9:48pm UTC
Monday, October 28th, 2024
The Knesset has finally banned UNRWA, the humanitarian agency serving as strategic weapon against Israel since 1949.
Adamkhan.net
Tuesday, November 5th, 2024
The turnaround had perhaps begun, not a moment too soon: beloved Boeing sheds DEI. This pernicious practice may not have been the original source of the rot at Boeing but its acceptance at an engineering firm was at very least a symptom.
Thursday, October 31st, 2024
Interesting erudition on Jews and Adventists [PDF].
Monday, October 28th, 2024
The Knesset has finally banned UNRWA, the humanitarian agency serving as strategic weapon against Israel since 1949.
Sunday, October 27th, 2024
Jordan B on Donald J. You know what, i think it’s all gonna be okay.
Friday, October 25th, 2024
The Manhattan Institute surveys American Jews. The more Jews attend synagogue, the more they support Trump. Only the Orthodox care most about Israel — and are the only Republican Jews. As a whole, American Jews are mostly sticking with the Democrats despite qualms. Conservatives most care about the economy and abortion equally. Reform Jews care most about abortion (wishing to enable it, presumably).
Sunday, October 20th, 2024
On Sky News, former Head of MI6 Sir John Sawyer disagrees with David Patraeus’s characterization of Sinwar’s takeout being more important than that of Osama Bin Laden — because as opposed to being “a global struggle against the West” Hamas is merely limited to “the occupied territories of the Gaza Strip and the West Bank”. I presume Sky News asked this question in order to get this answer. And it perfectly encapsulates my personal fundamental incompatibility with the established British viewpoint.
Saturday, October 19th, 2024
In Newsweek, Spengler on Orban’s European Zionism:
European nationalists look to Israel as a beacon of hope. It’s the only high-income country with a fertility rate above the 2.1 breakeven level — so far above breakeven at three children per female that its working-age population will more than double from today’s 4.5 million to 11 million by the end of this century, according to UN demographers.
As a member of a scientific advisory board to the Hungarian government, I have had the opportunity to speak to numerous high-ranking officials, and can attest that their admiration for Israel and the Jewish people is sincere, principled and deep. They view Israel as “the exemplar and paragon of a nation,” as Franz Rosenzweig put it.
Liberal American Jews cannot wrap their minds around the new philo-semitism among conservative European nationalists.
No further Ribbonfarm story of ribbonfarm has been, in a small one-of-a-million threads way, the story of civilization itself, through the 2007-24 period. Venkatesh Rao writes:
The story of ribbonfarm has been, in a small one-of-a-million threads way, the story of civilization itself, through the 2007-24 period.
There’s even wit in the laudatory comments.
The path out of loneliness is always a path of action.
Bret Stephens, If Israel Is Alone, What Do We Do About It?
By Armin Rosen in Unherd, the most important thing I’ve read about Sinwar and his passing:
A significant body of facts suggests that Sinwar believed he would succeed in destroying the state of Israel on or about October 7, 2023. A few years before the attacks, he co-sponsored a conference at a Gaza City hotel entitled “Promise of the Hereafter: Post-Liberation Palestine” in which participants discussed topics such as the enslavement of educated Jews and the mass execution of alleged Arab collaborators in the aftermath of Israel’s imminent violent destruction.
Thursday, October 17th, 2024
Great thread: To whom to send condolences on the death of Sinwar. A lot of Greta Thunberg.
Tuesday, October 15th, 2024
I keep going back to it to see if he’s reconsidered, so I guess I need a link to it. Paul Graham, startup hero, in his sharp and well exquisite style, tweeted on October 9th:
65 doctors, nurses, and paramedics told the New York Times what they saw in Gaza. What they saw was a pattern of children being shot in the head.
PG’s artful repetition of the fragment “what they saw” expresses his suppressed fury at Israel’s ongoing moral repugnance. I wonder, once this blood libel is debunked, if he will revisit this thread and more importantly his own priors. In such a sharp mind it’s difficult to imagine the thought framework required to arrive at this fury. PG presumes it’s true; wanting to believe it’s true requires a lot of scaffolding; actually believing it’s true requires still more.
[Update 2024 Oct 19:] Nope, he’s still at it, retweeting more of this kind of thing. Though the only thing he’s tweeted on the topic himself since is this on October 17th:
When I first saw this tweet I was horrified. Then I read the account name and I was relieved. This is from 1940. Then I remembered that the same things are happening right now, and I was horrified again.
He’s referring to this tweet from @RealTimeWWII:
Kennington Park rescue worker: “Whole thing’s blown to bits- heads, arms, legs, feet lying about. Only way you can tell girls from the men is their hair.”
Monday, October 14th, 2024
Tal Becker, a great thinker, on Call Me Back.
Monday, October 7th, 2024
Pretty troubling — in this interview with Hugh Hewitt, who asks repeatedly and gets the same answer again, Trump believes a deal can be made with Iran once they are sufficiently impoverished.
I would have had a deal a long time ago, because they were bust. They were totally busted. They were ready to make a deal. They would have made a deal. … I would have gotten, in my opinion, 50/50 chance, maybe more than that, Iran would have been in the Abraham Accords. They wanted to make a deal so bad until we had that phony election.
To his credit, Hewitt pushes back with: “I think they’re fanatics, and you can’t deal with them.”
The Jerusalem Post reports on Hamas Rape Tunnels of Gaza posters being put up in Tube stations. Generally I abhor the the mournful, sanctimonious, dull tone of British Jewish statements, but this is excellently acerbic. Very well done (I see in the bottom right corner they even put their names to it, that is unusual).
Unpleasant but necessary: this fellow Pataramesh provides sober intel on Iranian capabilities. He seems to think they are the good guys. He’s arguing that Iran’s missile strike was calibrated and limited and sends signals that it can do more.
On Twitter, Dan Linneaus writes (he’s pinned this one to the top of his profile):
Taking out Iran’s oil and nuclear facilities puts the cart before the horse..
He provides more detail here and here. This all makes sense to me: defang them first; this has the added benefit, apart from being smart, of doing what Biden asks: not hitting the oil nor nuclear facilities. Yet.
Israel just pulled off this snake-charming trick against Hizballah, degrading them for a year before delivering a hammering burst of coups de grâce; can it be done again. You know, I bloody think so.
Saturday, October 5th, 2024
Khamenei’s sermon translated in English at his homepage.
Thursday, October 3rd, 2024
Good piece looking at things more from Iran’s perspective in Asia Times, “Iran has everything to lose in direct war with Israel” by Shahram Akbarzadeh.
Fighting Israel is very much a pillar of state identity in Iran. The Iranian political establishment is set up on the principle of challenging the United States and freeing Palestinian lands occupied by Israel. Those things are ingrained in the Iranian state identity. So, if Iran doesn’t act on this principle, there’s a serious risk of undermining its own identity.
Things have come down to the wire, as they do. Reportedly, the Israeli cabinet has decided on its response after a 4-hour meeting. Going by experience it will be shock and awe.
David Goldman often looks to demographics. “Improbable as it may seem,” he writes, “the core scenario according to present trends will make Israel the economic center of the Middle East sometime toward the end of the century.”
Goodness, Niall Ferguson on Bibismarck.
David Goldman tours the world with Caroline Glick with an emphasis on Israel and China.
Wednesday, October 2nd, 2024
Here we fucking go, this didn’t take long.
“We’ll be discussing with the Israelis what they’re going to do, but all seven of us (G7 nations) agree that they have a right to respond but the response but they should respond proportionally Biden told reporters before boarding Air Force One.”
One advantage of striking back immediately would have been not having to deal with this bullshit.
On the other hand, Biden is reliable; if he says he does not support an attack on Iran’s nuclear sites, then an attack on Iran’s nuclear sites it is. And they made a show of helping repel the attacks. And they may put in place more sanctions against Iran. And if they are willing to get out of the way, as they have eventually done each step of the journey, that is likely enough.
Stories like The Wall Street Journal’s “Israeli Response to Iran’s Attack to Set Course of Widening War” are faintly ridiculous in their discourse of retaliation and restraint. A typical quote:
“Israel will seek to reinforce the idea that its technological superiority and military skill allow it to strike any target in Iran,” said Norman Roule, who served as the top U.S. intelligence officer on Iran from 2008 to 2017. But Israel is likely to avoid striking targets that could spark a full-scale war with Iran, Roule said
Wrong. Israel is no longer playing the game of retaliation — and has stated so explicitly, as least vis-a-vis Hizballah — nor of message-sending. Whatever happens next is not retaliation but simply the next move in an existential conflict that is therefore indeed all-out war, albeit less visibly so than most due to the complexity of the theater. Further quotes in the article are more on track: “In the end, decision makers in Tehran settled for the idea that restraint would not help to avoid a bigger confrontation anyway,” they quote Walter Posch, a senior researcher with the National Defense Academy in Vienna.
Remember, Netanyahu gave what is in retrospect the most credible wartime speech ever at the UN, one that demands being pored over given that even while he spoke Nasrallah was being assassinated at his order. Much of that halo remains for a subsequent video Netanyahu made to the Iranian people, in which Israel’s long-serving Prime Minister tells them they’ll be free “sooner than people think”. I choose to take this not as credibility-spending bluster but rather with credibility-maintaining seriousness.
After all, Israel had spent much strategic energy on the devastating, ingenious take-out of Hizballah — We’ve been waiting for this opportunity for years, was the IDF’s line — but Hizballah is merely Iran’s proxy. It strains credulity therefore that the forthcoming operations against Iran will be any less historic and gob-smacking. Israel would not have begun Operation New Order with the pager attack against Hizballah’s fighters without having in place the plan for Tehran.
Tuesday, October 1st, 2024
Netanyahu: “When Iran is finally free — and that moment will come a lot sooner than people think — everything will be different.”
Ohad Merlin’s Indigenous Pact:
Israel’s challenge in the next stage is to create a mirror image of [Iran’s] bloody proxy war. Everywhere Iran has sent its arms – that’s where Israel needs to forge alliances and contribute to the cutting of the regime’s arms. Following Ben-Gurion’s “Periphery Alliance” and Begin’s “Minority Alliance” policies, Israel must now forge the “Indigenous Alliance” between the Jewish people and other indigenous peoples and religious communities in the Middle East who are suffering under the oppression of Khamenei and his emissaries throughout the region: Druze, Arabs, Kurds, Sunnis, Christian denominations, anti-regime Shiites – and fight the Islamic Republic together.
Been wondering who is this Khaled Hassan on the Twitters. My pet theory: there’s gonna be a lot more converts to Judaism like him once this damn war is won. It’s gonna be like moving to the New World.
Monday, September 30th, 2024
“There’s something so dazzling about the contemporaneousness of the attacks,” articulates Abe Greenwald on this celebratory episode of the Commentary Daily Podcast.
Netanyahu speaks in English directly to the Iranian people. Portentously, given the newfound utter credibility he has after the last month of military voodoo, he says: “When Iran is finally free — and that moment will come a lot sooner than people think — everything will be different.” Italics mine.
One thing does give me pause: that this is really a speech for a United States President to make. Maybe though I’m thinking too small and it is actually an Israel-scale job to take on Iran while the USA focuses on the larger-power horizon. Maybe it’s actually a fine one-two posture where the USA is willing to defend Israel to the point of insisting others contribute, then is unhappy yet ultimately tolerant when Israeli goes on the offensive. But regardless, you go to war with the army and allies you have.
Thanks for this, jpod. In “Israel Rises”, at his Commentary Magazine, John Podhoretz feels compelled to give thanks by listing Israel’s military successes in the past month.
Whatever the divisions and concerns and cautions inside the corridors of power about the astonishing onslaught of Israel against the Iran Axis of Evil, the fact is Israel stared into the abyss and said, “Not today. Not this week. Not this month. Not ever.”
Saturday, September 28th, 2024
I had to search for this, Hizballah’s own statement on Nasrallah’s death.
True to form, The Wall Street Journal’s Editorial Board sums up the situation pithily in “Israel Sends Nasrallah to His Just Reward”. I like that they too noted the headline on the Jeremy Bowen BBC piece “Bowen: West left powerless as Israel claims its biggest victory yet against Hezbollah” (to be fair to him, he doesn’t put it this way in the text) placying Israel beyond the West. They commend Israel for its “remarkable display of intelligence, technological skill, and above all political will.”
Through perhaps gritted teeth and scripted statements and a day later, Biden/Harris nonetheless take the win. The line: “a measure of justice” has been served.
What a day, what a night. Between one thing and another this war has become epic. Yediot reports on the lead-up to the Nasrallah attack, emphasizing that Bibi approved it before his UN speech and that it is a continuation of the operation that began with the pagers [Hebrew]. I’d like to know when precisely it happened: presumably during the speech? And which countries stayed and who walked out. And how many people watched it around the world. And on which platforms.
Thursday, September 26th, 2024
What really is the point of designating an organization terrorist if they are to be accorded the respect of nationstates rather than cancers within nationstates? Under the hapless wastrelhood that passes for American leadership these days, the entire world is pushing for a ceasefire between Israel and Hizballah.
Perhaps however given that Saudi Arabia and the UAE are signatories, it’s merely a UN-esque burlesque, as these neighbors would like to see Hizballah gone almost as much as Israel does, and they know there is no danger of a ceasefire transpiring since these murderous fanatics Hizballah will never agree to it.
That said, while I deeply appreciate that Emirates has continued flying in and out of Ben-Gurion through thick and thin, it would be nice if they were brave enough to stand up and say No, actually we support the expunging of ruinous terrorist statelets.
This would give others pause — maybe not France, with her quaint delusions of Lebanese patronhood (if there were anything behind this anachronistic pose they’d be the ones enforcing Resolution 1701) — but the USA and Germany might be shamed into reconsidering.
Wednesday, September 25th, 2024
UN General Assembly speeches this week:
Tuesday, September 24th, 2024
The Wall Street Journal Editorial Board skewers Biden’s legacy. It’s hard to fathom people who see things otherwise; cascading from the Afghanistan withdrawal, facts are facts.
Sunday, September 22nd, 2024
The whole purpose of Hezbollah from Iran’s perspective, which provides its rocket arsenal, funding, and training, was to deter Israel from ever attacking Tehran’s nuclear facilities, lest it give up its ace in the hole.
What if Sinwar had led Hezbollah into a war it was not ready to fight, with the IDF achieving massive strategic surprise and suddenly degrading the Hezbollah threat to a point where it no longer served to deter the Jewish state from acting against Iran?
Indeed, and it seems yet to have sunk in, the massive scale of Israel’s victory. On Israeli TV today I saw one pseudo-intelligent panelist warning his colleagues against crowing and maintain humility. Well, we’ve wallowed lower than humility this past year; hostages still in tunnels notwithstanding, Israel’s preparations have born huge fruit these last few days and weeks.
History twists and turns in mysterious ways. The way may soon be clear to move on to the final threat — Iran’s regime. If we prevail — and the alternative is rather unthinkable — the longer-term future is cascadingly bright. As Michael Ledeen was wont to end his articles: Faster, please!
Wednesday, September 18th, 2024
What’s nice, impressive and persuasive in this Jerusalem Post analysis by Yonah Jeremy Bob laying out the case that war with Lebanon is now closer, is that it’s due to eminently sensible rather than the media’s usual ludicrously cynical motivations. For instance:
Despite Netanyahu’s publicly threatening words and tone, another major reason that war has not broken out is that the prime minister was privately terrified of how many Israelis might die from an estimated Hezbollah onslaught of 6,000-8,000 rockets per day.
While “terrified” seems an unnecessarily disparaging choice of word, nonetheless the meaning is clear: Netanyahu is adjusting to the fluid situation that is war. What he deemed reckless and premature 10 months ago may be the obvious and inevitable now.
On August 25, the IDF did not just beat Hezbollah – it cleaned house … The military blew up the vast majority of the rockets and drones with which Hezbollah had intended to attack Israel before these threats could even be launched.
In this particular attack, Hezbollah neither killed nor damaged anyone or anything of significance, while the IDF destroyed thousands of rockets.
Suddenly, Netanyahu has a newfound confidence: that he actually can afford a major operation against Hezbollah – with much fewer losses to the home front than he had expected.
Bob’s editors might not like it, but there’s a way to describe this in two words: responsible leadership.
Monday, September 16th, 2024
Think about MSNBC and CNN, the New York Times, The Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, Reuters, AP, etcetera as a set of instructions for how to keep your job.
Eric Weinstein, Modern Wisdom podcast, Episode #833
What if the USA acted like the USA?
But of course, the US and all decent people worldwide condemned the Hamas murders. The Biden-Harris administration was “pained” by the murders (not outraged) and toothlessly jabbered that “Hamas leaders will pay for these crimes.” But this was not followed up by any moves against the genocidal terrorist group and its regional backers: anything concrete that would impose “full accountability” on Hamas.
Rather, the Hamas execution of Israeli hostages was followed up by pressure on Israel to make concessions to the perpetrators and essentially concede defeat to them. President Biden took to the microphone to accuse Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of “not doing enough” to secure a hostage deal.
Another scathing piece on Biden.
Monday, September 9th, 2024
Showing interest is a tremendous thing in the human arsenal.
Esa Saarinen, “Magnificent Life” lecture
Thursday, September 5th, 2024
By the UK Government’s own admission and statement regarding its prominently-stated suspension of some 30 export licenses to Israel, this is not about the actual items being sent nor even their past or future use. Rather it is a knuckle-rapping for Israel’s policies on humanitarian aid — “Israel could reasonably do more to facilitate humanitarian access and distribution” — and detainee conditions — “Israel continues to deny access to places of detention for the International Committee of the Red Cross”. Both of these are contentious. There’s a reasonable argument for allowing no humanitarian aid in at all as siege warfare is a complicated thing in international law and by the looks of it beyond simple legal interpretation, but to punish Israel because it could be doing more seems unreasonable. Second, Israel is under no obligation to allow Red Cross visits as Palestinian terrorists do not qualify as POWs. British government lawyers must know these things — is this the best they can do? What is going on here really?
Sunday, September 1st, 2024
Factoring the constraint into its own method allows us to give it an intention-revealing name that makes the constraint explicit in our design. It is now a named thing we can discuss.
Eric Evans, Domain-Driven Design
Friday, August 30th, 2024
Ha ha! The Guardian reports that some special relationships are more special than others. Ok that’s not quite right. He’s saying to Starmer’s Britain: don’t be assholes. Knowing The Guardian, they probably view an arms boycott of Israel as a happy two-fer: boycott Israel, get disengagement from the US for free! Little Satan, Big Satan.
Thursday, August 29th, 2024
Versatility, simplicity, and explanatory power come from a model that is truly in tune with the domain.
Eric Evans, Domain-Driven Design
Once again Herb Keinon is proving his worth as veteran Jerusalem Post diplomatic correspondent. For the first time I’m seeing argued that the October 7th invasion has changed Israeli doctrine: threats must no longer be allowed to metastasize but instead must be nipped in the bud, unpleasantness and opprobriation notwithstanding. So Israel has made the most powerful incursion since Sharon ordered Operation Defensive Shield in 2002.
Just for shits and giggles, here is The Guardian addressing the same topic. Holding my nose, I quote two hall-of-mirrors sentences:
The world’s powers must ask why they seem incapable of finding an agreement to end the current bloodshed. Without a deal, faith in the global institutions risks withering away.
What does the first sentence even mean? Which powers? The implications here are multi-fold: 1) it is outside forces who must impose an agreement, rather than an attacked nationstate defeating the terror army that attacked it. 2) Such powers are actually able to impose this agreement but are just pretending they can’t due to certain reasons — presumably Jewish influence on them. 3) In the real world, global institutions are being eroded not by Israel fighting for its survival but by the cynical lawfare campaign being waged against it, with total disregard for the long-term viability of such institutions by submerging them in, yes, genocidal politicized mendacity.
I am annoyed with myself I even looked at this twisted stuff.
Friday, August 23rd, 2024
Efraim Inbar recaps the obvious: stand firm.
According to Gabi Siboni, the main reason why it’s taking such a long time to destroy Hamas is “the IDF’s unwillingness to take over the distribution of humanitarian aid, as required by international law.”
Detroit allows residents to keep chickens, ducks, bees, despite opposition...
Popular pet served as delicacy in New York...
Former Pentagon Official on UFOs: 'We Are Not Alone'...
Florida's crumbling home prices haven't been this bad since 2011...
NASA monitoring second stranded astronaut's weight loss after raising alarm about colleague's health...
Guest gives a look inside one of Diddy's 'freak offs' in Miami...
House Foreign Affairs chief arrested at airport...
'GLADIATOR 2' CUT DENZEL WASHINGTON'S GAY KISS...
Dying in Darkness: Canada covering up euthanasia scandal...
The Siblings Behind RFK's 'Make America Healthy Again' Campaign...
Thieves took $100k in jewelry, clothes from Mahomes, Kelce break-ins..
SPURS coach Greg Popovich suffers stroke; Indefinite absence... Developing...
University of Rochester plastered with 'wanted' posters of Jewish faculty...
Musk compared to 'guest who wouldn't leave' after lengthy Mar-a-Lago stay...
Elon may already be overstaying his welcome...
Voter ID and Election Integrity Should Be a Top Priority
Green Grifters
Constitutional Populism, Not Billionaire Populism
Should Sotomayor Retire Before January 20?
What To Expect on the Regulatory Front in 2nd Trump Term
Bernie Sanders Screams, 'More Cowbell!'
Pardon Steve Baker and the Nonviolent J6 Defendants
Notice How Corporate Media Treated Sarah Palin vs. Kamala Harris
The Economics of Political Correctness
Who Will Lead Democratic Party?
What the Hegseth Nomination Means
Trump Might Have Won the First Postracial Election
Pete Hegseth Has Said Exactly How He'll Shake Up the Pentagon
8 Lessons for Democrats and Donald Trump
'BlueAnon' Conspiracy Theories Explode After Liberals Lose
Links for the intellectually curious, ranked by readers.
Windows Kills SMB Speeds When Using Tailscale
Looking for a Job Is Tough
PRC Targeting of Commercial Telecommunications Infrastructure
Contracts for C++ (DbC) [pdf]
Farewell and thank you for the continued partnership, Francois Chollet
DeepComputing: Early Access Program for RISC-V Mainboard for Framework Laptop 13
New York City Council Votes to End Broker Fees Squeezing Renters
Reflex (YC W23) Is Hiring Software Engineers (San Francisco)
Porygon Was Innocent: An epileptic perspective on the infamous Pokémon episode
Netflix's Distributed Counter Abstraction
A Student's Guide to Writing with ChatGPT
A cycling desk / Zwifting with a split keyboard
The Impact of Jungle Music in 90s Video Game Development
Graph-based AI model maps the future of innovation
The Beginner's Guide to Visual Prompt Injections
“Reasonability” law passed. Police mass against protesters storming Knesset
“Reasonability” law passed. Police massed against protesters storming Knesset
Voting starts on reasonability curb for High Court after opposition nixes any compromise
Police forcibly remove protesters blocking entry to Knesset for crucial votee
Ex-Mossad chief Cohen: Israel consensus vital as Iran’s threat spirals
A pacemaker urgently implanted in prime minister’s heart
Bids to soften first legal reform bill as more military reservists join protest
Air Force dismayed by 1,142 air crew reservists’ threat to balk duty in protest over judicial overhaul
Committee nods to bill curbing High Court’s freedom to overturn government decisions
Israel denies NYT account of Biden-Netanyahu conversation
Prepared for the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations
Israel's Strategic Alternatives after a Year of War
Israel's Enemies Are Also Our Enemies
The Next Administration Should Reinstate Diplomatic and Economic Pressure to Constrain Iran's Support for Terror Proxies
Deradicalizing Palestinian Society
Gaza's Top Islamic Scholar Issues Fatwa Criticizing Oct. 7 Attack
Jerusalem Center Seeks International Antisemitism Convention
Israeli Rescuers Are an Example for the West
Israel's Security Cabinet Approves Steps to Boost Humanitarian Aid to Gaza
Israel Kills Hizbullah Operative behind Assassination of Lebanese Prime Minister
Negotiations Underway to End the Fighting in Lebanon
Israeli Officials Concerned Hizbullah Won't Cooperate on Emerging Lebanon Deal
Two IDF Soldiers Wounded in Car-Ramming
IDF Kills Palestinian Islamic Jihad Operations Head in Gaza
U.S. Strikes Iranian-Linked Targets in Syria
The IDF's Deception Strategy Against Hamas in Jabalya
Are rising carbon dioxide and nitrogen deposition a joint threat to biodiversity globally?
Growing up slowed down for an early <i>Homo</i> individual
What happens when a bacterium gets into a fungus and stays — for generations
Adult skull bone marrow is an expanding and resilient haematopoietic reservoir
Can AI review the scientific literature — and figure out what it all means?
Iron levels unexpectedly limit bacterial growth in the ocean’s twilight zone
Structural variation in the pangenome of wild and domesticated barley
Mapping the ionosphere with millions of phones
Read–write mechanisms of H2A ubiquitination by Polycomb repressive complex 1
Observation of Hilbert space fragmentation and fractonic excitations in 2D
Task-agnostic exoskeleton control via biological joint moment estimation
Prefrontal transthalamic uncertainty processing drives flexible switching
Foundation models for fast, label-free detection of glioma infiltration
Clinical functional proteomics of intercellular signalling in pancreatic cancer
Tomato engineering hits the sweet spot to make big sugar-rich fruit
A quarterly magazine of urban affairs, published by the Manhattan Institute, edited by Brian C. Anderson.
Trump’s Masculine Appeal
For all his flaws, the president-elect demonstrates a kind of bravery that men ought to imitate.Put Down Your Swords
Partisans should abandon their lawfare campaigns against President-elect Trump.Trump and Tariffs: It’s Complicated
Their inflationary effects may be overstated, but tariffs may also fail to accomplish the president-elect’s goal of reducing Chinese imports.A Campaign Against Websites
Americans with Disabilities Act lawsuits harass businesses and hamper the Internet.America’s Cities Want to Be Great Again
Last week’s election showed that urban voters want sane, smart policies that address the issues they care most about.Sanora Babb had the most talent with the worst luck. The wonder isn’t that she wrote so little, but that she managed to write anything at all
“Gluttony is the forechamber of lust.” In premodern Europe, how to eat was a substantial answer to questions about how to be
The hard problem of dark comedy. “When I laugh with Céline,” asks Michael Clune, “is my open mouth a gate to the Holocaust?”
The Soviet Union's Plant Institute stored seeds to safeguard against famine. Amid a famine in Leningrad, did scientists eat the seeds to save themselves?
“Could you write what you write if you weren’t so tiny, Joan?” Joan Didion infuriated Eve Babitz
We live in the age of the internet novel, with its dispassionate, deadening style and lack of formal innovation
The Magic Mountain turns 100. Thomas Mann’s novel captured an era of humanism and nihilism — one that parallels our own
British Museum to receive donation of Chinese ceramics worth US$1.27 billion
OpenAI wants US to team up with allies to beat China in AI race
Trump picks firebrand congressman Matt Gaetz for attorney general
Could ‘Peace Beans’ trade enrich US, China agricultural supply-chain diplomacy?
US accuses China of vast cyber-espionage against telecoms
Trump team making list of Pentagon officers to fire, insiders say: ‘They’ll all be gone’
China to court G20 nations to bypass US-led sanctions in potential Taiwan conflict: report
Trump could send EU hurtling toward tariff war with both US and China, Macron warns
Dutch firebrand Geert Wilders wants to deport those who attacked Israeli soccer fans
Trump picks China critic Rubio as secretary of state, Gabbard as intelligence director
Brain candy for Happy Mutants
MAGA threatening and disrespecting poll workers
Adorable bear caught on camera in epic back-scratching session
Dobbs decision working as designed
Dad creates an amazing father/daughter Halloween costume
Watch this fantastic "googly eye" solar eclipse from Mars
Have you ever seen a robot play the cello?
Bizarre 1941 footage shows women swimming in giant pool of peanuts at first festival
FTC finally investigates John Deere's creepy repair restriction scheme
Apple buys top image-editing app maker Pixelmator Team
CNN finds a useful idiot
Grate news! Police catch man who stole $400k worth of cheddar cheese
Research suggests that spiders may dream of webbed sheep
Send the conspiracy theorists in your life to the Debunk Bot
This squid swimming with her undulating egg sack is a sight to behold
Wednesday assorted links
Does declining fertility lower the gender pay gap?
Signaling Quality in Crowdfunding Projects with Refund Bonuses
J. Zachary Mazlish on median wages under Biden
Big business is better than you think (rooftops)
*Blitz* (no spoilers)
Tuesday assorted links
The 1970s Crime Wave
How well does bar exam performance predict subsequent success as a lawyer?
A new meta-meta analysis says things I agree with
Where are incumbents still popular?
Monday assorted links
Who Wins and Who Loses when Firms Stay Private Longer?
New results on tariff history do not favor protectionism
Sunday assorted links
Rumors and news on everything Apple since 1997
Apple releases Final Cut Pro 11, along with updates to Logic Pro for Mac
M4 Mac mini review: The first redesign in years hides incredible computing power
AirPods Pro crackling issue target of new class-action lawsuit
iPad is still Apple's second biggest device despite long term decline
Apple & A24 sign Lena Dunham to write movie about FTX crypto implosion
Apple's M4 Max 14-inch MacBook Pro is on sale for $2,999 & in stock
There will never be an Apple Ring, says rival with crossed fingers
How advanced content caching settings on the Mac works
Bluetti's new Elite 200 portable power station provides 17 years of charging
Apple's smart display with smart home AI focus predicted for March 2025
Power press: Fixes for Apple's oddly-placed Mac mini button
iOS 18.2 could receive a full public release with Image Playground & ChatGPT on December 9
Opinions on corporate and brand identity work.
Announced: Brand New will Shift to Subscription Model
Spotted: New Logo for Blue Islands
Linked: Louis Vuitton Architecture
Noted: New Name and Logo for St. Louis City SC
Reviewed: Friday Likes 339: From Studio MPLS, Wade and Leta, and Unifikat Design Studio
Spotted: New Logo and Identity for Vitkus Clinic by Tandemo
Spotted: New Logo and Identity for Netgen by IDnaGroup
Linked: Biden &Harris &Decimal
Noted: New Logo and Identity for Correos de México by Carl Forsell
Reviewed: New Logo and Identity for BERA by How & How
Spotted: New Logo for Playtika
Spotted: New Logo and Identity for The 19th by Page 33 Studio
Linked: Objects may be Closer than they Ap-pear
Noted: New Logo and Identity for Zappos Adaptive by Eric&Todd
Reviewed: New Logo and Identity for Lot61 by Smörgåsbord
Biting the hand that feeds IT
Reminder: China-backed crews compromised 'multiple' US telcos in 'significant cyber espionage campaign'
All bark, no bite? Musk's DOGE unlikely to have any real power
ShrinkLocker ransomware scrambled your files? Free decryption tool to the rescue
Here's how a Trump presidency could change the tech industry
TSMC's US operations threatened with employee discrimination class action
Data broker amasses 100M+ records on people – then someone snatches, sells it
NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory to eject hundreds more workers
Snowflake opens chat-driven access to enterprise and third-party data
Ransomware fiends boast they've stolen 1.4TB from US pharmacy network
AMD axes 4% of staff while staring hungrily at AI, servers
Microsoft slips Task Manager and processor count fixes into Patch Tuesday
California's last nuclear plant turns to generative AI for filing and finding the fine print
experiments in refactored perception
Ribbonfarm is Retiring
After several years of keeping it going in semi-retired, keep-the-lights-on (KTLO) mode, I’ve decided to officially fully retire this blog. The ribbonfarm.com domain and all links will remain active, but there will be no new content after November 13th, 2024, which happens to be my 50th birthday. There will be one final roundup post before […]Truth-Seeking Modes
Been on a Venn diagram kick lately, since being primed to think in Venns by Harris campaign. This one summarizes an idea I’ve long been noodling on: The healthiest way to relate to a truth-seeking impulse is as an infinite game, where the goal is to continue playing, not arrive at a dispositive “winning” right […]Intellectual Menopause
I ran across the alarming phrase intellectual menopause a few months ago in John Gall’s Systemantics, and it naturally stuck in my brain given I’m pushing 50 and getting predictably angsty about it. The phrase conjures up visions of a phenomenon much more profound and unfunny than the more familiar one we know as midlife […]