synchronoptica
one year ago: a virtual Advents Calendar of work entering the public domain (with synchronopticรฆ), Saint Zephania plus a game of incense
thirteen years ago: combatting youth unemployment, a post-industrial revolution plus a Lt Uhura My Little Pony
fifteen years ago: extremophiles
sixteen years ago: holiday shopping
seventeen years ago: authorised delay
no time for dancing or lovey-dovey: David Byrne’s ensemble Tiny Desk concert—see previously
bathing beauties: the nautical folk art of Kyler Martz—via Messy Nessy Chic
ac/dc: the unlikely friendship of Mark Twain and Nikola Tesla
warrior ethos: the Canadian publisher of the beloved children’s book series Franklin the Turtle strongly objects to US Secretary of War’s depiction of him firing on boats of supposed narco-terrorists
the downfall of joann: the US craft and hobby economy ruined by private equity—via MetaFilter—see previously
steerage: turned upside down, this grainy photograph of a third-class cabin appears to expand into a grand stateroom
not even a squib of an entry: a steeple chase of an etymological mystery that may have arisen out of a case of mis-division—see also
exalting the beauty of an overcast sky: Luke Howard (previously) on cloud-modification and his correspondence with Goethe
nuns on the run: a rebel sisterhood who escaped from a nursing home to return to their abandoned convent refuse to give up their social media accounts as it would deprive them from the protection of an interested public
chanson pour tout le monde: “Song for the Children” was by Jimmy Buffet, released on his 1979 album Volcano
Tom Whitwell treats us to another catalogue of facts, lessons and observations—see previously below—gleaned from the past twelve months. It’s well worth your while to peruse the retrospective list in its entirety and some of things new to us included (5) the use of meteor bursts in point-to-point terrestrial communications, harnessing the ion trails of microscopic debris burning up in the Earth’s atmosphere to transport compressed data-packets with fidelity over thousands of kilometres, used to keep in touch with off-shore rigs and with other applications, 
(29) to encourage tax compliance and accurate reporting, every printed receipt in Taiwan bears a lottery number with a quarter-million pound jackpot and (45) the government of Denmark pays an honorarium to amateur metal detectorists for archaeological artefacts in accordance with a law on the books since 1241 called the Danefรฆ. A few others we had come across in our own meanderings—like how a gram of silica gel has the surface area equivalent of two basket ball courts but there is not much cross-over—and yet very much appreciated learning how another arrived at these fascinating and unexpected facts.
synchronoptica
one year ago: the Ludlow Typograph (with synchronopticรฆ), assorted links to revisit plus more obscure words
twelve years ago: China’s lunar missions plus poverty thoughts
thirteen years ago: seasonal hot drinks
fourteen years ago: EU sovereign debt crisis
sixteen years ago: the iconoclasm of climate change
Whilst instructing US officials not to commemorate it, despite the first Trump administration proclaiming the day for remembrance and awareness as had been done since 1988 and since 2007 with a prominent banner hung from the portico of the White House as a symbol of George W Bush’s commitment to combat the disease and the landmark and hugely successful president’s emergency plan for AIDS relief (PEPFAR) that has saved millions of lives, following cuts to crucial HIV prevention programmes carried out under the aegis of USAID, the global public health campaign continues with this year’s theme overcoming disruption and transforming response.
synchronoptica
one year ago: the Utah teapot and other graphics benchmarks (with synchronopticรฆ), more mapping of Dante plus a contentious, contingent election
twelve years ago: on this day in PfRC history, expanding the charitable works of the Church plus pareidolia
thirteen years ago: legal advice plus a brief hagiography of Saint Nicolas
fourteen years ago: Belgium forms a government plus expertise attacked in the US
fifteen years ago: a pay-freeze for US federal employees
sixteen years ago: immigration and integration in Switzerland
seventeen years ago: a visit to Leipzig
As our faithful chronicler reminds on this day in 1977, the last Christmas special of Bing Crosby aired on CBS on this day in 1977, the most memorable segment recorded 11 September of that year in Elstree Studios outside of London as part of his promotion campaign for his album Heroes, having arranged to sing a duet with Crosby. 
Bowie arrived with his then wife Mary Angela Barnett (who contributed to the definition of glam rock costuming his Ziggy Stardust persona) both appearing in matching outfits—the recording almost did not take place until Bowie agreed to doff the shocking red wig, earring and makeup. Afterwards Bowie balked at the idea of performing the traditional carol, with producer Marc Bolan coming up with an improvised counterpoint to Crosby’s “Little Drummer Boy” within an hour. The two ad-libbed a shorty dialogue before the song. Both Crosby and Bolan died a month later, of a car-crash and heart attack respectively. Never expecting to revisit this surreal collaboration (see also) again, the performance was not remastered for release as a single and not available until November of 1982, which despite all reservations garnered Bowie his most successful and an enduring holiday classic. Me and my drum.
For this first Advent, marking the transition from Ordinary Time (tempus per annum, that is the countdown weeks of the big seasons of Christmas- and Eastertide, Better Living through Beowulf, via the lens of the End Times and popular-eschatology that’s become as much part of the holiday counter-insurgency as anything else, introduces us to a second concept of time that the Ancient Greeks had, at the same time offering some solace to contextualise and countenance such rapture fantasies. 
As opposed to ฯฯฯฮฝฮฟฯ in the sense of chronological or sequential time, kairos, personified as opportunity or proper timing in the figure of Zeus’ youngest son, depicted with the iconography of a razor or scales balanced on a sharp edge to symbolise fleeting fortune and though eternally youthful is completely bald save for one lanky lock of hair that hangs over his face (let me adjust my bang) to suggest one can catch him on the approach by this tuft of hair but ungraspable once he has moved past. Also the sense of skilled professionals, an altar to Kairos was at the athletes’ entrance to the stadium of Olympia, in rhetoric and debate it is a passing instant that must be seized upon to turn an argument and in medicine and in media, the right dose administered at the right time. Despite how rapture fiction, and we’re reminded not to underestimate its readership, might be set in the familiar and predictable realm of ordinary time—so to is the more secular run up and trappings of the holidays—it is time-out-of-time for reflection, vigilant anticipation to be ready for chance to present itself.
synchronoptica
one year ago: assorted links worth the revisit (with synchronopticรฆ) plus surviving a meteor strike (1954)
twelve years ago: fostering children from Nazi Germany plus Cicada 3301
thirteen years ago: Christmas deadlines
fourteen years ago: a Star Wars/Rankin/Bass mash-up plus The War of Wealth
fifteen years ago: the fall-out of the diplomatic cable leak
Although commercial flights had been restricted coming in and out of the country for weeks over concerns of insurance liability following the deployment of a fleet of carriers to the Caribbean and intensified rhetoric over regime change, Trump made the additional step of announcing the closure of Venezuelan airspace, hinting that ground operations would begin soon. 
Whilst a tried and tired tactic of the US president is too cry wolf (as outlined in his Art of the Deal) and accelerate before negotiating, it is becoming more and more apparent that his object is to secure the South American nation’s vast petroleum reserves under conditions more favourable to the US—if not exploit them entirely, as he has attempted to do with property and natural resources in Gaza and Ukraine. Counter to the narrative of drug-trafficking used to justify the extrajudicial murders of alleged smugglers on speedboats in international waters—indefensible actions currently under investigation as breaches of international law and the Geneva Conventions, especially given the secretary of war’s order to eliminate survivors from on of the strikes—and to give grounds for his regime of tariffs long recognised as idle and specious and now void with his suggestion of pardoning the actual, convicted drug-runner, former Honduran president Jose Orlando Hernandez, extradited and serving a long sentence in a federal penitentiary for bringing caches of weapons and four hundred tonnes of cocaine to the US. Clemency is furthermore contingent on election interference. Deportation flights have also been indefinitely suspended. Trump’s targeting of the administration of Nicolรกs Maduro is based on alleged ties to the drug trafficking gang Cartel de los Soles, which like Antifa seems to be either an unorganised collective or possibly the stay-behind elements of a operation orchestrated by the CIA assembled earlier for other purposes and both declared a terrorist group. THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION TO THIS MATTER!
