Acoustic Guitar String Oscillations
The frame rate of the camera allows us to see the wavelength of each note
— Science girl (@sciencegirl) December 26, 2025
Google Rapidly Deploying Huge CO2 Battery Facilities That Store 200 Megawatt Hours of Power Futurism
How reality crushed Ÿnsect, the French startup that had raised over $600M for insect farming TechCrunch
How America went money mad. William Gaddis invented our blank and empty world UnHerd
The John Galt of Comic Books Reason.com
COVID-19/Pandemics
Flu cases surge nationwide as CDC reports nearly 5 million infections this season WTVR CBS 6
COVID Cases Are Rising Again as Flu Surges. Know These Symptoms and How to Protect Yourself Today.com
Climate/Environment
Studies: Extreme weather fueled by climate change is adding to bird declines The Invading Sea
2025 One of Costliest Years for Climate Disasters: Report Earth.org
World’s third-largest solar producer could generate 12 million tons waste by 2047
South of the Border
Prices soar and Venezuela’s economy struggles under Trump’s pressure: ‘People are living day to day’ El Pais
Argentina: Congress passes first budget under Milei DW
Shared waters, rising tensions: Experts call for diplomacy as U.S.-Mexico water dispute intensifies Imperial Valley Press
All hail the Panama Canal, a frontline in the US-China trade war Asia Times
China?
A 30-meter-tall, 70-meter-wide snow sculpture in northeast China’s Jilin has become the backdrop for a spectacular light show recreating scenes from “The Lost Tomb” hit novel series. #ChangbaiMountains #HeavenlyPalaceOnTheClouds #SnowSculpture #IceAndSnow pic.twitter.com/vuxoDPy9kK
— China Xinhua News (@XHNews) December 27, 2025
How China’s Singles Are Quietly Reshaping Consumer Spending BarronsChina’s Ultra-Long Range Sixth Generation Fighter Program Marks Major Milestone With Third Flight Prototype Military Watch Magazine
China industrial profits plunge as weak demand and deflation bite Financial Times
China hits milestone in building Beishan laboratory for managing nuclear waste SCMP
India
Architecture as Infrastructure: How India Builds for a Billion archdaily.com
Venture Capital Momentum in India Defies Global Funding Headwinds in 2025, Report Reveals crowdfundinsider.com
India is building the world’s largest battery storage site—here’s what it means for energy Glass Almanac
Africa
African regional bodies reject Israel’s recognition of Somaliland CBS News
How Africa is asserting itself globally — despite Trump DW
‘All the comforts you find in Paris’: the man helping African ‘repats’ head home rfi.fr
European Disunion
NATO chief Rutte rejects EU defense breakaway from US politico.eu
Europe is at a ‘fork in the road’ between AI competition and climate, fund managers say CNBC
EU rolls out plan to address bottlenecks in healthcare Longevity.Technology
Old Blighty
UK youth to be offered military ‘gap year’ in bid to boost defence: Report Al Jazeera
Foreign doctors deterred from UK by racism, anti-migrant rhetoric, says medical leader Andolu Agency
Israel v. Gaza, Yemen, Lebanon, Syria, Iran
The list of all the children under age 9 that Israel has killed in Gaza. pic.twitter.com/qQX29rCdZJ
— Prof Zenkus (@anthonyzenkus) December 27, 2025
One excavator, 10,000 bodies, a sea of rubble: inside Gaza’s effort to retrieve and bury its dead ScheerpostIsrael needs reckoning and renewal – its leaders must finally accept accountability – opinion The Jerusalem Post
Israel weights military action against Lebanon shafaq.com
Israeli forces raid Syrian town in Quneitra countryside Andolu Agency
New Not-So-Cold War
Russia hammers Ukraine’s capital ahead of Trump-Zelenskyy meeting Al Jazeera
Zelensky plans to meet Trump on Sunday for talks on ending Russian war BBC
The most likely thing to end the Ukraine war? Exhaustion The Times
Big Brother Is Watching You Watch
Privacy fears erupt as new facial recognition rules take effect at US airports TODAY Daily Mail
Privacy For Sale: Some Consumers Would Switch From Gmail To ProtonMail MediaPost
Western Democracies Ramp Up VPN Restrictions, Sparking Privacy Backlash WebPro News
Imperial Collapse Watch
Less support, more arrests: Why America’s Homeless population is growing WUSF.com
Baltimore Joins Detroit, Chicago, and Stilwell Becoming Unfrequented for Tourists in 2026? Here’s What You Need to Know! Travel and Tour World
Trump 2.0
Trump is talking about Greenland again Vox
Trump is shamelessly covering America in his name The Guardian
The Supreme Court Cast Its Lot With Trumpism. It Should Be Very Worried. Slate
The ‘Trump-class’ battleship faces a large obstacle in its way: Reality CNBC
Musk Matters
Elon Musk says xAI will have more AI compute than everyone else combined within five years Tom’s Hardware
How Did DOGE Disrupt So Much While Saving So Little? NY Times
Tesla doors that Elon Musk personally insisted on are now at center of safety investigations Cryptopolitan
Tesla Cybertruck + FSD + Grok = living in the future. pic.twitter.com/NspyBpPYk5
— Planet Of Memes (@PlanetOfMemes) December 24, 2025
Democrat Death Watch
The Dilemma for the Democrats in 2026 is … the Democrats The Hill
Letter: Shhh … be quiet and let Trump fix your mess, Democrats Yakima Herald-Republic
Immigration
ICE is deporting some immigrants so quickly, their attorneys are left scrambling NPR
Cuba Joins Venezuela, Syria, and Iran in US Immigration Ban: How New 2025 Policies Are Changing the Landscape of International Travel and Border Control Travel and Tour World
Our No Longer Free Press
Justice Department Says Filming Immigration Raids Is ‘Domestic Terrorism’ Reason.com
Mr. Market Is Moody
An ounce of silver is now worth more than a barrel of oil Wall street Journal
Smart Investor: Will Tech Stocks Go From Best to Worst, The Hyped-Stocks Trap Morningstar
AI
New Research Challenges the Myth That AI Stifles Human Creativity SciTech Daily
CoreWeave chief flags extreme supply chain stress as AI growth hits deeper bottlenecks Cryptopolitan
AI Revolutionizes Online Dating: Tools, Matches, and Privacy Concerns WebPro News
AI Backlash Grew Massively in 2025 Futurism
Here are 5 ways AI transformed health care in Europe in 2025 euro news
The Bezzle
Pakistan busts $60 million crypto scam network Cryptopolitan
6 Investment Scams Making a Comeback Across the U.S. SavingAdvice.com
Guillotine Watch
The 5 most expensive bicycle in the world #top5 #expensive #bicycle pic.twitter.com/S7N81nuPfP
— Top5expensive (@top5expensive) April 25, 2025
The 5 most expensive motorcycle in the world #top5 #expensive #motorcycle pic.twitter.com/5XdXGSFfOk
— Top5expensive (@top5expensive) June 15, 2025
This year we brought a Sci-Fi futuristic personal flying motorcycle to reality.
Airbike became the world’s first jet powered hoverbike and redefined personal mobility.
What you see is just the beginning. pic.twitter.com/uc9VBDI3cm— Volonaut (@Volonaut) December 25, 2025
Antidote du jour (via)
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here
“UK youth to be offered military ‘gap year’ in bid to boost defence: Report”
Those kids had better consider this option. The British army is at record low numbers right now and it may be that the UK government will decide to pick a fight with another country. If not Russia then another. As that means that the British army will need to be reinforced, guess where they will get those people from who have already received military training. Hopefully they will not choose poorly.
the European Establishment equated patriotism with nativist extremism. It only took 2,000 years but the serfs have finally wised up that “war is a racket” and won’t fight/die for their “betters”. heckuva job, Brownie.
America is on the same path….but this current, brief, Trumpian “counter-revolution” has bought the warmongers a few years
Once again it seems, the Russians are far behind us. What do you think we can do to persuade young Russians that war is a racket, and that they shouldn’t volunteer to fight in Ukraine?
Not much. Seeing your country in an existential fight against a huge coalition tends to make you sign up to fight for your country. That and all the pay bonuses that they have been offered. :)
And Europe has form for attacking, invading, and killing millions of Russians.
Their bloodlust is insatiable.
Time to end their reign in the West.
easy…. not be ray-cyst (spam trigger word) towards Russians and their version of Christianity and civilization.
Russians have replaced Hans Gruber-esque Anglo-Germans as the only people socially acceptable to be ray-cyst towards, lmao
Somebody pointed out in the first year of the war that if you swapped out the word Russia and substituted another country like Spain or another group like Jewish people instead of Russian people, that the result to western sensibilities would be absolutely intolerable. But since it is Russia, then it is OK then.
Incorrect. To many Russians are orcs, i.e. not human or sub-human. Therefore what we are seeing is not even ray-cysm, but 21st century eugenics dressed up in some supposed “Civilized European values.” As non-human Russians are not entitled to have legitimate security concerns, the right to non-interference in their affairs, or even the right to exist. Dunno about y’all, but I am rather scared of the civilization that Europe is fast becoming.
and stop listening to western Establishment grifters hho are 1 or 2-degrees removed in their family tree from a historical beef with Soviets or Czarist Russia.
Dunno for a fact, but pretty sure that in the US, you don’t find the same level of rabid anti-Mao or anti-Hanoi or anti-Pyongyang hysteria from 2+ – generation Chinese-Americans, Vietnamese-Americans, Korean-Americans
Unfortunately though you do for Cuban-Americans who have actually warped American foreign policy to suit their hatreds. And of course Rubio came from this group.
My dad rather rabidly hated the Soviets, but they’ve been gone almost 35 years and he nearly 25 years, and now why cry over spilt ilk?
You might, if you look at certain subsets.
The “Ukrainian” expats who hate Russia (and Ukraine) are not “regular” Ukrainians, but rather insular minorities among them who had “issues” with their neighbors: many Americans with “Ukrainian” ancestry who have particular beef with “Russia” are Jewish, Uniate, or ultranationalists–yes, mutually incompatible groups who didn’t like one another while they were still in Ukraine, but now that they’d been forcibly kicked out, share the same resentment towards those who remain. There is a similar and analogous sentiment among some Vietnamese American groups and possibly among the Chinese Americans, too. Many refugees after the Vietnam War were ethnic minorities: Chinese Vietnamese were basically expelled from Vietnam in large numbers, to no small degree because of historical Vietnamese racism towards them and many wound up in US–I found that their sentiments towards Hanoi to be, eh, a bit different. (Not sure about other minorities, though. But my interactions with them have been limited.)
even nihilistic post-modernism, people….especially young men, like stories, no different than a rando from Homeric Greece.
and who tells the better story?
Mother Russia needs you…..just as your forefathers who fought Napoleon, Lord Palmerston, the Kaiser, and Mustache Man to defend Russia from decadent furriners who hate you, your God, your way of life.
PS, you’ll get a homestead and you won’t be telling your grand-kids that you “shoveled poop in Louisiana” in Ufa during the Great Special Military Operation.
First step is to re-arrange their political landscape so that arms manufacturers and oil companies make all the foreign policy decisions, while becoming immensely wealthy.
Thank you for your comment, Aurelien!
I think the Russian Youth know better than anyone that War is a Racket seeing as fate has chosen them to stop the evil empire for the 3rd time now beginning with Napoleon.
Theirs is a moral cause right? When faced with the death and destruction the Rich have wrought in the West?
They literally want to enslave all of us again. Russia fired the first shot, and with China 🇨🇳 I hope preemptively ended a REAL WWIII
Unfortunately I don’t think there is much that can be done about Ukraine. I remain astonished that the EU and NATO elites remain so wedded to what was just another one of George W Bush’s brain farts of a foreign policy:
Foreign policy of the George W. Bush administration – Russia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foreign_policy_of_the_George_W._Bush_administration#Russia
There was a time when EU elites knew that W was a [family blogging] idiot, and acted accordingly.
The war is a tremendous tragedy, and a complete failure on so many levels of what passes for unrealistic Western unipolar foreign policy in a now multipolar world.
But taking your question more seriously, and with the idea that the EU should do what’s best for the EU citizens (a novel approach at this point in time), the EU should get serious and sign a peace treaty with Russia.
You can reassure the EU nutjob elites that there is ample precedent for signing a peace treaty, and then still invading Russia, it’s been done before:
Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Molotov%E2%80%93Ribbentrop_Pact
A novel approach of EU doing what’s best for the EU citizens would entail EU committing an ancient act of seppuku. If you love someone, set them free.
The serfs always knew this. This was the deal with serfdom: your lord did the fighting and you did the farming. In theory, anyway.
Not exactly planning for a large intake. No mention about target candidates either: officer, techie, squaddie? The kids get 13 weeks basic training. Could be a test operation for future conscription plans, to evaluate the fitness of the youngies?
It’s not a test, just an exercise in patronage.
There will be a five year long investigation in about ten years.
By which time we will all have learned to speak russian.
When I was applying to University, I considered a gap year, I.e. a deferral to travel and just grow up a bit, and (to quote Gerard Hoffnung https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=zZUJLO6lMhI) at this point I must have lost my presence of mind, for I seriously considered an SSLC: a short service limited commission, a one-year stint as an officer in the armed forces. It was even possible to do it in the Royal Marines’ Commandos.
https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200708/cmselect/cmdfence/424/424we20.htm
This proposal is old wine in new bottles. The old programme, eventually renamed a gap year commission, only ever commissioned 80 or so officers a year at peak, only a third stayed on and it was wound up on cist measures in 2007.
That said, it probably did a lot for bringing high-achieving people into the armed forces who were a bit different and spreading support and experience of the forces in wider high society. But hardly on a par with National Service!
Having written off for the brochures, I came to my sense and went straight to Uni! No cavalry stripe trousers at the May Ball for me….
Did you see the news that Oliver Blanchard insists there should be an Ukraine tax, because otherwise EU citizens do not feel the war in their wallet? I thought Blanchard was one of the smarter bankers, but this is appalling.
https://x.com/ojblanchard1/status/2001951496779542543
He isn’t incorrect in that one of the reasons the EU can keep ‘supporting’ the war in Ukraine is that the majority of the EU citizens are absolutely apathetic towards how it is handled.
The thing is that a tax won’t solve it seeing the non-reaction when most Russian gas/oil was cutoff and the skyrocketing bills people got as a result.
I would love to see them try lifting kids from my hometown into those vans. Ukraine it aint.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=vNSkVg8YTIs
Solar producer 12 million tons of waste by 2047. If A I is to be trusted (google on steroids, right?) query:
How much plastic waste produced in 2024? 220 million tonnes
In 2024, it is estimated that 220 million tonnes of plastic waste will be generated globally. This represents a 7.11% increase since 2021, with an average of 28 kg per person worldwide. Additionally, approximately 69.5 million tonnes of this waste is expected to be mismanaged, entering the environment.
Remember, plastic is a by-product of refining of oil. Lemons into lemonade. Monetize the byproducts. Lengthen the arc of single use. Moar money Moar money
(I do love my plastic disc golf discs)
Enabler!
I feel bad about it now maybe a smidgen, but almost feel certain yours truly may have set the record for the longest toss of a frisbee from a spot a few miles away from the top of the Palm Springs aerial tramway where we hiked to the top of this mellow ridge which had a perfect straight down pitch on the other side and off it went forever, but not really, all I did was send off the first guard into the forest for the trees on a probing mission, circa 1984
Goooooood Moooooooorning Fiatnam!
It was agreed that Artificial Idiocy was clearly the next best thing, why rely on good old fashioned dolts such as Pfc Jones-who occasionally threw a spanner in the works by accidentally saying something profound?
Now, not everybody in the platoon was on board-nor a nitwit, but there were stock prices that were more important in the scheme of things, so we dumbed down accordingly.
James Li revisits the JFK files. utube, ~12+ minutes.
JFK Bombshell: CIA-Mossad “Joint Ops” & IDF in Dallas?!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kiu1r5f4lao
re: Trump is shamelessly covering America in his name – The Guardian
Sort of like a golden retriever dog “marking” his territory. / ;)
And like the golden retriever, he cannot is doing what comes naturally, but wait, for Donnie it is compulsive obsessive, secretly afraid that otherwise we will not notice him unaware that ubiquity creates an absence of attention.
It comes naturally to human toddlers, to whom the imperative is: if you cease commanding the attention of others then you may cease to exist.
DT Barnum is more akin to an Afghan Hound, but without the attention span.
I try to look at things on the bright side. Trump’s short attention span (and here I use the phrase “attention span” with trepidation) might be a hidden blessing for the rest of the world. One day it’s focused (as well as Mr. Magoo can focus) on Ukraine, the next day Venezuela, and then on to Greenland and Canada (shudder! I am Canadian). He’s a sociopath, ergo he’s impulsive and seeks immediate gratification. No thinking or concentration involved. Those things are hard.
I hope that the White House staff encourage him to look out of the windows of the Oval Office as often as possible. His glimpsing of a squirrel or a bird in a tree or a butterfly fluttering by might just cause him to forget what he was thinking about and preserve world peace.
I knew and Afghan hound once. Possibly the stupidest dog ever.
Europe is at a ‘fork in the road’ between AI competition and climate, fund managers say CNBC
Fund managers, very much like the rest of humans, are able to say many stoopid things. Whether MSM outlets should keep giving them room to do so is arguable. Here what i mean is that there are ways to say or state things which are more or less correct or valuable but coming with stupid metaphores and puting these in the headlines makes the whole thing useless.
I think that that article title may be a misprint. What they meant to write is that Europe is forked. Does it need to be said? How are they going to have a competitive AI when energy prices are sky high ever since they cut themselves off from that cheap, reliable energy that came in from the east? And as we know, AI has an insatiable need for energy.
I dunno, I wouldn’t count out their just going ahead and spending the money and energy on uncompetitive AI anyway. No?
I think that you are right. To save energy they will cut the heating to people’s homes in winter time and tell them to blame Putin.
And if the old be like to die let them do it and decrease the surplus population.
(As Scrooge did not quite say.)
Think of the govt savings in pension and health care costs. (too cynical?)
Time to call out the ICEsatzgruppen?
I couldn’t help but notice how stylish masked ‘meskin law enforcement was in Cabo compared to ICE’s verklempt unkempt standards-what would Mr. Blackwell* think of us?
…full tailored camo BDU’s holding an assault rifle, lookin muy sueve, bay-bee.
Of course in their favor, they do have a tradition of luchadores going for them, which has to give them an advantage in the big leagues of masking up.
* pretty vague, that one
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Blackwell
When will it dawn on Donnie et al, our military aesthetes, those who must be obeyed that camo-all-the-time looks sloppy, unkempt, down scale. Jeans, tee shirts, bullet proof vests, masks and guns say thug, strong arm man. Or is that the message?
…there Hugo Boss
Acacia yesterday:
> …co-worker’s partner, who evidently wears ear buds and has an AI app listen to all conversations with other humans… In conversation with others, this person just waits, listens to the earbuds to be told what to say by the AI, and then responds.
Story from boots about AI earrings:
> their brains were curiously deformed: the neocortexes had wasted away
We live on a one-way street that ends into a busy street, and about daily I call out ‘Wrong Way’ as somebody takes a wrong turn onto it. Sometimes they accelerate! If people wore the earring they would have less risky behavior. iirc, average infantry IQ is 80. There is a theme here from many cautionary tales about authoritarianism.
What is terrifying is the enthusiastic voluntary adoption of an agent that reduces free will. Janet pointed out that people on the spectrum could find it helps them interact with other people. There are genuine non-authoritarian reasons to adopt the technology. But it causes brain damage.
But wait, there’s more!
> AI, tell me how to respond correctly in this situation.
This is a voluntary adoption of an intervention in one’s own behavior.
> AI, tell me what to say to make Grandma happy.
Well, that’s nice.
> AI, tell me what to say to make Grandma happy so she gives me presents.
Well, that’s not quite so prosocial…
> AI, tell me how to make Bob/my-ex bend to my will.
Well then. And since AI has access to Bob’s emails, writings, internet meanderings, it is privy to hidden information not voluntarily presented. Hmm.
re: your first para.
” In conversation with others, this person just waits, listens to the earbuds to be told what to say by the AI, and then responds….”
Ah, a Humanoid! They exist! In this case, a self-made Humanoid. A Humanoid by choice. Reference to a1962 sci-fi movie: Creation of the Humanoids. Here’s a trailer for the movie. utube, ~1+minute.
Creation of the Humanoids
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aCD4aOgHH04
I have seen it! I believe it!
The 5 most expensive bicycle in the world-
These are not bikes to ride. Not really bikes but ornaments. Not even ornaments but possessions. Buying a bike to have a weird possession is indeed something that only millio/billio/trillionaires who don’t know what to do with too much money can afford. But let’s say you buy the 1 million bike to ride. Ride like a keen biker, let’s say 3000 miles/year, 5 years. 67$ of bicycle /mile. Cheap it is for us billionaires!
I would have thought that a bike ridden by Lance Armstrong would have decreased the value of several bikes by now.
Those 5 are all meh, imo. I have a lovely book of photos of wonderful and highly collectable bicycles together with their stories. The Golden Age of Handbuilt Bicycles, Craftsmanship, Elegance, and Function by Jan Heine, 2015.
Burn fat, not gas!
/.Tom: 2006 BMB 70:32. 2007 PBP DNF.
Jan Heine, Compass Bicycles, comfortable bikes for utility riding and long distance randonneuring rides. Heine completed (I think) 7 Paris-Brest-Paris (PBP) randonneur rides: a 1200 kilometer or 745 mile route to be completed within a 90 hour time frame. He complete 7 PBPs that I know of. Amazing.
Adding: congrats to you for being a fit enough rider with the build up randonneur rides confirmations to be allowed to enter PBP. That’s a win in itself. I was never that strong or had the endurance for the long rides.
And adding: I still dream of qualifying for PBP, a very grueling long course ride, but the years are not with me now. sigh….
In my very cycling enthusiast small uni town I’ve only know one person to quality for BPB. They did ride and complete. When they returned to my town they seemed physically wrecked for a couple of months. As if they were in recovery from a terrible strain on their system. That’s how grueling the PBP course is.
There’s an endless series of modest hills which were annoying and no fun but that was 2007 when it was cold, raining, windy and I was alone. It’s not especially challenging, just long. Boston-Montreal-Boston was harder. About 400k in I got word from my sister that my mother was critically ill so I decided to quit a Brest and go to Scotland. On the stretch from Carhaix to Brest I was in so much pain from what turned out to be peptic ulcer disease that even without the family emergency I would have DNFed anyway.
I found events that take longer than 24 hours difficult because: how to sleep? There’s so many ways an event like that can go wrong without the course itself being grueling.
If you strictly limit your time off the bike then you can complete PBP at a very modest average speed making it feasible for seniors. If you are keen and can already do a century ok then do an SR series and see how far you get. If that goes well then go ahead and get ready for PBP. Bon chance.
I’ll counter with my circa 2003 $52 Target 18 speed ‘mountain bike’,
certainly on the lower echelon of a concours cycle contest.
Did 7 Tour de Burns in the saddle, and those other 17 higher gears were never really necessary on the playa as it turned out.
That’s a lot of alkali dust in the works!
An NPS law enforcement friend working for Sequoia NP was sent to FLETC (federal law enforcement training center) to have the chip implanted, and asked if he could take my steed on 2 wheels, and I said sure, but what about the Burning Man decals and such, and it didn’t seem to bother him, so off to Big Law Enforcement it rode in Brunswick, Ga.
It came back without at least a little brakes left and was sent to Bangladesh to be parted out.
I bought my first Trek bicycle from the local bike shop in my crunchy college town in 1979. It was totally beautiful, a masterpiece of craftsmanship, made in Wisconsin. Alas, it was stolen. Much later I bought my second Trek when we were reduced to a one-car family (which should have been enough, but that is another story). That Trek was not a masterpiece. More like a Chevrolet Vega.
So it goes, as illustrated by my new Amana washing machine that replaced the previous basic version, both all analog. The previous machine lasted through 19 years of heavy use (>3500 cycles) until the motor wore out. Repair possible but not really a smart option according to the appliance repairman. The current base model replacement seems to be the equivalent of the Vega. I will probably outlive it…
Our family chariots in the 70’s sported both a Vega and a Pinto in the pits, literally.
I couldn’t have helped the ’72 Vega which had somehow miraculously made it until 1976, when I decided that when mom and dad were away, why i’d play.
Had never driven a car before, let alone a manual transmission and it took me 10 minutes to find reverse gear on a 4-speed, and then off I went, never bothering to use anything other than first gear for a 10 mile ride into Whittier and back-the engine screaming like it was struck in a horror film soundtrack, stalling it numerous times at stoplights but somehow getting it back into the garage as if nothing was amiss…
…the poor thing
While I was in Cal (Lived in El Cerrito, North to Berkeley, about 1996-1997) I bought a BS bicycle in Target for about the same price as Wuk bought his. It was awful in all senses but i commuted by bicycle and was practical. After a few months I went to a proper bike shop in the bay area and bought a beautiful orange gravel thing (US manufacture but cannot remember the name) and I fell in love with it. Used it like crazy and she came back with me to Spain where I used it for a couple of years more to later give it to a friend who needed a cheap transport in the Menorca Island. It was an excellent US product which I still miss. She is still in Menorca I believe.
These days there are production bikes north of $15k USD. We’ve been convinced that not having hydraulic disc brakes and electric shifting = sure death. Meanwhile we’ve also been convinced we need “integrated cockpit”, meaning, instead of standard handlebars that could easily be replaced or adjusted for fit you now have proprietary hardware, so a few years from now good luck trying to fix it.
[This comment was by repeated violator of site Policies by sock puppeting. All comments will be overwritten or removed. Get another hobby rather than pollute this site]
Thank you!
Most digital cameras have a “rolling shutter” where the sensor scans the image similar to how a scanner reads a page from top to bottom. As opposed to film image which is exposed all at once. High end digital cameras have a “global shutter” which similarly captures the full sensor all at once.
The scanning of the image by a rolling shutter is what captured the guitar strings at different stages of their vibration creating the sound wave effect. Same as why when filming out the window of a driving car telephone poles look slanted because the top of the pole is captured a before the lower parts are as the sensor scans from top to bottom of the frame.
(Had to share this info because it’s one of the rare times on NC there’s a topic I have actual knowledge about and not just post a question, snark, or an ignorant rant).
Many old 35mm film cameras had a focal plane shutter that achieved short exposure times by having the shutter narrow to a slit which was moved across the film.
The film was not exposed all at once, but was scanned, except for relatively long exposure times when the slit was fully open.
Cruise news you can use, dept:
I doubt many of the commentariat nor those of you following our breathless words online with hopefully rapt attention, ever go on a cruise-even if its the best way to travel to not really all that exotic locales and essentially see nothing in the course of your 6 hours as a landlubber on shore, with or without iguana.
My feeble excuse is that my family has always used it as a catalyst for us to all be together, and even if there were temptations to jump ship over the course of the last week, Mexico was typically 20 miles away and although I lay claims to being a good swimmer, a person has to know their territorial limits.
I saw around 7 masks worn on concerned individuals during the 7 day tour, for those of you who must think I was surely on a death ship of sorts, but this was the Norwegian Jade, not the SS Norovirus.
I look at it as a way to watch the rabble and not really interact with the hunters and collectors easily swayed by what is essentially a floating mall, complete with telemarketers in the flesh ‘next up for bids in the ‘art auction’ is a framed genuine replica of a Marc Chagall, imagine how this would look on your living room wall!’
There are so many human lemmings on board, I lose track…
I saw not one American working on board, the captain seemed to have a Bulgarian accent-not that there is anything wrong with that, and Indonesians made a strong presence, along with the usual amount of more Filipinos than you can shake a stick at.
Coolest things I saw were sunrises and sunsets, which if Norwegian Cruise Lines could somehow monetize, they surely would.
p.s.
Cruise ships are by far the safest place from gun harm in these United States as far as thousands of Americans anonymously circulating together, are concerned.
You are limited to a knife with no longer than a 4 inch blade-on board, in terms of potential weaponry, though a trained killer could easily pull it off with cutlery, maybe even while wielding a spoon~
My mother had me go on cruises with her after my father died.
The one that made the most sense was Alaska. The stops are pretty close, and little towns like Sitka. You can see glaciers from the sea, whales, and the Inland Passage. We went on a paddlewheel.
Also smaller ships (700 passengers max) are MUCH better. She never never did big ships.
I am told Norwegian fjord cruises also are a good way to see those sites.
We did Alaska twice and yes, I agree with you, going through the glaciers is quite a show!
In New Zealand, we did overnight cruises on both Milford Sound and Doubtful Sound, where the ships went out to the mouth of the ocean and anchored near for the night, and then the next day you go back from whence you came.
When we did Doubtful Sound it was pouring down rain when we were sleeping and stopped just before the ship got underway, resulting in thousands of waterfalls cascading down on either side of the sound, as its all rock and no dirt up above you and it’s all gotta come down. You knew it was one of those moments when the crew was anxiously grabbing for their cameras.
Not to mention the gluttony. The snack bars and the buffet are open morning to night. While floating around the Caribbean the wife and I actually overheard a couple calculating how much more they need to stuff into themselves to justify the cost of the cruise.
Even more if they buy those soft drink or alcohol packages. Seasick and hung over, seeing the ocean by rail.
The cost of the cruise – diabetes.
Very little in the way of fried food and the only thing on the house in beverages was water or fruit juice in the buffet line.
A lot more Indian-Americans on cruise ships, I noticed.
So typically 3 or 4 hot Indian dishes, had a delish pork curry~
We ate at the pay $60 more per head French restaurant one night and all thought the French onion soup was the finest we’d ever had, with the Coq au Vin I devoured certainly in the running. Delicious!
“The John Galt of Comic Books”
‘The co-creator of Spider-Man and Dr. Strange later created some failed Ayn Rand–inspired superheroes.’
Well that sounds like fun. His first superhero – Rand Man! – was not really a success. By day, John Galt was a billionaire scientific wizard while at night, he roamed the street in his Roarkmobile. His superpower was to be able to give criminals hour long diatribes on the principles of Objectivism and the history of Ayn Rand. It was found that after the first half hour of his endless talking, criminals would chew some of their fingers off to use as ear plugs to save their sanity. For some reason, a fan base never really developed for this character.
I reckon the Cliffs Notes version of Atlas Shrugged would be 284 pages long, but in it’s defense the original tome makes for a heck of a doorstop.
I’m amazed at how much she gets right about our current state of play, I mean to say, isn’t the Money Speech by Francisco d’Anconia, dead on?
Project X is clearly AI, as everything was riding on the former in the book, and it doesn’t turn out well.
Apparently, 144 pages, at 2nd grade reading level.
‘I reckon the Cliffs Notes version of Atlas Shrugged would be 284 pages long’
Add in another 482 pages of footnotes.
Don’t forget the Non Disclosure Agreement. We cannot have any old deplorables messing up our Perfect World. Few are qualified to belong to the Esoteric Order of Rand.
LOL!!
And hobbits.
One of the main reasons I’ve never liked comic book superhero stories is they all have very Randian type narratives where the “ideal man” towers over us pathetic mortals. From Superman and Bruce Wayne and on down the generations they all play to this trope and perpetuate the narrative that we are helpless and must rely on savior ubermensches to offer us safety and progress.
Same reason is find most “hero’s journey” & “chosen one” narratives irritating. From the lone gunman wandering into town (old westerns to John Wick & 007) to Harry Potter born with the magic of plot armor and godlike powers.
Lord of the Rings & Star Wars type narratives I find more appealing due to the narrative arc being shaped by a varied assortment of characters from all walks of life banding together to overcome obstacles.
So, yeah, the fact he created some failed Randian comics is wild. Was Dr Strange not enough of a Randian hero for him?
j wick is an intersting late entrant.
Loner whose made a pile but loses love
Is bored and can’t keep up with the changes in the world he left with his pile
Cannot use normal institutions to adress his losses (nice dog,fancy car)
Goes on a killing spree against his mentors who gave him not only his pile, but an ethos
Respects the ethos to an extraordinary degree
Does not critique or eliminate the structure that gave him his pile for killing people.
Feels no compunction for his hardworking coworkers elimination at his hands
What did john really want, a dog, a wife,maybe a lttle peace?
You have to pay for those things somehow.
It’s another telling of that age old tragedy, the Myth of the Elite.
John Wick is a spaghetti Western revenge story remix. A modern day Django. A death of dog is needed to incite emotional reaction of the audience, because human deaths are made to evoke joy.
Interesting read on the false premise of building out renewables: that power demand must necessarily increase. Instead, the author argues, demand should be reduced, starting by eliminating crypo mining, high frequency trading, AI, and building inefficiencies (see quote below). Hard to argue against, but how to get there?
https://thelastfarm.substack.com/p/we-dont-need-any-more-renewables?triedRedirect=true
Well, the problem is, it takes just about as much energy to re-heat or re-cool a large building on a daily basis as it does to just maintain a constant temperature.
That’s valid if a building is well insulated, so there’s not much energy involved either way. With a minimally-insulated building, such as much of the older stock in the USA, the energy is going continuously from the inside to the outside. Take a warm house when it’s freezing outside. The heat flow from inside to outside is proportional to the temperature difference (and so the inside temperature exponentially drops to match the outside temperature). So the higher you keep the inside temperature, the more energy is being wasted.
Example: Say the heat in a house essentially disappears in a week (amazing insulation). You are using barely any energy maintaining the temperature. If it cools to outdoor temperature in 6 hours, the longer you leave it after 6 hours (at which point it can’t cool any more) before turning on the heat, the more energy you save.
Large building = less radiating surface per internal volume. Large buildings operate at least two shifts per day every day. Not talking houses but have to take all the variables into consideration. Example: enough immigrants packed into a shipping container and you won’t need a heater but pretty sweaty in the summer.
10k is a ludicrous number. An obscene number. Scheer should be ashamed to repeat it. I think considerably less of him for it.
–
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“One excavator, 10,000 bodies, a sea of rubble: inside Gaza’s effort to retrieve and bury its dead”
at the very least he dropped a zero
Walz, Somalis and the lot: here is a handy summary.
Nothing to see here, move along. It’s all about the new ballroom and marble arms on seats.
How soon does Gavin Newsom get his star turn?
The Iron Pyrite State has so many issues, with evergreen ones like CalPERS seeming passé now.
Pompadour & Circumstance
He rode into town on Willie Brown’s horse
Got a parking & traffic job up north
His chances were swingin’ in the breeze
All the recall election posters had pictures of he
Tied what was left of his hopes to a meal Prix Fixe
Walked into a restaurant during Covid, they called the French Laundry
He ordered up sans mask, they called for his head
He survived the likes of Elder, then he still led
He used to have Kimberly Guilfoyle right by his side
He’s the California Kid, I hope you’re quite prepared for his 2028 ride
You can only imagine the electorate was eyeballing he
Staring down from their screens you see
Some women claimed he caused a lack of breath
He was winning hearts being handsome & not near death
Some found him tragically hip, as good as it gets
He’s got Getty, right by his side
He’s the California Kid, I hope you’re quite prepared for his 2028 ride
He uncorked a bottle, the pro wino whined
Why drink anything from the late teens?
’bout that time the paparazzi snuck in
And there sat some *sshole all uncovered in sin
Do as I say—not as I do, he said ‘That’s no lie’
Almost blew a hole in his chances just as big as the sky
He’s got the Donald, as a thorn in his side
He’s the California Kid, I hope you’re quite prepared for his 2028 ride
California Kid, by the Beat Farmers
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MGQC1rPjOeU&list=RDMGQC1rPjOeU
>The ‘Trump-class’ battleship faces a large obstacle in its way: Reality
The U.S. Navy would be better off buying a South Korean destroyer, painting it gold, and naming it the USS Donald J. Trump than building a Trump-class BS. The president would be delighted, money would be saved, and best of all, a fully functional warship would be obtained.
That article was not very convincing. Obviously Trump being Trump has to call it a battleship, not any battleship but the best ever. It really is a new try on the CG(X), to replace the Ticos.
But then where would you get all that funding to develop the new wonder weapons for this thing?
Someone in the Navy has figured out the ultimate bait and switch. Give the Trump his gold plated powerpoint, knowing that it will be cancelled the minute after the next inauguration, and funnel all the development funding into whatever needs it in the meantime. The more ridiculous the better, then it is more guaranteed to never see the light of day.
Producers 1968: Sell 25,000% of a play, hope it bombs
Producers 2026: Sell 25,000% of a bomb, hope it plays
Re:Israel needs reckoning and renewal
Better to ask forgiveness than permission I guess.
Of course it may be better to wait until they’ve taken egypt to the nile, lebanon, syria and north africa and turned iran into whatever it is they plan to turn iran into…
I typed from the river to the river and boy howdy google was not into that question, answering instead the one it wants asked, a bunch of blather about from the river to the sea but I kept hammering away at the keyboard and yes, here it is in all it’s divine sepulcher and hidden as well as could be…
https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/greater-israel-from-the-euphrates-to-the-nile/
from the oped…
“There are no theological convolutions, argumentative gymnastics, or intellectual casuistry that can withdraw this claim.”
I suppose I could dredge up some hopefulness at the redemption all my pro israel yet athiest friends that they have unwittingly found their way to the lord.
Do I need to say snark? Is it snark? I’ll have to meditate on that
Peace be with you…
You have some people that want to ban the Palestinian slogan ‘From the River to the Sea’ but when these people say it, not once have I heard somebody ask whether they should also ban the Zionist slogan of ‘From the River to the River.’ nobody want to go there and I am sure that if somebody did, that those critics would pretend to have never heard of that slogan (paging Ben Shapiro)
On the Good Ship Lolliprop
It’s a sweet trip to a pay-out shop
Where bail bon-bons play
On the sunny beach of Mar-a-Lago way
Donation stands everywhere
Mar-a-Lago faces fill the lair
And there you are
Happy landing out of the motel with all-bars
See the sleight of and/or he say
With his big bad devil’s word play
If you eat too much, ooh-ooh
You’ll awake with a tummy ache, ayyyy (homage to Fonzie)
On the Good Ship Lolliprop
It’s a wet dream trip, a new Trump Class ship
And dream away
OnTheGoodShipLolliprop
On the Good Ship Lollipop, performed by Shirley Temple
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uhns3vwPN0Q
“Cuba Joins Venezuela, Syria, and Iran in US Immigration Ban: How New 2025 Policies Are Changing the Landscape of International Travel and Border Control” link is not there – here it is, in case anyone is interested.
https://www.travelandtourworld.com/news/article/cuba-joins-venezuela-syria-and-iran-in-us-immigration-ban-how-new-2025-policies-are-changing-the-landscape-of-international-travel-and-border-control/
This is a huge ban on anyone coming from a whole bunch of countries since the ban includes B-1 (business) and B-2 (tourist) visas.
In addition to the “enemy” countries (Afghanistan, Burkina Faso, Burma (Myanmar), Chad, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Laos, Libya, Mali, Niger, Palestinian Authority, Republic of the Congo, Sierra Leone, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Syria, Yemen),
no one from Angola, Antigua and Barbuda, Benin, Burundi, Cote d’Ivoire, Cuba, Dominica, Gabon, The Gambia, Malawi, Mauritania, Nigeria, Senegal, Tanzania, Togo, Tonga, Venezuela, Zambia, or Zimbabwe is allowed in either.
Are Antigua & Barbuda and Dominica not cooperating with the Venezuela regime change op? Sure looks like it. And Senegal? The Gambia? Really?
Golden Age, indeed.
stilwell oklahoma has fallen off the international tourism map? huh. think of all the disappointed families cancelling that once in a lifetime trip.
I hear it has an american restaurant that is super popular with people who like that sort of thing
On Venezuela and El Pais, the article seems to disagree with on the ground alternative reporting that life is normal.
“and we don’t sell anything on the weekend,” says Regino Valladares. ” is very suspicious for a small grocery owner…. Really, people do not buy milk and other short-lived groceries on the weekend when presumably they are not working? They only shop on weekdays for food when they also work? or are they all fasting on the weekend? Clearly the El Pais editors are happy with this point of view.
…Tesla “self-driving” cybertruck video.
Well the guy did ask a question and there was some movement on the screen and a voiceover, but then when it came to the important bit, the self-driving bit, nada. No self driving. Those were 10 seconds I will never get back.
I stopped watching at 5 seconds. Nothing like the super-low-cost “futurification” of installing ChatGPT in a Tesla to hallucinate your drive while distracting investors from actual car functional problems. Is functionality really the future?
I think you’re a little unkind.
In five years time (compounding) the cybertruck will be able to perform life saving surgery to the person it parked on in a Mars suburb.
What I don’t understand is why the elon has not monetised his hair restoration products.
I saw a ridiculous amount of people in the istanbul airport using fake undigitised remedies last time I was there.
Self driving cars=difficult
Unhappy baldies=no problem
Come on muskovites, demand the truth from your hirsute, portly leader!
I recently met up with a friend who with a Tesla. He wanted to go on a day trip about 1.5 hours ago; I thought he was crazy to want to do this on a the Saturday before Christmas, but he said the self-driving would make it really easy and he was right. A lot of that time was spent on Los Angeles freeways with the attending nasty traffic. Coming back, we ended up stuck behind a broke down car and it was able to successfully maneuver us of out of it safely. I was very skeptical about it to start, but there wasn’t a single time in 3 hours I saw the self-driving have a problem. It was interesting watching the screen and seeing a glimpse into how the self-driving was perceiving other cars on the road. My friend did the driving himself later that night and he was correct in saying that the self-driving was definitely safer.
However, there was a time when he was trying to give it instructions on where to go that it did get a little confused, so the part shown off in the video may have been practiced.
If I ever get another car, I would want one with similar capabilities (please other car companies create something similar as I really don’t want a Tesla).
So sometime it worked and other times it did not?
Driving cars is a tricky necessity for many, automation (beyond public transport) is impossible.
When it came to actual driving, it always worked.
Always, or always in your limited experience?
And please explain non actual driving
I’m not sure about other carmakers, but GM has a system called SuperCruise and Nissan calls its hands-free driving assistance tech ProPILOT 2.0. Both of these systems only work on mapped out highways and require you to pay attention (ie, they have cameras in the steering that monitor the drivers eyes). No urban driving or anything with controlled intersections, at least not yet, but they are ‘working on it’.
I got a chance to drive around in a friend’s Nissan Ariya with the Propilot 2.0, and the self driving works pretty well from the short time I saw it in action. I can see this sort of tech being super nice for anyone having regular long highway drives. It also sounds like an airplane cockpit (ie “woop woop pull UP!!!!”) if it thinks you aren’t paying attention.
I called that here years ago-
They can’t make the cars smart enough, they’ll require the roads be remade for them.
A lot of these people don’t want a car, they want a servant. They can’t afford the servant so they get the car.
With those Tesla “self-driving” cybertrucks I always want to ask the question. If the power gives out or something, do they know how to manually open their car doors? Especially if there is a fire when such knowledge might be handy?
Would you believe that somebody donated 10 Tesla cybertrucks Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department-
https://www.foxnews.com/us/las-vegas-police-roll-out-tesla-cybertrucks-worth-up-115k-each-after-donation-from-tech-billionaire
“Would you believe that somebody donated 10 Tesla cybertrucks Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department”
100% would believe that. I’d give 50/50 odds on them having longhorns on the hoods,
An ounce of silver is now worth more than a barrel of oil Wall street Journal
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I’d been privy to prior collectible coin bubbles in the 1970’s, the Danish coin bubble, the Dutch coin bubble and the biggest of all, the Israel coin bubble, and you probably never heard about these on the nightly news, I’d imagine.
Then when i’m almost street legal in the eyes of the law, silver goes from $6 in April of 1979 to $48 in January of 1980 thanks to the Brothers Cash-and-Carry off.
800% in 8 months!
They were the only buyers though and the grey mare languished for about five bucks forever and/or a decade-whichever seems longer.
RE: How reality crushed Ÿnsect
“And revenue was the problem. According to publicly available data, Ÿnsect’s revenue from its main entity peaked at €17.8 million in 2021 (approximately $21 million) — a figure reportedly inflated by internal transfers between subsidiaries.”
Check kiting everywhere you look.
‘In Sex’
Needed a catchier name, and you’d see bug-bars in all the finer dining establishments in no time flat.
[This comment was by repeated violator of site Policies by sock puppeting. All comments will be overwritten or removed. Get another hobby rather than pollute this site]
The dogs aren’t eating the
dogfoodbugfood?These girls get hissy:
plier civil suit from begapedia:
I remember a long time ago,must be 2/3 years at least t,hat bill gates III thought is was a good idea for everyone
LMB,
you are victim of negative thinking
Everyone is going to eat bugs next year(compounding) because every starlink poorly managed product falling to earth adds a follicle to elon and takes a an earned dollar from his flock.
Even GROK can MATH that
hm… just spotted this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7aO3cNuUjag
The video is boring. It’s just damage control. But comments are interesting:
@VibeMusicAiRecords
9 days ago
Less than 1k subscribers?!? Jon, you are a great interviewer. Looking forward to watching your channel grow.
13
@netscrooge
8 days ago
I’m glad YouTube suggested this. Great interview; smart questions (easy on the eyes too). Thanks. Liked and subscribed.
There is controversy: the channel is being actively promoted, and still ~1k subscribers. No way it’s possible, except: ~1k is a fake. Let’s think, how it might be implemented:
1. public distrust to promoted channels was noted.
2. Created new approach to target those users who is looking for low-visibility channels.
3. The strategy: visibility is goes up, but the amount of reactions was altered down.
R.e the solar waste hand-wringing: If I had a dollar for every one of these cheap shots at solar electricity.
1) The vast majority (>90%) of PV solar installs, both residential and utility scale, are crystalline silicon based panels.
2) The quoted “25 year shelf life” is the time after which the panel’s output falls to below 80% of that when new. In other words, their output degrades, slowly, over time.
Barring actual physical damage, the panels do not just suddenly stop working after 25 years – they continue producing useful electricity.
3) The only heavy metals these panels contain might be small amounts of lead, bound with other metals, in the solder used to electrically connect the individual cells together. And with the ROHS directives in effect since 2006, I’m guessing the solder is being replaced with a lead-free version.
4) The competing technology, thin-film PV, comprises less than 10% of total installed panels – these are the ones containing Cadmium.
Sad to see Interesting Engineering just regurgitating such misconceptions, and not, you know, digging into the engineering.
Dems problem in 2026 is… the dems.
Nothing new, true in 2024. Both sides have been so awful for so long that the voters mostly either vote against the incumbent in a desperate hop the other guy might be a little better. Constant desperate hunt for lesser evil. It’s why we get one termers or razor close elections. Hope and change? We got no change and no hope. Remember b Clinton? As I recall this dem hero never got a majority.
We’ve got 2 parties where nearly all candidates spend all their time sucking up to selfish donors. Don’t see how things will change without a bloody revolution or a depression that again brings a Roosevelt to power.
>How America went money mad. William Gaddis invented our blank and empty world UnHerd
America has *always* been money mad. Read Dickens, Twain, or de Tocqueville. They, all three, were shocked at the rampant materialism of 19th Century America.
When you’re done with that, check out some native American history for heart-breaking confirmation.