Links 2/1/2025

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45 comments

1. The Rev Kev February 1, 2025 at 7:14 am

   ‘Carl Zha
   @CarlZha
   “Over 83 hrs, Deepseek server cluster was subjected to over 230 million DDoS malicious requests per second, with the total attack volume equivalent to the total internet traffic of Europe for three days”
   I wonder who has the capability to carry out attack on such scale?🤔’

   What if the Chinese step in later and tell the US government that they sure have a nice OpenAI program. And it would be a shame if it suffered it’s own DDoS attacks.

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   1. Tom Doak February 1, 2025 at 8:14 am

      Who says it’s state-sponsored? Maybe all that AI is going to do is attack other companies’ AI.

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      1. The Rev Kev February 1, 2025 at 8:31 am

         But what if they start talking to each other?

         https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colossus:_The_Forbin_Project#Plot

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   2. SocalJimObjects February 1, 2025 at 8:23 am

      Skynet Alpha is attacking Skynet Beta. Won’t someone please think of AI rights? According to DOGE, only one of them will be eligible for that last H1B slot this year, so expect some fierce competition going forward.

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   3. Mark Gisleson February 1, 2025 at 8:38 am

      Progress! In 2005 it only took 28,000 DDoS malicious requests over a few hours to get the server farm to stop hosting my old blog.

      I do know that I could not access DeepSeek for a couple of days this week so I guess the USA wins.

      USA! USA! USA!

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2. hazelbee February 1, 2025 at 7:30 am

   most common colour for the northern lights is green. blues and purple also. yellow is very rare. I’d expect other colours in there too.

   We’ve seen it very occasionally as far south as london and the home counties this year. Hard to see with the light pollution down here though.

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   1. Chet G February 1, 2025 at 9:41 am

      I agree with your color naming. When in Iceland and I saw an aurora for the first time, what amazed me the most was the incredible and rapid movement of light folding and running along itself. Amazing.

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3. Colonel Smithers February 1, 2025 at 7:38 am

   Thank you, Yves.

   I would like to draw attention to this article, https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cp8qz22dqdzo, regarding Prince Andrew.

   The MSM is not reporting another e-mail from that trove, which states that the new British ambassador to Washington, Petie (Epstein’s nickname) Mandelson, met Epstein in 2012, so well after his conviction. The spotlight is entirely on the prince, which tells you much about Britain’s new elite.

   Emily Maitlis, who interviewed Andrew, and Mandelson go back decades. He helped her get into the media.

   The Epstein diaries and address books list over 300 British nationals and residents, including some prominent media types. Only Andrew gets air time.

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4. Wukchumni February 1, 2025 at 7:41 am

   Gooooooood Moooooooooorning Fiatnam!

   The Dept of Homeland Security was with us on Border Collie Patrol trying to give us a few Pointers about bad dogs, bad dogs, whatcha gonna do when they lunge at you!

   One of the keys she related is to wear earrings long enough so they can double as a bold fashion statement and/or garrote an unruly undocumented Chihuahua.

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   1. The Rev Kev February 1, 2025 at 7:48 am

      Maybe cravats from the 70s will make a return as they can be used to tie up a vicious Pomeranian.

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      1. Wukchumni February 1, 2025 at 8:00 am

         A leg warmer from the 80’s could come in real handy against a Lhasa Apso with bad intent, just saying.

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         1. ambrit February 1, 2025 at 8:56 am

            What would be best to ‘deflate’ an Ill Bred Poodle? (Pardon my “French.”) {Asking for a Weimaraner Republic economics minister.}

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            1. Wukchumni February 1, 2025 at 9:09 am

               I don’t give a Shih Tzu how affectionate a cur may seem, Noem wasn’t built in a day, it took a number of hearings to confirm her.

               Xmas songs in February, why not!

               Loathe incarnate, loathe divine
               Star of South Dakota gave the sign
               Bow with shotgun on bended knee
               In the gravel pit, last rites you see
               Unto us a political career is stillborn lore
               She shall become a lesson forevermore

               Noem, Noem
               Come and see what the dog has done
               Noem, Noem
               The story of amazing puppy loathe!
               The blight of the world, taken from us
               Noem

               NRA clod and no Veep of the man
               There was no chance before the election began
               Borne to suffer, borne to not save
               Gonna raise from her political grave
               Cricket, the everlasting gore
               She shall become a lesson forevermore

               Noem, Noem
               Come and see what the dog has done
               Noem, Noem
               The story of amazing puppy loathe!
               The blight of the world, taken from us
               Noem

               Noem, Noem
               Come and see what the dog has done
               Noem, Noem
               The story of amazing puppy loathe!
               The blight of the world, taken from us
               Noem, Noem

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5. The Rev Kev February 1, 2025 at 7:44 am

   “Trump says Canada, Mexico tariffs on Saturday may not include oil”

   That’s generous of Trump. Well it looks like that he is going ahead with those tariffs with 25% against Canada and Mexico and 10% against China. If I were Canada or Mexico, I would announce a 25% export tax on oil going to the US so that the funds raised can help offset the damage that Trump will be doing to their economies. Of course it would mean higher gas prices but that would be on Trump

   There is something else that I am wondering about and I feel that I may be going over my skis here. So take Mexico here as he is going to hit them with a 25% tariff. But in doing so unilaterally, would that not make the United States–Mexico–Canada Agreement null and void? Nick Corbishley has mentioned in his posts how the US wants to use that agreement as a bludgeon against Mexico to force it to bend the knee. But if Trump has now essentially trashed it with this unilateral action, then it no longer exists and cannot be used against them. It may even have to be completely renegotiated if they want that agreement to continue. Maybe.

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   1. Lieaibolmmai February 1, 2025 at 8:08 am

      I was hearing some news that he is pausing the tariffs until March 1st, but it seems that was “fake news”, or was Trump getting unnerved because Mr. Market had a sad day?

      I am lucky I am poor and I do not buy many things.

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   2. John Wright February 1, 2025 at 8:09 am

      Maybe there are a few people who are viewing Trump’s tariffs from a “learning experience” point of view.

      For example, if Trump’s tariffs decrease consumption in the USA, that might add some small amount of time before drastic climate change effects hit and show the USA it can consume less.

      But left, right, center in the USA always seem to always be in “preserve high consumption in the developed world” mode.

      Perhaps TPTB are collectively worried about what may happen when the music stops.

      Maybe gangs of roving ice cream fanatics raiding Pelosi’s freezer?

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      1. The Rev Kev February 1, 2025 at 9:08 am

         I think that there would be intense shock. It is one thing to have a shortage as they are only a passing thing and you expect them from time to time. But to find one day that certain things are not available at any price and that this is going to be the new norm for years if not forever? And that some of these things are essential such as spare parts. What happens when one day the Cornucopia has run dry?

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         1. griffen February 1, 2025 at 9:36 am

            As to the topic of supplies and potential outages…This isn’t exactly a broad example but instead highly specific to my single automotive experience from two weeks ago. Remote key needs a new battery , when I visit the nearby Honda dealership they are out and it has been on backorder with their supplier…and the parts guy could not predict when those might arrive. So my reliable vehicle, a 2008 Accord with nearly 230k miles can be driven but I cannot reliably lock and or unlock the vehicle. I like to term such issues as being a first world problem.

            This is not in the boondocks, but in the Greenville Spartanburg area in South Carolina. This region has been on a boomlet of sorts, since I relocated here in 2016. Lots of growth and sponsored economic development.

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   3. griffen February 1, 2025 at 8:58 am

      What’s the motto for tech bros and more broadly Silicon Valley? Move fast and break stuff..looks like through week 2 of this 47th President or Trump 2.0, whichever is preferable, we’re gonna break a lot of eggs making these messy omelette out of whichever policy they are gonna pursue.

      As I discussed this yesterday afternoon with a lifelong friend, from our lean days 25 years back in Chapel Thrill*, NC..I am still uncertain where I stand on these tariffs. Added I heard comments this week that all the national PhD in the Federal Reserve and in investment firms are apparently wrong and that “tariffs will not be inflationary”. CNBC was covering this topic at length yesterday.

      What worked before may not work a second go around…if it even had worked the first time. I tend to concur that any additional tariffs will indeed prove inflationary. By the way I mean Chapel Hill in the above, aforementioned location. Tar Heels enter the enemy camp at Durham this evening, a mere 7 or so miles, a distance best traveled via the team bus.

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6. Lieaibolmmai February 1, 2025 at 8:02 am

   I know this is obvious to everyone here, but it is worth repeating so we can repeat it to our friends.

   Immigration is not the problem. The problem is economic. All thee countries are having a hard time dealing with immigrants because the money is being horded by the oligarchs. When there is this huge separation of wealth ordinary people suffer, and the oligarchs direct their anger (now with the help of social media algorithms and AI) as far away from the real problem as they can. It is the same with DEI (from both parties) .

   This was no different under Biden than it is with Trump. Maybe it was a bit softer, but now Trump knows there is no opposition to this wealth capture the MAGA movement is unleashed.

   I have had dreams of protecting my dead brother the last two nights, I never saw him in the dreams, but it was just me having to help him of a feeling of concern about him in some way. I do not know why I am traveling there, still working on the message. But he was poor and disabled from a teenage suicide attempt.

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7. Zagonostra February 1, 2025 at 8:05 am

   >Why are the oligarchs so grossly aggressive? Here are four answers etc via machine translation (Micael T)

   The power of the oligarchs is based on the passivity of the masses, and we who are powerless are fed with statements that only become more aggressive.

   Very little to do with “aggressiveness.” It has to do with evil. The assumption in the title is that it’s an imbalance of a natural array of human instincts. Humans like animals can become aggressive if pushed to it. So you could say it’s part of the Natural Order. This is about right and wrong good and evil, the moral order is a subset of the natural order. If by “grossly aggressive” the author means evil then it makes sense

   Yesterday I saw a clip of Tucker Carlson interviewing Piers Morgan. Some of PM’s comments where so outside the pale of common morals that I think, at least metaphorically, David Icke is correct and there are reptilians among us. When asked about the bombing of children PM tried to normalize it as an unavoidable consequence of war, when TC further narrowed it to the “deliberate” targeting of children, PM was not willing to call it evil. His employer should fire him. It’s not the Chinese student who organizes a protest for Palestine and then expelled, but people like PM thta should be expelled from the body politic. What we need is a good societal emetic.

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8. The Rev Kev February 1, 2025 at 8:09 am

   “Greek defence minister demands France explain sale of missiles to Turkey”

   And to think that it was only five years ago that Turkish and French ships were having military confrontations in the Med-

   https://www.france24.com/en/20200702-turkey-demands-apology-from-france-over-naval-incident-claim

   I would guess that France desperately wants to get back into Syria but can only do so with the nod from Turkiye and selling those missiles helps that cause. Tough luck for Greece though.

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9. pugilist February 1, 2025 at 8:12 am

   Regarding auroras – even the “real” photos are not real – in person, auroras usually look like unremarkable long gray clouds. The colors only appear on cameras with long exposures or timelapses. For colors to be visible to the naked eye, solar activity must be unusually high, sky clear, and latitude around 65°. Even then, the colors are very faint

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   1. GramSci February 1, 2025 at 8:42 am

      «For colors to be visible to the naked eye, solar activity must be unusually high, sky clear,»

      This much is true, but I remember a scant half dozen dazzling displays between 44 and 38° N.

      Worth waking up for at 2am — but also NO city lights.

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   2. Jessica February 1, 2025 at 8:46 am

      I saw quite colorful auroras while driving from south of Kamloops, British Columbia north to Valemount, BC. Another time green and red and white in Edmonton, Alberta and another time mostly bright white with some green about 2 hours north of Edmonton. That’s from around 50 degrees north to 54 degrees north.

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10. GramSci February 1, 2025 at 8:12 am

    Re: CIA/NYT Remove North Korean Troops From Ukraine’s Front Line

    Moon of Alabama wraps up a tidy history of the North Korean ‘invasion’ of Ukraine, but according to my outside information, b was naive to buy the RAND ‘plan’ to engender distrust among Russia, China, and North Korea.

    IMHO, the RAND ‘plan’ was designed to exacerbate distrust between South and North Korea, and gaslight Congress while allowing Yoon Seok-yeol to declare martial law, and start funneling US military aid through South Korea to Ukraine in anticipation of Trump’s victory, expecting that Trump would never cut back aid to Yoon.

    The ‘RAND plan’ would have worked, had Blinken’s entire knowledge of South Korea not been based on interception of South Korean transmissions from Rakuten Viki.

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11. Wukchumni February 1, 2025 at 8:33 am

    It’s almost entirely tree crops here in Godzone, Cali’s red state bastion which reliably votes in Republicans, you’d probably need to be Jesus to win the D-vote here, and none of those ‘Hey-Zeus’ types picking crops and pruning your trees please.

    In 2016 and 2020 along Hwy 99 it was a Trump lovefest, hundreds of campaign signs on display, but then he screwed the farmers by putting tariffs on Chinese goods and they retaliated on almonds in particular-this despite a fondness for almond cookies in the Middle Kingdom!

    The price went from $4 a pound to a buck fifty a pound, that’s a 60% off sale.

    In the runup to the 2024 election there were but a handful of Trump signs on Hwy 99-the main artery, they got religion, and hard.

    In the last few days, Trump ordered the release of their water from the Terminus Dam here and the Success Dam on the Tule River, all of which typically goes to the Friant-Kern Canal and then to orchardists who need it in the summer when its a hundred and hell-not now when many of the food trees are dormant.

    As far as I know, nobody in Big Nuts was made whole for their losses thanks to Trump’s tariffs~

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    1. The Rev Kev February 1, 2025 at 8:40 am

       Gotta ask. So what was the justification for releasing all that water in the middle of winter when rainfall to replenish those dams is not assured between now and summer?

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12. DJG, Reality Czar February 1, 2025 at 8:38 am

    The Case against Drinking. Sam Kahn.

    Not proven.

    I didn’t exactly come from a family of teetotalers, and I am not one myself. There’s a half-bottle of Vermentino from Sardinia in the fridge awaiting dinnertime. But the culture that Kahn describes and that he, in good U.S. fashion, then extrapolates a whole world from, is unfamiliar terrain to me:

    “But I did notice how much my daily patterns—even if I really hadn’t been a heavy drinker—were built around alcohol. The reward for a good day’s work was a drink, the consolation for a bad mood was a drink, a meeting with a friend meant drinking, and the end of the week, or any holiday or life milestone, was supposed to be celebrated by drinking.”

    He claims that he isn’t an alcoholic, but this sounds like alcoholism to me. Much like people who have to celebrate every moment in life with a doughnut and drink Coca-Cola at breakfast — who then wonder about the source of their type-II diabetes.

    Instead, some advice from the Greeks (yeah, I know, dead white men and ladies, and what would they know?):

    Euboulus, fragment, Semele or Dionysos
    In the Greek play Semele or Dionysus, written around 375 BC, the god of wine himself delivers this speech:

    I mix three drinks for the temperate:
    One for health, which they empty first,
    The second for love and pleasure,
    The third for sleep.
    When these cups are emptied, the wise go home.
    The fourth drink is ours no longer, but belongs to arrogance,
    The fifth to uproar,
    The sixth to drunken revelry,
    The seventh to black eyes,
    The eighth to lawsuits,
    The ninth to anger,
    And the tenth to madness and the hurling of furniture.

    PS: One of the main differences between Italian culture and U.S. culture is that in Italy public drunkenness is frowned on. All the more so here in the hard-working Undisclosed Region. There are still alcoholics, yet one doesn’t have the U.S. culture of “it’s okay to be a screaming drunk in a bar.” Maybe some socially constructed disapproval on tap in America.

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    1. .Tom February 1, 2025 at 8:53 am

       It’s not just an American thing. Public drunkenness is common in many parts of Europe too. When I still lived in Europe I used to wonder about this difference between north and south and theorize about it. Was it to do with sunshine in winter? Protestantism?

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    2. Lieaibolmmai February 1, 2025 at 9:05 am

       Here here! Ethanol is the homemade medication that the drug companies don’t want you to know about. It is the most effective and broad ion channel blocker, and it reaches the brain, a feat they have yet failed to mimic. Like any folk medicine, you should know if it is for you or not.

       Just like medication your doctor will prescribe, they can be abused or used incorrectly. Gabapentin is a good example, you know they call the “Budwieser’s” on the street for a reason.

       Binge drinking is the problem in the USA. My grandfather, 1st generation Italian, lived to a very aware age of 98 and drank vodka everyday. When I stayed on Sardinia for a month in my 30’s, the sight of children, 13 and 14, having a small glass of wine with their food was a delight. So I follow my grandfather’s lead and have three shots a day; always separated by hours, and never drunk.

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13. .Tom February 1, 2025 at 8:40 am

    Why does an AI want is to believe that Norway is on fire?

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    1. The Rev Kev February 1, 2025 at 9:16 am

       Not Norway but Norwegian heads – when they found out that Germany and other countries want to hook back up to Russia’s gas using the sole surviving NS2 gas pipeline.

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14. Henry Moon Pie February 1, 2025 at 8:49 am

    Technofascism–

    I learned a lot about our oligarchs from this one. Andreeson, Ellison and a guy named Gilder, whom I don’t recall from the time. I would offer a partial corrective to the article’s placing this fervent hope in the entrepreneur on the Right and in Slilicon Valley exclusively. My encounter with my college alumni organization’s “Climate and Environment” committee shocked me by its mostly young members’ faith in an entrepreneurial solution to the climate catastrophe. “But business and the profit motive are the source of the problem!”, I cried to no avail.

    We’re about to see the Galt’s Gulch boys make real asses of themselves and their “philosophy.” Nemesis comin’ for Hubris.

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15. mrsyk February 1, 2025 at 8:52 am

    Chanel! Ma belle….
    These are words that go together well…

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    1. heh February 1, 2025 at 9:44 am

       Chanel 4 1/2, not be confused with Chanel No. 5 (not be confused with Zelensky No. 5).

       Click to Edit – 

       

       Chanel 4 1/2, not be confused with Chanel No. 5 (not be confused with Zelensky No. 5).

       SaveCancelDelete

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16. The Rev Kev February 1, 2025 at 8:58 am

    “Russia may drop caps on nuclear arms, if US pushes ahead with missile defense effort — MFA”

    Maybe Russia should announce a new doctrine in that they will target the source. So they could say that for every nuke that the US sets up in Europe to target Russia with, Russia will deploy five hypersonic missiles specifically targeting the US itself – starting with Washington DC and then the HQ for every arms manufacturer in the US. Share the joy so to say.

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17. Henry Moon Pie February 1, 2025 at 9:02 am

    One thought about tariffs that occurred to me when listening to Trump extol them as a way of addressing the debt and deficit. Aren’t tariffs potentially a way to sneak in a VAT tax even if it’s limited to goods coming from abroad? The importer pays the tax to the government and passes it on to the consumer. That’s not much different from a sales tax where the retailer pays it while passing it on directly to the consumer.

    It’s true that this partially applied tax will privilege domestically reduce goods, but it takes time to develop and build up domestic supply. In the meantime, we’re getting a big tax increase which we’ll be paying on essentials while the big boys get to keep their tax cuts.

    I’m going to suggest that hoping some flag-waving BS isn’t going to distract people from the coming price increases for long.

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18. mrsyk February 1, 2025 at 9:04 am

    Cruz. Have a look at the photo
    Oh. That gesture seems to be making the rounds.

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    1. The Rev Kev February 1, 2025 at 9:11 am

       Who knew that the Bellamy salute was going to come back roaring from the dead? Wasn’t on my bingo card for 2025.

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       1. mrsyk February 1, 2025 at 9:39 am

          From the linguistic genius of PG Wodehouse, Sir Roderick Spode.
          …The right, nay, the duty of every free-born Englishman to grow his own potatoes.

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19. timbers February 1, 2025 at 9:08 am

    “Global leaders call for tenfold increase in pre-arranged crisis finance to combat escalating climate change impacts.” **** Thats a great idea! Perhaps we could find public funding for pre-arranged crisis finance from infrastructure and healthcare budgets, because preparing for climate change impacts will reduce Healthcare spending and maybe public infrastructure damage! And absolutely fix the problem the poor only get 1.4% of current climate impact debt. We could make sure everyone gets pre-arranged climate impact finance by copying the student loan model, and the ACA with it’s early “URL’s” (speaking in lingo our ‘Global leaders’ understand) which allows “consumers” to “shop” for “coverage” in the “market” from 1 providers!

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20. ChrisFromGA February 1, 2025 at 9:08 am

    AI will degenerate just like Google search

    Seems about right. AI relies on human inputs for creative works. Humans stop being creative, because AI.

    AI rots.

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    1. timbers February 1, 2025 at 9:34 am

       “AI will degenerate just like Google search”- Maybe it already has…I joined FakeBook after closing my account about 10 yrs ago. Yet when I used my email, AI said it was already taken. When I googled how to contact a human at AI run FB to intervene, the consensus was good luck don’t waste your time. So used my second yahoo email which is identical to my Gmail but for the @. I re-joined for 1 reason only – to post a rental for housing in Market Place for University of Tennessee students. My first add was “declined”. My second remained in eternal “pending”. I emailed the indicated support team, noticing many of them haven’t been active on FB for months. Got a reply from a nameless (person or human? Not sure) entity which said they mostly let AI “do its thing.” I decided to post the rental through the usual property rental sites run by humans, and Craigslist, but I refer responses I get from Craigslist to the humans at the rental company because they will do background checks for me. I think the “fake” was linked to FB, because maybe it has or is beginning to become a collective of AI’s posting to each other? I don’t know.

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21. urdsama February 1, 2025 at 9:43 am

    Is it too much to hope that the recent political turmoil in Germany would give the BSW an opening to pick up more support? I feel that Sahra Wagenknecht is the only real hope for Germany, and then the rest of Europe, to find its way back to some degree of sanity.

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