recess appointments (12. 010)

Although the Republican will have control of both houses of the legislature, there still may yet be resistance from within the party to some of Trump’s most potentially disruptive and controversial nominees, which with combined with procedural manoeuvres afforded to the Democrats in the framework of parliamentarian proceedings, could seriously frustrate forming a cabinet and designating agency heads. Constitutionally, and again dating back to eighteenth century logistics and the speed of travel, the president can make term-limited appointments to fill vacancies while chambers are adjourned and curtail the normal confirmation process, wherein picks are vetted by a committee related to their role, which last through the next session and subject to formal extension—possibly not a bad arrangement for positions expected to have high turnover rate, like last time—and has been occasionally used in modern times. The senate, however, must be out for ten consecutive days to be considered in recess, and pro forma meetings are conducted, with as few as one member present, to ensure that the body is kept in session. Republicans could still declare that the senate is out of session, by a bald majority, though having them all submit to an abrogation of their duties and influence seems like a reach. If the chamber cannot be vacated to allow the president to circumvent the nomination process, congress can suspend itself but only with the agreement of both chambers—or are otherwise deemed in a state of disagreement. Should this be the case, the president has the power to force adjournment, or prorogue the legislative branch, something unprecedented and what the American Revolution sought to avoid with royal prerogative and would be elevated to the Supreme Court for resolution. Buckle up, Buttercup!

julian day zero (12. 009)

Introduced by the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory in 1957 to track the orbit of Sputnik with a thirty-six-bit mainframe, to save on memory and compute resources by expressing time-coordinates in just eighteen-bits through 7 August 2576, the Modified Julian Date system simply dispatched with the proceeding two-million four-hundred-thousand days of history from the dawn of the calendar, counting backwards and resetting the number at noon on this day in 1858, often further truncated. This was also the reference epoch (see previously) for the earliest operating systems, chosen in part as it predated most modern record keeping. Because of the continual count, it is easier for software to process the intervening time elapsed between two events for applications like calculating interest, sell-by-dates for perishable inventories, etc, in the same was computers can’t really perform mathematical operations except by matrices. The Julian Period was proposed by sixteenth century academic Joseph Justus Scaliger (a year after the unrelated calendar was replaced in most of Europe by the Gregorian one) as the sum product of three calendrical cycles that comprise the system, twenty-eight solar cycles, nineteen lunar cycles and fifteen indiction cycles (the periodic census and tax reassessment of the Roman Empire that occurred every fifteen years)—or a span of seven thousand nine hundred and eighty years, reaching back in time under the assumption that all were synchronised at the beginning of time. Scaliger calculated this to be 4713 BC, well before any events in recorded history known to him.

letters of note (12. 008)

Capitalising on a trend in the publishing industry of epistolary collections—Stoo Hample’s 1966 “Children’s Letters to God” being the originator with a sequel and many homages—and hoping to rehabilitate the president’s public image, the United States Information Agency (see previously) produced this rather imaginative, endearing little segment (hopefully with in-house animation) drawing from young people’s letters to the commander-in-chief—via Fancy Notions—narrated by Dick Van Dyke in 1972—in the midst of the Watergate scandal and less than a year and a half before Nixon’s impeachment trial and ultimate resignation.

salacious crumb (12. 007)

On Life Day no less, we get the perfect allegory for Elon Musk’s parasitic and co-morbid relationship with Donald Trump, a cantankerous, destructive, nit-picking lizard-monkey to his host, a minor boss in the Hutt family crime syndicate, with further news of Musk outsourcing decisions to popular vote on his social media platform, a self-selecting “wretched hive of scum and villainy—we must be cautious”—although Nazi bar is a more succinct way of putting it, as well as using his promised position within the coming administration to badger and berate foreign governments (the latest target is Italy’s judiciary after attacking the UK’s migrant policy months earlier) whom feel more obliged to respond rather than ignoring the trolls. Vox populi, vox Dei is something not best left up to American public, as evidenced by last week’s election and we wonder how long this symbiotic arrangement can last, given both have huge egos, easily bruised.

 synchronoptica

one year ago: assorted links worth revisiting (with synchronoptica) plus Osama bin Laden on TikTok

seven years ago: a virtual cocktail, a record-setting auction for an alleged Da Vinci plus a kitty takes over Times Square

eight years ago: more links to enjoy plus Google’s Quick Draw

nine years ago: optimal seating arrangements plus solidarity with France

ten years ago: lore and language 

📍(12. 006)

Having been astonished by the savant-like abilities of some individuals to pinpoint places in the world from random Google Street View imagery, we could appreciate this rather comprehensive, forensic-level geography aid, via ibīdem, which while probably made with improving one’s Geoguessr challenges in mind (we weren’t any good at that but did look for little clues that might match the continent or familiar registration plates—previously here, here and here) but could have a host of other applications. One can sort (among other filters) by bollards, pedestrian crossings and stop signs, which are pretty interesting to compare.

bleuje (12. 005)

Our thanks to Web Curios (a lot more to explore there) for giving us the proper provenance and credit for a cache of mesmerising animated GIFs that we had saved our our sandbox with a direct link to the artist’s gallery and other projects including coding, simulations, previous collaborations and more visualisations. By Etienne Jacob, these moving, looping studies in maths and geometry are certain to soothe and inspire.

9x9 (12. 004)

if you really care about women having autonomy, you should stop questioning our decision to elect a guy who wants to take it away: sure, I voted for someone whose policies might kill you, but now’s the time to put aside our differences  

with some account of the judicial “congress”: John Davenport’s 1869 collected essays on Aphrodisiacs and Anti-Aphrodisiacs  

operation bear claw: four Los Angeles residents charged with insurance fraud for dressing in a costume and damaging luxury cars  

goldeneye: a tour of Ian Fleming’s estate in Jamaica where the author wrote all the Bond novels  

blue days, all of them gone—nothing but blue skies from now on: the alternative social network’s growth is attributed to privileging user choice over algorithmic engagement  

ai granny: telecom O2 has created a scambait protocol to keep fraudsters on the line as long as possible and away from potential human victims 

feat. rowlf as king herod: Muppet Christ Superstar—see also  

lysistrata: as Trump’s next term approaches, more women are seeking to disassociate themselves from the men in their lives, withhold sex  

subway therapy: the exhibition inviting New Yorkers to share their thoughts on the presidential election returns after eight years

synchronoptica

one year ago: The Sound of Music (with synchronoptica)

seven years ago: The Book of Life: The Spiritual and Physical Constitution of Man

eight years ago: the lost art of correspondence plus WoTY: post-truth

ten years ago: lucid dreams plus a selection of random t-shirts

eleven years ago: the Asylothek, retro Christmas cards plus more fallout from US dragnet espionage tactics

peoples’ choice (12. 003)

Polls open now through 28.November, the OED presents its shortlist of nominees for the Word of the Year for 2024, with only one actual neologism in romantasy (see previously, albeit the portmanteau for the literary genre dates back to 2008 when the German arm of publisher Random House tried to categorise its translations of English romance romances with an element of fantasy). Other contenders include brainrot, a term first used by Henry David Thoreau in his 1842 Walden; or, Life in the Woods, and dynamic pricing, a calque of the Swedish coinage of economist Gunnar Myrdal in 1927 as dynamiska prisbildning which has also seen a revival this past year with heightened public awareness of surges, gouging and exploitation in retail spaces and for gig-workers. More older words with new meanings are lore, slop and demure. Which one is your pick?