World’s deepest art installation dumped 4.3 miles underwater near Mariana Trench Interesting Engineering
Ancient Greek and Roman Statues Were Not Only Beautiful, but Also Smelled Nice, Too Smithsonian
Your Poop Schedule Says a Lot About Your Overall Health, Study Discovers Science Alert
Lean Cuisine and Stouffer’s meals recalled for ‘wood-like material’ linked to choking AP
What’s the Matter with Abundance? Malcolm Harris, The Baffler
Climate/Environment
‘Travesty of Justice’: Jury Finds Greenpeace Must Pay Over $660 Million in Dakota Access Pipeline Case Common Dreams
CRYPTO MINING COMPANY AGREES TO SPEED CLEANUP OF ITS COAL ASH PILE Allegheny Front
Billions needed to save forests, but funding fuelling their destruction, reveals UNDP report Down to Earth
Pandemics
New measles cases confirmed in 2 Prince George’s County residents who traveled internationally WBAL-TV
USDA launches biosecurity steps for poultry producers, adds details on H7N9 avian flu detection CIDRAP
China?
Chinese semiconductors and alternative paths to innovation High Capacity
Africa
Causes of War New Left Review. On the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
The Alliance of Sahel States Forges Ahead Black Agenda Report
India
India’s coddled billionaires feel the pain of US tariffs Bloomberg
What is behind the Nagpur riots? Frontline
Old Blighty
Labour’s cuts: politics of the bully and economics of the miser Counterfire
O Canada
Off the shelf, up the flagpole: Canadian flags fly high in response to Trump Christian Science Monitor
Menaced by Trump, Canada Prepares to Join E.U. Military Industry Buildup New York Times
The Irving empire just landed an $8B payday—for warships no one asked for The Breach
Syraqistan
‘Nothing Short of Genocide’: Israel Kills 200 Children Common Dreams
More US Airstrikes Hit Yemen as Houthis Fire Missiles at Israel Antiwar
The Limitations of the US Naval Air Defense System will Force the US to Withdraw from the Red Sea Larry C Johnson, SONAR21
Trump threatens entire Resistance Axis and the EU, UK increase funding Al Qaeda in Syria Vanessa Beeley
US continues ‘maximum pressure’ campaign against Iran, sanctions Chinese firm for buying Tehran’s oil Hindustan Times
US approves sale of advanced precision kill weapon systems to Saudi Arabia Anadolu Agency
For much of the ‘Iranian Cultural Continent’, Nowruz is a time to celebrate the renewal of Nature and new beginnings Down to Earth
European Disunion
Probable Color Revolution Ongoing in Serbia Arktos
Sense of an Ending Lily Lynch, New Left Review. From last month, but Lynch has documented how Serbian regime actually enjoys support from the West.
Does the EU Stabilise or Destabilise its Neighbourhood? Glenn Diesen’s Substack
EU Summit Live: #Ukraine peace talks are not ‘real negotiations’, EU leaders say: EU leaders gather for a second summit this month. Follow live: https://t.co/uVkFh956Eg pic.twitter.com/NcNZ27HcZQ
— Euractiv (@Euractiv) March 20, 2025
New Not-So-Cold War
Putin to Drag Out Diplomacy with Trump, While Progressing on the Battlefield The Real Politick with Mark Sleboda (Video)
Massive Explosion Rocks Key Bomber Base Deep Inside Russia The War Zone
🇷🇺💥 Odessa Getting POUNDED
Ukraine’s air defense and electronic warfare systems are overloaded as an unprecedented wave of drones hits Odessa.
– Kovalenko, head of Ukraine’s Center for Countering Disinformation, admits the sheer number of drones is overwhelming defenses.
-… https://t.co/hrKyeRpTyl pic.twitter.com/YsOtzQCB9k— DD Geopolitics (@DD_Geopolitics) March 20, 2025
***
RAF in talks to police skies above Ukraine The Telegraph
Starmer warns Putin of ‘severe consequences’ if he breaches peace deal The Guardian
European military powers work on 5-10 year plan to replace US in Nato FT
Germany’s military rebirth is Europe’s best bet against Putin Kyiv Independent
Poland And South Korea: Going All In On Tactical Nuclear Weapons? 1945
South of the Border
Trump 2.0
Judge rips DOJ’s ‘woefully insufficient’ response to questions on Alien Enemies Act case NBC News
Trump: Impeach Uncooperative Judges HOGELAND’S BAD HISTORY
DOGE
Federal Judge Blocks DOGE’s Social Security “Fishing Expedition” Democracy Docket
Musk Is Firing Federal Workers Who Prevent Bloated Tech Contracts The Intercept
Small businesses fearful as DOGE has USPS revamp in its sights The Loadstar
DOGE is going global. It needs to be stopped. Disconnect
The schools trying to teach America’s kids to think like Elon Musk Musk Watch
Democrats en Déshabillé
Democrats Become What They Once Opposed America’s Undoing
Panicked Democratic voters are turning on their own leaders Christian Science Monitor
Big Brother is Watching You Watch
Police State Watch
Guilt by Association The Baffler
The Destruction of Gaza, Yemen And U.S. Free Speech Are Parts of The Same Project Spencer Ackerman
Healthcare?
Grünenthal pushed its latest opioid as a safer option. People around the world got hooked. The Examination
Scientists Uncover Lyme Disease’s Hidden Achilles’ Heel – And How to Exploit It SciTech Daily
Why CDC’s Planned Vaccine-Autism Study Is Raising Eyebrows MedPage Today
AI
Should AGI-preppers embrace DOGE? Programmable Mutter
Space Force unveils strategic plan for AI integration Space News
Putting Missile Interceptors In Space Critical To Defending U.S. Citizens: Space Force Boss The War Zone
Woke Watch
The Rise and (Likely) Fall of Wokeness The Ideas Letter
Groves of Academe
Trump’s Battles With Colleges Could Change American Culture for a Generation New York Times
Our Famously Free Press
America Needs a New Free Speech Movement Zephyr Teachout, The Nation
Supply Chain
Chinese state funding in mineral exploration on the rise: FT Mining.com
Trump to Expand Critical Mineral Output Using Wartime Powers Bloomberg
Red Sea crisis forces Maersk to increase capacity over strategy limit The Loadstar
The Final Frontier
Nuclear-powered spacecraft with 11,000-pound payload planned by US space firms Interesting Engineering
The 420
Weed Users At Greater Risk For Heart Attack, Stroke Health Day
I’m sure it’s the CANNABIS, and definitely NOT the novel pandemic pathogen that directly harms the heart & destroys the vascular system.
They’re going to come for everything but Covid, get ready. Just kill me already. pic.twitter.com/Ev0ymuMU7b
— Laura Miers (@LauraMiers) March 20, 2025
The Bezzle
$1.4bn is a lot to fall through the cracks, even for Tesla FT
‘Get it Right for Elon Musk’ Boondoggle. “Delaware looks to empower corporate insiders.”
Class Warfare
Middle-income New Yorkers are the new face of eviction in the city, report finds Gothamist
Americans living in their cars are finding refuge in ‘safe parking lots’ The Guardian
For Labor, Caution Is Fatal In These Times
Antidote du jour (via):
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.
My wife and daughter both work in the non-profit world, and have most of their careers. They regularly report that the non-profit world is in complete freakout mode, not knowing what will happen to their funding, their missions, etc. I am told by a mid-size accounting firm that there has been mass shutdown of non-profits over indiscriminate funding cuts by DOGE. They are all scraping their websites and sanitizing their missions and objectives statements out of feral fear. This is not just fear for their hard work, they fear for their safety.
I know of a major food pantry in Westchester County, NY, that has had their shipments of food that they received from the Federal government stop cold turkey. This is cutting off much needed assistance and people will go hungry. (I am told by executive leadership that much of the food is sitting in warehouses rotting.) They were given no explanations.
In my opinion, not enough attention is being given to this and the self-inflicted harm it is causing.
Just within my circle of friends and family…
— Niece works as an attorney for the federal government. Has NO idea whether she will keep her job.
— another niece has a child with disabilities and has NO idea what will happen with special ed programs
— brother bought a retirement home that needs renovations and cannot get suppliers to commit to pricing because of trade wars
— another niece has a son in college. He doesn’t know if his classmates will return in the fall because financial aid is up in the air.
“The schools trying to teach America’s kids to think like Elon Musk”
‘A “conundrum” that asks young school children whether humans would be better off being governed by an AI overlord. Another that revolves around the ethics of rigging an arcade game to make it unwinnable. And a third scenario on a company that uses its products to illicitly gather data from conversations its customers have in their homes.’
I’ll give those kids a hand with those answers-
a) No, that’s how you get Skynet.
b) That is how you end up losing your business.
c) Do I even have to say it? This may actually be illegal and only a scummy Silicon Valley billionaire would think this a good idea. Somebody like Musk
But a final one-
‘Musk, an avid gamer, served as the inspiration for the collaborative, problem-solving video games created by Synthesis.’
Musk solved his problem of getting good at video games by hiring professionals to play for him under his account name to boost his scores. Now that’s inspiring. :)
I think the second is quite a clever way of initiating a new ruling class. For working people, life is rather like an arcade game rigged to be unwinnable.
>>>“The schools trying to teach America’s kids to think like Elon Musk”
lol. The progressive left created Elon Musk….mal-directed green subsidies* allowed Elon to pivot his Paypal pot into becoming the world’s richest man.
Elon’s lesson is to encourage kids to become the next “Music Man” (or Monorail salesman https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v4z_9NcIJXI ) and find a way to grift from gullible politicians, bureaucrats, and activists.
* Mal-directed by giving white-collar-folks $7,500 to buy electric cars that perform better than Ferraris from 20 years ago versus subsidizing the frumpy Toyota Prius or Chevy Volts of the world. Any vehicle doing 0 to 100 kph in less than 8.0 seconds should have been excluded from any government subsidy.
As someone who works, I can assure you there are people who go into meetings and “audit reasoning” and “communicate priorities” despite being shockingly uninformed in the practical questions raised by their demands.
Their priorities are for us to do something, because they just told a client we can do that thing. And their audit or our reasoning consists of nonsense, complaining, and threats.
Very like Musk, who may well be the world’s most self-absorbed man, to think this refusal to have the context is unique and also not something to be ashamed of.
I’ll also note that Elon also routinely claims to be a fast study who does have “all the context.”
RE: Musk’s gaming claims, https://youtu.be/z1ykCc588Zw?si=36Y-DFhGUu60hfQa
TL:DW, like everything else, Musk bought his way in and then took credit when he wasn’t just outright making stuff up.
Why is DOGE considered to be Trump acting in his official capacity?
It is not a cabinet department. Its composition has not been ratified. Its members are merely unpaid advisors.
This is Little Red Book territory where a mob is out hanging signs around people’s necks and putting dunce caps on their heads.
Exactly. It is hooligan private citizens running around smashing public property. Arrest them all and make each of them sit in the slammer for a few days until they get sober and come to their senses and pay their fines after appearing in Court the following day.
IIRC, DOGE takes its presidential authority from an executive agency created under Obama. “DOGE” isn’t its official birth name, it’s “United States Digital Service”
Either NC or Water Cooler, I forget which, covered this here in some detail, noting how clever it was — because impeccably legitimate — simply to repurpose an office already uncontroversially created by Obama.
Yes, this is the question I keep asking how is this made up agency or dept, that no one is named as running, as no agency head was confirmed. How is this unpaid unnamed person
Firing federal workers?
Something seems really wrong with this scenario.
Its’ the Nerd Reich. Brown Shirts & Squadrismo weren’t legal either.
Besides, with the Greenpeace verdict, the law is obviously captured.
What are we going to do about it?
Your question says it all. Not seeing many responses. There will not be someone or something coming to our rescue. Massive protests in the streets is our last, best option to prevent full blown tyranny. Not sure if the population is up for it.
The problem with caterwauling online is, the look is always of 1 person protesting.
I’ve been increasingly focused on this question. Now is certainly the time, but no one I know up close has any direct experience of mobilization, and I’m 63.
I participated in Occupy, and I spent the weekend after the Santelli rant up in Rockland County watching the Tea Party get seeded with satchels of cash, but I haven’t managed to do more than have more conversations with a broader range of people and discover everyone sees what’s happening but doesn’t know what to do.
It’s in the air, but effective action is still too far away.
I was one of a quarter million on the street in San Francisco protesting against the upcoming war in Iraq, and all the local fish wraps could talk about the next day was some hooligan threw a rock through a plate glass window of a business, their updated version of ‘Kristallnacht’.
That’s a pretty Zen looking bear in today’s Antidote du jour. Must be smarter than the average bear, eh Boo Boo? Is his name Yoga bear?
Mother Russia? Sitting across the table from Rubio and other US counterparts?
Saying, “Listen to what I have been articulating about for the last few years!”
looks pretty smart, a statement on the Market?
Looks are on thing, but I wouldn’t walk up and “rub Buddha’s belly” if I were you.
That is _not_ a whale with anthropormorphic blubber!
I won’t even try the dad joke “no, that’s your mom” :p
CEO’s dismissal signals the beginning of the end for Amtrak: Analysis Trains
Left unsaid is the active role of the class 1 railroads to intentionally operationally cripple long distance (eg, Southern Crescent, CN, UP) and many state supported trains (Empire Service). Add to this fact, the industry employees swarms of DC lobbyists (how else to explain the Rail Safety Act of 2023’s bipartisan derailment and death). Both are insurmountable barriers for Amtrak. Only dedicated public policy and litigation can remove them.
The central economic planners on Wall Street have dictated every railroad adopt “Precision Scheduled Railroading “, PSR. Passenger trains are incompatible with PSR and require operational flexibility, well maintained infrastructure and sidings. Wall Street requires asset stripping and reduced CapEx.
There is no substantive regulation of class 1 railroads, we’re back to the Robber Barrons. Nor is their vigorous enforcement of both common carrier obligations and Amtrak’s statutory rights to operate.
In spite of Amtrak Joe and Mayo Pete trickling out some long over due funding, it has long been bipartisan legislative and executive policy to starve Amtrak and assure the US will never have world class passenger rail.
“Off the shelf, up the flagpole: Canadian flags fly high in response to Trump”
I can confirm for a fact that Canadians are a very patriotic people at heart. How so? As I was going around Europe in the early 80s, I noted that there were quite a few Canadians also touring around. And I saw how they all of them took care to have Canadian flags on display on their gear – no matter how long – so that others would know that they were in fact Canadians and not some other unnamed nation. :)
(“Alright everybody, gather around
The Canada Man is here
What kind of Canadian do you want?
a GTA type? Saudi Albertan?
Quebecois too? Anything you want
You’ve come to the right man because
I’m the Canada Man”)
Who can take an American (who can take an American)
Sprinkle luggage with a maple leaf or two (sprinkle it with a few)
Cover up with subterfuge and have a toque on too?
The Canada Man (the Canada Man)
Oh, the Canada Man can (the Canada Man can)
The Canada Man can ’cause he messes with their minds
And makes the world feel good (makes the world feel good)
Who can take a sentence (who can take a sentence?)
And end it in an eh (end it in an eh?)
Speak softly and carry a big schtick?
The Canada Man (the Canada Man)
The Canada Man can (the Canada Man can)
The Canada Man can ’cause he messes with their minds
And makes the world feel good (makes the world feel good)
The Canada Man fakes everyone he takes
Its satisfying and delicious
Now you talk about your identity wishes
You can hook a lot of fishes
Oh who can take an American (who can take an American)
Depict him differently as seen (depict him differently as seen)
Separate the sorrow and collect up all the cream?
The Canada Man (the Canada Man)
Oh the Canada Man can (the Canada Man can)
The Canada Man can ’cause he messes with their minds
And makes the world feel good (makes the world feel good)
Candy Man performed by Sammy Davis, Jr.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fq7WX5oINAQ
I can report the same and from the same period but that was before Europeans decided they loved Americans, American culture, EuroDisney etc.Guess Trump is killing the buzz
There were exceptions back then of course and I can recall an old man coming up to me in Paris and expressing thanks for our help in kicking out the Nazis. But Vietnam caused the then leftist Euro youth to regard the US as full of military industrial dolts. That last part is still true, needless to say.
That works for Kiwis too ;-)
We had a kiwi lecturer at Cambridge who straight off taught us the NZ “shifted vowel sounds” so we’d listen out and not potentially insult them in future by mistaking them for Aussies.
This was already losing its usefulness by 2009 when I moved to Sydney. A lot of NZ immigrants were sounding more Aussie.
Ha, you fell for it. That was often Americans wanting to seem like Canadians and avoid being asked about the Vietnam war. Seriously.
I met one of those but it wasn’t about Vietnam. This was the era when Ronald Reagan was elected President and things got serious on the nuclear front from time to time because he had a whole bunch of people in his admin nicknamed ‘laptop bombardiers’ who were as keen for a nuclear showdown with Russia as they were for avoiding any military service during the Vietnam war a few years earlier.
The key back in the 80’s in Europe wasn’t having maple leaf stickers on your luggage, but making an effort not to look like an American and it was so easy, just don’t wear all white athletic shoes such as Reeboks et al, and wear a University of Guelph t-shirt while you’re at it.
It was the same in the 70’s.
Syraqistan
A lot of grim violent belligerent headlines under ‘Syraqistan’. Is it too…something…to observe that getting rid of the nation state called Israel and its entire philosophic underpinning would solve a lot of the world’s problems and conflicts?
In the tech world, we have this term called technical debt which is used to describe the cumulative short cuts and short sighted decisions that lead to a system becoming chaotic and unmaintainable. Feels like Israelis and Americans are God’s technical debts that the rest of the world are supposed to fix.
Don’t forget Israel is far more a creature of UK colonialists than Americans many of whom, with the exception of the heavily bribed Truman, were against it. All the skeptics in the State Department were then expelled. Seems like now.
So our US reenactor empire is running up on the shoals of that earlier sun never sets empire. Churchill didn’t care for natives either–even sprayed them with mustard gas.
I often wonder if US elites are fighting to decide if we should be imperial Spain or Imperial Britain…
The decision was made a while ago: it is Spain.
On Judge Napolitano’s show recently John Mearsheimer said (paraphrasing), “Israel does not act in America’s interest.” And that Israel is an albatross around America’s neck. utube, ~27+ minutes.
Prof. John Mearsheimer : Can Europe Survive?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DWgFgOIXnEk
A report in English from Votaire magazine, pub. 2013:
Kennedy, the Lobby and the Bomb
https://www.voltairenet.org/article178401.html
and from Mondoweiss:
When a U.S. president demanded inspections of a nuclear facility in the Middle East (and failed)
https://mondoweiss.net/2015/07/president-inspections-facility/
I’m just barely old enough to remember these events.
A lovely article, and a reminder of how little we really know about forest ecology. Most attempts to reconstruct ‘native’ forests fail for so many reasons. Its even questionable if there are many real ‘native’ forests left anywhere – humans have been engineering forests for millennia. Its even possible that the native forests of Europe are profoundly different from previous glacial interstadials because mesolithic hunter gatherers deliberately spread the ‘right’ mix of seeds as they moved to ensure the forests were suitably edible for man and beast.
Last weekend I went hiking with a friend who organises a small hiking group of local Chinese (I’m dragged along sometimes as an unofficial guide) – she lives in the mountains (really just hills) south of Dublin and loves to explore outside the usual places. She told me she’d found a beautiful fragment of ancient oak forest that wasn’t on any official lists. I was, to put it mildly, sceptical, but sure enough, after a short hike along a riverbank we found ourselves in a beautiful temperate rainforest, oaks, birch and holly dripping with moss, the underfloor soft with deep layers of peat and luscious green sphagnum. The area was surrounded by grim commercial conifers.
I later did some research – the oaks were in fact no more than around 150 years old. The 1830 maps showed a long vanished village nearby and the area subdivided into what was probably potato fields. It was scrubland by the end of the century – the original farmers no doubt dead or in Boston. At some stage the oaks were coppiced, then left alone. There must have been some fragment of original older forest there to allow for such a very rich subfloor to have developed – its notoriously difficult (as the article explains) to recreate a genuine ancient forest. Overgrazing by Asian deer (introduced to replace the native Reds in the 19th century – the latter having been hunted out along with the wolves by the 18th Century), it is clear that the forest won’t last much longer. After much online searching, I found an old survey report that concluded it was nice, but not rich enough to justify a formal designation, and so ignored by officialdom. So it will probably eventually disappear, like nearly all of Irelands ancient rainforests, destroyed first to provide timber for the Royal Navy, then later to deny rebels places to hide, and finally by farm subsidies and official neglect.
Thank you for sharing that. How large was the area?
Now I’ll go read the article…
Not that huge – around 150-200 acres, but surrounded by mixed conifer plantation and scrub, so no real boundaries.
I saw another effect of human activities on Ireland’s forests which I disliked: invasive trees i guess from gardens. The Benbulben Forest walk in Sligo was infested with some (for me) unknown species even if the forest keepers try to control it.
How To Build A Thousand-Year-Old Tree NOEMA
~~~~~~~~~~~
Interesting article~
I remember being driven by friends in the 1980’s to what was one of the biggest oak trees left in the south of England, quite impressive and you wondered just how many of them that size there were once upon a time?
Closer to home, i’m just a little over half a mile walk to perhaps the most interesting Sequoia get-together of all, the Atwell Grove in Mineral King.
It’s full of superlatives, the most interesting being that the highest altitude Sequoias grow here at around 9,000 feet, nothing like their usual 5,500 to 6,500 foot range, and there are quite a few trees over 300 feet tall-near the record height, and my favorite Sequoia of all, the Arm Tree-which is at least 3,000 years old, and might see a handful of humans coming to admire it every summer, but that’s it.
Sequoias on steep slopes look even larger when you are approaching them from below, and i’m down with that-bigger is better, and the Arm Tree like many of the aged ones in the forest for the trees, had it’s backside burned eons ago by a log on fire that rolled down the slope and ended up burning enough to allow a friend working on the redwood genome sequencing team @ UC Davis to peer into the growth rings to ascertain its age.
I don’t think the Arm Tree would make it in the pantheon of Sequoias of size in that it’s a Yoda tree of sorts that branches out into 4 trunks about 50 feet up, along with the largest branch of all baums which is nearly 10 feet wide in diameter.
https://sequoiaquest.com/atwell-mill-arm-tree-tour-6212019.html
http://famousredwoods.com/arm/
The 19th, 23rd and 30th largest trees in the world are in this majestic forest, where there really aren’t that many young Sequoias and the average size is about 15 feet wide at chest height-these are all trees around 1,000 years old.
The 19th largest tree in the world is the Diamond Tree-so named on account of old large fire scar about 100 feet up the tree, shaped similar to a marquise diamond and 12 feet higher than the Sherman Tree. It was the only notable Sequoia that suffered in the 2021 KNP Fire in the grove, in that fire burned through the base of the tree and continued up about 125 feet in a fire tunnel which burned through the old diamond fire scar and beyond, and despite the punishment rendered-still keeps on living, a trademark of Sequoias, i’ll sometimes see examples that are 80% burned up and yet the remaining live parts of the tree still keep on going. Don’t try that with a mere mortal tree.
https://sequoiaquest.com/atwell-mill-east-fork-may-25-27-2024.html
Most of the Sequoias in Atwell are on steep slopes and there aren’t any walking interstates except for the Paradise trail-which is a fine trail that will get you to the highest examples-but not notable ones of size or age, which require off-trail hiking and navigation.
The English cut down their oaks to build the Royal Navy. The tough wood and curvy bits were useful for framing ships.
Some Americans cut down some of the Sequoia for no reason at all, as you know. Guess they were showing the trees who is boss. The wood is not very useful.
Walked to the Boole Tree in the Converse Basin a few years ago, and pretty much the entire grove was taken out around 1900, and they left the 7th largest tree, how sentimental of them!
I’ll sometimes have a fire using fallen Sequoia branches, and true to form, it doesn’t burn that well-you need to put it on top of a blazing fire to get it to go.
Until the recent fires in the past 5 years took out approx 20% of Monarch Sequoias (4 feet wide or larger examples) 95% of the coastal redwoods were cut down for lumber, while 95% of Giant Sequoias were still standing-as a testament to it’s use for anything other than grape stakes, fence posts or pencils.
http://famousredwoods.com/boole/
Poe
The British cut down so many trees fighting the Napoleonic wars that afterwards ship-building moved across the Atlantic to Canada and northern parts of the US. You had huge forests going down to the waters edge and for much of the 19th century Canada seems to have become a power house in ship-building until the advent of iron ships towards the end of the century. You had brand new ships being launched and were then loaded up with timber before crossing the Atlantic where those ships were registered and the timber sold off to supply the constant need of timber in new construction because of the industrial revolution. Each ship weighed several hundred tons and typically they lasted for only about twenty years before being broken up so there was a constant demand for new ships. I have noted that most of the wooden ships that carried my ancestors out here to Oz were Canadian built.
Henry VIII did his fair share of destroying forests for his navy. The So-called Ashdown Forest, that straddles Kent and Sussex and was also home to Winnie the Pooh, Piglet et al, has barely a tree worth its name these days, thanks to him.
Henry VIII was known as the ‘Father of the Royal Navy’ so perhaps he used all those forests to supply the timber he needed for it. The following article mentions the large forests in parts of Kent and Sussex that he used-
https://www.rmg.co.uk/stories/topics/henry-viii-his-navy
There’s a 380 hectare Visingsö oak forest in Sweden, duly planted by the Swedish Navy to have all the oak they would ever need. As the story goes, the forest was ready for the first harvest in 1975…
I think the dependency of the UK on shipyards from North America (especially Canada) because of the availability of large trees for construction had started even earlier.
For that matter, Spain was in a similar situation, and had its own fleet (amongst the top three with France and Great Britain) largely built in America; Havana was a major, or even the main, naval shipyard of the Spanish empire.
Time to dig out Stewart Brands story about the oaks of the late medieval Kings College, Oxford dining hall. When death watch beetle was found in the huge roof beams in the late 19th Century, it was thought that it would be impossible to find oaks that size and quality anywhere in England. Brand writes:
Lovely story, thanks.
It brings to mind a similar one, perhaps also from S. Brand, which (imperfectly remembered) relates how at the top of a medieval bell tower somebody found ancient, written instructions to the sexton(s): ‘Every 75 years, be sure to rotate the bell 90°, to equalise the wear from the clapper’.
This would have been King’s College, Cambridge, or some other college Oxford.
(There’s The Queen’s College, Oxford.
And of course Queens’ College, Cambridge.
The only “people” with Colleges named after them at both places are Jesus, the Trinity, St. John and… the Earls of Pembroke. Also Mary Magdalene if you allow the Magdalen(e) variation)
Probably to be filed under ‘Class Warfare’: DoorDash, DASH, and Klarna have signed a deal where customers can choose to pay for food deliveries in interest-free installments. While restaurant food delivery is discretionary spending, or should be, buy now pay later plans for it no doubt are another sign of the financial shape of Americans.
“Massive Explosion Rocks Key Bomber Base Deep Inside Russia”
Putting on my mark-one tin foil cap, I am going to say that this was the doing of the White House as a way of pressuring the Russians to go for a ceasefire deal. The message is sign it or else there will be more attacks on your nuke bases and we can make it happen. Somebody gave the Ukrainians targeting information which is why I say the White House. But if I were the Russians, I would have a different take away. I would say to myself that it is essential to shut down that viper’s nest in the Ukraine less the war ends and the US/EU load up the entire country with drones to take out the Russian nuclear posture in case of war and leave them defenseless. It never maters who is President, the aim is always the same. To get the nuclear drop on the Russians. But have they really thought it through? What would be the US reaction if drones targeted one of the big US nuke bomber bases?
Two comments,
1 Zelensky is already claiming the gas pipeline attack is a Russian false flag (sigh).
2. British tabloids are already trying to blame Putin for the substation fire near Heathrow that has caused the airport to shut down.
In both cases, ‘they would say that, wouldn’t they’, is the only response that springs to mind.
I think we are finding that under Trump too the US is “not agreement capable.” There’s a theory going around that his opening towards Russia is merely to neutralize their opposition to a new assault, diplomatic or otherwise, on Iran.
Just a theory.
Depending on when the Odessa attack occurred, it would seem to have had to opposite reaction from what the US would want…
A surprisingly good article from a Prof. of Sociology.
A while ago I was wondering what sort of visual turning point would indicate the end of the high tide mark of wokeness. I thought maybe it would be a negative review of Disneys Snow White in the Guardian. And sure enough, they’ve given it one star.
Future historians will have an interesting time trying to work out what drove this period of madness, where genuine concern for repressed minorities became weaponised to such destructive effect. The useful idiots of wokeness have done more to empower the worst elements of the conservative right than any number of well funded right wing foundations. Or maybe that was the whole point.
the irony is that there are lots of non-political things wrong with the 2025 “Snow White” reboot: “uncanny valley” computer animation, uninspired plot twist, Disney’s laziness of rehashing existing intellectual property versus creating something new. (Disney went from “Frozen” to lazy reboots in less than 15 years.)
The political controversy is just the icing on the cake.
Five years ago a film like “Snow White” would have just been part of the pack. But now? Disney is in full panic mode over the release of this film as every preview gets savaged and gets ratioed to hell-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RbW8pOO7eYg (7:00 mins)
But you are absolutely correct in you saying that ‘the useful idiots of wokeness have done more to empower the worst elements of the conservative right than any number of well funded right wing foundations.’ Through a brief time of having power, their total abuse of it have helped with the election of Trump and his buddies like Musk and Thiel. And it has helped pushed the peoples of several countries to the right in revulsion and seek shelter in nationalism. Lots of material at least for future historians to work through to see this progress over a relatively limited number of years.
>>> ‘the useful idiots of wokeness have done more to empower the worst elements of the conservative right than any number of well funded right wing foundations.’
Just as government subsidies created post-Paypal Elon Musk.
Musk even got a shout-out (alongside Stacy Abrams, remember her?) on one of the wokest of woke shows, “Star Trek: Discovery” when Musk was on the woke side.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4bgMCNXzNtE11
If you want real Star Trek, you can skip “Star Trek: Discovery” and watch “The Orville” instead. A lot of the actors and people that worked on Star Trek went over to work for “The Orville”-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ej24W8gcmXQ (2:48 mins)
Is that Jason “Field Marshal Zhukov” Isaacs I see? Seriously? I wasn´t aware he does B-movies still.
Something tells me they were laughin their asses off in the writers´ room.
Yes, and Isaacs is awesoem when he pledges to “Make the Terran Empire Glorius Again!”
An excellent actor.
He has gained in quality over the years.
Initially a bit unsure of himself sometimes or so it seemed, due to not being properly directed? I don´t know (would have to rewatch more of his early stuff).
He was the doctor on board of the “EVENT HORIZON”. 30 years ago.
Which I found a great concept from the sci-fi POV, bringing in hell as the inter-dimensional space…
I noticed upon Roe v Wade being dead upon political delivery, that the Donkey Show practically embraced anything trans-knowing all too well how much the evangs hate-hate-hate trans with a burning passion, as it gave them a huge wedge platform in the us versus them intermural games.
Notice now a few months into Trump 2.0 that only the T in LGBTQ has been targeted?
When it was the gay movement, most people were cool with that or didn’t even care. But when it became LGBTQ, that is when the games began and the ‘L’s were sometimes targeted by the other letters for not getting in line with ALL the latest fashionable beliefs.
It is interesting that, in my limited experience, outside media and media workers almost nobody cares about this issue or those who are kinda opposed don´t know that it hardly matters in the real world. A phantom chased by phantoms. It was a genius move by the left to use to destroy itself. Never has so little shit caused so much reek. However the discussion as hyped does prove that people do want their intimate spaces and think not completely destroyed or levelled. In how far that is mere culture and social pattern or more I don´t know.
It’s the logic that the apostate is more dangerous than the heretic is more dangerous than the infidel. Most Gs, Ls, and Bs I know are getting tired of it.
My recollection is that the Repubs started it by attacking Ts, and the Dems then rallied to the Ts defense. Pro forma, too little too late. The Dems should have codified Roe v Wade when they had the chance, but like good little scool children, they believed stare decisis was a thing.
It hasn’t been a thing since the Civil War:
https://constitution.congress.gov/resources/decisions-overruled/
The moral (also arriving too late) is that all laws SCOTUS legislates or overturns should be brought to a vote as a principle of democratic governance.
Blaming people who want the boot off their neck (or the thugs out of their doctor’s office) is an interesting view.
PlutoniumKun: I agree that the article by Vivek Chibber is intriguing, particularly early on when he talks about the communist / socialist background of important members of the civil-rights movement under the headline The Path Not Taken.
Yet his diagnosis is correct: “In contrast to its left-wing defenders, I will suggest that [wokeness] expresses a profound narrowing of what counts as social redress; and against the Right, I will show that its success is due to the retreat of the radical Left, not its hegemony. Woke culture is the organic ideology of a narrow elite, drunk with power, and backed by the key power centers of American politics.”
Further, I read Chibber’s article in tandem with Stephen Lerner’s article in In These Times about how labor is too cautious and should take risks. Yet Lerner fails to mention redistributionist policies, Social Security, health care, and practicalities. Like so many of the woke, he proposes a more or less leaderless movement — which is somehow to get organized enough to occupy a factory. He should read a tad more Gramsci. Lerner likes SNCC and ignores those leaders mentioned in Chibber under The Path Not Taken.
So if you want to understand how thoroughly woke-a-fied the U S remains, give a look at Lerner. I read it all, even as I lost patience with his shillyshallying.
Politics has to take a materialist approach, but the Lerners of the world are still trying to “save” us through intersectionality. He even proposes a job action against ICE by air traffic controllers. Who is going to support the air traffic controllers? And if the deported are not citizens — and I’m not trying to be the blue meanie here, because I understand the flagrant disregard for due process — why should unionists take the risk?
“Weed Users At Greater Risk For Heart Attack, Stroke Health Day”
Two weeks ago it was alcohol, now it s cannabis. My intial reaction to these sorts of headlines is “refer madness is back!” But I clicked through to the actual study to see for myself.
In that paper, “cannabis-user” is not defined. It sould be good to know if they were looking at all varieties of cannabis use, or just smokers. Even smokers should be broken out into those who inhale “hot” smoke versus “cold” smoke given that hot particles damage do significantly more lung damage (per my primary doctor).
It would also be nice to know the risk in smoke versus edibles, whether it is THC other cannabanoids or something else that causes the higher risk. It would be nice to know if dosage affects the risk (the authors admit on the bottom of page 6 that they have no idea about dosage). Then again, they never seem to look at what component of cannabis seems to cause the risk, so the question of dosage cannot even be approached. We don’t even know how much cannabis in whatever form at whatever levels of components is being consumed. Ar these people who take an edible every other week or people who are constantly smoking high grade weed? Again, cannabis user is left undefined in the study.
Color me not impressed. I’m filing under “refer madness” for the time being.
Chris, thanks for reading it and paraphrasing. It was so “weak” that I couldn’t read it. I was wondering how far back in time it went. To 2020? to 2000, to 1968. Lots of confounding issues, in fact pointless really, except for its propaganda value.
‘Nothing Short of Genocide’: Israel Kills 200 Children Common Dreams
“Nearly 200 children are among those killed by Israel in Gaza over the last three days since the powerful U.S. ally broke a cease-fire agreement and began a massive bombing campaign with the blessing of the Trump administration.”
I watch the nightly news, usually NBC, mainly to catch the daily propaganda line. So I’m used to ridiculous BS and can usually control my ranting for my wife’s sake. But last night I went nuts. The segment on Gaza, the only one of the night, was about this program “led by the US” for taking injured Palestinian children who had managed to get out on to Western countries for medical care. It featured two children who were being taken to the US for cancer treatment. According to the story, about 260 Palestinian children have been helped by this program over the entire course of the genocide.
Having read about the renewed Israeli bombing earlier in the day, this story was an absolute obscenity to me. Not because of the featured medical program itself, which seemed to be run by well-meaning “humanitarians,” but by the fact that *this* was the NBC News coverage of Gaza; a “feel good” story about Americans helping Palestinian kids. There was nothing about Americans providing the bombs that had vaporized 200+ Palestinian children in the previous 48 hours! Andrea Mitchell – naturally – was the reporter.
Obscenity on top of obscenity.
I saw that last night. Pretty much one of most disgusting segments in ages on nightly news. Jeez, if only the cancer center and hospitals in Gaza weren’t blown up in the first place i screamed at Lester Dolt. How these mother ( Family blog) look at themselves in the mirror, never mind sleeping at night, is beyond my comprehension. Should put that segment right on the shelf next to Madeleine Albright’s 60 minute segment from years ago regarding the children killed in Iraq.
They put as much pancake makeup on the truth to save face, as Andrea Mitchell applies on her mug.
pjay: What you are pointing to is something that I am now seeing emerging in the U S of A. I’m certainly seeing it on BkFace, the world’s source of earnest snark.
Americans are now engaged in a phase that I will identify as: We Are the Good Germans.
No conscience with regard to Ukraine and the proxy genocide of a million soldiers, mainly men 25-45, along with a “diaspora” of seven million in the EU and who knows how many in the Russian Federation. The Good Germans only count certain things, and the Good Germans certainly won’t take notice of things like Antony Blinken’s misadventures in that pizzeria that served up Nazi regalia.
Likewise, Francesca Albanese has detailed over and over how the actions by the Israeli army and government in Gaza are genocide, along with the ethnic cleansing of the West Bank, all the way down to uprooting of olive trees and confiscation of mosques. The Good Germans are still bruiting about the figure of 40,000 dead in Gaza — because a year-old figure means to them that not enough Palestinians have been killed.
I’m Speaking, indeed.
The piece on labor caution is worthwhile thanks. I have been thinking lately that the same legal structures that are supposed to protect workers who are trying to organize also protect employers from wildcat soapbox strikes. I believe the future will involve more labor unrest and I’m sorry to say I also believe it is likely to be necessary. If you don’t believe your peaceful cooperation will ever get you anything, the time for a strike is now.
The UTube thingy keeps showing me videos of Republicans in red states screaming “Tax the Rich” at GOP incumbents in safe seats. So it feels like Trump has achieved a new level of class consciousness. I don’t think the claim that these people are actors paid by Soros et al is going to hold up much longer.
I hope you’re right and also wonder how many are also having a bit of think about how Prager U, for instance, has such a huge ad budget.
One can now get a genuine Canadian made MAGA hat: ‘Make America Go Away’. Highly recommend at all your locally owned businesses.
This piece is excellent. Thanks for sharing! Fascinating study of the way in which investing in “dated” technologies can reap excellent rewards, as well as showing that Japan was totally kneecapped by their vassalage to the US.
“Putting Missile Interceptors In Space Critical To Defending U.S. Citizens: Space Force Boss”
They’re talking about militarizing space. The US is actually a signatory of the 1968 Outer Space treaty which tried to put a lid on putting weapons in space as this could end up with nukes orbiting the Earth waiting to be directed to any city or target on the surface. Do we really want to go there? The US Space Force said that their job was to ‘dominate space’ which implies that they want to deny it to any other country. And the reason is not to make America safe whatever that means but to enrich the MIC. Those officers in the USSF will get huge budgets and rapid promotions as well as important assignments. The Pentagon imagines that they will be in a position to get the drop on any country on the planet and all the big corporations will be given another trough to feed from. This will bring the era of cooperative space ventures to an end and will make the world less safe as there will be an arms race in space over our heads-
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outer_Space_Treaty
Coffee through sinuses warning!
Gen Saltzman quoted his admiration for US space tech.
I guess he thinks Boeing getting out of the capsule business impressive.
The challenges of space based boost phase intercept are beyond US.
I doubt the Russian will provide launch services.
Note THAAD has launch phase capability I.e. put it in S Korea and if 100 miracles happen it might try shooting on boost.
Golden brick is what we will get.
There have been Space Force recruiting commercials on YT over the past 2 weeks. Seems like a new thing.
Why did Mississippians always make for the best astronauts?
…they all took up space in school
They’re going to come for everything but Covid, get ready. Just kill me already. The tweet by Laura Miers reminds me of an old buddy, Lambert. “Tis a mystery”.
MDA Elonothon* ’25!
Now in iThon format. give generously to Musk Deserving Assets in order to ward off insignificance. Operators are standing by!
* any similarities to Ivar Kreuger are strictly coincidental.
DOGE is going global. It needs to be stopped. – Disconnect
Like I have said…there is a poison pill in the “multipolar” world.
“The Alliance of Sahel States Forges Ahead”
I was reading recently that ECOWAS was kind enough to invite the countries of the Sahel States to come back into their union again. Yeah, nah!
‘Doug Fir with penne pasta in a creamy Alfredo sauce’
Lean Cuisine and Stouffer’s meals recalled for ‘wood-like material’ linked to choking AP
“Nuclear-powered spacecraft with 11,000-pound payload planned by US space firms”
Mini-nuclear reactors in space? What could possibly go wrong? Well, except for that time a Russian satellite equipped with a mini-reactor suffered a mishap and came down over northern Canada back in ’78 scattering nuclear material near and far-
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kosmos_954
And is the Kessler syndrome still a thing?
Agent Orange: “We will totally militarize the Arctic and Canada will pay for it!”
“The Limitations of the US Naval Air Defense System will Force the US to Withdraw from the Red Sea”
‘A single Aegis destroyer can carry up to 96 missiles in its Mk 41 Vertical Launching System (VLS) cells.’
So if each of those cells are loaded up with 2 or 3 million dollar missiles, that is about a quarter of a billion dollars worth in each VLS. And as two missiles are used for each target to get a 90% hit rate to shoot down $40,000 drones, that is not exactly a great return of investment.
It’s tantamount to quelling a wildfire by dropping enormous piles of banded bundles of Benjamins by air, in other to smother it.
It is excellent return of investment, for those that invested in a company that makes missiles. It’s so good, that it justifies them investing a bit in drone capabilites of the “other side”.
re: German war budget passed by 2nd chamber of the House
THE LEFT was involved in the yes-vote as government partners in the smaller states of Bremen (which is depending on naval industries) and Mecklenburg Vorpommern.
In Mecklenburg Vorpommern THE LEFT protesteth in order to however agree “in the interest of the nation”.
The state is supposed to receive 1B Euros.
The longest explanation/justification by a LEFT comes from the smallest state, Bremen:
“(…)
“Ultimately, the decisive factor for our approval today in the Bundesrat was our responsibility for the state of Bremen. This package can provide Bremen and Bremerhaven with urgently needed financial leeway, even if it is limited. Given the current pressure on public finances, which is felt deep into the city districts, this can make a tangible difference. We will now advocate for the additional financial resources for Bremen and Bremerhaven to be used for truly necessary investments and fight to ensure that these are not offset by social cuts. This also includes investments in social infrastructure and the city districts.
Furthermore, we expect the debt brake to be fundamentally reformed with the participation of the new Left Party faction in the Bundestag. To advance this, we have agreed with our coalition partners in Bremen and the red-red coalition in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania to submit an initiative for a resolution to reform the debt brake in the Bundesrat.”
(…)”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NkPIe5kLdw8&ab_channel=TheDuran/
US-Iran conflict and Russian mediation
The Duran refuses to understand the commitment to the expansion of Israel by its allies.
CRYPTO MINING COMPANY AGREES TO SPEED CLEANUP OF ITS COAL ASH PILE Allegheny Front
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Proud to announce the launch of CAPCoin, get your pile today!
Take down Tesla organization.
Purely an organic protest movement. yeah. right….
https://www.teslatakedown.com/
real grassroots stuff.
https://actionnetwork.org/event_campaigns/teslatakedown?link_id=1
BLM’s “mostly peaceful protests”, anyone? / ;)
It’s the Indivisible org that’s worth looking in to this time: funding, sponsors, etc. / imo.
https://www.mobilize.us/indivisible/event/758736/
The “Democrats Become What They Once Opposed” is a pretty good personal recap of how changes to the Democrat project betrayed the people who were once their base. The problem of getting funding is certainly real, which was why corporations were able to push the Democratic Leadership Council and its fellow travelers into positions of power from the late 1970s on, reaching fulfillment under Clinton. But I would argue funding becomes difficult and more dependent on large donors when you’re running on an unpopular (or anti-populist) agenda. And what positive in the Democrats’ agenda now is popular? They’ve clearly given up on Medicare-for-all by now and instead are all on board with weakening Medicare with Obamacare and Medicare Advantage scams, and their support for increasing the minimum wage is faint and sporadic. The writer says, “Despite all the talk about diversity and inclusion, working-class voices without college credentials were virtually nonexistent.” And that pretty much sums up the party and its values. Identity politics and DEI, where diversity is based on a narrow selection of predefined checkboxes, equity involves righting historic wrongs by inflicting new ones, and inclusion means excluding to the greatest extent possible anyone who doesn’t fit into the narrowly defined “diverse” categories. I won’t say there’s no there there, but there’s nothing resembling the base for a mass political party or movement you can get out of that. The same message can be found in the other article, “The Rise and (Likely) Fall of Wokeness”.
If genuine leftists with a message of improving the material circumstances and economic opportunities of most Americans’ lives can’t mount a hostile takeover of the Democrat machine,n maybe it’s time to start a new party and begin peeling existing Democrat politicians who want a future away from the old one. Have a leftist version of Gingrich’s “Contract With America” that promises a small number of positions and that prominently does not mention “social justice” (and all its associated acronyms), gun control, warmongering as the “exceptional, indispensable nation”, “free trade”, and “public-private partnerships” among those positions.
RE: What’s the Matter with Abundance?
It’s a review of Ezra Klein’s book and well worth the read. It talks a lot about how to fix the housing crisis and the author of the article, as opposed to Klein, nails it –
“The only way to guarantee real housing abundance is deep and concerted public support, by adding the necessary state capacity to build and maintain a home for everyone who needs one.”
I have been saying the same thing for years, as our city keeps expecting the private sector or some non-profit to fix the problem. The only way to provide truly affordable housing is for the city to build it, manage it, and maintain it. Systemic changes are needed to make that happen, and there’s very little political will to make it so. I fear capitalism is going to have to kill most of us and pauperize the rest before learning to share becomes a valid option for improving society.