lix and liberal leave (12. 220)

Having no truck with this gladiatorial spectacle, I never took advantage of the policy of granting service members of the armed forces and the civilian component a delayed reporting due to Super Bowl and the time difference between the US and Europe, the game starting at 00:30 and continuing through the small hours. With Monday, however, being the first day of many agencies that have not already implemented the RTO (return to office policy) of Trump’s executive order, I do wonder how it will play out, begging the question whether they, the newly minted Secretary of Defence (someone said Kegsbreath) know or care about the nuances of their global mission, factoring in limited office space, serviced clients, funding sources, morale, etc. Will this be a delayed reporting and treated like another snow day?

apéro (12. 219)

BBC correspondent Emily Monaco delivers a delectable profile on the French daily custom of cocktail hour, signalling the transition from the work day to the family time, through the origins of the standard, default beverage, in a country of scores of regional drinks, pastis, that came to a place prominence by dent of the ban on absinthe and the promulgated belief that it caused criminal insanity and some clever marketing that produced a more socially acceptable aniseed-infused aperitif, served in the style of southern France, diluted with water until in takes on a cloudy and yellow, hue, mirroring the ritual of the stronger surrogate.

💤 (12. 218)

Via friend of the blog Nag on the Lake, we are directed this futuristic pair of pyjamas, a sleep apparel system, a garment sponsored by the government of Japan to improve one’s sleep hygiene in response to numerous studies that show the country’s citizens are among the most sleep-deprived among highly-developed nations—see previously. Meant to promote polyphasic cycles—that is getting in a nap, see also—with a portable, rest-inducing environment. The comfy down mantle with adjustable compression and inflating collar and noise-cancelling headgear are integrated with sensors to triangulate and optimise one’s sleep segments and was inspired by the traditional futon bed. More from Spoon & Tamago at the link above.

synchronoptica

one year ago: a clairvoyant horse (with synchronoptica), a quasi-moon, national jukebox plus lessons in logic and rhetoric from Star Trek: TAS

seven years ago: the state of public education in Oklahoma plus WiFi hotspots

eight years ago: chief of public enlightenment plus the degeneration of factory towns

nine years ago: ad blockers, assorted links to revisit plus this day in history

ten years ago: sitting is the new smoking plus the American roadtrip

gmod (12. 217)

Mindful of the adage that one should never make fun of a person’s pronunciation because they may have only seen it written beforehand and are saying it out loud for the first time, I was yesterday years old when I found out that skibidi (previously, this was a phenomenon that I thought I could be firm in ignoring) is spoken like a substitute for “zippity do da” and not like the historic music venue CBGB as I said it in my head. Incidentally, it has no meaning and is just a funny sounding filler word that originates from a dance song from a Russian rave group called Little Big from a 2018 track becoming a meme for an eponymous challenge to post one’s own dance video variations. Rather dadaesquely, it has become a prefix for nonsense and the surreal. A spinoff cartoon series called Skibidi Toilet by Alexey Gerasimov has been licensed for a range of products, including toys, costumes and cosmetics and film producer Michael Bay is in talks with its creator for a cinematic adaptation.

endless feed (12. 216)

Having pinned the obsession with our devices and the dopamine hits that they provide to the allegory of Narcissus—and by extension a Sisyphean task—and thinking it went no further, we appreciated being able to expand the metaphor and look at the insatiable compulsion another way with what the Greeks proverbially describe as the “Tantalean punishment” ( Ταντάλειοι τιμωρίαι)—the mythological figure’s eponym synonymous not only with what’s tantalising, eternally tormented by the sight of something desirable but just out of reach but also for those who have good things but cannot enjoy them and teased with aroused expectations that fail to satisfy. Consigned to the lowest level of the Underworld, Tartarus, Tantalus is made to stand in a pool of inviting water with fruit-laden boughs just above his head, the refreshment sought to slake his thirst and quell his hunger receding from his grasp, as divine retribution for having abused the hospitality of the gods and stealing ambrosia and nectar from the table of the Olympians and bringing it back to his people—also for trying to test the gods’ omniscience by butchering his son and serving him to them, whom was later mostly reconstituted. The torture maps quite aptly with the addictive saturation of social media with unending scrolling and no clear exit point by design for finishing a conversation or the consumption of a piece of culture, with tributes, remixes and tangents. Fittingly, our tragic figure is also the namesake of the rare earth element tantalum, an essential component of smart phones and other electronics with some forty milligrams of the substance in the palm of one’s hand right now.

curds and whey (12. 215)

Google has edited its commercial slotted to play during the Super Bowl, promoting its Gemini AI model pitching the use-case scenario of a small, independent cheesemonger using the chatbot to craft a description about Gouda for his shop’s website. The erroneous statistic that Gouda makes up “fifty to sixty percent of the world’s cheese consumption” was replaced in the ad with “one of the most popular cheeses in the world,” the false claim apparently regurgitated from a webpage called cheese.com filled with AI generated, SEO-optimised (see redundant acronym syndrome) blogs. The AI assistant’s responses have the disclaimer that they are “not intended to be factual” but rather framed as a writing aid and that one should perform some fact-checking, presumably googling it.

11x11 (12. 214)

traitor tots: Musk’s merry band of pickpockets and the corporate raids behind the Putsch and purge 

temper tantrum: extinction burst behaviour is one accounting of the ascendancy of MAGA intolerance  

fifty-first: Trudeau warns Trump is serious about annexing Canada—insultingly offering it statehood before Puerto Rico and DC 

isolation mode: after three decades, Baltic nations are switching to the EU power grid, getting off the Russian network

nosotromo: the high school play adaptation of Alien   

endless jeopardy!: hourly answers, honours go to the best, most creative questions—via Waxy   

expo 67: revisiting centenary celebrations in Montreal—see previously 

re-apartheid: Trump administration launches volley of complaints against South Africa, cutting of foreign aid and promote the “resettlement of of Afrikaner refugees”   

center for the performing arts: Trump declares himself chairman of the Washington, DC cultural institution and dismissing board members who disagree with his taste 

hr@opm.gov: unencrypted mass email to CIA operatives offering them the chance to resign may have compromised the agents’ identifies with serious counterintelligence concerns   

federal communications commission: Trump threatens to shut down the CBS television network, calls for the firing of journalists critical of the administration and for doxxing one of Musk’s minions

 synchronoptica

one year ago: vintage hotel luggage tags (with synchronoptica) plus a banger from Billy Ocean

eight years ago: assorted links worth revisiting plus augmented metrics

nine years ago: the Electronic Frontier Foundation’s charter, neologisms and nomonyms plus the Lunar New Year

ten years ago: LARPing at large plus more links to enjoy

eleven years ago: targeted political advertisement, Russian ban on genetically modified foods plus sugar-based batteries

nederbeat (12. 213)

Topping the singles charts on the Billboard Top 100 on this day in 1970—repeating the accomplishment on several other markets internationally, as our faithful chronicler informs—the song by Shocking Blue, covered many times including by Bananarama in 1986 (though the studio discouraging a release as a dance tune) and also reaching number one shares lyrical etymology with the nineteenth century standard “Oh! Susanna.” The band’s lead vocalist, not fluent in English Mariska Veres—whom later released an album of jazz and lounge renditions of 60s and 70s pop hits—recorded and performed the song as written, typo included, as “A godness [sic] on a mountain top,” which was corrected in tribute releases.