“But first, a word from our sponsor: Skillshare”

"This video is sponsored by NordVPN except in Europe, where that's banned."

okay I was going to riff on this because Nord = scandanavia = Europe but then I looked up the company and they _are_ European, sort of, but… it's a Lithuanian company, who claims to operate in Panama but is actually headquartered in Amsterdam? Why "Nord" then? Is their logo meant to be a stylized version of the Scandes and if not then what mountain is it? The Netherlands and Lithuania aren't exactly famous for their steep mountainous terrain?

@glyph @passenger some baltic nations self-identify as nordic sometimes, especially in marketing contexts like this where the sheen of trustworthiness and respectability associated with the nordic countries is desirable

Given the amount of money that China and the EU are putting up to attract dejected US scientists, I would not worry - they will find a new home and a well paid job outside of the US.

Well, that is, unless you live in the US - then I would probably worry, but not about the scientists...

A) I do live in the US, so, yes, that's why I'm worried, and

B) I think that one of the things that we are learning with the consequences of the collapse of USAID et. al. is that those of us critical of the American empire, both from within and without, are finding out that in addition to the US's various crimes, it was also a crucial pillar holding up a tremendous amount of modern civilization's infrastructure. A _lot_ of people will be harmed by its collapse.