None Will Do!

In an earlier post, Karlof1 quoted the following from some article (I saved only the quote):

"Haley makes history in Nevada primary: With Trump not being on the ballot, his GOP challenger lost by double digits to “none of these candidates” in a national first: With frontrunner Donald Trump absent from the ballot, the “none of these candidates” option was picked by more than 60% of the voters. In accordance with state law, Haley was nevertheless declared the winner."

All I can do is shake my head, laugh and bemoan the terminally serious case of dysfunction within the USA.

Posted by: karlof1 | Feb 7 2024 19:51 utc | 24

Anticipating a regular post about U$🚀🚀 elections to start in the near future, I think "None Will Do" would be a great election slogan for anyone who believes that the election of the criminal party does not represent the will of the people. "None Will Do" would be a great slogan even for the candidates from outside the criminal party. Imagine "None" winning the presidential elections by 60%, and a president elect is elected by something like 10% of the eligible voters. A plausible outcome, a jolt to the consciousness of many and an impetus for them to ask some hard questions.

Posted by: SlowDL | Feb 11 2024 14:34 utc | 1

Just a short reminder to all long-distance runners out there, amidst the hussle and bussle of an outright, full-on genocide of two million civilian Palestinians happening nextdoor, the israelis have scheduled the jerusalem marathon for March 8th.

Posted by: thecelticwithinme | Feb 11 2024 15:28 utc | 2

[email protected] it happened, then there is hope. But more land bases need to engaged at the same time. Regular missile salvos to exhaust enemy AD. And really, a plane here or there is wee buns, turning a naval asset into an anchor, punches the ticket; if Ukie can do it, surely the Axis of Resistance has the ability, if not......be no different than Brit destroyers sailing up the Yellow River.

Cheers M

Posted by: sean the leprechaun | Feb 11 2024 15:30 utc | 3

https://asiatimes.com/2024/02/black-swan-turns-white-on-us-debt-default-probability/

Posted by: Scorpion | Feb 11 2024 15:52 utc | 4

I have to say I agree almost completely with Doctorow. Both entries. I was also falling asleep during Putin's ~30 min history lesson. That wasn't the right point to make given the audience or circumstance.

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Feb 11 2024 15:53 utc | 5

About Putin's interview. I view the interview as a step in a process. It is not about logic, truth, or self-consistency. All those are dependent upon what context is common to all and, right now, there is no agreement on the context. There is no agreement even on what international law applies since the West is happy with the "rules based order" and the rest of the world would like an updated UN based rule set.

Typically one does not set a common context through rhetorical arguments. The common context is the result of concrete actions, like learning a foreign language, business cooperation, exchanges of people. All things the West wants to end through sanctions.

All there remains is to establish facts on the ground through military means. This is the real context. If the NYT provides the actual answer of the US deep state to Putin's interview, then the fighting will continue for another year.

Posted by: Richard L | Feb 11 2024 15:55 utc | 6

Great review and links, thanks as ever.

Posted by: anon2020 | Feb 11 2024 15:57 utc | 7

well done b! lots of great reading and insights to be had.. thank you!

@ SlowDL | Feb 11 2024 14:34 utc | 1

that is a good idea... i recommend it for canucks as well..

Posted by: james | Feb 11 2024 16:08 utc | 8

sean the leprechaun

Exhausting the ship air defense is as simple as plinking away if you mean enough to overwhelm all at once. The AD supplies totally limit what we can do over there

Yeah I guess I was just curious if there's anyone who can comment on whether this is possible, whether they shot down something else and it was misidentified, whether it was social media telephone game stuff.

Yemen is pretty mountainous so could they get planes on bombing runs with Stingers?

Also not really familiar with TopWar but I find they do the job of reading Telegram for me so they stay in the rotation!

Posted by: TremblingTelepath | Feb 11 2024 16:24 utc | 9

Also I just realized that I put this in the wrong thread, will amend that going forward. Also thanks to everyone who keeps the comment section flowing, I never take the information for granted. Haven't commented before.

Posted by: TremblingTelepath | Feb 11 2024 16:27 utc | 10

Economic Solutions: How To Go from Financialized Neoliberalism to a Productive, Sustainable Economy - Radhika Desai, Michael Hudson / Naked Capitalism

Tall order of business:

“”However, to get there from here, from our very highly financialized economies, transformations are necessary in a number of spheres. So today we want to focus on some of the main elements of this transformation, and one way to summarize what these elements would be is we’ve tried to divide our conversation into the following topics: Who should create money? What should monetary policy aim for? How do we redesign the taxation system? What about land, rent and so on? Should we nationalize the land and eliminate rent? How should the financial system be regulated? What should replace debt? Obviously, income rather than credit. And finally, how should international money be reorganized? So that’s what we want to discuss today.””

A few snippets from the body of the post:

1) ‘ And so the key here in terms of the creation of money is to take away the power that has been given by governments to the private sector to create money as credit and essentially create instead money as cash on the part of the government, minimizing the role of credit and therefore also minimizing the kind of indebtedness that has been so problematic for economies.’

2) ‘’as you pointed out, these days, bank credit is designed to inflate the value of already existing assets. And in fact, in doing so, it tends to strangulate the production of new goods and services, which people need.’

3) ‘ You want to tax economic rent, not value. Value is created by labor. You don’t want to tax labor’

4) ‘ And a rational land policy, which would be possible if you had nationalized land, would actually enable people to live near where they work and not suffer from this kind of long commutes and all the distortions of life that that brings, and of course, distortions of productivity that that brings. So it would also be a solution that you’d have a rational location policy, rational location of workplaces, housing, and of course, a rational transportation policy, as a consequence as well.’

5) ‘ A final point I want to make, you know, we’ve always emphasized that the problem with the financial system is predatory lending and speculation’

6) ‘ The government creates the kind of conditions in which you are able to make a contribution and make a good income, the kind of income you need for a decent standard of living.’

7). ‘ Keynes basically said that, look, if you’re in a stronger position, you should be able to help your partner who is in a weaker position to become productively stronger.’

“”So here we are, we’ve dealt with actually all our seven questions, and I hope that we’ve given you something to think about, about the kind of economic system we could have, we could easily have. The most important difficulty is not intellectual, it is political, and as the political legitimacy and power of those who are running the system, particularly in the United States, is visibly declining, cracking, etc., now is the time to strike, now is the time to raise demands for an alternative system, much as, by the way, Jill Stein is doing in her campaign, and I should add that Michael and I are both part of her advisory team, and so please look out for it. We hope to have her on one of our shows very soon, as soon as she is able to find some time, so that we will discuss the kind of economy that the U.S. needs, and I would say if the U.S. turned around, boy, so many other problems would be solved.””

Posted by: financial matters | Feb 11 2024 16:44 utc | 11

i enjoyed the Gilbert Doctorow articles and thought they were a fair assessment of the carlson interview.. thanks for them..

Posted by: james | Feb 11 2024 16:45 utc | 12

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C-uekD6VTIQ

Autonomous Overhead Powerline Recharging for Uninterrupted Drone Operations - ICRA 2024

We present a fully autonomous self-recharging drone system capable of long-duration sustained operations near powerlines. The drone is equipped with a robust onboard perception and navigation system that enables it to locate powerlines and approach them for landing. A passively actuated gripping mechanism grasps the powerline cable during landing after which a control circuit regulates the magnetic field inside a split-core current transformer to provide sufficient holding force as well as battery recharging.

The system is evaluated in an active outdoor three-phase powerline environment. We demonstrate multiple contiguous hours of fully autonomous uninterrupted drone operations composed of several cycles of flying, landing, recharging, and takeoff, validating the capability of extended, essentially unlimited, operational endurance.

Posted by: anon2020 | Feb 11 2024 16:48 utc | 13

From a previous thread. I brought the comment here as it needs to be answered.

" Moonie

I watched a few of his others videos and where he just points out certain things he is good, but he has this thing about craftsmanship requiring modern precision machines.

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Feb 11 2024 11:40 utc | 328 "

Those are fair points, however, they ultimately miss the point because the whole question can be simplified very easily. Mainly, the "tolerances" exhibited by many of the structures, objects, and buildings in extremely ancient sites would have to involve lasers, computers, and aerospace grade CNC machining if they were made today. To try to explain them away by the use of cooper hand tools, wet sand grinding, and 100's of ton stones dragged by ropes is magical thinking.

Posted by: Moonie | Feb 11 2024 17:01 utc | 14

@ financial matters | Feb 11 2024 16:44 utc | 11 with the Hudson/Desai latest...thanks

How about we get Tucker Carlson to interview Michael Hudson and really get talking reality.

Posted by: psychohistorian | Feb 11 2024 17:04 utc | 15

A Dementia Patient Is President Because It Doesn't Matter Who The President Is - Caitlin Johnstone, Feb 8 2024

What a delightfully wicked little Princess/Truthteller Caitlin is!

Posted by: Hoarsewhisperer | Feb 11 2024 17:10 utc | 16

Posted by: Hoarsewhisperer | Feb 11 2024 17:10 utc | 16

Yeah, Caitlin Johnstone‘s great. I also enjoyed the deadpan humour of the Asia Times article:

On Tuesday, US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen felt the need to step to the microphone to claim all’s well in the financial system.

Posted by: anon2020 | Feb 11 2024 17:19 utc | 17

@Moonie | Feb 11 2024 17:01 utc | 14

It is an extremely interesting and important topic. I agree there is ample evidence of ancient high precision machining that cannot be "hand-waved" away. There are many examples, including the giant stone boxes at the Serapeum at Saqqara Egypt. But you also have places like Sacsayhuamán in Peru and Tiwanaku in Bolivia.

Sidenote: I happen to have a friend from Peru who visited Tiwanaku and showed me pictures of the 'keystone cuts' there. At the same time, on the exact opposite side of the Earth at Angkor Wat in Cambodia, I personally observed identical keystone cuts there. They are found only in a few places.

I recommend this video
Astonishing Results! More Ancient Egyptian Granite Vases Analyzed! along with this article
https://unsigned.io/granite-artifact/

In short, there is evidence that the granite vases are incredibly precise and that they are designed mathematically. Manufacturing to such precision requires a Turing machine, i.e. a computer.

Posted by: Norwegian | Feb 11 2024 17:27 utc | 18

I know I will enraged the deniers, but ahead of time, sorry!

A new study in Nature done on 300 year old Sea Sponges in the East Caribbean, suggest that the the average world temperature has already increased by 1.7 degrees C.

For those who actually follow this stuff, if you recall, once the world passes an average of 1.5 degrees, a preponderance of irreversible tipping points engage, and the planet’s planet’s climate continues in a runaway fashion. The author of the study also posted a story in Asia Times.

During a casual conversation a couple years back, a person exclaimed that “climate change” was a religion. My only response as an empiricist was no, it’s just math. To extrapolate , if you don’t know math, like the sun traveling around the earth, it does appear to be a religion.

To leave this on an upbeat note, it’s also been noted that we are in the Anthropocene, and the Chinese are starting to build a production fusion/fission reactor. Scientifically, fission temperatures are required to achieve fusion, so to extrapolate again, this is the type of cheap energy required to economically break down the CO2 bonds to reduce this poisonous gas.

On that cheery note, I reiterate that all of the territorial conflict across the planet appears to me to me to be a fight over the deck chairs on a sinking ship.

Stop digging the hole!

Cheers!

Posted by: Michael.j | Feb 11 2024 17:30 utc | 19

Simplicius's latest - first of a two-part recap and look ahead on the SMO:

https://simplicius76.substack.com/p/special-anniversary-report-the-future

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Feb 11 2024 17:31 utc | 20

@michael.j 29

Oh!

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41558-023-01919-7

Posted by: Michael.j | Feb 11 2024 17:32 utc | 21

Posted by: Michael.j | Feb 11 2024 17:30 utc | 19

I think the argument you'll get in these parts is: "gREta iS A NaZI and hOomuNs arEN't cAZIng cLIMAte CHAngE!! oH anD aLgoRE fliES IN A JEt!!"

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Feb 11 2024 17:33 utc | 22

@Michael.j | Feb 11 2024 17:30 utc | 19

When you have to call people "deniers", you have already conceded.

Posted by: Norwegian | Feb 11 2024 17:54 utc | 23

@22 Tom_Q_Collins | Feb 11 2024 17:33 utc

Haha! That’s great! Sorry about my typos, but I’m battling my tiny iPhone to get this thought out. Maybe if I reboot this sucker.

I would disagree. There are some who are fossilized, but that is only a very vocal few.

Most IMHO are quite open minded.

Posted by: Michael.j | Feb 11 2024 17:57 utc | 24

@22 Tom_Q_Collins | Feb 11 2024 17:33 utc

Haha! That’s great!

However, I disagree.

There are a fossilized very vocal few, but most seem to be empirically minded.

Please do not miss the underlying message.

Posted by: Michael.j | Feb 11 2024 18:07 utc | 25

@22 Tom_Q_Collins | Feb 11 2024 17:33 utc

Oh, I should mention, I live in a very “conservative” part of the US, surrounded by multi- generational farmers, who have a good pulse on their environment. After the last two summers, they’re pretty worried. This is not about ideology, but about survival.

Posted by: Michael.j | Feb 11 2024 18:18 utc | 26

I will now drop another link to my own blog onto Moon of Alabama’s patch. Past experience shows this is the best way to get my stats to go through the roof temporarily. The effect does not last.

I have a modest number of followers and their number only slowly increases. New signups seem to come mostly from search engines and I am clearly being severely throttled on them.

This is a topic that is not discussed much among the Alabama Moonies. We have a few “climate” types spreading their disinfo. I am curious to see just what reaction I get from this post, from Alamoonie people.

Planetary warming is not caused by atmospheric CO2 and it is not a problem. The claims otherwise are a big threat to humans. It is about panicking the population into antihuman policies with the intention of reducing population and production on the planet.

It also distracts from real threats to our environment. That is, contamination from out of control industries; nuclear, factory farming, and chemicals.

People talking ‘environment’ are usually serious. People talking ‘climate’ are misanthropists.

https://adultsincharge.blog/2024/01/27/for-greenhouse-gasbags/

Posted by: tim rourke | Feb 11 2024 18:51 utc | 27

If one is really serious about Man-Made-Climate-Change then please:

1) cut your driving to maybe 1/10th versus current vehicle miles traveled (VMT)
2) no A/C

Posted by: Exile | Feb 11 2024 19:03 utc | 28

@23 Norwegian | Feb 11 2024 17:54

So, “deniers” by my definition, are those who deny scientific findings by almost all the scientific community and the editors of “Nature”. Interesting.

While we have never seen gravity, we accept that it exists as in a fashion described by Einstein, that it is “in theory” a distortion of space/time.

We have based our entire space program on this theory

@27 Posted by: tim rourke | Feb 11 2024 18:51

In the 15th century, everyone including the high and mighty Church was absolutely sure the sun revolves around earth. It was so obvious!

Some smart a**, Galileo, hypothesized differently, through a language a buddy and he created: calculus.

Inasmuch as you probably do not understand how to calculate the area under a curve, does that make your hypothesis correct?

Posted by: Michael.j | Feb 11 2024 19:19 utc | 29

@Michael.j | Feb 11 2024 19:19 utc | 29

So, “deniers” by my definition, are those who deny scientific findings

Your insecurity shines through when you have to use ad hominem arguments against anyone who does not take your word as gospel. That is logical fallacy number one.

by almost all the scientific community

Science is not determined by counting hands. That is logical fallacy number two.

and the editors of “Nature”. Interesting.

Appealing to irrelevant authority is fallacy number three.

Posted by: Norwegian | Feb 11 2024 19:26 utc | 30

...
In short, there is evidence that the granite vases are incredibly precise and that they are designed mathematically. Manufacturing to such precision requires a Turing machine, i.e. a computer.
Posted by: Norwegian | Feb 11 2024 17:27 utc | 18
...
I began watching the video but the interminable Gee Whizzing about precision caused my patience to expire. If it's true that 'ancient' craftsmen could make granite vases with unbelievable precision then one may safely assume that they had developed a method which made it simple, quick and easy to do so.

On the other hand, it is deeply comforting to know that modern humans are descended from people whose occasional geniuses were every bit as creative as Newton and Einstein.

Posted by: Hoarsewhisperer | Feb 11 2024 19:38 utc | 31

" I began watching the video but the interminable Gee Whizzing about precision caused my patience to expire. If it's true that 'ancient' craftsmen could make granite vases with unbelievable precision then one may safely assume that they had developed a method which made it simple, quick and easy to do so.

Posted by: Hoarsewhisperer | Feb 11 2024 19:38 utc | 31 "

I think you're missing the point about the type of precision required, not to mention that these vases are pre-dynastic ( think about the implications) . Also, you should focus on the message and not " shoot " the messenger.

Posted by: Moonie | Feb 11 2024 20:01 utc | 32

@Norwegian | Feb 11 2024 19:26 utc | 30

Did read the article in Nature? It's pretty convincing, inasmuch as the author studied creatures that live longer than the industrial revolution. It's not the number of hands required, but the paradigm of empiricism that matters.

Do you understand the paradigm of empiricism? Do you understand that one of the problems of measuring CO2 is that up until now we have had few living creatures that could live long enough to record CO2 in their life times? There are other empirical measures such has tree rings, CO2 found in ice cores, etc, etc. Have you taken the time to read these articles while coming up with you opinion?

Do you spend your life reading scientific articles, or writing them to submit to a panel of scientists for verification?

The primary problem is that most scientists will not take their time to read blogs as "trivial" or emotional as this. They have better things to do.

I'm just a retired empiricist who thinks this actually matters. Unfortunately everyone seems pretty much siloed and information is difficult to pass between them.

Posted by: Michael.j | Feb 11 2024 20:04 utc | 33

" This is a topic that is not discussed much among the Alabama Moonies. We have a few “climate” types spreading their disinfo. I am curious to see just what reaction I get from this post, from Alamoonie people.

Posted by: tim rourke | Feb 11 2024 18:51 utc | 27 "

I get the feeling this was aimed at me, however, I have never ventured in to the global warming discussion on this site ever. Why include me in your diatribe ?

Posted by: Moonie | Feb 11 2024 20:04 utc | 34

" @Moonie | Feb 11 2024 17:01 utc | 14

It is an extremely interesting and important topic. I agree there is ample evidence of ancient high precision machining that cannot be "hand-waved" away. There are many examples, including the giant stone boxes at the Serapeum at Saqqara Egypt. But you also have places like Sacsayhuamán in Peru and Tiwanaku in Bolivia.

Posted by: Norwegian | Feb 11 2024 17:27 utc | 18 "

Thanks for the video recommendation, but I actually posted videos off that site in the past, so I'm very familiar with them. You should also look into the world wide prevalence of polygonal masonry.

History, as presented to us is a lie.

Posted by: Moonie | Feb 11 2024 20:07 utc | 35

Moonie | Feb 11 2024 17:01 utc | 14

Its just a matter of figuring out how they did it. Where ever an art, a craft has been lost, people look to gods and aliens. I have yet to see any marks requiring much more than simple tools and I have looked at a lot.
Precision? Watch something like Pakistan Truck channel.

Same as making a perfect telescope lens by hand with no measuring instruments. I linked that video as in one of that blokes videos he says high precision modern equipment is required to make something as simple as a lens.

I liked the videos where he simply points out the various anomalies that don't fit with modern mainstream archaeological timelines and technology, but in looking at his list of videos, the bulk of them are dedicated to trying to convince people modern precision equipment had to have been used. As far as drilling and sawing goes, that has been demonstrated with simple copper hand tools. One thing I had thought of as an anomaly with age unknown, was the H blocks in Bolivia I think they are. It was only when looking into it again I realised they had been keyed which puts them in the copper age at least.

Even with the highest precision modern equipment, stone is still used to cut stone. One thing the old master craftsmen did have was a brain and that along with starting an apprenticeship in childhood is all that is required. Some things have been demonstrated and solved somethings, the techniques as yet unsolved. As for the manual work involved, its worth looking up the english long bowmen. their muscles and bones develop differently in each arm when heavy bows a used constantly from a young age. One current British bowman who's everyday bow is 160lb draw weight also has that characteristic.

Skills of a tradesman and physical fitness or physical development to a particular type of work would enable the old time masters to accomplish much quicker the same things that can be demonstrated by a modern amateur.

The development of fine skills would come in an era of plenty where people could devote much more time to pursuits other than the basics of life such as food and shelter. Those skills would also disappear in times when the basics are much harder to come by.

What interests me the most is what appear to be connections between the America's and Eurasia that misses the Bering land bridge. But with that, blue water sailing as done traditionally has not only been demonstrated but taught by the person who was last to be trained in the old school navigation.
Original lathes were human powered and is a very old technology.

It like saying Damascus swords could only be made with modern equipment.

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Feb 11 2024 20:08 utc | 36

I was also falling asleep during Putin's ~30 min history lesson. Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Feb 11 2024 15:53 utc | 5
<= my summary of the important part.
@ time when the Russian Leadership collapsed the leadership in the Soviet Union believed:
1. Ukraine was an integral [territorial] part of Russia,
2. the collapse erased the ideology which prevented Russia US cooperation and association.
3. No barriers to normalization of relations between Russia and the US existed.

but since those times,
1. NATO opposition to Russia expanded Eastward 5 times [the Baltic States, the whole of Eastern Europe, and so on}
1. Russia has transition ed from a communist entity to a true market economy,
2, Communist Party power in Russia has completely disappeared ... so
1. why is there No negotiation between the Russian Federation and the United States?
2. why did the United States attempt to develop Ukraine into a NATO eligible entity?
3. why did not the opponents of Viktor Yanukovich not recognize his election victory?
4. why did the treaty of association TOA (EU with Ukraine) deny Russia its free trade & close ties with Ukraine?
5. Why did Ukraine prosecute those who refused to accept the 2014 election coup?
6. Why immediately after Yanukovic refused to sign the TOA, did the CIA backed Maidan Coup happen?
7. Why was Yeltsin immediately dragged through the mud, accused of alcoholism, of understanding nothing, of knowing nothing because according to Putin explained Yeltsin understood everything?

Now President(2000) Putin, thought: now that the Yugoslav issue is over can Russia restore relations (with US and its allies):
1. Putin said he asked Bill Clinton, do you think if Russia asked to join NATO, do you think it would happen?“
2. Putin claims Clinton said: ”You know, it's interesting, I think so.“
3. But in the evening, after dinner, Clinton said [to Putin], I've talked to my team, no-no, it's not possible now [for Russia to join NATO].“
4. Putin said, if he (Clinton) had said yes, the process of rapprochement would have commenced

Tucker Carlson asked Putin,
1. Why.. the hostility?
2. Why did the end of the Cold War not fix the [broken] relationship?
3. What motivates this [refusal to cooperate] from your point of view?

Vladimir Putin responded:
1. Russia realised it was not welcome (in NATO)
2. nonetheless Russia sought common ground elsewhere.
3. Putin told Carlson for answers to why the negative response (about Russia joining NATO), TC should ask his leader.

Putin advanced another example (2008) where US leadership exerts pressure on its allies. In Ukraine in 2008, in Iraq, we were building relations with the United States in a very soft, prudent, cautious manner.
1. [Russia pleaded] .. the United States should not support separatism or terrorism in the North Caucasus.

2. Putin said the US President denied its was providing political support, information support, financial support, even military support in the Middle East. Putin said he presented proof and got an apology.
3. after some time, Putin said he received a reply, now in the Russian archives, from the CIA to the conversation (in 2)
”We have been working with the opposition in Russia. We believe that this is the right thing to do and we will keep on doing it.“ Again, Russia realized [cooperation with the US ].. was out of the question because the bureaucrats say so ].

Tucker Carlson asked: Do you think the CIA is trying to overthrow your government?

In A third example.. Putin said the United States officially said it justified its Missile defense to defend against missile threats from Iran. Putin said he suggested working together – Russia, the United States, and Europe. They said it (Putin's proposal) was very interesting. They asked me(Putin), ”Are you serious?“ I [Putin] said, “Absolutely”.

Putin said he said, ”Just imagine if we could tackle such a global, strategic security challenge together...we could drastically change the situation in the world.“

Putin said, the then Secretary of Defense R.Gates, former Director of the CIA, and Secretary of State C.Rice ...said to me(Putin), ”Yes, we have thought about it, ”But with some exceptions.“

Tucker Carlson: So, twice you've described US presidents making decisions and then being undercut by their agency heads. So, it sounds like you're describing a system that is not run by the people who are elected?

In 2008 at the summit in Bucharest they declared that the doors for Ukraine and Georgia to join NATO were open.

<==IMO, Carlson's interview with Putin, documents that Putin believes bureaucrats control the US, its allies and NATO politics. The come and go elected politicians have no final say; agency bureaucrats control in accord to the policies and influence of corporations, think tanks, and Oligarchs..

http://en.kremlin.ru/events/president/news/73411

Posted by: snake | Feb 11 2024 20:15 utc | 37

If one is really serious about Man-Made-Climate-Change then please:
1) cut your driving to maybe 1/10th versus current vehicle miles traveled (VMT)
2) no A/C
@ Exile | Feb 11 2024 19:03 utc | 28

You might be starting to grasp the seriousness of this issue, which is far beyond the reach of any Green New Deal, at this point. While resettling (presumably via train or perhaps donkey-cart -- like the Palestinians) to a place you can live without A/C, remember to keep out of fire and flood zones. USA's whole eastern seaboard is practically a flood zone, with subsidence and immersion most dramatically in doomed south Florida.

I reiterate that all of the territorial conflict across the planet appears to me to me to be a fight over the deck chairs on a sinking ship.
@ Michael.j | Feb 11 2024 17:30 utc | 19

I unfortunately agree with your conclusion, but the Nature study you reference strikes me as simply moving the goalposts by resetting the "preindustrial climatology" baseline. This seems like an irrelevant statistical trick to me, nowhere near as alarming as the current meteoric rise in Sea Surface Temperature (SST). Nobody have ever seen anything resembling this before:

https://climatereanalyzer.org/clim/sst_daily/

February just hit a new all-time high of 21.2C. SST is where to take the Earth's temperature, like sticking the thermometer in a dense place for a good read. In June of 2023, the single-year advance grew to 0.3 or 0.4 C, which has solidly held for seven months. Warming has accelerated to about 3C per decade, as if we've already tripped over a tripwire which was holding the previous global equilibrium in place.

Posted by: Aleph_Null | Feb 11 2024 20:24 utc | 38

Thanks b, WiR is amazing work and the Hudson piece in Counterpunch was the standout for me. Lucid and compelling, it's a masterpiece of world-systems approach (see also Jason Moore, Immanual Wallerstein, Giovanni Arrighi, etc). As always I'm nodding and thinking 'Hudson is simply right'.

While I'm here, I am going to stop posting as 'Patroklos' and rename. I love this site and want to continue to come and post, but it's become a bit toxic for me and there's a lot of dislike directed at me because I'm a professor and proud of it. Let me know if this is ok; I'm not sockpuppeteering, just trying to get a fresh start.

Posted by: Patroklos | Feb 11 2024 20:26 utc | 39

financial matters | Feb 11 2024 16:44 utc | 11--

I awaited that show and will feature it in an upcoming substack. There's already two similar political-economic systems worthy of emulation: Russia and China's. The following is from the current substack item I'm readying for publication:

Vladimir Putin: Dear colleagues, good afternoon! I welcome you all.

Those who are present here have seen that I have just met with children, young people, schoolchildren and teenagers from the Movement of the First. They have a closing day convention today.

But here's what I thought. According to demographers ' estimates, the number of young people will constantly grow for more than a decade, and very soon children who are 10-12 years old today will come to study at technical schools and universities. And of course, we must work now, today, to provide them with broad, qualitatively new conditions for self-realization, for successful career and life growth, so that they become real professionals in their field and receive reliable value and moral guidelines. This is, without any exaggeration, a national strategic task. Therefore, together with the regions and businesses, we are implementing a number of large-scale projects to develop the educational infrastructure.

The largest companies not only participate in the federal program for the construction of university campuses, but also finance the construction of advanced educational research infrastructure of higher education. This is a good example of partnership between the state and business in developing the country's human and intellectual potential. [My emphasis]

What's described is part of the sort of hybrid mixed economy Hudson and I are advocating and Team Putin in Russia are implementing. The meeting on implementing Russia's plan will be ready in time for those not interested in the Super Bowl to read. I also suggest my previous effort as well.

The publication cited @1 is RT.

Posted by: karlof1 | Feb 11 2024 20:41 utc | 40

People talking ‘environment’ are usually serious. People talking ‘climate’ are misanthropists.

Posted by: tim rourke | Feb 11 2024 18:51 utc | 27

So we got to be fools, Greta Thunberg and the rest of us.
Just answer me three questions, yes or no.
1) Glaciers are shrinking on a global scale, and so does the arctic sea ice cover in summer.
2) Arid areas, unsuitable for agriculture or livestock, are increasing.
3) CO2 concentration in air has been on a steady climb from 280 ppm in pre-industrial times to 420 ppm recently. Obviously, this isn't part of a cyclic process.

If your answer is no to all, we don't need to take this any further. I agree, of course, that a good part of the measures taken are counterproductive, including the trend towards electric cars: they are not the solution.

Posted by: grunzt | Feb 11 2024 20:42 utc | 41

grunzt | Feb 11 2024 20:42 utc | 41 "So we got to be fools, Greta Thunberg and the rest of us."

What more is there to say other than to note your benchmark.

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Feb 11 2024 20:54 utc | 42

Patroklos | Feb 11 2024 20:26 utc | 39

A name is what you or anyone makes of it. Plus suitable thickness of hide. A few callouses on the hands type of thing.

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Feb 11 2024 20:58 utc | 43

@ grunzt | Feb 11 2024 20:42 utc | 41

Misanthropy might have a bad rap. People can be so much uglier than anything else in the universe. On the other hand, no other monkeys have ever built pipe organs, or composed organ sonatas -- at least not to our knowledge. I have a love-hate relationship with humankind, but some of my best literary friends (Mark Twain, Roald Dahl, Flannery O'Connor) are dedicated misanthropists. To a reader complaint that her book left "a bad taste in my mouth," O'Connor once responded: "You weren't supposed to eat it!"

Posted by: Aleph_Null | Feb 11 2024 21:00 utc | 44

Hey Norwegian, there's an interesting vid on Antarctica that shows ancient large trees.

Posted by: Immaculate deception | Feb 11 2024 21:02 utc | 45

Large petrified trees.

Posted by: Immaculate deception | Feb 11 2024 21:03 utc | 46

Oh james @ 12, no no no! I love you, but no! Doctorow is NOT correct, he misread the interview from the getgo. I will give him the benefit, however,
of having perhaps accessed the video - which I have not. My chief negative is that I neither am familiar with Tucker Carlson, nor -- well, leave it at that.

I'll give me rationale for disagreeing with Doctorow. First, he misstated what the opening question was. (I've addressed it before so won't do so again.) Then he misstated Putin's intro into the 'history' lesson. It was NOT about 'Russia and Ukraine; it was about Ukraine. After Carlson's aggressive first question which was of the "When did you stop beating your wife?" sort, Putin deftly avoided the insult it contained by addresing what he felt needed to be understood. Which was how Ukraine became the problem it has become.

We who have followed Putin's speeches about Russian history can recognize that the emphasis here was a different one. This was not about Russia. The Scandinavian influence, other influences coming into the mix, of who decided what in subdividing the country all the way to the present time. You might say that instead of arguing about wife beating and getting into the weeds of his marrage, Putin decided to describe his wife. It wasn't about Russian history except in describing how Ukraine related to it. It was to introduce the audience to the Ukraine he cares about, and tell why he does.

I think he did a superlative job.

Last night I went to the Duran for their assessment of the interview. For those who perhaps got too much Carlson emoting in the video,(which blessedly I didn't) please go at your leisure and read the transcript. As with Plato's dialogues, there's little to distract from the actual words spoken there. I'm going to go back and read it again myself.

No worries, james; we're still friends. (Sorry to be so wordy myself!)

;)

Posted by: juliania | Feb 11 2024 21:03 utc | 47

Sorry, not 'me rationale' -- my rationale.

Posted by: juliania | Feb 11 2024 21:05 utc | 48

Regarding Putin's interview, at 1:11, he explains why Russia does not show evidence of Nord Stream's destruction by the United States, "It is very difficult to defeat the United States in a propaganda war."
This silence is more than that; Western propaganda is one of the assets of the grand Russian plan.

Posted by: Marjorie | Feb 11 2024 21:07 utc | 49

OOps,left out that the Duran assessment is excellent.

Posted by: juliania | Feb 11 2024 21:10 utc | 50

holymarymutteraGOTT!

Posted by: sln2002 | Feb 11 2024 21:17 utc | 51

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Feb 11 2024 20:58 utc | 43

Yeah I guess, but lately I'm piled on for just a normal post. I'll spar with the best of them but relentless tall poppy syndrome ad hominem BS just gets tiring.

Posted by: Patroklos | Feb 11 2024 21:22 utc | 52

"During a casual conversation a couple years back, a person exclaimed that “climate change” was a religion. My only response as an empiricist was no, it’s just math. To extrapolate , if you don’t know math, like the sun traveling around the earth, it does appear to be a religion."

Posted by: Michael.j | Feb 11 2024 17:30 utc | 19

With all due respect a belief in "Man Made Climate Change" is indeed a religion, a cult. Climate has changed for 3 billion years because of volcanic activity, solar activity, moon cycles, and meteorites striking the earth-but man Made Climate Change hasn't happened.

And C02 is beneficial to plants, animals and humans.

Please enlighten yourself and read the science below:

"Overview
Green plants grow faster with more CO2 . Many also become more drought resistant because higher CO2
levels allow plants to use water more efficiently. More abundant vegetation from increased CO2
is already apparent. Satellite images reveal significant greening of the planet in recent decades,
especially at desert margins, where drought resistance is critical. This remarkable planetary greening
is the result of a mere 30% increase of CO2 from its preindustrial levels. Still higher CO2 levels will
bring still more benefits to agriculture.

Plants use energy from sunlight to fuse a molecule of CO2 to a molecule of water,
H2 O, to form carbohydrates. One molecule of oxygen O2 is released to the air for each
CO2 molecule removed. Biological machinery of plants reworks the carbohydrate
polymers into proteins, oils and other molecules of life. Every living creature, from
the blooming rose, to the newborn baby, is made of carbon from former atmospheric
CO2 molecules. Long-dead plants used CO2 from ancient atmospheres to produce
most of the fossil fuels, coal, oil, and natural gas that have transformed the life of
most humans – moving from drudgery and near starvation before the industrial
revolution to the rising potential for abundance today.

The fraction of the beneficial molecule CO2 in the current atmosphere is tiny,
about 0.04% by volume. This level is about 30% larger than pre-industrial levels in
1800. But today’s levels are still much smaller than the levels, 0.20% or more, that
prevailed over much of geological history. CO2 levels during the past tens of millions
of years have been much closer to starvation levels, 0.015%, when many plants die,
than to the much higher levels that most plants prefer. Basic physics implies that
more atmospheric CO2 will increase greenhouse warming.

However, atmospheric processes are so complicated that the amount of
warming cannot be reliably predicted from first principles. Recent observations of
the atmosphere and oceans, together with geological history, point to very modest
warming, about 1 C (1.8 F) if atmospheric CO2 levels are doubled.
Observations also show no significant change in extreme weather, tornadoes,
hurricanes, floods, or droughts. Sea levels are rising at about the same rate as in
centuries past. A few degrees of warming will have many benefits, longer growing
seasons and less winter heating expenses. And this will be in addition to major
benefits to agriculture.

More CO2 in the atmosphere is not an unprecedented experiment with an
unpredictable outcome. The Earth has done the experiment many times in the
geological past. Life flourished abundantly on land and in the oceans at much larger
CO2 levels than those today. Responsible use of fossil fuels, with cost-effective
control of genuine pollutants like fly ash or oxides of sulfur and nitrogen, will be a
major benefit for the world." (1)

1.https://www.commerce.senate.gov/services/files/FC7C4946-11A3-4967-BF28-8D0386608D3E

Posted by: canuck | Feb 11 2024 21:23 utc | 53

financial matters | Feb 11 2024 16:44 utc | 11 (quoting)...
*** 4) ‘ And a rational land policy, which would be possible if you had nationalized land, would actually enable people to live near where they work and not suffer from this kind of long commutes and all the distortions of life that that brings, and of course, distortions of productivity that that brings. So it would also be a solution that you’d have a rational location policy, rational location of workplaces, housing, and of course, a rational transportation policy, as a consequence as well.’***

No. That is as bad as the present system.
What is implied within the comment? A change of job or employer automatically meaning a change in place of residence?
Just like the present system, people as no more than mere shuntably disposable units of production / consumption.
No identity other than job-title, no settled community or connection to geographical area, plus constantly re-dispersed family...
Fuck that. Slightly camouflaged, it is in fact advocating continuity of a very negative aspect of the present and an ideal future setup for the ongoing benefit and supremacy of monopoly-capitalism plus the WEF -- with the erosion and destruction of everything else.

Posted by: Cynic | Feb 11 2024 21:25 utc | 54

Moonie

In the years that I was no longer well enough to work for myself, I started working for a mate. Noe set hours and if I was too unwell to work I did not. He's ito earth moving and due to the difficulty in getting parts made at times, wanted to do as much as possible inhouse which was a very basic workshop.

Two jobs I did there stand out in regards this conversation on precision and the equipment required. One was an earlier repair he had done on a diff housing. He had built the bearing carrier up with weld as it had worn away on one side then sent it in to a specialist machine shop to have it machined to specs. This p[lace runs millions of dollars of CNC equipment, makes aircraft parts amongst other things. That was before I started working for my mate.

The bushes were wearing out very quickly, so I had a look at it and the 'precision' was shocking. It hadn't been aligned in the machine correctly for a start, but then because there was varying hardness around the diameter, it had been machined oval instead of round.
Although we had a manual lathe and milling machine in, the part was too big, although it would have been simple to machine with CBN cutting edges. It was a simple to set up a rough grinder on the part and grind it to alignment and roundness.

Another job was after I could no longer do any work so I had to figure out how he could do it which was quite simple. That job was an engine block that required a cam bearing bore machined oversize, and replacement block or even full replacement engine to same specs was not available. He has sent it to a major engine machining joint in Melbourne that had every piece of equipment under the sun. Acres of it in a huge factory. They had the block there for a week then said they could do the job.

The main benefit of modern high precision equipment is repeatability to a certain tolerance as in mass production. The is no sign of close tolerance mass production in ancient artifacts.

For very close tolerance equipment, much is still done as it has always been done. Hand scraping.

A surface plate can be found in many workshops. That is the starting point for precision. Cast or granite, the very close tolerance surface plates are always hand finished. From that, a precision straightedge is made. They are generally cast iron and hand scraped.

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Feb 11 2024 21:29 utc | 55

Posted by: snake | Feb 11 2024 20:15 utc | 37

Much appreciated. Yes, after having read some transcripts I did get the gist of what he was saying, but I think it was the wrong approach given the context and audience intended. At least not the optimal manner in which to answer. That said, fault can also be placed at Tucker's feet for interrupting Putin and potentially derailing his train of thought temporarily during his answers.

But that horse has been beaten to death (myself included) and I 100% agree with your and Tucker/Putin's conclusion with a few minor caveats. The President does in fact often get undercut or cut out of some decisions, but usually not the *big* ones or the ones with *big* implications. It is for this reason that *only* carefully cultivated and observed leaders are allowed to progress past the primary stages by the CIA and corporate-MIC/Wall Street backed (unelected by the public) party leadership. In this way Trump was a bit of a wild card; but he made up for it in *some* minds by bringing on a cadre of neocons like Bolton, Pimpeous, Abrams, etc.

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Feb 11 2024 21:45 utc | 56

@Moonie | Feb 11 2024 20:07 utc | 35

You should also look into the world wide prevalence of polygonal masonry.

I I I have followed this topic for years and know about that aspect as well. Note previous reference to Sacsayhuamán.

Posted by: Norwegian | Feb 11 2024 21:53 utc | 57

Posted by: Norwegian | Feb 11 2024 17:27 utc | 18

I watched the video and decided to do some further reading elsewhere. Found an interesting reddit thread on the matter. It's about a different analysis using a scan of some kind (I'd guess with a laser, but I didn't watch that video, only skimmed the thread). I did notice that in the video there appear to be a few of those same guys from the machine shop in your video.

https://www.reddit.com/r/AlternativeHistory/comments/10nox17/scanning_a_predynastic_granite_vase_to_1000th_of/

In any case what IS the prevailing theory on the lug handles? I mean, let's say that they had precision equipment back in that time period...what would this equipment have looked like if it wasn't of other-than-terrestrial origin?

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Feb 11 2024 21:58 utc | 58

gold,[1] and much frequented by merchants, who obtain large profits. We shall now speak of the province of Aden.

Book III CHAPTER XL
OF THE PROVINCE OF ADEN [2]

THE province of Aden is governed by a king, who bears the title of soldan.[3] The inhabitants are all Saracens, and utterly detest the Christians. In this kingdom there are many towns and castles, and it has the advantage of an excellent port, fre quented by ships arriving from India with spices and drugs. The merchants who purchase them with the intention of con veying them to Alexandria, unlade them from the ships in which they were imported, and distribute the cargoes on board of other smaller vessels or barks, with which they navigate a gulf of the sea for twenty days, more or less, according to the weather they experience. Having reached their port, they then load their goods upon the backs of camels, and transport them overland (thirty days journey) to the river Nile, where they are again put into small vessels, called jerms, in which they are conveyed by the stream of that river to Kairo, and from thence, by an artificial canal, named Kalizene, at length to Alexandria. This is the least difficult, and the shortest route the merchants can take with their goods, the produce of Endia, from Aden to that city. In this port of Aden, likewise, the merchants ship a great number of Arabian horses, which they carry for sale to all the kingdoms and islands of India, obtaining high prices for them, and making large profits. The soldan of Aden possesses immense treasures, arising from the imposts he lays, as well upon the merchandise that comes from India, as upon that which is shipped in his port as the returning cargo ; this being the most considerable mart in all that quarter for the exchange of commodities, and the place to which all trading vessels resort. I was informed that when the soldan of Babylon led his army the first time against the city of Acre, and took it, this city of Aden furnished him with thirty thousand horses and forty thousand camels, stimulated by the rancour borne against the Christians. We shall now speak of the city of Escier.

---
1. Although gold is enumerated amongst the articles of export from Abyssinia, and is said to be found in its rivers, it is not spoken of by modern writers as abounding in the country: yet, as the adjoining coasts of Africa have at all periods been celebrated for the production of gold, it is reasonable to suppose that, during the flourishing days of the empire, it may have been collected there from the southward, in large quantities, and at a price to afford considerable profit when disposed of to the mer chants of Arabia. " On trouve," says Niebuhr, in his description of the latter country, " beaucoup d or de Habbesch dans les villes bien commercantes." P. 124.

2. Whatever place it may have been, against which the hostility of the king of Abyssinia was directed (as mentioned in the preceding chapter), there can be no doubt of the Aden here described being the famous city and port of Aden, in the south-eastern extremity of Yemen or Arabia Felix, and not far from the entrance of the Red Sea. It is not, indeed, surprising that two places so nearly resembling each other in name (as Adel and Aden), and spoken of in successive chapters, should have been confounded by the translators of the work, and mistaken for the same ; nor is it impossible that our author himself might have misapprehended the information he received from the Arabian pilots.

3. De Guignes, speaking of the princes of the family of Saladin, who reigned at Aden from the year 1180, says: " Apres la mort de ce prince, qui a du arriver vers Tan 637 de 1 Hegire, de J. C. 1239, un Turkoman, appelle Noureddin Omar, qui s etoit empare de ce pays, envoya demander au khalif Mostanser une patente et rinvestiture en qualitl de sulthan de 1 Yemen, ce qui lui fut accorde." Cette famille a possede 1* Yemen jusqu apres Tan 800 de 1 Hegire, de J. C. 1397." (Tab. Chronol. liv. vii. p. 426.) Consequently, it was one of these sultans or soldans who reigned at the period of which our author treats.

Posted by: sln2002 | Feb 11 2024 21:59 utc | 59

@Peter AU1 | Feb 11 2024 20:08 utc | 36

One thing I had thought of as an anomaly with age unknown, was the H blocks in Bolivia I think they are. It was only when looking into it again I realised they had been keyed which puts them in the copper age at least.

The H-blocks are all different shapes, even if at first glance they look similar. There is no way you can judge the age from the shapes. They are at Puma Punku in Bolivia (essentially same place as Tiwanaku).

It like saying Damascus swords could only be made with modern equipment.

I think you do not understand the level of precision that is being documented (for the granite vases).

Posted by: Norwegian | Feb 11 2024 21:59 utc | 60

Putin lied.

The Soviet Union didn't "collapse". That is a lie and Putin knows it is a lie, as he admits it "was effectively initiated by the Russian leadership". The Soviet Union was deliberately dismantled by stalinist leadership because they were ideologically bankrupt and could offer no guidance that would further develop the Soviet Union.

This is important because the current conflict in the Ukraine is the result of an historic mistake, but that mistake was not the shuffling around of borders in the Soviet Union to turn the Ukraine into a viable statelet. The mistake was also not in cultivating national differences among the various states in the Union. The massively brain-dead historic screw-up was in deliberately dissolving the Union. Putin tries to excuse the main actors in this colossally idiotic mistake born of stunningly infantile naiveté and stupidity. Pathetic fools really thought they would be embraced by the Empire of Chaos if they threw away the very thing that made them powerful? Shameful fools.

Consider the argument for quashing the regional differences in the Soviet Union. Sure, that could have made for more cohesiveness in the mess that resulted from dissolving the Union, but dissolving the Union was never the plan of those who created it in the first place. They wanted a place where the different regions were... well, different. Think of the United States or the European Union, or even China. Who in their right minds wants these places to be a uniform beige sameness from border to border? No, when you travel Europe you expect croissants and wine in France, beer and brats in Germany, and nasty inedible shit in Britain. when you travel the US you want chowder in the Northeast, fried chicken and sweet tea in the South, and... uh, vegetarian sushi on the West Coast? Anyway, wise people would want to cultivate the differences. Texas isn't going to go to war with Colorado if you accentuate the differences between the two so long as the identity of "American" supersedes the identities of "Texan" and "Coloradan".

This principle applied in the Soviet Union too. Cultivating the Ukrainian "identity", even if it was mostly fictitious, would never be a problem so long as the Soviet identity existed at a higher level of the people's consciousness. You remove the identity that unites the people, though, and the purveyors of butthurt then have an opening to wield their divisive "identity politics" to implant and amplify feelings of victimhood and turn the various "identities" against each other. This, as we can see in the Ukraine and maybe even soon in Taiwan, can go so far as fratricide.

But this fratricide was absolutely not due to the Soviets coddling a rather feeble Ukrainian identity. It is due to Putin's heroes destroying the very thing that united the peoples of the Soviet Union. Blaming Lenin, and suggesting that Stalin wasn't a brutal enough asshole to successfully expunge the ethnic, regional, and national differences across the USSR, is very wrong analysis. The Ukrainians speaking a joke, pig Latin version of Russian was never an issue when the Ukrainians were Soviets first and foremost.

Posted by: William Gruff | Feb 11 2024 22:09 utc | 61

Posted by: William Gruff | Feb 11 2024 22:09 utc | 61

Interesting commentary. Do you know of any books that take this viewpoint and which describe the dismantling of the USSR from that angle? Any recommendations would be appreciated...naturally English would be the preferred language, as I'm sure there are probably several such books in Russian, which I do not speak or read.

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Feb 11 2024 22:20 utc | 62

Posted by: Norwegian | Feb 11 2024 21:59 utc | 60

Assumptions: the blocks for the Pyramids were cut. Decades of arguments about 'how with their level of technology etc ensue. Truth: they were poured limestone concrete, hence perfectly level and fitting together within thousands of an inch etc not cut with prehistoric lasers.

Vases: same probably false assumption: they were cut.

Probable truth: they were made of liquified rock or granite lava. First using a potters wheel a perfectly symmetrical vase shape is formed from which molds are made into which molten rock is poured resulting in perfect forms.

Something like that.

Posted by: Scorpion | Feb 11 2024 22:21 utc | 63

Ditch the ‘Rules-Based International Order’ (Bloomberg Opinion, Andreas Kluth, February 8, 2024)

…
The world is skeptical about this American shtick, especially in Africa, Asia and South America, where countries are feeling — and often resisting — pressure by Washington to align with the West against Russia and China. Beijing and Moscow, meanwhile, have an easy time skewering America’s double standards. Russian President Vladimir Putin tells audiences in the Global South that the RBIO is just a veneer for American exceptionalism, so that the US can arbitrarily make the “rules” it wants and then “order” everybody else around.

That’s rich, of course, coming from the man who invaded the sovereign nation of Ukraine and ordered the slaughter of its civilians and the abduction of thousands of its children…

Stopped reading right there.

Posted by: S | Feb 11 2024 22:23 utc | 64

Norwegian | Feb 11 2024 21:59 utc | 60

I understand the precision. I also understand the precision that is still worked to this day by hand. The key cut are key to judging maximum age of the H blocks. Molten metal is poured into those key slots to lock blocks together. Those keyways are found in various places around the world.

It is difficult to tell when native metals were first melted as they don't leave slag, but at the same time are not found in industrial amounts. As in gold nuggets, silver nuggets, copper nuggets.
So for the keyways, most likely copper but from and age when it was mined and smelted to achieve the industrial amounts required. Smelted copper like iron workings leave slag.

Many things require some form of mathematics, but few if any require power tools or modern machining facilities and equipment. Precision repeatability is only a very recent phenomenon and not seen anywhere in archaeology.

Those stone bowls in Egypt interest me, but he workshops where they were made has not yet been found. It seems to be a craft/profession that only lasted a few years then the skills were lost.

But both the copper core drilling and sawing (no sign of rotary, only curved reciprocating) are interesting in that they indicate technology transfer through contacts, trade routes that crossed oceans. The polygonal building goes into that category. That also is a simple matter of skills that could be easily demonstrated. All that is required is time and elbow grease.

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Feb 11 2024 22:28 utc | 65

Vases: same probably false assumption: they were cut.

Probable truth: they were made of liquified rock or granite lava. First using a potters wheel a perfectly symmetrical vase shape is formed from which molds are made into which molten rock is poured resulting in perfect forms.

Something like that.

Posted by: Scorpion | Feb 11 2024 22:21 utc | 63

Unlikely. That's a theory I came across in my readings prompted by Norwegian's OP/video. Here's an explanation for why that probably wasn't how they were made:

The pre dynastic vases have single point tool marks...at the bottom of some vases one can see facing tool marks to obtain a flat bottom., some vases have tool marks on the inside, some on the outside....single point tool marks everywhere.

Now the video shows clearly the precision of the different surfaces to each other in regards measurements from the main center line of the vase.....you cannot get this precision with a geopolymer because of shrinkage as it's drying. thin parts will dry quicker than thick parts then cracks can occur.

Geopolymer requires a mold/container to hold it together while it dries....but yet there is no mold/container witness marks, not even microscopic remains of one yet....

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Feb 11 2024 22:29 utc | 66

@Tom_Q_Collins | Feb 11 2024 21:58 utc | 58

In any case what IS the prevailing theory on the lug handles? I mean, let's say that they had precision equipment back in that time period...what would this equipment have looked like if it wasn't of other-than-terrestrial origin?

There is no prevailing theory on that, at least not a credible one. We can observe the precision on the curvatures of the handles and elsewhere (it is systematic), and we can observe the precision of the vase surface between the handles, it is as precise as the rest of the vase. Without the handles you could use a precision lathe, but with the handles it is not doable, especially not in thin-walled granite stone.

Nobody claims "other-than-terrestrial origin". This was created by humans on Earth. Even conventional historians say these are "pre-dynastic", that means older than conventional civilization. Isn't it interesting that dynastic vases are much less precise than pre-dynastic vases?

The theory that is emerging is that a human civilization with advanced capabilities (whatever that means) existed before 12800 years ago, but was destroyed in a cataclysm caused by a comet strike on the Laurentide Ice Sheet in North America, causing the Younger Dryas climate anomaly (15C temperature drop lasting 1200 years), wiping out the North American megafauna overnight, creating the Carolina Bays from secondary Ice Boulder impacts and world wide megatsunamis erasing the civilization that was. It took civilization ~7000 years to reboot in Mesopotamia.

The vases are from pre-dynastic Egypt, most likely from before the Younger Dryas.

I mean, let's say that they had precision equipment back in that time period...what would this equipment have looked like

We do not know, we are trying to figure it out. It can only be concluded they were not hand made and we can't make them today even if we try. We also know there are thousands of such high precision vases in Egypt, so those who made them had little difficulty making them.

There are many other signs around the world. When I visited Angkor Wat (Literally 'temple city') in Cambodia I was struck by the beauty of the place and got the story about how it was made explained by a local guide we hired for 2 days. The story goes that Angkor Wat is about 1000 year old, and I guess most of that is true. There are more stones at Angkor than in the Giza pyramids in Egypt, they come from 50 km away. The keen eyed will observe hundreds of thousands (millions?) of holes in the stones everywhere, as if they were involved some industrial process. The official explanation is that the holes (3-4 cm deep) were filled with bamboo and soaked in water so elephants could carry the stones. Being an engineer I can say that makes no sense. This is anecdotal, but I have seen those holes up close with my own eyes.

The granite vases from Egypt represent hard (pardon the pun) evidence of something that contradicts conventional understanding of history. I mention the Angkor Wat story because there are other anomalies than the Egyptian vases, and I have personal experience with Angkor Wat.

Posted by: Norwegian | Feb 11 2024 22:40 utc | 67

Posted by: Norwegian | Feb 11 2024 22:40 utc | 67

Fascinating. One question, are you sure there are actually "thousands" of these pre-dynastic vases in/from the area of Egypt *and* that they *all* demonstrate the same or very similar levels of precision? Having been reading about it for a good part of the day, it was my understanding that there were nowhere near that many known vessels.

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Feb 11 2024 22:45 utc | 68

Re climate change, many earlier civilizations have killed or harmed themselves by screwing up their environments. We have more powerful engineering, we can harm ourselves more thorooughly than our ancestors.

Posted by: lester | Feb 11 2024 22:53 utc | 69

@Scorpion | Feb 11 2024 22:21 utc | 63

The Geopolymer limestone theory stems from the French Joseph Davidovits. I have his signed book on the subject. Although it is an interesting thought wrt. limestone, it does not explain the 70-ton high precision granite blocks in the "King's chamber" and "Queen's chamber" of the Great Pyramid. The granite stones are of a type that came from Aswan in upper (i.e. south) Egypt more than 700 km away from Giza.

Claiming that granite vases are poured makes no sense, and even if you insist there are clear signs they have been cut. This is discussed in the videos that have been linked to. Any credible explanation must demonstrate a practical process taking all known information into account.

Posted by: Norwegian | Feb 11 2024 22:54 utc | 70

Hunter gatherer peoples only way of understanding the things they did not understand (forces of nature ect) was that it must be spirits/gods.

Same thing here. office dweller types with no understanding of skills used in craftsmanship.

Another anecdote. Apart from the machines my mate worked himself, he also leased several machines to the mine which he had bought specifically for that purpose. One was a forty ton komatsu digger.
At one point there was an ongoing saga where it was stopping intermittently. The think is factory wired to the web so komatsu could check error codes and so forth from the office. They also went out to the mine a number of times to try and find the fault. They would replace some sensors, charge my mate like a wounded bull but never fix the problem.
After about six months of this saga they were going to hit him up for a replacement fuel pump which was about twenty grand. He had already spent about four and a half on these dickheads. I intervened and asked my mate what he had to do to get it started again and it turned out is was a simple matter of bleeding it.

I said I wanted to go out to the mine and go over it with the Komatsu foreman. We went over it for about half an hour asking what he had done and ruled out and so forth.
It became obvious the problem was at or before the lift pump.
Lift pump, fuel filter assembly, fuel lines, fuel tank. The issue was quite obviously in that section and not past it.
I told my mate we had to pressure test and visual inspect everything. The fuel line assembly, filters lift pump ect we took back to the workshop and tested with compressed air and soapy water. no issue there. We pumped out the diesel tank and inspected it with a torch. A red object in the bottom.

It was a plastic fuel level indicator float for when filling from the top filler, but in the mine, only the side filler was used so the top cap never opened. They float had broken off its stalk and once filled with fuel would simply drift around in the tank sometimes blocking the fuel outlet.
Now those clowns had contacted head office in Japan and asked other Komatsu service centers around the world but with but without having an error code, they were useless as tits on a bull for diagnosing a simple problem.

Now I will go back to watching "The Gods Must be Crazy"

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Feb 11 2024 23:02 utc | 71

@Tom_Q_Collins | Feb 11 2024 22:45 utc | 68

Fascinating. One question, are you sure there are actually "thousands" of these pre-dynastic vases in/from the area of Egypt

Yes. They are found under the pyramid of Djoser (the step pyramid) at Saqqara.

https://www.quantumgaze.com/ancient-technology/ancient-egyptian-vases-saqqara-2800bc/
One of the greatest mysteries of all time is the stones vases of Egypt. Thousands of stones vases have been found in and around the pyramid of pharaoh Djoser in Saqqara, about 30 km south of Cairo. These stone vases originate from before 2800 BC.

Obviously I suggest they are much older than that.

Rare Footage from Egypt - Ancient Machined Artifacts found deep beneath the Step Pyramid!

*and* that they *all* demonstrate the same or very similar levels of precision?

We cannot say that they all demonstrate similar levels of precision, because egyptologists (Zahi Hawass is particular) have not allowed detailed analysis. The recent results have come from vases in private ownership, and from that small set of vases there are several with similar high precision.

Having been reading about it for a good part of the day, it was my understanding that there were nowhere near that many known vessels.

See the video linked above.

Posted by: Norwegian | Feb 11 2024 23:08 utc | 72

For those not watching the Super Bowl, "Creating a Network of Modern University Campuses".

Posted by: karlof1 | Feb 11 2024 23:09 utc | 73

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Feb 11 2024 22:29 utc | 66

Posted by: Norwegian | Feb 11 2024 22:40 utc | 67

Good points. I'm of the view that many things were done long ago that we cannot explain and am quite comfortable with that view. My main point was that often modern people assume that things can only be explained using the type of approach and technology that we have. For example, the poured concrete theory may not explain the large granite pieces you describe but it does well describe the tens of thousands of other blocks used in those structures. It just wasn't considered for decades for some reason.

I read a long article about it in the 80's; the author got a patent on how to make this type of concrete which has many beneficial properties (it lets in rays from stars and planets somehow etc.). He sold it to a Latin American construction company in the fond hope that it would be used to make healthy, highly economical housing for the masses. The company just sat on the patent and now nobody is allowed to build using the method.

And so it goes...

Posted by: Scorpion | Feb 11 2024 23:11 utc | 74

Economic Solutions: How To Go from Financialized Neoliberalism to a Productive, Sustainable Economy - Radhika Desai, Michael Hudson / Naked Capitalism

What I thought was one of the most interesting parts of this article were their thoughts on an international currency/monetary system.

The BRICS etc are working on this. It is the US using the USD as a weapon that is accelerating these changes. Probably another facet of end stage capitalism.
————

Radhika: But essentially, Keynes proposed to create a new currency. It was not going to be the currency of any country. All countries would continue using their national currencies. But this bancor would be used among central banks to settle imbalances.

Hudson: What we want is indeed an international currency to be used, but it’s not going to be to enable debtor countries to pay the American and European banks. It’s not going to be a currency to finance American military spending. It’s going to be a currency that people will not have to keep their money in dollars anymore.

Countries do need credit, just like the economy needs credit that we’re urging should be created by the Treasury. What Keynes suggested is the equivalent of an international treasury, but that would lend money for the things that treasuries are supposed to create money for, to promote economic growth, not military spending, not trade dependency, and not a debt-ridden international economy, which is now breaking apart as a result of the last 75 years of IMF and World Bank lending.

Posted by: financial matters | Feb 11 2024 23:12 utc | 75

Posted by: Norwegian | Feb 11 2024 22:40 utc | 67

Hapgood's 1950's wacky Axis Tilt theory (preface by Einstein) explains a lot of things. Like vegetation in the poles. Like rapid mountain formation. Like instant destruction of civilizations. Like many of the strange artifacts found deep down where the rock is supposedly hundreds of millions years old (versus things being suddenly churned around); like instantly frozen mammoths with undigested food still in their stomachs or suddenly buried fish fossilized with another fish they were in the process of eating; like trees suspended vertically despite the sedimentary rock layers from bottom to top theoretically taking millions of years to form instead of hours (shake a jar of 20% earth for a minute then watch what happens); like so many submerged cities. Etc.

Most likely there have been axis wobbles/flips but also asteroid strikes, volcanic freak-outs, space storms, planetary collisions and who knows what else.

Meanwhile, we have to make our realm as marvelous as possible; and are not doing a very good job of it!

Posted by: Scorpion | Feb 11 2024 23:18 utc | 76

Interesting that at about the same time that the Western mainstream news media are going apoplectic over Tucker Carlson's interview / conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin, none or few of them are taking notice of the recent US Department of Justice report by Special Counsel Stephen Hur regarding US President Joe Biden's violation of US law in keeping classified US government documents at his home, and the DoJ's explanation for excusing him from standing trial on the grounds that he is elderly and has a poor memory.

If Biden is unfit to stand trial, then he is unfit to be President and the 25th Amendment of the US Constitution should be invoked.

Posted by: Refinnejenna | Feb 11 2024 23:22 utc | 77

Posted by: Norwegian | Feb 11 2024 22:40 utc | 67

Never read about those large blocks, so this just for fun:

What about: blocks cut in situ in quarry with barge built underneath them by digging, using scaffolding etc. Then water is channeled in to the point that the blocks are now floating on said barges which are easily moved into the large pyramids which had large canals leading into them. Then, with the skillful use of various of the long diagonal corridors ec. inside the pyramid, water is poured into the top, one bucket at a time using pulleys along the length of the pyramid, which causes the water where the barge with the large stone is gradually to rise up to the desired level where it is placed, then the barge allowed to sink back down when the water is drained out.

Elementary, dear Watson!

Posted by: Scorpion | Feb 11 2024 23:24 utc | 78

On the vases and Peter's objections against the machining angle, I tend to be with him. It appears a little unimaginative, at face value, to even apply a concept such as the Turing machine to the case, let alone that the necessary implications are huge. You've got to assume space aliens next; either that, or forgotten civilizations (I'm willing to do that) with unknown and superior, but vanished from the earths surface technology (which I find over the top imaginative). That's just a hunch, though. More to the point, I just remembered seeing a docu on high precision grating of mirror glass for major telescope at Carl Zeiss in Germany. I can't remember which one it was, but I believe them and Schott in Mainz have been doing the mirrors for most big telescopes during the last decades. And it was stated that the final polishing of the glass is done by hand. - Just as Peter claimed, machines are good in repetitive processes of manufacturing. Boeing 737 bulkheads have been discussed a while back here (some idiots used hand drills and eye gauging, and b posted pics of several broken Boeings that crashlanded on runways, coming apart in a regular fashion, likely where the bulkheads severe).

On to a note to Patrokolos, which I hope is not getting too personal - sorry in advance from me, if you deem it inappropriate. I'd like to ask (rhetorically) whether a name change would really help. Perhaps not, but why is that? Picking on others for "fun" is an unfortunate pastime of too many barflies. FWIW, you, Patroklos, come across a little nervous at times also ... might it be possible that you are at once, perhaps implicitly and even subconsciously, asking for respect, while at the same time being a bit eager (again unconsciously) to answer in the negative upon response? Said differently, almost preoccupied with being disrespected? No disrespect from me, I can feel the hurt that it gives you, for no good reason it seems. I like your commenting, sometimes it is invaluable for me - like when you quoted Heraklit speaking on nous; I'd never have dug this up by myself. Also, I like professors, a romantic preoccupation perhaps, but that sits with me; and surely I did have some great teachers along, both in school and at the University.

Karlofi has wondered about Putin insistently stating to Carlson that russians are less pragmatic than the west. I wrote a long comment on that, which I will post to his substack now.

Posted by: persiflo | Feb 11 2024 23:26 utc | 79

karlof1 | Feb 11 2024 23:09 utc | 73

The anomaly of Putin... He grasps the highest levels of technology yet can identify with the grass roots. The Russian soul and American pragmatism. America has no soul and has lost it pragmatism - generally speaking... The woke dark ages - political science, political medicine gendercide as someone earlier termed it, descending on the west...

From what I can make out, in earlier times American and many western p[laces of higher education nurtured critical thinking. No more.

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Feb 11 2024 23:29 utc | 80

Posted by: Patroklos | Feb 11 2024 20:26 utc

While I'm here, I am going to stop posting as 'Patroklos' and rename

*************

Of course, you're free to do as you choose, but I'd prefer you didn't change your name.

I've known several people over the years who have formally changed their name, for various reasons, and I found it difficult to respect them for it, or to agree with their reasoning, or their attempted justification for their decision.

My real name is rather weird and unusual, but after 71 years I am (sort of) getting used to it.

In my mind I will always think of you as 'Patroklos' and your future posts will be easily identified by your writing style, philosophical orientation, thoughtful analysis, and considered content, as exemplified by your past posts.

You can't hide that, so why try?

Posted by: General Factotum | Feb 11 2024 23:43 utc | 81

@canuck | Feb 11 2024 21:23 utc | 53

With all due respect, your link is actually to "The CO2 Coalition" which according to "Influence Watch",
https://www.influencewatch.org/non-profit/the-co2-coalition/
which is described as a right wing, Koch Brothers mouthpiece.

Better luck next time!

Oh, by the way, you don't work for their PR department, do you?
https://www.commerce.senate.gov/services/files/FC7C4946-11A3-4967-BF28-8D0386608D3E

Looks like I'm wrong, the players ARE here.

Posted by: Michael.j | Feb 12 2024 0:03 utc | 82

Re: climate change

I personally think that anthropogenicaly-accelerated climate change is a serious problem, but I no longer bother discussing the issue as the proposed solutions are all bad. It's clearly a policy problem co-opted by nefarious actors such as Bill Gates looking to make more money.

If the powers that be were more functional, we'd see a boon in the construction of nuclear power plants, and instead of telling people to drive fancier new cars, we'd be fixing and upgrading existing cars.

The situation with global warming is a lot like covid-19, actually: serious problem, dumb solutions that prioritize making money for a select few.

Posted by: Afro | Feb 12 2024 0:15 utc | 83

Holy bullshittery Batman! I think I am angry, I wonder why?

We know that the the Great PR Narrative merchants - Millenia old - must be desperate, when they restart the skyfairy narratives.

We are progressing to crop circles, strange lights in the sky, and yes actual ‘alien’ as in unearthly space travellers who have blessed us with their ‘technology’ but made sure they eradicated any memory of their existence ! Except as some Egyptian god kings or some such. Somebody willdig up the 70’s sci-fi ‘movie historians’ who told us spacemen built pyramids!

So when actual non-scientists, untrained in theoretical physics or mathematics, start turning up - with gobbledygook empirical ‘proof’ and Eurocentric certitudes such as ‘everyone’ as in ‘all humanity ever including civilisation that existed before a single European ‘philosopher’ (a new word for the tribal witch doctor) - it is time to reach for my trusty hobnails and start stamping some toes and if that doesn’t stop them, kicking heads until their soft brains leak out of their noses and ears !

Did someone actually state that the majority of humanity believed the universe revolves around the Earth and their local living deity - their god king?
Or that majority of humanity which lived or lives believed that the world was flat?
That only until some great European scientist ‘invented’ lenses that they proved other planets had moons?
Or that a Transit of Venus hadn’t been observed to prove that the planets orbited the sun? And … the size of the earth and its units of measurements and the annual cycle of days and seasons…etc

Such is the Eurocentric basis of such PR Narratives- we are the only humans to be as clever and witty ever - the highest form of evolution!
Such blatant barefaced self declared supremacism! Hey we are the greatest, that means all of Anglo Europeans and their colonialists are the acme of Life On Earth - and so our Leaders and Great are the best of the best of the best and must be taken at face value and their ‘teachings’ accepted and followed WITHOUT question!

That my dears is FASCISM.

When such monsters are beaten and cornered they do what cornered fascists always do they regurgitate vomit and expect us to lap it up WITHOUT question.
They send their messengers , priests, and bloody hell now, a flood of social media and btl comments.
‘Empiricists’ to demand we OBEY under pain of pillory, torture and actual death if we refuse to OBEY.

Long time ago as an advanced maths student one of our fellows never had a mind for equations and their numerical answer using example numbers to calculate some problem was strangely not exact! But it was to multiple decimal points! When asked how they had arrived at that number the explanation was they had used their slide rule!
That’s an example of an empiricist.

They were gently allowed to stop taking that class as not having the mindset to understand such a subject. Much to their relief! Had been forced by their parent. I think she went onto be a chemist or doctor or something less ‘sciencey’. Empiricist are not totally useless. Some of my best friends … etc.

Climate ‘Science’ is not Real Science.
Where are the Theoretical Rigorous Proofs?
Where are the predictions of such models and where are the results of the experiments created to prove such models verity?
There are NONE - they can only demand that such and such measurement viewed from such and such an angle with a squint or a blinker shows that the World is indeed flat for a mile - see! That’s all the proof you need! Now yield or else!!

Simple Fascism as old as the European centric historical basis of all knowledge! Because it is only possible for us to define what knowledge should be! A catch 22 that our deluded collective western mindset has been made over the millennia.

I Am Not Having It.
If anyone tries to send their bully boys into our neighbourhoods and highways and homes and minds to beat us into believing their empirical truth as the only truth - it can only be met with swift and lethal violence before they poison all our grandkids minds.
Over my dead body.
Fuck off and die fascists.
You do not get to warp our children all human mind from birth, again.

Got it?

Posted by: DunGroanin | Feb 12 2024 0:17 utc | 84

Well maybe empire is going to have to put its aggression on pause for a few days...../s

From Reuters

US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin hospitalized for bladder issue

Posted by: psychohistorian | Feb 12 2024 0:34 utc | 85

Patroklos

I have found that many of those that I respect but use a username other than their own, the name has meaning to them. Like debs and many others. Nous - you said it originated from Greek. The only time I heard it used was by a bloke of Greek ancestry.
The Trojan wars ect. Oral history is key to prehistory.

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Feb 12 2024 0:35 utc | 86

psychohistorian | Feb 12 2024 0:34 utc | 85

going by his region of troubles in the nether region, he must have spent some time in the Netherlands.

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Feb 12 2024 0:40 utc | 87

Michael Hudson's article is from 2022, not 2024.

Posted by: Jon | Feb 12 2024 0:49 utc | 88

For lost skills, crafts, trades, this is worth watching.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OP8PCkcBZU4

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Feb 12 2024 1:00 utc | 89

Tom_Q_Collins @62: Do you know of any books that take this viewpoint"

And who do you imagine might publish such a book? Intensely capitalist Thompson-Reuters, Prentice-Hall, Kaplan, Random House? Or maybe stalinist Progress Publishers?

Problem is it is a viewpoint that damns "both sides" who collaborated to destroy the Soviet Union. With workers' organizations in the West totally emasculated, you have no chance of finding any such works published, particularly not in English.

I have occasionally run across some scholarly articles in Chinese that obliquely reference this issue (as is the Chinese way), but keep in mind the Chinese are studiously trying to be "polite" about the Russians even if they cannot really trust them after Russia's stalinist-led capitalist counter-revolution.

Anyway, my point is based upon what Putin himself said and requires no further corroboration.

Posted by: William Gruff | Feb 12 2024 1:03 utc | 90

The Ulfberht swords are also worth looking into though these were only ever made by the one master craftsman.

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Feb 12 2024 1:05 utc | 91

@Immaculate deception, #45:

Hey Immaculate, was Antarctica at where it is today, when that tree grew?

Posted by: Oriental Voice | Feb 12 2024 1:16 utc | 92

@84 DunGroanin | Feb 12 2024 0:17 utc | 84

Climate scientists are meteorologists, environmental researchers, mathematicians, etc who are who like to study the climate. They work at Universities, private entities, etc with very little power, and as such tend to be very conservatives in their predictions for fear of losing their jobs. They on the average are paid about $52K/year.

Natashia Shakhova, a Russian/ American, ice scientist, who worked as a professor for the University of Fairbanks in 2013, announced the warning that there was a good chance that the frozen methane lying under the East Siberian Sea would melt causing an additional 1 degree average global temperature which would cause a cascading climatological disaster by 2026. This got everyone’s interest and a number of Arctic expeditions ensued. She additionally got some threats by oil connected Russians to keep her mouth shut. She was backed up by Peter Wadhams, an American connected, English ice scientist who spent a good deal of his life under the Arctic ice in American submarines studying the ice thickness.

As time passed the jet streams of the Northern Hemisphere became wavier and wavier, which some attributed to ax diminishing Arctic ice pack. The wavy jet streams some attributed to stalled weather patterns across the planet, which resulted in abnormal flooding and extended droughts.

This drama continued until a historic expedition by an international group in 2020 during the US election and covered by the Guardian. However, not much was spoken about it until the following spring due to US presidential elections.

In 2021 in his annual address President Putin spoke of the danger of a melting permafrost in the Arctic, and promised that technical actions would be taken. Nothing has been publicized since, but purely coincidentally the Russians installed around 9 mini mini nuclear reactors in the Arctic. Recently, the US has announced it will do the same.

As an aside, if you watch the jet streams on earth.nullschool.net you’ll notice the jet streams on most days over Siberia are pretty stable. Also if you look at the ice extent maps, there is slight increase in the Arctic, especially along the Siberian coast.

In my feeble little brain, this is pretty interesting.

Posted by: Michael.j |

Posted by: Michael.j | Feb 12 2024 1:36 utc | 93

Dear Patroclus
Are you being hectored?
Sorry, couldn’t resist this response. Don’t change your moniker, even though I’ve come to barrack for the Trojans over time. Your name is distinctive and your posts are an intelligent read.

Posted by: Australian lady | Feb 12 2024 1:47 utc | 94

Speaking of precision: I attended a lecture some decades ago delivered by the director of the DAI (German Archaeological Institute) at Athens. He explained how marble was split using tools that finely cut the marble along the axis of quartz crystal, as opposed to modern gear that smashes the crystalline form in processes enabling high volume of production. This meant that temple construction (the Parthenon was the example he discussed) achieved an extraordinary level of precision stability and formal coherence. Lead was used to 'rivet' the blocks together along an H key. The results were buildings that were earthquake proof and we know that the Parthenon withstood direct hits from Venetian cannon even when it was used as a Turkish ammo dump.

@PeterAU: you are right. I love Patroklos (from the Iliad that is) and his name etymologically is significant. I will stick with it and to hell with detractors.

Posted by: Patroklos | Feb 12 2024 1:50 utc | 95

Posted by: Australian lady | Feb 12 2024 1:47 utc | 94

'Hectored' is brilliant, thank you! Australian ladies are the best 🙏🏼

Posted by: Patroklos | Feb 12 2024 1:52 utc | 96

Posted by: Afro | Feb 12 2024 0:15 utc | 83

Great points. That's exactly where I'm at.

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Feb 12 2024 2:06 utc | 97

https://strategic-culture.su/news/2024/02/09/tucker-carlson-committed-treason-to-interview-russian-president-vladimir-putin-and-the-world-loved-it/

The powerful effect of Carlson’s interview is that he succeeded in bringing an important perspective to a wider American and Western audience who regrettably have been up to now badly misinformed by Western media.

Already, growing numbers of American and European citizens have become wary and critical of the futile war in Ukraine and the relentless allocation of public money to prop up a corrupt regime in Kiev.

Carlson deserves immense credit for having the courage and integrity to seek out a perspective that sheds light not just on why there is a bloody conflict in Ukraine but also on the corruption that is endemic in the Western states: the illusions of independent journalism, free speech, and promoting democracy.

Sooner or later, people will realize that the United States and its European vassals are nothing but rogue states whose imperialist crimes know no bounds. The Western media corporate machine plays a vital part in the cover-up of imperial crimes, not just in Ukraine, but also currently in Syria, Gaza, Yemen, Iraq, and beyond. Any lifting of the veil on this naked Western despotism must be shut down immediately. Hence the furious reaction to Carlson’s interview.

But it’s too late. The truth is out. The escaping truth will have inevitable political and historical consequences.

I suspect more levels in play. Geopolitical bifurcation is seemingly separating the Hegemonic West from the ‘Global South' with the latter’s rise and the former's fall making for 'interesting times'. Part of the West's falling features internal demoralization and cognitive dissonance along with bifurcation again, in this case between a confused Middle America and everyone else, of whom some are sincere, many duped and most probably a media-constructed virtual 'majority' manifested by an all too real increasingly totalitarian USG fascist monster.

Tucker may be sincere but he is also a performer quite possibly with a hidden agenda and perspective. Be that as it may, this interview contributes to the domestic bifurcation which might soon develop into an American constitutional crisis. Indeed, am finding it increasingly hard to envisage the US as a single entity in ten years time; perhaps the plan to break Russia up into five pieces foreshadows what will happen to the no longer united US of A.

Maybe Karlof1 is right that Putin's message was to the Deep State but I think it more likely targeted Tucker’s audience who feel increasingly betrayed by that leadership class. If so, albeit mainly using common sense and truth, still he was helping to weaken America from within, as in fact Tucker is already doing with every single one of his broadcasts.

Posted by: Scorpion | Feb 12 2024 2:21 utc | 98

Patroklos @ 39 and elsewhere:

Up to you if you wish to change your MoA name due to recent abuse you have been receiving from others, and I am sorry to see that you have been subjected to such abuse; but if you do change your name, you must remember that in the first place, you let slip that you are a university academic.

Perhaps if you sit out some comments forums and then return, you may find that those who abused you may have passed on out of boredom with MoA. You need not sit out the comment forums for very long, and you probably need to sit out only a few depending on the subject of the original post, as some forums may attract more than the usual number of trolls who come mainly to find someone to beat up. Such people don't last very long, as there is usually a regular MoA barfly handy with a verbal baseball bat.

Unfortunately also, and of course no-one here is blaming you, there are many university academics who abuse their positions of trust and authority, and their behaviour does end up tarring everyone in their profession (especially if they happen to be humanities academics) in the eyes of the general public. So it is probably a good idea to keep in mind that some of the abuse you may receive here is not aimed at you personally but at university academics generally.

I am not saying that you should hide your profession when you comment at MoA but you probably should consider how to present yourself here in certain discussions or subject contexts without unnecessarily drawing attention to your background.

Posted by: Refinnejenna | Feb 12 2024 2:35 utc | 99

Posted by: Scorpion | Feb 12 2024 2:21 utc | 98

Good post, Scorpion. I took apart only the assessments of the start of the interview. I agree with your conclusion. I think there was teamwork, as you have sometimes alluded to, but also masterfully for a good cause: enlightenment. I keep referring to Plato, to the annoyance of some, but really this beats propaganda in my book.

I have three brilliant grandkids (the older ones). I just hope the younger three have a chance to benefit from this transition.

Posted by: juliania | Feb 12 2024 2:55 utc | 100