(13. 474)

synchronoptica

one year ago: the European Space Agency at Fifty (with synchronopticæ) plus revisiting the Hohenwarte dam

sixteen years ago: artist Aubrey Beardsley 

day ninety-one (13. 473)

No deal emerges between Washington and Tehran after the praise-a-thon cabinet meeting in the Situation Room as the chokehold over the Strait of Hormuz continues to grind away on the global economy and energy supplies with attendant effects on tourism, world food security and investment opportunities for the gulf states. Though it seems that Trump’s only exit strategy is surrender and Republicans are warning him to spin whatever settlement is achieved as materially different and superior to the agreement that Obama reached and Trump torpedoed in his first term in office and tolerance for his destructive whims will not be enduring, it is yet baffling that the stupidity and hubris of a single individual can in a decentralised society where the power and relevance of nation states are subverted by corporations can cause so much chaos and influence without the cooperation or consent of traditional allies and partners. Bored with the messes he has made and little appetite for the politics of the upcoming midterms, Trump turns his attention to preening and MCing America’s birthday bash—a relatively harmless activity, despite the potential for propaganda.

rando forêt châtaigniers (13. 472)

synchronoptica

one year ago: a return visit to Ranis (with synchronopticæ) plus Musk leaves DOGE

fourteen years ago: pharmaceutical brand names plus more birtherism in US politics

fifteen years ago: an E coli outbreak in Germany plus Memorial Day

day ninety (13. 471)

In a seemingly unending iteration of market manipulation and Friday-to-Monday pump-and-dump, though the administration has diluted and democratised hedging and insider trading by opening wagering to all grifters of any means, Trump’s announcement of a meeting in the White House Situation Room to extend the already broken ceasefire—neither side apparently willing to resume all out war over tit-for-tat exchanges at American’s provocation—is being hailed as an end to the standoff, despite the framework of an agreement, the memorandum of understanding being in the works for weeks already, sticking points still unresolved and US commitment to removing the naval blockade and the reopening of the strait (without tolls), giving up the stockpile of enriched uranium, reparations and the exuent of US troops from the region matters still under discussion. Hardly exciting or newsworthy, notwithstanding Trump’s characterision of a homecoming moment, and concessions to Trump’s demands do not seem forthcoming, so long as Tehran can wait it out and there is some profit to be made at the margins—regardless of the expense to global economy and the Iranian people. An emergency session of NATO convenes after an errant Russian drone hits an apartment building in Romania.

capu rossu (13. 470)

synchronoptica

one year ago: more adventures in the Saale valley (with synchronopticæ)

sixteen years ago: retrofitting the Bulli plus a reminder button

day eighty-nine (13. 469)

As peace talks continue to circle in a critical phase (both parties deny a draft framework for ending the blockades), the brittle ceasefire between Iran and the US seems ready to break at any moment with the second defensive strike launched against the Revolutionary Guards strategic installation in Bandar Abbas, capable of defending the Strait of Hormuz. In retaliation, Iran launched drones at American bases in Kuwait. Trump issues a volley of threats against Oman for its arrangement with Tehran to regulate and toll traffic through the Persian gulf. Furthermore, Trump is planning to impose sanctions on those shipping companies that do pay the transit fees and is targeting Iran air carriers to try to exert more economic pressure (in parallel, Trump is attempting to do the same for airports in Democratically leaning hubs domestically) on the country that has so far been resilient in the face of direct and indirect attacks. IDF bombing campaigns kill dozens in southern Beirut as evacuation orders expand.  Israel also asserts control over seventy percent of the Gaza Strip.

stradi di e calanchi (13. 468)

synchronoptica

one year ago: the engineering of wine bottles (with synchronopticæ), closed-captioning plus a return to the Saale valley

seventeen years ago: climate change mitigation 

date::italy (13. 467)

Via Quantum of Sollazo, we enjoyed this addendum (see previously) to close gaps in historical records between New Style and Old Style and calibrate, synchronise dates matched to when different regions adopted the Gregorian calendar, a switch very unevenly distributed. Whilst most retroactive record keeping has a certain degree of tolerance for approximation, the advent of Julian days, a cyclical count whose current epoch started at noon, New Year’s Day 4713 BCE, a event unrecorded by any contemporary chroniclers we assume, with the alignment of the twenty eight year solar cycle, the nineteen year lunar cycle and the fifteen year indication cycle of Roman tax re-assessments, imposting, used until the Renaissance to date documents. The title function adjusts the day count to reflect when Catholic Europe had taken up the new standard, with England and its colonies changing over later, to convert from the civil calendar, the non-Julian Day date to a universal, effectively linear one—like the latter secular innovation of a star date, though the useful fiction has no consistent reckoning. Just one year after the adoption of the Gregorian calendar, in order to synchronise events not only with the Protestant world but also to bring Persian and Egyptian history into the fold, chronologically underrepresented, Franco-Italian Calvinist polymath Josephus Justus Scaliger (confusingly known as Giuseppe Giusto de la Scala outside of Anglophone circles) advocated for the date count, divorced from reign or religion and predating any written historic records, now some six thousand years hence, also confusingly not named for the just deposed calendar calendar nor its namesake but rather in honour of his father, fellow scholar Julius Caesar Scaliger, whom was christened after the first Roman emperor.