As our faithful chronicler reminds, the pinnacle of British satire was first exposed to the public on this day in 1970 with Peter Sellers as an eccentric billionaire (personal wealth not imagined by Averice in those days) and Ringo Starr and his adoptive son and prospective heir—the plot followed by the 2000 episode of the Simpsons, “Homer v Dignity,” when Mr Burns tries to adopt Bart—Sir Guy Grand attempts to demonstrate to his new son, Youngman Grant (formerly unhomed) through a series of increasing specific and elaborate practical jokes, bribing individuals with irresistible amounts of money that everyone has their price and will disavow what they hold dear. With score by Badfinger, the film chose for the final hoax luring wealthy passengers onto a stimulated shipwreck aboard the eponymous cruise, and the film was generally panned by critics and audiences alike for being too harsh and heavy-handed on capitalism.
Wednesday, 11 February 2026
the world's richest man and the world’s poorest boy are getting it ready now… and everybody, everywhere, will be a little worse off for it (13. 165)
9x9 (13. 165)
shoulder angel: the Scottish philosopher teaching one AI model morals—via Marginal Revolution
pdf forensics: a case study of the sanitisation and hidden data through the Epstein files—via Quantum of Sollazzo
individual neutral athletes: a historic look of Russia at the Games
secretz de l’histoire naturelle: a late fifteenth century illustrated guide to exotic, far-flung lands
volunteer army: the recruitment call enlisting anonymous editors to stave off AI from Wikipedia—via LitHub
herren-t-shirt olympisches erbe der olympischen spiele in berlin: commemorative apparel from the 1936 Games from the official shop is met with backlash
it’s the people’s house and it’s also the presidents home, so he can invite whomever he wants to dinners and events here at the white house: annual bipartisan meeting of US governors called off when Trump excludes Democratic state leaders
human prerogative: on the imitation game, all exercises—even the boring ones—having value and why computers can’t surprise
synchronoptica
one year ago: US to stop minting pennies (with synchronopticรฆ) plus DOGE and the Deep State
twelve years ago: the Atlantis Haus
fifteen years ago: Egypt in media res
Tuesday, 10 February 2026
read into the record (13.164)
A tactic that could be employed to disclose all the names of all individuals named in connection to the Epstein files to the public without actually reading aloud the contents of the cache of over three million documents, US Democratic congressional representative Ro Khanna delivered a floor speech in the lower chamber, met with some resistance by Republican committee members who tried to silence him the name of six men discovered on reviewing unredacted files during a two-hour review at the Department of Justice. 
Khanna, together with Republican cosponsor of the bill that mandated the release of the files, made a cursory inspection of the DOJ version of the documents on Monday, naming these “likely incriminated” people, whose identities had been shielded contrary to the injunction only to protect victims ostensibly only to save them—a lingerie magnate, a UAE sultan and an Italian politician included—from the embarrassment of being implicated, and speculated how many more over-judicious, discretionary redactions might be found had they had more time to investigate. Given the opposition in even sharing this discovery, which does not equate to guilt but rather is an indictment on how the release has been conducted, suggesting many more untoward obfuscations, it was expected that the GOP member who together crafted this legislation, Kentucky congressman Thomas Massie, would have made the announcement so as to defuse some of the expected partisanship coming from a member of the opposition.
the first thing that china will do is terminate all ice hockey being played in canada and permanently eliminate the stanley cup (13. 163)
Despite the fact that the newly completed span connecting Ontario with Michigan was financed by the Canadian government, Trump is threatening to block the opening of the Gordie Howe International Bridge until the US is compensated for everything it has given to its northern neighbour
—including fairness and respect, despite the infrastructure project’s shared, cross-border public ownership. The massive construction undertaking endorsed in 2013 under the Obama administration in Detroit, the family who owns the parallel Ambassador Bridge (built in 1929) lobbied successive governments to stop the improved linkage with untrue claims that no American steel was involved. Poignantly named in honour of the then recently deceased, celebrated hockey icon, we think it’s acceptable to reflag it as the Epstein-Trump Connexion until the US relents from this nonsense.
tripp (13. 162)
Unwelcome at the Olympics, US vice president JD Vance continues his Eurasian junket to the South Caucasus in order to undergird a peace deal brokered by Trump—one among many that failed to secure him the Nobel prize—through talks with the leadership of Azerbaijan and Armenia aimed to forward progress on a plan to construct a strategic transit artery, the Trump Route for International Peace and Prosperity, the forty-three kilometre concept of road (also known as the Zangezur corridor (ิถีกีถีฃีฅีฆีธึึีซ ีดีซีปีกีถึึ, Zษngษzur dษhlizi)
linking Azerbaijan to its exclave, the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic—hailed as a hallmark achievement of recent negotiations though the idea had already been championed by Tรผrkiye during the ceasefire agreement of the Nagorno-Karabakh war in 2020. The route would bypass Iran and Russia and is seen as an opportunity to expand regional trade with the US. Vance’s presence at a time when tensions are rising in Iran and the US threatening intervention are seen as a sign of commitment to Baku and Yerevan, creating markets for exports and defining minerals strategy that is—with secured development rights—a rebuke to China’s influence over critical resources in both countries. Meanwhile, critics of the settlement see it as efforts towards pan-Turkic expansion and America’s past flirtation with neighbouring Georgia seem to be be very much consigned to the past.
i’m like a minus, she’s like a plus (13. 161)
With the music video inspired by the scene from Anchors Aweigh when Gene Kelly dances with the cartoon mouse from Tom and Jerry, the lead single, “Opposites Attract,” from the debut album of Paula Abdul, Forever Your Girl, rose to number one and number two on the US and UK charts respectively on this day in 1990. 
The rotoscoped, animated feline character (a collaboration of both Disney and Warner Brothers studios) was voiced by the duo the Wild Pair with an addition rap bridge performed by Derrick “Delite” Stevens would go on to win that year’s MTV Music Award for Breakthrough Video and garnered a Grammy in 1991. MC Skat Kat and the Stray Mob went on briefly with a musical career, featuring Abdul in another video, “Skat Strut” and were spokespeople (along with Melba Moore, Ozzy Osbourne, Bette Midler, et al) for a recycling campaign, “Yakety Yak - Take it Back!”
* * * * *
synchronoptica
one year ago: a latter day prophet of peace (with synchronopticรฆ), assorted links worth revisiting plus The Ugly American
twelve years ago: Swiss vote on immigration policy
thirteen years ago: pharmaceutical vocabulary plus more on Germany’s renewable revolution
fourteen years ago: splintered support for EU IP bill
fifteen years ago: stock market mergers
sixteen years ago: elections in Ukraine
seventeen years ago: stimulants and sedatives
Monday, 9 February 2026
sociรฉtรฉ centrale canine (13. 160)
The shelter where we adopted our rescue dog has the convention of assigning unknown birthdays to the Fourth of July, as a touching sign of independence (see also here and here). 
In France, however, one’s fellow-walkers and veterinarian can surmise the age of one’s companion by their name (which to my mind might impose the potential for compromised passwords) by a tradition established in 1926 by the registry of pedigree dogs that pairs a letter of the alphabet to each year. Not enforced by nearly universally adhered to (though we suspect all pet parents give out several names and find ways around prescriptiveness), the options cycle back every twenty years rotating through twenty initials (with the exclusion of some deemed too difficult, K, Q, W, X, Y and Z as difficult to find French names for, like for hurricanes in the US). Last year as a century ago was an A year with 2026 back to B for the puppies. They’re all good girls and good boys.
11x11 (13. 159)
que rico ser latino: staging Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl half-time celebration
coed darcy village: a building project on the brownfield site of a former Welsh mine abandoned without explanation—via Things Magazine
printing films: vintage educational and instructional shorts on typesetting and the publishing industry—via Kottke
as slow as possible: anticipating the next chord change after almost two years for the organ in a church in Haberstadt playing six-hundred year John Cage (see previously) composition
wseg-10: with nuclear treaties lapsed and the US retrofitting obsolete silos, an interactive map showing areas of the US most likely to be affected by an atomic exchange material worlds: revisiting architecture Bruce Goff and his homespun futurism through a new retrospective exhibit—via Nag on the Lake
lawful neutral: Jeremy Bentham’s 1817 categorical table of human impulse as an early form of alignment chart
pitchforks: San Francisco’s pro-billionaire march turns out as a bust
tangible media: a collection of data one can hold
hagyomรกny, identitรกs, tรถrtรฉnelemthe: mysterious Rohonc Codex that has resisted decipherment—see also
viva italiano: Winter Games opening ceremony was a celebration of the host country’s cultural icons—including Bialetti’s Moka Express
