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synchronoptica

one year ago: allegories of love (with synchronoptica) plus assorted links worth revisiting

seven years ago: more links to enjoy, reforesting efforts, unpublished Foucault plus the Whitechapel Fatberg

eight years ago: US customs and border control can request passengers’ social media credentials, the alt-White House plus Apple’s internet café concept

nine years ago: Roman valentines, campus protests, piled pastures plus aggregate fruits

eleven years ago: an Autobahn bridge zoned for housing

8x8 (12. 227)

patch barracks: military families boo and heckle defence secretary during a whistle-stop visit in Stuttgart en route to the Munich Security Conference 

stakes, novelty, anger, retention and fear: the SNARF model of viral content 

yrjö kukkapuro: a tribute to the pre-eminent Finnish furniture designer 

crossing a line: Timothy Snyder on hurtling towards authoritarianism—via Kottke  

agnotology: an encore episode on the study of wilful ignorance

måke califørnia great ægain: US imperial aspirations prompt counter offers ranging from the serious to satirical 

ザ: the nuances of definite article in article-less and uninflected Japanese language  

cultural moments: under pressure from anti-DEI diktats, Google removing Black History Month and Pride from its calendars—though the decision will not impact the daily Doodle

julian the hospitaller (12. 226)

Fêted on this day in the Roman Catholic tradition as patron of innkeepers, wandering minstrels, clowns and jugglers—invoked by those seeking good lodging, is a fourth century saint from Gaul whose hagiography shares some elements with the story of Œdipus. On the night of his birth into a prominent family, his father witnessed a witch casting a curse upon the boy, destining him to kill his parents. His father wanted to send him off immediately but his mother’s overtures stopped him and as Julian grew up, his mother often wept over this awful fate. Whilst out hunting in the woods one day as a young man, Julian encountered a stag who relayed to him the reason for his mother’s despondence. Resolving then to escape the curse, Julian marched for fifty days south to Galicia and settled there, marrying a noble widow and leading a prosperous life. Two decades later, his parents decided to try to find their estranged son and along the way, inquired where they might seek shelter for the night, weary from travel. and woman at a wayside altar at a crossroads graciously invited them to stay at her house, saying her husband was out hunting, treating them well and offering them their bed. Returning home from the hunt, the devil, however, whispered in Julian’s ear that his wife was unfaithful and carrying on with another man, and arriving to find his bed occupied, murdered the sleeping pair. Repenting for his grave misunderstanding (see also), Julian and his wife embarked on a pilgrimage to Rome, establishing a chain of hospices along the route to aid fellow travellers. His association with circus workers probably owes to the proximity of his feast day with Carnival.

synchronoptica

one year ago: a seventeenth century road atlas of England and Wales (with synchronoptica) 

seven years ago: the first flat-pack furniture

eight years ago: apocalyptic resorts, Russia floats extraditing Snowden to US, Trump assaults the administrative state, George Washington’s legendary lineage, the US Secretary of Education plus electing the German president

nine years ago: more on gravitational waves, a long-running German police procedural plus lenticular photographs

ten years ago: assorted links worth revisiting, Mean Girls and fine art plus eminent domain over unclaimed correspondence

we have this unelected fourth, unconstitutional branch of government (12. 225)

Journalists from the Associated Press were barred from attending an Oval Office event, a signing ceremony for yet another executive order—newsworthy for its magnitude and ineptitude—with Elon Musk in attendance to announce agency heads were to undertake preparations, working with DOGE to drastically reduce the size of the federal workforce after “billions and billions of dollars” in fraud, waste and abuse had been uncovered, for not referring as the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America in its syndicated articles, and reporters would continue to be excluded from the White House press pool until such time as wire service aligns its language with that of Trump’s. An EO banning the use of paper straws in federal facilities was also signed.  Several news organisations have rallied to the AP’s defence, saying that the president cannot dictate reporting or editing decisions. This follows other attacks against the press, including suits for supposed libel and deplatforming and banishing several outlets from the Pentagon, including the New York Times, the Washington Post, CNN and NPR as well as threatening the same group’s broadcasting licenses over newsroom and network diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives characterised as promotion “invidious forms of discrimination” that will not be tolerated.

pennywise (12. 224)

The title in reference to a corollary article from the same source, small change is in the news following the magisterial announcement that the US Mint has been ordered to stop the production of pennies—which following their elimination in Canada and other Commonwealth nations over a decade ago, America was expected to enact sooner rather than later, possibly held up by the domestic zinc lobby whose refining operations are based in the US neighbour to the north and now in the face of tariffs may have been persuaded into relenting as a way of accounting for this seeming low-stakes directive. And whilst it is true that each cost 3¢ to produce, and so many are minted per year because they are not in circulation, socked away in a drawer and hoarded by those waiting for the day it is demonetised (something that would take an act of Congress) so they can sell older pennies with higher cooper content as specie since it is illegal to melt down legal tender, discontinuing one coin could have second order effects that end up costing more money, nickels being also an example of “negative seigniorage” and more expensive to make and distribute.

synchronoptica

one year ago: portrait of a teenage alcoholic from 1975 (with synchronoptica),  Camembert under threat, assorted links worth revisiting, AI sweethearts plus monitoring air traffic

seven years ago: art in motion (caution flashing lights), flying roulette plus an impressive drone synchronisation 

eight year ago: a US supreme court nominee’s yearbook quote, a fake terror attack, bespoke emoji plus a daily survey of the entire Earth

nine years ago: human-animal chimera plus Titanic II

ten years ago: more links to enjoy, Project West-Ford plus comparing the Ukraine conflict with divided Ireland

rearing its ugly head (12. 223)

The 1958 political novel by William Lederer and Eugene Burdick, considered an iconic Cold War text, portrays the failures and frustrations the authors had with the US south-east Asian diplomatic corps and America’s trailing position geopolitically and depicts the shortcomings of the consular missions as aloof and out of touch with the countries where they were stationed. The Soviet Union was making significant strides technologically and militarily and were securing allies by liberating nations still in thrall to former colonial powers, fearing more and more would turn to Communism and the decline of Western influence. Serialised and a best-seller, the work informed JFK’s statecraft and influenced foreign policy in terms of pursuing soft-power in the form of aid and outreach, directly contributing to the creation of the Peace Corps and USAID. The title, soon becoming a pejorative but accurate term to describe the generally offensive and obnoxious behaviour demonstrated abroad, is a play on the Graham Greene book The Quiet American, published three years prior and set in Vietnam, questioning the US involvment in the region. The shuttering of such programmes recreates the political milieu of the early 1960s that prompted their creation in the first place.

7x7 (12. 222)

vandalising purposes—in this economy: one hundred thousand eggs are stolen in Pennsylvania 

we stand on guard: a ten year old graphic novel about a US invasion of Canada is surging in popularity  

narrow meaning: a love poem revealed by holding the page level with the eyes, foreshortening the characters—see previously here and here 

sandbox game: an omnibus appreciation of The Sims on their twenty-fifth anniversary—via MissCellania  

antipodes: an exploration of obscure islands  

read-ahead: a pre-summit release from the Munich Security Conference (previously) suggests that due to its imperial aspirations, the US no longer a trusted partner 

the price of eggs in china: inflation and rationing in America

nackte und naturnah (12. 221)

Via fellow internet caretaker Messy Nessy Chic, we are directed to a profile of Karl Wilhelm Diefenbach, whom whilst rubbished by critics as the Kohlrabi (turnip) Apostle is regarded as the forefather alternative movements, championing naturism, vegetarianism and pacifism from a commune outside of Vienna and cooperative on Monte Verità on Lago Maggiore, established by protégés. His first moment of transcendence happened on this day in 1882 came at sunrise in the alpine foreland of Bavaria with the vocation of being a prophetic reformer, travelling to

München shortly thereafter in a woollen habit and sandals (though often unshod) and delivered his message, turning away from society’s institutions. Authorities suppressed his teachings and Diefenbach retreated to the countryside to focus on his paintings, though his fame did not materialise as with another follower’s, Hugo Höppener called Fidus and praise from the contemporaries like Egon Schiele, with the public focused on his unorthodox ways and a series of failed exhibitions though finally establishing a studio on Capri. Much more at the links above.

synchronoptica

one year ago: assorted links to revisit, Lunar New Year plus Death of a Salesman (1949)

seven years ago: rewilding plus notes on adulting

eight years ago: the official White House photographer, parliamentary procedure plus more links to enjoy

nine years ago: a van Gogh retreat and retrospective 

ten years ago: Werner Herzog motivational posters, Deutschland 1983, reputed time-travellers plus social media and net-neutrality