Instagram-famous squirrel named Peanut seized by New York state authorities AP
The Many Avatars Of Coconuts Madras Courier
What’s so special about the human brain? Nature
Monkeys will never type Shakespeare, study finds BBC
Climate
Floods in Spain: ‘The Mediterranean’s warming is dynamite’ Le Monde
What’s behind Colorado’s dirty snow? Dust blown in from the Southwest — and it’s brought problems with it. Colorado Sun
Throw Out Your Black Plastic Spatula The Atlantic
Syndemics
Tracking the U.S. bird flu outbreak has been hard. It’s about to get harder STAT
Viruses Through the Looking-Glass JSTOR Daily
China?
What is China’s biggest security threat? The US, says a top Chinese researcher South China Morning Post
Russell Hsiao on US Policies and Taiwan’s Politics The Diplomat
US Space Force warns of ‘mind-boggling’ build-up of Chinese capabilities FT
How Japan’s youngest CEO transformed Hello Kitty BBC
The Koreas
South Korea weighs arming Ukraine after North Korean deployment FT
BRICS
BRICS grows, adding 13 new ‘partner countries’ at historic summit in Kazan, Russia Geopolitical Report
No, BRICS Isn’t Trying to Rival the West Foreign Policy
Transcript of Judging Freedom, 31 October 2024 Gilbert Doctorow, Armageddon Newsletter
Africa
Botswana president concedes election, ending governing party’s six-decade rule France24
Syraqistan
Israel has damaged or destroyed nearly a quarter of buildings in Lebanon’s south WaPo
Thousands flee following Israel’s evacuation orders in south, east Lebanon France24
Lebanese Prime Minister ‘cautiously optimistic’ about truce possibility France24
U.S. ambassador to Lebanon promotes ‘internal uprising’ to assist Israel: Report The Cradle
* * * As religious Zionist IDF casualties rise, so does resentment of Haredi exemption bill Times of Israel
Ministries cut ties with Haaretz over ‘apartheid’ allegations Jerusalem Post
* * *
The New Great Game
Accounts of Georgian employees of the “Atlantic Council” have been frozen JAM News
New Not-So-Cold War
The Forest and the Trees: Ukraine’s Strategic Dissipation Big Serge
Partner or Instrument? Ukraine’s Place in US Foreign Policy Strategy Valdai Discussion Club
* * * Russia’s Swift March Forward in Ukraine’s East NYT
Ukraine is now struggling to cling on, not to win The Economist
The Putin Dilemma: Why Peace in Ukraine Requires Russia’s Defeat The National Interest
The Bizarre Case Of Two Fake Ukrainian Brigades Forbes
* * * How North Korea’s Elite Soldiers Could Change Ukraine War Newsweek
Congressman calls on US and NATO to consider attacking North Korean troops in Ukraine Ukrainska Pravda
Zelenskyy responds on whether Ukraine could request ICC arrest warrant for Kim Jong Un Ukrainska Pravda
* * * Brave1 Ukrainian military-tech cluster attracts US$25 million in foreign investment Ukrainska Pravda
Why sanctions on Russia are literally backfiring Responsible Statecraft
* * * Russo-Ukrainian war, day 981: Kyiv reveals only 10% of US aid reached Ukraine EuroMaidan Press
Ukraine may need to pressure Moldova if Stoianoglo wins election – former Ukrainian foreign minister Ukrainska Pravda
2024
AP sources: White House altered record of Biden’s ‘garbage’ remarks despite stenographer concerns AP
* * * Investors step up bets that US election will trigger market volatility FT
The U.S. election need not be scary. History shows this is the way to trade it, says Citi. MarketWatch
* * * How science journals are confronting the ‘existential’ question of politics this election STAT
Trump sues CBS News for $10B for ‘editing’ Harris interview on 60 Minutes Anadolu Agency
Antitrust
Elon Musk: “Lina Khan Will Be Fired Soon” Matt Stoller, BIG
Digital Watch
Microsoft again delays Recall feature, says it will arrive for Windows Insiders on Copilot Plus PCs in December Tom’s Hardware
Russia fines Google more money than there is in entire world BBC
Boeing
Boeing Dismantles Diversity Team as Pressure Builds on New CEO Bloomberg
The Final Frontier
US Space Force warns of ‘mind-boggling’ build-up of Chinese capabilities FT
Imperial Collapse Watch
How the U.S. military lost a $250 million war game in minutes WaPo. Millenium Challenge.
The New Denial of Imperialism on the Left Monthly Review
Can we trust official statistics? The data gaps shaping our view of the economy FT
Class Warfare
Workers Win Union Election at Mississippi Market Co-op Workday Magazine
Amazing 30-Year Experiment Shows Evolution Unfolding in Slow Motion Science Alert
Antidote du jour (Lip Kee ):
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.
172 comments
Comments are closed.
BIBI NETANYAHU
(melody borrowed from You’re So Vain by Carly E. Simon)
You’ve always been Bogarty as you’re stalking a dream you’ve got
You act a seemingly script defined nice guy
A dwarf not a juggernaut
But your record can’t be clearer, and it’s high time you were taught
Your Zionist dream has made only martyrs, made only martyrs (and)
You’re insane
You murder people you’re not allowed to
You’re insane (you’re insane!)
You’ve trapped two million people without food
Get trucks through, trucks through!
Oh, you’re starving kids and mothers, and you offer them no reprieve
Negotiation charades from an empty chair—your toilet in Tel Aviv!
While America works hand in glove, they don’t like what they see
Your UN speech makes you sound kamikaze, sound kamikaze (and)
You’re insane
You murder people you’re not allowed to
You’re insane (you’re insane!)
You’ve trapped two million people without food
Get trucks through, trucks through, trucks through!
(musical interlude)
Your UN speech makes you sound kamikaze, sound kamikaze (and)
You’re insane
You murder people you’re not allowed to
You’re insane (you’re insane!)
You’ve trapped two million people without food
Get trucks through, trucks through!
Now your current plan wants to provoke a
World war to block the sun
When your Air Force and missiles cannot approach a
Completely prepared and well armed Iran
There’s no doubt you’re guilty of high crimes
And now you’re caught beneath your mountain of lies
Yet you still try to pretend, still try to pretend (and)
You’re insane
You murder people you’re not allowed to
You’re insane (you’re insane!)
You’ve trapped two million people without food
Get trucks through, trucks through, trucks through! (now!)
You’re insane
You murder people you’re not allowed to
You’re insane
You’ve trapped two million people without food
You’re insane
If only it were a case of insanity instead of the manifestation of evil incarnate.
Insane indeed. How is this still going on?
Brilliant – I love it!
Yes, they are all insane, not just Bibi, but Biden, the neo-cons, and all the Congress-creeps who put Israel and Zionism above even their own country.
The latest Big Lie is that two knuckleheads who couldn’t find diplomacy if it hit them in the face were sent to “negotiate” a “cease-fire” with a guy who doesn’t even represent nor control Hezbollah (Lebanese caretaker PM Mikati) and now they’re demanding a unilateral ceasefire. That’s the functional equivalent of surrender.
Meanwhile, Bibi keeps bombing away, including the southern part of Lebanon literally while these Potemkin talks were going on. He’s going to bomb right through election day. It all looks criminal to me. A criminal plot to try and force a fake ceasefire to grab headlines, right before the election. These accomplices to murder deserve to be caught and thrown into a cell. Luckily, Bibi is so murderous and so in the tank for Trump that he won’t even give them the break they want.
I have to say I may owe an apology to Antony Blinken. While I suspect he never intended to reach an agreement with Hamas and Israel and was always Bibi’s hidebound stooge, he at least did not stoop to this level of skullduggery. Note that he is nowhere to be found near Lebanon – apparently this sort of treachery is too much, even for him.
Or perhaps his self-preservation instincts have kicked in, and he fears what Iran might do this weekend.
I think that at this point Blinken just wants to quietly hang on till January when he can go out the door to his next gig and leave the messes in Gaza and the Ukraine to the next SecState. He’ll be like Buttigieg. You’ll hardly know that he is there.
Lowkey “No War”: https://x.com/DoubleDownNews/status/1852278144000053417?t=SlnsK4lbSsAFh77wwRnDfw&s=08
So long as Isreali culture == GENOCIDE, it should be boycotted. Seems like a no brainer but here we are.
Undoubtedly an IgNobel Prize candidate. The only question is which category. Mathematics? Neuroscience?
Funny thing is, I’m not sure Shakespeare wrote Shakespeare.
https://www.amazon.com/Cracking-Shakespeare-Code-Jorgen-Friberg/dp/B07CQP6QYN
Literature. Because eventually every monkey would progress to intelligence but get so annoyed at the weird interchangeability of letters F and S that they’d type SSF and storm off.
Maybe FFS?
Err, that was my lame attempt at a joke. Must remember to add /s etc in future!
You got a chuckle out of me. I was going to make one where Flipper must be the author of the monkeys can’t write piece.
I had a sense of humour failure at this article. It is a thought experiment to illustrate ensemble probability, like Schrödinger’s cat illustrates the Born interpretation of the superposition of quantum states and how observation collapses the wave function. So to explore the physical limits of the thought experiment is not getting the joke.
As it involves a gratuitous discussion of real resource constraints on Polly Anna-ish theory, it is clearly the Sveriges Bank Ignobel prize for Economics.
Monkey business tend to fall into the economy bucket.
“Zelenskyy responds on whether Ukraine could request ICC arrest warrant for Kim Jong Un”
This is just Zelensky being Zelensky. North Korea is not a signatory state to the ICC so it means nothing. Well, you would think so. However, in a 2016 complaint to the ICC-
‘The complainants had said that although North Korea is not an ICC member state, the ICC may exercise jurisdiction over its leader, given that under South Korean domestic law, he may be considered a national of South Korea.’
https://www.koreaherald.com/view.php?ud=20191206000481
Wouldn’t want to be the cop trying to serve Kim Jong Un with an arrest warrant though.
The Duran has considered that the MSM is pulling a Don Draper with the N Korea narrative.They don’t want to talk about Ukraine losing.
“If you don’t like what’s be said, change the conversation.”
The msm parrots what they are told. They don’t do anything other than wait for a policy shop to tell them. “Ukraine might lose” didn’t garner the necessary traction, so the Ukraine war backers have moved to “omg north korea.”
Guys like Biden in his more lucid moments wants Ukraine gone without a collapse, and the Likudniks are way more concerned with genocide.
There really is no hard evidence of NK troops anywhere in Russia. I have yet to see a single geo-located video. It’s all assertion, hearsay, and “just trust us – the intelligence agencies got this.”
The best explanation I’ve heard (from the Duran IIRC) was that NK troops are in Russia for training exercises, which are not new and have happened before since the two countries do share a small border. I can’t verify whether that’s true or not, but it at least makes sense. Russian troops do have a lot of recent battlefield experience to train on.
If NK troops were actually fighting Ukraine on behalf of Russia when Russia has enough troops of its own, you’d think NK might not be to pleased to have its troops considered to be more expendable.
Weeb Union had a similar opinion. It might be good to embed a few NK officers in Kursk in order to gain combat experience. There is a mutual defense agreement. And as long as they stay inside Russian formal borders, there is no legal case that NK has entered the war from an offensive standpoint.
However, I don’t see Russia giving an entire division of NK troops the responsibility of defending an entire section of the border. That’s the sort of hyperventilating nonsense that neocon psychos want us to believe, to justify more escalation.
My, totally uneducated, bet would be if there are DPRK troops in Russia, and it is likely there are, they are on standard training and maneuvers in the Russian Far East a few kilometres (in Russian terms) from Vladivostok.
It makes perfect sense to conduct some joint exercises with DPRK troops, just as Russia does on a regular basis with China in that area. It allows troops and commanders to get some small idea of how the different militaries think and work. Given the different terrains, and possible foes, the two countries must have very different philosophies and doctrines.
Sending DPRK troops to Kursk Oblast makes no sense. DPRK & RF equipment is almost certainly different. If you send DPRK troops, you suddenly need a new logistics chain from Vladivostok to Kursk Oblast.
Once you are there, you have language, training, and doctrine problems.
As a minor point, I believe much of both Koreas are mountainous. Everything I see of Kursk Oblast and Ukraine suggests the term “Billiard table’. Tactics are going to be radically different.
Moving 10,000 NK troops to Kurst oblast may be a great move in a computer game. In practical terms, I doubt it.
It is quite possible that there might be a cadre of observers there watching to see what works in this new style of warfare.
In fact, there probably is, seated beside the PLA observers who are just to the left of the Iranian observers.
As something of an aside, Russia has citizens of Korean descent, so sighting a “Korean” solder might just mean Major. Kim from Irkutsk or Kazan.
You will even find Ukrainians of Korean descent in the Ukrainian army.
Fun fact: a Russian expert member of UN Security Council Committee established pursuant to SC Resolution 1718 (North Korean sanctions) said that legally North Korea can’t help Russia with troops, since the treaty allowing this is not in force yet and foreign troops can’t enter Russian territory without a legal basis as a unit.
Also, according to the UN sanctions regime, Russia wouldn’t be able to pay the soldiers in any way or form or provide them with any fuel etc banned by the sanctions.
Sometimes lawyers are kinda funny.
Does this apply to students on an internship programme, though?
Since Russian law states that interns are paid a salary for the work they do, that would fall under the sanctions. It seems that in Russian law internship as a concept is more like probation, or on the job training, and can’t last more than 10 months.
I’m willing to be corrected by people more familiar with the practices of internship in Russia. Sometimes firms do not pay to interns, but that is, to my understanding, illegal.
I heard that Russia is hosting troops from Laos for training so that may be the original source of reports of North Korean troops.
I really have a hard time with this issue. During the American war in Vietnam there were thousands of South Korean troops in Vietnam fighting and committing atrocities on the same scale as American soldiers and Marines. There were also Canadians and Australians fighting there was well. What’s the difference if North Koreans are in Kursk helping dislodge Ukrainian invaders or in Ukraine itself helping to the defeat the Ukrainian Nazis who mean real harm to the Russian people? Perhaps some brigades from Iran can join them. What’s good for the goose is good for the gander.
Remembering Gonzalo Lira, I rabbit holed the Blog Roll and found this:
> The Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic has sent a criminal referral to the Justice Department, recommending former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo be charged with making false statements to Congress.
[headlineusa.com/house-covid-committee-tells-doj-to-prosecute-andrew-cuomo/
Wasn’t he the same guy that said recently that any attacks on him were antisemitic?
Isn’t he the NYC mayor in waiting? Oops.
NY often shows bad taste and judgement, but even here about the only ones who think Andy is getting elected again are Andy and his team. Every time they run his being a candidate for office it fizzles.
Bonus antidote: Baby sheep is all smiles
https://hachyderm.io/@ian/113403786452313898
Thanks, I needed that!
Re: Space Force
sounds like…GASP… a missile gap!!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kuPh6TfK4iY
>Throw Out Your Black Plastic Spatula The Atlantic
First useful article from The Atlantic I’ve read this year…
Silicone instead.
Of course the irony is that the flame retardants themselves are likely a consumer protection measure mandated by government for the source electronic device housings. And the popularity of plastic spatulas is in order not to scratch the potentially hazardous nonstick coating of many of today’s pots and pans. Better living through chemistry??
I’ll avoid those spatulas but could be that our modern world has bigger hazards to worry about. As Butch says to anxious Sundance, “the fall alone will probably kill ya.”
Non-stick coating pots and pans are ubiquitous these days, but stainless steel cookware is available at most retail locations. I never cook with coated pots and pans. I do use plastic spatulas which I plan to replace with metal or wooden varieties. Most foods won’t stick to pots and pans, unless the foods are heated too high which is a no-no for a host of reasons. Keeping the heat low to moderate is all that is needed to cook just about anything. Slow and steady wins the race. :)
Lol, let’s not get carried away. Besides, didn’t everyone throw out their black plastic spatulas years ago?
No. Not if you’re poor. You use it til it doesn’t work anymore.
True to a point, and I don’t mean to be insensitive. Steel spatulas are regularly available in thrift store land.
What’s wrong about wooden spatulas?
Heh heh. That’s always missing when you need it.
Wooden ones work just fine.
I like wooden ones, the one downside being that they are really useful for around the house projects and quickly end up not returnable for duty.
Are you my husband? Are you using my best wide wood spatula to mud and tape drywall right now!!! Did you just out another cast iron pan in the sink to soak because it “looked greasy”!
Hehe!
But using a steel spatula on a non-stick pan greatly increases the amount of surfacing stuff you ingest.
Pretty sure non-stick pans are bad for your health without the aid of a spatula. Cook with cast iron, the original non-stick pan.
Nowadays there are pans covered with a ceramic layer instead of those PFAs compounds.
Are steel spatulas ok to use with them?
I never tried, but I think that steel can scratch or even chip away the ceramic layer. So: not ok. I prefer wooden spatulas anyway.
I bought a George Foreman grill that had a “ceramic coating” that rapidly degraded and flaked off and I did some searching on these coatings.
I suspect the “ceramic coating” is more hype than reality.
From this link:
https://economistwritingeveryday.com/2023/06/06/how-ceramic-pans-work-and-how-to-restore-their-non-stick-coating/
“First of all, the “ceramic” coating is not really ceramic. Typical ceramics are made from firing powders of inorganic materials like silicon/aluminum oxides (including clays) at extremely high temperatures to where the particles fuse together. For the ceramic coatings on pans, this is not the case. I looked pretty hard on line without success to pin down the actual process or composition of the pan coating. It seems to involve some sort of silicone or silica polymer, applied using a sol-gel process. (Silica is just silicon and oxygen – quartz and white sand are pure silica – while silicone is typically a Si-O-Si-O-Si polymer with two extra hydrocarbon side groups attached to each Si).”
Here’s a link to a company, that I have no connection to, that apparently does many different processes to coat different materials on substrates.
https://flamesprayinc.com/coating-materials/
Note, in my experience ceramics are brittle and do not handle rapid heating/cooling.
It would also be good for the coefficient of thermal expansion of the ceramic coating to be match the coefficient of expansion of the base material (aluminum or stainless steel) to avoid cracking the ceramic.
A true ceramic coating on an inexpensive consumer pan seems a stretch for me.
I have one of those heavy duty pots from Le Creuset that has what appears to be a true ceramic coating. It’s the only ceramic coated pot I use. I don’t trust others.
I think I still have one but seldom use it. Oh well, garbage tomorrow.
Cast Iron forever!
I was going to cite Ed Yong as an exception but checked and found his most recent article for them, “Fatigue can Shatter a Person”, came out last year. He’s got a website called Ed’s Up: https://buttondown.com/edyong209/archive/
not always an option….but try to use cast iron cookware.
Yes, I read about black plastic in an “Epoch Times” repost of all places. Sigh, got lots of black plastic garden pots.
As long as one doesn’t associate w/the politics side, the “Epoch TImes” and “Daily Mail” have genuinely good health and science sections.
In 1965 while being employed as a saucier by CP’s Royal York Hotel, I was instructed not to make brown sauce (gravy) the proper way, but to colour the combined white roux and white stock with black jack. Black jack is made by burning butter with white sugar, this combo is perfect for growing cancer cells in the diners of its overpriced restaurants.
“The Bizarre Case Of Two Fake Ukrainian Brigades”
‘The 88th Mechanized Brigade and 13th Jager Brigade only appear real. Given that the people behind the two fictitious units never tried to raise money, it’s unlikely the “brigades” were part of some elaborate financial scam.’
Not so fast there, pardner. Two brigades would be about what, eight to ten thousand men? So are these “troops” being paid by the Ministry of Defense like real life troops? In many units officers do not report the deaths of their men so that they can pocket their wages and the Russians have filmed the Ukrainians dumping the bodies of their own soldiers in out of the way places so that they do not have to be reported as KIA. That is a retail approach but it looks like with those 2 brigades somebody wanted to do it on a wholesale level.
The number 88 is significant among the neo-Nazi and white supremacist crowd. H is the 8th letter, so 88 means HH and Heil Hitler. I have no doubt that was top of mind by whoever created the brigade…
Jaeger means hunter in German and a quick search shows there was no 13th Jaeger in Germany during WW2, although there was in WW1.
And Norway, Netherlands, Sweden and Finland currently have Jaeger units. The US also has a Jaeger unit. I guess they admire Germany or something.
jägare means hunter in Swedish, probably derived from German as many words are, but Sweden was neutral for 200 years until the latest clown show governments that are so desperate to burnish their lackey vassality credentials to the US that they rushed the country into Nato without a hint of asking the people. Nothing to do with admiring Germany.
The name may be German, but first Finnish(Swedish) jaeger regiment was formed in 1770, 14 years before the Prussian one. Also, while German jaegers at the time were more akin to a military police/guide/scout, the Finnish(Swedish) jaegers were special infantry units rejecting linear tactics and instead using smaller units, open formations and firing from cover.
This was deemed more appropriated in the huge forests spanning from central Finland all the way to Ural mountains.
I think at the time Finnish nobility (and thus the officer corps) admired French and Russian culture more than German. At least in 1788 they did revolt against the Swedish king, thus starting a series of events that led to Russia annexing Finland a few decades later.
I always thought (I might be off on chronology) military units with names like “riflemen,” “streltsi,” “rangers,” “chasseur,” “cacadores,” or “jaeger” all had same origins–skirmishers, armed with rifles rather than muskets, fightinv in open order rather than linear tactics, and generally considered “elite light infantry” who did not get subjected to the kind of brutal discipline that line infantry musketmen were subject to–not least because they were professional expert shooters who specialized in accuracy rather than vklume of bullets in the air. I am also fairly sure such units, whatever theg were called, began to appear as early as whenever rifling was originally invented, at latest, whoch was earlier thsn people think–certainly before 18th century.
You are probably right. I’d evwn assume rhere specialized scirmishers quite soon after phalanx was invented.
I was merely discussing the term jaeger in the context of Finnish(Swedish) and German history.
88s were German anti-aircraft weapons that were lowered and used to devastating effect against American infantry in WWII, particularly in Italy.
88s were lowered to shoot at tanks that were impervious to low calliber AT guns common at the beginning of WWII. You don’t need high velocity gun to devastate infantry.
Another oddity – the paychecks sent by the Ministry of Defense are all made out to Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Who woulda thought there were so many Ukrainians with the same name??!!??
“Russia fines Google more money than there is in entire world”
Who would have ever suspected before this war that Russians were masters of trolling? Not me.
Proper trolling would have been to fine them a googol dollars/roubles.
Missed opportunity there.
Due to the awesomeness of Western sanctions, Russia is suffering from an acute shortage of zeros.
They did the best they could.
Right? That headline came across my feed last night. I couldn’t stop laughing. Westernize Russia? Mission accomplished!
“Russia fines Google more money than there is in entire world”
[Jerome Powell enters the chat]
OMG. Not laughed that hard in years.
They are practicing, getting ready for EU membership. Levying fines is pretty much all the EU does these days. (/s for the obtuse).
I don’t have a NYT sub so I admit to not having read the article but the headline “Stop the Boycott of Israeli Culture” immediately provoked two questions. What is Israeli culture? What is the boycott of Israeli culture?
1. Explaining why they are the
master racechosen people2. My guess is the market is saturated and there isn’t room for yet another book/movie about the Holocaust and the publishers are having a sad
They might be scared that Israel might be “canceled” the same way that Russia has been the past two years. It could happen. Google won’t cough up the link but very recently authors were being warned not to dare criticize Israel if they knew what was good for them. So this boycott of Israel may be a counter protest and them saying that they will not be silent in the face of a genocide. But if you ask Israel, they will tell you that all those boycotters are Hamas.
It’s by some Israeli literary agents.
“Our writers have earned international reputations by inspiring readers and exploring the complex texture of Israeli life — writers like Meir Shalev, Yehuda Amichai, Tom Segev, Zeruya Shalev, Matti Friedman and Hila Blum, who more often than not challenge the powerful with the truth.”
That claimed challenge doesn’t seem to be having much effect. Meanwhile thousands are having their right to live challenged so that “complex texture” can carry on.
Going by our major media outlets not to mention my local library I’d say the Israeli point of view, challenging or not, is not exactly hidden under a barrel here in the US. If boycotts mean Israeli writers can’t attend literary festivals or receive prizes that is so terribly sad, surely worthy of a piece in the Times.
And their politicians have earned an international reputation as genocidaires. Now isn’t that the ideal theme for a book to challenge the powerful with the truth?
Should you wish to do so you can access the article here: https://archive.ph/OIO6Y
Thanks. At least from that I learned about the open letter call to boycott from lots of notable authors. The article is from an Israeli literary agency wanting the other thing.
There aren’t so many names on the list of signatures that I recognize but I an grateful to them all.
I don’t know, I’m against “culture boycotts” in principle. For instance, I’m against the Olympic Committee when they decide athletes from certain countries can’t participate.
I have to admit that it’s hard to sympathize with the author(s?) when the tone is writ with privileged petulance.
I saw an urgent plea on Twitter to please not associate traditional judaic religious symbols like the Star of David, the Menorah and the 2 blue stripes of the flag (they represent the strips of blue on a tallit), with hatred and genocide.
Maybe ask country 972 to take those off their military equipment instead?
Re: Human Brain
«There must be something about the human brain … that explains why humans get devastating conditions that other animals don’t — such as bipolar disorder and schizophrenia.»
Sure there is. It’s called language. An especially rich and deceptive environment that humans have had to adapt to.
and if an animal can’t use higher-level tools, a bipolar mouse is really of no consequence.
In an environment where a human needs (and interacts with) language and tools to climb the Maslow hierarchy of needs, a devastating mental condition can’t be hidden.
Domestic animals can clearly have mental health issues. Usually caused by us.
In the wild, living to adulthood is not guaranteed so who knows how many don’t make it because they have what humans would call a screw loose.
If a black bear has a litter of 3 cubs in the Sierra, 2 out of 3 of them will be dead within a couple years.
Up until roughly 200 yrs ago, the same could be said for homo sapiens.
If you dropped 3 city slickers in the Sierra Nevada all three of them would be dead in a couple years. The Sierra is not a placid place: angry weather, steep cliff, hungry bears!
“As religious Zionist IDF casualties rise, so does resentment of Haredi exemption bill”
Got that right. Last month alone the Israelis lost at least 62 soldiers – at least. Those soldiers are getting called up again and again to fight a war that they have never prepared or trained for. So what is the government telling those soldiers in light of the fact that the Haredi are still getting a free pass? ‘Shut Up and Fight’-
https://archive.is/EWvzu#selection-533.46-533.63
Russia fines Google more money than there is in entire world – BBC
That’s actually hilarious and makes a point.
Insane fines for insane valuations.
It is an interesting contrast reading “The Forest and the Trees: Ukraine’s Strategic Dissipation” by Big Serge and subsequently “The Putin Dilemma: Why Peace in Ukraine Requires Russia’s Defeat” The National Interest by Dr. Aurel Brown who I think missed a few doses of Calmodon(TM) tablets to prevent the Putin Derangement Syndrome overwhelming his writing/thinking capacities.
Even if the contrast is stark you can take the very same conclusion from both readings: the West is negotiation incapable. If you go with Serge’s take it will end with total defeat of Ukraine in some undefined future and if you go with Brown’s one this will end in a happy “Ukraine in NATO” future involving total dismantlement of Mord… er Russia. One of these alternatives looks more rooted in facts than the other. For now, you are free to choose.
Yes. Serge is a good writer and realistic but not concise. I except for you one good para.
Re: Putin’s defeat
Magical thinking was the basis of the Ukraine project in the first place. The people who don’t have to face reality can keep their magical thinking.
This is why Big Serge’s view is correct. The faded Ukrainian flag flyers in North America won’t face immediate repercussions except inflation. Boris Johnson won’t be at the surrender, so he doesn’t care.
Boris more likely will be paid big bikkies to help set up a Ukrainian government in exile.
Turley on garbage gate.
https://jonathanturley.org/2024/11/01/dumpster-fire-white-house-press-office-faced-internal-criticism-over-the-rewriting-of-president-bidens-garbage-comments/
Personally I have no doubt Biden meant what he really said. He has been proving it by his actions for four years. It’s the same message as Bush Jr.–“you are for us or against us.” Being right matters far less than being on the right side.
Garbage-gate. File under stunts and dotage: Trump’s clean miss 16 seconds. Like Biden on airplane stairway- Must-see TeeVee
https://www.c-span.org/video/?c5139494/user-clip-trump-open-truck-door
We are sooooo phucd with the gerontocracy dithering as Rome burns. Just dessert? Karmic beyyatch?
The Wheel
File under the great apostrophe kerfuffle. As with his canines, it’s time for Biden to be leashed and muzzled.
> canines
His or his dogs?
Another case of faux outrage on the right. Possibly President misplaces an apostrophe and the right has a collective hissy fit. Trump calls the whole country garbage and the right wing gives him a pass. Yesterday on stage with Tucker Carlson, Trump fantasized about killing Liz Cheney with a number of rifles in a firing squad. Where is the outrage over that? Trump should withdraw from the election. The Republican Party should reject this person. They need to put their own house in order.
Trump has become totally unhinged. He has no filter. He is clearly not competent to be president.
This is not what he was saying at all. Please listen to or read the actual exchange. Lambert has links in the water cooler. It was a straight up anti-war critique, like Black Sabbath’s ‘War Pigs’.
Politicians hide themselves away
They only started the war
Why should they go out to fight?
They leave that role to the poor
What Trump said was that the warmongers (including Cheney) should be sent to serve in war. You saw a shamefully clipped version of what he said. I’m sorry that you have news sources that directly lie to you.
I have the same fantasy. Not the version you’ve been fed, but the real one he mentioned. The one where Liz Cheney has to fight the wars she advocates for, where she has to be in a trench with multiple people aiming their rifles at her to kill her before she can kill them, rather than sending thousands of people whose name she doesn’t know and doesn’t care to know to fight it for her, and in the case of her despicable turd of a father get richer in the process. Or in my case I would go back in time and include her father, both Clintons, Kissinger, Obama, pretty much all of them. Because we all know that if opportunistic pieces of walking excrement who never met a war they didn’t like had to fight them on the front lines rather than just making up being under fire at an airport they weren’t at they wouldn’t be advocating for them.
The real source of their indignation is they know that Trump read Dick’s hateful spawn for filth and anyone who hears the full statement will know he is dead on the money.
How the U.S. military lost a $250 million war game in minutes WaPo. Millenium Challenge.
We could have spent that money on a floating dock that gets destroyed by the changing tide instead.
yeah…meanwhile, i just got a thing in the mail telling me who has medicaid, and who’s eligible or not, in my household.
youngest has it…but they list me as 1. making too much money($1100/month), and 2. not being disabled(been disabled for 20 or so years).
and i know from experience that calling is a waste of time…round and round for hours, only to get hung up on.
and that 5 acres of salt marsh i inherited puts me over the asset limit, any way,lol…except that it would cost me a couple of grand to even give my part away.
but hey…lets send a few more billion to burn up overseas…just for good measure.
and the dems keep texting me asking for money,lol.
and marveling that i do not support them.
who needs bottom incisors anyways?
“Congressman calls on US and NATO to consider attacking North Korean troops in Ukraine”
“North Korean troops do not belong in Europe attacking another European nation,” Turner said.
But apparently that Congressman is fine with soldiers from as far afield as Japan and South America coming to Europe to attack a European nation. I’m just waiting for some idiot to have the bright idea that what they should do is bring two or three brigades of South Koreans to the Ukraine to fight the Russians as it would be only fair. The South Koreans were stupid enough to let themselves be convinced to send artillery rounds and military gear to the Ukraine but I can’t see them jumping at such an offer to send their own troops there.
Adding: remember that South Korea has compulsory military service.
I think four(?) members of BTS are currently doing their time in the Army, until next year or so.
And the military seems like an institution where “sh*t happens”.
Imagine K-Pop stars getting sent to the Ukraine and coming back wounded.
We’ll see if any K-Pop covers of “We Gotta Get Out of This Place”, “Ring of Fire”, “I-Feel-Like-I’m-Fixin’-to-Die Rag”, etc. are forthcoming…
When those BTS members come back, they can do Elvis covers.
From a quick search it appears exactly one is in an actual combat arm (artillery). The rest vary from “social service” and band to MPs.
after seeing how the IDF is getting chewed up…there is zero chance that the SK army (small professional core + lots, and lots of conscript/reservist meat) will do any better.
In any war, for the North to win, they can just hunker down and lob projectiles at every expensive industrial park in SK. For the South-USA to win, they have to march all the way to Pyongyang and decapitate the government.
It is fair to say that NK is furiously taking notes from watching Ukraine, the Houthis, and Hezbollah fight.
You can bet that the Russians through their pact with North Korea are giving them advanced training in modern warfare techniques and perhaps sharing military technology like advanced drones. So what that means is that before too long, the idea of the US/SK trying to invade North Korea will be completely off the table.
Isn’t this widely known? Or is this something we’ve always inferred.
Honest question.
I thought the NK soldiers being deployed to Ukraine headlines were trying to use routine trainings as proof.
after seeing how the IDF is getting chewed up…there is zero chance that the SK army (small professional core + lots, and lots of conscript/reservist meat) will do any better.
I think you (a) underrate conscript armies, and (b) set an equivalence on two radically different situations.
First, conscript armies (built around a small professional core) often are very tenacious and effective. A current example: Ukraine. An earlier example: France in WWI. Now, if that professional core holds on to stupid strategic concepts (like the Ukrainian general staff nowadays) or insists on following stupid tactics (like the French in WWII), then things will of course go haywire.
Second, for the past 50 years the Israeli army has been, for all practical matters, a colonial repression force whose tasks are to shoot at protesting, unarmed civilians, round up suspects, kick teenagers with rifle butts, protect settlers going about with their depredations, destroy the property of Palestinians, and occasionally fight against small groups of lightly armed Palestinian militants. Such troops do not fare well when they are suddenly facing determined, well-organized, proficient guerrillas (like Hamas), and even less when encountering a genuinely professional armed force equipped with modern weaponry (like Hezbollah).
South Koreans are not enforcing a colonial regime; they are trained to defend their fatherland — which is a completely different matter, and implies a higher motivation. Against North Korea, they may fare much better than the Israelis against Hezbollah.
What i see here (in all this thread, not your fine commentary) is kind of a hypothetical wargame starting with phantom NK armies in Ukraine, then fantasy SK armies again in Ukraine, all this mixed with real war in both Ukraine and the Middle East plus another hypothetical war in Korea itself. All this starts with US Congress people fantasizing with all this Korean bluff for reasons that escape my little brain. IMO, we should avoid being dragged to this idiocy.
Does anybody know how this whole concept about North Korean troops fighting in Ukraine started? Who was the first to come up with that preposterous assertion?
Bernard of MOA has figured out the timeline (moonofalabama.org).
smells like dubious Ukrainian intelligence being laundered via (gullible) South Korean intelligence agencies—being fed to a South Korean administration that is (and has been) all too eager to line up w/the trans-Atlantic side.
Your take is the most likely Louis.
However, there’s an outside chance that the security pact with Russia allowed NK to ask for Russian combat training assistance. This would be a huge hassle for Russia, but it would undoubtedly be a benefit for NK cadres. Putin gave himself quite a bit of wiggle room with his statement in Kazan–either that or it was some expert trolling.
I think Russia has already worked military-to-military with Iran & NK testing some of their weapons in the SMO. But that’s nowhere near as complex and risky as what is now being alleged.
I think Louis’ explanation makes the most sense but there’s an outside chance NK asked for some cadre training… depending on how you interpret Putin’s statement on the matter in Kazan.
I’m sure Russia has already worked with Iran & NK to field test some of their weapons. But NK troops in the warzone would be huge, risky hassle by contrast.
SK media has their military and intel delegations showing up in Ukr unexpectedly (they were theoretically on a mission to NATO HQ) to discuss particulars of “sending a military expedition” (the word used, 파병, surprised immensely) So there is something afoot, despite the totally dubious info about NK presence. Like I was saying, Yoon is idiotic enough, independent of his ideology, to something stupid and crazy.
I think there is a much larger discussion to be had around “professional” armies vs. the draft and conscription armies.
I think that you are right that conscription armies when properly motivated, trained, and lead are highly effective. There are many examples of this in WW2. (Today people would be surprised to learn that men were committing suicide when they failed the Army physical while trying to join after the Pearl Harbor attack.) But the inverse of that is also true. People don’t realize just how bad it got in the American military during the Vietnam war. It got bad, and not just in the Army in Vietnam. It got so bad that it scared the $hit out of the DOD, and was the end of the conscription army.
Having a professional army allowed American elites to engage in the endless wars, but it has also resulted in its current state – unable to recruit enough people, top heavy with generals and admirals, short on NCOs, brandishing a rapidly diminishing technological “wonderweapon” ethos. Endless deployments of those that volunteered, all while cutting back on supporting that same soldier and their family. (US wonderweapons are extremely profitable.) Soldiers back in WW2 were never deployed as many times as in today’s army because they knew what it did to people. (They still know today.)
In hindsight, a conscription army may have kept the American public more focused on what American elites were doing, and prevented most of the excess of empire that resulted.
Reminds me of the Turkish Brigade which was attached to the US 25th Inf Div during the Korean War.
RoK has exp with this themselves: they sent a force to VN, to assist US. The forces were, IIRC, mostly volunteers, if not all. One difference, though, is that they extracted a few kings’ ransoms from the US for this trade and were used mostly in security roles, where their rather brutally efficient opsec and discipline were effective…
This smacks of the collective West looking for a vassal to produce low profit bulk armaments. South Korea is quite the industrial superpower by Western standards and would fit the bill. It will have to moderate its margins, but, who knows, maybe it will be seen as a net win for the SK economy.
Not a perfect solution, proximity to China and their supply chains and the like, but I think it’s a more likely play than getting SK to fight Russia directly. As Rev says, that would be inordinately stupid even by collective West standards.
But Yoon is idiotic enough that I can’t discount the possibility completely….
South Korean politics is fascinating….pre-president, anti-corruption, seemingly book-smart Yoon should not be acting like a dolt….but here we are. Yoon is a Class A American satrap.
Not knowing the full details, I presume that is very public love of Americana/American rock songs clouds his impartiality about trans-Atlantic issues
That is the strangest thing. Until about a decade or two ago, SK foreign policy was very shrewd: for example, they were always friendly with the Iranians–a relationship that survived the Iranian Revolution and a lot of turnover in Seoul–and were very creative in preserving that relationship even under US pressure. Ditto, to a lesser extent, with Russia–pretty much every SK government between 1990 and until about 2015 or so placed extremely high value on friendship and cooperation with Russia.
My tinfoil hat explanation about this is that this is the result of Park being color revolutioned in 2017. Now, this runs into incredulity among non Koreans (and more thsm some Koreans, too) since she is of the SK right wing and the stereotype is that the SK right is pro US while thd left is anti US. This is not really true, of course (that Yoon seamlessly transitioned from being the right hand man to the alleged leftist Moon who was most prominent in the lawfare effort leading to the ouster of Park, in fact, to the allegedly rightist president, being the most obvious example.) Park also sought to maintain good relationship with PRC, especially, and was basically strongarmed into making concessions to US shortly before her ouster (the THAAD deployment being the big thing.) The curious thing is that the Moon admin, after making big deal of the concessions to gain power, silently accepted them all (and, I think, made even more concesssions voluntarily).
So, in short, a lot of outside stereotypes about SK are probably wrong, other than that it is now run by an internationalist cabal that never held power there until mid 2010s, regardless of whether they are of “left” or “right.”
“How the U.S. military lost a $250 million war game in minutes”
Those games were nothing short of a fiasco. The idea behind those games was to test new technologies, network-centric warfare, future weapons and future tactics. In other words, there were a lot of lucrative contracts at stake and these games would validate issuing more contracts to MIC corporations. But then they made a mistake. Instead of selecting a patsy to command the ‘enemy forces’, they chose Marine Lt. Gen. Paul Van Riper, a hard-bitten combat vet that had served in ‘Nam.
So he attacked first when it became obvious that he was going to be attacked. He did stuff like use motorcycle riders to deliver orders rather than radio signals as well as WW2 type light signals to launch aircraft and he swarmed that fleet and sunk them. It was humiliating and put a lot of lucrative contracts at risk. So they restarted the games and gave him all sorts of rules-
‘After the war game was restarted, its participants were forced to follow a script drafted to ensure a Blue Force victory. Among other rules imposed by this script, Red Force was ordered to turn on their anti-aircraft radar in order for them to be destroyed, and during a combined parachute assault by the 82nd Airborne Division and Marines air assaulting on the then new and still controversial CV-22, Van Riper’s forces were ordered not to shoot down any of the approaching aircraft. Van Riper also claimed that exercise officials denied him the opportunity to use his own tactics and ideas against Blue Force, and that they also ordered Red Force not to use certain weapons systems against Blue Force and even ordered the location of Red Force units to be revealed.’
And with this sort of mindset, this was the US military that was sent into Iraq and Afghanistan. And von Ripper? He quite the games in disgust-
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Millennium_Challenge_2002
I read somewhere that the stavka organized a wargame to study the scenario of an invasion of the USSR by nazi Germany. This was before operation Barbarossa, of course. Zhukov played the Germans and smashed through soviet defenses repeatedly (they gamed the campaign several times). When the Germans attacked in June 1941, they pretty much progressed in a comparable way.
There have been reports in the past few years that every single scenario wargamed by the USA regarding a conflict with China because of Taiwan ends up in a defeat for the American forces. Scott Ritters claims that Israelis wargamed several times a conflict with Iran — and that the end result is always a defeat for Israel.
In the movie The longest day (1962), there is a scene when one of the higher German officers returns from a war gaming session, explaining how he (playing the role of the Allies) smashed through the Atlantic wall by launching an attack similar to the one that the combined American/Canadian/British/French forces carried out on D-Day. I have no idea whether this is artistic licence to enliven the scenario, or whether it corresponds to reality.
If somebody knows about an article describing famous kriegspiele whose lessons ended up being ignored, please chime in.
Scott Ritter also mentioned that twice the Israelis wargamed an invasion of Lebanon and each time the Israelis were hammered and defeated by Hezbollah. So of course Netanyahu ordered an invasion of Lebanon. When the IDF eventually pulls back from Lebanon, I expect them to get a lot of savage criticism by the Settlers who had their plots of land in Lebanon already picked out – but that the IDF failed them.
Ah, but did the Israeli wargames include the wall-destroying power of seven priests carrying trumpets of rams horns in front of the Ark, or the ability of the IDF C-in-C to order the sun to stand still over Gibeon, and the moon, over the Valley of Aijalon, so that they might complete the overthrow of their enemies (and as at Jericho devote the city to the Lord and destroy with the sword every living thing in it—men and women, young and old, cattle, sheep and donkeys.)
I think that was General Erich Marcks, who played the role of Eisenhower in German wargames.
Gooooooood Mooooooorning Fiatnam!
Grunts in the platoon had voted their conscience, as in no confidence for the low lifes wanting to lead them into the abyss or even stations far below that point.
A pox on both parties was the voce populi…
PATRICK LAWRENCE: Portents of Chaos
At this moment it is hard to locate the limit of what either of the two main political parties in the U.S. will do to avoid losing.
https://consortiumnews.com/2024/10/31/patrick-lawrence-portents-of-chaos/
Glad to see Consortium News finally got unhacked.
So the rest of the world, no matter who wins the presidential election in the USA, can claim that there are desperate voting irregularities and totally refuse to believe or recognize the results. Sounds good to me.
It does tend to reduce the effect of US claims about Venezuelan election results or Georgian election results but that’s okay. A new, internationally supervised, election in early 2025 should help clear things up.
And the best part is that you don’t even need any proof to request new elections, supervised by, say, Iran, China and Venezuela.
“US Space Force warns of ‘mind-boggling’ build-up of Chinese capabilities’
Soon after Trump set them up, they came out and said what they wanted to do. To dominate space. To be able to use space and stop any other power from using space for themselves. And like any military strategy, it was really about protecting space for US/western corporations as envisioned under the Artemis Accords which is all about sidelining the 1967 Outer Space treaty. Turns out that the Chinese are in space and are not waiting to ask for permission from the US to use their own space station or to ready themselves for a manned Moon landing in 2030. Far from ‘dominating’ space like they wanted to, they are being ignored by the Chinese. So of course the USSF wants more money now in order to compete.
There’s a very funny science fiction story from possibly as early as the 1950s. The US Navy moon unit is alarmed to find there is another moon base. The punchline is the othe moon base is the US Army.
(Or maybe the conflict I’d Navy-Air Force. I don’t recall that detail from a book I read in high school. Did inform my view of petty infighting in the military industrial money pit.)
That story is ‘Project Hush’ by William Tenn (Philip Klass) in Galaxy in 1954 and it’s the US Army that goes to the Moon, and then finds the US Navy there.
Project Hush by William Tenn
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/32654
Even better and darker by Tenn is ‘Brooklyn Project,’ in which a US government project does with time what the Manhattan Project did with the atom — and which is maybe where R. A. Lafferty got the basic idea for his later ‘Thus We Frustrate Charlemagne’ and ‘Rainbird,’ which work even more poignant variations on the theme of revising past time.
Thanks!
re: Brooklyn Project, content:
https://variety-sf.blogspot.com/2009/05/william-tenn-brooklyn-project-short.html
Sounds like infusing movies such as “Deja-Vu” or “Tenet”.
p.s. note re: “Deja-Vu” “(…)earned $180 million worldwide against its $75 million production budget. It was the 23rd most successful film worldwide for 2006.(…)”
Shows how film business has changed in sick ways. That´s a box office not even three times the budget (without calculating ad campaign I guess!). Today this would be called “o.k. may be you get another shot, Tony.”
I thought ‘Tenet’ was a good movie — arguably, Nolan’s best — and his script actually came up with a number of original takes on time travel.
Originality is something you almost never see in film SF. When that SF is hybridized with the spy genre as in ‘Tenet’, the complexity of what was going on went way over the heads of a lot of the audience, as well as some critics, which is why the film is underrated.
My issue with Tenet is the inadequate nature of the classic narrative that underlies the entire project, i.e. the very conventional story about a hero trying to stop a villain and a woman standing between them.
The nature of which is – as very often with Nolan – unevenly solved and not satisfying.
(Similiar problem e.g. Interstellar, Oppenheimer, Batman Begins, Dark Knight, Inception.)
The (scientific) concept which is the real cause to do each film – in this case Tenet – is out of proportion in relation to the personal stories of the characters – which if introduced and used for narrative and entertaining purposes – are not adequately worked out.
For instance: there is no convincing reason brought forward why the RU evil character wants to destroy the world – (btw. of course he is Russian and of course he is played by a British actor as Branagh using his “real RU-mafia-slang” – which he virtually knows nothing of as our real world is concerned which makes it clichéd).
And as unconvincing is the deal/enforced love between Branagh and Debicki.
Now of course one can argue these are merely arguments over superficial taste concerning a product that has so many other superior layers that it´s unjustified to criticize it for these populist reasons.
But I see it differently: To develope a convincing composition of all elements necessary for this particular film to work is the inherent part of the art/of the job. It is the litmus test where it has to prove itself.
It´s the same with a painting or a symphony. A great symphony always had had those “popular” melodical contents that made it memorable for an audience. And which offered the structure for the more intricate layers of the music. The “high-brow” works not without the “low-brow”.
The challenge in artistic composition is finding the solution that creates an equilibirum of all elements necessary for that particular piece to work. All the cogs have to be put into their proper place.
And in this area I frankly think Nolan mostly hasn´t been able to find the ways. And this being the case on screenplay level and directorial visual/structural level as well.
This would demand a longer post which I won´t offer, forgive me that.
But to give an idea: complication ≠ complexity.
Which doesn´t mean that I do not respect the attempt or certain parts. And which doesn´t mean you have to agree. After all: It´s art and as such in the eye of the observer. Despite all smart talk about aesthetics and laws which this is about essentially.
I am sorry if some thoughts might not be intelligible enough.
The editing window was defunct for almost 5 minutes.
I couldn´t change a word.
AG: My issue with Tenet is the inadequate nature of the classic narrative that underlies the entire project, i.e. the very conventional story about a hero trying to stop a villain and a woman standing between them.
Very fair. It is a cursory — frankly threadbare — plot mechanism. Pretty much all your criticisms about Tenet are valid and thoughtful, in fact.
Except, maybe, I’d quibble with “there is no convincing reason brought forward why the RU evil character wants to destroy the world.”
Firstly: Andrei Sator turns out to be merely a blunt tool — a chess piece moved by players in the future because the future hates us for destroying the habitability of the Earth they have to live in up there in the future, and by destroying our present and changing their past, they prevent the future devastation of the Earth.
I like that simple idea. ‘Tenet’ is really a war story — a war by the future against their past, our present, against us.
Secondly: I used to work as a journalist and interviewed a few Russians involved in Biopreparat, the Soviet bioweapons program, including K. Alibekov and Serguei Popov, and also some American scientists who went to former Soviet science cities in the erstwhile USSR after its collapse. (The alarm at learning about Biopreparat had a much greater effect on the US Deep State than the general US population has any idea of; the programs that became, forex, the Total Information Awareness program under John Poindexter began in 1998 as biosurveillance programs at MIT in 1998, before they were absorbed into NSA and other agencies.)
I’m saying, in other words, there are stories to be told about the wasteland of the post-collapse Soviet territories. Obviously, ‘Tenet’ isn’t telling them — it’s a cartoon. But it’s a cartoon pointing to a deeply scary place and time, which might produce a Sator.
AG: Now of course one can argue these are merely arguments over superficial taste concerning a product that has so many other superior layers that it´s unjustified to criticize it for these populist reasons.
I don’t think it’s unjustified. I think all your criticisms are intelligent ones. I’m just not making the demands you are, e.g. —
AG: The challenge in artistic composition is finding the solution that creates an equilibirum of all elements necessary for that particular piece to work. All the cogs have to be put into their proper place.
That would be nice. But I’m not you and, myself, I accept that sometimes a good grope is the best you can do/get and ‘Tenet’ is a good grope with genuine original conceptualization going on for all its inadequacies with which I could — as with Philip K Dick — pick holes. I’ll take what I can get, nevertheless, as with PKD.
My memory of the exact story is not that fresh.
So the point of Sator (any suggestion why that name? I was too lazy to research) was a tool for others I forgot.
And as you describe the – ahem – larger tenets of TENET – it is also a filmmakers´ film. (think: the repeated mutual public support between Nolan and Villeneuve.)
However that intention to test the limits of convention and genre on some level might not bore that well with many filmmakers.
(for comparison: In the conversations between Billy Wilder and Cameron Crowe in latter´s interview book Wilder complained unusually harsh over Hitchcock´s “ROPE” on the line of “what did he want to PROVE doing a film in a single shot???”)
– and also during Covid when countless careers in film floundered, empathy for a $300 mn. art film is limited –
I tried to explain to myself TENET as every director´s dream project to actually marry art/essay film a la Godard with US blockbuster resources diving into complex matter as you explain it re: future vs. present.
But being art it is eventually up to everyone individually what to think of it. Which, admittedly is a weak point by me. But then, it is merely a film not a war with 500k+ KIA.
And of course as the ideas infusing TENET go, those secret installations you mention are paramount! On that line the film´s Act 3 I guess is also a reminder of films of the 1960s-1980s cinema on both sides of the curtain, be it Peter Watkins or Tarkovsky (who I find is way too little talked about since 2022).
p.s. frankly it would be very interesting to read from your own work on the subject that you touch.
p.p.s. may be of interest – 60 min. conversation with Hoyte van Hoytema, TENET DOP on OPPENHEIMER –
https://theasc.com/videos/clubhouse-conversations-oppenheimer
@Michaelmas, a conversation between you and Tarkovsky for NC would have been interesting gem in an alternate reality ;-)
And this I would like to recommend to all readers,
YT has a few of Tarkovsky´s films, some from great copies!
STALKER (1979)
Engl. subs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q3hBLv-HLEc
SOLARIS part 1/2 (1972)
Engl. subs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6-4KydP92ss
part 2/2
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xXa6XpaxBS0
SACRIFICE (1986)
Swedish only, Spanish subs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LDm-zXqP1lY
and the one and only ALPHAVILLE (1965) by Godard
French only
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UitB6c8QP80
Thanks
Had him as an English professor at Penn State in the early 80s. Very fun class….
(No pun intended)
Who will be the next Houtis of the space?
They’re baaaack…
Winning a Battle Over Control of Our Site
Three days after a massive attack on Consortium News we are back online after winning the battle. But this is a war.
https://consortiumnews.com/2024/10/30/winning-a-battle-over-control-of-our-site/
I have to wonder what exactly was “massive” about it in the virtual world of cyberspace. I wish they would report without reference-less metaphors.
USEFUL IDIOTS PODCAST
Will Trump or Harris Be Worse? Two Palestinians Weigh In
Filmmaker Lexi Alexander and political strategist Rania Batrice each take a side
90 min.
https://www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/p/will-trump-or-harris-be-worse-two
I have been giving a little thought to what Brandon might do if Trump is allowed to win.
He is a petty and vindictive man ( And Dr Jill is not a forgiving sort) and it strikes me he might wait until January 13 and then resign.
“There was a young lady named Post, who once made love to a ghost.
At the height of Orgasm she exclaimed to the Phantasm, I think I can feel it, almost”
Trumps remark about pardoning Dear Hunter have like come up in the conversations the “First Family” have had in the last few weeks.
It’s always about the people, and with these people EVERYTHING is personal.
Bless their hearts.
Well, there is the Immune President /King threat looming. Hardly exclusive to Trump.
Both families and their chiren’ seem like wanna-be royalty.
Biden might do something novel, under the newest hit from The Supremes?
I really need to poke around las vegas booking sites to see what bets are being laid for which of many events might occur?
Bill Gates AI co-pilot:
percentage probability of domestic unrest and war in US after 2024 election?
The probability of domestic unrest in the U.S. after the 2024 election is a topic of significant concern. According to recent polls, about 40% of voters are extremely or very concerned about violent attempts to overturn the election results. Additionally, intelligence agencies have warned of a heightened risk of violence from domestic extremists who believe in election-related conspiracy theories2.
However, it’s important to note that while the risk of unrest is real, the likelihood of a full-scale civil war remains low. Experts suggest that smaller pockets of armed unrest are more plausible than a cohesive, large-scale conflict.
It’s a tense time, but understanding these probabilities can help in preparing and mitigating potential risks. What are your thoughts on this?
AI AI AI Y AI
I do expect Harris to become President for just long enough to pardon Biden. In this regard she’ll be sharing her asterisk with Gerald Ford.
First time in my life I had to put items back on shelf because we can’t afford to eat what we want.
Game plan to protest the Gaza slaughter and general disgust with the idea that Americans should just keep borrowing money from credit cards at usurious interest to buy groceries.
If consumers are 70% of the economy, except for food and gasoline, a National Buy Nothing Day, every single day, until the winner is sworn in next year.
Through The Holidays? Shirley, you jest!
Don’t call me Shirley…
“Little Secret”? Elie Mystal on Trump’s Likely Plan to Steal Election with GOP House Speaker Johnson
10 min. with Amy Goodman
https://www.democracynow.org/2024/11/1/donald_trump_mike_johnson_little_secret
Elie Mystal argues:
Trump is insulting Puerto Ricans et al. because he has no interest/necessity winning the election for real because he is planning to invoke the 12th Amendment anyway.
However the “Little Secret” being: Trump and Co. trying to decrease electoral votes necessary for a win by delaying Harris´s states to send their electors to the vote by Dec. 11th which is the deadline.
A lot of allegations here of course and very complicated in my view (possibly devised only in a spinning DNC mind).
But anyone weighing in?
Monkeys will never type Shakespeare, study finds BBC
According to this article, the authors hold that it would take longer than the life of the universe for the monkeys produce Shakespeare. Therefore, the thought experiment is dubious.
First of all, Chimps are apes, not monkeys. But that’s a quibble I’ll withdraw.
Second of all, if we’re going to dismiss the metaphor by raising certain physical constraints, we ought also to raise another physical fact: the typing monkeys would evolve given so much time. Perhaps they would evolve to be much better at typing or to acquire poetic sense or to become more fertile (thus producing more monkeys for the typing).
There’s the chance also that the monkeys would evolve to lose the ability to type altogether. It would depend, therefore, on the selective pressures. Presumably the monkeys are being rewarded for typing, otherwise why would they do it? This would provide selective pressure for better typists. Over many generations, a new species of Typing Chimp would emerge, calling into question these mathematicians’ calculations.
audio 10 min.
Noam Chomsky on Nim Chimpsky and the Emergence of Language
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a39vcatTCVU
He argues they were manipulating their results.
re: humans – for the last 80.000 years no real cognitive evolution any more. While apes developed differently for 12 million years…
p.s. What I found most horrible about Nim Chimpsky: He actually ended up at an experimentational site for animals when someone by accident discovered who he was and he got transfered. He eventually remembered the sign language.
Haven’t read the article but my recollection of the proposal is that a monkey hitting the keys of a typewriter for an infinite amount of time will eventually produce the complete works of Shakespeare – the point being that given an infinite amount of time anything random will inevitably occure, an infinite number of times. Introducing ‘the life of the Universe’ as a limit negates the fundamental precondition of ‘infinity’ and so completely misses the point of the argument.
Only those typing for BBC.
The typing apes will not evolve if all they do is sitting at the typriter, punching on the buttons.
Now, if the typing is associated with some prizes or punishments, then it is an all different ball game…
I’m an Environmentalist. That’s Why I Can’t Vote Green.
Award-winning filmmaker and director of Gasland Josh Fox on why he will never vote for Jill Stein.
https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/jill-stein-green-party-hypocrite/
Puh, whats wrong with this paper…
As my Trumpeter pal says, ‘don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good!’
I voted Stein- Ware (shhhhh!) due to Israel / Gaza. Can’t do Trump or Harris on that one issue.
Stein- Ware are generally in greater alignment across all issues, for me at least. If Jill, or the probably ba-jillions here and elsewhere– have not divested from equities, that’s on them.
I divested in 1995/1996, the year Michael Eisner made $600 millions! in pay and bonuses, and was flying to Aspen in a Lear jet for lunch appointments. Eff THAT!
I don’t expect that Jill or others can be nearly as virtuous and perfect as me – or apparently Josh Fox. (sarc).
Frankly, this is why I have so little hope for the future. Likely no hoped-for soft, non-jackpot landing.
Very difficult to find, define, and walk the virtuous no-impact line.
Hell, I can’t even figure out how to get rid of my sorry ass after I die? Burial in an impermeable lined casket or grave? Driving carcass 800 miles to a composting facility or ‘green’ oak grove graveyard?
700 miles to a Forensic Program at a college where they leave you out to rot and monitor it?
Certainly not natural gas cremation and immolation!!!
We can’t ever seem to be a part of nature, must be apart from nature.
OK, power switch off. Peace to all, get yer guns oiled up and ammo laid out. Yee HA!
But I digress.
Doesn’t anyone who has a mutual fund or an IRA also invest in fossil fuels? Does this mean they are a hypocrite if they oppose fracking, as 70% of the population of Pennsylvania is said to do?
I’m sure that Josh Fox travels by airship and sailboat, and eats only food grown by hand on his Beverly Hills farm.
The folks responsible for the Shakespeare chimp “study” are just announcing to the world they do not understand infinity as a concept.
The article touched on that, as in the saying might be technically true, but misleading, since it would take longer than the expected heat death of the universe.
Just an observation, but in the past few weeks I have had surprising conversations with multiple people across the spectrum – conservative, liberal, older, middle of life, white, mixed, Hispanic…At some point the wars we are supporting and our weaponry have come up. The surprising moment is the moment of agreement we have had that are our weapons largely inappropriate and of little actual effectiveness AND that the military is probably not capable of winning wars as they are fought today.
These are people that are not reading this or other similar sites. Most of their information is from mainstream outlets. And whether because of knowledge or instinct they have rejected the accepted story.
The majority of Americans still think we would win a war with China or Russia, but that may be closer to switching than our warlords in charge would like.
I am slow. I thought it was populist economic ideas, and desire for corporate responsibility that was the big impetus for the rapidly increasing and punitive censorship and propaganda. But not completely, they need the fear and desire for defense to continue unabated.