Before Fat Bear Week, Don’t Forget the Corpulent Cubs Competing in Fat Bear Junior Smithsonian
If earthworms were a country, they’d be the world’s fourth largest producer of grain Nature
Under a Hellish Ocean Habitat, Bizarre Animals Are Lurking NYT
Dealmaking languishes at decade low on private equity drought FT. That’s a damn shame.
Even a Booming Economy Can’t Save Atlanta’s Office Market WSJ
Climate
Portuguese youth bring ‘unprecedented’ climate case to European rights court France24
There’s been a surge of abandoned oil and gas wells in Colorado over the past 90 days Colorado Sun
US Shale Giant Agrees With JPMorgan; Oil Headed For $150 Gulf Insider
Water
Brazil sets up task force for unprecedented drought in Amazon, minister says Reuters
#COVID19
Not a bad adoption rate for NPIs, given an enormous propaganda campaign against them, plus socially sanctioned bullying by [glass bowls]:
"About Four In Ten Say They Have Taken Recent Precautions Because Of Increases Of COVID-19"https://t.co/wYYIw49Pow pic.twitter.com/VEY9eDhky1
— wsbgnl (@wsbgnl) September 27, 2023
Long Covid Is Real. Now the Evidence Is Piling Up. Bloomberg
What next for COVID evolution? Understanding the Unseen
China?
Evergrande shares halted as concerns mount about developer’s prospect Channel News Asia
US can’t win China tech war without a strategy. Huawei is proof South China Morning Post
How China can avoid the Japan trap Martin Wolf, FT
India
The Singer Who Conquered the World Without Autotune: Remembering Lata Mangeshkar on her Birthday One India
Africa
Smallholder Agriculture and the Challenge of Feeding Ourselves The Elephant
European Disunion
Who Blew up Nord Stream? Zeit Online. ‘Tis a mystery!
Nordstream trauma leads Berlin to draw up fresh Huawei bans Politico
New Not-So-Cold War
Cope springs eternal:
What Ukraine Needs to Win the War Against Russia Max Boot, Council on Foreign Relations
Ukraine’s counteroffensive is making real progress on the Crimean front The Atlantic Council
Ukraine’s forces possibly make breakthrough on Robotyne-Verbove line – ISW Ukrainska Pravda
I have seen Ukraine’s future–a phoenix nation destined to prosper Fortune
* * * Nazigate: Canada’s top general won’t apologize for applauding Ukrainian Waffen-SS vet The Grayzone
Ship insurance facility set up for Ukraine grain exports, says broker Miller Hellenic Shipping News
Dubai remains Russian shadow tanker hotbed Splash 247
Apex Predator: The American Army in Normandy (excerpt) Big Serge Thought
Biden Administration
Foreign ownership of U.S. farmland probed at U.S. Senate hearing Kansas Reflector
Can the government unambiguously waive sovereign immunity by accident? Adam’s Legal Newsletter
2024
Judge rules Donald Trump defrauded banks and insurers while building real estate empire AP. A summary judgement from Judge Arthur Engoron, who ran for his seat as a Democrat in 2015, unopposed.
Dreizin’s late night thoughts on New York’s Trump takedown The Dreizen Report. Hmm.
Judge leaves Trump asset sales up in the air after fraud ruling Reuters
Donald Trump’s lawyers ask judge to clarify fraud ruling’s impact on ex-president’s business AP
Antitrust
Microsoft Says Apple Used Bing as Google ‘Bargaining Chip’ Bloomberg
A tale of two software companies Big Tech on Trial
Vision insurer VSP accused of market power ‘abuse’ in optometrists’ lawsuit Reuters
A power grab against private equity threatens the US economy FT. “A power grab against tapeworms threatens digestion.”
Digital Watch
OpenAI reinstates ChatGPT’s internet browsing privileges The Register. The deck: “If the chatbot doesn’t know what you need, it’ll ‘Bing It!’ for paying customers.” And if the Bing results have been completely polluted by AI-generated bullshit… It’s the Circle of Life!
Why Silicon Valley’s biggest AI developers are hiring poets Rest of World
Pontifications: “We’re sick and tired of new technologies:” Avolon CEO Leeham News and Analysis
Supply Chain
European companies dumping toxic ships on Bangladesh beaches, HRW says Al Jazeera. An old, old story. See NC on the Gadani disaster in 2016.
B-a-a-a-d Banks
Billions of Dollars in Loans to Board Members Draw Spotlight to Gulf Banks WSJ
Healthcare
Biden administration doles out $100M to research drug-resistant infections Endpoints News
Study suggests poor environmental controls may aid spread of resistant pathogens Center for Disease Research and Policy. Antibiotic “stewardship” alone is not enough.
PEP in Your Step The Baffler
Zeitgeist Watch
Leaf-peeping social media users are clogging a Vermont back road. The town is closing it AP
Artistic Leaf Raking Kottke.org
The Final Frontier
Space Force chief says commercial satellites may need defending Ars Technica
Realignment and Legitimacy
Assemblies of God Pastors Call for Leaders to Resign Over ‘Shameful’ Response to Chi Alpha Sex Scandal The Roys Report. This keeps happening, doesn’t it?
Class Warfare
New WGA Contract Explained: AI Is Not a Writer, Solo Scribe Shows Don’t Need Minimum Staff and More Variety. The WGA’s summary. Most coverage ignores the fact that there’s no “deal” until the membership votes. Here, from a not especially reliable authority, is an extremely negative view.
Scabs Deployed at GM Parts Distribution Centers Labor Notes
Every Second Counts: Obsessive Achievement in The Bear, Sports, and Academia Nursing Clio
Where’s Everyone Going? The Big Picture
Is the Physics of Time Actually Changing? Wired
All objects and some questions American Journal of Physics. “The history of objects in the Universe can be seen as a history of condensations of composite objects from an undifferentiated background.” Fun stuff!
Antidote du jour (via):
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here
127 comments
Comments are closed.
WKCR is midway thru a twenty-four hour festival of the music of Lata Mangeshkar:
https://www.cc-seas.columbia.edu/wkcr/story/lata-mangeshkar-birthday-broadcast
Thanks Van, am listening now, this is making the day better!
“Even a Booming Economy Can’t Save Atlanta’s Office Market” WSJ
Kinda pranked myself with this one. Immediately below this link was the section title ‘Climate.’ So the first time I read that title, I read it as-
‘Even a Booming Economy Can’t Save Atlantis’s Office Market’ WSJ
I’m retired but go back to the office it was located in Atlantis! Thanks for the morning chuckle Rev
I live down here and I recall a figure of 28% vacancy rate for offices being published back in the spring. I think the wsj is way too low on the vacancy rate.
There is a lot of denial round these parts; local clown politicians love to lure headquarters from rust belt states, then brag about the “jobz.” They leave out huge tax abatements and other “goodies” thrown at corporate titans.
The WSJ piece mentions NCR. I remember when they relocated their HQ here, to great fanfare from the local clowns. That was less than 10 years ago, IIRC. Now they’re subleasing out huge amounts of square footage. They’d have been better off staying in Ohio and adopting a remote first policy.
Ending this racket will bring improvement to my mental health.
Something getting a lot of play in architectural and construction circles is converting office space to housing. There are, of course, issues to overcome related to plumbing, HVAC controls, and different fire separation and acoustical requirements. But if one or two ventures are successful, expect to see a lot of developers jump on the band wagon.
Silicon Valley hiring poets: A new version of the old trope on outsourcing: training your own replacement. That’s the real Great Replacement.
Poets, artists, musicians – creatives of all types – are associated with rebellion.
That’s what no one is saying out loud.
That desire to be different in many, that is fostered in the struggle to learn self-expression, and the intimate communities that form around the arts, are being attacked.
Academia is leading the charge against what once was the demimonde that nurtured the arts, by promoting the arts as a career choice. Artists now have ‘practices’ like attorneys or dentists. According to the book ‘The Body Keeps the Score’, the portion of the brain that processes trauma is the same portion that fosters creativity. Though often sullied by narcissism, in large part the desire is to become oneself.
Yes, academia’s role is worth debating, however, why shouldn’t artists be able to make money?
Anyway, it’s coming for all “practices” or as many as possible.
Making money while eventually putting yourself out of business seems counterintuitive to me.
I thought the same thing but prrhaps they are staying alive . Starving artists you know
My expectation for a Butlerian Jihad is close to nil, at least when it comes to those programmers.
So all poetry shall now be of McDonalds advertisement language level and quality?
Has Silicon Valley no shame, no limits to what parts of human society they want to crappify?
In a fiscal pickle, need some lettuce? Special orders, don’t upset us. All we ask is that you let us serve it your way. Have it your way.
Shelley’s “unacknowledged legislators of the world” …
for me, it’s this tweet from our good neocon friends at the ISW:
https://twitter.com/TheStudyofWar/status/1706157492462379203
“Putin may have ordered the Russian military command to hold all Russia’s initial defensive positions to create the illusion that Ukrainian counteroffensives have not achieved any tactical or operational effects despite substantial Western support.”
Certainly a novel take, to say the least
If you like this tweet, then you’ll love this one. It represents sort of a Neocon’s wet dream-
https://twitter.com/nicholadrummond/status/1706630646024581429
I like how you could easily replace Russia with America and warlords with oligarchs and sociopaths and get something almost accurate.
I sense desperation by the west, considering what appears to be a massively orchestrated propaganda effort over the past week to distract from the reality on the ground.
“Stalin may have ordered the Red Army to raise a flag on the Reichstag roof to create the illusion that Nazi Germany was crushed despite several platoons still fighting.”
It is a pity that Mohammed Saeed Al-Sahhaf aka “Baghdad Bob” cannot come out of retirement. I am sure that he could have had a whole new career in Kiev.
I thought he had, and had changed his name to Admiral Kirby.
If he wore a dirty blond wig and called himself Kiev Karen.
They already have one of those, Sarah Ashton-Cirillo.
See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarah_Ashton-Cirillo
U.S. Grant may have ordered the Union army to burn Atlanta to create the illusion that the confederacy and General Lee was defeated, despite the Dukes Of Hazard clearly showing the General cruising through the streets of Doraville, a century later.
Lol! Daisy riding shotgun?
First the war in Iraq must be won, then Putin can pivot to Ukraine.
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/gHPv_U9YxXs
Defense, how does it work?
And Lloyd Austin says “Play by the rules!” as the Empire deploys Abrams wundertanks into the Ukie battlespace. The Rules being that Russia, having blown up most of the post-Reich Leopard main battle tanks, is not allowed to “hunt for” and destroy any of the Abrams. Since Ukie is after all the showroom floor for Western weapons sales. https://www.tiktok.com/@jacksparro711/video/7282883915587538178
I do hate to be put in the position of rooting against the home team. But of course the Imperial forces and MICIMAC economy have NEVER really been the home team for mopes like me.
Russian mores are a lot closer ( even though that place has its own quotient of neoliberal corruption) to my aspirations than the place I grew up singing “America the Beautiful” in.
Oh, those people that stare at goats…
Re. NYT’s hellish Ocean Habitat
Sometimes I click through to the NYT, just to let them know I won’t even give them a fake email address. But was that headline a metaphor for the political climate of the Fee World?
That is one fat bear!
looking at the chart with “About Four In Ten Say They Have Taken Recent Precautions Because Of Increases Of COVID-19” it would appear that white republicans are in for a covid wave – so unfortunate – crying croc tears –
Culling the herd.
Nothing from Asian Americans? Kinda weird.
Seems a little racist, but maybe I am just white!
“Oh Racism, where is thy sting?”
Despite not taking precautions, I’d wager many white republicans are still less exposed to the virus. Working in an office building, taking mass transit, jettsetting all over the globe (or sitting in the vicinity of someone who does) sets a much higher baseline then someone working in the country who only interacts with a handful of people each day.
wouldn’t you wager many white republicans, or city folks in general, are more exposed to the virus for the very reasons you mention? – enclosed office space with inadequate ventilation – same with mass transit crowded in at rush hour or sitting exposed in a plane – someone working out in the country that interacts with fewer people in less crowded spaces has less chance to be exposed –
I don’t understand what you just wrote. It seems that you are agreeing with Objective Ace. And s/he is saying that white Republicans, being more likely to be rural, will be less likely to be infected. That seems plausible to me.
I don’t wish infection on anyone, and even less so on the basis of their race. African Americans and Hispanic people have been hit terribly hard by the virus; their death rates are much higher than that of whites. Biden is letting people people of color die horribly and pointlessly, so I’m not sure why you are singling out Republicans for blame.
although i see your point, and probably correct, yours assumes that everyone that lives in the country is repukelican – my mistake is thinking that the captains of industry went to their offices every day and, like in NY who live in Long Island, took the trains back to their homes in the suburbs in the country every day – guess it was confusing for both of us and probably i should have left it my comment unwritten – the unfortunate fact of my own observation is nobody, red or blue except the intelligent few, are even wearing masks in crowded conditions – even in hospitals there are no masks – well, let-er-rip and good luck but i will continue to mask-up
Re: How China can Avoid the Japan Trap
I never thought I’d live to see the day when Martin Wolf would lecture Xi to redistribute wealth from each per his ability to each per his need.
Covid is airborne…on boeing and airbus particularly
My sister went to portugal and came back with covid, on pax now…i’m not so sure I would take it considering rebound.
I’ve been travelling a fair amount lately and tend to be the only masker…
Wife went with daughter, son, fiancé and other friends and family to Italy for destination wedding. She and the rest caught and brought home Covid. And I, who have been hermiting and masking since the beginning, got the first three mRNA shots, nasal spray and gargle etc., caught it from wife. Not hospitalized, but it was nasty. Paxlovid mostly ineffectual and did see some rebound. Now she, who grew up traveling extensively, has her eye on more air trips. I have not even dared to fly to NY to see my daughter and grandkids.
Selfish people plus airborne (in all senses) equals Darwin Award criteria…
To be fair, the Regime, New World, Order, Space Bats, etc have all been saying that Covid is under control or something, so please do not use your mask and go
dielive your life.“What Ukraine Needs to Win the War Against Russia”???? a fairy godmother maybe…………..
I say go for broke. NATO should send every tank, every armoured vehicle, every rocket, every artillery piece, all their ammo – the whole lot. Clear all the armouries out and leave only empty supply depots and warehouses in Europe and North America. Then see how that works out as they build up Ukraine’s fourth army.
You think that the Russians will wait?
Of course they will. We have a secret weapon in Blinken’s magical red-faced-stomping-tantrum act that will guarantee a pause in the conflict sufficient to allow Ukraine to rearm again.
I have total faith in the strategy that we are going to embarrass them into submission as the rest of the world looks on in shock.
And if Blinken’s tantrum is not enough, USA and UK have agreed to “freeze” the conflict for as long as it takes.
or maybe Blankman(Blinken) could just strum a tune – pal just sent me a youtube link of Blankman playing a strat left handed Jimi style singing “Hoochie Coochie Man” at a white house function – could only take a few bars before wanting to hurl – couldn’t bring myself to share the link – pal titled the email “I’m sorry” – sure you can find if you look –
Maybe we could use those empty armories and warehouse to shelter the homeless. Hotel Bidenvilles.
Food distribution centers.
Re education camps for those MAGA republicans.
Sarc off
Since those ‘military’ warehouses would be “legitimate” military targets for Kalibur missiles, etc., that would be a Double Win for the eugenicists! [Was this a great country, or what?]
And by that time, they’ll have sixteen year olds piloting Abrams tanks.
I have to admit, if I was sixteen again and dumb and foolish, (well, dumber and a much bigger fool), and some authority handed me a bag of stimulants and the keys to an Abrams, I’d go for it.
The only feasible 4th Ukrainian army left now is the US V Corps (which may need to be relabeled “the American Volunteer Army,” ie definitely not US Army, and I doubt it’llstand much of a chance either.
Regarding “Every Second Counts.” ….. applying the sports analogy to every damn thing we do as usians is perfectionism run amok and is debilitating. I see it everywhere, including child rearing. There is also the unfortunate pairing of perfectionism with social darwinism (so called) that mythologizes individual action over collective cooperation. It’s like a toxic fog over our humanity and I supect the main culprit is religiosity inherited from the Puritans.
I agree it’s debilitating; there’s also an undercurrent of fear behind a lot of people’s behavior, which leads to all kinds of bad outcomes, even at the “highest” levels.
I recently watched a speech given by the president of the Academic Surgeon’s Association to a group of surgeons about this subject. The courage, and vulnerability, of the speaker, Dr. Carrie Cunningham, was remarkable.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JaNBH4UPHv4
Usians have yet to catch up with Asians in terms of perfectionism and social darwinism, who, becouse they are at the beginning of the alphabet I think), are more than one letter ahead than the Usians…
Long COVID article was welcome. Given I’m PhD biostatistics/health econometrics not clinically trained I end up doing a bunch of auxiliary reading or asking clinical friends/former colleagues to use baby talk in the more exotic areas of medicine. However it certainly seems like the repeated “steps down” in things like neutrophils etc in my bloods after infections since January 2020 make sense given that these are supposedly recruited by T cells to fight infection.
Thus the main issue for me personally is “will the specialist in immunology and infectious diseases I’m seeing next month be able to do anything before I run out of neutrophils?”* The “triumphant return” (/s) of severe symptoms of the heart condition I’ve had since birth suggests it’d be unwise to walk fast anywhere and to stick with the FFP2 when doing the caring duties!
*At least (s)he did homework and immediately got the GP to rule out all the “usual suspects” that could be collapsing my immune system. Interestingly, a really bad virus in Sydney around 2010 caused the GP to ask when I’d had EBV. I said “Never” and was told “wrong answer – you have the antibody” and suddenly a connect the dots exercise on my part made me realise a non-clinically confirmed month long virus around 2000 must have been the primary infection.
A power grab against private equity threatens the US economy FT. “A power grab against tapeworms threatens digestion.”
first chuckle this morning – thank you
I was so wrong! These people are paragons of social responsibility and selfless to a fault. If I was still going to mass I would most certainly attend the Church of Private Equity and the Blood of Jesus, Mary and Joseph and the Holy Rosary. Pass the collection basket. Make the world not only a better place, but a perfect place. We could then mercifully get rid of that carried interest albatross and go total 501(c)(3). Impure thoughts about fraud, money laundering, extortion, tax evasion, greed, theft? The Better Business Bureau will be manning the confessional every Saturday afternoon to wash away these ‘bad thoughts.’ Ten Our Fathers and 10 Hail Marys. And let us pray that Private Equity does the biblical thing and dies for our sins.
Mr R i attend the Church of the Hopelessly Forgotten and Downtrodden – but perhaps i should change parish since the Church of Private Equity accomplishes sooooooooooooo much – Fr BBB must stay pretty busy in the confessional – genuflect to the Lord of Equity as you pass the Tabernacle of Profit –
The comments under that dreadful excuse for a column are a most richly deserved dogpile of scorn and derision.
I think there’s an error in the Figure 4 caption of the otherwise (IMO; it is a bit above my head) excellent AJP article “History of objects”.
The question of whether a region will collapse in a “big crunch” is not determined by the mass distribution exterior to it but by the dynamics of the matter/energy within that region. The dynamics of the large-scale evolution of our observable region is dominated by vacuum energy (as noted in Figure 1) and will expand (and accelerate) forever. It will not collapse. The fact that, from the standpoint of a notional observer in a notional very distant volume of empty space surrounding our region, that observer’s space is described by the Schwarzschild (i.e., black hole in empty space) metric does not mean that the matter inside the event horizon is collapsed or collapsing or will collapse. In our case, given present understanding of the cosmic dynamics (vacuum energy-dominated) the cosmic event horizon is expanding and will expand forever.
Nargorno-Karabakh Armenians have been memory-holed by US media….
And the Baku government are not nice people.
of course in this case with the territorial lines, Nargorno-Karabah = Taiwan and Azerbijan = PRC.
where is the neocon/Twitter indignation?
But guess who is supply the EU with lots of nat. gas now and in the future?
https://www.france24.com/en/europe/20230928-more-than-65-000-flee-nagorno-karabakh-separatist-republic-will-cease-to-exist
According to the boys at The Duran, it is not over yet. Azerbaijan has other territorial claims that it wants to make on Armenia and are starting to make them. The whole of Nagorno-Karabakh acted a sort of a buffer between the two countries but now it is gone. And the reason it is gone is because Prime Minister of Armenia Pashinyan told Azerbaijan that it was theirs and they could take it. Why would he do that? Because he wants Armenia in the EU and NATO so that place had to go. And now he is demanding that the base that Russian peacekeepers operate from pay him rent in a move to get rid of them. He seems to think that the next time that Azerbaijan comes for another piece of their territory, that the EU and NATO will protect them. He should have asked the Georgians and Ukrainians how well that works out.
Nikol Pashinyan: another WEF agent of change, aka a walking talking disaster.
https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2019/01/shaping-the-future-of-democracy-in-armenia
He is also saying that it is Russians responsibility to protect the Armenians from NaghornoKarabah…
“Who remembers the Armenians?”
What is being insinuated here?
Is the fear that having critical state infrastructure being dependent on “hostile” nations, due to them (Russia /China) later deciding to destroy the agreement (literally)? Or is it to not run afoul of the US and the fear of reprisal that they might enact on them down the road?
I was puzzled by that as well. The author made the claim but then never mentioned Nordstream again in the article.
My SWAG is that it’s another front of the ongoing US war on China’s high tech. Arresting their development, cutting them down to size and so on. Those are not Germany’s decisions, the calls are coming from the EU. Viceroy (Vicereine?) Ursula has to do her part.
I hear the Space Force made that announcement that “commercial satellites need protection”, in old Sicilian.
Not all earthworms are the same – jumping worms are problem in North America. See https://warren.cce.cornell.edu/gardening-landscape/warren-county-master-gardener-articles/invasive-asian-jumping-earthworms
The earthworms squirm when poked or handled (hence, the jumping name), and they usually have a prominent band around it’s body. They’re a problem due their voracious appetites, turning organic matter into easily eroded coffee ground-like soil, damaging the roots of plants.
Our community garden in Norwich, VT is infested with them, just over the last couple of years. They’re horrible and large. I put one of my plots to bed a couple days ago and came across so many. They are also in the cemetery I take care of in town. I see them on the surface of the ground when I am cleaning stones. The D/2 solution I use to clean the stones seems to kill them quickly. I move the spiders, slugs, and other bugs before beginning a clean, but the jumping worms I leave to die.
They are a huge problem at a couple properties I work at. They are really disgusting and it’s shocking the amount of castings you can see when pulling up some rocks. I get that they can easily be imported like so many other invasives (bark mulch, plants in pot’s between regions, on and on), yet I am amazed to find them literally in the middle of nowhere in the forest. Indicates they’re likely around in much larger areas than we realize.
We have started to spread Tea Seed Meal into gardens and lawns which seems to make the soil uncomfortable for them and discouraging their growth and activity. It seems to help. A little.
Rumor has it that UVM is studying blending the Tea seed meal with compost supplied by a well known VT company to create a possible solution.
Does the tea seed meal leave the good earthworms alone?
So far the good ones seem to be okay but they are also so few and far between compared to the jumpers they seem hard to find in some areas.
The jumpers also need to be totally destroyed as breaking them in half just creates two of them.
Having a tough time copying a link but it’s easy to google the subject of them.
I was shocked(and mad) to find them in the historic cemetery. Nobody goes there to visit, nobody plants anything, etc. It’s a bit of a quiet island and surrounded by development(a moat of pavement and parking areas) so was surprised to see that they had gotten in there somehow. Nothing like the community garden situation. Maybe the cocoons came in on the bottoms of shoes or on the town lawn mower. Fingers are crossed the tea seed meal experiments works out. The D/2 is a pH neutral quaternary ammonium solution with surfactants, so there’s something in it that kills them, and sadly other invertebrates, it seems. I might try dropping them into a bucket of soapy water as I come across them. Doesn’t fix the cocoon problem, but. Will pass the tea seed meal suggestion onto my fellow gardeners.
what about chickens?
prolly frowned upon for a cemetery…but the community gardens, perhaps.
mine are an integral part of the gardens around here….the winter regime, etc.
if these bad worms like being on or close to the surface, as indicated, chickens should make short work of them.
A little too wild at the community garden site, and most of the plots are fenced. Plus there are a lot of loose dogs that people bring over to the fields next to it for exercise. They wouldn’t last long. And our winters. I doubt anyone would be up for feeding and watering them, and the driveway to get to it doesn’t get plowed. The garden board would um look down on them, if you get my drift.
“Tomorrow is a busy day
We got things to do, we got eggs to lay
We got ground to dig and worms to scratch
It takes a lot of settin’, gettin’ chicks to hatch…”
Ain’t Nobody Here But Us Chickens
My understanding of those nasty bas***ds is that heavy metals from the soils concentrate in their bodies which makes them very unhealthy as food for others. Which is really too bad. But, there’s more to read up on that aspect.
i noticed some very active earthworms last week when i was moving pots around in the little pocket garden next to the little greenhouse.
first one spooked me, because it was flopping around so vigorously.
but these are red, and the clitellum is red…so prolly escaped red wigglers from the fridge at the mom and pop where they keep bait(my boys set some loose years ago).
and “biochar” is mentioned in that article(i prefer “tierra prieta”,lol)…so:
we ended the 3 month drought, and burn ban beginning 2 weeks ago…7″ so far.
so i was finally able to do the first test burn on the charcoal retort we built last spring.
turns out, even failure can be exciting!…i lit a regular fire under the barrels(one filled with dry cut up brush, the other with dry cut up bamboo)…and stood way back.
after 30 or so minutes, you could see the VOC’s being driven off…but from around the lid, and from around the flanges where the “burn pipe” exits..
not from the holes in the burn pipe underneath the barrels.
so i let it burn down…and let whatever was left inside cool for a whole day(lest it ignite with the addition of air)
when i opened the barrels, i had charcoal…but only from about a third of the dry material.
igniting and burning the VOC’s is intended to up the efficiency of the pyrolysis.
so…i ordered some of that glass rope like for woodstove doors, and quite a bit of that black pooky for sealing woodstoves, from the hardware lady.
i’ll try again next week.
of note…the whole plants of stickerburrs(grassburrs) were entirely carbonised…as were the stickers, themselves.
and the bamboo…as well as samples of the bamboo-like arundus donax…were also entirely carbonised….crumbled easily in my hand into a fine charcoal dust.
i filmed the entire exercise…and will again, when i do it again after sealing the barrels better next week.
citizen science!
“Nazigate: Canada’s top general won’t apologize for applauding Ukrainian Waffen-SS vet”
The Ukrainian diaspora has had a lot of success in Canada. It has gotten to the point that people may demand that a statue to a former political figure be taken down but if a memorial to a SS Division is vandalized, the police will call it a “hate crime”. In a way they are right but not the way that they think. So I wonder how much infiltration has gone on in the Canadian armed forces. From this article not only were Canadians training the Ukrainian military but they were also training the Azov Nazis as well. This was one dog that the Canadian army should not have laid down with. So now Canada’s top general still wants to honour that old Nazi. Hell, even Germany is a bit embarrassed by the fact that Germany’s Ambassador to Canada – Sabine Sparwasser – was in Parliament and was cheering for that guy. It seems that Poland wants to extradite that old Nazi but I am sure that Trudeau will defend him with all of the strength of the Canadian government. Maybe in years from now, they can make a film about this looming extradition battle. I even have the title for it – ‘Saving Private Hunka.’
Here’s a 1997 segment from the old 60 Minutes news show.
—
Justin Trudeau’s father Pierre, then also Prime Minister was complicit in the granting of safe haven to Thousands of known Nazis who had “killed Jews with their own hands”
This long forgotten American 1997 documentary exposed the truth. They knew.
https://twitter.com/BowesChay/status/1706920842729316415
Well, all points to them not only knowing but also Trudeau and the politicians actually being nazis.
I extend this opinion to all the WEFs in EU too. I wonder if Russia has this in mind too when speaking about denazification.
They are so plight up over in Gulag Hockeypelago.
To add to the saga of Canadian affection for Nazi’s, I watched this piece from 60 Minutes on yt earlier today.
https://youtu.be/tZr0cKoNWxE
I remember seeing it when it aired but it’s good to be reminded of history.
There were also many Nazis who went to the US after the war. The pot should always be careful when it calls the kettle black.
I note this Wayne Eyre has wings and a quick search shows he commanded a US airborne regiment at one point, and his timing seems to be he was commanding a light infantry brigade deployed to Croatia at around 1993, the same time the Canadian Airborne Regiment was murdering Somalis, doing unspeakable things to the bodies, despite being on a peacekeeping mission.
So he was fully formed as a military leader around a time when the Canadian public were learning, due to incontrovertible video and photographic evidence, that the airborne regiment in particular, and the Canadian military in general, was virulently racist and white supremacist, openly displaying and worshipping nazi symbology and adopting nazi rituals and ceremonies, expressing neo-nazi views, not to mention the extreme lack of humanity and disrespect for life. A few years later, the Canadian airborne regiment was disbanded in disgrace, a political decision made by a politician, but Eyre’s commanding officer at the time openly and publicly disagreed with the decision and the decision was deeply unpopular with Canadian military command.
Now years later, we have this refusal to apologize for applauding a REAL Nazi. He would have come up through the command, succeeding, at a time when the Canadian military was known to be neo-nazi. I’m not at all surprised he would prefer to miss an opportunity to show the military has changed its ways.
Millionaire migration map shows classic pattern of retiring criminals seeking out shady safe-for-capitalists havens. Not unlike Al Capone spending time in Wisconsin…
I was surprised that Argentina wasn’t included on one of those lists. But I guess we don’t really know how to protect the future until we know the results of the next election in October
‘Antidote du jour’
Baby bear: Possibly the only creature caught up in a love snuggle from mom to whiz themselves with delight rather than fright… unless that’s not her kid… and that’s not mom.
Yack it up, yack it up
Buddy gonna shut you down
It happened on the DC strip where the divide is wide
(Ooh, rev it up now)
Two political parties standin’ side by side
(Ooh, rev it up now)
Yeah, the fuel-injected Pachyderms & Donkey Show
(Ooh, rev it up now)
Revvin’ up their rhetoric, and it sounds real mean
(Ooh, rev it up now)
Yack it up, yack it up
Buddy gonna shut you down
Declinin’ approval numbers at an even rate
(Ooh, movin’ out now)
On account of one possibilities of a shutdown accelerate
(Ooh, movin’ out now)
Freedom Caucus is in delight-My Kevin is startin’ to spin
(Ooh, movin’ out now)
But the Donkey Show is really diggin’ in
(Ooh, movin’ out now)
Gotta be cool now
Power shift here we go
Any chance of a dodge is windin’ out in a bad row
But the fuel injected Pachyderms are really startin’ to say no
To get the traction they’re riding the Hunter clutch
The laptop isn’t helping that machine too much
Kevin to the floor, hear his masters speak
(Ooh, pump it up now)
And now their slim lead is startin’ to shrink
(Ooh, pump it up now)
He’s hot with induction but it’s understood
(Ooh, rev it up now)
Nothing ever gets done in this DC hood
(Ooh, pump it up now)
Shut it off, shut it off
Buddy, now I shut you down
Shut it off, shut it off
Buddy, now I shut you down
Shut it off, shut it off
Buddy, now I shut you down
Shut it off, shut it off
Buddy, now I shut you down
Shut it off, shut it off
Buddy, now I shut you down
Shut Down, by the Beach Boys
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r91kBnm_Gvk
Always with the Chevy songs. Well, here’s a Ford song to match. ;)
(Where and when I grew up, Ford vs. Chevy was a thing.)
My one issue on the Normandy piece is the idea that the Germans didn’t think the allies were landing at Normandy.
They did. They just thought there was a very strong possibility of a second attack (there was one) and that it would be east of Normandy (It wasn’t it was in Southern France).
The Luftwaffe had done a very good job of reconnaissance of British ports, and having done a bit of cross channel planning themselves, knew that Normandy had to be a target.
Hitler in May (Hitler!) ordered additional troops to Normandy. Thus the surprise of some of the German units that were at Omaha Beach.
There is actually a whole, argued about, subset of writings on this, but they don’t seem to be able to make it past the beloved idea that we tricked Hitler with Patton’s fake army.
I seem to remember some criticism of the German high command organization that was argued to have made theater command difficult. Meanwhile, my father-in-law was in Patch’s 7th Army, leading me to study southern France / Alsace campaigns which seem to be ignored in most popular histories.
Patch was in charge of the later part of the capture of Guadalcanal.
Operation Dragoon was a huge success. But Cobra had already started a few weeks prior. Initially Dragoon was to get more ports in operation, but became something of a reinforcing flanking attack as Cobra roared across France.
The 7th was one of many US units that did a lot of fighting, but wasn’t in any of the headline attacks/defenses that people remember. The 30th, which I know more about, was in the thick of it in many headline campaigns, but isn’t much remembered either.
Long Covid Is Real. Now the Evidence Is Piling Up.
(bold mine)
These reports just dropped from CDC, if you can trust CDC. And thanks to Biden and the CDC, over 300k children also have long-COVID. Nicely done!
How can this not be affecting the economy? It never comes up in discussions of where all the labor went, though. Puzzling.
Paxlovid, lol.
Doesn’t mention that even “mild” infections lead to immune disregulation, though.
So, being a day late and a dollar short, as per usual, I’ve just nearly caught up to the comment and link by Henry Moon Pie September 27, 2023 at 9:33 am
In a response to the piece Degrowth and ecosocialism – a reply his link was to Can modernity last? By Tom Murphy. Murphy is a professor of physics at UoC, San Diego. It is an excellent piece. Thank you HMP. If you duckduck Murphy and resilience you will find other pieces and an interview with Nate Hagens, which I haven’t gotten to yet, but will.
Will modernity last, nope!
A very recent interview with Hagens was done by a Dutch TV outfit – “Energieblindheid volgens Nate Hagens” – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3JB2-6S4SSM&t=212s
The “energy blindness” Hagens speaks of is the general lack of realization of the crucial importance of fossil fuels to the two-century long global explosion of population, production, and the economy. “Technology without energy is sculpture. A city without energy is a museum. A human body without energy is a corpse.”
He foresees a Great Simplification during this century. “A great civilization can exist on renewable energy. But not this one.”
This 32 minute animation – in 4 Acts – describes the backdrop for The Great Simplification – an economic/cultural transition beginning in the not-too-distant future:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-xr9rIQxwj4&t=1098s
Murphy has been on Hagens twice. This one is the most recent. It’s quite sobering. These are not people who rejoice in being doomers, and there are those. These are people who have done the math and know what’s coming down the pike. The linked discussion does put all the political chatter of today in perspective.
Nobody and I mean nobody on a personal basis stores gas in any amount to matter.
Thus, we are all prisoners of our 30 gallon leash on life, that is if you own a couple of vehicles.
I can rein up the the 236 steeds worth on my wagon and merely by yelling GIDDDYup! and turning the ignition key just so, 45 minutes later i’m in Visalia where the stuff I want to purchase has been brought in by vehicles also with short attention spans. I could buy say a few thousand pounds worth of food to bring back in my wagon, if I wanted to.
Nobody walks that much anymore should push meet shove, and in that i’d have an advantage by it only taking me maybe 3 days to walk there in lieu of driving, and I can carry a bit if needbe, so with sleeping bag, a minimum of clothes, food and plenty of water, maybe I could pack 30-35 pounds of food into my backpack, but how is the food going to get to Visalia for me to buy?
It’ll be inverse to how we go through stored energy from the Sun, when I burn parts of a 60 year old tree, it only takes an hour to turn it into cinders, except all the onus is on us in our newly slowed down existence.
We got up to nearly 25,000 mph in Peak America en route to July 20th 1969, and we’ll be lucky to be going 25 mph in the not too distant future.
I gave it some thought years ago, but quickly realized the impracticalities of storing large amounts, not the least of which is that ethanolized petrol actually has a rather limited shelf life.
I concur with the writer’s strike take. Additionally, there was nothing in that agreement about digital streaming permanence. The very high profile disappearances of movies and shows from the Internet looks set to accelerate in an environment where streaming residuals are a factor. Go long pirate archivists: like in video games, soon they will be the only people with evidence some things even existed.
“I have seen Ukraine’s future–a phoenix nation destined to prosper”
I suppose that people are entitled to their delusions and this guy seems to really believe them. You would think that a Yale professor in the Practice of Management would know better but apparently not. Of course it has nothing to do with the fact that his mother was born near Kiev or, as Wikipedia coyly says it, the former Russian Empire in the 1920s. Cute that and it is not the first time I have seen Wikipedia do that. But here is the thing. You check his Wikipedia page and it says-
‘Sonnenfeld has advised thousands of CEOs as well as multiple U.S. presidents and nominees from both parties, including Joseph Biden, Donald Trump, and Bill Clinton as a conduit between top business and political leaders. In addition to convening regular CEO conferences, in the immediate aftermath of the 2020 United States presidential election and the 2021 United States Capitol attack, Sonnenfeld convened top executives for several high-level, off-the-record discussions to plan the collective response from the business community. He is the first academician to have rung the opening bells of both the New York Stock Exchange and the Nasdaq Stock Exchange, having done so 10 times.[4] Amidst the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, Sonnenfeld was involved in efforts to encourage multinational businesses to exit Russia through the Yale CELI List of Companies.’
In other words, he is the sort of person that gives people like Joe Biden advice on the Ukraine. Sweet jeezuz.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeffrey_Sonnenfeld
high-level, off-the-record discussions to plan the collective response
Collective? Isn’t that a socialist word?
I am sure he said something like “Russians are so stupid they can’t even make a hamburger, much less brew a pot of coffee…” (/s ?)
Reading his bio, I thought of this:
Mrs. Lovey Howell : If he eats with the fork in his left hand, it indicates a European background. If in his right, he’s American.
[Tongo drops fork and knife and stuffs pie in his face]
Thurston Howell III : Heavens! A YALE MAN !
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0588090/characters/nm0000822
A joke about a Yale man I heard in Cambridge, MA half a century ago, while attending a university you’ve heard of, although not named in this probably-apocryphal anecdote:
At the Harvard-Yale annual football game two students from the rival schools enter the restroom to pee. After finishing, the Harvard boy then goes to the sink, while the Yale man heads to the exit. The first one says, “At Harvard, they teach us to wash our hands after urination.” The reply: “At Yale, they teach us not to piss on our hands.”
…his mother was born near Kiev or, as Wikipedia coyly says it, the former Russian Empire in the 1920s.
“Rochelle Sonnenfeld was born in a small Russian village just outside Kiev in 1918. Surviving the horrors of the pogroms, her family fled to the United States in 1922…” (q) legacy.com
So, Petliura’s Ukrainian Republic. Very short-lived, very ethnonationalistic, very antisemitic. And now the guy’s happy to work for the state that claims its ideological continuity from the very people that abused his ancestors.
Me too dumb, I just don’t get why many people are so cozy with all those nasty interwar regimes.
The video, posted on the Tourons of National Parks (@touronsofnationalparks) Instagram page, depicts a woman with two children in Sequoia National Park. The footage captures the trio ducking under safety guardrails and walking along rocky edges, disregarding established safety measures.
Such guardrails serve a crucial purpose in national parks like Sequoia, as they are essential for preserving certain areas and preventing damage from foot traffic. Some regions within these parks may contain delicate plant life or sensitive environments that require protection from external pressures. Ignoring these off-limit areas not only poses ecological risks but also endangers the safety of tourists who might slip or fall.
https://www.activenorcal.com/alarming-video-shows-woman-bringing-child-past-guardrail-to-steep-cliff-at-sequoia-national-park/
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Its about a 1,000 foot sheer drop only a few feet from where mom and her offspring are, on top of Moro Rock.
I think its the only guardrail in Sequoia NP, safety third.
Reminds me of the auld adage…”Child in car, brain in trunk”
The flipside to cliffhanger mom was a 30 mile backpack trip 20 years ago doing one of the Mineral King loops (MK Valley to Franklin Lakes/Pass, Forester Lake, Little Clair Lake, Lost Canyon, Columbine Lake, Sawtooth Pass, Monarch Lake and back to MK Valley) with a 30 month old.
My friends both worked for NPS and had a park radio if things went south, and mom had a toddler backpack, while daddy-o and I carried way too much in our packs to compensate.
Aidan walked about 7 or 8 of those miles, little trooper that he was.
We had a blast…
“Can the government unambiguously waive sovereign immunity by accident?” Adam’s Legal Newsletter
Is it clear how much of the administration of the loan was the government or a government contractor?
“Government” is ambiguous in so many ways these days.
Why is the origin of Covid 19 still in question after the revelation that Patient Zero was Brian Hu of the wuhan Institute of Virology and when patients one and two also worked there?
Is it because the Lab was funded by the Chinese MoD as well as NAIAD and WHO ( Fauci and Daszak) which would be embarassing to admit now that China poses an existential threat to “Our Democracy” ?
Heard Al Di Meola had a heart attack while performing on stage @ a concert in Romania, and is now in stable condition.
What a talent, and i’ve arranged for you to be at his concert and got great seats for everybody, the ones you’re sitting in. Enjoy.
Al Di Meola – Elegant Gypsy – (1977 full album) (37 minutes required of your attention)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Y7xw2k6mH4
Niño Josele – bridges many boundaries
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jzQTYAt5bYs
a’ho, wema W – wonderful, generous artist – may he fully recover to play decades more –
young guitar genius, Matteo Manusco, with Mr DiMeola – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OYOI38F54Qc
at the Eddie Lang Jazz Festival – July 2022 in Castello Pignatelli, Monteroduni Italy
this young man did an amazing solo piece dedicated to Jeff Beck –
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ndYD94q0uK4
Wow, that brings back the memories. I got lucky, my Dad was a big jazz fan, and this album was part of my youth.
Thanks Dad!
“PEP in Your Step” The Baffler
So the warnings about antibiotic drug resistance are there.
I’m thinking about the molnupiravir warnings and then recent revelations.
RE: Antidote
Look into mama bear’s eyes!
joy in both Mom & cub – beautiful pic – saved it for a screen saver shot on rotation –
From the Insurance Collaboration to Save Lives, Excess Mortality: A Peek Under the Iceberg
Idea of sending Vit D and B complex to life insurance policyholders if blood tests show deficiency, discussed about halfway through. Or, maybe this should be public policy and save even more lives?
Scores of young activists with the youth-led climate organization Sunrise Movement protested in the office of the House speaker, Kevin McCarthy, on Thursday morning, demanding he avert a complete government shutdown.
Capitol police arrested 18 of the youth who blocked the office entrance and refused to vacate until McCarthy pledged to support bridge funding to keep the government open, including to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema).
“Today showed that the GOP is nothing but a group of cowards,” said Adah Crandall, an 18-year-old Sunrise Movement organizer, in an emailed statement. “They chose to arrest a bunch of teenagers instead of facing us. They would rather shut down the government than do their jobs and protect our generation.”
The activists, who traveled from across the country to attend the protest, held signs that read: “Climate action not shutdown,” “The GOP hates Gen Z,” and “McCarthy: Aren’t you ashamed”.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/sep/28/young-climate-protesters-government-shutdown-kevin-mccarthy
Heads up. Next week on Wednesday, October 4th.
What is happening on October 4, 2023?
Huge nationwide US emergency phone alert explained
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/what-is-happening-on-october-4-2023-huge-nationwide-us-emergency-phone-alert-explained/ar-AA1g0m0f#image=1
The link from FEMA and FCC.
https://www.fema.gov/press-release/20230803/fema-and-fcc-plan-nationwide-emergency-alert-test-oct-4-2023