New Evidence Suggests Noah’s Wife Was Steering The Ark When It Hit Mount Ararat Babylon Bee
Mystery of Amber Layer in Sea Floor 115 Million Years Ago Is Solved Haaretz (Robin K)
How the last letters of the condemned can teach us how to live aeon (Chuck L). Today’s must read.
#COVID-19/Pandemics
⚠️ BREAKING:
New COVID-19 Wave Hits Hong Kong, Singapore, China, and Thailand Amid Surge in Cases.
Covid-19 has quietly re-emerged as a growing concern in parts of Asia, notably Hong Kong, Singapore, China and Thailand, with a sharp rise in infections and severe cases. pic.twitter.com/VMg1mfMyId
— SARS‑CoV‑2 (COVID-19) (@COVID19_disease) May 19, 2025
Sounds awfully eugenicist:
U.S. health secretary RFK Jr — “Only very very sick kids should die from measles”…
No, you heartless idiot— they shouldn’t die at all! Trump loves to hire the worst people. pic.twitter.com/WE89tgepyD
— Eric Feigl-Ding (@DrEricDing) May 20, 2025
Climate/Environment
These trees exist in only one place on Earth. Now climate change and goats threaten their survival Associated Press (Robin K)
On a remote Australian island, the birds are so full of plastic they crunch Washington Post
Koalas face death, attacks and starvation as blue gums chopped down in Victoria Guardian
US East Coast faces rising seas as crucial Atlantic current slows New Scientist
How a collapsing Great Salt Lake could take Utah’s economy — and maybe your employer — down with it Salt Lake Tribune
Does Your City Use Chlorine or Chloramine to Treat Its Water? Wired (Robin K). News you can use!
China?
China-Europe Relations amid Great Changes by the Project Group of CASS ChinAffairs+ (Robin K)
This is probably the best description I've seen of the negotiation dynamics between Trump and China.
The man speaking is the legendary George Yeo, former Foreign Minister of Singapore, and imho one of the wisest statesmen in Asia.
As Yeo describes it, Trump is the one who… pic.twitter.com/7x6vNeVPSf
— Arnaud Bertrand (@RnaudBertrand) May 20, 2025
China isn’t falling back in love with villages. It is building a new kind of suburbia, planned, wired, and meant to replace the broken Western model. And yes, the Party is watching.https://t.co/zyOusvqRGO
— William Huo (@wmhuo168) May 19, 2025
IMHO this looks like a Chinese effort to manage Trump, who is not manageable. The end game is that, as Putin has (politely), the Trump counterparty has to go into “What about ‘no’ don’t you understand?” mode.
Three Key Points to help you understand the latest 🇨🇳China – 🇺🇸U.S. trade meeting in Geneva👇
1⃣Key Point 1: Substantial Tariff Easing Signals "Phased Reconciliation"
🔴U.S. reduces tariffs on Chinese goods from 145% to 30% for 90 days.
Original 145% tariff structure:
– 20%… pic.twitter.com/G33t4gmfYH— Li Jingjing 李菁菁 (@Jingjing_Li) May 12, 2025
Thailand and Indonesia announce strategic partnership, vow to boost economic and defense ties Associated Press (Robin K). Asking contacts what this might mean. A big question mark here is that Indonesia’s currency is very weak.
India-Pakistan Row
Pakistan Army warns India: Blocking Indus waters will trigger long-term fallout The Nation
China says it will speed up Pakistan dam construction after Indian threat to cut supplies South China Morning Post
Farmers’ body urges Centre to utilise Indus River water to tackle irrigation woes in North India New Indian Express
Africa
Electricity and Transport Systems on Verge of Collapse in Sudan Media Line
South of the Border
Nicaragua Signs Contracts With Chinese Companies in Transport, Tech and Comms Orinoco Tribune
European Disunion
EU faces extra €10bn bill to refill gas stores after cold winter Financial Times
European Rearmament, the American Empire and Donald Trump eugyppius (Micael T)
ECB may have to cut interest rates below 2%, former hawk says Financial Times
Wadephul lets the cat out of the bag: Half of the federal budget for armament Nachdenkseiten via machine translation (Micael T)
Belgium’s public sector strike on Tuesday: What we know so far Brussels Times
The fight for Hungary’s future: sovereignty or subjugation? Thomas Fazi
Sweden: a socialist paradise overflowing with billionaires Financial Times. Micael T:
I wish they could stop using the tired trope of ”socialist Sweden”. The governments for the last 30 years have done their utmost to privatize all that is important. There is nothing socialist left in Sweden. The public owns nothing. Wealth is transferred from the public to oligarchs. Higher taxes on labour than capital. 70% of billionaire wealth from inheritance. An engineer economy has become a parasite economy.
Old Blighty
Israel v. the Resistance
Netanyahu: Gaza Aid Scheme Offers Israel Symbolic Cover to Finish the Genocide Drop Site
Witkoff’s latest ‘zero enrichment’ red line has zero chance of working Responsible Statescraft (Kevin W)
Iran’s Khamenei Brands Trump a Liar in Escalation of Rhetoric Bloomberg. From a couple of days ago, still germane.
Trump’s Gulf Visit: Chas Freeman Explains the US–Israel–Gulf Shift India & Global Left
New Not-So-Cold War
Vladimir Putin’s statement to the media following a telephone conversation with US President Donald Trump President of Russia
Donald Trump leaves Russia and Ukraine to settle war in talks Financial Times
FULL: Lavrov’s Huge Announcement Ahead Of Trump-Putin Call; Reveals Why Istanbul Talks ‘Failed’ Times of India
Britain left out in the cold by Trump on Ukraine peace talks Ian Proud
Hearsula Vonder(mentally) Lying’s 17th Oliver Boyd-Barrett
Russian 🇷🇺 armed forces started their first strategically important maneuver of 2025.
After months of preparation, Russian army is trying to cut the Pokrovsk-Kostiantynivka frontline, breaching the Donbass 🇺🇦 front in the middle.
🧵THREAD🧵1/16⬇️ pic.twitter.com/rgPpwdwVQp
— Clément Molin (@clement_molin) May 19, 2025
30 years of pledge auctions Kommersant via machine translation (Micael T). Important.
Syraqistan
“Sectarianism is the enemy of national liberation”: An Interview with Patrick Higgins on Syria, Imperialism and the Palestinian Cause Vanessa Beeley
Imperial Collapse Watch
Trump 2.0
Rep. LaMonica McIver charged by DOJ over incident with ICE agents ABC
A shock to the system: The global implications of Trump II Stephen Walt, Chatham House. Walt was co-author with John Mearsheimer of The Israel Lobby.
Trump’s ‘Golden Dome’ Missile Shield Expected To Cost $500 Billion Antiwar.com (Kevin W)
Trump Admin Reaches $5M Settlement With Ashli Babbitt’s Family: Report Newsweek (resilc)
Trump Imposes His Will on Major League Baseball American Prospect (Robin K)
Tariffs
The markets are declaring tariff victory too soon Financial Times
This pause in the trade war will be brief. Small businesses, plan accordingly Guardian
Immigration
Miami Republicans fight Trump policies threatening deportations for their community The Hill
At least 50 migrants sent to El Salvador prison entered US legally, report finds Guardian (resilc)
First ‘self-deportation’ flight from US lands in Honduras – with US citizen children aboard CNN
Horse racing industry braces for crackdown on illegal immigration NPR
Democrat Death Wish
Biden
Top doctors stunned Biden’s cancer diagnosis wasn’t caught sooner: ‘It is inconceivable’ Daily Mail (Li)
Urologist Dr. David Shusterman says there's no way Biden and his doctors didn't know about this aggressive prostate cancer much earlier.pic.twitter.com/I92sKUGEhV
— Citizen Free Press (@CitizenFreePres) May 19, 2025
Our No Longer Free Press
Ode to Scum Matt Taibbi
Groves of Academe
High school teacher who gave student a condom loses her job and unemployment benefits Iowa Capital Dispatch (Li)
The Bezzle
From “Ricardian Vice” to First Principles Steve Keen (Micael T)
What Has Changed Since Silicon Valley Bank Collapsed? Not Much. New York Times (resilc)
Elon Musk is building ‘the world’s biggest supercomputer.’ It’s powered with dozens of gas-powered turbines CNN (resilc)
Crypto High-Rollers Go Big on Bodyguards to Deter Kidnappers Bloomberg (Li). From the weekend, confirms the story line in our Monday post on crypto crime.
Class Warfare
people who are masters at their work
— Science girl (@gunsnrosesgirl3) May 19, 2025
Will Anyone Take the Factory Jobs Trump Wants to Bring Back to America? Wall Street Journal (resilc)
I’m a LinkedIn Executive. I See the Bottom Rung of the Career Ladder Breaking. New York Times (resilc). Entry level jobs are how professionals learn their trade. This trend will accelerate both the stupidification and the hollowing out of the PMC.
Why Jobs in Tech Are Getting Tougher to Land: AI, Layoffs and the ‘Great Hesitation’ in Hiring Wall Street Journal (resilc)
Karl Marx’s Legacy in the United States Jacobin (Robin K)
Antidote du jour (via):
A bonus:
I aspire to be at his level of unbothered. pic.twitter.com/saXODDAL1M
— Why you should have a cat (@ShouldHaveCat) May 19, 2025
A second bonus:
— out of context dogs (@contextdogs) May 19, 2025
And a third:
😂🤣🤣 pic.twitter.com/9KJGIRbivQ
— The King (@xxxxTheKing) May 19, 2025
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.
There is something a bit “Uncanny Valley” about that video of the puppy on the couch.
Is spotting AI video content a new part of the modern Social Skill Set?
Asking for a virtual friend.
I think that those Ostriches are getting a quick course in the effects of “Uncanny Valley” as well.
That little girl must be channeling her inner Nessus and showing those sock puppets just who “The Hindmost” is in that muddle of ostriches.
Thanks. Nice reference to Larry Niven’s Ring World series.
Sure. It’s a not so well “Known Space” nowadays.
The idea of the Puppeteers stealthily breeding Terran humans for “luck” certainly is a great plot idea. That reminds me of Napoleon’s remark about generalship: “I’d rather have lucky generals than good ones.”
See: https://www.consider.biz/give-me-lucky-generals/
“Is spotting AI video content a new part of the modern Social Skill Set?”
The video, image, and audio generation by AI is constantly improving, so detection will become harder and harder without proper forensic tools, or unfalsifiable traceability data. Any content produced since, say 2022, has become inherently suspect.
OMG! I was totally taken in by the cute puppy video. It’s so feel good I even watched it three times. I need to learn to be more on guard. Yikes!
I find nothing intrinsically wrong with “feel good” AI generated video. What I do worry about is the eventual use of AI ‘product’ to “drive” public perception of people or events that have an effect on our physical lives.
I used to joke about the Disney Animatronics master stroke of fully replacing Ronald Reagan, after Hinkley shot and killed him, with a robot. Essentially a fake President. That was a joke, (though in designedly poor taste.) Then we discover that the “real” Reagan had been suffering from advanced dementia for much of both of his terms in office. As has now been asked about “Creepy” Joe Biden, who suffered similarly while in the office, who was then running the Executive Branch of the Government?
To return to our story; when earlier denizens of the White House throw over the traces, more traditional methods of ‘coping’ were employed by the permanent bureaucracy. Kennedy was shot, as was Lincoln before him. Now, a simple AI replacement can be crafted and the “original” sequestered away. No messy national trauma needed.
Big Brother will always be watching. Do notice how he never ages.
Stay safe.
I think it’s a real fox terrier puppy, trimmed and brushed for the first time. The sofa has imperfections, the puppy has imperfections and it’s behavior is exactly that of a stooped puppy (which I don’t think AI can mimic yet).
‘Arnaud Bertrand
@RnaudBertrand
This is probably the best description I’ve seen of the negotiation dynamics between Trump and China.
The man speaking is the legendary George Yeo, former Foreign Minister of Singapore, and imho one of the wisest statesmen in Asia.’
This guy is good and is very much worth listening to, There was a point that he made which is this-
‘Another key point Yeo notes, and which speaks volumes about US credibility in Asia nowadays, is that while a US-China agreement may emerge, everyone knows that it’ll only be temporary – “good for another one, two, three years, and that’s it” – until the US changes its mind again. Yeo says that’s the key reason why there is no hope that the Americans can drive a wedge between Russia and China, because the US’s word doesn’t count for much.’
He didn’t say as much but he may be also talking about how a new President can come in every four years in the US and then everything gets set back to zero. It is for this reason that Russia insists on a Ukrainian army of about 30,000 men. Because an agreement can be made to do so with Trump but the next President will say that the Ukraine has to go into NATO and some high officials have been saying that this will happen but a 30,000 strong army will stymie that.
About the AI & jobs:
It seems that the diagnosis is often that it is the fault/responsibility of the individual worker and therefore the suggested solution is directed towards the individual worker – get better, get more training, get more certifications etc etc
As far as I can tell then our ‘elite’ is using the training and education to postpone dealing with the problem. Kicking the can and hoping that something will change. The likely outcome (that I see) is that the measure of NEET (https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/neet ) is being gamed for as long as possible.
Students are currently learning to use AI and LLM, that is known as universities are reporting that students are cheating by using AI and LLMs. Using AI and LLMs for cheating is basically learning how to use it for work, it is learning a tool that is then used when working.
So dedicated training on how to use AI and LLM does not seem necessary to me.
Then we have training AI and LLM to perform better. I suppose there are jobs doing that (I see ads for it) but once training of the AI/LLM is done there is little need for training. Possibly the ones training AI/LLM know this so they make sure that AI/LLM will never be trained well as when AI/LLM is trained they will be without jobs.
Building AI/LLM models is a niche job which few are capable of and as such expecting a high proportion of the workforce building AI/LLM is not realistic.
The best opportunities to make money now from AI/LLM is probably by helping our ‘elite’ postpone dealing with the situation. So I expect to see training and education providers getting paid by governments to do just that, the ones with the best government connections might be the ones winning the most government contracts as the quality of the training/education is irrelevant, the point is to game NEET so why bother with quality.
A lot of the “AI gonna take muh jobz!” hype is just that, pure hype. It does serve the PMC well, though, to keep workers scared of losing their jobs and unwilling to risk jumping ship to a competitor.
Your point is a good one … “Certified AI Idiot™” will become a much sought-after credential among the PMC. Put in on your resume and LinkedIn profile.
Good morning. “Proficient with AI”, because everything digital is touched by AI. Seems more like a reality of our surroundings than a choice, just another (small window til redundancy) software skill requirement for gainful employment.
It’s not only digital, the wilderness has also succumbed to AI… birds question whether anything is real anymore or is it all allusion, bears witness virtual pic-a-nic baskets, while mountains are moved to appear more photogenic.
Speaking of birds and shifting reality, it’s a late migration period this year at the camp. The green eyed vireo that resides here every spring and summer and normally arrives around April 1 didn’t show up until last week. The canopy is rocking now, peace of a sort in the kingdom.
I’ve been clearing an area of dead wood on the ground and in the air while about half blue Scrub Jays lurk not far away.
Are they upset that I took away their easy to fly to dead limbs on high?
I left a few…
All hype? Maybe but I am not so sure.
What people see and report might well be insignificant statistical noise but it could also be the beginning of a new trend. The ones who have seen the job-losses with their own eyes or heard of the job-losses from trusted friends or family might be prone to believe it is the beginning of a new trend.
Time will tell, AI might well be hype and the word ‘AI’ used too much and inappropriately but the IT-driven automation in the office has for better or worse removed jobs.
The LinkedIn guy article highlights a disconnect. Let us see:
“For generations, entry-level positions have served as professional steppingstones where new graduates could safely learn under the watchful eye of seasoned managers.”
So far so good: this is indeed how things still work. So what is the solution to AI taking over entry-level tasks? Behold:
“At the accounting and consulting firm KPMG, recent graduates are now handling tax assignments that used to be reserved for employees with three or more years of experience, thanks to A.I. tools. And at Macfarlanes, early-career lawyers are now tasked with interpreting complex contracts that once fell to their more seasoned colleagues.”
Wait a minute. How can new employees reliably take over tasks that “more seasoned colleagues” master after “three or more years” if they have not learned the ropes in the first place? The risk is indeed high that they will just accept whatever the AI suggests because they do not have the knowledge nor the experience to verify whether it is the correct/complete/optimal way to do things, or whether it is a situation with unusual aspects that require adjusting the procedure or asking for help from an old hand.
In other words, I fear that we are steering towards an increased loss of competence in organizations.
By the way: the trend of outsourcing IT jobs to India started about 40 years ago. The idea was that the low-level, repetitive, or boring stuff (testing, maintenance, basic coding) could be carried out there while the “value-adding” activities (coding of advanced, complex software, system design, project management) would remain in the West. Except that those tasks are typically the entry-level ones with which young IT developers learn the ropes; the bottom rung of the career ladder was gone. Fast forward 40 years later, and countries that initiated the outsourcing practice in great style, such as the UK, have to import project managers and designers from India or outsource the complete work there, because their older, experienced IT employees in those positions are going in pension and too few IT workers had an opportunity to get properly trained to become designers, software architects, or project managers. The relevance of this evolution with respect to AI and entry-level jobs is left as an exercise to the reader.
I believe what you describe is known to the PMC as a I’ll Be Gone You’ll Be Gone situation:
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/IBG_YBG
The increased competition in our time leads to people doing whatever they can to survive or even thrive in the short-term because if they don’t then they will not thrive and might end up barely surviving to a long term.
Thinking long term is seen as a luxury reserved for people are already ‘safe’, the rest will focus on doing whatever it takes (cheating, selling out the long term etc) to survive and hopefully thrive in the short term.
It will be fine as long as the AI does the QA.
As W Edward Deming found the best person cannot achieve in a broken system.
Can AI run a bad system well?
PMC does not want to blame humans, will they blame AI.
“As W Edward Deming found the best person cannot achieve in a broken system.”
Many thanks for reminding me of this piece of wisdom. Indeed, I can see the most experienced, skillful, motivated person ending up just thrashing about amidst slop when AI has taken over enough functions and dumbed down enough members of an organization.
Cream doesn’t rise; fat floats.
Something else, of a less salubrious nature often also floats to the top.
I call BS. If these entry-level attorneys rely on shoddy AI to interpret contracts, not only will they never learn the critical analysis skills they need to advance in their careers, they’ll waste 3 years of law school training.
Ultimately the firms are liable for malpractice as well. If they get sued by a client, they won’t be able to hide behind the skirt of some tech bro.
I can certainly attest to it being difficult to get into tech without any experience, over 20 years ago. I think perhaps those with CompSci and similar degrees that completed internships had a better time of it, but today even they seem to be increasingly screwed. I think the most typical route for those without a BS degree was by way of a technical support job, but hating people in general, that was never a reality for me.
I did enjoy reading the BofH fanfic though.
For the uninitiated:
https://www.theregister.com/offbeat/bofh/
Clickety-click, zrrrt!
That was my honeypot! I knew someone would get the reference!
Saved all the Bofh posts since the dot and enjoy them for their dark humour. Can you imagine a DOGE-boy turning up in the Bofh workplace? Maybe Simon can show them the view from one of the upper windows or maybe have the pfy show them the basement water stump.
Thanks for this link.
Schrodingers firmware update is brilliant. As my families IT specialist I will be using that term next time a huge windows update takes several hours to install.
“Trump Admin Reaches $5M Settlement With Ashli Babbitt’s Family”
This is exactly what I was talking about in a comment I made a day or so ago. You have a massive injustice take place, a coupla years goes by as this bounces around the system and then a deal is made. Here the family gets $5 million which is not even couch lint (annual budget of US Capitol Police is north of $700 million), there is no admission of any wrongdoing at all in spite of the video evidence, the shooter gets to walk away scot free and continues his career and everybody pretends that justice has been done and that the system works. It does not matter if you are talking about corporations poisoning masses of people or police who got too trigger happy shooting innocent people dead – it is the same standard operating procedure. And Trump will never speak of it.
Meanwhile, Ashli Babbitt still remains unavailable for comment.
Hopefully, she is appealing her case to Saint Luigi in the Court of Adjustments.
Putsch yourself in her position with figuring prominently in the Wessel of 2 evils in the Ashli-Babbitt-Lied…
Said years ago that the guy could have stepped up and smacked her in the teeth with the butt of his pistol which would have ‘neutralized’ her but instead stepped forward and went for a head shot at point blank range because, well, there might have been a nuke in her backpack or something.
I blame it on the training…
If IDF instractors were involved, the logic was that a clean shot is cheaper for the state (unless the “enemy” has to bear proximal and distal costs at which point shatering of the ankle would have been recommended).
So, up next, Operation Barbarancione?
A campaign to Mars for lebensraum?
Die Glock und spiel? Ring a bell? (Tell the truth. {Truth(TM) not available in all regions.})
Martyrers’s Row
If I was breaking down doors in the capital building and trying to get into an area guarded by capital police, I would expect to get arrested. If I was breaking down the doors, and the officer warned me multiple times not to do it with their gun out pointed at me, I would expect to be shot. There is testimony from witnesses that they were warned not to do it.
This wasn’t some kid who was shot by the police outside on the street. These were rioters who were trying to break into a secure area that was guarded by police with guns. I am not usually pro police shooting people, but what was the cop supposed to do?
Exactly. She was breaking and entering and confronting armed policed and ignored their orders. She was also ex-military and had been trained about red lines and how you would be shot if you crossed one. This was not compensation for her family, this was red meat for the base and a provocation to the liberal left.
See below. Your points are IRRELEVANT.
The use of deadly force was not warranted. There are Supreme Court rulings to that effect, FFS.
Please do not offer invalid justifications for police brutality.
https://www.talksonlaw.com/briefs/when-can-police-use-deadly-force
“…what was the cop supposed to do?”
Oh, I don’t know, not shoot her?
Take him back in the ball game,
Take him in with the Hall of Fame crowd;
Buy me time to criticize Springsteen and talk smack,
I don’t care if a Rose by any other name gets back.
Let me root, root, root for the Trump team
If they don’t let him in, it’s a shame.
For it’s one, two, three strikes, you’re out,
At the old ball game.
What would we call the Trump baseball team?
My suggestion is that they move to the Philippines so that the team can be named The Manila Folders.
Might be more appropriate if they moved to South Park.
Guantanamo, Go Guanos!
Covfefe is for Closers…
I saw what you did there! And it’s for the birds.
Well, Trump is bat guano crazy, so I like it.
The Washington Weasels.
Their mascot could be this little fellow: https://www.bing.com/images/search?
Mudville 9, or slang for the slanted Supreme Court.
There is no joy in Mudville–mighty Comey has struck out.
The truth of the matter is that Springsteen is as phoney as trump is a phoney. Springsteen hasn’t had any connection to the blue collar people he sings about in 30 years. Springsteen lives in mansions his kids are educated at Ivy League schools and his daughter owns and rides 300 thousand dollar thoroughbreds at uber wealthy horse shows along with the daughters of John Mellencamp and a former Fox News commentator. Springsteen is every bit the jack ass that Trump is, so they should both shut up.
Not as bad as Bono and Sean Penn who brought out a bunch of Ukrainian soldiers onto the red carpet at the Cannes Film Festival because that is what you do there-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pDS4SyZ7MZQ (36 secs)
Springsteen didn’t have AIDS, but wrote a pretty good song in regards to it, does that disqualify him?
Streets of Philadelphia
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tKdk97y2Wjg
So I take it you’re not a fan of Springsteen and Obama’s “Renegades” podcast? ;)
I agree. It’s millionaires and billionaires having a p1ssing contest. Why should I care?
A good many aging rock stars were offered obscene amounts for the body of their work to be used in advertising largely, and I can’t say I blame them for taking the money, it isn’t as if 78 year old authors are being offered $400 million for exclusive use of their tomes.
I think I liked it better in the 1970’s when the only ones making ridiculous amounts of money were musicians, who occasionally partied to excess and more, sometimes wrecking hotel rooms in the process. Nothing about them was exclusive-they had messages in music they wanted to share with us.
As opposed to the Gilteratti now who have bunkers at the ready to save themselves from us.
“Nothing about them was exclusive-they had messages in music they wanted to share with us.”
That was pretty much what ” A Complete Unknown” was about. I’ve watched it twice, having some time on my hands and being a complete sucker for a movie in which the main characters are Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger, Joan Baez and Bob Dylan.
I found one of the Newport Folk Festival scenes when Dylan debuted “The Times, They Are a-Changin'” to be quite moving, a bright hope gone dim.
The old gods are dead!
Acclaim the new gods!
https://nitter.poast.org/KNEECAPCEOL
“Mystery of Amber Layer in Sea Floor 115 Million Years Ago Is Solved”
Always nice to read of a scientific discovery that relies on mostly reasoning and deduction. But that must have been a massive tsunami to drag back into the sea so many trees and their amber. It’s a wonder that they have not found bits of dinosaurs mixed up in all that amber.
I like this part for the enormity.
In addition, a shallow-marine carbonate platform – the largest throughout the Jurassic-Cretaceous of Northwest Pacific – collapsed, and the upshot would have been tsunamis that swept whatever was on land in their reach into the sea,
Rough seas!
Interesting article, that!
Kauri tree gum from NZ is essentially amber, and initially before petrochemicals came along, it made for the best varnish of the time for the era of around 1900. Its in the roots of all Kauri trees, including the vast numbers of mature trees all taken down in one fell swoop say 45,000 years ago and buried 10 to 20 feet underground, which is called ‘Swamp Kauri’.
Kauri gum diggers used these quite long really thin swords to probe for gum on Swamp Kauri, and at that time they certainly knew of the trees existence underfoot, but couldn’t do anything substantial to unearth the ancient trees-preserved by nature, it was more of a series of catholes if you found the root of the matter.
Nowadays, whole trees are unearthed and cut into sizable lengths and marketed as the oldest workable wood by a wide margin, with 70% of the tensile strength of modern woods. Makes for good coffee tables~
I’m holding a piece of Kauri gum the size of a small child’s fist in my hand, and if you rub it on your hand, there’s an interesting smell.
If you are in the north of the North Island in NZ, by all means go to the Kauri Museum in Northland, or just look online here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kauri_Museum
Could that be the smell of static electrification of amber as noted by Greeks in the 6th century BCE?
I’ve started fires with just a wee bit of Kauri gum, so I could see that.
The last letters of the condemned in war. Brunstetter’s essay is beautiful, and it is indeed a must-read. If anything, it is an example of the power of words in this time of too many images, too many selfies, too many slogans, too many concepts worn out and long past any use.
Torino received an award as a hero city of the new Italian Republic. What that means is that the nazifascists slaughtered people in Torino and in the region of Piedmont. There are Stumbling Blocks, one after another, in Torino. These are a project of artist Gunter Demnig. He incises a few words on a brass plaque about a person taken from home to be sent to concentration camps. The stumbling block is then inset into the sidewalk outside that person’s building, former home.
There are many “targhe,” stone plaques on the walls here – I passed one just the other day, of a young woman, age 20 or 21 or 22, who was assassinated in a street in the old city for her involvement with the antifascist resistance.
Here is an Italian site with last letters:
http://storiaxxisecolo.it/documenti/documenti7.html
Here is a request from a man who was held in the Carcere Nuove (the central “new” jail), not far from where I live. I can walk there easily.
Armando Amprino (1925 – 1944): Dietro il quadro della Madonna, nella mia stanza, troverete un po’ di denaro. Prendetelo e fate dire una Messa per me. la mia roba, datela ai poveri del paese.
[Behind the picture of the Madonna in my room, you’ll find some money. Take it and have a mass said for me. My things can be given to the poor people in our town.]
I arrived in Torino already opposed to war. The last three or so years have only confirmed my opposition to war. As some Italians have noted, there are no just wars, and don’t expect a just peace.
Who will engrave and lay stumbling blocks for the individuals or even entire families wiped out by the Israelis in Gaza?
Gaza itself is become a vast Stumbling Block for the concept of civilization.
Agreed, DJG, a must-read not for its inside info or the hottest hot take, but for the powerful invitation to introspection contained in those letters.
And thank you for telling us about the skandala of Torino. History is embodied in place, not books, and Demnig’s art forces us to think, “What would I have done in that spot?,” while literally standing on the spot. What context!
Brunstetter’s use of “bargaining” had me baffled. Even Wiki provides a pretty good explanation of Kubler-Ross’s concept:
This kind of bargaining focuses on what must be done or given up to gain more time from an entity with the power to grant a reprieve. The offer is usually made on the basis of what the supplicant thinks the powerful entity wants them to do or not do, not what the supplicant desires at some deep level. Guilt at failing to meet some higher-up’s standard is more the driver than one’s latent sense of calling.
Yet Brunstetter uses “bargaining” this way:
I don’t think so. Bargaining means asking what must I do or not do to get more time without even considering how the time might be used beyond fulfilling the terms of the bargain. Those at the bargaining phase of K-R may not be engaging in enough self-reflection at that point to really have a firm idea of deeper motivations than bucket lists of destinations and milestones.
Which is all to say is that it was the letters that did it for me more than the framework Brunstetter put them in.
I also had an issue with vague talk of “love” when ordo amoris is a big discussion these days with the late Pope’s clincher against his young sheep’s “circle of care” improvisations. Unless the Earth and the Ten Thousand Things are completely in that circle, don’t talk to me of love.
Unbelievably, even in my long-windedness, I forgot something. I enjoyed the letter from the fellow who had hidden money behind the Madonna’s picture to take care of a mass. Making such last arrangements seems to me to be a sign of acceptance.
In my instance, the good news is that I’ve been accepted at Case Medical School. The bad news is that I have to be dead. (I should probably check to make sure my acceptance isn’t affected by missing some parts.)
Memphis AIx and Google. Air quality in Memphis has fallen. For every 3 or 4 people employed at AIx, there is one gas turbine. Across the river in West Memphis, Google announced a $10 billion data center. They will probably employ 150 and poison the air of half a million people too
Build another hydro generator on that river. Who needs water for agriculture and drinking? We feed on data now.
Scoff not. That proposal is more practical than you think. Just look at how the town of Vidalia in Louisiana, on the Mississippi River, did just that.
A snippet: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sidney_A._Murray_Jr._Hydroelectric_Station
There are dozens of similar spots along the Mississippi River alone.
I shan’t scoff at the star pupil you’ve pointed out, as It was designed to rely on the Mississippi River’s natural flow and elevation drop at the Old River Control Structure, therefore not needing a large impound dam, but I will speculate that the denizens of the Indus River Valley will not be so lucky as to what is and will be constructed upstream.
True, but much of not only the Indus River impoundment fracas, but the Mekong River dams also are political decisions. What better way to display dominance than to deny someone else’s people needed water? So far, the Mississippi River still flows through a single nation.
On a much more practical level, atomic weapons will be perfect tools for removing those pesky upstream impediments to the river’s flow. In the case of the Indus River structures, all Pakistan need do is to threaten to employ low yield nukes against the offending structures. If push comes to shove, let the bombers give enough warning so as to let the workers and nearby dwellers time to evacuate and then blow up one structure.
If that brings on a general exchange, then it will have become evident that Terran human technological civilization was a lost cause all along.
Stay safe?
Not a good idea to rely on the Old River Control Structure, it is one of the most vulnerable pieces of civil engineering in the USA to both deliberate and accidental damage (which would divert the course of the Mississippi down the Atchafalaya and thus beach the New Orleans refinery alley on a dry bed).
It is not a good idea to rely on the Old River Control Structure, it is one of the most vulnerable pieces of civil engineering in the USA to both deliberate and accidental damage (which would divert the course of the Mississippi down the Atchafalaya and thus beach the New Orleans refinery alley on a dry bed).
True story. (Not to be confused with untrue stories. {I am not a politico.})
I worked with another plumber whose Dad was a middle manager for the Army Corps of Engineers. He was working near the Old River Control Structure when the infamous Flood of 1973 occurred.
One afternoon I sat down with my friend and his Dad and listened to the story of the Flood of ’73. In essence, the Corps of Engineers had to dump a multi cubic yard dump truck worth of rip rap into the giant whirlpool that fed the undercutting stream that threatened to change the course of the River roughly every ninety seconds. Most of the material was washed underneath the structure and into the upper Atchafalaya River course. All the rip rap was doing was slowing down the water flow, but that, evidently, was enough. This went on for several days, around the clock. My friends Dad said that the Corps of Engineers were already working on contingency plans for the full diversion of the Mississippi River into the Atchafalaya basin. It was that close.
As the man remarked near the end of the evening, “Nature always wins. The River will eventually change course.”
Stay safe, high, and dry.
Thanks.
“Will Anyone Take the Factory Jobs Trump Wants to Bring Back to America? ”
Will those factory jobs provide sufficient income to purchase a house and live comfortably?
I believe the answer to my question will be dispositive to the WSJ’s question. Of course, the WSJ doesn’t want us peasants buying houses and living comfortably so they can’t be bothered to ask my question.
Will those factory jobs provide sufficient income to purchase a house and live comfortably?
This reminds me of my life back in 1974 when I graduated. We graduated early June. The next day we could have a job at numerous places around town. We could even work days in one factory and nights in another, and some did. Jobs were plentiful around my little hick town in NW Ohio. A gallon of gas was less than 50 cents, a bag of groceries was maybe 20 bucks. A car cost less then 10 grand, a modest house maybe 40k.
Then over the next X amount of years all the jobs went away. I had a house, a car, and a family. I ended up working four jobs to keep everyone fed and warm and to pay the bills, which became more difficult as time went on. In 1987 I got the best job I ever had in my life (automotive mfg. related), only to see it move to Mexico in 1998, three years after NAFTA was passed. They told us NAFTA would be so great for the company. Yea, but maybe not the employees. First the blue collar jobs left, then the white collar jobs, including me. A facility the size of a city block that employed over 5000 people became an empty warehouse. A block of blight in North Toledo, Ohio to this day.
For a bunch of years it seemed like as soon as I got a job, they closed and moved. Only to do it again, and again.
I retired 6 years ago and taught a college STEM class until the semester finished a few weeks ago. I resigned today, which was a gut wrenching decision, but necessary. For all these kids who just graduated, I wonder what future they have. I also wonder if they know what they are about to experience in this screwed up crazy world we now live in. I wish them luck, and I think they will no doubt need it.
It seems our schools have become just like our factories/businesses. It’s all about money. Everything is about money. How to save money and whatever gets saved goes to the people at the top. The rest of us can eat cake. Screw it all, I’m tired of participating in a system that sucks this bad.
I’m lucky I’m old. Good luck to those still turning the hamster wheel.
We have a hellion of a Black Bear in Tiny Town on lower Mineral King road, who hasn’t met a trash receptacle he can’t get into, and if that means picking up a 2 yard bin and throwing it against a boulder, why not?
Bernie is the nom nom de food he’s been given, and big! close to 400 pounds.
I’m thinking we need to 86 Bernie by having Hollywood sign him to a reality show contract on the Real Trash Lives of Beverly Hills, where he’d lay waste to waste management.
Don’t tell California Governor Pseudo Getty, but your Yogi would be the perfect Neo-liberal homeless encampment clearance program. (As an added bonus, he would be fully organic!)
Hmmmmmm
Pompadour & Circumstance
That oily little git? I can imagine the biopic of him; as played by AI Warren Beaty.
His Presidential campaign theme song? That’s an easy one: “California Scheming.”
‘Science girl
@gunsnrosesgirl3
people who are masters at their work’
You have a lot of theories why humans were able to advance so far and there was talk of the opposable thumb, standing erect, binocular colour vision, bigger brains, delayed development after birth, etc. But for some time I have been thinking that it is really down to the human ability to develop skills. You can see examples in that video but humans as a whole have a unique ability to develop the skills necessary – and quickly – for any particular situation that gave us a head start on all the other species. So I maintain that it is our ability to develop skills that have led to our success-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g0opUbo9VdY (8:17 mins)
That video is promoting crippling work habits
The capitalist employer’s wet dream.
We need Wood McKenzie to state the obvious?
Data Centers’ Hunger for Energy Could Raise All Electric Bills NYT archive
Electricity prices are set on the margin; large industrial users avoid spot or day-ahead prices because they have long term supply contracts for base load (cheap) generation and transmission rights. The utilities have huge incentives to add generation and transmission capacity into their rate base to get the usual 10-15% returns. It is laughable that shareholders would take the hit!
Thanks for the Taibbi link. The full article (paywalled) is worth reading.
The “Ode to Scum” link has a superfluous “l” (small letter L) on the end, which is why it goes to Racket News’s front page with “Page not found” as the headline.
Thanks for the Ode To Scum, Taibbi link. It’s a great read. His named detractors seem to miss an important point: Taibbi has a wide ranging and creative outlook those who are mentally enclosed in a narrow party bubble lack, imo. That narrow outlook affects their work not in a good way, imo.
‘US East Coast faces rising seas as crucial Atlantic current slows”
So what happens if it stops? What will the effect be on the eat coast then? Will the seas pile up there. Might be something worth looking at.
Merely a new pentagon trough.
$500 billion for Golden Dome sounds like a lot, but…. that is over 20 years, not much in a trillion buck annual mega-trough.
The 30 odd year life cycle cost of F-35 which was closely engaged in Yemen is over $2 trillion with shabby mission capability. Single engine fighter pilot trough, ala Top Gun.
If a long range radar costs over $2 billion to build, $25 billion a year for Golden Dome is a slim trough.
It won’t work any better than F-35.
More likely that $500 billion is just a down payment. How many Pentagon programs these days come in on time and on budget. As an example, one of the selling points for the initial F-35 fighter was that it was going to be cheap. And we all know how that worked out. That $500 billion? Long term you will be talking about trillions for sure.
Sad but true.
Star Wars aka National Missile Defense Initiative, aka Ballistic Missile Defense Programs, etc have spent more than that in real money since Reagan’s time. Look where US is: Mid Course Interceptors are three stage rockets deployed with problematic kill vehicles, numerous radar upgrades of systems around since 1960’s, Aegis, THAAD, Patriot……
The MIC is not getting more efficient or accurate in delivering performance!
“Does Your City Use Chlorine or Chloramine to Treat Its Water? ”
You know how I can tell? When my skin is burning and and red after I take a shower. True story.
Eugenics?
I’ve been on well water for 20 years in terms of replenishing my precious bodily fluids and when I encounter chlorinated water elsewhere it is such a turn off, used exclusively for drinking water here in Sequoia NP, yuck.
There’s valid concerns to consuming and being exposed to chlorinated drinking water but eugenics is an unnecessary hyperbole.
Go for a hike dept:
I’m planning a trip to Wal*Mart when the new and improved prices kick in, a price hike where you don’t have to really exert yourself aside from hushed gasps at what the tariffist attack has wrought.
I usually buy the same stuff and remember what things cost, and the only other way around the tariffs is for Wal*Mart to downsize content, and that takes time when you have to do it across the spectrum of inventory.
How does Joe Sixpack and his fetching better half Jane Chardonnay react to the new normal?
With Franzia and a suitcase of natty light. Party on.
I worked briefly in the news publishing industry and it was pretty obvious that this is where things were headed. If anything they’re ahead of schedule:
Chicago Sun-Times Prints AI-Generated Summer Reading List With Books That Don’t Exist
https://www.404media.co/chicago-sun-times-prints-ai-generated-summer-reading-list-with-books-that-dont-exist/
“Books That Don’t Exist”
Absolutely perfect for a no-stress vacay. Can’t beat the price. Doesn’t take up precious space in that carry-on. And best of all, when you lie to your friends that you read it, they won’t be able to prove otherwise.
Update: turns out it was purchased by the Chicago Sun-Times from my old employer, Hearst:
Viral AI-Generated Summer Guide Printed by Chicago Sun-Times Was Made by Magazine Giant Hearst
https://www.404media.co/viral-ai-generated-summer-guide-printed-by-chicago-sun-times-was-made-by-magazine-giant-hearst/
Relevant quote:
All I can say is that there is no way to adequately express my non-surprise at this fiasco.
AI getting ideas from Stanislaw Lem? – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanis%C5%82aw_Lem%27s_fictitious_criticism_of_nonexistent_books#Imaginary_Magnitude
Up next, the catalogue of available titles from the Library of Uqbar.
For some time I’ve read articles about the collapse of the US empire or the fall of the West or some such. First reaction is to wonder if our military or our tech is the weak link. I don’t think it is. I think the weak link is the neoliberal economic model that’s slowly gnawed away at the real economies, distorting both politics and economies in the West for almost 50 years. It is the neoliberal economic empire that is failing, imo. The rising poverty and want, the falling life spans, the destruction of onshore manufacturing in the name of higher stock prices (because markets, go die, as someone said), the hollowing out of once stable middle classes, are the results of neoliberal economic policies, imo. It is the West’s neoliberal rules-based economic empire that’s collapsing. / my 2 cents
adding: a quick refresher on neoliberalism. From Jacobin magazine, 2014
Bulletproof Neoliberalism
By – Paul Heideman
To understand how a body of thought became an era of capitalism requires more than intellectual history.
https://jacobin.com/2014/06/bulletproof-neoliberalism/
Several of Mirowski’s essays are available on line. Worth reading, imo..
thanks!
Philip Mirowski’s 2018 essay about the Neoliberal Thought Collective (NTC) as he describes it and it’s history. American Affairs Journal. no paywall.
Neoliberalism: The Movement That Dare Not Speak Its Name
By Philip Mirowski
https://americanaffairsjournal.org/2018/02/neoliberalism-movement-dare-not-speak-name/
Before I started reading this blog I had never heard of Hayek but did know about Charlie Peters, described by the NYT on his death as the “godfather of neoliberalism.” The confusion wasn’t only mine.
Where Peters’s contrarianism went astray was in his fervent embrace of what he named neoliberalism. And Peters’s use of the term, as opposed to its meaning in economics, is the source of untold confusion.
For economists, going back to Friedrich Hayek and then Milton Friedman, neoliberalism is the idea that despite what seemed to be the lessons of the Great Depression as informed by the insights of John Maynard Keynes, free markets were perfectly efficient after all if government would just leave them alone. The 1980s were the heyday of those beliefs in the academy and in public policy.
For Peters, who published “A Neoliberal’s Manifesto” in 1982, initially as a Washington Post piece and later expanded into a book, neoliberalism meant a less bureaucratic form of liberalism, true to verities but willing to challenge old orthodoxies. He held the labor movement to blame for wage-driven inflation. He was willing to add income tests to Social Security.
Given the tendency of government to get captured by special interests, the idea of a less bureaucratic form of liberalism had its appeals. But one problem for Peters’s version was timing. By the time Peters wrote his manifesto, Reagan was in the White House and it was open season on all forms of liberalism. And Peters’s ideas ended up giving aid and comfort to those Democrats who thought that they should move right with the times.
https://populist.com/stories/charlie-peters-and-the-odyssey-of-neoliberalism,7098
Here’s suggesting that Peters, a Kennedy Democrat, had far more to do with the Clinton Third Way version of neoliberalism than Hayek or Friedman. As Kutner says above Peters’ contrarian views gave Dems the excuse to jump in bed with all those plutocrat campaign donors.
And Peters, who had served in government, wasn’t entirely wrong about the bloat and inefficiency of bureaucracy. Unfortunately his therefore limited experience didn’t embrace that of those who have worked for private business. Which is to say the dirty secret of big business is that they want to bloated and inefficient too with a guaranteed source of monopoly income. It’s the battle of the institutions but at least one is answerable to the voters.
Gore Vidal thought that WW2 and our resultant super power dominance was the dividing line between aspirational republic and increasingly decadent empire. In the 60s some were already fed up and attempted a social revolution. Whereupon in the 70s an alarmed capitalism sponsored its own revolution which included sidelining all those pesky workers and finding new ways to maintain their wealth and status. Marx was right about historic inevitability but perhaps not in the way he thought. Human behavior is inevitable–ideas not so much.
In fact these days it’s unclear whether either party still hold to their stale ideas. The USA has devolved into a vulgar class war with the wealthy class doing much of the fighting..
imo. Thanks for the links.
“greed, for lack of a better word, is good”
Is it though?!
Plato, Jesus, Hobbes, Smith, Marx, they all criticized greed and its ill effects on victims and perpetrators as well…
We’ve also managed to cross a majority of the nine planetary boundaries. We crossed the atmospheric carbon boundary in 1988, and three more between 2009 and 2023. The seventh, ocean acidification, which results from some of the excess carbon in the atmosphere being dissolved into the ocean, is breached or about to be breached. And the eighth, the ozone layer, one we though we had dealt with decades ago by banning SSTs and freon, is now under threat from the proliferation of satellites. (Lookin’ at you, Elon.)
I liken this to a a comprehensive metabolic panel that shows 2/3 of the elements out of normal range. The patient is not healthy to grossly understate it. The problem is, should this patient gets sicker, it will be humans that feel it.
And in other news, the Guardian informs me that Putin is shamelessly ignoring Zelensky’s reasonable requests in order to buy more time for his illegal war and occupation. If only he would agree to lose so that Ukraine could win, there could be peace. How sad that Mr. Putin will not volunteer to lose first.
All sarcasm aside, Putin needs to be very careful or else he will lose last. The news the other day that Ukrainians were scheming to blow stuff up in Germany is a good indication of where things will go when Ukraine collapses. A hornet’s nest of bad actors will be released into Russia and Europe unless something is resolved. Perhaps declaring the Azovs to be the Naughtzis they so clearly are will help but even then I don’t know. If Rheinmetal and others are genuinely looking to use this conflict to profiteer they’ll keep pushing until there’s nothing but a smoking crater between Germany and Russia.
Looking forward to the upcoming “hostile kinetic events” in Europe being blamed on Russia.
re. Biden’s cancer…
I’ll throw my 51% of my vote for the hypothesis that Joe only got cursory examinations so that his physician could merely commit a “lie of omission” when asked about Biden’s health.
It is plausible that even a lucid Biden would be too macho to be proactive about his health. And that Dr. Jill Biden (Ph.Ed) was too concerned about hiding Joe’s dementia to worry about other areas of the body
That was my other thought; they actually didn’t know, because they didn’t want to find out about whatever health problems Biden might have.
Either way, a horrible bunch of people, unworthy of public service.
One of the symptoms of more extreme narcissism is for them to disdain medical evaluations in the belief that there’s nothing ever wrong with themselves. It’s possible Biden refused to accede to a full inspection resulting in only a cursory evaluation. But I think I’m being generous with the medical mal-practioners.
IM Doc, in a long comment yesterday, didn’t think this was as sus as most do. Among other things, “In recent years, the federal agencies have decided that regular prostate exams and PSAs ( the tumor marker for them) are not indicated and should be stopped.” He said that often only one of the two screens (the PSA test or the manual exam) is positive. So it is conceivable that Biden got the blood test regularly and refused being felt up.
But IM Doc also said:
The reluctance to have the physical test is understandable. For a guy who never wants an exit to be an entry then you might understand. Here’s a TMI for you but as a gay man a certain orifice was exit only (more common amongst gay men than you’d think), yet even I’d messed around a bit so when the GP recently was suspicious of my PSA and did manual check-up I was relaxed and afterwards said “was that it?”
I have Benign prostatic hyperplasia, which is somewhat uncommon in someone in early 50s, but is another one of the those conditions the specialists are re-evaluating in light of COVID where conditions are appearing in people 20 years before they’d be expected to.
I’ve said elsewhere – there are a multitude of conditions appearing or getting worse REALLY fast since 2020. Several autoimmune conditions I had disappear/get fully under control now plague me again. I kinda wonder if a reluctance by Biden to get a manual test led to a version of prostate cancer go into overdrive due to something like COVID. Declaration of interest: I, along with practically all of the members of the Dept of Social Medicine in Bristol c2000, got pulled into the massive PROTECT study of prostate cancer.
I think you’re thinking way too hard about this.
Reframe it in context of the campaign and it makes almost perfect sense lined up with DNC patterns. He knew he wouldn’t last four more years and this was the best way to foist KH on the nation.
They knew. They all knew. He had cancer brain during the debate.
I have heard of chemo brain but not cancer brain….
A bit late but….
My first partner got pancreatic cancer which went to the brain and caused hallucinations. The smartest person around with a distinguished job record and media presence couldn’t work out if they were at work or not.
And when I was at the hospital a lady who had cancer was trying to sit on a bucket in reception to go to the toilet. Cancer brain. Just awful and so sad.
It happens ……..
I am so so sorry.
Simplest explanation is the doc found what the patient demanded get found – ie the same way the current president has the height/weight of an NFL linebacker, according to his WH physical.
Here in Sonoma County the Pandemic is over, festivals and parades are happening just like the old days, the Occidental Choir gave three performances to packed audiences, restaurants are full with almost no one masked….
Covid is just like the ‘Flu.
Except for those being crippled for life or dying, as the virus continues to mutate.
File under Climate.
Deadly severe weather outbreak in central US causes an estimated $9 billion to $11 billion in total damage and economic loss, Accuweather. Several tornadoes impacted highly populated areas, including an EF3 tornado that ripped through portions of northern St. Louis, Missouri, on May 16 with winds above 150 mph. More than 4,500 homes, businesses and other buildings and structures along the path of the powerful tornado were damaged or destroyed. St Louis!
Weather forecast calls for even more storms in central US, USA Today.
Relentless.
From The ‘Great Hesitation’ That’s Making It Harder to Get a Tech Job
I feel like I live on planet stupid, every day.
This is so. Unbelievably. False.
You can’t use “AI” to do any relevant early-career coder work. It’s always been possible to utilize automation to eliminate some tasks, like today there’s continuous code builds, rather than having someone manually do it.
But you’re not having LLM garbage fix bugs, or debug code, or implement minor features, which by the way require understanding the codebase and the business problem(s).
Society self immolated with COVID, why not this?
Sigh.
That’s not new. In the United States, any kind of entry level IT job has always been a rarity, a rare cup of freshwater, floating in a ocean of salt water. Going back over 20 years.
It’s definitely getting worse out there; We’re in a secular tech recession, and have been for 3 years now, after companies large and small massively over-hired in 2020-21, fueled by easy money and permanent (ha) remote work.
It’s all “AI” now. That’s just “data science” work, and probably had nothing to do with LLMs.
I don’t anticipate the situation getting any better, with Trump nuking the economy from orbit.
U.S. health secretary RFK Jr — “Only very very sick kids should die from measles”…
At least that’s the current plan…
Not in Gaza.
Can you imagine what the measles situation will be like in four years time? After the US had mostly eradicated it in recent decades? But guaranteed that RFK Jr will deny any responsibility as he has history here. He probably blame it on the parents.
announcement:
New Left Review 152 LAUNCH PARTY
Join us at Verso’s New York office
Tuesday, 27 May 2025
6.30 for 7pm
Fourth Floor, 207 E 32nd Street, NY
David Harvey, Alyssa Battistoni and Tim Barker will be discussing the state of contemporary capitalism.
Entry free for subscribers and for those bearing a copy of the latest issue of NLR (available for $10 on the night).
Space is limited, so please register here if you’d like to attend.”
However when I clicked on the register link to paste it here the event was already sold out online! Even though this message was brand new.
Odd…But may be they have space left on the night of the event.
News you can use.
New Findings on Walking and Running
https://solari.com/movie-of-the-week-may-19-2025-new-findings-on-walking-and-running/
This is good: Ian Welsh on why the Dems make lousy populists–at least since that poseur Obama.
https://www.ianwelsh.net/the-attempt-to-find-a-democratic-joe-rogan-or-beat-the-right-online-will-fail/