day fifty-nine (13. 889)

The US unwilling to continue direct talks, Iranian foreign minister Araghchi met with Putin and his counterpart Lavrov in St Petersburg to pursue a separate peace for the region and reached a preliminary settlement to reopen the Strait of Hormuz for maritime traffic, leaving the nuclear question tabled until a later time. Tehran for its part is criticising Washington for its reluctance to engage in dialogue and calls out seizure of Iranian flagged ships and the continued naval blockade as piracy. The UN, whilst welcoming the Russian-Iranian detente, said there was no legal basis for imposing tolls on vessels transiting through the international waterway. As the state visit of Charles and Camilla begins to heal the rift in UK-US relations, allies are still critical of America’s lack of strategic direction and that stalled negotiations benefit no one, America forgetting that about the enemy’s vote and veto. Clashes between Hezbollah and Israel continue in Lebanon.

synchronoptica

one year ago: assorted links to revisit (with synchronopticæ) 

twelve years ago: Worker’ Memorial Day 

thirteen years ago: advances in fusion technology, a trending hairstyle plus a visit to Steinheim by Hanau

fifteen years ago: tornados in Germany 

sixteen years ago: vacationing in Istanbul 

404 (13. 388)

Taking up even more bandwidth than the legion of MAGA influencers promoting the East Wing Ballroom and bunker as vital for national security, the resounding attitude that the show must gone on and its best to avert one’s eyes rather than forfeit one’s place at the table that demonstrates the inuring unseriousness of America and its desensitisation to violence, authentic or contrived and willingness to squander diplomatic opportunities in the midst of war, leaving Tehran to negotiate with Moscow and reach a concession to reopen the Strait of Hormuz with no guarantee to halt nuclear enrichment, casus belli, status quo ante bellum, and the German chancellor left to point out the humiliation to a class of students, we have the latest viral conspiracy theory that a time-travelling artificial superintelligence is inserting checkpoints on the internet timeline to warn people about the shooting at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner and forestall other catastrophes to providentially keep Trump in office, now that actual divine intervention has been ruled out following his attacks on the papacy. 404 media co-founder Jason Koebler undertakes a yeoman’s task in trying to offer an explanation for this widely-shared notion that a tweet from 2023 from one Henry Martinez, the name of a co-author from a NASA study conducted while the alleged shooter was fulfilling an internship at the space agency in 2014, somehow shows that AI is trying to retcon the Singularity, Terminator-style. Proponents are saying that the image on the right is a sort of coded magic-eye illusion that foretells of all sorts of events to come (retroactively of course, but the image is not from some shadowy AI free agent called the “Time Machine” but a stock illustration that debuted on Unsplash under the name “Eternal Waterfall” and has been used, like many free graphics, to cross-promote a variety of both innocent and nefarious ideas.

day fifty-eight (13. 387)

The wars in the Middle East certainly are not over just because media bandwidth is sublimated with attention lurched towards non-stop coverage of the shooting at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner—an event snubbed by Trump since Obama used the venue back in 2011 to mock the future president and inadvertently shape his political narrative of grievance with pointed jokes about his preoccupation with his predecessor’s birth-certificate and questioning his legitimacy. It does suck the oxygen out of the room, especially with the conspiracy theories that the event was staged as a distraction and sympathy building exercise, particularly for a regime that traffics in conspiracy and calls the press the enemy of the people. People are still dying in IDF strikes in Lebanon, peace talks are still stalled and the Strait of Hormuz remains closed with all the attendant economic consequences ripening.

synchronoptica

one year ago: a Millennial saint (with synchronopticæ), Trump DOJ threatens Wikipedia, Tesla backlash, an iconic antique shop plus gratitude built into grammar

twelve years ago: the state of non-doing plus superlative sentences

thirteen years ago: glacial melting 

fourteen years ago: originalism and invoking the Founding Fathers 

fifteen years ago: UN World Graphic Design Day plus championing a make-a-diorama day

seventeen years ago: swine-flu outbreak 

ss ideal x (13. 386)

The refurbished WWII T2 class “navy oiler” manufactured originally by the Marinship Corporation at the shipyard in Sausaltio California as the Potrero Hills and purchased by Malcolm McLean, who used this demonstration project to refine the concept of the intermodal shipping container that he had invented—revolutionising freight transport, undertook her first voyage with the new configuration on this day in 1956, carrying a cargo fifty-eight standardised boxes from the Port of Newark in New Jersey to the Port of Houston in Texas, where the boxes were offloaded to awaiting trailer trucks. The first commercially successful container ship, by organising and grouping what’s call bulk break goods—that is manufactured items for distribution, warehousing and retail sale, as opposed to dry bulk like grain, containerisation made the stevedoring process far more efficient, the concept copied and expanded to a fleet of fifty thousand ships today operating worldwide, adopting industry uniforms in part a wartime legacy from the US (see previously) and transporting some ninety percent of exports.

relatively speaking (13. 385)

Courtesy of Poseidon’s Underworld, we are introduced to the short-lived first-run syndication panel game show filmed before a live studio audience on the Universal backlot. Celebrity contestants, contemporary with the programme’s 1988 to 1989 airing (a real embodiment of the end of the decade transition from glamour to grunge with a particularly garish set) with the inaugural panel consisting of comedian Anne Bloom of the HBO parody Not Necessarily the News, Marsha Warfield of Night Court, Jaime Farr of M*A*S*H and George Wyner of Hill St Blues, would quiz a mystery guest who was separated by any number of degrees from a famous relative and try to determine whom that better known next of kin was, in keeping with the tradition of classic game shows like What’s My Line? and Figure it Out. Subject to interrogation over the run of the show included Cher’s mother, Georgia Holt, Patsy Swayze, Jackie Stallone, Rona Newton-John and spouses and offspring, content or not to not share the spotlight, like the ex-wife of Herve Villechaize of Fantasy Island or Bob Denver’s (The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis and Gilligan’s Island) step son or Lassie’s trainer—from the series reboot. Winnings were donated to charity.

day fifty-seven (13. 384)

Iranian foreign minister Abbas Araghchi left the Pakistani capital to travel to Oman and Russia for separate as talks with the US were abruptly put on hold once again, the envoys told to cancel their trip to Islamabad, with Trump calling direct negotiations a waste of time, despite claims he received a better offer from Iran shortly before suspending the meeting. The American navy continues the blockade of the Persian Gulf and expands operations to detect and disable sea mines and wrest control of the Strait of Hormuz from Iran. Despite the truce, Netanyahu is ordering an intensification on attacks of Hezbollah in the suburbs south of Beirut.  Nearly two months into the war, shipping and supply chains frayed beyond easy repair, national economies of all sizes are formulating contingency plans to brace for long term disruption and scarcity.  Trump adds that the shooting at the White House Correspondents’ will not deter his Middle East policy.

synchronoptica

one year ago: assorted links worth the revisit (with synchronopticæ), crab allies plus Trump and Zelenskyy hold an impromptu meeting at the Pope’s funeral

 

twelve years ago: net neutrality 

 

thirteen years ago: natural dyes 

 

fourteen years ago: asteroid prospecting 

 

fifteen years ago: passport application process in US made more difficult 

press corps (13. 383)

Attending the White House Correspondents’ Dinner for the first time since boycotting the annual event over media bias against him, Trump, the first lady, vice president, cabinet members were rushed to safety as the venue, the ballroom (not the one under construction in the East Wing) of the Washington Hilton—the same place where Ronald Reagan was shot in 1981—was evacuated of international journalists on the politics beat. Shots were fired in a secure screening-area as the dinner was starting, to be hosted by mentalist Oz Pearlman who promised to mesmerise and unite the audience, Trump later sharing on social media images of the alleged gunman (a guest of the hotel travelling from California) being apprehended and expressing a desire that the event continue after the incident, but deferring to his secret service detail. Ultimately it was decided to postpone the dinner and hold it within thirty days, Trump prepared to deliver his most inappropriate speech yet, he claimed, and was afraid afraid with the rescheduling he’d have to be very nice and boring next time. No one was hurt other than the assailant, recovering in a local hospital and poised to face charges on Monday and the one security officer sustained light injuries. This political violence comes after there has been rumblings in the MAGAsphere doubting the authenticity of the assassination attempt on Trump during his 2024 campaign, with some suggesting the grazing of the candidate’s ear was staged. The White House Correspondents’ Association, which sponsors the gala dinner, was formed by members of the press pool in 1914 in response to rumours that the administration of Woodrow Wilson, possibly without basis, was highly selective about choosing which journalists could attend press conferences and only entertained non-critical, soft-ball questions.

9x9 (13. 382)

aegis: a unique monumental statue of Athena uncovered in western Türkiye (ancient Laodicea) whose breastplate is follows the description of Book VIII of Virgil’s Aeneid  

alien abduction: conspiracy theorists connect spate of missing US nuclear scientists to UFOs—see more  

big tree stories: a hunt for the world’s tallest firs and imagining prehistoric forests studded with such giants—via MetaFilter  

₂he: although the second most abundant element in the Cosmos, the noble gas is hard to come by on Earth—via Web Curios  

frozen conflict: like the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Trump’s war of choice likely to be a simmering, unresolved stalemate 

wishful hinking: an 1987 edition of the Collins Dictionary contains a trap word (see also), presumably to counter plagiarism 

paper theatre: home entertainment flourished during the Regency Period for lack of sufficient live venues  

νεῶν κατάλογος: golden tongued (so they can speak in the afterlife) Roman era mummies found in Egypt’s Minya governorate, whose tomb contains a manuscript of Book II of Homer’s Iliad, the Catalogue of Ships—via Kottke