12x12 (12. 237)

little sisyphus: a challenging NES-style side-scrolling game—see previously—via Waxy  

behind every robot that turns evil there’s an engineer that installed red diodes in its eyes in anticipation: Meta wants to create AI powered robots to do your chores 

quipu: the largest known superstructure in the Cosmos, named for the corded knot accounting of the ancient Inca culture—via Strange Company  

parataxis: storytelling loves a list  

i will say this only once: John J Hoare responds to a video take-down notice for reposting an old clip—that suggests that YouTube is focused on hate speech against Nazis  

pantograph engraving: the unseen typeface all around us—via the new Shelton wet/dry 

pump and dump: nothing to see here, just another perfectly normal president pulling the rug out from under his country with a memecoin 

return to forever: Chick Corea and friends at the forty-third Jazzaldia festival 

stairwell of the quarter: more on the design efficiency of alternating tread stairs  

nanook of the north: Robert J Falherty’s 1922 documentary on the Inuit  

how many department of government efficiency employees does it take to screw in a lightbulb: a look at DOGE at work—via Nag on the Lake  

windows, icons, menus, pointers: a cursor dance party—via Pasa Bon!

elizabeth peratrovich day (12. 237)

Civil and indigenous people’s rights activist (born with the Tlingit name Ḵaax̲gal.aat, “person who packs for themselves”) Elizabeth Peratrovich (née Wanamaker) is celebrated on this day in the state of Alaska for championing the Anti-Discrimination Act of 1945—on the anniversary of the passage of the bill in 1945, which was the first law of its kind enacted in any state or territorial possession of America. Overt racism from white settlers towards native peoples was widespread and included segregation in public spaces, shops and schools along with diminished job prospects and exclusion from white neighbourhoods.   Several attempts beginning in 1941 to pass legislation failed in the district’s senate with the campaigner and her tribe characterised as primitive—a lot of “white man’s burden” theatrics. Nevertheless Peratrovich persisted, responding to the insults: “I would not have expected that I, who am barely out of savagery, would have to remind gentlemen with five thousand years of recorded civilisation behind them, of our Bill of Rights.” The bill passed and signed into law by the governor nearly twenty years before one was adopted on a national level. It is unclear whether Alaska, in the current political climate, gets to keep the holiday and the history behind it—with it being dictated what it can call its mountains and Denali being re-flagged again after a populist president with imperial ambitions and a penchant for tariffs.

synchronoptica

one year ago: AI does text-to-video (with synchronoptica) plus Russian opposition leader found dead

seven years ago: US school shootings plus nominative determinism

eight years ago: cognition in non-human animals

nine years ago: subversive merit badges, rodeo tailor Nudie Cohn plus upper- and lower case

eleven years ago: an action figure collection plus the state of education in the US

paydirt (12. 236)

The foundations of the first Roman basilica in London (Londinium) have been unearthed beneath the basement level of an office building scheduled for demolition and redevelopment on Gracechurch street. Much expanded as the conquest of Britain continued through the first century AD, this structure before an open public courtyard would have been the civic centre of the settlement and seat of the administration and judicial and commerce, the public-facing edifice for festivals and announcements. After a series of exploratory excavations, a plan has been developed to create a sublevel access for the archaeological site (see previously), preserving the remains under the high street.

st valentine’s day massacre (12. 235)

The purge of US federal workers, beginning with employees serving their probationary period that started in earnest yesterday and continues through the Presidents’ Day long weekend, with the DOGE advisory panel—not a governmental entity and with only derived authority—summarily terminating large swaths of critical workers—not necessarily new to their departments and agencies but many perhaps merely promoted or reclassified within the past two years—arbitrarily and without cause from high- and lower-profile sections including the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, NASA, the Department of Veterans’ Affairs, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Federal Aviation Administration and Homeland Security to the National Nuclear Safety Administration and the Department of Housing and Urban Development, imperilling public safety, health, security and basic services across the country. Not only does this put the public at risk by handicapping safeguards, enforcement and disease and weather surveillance, eliminate the successor generation of scientists and educators in government roles and clear out decades of institutional knowledge and experience, the deletion of workers and agencies with flagrant disregard for procedure, collective bargaining agreements, contracts or labour rights is the onset of a constitutional crisis, the executive no longer respecting the separation of powers by failing to commit funds duly appropriated by the separate and coequal legislative branch for their express purpose—and just barely, so far, abiding by decisions from judges ordering pauses and offering up what speed-bumps they can muster. The US is witnessing the transformation into a dictatorship already in the dismantling of the administrative state, however, and it won’t take ignoring a lawful order to set it off, the regime openly threatening justices who would stand in its way and forwarding appeals to a supreme court solidly in support of its agenda and end-state. Elections have consequences and those polities that voted for this, to hurt Black and Brown people and everyone else—as well as businesses that donated and lobbied—should brace for impact as the first to feel the brunt of their support. It is difficult to say if they can connect the causation or even if there might still be a chance for future reform.

antiqua et nova (12. 234)

With the above incipit, we learn that back in mid-January, Francis issued a papal bull—as Web Curios informs—on artificial intelligence, which is absolutely by far one of the most circumspect, heavily footnoted, thoughtful considerations of the implications of the technology touching on ethics, labour and the economy, culture, the arts, theology and human identity. In begins with a detailed history, going back to the summer workshop hosted on the campus of Dartmouth university in 1956 which first explored the concept, drawing a distinction between narrow AI and general intelligence and the ability to think and reason, not necessarily condemning the increasingly sophisticated models as trickery or mere pablum—or mankind fetishising the divinity it deserves—but rather as something potentially complementary for human dignity and vocation if harnessed in the right manner. Far from condemning technological advancement—though wary of the tac taken—or privileging, imbuing the human condition with something vague and inviolable, there is an interesting philosophical departure on the mind-body problem and how intelligence, which is not only found in functionality and solution-finding, but requires incarnation, embodiment, to engage in its environment and filtering all the noise not as hallucinations but as input and impulse—lest it remain just a ghost in the machine. The entire essay is worth reading and making the effort to parse the pope’s position, which seems on the whole a positive one that acknowledges AI’s potential to enhance decision making and a force to elevate all of us but cautions not to conflate true wisdom, measured by one’s capacity for charity and empathy, both transcendent and imminent by our own interiority.

synchronoptica

one year ago: the Beautiful Blue Danube (with synchronoptica)

seven years ago: assorted links to revisit, the animation of Pablo Lozano, renaming historic artwork to give the models a backstory plus Canadian Flag Day

eight years ago: food artist Dan Bannino 

nine years ago: moustachioed sea birds, soup and sandwiches plus brutalist Paris

eleven years ago: policing the police state plus to google in different languages

if american democracy can survive ten years of scolding from greta thunberg, you guys can survive a few months of elon musk (12. 233)

US Vice President and tortured man-child JD Vance opened the Munich Security Conference with a scorching assault on European partners, reframing their attempts to uphold the democratic order by cordoning off extreme nationalist elements (indeed the firewall is for MAGA too) as the true commination to freedom and liberty and accusing their governments of censorship, suppressing free speech—nullifying election results and condoning dangerous and illegal immigration. Citing the threat from within—and questioning whether the US and Europe had any shared values, Vance deviated from the expected topics of Ukraine and the overall security agenda to awkwardly to lecture politicians and policy makers he characterised as running scared from their electorate and paralysed be political correctness and elitism—deputising Trump as the “new sheriff” and that democratic institutions would indeed fail if the people’s issues were deemed invalid. The hall was in shock and did not appreciate the undeniable deflection as being labeled authoritarian regimes, recognising the ill-judged sermon (whose jokes did not land) as aimed for domestic consumption only, at best, and election interference for upcoming voting in Germany at worst.

arrow key (12. 232)

Via Web Curios and in the tradition of line-rider sequences, we are informed that there are playable versions of video clips on YouTube in a range of genres from DOOM, Guitar Hero to chess from the channel Firerama capitalising on native features to allow on to dodge and advance or retreat. We liked the timed concept and could play them for a hot minute, though agreeably the the draw of the challenge was not wholly compelling but is still a promising and inventive idea and an improvement on the choose-your-own-adventure narratives and labour-intensive side-quests of streaming services.

8x8 (12. 231)

shiroposuto: the last of Japan’s discrete adult reading material disposal boxes 

reinfection: bovine testing for bird flu virus suggests that the H5N1 is spreading silently—see previously   

with guns as my retirement and war as mistress: more protest anthems from Jessie Welles   

in the meantime, i am seriously considering cultivating stupidity, to the exclusion of everything else, as a way of life: the correspondence of Edward Gorey and Tom Fitzharris   

remember the giver: an assortment of Valentine’s Day letters   

tipping point: how things change slowly—then all at once, as illustrated by Kiki and Bouba   

morbidity and mortality weekly report: US Centres For Disease Control see research and outreach efforts hampered by Trump’s assault on the agency—see previously, see also   

enmusubi: the gathering of eight million gods play matchmaker for human relationships in this seaside prefecture

synchronoptica

one year ago:  1924’s Die Niebelungen (with synchronoptica), the endless news cycle plus assorted links to revisit

seven years ago: photographing a single atom, the illustrations of Giovanni Fontana, retro social media platforms plus street name diplomacy

eight years ago: more links to enjoy plus Germany votes

nine years ago: developing the .jpeg format, contention over US Presidents’ Day plus holograms to discourage non-disabled drivers taking handicapped parking spots

eleven years ago: forensics and biometrics plus pop culture Ottoman miniatures