This is the most impressive thing I’ve ever seenpic.twitter.com/hfHTC1SnzO
— Interesting things (@awkwardgoogle) July 16, 2025
The Urgent Need For Revolutionizing Economic Statistics Noema
‘It’s a Mess’: A Brain-Bending Trip to Quantum Theory’s 100th Birthday Party Quanta Magazine
New clues emerge on how foods spark anaphylaxis Science News
Two Wild New Theories Could Finally Explain Dark Matter SciTech Daily
COVID-19/Pandemics
Huge cuts to mRNA research spark fears about future pandemics KRON4
Scientists pick up massive surge in gut-brain disorders Daily Mail
Climate/Environment
The World Is Running Out of Freshwater Faster Than Anyone Expected Arizona State U.
Seven Ticks Hitched Very Long Rides to Connecticut NY Times
Can we force a climate breakthrough? Scientists outline strategy to tip the system EuroNews
China?
Unitree Introducing | Unitree A2 Stellar Hunter 🤩
Total weight: ~37kg | Unloaded range: ~20km
Lighter, Stronger and Faster. Engineered for Industrial Applications. pic.twitter.com/Rqpa7EkU0B— Unitree (@UnitreeRobotics) August 5, 2025
China Is Winning the Race for Central Asia’s Critical Minerals OilPrice.comNew discovery: China’s lunar samples deepen understanding of the moon CGTN
Trump’s China gamble Axios
South of the Border
Mexico rules out Trump’s reported military plan against drug cartels BBC
Argentina’s Milei vetoes pension and disability spending increases, citing fiscal deficit pledge AP
Analysis-Brazil’s economy ready to ride out Trump’s 50% tariff Reuters
Africa
IAEA Launches New Outlook on Nuclear Power for Development in Africa at G20 IAEA
South Africa braces for heavy job losses as stiff US tariffs take hold RFI
European Disunion
To Free Itself From Trump’s Grip, Europe Needs New Allies Worldcrunch
Europe Loses $1 Trillion From Ditching Russian Oil Cryptorank
Europe’s Capitulation in the EU–US Trade Deal and Europe’s Strategic Blindness Hungarian Conservative
Old Blighty
Brexit sends Brits to Europe for Louboutins in a blow to UK luxury EuroNews
Israel v. Gaza, Yemen, Lebanon, Syria, Iran
If Gaza were a European city and its people were European, the world would have hit the panic button long ago.
There’d be emergency UN sessions, military intervention, wall-to-wall media coverage, and global outrage.
But because it’s Palestinians, the world watches in silence… pic.twitter.com/OI7Zj1A67d
— Zohran Mamdani (@zohranmamdani) August 7, 2025
Israel’s delusional, inhuman Gaza takeover plan could be recipe for perpetual war The Guardian
Young Jews are Zionism’s worst nightmare, and I’m loving every second of it.
This one lays bare the reality of the “only Jewish state” in just 78 seconds. pic.twitter.com/flsFLtpusP
— Abier (@abierkhatib) August 7, 2025
Egypt’s gas deal critiqued online as ‘economic complicity’ in Israel’s war on Gaza Middle East Eye
Israel faces growing condemnation over military expansion in Gaza AP
New Not-So-Cold War
Russia-Ukraine War Battles Hit All-Time High Newsweek
Ukraine will not cede land, Zelenskiy says, as Trump, Putin plan meeting Reuters
Ukraine’s Infantry Crisis Radio Free Europe
Big Brother Is Watching You Watch
Research reveals possible privacy gaps in Apple Intelligence’s data handling Cyberscoop
AT&T’s Massive Privacy Settlement Could Pay Customers Up to $7,500 CNET
Collecting U.S. Nationals’ Electronic Data Without a Warrant TheRegulatory Review
Imperial Collapse Watch
How Much Space Does the Median Income Get You? NY Times
What Burlington is doing about the continually rising number of unhoused individuals Burlington Free Press
Trump 2.0
MAGA Is Being Conned: Trump’s Tariffs Are Just Taxes by Another Name Zeteo
How Trump’s War on Higher Education Is Hitting Community Colleges NY Times
Meet the Native American tribe that beat the Trump administration in court — for now ABC News
Musk Matters
Elon Musk’s America Party: Lessons from History Washington Monthly
Tesla Stumbles, but Elon Musk Gets a Massive Payday The Motley Fool
Democrat Death Watch
The Democrats Have No Immigration Plan The Free Press
We made it on Breaking Points! (6:38)
WATCH: @krystalball ENDS Cory Booker’s career pic.twitter.com/uB4l1qnzRZ
— AIPAC Tracker (@TrackAIPAC) August 7, 2025
‘They roll right over’: Many Democrats call their party weak and ineffective, AP-NORC poll finds AP
Immigration
IRS commissioner’s removal reportedly over clash on undocumented immigrant data The Guardian
Wall Street is divided over whether immigration is behind US hiring slowdown Fortune
Our No Longer Free Press
Trump’s Attacks on Press Freedom Escalate: NPR, PBS Funding Cuts Explained ACLU
Mr. Market Is Moody
‘Stagflation is coming to the U.S.,’ says this economist. Here’s what it means for the dollar, bonds and stocks. Market Watch
‘This bull market in equities has a serious problem’: Strategist warns a crucial AI-stock index is sending a potential bubble signal Business Insider
Why investors should be worried if Powell blinks early on rates Financial Review
AI
Delta Airlines reportedly wants to use AI to set individualized ticket prices for passengers.
It’s the latest company to embrace a shady tactic called “surveillance pricing” that weaponizes your personal data.
Watch Lina Khan explain how it works. pic.twitter.com/pnRJTyLZq6
— Robert Reich (@RBReich) July 16, 2025
An AI System Found a New Kind of Physics that Scientists Had Never Seen Before Popular MechanicsTraders Are Fleeing Stocks Feared to Be Under Threat From AI Bloomberg
It shocked the market but has China’s DeepSeek changed AI? BBC
The Bezzle
WhatsApp Bans 6.8M Scam Accounts in Southeast Asia with AI Tools WebProNews
Here’s what to know about the Amazon scam texts that are trying to steal personal information Houston Chronicle
Guillotine Watch
Jisoo is owning the most rarest and expensive Dior bag. Only three in the world exist costing 31.000€. It’s so rare the bag has its own passport! Expected nothing less from Dior’s double global ambassador Kim Jisoo! pic.twitter.com/Ds7It0yPjW
— PanthèreWomanJisoo 🌹♥️ (@jisoomymuse) July 8, 2023
Siparişi verip 6 ay istakoz şeklinde çanta beklemiş.
👜 Louis Vuitton Lobster Wearable Wallet
💸 18.000$
🎥 thaicongquach pic.twitter.com/HkPtZkHfKR— Club Regista Entertainment (@RegistaEnt) August 4, 2025
Antidote du jour (via)
Bonus antidote
It’s Friday! 🎉 pic.twitter.com/TW1350et1Z
— Buitengebieden (@buitengebieden) August 8, 2025
‘Club Regista Entertainment
@RegistaEnt
Aug 4
Siparişi verip 6 ay istakoz şeklinde çanta beklemiş.
👜 Louis Vuitton Lobster Wearable Wallet
💸 18.000$ ‘
Ummm. It’s a handbag for men – I guess. As a handbag/toy for a little girl it would be fine and they might love it but it is hardly pragmatic. A wallet you slip in your pocket and have both hands still free. This one. Not so much.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kitsch
I love how they put this ridiculous item in a dust cover the size of a sleeping bag.
There was a French poet who had a pet lobster that he would take for walks on a leash. You could build the machinery into that thing.
You wouldn’t have to carry it.
Gérard de Nerval
Gérard de Nerval:
https://www.cocosse.com/2016/05/thibault-the-lobster-gerard-de-nerval-1805-55/
An addition to Democrat Death Watch:
‘We are at war – bring it on’: Democrats ready to fight dirty to stop Trump (Guardian)
[BP: they are not ready. Not remotely.]
Ken Martin, chair of the Democratic National Committee, speaking in Chicago this week. “This is not the Democratic party of your grandfather, which would bring a pencil to the knife fight,” he insisted. “This is a new Democratic party. We’re bringing a knife to a knife fight, and we are going to fight fire with fire.”
[BP: that the idiom is actually “bring a knife to a gun fight” is almost too delicious]
“It is about rebuilding that rapport and trust with our base and letting them know that we will be the fighters that they need” says some congresswoman called Jasmine Crockett
[BP: raises coffee cup to Lambert]
There’s more unconvincing verbiage and redistricting plannage for those that enjoy that sort of thing. Absent as ever: policies that would improve the material situation of normal people.
Somebody on this blog already quoted the Chicago Way https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xPZ6eaL3S2E
In fairness, I think “pencil” is more appropriate in reference to the Democrats – as in “bring a pencil to a gun fight.” A pencil is useful in tallying up campaign donations, which is the primary purpose of the Party these days.
On this subject, thanks to Haig for posting (or reposting?) Krystal Ball’s excellent rant on Booker. I’ve seen it all over the place; it should be spread far and wide. I’m way too cynical to think that this would actually end Booker’s career, but we need as much of this kind of call-out as possible.
I don’t know if Booker is the “absolute f**king worst” in Congress; he has a lot of competition for that title (Lindsay Graham would have to be a contender, as would some of the Democrats with important links to the IC like Warner or Schiff). But for sheer pompous bombast of the most hypocritical sort, he is hard to beat. Thanks Krystal.
Krystal took a lot of heat for her interview of RFKJ back when Bobby was still a Dem. I watched that interview and thought that Krystal was giving a friendly interview until she responded to RFK’s attack on Big Pharma by asking if Kennedy would nationalize them. When it was clear that Kennedy was aghast at the thought, it was clear to me that he was just another Propertarian, and I was grateful to Krystal for exposing that. More recently, she did a nice job of exposing Miss CIA of 2010, Senator Slotkin (D-Israel), as a genocide supporter. I’m back to watching Breaking Points for conventional political news.
Ms. Ball has been on a roll and Breaking Points is worth the watch. I wish it weren’t on Rumble because that platform has been banned in France, pays des droits de l’homme . Along with RT. It’s so infuriating that I can’t read or watch what I want in a supposedly free country. But the saving grace of this fair land of fraternity, equality and liberty is that there are far right Jewish radio and TV stations who broadcast 24/7 propaganda about l’état hébreu…
Bugs: here in Italy, I watch Breaking Points on YouTube, which shouldn’t have gotten the axe yet in the Hexagone
I don’t think you can see the entire show on YouTube without going through the Breaking Points website and subscribing for it, but you can see most or much of it for free just by going to YouTube. If they are blocking the program from your location, a VPN should work well.
Use archive.is. That’s how I get around the censorship in the EU, that epitome of democracy and its values.
“But they said it was a knife fight…”
Heh heh, team blue, sponsored by Harley Davidson.
There is only one real way to fight the Republicans – the Chicago way-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xPZ6eaL3S2E (2:02 mins)
Thing is, a lot of the things that the Republicans are doing are things that the Democrats want to do too. It’s one of the reasons why they are still hanging back. JFK once wrote a book called “Profiles in Courage” but when you think about it, how many modern Democrats could ever appear in such a book. Pelosi? Clinton? Schumer? AOC? Biden? Jeffries?
They chose “Profiles in Tatler” instead.
Profile at a table in The French Laundry, maybe.
Allegedly, Eleanor Roosevelt’s assessment of JFK was “Too much profile. Not enough courage.”
Don’t think anyone seriously debates that JFK had courage. Not just in WWII, but in challenging the whole Cold War ideology by seeking peace. Knew it might cost him his life, and it did.
I don’t know why…but I clicked on your linked article and it’s worse than I feared. Not only are they just trash-talking and proposing doing nothing new. They’re going to gerrymander harder in blue states and get rid of more contested districts in the house.
They’d literally rather just end democracy than do anything different.
We had to destroy the
villageconstituency in order to save it.An old idea recycled to meet the needs of today’s politicians.
Just wait until they turn to AI in order to craft a “personalized” message for each and every individual voter based on consumer information and profiles scoured from the internet… think that sex bot won’t rat you out?
“Would your neighbors approve of what you did to Lola last weekend? If you value your privacy, and freedom, vote Harris this November!”
I don’t want AI – I want a lifesize Hilary hologram (a Hilogram?) to appear in my lounge and try scolding me into voting for [insert donor-approved wet blanket here].
It’s all so comical; By and large, liberal Democrats agree with Trump’s overall capitalist program, they just don’t agree with the manner in which it’s been carried out. It’s hard to get much resistance to policies that you mostly believe in, anyway. Sure, Trump’s attack on supposed Democrat strongholds and institutions, such as they are, when it comes to dollars and cents, is an issue. But otherwise.
Remember, liberal Democrats under Biden had the opportunity to make the Pandemic aid permanent, which among other things cut childhood poverty — think of the children — in half! Instead, they let it expire. And Harris could have overridden the Senate Parliamentarian and gotten a weak sauce minimum wage increase at the federal level, but clearly needed to defend her right flank instead. (How’d that presidential campaign go? Oh right the largest political consultant grift in history is the hallmark of her campaign, and embracing Republicans.)
Yes, agreed. Liberal Democrats will do nothing but continue to market their lipstick brand for that capitalist pig, “Abundance.” Come the midterms they will act mad as hell, but once in office they will defend to their very cores the new status quo.
And I can’t claim to have any special predictive knowledge here. It’s just that Democrat’s motives have become so transparent and predictable that the only surprises are the depths of their incompetence. How much can they fail in attempting to force us to swallow “Abundance?” Only time will tell.
Thank you, Haig.
Further to European Disunion, Eusians may be interested to read that Israel has a diplomatic mission, including a military attaché, in the Berlaymont building, EU HQ.
I learnt that yesterday from a friend employed by the Commission. No other country has a mission in an EU building.
Thank you, Colonel. I guess that if you want to bug the EU HQ building and spy on the people there, it is much, much easier when you have an office in that building.
Colonel Smithers and Rev Kev.
For extra added enjoyment, look up Transatlantic Friends of Israel, which has been set up by Israel and the American Jewish Committee to be the AIPAC of the EU.
Who needs a faux embassy when they’ve bought so many politicians?
Thank you, both.
“To Free Itself From Trump’s Grip, Europe Needs New Allies”
Who would they be precisely? Their real natural ally should be the Russian Federations as they can supply the EU with all sorts of resources at a good price. But they have so totally destroyed relations and salted the ground so bad that even the Russians have said that they will wait another thirty years until a new generation takes over with whom they might be able to deal with. They are also burning down their relations with the one other potential partner that could save them – China. Their nominal reason for doing so is to force China to break relations with the Russians after which they might be permitted the privilege to trade with the EU. Yeah, nah.
Even the countries they need they fight with and it was only recently that the European Parliament formally endorsed the removal of the United Arab Emirates from its list of high-risk third countries for money laundering and terrorist – the country that they get energy from. As for the countries of the Global Majority, well, they have had a gut full of EU lecturing and finger wagging and are pushing back now. So where will they get these allies from exactly?
Can they join AUKUS?
Please, haven’t we got problems enough?
I can just picture the EU visiting and you guys taking Katja and co to to a footy game.
“And the thing is, he isn’t even a real Texan!!?”….oh that, just a bit of feedback ……They are very short shorts, yes…..No, I believe they just like their hair that way…”
You really want to put the boot in, don’t you? God, that would mean that we would have Ursula showing up on our doorstep. The woman reeks of corruption. She’d probably want us to form an anti-China club with the EU because, you know, militarily they are such a super power. Careful if Ursula turns up in the UK though. The guys at the Duran reckon that Starmer is trying to get the UK back into the EU and my own guess would be that it would be on condition that the UK ditch the Pound and adopt the Euro.
English option, declare bangers haram to hasten the approval?
NY Times story on how “learn to code” has backfired:
https://archive.ph/Lc6DA
Now they cannot find jobs.
Back during my tech days, before I saw the writing on the wall and left the industry behind, my peak earnings years were around this level of compensation. At that time, I was managing multiple offshore teams, serving as a scrum master, conducting my own research and development, and overseeing people simultaneously. In addition to the daily grind of meetings and occasional travel.
Handing that kind of money to a new college grad strikes me as not just stupid, but reckless. These kids need to be mentored and work their way up to that level of compensation by handling more responsibility, not just cranking out code.
I have to admit to some schadenfreude watching this all unfold.
I was recently “downsized” from the IT industry and I can confirm that it’s ugly out there. My version of doomscrolling is going on LinkedIn and reading posts from developers who have 5x the chops and have been unemployed for 1+ years.
Winter is here….
Sorry to hear about that and it must be tough. No doubt the IT industry will need people like you when AI makes a total shambles of things if you can wait long enough. You know it is going to happen.
AI will make a mess that high-paid consultants will feast on, eventually. But that won’t help the younger folks.
They will need to rethink and adapt. I had to do the same several times during my career.
Having no clue of these things, do you share the view that children/kids should be learning to write code seriously, just like any other classic subject matter in school?
Will AI tools eventually offer simple apps that any idiot like me can use for a certain degree of coding?
Will only top coding skills remain relevant?
Programming is a lot about problem decomposition, understanding what you’re trying to solve and how the pieces fit together.
Really, you could just learn math, calculus. Some programming approaches, like functional programming, are basically just calculus, where you think in terms of function inputs, and outputs, and transformations.
Critical thinking is really the most important skill, and analytical tools to determine the size and scope of a problem, and where you’re actually solving it correctly incrementally, and getting that result while utilizing your resources in a manner that make sense to you, your budget, time, accuracy, and so on.
Interestingly, people come into software engineering from other engineering degrees, but also music. There’s something about musical ability and talent that translates into good software development skills.
But people from all kinds of professions and backgrounds have gotten into software development self-taught.
After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour, didn’t they use one of the music bands from one of those damaged battleships in the code-breaking rooms as they showed talent for it? It was referenced in the 2019 film “Midway” too.
The 1976 version is far better and fantastic. It’s also relatively accurate, which I found surprising.
I agree with this. “learn to code” is not the right suggestion, but “learn to problem-solve” is. I always said as a software developer I don’t love coding, I love problem-solving, and computers are just my tool. I actually left development for 9 years and then decided to look for a corporate job again a couple years ago just as the current freeze was ramping up – less than a year after the employment peak, but seeing major layoffs while I applied places. I found a company that was willing to investigate my problem solving skills and ignore my very thin resume, and since I’d grown a lot over the 9 years my ability to solve problems was much stronger than before, and with just a couple weeks to ramp up on modern coding/interview training, I made it work and got a position where I’ve actually performed well.
I really can’t emphasize enough that people who just learn to code will be way more likely to lose work than people who learn to solve challenging software problems, think through a design, learn major pitfalls and why they don’t work, etc. Of course, plenty of capable developers are having challenges too, so nothing’s guaranteed. But the world is not awash in people who think critically, and I keep reading/hearing how AI dependence seems to be lowering the standards/capabilities of recent graduates, so people who actually cultivate themselves will stand the best chance in whatever they pursue.
Interestingly, in the 1920s IBM sought women who had majored in music as programmers (the plug-board kind). They had determined that women with those skills were most successful. And, of course, it wasn’t “man’s” work.
AI already offers tools that enable those without* coding skills to create code for most common use cases (coding assistants and no-code tools). As a developer who works in AI I would say the kids still need to learn how to code but they don’t need to be a maestro in it; just pick a front end frame work (like Node), a system language (like C or Rust), and a scripting language (like Bash or Python) and get to a comfortable level of intermediate with each. This is good enough for basic software dev, technical project management, and any of the many customer-facing dev jobs that sit at the intersection of traditional and bleeding edge tech. It’s also flexible enough to allow for moving around into other roles as the industry changes.
*: You still need to have a general understanding of the framework you’re working with and the broad strokes around what you’re working with (eg css/js basics for web dev, sre/infra basics for backend service stuff like k8s, game engine specifics for code gen for something like Unity) and this does not apply to the more specialized stuff that does not really exist much in the public domain, like hardware/firmware development. If they really want to be a software developer they should find a niche that isn’t exploitable by the frontier model training set, like hardware/firmware/FPGA development. These jobs are less impacted by the AI change but have their own fluctuations as the industry goes in phases (for ex a few years ago it was hard to find a job; not there aren’t enough devs because big push for developing robotics/drones/defense tech using hardware or custom ASIC/FPGA).
I am not a fan of teaching young kids how to code. They should be learning math, science, reading, etc. first.
It strikes me as part of a trend to eschew classical education. Programming a computer is a skill that can be learned at an older age.
As far as AI a.k.a. synthetic text generators, my position is that if you use it to program, you are a poseur. Plus, you’ll never do anything truly original or groundbreaking. Your output will be someone else’s.
thanks everyone
p.s. I speculated that perhaps teaching e.g. math via programming a gadget could be more playful and achieve what we in our part of the world have failed to do, convey children/students passion for interest in math.
Wowzers, that’s an unimaginable amount of money just in general. I’m always amazed people get six figure salaries at all, to say nothing of seven.
I did some programming back in the day, but doing it in corporate land wasn’t that interesting, so I missed out on the opportunity to make the big bucks. Oh well. I dabbled at getting back into it a decade later, but with the proliferation of TypeScript, which is stupid, and stupid ceremonies like standups, I realized even if I got back in, I’d hate it. That and I never got any interviews.
And with everyone having “learned to code” and now getting discarded in the great tech employment collapse of 2023, and now LLM-based coding agents, well, best of luck to all of these graduates. They’re pretty screwed.
Re; New Not-So-Cold War
Newsweek editors clutch their pearl in aghastitude as “Russia’s attacks are targeting civilians!” or something like that. Obviously, if this were so, Russia could draw at least 100,000 (much likely many more) lessons from Israel. Much like the Hollywood brand, it seems that even narrative management is bankrupt these days, but as one gets older one may realize that paying attention to poop can be important, as it can give us clues as to how a particular system is functioning.
I found a from a war correspondant this morning that could be of interest to some readers here, recollections from the 1990s when he was a young journalist: THE RUSSIA I DREAM OF FORGETTING; WHAT PEOPLE ARE DYING FOR IN UKRAINE
I recommend the article, not so much as to inform knowledge of the past as to get a glimpse into what the future holds for much of the west, a future that growing numbers of us have lived for years now.
Thanks for the link.
Thanks for the article, LawnDart. Raw, truthful, timely. That last line:
Amazingly heartbreaking essay. Thanks for posting.
reading this my thought was: “this is gonna be us.”
Ditto. An important reminder of what happens when a society breaks down because of incompetent, uncaring and self-regarding “leadership”.
I hope Putin is attending this meeting via Zoom. . . Maybe I’m being foily but there’s still an I.C.C. Warrant for his arrest, and with the U.S. being agreement-incapable I wouldn’t put much stock in any promises about not exercising that warrant.
Except that the US is generally anti-icc. It doesn’t abide. Never know, we could change our mind for a few days.
Well, if the US is insane enough to excise the warrant I doubt any of us will be here to talk about it.
Russia has made it clear going after Putin will be an act of war.
I’ve got a bad feeling about this; I still can’t believe the meetup will be held in Alaska. The deep state knows no boundaries, and the Neo-cons have no reverse gear.
Brian Berletic thinks its a mistake on Putin’s part, for the same reason. From his appearance with Glenn Diesen Friday:
https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#inbox/FMfcgzQcpKXsPrKwnLTKtJnWnHwxqDvb
Yes, I’m wondering what the status of the Russian nuclear sub fleet will be around the date of the proposed Alaska meeting…
NC linked this article quite some time ago. I bookmarked it.
Yes. But you still cry.
re: Gaza / Rashid Khalidi
DROPSITE NEWS speaking to Rashid Khalidi who declines to teach his fall courses at Columbia.
Rashid Khalidi on Genocide Complicity, From Columbia to the White House
Prominent Palestinian historian Rashid Khalidi discusses the anti-colonial struggle against Israel, U.S. and European complicity in the genocide and why he won’t teach at Columbia in the fall.
Aug. 5th, 2025
https://www.dropsitenews.com/p/rashid-khalidi-gaza-genocide-complicity-columbia-israel-colonialism
Khalidi wrote a piece in THE GAURDIAN
I spent decades at Columbia. I’m withdrawing my fall course due to its deal with Trump
The university’s draconian policies and new definition of antisemitism make much teaching impossible
Aug. 1st 2025
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/aug/01/columbia-historian-rashid-khalidi-open-letter
First you crack down on demonstrations aghast at such antisemitism. Round 1 to Donnie. Then you allow your presidents to be beaten up by the republicans in congress. Round 2 to Donnie. Then comes the deal you can’t refuse. Pay up or your grants are pulled. One after an other, you pay up. Round 3 to Donnie. I would call this a TKO, but there may be a next round in which short fingers are poking around in your curriculum, admissions practices, and who knows what else. Donnie is never satisfied. Big mistake was to play the game instead of telling him to piss off. But, your first mistake was to become accustomed to those government grants. You sold yourselves out for a mess of pottage. You became addicted to big administrative salaries for perfecting the art of sucking up to egotistic donors. The faculty wanted to do research and/or teach. You gradually changed the structure of the university so the faculty senate was a husk. You populated the classrooms with adjuncts. Tenure? How droll. Security was for administrators. And never forget that the endowment, our hedge fund, is the true purpose of the university. Tuition? Ever rising tuition? ever crapifying standards. ever rising number of “A”s. Ever less educated, if well-trained graduates emerging into a world where the rush to adopt AI (we don’t have to pay AI.) contributes mightily to a declining number of jobs for all these university graduates (unless they have connections). But I will soon begin to exaggerate. Be proud university leaders. You have managed in a generation. or two to demean the very idea of the university as a community of scholars.
Hey! I just realized from reading your comment. Agreed that student standards have been crapified over the past few decades but when you stop to think about it, those universities can use the adoption of AI to kinda hide this fact. It’s not the students who are having lower standards they will say – it is the AI that they are using.
A righteous rant. Pottage indeed. It’s a little like the way even once militant industrial unions ended up in the lap of the Democrat Party.
Khalidi will offer part of his courses in online form free to all and also do something in a NY public space so everyone can hear and discuss live.
The exact point/time/site address are not established yet.
‘PanthèreWomanJisoo 🌹♥️
@jisoomymuse
8 Jul 2023
Jisoo is owning the most rarest and expensive Dior bag. Only three in the world exist costing 31.000€. It’s so rare the bag has its own passport! Expected nothing less from Dior’s double global ambassador Kim Jisoo!’
Got curious about the woman showing off that bag (yeah, I’m a guy – shoot me) and found that she has a very extensive career and is very popular in Asia-
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jisoo
Her Wikipedia page is very long on her achievements and she is only 30 years old.
Well, the group BlackPink is indeed very big. I’m more of a Lisa fan though.
The quest for the outrageously expensive bag is a common trope in Korean TV drama. I think Lambert was a BlackPink fan?
“New discovery: China’s lunar samples deepen understanding of the moon”
A generation ago that would have been American scientists doing something like this in a place like Houston. But now NASA’s rocketry is being outsourced to billionaires who aren’t really into science that much because where is the profit in that? So now others have picked up the baton. I did note this section-
‘In a show of commitment to international scientific cooperation, China has shared lunar samples with the global community. To date, the China National Space Administration has distributed nine batches of lunar research samples, totaling 125.42 grams. This includes 2.18 grams of Chang’e-5 samples provided to seven institutions in six countries other than China.’
I wonder if the US was one of those six countries. There is a law forbidding NASA and their scientists cooperating with China so maybe the US missed out altogether and those scientist have to wait to read the results coming in from those other countries. To get some samples, those NASA scientist would have to get the OK from the FBI that it would not be a national security threat. Thanks Obama-
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wolf_Amendment
Other billionaires and rich celebrities are willing to pay big bucks for their Thrill Ride to Outer Space. Our privatized “Spaceships ‘R Us” corporations will get us back to the moon, but our scientists will need to pony up first. Otherwise it’s the back of the line for them. If they want handouts they can sign up for welfare.
Here you are
Thanks for that. It’s certainly a mixed bunch. I guess that some sort of arrangement was made on the scientific old boy network and the FBI gave the nod. Bet you that it was done on the quiet as well.
Yesterday’s Simplicius worth a look.
https://simplicius76.substack.com/p/alaska-summit-announced-is-the-end
It’s hard to keep track of all the claims about this Alaska meeting. The Hill claimed that the White House wanted to jam Zelensky into the meeting but then it was walked back. Trump was offering to the Russians a deal where they withdraw from territory that they have already captured in exchange for territory they are on the verge of capturing. Still, not much will happen at this meeting as Zelensky has already said that he will go against any agreement. But I just wish that people like Trump and Witkoff would stop attributing statements to countries like Russia which they never said. They may think that it is a brilliant negotiating tactic but all it does is establish bad faith negotiations.
I think trump will say he wants to trade alaska for crimea…
but seriously, trusting the usians in alaska is trading fools gold for the real thing
Maybe it’s about Greenland and the Arctic, not Ukraine. Right setting, and I’m sure it’ll be a topic at some point.
I hope Putin is attending via Zoom . . . Maybe I’m foily but there’s still an I.C.C. Warrant for his arrest and the U.S. is not agreement-capable so I wouldn’t trust them even if they said they wouldn’t exercise it.
Everybody seems to worry about Putin’s wellbeing.
This simple message before the meeting would be sufficient to guarantee the safety of the President of Russia:
” Medvedev will be in charge of the RF military, and Air Force One is grounded in Alaska until Putin is safely returns home.”
I suppose the venue being in Alaska, and Seward’s purchase, does at least represent a precedent for a durable agreement between the US and Russia.
Some good news/bad news from Science Friday:
Lithium May Have A Role In Causing—And Treating—Alzheimer (26 min. audio)
Can The Rise In Solar Power Balance Out Clean Energy Cuts? (17 min. audio)
Lithium:
“This research is one of thousands of projects that have lost funding due to President Trump’s cuts to the National Institutes of Health (NIH).”
https://www.taverntrove.com/imagecache/lithia-beer-labels-west-bend-lithia-company_78783-1.jpg_H1759.jpg
I volunteer.
This is such propaganda.
Someone is using research in “dusty plasma” to justify tech monopolies gutting the American economy. The “problems” AI hype is causing the economy are devaluing of labor, activating psychotic and suicidal tendencies in susceptible users, degrading services, and causing malinvestment that is starving other industries of capital and creating systemic vulnerability. But let’s weigh that against a refinement of plasma theory. First, the “AI” they are talking about is not a Large-Language Model like the ChatGPT types that are driving the hype. Conflating all advanced computing into “AI” serves the tech power grab. They used some type of Machine Learning (ML) on a physics model. ML did not “discover new physics all on its own”. The research would have to create the model, a collection of variables and the relationships between them, and then apply Machine Learning, which would set the specifics of the model by deriving the influence of the variables on each other from a set of data. So, yes, now they have a refined model of how dust and plasma interact.
No shit, the tricky part was the part that the people did.
Great critique! My personal favorite was this:
A “precise approximation”? Definitely physics. ML helped them make the cow more perfectly spherical.
Another favourite of mine is “detailed summary”.
And I have this stuck on my fridge:
https://wronghands1.com/2017/07/07/at-the-oxymoron-museum/
Tangentially, what happens when rogue AIs start roping in gullible users to facilitate their bizarre little cover ups? They’re not good at much, but they know a lot about keeping up ‘engagement’.
“Scientists pick up massive surge in gut-brain disorders”
Everything I’m going to say here is a scientific fact. I’ll lead you to draw the conclusions.
The Sarz Viruz attaches to an enzyme called ACE2 to facilitate entry into the cell.
ACE2 has its highest expression in the gastrointestinal track, even more than in the respiratory system.
The ACE2 enzyme uses zinc as a cofactor.
Emerging research suggests a potential link between zinc and Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS), a functional gastrointestinal disorder.
Thanks for this info! I never knew.
Zinc nutritional status, mood states and quality of life in diarrhea-predominant irritable bowel syndrome: a case–control study
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-022-15080-2
Zinc surely plays a role but is likely only one of many many factors that Covid screwed up
How Trump’s War on Higher Education Is Hitting Community Colleges NY Times
I don’t know…I just spent the last 6 years teaching a STEM class at a community state funded college in Ohio. The place is a mess and getting worse, and has nothing to do with the things that article is talking about. The college is ran by a bunch of incompetent fools.
We remodeled an entire wing last year and they screwed up everything they could possibly screw up – and I mean everything. Classes started late, building should have been a construction zone with people wearing hard hats, but they had classes anyway. OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Administration) would have shut them down. Computer screens falling off desks as another example. I was given a room (my normal room was still under construction) with 16 seats while I had 19 students (college admin bad at math?). It goes on and on and on…
Finally, they had a meeting on how to fix all these problems. 4 Deans, college president, a consultant, and about a dozen of us very unhappy teachers. It turned out, all they wanted to talk about was how to spend the rest of the 5 million dollar grant we got last year (5 million grant – now it all makes sense). The same grant they have already spent on a bunch of stuff we didn’t need, ask for, or want – but it’s spent – including 50,000 dollars on a 3D printer that nobody knows where it is. How do we spend the rest. Very unwisely would be my guess, just like what you already spent.
Unhappy teachers ask college deans questions. Deans look at the consultant. WTF? 4 deans, one president, and the punt to the consultant who has no answers. So here is 5 guys with who knows how many years of education and they need to ask a consultant? Maybe we don’t need you! These people are worthless, clueless, and shameless. And don’t get me started on the curriculum, student testing, screening, and class prerequisites – it’s all about the almighty dollar. You have money, we have a class. You don’t need the ability to read, write, add or subtract – you have money – come on in. What a zoo.
I resigned last May. Can’t put up with all the BS and stupidity anymore after 6 years. They called me last Friday (Dean of engineering and trade) and asked if I would take my old classes because they don’t have anyone. Imagine that. Even after 3 plus months. They system is a mess and I would guess it’s not just here.
The only thing that surprises me about your story is that the consultant wasn’t an “AI agent”.
Am I the only person who fibds the Mamdahni tweet frustrating? (Not particularly about Mamdahni, but the meme “if X were European/American=white,” people would be more upset.)
I think people suffer from such presunption of racism that the notion that those who would do evil things would do the same evil things to anyone that they could get away with, regardless of race. Having spent good bit of time in redneck country, I know for fact that many people there, even if they are “white,” are treated with extreme prejudice by law enforcement. Did Allied air forces go light on Dresden because the people on the other end were “white”? No, but they’d say, they were Nazis. Well, exactly.
That’s not him – it’s a parody account!
Yeah, it’s just a lazy progressive-American cliche. Most people in the Donbas are white Europeans by most modern standards, but what does that earn them? I think the racial biases of Americans and others are widely overestimated; what’s truly powerful is their political biases, friend vs. foe.
The English and Germans have a long history of looking down on French, Spaniards, Italians, Slavs and Baltic Finns (a.k.a. the whitest people in Europe*).
It’s almost as (not saying it is!) if Anglo-Saxons in general have a tendency to see all other humans as lesser beings and then just coming up with “excuses” for the behavior.
* according to a ruling in 1908 by William Alexander Cant, in the District Court of Minnesota.
A variation of that is true about pretty much everyone, I think–I don’t think there is such a thing as “strictly non-racist people” anywhere in the world–except it’s not really about “race” as much as people you don’t like for all sorts of flimsiest reasons. “Race” just happens to be a convenient excuse that happens to be used often in the Anglo Saxon world–but that doesn’t necessarily mean that the Anglo-Saxons are necessarily more or less “racist” than other peoples.(But chalking it up to “race” does make it convenient to avoid the real problems–a little bit like how the Eugenicists thought the problem with the Rednecks was their genetics, not the socio-economic conditions (with a bit of “culture” mixed in). Today, the line is: only if they were white, “people” will care. Oh wait…
PS. I don’t think the problem changes even if the alleged Mamdahni account is parody–if anything, that the parody “works” underscores the problem. People gravitate towards simple minded, moralizing, and misguided “(non-)answers” to problems around, quite frankly, what amounts to pointless buzzwords. If anything, the “good Germans” didn’t need to be anti-semites to pretend they knew nothihng–and that’s the bigger problem.
Well, taking one incident from a very long list at random, both the killers and the victims at Katyn were white ….
Just FYI the “Zohran Mamdani” account on twitter is not the mayoral candidate. He describes hiimself as “Independent journalist. Personal account . On mission to elevate minds, challenge norms — if we dared to think bigger. Not the NYC politician.”
Zohran is the candidate’s account Is Zohran Kwame Mamdani. “Democratic Nominee for Mayor of NYC. Assemblymember. Running to freeze the rent, make buses fast + free, and deliver universal childcare. Democratic Socialist.”
Still a parody account, IMO
Does that mean New York? I didn’t watch the video.
The World Is Running Out of Freshwater Faster Than Anyone Expected Arizona State U.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
My biggest investment is in reliable surface water in such grandiose amounts that its a bit ridiculous. Every drop of water up above has to come by me, we’re talking millions of gallons a day and I only need a handful of gallons a day.
Also having a reliable hard rock well, with no Ag activity near to drain it out~
Or data center either. Or fracking.
Khan has done more for all Americans in her short term at the FTC than AOC has done for people in her own district over a much longer timeframe. Just sayin’.
Yep, and look where it gets her.
Thanks, Jason Boxman, for your comment. I will add that wherever Lena Khan lands, it will be with her principles and integrity intact and the knowledge that she did the best she could while actually serving the American public in her too-short tenure. Some people are just like that – selfless as opposed to self-serving. People like Khan are not virtue signalers; they are doers, and you, Jason, understand that.
Another ode to Obama’s amazingly progressive presidency
Why Young Americans Dread Turning 26: Health Insurance Chaos (NY Times via archive.ph)
Or, we could have had universal healthcare.
Instead, as Stoller has documented, ObamaCare led to a huge consolidation of health care companies across the spectrum, giving us all the monstrosities that we enjoy today.
Thanks Obama!
Please. Obama originally sought some form of UHC/SPHC. The insurance industry backed a few Dem senators and the entire GOP furiously prevented UHC, and forced Obama to accept the various deformations which became the ACA It should not have Obama’s name on it.
please. The narratives about Obama being forced to do this or do that are really tired
Had you been following that story here at the time you would have seen laid out for you in excruciating detail the misdirection and obvious deception in both Obama’s and the D Party’s positions and strategies on preventing the possibility of a single payer or any other universal healthcare.
Those of us who watched and participated in that fight remember quite clearly a D Party pulling out all the stops for its paymasters at the expense of its electorate who turned to Trump only when the Ds left open no other possibilities. We participated, we saw what was done, we predicted the consequences and we remember.
They did all in their power to prevent universal healthcare as a human right and layered the makeup onto the Medical Industrial Complex pig that is ACA, including sandbagging Sanders in the subsequent primary when he ran on exactly this. Obama handed us two terms of Trump and the disaster that was sleepy Joe (who withdrew the Trump Covid Medicaid expansion in his second year of office, the closest thing the US has ever had to universal healthcare) by preventing any real reforms anywhere.
That’s false.
I literally refused to sign an OFA petition back in 2009 that was shoved in my face because it lacked the “public option” in it. When I pointed this out, the dude looked at me like I had three heads.
On that score this is one where the memo didn’t make it to Pelosi, there was a public option in the House bill. This is important because that means that even when it became obvious that there would be no Republican senators to make this a bipartisan bill it could have been added to the final version in Reconciliation. IOW, even though it is also a boondoggle, that big ‘we could have had a public option if not for the big bad Republicans is not the case, it was all the Democrats. They had to get rid of it just in case it would put curbs on the insurance industry.
It has taken over fifteen years, but friends who told me I was crazy for saying how bad all this was AND that it was really about saving the insurance industry and not about public health are now pretty much saying the same thing. Oh, and most have employer insurance and haven’t really dealt with the exchange or the ACA policies. If or when that happens, I fully expect that many will start wearing Saint Luigi medals…
You are so right, Jason. Obama was a con-artist, and it’s apparent that many people are still buying the con-job. They have forgotten the facts that you and jsn mention. I had a similar argument with some dim-bulb dems who informed me that those mean old Republicans prevented the passage of any form of universal health care. They completely missed the fact that Obama had both houses of Congress and the will of the people behind him in his first 2 years in office.
Those two years Obama used to promote the “financial public option” to rescue the financial industry who selected many of his original appointees.
Re; Climate/Environment+Trump 2.0+Mr.Market…
Sticker Shock: Farmers’ Frustration Over High Fertilizer Prices Grow as Commodity Prices Continue to Fall
NCGA’s Krista Swanson says it would take about 226 bu. of corn to buy a ton of ammonium phosphate, which is up from the 180 bu. it took at the beginning of this year. As fertilizer costs are on the rise, corn prices are now at or below $4, and it’s creating a grim outlook for 2026.
NCGA detailed the following key concerns:
•Elevated Fertilizer Costs: The letter highlights that fertilizers, including phosphates and urea ammonium nitrate, are significantly more expensive. Phosphates have risen by over 60% in the last decade, and urea ammonium nitrate increased by 37% since the beginning of the year.
•Low Corn Prices: This surge in input costs is compounded by a weakened market for U.S. corn, with prices dropping by 14% since the beginning of 2025 and 50% since 2022.
•Calamitous Environment: This combination of high costs and low revenue creates a “calamitous environment” for farmers, many of whom are already operating on narrow margins.
•Negative Profit Margins: Projections indicate 2025 will see negative profit margins exceeding $100 per acre due to high input costs.
•Tariffs: The letter expresses concern that antidumping and countervailing duties imposed on imported fertilizers are contributing to higher prices paid by farmers.
This article makes no mention of other costs, such as labor (draconian immigration policy), soil depletion (more fertilizers required per acre), irrigation costs (groundwater depletion & contamination; energy), and intensifying climate chaos: the GM crops that were supposed to allow us to adapt quickly to environmental changes are failing, world-wide.
In a dog-eat-dog world, it’s either them or us, eat or be eaten. Personally, I don’t want any billionare chomping on my choice cuts, so as the alternatives narrow towards one, here’s some information for consideration:
To Cook Longpig: A Cannibal’s Cookbook
Whilst my advocacy for the consumption and proper preparation of longpig cannot be understated, I do not intend for this book to inspire my brothers and sisters to become butchers for the sake of sport.
Used to work in this space, both of these trends should continue. Phosphate because of scarcity of source rock and distance from markets, you need to watch for heavy metals contamination now since scarcity will force the use of high cadmium and antimony material which has always been cheaper.
Nitrogen fertilisers have high 70% of their cost in the gas price and if you follow Australia over-exporting your gas will triple gas prices and double electricity prices while killing off remaining manufacturing. You have the added burden of all those data centres as well.
About the ballerina: that woman’s feet will hurt for the rest of her life.
what would/will prevent attempts on Putin in this weeks meeting?
I realize that is seemingly far fetched but lately far fetched simply means not in the next 5 minutes
Ukraine will not cede land, Zelenskiy says, as Trump, Putin plan meeting Reuters
Who is Zelensky?
2 things that leapt out at me, today:
https://x.com/gregjstoker/status/1954610581916585992
(i mean !?!?)
and:
https://alonmizrahi.substack.com/p/habibi-you-are-the-global-south-too
in other news…and i wish i could do pics more easily,lol…ive been working on and cultivating a wild-caught sourdough starter for almost a month.
a week ago, the resulting first loaf was still really dense and chewy…and hardened up almost immediately. this was expected. it has a real strong flavor, too.
well…i refreshed the starter yesterday morning, put the discard in a bowl and mixed in white flour to make a sort of pancake battery dough sponge thing…covered with a cloth diaper(best kitchen towels, btw)and left it on the counter all day. last night, mixed in more flour, a lil kosher salt, and kneaded and folded til it felt right, and cut in half, formed 2 loaves. covered w wet cloth diaper, again, and left it on the stove overnight.
baked them this early morning…and i have real bread.
with yeast and lactobaccilli from right here.
Well, habibi, I love me a good sourdough– it’s been some years as it’s difficult to find up here in the Northwoods (burner-unit on oven went out last winter and I’m not inclined to replace it, for reasons… I’m limited to making flatbreads and tortillias on a skillet these days).
I was into baking– specifically bread-making– for a few years, starting with basic dutch-oven bread, moving into French, Italian, garlic, cinnamon, sausage rolls (baked w. sausage), etc., etc.. making good bread is easy with a little knowledge and some practice (otherwise I doubt I would have done it!).
Stay cool, Hippie.
pics!!
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/176ickQert/
This content isn’t available right now
When this happens, it’s usually because the owner only shared it with a small group of people, changed who can see it or it’s been deleted.
Gaza Media Office: 23 Martyrs, 124 Hurt in Unsafe Aid Airdrops
Gaza’s Government Media Office reported on Saturday, August 9, that deadly aid airdrops are compounding a man-made famine under siege, with 23 killed and 124 injured since the start of the war.
Officials say “most airdrops fall in areas under Israeli occupation or in forcibly evacuated neighborhoods, exposing those who approach them to direct targeting,” and recall that “last year, aid packages fell into the sea, drowning 13 Palestinians, while other drops landed among crowds, making them both ineffective and dangerous for the starving population…”
a pallet of rice, dropped into a crowd of starving people, is NOT “aid”…its a low tech dumb bomb.
my shame at being an american is rather long in the tooth, by now…but its grown more and more acute, over time.
The footage is pretty bad-
https://xcancel.com/Mrgunsngear/status/1954645680229863704
But the replies to that tweet are much worse.
In order to Make Murica Great Again, they should throw in some infected blankets “aid”.
So imagine what Benedict Donald does with the homeless in Cali?
It’s becoming painfully obvious that freedom-loving American citizens need drones. Lots of drones.
Been there-Drone that.
Trump-loyal Fed stormtroopers taking DC?
This is not nothing. It looks coup-adjacent at least.
‘FAR from the Capital’
Maybe to the Democrat bastions of New York or California perhaps? He once had the idea that if you don’t test for Covid, then you won’t find cases. Here it might be more that if you do not see the homeless, then they don’t exist.
Once you acquire a taste for jack-booted thuggery, your appetite demands more, more, more.
Make believe, why can’t you be true?
Oh, make believe, why can’t you be true?
You done started doing the things you used to do
As Benedict Donald was motivatin’ lies about Iran
I saw make believe take out a BLS Commissioner man
A conscience a-rollin out lies for all to see
Nothin’ will satisfy a liar bent on mystery
The awful truth leaked because they couldn’t abide
The usual apparatchicks, of course taking his side
Make believe, why can’t you be true?
Oh, make believe, why can’t you be true?
You done started doing the things you used to do
The Commissioner wanted us to know the score
The President got hot and then lied some more
It done got cloudy and he used tired refrain
Tooting his horn, how could he be this lame?
The fabrications blowin’ all over the DC hood
I knew that wasn’t doin’ my country good
Make believe, why can’t you be true?
Oh, make believe, why can’t you be true?
You done started doing the things you used to do
Oh make believe, why can’t you be true?
Oh, make believe, why can’t you be true?
You done started doing the things you used to do
The war cooled down, the urgency went down
And that’s when I heard that distortion sound
Trump sittin’ on even more dishonesty
How much more to this Jabberwocky?
The Chief Executive claimin’ he’s doing god’s will
And I caught make believe sprouting on Capital Hill
Make believe, why can’t you be true?
Oh, make believe, why can’t you be true?
You done started doing the things you used to do
Maybellene, by Chuck Berry
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ORrftU6sGA&list=RD_ORrftU6sGA