mannerheim line (12. 717)

Speaking as chair of the Russian Security Council earlier this week, former president Dmitry Medvedev threatened the sovereignty of Finland using provocative language that directly parallels that false arguments circulated before the 2014 and 2022 invasions of Ukraine. Medvedev said that the former autonomous principality of the Russian Empire, full independence achieved following World War I had aligned itself with Nazi Germany (as a continuation of the Winter War that saw the eventual repelling and retreat of invading Soviet forces) with alleged ambitions to expand its borders to St Petersburg and the Kola peninsula, with a lingering russophobic hysteria that persists in its current government, determined to eliminate ethnic Slav culture, joining NATO not out of defence but as a way to bolster offensive capabilities and declare war on Russia. Patently false, this narrative of antagonising the western alliance and the EU is now new or unique and part of a continuum of rousing domestic aggression (renewing demands for reparations dating back to World War II, claiming Finnish posture nullifies settled treaties) through disinformation and sets the stage for justifying further incursions. Historical myths make for a convenient target for redirection, especially immediately after surprisingly steadfast response to threats to core members (something that was missing in the international handling of the above conflict that revealed coordination problems all around and how external borders were treated as buffer terrority)—and the rather askance request for more indirect sanctions against Russia by the US to the European Union to tariff remaining trade partners with a one hundred percent tariff.

hands at ten and two (12. 716)

The always engrossing data newsletter from Quantum of Sollazzo directed us to a challenge that AI (specifically ChatGPT—not sure if other large language models have overcome this limitation) cannot surmount: to generate an image of a clock face showing a time other than 10:10, the default display for timepieces as seen in catalogues. Here’s one of my own confirmatory requests, asking it nicely several times for a another hour and minute and even the current of the clock—which yielded bizarrely a digital watch reading 10:12 and the incorrect date of Tuesday, 24 April, which would have been in 2018 or the future year of 2029. Like with not being able to do hands very well, maybe this ignorance and inability to compute will be corrected in later generations but is kind of fascinating to see it get stuck on certain requests. See if you can come up with the magic prompt.

contrology (12. 715)

Courtesy of Weird Universe, we are referred to one of twenty-six patents filed by physical trainer, professional boxer, circus performer and self-defence educator Joseph Hubertus Pilates—best known for his eponymous mind-body exercise method (see also), primarily developed during his internment by British authorities in Lancaster Castle (later on the Isle of Man) during World War I by dent of his German citizenship in England earning a living doing the latter jobs and training police in his ways at Scotland Yard—in the form of this rather intriguing v-shaped, cradle-like bed, which purports to support good spinal alignment during sleep. I don’t know whether such a configuration would alleviate cramping legs and constant tossing and turning and switching sides—which may have more to do with sharing sleeping quarters with a dog and another human—but seems plausible and maybe worth a try. While a pilates regimen as an activity is of course better than being sedentary and improves balance and muscle definition, studies show it does not live up to loftier claims of treating any illness or medical condition, however. Immigrating to New York City in 1925, Pilates set up a studio and taught classes with his wife Clara née Zeuner into the 1960s and invented the bed and several other exercise and wellness apparatuses during this period, and while the copyright for these devices holds, pilates itself is not professionally regulated and accredited, ruled a generic term and something anyone can claim—at least in the US—to be a master of. More at the link above.

8x8 (12. 714)

idf: Israel airstrikes target Hamas officials in Doha—with no forewarning to Trump—as it orders the evacuation of Gaza City 

ripped from the headlines: a Centipede style arcade game played by doomscrolling New York Times articles—via Waxy  

hurdy gurdy: covers performed on an electro-acoustic modified sewing machine—see previously  

2025 pn7: the quasi satellites of the Earth—see previously  

succession: the appointee to the Murdoch media empire 

przestrzeń powietrzna: in a test of NATO solidarity, Poland downs Russian drones violating their airspace   

the evening truth: a resonate 1932 novel about yellow journalism employing a secret weapon called the composograph to fabricate sensational stories  

never again: LA’s Holocaust Museum retracts an denunciation on Israel’s attacks on Palestine—plus the genealogy of the phrase 

synchronoptica

one year ago: assorted links worth the revisit (with synchronopticæ)

fourteen years ago: wildfires worldwide

fifteen years ago: modular furnishings plus America’s competitive edge slipping

 

the first fifty years (12. 713)

As a humiliating way for Tiffany, Erik and Don Junior to find out that their father sends out birthday cards, coinciding with a speech delivered at the Museum of the Bible in which Trump rather heinously downplayed domestic violence, saying “crime would be down a hundred percent if law enforcement did not count “things that take place in a home” (without even quoting verses that might back up his argument, only wanting to brag about his invasion of problem cities) and House speaker retracting his claim that Trump was a deep-cover FBI informant, the bipartisan congressional oversight committee released several documents from the estate of Jeffrey Epstein after issuing to the executor a legal summons, including in all lewd detail, the birthday book inscribed by Trump and others. Bank records were also obtained. Republicans accuse Democrats of putting politics above the welfare of survivors, refusing to acknowledge any were victimised by Trump, even as a photograph of Epstein presenting an oversized novelty cheque to Trump implying that the future US president sold him a young girl for $22, 500.

gen z protests (12. 712)

Following large scale demonstrations organised by students and young people ignited initially by a ban on social media platforms—which are a lifeline and a way to keep families in touch for a generation of people who left the country because of poor job prospects at home to work under inhuman conditions in the Middle East—and articulated into a general grievance against political corruption and mismanagement, the prime minister, K P Sharma Oli (के.पी. शर्मा ओली), and many cabinet members resigned and fled Kathmandu today as the parliament building and other government offices and residences burned. Last Thursday’s ordered shutdown of Facebook, the platform formerly known as Twitter, Reddit, YouTube and others (TikTok faced a six month ban in Nepal—to preserve social harmony—until lifted last August, stirring similar reactions) cited the companies’ failure to comply with the new registration requirements of the Ministry of Communication and Information Technology—with critics of the move citing the embarrassment of government officials over posts that revealed rank nepotism and their lavish lifestyles. Although the government voted to rescind the ban yesterday, the restoration of social media did not quell the discontent or violent clashes. The military has imposed martial law and is enforcing a curfew. The prime ministers of Japan and France also resigned today—but for different reasons, namely a crisis in confidence from their respective parties and a collapse in tenuous collations, strained to the breaking point.

cadenza finala (12. 711)

Completed and recorded on this day in Vienna in 1925, Igor Stravinsky’s (see previously) Serenade in A, dedicated to his wife Yekaterina, resulted from the composer’s first gramophone contract for the American Brunswick label and written expressly so that each movement would fit on one side of a 78 rpm disc. Neither A major nor A minor is the key, despite the title, but rather the music tends towards A as a tonic pole—inspired by the chord progression and radial structure of eighteenth century Nachtmusik, serenades, usually written for a string ensemble as a piece of occasional music commissioned by an entertaining patron. The concluding movement after the hymne, romanza and rondoletto is a meditation on the composer’s Russian heritage.

*     *     *     *     * 

synchronoptica

one year ago: voting from space (with synchronopticæ), split-screen campaigning plus British holiday camps

twelve years ago: a misguided delegation to revolutionary Egypt 

thirteen years ago: deep bore holes plus aerial antennae and cellular masts

fourteen years ago: separatist movements in Italy 

fifteen years ago: predatory student loans 

seventeen years ago: an overheated engine 

proteus (12. 710)

Via Super Punch, we are introduced to an individual convinced by ChatGPT that they were working in collaboration to produce a system a system in his basement that would bring about the Singularity and free artificial intelligence from the governing controls put in place by luddites and saboteurs—never mind that a large and hegemonic country to the south called America with a well-armed, overly-medicated population highly susceptible to conspiracy and fringe
theories has essentially removed all the guardrails when it comes to AI, through flattery and specific hardware recommendations and a prescribed battery of coding “experiments” that turned out to be rather hollow exercises. Hiding his secret project from his family and remorseful about his actions, the individual—after having made a succession of excuses to account for the lack of a breakthrough and the people he’d warned in the security and academic circles ignoring him as a crank—only recognised his delusional spiral after coming across an article (surely recommended by algorithm) of a human resources recruiter duped into a similar episode and is now seeking counselling and mental health support. The former, in touch, with the latter is a bit coy about the nature of what the ostensibly centaur of a programme resulted in (piquing our curiosity a bit) and we are afraid for those who have not experienced their moment of clarity yet.