Tootfinder

Documents: China's military is focused on harnessing AI to deploy swarms of drones, robot dogs, and other autonomous systems, learning from hawks and coyotes (Josh Chin/Wall Street Journal)
https://www.wsj.com/world/china/china-ai-w

I explained something for a friend in a simple way, and I think it's worth paraphrasing again here.
You cannot create a system that constrains itself. Any constraint on a system must be external to the system, or that constraint can be ignored or removed. That's just how systems work. Every constitution for every country claims to do this impossible thing, a thing proven is impossible almost 100 years ago now. Gödel's loophole has been known to exist since 1947.
Every constitution in the world, every "separation of powers" and set of "checks and balances," attempts to do something which is categorically impossible. Every government is always, at best, a few steps away from authoritarianism. From this, we would then expect that governments trand towards authoritarianism. Which, of course, is what we see historically.
Constraints on power are a formality, because no real controls can possibly exist. So then democratic processes become sort of collective classifiers that try to select only people who won't plunge the country into a dictatorship. Again, because this claim of restrictions on powers is a lie (willful or ignorant, a lie reguardless) that classifier has to be correct 100% of the time (even assuming a best case scenario). That's statistically unlikely.
So as long as you have a system of concentrated power, you will have the worst people attracted to it, and you will inevitably have that power fall into the hands of one of the worst possible person.
Fortunately, there is an alternative. The alternative is to not centralize power. In the security world we try to design systems that assume compromise and minimize impact, rather than just assuming that we will be right 100% of the time. If you build systems that maximially distribute power, then you minimize the impact of one horrible person.
Now, I didn't mention this because we're both already under enough stress, but...
Almost 90% of the nuclear weapons deployed around the world are in the hands of ghoulish dictators. Only two of the countries with nuclear weapons not straight up authoritarian, but they're not far off. We're one crashout away from steralizing the surface of the Earth with nuclear hellfire. Maybe countries shouldn't exist, and *definitely* multiple thousands of nuclear weapons shouldn't exist and shouldn't all be wired together to launch as soon as one of these assholes goes a bit too far sideways.

'Today, 96% of the world's nuclear weapons are held by states with authoritarian leaders' (Joseph Cirincione/Le Monde)
https://www.lemonde.fr/en/opinion/article/2026/02/18/today-96-of-the-world-s-nuclear-weapons-are-held-by-states-with-authoritarian-leaders_6750613_23.html
http://www.memeorandum.com/260218/p137#a260218p137

Trump’s threat to impose fresh tariffs on eight European countries
– UK, Norway and six EU member states
– is a wrecking ball to the carefully stitched deals he concluded with those countries last summer.
The two biggest voting blocs in the European parliament,
🔸the European People’s Party (EPP) and
🔸the Socialists & Democrats (S&Ds),
said on Saturday night the deal with the EU cannot be approved in the present circumstances.
Trump’s threat a…

Mycelial
A podcast embodying mycelium, threading together wisdom, movements, practices, technology and ideas, old and new, to help in weaving an emergent world centring Earth and Humanity...
Great Australian Pods Podcast Directory: https://www.greataustralianpods.com/mycelial/<…

A silent ocean pandemic is wiping out sea urchins worldwide #ocean

A silent ocean pandemic is wiping out sea urchins worldwide
A sudden, unexplained mass die-off is decimating sea urchins around the world, including catastrophic losses in the Canary Islands. Key reef-grazing species are reaching historic lows, and their ability to reproduce has nearly halted in some regions. Scientists suspect a pathogen but haven’t yet confirmed the culprit. The fate of these reefs may hinge on solving this unfolding pandemic.

WTAF.
“Maduro is being transported to New York, where he will face charges in Manhattan federal court, according to people briefed on the matter. US Attorney General Pam Bondi says the Venezuelan leader has been indicted on drugs and weapons charges.
• Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodríguez said”
…….
How does a judge accept a case like this!?
If this sham is allowed to go ahead I’ll lose so much respect for the American justice system. And in New York no less… how many blocks from the UN. What an embarrassment and total disrespect for the UN.
#venezuela #usa #uspoli
https://www.cnn.com/world/live-news/venezuela-explosions-caracas-intl-hnk-01-03-26?cid=ios_app

Raiders Receive Strong Message Regarding Colts’ Alec Pierce https://heavy.com/sports/nfl/las-vegas-raiders/message-regarding-colts-alec-pierce/

🆔 DC4EU final report proposes pluralistic trust model to realise EUDI Wallet vision
A key message in the report: no single trust model fits Europe’s diversity. Instead, DC4EU proposes a pluralistic approach, weaving together three complementary trust infrastructures.
⏳ With less than a year left to achieve Europe’s 2026 digital identity mandate, the report calls for coordinated action to move from feasibility to real-world deployment at European scale.
Read more:

The central problem for American national security:
By itself the United States cannot keep up with China’s soaring industrial capacity,
which translates directly into military might.
China has close to a 28 percent share of global manufacturing,
while the United States has around 17 percent.
By one count, it is acquiring advanced weapons systems and equipment five to six times faster than America is.
One Chinese shipyard can build more than all Americ…

Opinion | To Outbuild China, America Needs Friends
For the sake of global security and freedom, the world’s democracies must collaborate better.