mmxxiv (12. 124)

As this calendar draws to a close and we look forward to 2025, we again take time to reflect on a selection of some of the things and events that took place during the past year. Thanks as always for visiting. We’ve made it through another wild year together.

january: The ruling Progressive Democratic Party secures the presidency in Taiwan, along with Bangladesh and the Marshall Island, kicking off the biggest year for elections.  The International Criminal Court rules that Israel must take all measures to curb genocidal conduct in Gaza but falls short of ordering the halt of the incursions.  Japan lands on the Moon.

february: Violent volcanic eruptions force evacuation in Iceland.  King Charles III announces he has cancer and will step away from public-facing duties for the present.  Ex-Fox News pundit Tucker Carlson interviews Vladimir Putin in Moscow. 

Special council investigating Joe Biden’s unauthorised retention of classified material from his vice-presidency opts not to press charges, citing the US president’s failing memory.  Long time host of NPR’s Morning Edition, Bob Edwards, has died, aged 76.  Israeli forces push further into Palestine, escalating raids in Rafah.  Jon Stewart returns as host of the Daily Show after a nine year hiatus.  Opposition leader and Putin critic Alexie Navalny found dead in remote arctic penal colony where he was detained for the past three years.  The Supreme Court of Alabama has declared frozen embryos legal persons and fearing for legal peril, university clinics in the state have suspended in-vitro fertilisation procedures in response to the ruling.  One hundred thousand protest votes of uncommitted for Joe Biden are cast against Joe Biden in the Michigan Democratic primarily over his support for Israel.  Veteran senator and Trumpism foil and sometimes enabler, Mitch McConnell, announces he will step down as leader of the Republican Party in November.  Dissident Nalvany is permitted a public funeral.

march: Fashion doyenne Iris Apfel passes away, aged 102.  One day ahead of the Super Tuesday primaries, the US Supreme Court ruled that no state can keep Trump off the ballot.  Over a hundred Palestinians are massacred by Israeli force as they rush a rare relief convoy entering the besieged city of al-Rashid.  Nikki Haley drops out of the race for the Republican party nomination for presidential candidate. 

Joe Biden delivers a wide-ranging, fiery and impassioned State of the Union address, remonstrating that one cannot just love their country when one’s side is winning.  Dragon Ball Z creator Akira Toriyama passed away, aged 68.  Facing an imminent ground incursion into Rafah, the Speaker of the US Senate called for Israeli elections and regime change, as America’s petition for an immediate ceasefire was vetoed in the UN by Russia and China.  Accused of monopolistic practises harmful to innovation and consumers in the “superior smart phone” market, the US department of justice files an antitrust lawsuit against Apple.  Wild media speculation left the royal family with little choice about coming forward with the Princess of Wales cancer diagnosis.  A terrorist attack at a music venue on the outskirts of Moscow kills dozens, burns down the concert hall.  A abstention by the US during a UN ceasefire vote allows the resolution to pass, triggering the ire of the Israeli government though the assault on Gaza continues unabated.

april: Seven humanitarian aid workers of World Central Kitchen were killed in an Israeli airstrike whilst travelling along a pre-authorised aid corridor to bring food to the starving outside of Deir al-Balah.   Israel

kills several top Iranian generals in a bombing of the country’s embassy in Damascus, Syria.  A powerful earthquake strikes Taiwan, displacing thousands.  Actor and comedian Joe Flaherty passes away, aged 82.  México severs diplomatic relations with Ecuador after raid on its embassy in Quito resulted in the apprehension of the former Ecuadorian president seeking asylum there.  OJ Simpson passes away, aged 76.  Iran launches a barrage of projectiles at Israel in retaliation for its attack on an embassy in Syria.  The historic Børsen of Copenhagen is severely damaged by fire.  Unprecedented flood inundates the Gulf of Arabia.  Israel strikes back against Iranian military installations.  In an extraordinary Saturday session, the US House after months of delay passes separate foreign aid packages for Taiwan, Israel and Ukraine.  The US Federal Communications Commission votes to restore net-neutrality.  Fresh from declaring being poor a crime, the US Supreme Court entertains Trump’s claim for presidential immunity.  The criminal trial against Trump stemming from a hush-money payment made to a porn-star begin in Manhattan. 

may: Protest rage on college campuses across the United States for the country’s materiel support for Israel and the universities’ financial ties in the ongoing assault on Palestine. 

Author Paul Auster passes away, aged 77.  A second whistleblower formerly employed by Boeing dies within the space of month.  Labour sees big gains in UK local elections.  Stormy Daniels gives testimony in the Trump trial.  US announces pauses in delivering Israel materiel aid after resolution for incursions into Rafah.  Legendary grindhouse director Roger Corman passes away, aged 98.  Author Alice Munroe passes away at 92.  The president of Slovakia narrowly survives an assassination attempt.  The president and foreign minister of Iran die in a helicopter crash near Azerbaijan.  The Internation Criminal Court of the Hague issues arrest warrants for Israeli leader Benjamin Netayahu and Hamas in Gaza head Yahya Sinwar.  China conducts provocative military drills around Taiwan, expressing dissatisfaction with the newly elected president.  Russian air assaults continue against Ukraine.  Ireland and Norway join Spain in recognising the state of Palestine, while Israel presses on with incursions into Rafah despite condemnation from the UN.

june: México elects its first woman president to continue the liberal and progressive policies of her predecessor.  

After the US authorises limited use of American munitions defensively on Russian territory, Putin suggests that Russia could arm countries looking to target the West.  The coalition governments of Olaf Scholtz and Emmanuel Macron face dissolution following significant gains by far-right parties in EU elections.  Charges stemming from not disclosing his drug addiction while purchasing a fire-arm, US president Joe Biden’s son Hunter is found guilty with no pardon in the offering.  Project scientist for the Voyager programme Edward C Stone passes away, aged 88.  At the height of the pandemic, the Pentagon rans a secret disinformation campaign in the Philippines to discourage people from taking the Chinese-developed vaccine.  Putin and Kim meet for a summit in North Korea.  Baseball great Willie Mays passes away, aged 93.  Veteran actor Donald Sutherland dies, aged 88. A disastrous debate performance against Trump causes some prominent Democrats to urge Biden to step down as the party’s candidate.

july: Labour wins in the UK General Election.  France’s second round of voting keeps the extreme right from power.  Iran elects progressive reformist Masoud Pezeshkian.  Actor Shelley Duvall passes away, aged 75.

Just ahead of the US Republican National Convention, an assassination attempt was made against presumptive party candidate Trump, who forty-eight hours later announces junior senator from the state of Ohio, JD Vance as his running-mate.  Ursula von der Leyen reelected as European Commission president.  Veteran actor Bob Newhart has died, aged 94.  A massive IT outage linked to Windows PCs disrupts banks, travel and media outlets globally. Israeli president Netanyahu addresses the US congress with thousands protesting his presence as the assault on Gaza continues.  Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh was killed during a raid by the Israeli Defence Forces on his compound in Tehran.  Joe Biden calls for radical reform for the US supreme court, including term limits, an enforceable code of ethics and a constitutional amendment limiting broad immunity from prosecution for holders of the high office. 

august: a prisoner-exchange sees American journalists detained in Russia freed.  Anti-immigration riots spread violence in Sunderland over several days.  Trump agrees to debate Harris but only on his terms. 

Global stock markets had a case of the Mondays and sharply decline faced with a possible US recession and opposing currency policies.  Kalama Harris picks Minnesota congressman Tim Walz as her running-mate in the American presidential election.  Google found in violation of anti-trust laws for its monopolistic practises in advertising and creating a walled-garden.  During the first night of the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, Joe Biden formally and symbolically passes the torch to Harris and Walz in a moving speech capping a fifty-year political career.  Potential spoiler candidate independent RFK Jr drops out of the US presidential race and endorses Trump, who in exchange vows to declassify more files on the Kennedy assassination.  French authorities detain Telegram founder Pavel Durov at the ORLY departure lounge over lack of moderation on the platform abetting organised crime.

september: the Israeli public call for a nation-wide general strike after the bodies of six hostages held by Hamas are recovered over the government’s handling of the war that has lasted nearly a year with no signs of ending. 

Consummate, veteran actor James Earl Jones has passed away, aged 93.  Trump and Harris hold a televised debate, meeting one another face-to-face for the first time.   China raises its retirement age for the first time since the 1950s.  Catastrophic floods strike central Europe, with thousands displaced in Poland and Czechia.  After a series of deadly knife attacks, German reintroduces checks at all of its land borders.  A second assassination attempt on Trump is thwarted as he is golfing on one of his courses.  Israel planted explosive devices in thousands of pagers used by Hezbollah months ahead of a coordinated explosion that killed nine individuals and wounded hundreds.  Tens of thousands evacuate southern Lebanon as Israeli airstrikes intensify, killing over five hundred individuals.  The king of Thailand signs same-sex marriage bill into law, making the nation third in the Asian-Pacific region to recognise LGBTQ+ equality after Taiwan and Nepal. Veteran actor Maggie Smith passes away, aged 89.  New York City mayor Eric Adams indicted on fraud and corruption charges.  Continuing to bombard Beirut, Israeli Defence Forces have killed Hezbollah senior leader Hassan Nasrallah.  Singer-songwriter and actor Kris Kristofferson dead at 88.  Israel launches a limited ground offensive into southern Lebanon.  

october: Former American president Jimmy Carter turns 100.  US ports shut down as dockworkers go on strike. Tehran fires a barrage of hundreds of missiles into Israel.  The Europa Clipper is launched to study the Jovian satellite. 

As Palestinians continue to be displaced by violence in Gaza and the West Bank, Israel has expanded combat operations into Lebanon, Iran and Yemen.  Trump is interviewed by podcaster Joe Rogan. Israeli Defence Forces kill Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar in Gaza, with Israel vowing to take Rafah.  Israel bombs weapons depots near Tehran as the forced depopulation of northern Gaza continues.  Moldova holds a referendum, narrowly deciding to pursue EU membership.  Parliamentary election results in Georgia are rejected by president Salome Zourabichvili, who calls for mass rally and investigation into voting irregularities that gave the pro-Russian Georgian Dream party a controlling majority.  North Korea deploys ten thousand soldiers to Russia to fight in western Ukraine.  Israel bans the UN agency for Palestinian refugees from operating in the occupied territory while bombing a five storey apartment complex in northern Gaza, killing scores.  Scores of people are killed as flooding ravages Valencia. 

november: Veteran entertainment producer Quincy Jones dead at 91.  Following a controversial outcome in Georgia, Moldova re-elects pro-Brussels government of Maia Sandu.  Elon Musk to spend election night with Trump watching returns—handing over executive control of X to the former president.  Donald Trump is re-elected as the president of the United States. 

The coalition government of Germany collapses.  Australia bans social media for youths under sixteen years of age.  Canada orders Tik-Tok to cease operations in the country but lets users keep the app and continue making content.  Already ravaged by successive hurricanes that has rendered the country’s electrical grid inoperable, an earthquake strikes Cuba.  Youtube celebrity Jake Paul fights Mike Tyson to an audience of sixty-million.  Russia launches a major attack on Ukrainian infrastructure, and Biden authorises the use of long-range missiles into Russian territory.  Pope Francis calls for investigations to determine whether Israeli forces are engaging in genocide in Palestine.  Thomas E Kurtz, co-inventor of BASIC, passes away, aged 96.  The International Criminal Court issues arrest warrants for Benjamin Netanyahyu, former defence minister Yoav Gallant and Hamas military commander Mohammed Deif, possibly killed by an Israeli airstrike in July, for war crimes in the prosecution of the offensive in Palestine.  After thirty-five years with the show, Pamela Hayden announces her retirement from The Simpsons.  Israel and Hezbollah reach a truce to stop the war in Lebanon.   Trump announced a tranche of punitive tariffs for Canada, Mexico and China that will only punish US businesses and consumers, a possibly add to inflationary pressure at the supermarket, a major factor in re-electing Trump to office.  Syrian rebels take Aleppo as government forces retreat.  

december: Trump nominates Kash Patel to head FBI, prompting Biden to give his son a blanket pardon.  South Korea declares martial law.  The CEO of a major America health insurance provider is assassinated in broad daylight in New York City.  Romanian constitutional court annuls election after suspected Russian interference.  Syrian rebels capture Damascus as Bashar al-Assad reported flees the country.  Taking advantage of the power vacuum, Israel launches heavy airstrikes on Syrian defences and infrastructure.  The diet of South Korea votes to impeach the country’s president.  Tabla virtuoso Zakir Hussain passes away, aged 73.  A day after being tried in absentia for the war crime of using chemical weapons, a top Russian general was assassinated by an exploding e-scooter in Moscow.  The Pelicott rape case concludes in France.  A vehicle-ramming attack strikes the Magdeburger Christmas Market.  Russia accidentally downs an Azerbaijani civilian airplane while repelling Ukrainian attacks.  Former US president Jimmy Carter passes away, aged 100. 

calendrical correspondence (12. 123)

In addition to aligning dates and days to the years 1986, 1997, 2003 and 2014, 2025 matches up with the calendar for 1975, due to its periodic nature. I wonder what events from a half-a-century might resonate and repeat for the upcoming year. Proximate to other quinquagenaries, we have touched on some of the anniversaries already, like the rise of Margaret Thatcher, the reopening of the Suez Canal, the fall of Saigon and the end of the Franco dictatorship, but we wonder what else the past might say about the present.

synchronoptica

one year ago: Dry January (with synchronoptica), 2023 in review, Sweden’s Words of the Year, defining the syllable, a look towards 2024 plus professional measurers

seven years ago: happy birthday to a veteran scientist, more on making God gender-neutral, CB operators plus New Year’s Eve eve

eight years ago: assorted links worth revisiting plus Rankin and Bass theology

nine years ago: more links to enjoy, lampooning MAGA plus Fermi’s Paradox

ten years ago: new top level domains plus molybdomancy

the boy who wouldn’t grow up (12. 122)

Released almost twenty years to the day after the stage adaptation on this day in 1924, J M Barrie’s novelisation of Peter and Wendy, the Paramount feature—then called Famous Players-Lasky, was considered to be a lost film for decades. The only known fragment of footage was in the promotional compilation, The House that Shadows Built, put together by the studio in 1931 to celebrate its twentieth anniversary and exhibit movies that never had a proper theatrical release which featured scenes from several silent-era pictures that only are extant as clips, sort of like the lost plays of Ancient Greece that only are referenced in footnotes. A well-preserved copy was found, however, in 1950 and prompted the Disney animated version a few years later. With fidelity for the original story, the Darlings ultimately adopt the Lost Boys and Wendy is allowed to return to Never Never Land once a year to assist with Spring Cleaning. Peter is played by Betty Bronson and George Ali acts as Nana the Dog (a Doug Jones, Andy Serkis of that time and a far better nursemaid than the Lost Boys had) and Crocodile.

6x6 (12. 121)

glimmer vs trigger: political, cultural and business trends to expect for 2025 

geospatial: NATO’s Project HEIST to ensure telecommunications architecture from accident and sabotage or caprice—see also—via Damn Interesting’s Curated Links  

achive.today: some methods for getting around paywalled articles  

elo rating: grandmaster Magnus Carlsen quits World Internation Chess Federation (see previously) over dress code 

teotwawki: y2k preparations and people getting ready to bug out—see previously  

🍿: an omnibus list of list on movies and television from the past year

pop-tarts bowl (12. 120)

Amazingly held annually (at different venues and with different sponsorship arrangements) since 1990 the college football play-off tournament, now under the patronage of the Kelloggs / Kellanova brand beginning in 2020 to promote its snack-crackers and toaster-pastries (previously), a vote was put to fans for which flavours were to serve as the game’s main mascot. The winner, Strawberry, was ritually sacrificed in a giant oven but was resurrected during a half-time tribute. Superpunch has a highlights reel from yesterday’s event.

synchronoptica

one year ago: assorted links to revisit (with synchronoptica) plus the Trail of Tears (1835)

seven years ago: the US and the Metric System, stop using Facebook and start using your browser, more links to enjoy plus The People’s History of Tattooine

eight years ago: sumptuary laws, RIP Debbie Reynolds plus the legacy of the Cathars

nine years ago: more on monomyths, de-icing, re-post for luck, no one’s watching week plus the US-Iranian Hostage Crisis

ten years ago: the Art of Asking,  Dürer’s Rhinoceros, the shortest river in France plus questions to librarians

frickenhäuser see (12. 119)

Incorporated as part of the town of Mellrichstadt since secularisation, the parish village falling previously under the authority of the monastic community of Kloster Wechterswinkel, we took a little walk around the namesake lake, a bit more than a hectare and the largest natural body of water in Lower Franconia—this flooded funnel shaped crater (a sinkhole from a collapsed cave with no tributaries or outflows) and not originally a mine shaft like many of the ponds in the area. 

 Dating from the triassic era and rich in fossils across strata of limestone, the lake is designated as a protected geotope (Geotop, compared to Biotop or biome) and is counted among the hundred finest geological formations that gives insight on the history of the Earth and the course of development of life on it.

11x11 (12. 118)

nuclear dawn: a 1984 mural in Brixton, part of the Londonist tour of great public art in the city  

winterval: a spot on take of the week between Christmas and New Year’s  

tedium’s tedium awards: celebrating the protest songs of Jesse Welles, beating Tetris and more  

omnibus: more year end lists from Miss Cellania—this one focussing on science  

designated checkpoint: document-free travel being trialled, the passport replaced by one’s phone biometrics  

holiday helper: repurposing classic cocktails for the festive season  

encomnia: remembering the celebrities and artists lost in 2024  

pizza day: recreating a school cafeteria staple with pourable crust—via Boing Boing 

h-1b visas: requested immigration carved-outs for the tech sector pit Musk against MAGA  

post-holiday blues: anticipating returning to work can evaporate that time off peace of mind  

our century hasn’t been as free with words of wisdom as some others: Kurt Vonnegut Jr’s 1988 address to people living a hundred years later

synchronoptica

one year ago: a banger from Andrew Bird (with synchronoptica) 

seven years ago: the aphorisms of Syrus, vintage London Underground posters plus a compendium of dark magic

eight years ago: celebrating the life and career of Carrie Fisher plus reflections on post-truth

nine years ago: feudalism and engaged citizenry, remote human settlements plus a look back at phony outrage

ten years ago: Pangea with current geopolitical borders, space-time fossils plus a Grumpy Cat Christmas

open letter (12. 117)

Though sad to learn of the artist’s passing earlier this month, we very much appreciated learning of the extensive repertoire of Anna Banana (see also) and the movement that the helped pioneer and propel referred to postal or correspondence art focused sending and receiving smaller scale works via post. A spin-off of Fluxus in response to invitations to draw Tommy the Turtle and Petey the Pirate and antecedents that generally commercialised creativity, mail artists eschewed traditional markets and display spaces with their exchange that didn’t necessitate though often elicited reciprocation and expansion on a theme. As with the proliferation of zines, the genre and medium anticipated the loose collective of web communities that riff and remix the creation of others with established norms of attribution and curation. Much more from Hyperallergic at the link above.