Thanks for sharing these. The water use article was especially of interest to me, although I thought I was pretty well read on the topic given being a California native & lifetime dweller.
Weather report: It's almost unbelievably nice here today. 74 degrees, dewpoint in the 60s, light winds, no rain in the forecast. But don't go too near the lake: There's a warning of high waves. A teenager lost his life yesterday evening; it's not clear from reports whether he went in on purpose or got swept off the breakwater.
I'll be there in mid Sept visiting my son in Lincoln Park. The good and bad for him is - good he has a great job, the bad is he's realizing it's a bit of a golden handcuff with an 18 month non-compete if he leaves. He never intended to make Chicago permanent, but now starting to consider family friendly neighborhoods. Kurt (and maybe you?) shared some good intel a while back I shared with him.
I am not up to date on the hot neighborhoods. There are many I've never been to, and a lot has changed since I was a twentysomething living in Lincoln Park, which was cheap back then. If your son can afford Lincoln Park now, though, I'm sure he'll not have much trouble finding a neighborhood that suits him. (I live in Edgewater, which is pretty far north, and affordable and liveable for me.)
One thing that might give a person a feel for the various neighborhoods is to check out the neighborhood news. I subscribe to this one. It's not paywalled, though they'll invite you to subscribe:
My take: We're going through a phase. It's about society learning some lessons the hard way because we got too complacent, and it's also about the effects of innovations that we weren't ready for because we didn't have the guardrails we should have had. And it's hard to see all that, because that happens in slow motion. It will become clearer later on, when we can look back.
The mothership is reporting on the deployment of the DC National Guard (supplemented by Guard contingents from some other states) to the streets of Washington DC. The FP is headlining "RFK Jr's War on mRMA vaccines". It is hugely ironic that the firest Trump administration's greaterst achievement -- the COVID vaccine -- is now opposed by MAGA and by Trump's current HHS seceretary.
BTW, I thought today was Thursday, August 21. Did I get this post from the future??
RE: "Those in authority have lost control of the narrative long ago to the ones who scream for attention around the clock."
Ha!! I don't know about elsewhere in the Western democracies. But here in our country? Now?
Despite the copious screaming for attention from other quarters, it's precisely those now *in authority* who scream the most for attention and scream the loudest and the most persistently, shunning no opportunity to saturate the public with their (his) "voice" (read propaganda... no, check that; read bulls**t).
>The White House launched an official TikTok account on Tuesday, just weeks before another deadline approaches for TikTok’s Chinese parent company, ByteDance, to sell the popular social media platform or face a ban in the U.S.<
>The new account, using the handle @WhiteHouse, gained more than 100,000 followers as of Wednesday morning. The bio reads, “Welcome to the Golden Age of America.”<
>The first video posted to the account shows footage of Trump declaring, “Every day, I wake up determined to deliver a better life for the people all across this nation. I am your voice.”<
>The second video shows images of the White House and has the caption, “We’re so back.”<
>The third video shared on the official TikTok account is a montage of Trump, featuring clips of him dancing, sitting in a Tesla on the lawn of the White House and speaking to crowds at rallies and other notable appearances.<
“The Trump administration is committed to communicating the historic successes President Trump has delivered to the American people with as many audiences and platforms as possible,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told Reuters on Tuesday."
“President Trump’s message dominated TikTok during his presidential campaign, and we’re excited to build upon those successes and communicate in a way no other administration has before,” she said.
>The creation of the White House TikTok account comes nearly four years after Trump issued an executive order to ban the app.<
I wonder if he has the presidential auto pen set up to automatically continue signing new executive orders extending Tik Tok's reprieve. (How many have there been now? I've sort of lost track.)
He'd better assign someone to make sure the office drones keep the ink well full.
OK. The clock's still running, so I'll stop screaming and be quiet now.
tick tock tick tock tick tock
(voice in the background yelling from another room... Hey, Karoline... did you fill the auto pen this morning?)
If you’re like me, screaming is all there is left, since hair-pulling is now impossible…at least when it comes to the scalpine cultivars…
Yes, the failure to follow the law banning TikTok is among my top ten grievances against the Trumpistanians. Or is it top 100? I’m losing count faster than I’m losing functioning follicles!
That and the crypto stuff for me. At least for the things that no one is talking about.
For the other side it's over-reach on energy policy (ironically - but not really - undermining our critical need for more energy) and expansion of entitlements. But those are widely argued.
Per governance... The last several years I go through whiplash a couple times a year by going back and forth between the PRC and the US. I don't acknowledge or feel the conventional wisdom about either governance system because neither of them are what they're (in the popular media) described as. Perceptions in the US about what life is like in China are so utterly disconnected from reality that it's impossible to explain it without extensive work that I'm uninspired to do, and the same perceptions of the US by most folks in China are equally idiotic.
I have no explanation beyond clearly seeing that our current blogosphere is one of the major causes of misunderstanding. The pattern is best shown by the most popular folks that got in early in Substack, and managed to develop substantial yet very tidy business operations, WHICH, now that they are thriving and substantial business entities, must continue to pump out the daily diatribe even if the idea well is dry. One's worldly expertise is not an infinite commodity.
So, we get folks like JG and Noah writing nonsense about China, or Klown Kitchen...who's actual intelligence/security experience is exceedingly slim at best...suddenly self-proclaimed as an expert but whose income is derived in a paid advocacy organization masquerading as a source of infinite understanding of all things, or Andrew Sullivan who seems to drive off a new cliff every day, or myriad loons on Youtube...Zeihan, the China Uncensored Guy, Bannon and the endless parade of grifters, the Epoch Times grift, etc., etc.... where everyone now has the perfect vehicle for their confirmation bias because it's all there, just waiting for folks to find their safe place.
Kurt, I have always appreciated your "man on the street" takes from PR China, which I have no trouble squaring with reporting from places like The Dispatch. But I have never understood the, um, "forcefullness" you have pushed back on that reporting. That's all I will say. 🙂
40 years in the middle of >10,000 real estate transactions has made me immune to folks wondering why I am "forceful". Truth's gotta be told, whether it's about a failing foundation that blows a realtor's deal or some stupidity that youngsters ensconced in virtual reality environments have to say.
Now that I'm retired and (surprisingly to me) know a lot about another particularly current topic, I can't abide folks that have never been to a place, who have never actually done anything outside blather about what people should think...and let's not ever forget they take lots more and fancier vacations than I do... I like stomping on their stupidities.
My income is not dependent on anyone and I can say what I know is true. I hope you notice I don't weigh in on any other current topic in the manner I do on China. It's because I don't know enough to say anything, unlike our bloggers that need to reinvent themselves every day.
Truth's gotta be told. If someone wants to claim I don't know what I'm talking about, I don't care. There's a reason I haven't gone whole hog into the "China Thinker And Writer" thing...outside of this small and quite interesting group...because it would just get stupid. Can't fix stupid, someone said...(Ron White).
It's all that, and also kinda shocking. It's made me understand how off base our media actually is. I often wonder, if it's this stupid on China, is it the same on several or every other geopolitical reality? Since I don't have any experience in most other areas, I have to wonder.
The photo isn't "collapse and decay" so much as intentional destruction by the government followed by centuries of vandalism and exposure. Monasticism in England was flourishing economically until Henry VIII "needed" to get divorced.
Absent Henry, there could have been something like the German Peasants' Revolt, which, in its local areas, destroyed many monasteries/convents.
The history of Hank's takedown of the monasteries is fascinating stuff. When the monks saw the wagons rolling up that melted down gold to cast into new coins, it was time to pack. The wagon that carried the supplies for melting down the lead from pipes and roofs came later.
The number of British peers alone rose from 50-odd during Henry VII's reign to 300+ during Elizabeth I's rule. (I didn't know the numbers, just the concept. Numbers are from Gemini.) Anyway, lots of land shuffled around. It bought loyalty in the wake of the War of the Roses.
I already thought of a potential situation where a real fanum tax could happen if you were in the habit of storing your money this way instead of in your wallet; it was in TMD this morning:
“ New York City Mayor Eric Adams suspended a longtime close adviser and fundraiser, Winnie Greco, from his mayoral re-election campaign after she reportedly attempted to bribe a reporter for The City by handing her a potato chip bag containing cash, including at least one $100 bill and several $20 bills.”
She claimed it was all a mistake. “ . . . while her attorney maintained her ‘intent was purely innocent.’”
I got 5 out of 7. I missed “fanum tax,” but I doubt I will need it in the short time slang like this has currency.
Also missed “mew.” I did try it after finding out what it was but it did nothing to improve my appearance—bummer!
I do like “skibidi.” I think I’ll adopt it. (Especially after seeing how it originated. Potty jokes are always funny.) Useful for inside jokes with my husband. We like to apply goofy colloquial terms to recurring situations and giggle about it. Some recent favorites are British ones: “Bob’s your uncle,” and “You’ve blotted your copybook.”
Success! I bought my new Honda, and Drama Queen showed me enough of how it works that she thinks it's safe for me to drive it to Scouts tonight.
Congratulations!
Here's some nice upbeat news: Sister Jean, chaplain to the Loyola Ramblers basketball team, is turning 106.
Wow.
She's very popular with the students.
How does the US use water? Not at home much!!
What is AIs carbon footprint?
Here in Tucson, the water ravaging AI Project Blue, secretive, was rejected. like go elsewhere please
https://open.substack.com/pub/hannahritchie/p/ai-footprint-august-2025
https://open.substack.com/pub/constructionphysics/p/how-does-the-us-use-water
I saw the moon and planets this morning. It was cool!
Wonderful.. a beautiful sight!
Yes, it was.
Thanks for sharing these. The water use article was especially of interest to me, although I thought I was pretty well read on the topic given being a California native & lifetime dweller.
my pleasure!
Weather report: It's almost unbelievably nice here today. 74 degrees, dewpoint in the 60s, light winds, no rain in the forecast. But don't go too near the lake: There's a warning of high waves. A teenager lost his life yesterday evening; it's not clear from reports whether he went in on purpose or got swept off the breakwater.
I'm enjoying the "cool" morning, as it's predicted to be 103 at 5 pm today.
And hotter tomorrow and Saturday. Thank all the gods for solar-power AC
Chicago?
I'm in Chicago. The incident happened in Evanston, just north of the city limits.
I'll be there in mid Sept visiting my son in Lincoln Park. The good and bad for him is - good he has a great job, the bad is he's realizing it's a bit of a golden handcuff with an 18 month non-compete if he leaves. He never intended to make Chicago permanent, but now starting to consider family friendly neighborhoods. Kurt (and maybe you?) shared some good intel a while back I shared with him.
I am not up to date on the hot neighborhoods. There are many I've never been to, and a lot has changed since I was a twentysomething living in Lincoln Park, which was cheap back then. If your son can afford Lincoln Park now, though, I'm sure he'll not have much trouble finding a neighborhood that suits him. (I live in Edgewater, which is pretty far north, and affordable and liveable for me.)
One thing that might give a person a feel for the various neighborhoods is to check out the neighborhood news. I subscribe to this one. It's not paywalled, though they'll invite you to subscribe:
https://blockclubchicago.org/ Pull down the "Neighborhoods" menu at the top of the page.
Thank you I’ll pass on!
My take: We're going through a phase. It's about society learning some lessons the hard way because we got too complacent, and it's also about the effects of innovations that we weren't ready for because we didn't have the guardrails we should have had. And it's hard to see all that, because that happens in slow motion. It will become clearer later on, when we can look back.
From JohnM, posted at the mothership:
Worth Your Time II: 'One Sentence in the Constitution Is Causing America Huge Problems' --David French
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/21/opinion/trump-constitution-unitary-executive.html?unlocked_article_code=1.f08.f1GL.9vil59W4wcYa&smid=url-share
' Now It Is the Old World’s Turn To Rescue the United States' --George Will
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2025/08/18/trump-macron-starmer-europe-ukraine/?pwapi_token=eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLCJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJyZWFzb24iOiJnaWZ0IiwibmJmIjoxNzU1NjYyNDAwLCJpc3MiOiJzdWJzY3JpcHRpb25zIiwiZXhwIjoxNzU3MDQ0Nzk5LCJpYXQiOjE3NTU2NjI0MDAsImp0aSI6ImQ4NDhiYTQ4LTU4YTMtNDA5Yi1hMDIwLWI5ODczYzU3YzQyYiIsInVybCI6Imh0dHBzOi8vd3d3Lndhc2hpbmd0b25wb3N0LmNvbS9vcGluaW9ucy8yMDI1LzA4LzE4L3RydW1wLW1hY3Jvbi1zdGFybWVyLWV1cm9wZS11a3JhaW5lLyJ9.IRIzzzIh-zyj3HrcXyxlxSY-14KGSIlCXb4cKvZjOis
(Email address required)
Thanks—and to JohnM.
Good morning. Cloudy and in the 70s today.
The mothership is reporting on the deployment of the DC National Guard (supplemented by Guard contingents from some other states) to the streets of Washington DC. The FP is headlining "RFK Jr's War on mRMA vaccines". It is hugely ironic that the firest Trump administration's greaterst achievement -- the COVID vaccine -- is now opposed by MAGA and by Trump's current HHS seceretary.
BTW, I thought today was Thursday, August 21. Did I get this post from the future??
This is a forward-thinking blog.
So will be get Saturday's article tomorrow (Friday) then? 🙂
One can only hope.
RE: "Those in authority have lost control of the narrative long ago to the ones who scream for attention around the clock."
Ha!! I don't know about elsewhere in the Western democracies. But here in our country? Now?
Despite the copious screaming for attention from other quarters, it's precisely those now *in authority* who scream the most for attention and scream the loudest and the most persistently, shunning no opportunity to saturate the public with their (his) "voice" (read propaganda... no, check that; read bulls**t).
>The White House launched an official TikTok account on Tuesday, just weeks before another deadline approaches for TikTok’s Chinese parent company, ByteDance, to sell the popular social media platform or face a ban in the U.S.<
>The new account, using the handle @WhiteHouse, gained more than 100,000 followers as of Wednesday morning. The bio reads, “Welcome to the Golden Age of America.”<
>The first video posted to the account shows footage of Trump declaring, “Every day, I wake up determined to deliver a better life for the people all across this nation. I am your voice.”<
>The second video shows images of the White House and has the caption, “We’re so back.”<
>The third video shared on the official TikTok account is a montage of Trump, featuring clips of him dancing, sitting in a Tesla on the lawn of the White House and speaking to crowds at rallies and other notable appearances.<
“The Trump administration is committed to communicating the historic successes President Trump has delivered to the American people with as many audiences and platforms as possible,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told Reuters on Tuesday."
“President Trump’s message dominated TikTok during his presidential campaign, and we’re excited to build upon those successes and communicate in a way no other administration has before,” she said.
>The creation of the White House TikTok account comes nearly four years after Trump issued an executive order to ban the app.<
https://globalnews.ca/news/11342131/white-house-launches-official-tiktok-account/
I wonder if he has the presidential auto pen set up to automatically continue signing new executive orders extending Tik Tok's reprieve. (How many have there been now? I've sort of lost track.)
He'd better assign someone to make sure the office drones keep the ink well full.
OK. The clock's still running, so I'll stop screaming and be quiet now.
tick tock tick tock tick tock
(voice in the background yelling from another room... Hey, Karoline... did you fill the auto pen this morning?)
My life will start to get better when he stifles that creepy voice of his and gets the %&$# out of my White House.
If you’re like me, screaming is all there is left, since hair-pulling is now impossible…at least when it comes to the scalpine cultivars…
Yes, the failure to follow the law banning TikTok is among my top ten grievances against the Trumpistanians. Or is it top 100? I’m losing count faster than I’m losing functioning follicles!
Wh... what was that? You have crumbling caulicles?
Someone was screaming and I couldn't hear you too well. Try a little dab of this...
https://www.brylcreemusa.com/
Or maybe this, if it's a really bad case...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4g0pUmz3fEQ
😀😃🙂🙃 Trumpistanians. You know what amd were "xyz-stan" comes from... it's Persian...
That and the crypto stuff for me. At least for the things that no one is talking about.
For the other side it's over-reach on energy policy (ironically - but not really - undermining our critical need for more energy) and expansion of entitlements. But those are widely argued.
Per governance... The last several years I go through whiplash a couple times a year by going back and forth between the PRC and the US. I don't acknowledge or feel the conventional wisdom about either governance system because neither of them are what they're (in the popular media) described as. Perceptions in the US about what life is like in China are so utterly disconnected from reality that it's impossible to explain it without extensive work that I'm uninspired to do, and the same perceptions of the US by most folks in China are equally idiotic.
I have no explanation beyond clearly seeing that our current blogosphere is one of the major causes of misunderstanding. The pattern is best shown by the most popular folks that got in early in Substack, and managed to develop substantial yet very tidy business operations, WHICH, now that they are thriving and substantial business entities, must continue to pump out the daily diatribe even if the idea well is dry. One's worldly expertise is not an infinite commodity.
So, we get folks like JG and Noah writing nonsense about China, or Klown Kitchen...who's actual intelligence/security experience is exceedingly slim at best...suddenly self-proclaimed as an expert but whose income is derived in a paid advocacy organization masquerading as a source of infinite understanding of all things, or Andrew Sullivan who seems to drive off a new cliff every day, or myriad loons on Youtube...Zeihan, the China Uncensored Guy, Bannon and the endless parade of grifters, the Epoch Times grift, etc., etc.... where everyone now has the perfect vehicle for their confirmation bias because it's all there, just waiting for folks to find their safe place.
Kurt, I have always appreciated your "man on the street" takes from PR China, which I have no trouble squaring with reporting from places like The Dispatch. But I have never understood the, um, "forcefullness" you have pushed back on that reporting. That's all I will say. 🙂
40 years in the middle of >10,000 real estate transactions has made me immune to folks wondering why I am "forceful". Truth's gotta be told, whether it's about a failing foundation that blows a realtor's deal or some stupidity that youngsters ensconced in virtual reality environments have to say.
Now that I'm retired and (surprisingly to me) know a lot about another particularly current topic, I can't abide folks that have never been to a place, who have never actually done anything outside blather about what people should think...and let's not ever forget they take lots more and fancier vacations than I do... I like stomping on their stupidities.
My income is not dependent on anyone and I can say what I know is true. I hope you notice I don't weigh in on any other current topic in the manner I do on China. It's because I don't know enough to say anything, unlike our bloggers that need to reinvent themselves every day.
Truth's gotta be told. If someone wants to claim I don't know what I'm talking about, I don't care. There's a reason I haven't gone whole hog into the "China Thinker And Writer" thing...outside of this small and quite interesting group...because it would just get stupid. Can't fix stupid, someone said...(Ron White).
I'd guess as annoying as it is, it's pretty cool or funny or something to see how completely off base the punditry on China is.
It's all that, and also kinda shocking. It's made me understand how off base our media actually is. I often wonder, if it's this stupid on China, is it the same on several or every other geopolitical reality? Since I don't have any experience in most other areas, I have to wonder.
“Honey Don’t” may not be one for your Bible study group (trailer, 2:41): https://youtu.be/Jzr6pHIZAI0?si=RrdWNZr94dQwbLB9
What happened to the other Coen brother?
Don't know. Kind of wondered the same thing.
Well...that looks right up my alley.
5 out of 7.
Given how much you write and how often, I'm impressed by the absence of spelling errors. Did you mean immanent (which is a word)? Or imminent?
Any spelling accuracy on my part is almost entirely accidental. “Imminent” was indeed the aim, but not what was emanating from my noggin…
Got 6 of 7 and I know nothing about teens these days. Based on my results however I am considering buying a lottery ticket today.
The photo isn't "collapse and decay" so much as intentional destruction by the government followed by centuries of vandalism and exposure. Monasticism in England was flourishing economically until Henry VIII "needed" to get divorced.
Absent Henry, there could have been something like the German Peasants' Revolt, which, in its local areas, destroyed many monasteries/convents.
Admittedly, the theme evolved away from the image, but I liked the image and kept it. Kudos to the photog!
The history of Hank's takedown of the monasteries is fascinating stuff. When the monks saw the wagons rolling up that melted down gold to cast into new coins, it was time to pack. The wagon that carried the supplies for melting down the lead from pipes and roofs came later.
There were a lot of beneficiaries of the economic upheaval around the dissolution of the monasteries.
The number of British peers alone rose from 50-odd during Henry VII's reign to 300+ during Elizabeth I's rule. (I didn't know the numbers, just the concept. Numbers are from Gemini.) Anyway, lots of land shuffled around. It bought loyalty in the wake of the War of the Roses.
This got me reading this morning about stuff I wasn't particularly knowledgeable about.
MOGGING? Can you speak teen? Take the quiz:
https://apnews.com/projects/tween-slang-skibidi-sigma-mogging-quiz/
No, thanks.
(I have to say that, because I frequently remark that I don't feel any obligation to be aware of current teen slang.)
I got 3 out of 7. But as a proud Buckeye, I take exception to the one about Ohio.
imma not even gonna try
I already thought of a potential situation where a real fanum tax could happen if you were in the habit of storing your money this way instead of in your wallet; it was in TMD this morning:
“ New York City Mayor Eric Adams suspended a longtime close adviser and fundraiser, Winnie Greco, from his mayoral re-election campaign after she reportedly attempted to bribe a reporter for The City by handing her a potato chip bag containing cash, including at least one $100 bill and several $20 bills.”
She claimed it was all a mistake. “ . . . while her attorney maintained her ‘intent was purely innocent.’”
I don't think "purely " and "innocent" mean what they think they mean.
Three for 7: all wild guesses. Had never heard a single one of them.
I got 5 out of 7. I missed “fanum tax,” but I doubt I will need it in the short time slang like this has currency.
Also missed “mew.” I did try it after finding out what it was but it did nothing to improve my appearance—bummer!
I do like “skibidi.” I think I’ll adopt it. (Especially after seeing how it originated. Potty jokes are always funny.) Useful for inside jokes with my husband. We like to apply goofy colloquial terms to recurring situations and giggle about it. Some recent favorites are British ones: “Bob’s your uncle,” and “You’ve blotted your copybook.”
There was some intuitiveness to it, where the words kinda sound like what they mean. 5 out of 7 for me.
I got 3 correct.
Same
Peachy!
I got all but one. It was mostly a crapshoot though.
If I recognized them, it probably means they're out of fashion already.
I didn't recognize any. Some I got by deduction. Others were just luck.
I don't acknowledge teen talk any more recent than the "bee's knees."
That may come back this year. You never know!