project ester (12. 582)

Named after queen Hadassah of the Hebrew bible who canonically revealed the designs of the Persian vizier to execute the Jews of Persia and urged them to take up arms against their enemies, the conservative think-tank, the Heritage Foundation’s other agenda—aside from Project 2025—ostensibly with the laudatory aim of combating what it classifies as antisemitism, Project Ester was launched a month before the US presidential, coinciding Hamas-led attack on Israel. Like many aspirational goals of the think-tank’s other programme, which seemed naïvely at the time far-fetched and were dismissed as panic mongering or symptomatic of Trump derangement syndrome, their target as outlined in the project’s blueprint—which the administration has brought whole-cloth, has shifted from something that ought to be an uncontroversial and given of dignity and respect shown to fellow humans to something ideological and partisan—only attacking anti-semitism on the left (which in itself seems like an oxymoron)—and using dismantling pro-Palestinian organisations and protest as a vehicle, a national strategy to frame an stance perceived as critical of the government of Israel as supporting a network of terrorism. The chilling effect that this has had for demonstrators, which the project’s architects do not deny was their intent, manifest in cancelling student visas and millions of dollars in US federal grants for colleges and universities not seen to be doing enough to combat anti-Semitic acts. Critical of “legacy” American Jewish institutions as complacent and embraced by evangelical Christians, many in the community Project Ester is claiming to champion have disavowed its tactics, recognising that their real plight is being appropriated to incite moral panic and spread conservative values broadly by targeting students, educators, politicians and other figures and institutions aligned with the purported movement that threatens not only Israeli interests but the US as well.

7x7 (12. 581)

latam-gpt: frustrated with the limitations of hegemonic AIs, Latin America is building its own inclusive, nuanced version  

whatever files she thinks are credible: amid backlash and reversing a reversal of previous postures, US congress moves to release the Epstein files  

þjóðvegur 1: a twelve day summer road-trip on Iceland’s Route One worthy of a saga  

percussion section: a word-search drum machine for selection of literary classics—via Waxy  

what’s the story, morning glory: every Oasis song visualised—via Quantum of Sollazzo  

not our war: MAGA revolts over Trump’s decision to supply weapons to Ukraine, realising his fawning respect for Putin is not reciprocal 

 lived experience: editors engaged to fix AI copy 

synchronoptica

one year ago: assorted links worth revisiting (with synchronopticæ) plus the Trump-Vance ticket

fourteen years ago: a periodic table of typefaces plus holidays in France

sixteen years ago: IKEA nomenclature 

cyberstress (12. 580)

We quite enjoyed this rather wholesome reminder, via r/ObscureMedia, from 1997 that goes beyond office ergonomics—which is frankly where most concepts of workplace well-being stopped and didn’t progress any further, from this cosmic guide to relax… take breaks… relax… take breaks… Me in 1997 would have been suspicious and very dismissive of such advice but now realise it was way ahead of its time—like an epiphany—and did manage to relieve my tension.

hapax legomenon (12. 579)

Via Waxy, we found this project from by Josh Sucher to create a cinematic lexicon of infrequent words from a data-set of prolix, dialogue-heavy films. Unsurprisingly, the top tier of one-in-a-billion words come from adaptations of Shakespeare with a close runner-up being the move version of The Pirates of Penzance and coming in at third overall was the TV new drama Network, the logophilia of the screen-writer Sidney “Paddy” Chayefsky (Marty, The Americanization of Emily, Paint Your Wagon, The Hospital and Altered States) inspiring the endeavour, which includes such terms as oraculate, chateaubriands and auspicatory. The project’s website gives definitions and the lines of dialogue from the film, cross-referencing other uncommon words used in the same production.

synchronoptica

one year ago: a storied gay bar in Seattle (with synchronopticæ), the Great White Way, an unavailable lecture by Grace Hopper plus assorted links to revisit

fourteen years ago: East Bloc architecture plus reading the comments below the fold

9x9 (12. 578)

i’ll get no residuals ‘cause i’m a stateless individual: Trump considers revoking the citizenship of long time show-business foil Rosie O’Donnell  

know thy selfie: from visibility and transformation to the routine, an examination of the custom that’s unlikely to loose currency  

room 237: Stanley Kubric’s last minute change to the ending of The Shining  

from the i sing the scooter electric department: China’s Omo X is a self-driving EV  

turtle spiders of the sea: Ze Frank on the horseshoe crab 

ebb and flow: an underwater turbine off the coast of Scotland demonstrates the viability of tidal energy  

hyborean age: a Red Sonja remake in discussion thirty years in after numerous other reboots  

a common-thread among world-eating types: a literally history of the billionaire—via Nag on the Lake  

off-ramp: unmoved by other atrocities, MAGAist may view Trump’s connection with the sex-pest as a somewhat dignified way to sever connections with the movement

global jukebox (12. 577)

Inspired by the success of the Band Aid supergroup’s charity album from a half-a-year earlier, though with the same attendant criticism, Bob Geldof and Midge Ure staged their dual-venue benefit concert to raise funds for relief of the devastating famine in Ethiopia on this day in 1985 with bands playing at both Wembley Stadium and JFK Stadium in Philadelphia. Whilst prompting decades of debate regarding the organisers’ methods and impacts—from prioritising humanitarian aid in foreign policy and focusing the world’s attention on the plight of the poor in favour with dissenters arguing that monies raised were diverted from real and sustaining support and further delayed the West coming to terms with its parochial and patriarchal tendencies and disabuse itself from the real factors behind inequity and the injustice of colonialism under a different guise. Proclaiming music to be the lingua franca—not English, nonetheless, Geldof, at the suggestion of Boy George, whom had also taken part in the recording of “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” orchestrated a rather amazing spectacle with an enduring legacy. Mick Jagger and David Bowie had originally planned a transatlantic duet (see previously) though synchronisation problems ultimately lead to a compromise. Phil Collins did in fact play at Wembley, ferried by helicopter to Heathrow and took a Concorde flight to Pennsylvania and performed also at JFK, encountering Cher on the plane—who was unaware of the concert but was convinced to tag along and sing in the finale, an encore of the anti-hunger anthem “We Are the World.” Queen’s twenty-one-minute performance of a medley of hits was voted the greatest live gig in music history, Freddie Mercury many times leading the audience in unison refrains and his sustained cry of “Aaaaay-O” described as the “Note Heard Around the World.” The US event was hosted by Jack Nicholson and included acts by Madonna, Tom Petty, Bob Dylan, the Rolling Stones and Tina Turner with reunions of the bands Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, Black Sabbath, The Beach Boys and Led Zeppelin.

ekranoplan (12. 576)

Recent intelligence suggests that China might be attempting to revive a Cold War leviathan known as the Soviet sea monster of the Caspian, the semi-legendary ekranoplan (экранопла́н, a screen-glider or ground-effect vehicle) an airfoil designed to fly just over the crests of the waves, invisible to radar, impervious to mines riding on a cushion of high air pressure and achieving speeds ten times faster than traditional maritime vessels, leaving fleets and coast defences no time to react. Photographs have emerged of apparent trials in the Sea of Bohai, near the Korean peninsula. DARPA was working on its own for the US navy—called a Liberty Lifter, the concept vehicle also known for its increased cargo delivery capacity with advantages other both ships and planes—but the programme was abruptly cancelled last month.

synchronoptica

one year ago: claim-jumping in the Arctic (with synchronopticæ), reproductive care in international waters, a local air show plus a failed assassination attempt on Donald Trump

thirteen years ago: the Period Table typeface 

fourteen years ago: debt and pensions 

télégraph aérien (12. 575)

Having previously learned about the invention of the optical or semaphore communications system of Claude Chappe, we appreciated this retrospective and chance to revisit the contentious innovation that informed public perception and art movements into the nineteenth century. Hailed as a great advancement, the tachygraphic network that was being introduced just as the French Revolution was beginning in 1792 as a series of relay towers throughout the countryside and in metropolitan areas was by turns regarded as an achievement, condemned as an eyesore and viewed with suspicion. The cellular masts (or windmills) of their day, their addition to the tops of buildings, profane and sacred, was considered despoiling aesthetically—numerous examples of paintings from that period feature them prominently, sort of like the scaffolding that encased the Statue of Liberty during the eighties that become as iconic and emblematic as the unobscured monument—and the coded messages (the arrangement of the blades or wings corresponded to ninety-eight numbers) to be deciphered and passed on the next operator) were taken as something sinister, prompting the destruction of some towers either as signs of witchcraft (compare to the attacks on the 5G masts during COVID either as its cause or a government conspiracy to implant microchips in the population to control it) or to hinder accelerated responses to quell uprisings, the government privileged with this speeded up reaction not available to the protesters. A group of investors in Bordeaux were jailed, though ultimately acquitted, for bribing operators to transmit stock market figures from Paris hours ahead of when the gains and losses would be available to the competition—an abuse for the sight-lines that was never envisioned. Much more from Hyperallergic at the link above.