day fifteen (13. 264)

A Jewish school in Amsterdam is damaged by a terror attack. Explosions were also heard at the US embassy in Baghdad. Hamas calls for Iran to stop its provocative attacks against neighbouring states, while there are conflicting claims about oil infrastructure on Kharg Island, the chief export terminal for Iran’s petroleum exports after Trump claims it was obliterated by US strikes. Reportedly, an amphibious detachment of five thousand Marines (aboard the USS Tripoli) is ordered to deploy to Iran from their home base in Okinawa.  Though prices barely responded to the historic announcement of releasing strategic reserves by member states of the International Energy Agency, surpassing even the coordinated actions taken to offset the market shocks of the 1973 Oil Crisis, the US depart of the interior assures east Asia that it can provide “reliable” energy supplies—America, although a net exporter through fracking to ease dependence on the Middle East following the last disruption and a modest pivot towards renewables, is still bound by the global market.

synchronoptica 

one year ago: an anti-slavery primer (with sychronopticæ), more on microseasons, a subtle expression of solidarity with Canada plus US government shutdown averted

twelve years ago: ski-yoga 

thirteen years ago: more manhole covers plus the endurance of treats

fifteen years ago: the Fukushima disaster 

sixteen years ago: daffodils and asphodels plus a non-existent conquest

they’ve been killing innocent people all over the world for forty-seven years—and now, i, as the forty-seventh president of the united states of america am killing them (13. 263)

Speaking earlier with Fox News, Trump referenced the 1979 Iranian revolution without mention of the US undermining efforts towards democratic reform and echoed previous ambitions announced a few days prior of “hitting the country very hard” and to “watch what happens to these scumbags.”

During a wide-ranging and cringe-inducing press conference, US secretary of war Pete Hegseth, among other topics—including remarks that the press was not delivering good headlines for this special operation and that David Ellison couldn’t take over CNN soon enough, War Widening should be Iran Shirking, Iran Going Underground—questioned Mojtaba Khamenei’s ability to govern, given his public absence since being appointed the Supreme Leader, saying without evidence that the ayatollah’s son was likely wounded and disfigured in the same air attack that took out the family compound. On this day of al-Quds march ( روز جهانی قدس , Jerusalem Day)—observed annually on the last Friday of Ramadan in support of Palestinian statehood, president Masoud Pezeshkian, took part in seeming defiance in response to Hegseth’s comments that all leadership was in hiding, whilst Israel announced funded for militias in eastern Gaza to oust Hamas through clandestine raids and abductions deep within the beleaguered territory and UN secretary general Antonio Guterres travelled to Beirut in solidarity, calling on Israel and Hezbollah to halt the fighting that has engulfed the country in violence without respect to the sovereignty of the populace.

in every language (13. 262)

Via Web Curios, we are directed to an engrossing project from Riley Walz (previously) that scrapes the representative header image from all the three-hundred plus language editions of Wikipedia, chosen by that version’s editors, to represent a given topic or concept—see also, see previously—to present an interesting array of how different cultures symbolise and genericise an idea. When there’s not a media commons, sometimes I switch between different languages to scour for a better photograph on a specific subject but its really interesting to see what illustrative examples are used around the world. Try looking up automobile or dog or comedy or art or see where random entries lead.

oh who will find the antidote for pentagonorrhoea (13. 261)

Having coming across a clip of someone lip-syncing a section of this ditty the other day, I appreciated, courtesy of r/ObscureMedia, the full version with spoken-word intro from the Chad Mitchell Trio of this 1964 number, should you find any drafts that need dodging in your area. The group is rather famous for their satirical songs lampooning topical and controversial subjects during the Cold War, the civil rights movement and the Vietnam era, pivoting away from folk music with their then daring ridicule of the anti-communist, ultraconservative John Birch Society. Draft Dodger Rag was originally written by Phil Ochs and after being popularised by the Trio was soon afterwards performed by the Smothers Brothers on their comedy hour.

day fourteen (13. 260)

The US has temporarily waved sanctions for Russian crude and for oil in tankers stranded at sea, unable to pass through the Persian Gulf to the Gulf of Oman, reiterating the plan to provide naval escorts. Meanwhile oil producing states in the region are contemplating pausing production with limited land-storage capacity and no ships to fill, with the process of restarting drilling not as simple as turning the spigot back on. İncirlik NATO airbase came under fire and is in lockdown and smoke billows over the financial centre of Dubai. A US refuelling plane was downed in Iraqi airspace and a rescue operation for the five crew members is underway, whilst there are also discussions to move anti-missile systems, running in short supply, from South Korea to the Middle East to protect American assets. Preliminary investigations into the bombing of a girls’ school in Minhab puts the blame on American misfiring and faulty intelligence. Historical Safavid-era buildings of the Ali Qapu and Rashk palaces in Isfahan province were destroyed by joint US and Israeli airstrikes as devastating assaults continue in Beirut.

synchronoptica

one year ago: spiritual boxes (with synchronopticæ) plus vintage Czech record sleeves

thirteen years ago: fiscal planning 

fourteen years ago: help for Japan in the Fukushima aftermath 

seventeen years ago: pot o’ gold 

 

città dei coralli (13. 259)

Via fellow internet caretaker, Messy Nessy Chic (lots more to discover there), we are introduced to the ancient art of coral-working perfected in the north-western Sicilian coastal city of Trepani. Embellished with jewels and precious metals, this craft was very much en vogue during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries following the rediscovery of reefs off the port in the Mediterranean and masters created vignettes as devotional and decorative items and as tribute for the aristocracy. The tradition continues with jewellery and figural tableaux like Nativity scenes by a new generation that have revived the art using the old tools of the trade for working the coral but with more of an eye towards conservation rather than exploitation of the maritime environment.  Much more to explore at the links above.

day thirteen (13. 258)

Iran continues to target Gulf states’ energy infrastructure, including firing on tankers moored at the chokepoint of the Strait of Hormuz in the Red Sea, as oil prices climb and some thirty nations release strategic reserves in order to avoid shocks to their economies and industries, impose rationing and driving restrictions. Faced with UN demands that Tehran stop this assault disrupting world petroleum supplies and air travel, the country’s president returned with demands that reparations and security guarantees be included in any agreement for a ceasefire fire. In what was touted as a junket to focus on affordability, Trump proclaimed victory but that they had not yet won enough—whilst US intelligence reports that the Iranian regime was still mostly intact and that, though diminished, it was retains its capability to fight back. Most targets lauded from yesterday’s most intense day of strikes from the US Department of War, dropped from B-52s launched from RAF Fairford, remain unknown. Israeli bombardment in southern Lebanon continues with three-quarters of a million people displaced from Beirut suburbs.

 

 

synchronoptica

one year ago: assorted links to revisit (with synchronopticæ), Trump’s Tesla plus Captain Charles Boycott

twelve years ago: standard aptitude tests plus protest currency

thirteen years ago: bulk trash plus umlauts 

fifteen years ago: aftermath of the Fukushima disaster plus a Venn diagram of the EU

algeria, gabon, benin, the gambia (13. 257)

This was delightful and really could be integrated as a classroom geography lesson, since most of us are only disabused of our ignorance through wars. There I Ruined It (previously) improves Toto’s “Africa” by lyrically listing all fifty-four nations of the continent. More mnemonics from Kottke at the link above.