Can beehives help humans and elephants co-exist? A simple nature-based solution is keeping the peace EuroNews
Illegal trade booms in South Africa’s ‘super-strange looking’ plants BBC
Boom in US retail real estate defies prediction of ecommerce apocalypse FT
Due to evolving legal landscape & changes in the framework of administrative law, Federal Reserve Board will soon seek public comment on significant changes to improve transparency of bank stress tests & reduce volatility of resulting capital requirements (press release) Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System
Climate
Syndemics
Oregon house cat died after eating pet food that tested positive for bird flu AP
Health experts call for a return of social distancing as cases surge across UK this Christmas The Sun
FAO: Recommendations for the Surveillance of Influenza A(H5N1) in cattle Avian Flu Diary
China?
China’s Year in Review Foreign Policy
Xi May Be Facing a No Good, Very Bad 2025 Bloomberg
Fine wine market in the red as Chinese demand dries up FT
In Depth: Canal Fever Grips China Amid Slowing Growth Caixin Global
China approves Tibet mega dam that could generate 3 times more power than Three Gorges South China Morning Post
Africa
The South African gold mines taken over by criminal gangs FT
Ethiopia’s worsening crisis is also an opportunity for Trump The Hill
El Nino-induced drought impacts haunt farmers in southern Africa amid crop planting season Xinhua
Syraqistan
Israel’s plan to double the number of settlers in the Golan Heights is met with conflicting emotions AP. Happy Holidays:
Giant menorah set up in Gaza.
Bringing the light to a dark place.
— Living Lchaim (@LivingLchaim) December 24, 2024
Seems authentic but is not new.
Netanyahu threatens Iranian-backed Houthis over increased attacks Anadolu Agency
* * * Israeli forces kill dozens in Gaza as ceasefire talks face challenges Al Jazeera
* * * Israel kills five journalists in clearly marked press vehicle in Gaza Middle East Eye. Meanwhile:
Ah well, nevertheless https://t.co/aqLWQUCVVC
— Ryan Grim (@ryangrim) December 24, 2024
* * * Ashkenazi Jews descend from 350 people, study finds Times of Israel
European Disunion
France has a new government, again. Politics and crushing debt complicate next steps AP
Saudi Arabia had ‘warned’ Germany about Christmas market attack suspect France24
Dear Old Blighty
Britain’s economy to be ‘closer to Guyana’ as Starmer’s living standards pledge falls flat TheTelegraph. Commentary:
People think I’m exaggerating when I say countries like Britain are in a late Soviet Union phase. I’m really not joking. This is late Soviet-style governance. 🇬🇧 https://t.co/zTIJhyaNeF
— Philip Pilkington (@philippilk) December 22, 2024
New Not-So-Cold War
Zelensky’s slow shift toward negotiating for Ukraine’s future WaPo
Ukraine Has Had Its Fill The American Conservative
‘You need peace’ to send EU troops to Ukraine: Belgian FM Quintin France24
What if Russia wins? Timothy Garton Ash, Timothy Garton Ash
* * * Ukraine’s offensive derails secret efforts for partial cease-fire with Russia, officials say WaPo
Ukraine condemns Russia’s ‘inhumane’ Christmas Day attack on energy grid France24
* * * Azerbaijani airliner crashes in Kazakhstan, killing 38 with 29 survivors, officials say AP. Commentary:
We can’t be certain, but it’s likely that the Azerbaijan Airlines flight was hit by shrapnel from a 🇷🇺 air defence system as it was in the vicinity of Grozny. There might have been a 🇺🇦 drone attack in the area as well. Crew made heroic attempt to save situation before the crash. pic.twitter.com/71MnakMWlF
— Carl Bildt (@carlbildt) December 25, 2024
Shrapnel mavens please weigh in.
Survivor of Azerbaijani Airlines plane crash claims there was explosion when plane tried to land in Chechnya Anadolu Agency
President Aliyev launches criminal probe into Azerbaijan Airlines plane crash Euronews
* * * The Case for Dismantling the Rules-Based International Order Glen Diesen, Glenn’s Substack
New Geopolitical Words We Learned in 2024 Foreign Policy
Trump Transition
Trump’s Wish to Control Greenland and Panama Canal: Not a Joke This Time NYT
Greenland says no thanks to Trump purchase idea — again LA Times
This is the trouble with Elon Musk’s debut as a federal budget negotiator LA Times
Trumpism’s healthcare fracture-lines Cory Doctorow, Pluralistic
Biden Administration
Biden to leave White House with little fanfare The Hill
Bald eagle officially U.S. national bird after Biden signs bill into law Axios
Spook Country
And what a great show “My So-Called Life” was:
She explicitly describes attending a “spy camp” where prominent journalists and actors and CIA spooks and State department officials all hang out and coordinate narratives https://t.co/3mfhOvdK0g
— 12 Ball (@BoltzmannBooty) December 24, 2024
US agency focused on foreign disinformation shuts down France24
The Final Frontier
The case to build a new ISS: the International Solar Sunshade Space News
Christmas Post-Game Analysis
Parents of kids who believe in Santa say they’re spending more on Christmas KXXV. Meanwhile:
Merry Christmas.
Cartoon by the wonderful Liz Climo pic.twitter.com/93iQVI5ken— Larry the Cat (@Number10cat) December 25, 2024
I guilt-tripped my teen into joining a family Christmas tradition. I’m mourning the days when my kids loved the holidays Business Insider. Commentary:
Shout out to all the neurodivergents, heading into a week of over stimulation, no routine, sky high expectations, and non optional socialising.
I see you.
— Kate Lister (@k8_lister) December 23, 2024
And no masks or ventilation…
Jingle Bells punned in Mandarin Language Log
The Bezzle
Class Warfare
Starbucks strike expands on Christmas Eve Axios
World’s most secretive society appoints new leader as second Trump presidency sparks seismic shift in global order Daily Mail. The Bilderbergers.
Dan Davies, The Unaccountability Machine: Why Big Systems Make Terrible Decisions—and How the World Lost Its Mind Progressive Geographies
Why Rich People Don’t Cover Their Windows The Atlantic
Late bloomer: the exquisite craft of Mary Delany The British Museum
Antidote du jour (Alexandre Buisse (Nattfodd)):
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.
153 comments
Comments are closed.
“This is the trouble” link should be:
https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2024-12-24/elon-musk-donald-trump-federal-budget-spending-bill-jonah-goldberg
Fixing, thanks!
‘Miqdaad Versi
@miqdaad
Dec 24
The BBC finally acknowledges it misled viewers when it used a video showing fans from Israeli football club Maccabi Tel Aviv attacking people on the street, whilst implying Israeli fans were the victims in the video’
It has been about 48 days for the BBC to correct this report showing that it was Israelis attacking people on the street and not the other day around in that video clip. And so they release this correction on Christmas Day when nobody will notice. A little bit of creative editing on the part of the BBC so no harm, no foul amiright? Well, maybe not for those five Dutch people who were sent to prison yesterday for their part in the riots. And we all know that those Maccabi supporters will never see the inside of a Dutch as Netanyhu would never allow it-
https://edition.cnn.com/2024/12/24/europe/dutch-soccer-riots-men-sentenced-intl/index.html
The weak tea “acknowledgement” is the punchline. Blah blah blah could have given the impression…
The link you provided indicates that the judge/court seemed to maintain some evenness.
Wine in China: 15 years ago, Chinese investors were buying up Bordeaux properties. And imported about 10% of total Bordeaux production. Now they’re backing out. But not all the way: Joe Tsai, billionaire owner of Alibaba, is buying property in the Côte d’Or region of Burgundy. Whatever. They’re still mixing the Grand Cru with Sprite. The French must be grinding their teeth: Not only have sales volumes dropped off, but I’m sure the Teetotaler-Elect can’t wait to-reimposed tariffs on their products.
“Ukraine condemns Russia’s ‘inhumane’ Christmas Day attack on energy grid”
This is all on Zelensky. A coupla days ago Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban tried to negotiate a Christmas ceasefire and the swap of about 700 prisoners each. But Zelensky flipped out about this whole idea and went out of his way to insult Orban as he rejected the whole idea. The shame was that Putin had already accepted this idea. Any country that talks about a negotiated peace becomes a target for Kiev and a day or so ago they demanded that the EU ‘use legal procedures and stop the ability of Hungary and Slovakia to block its initiatives.’ i.e. by initiates that means money and weapons to the Ukraine and talking to Russia. Gotta keep that washing machine spinning.
And the entire world, with the exception of “america” and israhell, “condemns” the genocide in Gaza so, what’s the writer’s point?
The coverage is so one-sided – Ukraine sent massive drone attacks on Russian cities on Christmas day also.
Not just that, but Ukraine launched 60 drones at Russia on the 25th, so really they’re crying “no punch-backs”.
It is not Christmas Day for Orthodox Slavs…
The whole war is the fault of the West and its puppet, Zelensky.
Technically in Russia, they used the Orthodox dates for Christmas, and Ukraine has banned the Russian Orthodox Church, but the point remains, there will be no ceasefire because the West and Zelensky are desperate to keep this going.
Horrific atrocities continue in Gaza, we know who the perps are:
Five Journalists Killed in Israeli strike in Gaza
How’s that cease-fire going, Antony?
Saw that news earlier today and in that article was an Israeli statement saying that they had attacked terrorists gathered together. I forget the specifics of that statement but as they daily lie their faces off an expect us to accept what they say it is no longer necessary to listen to them anymore. That’s not rain trickling down our pants.
But reporters are terrorists when they report the truth. Babies are future terrorists. Hospitals are evil if they prolong life when the objective is… wait… Does this need sarc tag?
Reading the Doctorow post linked above, reminded me of Trump’s first term’s management style and a PBS documentary series on Hitler’s rise to power and how he managed. (And no, I not tying Trump to Hitler for all the evil he perpetrated.)
The documentary series portrayed Hitler as largely disengaged from day to day governing, very focused on public displays and monuments, and equally important building a government of irreconcilable rivals and letting them go at each other in a Darwinian manner.
As I think of Trump, I see the same thing. Little real concern for governing and policy. Immense concern on symbolism (spending time on the paint scheme for Air Force 1). No real concrete policy aims — other than tax cuts for the rich who’s succor he seems to crave. Many describe his first term White House as a viper’s nest. Why shouldn’t we expect more of the same.
Can’t recommend the diary of Victor Klemperer enough, he was a WW1 Jewish vet who was a professor at the university in Dresden and kept a clandestine journal from 1933 to 1945, and being a critical thinker he reads between the lines to ascertain the truth, and of course we all know how things go, but its uncanny how often he figures out what is really going on.
This passage from I Will Bear Witness is especially poignant…
March 23, 1936
“He flies from place to place and gives triumphal speeches. The whole thing is called an “election campaign”.”
Agree with you. His diaries offer a realistic look at life in the Reich, and I especially appreciated Klemperer’s comparing the zionism of his time to the racist nazi ideology that was capturing Germany. Extremely interesting and timely. Reading your quote, I can now offer up Victor Klemperer as the very first person in modern history to have TDS.
So, Joe Biden?
Focus on the symbolism with no real interest in governing describes the modern Democrat party to a T.
Unfortunately, Hitler did have interest in governing, after a fashion.
He figured out that Germany was losing the war after hearing yet another news report on another victory in Stalingrad (compare with the latest Ukrainian victory).
I don’t think Israelis read him. He spent a lot of time trying, unsuccessfully, to figure out the difference between Zionism and Nazism.
100% agree on the Klemperer diaries.
For people interested in the period, can also recommend A Woman in Berlin – the real-life diary of a young woman in the last days of the Reich as the Russians approached and conquered the city.
Also the work of Hans Fallada, who remained in Germany throughout the war. His best-known novels: Every Man Dies Alone, issued in the UK as Alone in Berlin (1947) and Little Man, What Now? (1932), both available in recent editions.
Couldn’t agree more. Also, Diary of a Man in Despair, Friedrich Reck, another first person account.
So then…. 4 more years of the same, lol.
same coin, different side.
Thousands of years of the same – with the occasional periods of disruption.
My brother–plugged into the Dems–thinks Trump sits around reading Mein Kampf. Whereas I tend to agree with St.Clair. Who can believe he ever cracked a book?
Hitler may not have been into the nuts and bolts of government but he has Speer and all those thoroughly competent German bureaucrats to take care of that. We used to have such people but now they too seem to spend all their time watching MSNBC even as Trump spends all his time watching Fox. As Roger Ailes so rightly said, if you’re not on television you’re nobody.
Perhaps all politicians are false. In order to be elected one has to shill for some special interest or to otherwise pander and inflame political division. I am reminded of the phrase “A strong people do not need strong leaders”. Is democracy really mob rule? The answer apparently depends on whether or not “leaders” with stronger minds are morally corrupt. Who are they really working for?
As I look around I don’t see any strong societies. I see human nature. When societies are challenged people come together to find a solution. Most often that effort becomes personified in a leader. Leaders are all too often the most glib guy with the fattest head. The problem is compounded by the fact that today’s societies are fractured. Too many factions, too many disparate challenges. The snake eats it’s own tail.
Apparently Abraham Lincoln had a team of rivals put together for his government. there is a book written with that title… No need to go to Hitler for there are closer to home examples.
The Unaccountability Machine.
Well, maybe. I suspect that author Davies is placing too much stress on algorithms and procedures and not enough stress on human beings: “The problem, economist Dan Davies shows, is accountability sinks: systems in which decisions are delegated to a complex rule book or set of standard procedures, making it impossible to identify the source of mistakes when they happen.”
The fault is not in the software but in ourselves.
In any large organization, well hidden behind its home page on the WWW, there is the culture of lack of accountability, in spite of the constant protests within the business or institution that there is just loads of internal communication. Anyone who has worked in a U.S. organization with more than about twenty people has witnessed this.
Further, there are whole departments who consider it their job to mystify experience and say no. Isn’t that pretty much the purpose of marketing? Anyone who has worked in product / manuscript development can tell you of the “thrill” one gets when one is obligated to start including the marketers.
I suspect that Davies is flying too high: The basic question to ask is: Why are U.S. organizations structured so that there is so little accountability internally? Or: Why have so many decisions migrated to inappropriate places like the human resources department and the legal department?
J.K. Galbraith
‘Simplify, simplify, simplify as much as possible without losing the essential of what is sought.’
-Frederick Judd Waugh
“Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.”
― Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, Airman’s Odyssey
various unnamed managers
Indeed. My company was a very pleasant place to work for the first few years I was there. I knew who did what for the most part, and who to reach out to when problems arose, and those problems got fixed pretty quickly. “Competence” was one of our explicit values.
Then the old guard management retired, the company was restructured, the “corporate” division was created, and it was decided it that “modernization” was required. I use the passive voice deliberately, because I have no idea who made any of these decisions or why. Things devolved fairly quickly, turnover increased, institutional knowledge was lost, new software systems were installed that don’t work, and nobody knows who to go to for anything anymore. In frustration at one point I mentioned they ought to strike “competence” off the list since it was clearly no longer valued. At the latest companywide meeting, they actually did just that, along with a few other former catchwords, to be replaced by….wait for it…..”Diversity”. Because the window dressing is what really matters these days in the idiocracy the US has become.
I would propose to you that the point of a corporation isn’t productivity, competence or efficiency anymore. It’s simply getting paid to do the least amount of work. Because, after all, in every corporation only those at the top will ever reap the benefits, so why should anyone sacrifice for them? So, if this is the case, if you’re going to work in such a company, wouldn’t you prefer diversity rather than not? And wouldn’t you prefer this for society? If this workplace is such a deadend, at least let it reflect the world you want for the outside of it, in the hopes that perhaps corporations might influence such, in which case you get something out of it rather than nothing. Of course, even better would be return to the old days when jobs and skillset mattered, but that’s not going to happen, with this population size things have become unmanageable, craft, skillsets, knowledge and specializations are for smaller population sets. Just some morning thoughts, (joke)I can’t be held accountable.(/end joke).
I don’t really disagree with your overall point, but I would argue that the type of “diversity” corporations purportedly strive for is more like its opposite, homogeneity. Every workplace must have x percentage of various ethnic groups or be found lacking, so if nobody matching the needed description happens to live in an area, just hire them on remotely and call it good.
The US corporate idea of “diversity” is one where USians could go anywhere in the world and find a McDonalds. That’s not the world I want to live in. Pass the dolmadakia ;)
I’m in the corporate world and diversity means I can walk from one part of the office to the other and see many, many different ethnicities and hear many different accents, and everyone has a lovely name, and there is acceptance of neurodiversity and a range of disabilities, you work alongside blind people, people with wheelchairs or power chairs, deaf people. This is my reality now. And 25 years ago when I did interviews, this sector (fintech) was was all white men. Now it’s mostly women, actually.
But yes, it doesn’t sound like this is corporate life in the US or, if it is, people are wanting things to go back to the good old days when it was predominantly white men, no other colors, no other languages, no strange sounding names, no accents.
“The fault is not in the software but in ourselves.”
And there’s this: software isn’t going to fix faults in society.
Without the culture killer corporatism, the Taylorism, etc, the kind of world -monoculure- that could fit inside some unaccountable, black box algorithm would have a much harder time with acceptance.
Hell, there would be a totally different understanding about people.
And to add: the corporatism, Taylorism, etc. was a prerequisite to creating a culture that was limited enough to convince officials and owners that people were simple to control and systems of exploitation were “complex”.
As Lucas and Williams observed in Little Briatain: “Computer says ‘No’. “
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x0YGZPycMEU
I’m now on the last chapter of the book.
While the control of complexity and its inherent problems is well covered, incentives are not.
Like economists assuming the neutrality of money, the author accepts “good faith” in managements offered enormous mail-incentives.
And the horse is now so far from the barn on cybernetic control his solutions are hopium, dependent on productive and political relationships no longer extant.
mal-incentives, autocorrect fail
“Xi May Be Facing a No Good, Very Bad 2025”
And I “may be” Marie of Rumania …
Seriously, is there anything more tiresome and played than the steady drumbeat of “China Fail!” pieces in the Western corporate media organs?
Maybe “Russia Losing” or “Trump Bad”. We get used to it.
“Seriously, is there anything more tiresome and played than the steady drumbeat of “China Fail!” pieces…”
Seriously, the point is it pays. Literally, it pays and elite prejudice in the US and UK is astonishingly persistent. The Opium Wars, the China Exclusion Act of 1882, the Wolf Amendment of April 2011 that excluded China from any participation in space exploration with NASA…
https://foreignpolicy.com/2024/12/24/china-year-review-2024-economy-price-wars-evs-military-purges-diplomacy/
December 24, 2024
China’s Year in Review
Will 2024 be the calm before the storm for Beijing?
By James Palmer
Re: Dan Davies. Earlier this year I read his 2018 book Lying for Money: How Legendary Frauds Reveal the Workings of Our World, and can highly recommend it as a sharply insightful analysis of business fraud, delivered with lively, dry humor. NC readers might also enjoy his pithy Substack “Back of Mind,” which has a relaxed biweekly publishing schedule. My posts invariably disappear when I try to include links in them but it should be easily searchable.
The library system here in Anne Arundel County has a wonderful feature where I’m able to submit purchase suggestions for newly published books and I already have The Unaccountability Machine queued up to request on its pub date!
Putting a copy on hold at my local library now.
Thanks
“The case to build a new ISS: the International Solar Sunshade”
Space News is turning into Space Cadet News. Who is going to fund that monstrosity? What about an attached station for a servicing and maintenance crew? They will be needed. Or will an AI do all that? To get all that junk up there will need a fleet of space transports – which we haven’t got. But seriously, this thing will be as big as Argentina? The US and the EU will never allow China and Russia to take part, the Global majority have their own problems so this would all have to be done by the Collective West. Yeah, never happen. The authors of the study that came up with this idea admitted that the technology has not been developed for it yet so maybe they should wait until that technology is there. That’s a polite way of saying don’t call us, we’ll call you.
The most rational and feasible method of “sundowning” the terrestrial globe is to manufacture the parts on the Moon and ferry them to the job site. No, Low Earth Orbit is not the place for it. A geostationary orbital point would be best.
Then comes the ‘maintenance’ part….
Greetings from ‘Out There’ Space Cadets! See you in the Ozone!
We can’t get two astronauts back to Earth safely but we are going to build a pair of ginormous space-sunglasses in orbit and maintain them? Sure…
20 years ago to the day, we had pulled off the ultimate Grinch move in flying from LAX to Auckland on Xmas eve, and thanks to the international dateline, had avoided Xmas day in entirety…
We were staying in a nice hotel and the next day members of the Sri Lanka cricket team-who were in NZ for a match, also were at the hotel, and nobody knew nothing about the tsunami, and I remember how the number of dead just kept rising, including an awful lot in Sri Lanka oh so far away from the action.
Before that tsunami, I’d read about one in Hawaii that killed over 100 people in 1946, no way no how could I contemplate a quarter of a million lives snuffed out.
That’s a pretty sad memory that. They have been running news articles about this disaster the past few days as it was the 20th anniversary with people talking about what they saw and what happened that day. I had forgotten how that body count just kept on going up and up and up until it leveled off at about a quarter of a million people gone like you said. But the 1931 China floods take the cake at 4,000,000 dead-
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_natural_disasters_by_death_toll#Ten_deadliest_natural_disasters_by_highest_estimated_death_toll_excluding_epidemics_and_famines
I see wildfire action in Aussie is going gangbusters, we could have dueling conflagrations in the SoCalist movement where they haven’t really had any precip in a May to December relationship…
Christmas, not Xmas. In Italy, the latter refers to the Xª Flottiglia MAS, a Fascist naval unit, that (among other things) planned an attack on NY harbour. Xmas has therefore become a code, identifying you as a fascist….
Regarding “This is the trouble with Elon Musk’s debut…” the “trouble”, as the author sees it, is Trump wants to deficit spend, Musk wants to reign in spending. Musk quote from the article,
“Your actions turned a bill that weighed pounds into a bill that weighed ounces!”
The “trouble” I’m seeing is the author contradicting himself with his main thrust (or am I reading this wrong), quote;
First of all, literally weighing the value or profligacy of a piece of legislation by the ounce, as Musk proposes, is not exactly logical. The National Industrial Recovery Act — the foundational legislation of the New Deal — comes in at an economical 18 pages, but that hardly gives one a sense of its massive impact on the economy.
Huh? Isn’t that Musk’s point?
The US Constitution comes in at only four pages.
Well, yeah, but look at the cloth lawyers have spun from those 4 pages.
From the little detail available and the size of his cohort it doesn’t look like they intend to try to day to day manage the departments but will insert people into the budgetary process of each department. Those that don’t have a lot of money directed their way will naturally shrink. Musk knows that activity needs constant money flows and will try to manipulate policies this way. It doesn’t matter how much money Congress grants if it is not applied to their babies, just like it doesn’t matter what laws they make if their servants don’t enforce them.
The overall spending target is another matter and in today’s world with WW3 looming it really looks to be out of human control without a collapse of government.
“What if Russia wins?”
‘Suppose the roughly four-fifths of Ukrainian territory still controlled by Kyiv gets military commitments from the west strong enough to deter any further Russian advances, secure large-scale investment in economic reconstruction, encourage Ukrainians to return from abroad to rebuild their country, and allow for stable, pro-European politics and reform. In five years, the country joins the EU, and then, under a new US administration, starts the process of entering Nato. Most of Ukraine becomes a sovereign, independent, free country, firmly anchored in the west.’
This is coming from an Oxford professor. Sorry but this means that he does not get the right to make up his own facts and own scenarios that have no connection or even a nodding acquaintance with reality. For more about what this triple-barreled named professor is all about, check out the following section of his Wikipedia entry-
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timothy_Garton_Ash#Geopolitics
And yet this is the sort of person whose views would be listened to in the halls of government. And wouldn’t you know it, the guy even has a connection with Stanford.
It’s not often NC provides such a wonderful study in contrast like this. The intellectual shortcomings displayed throughout Mr. Garton Ash’s screed compared with albrt’s thoughtful analysis in a different is a great example of why we are where we are. Even if you disagree with everything behind the motives to end the war, you should be able to evaluate those reasons calmly and set some kind of method for evaluating outcomes for continuing the war versus ending it.
Symbolic capitalism indeed! These fools are acting as if even considering other possibilities will devalue their symbolic stock and result in their bankruptcy. They’ve overleveraged themselves by investing in a “Putin=Hitler” scheme and now they are having trouble finding more willing partners.
I think we should be concerned that these people are so committed to the status quo that they will destroy the world before they accept it has changed and will continue to change.
Sounds like an economist: “Assume a can opener”
I was astonished how far around the bend TG Ash has gone.
Or was he always that way and I just didn’t notice back then?
He was always that way and has simply gotten more so.
Though Brexit particularly caused him cognitive impairment, as not even in Brussels are there those who worship at the altar of the EU and its Glorious Future quite as much as Garton Ash.
He’s a fellow at the Hoover Institute at Stanford. The director of the institute is Condoleeza Rice. That means he not only has the right, but an obligation, to make up his own facts.
He writes that if Russia wins and takes a large percentage of Ukraine territory we can expect the politics of the area to be anti-Western. I would counter that even if Ukraine wins and especially if Ukraine achieves peace with Russia, regardless how the territory is assigned, even if all or most is returned to Ukraine, we can expect the politics to be anti-Western. After all, it was the West which led to this massive loss of life, deliberately induced this war, used Ukraine as a pawn, used up Ukrainian lives. The West which having intitiated the war didn’t commit to winning it, left Ukraine hanging. It’s the West which is Sinophobic, hates Slavs, which includes Ukrainians. Ukrainians and Russians are family and the West, the outsider, messed with that.
How many of those putative citizens of the new Ukraine will have been rudely driven out of the EU countries after having been warmly welcomed in the west? How many will remain?
Nothing like cadres of angry immigrants whose nearby relatives have endless supplies of munitions and sabotage training, to keep things interesting in Europe.
Garton Ash is a double-barrelled surname, not triple, unless the Stupid is silent.
The barrelling refers to surnames only. Landed families would preserve the name of an heiress or distant testator that might die out on marriage. The alternative was to change their name by deed poll, especially if a will requited it to inherit.
Some families achieve a remarkable pile-up of names. A noted modern example is the MP and descendant of slavers Richard Drax, whose full surname is Plunkett-Ernle-Erle-Drax.
Sidenote: Drax’s ancestor fell out with Ian Fleming, who used his name in revenge for the Bond villain, just as he did with the surname of Ernõ Goldfinger, the architect he feuded with).
China Stuns With Heavy Stealth Tactical Jet’s Sudden Appearance (The WarZone)
This is the most advanced flying machine we have seen out of China, lacking any tails and packing stealth and long range.
Wait. Are they allowed to even do that?
Dang. That needed a coffee warning!
Are they allowed to even do that?
Wait till China makes a manned Moon landing before NASA even gets those two astronauts back down from the ISS again. There’ll be mass US outcries of ‘Wah, wah! Unfair, those Commies cheated!”
Empires always imagine that they’re the Exceptional Nation© in perpetuity.
This craft has been seen on satellite photos for around 3 years and doesn’t seem particularly secret (no major attempt to prevent photos going online).
It doesn’t seem to have the features you’d expect of a pre-production or early production prototype. It’s most likely a technology test bed for a variety of stealth features.
“Wait. Are they allowed to even do that?”
What a remarkably clever and telling comment.
What has been accomplished now is that China is able to domestically produce advanced aircraft and ship-boat engines. Domestically produces advanced stealth materials. Domestically produces F-class heavy-duty gas turbines along with transmission electron microscopes (“crown jewels” of manufacturing).
Don’t forget the ultra quiet submarines.
“Don’t forget the ultra quiet submarines.”
Quite important, which is why I wrote ship-boat. “Boat” is how the Chinese refer to submarines, but that is unclear and I should have explained. The Chinese have mastered advanced Stirling engines.
Boat is how the British refer to subs too.
“Oregon house cat died after eating pet food that tested positive for bird flu”
This is insidious this. That cat died when it was an indoor cat but it was in the food supply. So will this happen with humans too one day when people will be infected by the foods that they bring in with their groceries? How do you guard against that?
That’s the story in “The Last of Us” too.
The crazy making thing is, you can’t protect yourself. You can do somethings to limit your exposure but you can’t stop from being exposed. We’ve lost the memory and the muscles for it. For example, in someplaces I’ve been in Asia, hosts will be able to tell you where the food you’re eating comes from and exactly where the seasonings added to it were procured. People will sit and eat and chew and compare their sense of the current meal to their past experiences via their palete. You can see this especially with tea.
But in the US? Most people can’t tell the difference between being thirsty and being hungry. They have no sense of satiation. They can’t tell the difference between different cuts of meat let alone where the meat came from. To hear it from my kids, they don’t know where any of their food comes from, or that meat comes from animals. I don’t think it’s rational to expect a culture full of people with these deficiencies to be capable of learning where it’s food comes from, how it should taste, and where it could be contaminated. My country is completely open to this kind of disaster. People would be killed in the millions because they would be more concerned about their wifi than wholesome food.
How do you guard against that? Eat no prepared foods. Cook from scratch, buy as locally as possible. Clean all produce well. For you and your pets.
I’m not seeing any way to erect a firewall between avian flu and cats. Keep em inside, well there’s mice inside. Maybe there will be a vaccine for pets. Maybe I’m going to have to figure out a prophylactic strategy, maybe lots of raw fish and and a schedule of ivermectin, I don’t know. What I fear is if/when the bird flu decides to get real. It’s got the potential to wreak havoc on our food supply. Maybe masking will be a thing again.
Is that the perfect storm on the horizon?
If someday we can’t eat beef, chicken, eggs, and dairy we are in a world of hurt.
But the world will be much less hurt without the footprint of all that industrial meat production.
Well cooked chicken beef, eggs and dairy should be ok. No more runny eggs on our avocado toast though
“If someday we can’t eat beef, chicken, eggs, and dairy…”
Um, I think that is called vegan. I have been eating that way for a couple years. I don’t feel like I am in a world of hurt.
Don’t eat the cat food…
But with the doge commission wanting to gut social security, what are us seniors supposed to consume?
Each other.
Recipe for “Long Pig.”
First, catch a neighbour….
We’re already poisoned, not necessarily infected, by much of our food. The recent articles about nano-plastics entering through our intestinal track cells is an eyeopener.
Being a gardener, I’ve kmown that tea bags and coffee filters are not bio-degradable. To stop using them now is anathema to this septugenarian. Some time ago during conversation with cousins, talk got around to healthier foods. Natural peanut butter came up with the pros and cons of different brands. One cousin was quick to mention that we were brought up on Jif and Skippy and he was not about to change now. We all just nodded our heads.
Maybe try a tea ball. Loose tea is usually much better than the stuff in bags anyway.
“but it was in the food supply” – I`ve been wondering for a while if the bird flu virus has been infecting cows via their food supply in that we discovered in the “mad cow” episode that cows had been being fed ground up animal material. Experts are still publicly wondering why the virus has continued to spread to new farms for so long sometimes in situations where efforts were being made to stop spread via itinerant workers moving between farms. I`ve seen no reference ever to this as a possibility, and maybe it isn`t, but I do wonder….. anyone have information re this?
Buone feste a tutti and infinite thanks to all who make this site a haven of sanity in a world becoming a nightmare of the oppposite….
In sad news that I am sure Lambert will cover more:
Half the wild cats in a Washington reserve have died of avian flu.
Apparently most of the population is infected. This with the pet food incident does not bode well for the feline population.
Being a cat lover, I am more afraid for them than myself now. Not to mention that an abundance of feral colonies does not bode well for containing the spread, not that there has been a concerted effort to do so.
Haven’t read anything in regards to Cat Haven on Hwy 180 in Dunlap, Ca. en route to kings Canyon NP, but they have a real similar setup with just about every type of feline you can imagine, and only 50 miles from Big Dairy.
Being a cat lover, I am more afraid for them than myself now. Not to mention that an abundance of feral colonies does not bode well for containing the spread, not that there has been a concerted effort to do so. This weighs heavily on my mind as well.
Revenge of the birds!
It’s difficult to really enjoy revenge if it requires one to shuffle of off his own mortal coil.
re: US agency focused on foreign disinformation shuts down
“In June, James Rubin, special envoy and coordinator for the GEC, announced the launch of a multinational group based in Warsaw to counter Russian disinformation on the war in neighboring Ukraine.”
James Rubin like in “ex-husband-of-Amanpour”-Rubin I assume…
This for the health conscious out there.
Read: https://www.uclahealth.org/news/article/truth-about-nanoplastics-bottled-water
The Bilderberg Group – a secret organization of the global elite – is undergoing a leadership transformation as Donald Trump prepares to retake the White House.
The society, which consists of leaders in politics, industry, academia and the military, has selected former NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg to chair its ‘steering committee.’
Founded in 1954, the Bilderberg group has long drawn fascination for its clandestine meetings at exclusive hotels and alpine resorts where attendees hold discussions on international relations, economics and security.
Heads of the CIA and MI6 have been among its members, while Henry Kissinger was a regular alongside the likes of Bill Clinton, Bill Gates and then-Prince Charles. —
—- I guess they forgot to mention Jeffery Epstein… probably an innocent oversight.
Music video alert, lol. Epstein Didn’t Kill Himself – Official Music Video – The Bilderberg Group. (This is a facebook link)
The travel logs of many political aspirants show gaps and vague details for the timeframes of the meetings…
Lavrov/BERLINER ZEITUNG:
Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov on Ukraine: “A ceasefire is a road to nowhere”
At a press conference, Sergei Lavrov comments on the discussions about a ceasefire in the Ukraine war – and claims that France had proposed a dialogue without Kyiv.
https://archive.is/djVID
What if Russia wins? – Timothy Garton Ash
Why did I start reading this and wondering if the author also still thought Covid isn’t airborne?
But I’m going to be generous (the holiday spirit) and say that the fog of war can be thick and it doesn’t hurt to be ready for surprises.
As somebody with mild Asperger’s, Kate Lister’s “Shout out to all the neurodivergents, heading into a week of over stimulation, no routine, sky high expectations, and non optional socialising” was definitely appreciated. The holidays are tough on some of us.
Taibbi’s latest, no paywall.
Thankfully, Some Things Never Change
A few reflections on an extraordinary year, as we give thanks and burn the Yule log
Matt Taibbi
https://www.racket.news/p/thankfully-some-things-never-change
Happy Boxing Day.
The Tablet article referenced in Taibbi’s piece:
Rapid-Onset Political Enlightenment
How Barack Obama built an omnipotent thought-machine,
and how it was destroyed.
-by David Samuels
https://www.tabletmag.com/feature/rapid-onset-political-enlightenment
The Tablet article was an interesting read. I don’t if Samuels’ description of the internal mechanics is 100% correct, but I can definitely think of multiple instances where “bold new opinions” have suddenly appeared and been broadly adopted by academia and PMC members with astonishing rapidity. And any thoughts counter to those opinions get ruthlessly suppressed.
It’s been weird to witness, and now I learn that it may have been deliberately engineered? I can’t say that I’m entirely surprised.
Thanks, Flora.
Good thing I didn’t check out the author before reading it. I would have missed many paragraphs of acute analysis. Worth considering, whether or not one agrees with it: David Axelrod as the promoter of the “permission structure” and Obama as its controller?
I would never have expected the piece to lead to Julian Jaynes and the bicameral mind. Samuels is posing very deep, unsettling questions here.
Just as well that he reserves a discussion of his heroes for the very last. Musk, Trump, and Netanyahu. This trio are potentially our liberators? Beacons of freedom?
Words fail me, but I’m sure there will be others here capable of exercising their usual eloquence.
Pardon me if I didn’t give David Samuels the close reading others seem to think it deserves, but he lost me when he made the Iran nuke deal the linchpin of his worldview.
IMHO, the JCPOA was inked in 2015 primarily because the U.S. oil industry had become confident it could frack enough oil and gas for the U.S. to bust the back of OPEC. It didn’t quite count on Russia taking up the slack in the world’s oil supply, an event that by-and-by led to the ‘mysterious’ sabotage of NordStream.
Yeah, the internet and ‘social media’ (people talking to each other) played a role, but I’m so old I remember people talked to each other even before there was an internet.
I’m all for slamming Obama: he sold out ‘his own people’ [sic] (and mine, too), but I suspect Mr. Samuels is dissing Obama mostly to gain himself and his worldview street cred in the new DC administration.
Thanks, and you’re right about Samuels’ suspect motives.
Another early clue is the inclusion of Gaza genocide as one of the ideas imposed from above. That gave me a jolt, but I kept going because he talks about consciousness in a way that interests me. I do not for a moment trust the uses to which he puts his observations. But I don’t recall seeing the fundamental question posed in such stark terms elsewhere. That is, to what degree, if at all, can humanitarian goals justify manipulation of the public reality?
Another question that arises is why and to what end Taibbi and Kern are promoting Samuels’ message.
I wondered about Taibbi and Kirn?s motivations as well, but I dropped my sub to Taibbi back when he seemed to refuse to understand MMT.
Last word — I think. The more I look, the more the Samuels article seems like the very pinnacle of hasbara. A brilliant mind put to meretricious and Zionist justifying ends
Regarding kids believing in Santa, Joe Rogan has a funny skit about you don’t want your kid to be first or the last to find out. https://m.youtube.com/shorts/nFU1xxM_ExE
The routine would be funnier if it was first kid/last kid to figure out that God is a fairy tale.
The mega dam is on the Brahmaputra (Yarlung-Tsampo branch), close to the (highly disputed) border with India. The Brahmaputra is the reason Bangladesh exists (to be precise, silt from the river keeps the delta from disappearing). The site for the dam is one of the last genuinely remote places on the planet, on the ‘great bend’, an area of great ecological sensitivity, and possibly the origin of the Shangrila myth. China claims it will be for hydro power only – 50GW capacity. However, it is 1000 km from any major Chinese urban area and its not in a region served by existing high capacity DC lines, so unless they intend selling the electricity to India/Bangladesh, one wonders what the point of generating all that power is.
Many in India suspect it’s related to the canal projects described above, which are as much about maintaining river flows in the great rivers as it is connecting river basins. If so, then it’s essentially an attempt to divert much of the Tibetan water flow to the Yangtze. It’s hard to imagine anything more likely to provoke a war mood among the Indians and Bangladeshis.
“If they go textile, they have a broader clientele,” Stout said. That’s not because Americans are growing less interested in communal nakedness, she believes: “There’s a whole lot of nudists out there.” But the venues in which people want to be naked together are changing, from the nudist resorts popular with baby boomers to events such as Burning Man, which is “very nude friendly”, Stout said.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/dec/26/silicon-valley-nudist-resort-lupin-lodge
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Once of the biggest misconceptions regarding Burning Man is the idea that everybody is naked, and there are a few, I think I counted 42 people in their birthday suits, a tiny number really.
I’ll be at Saline hot springs over New Years, and it’s a haven of nakedness, but really only pretty much in the tubs. About 8.4 out of 10 will be naked while soaking, and you’d almost guess that those with bathing suits on would feel kinda weird being outcasts.
My theory about nakedness in the USA, is we are only ever naked when having sex, and there’s this assumption that if we saw each other in the flesh in such a way elsewhere, well, there’d be no way to control our animal urges!
This is Naked Capitalism after all, and one thing I think it does while soaking with others also not attired, is it strips away one last layer of bullshit, and conversations in the hot springs are simply out of this world, aided by the idea that nobody has a smartphone welded to their hand, avoiding avoidance as it were,
I’ve always thought the somewhat prudish American attitude towards nudity came from the deep protestant culture which breeds a kind of shame over the flesh, as well as our love of fantasy.
The fantasy aspect is actually a problem. People look a lot different different in clothes. If you only ever imagine how people look and sound and smell when they’re naked then you are in for a shock when you start slapping skin together. I’ve read some theorists discussing the problems with p0rn along those lines. People prefer experiences they can control. People prefer things that are altogether pleasing. Real bodies don’t work like a VR movie. Very few people look perfect without clothes on.
It’s also because we don’t really think about the difference between something being naked and being nude. Nude, in the artistic sense, in the classic sense, is a choice and based on place and sensitivity for the things being done and who is doing them. There’s agency. Few people are stripped naked because they choose to be. That’s why I always thought the site name was appropriate. Capitalism insists that it is well clothed. Yves and others bring it naked, into the light, for those with eyes to see to laugh at it.
The indigenous of the New World were necessarily “othered” by The Powers That Were to claim that the natives were savages for not wearing clothes. You couldn’t have stories circulating that these half dressed, happy beings, subsisting on the bounty of foraged foodstuffs, and small farming communities (with an exception of Cahokia and maybe others), living in harmony with nature and each other come to light to question their serf/peasant existence.
as a nekkid farmer guy,lol…i agree.
people are much more honest, in my experience, when casually naked together.
out here, i’m the only “naturist” i know of who is anywhere near as open about it…every entrance to my side of the place has a sign:”clothing optional”…which has been much commented upon, and then even discussed(as was my intention).
even stepdad’s cousin…raised almost puritan, and about 20 years my senior…was “tickled” by these signs…asked, incredulously, what i would do if she stripped naked and jumped in the cowboy pool…i said…well, i would probably join you,lol.
we raised our boys to not make a big deal out of casual nakedness.
and that, plus our also purposeful total honesty regarding sex questions(“ask us anything”)…seem to have led to two humans without the sort of hangups regarding their bodies, as well as their sexuality, than any of their peers.
both of these strategic decisions, going on 25 years ago, were definitely not the Norm…especially in a place like this.
neither of our boys faint at the sight of a tit…let alone an ankle.
and both are respectful of women, along with everybody else.
so we may have done a few things right.
the puritanism, in my opinion, is about control…ultimately of Minds.
the protestants inherited it from the catholics…and Calvin weaponised it…and that last still echoes all around me, today.
(“i am a worm”, etc)
and the catholics…back when they still were worthy of the name (“universal”), but felt their total power of the minds of their flock slipping…were quite open in their cynical application of the weaponised shame.(see: tertullian, for just one example).
the first time i took Tam to Hippie Hollow…now a shadow of its former self,lol…she was nervous and extremely reluctant. it was one thing that she had gotten not only acclimated to casual nudity around our part of the farm, but actually liked it…but to go among strangers?
lol.
but once we were there…different story.
standing there naked in the middle of that broad sidewalk, talking to 3 gorgeous and totally naked women about ear rings, of all things…while other total strangers wandered by not seeming to care(there are always creepers at such places, and can be and are ganged up upon if they get out of line)…she wanted to ride 2 hours home naked,lol.
and not from any sexual tittilation…as she kept insisting…but because she felt free…and not ashamed.
that, right there, is what the textile police, et alia, fear.
honesty, freedom and a lack of unnecessary shame(*) is anathema to the PTB.
(i reckon one should rightly feel deep shame about…say…supporting genocide, and such)
re: Trump’s Wish to Control Greenland and Panama Canal: Not a Joke This Time
It appears Trump’s goal is to make the world hate him (and by extension, the US). A good strategy if you’re an isolationist xenophone and wanting to isolate the US on the world stage.
I do have a contrary thought, here. I think a revival of Manifest Destiny lies within millions of us. I mean the essenxe of MAGA concerns the US as world leader, no? Lets say we sent troops down to take over the Canal, so China doesnt, this could be a Monroe Doctrine momeny, as could landing a batallion on Greenland. The truth is the US could do this easily and I think MAGA would cheer. No better way to say we are back!!!
Similarly if we dont make Canada part of the US surely a close partner as we already are. One would think a plan to set up a North American bloc of US Canada and Mexico including the Canal would position us to have energy a market and industrial base, strongest in the world…..
If you can read anything into the PMC and liberals getting the vapors about Panama and Greenland you might just conclude.maybe Trump is onto something….
I think I disagree that the US can do this easily. It’s not just a matter of putting boots on the ground, you also have to subjugate the occupied population. The US military doesn’t have the numbers. And there’s also the matter of the world turning against the US if it invades and occupies Greenland and/or Canada and/or Panama.
Also, the MAGAs are pro-military but anti-interventionist and opposed to America’s constant and endless wars, opposed to their tax dollars going toward expenditures involving overseas misadventures, but mostly opposed to themselves dying for dumb reasons or no reason at all. If Trump starts invading and Occupying countries left and right, Israel-style, this would go against his base. I don’t think the MAGAs would cheer, they’d see it as betrayal.
https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2024-12-25/xi-may-be-facing-a-no-good-very-bad-2025
December 25, 2024
Xi May Be Facing a No Good, Very Bad 2025
By Minxin Pei
Minxin Pei is professor of government at Claremont McKenna College
[ These are yearly Christmas writings from the government professor, delivered for 20 years and more, and always but always absurd and incorrect.
Brad DeLong of Harvard and Berkeley has been writing about the China collapse since about 1980. The reason for the DeLong collapse of China is the absence of “North Atlantic institutions” in China. ]
I tend to associate this stuff with Gordon Chang, but clearly there’s an entire industry. It’s a marvel that being provably and blatantly wrong is so sustainable.
EDIT: On a whim, I decided to check what Chang has been writing lately. On Twitter: the South Korean President was right! In NYPost: the New Jersey drones might be controlled by Iran… perhaps, dare he dream, with help from China? I paraphrase but I think I have the gist of it. At least he’s not completely one-note… but of course he also has a recent Newsweek article about China’s impending collapse.
“I tend to associate this stuff with…”
I understand, but this is coming from Nobel Prize winners on:
https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/xi-jinping-china-economy-rotting-from-the-head-by-daron-acemoglu-2022-10
October 28, 2022
China’s Economy Is Rotting from the Head
By Daron Acemoglu
A British Labour Prime Minister who sorely needs to improve trade relations with China, for Britain’s sake, will literally interrupt the first such meeting in 8 years to criticize President Xi on “human rights.”
The BBC will lament the difficulties of the British economy, showing an “East Asian” woman unoccupied and forlorn at a desk in Britain.
It’s the only way to get tenure in the humanities these days. And DeLong’s branching of economics might fall more into the category of non-creative fiction.
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=2024&ssm=0&scsm=1&scc=0&ssd=1&ssc=0&sic=0&sort=country&ds=.&br=1
China in 2024 is 29.4% larger in real GDP than the United States
China in 2024 is 34.5% larger in real GDP than the European Union
https://fred.stlouisfed.org/graph/?g=1pMR0
August 4, 2014
Real per capita Gross Domestic Product for China, United States, India, Japan and Germany, 1977-2023
(Indexed to 1977)
https://fred.stlouisfed.org/graph/?g=1Ckm9
August 4, 2014
Real per capita Gross Domestic Product for European Union, United States, India and China, 1977-2023
(Indexed to 1977)
Re. Plane crash
Simplest explanation is an engine failure, with parts from the engine creating the shrapnel damage to the rear of the plane and the subsequent crash. No missile required.
The accounts I’ve seen say that the plane circled for some time before the alleged missile strike, which begs the question why was it circling? If this is the timeline, circling for some time then getting hit by shrapnel, to me that fits with engine failure more than a missile strike even though the western political-media conglomerate would wish it were a missile.
Pictured holes do not suggest a decompression, rapid or otherwise. Or the alleged impact was low altitude which might imply a MANPAD.
Cannot rule out engine fragments, as I presume a proximity warhead would try for regular sized fragments and not a small set of larger.
I do not see pictured holes as critical to safety of flight.
Nor is the aircraft in flight critical condition on losing an engine…..
Let’s do an investigation.
Seems to me this should not take headlines from Gaza or Yemen
Mr. Righthink asks: Gaza? Yemen? What are they? I don’t see them on my officially approved Infotainment channels.
This issue would be damage to the hydraulic systems. It’s possible for that type and location of shrapnel to affect all 3 redundant systems and leave the aircraft unable to be controllable as happen at Souix City in the 80s.
Quite possible.
A B737 was “lost” (I know the root cause, we taught it in preventive maintenance analysis/design lesson, I do not remember the date/place); the investigation concluded the elevon (0ne piece elevator section) failed due to unexpected wear on the metal in the mechanism which motivated the surfaces. There is now a cyclical inspection of the system.
Impaired elevator rudder system… is not conducive to controlled flight.
I would add the wing surfaces likely not effected the aircraft should have controlled roll, level wings.
I have seen several clips of the supposed crash.
The aircraft was obviously not moving in “controlled flight”. The starboard wings seemed rolled clearly below level. The glide slope was very steep. Starboard wings seemed rolled seemed to contact ground at touch down.
Pictured fragment holes were aft, there could have been degraded rudder and elevator controls, but wing controls should have negated incidental roll. Steep glide might suggest elevator controls degrade. Lot of whys to answer with physical evidence.
Too many questions to state cause.
The plane has 3 independent hydraulic systems for flight control. Theory is, lot of little holes leaked the fluid out of all three. the gear can be put down manually, and was. None of the flap/slots were deployed, suggesting the hydraulic failure
Would be very difficult to control –shows up in the oscillations in the flight aware data..
Engine trouble, with eventual turbine disintegration that flings parts into the back of the plane, causing hydraulic system failure. That sounds a lot more likely than a missile.
That doesn’t matter these days as anything and everything that happens is clearly Putin’s doing.
As more info comes to light there seems to be a growing consensus among the armchair experts that the observed flight path is most consistent with a loss of flight control and subsequent attempts to fly using engine power, much like the UA232 incident at Sioux City. The loss of flight control could have several causes, but loss of hydraulic systems is one such cause. That loss of hydraulics could be due to damage from a fragmentation warhead can’t be discounted.
If any of the video/pictures can be believed, the survival of the after portion of the aircraft seems pretty remarkable.
…circling for some time? To waste fuel in case of ground impact?
My 8-year-old grandniece made a very disturbing statement as she was opening the presents I gave her. I gave her a Japanese puzzle box and some 20-sided dice along with some information about the puzzle box and how to open it that I pulled from the web, along with directions I had written describing the 20 correspondences between the dice and predictions for the future [a manual version of the Magic-Eightball], all printed on three sparsely populated pages. This poor grandniece had already spent most of Christmas day inundated with more presents than she could open without growing weary of presents and opening presents. I arrived with my presents at the end of that long day .
On seeing the three pages of writing, my grandniece sighed and said with dismay, “All the writing, … more homework.”
What disturbs me is not the reception of my presents, which might better have waited until my grandniece was 10 or 11-years-old. What disturbs me deeply is how my grandniece seemed to have equated reading typed pages with more unpleasant homework. After the public school system had so successfully ruined the curiosity and enjoyment of reading in my two children, I have grown worried for my grandniece.
I recall a brief conversation last year around dinner at my nephew’s house, about the difficulty everyone had trying to help my grandniece with her arithmetic homework based, I was told, on some CommonCore doctrine.
“My 8-year-old grandniece made a very disturbing statement…”
An important comment, calling for further consideration:
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/04/us/us-math-students-pandemic.html
December 4, 2024
U.S. Students Posted Dire Math Declines on an International Test
On the test, American fourth and eighth graders posted results similar to scores from 1995. It was a sign of notable stagnation, even as other countries saw improvements.
By Dana Goldstein
I guess I am not so concerned about American public school students beating International students in what is strange competition to me. I am far more concerned at dire declines in curiosity, simple pleasure in learning, pleasure in reading and learning things for yourself, and thinking and reasoning beyond current fashions, celebrities, pop-culture … and other guides to ennui.
Maybe she has a vision problem, and so is fatigued and frustrated by reading. If she was my kid I’d get her vision checked, just to be on the safe side.
I agree. My vision problems developed so gradually they weren’t diagnosed until the 4th grade. By then I couldn’t read the blackboard from the middle of the classroom.
My niece appeared able to read the 6-point font I used to list the fortunes. My nephew had a lot of trouble reading because of dyslexia. So far as I know, my niece has consistently done very well at reading and handling her schoolwork in spite of her questions about the questionable math she is enduring. I heard a different weariness in my niece than the weariness of a difficult effort.
My mother, a first-grade teacher with long experience teaching, detected my nephew’s difficulties and helped get him tutored to overcome his dyslexia. He does not enjoy reading especially but must read to handle his job, which he handles very well by all reports.
Schools have routinely tested for nearsightedness: just hang an eyechart on the wall. But two of my grandchildren were FAR-sighted. It was a poignant moment when the far-sighted granddaughter saw herself clearly in the mirror for the first time. Far-sightedness also messes with reading development.
I wonder if your grandniece was more terrified of having to remember the information?
Schools have largely done away with rote memorization after it served us so well for 70,000 years…
Though I share some of your concern at the demise of memorization and the capacity for memorization, there was no rote memorization involved in the three pages that accompanied my present. The page on the Japanese puzzle box just related some background about the box, and suggested a few simple things to remember about cleaning and handling the box, which is delicate and could be easily broken. The puzzle box came with a single small image showing how to open the box. The other papers described the state of mind that best might lead the 20-sided dice to accurately answer ‘yes’ or ‘no’ questions. I followed that with a sheet listing the 20 answers from a standard Magic-Eight Ball toy, related to numbers on the dice. I made four lists of answers depending on whether the questioner felt no particular bias, or felt optimistic, unsure, or pessimistic. This was intended to indicate that the answers and their correspondence is any particular number on the face of the dice was arbitrary. That information might suggest to my niece some entirely different answers and correspondences she could create. In a little more than a month I plan to give my niece a Magic-Eight Ball toy for her birthday. I was curious to see how long it takes her to make the connection. Ever since I was a child I have wanted to find out how things worked, how they were built and operated. I hoped to inspire similar interests in my niece.
i pestered both our boys into reading things that i either required of them(Marcus Aurelius, say) and things that i thought would both suit them, and help them along their apparent trajectory(Caesar’s “Civil Wars” and Tacitus for older one…Hemingway and Jack London for younger…etc).
and while they enjoyed(and still reference) the books they read, they never took to reading printed books.
that damned fone.
Youngest, since he’s been at texas tech, has suddnly discovered that he digs reading stuff from my library(currently: Zarathustra, re-reading Aurelius, Rubyatt of Omar Kayyam(sp-2) and Huxley’s Perennial Philosophy(he asked for first 2…then asked for more cool stuff)
Eldest, not so much…too busy working.(construction….learning buncha trades)
its tiktoc and such.
as well as, i think, a different timesense, due to the way their lives have been organised…ie: the schedules(or lack of) that theyve grown used to.
where i used to disappear into the woods to read through PE class…or at home, to get away from mom…they dont have time for that.
and a large part of that is because they are always connected to their friends, coaches, and whatnot…always a pull from somewhere to run off and do something.
my phone at their age was:1: in the house, with mom…2: connected to the wall with 2 cords(one to wall, and then the coily one).
it was usually a planned thing to talk on the phone…rather than whenever…inclusinge while driving…or out in the pasture…or cleaning out chicken house.
all of these things and more, will have their effects on cognition, behaviour, etc.
I do not know how closely my grandniece is tied to her phone and other electronics. I suspect much more than I might hope. She does seem closely tied to her television and video games. However, your comment suggests another tax on my grandniece’s time and attention. A considerable amount of her free-time is planned out for her through dance classes, gymnastics classes, soccer, and compulsory visits to and with relatives, and she has been rebelling against attending many of these activities. Between school, outside activities, and relatives — little of my grandniece’s ‘free-time’ belongs to her. I am not sure that entirely explains her knee-jerk response to the typed pages as ‘more homework’ — yet another unwanted tax on such free-time as she can find.
Though I did not elaborate the point, I tried to suggest to her tired parents that my typed pages were beyond my grandniece’s reading ability and actually intended for her parents to read to her. In effect I had given an assignment to her parents. That was deliberate. I thought my nephew, who is a master of woodworking might find an interest in the construction of the Japanese puzzle box and would help in opening the box. The instructions for the 20-sided dice were much simpler than the instructions for most board games.
Bernard Quintin, Belgian FM: “We have the experience of the first Trump administration. We will hear what the US president has to say. It’s really important that we now work, with determination, on our open strategic autonomy.”
Why was Belgium’s open strategic autonomy not a concern in the past?
Azerbaijan Airlines Crash, saw video yesterday with a woman who claimed to have investigated crashes and commented that these marks/holes were consistent with explosion upon contact with ground. I tried to see if marks were on plane before it crashed but couldn’t tell. Video of crash shows that side of plane so if damage was from shrapnel it should be visible.
Good point. The definitive test will be to try and find some identifiable shrapnel.
There is some decent video of the last minutes of the aircraft, so, a careful perusal of said videos is in order, and not by “The Usual Suspects” either.
Also of potential interest will be the passenger list. Anyone with “Short Life Expectancy Futures” aboard?
RE: South Africa succulents
Succulents also grow in Mediterranean climates. The California coast (Big Sur) has unique/rare succulent species that poachers gravitated to after sections of private coastline cliffs were purchased for State Parks. Opening unique lands to the general public (in Cali at least) requires an increase in physical monitoring (Rangers).
Handel’s “Messiah”. My favorite version which I listened to yesterday on a vinyl recording. Vinyl, oh yes.
Handel Messiah, Sir Neville Marriner conductor
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jIgboZ6OMHc
re: Ukraine
Ted Snider on Neutrality Studies
Overwhelming EVIDENCE Of US Pushing Ukraine Into War With Russia | Ted Snider
53 min.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SaQ1Lh4pXwQ
Good summary of the past years but sometimes odd, because for some reason I have the impression Ted Snider finds US foreign policy in Ukraine “confusing” instead of reckognizing that the US is simply fascist and evil. May be because he knows no scholarship where this very fact is stated?
But was still worthwhile my time.