subway surfer (11. 828)

Though arguably in the general case a bigger assault on our concentration and aimed for the low-attention span audience, the TikTok split-screen technique, when correctly deployed, like this superb bit of juxtaposition from the Harris-Walz campaign, courtesy of Kottke, that pits GOP taking-points on abortion and other parts of their platform with a video game speed-run, is a remedy for those suffering from Trump and election reporting fatigue—not to promote those views but to engage those averse to any news about the Republican ticket who’s default is to zone out and listen to the dangerous and weird things that they have to say.

@kamalahq

oof

♬ original sound - Kamala HQ

floating chad (11. 827)

Via Clive Thompson’s Linkfest and using the recent stranding of two US astronauts aboard the International Space Station for what originally was tour of eight days or so are now, due to a malfunctioning Boeing Starliner, are stuck in orbit until at least February as a narrative device, space blogger Swapna Krishna began exploring the long and complicated history that gets to yes for these eligible voters to cast their ballots in upcoming US elections. Back in 1997 then Texas (where NASA astronauts are stationed and registered) governor signed legislation that allowed residents to vote absentee from space when the previous year the Secretary of State had not allowed two US researchers aboard the Mir Space Station to vote electronically, citing no provision in the law that allowed it. Because these missions generally last under six-months and our two astronauts in question did not complete an absentee ballot application with the county clerk, as is the normal procedure, who then sends a test ballot via the Johnson Space Centre to confirm it can be securely completed from orbit, relaying credentials known only to the voter and registrar so they can vote. Not expecting to still be onboard the ISS come November, however, the astronauts had not planned on this contingency. An exception was granted in this case. While election integrity and security are of the utmost importance in the democratic process, these same byzantine rules often serve to disenfranchise those without resources and a support network like NASA. Cosmonauts either vote by-proxy or forgo the secret ballot and radio their choices to ground control. Much more at the links above.

synchronoptica

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

seven years ago: AI guesses one’s sexual orientation

eight years ago: more links to enjoy

nine years ago: Queen Elizabeth becomes longest reigning monarch, medieval walkable cities, even more links worth the revisit plus alchemy in Prague

ten years ago: Roman campaigns plus the Empire in forty maps

summermash (11. 826)

Though admittedly not familiar with the majority of the songs in this medley, this latest instalment from DJ Earworm (previously) is a masterpiece of remixing with some outstanding transitions—including key changes—and editing that really bops, despite of the kind of unoriginal material that the artist had to work with for Brat Summer.

when you see something like that, it’s like god is looking right at you, just for a second—and if you’re careful, you can look right back (11. 825)

Premiering on this day at Grauman’s Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood on this day in 1999 (in general release 17 September), probably no other film has waned in its critical reception and reappraisal since Gone with The Wind, now almost singular dismissed and regarded as not ageing well, the award-winning Sam Mendes and Alan Ball collaboration about repression, renunciation, conformity and fragile masculinity is nonetheless an artfully crafted if unsophisticated time-capsule that captures the Zeitgeist of fin de siècle ideas of as-yet unrecognised privilege, normative behaviour and attitudes that still reverberate and are relatable a quarter of a century on. Its stellar initial accolades, 9/11 which made much seem trivial that came before, benighted stereotypes and actor Kevin Spacey being cancelled for atrocious behaviour that mirrored the protagonist of the movie certainly didn’t help its problematic legacy. Straddling the enduring (when and if it comes time for critical reevaluation) dichotomy between the message of the meaning of life versus the hollowness of suburbia and sabotaging one’s life and being unable to deal with the consequences, American Beauty relates the archetype of a stranger coming to town in the form of the Fitts, an authoritarian, retired Marine colonel with an ill wife and withdrawn teenaged son who documents everything one his camcorder and pays for his expensive hobby by selling marijuana, to the notionally progressive and liberal picket-fenced community of middle-aged Lester Burnham, unhappy with his career and loveless marriage, and their gay neighbours. In parallel with his wife beginning an affair with a coworker, Burnham becomes infatuated with a classmate of his daughter which sets of a chain of events that that leads him to quit his job, blackmail his former boss, buying a classic car, and taking work as a short-order cook—deportment that might be excused as a “mid-life crisis” in unenlightened times. The 2000 MTV Movie Awards had nominated the film for its Best Kiss category but the studio rejected the overture, not wanting to glorify the “inappropriate” nature of the congress between a forty-two year old man and a sixteen-year old girl. …look closer

mss (11. 824)

Having a bit of a preoccupation with the discipline of diplomatics, we enjoyed going through this collection of missives from Letters of Note when correspondence becomes self-aware and ashamed, feeling the need to excuse itself for bad penmanship—the motor control and coordination to commit words to a page (undiminished we agree by their appearance however verging on the illegible) an important feedback loop in the exercise that’s not much practised lately, and lamented in this vintage selection. Particularly telling is this letter (not pictured—that’s Franz Kafka) from American poet laureate Louise Bogan addressed to essayist and New Yorker magazine editor William Keepers Maxwell with the post script, “Isn’t my handwriting queer? I lost my old one, typing for years; and this one showed up last winter. Odd!” Much more from Sean Usher at the link above.

tsardom (11. 823)

Unveiled on this day in 1862 to commemorate the thousand-year anniversary of the arrival of of the Varangian viking conquerors from Sweden in the Kievan Rus’, traditionally taken as the starting point of statehood, the hundred-ton bronze monument, the Millennium of Russia, in the kremlin of Novgorod is a fifteen metre high globus cruciger atop a bell-shaped pedestal, representing the history and culture of the empire. One-hundred twenty-nine figures line the middle and bottom levels and uniquely for an official state work include academics, writers and artists along with rulers, heroes, military commanders and men of enlightenment, but conspicuously absent is Ivan the Terrible (though is wife Anastasia Romanovna is present) for his pillage and massacre of the city founded by Prince Rurik in the ninth century. The monument was captured and dismantled by the Nazis during World War II but Novgorod was recaptured by the Red Army before transportation to Germany could be arranged and restored the work and put it back on display in 1944. Since 1988, among the signals of easing official atheistic policy, the celebration of this state baptism was the first national observance with a religious character.

writ of mandate (11. 822)

Having often wondered ourselves how specialised jargon in general was some sort of professional wizardry (tech, medicine, economics, the clergy) to make their practise impenetrable or inscrutable for non-experts, via Language Hat, we enjoyed this study that postulates that the embedded, dependent clause-rich sentence structure of legalese—forgoing even the spellbinding elements of legal Latin—is like a magical incantation. This obfuscation by design, parsing thousands of court documents, holds despite even lawyers decrying and disavowing this style and repeated calls for “plain language” laws (decisions don’t have a specific requirement for florid and what’s perceived to be “exacting” and only precedent and simpler worded ones are equally enforceable on appeal) and seem to have a performative aspect—a capacity for proscription rather than just description—that lends a sense of a magic formula above the ken of outsiders. More from The Conversation at the link above.

 synchronoptica

one year ago: the debut of Star Trek: The Animated Series (with synchronoptica)

seven years ago: newspapers in movies, Hurricane Irma’s path of destruction, Saturn’s rings, London’s Garden Museum, an illustrated ship’s log plus Ford pardons Nixon

eight years ago: a patriotic art counterfeiter, assorted links worth revisiting, more spirit drawings plus New Amsterdam becomes New York

nine years ago: the curious names of US court justices

ten years ago: Scotland’s independence referendum

8x8 (11. 821)

i voted: the state of Michigan let the internet choose the redesign of its election sticker given out at the ballot box and it’s a werewolf clawing off its own shirt  

selective foresight: the “marshmallow longterism” of conservatives—see also  

turn on subtitles: animated videos using only the closed captioning feature  

psycho a capella: Korean ensemble MayTree shows off their vocal abilities with an excerpt from the film’s tense main theme—via Everlasting Blört  

backchannel: YouTube removes Tenet Media content following US justice department indictment linking them to Russian election interference  

slipstream: the amazing achievements of cyclist José Meiffret 

eidophone: voices made visible by Welsh singer and scientist Margaret Watts Hughes  

the kamala and tim show: the Democratic ticket is bringing 80s sitcom energy—via Kottke