Following an impassioned appeal by Zelenskyy, who was in Washington for the funeral of Lindsey Graham (as was Netanyahu), the US senate passes landmark sanctions on Russia. American and Saudi forces launch strikes against Iranian affiliated targets in Iraq. Ukraine hits more Russian bound Iranian cargo ships in the Caspian Sea, calling them indirect combatants. China is accused of supplying Iran with shoulder fired missile launchers. US Central Command announces joint AI working group in partnership with the UAE, the task force called Talon Synapse aimed at integrating artificial intelligence in military applications and cyber security. Negotiations still stalled with Trump claiming some “good” talks, the US president threatens Tehran with a fresh wave of strikes on civilian infrastructure if no deal is reached.
Corresponding with the frequency bias of the previous post as well as being illustrative of way humans use the internet to check spelling and how for a small sample size can create random noise—or possibly an art exhibit, however the methodology might be flawed, this look at the most searched terms by the US was intriguing. Overall, from this study, it seems as if Americans are seeking the definition of societal factors rather than objects or something driven by a particular news story with gaslighting, socialism, equity, fascism, empathy, anxiety, etc. The outlier seems to be Montana’s top query in gouache, which defies explanation—other than maybe the above gallery opening—or, though equally unlikely but aligned with the other results a check on spelling for gauche. Similar to watercolour, the technique and paint produces a heavier and more opaque as it dries and employs a binding agent to remain colourfast on the canvas. The related process of decorative technique of art transfer, decalcomania, usually clipped to decal, came to English from the French dรฉcalquer, “to transfer the tracing of” and is in turn derived from the Italian calcare for to “stomp, stamp or trample,” with its etymology ultimately from the Latin calx or heel.
First compiled and distributed by teacher and researcher Michael Philip West in 1953 whilst working in India, the General Service List of essential words for English learners based on a longitudinal survey of frequency and semantics that would facilitate a basic understanding and at the same time, narrowing an educator’s focus. Edified rather than rejected for its shortcomings and inadequacies and the basis for quantitative linguistics and Google N-gram Viewer for modelling a corpus, the list has only undergone two updates, once in 2013 and again in 2023. This exploration of the vocabulary changes from between the first edition and latest revision, seven decades, illustrates how in an anglophone environment it has become even harder to avoid exposure to abstractions whilst what is made, grown, worn and worked has been winnowed away as well as feelings and sensations, shifting from something manifest, embodied and experienced—ache, courage, loyalty, greed, mercy—replaced with clinical, disorder, therapy, treatment as something that is managed, rather than inhabited. It is not as if bargain suddenly became synonymous with budget and moonlight turned to solar, with pollution edging out harvest, but choices were made and some high-minded concepts are tossed out for more functional parlance to preserve the list’s some two-thousand head-word limit. Granted that concrete terms are naturally stickier and easily acquired, we still enjoy a lesson in how to buy a postage stamp or bus fare and are a little sad to live in a world that privileges platforms and institutions above what sustains and enriches us.
Subject to various interpretations by art historians, as Boing Boing informs, the “painted fly” was a somewhat of a viral meme in early Renaissance paintings on Europe. Ranging from an emblem of mastery, an in-joke, a symbol of the worthiness and dignity even in small pests to secularise the subject and conversely a symbol of sin, corruption and mortality—included as a form of apotropaic magic, the detailed fly as a conspicuous element features in over twenty extant works from various artists in the Low Countries, Germany and Italy. The pictured Portrait of a Woman of the Hofer Family by an unknown artist (the identity of the sitter is also lost to time) dates from circa 1470 from the Swabian region and currently resides in London’s National Gallery, acquired by Prince Albert and gifted to Queen Victoria in 1863. The fad seems to have ended around 1510.
Following the disclosure by Zelenskyy that Russia is providing satellite telemetry to the Iranians to target US bases in the Middle East, Trump announces that he will confront Putin directly—something we thought had been verified or at least suspect from the start of the war. Responding to criticisms regarding under-reporting of American casualties and the extent of damage done to installations in Bahrain, Kuwait and Qatar, the Pentagon revises upwards its official figures. Duelling blockades in the Strait of Hormuz continue with ships being turned back from the Persian gulf and Iranian ports. Calling for the release of political prisoners, the US state department strongly condemns continued executions of protesters. As bombing and demolition continue in southern Lebanon, Trump and Netanyahu are scheduled to meet to discuss extracting themselves from the war in Iran—neither having the appetite for prolonged negotiations.
Going into general release on this day in 1955 after its premiere in the producer Paul Gregory’s hometown of Des Moines Iowa as a fundraiser for the local YMCA, as our faithful chronicler reminds, the genre-setting Southern Gothic thriller directed by Charles Laughton, his first and last cinematic work preferring the stage to the screen, was received unfavourably by critics and audience as being too avant-garde and abstract, but upon reevaluation has been named among the best films ever made, ranked second only to Citizen Kane. Adapted from the 1953 novel of the same name by Davis Grubb and drawing from the true-crime story of Harry F Powers, Dutch-born Harm Drenth who immigrated to West Virginia—a serial-killer who lured his victims through “lonely hearts” classifieds, Harry Powell, portrayed by Robert Mitchum, is arrested during the Great Depression, apprehended for driving a car registered as stolen, and serves his sentence with inmates of a botched bank robbery however with the pilfered ten-thousand dollars still missing. The heist’s architect hanged for the killing of murder of two police during its execution, once released, his cellmate—posing as an itinerant preacher, travels to the robbers’ hometown, charismatically wedding the executed’s widow (Willa, played by Shelly Winters—previously) and ingratiating himself on his step-children to learn the location of the cache. Wanting to restore the attentiveness and atmosphere of silent movies, the director studied the blocking and lighting of films from that era and employed techniques, like not shooting with traditional takes but rather leaving the cameras rolling and sound equipment on until the reels ran out with editors and engineers on the set, how directing was done before talkies, and used nitrate prints—though the studio had urged Laughton to make a colour film.
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