synchronoptica
one year ago: the 1948 London Games (with synchronopticæ) plus the Thirteen Colonies’ attempt to avoid open conflict with Britain (1775)
thirteen years ago: a classic car show tradition plus Jack of All Trades (1900)
fourteen years ago: German austerity policies plus the loss of a flagship for space exploration
fifteen years ago: getting ready for a trip to the Baltic Sea
We really enjoyed this essay from Aeon Magazine contributor Cameron Allen McKean that looks below the fold of the memes and tropes to examine the freshly rediscovered phenomena of carcinisation and convergent evolution generally that been observed by biologists for centuries and dates back much further in mythos with the resonant niche that we humans occupy as fellow increasingly armoured “intertidal scavengers” and crablike representatives of this extended phenotype. 
These liminal beings not only inform a common motif in contemporary science fiction but also inhabit our eldest stories, like the zodiacal sign—the Sun’s most northerly position in the sky during the solstice, the Tropic of Cancer (though now shifted to the constellation of Taurus due to the procession of the equinoxes) named for Καρκίνος, the pesky crab that played distraction whilst Hercules fought the Hydra of Lerna. Slain after pinching the hero’s foot, Hera—not a fan—placed the crab amongst the stars or the Norse tradition of the Kraken, usually depicted as a crustacean sea monster. Reaching even further into the past, fishing practises yield one of the most readily manifest examples of natural selection with the seemingly unnatural and superstitious cast-off and release that resulted in a population of crabs with angry samurai faces. Much more to explore at the links above.
synchronoptica
one year ago: assorted links worth revisiting (with synchronopticæ), a forgotten pioneer of cinematography, swimming with Benjamin Franklin plus France at the polls
twelve years ago: advertising via bone-conduction, the Pope visits refugees on Lampedusa plus a proposal to drain the Mediterranean
thirteen years ago: Julian Assange granted sanctuary plus food additives
fourteen years ago: houseplants thriving
On this day in 1962 in Area 10 of the Yucca Flat testing grounds of the Nevada National Security Site in the US southwest, as part of Operation Plowshare, an investigative programme to explore the use of thermonuclear devices for mining, tunnelling, damming, the creation of harbours and other infrastructure applications—first pioneered and continued by the Soviet Union—a mixed yield hydrogen bomb, calibrated for fission of thirty percent and fusion of seventy percent, was detonated at a shallow depth of some two hundred meters underground. Instantly displacing eleven million tonnes of rock and soil, resulting in the title crater and minor earthquake. The project was abandoned after some thirteen million residents to the east of the blast site were exposed to radioactive fallout in the name of public safety. Native flora, aside from itinerant tumbleweeds, have yet to recover in the immediate area.
The first Master of Stage Craft (preferring his neologism Spielgang to the more orthodox term Theaterstück—I was later disabused of my own made up version of Spielstück for a play which is not a real word but understandable) at the Bauhaus and artistic and copyright lawyer by trade, we appreciated this introduction to dramaturge Lothar Schreyer through his retelling of the Passion staged only a few times in 1920 in a bleak post-war setting. 
The only well-documented directorial work, owing to the complexity of the performance that necessitated a programme with translation key for the audience, like many expressionist productions of that time, there are only scant records which mostly are preserved in the form of bad reviews by the trade press, Schreyer was later caught up in the allure of the Christian and Völkisch mysticism of the Nazi party, despite his contributions being labelled as degenerate art (see below), and continued panning of his plays prompted his replacement, Oskar Schlemmer, to take on the leading role at the institute. More from the Public Domain Review at the link up top.
synchronoptica
one year ago: assorted links to revisit (with synchropticæ), bracket orthography plus Forrest Gump (1994)
thirteen years ago: moons of the year, confusing job application instructions plus a typeface comparison
fourteen years ago: land octopuses
the coffer illusion: studies in cross-cultural perception have insights behind their controversy—see previously
rolling stock: new homeowner shocked to find a hidden model train alcove in the basement and has a new, unexpected restoration project—via Nag on the Lake
reading the minutes: AI note-takers outnumber human participants in virtual meeting spaces
remastered: British Film Institute hosts a rare screening of the original 1977 Star Wars on Technicolour reels
no undo button for our fallen democracy: a chorus of responses to the cathedral-, not-in-our-lifetimes thinking that has replaced American exceptionalism
hello stranger: a signature work of scrolly-telling from The Pudding of people who don’t know each other holding conversations—via Quantum of Sollazzo
they’re all good boys: the golden retriever, Gilbert, assassinated along with the state congress representative and her husband lay in state at the Minnesota capitol
heaven and earth magic: a 1962 cutout animation short by avant-garde filmmaker Harry Everett Smith made in residence at the Chelsea Hotel
static spin: a superlative optical illusion
synchronoptica
one year ago: returning via Switzerland (with synchronopticæ) plus a new Labour government for the UK
twelve years ago: the US Mail-Cover Programme, Stars Wars as written by Shakespeare plus America policing the world
thirteen years ago: a geography challenge
To provide reconciliation pursuant to title II of the House of Congressional Representatives Resolution Fourteen, according to its long title, Trump signed his signature One Big Beautiful Bill into law after being passed by the narrowest of margins in the legislature amid fanfare and a celebratory lap as atrocities continue in Palestine and Ukraine following supposed US-brokered peace deals, with a flyover by a formation of the B-2s that took part in inconclusive bombing runs in Operation Midnight Hammer that attacked Iran’s nuclear enrichment facilities. Chiefly a vehicle to permanently extend the tax rates Trump introduced in 2017 for the wealthiest individuals set to expire, the domestic policy legislation contains hundreds of other provisions that drew ire from the public and politicians alike, reductions to popular social programmes and increasing the deficit significantly—ostensibly causing the very public and messy rift between Elon Musk and Trump, with the former backer threatening to primary the Republicans who eventually voted for it and hinting he might disclose how he helped rig the latter’s re-election. 
Several fiscally conservative members of the GOP held out until the last minute of the self-imposed Independence Day deadline, settling to defer most of the major cuts to medicaid and medicare and social security benefits until the next congress—targeted to offset some of the costs of the loss of tax revenue, shifting the onus and granting some purchase to undo them if Democrats prevail in the midterms. The regressive tax regime represents an upward transfer of wealth from the poorest to the richest, papered over with gimmicks like no taxes on tips and overtime or reintroducing chattel slavery by hinting that farmers could retain undocumented workers under their judgement, a fee on remittances from guest workers to family aboard and a surcharge to apply for asylum to balance a weaponised immigration enforcement agency to placate plantation owners concerns about deportations and losing cheap agricultural labour. The law further restricts food assistance programmes for the poor, health promotion and outreach, caps tuition aid for higher education, eviscerates consumer protection activities and limits recourse and permanently repeals the de minimis entry privileges that formerly allowed low-value shipments to be imported tariff-free.
Spotted only a few days ago by astronomers in Chile at an associate observatory under the auspices of the international Asteroid-Terrestrial impact Last Alert System monitoring station that’s the future home of the Vera Rubin observatory, the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope which will be capable of scanning the entire sky of the Southern Hemisphere every few days as the largest digital camera ever constructed and watching for changes—including such interstellar interlopers—the inbound comet originating from another solar system is only the third such object passing through to have been verified.
Like the explosion in the discovery of gravitational wave phenomena, more visitors like ʻOumuamua and Borisov are bound to be found, advanced imaging techniques underwritten by more data but now both enterprises are in jeopardy by funding cuts to NASA, sponsor to both. And while anyone can determine whether a trajectory is parabolic or hyperbolic or predict a collision course, a potential loss of telemetry seems of great gravity when it comes to such global studies and preservation for Earth and other knock on effects. Significantly brighter than the previous two encounters and traceable by amateur astronomers, the comet, posing no threat to Earth, won’t be visible at perihelion as it will be on the other side of the Sun then in October but at its closest approach to Mars, it may be detected by Martian rovers and satellites.
synchronoptica
one year ago: the introduction of the Caesar salad (with synchronopticæ) plus the waterfalls of Mount Cuvignone
twelve years ago: a trip along the Rhein plus a revolution in Egypt
thirteen years ago: the God particle plus national drinks
fourteen years ago: the passing of Otto von Hapsburg and the legacy of the Austro-Hungarian Empire
On the way back from Morbihan in south Brittany, we crossed back into the central Loire valley and found a nice campsite on l’île aux Moulins in the river between the later partitioned towns of Jargeau and St Denis de l’Hôtel, just outside of Orléans. This intermediate stop brought us back coincidentally to another connection with Joan of Arc.
synchronoptica
one year ago: the ancient quarter of Maccagno (with synchronopticæ)
thirteen years ago: musical performance rights in Germany, paternalism and the EU plus ad revenue
fourteen years ago: a cursed economy
