Kestrel

I haven't dressed up in years and wanna do something cool

James Inhofe, former Republican senator who called climate change a ‘hoax’, dies aged 89

Inhofe resigned as senator for Oklahoma in January 2023, suffering long-term effects of Covid-19.

His widely ridiculed snowball stunt came in 2015, during a rambling speech in which he claimed climate conditions on Earth were the work of a supreme being, and attempted to discredit a Nasa report that found that 2014 was the hottest year recorded globally to date.

“My point is, God’s still up there,” Inhofe said during a 2012 interview during promotion for his book focusing on global warming as “a conspiracy”.

“The arrogance of people to think that we, human beings, would be able to change what He is doing in the climate is, to me, outrageous.”

Following the scandal over US service members photographed abusing prisoners at Iraq’s Abu Ghraib prison in 2004, Inhofe said he “was more outraged at the outrage” than the torture of the inmates.

Transcribed from ep 847

"He's doing okay... he and I hang out pretty frequently. He's got some mobility issues and unfortunately some aphasia."

"...But I'm over at his place every week doing readings about the Seven Years War and having fairly high level conversations with him about like the spread of global capitalism in the 18th century. Just not really in a way that is mic ready right now. We'll see... I mean we're working on it. We're making a little progress every week. I see a path, I just have no idea what the timetable for any of this could be, and I don't think he does either, so hopefully updates when we have it..."

He also said they're putting out a book based on the Spanish Civil War episode scripts edited into a nice looking book. Limited run, with proceeds going to support Matt, his recovery, and his family. Preorder available sometime next month.

We used to have binary sex, but now we have identity flex

We used to have traditional norms, now we have diversity storms

This is hilarious. The U.S. Corps of Engineers has dangled a $42 million carrot to replenish sand on beaches in front of expensive houses but the homeowners don't want it at the expense of having to create public access easements (because federal dollars can only go towards improving public, not private, beaches). This town is going to get annihilated by the next big storm because these little tyrants want to keep their beaches private.

Sonic the Hedgehog is not just a beloved video game character; he's a cultural icon with layers of meaning waiting to be explored through the lens of "Demiurgic Sociocultural Realism." This exciting framework brings together diverse perspectives like Mark Fisher's Capitalist Realism, Ian Wright's Dark Eucharist concept, Slavoj Žižek's insights on ideology and fantasy, and the Marxist conception of capital as a demiurge.

In Sonic's universe, we see echoes of capitalist realism, where certain norms and structures are ingrained and accepted as part of the natural order. The iconic act of collecting rings in Sonic games takes on a deeper meaning within this framework, symbolizing not just a game mechanic but also the pursuit of material wealth and success, mirroring real-world capitalist pursuits.

Ian Wright's Dark Eucharist concept adds a fascinating layer to Sonic's adventures. The ritualistic act of Sonic collecting rings becomes a form of consumption that sustains his ability to progress and survive in the game world. It's like Sonic's own version of a power-up, tied to the larger narrative of capitalist realism where material accumulation is often central to achieving goals and overcoming challenges.

When we look at Sonic's narratives and character arcs through Slavoj Žižek's ideas, we uncover themes of ideology and fantasy. Sonic's heroic quest to thwart Dr. Robotnik's oppressive rule becomes a fantastical narrative of resistance against dominant ideologies and power structures. This resonates deeply with players, tapping into our desires for empowerment and agency in challenging unjust systems.

Furthermore, viewing capital as a demiurge in Sonic's quests sheds light on the overarching influence of power structures. Dr. Robotnik's relentless pursuit of control, often symbolized by his quest for the Chaos Emeralds, mirrors the capitalist demiurge's drive for control and accumulation of capital at the expense of others. Sonic's role as a challenger to this hegemony becomes even more significant in this context.

In conclusion, "Demiurgic Sociocultural Realism" invites us to embark on a thrilling journey of exploration and analysis, uncovering the hidden depths and cultural resonances of Sonic the Hedgehog. It's not just about high-speed platforming; it's about unraveling the layers of meaning and societal reflections that make Sonic a timeless and captivating character in the world of gaming and beyond!

Link to the project: https://www.openinterpreter.com/01

Link to the GitHub: https://github.com/OpenInterpreter/01

I joined Turchin and a few others who were establishing a new field—a new way to investigate history. It was called cliodynamics after Clio, the ancient Greek muse of history, and dynamics, the study of how complex systems change over time. Cliodynamics marshals scientific and statistical tools to better understand the past.

The aim is to treat history as a "natural" science, using statistical methods, computational simulations and other tools adapted from evolutionary theory, physics and complexity science to understand why things happened the way that they did.

One of the most common patterns that has jumped out is how extreme inequality shows up in nearly every case of major crisis. When big gaps exist between the haves and have-nots, not just in material wealth but also access to positions of power, this breeds frustration, dissent and turmoil.

"Ages of discord", as Turchin dubbed periods of great social unrest and violence, produce some of history's most devastating events. This includes the US civil war of the 1860s, the early 20th-century Russian Revolution, and the Taiping rebellion against the Chinese Qing dynasty, often said to be the deadliest civil war in history.

All of these cases saw people become frustrated at extreme wealth inequality, along with lack of inclusion in the political process. Frustration bred anger, and eventually erupted into fighting that killed millions and affected many more.

Perhaps one of the most surprising things is that inequality seems to be just as corrosive for the elites themselves. This is because the accumulation of so much wealth and power leads to intense infighting between them, which ripples throughout society.

In the case of Rome, it was the wealthy and powerful senators and military leaders like Julius Caesar who seized on the anger of a disaffected populace and led the violence.

This pattern also appears at other moments, such as the hatred between southern landowners and northern industrialists in the run up to the US civil war and the struggles between the Tsarist rulers and Russia's landed nobility during the late 1800s.

Meanwhile, the 1864 Taiping rebellion was instigated by well educated young men, frustrated at being unable to find prestigious positions in government after years of toiling away at their studies and passing the civil service exams.

What we see time and again is that wealthy and powerful people try to grab bigger shares of the pie to maintain their positions. Rich families become desperate to secure prestigious posts for their children, while those aspiring to join the ranks of the elite scratch and claw their way up. And typically, wealth is related to power, as elites try to secure top positions in political office.

These patterns probably sound familiar. Consider the college admissions scandal in the US in 2019.

Donald Trump is only one recent and fairly extreme version of this motif that pops up time and again during ages of discord

If the past teaches us anything, it is that trying to hold on to systems and policies that refuse to appropriately adapt and respond to changing circumstances—like climate change or growing unrest among a population—usually end in disaster. Those with the means and opportunity to enact change must do so, or at least to not stand in the way when reform is needed.

FYI in 1917 Lenin stormed the ice palace and took it from the snow queen

Let's fucking goooooo

Researchers at Stanford University and UC Berkeley, led by Chan Zuckerberg Biohub San Francisco Investigators, found that gene signatures associated with head development were found in juvenile sea stars, but expression of genes that code for an animal's torso and tail sections were largely missing. The researchers used high-tech molecular and genomic techniques to understand where different genes were expressed during the development and growth of sea stars. They also found that molecular signatures typically associated with the front-most portion of the head were localized to the middle of each of the sea star's arms, with these signatures becoming progressively more posterior moving out towards the arms' edges. The research suggests that over evolutionary time, sea stars lost their bodies to become only heads.

Starfish are basically heads crawling around using their lips. Uhhhhhh