synchronoptica
one year ago: a synthesiser performance piece (with synchronopticรฆ), OJ Simpson flees police (1994) plus tragic children’s names
eleven years ago: memory storage and retrieval plus the history of garden gnomes
fourteen years ago: between Bonn and Berlin
sixteen years ago: returning from our Roman holiday
Recalling this other automobile-related project, we enjoyed leafing through this new coffee table offering from photographer Lycien-David Csรฉry of mangled cars with a focus of what we choose (or tolerate or celebrate) be it pristine or broken, those bumps, dents and scratches emblematic of use and time. Such forms of disfigurement elicit a strange visceral response and revulsion, different from the sort typically reserved for collateral damage in living things or ourselves where imperfection and nicks can be worn as badges of honour and an account of an ordeal, whereas the former come across as something regrettable. Much more from It’s Nice That and the artist at the link above.
elbows up: on his way to attend the G7 in Canada, Macron visits Greenland, criticising Trump’s repeated overtures to annex the island—see previously
ethanol orthodoxy: bio-fuel policy has been a net negative for the environment
ready for prime time: Google text to video service is rolled out despite sloppy results
c: MI6 appoints its first female spy chief in its one hundred sixteen year history—Dame Judy Dench only played one in the movies
sidebar: revised injunction restrictions in Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill that requires a bond, bribe to judges got even worst—see previously
dudley do-right: G7 leaders gather in the Canadian Rockies for their economic summit
one year ago: a banger from Supertramp (with synchronoptica)
ten years ago: forbidden colours, assorted links to revisit plus cheap printing and chapbooks
twelve years ago: a visit to Wiesbaden-Schierstein plus Snowden’s formative time in Switzerland
fourteen years ago: revitalising a neglected church in Freibourg
Several accelerationist Silicon Valley chief technology officers have been recruited into the US Army Reserve as part time senior commanders, field promoted as colonels, as part of the newly formed Detachment 201 (the hypertext transfer protocol response status code for “Created”—the title refers to that of “Already Reported”—see previously here and here) to help integrate artificial intelligence into military planning and operations. Drawing from the ranks of Meta, OpenAI and Palatir is hardly surprising as the companies have been working with the military on various programmes including the controversial Project Maven to fully integrate AI into intelligence services. Significantly enlistment puts the companies’ under the purview of the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ) and not subject to the scrutiny, jurisdiction and discovery of America’s civil courts of law should something untoward come up. As Eisenhower said, “In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sough or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplace power exists and will persist.”
Though very happy with our camping trailer and certainly not in the market for a new second-home, we were very much enamoured with this collaboration between the aerodynamic caravan company known for its distinctive aluminium coachwork and Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation to bring the design approach and aesthetic of the architect to mobility and travel, courtesy of Nag on the Lake. Not inspired by a single property, the unit was designed by teams from both organisations at Wright’s Taliesin West studio in Arizona, the eight-and-a-half metre model is certainly informed by the Usonian ideal—a unified vision for landscaping, civil-engineering, typified by the middle class ranch-style home, interiors exposed to the outside, free of previous architectural conventions. 
Although the term was popularised by Wright in a 1927 manifesto—around the same time as the introduction of the Airstream, its first use preceded the architect’s by a couple decades with a Scottish writer called James Duff Law proposed that, in deference to indigenous people, Canadians and Mexicans, inhabitants of the US had no exclusive right to the title Americans—suggesting adopting the alternate style, “Usonia”—for the United States of North Independent America, though sort of a retronym, losing nationalistic flavour in later use. The kitchenette and overall floor plan matches ours pretty closely. Much more at the links above.
As if Trump’s low turn-out, low-energy birthday parade was not already overshadowed by the poor juxtaposition of the crack down on protests in Los Angeles and the ongoing conflicts in Gaza and Ukraine, with no boots on the ground though America can hardly claim it’s not deeply entrenched, the politically motivated assassination of a Minnesota state legislator by a crazed MAGA evangelist still at large and with a kill-list of other politicians, the surprise from Israel on Iran gave some in the administration a chance to try to have it both ways. 
Like the false claims last month of brokering a cease fire between India and Pakistan over Kashmir, despite vehement disavowal of having anything to do with the strikes on Iranian cities and infrastructure, Trump is insisting that peace is contingent upon Iran settling the nuclear deal—talks scheduled to continue in Oman next week—as if Israeli incursions were leverage in the negotiations, if anything possibly a provocation to draw the US into the situation. The last time Washington DC hosted a military parade of comparable scale was in 1991 as a premature victory celebration for the hundred-day Persian Gulf War, what became a multipart quagmire squandering many lives and much treasure, the US resuming its push to remove Saddam Hussein after premised on the untrue narratives of Baghdad involvement with the 9/11 terror attacks and Iraq’s possession of weapons of mass destruction. America should have lost global trust and confidence back then. Now, with Iran having been only five years away from producing a ballistic nuclear missile for the past thirty years (and surely have been capable of making an arsenal but chose not to despite decades of conflicts with neighbours including Iraq and Israel), the Trump administration and his negotiators are using the WMD playbook once again and this time, the world is far more skeptical of their motives to stoke forever wars.
synchronoptica
one year ago: the Dutch roll (with synchronoptica) plus assorted links worth revisiting
seven years ago: more links to enjoy, Trump’s migrant detention centres, fear of palindromes plus Stephen Hawking interred with honours
eight years ago: Ford’s soybean car plus the feast of Corpus Christi
nine years ago: the UK’s proposed withdrawal from the EU, even more links, machine dreams plus the long-s
ten years ago: a visit to Gemรผnden am Main, the internet of trolls plus a church that resembles the courthouse from Back to the Future
