreshed playlists covering multiple eras, interpretations and genres started circulating on the internet and caught the attention of established media and their use is encouraged for one’s own holiday greetings and personal soundtrack. Good for those wanting to avoid the standard programming, click the cover image to listen to the full album.
