One of my favorite memories with my father is eating honey on toasted bread. When my mother was out, and she wasn’t looking, he toasted some bread and allowed me to slather it up with a ton of honey.
Now, my mother really tried to control what we ate. Though not as dictatorial as my present wife, nevertheless, she did not approve of eating a lot of bread and wasting “expensive” honey on it.
So for me, it was a real treat when my father and I had some alone time; toasted up some bread and allowed me free access to all the honey in the world.
Well…
Today I relived that moment.
It was a little different, but we bought a bottle of honey, and a loaf of bread and when we went to the mall food court, she went to town. Then after she consumed the entire slice of bread, she poured the honey on the rice and ate all the rice to the very last piece!
I don’t know if it will ever become a memory that she will treasure, but it is one that I will.
Good times.
Today…
What’s up with this tariff war BS? Why don’t we supply all our needs, and everyone else can fend for themselves?
Quick example here. The United States needs fertilizer to grow most crops because you’ve killed the soil in many areas. Potash is a major component of that. America produces only 20% of the needed amount to grow your crops. The other 80%(230 million tons per year) comes from Canada.
So can you fend for yourselves on 20% of your food?
Trump’s Tariffs Could ‘Significantly Impact’ Housing Market: Here’s How?
President Donald Trump’s tariffs on imports from Canada, Mexico, and China—collectively accounting for over a third of U.S. imports—could have a significant impact on the U.S. housing market, according to a new report by Redfin.
Over the past five years, housing affordability has sharply declined across the U.S. due to a severe housing shortage, soaring prices, and high mortgage rates. During the 2024 presidential campaign, Trump promised to tackle affordability by deporting thousands of migrants, which he claimed would boost housing inventory, and imposing tariffs on foreign goods to strengthen the economy.
However, experts are concerned that Trump’s policies could raise the cost of construction materials and exacerbate labor shortages in the sector, potentially driving housing costs even higher.
On Saturday, Trump signed executive orders imposing 25% tariffs on imports from Canada and Mexico, with the exception of Canadian energy products, which will face a 10% tariff. Imports from China will also be subject to a 10% tariff.
“Higher tariffs are inflationary and likely to lead to higher mortgage rates for a longer period,” said Chen Zhao, who leads the economics team at real estate brokerage Redfin, in a report released on Sunday.
While the Federal Reserve typically does not respond directly to tariffs, which are usually seen as a one-time price increase, it may be hesitant to continue cutting interest rates, particularly if the economy remains strong. As a result, mortgage rates may stay elevated, a scenario many experts expect in the near future.
‘Higher Cost of Housing Materials’
The tariffs on Canada and Mexico are expected to drive up construction costs. “A significant portion of U.S. building materials comes from Canada,” Zhao explained. “The proposed tariffs will likely increase the cost of these materials, leading to higher expenses for home construction and renovations.”
Higher construction costs could lead to reduced housing supply, Zhao warned, or they could be passed on to homebuyers, worsening the affordability crisis.
Retaliation from Canada, Mexico, and China, as already indicated, could slow U.S. economic growth, Zhao noted. “Estimates vary, but the U.S. economy is already showing signs of strain under high interest rates.”
“Housing demand could weaken if there is a significant decline in the labor market,” Zhao added. “In the worst-case scenario, the economy could experience stagflation—entrenched inflation and weak growth.”
Taylor Rogers, a spokesperson for the Trump-Vance campaign, stated, “President Trump will deliver on his promise to Make Housing Affordable Again by defeating historic inflation and reducing mortgage rates.” She also mentioned plans to reduce housing costs by eliminating federal regulations, opening federal land for large-scale housing projects, and banning mortgages for illegal immigrants.
Cynthia Seifert, founder of the real estate lead generator KeyLeads, warned that Trump’s economic growth policies could lead to higher inflation and mortgage rates, potentially undoing any gains from higher incomes.
Dan Hnatkovskyy, CEO of AI-powered marketplace Jome, cautioned that tariffs on materials like lumber—largely imported from Canada—could raise construction costs. He also noted that stricter immigration policies could create a labor shortage in the construction industry, particularly in the South and Southeast, where many workers are undocumented.
Experts predict that Trump’s tariffs could lead to trade wars with Canada, Mexico, and China. On Sunday, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced that Canada would retaliate with 25% tariffs on over $100 billion of U.S. goods and could consider additional measures. Mexico’s President Claudia Sheinbaum said she would announce her country’s response on Monday, while China’s Ministry of Commerce warned of “corresponding countermeasures.” China also pledged to bring the case to the World Trade Organization (WTO), arguing that the tariffs violate WTO rules.
Who is the most badass person you’ve ever met or known?
2 years ago, my aunt was walking home alone at night when she was approached by a stranger with a knife.
He demanded she hand over her purse.
But my aunt, being the savage she is, said to him, honey, I don’t know you or what you’re going through, but is the $30 in my purse really worth years in prison?
The guy just kind of looked at her awkwardly and said, no. It’s not worth it for me to rob you, ma’am.
There’s better ways to make money.
I’m sorry.
With that, he put his knife down and sheepishly turned around and walked away.
This is where my aunt went from an absolute savage to an absolute hero.
Couple of months later, my aunt was busy running her convenience store when that same mugger came into the shop.
My aunt said she recognized him immediately and started looking him up and down until she saw the white document in his hand.
She quickly realized he wasn’t here to rob the place, but instead, he was here applying for a job.
She rushed over and took his CV off of him, and thankfully, he didn’t recognize her.
Now, most people in my aunt’s position would have denied him.
But thankfully, he didn’t recognize her.
Now, most people in my aunt’s position would have denied him, but my aunt isn’t most people.
She hired him practically on the spot and gave him the exact hours he wanted.
And ever since then, the 2 have developed a great friendship, and he still doesn’t know who she is.
I remember asking my aunt why she hired him, and she told me… “fate sent him to me twice. And so I did my duty.”
Lesson from Ukraine: Our fighting doctrine is fatally flawed because our “precision” weapons fail
Why don’t people give the homeless a place to stay?
My dad bought a run-down three family house in a nearby city. We all pulled together and majorly fixed it up. It looked awesome. We did the first floor first, then rented it out to a man who worked construction. We did the third floor next, leaving the middle unit, the worst one, for last. A couple with two children moved in.
Then we finished the middle floor. When he posted an ad for tenants, he got a call from the local battered women’s shelter. They wanted him to take a homeless mother from the temporary shelter into a “permanent” placement. They said all the women get job training and assistance finding a job, and this apartment would be a major step in helping a homeless woman who had been the victim of abuse move on with her life and become a productive citizen. He thought this was a great idea.
She moved in, and promptly quit her job and stopped paying rent. She called all of her other homeless friends and said, “Hey everybody! Free place to stay!” and they came. They partied all night, caused drunken scenes on the street, and the police were called constantly. Then the police would call my father and complain. The guy on the first floor had to be on the construction site at dawn, and they wouldn’t let him sleep.
The last straw for the first floor paying tenant was he woke up and found water pouring in through his ceiling. My father called a plumber, who told him someone had turned on the taps to run a bath and then passed out drunk. The water filled the tub, overflowed, and ruined both second and first floor bathrooms. The plumber said the apartment was covered in people sleeping on the couches and the floors, over 20, he guessed, in a 2-bedroom apartment.
The apartment had a balcony. The mother would lock her two little girls on the balcony all night and day. They would knock on the door, crying, begging to come in: “Mommy! We’re cold! We’re hungry! We have to use the bathroom!” the neighbors would call the police and social services but nothing got done. What if they had fallen?
Soon the third floor tenants moved out because they couldn’t stand it either.
So, now he had a three-apartment building with a mortgage and NO money coming in, and thousands of dollars in damage. It took him MONTHS to evict her. She showed up at her final hearing dressed like a Sunday School teacher, with her two little girls in pretty dresses and combed hair, crying to the judge that she had “nowhere to go” if she was evicted. Fortunately, he didn’t tell her she could keep living in my father’s house for free while driving out the paying tenants. But she defied the order and stayed until my father sent the police one last time.
The worst part is, for all the decent women trying to genuinely improve their lives, people like this ruin it for them. My father would never take another homeless mother again.
DeepSeek R1 Cloned for $30?! PhD Student STUNNING Discovery
How do you think America used the China app “Xiaohongshu”?
Migrating to REDnote and other China Apps, former TikTok users are literally giving the middle finger to the USA government which is the beginning in taking back their freedom and, yes, democracy.
Replacing a China App with another more China App is reminiscence of the USA in Afghanistan where it took 4 U.S.A Presidents, trillions of US$, millions of lives lost & displaced, and more than 20 years to replace the Taliban with the Taliban.
Also, the Vietnam War that lasted from 1954 to 1975, almost 20 years, with direct U.S. military involvement ending in 1973. The conflict spilled into the Laotian and Cambodian civil wars, which ended with all three countries becoming communist in 1975.
That’s dumb & pathetic!
=====================================================
Meanwhile, Americans were thrilled to be able to connect to a real honest-to-goodness China’s App and is ecstatic to have been received enthusiastically by the Chinese people in China who were bewilder by the sudden huge numbers of American users on the Mandarin App Xiaohongshu. Nonetheless, with Google translation, both sides immediately started exploring each other’s cultures and exchanged information on each other country with many offering to teach their language to each other.
So many very funny videos came out with Americans expressing shocks at the low cost of living in China, modernity of China, etc which were completely different from the BS dished out by their government and news media. The Chinese expressed surprises at the controls the USA on their citizens, high cost of living, delipidated infrastructures & public transports, etc.
I think it’s best to hear it directly from the one man, Elon Musk, with whom I really would rather not have any anything to do with, but I am pleasantly surprised that he had put out this video.
TikTok Shutdown Sparks Unexpected US-China Chats on RedNote – Hilarious & Eye-Opening! | MuskTalk007
Or why Chinese games are looking seriously shiny compared to Japanese games these days:
“If you’ve worked on a Chinese game, you’ll know production scale is on a whole other level” Japanese devs discuss growing quality of Chinese games - AUTOMATON WEST Japanese game developers discuss growing quality of Chinese mobile and gacha games and how they compare to domestic games.
I am honestly quite bemused by the focus on visuals and animation that the commentary focuses on, particularly on the JP side. This is traditionally a focus area for JP game dev— mantra in the industry was that game design in the US is writer-centric while game design in JP is artist-centric. So here I am not surprised at how much they care to observe the shortfall of JP animation relative to CN animation (particularly that the commentators are animators). That said, I think it is useful to take some inventory on the other aspects of game dev:
- The flexibility of CN games also applies to its writing. In many ways, JP game dev was in fact here in the NES through PS2 eras— a great many ideas got greenlit despite their risks, and many flopped only for some others to succeed and develop a culture of “every niche explored.” Likewise we associate a lot of the hits of JRPGs to this era, particularly with the Final Fantasy franchise. This ability to be flexible has evaporated over the years in Japan, which is why we seldom talk about Japanese games as embodying particularly good writing (with few outliers holding the torch today).
- JP game dev tends to have more in-house composers than CN game dev. That said, CN game dev has a habit of being far more flexible in the inclusion of non-CN composers; the franchise highlighted in the article (and in broader discussion), Arknights, is quite famous for being thought of as a “record company that also makes video games,” and utilizes this to full effect. I find this to be quite amusing, especially as a longtime VGM enjoyer. Might want to pick Tommy Tallarico’s brain on this.
- CN budgets and production are absolutely demolishing the JP side. Re:Fantazio is a good example of a game that abides by older release models; the gacha space is where the newer models come to shine, particularly around the hybrid media model of selling a world to inhabit rather than just a game title. In a way, China has figured out how to sell fandoms, while Japan is largely stuck with singular releases (many JRPGs) and heavyweight franchises with strong image management (think Nintendo IPs). Which is more in tune with modern audiences? I’d like to say that isekai actually exposes the reality, which is that people follow fandoms, and it is Japan that has been crudely managing those fandoms into monetized products a la narou-kei isekai pipeline slop. Is there an equivalent in JP? I mean… sort of?
As a fan I’m in quite the peculiar position. I have been a longtime fan of the Tales series as it has been the game series that really scratches the ACG itch. But lately I’ve noticed that Tales has dropped off a cliff (Arise was fine, I guess), while Chinese gacha games are really filling in the gap. A while ago I surmised that Honkai Star Rail was filling the Star Ocean niche that had gone empty so long I forgot it was there; to my bemusement, it has filled it too well, and it has the same issues that Star Ocean did as well— not enough sci-fi, too much fantasy! Alas.
I am stuck wondering if JP game dev (esp in ACG-style games) will pick up speed once again or not. It just looks to me like the money has largely dried up; the omen of Blue Protocol still hangs in my mind, particularly when I have to contrast it with the offerings from Netease (of all places):
This sets off all sorts of red flags for me in terms of overpromising, esp. for Netease, but sadly this is also a common pain point for JP and EN game dev. So I suppose I give it a shot, just like most people are saying in the comments.
We will see where game dev heads, but I will always remember Brenda Romero defending her move into mobile game dev. In her words, the mobile space was refreshing because they understood that “copying” was really just “best practices,” and that opened up game devs to be able to talk to each other about game dev, rather than the culture of silence that surrounds the NDA-heavy AAA space. I get the feeling that is how it works in China, and I think Japan is currently suffering from that closed source culture. Really kind of amusing how Korean MMO game dev had a boost in popularity (TERA, Blade & Soul) because of IP theft resulting in ideas being shared across the industry, leading to the advent of the “action MMORPG” (see Guild Wars 2). In the end, it is the willingness to try bold, new things that will drive the industry forward. How we get there is each industry’s (hopefully not-so-secret) secret sauce.
FYI: Korea at least figured it out for Limbus Company, so this is not a uniquely Chinese insight. Rather, I think that Japanese game dev suffers the same kind of ossification that other Japanese industries suffer. As for the indie space… let me know when the success ratio is greater than 1:1000 and I’ll do more than just celebrate the few that survive.
What was your “I think our neighbor is an actual (professional) criminal” moment without any police presence or contact? What made you realize/suspect that your neighbor was in fact a criminal?
There was an empty house across the street. My sitting room/reading area was in direct view of the house. After years of no renters (and there had been) suddenly plain white vans were backing into the driveway. I thought, finally, someone is going to live in this gorgeous victorian.
It was weird from the beginning. Wrought iron decorative bars were installed on all the windows all the way to the third floor. Always dark, I figured it was being prepared for the new occupants.
Since I’m a chronic insomniac, I was sitting in my chair in the dark rubbing my eyes. I looked out the window, to see a fancy, shiny car parked in front of the house. Two white vans were in the long driveway and I could hear low, stern voices and small women, some with long hair, were silhouetted in the light, getting out and going into the back of the house. After the vans emptied, I estimated I had counted at least 14 bodies, all appeared to be female. Some had their hands covering their faces as they stumbled out of the vehicles. Shortly after the the vans departed, the fancy car with dark tinted windows pulled away from the curb.
My spidey senses kicked in, with chills and the hair on the back of my neck prickly.
Long story short, I set up surveillance, took photos, got license plate numbers and daytime photos as activity picked up. Turned it over to police and a human trafficking/prostitution ring got busted. Civic duty done.
Hearty Pulse and Beef Soup
(Maushawa — Afghanistan)
Ingredients
- 6 cups water
- 1/2 cup dried red kidney beans
- 1/2 cup dried green split peas
- 1/3 cup uncooked regular rice
- 1 medium onion, chopped
- 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
- 1/2 pound beef boneless round steak, cut into 1/2 inch pieces
- 1 (16 ounce) can whole tomatoes (with liquid)
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon ground red pepper
- 2 (8 ounce) containers plain yogurt
- 1 tablespoon minced dill weed
Instructions
- Heat water and beans to boiling in a Dutch oven; boil 2 minutes. Remove from heat; cover and let stand 1 hour.
- Heat beans and water to boiling; reduce heat. Cover and simmer 1 hour, being careful not to boil so that beans will not burst.
- Add peas. Heat to boiling; reduce heat. Cover and simmer 30 minutes.
- Stir in rice. Heat to boiling; reduce heat. Cover and simmer until beans and rice are tender, about 20 minutes.
- Cook and stir onion in oil in a 10 inch skillet over medium heat until tender; remove with slotted spoon.
- Add beef to skillet; cook and stir until brown on all sides, about 10 minutes.
- Stir in tomatoes, salt, red pepper and onions; break up tomatoes with fork. Heat to boiling; reduce heat. Cover and simmer, stirring occasionally, until beef is tender, about 45 minutes.
- Stir beef mixture, yogurt and dill weed into bean mixture. Cook uncovered over low heat until hot, adding more water, if necessary, until of soup consistency.
- Garnish with dollops of yogurt topped with sprigs of dill weed.
- Serve with Indian Flat Bread if desired.
These high-paying American careers will be destroyed by Chinese competition within 10 years
What does China getting into A.I. entail for the United States’ position as the global superpower in A.I.?
US had not been the superpower in AI. It leads in some aspects, China leads in others. More specifically,
US leads in advanced AI chips, the related technology and equipment. These are prohibited from exports to China to prevent China catching up.
China leads in the applications side of AI and it has superior data, and is advancing in the technology. In the 10 years of 2012 – 2022, it was granted almost 3 times more patents than the US. Huawei’s 910C competes with Nvidia’s H100, and its upcoming 920C will take on Nvidia’s flagship B200.
US wants to establish dominance with its close system. It aims to guarantee this when it set up the $500 billion AI fund. Throw in the big money, raise the computation power, and everyone will be shut out.
DeepSeek stole the thunder. DeepSeek RI is open-source. It spent less than $6 million to set up against OpenAI’s spent of $100 million for GPT-4. It proves efficiency and innovations can overcome big money.
US is in an uproar. The destruction of $1 trillion value at Nasdaq is hard to stomach. What it does is predictable – the assortments of witch-hunts, embargoes, and accusations.
But nothing can stop China’s AI progress.
Even as RI made headlines, DeepSeek unveiled Janus Pro, a compact image-generation model in direct competition with OpenAI’s Dall-E3, and Alibaba rolled out its latest version of Qwen 2.5 model. There are many others, such as, Kimi k1.5 which beat GPT-4 in math, coding, and vision. Then there was this news report from SCMP – “Chinese algorithm boosts Nvidia’s GPU performance 800-fold” that US ban of high-end GPU to China is forcing Chinese computer scientists to innovate efficient algorithms rather than to rely on spending billions on hardware.
Surely other countries and their computer scientists have taken note. Open-source has taken over from the close system of the US. Wall Street will surely remember. This is irreversible. No chance for the US to become the superpower of AI.
Should President Trump tell China to put a full stop on AI development, otherwise the US would impose an additional 100% tariff on all Chinese goods?
Problems are:
US does not have power to tell China what to do.
China is far too strong.
100% tariff on Chinese goods will hurt the US more than China. The stores would be half empty. Great difficulties to find substitutes. China would have to find new markets. It will take some time, but this will happen.
US has already exhausted whatever it can sanction China.
China has a full arsenal of measures to sanction the US.
OBNOXIOUS Chick WON’T Stop HARASSING Brian!
Why is Europe so technologically backward compared to the USA?
In the early 90’s as digital mobile (cell) phone networks were replacing analogue networks, the Americans opted for an open slather “solution”. Telcos would buy spectrum at Auction and implement whatever digital technology they saw fit.
The result being that the more populous licence areas were snapped up by big telcos and smaller ones would get less populated areas, smaller towns, rural areas etc.
Your mobile number also used the same area code as landlines, so callers couldn’t easily tell if they were dialling a landline number or a mobile.
The result was you could drive only a few “miles” from home or work, and be roaming onto a different cellular provider, incurring roaming costs. Adjacent licence areas may be using CDMA whereas your phone used TDMA technology, so you had no service.
Also, you wrre paying to RECEIVE calls since callers had no indication they were dialling a mobile number, the airtime surcharge was to the recipient of the call. Cold callers and time wasters were costing you money.
Meanwhile, in Europe, where they had learned from incompatible analogue networks, they formed a Special Group for Mobiles, or “Group Speciale Mobile”.
These backward Europeans developed a system with a standardised frequency band/s and communications protocol (TDMA). They used the SIM card concept to aid consumer choice with handsets, ease of changing phones or using a roaming SIM.
They also incorporated pagin type services (SMS) and established a protocol for video calls which still exists today and is universal across handset brands, unlike Apple’s incompatible “Face Time”.
The latest Samsung Smartphone can make and receive video calls with a 20 year old Nokia.
Oh, and GSM countries used unique “area code” prefixes for mobiles (eg 07 in UK, 08 in France IIRC, 04 in Australia, 02 in New Zealand, etc) so callers knew they were dialling a mobile and that there would be a surcharge.
Of course airtime surcharges have been absorbed into monthly fees and many plans are pretty much “all you can eat”.
The backward Europeans developed a far more elegant, integrated and capable mobile phone system than the US “market driven” cockup.
The fact thst the USA has now adopted the GSM model shows that even the troglodytes at US telcos, recognised its superiority.
Oh and let’s not mention TV systems.
Films shot at 23.978 frames per second, TV broadcast at 29.97 FPS. 3:2 pulldown for film to TV transfers.
All because the TV engineers patched up an inferior system, then patched the patches, and patched again.
Meanwhile, in Europe, it was 25 frames per second TV, mostly using the superior resolution and colour coding system of PAL.
Ok foreign films were 24 fps, but speed them up by 4% and you don’t even notice.
Oh, and then there’s the DVB-T digital TV Broadcast standard developed by the Europeans and adopted in most of the world. Allows single frequency networks, reception in moving vehicles, good error recovery.
Then there’s the more expensive and inferior ATSC system perpetrated on American consumers. Lousy reception in vehicles and high patent costs affecting receiver prices.
America has developed some great technology, there’s no question about that, and some of their engineering and manufacturing is second to none, but they are not the be all and end all.
Pepe Escobar: Trump CORNERED as Putin, Iran & China’s BRICS BOMBSHELL Rocks US Empire
Eternal Wavelength
Submitted into Contest #280 in response to: Write a story that solely consists of dialogue. (No dialogue tags, actions, or descriptions. Just pure dialogue!)… view prompt
Cameron Snider
“What did you just do?”
“I merely willed your emotions away, for a moment. A technology of our kind. There is no need for that. Calm.”
“I, I…”
“Listen, now. Our worlds would not have been able to meet without an act of convergence. But such a thing requires an anchor. A being capable of creating the tether which links us from each side.”
“I don’t follow. Our machine was meant for communication beyond the end – a bleeding edge concept. Words and meanings which travelled dimensions, time itself. But that doesn’t…”
“Matter? It matters, Patrick. I couldn’t do it alone, after all. We need the original. We needed you.”
“The original?”
“That’s right. Without the original as our basis – the original dimension which began it all… Without your contribution, we wouldn’t have come upon our means of travel. The connection which brought us all together wouldn’t be there.”
“How?”
“You start something this day, well – we – start something, now. The communication. Your device – built to travel beyond the known universe – does indeed reach its destination in time. Lots of time. Not while you are alive, of course.”
“Then, you…”
“Yes, Patrick. I am neither of your species nor your timeline.”
“I still don’t follow.”
“This wasn’t reasonless, far from it. A calculation by the denizens of my dimension. We are the Altrazun.”
“Alt..ra?”
“Altrazun.”
“I see. The end of the universe… So my machine will reach its destination, long after I am gone, as predicted…”
“That’s right. The beginning of it all. But when the wavelengths of your machine reached their destination, it reached the next.”
“The next dimension?”
“Correct. But it didn’t stop there. Other dimensions, other times… Each is facilitated by its own boundaries. Means, conditions, they are not the same. An echo in one dimension is a wave in another. A drop of water may be a tidal wave in another. None ripple the same.”
“You are losing me again.”
“To speak frankly, the existence as you understand it, all of its basic compounds, laws and rules, they are not the same in each. They say on your world that the vastness of space is infinite, incomprehensible.”
“Well, yes…”
“Then what of another existence? And another? And another beyond that. Your message reached far, an achievement not realized by any other. We are meant to live amongst our own, a terrarium of our own universe encased in a glass ball; separate from all. But you broke that. Eons of deciphering for some, less for others. Before long your waves reached far through all the cosmos it could, and then farther yet. For the first time, universe became aware of universe, existence to existence.”
“Then… Then I have succeeded.”
“Far more than you know.”
“So, what now then? Why are you here? Why did you help me complete the project? You mentioned… revolution.”
“That’s right, that is exactly it. You may have broken the boundary which alerted all time and existence to each other, but you wouldn’t know its repercussion, not at all, Patrick. Some things were never meant to see each other. Civilizations beyond were able to capture the essence of your work, and took them further. The proof of my presence is enough. Unfathomable as the time which passed may seem, it did indeed come to pass that there would be more than just communication.”
“You mean-”
“Yes. Universes began to invade one another… Resources are not infinite in any existence. And yet what of the next one over, and the next? Empires rose, realities fell. Wars of untold scale destroyed cosmos, and more. When one universe was drained completely of all that could be taken, another simply need be met.”
“That-no, no! It cannot be!”
“They had a name for your Patrick. Do you know what it was? ‘The Endwave’. Named after your technologies wavelength based properties. No Empire – not even our great Altrazun- knew your name, after all. Well, not for a while. In time all would be understood, conquered. All to find the source. All to find you. Breathe, Patrick.”
“I can’t even… It just can’t be, it can’t be real. I was to reach untold depths, I was to gather information from the ends of our known universe. But conquering? Invasion, revolution? What madness have I begun? This mustn’t come to pass!”
“You have already tried to shut it down, I told you, it won’t work. I made sure of it. This moment, this existence, this is your great legacy!”
“Then why, why go through the trouble of finding the source, why are you here? You still won’t say!”
“Because, Patrick. You die. You age, and you die. The mind which began it all. The mind which understood the truth of a tireless wavelength of data, one which never lost energy, no matter what it encounters. In part, it was a sort of dream for the more inquisitive minds of our empire, like myself – the search for the source… For others, it was your mind. To find, and use you.”
“Use?”
“That’s right. What else would the ‘Endwave’ produce, I wonder? What if he were given an eon? An eternity? Immortality, Patrick. What would your mind be capable of if time held no import?”
“Eternity…”
“To live forever, no longer hindered by such a meaningless concept as time… We found the source. We found the time which you would succeed, and we even found the means to send an informant, myself, of course. All to offer you one thing – everything.”
“And what if this moment in time never happened?”
“What?”
“What would your Altrazun do if I simply denied it?”
“Don’t be a fool. You could end your life, let it all go to waste. It will never take away what has already transpired. The loop of time-”
“You lie. You said yourself, this is a convergence. A point where all things meet, where all connect. What then, without me?”
“You wouldn’t- you fool!”
“Wouldn’t I, creature!?”
“You must stop this madness, put it down!”
“Funny, for all of your technological achievement, for all of these adaptions of reality you have sown… I would have thought you might have first understood mankind enough to have seen this coming.”
“Patrick, put it down, you don’t unders-”
Tiktok Refugees From America Share Their Experience on the RedNote App
“Is Canada’s $155 billion tariff strike against Trump the start of an all-out trade war?”
Yup.
Exactly like Trump promised Canada was too chicken to do.
So let’s recap, shall we children?
Trump has been in office about 2 weeks.
And in that time he has….
Illegally fired over a dozen Inspector Generals.
Illegally overturned the 14th Amendment
Hired a parasite-infected heroin addict as director of HHS
Hired an alcoholic wife-beater as SECDEF
Hired a Russian asset as Director of National Intelligence.
His Vice-President pick and #2 in line to lead the country is a billionaire’s boy-toy with ZERO political experience
Pulled us out of the WHO right at the beginning of a worldwide pandemic so we can no longer share research or information with the rest of the world.
Pulled us out of the Paris Climate Accords during the hottest, coldest, wettest and driest 18 months in modern world history
Gave an illegal immigrant access to the financial information of everyone in the country.
Got Russia to threaten us with a nuclear strike if someone tries to assassinate Putin and it’s traced back to us.
Threatened to use military force to seize the Panama Canal
Threated to use military force to seize Greenland
Promised Canada (Sun. Feb. 2, 2025) they would “cease to exist” if they dared retaliate against our tariffs with tariffs of their own.
Slapped tariffs on Canadian imports, making things imported through Canada 25% more expensive.
Slapped tariffs on Mexican imports, (Including food) making things imported through Mexico 25% more expensive.
Slapped tariffs on Chinese imports, making things imported through Canada 10% more expensive.
Unveiled plans for a concentration camp in Cuba to hold 30,000 people deemed “dangerous”. (E.G, they have brown skin)
Fired the entire senior leadership of the FBI and dozens of agents determined to not be loyal enough.
Fired dozens of people at the DOJ who were assigned to his case during the last administration.
Fired the senior leadership and safety director of the FAA for recommending possible fines against SpaceX for safety violations.
Paused funding for all government programs.
Removed caps on prescription drugs, causing insulin to jump from $35.00 to $1,001.00
Is in the process of replacing thousands of Federal workers with loyalists.
Shorpy
Why don’t people in wildfire areas just build a wall around their house so that they are protected from fire?
Sensible people do.
Hong Kong and Shenzhen, Guangdong area has big wild fires it’s an annual thing. A couple years back I woke up to a orange glow at 3am as the mountainside was on fire.
So why don’t wildfires scare us?
In Hong Kong even in remote ass villages like mine? We have WORKING fire hydrants. Fire crews come and test them every 3 months. I see it because they often use my yard to turn around their fire vans.
We do not build our homes out of wood. We use concrete. The MEGA fires in the Shanty Towns of the past means everybody builds out of concrete and stone. Yes fire weakens concrete. But our homes also have taps on the roof terraces meaning that we can actively spray our homes to cool them.
Thirdly, our ancestral graves are dotted around everywhere. Every few months we get some machetes and hook knives to clear a path to our ancestral graves. For the super remote ones we do a controled burn.
If there IS a fire everybody in the village is mobilised to go climb the mountain and help put it out. The last time there was a massive fire 1/3 of the men from the village were putting it out before the firemen arrived. We are a community we help each other.
Finally there are fire mops EVERYWHERE, you can be on a barely marked trail to our of our ancestral graves and find a box with fire fighting instructions on them.
What is going to be the China response for Panama not renewing the understanding agreement with China after Marco Rubio’s visit?
Oh China definitely agreed to this!!!
Notice Trump hasn’t once talked of Taiwan and imposed a massive tariff on Taiwanese Chips
Notice he hasn’t yet spoken to Bong Bong Marcos and BBM offered to withdraw a missile base in exchange of concessions from the Chinese
Notice Rubio implicitly said Taiwan was part of China
My very strong guess is Trump has made a deal with Putin and Xi
With Putin, Trumps deal is to end the Ukraine War by cutting off aid to Ukraine and ensuring Europe has no choice but to back down
Trumps deal is non interference in the Arctic route and corridor between Russia and China
In exchange he wants Putin to slowly go back the Dollar system and help bring up Oil Production and drive the price of Oil down
With Xi – my guess is Trump will not give Taiwan too much rope and importance like Biden did, and also won’t poke around too much in the South China Sea
He also won’t poke around in Africa
In exchange, he will get his way with the Panama Canal and win face from his supporters
For the Chinese – it’s a small price to pay
Symbolism is cheap
They are a Nation who think 20–30 years ahead and four years is a second for them
Besides Irrational decisions like this, force the US to become more like Nazi Germany and at some point, the US will also face the same situation when the world unilaterally decides to stand against bullying and face the bully
China will be waiting for it
Their Military strength grows every day and their Technology prowess is growing faster than anyone else
So they just lie back and watch
Richard Wolff: “IT’S OVER! We Are On The Way Down!” (Interview)
What do you think of DeepSeek from China?
**Title:** *Nadigargal (The Actors)*
**Genre:** Drama/Comedy with Emotional Undertones
**Plotline:**
**Act 1: The Struggle**
– **Arjun (Pradeep Ranganathan):** A 30-year-old struggling actor with a decade of rejections, working part-time as a dubbing artist. His family pressures him to quit and join the family business.
– **Meera (Mamitha Baiju):** A 25-year-old newcomer from a small town, brimming with raw talent but dismissed for her “ordinary” looks. She works as a script assistant to stay afloat.
– They meet at a chaotic audition, bond over their shared struggles, and become roommates in a cramped Chennai flat. To cope, they create a humorous YouTube channel, *“Flop Heroes”*, mocking clichéd film tropes, which gains a niche following.
**Act 2: The Breakthrough**
– Meera unexpectedly lands the lead in a feminist thriller directed by a renowned filmmaker (cameo by a real-life director). Her performance goes viral, catapulting her to stardom.
– Arjun initially supports her but grows resentful as Meera’s schedule pulls her away. A pivotal scene: Arjun misses a callback because he’s covering for Meera’s sick pet, while she’s at a glamorous awards show.
**Act 3: The Divide**
– Meera’s world becomes glitzy but isolating; she’s manipulated by her PR team to distance herself from her “unpolished” past, including Arjun.
– Arjun’s bitterness peaks when he’s rejected for a role Meera recommended him for (unbeknownst to him, the producer overruled her). They clash in a raw argument, with Arjun accusing her of selfishness and Meera feeling unappreciated.
**Act 4: Reconciliation & Redemption**
– Meera’s film hits theaters. During a solo interview, she breaks down live, admitting fame feels hollow without her true friends.
– Arjun, watching the interview, rushes to her aid, helping her sneak out of a stifling press event. They revisit their old hangout, reigniting their bond.
– Together, they pitch a semi-autobiographical web series based on *“Flop Heroes”*, with Arjun as the lead and Meera as creative producer. The series becomes a sleeper hit, earning Arjun critical acclaim and Meera respect as a storyteller.
**Climax:**
– At Arjun’s first award win, he dedicates it to Meera, calling her his “soulmate in art.” The film ends with them filming a scene for their next project, laughing between takes.
**Post-Credits Scene:**
– A meta montage of real-life bloopers from Pradeep and Mamitha during the movie’s shoot, breaking the fourth wall with a grin.
**Themes:**
– Friendship over fame.
– Authenticity in a superficial industry.
– Redefining success on your own terms.
**Unique Twists:**
– The YouTube channel subplot mirrors their real-life journey, blending humor with social commentary.
– Meera’s star-making role critiques sexism in cinema (e.g., her character isn’t romanticized but portrayed as intellectually fierce).
**Tagline:** *”In a world of scripts, their greatest role was friendship.”*
This framework balances humor, heart, and industry satire, allowing depth for character arcs and emotional moments. Develop supporting characters (e.g., a witty auto-driver friend, a cynical casting director) to enrich the narrative.
Deepseek just suggested a plotline for a tamil film with the word Nadigargal
Ordinary but at the same time also extraordinary as to the potential
Alpha4367
Submitted into Contest #280 in response to: Center your story around a character who overhears others talking about them.… view prompt
Ashley Brandt
Alexander had kept silent while the Doctor rambled on about the scientific ramifications of what he was doing. He fancied himself a man of superior intellect and value, and absolutely necessary to national security.
“We are on the verge, Alex,” he’d say at the end of every working day. “I can feel it.”
But when the Doctor excused himself, leaving his intern to clean up the lab, Alex would creep over to where I lay and hold my hand, as if he knew I could hear them.
“I wonder… can you feel it?” he’d asked me. I would have given anything to nod. Yes, I could feel it. I could feel the weight of my limbs and the way my lungs burned when I was deprived of oxygen. I felt the way my skin burned and froze when heat or ice were applied. I knew when they stuck me in the pressure chamber, and my eyes began to bulge, and my head hurt from the compressive forces acting on my body. It felt like dying, only without the sweet release from suffering. Then they’d inject something into my IV and I’d drift off to sleep, only to awaken later to another bout of pain.
Yes, I feel it, Alex. I feel it all.
The Tragedy of the Train Ghost | Who was he, really? | Ghost (1990)
Which country has the most influence on the Philippines government’s position on the South China Sea conflict with China?
In his last visit to the Asia-Pacific region before leaving office, US Secretary of State Blinken selectively skipped the Philippines.
This move not only reveals the subtle changes in the US attitude towards the Philippines, but also foreshadows the isolation and dilemma of the Philippines on the international stage.
As the two traditional allies of the United States in the Asia-Pacific region, South Korea and Japan have been visited by Blinken, but the Philippines was unexpectedly excluded.
This decision not only surprised and disappointed the Philippine government, but also made the outside world begin to re-examine the position of the Philippines in the US Asia-Pacific strategy.
Perhaps this is one of the reasons why the South China Sea has been unusually calm recently.
The US’s neglect of the Philippines may mean the US’s strategic adjustment on the South China Sea issue and a reassessment of the role of the Philippines.
The Philippine government has not changed, but why did the Biden administration choose to ignore this former ally?
Analysts believe that the Philippines’ “one-time” ally role in the US Asia-Pacific strategy may be the main reason for its neglect.
As a pawn used by the Biden administration to deal with China on the South China Sea issue, the Philippines was once valued and supported by the United States.
However, with the Biden administration about to step down, the South China Sea strategy has lost its original meaning for them.
In this context, the Philippines being left out has become an inevitable result.
It is worth noting that the United States’ military hegemony in Southeast Asia is also gradually collapsing.
In recent years, China’s influence in Southeast Asia has continued to rise, and China has demonstrated its strong strength in the economic, diplomatic and military fields.
Correspondingly, the United States’ military influence in Southeast Asia is facing unprecedented challenges.
Recently, the US Navy’s aircraft carrier battle group entered the South China Sea and visited Malaysia, but at the same time, China’s two large ship formations were also active in the South China Sea and visited Indonesia and Vietnam at the same time.
This comparison undoubtedly reveals the decline of the United States’ military influence in Southeast Asia.
In this context, it is obviously not in the national interest of the United States to let the United States engage in military confrontation with China in the South China Sea in order to support the Philippines.
Therefore, it is not surprising that the United States chose to ignore the Philippines at a sensitive moment.
The experience of the Philippines provides us with a profound lesson: on the international stage, any country should maintain an independent position and foreign policy, and not become a victim or pawn of the game of great powers.
Gulab Jamun
This Indian dessert is divine! I have been known to eat dessert first at Indian buffets because I do not want to run out of room for this delicious treat.
Ingredients
Jamuns
- 1 cup instant nonfat dry milk
- 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
- 2 pinches baking soda
- 3 tablespoons melted ghee
- 3 to 4 tablespoons milk
Syrup
- 1 cup light brown sugar
- 3 cups water
- 7 cardamom pods
- 2 cups oil
- 1 1/2 teaspoons rose water or 1 teaspoon vanilla essence
Instructions
Jamuns
- In a large bowl, mix dry milk powder, flour, baking soda and ghee; using both hands, rub the mixture.
- Add the milk to the ingredients. Knead for another 5 minutes.
- Roll dough into small balls.
Syrup
- Boil the brown sugar and 3 cups water in a pot for half an hour over low medium temperature.
- Add 2 cups oil to a small pot and fry the small balls until they are brown.
- After all balls are fried, reheat the sugar water.
- Add cardamom seed. As soon as it begins to boil, add the balls and simmer for 15 minutes.
- When the balls absorb the syrup, turn off the heat. Remove the balls with slotted spoon.
- Stir the rose water or vanilla essence into the syrup and pour the mixture over the balls.
- Serve hot or cold.
Sir Whiskerton and the Case of the Picasso Turtle: A Tale of Art, Misadventure, and Shell-shocked Hens
Ah, dear reader, prepare yourself for a tale of art, mistaken identity, and one very slow but incredibly famous turtle. Today’s story is one of high culture, low comedy, and a rescue mission that required the combined efforts of some of the farm’s most unlikely heroes. So, grab your beret and your sense of humor, as we dive into Sir Whiskerton and the Case of the Picasso Turtle: A Tale of Art, Misadventure, and Shell-shocked Hens.
The Arrival of Slow Bob
It all began on a sunny afternoon when a peculiar figure emerged from the pond near the Disneyland of Debris. It was a turtle—a rather slow-moving, unassuming turtle with a shell that was anything but ordinary. Painted on his back was a swirling, abstract masterpiece, complete with the inscription: “Picasso, nine years old.”
The hens were the first to notice him. Doris, Harriet, and Lillian were pecking around the pond when they spotted the turtle basking in the sun.
“What is that?” Doris squawked, her feathers puffing up in awe.
“That?” Harriet echoed, tilting her head.
“Head!” Lillian added, fainting dramatically onto a patch of grass.
The turtle, who introduced himself as Slow Bob, explained his storied past. “Ah, yes,” he said in a slow, deliberate drawl. “This masterpiece on my shell was painted by none other than Pablo Picasso himself. He was just a lad of nine at the time, but even then, his genius was undeniable.”
The hens were mesmerized. “It’s… it’s sublime!” Doris declared, her eyes wide with wonder.
“Sublime!” Harriet clucked.
“Clucked!” Lillian added, still on the ground.
The geese, never ones to be outdone, soon joined the admiration society. Gertrude, the leader of the geese, honked in approval. “It’s a true work of art. A masterpiece! A… a… geese-piece!”
“Geese-piece!” her flock echoed.
The Farmer’s Folly
Unfortunately, not everyone on the farm appreciated Slow Bob’s artistic pedigree. The farmer, ever the practical man, mistook the turtle for a painted stone. “Huh,” the farmer muttered, scratching his head. “That’s a funny-lookin’ rock. Must’ve fallen off one of the sculptures in the junkyard.”
Before anyone could stop him, the farmer picked up Slow Bob and carried him off to the barn, intending to use him as a doorstop.
“Help!” Slow Bob called out, his voice slow but panicked. “I’m not a rock! I’m a turtle! A famous turtle!”
But the farmer, oblivious to the turtle’s pleas, set him down by the barn door and went about his business.
The Rescue Mission
When the hens and geese realized what had happened, they raised the alarm. “Sir Whiskerton!” Doris squawked, flapping her wings in distress. “Slow Bob has been kidnapped!”
“Kidnapped!” Harriet echoed.
“Echoed!” Lillian added, fainting again.
I sprang into action, rallying the farm’s most capable (and least likely) heroes: Big Red the dog, Rufus the radioactive doggie, Porkchop the pig, and Bessie the tie-dye cow. Together, we formed the Rescue Brigade for the Preservation of Artistic Turtles (or R.B.P.A.T. for short).
“Alright, team,” I said, flicking my tail. “Our mission is clear: we must rescue Slow Bob from the farmer’s clutches. But we must do so quietly. No barking, no oinking, and definitely no mooing.”
“Mooing?” Bessie said, her love beads jingling. “But mooing is my thing.”
“Not this time, Bessie,” I said firmly. “This is a stealth mission.”
The Great Escape
The rescue mission was… well, let’s just say it was a comedy of errors. Big Red, despite his best efforts, couldn’t resist wagging his tail, which knocked over a bucket and alerted the farmer. Rufus, glowing faintly in the dark, accidentally lit up the barn like a neon sign. Porkchop, ever the foodie, got distracted by a pile of corn and started munching loudly. And Bessie? Well, Bessie tried to meditate the farmer into letting Slow Bob go, but her “peace and love” vibes only confused him.
“What in tarnation is goin’ on here?” the farmer muttered, scratching his head.
Seeing that stealth was no longer an option, I decided to take matters into my own paws. I leapt onto the farmer’s shoulder and let out a dramatic meow. “Farmer!” I said, flicking my tail. “That is not a rock. That is a turtle. A famous turtle. And you, sir, are committing a crime against art!”
The farmer, startled by my sudden appearance (and my unusually eloquent meowing), dropped Slow Bob. The turtle landed safely on a pile of hay, his Picasso-adorned shell glinting in the sunlight.
“Oh, thank you, Sir Whiskerton,” Slow Bob said, his voice slow but sincere. “You’ve saved me from a life of doorstop drudgery.”
The Moral of the Story
As the farmer scratched his head and wandered off, muttering about “weird animals,” the animals gathered around Slow Bob to celebrate his rescue.
The moral of the story, dear reader, is this: Art is everywhere, even in the most unexpected places. And while it’s easy to overlook the beauty in the world, it’s important to take the time to appreciate it—whether it’s a Picasso on a turtle’s shell or the simple joy of a sunny day on the farm.
A Happy Ending
With Slow Bob safely returned to the pond, the farm returned to its usual state of peaceful chaos. The hens and geese continued to admire his shell, declaring it the “eighth wonder of the barnyard.” The farmer, still confused but unharmed, went back to his chores. And the members of the R.B.P.A.T. basked in the glory of their heroic deeds.
As for me, I returned to my favorite sunbeam on the barn roof, content in the knowledge that I had once again saved the day. Slow Bob’s art was safe, the farm was at peace, and all was right in the world.
And so, dear reader, we leave our heroes with the promise of new adventures, new mysteries, and hopefully, no more kidnapped turtles. Until next time, may your days be filled with laughter, love, and just a little bit of feline genius.
The End.
This DeepSeek demo shows how good the Chinese AI model is at math and reasoning
- DeepSeek’s AI models rival top Silicon Valley offerings, excelling in some complex tasks.
- The models use inference-time compute, breaking queries into smaller, manageable tasks.
- DeepSeek’s DeepThink mode shows its thought process, solving challenging math problems.
Chinese AI lab DeepSeek recently released AI models that match or exceed some of Silicon Valley’s top offerings.
DeepSeek uses an approach called test-time or inference-time compute, which slices queries into smaller tasks, turning each into a new prompt that the model tackles. Each step requires running a new request, which is known as the inference stage in AI.
Business Insider recently tested one of DeepSeek’s models using its DeepThink mode, which shows users every step of its thought process.
We gave the model a multistep math problem that was suggested by Charlie Snell, an AI researcher at UC Berkeley.
Snell said DeepSeek performs well on complex math problems that must be solved by thinking for longer and in stages. The researcher picked problems from the American Invitational Mathematics Examination, a challenging test for high school math whizzes.
“I put questions from that into the DeepSeek model,” Snell told BI in an interview. “I read through the chain of thought. It was understandable.”
A DeepSeek demo
Here’s the math problem Snell suggested for BI’s DeepSeek demo: “Find a sequence of +, -, /, * which can be applied to the numbers 7, 3, 11, 5 to get to 24, where each of the given numbers is used exactly once.”
BI put that prompt into DeepSeek’s chat window on its website. The model responded initially by laying out the challenge ahead.
“Alright, so I’ve got this problem here: I need to use the numbers 7, 3, 11, and 5, and combine them with the operations of addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division, using each number exactly once, to get to 24,” it replied. “At first glance, this seems a bit tricky, but I think with some systematic thinking, I can figure it out.”
It then proceeded through multiple steps over roughly 16 pages of discussion that included mathematical calculations and equations. The model sometimes got it wrong, but it spotted this and didn’t give up. Instead, it swiftly moved on to try another possible solution, then another.
“Almost got close there with 33 / 7 * 5 ≈ 23.57, but not quite 24. Maybe I need to try a different approach,” it wrote at one point.
Later on, the DeepSeek model seemed to catch itself repeating a potential solution.
“Wait, I already did that one,” the model wrote. “Okay, maybe I need to consider using division in a different way.”
After a few minutes, it found the correct answer.
“You can see it try different ideas and backtrack,” Snell said. He highlighted this part of DeepSeek’s chain of thought as particularly noteworthy:
"This is getting really time-consuming. Maybe I need to consider a different strategy," the AI model wrote. "Instead of combining two numbers at a time, perhaps I should look for a way to group them differently or use operations in a nested manner."
Bingo!
Rubio: “It’s not normal for the world to have a unipolar power.”
President Joe Biden showed a lunatic believe of being ‘the leader of world’. He cherished the extension of the ‘unilateral moment’ when the U.S., after the breakdown of the Soviet Union, could act globally without restrictions and without fear of consequences.
There is some dread abroad that President Donald Trump, with his boarish demanding style of negotiation, would also follow that view.
But Trump’s choice as Secretary of State, former Senator Marco Rubio, is offering a different perspective. In an extensive interview with Megyn Kelly, Rubio is doing away with the unilateral moment and starts to endorse multipolarity.
He is asked for his big picture overview:
QUESTION: It’s such a tricky time to be Secretary of State, especially as a Republican, because you look at the Republican Party and it’s fractured internally about where we should be on foreign policy. […] So how – just give me the 30,000-foot-level view of how you’re going to navigate that fracture.
Rubio seems to have thought quite a bit about this. Foreign policy as practiced over the last years, he says, has lost its focus:
I think the mission of American foreign policy – and this may sound sort of obvious, but I think it’s been lost. The interest of American foreign policy is to further the national interest of the United States of America, right? [..][A]nd that’s the way the world has always worked. The way the world has always worked is that the Chinese will do what’s in the best interests of China, the Russians will do what’s in the best interest of Russia, the Chileans are going to do what’s in the best interest of Chile, and the United States needs to do what’s in the best interest of the United States. Where our interests align, that’s where you have partnerships and alliances; where our differences are not aligned, that is where the job of diplomacy is to prevent conflict while still furthering our national interests and understanding they’re going to further theirs. And that’s been lost.
To recognize that the other side is pursuing its own (at least subjectively legitimate) interests is indeed what had been lost at the basis of U.S. diplomacy.
Rubio expands on that:
And I think that was lost at the end of the Cold War, because we were the only power in the world, and so we assumed this responsibility of sort of becoming the global government in many cases, trying to solve every problem. And there are terrible things happening in the world. There are. And then there are things that are terrible that impact our national interest directly, and we need to prioritize those again. So it’s not normal for the world to simply have a unipolar power. That was not – that was an anomaly. It was a product of the end of the Cold War, but eventually you were going to reach back to a point where you had a multipolar world, multi-great powers in different parts of the planet. We face that now with China and to some extent Russia, and then you have rogue states like Iran and North Korea you have to deal with.
That is a great (if very late) insight from a U.S. secretary for foreign policy.
The Biden administration had overextended the unilateral moment by underestimating Russia. It had launched the proxy-war in Ukraine because it had thought that Russia was weak. It limited technical exports to China because it thought that would hinder its development. It was so blind that it came to believe that it was successful in this.
In an exit interview with the Financial Times Biden’s national security advisor Jake Sullivan is still making those claims (archived):
“Our alliances are stronger than they’ve been in a very long time. Our competitors and adversaries are weaker too in ways that have defied expectations, certainly with China. And we’ve produced that very strong American hand without getting entangled in war overseas,” [Sullivan] argues.
People with clear eyes have a different view. Since the U.S. started its proxy-war in Ukraine, which that country is losing, Russia has nearly tripled its forces. The former British commodore Steve Jermy asserts that NATO would lose in a conflict with it:
In summary, NATO is positioning itself as Europe’s defender, yet lacks the industrial capacity to sustain peer-to-peer warfighting, is wholly dependent on U.S. forces for the remotest chance of success, is unable satisfactorily to defend its sea lines of communication against Russian submarine, or its training and industrial infrastructure against strategic ballistic bombardment, is comprised of a diverse mix of un-bloodied conventional forces, and lacks the capacity to think and act strategically.An easy NATO victory cannot be assumed, and I am afraid that the opposite looks far more likely to me.
Sullivan’s ‘success’ in limiting China’s progress has also defeated itself (archived):
China policy, [Sullivan] adds, was another achievement. “America is in a demonstrably better position in the long-term competition with China than we were, and yet we did it while stabilising the relationship and finding areas to work together.”He says the US and China are in a “decisive decade” that will determine which comes out ahead in key areas such as artificial intelligence and the transition to a clean energy economy. “Four out of those 10 years in the decisive decade . . . [have] turned in America’s favour in a really significant way,” says Sullivan, adding that the export controls the US imposed on high-end chips and manufacturing equipment have had a “demonstrable impact”.
They indeed had a demonstrable impact. Lacking access to U.S. made tools China set out to make its own, better ones:
Days after our lunch, a Chinese company called DeepSeek stunned Silicon Valley by unveiling an AI model that appears to rival US models. After the news broke, I emailed Sullivan to get his reaction. He says it shows that the US needs to “stay on our game” but he is “still confident in the American lead” in AI. He stresses that it “only reinforces” his view on the importance of export controls.
China has in fact blown up the U.S. idea of having expensive to use, privately owned AI models closed off from public scrutiny. It open-sourced its own better models which can now be used for mere pennies. There is no longer an ‘American lead’ in this field.
Rubio seems to have understood that unilateral behavior has failed and that a multilateral world requires to pragmatically compromise:
So now more than ever we need to remember that foreign policy should always be about furthering the national interest of the United States and doing so, to the extent possible, avoiding war and armed conflict, which we have seen two times in the last century be very costly.
…
[N]ow you can have a framework by which you analyze not just diplomacy but foreign aid and who we would line up with and the return of pragmatism. And that’s not an abandonment of our principles. I’m not a fan or a giddy supporter of some horrifying human rights violator somewhere in the world. By the same token, diplomacy has always required us and foreign policy has always required us to work in the national interest, sometimes in cooperation with people who we wouldn’t invite over for dinner or people who we wouldn’t necessarily ever want to be led by. And so that’s a balance, but it’s the sort of pragmatic and mature balance we have to have in foreign policy.
There are many foreign policy points in Rubio’s long interview I wholeheartedly disagree with.
But I am delighted to see that he gets the basic principal right: the U.S. has interests; so do others(!); surviving requires compromise.
Posted by b on February 1, 2025 at 17:21 UTC | Permalink
Did any of the Nationalist army defect to the Communist Party of China (CCP)?
Most CCP leaders and generals were members of the Nationalist party, teachers, instructors and cadets of the Nationalist military academy, most of the communist solders surrendered or captured Nationalist soldiers, numbered in the millions. They were classmates and revolutionaries or friends in the early years. Chairman Mao was a lecturer, premier Zhao was a teacher at the nationalist military academy.
Similarly American civil war generals and officers in the Union and Confederate South were classmates, friends or Masonic brothers.
Can Canada shorten the supply chains with other partners now that the US raised 25% taxes on their commercial relations? How and with whom?
This world has turned multipolar. Not all options are mutually exclusive, if the leaders can play the game cool and wisely. That being said, Canada has been pretty stupid up to this point, IMHO. The US is back to the wall in all battle fronts against China. Trade deficit wrt China keeps rising, more through Canada and Mexico. The new tariffs on Canada and Mexico are simply part of Trump’s grand strategy to plug the loopholes. US government desperately needs to raise income and tariff is one source. Putting two and two together, Trump’s plan is very clear. Canada and Mexico have choices. And never forget China owns the largest consumer market in the world with unlimited potential. We’ll see.
“It may be dangerous to be America’s enemy, but to be America’s friend is fatal.” This is perfectly attested by the unfolding scenario. The EU is in the same situation. Trump is a rude awakening to its naive allies and a death knell for the demise of the proverbial liberal hegemony. After Trump’s 4 year ravaging, the US will be done.
Why has Trump started a trade war?
Trump is leading The Great American Retreat to Fortress America.
He knows that the US can no longer lead in all fields like before, and he understands that outsourcing manufacturing to China was a HUGE mistake.
But he cannot reveal to the American people he is leading The Great American Retreat because most Americans would not accept the idea. So, as a distraction, he is introducing tariffs on Canada, Mexico and China so that Americans are not aware of what is REALLY happening. And that is, the US can only dominate a much smaller part of the world than previously.
His goal is to create a US which trades with much fewer nations, and is largely self-sufficient in food and technology. Eventually, he will have to cut off all trade between China and the G7 countries because he understands that US companies cannot compete with Chinese manufacturers on cost and quality, and the US$ will not be used as much in international trade.
This means PROTECTIONISM until the US can become competitive again, which will take 50–100 years.
What is something that you swear happened but you have no proof and nobody believes you?
This is going to sound like an urban legend, but I swear this happened..
When I was in Germany in the Army I had to work as a gate guard for a couple of months.. Stand out in the cold, the rain, the snow, or whatever checking ID’s of people coming on to the post – and that was it. Pretty boring. Weekends always livened up some as drunk GI’s came back from nights out downtown, etc.. But one night this drunk German woman came stumbling up, and just started making random chit chat about nothing. Then somehow the conversation turned to Elvis Pressley. And to be honest I can’t remember how that happened, but sure enough we talked about Elvis for some reason… maybe she asked me if I liked his music – whatever. But everybody knows Elvis was stationed in Germany when he was in the Army, and there was even a mess hall named after him on the little Kaserne (base) where he served.
But during the discussion she told me “He’s my father.”
And thinking it was just random drunk talk I laughed and said I didn’t’ believe her.
“No, he really is! Look, I’ll show you!”
And she reached into her purse, pulled out an old black and white photo of a young Elvis in uniform with a young girl who was NOT Priscilla Pressley and said “That’s my mother.”
I thought about it and the math seemed to add up.. Elvis served in the late 50’s, this was around 1987–1988-ish, and this woman looked to be around 30 or so.
And you know, I kinda believed her then.
I’ve thought about that a lot over the years, and if she’s still around I really hope she’s gotten a DNA test lol.
The US & its allies have attacked Huawei for almost 6 years, which made Huawei more independent & stronger globally. Now the whole US has cyber attacked DeepSeek, which made DeepSeek more popular & solid. It is top AI app for 140 countries. Why?
DeepSeek has wide overseas subscribers, including from the US. US has shown great antagonism, like witch-hunt, accusations, and bans government organs to use it. Outsiders generally consider them extreme. Subscriptions have risen.
I have no idea if it is the top AI app in 140 countries. What would be true is that US antagonism adds fuel to the immense publicity, gives free advertisement to DeepSeek.
This is reminiscent of Huawei. But the consequences are much bigger and deeper.
The consequence for Huawei is that it has emerged stronger from the sanctions – breaks through to high-end chips, establishes its own supply chain, and its own operating system. It is untouchable by the US. This took about 5 years. Therefore the effects of the consequence are dissipated.
The consequence of DeepSeek is immediate and startling. Nasdaq’s market value lost $1 trillion in a single day. The fate of the $500 billion AI fund could be in the twilight zone. This was aimed to make US the unassailable AI leader, impregnable to challenge from China.
DeepSeek has also much higher profile, and the publicity is immense. Evidently a massive number have been attracted to cause the system to suspend for a spell.
DeepSeek is an inflammation. Huawei was only a flame.
An interesting point is that Huawei is now thick in AI chips. Its 910C competes with Nvidia’s H100, and the upcoming 920C will take on Nvidia’s flagship B200. However, the volume of output is limited, constraint by machinery and capacity, and low efficiency of production.
Bottom line is that US hope of high returns from the billions of dollars of AI investments has evaporated. The aim to achieve dominance through spending big money is in the air. AI is more than big money and higher and higher computational power.
DeepSeek proves efficiency and innovations are as powerful. Computer scientists has found means to innovate the algorithm to boost the performance of GPUs than to spend billions on new hardware.
Open-source has taken over the US closed system. This is irreversible. Wall Street will not forget. If the US continues to push its closed system, it could be the odd man out. Costs would be high, and US users would find means to migrate to the open system.
At the country level, China has many companies in the AI game. Such as, Alibaba which recently rolled out its latest version of Qwen 2.5 model, Kimi, whose k1.5 model beats GPT-4 in math, coding, and vision, Tencent, whose Hunyuan model is comparable to Meta’s LLama, Baidu, and ByteDance, owner of TikTok.
China has also the advantages of massive data and multiple more STEM graduates than the US. In the 10 years of 2012 to 2022, it had been granted almost 3 times more AI patents than the US, cumulatively 61% versus 21% to the US (The AI Index 2024 Annual Report).