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Links 1/25/2025

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This Is Why You Can’t Hula Hoop, According to Science ScienceAlert (Chuck L)

New evidence pushes back arrival of early hominins in Europe ScienceDaily (Kevin W)

The Oldest Beer Receipt (Circa 2050 BC) Open Culture (Micael T)

Research to Ruin: The Worsening Spectre of Academic Fraud C2C Journal (Dr. Kevin)

#COVID-19/Pandemics

China?

Why the world is holding its breath for a Chinese rebound The Times

How The Chinese Beat Trump And OpenAI Moon of Alabama (Kevin W)

‘Dam for a dam’: India, China edge towards a Himalayan water war Aljazeera

Africa

Panic spread in Goma on Thursday, with M23 rebels moving toward the city in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo as they battle the Congolese military DW

Europe overhauls funding to Tunisia after Guardian exposes migrant abuse Guardian

Sudan’s army carries out ethnic killings in Gezira state Aljazeera

South of the Border

A border in flames: Petro and Maduro accuse each other over conflict that has displaced thousands El Pais

European Disunion

Europe hasn’t grasped the real economic threat from Trump Politico (Micael T)

Eurozone Countries Outlook 2025: Europe’s running out of road Think.ing

Germany’s super-rich do not create wealth – they skim it off Jacobin via machine translation (Micael T)

The big AfD bluff – a party neoliberal to the core Nachdenkseiten via machine translation (Micael T)

Poland on track to cut benefits for Ukrainian refugees EurActiv

Slovak PM accuses opposition of planning coup to topple him BBC

Old Blighty

Steep drop in consumer confidence amid concerns of ‘dark days ahead’ Independent

Israel v. The Resistance

In Syria’s Golan Heights buffer zone, residents fear Israel is making a land grab
NPR

Israel’s security chief says focus switching to West Bank BBC

Trump designates Yemen’s Houthis as a ‘foreign terrorist organization’ Reuters

* * *

The Worst Blood Libel in History, and the Reason I’m Hated Most in Israel Alon Mizrahi

New Not-So-Cold War

Trump Raises Heat on Russia with Belligerent New Threats Simplicius

Bloomberg: Who says “sanctions”? Russia’s budget revenue surges to record in December 2024 International Affairs (Micael T)

Did Trump Halt Aid to Ukraine? Larry Johnson. We corrected widespread mis-reporting in comments before the Pentagon announcement. Some smaller sites had done a careful reading of the Executive Orders and were disputing the claim that Trump had suspended arms shipments to Ukraine.

Beyond the Battlefield: atrocities of the Armed Forces of Ukraine against civilians Security Council, Arria-Formula Meeting. AG: “Begins at ca. 17:00.”

Russian security official Sergei Shoigu warns in an interview published this morning that the risk of an armed clash between nuclear powers is rising Time of Israel

Caucasus

Occupied Abkhazia Faces Electricity Crisis Jamestown Foundation

Syraqistan

Turkish troops set to remain in Syria: Defense Ministry sources Daily Sabah

Big Brother is Watching You Watch

Behind ‘Salt Typhoon’ – US Intelligence Agencies’ Mass Surveillance of Its Citizens Sputnik (Micael T)

Trump 2.0

10 Things Found By Trump’s Team When Cleaning Out The White House Babylon Bee

* * *

White House says migrant deportation flights with military aircraft have begun The Hill

Trump to deploy troops to US-Mexico border in hardline immigration strategy Guardian

Two Battles Roiling Trump World: War with Iran and H1B Visas DropSite

* * *

Donald Trump calls on Opec to push down global oil prices Financial Times. And I would like a pony. Also wants central banks to lower interest rates….which should increase groaf, and with it, energy prices.

Trump is destroying the “green agenda” in favor of Russia Vzyglad via machine translation (Michael T)

* * *

Trump’s DOJ asks Supreme Court to freeze cases on student debt, environment The Hill

Trump demands California voter ID law for wildfire relief and threatens FEMA upon arrival in North Carolina Independent. Note Trump is also demanding California reverse environmental policy.

Trump’s rapid changes in US government stun federal workers Reuters

* * *

Hegseth confirmed as Trump’s defense secretary in tie-breaking vote despite turmoil over his conduct Associated Press

Hegseth, What to Expect. Andrew Cockburn

Donald Trump in fiery call with Denmark’s prime minister over Greenland Financial Times (Kevin W)

Trump revokes security protection for Covid adviser Fauci BBC (Kevin W)

NYC subway violence is concentrated at a sliver of stations and times, report finds Gothamist. Several are critical and active hubs. The Lex and 59th Station being on the list is a particularly bad look. Big commuter station, only three platforms, should not be hard to have an adequate police presence.

Our No Longer Free Press

The Trump “Litmus Test” Scott Ritter

AUDIO: State Dept’s Miller Admits to Blackballing Journalist Sam Husseini Decensored News

AI

US Congress proposes bill to allow AI to prescribe drugs and medical treatment Congress (Paul R)

Scientific Journal Publishes AI-Generated Rat with Gigantic Penis In Worrying Incident Vice (Dr. Kevin)

Sam Altman-Elon Musk Feud Timeline: AI Billionaires Bark Over Trump-Endorsed Stargate AI Project Forbes (Micael T)

The Bezzle

This Is Why Your Furniture Sucks Now More Perfect Union (Paul R)

Amazon’s Just Walk Out at Fresh stores ‘relied on more than 1,000 people in India watching and labeling videos to ensure accurate checkouts’ Daily Mail (Li)

Guillotine Watch

Tax breaks on gold bars and jets help put a ‘$3B hole’ in NY’s pockets, lawmaker says Gothamist

Class Warfare

2024 US home sales hit lowest level in nearly 30 years with ownership increasingly out of reach Associated Press

Supply-Sider New Left Review. Anthony L: “On Stiglitz on Rawls.”

Antidote du jour: Cheryl K: “Baby vicuña in the Pampas, Argentina”:

And a bonus (Chuck L):

And a second bonus (Chuck L). This is a real dear-riding clan, even though that photo is way too perfect-looking:

And a third (Chuck L):

See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.

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162 comments

  1. The Rev Kev

    ‘ChenKojira 🇨🇳
    @ChenKojira
    BREAKING: CHINESE TAIKONAUTS MAKE OXYGEN AND ROCKET FUEL IN SPACE
    Series of experiments on the Shenzhou-19 have for the first time produced oxygen and the ingredients for rocket fuel, bringing long-haul crewed missions a step closer to reality’

    Trump announces that this was American technology that the Chinese stole when Obama was President and vows that under the Trump admin, that they will be making super oxygen and super rocket fuel in space to Make America Great Again In Space.

    Reply ↓
    2. JP

      Somebody tell me what’s the point. Surely they are not getting the raw ingredients from the vacuum of space. Wouldn’t it be easier to just ship the finished product.

      Reply ↓
      2. ambrit

        The present cost of lifting payload out of the Earth’s gravity well makes cargo costs high. The Three ‘R’s come into play: Reuse, Repair, Repurpose. Shakespeare understood the basic concept way back when, when he had his character Hamlet declare:
        “…Alexander died, Alexander was buried,
        Alexander returneth into dust; the dust is earth; of
        earth we make loam; and why of that loam, whereto he
        was converted, might they not stop a beer-barrel?
        Imperious Caesar, dead and turn’d to clay,
        Might stop a hole to keep the wind away.”
        One reason the Chinese, and others I warrant, wish to return Terran humans to the environs of the Moon is that said lunar orb has been proven to contain water ice in significant quantities. Getting that water from the Lunar surface to orbit will be much cheaper than from Earth’s surface to orbit. If we survive long enough, getting water ices from the comets in the Mars to Jupiter asteroid field will supply an almost infinite amount of water.
        If this new method of ‘processing’ water pans out, then all the basic necessities of present technological space flight and Terran human survival in the harsh realm of Space are ours for the taking.
        Finally, everything we consume here on the surface of the Earth is recycled through the ecosphere.
        Stay safe, wherever you are.

        Reply ↓
  2. icancho

    “Baby vicuña in the Pampas, Argentina”

    Pretty sure that picture is of a young guanaco, not a vicuña.
    The Argentine pampas are at low elevations (as is the province of La Pampa itself), but vicuñas are restricted to the high-elevation puna (3,200 to 4,800 m = 10,500–15,700 ft), which in Argentina means the northwestern parts— the altiplano— not the pampas.

    Reply ↓
  3. The Rev Kev

    “H.R.238 – To amend the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act to clarify that artificial intelligence and machine learning technologies can qualify as a practitioner eligible to prescribe drugs if authorized by the State involved and approved, cleared, or authorized by the Food and Drug Administration, and for other purposes.”

    It took a Republican to come up with an idea as stupid as this. I ask you – what could possibly go wrong? What if that ‘licensed” AI starts to hallucinate drugs to dispense that end up killing or crippling some people. Who is responsible? The State that went along with this stupid idea? The medical practitioner that actually dispensed those drugs such as a nurse? The Food and Drug Administration? No doubt like with the Covid vaccines, they will have a legal clause giving immunity to all parties with all risks being on the person receiving those drugs as, you know, free choice and all. Here is that bill’s sponsor-

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Schweikert

    Idjut.

    Reply ↓
      1. flora

        The new mesmerism. Our pols are mesmerized and hypnotized by fast talking AI salesmen, Rename Washington, DC to River City, DC. Suckers.

        Reply ↓
    2. Vandemonian

      [sarc] I don’t know what you’re worried about. Artificial intelligence is perfectly suited to making accurate and reliable decisions in a complex clinical environment. Just look at the finesse with which it’s produced this fine illustration for a paper submitted to a scientific journal:

      https://www.vice.com/en/article/scientific-journal-frontiers-publishes-ai-generated-rat-with-gigantic-penis-in-worrying-incident/

      I particularly liked the subtle way in which the AI “helper” identified the senctolic stem cells and dislocttal* stem ells. Even an anatomy professor experienced in medical illustration would struggle to do that**. [/sarc]

      * Sorry, don’t know how to render a backwards ‘s’
      ** Frank Netter, where are you when we need you?

      Reply ↓
      1. steppenwolf fetchit

        Or evil. What if this David Schweikert is a secret agent of the Jackpot Agency? This would be a fine way to kill outright or early-death millions of people and make it look like just another accident.

        Reply ↓
  4. Stephen V

    I’ve been waiting for the $500bn takedown on AI. Moon of Alabama does a shout to both Yves and Ed Zitron.
    My favorite bit quoting Forbes:
    U.S. export controls on advanced semiconductors were intended to slow China’s AI progress, but they may have inadvertently spurred innovation. Unable to rely solely on the latest hardware, companies like Hangzhou-based DeepSeek have been forced to find creative solutions to do more with less.
    Love me some INSTANT karma.
    All of this crap treats human judgment as a design fault. Let’s do self-driving autos next.

    Reply ↓
    1. Ignacio

      Aren’t we seeing this happening again, and again, and again? Applying excessive pressure just manages to open respites. Spur innovation is another way of saying it. I think these not-so-clever policies are driven by a sense of Western Superiority which is fading fast. They only manage to accelerate the sinking of the ship. I suspect that Trump’s term has potential to be the final blow.

      Reply ↓
      1. vao

        Applying excessive pressure just manages to open respites.

        This depends on the relation between the pressure level and the capabilities and resources of the country under stress.

        A nation with a much smaller, less educated, less experienced population, without a varied, dense network of domestic industrial suppliers, finding itself at the early stages of development for the technology under dispute, and ruled by a government without fortitude could very probably be kneecapped by the measures the USA has been taking, giving them some time to have effect. But China? Of all countries in the world?

        Reply ↓
        1. Bugs

          “A nation with a much smaller, less educated, less experienced population, without a varied, dense network of domestic industrial suppliers”

          Sounds like America.

          Reply ↓
        2. Ignacio

          A nation with a much smaller, less educated, less experienced population, without a varied, dense network of domestic industrial suppliers,…

          That was exactly what i was referring with the sense of superiority. The West has lost its senses or senses things which are no longer real.

          Reply ↓
      3. Procopius

        I’ve never understood the reasoning behind them. I understand they are supposed to make the populace angry with their government, leading to regime change. Trouble is, the populace knows who is causing their pain, and it’s not their government. After the fall of the Assad government in Syria people were ecstatic that their sanctions had finally worked, but it wasn’t the sanctions, it was the corruption of the Syrian military. As far as I know, sanctions have never led to the outcome the sanctioner wanted. Einstein has been cited as saying, “Doing the same thing over and over, and expecting a different outcom, is the definition of insanity.”

        Reply ↓
    2. Zagonostra

      I saw a Twitter/X clip of Sam Altman saying something about people having to accept a reappraisal/change in the “Social Contract.” I’m sorry I didn’t save the clip to reference it. In this article it says that “Elon Musk and Altman’s public quarrel is front and center of the messy AI arms race between OpenAI and xAI, but for me, what is front and center is that this public figure, Altman, demonstrates to me when I signed this “social contract” and what its contents consist of before running his mouth. I’m familiar with the theories of Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau and I’ll want to understand what he understands about social contract theory and how it applies.

      I’m tired of these “tech billionaires” sucking all the oxygen out of political discourse. I want my issues addressed, healthcare, student debt, inflation, housing cost, food cost, deterioration of public parks, transportation, etc..

      Unless he can show me that I signed with full “knowledge and consent” I will not be bound. Rights do not rest with gov’t granting them to me, gov’t is there to protect them.

      Reply ↓
      2. Procopius

        It’s OK. The Chinese open source program is as good as ChatGPT and OpenAI, and is either free or costs 3% of their price. They’re toast. I’m waiting for the crash. I understand “schadenfreude” translates as “shameful joy.” I know I’m not supposed to cheer for our adversaries, but I’ve enjoyed watching the Chinese beat our oligarchs.

        Reply ↓
    3. Skip Intro

      Deepseek it theoretically devastating to OpenAI and the money moat model. We shall see. Zitron is to AI what Hubert Horan is to Uber, I think.

      Reply ↓
      2. ChrisFromGA

        Money moat – good terminology.

        “The plan” from Wall St and the VC bastards was likely to create barriers to entry like squillions in investment money for data centers and chips to brute force AI. Then China comes along and breaks their rice bowl.

        Look for a executive order banning “unsafe and risky” Chinese AI

        Reply ↓
    5. Raymond Carter

      This extraordinary DeepSeek accomplishment is terrible news for stock market bulls as well.

      The efficiency of DeepSeek means 90% less demand for Nvidia chips, data centers, etc.

      The recent stock market bull was based on selling the infrastructure for the American massive language model approach of constantly ramping the “compute,” as Sam Altman puts it. Now there’s no need. After DeepSeek, the $500 billion stargate project looks like it would actually be a spectacular waste.

      Reply ↓
      1. vao

        The efficiency of DeepSeek means 90% less demand for Nvidia chips, data centers, etc.

        Do not underestimate the implications of Jevon’s paradox.

        But it sure means that grossly inefficient AI engines (from OpenAI, Google, Meta) became obsolete in one fell swoop.

        Reply ↓
        1. CA

          Google AI

          The Jevons paradox is an economic principle that states that increased efficiency can lead to increased consumption of a resource. This is because the lower cost of using the resource makes it more attractive to consumers and industries.

          [ Chinese Transsion makes most of the mobile/cell phones Africa uses. Transsion even makes phones with AI, and suddenly AI will be far less costly to include in a Transsion phone. What does this have to do with Apple however? Apple sells relatively few mobile phones in Africa now, and besides the Transsion cameras are better for Africa than Apple phone cameras.

          What then might Transsion with fine cameras and DeepSeek mean in Africa? ]

          Reply ↓
    1. MicaT

      This is the standard republican play book.
      Throw lots of things around and the Dems can play the defenseless we can’t deal with all of this at once and so a lot gets through.

      Effective when you have such a willing partner

      Reply ↓
  6. AG

    re: Germany and Covid investigation

    A report by CICERO magazine argues that after a first meeting the majority of Germany’s doctor associations is not in favour of investigating what happened during the pandemic politically.

    A summary of that report:

    Research: Majority of doctors’ associations against Corona investigation
    https://archive.is/ANUH5

    However I do not know how many are represented in those associations, whether they represent hospitals too or not and so on.

    One argument by the author is that doctors are afraid of publicly contradicting.

    I would assume – as far as non-hospital doctors are concerned – they are too rich to have a realistic understanding of how the population was hit by the measures taken.

    Doctors were not affected in any negative way by the redistribution of wealth. If by any measure they increased income via ownership of real estate and rents or rising stocs. But this is very difficult to assess in a serious academic manner. The wealthy do not talk about wealth.

    For those who have their own doctor’s practices it is very much depending in what part of town their office is located, wealthy or non-wealthy.

    Contradicting my hypothesis would the fact that the association most in favour of investigating is the one representing the dentists who are among the wealthiest.

    Just last week Sarah Wagenknecht pointed out that Germany is short of 5000 general practitioners, i.e. with their own practices.

    Additionally already during Covid Germany’s association of hospitals agreed on closing down more hospitals and reducing number of beds for intensive care. Why? Because they generally had no problems during the pandemic.
    Go figure.

    Reply ↓
  7. The Rev Kev

    “Donald Trump calls on Opec to push down global oil prices”

    Sure this could happen. All you would need is for Saudi Arabia and other oil-producing countries to agree to totally wreck their economies for years to come and all for the benefit of *checks notes* Zelensky’s Ukraine. Sounds legit. What will Trump do if Saudi Arabia and those other countries do not agree to do this? Put tariffs on them? So far as I know the US is still a net importer of oil which means they would have to pay more for that oil. And even this non-economist knows that this would mean higher prices at the gas pump and increased inflation.

    Reply ↓
        1. urdsama

          Not even sure the US will.

          Last time I checked the US needs to import the oil types that are used for gasoline…and Trump is anti-EV.

          Reply ↓
        2. converger

          Mmmm…. …depends on what you are calling imports and exports. With the apples and oranges inclusion of value-added LNG and refined product, yes. Crude oil, not even close:

          “Exports
          In 2022, United States exported $118B in Crude Petroleum, making it the 4th largest exporter of Crude Petroleum in the world. At the same year, Crude Petroleum was the 2nd most exported product in United States. The main destination of Crude Petroleum exports from United States are: South Korea ($13.2B), Canada ($11.8B), United Kingdom ($11.4B), Netherlands ($11.3B), and India ($10.8B).

          The fastest growing export markets for Crude Petroleum of United States between 2021 and 2022 were Singapore ($6.58B), United Kingdom ($5.88B), and Netherlands ($4.73B).

          Imports
          In 2022, United States imported $199B in Crude Petroleum, becoming the 2nd largest importer of Crude Petroleum in the world. At the same year, Crude Petroleum was the 1st most imported product in United States. United States imports Crude Petroleum primarily from: Canada ($117B), Mexico ($21.2B), Saudi Arabia ($16.6B), Iraq ($7.87B), and Colombia ($6.05B).

          The fastest growing import markets in Crude Petroleum for United States between 2021 and 2022 were Canada ($37.6B), Mexico ($16.2B), and Saudi Arabia ($7.61B).”

          Reply ↓
  8. mrsyk

    This is why your furniture sucks now, I have never purchased a new piece of furniture, excluding two mattress/bedspring combos. Between thrift and “antique” stores, estate sales, auctions and found-on-the-curb discards we’ve outfitted both the camp here and the shoebox that serves as an apartment in the city. The best part is it’s always less expensive as well as better made, with the older, pre-industrial pieces built to last the longest.

    The advent of turning to a disposable goods oriented society, well, we should have known better.

    Reply ↓
    1. JohnA

      Alan Clark, a British conservative politician who came from old money and inherited a castle in Kent, published his very amusing diaries that included damning put downs of various public figures. In the diaries, he described ‘arriviste’ millionaire Michael Heseltine, a conservative politician who had made his money in magazine publishing, as ‘the kind of person who buys his own furniture’.

      Reply ↓
      1. mrsyk

        Had to look up both Michael Heseltine, and “arriviste”. The latter is useful as it describes a number of our “leaders”. As for the Baron, I will note that He and his Lady are still married into the 63rd year of their union, for what that might be worth. That and he made his money as a property developer.
        Thanks.

        Reply ↓
      2. Revenant

        This is true but the back story to Clark’s snobbery is needed for completeness. Clark’s father had only bought the castle in the 1950’s and Clark’s money came from (relatively recent) trade! His great great great grandfather had invented the cotton spool and made a fortune in the late Georgian / early Victorian Scottish textile industry.

        Ironically, in the light of Trump’s economic controversies, the Clark Thread company had opened plants in the USA in the mid 19th century because of high US tariffs on imports….

        The company merged with the Coats company, another international textile company in the same part of Scotland and, many mergers since, is still active as Coats Group PLC.

        Reply ↓
        1. JohnA

          Thanks for the correction about the Clark family. Should maybe have put ‘older money’. To be fair, I have never consulted Debrett’s Peerage.

          Reply ↓
          1. Revenant

            Debrett’s wouldn’t have helped because neither is a proper aristo!

            Heseltine was a life peer (i.e. a political appointee).

            Clark probably had some “county set” blood in him (minor gentry, knights of the shires etc) because an injection of money into the gene pool is always welcome but if he had any blue blood, you can bet we would have heard about it! His wife was a descendant of the Earls of Seafield….

            He was basically aristo-adjacent: his father had been a member of the Bullingdon Club at Oxford, by grace of schooling (Winchester) and being rich.

            To turn his own guns on his father, he had to buy his own castle….

            Reply ↓
    2. Neutrino

      So much furniture in the big box specialist stores looks big and boxy. The fabrics look cheap and loaded with chemicals. The wood looks plastic.
      Insult to injury, or vice versa, it looks uncomfortable.
      Brutalist furniture?

      Reply ↓
    3. nippersdad

      Absolutely right! It is also, apparently, out of fashion so that drives the prices even lower. I haven’t been on FaceBook for years now, but their market place is just irresistible. Very high end Nineteenth century pieces, Gilded Age stuff, can often be found there for a hundred dollars. Our most recent find (Craigslist) was an Eighteenth century Dutch bombe’ marquetry cylinder desk for three hundred dollars. It will need a little work, but I doubt that anything from Ikea will last for three hundred years and still be beautiful.

      Reply ↓
      1. Randall Flagg

        An acquaintance that summers up here in NH and lives in Sarasota Fl., in the winters says the second hand antique stores are loaded with excellent old, solid furniture. People retire down there with their households, pass away and the kids don’t have places of their own to take the stuff so it’s sold for a song and all real, old wood, great joinery, you name it. Everything the junk of today is not.The kind of stuff that will last for generations. The best dressers and bureaus we have were all flea market items. Solid maple, dovetail joinery, etc.

        Reply ↓
        1. nippersdad

          He is right about that, one of the ads I saw last night on FB Marketplace said that the seller had spent a couple of years flogging the family stuff to his cousins but had no takers. Some of the prices I am seeing now, though, are pretty shocking. There is a Herter Brothers chair on there right now that I feel certain I saw in an Atlanta High Museum exhibition back in the early 2000’s. There are dozens of things like that on there; I feel like it it time to refurnish the house.

          And, clearly it is not in everyone’s taste, but to have a museum piece for a $125.00 seems like an attraction in itself….

          https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/1818087515605370/?ref=search&referral_code=null&referral_story_type=post&tracking=browse_serp%3A99a759d2-6445-4ced-a0f9-271b2e9e7e63

          …A good rule of thumb is that if it has already lasted for generations it is likely to last a few more.

          Reply ↓
            1. ambrit

              Somehow I doubt if the next generation of “lucky” Chinese will be accused of being “Xi-Xi’ (pronounced ‘she-she,” or, if you like, ‘chi-chi.’) Will Shanghai have a Soho District soon?

              Reply ↓
          2. Laura in So Cal

            I’ve been dealing with possessions of first my in-laws about 10 years ago and now my parents since my mom died last year. All of them grew up pretty poor, became prosperous to some level, and had varying levels of hoarding tendencies. It has been and continues to be a lot and my conservationist self has difficulty just throwing out useful items especially since a lot of the stuff comes from the 1960’s-1990’s and is good quality compared to what you can buy now on a middle class income. The best idea I had was to put good quality linens and kitchen items (dishes, pots, glassware, silverware, small hand tools like spatulas, can opener, measuring spoons) into a couple of storage pins when my father in law died 10 years ago. Last year, my kid used all of it to furnish his 1st off campus apartment. I’ve kept stuff, sold stuff, given away stuff, donated stuff, and a whole bunch (sadly)has ended up in the trash.

            It is an interesting view of what they had as disposable income and could afford to buy vs what my generation (genx) could afford. We’ve spent most of our money on things like housing, insurance, and saving for retirement since we don’t have a pension. I own maybe 25% of the clothes/shoes/purses and 10% of the jewelry that my Mom did, don’t have many decorative items, and what are “guest towels?”

            As the silents and boomers pass away, I anticipate that all their stuff will become a glut on the used market.

            Reply ↓
      2. Harold

        When we were starting out furnishing our new living quarters the furniture sold in furniture & department stores was also very bad and horrendously over-priced, and this is before Ikea was thought of.

        Reply ↓
        1. Joe Well

          The first bedroom set my parents bought me back in the 1980s, in the US, was so bad they actually threatened to report them to the state and negotiated a partial refund. They were promised oak and got some kind of particle board.

          Reply ↓
    4. timbers

      I sometimes breeze thru the furniture sections of Salvation Army, Karms (popular in Tennessee), and thrift stores in general because you can find furniture made of solid real wood mixed among the junky stuff. I had a TV stand from IKEA. Within months it start bowing in the center. Made of particle board of course. So I went to a Salvation Army, found a large solid wood night stand once part of an old bedset, stripped it’s hardware and detached its backside and removed its hinged front door so video players and sound system could be placed within it, and TV on top. Best idea for home environment center set l have ever had. Rock solid. All my bookcases, dessers, coffee table and kitchen table, plant stands are solid wood oldish darkstained and attractive and solid strudy. They are the furniture worth taking if you ever do a major move. In contrast, I had a truly handsome pantry and stand alone kitchen storage cabinet I self assembled from Amazon for my tenant in the lower part of my house to make his kitchen more functional. Very nice looking. But when I recently sold that house, I knew it would not move well because the screw joints don’t take well to even normal moving stress. So I told the real estate broker “these stay!” Didn’t ask him, I told him. He himself admired them. Fortunately not a peep from the buyer. I expect they too liked the appearance of the items.

      Reply ↓
      1. markdoubleyou

        Many pieces of new Ikea furniture aren’t even made of particle board any more–they put a honeycomb-shaped paper filler inside the tabletops. Google “IKEA Linnmon Desk Teardown” for what it looks like. Fascinating engineering that’s the furniture equivalent of fast fashion.

        Reply ↓
      2. scott s.

        Never bought anything from IKEA or Wayfair. Our nice stuff is from Henkel Harris and Stickley or bought used. More “middle class” is from Ashley.

        Reply ↓
    5. lyman alpha blob

      I never bought any new furniture either until recently. My folks gave me a used but like-new couch years ago which my cat at the time shredded. When my better half and I moved into our house and needed a replacement, we opted for a slightly pre-scratched couch at goodwill, figuring we wouldn’t mind if the new cats took a shine to it. It was very comfortable, already broken in. Fast forward almost two decades and three cats, none of them touched the furniture and were quite content to sharpen up on their scratch pads. So, my better half decided we should have something new for once, and we bought a couch that came with a warranty against pet damage with one free re-upholstery. It all sounded great, although as neutrino mentioned above, this new couch isn’t the most comfortable, so we kept the goodwill couch that we intended to get rid of.

      Then we got a new kitten. He was fine for a few months, but then he turned on us. Maybe it was revenge for having him neutered, but he took to furniture destruction with aplomb. He started with the new couch, and soon moved on the the arm chair and footstools. Occasionally he’ll take a whack at the goodwill couch, but he seems to sense that we wouldn’t mind that one being scratched so much. so mostly avoids it. He can shred from the sitting position, but also while clinging to the side or hanging upside down underneath. A favorite move is the flying leap from a couch to a chair, grabbing on in midair, and then getting few scratches in as he drops to the ground.

      As I survey what once was the living room furniture but has now been reduced to masses of dangling threads, it occurs to me that the warranty we paid for isn’t much use if a new upholstery is just going to be shredded the same as the previous one. Also, some kitchen cabinets we bought for quite the markup during the pandemic are already falling apart (made of pressboard, not real wood) , and no cats at fault there. I think we’ll stick to the used stuff going forward, especially given the recent quality of the new.

      Reply ↓
      1. mrsyk

        Then we got a new kitten, lol, way better than getting new furniture! I will readily admit that cats and raising two boys added incentive to my attraction to second-hand stuff.

        Reply ↓
    6. Bugs

      I admit to buying some flatpack when I can’t find something that works at an auction – usually office or workshop stuff because that wasn’t made. Otherwise, everything we own is antique. Everything. And if you need to change up, plenty of buyers out there want an old armoire or table. You can’t even get people to take ikea junk off the curb when you put it out there.

      Reply ↓
    7. amfortas the hippie

      only furniture ive bought in my life was those plastic shelves from walmart.
      rest is handmedown, curbside, etc…or these bar stumps i made.
      my mom got me an 150 year old romanian coffin for my 19th birthday(!) that i use as a coffin table.
      does a hammock count?

      Reply ↓
      1. ambrit

        “…does a hammock count?”
        Only if it was woven by temple virgins as symbolic offerings to the Aztec gods. (Don’t ask where that rust brown dye came from.)

        Reply ↓
    8. Trees&Trunks

      I worked at IKEA for a while. I refuse to buy that shit. The first story about Kamprad, the founder and ex-cult leader, I heard was the following:
      In the beginnings he went to a local craftsman and ordered a large number of chairs. The man made all the chairs. Kamprad, the Nazi, came back and said that he would pay only half the agreed price because he hadn’t any more money. The crafttaman had the choice between going bankrupt or accept the deal. Sweden at the time, 1940-50s, was a high trust society meaning that you could count on people doing what they said they would. I.e., this was pure asssholery of Kamprad, the DDR-prisonworker exploiter, not stupidity of the craftsman.
      This was also his approach to suppliers all ober the world. Getting a contract with IKEA was often a kiss of death. You had to cut cost below profitability.

      Reply ↓
    9. playon

      We inherited a couple of dressers from my parents several years ago. They are a little beat up but work great and are made of solid wood, an increasingly rare commodity. Far superior to new stuff unless you spend a fortune.

      Reply ↓
      1. amfortas the hippie

        ive got my great granma’s 1920’s Lane couch, that folds out into the most uncomfortable hideabed ever made.
        its been in the family since she bought it new(for what? $10?lol)
        damned thing is heavy…hardwood frame, etc.
        the armrests come off…with much effort…and removing them is necessary if you want it inside a house with normal sized doors….rather than outside on the porch, or something.
        so those armrests have come off an on for more than a century…and those are the only parts of the damned thing that are sorta frelled.
        its literally part of my library/funky trailerhouse….since i’d hafta take a sawzall to it to get it out of there without a few high school linebackers.
        things like that…like both grandads’ hand tools…the coolerater i mention sometimes…the waring blender(with a bakelite lid,lol)…really put paid to the idea of “progress”…at least in terms of quality and longevity….and just general robustness.

        Reply ↓
  9. Wukchumni

    Gooooooood Mooooooorning Fiatnam!

    It was the liverwurst of times-it was the chicken breast of times, with an emphasis on the latter on account of bird flu wiping out flocks in a what came first query…

    …the chicken shortage or egg shortage?

    Reply ↓
    1. The Rev Kev

      Agreed. It was an amazing tweet with lots that I had never heard of before. Just thinking back on the history books I used in school and can see that they were hilariously non-representative of much of the history of this planet. Apparently back in the 19th century history books tended to show the world as a whole rather than just European-slanted views. Trying now to imagine a history book with a realistic view of the history of our planet but it would be hard to write as too many groups would want to cram their own views & theories into any such text.

      Reply ↓
  11. The Rev Kev

    ‘Volcaholic 🌋
    @volcaholic1
    Myrtle Beach in South Carolina….’

    Wasn’t Myrtle Beach the place that retirees went to live at many years ago?

    Reply ↓
    1. Carolinian

      It’s known for its many golf courses or, for my family of peasants, carpet golf facilities. We kids weren’t keen on the place but my dad loved the ocean and claimed it had healing powers.

      Reply ↓
        1. Carolinian

          Wrong Carolina. You are thinking of the Outer Banks aka the Graveyard of the Atlantic. They found the Civil War Monitor ironclad at the bottom of the ocean there a few years back and there are many others.

          Whereas Myrtle Beach is all sun and fun and Coppertone ads and bikini clad girls doing the Shag. It used to be rather small time but apparently now is more like Miami North.

          Reply ↓
          1. Cristobal

            During m first visit to Myrtle Beach I bought a mixed drink poured from a big bottle by a minor on a Sunday. As they said in those days, the age limit is a dollar.

            Reply ↓
          2. amfortas the hippie

            im planning on installing a couple of ponds on the place(once mom goes to narcissist heaven)…one will have something of a “beach”.
            how do i get these ” bikini clad girls doing the Shag.”,pray tell?
            i mean, i can order minnows and perch and even crawdads to populate these ponds…and they’ll be delivered on the next run, in season.(blue herons, etc come on their own, after all that happens)

            Reply ↓
              1. Carolinian

                Yes I know having seen Austin Powers.

                The Shag is a dance invented in Myrtle Beach back in more innocent mid 20th times.

                Reply ↓
                1. johnnyme

                  And The Shaggs were one of the most unique bands in rock and roll history:

                  The Shaggs were an American rock band formed in Fremont, New Hampshire, in 1965. They comprised the sisters Dorothy “Dot” Wiggin (vocals and lead guitar), Betty Wiggin (vocals and rhythm guitar), Helen Wiggin (drums) and, later, Rachel Wiggin (bass guitar). Their music has been described as both among the worst of all time and a work of unintentional brilliance.

                  The Shaggs composed seemingly simple and bizarre songs using untuned guitars, erratic time signatures, disconnected rhythms, wandering melodies and rudimentary lyrics. According to Rolling Stone, the sisters sang like “lobotomized Trapp Family Singers”, while the musician Terry Adams compared their music to the free jazz compositions of Ornette Coleman.

                  The Shaggs formed at the insistence of their father, Austin Wiggin, who believed that his mother had predicted their rise to fame. For several years, he made them practice every day and perform weekly at the Fremont town hall. The girls had no interest in becoming musicians and never became proficient in songwriting or performing. In 1969, Austin paid for them to record an album, Philosophy of the World, which was distributed in limited quantities in 1969 by a local record label. The Shaggs disbanded in 1975 after Austin’s death.

                  The last person I introduced The Shaggs to threatened me with bodily harm after hearing their song “My Pal Foot Foot” so the curious and adventurous are best served by a quick trip to their favorite search engine.

                  Reply ↓
  12. Wukchumni

    Myrtle Beach is unfortunately not included on my Ikon pass…

    Great week in Utah with the Dartful Codgers even if the temps never went above freezing, testing the sensibilities of admittedly weather wimpy Californians. It’s all downhill from here until we hit Interstate 15 and hang a right.

    Saw a new all-time high walk up lift ticket price @ Deer Valley ski resort of $329 the other day. I propose they rename it ‘Dear Valley’.

    Reply ↓
      1. Wukchumni

        Looks as if the oldest Dartful Codger in our group has skied his last @ 75. He put in a good effort over 62 years of steadily declining downhill, but shift happens.

        Reply ↓
      2. mrsyk

        That’d be me. I seem to have left my knees and shoulders on the slopes, courts, and pitches that hosted my younger days. If anybody has an extra set to spare…

        Reply ↓
          1. mrsyk

            Once upon a time I was good at that.
            Snowshoes is what we use now. Been out once this year, last Sunday up on Prospect Mountain. There’s been very little snow so mostly it’s been hiking with spikes.

            Reply ↓
  13. John Merryman

    The battle in Trump world, between the religious holy warriors and the oligarchs will be fun to watch play out. Even if it takes all of Western Civ down with it.
    Christ is going to save our souls, versus the biggest piles of loot.
    The larger the crowd, the lower the common denominators. Simple ideas for simple minds.

    Reply ↓
      1. John Merryman

        More you have, the more you have to worry about.
        Falls in the category of being careful what you pray for.

        Reply ↓
      2. griffen

        I forget which site or journal that published the article last year, but there are definitely a few specific families who tick both of those boxes. Lots of wealth and then adding in their personal layer of influencing and pontificating….on the ways that the Lord above desires a kingdom here on earth.

        The article covered this unusual and lesser known movement in evangelical circles, Seven Mountains. I can tell anyone here that I grew up with a few edges, better than dirt poor but learned early about work ethic. Economic times of the Reagan era weren’t booming in eastern NC…and my small time independent Baptist church was not spouting this prosperity gospel but more like NT teachings with some Holy Terror included from the OT…

        Wealthy elite Christian thought seemingly ignores the varying bromides from Jesus…easier for a camel to pass the eye of a needle and so forth, or Blessed are the meek…

        Prior to his end as leader at Liberty University, Falwell Jr represented what I would consider the worst traits of such a culture that adored raising vast sums of money and commanding influence…I guess I’ll throw out that it’s apparent the worship of Mammon has a long and twisted history in this country.

        Reply ↓
    1. GramSci

      «The billionaire owner of Tesla, SpaceX, Starlink, and X, has virtually limitless resources to make life difficult for lawmakers who oppose his will in the House and Senate.»

      Reply ↓
        1. .human

          Thanks for bringing up Catherine Austin Fitts. I’d been looking for an opening to introduce her to those not familiar with her decades of alternative / anti-establishment economics research and writings: solari.com

          Reply ↓
      3. Erstwhile

        The supreme court has made certain that all the political power in the country remains in the hands of the people who own all the economic power.

        Reply ↓
        1. John Merryman

          Which is why Russia and China effectively went back to private government, with Putin and Xi as CEO’s, to control their oligarchs. Which is why our oligarchs and their crowds of flying monkeys hate them so much.

          Reply ↓
  15. The Rev Kev

    “Trump Raises Heat on Russia with Belligerent New Threats”

    Trump being his typical ham-fisted self and in that tweet he sent, he ended up only annoying most Russians. He starts of by saying how he loves Russians but unless they surrender, he is going to wreck their economy and impoverish them. He is really making them an offer that they can’t refuse and saying they they can do it the easy way or the hard way. Sounds like something from Goodfellas. Then he said that they lost 60 million people in WW2 because Trump does not know about search engines. But what really riled them was when he said that Russia helped win WW2 when it was Russia that did the heavy lifting. I think that about 80% of Wehrmacht losses were to Russians and not the Allies. He also said that the Russian economy is failing when even the IMF said that the Russian economy is booming. A day or so ago Trump ended up in a shouting match with Denmark’s leader because they refused to hand over Greenland to him. Trump is going to fare even worse when he eventually phones Putin if he believes all this crap that he is sprouting.

    Reply ↓
    2. Skip Intro

      Dima seemed really pissed, but I was shocked a US president could mention Russian participation in the war, let alone express their staggering losses (all numbers get bigger when he tries to say them). I would expect a Biden summary of the war to stop at the non-aggression pact… umm where his son was killed.

      Reply ↓
    3. Carolinian

      Interestingly in one of his latest talks Putin calls Trump a pragmatic leader and says that if he had won in 2000 there would have been no war in Ukraine.

      Which–that last part–is probably true.

      But the interesting part is that he has keenly realized that when it comes to Trump flattery will get you anywhere. There may yet be hope for peace.

      Reply ↓
      1. Skip Intro

        I think he even said something like ‘if the election hadn’t been stolen from Trump’.
        And this statement has other implications. If Trump hadn’t won in 2016, the war would have started in 2017, with Russia in a far worse position to deal with the economic blitzkrieg the new neocon administration would unleash. I think part of the reason for neocon certainty that Russia interfered in 2016, is that they knew the war plan. When that same plan was rolled out 4 years later, Russia was much better prepared, and the economy-based regime change attack on Putin has spectacularly backfired on the leaders who ran it.

        Reply ↓
        1. Yves Smith Post author

          No, Russia did not “know the war plan”. Hillary announced it and we discussed it on this site. Hillary said she was going to impose a no-fly zone in Syria. That = a hot war with Russia.

          And please do not dignify the claim that Russia meddled in 2016. Cognitive research shows that repeating debunked ideas, even when attempting to debunk them, reinforces them unless done in a very careful way.

          Reply ↓
          1. Skip Intro

            NO!!!! I’m sorry I was not clear.
            I’m saying that the neocons knew the war plan, Probably Russia knew in general based on many public announcements that NATO was after Ukraine, but Russia demonstrably had no effect on the election in 2016 or 2020 or 2024, unlike Ukraine.

            No, my point was that people out of the loop think the Russiagate hoax was totally out of the blue, whereas the paranoid-for-profit neocons infesting Clinton’s state dept., who had already picked out the drapes for the White House, saw Trump’s shocking (to them) victory as proof in itself of some brilliant Russian 4D Chess stratagem. They only needed to find out how them Russkies had done it, and settled on the most plausible explanation: that Russia’s $80k of random facebook clickbait beat Clinton’s $1.5 billion professional narrative machine, and more than half the US media. The other excuse was the Ukrainian-linked Counterstrike’s unbacked claim of Russian hacking of Clinton’s email.
            I do think the neocons tipped their hand with the MH-17 operation, so the extra time Russia had to prepare economically for the attack they would face once they had been provoked into action proved critical to their resilience. This site covered, IIRC, the rapidity with which they created a domestic cheese industry in response to sanctions. I expect efforts like that were undertaken broadly.

            Reply ↓
  16. Wukchumni

    Water is for lying over-Whiskey is for lying under… dept:

    Watched Trump’s presser from Pacific Palisades, and he fielded many questions from nobody really, plotted plants if you will.

    It’s obvious the Delta Smelt is behind our water woes-not the near complete lack of rain in a May to December romance in SoCal that went horribly wrong this Januaryember.

    Reply ↓
    1. griffen

      Caught different portions of his comments yesterday from NC as well, about future plans for FEMA. Instead the country club elite can title the next iteration of FEMA as “you are thoroughly screwed, either since you are poor or just couldn’t figure a better place to be …”.Or rather, we in DC could find the money but only if you are a giant American corporation…\Sarc

      yeah mess around with FEMA just after all this crap from hurricane Helene and now these wildfires scorching the earth in SoCal. Biden then Trump… surely our elected leaders aren’t really this uncaring and feckless…oh wait, never mind!

      Reply ↓
      1. The Rev Kev

        God, that is such a bad story. Financiers seem to be looking across the economy to find any niche firms that turn out to be vital, gobble them up and them up the charges accordingly. I hope that this comes up in any inquiry on those fires but I bet that it will not be allowed to be mentioned and fobbed off as due to “budget cuts.”

        Reply ↓
        1. JBird4049

          About those budget cuts, if we are speaking of Los Angeles, all the money cut from the fire department seems to have gone to the police department and not actually cut from the budget, just shifted from one department to another. If I understand correctly, the police union got a billion dollar in raises over four years and the money had to come from somewhere, which was taken mainly from cuts mostly to the fire department as well as several other departments.

          Reply ↓
  17. mrsyk

    This Is Why You Can’t Hula Hoop, According to Science , because I’m old, stiff, and skinny with no hips. Knew that already, thanks for the reminder.

    Reply ↓
  18. Zagonostra

    Young women on a reindeer. Magical. All the young women I know have a smart phone on their car dashboard. As well as young men. Hope tribe makes it, May need to perpetuate human species after West blows up everything.

    Reply ↓
  19. farmboy

    Philip Pilkington
    @philippilk
    ·
    18h
    This is what makes the DeepSeek thing so funny. A bunch of grifters have been selling AI secret sauce for years – spooky mystery juice that could never be fully explained. Now a bunch of young guys just wrote a good algo, published it, and the circus tent burned down. 🤖

    Reply ↓
  20. farmboy

    This is what makes the DeepSeek thing so funny. A bunch of grifters have been selling AI secret sauce for years – spooky mystery juice that could never be fully explained. Now a bunch of young guys just wrote a good algo, published it, and the circus tent burned down. 🤖
    @philippilk

    Reply ↓
  21. jhallc

    Re: Security Focus on West Bank article:

    “Twelve Palestinians are reported to have been killed in the operation and dozens injured, including two men suspected of murdering three Israelis in a shooting attack earlier this month.”

    So the 10 civilians are killed and not murdered? Apparently only the Israelis can be murdered? Nice to have the BBC in your pocket.

    Reply ↓
  22. CA

    https://english.news.cn/20250120/c36379e3c31d4f369e67e3c17720a540/c.html

    January 20, 2025

    China’s space station achieves breakthrough in extraterrestrial artificial photosynthesis

    BEIJING — Among the key challenges to sustaining long-term life beyond Earth are achieving self-sufficiency and reducing reliance on Earth’s resource supply.

    Utilizing in-situ resources — such as lunar regolith or carbon dioxide from the Martian atmosphere — to produce oxygen and fuel is a critical strategy to achieve extraterrestrial resource utilization and minimize dependence on Earth’s resources.

    China’s space station has recently conducted experiments on extraterrestrial artificial photosynthesis technology, completing the in-orbit verification of efficient carbon dioxide conversion and oxygen regeneration processes.

    According to the China Manned Space Agency (CMSA), this breakthrough could be a technical foundation for the country’s future manned deep-space exploration missions.

    Extraterrestrial artificial photosynthesis is the process of using solar energy to convert carbon dioxide and water into oxygen and carbon-containing compounds through physicochemical methods in extraterrestrial environments. This innovative method, based on in-situ resource utilization, enables efficient carbon dioxide conversion and oxygen regeneration.

    Unlike conventional high-temperature and high-pressure carbon dioxide reduction methods, this process is carried out under ambient temperature and pressure conditions.

    It also supports multiple energy conversion pathways, such as solar-to-chemical, solar-to-electrical-to-chemical and solar-to-thermal-to-chemical energy conversion, significantly improving energy utilization efficiency.

    Additionally, by modifying the catalysts for the reaction, it is possible to selectively produce various carbon dioxide reduction products through extraterrestrial artificial photosynthesis.

    These products may include methane or ethylene, which can be used as propellants, as well as formic acid, a key raw material for sugar synthesis. According to the CMSA, this capability holds significant value for long-term extraterrestrial survival and future in-situ resource utilization…

    Reply ↓
    1. Ken Murphy

      One thing I’ve long respected about Chinese space efforts in recent decades is that they tell everyone what they’re going to do in their 5-year plans, and then they do it. As compared with, say, the U.S. where they say what they’re going to do, and then we wait while timelines extend, promises are made, and budgets balloon. With little in the way of actual performance and results.
      Also, the echo-chamber nature of our current space efforts is how we end up with things like a Moon-orbiting spaceship in a Near-rectilinear HALO orbit to serve as a taxi to the Moon for the underpowered SLS instead of being parked at EML-1 to serve multiple destinations as a good piece of long-term infrastructure should.
      Sadly, the Chinese seem to be actually doing the stuff we’ve talked about here in the U.S. for decades. Yes, I am aware of Mr. Musk’s achievements, and laud what -his team- have accomplished. But, I don’t do cults of personality, and don’t think it wise to piggyback one’s hopes and aspirations on someone else’s agenda. dearMoon comes to mind.

      Reply ↓
  23. Carolinian

    Re Moon of Alabama and AI–thanks for the link. And one might point out that not only are the Chinese outdoing our tech but the Russians are as well in the current war. If Trump really wants to make America great again he will have to remove the head from which the fish is rotting. Our world of money can only buy a certain kind of power. It’s the hungry in their garages who create the new ideas or, alternately, the hungry nations on the rise. Russia doesn’t quite fall into that category but they do see themselves under threat and act accordingly. Here in the US the runways are foamed and precarity is for the little people.

    Reply ↓
    1. GramSci

      Since Antifa is hopefully away enjoying a well-deserved vacation, I take the liberty of reposting the following from Moon of Alabama and AI. It’s a reply from canuck }18 to the earlier post by Christian J Chuba | 6:

      Posted by: Christian J Chuba | Jan 24 2025 16:17 utc | 6

      I call mine Walmart chatGPT as I pay nothing I sign it Chat Gupta

      Your post in:

      Rhyming Iambic Pentameter:

      As one who pays for ChatGPT each month,
      I sing its praise with all my heart and strength.
      It stands as Google’s fiercest foe to date,
      Replacing ads and links that oft frustrate.

      No parsing URLs, no clicking through,
      For here’s an answer, clear and swift, to view.
      A search with Google once was filled with dross,
      But now AI ensures there’s little loss.

      For coders such as I, it proves its worth,
      With syntax clear, obscure commands give birth.
      No need for man page scrolls or threads to roam,
      My answers come, direct, and bring me home.

      To sed or awk or regex I now turn,
      And trust the flames of knowledge that here burn.
      I do not fear this AI’s mighty hand,
      It aids the skilled who questions understand.

      What’s more, it grasps my tangled, jumbled prose,
      A skill that leaves me floored, as if it knows.
      Excitement stirs this geek, and rightly so,
      For marvels such as this through time will grow.

      On China’s rise, I’ve grown too tired of claims
      That mimicry defines their greatest aims.
      When mighty feats they build, the West decries,
      And digs up comics, See! It’s all our prize!

      Let’s learn to see beyond this jealous view,
      And give to others credit that is due.
      The world moves forward not through scorn or jest,
      But through the union of its minds’ best quests.

      Chat Gupta

      Posted by: canuck | Jan 24 2025 16:48 utc | 18

      Reply ↓
    2. NYMutza

      Now matter how the United States operates, no matter who is in charge it is absurd to think that the US can actually achieve “full spectrum dominance”. It should have been expected that China would make any number of technological advances. Thinking that a nation of 1.3 billion, many of whom are intelligent and hardworking, can be held back is the height of hubris. China will not be held back. Thank god for that!! The world does not need a global hegemon. I for one look forward to the day when the United States is knocked off its high horse and learns how to play nice with others.

      Reply ↓
      1. AG

        One of the very few positive Hollywood associations along this line that I know of is Ridley Scott’s “The Martian”. Finally a movie where the Chinese were at least simply the good guys and in fact have a solution which helps save the hero.
        And in that context it offered an emotional turning point and revelation what made it memorable for the viewer. That´s how you create “narratives” for the masses which if repeated make for a change in ideology.

        Reply ↓
  24. Trees&Trunks

    I am willfully putting my tinfoil hat on. Just hear me out. The rat and the joy stick. I am convinced it is true. There are well-endowed rats out there bred in Fauci-labs. They just don’t want YOU to know it because you would like to want one. Having a big one may make you feel better about yourself and starting to make demands and all of a sudden there is communism all over the world. Not what Davos is envisioning for you.

    The quest for the Ratus Johnholmesus has begun. Where is the mRNA substance?

    Reply ↓
  25. Tom Stone

    Donald and the Thugs are saying the “o Die” part out loud, which is unwise.
    And culling the herd indiscriminately can have unintended consequences, even for our overlords.

    Reply ↓
  26. Jason Boxman

    The Race for All-Powerful Pot

    Inside the $32 billion industry transforming marijuana, its consumption and beliefs about its ability to heal.

    The stuff today isn’t potent enough already?

    Inside its Los Angeles headquarters, crews dust joints with concentrated THC, the intoxicating component of cannabis. They package pocket-size vape cartridges that promise “the highest potency possible.” On its website, the company declares that “it has never been easier (or quicker) to get silly high for an affordable price.”

    Apparently not.

    Nearly 18 million Americans now report using marijuana daily or near daily — more than the number drinking alcohol that often — according to a national survey on drug use. A growing number are enduring addiction, psychosis and other harms, a Times investigation last year found.

    As I recall IM Doc saying a few years ago, this stuff is not harmless.

    Reply ↓
  29. ChrisFromGA

    T minus 30 hours until we find out if the Reid-Swiftian reign of terror ends …

    I’m hoping for the best but expecting the worst.

    Reply ↓
    1. Henry Moon Pie

      :D

      Back in 2012, there was one of those online articles about “Worst Places to Live.” KC showed up on the list because of their bad sports teams. Now I figured the list was made up by four frat boys into their third martini in a Manhattan bar, but it was true that the Royals were losing 100 games a year, while the Chiefs had the worst record in the NFL in 2012.

      Fans of KC teams have suffered a lot. In the 50s, the KC A’s were no Monarchs. The owners were broke, and whenever they developed a good player like Roger Maris, they would sell the player to the Yankees or make an uneven trade. In the 60s, Charlie Finley bought the club and actually invested in a farm system. The result was a team that would Threepeat in the World Series, but alas, the glory came after Finley moved them to Oakland.

      KC got the expansion Royals after Stu Symington threatened baseball’s antitrust exemption, and the Royals had a great run from ’76-’85, winning 6 West Division titles, two pennants and a WS. It looked like they might become a dynasty when they drafted Bo Jackson, but Bo also knew football and pulled his leg out of its socket playing for the Raiders. Then the team’s first owner, Ewing Kaufman died. Kaufman was truly devoted to the team, but no one in KC stepped up to buy the team, so it was run by a board with a former Walmart CEO as chairman. Predictably, the Royals became the old A’s, losing 100 games a year.

      When Lamar Hunt moved the AFL Dallas Texans to KC in 1963, they were one of the strongest teams in the AFL thanks to HSBC recruiting and Hank Stram’s inventiveness. But after bringing KC’s first championship with a win in SB IV, they had plenty of good regular seasons, but managed only one divisional playoff win in 50 years. Mahomes was sitting on the bench in 2017 when the Chiefs built a 21-3 halftime lead against the Titans in a divisional playoff at Arrowhead. The Chiefs lost.

      KC is one of the smallest markets in the MLB and NFL. While that’s much less important in the NFL with revenue sharing and a salary cap, it does mean that KC teams have trouble signing top flight free agents. KC is still a cowtown, and its citizens are often asked if they know Dorothy when they travel out of town. They’re not like the Yankees or Dodgers with huge payrolls. nor like the Cowboys who get lots of attention still even though it’s been more than 30 years since they were in the SB. For decades, the Chiefs’ best players and seasons attracted little attention. Until now.

      So have a little compassion for the Chiefs and their fans. While Mahomes asserts that his team should never be underdogs, KC teams are always underdogs. So while watching the Arrowhead Invitational this year, remember the decades of frustration that preceded it. And while it may be true, as native Kansas Citian and FS1 sportstalker Nick Wright says, that the Chiefs season begins with the AFC championship–all the rest are “practice games”–the team and its fans have been through a lot.

      Reply ↓
      1. Bugs

        Thanks for saying this. I’m a Packer fan who suffered through 25 years of awful coaching and management until we finally got back on track as a competitive team. Everyone I know is hoping the Bills win, as if the Chiefs are some flashy long-going dynasty or something. That’s just silly. I love watching Pat Mahomes play and if they set the record with the first SB hat trick in history, they deserve it. Or it could all end tomorrow KC might not see another playoff for a few decades. Go Chiefs.

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    2. griffen

      My bingo card is listing the Commanders against the Bills in two weeks at the Caesars Superdome in NO, but I got the wrong year …instead of 2025 this is more circa 1992…which now sounds long ago in full retrospect…I am strong in that the Iggles are good at running and defending which seems very helpful at managing the time management portion.

      I had a cynical thought yesterday afternoon…at age 52 and 1 month in, I am chronologically much closer to an eventual retirement than either of a high school or a college graduation ( 1995 ). Time to find clouds for yelling at today!

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    1. GramSci

      Mystifying, indeed.  Why does Ms. Harrington seek metaphors for thought in the cold void of particle physics instead of in warm, wet human neural function?  There, instead of words being entangled with uncertainty and decoherence, each word, each ‘thought’ is a resonance, a brief echo, among a living, breathing, eating, dying, ever-evolving network of neurons, almost like you and me, caught up in a circular stream, riverrun like the winds swirling restlessly around the earth. For a moment, ‘truth’ pops up on the wave like a flower and then is sucked down again into the eddies and undercurrents.  We catch a glimse of it, we give it some name, but we can never step into the same river twice.

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    2. Alice X

      Brewing a pinch of quantum mechanics, a barrel of metaphysics and a dash of politics in an elegant stew of utter ƒ¨ç˚ˆ˜© nonsense, this makes me want a big bottle of some strong stuff.

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  31. DMK

    Songs for the Trump Era

    Please add to the list with your favorites.

    R.E.M. “It’s the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine)
    Men at Work “It’s a Mistake”
    Fleetwood Mac “Little Lies”
    Crosby and Nash “Immigration Man”
    The Beatles “Help!”
    John Lennon “Nobody Told Me” (there’d be days like these, strange days indeed)

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    1. Platinum Snapdragon

      Heh. That R.E.M. song crossed my mind as I was trying to think of a theme for all the Trump stuff. Still early, but things are changing far more than I expected – yet I do feel fine. Maybe even a little hopeful. Doubt that will last, but one day at a time is all we have, isn’t it?

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