circumplanetary disk (13.253)

Although the suggested existence of a ring-planet dates back to nineteen century observation notes by William Herschel, the definitive discovery of Uranius’ coherent orbital debris fields occurred by fortuitous accident on this day in 1977 by astronomers aboard the Gerard P Kuiper Airborne Observatory, a customised Starlifter jet transporter commissioned by NASA as a platform for research in infrared astronomy. Debuted as the civilian version of defence contractor Lockheed-Martin’s C-141, this high-altitude plane could rise above terrestrial interference equipped with a conventional telescope and spectrometry instruments the programme was also witness to the transmutation of elements through stellar fusion by peering out to the centre of the Milky Way, organic compounds in the great void of space as well as studying the mineral makeup of Mercury. Active for twenty years, the project was eventually retired in 1995 and rests in an airplane graveyard outside of Moffett Field outside of Sunnyvale, California.

checkpoints (13. 252)

Reminding us of the phenomena we encountered recently of being blessed by the algorithm, we appreciated this essay by Bijan Stephen about happening across a soothing montage of ambient sounds accompanied with a pristine arcade sky—evoking vague memories that one couldn’t quite place. Even more remarkable than the occasional videos posted by an anonymous user—since removed with the ephemerality of much of the internet though archived and re-uploaded—were the comments by the thousands from others who stumbled there by chance. Sincere and confessional, many referred to the collection as a “checkpoint”—a place to save one’s progress in video game parlance, where should one fail the next challenges, one does not have to start over from the very beginning. In early 2020, something in the platform’s recommendation protocols changes and suddenly began previewing these vignettes to more and more users—like the above algorithmancy—found serendipity and community outside their accustomed fare in these years old videos with titled in Japanese titles, inspiring more lore in this second wave: “Legends say, if you find this video in your recommended, you truly are a main character in your world—not an NPC,” albeit not the most uplifting turn of phrase nowadays with term coopted by those who punch down. More from Longreads at the link above.

ludus coriovalli (13. 251)

Though our knowledge of the history of gaming of in Antiquity is somewhat obscured by the absence of manuals, we have plenty of artefacts (see previously here and here) that hint at rules of play. One more mysterious board game discovered at the Roman site of Coriovallum in city of Heerlen in the present day Netherlands, is a rounded limestone tablet with grid marks that did not seem to follow any known rules. A wear-use analysis informed an AI-driven simulation of all possible permutations and can trace out the order of play based on other blocking games from the region. More from Open Culture at the link above.

day eleven (13. 250)

Describing the assault as a “short-term excursion” and ahead of schedule, Trump announced, after speaking with Vladimir Putin, that the war on Iran would end very soon, vacillating from earlier projections that it could go on for several weeks, but how soon depended on Tehran, refusing to say whether the new Supreme Leader was a target for assassination, as Israel has declared. Australia grants asylum to members of the women’s national football team stranded after the Asian Games. Air raids in Beirut continue and in the Iranian capital, targeting civilian infrastructure. Syria signalled support to Lebanon for the disarmament of Hezbollah and massed troops on their shared border. NATO defences in Türkiye have intercepted a second missile entering its airspace, deploying jets to protect Cyprus as the RAF patrols over Jordan.

synchronoptica

one year ago: more from artist Len Lye (with synchronopticæ), art vandalism as protest plus erasure of the Black Lives Matter street mural

thirteen years ago: a papal conclave plus a souvenir from the Canary Islands

sixteen years ago: complaints and compliance plus dwindling attention spans

seventeen years ago: Americans’ fear of socialism 

thank you for your attention in this matter (13. 249)

Though I’d daresay that Americans are not facing a collapse of democratic institutions but already coping—and not so well—with the aftermath, this piece by Timothy Snyder is an important reminder of the fine line between Occam’s and Hanlon’s razors, the latter corollary an adage of Murphy’s Law never to impute malice when incompetence will suffice and how no conspiracy or ravenous opportunism is needed to exploit or manufacture a crisis. All is going according to the lack of planning as an inevitability that makes Iran an willing partner—the assault informed by perhaps the inscrutable foresight of AI which in its twisted logic mistaken for omnipresence to bomb a girls’ school instead of the neighbouring military barracks as or the Golestan palace calculated providence—in igniting the next pretext. Stochastic terror, self-terror visited on the US might not have been the original goal but with America stripped of its defences and checks on power and the endgame already announced with the greater investment in an imperial presidency by court, cabinet and congress only interested in the celebrity and self-enrichment of public office, it does seem inescapable that one sort of domestic attack or another—perhaps on the vast array of outposts that gives the administration reason to abandon its allies—cedes control of the national narrative and allows Trump to cancel elections, having first visited generational trauma on others, with a mass-mediated panic.

don’t threaten me with a good time (13. 248)

Amidst the constellation of a failing economy, hemispheric bellicosity, a partial government shutdown and a widening war in the Middle East poised to turn into a quagmire, US president Trump has made his legislative priorities clear by saying he will withhold endorsement of any bills that reach his desk until the SAVE act is passed. An acronym for Safeguard American Voter Eligibility, the proposed reform to the National Voter Registration act of 1993 would require “documentary proof of citizenship” in order to register to participate in elections. With the stated purpose of preventing voter fraud and non-citizens from voting in federal elections, which is vanishingly rare, it is a vehicle for disenfranchising a large swaths of the population who don’t have accepted identity documents on hand and/or don’t have the occasion to present them selves to an official for adjudication ahead of registration deadlines—much less to clear up discrepancies between one’s birth certificate and passport over a maiden-name. The GOP sponsored version up for debate for the mid-terms also includes the requirement that states (which control voting though there are also efforts in motion to federalise the process) share voting rolls with the Department of Homeland Security and the abolition of mail-in ballots. Under the current sixty vote threshold for senate passage, Republicans cannot pass the bill without the support of Democrats, who have made clear they will not condone voter suppression, and despite Trump’s urging the upper chamber, Republicans will not drop the filibuster for fear of blowback. Whilst the impasse does seem to suggest more gridlock and would be frankly preferable to the paucity of actually congressional legislation passed under Trump, his penchant for executive orders and a pliable supreme court have done the job of governing, there are still the technicalities of the pocket veto—usually used, when timed right, to kill a bill through inaction, but the opposite holds true as well, with an absentee congress remaining in session forces passage.

growth-hacking paradigms (13. 247)

As a bit of a vindicating corollary to a previous post on business jargon, we are referred to via Slashdot, a longitudinal study by Cornell university cognitive psychologist Shane Littrell introducing their Corporate Bullshit Receptivity Scale (CBSR) as a gauge of susceptibility to empty rhetoric, corresponding with overall poor job performance and a deficit of practical decision-making skills. Although BS can happen in any context, it can be especially fraught in the workplace where such lingo is an institutional protection, structurally built in, to cushion misdirection and feign accomp-lishment, and so for their experiment for insight into how such language is reenforced and paradoxically is a poor surrogate for job management skills, Littrell commissioned a LLM to generate corporate soundbites and had a large sample of workers to rate the business savvy of such phrases revealing quite a knowledge gap, enticed with what passes as transformative, inspired and visionary. More at the links above.

day ten (13. 246)

Iran announces the appointment of a new Supreme Leader in Mojtaba Khamenei, the son of the late Ayatollah, with a fresh wave of missile strikes against Israeli, the country’s military answerable to no authority during the interregnum. As US government employees are evacuated from Riyadh among renewed attacks on American assets in the Gulf and a thwarted sabotage of a Saudi oil field as black rain falls in Tehran and Bahrain, Trump declares any decision to end the war will be in mutual consultation with Netanyahu. Israeli ground troops invade southern Lebanon. French president Emmanuel Macron travels to Cyprus in a show of solidarity. World markets continue to roil and far eastern nations like the Philippines and Myanmar order energy cuts in response to the Middle East crisis, calling for a four-day workweek, banning private vehicles and avoiding non-essential travel to conserve fuel.

synchronoptica 

one year ago: a fateful date (with synchronopticæ), furniture music, outlawing revenge porn plus a towering temple in Sri Lanka

thirteen years ago: navigation stones, humorist Sean Tejaratchi plus Pax Americana

fourteen years ago: an upcoming trip to Prague 

fifteen years ago: solidarity forever 

sixteen years ago: complex credit schemes