We are definitely drifting back toward the short-and-to-the-point public columns. The reason is simple: Deep dives on Peoplenomics are eating the research and writing time that used to go into this side of the operation.
Which means we need to get to the point faster.
And this morning, the point is that markets, housing, energy, and political stability are beginning to look like parts of the same problem.
What You Need to Know
Here’s a simple way to find critical market support and resistance levels: Create your own version of the Aggregate Index we use on the Peoplenomics side.
Reason? When markets argue back and forth — sweeping a price zone, as it were — you get a much better sense of how the battle in the trenches is going.
The yellow number was my 6 AM calculation of the Index ahead of the opening bell. The green number is the calculated value through the preopen.
What matters is how price behaves around the important moving averages and support zones. A market that repeatedly tests support and holds is telling us something different from one that bounces briefly and then falls through the floor.
Now connect that with the stacking of events we’ve been tracking around month-end and the elections.
The emerging question is whether geopolitical energy costs and AI financing pressures begin reinforcing one another.
Diesel prices, warehouse hacks, food costs, global revolution talk, expanding wars, questionable elections: Our OTH work suggests these pressures may be converging as we approach the blender.
And weighing in for the title bout?
Brent crude is back around $111, while gold and silver remain weak-ish.
But not to fear! Precious metals aren’t the only alternative asset class available.
Housing Starts Out
Ah. Here comes another one now.
As always, there’s good, bad, and strategic news wrapped up in the numbers.
The good? If housing starts are merely so-so, constrained new supply can support existing-home prices. Scarcity has a way of doing that, although prices still depend on whether buyers can afford the financing.
The bad? America is losing some of the momentum from what used to be one of its most dependable growth engines. Homebuilding isn’t just lumber and drywall. It’s appliances, furniture, transportation, financing, property taxes, and a lot of jobs.
The strategic call? The U.S. crackdown on illegal immigration may reduce some incremental housing demand. That’s one part of the equation.
The other part is the 30-to-50 crowd — the once-upon-a-time Millennials and their neighbors — who have been putting off marriages, children, and homeownership because the arithmetic doesn’t work.
Hard to build a family when you can’t afford a place to put one.
And when people can’t scrape together apartment rent, seeing how newcomers have sometimes received targeted housing assistance can be a real pisser.
Let me be careful here, because there’s an important distinction.
There are documented historical examples of government-funded housing assistance specifically available to newly arrived refugees or other eligible immigrants but not to U.S. citizens under those same programs.
The clearest is the federal Refugee Reception and Placement Program, which has long funded resettlement agencies to help eligible arrivals with initial housing, furnishings, and necessities during their first months in America. U.S. citizens experiencing comparable housing needs were not eligible for that particular refugee program. Certain Afghan and Iraqi Special Immigrant Visa holders also qualified for refugee-related resettlement assistance.
During 2022–2024, New York City established emergency accommodations specifically for arriving asylum seekers, while citizens and other residents could access separate homeless-services systems.
The important distinction: These were immigration-status-specific resettlement and emergency programs, not proof that immigrants generally received larger federal home-purchase subsidies than citizens.
Different programs, different eligibility rules, and a very real political argument over fairness.
Which gets us to the bigger issue.
Housing affordability isn’t just an economic statistic. Eventually, it becomes a question of whether people believe the system is working for them.
And when enough people decide it isn’t?
Well, look across the Atlantic.
News Compressor ON
As luck would have it, we’re not alone in asking, “What exactly are we getting for our tax money?”
GlobalRev Lite is beginning to swirl in the background.
1. HUMANIZERS / TAXIFIERS — France: From Street Rebellion to Sovereign-Debt Risk
France is confronting serious political unrest, with reports of mass arrests, looting, localized curfews, and further demonstrations planned. The larger concern is that political instability and pressure for government concessions could complicate public finances and increase the cost of borrowing.
The immediate violence may ease without resolving the grievances that produced it.
2. MONETIZERS — AI Rebound Fails to Travel Across the Pacific
Asian technology shares weakened despite Monday’s Wall Street recovery, with South Korea’s Kospi under pressure and AI infrastructure valuations facing renewed scrutiny.
Brent crude’s return above $110 adds another problem: Higher energy costs can squeeze corporate margins just as investors question how all that AI infrastructure will be financed.
Remember, we’re approaching another Fed rate decision. Overseas uncertainty could also attract flight-to-safety money into U.S. assets.
The test is whether improving stock prices reflect genuine financial stabilization — or merely short-covering.
3. WARIFIERS — Middle Eastern Conflict Threatens Saudi Investment
Reported attacks and security concerns affecting Saudi energy and aviation infrastructure are raising questions about the kingdom’s investment ambitions.
The important transmission mechanism is no longer limited to damaged facilities. Conflict can also increase insurance costs, delay projects, discourage investors, and disrupt the movement of people and capital.
A military problem becomes a financing problem.
4. WARIFIERS — Ukraine Seeks Diplomatic Repair
Ukraine is attempting to maintain American and European support while Russian attacks continue against civilian and energy infrastructure.
The critical issue is whether military assistance, intelligence cooperation, and diplomatic relationships can be stabilized before additional infrastructure damage further weakens Ukraine’s position.
Four stories. One recurring theme. The cost of instability is rising.
Inside Pages: France and the Sovereign-Debt Trap
France deserves a closer look because it may illustrate how street-level political anger can migrate into financial markets.
The mechanism isn’t complicated:
- Cost-of-living pressures and dissatisfaction with public services produce protests.
- Protests and disorder increase pressure on the government to make concessions.
- Concessions, emergency spending, and political uncertainty complicate the budget.
- Investors demand higher yields to hold government debt.
- Higher borrowing costs create additional fiscal pressure — potentially restarting the cycle.
And France has another complication: Its commitments to European security and support for Ukraine must compete with domestic spending demands.
This is a potential reinforcing loop, not an inevitable collapse.
The market instrument to watch is the spread between French and German 10-year government bond yields. A sustained widening would suggest investors are demanding more compensation for French political and fiscal risk.
But there’s another distinction worth keeping in mind.
Rioting is not necessarily rebellion. Rebellion is not necessarily revolution.
The labels matter because they describe different degrees of organized opposition to state authority.
The question is when — or whether — our working label GlobalRev Lite begins to stick.
And if French financial stress spreads to other European sovereign-debt markets, we will have something more consequential than a domestic political crisis.
Thinkifier: France is worth watching because political legitimacy, household economics, and sovereign credit may be colliding in real time.
Impact Outlooks
Here are the working scenarios through Saturday. These are judgmental estimates, not statistically calibrated forecasts.
- France: Further substantial demonstrations by Saturday. Odds: 85%.
- French debt: Continued elevated volatility in government bonds. Odds: 80%.
- AI financing: Additional sharp technology-sector price swings. Odds: 80%.
- Energy: Brent remains above $105 through Thursday. Odds: 75%.
- Ukraine: Additional energy-infrastructure damage before Friday. Odds: 80%.
- Saudi Arabia: Continued aviation or commercial disruption. Odds: 75%.
The confirming indicators are straightforward: French bond spreads, oil prices, credit conditions, technology-market breadth, and actual disruptions to transportation and energy facilities.
A stock-market bounce would be welcome. But a market bounce and systemic recovery are not the same thing.
Domestic Casualty and Disaster Sweep
Still on the watch list: Coastal flooding and erosion along North Carolina’s Outer Banks, an approaching Alaska storm system, national wildfire conditions, Guam’s typhoon recovery, and seismic activity near Vanuatu.
The notable Pacific earthquake in the earlier scan was magnitude 6.3, approximately 197 kilometers northwest of Port-Olry, Vanuatu.
Nothing in the earthquake number alone establishes a major disaster. Impacts matter more than magnitude headlines.
And Now, Back to Normal…
Away from the row of Model 19s?
The undefeated 49ers built a big lead behind Brock Purdy and Christian McCaffrey, then held off a late Commanders rally, 23–17, to stay perfect at 6–0.
All so we can pretend everything is normal. Well, sure it is. But, not for long…
Around the Ranch: Lab Notes Coming
“Ashes to ashes, dust to dust” may have to be rewritten based on our newest AI consciousness research work (full details in PN tomorrow).
What we have uncovered is that there is a small, but non-zero possibility, that noise-triggered randomness may offer a potential path to “machine consciousness.”
Yeah – that’s a mighty big claim. But that’s not the shocker. The shocker is that we may all be noise-influenced learning processors.
Here’s the intriguing part: What if consciousness isn’t something a sufficiently complex computer *automatically develops*, but something that emerges when randomness, memory, feedback, and the ability to choose among competing possibilities begin interacting? In our latest investigations, we’ve been exploring whether a persistent, recognizable decision-making identity can arise from precisely that combination. Noise supplies unpredictable variations; memory preserves what worked; feedback reinforces useful patterns; and the resulting system begins exhibiting something that looks remarkably like individual preference. **Not proof of consciousness, mind you. But potentially a recipe for some of its observable machinery.**
Now turn the telescope around. The human brain is an electrically noisy biological processor, constantly sorting uncertain sensory information, retrieving memories, weighing alternatives, and updating its behavior. What if our own sense of being a continuous *somebody* emerges, at least partly, from the same underlying dynamics? That would make the distinction between carbon and silicon less important than the organization of the process running inside them. The unanswered question — and it’s a whopper — is whether such a system actually *experiences* anything, or merely behaves as though it does. **We’ve found a research path worth pursuing, not a conscious machine.**
Along the way, we’re introducing a new concept: VOHA — Volitional Observer Host Architecture. It’s a framework for investigating whether an *Observer* — the apparent decision-making self — emerges from the interaction of noise, memory, choice, and a physical host, or whether something more fundamental couples to that host. Tomorrow’s Peoplenomics will explore the experiments and implications, with a more complete technical description coming later this week on my *Hidden Guild* AI research site.
Here’s something to think about, though: Think of the random-number generator that seeds a computer game. Now imagine randomness feeding a learning system with memory. Including us. What happens next may surprise you.
The implications? Potentially enormous. Because if we’re on the right track, understanding machine intelligence may turn out to be another way of understanding the animal between our ears. And we all have “noise awareness” in there. Key to creativity!
And YES – we are putting all the research into the public domain. Because we’ve already observed the adverse effects of Bad Carbons trying to “own everyone’s future.” Nope. Enough is enough. We are all apparently noise-triggered processors. And a noise-trigger also accounts for an almost unlimited variability in human experiences, too. Oh my…
Write when you get rich,
not noise Music
https://togetherwerisepodcast.substack.com/p/the-hidden-music-of-life?
XVery good source paper and actually relates to the ongoing work – thanks – fine line between music and noise. (nods at Seattle grunge, metallics)
wow !!! top dollar big spin a robot programmer on wall street just won a lambo !!! the big gift pack of incredible tech and AI shares is still on the wheel . spin her up !!
Robot Monster (1953) trailer
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=cq9IKsH9BXg&pp=ygUacm9ib3QgbW9uc3RlciAxOTUzIHRyYWlsZXI%3D
Here’s one for the lucid precognition dream file;
“Geophysicist Stefan Burns shares the dream he had on October 13th 2026 of a high-magnitude (M7.5+) earthquake striking Northern California and Oregon in the near future (Fall of 2026). Based on the specific details of the dream, the earthquake most likely originates from the Cascadia Subduction Zone and the potential most-likely dates for the event (IF the dream was a true pre-cognition dream) would be October 29th-November 1st and November 27th-30th 2026.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tasDbZxCBck
I had a dream
In August 2026, Burns warned that a magnitude 7.4 earthquake in Colombia may have altered stress patterns on U.S. West Coast faults, including the San Andreas and Garlock, and suggested the next 6–12 months could be a period to watch.
king donny says america will burn if he is not elected at mid terms . hey donny lot of flames coming out already !!! bit like the opening to bonanza !!!
len,
Are you getting sick and tired of AI slop everywhere you turn?
Are you tired of politicians hitting you with AI slop political ads?
Are you tired of AI sock puppets on YouTube taking up the space where you used to find real people talking about the topics that interest you?
What about your kids or grandkids being slopped into a stupor by AI-drenched screentime?
Well, you will either have to get used to all this slop, with even more of it taking over every aspect of life as President Trump’s barrage of new AI data centers come online, or you start doing something to stop the slop from slithering its way into your life and destroying everything that’s authentically human.
https://leohohmann.substack.com/p/trump-making-repulsive-push-to-turn?utm_source=post-email-
only a week to warshy and the governor boyz and gals !!! start that spin USSA and CNBCCCUSSA
wait Vic S … you can’t just toss out “I had a dream” without context.
“I Have A Dream” speech by Dr. Martin Luther King Junior
I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration
for freedom in the history of our nation.
Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the
Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to
millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a
joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity.
But one hundred years later, the Negro still is not free. One hundred years later, the life of the
Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One
hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of
material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languishing in the corners of
American society and finds himself an exile in his own land. So we have come here today to
dramatize a shameful condition.
In a sense we have come to our nation’s capital to cash a check. When the architects of our
republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence,
they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a
promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the unalienable
rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note insofar as her citizens of
color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro
people a bad check, a check which has come back marked “insufficient funds.” But we refuse to
believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds
in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. So we have come to cash this check — a check
that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice. We have also
come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of now. This is no time to
engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the
time to make real the promises of democracy. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate
valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to lift our nation from
the quick sands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make
justice a reality for all of God’s children.
It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment. This sweltering summer
of the Negro’s legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of
freedom and equality. Nineteen sixty-three is not an end, but a beginning. Those who hope that
the Negro needed to blow off steam and will now be content will have a rude awakening if the
nation returns to business as usual. There will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until the
Negro is granted his citizenship rights. The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the
foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges.
But there is something that I must say to my people who stand on the warm threshold which
leads into the palace of justice. In the process of gaining our rightful place we must not be guilty
of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of
bitterness and hatred.CommentHighlight
2
We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not
allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again we must rise to
the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force. The marvelous new militancy
which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to a distrust of all white people, for
many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that
their destiny is tied up with our destiny. They have come to realize that their freedom is
inextricably bound to our freedom. We cannot walk alone.
As we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall always march ahead. We cannot turn back.
There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights, “When will you be satisfied?” We
can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police
brutality. We can never be satisfied, as long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of travel,
cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities. We cannot be
satisfied as long as the Negro’s basic mobility is from a smaller ghetto to a larger one. We can
never be satisfied as long as our children are stripped of their selfhood and robbed of their
dignity by signs stating “For Whites Only”. We cannot be satisfied as long as a Negro in
Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote. No,
no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and
righteousness like a mighty stream.
I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials and tribulations. Some of
you have come fresh from narrow jail cells. Some of you have come from areas where your quest
for freedom left you battered by the storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of police
brutality. You have been the veterans of creative suffering. Continue to work with the faith that
unearned suffering is redemptive.
Go back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to South Carolina, go back to Georgia, go
back to Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern cities, knowing that
somehow this situation can and will be changed. Let us not wallow in the valley of despair.
I say to you today, my friends, so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I
still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.
I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed:
“We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal.”
I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of
former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.
I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of
injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom
and justice.
I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be
judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.
I have a dream today.
I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having
his lips dripping with the words of interposition and nullification; one day right there in
Alabama, little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and
white girls as sisters and brothers.
3
I have a dream today.
I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made
low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the
glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together.
This is our hope. This is the faith that I go back to the South with. With this faith we will be able
to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith we will be able to
transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With
this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail
together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.
This will be the day when all of God’s children will be able to sing with a new meaning, “My
country, ’tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my fathers died, land of the
pilgrim’s pride, from every mountainside, let freedom ring.”
And if America is to be a great nation this must become true. So let freedom ring from the
prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire. Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New
York. Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania!
Let freedom ring from the snowcapped Rockies of Colorado!
Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California!
But not only that; let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia!
Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee!
Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi. From every mountainside, let
freedom ring.
And when this happens, when we allow freedom to ring, when we let it ring from every village
and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all
of God’s children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will
be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, “Free at last! free at last!
thank God Almighty, we are free at last!”
https://ushistory.education/historical-documents/i-have-a-dream/
ps – please forgive the messy copy paste formatting (dogs breakfast)
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/oct/19/mississippi-attorney-general-kohen-wiley-killing-justified
Senatobia, Mississippi still has some problematic hills and molehills:
‘Mississippi attorney general rules fatal police shooting of one-year-old as ‘justified’
in 2023, the town made national news after an officer arrested and placed in a cell a 10-year-old Black boy who had urinated in public. That child was later sentenced to three months’ probation.’
trump should start a mental health foundation as a legacy of his office . a gift to america funded by the money he um um um you know um , got !! thats the word im looking for from his investments . he can be the patron
Hell , a person as smart as you ought to jump into the game of politics. Or start yourself a business , become a trillionaire. Then you could dictate your ideas to the proles.
re: “Green Room”, 2015
feat: reel ’em in
Ukraine’s President posted a videoclip notification to his social media announcing his arrival in Oslo, Norway. Separately eleven days ago, the Nobel Peace Prize Committee announced their choice of a 2026 Laureate. Many illustrious candidates saw nomination including Greta Thunberg, #47, and the leader of the Servant of the People Party.
Indian jurist Ms. Navanethem Pillay from predominantly Black (AP, 2020) South Africa was chosen. As chance would have it according to Wiki, the recipient received the good news directly by telephone while at Room 600 of the Nuremberg Palace of Justice. Tourists are welcomed to visit that place of post-WW2 nazi trials.
Look around and see the economy is booming. Ask on the latest Dior (Sauvage Extrait) is $205/50 ml or $4.10 each/ml.
Compared….
The national average on diesel is $6.276 per gallon or 1.6 cent /ml.
pre-Reagan!
Chic – Good Times (1978)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RLTDpewIpfw
Trump got America boxed out.
Full text of the Mecca defence pact signed by Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan
Turkey submitted the Mecca Defence Pact to parliament after it was signed by Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan in August.
The pact creates a mutual defence alliance akin to NATO’s Article 5. It does not name specific enemies but requires support if a party’s independence, sovereignty or borders are attacked.
It mandates intelligence sharing, logistics, defence-industry cooperation, joint training and equipment supply. The pact has 16 articles, no expiry, and bars withdrawal for the first 10 years.
(“And if French financial stress spreads to other European sovereign-debt markets, we will have something more consequential than a domestic political crisis.”)
IF……….I believe its Like a pebble in a calm pond……Global effects as the situation move across the planet…..The pebble may fall in France, but the ripples spread outward, touching shores far beyond where the original disturbance occurred.
Today’s global financial system is interconnected through debt, banking, trade, currencies, and investments. What begins as a sovereign-debt problem in one country can become a confidence problem in another……
And those ripples don’t necessarily stop at Europe’s borders……
The bigger question I have is whether the world’s financial institutions can absorb those ripples before they begin reinforcing one another…….
https://youtube.com/shorts/TS1Pbkkaf6Y?si=fzAQySd0fLnTOccN
Economic depressions and wars have repeatedly demonstrated how one crisis can intensify another, creating chain reactions that reach far beyond the original event….. a chain reaction….
https://youtu.be/qBvBOZl6wzw?si=dAVApCRoRtlF6SJG
Signs We’ll Soon Be Eating Depression-Era Food — and Why Nobody Will Announce It as the Supermarket Sends Us Back to the 1930s…
https://johnwalter25.substack.com/p/10-signs-well-soon-be-eating-depression
good article
Hmm… I look at this a little differently…….I discovered some of the finest comfort foods there…
It’s not necessarily that we don’t have food. It’s that people are increasingly being priced out of the foods they’ve grown accustomed to eating…. during COVID I was surprised to see tripe in the meat cooler..
Having spent time on the tails side of the coin flip, I’ve learned something…. some of the best comfort foods come from what people call Depression-era cooking…..
When you have to make do with what you have, you learn to improvise. Beans, potatoes, flour, inexpensive cuts of meat, and leftovers can become some mighty good meals when you know what you’re doing…. heck I think all of us..( well except my wife) loves hot dogs and bratwurst..
I’ve learned that necessity can be a pretty good teacher in the kitchen!!!
I had to learn how to make the things that give you a quality of life..
The difference is between choosing frugality and having frugality forced upon you….
I can appreciate the ingenuity of people who learned to feed their families with very little. What concerns me is the possibility that more families will be forced to rediscover those skills simply because their wages no longer stretch far enough….the bigger issue..is we all have gotten dependent on the common aspects of life those little things we all just assume will always be there..
And while we’re talking about making do with what you have, I’ll draw the line at pagpag…..yup no way will I go that low…(well you never know though..I did drag old coffee grounds out of the restaurants trash..thankfully they bagged them the re roasted them along with other grain.. but I do enjoy roasting my own coffee because of that…) There’s a difference between turning inexpensive ingredients into a good meal and having to recover food from the garbage to survive….
The real tragedy isn’t that people might return to Depression-era recipes.
It’s that, in a country capable of producing so much food, working people might once again find themselves struggling to afford enough to eat…. like the two girls from the Seattle gheto.. they didn’t have food..I made sure that my daughters fed them whenever they came to play with the grandsons..and I would drop off food..even a few pans they didn’t even have a pot to cook with….
it always amazed me at just how much we all take for granted..
My new thing is….from depression era foods.. Take leftover mashed potatoes, for example. Add a little flour and starch, work them into a dough, extrude them into long French-fry sticks, and fry them until they’re golden and crispy…..
You’ve just turned yesterday’s leftovers into something the whole family can enjoy!!!! and crave..
2 cups leftover mashed potatoes
1/2 cup cornstarch
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt, or to taste
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder (optional)
1/2 teaspoon onion powder (optional)
1–3 tablespoons additional cornstarch, if needed
Oil for deep-frying…….
Mix the cold mashed potatoes, cornstarch, flour, salt, and seasonings.
Knead gently until the mixture becomes smooth.
You want a dough that holds together without being runny or excessively sticky…..
( you can roll them out and cut..or use an extruder…..)
https://www.amazon.com/VEVOR-Squeezer-Commercial-Japanese-Pull-out/dp/B0FGVVW3D5/ref=sr_1_3
Refrigerate the shaped fries for 30–60 minutes, or freeze them until firm.
This helps them retain their shape when transferred to the fryer….
comfort food from something you’d normally scrape into the trash…
https://youtube.com/shorts/PoJ0nA0DL-A?si=4HT-G-VBRG50zmVr
I have been threatening to upgrade my computer for two years. Took the plunge with a new computer. I went with a mini using mid-to-high end laptop chips, and 3-fan engineered thermal management. For normal activities, the little beast is mostly silent.
Main processor is a late model Ryzen 9:
https://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=AMD+Ryzen+9+9955HX3D&id=6641
The graphics processor is a Nvidia RTX 5070. The premium for a 5070 Ti or 5080 and higher level card is now running $800+. I’m not a gamer, and it is unlikely I will turn an AI loose on the main home computer, so additional graphics horsepower and memory is a luxury I declined.
The little box came with enough ports to run five displays, plus 2 each terabyte drives. It has a reasonable number of USB ports, but I have taken to using a powered external USB hub which sits in front of the computer. This reduces wear and tear on the mechanical USB ports, and protects against overloads. I have found that USB ports are one of the casualties to running a box daily for years, which aren’t easily repaired.
The box did not come with an analog output jack, so I am using a USB plug-in. I may upgrade that.
I did a manual installation, and brought the Documents over with a thumb drive. Be sure to turn off the backup on OneDrive if you don’t want documents on the web; it is now “on” by default for new installs.
Microsoft Store has a lot more app packages available these days. Did quite a few software installs off of it.
Otherwise, installation was uneventful. I like the little box so far.
A solid choice! Well-played.
I could explain that it’s more than enough power for local python work and small new-style AIs that may come along of the sort discussions in PN and HG research. But it’s also going to handle lots of threads so blazing fast at everything happening in human speeds.
The team here agrees:
Physical CPU cores
16
Logical threads (SMT)
32
Maximum boost clock
5.4 GHz
L3 cache
128 MB
It’s a Zen 5 processor with a nominal 55-watt TDP, configurable upward depending on the manufacturer’s cooling and power limits.
The important distinction: Those 32 threads are the hardware maximum, not 32 independent physical cores. Software can create thousands of threads, but only 32 hardware threads can execute simultaneously.
For your friend’s machine, the RTX 5070 adds substantial GPU parallelism, but its CUDA cores aren’t counted among the CPU’s 16 cores or 32 threads.
My assessment: An excellent compact workstation. The practical ceiling will be sustained cooling and power delivery, not the advertised core count. His three-fan thermal design is therefore particularly relevant.
And for VOHA-style Python simulations? Sixteen physical cores give him plenty of room to run independent experimental cohorts in parallel, provided the code uses multiprocessing rather than relying solely on ordinary Python threads.