Though US president-elect Trump’s stupid antics are already too much to keep up with, they become too hard to ignore once the enter the territory of diplomatic crises and quashing internationally agreed upon norms of behaviour. A bundle of such instances can be traced to a recent assertion that America can and should reclaim the Panama Canal because of perceived unfair transit fees applied to US flagged vessels 
(never mind how America tanked British supremacy over a similar squabble in the Suez)—which seem to have antecedents in a Trump branded hotel in the capital that failed to pay Panamanian income taxes and social security for employees. The operation and management is administered (since New Year’s Eve 1999 when the US handed over the concession) by the Panama Canal Authority, a government agency which considers the waterway inalienable patrimony. Per the Torrijos-Carter treaties (see above) negotiated in 1977, America retains a right to defend the canal from threats to neutral operations but holds no claim to it. While there are two ports in the isthmus operated by China, there are no indications that American ship traffic has been affected, though imposing higher transit fees on non-US carriers might be seen as a way to bolster planned universal tariffs. At the same time, Trump is also renewing calls for the sale of Greenland to America (following offers to annex Canada as the fifty-first state), calling ownership and control of the Danish autonomous territory “an absolute necessity” for reasons of national security and global freedom. Neither property is for sale.
Wednesday, 25 December 2024
the fees being charged by panama are ridiculous, especially knowing the extraordinary generosity that has been bestowed to panama by the us—this complete 'rip-off' of our country will immediately stop (12. 111)
niemandsland (12. 110)
Though no White Christmas down in the valley, we took the dog for a frolic through the snow up on the highlands near of the Schwarzes Moor along the Lange Rhรถn (previously), an extensive basalt plateau about eight hundred metres in elevation.
the genovese syndrome (12. 109)
On this day in 1974, ten years after the violent murder of resident Kitty Genovese outside the same apartment building in the Kew Gardens neighbourhood of Queens for which no one intervened or called 
the police in what was dubbed the bystander effect and was cited as a textbook case for decades—partially due to this second tragic death—until upon reevaluation it was revealed that the number of witnesses and their actions had been respectively over- and under-reported, fashion model (her profession was later retracted in articles but no correction was given) Sandra Zahler was beaten to death. Upon questioning by detectives a day and a half later once the bludgeoned body was discovered found that neighbours had heard screams and indications of a struggle but no witnesses—many of whom were present in 1964—came forward, either citing the holiday or expecting others to have heard the commotion and alerted authorities. Eventually the building’s elevator operator corroborated police suspicions for Zahler’s estranged boyfriend.
synchronoptica
one year ago: Godwin’s Law (with synchronoptica), a visit to a basalt factory plus The Sting (1973)
seven years ago: more holiday greetings
ten years ago: another Yule Log
eleven years ago: endangered specie
twelve years ago: luck-bringers
Tuesday, 24 December 2024
send in the clowns (12. 107)
Known as the Bohemian Sousa for his vast body of works including marches, polkas and waltzes, we are introduced to the military bandmaster, conductor and composer Julius Ernest Wilhelm Fuฤรญk outside of 
Czech ceremonial and patriotic music via his opus sixty-eight, written in October 1897 whilst stationed in Sarajevo for the Austro-Hungarian Army, originally titled “Grande Marche Chromatique,” in reference to the climbing and descending scales used throughout, but retitled based on his personal interest in the Roman Empire and impressed by a particular scene in Quo Vadis? to Vjezd gladiรกtorลฏ (Entrance of the Gladiators). Adapted for piano and later for woodwind orchestra, the air renamed to “Thunder and Blazes,” became up tempo synonymous by the turn of the century with circuses and anticipated the procession of clowns. Despite this well-established and enduring association (see also, see above), the popular piece was used accompany the arrival and departure of SS commandants in Nazi concentration camps.
forschungslaboratorium fรผr elektronenphysik (12. 106)
Autodidact in applied physics and prolific inventor, Baron Manfred von Ardenne, after presenting to the 
public his concept of Fernsehen a year and a half earlier, achieved his first wholly electronic transmission of television pictures, using a cathode ray tube (see more) for both transmission and reception, on this day in 1933. Following trial runs on broadcasters, Ardenne’s technological advance progressed quickly with the private station of Paul Nipkow culminating with the live airing of the 1936 Berlin Games. Having also conducted pioneering experiments in the fields of radar, radio, isotope separation and inventing the scanning electron microscope, Ardenne’s research facilities in Berlin-Lichtenfelde were put a protective order by Soviet occupying forces in April 1945 and Ardenne and his colleagues were reassigned to laboratories in Abkhazia to work on the atomic bomb project (see also)—like the Russian version of Operation Paperclip. Realising that participation in such a plan would jeopardise his eventual repatriation to East Germany, Ardenne convinced authorities to focus on uranium enrichment rather than weaponising the programme, slowly development until the Americans bombed Japan and an extensive espionage network determined that it was more than theoretical possible. Once Ardenne returned to the DDR and assumed an advisory role in the government, he applied his study and resources to medical diagnostics, inventing an early form MRI scanner and radiotherapies to treat cancer.
synchronoptica
one year ago: Christmas Greetings (with synchronoptica), Aida (1871) plus more accidental Renaissance art
seven years ago: Sleighrunner, Trump’s challenge coin plus more Season’s Greetings
eight years ago: A Human Document, internet court plus a collection of Yule Logs
nine years ago: more Yule Logs
ten years ago: a visit from Father Frost
eleven years ago: 2013 wrapped plus a holiday reckoning
Monday, 23 December 2024
fruitcake (12. 105)
Language Log featured recently a duo of Christmas confections from Italy and Germany and while the latter in the Stollen might have a more robust etymology, derivative of the verb stellen—to put—and from 
the Ancient Greek ฯฯฮฎฮปฮท, stฤlฤ, to support, as in the beams constructed in a mine shaft to prevent a tunnel from collapsing (see also here and here), it is the former in the mildly sweet and far less dense (fluffy as compared to the Stollen’s consistency of a neutron star) the panettone that has a more intriguing composition as a augmentation of a diminutive, big little bread. Fettuccine is the reverse formation in little big slice, and there’s a single-serving variant called a panettoncini, a diminutive of the augmentative of the diminutive. More at the links above.
a555 (12. 104)
Via Things Magazine year-end round-up we are invited to take an epic road-trip (which we managed to somehow miss earlier) for the fiftieth anniversary of Kraftwerk’s Autobahn, a twenty-two minute musical tribute to the German 
road network (previously here and here) that transformed the entire electronic music landscape—achieving international chart success the following year once pared down to three-minutes and twenty-eight seconds for radio audiences. Legend has it that the group were inspired by a stretch of West German highway from Kรถln to Bonn, a main artery from the international airport, a Brutalist masterwork who band member Florian Schneider’s father designed, to the capital and just a few junctions from their Dรผsseldorf studios. Much more from Tim Jonze’ pilgrimage at the link above. You need to unmute for this one.
synchronoptica
one year ago: miscellany from the depths of Wikipedia (with synchronoptica), assorted links to revisit plus Hansel and Gretel (1893)
seven years ago: keep watching the skies plus misappropriating a Secessionist motto
eight years ago: combatting fake news
nine years ago: a cavalcade of holiday customs, Christmas ghost stories, lip balm recalled over high THC levels plus Seasons’ Greetings
ten years ago: Ship of Theseus
