room s-216 (12. 161)

Even in the era of modern travel, no United States presidential inauguration ceremony have been attended by foreign heads of state, an honour or onus accorded to the respective diplomatic corps of embassies by tradition. While RSPVs are still pending for this sixtieth event invitees include the Chinese president Xi, El Salvadorian president Nayib Bukele, Georgian president Salome Zourabichvilli, Argentine president Javier Milei as well as Italian prime minister Giorgia Meloni, Benjamin Netanyahu and AFD party co-chair Alice Weidel have been invited—the office of Olaf Scholz confirming the chancellor’s presence was not requested. Russian spokesmen acknowledge the same for Putin. While Trump says he also did not invite Zelenskyy, but would welcome him if the Ukrainian president showed up. After the public administering of the oath of office and address at noon on the steps of the Capitol, the president will withdraw to the Capitol’s President’s Room for a portrait and to sign transition documents. The ornate chamber was added in 1859 as a hot-desk in the senatorial wing as an office of convenience for the president to sign last minute legislation into law at the end of a congressional session and for the upper chamber to discharge its constitutional responsibilities when it comes to advising on treaties and nominations. Once executive terms became staggered with respect to congress in the 1930s, this formal function was rendered effectively obsolete and only has seen occasional use by the commander-in-chief, presently a venue for senate press-conferences and granted supreme court chief justices during the impeachment trials of Clinton and Trump. Before Trump’s 2017 waiving the waiting period for former military officers to serve in the cabinet that allowed retired Marine Corps General James Mattis’ nomination to be approved, the room was last used for its intended purpose in the Johnson administration for signing the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

brave little toaster (12. 160)

In recognition that the AI boom and coming bust is being fuelled by the same gang behind crypto, whom are still trying to make fetch happen, and still trying to shoehorn it into to everything against the wishes of the public, with even desperate, specious use-cases presented for home appliances as an extension of the Internet of Things, Cory Doctorow offers a re-print of his short piece of fiction, under the title of the sweet Tom Disch story adapted as an animated feature, that presents promised conveniences and coordination of the IoT turned into shackling inconveniences. “I don’t mean to annoy or chafe, but I’m simply not dishwasher safe!” More from Pluralistic at the link above.

8x8 (12. 159)

a stranger quest: an award-winning documentary about map collector David Rumsey (previously) available in full online 

stimulation clicker: a new distraction from Neal Agarwal—see previously—see also 

studio city: deadly, life-altering wildfires continue to rage through Los Angeles, reaching Hollywood and threatening landmarks 

lemon8: TikTok ushers US users to sister-site in anticipation of ban 

show bible: a rare copy of the storyboard for Alejandro Jodorowshky’s unmade adaptation of Dune recently sold at auction—see previously  

hangman: a Wordle variant called Phrazle  

camp century: revisiting the Greenland military installation and the US Army Corps of Engineers’ failed Project Iceworm to build a nuclear launch site  

datastorm: a synthesiser with presets from the 1981 arcade game Defender sound-effects—via Pasa Bon!  

not to scale: an illustration of how polar flare and distortions of Mercator projections affect perception—see previously

reklama (12. 158)

Prior to World War II, the capitals of Eastern Europe were lit up with dazzling neon signage just as one would imagine in Western cities (see also) but destruction and depravation led to the loss of this nighttime illumination. About a decade into Communist rule under Soviet influence, however, we learn courtesy of 99% Invisible’s latest minisode (which also features a history on the alarm clock and the placebo button of the snooze bar) that there was a concerted government effort to brighten up cities, particularly Warsaw, through commissioning graphic designers to restore the light features in a more uniform and planned way, like the pictured symbol of the Polish capital, the Mermaid (Syrenka) wielding a sword a top an open book, to advertise a public library. The neonisation project extended to milk bars, hotels, shops and other government service. During the revolutions of the late 1980s, much of the signage was again lost to neglect and “recycling” campaign was instituted, but thanks to the conservation efforts of a singular institution, there is a reference base from which to launch a return of the aesthetic. Much more at the links above.

 synchronoptica

one year ago: assorted links worth revisiting (with synchronoptica) plus Braille ambigrams

seven years ago: Oprah for US president, more Japanese New Year’s designer cards plus retiring household items in cross-stitch

eight years ago: more debates on immigration plus a cursed metro line

nine years ago: the statuary of Paris, ancient and artisanal pigments plus scratch circles

ten years ago: designer chicken coops, knotty language, Samuel L Ipsum plus fundamentalism and sharpening distinctions

ufo/uap (12. 157)

Released the first week of January in 1950, we are directed to the independent feature by Mikel Conrad and Howard Irving Young, via Miss Cellania, which first addressed the subject of flying saucers but not as heralds of an alien invasion but rather an attempt to limn how the paranormal follows the paranoid. Capitalising on the moniker that captured the public imagination coined by pilot Kenneth Arnold to a reporter in 1947 on seeing a group of silvery discs silently flying in tight formation, the movie plays on the phenomena of repeated, copycat sightings, the narrative focuses on the US intelligence learning of a covert Soviet-lead investigation into appearances of mysterious aircraft sourced to Alaska, commencing a series of spy encounters and eventual counter-espionage, double-agents and stolen technology. The psychology of misapprehension and anxieties is also a major theme but light on acting performance and special effects, stock and B-roll footage of the tundra upstages (much from the director’s acting role in Arctic Manhunt from the previous year) the movie’s impact and legacy. Re-released three years later as a double feature with 1941’s Man Made Monster (the first sci-fi billing—not a willing nepobaby as a decision of the studio—of Creighton Tull Chaney as Lon Chaney, Jr to associate him with his father though already an established actor in the genre) about a nuclear mutant, the film has been largely forgotten, replaced by the abstract tropes of extraterrestrial visitors and kaiju. More from Inverse at the link up top.

groupe d'étude des phénomènes aérospatiaux non-identifiés (12. 156)

The close encounter, described by some sources as the most thoroughly documented and researched sighting of all time, occurred on this day in 1981 in the commune of Trans-en-Provence of the southeastern Var department (see previously), referred by the local authorities to the above unit GEIPAN of the French Space Agency charged with such unidentified phenomena after the sole witness reported it. Farmer Renato Nicolaï was startled by a strange whistling noise and claims to have seen a saucer-shaped object touch down in a nearby field, deploying retractable landing gear, and taking off almost immediately. The investigative group undertook a rather comprehensive battery of tests, finding the ground at the site showed signs of compression, scorching and trace amounts of phosphate and zinc. Yielding no plausible explanation after two years of joint research with the gendarmerie, many in the scientific community were sceptical of GEIPAN’s study as they could have been the result of normal agricultural activities. The team is still active and consists of four employees aided by dozens of volunteers and in general the cases are solved with pretty mundane explanations.

9x9 (12. 155)

pacific palisades: southern California wildfires kept at bay from the Getty compound and vast holdings of antiquities  

we still dance on whirling stages in my busby berkeley dreams: the kaleidoscopic visions of the 1930s Hollywood visionary—see previously  

snap-back: Europe signals that they will not allow Trump to besmirch their sovereignty  

in search of: dark oxygen (see previously) in the world’s deepest mines in South Africa  

how nietzche came in from the cold: the unlikely rehabilitation of the philosopher banned in East Germany and silenced in the West over his championing by National Socialism—via the new Shelton wet/dry 

fine hypertext products: HTML is a programming language—via Kottke 

morning joe: the health benefits of coffee are most evident early in the day  

lake of the woods: a retired Minnesotan forester pre-satellite maps planted a forest in the shape of the state

fps: attend a MoMA opening with DOOM: The Gallery Experience—via Waxy

synchronoptica

one year ago: a massive collection of card games (with synchronoptica)

seven years ago: border stories, a reconstructed astrological clock plus photographs of social decay

eight years ago: votive devotionals plus Waiting for Godot chatbots

nine years ago: New Year’s fireworks, assorted links worth revisiting, built environments on Mars plus the ethics of genetic chimeras

ten years ago: the Triadic Ballet, a collection of Do Not Disturb signs, the Restoration of the Icons plus distributed content

england’s home of mystery (12. 154)

Sadly demolished in 1905 to make way for offices and flats, we enjoyed this appreciation of the Egyptian Hall in Piccadilly, originally commissioned by antiquarian and naturalist William Bullock as a museum to house his collection of curiosities acquired by Captain Cook’s exploration (see also) of the South Seas and built in 1812 in the revival architecture style popularised (see also) by reports of Napoleon’s exploits and Admiral Nelson’s defeat of the French navy on the Nile, which after disposing of his ethnographic and natural history collection, transformed the space into a public exhibition hall, with rotating collections including Napoleon’s carriage captured as a war trophy at Waterloo, Egyptian artefacts and The Raft of Medusa. By the end of the nineteenth century, the hall became a venue for magical acts and spiritualism demonstrations, chiefly staged by the duo of Maskelyne and Cooke with a rather remarkable run of thirty-one years—the former, John Nevil, stage magician, card shark, professional sceptic (wanting to expose fraudsters and charlatans) and inventor of a typewriter of proportional character width (kerning was apparently all over the place and probably would have driven me to distraction) and the pay-toilet, hence the euphemism, “spend a penny.” Much more from Feuilleton at the link above including a gallery of show posters.