Time for more science! Or what passes close to it...
Another one for the predictions registry? In Existence, I posited that by 2040 human urine would be the next resource desperately recycled, as the great phosphate deposits provided by nature get used up. Now, from Ars Technica: Should we be trying to create a circular urine economy? “According to a Vermont-based company focused on using human waste as a resource, most of the nitrogen and phosphorus in wastewater comes from human urine, even though it makes up only 1 percent of wastewater. Removing urine could remove 75 percent of the nitrogen and 55 percent of the phosphorus from municipal wastewater treatment plants. And those nutrients could then be recycled for use as fertilizer.”
In Existence, I portrayed males required by law to either pee in a ‘phos-urinal’ or else... anywhere they liked, outside, like in a flower bed. This company takes a different approach that seems less sexist, if more complicated… a toilet divided fore and aft because… well… that’s how both sexes deliver… um… one and two… when seated. Ahem. “Separate pipes divert the urine to a collection tank.” Um, kinda skeptical, here. My approach – while less complete – does have advantages, especially for the roses! But at least there are some innovators out there looking… a-head.
Oh, yeah. Hot flash! Currently, Saturn is at it's closest point to Earth.
== bio news! ==
This is a big deal: The entire protein universe: AI predicts the shape of nearly every known protein: “Researchers have used AlphaFold — the revolutionary artificial-intelligence (AI) network — to predict the structures of some 200 million proteins from 1 million species, covering nearly every known protein on the planet. The data dump will be freely available on a database set up by DeepMind.”
Climate Change is supercharging infectious diseases: A first-of-its-kind paper combed through more than 70,000 scientific studies to pinpoint how an array of climate hazards have impacted 375 pathogenic diseases known to have affected humans. Apparently, more than half of all human infectious diseases in recorded history — Lyme, West Nile, hantavirus, typhoid, HIV and influenza, to name a few — have been exacerbated by the mounting impacts of greenhouse gas-driven climate change.
“De-Extinctify”? I know some of the folks, like Frank Church and Ryan Phelan, who want to bring back Mammoths and passenger pigeons. And in Existence I explore consequences of creating a Neanderthal child. Now, before any of those projects even gain momentum, a group wants to perform a different resurrection, this time the thylacine! The last big marsupial predator called the Tasmanian Tiger. It sounds like much more of a reach! But there are reasons marsupials may be much easier… and the genetics stored from the last thylacines is pretty good.
Wow. Elsewhere I talk about the theological implications of how quickly we are picking up the very tools of Creation.
Evolutionary loss of complexity as an adaptation for speech: Researchers found that instead of the human larynx having increased complexity, it has actually simplified relative to other primates, allowing for clearer sound production with less aural chaos. Interesting. Especially coupled with the fact that humans can be more accurate in tonal perception and production than the best songbirds or whales.
== Izzit physics? ==
"What other laws are we missing simply because we don't have the variables?" says mathematician Qiang Du from Columbia University. What’s weird… if typical of black box learning systems… is that the creators don’t know what two of the successful variables are!
And then there is our scientific heritage. My friend and dazzling experimental physicist Brian Keating (author of Losing the Nobel Prize) has a terrific audio reading of Galileo's Dialogue on Two World Systems. A classic, interpreted by one of the top science podcasters.
Another Keating podcast reprises one of the best physics shows you ever saw (or didn't see)! About theories of multiverses. A presentation of "The Three Astrophysicists."
== New in Tech ==
A new superconducting component called a Josephson Diode might help bring about superconducting electronic circuits. It’s superconducting when current flows through it in one direction and provides resistance when it flows in the other, making it (theoretically) possible to create processors that run at terahertz speeds, 300 to 400 times faster than today’s chips. Alas, these diodes must be cryo-cooled. And yet…
Gains in the race for room-temperature superconductivity: “Less than two years after shocking the science world with the discovery of a material capable of room-temperature superconductivity, a team of UNLV physicists has upped the ante once again by reproducing the feat at the lowest pressure ever recorded.” Reducing the threshold from 267 gigapascals to a mere 97 GPa. Still quite some distance from the hi-pressure/hi-temperature perovskites I depict achieving this feat in our planet’s mantle… in Earth.
At last, a project to shade two miles of aqueduct in California will test assertions that solar panels would reduce water evaporation as the result of midday shade and wind mitigation; create improvements to water quality through reduced vegetative growth; reduce canal maintenance as a result of reduced vegetative growth; and of course, generate renewable electricity.... “covering all 4,000 miles of California’s canals with solar panels would save more than 65 billion gallons of water annually by reducing evaporation. That’s enough to irrigate 50,000 acres of farmland or meet the residential water needs of more than 2 million people. By concentrating solar installations on land that is already being used, instead of building them on undeveloped land, this approach would help California meet its sustainable management goals for both water and land resources.”
Added benefits? Cooling the panels making them more efficient. And the access roads + grid are all in place
Scientists from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory have developed a custom-designed material called polydiketoenamine — PDK — that can be recycled efficiently and indefinitely and could be the future of plastic manufacturing.
And finally… weirdly NOT weird… These identical twins married identical twins. Now they have sons. "The Salyerses’ unusual marriages are known as quaternary marriage, and their sons are known as quaternary twins." Fraternal, of course. Though if not, then super weird!
116 comments:
To comment on the topic, for a change...
It was Jupiter's turn a couple of weeks ago. (Probably still closer than Saturn)
Another part of the metabolic puzzle are sugars, which provide rigid scaffolding for proteins to wrap themselves around.
The 'new laws' remind me of the somewhat odd notions about gravity that were bandied about in Omni (Blish did something similar with his 'spindizzy' anti-gravity devices. Wells just had Cavor paint over the cracks!)
Mammoths... well, if Putin's selling Siberia, maybe Wengel Island could be refurbished.
Superconductors: 97GPa? Knock another six orders of magnitude off, and we're talking! (At what temperatures do they operate?)
As I recall, first Lensman Virgil Samms was the product of a quaternary union. As to why... well, it meshes with the notion that any aliens currently among us are dicks.
Speaking of which, what's going on with Ukrainian access to Starlink, young Elon?
Heh Tony. Several gems, there.
Last I heard the Starling systems all worked and did their jobs in the worst two months.... after that? I can only guess they still function. Less desperately needed.
I don't say Elon isn't a pain in the neck. But folks who forget the huge pragmatic good would likely turn on me, just as readily. I give the devil benefit of gratitude for my own safety's sake.
The Josephson diode could potentially render my SELDON I processor project almost worthless, as could several other advances such as ionic circuits:
https://www.sciencealert.com/biology-inspires-a-new-kind-of-water-based-circuit-that-could-transform-computing
Nothing new for me (and many other inventors vastly superior to me). I had a decent celestial navigation project/product gathering steam a few months before GPS was given gratis to the world. When Vijay Pande left the realm of protein folding a few years ago, I was left high and dry. Of course I'm not complaining. If technological progress moved at the speed of my brain, we'd still be in the stone age :) Others, even here in CB, have larger tales of fruitless paths. I saw a thing recently about the brilliant Cooke and Wheatstone telegraph that was utterly obliterated by Samuel Morse just a few years later. It's the tao of tech. There's grandeur in this dance of creation/destruction/creation I think.
Frankly, Doctor, if you start advocating for achieving "peace" by giving the aggressors everything they want and never standing against them, you should expect people to turn against you.
Except maybe the Ent, because bending knee to the Boss is kind of his jam.
From the previous...
Alfred Differ said...
I won't intentionally tell you how to cope with changes going on around us. What I will point out is that this change is part of a tide. I don't think it can be stopped.
However, if you want high quality journalism… pay for it. You did in the past, right? It's still out there, but not in your local newspaper
I do pay for quality journalism, just as I did in the past. But that isn't really the issue, is it?
Earlier you wrote:
I am of the personal opinion that quality in news reporting hasn't changed a lot. What has changed is the volume of crappy news and that moves the average quality which some misinterpret as absence of quality.
If what you were trying to say is that quality journalism still exists, amid the oceans of dreck, then saying "quality in news reporting hasn't changed a lot" seems a poor way to say that.
The issue, as I see it, is that, not only has their been a massive increase of (often shockingly) low-quality so-called "news", but that, in addition, the quality of journalism from given news sources has decreased - often significantly - across the board.
The hyper-local newspaper I mentioned earlier has almost completely given up on reporting, but over the past 30 years the quality of almost every newspaper - and in this I include the major city dailies with which I have some familiarity over that time period - has also declined, if perhaps to a lesser degree. The same is true of broadcast news, both television (including cable) and radio, on both a local/regional and a national level.
Yes, of course, it is still possible to find good quality journalism, but generally one must expend extra time, effort, and money to get it, something that a large number (perhaps a majority) of the population does not do. I think (and I believe that I am not alone in this) that un- or mis-informed voters are a danger to a democratic society.
I don't have a simple solution, but at the same time I do not wish to deny the problem.
Tony Fisk:
The 'new laws' remind me of the somewhat odd notions about gravity that were bandied about in Omni (Blish did something similar with his 'spindizzy' anti-gravity devices.
Heh. In Blish's timeline, gravity was discovered in 2018 (though it had been previously postulated for millennia).
gregory byshenk:
Yes, of course, it is still possible to find good quality journalism, but generally one must expend extra time, effort, and money to get it, something that a large number (perhaps a majority) of the population does not do. I think (and I believe that I am not alone in this) that un- or mis-informed voters are a danger to a democratic society.
I have to agree with gregory here. He's not talking about whether an individual can find quality news by paying for it. He's talking about an informed public in the same light as we talk about public health or municipal fire protection. It's not just about what I personally choose to value for myself. There is value to everyone in everyone being informed (or protected), and negative value to everyone for that not being the case.
Does anyone have a clue what Jon S is talking about?
WTF?
Jon S. is talking about Musk's proposal for "peace" in Ukraine, which essentially boils down to giving Russia everything they've taken so far, refusing NATO membership to Ukraine, everyone else leaving them alone, and Ukraine becoming "neutral" in its own conflict.
You may recall how well that worked out for Czechoslovakia in 1938...
Dr Brin:
Does anyone have a clue what Jon S is talking about?
At first, I wondered where you had advocated for a Ukraine surrender, but I think the "you" was meant for Elon Musk.
Criminy. No one shouts down with Vlad! louder than me. But Alfred and I and some of you can recognize the 'special' way that Aspergers folks think and the EM tweet was very much of a kind. A primly 'logical' solution via mental processes that work fine in car and spaceship design.
e.g. that Ukraine has no historical claim to Crimea pre Kruschev's impulsive map-fiddling. Alas, that may be so, but the principle of NEVER rewarding aggression is vastly more important.
Further, Putin openly admitted intent to create population 'facts on the ground' **. with Russian diaspora populations displacing inconvenient others. Like Crimean Tatars. EM's suggested UN supervised elections should only include folks who were living in Donbas etc pre 2013, wherever they now preside. And many of the Russian speakers would - by secret ballot - chose NOT to join the mess that is the RF.
In fact, there is no way that Zelensky can get all he demands. The Asperger Proposal is correct that the Russian speakers along the Don - eastern Donbas -would probably wind up in a neutralized buffer state, as will Crimea.
Where I am furiously militant is reclaiming every inch of Ukrainian oblasts along the Sea of Azov, which Putin desperately wants to be a Russian lake. The beastg must not be rewarded.
---
** The way a rising power to the south is creating 'facts on the ground' in Sberia
Dr Brin:
e.g. that Ukraine has no historical claim to Crimea pre Kruschev's impulsive map-fiddling.
On a map, Crimea sure looks like part of Ukraine, the same way that Upper Michigan looks like it should be part of Wisconsin, or Alaska looks like part of Canada.
Dr Brin:
EM's suggested UN supervised elections should only include folks who were living in Donbas etc pre 2013, wherever they now preside. And many of the Russian speakers would - by secret ballot - chose NOT to join the mess that is the RF.
From what I hear, many Republican voters in this country would vote to join Russia. Does that require us to hold elections on the matter? Serious question--What legitimizes a vote inside of one country to join a different country?
I'd let MAGAs go if they vote to by TWO THIDS and it is on a county by county basis. We keep a;; the cities+ corridors plus universities and industries... and we work hard to replace beef and oil. Go in peace and God bless.
Gregory & Larry,
If what you were trying to say is that quality journalism still exists, amid the oceans of dreck, then saying "quality in news reporting hasn't changed a lot" seems a poor way to say that.
Okay. That's a fair criticism… and an accurate description of what I think has happened.
When I'm in a mood for 'colorful' metaphors, I liken the situation to the tide coming in causing the sewers to back up onto the streets. There is still plenty of high ground in the city, but we'd best be careful with the water we drink.
Yes, of course, it is still possible to find good quality journalism, but generally one must expend extra time, effort, and money to get it, something that a large number (perhaps a majority) of the population does not do.
Mmm. Nor do they spend much effort finding non-crappy beer to drink. Some of it is downright disgusting, but they buy it less for the taste and more to get drunk.
That's not the fault of uber-rich people noticing there is money to be made catering to poor taste.
Blaming rich media owners is lazy.
———
However, I'm not saying there is nothing to do about piss beer or dreck journalism. Sell your neighbors on a better alternative. If you think that can't be done, you haven't paid attention to what's been happening in the US coffee market.
Americans are ultimately salesmen.
Do your duty to our civilization.
Sell your vision of a better world.
@ Jon S.
Nah, bending the knee to the Boss, who claims the whole planet and has been killing people by the million and colonizing their lands for centuries (Uncle Sam, and before him King Brittania), is definitely not my jam. If America and the Anglo world actually followed this principle of “never rewarding aggression” it would never have come into existence. So for them to moralize about aggression is like a mafia boss complaining about street crime in someone else's neighborhood. And most of the world, outside Anglo Gaslightistan and its vassals, understand this and aren’t bending the knee or buying your BS.
When it comes to aspie style suggestions for geopolitical solutions, I just smile… ignore them… and move on. I don't really care what Mr Musk thinks would work over there as long as he continues to support internet access through StarLink.
Most people do not get geopolitics. Even neurotypicals have a hard time distinguishing what they'd like to believe can happen from the natural behaviors of nations.
———
Sad to say… but there will be no peace in Ukraine until Russia loses access to the Caspian. Russian power derives from its Muscovy core which is essentially the Volga River and it's surrounds. Russian finances derive mostly from oil and gas in this core. Some day when they lose this, they won't be able to be the threat they are now. Until that day, though, they simply MUST push their borders away from an indefensible core.
Ukraine is where empires went to fight. They have no historical claim to anything except our sympathy for the crap heaped upon them over many, many centuries. That said, Ukraine's security requires them to fight for Crimea.
———
For what Russia has done recently, I'd recommend they lose Crimea and their Black Sea naval port in exchange for Ukraine tolerating a new buffer state along its eastern border. This would secure Ukraine's access to western markets in exchange for land they can't defend any better than the Russians can.
This won't happen, though, without a few more years of war and a lot of deaths.
Alfred Differ: Most people do not get geopolitics
It's complex, steeped in history, full of feedback and attractors, completely non-linear, stubborn, entrenched, illogical, irrational, nativist, counter-intuitive, even nasty and self-destructive at times, yet beautifully human.
Why, it's almost psychohistorical :)
Calculemus!
Sergei:
And most of the world, outside Anglo Gaslightistan and its vassals, understand this
Ukrainians, Lithuanians, Estonians, Latvians, Poles, Finns, Swedes apparently beg to differ.
LH it is useless to ask a flatlander like our ent to ask where the "anglo oppressors' meme comes from... from the core American/hollywood propaganda program of training all our youths (the first to do do) to criticise errors of their own tribe.
ALL the world's tyrants crib their "how dare you criticize us?" rants directly from our own children, never getting... as ent will never grasp... that this very program is how we find and address errors and move onward, leaving them in dust.
It is why we're by far the least-hated empire, ever and actually quite popular. Watch what will happen the very instant Putin, the Ayatollahs and the rising power lose control, for even a day.
He knows this. His rants are just jerking off.
the rising power?
Do you mean China?
As far as I can see the actual people in China rather like the results of the Government they have - the difference between life in China just a few decades ago and now is awesome
So they do NOT want to swap it for one of our governments
At least not for the next few decades
Duncan,
Most of them don't know our form of government, so have no context from which to base a swap decision.
Not all, though. Hong Kong residents know better. Some in Taiwan do too. Some of the students educated over here who went back know as well.
Alfred that is why Hollywood movies are hugely censored before being allowed in.
Ukrainians, Lithuanians, Estonians, Latvians, Poles, Finns, Swedes apparently beg to differ.
Those are vassals, dumbass. You think they can do anything without Boss Sam's approval? Uncle says "sabotage Russian pipelines", they say "how many?" And they'll be the next proxy cannon fodder sent at Russia, wait and see.
"Anglo oppressors" isn't a Hollywood meme, it's a historical reality. Anglos aren't really even my tribe, if you want to get technical. My ancestry is part Irish, and they know all about Anglo oppression first hand--no stupid movies or memes required.
Ha! I'm sure the Swede's would take issue with being described as vassals. Finn's too and they know better what it's like to be a vassal state.
Treebeard... you're behaving like a dumbass. Your rationalization is so threadbare it's ready to clothe an idiot emperor. We see his bare behind and laugh.
Go ahead and keep poking at the system that tolerates you, though. It's useful to us. We ARE barbarians who believe our particular form of aggression is acceptable, but it helps hear from progressives who think otherwise.
Jeez what an utter dope. ALL empires were thuggeries. Name for me a century and continent that had agriculture where predatory imperialism and feudalism weren't the rule. In fact, one of the top hypocrisies of the LEFT is ignoring all the tribes and peoples who were wiped out by the Bantu Migration, or the Aryan migration or the Han or Mongols or Aztexs or Lakota... or the O-blood type that invaded North America 5000 years or so ago... or...
...go ahead and name for us ANY major nation that was tempted by great power that had a greater ratio of good deeds to bad than the American Pax.
Poor ent can't. All his heroes are murder thugs who desperately fear being out of power for even one day. We change leaders at the people's will... until his cult gains the power to end that, forever.
I'll pile on...Poles are vassals? Seriously? They know what it's been like to BE vassals, and not even have a state. I don't think I could find many Poles pining for the Warsaw Pact - or perhaps the Dual Monarchy.
Also, if the word "progressive" can be applied to Teddy Roosevelt and Treebeard, it has lost all meaning.
Pappenheimer
A serious question about superconductors - given the materials that seem to be in use in the research, is there any likelihood that production costs/temperature parameters could be brought down/up to the level of widespread transmission use?
Re: room temperature superconductivity
A recent paper retraction by Nature is a window into how scientific research works and self-corrects. It most definitely is NOT a belief system as is frequently claimed by dogmatic science-haters. It's a radically different way of thinking. The triumph/defeat of scientific thinking is likely a major factor in the Great Filter.
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-022-05294-9
Alfred Differ said...
When I'm in a mood for 'colorful' metaphors, I liken the situation to the tide coming in causing the sewers to back up onto the streets. There is still plenty of high ground in the city, but we'd best be careful with the water we drink.
Except that this metaphor doesn't work, because there isn't a "plenty" of good journalism available, and what there is is not readily available to everyone. And if the high ground consists of walled compounds, then the amount of it doesn't matter much to those outside the walls.
Mmm. Nor do they spend much effort finding non-crappy beer to drink. Some of it is downright disgusting, but they buy it less for the taste and more to get drunk.
That's not the fault of uber-rich people noticing there is money to be made catering to poor taste.
And it isn't the fault of drug dealers or slave traders noticing that there is money to made catering to drug addicts or slave owners, right?
However, I'm not saying there is nothing to do about piss beer or dreck journalism. Sell your neighbors on a better alternative. If you think that can't be done, you haven't paid attention to what's been happening in the US coffee market.
Americans are ultimately salesmen.
Do your duty to our civilization.
Sell your vision of a better world.
The alternative read on this is "Americans are ultimately consumers". Stop trying to think of them as citizens and work on your marketing.
Which I think is relevant to "the US coffee market". Yes Starbucks (and its imitators) have managed to sell an "experience". That "experience" is a coffee-adjacent beverage made from (not particularly good) coffee, but favors the sweet tooth of consumers. And yet Folgers remains the largest selling ground coffee, just as Fox has succeeded in selling a news-adjacent product.
And your solution seems to come down to: "More marketing! Find a way to make your news more click-bait-y." Which sounds like no solution at all; even an anti-solution.
Sergei:
"Ukrainians, Lithuanians, Estonians, Latvians, Poles, Finns, Swedes apparently beg to differ."
Those are vassals, dumbass. You think they can do anything without Boss Sam's approval?
Y'know, the trick to disinformation is asserting things that sound truthy and can't be proven or disproven either way--can only raise suspicions and doubts. Assertions that are so demonstrably false, or that will be seen as false in a short time frame like Baghdad Bob's "Americans are nowhere near Baghdad," only make the dumbass stating them look stupid in a very short time.
Uncle Sam intended to fly Zelenskyy to safety as his country fell to the invaders. It was his own initiative to insist, "I need ammunition, not a ride!"
Uncle says "sabotage Russian pipelines", they say "how many?"
On this, I would be willing to bet. If it turns out that the America or a NATO ally was responsible for that pipeline destruction, I will donate $100 to a Republican candidate--something I would normally never do if I lived to be a million. What will you do when you're shown to be mistaken?
And they'll be the next proxy cannon fodder sent at Russia, wait and see.
Ukraine was "sent at Russia" the way a boxer hits his opponent's fist with his chin.
"Anglo oppressors" isn't a Hollywood meme, it's a historical reality.
The Hollywood meme is "Anglos are the only oppressors." Spaniards, Dutch, Japanese, Romans, countless Africans, and your favorite Russians somehow don't count. Apparently all their aggression was really just self-defense against Anglo oppression.
Anglos aren't really even my tribe, if you want to get technical. My ancestry is part Irish, and they know all about Anglo oppression first hand--no stupid movies or memes required.
So that's what this is all about? Your metaphorical old boyfriend beat you up, so you hate all men?
Well, if you get down to that level, my tribe gets the gold medal in the world sweepstakes of the oppressed, and knows a thing or two about maltreatment by Russia without even having to watch Fiddler on the Roof. So y'know, if we're playing the my-group-was-more-oppressed-than-your-group game, that's checkmate.
How does it feel to be dumber than a dumbass?
Googling "nutrient transport by bears" links to studies of bears eating salmon and returning nutrients to the mountains. "Nutrient transport by hikers" produces nothing relevant.
Teddy Roosevelt was an incremental progressive. He pushed the horizon of inclusion outward in stages he felt practical. My standard is “Was he at least one, ideally two standard deviations better than his times? Ben Franklin was four.
Scidata: the chief trait of science that demolishes the ‘just another religion’ yowls is that scientists are the most COMPETITIVE humans our species ever created.
Likewise, the spews about the Nordstream pipeline sabotage all pour from Kremlin mouthpieces… they aren’t even trying to pretend. And there’s one reply…
We WANT EU storage tanks to be full, for winter. Period. Putin needs them not-full more than he needs the sales income.
“,,, returning nutrients to the mountains. “ Um you mean the woods?
FWIW Of course I know that my pro-science blurbs are too obvious and simplistic for the CB crowd. I just like to prepare them in CB before I use them in serious discussions in my citizen science efforts. Usually for types that insist that evolution and bumble bees are mathematically impossible. I kid you not.
Doctor, you have stumbled upon one of my hot buttons. Speaking as a person with ASD (once called "Asperger's Syndrome", although that name has been discredited as further historical research shows that Hans Asperger's main goal was to determine which autistic people could be made to labor for the Reich, and which should just go straight to the camps), I object to the notion, which I have seen forwarded in other venues as well, that advocating surrender to aggressors is somehow "Asperger's thinking".
One of the few things we on the spectrum tend to have in common is a strong urge to justice, particularly when that's what the rules require - structure is vital. Russia's invasion of Ukraine, a nation they had previously pledged to defend in exchange for Ukraine giving up its nukes, is neither just nor in accordance with established law. Musk's proposal is giving in to autocracy, nothing more and nothing less. It's letting the bully set the terms, which is anathema to those of us who grew up bullied.
This is especially apparent when coupled with his proposal to calm the situation in China - which is to let China take Taiwan back in, whether Taiwan likes it or not, as a "special administrative zone". In other words, his solution to any situation of conflict, whether Ukrainian, Chinese, or with labor forces in his own factories, is to let the bullies take the power and crush dissent as needed.
As for the "good" he's done, he could have done as much, and possibly more, by just providing Tesla Corp. with venture capital and collecting his dividends, the way most VCs do, instead of interfering with daily operations, forcing out cars with poorly-fitted parts, and pushing for widespread use of technologies that are in no way "ready for prime time". Then there's the way he insists on taking credit for the work of the engineers at SpaceX - even though the one rocket he had a heavy hand in designing, the Starship, has yet to have a successful launch (although it is very efficient at closing the beach near the launch site...).
To conclude, he isn't showing signs of autistic thinking - he's showing signs of sucking up to autocrats and wishing he could be like them himself. And it offends me on a personal level when I see people equating the two, which happens much more often than I might like.
Jon S:
One of the few things we on the spectrum tend to have in common is a strong urge to justice, particularly when that's what the rules require - structure is vital. Russia's invasion of Ukraine, a nation they had previously pledged to defend in exchange for Ukraine giving up its nukes, is neither just nor in accordance with established law. Musk's proposal is giving in to autocracy, nothing more and nothing less. It's letting the bully set the terms, which is anathema to those of us who grew up bullied.
This is one of the reasons that--despite Alfred's assurances otherwise--I suspect that I might be somewhere on the spectrum. Because everything Jon S just said feels self-evident. Especially the part about Ukraine voluntarily surrendering nukes in exchange for a pledge never to be attacked by Russia. If I had a working time machine, I'd go back to 1994 and show them what that deal gets them, and what to therefore expect from any future agreement about neutrality.
Both, but I think altitude may be a bit more important than distance.
Jon S's statement is filled with (1) moments of enlightening wisdom and insight, and (2) Passionate, zealously proclaimed assertions that bear substantial burden of proof.
I pay heed and will adjust vocabulary, as instructed.
OTOH, I shrug off howls at my incorrect use of labels and associations with Nazis. All they do is lower your credibility, sir.
But many of those I know who STILL use the Asperger monicker for themselves - because it is a convenient dial-in - also assert that they feel snubbed and frustrated when ortho neurotypicals reject what they feel are blatantly logical potential solutions. And yes, that just described my own frustration that the blatantly 'obvious' tactics that I presented in Polemical Judo have been ignored by any and all members of the political and pundit caste.
In that respect... and in my utterly clueless inability to play games of gossip and alliance within fields like sci fi... it seems (I now realize) highly likely that I am spectrum, especially given that I have close relatives...
The Elon stuff is just silly. A raving Arm Wave that "it woulda happened anyway without him!" Riiiight. a whole string of fantastic tech miracles, advancing desperately needed things by 1 to 2 DECADES.... that all just happen to be associated with the same guy. I know employees who roll their eyes over his antics and swear they would never work for anyone else.
JUST the business maneuvers in which SpaceX and Tesla saved each other across bankruptcy gaps, just those dances alone, skirting bankruptcy by mere days, sometimes, were brilliant and changed the world.
Were his 'logical' suggestions for Ukraine absolute non-starters? Sure. He needs editors, badly. OTOH, unlike most members of his caste, he does not surround himself with flattering sycophants. He wants argument and surrounds himself with arguers.
Two comments on Musk:
1) If he interferes with the work of our elected leaders, he has forgotten his place. If the investigation confirms that Musk has hindered Ukrainian success, that would mean he not only endangers that country, but a certain number of other states - he becomes a traitor to the West.
(And there are a certain number of elected individuals I already apply that attribute to.)
2) Has no one told Elon that making deals with Putin usually gets you served tea or pushed out of windows?
Carumba, Der Oger. Have you forgotten Starlink? Several hundred stations sent during the very weeks Ukraine desperately needed them.
The chief effect of Elon's ill chosen words has been to deny HIM the Hero of Ukraine medal he was otherwise gonna get.
Have you forgotten Starlink? Several hundred stations sent during the very weeks Ukraine desperately needed them.
They need them still. To retake their lands. They have relied on them, and in extension, on him. As we have.
Now, the system is compromised. The lights go out in a moment of Ukrainian advantage.
How do you call an supposed ally who suddenly turns on you?
A technoligarch makes his own power move, throwing one and possibly more allies under the bus and it does not ring any alarm bells with you?
Besides that: Should it become common practice that that caste of neofeudal inheritance brats dictate their wishes openly to our elected leaders? Isn't it that what you used to fight against?
What makes Elon so special?
Seriously, I just don't get the hate. People who would never think to mention Adelson, Murdoch, the Kochs, Thiel, MBS, (and those are the familiar ones) go into screeching fury at a guy who has inarguably done many orders of magnitude more good than harm and whose 'harm' is some bizarre tweets that no one on Earth has any inclination to emulate.
"A technoligarch makes his own power move". Seriously? You said that?
" that caste of neofeudal inheritance brats dictate their wishes openly to our elected leaders?" ?????? Seriously? That too? Show me who obeys his silly twit yammers!
"What makes Elon so special?" Jesus.
Paraphrasing!
IMHO paraphrasing Musk's suggestion becomes
When the dust has all settled the various regions of Ukraine need to have a fair referendum asking if they (the citizens of that region) want to be part of Russia or Ukraine
Which is the ONLY way to avoid long term issues!!
The same with Taiwan
Just as the people who live on the Falkland Islands voted on joining Argentina
I am pretty sure that the numbers in favor of joining Russia will be similar to the numbers who wanted to join Argentina
But having the vote to actually "check" that is the case is a sensible idea
We should ignore Elon's thoughts about a timetable - he has been amazing on achieving impossible things but Elon time seems to run a LOT faster than normal time
He was right that the Kruschev gift of Crimea to Uk was a root to all this. Logically, he was right. But logic has no part in this. Nor does ignoring what the RF has done to both Tatar and Ukrainian minorities in Crimea. Nor the ethnic cleansing of Ukrainians from the Donbas, all of whom should get to vote, no matter where they now are.
Obviously... to this maybe spectrum guy ... there must be a cooling off decade while Crimea and eastern Donbas are neutral with right of return, But the RF must be defeated, overall and Kherson & Zaporiszhe and western hal;ved of the Donbas utterly liberated and reparations assessed.
It's all nuts, of course (as is the fellow we're discussing). But there are net-useful nuts And it chafes me to see very useful ones targeted before a myriad monsters are.
Dr Brin:
People who would never think to mention Adelson, Murdoch, the Kochs, Thiel, MBS, (and those are the familiar ones) go into screeching fury at a guy who has inarguably done many orders of magnitude more good than harm
I wasn't personally in that conversation, but to your point, we already know those others you mention are traitors to the Enlightenment. I myself have launched plenty of invective at all of them, even knowing that Peter Thiel used to be in your circle. What I'm hearing directed at Elon Musk is that he's supposed to be one of us, but then he went over to the dark side.
Out and proud Republican hypocrisy. I mean, it's bad enough that many Trump supporters want us to understand that they might not like the guy personally, but they're in favor of the policies he gets for them. But if one really insists that abortion is murder--that even when the mother's life or health is threatened, that is no excuse for murdering a baby, that zygotes should be given full personhood so that anyone anywhere who aborts one is a murderer, then you've redefined chutzpah by saying you don't mind if your candidate paid for such murders because he'll vote for tax cuts and deregulation.
https://rudepundit.blogspot.com/2022/10/herschel-walker-proves-that-all-that.html
I've never seen a grift given away quite as blatantly as it was by right-wing talk thing Dana Loesch (motto: "I was too fucking crazy for the NRA"). In talking about the revelation that ultra-anti-abortion Republican Senate candidate Herschel Walker, running against incumbent Democrat Raphael Warnock, paid for a girlfriend's abortion, Loesch started with "What I’m about to say is in no means a contradiction or a compromise of a principle," which automatically means "I'm throwing my principles out the window faster than a priest at Disney World." Then she just fucking said it, the thing we all knew was true but that none of them had the guts to just let everyone know: "I am concerned about one thing, and one thing only at this point. So, I don’t care if Herschel Walker paid to abort endangered baby eagles. I want control of the Senate."
And there you go. Loesch has previously and repeatedly called abortion "infanticide." Or, you know, "baby murder." So, by that logic, within the rhetoric of the anti-abortion right, Herschel Walker is like someone who has paid a hitman to off someone, which is, you know, a crime. But Loesch is way cool with Walker conspiring to murder a baby as long as he might get elected and vote to stop more abortions. Or, as Loesch put it, "If the Daily Beast story is true, you’re telling me Walker used his money to reportedly pay some skank for an abortion and Warnock wants to use all of our monies to pay a whole bunch of skanks for abortions." In other words, abortion isn't the serious crime they keep saying it is. I mean, you're pretty much saying, "Hey, I'd elect Son of Sam if he promised to stop more serial killers. He only murdered 6 people."
...
His son Christian, who is ultra-conservative himself, could put out a video showing Walker beating a baby to death, and good church people would say, "Herschel gets a pass on baby murder because he'll definitely stop others from murdering babies, no matter how many babies he murders, even if that's a lot of babies."
...
Elon Musk and "going over to the dark side"
The Bible says "by their fruits you will know them"
I'm willing to cut Musk a LOT of slack for SAYING stupid things while DOING amazing things
One of the most amazing and impressive things about Musk's history has been the way he has been willing to say "well that didn't work so lets do THIS instead"
He appears to have been very willing to listen to other people and to "listen" to reality
Quick question on Putin's declaration that blowing up the bridge between Crimea and mainland Russia is a "terrorist act".
Terrorism, as I understand it, is about making human beings feel threatened. Does an attack on infrastructure during an active shooting war really count as terrorism?
Der Oger,
I can't read the article you linked to, but I've read several others over the past 3 days about the recent issues with Starlink. I've not seen anything in any of them accusing Musk of anything nefarious with respect to this issue. Is there any such claims in the article you linked to? Seems to me it would be better to wait for further information rather than assume that any problems with Starlink in Ukraine are due to Musk deciding to screw the Ukrainians because they didn't like his tweets about how to resolve their war. It's possible of course, just about anything is. But there are other seemingly more plausible possibilities. After all it is a complex and new system and Russia does have a vested interest in interrupting the system. They've managed to do so at least once already and no doubt they have constantly been working to do so.
Thing about Starlink. It is likely the rising power using the war to experiment with ways to mess it up. Starlink is not as badly needed now as it was in the spring, when it might have saved Ulrainian civil society. There are now many redundancies.
Before anyone gives Musk the Hero of Ukraine medal for Starlink, remember that it was the US government that suggested and paid for the deployment.
Musk is a businessman in this, not a hero-enabler.
He's a contractor with the US Government. Gonna suggest Hero of Ukraine medals for the design team of the HIMARS too (Lockheed-Martin)?
Der Oger
The whole idea of being a "Citizen" is to keep a beady eye on our
"elected leaders and trained diplomats"
and YES criticize the job that they are doing
Some people do have "louder voices" than others and THAT is something that could do with some attention
But the idea that citizens should just "Shut Up" is attacking the wrong problem
Matthew have a trustworth source on the sequence of events re the Starlink deployment?
Der Oger,
Americans rarely stand aside for elected officials let alone trained diplomats. Maybe with a gun to our heads we will.
I should point out that events in Ukraine in 2014 were partially fueled by such Americans doing what Obama and Clinton likely wouldn’t have done. Russian leadership rarely believes us when we claim no connection, but they are only occasionally correct.
There are probably a few people who recommended Musk get StarLink involved, but I’m curious to see if an official government request was issued.
The timeline to the StarLink involvement would suggest that there was no "official government request"
Governments are not known for fast reaction to novel issues!
From the Kremlin’s mouth to Ukraine’s ear:
https://digitalarchive.wilsoncenter.org/document/119638
In addition to collecting urine and extracting the phosphorus, would a phosphorus shortage require the end of traditional embalming funerals to be replaced by cremation (with direct phosphorus extraction) or green funerals (where the phosphorus is extracted naturally by vegetation)?
Phosphorus is a mineral that makes up 1% of a person's total body weight. It is the second most abundant mineral in the body. The average body mass, globally, was 136 pounds (62 kilograms.) So a typical funeral could extract 1 to 2 lbs of phosphorus. Nearly 150,000 people die each day around the world, equivalent to 75 tons to 150 tons of phosphorus per day, or 27,000 tons to 54,000 tons annually.
In 2021, the United States Geological Survey (USGS) estimated that economically extractable phosphate rock reserves worldwide are 71 billion tons, while world mining production in 2020 was 223 million tons. Extracting phosphorus from corpses would be miniscule by comparison but might be done locally if the price was right.
P.S. Frank Herbert should have had his Fremen on the desert planet Dune extract phosphorus from their dead, not just water.
Placing solar cells on canals or floating in any body of water would greatly improve their performance without the need for complicated designs or rare materials by having the water cool off the panels by quickly dissipating their waste heat.
The water acts as a radiator for the solar cells while the solar cells minimize evaporation.
Win win.
If you want to economically collect urine you will need to build separate sewer pipelines, the only way to economically transport urine to a central collection and extraction facility. You'll also need to redesign the toilet bowl to collect urine separately from feces, and invent a female urinal (or add a separate dedicated toilet bowl to every bathroom).
Should we have to collect phosphorus from urine I would recommend investing in pipeline companies and Kohler bathroom fixtures.
Re: Phosphorus
There are some minerals that could be better recovered from soil & water than mined from rock. Life and erosion have done much of the hard work for us. It's one of the reasons why I don't see microbe-only level exoplanets as worthless. SETI is only top-most layer.
Matthew, that does not seem to be accurate. This is really starting to crack me up. SpaceX has provided about 15,000 total Starlink kits to Ukraine. They sent the first load 2 days after the war started. Of those 15,000 USAID has said that they purchased 1,330 kits and that they have coordinated getting 5,000 kits in total to Ukraine. By that they mean that they have collected donations from others to pay for kits and the costs of getting the kits to Ukraine and then to soldiers in Ukraine, and they have declined to clarify how many of that 5,000 they had something to do with getting to Ukraine that they bought, though they have stated that they bought 1,330 kits.
So we've got people that despise Musk so much that they disparage SpaceX for providing 15,000 thousand cutting edge satellite communication kits spur of the moment, and it's clear that many of those thousands of kits they donated, and that they have been donating somewhere between much and all of the service too. Isn't this the kind of big business behavior we should be encouraging instead of sneering at?
So, what are we thinking here? That Musk is using this situation for marketing? In that case, so what? That's bad? For who is that bad? Or are we thinking he's hatched some nefarious scheme to get Ukraine dependent on Starlink and then hold them hostage? God, I hope we aren't that far gone.
A personal observation. When Bill Maher insists that kids today are out of control and are accurately characterized as saying, "Fuck you, Mom!", I think he's confusing kids with cats.
Link for US Government purchase of Starlink for Ukraine:
https://www.independent.co.uk/tech/spacex-ukraine-elon-musk-starlink-government-b2055491.html
This was a partial purchase of the first 1350 units, referred to as "seed money" elsewhere.
Also, Musk talked to Putin before suggesting his Ukraine "peace deal":
https://www.vice.com/en/article/ake44z/elon-musk-vladimir-putin-ukraine
Given Musk's problematic sexual relationships with subordinates, and early VC funding from Esther Dyson, isn't it logical to discuss a blackmail-type situation involving him? Instead of blaming neurodivergent behavior for Musk risking his fortune to get Trump back on Twitter, perhaps consider that he's simply dirty money being blackmailed?
Carumba, matthew keeps slinging feces against a wall without any basis at all. Musk's 'problematic' sex life is self-indulgent and Howard Hughes-like... but I have not heard of anything remotely coercive. Do I wish he'd pair up with someone wise who can cancel-before-send? Sure. But we are still in the same situation as before, the EFFECTS ("fruits") of a man being so vastly, vastly, orders of magnitude more important that fixating on him as a satan is symptomaric of some kind of weird mania.
Here's the coercive. Musk sued for sexual harassment of employee:
https://www.businessinsider.com/spacex-paid-250000-to-a-flight-attendant-who-accused-elon-musk-of-sexual-misconduct-2022-5
matthew is starting to sound like the Ent - only on a different subject
May be time to add to my list of "ignores"
Jiminy, there is such a thing as a murky zone. I do NOT know all details and I am not so protective of Musk that I assume him guiltless. Clearly there are zones where his judgement is unreliable. I've said as much. But I'd caution any person who signs up to be a masseuse on a private jet to know she needs a thick skin about likelihood of arousal and likelihood of having to firmly say 'no' ... and shrugging, if no is immediately accepted. In fact, the $250k may have been the objective. Sheeit what species are you a member of?
Musk’s opinions re Ukraine are publicly recorded, whereas his private life is open to question.
Perhaps Ukraine’s situation isn’t being explained well enough. Crimea was returned to Ukraine in a legal manner, 68 years ago; and Ukraine is willing to compromise. However, Putin wishes to maintain a death grip on Crimea, and being that he is secretive, we don’t know what he would do if were to win the war. Plus, there’re at least as many Nazis in Russia as in Ukraine.
Thus the Kremlin fails in these matters on at least four counts.
Alan Brooks:
Crimea was returned to Ukraine in a legal manner, 68 years ago;
I suspect that it didn't matter as much to the participants when both Russia and Ukraine were both Soviet socialist republics within the same country. Whereas now, if Ukraine's request is granted, it could mean that Crimea becomes NATO territory.
The 'obvious' is for Crimea and EASTERN Donbas, along the banks of the Don, to be neutral/independent with blue helmet peacekeepers and right of return to all 2013 homes... with votes in 10 years... thus saving some face all around and letting dust settle. THAT much Zelensky would likely accept and absolutely no more.
Kherson and Mariupol and the entire Azov coast must be returned plus west Donbas and reparations must flow. Azov must never be a Russian lake.
If all that, then yes, water supplies for Crimea, as Elon asked.
In a very blurry way, this kind of resembles his ham-handed 'suggestion.' But not where it matters most. That Russia must 'get' nothing for these crimes.
LH,
Putin tempted fate by invading, thus his plaint, that he is forestalling NATO in Crimea, is now outdated. Esp due to the severity of Russian war crimes. You know this. What Russian ultra-nationalists are doing is showing their true colors to the entire world.
Perhaps things aren’t being explained quite well to those who complain at CB of American imperialism. The last time the US did anything comparable to what Russia is doing today, was in ‘Nam. But such was a half century ago—and we didn’t annex Vietnamese territory for ourselves.
What is remarkable is the insipidity of bloggers here who diss the US. It doesn’t appear they are Russian assets, though: why would a Russian agency hire such banal bloggers?
It may be that transparency has an inverse correlation with public trust in government. Transparency absolutely reduces corruption, so the public should trust the government more. But, seeing the sausage get made may make it harder to trust the sausage. Seeing the little man behind the curtain may make it harder to trust Oz is in good hands.
The US federal government is more transparent now than at any other time in history. Which branches are scored as having the most trust? The Military and the FBI, two that are very not transparent by necessity.
Stephan G. Grimmelikhuijsen, Suzanne J. Piotrowski, Gregg G. Van Ryzin, "Latent transparency and trust in government: Unexpected findings from two survey experiments," Government Information Quarterly, Volume 37, Issue 4, 2020
Compared to controls, we find that awareness of FOIA rights and requirements (latent transparency) tended to be unrelated, or even slightly negatively related, to trust of government agencies, contrary to our expectations. Our findings, combined with prior evidence, suggest that—even in the case of latent transparency—the popular belief in transparency's positive effects on citizen trust needs a more critical examination.
Stephan Grimmelikhuijsen, Gregory Porumbescu, Boram Hong, Tobin Im, "The Effect of Transparency on Trust in Government: A Cross-National Comparative Experiment," Public Administration Review, [s. l.], v. 73, n. 4, p. 575–586, 2013
This article compares the effect of transparency on trust in government in the Netherlands and South Korea. Results reveal similar patterns in both countries: transparency has a subdued and sometimes negative effect on trust in government.
(and I am not here to mock. I am here to criticize)
Though the Foxites now include the FBI & military officers as hated fact folks.
WAY too much info about how to spot a scam email! No way you will learn 10% of this!
But knowing the first few checks,,,, and THAT the others exist..... can be worthwhile.
But jeez, I could not last more than 20% in....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hF1bIT1ym4g
Alan Brooks:
LH,
Putin tempted fate by invading, thus his plaint, that he is forestalling NATO in Crimea, is now outdated. Esp due to the severity of Russian war crimes. You know this.
I only meant to point out an explanation of Putin's caring about the disposition of Crimea, not to take his side in the conflict. That's Treebeard's job.
Putin cares about the disposition of Putin, he wants to be remembered as a Peter or Catherine—not Vlad the Terrible. Crimea is merely a chess piece to him; nothing more/less.
His family is of great importance to him: if they have to leave Russia in the future, can they get out in time? As a chessplayer, he is thinking a move or two ahead.
I am curious about Vlad's reasons for elevating the Romanov family (hosting the heir's wedding in Moscow) and pushing czar images and symbols. An 'ex' commissar who still, selectively, ALSO bemoans the fall of the USSR. The same USSR that slaughtered Romanovs.
I do not get that no public figure has made a deal of all that.
No mystery, Vlad can rope in citizens sentimental for the Romanovs; and also beached Soviets.
Here we still have millions sentimental for Robert E. Lee.
No doubt Putin is a schemer and has a variety of go to hell plans. But he is not a chess master. He ran a maskirovka on pretty much the entire rest of the planet for decades, convincing most that Russia was still a major world power, with the 2nd (or even 1st as some believed) most technologically advanced and powerful military in the world.
And then he made a fatal miscalculation and decided to invade Ukraine. He put Russia in a situation in which he had to reveal what Russia really is. And what Russia really is has been getting its ass kicked by Ukraine since day one. Putin has reveled that the Russian military is a sham from top to bottom. Despite all the bragging about technologically advanced 4.5 and 5 generation fighters with mythical performance, Russia can't even maintain air superiority over the war zone, right next door to them. Despite being right next door they can't provide their soldiers with food, gear or weapons sufficient to prosecute the war. They can't effectively project military power even right next door.
Its image as a major world power was truly a deception. Perhaps Putin himself became deceived and believed his own bullshit. No doubt his military leaders have been lying to him for many years as they stole all they could from their own military resources to buy BMWs and dachas in the forest. Putin fucked up big time. The whole world has now seen that the Russian military is a joke, unless you need to torture and rape civilians. And they've seen that Russian military equipment is also a joke. Russia is going to lose this war, it already has it's just a matter of time, and Putin is a dead man walking. In governments like he created in Russia, thugocracies, leaders don't usually get to peacefully retire after mistakes like this.
Re: Romanovs
Romanticist nostalgia. Like King Charles III. Or Bel Riose.
The past has a warm, safe glow. The horizon is cold and scary.
Dr Brin:
I am curious about Vlad's reasons for elevating the Romanov family (hosting the heir's wedding in Moscow) and pushing czar images and symbols. An 'ex' commissar who still, selectively, ALSO bemoans the fall of the USSR. The same USSR that slaughtered Romanovs.
Probably not much different from our own country's fascination with British royalty, despite celebrating independence from British royalty.
* * *
Alan Brooks:
he [Putin] wants to be remembered as a Peter or Catherine—not Vlad the Terrible.
Vlad the Impaler?
Who had this one on their BINGO card?
https://www.npr.org/2022/10/12/1128307544/tulsi-gabbard-democratic-party
Former congresswoman and 2020 presidential candidate Tulsi Gabbard has announced she is leaving the Democratic party.
"I can no longer remain in today's Democratic party," she said on an episode of her podcast. "It's now under the complete control of an elitist cabal of warmongers, driven by cowardly wokeness..."
Tulsi: the Romulan princess who scolded Mauna Kea researchers. There's so much projection here, there should be a Hunger Games sky announcement.
They’re confused, they think ‘Leftists’ are peacenik wusses, but also violent ‘Communists’.
If you were to read some of their magazines, you’d see that they frequently remind their subscribers of Gulags, cattle cars, breadlines. Slippery slope: “if we don’t stop the Commies, markets wont have food to sell anymore, and the Cheka will arrest recalcitrants.”
After the Soviet Union dissolved, they said “now that the Cold War is over, we have to fight our violent domestic wussy peaceniks.”
But the Cold War never ended.
Actually, my Romanov query was practical. Is he marrying a daughter into the royal line?
scidata:
Tulsi: the Romulan princess who scolded Mauna Kea researchers. There's so much projection here, there should be a Hunger Games sky announcement.
I haven't done a spit-take in a long time. Thanks.
Larry,
My choice, Vlad, the Defenestrator, does not fall trippingly from the tongue. Or the window, I guess.
Papenheimer
@Pappenheimer,
What about Polonium Putin?
Okay, someone please summarize the arguments about the validity of Russian claims to Crimea. Also, to what extent should the European Allies and the US encourage an end to hostilities that involve allowing Putin and Russia some way of saving face. While I find this idea obnoxious, I also see this war as a tragedy. Every life lost is a tragedy for the families involved. But, we also have to weigh the lives lost in allowing this war to continue versus the lives that could be lost if we propose a premature end to hostilities that leads to a future war.
Wiki provides an accurate summary of Russian claims to Crimea.
1. It was part of the Russian Empire, seized from the Turkish Empire in 1783 after some seriously complicated events including revolts, dynastic wrangling and the establishment of a Crimean Republic ('independent' but under the Czar's thumb - actually the Czarina at first, Catherine the G being in charge at the time).
1A. The Russian Civil War tossed it all in the air, but eventually...
2. It became part of the USSR.
3. It was transferred to Ukraine within the USSR. Legally, no question, under Khrushchev.
3A. After the USSR shattered, the Russian Parliament called backsies. Formation of another "autonomous Crimean Republic". Ukraine did not agree.
4. Ukraine asserted independence, guaranteed by Russia as part of the deal to remove nuclear weapons from Ukraine. The naval base at Sevastopol remained in Russian hands by lease.
5. Crimea was seized by Russian troops. This action was denounced in the UN and there is no official recognition of the action outside Russia.
5. Russia's main claim is by referendum performed while the territory is under military occupation, a no-no by UN rules. The local Crimean Tatars are now a minority, but 97% is a bit much.
Pappenheimer
#3 is the key:
Legally, no question.
Invasion by Russia should invalidate the lease at Sevastapol.
Security contract breached.
Would have been even more complicated but I left out Florence Nightingale and the Charges of the Light and Heavy Brigades
In sum - Russia has an agreed right to operate their Sebastopol facilities until the lease runs out. Other than that, no leg to stand on. If you track back far enough, it's Turkish territory. (Turkey, BTW, is generally supportive of Ukraine because history).
Pappenheimer
Thinking about the devil Elon Musk and what he could do with Twitter
My thoughts are the Santa Claus solution - Naughty and Nice
If you post something then an algorithm (AI) can do an open "Naughty and Nice" calculation - based on the post, your history and the accuracy of the post
And then use that not to decide if to accept your post (all posts accepted) but to use to decide HOW FAST to spread your post
"Nice" gets spread immediately - "Naughty" gets a delay - Very Naughty - as in possibly illegal gets a delay of a week - long enough for a human to make a decision
What do you think?
Trump could still have his Twitter account but everything he posts would be delayed (by a week)
Musk should study the downfall of Facebook. Anyone anointed as the high priest of social media, without first having a deep and abiding understanding of psychology, is a threadbare emperor. It's deucedly hard to engineer human destiny. It is quite literally not rocket science.
I'm guessing he's spending $44B because he's a FOUNDATION fan. Hopefully he's read FRANKENSTEIN too.
On the Jan 6 committee broadcast, Adam Kinsinger just had someone on Trump's staff (I didn't catch who) say he had been told by Trump to remove all US troops from Somalia and "The Islamic Republic of Afghanistan" before Biden took office.
My question is, was the speaker (or Trump) confusing Afghanistan with Iran, or is Afghanistan really referred to as an Islamic Republic?
More 'fruits"...
Tesla Solar Roofs Stand Up To Hurricane Ian, Elon Musk Sending Starlink Satellites To Help Florida
https://www.benzinga.com/news/22/10/29111375/tesla-solar-roofs-stand-up-to-hurricane-ian-elon-musk-sending-starlink-satellites-to-help
https://www.nytimes.com/live/2022/10/13/us/jan-6-hearing-trump
[Liz] Cheney just motioned for a vote to subpoena Trump. “He must be accountable. He is required to answer for his actions,” Thompson said.
More Elon fruits:
https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-blocks-starlink-in-crimea-amid-nuclear-fears-report-2022-10
Elon has rejected Ukraine's request to use Starlink inside of Crimean territory stolen by Russia in 2914.
Matthew so? NATO refuses to let Ukraine use its weapons into RF territory. It's a weird hypocrisy that may be necessary when dealing with lunatics with nukes.
Starlink was most important that first month, when it made a huge difference. Try a sense of proportion.
Tangentially related, "The Reason Why" about the charge of the Light Brigade is an amazing look into military incompetence.
Duncan mentioned the Falklands earlier:
"When the dust has all settled the various regions of Ukraine need to have a fair referendum asking if they (the citizens of that region) want to be part of Russia or Ukraine
Which is the ONLY way to avoid long term issues!!
The same with Taiwan
Just as the people who live on the Falkland Islands voted on joining Argentina
I am pretty sure that the numbers in favor of joining Russia will be similar to the numbers who wanted to join Argentina
But having the vote to actually "check" that is the case is a sensible idea"
I agree with having the longtime residents of a region vote for what country they wish to belong to. But in the case of the Falklands, there's another aspect to consider. The offshore oil and gas rights. The folks on the island can live under the British if they like, because they have been living there for a while now and have that right. But why should Britain get the rights to those natural resources? Because they managed to colonize an island 8000 miles away? Just look at a map... those should belong to Argentina, even if the people want the island itself to remain British.
Copying this comment regarding Musk from someone else, from a post on r/UkranianConflict
Not saying I agree... but it's food for thought.
"I've speculated before that his sudden pro-Russia words and deeds might be linked to him wanting to get the flow of Russian titanium back into his factories for all his little projects. Russia is by far the largest exporter of titanium in the world but the sanctions have ended that and its an awful lot tougher out there to source replacement titanium.
Now, you wouldn't be remiss in pointing out also that Musk is possibly going to be 44bn poorer if he's forced to carry through and by twitter and Putin has a habit of buying off narcissistic billionaires who've come into money troubles....
And now we get Musk pulling Starlink on the flimsiest of pretences and at the moment of Putin's greatest desperation.
It's all a little too convenient if you ask me."
I'm picking on Musk because he's been held up here as an example of a "good billionaire" and I do not believe there is such a thing. Every billionaire is a policy failure.
I make an exception for folks like Mackenzie Scott or Yvon Chounard who are billionaires actively trying to give away their fortunes.
I could pick on another billionaire but Musk is giving us *so* many examples of bad behavior and OGH (and many commenters here) refuse to see his perfidy so I'll keep "throwing feces against the wall."
Here is another example of Musk's crappy behavior:
https://www.taiwannews.com.tw/en/news/4685519
Musk said that Taiwan should follow the Hong Kong model of "one country, two systems" recently. Three days later, China announced that Teslas were exempt from a luxury tax in their nation, which basically opened up the Chinese market to Tesla. Very much a quid pro quo with an authoritarian regime.
Musk keeps on showing us who he is - a billionaire who performs some unequivocal good works, but also works to destroy the system that has allowed him to flourish. He is ungrateful to the society that gave him a home.
I'm reminded here of Spider Robinson's "Magnificent Conspiracy", where a trust fund billionaire has to avoid assassination attempts because he is trying to change society in the course of giving away his money. One of his methods was to work in hospitals at low level staff jobs, then buy them and turn them into places that actually put curing people before profits.
Pappenheimer
Andy:
Just look at a map... those should belong to Argentina, even if the people want the island itself to remain British.
Why do islands necessarily belong to the mainland country which happens to be closest to it? Under that paradigm, which country does Puerto Rico rightly belong to? Venezuela? The Dominican Republic? Which country should own Greenland?
Matthew's final paragraph is a declaration of opinion about scaling of words vs deeds,, lurid and hyperbolic.... but AS opinion, I cannot claim any ability (or right) to refute him. THose are his values.
I simply see no reason to elevate a set of ill-advised and dumb-impulsive tweets... which have had ZERO influence except to degrade the tweeter's public image... to the level of anything more than a wince-worthy, cranky neighbor's yelps of "get off my lawn you durn kids!"
A neighbor who has done more to save us all than almost anyone else alive today.
So sorry you feel that way. I got more pragmatic things on my agenda.
Russia is the largest exporter of titanium? All the charts I know of say that China is, exporting c.110 metric tons out of a global total of 200.
PS so George Soros is NOT a 'good billionaire"? Craig Newmark? The ex of Bezos?
Andy
I would note that the Falklands were British a long time BEFORE the nation of Argentina even existed
Heard on Stephanie Miller's radio show:
"Tulsi Gabbard is the Kyrsten Sinema of Susan Sarandons"
The latest on StarLink
Elon has NOW (13th Oct) asked the Pentagon to pay for the systems already in place and the extras still wanted
This is entirely reasonable - a company or an individual can and should help out when required but when the costs are in the hundreds of millions it is reasonable to ask for payment
Especially when the people that you have spent millions of dollars helping tell you to "fuck off"
There are very few companies in this world that can afford to simply "gift" $400 million
StarLink is intended to provide Internet Access to the billions of people in the third world that do not have some form of wired connection
That goal cannot be allowed to fail just because Elon Musk tweets some nonsense
Still, this reasonable request was yet again couched in ways sure to irk the irkable. Is it too much to ask that he get someone like Penny Potts was to Tony Stark? Someone who cares deeply and yet can wisely say to him: "No."
onward
onward
Very good, David. I'm still waiting for you to move up to Seattle. The smoke leaves tomorrow. --Bill
Milwaukee has been peecycling since 1926. The Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District manufactures Milorganite fertilizer from sewage by feeding the organic material in the effluent to microbes, then separating out and drying the microbes. Milorganite is 4% phosphorus.
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