while bill clinton plays the sax (11. 604)

On this day in 1992, Arkansas governor and presidential candidate William Jefferson Clinton appeared as a guest on The Arsenio Hall Show. Clinton’s future Secretary of Commerce, Ron Brown, Hilary Clinton and actor Terri Garr also guested on the programme. After a memorable rendition of Elvis Priestley’s “Heartbreak Hotel” on the saxophone, the host quipped that it was “nice to see Democrats blow something besides an election.” The appearance (more of the segment from C-SPAN) is now seen as pivotal in his campaign and curried popularity among young voters, whom prior to the airing trailed in third place behind George HW Bush and then-undeclared spoiler candidate H Ross Perot, jumping twenty-one points in the polls the next day.

7x7 (11. 603)

green mountain state: Vermont’s Climate Superfund Act, a first, makes oil companies fiscally responsible for the damage caused by emissions 

far side of the moon: Chang'e-6 lands on the lunar surface  

post-script: engineering for slow internet connection in Antarctica—see previously  

i’ve been saying yes to more things lately, just to get myself out there again—but wherever i show up, it’s always—oh sorry, we thought you were the other guy: overheards from the lesser-known dinosaurs’ support group  

may the thirty-fourth: a decade’s worth of memories from China’s early internet vanishes—via tmn  

gmail will break your heart: as the service turns twenty years old, spelunking for long, forgotten cherished missives—via Waxy  

gardi sugdub: Panama is evacuating inhabitants from densely populated islands threatened to be subsumed by rising seas

synchronoptica

one year ago: the goddess Bellona plus book bans (1923)

two years ago: Bergpark Willemshöhe, Beer-Barrel Polka plus AI reimagines corporate logos

three years ago: assorted links to revisit, more early NFTs plus more unit coins

four years ago: Zoot Suit Riots (1943), Trump disperses peaceful protesters, a dystopian television series takes a hiatus because reality plus another sleepy, dusty delta day

five years ago: the myth of ten-thousand steps, more links to enjoy plus a study of restroom graffiti

modern ruins (11. 602)

Via friend of the blog, Nag on the Lake, and an exhibit curated by Hyperallergic we are treated to an extended portfolio of the photography of Phillip Buehler as he performs a post-mortem on a mid-sized mall in New Jersey and the forgotten, inaccessible islands, and triangulated with a third source in this student footage of an abandoned Ellis Island immigration processing centre from 1974, there’s a conversation between documenting histories and urban decay that’s a crucial one to have for both the changed landscape of commerce (see previously) and quarantine and crowd-control as well as the code of ethics for such spelunking, an acknowledged trespassing but with a definite prohibition on vandalism or over-publicising one’s exploits.

jenny wren (11. 601)

Via Sentence First, we learn how the robin (and its distant American cousin—not closely related) got its name.  Prior to scientific and ordered taxonomy, in fifteenth century England—and elsewhere—it was common practise to give familiar species human names, this companionable nomenclature enduring in some of the more common monickers, like magpies from flocks originally called Margarets or a daw named Jack, and Robin Redbreast—from the diminutive form of Robert and their distinctive, easily recognisable orange plumage, the colour unknown and not distinguished until the introduction of the fruit about a hundred years later. More from Bird History at the link up top.

40 eridani a β (11. 600)

From an astrological point of view, the downgrading of Pluto (see previously here and here) was traumatic to many but the Vulcan home world, canonically placed in the above triple star-system of the constellation Eridanus of the southern skies, has now twice suffered the indignity of possibly not existing. Astronomers believed that they had detected the signature of an exoplanet back in 2018, informally designated as Vulcan but subsequent observations revealed that the superearth, originally found by a gravitational wobble, is probably a calibration mirage—or perhaps the cloaking is intentional. More at the links above.

synchronoptica

one year ago: assorted links worth the revisit plus discovering local, cinematic connections

two years ago: a 1978 conspiracy thriller, Elizabeth II, the manicule plus more links to enjoy

three years ago: St Elmo, more shadowcasting plus pedantry and pronuncication

four years ago: 1988 in pop songs

five years ago: Steve Bannon’s planned gladiator school falls through plus googie architecture 

he’s guilty (11. 599)

Via Miss Cellania—somehow we’ve missed this old clip too circulating perennially for about six years and surging in views following verdicts in high-profile cases—we are introduced to the number that Randy Newman composed for the pilot of Cop Rock in 1990, a musical police procedural conceived by Steven Bochco cancelled after eleven episodes were aired, and sung by Carl Anderson, Judas from Jesus Christ Superstar. 

9x9 (11. 598)

on covfefe day no less: a meme roundup on Trump’s felony conviction  

canine rainbow: dogs’ visual spectrum and how they see perceive the world 

love exposure: the acclaimed, sprawling 2008 comedy-drama by Sion Sono  

the scary ham: proper late rites for an aged cut of pork

leftovers: five thin volumes on post-apocalypse Briton

nondescript fern: researchers find the largest genome (fifty times the genetic material of humans) in a small plant on an Australian island  

why be dragons: the origins of the universal mythological creatures  

evening standard: venerable London newspaper to suspend daily publication after almost two hundred years—see previously  

today is my birthday, please like me: a Twitter feed of some the revolting, disturbing but morbidly compelling AI-generated slop inundating Facebook—via Web Curios

synchronoptica

one year ago: Crazy Frog (2005) plus Adobe’s Generative Fill

two years ago: Scotch whisky (1495) plus the Stresa Convention on Cheeses (1951)

three years ago: your daily demon: Eligos, The Ship of Fools (1497), more on monopolies and monopsonies plus a Simon and Garfunkel classic

four years ago: seasonal dormancy, more King Ubu, St Rónán plus elections matter

five years ago: re-creating TV living rooms with IKEA furnishings,  Japan’s first folklore museum, the Lennon-Ono Honeymoon Suite plus a robot job interviewer

uvb-76 (11. 597)

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.