zigzag

joined 3 years ago
[–] zigzag@lemmus.org 1 points 4 hours ago (1 children)

In a potato field in Yanggu county, 80 miles (130km) north-east of Seoul, Lee Sang-hyuk dug into the soil and found nothing worth saving.

A week earlier the crop, located in Gangwon province, had looked fine. Now the potatoes came up soft and collapsing, "like boiled potatoes", spoiled by heat that had turned the ground into something closer to an oven.

(Emphasis added)

[–] zigzag@lemmus.org 1 points 4 hours ago

Do you have a web, video, or Lemmy post about it somewhere? I'd be curious about the story?

[–] zigzag@lemmus.org 1 points 1 day ago

A. This paper says it is intended to Western promoted narratives of BRI 'failure', 'vulnerability trap', 'road of corruption', and 'debt traps'.

B. Quarterly Journal of International Politics (国际政治科学) is a paywalled journal, which is highly respected but is unlikely to be read by western readers.

Doesn't mean they are wrong, but just like listening to the US government, you have to take it with skepticism.

[–] zigzag@lemmus.org 1 points 1 month ago

And Trump reversed already.

[–] zigzag@lemmus.org 36 points 4 months ago (2 children)

The White House also issued what is known as a 'lid' on Saturday, a notification to the press pool indicating the president would not be making any public appearances for the remainder of the day. Krassenstein noted that a lid at 11 am was unusual for Trump, adding that the president had not travelled to Mar-a-Lago as he typically does at weekends. A separate, unverified post on Bluesky from an anonymous user claimed that a major road near the hospital had been blocked off and that an emergency meeting was underway at the White House. Neither claim has been independently verified.

[–] zigzag@lemmus.org 13 points 5 months ago

Better than newt Gingrich idea, and yet strangely still involving nuclear radiation.

[–] zigzag@lemmus.org 34 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Some just want a quick ride (lytic phase)
Some hide in your DNA (provirus nap)
Some need a mosquito’s flight (arbovirus date)
Some cause a fever’s height (dengue surprise)
Some swap their RNA to DNA (retro rewind)
Some want your cells to clone (replication grind)
Some party in your nose (rhino’s delight)
Some need BSL-4 lights (deadly nightlife)

Chorus twist:
Virus dreams are made of this
Who am I to disagree?
They’ll hijack cells with such technique
You’re just a host to me!

[–] zigzag@lemmus.org 5 points 5 months ago

Instead of grappling with this dilemma, the Trump administration appears to be making it more acute. As the prospect of near-term regime change fades, both the United States and Israel seem to be flirting with fomenting internal fragmentation as a fallback. Reports indicate that the CIA is arming Iranian Kurdish militia forces in northern Iraq, while Israel bombs frontier posts, police stations, and military positions along the northern Iran-Iraq border to clear a path. In recent days, Trump has suggested he is backing away from this scheme, but Israel has not. Indeed, Israeli leaders seem to view the destabilization of Iran as a preferable backup if regime change proves impossible, potentially pushing Iran into the kind of state fragmentation seen in Libya, Syria, and post-2003 Iraq. In a country of 90 million people at the crossroads of Eurasia, that outcome would be profoundly destabilizing, not just for Iranians but for U.S. interests in the region and beyond.

From: https://www.foreignaffairs.com/iran/what-endgame-iran

[–] zigzag@lemmus.org 8 points 5 months ago (1 children)

My guess is that they are moving replacement AN/TPY-2 radar and AN/FPS-132 as there are claims of 4 of the radars have been taken out across the middle east.

Reading into what this means strategically as well as for both the THAAD operability and Patriot systems probably guarding the high altitude ballistic defense is something I'm curious about, but am not going to speculate about at the moment.

I will say that was probably a good choice on the part of whatever Iranian's which targeted them. The US needs to pull it's head out of it's ass on this.

[–] zigzag@lemmus.org 9 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Yet these detention dreams are hitting stiff opposition. ICE wants to buy a warehouse in Virginia’s Hanover County, which went for Trump by 26 points in 2024 and combines rural territory with Richmond’s northern suburbs. Residents recently turned out in force and angrily condemned the proposed sale, with local reports suggesting only a “handful” backed it. The GOP-heavy Board of Supervisors opposed the transaction. The warehouse owner canceled the sale.

Meanwhile, in New Jersey, the Republican-dominated Roxbury Township Council, in slightly-Trump-leaning Morris County, recently voted unanimously to oppose ICE’s plans to buy a warehouse there, with some locals sharply protesting the scheme for humanitarian reasons. The Republican mayor of Oklahoma City came out against a proposed ICE warehouse, with the owner also nixing the sale. Officials in places like Kansas City, Missouri, and Salt Lake City, Utah, are also dead set against plans for ICE camps in their locales.

Guess what: The opposition is only getting started. As MS NOW’s Rachel Maddow noted in a useful overview of the opposition Monday night, we’re already seeing mass protests outside existing facilities. Those are smaller than some of the gargantuan new camps ICE hopes to create, yet migrant deaths are already soaring in the current facilities, and the bigger ones will be even worse. “If they build them, they will fill them,” Maddow said, labeling them “prison camps.” She added: “How do you think those facilities are going to be run?”

 

cross-posted from: https://libretechni.ca/post/419452

https://arxiv.org/abs/2511.11532

New study preprint quantifies what we've suspected: Trump's Truth Social posting becomes measurably more erratic after Epstein coverage spiking on Fox News.

[–] zigzag@lemmus.org 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Anyone know the missiles fired to landing ratio? I figure it's got to be a large number of missiles/drones to get through the various missile defense systems.

[–] zigzag@lemmus.org 5 points 1 year ago

TACO thinks the world's being hard huh? Not the deal maker he thought he was?

 

I was struck by the Trump Always Chickens Out (TACO) moniker, as in addition Shumer and many of the Dems deserve a similar tag line. Few seem to be standing up during this upheaval nor being the leaders we need. They also seem to be chickens. Newsom, AOC, Sanders, Buttigieg, etc seems to at least be speaking out if not acting with an appropriate response.

Possibly ones that come to mind:

  • Chuck Shumer: CLUCK (Chuck Lacks Urgency, Caves, Kowtows), or CHILL (Chuck Hides In Low-stakes Limbo)
  • Hakeem Jefferies: JELLO (Jefferies Evades Leadership, Lacks Oomph, HAKEEM (Hesitate, Avoids,Keeps Evading Effective Moves)

Anyone else have some examples, recommendations, or discussions points?

 

Politicians love tellings us what they'll do, but what are the things that you wish they'd get off their a$$ and do something about?

 

BRUSSELS — The European Commission is considering allowing Euroclear to tap frozen Russian assets to help shield the G7’s €45 billion loan to Ukraine against potential retaliation by Moscow.

EU officials are weighing the move as a last-resort solution to compensate Euroclear, the Belgium-based bank holding these assets, for losses incurred in Russia due to its compliance with Western sanctions, according to three officials familiar with the matter who spoke to POLITICO.

Proponents argue the measure would fortify* *a multilateral scheme, finalized last week, that allocates windfall profits generated from around €200 billion in frozen Russian assets to repay the G7’s long-negotiated loan to Ukraine.

Euroclear is currently embroiled in litigation with multiple sanctioned parties who are using Russia’s highly politicized courts to contest their assets being withheld, and seeking compensation.

While Russian courts have little power to force the handover of euro or dollar assets held in Belgium to those with successful claims, they do have the power to take retaliatory action against Euroclear balances held in Russian financial institutions. These belong mainly to Western financial institutions and businesses, who would then be eligible to raise their own compensatory claims against Euroclear.

...

 

...

The evidence is clear: When abortion is legal, democracy thrives. And when reproductive rights are restricted, democracy withers. That same story is unfolding in the U.S. right now, state by state.

Following a successful 2022 abortion ballot initiative, California guaranteed reproductive freedom in its state Constitution. As in Argentina, this move was spearheaded by a strong women’s movement in the state Legislature.

By contrast, Texas has echoed Poland’s path. After shutting down access to abortion, the state restricted its citizens’ right to travel, further curbing civil liberties.

Mobilizing for reproductive rights expands democracy because it gives women voice and control over basic freedoms. The struggle for abortion rights shows society that the personal is indeed political – and that women’s lives matter.

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