i could know about it, i could be the one starting it—i’m actually the chief law enforcement officer (12. 664)

The FBI and other federal agents launched a pre-dawn raid on the Maryland home of former national security adviser John Bolton, whom notably attempted to be one of the adults in the room briefly during the first Trump administration by discouraging the president from broadcasting his intent to use the justice department as his personal retribution service and going after political enemies as it would undermine the credibility of the rule of law for the United States—the war hawk and would-be minder somewhat rehabilitated through his catty tell-all account of his time in that role In the Room Where It Happened (a reference to the Hamilton number apparently) which was subject to pre-publication review for potentially compromising and politically embarrassing information and which Trump himself sued to stop its release during his first impeachment trial. Though initially denying any knowledge into the search of the premises, Trump in his next breath launched into an indictment that Bolton was not a smart guy but he could be “a very unpatriotic guy—we’re going to find out,” with the implication that Bolton had top secret government documents in his possession, similar to the case brought against Trump during his interregnum for bringing home a box of files on US nuclear capabilities and dossiers on dozens of foreign leaders after his 2020 loss (which upon re-election promptly retrieved and brought back to Mar-a-Lago). Perhaps Bolton, whom Trump also immediately after beginning his new term stripped of his security detail despite active attempts on his life by Iranian agents for involvement Trump’s ordered assassination of their military leaders, absconded with the Epstein files. This raid also follows Bolton’s public rebuke of Trump’s summit with Putin in Alaska for the losing and subservient theatre it was. The purge of Trump’s critics and enemies is already ongoing and the judiciary branch and the supreme court are manifestly at his beck and call but this seems to suggest a new level of authoritarianism and performative democracy that makes one wonder who might be next on the hit list and what fabricated evidence might be planted.

synchronoptica 

one year ago: GPS epochs (with synchronopticæ) plus a potential violation of the Logan Act

fourteen years ago: street art in Bamberg 

fifteen years ago: a visit to the Memmelsdorfer Seehof plus the return of 3-D cinema

seventeen years ago: sabotaging crops with wartime bio-terrorism 

the washington conversations on internal peace and security (12. 663)

Formally convened as the above, the Dumbarton Oaks Conference, held at a historic estate in Georgetown—bequeathed to Harvard four years prior by the wealthy diplomat couple who owned the property that was originally a land-grant of Queen Anne to the colonies and later residence of vice president John C Calhoun, began on this day in 1944, running until 7 October. Organised and led by the so called Four Policemen, a post-war council consisting of allied powers of the United States, the United Kingdom, the People’s Republic of China and the Soviet Union and a term popularised by FDR as a guarantor for world peace by keeping order within their respective spheres of influence—Britain within its Empire and western Europe, China in East Asia, Russia for Eurasia and America for the western hemisphere, the summit sought to establish a successor infra-national governing body to succeed the League of Nations, would led to the formation of the United Nations in 1945. The role of the Policemen as sheriffs and an executive body administering over its constituent member nations was ultimately scaled back by critics of such hegemony and potential polarisation and paternalising scaled back with France included as a permanent member of the UN security council at the insistence of Churchill, whilst America’s nomination of Brazil was rejected. As the Soviets were unwilling to meet with the Chinese during initial talks, the conversations were held in two phases. Though China and the USSR (constituent republics like Belarus and Ukraine were made voting members of the general assembly) were not afforded the chance to champion regional seconds, the five permanent members of the rotating council secured veto powers, as was first proposed in Yalta (see above) and finalised in the San Francisco Charter that established the UN.

diesel and dust (12. 662)

Released on this day in 1987, the sixth studio album from Midnight Oil is a concept record on the themes of environmental degradation and the struggles of Indigenous Australians, critically acclaimed and ranked amongst the best compilations of the 80s since its premiere. Drawing their inspiration from several months of touring the outback and playing in venues for remote Aboriginal communities—criticised by some as a one-off publicity stunt rather than a genuine effort to highlight lack of opportunity and low living standards leading to poor outcomes, the band decided to redouble their efforts to champion recognition and reconciliation. The chart topping single below is an indictment about how populations were subject to forced-removal and sparked a global discussion about land-rights and reframing narratives—with colonisers not the only one who get to write history, reprised several times with the expanded message of the impending climate catastrophe.

*     *     *     *     * 

synchronoptica

one year ago: assorted links to revisit (with synchronopticæ) 

twelve years ago: Snowden’s time in Hong Kong, Bitcoin and Germany plus cult sites of the Theban Legion 

thirteen years ago: artist Laurtis Andersen Ring 

fourteen years ago: mythical creatures and Addler stones 

7x7 (12. 661)

boom!: the disastrously inebriated flop starring Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor judged the “best failed art film ever” 

supermarginal gyrus: a mind-reading brain-computer interface can decode one’s internal monologue comes with password protection for self-censoring  

there’s a monster in willow called the eborsisk—after the critics Roger Ebert and Gene Siskel: a long interview with actor and director Ron Howard (previously) with anecdotes from every project—via Super Punch—here’s the nemesis in case you don’t recall 

e pluribus motto: John Hodgman and Janet Varney highlight, state-by-state, official and unofficial symbols, history and local culture–see previously  

eon productions: an obituary of the recently departed Joe Caroff, prolific titleist, land designer of several iconic logos and movie posters—including the signature pistol letterform of the James Bond franchise  

osteo-odonto keratoprosthesis: after a decade of vision loss, an individual in British Colombia can see again through a tooth in her eye—like the Stygian sisters, the Graeae, no offence to the happy patient—via the New Shelton wet/dry  

visiting hours are over: the 1982 Canadian slasher film starring William Shatner and Lenore Zann reviewed by Poseidon’s Underworld—see previously

consumable and durable goods (12. 660)

We are directed to a rather engaging evolution of a logo via the Chicago-based trade journal, formerly published under the titles Business Equipment and National Stationer, Office Appliances: The Magazine of Office Equipment, in regular circulation from 1904 to 1993. 

 The long history documents changing styles in formatting and typography in pace with technology, from neoclassical to Art Deco to Bauhaus and beyond but the key, the work space conclave, is ever-present. 

These cover-to-cover periodicals come courtesy of the Internet Archives’ microfiche scanning operations, which one can watch live with the accompaniment of lofi soundtrack and a sidebar of the latest digitalisation, now particularly focused on livestreaming the release and preservation of US government records with off-hour montages of highlights from their public domain collections. More from Tenth Letter of the Alphabet at the link up top.

synchronoptica

one year ago: cellular pathology (with synchronopticæ) plus vice president Nelson Rockefeller 

thirteen years ago: the German energy revolution 

seventeen years ago: an old car tuckers out 

brekekekèx-koàx-koáx (12. 659)

Via ibīdem, we are directed to a retrospective look at an unusual best-selling album—reminiscent of this extensive audio survey giving voice to the voiceless in this conchological glossary or the perennial fascination of music for plants—reprised on several occasions due to popular demand in noted herpetologist Charles Bogert’s 1958 recording Sounds of North American Frogs. Fifty-seven sample tracks include the cries and calls like the scream of the Southern Leopard Frog or the rain song of the Squirrel Treefrog and moreover the look at the label and provenance of this immersive, natural experience—the Folkways Records was an accession of the Smithsonian Museum for the public good—and bringing the great outdoors to one’s ears. Much more at the links above including factors that prompted reissues for such field recordings.

there must be something in the water (12. 658)

Via Clive Thompson’s latest Linkfest, we are afforded the chance to revisit the myth of Hermaphroditus through modern scientific conjecture that eponymous spring lake, after the predatory nymph—Salmacis, actually existed at Halicarnassus (modern Bodrum Türkiye of the Hanging Gardens fame) by the accounts of ancient writers like Ovid whose waters might have had natural “emasculating” endocrine disrupters, suggesting the archetypal tale was not just the product of a productive imagination but the actual concentration of emasculating chemicals. A popular cult developed for Hermaphrodius as the ideal of beauty as well as a symbol for holy matrimony, perhaps reflected in Paul’s Epistle to the Ephesians—the community located between Pergamon and Halicarnassus—that included the instruction, “Therefore, shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh,” a benediction of the Greek orthodox marriage ceremony that repeats the words of the apostle.

 synchronoptica

one year ago: a remote Icelandic movie theatre (with synchronopticæ) plus the overthrow of the democratically elected government of Iran

twelve years ago: the EU and Gibraltar  

thirteen years ago: a logographic alphabet of untranslatable words 

fourteen years ago: US regulations for foreign banks plus a visit to cloister Ebrach

fifteen years ago: the US army leaves Iraq 

now look here colonel bat guano, if that is your real name (12. 657)

Founded by veteran CBC journalist and presenter Clyde Gilmour in the 1940s, the Society for the Verification and Enjoyment of Fascinating Names of Actual Persons (SVENAP) is a deliciously intriguing roster of unusual and not wholly tragic names with quite a few instances of nominative determinism (see previously here and here). Some of our vetted favourites (see also here and here) with short biographical entries include: Magdalena Babblejack, Dunwoody Zook, Dr Icy Macy Hoobler, Lester Ouchmoody, Sir Basil Smallwoody, Biff Life and Philander Philpott Pettibone. This cataloguing seems to have unfortunately ended with Gilmour’s death in 1997 but back issues exist. Tag yourself.