Week 9

There was no strategery? Balance of power, 3D chess moves, freeze this guy, that country, three moves later take the other country, encircle, outmanuever, R-O-C, double M-G? P-I-M-P?

Butler, War Is a Racket: "Woodrow Wilson was re-elected president in 1916 on a platform that he had 'kept us out of war' and on the implied promise that he would 'keep us out of war.' Yet, five months later he asked Congress to declare war on Germany.. what caused our government to change its mind so suddenly?

Money.

An allied commission, it may be recalled, came over shortly before the war declaration and called on the President. The President summoned a group of advisers. The head of the commission spoke. Stripped of its diplomatic language, this is what he told the President and his group:

'There is no use kidding ourselves any longer. The cause of the allies is lost. We now owe you (American bankers, American munitions makers, American manufacturers, American speculators, American exporters) five or six billion dollars.

If we lose (and without the help of the United States we must lose) we, England, France and Italy, cannot pay back this money...and Germany won’t'"

LBC: "Mother rents out London room for £400pm but tenant must 'babysit children everyday and move out on weekends'"

Aero scientist turned the findings to the Malay authorities but received no answer. It is possible MLY does not want the plane found.

The estimated location is here. I believe the method has merit.

d = {"MH 370": [-33.176793409, 95.300021451],
     "Kuala Lumpur Intl Airport": [2.8181270526, 102.18700262]}
u.map_coords(d, zoom=4, outfile="map2.html")

[-]

Airline Ratings: "Revolutionary new tracking technology has enabled a British aerospace engineer to identify a far more precise crash position for MH370 in the southern Indian Ocean... Mr. Godfrey has used a.. technology called weak signal propagation.. [he] has spent the last nine months using his [tech] on a series of 'blind' flights that were not recorded on the usual tracking systems.. In each case, he was able to track the flight accurately in trials adjudicated by [our publication]"

USGS: "Colorado School of Mines (Mines) and the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) have established a joint industry program supported by leading international companies in the energy industry to study the potential of a low-carbon alternative energy source: geologic hydrogen"

People ask Buffett for advice, he obiously has a slew of techniques using balance sheet data to calculate comp viability, but for a long time now he simply says "buy an S&P index fund". Everything goes up in price, the index would outperform many slick strategies.. Why bother?

The guy "who ran money for a long time" and predicts that a dip in the stock market will definitely be followed by major rise past the value of the dip is not displaying any genius. For anyone who started to work with markets after 80s this is obvious. Inequality, wealth accumulation at the top made that possible, not your wizbang smarts.

"@davidho@mastodon.world

Instead of fixing the gun problem, we have active shooter drills.

Instead of fixing infrastructure and car bloat, we have this 👇"

[-]

Hindustan Times: "Viral video shows US veterans burning uniforms at vigil for Aaron Bushnell in Portland.. The video shows people burning their uniforms with a large banner behind them, which reads, 'Veterans say: Free Palestine! Remember Aaron Bushnell'"

"@Daojoan@mastodon.social

It’s not an accident that 'Side Hustle' culture emerged at the same time as corporations hit 70 year profit highs and wage growth hit a 40 year low.

This shit is connected, folks"

02/25 - 02/29. Russia reached Orlivka, moving towards Krasnohorivka, also Nevelske, Ivanivkse.

[-]

PC Mag: "FTC Bans Antivirus Provider Avast From Selling Users' Browsing Data.. The federal regulator is also fining Avast $16.5 million for promising to protect users' privacy when it was actually harvesting their data to sell to third-party companies"

2024 approval data was not added yet, but likely it will be around -15% for Biden, lower than Trump's -12%.

Incumb. president's net approval on the election year.. Looking at it since 1950s it forms a strange zigzag pattern.. but the trend seems to be down, presidents get less popular as time goes on - because what needs to get done ain't getting done.

df = u.get_pd().read_csv('prez.csv').set_index('year').sort_index()
df.net_approval.plot(title="Incumbent President's Net Approval")

[-]

Ad News: "X (formerly Twitter) has reportedly had 75% of fake traffic to its advertising clients' websites during the weekend of the Super Bowl, according to data from cybersecurity firm CHEQ that tracks bots and 'fake' users. In a press release X claimed it has 'completely smashing key metrics from last year, with impressions, user posts and video views rising 31%, 41% and 75% respectively YoY1'".. But according to CHEQ, majority of the traffic was bots and fake users. Guy Tytunovich, CHEQ founder and CEO, said he's never seen anything even remotely close to 50%, not to mention 76% of faked traffic. 'I'm amazed…I've never, ever, ever, ever seen anything even remotely close,' Tytunovich told Mashable"

"@scottsantens@hachyderm.io

The beauty of universal basic income is its simplicity. No means tests. No bureaucracy. Just pure, unadulterated economic freedom. This isn’t a handout; it's an investment in our society and an overdue GDP dividend. It’s time we took this step towards equality and true liberty"

Carscoop: "[S]ome manufacturers begin to reassess their initial optimism on EVs... With the likes of Ford revising its expectations on the F-150 Lightning, GM scaling back on EV pick-up plans, Genesis losing faith in its all-EV strategy, and even Chinese automakers such as HiPhi putting a six-month stop on EV production, it seems the slowdown in EV adoption has taken many executives off-guard"

Edmunds: "Speaking to Automotive News, a Ford spokesperson said that the automaker has halted shipments of its F-150 Lightning electric pickup beginning on February 9"

Saw Demolition, Hardwired. The political backstory for the latter was perfect. Too bad you don't see such movies at a Wachowski level production.

Brilliantcrank: "Tumblr and WordPress user data have been sold to train AI, and Automattic intends to do it again moving forward. Content posted on both platforms between 2014 and 2023 was shared without user's permission. Even worse, the data exchanged included private and deleted posts, private answers, and “content from premium partner blogs” for clients like Apple. Without more answers, 404 Media reports that it’s unknown if any of this impacts self-hosted blogs that use Automattic plugins like JetPack which is all but required to run a WordPress site these days"

u.household(2020).plot(title='Household Income Adjusted for Inflation')

[-]

"@halcy@icosahedron.website

god remember when every c-suite guy either got fooled into or gaslit themselves into believing 'the metaverse' was going to be a thing and we were all supposed to respect that and pretend that it wasn’t transparently nonsense"

CNBC: "Apple cancels plans to build an electric car"

Nutz #SP500 #Inequality

[-]

"Red or blue, it doesn't matter who"

.. but just as useless as before.. A bottomless pit where governments throw money in and do not get much out in return.

NYT: "The NATO Welcoming Sweden Is Larger and More Determined"

China H2 Bulletin: "Petrochina to build a 736.5 km hydrogen pipeline in Northen China"

Business Green: "UK Infrastructure Bank makes first green hydrogen investment.. Public investment bank announces £30m of funding for hydrogen power unit maker GeoPura The UK Infrastructure Bank (UKIB) has announced its first ever green hydrogen investment, confirming a £30m investment in a manufacturer of hydrogen power units.

The deal forms part of a £56m fund raising round completed by GeoPura to support the roll out of hydrogen power units that can replace emissions-intensive diesel generators. GeoPura is aiming to deploy a fleet of more than 3,600 hydrogen power units by 2033 from its hubs in Nottingham, Matlock, Sheffield, and Newcastle. The firm is also hoping to become a supplier of renewable hydrogen, as part of a joint venture with JG Pears to undertake green hydrogen production at the site of an old power station in the East Midlands.

Nobel Prize–winning economist Gary Becker's mentor was Milton Friedman. And Becker was a mentor to the junk bond felon Mike Milken. Dam cuh

Even Swedes got in on the action..

Africa News: "[2023/09] Two former executives at a Swedish oil company go on trial in Stockholm on Tuesday accused of complicity in war crimes committed by Sudan's regime between 1999 and 2003. Swede Ian Lundin and Swiss national Alex Schneiter are accused of asking Sudan's government to make its military responsible for security at the site of one of Lundin Oil's exploration fields, which later led to aerial bombings, killing of civilians and burning of entire villages, according to the prosecution"

"[2001] The scorched earth: Oil and war in Sudan.. [A] report.. shows how the presence of international oil companies is fuelling the war... In the name of oil, government forces and government-supported militias are emptying the land of civilians, killing and displacing hundreds of thousands of southern Sudanese. Oil industry infrastructure - the same roads and airstrips which serve the companies - is used by the army as part of the war. In retaliation, opposition forces have attacked government-controlled towns and villages, causing further death and displacement"

Chevron in Sudan? Say no more. There is your culprit.

"There is chaos in Sudan. Do you think involvement of Chevron contributed... "

Butler, War is a Racket: "[1935, A key] step in this business of smashing the war racket is to make certain that our military forces are truly forces for defense only. At each session of Congress the question of further naval appropriations comes up. The swivel-chair admirals of Washington (and there are always a lot of them) are very adroit lobbyists. And they are smart. They don’t shout that 'We need a lot of battleships to war on this nation or that nation.' Oh, no. First of all, they let it be known that America is menaced by a great naval power. Almost any day, these admirals will tell you, the great fleet of this supposed enemy will strike suddenly and annihilate our 125,000,000 people. Just like that. Then they begin to cry for a larger navy. For what?..

The ships of our navy.. should be specifically limited, by law, to within 200 miles of our coastline. Had that been the law in 1898 the Maine would never have gone to Havana Harbor. She never would have been blown up. There would have been no war with Spain with its attendant loss of life. Two hundred miles is ample, in the opinion of experts, for defense purposes. Our nation cannot start an offensive war if its ships can’t go farther than 200 miles from the coastline. Planes might be permitted to go as far as 500 miles from the coast for purposes of reconnaissance. And the army should never leave the territorial limits of our nation"

The corr function returns values between -1 and 1. Negative value for rates and prices make sense, lower rates do push house prices up. But excessive wealth concentration has 5 times the effect compared to any rate changes.

Rate rises did not help lowering house prices. Analysis below shows the highest correlation is between high wealth and house prices, not between rates and house prices.

df = u.get_fred(2000,['FEDFUNDS','MSPUS','WFRBST01134']).interpolate()
df.columns = ['rate','house price','top 1% wealth']
df.corr()

Out[1]: 
                   rate  house price  top 1% wealth
rate           1.000000    -0.121352      -0.327207
house price   -0.121352     1.000000       0.766769
top 1% wealth -0.327207     0.766769       1.000000

Inequality skews demand towards the upside. A median house cannot cost nearly half a million fucking dollars. This is serious, as in pitchfork level serious.

NBC News: "New data shows the median sale price for a home rose to nearly $380,000 in January — the seventh increase in a row"

Euronews: "Spain is banning some short-haul domestic flights as part of its plan to reduce carbon emissions... Flights with a rail alternative that takes less than two and a half hours will no longer be allowed, 'except in cases of connection with hub airports that link with international routes'"

H2 Fuel News: "GenH2 Unveils Groundbreaking Liquid Hydrogen Technology in Milestone UAV Flight"

FDR took the biggest step against gold, way before Nixon. Progressive president, time of crisis, government could not tie its own hands by basing its dealings on some stupid rare metal, makes sense.

History.com: "On June 5, 1933, the United States went off the gold standard, a monetary system in which currency is backed by gold, when Congress enacted a joint resolution nullifying the right of creditors to demand payment in gold...

On April 5, 1933, Roosevelt ordered all gold coins and gold certificates in denominations of more than $100 turned in for other money. It required all persons to deliver all gold coin, gold bullion and gold certificates owned by them to the Federal Reserve by May 1 for the set price of 20.67 dollars per ounce...

In 1934, the government price of gold was increased to $35 per ounce, effectively increasing the gold on the Federal Reserve’s balance sheets by 69 percent...

The government held the $35 per ounce price until August 15, 1971, when President Richard Nixon announced that the United States would no longer convert dollars to gold at a fixed value, thus completely abandoning the gold standard"

Mapping time, there is some data out there for the Sudan civil war. Frontline between RSF/SAF below. The borders delineate RSF controlled territory.

[-]

I see... Egypt supplies drones to them, no?

Sudan War Monitor: "Sudan army breaks Omdurman siege"

"@laptopkitten@kitty.social

British people like Doctor Who because it fulfills their fantasy of getting to go on adventures. Americans like Doctor Who because it fulfills their fantasy of having a doctor"

"@aphyr@woof.group

I know id.me is supposed to make tax filing more secure but I do not have the fucking patience for a login system that requires username, password, 2FA TOTP, and then has the gall to ask me to fill out a giant form with all my personal information and join a queue to video chat with someone to show them my ID docs???

what the fuck"

#Ronson #CultureWar

[-]

Jon Ronson: "Culture wars are so often.. opium of the masses, people scream at each other about trans rights while the rich get richer"

Herman, Degraded Capability: "[2000] Nato’s fiftieth birthday celebration was held in Washington on 23-25 April 1999. The bombing of Yugoslavia had been going on for a month. The outcome was still uncertain, but dissension was muted and triumphalism was the prescribed tone. Thanks to Kosovo, Nato had asserted its new role as a ‘humanitarian’ strike force unlimited by geographical boundaries or provisions of international law.

No humanitarian mission had been necessary to persuade major US private corporations to put up the $8 million to pay for the birthday party, or to incite a dozen chief executive officers of major Pentagon contractors to pay 250,000 each to serve as official sponsors. Corporate America was well aware of the importance of Nato as a source of long-term, guaranteed profits. US Congressmen had been heavily lobbied by a special ‘US Committee to Expand Nato’, presided over by Lockheed’s chief executive. No wonder: Nato’s expansion will require the Central Eastern European countries to strain their budgets in order to procure US military equipment. Poland, for instance, is expected to buy 100-150 newfighter planes, which could be either the Lockheed F-16 (20 million) or the Boeing F-18 (40—60 million dollars each)"

Businesswire: "Graforce is setting new standards in hydrogen production and carbon dioxide removal with its cross-cutting plasma technology (Plasmalysis). By harnessing the plasma catalytic effect, a unique property of ionized plasma, this technology significantly enhances chemical reactions' efficiency and reduces renewable power consumption by 80% compared to conventional hydrogen production methods. Plasmalysis splits natural gas and biogas into hydrogen and solid carbon, and converts ammonia or NH4-liquids into hydrogen and nitrogen"

"The Adani Group.. is reportedly engaged in advanced discussions with sovereign funds in West Asia to secure up to $2.6 billion for its airport expansion and green hydrogen initiatives"

Times of Israel: "Israel livid as Brazil’s Lula says Israel like ‘Hitler,’ committing genocide in Gaza"

Korea JoongAnd Daily: "Hyundai to invest $1.1 billion in Brazil for hydrogen shift"

Oil Price: "Last month, Toyota chair Akio Toyoda said he thinks the share of battery cars on the global market will peak at 30%, with the remaining 70% taken up by hydrogen and internal combustion engines. BMW chief executive officer Oliver Zipse is similarly bullish about the technology as one component of a cleaner transportation future"

Rescue scenarios, for a person, a small group, is becoming a thing in recent action movie stories.. The approach keeps most of the politics out, the story becomes more about simpler things - people, comrades, friends, civilians in need.. How many movies can you make about "big bad government about to get you". I for one am tired of that take. I welcome this change.

"@falcennial@mastodon.social

I think curiosity more likely informed the cat"

Steve Seagulls - Thunderstruck #music

[-]

H2 Central: "Renewable hydrogen production in Spain will be around 2.5 million tonnes per year in 2030, according to the average scenario estimated by Enagás based on data collected from companies interested in participating in hydrogen transport infrastructure. The company has registered a total of 650 projects, 65% of which are for production, 20% for consumption and the remaining 15% for marketing. Two hundred and six companies participated in the “call of interest” announced by Enagás in the last quarter of 2023"

Investing in foreign lands is supposed to be riskier.. Don't be a whiny wanker... aren't you the fearless, adventurer enterpreneur? Take the risk.

"Ew but how can corporations work in foreign lands without 'protection'"

Matt Kennard's Silent Coup describes this system in detail. ISDS can be used for anything that rankles global corps, one government was taken to court for raising the minimum wage.

The Guardian: ‘Litigation terrorism’: the obscure tool that corporations are using against green laws.. a US mining firm sued Mexico for billions – for trying to protect its own seabed.. What do you get if you cross the planet’s richest 1%, a global legal system adapted to their investment whims, and the chance to squeeze billions from governments? The answer is 'Investor-State Dispute Settlements', or ISDS, alternatively dubbed 'litigation terrorism' by Joseph Stiglitz.. ISDS is a corporate tribunal system, where a panel of unelected lawyers decides whether a company is owed compensation if the actions of national governments leave its assets 'stranded'.

In hearings, which are often held behind closed doors, ISDS documents, claims, awards, settlements – even the content of cases – need not be made public, regardless of any public-interest considerations. Last week the Guardian revealed how Odyssey Marine Exploration, a US-based subsea mineral extraction company, was using an ISDS panel to sue Mexico for $2.36bn (£1.87bn) after the government moved to prevent it dredging off the Pacific coast"

"@fkamiah17@toot.wales

Remember the weeks of coverage and outrage when Nôtre Dame burned down? Just a few which have been destroyed during the [ISR] genocide.

Great Omari Mosque - 2,500 years old

Qasr al-Basha - 800 years old

Church of St. Porphyrius - 1,600 years old

Hammam al-Sammara - circa 1,000 years old"

NYT: "Ukraine’s Deepening Fog of War.. Two years after Russia’s full-scale invasion, Ukrainian leaders are seeking a path forward in the face of ferocious assaults and daunting unknowns"

02/17 - 02/25, Russia took Robotyne back. They moved past Avdiivka nearing Orlivka. Also approaching Ivanivska, major gains.. Looking bad for Ukraine in every direction.

[-]

CNBC: "Russia was ridiculed at the start of the war. Two years on, it has reasons to be confident"

Butler: "[from a speech before the American Legion which made the papers]. I spent thirty-three years and four months in active military service, and during that period I spent most of my time being a high-class muscle man for Big Business, for Wall Street and the bankers. In short, I was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism. I helped make Honduras right for the American fruit companies in 1903. I helped purify Nicaragua for the International Banking House of Brown Brothers in 1902–1912. I helped make Mexico and especially Tampico safe for American oil interests in 1914. I brought light to the Dominican Republic for the American sugar interests in 1916. I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City Bank boys to collect revenues in. I helped in the raping of half a dozen Central American republics for the benefit of Wall Street. In China in 1927 I helped see to it that Standard Oil went on its way unmolested. Looking back on it, I might have given Al Capone a few hints. The best he could do was to operate his racket in three districts. I operated on three continents"

Butler is one of the most decorated soldiers of US Army. He commanded a Marine Expeditionary Force during the late 1920s, named a major general later. He is one of the few people who have been twice awarded the Medal of Honor, received the Marine Corps Brevet Medal, the highest Marine decoration at the time for officers. He figured out what was going on however, wrote about it. His book War Is a Racket was republished recently, its intro written by Jesse Ventura.

General Smedley D. Butler: "[1930] There are only two things we should fight for. One is the defense of our homes and the other is the Bill of Rights. War for any other reason is simply a racket"

ProPublica: "The Rising Cost of the Oil Industry’s Slow Death.. Unplugged oil and gas wells accelerate climate change.. Until wells are properly plugged, many leak oil and brine onto farmland and into waterways and emit toxic and explosive gasses, rendering redevelopment impossible"

"@evacide@hachyderm.io

Did I mention that the data broker industry must be destroyed? Because yeah"

Al-Monitor: "Shipping insurance rates soar on Red Sea missile attacks"

F24: "France under pressure to suspend military sales to Israel as war in Gaza grinds on"