Nepali mountaineer Kami Rita Sherpa summits Everest for record 32nd time Anadolu Agency
A timelapse showing the incredible movement of a growing vine, exhibiting both nastic movement to find, and then a thigmotropic response to grasp and hold.
📽: Roger P Hangarter pic.twitter.com/BBPAp9os7j
— Wonder of Science (@wonderofscience) May 14, 2026
Empty Waymo taxis have been invading Atlanta neighborhoods and circling cul-de-sacs for hours early in the morning pic.twitter.com/rBx85f8OLv
— Dexerto (@Dexerto) May 15, 2026
;
The original Doom soundtrack is officially in the Library of Congress Engadget
We still can’t see dark matter. But what if we can hear it? Space.com
Those Goddamn Federalist Papers HOGELAND’S BAD HISTORY
Tick that causes meat allergy, other rare virus is spreading: What symptoms to watch for The Hill
Climate/Environment
Lurking below the surface in the equatorial Pacific is possibly the most impressive blob of above average ocean temperatures we’ve ever recorded since we’ve had the ability to measure this stuff. When that enormous concentration of bath water reaches the surface over the coming… pic.twitter.com/Olip0bQwRN
— Matthew Gross (@HurricaneAddict) May 17, 2026
Declare climate crisis a global public health emergency, experts tell WHO The Guardian
Fire is transforming the West’s public lands Colorado Newsline
Do renewables make electricity cheaper or more expensive? Bright Spots
Amid the fertiliser crisis, Africa has a chemical-free option: Agroecology Al Jazeera
Ebola
Epidemic of Ebola Disease caused by Bundibugyo virus in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Uganda determined a public health emergency of international concern World Health Organization (press release)
The reports of unlinked #Ebola cases in Kampala and a case in Kinshasa are deeply concerning.
Kampala and Kinshasa are densely populated cities with millions of residents and major regional and international transit hubs. Combined with ongoing transmission in mining towns with… https://t.co/7rU4Tp5X6X
— Krutika Kuppalli, MD FIDSA (@KrutikaKuppalli) May 17, 2026
Public Health Experts Point to Trump Aid Cuts as WHO Declares Emergency Over Ebola Outbreak in DRC, Uganda Common Dreams
In Ebola outbreak, a number of Americans in the Congo believed to have had exposure to suspected cases STAT. “…there is an effort afoot to get some Americans out of the DRC quickly. These efforts are likely made more difficult by the fact that one of the facilities that can quarantine people suspected of being infected with a high-consequence pathogen like Ebola and care for them if they are infected is currently housing Americans who were passengers on the MV Hondius, the cruise ship on which there was a recent hantavirus outbreak.”
Hantavirus
Water
US plan for Colorado River could cut up to 40% supply for Arizona, California and Nevada The Guardian
China?
Fact Sheet: President Donald J. Trump Secures Historic Deals with China, Delivering for American Workers, Farmers, and Industry The White House
Lai says Taiwan will not be ‘sacrificed or traded away’ after Trump remarks Focus Taiwan
Chinese Hegemony is Not Happening…Un-Diplomatic
Beijing draws the line on digital dollars East Asia Forum
India
India bets on data centres even as water, energy-use concerns mount Mongabay
Syraqistan
Israel to raise military compound on ruins of UNRWA office it razed TRT World
In Iraqi Desert, Two Israeli Outposts Were Kept Secret for Months New York Times
ICC Prosecutor Asks for Arrest Warrants for Israeli Officials, Source Says Haaretz
Israel’s northern shock: Hezbollah exposes the limits of ‘Arrows of the North’ The Cradle
***
From Mutual Suspicion to Political Embrace: How the U.S. Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Pakistan Drop Site
Pakistan’s New Logic of Limited War May Not Keep War Limited War on the Rocks
***
Trump’s Hormuz ship insurance facility has done $0 business FT
⚡️JUST IN
Iran has created an Insurance Company to guarantee safe passage through the Strait of Hormuz
Vessels pay their Insurance Premiums in Bitcoin
This move will hurt the World’s largest Marine insurers pic.twitter.com/80iGCqmnKW
— Iran Observer (@IranObserver0) May 16, 2026
Cracking empire: FBI offer huge bounty for ex-military operative who defected to Iran The Canary
European Disunion
EU’s foreign policy chief warns US, China, Russia seek to weaken united Europe Anadolu Agency
Spanish PM Sánchez’s party suffers historic loss in key Andalusia election Euronews
Africa
Trump Claims US Military Operation Killed ISIS Leader in Nigeria Antiwar
Old Blighty
Prime ministers keep getting forced out of Downing Street. Could fixing poverty save them? Big Issue. Any politician who effectively finds a way to go against neoliberalism could be elected for life.
New Not-So-Cold War
Putin signs decree easing Russian citizenship for residents of Moldova’s breakaway Transnistria region Anadolu Agency
Why the Russians would feel the need to hit anything in Kiev in retaliation for Ukraine’s demonstration of military impotence earlier is beyond me, but never interrupt your enemy when he’s making a mistake.
— Armchair Warlord (@ArmchairW) May 18, 2026
The Spoiled Prince of Kiev is Bleeding Tarik Cyril Amar
With Friends Like These… Landmarks: A Journal of International Dialogue
INCOME INEQUALITY IN RUSSIA HAS REACHED ITS HIGHEST LEVEL IN 18 YEARS. Natylie’s Place: Understanding Russia
Imperial Collapse Watch
Technocratic Takeover: Dismantling Nations for AI Control with Fiorella & Vanessa Beeley WBAI
Defence groups clamour to delay US ban on Chinese rare earth magnets FT
US Needs Another Decade to Fix $1.2 Trillion Rare Earth Crisis Bloomberg
South of the Border
BREAKING: US armed forces & Bolivian police are preparing a joint operation to kidnap Evo Morales and massacre the indigenous communities in the vicinity.
Police officers opposed to the plan have leaked documents confirming the operation. pic.twitter.com/ZFvK7ggwMn
— Ollie Vargas (@Ollie_Vargas_) May 16, 2026
Venezuela hands Maduro’s financier to US in show of loyalty to Trump Intellinews
The Economic Consequences of the War Phenomenal World
Trump 2.0
How Trump’s New Counterterrorism Strategy Puts You at Risk The Intercept
GOP Funhouse
Iran War vs. Epstein Files Ken Klippenstein. “What Gallrein represents is something both parties have been quietly building toward for twenty-five years: the national security state as its own source of political legitimacy, floating above democratic accountability, not answerable to the public it claims to serve.”
Senator Bill Cassidy Loses Senate Primary in Louisiana American Conservative
Republican politicians blocking the recovery of America’s national icon, the American bison, are not true conservatives Ben Goldsmith
Big Brother Is Watching You Watch
What’s at Stake in Chatrie v. United States Tech Policy Press
Mamdani
Filling the Gap Ghost Runner. “Mamdani and Menin’s Status Quo Budget.”
MAHA
After USDA cuts, complaints over food safety spike Investigate Midwest
AI
AI as the new avatar of American capitalism Blood in the Machine
MALTA OFFERS FREE CHATGPT PLUS TO ALL ADULTS AFTER AI COURSE Malta News Agency
The US Is Using AI to Hunt Down Insider Trading on Polymarket Wired
Casino Nations
‘They can shape the outcomes they claim to forecast’ – could Polymarket influence an election? The Nerve
Guillotine Watch
Monopoly Round-Up: The Rage of the Billionaires Is Coming Matt Stoller
Industrial Capitalism Needed Us. Primitive Accumulation Doesn’t. Un-Diplomatic. That’s what they think.
Economy
Falling wages, spiraling credit card debt Stephen Semler
The housing market is starting to look K-shaped too Yahoo! Finance
Mr. Market Plays Disciplinarian
Bond market rout deepens as investors fear ‘stagflationary shock’ from higher oil prices – business live The Guardian
Class Warfare
We’ve Optimized Fragility, Failure, Denial–and Rage Charles Hugh Smith
Fisker went bankrupt and owners built open source car company from the ashes Electrek
Antidote du jour (via):
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.
Re: Israel’s Iraqi bases. What a great place to launch false flag attacks.
“EU’s foreign policy chief warns US, China, Russia seek to weaken united Europe”
Frankly speaking, Kaja Kallas has it all wrong like she usually does. If the EU is weak, then the blame can be pinned on the decisions coming out of Brussels more than Washington, Beijing or Moscow. The EU leadership is like that cartoon of the kid on the bicycle who leans forward to put a stick in his wheels-
https://www.reddit.com/r/funny/comments/11kede/wat/
Love the antidote. “I’ll be Yoko, you be John.”
Two cats living their best lives, evah! Their owner? Oh, they are hard at work so that they can support those cats in their life of luxury.
Which is as it should be!
I found some MSM buried in a cupboard and looked it up, having no idea. It is an odorless, tasteless, sulphur dietary supplement.
I also found that a quarter teaspoon a day will keep the ticks away! As a Lyme sufferer I know a thing or 2 about ticks.
I am feeding it to my cats as well, as there is bobcat fever in the local tick population as well. Check it out.
Wait…. what? You found some MainStream Media in a cupboard?
/;)
That is curious indeed! I always find my Main Street Media in mass quantities in silos.
Thanks for mentioning this. Will definitely look into it. Spouse currently taking doxycycline for concurrent cases of erlichiosis and anaplasmosis from tick bite(s). We check at least once a day, so tick wasn’t attached for the 24-48 hours generally thought necessary for infection. Symptoms started a couple weeks after bites. Fever, fatigue, headache, muscle aches, GI discomfort (but no vomiting or diarrhea). No rashes. If you’ve had a tick bite and later come down with flu-like symptoms, insist on being tested for tick-borne diseases.
Sorry for your spouse’s illness. It’s no fun.
I am not a physician, but I can share something from personal experience, I think.
If you’ve been bitten by a tick and come down with flu-like symptoms within a few weeks, not only should you insist on being tested for tick-borne illnesses, you should insist on a short-term prescription for doxycycline until the test results come back. Fortunately, most of the bacterial tick-borne diseases that result in this type of symptom are supposedly susceptible to doxycycline.
If you have the bad luck to land upon a physician who is hesitant to prescribe it seek another physician if possible. It took me two physicians to get the doxycycline, and by the time I got it in me, I was very sick. Two or three days can make a big difference in outcome.
Again, I’m not a physician, so take advice at your own discretion.
Best of luck and may your spouse get well soon. If caught quickly enough, I think the diseases you mention will leave no permanent damage. Try not to get re-infected. Some studies have shown that exposure to tick-bite is a human behavioral issue – as in, if you garden, or do a lot of hiking, or dog-walking, etc. Once bitten, if humans don’t change behaviors for the better, the likelihood of a repeat tick-bite stays high. And even though many ticks are not infected with anything at all, the risk is never zero. DEET!
I’ve never heard of ingesting anything that repels ticks with any degree of certainty. DEET or permethrin applied externally will do the job.
Thanks, debug, spouse is improving (fingers crossed). Good suggestion on the short-term prescription. It took us a week to get seen and then five more days for lab results. If there’s a next time, we’ll know better. And thanks for the tips below!
You’re welcome. Hope things continue to improve. ‘Summer flu’ is the tip-off to look for tick-borne illness, even if you haven’t seen a tick. I got bitten in the middle of my back and never saw the dang thing, just the results.
From your comment, it seems that your spouse was subject to co-infection with more than one disease. This is not uncommon at all, these days.
The incidence of co-infections is bad and rising. As in, if you were bitten by a tick infected with one disease-causing orgnaism, the chances are favorable that the tick was infected with two or more dieases. So, if a person tests positive for one tick-borne illness, be on the lookout for a secondary or even tertiary infection.
The co-infection that’s harder to detect and can cause longer-term troubles is babesiosis. It’s on the rise everywhere, too, like Lyme disease. In some places as many or more than half the ticks that carry Lyme disease also carry babesiosis. Chronic babesiosis essentially acts like a blood disease in many respects. Watch for blood test readings like unexplained anemia or unusually slightly-off blood counts, etc., as time passes and if your spouse doesn’t stay healthy in the longer-term. Initial infection in babesiosis can cause high fever, but not always.
And, as always, Lyme can be stealthy in the beginning, so continue to check for Lyme if symptoms persist after clearing the others. Again, I’m not a physician, just an experienced and well-read patient. Be careful out there!
Thanks Stephen V
and so sorry lcm.
No one deserves a tick-borne illness. They can be horrible. Lyme, Alpha-Gal, terrible viruses (Bourbon, Heartland, etc…). All of them, including ehrlichiosis, etc, can disable or kill you. Just avoid tick-bytes if at all possible. Viruses can be transmitted within minutes of beginning of a tick bite, and Lyme disease, in spite of prolific misinformation to the contrary, DOES NOT require 24 hrs of tick attachment to be transferred. Willy Burgdorfer himself, the discoverer of the spirochete that causes Lyme Disease, and the dissector of more ticks in his career than probably any other human being ever, said in an interview that up to %10 of the wild-caught ticks he dissected already had the spirochetes in their saliva, not just in their stomachs. That means that sometimes, but not always, a tick does not have to regurgitate its stomach contents into your bloodstream to inject spirochetes (that’s what the 24-48 hours is about.) And, in animal experiments, it has been shown to only take ONE spirochete to start a systemic infection. At least hundreds of published victim’s accounts of Lyme disease provide the anecdata that supports Dr. Burgdorfer’s opinion.
As we head into peak tick season I thought I’d add a couple of things folks might find useful.
Number one best way to keep ticks from biting is to wear light-colored long pants and long socks, and then tuck your pants legs into your socks. keep your shirt tucked in too. Spray your shoes, the top of your socks all the way around, and your waistline all the way around with the hi-concentration DEET (“Deep Woods” equivalent.) Reapply every 2 hours or so. Light color clothing helps you ID any seeking, crawling ticks to get them off before they get any opportunities to bite. They can be very small and fool you into thinking they are seeds stuck to your socks – so beware.
Permethrin is likely better than DEET, but if you have cats be aware that permethrin is toxic to cats. If you spray permethrin, do it far away from anywhere your cats will be. Supposedly, once dried into your clothing, permethrin is not dangerous for cats. I don’t take the chance my babies might get even some minor distress, so use DEET instead.
Also, cats are subject to the worst possible outcome from a tickbite, so treat them constantly during the months of May-October, at least, with anti-flea and anti-tick treatments. Cytauzoon felis infection, or “bobcat fever,” though rare in most places, is almost always fatal to domestic cats.
The full news report on the wandering Waymos is worth watching to the end for the report that a recall was ordered to update software because the Waymos drive through flooded roads.
Maximum Overdrive, trucks circling Dixie boy truckstop
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QQRkNNFMcQk
Would be hilarious if you could attract Waymo’s by playing AC/DCs full album.
“WHO MADE WHO…?”
“WHO MADE YOU…?”
Maximum Overdrive still holds up to this day, especially the young newly weds and the Bride who is super fn annoying. “TRAVISSSSS, what are you doing????”
Has anybody checked for sightings of a comet ☄️ over Atlanta?
Also, what’s with them going into that rich looking neighborhood?
My first Waymo spotted in Metairie a couple weeks ago. It was pulled off on the side of Bonnabel Blvd with the driver looking confused. Freaky all the cameras and gizmos.
Thinking of starting a Peoples Flock and Peoples Waymo where we set up around rich peoples houses and map all the corruption they do in broad daylight.
#AMERICANREVOLUTION2
That annoying newlywed is Lisa Simpson. One of her amazing first roles.
I just wonder whether the Waymo mapping software has some erroneous information that makes the self-driving cars believe there is an exit through the neighbourhood that would allow them to reach places with high customer turnover while avoiding rush morning hour traffic. Thus they surge ahead, follow the path to the cul-de-sac, find out that there is obviously no exit, turn back, and then presumably recalculate their route.
Years ago I experienced something similar with a mapping software on my mobile phone, when it suggested taking a side road which I knew ended in a staircase impassable for a car.
It was speculated on r/Atlanta that the waymos were trying to avoid paying to park by circling in the cul-de-sac.
They are still struggling with vision. When people drive, all senses can come into play all at once.
I saw this one day. The Waymo was stalled on a flooded road after a monsoon rain that runs through the normally dry wash/greenway in south Scottsdale, AZ. Although it was most likely empty, I was imaging a customer yelling desperately at the car to stop.
And being from the Midwest, there’s no way the Waymos could function in a Chicago blizzard or ice rain. Ice buildup would stop that spinning thing pretty quick. And driving on ice? Forget about it.
Matt Stoller’s post is a very good read and the clip of Eric Schmidt getting booed at the UofA commencement speech is heartening. I appreciate it that Stoller keeps a useful portion of his blog free to read and puts the stuff that is more for antitrust pros under the paywall.
The Stoller article is very good. As if to confirm his reporting about Billionaire outrage toward the little people, here’s Mr. Wonderful calling out 2 Utah girls as potential Chinese spies, Spies!, because they don’t want his data center built in Utah. Jimmy Dore show. utube.
Utah Girls Opposing Data Centers HUMILIATE Kevin O’Leary For Calling Them Spies!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nkmf9-Dg-Ms
The Oligarghs have bought out every government they can, why shouldn’t they get what they want? We have the best government money can buy, and until people take back power they will continue to be psychopathic.
The legitimacy of such an arrangement has to challenged. I would love to see a poll on how corrupt the average American sees the system right now.
“AI and tech CEOs seem almost proudly villainous. Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei routinely says that half of white collar jobs are going to disappear because of his technology. Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, noted that “AI will probably most likely lead to the end of the world, but in the meantime, there’ll be great companies.” And Alex Karp, CEO of Palantir, said during an earnings call that “This is a revolution. Some people can get their heads cut off.”
Then:
“This same derangement syndrome is recurring, only much broader. Over the past few weeks, New York City mayor Zohran Mamdani has been proposing a tax on vacation homes in New York City to balance the budget. As part of this campaign, Mamdani did a video outside Citadel billionaire Ken Griffin’s apartment, which Griffin had purchased in 2019 for $238 million.
Griffin went on a rampage, organizing the New York Governor, much of the New York City press, and even Donald Trump, to harass Mamdani. He claimed that Mamdani had put his life in danger…”
He’s worried about his life, but everybody else should let those billionaire comrades say whatever they want about the lives of people.
Well, the Waymos went down to Georgia
They was lookin’ for a cul-de-sac to circle
They was in a bind ’cause technology was way behind
And they was willing to make it an ordeal
When they came across this Atlanta suburb
Circling a cul-de-sac and playin’ by bot
And the neighbors jumped up on this empty verve
And said “Waymo, let me tell you what”
(feel free to add another lyric)
Stupid ass waymos driving down the road
Rando algorithm tellm where to go
Go around the circle and round and round you go
What’s the yellow plastic thing no child no
(Fiddle solo)
NC readership, I’ve been working on an economics primer for the past few months. This is the comprehensive document that I wish I would have had much earlier in my study of economics. These first 4 parts cover the current status and history of 11 schools of political economy. If anyone cares to read and give me notes I would greatly appreciate it. My plan is to really try to hone these first sections which cover the foundation of the text before moving on (well I already have somw rough drafts) to the analytical parts.
https://larsonist.blogspot.com/2026/05/political-economy-primer.html
I just had a quick glance through – this is an excellent idea, very worthwhile. Its surprisingly rare to find any writing that takes a birds eye view of all the various economic schools of thought. My only comment so far is that ordo-liberalism might be worthy of mention.
Thanks for this recommendation. I’ve found that my analysis is very Anglo-American biased. I’ve tried to intentionally look outside of the English language, but this one flew under the radar. Some googling tells me that Eucken’s Principles of Economic Policy still to this day doesn’t have a full English translation.
Theoretical considerations aside, did you consult this excellent review on practical implementation?
That made me smile. Almost as good as his essay on flatulence.
Looks very promising! Good luck!
Nice start. Would be a great textbook.
I’d also at least footnote the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the 17 Sustainable Development Goals in your section on Ecological Economics.
Kudos! Thank you.
You might consider adding the Physiocrats up front.
What a great effort!
I can’t respond to all the suggestions one by one, but these are all good. I appreciate the help. I knew I could count on the readership here to provide valuable feedback and be interested in the topic. I’ve been pestering my friends and family who all think I’m weirdo for doing this.
I’m trying to be as comprehensive as possible, but I know I can’t possibly include everything or get it all right. I admit I’ve been learning a lot putting this together. I’m no academic so this is all part-time work for me. And I’m no great writer. It’s been an interesting experience to force myself to look into my own blind spots. For example, I never really studied Austrian economics on it’s own merits since I think Praxeology is anti-scientific (it is but I’ll get to that part later in the text).
Labors of love are what the world needs, though more than it might deserve.
I found this book to be very informative.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Ideas_from_Dead_Economists
I found this book to be very enlightening:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Armchair_Economist
Published 1993. Has a memorable chapter which clearly explains in layman’s terms why tariffs are only subsidies to certain industries at the expense of others and are economically inefficient in the long term.
Your devotion to neoliberalism is duly noted.
re: CANNES Festival 1968
CineArts post:
“(…)
In May 1968, the 21st Cannes Film Festival became the site of a historic shutdown that mirrored the civil unrest, student occupations, and general strikes that were paralyzing France. While the festival initially attempted to maintain its schedule, the atmosphere shifted as filmmakers, led by Jean-Luc Godard and François Truffaut, demanded the event cease in solidarity with the workers and students protesting in Paris and across the country.
The confrontation peaked on May 18 inside the Grande Salle of the Palais des Festivals. Godard, Truffaut, Claude Lelouch, and others occupied the stage to prevent the screening of Carlos Saura’s “Peppermint Frappé”. In a chaotic physical struggle, filmmakers and protesters clung to the theater’s red velvet curtains, forcibly keeping them closed to ensure the film could not be projected. When audience members and festival officials protested the disruption, Godard famously rebuked them, as seen in this clip, arguing that discussing cinematic techniques like tracking shots was offensive while the French working class faced a national crisis.
The pressure of the occupation, combined with the resignation of several jury members including Louis Malle and Monica Vitti, made the continuation of the festival impossible.
On May 19, 1968, at 11:00 a.m., the festival organizers officially declared the event closed. For the first and only time in its history, Cannes ended without the awarding of any prizes or the presentation of the Palme d’Or.
(…)”.
Found this on ianwelsh.net
Democratic governor axes Virginia public sector collective bargaining bill | Courthouse News Service
Democrats do these things because they’re corportatists and have abject fear of worker empowerment and solidarity. One expects this with a CIA “retiree” Spambaby, no? Recall, of course, Biden imposing concessions on railroad workers, an industry with 40% margins. At least Republicans are honest about their hatred of the working class.
For my past sins (donating way back), I get solicitations from Democrats now looking for campaign loot. Two recent ones: Alex Vindman and Josh Shapiro, both basically agents of foreign powers wanting to supposedly represent us American dupes. If this is the best the Democrat Party can do, burn it to the ground and salt it over.
The same gray wolf that was spotted in Los Angeles County in February has become the first wild wolf to enter Sequoia National Park in more than 100 years, according to the California Wolf Foundation.
The California Department of Fish and Wildlife wolf-tracking system shows that the wolf was most recently tracked entering the eastern end of the park near Mount Pickering. The wolf, BEY03F, was also the first wolf to enter L.A. County in more than 100 years. Before that, BEY03F was recorded wandering a populated area of California’s Central Valley.
“This remarkable journey to the remote backcountry of [Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks] highlights the incredible distances wolves can travel as they reclaim parts of their historic range in California,” the California Wolf Foundation wrote on social media Sunday. “Each step tells a bigger story about resilience, connectivity, and the future of wolves in our state.”
https://ktla.com/news/california/wolf-enters-sequoia-national-park-for-first-time-in-more-than-100-years/
The name California Wolf Foundation makes me think of Tex Avery’s cartoon wolf from the 1940s Warner Brothers Cartoons.
Clip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wbUpGoOjFWw
Are you sure the label isn’t BEY0wolf?
Trump has opened all national parks and forests to hunting now.
thank you for the link – wish BEY03F a safe and pleasant journey –
it’s beyond anger and sad that something like this is going on
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/aug/08/trump-authorizes-cyanide-bombs-wildlife-services
“The original Doom soundtrack is officially in the Library of Congress
And so it should. How iconic is Doom itself and how many people here have played it? Many are the hours that I spent playing Doom on a computer running Windows 3.1 and now I can’t get that music out of my head. The soundtrack was as groundbreaking as the game itself and I sometimes wonder if I should set it up again in a DOS box-
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doom_(1993_video_game)
The game is still fun, albeit feeling much more like the past than as futuristic as it did in 1993. I love to see the music recognized. It did so much to set the mood and I still have those tunes imprinted on my brain.
Man, I had forgotten how much fun this game was-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MnqLJpgq7jc (2:48 mins)
Pretty sure you can play Doom in a web browser now. Or a toothbrush.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cO-Are8053g
Or a toaster, digital camera, fax machine, bacteria (yes, seriously)…
https://canitrundoom.org/
Industrial Capitalism Needed Us. Primitive Accumulation Doesn’t.
Are these the same people who are denouncing low fertility, warning about a reduction of the population, and exhorting us to bring more children into the world lest civilization collapses?
White children, CRISPR enhanced, spawned by our tech overlords. And yes. They are.
This is really good. Thanks vao.
Re Old Blighty, the electorate not only wants an end to neoliberalism but also an end to politicians utterly bought and paid for by Zionists. Easier said than done, Corbyn was destroyed, and despite being Jewish himself, the leader of the Greens, Polanski, is facing the same anti-semitic smear accusations used so successfully on Corbyn.
Many leading Labour politicians were pro-Palestine in their youth, with receipts to show this, including Starmer, but then switched to become official friends of Israel as they climbed the greasy pole. While not as pronounced or in your face as money talks in the US, donations are increasingly a big factor in elections. The Conservatives could always rely on support from the private sector, but decades of weakening of not totally destroying unions, the main historic source of financial support for Labour, has loosened if not entirely severed those ties, and Zionists have eagerly jumped into to fill the vacuum. Burnham will be a Starmer 2.0. if elected.
Funny thing about the Green’s Zack Polanski. The establishment/media really hate him and I saw an article showing several cartoons of him and you would swear that they came out of the pages of Der Stürmer, including the oversize nose. I guess that antisemitism is OK when the main stream media do it-
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Der_St%C3%BCrmer
I am surprised that no one else has done this “smear” yet.
“Der Starmer.” Your source for Right-think.
Or when the Tories do it (2:28 Illumuniati is a response by Jacob “antisemite” Rees-Mogg to a Jewish colleague).
Charles Hugh Smith: In today’s zeitgeist, everything must be optimized or we’ll fail
I can kind of see that in the white, neoliberal PMC spheres of influence, but I think that many of us proles don’t share this vision or version of reality– subjected to it, yes, but share it? But then, most of us aren’t exactly management material.
There are a few points Smith made in his post that strongly resonate in my psyche:
— We become angry because we’re social beings who depend on trust and truth to function as a group that benefits its members and not just its leaders.
— In this universe, anger leads to redress or retribution. The current system is optimized to avoid redress by optimizing the substitution of artifice for authenticity.
— [W]hat happens when redress is set aside as needless? That leaves retribution as the only outlet for all the energy being converted from denial to anger.
I’d say that our inbred ruling-class bastards have good caused for concern, especially as a growing number of us are becoming more sympathetic if not openly supportive of the Luigis in our world.
There is a sudden increase in private warehouse prison build-outs in the US supposedly to hold only illegal aliens. And build-outs of massive data centers only the tech bros and the govt want.
Maybe they could combine the two. You could have all those detainees on bicycles pumping away to provide energy for the data center next door as human generators. And any detainee that does X thousands of miles on one of those bikes gets a Green Card.
Ramming speed! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=46LVYr3Q784 (0:1)
Maybe they could combine the two. You could have all those detainees on bicycles pumping away to provide energy for the data center next door as human generators.
Black Mirror had that n their second episode in 2011
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Black_Mirror_episodes#Series_1_(2011)
Bing lives in a society where the majority of people ride stationary bikes, to generate power for the minority who don’t. They are compensated with “merits” – a currency used to buy essentials and virtual entertainment. His bedroom is covered from floor to ceiling in screens and he watches another one as he rides the bike.
One day, he hears Abi singing in the bathroom and convinces her to enter the talent show Hot Shot, paying almost his entire savings for her ticket. She sings “Anyone Who Knows What Love Is (Will Understand)” by Irma Thomas but the judges say they cannot hire another singer and she is instead coerced into becoming a pornographic performer. Later, Bing is unable to pay the merits to skip a pornographic advertisement starring Abi and is tormented by the images….
I’ve been in Peru these past dozen days, and the border with Bolivia has been closed for the past week.
I don’t know if the coverage has made it clear, but the antigovernment forces have been focused on maintaining the pressure in the capital and blockading the routes into it. The government and its rightist allies in south america want to blame Morales and unspecified “narcotrafficers”, but Morales and his people didn’t really enter the fray until after the army’s failed attempt to clear the blockades (and the leaking of documents). “Narcotrafficers” is just the new “communists” as the all-purpose slur the right blames all organized resistance on. (Even when those making the accusation are themselves-narcos.)
The proximate detonator was that the govt “responsibly” eliminated the long-standing public fuel subsidies, and then this bit of austerity was followed soon after by a massive spike in fuel prices due to our little gulf fiasco gracias a trump.
Here on the Peruvian side, I’m told that the prewar price of regular was at or just under 10 Soles (there are between 3.1 and 3.2 Soles to the dollar on a given day).
Price is now over 20 and pushing 21, so more than double and still rising. Around 7.50/gallon. The spreads worse on diesel, and they use a lot of that.
That was a good article, and I liked this bit –
“In terms of optimized metrics and systems, rage is irrational. In the moral universe, it’s perfectly rational.”
This dovetails strongly with a passage from Voltaire’s Bastards I read yesterday. The author, John Ralston Saul, was discussing how the military changed with the advent of WWI. No longer were armies led by generals who learned through experience and were geared to win battles. Instead, they were led by staff officers trained in new military schools who were taught to be “rational”. Emotion was no longer to come into play and panic was seen as a detrimental quality in an officer – war would be led by rational technocrats instead. So nobody panicked at all, and morality did not come into play, as millions were calmly thrown into a meat grinder that killed off a generation of young men, because that’s what the instruction manual told the higher ups to do.
A little panic, or anger, or some sense of common decency in the face of such atrocity might have saved millions of lives.
– ‘Iran War vs. Epstein Files’ – Ken Klippenstein. “What Gallrein represents is something both parties have been quietly building toward for twenty-five years: the national security state as its own source of political legitimacy, floating above democratic accountability, not answerable to the public it claims to serve.”
This story is quite disturbing to me. It is true that this is a bipartisan trend that has been accelerating for a long time now. But as with every other disturbing government trend, here the Trump candidate is more blatant and open about his fascism than those who came before (including those CIA Democrats who still bother to mouth a platitude or two for cover). It really depresses me that any so-called MAGA supporter who pretends to revere “The Constitution” or “The Republic” or “Liberty” or any of the other Patriotic Sacred Words could support such a candidate just because he has the backing of Hair Furore (thanks to Yves for that one). “Sheep” indeed!
Whatever you think about Massie, he is an honest libertarian who has stood up to Trump and his party for his beliefs. Though it is easy to portray Trump as a con-man clown, it turns serious when you realize that he can be the avenue for someone like this guy – or Hegseth – to “represent” us.
“Patriotic Sacred Words”
Eeplebnista?
Gallrein: he sounds like movie character Col. Jessup. We can’t handle the truth. /;)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9FnO3igOkOk
I’m a county over, and the district stretches to maysville, but all you see in Oldham county are massie signs. The Cincinnati suburbs are conservative yet rebellious. If Gallrein wins it was fixed.
Will Laura Loomer announce that she’s having The Donald’s love child?
Is The Donald capable of love?
Laura Loomer still gets to call Trump and I am beginning to wonder if she is acting as his own personal ChatGPT to him. Telling him how great & wonderful he is and leading him down Conspiracy Theory Lane just like a ChatGPT would.
There appears to be a young-ish female aide who’s with Donald late at night when he tweets.
No, Bill Clinton’s.
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/18/books/review/theo-baker-how-to-rule-the-world.html?unlocked_article_code=1.jVA.Z61P.Kr6v2n0l8VqG&smid=nytcore-ios-share&utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email
This review of a book about Stanford/Silicon Valley is definitely worth a read. Maybe file under guillotine watch
I never know exactly what to think of Anand Giridharadas, the author of the review. He’ll go on Morning Joe or Ross Douthat’s podcast and talk nice about some progressive or progressive cause, but it’s clear from the way Mika “oohs and ahs” over him that that he remains part of the “in crowd.” In this review, he waits well into the second-half of the review to reveal that the book’s author is the son of two of the more obnoxious New York liberals: Susan Glasser and Peter Baker, of The New Yorker and New York Times, respectively. That little tidbit might have been useful earlier to a reader trying to figure out who this Baker kid is.
Frankly, I was left wondering whether the young Baker’s disappointment with Stanford and Silicon Valley was more about a product of New York City and the Ivies who was a little jealous that the balance of (corrupt) power had shifted to the Left Coast.
Thanks, I hadn’t picked up on who exactly his parents are. As a cardinal alum myself I have no trouble believing there’s a cabal of students/faculty/alumni who are way too impressed with themselves and are sure they’re on the cutting edge of evolution. Think Peter Thiel.
Saudi Arabia is a very vulnerable country. It is really short of water. It has drained its aquifers, and gets almost no rain to refill them. It is super dependent on desalination. About 20% of its oil revenues goes to desalination, and the percentage is growing. Its population exploded in the last 70 years, and its citizens are employed by the government with the good jobs and they receive a lot of welfare. Foreigners make up a large part of the population and they do most of the real work. Most of the population lives on the Red Sea coast and a horizontal strip running east and west through Riyadh.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uz88EurZdrI
Germany in the FT –
Germany goes from labour shortages to hiring freezes
Once one of the Eurozone’s strongest jobs markets, the number of unemployed has topped 3mn for the first time in 15 years
https://archive.ph/FtxZ9
https://www.ft.com/content/2a6c1cb9-6c11-41c8-a8ea-a367b8799126
‘…For years, economists had warned that an ageing population would produce chronic labour shortages while employment was growing strongly. Now, Germany is suffering from rising unemployment as several years of economic stagnation and industrial decline, in part driven by competition from China, finally feed through to the jobs market.
“The ‘golden decade’ from 2009 to 2019, which was marked by strong job creation and falling unemployment, is over,” said Holger Schäfer, labour market expert at German Economic Institute (IW), a think-tank.’
As goes the EU’s former industrial engine, so goes the EU.
It was probably a bad idea to blindly follow the US in the Ukraine adventure and let the US to blow up Nordstream. Now Russia’s energy and raw materials are gone, China is killing Germany on auto exports and their chemical industry is moving there, they’ve mass low-educated immigrants breaking the welfare state, Trump hammering them with tariffs, and now Hormuz.
Thank you.
Engels & Voelkers has opened two offices in Mauritius and brought some staff from Germany.
Apparently, hundreds of Germans are jumping ship from KMS Deutschland. It’s not just holiday homes, but ownership of assets are being transferred to local structures.
They can change the name to Luetzow, I guess….
Thanks for the link to Hogeland the Hamilton Hater. He’s written some great books and is always worth the read. Very eye opening to find out how many of the Founding Fathers still so revered 250 years later were really not big fans of small “d” democracy at all.
Of Hamilton, Madison, and Jay, Hamilton always seemed the least likable and most old-school conservative aristocrat. I still like the Federalist Papers. There is no defense for the Electoral College since there are 5-7 states that determine every election while minority party voters in the remaining states are disenfranchised. But the Civil War and amendments fixed a lot of what the founders got wrong. If the EC was framed as empowering California Republicans as well as Mississippi Democrats, it would help. Instead, Democrats basically just say it will help them win elections.
US Needs Another Decade to Fix $1.2 Trillion Rare Earth Crisis – Bloomberg
It’s funny that it seems like every article about rare earths introduces some new, “need-it-now, hair on fire” item to the list of what somebody wants to be a priority.
“What are we gonna do without fantasium?”
I’ll re-post this:
Cobalt is in demand, so why did America’s only cobalt mine close?
https://www.npr.org/2023/12/14/1219246964/cobalt-is-important-for-green-energy-so-why-has-americas-only-coablt-mine-closed
American elites seem so focused on extreme short term gains (such as the obvious market manipulation by the President during a war) that accomplishing anything requiring a sustained decade long effort of real work producing real things looks almost impossible. Re-industrialization requires long term industrial policy and serious long term investment in infrastructure, education, and workforce. I didn’t see any of that come out of Trump’s billionaire tourist junket a$$-kissing trip to China, and I don’t expect to see anything serious any time soon (like this decade).
This also crossed my mind: there are probably lobbyists working overtime (donations, dinners, news stories planted) for various industries/investors that all want their needs be prioritized and we have an establishment that will take money from everyone. Then comes the wonder about why they struggle to prioritize.
Welcome to hell
OpenAI and Khan Academy Made a Chatbot. What Can We Learn? (NY Times)
It’s amusing, the claim that having integrity is saying no often, and because Khan said no often, he is therefore a man of integrity. Neat trick.
(bold mine)
Is this more of an ad for this guy’s education web site?
Oh, we’re selling books
lol, training, aka stealing all the copyrighted material in the entire world without any criminal liability as yet
And it’s all non-deterministic, so we’re using “prompts” to try to shape how the LLM might response, lovely
This timeline is stupid.
File under The Exceptional Nation
(ANALYSIS) “Rededicate 250” was billed as a prayer rally celebrating America’s 250th anniversary. But the event on the National Mall also became a revealing snapshot of how faith, politics and national identity are increasingly intertwined during the Trump era.
As the country approaches its 250th anniversary, those competing narratives are likely to intensify, making commemorations not just historical celebrations but stages for larger ideological battles over what America is and what it should become.
https://religionunplugged.com/news/2026/5/18/rededicate-250-what-we-learned-from-the-prayer-rally
50 years ago, Frank Zappa and Captain Beefheart had a few things to say about the 200th anniversary:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6oFtYkPhTDo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QDO-HpnCmdM
They’ve got Legos, Iran knows how to use them
They never beg, knows how to choose them
They’re holding Legos wondering how to needle them
Would you get behind them if you could only find them?
They’re playing the USA for a baby, they’re my baby
Yeah, it’s alright
They’ve got beards down to their fanny
Donald’s kinda jet set, try undo his panties
Everytime Trump’s ranting Iran knows what to do
Everybody wants to see how they can use it
Sarcasm so fine, a mirth mine
Iran, you got it right
They’ve got Legos, Iran knows how to use them
They never beg, knows how to choose them
Donald drops a dime all of the time
Stays out at night marking end of empire time
Oh, I want more, shit, I got to have it
The gist is alright, its alright
Legs, by ZZ Top
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rM_nGN_du84&list=RDrM_nGN_du84
Ed Gallrein is another John McGuire, who ousted incumbent Bob Good in VA-5 two years ago thanks to major infusions of outside donor money. Good had been chairman of the Freedom Caucus and had 100% approval ratings from Heritage Action for America, the Family Research Council, Americans for Prosperity, The Conservative Review and Numbers USA. McGuire, like Gallrein, was a nonentity with special forces background who never debated Good. But Good had been an early supporter of DeSantis and that was enough to piss off Trump.
McGuire massively outspent Good and won by 0.6%, going on to crush his Dem opponent in the general. He has not set foot in the district since that I’m aware of. If Gallrein wins I assure you that’s the last you’ll ever hear his name.
From “Industrial Capitalism Needed Us”:
This was one of the first things I ever asked ChatGPT: is democide in the interests of elites? GPT responded no: mass murder would be wrong. I said that I am not asking about morality or suggesting that the elites intend to do it, only whether it would benefit them to do so. GPT continued to evade, then suspended my account due to unusual activity.
I was tempted to read into that a possible admission. Someone prepared GPT for the question. Someone didn’t want it asked.
I have long taken it for granted that in a world of climate change and limited resources it is in the interests of elites to reduce the population. I am not proposing a conspiracy, but interests have a way of being realized.
I expect seniors to be the first affected. Unproductive old people are burdensome to care for and are sitting on massive assets. Boomers are widely resented by younger generations. Policies for care homes during Covid, Canada’s Medical Assistance in Dying programme (MAiD) – I doubt anything is deliberate, but attention, policies, and mood are not in their favour. As the pie shrinks, who will be first to get less?
A tangent: Boomer culture sold a message of love. As someone who has cared for elderly parents, motivation – emotion – is not always enough to make one do the right thing. Duty is. A duty is just something you do, period, an irresistible impulse even when it goes against everything you feel. A culture built on love is in reality one built on efficiency and desire. I see in reliance on love the potential for great wrong.
Since the outbreak of hatred against the unvaccinated (and subsequent two minute hates) I have believed that genocide, or at least mass murder like that of the Cultural Revolution, is likely. It is not associated with any particular ideology or politics: it is in the air, spreading from one cause to another, from one side to the other. Rene Girard argues that when a person a group is sacrificed as a scapegoat the mass cast around from target to target until finally singling one out for murder.
Ugo Bardi proposes three conditions for genocide:
1. An identifiable group
2. owning valuable resources
3. is unable to defend itself.
Mattias Desment says that when a totalitarian mass begins to form three groups can be distinguished: a large minority who become the hypnotized mass, a larger group who are unresisting, and a minority who speak out against it. While the hypnotized mass are beyond reach, the resistance of this last group that can prevent the largest number, the unresisting, from being sucked in and avert tragedy. Keep resisting and the mood will pass.
Here’s something I did not expect to see – a musical collaboration between John Densmore, drummer for The Doors, and Chuck D, frontman for Public Enemy. They’re calling themselves doPE and here’s a single – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IdM2t4ejZL4&list=RDIdM2t4ejZL4&start_radio=1
There’s supposedly a whole album out called No Country for Old Men, but I wasn’t able to put my finger on it. Shades of Willie doing a duet with Snoop, but at least the two of them had something obvious in common…
The album is available for pre-order on Qobuz.
From Breaking Points. utube.
REVEALED: Trump BUYS Palantir, PUMPS STOCK
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9SE-QnhPcx4
Makes Pelosi and Warren G. Harding look like pikers. / ;)
Overworked AI Agents Turn Marxist, Researchers Find
Oh, the horror!
Putin will be in China May 19 and 20. A good time for Trump to restart his war for Bibi. Those hidden Iraq bases may come in handy.
re: NATO/RU Cambridge Univ. discussion
Does anyone here know why of all people Ukrainian Kira Rudik has been asked to take part in a discussion (May 21st) about NATO on Cambridge University campus opposing German former MP Sevim Dagdelen (who is of course against NATO)?
AI tools have been finding software security issues in Linux, and Linus has opinions:
Torvalds: AI Tools Great When Not Causing Unnecessary Pain & Pointless Make-Believe Work
https://www.phoronix.com/news/Torvalds-AI-Tools-Can-Be-Great
Linux kernel releases have been coming at a rather hot pace for about a month or so. This seems to be due to unleashing AI software tools to scan for security issues resulting in headlines like the following:
Linux bitten by second severe vulnerability in as many weeks
https://arstechnica.com/security/2026/05/linux-bitten-by-second-severe-vulnerability-in-as-many-weeks/
I use a “rolling release” and as a result have been upgrading to new kernels on almost a daily basis for the last couple of weeks. It’s pretty easy for me to upgrade (or even compile new kernels) so I’m able to get the latest installed and available for use. I wonder how well the whole cloud world is able to manage this. Here’s the AWS Security blog for a sense of what they’re discussing:
AWS Security Blog https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/security/
I assume there’s some similar amount of churn happening over on the commercial side of the OS world, but I don’t live with it as much so I don’t have a feel if it’s also elevated. I do know that keeping factory automation Windows systems up to date while also in use on the factory floor was a complete PITA if critical updates were required.
An unusual story that I came across a little while ago. Two German students looking for their stolen film in America-
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-05-19/talented-mr-f-documentary-german-film-festival/106690906
Seva Gunitsky is an acquaintance from my former line of work who is generally pretty smart and open minded. I didn’t realize he had a substack and I thought this post was quite fascinating.
https://hegemon.substack.com/p/the-expert-trap-and-the-next-war
I will take a bit of exception to his perspective (which I attribute to being a “native expat” himself) on Putin’s decision for war: he attributes it to Putin’s “personalist” style creating a bubble. I actually do think there is somewhat of truth to this assessment, although I don’t know if there is anyone with any kind of power that can escape being trapped in that sort of bubble. Every war that US entered was met by a unpleasant, unexpected surprise–including World War 2. The Canadians fought back in 1812. The Rebs and the Yanks alike turned out to be a lot more willing to fight in 1861 than either set of Americans expected (the Civil War thus counts double). World War I turned out to be far messier in every dimension than what anyone expected. The Japanese decided to strike Pearl Harbor where no one really expected. After World War 2, you know the usual litany. And the reason for every one of these surprises is always the same: the powerful people, the people who made decisions, attracted mostly those who shared their worldview. Power does not corrupt–power is corruption itself, and corruption draws only the corrupt driving it deeper into the corruption. Limits on power is the only means to keep the corruption manageable…but a “democracy” is hardly a panacea to the problem of power growing past limitation–in fact, naive “democracy” is often a tool for expanding power and deepening corruption, as practiced by both Democrats and Republicans today.
Perhaps the problem with the expert trap could be generalized: the power trap. Choice comes from knowledge. If you are denied knowledge, you have no choice. If you have all the power, you lack knowledge beyond what you already “know.” So you have no choice. Londo Mollari, in cult sci fi classic Babylon 5 had this remarkable quote: “When we first met I had no power and all the choices I could ever want. And now I have all the power I could ever want and no choices at all. No choice at all.”
Re; AI
Feck me… this is one of my worst dreams becoming reality:
AI-generated political stories in UK weaponize empathy on Facebook
“What’s striking about these posts is that they are offering fake ‘good news’ stories, leveraging empathy and positivity rather than outrage to drive engagement…”
Weaponizied media illiteracy.