At 1,000 years old, Sherwood Forest’s Major Oak is finally dead Nottingham Post (Micael T)
Defining Christian Humanism Comment (Robin K)
Byzantine & Medieval Art Isn’t Supposed to Look “Real” Sacred Images Project (Micael T)
Forget Stoicism. Skepticism is the ancient philosophy we need today. Big Think
The Ghost Roads of Ireland’s Great Famine JSTOR (Micael T)
The Cult of the Enhanced Self Derek Thompson (Micael T)
Ebola
🇨🇩 The Democratic Republic of the Congo’s Ebola outbreak has spread across 33 health zones in three provinces, with 896 confirmed cases and 232 deaths reported one month after the outbreak was declared.
A WHO official warned the virus may still be spreading undetected,… pic.twitter.com/LM99VBh2pq
— Drop Site (@DropSiteNews) June 19, 2026
Climate/Environment
The ocean has shielded us from the worst of climate change. Now it is running a fever Guardian
It's not just Nino 3.4 heating up because of the growing El Nino — the entire global ocean is seeing record daily sea surface temperatures. Yesterday saw the 14th consecutive new daily record.
Here are the updated daily color stripes: pic.twitter.com/bvGShRndkT
— Prof. Eliot Jacobson (@EliotJacobson) June 16, 2026
El Niño was sparked by a Kelvin wave that shifted huge amounts of warm water from west to east across the undersea Pacific since April.
And now, a new Kelvin wave is forming.
Yet more warm water will move toward the eastern Pacific and El Niño forecasts may trend even stronger. pic.twitter.com/Me2Y8sItWd
— Ben Noll (@BenNollWeather) June 17, 2026
Souring seas: Ocean acidification threatens the world’s food supply Oceanographic
Compound droughts hit plant growth much harder than scientists expected Earth
Russia Deploys Emergency Crews to Siberia as Krasnoyarsk Wildfires Nearly Quadruple in Size Moscow Times
Water
Nairobi: Eastlands residents struggle to cope as water shortages worsen Citizen
Rising temperatures may increase flood risk through river ‘whiplash’, study finds Guardian
China?
China raises ‘serious concern’ over US-Japan ‘extended nuclear deterrence’ Anadolu Agency
Taiwan presses Washington for billions in weapons as China tensions grow Independent
First Close Look at China’s Unique Newly Launched Nuclear Submarine with Enhanced Stealth Military Watch
Japan
Yen teeters on cusp of 40-year low, pound firms Reuters
Japan raids ice cream giants over price-fixing allegations BBC
Koreas
North Korea says treaty with Russia ‘essential legal weapon’ for stability Korea Herald
Southeast Asia
Myanmar military airstrike kills seven civilians in Rakhine state Aljazeera
South of the Border
Cuban churches forced to ration Communion wafers CathNews
Bolivian blockades strangle economy, pressuring centre-right leader Financial Times
A shattered peace: Inside Colombia’s never-ending drug war San Juan Daily Star
Ecuadorian troops to be deployed in Guayas to strengthen security operations against criminal groups Reuters
Africa
Africa’s multipolar scramble GIS Reports
Ethiopia election 2026: Tigray excluded and on edge DW
Western countries warn of atrocities, imminent RSF escalation in Sudan’s al-Obeid Reuters
Somalia warns Israel against meddling in Somaliland Aljazeera
European Disunion
‘We are living in a permanent time of crisis,’ says former ECB president Trichet TrustNet
Hegseth announces review of US forces in Europe as he lambasts NATO allies in Brussels meeting Euronews
Old Blighty
UK Posts Highest Budget Deficit for Any May Since the Pandemic Bloomberg
Number of shoplifters brandishing weapons surges Telegraph
NHS patients face worst drug shortages on record, say pharmacists and GPs Guardian
Despite sending four Palestine Action activists away to prison last week with sentences totalling 32 years, Mr Justice Johnson is still hounding their lead barrister Mr Menon, who was summoned to the High Court this morning to face a new application for Contempt of Court. Rajiv… pic.twitter.com/JieAw1h0fV
— Real Media (@RealMediaGB) June 19, 2026
Hollow State End Game John Robb (Micael T)
Authoritarian Babyism All That Is Solid (Micael T)
Israel v. The Resistance
Tanker owners still reluctant to send ships through the Strait of Hormuz TradeWinds
Diplomatic agreements may lead to Israel-Iran escalation, former Navy commander warns Jerusalem Post
Syraqistan
Syria reports new Israeli incursion into Quneitra village amid ongoing border tensions Arab News
New Not-So-Cold War
Stanislav Krapivnik: Russia’s Offensive Gains Speed & Anger Boils Over in Moscow Glenn Diesen
Zelensky Gives Belarus 7-Day Ultimatum in Unexpected Threat Simplcius
Finland’s parliament passes bill in support of lifting total ban on nuclear weapons Euronews
A new Arctic-class gas carrier has been put into operation in Russia
▪️At the "Zvezda" shipyard, the gas carrier "Konstantin Posiet" was put into operation. The vessel was built for year-round transportation of liquefied natural gas (LNG) in the Arctic, — states Sovcomflot… pic.twitter.com/RJM6xu40Pv
— S p r i n t e r (@SprinterPress) June 18, 2026
Big Brother is Watching You Watch
If you thought Flock cameras were concerning, meet what comes next.
A company called Leonardo has developed a system called ELSAG SignalTrace. It broke into public awareness just days ago and is already being marketed to law enforcement agencies across the country. It makes… pic.twitter.com/3LZRr2EfCF
— 0️⃣BlackBetty ⚓️ (@BabyD1111229) June 18, 2026
>
Imperial Collapse Watch
The ghosts of the ‘rules-based world order’ CounterFire
Trade Wars Are Giving Birth to ‘Open Plurilateralism’ Bloomberg
See this part of the tweet:
Every time you drive past one of these upgraded cameras, the sensor sweeps up the unique electronic identifiers of every device in your vehicle. Your cell phone. Your smartwatch. Your wireless headphones. Your fitness tracker. Your laptop. Your tablet. Your car’s own infotainment system. Your tire pressure sensors. Your vehicle’s Bluetooth hotspot.
Scoop: FulcrumSec Leaks Novo Nordisk Data After $25M Demand Goes Unpaid DataBreaches.Net (Micael T)
Trump 2.0
Trump says there are ‘no limits’ to his power The Hill. Um, Trump is asking for God to smite him.
What Americans think about Trump’s handling of Iran, according to a new AP-NORC poll Associated Press
Israel NDAA Provision ‘Section 219’ Faces Bipartisan Blowback From House Lawmakers Military.com
GOP Clown Car
‘Coordinated effort’: Kansas Republican leaders have a plan to cancel the 2026 U.S. Senate election Kansas Reflector. If this plot is underway in Kansas, similar ones are sure to be in motion in other states
Supremes
Supreme Court limits power of federal government to disarm drug users CNN
Economy
Fertiliser price shocks could have ‘lasting effects’ on food production GTR
Global fertilizer trade down 30% ANBA
From human urine to worm manure: unusual fertilisers boosted by Gulf conflict Financial Times
Global exports downturn deepens in May as war hits trade in services S&P Global
Insurers seek to define ‘war’ as risk rises of global power clashes Financial Times
Central banks are repatriating gold bars Vzglayd via machine translation (Micael T)
Mr. Market Needs a Therapist
For warning signs of the next global financial crisis, watch the activities of both banks and nonbanks Atlantic Council
AI
‘We created a monster’: companies rein in AI usage as costs strain budgets Financial Times
Norway severely curtails AI use in elementary school Reuters
Exclusive: Neuroscience journal editor resigns over automation concerns Transmitter (timotheus)
The New Geopolitics of AI: Water, Energy, and the Battle for Computational Power Modern Diplomacy
Guillotine Watch
Turns Out, There Really Is a Cabal of Elite Crazies Trying to Control the World Esquire (Ann)
Antidote du jour. Tracie H: “This is a male Costa’s Hummingbird. I’m not sure if I’ve mentioned him yet, but he hangs out on this branch whenever there is a high wind. He seems to love balancing and fighting the wind–aerobics for birds, I guess”:
And a bonus:
The speed of a merganser running on water.pic.twitter.com/HD4rTpyx7j
— Wonder of Science (@wonderofscience) June 14, 2026
A second bonus:
🤣😅 Which Parrot is a better actor? pic.twitter.com/nAGn1vWFiD
— Amazing Nature (@AmazingNature00) June 14, 2026
A third:
How it started vs how it’s going pic.twitter.com/niYv78tQ9I
— Puppies & Positivity (@Puppieslover) June 14, 2026
And a different sort of bonus:
When a family in Vermont reached out to Baltimore restaurant owner Steve Chu asking for the recipe of a favorite dish enjoyed by their terminally ill loved one, they expected instructions.
Instead, they received something far more meaningful.
Steve Chu, co-owner of Ekiben,… pic.twitter.com/u9BTRrOCNE
— Wolf of X (@WolfofX) June 14, 2026
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.
An aside about the grift of crypto. (T’will become a major political issue in the future, imo. The T family is involved in crypto. /;)
Bill Black from one year ago.
Crypto: The New Political Corruption Pipeline, Dr. William K. Black Professor of Economics and Law
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BuVLs0c3dwE
Microsoft discovers new lightweight backdoor that steals cryptocurrency.
The company named the worm Crypto Clipper monitors clipboard contents for patterns that are consistent with standardized 12- or 24-word seed phrases. When found, it uploads them, along with the screenshots, to the attacker’s server. The stealer also replaces addresses it finds with ones belonging to attacker-controlled wallets. This allows the malware to divert payments to the attacker’s pockets. Microsoft believes the purpose of the screenshots is to provide context that may be useful.
https://arstechnica.com/security/2026/06/microsoft-spots-new-self-propagating-malware-for-stealing-cryptocurrency/
Microstrategy’s preferred stock is sinking fast, which might be the signal preceding a big Bitcoin/crypto sell-off.
One can always hope…
Thanks Flora!
“What Americans think about Trump’s handling of Iran, according to a new AP-NORC poll”
I’m pretty sure that if you asked Trump’s supporters, that they would say that Trump won the war-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aWzylwva8uU (7:07 mins)
Which parrot is the better actor could have used photos of TV News readers.
Eliot Jacobson’s heart is in the right place, but he chooses his units for maximum red. When he says ‘the entire global ocean’, it doesn’t mean all parts of the entirety. Take a closer look at the chart title, it’s for 60°S to 60°N, what is labelled ‘World’ at Climate Reanalyzer. In fact the Subpolar North Atlantic is running under long-term averages, a nuance worthy of discussion that Jacobson’s phrasing wipes out. It’s too bad, he’s got a good eye, but he often clicks the knob to eleven and undermines his credibility.
I took a look at the chart you shared and it says 45º-60º N and 20º-45º. This means that you do exactly what you accused Eliot Jacobson of doing and worst. Not only is the latitude of the subpolar North Atlantic you refer to included in the chart he shared, you only include a small longitude range, meaning you are nitpicking a very specific area of the ocean that is already included in the average record he mentions.
That particular area is cooling because AMOC is slowing down and that cooling should scare you, as it reaffirms the worst case scenarios for global warming. Instead, you try to use that scary evidence for accelerating global warming to pretend it means the opposite. And you think it’s Jacobson’s credibility that is on the line?
Fair point on latitude, my fault. As you say, that particular area is cooling, which is counter-argument to Jacobson’s phrasing – he uses ‘entire’, not ‘average’. The nuance is AMOC slowing down, and melting ice’s effect on albedo. But using Jacobson’s language, you only get to discussing AMOC after being proven false on a particular. Another technique he uses is words about temperature, but putting anomaly charts to support them without noting the change in units.
My credibility is on the line if my writing suggests denying climate change. Needs clarification, so thank you for that.
Thank you for the wonderful antidotes today! The last is so truly uplifting. Acts of kindness make life worth living!
they all hit the spot!
the orange buddies so precious
Loved the merganser. I saw a whole bunch if them in action at Moosehead Lake at few years ago, twenty or so juveniles like the one in the video tearing around the lake together in a pack like a bunch of Hell’s Angels. Then other birds took advantage of the waters they stirred up. A great blue heron waded into their wake and grabbed a quick meal, quickly followed by a kingfisher diving out of a tree to spear a minnow. Circle of life – hakuna matata.
“At 1,000 years old, Sherwood Forest’s Major Oak is finally dead”
It’s a shame but no tree can live forever, even one that may have been alive at the time of William the Conquer-
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Major_Oak
Would you believe that David Hasselhof was given a sapling from this tree?
ELSAG Signaltrace is a scam. There is no existing technology that can be attached to a flock camera pole that could possibly pick up every signal the article claims, particularly from a moving vehicle. If you were close enough, you might get some of the data described in the article, but again, physics wins. The signal strength of a bluetooth device is just not going to be strong enough to be detectable beyond a hundred feet or so (https://www.digitalcitizen.life/how-far-bluetooth-range/). As for wifi, I can’t even get it to cover my house without repeaters. Imagine trying to get a clear signal when the detector is mounted on a pole a few hundred feet from the highway, trying to monitor hundreds of other signals, in moving vehicles. You might pick up an identifier here and there, but I seriously doubt that it would hold up in court as evidence. Any competent radio engineer would shred the idea pretty quickly.
I’m sure they can sell this to cops though. They’re still using lie detectors and other bullshit tech.
I am so glad this is not even feasible.
I don’t understand the skepticism. Plenty of US states have cameras mounted over the intersection on the same poles carrying the traffic lights, or on poles a few yards from the highway pavement. I’ve personally witnessed both these configurations many times. This is far different than 100s of feet away – we’re talking directly over the pavement or right next to it. 10-20′ above cars on traffic lights, or 20-40′ if it’s on the side of the road. At that range, you could definitely capture the needed data.
Repeaters are a problem in a house because of the walls, but street cameras are already mounted where there is clear line-of-sight.
And yeah, some signals coming out of cars will be stronger than others. LTE will be stronger than bluetooth no matter what. But it’s certainly plausible that all of it will be collected on a normal basis, especially for cameras mounted over the road.
Much as I wish it was a scam, it does seem legit to me at first glance.
I still remember WiFi driving? Surfing? I forget what it was called when early 2.4GHz WiFi hit the scene. Was it wardriving? I still pick up people’s WiFi signal out here in nowhere land, and my neighbors aren’t 25 ft away on tightly packed lots.
I was surprised what I could pick up back in the day walking around the neighborhood holding my Dell Inspiron with a WiFi dongle, I had a Linksys 802.11b PCMCIA card, getting people’s AOL IM conversations and DNS requests while wandering around. Of course not long after, they introduced WEP encrypt which was easily cracked apparently. I never cared to try.
Close enough to a stationary car, I’m sure you can pick up some signals for sure. My BT headset works pretty well downstairs, through walls, with the PC upstairs.
I’m definitely not a domain expert though, just fondly remember playing around with WiFi stuff 20 years ago.
Wardriving is the term for when driving around and collecting Wifi signals. As for collecting Wifi info, just set up a Wifi access point with a common network name. Most people have their phones to automatically connect to known Wifi networks, so one can hoover up traffic. Apple devices anonymizes Wifi MAC addresses by default, not sure about other vendors, but that may not be enough to disguise the devices footprint.
Bluetooth you’re going to have to get pretty close, especially Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE). However, the receivers are inexpensive and require little power, so its easier to scatter and embed all over the place.
As for receiving signals, unless there’s a large physical barrier, or something like a good Faraday cage, a high gain direction antenna (likely a phased array antenna, PAA) can receive the signal. A PAA adds the ability to get direction of arrival. A system can use doppler estimation for velocity, and if the signal contains accurate enough timing information, the system can calculate distance. However, this capability is rather specialized.
Hmmmmm. If I cover my car in aluminum foil, do I get a Faraday cage?
Of course, then they just need to track the car covered in aluminum foil…
Sorry to say it is feasible ever since Bluetooth 5.0.
Bluetooth long-range (Coded PHY) is a featire of Bluetooth 5.0 extends the range of Bluetooth devices from 30-100 feet to ranges of 1 kilometer and beyond. Most modern phones have Bluetooth 5, and most use Coded Phy. The reason why your devices have a hard time connecting ta distance is that they are still using Bluetooth 4.2 or lower. But many many more accessories are now using Bluetooth 5.1. This tech has been around since 2017.
https://revolveteam.com/blog/btle-coded-phy-blog/
https://www.bluetooth.com/bluetooth-resources/intro-to-bluetooth-low-energy-coded-phy/
https://www.bluetooth.com/learn-about-bluetooth/key-attributes/range/#estimator
And to track you that do not need to transmit, they only need to detect you beacon. I have zero doubt that Leonardo can do what they say they can do.
Keep you bluetooth off. Always.
I turn on my wifi and it instantly identifies every wifi signal on the block. ELSAG Signaltrace doesn’t have to “read” your devices, it’s just noticing that they went by. The threat here is not that you’re being x-rayed, the threat is all the different ways in which these “cameras” can note your time and direction in passing as confirmed by all the devices you’re carrying.
And it’s not really invasive given that all your devices are ‘signaling’ their presence. By having devices, you are voluntarily sacrificing your privacy. If all the flock cameras went away, law enforcement could still track you by your phone.
And by the way, Thomas Neuberger’s recent piece on Gmail was VERY helpful to me. I’ve always had everything shut off on gmail but sure enough when I checked there were all kinds of new “smart” boxes turned on by default. I turned them all off and suddenly gmail started loading normally again.
When the internet started up, news like Gmail abusing your account would have been everywhere. Now you have to read tech and dissident political blogs to learn these things!
Your comment reminded me of how about fifteen years ago when Google Cars were driving through neighbourhoods taking images of street scenes, that it was found that they were also “accidentally” recording WiFi data as they drove by people’s homes and offices-
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2010/may/15/google-admits-storing-private-data
Silicon Valley’s motto seems to be ‘Copy everything!’
Slowly but surely I’m being nudged to leave the phone at home and get a watch since thats what I primarily use the phone for. Of course, having no trackable device would send the surveillance state into a tizzy… last time I flew I had to pay tsa 45 bucks for a “background check” (I put that in quotes as I don’t think they did the check, they just need me to comply) I just didn’t want to renew my license until it expires. I guess we’re USSR now, mingled with a smattering of nazi germany…
Mission Darkness makes the best (verified) Faraday bags. Only about $40.
I happily use one!
Regretfully, I have to disagree.
Sitting here on my isolated Tuscan hillside, and depending on atmospheric conditions, I often pick up a decent WiFi signal from an agriturismo that is located 500m away across the valley. Of course I don’t know their password and would not dream of breaking in; my point is that WiFi can be detectable from shockingly long distances.
As for Bluetooth (which I don’t use when I’m driving bc I don’t talk/text and drive, but She Who Must Be Obeyed has other ideas and she often uses my car when I’m not in Moscow, so my car’s Bluetooth is always switched on), I have been surprised several times when I’m in the driveway warming up my car (with my own phone’s Bluetooth in the permanently disabled position) and it picks up my wife’s phone signal at least 30m away, through multiple walls (I simply press the DeclineCall button and drive away, and then she complains later on about Moscow’s bad mobile connectivity…..).
And this surveillance tech is only getting started.
“You have zero privacy anyway. Get over it.” — Scott McNealy, 1999
I recently had a tire pressure sensor fail on my 2017 car.
There is a lot of information on the web about these Tire Pressure Monitoring Systems (TPMS).
Each sensor transmits a unique ID code so the car can read the tire pressure of each tire and know which tire is associated with each ID.
My sensors are set to transmit at 314.9MHz.
Here is a link to a study with details about remote reading of tire pressure sensors.
https://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/cars/news-blog/study-proves-drivers-can-be-tracked-via-tire-pressure-monitoring-systems-45134128
The article mentions potential tracking from 50 meters away.
Note, as each sensor in the tire has a small battery that powers it, to save battery life, it only sends data every 60 to 90 seconds (except a rapid deflation causes an immediate send) so actually catching the transmitted signals externally will take a while.
Assuming the 4 sensors are exactly interleaving their transmissions and they are sending at a 90 second interval, one of the sensors would be transmitting a unique ID code every 22.5 seconds that could be read from a distance (50 meters per the above link).
So with enough data gathering over time, a surveillance system could learn the four unique TPMS ID’s associated with each car license plate and trace the vehicle via these ID’s at a later time when the license plate couldn’t be read.
Will the surveillance industries bother?
The tire pressure sensors in our Prius quit some time ago. The wife checked with the dealer and they wanted over $300 per wheel to fix. I told her that I had managed to drive for 50 years using only the tire pressure sensor on the end of the air hose and it never let me down.
I found some tire pressure sensors online at 4 for around $30.00 or about $7.50/ sensor
A local tire shop, on a not busy Friday afternoon, replaced the bad one for $20.00 and taught the car the new sensor.
The replaced one has been working fine.
So under $30 to replace one sensor.
The sensors have warned me of a slow leak caused by a staple, and also of a curb damaged tire. Both were quickly repaired at tire shops.
I have grown to appreciate tire pressure sensors.
RE: Forget Stoicism. Skepticism is the ancient philosophy we need today.
Agree with the headline wholeheartedly. I don’t have the books in front of me, so paraphrasing here, but philosopher John Gray in his book Feline Philosophy pointed out that is was much easier to be a stoic and just grin and bear it if one were an emperor like Marcus Aurelius who could have anything at the snap of a finger, than it would be for a pauper without a crust of bread to their name. Mary Beard referred to the Mediations in a recent book as “Marcus Aurelius’ random jottings” or some such.
People should always consider that they could be mistaken and there are far too many idiots walking around completely sure of themselves these days. But the author touts Socrates as a great skeptic, when the academic school didn’t start until well after Socrates’ death. Socrates is not my favorite. And as for the conclusion of the article, the author clearly hasn’t read the history in depth –
“Anecdotally, the difference between Stoicism and Skepticism is perhaps best illustrated through the fates of Seneca and Socrates. Both were killed, and in more or less the same way: by being forced to commit suicide by authorities they’d run afoul of. But where Seneca died having educated the cruel and paranoid emperor Nero, whose unstable reign plunged the Roman Empire into a civil war, Socrates died as he had lived, speaking truth to power. Or, more accurately, questioning truth to power.”
Just no. Socrates was a fan of oligarchy, and encouraged Alcibiades who led Athens to ruin, among other faults. And he was offered exile – he could have just walked away. But instead he was a stubborn blowhard and drank the hemlock. Good riddance I say.
For me, I’ll take Diogenes any day. Now get off my lawn.
Also, Bard College classicist James Romm has written on both Seneca and Plato, among others, and his books are very accessible and don’t require a deep classics background to enjoy them. His recent Plato and the Tyrant gave me a newfound appreciation for Plato, if not Socrates. I highly recommend anything by him – https://www.jamesromm.com/books
I would add to your praise of James Romm……
I am now in semi-retirement from medicine. The continuing insults of AI, forced “upcoding”, constant pre-authorization, the COVID degradation etc have finally taken their toll. In the last year, I have begun something that I must say is the highlight of my life. I teach high school kids Classical History, Latin and Greek. I will add that whatever we may all think of the younger generations – I have been amazingly impressed by them. The current malaise is not THEIR fault, it is the fault of the elders. When you treat them like lazy bums, that is what they will be. When you challenge them intensely and make them think, that is what they will do.
And now during summer school and summer classes, yes, it is a thing, my class of 17 intrepid young people and I spend the first 10 minutes of every class going over excerpts of Dr. Romm’s latest book – “Since You’re Mortal — Life Lessons from the LOST Greek Plays.” I cannot recommend the book enough.
I will not go into great detail, but the subject of Romm’s latest is a man named Stobaeus who lived in the 5th century AD. As has been explained to me, the loss of the Library of Alexandria was a historical disaster, but, equally destructive was what was going on in this period of time. All of the ancient Greek plays were still around but were written on paper…….rotting away in libraries. There was only so much funding to transfer these to more long lasting vellum in scriptoria, so only the cream of the crop was saved for the most part. This is why the latest tech idea of scanning the “Vesuvius damaged” scrolls in the library of Herculaneum is so fascinating. Who knows what we may be able to uncover there……
Stobaeus wrote a rather long – volumes long – book of excerpts from all kinds of histories, plays, dramas, comedies, etc which are now lost. He wrote this book for his son – an advice manual if you will. And it is fascinating. Dr. Romm takes the most important of these excerpts and discusses them in detail in his new book. I am not sure if we have ever had more piercing discussions in my class of high schoolers. The wisdom is for the ages.
As is so often the case, this work of Stobaeus has never been translated in its entirety into modern languages. I have looked his work over. It is a koine Greek but it is definitely transitional and therefore a bit more complicated. Latin underwent the same transitional period into its later forms and eventually into all the Romance languages. So, this is a translation project that is a bit more tedious and has therefore never been done. This is tragic. I may take this on when I fully retire. Someone needs to.
IM Doc, I had wondered where you wandered off to, I’m glad it’s a place where you can make a difference.
My interactions with young people echo your own, many are aware of what’s happening, don’t like it and are looking for a way to make positive changes.
I hope you will take a look at the pics of Trump at the G7 meeting, he does not look well at all.
“Deep fried shit” is what comes to mind.
Missed you! Glad that you are involved in projects you love and find important.
It’s lovely to “see” you again, like Mr. Stone I wondered where you had gone.
For your sake, I’m very happy that you are leaving the sh*tshow called American Healthcare. Your stress level has likely gone down quite a lot!
I am sad that another dedicated, experienced, and caring healthcare professional has felt it necessary to leave. I imagine your patients will miss having such a doctor.
And welcome back, I hope to “see” you more often in the future!
Yes, always good to hear from the Good Doctor. I’m certain the high schooler’s will be inoculated with his ethical compliance with ‘First, Do No Harm’; and a life of service.
Happy Father’s Day, Doc!
Yes. I agree. And agree that “the kids are alright.”
I’ll look for an English translation copy of Stobaeus’s book. Perhaps it will be IMDoc’s future translation.
Those are 17 young people in IM Doc’s care who will grow up to be exactly what we need if civilization is to survive!
And thank you for the book recommendations!
There’s been some remarkable developments in decoding the Herculaneum scrolls. It’s a group effort, with subsidized financial rewards to those who help the translations along–which are, of course, horribly tricky. A good explanation of it can be found here:
https://scrollprize.org/
One problem I’ve seen discussed on other sites is the difficulty working with the Italian government. Apparently, no efforts have been made (for various reasons) in excavation of the lower levels of a mansion built by Lucius Calpurnis Piso, the father of Julius Caesar. This is where it is believed the main library. The upstairs library is a smaller one, believed to consist almost entirely of philosophical material by lesser (though hardly available elsewhere) writers. There has been success in very slow, complicated translation efforts, but if we’re looking for lost Greco-Roman plays and histories, it’s all currently buried.
It is pretty remarkable how people are managing to read contents of papyri burnt to crisp a couple of thousand years ago (and that the first techniques for unfurling them were developed in 18th century! yay for the Church and monastics?)
Heh, I was actually going to ask about book recommendations! NC is also a reading library.
The other most famous Stoic (at least among us nowadays since we have lost the writings of Chrisippus etc.), Epictetus, was a slave. As a mater of fact, Plato spent a period in slavery, as did Aristotle’s entire hometown.
This attempt to read modern liberal or lefty themes into ancient history is the equivalent of Christians scouring the Torah for references to Jesus.
Come to think of it, if one must apply this modern Western framework, Scepticism is about as reactionary as you can get, since it explicitly says that, given there is no knowable truth about good or bad (or anything), you should accept whatever laws and customs are dominant in any given place and time, because why not.
The most famous today.
The most famous roman stoic in antiquity was probably Epictetus’ teacher, Gaius Musonius Rufus, sometimes called the Roman Socrates.
Quite the interesting figure.
With some implicitely pretty radical teachings about equality.
Some of Musonius’ former fellow pupils of Gaius Blossius were apparently executed for encouraging slaves to revolt, thus Musonius himself may have been less blunt than he otherwise might have been with his social ideas.
But his writing is still full of things like calls to earn ones livlihood with the work of one’s own hands instead of those of others and other examples of what some historians think were thinly veiled criticisms of slavery.
Well, he made a slave his star pupil at least in accordance with the pretty radically egalitarian (and scandalously quasi communist) ideas of the earliest Stoics.
The Stoics went from utopian crazies and outsiders to reformists and in the case of some like Seneca to complete and utter hypocracy but the essential equality of all human beings, Romans and barbarians, free citizens and slaves, men and women as the same kind of divine sparks of the fiery worldsoul remained a central part of their philosophy at least on paper.
And while Musonius Rufus belonged to the very generation of Stoics that gave up on more radical ideas of societal change or founding utopian poleis (yes, that had been a thing) that equality seems to have genuinely deeply important to him in his work and treatment of people.
One can basically see the fire that many early Stoics seem to have had (strange as that may sound considering their modern reputation) disappear more and more with every generation afterwards.
lyman alpha blob: Thanks. I too will take Diogenes over Socrates, as well as over the too-tidy Aristotle.
But the essay indulges in other whoppers:
–Epicurus was a skeptic who relied on the evidence of the senses. No categories of the Good, Beautiful, and True. Nor any of that murk of Plato’s cave.
–Epicureans were agnostics, which Cicero didn’t like, let alone the early Christians, who helped to wipe them out.
–Pleasure for Epicureans depends on its quality. They didn’t just shove cocaine up their noses.
–Epicureans were egalitarian and accepted women.
Eudaemonia
Come on. Who said, “Your daimon is your fate”?
Herakleitos
I’m detecting some fudging among these stoics.
Pass the bougatsa, and skeptically, I say.
The early Stoics were not just about “grin and bear it”, they had some pretty radical ideas about all humans being fundamentally equal citizens in the City of Zeus (where Augustine got the concept of the City of God from) and there were some pretty radical political implications to that.
Under the late Republic and early Empire the roman was very nervous about radical stoic philosophers preaching utopian alternate societies without private property among other things.
Various philosophers, especially Stoics were accused of encouraging the slaves to revolt and there is some circumstancial evidence that at least some young, stoic radicals actually did.
Some of the pupils of famous stoic philosopher Gaius Blossius seem to indeed have been closely involved with both the Spartacus revolt and the slave revolt preceding it and the attempt to create a utopian society in Sicily (as well as an apparent other attempt to create a quasi communist city state called Heliopolis, possibly based on the scandalous “Republic” of Zeno of Cition, founder of Stoicism).
Of course the Roman Republic put a bloody end to any such nonsense.
Some philosophers seem to have fought and died or have been executed with the slaves.
We know very little about all this, we actually know astonishingly little about the exact circumstances of the late Republic slave revolts and we know very little about this brief period of apparent philosophical radicalism but one can definitely piece together that some wild and interesting stuff that really scared the roman elites was going on.
The later Stoics swore off that radicalism to the point of censoring the writings of their own founding father to be more acceptable to the ruling classes.
But together with the Epicureans they kept being active as reformers for the entirety of the Roman Empire.
Obviously many are with good reason allergic to the term reformer but it is still worth pointing out that pretty much every single piece of legislation trying to make roman society even a little bit less harsh and cruel bore a stoic signature.
Trump asserts that He has absolute power, that the Laws don’t matter and that neither do the needs or desires of the American People.
And SCOTUS says “Nothing to see here”
Add Signal Trace and Palantir’s population management tools and it’s understandable why TPTB are so confident. It doesn’t matter whether Signal Trace works or not as long as the Authorities believe it does.
After all, what could go wrong?
After the Biden administration turned an autopen into RoboPotus, all bets were off.
The neos have destroyed the truth, only cleverly worded lies are permitted.
Trump is not a clever liar.
#progress
“The ghosts of the ‘rules-based world order’”
Turns out it’s hard to sustain “the Washington Consensus” without Washington, eh? 😈
Good riddance …
“The Ghost Roads of Ireland’s Great Famine”
If Ireland has ghost roads from the Great Famine, then you can be certain that there are also ghost villages. Ones where too many either died from starvation or fled overseas leaving mostly abandoned buildings that would fall into disrepair. It must have been something after the Great Famine was over to go through an abandoned village being reclaimed by the elements. Ireland has a history of abandoned towns and villages-
https://www.bernards.cz/news/a-glimpse-inside-irelands-historic-ghost-villages-2/
Ohio data center update:
https://www.clevescene.com/news/ohio-news/ohio-proposed-constitutional-amendment-to-ban-data-centers-will-not-be-on-this-years-ballot/
Thanks for this Carla. I’m in NW Ohio about an hour SE of Toledo. Never heard of this group nor anyone asking to sign. I suspect this will be a battle as it seems most of the state officials want this.
Unfortunately, the Conserve Ohio citizens group thought they could get 420,000 signatures from half the counties in the state in three months by promising that someone would be holding a petition at a certain rural or small-town site for an hour or two on each weekend day. You have to have at least two three-hour shifts with 3-4 people collecting signatures on weekends, and two two-hour shifts (lunch and rush hour) the other five days a week, and you have to cover every major metropolitan area as well as small towns throughout the state. Even if successful, the Republicans in Columbus have proven their ability to undermine whatever the public passes at the ballot box.
I mean, until Whitney Webb, who ever knew Epstein was running the Ohio statehouse? He was just warming up for his capture of the federal government and the fledgling oligarchs. https://unlimitedhangout.com/2026/03/investigative-reports/technate-ohio-new-albany/
I’m with you, and that article you posted the other day was great.
I find many people around here in rural NW Ohio don’t really understand what those of us here know due the fine coverage by Yves and Co. They see it simply as new technology that will make all our lives better.
Or maybe not…
Who else here has been watching the storks’ nest live webcam in Bad Salzungen? It’s been running since Feb and is the best kind of reality TV. I’ve been looking on an off for a couple of months and find the drama gripping.
The three little ones are now so big they look like they will soon be able to leave the nest. They often flap their wings and hop into the air.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dr5zebXpO-M
I’m looking forward to the day they go off to Berufsschule to learn about baby delivery.
Pro tip: Put the stork nest webcam on full screen while listening to Dialogue Works. Bonus pro tip: Put it on while you practice your musical instrument.
I have watched it from time to time. Don’t know exactly how I found it. Thank you for the update!
I’d always been looking at Civilian Labor Force – With a Disability, 16 Years and over, but Population – With a Disability, 16 Years and over looks even more sinister.
Over 36 million people, so far. Up and to the right. From 2016 to 2020 it was relatively stable in a range.
What could possibly have changed in 2020 that we have disability as determined by the St. Louis Fed survey going up and to the right?
Still not seeing any compelling evidence that SARS-CoV-2 is “just a cold” and “mild” now. Maybe next year?
The age verification happening in Britain is manifesting in my Twitter with people complaining able Apple iPhones asking that you provide your ID. Sinister.
How age verification works in iOS 26.4
So Silicon Valley can make really great UX workflows, not dark patterns, when it wants to? Noted!
The UK Just Banned Social Media for Under-16s and Millions of Adults Will Have to Prove Their Age
I urge those that have not done so to look at the pictures of Trump at the G7 conference.
His physical deterioration is shockingly obvious, if it mirrors his mental deterioration, as is likely, oh, shit.
Trump’s reaction to being thwarted has always been to lash out against whoever he percieves to be in opposition to his plans, and he has no brakes or reverse gear.
He does have 20,000 heavily armed Brownshirts who have been told that they have “Total Immunity”.
Which they do, Jonathan Ross has been rewarded with more than $1MM for shooting an unarmed woman to death on Camera and the killers of Alex Pretti are still on the job.
It’s clear that the AIPAC War has been a disaster, Trump will need to demonstrate his Dominance and with both the Mid Terms and the Oil Cliff coming up the Home Front seems the most likely place for that to happen.
Trump needs to be seen as the “Big Dog” rather than the sorry son of a bitch that he is, it seems reasonable to expect that he will become more unhinged and more violent as he continues to flail.
It’s going to be a lively Summer.
re: Syria
BERLINER ZEITUNG
google-transl.
China warns, the US and Europe look on: The jihadist problem of the “new” Syria
Under Ahmed al-Sharaa, former foreign fighters are not disarmed but become part of the Syrian army – with consequences for international security.
by Christoph Leonhardt (head of Occident-Orient and deputy managing director of Middle East Minds)
https://archive.is/IFxZ2
A must read. Post on site and here’s the link again
Simplcius
https://substack.com/home/post/p-202752010
How the lame stream press reports and what is really happening.
India announced a 25% reduction of Basmati exports.
Hoo boy…
RE: Reflecting Pool
Here’s what really caused the pool to turn green.
https://www.latimes.com/environment/story/2026-06-19/algae-persist-in-d-cs-reflecting-pool-despite-administrations-efforts-to-clear-murky-waters
All he needed was expert advice. Unfortunately he doesn’t use it while conjuring his politcal stunts.
There has also been a problem with the new blue paint at the bottom of the pool peeling away. Trump gave the contract for the pool to a mob that worked on one of his properties and who had no experience working on such a large project.
Painting the pool bottom ‘blue’ simply exacerbated the algae growth, as noted in the linked article. The blue paint in a pool with a shallow bottom simply allowed sunlight to penetrate to depth and heat up the the pool water (and likely deteriorate a likely poor paint application).
I imagine the no-bid contractor isn’t licensed for the reflecting pool job, as well.
Trump has always reminded me of the prototypical Carny.
Loud and aggressive with loaded dice, marked cards and brass knuckles in his pockets, and a Sister who is almost a virgin.
Add cognitive decline for a little extra drama.
Fun times. Another stupid popular fetish
Where Has All the Cottage Cheese Gone? (NY Times)
I’m fortunate, at least, in that I can’t deal with the texture, despite trying, so I gave up on cottage cheese. Still, another mass delusion, this time on protein stuffing.