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Russian Offensive Campaign Assessment, August 18, 2025

Zelensky In Risky Spot As He Meets With Trump In White House

They can’t hear themselves.

A 38.9% increase in prices for fresh and dry vegetables from June to July was the major driver of a higher index for “final demand goods”

Electricity prices are climbing more than twice as fast as inflation

High-Altitude Nuclear Explosions: Myths and Reality

Links For Today

Russian Offensive Campaign Assessment, August 17, 2025

Israel, the Syrian Druze, and the Ghosts of the “Responsibility to Protect”

Sunni Arab tribes mobilize against the Syrian Democratic Forces

A startup that built AI tech for car rental and insurance companies is now offering it to the public, to fight back against exploitative damage claims.

Brain’s immune response linked to olfactory problems associated with Alzheimer’s

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Russian Offensive Campaign Assessment, August 15, 2025

The impressive part is that it was with drone strike (not sabotage) and it was the Caspian Sea. Ukraine Sinks Russian Cargo Ship In Caspian Sea

Hezbollah Refuses to Disarm, Threatens Lebanon With ‘Civil War’

Three-hour flight delays are 4x more common now than 30 years ago

Rabbits With Tentacle-Like Growth Around Head Reported in Colorado Neighborhood. The rabbits are afflicted with cottontail rabbit papillomavirus. The antler-like features gave rise to the jackalope myths.

Links For Today

Russia suspected in hack of U.S. federal court filing system

U.S. MQ-9 Drone Just Flew A Mission Deep Into Mexico

In July, JPMorgan Chase announced its intention to charge fintechs for access to so-called Open Banking data. This comes amidst a consortium of banks trying to sue this hithertofore obscure regulation out of existence. Almost all discussions of it center on “data”, but it’s actually a fight about payments, and whether banks have a right to monopolize and charge for all economic activity their users engage in, irrespective of whether the bank operates the payment method.

When Narcan Isn’t Enough: The Rise of Frankenstein Opioids

America’s Drone Crisis: ‘Made in America’ Is Nearly Impossible

Links For Today

Russia Punches Through Ukrainian Lines In Deepest Advance In A Year

Armenia and Azerbaijan didn’t actually sign a peace agreement at the White House. So why did their leaders say Trump deserves a Nobel Prize?

Germany’s nightmare becomes reality as EU acquires taste for debt

Turkey’s hazelnut frost threatens chocolate supply chains

Nova Scotia Bans Hiking and Other Forest Activities Due to Fire Risks

New Jersey’s electric bills tripled this summer

New Research Confirms Weight-Loss Drug Link With Sudden Vision Loss

Links For Today

Russia achieves its largest advance on the frontlines in Ukraine since 2024

I am so old that I remember when a total fertility rate below 1.5 was considered ultra low. Now we have multiple nations with TFR below 1!!! Taiwanese TFR fell below South Korea thus far 2025

South Korea’s military shrank by 20% in the past six years to 450,000 troops, largely due to a sharp drop in the population of males of enlistment age for mandatory service in the country with the world’s lowest birthrate.

Wikipedia loses UK Safety Act challenge, worries it will have to verify user IDs

Are the Amish the Canaries in the NYS Coal Mine?

The Grid Reliability Crisis Is Here

‘I am a disgrace to my species’: Google’s Gemini suffers self-loathing spiral. Google DeepMind’s group project manager Logan Kilpatrick said, “This is an annoying infinite looping bug we are working to fix! Gemini is not having that bad of a day : )”