dig dug (13. 624)

Neatorama contributor Miss Cellania directs us to Randall Munroe’s latest xkcd webcomic (previously) comparing the depth of the Earth’s holes, manmade and naturally occurring. Chocked full of information, one will want to peruse the full-sized version and there’s even a dedicated wikia, Explain xkcd, that fully annotates and dissects the joke, though not to its detriment and sends one further down the rabbit hole with superlative mines, wells, tunnels and caves, including several record-setting above ground holes. We had no idea that the Kola Superdeep Borehole goes further underground than the Mariana Trench, and learned about the Glomar Challenger oceanic bore that extends two kilometres into the floor of the Pacific and the catastrophic Retsor Salt Mine, which collapsed in 1995 due to groundwater seepage, causing sink locals and draining regional aquifers. This company town, a small hamlet in upstate New York, was established and ran by the mining operator William Forester, Jr, who creatively (see also) reversed the spelling of his last name for the geographic anadrome, generally done to satisfy postal regulations.  Other places named with anagrams and ananyms include El Jobean, Florida after its civil engineer and property developer Joel Bean, Nada, Kentucky after the Dana lumber company that operated the town’s sawmill, Rednaxela Terrace in Hong Kong, transcribing ‘Alexander’ right to left, Orestod and Dotsero, Colorado, two towns on the terminuses of a short railroad line—the later itself derived from dot-zero, a important junction between Denver and Salt Lake City, Tesnus, Texas—sunset backwards and again after a train logo, and Tensed, Idaho, attempted namesake of nineteenth Flemish Jesuit missionary Pieter-Jan De Smet to the Native American peoples of Iowa territory, who as a friend and confidant of Sitting Bull persuaded the Sioux chief to negotiate with the US government and accede to the Treaty of Fort Laramie—a very bad deal for the Lakota, Dakota and Arapaho nations, the US almost immediately violating the terms and annexing their lands—the residents of the Coeur d’Alene reservation wanting to honour the priest (affectionately known as De Grote Zwartrok, the Great Black Skirt) but upon learning that the neighbouring community of De Smet had beat them to it, tried to reverse it but botched up the spelling during the registration process. I wonder if any other traditions have employed anadromes in their toponymy. Do write in and let us know, especially if they involve holes.

light-rail (13. 623)

Via Kottke, we learn that a rather enterprising Swiss start-up has recently concluded the first year’s trial run of a demonstration project in along a one hundred metre stretch of train track in the village of Buttes in the canton of Neuchâtel that placed forty-eight removable solar panels in the space between between the rails (called sleepers—Bahnschwellen, the spot for the crossties). Installed in May of 2025, the short spur has seen the traffic of over eleven thousand locomotives (despite its size and remoteness, it is well-connected to the national transport network), rolling safely over the panels, which despite the narrow gauge, short length of the array and interruptions for maintenance and winter snows, the portable solar generator produced enough electricity to power four average Swiss homes for an entire year. The innovative idea is attracting interest in Italy, France, the Philippines and South Korea.

synchronoptica

one year ago: assorted links worth revisiting (with synchronoptica) plus Project Ester

two years ago: more links to enjoy plus the Trump-Vance ticket

three years ago: even more links,  Netscape Navigator defunct (1993) plus the Rosetta Stone (1799)

four years ago: Jane Fonda in Vietnam (1972) plus Gangnam Style (2012)

five years ago: the Elder Fuþark plus the Stone Ship of Nassjä

six years ago: a rhapsodic roller-coaster, Castor and Pollux plus more official state junk

day one-hundred thirty-three (13. 622)

Facing international backlash, just like over his arbitrary and vacillating tariff regime, Trump walked back his plan to impose twenty percent transit fees on all cargo passing through the Strait of Hormuz, turning to investment deals in the gulf to help offset costs of policing the waterways. US strikes continue with explosions reported on Qeshm Island and the deployment of submarine drones—threatening to bomb bridges, highways and power plants over stalled talks, whilst Iran continues aerial assaults against Jordan, Kuwait, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia. New sanctions against the Iranian shadow financial network by America are announced. The governor of South Carolina appoints Lindsay Graham’s sister to serve out his term as the governor of Kentucky demands an in person interview with Mitch McConnell and a medical assessment, wanting to make his own appointment should McConnell be unable to return to the senate chamber.

9x9 (13. 621)

space jam: erythrulose, a simple sugar found in raspberries and fake-tan lotion, detected in an interstellar cloud  

vindolandia: a Roman “genius”—a familiar and household spirit sculpture discovered at Hadrian’s Wall  

the kingdom of hyrule: hand-drawn maps of the The Legend of Zelda, the land inspired by the Kyoto countryside, with a bestiary of monsters 

our lives are woven together in a fabric—but the connections that make society strong also make it vulnerable: the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists on the legacy and lessons of Threads—via tmn  

médicos sin fronteras: US launches a global pressure campaign against Cuba’s last lifelines, exporting expert physicians 

the escherian stairwell: the invented legend of an impossible campus architectural feature and a perpetual downward loop 

clipart.studio: make and share cut-out collages from the Internet Archive’s magazine collection—via Waxy  

the lore of the rings: science is only beginning to appreciate the richness of the archives inside trees  

pop iii: astronomers scan the skies for elusive non-metallic behemoths, the first stars in the Cosmos

the tyranny of small decisions (13. 620)

Via Kottke, we learn of the best and worst paradox, eponym of computer scientist and physicist Edward Fredkin, known for advances in deterministic, reversible programming in the tradition of Konrad Zuse and experiments with cellular automata, which proffers that the more attractive two alternatives seem, the harder it can be to choose between them—no matter that, in the same degree, the choice can only matter less. Though unclear what the context was for the formulation of Fredkin’s Paradox—probably frustration over coding architecture—it explains why nothing seems to get done with the most time and effort going to decisions of least consequence, and whilst an intuitive solution would be to match each point in planning with the importance of the decision (see also) but that leads to a further spiral and vicious cycle with the optimisation of the optimisation and so on ad infinitum.

synchronoptica

one year ago: a cinematic lexicon of infrequent words (with synchronoptica) plus Cyberstress! (1997)

two years ago: a storied gay bar in Seattle, the Great White Way, an unavailable lecture by Grace Hopper plus assorted links to revisit

three years ago: a Talking Heads’ album, molecule of the month, social summarisations plus Marie Antoinette 

four years ago: Dr Spock’s baby book plus assorted links worth the revisit 

five years ago: the coat of arms of Black County, Fortress Kronoberg, roadside attractions in Götaland plus camping in Vadstena

six years ago: filmmaker Kenneth Anger 

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.