Cat Returned to Shelter Twice Hugs Her New Humans To Reassure Herself That She’s Found a Loving Home Laughing Squid
Crime scene university: Neo-feudal power structures in science Overton via machine translation (Micael T)
SGLT2 Diabetes Drugs Show Surprising Arthritis Benefit Naveen Sankar
How America Got Hooked on Ultraprocessed Food New York Times (resilc)
#COVID-19/Pandemics
Long Covid Is Real — And It’s Changing an Entire Generation Rolling Stone
Discovery of molecular signature of long-term psychiatric sequelae in COVID-19 through proteome profiling of dried blood spots Nature. Paul R: “Long Covid biomarker”
Climate/Environment
U.S. regulators toss out rules requiring banks to prepare for climate change CNBC (Kevin W)
Australian tropical rainforest trees switch in world first from carbon sink to emissions source Guardian (Kevin W)
Nevada had the *lowest* increase in electricity prices in the entire nation (falling in real terms!), *despite rising demand* — thanks largely to the massive amount of solar it's built.
Reversing that course is the dumbest thing we could possibly do. https://t.co/KIxM0rOL0Y pic.twitter.com/qIlh0Ncg36
— Jesse Peltan (@JessePeltan) October 13, 2025
Study Warns of “Ultimate Extinction” as Dolphin Lifespans Plummet SciTech Daily (Chuck L)
China?
China breaks record for Canadian oil imports, shuns US crude The Cradle (Kevin W)
Oil Tanker Rates Soar as U.S. and China Escalate Port Trade War OilPrice
Ambassador Xie Feng: U.S. Actions was a Breach of Trust After Madrid Trade Agreement
Chinese Ambassador Xie Feng felt the U.S. demonstrated a profound lack of sincerity in executing the understanding reached at the Madrid trade negotiations because Washington immediately… pic.twitter.com/vzCoJMIQG1
— Ignis Rex (@Ignis_Rex) October 16, 2025
India
Yours truly said Bessent was an idiot:
Boom! This means that Bessent's coalition against China is already dead, before being born.
He wanted to form it, specifically with India, at that very meeting. And India's finance minister says she won't attend over "unresolved differences over trade and India’s purchases of… https://t.co/YYZOj6LKKc
— Arnaud Bertrand (@RnaudBertrand) October 16, 2025
Africa
>Madagascar coup leader signals openness to dialogue with African Union after suspension Anadolu Agency
South of the Border
Military Commander Overseeing Escalating Attacks Off Venezuela Coast Is Stepping Down, Officials Say New York Times. resilc: “Trump wants a white general for the invasion.”
Trump confirms he authorized CIA action in Venezuela NBC (Kevin W)
European Disunion
The most dependent companies in Europe for components from frozen and sanctioned Nexperia are VW, BMW, Stellantis, Bosch, ASML, Siemens, and Airbus. Germany wasn’t deindustrialising fast enough to please the Trump administration? Substitution of alternatives will take 12-18… https://t.co/Klft0HER1M pic.twitter.com/NGnpxg1mJW
— Kathleen Tyson (@Kathleen_Tyson_) October 15, 2025
EU Leaders Determined To Win “Most Supine Slave Award”: Nexperia Edition Ian Welsh (Micael T)
EU, Spain reject Trump’s US tariff threats over NATO spending Aljazeera
Germany Orders 20 Eurofighters as Program Continues to Fail on Foreign Markets Military Watch
How the car crisis affects local communities Tagesschau via machine translation (guurst)
EU nation to allow 13-hour workday RT (Kevin W)
Old Blighty
First container ship arrives in UK via Arctic Route, a faster and cheaper China-Europe alternative YouTube (resilc)
Israel v. The Resistance
Pro-Hamas hackers hijack airport loudspeakers across North America, spew anti-Trump, -Netanyahu slurs – and causing delays New York Post. resilc says he has an alibi.
Without a Viable Governing Alternative, Trump’s Peace Plan May Legitimize Hamas in Gaza Haaretz
Trump threatens to ‘kill’ Hamas over crackdown on Israel-backed gangs PressTV. Yet another flip-flop.
Amira Hass. Why the West Bank did not rise up OrientXXI (guurst)
Returning to Shujaiya: Palestinians Are Going Back to Gaza City Despite Proximity of Israeli Troops Drop Site
Prominent Palestinian prisoner Marwan Barghouti attacked by guards, family says BBC (resilc)
Israel Tortured And Sexually Humiliated Greta Thunberg Caitlin Johnstone (Kevin W)
Old Blighty
Sir Keir Starmer leads outrage after Maccabi Tel Aviv fans banned from Aston Villa match Telegraph (Kevin W). BWAHAHA. Where I am, the government has considered banning ALL Israeli tourists. Despite their tiny numbers, they represent more than half the violent crimes instigated by tourists
New Not-So-Cold War
It is still not known how Putin intends to get to Budapest for a potential summit, considering that Hungary is a landlocked county and all of the countries surrounding it would probably refuse to allow an aircraft operated by the Russian Government, especially one carrying Putin,… https://t.co/BL3kSk4cnA pic.twitter.com/5MzJ06VKlQ
— OSINTdefender (@sentdefender) October 16, 2025
I interviewed the former Russian Ambassador to Germany today. And its so sad. I always like interviewing Ambassadors. They're always the nicest people. But its just so sad. He told me how back in the 90s he would meet up for coffee with his counterpart, German or British or… pic.twitter.com/b4qMyOlOkw
— Johnny miller (@johnnyjmils) October 16, 2025
Syraqistan
Why Pakistan and the Taliban are at war with each other Middle East Eye (resilc)
How MI6 Built Syria’s Extremist Police Kit Klarenberg
Big Brother is Watching You Watch
Viral ‘Cheater Buster’ Sites Use Facial Recognition to Let Anyone Reveal Peoples’ Tinder Profiles3 404 Media
Imperial Collapse Watch
Baker & Taylor Prepares Plan to Shut Down Publishers Weekly. Robin K: “This is a cataclysm. This is from last week, but the disaster is just hitting libraries and book stores (of which there are fewer and fewer!)”
Jeffrey Sachs & John Mearsheimer: Spheres of Security to Prevent World War III Glenn Diesen, YouTube
Exorbitant Privilege Gained and Lost: Fiscal Implications University of Chicago Press (Paul R)
US depleted its missiles in Ukraine, Israel. Now it wants more fast. Responsible Statescraft (Kevin W)
Foreign Ownership In The West … Andrei Martyanov (Micael T). Yours truly has been revealed as lacking in imagination and cynicism. I thought it was utterly nuts for US companies to set up operations in China in the early 2000s due to expropriation risk. That has happened via the acquisition of know-how. But it is the West that has resorted to the cruder sort I had seen as a risk.
Trump 2.0
Chuck L says this has been confirmed by Rep. Anna Luna of FLorida:
🚨🇺🇸🇷🇺 BREAKING: Russia to hand over a "350-page document" to the US exposing who assassinated JFK. pic.twitter.com/9kbBInDAI6
— Jackson Hinkle 🇺🇸 (@jacksonhinklle) October 14, 2025
FIFA World Cup 2026: Organisers dismiss Trump venue move threat Aljzeera (resilc). Pathetic that a president resorts to this level of trying to throw his weight around.
John Bolton indicted; ex-national security advisor is latest Trump foe to face criminal charges CNBC. Li: “Notice transmission.”
Biotech leaders say uncertainty at FDA threatens drug development STAT
Where do babies come from? Robert F Kennedy Jr doesn’t seem to know Guardian (resilc)
Immigration
Roaming Charges: Aspirations to Omnipotence CounterPunch (resilc)
GOP Clown Car
Mike Johnson Said He and His Son Monitor Each Other’s Porn Usage, and Yeah, It’s Exactly as Weird as It Sounds Vanity Fair (resilc)
Mamdani
Mamdani vs Cuomo. Their debate in 3 minutes. From Zeteo. https://t.co/SyJd2TiF6V pic.twitter.com/2qocXbPzVe
— Mehdi Hasan (@mehdirhasan) October 17, 2025
Mr. Market is Moody
RealTime Bubble Checklist Barry Ritholtz
Zions shares plunge 7% after $50M loan loss, US regional banks face credit pressure Trading View
Economy
75% of Americans report soaring prices as Trump claims inflation ‘over’ Guardian. resilc: “Was $3.99 in April”:
Another New England sighting from resilc:
US Housing Market Falling Into ‘Deflationary Vortex,’ Analyst Warns Newsweek
Boeing
Boeing Is Now Absurdly Late In Getting Planes To Airlines And The Government Shutdown Isn’t Helping Jalopnik (resilc)
AI
MGB is turning to AI to ease shortage of primary care doctors. Some of them don’t like it. Boston Globe. Tom V: “Some?? This is an admission of abject failure in the presumably the best medical institution on the planet.”
Ken Griffin Says GenAI Fails to Help Hedge Funds Produce Alpha Bloomberg (Micael T). Why is this a surprise? Hedge funds have been running black box and later strategies by “algos” (as in more of the same) for two decades. GenAI is primarily text, video, and audio. As if that is all that helpful? And with purely financial data 1. per the discussion earlier, that has been very VERY well mined and 2. May not amount to large enough training sets.
AI’s double bubble trouble Financial Times
OpenAI Has a Business Plan Matt Levine, Bloomberg (Micael T)
Don’t trust AI job forecasts: ‘No one knows anything:’ Wharton guru CNBC (resilc)
OpenAI’s New Energy Chief Is a Trump Administration Natural Gas Evangelist DeSmog Blog
The Bezzle
Windows 11 Is a Lost Cause. Truly Destined for the Garbage. Don’t Upgrade from 10 YouTube (Micael T)
Antidote du jour (retaj):
And a bonus (Chuck L):
this deserves an Oscar
pic.twitter.com/lgotTM0qor— Science girl (@gunsnrosesgirl3) October 14, 2025
A second bonus:
Border Collie teaches newly rescued kitten to drink water from dispenser..🐕🐾🐈😍 pic.twitter.com/mrsDhpEnrR
— 𝕐o̴g̴ (@Yoda4ever) October 16, 2025
And a third:
The precision of a hawkpic.twitter.com/N7DaWv46HU
— Interesting things (@awkwardgoogle) October 15, 2025
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.
“How America Got Hooked on Ultraprocessed Food”
Those ultraprocessed foods are insidious. I have heard a coupla Americans in videos say that when they went overseas for a long stay, that the weight just dropped off them. I think one woman said that she lost about forty pounds. Thing is, she wasn’t dieting but was eating basically the same foods as in the States and also had snacks as well. She had to conclude that where she was living that the foods were not so highly processed as they were back home which made her wonder what was in them.
Portions are another difference. When we moved to the USA in 1995 that was part of the culture shock. In a restaurant each person being given a plate of food big enough to be in the middle of a family table. And customers openly valued restaurants in part because of portion size. I haven’t noticed this change in these 30 years. Regardless how processed the food is, eating too much will make you fat.
“I have heard a coupla Americans in videos say that when they went overseas for a long stay, that the weight just dropped off them.”
I know someone who normally lives in Austria in the last two decades, but visited America for a somewhat extended stay a few years ago; he experienced the exact opposite and seemed baffled by how such a thing could even happen. By the time I saw him, years after his return, he was as thin as usual.
Another subtlety is that Americans drive cars all the time. When “overseas” Americans tend to walk much more.
I put on like 5-7lbs whenever I visit, even when I try limiting my intake and going for more walks, the weight just sheds again once I get home. It’s seriously scary.
Could it be stress, in this case the stresses of living in such an unequal society? When I reduced my courseload at university from the standard full-time level to just over half (the minimum for full time), I lost over 20 kg, without changing location or consciously changing my dietary habits.
Some people respond to stress by eating and drinking too much. I do. Others lose appetite when stressed. I’ve experienced that only briefly when the somatic experience of the stress was so bad that I couldn’t eat much.
You gotta love the lettering on each box of MRE’s for sale in New England…
‘US Government Property
Commercial Resale Is Unlawful’
That’s a great price on those cases of MRE’s, probably past the use-by date, not that you’d be able to ascertain the difference in taste, ha.
I was out for a week in Sequoia NP about 30 years ago on a strict MRE diet, and they’re heavy with all the packaging, and the stove if you will is a long bag with chemical element that you add water to activate. The food was pretty blase with the exception of the pound cake-which I still remember fondly.
Its all about hot beverages when you’re backpacking, and there being only one heating element in each MRE, you had to decide whether you wanted a hot entree, or hot drink, limited to 1 on the latter.
An MSR pocket rocket stove, canister of isobutane gas and a stove largely warming up water for freeze dried meals & beverages is much more preferred, i’d never go the MRE route again in the back of beyond.
During Ag Fair season in Connecticut, I purchased bottles of water at The Scouts booths (formerly BSA) that were clearly labeled “Not for sale in bottle deposit states.”
Connecticut is a bottle deposit state. The lawlessness is pervasive.
This is military surplus, usually bought by Wile E. Coyote. :)
Do those MREs contain saltpeter by any chance? Asking for a friend.
They contain cyanide capsules, in case you get caught. :)
During an extended power outage in my Connecticut town 20 years ago the National Guard brought a truckload of MRE cartons that anyone could pick up free of charge. There were no heating elements included though the unopened cartons stated there were. I estimated the carton, paper, and plastic to outweigh the food.
Wait just a minute. $30 USD for a case of MREs? That has to be a loss leader item. The cheapest I have seen them online is $39 USD for a case, and from the dreaded Amazon no less. Add in tax and we get to $41 USD a case. Check the expiration dates. They do get old, but not fully unusable in general. Otherwise, it’s a head scratcher.
Is prepping past its due date?
As for the photograph just above the MREs; that piece of paper cost twenty-three washers? That’s just a rounding error I hope.
Stay safe. Stock up.
A bunch of used washers of various sizes. Who would buy that? Just get them out of the trash after the garage sale.
Yeah, thirty bucks??? Loss leader, for sure. I’ve seen three bucks a pop, shipped, on rare occasion.
I treat MREs like canned food. It’s aseptically packaged, so that means if it’s not punctured, bloated, or smelling (more than usual) bad, it’s likely good to go.
Though I left the dotmil as MREs were just coming in, I’ve tried a few since then.
I do love the hamburger cookie!
I am eligible to shop at the commissary of a nearby military base (service connected medical condition). I notice that the MREs go for about $6-$7 per meal, or about $72-$84 for a case of 12. So, yes, likely a loss leader. No, I have not bought any.
Where I am, the government has considered banning ALL Israeli tourists. Despite their tiny numbers, they represent more than half the violent crimes instigated by tourists
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I’ve made mention of them before, the recently released from IDF service jackals of all tirades-coming to a country near you, and atypically a cheaper destination, i’ve never seen their like in the USA.
Usually in groups of 5 to 6 and perhaps a token female within. They are the worst ambassadors for a country i’ve ever witnessed in action, and i’ve seen plenty of ugly Americans in my travels, but they’re onesy-twosey exhibiting boorish behavior, this is a concerted effort to verify every ugly Jewish stereotype.
It is amazing, for years football supporters have often been banned from travel to away games either at national or international level. In many cases, such fans get escorted directly from the airport to the stadium, heavily policed, and then escorted directly back to the airport.
The Tel Aviv ‘supporters’ have a track record of extreme violence. In Amsterdam they attacked muslims and destroyed property showing support for Palestine, all the while claiming they were the victims. – And dutifully reported as such by western media until video footage showing the opposite was posted on social media.
There are countless precedents of football fans being banned. Now this Tel Aviv ban is top of the news in every mainstream media bulletin. Starmer has weighed in, as has the police commissioner that the ban is antisemitic
EUFA and FIFA have kicked the Israel boycott can down the road claiming a ban is a geopolitical issue at a higher level than them. And yet Russia was banned within days of setting foot in Ukraine.
On a different cultural level, the Lawyers for Israel in Britain body is now attacking actors and the like who have signed up to boycott Israel on the grounds that it breaches the equality act. It is also harassing and seeking to get medics who are vocal about the genocide in Gaza struck off, while other British medics have recently served in the IDF with seeming impunity here.
It seems Starmer and his ilk are turning into a US style “I am a one issue politician, and that issue is Israel”, while the country falls apart and snakeoil vendor Farage can only lick his lips and count the days till he walks into No. 10.
The state run aspect of the BBC, once reasonably subtle, has been getting blatantly more open and over the top in recent years.
Nowhere do they condescend to mention the by now tediously well documented violent and aggressive behaviour by the Tel Aviv hooligans and their Mossad escorts. One would glean from the BBC that they were attacked outside the ground by Ajax supporters for no apparent reason. And the incidents following in their wake in other countries are also ignored.
Bans on away fans over incidents far short of what happened in Amsterdam are pretty commonplace. As is banning individual transgressors from football grounds period.
And there are by now a host of issues on which the BBC is quite obviously required to go through such contortions.
There was a viral video from May this year where local Thai’s confronted a former Israeli IDF soldier for not removing her shoes in a cafe. It sounds like the proposed ban comes from a combination of rude behavior, bad behavior, and visa violations including overstays and unlawful work.
Jerusalem Post
In this link, a video of a local news report describes how a probable Israeli got his motorcycle stuck on the beach where driving is not allowed. It went viral locally which led to police arriving and fining him 5000 baht.
If they come across any Tel Aviv supporters, the police should have armed backup in place and do their duty by checking their ID, and ask whether they have served in the IDF. If yes, ask then for the dates of service.
If they served in any capacity during the Gaza genocide arrest them on suspicion of committing war crimes. If they should choose to play up, let armed backup do the job they are trained and paid for.
For those still living, take them in, make sure they have a legal representative, and interrogate them and charge them as appropriate (which it will be because the IDF was the occupying force in Gaza), and detain them without bail as flight risks. Then let Starmer talk his way out of that one.
I actually think the Hind Rajab Foundation has been providing intelligence targeting travelling Israeli football ultras along these lines
“Where do babies come from? Robert F Kennedy Jr doesn’t seem to know”
Being a Kennedy, I would assume that he only knows how to plant a baby. :) What happens in the Kennedy Compound in Cape Cod, stays in the Kennedy Compound.
I really believe that male politicians should not be allowed to make or be involved with any laws that pertain to females.
Oh my. This sounds too close to “Baby Farming” from the old days. Forensics will have to dig up the flower beds in The Compound.
> Baker & Taylor Prepares Plan to Shut Down Publishers Weekly.
Insufficigent eulogy. When I worked in bookstores (Booksellers Row & Morgenstern’s), Baker & Taylor was the go-to for special orders. Morgenstern’s special order maven was Kathy, who could explain at length the difficulties involved in ordering from individual publishers. B&T apparently shut down the retail wing in 2019, despite some revival of independent booksellers. There were over 7000 independents when I was working, cratered to under 1700 by 2009.
Morgenstern’s was murdered by Borders, which was murdered by Amazon. They re-opened in 2019, but ordering is outsourced to another company/entity, which pays them a fee.
1828 was the year Baker and Taylor started operations. Worth a requiem.
Hadn’t heard of this company before but most of my new book purchases are special orders from the small local bookstore. Wondering if this will affect availability the next time I want some obscure or at least non-bestseller title.
Funny. Although an entirely different game in Germany, here too book-publishing business has experienced that upsetting deterioration of standards. While 20 years ago the 2 major German book chains HUGENDUBEL and THALIA (considered second-rate to former in quality of content program and mostly confined to Northern parts of Germany) today they have become the “last hope” and turned mostly into the good guys (depending on how radical the novelist you ask).
I remember well when German authors argued 20 years ago still in favour of amazon´s marketplace because it had broken up the elitist position of literary critics and “democratized” the medium and the cultural discourse. Not least by those functions like “you also might like this”-recommendations or “others also liked”-suggestions.
(None of which are invalid arguments by themselves I might add.)
Wonder how those people judge their former views today. Although back in the day most professionals have unterestimated/misinterpreted the real aims and operational mode under which amazon developed its business plans.
I don´t know US averages – in FRG a novel which is serious literature is considered a success with 5000 copies sold. However there are two dozen or so writers who sell much more and can make a good living even without book-reading tours and scholarships.
>>>Canceling a 6 gigawatt solar farm is an extremely
this is the ultra-simplistic Twitter take.
Solar noon = peak solar output. the problem is power needs at the 6 – 8 AM and 4 – 6 PM consumption peaks. Solar won’t fix that, barring lots of (not green) batteries
check out salt water batteries
new, and I can’t confirm their ultimate usefulness, but I suspect strongly that lithium futures will plummet with new battery technologies.
Well, sure, solar is not a panacea. But just like multi vitamins aren’t a cure all, they do help. In this case, with surging needs for data center power in those regions AND increasing on shoring AND population increases, it really wouldn’t hurt to have additional electricity generation during the day. Regardless of battery capacity. The US in general is a great location for solar. We should have tons of it. I’d add we need better transmission to benefit from it in more places, but even point source generation at the location of consumption would be a benefit.
Mike Johnson Said He and His Son Monitor Each Other’s Porn Usage, and Yeah, It’s Exactly as Weird as It Sounds Vanity Fair
~~~~~~~~~~~
If life was akin to a drive-thru and I ordered the Mike Johnson plate, a voice would ask if I wanted that extra-creepy?
I feel somewhat responsible in soothsaying My Kevin’s departure, paving the way for Clark Kent.
Maybe if I don’t mention him so much in the run up to being ousted, he’s just the usual dumb as a box of rocks guy I came to know as Speaker of the House now.
They also watch each other while showering, in order to prevent a stealth wank.
I’ve heard his porn name is:
Huey Short
As they say down on the bayou, Geaux Long!
I wonder if Father and Son give each other tips on the “best” stuff?
Magical thinking if I ever saw it. I am not saying Johnson partakes of porn or that he doesn’t, but all it means is that other methods or porn outlets are in use that are not easily monitored in their system. That or the son has a highly active sex life that Dad doesn’t care about. He is seventeen.
‘Ignis Rex
@Ignis_Rex
Oct 16
Ambassador Xie Feng: U.S. Actions was a Breach of Trust After Madrid Trade Agreement
Chinese Ambassador Xie Feng felt the U.S. demonstrated a profound lack of sincerity in executing the understanding reached at the Madrid trade negotiations because Washington immediately intensified its economic pressure on China shortly after the talks.’
And you just know that Team Trump were patting themselves on the back by these continuous attacks on China while negotiating as it was reckoned that it would pressure China to buckle to Trump’s demands. They were just too smart for the Chinese as they were all masters of negotiation and there wasn’t a single thing that the Chinese could do about it.
– ‘John Bolton indicted; ex-national security advisor is latest Trump foe to face criminal charges’ – CNBC.
Others have said it, but if you shoot at the king you’d better not miss.
I know this is just petty personal revenge lawfare; petty and personal is all Trump knows. But there are few more deserving “victims” than John Bolton. James and Comey are deserving as well, though the lib/Dems will make them martyrs. I don’t condone this use of Executive branch power any more than I did when it was used against Trump. But I have a hard time mustering any sympathy for these clowns. Nothing will happen to them anyway; it never does.
Trump has been going on about how John “Yosemite Sam” Bolton is a bad man and all the rest of it. But nobody is asking him if he was so bad, then why did Trump give him such a high position in his first term. Was it to please the Neocons or is he a really bad judge of character.
Currently visiting my parents and when this was covered on the national news last night the piece mentioned that Bolton’s (aol, lol) email that he was sending his daily diary notes on state affairs through was hacked by the Iranians. Later in the segment they showed a clip of Bolton complaining to another news program that Trump had pulled his secret service detail as a result of this case (which he’s had since the Soleimani assassination). Not enough popcorn for me, tbh
For those not upgrading to Windows 11, expect the rest of your online life to be hell.
I’m still using a legacy Mac OS. Here’s what my online life is like:
• Numerous sites will not open for me, giving me a screen ordering me to upgrade my browser (which cannot be done without upgrading my OS)
• Substack pages are garbage, I can’t even find a field to log in there even though I’m a paid subscriber (I read subscribed accounts via email)
• Feedly just stopped opening in Firefox (again) forcing me to use Chrome (also not updated but curiously able to open ANY webpage)
• Yahoo pages open for a minute then go blank
It’s not just to software you need to upgrade, every so often they brick older operating systems solely to force upgrades in equipment. The truth is that most computers built in this century are fully capable of being online but have been bricked by Silicon Valley.
Nice business model (monopoly rules!) despite being prohibited by law. Archive.ph is a life saver and not just for getting around paywalls. Archive.ph lets me read the news that Silicon Valley insists be only available to newer computer and device users (assuming your devices haven’t been bricked like ALL iPods, older iPads and older iPhones and that’s the straight poop from my local Apple store where they refused to work on my iPod, iPad and iPhone and wouldn’t tell me why or even make eye contact once they knew why I was there).
I had something like this on an old Windows VM with an early version of Internet Explorer, I dunno what maybe version 10. It had something to do with very outdated SSL libraries or expired TLS certificates. If the latter, Apple definitely could just provide newer certificates that aren’t expired. For the former, you might have to use a browser that ships with recent SSL libraries itself, although Apple could probably also provide updates for this, with more effort.
Depending on your Mac if can be upgraded to even the latest OS. Mr Macintosh has open core legacy patcher. I have a 2009 Macbook with Monterey which runs fine. When Apple issues a silicon only OS that route will be over.
My HTPC still is on Windows 8.1. I only use it to run Kodi media library/player and the NextPVR backend for my OTA tuner card. I actually replaced the hardware and reinstalled 8.1 because at the time MS was still supporting Windows Media Center which I was using as the backend and MS also provided online program guide info. MS eventually shut that down forcing the switch to NextPVR but no compelling reason to upgrade the OS as long as the VC++ runtime is kept up to date.
My main dev computer is Win 10. With a gaming MB I think I probably turned off TPM in the BIOS, but I don’t get update nags from MS. With a terabyte between Flight Sim 2020, Visual Studio and all its SDKs for compiling/debugging software, and NVidia CUDA SDKs to run local AI on the GPU, not really looking forward to having to upgrade to 11 on this machine. Probably go the new hardware route as AMD runs rings around intel these days for flight simming.
I do use local accounts on my various Win 11 laptops. I guess 25H2 update is in the process of being pushed out. Can’t wait.
Been comfortable with DirectX. Don’t really want to have to learn OpenGL and things like Pulse.
“Windows 11 Is a Lost Cause. Truly Destined for the Garbage. Don’t Upgrade from 10”
I finally switched my every day PC to Linux 1.5 years ago. There are a couple of programmes where I still must use Windows (an old Adobe PhotoShop and an electrical circuit simulator) and these now run in a Tiny10 install inside a virtual machine in Linux, with internet access disabled for safety. If you don’t know Tiny10: it’s Windows10 stripped from all the bloat, so it is much smaller and runs much faster.
I actually still have a multi-boot system so I can boot into the “real” W10 if I want to, but I never do that because all my other stuff is in Linux so I rather use my virtual machine instead.
This is what we always hear: there’s always a reason to keep using Windows.
For me (first started using Linux as a Unix alternative in the 1990s), I’m perfectly happy running Linux Mint on my 15-year-old laptop and it even runs the resource-heavy Microsoft Teams.
But for my digital audio workstation, that’s Windows with new high-end hardware.
I might add that at my company, in a sensitive industry where we are very careful about information leakage, we are all on Windows 11 and this is not considered to be anywhere near the biggest security problem.
Same. And it is so painful.
Really a craptacular experience.
Among many other things, the desktop isn’t really a desktop, maybe? I have to deliberately do things slowly as if I’m working on a remote desktop.
Enterprise windows 11 is different than home windows 11. I believe companies pay more for less spyware.
I’ve always had hardware challenges — I’m a former Linux systems administrator — and finally just went to Mac. It’s just a better desktop experience. I got too old to fight with hardware or deal with worse UIs. My MBP 2015 is still going strong, although it is no longer supported and I’m stuck on OS 12 unless I side-load a newer OS X. But whatever.
Still keeping my old CoolerMaster tower case, as it has a slot for internal 5″ optical drive. Optical is becoming just about impossible these days. Maybe it will be like turntables and enjoy a comeback some day.
I’m slowly transitioning to a new computer but one that will be running Linux Mint. If I ever had any doubt about this and going with Windows 11, this video removes any doubt. It will not allow you to have a Linux partition for example and will just wipe that entire partition through just normal updates. To hell with that. Linux, here I come.
I think that you can have a dual boot system if you have the Microsoft Account.
I just verified this and it worked with Fedora 42 and Windows 11. I could not figure out
how to avoid the MS account at the time i got the machine.
I just updated both.
I need Windows 11 for TurboTax and Abode PDF reader/writer also for filling out tax forms where there is no capable Linux program that can do the editing part. (That i know of)
If you are a moderate user of PS I highly recommend taking the couple hours to learn your way around GIMP too, I haven’t looked back.
Hi,
I concur, GIMP is cool. It even runs smoothly on my hp pro from 2011 I bought for 20 swiss francs and which became my main computer after the battery on my recent DELL gave out and I found they now cost around 60! Before COVID I remember buing a battery for a Think pas for eight dollars and three years ago I bought for a friends ASUS a battery for 36 francs, last year it was sixty… So this old HP has operating system Trisquel 32 bits I found you can download from the Internet Archive. There is just some small work-around to disable the https signatures check to install new packages since they are no longer maintained. I don’t know why but I have an impression that the 32 systems work better and with less issues than the 64? I even burn CDs on it to listen to old music and for friends musicians.
Although I had to acquire a newer machine because the accounting software GNUCash I have been using for years stopped its support for the 32 bit systems… This one runs on Debian and I found they have tons of cool packages, for handling PDFs, LaTex editors, etc. I came to use Scribus for flyers and other graphic stuff. It is just insane, you can find a package for about anything you need to do.
I suffer when I have to use Windows…so SLOW… For example with PreSonus Studio One no support for GNU/Linux. For making music. (To give technical support, I don’t write music myself.) I will look at the virtual machine idea, thanks !
Like you I’ve got a PC running Linux and have various Windows on VMs. I don’t have any more dual boots machines; I think I dumped that all the way back in the 00’s.
Recently I’ve been looking into laptops and would probably spend a bit more and get one from Framework, mostly because these are hardware repairable, and up gradable, but also because you can load them with Linux and everything just works.
It’s funny, being an engineer doing automation on the factory floor meant you were supporting everything from DOS to Windows 11 (including OS/2) with a mix of Unixes, Linuxes, CNC and PLC controllers in for good measure. The major automation companies Siemens and Rockwell (Allen Bradley) still used WIndows as the development platform, and are still offering HMIs with Windows CE or Windows 10 IoT. So you get to be OK at hacking away at supporting all sorts of stuff. But I’ve never seen anything as crazy as what plain jane Windows 11 is now doing. Ugh.
Those JFK-related archive docs are available with brief but useful context here https://jfkfacts.substack.com/p/first-look-russias-jfk-assassination
JFK Facts (a Substack) describes it as the Russian government’s latest dossier on JFK’s assassination.
I can’t make much sense of most of it, not knowing Russian. But there’s lots of photos and some stuff, e.g. some LHO correspondences, are in English.
NYC mayoral debate, no bacon on the salad, or on the breakfast sandwich either.
Cuomo looks like he died ten years ago and has been only partially reanimated. The republican candidate is not the sharpest tool in the shed either. Mamdani looking at a smooth path to Gracie Mansion.
They had to look both near and far for a candidate to stand against Mamdani who would actually help him get elected. And then they found Cuomo.
Nah, the delusion runs high in the market crowd. Andy scuttled multiple advanced investigations when he became state AG, he has been a go to for years. Adams may have been acceptable to them but he was a clear loser even before the corruption charges. Andy wanted a political platform and they needed a strong sycophant. Both candidate and deep pocket donors were certain Mayor Andy was a sure thing. His loss was as big a shock to the money crowd as Clinton’s, and for many of the same reasons. And the old standby candidate killer memes aren’t working. Socialist is applauded, Muslim, no problem. Antisemetic, much of the Jewish population of the city currently qualifies because they don’t support genocide in their name.
The best is Cuomo now blaming Sliwa because he is losing, especially since he mathematically he doesn’t win even if Sliwa did drop out if the polls are close to correct.
A few days ago, I was walking through a local grocery store for just a few items. I usually spend some time checking out prices of a few things I’m not buying. Some things I’ll almost never buy — such as beef. I sometimes try to guess / remember the price of an item before I look at the shelf price.
The thought occurred that “this is galloping inflation.” Then I wondered how long this inflation can continue until Trump and the (anti)Republicans suffer the political consequences.
Almost everything is 20 to 30 percent more than I expect or remembered. Cheese and dairy are some of the few exceptions.
Why is beef so much higher than pork and chicken? Is there more oligopoly in beef industry?
Restaurant prices reflect all this. Consequently, I eat much less at restaurants than just a few years ago, I used to expect to pay $7 for breakfast with coffee. Now it can’t be had for less than $10. I expected lunch to be under $10. Now I’m relieved to get a lunch ticket that’s under $15. Dinner with wine or cocktails is no longer feasible on a fixed income. It has devolved into frozen pizza or Taco Hell at this point.
The official statistics are way off.
The official statistics are way off.
Yeah, where do they pull that garbage from? I’m lucky in the fact that I am living near a grocery distributer’s outlet store, and thus, somewhat more insulated from costs: you never know what they’ll have on the shelves, but these are items that couldn’t be shipped or are there because of cancelled orders from retail customers.
Still, last week I went to a regular grocery store to restock on dried beans and… dude… no friggin way… the packages were 1/3 the size and twice the price of what I had purchased 6-months ago!!! No exaggeration! And the rice I buy (10lb bag) doubled in cost. I ended up driving halfway across the county to a Mennonite-run country store where I paid a fraction of what the retail grocery store was asking (catch: the Mennonites nail tourists to the wall on fancy-fudge, pastries, gourmet and hand-made items).
Anyway, rent’s up, insurance’s up, utilities up, food… what costs have come down?
75% of Americans report soaring prices as Trump claims inflation ‘over’
Was linked to Boeing article instead in links. This is to the titled story.
I went to a mid-scale local wine tasting place (sitting outdoors up wind of the few people, very chilly) and the sprouts are up $1 and the portion size was halved this time, and the flatbread is up $2. There’s now a 3% credit charge surcharge as well now.
Went to our new Big Fat Greek Restaurant in Tiny Town with friends, and really an amazing job on the interior and exterior, we frankly aren’t worth it…
The food was blase at best and every entree was $30 or more, with a NY steak checking in @ $59 (prides himself on buying a couple of NY steaks for $16 @ WinCo that had a use-by date of tomorrow, and thus discounted $10 off of manufacturers suggested retail price) and we all thought we’d go a few times a year @ most.
…why couldn’t it have been a Thai restaurant instead with $14 entrees?
Head on down the mountain to your local pulqueria and ask for “El Diablo Gringo.” Any good pub has a comfort food kitchen out back.
By now nobody here should be surprised that claims from Trump, or any part of the Trump Administration, go against what is easily observed. Gotta drive home that narrative.
At some point the dogs will no longer eat the dog food.
At some point the dogs will no longer afford the dog food.
Yeah. Stock up.
My Baedeker in such matters is cans of Fancy Feast-the brand my masters prefer.
Hasn’t varied from 88¢ since Inauguration Day…
Is that similar to the old tyme “Dogwood Sandwich?” (Pile up anything that comes to hand between two slices of extra crunchy cardboard.)
If they won’t eat their food, would that make some dogs terrierists?
Re; Big Brother
A new development that must not be overlooked:
Wrap Launches Next-Generation Drone First Responder Interdiction Solution with a Focus on Non-Lethal Response
“…a purpose-built payload that is designed to transform standard drones from passive observers into active, non-lethal public-safety tools. …the drones can not only observe and communicate, but also deter, delay, and disrupt threatening behavior before officers arrive.”
You see, drones will now have the ability to make arrests and to take persons into custody– up to six at a time, apparently.
Pre-orders accepted in mid-November, just in time for the holiday season.
How long before those drones are approved for the use of “lethal response?”
Officer AI had to terminally restrain two anti-government demonstrators Wednesday morning. Illegal placards saying “Make Love Not War” were recovered from the scene of the crime. The Department of Homeland Security reminds citizens that “War is the Health of the Nation.”
Stay safe in an officially approved fashion.
I heard a liberal enclave which had mustered was carpet bombed by drones with full bottles of Grey Poupon.
Coffee alert.
I’m wondering what “non-lethal” translates to in the world of crowd control via drones. Tear gas deliveries? Stun grenades? How long before bird guns start showing up at protests?
One of my less than savoury acquaintances says that glitter bombs do almost as well. They confuse the drone long enough for you to escape relatively undetected. (One must practice situational awareness and mentally map the locations and arcs of view of cameras in the vicinity.)
Blue or pink?
Rainbow, naturally.
Ahh, good point: vision.
If you can blind the drone or obscure the environment you can render it less-effective if not ineffective.
Off-topic: try one of THESE for your next gender-reveal parties, game day celebrations, or just for fun (I prefer black).
I’d leave the bird-gun at home– the roof-top snipers would probably mow-down the crowd around you before delivering to you a shot or three to the gut.
THIS may be helpful for low budget, close range (see throw nets). Or check this site if you really want to up your anti-drone game: https://thenetgunstore.com/
Lol, I’m not saying showing off your skeet game at the local rally is a good idea, rather that someone else will.
I like the overhead rodeo vibe from the nets. Skills required!
Yes, what fun that could be!
Make sure you practice “catch and release,” but no before tying it to a cinderblock or something.
“Make war for peace”
Was the motto of our communist block countries. If you don’t understand it, dont ask…
I guess I am from the wrong communist block country, because I have never heard of our motto. ;)
I think I have just seen the next generation of School Resource “Officers”, available by next semester…
And with OpenAI permitting the creation of erotica, we have a conveniently closed loop. People in power target a person of interest, they use ChatGPT and other stuff to create kiddie porn, use backdoors in software and hardware to get it on that person’s device, drones are dispatched to apprehend target for sex crimes and pedophilia. Person is vanished and no one cares. They were a dirty pervert after all…
I believe that in the world of literature that is called a Narrative Frame.
From Long Covid Is Real — And It’s Changing an Entire Generation
OMG just kill me, how can this not make you want to smash something? people are stupid.
Here we have an entire Rolling Stone article, where the reporter claims to have spent two years researching this story, and guess what. Wait for it.
(bold mine)
So the Pandemic is a) over and b) Trump’s greatest offense has been threatening availability of COVID shots.
a) is so beyond false
b) do not prevent COVID, thus do not prevent long COVID, the tragic topic of this news story, two years in the making
In two years the author didn’t recognize that the Pandemic is not over and that the COVID shots are not sterilizing?
I don’t have words.
If it’s changing an entire generation shouldn’t we try to, you know, understand the terrain?? Rather than just make an uncontrolled flight into it?
And after tons of ink spilled on lack of accommodation for kids that have long COVID, tragic, definitely, not a single word. Not. A. Single. Word. On how long COVID happens, or how to avoid it.
And we end on a happy note, look, it’s all gonna be okay. This timeline is stupid
holy f**king sh1t. And a pediatrician
Man, I gotta go walk this off. This is nuts.
Agree. The article was such an eff’d up mix of heartbreaking accounts of Long COVID and utter cluelessness about how we got here… I couldn’t finish it. Rolling Stone, no less. SMH.
Thank you, Jason and Acacia. I couldn’t finish the article either, and Jason, as is his usual, has highlighted salient points I missed. I have been talking about the effects of covid on human beings in general and on children in particular to younger friends of mine who have a little girl. I’ve been stressing the importance of filtration and ventilation in school classrooms to keep the children safe. I’ve said that if I were a parent, I could be screaming from the rooftops about filtration and ventilation in classrooms. I gave up on discussing masking because, like most parents, this couple fell for the “we want to see your smile” propaganda. Every time I bring this subject up to the mom, she always says, “Oh, I know.” In our latest conversation, she told me that she didn’t know how many times her daughter has had covid but so far, her daughter doesn’t seem to be affected. I was stunned yet again. It’s a version of Russian roulette, isn’t it? This mom is clearly humoring me and doesn’t know the danger her daughter is in.
Unrelated, but for those following China’s Rare Earth exports policy:
Although China is likely overplaying its hand, I think that Venezuela and Iran should troll Trump by nominating Xi for a Nobel Peace Prize award, as he is doing more than any other single world leader in making it difficult to wage war.
Maybe Europe can dangle the award to Xi as an incentive to get a couple of barrels of discounted Russian crude or something.
The South China Morning Post came up with a better way to troll Trump: Award the Peace Prize jointly to Trump and Khameini….
*sigh* No matter how clever I think I am, the internet always finds a way to prove that someone else has a better idea.
Did SCMP also suggest giving Kennedy a Nobel for Medicine?
re: Trump vs. demos
JACOBIN
Chicago Against Trump’s Authoritarianism
By Anthony Joel Quezada
As ICE violently snatches Chicagoans in broad daylight and seems to be waging war on the city itself, Chicago City Council member and socialist Anthony Quezada recounts how the city is pushing back.
https://jacobin.com/2025/10/chicago-ice-response-trump-authoritarianism
Thanks for the hawk antidote. Impressive flight skills (and courageous gals to boot).
It looks like it might be a Harris’s hawk.
Democrats teaching strategy, as above, so below. All too publicly.
I gleaned from some clicking around that Gov. Janet Mills of Maine is 77 years old. Graham Platner is 41.
The maneuvering going on here only reinforces the correct assessment that the Dem elites are thoroughly corrupt. We just had the spectacle of Dianne Feinstein, and evidently, they are still allowing the decrepit Steny Hoyer to attach his suction cup to the House of Representatives, just one more 87-year-old barnacle.
Both political parties are beyond repair. It is time to move to a new party system, which would be the Seventh or Seventh-and-a-Half Party Systems. Which means that the populace will survive the failure of the MonoParty of Pink and Aqua.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seventh_Party_System#
The reason I called it “as above so below” is that if the Democrats at the level of senator from Maine are this daft, why should they be trusted near life-and-death matters like relations with the Russian Federation and an acknowledgment of their participation in paying for the genocide in Gaza and the West Bank?
Corollary: Do you know this old chestnut? “There’s no fool like an old fool.” Heck, it turns out to be truer than ever: Trump. Pelosi. Jane “Ancient” Miller of Maine. Schumer. Andrew Cuomo (68). Robert Kennedy Jr (72). Hillary (now in her 78th year of contemptible errors).
I watched a couple of clips yesterday, one of Mitch taking a fall, and another of Pelosi needing help to walk as she was yapping at a reporter. They propped Biden up for how many years and told us he was fine. Why are these fossils still in office, along with quite a few more?
If they had any integrity they would have resigned long ago, but they don’t because they don’t have one ounce of integrity.
Yet people still believe “their side” is going to fix things. No, they are not, they are only there for the grift. If you still believe they give one good **** about you, your head is planted firmly up your behind.
They forgot to retire. It’s a phenomenon.
I was talking to some hard core, TDS infected, Ukraine flag flying, vote Blue No Matter Who Democrats of Janet Mills’ age yesterday. Even they were not at all amused by her run.
My take is that if Mills’ manages to win the primary somehow, voters in the general election with a choice between two old conservative white ladies are going to go with the spring chicken Susan Collins who is currently a sprightly 72 years old. This just goes to show once again that Democrats would rather lose to a Republican than win with someone like Bernie or Platner.
And as a reminder that it all just a big club that we are not in, about 20 years ago I was at a forum with then US Rep Tom Allen (D) who was speaking out against the Bush administration’s illegal surveillance at the time. He directed those in attendance to contact Senator Snowe ( R) about it. I told him we had already done that to no effect and a better remedy would be to vote her out in that year’s election. I then asked Allen if he would do everything in his power to make sure her Democratic opponent (not a strong candidate, but a Democrat nonetheless), a member of his own political party, got elected over Snowe that year. He very tellingly did not say “yes”. Fast forward a few years, Allen ran for Senate against Collins, spent a lot of time and effort removing a 3rd party candidate from the Senatorial ballot, and had his ass handed to him by Collins in the general election. And Allen used to be one of the better ones.
I could never figure out Collins’ magic. I do recall Linda Bean was a big supporter of Collins.
California has banned the sale of Glock pistols as of 1/1/26, ostensibly because they can be converted to full auto by replacing a single part.
“Glock Switches” have been around for years, they were once available on ebay for $12 apiece with free shipping.
Once converted these machine pistols fire at a rate of 20 shots per second, 1200 shots per minute.
Which is pretty much useless, which is why no military or police unit issues them except for a very few in the hands of Spetznaz/SAS type troops who only occasionally have a use for them.
he effect of this Law will be to increase the price of used Glocks, give Glock a nice bump in sales until 1/1/26 and encourage criminal dipshits to install Glock switches due to the increased cool factor.
It will make the people these dipshits shoot at safer and everyone down range from them less safe because it takes a prodigious amount of practice to use these effectively.
Like most “Sensible Gun Laws” the effect will be to disarm the poors, who shall be allowed to bear arms is and always will be a question of class.
I’m so glad I 3D printed old German 88’s I have scattered around the periphery of the all cats and no cattle ranch.
The last thing drones feel will be a little flat trajectory riding up their six~
I hope you can 3D print the shells as well. Have you seen the cost of shells now that Krupp has to charge those new tariffs on export goods to America? Or, you could hand load your own 88mm shotgun shells…..
Fun numismatic fact of the day!
Lincoln Cents were made with spent ammunition shell case metal as an alloy in 1944-46…
So, those Lincoln cents were also spent?
Wouldn’t want to spend a 1944 steel Cent…
https://www.pcgs.com/coinfacts/coin/1944-1c-steel/82722
Ah, it makes for great political theater. Another great example of “fighting for you” as a distraction before the Democrats roll over for the oligarchs and the Republicans on some other issue, whatever it may be.
I think it’s 7/1 not 1/1. Since most transfers have to go through an FFL, it makes used Glocks kind of worthless in Cali. While “Glock switches” may be available in some sense, possession means “making” a machine gun without a license and earn you a visit to club fed. And civilians can’t get machine guns made after 1986, so even if the “making tax” is paid, you need an appropriate FFL to possess it.
On a practicality side, firing a handgun in full auto makes no sense so you need to mount it in some sort of carrier to control muzzle rise/recoil/etc.
Practicality of firing a handgun in full auto has been figured out with Mauser Schnellfeuer, but way too few have been paying attention (and watching James Bond movies instead).
Clip the wooden holster to the Mauser as a buttstock and you have a pistol calibre carbine.
A friend of mine in the old days had one of these.
See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mauser_C96#/media/File:Mauser_C96_M1916_Red_9_7.JPG
Stay safe.
re: Eurofighter and successor
I think Andrei Martyanov – admittedly not an air force but navy specialist – repeated this year that Eurofighter is better than F-35 especially if adding post-purchase costs.
The battle over the new gen EU fighter FCAS meanwhile is going on. It by now is a farce.
Antiwar NGO IMI in German Tübingen has been reporting regularly.
Calls for the discontinuation of the Franco-German FCAS air combat system are growing louder
use google-translate
https://www.imi-online.de/2025/10/15/fcas-schluesselprojekt/
Quoting outlet “European Security & Technology” which argues in favour of FCAS as otherwise some core expertise may get lost.
https://esut.de/2025/10/fachbeitraege/63983/fcas-unter-druck/
The outlet is part of German defense publisher MITTLER-REPORT which has bundled together all publications under one roof 15 years ago, offering a whole array of military news with various focal points.
profile
https://mittler-report.de/verlagsprofil/
p.s. The US did betray German ambitions before, e.g. with the SDI-Initiative in the 1980s expropriating them of some major patents. One result of this SDI-scheme additionally to the geopolitical shake-up in 1989 were a couple of bankruptcies in the German military sector, most notably MBB, and some mergers.
As to Eurofighter and FCAS, seldom have I seen this level of self-defeatism of EU-elites for reasons that have nothing to do with the very limited genuine rationales behind affording a European military sector. Who is screwing whom for whatever reason could be subject to multiple high stakes mini-series. Putting HOUSE OF CARDS to shame.
re: labour and The Left
2x JACOBIN
1) The Left Needs to Rethink How It Handles Inequality
By Martin Bernstein
Redistributing income alone is unlikely to solve America’s vast inequalities. Workers need and want more power in their workplace and for the state to weaken the influence that corporations have over their lives.
https://jacobin.com/2025/10/redistribution-predistribution-inequality-taxes-incomes
2) It’s Still Possible to Rebuild a Working-Class Majority
By Jared Abbott
Labor organizing can’t succeed at scale without a supportive legal and political environment, created by majoritarian coalitions that can win reforms, confront corporate power, and prove to skeptical workers that progressive governance delivers.
https://jacobin.com/2025/10/working-class-strategy-dealignment-populism
I bet more progress will come from reframing “inequality “ to “unfairness “. It’s reasonable to have some inequality. It’s not reasonable for winner-take-all games to dominate.
Of course, different views exist on what is fair
Tacitus: “ The strong exploit the weak as they will and the weak endure what they must”
If you think that’s ok, you vote republican…
If not, you vote for Bernie
If no opinion, team Blue…
Workers need to collectively control the means of production and distribution.
The Black Panthers Who Never Came Home
By Jaclynn Ashly
Fifty-nine years after Huey Newton and Bobby Seale founded the Black Panthers, Charlotte and Pete O’Neal remain in exile in Tanzania. Their story, told through interviews, archives, and firsthand reporting, reveals the movement’s enduring legacy.
https://jacobin.com/2025/10/black-panthers-oneal-tanzania-legacy
No Kings tomorrow promises to be another see me-dig me dress up protest, look at my cute signage! (not that i’m ever guilty of such things)
This isn’t how revolutions go~
This is often how revolutions are short circuited.
It’s a different kind of co-op.
Zelensky was not met by any Americans at the airport. Instead, he was greeted by Yermak and his own flight crew.
https://x.com/Glenn_Diesen/status/1979172959282430088
That is hilarious.
First container ship arrives in UK via Arctic Route, a faster and cheaper China-Europe alternative YouTube (resilc)
Perhaps leadership in the US will finally buy in on addressing global climate change if they believe it will give them an opportunity to undo any trade advantage China would gain from the arctic becoming navigable and thus not requiring the Suez canal to reach European or West African ports.
NYT: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/17/us/politics/us-military-strike-survivors.html
In Matt Levine’s AI snark, ran across this link to an old (Feb 23) New Yorker piece by Ted Chiang ChatGPT Is a Blurry JPEG of the Web
Still current, nothing really has changed. (other than the size of the $$ bonfire) It’s a good, plain english metaphor for how to think about “AI” (really, it’s a metaphor for LLMs, but these days the two terms appear to be interchangeable)
And they called it puppy loathe
Oh I guess they’ll never know
How a dog named Cricket done me wrong, how it really feels
And why I loathe it so
And they called it puppy loathe
Just because I shot it in a gravel pit
Tell them all
Oh please tell them its only fair
To make me ICE Barbie, yo!
I cry each night
It’s tears for you, Donald
My tears aren’t in vain
I hope I hope and I pray
That maybe someday
I’ll be back (i’ll be back) in consideration (in consideration)
Once again
Someone help me
Help me please
Is the answer, is it up above?
How can I
Oh how can I ever tell them?
This is not a puppy love
(This is not a puppy love)
Someone help me
Help me please
Is the answer up above?
How can I
Oh how can I tell them?
This is not a puppy love
(This is not a puppy love)
Puppy Love, by Paul Anka
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gyshr1hhv3E
A plug for a local guy who has managed to go unheralded for the most part, he somehow seemed to live 6 or 7 adventurous lives in the space of 1, including being one of the few survivors in the English equivalent of Custer’s Last Stand, in the Shangani Patrol, and the role model for Baden-Powell’s idea of what a Boy Scout should be…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederick_Russell_Burnham
Vanessa Beeley on RU welcoming al-Julani:
This is a dark day in Russian history. Few accepted my version of events in Syria during the last catastrophic days before the fall of Damascus. Everything Russia has done since then has proven 1. their collaboration with “Israel” 2. Their legitimisation of Al Qaeda to serve their regional interests and to consolidate their presence in Syria as a strategic military, economic and resource hub in the region. Meanwhile this Takfiri thug is unleashing his monsters on the Syrian ethnic minorities and permitting child abuse and abduction among other heinous crimes. No, this is not the world I want to live in.
Without questioning her major thrust – according to Andrei Martyanov of course al-Julani also came to confirm that former deals on military cooperation with RU would be upheld.
Besides what would RU gain when acting the decent way?
If force is the ultimate normative power that is true for all parties. That´s the downside of doing “realism” in a fucked-up world.
Naturally. Someone surviving this business this long as al-Julani must be especially thuggish but also smart enough to not entertain illusions over his true power. As sick and brutal as he may be.
I don’t think it is correct to say that AI financing is in a bubble. I think bubbles have wider participation. Think of the tulip bubble or the mortgage crisis in 2008. Lots and lots of people participated. In the case of AI you have a smaller number of super rich companies and individuals spending enormous sums on the hope that they will produce a genie that will let them control the world. Most of us are sitting on the sidelines watching the spectacle.
I read recently that Toyota invested ~$7B over the last 7 or 8 years to develop a battery that they will use in electric cars to be sold starting in 2027. This sounds like rational business. There was an achievable target and an addressable market. Normal capitalism.
AI is very odd. Huge sums are being spent to develop something with no clear science to say it will work. Promises are being made to build data centers that maybe can’t be built. We have these several things in serious tension and there is no clear idea how it will turn out. Exciting times.
Bubbles are almost always in regards to perceived scarcity, and I’m not sure how that plays out in AI, not my bailiwick.
But everyone invested in an s&p index fund is participating. If it’s cap weighted, you’re in.
Re: CNBC article on AI and job trends…
Bold of them to assume things can’t get worse!
re: Israel “peace plan”
hot stuff?!
Mouin Rabbani and Craig Mokhiber on USEFUL IDIOTS
Trump’s Fake Peace Plan EXPOSED By Ex-UN Lawyer & Palestinian Analyst
Watch a free preview of our episode and subscribe for the full chat with Craig Mokhiber and Mouin Rabbani
paywalled version
see TC: 26:00-46:00
https://www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/p/trumps-fake-peace-plan-exposed-by
Prince Andrew’s fall from grace complete as monarchy cuts him loose (Guardian)
No. It’ll be complete if the profligate, money-grubbing inbred is in a jail cell. Losing your pretend titles is not justice, it’s a way for The Firm to cover their asses before Giuffre’s memoir is released.
It disgusts me that the UK press always frame this as a “problem for the Royal Family” story, not a “man who regularly took favours from and had sex with teenage victims of Epstein story”.
IDGAF how this effects the inbred benefit-scrounger family. I would like (but do not expect) justice for the victims.
guillotine.jpg
Virginia Giuffre’s autobiography has just come out and in it she says that Andy felt ‘entitled’ to have sex with her-
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-15195673/Virginia-Guiffre-calls-Prince-Andrew-entitled-claims-duke-saw-having-sex-birthright-autobiography-released-death.html
As was said in the novel “Shogun”- ‘the pen’s a long arm from the grave.’
Yeah, The Guardian has been publishing excerpts
So, the stripping of titles is a PR move, as they know more stuff is coming. At every step of the way the British Royals, and The Establishment have protected Andrew. Only the continued exposure of his lies (and the Chinese spy stuff) pushed them to act.
And I, as a British citizen, am meant to bow to these people.
Disgusting.
The Aristocrats (very NSFW)
True story: I was once sent home from school for the day as a minor royal was visiting and I had told my teacher I wouldn’t bow. Looking back, I am proud of 14-year old me.
The guy is just a ‘rock spider’ and he has never stopped.
Satirist Marina Hyde puts it well (Guardian)
I was struck again by the fate of each of those people involved in that infamous photograph taken at Ghislaine Maxwell’s London house.
The teenage girl at the centre of the picture is dead, having taken her own life at a remote Australian farmhouse earlier this year, unable to outrun her trauma. The person who took the photograph is dead, having somehow killed himself in a New York jail while awaiting trial on charges of sex trafficking. The grinning woman in the background is in prison herself, exalting Donald Trump’s impeccable purity in the hope of getting moved to a nicer jail or even pardoned. And the smiling lunk with his arm round the teenage girl – who he denies he had sex with later that evening – is living in a 30-room mansion on a 98-acre estate (which even his monarch brother reportedly doesn’t know how he pays for), joshing away at family funerals, and just sort of … riding it out, each time another of his lies about this story is exposed. That, truly, is the royalty bonus. Don’t call it a doghouse! It’s a dogpalace.
Amazingly, even as I was typing that paragraph, a story dropped revealing that Andrew met the extremely senior Chinese Communist party official at the centre of the collapsed Beijing spy case at least three times. Remember, the duke is already under fire for unwittingly hiring an alleged spy as his representative in China. Is there anywhere he doesn’t get? He’s like the Forrest Gump of appalling decisions.
We are now, yet again, at the stage where “royal watchers” must speculate on what could be done about the endless slow-motion gilded-coach-crash that is the Duke of York – the possible sanctions that the royals supposedly still have recourse to. Wait, Andrew might get stripped of the chance to attend the annual Order of the Garter lunch? OH NO NOT A DELUNCHING?! Wait, he might not be allowed to be a counsellor of state, one of the members of the royal family over the age of 21 who would deputise in the event of the king’s incapacity, a lineup which currently comprises Camilla, Princess Anne, William, Harry, Andrew, Prince Edward and Princess Beatrice? (Can I just say – incredible sitcom, would absolutely watch.) But again: OH NO NOT A DECOUNSELLORING?!
Edit: meant as reply to my own comment directly above.