Several points of interest today (and all are well worth your time).
1. DiveMedic discusses the Lindsey Clancy (mis)trial, including the evidence of psychiatric medications and other factors. I agree entirely with his conclusion.
2. Remember the Ig Nobel awards? This year's winners have just been announced. My favorite category: Biomechanics.
Citation: Matilda Brindle, Catherine Talbot, and Stuart West for devising a more precise definition of kissing—“non-agonistic interactions involving directed, intraspecific, oral-oral contact with some movement of the lips/mouthparts and no food transfer”—in ants, birds, polar bears, and humans.
"Darling, come here. I want to practice biomechanics with you!"
3. Chiefio warns: "IF you have Money in the EU – Take It Out Now."
The simple fact is that the EU is flat broke, having squandered €Billions on the Ukraine Folly. They have tried regularly to steal the Russian money entrusted to Euroclear, but that mostly failed. They handed a “loan” to Ukraine that doesn’t need to be repaid until Russia pays “reparations”, that will never happen, so kiss that off ... So [Ursula von der Leyen] has stated that people’s savings accounts are a problem (ignoring that savings accounts are what allow banks to make loans for things like cars and mortgages and business working capital). She has stated that this money must be put “to the service of European Companies” (not realizing it already is as prudent business loans IF appropriately vetted). That she wants to “securitize them” and “supervise them” – which means steal your money for her desired expenses.
Remember what happened during the Cyprus banking crisis of 2012-13? The EU forced the Cypriot government to close that country's second-largest bank, imposing a one-off levy on all uninsured deposits there, and seize many uninsured deposits in the Bank of Cyprus. Almost 48% of all bank deposits above €100,000 were seized, without compensation. If the EU could do it once, during a much smaller financial crisis, I wouldn't bet they won't do it again, and more, in the present circumstances.
4. If you, like me, are wondering about the vast numbers of data centers under construction, it's worth examining the phenomenon on a worldwide basis. Statista has compiled the figures for Number of data centers worldwide as of June 2026. Here are the top ten nations:
For more information, see the Statista link above. My question: if the rest of the world isn't frantically building these things by the hundreds, why are we doing so in the United States? Follow the money, and see who profits... and who pays.
Let us know your reaction(s) in Comments.
Peter
",,,people’s savings accounts are a problem ..." when socialists run out of other people's money to spend.
ReplyDeleteThat is what happens when you elect socialists. That is what happens when you have big-government.
We, the US, is following that same path.
In one very narrow sense, it is a victory. At least they now recognize that printing money does not automatically create goods on the other side of the ledger.
Big Brother's police state isn't going to surveil itself!
ReplyDeleteOn one hand, some of the conservative folks are railing against data centers. On the other hand some of the pundits are saying if you rail against the data centers; you are being paid by the Chinks.
ReplyDeleteWhich is it? Or what is it? Or whom is it? JHcrist I'm so confused!!!
A couple thoughts. Re a Euro money confiscation -- would it actually >>fix<< anything? I suspect not. Can kicked down the road a few yards.
ReplyDeleteRe Lindsay Clancy: Interesting about her medication history. She wasn't taking much of any of these. Psych meds aren't an instant fix. They take a while to be effective. And you may need to try different things until something works well enough.
I wonder what her longer term psych history is.
Question:
ReplyDeleteare the people screaming about rapid growth of/rapidly increasing need for data centers the same people (or their decendants) who were screaming about buggies/carriages being pulled along by anything other than animal (horse/mule/oxen) power?
In my area a proposal for a Data Center in on the table. Good lord I knew people were bat crap crazy but didn't realize they all moved here. Have one question on why data centers don't start with a small reactor so the electric bills don't skyrocket. When I went looking for answers it seems that is the one true statement in all the other blather. Also why can't they build up as opposed to needing a minimum of 40 acres.
ReplyDeleteFact: Individual savings of up to $100,000 were insured and survived the Cypriot banking crisis of 2013. That protected most of the island's "peasants". But the island had been serving as an offshore tax haven for post-Soviet oligarchs and others in Russia, Ukraine and other CIS* member states and deposits of over €100,000 were not protected.
ReplyDeleteTwo-thirds of the bailed-in deposits (around €5 billion of the €7.7–8.3 billion total) forcibly converted into shares in the Bank of Cyprus belonged to foreigners, predominantly Russians, followed by Ukrainians and CIS* depositors. Cyprus had become a major offshore centre for Russian money; those large accounts took the brunt of the levy.
Laiki Bank (Popular Bank of Cyprus) was wound down. Insured deposits were protected but all other assets were placed in a "bad bank" similar to Ireland's National Asset Management Agency (which ultimately generated a surplus of €5.6 billion for the Irish treasury). Unlike NAMA, the Cypriot "bad bank" managed to lose almost the entire value of the transferred assets. Again, the bulk of the losses were suffered by foreigners, primarily Russians, Ukrainians and CIS* citizens who were using Cyprus as an offshore tax haven.
So, no, it is not fair to imply that the EU robs its "peasants" deposits, though many of the post-Soviet oligarchs may actually have started out as peasants.
* CIS - Commonwealth of Independent States - organisation that includes Russia, Belarus and several now independent former Soviet Republics in West and Central Asia.
All the useful idiots whinging about data centers have no problems posting their screeds to FakeBook, using Google Maps, asking Siri to remind them to breathe, etc.
ReplyDeleteI'm certain the whole herd believes TickTock/Bluesky/Pinterest is being run a Commodore 64 in Ralph's brother's next-door-neighbor's basement.
Irony is delicious.
Riiiight. Like, oh, I don't know, incredibly competent right-to-repair advocate Louis Rossman? He definitely thinks the internet runs on Commodore 64s, right? Or the countless other tech experts and software developers etc who agree with Me Rossman on the subject of AI Datacenters? Yeah. If you look over there, that's the straw man you constructed, on fire. You should definitely run over there and try to put the fire out. Here's a polyester blanket, it'll help!
DeletePeople opposed to unregulated growth of AI Datacenters aren't luddites. They're people with functioning brains, and a working knowledge of history.
We had Facebook for decades before the AI bit barn rush of late.
DeleteData centers may well end up as the "Malls of the 2050s" and people will make (whatever at that time serves as) YouTubes exploring them as they crumble away.
ReplyDeleteThe data center bit is really simple. Tech oligarchs promise to replace people, at everything, at every single level of economic activity. If you don't want your children replaced by foreigners in your own country, why would you want them replaced by robots? The rest is either covered by Denninger's analysis of monetary games, or Rossman et. al.
ReplyDelete