10x10 (12. 241)

bustin by numbers: bizarre 1990 edit of a Peter Greenaway film featuring an instrumental version of Young MC’s hit 

mazinibaganjigan: the art of birchbark bitings, practised by the Objiwe and Algonquian peoples  

twenty-two nautical miles: Mexico threatens to sue Google over the change to the gulf’s name  

democracy dies in darkness: Bezos owned Washington Post refused to run an advertisement critical of DOGE  

acolyte: a profile of the actual Nazis overrunning the US government—via Kottke  

paypal mafia: Trump administration is clawing back funds already disbursed and has designs to gain control over banking and wire-transfers 

the molotov-ribbentrop pact: historic examples—with devastating consequences—of not inviting all parties to the negotiating table—via Damn Interesting  

deemed accomplices: Sheinbaum warns us renewed legal action for US gunmakers over complicity if drug cartels are designated as terror groups 

a very large faucet: water-sharing treaties between Canada and its neighbour to the south have attracted unwanted attention  

you say neato, check your libido and roll to the church your new tuxedo: that’s Flea from the Red Hot Chilli Peppers on jazz bass

cnd (12. 240)

Joined by a crowd of some five thousand others, organised and led by philosopher and activist Bertrand Russell (previously), the anti-war group with a hundred public signatories as an expansion of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament held its first act of peaceful civil disobedience on this day in 1961 with a sit-in demonstration at the Ministry of Defence in Whitehall to protest the arrival of the USS Proteus on a resupply mission from American to replenish ballistic missile stocks. Surprisingly, no arrests were made. This anniversary juxtaposes with current headlines, with the the US and Russia meeting to arrange a negotiated peace in Ukraine with the invaded nation and Europe excluded from talks (Trump and Putin graciously agree to “address irritants” for the bilateral negotiation), and America instead of foisting its defences on allies against their will is signalling it will abandon the posture of trans-atlanticism that has held since the end of World War II, leaving the continent to fend for itself and normalising relations with an international pariah.

synchronoptica

one year ago: the Euromaidan protests (with synchronoptica), Ballerina on the Boat, bad album cover art plus an underground newspaper

seven years ago: underwater photography, the epithets of drinking culture, the power of propaganda plus Pastafarianism

eight years ago: more underwater photography, ancient embedded sounds plus governance per tweet

ten years ago: an early meme, the road to Canossa plus bird poses

eleven years ago: traffic cameras in Germany

umfragefragebogen (12. 239)

Cut out of the negotiation process to end the war in Ukraine with American and Russian envoys preparingfor talks in Saudi Arabia, European leaders have scrambled to convene a separate emergency summit in Paris after the gulf between NATO partners became glaringly apparent during the Munich Security Conference. 

Hosted by French president Macron, it is hoped that those invited countries, those with significant militaries—the UK, France, Germany, Poland, Italy, Spain plus Denmark as representative of the Nordic and Baltic nations—will be able to overcome individual political pressures, with elections upcoming in Germany and elsewhere, and pledge to increase defence spending (another of Trump’s fetishes) and assemble a peacekeeping force in the event of a ceasefire in order to demonstrate that they are invaluable stakeholders and partners in maintaining peace and buffering against Russian aggression. Whether such a resolution will gain them purchase in setting the treaty is uncertain, as is whether Trump would even weigh the outcome of such hasty alliances into his decision making process. For its part, a short survey was sent out by the US government to European allies asked which countries would be able to deploy troops to Ukraine and which would continue Russian sanctions. Diplomatic solutions are not usually confined to a filled-in form. Regardless if Trump is listening, Putin certainly is.

50501(12. 238)

In response to the unlawful and anti-democratic dismantling of the administrative state by DOGE and Elon Musk’s minions, costly disruption in the name of efficiency but aimed to roll back labour (return the spoils system) and civil rights, with the apparent carte blanche of Trump, organisers from all fifty states are holding fifty calls to action under one movement, protesting in solidarity with federal workers, eighty percent of whom have duty locations outside the capital. Occurring on the Presidents’ Day federal holiday after an initial illegal purge of civil service employees, the non-partisan rallies are calling for the removal of the unelected bureaucratic who has grabbed unfettered and compromising access to sensitive government databases and pay systems to further his pet project. 

synchronoptica

one year ago: a token of affection found in Gdańsk (with synchronoptica), the geography of the Moon, finding one’s centre plus assorted links worth revisiting

eight years ago: more links to enjoy 

nine years ago: Graham Greene’s The Power and the Glory

ten years ago: even more links, herbal resources mapped, Finnish history, naming and shaming plus US restrictions on immigration

eleven years ago: Germany’s energy Autobahn

12x12 (12. 237)

little sisyphus: a challenging NES-style side-scrolling game—see previously—via Waxy  

behind every robot that turns evil there’s an engineer that installed red diodes in its eyes in anticipation: Meta wants to create AI powered robots to do your chores 

quipu: the largest known superstructure in the Cosmos, named for the corded knot accounting of the ancient Inca culture—via Strange Company  

parataxis: storytelling loves a list  

i will say this only once: John J Hoare responds to a video take-down notice for reposting an old clip—that suggests that YouTube is focused on hate speech against Nazis  

pantograph engraving: the unseen typeface all around us—via the new Shelton wet/dry 

pump and dump: nothing to see here, just another perfectly normal president pulling the rug out from under his country with a memecoin 

return to forever: Chick Corea and friends at the forty-third Jazzaldia festival 

stairwell of the quarter: more on the design efficiency of alternating tread stairs  

nanook of the north: Robert J Falherty’s 1922 documentary on the Inuit  

how many department of government efficiency employees does it take to screw in a lightbulb: a look at DOGE at work—via Nag on the Lake  

windows, icons, menus, pointers: a cursor dance party—via Pasa Bon!

elizabeth peratrovich day (12. 237)

Civil and indigenous people’s rights activist (born with the Tlingit name Ḵaax̲gal.aat, “person who packs for themselves”) Elizabeth Peratrovich (née Wanamaker) is celebrated on this day in the state of Alaska for championing the Anti-Discrimination Act of 1945—on the anniversary of the passage of the bill in 1945, which was the first law of its kind enacted in any state or territorial possession of America. Overt racism from white settlers towards native peoples was widespread and included segregation in public spaces, shops and schools along with diminished job prospects and exclusion from white neighbourhoods.   Several attempts beginning in 1941 to pass legislation failed in the district’s senate with the campaigner and her tribe characterised as primitive—a lot of “white man’s burden” theatrics. Nevertheless Peratrovich persisted, responding to the insults: “I would not have expected that I, who am barely out of savagery, would have to remind gentlemen with five thousand years of recorded civilisation behind them, of our Bill of Rights.” The bill passed and signed into law by the governor nearly twenty years before one was adopted on a national level. It is unclear whether Alaska, in the current political climate, gets to keep the holiday and the history behind it—with it being dictated what it can call its mountains and Denali being re-flagged again after a populist president with imperial ambitions and a penchant for tariffs.

synchronoptica

one year ago: AI does text-to-video (with synchronoptica) plus Russian opposition leader found dead

seven years ago: US school shootings plus nominative determinism

eight years ago: cognition in non-human animals

nine years ago: subversive merit badges, rodeo tailor Nudie Cohn plus upper- and lower case

eleven years ago: an action figure collection plus the state of education in the US

paydirt (12. 236)

The foundations of the first Roman basilica in London (Londinium) have been unearthed beneath the basement level of an office building scheduled for demolition and redevelopment on Gracechurch street. Much expanded as the conquest of Britain continued through the first century AD, this structure before an open public courtyard would have been the civic centre of the settlement and seat of the administration and judicial and commerce, the public-facing edifice for festivals and announcements. After a series of exploratory excavations, a plan has been developed to create a sublevel access for the archaeological site (see previously), preserving the remains under the high street.

st valentine’s day massacre (12. 235)

The purge of US federal workers, beginning with employees serving their probationary period that started in earnest yesterday and continues through the Presidents’ Day long weekend, with the DOGE advisory panel—not a governmental entity and with only derived authority—summarily terminating large swaths of critical workers—not necessarily new to their departments and agencies but many perhaps merely promoted or reclassified within the past two years—arbitrarily and without cause from high- and lower-profile sections including the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, NASA, the Department of Veterans’ Affairs, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Federal Aviation Administration and Homeland Security to the National Nuclear Safety Administration and the Department of Housing and Urban Development, imperilling public safety, health, security and basic services across the country. Not only does this put the public at risk by handicapping safeguards, enforcement and disease and weather surveillance, eliminate the successor generation of scientists and educators in government roles and clear out decades of institutional knowledge and experience, the deletion of workers and agencies with flagrant disregard for procedure, collective bargaining agreements, contracts or labour rights is the onset of a constitutional crisis, the executive no longer respecting the separation of powers by failing to commit funds duly appropriated by the separate and coequal legislative branch for their express purpose—and just barely, so far, abiding by decisions from judges ordering pauses and offering up what speed-bumps they can muster. The US is witnessing the transformation into a dictatorship already in the dismantling of the administrative state, however, and it won’t take ignoring a lawful order to set it off, the regime openly threatening justices who would stand in its way and forwarding appeals to a supreme court solidly in support of its agenda and end-state. Elections have consequences and those polities that voted for this, to hurt Black and Brown people and everyone else—as well as businesses that donated and lobbied—should brace for impact as the first to feel the brunt of their support. It is difficult to say if they can connect the causation or even if there might still be a chance for future reform.