Maybe Ukrainians shouldn´t have voted against the incumbent back in 2019...
Friday, February 28, 2025
The dead don´t report themselves
 |
| - Humans? You mean my evolutionary next cousins? No, I haven´t seen them since the Holocene... |
From a comment by "Brendhelm" over at JMG´s Ecosophia blog just now.
>>>>
If China’s population is in fact only 790 million, that’s effectively a more than 7% reduction in the notional WORLD population.
And that assumes the figures for everyone else are accurate, which I’m skeptical of. Third-world countries probably aren’t conducting robust censuses, meaning these data are likely coming from overly optimistic U.N. projections; plus, if they’re receiving aid that’s at least partly per capita, they may have incentive to elevate the “capita”. Meanwhile, Western countries have several reasons why death reporting may be understated:
1. Social Security or similar benefits due a deceased but notionally alive spouse/parent now flow to you if you have a joint bank account, power of attorney, or can otherwise access the deceased’s accounts.
2. If representation is tied to population, as with the U.S. House of Representatives, states (provinces, regions, etc.) have incentive to goose population figures. Underreporting deaths is easier to do than overreporting births.
3. The dead don’t report themselves as dead, so even if everyone involved is being completely honest, there’s a lag that you don’t see as often in births. A person who lives alone with no nearby family and whose recurring monthly payments are all automated may not be discovered as dead for months or even years, until either the sheriff comes by to evict or the neighbors complain enough about the stench.
4. Illegal/undocumented immigration is hard to give exact figures for, because that’s more or less what “undocumented” implies, but both sides of the argument have an incentive to overestimate. Advocates might want to overestimate so as to skim off any excess aid granted per capita; detractors might want to overestimate so as to stoke greater fears and insinuate it’s a bigger issue than it is. Moreover, deaths among illegal immigrants also often go unreported
About the time the world “officially” hit 8 billion population (a mark that if these leaked Chinese figures are accurate, it hasn’t yet and may well never), I had – and, I think, posted in the open thread on the other blog at the time, a sense that it hadn’t and that in fact global population had already peaked. It’s a subtle thing, barely noticeable especially in heavy traffic, but it feels like the world is growing ever gradually emptier of people..
>>>>
Epstein still didn´t kill himself
Latest developments in the Epstein case. The Attorney General Pam Bondi claims in a leaked letter to the FBI director Kash Patel that the FBI New York Office has gone rogue and refuses to hand over the bulk of the Epstein files. No surprise there, to be honest. The material released yesterday was mostly old stuff which had been published or leaked before.
You might imagine the amount of conspiracy theories going around about this one! I would be *very* surprised if the FBI and/or Trump apointees declassify everything. But maybe in these crazy times, even that´s a remote possibility...
Look at the viral sequences
The most chilling statement from the previous blog post (quoting Wikipedia): "It has been estimated that in material from humans, between 40 and 90% of viral sequences are from dark matter. Human blood contains over three thousand different DNA sequences which cannot yet be identified."
We literally don´t know what´s inside our own bodies?! Reeeeee...
Look at the enigmatic taxa
Therefore God? Some crazy stuff from Wikipedia...
>>>Parakaryon myojinensis, also known as the Myojin parakaryote, is a highly unusual species of single-celled organism known only from a single specimen, described in 2012. It has features of both prokaryotes and eukaryotes but is apparently distinct from either group, making it unique among organisms discovered thus far. It is the sole species in the genus Parakaryon.
>>>It is not clear whether P. myojinensis can or should be classified as an eukaryote or a prokaryote, the two categories to which all other cellular life belongs. Adding to the difficulties of classification, only one instance of this organism has been discovered to date, and so scientists have been unable to study it further.
>>>Biological dark matter is an informal term for unclassified or poorly understood genetic material. This genetic material may refer to genetic material produced by unclassified microorganisms. By extension, biological dark matter may also refer to the un-isolated microorganisms whose existence can only be inferred from the genetic material that they produce. Some of the genetic material may not fall under the three existing domains of life: Bacteria, Archaea and Eukaryota; thus, it has been suggested that a possible fourth domain of life may yet be discovered, although other explanations are also probable.
>>>Sequences that are believed to be derived from unknown microbes are referred to as the microbial dark matter, the dark virome, or dark matter fungi. Such sequences are not rare. It has been estimated that in material from humans, between 40 and 90% of viral sequences are from dark matter. Human blood contains over three thousand different DNA sequences which cannot yet be identified. A mycological study from 2023 found that dark matter fungi seem to dominate the fungal kingdom.
>>>A shadow biosphere is the hypothesis of a hypothetical microbial biosphere of Earth that would use radically different biochemical and molecular processes from that of currently known life. Although life on Earth is relatively well studied, if a shadow biosphere exists, it may still remain unnoticed because the exploration of the microbial world targets primarily the biochemistry of the macro-organisms.
>>>Existence of a shadow biosphere could mean that life has independently evolved on Earth more than once, which means that microorganisms may exist on Earth which have no evolutionary connection with any other known form of life. It is suggested that if an alternate form of microbial life on Earth is discovered, the odds are good that life is also common elsewhere in the universe.
Btw, I wrote about this kind of stuff before, cuz of course I did:
Thursday, February 27, 2025
Var är batterierna?
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| - Ja, Northvolt. De är visst kvar däroppe! |
Börjar det inte bli dags att koppla in åklagare eller nåt?
Velikovsky´s virus
Let´s be honest: nobody cares about viruses in Lake Tanganyika six million years ago. Or fish. Or whatever they have in that darn waterhole. No, what everyone wants to know is: did human evolution "kickstart" due to that supernova and its cosmic rays? And if so, CAN IT HAPPEN AGAIN???
Did a supernova kickstart evolution six miillion years ago?
Psy op
This is...interesting. Why would China go public with their plans to construct near-invisible stealth missiles? Some kind of psy-op? Note that they *don´t* reveal what their secret space plane "Divine Dragon" is up to!
Kingdom in the sky
A *highly* suggestive article about a "virgin birth" in Lesotho. NSFW. Note the warning at the end of the piece: "This is not intended as medical advice". Dude!
A very, very bizarre medical emergency from India. I assumed "The X-File" episode about parasitic twins was fiction?!
Allegedly
Ryan Wesley Routh, who *allegedly* tried to kill Donald Trump at that golf course, is *allegedly* an Iranian asset. Thank god Israel *allegedly* incapacitated the entire Iranian air force last year, so Trump doesn´t non-allegedly have to nuke Qom or something...
Check mate
So Romania arrests the pro-Russian presidential candidate, shortly after the anti-Russian president resigns, while allowing Andrew Tate to leave the country? Tate is on his way to...Florida. And guess who lives in Florida?
Is this some kind of 4D chess+++ from the Romanian government?
Dark Brandon forever
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| The turkey pardoned by Biden |
Richard Spencer still carrying out "deep entryism" in the Democratic Party. Gotta love the attack on "tech-bro fascism". As opposed to...what? Bromance fascism?
>>>Senile Biden would have won in 2024. At the very least, he would have performed better than Harris. I don’t even think Kamala was that bad. She genuinely tried to avoid the woke stuff, but was dragged down by it. The assassination attempt also made Trump seem like a “man of Destiny.” Trump’s power is neutralized when he faces off against an old White guy. He has beaten two shrill liberal women.
>>>Don’t blame me. I don’t make the rules. The real scandal is that the Democrats didn’t more vigorously cover up and lie about Biden’s declining mental state. If America descends into civil war and/or tech-bro fascism, don’t blame Joe Biden. Blame George Clooney!
Wednesday, February 26, 2025
The mark of the bearded bellydancers
This actually happened (the bizarre video is linked above).
Trump faces Truth Social backlash after AI video of topless Netanyahu and bearded bellydancers
A path to victory?
Quasi-liberal isolationist Michael Tracey on X just now. Has Donald Trump double-crossed Putin and the right-wing isolationists, entangling the United States even more deeply in Ukraine due to the mineral deal? Even some Swedish media outlets seem to think so, and people over here have been in some kind of panic mode for a week or so!
Michael Tracey on mineral deal
Amerika the stupid
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| Probably a chupacabra. Or something. |
Red state stupidity:
West Texas outbreak of measles grow
Blue state stupidity:
Every man an aristocrat
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| Johannes Bureus |
“Alla är vi valloner” (We are all Walloons) is a 2023 book by Peter Sjölund,
a Swedish expert on genealogical research. Apparently, he managed to solve a crime
case using DNA-based genealogies. In this somewhat eclectic book, Sjölund takes
the reader on a roller coaster ride through “true and false genealogies in
Sweden”. I rather naïvely assumed that Swedish genealogical research must be at
least relatively easy, due to the large amount of preserved church documents
detailing every birth, marriage and death in the parish. Especially today, when
the stuff is usually digitalized and available on the web. While that´s true,
many databases apparently contain fake genealogies, invariably ones going back
centuries – even millennia – to ancient kings or heroic knights. This has led
to the emergence of a kind of cult genealogy, with Internet-based communities of
true believers hotly defending unproven family lineages, even to the point of uploading
the “information” into genealogical databases. If this sounds a lot like, say,
the 17th century…bingo. It´s absolutely that kind of thing. Indeed,
some of the fake genealogies quite literally hail from that century!
A large portion of the book deals with Johan Bure (Johannes Bureus), the
17th century Swedish polymath, whose omnivorous interests ranged
from documenting runic inscriptions to literal mysticism. Bureus did carry out
extensive and quite serious genealogical research (perhaps uniquely for his
time), interviewing his relatives and comparing oral traditions from different
branches of the family, visiting several different Swedish provinces in the
process. In this way, he managed to trace his ancestry back about 300 years.
That Bureus wasn´t confabulating is proven by the fact that most of his ancestors
were ordinary peasants, and that he also included stories about criminal family
members (including some who were executed). The Bure family (Bureätten) in *this*
sense has been mostly proven by modern DNA research.
However, as a child of the nobility-obsessed 17th century,
Bureus simply couldn´t stop there. He went further and eventually created a
fantasy genealogy for himself, centered on a 12th century knight named
Fale Bure, very loosely based on a real person whose name is found on a tomb in
the church at Skön in Medelpad. Bureus improved the local tall tales surrounding
this supposed medieval hero (whose original name was Fartegn unge or Fale hin
unge) and claimed descent from him – since this would give Bureus aristocratic
ancestry. Three of Johannes Bureus´ cousins would later improve upon his “research”,
inventing further lineages, much to their benefit (all three cousins were ennobled
by king Gustavus Adolphus). And so it went, with distant relations of Bureus making
up their own family lines. And apparently some people still today believe it!
The author tells a dramatic story from 2013 about how he and some associates
managed to stop the rising of a modern statue of Fale Bure outside a large shopping
mall at Birsta in Medelpad, close to Skön. The grand ceremony (which was
supposed to include Viking Age-obsessed Swedish pop star E-type!) was cancelled
at the last moment and the statue placed outside the Skön church instead. Not
sure if policing local mythology in this way is the best way to spend your time
as a skeptical genealogist, but there you go.
Another family of tall tales (pun intended) concerns the Walloons. Just like the Bure story, a grain of truth has metastasized into something else entirely. During the 17th century, thousands of Walloons from the Spanish Netherlands and adjacent territories did immigrate to Sweden. (Present-day Wallonia is a region in southern Belgium.) The Walloons spoke a language related to French. Still today, some old Swedish families have French surnames and can trace some of their ancestry back to the Walloon immigrants. At some point during the 19th and early 20th centuries, the 17th century Walloons – some of whom were smiths and hence highly skilled workers – became downright mythologized, both by the Swedish labor movement and by race biologists. The latter claimed that Walloon-Nordic intermarriage was one of the few examples of beneficial race mixing, a message heavily promoted through exhibitions directed at the general population. By contrast, Travelers (a Gypsy-like sub-population) were considered extremely low on the racial hierarchy. Both Walloons and Travelers were considered to be “darker” than pure bred Swedes. This probably prompted people of Traveler ancestry to claim Walloon ancestry instead.
Gradually, the stereotypical “Walloon” acquired more and more characteristics
usually considered negative and malformed, such as a big hump at the back of
the neck, a constant propensity for back pain, or strange thumbs. Black hair
and green or brown eyes seem to be constant. It does sound like some kind of “cope”.
If you´re different in a “bad” way, at least you can claim descent from a
respected (and to many people somewhat mysterious) immigrant group. (Fun fact:
the only person with a Walloon surname I ever met looked almost stereotypically
Nordic!)
“Alla är vi valloner” does contain some other interesting information (you´d
never guess where the name “Rambo” originally comes from), but the above was what
caught my eye on a first reading. As for myself, one of the names running in my
family come from medieval Spanish knights claiming descent from Theoderic the
Great, the famed Ostrogoth king of Italy. And since the Goths according to
their mythology originated in Scandza (perhaps Scandinavia), this would make me
more primordially Swedish than most Swedes. If you choose to believe the hype,
that is. Another family name is Basque. And the Basque are racially pure
Paleo-Europeans from Atlantis, right? Right.
When will wayward humanity come to its senses, I wonder?
Tuesday, February 25, 2025
Feralization
Even better than beaver bombing? What should we call this, boar bombing? The article proposes "guerilla rewilding". Lynxes, too! Note also that some of the suids released were apparently domestic pigs! Eh? Can´t the rewilders tell the difference between a feral pig and a boar?!
Another bizarre cult in the never-ending *human* saga...
Dartmoor wild boar sightings prompt suspicions of guerilla rewilding
Bromance
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| Credit: Quirinale.it |
OK, so did Monsieur Bromance manage to talk some sense into the Donald? Does anyone know?
Grand theft bullion
Trump and Musk are apparently going to the United States Bullion Depository ("Fort Knox") to see if the gold is still there. LOL. Of course it is, but it´s apparently an old conspiracy theory that the gold is gone. Per Wikipedia:
>>>For security reasons, visitors are not allowed inside the depository grounds. There have been only three reported occasions when guests outside the Treasury Department have made inspection tours of the vault.
>>>The first was by President Franklin Roosevelt in 1943. A second inspection was made by members of the United States Congress and the news media on September 23, 1974, led by the Director of the United States Mint, Mary Brooks. The tour was in response to a conspiracy theory, circulated by Peter Beter that elites had secretly removed the gold in the depository and that the vaults were empty.
>>>The third inspection tour was on August 21, 2017, when Kentucky Senator Mitch McConnell visited with a small group of officials and staff, including Secretary of the Treasury Steven Mnuchin. According to a tweet by Mnuchin, and an internal email by Chief of the U.S. Mint Police Dennis O'Connor, he was the first Treasury Secretary to visit the depository since John Wesley Snyder in 1948.
In other words: Trump and Musk are going to Fort Knox as a nod to QAnon-style conspiracy theorists!
Donald Trump: "We´re going to Fort Knox to see if the gold is still there"
Black monday
So the United States voted "no" to a pro-Ukrainian resolution at the UN General Assembly. Other nations voting "no" included Russia, Belarus, North Korea, Nicaragua and Hungary. But also Israel - probably because Netanyahu doesn´t want to anger Trump in case the war against Hamas flares up again (which it most certainly will).
Later, the UN Security Council adopted a "neutral" resolution on the Ukrainian war introduced by the United States. My understanding is that France and the UK (which have veto powers) simply abstained from voting, rather than pick an *actual* fight with the Trump administration. This is obviously significant, since the Security Council is the where the real decisions are made (as far as the UN is concerned).
It seems the *really* real decisions will be made during talks between Trump and Putin god knows where...
Surge prices
I learned a new term earlier today: "surge prices". I mean, wtf?! Every amusement park (or whatever) which has "surge prices" should be fucking boycotted by the consumers. Eat cake, mothafuckas! Then, pass the necessary legislation...
Monday, February 24, 2025
The vaxx dilemma
Libertarian gadfly Richard Hanania´s pro-vaxx article was published in August 2023.
He recently started promoting it again on X, probably due to reports that more Americans than usual get hospitalized or die of the flue due to vaccine-hesitancy. Also, less children are getting inoculated against measles. Some people have started to fear measle epidemics. And no, Hanania doesn´t like a certain RFK Jr. Interestingly, on X he accuses the new head of the HHS of being a stooge for agri-business!
I´m not a great fanboy of Hanania, who often comes across as something of a troll. Thus, he claims to be a Palestinian while supporting the Israeli far-right?! Still, an interesting contribution. Make of this content what you wish.
Mums-mums
Reagerade också på Måns Zelmerlöws låt. Fast Jonna Simmas kommentarer (nedan) är nästan lika korkade som vanligt...
"En ny sol reser sig över Europa". Eh? Om Zelmerlöw segrar kommer ESC 2026 alltså arrangeras i Sverige. Och det går som bekant väldigt bra för Sverige just nu, eller hur?
The science of reality
It seems everyone in the world is impacted by climate change...
Perfectly legit
 |
| - Yes, Russian LNG. A thriving bizniz! |
The headline is borderline fake news, since "financial" aid isn´t the same thing as military or humanitarian aid, something the article admits in the fine print. So presumably the EU does *not* spend more on Russian fossil fuels than on aid to Ukraine (the article never specifies the total figure for aid to the embattled country).
That being said, it *is* interesting that the EU still buys Russian oil and gas. That raises a lot of questions...and raised eyebrows. In the beginning of the conflict, the EU declared that the Russian oil and gas would be replaced by LNG (liquefied natural gas). And guess what? It has...with *Russian* LNG, to be exact. Last year, Russia was the second exporter of LNG to the European Union?!
Small wonder Moscow is laughing at us. So the tough guys in the EU bureaucracy replaced Russian fossil fuels with...other Russian fossil fuels. How long before a brave investigative reporter starts asking awkward questions about, say, price-fixing or license-fixing?
Or are we supposed to believe that this is all perfectly legit?
The EU spends more on Russian oil and gas than on financial aid to Ukraine
It´s a crazy, crazy, crazy world
 |
| - Yes, killer squirrels. I mean, come on... |
Some random science articles from the site "Live Science".
Did the wildfires drive them mad, I wonder?
Killer squirrels in California public park
Everything was better before Christianity. No, wait...
Decapitated woman found in Irish bog
This has apparently been debunked. Well, I hope...
Cats caught bird flue from their owners
Do we even know what´s in our very own cosmic backyard?!
Does the Donald really want Greenland? And how far above the sea is Mar-a-Lago exactly?
Greenland´s ice shelf will collapse next century
And finally, an old classic...
And then they came for the military
Presumably, this means that Trump and Hegseth has eliminated any potential threats from the US military. Among other things...
Crystal ball
In Tolkien´s "Lord of the Rings" (or at least in the LOTR films), Sauron uses magical crystal balls known as palantírs to spy on Middle Earth. The palantírs are Sauron´s "eyes". Or a fantasy-esque form of surveillence technology, if you like. However, the sinister crystals can also be used to brainwash and control select people. Thus, the wizard Saruman (who was originally good) is "turned" and joins the dark side through the power of Sauron transmitted by one of the palantírs.
And yeah, after reading Wiki´s nerdy entry on the topic, I realize that the full story is much more subtle than in Jackson´s movie adaption. But...
While created by the Elves, the palantírs are at best ambivalent, at worst evil. Apparently, they were Tolkien´s Christian-inspired warning against magic and pagan divination. Which still makes it...I don´t know...strange that Peter Thiel calls his computer software business Palantir. Yes, this would be the same Thiel who "created" J D Vance, the current vice president of the United States and heir-apparent to a certain Donald Trump. So who is Sauron and who is Saruman in this scenario? Asking for a friend named Gandalf!
Thiel has double citizenship, the US and New Zealand. It´s almost as if I want to write a science fiction short story in which Thiel and Vance tries to overthrow Trump, fails, Thiel escaping to New Zealand in the process. The story ends with Trump ordering the Joint Chiefs of Staff to invade the Pacific island-nation (a US ally). Suspense ending!
Or is this too realistic? I mean, I don´t want to get arrested next time I show my ass in the Lower 48. Or on the North Island, for that matter.
Sunday, February 23, 2025
4Chan is fake and gay
The "straight/gay" comments attacked in this video must be trolling. Yes, we´re back in the click bait/entertainment corner of the YouTube crazy-spectrum. NSFW, lol. Gives an entirely new meaning to the phrase "fuck around and find out"!
This is what we´re up against
The year was 2015. In 2014, Russia had occupied Crimea and started to support a separatist uprising in eastern Ukraine. Then, they sent a peace song to the Eurovision Song Contest?!
This is what we´re up against, fam.
Recursion
Does an obscure Amazonian language called Piraha disprove Noam Chomsky´s Universal Grammar? No idea, as I hardly understand the topic! Me not grok. Still, interesting after a fashion. Tie-in to the idea that the way we look at the world is (strongly) caused by our language.
Aside from lacking "recursion", Piraha seem to have other unique or unusual features. For instance, no numerals, verb tenses or color words. When anthropologist Daniel Everett and his wife tried to teach the Piraha basic arithmetic, the natives gave up after eight months of study. They simply couldn´t grasp the concept.
My wild guess is that the Piraha people are a relict population of a previously complex culture rather than true primitives, and that this somehow explains why their language is so impoverished. They are "devolving". But then, nobody seems to have made evolutionary claims about their lingo, so maybe this observation is irrelevant to the current conflict...
Our cryptid cousins
OK, this was funny. Who would have thought that there are *cryptid* coelecanths? If an unknown animal is discovered, guess what, people suddenly see it everywhere and at all times...including half a planet away from where it was discovered?! But sure, the idea that people at Mallorca were catching and eating primordial lobe-finned fish until fairly recently does have a certain romantic appeal.
Besides, two species of coelecanth has been discovered - not just one - the second one as late as 1998 (in Indonesia). So I suppose it´s possible that a few new species of this strange and wonderful fish (a *very* distant evolutionary cousin of...ourselves) might still be lurking out there...
Rambling nonsense
Rambling nonsense? Or not? Our favorite crazy uncle TJ Kirk (a.k.a. the content-creator formerly known as The Amazing Atheist) rambles on about all and everything in this improptu video clip, apparently taped at 2AM in the morning!
Which suggests my man has pretty much the same (disturbed) biological clock as here undersigned...
Topics covered in this strange wolf-hour rant include Trump´s effects on TJ´s stock portfolio, questions concerning Elon Musk´s autism, and whether or not trans-gender surgeries have sunk the US economy.
Er, wut?
TJ also promises to show us his next tattoo. Note that he looks almost "spiritual" in this video, with that purple outfit and golden bling-bling. A bit like an Osho devotee, perhaps? He talks a bit about spiritual stuff, too. Make of this unpolished material whatsoever you wish.
Is i magen eller lagd på is?
 |
| - Chilla, mannen, vad kan hända? No stresso! |
Skulle inte alls förvåna mig...
Mineralfeber
Intressant intervju med FN-diplomaten Jan Eliasson. Han är inte den ende som reagerat på att merparten av Ukrainas mineraltillgångar verkar finnas i Donbass, som ju ockuperas av Ryssland?! Det verkar finnas andra problem med det föreslagna avtalet också. Vet Trump vad han gör? Jag menar...alls?
Aprilskämt
Nästan lite underhållande med alla åsiktsmaskiner som på fullt allvar (?!) tror att EU (ja, EU) på något sätt kan ersätta USA som supermakt och fortsätta kriget i Ukraina på egen hand. Utan USA och därmed också utan NATO.
HA HA HA HA HA HA.
Okej, egentligen är det inte särskilt roligt, men kom igen...
Sjävklart kan EU inte ersätta USA-NATO. Till att börja med verkar bara två EU-medlemmar ha stora försvarsmakter: Frankrike och Polen. Bara ett EU-land har egna kärnvapen: Frankrike. Halva EU är ekonomiska "basket cases" som lever på bidrag från den andra halvan.
Och nej, Tyskland kan inte "leda Europa" (märkligt krav förresten). Tyskland är alltså det där skitlandet som finansierade sin "gröna omställning" genom att göra sig beroende av rysk olja och gas. Skulle inte alls förvåna mig om de tyska socialdemokraterna och kristdemokraterna blir de första att springa tillbaka till Moskva så fort de får chansen! Britterna är inte med i EU längre och är alldeles för gay för att våga göra något ändå, LOL.
Men visst, om EU förvandlas till ett Stor-Frankrike och rustar upp *riktigt ordentligt*, så kanske Putte & trumpen blir rädda för oss. Frankrike är gissningsvis det enda landet som skulle kunna "rädda" oss. De har en stark militär, egna kärnvapen och ett tydligen outplånligt Napoleon-komplex. Dessutom sägs det att Macron har en bromance med Trump. Kan ju komma till pass i någon diplomatisk förhandling, vad vet jag. Vidare har Frankrike geopolitiska konflikter med Ryssland i sitt neo-koloniala imperium. Kort sagt: EU kan fungera som en ny supermakt endast om det upphör att vara EU och istället förvandlas till något slags represtination på kontinentalsystemet.
Länken nedan går till en artikel av Daniel Suhonen som försöker pitcha sin särpräglade "gröna keynesianism" på ledarplats i Aftonbladet. När fan blir gammal, blir han visst militarist. Kan någon förklara för Suhonen att en modern försvarsmakt alltså inte kan gå på grön energi?! Och vem ska låna ut pengar åt de här fånigheterna? Har inget särskilt emot Suhonen som person, men det här är bara ett i mängden av illusionisttrick just nu...
Svantesson bör göra som Danmark: Köp, köp, köp!
Saturday, February 22, 2025
Unhinged
Unhinged Vtuber (what even *is* a Vtuber?) turns out to be...well, unhinged. An unhinged Vtuber, to be more exact. Not sure why this is even a thing, LOL. We are in the click bait/gossip/pseudo-celebrity corner of YouTube, which usually doesn´t interest me. Parasocial relationship, anyone?
A certain Riro Ron was terminated by her talent agency after sleeping around with the talent manager, creating a "harem" of fanboys, and accepting lavish gifts from at least one of them. Sounds like any celebrity I know, so what is the scandal here, really? The content-creator laughing at her, Mujin, doesn´t seem to think Riro Ron is *that* dangerous either, since he wants to record a live stream with her?!
It seems Riro broke the first rule of VTube by actually showing her real face on social media. And yes, she is cosplaying as her own VTube persona. I suppose that makes her even more parasocial to some people.
Whatever.
The scam of slavery
It seems a new form of trafficking and slavery has developed in Southeast Asia. Hundreds of thousands of people from all over the world are virtually imprisoned in "scam centers" in Myanmar, Laos and Cambodia. Tricked by promises of good office jobs, they are forced to work with various Internet and phone scams. The centers are often controlled by Chinese crime gangs.
However, it seems that both China and Thailand have decided to move against the gangs after a high profile abduction of a Chinese actor (!) in Thailand (he was trafficked to Myanmar) and Thai fears that Chinese tourists might avoid their country unless something is done stat. The Chinese government is of course entirely hypocritical, due to the slave-like conditions in China´s seafood industry, not to mention Tibet and Xinjiang. I suppose the crime syndicates messed with the wrong officials.
The Myanmar military is apparently also sick and tired of the scam centers at their side of the porous Thailand-Myanmar border, since they have decided to aid the Thai efforts to clean up the place. So I suppose you could say that this story has a "happy ending" of sorts...for now. Something tells me the scamming will continue elsewhere.
Speaking of which...
The YouTube clip above tells a somewhat bizarre story connected to the scam center issue, this time from Cambodia. An attention-seeking influencer from Taiwan staged an incident in Cambodia, claiming to have been kidnapped and tortured by a gang operating a center. The Cambodian authorities weren´t amused and sentenced both him and an accomplice to a long prison sentence. Even the Prime Minister of Cambodia Hun Manet condemned the hoax. One thing the YouTube clip doesn´t tell us is whether or not the Cambodian police also took action against the scam centers...
Slavery never really went away, did it?
Friday, February 21, 2025
So I had a bad day...
I must have had a bad day on August 26, 2020. Look what I wrote...
>>>What if Pinochet or Pol Pot becomes only alternatives on a planet with wars, pandemics, locust swarms, heat waves and extreme weather events? "Tired of winning yet?" Next intelligent species on planet Earth: cockroach fairies who emerge in 3000 AD to claim everything?
>>>Bet you didn't see that coming, huh?
>>>How wild is deep ecology? What if nature doesn't want to be redeemed? Or if its redemption looks very different from that proposed by Paul in the Bible? How does the redemption of Nature look like? No humans, hotter climate, more carbon dioxide in the air?
>>>Bet you didn't see that coming.
No stresso, ta en espresso
 |
| - Ja, tågen går i tid här. No stresso! |
Under tiden i nöjesbubblan...
Visst är det bra att någon tar tag i de *verkligt* viktiga frågorna i en stund som denna. Eller?
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