For 20 years civil engineers warned the thousands of social housing blocks built by Hugo Chavez in Venezuela were dangerous because none of them were built to be earthquake safe. They were ignored by the regime.
During yesterday's earthquake the Chavista housing blocks collapsed
@imveryysirius@commsurreallism Growing fast? Communism in India is on its last legs. For the first time in India's history, no Communist party is in power in any of India's states. West Bengal ditched Communism in 2011. The CPIM lost in Kerala earlier this year.
Germany v Ivory Coast is the World Cup group-stage match between the world’s biggest cocoa exporter and the world’s biggest chocolate exporter.
Ivory Coast grows more cocoa than any country on Earth by far. Germany exported more chocolate than any other country in 2024.
Stay tuned for more cutting-edge, geography(ish)-based World Cup analysis.
In my experience, 99 times out of 100, people who ask "why do you care about this thing" almost always care intensely about that thing, but in the opposite direction.
Everyone has been so impressed by Japanese fans cleaning up after themselves but most probably missed this beautiful moment at the post-game (🇳🇱2 - 2🇯🇵) press conference.
Toward the end after reporters were done asking questions, 🇯🇵head coach, Hajime Moriyasu, asked to speak one more time.
🗣️ “May I speak?”
He turned to the Dutch reporters in the room.
🗣️ “I think there are many Dutch reporters here as well, so I’d like to take this opportunity to express my gratitude to the people of the Netherlands once again.”
Moriyasu explained that when he became part of the Japan national team, Japanese football still had no professional league.
🗣️ “I was trained by a Dutch coach named Hans Ooft. It wasn’t just me. Japanese coaches in general were greatly influenced by him, which has led to the development of Japanese soccer today.”
He also mentioned another Dutch figure who shaped his career.
🗣️ “The legendary Dutch coach Wim Jansen served as the manager for J.League’s Sanfrecce Hiroshima and also as a coach for Urawa Reds, contributing to Japanese soccer.”
🗣️ “It’s not just those two. Many other coaches and players have contributed to raising the level of Japanese soccer, so I want to express my thanks. Thank you very much.”
What a masterclass in graciousness and gratitude. Imagine after a high-stakes match, instead of basking in glory and bravado (well-deserved in my opinion), the coach took to the microphone to... thank his opponents publicly and sincerely.
Japan's cultural operating system prizes harmony (wa), respect for precedent, and gratitude as a form of strength, not weakness. Japanese sports culture reflects its broader society where you'll see athletes bow to their opponents, thanking referees, and even crediting rivals or mentors.
Think of sumo wrestlers, Olympic athletes, or even bullet-train staff apologizing for a 30-second delay.
The Japanese have this concept of On (恩) - it is the sense of indebtedness to those who came before or helped you. It's what you'd expect from a culture that truly prizes continuity.
Moriyasu was acknowledging a real debt to Dutch coaches like Hans Ooft (who coached Japan in the early 90s and helped professionalize the game) and Wim Jansen. Japanese football openly credits foreign influences - Dutch "Total Football" philosophy, German organization, Brazilian flair - while building something distinctly their own. Few nations do this with such little ego.
Japan is pure class
@Phillip1William@TweetsOfSumit You are right. The true risk to ASML would be a complete paradigm shift in chip manufacturing tech. There are companies like Substrate attempting to do this. But these technologies are still very unproven. They would also need to work and be profitable at scale.
@TweetsOfSumit Not saying Europe can/should miss out on AI models (Mistral is decent but still way behind). Europe should prioritize traditional consumer tech too. Just saying replacing ASML/Zeiss/Trumpf/VDL is easier said than done. These have deeper moats than consumer tech/enterprise SaaS.
SpaceX just landed a Falcon 9 booster, and Elon Musk's live reaction was more human than anyone expected.
"It's standing up. It's coming in. It sounded like an explosion. Look at this. Look at this. It's just sitting there. Holy smokes, man."