Nolan distorts classical myth to preserve heroic grandeur; Valle-Inclán’s esperpento deforms it to show that the ideal has decayed into satire.
Thursday, August 27, 2026
Extremist Billionaire Media Owners Want to Steal Your Social Security So They Don’t Have to Pay Slightly Higher Taxes
Cutting Social Security and Medicare attacks millions of ordinary workers to avoid taxing the rich or reducing waste in our health system.
Iran War: Bloomberg Claims High Oil Flows Through Hormuz as Iran Threatens for Real Closure; Diesel Stress Rises as Canada Oil Exports to Fall Near Term; Investors Diss Bessent Treasury Meddling, Finger Inflation as the Issue
Today’s Iran war news: Diverging claims on Strait of Hormuz oil transits as Iran vows tight closure and investors trash Bessent Treasury meddling.
Satyajit Das: Political Films Part 2 – Probably!
Satyajit Das continues his discussion of some iconic political films. Please add your faves!
Sunscreen for Lakes and Dams: Could a Thin Floating Layer of Nanomaterial Shield Water from Evaporation?
Geoengineering proposals, such as preventing water evaporation and reflecting sunlight, are set to increase. How to evaluate them?
Coffee Break: Someone Stupid Heads From South Carolina to DC
The South Carolina special election to replace the late, great Lindsey Graham was held last night and the stupid won in a big way, by that I mean his sister.
This American City Perfected Clean Water for Beer — Now It’s Fighting to Keep Cancer-Causing Nitrates Out of the Tap
Rural communities can treat water to reduce nitrates to safe levels. But what about well water polluted by runoff from fertilized fields?
Imperialist Realism and American Empire
“May you live in interesting times.” So says the apocryphal Chinese proverb that may well have been more properly attributed to Austen and Neville Chamberlain’s father. All of us here can be said to have lived in interesting times, if interesting means, among other things, unsettled and inscrutable, not to mention ugly and unstable. But […]
Understanding Iranian Victory
Iranian strategic logic and why Tehran believes it has already won against the US.
Is Sikorski’s “European Legion” Proposal a Way for Poland to Deploy “Peacekeepers” to Ukraine?
A sketchy “European Legion” scheme which could deploy to Ukraine illustrates the huge gap between EU belligerent intent and ability to act.
Coffee Break: Armed Madhouse – Humanoid Soldiers and Vanishing Valor
Humanoid robots are approaching the physical capabilities required for infantry combat. Once machines become stronger, faster, more precise, more expendable, and easier to reproduce than human soldiers, military competition could make the human infantryman obsolete. But the deeper consequence may be cultural: what happens to warfare when armies no longer require courage, sacrifice, or heroes?
Gates and Rockefeller Foundations’ Green Revolution Failing Africa
How 20 years of Gates and Rockefeller Foundations’ green revolutions initiatives have yielded little in Africa and even done harm.
