readout (12. 743)

Whilst transcripts of the telephone call between Trump and President Xi of China emphasis progress on trade amid the American tariff war, curbing the supply of fentanyl and the divesture of TikTok in order to stop a ban on the popular social media platform, the released summaries failed to make any mention Taiwan, and given the timing of the reported decision for a pause in US aid and weapons sales to Taipei, it is feared that US dropping its support—a “temporary tactical concession”—for neighbouring Republic of China is being used as leverage for open markets and better positions Beijing to annex the break-away island which has long enjoyed American backing over symbolic promises like to quell the flow compounds that can be used to make drugs.

synchronoptica

one year ago: residential fire safety (with synchronopticæ), assorted links to revisit plus anti-social media

twelve years ago: the constellation of Nintendo games 

thirteen years ago: smear campaigns, wine pairings plus the banner of the Sámi people

fourteen years ago: EU monetary policy 

fifteen years ago: regulating speech on the internet 

sixteen years ago: yearbook yourself 

9x9 (12. 742)

admissible evidence: AI translations of animal vocalisations in the court room and other assorted legal stupidity  

mulholland drive: the Mid-Century Modern estate of David Lynch (previously) in the Hollywood Hill is up for sale  

happy blogoversary: Damn Interesting turns twenty 

õhuruum: more incursions of Russian fighter jets into NATO airspace, this time over Estonia—see previously  

⠝⠕⠍⠕⠎: overcoming wartime injuries that took both his sight and hands, a Greek youth taught himself to read Braille with his tongue and became a lawyer 

ministry of public enlightenment and propaganda: from the wires, 4 February 1939  

phlegmatic: the ancient origins of personality typing  

yawaraka jazz: an individual in Japan expertly DJs their collection of vintage vinyls with no commercial interruptions—via Web Curios 

feme covert, feme sole: Brigitte Macron, wife of the French president and whole human being in her own right, has agreed to provide scientific evidence to a US court to prove that she is biologically female from birth—via the New Shelton wet/dry

this week tonite (12. 741)

Via Super Punch, we glean this little fact of television heritage and show-DNA, though mindful that this is the news and crisis that the US administration wants us to be talking about rather than war, trade, financial misdeeds or sex-crimes: Live! hosted by comedian Jimmy Kimmel debuting in January of 2003 was the mid-season replacement for Bill Maher’s Politically Incorrect when ABC (under its then newly acquired parent corporation of Walt Disney) cancelled the late-night panel show after the moderator took exception with US foreign policy and with the characterisation by the Bush government that the 9/11 terrorists were “cowards”—“although terrible people,” they were not cowards, “What was cowardly, Maher rebuked, “was America’s relationship with the rest of the world.” Too soon perhaps but far from a full-throated endorsement of al Qaeda, causing complaints to roll in and advertisers retreat from the programme. Of course back then, there was also no coercion from hypocritical government officials to self-censor editorialising or free-speech.

synchronoptica

one year ago: the Oscars of US government workers (with synchronopticæ), getting to philosophy, Israel attacks Hezbollah with booby-trapped walkie-talkies plus sinkholes and megaslumps

thirteen years ago: a theme song for a blog plus auditory cues

fourteen years ago: Germany’s Pirate Party 

fifteen years ago: Moore’s Law and quantum computing 

seventeen years ago: a turn in the weather 

of laureates and laurels (12. 740)

The winners of the annual Ig Nobel prizes (see previously) were recently announced and there are, across several categories and disciplines, a host of ridiculous and thought-provoking studies to ponder. Several of the experiments were alcohol related, such as research into the effects of lowered inhibitions on language proficiency—outside of one’s mother tongue, garnering top prize for the peace division—and the effects of naturally occurring ethanol consumption on the ability of bats to navigate and echolocate. There were quite a few examples of culinary chemistry as well—plus a peer-reviewed field trial on the efficacy of dazzle camouflage as repellant for biting insects—previously here and here. See all the laureates at Ars Technica at the link above.

public law 80-253 (12. 739)

Statue at large enacted at the the end of July of the same year, the US National Security Act took effect on this day in 1947 after the senate confirmed the nomination of James Forrestal as the first secretary of defence (transitioning from his role as the last cabinet-level appointee as secretary of the navy) and was a significant restructuring of the government’s armed forces, merging the army, naval commands (granting autocephaly to the marine corps) and the then newly established air force formerly under the aegis of the Department of War. The result of efforts of president Harry S Truman during the waning days of WWII in the European Theatre, the legislature for reform and reorganisation to ensure better communication and cooperation was taken up by congress in the aftermath of the surprise attack on Pearl Harbour with army and navy commanders at odds on how to best respond to warnings of an imminent ambush on the Hawaiian outpost, the culmination of failed joint operations and internecine turf battles during ground operations which ignored air power. Budgetary constraints and the customary relinquishing of executive powers during times of relative peace also influenced its passage, though resistance to change was notable. Through numerous rounds of debate, compromise created a council of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, creations of agencies for overall logistics, contracting, training and educational support as well as the Central Intelligence Agency. The act was signed into law by Truman whilst in transit aboard a custom Douglas C-45 Skymaster, call-sign Sacred Cow and the first aircraft designated as Air Force One, during a visit to see his ailing mother in Grandview Missouri. Promised cost savings evaporated almost immediately due to the start of the Cold War with Soviet advances in nuclear weapons and the crisis on the Korean peninsula. Revertion to the old name took place with a minimal amount of reflection or consultation.

enter prince andrew (12. 738)

One cannot presume to speak for the strategy that may be behind the decision of the royal family and the prime minister to go ahead with hosting this appeasement tour, placating Trump’s ego with an unprecedented state visit. Both the Queen, under advisement of her Household, and Starmer had the sense of propriety and decency to dismiss respectively the younger brother of the then heir-apparent and in the latter case the up until very recently the ambassador to the United States as associates of Jeffrey Epstein, who as ombudsman delivered the personal invitation of the King Charles III, so their overall tactic may yet be warranted. Both former friends were denied a place at the banquet table for their relationship with the infamous sex-trafficker and financial fixer, however—rightly so, but it does not seem right that the court might afford Epstein’s best buddy a seat. It’s definitely a risk and a humiliation regardless of the aims, rolling out the red carpet for a charlatan and sex-pest whose empty threats have become merely wearying and something to endure and outlast. Nice that the pageantry is marred at every turn by protests keeping the hosts in line. Exeunt omnes.

 

synchronoptica

one year ago: assorted links worth the revisit (with synchronopticæ)

thirteen years ago: Suzanne Vega and the .mp3 plus limits on freedom of expression in Germany

fifteen years ago: side-quests and gamification plus immigration and othering

pious fictions (12. 737)

McSweeney’s Internet Tendency contributor Carlos Greaves shares an uncharacteristically sobering flowchart, decision-tree on telling the difference between a lone wolf and a coordinated effort by the radical left. The parallel construction triangulates with a lecture series by tech oligarch Peter Thiel embracing the language of the apocalypse—rebuffing, redirecting worries over AI godhead with talks that appeal to particularly American obsessions of naming the Antichrist and belief in angels and demons (environmental activist Greta Thunberg is a favourite target of the influential billionaire for the Great Satan—in the parlance and policing of y’all Qaeda) and the censoring of media outlets with producer son David of Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison looking to acquire CNN after taking over Paramount-Skydance with consequences already apparent, Trump’s Federal Communications Commission bullying ABC-Disney into cancelling another popular late night talk show critical of the administration, the divestiture of US TikTok to a MAGA cadre to transform it into a propaganda mill far worse than any hand wringing over China, and the Washington Post dismissing a veteran journalist for reporting the news and calling out sophistry.

la casa azul (12. 736)

Renowned artist Magdalena Carmen Frida Kahlo y Calderón, known for her numerous works of self-portraiture (Autorretrato) and murals executed in a naïve folk style with an element of magical realism that examined topics of class, race, gender, identity, post-colonialism and her personal experience with chronic pain, having recovered from a disabling case of polio as a child and, aged eighteen was a promising and gifted student headed to medical school was on this day in 1925 in Mexico City was nearly killed in a serious accident when the bus she was a passenger in collided violently with a streetcar. Sustaining numerous injuries, including a fractured spinal column—never fully recovering her mobility—for the next two years Kahlo (see previously here and here) was confined to her bed whilst her body healed. During this long convalescence, she returned to her childhood aspirations, also prompted by an extended period of recuperation and resignation, of becoming a painter. Kahlo’s parents provide an easel and supplies arranged where she could work reclined and mounted a mirror on the ceiling so she could study herself bedridden and produced among many other painting the pictured aristocratic self-portrait in a velvet dress. The mannerist piece was later considered Kahlo’s seminal project and first professional painting, and was gifted to her boyfriend at the time, during a fractious time in their short relationship, which aided in a brief reconciliation, though he moved away to Europe while Kahlo remained in Mexico, toughening up her self-image and rejecting the expectations of the male-gaze.