If this adds a useful perspective
Click here to send this page to a friend

Coming End of News. Blink Into Holiday. Plan on What’s Next

To a domain walker the signs are everywhere. Daily “news” flows have expanded far beyond utility and now orbit beyond absurdity.

If this is your first visit here, we don’t look at news as the “ongoing breathless dialog of Reality.” No; we handle it like NASA handles deep space pictures.  Watching 1,200 hours of streaming video doesn’t find new planets as well as something simpler.  Take just one picture.  Wait a day, two, or five.  Then take another.

Space agencies use Blink Labs to flash one picture, then another, and sometimes another after that. We have deployed a form of blink comparator into the increasingly useless “star field of noisy news content” to extract useful context. With improved context, our personal actions crystallize more quickly.

To the pattern-oriented human mind a “blink” reveals where real motion lives.  It’s a technique to discover “what’s missing.” Repeatable, scalable, and much of the data collection footprint can be outsourced. Leaving the operators – you and me – more time to think through relationships.

Little blinks? Useful, sure.  Signposts – like how much gasoline went up this week going into the holiday week – $4.552 yesterday vs. $4.528 a week ago – tell us all we need to know.  We’re in momentary stability. Which the stock market loves.

Which translates to what? With another upward takeoff pending in markets?  We can “blink” between the all-time high of our aggregate index work (65,383.82) which while a big “talking point” isn’t a bettering of the old 65,718.45 that was set eight days ago (on the 14th).

A deeper discussion earlier this week about “the Holiday effect” is on the Peoplenomics.com website for subscribers.

Enjoy a “stable minute” while you can, though. Because this week, trouble showed up in spades. Largely ignored in the me-too media of the world.  We call it?

One Big Blink

Israel’s Knesset has now voted in a preliminary reading to dissolve itself, pushing the country toward early elections, injecting a whole new tempo into Middle East geopolitics. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition is fracturing under pressure from ultra-Orthodox parties over military draft exemptions, while polling suggests his governing bloc may no longer command a stable majority.

The story is real: Israel’s parliament has voted to dissolve itself. What’s next? | Reuters. But that’s the headline. The blink is deeper.

Because once a government enters election mode, political time compresses. And that changes war-making.

Netanyahu now faces the possibility of campaigning while simultaneously trying to manage Gaza, Hezbollah spillover risks, domestic unrest, hostage politics, economic strain, and the ever-present Iran confrontation. Israeli politics has historically shown that once dissolution momentum begins, coalition arithmetic becomes survival arithmetic. Leaders stop thinking in years and start thinking in polling cycles, coalition maps, and legacy outcomes.

Which means the strategic clock may now be running faster than the military clock.

No exact election date has been finalized yet because the Knesset dissolution bill still has to pass additional readings. But the current realistic windows being discussed are:

  • September 1, 2026
    October 27, 2026 (the existing legal outside deadline)
  • As of today (May 22, 2026), that means:

Roughly 102 days if elections land on September 1. Roughly 158 days if they slide to the current October 27 deadline.

The Iran War Goes Instant Pot

The pressure cooker of war has been dialed up.

If Netanyahu believes his political future depends on demonstrating “mission accomplished” against Iran or its regional proxies before voters go to the polls, then the incentive structure changes immediately. The question is no longer merely whether Israel can continue escalation pressure. The question becomes whether political leadership believes it must produce a visible endpoint before election day. That accelerates plot.

Wars that might otherwise simmer can suddenly seek resolution. Diplomatic windows narrow. Military operations may become more decisive, more symbolic, or more time-sensitive. Opponents know this, too. Tehran understands Israeli domestic politics. Washington understands it. Moscow understands it. Markets will begin understanding it.

And this is where the Blink matters globally.

Because traders, governments, oil markets, shipping insurers, defense planners, and central banks now have to handicap not only battlefield developments — but electoral timing inside Israel itself.

  • Political clocks alter military clocks.
  • Military clocks alter energy clocks.
  • Energy clocks alter inflation clocks.
  • And inflation clocks alter everything else.

It’s not the ONLY noticeable “blink” this week.  But it drives many others.

[Adjustment Bureau Note: The term “Instant Pot” was formerly “Insta-Pot” prior to the most recent temporal adjustment. Please excuse any inconvenience. It’s only a level 2 Mandela so pretend it’s your own internal error.]

Endpoint Projections

Blink Lab News (a domain name we may launch) is a new kind of information analytic.  What makes it so useful is how easily human-style filters can be applied.  Let me show you – with this week’s top “blinks.”

  • Israel Knesset moves toward dissolution and possible snap elections
  • Netanyahu political clock compresses Middle East war timeline
  • Iran conflict escalation pressures oil and shipping markets
  • U.S. gasoline prices rise ahead of Memorial Day travel surge
  • Markets approach prior all-time highs but fail breakout confirmation
  • Holiday-effect optimism returns to equities despite geopolitical stress
  • AI crawler traffic and indexing activity surge across independent media
  • Local AI adoption accelerates among technically capable households
  • Home AI systems increasingly bypass clickbait and ad-driven media
  • Continued evidence of “friction pricing” replacing efficiency pricing globally
  • Rising insurance and shipping costs tied to Red Sea instability
  • NATO/Russia rhetorical escalation continues without direct confrontation
  • Grid load and AI compute demand reshape infrastructure planning
  • Consumer debt and household financial stress remain elevated
  • Memorial Day law enforcement mobilizes for DUI and traffic spikes
  • Hidden-camera and hotel-security fear bait trends explode online
  • Public trust in legacy media continues deteriorating rapidly
  • AI-assisted independent analysis begins outperforming conventional news digestion
  • Stable inflation optics mask growing geopolitical energy risk underneath
  • Political clocks increasingly driving military and economic decision cycles

Now, inside your head, consider this the Game Board.

Now let’s put in a temporal filter which will help us prioritize things.  You’ll see, for example, that the hantavirus story isn’t a Big Blink on our list – yet.  That’s because we are still in mid “incubation window.”  What happens installing the temporal filter is the outlook changes.  Here’s a blink to Labor Day plus one.

End-of-Summer: Endpoint Projections

Here’s the blink to “summer wink-out.”

  • By then, the Israeli election clock should either be formalized or visibly weaponized. That means every strike, ceasefire rumor, hostage negotiation, and Iran headline will carry a second meaning: not just “what happened militarily?” but “who benefits politically before the ballot box?”
  • Energy becomes the next endpoint. If the Iran-Israel file heats further, oil, tanker insurance, Red Sea routing, and gasoline prices stop being background noise and become household-level signals. The holiday gas blink becomes a summer fuel blink.
  • Markets get trickier. A failed breakout near old highs is not bearish by itself, but it does tell us confidence is conditional. Holiday optimism can carry prices for a while, but if geopolitical energy risk rises, inflation expectations can turn fast. That makes late summer the likely test window.
  • AI and media are the slow-burn endpoints. The crawl/index surge, local AI adoption, and clickbait bypass are all the same story: readers are beginning to route around the legacy attention machine. That is not a one-week event. That is infrastructure change.
  • Consumer stress remains the domestic endpoint. Credit, insurance, food, fuel, and utility costs keep pressing households even if official inflation optics look stable. By Labor Day, the question becomes whether summer spending masked weakness or exhausted the consumer.

So the Labor Day-plus-one endpoint stack looks like this:

Israel election clock ? Iran war pressure ? oil/shipping risk ? inflation expectations ? market repricing ? household stress.

That’s the board. The capture en passant moments will be hantavirus contagion data and/or first use of nukes in the Middle East. Or the lightup of a nuclear power plant in eastern Europe.  These level events are when whole vectors change.

Now you can see it plain enough: “the news” is not twenty or thirty separate stories.

More like A Clockwork Newsage.

Mystery Blinks

Sometimes, a “news object” you’re tracking doesn’t make sense.  It disappears like the comings and goings of information asteroids.

One week it dominates every chyron and dopamine-feed in America. Then suddenly? Gone. No resolution. No ending. No closure. The object simply exits the visible narrative sky.

That’s not accidental. Some stories collapse because the underlying facts were weak. Some because no profitable continuation existed. Some because larger stories pushed them out of the bandwidth envelope. And some? Because powerful institutions quietly decided the public had seen enough.

The Arizona kidnapping story is a perfect example. For several weeks it had all the ingredients modern media loves: fear, children, mystery, police urgency, surveillance footage, emotional hooks. Even President Post weighed in. Then? Blink. Narrative asteroid passed. Unless you were local, the national media vector moved on almost instantly.

Same with Marjorie Taylor Greene.

A year ago she occupied massive media bandwidth. Every statement amplified. Every outrage monetized. Every cable panel orbiting her gravitational field. But recently? She has partially phased out of the central narrative engine. Not because she vanished politically, but because the media ecosystem extracted most of the outrage-energy available from the object and shifted to fresher emotional fuel.

This happens constantly.

Remember:

  • Chinese spy balloons?
  • East Palestine?
  • Monkeypox?
  • The Maui fire?
  • Bank collapse contagion fears?
  • Lab leak certainty?
  • TikTok bans?
  • The Baltimore bridge collapse?
  • The latest UFO disclosure cycle?

Huge blinks. Then fading echoes.

The trick in Blink Lab work is asking: Did the story actually end?
Or did media attention simply move on to elsewhere?

Because unresolved stories still exert force. Sometimes the disappearance itself is the signal. (Insert your own hantavirus being soft-peddled notes)

A vanishing story can mean: the feared outcome did not materialize, the feared outcome DID materialize but normalization began, or the story connected to systems too sensitive to keep spotlighted.

That’s why domain walkers watch not only what appears — but what suddenly stops appearing.

The disappearance curve itself becomes data. And occasionally, an old information asteroid swings back into view years later trailing consequences nobody priced at the time.

Which is why the Blink method matters. Not to predict headlines. But to identify which unresolved vectors are still moving through the dark ready to hit us with a sap* from behind. Like an old-time Pulp Sidebar.

[*From The Street Fighter’s Notebook: A sap is a compact, concealable impact weapon typically made from dense leather filled with a heavy weight, such as lead shot or powder. Designed for close-quarters self-defense, it delivers a stunning, blunt-force strike that deforms upon impact to incapacitate an attacker without necessarily piercing the skin. Gentler than nunchucks, less blood loss than throwing stars. And yes, slower than a speeding bullet.]

“Wrapping the Fish”

There’s a reason old-time British newspapers were called fish wrappers.  It was one of the few uses for old news, past its sell-by date on newsstands.

At the top of today’s column, I proposed we’d talk about “Coming End of News. Blink Into Holiday.” Both of those seem done, except calling the “End of News” part.

Here, we slip on linguistic ice over into more Peoplenomics/ domain-walking theory.  The news won’t change.  But humans are already warming to “the Blink” approach quickly.  Modern Life has grown in complexity, but we already know what the “next steps” will be.

Domain News-Data Compression Arrives

My first real “patentable idea” came to me at age 15.  It was an advanced single sideband ham radio technique I called “Consta-Comm.”  The idea was, two stations could talk to one another both transmitting and receiving at the same time.  Without a God-awful squeal of feedback.

The trick? time division multiplex.  One station only transmits half the time, listening the other half. The evolved shared bandwidth principle is applied to speakers and microphones today is why you can interrupt Alexa and Siri.

News content will soon go through an evolution involving informational compression. The detail (so and so, age 27, who lives at…which no one gives a shit about except neighbors and next of kin) has already begun what TV news-switchers in control rooms call Fadeta Black.  (Fade to black.)

Useless detail which weighs zero in any decision-matrix where a “news item” is useful is leaving the building. But the information (hype) industry doesn’t see in systems, or think in compression algos.  Say goodbye to narrative spew and welcome, if you will, vector intelligence.

That’s the road we’re on. If you’re a domain walker.  And it leaves me with just one last deliverable from today’s headline.

Oh, one ham radio postscript: My 1965 Consta-Comm concept was echoed decades later in US Patent 7,184,716 B2, which explicitly claims a “time division duplex (TDD) single sideband (SSB) transceiver.” It was filed in 2001.

Around the Ranch: Holiday Plan/Checklist

Before you disappear into the long weekend haze of smoked meat, bad freeway decisions, and inflatable patriotic beer coolers, there are a few small things that make life smoother around the ranch. Even if Blanton’s is a bit out of reach. None of this is complicated. That’s the point. Civilization survives on boring details done ahead of time.

Sometimes I’ve gotten things done so far in advance they turned out not to matter at all. Still beats panic.

First: if rain is forecast, back the old pickup out into the driveway and let Nature run the truck wash. Cheapest car wash in America.

If it stays dry? Mix up a vinegar spray and hit the invasive weeds around the house while they’re vulnerable. Weather decides which chore wins. Nice and democratic, huh?

Second: Fuel up this morning, not Sunday afternoon when everyone else remembers at once. And while we’re talking fuel: cool morning gasoline is denser than hot afternoon gas. Underground tanks stay cooler overnight, which means you can get slightly more actual fuel mass into your tank in the morning. Not huge amounts, but enough to matter over time. Just don’t overfill. Leave expansion room. A tank stuffed to the brim at 62 degrees can happily burp expensive gasoline onto the pavement when it hits 92 later in the day. Thermal expansion is real. So is paying for gas you never got to burn. Fuel in the morning.

Third is our TP Touch: Throw a fresh roll of emergency toilet paper and a couple of water jugs in the vehicle. Laugh if you want. But someday you’ll be the smartest person in a stalled traffic backup or roadside breakdown. Back up pee long enough and you’re cruising for a bladder infection (or a wet patch).

More on Four:  Plan the weekend meals ahead of time. Big Saturday dinner. Serious Sunday brunch. And pre-plan Monday dinner so you can actually have mental time off instead of standing in front of the fridge looking confused while holding thawed hamburger. Decision fatigue is real.  Or, offload to the spousal unit.

Alive at Five: Call the kids. And if you are the kid? Call your parents. One of the hidden truths of adulthood is that eventually everybody becomes the worried parent waiting for the phone call.

Because one day — and nobody tells you exactly when — holidays stop being about the trip and start being about making sure everybody gets another one.

Five-Point-Five: That “everybody gets another one” includes you.  CHECK YOUR MEDS FOR THE WEEKEND  TODAY!

Six: Going 60 +20. Check registration and insurance paperwork before hitting the road. Not after the deputy asks for it. Never admit to doing anything wrong.

#7 Pack Paper Maps. And ask yourself one important systems question:
Could you get home if GPS died?

Most people under 40 navigate like domesticated pigeons now. A paper map in the glovebox is still a beautiful thing. So is knowing north without asking a satellite. In the plane, I always stacked approach plates for alternate airports on the knee board.

#8 For the Love of Gloves: (which, ok, does sound a bit, er…) Rubber gloves in the truck for a tire change? Smart. Nobody enjoys black highway grease under their fingernails during a holiday weekend meal.

#9 Backfield In Action: And neighbors? Everybody watching everybody else’s place? That’s civilization. That’s what functioning communities actually look like. Not apps. Not slogans. Eyes on the street and people who notice when something doesn’t belong. Call your neighbors and coordinate. Unless they’re like total dicks.  In which case, spend the weekend on Trulia and just move.

Sidebar: Memorial Day Crime?

Unfortunately, holiday weekends tend to produce a noticeable bump in:

vehicle break-ins,
drunk driving,
burglaries,
and road-rage stupidity.

Police agencies around the country routinely increase patrol staffing over Memorial Day because traffic fatalities and DUI incidents spike sharply during the holiday corridor. Empty houses plus predictable travel patterns also create opportunity windows for thieves. Which is another reason neighbors matter. A lived-in-looking house and somebody casually paying attention still beats a thousand dollars worth of smart-home gadgets.

Wait, is that a pop-up water sprinkler or an IED?

The goal of the holiday is simple:
Get home with your people intact.

Everything else is details.  Like finding a new writer.

Which brings us to another holiday-weekend chore: don’t let strangers rent space in your head rent-free.

Fact 4 Action: Fear Trolling

Yet another telemarketing low point this week. I was served a new kind of fear-ad.

This one said, “Touch the mirror when you check into a hotel or motel room before you unpack.”

Seriously? WTF?

No one on the cop shop beat ever mentioned anything about this – and we must have talked about every kind of crime there was (I even invented some new ones). So I told the AI pets “siccum!”

“That “touch the hotel mirror before unpacking” thing has two different backstories that got mashed together online.

The first is the old two-way mirror test: touch your fingernail to the mirror. If there’s a visible gap between your finger and the reflection, it’s usually a normal second-surface mirror. If there’s no gap, people claim it may be a first-surface/two-way mirror. That test is not foolproof, because some ordinary decorative mirrors can also behave differently, but it became viral “hotel safety” advice.

The second backstory is the “leave your fingerprint” urban-safety myth: touch the mirror or a high corner so, if you disappear or something happens, investigators have proof you were in the room. That one is more folklore than practical security; housekeeping may wipe it, and modern hotels have logs/cameras/cards anyway.

So the scam/viral hook is basically: “Before you unpack, touch the mirror!” It plays on privacy fear, hidden cameras, two-way mirrors, and hotel danger. Real-world useful version: check locks, scan for obvious cameras, inspect smoke detectors/vents/clocks if concerned, and keep valuables/meds secure. The mirror-finger trick alone is not gospel.”

Well, spit.  Here I was hoping for something useful.  Instead, more clickbait.

But the neat thing with home (and even cloud) AI?  You don’t click the baiting site and you don’t have to watch those 20-minute time-sink junk videos.

And that brings us to the moment when you have to decide: Click for TNA or (ahem) or run the Agenda Driven Life with a Plan?

Time’s up. Because this is where I say:

Write when you get rich,

George@Ure.net

Consider subscribing to our deeper work.
If this article added a useful perspective...

Peoplenomics is where George does the deeper work.

For about 11 cents a day, you're not buying another newsletter — you're buying back some of your time.

See what you've been missing.

42 thoughts on “Coming End of News. Blink Into Holiday. Plan on What’s Next”

Comments are reviewed by a human because the web is crawling with spammers. Submissions after 4 PM Central usually appear the following morning. After you click Post Comment, you’ll jump back to the top of this article, but your comment is queued up here. We’ve got a robust community and your participation is invited. Some commenters are brilliant. Read a few and judge for yourself. Imagine. You could be one.

  3. Incoming G, duck!

    Stand by for repercussions from Mother Russia, somebodieS are going to be paying a very high price this weekend/tonight. Nato-Ukey drone attack on the Ruskie School Dormitory will in fact cause a very nasty response..NOT .

    How many kids were killed while sleeping in their beds ?

    What is it with USA military& City of Londons’ penchant for killing Children and youngsters ?
    Are the same evil entities that run CitLon the same grp described by nosty as “the princes of jerusalem”? You all know by now WHO runs the USA and Who tRUMP answers to..

    Why is one religious group not eligible for draft in ukraine or israHELL ?

    Not even “Mr Frostee” is going to let that attack on young college students go unpunished. Fortunately for West, Pooters BALLZ have been chemically castrated, so no way will he follow thru threat to PUNISH nato countries supplying the nazi’s with drones/drone components and live tracking data.

    Not only ballz cutoff, but kosher nostra , hand in hand with chabaddies, run the military decision making process in Russia. All that ends up making Pooterz look like a KAREN…what a compromised bitch he is.

    Urban Survival Girls Volleyball Team is taking shape- new Grand Daughter checked into world on Monday at 9lb 4 oz @ 21 in. long . We are thrilled, Baby is happy, just Pooping, Eating, and Sleeping all day long. She is Fire Horse born(2026 year of FireHorse), but Me/My Fam from the “House of Water”, so she should be a very interesting player.
    33 % of the way to a full roster for Girls Volley Ball – We need 4 more Players, and this is great weekend to make that happen, so lets get busy out there, very BUSY!

    • (“Urban Survival Girls Volleyball Team is taking shape- new Grand Daughter checked into world on Monday at 9lb 4 oz @ 21 in. long”)

      congratulations… after the baby girl gets old enough.. I have some grandpa toy suggestions..

      1. moon sand… great play toy..a little messy but the child will love it.and play with it in every roo.m
      2. toilet paper gun….well my kids still hate me for giving that one..
      3. a drum.
      4. Battat B. Woofer Hound Dog Guitar

      5.. symbols….

  4. I was invited to a WSOP tournament to be played in Reno.
    I politely declined., for two reasons.
    1] There was no way I wanted the entire damn world knowing what I was doing ! Some of those tournaments even made the national news.
    2] Texas Hold ‘Em is ‘not’ poker.

    I strongly prefer Five Card Stud.., occasional Seven Card., but the odds change dramatically with those two extra cards. And Five Card Draw. [ Which can be a real hoot with good players.]

    “Stay Frosty !”

    • How to Make a Beer Mug Frosty
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3y2EJMScb8M

      For most of the time that the United States has been a country, 177 of its now 250 years, the Milwaukee-based brewery Schlitz has been producing beer. That’s a solid 70% of the tenure of this country, and through all of it, at least in the right areas, a cold glass of Schlitz could be relied upon to bring friends together or wash away the troubles of a long day. It was recently announced, however, that production of this famed legacy beer will come to an end just days from now.

      On May 23, one final 80-barrel batch of Schlitz will be brewed at the Wisconsin Brewing Company’s facility in Verona, Wisconsin. It won’t be just any batch of Schlitz, either; this is one that reaches back into the beer’s heyday. Wisconsin Brewing Company Brewmaster Kirby Nelson has delved into 80-year-old brewing records to develop a recipe that will replicate Schlitz in its prime, giving fans one last chance to enjoy this iconic beer as it was in the height of its glory. This last batch is expected to arrive on June 27, as part of a special commemorative event at the brewery. For those who wish to get their hands on some of these last Schlitz, pre-orders open on the Wisconsin Brewing Company website the same day as the brew itself, May 23.

      Read More: https://www.tastingtable.com/2177282/legendary-midwest-beer-schlitz-discontinued/

      • Nomatta how times they reformulate that recipe, its still gonna taste like Weasel Piss.
        That swill is bad as my Dads beer, Ballantine.
        Kept a case under stairs to Basement, and I never stole a single brewski from that case. Not exactly sure what real Weasel Piss tastes like, but I am confident it tastes better than any IPA. Like drinking a bottle full of Flowers & Pollen, followed by full blown Sinus Swelling.

        Yerp, a real refreshing beverage those IPA’s. Rather a Silver Bullet or as my Buds call it when I ordered.. “Girls Lite”. Favorite Beer was Donneybrook Stoudt from Victory Brewing, my local brewer, a lower Alcohol Stoudt…kinda like the Silver Bullet of Stouds.
        Now a days, TBS is strictly a NA Heiny or Stella – in a Bottle.
        -No, no, no-https://youtu.be/VzxrJ6YybrE?

        • (“Nomatta how times they reformulate that recipe, its still gonna taste like Weasel Piss.”)

          Now … back in the day schlize, strohs, olympia..pabst blue ribbon.. were the brands.. speaking of weasel piss..
          I have to say I am curious.. I personally have ever had the desire to partake drinking it..must be like those that lick a toads ass to get high lol lol..I have often wondered who was the first one and why did he do it.. the French were the first to rinse their mouths out with day old urine..today we can buy a product that replicates that its called teeth whiteners..now I think I know how they discovered ammonia brightening whites..from my perspective..Some joker upset his wife and she threw old urine at him hitting his tunic…seeing the effects started the Romans collecting it..lol lol lol..I wonder if it could be used as a refridgerant.. I know alcohol can be..giving me the idea of building a solar margaretta cooler..the solar beer chilled was a hit..I still wish I had kept it lol..but the boss wanted to park in the garage..Alcohol and salt can freeze something simple enough..a coozy soaked in alcohol will keep your drink cool..so why not ammonia from urine..

      • (“How to Make a Beer Mug Frosty
        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3y2EJMScb8M“)

        that will do it..but it’s a little slow.. if you want an instant mug or bottle chiller.. use poor boys liquid hydrogen…it not liquid hydrogen but gets just as cold..
        everclear + dry ice…but make sure you wear gloves or remove it with tongs and do it away from an open flame…don’t wrap your lips to it right away .. they will freeze to the glass..kind of like that crazy uncle that sticks his tongue to a metal close line poll…

  5. So, are those blinks, or winks coming from the media dinks ?

    Didn’t one of Ure AI consultants advise you something to the effect:

    Everyone is going to work, but no trusts or believes anything. Not a stable situation in the long run.

    Maybe I added a little something in. I did leave out “Trust no one”, only because it was too obvious.

    Related to fear trolling, I had two third-party medical tests this week. Tests are like an an episode of Let’s See the Deal, only you don’t get to pick Ure door. Behind one door is mostly nothing. Behind the second door, is endless testing and procedures, and behind the third door is the guy with the scythe.
    I got sent to the first door twice this week. I need to bank that third trip behind the door for something more serious.

    • The Hospital (1971)

      Dr. Bock: A man comes into this hospital in perfect health, and in the space of one week, we chop out one kidney, damage another, reduce him to coma, and damn near kill him.

      Dr. Brubaker: Yes, sir.

      Dr. Bock: You know, Brubaker, last night I sat in my hotel room, reviewing the shambles of my life – and contemplating suicide. I said, “No, Bock. No, don’t do it. You’re a doctor, you’re a healer. You’re the Chief of Medicine at one of the great hospitals of the world. You are a necessary person. Your life is meaningful.” Then I walk in here, today, and I find out that one of my doctors. was killed by a couple of nurses who mistook him for a patient; because, he screwed a technician from the Nephrology Lab.

      Dr. Brubaker: Hematology.

      Dr. Bock: And now you come to me with this gothic horror story in which the entire machinery of modern medicine has apparently conspired to destroy one lousy patient. Now, how am I to sustain my feeling of meaningfulness in the face of this?

  7. The latest UFO disclosure cycle?

    Speaking of, the latest data dump on UFOs/UAPs was this morning…

      • Hmm….If there really are Watchers — whether you call them angels, ancestors, or visitors from the stars — I doubt they’re judging our technology…I believe they’d be judging our hearts..the story of soddam and ghomorah comes to mind.. Every prophet , every scroll , every tradition has said the same thing….stop the violence , stop the greed , stop treating each other like enemies…. human species is extremely violent… And yet here we are , still fighting , still forgetting the simplest teachings by every prophet there ever has been… If an advanced race ever looked our way , I think the real question wouldn’t be whether they frighten us… but whether we would disappoint them. and them feeling pity on us….

  8. George,

    Boy, the mirror test you mentioned quickly reminded me of a story from a good friend who had traveled a lot for work. She was in a city for a conference and had checked into her hotel and walked down the hall to her room. Upon entering her room, she noticed that her hotel room had those huge mirrors on the sliding glass closet doors. As she was unpacking, she just happened to glance at the mirrors and spied a person under her bed who was waiting for his next victim. She fled the room and had the front desk call the police. The police found rope and other items left under the bed when the man fled the scene. Strangely enough, no security cameras caught his image.

    • I once checked into a hotel in ‘Vegas during a high-traffic convention. Upon opening the room door, I found the lights on and an open suitcase on the bed. I don’t think anyone was in there, but I backed out and went back to the front desk to tell them that room was occupied. The clerk argued that the prior occupant checked out that morning. He got very perplexed and and had a devil of a time finding an (allegedly) empty room for me. He also sent security to investigate that first room.

  9. “You don’t click the baiting site and you don’t have to watch those 20-minute time-sink junk videos.”

    The “Learn More” or “Shop Now” buttons on farcebook are being replaced by a bold “read more” link in the accompanying text. This was developed and perfected on Twitter, back before X, and now permeates every insociable media timewaster. It leads to a 1000-5000 word AI-generated sales pitch text written in cliffhanger style, or to a “purchase” site (or both.) Many of the “junk videos” are now also AI-generated (and although I’ve never watched more than a few seconds of any, I assume they’re also done cliffhanger-style, to hook your attention until your reprogramming is complete, and compel you to waste the maximum possible amount of time.)

    Avoiding clickbait is getting more difficult, as the spammers find more creative ways of disguising the links…

    • And then… when I find something that is interesting and might actually be usefull to me, and endured the agonizing half hour video to get to the pitch.. I order the damn thing. Upon closing out the order page I find: “We can’t ship to that zip code”.

      Some places refuse to believe Hawaii is actually part of the USA with postal service. TEMU did that to me with a ‘closing out our USA warehouse’ ad. So I went shopping…. in vain.

      • If I see a product on FB, I go right to Amazon, where I can find the best prices, reviews, competitors, & the ability to return a product that doesn’t work for me.

        • I will hunt down its source, see if the website is legit, and then run a purchase-oriented second search. If it’s available on Amazon (it almost always is) I will weigh options with prices. Amazon is rarely the cheapest, but shipping is usually free, and Amazon has my ccard and shipping info already, so I’m not increasing my footprint or creating a new path for someone to hack my info…

      • That is funny, Hank. We get that a lot living in New Mexico, as some folks think New Mexico is part of Mexico. Well, it was before the Civil War. Anyway, the New Mexico Magazine has a page, called One of Our Fifty Is Missing, dedicated to the experiences of New Mexicans traveling in the United States where folks think we are actually a part of Mexico. As an example, one State Senator wanted to ship an item from Washington, DC to his home in New Mexico. The clerk argued with him, saying that he would need to be charged out of country postage fees.
        Many folks do not know, amazingly enough, that New Mexico is a state in the US. They think that we are still a territory, or that we are still part of old Mexico, and that you need a passport to get into New Mexico. I wonder what they think the big land mass between Texas and Arizona is.

  10. Trump has been saying the news is fake and it’s all a show.

    Recall “arrest Hillary” before “the Clinton’s are good people”. Then onto arrest Obama….. Trumpers cheered.

    Or when Muslims were the pedophiles. Then Democrats were the pedophiles. Now the Republican protects pedophiles while he winds back the Magna Carta.

    • Hmm..seriously.. it doesn’t matter..our prison system shows how it is..just like companies that are to big to fail..the social class that laws don’t pertain to..simplest answer..if you see your boss doing something disgusting and simply wrong..the odds are no one will say a thing..because they are the boss..
      At the grocery store it was a common place to see somebody from one of those social classes getting groceries for free..just because they promote the store to their employees..
      The ones doing it for a dare — kids testing boundaries — that’s one thing…. But most of the adults you catch aren’t desperate or broke…. They’re people who could pay , but choose not to… It’s not about need , it’s about impulse , entitlement, or the thrill of getting away with something… when I worked as nano I for at a retail store it was common to hear the security personnel talking about it.. one day they caught a guy ..he owned a store of his own and was stealing merchandise to stick his shelves..store managers would fill bags full..one security guard seen a woman jus walking out..it was the owners wife..he was reprimanded.. and was told that they were allowed and the merchandise would be reported as stolen even though UT was higher up personnel..
      its that kind if thing that makes the reason why the Epstein evidence will never come to prosecution..the family business.. the satanic paedophile groups..the personal server its why Julian as sang e was out in prison for pulling the curtain of the wizard if oz open and in plain sight..it wasn’t the ones doing the things that were wrong but the one opening it up to be seen..
      the dead horse campaign issues..

  11. The last Person, a Woman, with ANY Integrity has left the fetid pile of fecal matter that is donald JEFFERY tRump admin.

    -https://www.rt.com/news/640431-tulsi-gabbard-quits-trump/

    • Her husband whom she loves has bone cancer diagnosis for bad kind. Tulsi WILL be back.

  12. When I was going into deep China in the early 90’s we stayed in a hotel where they put us on the floor under the disco so the ceiling bumped the bass until 3:00. I think there was some kind of vent in the ceiling that let the cigarette smoke down into our room.
    The best part was the girl at the top of the stairs who had the key to the room and would let you in. No key for thee. There was always a girl … no key.
    And huge mirrored walls. We knew they must have been watching.
    It was the only hotel in town, outer Bao An county, the Hua Du. Had great squid in ink though.
    Stiks

    • I’ve always wanted to see the great wall, the water gardens, the forbidden city..

    • My niece..her husband was sent as a representative of the USA to Moscow in the embassy.. I told her..take pictures of the beautiful gothic buildings..then remembering that they might think it was some devious act instead doing something for her crazy uncle..so I told her not to do it..I have a diary from a farmer that sent to Russia because the Tzar asked the president of the USA to help the people were starving.. the only problem there was he waited to long to seek assistance and the Bolshevik army overthrew the country..he took pictures..lots if oictures..in one section he told of a member of the palace asked them to sneak a member of the royal family out of the country..a young girl..so I believed that a anastasiadud come to the usa..now that they found her remains I figure the nanny only wanted to save her child instead..

  13. News News. CBS News Radio goes off the air tonight.
    B. September 1927
    D. May 2026

    Liberalism is not a business plan!

  14. OT- “Air Wells”… for LOOB. I experimented with a little dehumidifier, pulling water out of the air. I got a small unit rated 40 watts at 12 volts, 3 amps. It uses a solid state pelletier device for cooling, with a small circulating fan.
    It took 4 days, 96 hours, to produce 1 liter of water from my 60-70% humid tropical jungle air. At my (expensive) electric rate of $0.35/kWh that consumed 3.844 kWh for a cost of $1.34… for 1 liter of water in 4 days.

    So my impression of ‘air wells’ is that they are very power-intensive, and it takes a lot of power to ramp up the production of a usable… or ‘survivable’ amount of water. I’m sure the Israeli desert units on large trucks have a large generator attached to power them, and to produce usable water from already dry desert air consumes a lot of power… and diesel generator fuel. It works… but is not economical except for extreme or emergency conditions.

    • air wells.. I don’t know how you got so little..my freezer does a couple gallons a day..the kids dehumidifier does five gallons twice a day.. it has to be emptied a couple times a day..

      https://youtu.be/dXMI7G_CpWA?si=sG-dAUZmb1Ia5aUm

      I have one of these toss it in the yard and it will draw the water out of the grass..
      a cold can of tea and watch it sweat.. a screen on a frame tight at an angle put a black surface behind it about four inches..heats the screen up and the air flow in the evening condenses the water on the screen and drops on the metal that drains into a container.. rotating cold water through a coil pipe will condense the moisture in the air.. I would have to see your setup to get a reason why it’s not working..A peltier dehumidifier is the wrong way .you would be better just pumping water through a coil or getting a compressor out of the fridge..

  15. re: “Skyfall”, 2012
    feat: Platform 4, ‘Temple Station’

    Happy Fish Friday! Don’t ‘wrap the fish’ before its cooked, and let’s ‘Mind the Gap’ while we’re at it. Future PM Boris – a great-grandson of a journalist and Minister of the Interior in the Ottoman Empire, Ali Kemal – was Lord Mayor of London when the “Skyfall” film saw its 2012 release. The Underground’s Charing Cross stood in for the film’s fictional Temple Station.

    Charing Cross may be historically regarded as the centre of London. It was the last stop in 1290 during the funeral procession of Queen consort Eleanor of Castile, wife of King Edward I, enroute to her burial at Westminster Abbey. She is said to have helped save the life of her husband after he was wounded at the Fall of Acre in the Ninth Crusade which signalled(uk,ca) the end of the Kingdom of Jerusalem.

    Interestingly, announcements were issued in 2025 by the London Transport Museum that their public tours of closed platforms 5 and 6 at Charing Cross are suspended to allow construction improvements for better future tourist experiences. The two platforms last saw scheduled use ending in 1999 on the Jubilee Line.

    A web search along the lines of ‘Charing Cross, NATO drills’ may yield interesting food for thought from “The Guardian”.

    • re: “Watch Your Savings Soar”, 1999
      feat: NATO at Charing Cross

      Telegram’s “Wartime Media” channel has posted an image of the NATO drone exercise taking place in the London Underground. Military laptops and technicians are perhaps situated trackside on a Charing Cross platform which closed almost 26 years ago. A wall advertising banner of the period from Crown Bank informs observers to “Watch Your Savings Soar”. This text is placed beside an image of a hot air balloon whose deformed shape would require further inflation to maintain flight and avoid a deflationary crash one would think.

      Crown Bank dates to 1833 when it began managing Crown Colony business for the British Empire. The bank appears to have evolved since the 1999(?) advertisement above into an entity serving bank-to-bank and foreign exchange needs in emerging markets. The bank’s global headquarters office is situated within a tower now known as The News Building, also housing a UK news subsidiary of Murdoch’s News Corp, which was opened 12 years ago by Mayor Boris Johnson.

Comments are closed.