Categories
Animal Kingdom Erudition Germany

Goaßgschau

Goaßgschau Did you know that when your eyes randomly go out of focus and then you are too lazy to focus them back in and just stare at nothing for a while In Bavarian (Germany) that’s called: “goaßgschau” which translates to “stare of a goat “ I love that there’s a word for this Love,The […]

Categories
Agriculture Gods, Goddesses, and Mythical Heros Oh, Grow Up! Ukraine

Ivana Kupala: A Mandatory Attribute of Amusements

Kupala Night is one of the major folk holidays of the Eastern Slavs that coincides with the Christian feast of the Nativity of St. John the Baptist and the East Slavic feast of Saint John’s Eve. In folk tradition, it was revered as the day of the summer solstice and was originally celebrated on the […]

Categories
ENGin Meaning of Life Ukraine

Vodokhreshche: Ukrainian River Ice Swimming

My Ukrainian ENGin buddy told me about an interesting Ukrainian ritual for the celebration of the Epiphany. In Ukraine, the celebration of Epiphany, or “Yordan” (also known as “Vodokhreshche”), takes place on January 19th. It’s a major religious holiday in the Orthodox Christian tradition, marking the baptism of Jesus in the Jordan River. A key […]

Categories
Canada Engineering England Scholarship/Erudition TechnoBLOTT Will there be a buffet?

The Godfather of Artificial Intelligence

STOCKHOLM (AP) — Two pioneers of artificial intelligence — John Hopfield and Geoffrey Hinton — won the Nobel Prize in physics Tuesday for helping create the building blocks of machine learning that is revolutionizing the way we work and live but also creates new threats for humanity. Hinton, who is known as the godfather of […]

Categories
France Late Stage Capitalism TechnoBLOTT

ITER / Big Concrete / The Blessing of the Tokamac

Good morning, WLBOTT World! The word for today is transformation—a fitting theme for personal growth, just like our WLBOTT blog. – Elder G Yesterday’s BLOTT featured the small, self-contained 1MW personal fusion generator (P-FuG). But how do we get from our current state of engineering to the P-FuG? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intermediate_value_theorem In a nutshell, the Intermediate Value […]

Categories
Gods, Goddesses, and Mythical Heros Greece Meaning of Life Scholarship/Erudition

Kaos

Kaos is a new 8-episode series on Netflix. WLBOTT Ministry of Virtue and ViceNot for the children. Maybe not for some adults. There is violence. There is gender-bending. There is satire of organized religion. Although not graphically explicit, there are scenes that imply animal cruelty. Kaos is an unusually creative and though-provoking fantasy. Set in […]

Categories
Europe Fashion Lasting Love Those Crazy Kids!

The WLBOTT Royal Wedding

WLBOTT’s most eligible (and only) bachelor, UC#2, will be heading to Düsseldorf this week as part of his summer scholarship. Semi-Sequitur: Please try this Say this three times, and your mood will improve 27%: Düssel Düssel Dorf Dorf DorfDüssel Düssel Dorf Dorf DorfDüssel Düssel Dorf Dorf Dorf Anyhow, UC#2 will be in close proximity to […]

Categories
Baltic States Collapse of Democracy/Civilization/etc. Poland Will there be a buffet?

The Suwalki Gap

This may seem obscure, but it makes me nervous. There are some very serious people worrying about this. Russia, with their insatiable greed and lust for power, has their eye on the Baltic states (Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia). Many fear that Russia’s original plan was to use Ukraine (their 3-day special military operation) as a […]

Categories
russia Sticking It To The Man The land, the people, the culture Ukraine

Ukraine’s Incursion into Kursk

On August 6th, 2024, Ukraine made a well-planned incursion into Kursk. The Kursk Oblast (or state) is an 11,582 sq. mile area that borders eastern Ukraine. It has a population of just over a million, and has been populated since the last ice age. Eduard Mykhailovych Moskaliov (Ukrainian: Едуард Михайлович Москальов; born 22 December 1973) […]

Categories
Book Club Climate Change Ireland Scholarship/Erudition

The Heat Will Kill You First / The Second Coming (part I of III)

I recently began reading the excellent book The Heat Will Kill You First, by Jeff Goodell. Executive summary: We’re doomed. Goodell dedicates some of the book to discussing air conditioning and how this technology has allowed people to live in hotter climates but also has become a major contributor to global warming. Goodell explains how […]