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‘Indolent and not photogenic’: can I make my reluctant cat a social media star in seven days? The Guardian
Are we living in a stupidogenic society? No More Marking (resilc)
Climate/Environment
The effects of plastic exposures on children’s health and urgent opportunities for prevention The Lancet
More than 100,000 hospitalized in Japan this summer due to heatstroke Anadolu Agency
Heat Stress Is a Major Driver of India’s Kidney Disease Epidemic Yale Environment 360
Antarctic sea ice winter peak in 2025 is third smallest on record Carbon Brief
China?
Can easing of property curbs in 3 big cities help give Chinese consumption a boost? South China Morning Post
Sanctioned Chinese company builds revolutionary natural gas turbine. Who will buy it? Everyone. Kevin Walmsley
Syraqistan
Israel Illegally Boards Humanitarian Flotilla Heading to Gaza Drop Site
Protests erupt across Europe after Israeli attack on Gaza-bound aid flotilla Anadolu Agency
PROTESTS ACROSS ITALY – thousands march in Rome to Chigi Palace. Naples train station occupied, with demonstrations in Bologna and Milan. General strike Friday Il Fatto Quotidiano (Machine translation)
Dockworkers around the world will be listening and watching. Now that the Italian unions have moved for a general strike across all sectors, except essential services it should be a clarion call to every union around Europe.
If not, find another union and stop paying dues. https://t.co/HRb2pA3stH— Eoin Ó Conchobhair 🇵🇸 (@DrEoin) October 1, 2025
Germany approves arms exports to Israel again Anadolu Agency
My latest film, Germany’s Israel Obsession Antony Loewenstein
***
Key Middle Eastern leaders shocked by Israeli rewrite of Gaza plan but still back it Middle East Eye
Trump Signs Order Giving Security Guarantee To Qatar After Israeli Attack Antiwar
US troop drawdown in Syria on hold over regime stability concerns Al-Monitor
US reduces total number of troops in Iraq amid shift in bases Task & Purpose. “…from 2,500 to under 2,000, while leaving Al-Asad Air Base in Western Iraq.”
Please do not make any accusation, produce any conspiracy theory, unless Netanyahu issues a denial. https://t.co/pEo9aWlCKL
— Nassim Nicholas Taleb (@nntaleb) October 1, 2025
Old Blighty
UK once again demands backdoor to Apple’s encrypted cloud storage Ars Technica
European Disunion
Starting From Zero. Aurelien
EU presses ahead with December signing of divisive Mercosur deal Intellinews
France: Dropping Out of Democracy The Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders
New Not-So-Cold War
French navy boards Russia ‘shadow fleet’ ship, arrests two France24
They are clinically insane. https://t.co/bh6o8orL7r
— Thomas Fazi (@battleforeurope) October 1, 2025
Lacking Air Defense, Europe Races to Catch Up in Drone War Bloomberg. “One person familiar with the matter described the idea as a PR label…”
Also imagine placing such an enormous order for systems that have already been rendered largely ineffective in Ukraine, to be delivered a decade hence when they’ll be totally ineffectual.
— Armchair Warlord (@ArmchairW) October 2, 2025
Nordic-Baltic training center for Ukrainian soldiers opens in Poland ERR. Right next to a drone-launching strip, too.
US ‘to provide Ukraine with intelligence for long-range strikes in Russia’ The Telegraph
Russia Still Top Supplier of US Nuclear Fuel Despite Import Ban Bloomberg
Even though there are over three years of documented Ukrainian strikes against the Zaporozhye NPP, including a botched special forces raid, Zelensky is accusing Russia of shelling a Russian nuclear power plant on Russian territory run by Rosatom. pic.twitter.com/iIY20RaGa4
— Russians With Attitude (@RWApodcast) September 30, 2025
Zaluzhny’s New Op-ed Brings Frontline and Tech Progression Update, Plus Some Grave Admissions Simplicius
How Ukraine’s Geopolitical Power is Rising Notes from the Circus
Summer 2025 Azov Lobby Review Azov Lobby Blog
It’s funny how all the warmongering narrative factory workers think they have managed to co-opt and gentrify the neo-nazis to serve their dubious geopolitical causes. But it’s the neo-nazis who have co-opted and de-civilized these vain idiots who are destroying all the post-WWII…
— Leonid Ragozin (@leonidragozin) October 1, 2025
South of the Border
TRUMP ADMINISTRATION CONJURES UP NEW “TERRORIST” DESIGNATION TO JUSTIFY KILLING CIVILIANS Nick Turse, The Intercept
Milei Authorizes US Troop Deployment in Tierra del Fuego Without Congressional Approval Orinoco Tribune
Trump 2.0
Trump administration knocks out at least 15 oversight websites, saying IGs ‘lied to the public’ Defense One. Shutdown quickly paying dividends.
Donald Trump’s Dangerous Tilt Towards War at Home and Abroad Larry Johnson
FBI cuts ties with Anti-Defamation League amid conservative backlash Al Jazeera
Trump signals bailout for soybean farmers hit by tariff war The Hill
The Big Beautiful Bill has a SNAP Poison Pill Can We Still Govern?
The Uniparty
Ex-USAID chief praises Trump for India tariffs in call with Russian pranksters RT
Weimar Republic
Is This a Horst Wessel Moment? ZZ’s Blog
Police State Watch
Trump’s ICE Has Started Targeting Activists, Not Just Immigrants Truthout
DHS Plans More State-Run Extrajudicial Black Sites Like “Alligator Alcatraz” Truthout
Iowans protest following kidnapping of Des Moines superintendent by immigration Gestapo MR Online
ICE officers to attend Super Bowl after Bad Bunny announcement, says Lewandowski The Hill
Imperial Collapse Watch
Words Matter Mark Wauck
Industry Reps: US Can’t Go for One-for-One Kills in Drone Warfare with China Air and Space Forces Magazine
The Pentagon Should Scale Back F-35 Purchases—and Buy Drones Instead The National Interest
US Army Awards Raytheon $5 Billion Deal for Coyote Missile System Defense Post
Boeing
Healthcare?
Lawsuit: CVS Health Looted Rite Aid Pharmacies, Stripped Them for Parts HEALTH CARE un-covered
Antitrust
Wall Street Gets to Keep Its Government Open BIG by Matt Stoller
Immigration
Trading on Tom Homan: Inside the Push to Cash in on the Trump Administration’s Deportation Campaign ProPublica
ICE, Border Patrol Continue Work Under Shutdown Ken Klippenstein
Big Brother Is Watching You Watch
AI
Evaluating the Impact of AI on the Labor Market: Current State of Affairs The Budget Lab at Yale. One of the takeaways: “Currently, measures of exposure, automation, and augmentation show no sign of being related to changes in employment or unemployment.”
“AI is an attack from above on wages”: An interview with cognitive scientist Hagen Blix Blood in the Machine
OpenAI’s new social video app will let you deepfake your friends The Verge
AI-Generated Biography on Amazon Tries to Capitalize on the Death of a Beloved Writer Kaleb Horton 404 Media
Gunz
Texas man accidentally shoots cable, brings internet down The Register
Our Famously Free Press
FCC Considers Lifting Ban on ABC, CBS, FOX, & NBC Network Mergers and Relaxing Media Ownership Rules Cord Cutters
TikTok investor: ‘Embed the love and respect for Israel’ in the US Responsible Statecraft
“Liberation Day”
Trump’s pharma tariffs on hold amid administration’s effort to secure pricing concessions, industry investment: Stat Fierce Pharma
How TrumpRx will work — and why insured Americans may not save any money The Independent
Trump’s big, costly, coercive trade deals falling apart in Asia Asia Times
Economy
Private-Sector Jobs Report Hit With Seriously Brutal Revision The New Republic
The Bezzle
At The Money: The Flood of New ETFs Barry Ritholtz
Class Warfare
Ninth Circuit Brings Trader Joe’s Bullshit Trademark Suit Against Employee Union Back From The Dead TechDirt
Breaking: Labor Notes has put together a new resource to help you organize w/ rank-and-file members in your local to build toward a nationwide show of power & a season of escalating labor action that could harness the momentum from May 2028 to spin a whirlwind of class struggle. pic.twitter.com/sV19RArz2k
— Luis Feliz Leon (@Lfelizleon) October 1, 2025
‘An extraordinary legacy’: Tributes after chimpanzee expert Jane Goodall dies age 91 BBC. In the spirit of avoiding hagiography it should be noted that for all the love Goodall showed primates, the same was not extended to many humans. She was complicit in Israeli apartheid and spoke at the World Economic Forum in favor of reducing the world population by about 90%.
Antidote du jour (via):
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.
re: Germany v. free media
JUNGE WELT daily
machine-translation
Dirty bombs
The EU apparatus fights critical media with all means – even with right-wing fake news factories
By Susann Witt-Stahl
https://archive.is/hB1aM
There are many different kinds of small cats!
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=8QI5tZ14W64&t=4s&pp=ygUKU21hbGwgY2F0cw%3D%3D
This one is the Fluffy-Pawed Bossy Cat, presumed to be a direct ancestor of the common house cat.
I believe this is a Pallas’ Cat.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pallas%27s_cat
I believe mrsyk is joking. I also believe manul sounds much better. :)
I am reminded of Orwell’s 1984, where the Party’s driving mission was to make Winston love Big Brother.
> Antarctic sea ice winter peak in 2025 is third smallest on record Carbon Brief
Climate Reanalyzer still hasn’t started connecting dots on the recent Sea Surface Temperatures. It makes more sense if you go through the subset regions. Everywhere is running hotter, except Sub-Polar, and ENSO 3.4, which are below the normal bar, not just recent-normal. Could be La Niña kicking in. Just squirrely.
Didn’t you hear that climate change is a hoax?
Goooooooood Mooooorning Fiatnam!
It’s 0420 hours somewhere. From the delta factor of reserve banking, to the DMZ (Donald Monetary Zone) of crypto, back to Bitcoin all in one byte. Today’s forecast calls for a hundred percent chance of clout crowding the market in the cloud, not that any of it exists except in fertile mind fields we’ve carefully laid utilizing furrowed brows pecking away furiously.
Here’s a song coming your way right now for those of you back in the Banana-Split Republic. “Nowhere To Run To” by Martha and the Vandellas. Yes! Hey, you know what I mean! Too much?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RQRIOKvR2WM
>>>>The effects of plastic exposures on children’s health and urgent opportunities..
N = 1 house: With the presumption that any impact is greatest (hence lowest hanging fruit) during ages 0 – 3, the kids had all their Costco/private-label powdered formula made with distilled water. Then they had cow milk and distilled water when they went off the bottle for fluids; and tap water when there was no alternative.
No regrets and very happy with the results, though I can prove squat. Electric stills are (relatively) cheap and easy, but slow. other alternative is to go full reverse osmosis but more expensive upfront, and tougher to kèep track of filter expiry.
Making your own distilled water is a simple affair with an inverted pot lid over a bowl within the pot to catch the dippings from the generated steam. Ice on the inverted pot lid speeds up the process.
Did the distilled water come in plastic bottles?
Anyway you can remove microplastics by filtering, distillation not needed. You can’t filter out dissolved minerals though. RO can do that.
Regarding Argentina, I’m wondering if a permanent US military presence is part of the $20B bailout deal.
Where there is smoke, there is fire.
I should add, that is not the analysis piece I read the other day but now couldn’t find. Everyday, so much fresh hell.
Heh, it’s busy. I’m fond of saying “I’d rather watch this on tv”.
Iowans protest following kidnapping of Des Moines superintendent by immigration Gestapo
This took a turn. The Guyanese school superintendent seems to have faked his PhD, according to a AP report in the Cedar Rapids Gazette:
D.M. superintendent falsely claimed doctorate on resume
https://cedarrapidsgazette-ia.newsmemory.com/?publink=1677e9ae5_134fb9e
“Progressives” (or whatever they want to call themselves) pick the worst rhetorical hills to proverbially die on, while ignoring things like taxation of capital gains, etc.
Is this the same guy with all the illegal firearms in his car who ran from the police? I am beginning to think the Democrats are working with Trump – picking the worst people to back in order to discredit protests.
Many right wing sites have followed this one closely. The undocumented/falsely documented superintendent was hired by Michelle Obama’s former chief of staff. He has been registered to vote in Maryland for something like a decade.
This case is not like any of the others.
Somehow whenever I think things can’t possibly get any worse, they promptly do so. We live in ghoulish times.
I have been well-served by this guiding light of wisdom: Everything can always be worse.
Combined with the powerful insight of Murphy’s Law and it’s lesser known corollary, The Perversity of the Universe Tends to a Maximum, one can be better prepared for navigating polycrises.
America is a failed state, but also, finally you can filter spam calls on iPhone. I don’t even want iOS 26 and I’m gonna install it just for this.
We Finally Have Free Anti-Robocall Tools That Work (NY Times via archive.ph)
I literally get 5-10 spam calls daily on my mobile; I use my Google Voice number, so with my phone on silent I never see these. But it’s ridiculous. I do see the spam texts, because for reasons unknown, some banks refuse to recognize GV as a legitimate number for SMS MFA, so I’m stuck giving out my never-used mobile number instead. Uggh. This has been getting worse in terms of more FI freaking out about this, most notably credit unions. Whatever backend provider they all use, that company hates GV numbers.
Also, but probably not because of spam calls and broken telephony.
Most Voters Think America’s Divisions Cannot Be Overcome, Poll Says
Oops.
I got rid of my phone to stop junk calls a few years back.
Not being chained to a phone is as close to real freedom as I have ever experienced.
Now they couldn’t pay me to have a phone.
This tool seems like a sledgehammer to kill a fly-I happen to get plenty of calls from numbers that aren’t in my contacts and some of them are urgent and moreover in multiple languages so having a robotic voice answering calls in English (because “AI” can’t determine which language to use) is just a non starter.
Yes, I agree, and the story mentions that as well. Fixing our broken telephony system would be a better option. I don’t believe for a moment that users can’t be authenticated in some way to cut down on spam. Unlike email where any random can send an email, it should not be possible for any random to just spam the telephony network. Emergency calls alone are one such reason; maybe during a Pandemic you have a family member that’s hospitalized, ect.
My guess is providers make tons of money letting users get abused, and money on providing helpful solutions to reduce such abuse.
Ever gotten a call from your own phone #?
Kind of an odd experience, but easy to peg as spam
I got a lot of spam calls, complained to my MVNO. They offered me a new phone number, and surprisingly that worked.
i got rather frustrate with those calls…and i never have my glasses on when i answer,lol.
so i started asking the “women”(or ai or whatever) (and its always ‘women”, for some reason)what they were wearing.
“be descriptive”
“oh, and do you happen to speak french? that would be great…”
havent had a spam call in months.
only thing thats ever worked.
‘”Are you saved ?” has worked for me, in the past.
Larry Johnson makes a solid case that the video of Tyler Robinson on the rooftop at the Utah college was tampered with:
(Fast forward to 14:00)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E_SauRjrK0g
Also discusses the weapon claimed to be used by the suspect … the FBI’s story doesn’t add up.
The prosecution will certainly have to produce evidence of the actual murder weapon at trial. Note that the FBI and the Feds aren’t running the show here; it is a state prosecutor, and so far we have zero information on what they will claim the murder weapon used by Robinson really was in terms of model, caliber, etc.
I follow Johnson’s blog and his appearances on other alternative media and do very much appreciate what he has to say. I think of him as one of the top 10 credible people in media today. I totally agree with what he says about the weapon. Nonetheless, his rather off-the-cuff analysis of this particular video irritates me.
In the video, the figure identified as Robinson moves from left to right. At first, he is advancing across a midtone or mid-value surface. and on that background, his shadow is visible and precedes him. Then he steps off onto a much brighter surface, and at that moment, his shadow disappears. That does NOT mean, as Johnson seems to conclude, that the video has been altered at this point. The shadow may still physically be there, but the camera sensor may not be able to pick up the difference in brightness between the direct surface and the shadow on the much brighter surface because the ratio between the difference between the brightness of the shadowed and the open surface, and the total brightness of the open surface is now so much smaller than it was on the midtone surface. That amounts to saying the surface might be overexposed in the camera sensor. BUT, it also might be the case that the sensor did capture the difference, but it just is not visible to us humans who don’t see the differences in subtle tones of bright white.
So the disappearance of the shadow is something to be investigated, not just taken as it appears. I’d bet that if you walked someone across that roof in the same light as the Robinson figure, and watched in person, the shadow would seem to “disappear” on the brighter surface, just because of the way human eyes work.
And since I’m being persnickety, the Robinson figure’s shadow does reappear on a more vertical and darker surface that edges the roof, just before the figure jumps down from the roof. Nothing about that reappearance of the shadow seems faked to me.
The second element that Johnson alludes to in arguing that the video has been altered is the alleged “disappearance” of a figure walking in the background. Once again Johnson is too casual in his analysis. There are actually two figures walking in the background, one walks to the left of the video frame, the other to the right. Toward the left edge of the frame, the figure walking left disappears in what looks to me like an area of trees and brush. In other words, that left-walking figure does not “just” disappear, he may be hidden by hard to discern objects. As the left walking figure disappears, the right walking figure continues to walk right, with no jerks or unnatural changes in color or tone. So this evidence also fails to convince me.
For me, the significant thing about the video is that there is no way the weapon the FBI claims was used could have been fitted into the pack seen there, without a complex and time-consuming disassembly.
The FBI is incompetent enough without us imputing errors to it that we ourselves have insufficiently considered. Johnson was too casual in his analysis of this.
In Larry Johnson’s most recent post in links above, he states:
“…the French Army Chief of Staff announced that French troops must be ready for the start of intense warfare as early as tonight. This may be in response to a report from Borzzikman today that the Russians struck a maritime target in Odessa and killed 20 French engineers.”
Here is the link to the Borzzikman YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=UUDnibnh5sM8eVAwSlUnf6Xw
On Jane Goodall passing – a wag posted on one of the socials that she has a son. Thing is, his DNA is 98.8% chimpanzee. True story.
Jane Goodall’s legend needs no hagiography. On global population (in the video embedded in the wide awake media tweet) she is not advocating for a 90% reduction in population, she is merely stating that the world would be a better place if there were way less humans. I agree. Saying “She was complicit in Israeli apartheid” because she established a local conservation effort based out of The Max Stern Yezreel Valley College overlooks the political realities of global conservation.
Rest easy Ms Goodall. I was and remain a great admirer. You will always be one of my wife’s greatest hero’s.
Here is an interview from when she was age 75, published in Wanderlust Magazine.
The Far Side – Jane Goodall: https://i.pinimg.com/originals/b6/b8/b9/b6b8b9121055f1e4ce28f056e9386161.jpg
She thought it was pretty funny.
We’ve got the Far Side collection with that in it floating around somewhere in our library – she wrote the introduction.
I haven’t made it all the way through this video because I can only take it in small doses, but this is what hippie-hating Rod Dreyer is doing over in Hungary. He hosts Curtis Yarvin in a lie-fest with whoppers like this one from Yarvin:
So it was the Left that bombed those little girls in Sunday school in Mississippi, killed the Mississippi Freedom Summer workers, shot MLK? Anders Breivik was a Left-winger? Timothy McVeigh?
Rod probably wants them to pick up Grace Slick.
They’re a bunch of maroons, but dangerous maroons.
Definitely never COVID though
Two Planes Collide on LaGuardia Airport Taxiway (NY Times via archive.ph)
to respectfully disagree, we are living in the Golden Age of air travel. (including the bad headlines)
The median first-worlder can fly further, safer, and at a cheaper after-inflation cost now than 50 or 25 years ago.
I’m not on the 100% Pangloss train but this Louis CK, 10+ year old rant is more right than wrong when we look at air travel…. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kBLkX2VaQs4
Well people who do gripe about the seat not reclining more than a few inches do have a point, though. ;}
Good funny stuff.
What if instead of measuring how safe air traffic is compared traveling by car one measured by miles traveled, one measured it by how many times one gets in a car and safely exits it compared to how many times one gets in an airplane and safely gets out of it?
What if we just look at the last 5 or 10 yrs instead of the last 50?
“ The data in ICAO’s 2025 Edition Safety Report – State of Global Aviation Safety shows 95 accidents involving scheduled commercial flights last year, compared to 66 accidents in 2023. Ten of those accidents were fatal, with the total number of fatalities reaching 296, up from 72 the previous year. The global accident rate also rose, to 2.56 accidents per million departures, compared to 1.87 in 2023.” Via: https://www.icao.int/news/latest-icao-aviation-safety-data-reveals-need-renewed-focus-despite-continuous-long-term
Also, the Louis CK bit is very funny
Ha! he Texas man shooting the cable reminds me of Jed Clampett.
Netanyahu is probably the only person in the world who can use Trump as a telephone stand.
https://news.antiwar.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/trump-netanyahu.jpeg
From At The Money: The Flood of New ETFs
So these ETFs are hot for speculation:
Because what we really need are 2x and 3x leveraged ETFs for individual mega cap stocks, yes? And what
happens with these products is, if you’re long a 2x or 3x product, and the stock bounces around, you get chop.
Why 3x ETFs Are Riskier Than You Might Think
Back when I was on the Twitter, people on FinTwit were posting about getting hosed on SOXL:
And people are selling puts against SOXL; The premiums are high because there’s so much volatility. But does that compensate you for your risk?
Anyway, the short version is there’s no reason for retail to be buying or have access to these products. There’s no reason for these products to exist at all, in fact. 2x and 3x leverage products are just vehicles for speculation. Big operators can already derive this kind of stuff anyway in-house.
America is a big Ponzi.
I saw the snowballing start back in the 90s with the introduction of 401Ks so that companies wouldn’t be so burdened by pensions.
In an ideal world that flow of money would have been used by investment banks to fund a plethora of new businesses. But they found out with the dot.com bubble that creating new businesses is hard.
So then the funds started going into real estate and the IBs were desperate for product. I reviewed one pool of mortgages that stunk to high heaven out of a closed bank owned by some guy whose name sounds like britzker or fitzker or something like that. Our bank pushed back so hard the FDIC redid their T&Cs for future pool sales.
We all know how that ended up, so now everyone just invests in paper. So much easier…
File under OpenAI:
Edward Snowden Says OpenAI Just Performed a “Calculated Betrayal of the Rights of Every Person on Earth”
“They’ve gone full mask off: do not ever trust OpenAI or its products.”
https://futurism.com/the-byte/snowden-openai-calculated-betrayal
File under AI:
Edward Snowden speaking at the SuperAI 2025 conference. utube.
Edward Snowden – Freedom in the Age of Intelligent Machines – SuperAI Singapore 2025
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=91VRjkwoCCA
What
Warrant-less federal agents ransack a Chicago apartment building, abduct dozens
https://www.wbez.org/immigration/2025/10/01/massive-immigration-raid-on-chicago-apartment-building-leaves-residents-reeling-i-feel-defeated
RE: Are we living in a stupidogenic society?
Well yes, and it seems rather obvious at this point. If you want to blow a young person’s mind, go through a drive-through and hand the attendant a cash payment. I’m amazed recently at how long it takes so many younger people to figure out something as simple as proper change.
The author tries to paint a somewhat rosy picture but I’m not buying it. I don’t agree that we have nicer lives now than a few decades ago, unless of course your goal was abject laziness. And I don’t agree with this –
“I’d rather live in a stupidogenic society than one with no technology.”
– at all. It reminds me of what a moronic colleague of my recently deceased math teacher friend once tried to tell her, that bad data was better than no data at all. No, it’s not.
In honor of my friend who loved math and loved learning, always encouraged everybody to think for themselves, and died way too soon, I’ll end with some lovely music from Warren Zevon –
Don’t let us get sick
don’t let us get old
don’t let us get stupid alright
Just make us be brave
and make us play nice
and let us be together tonight.
Ivan Illich used to remark that it’s really strange how we’ve come to confuse knowledge with education, as if the mere act of sitting in a classroom made one skilled or knowledgeable about something (the corollary being that non-education forms of knowledge were demeaned as not being real; after all, do you get a degree for working a market stall? And if you don’t get a degree, did you really learn?) Ironically, knowledge has probably never been so accessible, but I suppose so are the means to avoid having to think. I for one often catch myself having a very difficult time thinking, and I wonder if my elders who have not been as thoroughly brain-rotted suffer as much. I’ve been considering ways in which I can force myself to not use (laziness-inducing) technology so as to practice useful skills, but at times it’s a tall order.
The stuff that gets to me is hearing people say how difficult it is to answer a phone vs. sending a text (it takes longer to text than to talk, and you lose something with written word over spoken), or how much easier it is now with mobile phones (is it really a game changer to press one button to call instead of seven or ten? Does the 3 seconds or so saved make that much of a difference?) – stuff like that where people pretend that using the slightly older but already pretty amazing technology was akin to working in a coal mine.
As to the thinking, it’s not just you. All of our brains have been rewired with exposure to the internet. I used to be able to sit down and read a book for hours at a time, or I’d spend a couple hours reading the dead tree newspaper (and do the crossword for some brain exercise!). I find that a lot more difficult to do now after being habituated to reading internet articles for a few minutes at a time. Earlier there was a physical limit to what could be read at any given time – just what was in your immediate vicinity. Now you literally have almost limitless amounts of info available on the internet and it’s impossible to read everything that catches your attention, so skimming becomes more prominent and deep reading suffers. At least it has for me.
One of the things that concerns me most about all this stuff is that offloading to the internet or other technologies could risk giving us all the impression that we know things when we don’t. Then when it comes time to actually think or make decisions, we might make our choices based on the assumption that we know certain things or have adequate information when none of it is actually in our working memories. Someone might protest that it’s no different than having access to books at a library, but I think the immediacy of the internet makes it a rather different kind of medium with extremely distinct cognitive effects.
I’ve no idea if this is actually a common problem, but it is something that I’ve wondered about, especially given the general climate of craziness and stupidity we’re living in these days.
Lost a comment made earlier today to the ethers. I have always been skeptical of the Flynn effect. If IQ is progressively improving over time, that means that at some point in the past we were morons. IQ is a biased test and I think the Flynn effect, if correct, is measuring some adaptation to the test rather than actual increased intelligence. That said, cognitive offloading is a real thing and I also disagree with author. Give me smart folks able to use their brains over a high tech society any day. Our brain is a muscle, it needs to be made to work. We cannot use technology reliably if we don’t understand the basics behind the tech ourselves. Maybe we don’t need to know how to code in order to use a search engine but we dam sure need to know math to use a calculator. I have seen the results of lowered math skills and not just in youngsters who can’t make change. I once had to ask a young nurse to consult the doctor after watching her struggle to figure out how to increase the dosage on my Dad’s IV drip. The gods help us as reading skills go the same way as math skills.
Groves of Academe
https://chapelboro.com/news/unc/unc-investigates-professor-over-ties-to-anti-racist-group-rally-held-in-his-support-criticizes-suspension
“The University of North Carolina has informed Dr. Dwayne Dixon, professor of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, that he has been placed on administrative leave, effectively immediately, following recent reports and expressions of concern regarding alleged advocacy of politically motivated violence (bold mine). Placing Dr. Dixon on leave will allow the University to investigate these allegations in a manner that protects the integrity of its assessment.
“Depending upon the nature and circumstances of this activity, this conduct could be grounds for disciplinary action up to and including potential termination of employment according to the standards set forth in the Trustee Policies and Regulations Governing Academic Tenure in the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and pursuant to UNC practice.
“At this time the total length of the administrative leave has not been determined, as it will depend on the time needed to thoroughly assess the allegations and investigate if needed.
“The University continues to reaffirm its commitment to rigorous debate, respectful engagement, and open dialogue in support of free speech. There is no place for or tolerance of inciting or extending sympathy toward violence of any kind within the UNC community.”
ICE officers to attend Super Bowl after Bad Bunny announcement, says Lewandowski The Hill
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I too was taken aback by the rabid response team responding to somebody i’d never heard of, livin’ la vida siloed.
Imagine masked officers ala the Lone Ranger scooping up Bad Bunny on the stage, while the fans thought it was all part of the performance and roared their approval, in a game that was entirely 1-sided, with the Bills holding a 41-2 lead @ the half over the hapless Packers.
All very plausible until you get to that part about the Bills
>Israeli capture of the US dot gov dot actual (Charlie Who edition)
First was the realm of US peeps protesting Israeli genocide on humanitarian grounds (mainly on college campuses, but on a thousand points online). Crushed above ground, ignored by the M$M. Not much recognized by the right.
Then there was MAGA peeps taking notice of the Israel Firsters (Charlie Who et al). Can’t have that.
But that is a road to put road signs to. The left can find common ground. Am I cynical?
One can never be too cynical.
Certainly not when MTG is the lone one standing (¿well?) naming the genocide. To my previous point.
Who you gonna call?
Zeitgeist Busters!
It feels like an example of the “Boiling Frog Method.” Now, just don’t tell me that this is ‘Trickle Down’ wetting my shoes.
It all comes down to money in politics. AIPAC wouldn’t have a pot to trickle down in without political bribery being legalized.
Stay safe.
I laugh and I cry. Or in reverse.
Though any laughter might be bitter, with maybe a touch, or thought of some sweet.
Here in Portland, I’ve been hearing the Blackhawks every night since the Oregon National Guard deployed to the ICE center in the city. They’re doing loops upriver.
Way back in 2020, we found out that the Portland Police Bureau had a light aircraft circling the city doing who-knows-what because it was on civilian aircraft trackers. As it should be.
That’s not the case this time. These helicopters aren’t visible to us civilians. That seems wrong. I’m sure there’s precedent for military craft not operating a publicly available transponder in civilian areas – but the national guard? In an American city? Is this standard operations, or is this one of those turning points – secret miltary operations against the public, physically out in full view to anyone with eyes and ears?
re: RU geopolitics
RUSSIA IN GLOBAL AFFAIRS magazine
new issue online
https://eng.globalaffairs.ru/issues/2025/4/
Content:
EAST AND WEST, NORTH AND SOUTH
Europe: A Bitter Parting
Sergei A. Karaganov
The Temptation of Civilizationism: Is It Possible to Resist the West without Bias and Reductive Thinking?
Dmitry A. Davydov
Russia’s Narrative of Sovereignty: What Makes It So Enticing for the Global South?
Jens Stilhoff Sörensen
Deconstruction of the South, Or Goodbye, Compass!
Kirill O. Telin
NEW TIMES, NEW CHALLENGE
A Eurasian Charter of Diversity and Multipolarity in the XXI Century
Maxim V. Ryzhenkov
Si Vis Pacem: How to Pay for Global Security
Vlad Ivanenko
Will It Get Worse? Expert Perception of Global Transformation
Ivan A. Safranchuk, Alexander D. Nesmashnyi, Evgenia S. Komarova
The Baltics Is Not the Balkans, But Apprehension Is Growing
Konstantin K. Khudoley
GREAT AND SMALL, GLOBAL AND REGIONAL
Russia and China in the Great Strategic Triangle
Mikhail S. Luchina
The Tragedy of Regional Powers in the Middle East
Lisa Issac
BRICS as a Brand and Its African Dimension
Mayya V. Nikolskaya, Alina A. Matveeva
PAST POLITICS, PRESENT HISTORY
More than the Great Game: The Origins of Anglo-Russian Imperial Rivalry in Eurasia
Vladimir V. Degoev
Ukraine: History Politics in Regional Identity-Building
Alexei I. Miller
Did Confucius Dream about the Balance of Power?
Alexander V. Solovyov
Massive Drone No-Fly Zone Imposed Over Greater Chicago Area
The FAA is restricting drone flights at the behest of the Department of Homeland Security during a major ICE operation across Chicago.
With a large-scale ICE operation now underway in the Chicago area, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has enacted a uniquely massive 15-mile radius prohibition against drone flights. The FAA told us the temporary flight restriction (TFR) for drones in this area was requested by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). The no-fly zone lasts through Oct. 12.
https://www.twz.com/air/massive-drone-no-fly-zone-imposed-over-greater-chicago-area
re: US nuclear doctrine
via Pavel Podvig´s TWITTER
US Air Force Doctrine, Nuclear Operations Aug. 2025
https://www.doctrine.af.mil/Doctrine-Publications/Doctrine-Primer/
Homepage
https://www.doctrine.af.mil/
comment on this issue
Catching Up on Nuclear Operations
Because everyone loves talking about nuclear warfare
by Al Mauroni
Sep 22, 2025
https://almauroni.substack.com/p/catching-up-on-nuclear-operations
State of the meme:
ICE is running internet recruitment ads, with a $50k sign up bonus. FUBAR
The soon to be stateless Azovs will fit the bill perfectly. They will even have had the proper training.
Touché
Hello COVID immune damage
Norovirus Outbreak Sickens Nearly 100 on Royal Caribbean Cruise (NY Times via archive.ph)
Deep. Cleaning.
That’ll fix it!
Amusingly, CDC doesn’t mention airborne transmission: How Norovirus Spreads
But per this paper, it certainly is possible, if much less common: Aerosol Transmission of Norovirus
But
(bold mine)
By posing and playing with monkeys, Jane Goodall set a very poor and dangerous example for other people, who emulated her behaviour and got injured or even killed. Those monkeys are VERY strong, can turn on you in a flash, and can very easily cripple or kill you.