a fine man of great ability (12. 141)

To honour the legacy of Jimmy Carter, President Biden ordered all flags to be flown at half-mast for a thirty day period of national mourning, which will include the inauguration ceremony. Holding his tongue for a few days, Trump waited until his endorsed candidate for Speaker of the House was losing his reelection by congressional Republicans to try to stoke public outrage over this perceived slight—remembering that Cheeto Mussolini never got over crowd size for his first inaugural. Though by the second round of voting, Mike Johnson had secured enough support, enough to call the House of Representatives to session and begin legislation to enact Trump’s agenda, he only scraped by with two votes to spare, revealing deepening divisions with the GOP. Imagine if they were allowed a secret ballot. Biden’s orders will stand, though Trump could raise flags at noon once he becomes president, “Dictator but only for Day One,” and probably will. It’s a small concession to a statesman and philanthropist of Carter’s stature (the title is rather a quote that Trump had for his sycophant Johnson) and it reminds me of how much of the public never forgave Queen Elizabeth II when the palace refused to lower the flag and personal banner for the death of Princess Diana (as the monarch was in residence at that was the done thing). More over, it echoes the indignity, petty cruelty done to Carter, the greatest ex-president, on his last hours in office, having skipped much campaigning for reelection to focus on freeing the American hostages held in Iran, when the incoming administration pressured the Iranians to delay the flight out until Ronald Reagan took power, so the long affair was not resolved under his predecessor’s watch.

synchronoptica

one year ago: slippery when wet (with synchronoptica) plus an orgiastic organ performance

seven years ago: a trove of letterpress movie promotional blocks, assorted links worth revisiting, hostile punctuation plus a Jurassic park

eight years ago: a McDonald’s at the Vatican plus a gallery of perspective

nine years ago: tonic and toil, tomato pin-cushions, emoji to lull you to sleep plus completing the periodic table

ten years ago: anticipating Epiphany, more on the North Korean cyberattack against a movie studio, Nietzsche’s Gay Science plus internecine battles

embajada (12. 140)

 

Relations formally severed by the Eisenhower administration on this day in 1961 in the aftermath of the Cuba Revolution, partially restored under Carter for business interests though not under the aegis of anational flag (operated by the Swiss) and partially normalised under Obama in early 2014 with a ceremonious unfurling which was attended by the same detachment of Marines whom had lowered the flag for the last time of the US mission, the ousting of the Batista government by the popular people’s front of Castro was seen as a rejection of the widespread corruption and cronyism encouraged in part by brief American rule and support for maintaining the status quo. 

 

A huge amount of American money was invested in real estate projects and sugar cane plantations, overwhelming and exploiting the domestic Cuban economy, and the revolutionary government nationalised all US assets. In response, Eisenhower imposed a strict embargo and travel restrictions, shutting down the Key West-Havana ferry service and closing the embassy. The partial restoration of relations was reversed three years later under Trump, reimposing travel and trade sanctions.

9x9 (12. 139)

eixample: Barcelona’s nineteenth century urban revival and characteristic octagonal blocks  

🚦: adding fourth colour to traffic lights for safer sharing of roads with human drivers and autonomous vehicles  

willkommen zu hause: a somewhat older documentary on club culture and techno in former East Germany with a connection to H has made it to Youtube  

ha-ha woman, it’s a crying shame but you ain’t got nobody else to blame: equal rights and urban justice in medieval times  

2-step authenication: secure passwords should require a performance like Liza Minelli tries to turn off a lamp—will a Fosse neck do it? 

the monkey chew tobacco on the street car line: the Meters’ Hand Clapping Song 

lycurgus cup: the fuzzy and fluorescent vases of Maxwell Mustardo evoke Roman amphorae—see previously  

stairwell of the quarter: twelve months of superlative flights and storeys 

beaded curtain: a look at the fragmented nature of the border wall on the US southern frontier—via Super Punch

𝝎 = 360° sin 𝛗 / day (12. 139)

Devised by observing a lathe demonstrating an unexpected but explainable gyroscopic effect, physicist Léon Foucault first constructed his eponymous pendulum in the basement of his home on this day in 1851, bringing the experiment to the public a month later at the Meridian of the Paris Observatory. Allowing observers to conclude from the change in the plane of oscillation of a heavy weight over time the rotation of the Earth, and showing that at latitudes other than the equator the displacement of each cycle (best viewed on a very big set up) progresses relative to the turning of the Earth throughout the diurnal period. Though a long established fact that the Earth revolved, Foucault’s experiment was proof easily attainable and not necessitating watching for the minute movements of the stars and planets, rather elegantly showing that the Earth moves beneath the fixed and motionless pivot point.   Such demonstrations have become popular installations at universities and museums around the world—see one in action here from a dedicated live webcam.

synchronoptica

one year ago: assorted links worth revisiting (with synchronoptica) plus Jim Henson’s custom car

seven years ago: Memento Mori, deep dreaming, Communist era interiors plus Trump’s minders

eight years ago: saccadic masking, book-culling algorithms, more links to enjoy plus literary-inspired resolutions

nine years ago: even more links

ten years ago: the last man on the Moon plus food pyramids and fad-diets

evenweave (12. 138)

Via Kottke, we are introduced to the embroidery journals that Sophie O’Neill, California transplant in Glasgow, has been keeping daily (sometimes batched—we can relate) since New Year’s 2020 as a log of each day’s events and memories, represented by stitching a tiny icon. The practise, not dissimilar to other diary-keeping techniques and cultivating gratitude even for those mundane and tedious periods when it seems nothing noteworthy happens and was tempted to throw in the towel. Streaks are important and motivating to keep up but not for the faith of heart (see also here and here), when each entry requires patience, dexterity and imagination.

dk’tronics (12. 137)

Although the only promotional tie-in video game that I can recall playing was Kool-Aid Man for Intellivision—a strange concept indeed where two waifish children search a haunted house to make a batch of Kool-Aid to summon the exorcist and stop the thirsty ghosts, “Oh yeah!”—we really enjoyed this review of early 8-bit licensed games based on British television programmes. Most of these ventures were slapdash, modular affairs that bore little resemblance to the actual show and game play was probably confusing—though through emulators, one can give all these and more a try without waiting for them to load—like this screen-grab for one based on the sitcom about four very different college students rooming together. The game-makers were not able to secure right to the series’ theme (see also) but composed a nice chip-tune alternate. Much more from Curious British Telly at the link up top.

ⲡⲁⲡⲁ ⲁⲃⲃⲁ ϣⲉⲛⲟⲩϯ ⲅ̅ (12. 136)

Having rescinded the presidential decree recognising him as the patriarch of the See of Saint Mark by Anwar Sadat after a contentious decade for the secular and spiritual leadership of Egypt, the president seen as stoking violence between Islamic and Christian communities to solidify his own power, and banished to the remote desert monastery of St Pishoy, on this day in 1985 the successor administration of Hosni Mubarak fully restored Pope Shenouda III to his original office. Committed to ecumenism and healing religious schisms through interdenominational dialogue, Shenouda met the Bishop of Rome in 1973, the first such summit in fifteen-hundred years, and together with Pope Paul VI forged a path towards reconciliation and was also respected by the Muslim population for his support for Palestinian autonomy and criticism of the Camp David Accords—going on the serve in the papacy for over forty years, until his death in March 2012.

synchronoptica 

one year ago: a survey of overused phrases (with synchronoptica), China in miniature plus the Japanese verses of Auld Lang Syne

seven years ago: a robotic DJ, Public Domain Day plus Monumental Trees

eight years ago: the assertion that progress hinges on the unreasonable

nine years ago: more accidental Renaissance art,  a year in full moons plus the Twelve Days of Christmas

ten years ago: plastic coins, songs reimagined as video games, a synaesthetic clock, Martin Luther’s messaging plus motivations for the American Revolution

10x10 (12. 135)

year of the snek: designer Japanese greeting cards for 2025—see previously from Spoon & Tamago

world record for tiny window inchoateness: Kate Wagner’s McMansion Hell takes on Neuschwanstein  

cloisonné garnet: an elaborate seventh century brooch discovered near Rostock 

dropped: the 2025 edition of Lake Superior State University’s banished words list, including cringe and skibidi 

back to basics: scientific research confirms that exercise is the most potent medical intervention—for one’s New Year’s resolutions  

dumpster fire: an ominous start for 2025  

classical conditioning: the unscientific and unethical Little Albert Experiment that led to stricter standards in psychological testing 

choicest swears: excellence in strong language and two other New Year’s traditions  

monuments men: Italy’s cultural heritage protection squad saves artefacts from a clandestine dig in Naples

new year, new neighbourhood: the transformation of New York City’s Times Square