As our faithful chronicler informs, the Friz Freleng animated short, “Ballot Box Bunny,” made its debut on this day in 1951, the characters of Bugs Bunny and Yosemite Sam vying for the mayorship of a small town. Campaigning on empty pledges, such as “There’s enough fresh air and sunshine in this great country of ours for everybody—and I’ll see to it that you’ll get your share!” 
In his warren beneath the podium, Bugs listens to the speech and decides to run as a challenger when Yosemite Sam further promises to rid the county of every last rabbit. Engaging in the usual stereotypical politicking ploys of glad-handing and kissing babies, the rivals attempt to sabotage each other’s chances at the polls though Sam’s plots generally backfire including stealing the food from Bugs’ free picnic with a army of ants. The townspeople, however, elect the spoiler candidate, a chestnut horse proclaimed as “Our New Mare.”
Tuesday, 6 October 2026
dark horse candidate (13. 862)
9x9 (13. 861)
the need to understand and describe a thing before applying ai to it is a bottleneck: theory free machine learning and broken causality
ฮฝe: Nobel prize in physics awarded to Belgian scientist studying neutrinos at the South Pole
mirror-test: Freddie Yauner’s looking-glass mask
verschlusssachen: former German spy chief arrested for espionage
melpomene: Meta’s Muse agentic AI is a privacy nightmare for the masses
october is the treasurer of the year: John Dunbar’s ode to the month
reflecting pool: stepping stones across a shallow pond on the roof of a cable car station offer a view of the Austrian Alps
optogenetics: physiology top honours goes to three German researchers studying how light pulse affect body and mind
we are going to kill unalive: self-censorship for the sake of the algorithm
day two hundred thirteen (13. 860)
Canadien separatist party wins provincial elections in Quebec—promising another referendum on leaving the nation, but not whilst Trump remains in office. The internationally recognised government of Yemen claims gains in counteroffensive with the Houthis, retaking the port city of Mocha. Washington issues further warnings to foreign financial institutions doing business with Tehran, saying they may be subject to sanctions without notice. Garnering strong denouncement from the state’s governor, Trump intimates that Iran could “take out Los Angeles or San Diego,” maintaining that the pain at the pump is a small price to pay to ensure that the Islamic Republic never obtains a nuclear warhead. 
At the same rally in Nebraska, the American president brings auto-pen Natalie Harp on stage to sign an impromptu executive order rescinding the federal excise tax on so called red-dyed diesel and allowing any one to purchase it, whereas beforehand, it was the reserve for agriculture. Whilst this manoeuvre may temporarily lower prices by the 24¢ per gallon that government taxes, it does nothing to increase supply or address delivery shortfalls, and perhaps worse than doing nothing, it could create shortages for farmers who use the off-road formulation (it is normal fuel, just coloured to differentiate it from non-tax exempt sales and not at all related to that bizarre hoax a decade ago involving “red mercury” in hopes to extract the mythical substance from antique Singer sewing machines in hopes of miniaturising atomic weapons) during harvest season, stripping the Department of Transportation of revenue for highway maintenance and perhaps increasing prices overall with new demand pressure. Despite the weak US dollar, the euro looses value as contagion fears spread over the French bond market. IDF storms Bethlehem and demolishes homes in East Jerusalem.
synchronoptica
one year ago: US television networks decline request to pre-empt programming to carry a presidential speech from Ford (with synchronoptica) plus aura farming
two years ago: more adventures on the Mecklinburgischer Seeplate
three years ago: touring the Mainschliefe plus island universes
Monday, 5 October 2026
guide du dรฉmรฉnagement ร vรฉlo (13. 859)
Though a bit late for Quebec’s quasi-official moving day this year, we enjoyed this demonstration project with detailed instructions (en francais) on how to plan, coordinate and execute moving household by bicycle, via MetaFilter, which seems like some degree of grunt work but overall a way of getting one’s possessions from one point to another that’s significantly more fun and flexible than traditional short-haul methods. 
The packing for the move, the unboxing after it’s over—a process that can take years—and pivoting up a narrow stairwell seem to be the most onerous parts as one looses the momentum to keep going (in the same way I restrict grocery shopping to what I can comfortably fit and carry in one basket and perhaps a juncture to reassess the volume of one’s belongings), not covering the kilometres between addresses and if a cheaper, less polluting way can be found, then we are all for it. The barn-raising of helping friends move without engaging professionals has shown us that many hands make light work.
day two hundred twelve (13. 858)
The Revolutionary Guard command claims that US forces in the Persian Gulf have retreated to a distance of a thousand kilometres from Iran’s borders and that the amount of oil transiting the Strait of Hormuz under American naval escort is negligible, pledging that the water will remain closed until Washington satisfies the pre-conditions it agreed to. Israeli developers have diverted water from Palestinian farmers in the West Bank for a tourist attraction called “Herod’s Pools.” 
The head of the Yemeni government in Aden announces major escalation in fighting Houthi rebels to wrest back control of Bab al-Mandeb. US pulls out B-2 bombers stationed RAF Fairford following arrests in foiled terror plot. The US is closely monitoring a suspected case of the pneumonic plague after the death of a technician in a Siberian research laboratory, fearing a genetically modified strain of the bacteria has escaped containment and prompting travel restrictions. Brazil heads to a presidential run off with polling between challenger Flรกvio Bolsonaro and incumbent Lula too close to call. A Kelvin Wave caused by El Niรฑo conditions creeps towards southern California and Alaska, expected to raise coastal sea-levels by half-a-metre with a single crest and trough.
synchronoptica
one year ago: graphic designer Mikro Iliฤ (with synchronotpica) plus assorted links worth the revisit
two years ago: circumambulation plus a houseboat on the Havel
three years ago: a hike through the vineyards of Escherndorf
Sunday, 4 October 2026
day two hundred eleven (13. 857)
Daytime strikes continue on the Ukrainian capital and another bridge is hit as German chancellor Merz meets with Zelenskyy in Kyiv, a day after Moscow issued a warning that diplomats and foreign nationals face “mortal danger” if they decide to come to Ukraine. Zelenskyy has pledged to step up targeting of Russian energy infrastructure and to avoid civilian casualties, despite this apparent shift in aggression. 
Houthi rebels hit a Saudi Aramco petroleum facility outside of Riyadh—violent exchanges between the rebels and the internationally recognised government are escalating, the Houthis holding Sanaa whilst the exiled Yemeni federation holds Aden. Tehran’s chief negotiator, talks continuing through intermediaries after Trump rejected out of hand Iran’s proposal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz within a week, says that the era of “wasted time and” the US “dictating demands is over” and Washington must fulfil the seven conditions agreed upon in the Islamabad deal from June, reflected in the MoU.
tea and gargoyles (13. 856)
As we get firmly ensconced in the Spooky Season, we are directed, courtesy of {feuilleton} to the the first modern ghost story anthology, as selected and compiled by Lady Cynthia Asquith—which marks its centenary in print this month (the cover from the 1970 edition pictured but all the original tales can be read here). 
As editor, Asquith’s discernment is to be lauded for expanding the genre to include the uncanny and nebulously menacing, recruiting notable contemporaries, like D H Lawrence, Algernon Blackwood, Hugh Walpole and Enid Bagnold, with some magical realism, psychological distress, preternatural abilities accepted as fact that anticipate later collections, like those featured in The Twilight Zone, without straying into the realm of unbidden horror or rustic superstition. Oliver Onions’ two vignettes, the author dismissing them as trifles, explores the notion that broadcast signals (the wireless a fairly new innovation at the time) are somehow interfering with spectral repose and invite hauntings, and Asquith’s own contribution under the pseudonym C L Ray deals in cursed antiques and unfinished business. A respected author in her own right, Asquith was also a diarist and a Royal-Watcher with a regular column on the Family and was personal secretary to J M Barrie, who left her his entire literary estate, except Peter Pan.
synchronoptica
one year ago: Trump dollar coins (with synchronoptica)
two years ago: anchor Dan Rather assaulted, an ongoing treasure hunt plus another scavenger hunt
three years ago: a return visit to Markbreit
four years ago: The Tornados’ Telstar plus assorted links to revisit
five years ago: The Final Programme (1973)
six years ago: the Feast of Francis of Assisi, cross-section infographics plus Sir David Attenborough as insects
seven years ago: a pastel makeover for London’s subway carriages, cinnamon-roll day plus award-winning laundromats of Japan
eight years ago: a sketch a day for October, the International Geophysical Year plus Bavaria’s plans for a Space Force of its own
Saturday, 3 October 2026
domain squatting (13. 855)
Trump, deciding that the potential for the eschatological world ending crisis was giving AI an bad reputation, along with the universally despised data-centres needed to keep inflating the bubble and buoy up the American economy, recently rebranded it as SI, now with an apparent mandate within the federal government and defence contractors not to dead-name Super Intelligence. 
In Polish, it is called Sztuczna inteligencja (SI) and in German Kรผnstliche Intelligenz (KI) and Umetna inteligentnost (UI)—though these abbreviations are rarely used in common parlance, albeit for the latter, it happens to be the country code top-level domain for Slovenia, coincidentally the homeland of Melania Trump (they’re not sending their best people), First Lady and hooker introduced to the future American president by Jeffrey Epstein (the Iran war has proved to be a good distraction) and by all rights would have been deported to a hostile third nation if it weren’t for her anchor baby. With the actual .ai already spoken (calling it American Intelligence would net nothing) for by Anguilla and witnessing the fallout occurring after Chagos was scheduled for independence, it wouldn’t at all be surprising if the Trump Crime Family Syndicate—and sycophantic corporations—weren’t already lining up for the new rollout, the rebranding intimating that Trump invented it. Ljubljana thankfully has registry laws to counter cybersquatting in bad faith unlike the lawless US trademark regime.
