Coss

This is not, pro, one side or another, but a suitable point in time, to honour the people on both sides, who fought for their countries. And in these times, when 'cadet bone spur' carnival barking, is leading the world to fascism, I note, that whilst I am of Nordic~British origins nee: Viking, my family, has those who are German. And what is interesting, on a visit to Cologne, was an encounter with an older lady, from the German branch of the family. Her vehement distress at the thought of WW2, was not driven by any informed view of history and the camps and the Nazis etc, but by the memories of, as a girl, having uncountable bombers, fly over at night, terrifying the people and exploding their houses. So: Britain’s oldest World War II veteran, Donald Rose, has died at the age of 110. Rose participated in the D-Day landings on June 6, 1944, and was part of the division that liberated the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in northern Germany. LINK I can only hope that our collective future, will learn from our past, and allow the current western world's, goodwill, amity and harmony (exceptions well known and noted) to continue and flourish.

Back when I and others, were gleefully saying "Epstein didn't kill himself", I had no way of knowing that MAGA would adopt said rumour and fledge it into a full blown conspiracy theory, with which, they are now hauling, senior Trumpanzees, over the coals.../.

The Phoenician Scheme 2025 An offering from Wes Anderson - starting to see that people love or hate Wes' movies. This one I liked a lot. Not a stretch to say, a star studded cast, most of them in cameos, these are the one's I recognised - Benicio Del Toro, a couple of Hanks, Willem Dafoe, F. Murray Abraham, Rupert Friend, Mia Threapleton, Michael Cera, Riz Ahmed, Bryan Cranston, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Richard Ayoade, Jeffrey Wright, Scarlett Johansson, Bill Murray and Benedict Cumberbatch I also enjoyed Andersons' The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014) and The French Dispatch (2021) Asteroid City, not so much.

on Tariffs - note Thailand in the list _____ Key elements and direct excerpts from Trump's tariff letters: The letters, addressed to the leaders of 14 countries, were posted on Truth Social and outlined new tariff rates—ranging from 25% to 40%—that would take effect on August 1 if a new trade deal was not reached. Trump warned that any retaliatory tariffs would be met with further increases: "If for any reason you decide to raise your Tariffs, then, whatever the number you choose to raise them by, will be added onto the 25% that we charge," (as seen in the letters to Japan and South Korea). The letters generally followed a standard template, with the only major difference being the specific tariff rate and country addressed. Trump sometimes used the word “only” before the tariff rate, implying generosity: "We are imposing only a 25% tariff..." The letters included a willingness to negotiate: "...I will perhaps, consider an adjustment to this letter if you open your markets to more U.S. goods and reduce tariff and non-tariff barriers." The letters explicitly stated that tariffs on autos, steel, and aluminum would be handled separately, under existing or additional Section 232 tariffs. Summary: The letters were formal, addressed to heads of state, and included a deadline (August 1) to avoid the new tariffs by reaching a trade deal. They warned against retaliation and offered the possibility of negotiation if the recipient country made concessions to open their market to U.S. goods. The tone was aggressive but left room for further talks and adjustments. Countries and rates mentioned: Japan: 25% South Korea: 25% Myanmar: 40% Laos: 40% Cambodia: 36% Thailand: 36% Bangladesh: 35% Serbia: 35% Indonesia: 32% South Africa: 30% Bosnia and Herzegovina: 30% Kazakhstan: 25% Malaysia: 25% Tunisia: 25% _____

Trump says he's 'not happy' with Putin and blames him for 'killing a lot of people' in Ukraine - LINK

If you ever wanted to see a false flag operation here 'tis - 10 people, all that fire power, messages sprayed on cars, only one wounded. Who dunnit? LINK Should the troops be sent in? 5,000, 10,000...?

On Vietnamese flavours - I went to a "brand new" Pho shop in Middle Earth on Sunday. It is our custom to take the old fella, (me) to lunch after Tak Baht at the local Lao temple, and MLG found this Pho place, so we went. As we stood in the long cold 8°C queue on the pavement outside, I asked MLG how she found the place, she said Tik Tok. I said, you just want to stand in the cold 'cause you found it on Tik Tok and want to post about it. At which point about half the queue's male members turned and gave me the "I've got one too" look. However, two big pots of soup, plenty of prep and they were churning through them at about 4 pax a minute, The Pho was good, the plastic stools and little tables authentic, price OK. I'll wait for Tik Tok to lose interest, before I go again.

Yes his understanding of a space force will be sometime like Flash Gordon - whereas, some of his people and - "And so for our virtual team, it's between us, Australia, Japan and the Republic of Korea that helps monitor behaviors and we share it all widely amongst, I think at the moment it's around about 12 countries that are sharing that information." - are probably doing something worthwhile.

Having read this article I can't help but opine that 'merica will be better off for this initiative...

We all laughed when Trump got them there 'mericans, a shiny new Space Force... Looks like it's real and is part of an international effort. NZ's contributions LINK

I am in awe of folk like yourself, who can hold a business together and keep it going over the decades. I've had a couple in the past, but headhunting/redundancy/heart issues/cancer have prevented my participation in the good journey over these last 15 years. My point in posting, is that I found, that once I found that I could do what I wanted, and I could do stuff that didn't serve the - Capitalist Master/The Man/Society's Expectations, and I found that there's more to life than I had imagined. Fishing, Kayaking, Travelling, I even wrote, performed and produced a musical album, released to deafening silence :) and most of all, observation of our fellow humans. On that note I have an unpublished novel, but given my ties to some folk in Laos, it may be too close to home for its release. Perhaps posthumously. My point is that whilst retirement is gonna be a big change and possible arduous, once you're out the other side it's a new world. Golf they said... A good walk ruined.

I'm finding huge numbers of his doccos in the ether, sometimes I wonder how he had time to grow old, with the amount of content he's narrated. Very good, as you say a treasure.. a tangent: 7DOS - seven days of science - if I wondered where Attenborough's successor would come from: https://www.youtube.com/@7DaysofScience. 3 young'uns doing it quite well and also, one of their members obviously decided to get serious and they also do this one, but without the young person thing... LINK

AMF?