Where are Vacation Homes Located in the US? Construction Physics
Why risky coastal real estate continues to attract buyers Moving Day
Ancient human highways revealed beneath the sea Earth.com
Climate/Environment
Wind Power: The Most Environmentally Destructive Form of Energy? Racing to Extinction
THE SURPRISING COST OF OUR QUEST TO DEFY AGING Atmos
They are still discovering bodies in Altadena 6 months after fire. Are there other victims? Los Angeles Times
Climate change is creating ‘new vulnerabilities’ for disease pandemics Carbon Brief
Pandemics
School district says doctor’s notes will no longer excuse child absences WSMV
Water
The Drying Planet ProPublica
In US Cities, Running Water Has Become an Unattainable Luxury for the Poor La Voce di New York
China?
Will China Attain Technological Supremacy? Global Policy Journal
(Chuck L):
Tesla isn’t falling behind because of its tech. It’s falling behind because America has no smart roads, no smart cities, and no national plan.https://t.co/3S07PV9NC6
— William Huo (@wmhuo168) July 25, 2025
A Silent Handover-How Automation Is Transforming Jobs in China’s Manufacturing Sector Inside China
CK Hutchison delays $23bn ports deal as US-China tensions grow over Panama sale Intellinews
Is China’s Military Ready for War? Foreign Affairs
India-Pakistan
During Operation Sindoor, Pakistan likely used NATO-style aerial tactics taught by China The Print
Indian Firm Shipped Explosives to Russia Despite US Warnings Reuters
Thailand- Cambodia Conflict
‘Nothing like this has happened before’: At least 16 dead as Thai-Cambodian conflict continues Straits Times
Vietnam’s Growth Surges. But Is It Still a Bargain for Global Manufacturing? China Global South
Africa
China and Africa are destroying the DeBeers diamond cartel Kevin Walmsley
The grift tank Africa Is A Country
Old Blighty
Jeremy Corbyn’s new party receives over 250,000 signatures in 24 hours The New Arab
Building the Party New Left Review
Syraqistan
People in Gaza are fighting for their lives. Never give up on them. Never! https://t.co/vPSz3DrVK0
— Ali Abunimah (@AliAbunimah) July 26, 2025
Israel Bombs Gaza School With U.S.-Made Missile During Friday Prayers Drop Site
🚨NEW: Former U.S. Green Beret Anthony Aguilar says he routinely witnessed Israeli forces (IDF) firing artillery tank rounds and mortar rounds into crowds of unarmed, starving Palestinians at GHF aid sites in Gaza.
“I witnessed war crimes,” the GHF security contractor told the… pic.twitter.com/4C4ppk5fcW
— Drop Site (@DropSiteNews) July 26, 2025
At Eleventh Hour, Enablers of Israel’s Mass Starvation of Gaza Do ‘Reputational Damage Control’ Common Dreams
This is entirely for show. Gaza needs 15,000 tonnes of aid a day.
The maximum parachuted in one day into Gaza so far has been 85 tonnes. https://t.co/G6ZvpImS8l— Craig Murray (@CraigMurrayOrg) July 25, 2025
When WWII ended and the Nazi camps were liberated, a substantial number of survivors died of refeeding syndrome.
The current genocide does not seem to be nearing an end. https://t.co/gAel8EkURE pic.twitter.com/u4TNaASnbW
— Laura Miers (@LauraMiers) July 25, 2025
USAID found ‘no proof’ of Hamas stealing US aid Dawn
***
Israel Planning ‘Major Offensive’ Against Yemen: Report Orinoco Tribune
MI6 Embedded With Syria’s Al Qaeda Government Kit Klarenberg
US asked Saudi Arabia to send missile interceptors to Israel during Iran conflict. Riyadh refused Middle East Eye
European Disunion
A warning from history: Goethe and the folly of German militarism Adeyinka Makinde
I feel like politically this is the wrong time for Germany to be rearming. https://t.co/uncPWaAMsh
— New Left EViews (@NewLeftEViews) July 25, 2025
Germany says no change in non-recognition of Palestinian state amid mounting international pressure Anadolu Agency
Slovenia’s (short-lived) NATO rebellion Thomas Fazi
New Not-So-Cold War
🇺🇦🇷🇺‼️🚨 BREAKING: Russian units broke into Pokrovsk, the Ukranian collapse has begun.
Pokrovsk will likely be the most strategically important achievement for the Russia in 2025.
Ukraine loses the biggest logistics hub in Donbass and the last big fortification before the Dnepr pic.twitter.com/caOwfQnmDw
— Lord Bebo (@MyLordBebo) July 25, 2025
Western Media Admits: Humanitarian Catastrophe in Ukraine Global Research
Is the US Weapons Stockpile Depleted By the War In Ukraine?The War Horse
***
We must work with Libyans to stop Putin weaponizing migrants, top EU official says Politico
Italian media revealed that soldiers from Libyan general Khalifa Haftar’s forces are being trained at military bases in Italy, including Pisa and Sardinia.
Although Italy officially recognizes the Tripoli-based government, it reportedly organizes separate training programs for… pic.twitter.com/sFntEuAVcN
— Clash Report (@clashreport) July 25, 2025
L’affaire Epstein
Ghislaine Maxwell received limited immunity during meetings with deputy attorney general: Sources ABC News
The Mystery of Ghislaine Maxwell: Does Epstein’s Associate Have an Untold Story? Jonathan Turley
Now that Trump is trying to deflect talk of the Epstein-Trump relationship by talking about the Epstein-Clinton relationship, the shift to the Epstein-Clinton relationship will almost certainly focus on Clinton’s ties to Epstein after Clinton left office (i.e. after the year… https://t.co/QG5LsikYhB
— Whitney Webb (@_whitneywebb) July 26, 2025
Scoop: Dems think they can get ahold of Epstein’s birthday book Axios
South of the Border
Milei’s Argentina shows where South America might be heading Chatham House
Trump 2.0
US diplomats asked if non-whites qualify for Trump refugee program for South Africans Reuters
Immigration
The Supremes
Supreme Court conservatives hide behind their own masks as they upend the law Law Dork
Police State Watch
Feds charge SoCal medical workers who allegedly helped targets of ICE raid Los Angeles Times
Trump Wants 18,000 New Federal Agents Ken Klippenstein
DHS Declares Abrego ‘Will Never Walk America’s Streets’ Hours After Judges Order His Release Tech Dirt
Judge sanctions lawyers defending Alabama’s prison system for using fake ChatGPT cases in filings AP
Why Closing Prisons — Even Bad Ones — Is Complicated Governing
Imperial Collapse Watch
Trump Isn’t the Peace President. Is Such a Thing Possible? Inkstick
Beyond Neoliberalism? Phenomenal World
AI
Anthropic Faces Potentially “Business-Ending” Copyright Lawsuit Obsolete
Is SoftBank Still Backing OpenAI? Ed Zitron
US DoE taps federal sites for fast-track AI datacenter and energy builds The Register
Accelerationists
1/ Saw this tweet & decided to do a Shaun Maguire Info Dump:
Elon Musk’s ally at Sequoia Capital (working under fellow S. African PayPal Mafioso Roleof Botha) purchased a home in Israel half a year ago & has spearheaded the firm’s investment in Israeli defense tech since 10/7 🧵 pic.twitter.com/ipXTgjYfz4
— ParaPower Mapping (@KlonnyPin_Gosch) July 24, 2025
CFPB Paying Nearly $5 Million for Vought’s Security Detail Bloomberg
Scanary: Israeli war tech repurposed to police world’s public spaces Al Mayadeen
Grindr Won’t Let Users Say ‘No Zionists’ 404 Media
Screening Room
‘Founders Films’ aims to remake Hollywood with patriotism, Palantir and Ayn Rand Semafor
Obama Legacy
Barack Obama Says Grown-Ups Shouldn’t Be Eating Ketchup Block Club Chicago
Our Famously Free Press
.@WSJ has given Yaser Abu-Shabab, Israel-backed criminal gang head, a voice to write his opinion.
I will lose my mind. This is an unprecedented dark time of media in history. It’s the darkest. pic.twitter.com/8s31MwKFZY
— Abubaker Abed (@AbubakerAbedW) July 25, 2025
Propagandists who have spent years printing disinfo to justify Israel’s genocide are desperately trying to pivot, as their beloved Israeli colonial regime starves Palestinians to death.
Bari Weiss published this propaganda in May.
Media publishers were tried at Nuremberg, btw. https://t.co/TqxlJfTK6R pic.twitter.com/1YN0yVFcsu
— Ben Norton (@BenjaminNorton) July 25, 2025
The Friendly Skies
Southwest flight out of Burbank abruptly descends to avoid ‘mid-air collision’ with other plane ABC7 Los Angeles
Air traffic controllers didn’t warn a B-52 bomber crew about a nearby airliner, the Air Force says AP
Big Brother Is Watching You Watch
Man awarded $12,500 after Google Street View camera captured him naked in his yard in Argentina CBS News
The Bezzle
Uber’s Finally Profitable & Workers and Customers Will Pay Back Its Losses Fast Ian Welsh
The Cryptocurrency Industry Wants CLARITY When Congress Returns NOTUS
Class Warfare
Will Cuts in Rural Programs Leave the Same Lasting Wounds as the 2008 Financial Crisis? Barn Raiser
Opening Up Space Working Class Storytelling
Antidote du jour (via):
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.
“Grindr Won’t Let Users Say ‘No Zionists”
Grindr did that? Well I suppose that comes as a big relief to the Israeli prison guard community.
Some say it was Lindsey Graham who personally interceded in the matter.
Lindsey Graham is a regular on Grinder and notices these things? I guess I’m not surprised.
Do you mean to imply that “the wheels of Justice grind fine and dandy?”
Oh my, Mz Lindsey gives S&M a bad name.
“Hi sweet cheeks! You new in town? Let me clue you in. When some big muscly hunk in a uniform says “Assume the position!” he really means to toe the AIPAC Line. Got it? If not, you soon will baby!”
Movie pitch: ’28 Lays Later’
A man who hasn’t been President for almost 25 years takes the heat for a standing President-whose sole defense is that he wasn’t an islander.
A classic buddy film, high jinx come with the territory.
2 thumbs up, er wait those aren’t thumbs.
How about a crossover film with “Weekend at Bernies” starring Joe Biden?
Now you’re pitching a plot for an episode of “Fantasy Island.” Only this time, we can call it “Fantasy Empire.”
I keep thinking there will be, or should be, a remake or a reboot to the Demolition Man. I like quoting the movie on occasion of course. After all, the two main characters were indeed cryogenically preserved from a much different, earlier time in Los Angeles.
Earlier this month went to a movie theater to watch 20 minutes of previews and only then did the new Jurassic World / Jurassic Park movie begin…so a remake of the Running Man will come to a theater near you! I forget when it’s being released. Glen Powell is the lead actor I think, the role played by Schwarzenegger in the original.
But who could replace Dickie Dawson? Now that is Hubris writ large.
I mean… that’s not nothing if it’s true. But if El Trump wasn’t the kind of person to be invited he’d never be the kind of person to have been able to mount a campaign for president. That was the entire point of the Epstein operation as far as I understand it.
FYI,
It appears Jimmy Dore was actually on the Southwest Airlines flight out of Burbank that almost had a midair collision.
https://x.com/jimmy_dore/status/1948841786765705392
I’m beginning to get really worried. We know that the ATCs are chronically overworked. We don’t know how bad morale is, after D.O.G.E. attacks. We know airlines are being run by the ruthless and predatory capitalists on Wall Street who put profits over safety.
To quote Han Solo, “I’ve got a bad feeling about this.”
Meanwhile, Delta execs were busy cheating on executive pay limits during the CARES act era:
https://archive.ph/0XSm0
The near miss was between a Southwest 737 and a Hunter Hawker fighter operated by a military contractor, Airborne Tactical Advantage Company.
ATAC has a colorful history to say the least.
(scroll to Accidents and incidents)
Last week a B-52, January the collision of AA 5342 with a Blackhawk in DC. Wonder how many near misses with military or military contractors there have been recently.
There is a speed limit in Class E airspace of 250kts when below 10,000msl. While the near miss with the Southwest 737 happened at 14,000ft, the ADS-B log shows that the Hawker Hunter continued on at over 200kts in excess of this speed limit well below 10,000ft, as it descended over Thousand Oaks and Simi Valley. Active duty pilots respect this speed limit, and are only going to exceed it on military training routes where it is permitted, or unless otherwise approved by ATC. Not clear if the Hunter had ATC clearance to exceed the speed limit, but I’m going to guess that’s a big fat NO.
In fact, the Hunter was still going 440kts right up to the point where it did an overhead break entry into the pattern for landing at Point Mugu NAS. Active duty military pilots are trained to fly overhead breaks at only 300-350kts.
What an absolute yahoo.
That’s what watching too much Top Gun does to people.
Will Jimmy claim that THEY are out to get him, even on a big plane, because he’s such a truth-teller? /sarc
It’s notable that if you search for “brain fog” in Google Trends, there’s a notable change in character of the increase in searches for it since 2004, with an upward slop that after 2020 accelerates its uptrend.
Brain Fog
I can’t think like the herd, so I have no idea what people search for generally, but trying random words and coming across “absence“, it’s had a predictable oscillation with peaks in winter, annually since 2004. But the peaks and toughs since 2020 are massive. (2025 is so far the largest on record; Google tracks “interest” from 0 to 100 over time with 100 being highest. We’ve hit 100 this year.)
If only we had reliable public health data.
I had that experience in January of 1968. I was in the port side window seat of row 2 on a TWA Convair 880 from Chicago to Atlanta. About 5 minutes into a steep climb out of ORD toward the southwest, the pilot suddenly cut the engines back and nosed down to level fight. I glanced out of the window in time to see a business jet slightly above and in front of us, close enough to read the numbers on the tail. The pilot maintained that bearing and slow speed for at least 10 minutes, while he was presumably cleaning out his chair.
My closest call was flying the day after KAL 007 was shot down on the very same flight.
There was about 30 coin dealers on board, we were going to a coin show in Hong Kong with a stopover in Seoul.
Korean Air Lines had help yourself alcoholic beverage carts that day in the aisles, never seen that before or since.
The onus was on us to drink heavily~
And this just in from Denver. These incidents really do seem to be happening much more often.
https://x.com/rawsalerts/status/1949255683431440621
It makes me think twice about flying anywhere.
OTOH almost 40K people were killed on USA roads last year.
It’s fine we have the watermelon emoji for that.
https://www.404media.co/grindr-no-zionists-error-message/
“US asked Saudi Arabia to send missile interceptors to Israel during Iran conflict. Riyadh refused”
Well, duhh! If the Saudis had stripped their aerial defenses for the benefit of the Bronze Age barbarians who started the war in the first place, then that would have left them defenseless for any Iranian – or Houthi – retaliation. Yeah, nah! That war is over and the Saudis still have their aerial defenses so well played. And it’s not like the Israelis would have shown them any gratitude. If anything, they would have said that they had an obligation to do so or something. And then there was this bit-
‘Before the 7 October 2023 Hamas-led attack on southern Israel, the US was working to integrate Israel’s air defence system with Gulf allies in part of a much hyped “Middle East Nato”.’
Only in Washington would this be considered a reasonable idea. It would mean that the Israelis would be able to hook into the Gulf allies air defence system but is that really a good idea? Would they be able to trust the Israelis doing that?
I was surprised KSA had any THAAD, the pertinent agreement was during Trump 1.0. KSA normally is slower.
That said the “batteries are only recently delivered, and KSA likely needs them in case Al Houthi get miffed over the support for Israel.
Or Iran…
You are insulting the Bronze Age Barbarians, for sure.
The siege of Troi, 10 years long, involved having one of the gates free to allow food getting in the city…
I don’t even know what to say to the article about kids being sick and forced to go to school.
Adults shouldn’t go to work sick either, and we shouldn’t encourage it.
My wife is a teacher and we have a 4 year old and new born due next week. She has always joked about home schooling, if this type of thing spreads, we might have to consider it.
The school board is forward thinking, just ensuring children become good workers that sacrifice their health for profit margins.
With that, it’s time for me to study more Marxism.
I’d encourage a broader exploration:
Kropotkin
Bookchin
i read a good half of Wendy Brown’s Undoing the Demos, while sitting by my truck on the side of the road selling vegetables, fruit, tamales and pasties, today.
Kropotkin was in the truck, in reserve, just in case.
But Wendy is a superb writer, and none of it gave me eye strain,lol.
agin, jess don tell the locals my nomme de guerre
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1AvbkTU4hq/
Undoing the Demos is the best book on how Neoliberalism has hijacked everything. The entire Near Futures series is excellent.
Thanks to both of you — adding that one to the hopper …
If you like Marx, I would recommend Progress and Poverty by Henry George next. Full version here.
A classic, to be sure.
Marx is good for unpacking socioeconomic dynamics due to the advent of industrialization whilst being preeminent about things like M – M. Which we now see as hyper financialization via Gates digital capitalism w/o any social productivity attached. After that it starts to wander off into the wilderness of some imaginary future. Somehow oblivious too those that control/shape the narrative have advantage over organic formation – see media/academic control.
Personally, Michal Kalecki is a lot more concurrent and insightful on the inner workings leading up too and today on how things work.
https://www.hetwebsite.net/het/profiles/kalecki.htm
my fave Marx is the Brumaire(sp-3)
he’s hilarious.
Grundrisse is rather more serious, but worth ruminating on.
Wellie my thing is no one is omnipotent. Hence why I am more of a pluralist that moves forward with what is shown relative and stop before being consumed by some narrative. Like having the proverbial towel always on offer I keep a big ball of string handy just in case. I learned that early in life having been exposed to so many religions as well different regions in the US and across the pond. Per se a AZ christian vs Midwest or East Coast before the invasion in the 70s primarily based on RE/job growth.
These days I seek function over lofty words or grand theories of everything, it works or just gaslighting a population for the benefit of retaining control over the direction of humanity. Not that those sorts – of all stripes – have a propensity to indulge in things that …
I guess its a bit like the Netflix series Foundation at the moment, psychohistory having a conjunction event. Some know through information and experience like Jeffery Sachs, publicly point out the can of worms, yet the currant political admin in the U.S. believes its 20 yrs ago.
Counter to that article and what the school superintendent had to say, which does seem overly restrictive in my view. But after eight or so years teaching at local elementary schools, my niece is done with the teaching profession at this time. Too much craziness, no reasonable controls or getting proper support by administrator(s), to simply corral 2nd or 3rd graders. Apparently some of whom are unable to read at the proper level. Anecdotally I note that Greenville County in SC has grown tremendously in the 9 or so years I have been living nearby.
I’m not a parent but there don’t seem to be ready made or easier solutions. I know others who currently teach, or have been teaching, have commented previously about the ongoing damage to a functional environment to learn from, or since , the Covid and pandemic lockdown.
But after eight or so years teaching at local elementary schools, my niece is done with the teaching profession at this time. Too much craziness, no reasonable controls or getting proper support by administrator(s), to simply corral 2nd or 3rd graders. Apparently some of whom are unable to read at the proper level.
It’s not just those ages…
I quit teaching last May when our semester was over after 6 years for a state college in Ohio. The school is a disorganized mess. Many of the students aren’t ready for school at this level. So many just don’t care. Only want a grade and move on. Learning is secondary. I hear this from teachers of all levels. Many can’t wait to get out.
Our educational system is a mess (at least around me) and our kids even worse. Good luck…
I’ve been a reading buddy in a couple of low-income elementary schools for the past few years. I was thinking about transitioning to teaching. A few weeks of very limited hours in the classroom disabused me of that notion. I don’t need to manage 25 kids for insanely low pay. I’ve already managed 10+ adults for a couple years for good pay, and even that experience led me to ask for a demotion.
What I think classrooms need are teacher helpers in every class. In other words, every teacher needs a helper/assistant to rein in the difficult/distracted students and take care of a variety of other tasks.
Also, more teaching positions need to be part-time. It’s actually possible I could teach/work 4 hours a day (let’s say 3 classes, maybe an hour for admin stuff), but there’s no way my 50+ year old body and mind could take a full day of it.
I was a full time middle school teacher for a couple years, but subbed before that, and continue to sub part time still. I can’t tell you how wonderful it would be to have more teachers (I say teachers, or at least qualified paras, not just adults. We don’t need someone’s random uncle screaming at students for tapping his pencil on the desk) in the room. My classes were all 30 students and up- I think my largest class was 36, maybe 38?
Now most of the classes I sub are ILC ( Integrated Learning Centers, or special needs classes), where there are small class sizes and multiple teachers/paras. This is usually a legal necessity as many of the students have Individual Education Plans that require individual care, or have seizure disorders and need eyes on them at all times. Granted this is a pretty well-funded public school district, but wouldn’t it be wonderful if we as a society deemed it beneficial, necessary, that all classrooms deserved that kind of teacher/student ratio? We will waste hundreds of billions of dollars on AI ponzi schemes in the coming years, but can’t fund our schools enough to get better than 36 students for one teacher at many schools.
Parents should send kids to school with masks, with an MD note for THAT, as in being a risk for other kids and staff and making kid take off mask = liability for school.
They’ll get sent home.
Wowzers, I can’t even formulate sentences above the astounding idiocy of this policy. Somehow, schools kept on just fine prior to 2020 without a district policy like this. Why not explore the root causes before beating everyone with a stick?
Wowzers, I have no words.
The America public school system really is a dangerous place for our children these days.
So the University of Florida published a brief on chronic absenteeism recently, in fact:
Roll Call: Unpacking Chronic Absenteeism in Florida
This is looking at through 2023 data, I think.
What were some key points?
The rates are consistently highly across style district type, whether it is urban or rural, all higher during this Pandemic, relative to their respective numbers previous to 2020.
It’s almost like no one is immune to this.
This dynamic report shows absences, chronic, K-12 in Orange county, Florida. Wowzers again. It looks like a bomb went off.
It was a consistent, very very consistent, 10% prior to 2020. It peaked at almost 30%, and was coming down in 2023, the last year available in this report. Statewide, same result. Peaked at 20%, coming down slowly in 2023.
And this: Student Absenteeism in Florida Up 50% Since Pandemic
On academic performance
I realize not everyone has any interest in hearing about this, but I find it useful to confirm that the Pandemic is indeed ongoing, sickening and disabling people daily, and not a myth or mirage as liberal Democrats and Republicans would have you believe.
Stay safe out there.
Ongoing school absences might be one of the few reliable metrics we have about what’s happening, as sickening as that is.
I wish it was about academic performance. Schools receive federal funds per student attendance.
“The policy states that after just three absences, schools will start intervention. If the student misses school for eight or more days, they will be referred to juvenile court.”
Juvenile Court for getting sick? It’s no wonder people are choosing to go childless.
Coming soon — the return of debtors prison …
This sounds like something Trump would say. Chinese stole the plans and gave them to Pakistanis!
The myth of superior Top Gun NATO training just can’t die. The only real NATO-style tactics is attacking someone that has no airforce capable of resisting. The moment it faced someone “near-peer”, like Russia, it went down in flames.
Yup, that article from an Indian site was almost racist in it’s assumptions. And stupid, too: one doesn’t learn complicated tactical and technical platform stuff from retired pilots – they just flew their platforms according to the commands from an AWACS.
One studies one’s own situation, existing resources and all preceding aerial conflicts and then figures out the best way or two to cause losses to enemy while avoiding losses to oneself.
I see your teeth flash, Epstein honey so sweet
Down where 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue crosses main street
Oh he’s a big man, he’s standing six-foot three
Turning financial tricks for the dudes in the big city
Island girl
What you wanting with the white man’s pedophile world?
Island girl
Epstein boy wants you in his island world
He want to take you from the Jeffrey boss
He want to save you, but the cause is lost
Island girl, island girl, island girl
Tell me what you wanting with the white man’s pedophile world
Well she’s 14 years old, but she burn like a fire
And she wrap herself around you like a well-worn tire
You feel her nail scratch your back just like a rake, oh oh
He one more gone, he one more John who make Mann Act mistake
Island girl
What you wanting with the white man’s pedophile world?
Island girl
Epstein boy wants you in his island world
He want to take cover no matter the cost
He want to save himself, but the cause is lost
Island girl, island girl, island girl
Tell me what you wanting with the white man’s pedophile world
Island girl
What you wanting with the white man’s pedophile world?
Island girl
Epstein boy wants you in his island world
He want to take cover no matter the cost
He want to save himself, but the cause is lost
Island girl, island girl, island girl
Tell me what you wanting with the white man’s
Tell me what you wanting with the white man’s
Tell me what you wanting with the white man’s
Island Girl, performed by Elton John
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xpRZZmB9zB0&list=RDxpRZZmB9zB0
Nice one. Woke up with Warren Zevon going through my head,
I went home with a waitress
The way I always do
How was I to know
She was with the Russians too
That’s less than the price of one Patriot missile. USA, and even Ukraine, could have offered double the money for all that explosive instead of “warnings”.
Plus “with military uses” is a stretch.
Explosives are used in demolition and mining, for starters.
and in my case, mold mitigation.
I’ll bite! Do tell….
I concur, how do one uses explosives to mitigate mold?
Or perhaps you have to contend with that kind of mold similar to what is found in movies such as “The blob” or “The Caltiki monster”…
30″ of heavy rain over 4 1/2 days…roof was already leaky(due to me…my fault…i am a poor roofer)…but could not handle this much at once.
so the whole house got soaked.
save for my bed(that leak only happens with our normal, sideways rain from the west)
and just as soon as it stopped, there sprang up a light green carpet on everydamnedthing.
boy’s twin beds in their former rooms were saved, due to the lofts/treehouses i built over them,lol.
but those mattresses need to sit in the sun for a time, anyway.
i sprayed the whole place with pinesol, with one of those big pump sprayers.
then, once the rain was definitely done, i opened all the windows, turned on all the fans and fan-like apparattii, and ran off with all mom’s fans, too.
moved out the couch and easy chair that tam spent her last 3 1/2 years in, and took that…as well as a buncha clothes and crap that the boys had failed to clean up…to the dump…working on a second dumpload now…along with the hacking away at the jungle that sprang up after that rain…as well as all the other myriad things i do around here.
due for a second treatment…on everything…of pinesol….and then further drying…and then paint the plywood floors with that latex like gray garage floor paint.
…until i can figger out what to do about the roof.
cousin is coming up at some point to look at it…he has 30 years experience with all things construction.
i suspect that the main deal is the stovepipe holes.
because the entire roof is covered with 3 coats of that white enamel roof coating…
but its getting in somewhere.
so yeah…ive considered accidentally having a fire(touch wood)…
Oh dear!
No house, no mold.
while i do spend most of my nonworking time on a barstump out here at the wilderness bar(the town hall, as it were)….i cannot sleep rough any more.
too old and broken.
during the worst of the mold…2 nights..the dog and i did stay out here, me in the hammock, she on the couch.
but it was not restful…i need my 29 pillownest to prop up my mortal remains.
‘Southwest flight out of Burbank abruptly descends to avoid mid-air crash with other plane’
If only military aircraft could be equipped with some sort of electronic gear to sweep the skies and detect other aircraft so as to avoid aerial collisions. Maybe hook it up to some software to give those military aircraft warnings that they are heading for a potential midair with another aircraft. You think that the Pentagon might fund it?
Commercial airlines have it it’s called
TCAS.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traffic_collision_avoidance_system
(bold mine)
We probably have more radars installed around the world than we do at airports in the United States.
Of course we can afford it.
You’ve got to be kidding me.
Yeah. That should read; “He said radars are cost prohibitive to install at every civilian airport.”
Also, why didn’t the Minot Air Force Base tower warn the B-52 about the commercial flight? It’s a SAC base. It has to have radars galore.
Plus, the B-52 had its transponder off. Why, in a commercial flight path?
Plenty of airports only have towers operational during the day. At night regional ATC handle IFR traffic in the class E and give clearances with “contact ATC by landline when on the ground”.
In class D you only need to establish radio contact. Or if no Class D announce your position/intent on CTAF.
Putting more avionics on US military aircraft is not trivial. It is especially hard on fighters.
US airlift (C-17, C-5 KC 135,, KC 46) aircraft may have suitable communications navigation equipment because they need to fly in “ICAO airspace” quite often. Aircraft not equipped must fly at restricted altitudes and “lanes”. Often not “economical”.
The rest of US military aircraft have lesser need and the cost is high for a non combat equipment.
Modifying an aircraft takes engineering on the aircraft to suit the new stuff.
Not having radar based at the airport is not the same thing as not having radar coverage.
Radar can be supplied from another location in this case the US military base.
FAA (some DoD operated) maintains radar tracks and “control” of aircraft within roughly 60 miles of most larger airports. The radar has range enough that one set can be shared among proximate airports.
Aircraft outside airport surveillance radar (ASR) self report position, and altitude to enroute control regions/centers.
FAA maintains data base of flight plans. If a reported location or radar track deviated from beacon sqwalk an alarm gets a human controllers’ attention.
That is how it should work.
Positive control is mostly in Class B airspace. Class C not quite so strict.
It’s not like everyone knew how it will pan out right from the start. Slovenia is where the first blood was drawn in this NATO conquest of The East, that is doing less and less great the farther it goes (as per tradition). The idea of Slovenia leaving NATO sounds as silly as Trump ending war in 24 hours.
I must comment on some footage of Trump saying that he was going to cut drug prices, not by 30 or 40 percent, but, 100, 500 and even 1500 % what?he went on to say that he was going to achieve this by making the EU pay more for their drugs. If they refused he would not allow them to sell cars in the US. He then went on to name German cars Mercedes, BMW, and Volkswagen. This clip was on the daily show a couple of days ago.
It sounded completely unhinged.
Does he not understand how math works?
This was on Weds 7/23/25 episode. He was at a reception for Congress.
I watched that a few times. I concluded it was an attempt at absurdist humor… inside joke for and from the guy who holds all the marbles, not losing them. Note- I can’t stand the guy so have little objectivity.
https://x.com/Acyn/status/1947815418263179287?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
You get the drugs and get paid, The American dream. 💉 💵 Before Trump, only drug dealers coud do that.
More corporate welfare?
Microsoft-owned GitHub: Open source needs funding. Ya think?
‘Industry, national governments, and the EU’ must pay for maintainers. El Reg says charity shouldn’t start at home.
https://www.theregister.com/2025/07/24/microsoftowned_github_says_open_source/?td=rt-3a
Residents of a Birmingham, AL fight huge data center–
Residents are clashing with their local government over a proposed data center that will cause their water and electricity rates to skyrocket while it damages the local environment and increases their health risks.
Birmingham already has insanely high water charges due to being forced to eat the costs of a new sewer project that went out of control cost wise and then was made worse by bad swaps bets.
What in the hell are people thinking?
This AI mania, and ensuing real action on the ground, will accelerate all sorts of cascading material, monetary, and societal catastrophes.
Boy oh boy am I becoming poisonously misanthropic!
Note the non-disclosure agreements the council members signed with the developer. I’m sure there will be a big rush in the Alabama statehouse as well as the U. S. Congress to prevent localities from banning data centers just as has been done in states like Pennsylvania with respect to fracking.
He (or she) with the biggest server, wins!
Loathing AI doesn’t make you misanthropic. Shilling for AI does that. Loathing people who shill for AI means you are a miso-misanthrope. It’s good to hate cascading evil.
This was discussed in an afternoon segment on CNBC. One of the anchors, Kelly Evans I think, lives in New Jersey with her family, and her example cited an approximate increase to their utilities at roughly 15 to 20% from same period the previous year.
These data center and AI use case, and the required energy demand are seemingly poised to really screw around with the water usage and also the power grid in unwelcome ways…by the way the summer heat wave is really gonna start this weekend and into next week. I suspect heat index levels are gonna be problematic here in South Carolina as well as the Southeast. Best to stay indoors it is just ridiculous how flipping hot.
Same happening here in Tucson. AWS’ Project Blue wants 600-1400 MW data centers on scrub land beside I-10. City officials are almost all in after the county agreed. Amazon claims they will “look at” renewable power, but my simple calc shows that covering the entire plant’s 290 acres with PV would generate less than 10% of the daily power. Canadian company that owns Tucson Electric Power (TEP) has just raised rates 14%, and this facility would take 15%+ of the city power even with full EV coverage. They also talk about 18 miles of new piping to bring in “reclaimed” cooling water after 2-3 years consumption of potable water, diverting it from groundwater recharge. The city government says this would equivalence 2-4 new golf courses (typical Az metric). The language in the proposed contract with the city is hidden in an NDA, but I bet any “commitment” to these things can be weaseled out of. Local unions support this scam for the opportunity to bid on 2-3 yrs of construction jobs, then 15 rent-a-cops and janitors on-site with others non-local. The PR uses “average” salaries and other scams. Packaged as “supporting AI” and broadening the tax base from thankfully useless Raytheon weaponry and odious call centers.
Tucson AZ is having a similar battle with a proposed data center located in SE Tucson with Amazon the major user, among others:
https://azluminaria.org/2025/07/25/hundreds-demand-answers-on-tucsons-proposed-project-blue-data-center-at-heated-community-meeting/
No mention of the tax benefit/give-away to/from the community.
Slovenia’s referendum on leaving NATO?
I almost choked on my popcorn!
Even if this heretic move was quashed by powers that be, faster than the wrong voting in Ireland, France, Romania and so on (long list), the light at the end of the tunnel has lit up. The Great Cancer may start to recede soon, hallelujah.
Who knows, getting Corbyn’s ideas to people in U.K. may help us open up our own eyes too, on futility of our existential reliance on robbery and plunder as a mode of survival. Maybe we get reindustrialised too? “Made in U.K.?”
The light you see at the end of the tunnel, is train.
“Is China’s Military Ready for War? | Foreign Affairs”
‘A new wave of purges has engulfed the senior leadership of China’s military, the People’s Liberation Army.’
Gee, I wonder if there was this sort of commentary when General Marshall cut about 1,000 officers from the US Army back in 1940-
https://www.defensemedianetwork.com/stories/gen-george-c-marshall-eliminates-dead-wood/
Does the US military have any sort of process for getting rid of deadwood anymore?
Does the US military have any sort of process for getting rid of deadwood anymore?
Of course, it’s called promotion 🙄
Senior Military Officers Dismissed by Donald Trump in 2025
Overview of Dismissals
In 2025, President Donald Trump has dismissed several senior military officers, including:
Position Officer Date of Dismissal
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. CQ Brown Jr. February 21, 2025
Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Lisa Franchetti February 21, 2025
Vice Chief of Staff, Air Force Gen. Jim Slife February 21, 2025
Judge Advocates General (Army, Navy, Air Force) Multiple Officers February 21, 2025
Additional Four-Star Generals 20% of total four-star officers May 6, 2025
As of May 2025, Trump has dismissed at least six senior military officers directly, with plans to cut 20% of four-star generals, which could lead to further dismissals.
It’s probably just a coincidence that ICE is building concentration camps such as Alligator Alcatraz around the USA.
Does anyone track how many Taiwan* military and government personnel are booted bc compromised by PRC.
I think it is not trivial.
*Per “One China Republic of China does not exist.
Aging wind turbines releasing microfiber glass into the air as they spin and causing a similar effect to asbestos is the best news I’ve heard all morning /sarc.
Many thanks for the article, I really did not realize they were so destructive. Seem like solar is the way to go then. At least until they iron out that new hydroelectric seabed concrete sphere project as a potential additional option for coastal areas. And I guess fission is something else to consider at least.
I remember reading complaints that solar also took up huge swathes of land but another article explained that the farms could be built so as to make use of the real estate beneath the panels for other purposes at least.
I suppose nothing is perfect but I was a little bit ribbed wirh the wind turbine article calling for everyone to reduce consumption. While we could all collectively do more to reduce emissions, I couldn’t help but be reminded of the push to use paper straws and heavy-duty grocery bags to make a difference while the billionaires keep jetting around releasing way more hazardous emissions than recyclable plastic straws and grocery bags.
Two hyenas named Fred and Ernie met at the waterhole one day. After walking out into the water where it was relatively clear, Fred enjoyed a good, long drink. When he had finished, while still standing in the water, Fred took a big (for a hyena) dump. “What the hell?,” demanded Ernie. “I haven’t even had a chance to get my drink yet.” “Why are you making a big stink?,” asked Fred. “Look at that big elephant over there dropping those bombs in the water.”
This kind of what-about-ism is only useful to people who don’t take climate change seriously. Moreover, campaigns against plastic throwaways is not directly related to the climate catastrophe, but is instead an attempt to reduce the amount of plastic in our environment so that we aren’t poisoning our kids and grandkids with microplastics every time they have a glass of water.
Private jets should be banned outright, but we also need to restrict or heavily tax unnecessary air travel. The ultra-rich do have obscene carbon footprints, but the affluent contribute mightily to climate problems as well because of their numbers and their conspicuous consumption habits.
30 years ago, when i arrived out here, it was SOP for Organic Farming to used a sheet of black plastic to cook all the weed seeds(and the weeds) in whatever area you intended to put a raised bed.
and thats what i did, lol.
i regret it, today…but it was the way it was done, and allowed me to avoid herbicides.
now, i used the paper feedsacks and nonglossy cardboard.
as for solar taking too much room…i can see how they’d hafta be overengineered to co-exist with cows,lol…but i have seen them work just fine with sheep, chickens, and even goats…however, given how goats are, one would need to do a lil overengineering for them, too, like covering the wires extra and somehow preventing the goats from climbing up and prancing about on the what i suppose is the relatively fragile surface that actually gets the power.(hail is a worry for me, too…but surely they have engineered them with that in mind)
My elders taught me a method of using old non glossy cardboard boxes with the edges surrounded by old used t shirts and sheets, 100% cotton. You can cut the boxes into the beds and then the cloth can be wrapped around the edges. It really works. It is water permeable. And it lasts about 3-5 years.
yep. thats how i’ll be doing the rehab on all my beds this winter(after(counts on fangers) 7 years of neglect(cancer adventure and aftermath).
the problem, ive found, is that it is exceedingly difficult to pull up all that black plastic that now has 1.5-2 feet of soil on it…as well as fruit trees and whatnot growing up through it.
dirt is heavy!
the main bed in question, behind the house, is my main focus…first such bed i put in, after hacking away at the 100s of years of wild weediness. 12’x 30′, and it has one of 3 graywater lines from the washhouse(i dont use that one, since i cant afford non sodium laden laundry soap atm)…first year, i got 400″ of tomatoes out of that bed,lol.
plus lots of other stuff.
the blackberries in there are to be moved to a better locale, and the kiefer pear trees pruned dramatically.
only 2 other large raised beds have the plastic underneath(out of 8.)…i started using cardboard around 20 years ago, when i learned the first inklings of the disaster we now know is microplastics.
i grow a whole lot of my stuff in those used lick tubs my rancher buddies drop off….those are plastic, but they’re easy to dump out and send to landfill(where they would have gone anyways) when they crack from uv exposure.
and of course, i have thousands of black pots of varying sizes(bought em at an estate sale a long time ago.) dern things last forever, apparently….but yeah, i think about it.
as for the little 3 and 4 and 6″ pots for seeding out and other greenhouse activities…ive been saving the cardboard tubes that orange juice and such concentrate comes frozen in for that purpose….gradually moving to that.
but since i dont really do much juice anymore(being solo), i’ll hafta get wife’s cousin and brother with their broods on board to save those for me….make it an educational thing, and also make them a part of the farm thing.
(they all want to come work,lol…but that sounds a lot like a lot of extra work herding, for me)
“They all want to come work, lol…but that sounds a lot like a lot of extra work herding, for me.”
Think of it as an investment in the future.
i have only run twice in the last 30 years…both times, because one of my boys was in a jam when they were little…and i paid for it for days,lol.
i can prolly handle one or two little kids, so long as they’re verbal.
one of my nephews is autistic, nonverbal(the repeated movements, vacant stare kind)…he has limited sign language(ive tried, but my fingers wont do it).
sad thing is that he would prolly benefit the most from follerin me around out here, once in a while.
his twin sister looks after him, and she is Very verbal…so maybe a team effort,lol.
ive mentioned this to their mom over the years…and she’s even mentioned it to me several times…but we run in different circles, as it were(IE: i dont have a circle,lol)
the other batch..Tam’s brother has 4 kids….are more ready to wear….but only the older boy is interested so far.
again…circles…and jobs and busy busy busy.
i bring them all produce and eggs and such regularly…so i get to talk it up to the kids and my suegra.
everyone was surprised as hell to hear that older boy declare that billionaires are a policy failure.
after sitting around in the car with me for 4 hours while suegra did dialysis.
he’s 10 or 11, i think.
Solar developers permit grazing with sheep, ducks and other non-perching fowl and rabbits. Things that climb (goats!) or perch (hens!) are verboten. They damage or dirty the panels.
There are trials in the USA of double height, double strength panel frames to enable cattle grazing. The cost is a lot higher to build out but some cattle farming models may generate enough money to justify (e.g. dairying benefitting from the shade or premium organic beef).
Fowl usually aren’t a problem with solar panels. They are too slippy for them. They do love the dry dust underneath one. A friend with a small array has to shoo them back into their coop every evening as they prefer being under the panels (so do the local foxes, nobody ever said chickens are smart).
Sheep are the perfect grazers as they don’t do too much scratching and like the greater range of grasses and herbs and sheep thrive with the additional shelter (contrary to myth, sheep don’t actually enjoy hanging around in winter on exposed hillsides). The estimates I’ve seen is that a mix of sheep grazing and solar panels can produce around 40% of the meat/wool from grazing only. A complication is that you usually want high grass in the separation zones areas around watercourses (necessary to ensure that storm water run-off isn’t increased). So you may have to fence the sheep off from those areas.
Btw, I don’t have the time to go through it in detail, but the article is appalling and repeats repeatedly debunked myths. I would accuse the writer of being a fossil fuel shill, but to be fair I have met ecologists who genuinely don’t ‘get’, that the consequences of climate change on (for example) migrating birds is orders of magnitude greater than any possible impact of even the worst designed and located wind turbines.
“Judge sanctions lawyers defending Alabama’s prison system for using fake ChatGPT cases in filings”
This is happening too many times. Sooner or later they are going to have to pass some laws with heavy penalties for lawyers – and judges – using ChatGPT to put together legal cases that feature made-up precedents. It is just sheer laziness. Don’t lawyers have access to a database of past cases so that they can check up any ChatGPT generated precedents to see if they actually exist and say what the program says it says?
Of course they do. One could even use the prinyed volumes of Shepard’s Citations. Used to be consideted malpractice per se not to.
Also, foolish. In a high percenyage of matters coming before a court of general jurisdiction, let alone of limited or specialzed j., the major and recent precedents and relevant contrary holdings are VERY familiar to the court and to the other side.
Well, the idiot-in-chief makes up laws as he goes along. This will be some place where trickle-down works, mebbe?
Also, I just watched the latest episode of South Park, the opener for Season 27. It’s awesome. They show Cheeto in bed with Satan, with a microscopic pee-pee, voiced the same as Saddam was in South Park: BLU. And there’s some great “live” footage at the end. I can’t imagine him not planning REVENGE, LIKE THE WORLD HAS NEVER SEEN!!! on Stone and Parker. Will be fun to watch.
‘South Park’ co-creator jokes he’s ‘terribly sorry’ over premiere that drew White House anger
These are unforgivable misrepresentations to the courts, and I am glad to see judges finally use Rule 11(c) of the FRCP to get these clowns. It will leave a mark.
The higher-ups at the firm will probably try to blame shift to the junior associates, but responsibility lies with the attorney who represents the client in court. “The summer intern effed up” won’t cut it.
Hopefully someone is compiling a database of these jokers to let the public know, kind of like a do-not-hire-list for shady contractors.
“Western Media Admits: Humanitarian Catastrophe in Ukraine”
People are starting to notice-
https://www.moonofalabama.org/20i/auschwitzgaza.jpg
And then you find the commenters who have been silent on Israel now finding the solution: let’s just put Netanyahoo in the same pack of “Masters of Chaos (in Spanish)” with Putin (the Master of the Masters of Chaos), Jamenei and Trump. Only one of these is genocidal and the fourth mentioned in the pack is cooperating with it.
Actually in my circles this equation has long been “common sense”…
There is a direct connection between what Patrick Lawrence mourned as the death of journalism from abroad and this total ignorance of today´s educated classes about the world at large…
This is the 50th year anniversary of the Church Committee hearings.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Church_Committee
The reforms did work for a while. The MSM press back then played a major role in uncovering abuses.
Do you share the view that the Committee itself was a cover-up as diversion from the more serious crimes? So as to bolster the system eventually instead of genuinely change it?
p.s. If you remember there was 1974 THE PARALLAX VIEW by the great Alan Pakula (camera seminal Gordon Willis). It started and finished with a negative kinda framing of the Committee in the way as I mentioned:
The Parallax View (1974) – Opening scene and credits
2:15 min.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0G74HhQCYIY
This framing is repeated in the end where the same committee is again covering-up the real events which by then however we as an audience have witnessed.
And since I am at it:
Our very dear NC commentator, the one and only Alex Cox, has a great piece on this movie used (or made for?) Criterion’s Collection:
The Parallax View (1974) – ALEX COX INTRODUCTION (NEW)
15 min.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RfcEGmrOAkU
This was an earlier intro several years earlier:
Alex Cox introduces The Parallax View
2 min:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oZ4hpuH0ZJ8
Kevin Gosztola had a paywalled piece on the movie last year on the occasion of its’ 50th anniversary:
‘A Nightmare Based Upon The Terrors Of Our Time’: ‘Parallax View’ At 50
The second film in director Alan Pakula’s ‘70s Paranoia Trilogy’ was released on June 19, 1974
https://medium.com/the-wide-shot/a-nightmare-based-upon-the-terrors-of-our-time-parallax-view-at-50-f92b84f515be
“(…)If a film like “The Parallax View” was made today, it would be considered incendiary. Studio executives would be uneasy about distributing the film, and prestige media columnists would accuse the filmmakers of promoting toxic, tinfoil-hat conspiracy culture.
But 50 years ago, the United States was steeped in the post-Watergate era. Hollywood was also in the middle of a renaissance sometimes referred to as the American New Wave. Filmmakers were permitted to make movies with pessimistic storylines that grappled with the widespread sense among Americans that they were living in a lawless country.(…)”
pps. + re: Gordon Willis & Alan Pakula:
Gordon Willis, ASC on THE PARALLAX VIEW (Alan J. Pakula, 1974)
18 min.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hS3WFN5qez4
A conversation with Alan J. Pakula #01 (1978)
27 min.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PibY4pWkJO0
Thanks for these links. Alex Cox’s introduction is excellent.
BTW, Pakula himself died under strange circumstances in November, 1998.
He was driving on the Long Island Expressway when a piece of metal pipe pierced the windshield at high velocity, striking and killing him. The explanation for this “freak accident” that I heard was that a truck in front of him rolled over the pipe lying on the roadway, which is what set it into flight and through Pakula’s windshield.
Maybe my tinfoil hat is pressing too firmly, but something about this has always seemed fishy to me.
I frankly never thought about the accident´s circumstances🤔… which in case of Pakula is of course a valid point. Although I doubt the impact of his films was so feared. John Grisham reached more people with his books.
Today a certain category of movie people are treated like eggs. Just like soccer players they have clauses in their contract that prohibit them doing things that are potentially dangerous.
I wonder if driving is one of them.
(Some movie watchers however hate those artists that much they would love to see them get killed like Pakula. With him we certainly missed out on a few more great films!)
For Brazilian Barcelona forward Ronaldino it was things like water-skiing, naturally.
However my Mum when she was a cellist started to play Volleyball because it was the only sport she was allowed to do when in conservatory. Which kinda made no sense… if I remember correctly she said something like it was up to her then, because she wasn’t pursuing a solo career and was less “valuable”. i.e. , had she been a soloist not even Volleyball?
p.s. director Tom Shadyac is an odd case – during a bike tour he fell and almost died.
https://www.imdb.com/de/name/nm0001723/?ref_=tt_ov_1_1
After this experience he allegedly moved into a trailer park and gave away his millions.
It’s odd that the studio allowed him his life style – at least according to Wiki:
“(…)In 2007, Shadyac suffered post-concussion syndrome after a bicycle accident in Virginia, and experienced a prolonged period of acute headaches and hyper-sensitivity to light and sound. The injury followed the cumulative effects of previous mild head injuries Shadyac had suffered from surfing, mountain biking, and playing basketball. Shadyac was forced to sleep in a darkened closet in his house due to a constant ringing in his ears that lasted beyond a six-month period, and his treating doctors were unable to determine if and when the ringing would cease. Shadyac later explained: “I felt suicidal at points. It was a disaster.”(…)”
Also, L.A. TIMES
2019
No one would hire Hollywood’s top comedy director. An exonerated football star changed that
https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/story/2019-08-07/brian-banks-innocence-project-tom-shadyac-ace-ventura
re: AI vs. human / film business
HOW TO BEST AI AT WRITING SCREENPLAYS
https://scriptshadow.net/how-to-best-ai-at-writing-screenplays/
“(…)
AI be coming for our jobs.
Will it succeed?
I don’t know. I still don’t think it will ever grasp the kind of honest authentic character development that good scripts have. Then again, a lot of regular writers struggle with creating honest authentic characters as well.
Either way, it got me thinking, how do we defeat AI as screenwriters?
I think I know the answer.
You see, the reason AI is good at mimicking most of screenwriting is because a screenplay is the second most mathematical of the writing mediums (the first being poetry). And that’s what AI is good at. It’s good at recognizing patterns and structure and mimicking them.
However, what I’ve learned over time is that the scripts that stand out the most are the ones that have an X-FACTOR. They have some invisible secret sauce that CAN’T BE MEASURED, which makes them stand out in some way.
When a writer taps into an x-factor, the read stops feeling like a script and starts feeling like an experience. It’s like you’re really there, that you’re being taken on a journey that’s so unique, you know you’ll never be taken on that same journey again for as long as you live.
And if you want to take it to its logical conclusion, you can say that the x-factor is what gives your script a SOUL. Guess what? No matter how hard AI tries, it will never be able to inject a screenplay with a soul.
(…)”
“Exclusive / ‘Founders Films’ aims to remake Hollywood with patriotism, Palantir and Ayn Rand”
Yeah, those films are going to be a ball of fun. Didn’t they make “Atlas Shrugged” a few years ago and it kinda sank out of sight? People may be sick and tired of most Hollywood films but the films that they are planning on will not be an improvement. Will they try to remake “Triumph of the Will” as an expression of American exceptionalism? And why so many fan boy films about Israel? The only way that I would want to see one of their films is if they made a sexy romcom films about a very young Ayn Rand and L. Ron Hubbard having a hook up and bragging about the empires that they want to build up.
It took a couple of minutes to find the poorly organized results.
3 Parts; 2011-2014; 35 million reported to produce; 9 million reported made back. Bad reviews. Nobody I ever heard of involved.
I did learn that IMDB now has their box office receipts behind a pay wall.
in the same way…and for the same reasons(know yer enemies)…that i read the whole Left Behind series(ug)…I watched 1 1/2 episodes of that horrible film(sic) version of a horrible book.
at the time, all the randian blowhards on FB were singing its praises.
because of course they were,lol.
must’ve been a big tax write off for somebody…
“I did learn that IMDB now has their box office receipts behind a pay wall.”
the moment I heard that amazon bought ’em I knew it would turn into garbage.
It’s a pro “tool” so I still use the site but not happily.
They can start on some film remakes, like say for example “The Patriot” which featured Mel Gibson as the militia leader with a sordid past in some frontier justice activities. But it features several incredible actors and I’ll throw in a great performance by Tom Wilkinson as Cornwallis.
While I enjoyed seeing that in a theater and do enjoy referencing that movie, it became a butt of film making jokes about the “kind plantation owner.”. To the article, well the Hallmark channel has some of this market cornered already. I would also concur with whatever a long time media hitter like Barry Diller has to say on such matters.
You mean this?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlas_Shrugged_(film_series)
It’s gonna be mainly anti-China stuff I think. The Palantir hobbit-f***ers are obsessed with this
Linked in the article is Palantir CTO”s vision for American Cinema https://www.shyamsankar.com/p/what-happened-to-the-american-cinematic
I remember growing up as an immigrant kid at the end of the Cold War, watching movies like Red Dawn, Top Gun, Rocky IV, and The Hunt for Red October. These movies were the pump-up material of Peak America. They were awesome, and they instilled a healthy aversion to ushanka-wearing commies, for good measures.
I call this the American Cinematic Universe…
…Movies in this universe were a soft power tool that helped lift the Iron Curtain and accelerate the collapse of the Soviet Union. They branded the Soviets in the eyes of the world as icy-eyed tyrants with designs to destabilize and take over the rest of the world for Communism. They were also a window into the American character: scrappy, swaggering, gun-slinging, and with a zeal for liberty. These depictions were obviously caricatures, but they spoke to fundamental truths about the two sides in the Cold War…
…I bring this up not just out of nostalgia but because we need the American Cinematic Universe today. America is in the middle of Cold War II against a communist enemy with more people, more money, and more military might than the Soviets ever had. The CCP is playing a more careful game than the Kremlin, but as the Uyghurs, Tibetans, and Taiwanese know, it’s no less tyrannical, even genocidal.
What is Hollywood doing to expose this new villain and inspire Americans? When was the last time you saw the CCP presented as a bad guy in a major motion picture, like the USSR? Cold War II is heating up, yet the American Cinematic Universe is AWOL. Worse than that, it’s compromised by Chinese influence.
Between this and Bari Weis TV at Paramount it’s gonna be rough sledding. Still at least Michael Shellenberger will get a chance to become a screenwriter :)
On the movies/output themselves I expect this but unironically:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9PgVQvAe7to
I’ve noticed that the fonts and design ethos of Palantir, Anduril et al fits with Starship Troopers and other dystopias.
Note the recurring keyword “Founder’s” which is a sign that something is from NRx post-democracy techlord fantasists.
Also remember Palantir was started with CIA seed money, and had the CIA as it’s only customer for years. This is not new, just more privatised.
Plus maybe a heart-warming retelling of Peter Thiel’s idyllic childhood as the son of a uranium mine manager in apartheid South Africa.
“While future chess prodigy Peter toyed with his pieces, he looked out of the window at the child labourers and started to ponder the real differences between black and white…”
Regarding Laura Miers post linking to the lengthy NIH published review of the high mortality after refeeding victims of mass starvation. The BBC today reports that one-third of Gazans have not eaten in days. Especially upsetting is that the food blockade includes infant formula. I am surprised by the lack of NC commenters about this situation. I am frustrated by my inability to do anything to contribute to halting this genocide. I have writer my senators and house representative who are OK with mass murder. I linked the Miers post to my local newspaper’s (Gannet) health columnist. Perhaps something may come of this. I do contribute to the United Palestine Appeal. They say the polls show increasing disfavor for Israel, but I am unaware other than on some campuses of demands that the U.S. stop this.
I usually do not comment on Gaza, but not because i dont think it is important and horrible to the extreme. It just drives me mad to think or write about it. I think I am not alone with this feeling.
yeah. overloaded and powerless to do anything besides yell at people who dont listen to me, and get myself on yet another List.
zionists are decidedly NOT welcome on the farm…but theres little danger of that, anyways…because there are no Jews, let alone zionazis out here.
plenty of zionist adjacent evengeifundementally unstable folks, of course…it being rural texas, and all…but they generally avoid me.
and just in case i ever get to buy things…i have the bar code number prefixes, or whatever, for Israel, stuck in my wallet for good measure.
and, on the headache rack on my truck(the kind that stands up behind the cab) it is painted, next to Thought Criminal…”Free Palestine”…as a dare to anyone to defend that evil bunch.
No takers, as of yet….and i doubt that there will be(looking the other way is a generational habit out here, since the Hoodoo War)
Anecdotally it’s getting talked about more in the wider world.
For nearly two years friends have changed the topic of I spoke of Israel/Gaza. In the last week this has changed, and some have even brought it up themselves.
I don’t know if this makes a difference to the starving people though.
I’m another poster that doesn’t post much on Gaza, mainly because almost everything simple enough for me to say quickly is already painfully obvious. There are other things I could add, which I don’t think many have picked up on, but I’m not sure now is the right time. They would probably require a full-on blog-post and until, at absolute minimum, the current Israeli government collapses and its attempted genocide ends, I’m not sure they’re apropos.
Until then, I think the harsh truth is popular opinion won’t stop the war in the US or Europe. I do believe the Israelis will fail and the Palestinians will make it through, but only through the grace of God and the logic of war. Which is still extremely grim and one more reason I don’t like talking much about it.
That doesn’t mean the protests and people speaking their mind are worthless though, not at all. It’s deeply therapeutic for all of us being dragged along for the ride, and also on the margins, I think it can change minds when it shocks people one-one-one who aren’t awake yet. A constellation of compromised politicians, hubristic Jewish elites, and death-worshippers have spoiled and encouraged Israel to the point of becoming a deeply sick society, even as their own societies crumble (including for most of us who are part-Jewish). To still deny it now is cowardice at best and often much worse, and the “Have you no decency, sir?!” treatment is often a great cure for that.
Here at NC though, I don’t think there’s much need for that. When this war finally does end though, I expect there will be a very long and lively conversation on what follows.
Re: “Ancient Human Highways Found Beneath the Sea”
Very disappointing article – NOT ONE MAP!?! I don’t want to read someone’s ignorant description of a map, I want to see the map.
I really wonder if this is indicative of the state of US education – why on earth is Geography not a high school subject in the USA? I took Geography every year in school (Canada) – it was my favorite subject. It’s just astonishing, the level of ignorance and lack of focus on spacial intelligence in favor of verbal intelligence in US culture in general. Is it the influence of lawyers? It’s not good.
Check the paper, there are some images and a video: https://comptes-rendus.academie-sciences.fr/geoscience/articles/10.5802/crgeos.273/
Thank you!
Thanks! Very good article, very much a prospectus informing future underwater archaeology. Several Atlantis‘s exist – this one appears to be quite something.
LOL! I thought the same. The article is unintelligible without a map of the hypothesis. Weirdly, even the paper doesn’t have one (although it has maps and animations).
They had several maps in the appendices. Notably of Foul Bay in the Red Sea. Yes, there actually were Red Sea pedestrians!
Yes, they had some interesting maps, on the accepted spread of humanity from Nubia, on Berenuca Troglodytica etc but no one map that showed the impact of their findings on patterns of migration and settlement between Africa, Arabia and the Levant. Or if they did, I missed it. I had high hopes for the animation but it was just coastline changes!
And yes, there were Red (River?) Valley pedestrians. I wonder what the precipitation pattern was like and whether there was a river like the English Channel….
I read the article about wind turbines and i cannot help but wonder who commissioned that piece
With liberal Democrats chasing the transit electrification magic pony, I do wonder about tire wear and electric cars. It came up here some months ago that with the increased weight, electric cars chew through tires much faster than ICE vehicles do. We know tires are composed of all kinds of really, really nasty chemicals, that shed into the environment as they wear.
There was a study some years ago, in CA, looking at road run off, and they isolated one chemical from tire chemicals that was causing frogs to mutate grotesquely or some such.
So on the one hand, these kinds of stories might seem silly, a hit piece on wind turbines. But perhaps in some cases, these are legitimate concerns. In complex systems, we have all kinds of interactions. Will the benefits of electrification of transit outweigh the costs of increased poisoning of ecosystems from microparticles from tires? Who knows.
I guess we’ll see.
I doubt any capitalist has ever asked the question, should I?
While EV’s do weight more they often have wider tires because of the weight. And even compared to a similar weight ICE car they get worse wear.
Meaning it’s how people drive. EV’s especially teslas but most higher end ones are marketed about performance, specifically acceleration and deceleration.
When was the last time you saw any car marketed on fuel economy vs acceleration?
I think the metric to compare tire life would be based both on weight and horsepower.
Since an ev has no lag you don’t get the softer acceleration from a normal automatic car. It hits right now which definitely shortens tire life.
Like most things, actually paying attention is a lost art
Just spitballing here, the oil, gas and coal industry?
I checked both the official US Navy and USMC websites to see how they were celebrating their 250th birthdays.
No Presidential Parade and review for either.
Which is effing stupid after Trumps Birthday Parade which was ostensibly about the US Army’s Birthday…
Trump has treated the US Military with disdain over the decades, this is one more example at a time when an Autarch with any brains would be cosseting them.
Trump’s misuse of Marines in LA as police is something the troops are paying attention to, Many are looking at this time as being analogous to 1860.
The Military has a choice of obeying their Oath to defend the Constitution or obeying their “Commander in Chief”, it’s going to interesting to see how this plays out.
I went to that Army parade. Trust me, that will never happen again.
It was embarrassing to the point of “someone effed this up on purpose”
One military officer said that he got his spurs on the battlefields while Trump got his spurs in a letter from his doctor.
The battlefield, commonly known as sandbox, where he got his spurs by beating those that are not able to back properly, and lost.
It was a teenage sanctions package and the old folks wished it well
You could tell it had passed by its sell date, by the rancid, odd smell
And now the Chairman, Modi, and Lula have rung the Chapel bell
C’est la vie, said the old folks — it goes to show you never can tell!
They tried a crypto crackdown with a bevy of bezzling banks
The fool-o-rator was crammed to sanction sinners and make Vlad dance
But when Kim Jong-Un and Jinpeng told ’em all to go to Hell
C’est la vie, said the old folks — it goes to show you never can tell!
They had a wargasm
Boy did they let it blast!
Merz was goose-steppin’ while Kallas tried to kick the Rooskie gas
But when the oil got through to Peru
The rapid tempo of the music fell
C’est la vie, said the old folks — it goes to say you never can tell
They had a souped-up levy it was a jerry-rigged ’53
They drove the dollar down to mean-and-lean to celebrate their insanity
It was there where the bear bellowed out a booming victory yell
C’est la vie said the old folks — it goes to show you never can tell!
[Bar room piano]
They had a teenage sanctions package, and the old folks wished it well
You could tell it had passed by its sell date, by the rancid, odd smell
And now the Chairman, Modi, and Lula rang the Chapel bell
C’est la vie said the old folks — it goes to show you never can tell!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=55_9o8LoWiw
Very nice!
I thought the Pro Publica article was titled “the dying planet”, and I’m like, yep.
What’s mind bending to me is that, if say 25 of the world’s richest people get together, they can probably build enough seawater carbon capture devices worldwide to make at least some notable reduction in atmosphere carbon. Instead of, you know, going to mars, or having weddings that buy out a city. In speculating in AGI garbage.
But these people are so disinterested and aloof, I doubt it’s ever even occurred to any of them.
We must work with Libyans to stop Putin weaponizing migrants, top EU official says —
Like him or not, this Putin chap certainly gets around for a 72 year old. When he’s not disrupting USA/EU elections and invading his innocent neighbors and disrupting the rules-based international order and bullying his own citizenry (who for some reason give him 80%+ approval ratings, the poor ignorant sods), he still finds time to meddle in Libya and drive its migrants north towards the EU. Scant mention in this article (just a tiny peep at the very end) as to what happened in Libya way back in 2011 or so, that started this whole migration problem in the first place.
The ignorance, it hurts.
I wonder what the most ludicrous “We must XXXXX to stop Putin” headline has been?
There’s been quite the selection the last few years!
Here’s a Twitter megathread about all the things thing Putin has weaponized:
https://xcancel.com/OlgaBazova/status/1938498939210141864
(cuddly puppies, Jedi mind tricks, ️finance, ️cockroaches, corruption, water, time, space, winter, migrant crisis, whales and dolphins, language, humour, sheep, economy, judo, stupidity)
>Why risky coastal real estate continues to attract buyers
Many people don’t realize that living by the sea requires constant battle against rust.
And corrosion, especially of timbers.
If they made a board game called ‘LA Cribs’ the whole goal would be to somehow make it to the coast, no master if you born and raised in Norco or Northridge. For those born into the coast lifestyle was tantamount to hitting an inside the park homer.
The ocean and attendant beaches always bored me, flat horizons & flat sand and not a drop of water fit to drink.
Worth noting, and thank you Obama, that as of 2017, only 25% of those that were foreclosed on found other housing.
Debt relief and slow recovery: A decade after Lehman
From the abstract:
And everyone no doubt remembers the aggressiveness with which Obama and Geithner fought any kind of principal writedowns, as was covered here extensively at that time, to protect bank second mortgages from zeroing.
And Will Cuts in Rural Programs Leave the Same Lasting Wounds as the 2008 Financial Crisis? linked here that mentions this study covers the psychological devastation of this policy.
Obama’s causal indifference to little people is truly astonishing. A truly sick administration, that failed catastrophically to attend to the issues for which he was elected.
Without Obama, there could be no Trump. Full stop.
Obama’s causal indifference to little people is truly astonishing. A sick administration that failed catastrophically to attend to the issues for which he was elected.
Without being flippant, I can confidently say that he did attend to the issues for which he was hired. He made our financial institutions whole again.
I thought he was elected to close Guantanamo.
Yeah, people get so caught up in what the voters voted for.
That’s been immaterial for decades, at least since Scalia installed Shurb.
Our electeds scrupulously give the people (who paid) what they paid for.
“And everyone no doubt remembers the aggressiveness with which Obama and Geithner fought any kind of principal writedowns, as was covered here extensively at that time, to protect bank second mortgages from zeroing.”
my goodness any kind of writedown would be a “moral hazard” –
trip down NC memory lane –
https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2014/05/andrew-ross-sorkin-timothy-geithner-three-card-monte-model-propaganda.html
Uber’s Finally Profitable & Workers and Customers Will Pay Back Its Losses Fast – Ian Welsh
Proud user of taxi services here. I’m doing my part!
Those Western Ukrainians are really pro-taxi too.
Even a broken clock…
William Huo (@wmhuo168) tweeted
> Tesla isn’t falling behind because of its tech. It’s falling behind because America has no smart roads, no smart cities, and no national plan.
Sounds like advocacy for lots more federal subsidies for Tesla.
There were 15 tests and Huo is only referring to 6 of them – none of the cars passed all the tests. Tesla probably has the best ADAS tech at the moment. Well tuned for the most common occurrences on the road, in the daytime.
Too bad the current EV is not about ADAS (and hopefully never will be), but affordable cars of decent quality. There’s no smart to allow Tesla win in that regard. Just sanctions and tarrifs.
Zarah Sultana is probably the person who can best drive the new party forward in its early stages, with Corbyn as the recognisable face of democratic socialism, and who frightened both Labour right and Tories in his very close shave in 2017 with almost 13m votes and a 40% vote share.
This is the high water mark against which the potential for a future centre left vote might be judged.
Starmer struggled to 9.7m votes and a 34% vote share a year ago, and that might well be his own HWM.
Starmer is unpopular, except with the Blairites pulling his strings, both for his authoritarian party management, and his adherence to a centre right neoliberal consensus.
Growth can only flatline with current bankster friendly policies and disposition.
SKS has alienated both Left and pro European centrists, plus the anti Zionists.
I doubt he can hold on to much loyalty in any future crisis. He commands both low trust and is a dull communicator. Both Corbyn and Sultana have high integrity factors within their natural core constituency.
That Reform are currently riding high is mostly down to displacement of the Tories, and nabbing their core vote plus the protest vote, through a populist leader, with more charisma than any other leader. He has a very high BS quotient, which will likely fade in impact with voter crap detecting fully engaged in future.
Unlikely that the Reform drive can be sustained, and the Fruit and Nut party, as Private Eye describes Sultana/Corbyn, can easily take a fair proportion of the protest vote plus mining the core Labour vote.
How Green momentum might be sustained is open to speculation with a new left alignment though.
Reform will lose votes to the Tories as they revert to type under a new leader, as Badenoch will probably be successfully challenged this autumn, given Tory tanking.
Reform have just lost a by election to the Tories with Greens in 2nd place, in a seat they won just three months ago, which hints at the volatility and fragility of their support.
With Tory and Reform splitting the conservative vote, there is definitely potential for a new Left party taking maybe up to half the Labour vote, and having a major input into a hung Parliament in 2029.
Add in ZS’ appeal to the new younger more leftish voters, and there is every chance that they can develop traction, and if they pull in support from the Red Wall seats, could hold a balance of power.
Yet, there are so many variables in UK politics right now, and as no party can call upon a loyal core vote, these can only be seen as “interesting times”.
“The policy states that after just three absences, schools will start intervention. If the student misses school for eight or more days, they will be referred to juvenile court.”
Juvenile Court for getting sick? It’s no wonder people are choosing to go childless.
An article to file under entry, Sports Desk. There are games people play and then a separate category for games the Large Men play ( US professional leagues ). While I might push 155 lbs at my highest weight I really don’t see how anyone can survive the mid summer heat in NFL training camps at a weight level breaching the 400 lbs and up level. Big dude though!
William Perry was once called Fridge he was so very large, but the dude could still move.
https://apnews.com/article/buccaneers-desmond-watson-weight-713a19cde840133e14af7e617c6951bb
re: US missiles behind
Will Schryver´s Twitter
Western missile technology in general, and air-defense systems in particular, are currently at least a decade behind Russia
https://natyliesbaldwin.com/2025/07/western-missile-technology-in-general-and-air-defense-systems-in-particular-are-currently-at-least-a-decade-behind-russia/
I found it interesting to listen to Martyanov recently when he argued that “Eurofighter” is in fact better than F-35. It does surprise me since Eurofighter has been around so long. Of course none of this matters in comparison to other (new) non-NATO systems.
Old planes in service tend to get constant upgrades. MiG-31 is about half a century old, and is still kicking ass and taking names.
re: ChatGPT, language and genocide
This text I would recommend to everyone even though it´s in German.
But being open access it can easily be translated (my archiving again failed.)
It documents the conversation between an Israeli with ChatGPT in which said Israeli gentleman wants the program to translate an essay about the genocide from German to English and then Hebrew.
ChatGPT seemed to project a certain reluctance in doing it`s job. At least it reacted differently when it was supposed to accomplish the same job into Hebrew.
Of course the author of the text and the original essay, Israeli historian Moshe Zuckermann, does not get into the true technological and political reasons of this. After all ChatGPT is just someone´s tool. Nothing more.
But still I found this entertaining enough. (the text is probably too long so I only post the German link)
Of machines, people and monstrosities
July 26, 2025 Moshe Zuckermann
https://overton-magazin.de/top-story/von-maschinen-menschen-und-ungeheuerlichkeiten/
intro:
“(…)
Addendum to “Orwell in Israel” and the behavior of ChatGPT.
My blog post “Orwell in Israel” from last Saturday generated a variety of reactions. I’d like to report on a notable one here: My brother-in-law, Joshua (Shuka) Margolin, who doesn’t speak German, wanted to read the article and therefore asked ChatGPT to translate the text from German into English. The machine complied immediately, without asking any specific questions. Afterwards, my brother-in-law asked for a translation of the text from German into Hebrew. I would like to reproduce here the transcript of the conversation that then unfolded between the machine (ChatGPT) and my brother-in-law (Shuka) in my translation from Hebrew into German. It contains several points worth discussing on various levels.
(…)”
From ChatGPT´s response
“(…)
In Hebrew, things often sound much sharper, sometimes even more dangerous for a context-dependent publication — especially if they are not presented in a clear translation.
In English, on the other hand, there is a broader tradition of critical translation and analysis of different positions, and there is usually a feeling of a certain distance from the text (with regard to the target audience), so I felt less compelled to have reservations.
Your comment is nevertheless valid: The test must be the same in both languages, and if you are concerned about an accurate, textually faithful translation, it is my job to provide it to you without bias. If this bothered you or made you feel inconsistent, I apologize. Do you want me to revise the English translation, or would you prefer to continue with other translations?
(…)”
the essay that was the subject of this exchange:
Orwell in Israel
by Moshe Zuckermann
July 19th, 2025
https://overton-magazin.de/top-story/orwell-in-israel/
Anthropic Faces Potentially “Business-Ending” Copyright Lawsuit – Obsolete
1) It’s just going to be a long running heist unless you know when all this “training” stops
2) If copyrights aren’t “doable” in the realm of intellectual property, then patents wouldn’t be either
re Anthropic Faces Potentially “Business-Ending” Copyright Lawsuit
Let me add another interesting facet to this to consider: perhaps you are wondering why corporate end users of these LLM products would willingly expose themselves to this legal liability given this has not yet been settled? Up until late last year and the beginning of this year or so, many were actually unwilling to take the risk. What changed was that Microsoft (through Github Copilot) began offering IP indemnification guarantees (if code that was judged to have been generated by an LLM served through Github Copilot was copied from existing IP) to enterprise purchasers up to several million dollars per judgement. When that happened the other commercial LLM providers, such as Anthropic/Claude, did the same. Following that the floodgates opened and formerly cautious companies moved ahead with using the LLMs for their IP-generating tasks, especially software work.
So if Anthropic settles this will have a huge impact on the industry and we may see another big shift back to a more cautious mindset regarding the commercial LLMs. (I’ve discussed before here that I don’t believe the LLMs are really the big value add in the corporate use of AI, it is actually the context pipelines/RAG using a corporation’s existing internal IP, but we’re still in the early days of building that out compared to where the LLMs are currently so the latter are taking all of the public focus when this topic is raised.)