Should the UNSG also have said nothing?

I’ll print more legibly in the future.

That’s just how I process information. Pencil in hand and post-its are easy to find in my house. They end up in notebooks with more writing. Better, by far, than on back of some envelope or on my kids’ school work like my parents used to do.

Also, made you look.

Ding ding. Correct.

2001: A Space Odyssey

The Qatsi films

Solaris (2002)

Marvel: s (NY, ) mixed in with fake locales (Genosha, A events (9/11 has made several appearances, WWII is canon), legit in-universe stakes and motivation, lots of difficult or morally grey choices. Good reading, they make you think.

DC: fake cities (i.e., Metropolis, Gotham); never have seen a historical event (feel free to enlighten me if you would); stakes seem to be damage to infrastructure and property — maybe a hero or two will get hurt (except for that one time they put a lady in a refrigerator as motivation — that was not cool); good guys are clearly good, bad guys are clearly bad.

My money has always been with Marvel.

If it’s alive and not a plant, not a fungus, and not a single-celled organism, it is probably an animal.

Operation Gideon (2020)

"… Two boats were launched from eastern Colombia toward the Caribbean coast of Venezuela north of Caracas, carrying approximately 60 Venezuelan dissidents and two American former Green Berets employed as mercenaries by Silvercorp. Both boats were intercepted before they reached land. At least six Venezuelan dissidents in the first boat were killed, and all but four of the invaders were captured during the attempted landing or subsequent search operations, including the two Americans from the second boat, whose interrogations were broadcast on state television.

Venezuelan intelligence agencies and the Associated Press (AP) had prior knowledge of the operation. Commentators and observers described the operation as amateurish, underfunded, poorly organized, impossible, and a suicide mission, and divergent narratives led to questions about how the plot unfolded. Sources criticized the poor planning and execution, alternating between characterizing Operation Gideon as an attempted invasion, infiltration, raid, ambush, assassination or coup.

Thanks for bringing Wiley Miller back into my life today. It’s been too long.

My preferred quote on this line:

“Power attracts pathological personalities. It is not that power corrupts but that it is magnetic to the corruptible. Such people have a tendency to become drunk on violence, a condition to which they are quickly addicted.” ~ Frank Herbert, Chapterhouse: Dune

It takes the will of a saint to be incorruptible — to not become addicted to the exercise of power. Those who do not desire power, like saints, may have it thrust upon them.

Even when left to own devices, a person can only exercise power within a society that has desires, wants, and fears. The whole society would need to be incorruptible. This is improbable. In the unlikely case of such a pure society, it would also need to be incorruptible when in contact with “the other” — peoples, species, events, and ideas. This is exceedingly improbable. So, the whole of existence would need to be incorruptible.

Power corrupts.

QED (using the slippery slope, I know)

So, Jumper.

Lucy (2018) - some mild insanity, remorselessness

Genie from Aladdin (1992) ‐ everything is a joke

Bruce Almighty (2003) - can’t actually control himself

I’m going to go off on a comic-book tangent here:

Wielder of Infinity Gauntlet (1991, 2018) - potential insanity, later radiation scarring

Phoenix Force (1976) ‐ heavy insanity, desire to consume planets (see: Dark Phoenix Saga (1980), (X-Men '92, S03E11), Avengers vs. X-men (2012))

Omega-Level mutants - tendency toward megalomania (see: Jean Grey, Magneto, Kid Omega, 4 horsemen of Apocalypse… even Ororo Munroe (goddess), though Iceman seems well-adjusted)

Beyond - remorselessness, destruction of universes (see: Secret Wars (1984), Time Runs Out Event (2014))

Trigonometry

Yeah, I don’t mind it. Thor is a name and a title/power. God (presumably) is a name, and Thor has the power of a god.

Prince is a title. It’s also a name. And, to some musicians, Prince is a god.

It’d be rare to win an argument by invoking Prince, but there you go.

Going forward is the worst of corporate-speak. I refuse to use this phrase.

Purple by Crustation as remixed by J Dilla (6:47)

and

“Lonely as the sound of lying on the ground of an airplane going down”, the first three tracks off of He Has Left Us Alone But Shafts of Light Sometimes Grace the Corners of Our Rooms by A Silver Mt. Zion (19:54)

Jóga by Björk interpolated with the coda from Timabaland’s video mix of Hit 'em wit da Hee by Missy Elliott. (about 6:28)

and

You Got Me by The Roots (4:19)

and

Roads by Portishead (5:03)

So… end credits for 42:31.

and, finally, after the credits

Last Donut of the Night by J Dilla; played on an hour-long loop. In my head canon, when he was in hospital, just before he died, this was the last track Dilla constructed.

Cellular respiration, the Krebs cycle, oxidative phosphorylation, citric acid cycle, glycolysis… I miss having these processes in my head. I was such a biology nerd once.

CoIntelPro.

Just, go look.

Aw. Name more of the chaebols.

Samsung

KIA

Daewoo

Hyundai

SK

LG

Lotte

Guatemala’s ruling class spent months trying to negate the democratic election of anti-corruption, centre-left, progressivist, social-democrat, now-President Bernardo Arévalo. Certainly, the ruling class will screw with the whole system, and, possibly, they will attempt to kill him.

Bernardo is the son of former president Juan José Arévalo, whose time in office immediately followed an uprising that deposed U.S. backed dictator Jorge Ubico in 1945. Hate runs deep.

Keep in mind that the tenuous peace in Guatemala is consistently marred by gang violence, institutional corruption, kidnappings, and murder. This ray of light for the campesinos, indigenous people, and impoverished majority is, hopefully, sustainable with a mandate to improve Guatemala into a place where people can live. It would behoove (United States of) Americans to support this president as he could move the needle on making life liveable in Guatemala and stemming the flow of refugees and migrant workers to the North.