day one-hundred thirty-three (13. 619)

Claiming that the strait separating the Persia from the Omani gulf is open and will “remain” so “with or without Iran,” Trump announced that the USA will reinstate the IRANIAN BLOCKADE and issues assurances that all other countries will have fair and open use of the vital waterway, with the USA henceforth known as the “‘The GUARDIANS OF THE HORMUZ,’ but as such, and as a matter of FAIRNESS, will be reimbursed at the rate of 20% on all cargo shipped, for any and all costs necessary to do the job of providing safety and security to this very volatile section of the World.” Not only is Trump ignorant of the fact that his actions have caused the regional and global turmoil and an insult to the gulf partner nations hosting American military bases under attack, the transit fees are more than ten times higher than the tolls Tehran charged and the US has pronounced a toll on international waters to be illegal under international law. Iran’s foreign ministry announces that diplomacy has failed and is under no obligation to adhere to the framework of the MOU after the blatant violations of the US. Following the unexpected death of senate colleague Lindsay Graham, Mitch McConnell supposedly issues a statement as a sign of life, complete with a still photograph showing him reclining in his hospital bed, his wife at his side and reading the sports section of today’s Washington Post, like how a kidnapper would send a date-stamped ransom picture with the hostage holding up a newspaper.

i often wonder what the vintners buy—one half so precious as the goods they sell (13. 618)

To gain purchase on the sophistry of scammers, grifters and gurus and proffer the question on the greater fraud of our time—why isn’t the artificial intelligence industry in direct competition with their consumers—Cory Doctrow starts with the lasting imprint of the enigmatic verse from The Rubáiyát of Omar Khamyyám, completing the couplet as translated by Edward FitzGerald:

And much as Wine has play’d the Infidel,
And robbed me of my Robe of Honour—well

to probe what the purveyors of the promise of wealth and success could possibly benefit from the exchange—be they winesellers or in his illustration booksellers, infidel or otherwise—with their wares already better than anything else money could buy. 

In other words: if someone had discovered the secret to generating all the wealth, even if willing to share in the munificence, what would they need with another’s, unless the pyramid scheme was baked in from the beginning? Venture capitalists and AI evangelicals might cite their work in progress needs funding to achieve godhead but fails to to address the fundamental question for both buyer and seller. If there’s a better vintner, why not establish one’s own vineyard? If there’s a large language model that can educate better than human teachers, why license it to a school district instead of opening up an academy? Late-stage capitalism has shifted our willingness to question motives of gospellers in the estranging drive not make but abstract—the rentier economy made more meta by options eschewing work and exposure—rather than driving a taxi, buying stock investing in a ride-share concept or prospecting for land to build a data-centre on, being the very friction and middlemanning that AI strives to remove.

synchronoptica

one year ago: the return of the ground-effect vehicle (with synchronoptica), Live Aid (1985) plus assorted links to revisit

two years ago: claim-jumping in the Arctic, reproductive care in international waters, a local air show plus a failed assassination attempt on Donald Trump

three years ago: potential biomarkers on Mars plus the Hollywood sign (1923) 

four years ago: a banger from Bryan Adams plus a summer research project on artificial intelligence (1956)

five years ago: Småland plus Sweden’s Crystal Kingdom

six years ago: more links to enjoy plus 1970s HiFi equipment

day one-hundred thirty-two (13. 617)

Former staunch critic turned ally of Trump, the hawkish long term senator from South Carolina Lindsey Graham dies suddenly after a short unexpected illness, having recently returned from a trip to Ukraine and championing increased sanctions against Russia at the relatively young age of seventy-one for the gerontocracy, whilst the country has been awaiting news on the health of former senate leader Mitch McConnell, hospitalised for weeks with no explanation or sighting, fuelling speculation that the Kentucky senator is dead or effectively so. It’s not outside of the realm of possibilities that Graham was assassinated by a Russian agent—not so much for his stance but to spook Trump, already a target for the killing of Iran’s former Supreme Leader. It is believed that the developments on McConnell’s heath are being withheld until the statutory filing date to prevent Kentucky’s Democratic governor from calling a special election before the mid-terms, leaving the seat vacant, South Carolina’s Republican governor can appoint a replacement for Graham. Iran launches retaliatory strikes on US bases in Qatar, Kuwait and Bahrain after the US conducts attacks on coastal radar site and air defence systems, America insisting that the Strait of Hormuz is reopened.

kkk-mart (13. 616)

Disbanded in 1869 by general consensus of its members, the secret order founded by US civil war veterans of the Confederacy in order to terrorise formerly enslaved individuals, the fraternity, the Ku Klux Klan—also styling itself as a secret empire with the same attendant hierarchy and bureaucracy of a cosplay kingdom—reconstituted itself and hateful message as an America-First society in 1915 after the premiere of DW Griffith’s The Birth of a Nation. After experiencing the natural consequences of public marches unmasked, Klonvocation rallies adopted robes and headdresses for their knights to maintain anonymity whilst displaying rank and seniority of members’ allegiance, with the associated merchandising being big business aside from ideological position. The merch soon became a prerequisite, with mandated nancying and homosocial symbols at every Klan event, the garb, a ceremonial sword representing white Christian nationalism, sanctified Klan water for absolution and used to baptise new members. Items were available in a full-colour glossy catalogue, which also included banners, emblems, figurines and literature like the Kloran, the Klan’s book of scripture. still in circulation today, hate having kept up with inflation but sales and dues siphoned off by other contemporary movements.

tell me about a complex man (13. 615)

Instead of the usual fare of the podcast and talk-show publicity circuit, we really appreciated The Daily from The New York Times—introduced with appropriately Homeric epithets—had an enthusiastic panel discussion just ahead of the release of Christopher Nolan’s cinematic adaptation of The Odyssey with scholar and translator Emily Wilson (whose work I’ve been meaning to read for some time now and whose take on the first line of the epic poem, “Sing, o Muse” above inspired the director, with a penchant for complicated and flawed protagonists, to assay the project) and author and classicist Madeline Miller, who wrote Song of Achilles and Circe. It was a fascinating panel discussion about the characters, language, tradition and themes of wandering, homecoming and hospitality of the timeless and endlessly interpreted tale. Through the lens of detractions by purists and pedants and provocateurs, attacks that the authors are well-accustomed (Wilson’s website has three contact forms: Interviews/Speaking Requests, General Inquiries and Misogynistic Trolling) and currently applied to Nolan’s work with casing choices (these same people got very upset about a Black Little Mermaid) they arrive a genuinely insightful look at the narrative, academic honesty and conclude that whatever choices that a version makes (in a long-lineage of adaptations and critiques), omissions, Hollywood-endings that one cannot hurt Homer, that the story is invulnerable.

survey says (13. 614)

Debuting on this day on ABC station affiliates with host British actor and comedian Richard Dawson, Family Feud quickly became one the most popular day time television game shows in America, enduring in syndication until the present.  The format pits two groups of competing, extended families, against each other, asking contestants to guess the most popular results of audience polls. Contractually obligated to make Dawson the MC of the programme, his run lasting until 1985, the show’s producers had originally wanted William Shatner, Star Trek having been discontinued a few years earlier (see previously here and here), to host. Watching the family dynamics of the panelist was always fun and the questions and responses pushed the envelope of what was fit to air with low-brow entendre.

 

synchronoptica

one year ago: Mimolette (with synchronoptica), a Jaws text-based game, more on the Carnac Stones and other megaliths plus more on optical telegraphy

two years ago: plural forms of compound expressions, assorted links to revisit plus Disco Demolition Night (1979)

three years ago: the Golden Spike of the Anthropocene Era, a crowd-pirated movie plus more links to enjoy

four years ago: St Veronica plus even more links worth the revisit

five years ago: In the Year 2525 

six years ago: Trump ally Roger Stone plus a smart facial covering 

day one-hundred thirty-one (13. 613)

Ukraine nearly completely cuts off the annexed territory of the Crimean peninsula during the height of tourist season, whilst Russia targets Ukrainian cropland with incendiary bombs to destroy its grain harvest. The US launches a fresh wave of attacks as Iran announces that the Strait of Hormuz is closed and continues to strike as ships attempt to transit—American negotiators speaking for Iran the day prior, saying that the Revolutionary Guard Corps regretted targeting tankers and expressed a willingness to return to dialogue. Accused of enabling illegal settlement in Gaza and the West Bank, the EU moves to place restrictions on the export of building materials and construction equipment to Israel.  

meta incognita (13. 612)

On this day in 1576, having weighed anchor around a month earlier with Queen Elizabeth’s financial backing, explorer and privateer Martin Frobisher, whilst on the first of three voyages to the New World, in search of the Northwest Passage to Cathay and the East Indies, spotted the coast of Greenland, although assuming it was the non-existent phantom island Frisland (also called Fixland or Portlandia) that appeared appeared on virtually all maps of the North Atlantic for a century, dissuaded from claiming it for the Crown as chartered territory. Landing in the eponymous bay on Baffin Island in the present day Qikiqtaaluk region of Nunavut (it was that then too), Canada, Frobisher failed to find a new route but was encouraged and petitioned for follow-on excursions, having brought back an interesting rock specimen and influenced during his service in Africa’s Gold Coast, having managed to seize a lode of precious specie that the Portuguese had procured. Although metallurgical experts told Frobisher that his souvenir was hornblende, not classed as a specific composition, like Fools’ Gold, but a category of otherwise worthless rubble that appears like ore-bearing substrate. Dissatisfied with this assessment from the assayers, Frobisher brought the sample to a Venetian alchemist living in London, one Giovannia Battista Agnello, whom had previously convinced Elizabeth to debase small coinage with a teston of lead plated with copper (see previously), whom, arguing that one must know how to flatter nature—“Bisogna sapere adulare la natura”—claimed there was gold in it. For his second voyage, the queen lent Frobisher additional ships with a compliment of Cornish miners, which was more devoted to collecting rather than discovery. The expedition returned to Milford Haven in September of 1577, carrying two-hundred short tonnes of valueless rock. Despite the disappointment, Elizabeth retained a strong faith in the potential of the new colonies and authorised a third trip to this Unknown Shore, which she named herself. The territory of Nunavut’s was also named after Frobisher from devolution in 1942 until 1987 when it was renamed ᐃᖃᓗᐃᑦ (Iqaluit, place of many fish).