"Magic Mirror" with hidden image from Han Dynasty Chian.
Old school Social Democrat Rudy Texiera leaves the Center for American Progress for the American Enterprise Institute. He says the CAP, like everyone else on the left, is too obsessed with race, gender and identity to have any time for economic issues. CAP denies this. I can't tell if Texiera has a case or if he is just grouchy that he can't say what he thinks about trans people.
Two Canadian provinces opt to go forward with mini nuclear reactors.
Agnes Callard: "My theory is that art is for seeing evil."
Putin signs law effectively banning cryptocurrency in Russia, another blow to the struggling crypto world, where thousands of gamblers have lost their stakes in recent crashes. Gosh, I feel so bad.
Bill Gates is sad about the world. On the other hand, he has a lot of money to throw at the problems that are bothering him.
Does drinking hot beverages really cool you down more than drinking cold ones? In certain circumstances, yes.
Extraordinary photographs of dancers by Omar Z. Robles.
I've been carrying out my thought experiments for years using the estimate that there are about 500 billion galaxies. But this is out of date, and the new thinking says there are at least 2 trillion. Not that it matters, it just makes one of the questions I enjoy – why are there so many galaxies? – slightly more extreme and puzzling.
Kevin Drum explains that air travel is in chaos right now because of stupid decisions by executives, who failed to move early enough to meet returning demand. For example, they acted like they thought they could instantly hire new baggage handlers etc. to replace those they laid off, when they ought to have known that the necessary background checks for airport employees take up to three months.
Robert Reich tweet on the average price of insulin around the world.
Wreck of a 13th-century cargo ship found off Dorset, England; it was carrying a lot of stuff made from Portland stone, including mortars and gravestones.
Modern America: NJ transgender woman transferred from women’s only prison after impregnating two inmates.
Ukraine Links
Argument that Putin's new strategy is to force a cease fire by pressuring Europe, using oil, gas, refugees, and political sabotage.
A Russian blogger asks some basic questions about what happened on the first day of the war.
This guy thinks the Russian army is facing a logistics meltdown and will collapse in August, once they run out of key supplies like replacement barrels for artillery. Of course people have been saying that since May.
Simon Tisdall in the Guardian: "Vladimir Putin’s war on Europe’s edge is rapidly rolling westwards. . . there is only one way to stop him."
Twitter thread on Russian recruitment of prisoners to fight in Ukraine.
Some awesome Russian tank driving.
And some high-level analysis from Russian state television.
A Russian intellectual defends the war: "Ukraine was being turned into a spear aimed at the heart of Russia. . . Ukraine's citizens are used as cannon fodder in a war to preserve the failing supremacy of Western elites." (NY Times)
Now that Ukrainians have blown up at least 27 significant Russian ammunition depots, up to 85 km behind the front lines, I'd like to ask: how did they find them? Are they reported by spies on the ground? Or do the Americans find them by using satellites to follow trucks around, like they find underground North Korean bases? Or do the Ukrainians do this using drones?
Remarkably clear short video of a javelin missile attack on a Russian tank, shows the attack path.
New, super-detailed map and examination of the military situation from Jomini.
And another summary from the daily livestream with Aleksey Arestovych, Zeleksnky's top aid, from July 21.
RE ammo depots, I saw an video where a guy explained, that he suspects it's a lot of satellite images plus old school analysis, probably supported by some tools: looking from where convoys go and where they go. If you see that a lot of movement is coming from one particular chance, then you can assume an ammo depot is there. I don't whether it's true.
ReplyDeleteTwo Canadian provinces opt to go forward with mini nuclear reactors.
ReplyDeleteSmall Modular Reactors are finally happening. Very exciting. I had been hoping to see thorium designs being made, but these ones are fundamentally conventional reactors in how they operate. Still, this kind of modern design, created specifically to possess passive safety and modular power production, is incredibly promising.
Kevin Drum explains that air travel is in chaos right now because of stupid decisions by executives, who failed to move early enough to meet returning demand. For example, they acted like they thought they could instantly hire new baggage handlers etc. to replace those they laid off, when they ought to have known that the necessary background checks for airport employees take up to three months.
ReplyDeleteWhat's that? Corporate executives, wildly out of touch with the basic day to day realities of the work their company performs? Tell another!
Modern America: NJ transgender woman transferred from women’s only prison after impregnating two inmates.
ReplyDeleteUmmm.... some immediate questions:
-- Did they verify that the transwoman in question actually did impregnate the other two inmates? E.g., DNA?
-- Transgender people take hormones. For transwomen, those hormones essentially incapacitate the physiological gender sexual organs. How was this inmate able to experience and maintain erections sufficient to penetrate and to reach orgasm? Evidently repeatedly?
-- What are the chances that the women named the transwoman either/both out of transphobia (get-that-thing-out-of-here thinking) or/and out of fear of the male guard who actually did impregnate them? Here, of course, I am making an assumption: that there are male guards at this prison.
@pootrsox
ReplyDeleteVery good questions. You would make a good Endeavour Morse.
Your questions made me curious enough that I did a google search of the accused, Demi Minor. Turns out Minor has a Twitter account, there's a "Justice 4 Demi" group, etc., etc. I didn't see anything that would indicate answers to your questions, but I admit I didn't look very hard (which would make me the bad DS in our little British police drama).