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Monday’s Forum
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24 responses to “Monday’s Forum”
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We’re just about three weeks out. I’m nervous as a cat in a room full of rocking chairs…
I know that anxiety isn’t helpful or useful.
I’ve now started worrying about what the public does and does not understand about governing. My instinct is that if Dems do win the House and Senate, they should just start passing legislation that would address issues. Make him veto stuff. Make him veto everything. In other words, don’t get too hung up on the details.
Gah.
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These are the images posted in the above Bluesky links:
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Over the weekend, Ukraine attacked and knocked out two of Russia’s five major data centers for Yandex, Russia’s version of Google. Those data centers handled high volumes of automated web requests, which can be linked to bots. According to one source, automated web requests from one of the data centers dropped to 0.4% of its prior volume.
One source interpreted that reduction in automated web requests to be equal to a reduction in bot activity on the web. See Tom’s Hardware, Russia’s Yandex bot traffic nearly eliminated overnight after Ukraine drone strikes. Commentators on social media claimed that bot traffic on Twitter was cut in half, and that bot traffic promoting Germany’s far-right AfD party was reduced by 90%.
I attempted to verify the claims of reduction in bot traffic on Twitter and general web discussion of AfD. So far as I can tell on Sunday evening, the most that can be said is that automated web requests tied to two data centers in Russia were effectively eliminated. I have not seen any direct reporting from a major media outlet that the reduction in automated web requests resulted in a quantifiable reduction in bot traffic on Twitter or a reduction in discussion of the AfD party.
It may turn out that the two Russian data centers accounted for a significant portion of bot traffic on Twitter. For now, however, no solid third-party reporting supports that claim. As always, we should avoid spreading unverified claims. If the situation changes, please post an update in the Comment section or email me with relevant articles, so long as they address bots and not merely automated web requests. I will report back if new information comes to light.
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See, this is where I start to disassociate…okay, so this expert says no difference, and specifically talks about bot traffic on Twitter. (I’ll note that a third data center has been destroyed.) Musk tweeted that Zelensky has “gone too far,” which seems an odd thing to single out if nothing has changed.
If Zelensky can destroy three large Russian data centers and it has no effect, then what exactly are those data centers doing?
Now, several have pointed out that it’s unlikely Russian bot farms are actually hosted in Russia…but that’s a risk too.
At this point, I’m throwing up my hands and saying “well, if it’s propaganda, I hope it works.”
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See, this is where I start to disassociate…okay, so this expert says no difference, and specifically talks about bot traffic on Twitter.
There is a difference between “no difference” and “no visible difference.”
What seems to be gone viral, I am seeing it at many sites, is the claim that Russian bot traffic is almost totally gone because of the attacks on Yandex data centers, which are just a fraction of all Russian data centers. This, to me, makes no sense.
ETA: If there was spare capacity at other data centers there might well not be much change in bot traffic.
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BBC’s reporting is noting considerable problems, and refers to Yandex as “Russia’s Google.”
Yandex confirms its services are “completely suspended,” but nothing specific.
Interestingly, Kyiv stated it is targeting “places that provide revenue” for Russia’s “war machine,” which sort of opens the question as to what Yandex is providing in that sphere.
At any rate, even if it doesn’t take down the bot army Russia supports, it’s a major disruption, and will take a while to rebuild, given current chip shortages.
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See, this is where I start to disassociate…okay, so this expert says no difference, and specifically talks about bot traffic on Twitter. (I’ll note that a third data center has been destroyed.) Musk tweeted that Zelensky has “gone too far,” which seems an odd thing to single out if nothing has changed.
Do not take Musk’s outrage about a thing as evidence that this thing exists. The dude is high on his own supply, reading Twitter, believing shit, etc. Just another bitter, divorced white man radicalized by the far right on social media. His proclamations should have zero value for determining truth.
As for the rest, things can be moved to their data centers. I don’t know anything about this incident, but unless Russia was running at 100% capacity in all available data centers, or only had three, I would expect a bounce back.
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As of a couple days ago I am married to a 70 year-old woman.
Had you told me back in 1978–as I was reassuring my bail bondsman that I would never jump bail–that within a month of doing what I swore I wouldn’t do, I would meet a woman, we’d move in together within 24 hours of meeting, and that I would still be with her in the far distant future of 2026 when we’d all have gills and live in underwater cities with–paradoxically–flying cars, I’d have expressed some doubt.
I am excited by, amused by, interested in and madly in love with what is mathematically speaking, an old lady. I would have thought gills far more likely.
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Five hundred trees cut down for an effin’ golf course, against court orders to notify prior to any work being done. The judge is furious, apparently. I’ll not hold my breath, but it’d be nice if someone was tossed in jail…
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So I’ve wanted to do huevos rancheros my way for a while. The basic dish is two fried eggs with a runny yoke, each on top of a lightly fried tortilla, and the whole thing covered in red or green salsa (*).
I wanted them with sauteed onions mixed with the salsa, toasted tortillas, and some cheese between the eggs and tortillas, plus I anted the salsa to be hot.
I knew it was a simple thing to do, but I kept trying to do it using only one pan. It never worked.
Last weekend I used two pans, one to toast the tortillas and onions and heat the salsa, and one to fry the eggs.
It worked!
And washing an extra pan somehow neither killed me nor caused permanent injury…
(*) A version with both kinds of salsa, one over each egg, is called “divorced eggs.”
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To each their own.
I hardly ever make fried eggs, or order them in restaurants, except for huevos rancheros. Other than the extra pan, I’ve issues not breaking the yolk when cracking the egg.
Anyway, the runny yoke mixes well with the salsa. That’s the whole point of that dish. It can be done with well cooked eggs, but then I wouldn’t see the point.
But that’s just personal taste. Some people like fish and seafood, for fuck’s sake 😉
When I started my current job and went to eat lunch with coworkers sometimes, I was surprised how many people order a fried egg on top of their rice. I still don’t get it.
I hear in Japan it’s common to mix a raw egg with some dishes while eating them.
Takes all kinds.
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I have oatmeal with peanut butter and yogurt almost every weekday for breakfast. On weekends, I cook eggs. It’s usually the best part of my weekend, and about the only time I eat what I make right after making it (yeah, that’s weird).
On other matters, I want to get a vinyl sticker made in bright yellow with black letters spelling “KEEP THIS AREA CLEAR AT ALL TIMES” to stick in front of the coffee maker.
I’m amazed how many coworkers think it’s not an issue to eat breakfast, lunch, or just a snack, where they block free access to the coffee.
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Agents search Rep. Omar’s Washington home in criminal probe as she vows she won’t ‘be silenced’
I need to invest in a jackboot company. I’ll be rich by election day. 🙁
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You’d be a piker. I happened to be reading Klein and Taylor’s End Times Fascism last night. After discussing Palantir, which says it’s “built for bad times”, they note,
Defense, disaster reconstruction, mass incarceration, immigration detention and deportation (or “remigration”), and even humanitarian aid have merged into a single sector—one that views peace and ecological stability as economic threats.
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