formthirteen

My thoughts exactly. Russia and China are simply testing the waters to see how weak the Western and Asian pipelines, cables, leadership, etc are. A simple strategy that has historically worked well in Europe and Asia. The weaker the leadership, the more pain they can inflict. History repeats.

I'm afraid everything in life is a puzzle to some degree: Puzzles to laugh at

Europe has nukes and weak leadership. I don't think nukes would help Europe in deterring an autocrat such as Xi or Putin from attacking or collaborating. Examples of weak leadership and the result: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c75lxypz7wqo Another example of a ”grave escalation” from 2016:

…Von Neumann is an example of a superhuman who was able to understand bullshit complex language better than anyone, including bullshit generators AI:

Yes, LLMs are perfect for making sense of intended and unintended bullshit (bureaucracy). If you don't know what I mean, here's a summary from ChatGPT (sorry): Here are a couple of examples: Humans need this nuanced signaling system to navigate complex social structures, classify others, and maintain hierarchy or cohesion within groups. This signaling system is bullshit. Only advanced humans and AI can learn to interpret and act according to the bullshit rules. To go beyond bullshit, you need superhuman capabilities or superhuman AI.

Physical card/key (physical two-factor authentication) > Mobile app (two-factor authentication) > Password > SMS Anyone can steal your phone or phone number. Mobile apps and app stores are hacked/faked/unsecure. Password's can be reused/lost/stolen/leaked. Physical cards/keys can be left at home. Which way is safer? Two physical cards. https://ibkrguides.com/securelogin/sls/twofactorauth.htm https://ibkrguides.com/securelogin/sls/secure-login-with-dsc+.htm https://www.yubico.com/works-with-yubikey/catalog/microsoft-accounts/#compatible-yubikeys People always underestimate what they are capable of: https://www.yubico.com/ Not investment advice: https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/YUBICO.ST/

You can invest in China, but you can't profit from China's success. https://www.construction-physics.com/p/how-china-is-like-the-19th-century https://scholars-stage.org/everything-is-worse-in-china/

https://research.gavekal.com/article/prejudice-and-china/

Yes, this viewpoint is largely absent in Western media. I think this applies to Russia and Putin in general, as well as most things: In the 1990s, someone removed the 'fence.' It was rebuilt in less than a decade, and work is still ongoing. People on both sides of the fence are still mostly confused as to why a fence is needed but agree it’s useful. I read his letter. He has some valid points. However, he believes in some crazy conspiracy theories about Butcha that he backs up with information he found on the internet: It almost feels like he's looking for facts that back up his story (selection bias, confirmation bias). Maybe he's also an investor? He seems to be very consistent about which side of the fence he sits on regarding politics: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerd_Schultze-Rhonhof My biases tell me he's an angry old man sitting on the fence.

The Architect of Germany's Third Industrial Revolution: an Interview with Jeremy Rifkin (Oct 15, 2014) https://www.huffpost.com/entry/the-architect-of-germanys_b_5979468 Hmmm, where have I heard all this before

https://www.politico.eu/article/elon-musk-promoter-evil-vera-jourova-european-commission/ https://www.politico.eu/article/europe-privacy-patrol-vengeance-block-ai-artificial-intelligence/ I wonder what kind of crisis the EU will have to go through to fix its issues. Most Europeans seem content with deindustrialization and clicking on cookie pop-ups to 'avoid the evils of Mr. Zuckerberg and Musk.' Surely shutting down a few more nuclear plants will save the planet and the EU from itself: Spain confirms nuclear power phase-out, extends renewable projects deadlines https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/spain-confirms-nuclear-power-phase-out-extends-renewable-projects-deadlines-2023-12-27/ Meanwhile in the US: Hungry for Energy, Amazon, Google and Microsoft Turn to Nuclear Power https://www.nytimes.com/2024/10/16/business/energy-environment/amazon-google-microsoft-nuclear-energy.html

CELH starter position.

Russia is very predictable. Different faces, same history and culture. History has rhymed since the 12th and 13th centuries: https://scholarworks.iu.edu/journals/index.php/iusburj/article/view/19799/25876