tomo,
Certainly an embarrassment for them.

Following one of my tangents, encryption may have paved the way for the current mania with AI. While quite a large number of people have a fair understanding of asymmetric encryption, a much smaller number know in detail what goes on in an https conversation, and very few indeed know the nitty-gritty of any particular "secure app". The understanding is that it's the realm of boffins, so we just trust the experts. After all, everybody knows Signal is secure.

AI is an even bigger mystery inside, but we've been so softened up by years of mild befuddlement about public keys, signatures, certificates, certification authorities, etc., that we've become used to being passengers, so we cheerfully climb aboard the AI train.

I wonder what the Chinese do to secure their secret comms. Signal?

Pretty good Brendan O'Neill conversation with Jonathan Sacerdoti, discussing the Israel/Gaza situation and the vocal minority in the west supporting Hamas.

In honour of the 5-year anniversary of COVID, this half-hour montage of overreach was put together. Most of it was familiar enough, but some of the care home footage was very sad.

tomo,
Yeah, it's only in recent years I've heard about Ayn Rand and Atlas Shrugged. Have read a few quotes from it; seem pretty right.

I suspect the standard reading lists are one of the differences between our upbringing and an American one. Other books that didn't figure for me, but are apparently widely read in America: The Great Gatsby and Moby Dick. Somewhat on the same theme, it's odd how often Jack the Ripper comes up in American drama.

Watched the Jimmy Dore interview. Worthwhile, though mostly reinforcing my own views (especially the part about left/right tribalism missing the main game). We do seem to be snookered. Trump sets a pattern of *some* hope, but how long will his gains last, and can they be replicated in the UK and Aus?

tomo,
Topher seems slightly on the optimistic side describing it as the "final throes". I'm afraid between renewable energy, global warming, immigration, diversity, decolonisation, ... there's quite a bit more throeing in the works.

Today Jo Nova points at Labour's moral relativism. Apparently modern slavery is acceptable as long as they're forced to work on renewable energy gadgets.

Tomo,

While America is abandoning ESG and dIvESity and moving back to actual forms of energy production it appears us here in the UK, and Europe, are doubling down on diversity and net zero to compensate for the loss of America to the globalist cause.