last call (12. 459)

US president Calvin Coolidge rebuffing the proposal of the prominent prohibitionist to enforce the Volstead Act with the navy, believing the purpose of the armed forces was national defence and not police duty, on this day in 1925, attorney and longtime leader of the Anti-Saloon League, Wayne Bidwell Wheeler experienced his first push-back from the government after being a major advocate securing the passage of the eighteenth amendment to the US constitution, outlawing the manufacture, distribution and sale of alcoholic beverages. Wheeler’s initial refusal to allow for exemptions for beer below a certain threshold of proof had made him seen as unreasonable and uncompromising, making the already untenable problem of ensuring compliance worse and compelled authorities, resources stretched thin, to turn to increasingly violent and draconian measures to curb consumption including poisoning alcohol (see above). His method of activism, familiar though not a term in common parlance today, came to be known as Wheelerism—focusing on a single issue, relying heavily on mass media to persuade politicians that pet programmes held wide-spread public support, aligning with the ends of the Anti-Saloon League and other tee-totalling organisations and employed tactics like threatening to withdraw endorsements and financing opposition candidates. Wheeler’s influence waned afterwards and did not live to see the repeal of Prohibition, dying of kidney disease in Battle Creek, Michigan.

a symphony in the sky (12. 458)

Although I’d not sure that the calls and coos of our feathered friends (see previously) lack for anything, and who am I to say that birds wouldn’t like playing musical instruments—we found this ancient practise of crafting and outfitting pigeon whistles (鴿鈴, geling—also known as pigeon bells) quite fascinating. These tiny bamboo flutes, even the most elaborate ones weighing no more than eight grams so as not to harm the wearer or impede flight, form a wind section on the wing, attached to the tail feathers and emitting harmonising rhythms as they fly. Though there are fewer pigeon fanciers in urban centres like Beijing, the traditions are still maintained and breeders create a signature sound for their flocks. Much more from Present /&/ Correct at the link up top.

synchronoptica

one year ago: progrock supergroup Asia (with synchronoptica), The Swimmer (1968), outsider artist Melvin May plus a declaration of independence

seven years ago: the catalogue of degenerate art, proposed national IDs for access to adult websites plus One Hundred Scenes of Kobe

eight years ago: rescoring Star Trek: The Motion Picture, a celebration of London plus avian predation

ten years ago: assorted links to revisit plus a semi-legendary Confederate gold vault 

eleven years ago: freedom gas and influence peddling

fishing in the night (12. 457)

Roman Mars’ 99% Invisible cross-posting the work of a colleague and regular contributor directs us to a rather fascinating listen that synthesises a multitude of developments in radio and broadcasting that first forecasts how the medium previsions the internet and the miracle of instantaneous, round the world communication taken for granted by our modern perspective and seemingly by many contemporaries as well. The follow-on season focuses on shortwave, ceded to the pioneering amateurs with authorities considering that band to be of minimal utility and wanting safeguard AM and FM frequencies for tactical and commercial purposes with the outbreak of war. With a limited range but higher fidelity, broadcasters built antenna towers for amplitude modulation transmissions, usually reaching perhaps a county-sized audience, however after dark, listening audiences sometimes caught snatches when tuning the dial to programmes from very far afield. A phenomenon well known to the HAM radio community (see above), the signal boost was caused by the ionosphere becoming less charged by sunlight and able to refract and reflect errant signals back to ground-based receivers. Their shortwave leavings, the hobbyists discovered, had an incredible global and antipodal range which spurred the collecting of calling cards. As knowledge spread that programming and news was not restricted nocturnally, many members of the public, equipped only with standard AM receivers and spent many evenings engaged in the title practice, leaving families to bemoan these squandered evenings with their casting for transmissions in their “radio shack.” Once the potential of this belittled band was realised day or night with the potential for a station to bound around the world and picked up by anyone tuned in, however, once again the enthusiast community—as is the case with modern surfing the web—found themselves sidelined and marginalised with more licensing and crackdowns on commandeering the public airwaves when governments reclaimed the bandwidth for propagandising.

turning saints into the sea (12. 456)

Always a treat, we enjoyed this latest mashup from DJ Earworm (previously) that blends rather seamlessly The Killers’ “Mr Brightside” x “Forever Young” by Alphaville x (minimally) Justin Bieber’s “Stay” featuring Kid Laroi. Each of the source tracks are approximately twenty years apart. All three songs thematically similar, the West German synth-pop contribution have heavier undertones disguised by a brighter, triumphant veneer when the label insisted changing the third verse to the sparse ballad from the eponymous first album (also featuring “Big in Japan”) from:

Can you imagine how we won the war?
Little fascist lady she loves you so
Following her leader, she’s getting in tune
The music’s played by the madmen

To lighten it up a bit with:

Can you imagine when this race is won
Turn our golden faces into the sun
Praising our leaders we’re getting in tune…

The band’s name is from the Jean-Luc Godard’s 1965 new-wave tech noir Alphaville: une étrange aventure de Lemmy Caution about a secret agent posing as a journalist to infiltrate and try to liberate a dystopian community run by a tyrannical artificial intelligence.

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synchronoptica

one year ago: the terminology of literary criticism (with synchronoptica) 

seven years ago: a screenplay by Ulrike Meinhof plus the first duty-free shop

eight years ago: food insecurity, a visit to Bad Bocklet plus more ransonware attacks

ten years ago: the consequences of the TTIP trade deal plus film pioneer Louis Le Prince

eleven years ago: the right to be forgotten plus more spheres of trade

i mean, i could be a stupid person saying—no, we don’t want a free, very expensive airplane (12. 455)

Never a fan of Air Force One and bemoaning the delay that defence contractors like Boeing have presented since commissioning a new presidential fleet during his first term, Trump’s first major foreign trip, an itinerary that returns to the Persian Gulf—which America re-flags as the Arabian, retracing the agenda of his first-term, rife with business deals is overshadowed by coverage that the Qatari royals have offered Trump a deluxe airplane. An uncontested violation of the emoluments clause of the US constitution, Trump says that they four-hundred million dollar flying palace would be registered as a gift to the military—tasked with outfitting the aircraft up to standard, never mind the cost of these security upgrades or symbolism associated—and then donated to his Presidential Library and not for personal use after his presidency. Prompting assurances to the press that the president was unconcerned about what Qatar might ask for in return, Democrat lawmakers are threatening an embargo on any country that might further enrich the Trump family through their largess.

spring den lyn (12. 454)

In a striking move that severs a partnership programme of sponsoring, integration and resettlement of refugees with the US federal government that have endured for nearly four decades, the Episcopal Church, part of the Anglican communion, citing moral opposition to the designation of Afrikaners, whose first members arrived by private jet at Washington’s Dulles Airport, and will, according to the presiding bishop, grant monies that support their outreach, winding down the relationship, rather than dignify the administration’s shrill cries of “reverse racism” and equate the travel wealthy South Africans to the plight of those fleeing persecution. With its Migration Ministries an outshoot of their philosophy and guidance, the denomination has always been a strong proponent of social justice and aligned with figures like Archbishop Desmond Tutu against institutional apartheid and refused to turn its back on its values its historic ties—particularly at a time when all other migration to the United States is essentially frozen with long-term residents being deported or removed to foreign prisons and international humanitarian organisations effectively defunded out of existence. The arrival of the first plane load comes as a consequence of an executive order Trump issued in February under the suggestion of Elon Musk, promising that America would take in “Afrikaners who are victims of unjust racial discrimination,” hateful rhetoric and expropriation of land—baselessly and strongly rejected by the government and much of the public, outside of the aggrieved, taking grave exception with this privilege. The Episcopal Church will continue supporting migrants but on its own ways, coinciding with the new Pope Leo pledge in no uncertain terms to uphold the legacy of Pope Francis in caring for the displaced.

synchronoptica

one year ago: Trump’s potential running-mate (with synchronoptica) plus Lincoln and Ireland

seven years ago: the Ice Saints plus an AI suggests ice cream flavours

eight years ago: Jimmy Carter visits Wiesbaden 

ten years ago: the grooks of Piet Hein plus assorted links to revisit

eleven years ago: Kassel and the Allied Trizone plus brain exercises

 

total reset (12. 453)

Whilst not wholly unrolling all barriers to trade nor unable to undo the disruption already wrought on global supply chains and proffer any sort of future security and certainty when it comes to relocating both manufacturing and sourcing, businesses, investors and consumers welcomed the deescalation following talks among intermediaries in Switzerland which defused, at least temporarily the retaliatory brinksmanship that Trump’s Liberation Day of reciprocal tariffs started with China the only party willing to raise the stakes. Washington and Beijing have retreated back to less punishing levies of thirty and ten percent respectively, discounting other measures already in place. Both delegations conceded that a decoupling of the two major economies benefited no one, with sanctions heretofore approaching the level of a trade embargo and hoped that this initial pause might gain a purchase on negotiations that would promote the predictability needed by all parties, despite the magnanimity for which the ordeal was played, appealing to Trump’s vanities to let him claim credit for solving a crisis of his own making. This deal follows talks between Starmer and Trump that while the blanket duty of ten percent remains on most international exports to the US removed tariffs on UK steel, aluminium and automobiles, in exchange for relaxing regulatory limits previously imposed on American beef and chlorinated poultry. The truce with Xi pointedly does not extend to those same heavy industry items or pharmaceuticals, the same day pledging an incredulous ninety-percent drop in medicine prices, aiming to “equalise,” redistribute drug costs with other countries, saying Europe and the rest of the world will apid more so the US can pay less.

what is this—a coding bootcamp or a lumberjack convention? (12, 452)

Amidst the deployment of more and more bloated apps and brittle, complicated and dependent code that needs constant maintenance—we enjoyed this sweary, full-throated appreciation of hypertext markup language for its robustness and versatility—with antecedents, via MetaFilter. “It’s been the backbone of the web since Al Gore flipped the switch, and it’ll still be here long after your trendy framework is rotting in a GitHub graveyard.”

synchronoptica

one year ago: a banger from the Rolling Stones (with synchronoptica)

seven years ago: creative construction canvases plus assorted links to revisit

eight years ago: Klingon linguistic Easter eggs, more links to enjoy, men’s spaces plus Trump orders DOJ to ratchet up sentencing

ten years ago: even more links plus the Ship of Theseus

eleven years ago: Russia rubbishes the Eurovision