In Patagonia, a Frog Makes a Comeback The Revelator
Identify The Brown, Streaky, Juvenile Songbirds Of Summer With These Tips All About Birds
Climate/Environment
Unknown Knowns Earth Island Journal
Marine heatwaves may have driven the world’s oceans to a critical tipping point, scientists warn Euronews
Governments Fail to ‘Rise to the Moment’ as Seabed Meeting Ends Without Mining Pause Common Dreams
50° “edge of survival” heat hits Turkey for first time in recorded history Intellinews
Wildfires grip Southern Europe as heat wave intensifies Anadolu Agency
Santa feels the heat as Lapland buckles in Finland’s record-breaking heatwave BBC
Flash flooding and heat continue to dominate the summer Balanced Weather
Pandemics
All the memories I won’t be making M (Is) Living With Long Covid
Chokepoints
Hong Kong’s CK Hutchison seeks mainland Chinese strategic investor as talks deadline ends South China Morning Post
Investors Bet Li Ka-Shing Will Clinch Controversial Ports Deal Bloomberg
China?
Effort to oust China-friendly lawmakers from office in Taiwan fails Semafor
Bureaucratic Lapse, Not Bioterror: The Overblown Fungus Smuggling Case Pekingnology
Thailand- Cambodia Conflict
Cambodia, Thailand agree to immediate and unconditional ceasefire Channel News Asia
Rubio says US officials are in Malaysia to help in Cambodia-Thailand talks Straits Times
Ink denies clash with Cambodia, not a battle between two families, vows to move forward, reveals grudge over extortion of benefits from call center gang Matichon (Machine translation)
Syraqistan
As Gaza starves, Trump tells Israel to ‘finish the job’ Aaron Mate
EXCLUSIVE: Internal Documents Detail Hamas Proposals That Preceded Trump’s Belligerent Rant Drop Site
‘A Cruel and Transparent Farce’: Israeli Attacks Kill 62 in Gaza Amid ‘Tactical Pause’ Common Dreams
The latest child to starve to death in Gaza weighed less than when she was born AP
Kids by the thousands are starving to death. This is what that looks like. Air drops with spaghetti and canned beef won’t save them – allowing all foods in, allowing more doctors in with medical grade nutritional supplements will. All else=theatre. 10,000 trucks must enter now! pic.twitter.com/hakDsFrVhu
— Fadi Quran (@fadiquran) July 27, 2025
We have turned the Nagasaki 80th into a celebration of Israeli genocide Pearls & irritations
To Restore Our Humanity We Must De-Zionise The World Do Not Panic!
***
Israeli defense minister threatens to assassinate Iran’s supreme leader, attacks Tehran Middle East Monitor
Old Blighty
Resident doctors speak from picket lines in England as five-day strike begins WSWS
European Disunion
Germany train derailment: At least 3 killed, several injured DW
Why is everything falling apart? The Berliner. From May, still germane.
Germany Wants American Tomahawk Cruise Missile Launchers Capable of Striking Moscow: Can Russia Stop Them? Military Watch
O Canada
‘The clock is ticking’: Report calls out media’s flawed coverage of MAID Canadian Affairs
New Not-So-Cold War
Kyiv claims Russian Su-27UB fighter jet destroyed at airfield in Krasnodar region Anadolu Agency
Ukrainian Drones Target St Petersburg As Putin Attends Scaled-Down Navy Day Reuters
❗An approximate map of the movement of “Geran” and rockets tonight is published by enemy TG channels pic.twitter.com/P93IypyIN9
— Zlatti71 (@Zlatti_71) July 28, 2025
NATO Rhetoric Reaches New Levels of Hostility with Threats of ‘Swift’ Kaliningrad Invasion Simplicius
The Caucasus
Zangezur Corridor US project targeting Iran, Russia Mehr
In the Caucasus, Donald Trump Has an Opportunity The National Interest
The Roots of Baku’s Financial and Economic Dependence on London East’s Substack
L’affaire Epstein
Exclusive: Private Probe of Alleged Epstein—Mossad Links SpyTalk
Spook Country
Who owns your dreams? Julian MacFarlane
I see more stars online than in the sky The Etymology Nerd
“Liberation Day”
Wow, didnt think it was gonna happen but trump announces trade DEAL with EU.
-15% tariffs on most goods (just like Japan)
– EU buys $750 BILLION of US energy (how much LNG?)
– EU Invests $600 BILLION in strategic areas (vaporware?)
– Purchases US weapons https://t.co/tzHkB6k2sj https://t.co/s010Wq1bVM— Albert Pinto (@70sBachchan) July 27, 2025
How the EU succumbed to Trump’s tariff steamroller FT
The Great Entanglement Warwick Powell
***
Donald Trump freezes export controls to secure trade deal with China FT
Democrats en déshabillé
Kamala’s husband is taking home millions from a law firm that explicitly promised to do Trump’s bidding in return for political favors. He never resigned! She’s literally profiting from Trump’s corruption! Openly! https://t.co/bob7HgLNi2
— Matt Stoller (@matthewstoller) July 27, 2025
Obama Legacy
Two years into genocide, the Nobel Peace Prize winner rouses himself:
While a lasting resolution to the crisis in Gaza must involve a return of all hostages and a cessation of Israel’s military operations, these articles underscore the immediate need for action to be taken to prevent the travesty of innocent people dying of preventable starvation.…
— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) July 27, 2025
Antitrust
Monopoly Round-Up: The War Among Democrats Over Market Power, Housing and Capital BIG by Matt Stoller
Turmoil at the DOJ as two very senior enforcers from the Antitrust Division were put on paid administrative leave following disagreements with higher ups over a recent merger settlement in HPE-Juniper. #antitrust @mlexclusive https://t.co/5TwVmOS1fm pic.twitter.com/sjUCCRGsmB
— Khushita Vasant (@KhushitaVasant) July 27, 2025
AI
Zionist spies innovate AI sexual blackmail tech Kit Klarenberg
Groves of Academe
Is math erotic? Archedelia
The Professors Who Supported the Student Deportation Frenzy Drop Site
Accelerationists
Researchers quietly planned a test to dim sunlight. They wanted to ‘avoid scaring’ the public. Politico
Imperial Collapse Watch
America’s Military Is in Big Trouble The American Conservative
Sports Desk
‘More Bark Than Bite’: What Trump’s Executive Order Means for College Sports Front Office Sports
The Friendly Skies
HUGE. The MOSAIC rule is out. https://t.co/Vd3iUwAZLt
Biggest bombshell is the stall speed limit for airplanes moves from 54 knots clean to 61 knots with flaps down.
This covers MANY more aircraft. It is a huge deregulation of general aviation.
/ht @starsandrobots https://t.co/wzwg17vaO0
— Eli Dourado (@elidourado) July 22, 2025
Guillotine Watch
Elon Musk is now officially worth $405.6 billion, projected to become the world’s first trillionaire by 2027. pic.twitter.com/ZLFxgEPzex
— Globe Eye News (@GlobeEyeNews) July 27, 2025
Class Warfare
Private Equity and Insurance? You Bet Your Life… and Maybe Your Pension! Racket News
The Bezzle
AI: bubbling up Michael Roberts
Antidote du jour (via):
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.
Guardian
Tom Lehrer, acclaimed musical satirist of cold war era, dies aged 97
Too clever by two.
Appreciate this Alice. One of my favorites:
https://youtu.be/frAEmhqdLFs?si=iMaB6XPVzoal8639
“Egypt’s gonna get one, too, Just to use on you-know-who.”
So long Tom
Loved your happy dark songs
Made me break out into a sing along
[Sic] humor on us from the great beyond
“Israeli defence minister threatens to assassinate Iran’s supreme leader, attacks Tehran”
Yeah, they tried that already and failed. And it does not matter if the old boy gets knocked off as not only does he have a successor picked out but from what I hear, he has about five people picked out in a line of succession. Come to think of it, I am trying to think of any other country in the world where their foreign minister threatens to kill the head of state of another country. Hmmmm. Nope. Can’t think of any offhand.
“For God’s sake, this man cannot remain in power.”
How exactly did Genocide Joe think he was going to remove Putin – by winning a tickle fight?
Just about the same intent as what the minister from the Zionist entity said, birds of a feather and all –
“If you continue to threaten Israel, our long arm will reach Tehran again with even greater power – and this time personally to you too”
Well, Israel is just more direct about it. Biden’s “Putin must go!” was simply a cue for the Ukraine SBU to ramp up their efforts. (The US usually kills opponents through military coup/proxy. See:Allende.)
The geran drone movement map: I would have appreciated some traditional penis shapes too.
https://nypost.com/2023/08/02/lufthansa-pilot-draws-penis-in-the-sky-after-flight-diverted/
https://www.navytimes.com/news/your-navy/2019/05/14/the-navys-probe-into-sky-penis/
https://interestingengineering.com/culture/see-ya-pilot-paints-a-penis-in-the-sky-causing-social-media-frenzy
Focus from Africa, if you want a different perspective: https://youtu.be/8V5QvHPvlW4
DNC Rwanda peace deal: can refugees return peacefully? Analysis of the UNHCR agreement
The articles by Doyle at Pearls and Irritations as well as Nate Bear at Do Not Panic are worth reading together.
From Doyle, insights into the current level of lies, bullshit, and propaganda: “The ‘UNRWA is Hamas’ propaganda, like the beheaded babies hoax, like the mass rape hoax, like the lie that Hamas killed 1400 civilians, was happily co-signed by the western political and media class. The mass starvation of somewhere in the region of 1.7 million people simply couldn’t happen without a broad caucus of western support.”
As Gramsci wrote, the challenge is to live without illusions.
Having had a long career in publishing and writing, I also note the degradazion of academia and culture in the U S of A. It’s all self-presentation and résumé-inflation.
PS: the same insight also has to apply to Ukraine and Russia, which can only be resolved by negotiation and an armistice, along with a new “Helsinki” arrangement
In case you were hankering for some Hope and Change.
Dazzling beacon, Eat Your Peas Obama :: “these articles underscore the immediate need for action to be taken to prevent the travesty of innocent people dying of preventable starvation.”
“to be taken”
“underscore”
“preventable”
Sez culturally degraded Eichmann of Honolulu.
With four megamansions to fret about, one has little time for a moral compass.
He could at least quietly give back that Nobel prize..
Yes. The Obamamometer returns at last! From his house with the illegal seawall in Oahu or Kalorama or The Vineyard or Chicago…
From Jerri-Lynn:
We called him the Obamamometer or at least I did and it quickly caught on in our circle because it described his behavior so well. Near the end of class time, just in time for the last word, his arm would rise. He’d wait to be recognized. A pause— setting his audience on seat’s edge (or at least the ones who’d never heard him speak before), and then in his mellifluous voice, he’d intone, “Rain is wet”— or something equally banal, with the gravity otherwise due to a proposition from Wittgenstein.
Always the last word. Always uttered with utter conviction. And never, never– despite sitting through two classes with him– did I ever hear him say anything even remotely interesting. The Obamamometer took the ideological temperature of the room, and then unfailingly said something with which no one could possibly disagree— but which no other person would bother to say, because it was both so vapid and blindingly obvious.
Thanks for the Obamamometer reference.
This was a bitter-sweet time
A Fond Farewell to Jerri-Lynn
and
Farewell Post: I’m So Glad We Had This Time Together
For all of Barry’s calculating and posturing, his lasting contributions will include innumeracy and a pathetic performative pantomime of a life.
What a phony!
He also said we shouldn’t eat ketchup–it’s for kids. However artisinal ketchup is probably ok.
W.R.Hearst always kept a bottle of Heinz on the table of his castle sized dining hall at St. Simeon. Take that Barack.
There once was a lady named Emily Post who gave uncouth Americans tips on etiquette. She died in 1960. One year later Obama was born. Coincidence? I think not.
Reincarnation belief may need another look.
He said that??!? And here I was thinking his hero was Ronnie “ketchup is a vegetable” Reagan, given the numerous positive invocations of his predecessor over the years.
That’s going to stop the cratering of the Democratic Party’s approval ratings./s
I always thought it was very telling that though child nutrition and school lunches were Michelle’s big initiative, the administration never really addressed the “ketchup is a vegetable” thing. But then it was all performative, like so much of that time. (Gotta say that it did make Lady Bird’s “make America beautiful” billboards look massively effective. )
Okay, dis on ketchup. But I picked some up from grocery outlet that is organic and cost me $1.99! Used for the first time this morning on some free range eggs (price went down to $4.99) and yeah, awesome.
Re Trump-VdL trade “deal”: a Harvard-educated Bulgarian liberal finally discovers the essence of the rules-based world order. Said discovery was catalyzed by the sudden realization that the EU wasn’t an equal partner in the rules-based enterprise, but the useful eedjiot whose turn to be subjected to the rules has come.
That’s a former deputy PM of an EU country demonstrating just how hopeless the current EU elites are. Of course, it is still not allowed to point out that the EU put itself in position to be squeezed dry by severing its energy ties with Russia over Ukraine. And of course, EU liberals being faithful copy of US Democrats, they won’t have a good crisis go to waste – there are already calls to address the uncompetitiveness caused by energy costs and the loss of trade with Russie be addressed by further gutting of social safety nets, regulations and environmental protections.
It’s truly a sad day to be both American and European, seeing the Bully and the Spineless in action.
OIFVet: au contrarie, non frère
The elites of the North of Europe — Merz, Tusk, Macron, their new best bud Starmer, the obtuse Kaja Kallas, the inscrutable Rutte — they are all looking for a way out after paying for proxy genocides in Ukraine and Palestine. They planned the Glorious Victory of Ukraine.
Palestine is their dirty work, to quote Merz.
Now they want to buy off the USanians so as to hold on to their own positions.
What’s money to Ursula? And aren’t suffering and dying what the little people do? (And the wolves, too.)
The U S of A didn’t ask for anything serious like shutting down the English colonialist military bases in Cyprus
‘they are all looking for a way out after paying for proxy genocides in Ukraine and Palestine.’
Should be-
‘they are all looking for a pay out after paying for proxy genocides in Ukraine and Palestine.’
With that group, one should always follow the money.
I know what you are saying, but there’s qualitative shift in treatment under Trump and VdL’s uncomfortable shifting in the video demonstrates it. Trump wants to dominate and humiliate, while until now that was more or less hidden from the little people. It plays well amongst MAGA, but it doesn’t play well on the Euro street. Rather than buying the survival of EU status quo elites, VdL has likely hastened their end. Normally I would say good riddance, except what’s waiting in the wings ain’t any better, and is likely to be even worse…
I’d like to thank all the little people, heh heh, a star is born.
I like to think of her as the Diva with da Brooklyn Accent from “Singing in the Rain,” the incomparable Linda Lamont.
Classic Linda: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BsbTWsyzRBo&ab_channel=LPKvideoDesigns
I apologize for my pedantic nature, but the character is named Lina Lamont.
“An’ I can’ stan’ ‘im!”
Apologize not good person. How else am I to avoid unnecessary entanglements like being sued, “..that’s sood..” by a ‘real’ Linda for traducing her character?
Where are the equals of Jean Hagan today?
I remember reading Eric Hoffer’s, “The True Believer”, while the Vietnam War was reducing US soldiers to the contents of a body bag, Britain was in the throes of fighting it’s last colonial wars overseas while the Troubles were starting to kick off in the Six Countries, and the West was looking for an antidote to the growth of protesting students who might be lured into Marxist entrapment by a combination of their ideals, left wing professors, drugs, and very loud rock music and celebratory festivals confirming then in their misplace ideas.
Hoffer wrote what was seen as a pretty potent analysis of the characteristics of people in search of meaning in their lives and the creation of a self-identity reinforced by other true believers in a given cause or truth, and Hoffer was used by many to explain the fearful attractions that some forms of commyawnism might be attractive to young people who may not have found adequate solace in drugs, sex and rock’n’roll. He also argued, I think correctly, that some personality types might flip from one mass movement with a compelling all-embracing explanatory belief system with or without any basis in reality to another mass movement with an equally or greater compelling all-embracing but opposing explanatory belief system. A good example would be the Trots who became neo-libs and neo-cons in the blink of an eye.
Western political élites confirm each other in their fundamental political beliefs (the parliamentary system, the Constitution, heavily distorted bits of Burkean principle with a strong dash of Schmittian cream), and most will continue to ignore reality if it doesn’t conform to their beliefs. Others, currently a minority, will shift their position and their publicly expressed belief systems when it is most convenient and to their advantage.
The Tech élites have a belief in Tech and their own genius, whose libertarian beliefs apply to them but not the rest of us, so we can discount them for the moment because in the final analysis they can take their money and run – or fly to the nearest space station – and indulge in their fantasies and their substance of choice. “A little ketamine, or a few tranquies to take off the edge, Squire?”.
At the moment the European political and business élites are clinging on because they are True Believers of necessity, weak of mind and lacking in imagination, but the foundations of the reality they operate is rapidly breaking up and there is an ever-growing level of public discontent with the failings of the their masters and the political and economic systems they purport to control. The Trump-fonda Lyin’ accord will not benefit the mass of ordinary people doing ordinary jobs, or incapable of finding an ordinary job they can do, under the pressure of highly constrained personal and household budgets with no hope is sight of a better future in either the US or the EU. But élites do not give up with a fight and that is why it is so interesting to observe how police, ICE) and IDF behaviour has become so different to what we nice white folks have taken for granted for much too long
The whole affair is sordid but I am enjoying the Schadenfreude of watching the wheels come of the West’s clown car. The whole thing has the pongy whiff of the corridors of the palace of Versailles. The aristocrats are falling apart from syphilis, the courtesans and lackeys still dance with them in intricate court rituals all masked by copious amounts of perfume, makeup, food, drink and exotic tinctures but outside the peasants are grumbling that maybe the King is not, after all, anointed by God…
Wow, you painted a convincing picture with malodorous highlights.
…the ‘Pyrite Billion’
Was that irony?
Con FeS2 your sins.
For shame! A formulaic response.
No doubt coming to supermarkets in the EU very soon, hormone stuffed beef, chlorinated chicken and GMO cereals from the good old USA, naturally with no labels showing this, as agreed by the idiotically incompetent UvdL.
Here in Oz we have agreed to a Trump demand to accept US beef which is in reality US, Mexican and Canadian beef. It makes no sense. That is like the UAE shipping oil to Saudi Arabia. The US herd numbers are way down at the moment so beef is supposed to be very expensive there right now. And yet Trump wants it put on a boat to go to the other side of the Pacific to Oz where we have a surplus of beef. It will be too expensive to buy and a lot of people are lurky about what diseases it might contain. The only way that this makes any kind of sense is if Trump has a golfing buddy who is a beef baron.
One close to your (and my) heart. Here in UK TimTams have appeared in the main supermarket. They were banned when in the EU using the precautionary principle (additives that MIGHT though not proven, cause health issues like cancer). We’ve rapidly gone to the US model I saw in Australia – it’s OK until there are enough cases of something nasty to initiate a legal case.
NB TimTams have ALWAYS been available in the UK but in EU days ONLY in the “Australiana” shop in London using a special exemption. Major supermarkets were forbidden from selling them. Now they’re here. I won’t touch them……unless they import the white choc version……then I’ll (re)gain the 7 Kg I’ve lost recently LOL Might get the docs off my back for my huge unplanned weight loss.
Trump has enough beefs to keep the world going for a long time after the last four years. This is the Time of the Great Punishment, and if I look long enough I’m sure to find a Biblical prophecy somewhere.
I can hear the splintering sound as the EU begins to disintegrate. Most Europeans will only be better off if and when they are prepared to come to terms with Russia, China and the rest of BRICS. There is nothing less sensible to clinging on to a dying giant. Why not give every Commission member the opportunity to do the decent thing by leaving each of them alone in their office with a loaded revolver on the table?
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jul/28/us-eu-trade-deal-germany-france-tump-tariff
Going by their level of competency, they would probably miss if they tried.
…leaving each of them alone in their office with a loaded revolver on the table?
Chekhov might suggest leaving the revolver on the mantelpiece.
WIth one round loaded, for additional suspense.
Trouble in the EU.
Fancy restaurants in Brussels hardest hit.
/s
I watch a lot of movies and it’s amazing the degree to which middle class Europeans have become wannabe Americans–NY/LA Americans of course, not SC Americans. Some foreign films now have the characters mostly speaking English so their heroes won’t be left out. Subtitles are such an eyestrain.
Of course some of us who have even lived there now think of NY itself as a foreign country. Who knew Brooklyn would become the center of the entertainment universe? Those NYC provincials could perhaps quell these feelings by vernturing out more on this side of the Atlantic.
Lot of interesting films have come from Europe in the past, but I think today the most interesting come from Asia.
Surprising to me (but seems obvious in retrospect) is watching Scandinavian television. Characters speak the local Finnish or Danish or whatever, but when they talk to someone from a neighboring state switch to English.
I hung out with a gaggle of 10 Slovakians for a day in the Sacred Valley in Peru-all born in 1995-96, and they all spoke resplendent English.
Watch me blackmail Gates, mate
Watch me blackmail Gates, mate
Bridge players are a dangerous breed, mate
So watch me approximate
Altogether now!
Tie me kangaroo court down, sport
Tie me kangaroo court down
Tie me kangaroo court down, sport
Tie me kangaroo court down
Keep me cockatoo cool, Bill
Keep me cockatoo cool
Ah, don’t go acting the fool, Bill
Just keep me cockatoo cool
Altogether now!
Tie me kangaroo court down, sport
Tie me kangaroo court down
Tie me kangaroo court down, sport
Tie me kangaroo court down
Ain’t take me veiled threat back, Jack
Take me veiled threat back
Dead men do tell tales that’s a fact
Ain’t take me veiled threat back
Altogether now!
Tie me kangaroo court down, sport
Tie me kangaroo court down
Tie me kangaroo court down, sport
And mind me Epstein barb, Bill
Mind me Epstein barb
Ah, don’t let facts go running amok, Bill
Just mind me Epstein barb
Altogether now!
Tie me kangaroo court down, sport
Tie me kangaroo court down
Tie me kangaroo court down, sport
Tie me kangaroo court down
Caught you playing with your didgeridoo, Blue
Playing your didgeridoo
Ah, like, keep payin’ ’til I say your through, Blue
Playing your didgeridoo
Altogether now!
Tie me kangaroo court down, sport
Tie me kangaroo court down
Tie me kangaroo court down, sport
Tie me kangaroo court down
Hide my tales when I’m dead, they said
Hide my tales when I’m dead
So we hid what he did when he died, defied
And that’s him hangin’ in his cell, crucified
Altogether now!
Tie me kangaroo court down, sport
Tie me kangaroo court down
Tie me kangaroo court down, sport
Tie me kangaroo court down
Tie Me Kangaroo Down, by Rolf Harris
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vEkLy7A37T0&list=RDvEkLy7A37T0
“Zionist spies innovate AI sexual blackmail tech”
‘Kit Klarenberg investigates how AI video tech developed by Israeli Unit 8200 veterans may be enabling a new era of intelligence-driven sexual blackmail, without human involvement.’
This development can be a twofer. Not only can they make up sexual blackmail videos on the fly with the aid of a gullible media, but their use will discredit any genuine ones that appear. So if some of the Epstein tapes emerged showing Slick Willy and Randy Andy getting down and dirty with very, very young girls, it could be challenged as an AI fake. Of course you could make all sorts of raunchy blackmail tapes with this tech. Like Trump naked in bed with Satan. Oh wait, South Park did that already
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D_7hbN-ssHw (33 secs)
This development puzzles me and strikes me as the Schmittian sovereigns sawing off the branch they’re sitting on.
If AI deepfakes of sexual deviancy become commonplace, it seems like the whole blackmail playbook will need to be thrown out or significantly reduced. Even if it creates a de facto amnesty for existing (seemingly quite willing?) blackmailees, might this development diminish the leverage the deep state has over democratic institutions and allow the latter to begin to expand beyond ritual significance?
Maybe such videos could become regular fare for star chamber courts.
Is math erotic: I couldn’t find the answer to that question in the tect but I do look forward to go the bedway to solve Hilbert’s problems (in case math is erotic) in the new form of university he writes about.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=6M4_Ommfvv0&pp=ygUZdmFuIGhhbGVuIGhvdCBmb3IgdGVhY2hlcg%3D%3D
I come (ahem) from different angle regarding eroticism of mathematics: that of the tempered (or not) nature of the musical scale. Dad and I share this interest. I have gone through a long journey regarding understanding temperament. I was always puzzled as to why piano tuners still existed when Bach “invented” equal temperament and modern PCs can tell you the exact frequencies based on the 1/12 powers to tune each semitone on a piano.
Turns out the middle range of pianos are NOT tuned to equal temperament, but something close which irons out some of the most discordant upper harmonics. So it remains something of an art, not a science. Once you open this Pandora’s Box you may never see the light of day again! I now have an additional reason why our conductor of the orchestra I played in in my teens sometimes told us violinists NOT to play the open A string but do a fifth from the D string: yes the tone is different, but shorter string length alters the upper harmonics too.
The maths gets HORRENDOUS if you really delve into it. But the empiricism regarding what (for example) string players do with or without additional instruments that cannot alter their tone is fascinating. Dad thinks more and more people are internalising equal temperament (or something close) as time goes on.
I don’t know mathemstics enough to tell if mathematics can be practiced completely disconnected from our reality. Can it or is it at some fundamental level stuck/anchored in our 3D mind and matter sine qua non maths turns absurd?
As Calvin says speaking to theoreticians: reality continues to ruin my life
https://i.pinimg.com/736x/ba/f2/6c/baf26cf9f0e52e7efef39c3587f83dc2–calvin-and-hobbes-quotes-calvin-and-hobbes-comics.jpg
Haha thanks, yes. We STILL don’t fully understand the maths of music. We “know” we like music rooted in certain frequencies and their multiples (non-equal tempered strings playing somthing like Nimrod from Enigma Variations) but why?
The theory ruined my life in terms in upending everything I thought to be true about tuning!
Final tangent: I do NOT have perfect pitch. However, I had a VERY good long-term memory and could “know” A 440 Hz to tune my violin without the oboe for YEARS. Now I can’t do it – my estimate of A is now more like G. Likewise I could count seconds with astonishing accuracy when I did lots of playing – it even messed up a friend’s undergrad thesis when measured alcohol imbibing had NO effect on my ability to count with almost perfect accuracy the seconds. Now I can’t so much. Learnt stuff.
„ my estimate of A is now more like G“
– I guess you got hooked on death metal down-tuning. It happens even to the best
https://studentofguitar.com/death-metal-tuning/
I found this article to be fascinating.
The Plaintive Sigh of a Sonic Doppelgänger: Why are Minor Chords Perceived as “Sad”?
I’ve yet to go through parts 2 and 3.
https://www.allaboutjazz.com/the-plaintive-sigh-of-a-sonic-doppelganger-why-are-minor-chords-perceived-as-sad
The Long COVID account was painfully accurate to me. My latest symptoms (documented in BMJ amongst other publications) are the neuropathic issues. OK I haven’t touched piano or violin in years but now I’ll probably never touch them again, even if I want to.
Typing is a bitch. I’m thinking of doing what RSI forced me to do for 50% of my PhD (25 years ago) and use voice recognition software. I’ve already trained it (phew) since I refuse to use the “web versions” and EVERYTHING is to remain on MY computer. No cloud interpretation here, thanks.
Currently being very very careful to mask up when doing stuff as part of my caring duties. Friends in NW England have had the new variant of COVID and all said “It is NOT nice”. I definitely don’t need this. It’s almost certainly here in the Midlands already so I’ve been pro-active. Maybe I’ll avoid this latest one. Interestingly YT clearly used my “introductory long COVID” video to “test the water” as to popularity and the algorithm must’ve pushed it. I got a LOT more views than organic growth of my other videos would suggest. I’m now getting a very small but growing band of people coming back to watch my accounts of my travails (including falling over in the bath – damned orthostatic hypotension).
Terry, sorry to hear more details of your on going problems.
To clarify the problems for me, if you don’t mind, is the issue pain in your fingertips as they contact violin strings or even keyboard keys? I think that is what you are describing. Or possibly some moving control issue, but I don’t think that is what you described. Or maybe some combination of issues for using your fingers.
Not trying to pry, and maybe you’ve posted about this before, but would you share a bit more detail of what you experience that is hindering these activities?
Sorry that you are one of the minority (so far) that Covid has hit hard and long.
No problem. I have reduced feeling in the digits…..not usually painful but annoying since I no longer judge hot vs cold using those digits.
Also gives me periodic pins and needles. I’ll leave the rest to my YT channel as it is easier to recount stuff there.
Re: Claims of Russia Su-27 destroyed
I’ll raise you one German military transport plane destroyed in Ukraine, with 3 German air force officers killed and a Patriot system destroyed:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZLL-sIZrTeo
(Source is sketchy, but so is the source for the Ukrainian claim.)
Both fall in non-AI slop bracket.
Israel committing genocide in Gaza, say Israel-based human rights groups (Guardian)
..B’Tselem and Physicians for Human Rights, say Israel is committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza and the country’s western allies have a legal and moral duty to stop it…
They do… but they won’t.
So Netanyahu went on ‘The Full Send podcast, hosted by Kyle Forgeard and Aaron Steinberg of the Nelk Boys – a Canadian-American influencer collective known for its conservative-leaning content – is particularly popular among young men.’ He wanted to buff up Israel’s image among that group. And while on it he starts making jokes about how he prefers Burger King to MacDonalds and how he was a junk food junkie. Yeah, food jokes while he starves Gaza-
https://www.middleeasteye.net/trending/netanyahu-jokes-about-fast-food-nelk-boys-podcast-amid-gaza-starvation
And then this happened-
‘The Nelk Boys’ YouTube channel lost over 10,000 subscribers within 24 hours of the episode’s release on 21 July. The interview also received more dislikes than likes before the group disabled the visibility of the dislike count on the video.’
The final wave of backlash turned directly towards the Nelk Boys themselves, after a video clip went viral in which they admitted that the interview script had been written and provided by the White House – with no room for edits or input.
“Thai, Cambodian leaders agree to ceasefire after five days of fighting”
‘The prime ministers of both countries held talks in Kuala Lumpur mediated by Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim.’
Maybe this is why Rubio is in the region. So that Trump can claim all the credit for this ceasefire and push the work of the Malaysians into the background. It seems to be his modus operandi the past few months so maybe he really wants that Nobel Peace prize as Obama has one but not him.
Trump is a sick person. Everybody knows the US has nothing to do with the situation, no constructive role to play. He craves attention like a 2-year old who’s family just had a baby brother born.
Cambodia and Thailand should remember, when it comes to conflicts between foreign nations, the
nineten most terrifying words in the English language are “I’m from the US government and I’m here to help.”RE: The AI Bubble. Plenty of attention being paid to the critical role of NVIDIA in keeping the grift going. And the parallel/rhyming nature of the dot com debacle.
The NVIDA Coreweave relationship exposes another aspect. NVIDIA invests in Coreweave which promptly invests in NVIDIA chips. There was a lot of this kind of thing in the late dot com era. Multiple companies validating each others valuations with cross ownership/investments. It all started unraveling when it turned out that Cisco had to acknowledge some fake revenues, IIRC they had been stuffing their own channels with switches and routers that had stopped selling.
Ed Zitron has done great work explaining how fragile and prone to collapse they are. His recent analysis questions the SoftBank investment in the still dubious grift of Stargate. Like the missing Cisco revenues of the late 90s, will Stargate ever happen?
If SoftBank doesn’t pony up the cash (or all the cash) does Stargate happen? If Stargate doesn’t happen does NVIDIA suffer a miss? If NVIDA misses their revenue targets is their Coreweave investment safe? If these investments in NVIDIA chips have to be written down who are the eventual bag holders? (Note some lenders have already started accepting NVIDIA chips as collateral on loan obligations)
There are multiple paths into collapse and they are not mutually exclusive. The geniuses running Microsoft appear to already be hedging their bets. Like 2008 the crash is likely to prove epic. Once the tide goes out we will learn who has been swimming naked. Oracle? Meta? Who else?
And what a grift it is! They can throw all the NVIDIA chips at AI as they want and they will never get to the level of human thought or consciousness becasue they are basing human thought on what is called the “empty neuron theory”. It seems our consciousness is created inside the neuron via microtubules. You can look up several videos on the topic by searching for consciousness and microtubules.
In my opinion this is a ground breaking topic that is not only important for consciousness studies, but also mental illness and Alzheimer’s.
That NVIDIA/Coreweave dynamic sounds a lot like NFT wash trading.
It also calls to mind check kiting, which is illegal when the plebes do it. When rich bankers do it, we call it “finance”.
I imagine we’ll have some unpleasant surprises, as with 2008, as to which entities are unexpectedly exposed to the AI collapse. Of course, a bubble can take the stock market down just on panic selling and margin calling, but I would be surprised if there isn’t quite a few otherwise “sober” companies and funds putting their hard-earned cash in Nvidia stocks and the like.
FAA.
The article makes no sense. Ok so they are making some new rules for sport, light sport and experimental planes which all account for a very small percentage of airplanes.
But what really doesn’t make any sense is the statement about stall speeds.
Stall speeds clean are always higher than with flaps. The link says 54 knots clean 61 with flaps. Well in the real world that’s wrong. And it also doesn’t sound right as to such a small speed difference between the 2 nor does it draw any distinction between the usual many different flap settings. Most planes don’t have just up or down settings.
Any airplane that has flaps and many small ones don’t, when you land you put out your flaps. This increases lift which allows the plane to fly at slower speeds which is what you want to land more safely. No flaps means higher airspeed to maintain lift, Same as airliners.
Yeah, I’m not a pilot but I tried to make sense and failed.
I followed the link and as you state only small/experimental planes.
Then the stall speeds that seemed the focus of post.
No idea if it makes any sense or why I should care.
61 Kts with flaps allows more latitude in design. The flaps up stall speed is obviously higher than 61. The existing rule was 45 kts with flaps up. The whole idea is to make the LSA category cheaper/more accessible for the cost of the aircraft as well as the requirements for an LSA airmans certificate being lower (easier to obtain) (for example, you don’t need a Class 3 medical, just a drivers license).
EAA in Oshkosh probably the best place to check it out.
A safer plane has a slower stall speed at both flaps and no flaps, full stop. Which exactly what a sport plane needs as they will have the least experienced pilots.
But speed is only part of the equation. How hard it stalls, how quickly does it stall, how does it stall in a turn and at what angle, does it want to spin, how easily does it recover, power on vs power off and the list goes on.
As someone who did a lot of aerobatic flying there is a massive difference in what is recoverable vs not especially near the ground where most spin stall accidents occur because of wing designs.
With the newest technology of wing designs etc slower speeds are not only safer but achievable.
I don’t know if I’ll read all 700+ pages and maybe wait for the cliff notes but so far doesn’t sound good.
“NATO Rhetoric Reaches New Levels of Hostility with Threats of ‘Swift’ Kaliningrad Invasion”
I wonder if it has occurred to any of those UK/European leaders that if they invade Kaliningrad at the suggestion of US General Christopher Donahue and it all blows up in their face, then they will find that that General Donahue would be long gone on a plane headed back to safety in the US a full ocean away.
The elites are lunatics. They have learned nothing and forgotten nothing.
If anything, Ukraine’s defense of Donbas should have disabused the lunatics like General Donahue that they can roll into Kaliningrad like the US did in Kuwait 34 years ago. How stupid can these lunatics be? The defenses of Kaliningrad must be world class hardened, manned by experienced personnel with types of weapons that may never have been seen. Does Donahue thinks Palantir is going to guide the way and the NATO troops simply walk in?
The only way a quick occupation of Kaliningrad could be possible is if the ground has been prepared with a nuclear attack. But then the occupation couldn’t happen because NATO would no longer exist.
This madness is simply a cover for grift.
Defense, or was it offense, planning update.
Anonymous well-placed sources indicate the pending formation of a commission to study how best to attack the Kőnigsberg bridges. Funding requests for feasibility studies, then RFPs, appointments of various connected worthies, junkets, revamped media platforms, followed by leaked orders of battle, revisions, new signage and celebratory banquets with parades and medals.
The sticking point could be the parade route as traditionalists insist on the original Euler method. /s
The Ukrainians had the among the best armies in the world, and it has been (to some estimates) destroyed twice, with the current third army doing its best just to survive. I don’t see Estonians and Latvians putting the same resistance. That’s a lot of confidence on Poland to win the war by themselves. Are the Polish interested in that role?
Sports is a Metaphor
NFL Announcer Accused President Trump Of Cheating, yahoo sports.
No surprise I guess, the video embed is gold.
There was absolutely nothing at stake, here. No prize, no money, no bragging rights. Yet his ego is so fragile that he has to resort to the oldest trick in the book. He dishonors the game that he supposedly loves.
We are dealing with a malignant narcissist of the worst order.
The other anecdote at the bottom about Trump kicking another player’s ball off the green is priceless. Happy Gilmore would beat this clown like a hockey goon if he had the chance.
Trump charges £495 in green fees for a round on a summer weekend. Even in the depths of winter the fee is £200. And his Scottish golf courses are losing millions each year. His visit is all about marketing the courses, in the hope of getting some bigger fool to invest in or buy them off him.
Every 4 days in the USA an established 18 hole golf course closes down for good, it’s a dying ‘sport’.
(Ted) Knight Errant?
Classic. As Dr. Beeper says in Caddyshack, “Put me down for a 5.”
Another small news item which says that something has gone terribly wrong with the UK’s police forces? Is it poor selection, bad training, weak superiors, a new development in canteen culture, just confiscated someone’s cocaine stash, watching too much Gaza on their mobiles, or what? https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025/jul/28/man-allotment-gardening-tools-arrest-armed-police-manchester
I can match that anecdote with an opposite one (and indeed supplement with other ones supporting my view). The police round here are (perhaps due to previous shenanigans) very very good – better than social services in dealing with people who fell through the cracks.
I had to be the responsible adult for someone close to us who said something that caused the Chief Constable of the East Midlands Police to activate EVERYONE. False alarm. But the police were (to my eyes) surprisingly empathetic – certainly compared to a lot of social services.
I’m not one to “instinctively defend the blue” but the police round here seem on the ball and are just very very tired of picking up the pieces of a social care system that is failing people. The officers I talked with were very human, and desperate to tell their stories about awful encounters with, frankly, psychopaths etc. We had very good discussions and my dad felt same way when he fulfilled similar role on another occasion. I KNOW there are bad eggs but the culture round here doesn’t seem to be a breeding ground for these…..so far.
As goes the UK police, the US police soon follow.
The over oppression of the general public that usually occurs during the collapse of a ruling elite’s power is ramping up in “the West.”
As I said above, there are some constabularies that have not yet gone to the dark side (east Mids).
This doesn’t mean they WON’T……..they once had a terrible record which was only addressed when most of the service was replaced following a VERY high profile trial that showed that lots of officers were “in with” a local mafia, who all ended up in jail with very very long sentences (But had to be tried in Birmingham since the East Midlands was too compromised).
The “cleanout” seems to have worked……..so far…….but like you, I worry for the future.
Germany wants a longer stick to poke the bear.
Since Tomahawks can also carry nukes, is it really a good idea to have Germany help lob them at Moscow, especially when the US is shipping more nukes into Europe?
Is Germany a good idea?
Judging Germany by the quality of its leadership is like judging America by the quality of its leadership. It doesn’t get you far.
Quite the contrary. A country is defined by the leadership. Citizens are not. Germany and Germans are not interchangeable, jAmerica and USA even less so (America is a continent and does not even have leadership, though Trump has wet dreams about it).
Contra this, Joseph de Maistre stated that “every nation has the government it deserves” (“toute nation a le gouvernement qu’elle mérite”) — an aphorism that became famous.
Not necessarily applicable to non-first-world countries. For example, Amenians don’t deserve Pashinyan, Syrians don’t deserve what they got, etc.
As a line in a movie once went, ‘Deserves got nuthin’ to do with it.’
I doubt he was referring to the rabble however, instead the 1% at the top. Considering some date fascism back to him, although that is arguable.
It works in theory, but does it work in practice? ;)
Sadly, the only good idea for Germany, the DDR, was dismantled some years ago. Alas.
Stasi seems quaint compared to what’s possible now, and why bother ratting out your neighbors when Big Eavesdrop in Utah will do it for you?
…a 1:1 comparison between both isn´t really adeqaute. It´s not as if DDR people could have made their government do soemthing against the DDR elite´s will. In that sense what governments are democratic? Venezuela, the old Lavalas? Would it be dumb to probe whether some regional governance in China or Italy or France (Marseille? or is this me being misinformed) or Cuba are?
The nuclear variant of Tomahawk is long gone. There is a proposal for a new sea-launched nuclear cruise missile, but nothing authorized yet. GLCM went away as part of INF treaty.
To my knowledge the nuclear versions are indeed not installed but the warheads are there and can be transferred any time.
Question is are Tomahawks adequate in today´s environment.
The conventional ones in Syrtia 2018 didn’t fare to well.
Not that I wanna find out…
It’s an over-used rhetorical question, but German Re-Armament is the ultimate “What Could Possibly Go Wrong?” situation
It’s the good ol’ “doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”
Nothing.
“We taught them a lesson in 1918
And they’ve hardly bothered us since then.”
Germany is really in trouble. The competency that Aurelian often refers to is gone. The train derailment is another indicator. I just returned from a German trip lasting two weeks. I took four long and mid distance ICE train. 3 of them took 1 to 2 hours longer than scheduled. And one ended up terminated at an interim stop. Fifty years ago, I could set the watch by the train arrival time.
However Deutsche Bahn never was that brilliant.
Keep in mind that DB is always a direct rival to the backbone of German industry, cars.
So what are you gonna do as a government, support both?
I cannot prove it but I am pretty sure the demise of German railway system since the 1990s had 2 main reasons – privatisation and bolstering German car manufacturing domestically and in Europe.
With a Chinese-like train awesomeness in the heart of Europe (Germany) EU could have gotten some weird idea of building a Europe-wide high-velocity train network spanning from Lissabon to Vladivostok (to quote that old proverb). Which wouldn´t have been in the interest of the car-makers.
Along that I also cannot prove it but it seems obvious to me that German cars´ size and their focus on comfort while high speed was also judged from the POV of rivaling trains (and planes) and their level of comfort.
Which of course was completely at odds with the official environmental line of German policy and for instance contrary to the progressive Japanese model of building tiny cars. (I have to chuckle whenever I see a current Japanese movie over how small and terrific those cars are.)
We have 80M bikes but 50M cars in the FRG! (ok that could change with E-bikes but still the number of cars is mind-boggling in relation.)
There are reasons not talked about why the Mercedes Benz made “Smart” became such a laughing stock. It’s not as if it´d been a bad idea or impossible to build a great tiny care for the city. (And of course them companies all have their city-friendly concepts somewhere in their drawers.)
But then how are you selling your fucking SUVs?
Which are like – everywhere. It´s insane. Especially with so many drivers incapable of navigating those “huge ugly cars” (to quote Enzo Ferrari in “Ford vs. Ferrari”) in narrow streets, not to speak of parking. (Those sensors are BS.)
As to your point, JUNGE WELT daily
DB sacrifices Cargo
Deutsche Bahn is posting losses in the hundreds of millions of euros. Thousands of jobs in freight transport could be lost as a result.
July 30th
Suicide out of fear of death could be the motto of DB Cargo, the freight transport subsidiary of Deutsche Bahn AG. Due to a lack of profitability and a lack of pressure from the EU Commission, a key segment in this sector is to be downsized: single-wagon transport. This could cost thousands of jobs, warns the Railway and Transport Union (EVG). Furthermore, freight transport would be shifted even more to the roads.
On Thursday, Deutsche Bahn AG will present its half-year figures. According to preliminary information from dpa , the company is expected to report a loss of €760 million. The main culprit is the single-wagon transport (EV) of its subsidiary DB Cargo. All other business areas are now operating profitably, a Deutsche Bahn spokeswoman said on Monday, according to Reuters . “Single-wagon transport, however, continues to be in the red.” A revised plan is to be presented by the end of July, according to the Handelsblatt newspaper .
It is conceivable that the EV will be largely abandoned because it is uneconomical to collect individual freight wagons from corporate customers, which are then assembled into a long train. The individual wagons would have to be coupled by hand, which, according to insiders, is “hardly profitable to operate.” The EV is thus causing a three-digit million euro loss for DB Cargo. The EU Commission has also stipulated that the company must become profitable by the end of 2026. As the parent company, DB AG may no longer offset losses of its subsidiary, and “excessive state subsidies” must also be prevented.
According to reports commissioned by the DB Cargo board from two consulting firms, the EV division is to be reduced by 60 to 80 percent. This would ostensibly reduce costs for the federally owned rail company. However, the ecological consequences would be enormous, because even more freight traffic would be handled on the already heavily congested road network. The EVG also pointed this out in a statement last Friday. Between 4,000 and 8,000 jobs could be at risk as a result of the EV cuts. “After all the cuts of the past few years, this would be another dramatic blow,” Cosima Ingenschay, deputy chairwoman of the EVG, told the Redaktionsnetzwerk Deutschland (German editorial network ).
There is a threat of “climate collapse due to the explosion of trucks,” and the industry’s security of supply for freight transport is diminishing. “For us railway workers, single-wagon traffic is not an accounting error, but the heart of the entire rail freight transport system,” the union clarified in its statement. Instead of cuts, the Cargo management board should meet with the works councils and implement already agreed steps for the future viability of the sector.
In addition, the federal government must promote electric mobility because it is the only way to prevent job cuts and a shift to the roads. According to the “Rail for All” alliance, Deutsche Bahn’s slump is also due to the fact that “as a profit-oriented company, it is not delivering what we need.” “Non-profit status for all business areas” is needed, and the federal government must “secure appropriate long-term funding,” it said in a statement on Tuesday.
Flash flooding and heat continue to dominate the summer Balanced Weather
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This has been the most pleasant summer in my 20 years here (oh no, now i’ve done it!) with only a few days over 100 degrees-which is frankly amazing. That said, I’ve also seldom seen the snow in higher climes disappear as quickly as it did this spring.
Seems like warming/ change is all about anomalies?
I saw an article somewhere that drew an analogy to a simmering pot of water transitioning to boil…. the bubbles start to pop off, randomly, everywhere… no discernable pattern. Chaos theory?
That said, there are obvious weather-maker pathways… we have one here in Montanny… SW MT storms brew up, head through central MT, then gain big energy over one of the largest (earthen!) reservoirs in the west, Ft Peck, with dire (and increasing ) tornadic activity further east and north.
Knock wood, this has thus far been one of the least smoky summers I can recall over the last 15-20 years, here in Bozeangeles del Caleeforneeya Norte.
Indeed. All of California seems to be lots cooler than normal this summer, so far, while about all of the US east of the Mississippi is frying.
Hmm. Is there something that could contribute to these odd extremes?
Another oddity is we always get an indoor ant invasion and they are very much Johnny on the spot if you leave anything out, but not one so far this summer inside the house.
Quick. Check out if a Dr. Hellstrom has moved in nearby!
Have you tried discouraging the ants with diatomaceous earth? The sharp, tiny fragments from the ancient diatoms get stuck in the joints in the ants’ exoskeletons, and it’s goodbye ants.
It’s non-toxic, but do avoid breathing it in. I spread it about with one of those rubber bulb puffers that barbers use.
I use diatomaceous earth* or Terro** when they come inside, and am content to let them do their thing outside~
* Would have been a great name for a 60’s or 70’s band
** Why yes, I am a Terro-ist threat
I’ve noted the same here in Brooklyn. By this time in the summer I’m usually engaged in an all-out orange-peel-and-cinnamon war against the invaders. They crawl into plant pots and up kitchen cabinets, looking to drown themselves in honey. This year, in spite of recurring heat waves, not a sign.
Yes, here’s an article in the LATimes smugly noting the Summer temps in SF.
https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2025-07-26/la-me-san-francisco-cold-summer
Having grown up in the City a long time ago, I can tell you Summer is always cold in San Francisco. (It’s the ocean, stupid!)
Such articles are bellwethers indicating how LA has fallen. The intercity rivalry was one-sided for years, where LA didn’t notice or care about SF except on the baseball diamond.
It’s more the pile of excrement that the LA Times has become. I cut my teeth on it growing up and oh how far the fish wrap has fallen.
“As Gaza starves, Trump tells Israel to ‘finish the job’ ”
I would say that Trump is saying this as Israel’s genocide is making him look not good publicity-wise. All those images of starving children are not good publicity for him and recently some country’s official showed a US ambassador these types of images to shame him. That is why Trump is saying “Finish him!” Of course Netanyahu is saying that there is no starvation in Gaza and if there was, it is all Hamas’s fault. Next thing you know is that he will claim that the biggest killer of people in Gaza is obesity. And on the news tonight you had the Israeli ambassador to Oz make the same exact claim of there being no starvation. Frankly he didn’t do himself any favours and it only served to rile people up more. Nobody will miss him when he flies back to the Concentration Camp with Nukes.
Am I mistemembering various articles over the years announcing “this guy” is likely to be the first trillionaire and “this guy” having no comment of else saying no I’m not, go away and leave me alone?
Or from “this guy” was French, just ahrugging?
Law enforcement officials have been lying about violence committed by protestors.
Imagine if a civilian did this in Federal court.
Since Alan Pakula was topic yesterday or so:
SleuthNews and Russiagate:
All The President’s Men, Again
“With some of our reporting set to be confirmed soon, I wanted to offer some thoughts on where we are. At this time, I do not see the political will for a thorough investigation. The right loves to over hype and over promise, but there’s little indication of anything significant going on. However, if, if there was an effort, based on our sources and the work we’ve done for years and spent over $100,000 on, this is what they would do and this is what they would find.”
Hot in the city tonight, for those in Starokonstantinov. That’s where the airbase that operates air-launched cruise missiles is. Maybe a shipment of Tauruses arived, to start the “production” of definitely-Ukrainian-not-German missiles.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starokostiantyniv_Air_Base
I saw a comment on YT that said that a German Air Force transport plane with a Patriot battery aboard was destroyed at the base, killing three German military personnel as well.
Play stupid games…
The expression I keep seeing on YT is FAFO
eff about and find out…….USians are certainly experiencing that in certain sectors and likely more to come.
Nah. Transport planes fly to Poland, and then stuff is moved on road/train, mixed with civillian/humanitarian goods.
OK. That sounds logical. So, the next question would be, why hasn’t Russia blown up the road and rail bridges between Poland and the Ukraine? Some fiendish Dr. Fu Manchu level plot to sucker the NATO into the Ukraine so as to plausibly kill them off?
Whatever, the Russians are playing the Long Game here.
More info.
https://t.me/Slavyangrad/136293
Starokontstantinov received more than a hundred “Geran-2” drones, several Kh-101 missiles, and in the morning, after “consequence liquidators” and further reconnaissance, three more “Kinzhal” missiles.
…
For a while last year it seemed like Russia was attacking Starokonstantinov every other week. Looks like they are going back to that approach now. In the Israel-Iran dustup I heard people say attacking airfields was not effective because runway damage could be fixed so quickly, but I guess if you keep bombing the runways repeatedly for months then it’s the repairs that become ineffective.
What official officiate how much Elon Musk is now officially worth?
That determination is within the purview of the Board of Governors of the Bank of Mars.
It’s probably AI math computing his Telsa shares time their current price on the current stock price forecast with ZERO idea that the current price is a bubble price set to blow up sometime withing the next year or 2.
With the site admin’s indulgence.
Not to hijack, but a non-medical advice question for the medically trained in the commentariat.
I need a rear molar removed. It had become infected. Ten days of amoxycillin stopped that, but the problem continues.
I am on anti-hypertensive meds. Beta blocker, anti-coagulant, etc.
My MD refuses to approve me stopping the blood thinners for the procedure. She demands that I consult with a cardiologist for the med suspension.
Is this standard procedure?
That’s all I need to know.
Thank you and forgive me for this quasi thread-jack.
This is NOT MEDICAL ADVICE but it what I would do.
Hopefully IM Doc or another MD will opine
For any surgery, if this is what you are having, the doctors typically INSIST you stop blood thinners and even blood thinning dietary supplements for 2 weeks in advance. That’s overkill, I looked up the half lives and for nearly all, it’s only a few days or even a day.
I can’t see how a few days off a blood thinner will make much difference for your heart. Stroke risk is a different category.
If I were you, I would find out what the at the half life and stop taking them before the surgery an adequate amount of time in advance, if this is a surgery. What is she going to do, put a tube in you to make you take them?
Thank you for the NON MEDICAL ADVICE suggestion. My problem here is that, in the degraded system that purports to be a Medical System in my segment of the North American Deep South, no dentist I have contacted will agree to do the procedure without an official release from the MD or other specialist. The dentist office person I spoke to this morning mumbled something about insurance regulations in response to my query concerning ways and means.
I agree about the half life issue. Checking up on the viability of using some cipro left after another bout of infectivity a few years ago I discovered that that particular anti-biotic was considered to have an eleven to twelve year safe storage life span.
I am now looking into contacting an oral surgeon. They should be set up to deal with patient bleed outs.
Stay safe and thanks for the reply.
My father recently had a cataract surgery and he is on blood thinners (Xarelto). We also needed to talk to his cardiologist, and the standard procedure here is to stop taking it one week before the surgery and replace it with Clexane injections (self administered once per day) until the day of the surgery.
Maybe your doctor will recommend to stop taking the medicine for three days before the surgery, but this will depend on your condition and the risk of stroke.
You really should talk to a doctor before doing anything, but we are not in the USA and healthcare is free here.
Thanks for the information. I’m learning as I go here.
Stay safe.
Same pre-surgery routine for me for a major surgery, aside from my blood thinner being warfarin.
I’ve had other small cuts where we just stopped it for a few days prior… with my cardiologist approval (called the office, spoke to a nurse, got the approval sent via medical portal)
I think much depends on your current health and why you’re taking blood thinners so there’s probably no blanket answer. For a wide variety of reasons, my cardiologist always reminds me that I’m not the patient in the pamphlet (i.e. I have a rather unique medical history so procedures/drugs that work “on average” may not work for me because “I’m special”).
Ultimately, it probably is all about a** covering
ZOMG that MD release is ridiculous. So so sorry.
No, no, the half life is in your system, not on the shelf.
See for instance:
https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/10.1161/01.cir.101.10.1206
Thank you very much. I did misunderstand your earlier comment. As I mentioned in a reply to another commenter, I am learning as I go here.
Stay safe.
I was surprised by your dentists request. My grandmother was on blood thinners most of her life after having a heart valve replaced in 1971! I didn’t ever recall her mentioning a need to stop taking it for a root canal which I believe she did have at one point.
According to The Academy of Oral Medicine, you normally don’t need to stop taking your blood thinners for oral surgery.
https://www.aaom.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=126:blood-thinners-and-dental-care&catid=22:patient-condition-information&Itemid=120
Question… does your dentist/oral surgeon WANT you to stop taking the blood thinners or does he just want your Dr to sign off that it’s OK to keep taking them? I have a feeling this is less real medicine and more lawyer-like shifting of risk the lawyers seen and not necessarily the risks the medical world sees.
Personally I can’t see how there is any risk of bleeding out unless they are removing a chunk of your jaw too. If you can’t stop bleeding you’ll know it within 20 min or an hour given it’s your mouth and then someone will employ other means of mechanically stopping the bleeding – I’m sure hemophiliacs still get root canals. It’s not like they are sowing you closed where internal bleeding can go on unchecked until you do bleed out.
I too am wondering if this is an artifact of the Neoliberal love of suing everyone in sight.
I got the distinct impression that the dentist wanted me to stop the blood thinners before the procedure.
This looks like an extreme example of Risk Aversion gone wild.
Be safe and good for your Granny.
Thanks for this thread. I am having bad tooth extracted next week and am on blood thinners. I finally got the appointment for next Monday. My Oral surgeon wanted an ok from my cardiologist, and finally got it after much back and forth. But I didn’t get any info on stopping taking the blood thinners. So I just phoned my cardiologist (at Kaiser CA) and they said I don’t need to stop them. I had 2 stents put in after a heart attack last Sept. (I had covid 9 mo. before the spiral down to the attack.) I currently mask up as much as possible now when indoors.
So thanks for the reminder to double check.
Be as safe as you can be. I had two stents put in about ten years ago. My diagnosis is “essential” hyper-tension. My new problem is that I haven’t seen a cardiologist in over a year. (I am extremely Industrial Medicine Averse.)
I wonder if a Vet would do it if I came in and described myself as a “Reptilian Overlord Pet.”
I have not stopped masking when out of the house. I am told that the newest “Razor Throat” variant of the coronavirus is running wild in our region now. Thus, an added reason to avoid hospitals and clinics.
I wonder, is there a correlation possible between dental health and the coronavirus? It seems to be involved in just about everything else bad that can happen to a Terran human physiology.
Trump caught cheating at golf in Scotland:
https://sports.yahoo.com/article/nfl-announcer-accused-president-trump-214602505.html
– ‘Exclusive: Private Probe of Alleged Epstein—Mossad Links’ – SpyTalk
“SpyTalk has learned that Trump-friendly moneyed parties are pursuing evidence of the late financial adviser Jeffrey Epstein’s possible connections to Israeli intelligence through his now jailed girlfriend and former sex trafficking manager Ghislaine Maxwell.”
Since I can’t get beyond the paywall, could someone give me an idea of who these “Trump-friendly moneyed parties” might be? We know that some of these parties are very pro-Zionist. Are there others who are more “MAGA” than “MEGA” in that they are willing to finger the Israel Lobby? Are they right-wingers engaging in more traditional antisemitic “conspiracy theory”? Are they “pursuing evidence” simply to protect Trump or shut up the critics by “debunking” such theories? Based on the introduction I assume Stein does not “divulge their identity,” but does he provide some sense of who these “hedge fund employers” might be, and what their motives are?
Looks like they removed the paywall …
https://www.spytalk.co/p/exclusive-private-probe-of-alleged
“The investigator is pursuing the theory, so far without any evidence, that Donald Trump was blackmailed indirectly by Israeli spies through Epstein—ie., that he’s been a victim, not an enabler, of the late sex trafficker. That would certainly fit the president’s longtime narrative that he’s been a victim of a shadowy “deep state” that has conspired against him since at least the 2016 elections”
Thanks. As much as I hate spytalk I will look at it.
However my initial reaction was it´s a fake for the very reason that it is Jeff Stein and this phrase which was in the preview:
“One investigator shared bare bones details of the probe with SpyTalk on condition of anonymity, and said he did not have permission from his “hedge fund” employers to divulge their identity.”
Call me biased but that kind of wording immediately raised crimson flags in my perception.
Thanks. They did, and it proved to be much as I thought. Spytalk is an outlet for faux insider “intelligence” info by the Establishment, more specifically the “liberal” and Atlanticist (and Democrat) faction of that Establishment. This passage makes Stein’s intention pretty clear:
“This past week his director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, accused Obama administration officials of ginning up a phony story that Russia helped Trump win the White House, despite plenty of evidence to the conrary. Trump escalated the issue to “treason,” and Gabbard said she was making a criminal referral to the Justice Department on Obama and his high ranking national security officials…”
“Experts cited four official investigations, including one headed by Secretary of State Marc Rubio when he chaired the Senate Intelligence Committee, that all agreed Russia had sought to harm Hillary Clinton’s candidacy and sway the election Trump’s way. Critics called the moves by Gabbard and Trump a baseless accusation designed to deflect attention from new evidence of Trump’s longtime friendship with Epstein.”
Anyone claiming they are providing real “intelligence community” info who is still pushing this Russiagate bulls**t is just insulting *our* intelligence. Of course, though Gabbard’s charges are anything but “baseless,” they are pretty clearly *also* attempts to deflect attention from the Trump-Epstein relationship. So the author is right about that. But then he does something telling. After admitting Robert Maxwell’s ties to Mossad and the mysterious source(s) of Epstein’s apparent wealth, he seems to call into question Epstein’s own links to intelligence:
“The investigator, a former senior government agency employee, speculated without evidence that Robert Maxwell enlisted Epstein, possibly through his daughter, to collect damaging intelligence for Mossad on the many powerful American politicos and other influential people Epstein was friends with—like Trump…”
So apparently the rather large pile of circumstantial evidence does not count as evidence. And reports that Epstein had an earlier relationship with Robert Maxwell are rejected based on *Ghislaine’s* testimony that she didn’t meet him until after her father’s death! Thus the Establishment Epstein narrative: Trump and Epstein were pedophile buddies, but the Israeli intelligence blackmail story is just a “conspiracy theory” with no evidence (sorry MAGA folks!). Oh, and *Russiagate was real*!
Real truths from “intelligence community” insiders – or the usual partisan bulls**t? You be the judge.
re: Chris Hedges: Trump, Palestine, Iran & the Collapse of U.S. Media
in conversation with JYOTISHMAN
50 min.
https://scheerpost.com/2025/07/28/chris-hedges-trump-palestine-iran-the-collapse-of-u-s-media/
Chris Hedges joins India & Global Left to break down the the deeper meaning of Trump’s rise, the real motives behind U.S. policy on Iran, Jeffrey Epstein and more.
Chris Hedges on the demise of First Amendment
Abolishing the First Amendment
Those who testified at the state capital against New Jersey’s adoption of the IHRA, arguing that it would criminalize free speech, had our microphones muted and were shouted down, proving our point.
https://chrishedges.substack.com/p/abolishing-the-first-amendment
America’s Military Is in Big Trouble – The American Conservative
“Michael Vlahos is a writer and author of the book Fighting Identity: Sacred War and World Change. He has taught war and strategy at Johns Hopkins University and the Naval War College, and is a weekly contributor to The John Batchelor Show.”
…In big trouble and he used to teach war and strategy…
I guess there’s some strategy to presenting articles like this when asking for more increases in the military spending.
Men are such a burden, why do women even keep them around or tolerate them… oh wait.
Why Women Are Weary of the Emotional Labor of ‘Mankeeping’ (NY Times via archive.ph)
But not to be confused with intimacy
So men need to do-the-work
But not at work
Always gotta be on guard that you don’t offend someone, and find yourself fired, after all.
Ha ha.
The Bull Market for Economists Is Over. It’s an Ominous Sign for the Economy. (NY Times via archive.ph)
So much for the priestly class.
Neoliberal labor market forces are good for the gander as well, no?
Ghislaine is finally squealing
[Verse 1]
What is happening here?
Something going on that’s not quite clear
Somebody turn on the lights
We’re gonna have a party, it’s starting tonight
[Chorus]
Oh, what a feeling when Ghislaine is finally squealing
Oh, what a feeling when Ghislaine is finally squealing
[Verse 2]
The room is hot and that’s good
Some of my friends came by from the neighborhood
The Don is starting to climb the walls
Oooh, it looks like pedophiles will see jail walls
Oh, what a feeling when Ghislaine is finally squealing
Oh, what a feeling when Ghislaine is finally squealing, ah
Oh, oh, what a feeling when Ghislaine is finally squealing
Oh, what a feeling when Trump’s fate she’s finally sealing
[Bridge 1]
Everybody starts to lose control when the plea deal is right
If you see somebody hanging in their cell, don’t get uptight
The only thing we wanna do tonight
Is go round and round and turn DC upside down
(Come on, let’s get down!)
[Interlude]
(Cheering)
Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey!
Hey, hey, hey…….(Cheering)
[Verse 3]
So come on and get loose
Don’t hold back ’cause it ain’t no use
Hard to keep your ankle monitors on the ground
‘Cause when we like to party, we only wanna get down
Oh, what a feeling when Ghislaine is finally squealing
Oh, what a feeling when Ghislaine is finally squealing, ah
Oh, what a feeling, baby, when Ghislaine is finally squealing
Oh, what a feeling when Ghislaine is finally squealing
[Bridge 2]
Say what?
Can’t stop now, indictments just getting started
Everybody clap your hands. (Clapping)
Come on!
Everybody let’s dance!
Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh
[Outro]
Oh, what a feeling when Ghislaine is finally squealing
Oh, what a feeling cause Trump’s fate she’s finally sealing
Oh, what a feeling when Ghislaine is finally squealing
Oh, what a feeling the indictments are unsealing
Oh, what a feeling cause Ghislaine is finally squealing
Baby, we’re gonna dance all night ’till the broad daylight
Keep on moving, get her a deal!
Oh yeah
Oh, what a feeling when Ghislaine is finally squealing
Oh, what a feeling when Ghislaine is finally squealing
PS – Dancing on the Ceiling peaked at #2 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #4 on Billboard’s R&B chart. It also charted on Billboard’s Adult Contemporary chart, peaking at #3. 1986, Original music, lyrics by Lionel Richie.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OdQDXs75Ulo
The T man’s man (now assistant AG) sat down with the young lady and whispered sweet nothings in her ear. She goes free if the T man is in the clear.
Bet my bottom dollar, which at the end of the month, as usual, I’m already at.
I wouldn’t take the other side of that bet, but I am not a betting man.
I love the Commodores and that chorus … the lines practically write themselves.
Bonus:
Oh, what a feeling … Blondi’s tan has started peeling
Oh, what a feeling … she’s not lookin’ so appealing
Oh, what a feeling … when Ghislaine is finally squealing
Oh, what a feeling … protest tweets are so revealing …
Has there been a day since Israel started responding to Oct 7 that they haven’t been firing missiles into some country or moving into more territory? What’s been the longest rest period between attacks or invasion of anyone?
Only Russia seems to have as much consistent supply of ammo.
And count the drones (missions of all kinds) too…
On that vein, Iranian media is reporting that Iran has received S-400 systems from Russia (which seems to have enough even anti-missile missiles to spread around) and has already conducted first firing tests near Isfahan.
And nobody seems to be able to confirm what Israel has received or from where.
They’ve always avoided the inspection deals.
It doesn’t matter what Iran gets …if they can be counted on to stop using it when things get really hot.
Have another wildfire here, I think the 5th or 6th of the summer.
They’re calling this one the ‘Equine Fire’ as it’s near Horse Creek and about 10 acres, presently being clobbered from the air
We’ve had the Horse Fire, the Saddle Fire and now the Equine Fire, will the next one be the Stirrups Fire or the Mane Fire?
Is it being clobbered by the Stallion Battalion? The Mustang Sally?
I’ll let myself out now…
Don’t let the barn door hit you on the coccygeus on the way out.
Sorry to be a neigh sayer…..
It appears to be horse drawn carriages with manual pumps attacking the conflagration, or was that a Chinook?
Why can’t they rein it in?
file under The Friendly Skys meets AI. utube, ~6+ minutes
Airline’s Sneaky Plan To JACK UP Ticket Prices!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mD27q6_–z0
ATW Taibbi/Kirn now
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zXJl-3sYi24
Traverse City, Michigan: A man accused of entering a Walmart in Michigan and randomly stabbing 11 shoppers before being detained by bystanders in the store car park is expected to face terrorism and multiple assault charges, authorities said on Monday (AEST).
Grand Traverse County Sheriff Michael Shea said a motive behind the alleged attack by Bradford Gille, 42, of Afton, Michigan, remained unclear. Gille, who Shea said had “prior assaultive incidents as well as controlled substance violations”, said little as he was arrested. He is expected to be charged with one count of terrorism and 11 counts of assault with intent to murder.
https://www.smh.com.au/world/north-america/man-in-custody-after-11-people-stabbed-at-us-shopping-centre-20250727-p5mi54.html
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Will mass murders via hand cannon be considered terrorism in the future?
It’s a pretty wild story, catching up on daily events from the evening news. Apparently he, I mean the alleged attacker, had attacked a few individuals who were incapable of fighting or taking flight. In the report I watched it was a few regular, family dudes that managed to corner him outside of the store.
And another mass shooting in NYC at a high-rise with Blackstone, NFL offices:
https://www.cnn.com/us/live-news/new-york-city-midtown-manhattan-shooting-07-28-25
4 fatalities as of now.
LOL
Ocasio-Cortez Must Pay Another $2,700 for Met Gala Dress
Yes, she did. It was what finally made it clear beyond any doubt that she’s a social climbing hack committed to her own advancement.
(bold mine)
Anna Wintour personally invited AOC, so she didn’t have to pay but did need to cover the fair market value of the gift, which in this case was decided by the committee to be only the meal and the rental value of the dress.
But she could have refused the invitation, out of respect and decency. Instead she thought the cheeky dress would cover her hypocrisy. Every lefty I know who was fascinated by her rise was disappointed. Liberals though, thought it was cool.
Sorry, your premise is off. Please use a search engine rather that force me to check the accuracy of assertions.
“Free attendance” is an allowable gift:
https://ethics.house.gov/gifts/
It was her companion’s meal, not the price of admission or her meal. I should have been more clear about that. The reference in my mind was the Federal law that I’m familiar with, not the House Rule, so mea culpa. Sorry.
https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/5/7353
I still don’t understand. Unless her companion was living with her, how is a gift to someone who is not economically or legally related an ethics matter? When Fannie Willis hired her boyfriend, it WAS an issue because he was using $ from his employment to pay for IIRC a vacation or meals for her, as in a kickback of sorts.
Pretty funny. I hope Trump is rebuffed here
N.J. Criminal Cases Screech to a Halt as Habba’s Authority Is Challenged