The Well at World's End

 

The I Ching hexagram for 2026, Year of the Fire Horse is 48 - Jǐng (井) - The Well.

https://chat.deepseek.com/share/d2t7wdioi35vkgnp75

The town may be changed,
But the well cannot be changed.
It neither decreases nor increases.
They come and go and draw from the well.
If one gets down almost to the water
And the rope does not go all the way,
Or the jug breaks, it brings misfortune.

The well represents the shared needs of the community. These do not include crypto, Greenland, and triumphal arches.

One does not drink the mud of the well.
No animals come to an old well.

If a man wanders around in swampy lowlands, his life is submerged in mud. Such a man loses all significance for mankind. He who throws himself away is no longer sought out by others. In the end no one troubles about him anymore.

This man will sink ever deeper. He will watch in confused despair as the traces he thought would render him immortal are quickly erased.

The well is there for all. No one is forbidden to take water from it. No matter how many come, all find what they need, for the well is dependable. It has a spring and never runs dry. Therefore it is a great blessing to the whole land.

Quotes are from the Wilhelm / Baynes translation of the I Ching

What're the Odds?

 

Claude, if an average person looks at a square of 9 short word phrases for 20 seconds what are odds they will remember the location of a randomly selected phrase 5 minutes later?

This is a fascinating memory question! The answer depends on several factors, but I can give you a reasonable estimate.

For an **untrained person using passive observation** (just looking without trying to memorize), the odds are probably quite low - maybe **10-30%**. Here's why:

**Working against recall:**

- 9 items exceeds the typical working memory capacity (7±2 items)

- Spatial memory for grid locations requires effort to encode

- 5 minutes is long enough for significant decay without rehearsal

- Random selection means they can't guess strategically

**Working in favor of recall:**

- Short phrases are more memorable than random symbols

- 20 seconds is decent exposure time

- A 3×3 grid is a simple, familiar structure

- Some positions (corners, center) naturally draw more attention

**If the person actively tries to memorize** the locations, odds jump dramatically - probably to **60-80%** or higher. People can use strategies like:

- Chunking items by position

- Creating a mental story linking phrases to locations

- Rehearsing during the 5-minute interval

The **center position and corners** would likely be remembered best (the "serial position effect" applies spatially too), while edge positions might be forgotten more often.

The exact odds would vary quite a bit based on the phrases themselves and whether people know they'll be tested.

Bad or Stupid

 November 17, 2025

Bad or Stupid

Only a very bad, or stupid, Republican would fall into that trap

    For some time now Trump has been the indispensable Republican. That is no longer true. The breaking point has come as he fights to keep hidden what he once called to disclose and it is those in his party who were among the most fervent in proclaiming him their prophet that are now defying him.

    As a practical matter his service to the upper reaches of the American economy has ended with passage of his Bill. He has pulled the wool over for the last time. The trick which he MC'd was to convince enough of the marginally wealthy and the economically dissatisfied that they were confronted with an unholy elite. 

    Not an elite operating a global system of exploitation in the sanctified name of free enterprise but one that has perverted it to serve their private depravity. But if we are going to war with the unholy we will need to know who they are. In our neighborhoods it has become clear that his operatives cannot tell the difference between the innocent and the devil's servants. And in the boardrooms and private jets we are going to have to see for ourselves the scrolls of Epstein to know who bears the mark.

    And, at this critical juncture, behold who frets day and night over the revelation. The more he says there is no evidence the better we can understand the secret of his guilt. The "wonderful secret" may remain hidden but it is evident that he is tormented by the fear that his black and decaying heart will one day come to light.

Happy Halloween

 And I said — “What is written, sweet sister,
On the door of this legended tomb?”
She replied — “Ulalume — Ulalume! —
’T is the vault of thy lost Ulalume!”
Edgar Allen Poe - Ulalume

We do not put up with tense silence -

The imperfection of souls, in the end, is upsetting!

Then the reader shows up, of course, perplexed,

And happily was welcomed; be our guest!

Oh, I know who stood here, unseen;

A fellow of nightmares reading Ulalume.

Sense - vanity and the word - just noise,

When phonetics are the handmaid of a seraph.

Of Edgar’s House of Usher the harp sang.

The lunatic sipped water, came to, went silent.

I was in the street. It whistled, the silk of autumn -

And a scarf, silk, ticklish, warmed my neck.

Osip Mandelstam, 1912

A Suspicion of Witches

 Macbeth    Say from whence

You owe this strange intelligence ? or why 

Upon this blasted heath you stop our way 

With such prophetic greeting ? 

Speak, I charge you. 

[Witches vanish]

Banquo     The earth hath bubbles, as the water has,

And these are of them. Whither are they vanish'd ?

Macbeth    Into the air ; and what seem'd corporal melted

As breath into the wind.

 

Denounced by the town folk for using witchcraft to find the jewel thief

His Last Message

 September 17, 2025

Last Message

“I’ve not shared with anybody, but the last message that Charlie Kirk gave to me before he joined his Creator in heaven was, he said that we have to dismantle and take on the radical left organizations in this country that are fomenting violence.”

Stephen Miller - 9/15/2025

For Stephen Miller and the administration he serves violence is not the issue. What he wants to dismantle and take on is opposition. And the organizations that he has in mind include all that show any reluctance to take an oath of fealty to this administration. Ever the true idealist and aware of the tenuous nature of their political win last year, he, they, have begun by taking apart as much as they are able of their own government. Their radical left targets have included anything they have been given the keys to that might promote the public interest in life, liberty, or the pursuit of happiness as opposed to the private interest of those who already own enough of everything to afford a seat in the snap chat circles of the newly knighted. And now their thirst for power has grown to include the central bank and major cities.

So confident is Miller that 2025, the year and the plan, is victorious that he fairly giggles with pleasure. But he cannot claim victory over an opposition that is invisible to him and that hasn’t yet taken the field. Their plan was concocted to correct the reversals that occurred in their first term. But that term was a failure and however much they imagine to be required to avoid the same faults in this term they can not be certain of success. Instead, in their confidence of having absorbed the necessary lessons, they have leapt into the fray contemptuous of any genuine political feedback process. Their executive tolerates no disinterested advice and requires only defensive shielding. He has demonstrated to his own satisfaction that he has been right about everything. So, perhaps, they already have everything they require to govern. Critical thinking is a weakness, only political losers make use of it. 

But their opposition is not confined to the “deep state”, nor is it just a stunned Democratic party, now reduced to pleading for relief from a handful of their colleagues in the majority to raise any sort of legislative obstacle to the plan. The opposition is being created every day by the dismissive cruelty of those who no longer see a need to hide what they have in store, not only for those labeled as enemies but for all of us.

The Bronze Horseman - Introduction

 The Bronze Horseman

A Tale of St. Petersburg

Alexander Pushkin

Preface

The story described here is based on an actual incident. Details of the flood are taken from magazines of the time. V. N. Berkh.

Introduction

On a shoreline of desolate waves

He stood, filled with great thoughts

And looked into the distance. Before him the broad

River rushed; along with it

A humble boat, by itself, sped.

On the mossy, muddy banks

Black huts appeared here and there,

Abode of a wretched Finn;

And the woods, unaccustomed to the rays

Of a sun concealed in fog,

Rustled all around.

And He thought:

From here is where we’ll threaten the Swede.

Here a city will be laid out

To spite our proud neighbor.

Here nature has destined us

To cut a window to Europe,

With a foot planted firmly on the sea.

Here on tides new to them

Will arrive as our guests every flag

And we shall feast in the open air.

A hundred years go by, and the young city,

Glory and wonder of the lands of midnight,

From forests dark, from swampy bogs,

It has risen resplendent, proud;

Where once a Finnish fisherman,

Sorry stepchild of nature,

Alone on the shallow banks

Threw into unfamiliar waters

His worn-out net, there now,

Along the bustling waterfront,

Heaps of slender mansions and towers

Are crowded; a throng of ships

From every corner of the world

Seek the overflowing wharves;

The Neva has been dressed in granite;

Bridges have been hung over the waves;

Gardens of a deep green

Cover its islands,

And, faced with the younger capital,

Old Moscow has faded away

Like a widow in purple

Before a new tsarina.

I love you, creation of Peter,

I love your austere, graceful form,

The majestic Neva’s flow,

Its granite embankments,

The cast-iron tracery of your fences,

Your contemplative nights

Of transparent twilight, the moonless splendor,

When I, in my room,

Am writing, reading without a lamp,

And the drowsy immensity

Of the empty streets is clear, and bright

Is the spire of the Admiralty,

And, not letting the dark of night

Into the golden skies,

One dawn to follow another

Hurries, allowing night a half hour.

I love your brutal winter,

The still air and the frost,

The sleds gliding along the broad Neva, 

The faces of the girls brighter than roses,

And the sparkle and the noise, and talk of dances,

And, at the bachelor’s happy hour,

The fizz of foaming glasses

And the blue flame of the punch.

I love the martial vitality

On show on the Field of Mars,

The uniform beauty

Of the infantry and calvary,

In their formation gracefully waving

Their tattered flags of victory,

The gleam of these brass helmets,

Bearing the bullet holes of battle.

I love, war capital,

The smoke and thunder of your citadel

When the Tsarina of midnight

Bestows on the royal house a son,

Or when Russia again prevails,

Victorious over an enemy,

Or when, breaking apart its blue ice,

The Neva carries it to the sea

And, sensing the days of spring, rejoices.

Shine forth, city of Peter, and stand

Unshakable like Russia.

May they be at peace with you,

Those you have defeated;

Their long-standing enmity and captivity

May the Finnish waves forget

And may futile spite not

Trouble the eternal sleep of Peter!

It was a terrible time,

The memory of it is fresh…

For you, my friends, I will

Begin the tale of it.

Sorrowful will be my story.