Links 6/8/2025

The Core of Fermat’s Last Theorem Just Got Superpowered Quanta Magazine

Can a robot help you age better? The Conversation

15,000 Light-Years Away, Something Is Blinking – And It Might Rewrite Physics SciTech Daily

COVID-19/Pandemics

The pandemic generation: How Covid-19 has left a long-term mark on children BBC

Calls for RFK Jr. to Resign Grow Louder MedPage Today

Kash Patel claims ‘breakthrough’ in Fauci COVID origins probe The Hill

New COVID variant NB.1.8.1 spreads across continents amid calls for vigilance News Medical< A New COVID Variant Is Here, And It’s More Transmissible — Here Are The Signs And Symptoms Huffpost

Climate/Environment

From Media Darling to Persona Non Grata: Greta Thunberg’s Journey ScheerPost

The United States’ climate credibility crisis East Asia Forum

Climate change threatens banana exports, key to the Latin American economy El Pais

China?

Taiwan Condemns China’s ‘Provocative’ Patrol The Defense Post

This Could Be Our Best View Yet Of China’s J-36 Very Heavy Stealth Tactical Jet The War Zone

On board the driverless lorries hoping to transform China’s transport industry BBC

China eases stranglehold on rare minerals in welcome news for GM, Ford: report NY Post

South of the Border

Supreme Court tosses Mexico’s $10B lawsuit claiming US gunmakers have fueled cartel violence AP

Trump & Rubio Tighten the Noose on Cuba ScheerPost

Argentina’s Debt Trap Phenomenal World

European Disunion

Baltic states issue statement supporting Ukraine’s membership in EU and NATO Ukrainska Pravda

EU’s von der Leyen ‘has to be held accountable’ for vaccine texts: Senior MEP Aubry France 24

EU Commission paid environmental NGOs to target Germany, report says Euractive

Old Blighty

£127M wasted on failed UK nuclear cleanup plan The Register

Arrests of undocumented migrants working illegally in UK surge 51 per cent as Home Office raids nail bars, building sites and restaurants Daily Mail

Russia is already at war with Britain and we can no longer rely on Trump, defence adviser warns The Independent

Israel v. The Resistance

Israel orders evacuations in 2 Gaza neighborhoods on Eid’s 2nd day Andolu Agency

Israel Army Announces 4 Soldiers Killed in Gaza, Thousands More Troops Needed The Defense Post

UNRWA slams Israeli ban on international journalists reporting on Gaza, calls to allow it to work Andolu Agency

Netanyahu confirms Israel arming clans opposed to Hamas in Gaza BBC

New Not-So-Cold War

Russia Strikes Back as Ukraine Bets House on Asymmetric ‘Terror’ War Simplicius

Military intrigues Events in Ukraine substack

Kyiv and Moscow accuse each other of seeking to delay prisoner swap France 24

Ukraine’s Operation Spider Web redefined the front lines of war Asia Times

Kharkiv hit by ‘most powerful attack’ of entire war, mayor says, as Russia pounds Ukraine again CNN

Big Brother Is Watching You Watch

Infomaniak’s Surveillance Shift Sparks Privacy Clash Web Pro News

US Supreme Court Grants DOGE Access to Social Security Data Amid Privacy Concerns News X

Privacy concerns swirl around HHS plan to build Medicare, Medicaid database on autism CNN

University of Michigan using undercover investigators to surveil student Gaza protesters Guardian (Guardian)

Imperial Collapse Watch

The Deep State Is Still Sabotaging Presidential Policies Moon of Alabama

FAA will restrict flights at Newark airport through end of year NJ.com

Trump 2.0

The End of Silicon Politics Yascha Mounk substack

How Tariffs Are Breaking the Manufacturing Industries Trump Says He Wants To Protect Reason

Climate change threatens banana exports, key to the Latin American economy El Pais

Trump is trying to defang the Endangered Species Act  The Hill

Musk Matters

Trump threatens Elon Musk with ‘very serious consequences’ if he bankrolls Democrats in future elections NY Post

Maher advises Democrats to ‘win’ Elon Musk ‘back’ The Hill

How the U.S. became highly reliant on Elon Musk for access to space NPR

Democrat Death Watch

Jean-Pierre triggers Democratic fury with public split from party The Hill

The Great Un-Awokening Politico

Ocasio-Cortez faces test of her political power The Hill

Immigration

After 2 days of clashes over immigration raids, National Guard will be sent to L.A., official says Los Angeles Times

Trump’s immigration, trade policies could cost tourism industry $12B: report NY Post

‘A complete sea change’: Trump’s immigration crackdown goes into hyperdrive Politico

Our No Longer Free Press

Free Speech Organizations Pen Open Letter Sounding Alarm on Press Freedom Under Trump Meidas Touch News

Appeals court allows White House AP ban to continue Axios

Mr. Market Is Moody

Weekly Commentary: Uncertainty Squared Credit Bubble Bulletin

Dollar poised for weekly loss, hurt by economic weakness and trade limbo Reuters

Should investors be preparing for a US stock market crash in 2025? The Motley Fool

AI

A knockout blow for LLMs? Gary Marcus

OpenAI Wants to get College Kids Hooked on AI Gizmodo

“Meta Is Redefining Warfare”: U.S. Army Adopts AR-AI Headset That Turns Soldiers Into Real-Time Combat Intelligence Hubs Sustainability Times

A professor testing ChatGPT’s, DeepSeek’s and Grok’s stock-picking skills suggests stockbrokers should worry Market Watch

AI analysis of ancient handwriting gives new age estimates for Dead Sea Scrolls CNN

The Bezzle

The furniture fraud who hoodwinked the Palace of Versailles BBC

REP MIKE COLLINS: Staged car crash fraud puts all of us at risk. Congress and the Justice Dept can stop it Fox News

Guillotine Watch

Class Warfare

Sacramento County to use drones to track homeless people on probation CBS Sacramento

Punishing people for their circumstances, not just their actions . . . “Chicago’s Million Dollar Blocks” Angry Bear

We mapped 18,000 children’s playgrounds and revealed inequality across England The Conversation

Antidote du jour (via)

And a bonus:

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67 comments

  1. SOMk

    These most expensive items of clothing seem to be so not out of any quality of craft or making or skill, but because someone sticks a lot of gold or diamonds on it, which is pretty the definition of tacky, there is no notion of what intrinsic quality, what’s to stop someone making a sock out of a cheque for a trillion dollars and calling it “the most expensive sock in the world?” Reminds me of Damien Hirst’s Diamond skull; ‘for the love of’, he boasted in an interview that his favourite thing about it was he effected the global cost of diamonds, thus showing he fetishised crude market dynamics “numbers go up, number go down” over and above the infinite potential and power of art itself for non-linear symbolism, which says a lot about Hirst’s the artist and his values.

    Reply
    1. vao

      At NC, we were already introduced to the most expensive strawberry, the most expensive cognac, the most expensive car (I do not even remember the brand), the most expensive ice-cream…

      A sign that we are near the end of an epoch/civilization?

      Reply
      1. griffen

        Epic levels of stupidity and gauche on the most splendiferous tie ever designed and made by hand ! Get them while supplies last….

        By sheer coincidence I read this week about different generations and retirement planning. If memory serves that featured tie runs about or above the average retirement balance for the average Generation X individual. Unreal.

        Reply
      2. Randall Flagg

        Doesn’t matter if I was rich enough to afford that tie ten times over, I would still dribble coffee or spill some food on it. Why bother.

        Reply
      3. Wukchumni

        All of those items have one thing in particular, exclusivity.

        It’s in a Illionaire’s DNA, that’s why they have escape plans to Hawaiian & NZ bunkers, you see, the thought is they are going to live forever.

        I can buy a flat of strawberries for $4

        I can buy a non vintage cognac for $40

        I can buy a car for $40,000

        I can buy an ice cream cone for $4

        Reply
        1. Wukchumni

          It comes with surgically added alligator skin implants-along with conscience removal, a rich Corinthian leather-like tan, digitally aided in using all 10 of them to seek contributions to the point where they can comfortably hobnob with the haves-not the have nots.

          Reply
    2. Unironic Pangloss

      they are not for functional use.

      my nephew’s BFF is a scion. their family’s thing is art; and have a 2nd tier university-level art collection in their house cum fieldhouse cum gallery.

      there definitely are (say) 1,000 men who have the money and intense interest re. $MM pens. it’s part pride, part collectible, part hoard-ism

      Reply
    3. Quintian and Lucius

      These sort of gaudy individual pieces are never the guillotine watch items that really get me. It’s the insane real estate developments that seem designed to be instagram’d (and invariably are) but that you can’t fathom a person or family actually living comfortably in. It’s the unhinged tourist attractions that had to be built from the ground up (or down, in the underground cases) with the idea of getting the superparasites of the world to take selfies there for 5 figures daily. Those are the things, more than the comically bedazzled and marked up small goods, that demonstrate the bizarre economie complete of the gigarich.

      Reply
  2. The Rev Kev

    “China eases stranglehold on rare minerals in welcome news for GM, Ford: report ”

    They may have eased rare minerals going to car manufacturers to show Trump that they are flexible, but I note that they are not shipping rare minerals to go to the Pentagon for weapons manufacturing. And can you see Trump begging them to do so lest the US military stops being able to make new weapons – to be pointed at China?

    Reply
  3. vao

    “Sound of the Chang, an ancient Persian musical instrument known as a vertical angular harp, which was widely used during the Sasanian Dynasty.”

    Is it really something people do not know about nowadays?

    It is well-known in Europe, if less used compared to other instruments, and each language seems to have its own term to designate it (thus, it is called a “Maultrommel” in German, and a “guimbarde” in French).

    For instance, it appears prominently in the Yugoslav movie “Ko to tamo peva – Who’s Singin’ Over There?”.

    Reply
    1. Quentin

      Commonly called a mouth harp or in more colloquial parlance a ‘Jew’s harp’, widely played and known around Europe until more recent times. Sassanid times, who could possibly have guessed that. This kind of TikTok distortion for self promotion is something we definitely don’t need. On the other hand the TikTok AI film about medieval England is a good laugh.

      Reply
    2. Wukchumni

      If you’re ever in Phoenix, in particular during their torrid summer, but anytime really…

      The wonderfully air conditioned Musical Instrument Museum is a must!

      They seemingly have every instrument from every nook and cranny in the world. I think I counted around 10 sets of non-Scottish bagpipes, to give you an idea.

      A good deal of it is hands on, and more, Go!

      https://mim.org/

      Reply
    3. Lazar

      I wrote another post before seeing this one. It’s down below, with links, if anyone’s interested.

      Reply
  4. .Tom

    > Russia Strikes Back as Ukraine Bets House on Asymmetric ‘Terror’ War Simplicius

    In which Simplicius presents a “video shows Russian Kh-101 missiles firing off flares before hitting Lutsk Repair Plant”. Why does a cruise missile fire off flares like that? For what purpose?

    Reply
      1. ilsm

        Missile interceptors in terminal mode shift to infrared (IR), if they are not solely IR.. Flares “confused” the homing mechanisms.

        The most recent versions of IM ( Sidewinder) and AIM 120 (AMRAAM) have multi-function seekers.

        There are other “low tech” techniques to spoof IR seekers.

        Reply
    1. Unironic Pangloss

      pre-emptive counter-measures. also possible with the flare (ie heat) are metallic chaff…to confuse any radar or missile homing-in

      Reply
    2. snafu

      They think that Ukraine still has a few Stingers left (or some other heat seeking missile protecting the target).

      Reply
    3. Ignacio

      I found it interesting the bit on desertions. Not that the numbers provided should be taken seriously but this is one of the signs suggesting that the Ukrainian might not be that far from collapsing. Given the way this war is being driven i guess that all of a sudden and unexpectedly Z’s regime will collapse and the war will change dramatically. How and when is quite unpredictable but it seems to me Ukraine will fall like a house of cards at some point.

      Reply
  5. The Rev Kev

    “Jean-Pierre triggers Democratic fury with public split from party”

    I suppose that you can reword that title to say that a party, which loves to stab people in the back, is surprised when one of their own does it to them.

    Reply
    1. AG

      But wasn´t she insufferable in those press meetings?
      I scarcely watch those but I remember thinking, what a nice name for someone with that awful behaviour.

      Reply
    2. Wukchumni

      Omission Accomplished

      We know you have a choice of political parties, thanks for choosing the Donkey Show! (brays uncontrollably)

      Reply
  6. Clock Strikes 13

    Re: Should investors be preparing for a US stock market crash in 2025? The Motley Fool

    The fake AI productivity gains should juice it for a while. The problem is how long will it take for the fundamental weakness of the Western economies to manifest? Anything which exists as code is essentially worthless as it can be freely copied. Bitcoin, which has no actual value and is trading at over $100k, is the perfect emblem for such a system. China has a lead in most areas and will eventually overtake in all areas. I get the real impression that all it takes is a tug on one thread and the whole tapestry unravels. It is already frayed in too many places to hold together.

    Reply
    1. vao

      “The problem is how long will it take for the fundamental weakness of the Western economies to manifest?”

      What about a year of truly bad crop failures?

      With climate change and biodiversity woes (e.g. bees collapse, pests spreading around, etc), a really poor harvest would have a lot of knock-on effects — food inflation, bankruptcy of food-related business (agro-transformation, restaurants, etc), diversion of disposable income to the detriment of every other economic sector than food, agricultural trade surplus turning into a deficit for affected countries… and ultimately a possible stock exchange crash and plenty of disastrous consequences for currencies, state budgets, and banks (starting with those very much involved in financing agrobusiness, such as the French Crédit Agricole).

      Reply
      1. Wukchumni

        Somebody asked yesterday, how do I know Hunga Tonga is effecting things? …and a lesser volcano named Laki in Iceland blew up real good in 1783, and these things take years to manifest in terms of what they do, and in France in particular, wheat harvests were bad over a number of years, leading up to being the prime mover for revolution, hunger is quite a motivator. The price of bread was double that of a Frenchman’s wages, when the good women of Paris descended on Versailles and King Louis XVI…

        Laki was a 4 on the Volcano Explosivity Index, Hunga Tonga was a VEI 5 to 6, with it also being a rare Submarine Volcano which spewed tons of vapor into the atmosphere.

        The Women’s March on Versailles, also known as the Black March, the October Days or simply the March on Versailles, was one of the earliest and most significant events of the French Revolution. The march began among women in the marketplaces of Paris who, on the morning of 5 October 1789, were nearly rioting over the high price of bread. The unrest quickly became intertwined with the activities of revolutionaries seeking liberal political reforms and a constitutional monarchy for France. The market women and their allies ultimately grew into a crowd of thousands. Encouraged by revolutionary agitators, they ransacked the city armory for weapons and marched on the Palace of Versailles. The crowd besieged the palace and, in a dramatic and violent confrontation, they successfully pressed their demands upon King Louis XVI.

        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women%27s_March_on_Versailles

        Reply
    2. ilsm

      Ahh!

      The three Norn at the base of Yggdrasil one has a sheer over the threat of the S&P 500 speculative run…..

      Is Motley Fool like Jim Carmer?

      Reply
  7. The Rev Kev

    “Kyiv and Moscow accuse each other of seeking to delay prisoner swap”

    I’d have to say that it was Zelensky spiking this swaps as he has also been spiking the return of the Ukrainian dead. He actually went ballistic when he heard about this and called the negotiations idiots. So of course the Russians decided to put the boot in over Zelensky’s refusal to receive back their dead-

    ‘The governor of Russia’s Zaporozhye Region, Evgeny Balitsky, published the first six pages containing 97 names, identification documents, and places of death on Saturday evening, after Ukraine reportedly refused to receive the remains of thousands of its troops.

    “We are beginning to publish lists of identified bodies so that relatives can find their dead,” he wrote. “We understand that Kiev has this data, but they are deliberately hiding it from the public.” ‘

    https://www.rt.com/russia/618791-ukrainian-soldiers-names-list/

    Reply
  8. The Rev Kev

    ‘Tansu Yegen
    @TansuYegen
    A 100-year-old 7,500-ton Shikumen building in Shanghai is being moved back to its spot by 432 walking robots after making space for a new underground mall 🚶‍♂️🏙️’

    Rumour has it that the Chinese flew in 10,000 Mormons for this operation because of their experience-

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tc6IT5L3ZSk (21:45 mins)

    Reply
  9. Lazar

    Sound of the Chang,
    an ancient Persian musical instrument known as a vertical angular harp, which was widely used during the Sasanian Dynasty
    Science girl (@gunsnrosesgirl3) June 7, 2025

    The description resembles the one from Wikipedia, for a differen looking instrument.
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chang_(instrument)

    The one on the video looks and sounds like mouth harp.
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jew%27s_harp

    Bonus Trivia
    In the Balkans, the mouth harp is widely known for its use by a couple of Gypsy musicians in a movie.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Obo9afw7AZw

    Reply
    1. vao

      “The description resembles the one from Wikipedia, for a differen looking instrument.”

      People start hallucinating just like AI!

      Reply
  10. snafu

    Taiwan Condemns China’s ‘Provocative’ Patrol The Defense Post

    “The relevant actions are highly provocative… bring instability and threats to the region, and are a blatant violation of the regional status quo,” the ministry said in a statement.

    That’s preposterous! International rule-based World order is full of rules that are strictly against blatant violations of the regional status quo.

    Reply
      1. ambrit

        When it is a convenient placeholder word for the various and sundry elites who make the decisions for a polity.

        Reply
    1. ilsm

      At least they don’t call Formosa the Republic of China. That is what Taipei claims.

      Status quo is that there is one China. But the US thinks Taiwan can be free like the Donbas.

      Oh, US wants to cram Donbas back in to Stalin’s revenge.

      Status quo is who has the more guns, missiles and ships…….

      Formosa certainly not!

      Reply
    1. The Rev Kev

      Democrat Party: ‘We hate men, they are the cause of all the trouble in the world and they should just go off and die. By the way guys, you’ll still vote for us in the next election, right?’

      Reply
    2. Unironic Pangloss

      lol. good luck.

      yes, Barnard/Evergreen State grads….the cis, white dude who’s working his arse at the auto repair shop (or is a line man, etc.), trying get everything done by 6p, and just wants to go home and see his kids is the face of the Patriarchy and the source of your opression…not the literal scions-cum-state-governors in the Dem. party (and their backers)

      Reply
  11. The Rev Kev

    “Trump is trying to defang the Endangered Species Act ”

    Looks like Californian Condor is back on the menu again, boys. So why is Trump doing this? Partly, I guess, to make happy those wealthy hunters who want to go after big game which you mostly can’t at the moment – usually because they are endangered. That way they can get bragging right by collecting a rare trophy for their lodge in front of their wealthy friends. But I suspect that it is mostly to enable construction of infrastructure or projects going ahead and not having to worry about driving some species into extinction. Nothing personal little guys, it’s just business. For those interested, here is a list of some 1500 species now under the gun-sights of the Trump regime-

    https://ecos.fws.gov/ecp0/reports/ad-hoc-species-report

    Reply
    1. Wukchumni

      E.O. Wilson wrote a book a decade ago called Half-Earth: Our Planet’s Fight for Life, where he postulated that we ought to leave half the world alone, and aside from the DMZ in Korea and Chernobyl, National Parks in the USA are the closest thing we have to such an ideal.

      You’re not going to see it in the 1% of the NP that 99% of the visitors typically go to-such as Yosemite Valley, but just a few miles away from that over loved locale are places no human ever goes and nature rules, and so it extends all the way to the Yosemite NP borders.

      Reply
    1. Martin Oline

      Thank you for the note about the anniversary of the Liberty attack. I am sure the Sunday talk shows will cover this exhaustively. /s

      Reply
    1. Munchausen

      Also, legend says that Goliath, German WWII remotely controlled demolition charge, could be disabled by cutting its wires with a shovel strike. No GoPro footage available, though.

      Reply
    2. Munchausen

      Sorry for the double post. The initial one went into the void, not the moderation queue, so I did a repost in an attempt to fight the gremlins. It turns out, gremlins are unpredictable.

      Reply
  12. OIFVet

    File under European Disunion/The Bezzle: Bulgaria could break the euro. The EU would only have itself to blame.

    Something The Telegraph is too polite or reluctant to say out loud is that the Euro isn’t just a currency, it’s also a geopolitical instrument. That’s the primary reason why Bulgaria is being granted entry: to shore up the South Eastern EU/NATO flank against the perceived Russkie menace. This is not to say that Russia isn’t heavily involved in propaganda, disinformation and subversion in Bulgaria – it is. However, it seems to me and most thinking people that the biggest danger to the EU comes from within and this move is yet another in a series which attempt to wish those problems away. The Convergence Report for the Euro accession itself makes an interesting reading as it lists most reasons why people like me are against this rushed entry, though it hides them behind the use of the very diplomatic “potential problems/mistakes to avoid” language.

    As my banker friend said when I estimated 5 to 7 years before Bulgaria entered a Greek scenario, “You Americans are such optimists. I give it 3 to 4.”

    Reply
    1. DJG, Reality Czar

      OIFVet: Aha. The Bulgarians must be the Italians of the Balkans. This is thoroughly Italian: ‘As my banker friend said when I estimated 5 to 7 years before Bulgaria entered a Greek scenario, “You Americans are such optimists. I give it 3 to 4.”’

      The euro was presented, like so many neoliberal devices, as a simplification and rationalizing — in this case, of currency, valuta. Who wouldn’t like a common currency so that having to change currencies would go away? Yet it turns out that an independent national currency allows independent economic planning: Here in Italy, the Italian governments have been eager to accommodate the Europe Project because it seemed to offer political stability to Italy.

      It offered economic stagnation, as Conor Gallagher has detailed so well in several articles.

      So Bulgaria enters the Eurozone, and the decline in population will likely accelerate. I’ll see you here in Italy.

      Reply
      1. OIFVet

        Well, some of the same people who are jubilant over the accession into “the rich countries’ club” in one breath complain in the next about how decent gelato is more expensive than in Italy. That about sums up the intellectual depth of most proponents of the Euro.

        I definitely have the Chocolate City on my “To visit” list. Will let you know when the time comes :)

        Reply
  13. Wukchumni

    15,000 Light-Years Away, Something Is Blinking – And It Might Rewrite Physics SciTech Daily
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    Nuclear powered VCR flashing 12:00 repeatedly?

    Reply
  14. DJG, Reality Czar

    The Great Un-Awokening.

    What the Democrats, and liberals, are doing is jettisoning some annoying habits that they were hardly committed to anyway. Everyone and their corporate marketing department wanted to insert a float into the gay pride parade, until it turned out that one might have to do something besides making up slogans. Latinx was enforced cleverness of academics. Land acknowledgments are the emptiest of gestures — I have sat through a few stumbling land acknowledgments, and they are downright embarrassing (to the listeners).

    Note this: “Searching for a path out of the political wilderness, potential 2028 candidates, especially those hailing from blue states, are attempting to ratchet back a leftward lurch on social issues some in the party say cost them the November election.”

    What the hell is a leftward lurch on social issues? A leftward lurch on social issues would be lowering the retirement age, raising minimum Social Security payments, repealing Taft-Hartley, and eliminating the Department of Homeland Security.

    No where in the article except for a certain Adam Frisch is economics mentioned. Class is never mentioned. The problem of continuing racism is never mentioned.

    I won’t even mention that Social Security, the minimum wage, union organizing, Medicare for All with Mental/Dental, the Ukraine proxy slaughter, and the proxy genocide in Palestine are not mentioned. Nor is the incompetence of Mayor Pete as Transport Secretary or the continuing grifting of Nancy Pelosi.

    Hakim Jeffries and friends (like Big Mama Hillary) can keep twiXting about terraristses Hamas and terraristses Putin and so on. Which is what liberals want.

    They were using various minorities: “Vote for us, or the Republicans will kill little Sage, the nonbinary track star of Tennessee.” Oh.

    Frisch again: ‘Adam Frisch, the former congressional candidate and director of electoral programs at Welcome PAC, said his party is “out of touch culturally with a lot of people.” ‘

    Yes, the culture of neoliberal greedheads, lady warmongers, grifting business types, malfunctioning home pages, scraping of e-mails, vulgar slogans like “I’m Speaking,” and a foreign policy politely described as the banality of evil are out of touch with most USonions.

    And “moderates” don’t want to change. Believe me. Here in Italy, the moderates / centrists are not-so-amusing clowns like Carlo Calenda and Matteo Renzi. They are two overgrown boys with all of the moral compass of Hillary Clinton although with a certain roguish / jailbird charm.

    Reply
    1. OIFVet

      Might as well change the title of the article to “The Great Redefinitioning of What is ‘The Left’,” though to be fair, that process has been ongoing ever since the Third Way took firm control of the Democrat Party.

      Reply
  15. The Rev Kev

    “This Could Be Our Best View Yet Of China’s J-36 Very Heavy Stealth Tactical Jet”

    It occurs to me that you could seriously mess with another country’s intelligence services here. All you would have to do it to make up a plywood mock-up of a plane with ‘interesting features’ and wrap it in very, very thin metal sheeting. You could put in a few light and bells and whistles and give it a paint scheme resembling what the real ones would have. Put some rocks in it too so it doesn’t blow away. Then you could have some fun with it. Take a picture of it with a very, very long-range camera so that it looks like the real deal. Then one day, when you know that the satellites will be overhead, feign a “accident” to make it look like the front nose-gear collapsed giving the impression that they could not get in under cover in time. Hell, maybe drop it vertically from a high-flying helicopter but have a camera tilted sideways filming it so that it looks like it is zooming through the air. Cost of a dummy mock-up? Thousands. Cost of making it look real in the field? Ten of thousands. The cost to foreign intelligence services? Priceless.

    Reply
    1. ilsm

      One design feature of a fighter aircraft is weight; another is volume inside the aircraft around the aerodynamic structures. Weight is important to operating costs, fuel and gravity/inertia stresses. Volume is needed for weapons, electronics, ejection seat and cooling all those computers and energy spiking power “amp IC’s, has similar operating cost penalties.

      In case of F-35 there is no space to install auxiliary power units so the big engine gets stressed to run chillers, etc.

      Maybe Chinese figured out you need weight and volume more than you need to worry operating costs, while in F-35 quality and reliability drive operating costs and readiness.

      Bigger is sometime beautiful.

      F-22 is a fairly big for USA fighter!

      Reply
  16. Wukchumni

    Ocasio-Cortez faces test of her political power The Hill
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    Antoinette of Color…

    ‘Don’t cry for me Queens, the truth is I never left you!’

    Reply
  17. The Rev Kev

    ‘Dudes Posting Their W’s
    @DudespostingWs
    This dude create an AI video “interviewing” people from the 1500s and it’s hilarious 😂’

    As much as I dislike how AI is being used, I will admit that this is a very good film clip using lots of imagination. Very much a win here.

    Reply
  18. Alice X

    The Capitalists are still wrecking the planet, the Zionists are still starving the Gazans, and people are looking at a $220,000 necktie. FUBAR

    Reply
  19. The Rev Kev

    “Trump & Rubio Tighten the Noose on Cuba”

    The same way that they helped Al-Qaeda take over Syria, people like Rubio won’t be happy until the Mafia is once more running Cuba and turning it into a Gangster Paradise again. You’ll have casinos, money laundering, drug shipments, hookers and all the rest of it. Then Rubio will proudly proclaim that he brought Freedom to Cuba once again-

    https://www.cubamafia.com/history-of-mafia-in-cuba.html

    Reply
  20. OIFVet

    International Coalition Of Worker Unions Declares Emergency Over AI Use In Animation:

    “A collective of international animation unions, federations, and organizations are calling for action over the usage of artificial intelligence, citing its destructive impact on the craft and business of animation, as well as on industry workers.”

    That’s a good thing and hopefully unions representing more professions will follow suit. Still, it begs the question whether the “creative class,” which animators certainly are, will finally realize that blue collars and white collars both face the same threat and ought to work together to resist it.

    Reply

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