synchronoptica
one year ago: a skilled sniper (with synchronopticรฆ) plus a circle-and-spoke map of the London Underground
fourteen years ago: divination, inspiration from antique books
fifteen years ago: a superlative wine service
sixteen years ago: the passing of Ted Kennedy
Via Quantum of Sollazo, we enjoyed this essay by James Ball that challenges the conventional wisdom on Big Data, put into over-drive by AI, and how the relentless onslaught of serviced, targeted advertisements, which are at best repetitive and worst suspect and irrelevant. 
If AI, ravenous and insatiable, was producing better insight from triangulated demographics, it stands to reason that commercials, banners and pop-ups would be more focused, engaging and effective, rather than less so and an annoyance to be batted away. Spam proliferated due its virtually no-cost duplication and personalisation and now the process is even more effortless, automated as intrusive slop—going in the opposite direction of what’s hyped and heralded by this unholy twinning. The myth of supremacy in Big Data—started by loyalty programmes for brick and mortar retail chains—likewise crumbles when one looks at other aspects it supposedly influenced, like electioneering through micro-targeted ads which on subsequent analysis, reframing the narrative, from the touted architecture of choice to marketing for sponsors on the network. Much more at the links above.
we are all piscasso’s fishermen: a reflection on “Night Fishing at Antibes”
a dangerous game of jenga with a key pillar of our economy: Democrats push back on Trump’s decision to illegally fire member of the Federal Reserve board—see previously
we want to be defensive but maybe we want to be offensive too: administration mulls changing the DOD back to the War Department
they call me president of europe: Trump frames EU digital rules as disrespectful, threatens to up-end tariff deal
what is going on in south korea—seems like a purge or revolution—we can’t have that and do business there: Trump meets with counterpart Lee Jae Myung—suggests detente with North Korea, appropriating leased land that hosts US military bases
cornhusker clink: as judge orders closure of the hastily built Alligator Alcatraz (previously), the US department of homeland security announces a new detention facility in Nebraska
cheeto mussolini: giant images of Trump swath government office buildings
america by design: AirBnB co-founder appointed as director of US national design studio
stephen is a celebrated ballerino: Richard Grenell (previously) introduces Kennedy Centre’s Dance Director—in case you missed it, continued funding for the US national opera is contingent on the venue being renamed after the first lady
the metaphorical frog has boiled to death: news media in denial about America’s descent into totalitarianism—via Kottke
synchronoptica
one year ago: the era of AI photography (with synchronopticรฆ) plus the death of Charles Lindbergh
twelve years ago: the last of the VW T-2s
thirteen years ago: the singular roundness of the sun plus a trip through the Rheingau
fourteen years ago: assorted links to revisit
fifteen years ago: bailouts and banking secrecy
Though just another feckless executive order and virtue signalling (plus a distraction) to his base—as President Bartlett said there’s no epidemic of flag-burning in protest after entertainer Penn Jillette stirred controversy with sleight of hand trick and asks deputy chief of staff, “What if we burned a flag, not in protest, but in celebration of the very freedoms that allow us to burn a flag—the freedoms that everyone who has ever worked in this magnificent building has pledged to preserve and protect?”
—and against the 1989 landmark supreme court decision that affirmed such actions as protected speech under the first amendment, the Trump administration has directed officials in the justice department to prosecute flag burning in a way that does not violate the constitution, directing the attorney general to prioritise laws against desecration in connection with other crimes to allow for revocation of visas and deportation of foreign nationals, promising jail time for the offence and suggesting loss of citizenship. Describing the act as “uniquely offensive and provocative,” Trump has always had a particular preoccupation with such acts (see above case protecting “fighting words”)—whilst rubbish the principles behind it—and when a regime tells one what flags cannot be burned, it will next tell one which flags cannot be waved. Creeping—nay galloping—despotism aside, those who insist a symbol is sacrosanct and inviolable also keep it off their crappy merchandise. “Did you go to law school?” “No, clown school.”
After exhumation and reinterment with honours befitting, the mortal remains of Richard III, the last English monarch killed in combat—on 22 August 1485 during the Battle of Bosworth Field, the final skirmish of the Wars of the Roses—and the last Yorkish ruler of the Plantagenet dynasty, discovered (see also) on this day in 2012 beneath a parking garage on the site of the former Greyfriars friary in Leicester, were confirmed following an extensive and exhaustive scientific battery of tests that built solid consensus over the identity of the skeleton. 
The original tomb in the care of a Franciscan brotherhood lost with the Dissolution of the Monasteries and subsequent subdivisions of land and modern development, and triangulating historical records, forensic archaeology (the remains showed evidence of severe scoliosis and a deadly blunt wound to the back of the skull as well as other posthumous “humiliation injuries” consistent with the king’s disposition), radio-carbon dating as well as mitochondrial DNA lineages of descendants. Excavation and studies were granted on condition that if Richard was found, his remains were to stay in Leicester, the infamous king given a place in the cathedral. A legal controversy followed this condition with counter-claimants proposing alternate sites proposed deemed more in keeping with tradition, like Westminster Abbey or York Minster, though the courts eventually, after much consideration, recused themselves—judging they had no say in public matters having had exercised their due diligence, absent a last will and testament. Reburial ceremonies took place during the last week of March 2015 with a requiem mass and a prayer for all souls fallen in battle and distant relative Benedict Cumberbatch read a poem for the service with special Latin missals composed for the occasion.
many happy returns: belated happy blogoversaries to Miss Cellania and Art for Housewives
then they took him and brought him to a meeting of the areopagus: Peter Thiel’s lecture series sponsored by Acts XVII Collective
oh the huge manatee: dugongs are making a return to the South China Sea after being declared functionally extinct
cavlinball court: Justic Kentanji Brown Jackson has a name for her lawless SCOTUS
no brat, no hot girl, no barbenheimer: trudging through the exhausting Summer of Nothing
sadopopulism: Trump and the Marquis
diastros, emergencia, ruin: a weather spot from The Fast Show, a BBC2 sketch comedy airing from 1994 to 1997
synchronoptica
one year ago: assorted links worth the revisit (with synchronopticรฆ) plus a visit to Hermannsfeld
fourteen years ago: junk drawers and stockpiling
fifteen years ago: a medical scare
Via Damn Interesting, we are treated to a slide show of Kodachrome colour plates (see also), likely souvenirs from an unnamed nurse stationed at the 97th US General Army Hospital in Frankfurt circa 1952 
to 1953 just as West Germany was rebuilding from the war—a sprawling medical campus first used during the Berlin Airlift and since become the grounds of the consulate general. Images from this individual’s tours of West Germany feature the most some of the most photogenic shooting locations for postcard snapshots from Frankfurt, Wรผrzburg (including scenes from the Saint Killian parade), Rothenburg ob der Tauber as well as places unknown, just passing through, the obligatory grand tour whilst in Germany whether one’s stay is short or long. Much more at the links above.
de minimis: new US tariff confusion has many European shipping companies suspending deliveries to the United States—see previously
o tu illustrata: the 1988 David Lynch produced album of Jocelyn Montgomery performing Hildegard von Bingen compositions—see previously here and here
thank you for your attention to this matter: Gavin Newson can perhaps ape despots so well because they’re not all that different
optical illusion: if you stare at this circle for long enough, it becomes a red dot
sometimes easy, sometimes hard: reflecting on the legacy of post-punk hit Deluxe by Harmonia half-a-century on—via Feuilleton
labirinti di immagini: fifteenth century Italian architect Francesco Segala pioneered the picture maze
entartete kunst: Trump orders a purge of diversity narratives at the Smithsonian
uptown top ranking: a reggae one-hit wonder from duo Althea and Donna
never let a crisis go unexploited: like the Dole fruit company in Hawaii or the supposed car-jacking in DC that led to its takeover, the US will capitalise on the protest of a newborn being removed from her Greenlandic mother for welfare reasons as the excuse to annex it
synchronoptica
one year ago: a quick weekend get-away (with synchronopticรฆ) plus the Formosa Straits crisis of 1958
thirteen years ago: travel bumper stickers
seventeen years ago: designed obsolescence
