Courtesy of ibīdem, we are directed to an omnibus post on numbers stations (see previously) featuring the enigmatic beacon designated also with the callsign MDZhB (МДЖБ, referred to as the Buzzer) broadcasting on short-wave radio. 
Mostly monotonous, there are sporadic interruptions with voice transmission, usually in Russian but sometimes audio-drops of Yosemite Sam and other memes but otherwise in strict messaging formats. This ostensible activation code was replaced with the ominous filler of Swan Lake during a brief period in November of 2010, a well-established preemption when all Hell is breaking loose to the consternation of monitors but regular programming soon resumed. While patently considered as a communications encoded directive for Soviet and Russian field agents, the transmitter does not possess the earmarks of a true numbers station, missives being too random, and is seen as sort of frequency- , domain -holding mechanism to dissuade others for future contingencies, including as some have suggested an automated “dead hand” signal which if broken would trigger a retaliatory response, assuming that command and control had been taken out by a first strike.
Friday, 31 May 2024
uvb-76 (11. 597)
dalí atomicus (11. 596)
Via Strange Company, we enjoyed seeing the outtakes and creative process behind the 1948 surreal photograph taken after at least twenty-six attempts by Philippe Halsman and later published in Life magazine (see previously). The collaboration, one of many over decades of working together and complementing one another’s media, was instigated over his four year project of the Leda Atomica, the painting seen in the background, which dealt with ideas of suspension, repulsion and cohesion and reflected the Zeitgeist of the Nuclear Age. There was a countdown to coordinate the composition—on three, assistants threw the cats and buckets of water and on four, Dalí was to jump. After each take until both were satisfied, Halsman entered the darkroom to develop the film while the cats were collected and dried off.
one year ago: a spy whale
two years ago: an optical illusion plus assorted links to revisit
three years ago: visualising marine traffic, Funky Town (1980), St Elizabeth plus the US Armed Forces Network Europe
four years ago: a US national protest map plus The Mythological Astronomy in Three Parts
five years ago: more punitive tariffs from Trump
Thursday, 30 May 2024
swift justice (11. 595)
After a day’s deliberation, the jury in Manhattan found Donald Trump guilty on all thirty-four counts of falsifying business records to conceal hush money payments and ostensibly alter the course of the 2016 
election in his favour. As a convicted felon, it is unclear whether the former president will serve a prison term or will be sentenced to probation for a first time, non-violent offence and how this verdict will impact his campaign—the hearing is scheduled for mid-July, just days ahead of the Republican National Convention—he could still run from jail and will still be anointed by the GOP and could most likely, if not incarcerated, still cast a ballot for himself. Registered to vote in Florida, that state has harsh disenfranchisement regulations for convicts, however will likely respect the rules of the jurisdiction where the crime was committed, with New York only taking away suffrage from those who serve prison time. Having previously lost two civil cases with judgments rendered against him, Trump also faces criminal cases in his home state of Florida, Georgia and Washington, DC but due to appeals and various delay tactics, none are likely to go to trial before election day.
aabba (11. 594)
Via Futility Closet, we are reminded of the anatomy of a limerick (with the above rhyme scheme, see previously) with the following meta-versification by John Irwin, poet and professor of the humanities:
A limerick’s cleverly versed—
The second line rhymes with the first;
The third one is short,
The fourth’s the same sort,
And the last line is often the worst.
This rendition is almost certainly in homage to the anonymous exemplar:
The limerick packs laughs anatomical
Into space that is quite economical.
But the good ones I've seen
So seldom are clean
And the clean ones so seldom are comical.
Or, as read:
A dozen, a gross, and a score
Plus three times the square root of four
Divided by seven
Plus five times eleven
Is nine squared and not a bit more.
operation landcrab (11. 593)
Concluding on this day in 1943 with US troops retaking the remote Aleutian island, the Battle of Attu, American and Imperial Japanese soldiers encountering one another in snowy conditions, was engaged nearly a year after the unopposed landing of a battalion of the Northern Army infantry, who wanted to establish forward airbases on this strategic location and create a barrier between the US and Russia, should the Soviets decide to join the fight against Japan. 
Only one of two sites on American soil invaded during the war and the only land confrontation, authorities were too late with orders to evacuate this most westerly part of the island chain and the forty-eight residents, mostly Aleut natives, who survived the annexation were imprisoned in a camp on Hokkaidō, where nearly half died. The fighting, beginning two weeks prior, was brutal and both sides sustained heavy casualties, with the Japanese forces suddenly attacking the Americans in a last ditch push with a large banzai charge (taken from the battle cry’s invocation of “long life” for his Majesty the Emperor and considered one method of gyokusai—shattered jewel, an honourable suicide) at Massacre Bay with nearly all of the troops killed. After the prisons were liberated, none despite a desire to return home, were repatriated and Attu became host to a series of navigation and ranging stations, eventually decommission in 2010, making the island the largest uninhabited area of the United States.
judicial advocacy (11. 592)
US Supreme Court associate justice Samuel Alito, rebuffing calls from members of the legislation for recusal after two instances of flying provocative flags at his residences that signal his political alignment, 
responded to leaders of both chambers that his actions (he shifts the decision—see also—to his wife and an unneighbourly spat) to not rise to the threshold of removing himself from highly consequential cases upcoming on the high court’s docket. At a time when public confidence in the impartiality of the justice system in America is at an all time low and bias and agenda are seen to sway decisions, Alito invokes the court’s code of ethics, beholden to no higher authority, asserting it is a personal decision for each justice to choose to recuse themselves from cases or not. Reporting alleges that Alito makes his prejudice clear regarding to January Sixth Insurrection filings by flying an upside down American flag (a distress signal) and raising a revolutionary era Pine Tree, “Appeal to Heaven” flag (a historic banner used in New England with the motto referencing John Locke’s treatises on governance and the right of revolution) but both symbols are associated with Christian nationalism, far right extremism and Trump’s “Stop the Steal” campaign, ongoing election denialism as well as the assault on the Capitol to interrupt certification of voting results.
one year ago: headstone rubbings of historic typographers plus assorted links to revisit
two years ago: Paperback Writer (1966), Joan of Arc plus the Lincoln Memorial
three years ago: Sounds for the Supermarket, Tonto’s Expanding Head Band, safety protocols, a Sunday drive plus a storied pizza franchise
four years ago: a wave of protests across the US
five years ago: St Seraphim, antique thread cards, freedom gas plus celebrating the life and career of Leon Redbone
Wednesday, 29 May 2024
deutschland und die deutschen (11. 591)
Delivered in the US Library of Congress on this day in 1945, the lecture by Thomas Mann (auf englisch, appointed a docent of the institution) came a few weeks after the capitulation of the Nazis and in the 
milieu of the end of World War II in the European Theatre and assayed the German character of inwardness (Innerlichkeit), previously revealed by the Reformation and Romanticism, as a way to understand the complicity of the population in National Socialism. Setting out on this daring and too-soon undertaking, Mann aimed to address the “German problem” and try to unriddle the the vice and virtue of the nation, “which has undeniably given the world so much beauty and greatness and has repeatedly become a burden to it in such a disastrous ways,” portraying the German psyche as a Faustian bargain through figures as Goethe, Bismarck, Luther and Riemenscheider. Concluding with the formula that the victory of cosmopolitanism over tribalism would be the saving grace that the world in general needs. While criticised for over-simplification, universalising and self-promotion, quoting from his own works as something quintessentially German, it was the timing and the those very abbreviations that invited confession and reflection.
9x9 (11. 590)
priority seating: an account jammed packed with patterns for mass-transit upholstery—see previously—via Kottke
ux: in the age of AI, perhaps it’s time to retire the term “user”
voter turn-out: historically high temperatures in parts of India may skew election results
🙂↔️: this year’s bracket for most misinterpreted emoji
described herein as a beverage carrying assembly: a patent for a beer puppet for festivals and sporting events
the second soul: a thoroughgoing essay by Anton Howes on the history of salt—via Clive Thompson’s Linkfest
instructions to the jury: closing arguments in the Trump trial and deliberation begins
wasteful by design: digital technology and internet habits are becoming major contributors to the climate catastrophe
transakcja: an endearing animation on courtship rituals in 1950s rural Poland
