Wolf escapes enclosure at Tokyo Zoo, visitors flee Anadolu Agency
Those Curious Naturalists Wild Information
I No Longer Think GLP-1s Are the Answer MedPage Today
French cinema legend Brigitte Bardot dies at 91 France24
Climate/Environment
‘Ghost resorts’: as hundreds of ski slopes lie abandoned, will nature reclaim the Alps? The Guardian
‘When you plant something, it dies’: Brazil’s first arid zone is a stark warning for the whole country The Guardian
Twenty Years Into Fracking, Pennsylvania Has Yet to Reckon With Its Radioactive Waste Inside Climate News
US shale oil production has turned negative yoy for the first time in history
That matters.
Oil bull markets are born when depletion overwhelms new supply. Once new production can’t offset decline rates, prices do the work.
Every cycle looks different… but the trigger is… pic.twitter.com/jOfnOSk88Y
— Lukas Ekwueme (@ekwufinance) December 27, 2025
Pandemics
“Harvesting” https://t.co/DKiQVHHW3w pic.twitter.com/1IlLTXJq3g
— Davos Safety (@DavosSafety) December 29, 2025
China?
China strikes a pressure point Julian MacFarlane
🇨🇳🇺🇸🇯🇵 People said China was “too soft” during Pelosi’s visit.
In reality, Beijing turned her stunt into Taipei’s long-term chokehold.Even Jake Sullivan now admits it:
• The visit forced China to permanently recalibrate the Taiwan Strait, pushing PLA operations closer than… pic.twitter.com/BvOmzYqceQ— 𝘊𝘰𝘳𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘦 (@OopsGuess) December 26, 2025
🧐China’s entire Neo industrial policy post 2020 depends on exporting goods that have significant silver content (aka EVs, adding to solar panels and other electrical goods).
I find it amusing that the key narrative going around is that the silver spike is somehow indicative of… https://t.co/EsV1IjqZHd
— Izabella Kaminska (@izakaminska) December 28, 2025
China to hold ‘Justice Mission 2025’ drills around Taiwan Dec. 30 Al Mayadeen
Syraqistan
Israel continues shelling parts of Gaza, accelerates West Bank assaults New Arab
They Cry Out as They Rape You to Death Kevin Barrett
The plane carrying Netanyahu to the US flew over the airspace of three ICC member states—Greece, Italy and France—despite the ICC arrest warrant, before reaching the Atlantic – @anadoluajansi pic.twitter.com/nx8k1z6TM9
— Rabia İclal Turan (@iclalturan) December 28, 2025
Italy arrests 7 accused of raising millions for Hamas AFP
Yemen’s leader warns of military action against any Israeli presence in Somaliland Press TV
***
The Russia-Israel partnership in West Asia – with Deep Dive Perspective Vanessa Beeley
Iran Acknowledges It is at War With the West… Putin Puts the West on Notice Larry Johnson
Iranian hacker group ‘Handala’ says it breached Netanyahu chief of staff’s phone The Cradle
Moscow sends three Iranian satellites into space in second launch since July Firstpost
Africa
Fear and confusion in Nigerian village hit in US strike, as locals say no history of ISIS in area CNN
It will not be easy for Israel & the secessionist regime in Hargheisa to asses their control over the territory they claim (Somaliland).
But what we can fear is that a new conflict will ignite in this region. https://t.co/ucupOvyRdE pic.twitter.com/CUYMH4YiWS
— MenchOsint (@MenchOsint) December 28, 2025
European Disunion
Europe’s largest defence groups set to return $5bn to shareholders in 2025 FT
Poland “ready to defend western border” with Germany, says president Notes from Poland
New Not-So-Cold War
After Talks With Zelensky, Trump Says Territorial Issues Still Not Settled Antiwar
Brussels and Moscow Have Reached a Point of Clarity, and It Is Bleak Russia in Global Affairs
Russia-Ukraine war: Why Europe risks another bleak year in 2026 Middle East Eye
Shaping of the Next End-of-Year Narrative Begins: Russia Faces “Exhaustion” in 2026 Simplicius
Humiliating retreats Events in Ukraine
New corruption scandal erupts in Kiev RT
Oreshnik in Belarus?Pavel Podvig
IAEA announces start of repairs near Zaporizhzhia power plant amid local ceasefire Anadolu Agency
South of the Border
Trump Might Not Invade Venezuela Yet, but What He Is Doing Is Worse Venezuelanalysis
The nerve… Oil services company and embodiment of evil Halliburton is launching international arbitration proceedings to extort money from Venezuela. There are no documents available yet, but reports speak of losses under US sanctions that forced the company to leave Vzla pic.twitter.com/7iN503ho3H
— Venezuelanalysis (@venanalysis) December 28, 2025
L’affaire Epstein
Miami Herald investigative journalist long on the Epstein story:
Does somebody at the DOJ want to tell me why my American Airlines booking information and flights in July 2019 are part of the Epstein files (attached to a grand jury subpoena)? As the flight itinerary includes my maiden name (and I did book this flight) why was the DOJ… pic.twitter.com/m1mgP6pdgk
— julie k. brown (@jkbjournalist) December 28, 2025
Spook Country
Why is Susan Miller Doing Media? Larry Johnson
Trump 2.0
Trump promised to lower food prices, but they’re still going up Investigate Midwest
Starving the Safety Net Dollars & Sense
2028
Immigration
‘A Demographic Ticking Time Bomb’: Trump’s Immigration Crackdown Comes for Seniors’ Caretakers NOTUS
MAGA World zeroes in on Minnesota over fraud scandal The Hill. E.g.:
🧵THREAD🧵
The legacy media didn’t miss the Minnesota Somalian fraud story.
They actively dismissed it as made up, racist, or xenophobic.
Before the stories are quietly edited, I’ve got screenshots. ⤵️
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) December 28, 2025
Imperial Collapse Watch
A Gilded Navy for Imperialist Conflict Un-Diplomatic
Accelerationists
As the Sun Sets on Sand Hill Road, Andreessen Awaits His Caesar Notes from the Circus
The 420
How Trump Became the Unlikely Champion of Easing Marijuana Restrictions WSJ
JFC… I just found Black Rock and Vanguard have their grimy little hands in on the cannabis industry too and hold significant investment holdings in fucking Curaleaf. My dispensary of choice.
What at this point in this country isn’t owned or controlled by private equity firms?! pic.twitter.com/ujSBc3oBNU
— Southern Fried StoNerD (@southernstonerd) December 28, 2025
Economy
Mass layoffs deepen across US economy as job cuts in auto, logistics and tech continue into 2026 WSWS
AI
Big companies aren’t making plans to hire in 2026: ‘Everybody’s afraid for their jobs’ The Independent. Commentary:
Just as covid served as a facilitating device for companies in concentrated industries to raise prices in coordination—a conspiracy against consumers—AI is now serving as a facilitating device for employers to freeze hiring in coordination—a conspiracy against labor. I suspect… pic.twitter.com/VGGUEdeq22
— Hal Singer (@HalSinger) December 28, 2025
OpenAI is hiring a new Head of Preparedness to try to predict and mitigate AI’s harms Engadget
Writing Music in an Age of Streaming AI Slop Boondoggle
TIM COOK POSTS AI SLOP IN CHRISTMAS MESSAGE ON TWITTER/X, OSTENSIBLY TO PROMOTE ‘PLURIBUS’ Daring Fireball
Abortion
Florida may send bounty hunters after women and doctors Seeking Rents
The Bezzle
Days After Mass Bricking Event, Waymo Fleet Shuts Down Again Futurism
Class Warfare
What happens when disaster recovery becomes a luxury good Grist
The Good News Is People Are Realizing We’re On Our Own Charles Hugh Smith
Antidote du jour (via):
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.
‘Rabia İclal Turan
@iclalturan
The plane carrying Netanyahu to the US flew over the airspace of three ICC member states—Greece, Italy and France—despite the ICC arrest warrant, before reaching the Atlantic’
Somebody should have spread the rumour that Edward Snowden was aboard his flight. Then it would have been grounded.
But how – How! – could Putin possibly fly to Hungary?!
Europe is a joke.
Or Jacques Baud! The EU is political farce cloaked with tragi-comedy.
…about Argent Provocateurs in China
In the 19th and 20th century, there were specific silver Trade Dollars minted by the British, French, Japanese and Americans*, solely for the Chinese trade, as silver was the only thing they wanted. There were no Trade Gold Coins, old yeller wasn’t their deal.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trade_dollar
This came on the heels of a similar gig in Mexico hundreds of years earlier, Spanish galleons would be loaded up with Pieces of 8 (8 Reales coins containing nearly an ounce of silver in content) in Mazatlan and sent to the far east, where they would be traded for consumer goods such as Ming Dynasty porcelain, silk and iPhones. (just making sure that you are paying attention)
I’m thinking all these cover stories about silver usage are your basic subterfuge, as silver was once the cat’s meow in the middle kingdom-why wouldn’t it be now, especially since they’ve been avoiding our promise sorry notes and treasuries as if they were attached to our leper colony-which they are.
* we were swimming in silver thanks to the vast riches of the Comstock Lode, and how to get rid of it?
Trade Dollars had about 10% more in silver content than Morgan Silver Dollars minted for commerce here (not really ever used all that much-the Bland-Allison act of 1878 required the US Government to buy a shitlode of silver and mint them into the largest coin-Silver Dollars, and most of them languished in Federal vaults, as late as the early 1960’s you could go to the Federal Reserve in DC with $1,000 in cash and buy a bag of 1,000 Morgan Dollars dating from the 1880’s, all in brand new condition for face value) and in a weird quirk despite having more silver value than the domestic version, Trade Dollars were not legal tender in the USA, and in the depths of the Great Depression, they sold for 65 to 75 Cents in the coin collector market, to give you an idea.
Lots of wild rumors out there, last night I caught one on X that claimed a major bank blew up over the weekend due to margin calls. Who knows if that is true or not; I have always suspected that the next bank to blow would be covered up. The Shanghai spot price also seems to have diverged quite a bit from the COMEX. And China is allegedly halting all refined silver exports. Fun times!
Tanks for the history lesson!
The biblical standard was 16 ounces of silver = 1 ounce of gold, and that held true for 1800 years and the Comstock Lode really upset the supply & value end, as it really was the big bonanza, Cartwright. Its what built pre-1906 SF.
The Ag-Au ratio had been around 100-1 for some time now, and what is it currently, around 55-1?
Just for laughs, the last time it was at 16-1, was in January 1980 at the height of the Hunt Brothers silver bubble.
Under Bretton Woods until 1971, the Gas-Au ratio was around 125 gallons to an ounce…
Just looked it up and its over 1,600 gallons to the ounce presently on average in these not so united states.
The Japanese had more gold relative to silver so, after the opening of Japan in 19th century, until the Meiji government fixed the ratio, foreign merchants were often seen exchanging silver for gold. Surely, given the history of silver, that was not a new thing in 19th century. I often wondered if that was one of the reasons behind the Shakoku policy at the beginning of the Edo era.
Comstock Lode is found in 1859 and takes awhile to get going and then puts out like a never ending silver gobstopper, which corresponds nicely with the opening of Japan to the west.
Is it JP Morgan? Finally, Max Keiser’s dreams and wishes of stretching them into oblivion with silver finally coming true? lol
Loan arranger got caught not stocking up on silver bullets, kemosabe?
“What do you mean “we” White Metal Man?” I may be named Tonto, but I’m anything but.
….zat you Rio Tonto?
Grew up in Lost Wages NV late 50s to late 60s. Iowa farm boy dad loved bringing a tube sock filled with cartwheels (silver dollars, mostly Morgans IIRC) with us when visiting family in rural Iowa and Chicago. He enjoyed watching cashiers, clerks etc. goggle when he plopped down a stack of these to purchase something. Many managers were called to say, yes, these things really were US currency.
To give you an idea of how swimming in Morgan Silver Dollars that were minted and never used in circulation, about 300 million of them were melted down in 1920 and the silver sold to the UK to make silver Rupees in India.
When I was in the coin biz, you made your money as much by buying from the public-as selling to the public, and people of a certain age would have a typical grouping of 47 silver Dollars and $84.25 in 90% silver coin, and a fistful of Silver Certificate banknotes that they wanted to sell to you.
Nowadays, the same aged person has a few Bicentennial Quarters and a handful of Susan B. Anthony $’s.
Gresham!
The arrests in Italy of Mohamed Hannoun and investigation into the ties of his NGO (based in Genova) to Hamas. Some seven million euros went through the organization since 2001, and in the past day, one million in cash was found, including 500 000 euro in a garage.
Well. Yet the investigation has some problems. Natch, Torino, where we are all unrepentant commies, has been dragged in. Angela Lano, an activist with the NoTav movement and creator of a Palestinian-support web site, received a visit from the police to search her house. Imam Mohamed Shahin, who is the center of a storm here in Torino, because he was unfairly accused of making terroristical statements (not proven), has been dragged in. Evidently, a couple of intercepted messages include his name.
Yet the biggest problem with the investigation is that the information that the Italian police and prosectors are using comes from …. drum roll … Israel.
Completely reliable, right? Disinterested third party, right? Might hold a grudge against the dockworkers and other activists in Genova who supported the Flotilla and have blocked arms shipments. Oh. Might have accused any number of Palestinian human-rights organizations of being terrorists.
So the controversy about the arrests goes on at many levels. I will await further news. Besides reporting on Angela Lano, the cash, and the dodgy Israeli pursuit of justice, Fatto Quotidiano also mentions that up to 25 people are under investigation.
Why you should remain skeptical? Note Julie K. Brown’s twixt.
What is Brown doing in the Epstein files? Her tickets are for flights from DFW t/f Austin and Little Rock.
Ahhh, the wonders of the Age of Data.
A couple million euros is chump change to get prominent folks that Tel Aviv doesn’t like to shut up. They’ll keep it up until someone stops them. Italy has experience with getting similar organizations under control, so I give it more of a chance than other countries.
Re; Abortion
Scientists Found That Castrated Animals Live Up to 20% Longer and the Same Might Be True for Humans
And if done young enough, open up career possibilities as a Castrato-
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castrato
Not to mention career opportunities as “functionaries” in the proposed new “Forbidden Wing” of the White House.
Who could have suspected that “Nan’s Closet” would be turned into the interior space of an Imperial Tesseract?
Musk is into longevity. This is an idea…
I thought the rumor was Mr. DOGE was already walking this path due to a failed penile implant operation?
Bar talk between women in 2035
‘see that one over there on the bar stool-he’s been gelded to make him calmer, less aggressive, and easier to handle and train, and what staying power he must have, might outlive me?’
It’s those darn hormones… I wonder how much longer all of our lifespans would be if we castrated all male politicians?
‘Ditch along with Mitch!’
It is said that the justification for the employment of eunuchs as high-ranking civil servants was that, since they were incapable of having children, they would not be tempted to seize power and start a dynasty.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eunuchs_in_China
But that was then and there. In modern day USA you would most likely get a gaggle of Lindsey Grahams and trans-Nulands.
They had them back in China, too. Graham would make for a prototypical Chinese eunuch whenever the ruling dynasty was tottering. Just an example:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ten_Attendants
Basically, whenever eunuchs appear in Chinese historical novels (the official histories are a little bit kinder–just a little), bad things are about to happen.
Dunno, one look at the EU shows what happens when eunuchs are led by aggressive amazons…
I’d say EU is more like the Lord of the Flies, and ardent example of what happens when there’s no adult authority…
EU = Wonderlandia in a weird sense. The wonders of von der Leyen.
The only solo castrato recording:
https://youtu.be/KLjvfqnD0ws?si=n0UDgPjAgtqJyfvK
Fascinating. What a strange sound.
Oddly, the person who posted that links in the video’s description to a video that includes themself (?) singing, also as a castrato. Or so that person claims. . .
The 17 monks on the Walk Of Peace made their way into Georgia this weekend. They are halfway through walking from Fort Worth Texas to Washington DC. The turnout to support them was very good and Google Maps showed the traffic from their journey and people coming out to see them. Local news has been covering the story, and social media is good for showing crowd size.
I like the news reporter as he covers the area to the north of me, and is the “utility player’ for his station. News, weather, sports, etc. A pro.
https://www.fox5atlanta.com/news/monks-peace-walk-trilith-studio-fayette-county
Maybe the people are basically good and the politicians are the problem.
Re Somalis. I haven´t been to Minnesota but from what I hear it is the “Sweden” of the US. In Europe we say a Swede is a person that will pick up a pinprick that was maliciously placed on the seat of his or her chair and in all honesty wonder whether somebody has lost a valuable pinprick. Themselves decent and honest to the core they can´t even imagine somebody being so bad as to play such a mean prank. Now imagine such people are confronted by members of a tribal society from one of the worst civil wars on earth. What will happen if one gives them the opportunity to engage in unsupervised graft?
And I had to think of Sweden, because funnily enough Sweden also has a huge problem with Somali immigrants. For exactly the same reasons. In more jaded and cynical places the problem wouldn´t have arisen in the first place. Certainly not in Soviet Russia where Lenin had famously proclaimed that “trust is good but control is even better”. Maybe I am wrong about all that but when I hear Somalis, Sweden comes to mind and when I hear Minnesota also Sweden comes to mind.
True enough, but the real problem with this is that when Kristi Noem hears the word “Somalis,” she reaches for her pistol.
Which is why wine stewards are required to wear bullet proof aprons when serving her. :)
Hmmm… Napa Valley Camo? Sounds a bit Art Nouveau to me.
{pulls out a fully loaded Malbec held in the ad hoc bandoleer of my Sam Browne belt}
“Careful with that donor Kristi. He might be loaded.”
“I hear you Mz Pelosi. I’ll handle him with kid gloves.”
That and the word ‘dogs’-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R93dXRAOw_w (27 secs)
I counted fifty-six shots in that clip. So, she has a super sized ammo clip for that pistol too!
I still think that she and her “Right Hand (Back Door) Man” purchased the Lolita Express jet from the estate of Jeffry “Eugenics” Epstein for their “Official [Monkey] Business” flights.
Amigo, you mean {a beautiful Afghan Hound who was the winner of a Paris Hilton lookalike contest, was sadly caught in the crossfire and being dumb as a rock, didn’t realize it had been struck} tomales, no?
It’s a call back to my ICEsatzgruppen reference the other day. But, but, it could be tomales if you’re referring to the local favourite hot sauce, Pistol Pete, which condiment didn’t last too long after the ‘original’ Pistol Pete was traded to the Utah team. (Actually, the whole team was “traded” to Utah.)
See: https://texaspete.com/products/original-hot-sauce/
Also: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pete_Maravich
You say Somalis
I say tomales
Lets haul the whole thing off!
Do they play cricket in Somalia? I think the adolescent bird dog she shot & killed was named Cricket.
…speaking of triggers….
Happiness is a warm gun? Somehow I don’t see Mz Noem as Mother Superior.
So how many Somalis has Kristi shot with her pistol? Just want to see what constitutes a “real problem”.
Well, the original Einsatzgruppen, upon which evidently the ICEsatzgruppen are modeled, were the “pointguards” in the Holy Work of “purifying” the population of the Reich. I imagine that to the Oligarchs et. al. who guide our policy, the hapless Somalis fit the definition of “Untermenschen.” A defining characteristic of any burgeoning authoritarianism is that the quality of the law steadily degrades over time. The time for “liquidating” the deplorables of any and all races, creeds, etc. will arrive. History shows this to be almost inevitable.
Stay safe. Take care as to which baals you bow down to. Some of them are harsh and pitiless task masters.
Its all good until the Shih Tzu gets hit with a fan of fire.
That’s When I Reach for My Revolver
Or maybe this is only a story because the perpetrators are Somalis?
The nurse providing my mother’s post-discharge home care started her visit a few weeks ago by informing us it would be her last and handing us a letter from her company stating that as of the next day they would be unable to provide home health services. She (and the physical therapist we were working with, who we never got to see again) was given 24 hours notice that she was losing her job. Billing fraud, as it turns out, and needless to say the service providers knew nothing* about how the corporate office was billing Medicare for their services.
It’s a sizable agency, I’d guess maybe the third largest home health agency in a metro area of over two million, it’s been around quite a while (they did my father’s post-surgical PT some 25 years ago), it was shut down overnight due to Medicare fraud…and it’s not a story, even locally. Not a “focus of MAGA,” not even a mention in the local paper. Fraud’s too commonplace to be news, on its own.
—
*I’m told by a friend who’d referred several patients to the Somali agency that this was true in MSP too. The services provided by the facilities she’s referred to were first-rate and the staff was blindsided by the news.
Somali fraud case: A story of cultural assimilation?
From Rick Scott’s Medicare fraud to Brett Farve’s relief fund fraud to Trump’s everything-fraud, it seems this Somali community has really made themselves into true patriotic Americans.
So Mary Tyler Moore was Swedish?
Sorry. Those opening shots of her 70s sitcom may have been the only time she was ever in Minnesota. Other Swedes would include Bob Dylan and NC’s Hudson.
Garrison Keillor did go on quite a lot about the Scandinavian bachelor farmers but I believe those were Norwegian and he eventually remarried someone from Norway.
But Norway/Sweden all run together for we Carolinians (I’ve been to both–and enjoyed my visits).
“Garrison Keillor…eventually remarried someone from Norway.”
Well, Keillor’s second wife, Ulla Skaerved, whom he divorced in 1991, is Danish and his third (and current) wife, Jenny Lind Nilsson, was born in Minnesota. (Nilsson is, apparently, a Swedish surname.)
Oops–sorry got that one wrong.
A onetime devotee I’ve lost track of Keillor these days.
Nilsson = Nils’ son = Njall’s son = Niall’s son = Niel’s son etc., so
Nilsson, Nilssen, Nielsen, McNeil, O’Neill etc. All one big happy multicultural clan.
The Nilsson spelling is most commonly Swedish but could also be Norwegian.
I have said this all before and I will say it again. And FYI – I am very happy that the lid has been blown off this scandalous fraud that has been going on in a big way for the past 10-15 years. I have seen this week more attention being paid to this issue than all the preceding years combined. And no, it is not just Somalis, although to be fair, when my office staff does call these places back to ask questions, they are often met with “Sorry, we do not speak English here” answers. But trust me, there are all kinds of native born Americans in on the grift.
Just this AM, after the long holiday weekend, I am met with 52 documents to sign. Many of them are home health orders, but many are also for things like oxygen, wheelchairs etc. Because most PCPs are so busy they just sign these in one fell swoop without really looking through them.
Because I have a Sherlock Holmes type as my office manager – I am given 2 piles……one pile, the MINORITY….have clear documentation in the chart that I have discussed these orders with the involved patient. The other pile is basically we cannot locate how/why/when/where this item has been ordered. Many times, this has been ordered by a specialist, etc. or other explainable and innocent reasons. But I would dare say 5-10% of the time, absolutely no indication of what is going on. She spends a good deal of time tracking this stuff down with the patient. However, many of these are just outright fraud from the beginning. This AM – orders for a wheelchair for a patient dead for 2 years, orders for home oxygen for a patient that has been in a nursing home for 3 years, podiatry diabetic supplies for a younger patient on Medicare but without diabetes, etc. These are outright fraud – the patients are not ever going to see these services. But the money will most assuredly be sent by the agencies for these expenses. It is over and over and every day.
I have in the past complained loudly – and have been told by corporate admin types to shut up – that this is the best jobs program ever. I have been asked in the past to stop having my staff chase this down….too much time consumption and no benefit to the clinic, etc. MBAs think in a very different way. As I reported earlier this year, for the first time ever in my life in February or so, we turned some of these over to the CMS Office in DC and for the first time ever someone actually talked to me and we have continually sent them things and we have been getting routine follow up. This has been totally different than in the past.
There are routine and common stories and accounts in the big cities of America where these fraudsters are being exposed for tens of millions in each scheme. Nothing in any way ever seems to be done about it – so maybe it really is a jobs program. The Somalis may be involved heavily, but make no mistake they are most certainly not alone.
At some point, all the griping about high premiums, and how expensive the health care system began to be tuned out by me. When we have the billions upon billions of dollars every year being siphoned off in fraud – it all becomes just too discordant to contemplate.
‘Ghost resorts’: as hundreds of ski slopes lie abandoned, will nature reclaim the Alps? The Guardian
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Colorado ski resorts are going through the bleakest winter since 1976 from what I’ve been reading, with Xmas-Now Year break being essentially broke on account of high temps and not much snow. This week is usually a big earner for ski resorts.
I’m imagining that’s one of the reasons for European ski resorts being abandoned, being so much closer to glaciers than most American ski resorts, with the snow line going up-just like the glaciers.
There are a few ski resorts I once plied my traits at near LA that have been abandoned for decades, Krakta Ridge & Mt Waterman.
Closer to home, Wolverton ski resort in Sequoia NP has also been closed for many decades, although I never got the chance to ski there.
I was at the mall before xmas sitting on Santa’s lap, and he asked awkwardly ‘not-so little boy, what would you like from Santa?’
‘5 feet of fresh snow in the Sierra’
…to his credit the big fella in a red suit that would strange on anybody else, came through
Sadly, a ski patroller @ Mammoth died from injuries sustained in an avalanche a few days ago. They typically make less per hour than a fast food employee does in Cali, and no wonder the ski patrollers @ Telluride have gone on strike this Xmas break, getting paid peanuts doesn’t cut it in a ski town.
Think of the looming stranded capital at all the ritzy resorts in the temperate climate zones!?
The irony of Telluride pro-patrol and The Lost People of Mountain Village is poignant….
Whoda thunk the rapture would occur in Telluride*?
* a loose adaptation of ‘to hell you ride’
Some of us try to avoid ski slopes because of that avalanche thing. This isn’t much of a problem around here.
Old Hollywood would generate movie snow using untoasted Corn Flakes. Maybe a solution?
In “The Wizard of Oz” to simulate snow in one scene they used asbestos.
#IzabellaKaminskaTweet
“A country imposing export controls isn’t a sign of weaponisation or power if the country in question is FAR from a net exporter or net global supplier. If anything it’s a form of capital control to prevent wealth leaking out and a mechanism to protect its export oriented growth model.”
… did I miss something, or did she just suggest that China is FAR from a net exporter or net global supplier?
If China isn’t such, then who is?!
When I was growing up and didn’t finish the food on my plate, there was always the same old same old from my parents…
‘people are starving in China*, be glad for what you have!’
And they weren’t lying, the Great Leap Forward towards starvation killed 30 million or more~
I wonder if older Americans (did I just admit that) are kind of stuck in a mental time warp, where China was such a backwards place, they couldn’t even feed themselves, let alone do all of the amazing feats in rebuilding their country and becoming the manufacturer to the world?
* your country may vary
Your country may vary, lol, “Africa” was the example have-not conjured up in order to disappear offending green vegetables from my short-pants days dinner plate. Our St Bernard, faithfully positioned under the dining table, and always ready to assist a young friend in his path to dessert, was the primary beneficiary of this lesson.
Stand and de-liver!
I’m like 6 and open the door of the fridge and staring me in the face on styrofoam is some cow’s brain that will later be breaded and baked and served surreptitiously to our Irish Setter Nero in an under the table deal. Mom’s none the wiser, asks if i’d like seconds?
My mother also used the image of poor starving Chinese children to make me clean my plate. But that was then and this is now: Chinese life expectancy at birth is higher than in the USA. A remarkable turnaround in only 50 years. I wonder if Chinese mothers nowadays urge their little ones to finish their healthy dinners, lest they wind up like obese diabetic uninsured Yankees.
Russian life expectancy still lags behind the USA (though Russian women are catching up fast), but I sometimes wonder if overall Russian living standards (at least in the big cities) are now higher than in the USA. Free health care, free (and excellent) education, good affordable public transport, clean safe streets, lots of high culture at low prices, a scary good military, and relatively low personal income taxes. No unemployment to speak of. Better stop here before I’m labeled a Kremlin stooge.
I do think USA and EU citizens are stuck in a mental time warp re China and Russia. Moscow is a well-run modern city. So is Shanghai (though I’ve never lived in the latter). This March we plan a family trip to check out Beijing (which in Russian is still called Peking – Пекин, oddly enough).
While they were starving in China the USA tried to embargo grain shipments. So that puts a bit of a twist on the “the starving kids in China” story that we grew up with.
Canada to it’s credit did break the seige and sent wheat. Though the days of those kind of independent actions and “rebellion” are far behind us now.
When I was growing up everyone called it Peking until it eventually was changed to Beijing. Enjoy your trip there.
Peking U is still Peking University. I believe there are other historical institutions that use old romanization scheme. Romanizing Chinese is tricky: some Chinese pronunciations don’t have exact equivalents in European languages (try, for example, looking up correct pronunciation for the name Cao Ren–a historical figure of moderate importance from 2nd-3rd century CE), not to mention Mandarin is not the only “Chinese” language. Fun fact: Korean is an officially recognized language in PRC and entire slates of official Chinese government documents are published in Korean. So official Chinese government documents use traditional Korean pronunciations of place and person names while the SK media (at least for past couple of decades) use approximations of Mandarin pronunciations in Korean for the same (They didn’t do that at least until 1990s!)
In my (tri-generational) household, Ethiopians (sadly), and my grandmother also used a peculiar invocation of starving Biafrans …
I’ve been thinking a lot about the rhetorical question: “what’s that have to do with the price of tea in China?”
Does it really suggest irrelevance in our day and age?
#MethinksNot :)
Thanks to Israel and the US we can use Gaza as an example now for our children, ooh shucks that would be anti-semitism…
With respect to silver, not overall, I guess
Perhaps that was her tack … Cheers!
Yeah. She’s full of it. China is Number Two in world silver production.
See: https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/silver-production-by-country
Since China is also, as far as I can ascertain, Number One in world industrial production, especially in silver intensive processes, then it would be logical for them to ‘capture’ their own silver production for internal development. So, she has a point there. When the London Bullion Market Association had a severe silver shortage in late 2025, China is reported to have sent them tens of millions of ounces of physical silver to shore them up. (Actually, China ‘delivered’ on orders of physical metal the LBMA was responsible for but not capable of carrying out immediately.)
The Chinese “system” that manages their commodities flows is quite interesting. Mixed economy at it’s best?
See: https://goldbroker.com/news/silver-perfectly-organized-short-squeeze-3640 (Don’t let the title fool you. It’s a mini-deep-dive into how China manages metals.)
Stay safe, don’t fear the VIX.
Thanks for this detailed response and the link, ambrit.
You’re very welcome. The world is a big and fascinating place.
Regarding the Poland and Germany border-stuff:
” “we must do everything we can to ensure that Poland remains Poland”, added the president.”
– Esse Polonum: Poland is a country that is always divided by other countries.
If they continue to antagonize Russia and Germany (thanking USA for killing the German economy, demanding reparations for WWII) it will soon be cut it half by external forces again.
It means that they know what they are doing, and how those shenanigans tend to end up, but just can’t help it.
> Those Curious Naturalists Wild Information
Crikey, rips right through my adolescent reading list. I take pains to avoid spoilers like behind-the-scenes of my favorite movies, and the private lives of artists I admire. At least with science there’s the objective aspect which can divorce the knowledge from the inherent emotion of the arts.
Except, not so with me. We moved so much I didn’t have long-term people relationships, but critters were a daily integral part of my emotional life. The highest ranking of my evaluation system applies to inter-species colloquy. I do not share this author’s view that these relationships are ‘warped’. Tinbergen is like Leopold, the joy of observation of the wild, of the wonder of nature. But yet, separate from it, in the blind. Being chased up a tree by a lion cub is one of my cherished childhood memories. Her name was Sarah.
Following the in-article link to ‘Hooked on Sonics’ was delightful, an exploration of pre-20th century experiments with sound. I would add Lissajou tuning forks, an exemplar of hysteresis with a backdoor connection to memristors. And 700 Science Experiments for Everyone, a UNESCO workbook for aspiring citizen scientists.
In one of my favorite books: Earth Abides by George Stewart, mankind mostly disappears, and the post-us novel documents a small group of survivors over decades, and there are a series of animals that build to immense populations, only to die off when they’ve exhausted local resources…
…and this was the year of the vole, for those of us living in the Sierra foothills, a gajillion of them rather all of the sudden, and I can’t remember ever seeing one except at higher mid altitudes in the Sierra until this year. A native species by the way.
Marmots only molest vehicles at one trailhead parking lot location in all of the Sierra Nevada, causing 2 legs good to take counter measures in Mineral King Valley, with the approved method to have a 10×20 foot tarp and lay it down on the ground and drive over it and then bungie cord it up into a ‘car burrito’, so the Marmot Cong can’t get into your ride’s underbelly and cut into a radiator hose to drink anti-freeze, which apparently gets them a little drunk.
If they don’t disable your car, they go on inadvertent road trips, with Pasadena, Petaluma and San Diego being popular final resting place destinations the past few years after say 6 hours in the ending compartment.
Now if your cat or dog drank just a little anti-freeze they’d be dead in no time flat. so that’s strange.
Mineral King is a geologist’s whet dream of a place and one of the features is that there are 15 sinkholes that drain out creeks and whatnot, and i’m not aware of any other sinkholes anywhere else in the Sierra.
Is the water draining out underfoot keeping the extraterrestrials alive in their dank chambers, and they utilize the Marmot Cong as their proxies in above ground hit-and-waddle beer runs?
It reminded me of The Snoring Bird by the great German/American Naturalist Bernd Heinrich. Heinrich’s dad was an animal-sourcer for the Berlin Zoo prior to the war. Snoring Bird was a fine book and remains top-of-the-pops with me.
As for Lorenz, I remember reading On Aggression which totally creeped me out. This may have been due largely to the mind altering substances I was consuming in those days. Anyway, I won’t be re-reading it.
Coincidentally, I recently saw Herzog’s doc Grizzly Man (2005):
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grizzly_Man
highly recommend! artful, sensitive portrait of naturalist Timothy Treadwell – an amazing character who spent 13 summers among the grizzlies in Alaska until…
Herzog captured Treadwell’s tragically misguided, and deeply moving passion for wild life
A cautionary tale to ‘watch and wonder’ (Tinbergen) – but not get too too close to hungry beasts
Definitely a film worth watching. Treadwell, for some incomprehensible reason, did not understand the nature of the beasts he so assiduously observed. Grizzlies are aggressively territorial predators that will often as not view humans as a threat to be attacked or a source of nourishment. I guess he never read or, if he did, failed to take to heart lessons from Stephen Herrero’s excellent book, Bear Attacks: Their Causes and Avoidance. Having once been treed by a charging mama bear, my own subsequent observations of these magnificent critters have been conducted at a distance through a lens—better for me, and better for the bear.
Herzog made the interesting choice not to broadcast the audio recording of the attack, but you can track it down on the internet – or is it a fake?
The biggest question mark in that documentary is the girlfriend: Herzog only does a sketch of her.
The Snoring Bird is a must-read. Also, another he wrote on Death in the natural world:
https://goodreads.com/en/book/show/13429570-life-everlasting
I did not enjoy this link. The author is an ignorant Savonarola.
Gerald Durrell introduced millions of people to conservation through his books about collecting expeditions and opened a pioneering zoo attempting to house animals in naturalistic surroundings and to safeguard endangered populations. He wasn’t some central casting British Imperialist: by the standards of his time, he was a bleeding heart, living for extended periods with the local population on their terms.
His brother Lawrence Durrell is not “an obscure author”, he is a major figure of mid-20th century English letters and especially of colonialism, decolonisation, alienation, displacement and loss. He and Cavafy are rightly famous. Durrell is not very fashionable (and frankly, I find him unreadable) but he is only obscure to the ill-educated.
I don’t know about her other examples of ” problematic” white male naturalists but the author seems to have a lot of non-ethological axes to grind.
Read with tongs.
Agreed. An ignorant Savonarola looks good description to me. Then, the supposed “divide” between Koch and Winogradsky. These were scientists studying different things. In the case of Koch isolation of the agent was essential to determine causal relation between pathogen and disease. This was research with medical orientation. Winogradsky was an ecologist and his research was uninterested in medicine so he did not need to isolate species as he was interested on the ecosystem. Winogradowsky was not an “Ukrainian ecologist”. He was Russian though he also had French nationality. Ignorant and idiot (the author of the article, not Winogradsky).
‘Venezuelanalysis
@venanalysis
The nerve… Oil services company and embodiment of evil Halliburton is launching international arbitration proceedings to extort money from Venezuela. There are no documents available yet, but reports speak of losses under US sanctions that forced the company to leave Vzla’
If I was Venezuela, I would declare a Force Majeure and tell Halliburton to go sort it out in DC which declared these sanctions in the first place.
Does anyone know why these companies do not sue the FedGov for violation of their Fifth Amendment rights of no takings without just compensation? If the FedGov destroys their business by changes in policies (assuming arguendo this is done with due process of law in the first instance), then fine, it can do that, but doesn’t the FedGov then have to recompense the billions in lost profits? How on earth would this be Venezuela’s legal liability? It’s clearly force majeure unless Halliburton succeeded in defining force majeure in its contract with V as expressly excluding changes in U S law.
After all, Ford and GM sued the federal govt for damages to their German factories supplying the Nazi war machine during WW2 via strategic bombing…and won.
Due Dissidence guys offer their picks for
The Biggest Winners of 2025. utube, ~15+ minutes.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lFQ8rlk_qbA
JD Vance 2028….. JD was back at the Yellowstone Club this week, no doubt hob-nobbing with Mr Schmidt of Alphabet fame, and Bill ‘we’re going to Epstein Island!!’ Gates, amongst who-knows-who-else.
Local jetport closed for scores of hours while he was here.
Wonder if he had Usha or Erika carry his DOPP kit?
Howdaphuc did Montana become a gravitational ‘power center’?
OpenAI is hiring a new Head of Preparedness to try to predict and mitigate AI’s harms Engadget
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A local friend was showing me some older 19th-20th century black and white photos of Three Rivers and environs that he had AI turn into color images and oh my gosh it makes such a difference in your appreciation when you make it more lively, but on one of the photos of a building, the writing was all in Russian on the new and improved version.
Whoops~
My response to AI uses:
50% of the time: That’s dumb.
25% of the time: That’s neat.
25% of the time: That’s awful.
Never: Wow, that’s amazing!
> I No Longer Think GLP-1s [Ozempic etc.] Are the Answer MedPage Today
I’m unclear what “food noise” is. The article refers to it three times as though readers should know but it was new to me. I read the Wikipedia page and didn’t gain much clarity. It seems to refer to several different things and can be seen as cause and/or symptom.
First for me too, but I took it to mean an urge to eat not driven by literal hunger. Like the brain saying “eat. Eat. EAT!”
My father was recently “harvested”. Staring into someone’s lifeless eyes is not an exercise I’d soon repeat.
It is amusing that as someone most familiar with this, and therefore in a place to try to prevent it, it is my father that dies for capitalism and brunch.
I’d discuss COVID with my parents every Friday at dinner. And they masked nearly always since 2020. Their friends, no one they know, has ever yet died from COVID. Every day it is 2019. Not masking running a few errands one day ultimately killed him. In world where every day no one else ever wears a mask. Oblivious.
It is small consolation that eventually, everyone is going to get what they’ve got coming. I just hope I live to see it.
I watched in abject horror as 2,483 largely complete strangers congregated in often uncomfortably close quarters on a really long cruise ship and maybe 7 of them were masked up against something wicked this way comes…
Don’t they know Covid killed John Prine!
I’ve started masking again.
No one gives me a second look, so that much is good.
I’m so sorry for your loss. Some things you just can’t prevent no matter how much you try. My sister had debilitating long Covid. Even during the worst of it she would not mask and ate out frequently with friends. I was talking with her a lot about masking to no avail. Only when she decided she was getting sick too often and too severely from what she decided were events at her grandson’s school did she decide to mask during those occasions. She now receives a once a month infusion of immunoglobulin because her immune system when tested had alarmingly few antibodies. Her doctor says she will have to get the infusions for the rest of her life. She still blames pre-Covid infections for destroying her immune system and still eats inside restaurants a lot. Thankfully with the infusions she seems to not be getting so seriously sick all the time as in the past.
I’m sorry to hear about your sister’s long COVID and the denial. When everyone else is living live like it is 2019, it can be very hard to resist. My resolve would be tested if I didn’t know the underlying data.
My favorite part about all this is I can play what-if for the rest of my life.
What if we tested when I came over for pizza and mom said he hadn’t been feeling well; they tested Sunday night after we had kabobs and I left. Would 48 hours of early treatment have saved his life? If I’d insisted he get booster shots, would that have saved his life? I was adamant that, because I mask with a P100, I have no reason to risk any more modified RNA shots, which might have sent me to the ER with early heartbeats a month later. Maybe that would have made the difference? Maybe if I took a greater interest in his health. You want your parents to be invincible; I never wanted to know. I never asked. I knew the day would come I should be involved in their health, but they’re adults, competent adults, that manage their own lives and affairs.
And I didn’t want to know.
Or did he just kill himself not masking that day, when against the odds he got COVID? Or was he destined to die from heart disease anyway, which was well controlled for 30 years?
So I’ll carry that for the rest of my life.
Life itself is a death sentence. We’re all destined to die.
I know that Tom Cruise movies aren’t for everyone, but I liked the Last Samurai, and at the end when the Emperor Meiji asked Cruise’s character how Katsumoto died, he said: “I will tell you how he lived.”
That’s all any of us can do, I guess.
Jason, my sincere condolences. I am sorry for your grief.
Nothing is worse than sparking a civil war.
–
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“Trump Might Not Invade Venezuela Yet, but What He Is Doing Is Worse”
Fortune.
Dr. Frankenplants
But Dave Friedberg, cofounder and CEO of Ohalo Genetics, said the wealth tax still amounts to an “organized government seizure of private property from citizens” who have already paid other taxes that can total 53% in California.
He said the tax flirts with socialism and represents “a slippery slope that has never gone anywhere good (see economic effects in USSR, Cuba, Venezuela, France and Norway wealth tax etc.)”
Garry Tan, CEO of tech startup accelerator Y Combinator, told the New York Post that the wealth tax would drive capital out of the state, hurt innovation, and eventually weaken support for healthcare services.
“This measure would cause a stampede of unicorns out of California to other states, which would reap the benefits of entrepreneurs, technology and jobs that California enjoys now,” he added.
And is ohalo genetics committed to cali?
https://thelaurelofasheville.com/lifestyle/eat-your-view-controlled-environment-agriculture-is-changing-the-landscape-in-wnc/
That would be no, he just digs cali.
The concerns within a concern are alao reavealing:
“One market correction, nationalization event, or prohibition of divestiture (not at all uncommon during wartime)and I am screwed for life,” Luckey posted on X.
I do wonder what the “screwed for life” might mean to a guy worth $3.5 billion. I don’t think it means to him what it probably means for most of us.
Re: Pennsylvania’s radioactive fracking waste
Business Journal Daily, Youngstown, OH: Pennsylvania Sending Fracking Waste to Ohio Injection Wells
“Pennsylvania has far fewer underground Class II injection wells than neighboring Ohio, which has become a major destination for oil and gas wastewater disposal from surrounding states, according to the Environmental Protection Agency and state regulatory data.”
https://businessjournaldaily.com/pennsylvania-sending-fracking-waste-to-ohio-injection-wells/
In the Ohio statehouse, it’s just fine and dandy for our state to be the repository for radioactive fracking waste from PA, WV and other states that prohibit or strictly limit the number of injection wells within their own borders while fracking away ceaselessly.
P.S. — For those interested, SaveOhioParks.org is an excellent grassroots group that fights fracking on public lands in Ohio.
In the Permian, disposal of waste in old wells can be an issue. There, the waste is primarily salt water, and in cases where the disposal well is close to a producing well, it’s quite possible that the disposed saltwater will turn up in the nearby well’s production, increasing expense and possibly reducing production. That is heavily regulated in the New Mexican portion of the Permian, and demonstration of a reasonable possibility of such contamination is grounds for the state’s Oil Conservation Commission to deny a permit to use the disposal well.
In Pennsylvania and Ohio, we’re dealing with mystery chemicals plus radioactive waste that flows not into other oil wells but into public and private water wells, poisoning the drinkers of that water. As this very recent article from Inside Climate News indicates, Pennsylvania still doesn’t regulate it. Ohio’s regulation is so lax, waste can be disposed of in landfills without testing for radioactivity because of a special exemption granted to this type of waste.
Ohio: first in college football and the corruption of its legislature.
From I No Longer Think GLP-1s Are the Answer
What about repeat exposure to a level three biohazard?
That’s without a doubt a violation of medical ethics, and the entire profession should forever feel deep shame.
James Li and Kurt Metzger pick up on the story about PE moving into youth sports.
The Jimmy Dore show, utube, ~12+ minutes.
Here’s Why Wall Street Is BANNING You From Recording Your Own Kids!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LgYRRwbaESY
From The FDA Often Doesn’t Test Generic Drugs for Quality Concerns, So ProPublica Did
In today’s edition of casual murder
Basic, common sense quality control includes random samples. This isn’t up for any kind of debate or discussion.
It might be you have some other reasons for not conducting testing, but you cannot claim that the drugs are safe as is without testing. That’s just magical thinking.
And this woman was in change of this for decades.
What a travesty this country is.
Somebody is testing, at least
On today’s Dialogue Works podcast Col. Jacques Baud: Is the West Finally Waking Up? at the 22:00 minute mark Jacques Baud explains Swiss democratic voting every three months.
(Transcript)
You see, you you’re exactly the opposite of a normal uh due process
uh in the um in in in a democratic system. It’s exactly the complete
opposite as what you should have in in a democracy. And that of course in itself
raises all questions. In any case uh in Switzerland a lot of people are trying
to to act at a political level and and there is a second levels a second level
in Switzerland as well because right now as you know Switzerland is not part of the EU
that’s where that’s why people are allowed to raise money uh in in Switzerland for me but uh the government
would like to get closer to the EU and wants to sign an agreement a cooperation
agreement agreement with the EU. And now you have a lot of people who are opposed to that because they think that
being too close of the EU would um
prevent some democratic rights in in Switzerland. As you know in Switzerland
uh the the ultimate decision comes always to the people. The people votes
four times a year on various issue, local issue, state issue, I mean state,
it’s a canton, it’s called in canton in Switzerland and federal issues.
Meaning that every three months the Swiss citizen is called to decide on a
variety. It’s something like 10 or 15 items that may range from uh buying a
new uh major weapon system like a
fighter for instance an aircraft or it’s it might be uh extending some
highway someplace or it might be to uh to build a bridge somewhere or to decide
on on um on treaties or whatever. And so the Swiss citizen has to go vote for uh
every 3 months on those issues and they decide the people decide you know in
Switzerland even the people decide on their own taxes because at the end you they ask okay if
we buy this we will raise the tax are you accept do you accept this or not and
the people may accept or not for instance the Swiss people as were was asked to add or or not uh an additional
uh mandatory week of of um of vacation for every
every year. Normally by law in any uh in any um company or where you you job you
are you are entitled to have three weeks vacation per year. So that’s standard. That’s mandatory by law. The company may
offer more but they cannot offer less unless you are you agree with that but
they they they cannot oblige you to have only two weeks vacation minimum is three weeks and recently Swiss people had to
decide whether or not it should be four weeks vacation and the Swiss people
decide no we don’t want an additional week of vacation because that would
reduce competitiveness of the companies or the different firms and all that. So
the the Swiss citizen is used to uh to to decide on very important matter that
impact their own life and they they want to have this right and that’s how the
Swiss democracy works. But if Switzerland were in the EU, then
the laws of the EU would take precedence over the decision made in Switzerland
(End of quoted transcript)
(Huck Finn voice) Maybe this democratic stuff has a chance, if properly implemented.
That’s what they do, their trick list has grown threadbare and we can see what is underneath. The Zionists are committing Genocide.
There is no getting around that.
Husseini
#EyeRoll