Archive for The New York Times
for myrmecophiles only
Posted in Books, Kids, pictures, University life with tags ant, Antscan database, artificial intelligence, invertebrate zoology, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, myrmecophile, NYT, Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology, synchrotron, The New York Times on March 31, 2026 by xi'anand it is getting worse… [verbatim]
Posted in Books, Kids, pictures, Travel with tags Agent Orange, America, autoritarian, baby Trump, BBC, cliffs, Denmark, Derailed Trump, Donald Trump, European Union, global warming, Greenland, humanism, Kyiv, nationalism, NATO, Nobel Peace Prize, Norway, populism, quotes, snowstorm, The Guardian, The New York Times, theocracy, truth social, US elections 2024, US politics, war crimes, xenophobia on February 1, 2026 by xi'an
“The United States [of America] needs Greenland for the purpose of National Security. (…) NATO should be leading the way for us to get it (…) [and] becomes far more formidable and effective with Greenland in the hands of the United States [of America]. Anything less than that is unacceptable” — DT, 14 Jan. 2026
“Yeah, there is one [limit to my ability to use American military might]. My own morality. My own mind. It’s the only thing that can stop me. I don’t need international law.” — DT, 08 Jan. 2026
“We have subsidized Denmark, and all of the Countries of the European Union, and others, for many years by not charging them Tariffs, or any other forms of remuneration. Now, after Centuries [sic], it is time for Denmark to give back — World Peace is at stake!” — DT, 17 Jan. 2026
“Considering your Country decided [sic] not to give me the Nobel Peace Prize for having stopped 8 Wars PLUS [sic bis], I no longer feel an obligation to think purely of Peace, although it will always be predominant, but can now think about what is good and proper for the US. Denmark cannot protect that land from Russia or China, and why do they have a “right of ownership” anyway? There are no written documents, it’s only that a boat landed there hundreds of years ago, but we had boats landing there, also. I have done more for NATO than any other person since its founding, and now, NATO should do something for the United States. The World is not secure unless we have Complete and Total Control of Greenland” — DT, 19 Jan. 2026
“Record Cold Wave expected to hit 40 States. Rarely seen anything like it before. Could the Environmental Insurrectionists please explain – whatever happened to global warming?” – DT, 23 Jan 2026
“I personally asked President Putin not to fire into Kyiv and the various towns for a week, and he agreed to do that. It was very nice. A lot of people almost didn’t believe it, but they were very happy about it because they are struggling badly.” – DT, 29 Jan 2026
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times
Posted in Books, Travel with tags Calibry, censoring, DEIA, Department of State, diversity, fonts, Newspeak, reactionaries, Roman Empire, The New York Times, Times New Roman, Trump administration, US politics on December 27, 2025 by xi'an
and it is getting worse… [verbatim]
Posted in Books, Kids, pictures, Travel with tags Agent Orange, America, autoritarian, baby Trump, Brazil, Chinese universities, cliffs, climate change, Cop30, Donald Trump, foreign students, French students, House of Representatives, humanism, intellectual property, Jamal Khashoggi, liberty of press, nationalism, Nobel Peace Prize, populism, quotes, Saudi Arabia, The Atlantic, The Guardian, The New York Times, theocracy, unilateral nuclear disarmament, US elections 2024, US politics, xenophobia on December 11, 2025 by xi'an
“The Green New Scam would have killed America if President Trump had not been elected to implement his commonsense energy agenda – which is focused on utilizing the liquid gold under our feet to strengthen our grid stability and drive down costs for American families and businesses” — Taylor Rogers, White House spokeswoman, 31 Oct
“It’s not that I want [Chinese national students], but I view it as a business. [Draconian cuts to hiring international students could] destroy our entire university and college system.” — DT, 17 Nov. 2025
“The president being frank and open and honest to your faces [by cutting off Catherine Lucey by `Quiet, piggy!´], rather than hiding behind your backs, is, frankly, a lot more respectful than what you saw in the last administration.” — Karoline Leavitt, press secretary, 18 Nov 2025
“You’re mentioning someone [Jamal Khashoggi] that was extremely controversial. A lot of people didn’t like that gentleman that you’re talking about. Whether you like him or didn’t like him, things happen. But [Mohammed bin Salman] knew nothing about it. You don’t have to embarrass our guests.” — DT, 19 Nov. 2025
“Do you think the French [students in the US] are better [wrt spying and stealing intellectual property], really?… I’m not so sure” — DT, 10 Nov. 2025
“The writer of the [New York Time] story, Katie Rogers, who is assigned to write only bad things about me, is a third rate reporter who is ugly, both inside and out,”— DT, 26 Nov. 2025
a journal of the dynamite year
Posted in Books, Kids, Mountains, pictures, Travel, Wines with tags Berck-sur-Mer, Black Plague, book reviews, COVID-19, cuisine, cyber security, Daniel Defoe, detective story, Dominique Picard, Fabienne Kabou, France Inter, Fred Vargas, gardening, Gérard de Nerval, homegrown, infanticide, Journal of the Plague Year, korean TV series, métro, mushrooms, North Korea, North Sea, Paris, Portobello mushrooms, RATP, Russian invasion, Sceaux, Thai cuisine, The Guardian, The New York Times, Ukraine, unilateral nuclear disarmament, Université Paris-Diderot, US’s Missile Defense Agency, wavelets on November 19, 2025 by xi'an 
Read another Fred Vargas novel, Sans feu ni lieu (The Accordionist), a 1997 detective story that is recycling the characters of Debout les morts! (The Three Evangelists). It took me a while to engage with the story since the dialogues are terribly artificial and dated. The resolution of the crime series is also terrible, with an absurd link to a poem by Gérard de Nerval posted in the Paris métro… Also read Orogénèse, a novel written by Dominique Picard—a French statistician at Paris Diderot, who worked on differential geometry and wavelets, and was an ICMS speaker in 2006—, about a reluctant (male) lawyer taking the case of a murderess who does not want to be defended. This book is inspired by the true story of Fabienne Kabou, who drowned her 15 month daughter on a North Sea beach in 2013. And presumably by the book written by her (female) lawyer. Immensely troubling story that is reflected by the style of the novel and the half-truths in the lawyer monologue, Orogénèse stays away from judging or explaining, by slowly exploring the surrounding of the infanticide. Impressive (in many senses).
Made an attempt at a “no-bun burger” using panned Portobello mushrooms—making a very rare appearance on my market stalls—that did not prove very practical as they could not hold much of the onion, avocado and salad contents. But tastier than the (button) Paris mushroom type. We also had an unusual series of take-outs from the local Thaï restaurant, out of solidarity with the long-time owners as their place was about to close and be demolished by the owner. Also made rhubarb compote with the last stems of the year, along with the very few apples that grew in our garden this year.
Watched part of the Korean drama A girl who sees smells (냄새를 보는 소녀). Which is unsurprisingly as terrible as the title suggests. Also watched House of Dynamite after listening to Kathryn Bigelow on the French National Public Radio (France Inter). While the message against [unstable and irreversible] nuclear terror “balance” and for immediate disarmament is necessary, esp. in the current atmosphere of unilateral military actions and of unhinged Supreme Leaders!, the film is terrible and unrealistic, even though The Guardian disagrees. Maybe because the decision chain appears to be less (rather than more) than the sum of the individual decisions. Maybe because of the accumulation of irrelevant actions in the face of the incoming missile. The (US) Centre for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation (CACNP) has provided a detailed analysis of the right and wrong of the scenario, the most obvious for me being the need to hit back at a potential originator (of the nuclear missile) before the missile strikes. (The US’s Missile Defense Agency (MDA) also criticised the failed interception of the attacking missile as unrealistic but CACNP states that the probability of a hit is around 50% , at a cost of $53 billion for 44 interceptors!) That they fail to explicitly name this originator (as North Korea) may be due to fears of cyber attacks as in the earlier instance of The Interview. (The New York Time also enjoys the pace and tension of the movie, while providing a recollection of the best earlier movies acting on the same cliffhanger.)
