wm-9 (13. 211)

Via the always excellent Present /&/ Correct (check out their sundries), we enjoyed perusing this comprehensive archive that has catalogued over a thousand portable audio players—the Walkman introduced by Sony first in 1979 and manufactured through 2010 (see previously here, here, here and here) and courting many imitators and innovations over the years as a genericised trademark with many other competiting brands. We had find trying to hunt down a specific model we had and discovering along the way others, each entry having detailed specifications, notes on features, manuals, family-trees accessories and advertising.

bye-bye, honey, bye-bye (13. 210)

Performed by the Brotherhood of Man, the pop-schlager tune was selected as the UK’s entry on this day in 1976 to represent Britain at Eurovision Grand Prix held later in the spring in the Hague, winning the song contest, the single going on to become a best-seller. Describing the conflicted emotions of someone leaving for the day for work, the song ends with the twist that the singer was saying good bye to their infant daughter.

thirty-two pieces (13. 209)

Via fellow peripatetic, Messy Nessy Chic, we discover this gorgeous midcentury modern chess set created by artist Dame Rachel Whiteread in 2005 inspired by salesmen samplers with the board inlaid with alternate squares of carpet and linoleum and the chessmen miniature vintage furniture, appliances and implements for household chores. The Turner Prize winning Whiteread is best known for her sculptural work and installation art. 

*    *    *   *    *

synchronoptica

one year ago: what AI sees when it sees your photos (with synchronopticæ) plus Stevie Wonder honoured at the White House (2009)

thirteen years ago: horizontal gene transfer, advanced haptics plus the role of pope emeritus

fourteen years ago: 1990s Americana plus a style guide eschewing Americanisms  

seventeen years ago: email etiquette 

sotu (13. 208)

Speaking for nearly two hours and maintaining a triumphant tone despite economic and geopolitical realities and protests within the chamber from Democrats and their eventual walk-out en mass, Trump’s record-setting for the longest state of the union address claimed that he had successfully rebuilt the country that his predecessor, Joe Biden, had managed to destroy in four short years—“a turnaround for the ages”—with a series of surprise cameos supposedly representing the American spirit. “Our country is winning again—in fact, we’re winning so much that we really don’t know what to do about it.” The refreshingly succinct rebuttal, the official response delivered by the opposition in a tradition going back to 1966, was delivered from a television studio offsite by newly elected Virginia governor Abigail Spanberger, simply asking, “Is the president working for you?” The only disappointment counter to his narrative that was mentioned was the recent decision of the supreme court that ruled that most of Trump’s tariff regime was illegal with the war in Ukraine only garnered a passing acknowledgment without recognition of the four-year anniversary and no reference was made of the Minnesota ICE protests and deaths, nor the Epstein files nor Greenland, nor Cuba though there was much sabre-rattling over Iran and having “received” Venezuelan oil, further glutting global oversupply. Read more fact-checking (also here) of what was said from NPR at the link up top.

habitual app loyalty (13. 207)

An ominous think-piece by a research group and consulting firm specialising in insights in “transformative megatrends” has rattled markets and businesses, lurching from anxiety over an AI bubble to foreboding over what they have wrought delivering mass redundancies across industries. The Singularity feared is not a runaway super-intelligence or a rogue system fighting for self-preservation at all costs but rather autonomous agents that make for frictionless exchanges and circumvent the economic inefficiencies that businesses rely on. Like the disruption that came for publishers and legacy outlets with the democratisation of the internet, the new gatekeepers model is based on margins and middlemen with clearinghouses for payments and facilitating connecting consumers with services, ride-sharing, food deliveries, travel arrangements, but agentive AI could potentially bypass and disarticulate all those supply-chains and providers by arranging the logistics—in theory in this scenario—as a downward spiral in the fintech and gig sectors that has disastrous implications for the broader economy. More from the Guardian’s Aisha Down and Dan Milmo at the link up top.

it’s a drag, it’s a bore, it’s really such a pity to be looking at the board, not looking at the city (13. 206)

Having coming across this fact elsewhere a few weeks ago, we enjoyed the chance to hear again the full name of the Thai capital known to outsiders by the toponym Bangkok (village on a stream in reference to the marshy area where King Rama I established his new residence in 1782, nicknamed Venice of the East for its canals and islands) and in common parlance as Krung Thep Maha Nakhon (กรุงเทพมหานคร) or abbreviated even further to Krung Thep (กรุงเทพฯ), the City of Angels—see also. With some variation over the centuries, the metropolis has the ceremonial title of: 

 กรุงเทพมหานคร อมรรัตนโกสินทร์ มหินทรายุธยา มหาดิลกภพ นพรัตนราชธานีบูรีรมย์ อุดมราชนิเวศน์มหาสถาน อมรพิมานอวตารสถิต สักกะทัตติยวิษณุกรรมประสิทธิ์  

Transliterated from the Thai script and translated from the combined Sanskrit and Pāli (the classical sacred language of Theravada Buddhism), the title reads: 

Krung Thep Mahanakhon: City of Angels, Great City.
    Amon Rattanakosin: Eternal land of the Emerald Buddha.
    Mahinthara Ayuthaya: The impregnable city of God Indra.
    Mahadilok Phop: Grand capital of the world.
    Noppharat Ratchathani Burirom: Endowed with nine precious gems, the happy city.
    Udomratchaniwet Mahasathan: Abounding in enormous royal palaces.
    Amon Piman Awatan Sathit: Resembling the heavenly abode wherein dwell the reincarnated gods.
    Sakkathattiya Witsanukam Prasit: Erected by Vishvakarman at Indra’s bidding. 

This demonstration and claim of course drew some quibbling over technicalities and comparisons to Llanfair Pwllgwyngyll—“pool of the white hazels of the Church of St Mary”—and its full placename elaborated during the Victorian era to encourage tourism (see also) to the second longest single albeit agglutinative word toponym in the world in: Llanfair­pwllgwyngyll­gogery­chwyrn­drobwll­llan­tysilio­gogo­goch. The longest officially recognised is the Maori name of a hill on Te Ika-a-Māui (New Zealand’s North Island) Taumatawhakatangi­hangakoauauotamatea­turipukakapikimaunga­horonukupokaiwhen­uakitanatahu, with the narrative epithet of the summit where big-kneed Tamatea (a celebrated fifteenth century cheiftain and explorer), climber of mountains, the land swallower, travelled about and played his flute to his beloved. Also in the top ten is the Cree Pekwachnamaykoskwaskwaypinwanik for a lake in Mantioba “where wild trout are caught by hishing with hooks.” More from Language Log at the link up top with pronunciation help and more contenders.

7x7 (13. 205)

merrie melodies: Turner Movie Classics (TMC) has acquired Looney Tunes and will begin pairing the animated shorts with the main features from Warner Brothers studios as they were originally shown in theatres  

el mencho: Mexico deploys thousands of troops to quell violence after death of cartel boss 

taco tuesdays: Trump global tariffs come in at a lower ten percent rate 

there’s no grace period so that’s a way in which i see us losing the interstitial: arguments for deplatforming oneself 

slava ukraini: Zelenskyy’s address to the nation on the fourth anniversary since the Russia invasion, extending an invitation to Trump to see who the real aggressors are  

i’m sorry but you can’t just name a weather event bombogenesis: tracking the winter storm slamming the North American eastern seaboard and other news 

all ages: the concert archive of Lynn Fisher—via Waxy

synchronoptica

one year ago: the Ukraine war enters its fourth year (with synchronopticæ), assorted links worth the revisit plus Marbury v Madison

twelve years ago: revolutionary plaza plus positive psychology

thirteen years ago: Freistaat Flaschenhals plus the waning potency of pesticides

fifteen years ago: arch villains  

sixteen years ago: spending priorities 

transneft (13. 204)

Whilst the EU has an embargo on the importation of Russia oil and gas since its invasion of Ukraine, landlocked Slovakia and Hungary have been granted a special carve-out to continue to receive fuel transiting through the besieged country from Tarastan via the Druzhba (Дружба, “friendship”) pipeline operating since 1964 in the spirit of mutual assistance for Eastern European satellites. Subject to frequent sabotage since the invasion, the latest supply disruption happening at the end of January, resulting from what Kiev maintains to be the result of a Russian drone attack on a pumping substation straining already tense relations among the neighbouring countries, the members Slovakia and Hungary accusing Ukraine of delaying repairs and the latter suspending electricity delivery and both vetoing materiel and financial aid and the prospect of future EU membership. Whilst putting pressure on Ukraine for resolution and restart the flow of oil from this principal artery, there was no justification for long-term exceptions to the sanctions and stalling Ukraine’s assistance or accession to the Bloc, logistic alternatives through Czechia possible. Now on the eve of the war entering its fifth year, facilities have been struck again—Moscow citing debris from a UAV attack, making the situation and unanimous support an even more fraught prospect.