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Sid Olufs

@sidster7.bsky.social
220 followers 76 following 7K posts

Professor Emeritus (Latin for not no more) of politics at Pacific Lutheran. 39 years there, 4 at U of Montana before that. Teaching tai chi these days, including sword and cane. Appreciative of the many smart and caring people on BlueSky.

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Sid Olufs @sidster7.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
If yer interested, this story has a lot of details about international networks of weapons trade. US has no chance of limiting weapons trade via sanctions. Diplomacy is So Much Cheaper than confrontation. Spending $1.5 trillion on war next year will not make us safer. www.twz.com/land/mystery...
twz.com
Mystery Shoulder-Fired Surface-To-Air Missile Appears In Russian Service
An unusual MANPADS raises questions about foreign weapons and Moscow’s military ties with Beijing and Tehran. An unusual MANPADS raises questions about foreign weapons and Moscow’s military ties with ...
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Sid Olufs @sidster7.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Enjoy the Java www.ucc.ie/en/research/...
ucc.ie
New research reveals mechanisms behind coffee’s positive effects on the gut-brain axis | University College Cork
Latest research news from Univeristy College Cork
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Sid Olufs @sidster7.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
“Suppose a self-improving AI escapes its sandbox, picks up an ideology on the open internet, and attacks a city's power grid. Who is criminally responsible?” One reason the AI bigshots are calling for regulation: so their liability can be limited. sentinelgeopolitics.substack.com/p/who-goes-t...
sentinelgeopolitics.substack.com
Who Goes to Jail When AI Kills?
A rogue AI blacks out a city. Who goes to jail? Under current law, almost no one. The answer may already exist, in a 1957 nuclear law and New Zealand's ACC.
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Sid Olufs @sidster7.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
As usual, Gessen writes a powerful column. Do remember what Chelsea Manning revealed. The notion that Israel is doing something extraordinary is ahistorical. www.nytimes.com/2026/09/28/o...
nytimes.com
Opinion | There Is a Word So Powerful It Need Be Spoken Only Once
The film that makes a powerful statement without ever raising its voice.
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Sid Olufs @sidster7.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
This keeps coming up…. I ain’t no expert, far from it, but I read widely. IMHO people get attached to an idea and will use fancy footwork to keep it alive. Kinda like how I play ping pong most nights. Maybe not pretty, but it promotes peaceful sleep. hal.science/hal-01258351...
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Sid Olufs @sidster7.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Piracy…. We invade, kidnap, steal, and support a criminal organization, all in your name. Remember in November. www.nytimes.com/2026/09/28/w...
nytimes.com
Trump Brought Venezuelan Gold to the U.S., but Refiners Won’t Touch It
The administration is brokering deals in a notoriously corrupt industry, including one with a company that the United States deems a security threat.
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Sid Olufs @sidster7.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
Some giant wastes of money are more dangerous than others. www.fpri.org/wp-content/u...
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Sid Olufs @sidster7.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Pretty smart. Sending highly classified technology across our Biggest Ocean Of All? Call UPS. www.twz.com/air/f-35-can...
twz.com
F-35 Canopy And Weapons-Bay Door Loss To China: Separating Fact From Fiction
What we know and don’t know, and the potential security impacts, regarding the real possibility China has major F-35 components in its possession. What we know and don’t know, and the potential securi...
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Sid Olufs @sidster7.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
On both sides, 1 in 5 say a 2-state peace arrangement is possible. Discouragement is the theme. www.pewresearch.org/global/2026/...
pewresearch.org
Many Israelis and Palestinians Say They Cannot Coexist Peacefully – and Explain Why
Israelis and Palestinians in the West Bank and East Jerusalem reflect on the viability of a two-state solution
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Sid Olufs @sidster7.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
Call Before You Dig! The Philly airport disruption was caused in part by an AMTRAK construction site dig that severed a fiber optic cable. Railroad construction…. airport disruption. Same day a new AI air traffic support system goes up at 3 NE airports. www.politico.com/news/2026/09...
politico.com
FAA debuts its AI-powered tool for managing flight traffic
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said the new system will not replace human controllers.
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Sid Olufs @sidster7.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
Well this is fun. Wasn’t this the war the Don was going to end on day one? You know, way before he started the other war. apnews.com/article/pola...
apnews.com
Poland warns Russia is planning drone or rocket strikes on NATO territory
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk warns that Russia is planning hybrid strikes with drones and rockets on European countries supporting Ukraine.
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Sid Olufs @sidster7.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
The Don’s crazy love of tariffs (which he does not understand) costs you….. “…tariffs announced by the Trump administration will impose an average burden of about $920 per tax unit (or household) in calendar year 2026.” taxpolicycenter.org/features/tra...
taxpolicycenter.org
TPC Tariff Tracker
TPC tracks tariff developments and updates this page with details and estimates of how tariffs will affect federal revenues, households, and the economy.
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Sid Olufs @sidster7.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
Sorry you know what this means.
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Sid Olufs @sidster7.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
So now RFK Jr has gone full on bonkers…. looking into chemtrails, the success of the polio vaccine was a fraud, and opponents of vaccination have a (vaccinated) friend in the White House. Appoint a compulsive not very smart addict to lead the nation’s public health policies, see what you get.
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Sid Olufs @sidster7.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
Did you see this one? newrepublic.com/post/215354/...
newrepublic.com
Epstein Survivors Got Kicked Out of the Republican Midterm Convention
As did the journalist who had brought them as her guests.
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Sid Olufs @sidster7.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
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Reposted by Sid Olufs
The Tennessee Holler @thetnholler.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
JUST NOW: A confused, clearly not-there McConnell votes “AYE” after almost voting NO with Dems but getting *corrected* by handlers around him
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Sid Olufs @sidster7.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
Time to watch Dr. Strangelove again. www.defensenews.com/news/your-ai...
defensenews.com
US ‘not prepared’ to respond to nuclear attacks in space, report says
A recent war-gaming report found that the U.S. has no tested response to a nuclear detonation in space.
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Sid Olufs @sidster7.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
This gave the NYT a conniption fit www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
tandfonline.com
How the New York Times Framed the War Between Israel and Hamas
This study examines the New York Times coverage of the war between Israel and Hamas from 7 October 2023 through 7 June 2024. Drawing on a corpus of 1,559 news articles I document a dominant narrati...
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Sid Olufs @sidster7.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
Pentagon’s IG report on the Iran war…. the logo used is “Dept of War”. This is first public acknowledgement of the extent of the damage. Nowhere does it say we lost. media.defense.gov/2026/Sep/09/...
media.defense.gov
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Sid Olufs @sidster7.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
Fans of post WWII Japanese monster movies will appreciate the name here…. www.twz.com/air/cheaper-...
twz.com
Cheaper Reaper? Swarm Aero Unveils Gamera
Swarm Aero's Gamera is designed to be inexpensive but pack major range and the ability to be adapted to many missions beyond standoff strike.
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Sid Olufs @sidster7.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
You still working out? Maybe add chocolate. Don’t eat it. Just sniff. “This exploratory study investigated whether exposure to chocolate-related odors alters appetite perception, odor pleasantness, and resistance exercise capacity in moderately trained men.“ www.frontiersin.org/journals/phy...
frontiersin.org
Frontiers | Chocolate odor enhances resistance exercise performance through appetite suppression in the fasted state: an exploratory study
IntroductionOlfactory stimuli may alter appetite, affective responses, and exercise performance through psychobiological processes. However, whether odor-ind...
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Sid Olufs @sidster7.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
Too weird. Monte Python would not have gone this far. Can you explain *why* you saw fit to change the rule about beastiality and FBI recruitment standards? www.youtube.com/watch?v=lz2u...
youtube.com
WATCH: Patel, Senator Kennedy go on bestiality rant during Capitol hearing
YouTube video by LiveNOW from FOX
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Sid Olufs @sidster7.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
fascinating double comparison: a) the mayo was further back in the ‘fridge than the kimchee b) the kimchee is a lot bigger than the mayo It’s a sign of…. something.
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Sid Olufs @sidster7.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
Nothing can go wrong with this idea…. www.therundown.ai/news/foundat...
therundown.ai
Foundation pushes its Phantom humanoid toward combat
Foundation is testing its Phantom humanoid in Ukraine as militaries explore support roles. Plans for combat still face questions about reliability.
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Sid Olufs @sidster7.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
Such a bad idea (a. doing it, b. saying we did it). The clown car of our current administration rolls on. www.defenseone.com/defense-syst...
defenseone.com
US military has ‘on-orbit’ space weapons, Air Force Secretary reveals
Experts said the acknowledgment may lead to overt action by China, Russia.
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Sid Olufs @sidster7.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
Something exists only in relation to something else. Variables take values only at interactions. There are big consequences in accepting this idea. phys.org/news/2026-09...
phys.org
Physicists help uncover 'spooky' quantum effect in the Large Hadron Collider
Physicists at the University of Oxford have helped confirm that one of the strangest phenomena in physics—quantum entanglement—occurs even among some of the heaviest and most fleeting particles ever c...
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Sid Olufs @sidster7.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
It was the central industry back then…. pretty much all of the benefactors of this particular charitable institution made their money in the slave trade. www.theguardian.com/uk-news/ng-i...
theguardian.com
The London hospital funded by donors who invested in the slave trade
St Barts is one of many UK institutions whose benefactors were involved in the trafficking of enslaved Africans
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Sid Olufs @sidster7.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
All the money you’d ever want, as long as it’s for war. But there isn’t enough for the other stuff. www.twz.com/news-feature...
twz.com
Everything We Just Learned About The Vectis Collaborative Combat Aircraft From The Skunk Works
We have new details on Lockheed's tailless CCA, including about its exotic "submerged" air inlet and how its design puts a premium on survivability.
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Sid Olufs @sidster7.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
Excellent interview with Carlo Rovelli, done a couple of months ago. He has a new book coming out this coming week. Great fun, sort of 21st century humanism supported by sincere study of a scientific project. www.youtube.com/watch?v=ojxO...
youtube.com
Carlo Rovelli: Love and Quantum Physics are the Same | The Futurology Podcast
YouTube video by Futurology
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Sid Olufs @sidster7.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
Enough reading about war, politics, public health for one morning. Ration of two cups of coffee gone. Switch to…. Fish cakes. Some assembly required.
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Sid Olufs @sidster7.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
Defense spending should not be driven by the big defense contractors. “Advantage increasingly depends not on building the most advanced system at the outset, but on maintaining the organizational and industrial capacity to continuously iterate a system…..” www.csis.org/analysis/sha...
csis.org
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Sid Olufs @sidster7.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
Another level of Article I failure: Congress has completely backed away from it’s role in starting or assessing US war conduct or accomplishments. I miss the rule of law. warontherocks.com/the-assessme...
warontherocks.com
The Assessment Gap in U.S. Counter-Terrorism Strikes
For eight years I helped decide whether American counter-terrorism money was working. As a programs advisor in the State Department’s Bureau of
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Reposted by Sid Olufs
Blue Dot @hoynmpjmvvx.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
The best thing I’ve seen this week. If this was a show, not our actual lives, I’d watch it.
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Reposted by Sid Olufs
Mike Boylan-Kolchin @mbkplus.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
OK, this was a really interesting read. The authors find that over half (!!) of recent astronomy papers use LLM assistance in the writing, and they do it by IDing distinctive words. I went back and looked at papers I've written, and by god, none of them use the words. arxiv.org/abs/2609.10664
Strong AI tells:

boasts, delve, delves, delving, intricacies, intricate, meticulous, meticulously, nuanced, pivotal, realm, realms, showcases, showcasing, tapestry, underscore, underscores, underscoring
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Sid Olufs @sidster7.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
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Sid Olufs @sidster7.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
Now on HBO taskandpurpose.com/culture/band...
taskandpurpose.com
25 years after 'Band of Brothers,' a veteran-made documentry examines its legacy
“Band of Brothers: Legacy” celebrates 25 years of the show, with a focus on how the real Easy Company shaped the actors who played them.
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Sid Olufs @sidster7.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
A not-right-wing Israeli take on Miliband’s speech and the policies it may have referred to. www.timesofisrael.com/failing-to-a...
timesofisrael.com
Failing to act in the West Bank or in the West, Israel brought UK’s sanctions upon itself
Netanyahu's government could have done more to head off the move announced by the UK's foreign secretary. Instead it let London go the way of Dublin and Madrid
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Sid Olufs @sidster7.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
The authors “argue that … space-based interceptors are a poor choice for American security. They would provide an expensive yet brittle defense which could be easily circumvented while encouraging destabilizing adversary responses.” www.realcleardefense.com/articles/202...
realcleardefense.com
Nothing New Under the Golden Dome: Space-Based Interceptors in the Trump Administration
Executive Summary  Golden Dome has quickly become the signature defense program of President Trump’s second term. The most contentious element of this ambitious missile defense program is s
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Sid Olufs @sidster7.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
An upside to any war: the opportunity to do a lot of testing and training with newfangled equipment. www.twz.com/sea/everythi...
twz.com
Everything We Know About The U.S. Navy's Submersible Drone Iran Just Captured
Anduril's Dive-LD uncrewed underwater vehicle falling into Iranian hands is significant, but the system was designed to be risked in contested waters.
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Sid Olufs @sidster7.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
limp peter…. yeah, it’s a problem.
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Sid Olufs @sidster7.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
What a horrible slander! Mr. Rogers was NOT philatelic!
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Sid Olufs @sidster7.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
Stolen valor. Lock him up. In a deep dark place. Throw away the key. people.com/trump-claims...
people.com
Trump Claims 2 Firemen Lifted Him Up and ‘Started Running with Me’ After 9/11
As the United States nears the 25th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, President Donald Trump made a new claim about being whisked away by ‘two firemen, big, strong guys’ from a nea...
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Sid Olufs @sidster7.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
Should the POTUS be able to enter into international agreements and not tell anyone about them? Seems kinda authoritarian…. Anyway, these folks are suing, saying that ain’t right. www.lawfaremedia.org/article/why-...
lawfaremedia.org
Why We’re Suing the State Department Over International Agreements
Lawfare is suing to bring transparency back to international agreements—and you can help.
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Sid Olufs @sidster7.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
Oops. Guess who will soon have it. www.navalnews.com/naval-news/2...
navalnews.com
Underwater Drone Captured By Iran Matches American Anduril Model - Naval News
An underwater drone shown by Iran closely matches the American-designed Anduril Dive-LD model. The large AUV (autonomous underwater vehicle) was reportedly captured in the Straits of Hormuz earlier to...
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Sid Olufs @sidster7.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
Listen to the words long written down…. www.lawfaremedia.org/article/ais-...
lawfaremedia.org
AIs as Modern Genies
With AI we have built genies. Old stories told us how this goes.
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Sid Olufs @sidster7.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
The days are numbered for military use of GPS, and maybe for commercial air travel near hot spots. We’re testing non-GPS navigation tools now. nextgendefense.com/magnav-navig...
nextgendefense.com
‘MagNav’ Sharpens Aircraft Navigation by 89% During Four-Hour GPS-Free Flight
MagNav uses natural magnetic signatures of Earth’s crust to provide navigation without relying on GPS, daylight, or favorable weather.
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Sid Olufs @sidster7.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
Only winners of an arms race are the defense contractors. Here we are going high tech in support of outmoded tech. www.armyrecognition.com/news/army-ne...
armyrecognition.com
U.S. Plans $2 Billion Underground Network for New LGM-35A Sentinel ICBM Intercontinental Ballistic Missile
The US will build hardened underground links for the new LGM-35A Sentinel ICBM InterContinental Ballistic Missile replacing Minuteman III.
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Sid Olufs @sidster7.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
A different kind of arms race…. www.theguardian.com/technology/2...
theguardian.com
US police fear Meta smart glasses could be used to secretly record them
Exclusive: Documents show officers from Maine to California worry Meta’s camera-equipped glasses will be used either to secretly record them or aid acts of terrorism
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Sid Olufs @sidster7.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
Turkish academics are closely scrutinized by their government and fired or worse if they criticize official policies, Especially about international affairs. This is by an assistant professor… so you know this is the official line. warontherocks.com/shrinking-bu...
warontherocks.com
Shrinking Buffers: Why Turkey and Israel Are on a Collision Course
When Israeli warplanes struck the Abu al-Duhur airbase in Syria on Aug. 18, 2026, the smoke rose over the demolition of an old geopolitical assumption
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