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Thursday’s Forum
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12 responses to “Thursday’s Forum”
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Something I just came across over at BJ, re: the Kerch Bridge:
A series of earthquakes near Crimea is having a critical impact on the Crimean Bridge, which Russia built in violation of construction standards. The seismic activity is creating a cumulative effect that could ultimately destroy the structure, according to seismologist Dmytro Hryn of the S.I. Subbotin Institute of Geophysics of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine.
Key points:
Seismic threat: A series of earthquakes near Crimea, including those recorded on June 22-24, is critically weakening the Crimean Bridge, which was built in violation of safety standards.
Political construction project: Russia deliberately lowered the official seismic hazard rating for the area to justify building the bridge on highly unstable soil with its own fault system.
“100-year cycle”: Due to the cyclical nature of earthquakes in the region, similar to the devastating 1927 event, forecasts of a powerful earthquake occurring by 2027 remain relevant.
Irreversible consequences: Seismic activity has a cumulative effect that makes the bridge’s destruction inevitable, as the structure will continue to deteriorate even without external attacks.
Built in violation of standards in a seismically active zone
The scientist stresses that constructing the bridge in this area contradicted safety standards from the very beginning, as the area between the Kerch and Taman peninsulas is characterized by highly unstable soils and its own fault system.
“The Russians deliberately changed state construction regulations and lowered the seismic rating of the area to justify building in a seismically hazardous zone. The soil conditions there are extremely poor, and there is a separate fault system between the Kerch and Taman peninsulas. This construction project was a political decision,” he explained.
Earthquakes are critically weakening the bridge
According to Hryn, earthquakes that regularly occur in the region, including the series of tremors recorded on June 22-24, have long-term negative consequences for the bridge. He noted that the impact of tremors is not immediate but irreversible.
Such earthquakes produce a cumulative effect that gradually weakens both the bridge’s structure and the soil beneath its supports.
The processes occurring inside the structure due to constant seismic stress are irreversible.
“Irreversible processes are taking place within this bridge. Ukrainian earthquakes will finish it off, even without any external impact of our missiles,” the expert concluded.
On June 22, six earthquakes were recorded in Crimea throughout the day, with the strongest reaching a magnitude of 4.5. New tremors were also detected on the peninsula on June 24.
In a comment to RBC-Ukraine, seismologist Dmytro Hryn explained that a system of geological faults near Crimea periodically becomes active. There is currently a serious risk that a major earthquake could occur by 2027, comparable to the event that struck the region 100 years ago. That earthquake reached an intensity of 9 points and destroyed about 70% of the buildings in Yalta.
ETA: Refer to comment #6 for additional info:
https://balloon-juice.com/2026/06/24/war-for-ukraine-day-1581-crimean-earthquake/
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On the AI front, yesterday I noticed Chrome suddenly had a new button on the tabs bar labelled “Ask Gemini.” If clicked on, it opens a Gemini sidebar. Then, when trying to reopen a closed tab by right clicking an empty spot on the tabs bar, I noticed a context menu item labelled “Unpin Gemini.” Neat!
So I went looking for a similar function on Edge, but there wasn’t one. I opened settings, and found a settings section labelled Copilot and AI.
I’m glad I did. Aside from allowing the removal of the Copilot button under the tabs bar, I found other options. One is “Copilot new tab page,” which was off by default. Turn it on, and any new tabs get you a copilot box rather than a Bing search box. Also it activates a sub-option labelled “Journeys,” complete with a “learn more” link. This is also off by default.
Clicking on learn more, you learn this:
Copilot Journeys
Browsing the web often spans multiple tabs, sessions, and days. Keeping track of tasks can be overwhelming. Copilot Journeys transform your browser into a smart assistant that helps you resume tasks and move forward efficiently. It automatically organizes your browsing data into meaningful groups called Journeys, each with a quick summary and suggested next step. With Journeys, you can continue where you left off without losing track of your progress.How Copilot Journeys works
While you browse, Copilot creates a short summary of your page content that captures the essence of what you view. For example, Copilot might summarize a page with a pizza recipe as a “Step-by-step guide to making pizza from scratch, including dough recipes and topping suggestions”.That summary, along with related page titles, URLs, searches, and Copilot chats, is used to create a task-focused group called a Copilot Journey. Each Journey reflects a task in progress, so you can pick up quickly where you left off without losing context.
Copilot Journeys are constantly replaced with new ones to remain fresh and relevant. Older Journeys and their underlying data are automatically deleted after 14 days.
Maybe I’m getting too cynical in my late, late youth, but to me this reads as “Help us train Copilot by letting it see all you read, watch, see, and do online.”
There’ more. The next option is “Browse with Copilot.” This is described as “Copilot completes actions across tabs while you review progress.” This one isn’t off by default, but clicking on the arrow to its right opens a sub menu, which allows you to specify when Copilot can access your browsing without permission. I set it to “Strict,” which requires permission any time it wants to access anything.
The last option in the Copilot settings is “Copilot in Edge preview.” This takes you to a web page that explains what this does. Essentially it activates the “Copilot new tab page” as well as “Journeys” if you choose to join. It also promises (threatens) to allow you early access to the latest Copilot features in Edge. So, train our LLM and beta test it.
I’ll give MS partial credit that not all these options are on by default, and some can be turned off or modified. I expect this will change.
I don’t use Edge much at home, and slightly more than that at work. I expect I’ll test them just to find out what they do. Meantime, I need to look up for any Copilot settings in the mobile apps in the phones…
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Rewriting history. Texas is on the case.
Texas social studies rewrite would trim back lessons on slavery and civil rights
Republicans on the State Board of Education advanced a proposed social studies rewrite after significantly scaling back what Texas public school students learn about slavery and civil rights.
On Tuesday night, the board voted to cut previously proposed lessons that explained racial segregation and slave revolts. Also gone are provisions that had specifically acknowledged that African Americans were enslaved in the United States “because of the color of their skin,” and that southern states seceded from the Union in part to preserve the practice of slavery.
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But the proposal drops or trims back lessons on figures who fought desegregation or abolition, including Alabama Gov. George Wallace, the Ku Klux Klan and Confederate leaders.The board also cut a detailed explanation of how Jim Crow laws perpetuated segregation, and renamed the Tulsa Race Massacre, believed to be the worst case of racial violence in American history, to the “Tulsa Race Riots.”
Those changes lead to a “whitewashed,” smoothed-out view of the country’s struggle against racial injustice, said Steven Mintz, a history professor at the University of Texas-Austin.
As supporters praise Texas’ proposed “Judeo-Christian” curriculum, rabbis say it dismisses Judaism
Praising a proposal to require Texas public school students to read Bible stories and passages in class, supporters say the perspective is an important acknowledgment that the nation was founded on Judeo-Christian values.
Rabbis and Jewish leaders, however, criticized the biblical passages chosen by the State Board of Education as heavy on Christianity and dismissive of Judaism, reducing the term Judeo-Christian to “a fig leaf at inclusion.”
BTW, ever wonder about the use of the term Judeo-Christian?
The term Judeo-Christian was popularized during the Cold War — a conflict frequently characterized as a spiritual battle between those of faith and “godless” enemies abroad, said Robert O. Smith, associate professor at the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago.
In the United States, the term united Protestants, Catholics and Jews under a banner of shared religious origins that excluded Muslims, he said.
“The Protestant, Catholic, Jew construct” of the Judeo-Christian ethos is based on the “rejection of the atheist and the rejection of the Muslim,” Smith said in an interview.
Though Judaism is embedded in the phrase, the partnership has not been equal, Smith added. The term Judeo-Christian “implies a Christian construction of Jewish existence” in which “Jews exist inherently to fulfill Christian purposes,” he said.
“Christianity, from its very beginnings, has had a very ambivalent relationship with Jews and Judaism,” Smith said. “There’s a desire for Jews to convert — and therefore for Judaism to disappear into Christianity — but there’s also a recognition that Judaism is the foundation of Christianity.”
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@charontwo: In the meantime:
Ukraine attacks on Russian-occupied Crimea trigger power cuts in Sevastopol
Ukrainian strikes on Russian-occupied Crimea have triggered power outages in its largest city, Sevastopol, according to statements from both sides, as Kyiv intensifies attacks on the peninsula Moscow annexed in 2014.
Crimea has been forced to suspend fuel sales to the public as Ukraine’s army targets Russian logistics to the region and has hit a series of oil refineries and depots across southern Russia that provide supplies.
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Who would have ever believed that a fake gambling website had to run a con in order to promote itself?
Polymarket [spelled with an L as the 3rd letter] had content creators film themselves setting up bets at a fake website — because if they used the actual website, even the content creators would lose money. The site they used was “poimarket” with the I capitalized so it looks like a lowercase L.
In a shocking twist you’d never expect, the only people making money at polymarket or kalshi are about 0.5% of users – the people with inside information. It’s quite seriously worse odds than an actual casino or vegas sportsbook. And of course a majority of the bets on both platforms are crypto.
If you hear a podcast talking about their bets… they’re paid to do so and it’s not real. -
@Scott:
The term Judeo-Christian “implies a Christian construction of Jewish existence” in which “Jews exist inherently to fulfill Christian purposes,” he said.
This is the the core Christian doctrine of “Supersessionism” – that Christianity is a replacement, a newer model, of Judaism. The Jews’ continued existence despite being “replaced” has been an affront and challenge for Christians and has caused, or at least been a critical factor, in much of antisemitism over the past 1500 years.
Even in its “soft” form, which doesn’t require the elimination/conversion of all the Jews, it results in viewing today’s Jews as NPCs in Christianity’s story resulting in seeing them as characters and stereotypes, not people. As frozen in time, not alive and vibrant.
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@Kathy: Thank you!
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@SKI: What’s the difference between what Texas is doing and what Russia is doing?
From Russian Occupation Update, June 25, 2026
The Russian government is further solidifying its control over history education in occupied Ukraine, disseminating state narratives via state-curated textbooks and mandated curricula.
Kremlin-controlled Russian Orthodox Church (ROC) clergy members and Donetsk Oblast occupation officials are facilitating religious programming at schools to militarize and indoctrinate Ukrainian schoolchildren under Russian occupation.
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As the video explains, it probably came within 25 ft off the ground, with the wingtip coming much closer than that.
This should be investigated. I assume the flight crew did not intend to go that low, therefore there must be an issue of some kind. and if they did mean to get that low and start a turn at that altitude, their fitness to fly should be questioned.
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@Kathy: It will be. Somebody will send it to the FAA, and they will come a-callin’ shortly.
Clearly they put a camera in place to capture the act. Not spur of the moment but definitely poorly thought through. Good bet that when the pilots see that they will be shocked at just how close they were to the ground. Two cats with no more than eight lives left on the ledger.
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