for her tireless work promoting democratic rights or the people of venezuela and for her struggle to achieve a just and peaceful transition from dictatorship to democracy (12. 783)

Despite Trump’s laudable though contrived truce between Israel and Hamas—may the peace hold—with Netayahu leveraged to hedge in favour of a refusal on the part of the Gazan authorities to take part—and risking the ire of the American president when he realises that there are some Venezuelans remaining that he hasn’t blown up, the Nobel Committee in Oslo announced that their prize will be presented to laureate María Corina Machado, politician and activist ousted during the regime of Nicolás Maduro Moros in 2014. Although in hiding and operating an underground effort for government reform and social justice since, Machado attempted to run against Maduro in 2024, and though blocked from running lent support to the candidacy of the opposition, whom would have unseated the incumbent, according to international election observers yet refused to yield power. Nominations closed in March, with over three hundred qualified contenders put forward, individuals and organisations, including Pope Francis, champion of the plight of the Uyghur people Li Ying, Elon Musk, Donald Trump nominated by representatives of the governments of Israel, Pakistan, Cambodia and Argentina, the January Sixth congressional select committee, the Hague and NATO. Coincidentally Machado had some praise for Trump himself earlier in the year in August when the administration announced a fifty-million dollar bounty on Maduro for allowing drug trafficking into the US, carrying out a series of deadly strikes on boats in international waters said to be operated by gang members running narcotics, countering these accusations as a pretext for America-led regime change. Sore loser, Trump says that this proves that the Nobel Committee places “politics above peace,” and despite this qualified miscarriage of justice that Trump who has “the heart of a humanitarian, and there will never be anyone like him who can move mountains with the sheer force of his will,” according to a White House spokesperson, continues to be a peace-maker.

synchronoptica

one year ago: a visit to Himmelpfort and Fürstenberg (with synchronopticæ)

twelve years ago: departing for southern France 

thirteen years ago: the grammar of ornament, flowcharts plus a blank slate

fifteen years ago: Double-Ten Day and currency wars 

(12. 782)

synchronoptica

one year ago: punting along the Wolblitz (with synchronopticæ) 

thirteen years ago: bulletin boards plus a visit to Kelheim

seventeen years ago: reflections on Iceland’s insolvency 

värvilind (12. 781)

Courtesy of Weird Universe, we enjoyed this introduction to Soviet-era artist and director Rein Raamat through his 1974 work Firebird, with obvious inspiration from Yellow Submarine. Whereas the Beatles were faced with the challenge of thawing the frozen Pepperland and restoring its vitality, the drab denizens of Raamat’s animation are brought to life by the arrival of the titular character brings colour and growth—much to the indignation of a black cat who seems to have embraced the status quo.

10x10 (12. 780)

third amendment rights: ICE officers and associates beg to use the restroom  

dance this mess around: Cardhouse’s 2025 mixtape session—see previously 

anti-deficiency act: an omnibus of reports on the US federal government shutdown, including the threat to withhold back-pay from disloyal workers  

any dream of avarice: a historical comparison of the world’s wealthiest individuals—see also  

angry little clouds: Bob Ross paintings (see previously here and here) to be auctioned off to US support public broadcasters after federal funding cut  

the weight of a city: revisiting the idea of gradually x-raying a spot off-limits with ghostly cosmic particles through imagined and inspired celestial espionage  

permanent polycrisis: Curios Brain’s trends for 2026 of sustained chaos counterbalanced with the end of coincidence 

a good mix of the apocalypse and looney tunes: Thomas Pynchon (previously) has been warning us about American fascism his whole literary career 

r u experienced: a glorious re-upload of Devo’s 1984 cover of the Jimi Hendrix song  

in the land of the dollar bill: Trump threatens to arrest the mayor of Chicago for failing to protect immigration agents and invoke the Insurrection Act as he goes full authoritarian

synchronoptica

one year ago: boating on the Röblinsee (with synchronopticæ)

twelve years ago: fiat currency plus extending the sacrament to divorced Catholics

thirteen years ago: making crespelle 

flinders street station, elizabeth street exit (12. 779)

Located outside of the busiest train stop in Melbourne and having been in operation continuously since 1961 gaining the celebrated status of a local landmark, owner Alan Adler maintained the iconic photo booth for the entirety of its existence up through his retirement in 2023 with a team of technicians now carrying on his legacy to keep the machine in good working order. A green-grocery by trade and self-taught in the antique and rarefied mechanics, Alder branched out purchasing more photo booths (see also) in different areas of the city—his business undercut by the entrance of larger super market chains but the coin-op enterprise remained a profitable one. Over six decades of repair, testing and calibration of his fleet of booth, Adler collected countless images, holding the title of the most photographed individual even in the age of the selfie and of course millions of visual keepsakes for residents and visitors. More from Flashbak at the link above.

dilemma of the video age (12. 778)

Via MetaFilter, we are directed to this odd cinematic time-capsule from a 1991 Entertainment Week listing of a hundred superlative obscure titles. It’s a pretty solid catalog that stands the test of time, although many have become better known as a cult classics in the intervening decades, like The 5000 Fingers of Dr T, Zardoz, Withnail and I and Xanadu, there are yet critical acclaimed sleeper hits to be rediscovered. The language and tone of the summaries seems more dated than one would have expected and the titular scenario is described as the following: “You walk into the local rental store, see that all sixty copies of Ghost are rented out and scan the aisles with dread,” which is both a reflection of our currently curated embarrassment of choices and an indictment on the siloing of content across channels and streaming services and media with many movies otherwise unavailable and the concept of owning a film library a legacy out of reach for most—the coda of the article inviting cinestes to invest in membership in a mail-order club, predating Netflix. Which of these films do you remember?

synchronoptica

one year ago: Suddenly (with sybchronopticæ) plus more boating adventures

thirteen years ago: life lessons from mythology

fourteen years ago: cruciform variations plus corking fun

sixteen years ago: travels in the States 

 

aura farming (12. 777)

A meta-analysis of Google search terms reveals America’s most queried slang terms for 2025, the majority of which were an enigma to me, though was happily pleased to find the rather more traditional term mogging (from to decamp) overtaking the sense of looksmaxxing and we’ve encountered clanker previously as a derogatory word for robot. Huzz as a term of endearment rather than an insult is also an interesting development.  With some other AI slop inspired words on the list and AI overlays dominating search results we wonder how many neologisms might be left out by dint of a lack of association and fossilised by outmoded context with less non-synthetic material to scrape and might yet influence common-parlance in a retrograde way.

we now return to regularly scheduled programming already in progress (12. 776)

For the first time in television history in the United States on this day in 1975, the three major television networks declined a request to interrupt broadcasts and pre-empt their line-up for a speech delivered by the American president. Gerald Ford’s nationwide address was only carried by ABC and was a relatively anodyne presentation regarding fiscal discipline for an economy just emerging from a recession, laying the blame of inflation and job scarcity squarely on an “overzealous bureaucracy” and urged congress to make federal tax reductions permanent to encourage hiring with a commensurate cut to government spending, threatening to veto any legislation passed in in keeping with a balanced budget. This decision by TV executives was seen as the first challenge to the use of the bully pulpit of the president and the reach of high office to the public ear. The next day, congress and the senate overturned Ford’s veto by an overwhelming margin bi-partisan support to extend federal school lunch and nutrition programmes.

synchronoptica

one year ago: more adventures on the Mecklinburgischer Seeplate (with synchronopticæ)

thirteen years ago: the Venetian independence movement, more flea market finds plus twinned-towns

fourteen years ago: computer lab plus thirty-one days of Halloween

fifteen years ago: customary Nobel cool-off period