synchronoptica
one year ago: fifty plus years of Kraftwerk’s Autobahn (with synchronopticรฆ) plus the etymology of fruitcake
seven years ago: the patron saint of Iceland, a glitter mystery plus the Extinction Rebellion
eight years ago: Project Blue Book plus motto misappropriation
participation, in this context, is a kind of alignment: the Vanity Fair photo shoot of Trump’s cabinet
escape velocity: a super-massive runaway black hole has been ejected from its home galaxy and is careening through space—via Kottke
that thoth over there: a guide to the messy divine family of Egyptian mythology
beyond the last-minute gift guide: the year of Tedium wrapped
no-one comes to casablanca for the waters—you were misinformed: every drink in the 1942 classic (see previously, oddly no gin)—via MetaFilter
capital allocation: on the social uselessness of finance, creating winners and losers
homecoming: a preview of Christopher Nolan’s adaptation of Homer’s Odyssey—see also
intraterrestrials: subsurface microbes have geological lifespans
unreliable narrator: Epstein and company as Nabokov’s Humbert Humbert—see previously
Anticipated by audiences nearly as much as “Lucy is Enceinte” and the introduction of Little Ricky in 1953 (CBS network censors at the time didn’t allow “expecting” or “pregnant”), as our faithful chronicler reminds, on this day in 1975, Archie Bunker’s Little Girl Gloria (Sally Struthers) gave birth to the son of Mike Stivic (Rob Reiner) Joseph “Joey” Michael with the conclusion of a two-part episode entitled “The Baby”—
like with the Ricardos, the second part being “Lucy Goes to the Hospital.” Portrayed by several different actors (initially by twins), Joey was a regular part of the cast until Struthers and Reiner left the show in 1978 when it went into syndication, but the character was reprised for some of All in the Family’s numerous spin-offs—Maude, The Jeffersons, Checking In—appearing in the short-lived Gloria, Archie Bunker’s Place and 704 Hauser, the fictional address in Queens occupied by a different family two decades on. In 1976, the Ideal Toy Company released a doll of Baby Stivic—“Archie Bunker’s Grandson”—billed as the first anatomically correct male doll (inspired by the rather frank portrayal of the televised birth), stirring mild controversy at the time but since considered a collectors’ item, but no where close to the merchandising and appearances made by Desiderio Alberto Arnaz IV.
synchronoptica
one year ago: the CIA’s operation CHAOS (with synchronopticรฆ) plus assort links worth revisiting
twelve years ago: a drone identification guide plus formulaic correspondence
thirteen years ago: slow pace at work, bleak near-futures plus carol trivia
fourteen years ago: US carriers take exception with EU flight emissions standards plus the wild hunt
fifteen years ago: Santa’s naught list has Wikileaks, Germany’s Word of the Year plus 2010 in review
sixteen years ago: 2009 superlatives
After taking over sixty hostages, killing an Austrian police officer, a Libyan economist and and Iraqi security guard, six terrorist of the “Arm of the Arab Revolution” under the leadership of Venezuelan terrorist Carlos the Jackal (with assistance from West Germany’s Rote Armee Faktion), the energy ministers for eleven of the thirteen members of OPEC (the Organisation Of Petroleum Exporting Countries) present were taken ransom whilst attending a semi-annual meeting at the headquarters in Vienna. Delegates were separated into three groups in the conference room during the siege, with friendlies advanced towards the exit, neutrals cordoned off in the centre and enemy countries placed along the rear wall next to a stack of explosives rigged to detonate if the facility was comprised. 
Complying with the hostage-takers’ demands, Austrian broadcasters read a communiquรฉ over the television and radio every two hours regarding the Palestinian cause and the group’s manifesto whilst transportation was arranged with an airplane bound for Tripoli with a layover in Algiers, lest captives be executed every fifteen minutes. Algerian foreign minister Abdelaziz Boteflika managed to de-escalate the situation, with all parties walking away unharmed forty-eight hours later, including the Iraqi and Iranian oil ministers, slated for execution before the raid began.
In anticipation of Public Domain Day 2026 (previously), here is a preview of the selection of literary and artistic works from 1930 and musical compositions from 1925 (under US jurisdiction, songs have a full century until IP lapses under current law) whose copyrights expire and are released to whomever and for whatever purpose. 
Artists’ works include Piet Mondrian’s Composition II, the pictured untitled work by Sophie Taeuber-Arp and Abel Lafleur’s Jules Rimet Cup—the original trophy of FIFA, along with countless works in the Art Deco movement registered in that year. Among dozens of cinematic works, All Quiet on the Western Front, the Three Stooges’ Soup to Nuts, The Marx Brothers’ Animal Crackers and Savadore Dalรญ’s and Luis Buรฑuel’s L'รge d’or are counted in, as well as audio recordings by the Gershwin brothers like “I Got Rhythm” and “Embraceable You,” “Georgia on My Mind” by Hoagy Carmichael, “Dream a Little Dream of Me,”Leo Robin’s “Beyond the Blue Horizon,” the inspiration for the Star Trek theme (see also) and “Sweet Georgia Brown.” Comics and cartoons include Betty Boop, Disney’s first appearance of Pluto (as Rover) and Flip the Frog and other characters created by Ib Iwerks after he left the studio. More from Duke Law School at the link up top.
Via Laughing Squid, we are directed to the dedicated visual eulogy from Chris the Barker (see previously) with his memorial montage in the style of the cover art for Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band with his tenth and final instalment of the series, beginning the project in 2015 after the deaths of Leonard Nimoy, Cilla Black, Christopher Lee and Lemmy Kilmister). It’s surely a taxing task to relive all these deaths at the end of the year, hopefully with no revisions or additions. Click through for the complete obituary, which features prominently Manianne Faithful, Hulk Hogan, Val Kilmer, Diane Keaton, Patricia Routledge, Prunella Scales, George Foreman, Ozzy Osbourne, David Lynch, Pope Francis, Ruth Buzzi, the Aga Khan, Rob Reiner, Loni Anderson, Jane Goodall and Dick Cheney among many others.
Hacker emeritus, Jamie Zawinski, presents quite a memory dump sharing the original, mostly forgotten logo designs for the open source web-browser Mozilla that was created on commission by graphic designer Shepard Fairey to create a corporate brand back in 1998—a spin off of Netscape that would eventually become Firefox, featuring the dinosaur mascot and backgrounds and colour schemes inspired by the Soviet propaganda of Vladimir Mayakovskii and visual contemporaries. 
One banner encouraging one to download the code even contains in translation the reference to the Proverbs chapter six: ะะะ ะะะะขะะะจะฌ ะะฃะะะข ะะฃะะ; ะะะกะะะะจะฌ ะกะะะะ ะ ะฃะะ ะะฃะะะข ะะ ะะฃะะ́ ะ ะะฃ́ะะ—Sit with crossed arms and there will not be flour, the verse admonishing to not give into slumber. Much more from JWZ at the link above.
synchronoptica
one year ago: the Southern Solstice (with synchronopticรฆ), president Musk plus assorted links to revisit
twelve years ago: Bjork’s private island, the blog is dead—long live the blog, Star Wars embraces fan-art plus saintly hand gestures
fifteen years ago: more unseasonable weather
Though I think not taking all the factors of Newtonian physics into account, Infinite Ball Drop is a fun visualisation of the of the countdown (first spotted by Waxy) as the ball makes its descent from a special mast atop One Times Square (normally only sixty seconds and a controlled drop of one-hundred and thirty-nine feet down the pole)
projected to the present time to ring in the New Year—currently some two-million feet above Manhattan with nine-hundred thousand seconds left to go. Past the thermosphere already, one can track it as it slowly plunges below the orbit of the International Space Station and the edge of space—the Kรกrmรกn line (see also). The first New Year’s Eve party took place on the cusp of 1907 and 1908 and continues to this day and has inspired another similar drops and raises in places across the world through all time zones.
