synchronoptica
one year ago: digital divinity (with synchronopticæ), ghost-writing, ambient music from a surveillance system plus up-selling
twelve years ago: reporting on the US government shutdown
thirteen years ago: DIY month, wine and cheese advertising, vintage community calendars plus the risks of the agriculture lobby
fourteen years ago: hidden messages in song lyrics
seventeen years ago: the fiscal new year
Whilst most attention was focused on Trump’s upstaging of the some eight hundred top generals and admirals from American military outposts from all over the world at great expense and distraction summoned to be presented a speech on warrior ethos that could have frankly been an email or at most a TEAMS virtual meeting only to then be lectured by the commander in chief regarding physical fitness of the force, woke- and fat-shaming the US military into a plaything exclusively by and for white, straight males with liberal bastions declared as training grounds, the federal government entered a shutdown after successive refusal by the Republicans to entertain negotiations over extending healthcare subsidies and defunding public broadcasting. The standoff preceded by congress blocking the swearing in of a Democratic representative from Arizona for fear of loosing the GOP‘s narrow margin and compelling the release of the Epstein files, replacing the official portrait of Joe Biden in the White House gallery with a crude picture of an auto-pen and continuing the violent vitriol against the radical left—out-of-office auto-replies are to specifically blame the opposition for the closure and lapse in nonessential services–a clear violation of the Hatch Act. The last significant shutdown lasting more than a few hours was during Trump’s first term in 2018 and 2019 when the government closed for thirty-five days
synchronoptica
one year ago: papabili (with synchronopticæ) plus assorted links worth revisiting
twelve years ago: US government shut-down show-down over Obama Care
fourteen years ago: salvage thieves plus advances in Chinese aerospace
fifteen years ago: a bumper crop of exoplanets plus planning a trip to Ireland
Incredibly after a run of forty-one years, the Chicago Tribune announced on this day in 1975 that it would be revising its style guide and discontinue the editing standards in place since January of of 1934 of offering simplified, phonetic spellings (see previously) of about eight common words, conceding that the newspaper was not making the grade when it came to came to English language conventions of putting words in print (both in headlines and copy) and wanted to cause no further confusion in the classroom, particularly for young pupils. While holding out that sanity and prescription might one day come to orthography, going forward, the paper agreed to no longer publish thru, tho and thoro for through, though and thorough—as well as rime for rhyme, fantom for phantom, sofomore for sophomore, etc.
synchronoptica
one year ago: sea birds in a hurricane (with synchronopticæ) plus a Schoolhouse Rock!-style explainer for Project 2025
twelve years ago: punctuation marks that failed to catch on plus downplaying the climate catastrophe
thirteen years ago: real life raiders of the lost Ark plus the debut of Star Trek: TNG (1987)
fourteen years ago: austerity measures for the German economy plus biometric punch-clocks
fifteen years ago: the reckoning of Iceland’s financial crisis
Without even deference to Star Trek sick bay or Elyseium (where zero-gravity nanobots can somehow fix all ailments and injuries unavailable to the Earth bound poors), huckster Trump‘s latest grift is touting miraculous medbed technology somehow kept from the public by liberal billionaires. If such sci-fi ideas did exist, I should imagine that the president would not look like death warmed over nor would he be willing to share with his base of useful idiots. This scam is brought to the American people who also promoted that COVID was caused by 5G cellular masts and that vaccines, masks and social distancing was counterproductive and is a distraction, like the assault on acetaminophen to blame victims, when what remains of US health care is completely hollowed out by removing more subsidies, restricting access to community and preventative medicine and lack of competent staff with hundreds of thousand dollar visas needed for each foreign nurse and doctor.
synchronoptica
one year ago: ranking the gods (with synchronopticæ), Chilean Antarctica plus more brief papacies
fourteen years ago: proprietary geographic protections, illustrating Tarantino plus if the service is free then you are the product
fifteen years ago: more dragnet surveillance from the US plus a trip to Prague
sixteen years ago: an antiquated, nasty habit
synchronoptica
one year ago: hotel darkrooms for hobbyist photographers (with synchronopticæ), a very short papacy plus Dawn: A Portrait of a Teenage Alcoholic (1976)
fourteen years ago: Das Boot
fifteen years ago: substituting the flag of Chile for the flag of Texas
seventeen years ago: lost and found
