Alexandra Jones I Alpha Juliet

.And this one. Heartbreaking. The Two-Headed Calf by Laura Gilpin 1977. The illustrated version is by Adam Tots (I think).

Vooral boerenzwaluwen - Hirundo rustica - en tientallen huiszwaluwen - Delichon urbicum - zitten zij aan zij op een schrikdraad aan weerskanten van een sloot tussen de weilanden. Op afstand lijkt het of er een zwart-witte slinger langs de sloot hangt.

#VandaagGemaakt in de Drentse #natuur. De trek van veel soorten #vogels is volop aan de gang. Ik zag vanochtend heel wat boerenzwaluwen - Hirundo rustica - en huiszwaluwen - Delichon urbicum - even pauzeren. 🪶

In Sweden, social security fraud has reached a level, where it is now a national security threat. Enormous sums of Swedish tax payers' money are secreted abroad, partly at the behest of or for the benefit of foreign (state) actors.

I have long held the opinion that all legislation (and treaties) should be red teamed by 'criminal' red teamers. And then decide if the pros still outweigh the cons, incl the costs of enforcement.

Swap Around and Find Out: The New Rules of International Digital Economic Warfare - War on the Rocks On Feb. 21, 2025, North Korean state hackers linked to the Lazarus Group pulled off the largest digital theft in history, stealing around $1.5 billion

“Cryptocurrency, once just a niche financial curiosity, is now at the forefront of economic warfare,” argue Adam Zarazinski and Bruno Faviero.

A famous American university president once said that unis shouldn’t be engaged in making ideas safe for students, but in making students safe for ideas.

And I am guessing that TBML makes good use of rules and legislation that were intended to properly regulate licit trade. But that is a hypothesis.

Another example, also from the Netherlands, is the change in legislation that allowed online gambling & betting, including gambling platforms from abroad. No prizes for guessing how that turned out.

The motivation, if I recall correctly, was 'cutting back red tape', but you will understand the consequences.

Every system will be gamed.
Example 1: The Dutch Central Bank is responsible for supervising trust offices (CSPs) in The Netherlands. A no. of years ago, this legal obligation was altered, and the potentially problematic off-shoring business was removed from supervision.

Claude Shannon said: Content is irrelevant to the problem of engineering. I.e. a channel/mode fit for transferring money or value is fit for the transfer of illicit money. Any measure to facilitate licit trade & finance will likely ease illicit trade & finance. 1/2

Policies/legislation intended to solve one issue/problem, of which the 2nd order effect is, however, that it enables illicit finance and moneylaundering. Red teaming legislation.

RFK Jr. in interview with Scripps News: ‘Trusting the experts is not science’ HHS Secretary RFK Jr. sat down with Scripps News for a wide-ranging interview, discussing mRNA vaccine funding policy changes and a recent shooting at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

1. "'Trusting the experts is not a feature of either a science or democracy," Kennedy said."

It's literally a vital feature of both science and of representative democracy.

I've written a fair bit about trust in expertise as a vital mechanism in the collective epistemology of science.

Ukraine-Verhandlungen: Experte warnt – diese Region darf Putin nie bekommen Beim Treffen zwischen Trump, Selenskyj und Europäern in Washington dürfte es auch um Gebietsabtretungen gehen. Eine Region sollte die Ukraine laut dem Experten nicht hergeben.

‘Der Politikwissenschaftler Carlo Masala befürchtet verheerende Konsequenzen für die Ukraine, sollte Russland im Zuge von Friedensgesprächen auf einer Abtretung des gesamten Donbass im Osten des Landes bestehen’.
www.t-online.de/nachrichten/...

Example: Former PM of Dagestan gets run over by a car and killed. Little to no information on who hit him or how it happened.

Very specific information on the car that ran him over.

ru.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%90%...

I did, and it was worth it. The engineering mindset helps a lot. I like the way you think.

Paintings by Simon Palmer

Fantastic!

IT'S HAPPENING FOLKS!

My Valleys book is being printed!

Design by
@seanrees.bsky.social

Print by
WithPrint

Paper by
GF Smith

And a few photos by me!

Can't to get these in the post to you all!

Op deze dag in 2005 overleed Marten Toonder, de geestelijk vader van Ollie B. Bommel en Tom Poes. Hij schreef prachtige verhalen waarin onze samenleving kritisch beschouwd wordt. Ook geniale neologismen die nog altijd gebruikt worden als denkraam, minkukel, bovenbaas en dorknoper

Massive fraudulent flag operation linking over 20 separate fake sites uncovered A Lloyd’s List investigation has revealed the connections between the rapidly growing number of fraudulent ship registries being used by hundreds of sanctioned ships globally

Worked with @lloydslisted.bsky.social to uncover a massive network of fraudulent ship registry websites, many listed as official flag state contacts in the IMO GISIS website:

Take Big Money Out of Our Politics British politics is awash with money from super rich donors. In 2023, two-thirds of all private donations came from just 19 people. These so-called ‘mega donors’ enjoy privileged access to political p...

In 2023, two-thirds of all private donations in Britain came from just 19 people.

Cap political donations. Now

31,000 people have signed 38 Degrees’ petition!!

Do add your name and share widely. Thanks! you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/ta...

@tkhirschfeld.bsky.social I'm a bit late to the party, but I am currently reading your book 'Gangster States'. It's very good. Really very good. Well conceived, well written. 👍🏼

When the United States has rushed in the past to surge hiring to federal law enforcement agencies, such as the Bush administration’s quick expansion of the Border Patrol, the government was plagued with cases of misconduct, they noted. “There’s going to be a lot of people who are ill-suited to be a law enforcement officer and apply for one of these jobs,” said John Sandweg, a former acting director of ICE in the Obama administration. “I think you’re going to see them pushing and bending every rule they can to get them on the streets as soon as possible.” Tim Quinn, a former senior official in Customs and Border Protection, said the rapid expansion of the immigration agencies makes accountability mechanisms even more essential. But the administration earlier this year took steps to dismantle the watchdog agencies inside the Department of Homeland Security, the parent agency of ICE.

Now watch as “Proud Boys”, “1 Percenters”, “Oathkeepers” and other white supremacist militias quickly fill up the massively inflated ranks of #ICE. They want their SA and they will get it. Fear will rule the streets of the Land of the Free.

US agencies assessed Chinese telecom hackers likely hit data center and residential internet providers Data center giant Digital Realty and mass media titan Comcast were documented as likely victims of the Salt Typhoon cyberespionage group, people familiar say, marking a potentially major expansion of ...

There's a lot going on so you might have missed the fact that the Chinese hack into most of our major telecom companies was found to be much worse than publicly stated

good thing a bunch of dipshits obliterated whatever was left of functional telecom oversight!

Britain wants to launch large drones from Transit vans Picture a Transit van that can hurl five 125 kg drones to 200 km/h in just four minutes—no rockets, no runway. That's what the UK's Project VOLLEY is aiming for.

How very British...

ukdefencejournal.org.uk/britain-want...

I remain convinced that the entire country, including Trump, would be much happier if we just Truman Showed him

Map titled "Map of British English Dialects" by Starkey Comics. It shows the British Isles divided into colorful regions representing different dialects. The map includes Scotland, Northern Ireland, Wales, and England, with each area labeled by its dialect name. Notable dialects include Cockney, Geordie, Scouse, and various regional dialects across the country. The map also includes smaller islands and a separate box for Shetlandic and Orcadian dialects. The diverse array of colors highlights the rich linguistic variety across the British Isles.

UK Dialect map
via starkeycomics.com/2023/11/07/m...

It's like Versace: expensive but tacky

.And you know what? There's more of them.
I honestly didn't know such people existed.