I lived in Minneapolis in the early 1990s, going to school at UMinn and working at Honeywell.  I still have a few old friends up there.  One sent me this. Passing it on.  Pass it on.

https://youtu.be/uozLlmUhzZY?si=pYLLe21xhtaNG_RV

I’ve always liked the EFF.  This article is pretty disturbing.  From EFF.ORG

Beware: Government Using Image Manipulation for Propaganda

This hasn’t gotten much attention.  But markets and gold are up!  From The Guardian.

US dollar sinks to its lowest level in four years

Noam Chomsky once said (and I paraphrase) “the media can’t tell you what to think, but it can tell you what to think about”.  Today most news, and information in general, is filtered by two major tech companies, Google and Facebook.  This gives these firms unprecedented power.  Today they appear to be more or less benignly run, but there are less scrupulous people trying to gain control of these entities, or at least of their algorithms.  A recent (2021) paper gives a very good overview of the situation.

What to do?  Dump social media!  It’s the ultimate protest.  And you might just end up happier, too.

From Harvard Law Today, Nov. 18, 2021.

Google and Facebook have more power over the information ecosystem than any institution since the pre-Reformation Catholic Church. Their algorithms and their content moderation policies are taking the form of law.

–Stanford Law School Professor Nate Persily, co-editor of “Social Media and Democracy: The State of the Field, Prospects for Reform”

‘The algorithm has primacy over media … over each of us, and it controls what we do’

I’m sure they are “investigating”.  Yet another reason to dump social media.  From NPR.

TikTok is investigating why some users can’t write ‘Epstein’ in messages

One of my favorite books is The Leopard by Guiseppe Lampedusa.   It was made into a great movie in 1963 and more recently a series on Netflix.  It is all about the previous century’s transition from monarchy to democracy, specifically in Italy.  Always a good read, but maybe especially good in times of change like today.  A good article from The Guardian that applies the situation and lessons of The Leopard to Europe today.

“If we want things to stay as they are, things will have to change.”
― Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa , The Leopard

Europe is at a turning point. Timid EU elites should take lessons from The Leopard

Protests in France over an expensive system of reservoirs that benefits big agribusiness.  From The Baffler.

Reservoir Hogs

One of the more interesting reads in a while. In December 2025 China crossed a threshold with 50% of new heavy trucks as battery electric.  This wasn’t expected and comes from various breakthroughs in battery technology.  This has huge implications for the future of the oil industry.  The bigger point is that this is economic.  This is driven by costs and not government policy.

The Assumptions That Broke: China, India, and the End of Fossil Growth Models

Interesting read.   More of a review of a recent book.  I do disagree with the criticism of China’s recent  policy failures.  “One child” and the covid failures seem less because of the Engineering Mentality of the leaders as much as good old totalitarian leadership.  One could easily imagine Mao making such decisions.  It also remains to be seen if China will turn out to be another “me too” story such as Japan in the 1980s.  Will China begin to lead and innovate?  This is the question for the 21st century.  From The Conversation.

Ruled by engineers: how China gets things done, leaving the US in the dust

Skyler getting big, rebadged the Tesla, took a trip to Santa Fe for lunch and museums. Bought a chiminea. Went to Silvas Saloon (allegedly the oldest bar in New Mexico, just up the road in Bernalillo)