Links 9/7/2025

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49 comments

1. The Rev Kev September 7, 2025 at 7:14 am

   “Elon Musk’s Neuralink brain chip implanted into 2 quadriplegic Canadian patients as part of clinical trial”

   After surgery, their first words reportedly were that they should totally let the US annex Canada and make it the 51st state.

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2. Terry Flynn September 7, 2025 at 7:16 am

   Dad brought COVID into this house 2-3 weeks ago. Positive test but symptoms much more consistent with Stratus than Nimbus. So I, already alerted by NC as to new variant spread, was FFP2 masking….but then had to at home too and avoid common areas…..no fun.

   Think I dodged that bullet but he was ill for 10 days. Masking plus big well ventilated house probably protected me. On my trips to buy groceries for mum I noticed 50% of people were clearly ill and loads of staff shortages due to illness. Everyone has a “summer cold” – rolls eyes.

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3. John September 7, 2025 at 7:22 am

   https://www.thecut.com/article/undetectable-facelifts-trend-popularity-deep-plane-face-lift-vs-smas.html?utm_medium=email&utm_source=ten_tabs&utm_campaign=FIREFOX-EDITORIAL-TENTABS-2025_09_05&position=3&category=fascinating_stories&scheduled_corpus_item_id=7eb631f5-ebb8-4c9a-a00a-40d6f9ba091b&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.thecut.com%2Farticle%2Fundetectable-facelifts-trend-popularity-deep-plane-face-lift-vs-smas.html

   Something to add to the guillotine watch

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   1. The Rev Kev September 7, 2025 at 7:58 am

      For what its worth, with a link like that just cut of everything from the question mark onwards and the link still works.

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      1. John September 7, 2025 at 8:08 am

         Ok, thx. Didn’t know that.

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         1. DJG, Reality Czar September 7, 2025 at 10:09 am

            John: and the main reason for paring down the link is that the string of coding after the question mark identifies how your computer linked to the article.

            Not that I can pinpoint you. But it is information specifically about you that you don’t want out there.

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      2. Craig H. September 7, 2025 at 11:06 am

         The Cut is paywalled at my ISP.

         The article is pretty good. No paywall archive link.

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4. Louis Fyne September 7, 2025 at 7:28 am

   the problem with plastic surgery, is that just like any dopamine hit—-a lot of people can’t stop with just one

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   1. Ben Panga September 7, 2025 at 7:41 am

      When I lived on Da Nang, everyday I’d drive past a plastic surgery office with a badly-maintained sign.

      I often reflected that “Plastic urgery” was a more honest description.

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   2. Wukchumni September 7, 2025 at 8:15 am

      The idea that it appears as if Nancy Pelosi had $38,566 too much worth of work done on her mug, notwithstanding.

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      1. DJG, Reality Czar September 7, 2025 at 10:14 am

         Wukchumni: Such a specific dollar amount. Do you have a new sideline in the cosmetic arts?

         “Nancy, you’re soaking in it!”

         The It being unspecified

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5. Wukchumni September 7, 2025 at 7:49 am

   So after glimpsing incredibly precise marching where the gait was changed mid-march just to make it trickier, and the array of James Bond’ian gee whiz armaments. also crisply assembled and in perfect order…

   …made me go watch 10 minutes of our military parade in July

   The GI Joe holding a small drone aloft in his outstretched arm while trying to keep up on the parade route was my favorite.

   I watched some of it live, and remember the sloppy marching in particular, and if anything it was worse than I remembered-especially so after devoting 23 minutes of my life to watching the Chinese go through their paces.

   p.s.

   Both the Chinese and the USA are sporting Stahlhelms now…

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   1. The Rev Kev September 7, 2025 at 9:56 am

      Been watching a few clips from that Chinese parade too-

      https://www.youtube.com/shorts/qafVXP7S8OQ

      And you can bet that those rifles are not just props and they know how to use them.

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   2. RookieEMT September 7, 2025 at 10:27 am

      The other thing is the future is here. Lasers mounted on vehicles and truly weaponized to melt things. Crew-less ships. Hypersonic missiles are more and more common. Those little tracked vehicles with simple weapon mounts will be very common in urban environments.

      I’d still say we need 15-20 years before the first bipedal death bots show up. Combat effective enough that is.

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      1. The Rev Kev September 7, 2025 at 10:31 am

         They had better be hardened against an EM pulse or else they will turn into junk. Rifles and bullets will work just fine however.

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         1. Hidari September 7, 2025 at 10:46 am

            Your point would be valid if these ‘deathbots’ will be used mainly against other soldiers. But I suspect that the wars of the future will be much more like that in Gaza than WW2 and WW1: in other words, they will involve vast amounts of high-tech gadgetry against mainly civilian populations with a view to achieving civilian death tolls previously only thought possible via the use of H-Bombs. In other words, don’t think of new tech as being primarily used for specifically military purposes. Instead think of drones, AIs etc, as being, so to speak, de facto Hydrogen and Atomic bombs, causing equivalent *civilian* death tolls, without the ‘stigma’ of using nukes.

            After all, we all know that what happens in Gaza won’t stay in Gaza.

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6. The Rev Kev September 7, 2025 at 7:55 am

   “Starmer carries out major reshuffle after Rayner resignation”

   Of course there is an obvious solution. Even though Starmer’s government was imploding and the economy of the UK is swirling around the toilet, Starmer had other priorities – meaning that he was off in Paris with the Coalition of the Willing plotting the downfall of Russia because of course he was. The UK? Where’s that? So I have an idea. Make Lammy the Prime Minister and then make Starmer the Foreign Minister. Will Lammy make things better in the UK? Let’s not kid ourselves but Starmer will be off in Europe playing his little games of intrigues and out of the hair of the long-suffering British.

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   1. TiPi September 7, 2025 at 8:13 am

      If the answer is Lammy I hate to think what the question might be ….

      Equally, here in Scotland, if Douglas Alexander is worthy of replacing Ian Murray then the race to the bottom has become a Starmer sprint towards the end of his career.
      SKS is the architect of his own downfall, let alone assassin.

      Problem is the bunch of less than mediocre centre right apparatchiks who might succeed him.

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      1. JohnA September 7, 2025 at 9:33 am

         Yes Lammy, on a celeb TV quiz on general knowledge, to the question which “Marie” based in Paris won the Nobel Prize, answered ‘Antoinette’ and to the question name the French castle from which prisoners were freed at the start of the French Revolution, answered Versailles. Among other idiotic answers to pretty basic questions.
         Lammy is the classic case of overpromotion, a sort of male VdL, likely with the same distrastrous results for everyone but themselves.

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   2. JohnA September 7, 2025 at 8:47 am

      Starmer has invited the president of Israel for a visit to London this coming week. Just a few days after he came out of the closet as being Jewish himself, rather than just married to a Jewish woman and his children Jewish.
      The man is completely and utterly tone deaf. Of course, anyone protesting will be ‘supporting terrorism’ and face immediate arrest.
      The story of the 3 arsonist Ukrainian models/actors/rentboys/whatever and their links to Starmer have been airbrushed out of mainstream media history now. Funny that.

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7. Lazar September 7, 2025 at 8:36 am

   I saw a comment, under one of The Duran’s Youtube videos, that readers here may find worth checking out. I don’t know how to link to a comment directly (or if it’s even possible), so I will leave a link to the video itself, and copy-paste only a part of the comment here (because it’s rather lengthy).
   Vucic and dangers of EU in Serbia
   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_cQCrMlQbOI
   @Hladovina 9 days ago (edited)
   There is a lot of info missing in this video.
   Vučić was installed by Angela Merkel and the British establishment within the EU at that time. His main advisor for many years was Tony Blair. (Google it.)
   There was never a real plan to integrate Serbia into the EU, which is why he was chosen in the first place. He came from the Serbian Radical Party, which is deeply hated in Muslim/Croat parts of Bosnia and in Croatia. That’s why the EU never truly supported the pro-EU opposition inside Serbia – they didn’t want Serbia in the EU. The British in particular wanted Serbia to remain outside of both the EU and NATO for money laundering, resource theft, talent extraction, various business schemes, and most importantly as a future open front against Russia once the Ukraine war is over.
   This is not a color revolution; he is simply being fired from his job by the West. It’s regime change, definitely, but not a color revolution. He delivered everything he could to the West, but now he is stuck and needs to be replaced.
   He did everything possible to sell out Serbia, devastating the cultural and media space with hatred and division. The opposition (also British-funded), especially media companies such as United Group, did the same – spreading more hatred. Both sides did a phenomenal job in destroying any real patriotic opposition.
   He sold weapons to Ukraine and bragged about it, sold weapons to Israel and bragged about it, and recently bought $1.3 billion worth of Israeli weapons systems. Not Russian, not Chinese – Israeli. (Google it.) The “opposition” media used this against him but they also supported Ukraine all the way in their news coverage.
   Trump hates him, Putin hates him (but tolerates him because there is no alternative in Serbia), and China is in the same position. The EU adored him until recently, when it became clear he had hit a hard limit with his style of incompetent rule.
   …
   (check out the comment section of the linked video for the rest)

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8. Trees&Trunks September 7, 2025 at 8:41 am

   The flying bike: one genre of youtube videos I like is the „luxury car crash“. I just can‘t get enough of watching rich kids crashing their cars in the most stupid ways. I look forward to the flying bike version of it. Also, since the elites are now open with their eugenics on the common people, I also hope that these rich kids crashing flying bikes also will be a sub-set of the Darwin Award category

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   1. The Rev Kev September 7, 2025 at 8:45 am

      C’mon, man. That flying bike is the closest thing to the flying cars that we were promised all those decades ago – along with personal jet packs.

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   2. Munchausen September 7, 2025 at 10:07 am

      The flying bike is more like I-made-this-in-my-garage genre of youtube videos.
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=soxxPyaAT1k

      @The Rev Kev
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4QCZTACuHYc

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9. Wukchumni September 7, 2025 at 8:53 am

   There’s a man who leads a life of danger
   To everyone he meets, he claims Epstein was a stranger
   With every move he makes
   Another chance he takes
   Odds are he won’t live to see tomorrow

   Secret Agent Man
   Secret Agent Man
   They’ve given the Epstein stoolie a number and taken away your name

   Beware of implications of pretty young faces once upon a time
   A pretty young face can hide a digital photo mine
   Oh, be careful what you say
   Or you’ll give yourself away
   Odds are you won’t live to see tomorrow

   Secret Agent Man
   Secret Agent Man
   They’ve given the Epstein stoolie a number and taken away your name

   Clark Kent proclaiming you an FBI Informant
   And now you’ve got an alibi
   Oh, don’t you let the wrong words slip
   While dissing persuasive lips
   Odds are you won’t live to see tomorrow

   Secret Agent Man
   Secret Agent Man
   They’ve given the Epstein stoolie a number and taken away your name

   Secret Agent Man, by Johnny Rivers

   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6iaR3WO71j4&list=RD6iaR3WO71j4

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10. Afro September 7, 2025 at 8:54 am

    Military strategy alone may buy the USA some time, but it seems inconceivable that it will amount to much without an economic strategy.

    And it’s hard for me to see how TPTB can fail to realize that.

    Perhaps they’re coping, and assuming that since they’re going to beat China in AI and Quantum Computing (based on what?) that they’re going to win overall.

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11. mrsyk September 7, 2025 at 8:59 am

    Pentagon prioritizes homeland over China threat, heh heh. I’ve watched a few videos of China’s recent military parade too.
    I’m reminded of the ‘08 Beijing Summer Olympic opening ceremony and the reactions that followed.

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12. The Rev Kev September 7, 2025 at 8:59 am

    “When Is Food Not Food?”

    You can see this when you leave fast food on the ground and even the ants won’t touch the stuff. They don’t recognize it as food which means that they are much smarter than us. There are these Aussie guys who got a MacDonalds burger back in ’95 when Bill Clinton was President and it is still intact to this date. Even rats wouldn’t touch it-

    https://nypost.com/2024/05/24/lifestyle/mcdonalds-burger-from-1995-still-perfectly-intact-even-rats-wont-eat-it/

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13. LawnDart September 7, 2025 at 9:12 am

    Re; Immigration

    Trump warns of ‘Chipocalypse’ as peaceful crowd protests planned federal deployment

    “I love the smell of deportations in the morning.”

    Mayor Brandon Johnson might go Bro Chi Minh on the Crown Clown, his ICE queen, and their posse of flying monkeys: if Latino gangs (of which there are many) and others get riled-up and decide to “protect their people,” Johnson might have little choice– it’s either the brown people or the wonderbread wonders known as feds…

    This meatheaded foray into The Jungle, Back of the Yards, or elsewhere in ChiTown could quickly turn very nasty, especially if family is threatened.

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14. Carolinian September 7, 2025 at 9:14 am

    Re Magnificent Ambersons–just to be clear this is a stunt by an AI company and not sanctioned by the rightsholders for the film which in this case I believe would be Warner Brothers.

    https://variety.com/2025/film/news/orson-welles-estate-blasts-ai-magnificent-ambersons-ending-1236509523/

    There have been other attempts in the last few years to revive dead people or younger live people in movie releases. Dead Carrie Fisher in Star Wars sequels would be an example. Myself I find the whole thing a bit creepy.

    As for Ambersons, Charles Higham made much of the fact that Welles was partying on a goodwill USG trip to Brazil as RKO was recutting his movie. People like to scold the art versus commerce philistinism of the studios but when Picasso turned out a painting it didn’t cost thousands or millions of dollars to do so. Most personal, indie filmmakers keep their canvas small. Welles cultivated a larger than life persona and paid the price.

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    1. Mikel September 7, 2025 at 11:12 am

       I liked the estate agent’s comment about the project that was included in the article.

       Also, for some giggles, here is a short video of unused takes of a commercial which featured Welles.
       These takes could have been the best commercial about drinking ever made.

       https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VFevH5vP32s/
       Original Takes for Orson Welles Wine Commercial

       Click to Edit – 

       

       I liked the estate agent's comment about the project that was included in the article. Also, for some giggles, here is a short video of unused takes of a commercial which featured Welles. These takes could have been the best commercial about drinking ever made. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VFevH5vP32s/ Original Takes for Orson Welles Wine Commercial

       SaveCancelDelete

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15. thrombus September 7, 2025 at 9:14 am

    Bathroom doomscrolling may increase your risk of hemorrhoids Popular Science

    This gave me a startup business idea. Alas, quick Internet search says that I’m a day late and a dollar short, because someone already claimed the title of “the first app for hemorrhoids detection and management“. :-)

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16. principle September 7, 2025 at 9:20 am

    NASA’s acting chief “angry” about talk that China will beat US back to the Moon Ars Technica

    https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=impotent+rage

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    1. The Rev Kev September 7, 2025 at 9:47 am

       ‘I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the earth.’ – J F Kennedy in 1961

       ‘I’m committed to getting us back to the Moon before President Trump leaves office.’ – NASA’s interim administrator, Sean Duffy

       One of these statements is not like the other. I love this thought though-

       ‘One way in which NASA might speed up a lunar landing is by cutting through some of the agency’s safety culture, which has multiple layers.’

       Yeah, cutting corners and dumping backup systems. What could possibly go wrong?

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       1. expr September 7, 2025 at 10:29 am

          Did not say anything about getting “us” back to Earth

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       2. principle September 7, 2025 at 10:35 am

          Duffy is committed to getting back to the Moon, not to returning safely to the Earth. He plans to send Bugs there. :)

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    2. Afro September 7, 2025 at 10:57 am

       Does it count as a race against China if the latter never actually says “ok, game set match”?

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17. The Rev Kev September 7, 2025 at 9:34 am

    “Broadcasters told not to air any booing of Donald Trump at US Open men’s final”

    That won’t be hard to do. All they have to do is show footage of that crowd earlier in the day and not when Trump was present. Not the first time that broadcasters have done creative editing.

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    1. tegnost September 7, 2025 at 10:57 am

       I’m sure this will inspire a flood of entertaining iphone videos, I would ask “how stoopid are these people” but…

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18. Lazar September 7, 2025 at 9:35 am

    Hegseth Doesn’t Rule Out Regime Change in Venezuela, Suggests More US Strikes on Boats Are Coming Scheerpost

    Secretary of War declares war on civillian boats. If the USA manages to lose this one too, next in line will be war against surfers, and then toddlers in swim vests.
    America, F*ck Yeah!

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19. Carolinian September 7, 2025 at 9:44 am

    Re China versus USA to the Moon

    To actually land on the Moon with Artemis III, NASA will need SpaceX to deliver a human-rated Starship vehicle, Axiom to complete spacesuits, and its own engineers to piece together and sign off on a complex plan that will be fraught with risk. The current, nominal target for such a mission is 2027, but no reasonable observer believes that is possible. For Duffy to make good on his promise of “getting us back to the Moon” before the president leaves office would require a landing by January 2029 or for Trump to violate the 22nd Amendment.

    So multiple forms of suspense. What fun.

    Of course Trump can once again imitate Reagan and insist on a risky launch producing a Challenger style result. Or there’s plan B where the country itself crashes.

    To quote from some space themed fiction: beam us up Scottie.

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20. thrombus September 7, 2025 at 9:52 am

    Homeless organizations note uptick in homeless families living in cars Spectrum News 13

    In the first act in war against homelessness, Trump will sign a decree declaring that cars legally count as homes, and that carless people don’t count as people. Make Cars Great Again.

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    1. The Rev Kev September 7, 2025 at 10:11 am

       For the post office, will a license plate count as an address?

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21. MicaT September 7, 2025 at 9:52 am

    How the genocide and war crimes from
    Israel are just treated ho hum by Dems just is something I will never get over.
    Gaza, West Bank, Lebanon, Syria, Yemen, Iran.

    The lack of morals and ethics from them or maybe they really truly believe what happening is right ( well some yes but most no, which is worse?) is hard to fathom.

    I want to hope there will be some kind of major fall out that will push things in a better direction. But it’s a very small hope.

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22. diptherio September 7, 2025 at 10:05 am

    Re: Treasury bonds aren’t the safe haven they’ve been in the past — and taxpayers will pay a price [MarketWatch]

    This bit had me raising my eyebrows and making the confused Scooby-Doo sound:

    Treasury yields are now higher than the risk-free rate…SOFR is the Secured Overnight Finance Rate. SOFR swap rates are often considered the risk-free rates.

    This is the first I’ve heard of SOFR swap rates, and I’d always assumed that the Treasury rate was risk-free rate, by definition. It’s above my paygrade, to be sure, but if anyone with a better understanding wants to chime in, I’d be interested to hear it.

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23. Terry Flynn September 7, 2025 at 10:23 am

    Twas amused at 3pm UK govt text to the population to test its emergency warning system.

    Some govt toadie thanked people on Twitter. I re-tweeted it commenting “should have alerted us night before 1979 general election”. Confidence motion lost by ONE VOTE thanks to David Steele. Never trust the Liberals/LibDems

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24. The Rev Kev September 7, 2025 at 10:29 am

    “First CRISPR horses spark controversy: what’s next for gene-edited animals?”

    ‘Some scientists, however, welcome the CRISPR horses. “It’s cool to show that CRISPR works and you can create CRISPR-altered horses,” says Molly McCue, a veterinary clinician scientist at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis.’

    Yeah, it’s “cool” alright but as has been said-

    ‘Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could that they didn’t stop to think if they should’ – Dr. Ian Malcolm

    Actually I will give a fuller quote because I think that it describes what is going on here-

    ‘You know what’s wrong with scientific power? […] It’s a form of inherited wealth […] Most kinds of power require a substantial sacrifice by whoever wants the power. There is an apprenticeship, a discipline lasting many years. Whatever kind of power you want. President of the company. Black belt in karate. Spiritual guru. Whatever it is you seek, you have to put in the time, the practice, the effort. You must give up a lot to get it. It has to be very important to you. And once you have attained it, it is your power. It can’t be given away: it resides in you. It is literally the result of your discipline. Now, what is interesting about this process is that, by the time someone has acquired the ability to kill with his bare hands, he has also matured to the point where he won’t use it unwisely. So that kind of power has a built-in control. The discipline of getting the power changes you so that you won’t abuse it. But scientific power is like inherited wealth: attained without discipline. You read what others have done, and you take the next step […] There is no discipline lasting many decades. There is no mastery: old scientists are ignored. There is no humility before nature. There is only a get-rich-quick, make-a-name-for-yourself-fast philosophy. Cheat, lie, falsify – it doesn’t matter. […] They are all trying to do the same thing: to do something big, and do it fast. And because you can stand on the shoulders of giants, you can accomplish something quickly. You don’t even know exactly what you have done, but already you have reported it, patented it, and sold it. And the buyer will have even less discipline than you. The buyer simply purchases the power.’

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25. The Rev Kev September 7, 2025 at 10:53 am

    “LEAKED: Israel Is Considered a “Genocidal, Apartheid Country” Abroad, According to Israel’s Own Research”

    ‘The median response in the U.S. and Denmark estimating the number killed by Israel was just 10,000’

    What the hell is wrong with Denmark? Do they have an AIPAC as well? The Israelis may want to improve their image through propaganda campaigns but it does not matter how many sprinkles and cherries they put on top of this turd Sundae, nobody is going to want to eat it.

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26. Eclair September 7, 2025 at 11:10 am

    RE: Immigration (ICE?) raid on Georgia Hyundai battery facility under construction with arrest of almost 500 ‘illegal’ workers.

    There goes my head exploding again. 500 South Korean workers, trying to make a living, now thrown into a detention facility (soon to be rescued by their Government, phew!). 500 US workers never hired because ….. they did not have the skills?

    Walk around Seattle’s South Lake Union area at lunch time and watch all the East Asian workers, here legally on H-1B visas, I assume, pouring out of the Amazon and Apple buildings to lunch at the yummy Asian food trucks on each corner. Visas necessary because US workers don’t have the necessary skills. How about investing in US education … math, science, etc., ? Lowering cost of college, providing scholarships. Because then Amazon/Apple would not have a compliant work force who could be cut loose at the first sign of discontented mutterings?

    ICE raids on California farms and mid-West chicken processing plants. Terrorizing poor immigrants who only want to work and throwing them into what are essentially concentration camps. Because native-borns won’t do the work. Well, duh! How about paying more, making the work conditions better. (Because the increases food costs would make it impossible for half the population to eat?).

    Workers are getting trampled on no matter what they do. The US-borns are locked out of the market because they don’t ‘have the necessary skills” or the working conditions are one level above serfdom. Imported workers are now being terrorized, fearful of being grabbed off the street by masked ICE agents and thrown into a gulag. Meanwhile, CEO compensation is soaring, tech stocks are booming, and our chief immigrant, Elon Musk, is on track to become the planet’s first trillionaire.

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