lady attackpot (13. 913)

With the largeness of LLMs increasing exponentially to the detriment of their creativity and entertainment value, we had not appreciated that our trusty AI wrangler Janelle Shane (previously) could have possibly upheld the annual tradition of Botober, generative drawing prompts for humans to interpret. We learn, however, since 2023 when ChatGPT broke confinement and started scraping and scouring the internet, Shane has gone old-school with tiny, boutique neural nets from the past decade with limited training data—ie, the American registry of racehorse names from the Jockey Club. We especially liked the cues Expected Shoes, Power Noping, Speed Puddin, Qualitydance and Thunder Swan. How would you render them in your chosen media?

why don’t you pass the time with a nice game of solitaire (13. 912)

As our faithful chronicler reminds, on this day (see PfRC passim), the neo-noir political thriller from John Frankenheimer based on the eponymous novel from three years earlier, starring Frank Sinatra, Janet Leigh, Angela Lansbury, Laurence Harvey and Henry Silva, premiered on this day in 1962 at the height of tensions between the US and Soviet Union—during the Cuba Missile Crisis. The plot, from Richard Condon’s book, relates the narrative of a decorated veteran of the Korean conflict (Harvey), a member of a prominent American political dynasty, whom apparently escaped from a prisoner-of-war camp after his platoon was captured and welcomed home as a hero. His oedipal mother (Lansbury) exploits the Medal of Honour recipient to propel the campaign of her husband, a US senator, in his campaign for the vice-presidency, promoting claims that the incumbent has allowed the State Department to be infiltrated by Communist sympathisers, echoing the McCarthy witch hunt. Whilst in actuality detested by his subordinates as strict and aloof, other POW soldiers later freed give fawning testimonials that their commander was brave and sympathetic but was unbeknownst to all brainwashed during his captivity as a sleeper agent programmed to assassinate the running mate of his step-father, the party nominee for office of the president, by the USSR and China and cause the destabilisation of the US government, a plot uncovered by Major Marco (Sinatra), though one interpretation of the film suggests an Inception level of hypnosis with Marco being an accessory permitted recovered memories through his recurring nightmares and that Sinatra’s character was also a Manchurian agent under the influence of controller Eugenie Cheyney (Leigh)--possibly as a back-up or for plausible deniability, a stranger encountered on a train who later bails him out of jail for assaulting Chujin (Silva), the platoon’s Korean guide and translator who immigrates to the US after partition and becomes Harvey’s minder, posing as seeking gainful employment as his domestic—in one of the first depiction of East Asian martial arts in Hollywood. Playing cards trigger Harvey’s programming.

keep calm and carry on (13. 911)

In parallel with this emergency preparedness guide from the Swiss government, which sanguinely asks “for how long would you like to be self-sufficient?” though one cannot choose a period of greater than a fortnight, the UK has introduced a “realistic and reassuring” campaign with similar guidelines on what to have on hand without inducing panic or hoarding impulses among the public in the face of a nebulous, unidentified disaster. Though the imagination is invited to wander into dark spots when faced with shortages as with past outreach efforts, from catastrophic and all at once to the creeping unraveling of supply chains, a lesson seemingly forgot five, six years on from COVID—sabotage to the power-grid, severe weather conditions driven by a super-charged El Niño and the latent climate collapse, cyber-attacks, unconfined epidemics or any combination thereof, slow or fast moving, it is always best to expect the unexpected.

synchronoptica

one year ago: the 1975 Women’s Strike in Iceland (with synchronoptica), a 1987 speech by Ronald Reagan denouncing tariffs plus conversation pits

two years ago: assorted links worth the revisit

three years ago: Gym Tonic (1998) plus poisoned-pixels against AI

four years ago: a visit to Knossos  

five years ago: the hymn of the United Nations plus Trog (1970)

six years ago: When the Wind Blows (1986), assorted links to revisit plus the Centre for American Politics and Design

seven years ago: chaos erupts as Trump impeachment hearing as supporters disrupt testimony 

eight years ago: an audio grimoire read by Vincent Price, the 2008 Recession, more inventions from Simone Giertz, more links to enjoy plus an interesting case of tort law

 

day two hundred twenty eight (13. 910)

Amid unrelenting attacks from the Houthis, Saudi Arabia postpones hosting UN World Data Forum, days after cancelling its “Davos in the Desert”—the annual flagship Future Investment Initiative conference aimed to diversify its portfolio away from being a petrostate. The headquarters of Saudi-Aramco is evacuated over safety concerns for remaining staff. Though the White House defers with a GLOMAR response, sources familiar with the planning confirm to the press that Washington and Tel Aviv are in the process of finalising a renewed series of strikes on Pickaxe Mountain and Iranian petrochemical facilities, not wanting to further exacerbate markets (though they are reacting) in the last days to the run-up to the respective countries’ elections. Even if the ultra-conservative government of Netanyahu is ousted, Palestinians hold out little hope for reform or improvement as the opposition refuses to entertain a two-state solution. US troops withdraw from bases in Kuwait, Qatar and Jordan, as the Revolutionary Guard announces a total ban of American service members and vessels from entering the gulf region and threatens to attack personnel and US assets.

9x9 (13. 909)

screenage wasteland: adult children curating their senior parents’ algorithms to blunt engagement with AI slop, scams and ragebait—[archived]—via Web Curios  

menagerie: inmates care for animals at the world’s only penitentiary with a zoo in the Florida Keys—via Damn Interesting  

omnibus: an archive of the science and scifi anthology, published from 1978 to 1995—via Kottke  

epic elfie: a grateful pachyderm snaps a wide-angle photograph without the need for a selfie-stick—see also 

the battle of blythe road: a spell-hurling duel between Aleister Crowley and WB Yeats in 1900—via Strange Company  

eagle’s nest: arsonists torch Hitler’s Alpine retreat, the Kehlsteinhaus 

cry havoc and let slip the dogs of war: Palmer Luckey launches an initiative to produce genetically enhanced canines for the US military and law enforcement, reducing reliance on European kennels  

window from the house of d: a court and then a prison for wayward women informed the bohemian and queer character of Greenwich Village—see previously  

emomercial: targeted advertisement for an assumed demographic can become an unexpected catharsis

synchronoptica

one year ago: storyboarding with tarot (with synchronoptica) plus assorted links worth the revisit 

two years ago: AI learns to point and click, London’s mortality weekly plus the life of Boethius  

three years ago: Mole Day 

four year ago: arriving in Crete 

five years ago: your daily demon Sabnok plus more links to enjoy

six years ago: circuit judge Roy Cohn, a pretend Communist coup, more links, the beginning of the world plus an appreciation of the colour russet

seven years ago: even more links worth revisiting plus more on the far future night sky

eight years ago: the canals of Mars, swing sixties cover of Red Hot Chili Peppers, the first Russian rapper plus noteworthy files from the US National Records Archive

 

 

day two hundred twenty seven (13. 908)

Iran’s shadow fleet of tankers, given a brief respite in June to openly sell its oil-at-sea, have gone empty with no chance to reload, sparking greater fears of supply deficiencies, particularly for theAsia-Pacific region. The Revolutionary Guard simultaneously strikes four vessels conducting ship-to-ship oil transfers in the northern Persian Gulf, the common practise for moving cargo without transiting under Iran’s terms. The US president asks Google to rename the Atlantic the Trump Ocean—we’ll see if they comply, having opened up this slippery slope. Elon Musk threatens Democratic representatives with a congressional probe on dissenters (who would dare to suggest he cut Starlink for Ukraine—including the Canadians and Europeans building alternatives to the satellite network) as the US state department unveils plans to only hire and promote MAGA acolytes. Washington and Tel Aviv make plans for resuming joint major combat operations in Iranian infrastructure after their respective elections—Netanyahu touting in a campaign even what other nation on Earth the size of New Jersey could be fighting wars on six fronts and winning as the US quietly reduces its footprint in the region.

macabre magic (13. 907)

Shortly after leaving the priesthood to pursue the vocations of poet and playwright, Joseph Pintauro collaborated with illustrator Norman Laliberté to write his Seasonal Quartet: Rainbow Box, a tetralogy of four volumes published as a cube. Along with The Peace Box, The Rabbit Box, A Box of Sun, The Magic Box was a thanatopsis and a reflection on how death is not something to be regarded with dread, a consequence of living—
though that impulse to fear the hereafter probably is the driver behind much of what we all do and don’t do—and is both very much a product of the aesthetic of the late 1960s and early 1970s and timeless in its currency in terms of style and as a heuristic for gauging and dispelling haunted, halting anxieties with tricks and treats—likewise very much sought after then as now. More from the Daily Heller at the link above.

♇ (13. 906)

Composed over the course of three years after a discussion about astrology piqued his interest, leading to associates to remark, during the creative process that resulted in his most popular and enduring orchestral suite that the arranger and teacher and teacher was becoming quite the skilled interpreter of horoscopes—to which Gustav Holst replied, relatably, “I only study things that suggest music to me,” The Planets, Opus № 32 premiered to an invited audience in 1918 at a concert hall in Langham Place. Resounding with the public and highly influential over the decades, particularly the first movement, Mars, the Bringer of War ♂, with its militaristic strains echoing in video game soundtracks and film scores, its impression heard in the themes of John Williams and the Imperial March, several adaptations of the suite for full orchestra have been made, including attempts to add the eighth planet, Pluto, discovered twelve years after the piece’s debut. The most well-received and fitting completion of the planetary cycle was Colin Matthews 2000 contribution, Pluto, the Renewer—though unclear what the status of the solar system suite became six years later once Pluto was downgraded.

*     *     *     *     *

synchronoptica

one year ago: assorted links to revisit (with synchronoptica) plus an alien landing pad in the Argentine desert

two years ago: more links to enjoy plus the Berlin Crisis of 1961 

three years ago: even more links 

four years ago:  brittle egos bristling at Karen’s Garden plus modern sundials

five years ago: the International Meridian Conference of 1884, The Last Picture Show plus an early alternative currency

six years ago: the father of psychophysics, red food dye, another failed doomsday prophecy plus the Humument series

eight years ago: the US Gun Control Act of 1968, the WWII bombing of Kassel, the spread of disinformation, anticipatory libraries for other worlds plus RIP to the inventor of the Little Library