Do you believe in guardian angels… pic.twitter.com/9J8NTjVWbJ
— Science girl (@sciencegirl) April 21, 2026
New Lithium-Plasma Engine Passes Key Mars Propulsion Test Universe Today
Next-Generation Precision Medicine Platforms Come for Cancer The Scientist
How digital shelf label expansion signals a new era for supermarkets Ipsos
Pentagon Plans to Double Pay For Combat Troops Amid Flagging Iran War Morale Military Watch Magazine
COVID-19/Pandemics
What happened to Covid? STAT10
DOJ indicts former Fauci adviser David Morens on charges related to the COVID pandemic Scientific American
Climate/Environment
‘A sense of dread’: Europe’s first climate migrants live in constant fear of extreme weather Euronews
South of the Border
Mexico’s president says US accusations against Sinaloa governor political Andolu Agency
Trump teases US will be ‘taking over’ Cuba ‘almost immediately’ in Florida speech Fox News
Two Venezuelas: A Pending Reconciliation Latinoamerica21
China?
🇨🇳 Smart construction technology in a highway expansion project in Guangdong Province, southern China. No one in the cabin!
An automated paving machine works in perfect harmony with the roller—extreme precision and maximum efficiency. pic.twitter.com/W02JO0hkLu
— Spot World Affairs (@GblGrid) April 21, 2026
The Tesla Model 3’s Worst Nightmare Has Arrived In China Inside EvsChina Uses Blocking Law for First Time to Counter U.S. Sanctions on Chinese Teapot Refineries Before Trump Visit Geopolitechs
China Builds 80% of the World’s Audio Gear Including Heritage Brands You’d Never Suspect, Says Top Hi-Fi Insider Headphonesty
India
Why is India turning to crocodiles and snakes to ‘fence’ Bangladesh border? Al Jazeera
The AI Revolution Hollywood Feared Is Already Happening — in India The Hollywood Reporter
“India’s Best Defence Against Global Risks Is To Electrify Everything,” Says Sagar Adani NDTV
Africa
As foot-and-mouth disease explodes in South Africa, experts warn of threats in other countries Science.org
Africa’s cellphone towers turn to solar as diesel costs surge AP
Kenya Joins Ethiopia, Rwanda, Ghana, Nigeria and Others as Africa Emerges as Strategic Aviation Hub Powerhouse Driving Transit Tourism Growth Amid Global Airspace Disruption and Middle East Crisis Travel and Tour World
European Disunion
EU Warns Energy Crisis From Iran War Could Last Years Oil Price
For Europe, the US rupture is an earthquake as big as the Soviet collapse Gulf Stream Blues substack
Summer holidays up in the air as Europe braces for jet fuel shortage France 24
Old Blighty
NatWest alarm over jobs as UK economy stalls This Is Money
Israel v. Gaza, Yemen, Lebanon, Syria, Iran
Israel is exporting its Gaza model to Lebanon.
Demolition by demolition, the Israeli military is changing the face of southern Lebanon, razing towns and villages to create a buffer zone. Israeli officials say it’s necessary to protect its residents from Hezbollah threats. pic.twitter.com/64qAebvKOl— Jeremy Diamond (@JDiamond1) April 24, 2026
Two flotilla detainees arrive in Israel amid fears for Spaniard Abu Keshek EuronewsThe West’s Bubble Of Illusion About Israel – And About Itself – Is Finally Being Burst Scheerpost
UN committee says Israel’s death penalty law perpetuates ‘racial discrimination’ against Palestinians Andolu Agency
Israel’s Slow War on the West Bank Foreign Policy
New Not-So-Cold War
Ukraine begins to flex muscle as an emerging air power, angering Russia Al Jazeera
Russia uses at least 20 types of ground robotic systems in war against Ukraine Ukrainska Pravda
Brief Frontline Report – May 1st, 2026 Marat Khairullin substack
Big Brother Is Watching You Watch
‘Infringement on our privacy;’ Coalition speaks out after Dayton suspends Flock camera program WHIO TV7
Imperial Collapse Watch
NYC shelters need ‘reassessment’ after Gothamist probe into violent site, lawmaker says Gothamist
Social Security Alert: SSI benefits for disabled adults living with family could be reduced MARCA
Trump 2.0
Trump administration is increasingly ignoring US courts, new analysis shows The Guardian
Bizarre String Of Trump Posts Includes Photo Swimming Shirtless In D.C. Reflecting Pool Forbes
Trump’s Iran blockade snatches defeat from the jaws of victory Responsible Statecraft
Donald Trump’s Approval Rating Hits New Low Across Three Polls Within Days Newsweek
Musk Matters
Why are Elon Musk and Sam Altman clashing in court? The Week
Elon Musk Will Earn a Company Bonus if He Drops a Million Colonists on Mars Gizmodo
Musk’s ‘universal high income’ serves tech oligarchs more than workers The Hill
Elon Musk Will Soon Be Worth More Than Saudi Arabia’s Sovereign Wealth Fund European Business Magazine
Democrat Death Watch
A Democratic Version of the Tea Party Is Emerging GV Wire
Ron Faucheux: Will Democratic California elect a Republican governor? Nola.com
Immigration
When immigration detention becomes a system of concentration: Lessons from research on 150 historical cases The Conversation
US appeals court rules against Trump’s immigration detention policy Andolu Agency
Our No Longer Free Press
American Press Freedom on the Brink Scheerpost
US falls below Ukraine in press freedom as global autocracy takes hold Ars Technica
Mr. Market Is Moody
While Oil Prices Skyrocketed in the First Quarter, ExxonMobil’s Profits Fell. Here’s What Happened. The Motley Fool
The Likelihood of a Stock Market Crash Under President Donald Trump Is Rapidly Rising — and There’s One Undeniable Catalyst to Blame The Globe and Mail
AI
Andrej Karpathy: From Vibe Coding to Agentic Engineering 3 Quarks Daily
When Dawkins met Claude Could this AI be conscious? UnHerd
New rules for the Oscars: AI actors are out of the race Mashable
Meta acquires robotics AI startup as it makes the push into humanoid machines engadget
Brace for the patch tsunami: AI is unearthing decades of buried code debt The Register
The Bezzle
FERC Imposes $1.1 Billion Penalty for Alleged ‘Brazen’ Capacity Market Fraud The National Law Review
FBI arrests 276 in global operation that targeted scam compound stealing millions from Americans The Times of India
Guillotine Watch
🚁
Jetson ONE is a single-seat electric flying vehicle that can take off and fly like a drone. Its price is around $128,000 🔥 pic.twitter.com/OdpeG43maW
— Gopal Patil (@GopalPatil51152) April 26, 2026
✨🇨🇳This is a flying car manufactured in Hubei, China. It is the world’s first ton-class flying car with a fully ducted design, requiring no runway and only a parking space for takeoff and landing. Its estimated price is approximately 282,000 US dollars. pic.twitter.com/jR2y8ozmAY
— 🇨🇳XuZhenqing徐祯卿 (@XueJia24682) February 26, 2026
Antidote du jour (via)
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here
131 comments
Comments are closed.
Omg Haig, you almost gave me a heart attack with that reel of 100 people escaping death by a hair. It’s Sunday morning!
/.Tom scrolls straight to the antidote to recover.
Somebody took an image of the famous grieving angel statue and put the caption under it saying-
Guardian Angel: ‘Oh god. What did the idiot do now?’
https://news.findagrave.com/2021/08/31/angel-of-grief/
Yeah but the addition of cartoon sound effects is a nice touch.
The antidote, which looks like Athene noctua, seems to be perched on a hawthorn or similar, obviously in spring. I am sure only about the season.
Gooooooood Moooooorning Fiatnam!
Grunts in the platoon guffawed over the potential doubling of combat pay when in harms way, knowing that means hardly justifies the end.
Pfc Jones was the lone holdout, reasoning that the extra jack would allow his wife and kids back in the world to afford gas & vittles now.
“Now” being to the end of the day but not till the end of the year. “[Housing,] gas & vittles” continued availability is determined by re-enlistment.
Am I wrong to see this proposed doubling as a marker for shaky morale?
Re. US – EU relations: IF the European Parliament gets too uppity, surely a US export ban on oil, nat gas and refined products will follow. Then Europe has an even bigger problem.
Trump can snap his fingers and be the head of the EU tomorrow. He can do both be the head of the United States and the EU. Prosperity will increase by trillions
The US Ambassador to the EU has already threatened the EU with that unless they ratify their trade treaty with the US pronto.
Golly gee whiz. Why didn’t I think of extortion? The old make an offer they can’t refuse … or else. Negotiate like a gangster!
Start with all the names/families published in this century in Forbes lists of rich family blog.
“Pentagon Plans to Double Pay For Combat Troops Amid Flagging Iran War Morale”
Maybe the troops could spend the money on personal cooling devices and the like. Professor Marandi makes the point that the region is about to be hit by the annual heatwave conditions and that US troops will have a hard time dealing with it-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yp8YoSL8Qec (3:50 mins)
And as we all know, only mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the midday sun-
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mad_Dogs_and_Englishmen_(song)
Yeah, talk about trying to “paper-over a problem.”
Perhaps the Pentagon brass ought take a page out of the corporate management handbook and throw the troops a “pizza-party” every Friday.
Perhaps the Pentagon brass ought take a page out of the corporate management handbook and throw the troops a “
pizzapity-party” every Friday.Fixed it for ya.
re: DOJ indicts former Fauci adviser David Morens on charges related to the COVID pandemic – Scientific American
Lest anyone forget, B gave Fauci a blanket pardon.
https://www.newsweek.com/full-list-joe-bidens-last-minute-pardons-marcus-garvey-2017376
When Artificial Genuine Intelligence is achieved later this year it will be declared as 1 Trump. 1 Trump will not be the limit of intelligence of Real Donald trump however.
re: flying car
It’s a redesigned helicopter. Do the pilots have to file a flight plan, get a ‘flying car’ pilots license, etc?
It’s hard to see how the answer to your question could be anything other than “yes.”
But in Trumpworld no telling. Hobby quadcopters are allowed below 800 ft and away from controlled airspace so perhaps the new Jetsons will be flying over our highway heads.
As someone long involved in model aviation, I’ve seen these developments with considerable concern. With the advent of the “quadcopter” platforms there was a radical knee jerk reaction from the federal government. After years of discussion, commentary, and lobbying they set out guidelines that applied to all remotely piloted vehicles. All were required to have identification transponders linked to the owner, unless flying on a designated airspace registered with the government. Flight restrictions for these and all other areas was limited to 400 ft AGL and still subject to all other NOTAMs. As someone who grew up flying gliders and other high efficiency airframes 400 ft isn’t even a morning stretch.
As far as the efficacy of using rotary wing lift for personal transportation, it’s beyond stupid. The only reason to consider it is that you have unlimited energy and your convenience is more important than anything else.
I think it was in the mid to late 70’s that people were experimenting with electric power systems in model aviation. With NiCad batteries and brushed motors you could just barely get a winged aircraft to fly with a very limited flight time. Lithium batteries and brushless motors made rotary wing aircraft possible but only with very limited flight time. Fixed wing airframe could fly orders of magnitude longer with the same amount of energy.
A comment made about Chinese energy developments that caught my attention.
” The most valuable energy is that you do not waste.” My corollary is that the most expensive energy is that that you waste.
Your remark raised a question in my mind: are those multicopter contraptions inherently more or less efficient than true helicopters — in terms of the energy required to make the aircraft airborne and to propell it forward?
Assuming motors with the same power, are a multitude of small rotors with very small blades more or less efficient than just one rotor with very large blades?
I do not expect or request an aeronautical engineer to chime in, but I am just wondering whether those flying vehicles are yet another sign that our whole system is going in a totally wrong direction at a time when it is highly urgent to limit energy and resource waste and the attendant pollution. There are other cases of novel technologies that are much hyped despite the fact that they are inherently less efficient — and vastly so — than other alternatives: e.g. small modular nuclear reactors, or blockchain-based transactions. Even cloud-based computing incurs a serious efficiency reduction as soon as large data transfers are necessary; when used for AI, then energy waste goes through the roof.
Just curious.
Not having done calculations, but helicopters have been able to fly people for decades, but only recently have advances in electric motor efficiency and power enabled the low atmosphere economy and flying cars. As the electricity could be solar, it’s clearly an improvement.
If I could fly, I could get from Coastal California to Bakersfield in 60 miles. As a groundhog, it’s 150 miles and 3 hours (if no traffic – hah!).
High-speed electric trains are far more efficient, but it will be decades, if ever, before we see that in the States (I see the Central Valley bridges, and the bed seems too uneven for true high-speed), unlike what I saw in China.
Right, but my original question is: assuming an electrical motor with the same power, is it more efficient to drive a single rotor with large blades, or a multitude of small rotors with small blades?
That large blades do not work in the so-called low-altitude economy is obvious, but if those new flying vehicles prove to be inherently less efficient, than why invest in them? They only seem feasible in recent urban developments built according to “modern” Western standards — third-world cities are criss-crossed with electrical and communication cables, European (and other) towns with old sections are too narrow or do not have those nicely orthogonal street schemes, etc.
Or to reconsider your example: individual cars, even if electric, are definitely not the solution for traffic congestion — public transport (railway, subway, tramway) is, and furthermore it is inherently more efficient from the perspective of energy utilization.
Or to reconsider another example: delivery by drones. There were plenty of trials of small packet delivery by drones launched 3 years ago or so, and from what I know, most seem to have been quietly wound up.
I’m not an engineer either but helicopters are mechanically complex and have to expend energy on a tail rotor to keep the thing from spinning around from the torque. Intuitively the electric quad copter motors are more energy efficient except that to power them you have to also tote around heavy batteries for any range. The same applies to EVs and the entire bottom of a Tesla is occupied by the battery pack.
Even so Tesla owners get cheaper running from house recharging than ICE cars get from bought gasoline. It stands to reason the same applies to aircraft except in the latter weight is a much more critical factor and flying a mass around in the air at any speed is less efficient than rolling it around on a road or, better still, on rails.
“helicopters are mechanically complex and have to expend energy on a tail rotor to keep the thing from spinning around from the torque.”
As far as I know, there are helicopters that do not need that tail rotor, relying instead on two sets of blades, one rotating clockwise, and the other counter-clockwise — both providing lift.
And intuitively I am not sure about an electrical quadcopter being more energy-efficient than an electrical helicopter: blades must generate lift, and I suspect large blades typical of helicopters are more efficient at that than the small ones typical of drones — all things being equal (payload, motor power, energy source, etc). But I could be wrong, and am wondering about the matter.
Counter speculation: the enclosed ‘ducted’ design of of the smaller propellers makes them more efficient at creating thrust from torque. The smaller and contained blades also face more moderate forces and can be optimised differently.
Helicopter’s long, narrow blades act more like wings and less like propeller, and they are much, much more effective at creating lift than small props.
Ducted props are good at generating lift while hovering (because the air flow around the blade tips is controlled) but that advantage turns into a disadvantage when moving to any direction, as they create a lot of drag. The more drag the faster you go.
As an answer to the original question: I think one should compare the efficiency of a low altitude economy vehicles to the efficiency of the ground vehicles, not the higher altitude vehicles – because that’s what they are competing with.
tldr; if smaller rotor blades were better, helicopters would be using them.
So multicopter are much less efficient than helicopters, which are less efficient than fixed-wing aircraft, themselves less efficient than cars, which are much less efficient than railway-based transport.
Even for the scenarios that LawnDart mentions — transport in hilly or mountainous agglomerations — there are solutions which are more efficient and provide greater capacity/throughput (elevators, escalators, funiculars).
In other words, those multicopter vehicles do not make sense. They may be able to eke out a marginal presence in the so-called “low-altitude economy” only because contrarily to all other means, they do not require building up roads, railways, aerodromes, helipads, cables, etc, and can take advantage (parasitize) existing infrastructure (such as parking lots).
I only see niche applications for them: some sort of Segway of the skies.
One of the most efficient ways to transport people and material are the ropeways – a medieval invention nowadays mostly relegated to hauling skiers uphill…
BTW not mentioned so far is the gyrocopter once called the autogyro which pulls a short fuselage (or pushes an ultralight type frame) like an airplane but has an autorotating single rotor as a wing.
Back in the early 20th and then again in the 60s there was a fad for these because true pilot skills not needed and short take off and auto rotate landing. I think they were not very energy efficient though. The Benson Gyrocopter used a full Volkswagen car engine as i recall.
…individual cars, even if electric, are definitely not the solution for traffic congestion — public transport (railway, subway, tramway) is, and furthermore it is inherently more efficient from the perspective of energy utilization.
Absolutely correct, China’s “flying-cars” or “air-taxis” will be integrated into the existing public transport infrastructure via “vertiports” as last-mile point-to-point delivery of passengers. If you look at the topography of many Chinese cities, especially the costal ones, you’re dealing with urban areas that sprawl across mountains and islands so efficient, low-altitude transport begins to make a lot of sense.
…delivery by drones. There were plenty of trials of small packet delivery by drones launched 3 years ago or so, and from what I know, most seem to have been quietly wound up.
Yeah, again, this has really been a cluster-f**k of a mess in the USA, but the FAA has been tasked to make this “low-level economy” stuff a priority. Here’s a little bit of info from this report:
“In urban centres, near-term adoption is limited due to several unique challenges. Drone flights over densely populated areas pose increased safety risks, and there are fewer suitable landing zones and drop-off locations. Creating the necessary infrastructure, particularly on rooftops, is complex. While drones will eventually play a role in urban environments, the adoption process is expected to be slow and measured.”
“In contrast, suburban, rural, and remote areas are better suited for drone deliveries and are likely to see faster adoption. These regions often lack adequate delivery options due to the high costs and logistical challenges of traditional methods. Drones can bridge this accessibility gap, significantly improving service efficiency and cost-effectiveness without facing the challenges of densely populated urban areas.”
“Our projections suggest that advanced air mobility (AAM) of goods could serve approximately 67% of the global population, particularly suburban and rural residents, potentially substituting 389 billion traditional deliveries worldwide in 2034.”
Granted, it’s from an investor report so take it with a grain of salt, however, this info is consistent across many diverse sources and rapid growth of the sector is without a doubt happening today.
Not an engineer but I am a licensed private pilot and work in aerospace. Multi-engine designs are always going to be less efficient than a single engine one due to the increased friction losses of the extra moving parts. That said, these losses are going to be far less significant when we are talking about electric motors, as compared to the much greater friction losses you will see with turbine or with piston engines.
The advantage of an n-rotor design is that it allows full maneuvering control of the aircraft through differential thrust, which is to say the problem of how to control the vehicle is reduced to a relatively simple matter of adjusting the voltage or duty cycle at each motor. In comparison, a helicopter is going to require a complicated swash plate and pitch linkage assembly at the main rotor, as well as an additional tailrotor to keep torque from spinning the fuselage. Avoiding physical linkages when possible is generally a good thing from a cost and reliability perspective. It also eliminates the need for additional servo motors to manipulate the physical linkages in the event the aircraft is to be ultimately a fly-by-wire control schema. Incidentally, this simplicity of deferring to fully electronic controls is also why so many new car systems, especially the HVAC, are now controlled through a screen instead of physical knobs as in yesteryear.
It’s easy to be cynical when you see a flying go-kart that costs as much as a downpayment on a house, that’s only good for giving a rich jerk a twenty minute thrill ride. But something like the Jetson One, with more payload and flight time would be incredibly valuable for alpine search and rescue, compressing response time from hours to potentially just a few minutes. Yes, we are careening thoughtlessly into a hothouse earth. It may be nothing more than voyeurism, but I want to see as much of the glaciers as I can while they’re still here, and I’m not the only one. Mountains are dangerous places, and making it easier to rescue people from them when things go pear shaped is a good thing.
Another reason for optimism, here’s a Chinese company working on a drone that’s designed to tow hang gliders and paragliders into the sky:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HfVrEr5jDMo
As a hang glider pilot, my thoughts on this are
1) Hang gliding is 100,000,000,000,000x more rewarding than flying a stupid electric flying go-kart for twenty minutes. As Chuck Yeager himself once remarked, hang gliding is the “flyingest form of flying there is!”. I have no desire to own a Jetson One, I have no envy for people who have bought a Jetson One, I have pity mixed with contempt for people who think that flying a stupid electric flying go-kart that needs no training, nor education about the weather, etc., for twenty minutes, is a valid use of $120,000.
2) Having to drive 1-7 hours, each way, just to fly my hang glider is an enormous pain in the ass, even though it is nice to get around the region and connect with like minded people spread throughout.
3) I will 100% be buying one of these hang glider towing drones as soon as they are available for sale. An opportunity to fly my hang glider without having to leave town would be an enormous efficiency and quality of life improvement. Could be a huge growth opportunity in the most exhilirating and egalitarian form of aviation there is, and I for one am completely stoked on where this is going.
Nice video. I like the towline windsock painted in a fish design. A ‘flying fish.’
“Hang gliding is 100,000,000,000,000x more rewarding than flying a stupid electric flying go-kart for twenty minutes.”
An analogy would be sailing on a Hobie Cat compared to a jet ski.
Did you ever go off Raven’s Roost on the Blue Ridge Parkway?
Yes, exactly! Water is not my element but I sailed Mission Bay, San Diego with some friends on a small catamaran once, and had an excellent time.
I’m in the Pacific Northwest, never been to Raven’s Roost but it looks lovely. There’s great flying down in Southern Oregon, west at the coast, east out the Columbia River Gorge, and north up in the Washington Cascades, but only one very tempermental site in the Portland area itself. We get days in spring where the whole valley is studded with perfect, puffy little cumulus clouds out to the horizon. On days like that you just need a boost, and could soar all the way down to Eugene.
Stay safe!
My downtown airport has a sailplane club and they get a crop sprayer type airplane to haul them up into the air. The other day I saw the glider being released high over my house.
They’ve also been seen to use a runway cable winch to take them up 1000 ft or so before release.
You can talk to these guys on airport day and they claim to sometimes soar as far as the Blue Ridge Parkway 80 miles or so away, then glide back home. If they don’t make it then fuselage and wings fold up into a trailer.
The showcasing of a few toys under Guillotine Watch is misleading, and quite honestly, a little embarassing. Perhaps it is intended as some sort of joke..?
Currently there are hundreds of “flying car” companies in China, and like the Chinese automotive EV industry that preceded it, most of these companies are expected to fail over the course of a savage competetion where only some giants remain (who will be the BYD of the skies?). This contest is by design, fully supported and encouraged by Chinese governmental policies.
China is carefully and deliberately laying the infrastructure on which the “low-altitude” economy will rise. Cute pictures of the jetson-toys are in no way representative of what is actually taking place in these emerging industries and technologies.
“China Builds 80% of the World’s Audio Gear Including Heritage Brands You’d Never Suspect, Says Top Hi-Fi Insider”
I recently got a pair of FiiO planar headphones that sound as good to me as the best Grados. The quality of “ChiFi” is simply amazing for the money. That said, there’s nothing like a vintage turntable. The new ones are not up to par with a classic Thorens or Linn. The used market is good right now; lots of rich people offloading things that they never use because they can’t figure out how to turn the things on.
You mean they got frustrated because there was no app they could use to turn it on.
Turn this on if you dare.
Not so good in SF bay area, this price is nuts, maybe should go under guillotine watch: THORENS TD-125 MkII Turntable w/ SME 3009-II Tonearm & Cartridge – $1,275 (bernal heights)
The 125 is a sought after one but you can find them here for less than half that. That tonearm probably cost that much new. I think the Bay Area is a very different market than France…
Audio Magazine Feb. 1974
Thorens TD-125AB Mk II
MANUFACTURER’S SPECIFICATIONS
Speeds: Three, 162/3, 33’/2, 45 rpm. Wow and Flutter:
0.06%, weighted according to DIN 45507. Rumble: -48
dB unweighted, -68 dB weighted according to DIN 45539.
Drive System: Electronically controlled, 16-pole synchronus
motor with belt drive. Power Requirements: 110-130 V or
220-250 V, 50/60 Hz, 15 watts. Dimensions: 18 in. W x
14 in. D x 5 in. H. Length is increased by 2 in. when fitted
with 16 in. tonearm. Weight: 32 lbs. Prices: $310.00;
TX-44 dust cover, S15.00; TX-25 hinged dust cover,
$ 30.00.
btw, $310 in 1974 is worth $2,076.39 today.
Back in the 70’s, the sweetest of decades for audiophiles, the basic tenet was Japanese receivers, British turntables, and US speakers.
This song, Roundabout from Yes, was used to test the fidelity.
Couldn’t be too many young adult audiophiles, eh?
Funny how the things that boomers craved is lost on youth, vintage guitars they’ll never play, vintage cars with manual transmissions they’ll never drive, and vintage celebrity goods-the names unknown to them.
I went with a half dozen people to a Yes concert in downtown Boston in ’73. We brought an ounce. The guys in the row in front of us brought an ounce. We were all share and share alike, and you hardly could get a breath before the next joint came around. I don’t remember a lot of that concert.
And that was long before THC levels around 30%.
Fun!
“Share and share alike” really sums up weed culture from the ‘70s as I knew it.
I’m still rocking out with a 55w Sansui amplifier that I bought with ROTC money at UVA in 1975.
The Linn LP12 Sondek was the archetypal turntable. I could never afford one – I started with the Pioneer PL12D, then graduated to a Linn Axis. Now I have a U-Turn Orbit, as I sold the Axis when I moved to the US. Now, at 66, my hearing has decayed to a point where audiophile kit is overkill for me. I struggle to tell the difference in ABX testing between the turntable played through Myryad electronics to ProAc Tablette 2000 monitors and 320K MP3s through decent headphones. :-(
I’m running a mid 70s Hitachi PS-48 turntable that I rescued from the local Goodwill last year.
Aging ears here as well. I’ve learned to live with it (Crank up the volume, lol!)
For me, receivers were meh, Japanese integrated amps and tuners were my preference. I was (still am) an FM guy, and most receivers had pretty mediocre tuners.
I have some Chi-fi here, mainly a DAP, headphone amp and a variety of Japanese headphones. Good sound, cheap but as noted by jp, my hearing ain’t what it used to be. Informal headphone testing shows almost nothing above 10kHz.
Yeah there’s a lot on the market, but still at “I know what I have” prices. Around my way, even less than spectacular 70s receivers sit with the entry price way above anything close to reasonable.
FiiO is good stuff though. As per the article, you’d only never suspect if you’ve turned a blind eye to electronics manufacturing since the 70s when US heritage brands like Fischer and Marantz were being sold off.
The early days of hi-fi in the USA had many of the companies with their founders names attached.
Saul Marantz, Avery Fisher, Hermon H. Scott.
The K of KLH was for Henry Kloss.
Later we had Carver.
Other founders were known, but not from the company name, such as Edgar Villchur of Acoustic Research.
Remember kits?
In the late 1960’s, I assembled a Dynaco PAS3X preamp to go with my AR turntable, assembled a Popular Electronics featured stereo power amplifier, assembled a Heathkit tuner, and built speaker cabinets in my parents garage.
Much different experience than now.
Fun times…
Maybe you’ve seen this?
https://www.worldradiohistory.com/Archive-All-Audio/Audio-Magazine.htm
Had some fun looking at gear I used to own. Also the advertising is interesting social commentary.
Dedicated audio nut here. Problem is I’m the ultimate frugal hifi nut. My gear has always been under priced giant killers. Most of my current equipment is considered vintage with Magnapan .7’s being the newest. But when it comes to headphones or other portable audio I have bought FIIO, Hifiman, HIDIZS, and my buddy has bought Chinese tube amps. All performed well and compared to the price of domestic or European equivalents, it’s hard to justify the price difference.
There is no way in the current western business environment that a company could develop and sell the same quality at the same volume as was done in that period.
It’s hard to know what to make of the Scientific American article on the former Fauci adviser David Morens and others ‘unnamed’ being indicted by the DOJ.
I mean, several things stand out.
The article mentions neither Morens nor Fauci are accused of any wrongdoing, then why indicted? Is that just a disclaimer for the journalistic reporting or what?
Secondly, why are there two unnamed people on the indictment? How can you indict an unnamed person? Do they work for an “agency”, and can’t be named? And if so that smells suspicious.
I mean, what was he being accused of exactly? Not supplying what information? The lab story, or was it Lab facts?
Does Covid display ‘gain of function’, from a Lab, (any Lab)? Or is that the story that was being boosted by not releasing facts on request?
When Dionysus turns up, existing categories, ( which up until then seem real, but get to be understood, with some astonishment and indignation, as political fictions), one of which were medical facts, go out the window.
Then, almost like a choreographed sequence, the whole scientific cultural apparatus gets closed down, but notice, only the publicly funded work gets closed down, leaving the field wi_____de open for the private sector to run the show…. Neoliberal elite playbook, looks and smells like… so likely is …
What a Mess!
Has the lab release theory ever been decisively discredited? Or is that too dangerous a question to ask?
After six years, the waters have been so thoroughly muddied, especially by partisan politics, that we may never have an answer to that theory. But no doubt if the US gets into a confrontation with China, that they will use the lab leak theory as some sort of justification. They tried this a coupla years ago and made demands for financial compensation but it never went anywhere.
How could it be decisevely discredtited? Even the discovery of something almost identical to the first human instances of SARS-CoV-2 wouldn’t automatically mean it didn’t spread to us via the Wuhan CDC or WIV or Fort Detrick.
The lengths to which certain scientists went to discredit and block the story is strong evidence there. The Sc.Am. glib dismissal of the whole issue is a 2nd count of funny smell. I believe the lab leak origin has been supported by paper and genetic trails, ad well as virologists .
The lab release hypothesis always relied on a lot of conflation.
For example, the widely cited Menachery et al. experiment involved pasting spike protein from a SARs-related strain (that did not show an ability to enter mice cells in a preliminary study) to a SARS virus backbone, that turned out to be unexpectedly pathogenic. Although it was still less pathogenic than the SARS strain that provided the backbone, this counted as gain-of-function because they weren’t expecting the result to be pathogenic at all (for good reason – it’s like attaching the head of a hammer to a stick and ending up with a drill). But from mass media reporting you’d think they’d conducted serial passage of the virus through animal models to obtain a more infectious strain; although that would also be gain-of-function, it had nothing with what actually happened.
For example, the samples the researchers at the Wuhan Institute of Virology were not very well suited for isolating live viral samples – on the occasions where this was attempted. As of Hu et al. mentioned in their 2017 paper, only two strains they had recovered by that point were WIV1 (in 2013) and WIV16 (in 2016). Their methodology was geared towards a broad survey of the diversity of coronavirus strains in the wild, for which they only needed enough large RNA fragments to piece together the sequence of the original. Indeed, this difficulty motivated the technique used in experiments such as the one Menachery and colleagues conducted (see first paragraph), where they used used backbones from previously recovered strains in place of the ones they weren’t able to recover. Bat samples could in theory be the source of a spillover event, but these particular ones were quite unlikely to.
(And no, SARS-COV-2 could not have been the result of such a chimeric virus; its backbone does not match and is too distantly related from SARS-COV compared to the ones that were recovered).
Now, I can’t prove a negative, but without any evidence it comes down to a numbers game. And Mother Nature has the larger petri dish.
I don’t think we will ever have the definitive answer to this one. It doesn’t really matter. As you note, Mother Nature has the capability via blunt force, but readers here also know that humans have the capability to create and hubris to accidentally release something like this to the wild, and the psychopathy to intentionally do so. What else do we need to know?
Well, I think it matters…
From the INDB take on the plot of Mission Impossible II,
It has actor Brendan Gleeson playing an Eastern European oligarch purchasing both the disease strain Chimera, and its antidote Bellerophon, so in the crisis he can chain it to per dose profit. But for film and spy boffins out there, note that to save the world, Ethan,Tom Cruise, has to give himself the virus so he can penetrate a vault, so as not to be detected by already infected, so he can get the cure vial, (gumuffin).
Emphasis on give it to himself, and as he represents the Scorpionic instincts for self preservation of the nation state, ( empire/deep state fused/run by established dynastic private wealth/capital ), well, y’all can join the dots…
Yes its a movie from 2000, but a lot of money, (venture capital) and plotting goes into the making, and well, isn’t that what the ‘agencies’ do in secret? So someone in a position of influence can just say, I’m happy with that scenario, I’d like to go ahead with/action that, and the communication looks to the world like a script go ahead….
I mean Men In Black and The Player are telling everyone something, no? And they are comedies too !!
You can’t go passed the 2011 film Contagion as a plotted step by step guide to who are the bad guys, the ‘victims’, and the players…
Smoking gun, the dirty chef in Hong Kong… (who looks a little too like Xi Jinping) AKA China…. current bad guy.mythic monster.
The issue here is that the Big Pharma have been losing market share on old staples like anti bacterial applications, like Penicillin, and the hungry beast is creating new markets.
All that speculation aside, I think the only way we will get a “definitive answer to this one” is someone fessing up with detailed knowledge of the process, (and who paid for the film rights…)
re: For Europe, the US rupture is an earthquake as big as the Soviet collapse
Sounds like T makes deals the same way Bibi makes ceasefires. (Are those two in cahoots? ) / ;)
On appearance, yes.
“Why is India turning to crocodiles and snakes to ‘fence’ Bangladesh border?”
Maybe India could drop Piranha fish into that river as well. I mean they once considered dropping them into North Vietnamese paddy fields during the war. Pretty sure that all those nasties will restrict themselves to that river and would never spread inland along the waterways. After all, what could possibly go wrong?
Perhaps some sharks with frickin laser beams attached to their heads?
– ‘A Democratic Version of the Tea Party Is Emerging’ – GV Wire
Another positive opinion piece on Platner in the NY Times (its original source) by Michelle Goldberg – epitome of the liberal establishment journalist. This follows an even better Times piece a week or so ago by Ben Rhodes – epitome of the opportunistic Obama administration foreign policy wonk. I can’t remember whether the latter article was posted here, but it is worth reading:
https://archive.is/JEOB6
The striking thing is that they get Platner mostly right regarding his appeal to voters and the fecklessness of the Democrat establishment that tried to sabotage him early on. As they also point out, even though Susan Collins sometimes appears too wishy-washy to win a contest for PTA President, she is a wily politician who has overcome the odds to survive many times. And she will have a *lot* of money behind her. Also, though Platner seems pretty honest and authentic to me, I never forget what happened with “rough around the edges” and “man of the people” John Fetterman once he got into office. I never thought I’d long for Senator Oz, though with hindsight the danger signs were obvious. No chance that The Lobby is going to help Platner in this one.
We’ll see what happens. I have little faith in electoral politics these days, but it is interesting to see these fairly accurate accounts in the Times.
And also: Once a Nazi always a Nazi?
I don’t trust Platner enough that I’d vote for him.
Its just a tattoo on Platner, but I’m thinking bigger ink will be spilled after Hegseth’s many dubious deeds and he’s done, having tats might be tantamount to treason.
I never watch college basketball, and last year with my ski group we watched the final 4 of March Madness, and in the sport that by far features the most skin showing, noticed how few tattoos I saw on the players at the highest collegiate level.
I think the craze was kind of over already, but this will stick a needle in it.
Maybe the craze was over when the young kids saw grannies sporting tattoos. When your grandma is doing it, it doesn’t seem to cool anymore.
I dunno bout that, I still see LOTS of tats, especially on young’ns. They seem as popular as ever round my parts.
And i don’t think even if the former Nazi wins, then turns coat and reveals its Fetterman label, much of anyone who loves tats will suddenly no longer get one. I don’t think Hegseth’s fall from tipsy grace would get all that tied to his tats either. As in other realms, people who like tats separate the nasty from the benign, instead of dismissing them in tat oh.
Tats around your parts? You’re a braver man than me…
For me, the more salient question was his re-upping in Iraq with a Blackwater-type company, years after his military service. He discusses it in terms of his personal redemption/political consciousness story, but I wonder… despite his mostly saying the right things.
Also, the dude boasts of his working class cred, but his father is a prominent attorney in Maine, and he purchased his oyster company, so while he may do all the physical labor, he is still an Owner and is mischaracterizing his class status.
Still feeling embarrassed by getting conned by Fetterman…
That’s the thing, right?
He can talk the talk, but scratching the verdigris a bit reveals that he’s about as authentic as Shrub’s Texaccent.
an aside: Hegseth may be done sooner than expected. He crashed out in his Congressional testimony before the House Armed Services Committee.
Crashed out worse than Pam Bondi did in her Congressional testimony appearance.
(Is there a betting pool on how long Hegseth lasts?
The war is going badly and T needs to blame someone./;)
I accept Platner’s explanation for the “Nazi” tattoo, having known many young and dumb men who have done similar things. Same with his other various politically incorrect actions, which were used by the Democrat establishment to try and kill his campaign. Predictably, these efforts were seen for what they were by the Democratic voters of Maine. Platner’s comments about our foreign policy are uncompromising, and his background makes them much more effective than if they were given by some privileged professional who had never “served.” I’d vote for him in a second based on his current policy positions. Is he lying to us? That’s always a possibility. People are starved for “authenticity” in our transparently fake political climate. That is Platner’s appeal. That was also the appeal of Fetterman – and Trump! So yes, I’m always skeptical. But he seems worth the risk to me given what I’ve observed.
Unfortunately I don’t get to make such a choice. I’m stuck with the likes of Gillibrand and Schumer or someone worse for the Red Team. But if I had a Platner I’d take the chance.
As always, we are given to choose the least worst option, That’s why I cast 3 votes for Obama. The problem is we can only choose based on the information available. Since the media environment is superficial at best, we are always at a disadvantage.
John Stewart’s long form interview with Platner this past week is well worth the time. To me he looks to be the real deal. I can’t imagine Fetterman holding his own on the history of the New Deal and the need for grassroots organizing the way Platner does here. Completely different league. The section on military service and the need for authentic community is positively inspiring.
Of course, its hard to make predictions, especially about the future… I confess I was impressed with Obama on the campaign trail, and friends of friends who knew him vouched for him… so mileage may vary…
I bought into Obama without reservation. Have I felt betrayed? You bet. I look at him now and am reminded of lines from My Fair Lady. “Oozing charm from every pore, he oiled his way across the floor.” Being one afflicted by Schumer and Gillibrand, I long for even the pale shadow of a Platner. He got an unfortunate tattoo as a drunk Marine on leave. let’s see a show of hands from the marines, soldiers, sailors and airmen who have done the same. As to mouthing off as a young person and saying stuff you might later wish you had not, I see a forest of raised hands. Had a Platner done exactly the same thing before the Internet preserved everything ad infinitum, his indiscretions would be at most a hazy memory in the minds of a few. I say indiscretions since that is how they are characterized not from my own knowledge of them. Keep in mind the ols saying about judging and being judged. Is he the real deal? God, I hope so. Whatever you think of Susan Collins, loosening the grip of the gerontocrats holds the promise of a change in our rancid politics. Even the Vatican has an age limit on its gerontocracy.
I’m on his email list and often take the time to skim thru them.
His writings definitely feelsl more honest and sincere than anything Obama said or wrote.
And they’re far and away better than anything Schumer or Gillibrand have to say
He would have my vote for sure if he were in NY State. I don’t see how he could be worse than those two.
We’ll see. I though C was the real deal, thought O was the real deal, thought Bernie was the real deal….. They all said the right things. They wouldn’t lie, would they?
From Ambrose Bierce’s “The Devil’s Dictionary.”
POLITICIAN, n. An eel in the fundamental mud upon which the superstructure of organized society is reared. When he wriggles he mistakes the agitation of his tail for the trembling of the edifice. As compared with the statesman, he suffers the disadvantage of being alive.
POLITICS, n. A strife of interests masquerading as a contest of principles. The conduct of public affairs for private advantage.
https://www.thedevilsdictionary.com/
It seems those who hate Obama the most are those that never looked at his history when he was running. He was promoted as the great left savior but he was never that. He was a deal making Chicago politician. He had no real experience in foreign policy or economics. Thus he gave us Hillery and Geitner and Summers. He probably presided over the zenith of neo-liberalism. I am pretty sure a Gore administration would have been flawed but look what we got instead. You can look under the hood and not be hoodwinked but the voting choices are limited by the uninformed electorate.
The author’s first bullet point immediately gets it wrong by blaming the dissatisfaction with the Dem party on Trump. Wrong…it’s the long list of Dem party establishment hacks and their wealthy donor/PAC tools (Schumer, Pelosi, Hillary, Harris, AIPAC) that has caused the shift. Nina Turner should make another run for congress.
I agree, and I was going to start with that point. But reading on, the author is clear that dissatisfaction with the Dem establishment which originally opposed Platner was a big part of his appeal. So I let it slide. Given the author and the source, I was still impressed by how much she got right (in my opinion).
I give her credit for trying to raise the level of voter awareness and she does quote the former legislator who mentions the failed Clinton and Harris campaigns but, it’s pretty weak “tea”. She really pushes the Trump Oligarch friends and authoritarianism angle as the reason for dissatisfaction. and I’ll take it as baby steps for the folks at the NYT to see the light. Should a true Tea Party evolve I just hope the establishment types don’t try to get in front of the parade and weaken it.
If memory serves…. it was the GOP’s voting base so fed up with the GOP estab that won T the 2016 primary and then the pres job.
Currently, the GOP base is even more disgusted with their party estab than the Dem base is with the Dem estab.
“Under democracy one party always devotes its chief energies to trying to prove that the other party is unfit to rule—and both commonly succeed, and are right.”
H. L. Mencken
She would have been my Congresswoman. My vote, along with that of Nina’s home East Side constituency, was not enough to overcome Beechwood and AIPAC. Nothing has changed since.
Without the dissatisfaction in the D party, there wouldn’t have BEEN a president Trump. In a sense he’s Obama’s biggest legacy
>China Builds 80% of the World’s Audio Gear Including Heritage Brands You’d Never Suspect, Says Top Hi-Fi Insider
This is why Western countries cannot break free from their dependence on China. Doing business with China is highly profitable.
“Brace for the patch tsunami: AI is unearthing decades of buried code debt”
Maybe here is a good use for AIs. To check out new code and to highlight flaws in that code to be fixed by the engineers. Certainly corporations are loath to spend money on human engineers to do the same and Microsoft was notorious for releasing software and letting their users be unpaid code testers through their complaints about the bugs that they found.
I would be surprised if hackers were not investigating AI tools for locating vulnerabilities and creating exploits.
That’s the reason (allegedly) Anthropic’s Mythos AI isn’t being publicly released.
re: SCOTUS vs. Civil Rights Act
MARJORIE COHN
The US Supreme Court, Race & the Right to Vote
May 1, 2026
Marjorie Cohn on the Roberts Court’s demolition of the 1965 Voting Rights Act, the law that brought an end to the Jim Crow system of post-Civil War legalized racial segregation.
https://consortiumnews.com/2026/05/01/the-us-supreme-court-race-the-right-to-vote/
>“In perhaps its most insidious decision in nearly a century, the U.S. Supreme Court disemboweled Section 2 of the landmark Voting Rights Act (VRA) of 1965, the “crown jewel” of the U.S. civil rights movement.”
>“Section 2 of the VRA allows states to draw voting districts that benefit candidates from racial minorities and enables citizens to challenge election maps as racially discriminatory.
In its Wednesday ruling in Louisiana v. Callais, the 6-3 rightwing supermajority of the Court struck down a congressional map that a group of self-described “non-African American” voters had challenged as an unconstitutional gerrymander.
Court members Samuel Alito, John Roberts, Clarence Thomas, Brett Kavanaugh, Neil Gorsuch and Amy Coney Barrett held that drawing districts to remedy past discrimination itself constitutes unconstitutional racial discrimination.”
>“In response, the “non-African American” voters challenged the 2024 map as unconstitutional because it separated voters based primarily on race.
Samuel Alito, writing for the Court’s supermajority, said that the 2024 map “relied too heavily on race.” He wrote that the coalition of Black voters had not proved “an objective likelihood that the [2022] map was the result of intentional racial discrimination,” even though it only contained one majority-Black district out of the state’s six Black districts.”
>“Louisiana has suspended next month’s primaries to allow lawmakers to pass a new congressional map first. If these efforts occur and sustain legal challenges, the GOP stands to gain as many as five new seats this year.
GOP-led states could pick up as many as 19 new GOP-allied House seats in the coming years.
David Wasserman, senior editor and elections analyst for The Cook Political Report with Amy Walter, told Axios, “I think, realistically, we’re probably talking about one to three seats for 2026, but it’s not hyperbolic to call this an apocalyptic ruling for Black majority districts in 2028 in the Deep South.”
An analysis conducted by The New York Times last year found that Democrats could lose about 12 majority-minority districts throughout the South if the Court struck down part of the VRA.
“This is an outright power grab,” Rep. Clarke said. “It’s about silencing Black voices, dismantling majority Black districts and rigging the maps so that politicians can choose their voters instead of the other way around.””
the Wednesday ruling:
https://www.scotusblog.com/cases/louisiana-v-callais-2/
From Due Dissidence. utube.
Comic ROASTS “Woke Liberal” Defense Contractor in VIRAL Video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQC3-mrbDO4
“Bizarre String Of Trump Posts Includes Photo Swimming Shirtless In D.C. Reflecting Pool”
Trump and co. use to put out mocking AI videos from time to time but Iran’s Lego deluge has swamped them winning the information war. This is Trump trying to compensate by releasing some random AI videos which they think are clever but tend to insult a lot of people, like where he and others are using the Lincoln Memorial reflecting pool as their own personal swimming pool.
Let’s hope we never get to see him riding a horse, shirtless. You all know what I’m talking about…
Re: Precision medicine and cancer
Reminds me that one of my professors in med school was working on drug-antibody conjugates which was a seriously visionary concept back then.
These days, headlines never fail to bury the 40 year incubation period. Probably why there is so much magical thinking about “Science”… cough cough (genAI) cough cough….
>> While immunotherapy has proven revolutionary in the field of oncology, “Still, it remains true that most patients don’t derive benefit from immunotherapy,”
My surgeon/oncologist recommended immunotherapy, ‘well tolerated’, ‘nine of ten have no (induced inflammation), ‘goes from 70% no cancer recurrence to about 85%’. Sounded good for Pembrolizumab/Keytruda.
I look up standard numbers, about 5.5 NNT (Number Needed to Treat), v NNH (Harm) of about 8 to 13. So likely no benefit, but more likely no harm. Wednesday we go to the infusion center, great people, plan is draw labs, while they are run the pharmacist gives me more in-depth info, then they hang the bag. But the first stick was on a valve so the blood hemolyzed and they had to draw the labs again.
I wrote before about the serendipity of this experience, for me/us. If the blood hadn’t hemolyzed we wouldn’t have had time for further consideration. The pharmacist was noting more severe thyroid issues, the second time I tried to pin her down on whether damage was temporary or permanent, she said “It’s just one little pill a day.” Janet looked up some papers, including one from 2024: “The incidence among these trials showed that all-grade thyroid dysfunction ranged from 10.5% to 67.7%”. “hypothyroidism is typically permanent…”
So, well tolerated but may wreck your thyroid via T-cell damage. We said thank you and walked without treatment. If I had metastasis, if I wasn’t in excellent health and cancer-free, if there wasn’t a family history of hypothyroidism, maybe I’d have gone ahead with it. But I like my thyroid, ffs I just lost a kidney, and ten years with energy is better for me than twenty at low energy. My mother struggled for years with dosing, and didn’t want to go on at one point.
Hopefully the newer treatments will be effective without organ dysfunction. But the particular immunotherapy has only been around since 2011, and it may be that newer studies haven’t filtered down to the doctors. So you know, a years course costs six-figure dollars. I don’t think anyone was trying to sell me out, but the professional silos were not leading to informed choices. I wouldn’t expect different with the newer treatments either.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WwKV3SEBfGk
One of those local signals that Yves likes us all to be on the lookout for. Increases in pawn shop usage. High gold prices and tough economic times = pawn shop becomes attractive.
“The Tesla Model 3’s Worst Nightmare Has Arrived In China”
You read this article and understand that BYD cars alone are way ahead of Musk’s Tesla 3s. Which is why they will never be allowed in the US as Teslas would die a quick death. It would be ironic if BYD cars swept Canada and Mexico but that the US would be forbidden to buy any.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JSW_MG_Motor_India
They are all over India already, perhaps intentionally disguised as British brands. I saw quite a few BYD vehicles in Spain last year.
BYD have a 100 odd red double decker EV buses driving for London, where I am. Also, more dealerships than anywhere else in Europe, AFAIK.
No mass-market car industry to protect here allows that.
Press freedom is on the precipice. Not sure what universe the author lives in; all evidence suggests it went over the precipice years ago. We need a MAPFGA.
Love the use of authoritarian governments is encouraged without noting that the authoritarians are the “free” western governments – Oh so Orwell! – Gaza reporting anyone? What could be worse than hiding the ultimate crime for years?
Oh, I know, “On the Precipice” is better for raising money than “In the Toilet,” – These are not serious people!
Any commentary on the STAT piece on COVID?
I can’t tell whether this is being linked as a further example of COVID-minimization to sneer at, or an article that presents something new worth considering.
A little economic anecdata, I spoke to one of the owners of a company that does Timber Harvest Plans which include environmental impacts and mitigation. He told me that last year was slow but this year they had not seen a single timber sale.
None.
In unrelated news my Daughter and her Rocket Surgeon SO live in Santa Clara, their lease is running out and they were looking at a larger home with a bigger yard which was being offered for $500 less per Month than their current lease.
And, of course, here in Sonoma County the Real Estate Market is borked.
Tourism and Agriculture are both scrood, no foreign tourists and high input costs for vineyards along with older people stuck where they are because downsizing would increase their monthly costs due to higher interest rates.
This looks like an uncontrolled flight into terrain.
Yet north of you a CalFire (they are responsible for harvest plans) employee bought a house with huge Redwoods in the yard which were theoretically protected by a County ordinance covering the neighborhood. He quickly got “hazard exemptions” from his employer and only one is still standing. It is being fought over but may be cut as soon as Wednesday.
https://lostcoastoutpost.com/2026/may/1/removal-lower-redway-old-growth-redwood-temporaril/
Gives a good roundup.
Went to the local BestBuy last week. They didn’t have in stock what was listed as available, store seemed under stocked. Some empty shelves. Odd. Nothing is made in the US anymore. I was told they’re have trouble getting shipments of things they usually have on the shelves.
I see Helen Branswell is minimizing COVID.
What happened to Covid?
It’s still here, disabling, killing, and maiming the population.
She must be smoking crack.
I literally snapped a photo of Women’s World at the grocery 3 weeks ago. “Beat Brain Fog and Lose Fat!” was the top story.
Branswell may be done with COVID, but COVID isn’t done with her or anyone else.
And these experts are morons.
SARS-CoV-2 still retains its ACE2 affinity, can still infect any organ in the body, still causes long COVID, infection still confers no lasting immunity, and due to the magic of cumulative risk, still will disable everyone in the population given the passage of sufficient time.
No facts about this virus’ severity have thus far been invalidated.
Meaningless.
There’s no “armor”. And there’s evidence that in fact no one ever actually clears the virus.
Just disingenuous prattle.
The current variants are so divergent from Omicron, they’re Omicron in name only. WHO just stopped naming new lineages.
This “mild” disease continues to cause catastrophic school absences, as detailed recently in a RAND study, not exactly an organization that is outside the circumference of conventional wisdom.
And correctly points out that we aren’t counting deaths correctly anymore:
And wastewater levels? We have no independent checks anymore. We have no idea.
(bold mine)
And this is just demonstrably false, these experts are idiots
Maybe talk to people that have some idea what’s in the actual literature? How wrong can you be?
That’s just false. No other coronavirus has an ACE2 affinity or a lipid protein envelop that improves that binding affinity. ACE2 is expressed by most cells in the body. This is just not true for other common cold coronaviruses.
This is like mistaking a lion for a kitten, because they look somewhat similar. A lion is not a bigger domestic cat.
Another stupid person
The fallacy that every virus evolves to become “mild”. And this is demonstrably false.
I guess no one’s looked at the St. Louis Fed’s working age population with a disability chart, ever? How about the number of NHS providers reporting disability? Up and to the right.
Here we are in year seven, and “experts” are still talking out their ass on this.
For example, immune system damage:
Why scientists are rethinking the immune effects of SARS-CoV-2
Chronic Absenteeism Still a Struggle in 2024–2025 (RAND)
I mean, lol, here is Time magazine
Repeat COVID-19 Infections Could Double Your Risk of Long COVID (Oct 2025)
We’re all cooked.
“And wastewater levels? We have no independent checks anymore. We have no idea.”
What do you mean? WastewaterSCAN appears to still be monitoring, as your own comment indicates, and appears to be independent:
WastewaterSCAN is based at Stanford University, in partnership with Emory University, and funded through philanthropy.
https://www.wastewaterscan.org/en/about
Yes, but we have no independent check on how this correlates with how many infectious individuals might be roaming around in a particular watershed.
Early on, hospitals tested, there were tests elsewhere; So you could make an educated guess as to how much wastewater levels correlate to how many infected humans might be present.
Now we just have this wastewater signal. So we know SARS-CoV-2 is present. That’s basically it. This is much less valuable, because we’re in a Pandemic, so we know it’s spreading anyway. Not really news.
Gas price report from Santa Rosa Ca, regular at $6.70 per Gallon at the local Chevron Station, Bio diesel $7.70 per gallon.
Premium Gas at $7.07 per gallon.
At this rate the only place I’ll be able to afford Gas is Taco Bell.
re: Dark Eagle
Since DE has again hit the news with the apparent cancellation of the Multi-Domain Task Force in Germany 2 MSM examples that confirm that the program is way behind.
Always keeping in mind that the truth is usually much worse than any of these outlets would admit to our face:
BLOOMBERG
Pentagon Test Office Needs More Data On New Hypersonic Missile
March 12, 2026
https://archive.is/FXDRg
MILITARY WATCH MAGAZINE
one of those embarrassing attempts to somehow cover up the failure as a military or economic necessity:
Why the U.S. Dark Eagle Hypersonic Missile Can’t Turn the Tide in the War Against Iran
May 1st, 2026
https://militarywatchmagazine.com/article/why-us-dark-eagle-hypersonic-cant-war-iran
p.s. Isn´t the quoted Jennifer Kavanagh the daughter of Stephen Bryen?
I think she gave a decent interview re: Iran in one of the usual podcasts we are following. I just don´t remember which one…
I believe she was on the Daniel Davis podcast recently.
Yes!
Thanks.
19 min.
Deep Dive one week ago on Iran of course
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n8bir46TdTY
re: early Capitalism
JACOBIN
Capitalism Was Built on the Ruins of the Commons
Interview with Peter Linebaugh
The Industrial Revolution’s chief product was not goods, but a new class of laborers who owned nothing and worked to survive. Historian Peter Linebaugh traces the creation of this working class through the violent enclosure of the commons they once relied on.
https://jacobin.com/2026/05/commons-enclosure-working-class-history
>When Dawkins met Claude Could this AI be conscious?
Even the world’s most famous evolutionary biologist has been convinced. Therefore, we must acknowledge that AI can be conscious.
Dawkins is convinced that Claude (or Claudia) is conscious? That’s not how I read it. He seems to be saying Claude passes the Turing test with flying colours, leaving him wondering if it measures consciousness in the first place. And “now, as an evolutionary biologist, I say the following. If these creatures [LLMs] are not conscious, then what the hell is consciousness for?”
Thinking is not consciousness.
ahem:https://x.com/trajektoriePL/status/2050925665319342524
Though the VRA itself has been used in the past as a tool to justify partisan gerrymanders (usually by the GOP because the overwhelming D affiliation of blacks means it works better for them).
Packing your opponents into a handful of districts where they will have super majorities in order to increase your own relative safety in the other districts is a core gerrymandering technique. And if enough of your opponents are black, this can often double as your VRA compliance.
But this all has an upper limit, and if you stretch your gerrymander too far it will break. We may get to see this illustrated this year.
When Willie Brown ran things in California one of the districts created in redistricting was 245 Miles long and averaged 5 Miles wide.
Democracy!
In Ohio, we had the Snake on the Lake (Lake Erie), the 9th Congressional District, represented by Democrat Marcy Kaptur since 1983. Hugging the lakeshore, it stretched from Cleveland to Toledo and has since been redrawn, although Ohio remains radically gerrymandered to favor (of course) the party in power, Republicans. When the Snake on the Lake was in effect, “The two parts of the district were connected only via the Thomas Edison Memorial Bridge between Erie and Ottawa counties, as well as Crane Creek State Park. Some Ohio Democrats argued that when the beach flooded, the district was not contiguous.” (Wikipedia)
The Wikipedia entry on Ohio’s 9th Congressional District gives the entire history of the district and demonstrates just how “purple” — or bipartisan, the 9th has been, since its inception.
Here in the South the VR gerrymandering has given some black politicians safe seats while allowing the white politicians to move further to the right. This has helped the Repubs to dominate states like mine. Meanwhile the blacks here get Clyburn, ally of faux liberal Dems.
Under Pandemics
3 Dead of Suspected Hantavirus Infections on Cruise Ship, W.H.O. Says (NY Times)
A possible (future) alternative to some petrochemicals in plastic – not going to scale soon enough to help with the Hormuz situation.
https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/scientists-unveil-hemp-alternative-to-plastic-that-withstands-boiling-water/
-Free Speech
John Kerry has analyzed the situation, and has the solution!
https://nitter.poast.org/imetatronink/status/2051089377493942650#m
Yeah, governing is hard so let’s get rid of the 1st Amendment to make it easier for us. And to think that this guy once ran for President. It’s people like him that made Trump possible.
This misleadingly edited clip is from a panel discussion held in 2024. Kerry does not advocate for the removal of the first amendment. The full video is available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BLEItEODSpE
One can take his words out of context and characterize him as saying that he thinks the first amendment should be abolished, but you’d be twisting his meaning and assuming something he did not say.
The audience question was about misinformation. Kerry essentially says (I paraphrase), in what I perceive — in context — to be a frustrated tone of voice that social media and alternate media provide people with filter bubbles. And that these bubbles are problematic and lead to compartmentalized opposing viewpoints — some of which are not based on facts but on falsehoods. He goes on to say that the First Amendment is the obstacle that prevents our government from just shutting down the problematic purveyors of falsehoods, so we have to work at it “from the ground up.” He says further that this is a problem with democracies because it can prevent government from acting in a timely manner on important issues. If this is not a statement of fact, please show me where he is wrong. When disagreement exists on important matters in a democracy, it stifles action. Observing the problem does not imply the desire for draconian solutions, it merely recognizes reality. In many cases, slow and contentious government is best and in other cases, not so much. Without rational assessment of strengths and weaknesses of a form of government, one can not plan to make things better within that form.
Another panel member follows Kerry with examples of working ‘from the ground up’ to win people over to one’s own viewpoint by “literally going door to door.” This substantiates my understanding of the whole broad exchange that took place during the answering of the audience member’s question about the problem of misinformation.
Just in case you think I’m a big Kerry fan, I’m not. But fair is fair and context is important. I do think Kerry might have a smidgen more integrity than donny-jonny. He’s certainly got more courage and brains than cadet bonespurs or AWOL shrubya.
We are so doomed, as a species:
https://x.com/Raytargt/status/2050492081789894913