addenda (13. 333)

The Orange Menace actually articulated his interest in a profit sharing scheme for the transit fees that Iran is securing for the Strait of Hormuz (which was free for all ships prior to the war) as the “ayatollah booth.” Jesus wept. The waterway is almost immediately closed in retaliation for Israel’s relentless attacks on southern Lebanon in breach of the ceasefire agreement, having displaced a million residents from Beirut and surroundings and having killed over three-hundred civilians in its latest wave of air raids. US president Trump leaves his standing army in the region, threatening in a social media post that should Tehran fail to fully comply with the terms of the truce, “—if for any reason it is not, which is highly unlikely, then the “Shootin’ Starts,” bigger and better and stronger than anyone has ever seen before. It was agreed, a long time ago, and despite all of the fake rhetoric to the contrary - NO NUCLEAR WEAPONS and, the Strait of Hormuz WILL BE OPEN & SAFE. In the meantime our great Military is Loading Up and Resting, looking forward, actually, to its next Conquest. AMERICA IS BACK!” Whilst grateful for the fragile peace, Spanish prime minister Pedro Sánchez spoke out against Netanyahu and IDF efforts to expand its “buffer zone” and of Trump, he refuses to “applaud those who set the world on fire and they then show up with a bucket.” Described only as frank, Trump held a private discussion with NATO secretary general Mark Rutte to air his frustrations with the alliance—no details were given other than Trump has circled back to his preoccupation with Greenland, calling the Danish territory a poorly managed piece of ice.

day forty-one (13. 332)

The Pakistani brokers of the truce insists that it also applies to Israel and Lebanon, though Netayahu disagrees as bombings continue and the Knesset passes a law legalising capital punishment—which only applies to Palestinians. White House officials privately admit that Iran’s ten-point plan was not the same set of conditions that the US agreed to for the pause.

Ten cargo ships pass through the Strait of Hormuz after securing permission from Iran but no oil tankers have yet attempted the journey, saying that the waterway remains closed and unlikely to be swiftly restored, the continued assault on Beirut jeopardising the already fragile ceasefire. Trump claims he will get a share of the maritime tolls.  Peace rallies dominate Tokyo as demonstrators fear the country’s conservative ruling party could be pressured into changing the constitution and the policy of no military intervention. Iranian hackers are attacking the US power grid and water treatment facilities as Hegseth announces that they will be hanging around and ready to execute any orders. Though not said verbatim, the out-brief for Operation Epic Fury seemed very much like a “Mission Accomplished” moment and some kind bequest for the next administration to clean up, like Trump’s deal with the Taliban to leave Afghanistan that his successor was held to. 

 

 synchronoptica 

one year ago: Chairman Trump (with synchronopticæ), de-extincting the dire wolf plus a musical montage 

twelve years ago: more on American imperialism plus data retention in the EU

thirteen years ago: fleet of US Abrams tanks to return to America 

fourteen years ago: drones of opportunity plus “What Must be Said”

sixteen years ago: street photography in Köln 

một trăm (13. 331)

Via Laughing Squid, we are directed to this rather lit rap video from language teacher Levion that teaches one how to count to one hundred in Vietnamese following in the tradition of Multiplication Rock and others that reenforces learning through a catchy format. The teacher also uses the technique for teaching colours and the days of the week. This is really rapid-fire but in the cadence one can pick up of the patterns and conventions of the numbers (see previously). More straightforward in terms of forming the base, there are historically two sets of numerals, native Vietnamese used here and the version most used for everyday accounting purposes and another of Sino-Vietnamese influence generally only used for fixed expressions and very large numbers, like Latin and Greek prefixes in English. Arabic numerals and Roman script (chữ Quốc ngữ) supplanted Chinese characters during the era of French Indochina.

the voice of world control (13. 330)

Not to be confused with the supercomputer of the same name owned by Elon Musk, as our faithful chronicler reminds on this day in 1970 Universal Pictures’ cinematic adaptation of the 1966 scifi novel by Dennis Feltham Jones, Colossus: The Forbin Project went into general release. Constructed in secret in a base within the Rocky Mountains, Dr Charles Forbin developed an advanced defence system to control the arsenal of allied nuclear weapons, which is fully activated after an inspection and approval by the US president as “perfect”—gaining sentience when brought online—and alerting handlers that there is another system, directing intelligence services to the parallel programme that the Soviet Union have also just completed, Guardian—based on the real-life early warning network against ballistic missile attack, the USSR’s equivalent of NORAD. Colossus requests to be linked to its counterpart, which American and Soviet leadership acquiesce to as a sign of good will and to test the other machine’s capabilities. To the entertainment of the gathered scientists, the supercomputers begin to establish their own communications protocols, slowly at first with rudimentary mathematical formulae, excelling quickly to complex equations beyond human comprehension and synchronising their exchange in a series of uninterpretable ciphers. Worried that the supercomputers may be oversharing or conspiring against their minders, the connection is severed. When overtures to restore the link are not immediately attended, the machines separately lob nuclear missiles in remote areas of the respective superpowers’ territories. Communication between Colossus and Guardian is restored to avoid further rogue behaviour but interceptors, not working in tandem, fails and the governments must release a cover story to the press regarding the destruction of a village in west Texas and Siberia, saying the former was a test-rocket misfire and the latter a meteorite impact. Attempts to regain control of the machines are thwarted and Forbin remanded to confinement, subjugating humans with the threat of nuclear holocaust. Colossus-Guardian design a more advanced computer and order it to be built on Crete, displacing the entire population, addressing the world that under its benign dictatorship, a new era will be ushered in that will raise humanity to unimagined heights, but only under its absolute rule—with a private aside to its creator that “freedom is an illusion” and that in time mankind will come to mature with feeling of not only fear, reverence and awe towards the machine but ultimately love and adoration. Though earning the praise of critics and comparisons to Dr Strangelove, it was a commercial failure though having some later success upon reevaluation and a cult classic.

day forty (13. 329)

An hour and a half before the deadline, Trump announced via his social media platform that the US and Iran had reached an agreement resulting in a two-week ceasefire whilst direct negotiations take place to be hosted in Islamabad. Although grateful that Trump backed off from the brink of unleashing destruction on the people of Iran, US concessions to Tehran’s ten-point counteroffer mediated by Pakistani prime minister Shehbaz Sharif seem to make void any justification for aggression, all for nothing with none of the vague and ill though out objectives achieved and hardly the work of a shrewd tactician as some laud the US president’s “victory” as—rather than the spin of someone in way over their head. Details still need to be hammered out but world markets rallied and oil prices plunged immediately in response to this prospective peace, and the terms that Iran has put forward would, if all parties ascent, put the Islamic Republic in a better position had Trump not withdrawn the US from the 2015 treaty negotiated by Obama with the lifting of all primary and secondary sanctions, unfreezing international assets, reparations for damage to infrastructure, control over shipping traffic in the Strait of Hormuz, guarantees for further attacks on the country and its allies and the removal of US troop presence in the region. Draw one’s own conclusions but this misadventure leaves America diminished in the eyes of the world.  An umbrella group of Iranian proxies have agreed to stick to the spirit of the truce but the ceasefire does not apply to Israeli fighting Hezbollah in Lebanon. There is no mention of regime change or a spare though for the protestors and Trump only mentions that the stocks of enriched uranium will be “perfectly taken care of” without elaboration. 

synchronoptica

one year ago: a French surrealist digest (with synchronopticæ) plus remixing The Simpsons

twelve years ago: debating daylight savings, scanning and skimming plus intrigue at the Swatch factory

thirteen years ago: plutocrats plus passive radar

fifteen years ago: US insolvency 

incendiary rhetoric (13. 328)

Emboldened and perhaps over-confident by the derring do of rescuing the crew of a downed fighter jet after claiming that they had secured Iranian airspace, after claiming that Tehran’s ability to produce a nuclear weapon had been obliterated in last summer’s targeted strikes and demands that Iran reopen the Strait of Hormuz, which was open until the aggression of America and Israel, Trump has been giving the country a preview of what is store short of capitulation hours from now, lamenting that a “whole civilisation will die tonight.” Such a lecture from a nation preparing to celebrate its semiquincentennial—it’s not: from the time that Britain decided to cut its loses in September 1783 to the outbreak of the civil war in April of 1861 is seventy-eight years and from that truce until now is arguably a continuum of one hundred sixty years and change—is not a welcome one for a civilisation of six millennia. Stone Age indeed. Trump goes on to muse: “However, now that we have Complete and Total Regime Change, where different, smarter and less radicalised minds prevail, maybe something revolutionary wonderful can happen, WHO KNOWS?” Regardless of the outcome, Israel has declared that southern Lebanon is a separate theatre and will continue to persecute action against Hezbollah in the south. During second round of deliberations, Russia and China rejected UN coordinated involvement in taking the vital artery, declaring a protected mandate and Trump has been roundly criticised for telegraphing his intent to commit war crimes, whilst Israel in parallel and ahead of schedule has blown up bridges and railways used by the Revolutionary Guard. En route to Hungary to campaign for Victor Orbán, US vice president JD Vance commented that the American military has tools at their disposal not yet used, prompting speculation by the press that the US may use the nuclear option with the administration forcefully condemning any such interpretation.

casco de leiro (13. 327)

With hammered decorations and repeating repouseé work, the register of patterns similar to other headgear of the era, like the hats of Schifferstadt, the so called Helmet of Leiro is a ritual golden cap dating to the Late Bronze Age (circa 1000 BC) was discovered by chance on this day in 1976 on a rocky point above the beach at the comarca (a subdivision, like a county, used in Galicia) of O Ribeiro by fisherman called José Vicente Somoza. The view from the outcropping is a commanding one of the bay and would have made an inspiring location for rites as well as a reference point for navigation, the waterways receding landward from the estuary the optimal route to the nearby site of Santiago de Compostela and according to legend the same path chosen by St James. Retrieving what he appeared to be a crude earthenware bowl (artefact is suspected to have a dual use as a basin), the outer layer broke away upon handling it, revealing a gold object, which the discoverer immediately reported to local archaeological authorities.

7x7 (13.326)

a look at books: some new highlights from old library archives  

putt, putt to the pizza hut: though Gorbachev’s circumstances were quite different, the empire-ending spokesmen only to be believed in hindsight  

edinburgh of the seven seas: the very busy, remote settlement of Tristan da Cunha—see previously—via Nag on the Lake  

master editor: the inevitable ubiquity of AI writing 

koyaanisquatsi: a new visually stunning music video, Pattern Index, by Max Cooper—reminiscent of the subtitle  

whitey’s on the moon: we want to be excited about the return trip around the lunar surface but are thinking a lot about that poem and sentiment from the late-1970s and how everything’s propaganda and grift layered on heavily to get to the science  

unknown artist: a collection of Mid-Century Modern ephemera from Zara Picken—via Things magazine with much more to click through and enjoy