Recently, I noticed two interesting articles on China, Russia, and USA: Axios, 2 June 2025: Exclusive: China's global favorability rising, views of the U.S. turn negative NYT, 9 June 2025: A secret document reveals Russian worries about China Europe is not a nation but a semi-federation of 27 independent nations (i.e. the EU-27) and does therefore not meet my...
Reverse psychology
Trump: ‘EU opgericht om VS te naaien’
In zijn eerste kabinetsvergadering beweerde Trump het volgende: "De Europese Unie is opgericht om de Verenigde Staten te naaien. Dat was het doel. Ze hebben hun werk goed gedaan, maar nu ben ik president." (NOS, AD, BNR, GVA) Zit hier een kern van waarheid in, of betreft het (wederom) een voorbeeld van zijn omgekeerde psychologie? Een uitspraak uit 1971 suggereert...
Ukraine negotiations a Russian victory?
The media in Russia are celebrating Trump's proposal for peace negotiations on Ukraine (eg, Newsweek, the Independent, the Moscow Times), and view this as positive and even as a victory. I suppose their view is an example of reverse psychology given the many negative comments in Europe and in Ukraine. I suppose the Russian president will fear the outcome of such...
An American constitutional crisis?
I suppose that many / most of you know examples of sentences by judges that have a political bias. The most common example is judges ruling about climate change, which is - by nature - a global rather than a national event. Supreme Courts appear to recognise such a political - and non-scientific - bias. Donald Trump changed the composition of the U.S. Supreme Court...
In whose interest is a Google break-up??
Early August 2024, a federal judge ruled that Google has used its position to "violate fair competition laws" (eg, Wired-2024) and thus acted as "an illegal monopolist" (eg, The Verge-2024, Wired-2024). Consequently, a "Google breakup is on the table, say DOJ lawyers" (eg, FT-2024, The Verge-2024). My question is simple: in whose interest is a Google break-up??...
Is the Universe alive?
A recent Nature article, Black hole jets on the scale of the cosmic web, makes you wonder if the Universe is “alive” (eg, Phys, Volkskrant). Actually, the question of what is life is a debate within science (eg, ASU, NYT-2024, Templeton). The problem with our current definition of life (eg, eating, digestion, pooping) is that viruses are not included. How can a...
Recent Comments