Week 4
"@policy@opensource.org
For the last decade, the #EU has been funding #Mastodon #KDE #Phosh #Nextcloud #OnlyOffice #PixelFed, #Libreoffice, #CryptPad, #Kdenlive, #Lemmy and many other Open Source projects you know and love through its #NextGenerationInternet programme.
But now that programme is ending and they are thinking about its successor.
They want to hear from you on what it should look like: Share your feedback to make sure the Commission keep funding amazing Open Source projects!"
TAC: "Jerusalem Christians, Tucker Carlson Agree.. The oldest Christian sects and the antiwar American right are on one side. Israel’s government, neoconservatives, and American Christian Zionists are on the other."
The Lever: "Corporate landlords are.. leaning into a key 'build-to-rent' loophole in Trump’s investment ban on single-family homes."
"A Cloud City on Venus: Why Venus is a Better Choice"
The Lever: "Wall Street And Crypto Are At War Over Who Gets To Rob You.. The crypto industry’s attempt to become unregulated banks is encroaching on Wall Street’s trillion-dollar interest-rate grift."
European Commision: "Commission approves €200 million German State aid for Canadian-produced renewable hydrogen and its derivatives for EU market.. The European Commission has approved, under EU State aid rules, a €200 million German scheme to support the production in Canada of renewable hydrogen and its derivatives, known as renewable fuels of non-biological origin (RFNBOs). These RFNBOs will be imported to Germany and sold in the EU, contributing to the objectives of the Clean Industrial Deal, the EU Hydrogen Strategy"
Firstpost: "Trump meets Zelenskyy in Davos, says 'a ways to go' on ending Ukraine war"
He sounds like a billionaire corporatist from 2026.
"The extent to which the [Peasants’ Revolt in 1381] frightened the crown and nobility can be seen in the violence of Richard’s words when he addressed another group of rebels at Walthamstow on 22 June, by which time the danger was felt to have largely passed:
'You wretches, detestable on land and sea; you who seek equality with lords are unworthy to live. Give this message to your colleagues. Rustics you were and rustics you are still: you will remain in bondage not as before but incomparably harsher. For as long as we live we will strive to suppress you, and your misery will be an example in the eyes of posterity. How ever, we will spare your lives if you remain faithful. Choose now which you want to follow'. (Simon Schama A History of Britain p 254 )
On the Keating book - yes there are many aspects worth criticizing Europe on some of their internal intransigence towards their US cowtowing on esp. war/peace issues... We need to remember though the entire governance elite of Europe formed during an era where that was accepted, it was the norm. Such long-held stances are incredibly difficult to change. My view is they will change when they need to, at some point.
That was one of the CN jokes going around on the Internet some time ago... Funny thing is Sylvester Stallone apparently got wind of them, and wrote one of the jokes into the second Expandables movie w/ Norris himself delivering it.
Chuck Norris can absolutely sneeze with his eyes open.
There he is.. Chuck Norris from France 24. He wrote a book on European cowtowing to US?
"@DrALJONES@mastodon.social
BDS is working:
Report: increasing boycotts see Israeli agricultural exports facing collapse.
Orders from Europe & Asia are drying up.
Major sectors—particularly tech & investment—are also suffering.
Consumer spending, too, has plummeted.
Economists warn the crisis may signal a longer-term unravelling of Israel’s global economic integration."
There's been so much tough talk recently.. Are we done?
That makes you think why were aircraft carriers even built? Maybe they are built to beat up on sad little countries with no navy to speak of, no major striking or A2/AD capability, no serious military. You are bumfuck dingledong fucky fucky country and all of a sudden a behamoth of a ship shows up at your doorstep, that can scare the bejesus out you. But we saw with recent advances even Houthis could threaten an aircraft carrier.
Missile / drone swarms, hypersonics can be deadly to an aircraft carrier.. A tactical nuke too? They shock tested the carrier Ford, it did fine, but I doubt it can stand a f-ing nuke going off near it.
Mobilize American Industry. Ka-Ching! 🤑 🤑 🤑
Lockheed Martin: "Golden Dome for America is a revolutionary concept to further the goals of peace through strength.. This next generation defense shield will identify incoming projectiles, calculate trajectory and deploy interceptor missiles to destroy them mid-flight, safeguarding the homeland and projecting American Strength. THE CHALLENGE: Mobilize American industry and innovation to deliver the first Golden Dome for America defenses by the end of next year."
For sure lota people will make whole lota munee by trying to build this boondogle.
The best defense is, as always, not being threatening to neighbors, other countries.. If there is talk about nuclear exchange today with Russia, or other countries, the fault lies completely with the West.
Jacobin: "[2025] Golden Dome Is a Ridiculous Boondoggle.. We taxpayers, whether we know it or not, are betting on a house of dynamite, gambling on the idea that technology will save us in the event of a nuclear attack. The United States has, in fact, spent more than $350 billion on missile defenses since, more than four decades ago, President Ronald Reagan promised to create a leak-proof defense against incoming intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs). Believe it or not, the Pentagon has yet to even conduct a realistic test of the system, which would involve attempting to intercept hundreds of warheads traveling at 1,500 miles per hour, surrounded by realistic decoys that would make it hard to even know which objects to target."
There will be less fat people on board, which means less fuel?
NYT: "Weight-Loss Drugs Could Save U.S. Airlines $580 Million Per Year"
In the Loop, it had a flair.. It was enjoyable. 2009 was the year of peak anti-Iraq War sentiment. ITL works that mine via Peter Capaldi, James Gandolfini, and others.. Sharp writing. If the viewer does not lose interest in its documentary style shooting, they will find some gems.
"@jolla@techhub.social
This is a simple way to support an independent European Linux phone and help move the project forward. Every successful referral strengthens the community and brings us closer to the next milestone of 10,000 pre-orders. Learn how it works and join in"
"@spellingmistakescostlives@mastodon.ie
Profits go down: We regret to announce that we have to destroy the world.
Profits go up: We're delighted to announce that we have to destroy the world."
"[2025] BP set to scale back green investments as profits drop sharply"
"[2023] BP scales back climate targets as profits hit record"
Need to distinquish between religion conversion and Turkification. TR Republic emphasized the latter, conflating both where it was suitable, and deemphasized the former when it ran against its secularization project. It played word games to create a smokescreen, constructing a bizarre racial basis for a country which historically had none of it. Turkification was a political and linguistic veneer over an ancient Anatolian core.
Lowry’s research into the Defterology (tax registers) supports this: He tracks families over generations. You can see a "George, son of Michael" in one register, and in the next, his son is "Mehmet, son of George," and the grandson is "Mehmet, son of Abdullah.". While the name and religion can change to Muslim (later mistakenly conflated with Turkishness -more on that later-) the family's internal culture, local knowledge, and genetic makeup would have remained 100% Anatolian. Lowry’s work on Bursa and Trabzon shows that the "Ottoman" style was a direct evolution of local Byzantine and Anatolian Seljuk styles. The people converting to Islam were the same people who had built the churches; they simply started building mosques with the same hands and local aesthetics. Instead of erasing the existing system, the Ottomans often kept Byzantine taxes and land-holding patterns as well. They just renamed them.
We need to mindful of "label affiliation" vs deeper culture of a place. Conversions hide the fact that the culture is still dominant. And the Asiatic influence in that conversion, seperate from religion, was even less.
Lowry’s most famous argument is that the early Ottoman state (the 1300s) was not a purely Turkish or Islamic entity. He calls it a "plundering confederacy.". He documents how local Byzantine aristocrats and peasants didn't just "surrender" - they joined. Figures like Köse Mihal (a Byzantine Greek lord) became high-ranking Ottoman leaders. And because these "new" Ottomans were locals, they brought their administrative styles, land management systems, and even culinary and social habits into the Ottoman system.
Caitlin Johnstone: "Zionist Billionaires Openly Acknowledge Manipulating The US Government.. [A]s Saban said, it’s all legal. Corruption is legal in the United States of America. Plutocrats are allowed to leverage their fortunes to manipulate the US government using campaign funding and lobbying for the advancement of their personal, financial, and ideological agendas. If you have a few million dollars to spare you can use them to make criminal charges go away, to roll back environmental regulations or worker protections which hurt the profit margins of your business, or even to get military explosives shipped to a foreign government for use in an ongoing genocide."
The price rises are due to "AI" I bet, those LLMs are memory hungry.
#Memory #Shortage #LLM
The Guardian: "‘Brazen’ political influence of rich laid bare as wealth of billionaires reaches $18.3tn, says Oxfam"
Was that Paul Giamatti in the trailer? How did he get pulled into this? PG needs to change his agent.
Star Trek Starfleet Academy, it looks Woke.
Tillman was likely killed by MIC for opposing the expansion of the war into Iraq (shot by "friendly fire" -later covered up-). He wasn't high in the chain of command but he had fame, his enrollment in the military was a big deal at the time, a figure like that coming against the Iraq War from the trenches of Afghanistan would have undermined the war propaganda. The post below rolls Israel into the argument via Schnozz. A sign of increased vitriol. Israel can now be included into any and all blame for US misdeeds, mostly deserved. The system caused this to happen. Victimization arbitrage stopped working.
There is picture on the post; left side there is Pat Tilman, right is Rabbi Schnozzy.
A poster: "America sent the man on the left, with a bright future ahead of him, to die for this filthy creep and his business interests on the right.
Was it a good tradeoff, folks?"
"Syrian goverment" HTS's attacks on SDF was made possible after a truce with Israel, reports say, they were persuaded to leave HTS alone which freed HTS to pursue its other interests.
Al-Monitor: "India gets Trump's invite to join Board of Peace on Gaza, source says"
Wasn't the idea of vibe coding that AI would become the "co-pilot" instead of a human? Why would you need a second person to jump in?
Ad: "You don’t have to vibe-code alone. Experienced freelance developers are ready to jump in"
Lowry: "[Researcher] Arnakis touched on the major weaknesses of [another] thesis by emphasizing that the connotation of the title gazi in that context did not mean that the early Ottomans were motivated by the goal of converting the Bithynian Christians, but rather by amassing plunder, slaves, and booty. He argued persuasively that in the conquest of Bithynia, which stretched over half a century, there simply was no manifestation of Islamic fanaticism. To the contrary, he pointed out that the Ottomans initially encountered a peasantry which had been abused by their Byzantine rulers with a resultant loss of morale. He stressed the lenient attitude of the Ottomans which facilitated widespread conversion and subsequent [label] assimilation. Ultimately, Arnakis highlighted the fact that the physical growth and success of the early Ottoman state can be directly linked to its absorption of the indigenous Greek population of Bithynia."
Gibbons, Lowry are major researchers in this area FYI
That makes sense for anyone who knows the mechanics of assimilation which is about 1) numbers and 2) proximity. While peoples of Asia Minor accepted a "label conversion", the deeper culture would have stayed and assimilate the group that was fewer in number. The minority, the migrant in this case were the Turks (real ones, not the fake ones mislabeled after 1923). The proof is in the genetic pudding, ~10% Asiatic.
Heath Lowry, The Nature of the Early Ottoman State: "[M]any Western specialists in the next generation continued to accept the basic thrust of Gibbons’ argument, namely, that the Ottoman state was formed by an amalgam of peoples which included a significant number of local western-Anatolian and Balkan-Christian converts to Islam... Gibbons’ argument [was that the Ottomans were] formed from a commingling of Byzantine, Slavic, and Turkish peoples"
Al-Monitor: "Iraq takes full control of air base after US withdrawal, defence ministry says"
Al-Jazeera: "Syrian state media has announced an immediate ceasefire between the government and Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), which includes the handover of territory and natural resources by the SDF... The agreement follows a lightning advance by Syrian government forces, capturing the strategic town of Tabqa from the SDF during push towards the key city of Raqqa in the north."
Raqqa is east (and north) of Euphrates.. HTS is crossing to the other side?
NYT: "Syria Advance on Kurdish-Held Areas as Washington Urges Restraint.. Government troops drew closer to Raqqa, the largest city overseen by the Kurds"
Prone bone.. haha
Pro boner?
"@DocAtCDI@mastodon.social
Me: Alexa, check my bank balance and let me know what Apple product I can afford...
Alexa: Juice..."
The Woke queen finally steps down.. She leaves behind a destroyed franchise.
CBC: "After more than 13 years at the helm of Lucasfilm, Kathleen Kennedy is stepping down from the Star Wars factory founded by George Lucas."
Al Jazeera: "The UK is taking political prisoners to evade accountability for genocide.. The use of anti-terror law against Palestine Action is designed to block legal and political scrutiny of the UK’s role in Gaza."
But the problem is Stark already has a goatee.. What do you do with the evil brother?
Can VVD have a bigger goatee..? Or a bushy beard maybe..
Another theory says Victor Van Doom could be Stark's brother..? An evil one?