day twenty-nine (13. 302)

Thailand has negotiated a separate peace with Tehran to allow its tankers safe passage through the Strait of Hormuz—which the US president during an investment conference referred to as the “Strait of Trump” before correcting himself and then sitting with the Freudian slip and going off on a tangent about the Gulf of Mexico and claiming his “great gift” from Iran he’d coyly hinted at earlier was in the form of “ten oil ships” for the US were offered as tribute to make amends for their denials that formal talks were happening. In the same speech, Trump also said that the US has no obligations to NATO partners, emphasising his disappointment that European allies had not provided material support for this campaign of chaos, and would not come to their aid after this perceived betrayal—never mind that he had belittled the institution, harangued its members and threatened to invade and annex a couple. Houthi forces have launched missiles into Israeli territory and explosions were heard in Damascus. Iranian drones attacked the Prince Sultan Airbase in Al Kharj, damaging several refuelling aircraft and severely injuring a dozen US troops following reports that the Saudi government is urging Trump to continue the war. Iranian nuclear facilities again came under attack, including a deuterium complex and a yellowcake uranium enrichment plant. Intelligence suggests that Russia is working to replenish Iran’s drone and ballistic missile stocks, returning some of the munitions and supplying new ones from the Iranian surplus used in prosecuting its war on Ukraine. Only seen in the news lately following a ruling that he had mislead investors during his hostile take over of the microblogging platform Twitter, for some reason Elon Musk was included on a call with Trump to India’s president Narendra Modi earlier in the week about ending the conflict in the Middle East.

synchronoptica

one year ago: more on Fermi’s paradox (with synchronopticæ), embroidery artist Tomoko Kubo, introspective descriptors plus Chinese gaslighting

random landing (13. 301)

Via the always excellent Web Curios, we are directed to the now occasional blog that visits a point in the contiguous states in the USA and reports back on the geographic features, watersheds, human settlements, history, local commerce, culture, etc nearby, emphasising the size of America and the vast sparsely populated places determined by chance selection of longitude and latitude with a certain methodology. Much research and record keeping has gone into these plots, often removed and remote—the middle of nowhere—that limn the nation as a whole spanning from sea to shining sea and inspired us to attempt some flattery for this personal project through imitation.

Throwing a dart at a map of Germany, at coordinates 49.9969614, 8.9482212 we arrived in the cornfield near Nieder-Roden within the urban district of Darmstadt and the municipality of Offenbach and a constituent community of Greater Roden near the city of Heusenstamm, the fiftieth parallel north passing directly through the Pusieaux-Platz in the centre of the borough.

When I lived in Wiesbaden, I recall the state news broadcast featuring a segment—weekly, daily?—called “Dolles Dörfer” so called in country dialect that highlighted a village in Hessen, some of which I visited with detours from my usual route.

Divided by thirds, it is approximately equally partitioned amongst human habitation, woodlands and agriculture with a prominent swampland stand of pine forest and was first documented in 791 as Rotaha inferior in the codex of Lorsch. If you live in the lower-48 or elsewhere, this would be a good project to cultivate for one’s own exploration, like our friend Diamond Geezer, virtual or otherwise.

7x7 (13. 300)

reverse game theory: a novel approach to the housing crisis—via Damn Interesting 

twen: the publications of art director Willy Fleckhaus  

whoami.wiki: a scrapbook and photo album in the form of a personal Wikipedia built with the help of AI  

i’d never lend my name to an inferior product: Trump’s signature to appear on hundred dollar bills, a first for a sitting US president  

return of the king: Stephen Colbert co-authoring a Lord of the Rings movie, possibly featuring the character of Tom Bombadil  

the red book of bath: a unique civil administration almanac—via Strange Company  

laissez-faire: a modest proposal from John Maynard Keynes to solve unemploymentby burying money under landfills

day twenty-eight (13. 299)

Rejecting reports that he is searching for an off-ramp (another tortured metaphor that isn’t build for this) as economies continue to falter and it becomes manifest that the situation is out of his control, Trump says; “I am the opposite of desperate. I don’t care,” as he again extends the pause on attacking Iranian energy infrastructure. Contrary to what Tehran is putting out, Washington maintains that Iran is eager to make a deal with productive conversations ongoing. Despite the veracity of the claims, Iran we think has no appetite to work with the same negotiators, Kusher and Witkoff, who orchestrated all the previous rounds when, resulting in last year’s attack on Iranian nuclear research facilities (now cited as a casus belli) and lately all out war (which led to the closure of shipping lanes) rather than achieving any semblance of cooperation or compromise. Meanwhile the Houthi militia in Yemen seem to be plotting opening up another front in the war by seizing control of Bab-el-Mandeb (Gate of Grief, the strait that links the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden, fed by the Suez canal and the Indian Ocean. Bombardment and counterstrikes continue.

 

synchronoptica

one year ago: assorted links to revisit (with synchronopticæ) plus a German colonial holding in the Americas

 

twelve years ago: the Rod of Asclepius plus current affairs 

 

thirteen years ago: signs and shingles plus a reminder that a country is not a corporation

 

fourteen years ago: a Cold War melodrama 

 

fifteen years ago: long term entombment 

w97m.melissa (13. 298)

Released into the wild on this day in 1999, the destructive macrovirus whose vector was infected email Word documents that propagated itself through accessing its victims’ Outlook address book established the articles of faith in cyber-security that are still prescribed to today of not clicking on unsolicited links, opening attachments and that Windows OS was and remains an open-target for hacking despite the fact that Apple operating systems are not immune.  Contemporary IT support reckoned that the Melissa virus cost hundreds of millions in man hours to contain damages and rebuild email servers, posted to a pornographic newsgroup by a hacker with the monicker Kwyjibo which quickly spread to corporate networks. Lingering and still actively trying to exploit vulnerabilities since paved over with multiple software patches to achieve herd immunity, it was the fastest spreading email worm.

hypothecated tax (13. 297)

Though the US air travel industry faces chaos and imminent collapse as the government shutdown of a single agency, the Department of Homeland Security to force reform in enforcement practises, surpassing a month in duration—ICE agents themselves unaffected by the lapse in appropriations and the insertion of untrained helpers, whom are being paid, is only adding injury to insult—with unpaid transportation security agents and screeners unable to keep showing up for work uncompensated, not only unable to afford basic necessities but also fuel for their commute to and from work more costly—there was a funding mechanism outside of congress to specifically pay for the TSA within the massive department created in response to the 9/11 terror attacks. A service fee of up to eleven dollars was added to the ticket price of each American domestic fight and a pooled airport fee paid by carriers in order to offset costs enhanced flight security—this process of ring-fencing also known as the above, wherein a specific surcharge, say for the flying public, tv taxes to support public broadcasters or historically seaports to fund the navy is earmarked for a specific service rather than directed to the coffers of the general fund. In times of relative stability, this revenue, however, tends to get raided by legislators and put to different use, as was the case with the passenger fee, the funding stream redirected in 2013 to help pay off the national debt, a higher political priority at the time. As the situation worsens for flyers and agents, the money cannot be restored without the intervention of congress, at the same impasse that’s holding up funding, and until compromised is reached—which also requires the approval of the president who has announced refusal to sign any bill into law unless it includes election reform as well—it is likely to only degrade further before it gets better, with more absenteeism, quitting and the summer travel season, including an expected influx of visitors for the World Cup.

day twenty seven (13. 296)

As Israel expands its buffer zone with the southern border of Lebanon with a literal scorched earth campaign, spreading white phosphorus on the land to make it fallow and uninhabitable, Hezbollah is refusing ceasefire negotiations with the aggressor as IDF bombing runs continue over Iran and that country, following international condemnation saying that the area of Beirut cannot become another occupied territory, another Gaza. Mixed signals came out of both Tehran and Washington over potential peace talks, Iranians insisting that Trump is delusional and holding court with himself and that they will never surrender to the US excessive demands and never accept defeat, Trump pushing for a status quo ante bellum that was nearly achieved before fighting commenced (the goals seem to have shifted to reopening the Strait of Hormuz, which was open before the war) and Iran signalling its readiness to carpet bomb its own land should US troops set foot and seize Bahraini and Emirati territory in response. Not entertaining the draft peace plan, Iran further demands any truce must include stopping hostilities in Lebanon and an Israeli withdrawal and reparations. Aside from the rising death toll approaching nine thousand individuals, the global economic fallout has nearly reached a tipping point with the worldwide petrodollar market dictating costs even for countries saturated in oil and natural gas, importers enacting energy-saving measures, supply chains and infrastructure points disrupted and not quickly or cheaply restored and clouding prospects for industry and manufacturing as resources dwindle—even the AI boom and bubble that is buoying up the broader stock market is in peril, relying not only on investment for mushrooming data centres, those facilities themselves very energy- and water-intensive.

synchronoptica

one year ago: the unique pop culture of Greenland (with synchronopticæ) plus assorted links to revisit 

 

twelve years ago: a Spanish monarch for Scotland 

 

fourteen years ago: an Easter bouquet 

 

fifteen years ago: Earth Hour 

 

sixteen years ago: the US affordable care act 

jazzy spies (13. 295)

Also known by the above for the closing undercover lineup, the Jazz Number series was a collaboration between Jefferson Airplane singer Grace Slick,whom provided the vocals after her then husband, Jerry Slick of San Francisco animation studio Imagination, Inc, was commissioned to produce the segments for the new Children’s Television Workshop show Sesame Street. Slick’s team of animators were also behind the noonee, noonee typewriter guy and this upbeat psychedelic interstitial certainly belongs on the pantheon of nostalgia along with the pinball count and Multiplication Rock! More from Open Culture at the link up top.