Feed your fish remotely with this Raspberry Pi-powered feeding system Tom’s Hardware
Appliance and Tractor Companies Lobby Against Giving the Military the Right to Repair 404 Media
Climate
How Global Capital Killed Climate Science George Tsakraklides
Carbon emissions from the 2023 Canadian wildfires Nature. From the Abstract: “The 2023 Canadian forest fires have been extreme in scale and intensity with more than seven times the average annual area burned compared to the previous four decades…. We find that the magnitude of the carbon emissions is…. comparable to the annual fossil fuel emissions of large nations, with only India, China and the USA releasing more carbon per year.”
New study highlights expansion of drylands amidst impact of climate change (press release) University of Bristol
Hundreds of Ancient Viruses Discovered Deep Inside Tibetan Glacier Yale Environment 360
Namibia authorises culling of elephants, hippos, other wild animals owing to worst drought in a century BNE Intellinews
How Japan Ignored Climate Critics and Built a Global Natural Gas Empire Bloomberg. Handy map:
Syndemics
Summer COVID surge shows we may have to return to 2020 pandemic measures The Hill
Column: Stanford throws a party for purveyors of misinformation and disinformation about COVID Michael Hiltzik, Los Angeles Times
* * * Cluster of Influenza A(H5) Cases Associated with Poultry Exposure at Two Facilities — Colorado, July 2024 Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, CDC. From the Abstract: “As the prevalence of highly pathogenic avian influenza A(H5N1) virus clade 2.3.4.4b genotype B3.13 increases, U.S. public health agencies should prepare to rapidly investigate and respond to illness in agricultural workers, including workers with limited access to health care.”
New data shows long Covid is keeping as many as 4 million people out of work Brookings
* * * Strengthening community resilience: lessons from COVID-19 for mpox prevention The Lancet. “Only through collective and coordinated action can we hope to build a world better prepared to meet future health challenges, ensuring that no one is left behind. Global health is not a luxury, but a fundamental right and a prerequisite for global stability and prosperity.”
China?
Chinese offices emptier than during Covid pandemic as slowdown hits FT
China’s industrial strategy on ‘collision course’ with top German export industries Euractiv
* * * China’s Futuristic Industries: Investment Prospects in the Emerging Low-Altitude Economy China Briefing
China’s low-altitude economy spreads its wings as struggling locales look skyward South China Morning Post
China’s low-altitude economy lacks growth roadmap, says industry group Reuters
Philippines and Vietnam to sign defence agreement Channel News Asia
Indonesian app-based motorcycle taxi drivers strike in protest over low pay Channel News Asia
Africa
What Transsion tells us about Chinese investment in Africa African Business
Syraqistan
Israel Starts Ethnic Cleansing In West Bank Moon of Alabama
Is the US Trying to Pick a Fight With Hezbollah? Prem Thakker, Zeteo
Israel agrees to pauses in fighting for polio vaccine drive BBC
Houthis release footage of fighters boarding Greek oil tanker in Red Sea Al Jazeera
The Beijing Declaration is a key step to resolve the Palestinian question Al Jazeera
European Disunion
France’s unprecedented and dangerous political situation Le Monde
Dutch government to ban ASML from servicing installed wafer tools in China Tom’s Hardware
Dear Old Blighty
The UK nuclear fusion start-up helping the US develop stealth submarines FT
New Not-So-Cold War
Ukraine SitRep: The Collapse Of The Donbas Front Moon of Alabama
What the fall of Pokrovsk could mean for Ukraine Euromaidan Press
First F-16 downed in Ukraine, but confusion over how it happened BNE Intellinews
* * * Ukraine’s daring offensive intensifies pressure on US to ease cautious approach to the war AP
ATACMS and Russia’s Sanctuary WSJ
* * * Brazil did not warn Ukraine about its intention to present joint peace plan with China – Ukraine’s Ambassador to Brazil Ukrainska Pravda
Global Elections
What 2024’s Historic Elections Could Mean for the Climate World Resources Institute
2024
READ: Harris and Walz’s exclusive joint interview with CNN (transcript) CNN
Kamala Harris addresses policy shifts in CNN interview, her first as Democratic nominee CBS
Kamala Harris goes all in on fracking in testy interview exchange Politico
* * * Trump calls 2024 presidential election ‘a choice between communism and freedom’ Anadolu Agency
Harris-Trump debate rules include muted mics and no audience AP
The Supremes
The Supreme Court’s Presidential Immunity Decision Says What??? (PDF) Albert W. Alschuler, U of Chicago, Public Law Working Paper No. 861. “This Article uses Justice Sotomayor’s “Seal Team 6 hypothetical” to explore the categories Trump v. United States employs in determining whether the acts of a former President are immune from prosecution. It concludes that, contrary to Justice Sotomayor’s assertion, a President who orders a military unit to assassinate a political rival can be prosecuted…. The Article describes the procedural tangle the Court’s decision has created. It concludes that if the American legal system proves incapable of bringing the most corrupt President in American history to justice, the fault will rest primarily with the Supreme Court.”
Digital Watch
Judge Rules $400 Million Algorithmic System Illegally Denied Thousands of People’s Medicaid Benefits Gizmodo. Deloitte.
* * * Why Telegram CEO Pavel Durov stands apart from other tech executives Fortune
Can Tech Executives Be Held Responsible for What Happens on Their Platforms? NYT
* * * Major Sites Are Saying No to Apple’s AI Scraping WIred
How Intel Missed the iPhone: XScale Era The Chip Letter
Zeitgeist Watch
Hiker rescued after workmates left him on mountain, says search crew BBC. During an office retreat.
Healthcare
Can the Brain Help Heal a Broken Heart? The Scientist
B-a-a-a-d Banks
Class Warfare
Dollar General warns poorer US consumers are running out of money FT
As Much Power As the President: How Billionaires Became More Influential than World Leaders Literary Hub
The emergence of monumental architecture in Atlantic Europe: a fortified fifth-millennium BC enclosure in western France Cambridge University Press
The Phantoms Haunting History Noema
Antidote du jour (Diego Delso):
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.
244 comments
Comments are closed.
“Kamala Harris goes all in on fracking in testy interview exchange”
When Kamala Harris was saying that she could invite a Republican to be a part of her Cabinet, I wonder if she was talking about someone like Mike Pompeo. He would certainly fit in as far as the Harris/Biden agenda on Gaza is concerned. Only thing is that he would be very sad to learn that the US does not have napalm in their stocks anymore to give to the Israelis-
https://genius.com/Kaizo-slumber-napalm-sticks-to-kids-lyrics
Are Harris’ values from her highest caste Brahman mother or her Marxist Econ professor Dad?
She would treat the deplorables as out caste!
Walz’ English gaffs are not reassuring
Kamala Harris goes all in on fracking in testy interview exchange Politico
* * * Her values haven’t changed repeated several times and she has always said we must have time tables around time. How can anyone think she has any input or influence on the policies the deep state has already decided on? Why is she President and I’m not or any Joe or Jane or Laqesha you pass on the street?
Time for you to unburden from the past, T.
Yes, her values have not changed.
She values herself over anything and anyone else.
So changing her positions on fracking to get elected is completely in line with her values.
But her bit about trying to get to a peace deal between Israeli Zionists and the Palestinians while still giving one side billions in arms and building a fake humanitarian aid bridge was all I could take.
Now I read that the Zionists do not want Polio to rob them of the pleasure of bombing Palestinian children into smithereens. This is what science without morals does to the world.
Morals? I don’t believe the Israelis have a sense of universal morals that other religions have. There is a tradition in Judaism that morals are something in effect between Jew and Jew–the rest of the untermenschen do not count as humans. Thankfully, most Jews (outside Israel) don’t buy into that tradition but the current Israeli government does–this is what Americans and their Euro-flunkies need to understand. There can be no actual or theoretical solution to the Palestine problem other than ethnic cleansing–Israel will accept nothing less in my view and they are willing to do it fast or slow. This has been Israeli policy since the sabotage (by Clinton) of the Oslo Accords.
“When an alien resides with you in your land, you must not oppress him. He is to be treated as a native born among you. Love him as yourself, because you were aliens in Egypt.”
Leviticus 19:33
+100
Some (by no means all) Jews read this as restricted only to aliens who accept Jewish law, while refusing full conversion (typically, circumcision). But that’s not what it says.
The argument is that there’s only one law for Jews and the aliens who live with them (Num. 15:26), so the aliens must accept Jewish law to have any rights. First, that doesn’t imply that Jews are free to abuse non-Jews who live with them. Second, it really just doesn’t comport with the text: Jews, who were aliens in the land of Egypt who obeyed their own laws, were entitled to be treated as native-born, loved as the Egyptians themselves.
Business choice in protecting supply. Who wants organs for transplant riddled with polio.
The only reason they are giving the Palestinians polio shots is because they are scared it will spread into Israel. It makes me sick. Free Palestine.
“Those are my principles, and if you don’t like them… well, I have others.”
As with Groucho, Kamala …
I’m thinking the word “values” is going to be required to do a lot of work over the next several months that it’s completely unqualified to do.
I missed the joy in that interview…does she still value joy?
This is the crap Obama used, about natural gas being part of the transition to green. You know his “ All of the above” strategy”.
If she gets out her fake Obama black speech patterns, then maybe
A F word or two, just to show how Cool she is in that polyester pants suit. After all this was just a bunch of rehashed gobbledygook from some one Never voted on by anyone and who Never won a primary………not even in her own state. And slept her way to the one office she ever held, before being anointed by Obama as “not hard on the eyes”.
The not ” Hard on the eyes”.
Made the CBS news…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aIAfwquznCs&pp=ygU6UHJlc2lkZW50IE9iYW1hIGthbWFsYSBoYXJyaXMgbm90IGhhcmQgb24gdGhlIGV5ZXMgY29tbWVudA%3D%3D
California Senator Harris was polling fourth in her own very blue state in the 2020 presidential primaries, as I recall. Hard to imagine a more dismal performance.
Demonstrating that, once again, liberal Democrats don’t actually care about Climate Change at all. Just two capitalist parties, with some differing social values and elite status markers.
Matt Taibbi and Walter Kirn, no paywall.
ATW Livestream Tonight, 9:15 pm ET: Harris/Walz Interview Postgame
With Tim Walz spotting, Kamala Harris fielded queries from feared CNN interrogator Dana Bash for 18 minutes. Join Walter Kirn and me in watching postgame wraps
https://www.racket.news/p/atw-livestream-tonight-915-pm-et
Fair to say, I think, that they were unimpressed. And rightfully so.
Taibbi seemed particularly “verklempt.”
I mean pancakes and bacon and weeping baby walz????
No one has to “google” the phrase “substance free,” they can just watch this.
Just catching their sum up at the end of the Youtube. I’d say there’s a question whether Harris, who has shown awkwardness in non scripted public sessions, has the self confidence to stand up to Trump who spent years on television. Taibbi/Kirn talk about how Hillary could do this and Obama as well. The new Obama 2 may suffer from casting flaws.
But I have to confess to barely paying any attention to KH in the past and not too interested in doing so now. So I’ll have to take Taibbi/Kirn’s word for it.
If Trump sometimes makes you want to turn off the TV, Kamala may cause you to forget you are watching it and turn to that crossword.
A different take on the interview that says being a non-entity is part of the Harris appeal.
https://www.theamericanconservative.com/the-non-entity-who-would-be-president/
Of course this is what the Dems hope to be true because it’s all they have to go on.
Meanwhile I’m back from the grocery where prices continue to rise. I’m not sure the public is as superficial as the political world and many of them were definitely better off four years ago.
Gasoline on the other hand has fallen quite a bit. Biden draining that SPR? Or just the end of the summer driving season?
https://fred.stlouisfed.org/graph/?g=10MV4
January 15, 2020
Consumer Price Index for Food and Energy, 2020-2024
(Indexed to 2020)
https://fred.stlouisfed.org/graph/?g=HKys
January 15, 2020
Consumer Price Index for Rent and Owners’ Equivalent Rent, 2020-2024
(Indexed to 2020)
https://fred.stlouisfed.org/graph/?g=10MV4
January 15, 2020
Consumer Price Index for Food and Energy, 2020-2024
(Indexed to 2020)
https://fred.stlouisfed.org/graph/?g=HKys
January 15, 2020
Consumer Price Index for Rent and Owners’ Equivalent Rent, 2020-2024
(Indexed to 2020)
I stopped paying attention to her after she kept Daniel Larsen in jail for 2 additional years, because he did not prove his innocence in a timely manner.
I remember watching Harris obnoxious questioning of Kavanagh during his appointment hearings. The bullying was very much on display and she was made into a media darling because of it. I recall having a premonition then that she was going to go far in Democrat party, despite my revulsion . They could have nailed Kavanagh to the wall for his views on torture but they focused on thirty year old allegations for sexual assault instead. There are no more surprises , especially bright ones, coming from the Democrat party.
Disclaimer: I’ve only seen clips of the interview …..but I would wager Kambot being on Xanax.
Facial expressions seemed much more relaxed than usual.
Can you say TMZ? At the very end, Bash invites Trump and Vance for an interview. Equal time. All Trump has to do is accept the offer….but without Vance. Not too hard to play/game that out. I can’t think of a scenario where he doesn’t come out ahead. BTW…I’m beginning to believe that Norman Finkelstein is right
about Biden pulling a fast one with endorsing Harris. Pretty funny that Taibbi and Kirn were wondering if the Dems were back in the same place of hiding mental problems and incompetence. Wow. Have a good weekend everyone. Peace! (As Kamala keeps saying “Far too many” have died. Wow. Just Wow!!)
Ukraine SitRep: The Collapse Of The Donbas Front. Moon of Alabama
Fine and succinct, MoA’s trademark. As per the Kursk thingy, yesterday Mercouris (not as succinct as MoA) said something which i found clever: The Russians need only to recapture Sudhza to make the whole operation collapse in logistic terms. Not that the Russian army is far from the settlement. May be that wouldn’t take as long as many predict (like the IMO increasingly lazy Simplicius).
Mercouris (not as succinct as MoA)
And the Pope is a catholic.
On the other hand the Russians can focus on rolling up the Ukrainian lines in southern Donetsk, where the Ukrainian fighting capability has – at least temporarily – collapsed. There are still pockets and units fighting back, so it’s not a clever Ukrainian trick to lure Russians to over-extent, as some suspect. It’s more likely that the Ukrainians don’t have the troops to stop the Russian advances – made more difficult by all the good troops/reserves being in Kursk region, and tempo of the events being too much for Ukrainian (battalion level cohesion at most) forces.
Also, a relatively quiet Kupyansk front has suddenly started moving west with unforeseen pace. In a week the Ukrainian forces east of Oskil-river may find their logistics suddenly becoming much more complicated.
It seems to me that Stavka is keeping it’s eyes on the ball, and is for now content on pounding the Ukrainians in Kursk with lancets and especially FAB-3000’s – I heard that used regularly those things wear the survivors psychologically down just by their incomprehensible power. Wouldn’t surprise me if they hope to capture the survivors as POWs
I wonder if the Ukrainians are short troops in the Donbass because they’re trying to build up forces for another surprise attack, this time to the south of there (Zaporizhzhia or Kherson). They still seem to have dreams of retaking Crimea using some kind of sudden thrust south, maybe from Orikhiv. Or maybe the idea is just to gain ground and get in position to launch lots of missile attacks on important resources. The post mortem on this war will make for interesting reading, provided it doesn’t end up going nuclear.
I read a report that the Ukrainians are putting together a force of tens of thousand for a possible offensive in the Zaporizhzhia area but after Kursk, where will all the equipment come from for such an offensive?
Seems to me such larks are just for PR/marketing reasons where it could be said they are winning somewhere[??????]. All based on taking land regardless of losses in men and materials e.g. short term news cycles and not long term military planning.
It really is something to watch i.e. the entire thing from the start in 2014 in funding and time to weaponize Ukraine, massive effort from the West. Only to have Russia get sick of it all and become proactive on the issue using the Wests own preemptive strike rational. Even then it was very measured compared to recent past Western military actions all over the place.
Now Russia has absorbed the original counter offensive, built up its military and Mfg [non profit] capacity in record time, preserves its troops through rotations, supplies it with unified equipment designed as part of a larger whole, seamless command and control systems, fighting for its own back yard vs the machinations of new American century sorts far away from the fighting and not at personal risk, air superiority, artillery superiority, Missile superiority, stable political back drop, it just goes on and on and on …
All this time Russia has to acknowledge the possibility that the NATO mob will go ***the full retard*** and double down by sending in troops et al. Hence they are holding back potential whilst building up forces and intel.
LMMAO~~~ then I am confronted by the aspect that since neoliberalism became dominate in the mid 70s all orthodox economics is based on the ***Rational Agent Model*** … I digress lol …
Mercouris should have always had a map graphic with his reports. I think it would make his reports more succinct.
Nah. His videos aren’t made to be looked at, but played in the background (at 1.5-2.0 speed) while looking at something else (map, combat footage, birds, trees, …). One easy to use (pro-Ukrainian) map is liveuamap.com.
The biggest cause of confusion are 15 million rubles for the one who did it.
https://euromaidanpress.com/2024/07/16/russian-firm-offers-170000-bounty-for-destruction-of-first-f-16s-in-ukraine/
The biggest cause of confusion are 15 million rubles for the one who did it.
https://www.newsweek.com/russian-military-f-16-bounty-ukraine-1926475
edit:
I’ve made the same comment with a link to a different news site, and it disappeared without enetering moderation queue. Is there a list of sites that trigger that?
Quite a bit of chatter about the loss of F-16 and its “trained” pilot a couple of days ago. Alleged that the F-16 had taken out 3 or more cruise missiles, and was after another when “lost”.
Think of gifted weapons and the tactics, techniques and procedures (TTP) to employ them in battle. It is very hard to take a MiG pilot and turn him or her into a Viper pilot! It is also hard to take Patriot missiles using US TTP’s and integrating them into a foreign air/missile defense environment.
MoA poster last night related to the 2003 incident where US Army Patriot battery around Kuwait engaged a flight of USAF F-16…. A supposition that the Ukraine loss was friendly fire from a Patriot controller who had no idea Ukraine fighters were around incoming cruise missiles! TTP! No proof of this yet.
Another possibility is RF fighter aircraft was within long range air to air missile range took out the F-16. TTP, who failed on the NATO side?
My theory with no knowledge of situation. If the F-16 had a Pratt and Whitney (GE engine not much better) engine it could have flamed out, the pilot failed to restart (TTP in emergency situations) and the US made ejection system also failed. Early F-16’s with P&W were prone to flame out and not restart….
The F-16 is a half-century-old weapons platform, literally.
The first ones were manufactured in 1974 and they were discontinued in 1993, whatever updates have been made over the decades.
So the pathetic hype about the difference six of the damned things would supposedly make is just one more pathetically delusional metric of how far the West has disappeared up its own backside
Michaelmas, Lol! I salute you!
My direct participation with F-16 was early 80’s we called them lawn darts. We bought too many, Reagan drowned USAF in money.
At the time the P&W engine was dangerous to pilots.
Over time USAF brought in GE engines, still spare engines are short supply.
If it were the Ukies that did it, can they claim the reward after Russia wins (or even before)?
It could be a Patriot’s crews ticket to Russia…
Re Harris interview. She defends Israel’s ‘right to defend itself’ citing the horrible rapes. They have since been proven to be baseless propaganda and lies by the Israeli side. On the other hand, the rape of Palestinians in Israeli custody has been shown to be demonstrably true in terms of hospital treatment for appalling anal injuries suffered by such prisoners. How can the interviewer not challenge her initial claim and not also her lack of concern for genuine rape victims who happen to be Palestinian. Typical US hypocricy and why the US is by no means an honest broker.
Dana Bash has family history and early education as far as reasons are concerned to support Israel-
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dana_Bash#Early_life_and_education
Working for CNN doesn’t help either.
Yves has done an essential preamble;–
In reverse order, it seems odd to focus on Palestinian violence when Israel, from its inception, has been engaged in a campaign of brutal ethnic cleansing and has a doctrine of disproportionate retaliation. Moreover, the occupied have a right under international law to resist occupation, including using violence (provided civilians are not targeted).
HERE:https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2024/08/satyajit-das-the-middle-easts-a-dance-of-death-part-3-spillover.html
https://indi.ca/the-hermeneutics-of-hamas/
The right of oppressed people to self-defence and liberation, including armed resistance. As UN Resolution 3314, article 7 states:
Nothing in this Definition, and in particular article 3, could in any way prejudice the right to self-determination, freedom and independence, as derived from the Charter, of peoples forcibly deprived of that right and referred to in the Declaration on Principles of International Law concerning Friendly Relations and Co-operation among States in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations, particularly peoples under colonial and racist régimes or other forms of alien domination; nor the right of these peoples to struggle to that end and to seek and receive support, in accordance with the principles of the Charter and in conformity with the above-mentioned Declaration.
This is a General Assembly (not Security Council) Resolution dating from 1974, and intended to provide political cover for African anti-colonialist movements, especially in Angola, Mozambique and Rhodesia. It is not binding and has no legal force. Its purpose was to provide political support for the assertions of the MPLA and similar movements that they were engaged in a legitimate armed struggle, and were not “terrorists” as the colonial regimes called them. These actions were, of course, in their own countries, against what was generally judged to be an occupying power. Applying the same political logic to the October 7 attacks is a bit of a stretch, to put it mildly.
That might have been the context, but the resolution is general in its enunciation, no? As such, the principle is general, and it would apply, no? Especially since is not “rules based order” type…
Is there anything that can be done at UN and internationally that would stop the present ethnic cleansing/genocide? Not really. So we grasp at these straws.
How long until most of us become “Palestinians”?
And I think we have already entered a world in which the General Assembly not only has a greater moral sway than the Security Council, it inclines less towards the “rules-based order” than the multipolar vision of BRICS and the SCO, the majority of whose members have little love for the United States, the UK and France, and a helluva lot less for Israel.
I’ve no doubt that Russia, if it desires, can pull the plug on the Ukraine before November and that it is already looking at the situation in Israel insofar as it affects Russian interests in Syria, it’s deepening alliance with Iran and it’s concern for the sensibilities of the Global South.
My primary concerns are, a) which countries, if any, will be prepared to take an influx of Galician Nazis and their political supporters, and Zionists and members of the IDF genocide machine, and b) whether or not they will be investigated and, if necessary, tried for war crimes and crimes against humanity?
I, for one, do not wish to have either foreign Nazis or Israeli Zionists and former IDF members living in the UK, and I certainly do not wish to support a single one of them in the luxury of a jail cell for life on my taxes.
Sadly, the Starmer government is only likely to bring back capital punishment for Brits who are believed to have committed thought crimes devised by the fantasy artists of the various woke inter-sectionalist factions allied to the most obsessive members of the Labour Party’s governing right wing whilst much more conventional native and foreign criminals are rewarded with a seat in the House of Lords.
CNN and other mainstream news-media must keep the Israeli narrative alive at all costs or how would universities manage to repress students who believe Israel is committing genocide. So they mention the Israeli propaganda memes dozens of times and maybe report reality every now and then which we should be thankful for.
Pondering the questions never asked by the fourth estate as I took water and feed out to the hens this morning:
“Lets get into the weeds: precisely how are you going to shore up and keep social security and medicare/caid programs solvent?”
In light of the US’ industrial emphasis on arms and warfare, precisely how do you envision paying for the “security state’, including the Military, and all of the three letter agencies known and unknown?”
“If deficits don’t matter (Dick Cheney), when will the Federal government display political will to help fund basic utilities in American’s daily lives: health care (not insurance), clean water, air, education, and sustainable reliable energy sources?”
“Have you considered a ten-year ‘moon shot’ program to take on the existential threat that is anthropogenic climate change, and asking for the backing of the American populace to make it happen?”
It is a short walk to the chicken coop.
Any of these questions will get you labeled as an Unserious Person, which shows how unserious our politics are.
You can’t let the survival of the country get in the way of defeating Trump threats to “our democracy “.
Because said interviewer is married to CIA operative.
Never put up on screen of course.
They’re divorced.
“Dutch government to ban ASML from servicing installed wafer tools in China”
My prediction? The Chinese will redouble their efforts to build their own advanced wafer fab equipment. And when they succeed, they will deliberately sell their equipment at cost if need be and drive ASML out of the market and into extinction.
I wonder whether there will be engineers from ASML (or Nikon, Carl Zeiss, Canon, etc) who will make a last career move by “defecting” to China with their know-how.
After all, there was a recent uproar about some shady corporations funneling experienced Western figher pilots as “trainers” to China. Before that, China had been busily poaching microelectronics engineers from Taiwan to bolster its own microprocessor development.
And frankly, with Intel going down the drain, European processor manufacturers completely outpaced, ASML bound to run into difficulties, and the grim general economic outlook in the EU and the USA, for an adventurous person (probably 55+ years old) with few attachments, “selling out”, getting compensations and perquisites that one can only dream of in the Western bloc, and a nice pension in some quiet place in China might be a tempting proposition (especially combined with a Chinese life partner).
I do not expect to see that many endeavouring such a momentous step, but I still think this could become a thing.
Imo ASML will be protected by sanctions, but the west/rest iron curtain will simply mean the west’s high cost economy will be separate from the rest’s low cost one. And cost comes down to labor hours, meaning west’s printing press will not affect west citizens having less stuff/lower standard of living, notwithstanding inequality.
Somebody posted china vs us gdp/capita rate of change that shows ‘catchup’ has been progressing for a long time.
Strange, I had the exact same thought the moment I saw this headline. It seems like the main outcome of sanctions is to force the target to find alternatives, frequently meaning they never return as a customer, and often developing new technological skills and new economic relationships. It’s very easy for the imposer of the sanctions to be the loser in the long term.
Russia has been one of the premier examples of this since the US started piling on sanctions a decade ago.
At most, sanctions should be used only in very specific cases and for very short times.
Regarding the Stanford “event” on the pandemic, Hiltzik hit that one out of the park! A must read. Will no one rid us of these meddlesome…
An Ngrams search for “and they did it to themselves” brings up this as the first instance of the phrase:
> Haldeman: Somebody will sail into ‘ em. Mining is a beautiful
thing, though, really, because that-you lay the mines down, and you
tell the people they’re there. If somebody sails into it, you didn’t do
anything to them, they did it to themselves.
Seems germane. With poetic overtones.
I can’t help but wonder what might be the motivations of the conference organizers and presenters.
The least implausible hypothesis I can come up with is that there is a desire to “double down” in order to avoid acknowledging the prior mistakes and their consequences.
It has been said that “science advances one funeral at a time.” I think that that isn’t true for the science of Public Health. That seems to require several orders of magnitude more deaths.
Maybe they should have invited back some Azov Nazis to add a bit of colour to that conference.
Black, Red, and White?
Q: “What is black and white and red all over?”
A: “A dead Azov wrapped in “die Flagge des Dritten Reiches.”
The Hoover Institute has already hosted Hitler apologist Jörg Baberowski.
Yeah, thank you for the recommendation. I read both the article and the article linked within from may 2023 about a crazy congressional hearing organized by the reps to “show” that the scientific research on the origin of SARS CoV 2 had been faulty and manipulated to hide the “ominous truth” of a lab leak. It is almost certain that still many, if not a majority, believe that crap. You know, that existential need to find someone to blame conducting to what might be considered one of the most idiotic congressional hearings evah.
But then we have this symposium organized by Stanford. Has this university any prestige left? Is it still high on those useless rankings? What was that quote attributed to Charles-Maurice the Talleyrand?
I agree in general, but the author went out of their way to screen anyone not associated with the Trump presidency from critique. That they only reference the former admin and R Congress critters was odd enough, but ending by saying that the symposium was of the fringe was a bridge too far. These people are not the fringe, they are the core at this point. It’s a maddening situation, but if you can’t see or say that, I have to wonder about the whole exercise.
Yes it seemed like he lets the Dems totally off the hook. He says in the piece that the zoonotic origin is “probable”. Which doesn’t mean certain…
Does it really matter whether or not a Corona virus tweaked in a lab escaped to cause the ongoing pandemics? Why is the u.s. playing with gain of function research? How well does such research serve medicine and how well does it serve the creation of biological weapons?
I believe Mark Z. Jacobson’s paeans to “100% Clean, Renewable Energy and Storage for Everything” offered a view into the nature of Stanford’s integrity. I view the Stanford “event” as similar in kind, though different in topic. Stanford appears ready to offer the imprimatur of its name to brand the best ‘science’ money can buy.
For a good history of Stanford up to the present, I highly recommend reading “Palo Alto” by Malcom Harris. The book makes many connections that I had not been aware of, and while a few of those connections may be a stretch, it’s mostly dead on.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/61108472-palo-alto
Thank you for the book reference. Perhaps we should only expect so much from schools like Stanford started with Robber Baron money.
I want these people to identify one example of natural herd immunity occurring in all of human history. Just one. If they’re right, history should abound with examples.
I remember (can’t remember where) the Spanish Flu being brought up as an example. Not a good precedent if that is true….
Given the carnage that strain of flu left in its wake (pun not intended), immunity doesn’t look to have played a part. I’m not an immunologist, so i could be wrong.
Re; China
Low-altitude economy
DJI is well-known, but Ehang is world-leader by far in passenger drones. Ehang is expanding quickly, not only in China, but throughout SEA, with embers burning in South America, MidEast, Europe, and even Canada as well.
Logistics drones– man, what a viscious battle!!! So many players! Even from Africa!
United Theraputics has/had many drones on pre-order for their organ-transplant/medical transport business, but I don’t know the status of this.
Ehang has partners in Thailand, but I am still waiting on info/locations. I was sent a link to this video from Thailand, but… mmmm… well, I don’t speak Thai, and I found it very difficult to pay attention to the aircraft… guys, you’ll see what I mean…
https://youtu.be/eRIz_RDE8dA?si=nOu-G4gP1RcZy0rK
Happy holiday!
I was about a third of the way through your video before I realized that she was standing next to a drone. And Happy Holidays yourself.
Yes, not sure which bird I’d rather fly on…
Oh, OK, that’s a lie.
Yeah, not the drone…
And not speaking Thai is no problem.
But I was just sent a link to a company investor relations announcement of the partnership between the Chinese and Thai companies, of help if one is in the area and wishes to do some on-the-ground reporting:
https://ir.ehang.com/news-releases/news-release-details/ehang-and-cp-group-form-strategic-partnership-introduce/
And the Chinese company does welcome visitors to their HQ.
Focused too much on the red, like a bull, eh Rev?!
Re LA Times–Michael Hiltzik stamps his little foot and demands suppression of Stanford meeting that disagrees with Biden admin Covid policies.They are chided for failing to advocate for strict protective measures against getting Covid–regardless of age–yet oddly no rebuke to all those people at the just finished Dem convention who weren’t wearing masks. Also, oddly, no mention of the fact that more USians died from Covid under Biden than laissez faire Trump.
Not that this mere commenter has answers about the controversy but one does wonder when Hiltzik became such a medical expert that he can declare negligent homicide by those who disagree. That said his talking point and that of Harris in new interview show 100 percent congruence. Maybe he’s hoping for an appointment.
Did you also catch the not all that subtle insinuation that the conference is somehow antisemitic?
“The date of the symposium, by the way, is the anniversary of the signing of the Great Barrington Declaration. It’s also Rosh Hashana, one of the High Holy Days of the Jewish calendar. Stanford says the “overlap” with the holiday is regrettable, but it hasn’t offered to reschedule.”
Absolutely zero reason to throw that into an article about public health and it certainly does not add to the credibility of this business writer reporting on a pandemic.
Yes a gratuitous aside unless what you say.
And I do somewhat resent people including politicians giving us lectures on “science” when anyone who truly cares about science would oppose politicizing it. Science is about keeping an open mind, not censorship and doctrine.
I didn’t catch it but to tell the truth I would consider the Stanford event antisemitic, anti-american and anti-humans in general frankly if half of what Hiltzik says is true. Advocacy of herd immunity in 2024. Indeed they seem to consider all of us as nothing but a herd.
I think it’s quite likely some of the participants at this conference have been wrong about certain aspects of the pandemic. I’m not sure they are advocating for ‘herd immunity’ in 2024 – Hiltzik seems to be referring to the original paper from early in the pandemic. I really don’t know if they’ve refined their position on that or not (if they haven’t, clearly they should have).
Meanwhile, St. Fauci, to give just one example, has been caught flip flopping on one aspect of the pandemic after another, to the point that his own NIH had to admit he wasn’t telling the truth. Yet he is somehow still held in high esteem by the same people who demonize these conference participants.
I’m also 100% sure that the Pfizer-adjacent vaccine humpers have also been wrong about certain aspects of the pandemic. I don’t think I need to pull up links of Biden saying the vaccines will stop covid or others talking about the ‘pandemic of the unvaccinated’ for the NC crowd.
The general tone of the article is what I object to – it’s just the same perfunctory dismissal of everyone who doesn’t toe the Democrat party line about “following the science” I’ve seen for years now. I don’t pretend to know the answers for any of this. Neither should the likes of Hiltzik, considering that it’s still running rampant in the US almost five years later.
“Follow the science” —at least the “science” produced by “approved scientists” — was a key element of the Heritage Foundation’s blueprint for perverting regulatory agency operations to track with the Chamber of Commerce/Powell Memorandum plan for libertarian ‘Murica. The famous Mandate for Leadership, circa 1978. The Reaganauts even had the Green Book from HF (with substantial input from the likes of Dow, Chevron, etc.) identifying both “good” and “bad” scientists, only the former to provide “scientific” cover for decisions to regulate, limits to regulation, or just not regulate. The death of the Precautionary Principle has been as painful and prolonged as a nasty, slow Alzheimer’s.
This sh!tstorm has been in the works for generations. Too bad the malefactors with the manipulative skill sets are all attracted to the Dark Sude, leaving only mopes to try to kumbahyah their way out from in front of the steam roller.
One might be excused in thinking that the forking species has a death wish. Maybe it’s the brain parasites, like toxoplasmosis…
All of hiltziks crappy lying article typical of the unreadable LA times. The champions of Democrat Nazis and the LAPD.
I knew what I was getting into but chose to look at it anyway for a sad laugh……
When I last viewed a dead tree version of the LA Times, it was 28 pages long and looked to have been systematically starved in a concentration camp for many years…
The Big Nickel-a throwaway newspaper given away free, has more content than the LAT.
> Re LA Times–Michael Hiltzik stamps his little foot and demands suppression of Stanford meeting that disagrees with Biden admin Covid policies.
I would never deny the eugencist scum who wrote the Great Barrington Declaration their right to speak freely.
That does not mean, however, that a putatively reputable academic institution is obligated to put on a conference for them.
Stanford hosts the very definitely rightwing Hoover Institution where Condi Rice ended up. But then maybe Hiltzik approves of Rice since he has such a broad brush of opinion spinning. Turley says overwhelmingly Dem oriented academia should stop insisting on shutting up their ideological opponents. I agree.
So if you think herd immunity is a rightwing talking point then Stanford would be the place to host it.
But we are in a lot more danger from the misinformation police than from Stanford IMO. And here’s suggesting mushroom cloud Condi is worse than any of those medical figures and has a much more direct connection to mass slaughter or, if you will, eugenics. Paging the LAT.
Just a reminder that Stanford is also a big part of the misinformation police – https://cyber.fsi.stanford.edu/io/news/election-integrity-partnership-releases-final-report-mis-and-disinformation-2020-us-election
They are quite busy these days, although not so much with actual academics.
All this makes my head spin – one more headscratcher is that Stanford football will start its first season in the Atlantic Coast Conference this year. All I can say for sure about Stanford these days is I wouldn’t send my kid there.
Malcolm Harris’ “Palo Alto” shows Stanford to the grift that just keeps on giving!
It’s a eugenicist breeding program all the way down that’s very nearly perfected the manufacture of psychopathic, predatory elites.
For these, any break on exploitation is necessarily communism, which is somehow a bad thing in a super-social animal. I suppose because it distinguishes between the predators and prey.
Which was my point above. Jay Bhattacharya has an MD from Stanford. Impressive. He went straight from medical school to a PhD in economics, also from the home of the the Hoover Institution on War, Revolution, and Peace (War: Yay! Revolution: Nay! Peace: Not Good for Business!). No internship, no residency, no qualification to be a doctor, i.e., physician. In most states if he publicly implies he is a doctor as commonly understood he will be breaking the law. The Great Barrington Declaration was a put-up job from the start from a think tank three inches deep and as predictable as sunrise. Bhattacharya and his people have every right to say what they want. And Stanford has every right to host him. That doesn’t mean anyone must take him seriously.
When I look for info about eugenics in the US or the West, most articles are historical, implying eugenics has been and gone.
However, the NEJM has a recent article stating that “Attitudes that were similar, and in some cases
identical, to those embraced by the eugenists are still very much a part of life in the United States
today” https://www.nejm.org/doi/pdf/10.1056/NEJMp2307346
I think it is quite possible that eugenics has surfaced and will be one of the dominant ideologies in western countries in the future. But “eugenics” is now a pejorative term.
So I wonder what term the new eugenicists are/will be known under. “Realists?” or “environmentalists” or ? . Whatever it is, it will be clothed in a strong moral imperative to save the economy or the country or the planet. Eugenicists will paint themselves once again as society saviours imo.
The Supremes
The Supreme Court’s Presidential Immunity Decision Says What??? (PDF) *********** Assassination for thee but not for me. Every Supreme Court Justice involved in rulings on this topic resulting from Obama’s use of this, should be slapped with rotting dead fish. What happened to “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” that makes it so hard to understand?
Answer, mostly Joe Biden.
>Ukraine’s daring offensive intensifies pressure on US to ease cautious approach to the war AP
This war is going to end exactly how Western policymakers decide it will end,’’ said Philip Breedlove, a retired U.S. general
This is almost verbatim what Scott Ritter and others are saying if you substitute “Western” with Russian. It seems that the West is really itching for an escalation. We have psychopaths in charge. I guess I should just stop worrying and learn to live with a world at constant war.
>We have psychopaths in charge. I guess I should just stop worrying and learn to live with a world at constant war.
I think George Carlin addressed this years ago. NSFW I sure wish he was around to offer his opinions today.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=77dDZOwt20E&pp=ygUUZ2VvcmdlIGNhcmxpbiBvbiB3YXI%3D
The way I look at it is like this. Russia is fighting for its sovereignty (which from its perspective is tantamount to an existential battle.) The U.S. is fighting to maintain its hegemony.
A rough analogy* is that Russia is trying to retain its house, while America is defending its “right” to access your backyard and instruct you what to do inside the property. This puts Russia, to my mind, in the right.
The problem lies in the fact that these competing objectives are mutually incompatible. One or the other would have to give. Russia can’t; the U.S. won’t. If there were any hope of inspired, pragmatic, reasonable foreign policy leadership in the U.S. on the horizon this might change, but I see absolutely no sign of that. This seems to mean that at best we get deadlock, and at worst…
* Forgive me if someone has used this analogy in the past — I very may well have read it here.
Well Hamstak, I think you are right……the big kaboom is coming, not much we can do about it. There is at present no hope. So we might as well get under our desk and cover our head with our hands. I say this as it is the only thing left to us now.
Well, that is a tad pessimistic (and I figure it may also be a tad sarcastic.) I did offer deadlock (in essence, a new — or perhaps edified — Cold War) as a possibility, and perhaps the more likely possibility depending on the self-preservation instincts of the so-called decision-makers (and not just the formal ones.)
If you see a different, realistic, more optimistic possibility, one that does not rely upon miracles such as “spontaneous democracy” in the U.S., I am all ears.
Or perhaps you see the situation itself differently? Again, please elaborate if you do.
The big kaboom isn’t coming in the way you think. Ukraine/NATO have already proven that there are no red lines as far as Russia is concerned. A direct strike on Red Square will not elicit a nuclear response from Russia. Zelensky knows this and that is why he is pushing for more advanced weapons and permission to use them against targets deep inside Russia.
I don’t think trump is as willing to risk ww3 to the extent the warmongering dems are. He did back away from war with Iran, he tried to get out of afghan, he even tried to ease the situation with NK. Certainly he will continue doing what israel wants, but maybe excluding Iran. Granted I’m an often wrong eternal optimist.
Trump helped make war with Iran more likely when he aborted the Diplomacy Option by cancelling the JCPOA ( purely out of spite against Obama for having achieved it to begin with).
I’m guessing that the Swedish Foreign Minister is OK with that. Here he is being interviewed by the Financial Times…Ukraine’s Kursk invasion ‘devastating’ for Putin, says Sweden… While the Russkys can’t run fast enough to Dnipro, apparently it’s all about the “narrative”. I wonder how the “narrative” will change after Sunday in Saxony and Thuringia.
Re; China, Thailand, low-sltitude economy
We’re excited to have had Mr. Thanakorn Seriburi, Senior Vice Chairman of Charoen Pokphand Group
@CPGroup_Live
, join us in Guangzhou today for an autonomous ride on the EH216-S, experiencing firsthand the thrill of aerial sightseeing. And he had an amazing time: “Stable and fantastic flight!”
https://x.com/ehang/status/1763584127520092416
Thanks for that link as it was very good. When I was a kid, this is kinda what I thought the future would look like. Never thought that the Chinese would be doing it first but when I was that kid, Mao was still running the show.
It all looks great till some live thing makes contact with those unshrouded rotors.
Poof of pink mist, red striped across the door, and if it was bony enough an unbalanced flight there after.
My one trip to China I was struck by the lack of birds, so maybe that helps. In the other hand, emergency landing in densely populated areas will be just as colorful!
Most aircraft have unshrouded rotors– it’s an air-flow thing. And if one motor gets taken-out by a bird, that aircraft still has 15 motors remaining. Also, if a person is stupid enough to walk into a spinning prop, our species is all the stronger for it.
That “lack of birds” in China is because the birds are all communist secret agents who are away on a special mission to bring flu to Capitalist America.
C’mon, man. Everybody knows that Birds Aren’t Real-
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birds_Aren%27t_Real
Birds are dinosaurs. Dinosaurs are extinct.
Makes perfect sense. If only Helen Keller had been able to speak and write, she would have told us so!
So what is your opinion of Lambert, who posts a “bird” song every day?
You’ll notice how regulated the air and ground space is around all those exposed rotors too.
And of course AI can control all this until some living thing not in on the digital circuit interferes and meats up the works.
If China can make “self driving cars and buses” work by walling off their lanes, I suppose tubes of air space can be imagined to avoid digital glitches from getting sloppy.
It is really cool! Just trying to imagine the implications of scaling.
jsn: If China can make “self driving cars and buses” work by walling off their lanes….
It’s all good till those tens of millions of AIs in all those networked self-driving vehicles wake up and become Skynet .
With multiple rotors at shin or knee level for an adult? Sorry, no way. The first time a toddler or 5 year old gets decapitated or cut in half, some kind of shroud will be mandated. This is a type of craft that’ll be taking off and landing near crowds of unpredictable people.
Ummm, no.
Access to and from these aircraft is regulated and controlled the same as any flight line– the idea of a toddler walking up to be chopped to bits is absurd.
Second, one thing this aircraft is not short of is sensors– a massive redundancy of sensors of varying type. And you’ve heard of electronic fencing, used by industry for decades now, right? The motors will not start or will shut down (while not airborne) if anything or anyone enters the saftey-zone around the aircraft, all but instantly, as the motors are electric.
You have to be joking at this point. Clearly you don’t have knowledge of vehicle, transport or industrial safety standards or have kids from any age between toddlers to college. I can’t even imagine the type of scenario you have in mind that would prevent any kid or unpredictable human behavior from interacting with those blades.
How quickly can a motor DC shut down? I’ll grant that a DC battery powered one could probably be set up to immediately stop, but this is pure fantasy about sensors and “electronic fencing” when we’re talking about cheap aerial passenger drones available to the masses and operating on an Uber-like schedule in a non-regulated area on an as-needed/app-based schedule. Let’s assume “state-of-the-art” software, like Tesla. LOL. In an environment like a bunch of drunk or semi-drunk and/or excited persons in a crowd after a sporting event or concert. You’d need literal human security or a super specialized cordon to funnel people between the rotors.
I really don’t think you’re in touch with real human behavior. But if you’re Naked Capitalism’s “I’m always right and will argue incessantly about it” then have your final say. But nothing you’ve proffered is a solution to the real problem.
The much shorter reply than the one I just wrote is that I think you’re severely underestimating or misunderstanding the ‘use case’ for these cheap aerial 2-4 passenger drones. Nobody and no municipality is going to immediately set up mini droneports for an Uber like aerial taxi service such as what the video suggests is the most likely next step for such technology. Perhaps you’re already in “BladeRunner” territory, and if so, then I’d be happy to entertain the situations that might entail. Or maybe even we’re talking about upper middle class access to the tech/transport where it’s possible to be a little sloppy on the human side (not the “electronic fence” or sensor elements). But this isn’t like a single/twin engine Cessna or Piper with severely restricted access to the business end of the propellers in that context. The planned use is not limited to private airfields or sectioned off areas of public/commercial ones. The idea being discussed – in the mid to long term – is this type of “drone” transport being readily available for actual people on an in-demand (so much as it is affordable when implemented) basis.
Yes, “shrouds” will be required.
Piper/Cessna requires an airstrip. Aérospatiale Gazelle only needs a small patch of empty land (or a platform on top of a building). It even has shrouded tail rotor for added safety. The only thing needed for great commercial success is for Musk to reinvent it and rename it to hypercopter or something as catchy (and put in an auto-pilot, bloatware, spyware, flame thrower, and monthly subscription).
Teslacopter. Xcopter. Or whatever.
EM will name it the “Coptafeeler”
We all know this man is 14 years old.
https://english.news.cn/20240116/917c6b3c1c394525814d701daffc64dd/c.html
January 16, 2024
Chinese university tackles rotor failure in drones with algorithm
BEIJING — For a drone with four propellers, also known as a quadcopter, the failure of one motor is a big problem. With only three rotors working, the drone loses stability and inevitably crashes unless an emergency control strategy sets in.
Researchers at Beihang University, specializing in aeronautical and astronautical research, have now found a solution to this problem: They designed an algorithm to stabilize the drone and keep it flying autonomously after one, two or even three rotors suddenly give out…
If you think those algos are cool, check these out:
Research, Analysis, and Improvement of Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Path Planning Algorithms in Urban Ultra-Low Altitude Airspace
https://www.mdpi.com/2226-4310/11/9/704
Once again, China leads the way in this research.
If you think those algos are cool, check these out…
[ I have been thoroughly impressed, coming initially to the use of drones for rural-agricultural tasks. But urban applications are rapidly expanding, and I am paying attention. The interest you have is impressive. ]
Unshrouded rotors are not an air-flow thing, but an engineering thing. Shrouded ones have better flow (because the air can not escape to the sides), but you can’t put a shroud around big diameter rotor and expect it not to fall apart. Regular helicopters had the safety part solved right from the start, by putting rotor(s) higher than people are.
Everyone falling for this hype, and defending inherently unsafe design, should take a daily walk around knee chopper as a proof of being smart.
Unshrouded rotors are not an air-flow thing, but an engineering thing
Wrong:
Ducted fans have been widely used in unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) for various operations due to the high efficiency, low noise and high safety. Proximity effects caused by the confined environment, including the ceiling effect (CE), bring significant interference to the aerodynamic performance of ducted fans, which serves as a main challenge to stability.
Due to high maneuverability and strong adaptability, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) with vertical take-off and landing functions have been extensively used for civil and military applications
Ducted fans as potential thrustors of UAVs have received widespread attention. Compared with propeller propulsion, ducted fans can generate additional thrust while reducing runtime noise with the help of the duct. Above characteristics ensure that the ducted fan propulsion system has larger thrust at the same size or a more compact structure at the same thrust, which is suitable for the UAV application scenarios, especially narrow terrain operations. When the ducted-fan drones carry out emergency tasks in narrow zones, such as the Search and Rescue in the event of a disaster the complex and changeable environment will cause aerodynamic interference to the ducted fan. In case that the disturbance is strong enough and develops over time, the stability of the ducted fan decreases sharply, and thrust fluctuation or even loss of control may occur.
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/19942060.2023.2196327#d1e228
You obviously haven’t a clue what you are talking about.
Yea, I obviously haven’t a clue what I am talking about. You should buy yourself a knee chopper.
It only costs $300k and will fit in the garage, so yeah– maybe.
Yes, LawnDart has been and is explaining precisely what is happening in the use of low altitude airspace. * I am following the writing, and am quite grateful for the help afforded.
* China now has 3.92 million 5G base stations and 927 million 5G mobile users, along with BeiDou satellite 3.6 meter comprehensive positioning.
A few years ago, US Congress’s arch enemy company, Huawei, was tasked by the CPC to provide 5/6G coverage to an altitude of 3k meters, for low-altitude aerospace management purposes.
China is attempting to automate away the air-traffic control (and piloting) to eliminate the human-error factor, although these systems still have “manual over-ride” where a human can take control if wierdness happens.
China’s airspace is still fairly virgin and far from fully utilized. The CPC has written use of this airspace and support of the industry that will serve it into its 5-year plans, meaning that this is a national priority.
Will mass-marinating in all this 5G electro-wavelength radiation lead to bad health or higher deathrates among the Chinese population? In 50 years we will know.
I wish 5G had been utterly banned in America. Not just ” Huawei”. All of it.
Typical greening in China:
https://news.cgtn.com/news/2022-11-15/Small-micro-wetlands-become-part-of-Wuhan-s-ecological-infrastructure-1eYNSor6cKI/index.html
November 16, 2022
Small, micro wetlands become part of Wuhan’s ecological infrastructure
Small and micro wetlands have become an important part of Wuhan’s ecological infrastructure, contributing significantly to its urban liveability.
Wuhan in central China’s Hubei Province, the co-host city of the just-concluded 14th Meeting of the Conference of the Contracting Parties to the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands (COP14), is known as the “city of rivers and lakes” and “city of wetlands.”
The city’s 63,500 hectares of small and micro wetlands account for 7.41 percent of its total area.
Wuhan currently boasts 23 such wetlands and the number is expected to reach 32 by the end of this year.
The Xibei Lake Wetland in Wuhan’s Hanjiang District epitomizes the city’s efforts in small and micro wetland conservation and restoration.
Covering only one hectare, the wetland has been transformed from a narrow catchment ditch to an underwater forest in three years…
Thank you!
Wish we could turn some of those empty shopping malls and parking lots around Houston into something useful and lovely like wetlands, parks.
Too little, too late.
A dead end that will amount to nothing as larger issues take hold over the coming decades.
Now if this had come into existence abut 40 years ago…
How much more skycarbon will all this low-altitude economy emit?
Skycarbon credits will be automatically deducted from personal skycarbon credit accounts (not to be confused with regular carbon credits, nor methane credits), which will boost the economy.
Oh, well then. So the Chinese low altitude economy will be greenogenic, then.
“Can Tech Executives Be Held Responsible for What Happens on Their Platforms?’
Wake me up when people like Mark Zuckerburg or Elon Musk are arrested for some of the stuff that goes on in their sites. Still, if I were them I would avoid any travel plans to the EU and especially France. They are playing fast and loose with their laws these days.
Etiquette and norms around international law are shifting/disappearing as we lurch towards western feudalism. One wonders how long before the scion of said executives will be required to “vacation” at Fort Brégançon
an aside: Kim Dotcom suggests boycotting Fr (travel, tourism) and Fr products as a response to Durev’s arrest.
Zuck is unlikely, he will play ball before it comes to that, but a lawfare operation someday being aimed at Musk seems plausible. Wouldn’t surprise me if it were in the USA either. The self-proclaimed defenders of liberal democracy are becoming bolder in their disregard for civil liberties and due process. I don’t think the Democrats are above post-election score settling at this stage of the game, but I hope I’m wrong about that.
Introducing Independence -Trump Commercial produced by RFK jr. Team
Not voting for Republican or Democrat, but from an advertising appreciation standpoint, you have to love this commercial that riffs on Pharma and TDS.
https://x.com/iAnonPatriot/status/1829298981224251724
Tean Trump is starting to re-find its messaging foothold. A start, but it has a long way to go.
He needs to drop the “commie” rhetoric which they use in that commercial and I see it mentioned in links today too.
Yes! I realize it’s just vacuous political rhetoric, but to refer to Harris and other Democrat corporate shills as “communist” signals complete dishonesty or complete ignorance. It’s the same as referring to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as “unprovoked.” When I hear such bunk I just assume that whatever else is said is just a steaming pile. But I suppose the target is low-info – or no-info – voters of a certain persuasion. I would hope the Kennedy folks are a little above that, but…
I think the – commie thingy – is just utilizing a well worn trigger word after decades of using it to both indoctrinate/groom its target audience. It just implies ev’bal government in peoples lives, by those that utter it, automatically granting pro liberties and freedoms status by it.
Absolutely no need to articulate how it is applicable or how when this political party comes into power it then is the government and making choices about peoples lives.
Its like seeing Elon on X call Brazil a Dictatorship run by Lula and Justice Moraes for acting like a Sovereign Nation. Because the have the audacity to regulate social media in their own best interests. Yet Elon has no dramas suggesting a coup to remove a elected government to advance his own business interests.
In ending it is my experience that those that deploy such terms to actually be the most Authoritarian in advancing their world views on others when in power.
Some of those who are not triggered by the – commie thing – are triggered by the sort of people who are triggered by the – commie thing. It would be ironic if Trump’s invocation of ” Commie” Kamala ends up inspiring more people to vote for Kamala out of revulsion for use of the ” Commie thing” and revulsion for those people who believe it and hope to persecute others based on their belief in it.
I watched that a little bit ago – hilarious and well done.
On a related note, while I am not a fan of Musk or any squillionaire oligarchs, this is some hilarious trolling, and once again the TDS sufferers in the reddit comments section clearly didn’t get the joke –
https://www.reddit.com/r/technology/comments/1f48fb9/x_is_labeling_an_unflattering_npr_story_about/
This is perfect and clearly aimed at the professional class which is the backbone of the Democratic Party (as per Thomas Frank’s analysis). There are so many people out there suffering (literally) from TDS and have lost their reasoning faculties. Those who are, like me, of the Boomer generation laughed at Soviet propaganda organs actually take the US MSM seriously even though it functions pretty close to exactly like the Soviet media which, BTW, I did read.
I noticed the mask prominently used in the commercial as they were speaking the line “then independence might be right for you”. Sadly it was only a baggy yellow
>Dollar General warns poorer US consumers are running out of money FT
The growth came entirely from consumables such as food, rather than from more discretionary items such as apparel and seasonal and home goods…core customers, earning less than $35,000 a year…”.
I’m sure the fresh produce, seafood and meat section was top notch. This country’s elites tr-eats the working poor as “consumables.”
This is my town. Median family income under $40K. 17% of those under 18 are below the poverty line. We have a Dollar General and a Stewarts. Between them you might be able to purchase a banana. Otherwise, they do not sell produce. Or meat, except in the prepared/frozen department.
The DG here is a study of understaffed chaos. The aisles are often a jumble of boxes waiting to be unpacked, the line at the register takes forever, the self checkout is out of order. IMO the only reason people shop there is it’s a drive to shop somewhere better.
Setting up shop in towns too small to rate a wal mart was DG’s whole MO and made them what they are, but I think they have hit the limits of that strategy when it comes to growth
And where their stores have to compete in markets with a Walmart:
https://www.fool.com/the-ascent/personal-finance/articles/dollar-general-vs-walmart-how-the-stores-stack-up-price-wise/
And also Walmart reported that they are attracting higher income groups these days.
A ” higher income” isn’t worth what it used to be, what with all this inflation and greedflation and all.
If ” higher income” is the new ” lower income”, those “higher income” people may be getting forced to shop at Walmart.
Their core customer is holding off on buying housewares because they are strapped.
I think the ‘growth in consumables (food)’ is not from the ‘core’, but from a lot of Americans having to switch their buying patterns to deal with inflation. The routine now is not to charge into the supermarket with a big list, but to stop at the dollar stores first to see what can be found at a better price; the cookies for $2.50 rather than $5.50, frozen veg at $1.50 not $4.00.
Then go deal with a supermarket for fresh food. Where their idea of ‘saving you money’ is forcing you to buy 2, 3, 4, or 5 of something.
People don’t like the idea of dollar stores proliferating, especially where there was already a functioning local market, but they are an important tool for many people to keep food in the house.
If you are shopping at Dollar General, check your reciept. Then get out fast before shooting breaks out.
I have shopped at dollar stores for food many times. Often I have had less than $5 to my name and this consisted of quarters, dimes, nickels, pennies and maybe a couple of dollar bills on a good day. No, I did not buy fresh produce, meat or dairy. I bought canned goods like soup. I could get three meals out of a can of soup if I added water to it. Canned fruit and vegetables were usually available but didn’t provide much protein. Sometimes the stores had peanut butter and that would go a long way.
I heard about RFK Jr’s idea about giving people three organic meals a day for free. In theory, this sounds good. But I wonder how it would work in practice. Would these be prepared meals? How would they be delivered or would people have to go somewhere to pick them up? How would people without cars get to these places? Would they have to take 4 buses there and back? How would they pay bus fare? How would they keep the food fresh waiting in hot weather for the buses? How would they find the hours in the day all this would require?
If the food was not already prepared, how would they fix it? Would they be taught how to make ‘proper meals’ using ingredients they may be unfamiliar with? Would they be given pots, pans and other necessary utensils to prepare the food, items which many poor people lack and cannot afford? What if they have no place to store the food or counter space to fix it? What if they have no stove or microwave? Would all of these things be provided along with the free organic food? Would RFK Jr’s chef and other household staff be available to help out? This reminds me of First Lady Food Scold Michelle Obama’s ‘poor kids need to grow their own food in their nonexistent gardens’ hogwash.
Poor shaming really bothers me no matter who is doing it. These types of ideas come from people who have no idea what it is like to be poor. With all due respect, they need to *family blog* themselves.
Really? Someone comes up with the idea to give the American people free food that’s healthy for them and this is what your response is? It’s poor shaming? I think that free healthy food is an unassailable good. I honestly don’t know where you’re coming from. You don’t have to cook an apple you know. Or peanut butter. There’s a lot of possibilities that seem like they could really help.
I’m coming from poverty, that’s where I’m coming from. Many difficulties in the lives of poor people revolve around things others take for granted. Things like having transportation to get food, even if it is free, like at a food bank. Did you even read my comment? I said that RFK Jr’s idea sounded good in theory but how would it work in practice? You didn’t address that. When others dismiss the real life experiences of the poor, it is poor shaming.
“I’m coming from poverty, that’s where I’m coming from. Many difficulties in the lives of poor people revolve around things others take for granted…”
Elegantly simple and ever so important.
Good to hear your voice, Lena. It’s true that most of us don’t know what it’s like to be poor. It’s hard.
Agree with CA, and your entire comments Lena.
Though I do appreciate that at least the subject is being brought up.
Well off people are brought prepared food by Door Dash. I haven’t used it, but apparently it works. We really could have the equivalent for everyone who needed it, if that were the economic priority of the country. If we weren’t spending grotesque amounts of money on wars and McMansions. It’s very hard to imagine the priorities changing, but if they did it wouldn’t be all that difficult or costly to deliver food to people who needed that service.
I think what Lena is pointing out is that there are a ton of barriers to eating healthier food than just getting your hands on the food. Other than what I think of as elementary-school brown-bag foods, most meals require tools to prepare and eat and cold food for every meal is unappetizing, particularly in sub-zero weather. Without further details, it does sound as if the proposal is literally assuming can openers. This was one of the chief criticisms of the Food Stamp Challenge a few years back – it’s very easy to eat cheap, healthy food if you already have a kitchen and potable, running water and much harder to do so if you don’t. Leanne Brown makes a note of this in Good and Cheap when she says that cooking without a kitchen is beyond the scope of the book. It would be great to know how RFK Jr. would implement the program so that the unhoused and insecurely housed could benefit.
One partial solution: The school lunch program, which I think was effectively free for everyone during the Pandemic until liberal Democrats, in their wisdom, let it expire.
Biden signs law to help feed kids, but free school meals for all are going away
And Democrats couldn’t even deliver on that.
In any case, schools would be one place to accomplish part of this, but it’s a large country, so it would take a truly determined effort to achieve the goal of feeding everyone, everyday, any kind of food, to say nothing of healthy food.
For me it was cans of “seasoned” pinto beans, tortillas (they used to have reasonably good tortillas) and a jar of jalapeño slices.
“I have shopped at dollar stores for food many times. Often I have had less than $5 to my name and this consisted of quarters, dimes, nickels, pennies and maybe a couple of dollar bills on a good day. No, I did not buy fresh produce, meat or dairy. I bought canned goods like soup. I could get three meals out of a can of soup if I added water to it. Canned fruit and vegetables were usually available but didn’t provide much protein. Sometimes the stores had peanut butter and that would go a long way…”
Really, really important comment. I am grateful.
I don’t think he’s poor shaming. I think he’s flagging an issue — a literal life-and-death problem — that’s been swept under the proverbial rug by both parties.
The difficulties you mention are valid, but can’t be addressed in a short presentation. He seems committed to solving the problem, which would include the things you’re talking about. Give him a chance: he’s the only one talking about this. If you don’t, all you get is the status quo.
When you get a Dollar General, a payroll cashing shylock, a pawn shop and a rent-to-own store in your town, the place has pretty much gone to hell.
DG opened so many stores in questionable areas, now they’re wondering why the locals have no money.
Don’t forget the Auto Title Loan Emporium Wuk! {For the terminally hip, include a Vape Shop.} As a sign and a portent of True Deplorarity, a Tatoo Parlour.
Stay safe up there on Mount Xanadu! (Hope the fires are giving you a pass.)
Its counterintuitive to escape the 5,000+ acre Coffee Pot fire and horrific smoke by going to Burning Man, where there is virtually no smoke to speak of…
There is now about 1,500 firefighters on the line with 0% containment, and yet no risk to buildings or people-just in wicked terra firm to fight it.
Pretty laughable coming from dollar general a company that has exploited the poor for years, so it can run N Carolina and his daughter can buy millions in horses in kentucky. For her breeding operation.
‘Appliance and Tractor Companies Lobby Against Giving the Military the Right to Repair’
Made my day! :)
That our congress can’t get legislation passed that would allow our military to be prepared indicates the monopolistic power over the branches of government.
Maybe, the answer to how it happened is this right to repair- “First F-16 downed in Ukraine, but confusion over how it happened BNE Intellinews. So MIC contractors are required to participate in the Ukrain?
Super patriotic of them.
In some ways, as I understand it, it’s already par for the course for a lot of military gear. Fighter jets, for instance, are maintained and reparied to a large degree by techs from the defense contractors, not by military personnel, I believe (military folks, correct me if I’m wrong about the extent.) I think the point came up multiple times that this is exactly how you get a military that can’t fight a real war: civilian techs can’t be expected to do their job under serious fire, which a real war would invariably involve.
Yes, this appears to be the Neo-Lib-Con long term strategy for peace.
What is good for John Deere is good for the US?!
It sounds like the big push for “mandatory warranties” back in my day. Sure you can buy it, and the contractor looks at it as another profit center. Not a contracting officer, but in general we had DFARS Rights in Technical Data clause. But with the push for COTS (commercial off the shelf) contractors don’t see DoD as big enough market to have special data rights.
This is just Warren milking her pet issue.
I have experience as the In Service Engineer Agent for some acquisition programs. A big part of the acquisition is the Integrated Logistics Support Plan (ILSP). Logistics engineers may not do as good a job as theoretically possible, but it’s not like they are unaware of the issues.
“Right to repair” has been a problem for US military for many years.
Military members needed specific technical data, in proper depth, and formatted for the expect education level of the soldiers doing the repair or overhaul.
Getting this requires maintenance task charts and engineering for repairs processes, tool, testers, etc.
Since the 1960’s cost overruns have denied resources to achieve military repair, in response we see a lot of support done by contractors.
A problem bc contractors then need to deploy! What happens when the contractor compete with troops for body bags, and air transport coffins?
The past few decades, military repair tech is harder to get because the vendors apply independent R&D and claim data right compensation before charging for engineering repair procedures.
>Can the Brain Help Heal a Broken Heart? The Scientist
Improvements in the scientific understanding of the ways in which the brain can influence peripheral systems could also inform new therapeutic possibilities.
I think the more important question is can the “heart” help heal the “brain.” I’m specifically thinking about the work of Iain McGilchrist and his book The Master and His Emissary
This has all been well-established in decades of research official science (which gets most of its funding from you know who) tends to ignore.
Regarding “Can the Brain Help Heal a Broken Heart?”
IMH(well researched)O, the mental/immune link arises from the same source; Purines.
Purine and purinergic receptors in health and disease
Purinergic System Dysfunction in Mood Disorders: A Key Target for Developing Improved Therapeutics
Once you look at Purines, you will not stop seeing them. And who knows, maybe the fact that we add these purines to food might be part of the problem…
My God. I will give all this info to someone I know who struggles with purine metabolic issues (gout), obsessive compulsive disorder, and depression.
Thank you. I scanned the articles, and I think this will change his life.
Ana in Sacramento
>Why Telegram CEO Pavel Durov stands apart from other tech executives- Fortune
In the U.S., social media companies have also shown themselves to be somewhat responsive to government inquiry, testifying before Congress in January…Those companies all behaved above board, meaning their CEOs were safe from any criminal proceedings, according to Walter.
Doesn’t take much to read between the lines, “somewhat responsive,” is that what Zuckerburg did when he recently admitted to censoring certain news stories on the behest of Biden administration? Oh, and I’m sure that everything is absolutely “above board” with Facebook, Twitter, and YTube…, these people can’t even convincingly lie.
Zag o Nostra, I a salute you! Once again you nailed it. Saving me a lot of angry typing. But let’s not forget those demo-rats in Congress shredding the constitution on TV. I couldn’t get over how brazen these lying sacks were!
re: France’s political danger.
Citizens in many Western countries seem determined to “throw the (current)) bums out.” UK – Tories out. Fr – Macron’s party mostly out. Germany – things aren’t looking good for Scholz. US – / ;).
The Build Back Better leaders are acting awfully nervous, petulant, even outraged, imo, not helping their case for office. Macron is maybe the most undemocratic.
Well, in the UK both major parties are pretty much exactly the same except Labour is racing to be more right-wing than the Tories, and succeeding so far. As for France and the rest of NATOSTAN, well just have to see. The question is, will the Euro vassals ignore democracy to preserve democracy? We are moving into an Orwellian-style situation–you know the boot thing.
sort of related, here’s Mike Benz to Tucker Carlson explaining the way the blob works to prevent people from talking about disfavored political ideas and voting against the blob institutions in free and open information market.
https://x.com/LibertyLockPod/status/1828990322447175757
I wonder if Macron got a call from US State Dept asking him to deny a left party prime minister appointment?
Thanks. Good link.
I don’t think you would need to ask him to do what comes naturally.
I don’t know Flora, but the democrats may be even worse than Macron. His wife dresses better than Kamala and her polyester pants suits.
“Is the US Trying to Pick a Fight With Hezbollah?”
‘In this regard, the Administration is also committed to facilitating a diplomatic resolution to the ongoing hostilities along the Israel-Lebanon border that would ensure the return of both Israeli and Lebanese families to their homes.’
And by coincidence in today’s news-
‘”Our mission on the northern front is clear – to ensure the safe return of northern communities to their homes. In order to achieve this goal, we must expand the goals of the war, and include the safe return of Israel’s northern residents to their homes,” said Defense Minister Yoav’
https://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2024-08-29/returning-residents-to-north-israel-must-be-a-war-goal-defense-minister-says
And how do you enable those northern communities to return to their homes? By going into Lebanon and destroying Hezbollah, no matter how many civilian communities must be destroyed and civilians killed. A ‘diplomatic resolution’ would mean halting this ongoing massacre in Gaza but as the White House has no intention of doing that, then helping the IDF to invade Lebanon by providing equipment, ammo, diplomatic cover, recon & satellite data will be the way to go. Though if the IDF ends up in their very own Kursk, I doubt that the US would send in troops. Not because it is stupid, wrong and would mean lots of dead Americans but because it is too close to the elections.
PRC narcos in Toronto are “command and control” for North American money laundering networks used in TD Bank case: US investigator
Bad banks indeed. This is a must read. This quote, regarding the investigation, Our problem was we just never got the level of cooperation from Canada, that we used to have. And then when I was at the State Department from 2019 to 2021, I can’t recall us having any conversations of note with Canadian law enforcement on anything I can think of related to fentanyl. I don’t know what it was, but the Trudeau government just was not …” Make what you will of that.
Meng Wanzhou affair perhaps? Once burnt ….
Or just a straight disbelief in the US claims? We’ve been lied to before by US law enforcement.
Maybe a general disbelief that either the US or Canada want to delve into a who’s who behind financing/laundering fentanyl trade, no?
Canada has long been a centre for money laundering (snow washing) and been warned about it by international watchdogs to little effect. So, any stonewalling by Canadian authorities is just as likely to be a continuation of prior policy as evidence of collusion with China on a reverse Opium War against the U.S. And by the by, we also have an opioid/fentanyl crises in Canada. The Sacklers/Purdue took OxyContin global.
As to exercising anything resembling an independent foreign policy re China, the U.S. put an end to that several years ago. Not too long after the Meng Wanzhou affair, Canada’s main spy agency warned of election interference from China. So, no shipping tar sands bitumen to China, which I think was the only reason Trudeau tried to resist imperial edicts to cut ourselves off from the Chinese.
Since being brought to heel, Trudeau has been an obedient lapdog. For example, just this week, the Trudeau government announced 100% tariffs on Chinese EVs, just like big brother.
Canada — remora of empires …
file under Our Not So Free Press. From Scheerpost.
Patrick Lawrence: The Sound of Enforced Silence
https://scheerpost.com/2024/08/29/patrick-lawrence-the-sound-of-enforced-silence/
From the article:
“Of the many recent incidents of … suppression and intimidation, the one that got me to the keyboard concerns Sharmine Narwani, who founded, three years ago this month, an online journal of news and comment called The Cradle, as in “the cradle of civilization.” Narwani, based in Beirut, now writes columns regularly and edits features for the English-language version of the site. She calls The Cradle a collective effort, “an online magazine covering the geopolitics of West Asia from within the region.” Those last four words are the ones that matter most to me.
“Last week — on the first day of the Democratic National Convention, indeed — Meta permanently banned The Cradle from Facebook and Instagram, the holding company’s most trafficked social media properties.”
Meta permanently banned The Cradle from Facebook and Instagram, the holding company’s most trafficked social media properties.”
How about people actually get off their asses and type the url into their browser!
They can text or email links to friends too.
“Hiker rescued after workmates left him on mountain, says search crew’
Was this one of those team-building office exercises where attendance is voluntary but if you don’t go, then your attendance at the office may soon cease? The article does not say much about that office and just hides its identity.
Leaving him alone on the mountain might have been a hint.
My comment here has no supporting links though I have looked for them having once found them some time ago. That said, this story reminds me of a story of a bicyclist’s Paris Brest Paris randonneur amateur team ride where a rider was left behind by his team when he suffered serious physical ailment on the long P-B-P endurance ride. (Dareist I say that no decent team of any sort should ever leave a team member behind? )
“Kamala Harris goes all in on fracking in testy interview exchange – Politico”. Kill me now. I listened to the entire toxic, flatulent nothingburger that is CNN’s “exclusive interview” yesterday. How the hell does Politico justify ‘goes all in on fracking’ from what Harris says? I’m not saying she didn’t sand the edges on her change in position, rather only that Politico is guilty of synthesizing a completely false take on it. Is she a mainstream democrat? Yes, she is. Do we expect positions that in many ways drive the status-quo forward? Yes. Does she have to be careful of creating new ‘gotchas’ for the waiting line of ‘Bashers’ to seize on and take her to task on? Yes, she does.
C’mon, people! This is what drives normal people nuts about the for-profit corporate media world. Here we see Dana Bash repeatedly grilling Harris on her changes in position while switcheroo-and-lie-a-minute Trump not only goes uninterviewed, but has his madman flights of fancy reported without significant question or follow up.
Kamala Harris made clear that fracking will continue with no impediment through her presidency. This is indeed a sharp reversal of position on fracking by Harris.
I know! I know! She’s got a new donor, Ami right?
The War on Cash is ongoing here at Burning Man, as the only thing you can buy is large bags of ice for $12 and they prefer plastic, but will grudgingly accept do re mi.
The best weather of the 9 burns I’ve been to, ideal really with temps in the high 80’s and around 55 at night, and little in the way of dust storms for us in Alkaliholics Anonymous.
I couldn’t believe how wrong the main stream media got things last year, it was as if they did itcon purpose, and the usual prattle about seemingly only billionaires in attendance is typical of the wayward ways.
If 45,631 were at a MLB ballgame and all saw a double play in the 3rd inning, it would be the same shared experience for everyone, but everybody’s burn is different.
To give you a flavor of who goes, our camp of around 35 peeps has a couple of world class free climbers, a retired engineer from JPL, a DJ from the bay area, a family of 5 who drove from Wisconsin, a family of 4 from Cucamonga, and a bunch of others from across the country.
There are so many foreign accents, and I’ve run into about a dozen Russians and a few Ukrainians-all on neutral ground.
Took a ride to the airport and about 40 planes on the ‘tarmac’, all single engine types except for 1 King Air double engine, no jets.
Not entirely neutral ground-
https://jewishjournal.com/community/373941/burning-man-to-feature-memorial-art-installation-honoring-nova-festival-victims/
Questions on how many the IDF actually killed would not be welcomed. At least Burning Man is not held outside a prison.
We were really put off by that art in particular. Israeli burners were hanging out as if to ‘guard’ it, and were kinda like goons we thought, no place for politics here
“Hundreds of Ancient Viruses Discovered Deep Inside Tibetan Glacier”
You know, there is a really good movie to be made based on this event. I can see it now-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yz1JN2sSqcA (21:04 mins)
re: Summer COVID surge shows we may have to return to 2020 pandemic measures
The world according to Ashish Jha:
https://x.com/ashishkjha/status/1829303293337637219
And then there’s Marc Veldhoen:
https://x.com/Marc_Veld/status/1829494250955849842
Thanks, I just clicked and found out that I was blocked by Marc Veldhoen. What an honor!
Laura Miers replied with the link to Lambert’s write up that was published on mronline.org:
How Ashish Jha and Rochelle Walensky of Newton, MA protect their children from Covid (but not yours)
https://x.com/LauraMiers/status/1829380345659048213
An interesting discussion of the futures of AIPAC and Israel from Chris Hedges:
https://youtu.be/zzIgihMGBb4?si=RGP6CL7wn3GJx_X8
One key point is that as Israel continues to collapse internally, it will become less and less attractive to the US as an ally. Where will it turn then?
Of more importance will be the question of where it will move to, Madagascar?
If the Kimberly Plan has been adopted, the Kimberlies would be at war with the Aboriginals, as is their penchant.
Oh boy, here come the “Shiksa Zulu” “jokes” to a kraal near you.
Israel was never much of an ally to United States in the first place, though. There was very little that they contributed to our interets, and often, were liabilities or worse.
The combination of Starship Troopers and Idiocracy that is engulfing Israel (and the US) cannot have a good ending…
bobert: One key point is that as Israel continues to collapse internally, it will become less and less attractive to the US as an ally.
“I begin to discern the profile of my death” is the first line of Margaret Yourcenar’s MEMOIRS OF HADRIAN, which Yves likes to quote. It is starting to be possible to discern a potential profile for a collapse of the West — one way that might happen.
Regarding your point, the state of Israel, as it fails, is going to continue to be artificially propped up with money and resources till the bitter end, due to the Zionist affiliations of many of the US’s wealthiest class.
The state of Ukraine, as it fails, will continue to be artificially pumped up with money and resources by both the US and the EU — though one can reasonably assume the former will leave the latter as bagholder at some point — because neither can bear to admit the West’s failure against Russia.
Maintaining both these collapsing states, Ukraine and Israel, in increasingly virtual existence, the West’s neoliberal elites will impotently expend enormous capital in wealth, resources, and reputation (as the West’s hollowed-out condition becomes obvious to the rest of the world).
That capital will have been diverted from investment in the infrastructure and citizens of the US and the EU’s nations, even as more debt is undertaken and that debt burden is likewise dumped on ordinary citizens.
That sort of effort is not indefinitely extensible, as France’s elites found out in 1789.
Recall that the French Revolution was preceded by France expending enormous resources propping up foreign wars just to spite their rivals, the British…
Maintaining both these collapsing states, Ukraine and Israel, in increasingly virtual existence, the West’s neoliberal elites will impotently expend enormous capital in wealth, resources, and reputation (as the West’s hollowed-out condition becomes obvious to the rest of the world).
And in the meantime, climate and ecological collapse will continue unabated.
But for a brief, shining moment, shareholder value will have been maximized.
“…it will become less and less attractive to the US as an ally.”
The relationship follows more gangsta logic than geopolitical reality logic.
“Houthis release footage of fighters boarding Greek oil tanker in Red Sea’
Here is that video of the boarding and the setting of explosives-
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/U8bbhUCF4gU
Though spectacular, I do not think that they were meant to sink that ship but to do a Hollywood stunt for some PR. The Yemenis have offered to let two tugs go in to pull it out of the area as there would be no advantage to letting it sink and leak it’s oil cargo.
This looks better than Hollywood stuff. No CGI nonsense. Also, better plot.
Reading the Harris interview:
Either some Dem media strategist, or her own political instincts, told her to hammer home 1. Being clear 2. A superimposed, self-defined consistency in her “values”. Perform a control-f for the words “clear”, “value”, and “change”. What ends up happening, however, through the repetition and the Ceasar-style word salad, is that it’s clear her values have changed, if she ever had any.
Dems went from a vegetable to mixed greens.
Do you mean mes(s)clun?
The other day there was a link to a recent court case regarding Machine Guns which I suspect caused some confusion among the readers here.
Machine Guns are regulated but not banned at the Federal Level by the National Firearms Act of 1934 and further legislation in 1986.
The 1934 act, among other things, added a $250 Transfer tax on each legal sale of an automatic weapon.
That was a LOT of $ in 1934, which was the point.
All regulations in regard to “Keeping and Bearing Arms” are based on class and the effect of every “Sensible” Gun law has been to disarm the rabble, as defined by the ruling class.
There are officially some 200,000 legally owned fully automatic weapons in the USA and an unknown multiple of that number illegally possessed.
So, what IS a Machine Gun?
That depends on both the exact phrasing of the Law and its interpretation, and that is a big problem because it includes firearms that can be easily converted to fully automatic fire.
Which is one whole hell of a lot of Semi Automatic Firearms including every Glock pistol.
The “Glock Switch” was originally made for the Glock 18 machine pistol at the request of Special Operations forces who are one of the few organizations that has a use for such a weapon, one that requires an enormous amount of practice to use effectively.
I suspect that someone who owned an Airsoft Glock 18 and a Glock 17 decided to see if the parts would swap, which they do.
In a matter of minutes with no tools.
They told their friends and someone got the bright idea to make them and sell them on E BAY for $12.95 with free shipping, discounts for bulk orders.
These are sheet metal stampings or extruded polymer and they cost pennies to make.
And then someone looked at these and said to themselves “I bet I can make these out of a wire coat hanger”
Which they did, posting the details on their blog.
The good news is that the people buying or making these are Cos Players who want to be Billy Badass, they fire at a rate of 20 shots per second and hitting anything other than clouds takes a great deal of practice.
The bad news is that the Laws are so badly written and so subject to interpretation that pretty much any self loading weapon can be classified as a Machine Gun.
Personally, I have no use for any fully Automatic weapon, however I do think that visiting the annual Machine Gun shoot at Knob Creek KY would be a blast.
As one of hte people who was puzzled by the original, thanks for the additional information!
PS. Does anyone have a suggestion for searching comments (can’t find the original thread)? It seems that the site’s search function does not search comments….
Here:
https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2024/08/links-8-26-2024.html#comment-4092987
“This is historical conspiracy at its most harmful: one that drives train station bombers, mass shooters and “accelerationists” like the ones that planned to kidnap Michigan’s governor.”
The NOEMA article is quite a hodge podge of elements. I use the above line from it to accent one of its shortcomings; even recent “history” is prone to ‘inaccuracy’ and’ narrative control’ issues. Unless the author is possessed of a very subtle sense of humour, “…the ones who planned to kidnap Michigan’s governor” were sponsored, aided, and abetted by the FBI through ‘agents’ infiltrated into said organization of “accelerationists.”
Think of Velikovsky as you will, his “Oedipus and Akhnaton” is a readable and thoughtful work. His “Ages in Chaos” can be read as an Ur-document in the “phantom time” movement.
The basic thought the article engendered in me was that the only way to be at all certain about history is to have been present at it. Even then, the uncertain nature of Terran human memory and recall throws doubt on everything. Maybe the best lesson to learn from all of this is to inculcate a sense of humility in one’s relationship to the world surrounding us.
Stay safe.
RE: “How Global Capital Killed Climate Science”
I disagree with Tsakraklides notion that “…climate science as a scientific discipline is in uncharted waters itself…” I am not sure what revelations
His claim: “For any scientific discipline to thrive it is essential that the system it studies does not change.” does not make much sense considering how many scientific disciplines study dynamical systems. Climate Science does not suffer from the equivalent of gravity working one day and not working the next. Much of current Climate Science involves simulations using complex models of the Earth’s climate systems. The politics of Climate Science overemphasizes various predictions of those climate models. I doubt whether Climate Scientists are surprised that Climate models have varying predictive ability as the climate systems change and new effects are discovered in the actual climate that are not yet modeled in the climate models. Climate politics one day uses climate models to project a politically useful ‘carbon budget’ and the next day batters the models for supposedly ‘unexpected’ failures to model the evolving climate conditions as they violate the scientific happy talk pushed by the politics of climate.
I am not sure how Tsakraklides concludes that “Climate scientists have collectively failed to panic…” The pronouncements from climate scientists communicating through the perilous medium of climate politics serve the political/economics of the status quo. Expressions of panic are not allowed. Independent expressions of panic are quickly labeled as alarmist and characterized as the fringe. Climate ‘science’ is strongly discouraged from expressing conclusions that might upset economic growth or the stability of the current ‘arrangements’ using climate science to feed money into ‘green’ projects, and using climate science to justify Market approaches to spending down the ‘carbon budget’ while continuing to pump the last few dollars of profits out of the ground.
“Every climate scientist at this point should be an activist.” I believe many climate scientists are already serving as activists. The money and access to the media bullhorn can buy the directed activism of many climate scientists serving the interests of the Big Petroleum and profitable ‘green’ New Deals. Jails, funding cuts, and character assassination reward activist Climate Scientists who fail to tout the politically acceptable claims of the moment. I believe the monetization of science and the use of the Media to spread the ‘truth’ consistent with Corporate profits is how global capital muzzled and ‘tamed’ Climate Science. Climate Science is not dead, just more difficult to find and evaluate. Laymen must dive into and understand research papers to find the Truth. This is as true of Climate Science as it is of Medical Science.
Speaking of disinformation: “It’s a world in which scientists whose research findings that COVID probably originated as a spillover from wildlife have been validated by dozens of scientific studies,”
Is this being positioned as the next investment fad once AI collapses? Seems like it meets the critical parameters:
o “Green field.” That is, nothing exists in the space presently.
o Appeals mainly to the technically illiterate.
o Does not meet any immediate need or solve any problem.
o No current regulations on the sector.
o Good buzzword.
o Plenty of grifters ready to belly up to the trough.
I’m calling it.
Yup! Invest now while the bubble is small.
But wait! There already is a low altitude economy. It is the realm of military drones. Don’t tell me there isn’t money in that field. So, lots of ‘explosive’ packages being ‘delivered’ as we speak!
Explosive executive-compensation packages, for sure.
Mmmm, yes and no.
In China and much else of the world, the “low-altitude” economy is a real thing.
But it is like gold-rush ’49– a lot of people are gonna get screwed-over and broke.
The leading American companies, Joby and Archer, will never be commercially-viable. Archer is tech-bro snake-oil, but Joby might actually stick around for a bit as their picking-up some good R&D.
Many urban centers of the world are horribly congested– no room to move but up. And this is where the 3D model of logistics/transportation shines.
In the west, especially the USA, regulations (and the “roadmap” these provide) are lacking, but not so in China and its partners– as I mentioned ib an earlier comment, the CPC specifically addresses the low-altitude economy in its 5-year plans.
Again, you’re right about hot-money chasing BS and a lot of fake promises, but low-altitude isn’t BS, as I’m sure a lot of Ukies could testify to accurate and prompt on-demand deliveries, if only they could.
This certainly looks cool though, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BnrpC-kqNF4. The whole thing however will not be possible in a country like the US where drones will just be vandalized and people robbed at those drone delivery points.
Drones/eVTOLs shave hours off of travel or transport time… United Theraputics knows this matters, as organs for transplant lose their viability minute-by-minute: combine this with congested urban-areas where most major hospitals are located.
And the same for transport of medical-persons or accident victims, or whomever critical persons are: use-cases for drones abound.
Yeah, “low-altitude economy” won’t be a thing in USA until late in the game, until they realize it is a real thing elsewhere, and making a difference.
[China eVTOL regulations]
China’s CAAC Touts Progress Enabling Low-Altitude Economy
https://aviationweek.com/aerospace/advanced-air-mobility/chinas-caac-touts-progress-enabling-low-altitude-economy
A drone is an unmanned vehicle.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drone
The word you are looking for is helicopter (rotorcraft in which lift and thrust are supplied by horizontally spinning rotors).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helicopter
A helicopter can indeed shave hours off of travel or transport time, which is life saving feature in case of medical emergency, and also a way for people with extra cash to avoid traffic congestions.