brike

Title page of Secret agent of Japan by Amleto Vespa, published by Victor Gollancz Ltd (London) 1938

Adding to my reading list. It’s available on Internet Archive :)

i feel like this exchange took a wrong turn here. the question raised earlier is whether the technology is dangerous, not whether the companies are sound. if the companies all go bankrupt and the code & assets are bought up at firesale prices, the tech does not become less dangerous.

Cover me in blubber, baby,
cover me in tar
Hoist that harpoon to your shoulder,
throw it straight and far
Let’s go brave the stormy seas
Does the captain have two knees?

Call me (call me!) Ishmael
I’m your buddy, let’s go get that whale.
Call me (call me!) Ishmael
Full of parmacetti and he’s pale.
Call me.

true i hope, but by what mechanisms? if johnson says he’s still speaker and 200+ holdover republicans in the room say they’re still reps and “pass laws,” what stops them? the police, the courts, the senate, staff, protestors, bad poll numbers… probably in combo that stops them. but eye on the ball.

What is SALUTE, please, for the uninformed? When I search for it all I see is Elon’s Nazi gesture.

Good vs. Ice YouTube video by Jesse Welles

On the eve of 1000+ rapid response "Ice Out for Good" protests, here's our generation's phil ochs/bob dylan/john prine/you get the idea. www.youtube.com/watch?v=El0C...

update: i finally read this wonderful book.

i didn’t know about the after-catastrophes (génocidaires hide in, & stage further killings from, international aid-funded camps on the border). the interviews w paul kagame are extensive and amazing.

grateful to gourevitch & his team & sources.

fair enough…but most venues don’t have their name established by law.

a page from hilary spurling’s book “pearl buck in china: journey to the good earth.” after a girl hangs herself, buck witnesses a group “cut the body down and bandage the orifices to keep in any remaining breath.”

“bandage the orifices to keep in any remaining breath”

I did a Q&A with Violet Feng on her new film:

one stray fact: one of the names/ssn’s this immigrant bought belonged to a guy under an income deduction order. the immigrant wound up paying the guy’s overdue child support(!)

Two Men. One Identity. They Both Paid the Price.

this article is amazing. (yes, i too have nearly canceled my nytimes subscription many times.)

Two Men. One Identity. They Both Paid the Price. www.nytimes.com/2025/11/23/u...

(giving chemo infusions, doing surgeries) to preserve my life. and those people were housed and fed and kept safe and healthy by others…

and grateful for the world, which gave us water. there’s something special about water.

i just swam for the first time in a very long time. feeling grateful for people, who made this moment possible. people, organized in groups, built this pool and maintain and guard it. people did the science and passed on the knowledge and learned to take and then took the steps…

Man detained by ICE found dead, hanging with hands and feet tied—attorney The Chinese national died in Pennsylvania in August, but his family's requests for answers from DHS have gone unmet.

Keep this story in the news.

"Man Detained by ICE Found Dead, Hanging With Hands and Feet Tied—Attorney"

www.newsweek.com/ice-detainee...

I’m Ozyman! Who are you?
Are you - Mandias - too?
Then we’ve a pair of legs!
No trunk! Our visage lies - in sand!

Our sneering - passions - yet survive!
Our pedestal does say -
“Despair, you Nobodies” - the Sands -
Stretch level far away!

I can never remember if I was drugged in the Epstein Ballroom, or balled in the Epstein Drugroom.

Three people in inflatable frog costumes and a couple of American flags. In the background, people holding protest signs. Blue sky, palms and other trees.

From the No Kings protest in St Pete (Pinellas County) Florida this morning. Good energy. Large crowd along Tyrone Boulevard near 66th Street. Road traffic full of honking and thumbs-ups, including many heavy-duty trucks. That was a highlight - I did not know so many of them were on our side.

i take jay’s side on this one; i read how i like. i think samuel johnson (1709-1784, and one of the great readers of the english-speaking world) would agree, and dispute the point about algorithms.

screenshots are from boswell’s life of johnson (1791).

AI result from Google claiming that Nabokov’s playful quote "ne manque pas de dire à ton amant, Chimène, comme le lac est beau car il faut qu'il t'y mène" is from Le Cid by Pierre Corneille.

some shit it makes up is funny. nabokov might have appreciated this misattribution:

NYTimes headline “Trump Uses U.N. Speech to Make False Claims and Lecture World Leaders” from online front page, with image of a deranged, exhausted, and rotten-orange-peel-looking trump speaking at the UN.

Remarkable how the tone of the New York Times has changed.

AI Overview from google claiming that the quote "ne manque pas de dire à ton amant, Chimène, comme le lac est beau car il faut qu'il t'y mène" is from the play Le Cid by Pierre Corneille.

that said, here’s a real howler from yesterday (for the nabokov and corneille fans out there):

i agree. also talking to a younger version of yourself (“answer as if you were me at age 35”).

and modeling good behavior. “the four of us just had a fight at the dinner table…play that scene back to us, showing each of us being 10% calmer, gentler, and more generous.”

Kash Patel, the F.B.I. director, and Todd Blanche, the deputy attorney general, said in a statement on Saturday that the investigation "was subjected to a full review by F.B.I. agents and Justice Department prosecutors. They found no credible evidence of any criminal wrongdoing."

“The case against Homan is no stronger than the case against Epstein.“

One year ago today!

Happy Tom Homan Takes a $50,000 Bribe From Undercover FBI Agents On Camera Day!

the deep state keeps making me accept bribes.

“I hereby pardon myself for all crimes, including the one I am hereby committing.”

Dutch late night TV has its take

Donald Rumsfeld in his “known unknowns and unknown unknowns” days.

There are things we’re not allowed to talk about.

And there are things we’re not allowed to talk about not being allowed to talk about.