Fungal ‘Brains’ Can Think Like Human Minds, Scientists Say Popular Mechanics. Original; press release. The deck: “They’re not quite on our level, but they’re not as far off as you might think.”
Bear Wins Fat Bear Week By Defeating Bear That Killed Her Cub Defector
Humans Are Evolving Right Before Our Eyes on The Tibetan Plateau Science Alert
Commercial property’s moment of truth FT
Climate
Carbon Sequestration by Preparing Recycled Cement, Recycled Aggregates, and Recycled Concrete from Construction and Demolition (C&D) Wastes Materials. From the Abstract: “As the world’s largest producer of construction waste, China’s recycling and related policies are of the biggest concern to the world… In this paper, a concrete cycle model focusing on how to effectively recycle and utilize waste concrete is put forward to prepare high quality recycled concrete, especially through a series of technical means, such as effective separation, carbon sequestration, and reactivation…. A yearly CO2 sequestration of 1.4–3.08 gigatonnes could happen if the ordinary Portland cement could be replaced by the recycled cement around the world.”
French firm debuts sailing vessel capable of carrying 200 teu Splash 247. Ever Given: 20,124 teu.
Trump plan to overhaul federal workforce could mire energy permits in court S&P Globalf
Water
A Radical Approach to Flooding in England: Give Land Back to the Sea NYT
Water, water everywhere – why Southeast Asia’s overbuilt capitals need new ways to survive Channel News Asia
Syndemics
Long Covid health workers pushing for trial date Nursing Times
BRICS
BRICS Theater Plays Host to India-China Thaw Bloomberg
Chinese leader Xi Jinping urges Brics to lead ‘urgent’ international finance reform South China Morning Post
BRICS summit’s final day in Kazan begins with key global outreach meeting Anadolu Agency
China insists on ‘no escalation of fighting’ in Ukraine, Xi tells BRICS Channel News Asia
China?
Will the China Cycle Come for Airbus and Boeing? Construction Physics
Will stimulus package help China’s local governments pay bills? South China Morning Post. Commentary:
2/2
But, according to one entrepreneur who has been owed money for years, "”Most local governments have changed their leadership, and they have little incentive to actually repay their predecessors’ arrears to businesses, especially to SMEs.”— Michael Pettis (@michaelxpettis) October 24, 2024
The U.S. Needs a More Accurate Estimate of China’s Commercial Espionage Cipher Brief
Myanmar
Explosion at Chinese Consulate in Myanmar Follows Beijing’s Growing Acceptance of Junta China Digital Times
Africa
Zimbabwe’s gold-backed currency loses half its value: Why and what’s next? Al Jazeera
Syraqistan
‘This is our land, we deserve it’: Dozens of Israelis planning to cross border and settle in Gaza Sky News. The deck: “‘This is our land, we deserve it’: Dozens of Israelis planning to cross border and settle in Gaza.”
* * * Gallant in a conversation with pilots: “After we attack in Iran, they will know what you did” (Google translation) 13TV (Israel)
Iran and Saudi Arabia hold joint naval exercise in Sea of Oman Times of Israel
* * * Israel Killed Nasrallah. Lebanon Will Burn Because of It New Lines Magazine
Israel’s silent genocide supporters in Europe: Threats to academic freedom Anadolu Agency
“We Have Lost All Credibility”: Hala Rharrit on Quitting State Dept. & Ending U.S. Complicity in Gaza Democracy Now
European Disunion
French Manufacturing Confidence Plunges to a Four-Year Low Bloomberg
Dear Old Blighty
New Not-So-Cold War
‘Time is running out’ Events in Ukraine. The deck: “Kurakhove, Selidove. The missing 152nd brigade. Protests by MIA relatives. The Russian officer training system versus Ukrainian ‘extreme indifference’. Personnel and communication problems.”
Poland reveals timeline for transferring MiG-29 aircraft to Ukraine Ukrainska Pravda
At least 7 countries resisting Ukraine’s NATO membership invitation, Politico reports Kyiv Independent
Expert: Ukraine loses 25% of its population Responsible Statecraft
Ukraine Needs More Than Rival Elite Projects Jacobin
* * * Vladimir Putin bets on North Korean troops to retake Kursk from Ukraine FT
* * * This Country Turned Against the West, and It’s Not Coming Back NYT. Musical interlude. Commentary:
They say history rhymes, but this is a carbon copy.
10 years apart.
Same EU flags.
Same signs in English.
Same USAID money.
Visit from Vicky Nuland but actually Samantha Power.
Hopefully there aren't any Georgian snipers this time. pic.twitter.com/wybn31imhB— DD Geopolitics (@DD_Geopolitics) October 20, 2024
South of the Border
Cuba extends workplace, school shutdowns after blackouts Anadolu Agency
2024
Harris to give her campaign’s closing argument at the Ellipse, where Trump helped spark Capitol riot AP
Selling the Apocalypse: The Press and Pundits Face Devastating Polls on the Threat to Democracy Jonathan Turley
Intelligence officials warn foreign adversaries determined to undermine election trust PBS
Want to know who will win the US election? Take a look at the stock market Al Jazeera
Justice Department warns Elon Musk that his $1 million giveaway to registered voters may be illegal CNN
What if honesty really is the best policy in politics? Oren Cass, FT
blockquote>
Digital Watch
Linus Torvalds affirms expulsion of Russian maintainers The Register
Health Care
The Only Way to Fix US Health Care The New York Review
Groves Of Academe
Cash-Strapped Colleges Are Selling Their Prized Art and Mansions Bloomberg
The Velvet Ditch The Point. The deck: “Fear and loathing in Faulkner country”
Colleges Are Still Failing Their Employees Chronicle of Higher Education
A scientific fraud. An investigation. A lab in recovery. The Transmitter
Imperial Collapse Watch
The Water Is Rising Aurelien, Trying to Understand the World
All The World’s a Stage: Everything Is Fake Charles Hugh Smith, Of Two Minds
Class Warfare
Boeing Machinists reject offer with no end in sight for strike Seattle Times
Minnesota Labor Is Reviving a Progressive-Era Tool to Improve Working Conditions Workday Magazine
The Debanking of America The Free Press
Study Confirms a Simple Trick to Communicate With Your Cat Science Alert
Antidote du jour (SUBnormali):
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.
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Comments are closed.
AIPAC
(melody borrowed from Dirty Laundry by Don Henley
Israeli flags replaced the Hakenkreuze
‘We are the the Chosen—we kill who we choose’
‘God made all this world for Jews’
‘What we do is Godly!’
With our U.S. benefactor as our financier
We buy everyone in Congress—and that’s year after year
They need cash—we’re always here
They support us broadly
We can put ’em up, we can put ’em down
We don’t fill your cup—you don’t stick around!
Maybe it’s corrupt—it’s a dirty town
Money’s what they love—all of ’em go down!
Politicians who are that fond of cash with lies
Once they hear there is no backlash to our enterprise
Right away they all get wise;
Become glitterati!
What a way to run a nation! What a strange mindset!
We bring stacks of private money to each tete a tete
They run up your public debt—
Congressmen are naughty!
(musical interlude)
They use AIPAC as a cutout to rely on
We have ready cash to flow out to every John
We need bombs to ‘mow the lawn’
That’s the whole chapati!
We can put ’em up, we can put ’em down
We don’t fill your cup—you don’t stick around!
Maybe it’s corrupt—it’s a dirty town
Money’s what they love—all of ’em go down!
We can put ’em up, we can put ’em down
We don’t fill your cup—you don’t stick around!
Maybe it’s corrupt—it’s a dirty town
Money’s what they love—all of ’em go down!
Greed is human weakness—money is the prize
The smell of weakness always lingers, a scent you can’t disguise
Yet every Congress whore still tries,
Though their record’s spotty!
Everyone can still pretend though that the cash we bring
Once the story’s spun it’s all legal bling
Congresscritters live like kings
Worldly wise and haughty!
(musical interlude)
We can put ’em up, we can put ’em down!
We don’t fill your cup—you don’t stick around
Maybe it’s corrupt—it’s a dirty town
Money’s what they love—all of ’em go down!
We can put ’em up, we can put ’em down!
We don’t fill your cup—you don’t stick around
Maybe it’s corrupt—it’s a dirty town
Money’s what they love—all of ’em go down!
We can put ’em up, we can put ’em down!
We don’t fill your cup—you don’t stick around
Maybe it’s corrupt—it’s a dirty town
Money’s what they love—all of ’em go down!
Sometimes they just don’t know when to shut up-
https://www.bitchute.com/video/Kjav5gudSUxS (1:26 mins)
::chef’s kiss::
“Amazon Says It Has a First Amendment Right to Union Bust”
Amazon union says that it has a First Amendment right to Freedom of Assembly.
The rule book for Bezos is like that secret playbook of any genius coach in the NFL that had a Brady, a Manning ( ok mostly it’s Peyton ), or any comparably great Quarterback on the team roster. Talent matters (!)….\sarc
Bezos has played according to his own set of rules for so long, and now he does have the gold that goes with the winning. What a terrifically polished turd of a company, Amazon.
C’mon Manning!
Eli Manning put out two fairly good games, that happened to be against Brady in super bowls.
Yes, and since it was too obvious…I still submit the stretch run to end their 2007 regular season and then go on to win playoff games on the road ( at Green Bay in a blizzard! ) before reaching that Super Bowl…very epic indeed. Tremendous play on the defensive side too, of course.
Somewhere someone I do suppose possibly walks the earth, still wearing a NE Patriots 19 – 0 t-shirt…
As a Bills fan who despised the Patriots of that era with a white-hot fury, I don’t think I’ve ever rooted harder for a non-Buffalo team than during that first Super Bowl win by Eli and the Gints over Coach Hoodie and the Golden Boy.
Manning brought some joy to Buffalo that day.
As did David Tyree – still the most phenomenal catch in NFL history.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OlyBEJ60Duc
Amazon has the right to hire the undocumented, with drivers licenses of course, to be delivery drivers. There is no obligation to vet “independent contractors.”
How can Amazon drivers go on strike with literally millions of scabs ready, willing and able to break the unio? Neighborhood familiarity? Smart phones mean anybody can deliver anywhere.
The Virginia Supreme Court ruled otherwise:
https://www.inddist.com/logistics/news/22891420/court-ruling-declaring-amazon-drivers-as-employees-allowed-to-stand
… and this is counter to the California Supreme ruling in 7/24 that these drivers are in fact contractors and not employees.
https://www.politico.com/news/2024/07/25/california-supreme-court-gig-worker-law-rideshare-companies-00171177
“It’s a ridiculous argument,..the First Amendment is about government: the government can’t restrain free speech.”
Have the employees file a FOI against Amazon and watch how fast Amazon says FOIs are only valid against government & do not pertain to private entities.
I’m happy to see the fungal brains paper linked here. Really fascinating stuff to me.
“Intelligence” is an area with so much left to discover, despite us having one version of it ourselves. When I have time I also want to dive into the microtubules/quantum stuff rabbit hole.
Just for fun. Supposing, just supposing, that every bit of that fungi was acting as an analogue of a brain cell and that taken together, you see the result in an intelligence of some sort. Sort of like that local grouping acting as a brain. As a life form it would be remarkably resilient due to its high numbers but don’t ask me how it communicates. Chemicals maybe?
‘It’s Life, Jim, but not as we know it.’
Yup. Nate Hagens had Suzanne Simard on his podcast a couple weeks ago and talked about this very thing.
Nate & Suzanne tree communication timestamp: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l1jKOMP7g_c&t=1285s
Paper on mycorrhizal communication by Suzanne et al: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4497361/
Links back to the KLG post about heterodox solutions for me. I know that’s a long walk but threads from Graber and curious things like the development of ditch and dikes in marginal lands by the poor:
https://academic.oup.com/book/8856
All sort of point to bottom up capacities. If inclined to see that sort of thing, I suppose.
re: “Ukraine, in an Unlikely Attack on an Iconic Cultural Mainstay, Is Sending Drones Into Russia To Blow Up Its Vodka Distilleries ”
I spoke to my patissier in summer 2022, for the first time after SMO had started.
Very unsure how he would react.
But then he tells me: First thing they blew up in Ukraine had been the Coke factory which was producing those small cans used on commercial flights. That was the reason why he wouln´t have any for his own customers.
And what he had learned: Apparently Coke does differ in taste depending on country of production.
“Blow Up Its Vodka Distilleries!!!”
That could be a phrase from Bill Murray playing Zelensky in a spoof comedy version of “da Uki war”.
They should blow up Russian flag factories in order to stop Russians from taking more settlements by rasing flags.
They’ll just switch to using North Korean flags.
Then they can order them from Florida
Here in North America the Coke produced in Mexico has cane sugar and in the USA it’s produced with high fructose corn syrup.
https://www.mashed.com/200565/the-untold-truth-of-mexican-coke/
I guess that means the US version of coke is doubly addictive!
‘re: This is our land, we deserve it’: Dozens of Israelis planning to cross border and settle in Gaza (sky news)
This quote:
“When asked what should happen to the Palestinians currently living in the territory, one Israeli woman replied: “We should kill them. Every last one of them.””
The revolution may not be televised, but this genocide certainly is.
Well, televised but also denied. Kath Viner’s Guardian will forever carry the stain of the genocide support.
https://novaramedia.com/2024/10/18/discontent-deepens-among-guardian-staff-over-palestine-double-standard/
Thank you, Ben.
It’s not just Viner there.
Many of the leading lights there, especially the non working class women, are as bad and, some years ago, these women hounded out some black journalists for being pro Corbyn, Palestine etc.
Of course the bulk majority of the IDF soldiers fighting and dying in Gaza would not be considered worthy of being allowed to grab land in Gaza. So maybe the IDF should let those settlers in now and fight Hamas for that land as they are so keen on it. But one point comes to mind. Israel has had to abandon the north of the country due to Hezbollah and in a recent survey, about 70% of those people have said that they are never going back there. So how will they hold Gaza then?
https://thecradle.co/articles/seventy-percent-of-israeli-settlers-refuse-post-war-return-to-north-poll
” So how will they hold Gaza then?”
By demanding a “buffer zone” from Egypt.
The Sinai? The settlers have made it no secret that they want the Sinai back again. They probably have a map of where all those settlements will be built when they take it back again.
Such a lovely young lady. Does she have a tradwife tiktok somewhere?
Thank you, T.
We have one here, Blighty, too. Izzy Lenga is a Labour councillor in Camden, but is serving with the IOF and wants to clean Gaza.
“we deserve it“: indeed once you have massacred and/or displaced the former settlers you can say that “i deserve it” because you have done the “hard work” by clearing the area. Yet, IMO, they don’t merit that land as a price given how low had they have to go to deserve it. They are in no way any better
than the former inhabitants.
https://www.usnews.com/news/top-news/articles/2024-10-23/exclusive-state-and-industry-input-led-us-farm-agency-to-relax-bird-flu-testing-order-for-cows?src=usn_tw
Note saying anything bad about Michael Pettis, but is he really the only source NC can quote? I haven’t seen any other name with ‘Commentary’ on a ‘China’ item.
Suggestions (with links) welcome.
Completely reliable and incisive news and analysis sources on China:
1) https://www.cgtn.com/
2) https://english.news.cn/
3) https://www.globaltimes.cn/
4) https://www.chinadaily.com.cn/
Freely accessible, with easily searched historical archives. Also, X is current and open for each site.
International Monetary Fund China data from 1980 to 2024, and projections to 2028:
https://www.imf.org/en/Publications/WEO/weo-database/2024/October/weo-report?c=924,&s=NGDP_RPCH,PPPGDP,PPPPC,NID_NGDP,NGSD_NGDP,PCPIPCH,GGXWDG_NGDP,BCA_NGDPD,&sy=2017&ey=2023&ssm=0&scsm=1&scc=0&ssd=1&ssc=0&sic=0&sort=country&ds=.&br=1
October 15, 2024
China, 2017-2023
Real GDP, percent change
Investment, percent of GDP
Savings, percent of GDP
Inflation rate, percent change
General government gross debt, percent of GDP
Current account balance, percent of GDP
https://www.imf.org/en/Publications/WEO/weo-database/2024/October/weo-report?c=223,924,132,134,532,534,536,158,546,922,112,111,&s=PPPGDP,PPPSH,&sy=2000&ey=2023&ssm=0&scsm=1&scc=0&ssd=1&ssc=0&sic=0&sort=country&ds=.&br=1
October 15, 2024
Gross Domestic Product based on purchasing-power-parity (PPP) for Brazil, China, France, Germany, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Macao, Russia, United Kingdom and United States, 2000-2023
2023
Brazil ( 4,457)
China ( 33,552)
France ( 4,211)
Germany ( 5,876)
India ( 14,620)
Indonesia ( 4,335)
Japan ( 6,398)
Russia ( 6,512)
United Kingdom ( 4,137)
United States ( 27,721)
China in 2023 was 26.8% larger in GDP than the US, and 29.8% larger than the European Union.
I used to read Pettis from time to time way back, but a lot of his ideas on China from 10-15 years ago haven’t aged very well at all. Stuff like this, banging on and on about China’s supposed overinvestment: There’s a Cost to Mainland Overinvestment
The above is his argument from 2009. All one can say is, thank God the Chinese government didn’t bother listening to people like Pettis.
re: election, Georgia and Sleuth News (the Russiagate researcher) from Substack
“Why SOS Raffensperger Can Be Sued For Documents”
“In the last couple days, a handful of screenshots have circulated concerning Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger starting a 501(c)(4) called Election Defense Fund. A quick perusing of the registration documents do not show him included.
However, the screenshots of this email invoke his name:”
https://www.sleuth.news/p/why-sos-raffensperger-can-be-sued?publication_id=906651&post_id=150644320&isFreemail=true&r=1i81oo&triedRedirect=true
p.s. Not sure I understand the point of it…how is Raffensberger supposed to act neutral now?
I would advise caution in evaluating a screen shot of an email that “invokes” someone’s name while referencing an entity which seems to have no internet presence except a donate button.
>Fungal ‘Brains’ Can Think Like Human Minds, Scientists Say Popular Mechanics.
The article confounds “Brain” with “Mind.” Mind emerges through a social process that requires not only a complex brain of neural networks it requires symbolic language, see George Herbert Mead in his classic “Mind, Self and Society.”
http://tankona.free.fr/mead1934.pdf
It is well documented that mycorrhizal networks facilitate sharing of soil nutrients between trees, allowing those with abundance to divert excess to those without.
It is human hubris to think our chimp babble is the only means of symbolic language.
“It is well documented that mycorrhizal networks facilitate sharing of soil nutrients between trees, allowing those with abundance to divert excess to those without.”
Astonishing, I had no idea and I pay close attention to Chinese work on mushroom cultivation or Juncao in particular:
https://english.news.cn/20240307/1b84eb031f394bfab6074f1cd9c5138d/c.html
March 7, 2024
China’s “magic grass” benefits Pacific Island countries
Fiji used to run out of livestock forage in the dry season and its fungi products were fully dependent on imports. But after China introduced the Juncao technology as part of its free assistance, things have been changed.
SUVA — Sant Kumar, a former agriculture staff who has been involved in farming for years, is encouraging Fijians to plant Juncao grass along the banks of rivers and streams to avoid soil loss due to heavy rain and flooding.
“I was losing my land due to flooding, so I decided to visit the Juncao Technology Demonstration Center in Nadi to seek advice. That is when I was introduced to Juncao grass,” 86-year-old Kumar said.
He can attest to the wonders of Juncao grass as it now grows steadily on the riverbank close to his farm when he started planting it in September of last year.
Kumar is not the only one who’d fallen for Juncao, a hybrid grass developed by Chinese scientists after decades of research and cultivation.
Its leaves, stems and roots are useful for different kinds of ecological management, such as soil erosion control, desertification prevention and saline-alkali soil management.
It can also be used for mushroom farming, or as livestock forage and poultry feed….
Terrance McKenna said it forty years ago. The mushroom created men to get them passage out of the galaxy. : )
I thought it was:
“Cats invented humans to get them to provide a constant source of baffling incompetence for amusement.”
In Brian Aldiss’ Hothouse one of the central characters is a morel which has taken over one of the characters’ brains. I never thought of Aldiss as a prophet before.
Water, water everywhere – why Southeast Asia’s overbuilt capitals need new ways to survive Channel News Asia
Couldn’t resist, Dylan High Water (For Charley Patton)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rCXRCPz2ciU&ab_channel=nightlymoth
Build till they sink!!! The northern end of Jakarta, the capital of Indonesia, used to be a protected green belt area made up of mangrove forests and swamps. Some studies have shown that mangrove forests can play an effective role in coastal defense, but that didn’t stop large developers from clearing most of the forests to create a new playground for Jakarta’s rich called Pantai Indah Kapuk. Many years from now, when sea levels have risen considerably, perhaps it will be the second coming of Numenor.
thank you for that clip Zag – Bob looks like he’s having a lot of fun and like his lead work – great song –
There’s some good, if desperate, prose in The Velvet Ditch but man alive the edgy atheist academic trope has gone past cliché and fully crashed out into childish for me at this point. Oh, and you drink too? How brave.
I found this essay quite enjoyable, a tale told with the soul-baring honesty of Joni Mitchell in a Murakami like setting where the protagonists feel like time keeps shifting without them. It’s an American story. I’d wager there’s more than a few of us that can relate to the feeling of our moorings being loosed again and again despite our efforts.
“Vladimir Putin bets on North Korean troops to retake Kursk from Ukraine”
FT is really making themselves out to be stupid here. The Kursk incursion is nothing more now than a Russian cauldron and last I heard, the Ukrainians have lost about 23,000 of their best troops there. The Russians don’t need reinforcements of any kind by now. And yet Zelensky is still sending in more troops there.
With this whole thing about North Korean troops on the Ukrainian battlefields, some Russian soldiers decided to have themselves some fun. So outside Pokrovsk on this ridge-line, they not only erected a Russian flag but also the one for North Korea. The Ukrainians flipped out and so did some western media-
https://www.newsweek.com/north-korea-flag-spotted-ukraine-battlefield-1972802
Still think that any North Koreans in eastern Russia, which is about 7,000 kilometers away, are there as part of a deal to learn modern battle techniques from the Russians as the North Koreans have not fought a battle in over seventy years. The thing to watch for is to see if North Korean tanks get modified with ‘cope cages.’
New developments in greater Palestine:
https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/hezbollah-kills–70-israeli-soldiers-and-destroys-28-tanks-i
Also, more happenings in yurp. Not news to anyone here, but the Nazis seem to be getting smoked:
https://tass.com/military-operation-in-ukraine
Now that Netanyahu has ordered the IDF into Lebanon, where does he go from here? The IDF has been fought to a standstill and are bleeding men and machinery in a hopeless endeavor. They haven’t even met the Hezbollah A team yet and are still getting ground down by the B team. Was he doing this to get those northern settlers off his back? He can hardly pull the IDF back as it would not make him look good. He could hit Iran but there is one hitch. Iran can hit back harder. Like Zelensky, he has to keep this war going because if it stops, then his neck is on the chopping block by his own people. I guess that he was going for glory to create a Greater Israel but instead has made his country into the pariah of the world.
Shells and fuel inside a Merkava
Make the hull glow red like volcanic lava
It just takes a drone, or a mine tripped by phone;
Talents Hezbollah has routinely shown
Re: Boeing machinists reject contract offer
Well, so much for the reporting last weekend about a “tentative agreement.”
Looks like Wuk is a prophet – $7.07 per share, here we come!
It’s charming to watch the people scramble to invent ourselves out of this hole we invented ourselves into.
It’s like watching ants scramble after their carefully built hill is disturbed.
Unfortunately I am also an ant.
The “simple trick” to communicate with your cat article has me started-up. I think Lambert has addressed this via covid masking; but I’d like to elaborate. The article suggests smiling at your cat with your eyes instead of baring your teeth. Yes! But humans smile with their eyes, as I believe do all primates. Politicians and other con-artists smile with their mouths. Any my psycho-therapist cousin has the most fake smile in the family, I suspect it’s practiced in front of a mirror. It’s part of corporate indoctrination these days.
Please bear with a quick anecdote. In ’22 I was in the grocery store, wearing my N95 (as I still do). At the milk case I came up to a little girl (2-3 yrs) on her dad’s shoulder (looking bw from him). She gave me this very concerned look; no fright, just “are you alright?” I smiled back and she gave me the biggest, most beautiful smile I’ve ever seen. It was the high point of my week.
Be human (again), don’t be corporate. Smile for real, like the ape you are.
I will give all here one very “simple trick”. Sing to your cats. I have countless made-up ditties for our three stinkers (and some for the dog too). Maybe it’s the tonal difference, IDK, but it really softens them up for a belly rub.
MAN: Pussy pussy pussy . . . coochicoochicoochi . . . pussy want his fish? Nice piece of fish . . . pussy want it? Pussy not eat his fish, pussy get thin and waste away, I think. I imagine this is what will happen, but how can I tell? I think it’s better if I don’t get involved. I think fish is nice, but then I think that rain is wet so who am I to judge? Ah, you’re eating it.
I like it when I see you eat the fish, because in my mind you will waste away if you don’t.
Fish come from far away, or so I’m told. Or so I imagine I’m told. When the men come, or when in my mind the men come in their six black shiny ships do they come in your mind too? What do you see, pussy? And when I hear their questions, all their many questions do you hear questions? Perhaps you just think they’re singing songs to you. Perhaps they are singing songs to you and I just think they’re asking me questions. Do you think they came today? I do. There’s mud on the floor, cigarettes and whisky on my table, fish in your plate and a memory of them in my mind. And look what else they’ve left me. Crosswords, dictionaries and a calculator. I think I must be right in thinking they ask me questions. To come all that way and leave all these things just for the privilege of singing songs to you would be very strange behaviour. Or so it seems to me. Who can tell, who can tell.
. . . .
MAN: I think I saw another ship in the sky today. A big white one. I’ve never seen a big white one. Only six small black ones. Perhaps six small black ones can look like one big white one. Perhaps I would like a glass of whisky. Yes, that seems more likely.
. . . .
Perhaps some different people are coming to see me.
. . . .
MAN: Hello?
FORD PREFECT: Er, excuse me, do you rule the Universe?
MAN: I try not to. Are you wet?
FORD: Wet! Well, doesn’t it look as if we’re wet?
MAN: That’s how it looks to me, but how you feel about it might be a different matter. If you find warmth makes you feel dry you’d better come in.
. . . .
ZAPHOD BEEBLEBROX: Er, man, like what’s your name?
MAN: I don’t know. Why, do you think I ought to have one? It seems odd to give a bundle of vague sensory perceptions a name.
ZARNIWOOP: Listen. We must ask you some questions.
MAN: All right. You can sing to my cat if you like.
ARTHUR DENT: Would he like that?
MAN: You’d better ask him that.
OTO hand, yawning is a stess signal/cue to relax and trust for dogs. LOL.
Dogs with any socialization at all are pretty good judges of human body language. And they can smell human hormones.
Dogs with any socialization at all are pretty good judges of human body language. Cats as well. Could not one substitute “dog” for “cat” in this paragraph?
Cats, for example, respond in kind to humans who are receptive to them – so if you find cats standoffish, that might be a problem with you, not the kitty. Likewise, cats echo the personality traits of the humans they live with – this may be related to why cats seem to pick up when their humans are sad. They also can recognize their names (although they choose to ignore them a lot of the time). And their bonds with their humans are surprisingly deep.
Interesting debanking article. My start-up has just been debanked for five month period. Nothing political, just a bureaucratic ourobouros that doesn’t give two hoots for ruining customers’ lives, but the story may prove instructive.
I’ll name the bank at the end, when we get to the punchline. They need calling out for their inept processes. However, I am not posting under my usual handle, just in case….
I have started a company with a former colleague to build a new business and the bank took fright at the initial six figure deposit in the account (for a top fifty City law firm, so hardly without KYC). They rang my colleague from a withheld number while she was at work, when she cannot take personal calls (she only has her personal mobile at work in case of emergencies because her adult daughter is suffering from unexplained fits and she is power of attorney for two relatives in care homes). She asked them to ring back outside work hours. They rang back when she was at work. She asked them to ring back outside work hours. They never rang back.
Our account was then suspended. Nobody would explain why, nobody related it to the call that was never received, everybody promised that somebody would call us from a mystery department but no call came. 45 days later we receive a notice of account closure. Then they started to close my colleague’s accounts with sister banks in the group (but not mine for some reason)….
As background, we are both “Establishment”. I am a barrister (Lincoln’s Inn) and an FCA approved person working in regulated financial services and a Premier customer with the bank in question operating half a dozen accounts (household, business, minor children, family trust etc.). My colleague is an administrator for a multi-billion dollar US property fund and is compliance checked quarterly.
I know the law on anti-money laundering in the UK (remember, FCA approved person, historically in important control functions but not currently). The bank has a maximum of 42 days to refuse your instructions. They may not commnicate anything in this time or they can be convicted of tipping off. But any extension after this period requires a criminal court order served with notice.
We had received no notice of any order but nobody would respond to us. Telephone banking was useless, a merrry-go-round of low-level people who could not help. I wrote to the bank. My lawyer wrote to the bank. As did my and agent and conveyancing solicitor, as to the origin of the funds from a property sale. I wrote to my MP. I wrote to the Financial Ombudsman. I wrote to the Group CEO and Group General Counsel, the head of Risk, the Head of AML. Nothing budged: no explanation, no accountability, no communication about what AML/ KYC details they needed to confirm – and no access to our money for our start-up.
In the end I had a brainwave: the bank owed me money, the bank had no legal standing to refuse instructions (the 42 days were up) and I owed them nothing. So I served a statutory demand for the account balance on them. They had 21 days or I could issue winding up proceedings… on HSBC!
(NB: HSBC were fined billions in a defererd prosecution agreement with the SEC for KYC/AML laxity with Republic Bank – I have a long memory!)
I was really looking forward to this, when I served the demand on the UK general counsel and CEO. Unfortunately, they rang back within a day. :-)
Obviously, this story doesn’t help people who have their accounts closed for political or risk assessment reasons but if you get caught up in the Kafkaesque world of being denied access to your bank account, in the UK the bank has 42 days of grace and then you can serve a statutory demand and threaten winding up and that gets their attention.
Other than getting my account back and getting my colleague’s account reinstated, I have not received any proper apology (i..e from one of the people I wrote to) but I have received a legal minimum offer of compensation (8% interest + solatium), to deter me from taking the case to the Financial Ombudsman and having a precedential finding against them in the public domain. I regret I shall probably take the money rather than fight on principle because I would rather get on with business.
The experience has been very unsettling, however. How can one live without a bank account? If I have any meaningful liquid wealth in future (land rich, cash poor farmers currently), I shall keep some of it in government bonds and, bluntly, I think I shall be keeping some of it in cash and in commodities physically somewhere secure. You can be unpersonned by the government at the flick of a switch, deliberately or accidentally….
The NY Times had a recently story about how equally screwed up this is in the US, with people having their accounts closed for suspicious activity, with no reason given, and no one to talk to about it, because it’s national security so they can’t talk to you about it. What a dumpster fire.
I don’t think it’s national security, it’s just FinCen/BSA (US), SOCA (UK), FinTRAC (Canada). The AML laws require that banks and their employees not disclose to clients that they are flagging suspicious activity or that an account has been flagged. What is considered suspicious is quite arbitrary and left to low level poorly trained banking employees to determine.
But this is similar to the No Fly List or credit flags in that if the record is not accurate, the law requiring secrecy prevents it from being challenged or corrected. Banks realize they’re being overegulated in this space, see no way out, so the path of least cost/resistance is to simply close the account – it would be more expensive to correct the issue, even if the suspicious activity flag is suspected to be unwarranted it’s better to just ditch the client altogether than go through the time, trouble and expense.
My experience was much smaller scale, but bill pay and any account transfers from my account were silently suspended for “suspicious activity” (paying a known reputable firm that I had paid before), and then it was, just as you describe, “a merrry-go-round of low-level people who could not help” — except they kept promising me they would fix everything. It took 14 phone calls over ten weeks to finally unblock the account.
In the first weeks, I became angry, but I soon realized this was pointless, as none of the telephone service people really had any idea how to make things right, and the bank had been gutted through a series of mergers. The kicker came when I discovered that my “bank” (BMO) no longer actually managed my account, and that was handled by another company named FISERV. In effect, most account operations had been outsourced.
Is BMO even a bank now? I cannot see this ending well.
This is because these large banks have outsourced both KYC L1 and L2 analysis to the tech consulting firms and those AML red flags, once executed, get logged and someone in the actual bank will decide whether to issue a SAR or not on it but the red flag remains and the signal to close down the account goes to another tech consulting firm (or the same one, with separate teams) to whom the bank has outsourced account maintenance and customer support. These procedures have been industrialized (some are pure software) and there are no exceptions made unless someone at a very high level in the bank’s actual compliance function has been made aware of the situation. HSBC is particularly strict about this because of their history with the SFO and SEC. Sometimes I don’t think they even have any power to rescind a red flag except at the general counsel level, where you were lucky enough to get their attention.
Credibly threatening to wind up the bank tends to get the general counsel’s attention. :-)
But you’re right, I was very lucky that I am a barrister and financial regs trained person and that the account was not my personal account and until I figured out how to get their attention, I was getting nowhere despite impeccable PMC credentials. Even the partner in the City law firm and the branch manager of the bank got nowhere sending internal e-mails on my behalf.
I had to write to all of those firms you mention (they are all listed in the small print) and exercise my data subject access rights to get copies of my files, showing I was clean (to check that HSBC were not contaminating my profile elsewhere).
I just spoke to my colleague and her view is we should reject the compensation and try to get an ombudsman ruling against them. I love her, she’s such an attack dog!
More bits about this:
Money laundering and AML compliance
Wow, it’s been a year. Time moves differently in the Pandemic.
Seeing like a Bank
Cash-Strapped Colleges Are Selling Their Prized Art and Mansions Anyone expecting a deep dive into the troubles plaguing higher education will be disappointed.
“Squeezed by a steady decline in the national birth rate that’s shrinking the pool of college applicants,…“. Damn, that is lazy writing. I’d wager there’s a bit more going on than a smaller pool of potential applicants. More, “To be clear, many bigger, more prestigious US private and state institutions are doing fine. They boast deep endowments and robust enrollment, allowing them to thrive financially.“. Well “thank goodness” for that.
What really irritates me is the tone of the piece, which instead of being concerned about the state of higher education, particularly small colleges, has instead a subtle eager anticipation for the upcoming liquidation, an “estate sale” for elites. Who doesn’t love an estate sale after all.
So your tiny college is goin’ down the shitter;
Why be forlorn, embarrassed, or bitter?
There’s assets to mine, and cash to consider—
The whole lot will go to the highest bidder
Well that pretty much sums it up. You do have a way with words.
Lowest bidder, actually, I suspect. FiRE Sale.
Fungal ‘Brains’ Can Think Like Human Minds, Scientists Say Popular Mechanics.
WE WERE WARNED.
A note about the election from Ohio.
The Secretary of State of Ohio has issued a ruling that the Green Party candidates for President and Vice President ( Stein and Rios ) have withdrawn from the race and that votes for these candidates will not be counted.
It appears that Rios was a place holder and the state party tried to update the Ohio ballot after the national party chose a vice presidential candidate. In response, the Secretary of State of Ohio ruled that the deadline for ballot changes had passed and then argued their candidacy was no longer valid.
In my opinion, the presidential campaign is not competitive in this state and I do not think removal of the Green Party from the ballot will affect the outcome of the presidential race. Nonetheless I do not agree with this decision by Secretary of State LaRose and I was a bit miffed to see the withdrawal notice when I voted today.
The removal of the Green candidate occurred over a week ago, so I apologize if this issue has already been discussed.
Ah, keeping the Green Party from gaining traction and achieving voter percentage thresholds turns out to be a bipartisan affair. How utterly unsurprising.
The Greens did this same shit in 2020 and were taken off the ballot in 12 states because they screwed up paperwork.
The Greens are not a serious party.
Fair enough. But imo it’s still the best place to register support for progressive policy.
This is fair. It’s also not mutually exclusive to f**kery performed against them.
Presumably, early voting had already started when this “executive decision” came down? Thereby changing the rules during the game.
I have not been able to find when Secretary of State LaRose made this decision.
Stein and Rios have sued in US court to be reinstated on the ballot.
Their court filing claims that the Ohio deadline for changing candidates is Aug 12.
Their court filing says the Ohio Green Party requested a ballot change with the Secretary of State on Aug 28. Stein states this was unauthorized by the national party. Furthermore, Stein and Rios filed as independents in Ohio, not as candidates of the Ohio Green Party.
Early voting starts 30 days in advance in Ohio, which I think was October 8 for this election. My spouse remembers that they voted on Oct 11 and that Stein and Rios were disqualified at that time.
Secretary of State LaRose ran this year in the Republican primary for US Senate. Trump endorsed Moreno and Moreno won the primary.
And yet Ohio modified the deadline to accommodate the Democrat convention (although Harris did file before the original deadline).
Indiana’s SOS apparently threw out Stein’s application to be on ballot – that application precluded write-in status, so no one can vote for her.
This despite the most focussed and direct candidate running is Jill Stein.
Yes, thank you for bringing this up, BHG. I went to vote early and was surprised to find the Greens disqualified here in Ohio. OK, I just voted Libertarian, Chase Oliver opposes the US involvement in Palestine and Ukraine, too. To vote on policy instead of personality is liberating!
Yet Ohio changed its established deadline when the B campaign failed to apply on time. An exception was made for B. The uniparty protects its own, I guess. / odd.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/biden-ohio-ballot-deadline
Update on the court case Stein vs LaRose.
An article just published on Cleveland.com reports that Judge Watson ( US District Court ) will abstain from ruling on Stein vs LaRose until a state court has ruled on the matter.
I am not a lawyer, but I interpret the federal judge to be saying an Ohio court has to rule on whether Rios legally withdrew their candidacy under Ohio law.
I would not be surprised if this case is not resolved on Election Day.
“Humans Are Evolving Right Before Our Eyes on The Tibetan Plateau’
That article’s second image is labelled as ‘Lo Manthang in Nepal, where some of the data was collected.’ It just looks like high country to me yet it is strange to think that if we were actually standing there, we would be fighting to get oxygen into our lungs and would be experiencing headaches, insomnia, maybe vomiting and poorer coordination. You can’t see it in that image but that is how it would work out for us.
Chinese leader Xi Jinping urges Brics to lead ‘urgent’ international finance reform – South China Morning Post
Guess it remains to be seen how that squares with stock market pumping/bailouts and real estate bubbles.
One could argue those are features of the current system. New system, new features? Costs them nothing to hope.
China’s govt recently did a stock market pump…just before they went to this summit and made these pronouncements.
You would if you could, and you do. New system, new features. We’re the only ones with the moral claim to Capitalism.
Not by a long shot. I some features of attempted rebranding of the old and calling it new.
You mean like democracy?
That never existed as a system to rebrand.
I’ve said many times already, phrased in different ways, that’s a concept where the meaning has been perverted.
I’ll have more hopes for other countries when they stop sending students to the USA to bring back the same neoliberal economic ideas.
Having a little neoliberalism is like being a little pregnant.
Indeed, but have you ever *familyblog* an Asian? Same same, but different.
“The case for Trump” with Bret Weinstein and Heather Keying, aka the dark horse podcast, spends over an hour discussing political selection thoughts and processes in this very wide-ranging discussion.
https://www.youtube.com/live/-2EGAI7wwPY
US election coverage, business news coverage. CNBC has supplied a few compelling interviews this week, and yesterday I caught a portion of this interview with hedge fund guy Bill Ackmann. I don’t necessarily look up to the guy, but some of his highly successful peers by comparison are less than direct in describing who they support.
During the interview there is a brief discussion about Elon Musk. My two cents this celebrated genius of our era should stick to his businesses…I wouldn’t trust him to understand government efficiency standards unless such an effort, led by Elon, Trump, or someone else, also is including the bloated US military spending. FFS.
https://www.cnbc.com/video/2024/10/23/bill-ackman-trump-is-the-only-candidate-thats-talked-about-accelerating-the-growth-of-the-country.html
A Potemkin village in Japan, https://www.ft.com/content/a43a9f8b-0051-492f-93a3-5332fd465785.
“In the playground on the western edge of Ichinono, a mother watches fussily over a group of children as steel-grey clouds pause between autumn downpours. Two children are on scooters. One is on a wooden swing. A fourth is pedalling off towards the woods on a pink bicycle.
None of them are actually real.”
It’s pretty heartbreaking to see some of the photos contained in the article.
China insist on no escalation of fighting in Ukraine…
I’ve seen the view expressed, from whom was either a patriotic Russian or an effective propagandist, that China, all faults and interests considered, was being somewhat patronizing toward its ally in the North, vis a vis, its relative ambiguity on the SMO. Do they still seek to preserve their investments in Ukraine? That’s a false hope, eh? Yet it appears China sees value in extending the conflict. Judging Russia’s hand, I would say they agree, from a strategic perspective anyway, not having a palatable end game and all… but that’s got to be a hard sell. They should hire McKinsey.
I think that the intention is to keep US and Europeans busy for the longest time in Evrope, until China is ready with its build-up of nukes, ships, and missiles…
Re Trump and Harris, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said-
‘If it were us or Russia, neither of these idiots would be elected. It’s terrible! One is incompetent, and the other is blathering about devil knows what. They are all idiots. This is a terrible, stupid election. From our perspective, I don’t understand anything at all.’
https://www.rt.com/russia/606305-us-candidates-idiots-lukashenko/
The sad thing? When he said ‘One is incompetent, and the other is blathering about devil knows what’ I could not tell which was Trump and which was Harris there.
Why I stopped worrying and learned to love the bomb.
Just now reading the ’24 biography on ol’ Stanley K. It’s a good read even if the college professors called waltz time a “tempo”.
Dimwits whose campaigns amount to one shouting “Communist!” and the other shouting “Hitler!’
While the world burns…
Yeah, that was going to be my question too. But I’m equally confused on which one is supposed to be the lesser evil.
From Useful Idiots Katie and Aaron, public excerpt:
Marvel Announces Next Movie: Liz Cheney the Liberal Superhero
In the face of danger, MSNBC pundits are saved just in the nick of time!
https://www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/p/marvel-announces-next-movie-liz-cheney
This Country Turned Against the West, and It’s Not Coming Back – NYT
Georgia decides it might not be a good idea to be foolish and used up proxy and that’s “turning their backs”?
This Country Turned Against the
WestNeocons, and It’s Not Coming BackFixed it for the NYTimes. / ;)
This Country Turned Against the West, and It’s Not Coming Back – NYT
Georgia decides it might not be a good idea to be a foolish and used up proxy and that’s “turning their backs”?
Ukraine Needs More Than Rival Elite Projects – Projects Jacobin
The entire world needs more than rival elite projects.
That’s a shame, as the great senator McCain said we’re all Georgians now. Most Americans probably thought he meant the one in the American south. No doubt, were he alive today, he’d also endorse Harris and she’d welcome it! Warmongers, unite!
I usually like to read the comments on The Register because it’s overwhelmingly pithy British geeks with some funny tech insights. Or just snark, and that’s fine too. Unfortunately, the irrational hatred of anything to do with Russia has apparently infected everyone, even there.
Whoda thunk that some geek commenter would repeat the “Budapest Memorandum” copypasta in The Register? It’s worse than FT comments. smh
I don’t think we’re on a good track here at all. It’s all broken and it’s not going to improve, is it?
I can’t tell if everyone there posting online is infected with group-think, or if everyone there is frightened of the UK’s new thought police policies. Hard to tell. How many are self-sensering to avoid arrest and prison?
If this were a Doctor WhoTV series it would be understandable as a science fiction drama plot.
Unfortunately….
UK police commissioner threatens to extradite, jail US citizens over online posts: ‘We’ll come after you’
‘Being a keyboard warrior does not make you safe from the law’ the police commissioner warned
https://www.foxnews.com/media/uk-police-commissioner-threatens-extradite-jail-us-citizens-over-social-media-posts-we-come-afte
(Tell me again why the UK Labour party is sending 200 operatives to the US to help the Harris campaign?)
Where’s the Doctor when we need him, when the Daleks are invading? / ;)
No, it isn’t going to improve… ever.
Well, that’s encouraging. ” Surrender, Dorothy.” / heh
adding per Hollywood:
The Wizard of Oz, Surrender Dorothy scene
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CR5GzUZ0a5M
I believe there is a term for discrimination based on ethnicity or nationality…which The Register for some reason avoids. On the other hand, it’s not news that Torvalds is a [familyblogging] [familyblog].
Worst case scenario, of course, is that next Astra Linux will come with a new and improved kernel, forked from the imperialist one and accepting pull requests from the 85%.
“”Apple and Goldman Sachs Must Pay Nearly $90 Million in Credit-Card Inquiry””
Original article in NYT for those of you who go there. CFPB’s Rohit Chopra connects the dots.
Remember when GS failed? Bailed out and became overnight a Federally chartered Bank? Yes?
One condition was it build a retail Bank to mirror its bankrupt TBTF competitors. Apparently they are not very good at it. Recently their Marcus brand loan sharking operation was also (bad) news. Now this.
Nick Carcaterra (GS) stated the Apple Card “is one of the most consumer friendly credit cards that has ever been offered.” Apple stated “they worked closely with GS to quickly address the inadvertent issues.”
yap,yap,yap….Interest free financing on Apple devices when using Apple Card…blah,blah,blah
– ‘Ukraine Needs More Than Rival Elite Projects’ – Jacobin
Yet another both-siderist “analysis” by the compatible left providing cover for the US/NATO project against Russia. How do I know? For one thing, there is *nothing about the US/NATO project against Russia*! Nothing about this decades-long escalation and Russia’s very legitimate security concerns. Nothing about the well-documented role of the US in the Maidan uprising and its aftermath, of McCain and Nuland and cookies and the CIA. Rather, the “left” is chastised for inadequate condemnation of Russia “for subjecting Ukraine to a proxy war, or for not consistently condemning Putinist aggression.” Apparently this “Putinist aggression” was just Putin taking advantage of the internal conflict in Ukraine for his own unscrupulous imperial ends. One might say that it was “unprovoked.” In this the author is mainly reproducing the views of Volodymyr Ishchenko, the key source on the Ukraine conflict for many Western “leftists” whose book he is reviewing.
Another “does anyone remember that article” request. I think it was on salon.com around 2016 election season. It said that the Dem party was bereft of progressives at every level because Bill and Hillary Clinton had spent the past 20 years purging them. I’ve been having no luck finding it with with Salon’s search feature. Any ideas? Thanks.
Jon Elmer @ Electronic Intifada offers a much fuller story on the martyring of Yahya Sinwar than any other Western source would, beginning circa 1:41:00:
Breaking news and analysis on day 383 of Gaza’s Al-Aqsa Flood | The Electronic Intifada Podcast
“Will the China Cycle Come for Airbus and Boeing?”
“China Cycle” is an expression that was invented to assert that Chinese development comes from luring foreign companies to China and then copying and stealing whatever these foreign companies do. I suggest a person thinking about the expression read a few of the 27 volumes on Chinese technology written by Joseph Needham of Cambridge:
https://www.nytimes.com/1971/06/20/archives/joseph-needham-the-real-thing.html
June 20, 1971
Joseph Needham, the Real Thing
By Richard Boston
https://www.nytimes.com/1982/04/18/books/the-china-the-west-knew-nothing-about.html
April 18, 1982
The China The West Knew Nothing About
By Jonathan Spence
SCIENCE IN TRADITIONAL CHINA: A Comparative Perspective.
By Joseph Needham.