MelG

Be the change you want to see in the world.

[Bob Carr @bobjcarr]

Israeli and US bombing have destroyed 500 schools and 300 medical centres. There is a term to use here and it’s war crime.

[Shanaka Anslem Perera ⚡ @shanaka86]

The Strait of Hormuz is not closed. It is sorted.

Iran has built a three-tier access system for the most important waterway on earth. Tier one: allies transit free. Malaysia cleared seven vessels through diplomacy at zero cost. India negotiated zero-fee passage. Pakistan secured clearance for 20 ships. Iraq transits without charge. These countries proved geopolitical alignment and the IRGC waved them through the Larak corridor without collecting a rial.

Tier two: compliant neutrals pay. At least two tankers, likely Chinese-linked, paid up to two million dollars each in yuan through Kunlun Bank intermediaries. COSCO container ships attempted the corridor, were turned back on first approach when documentation was incomplete, then succeeded days later with revised paperwork. These are the vessels that prove the system works. They submit IMO numbers, ownership chains, cargo manifests, and crew lists to the IRGC’s Hormozgan Command. They receive clearance codes. They are escorted by pilot boats through the five-nautical-mile channel between Qeshm and Larak. They pay in a currency that does not route through SWIFT. Every successful yuan transit is a live proof-of-concept for non-dollar energy settlement.

Tier three: adversaries are denied entirely. The committee plan bans American vessels, Israeli vessels, and vessels from any country participating in sanctions against Iran. These ships do not get vetting. They do not get codes. They do not get escorts. They get the AL SALMI, burning off Dubai, as illustration of what the corridor looks like without permission.

But the toll is not the real cost. War-risk insurance is. Premiums have surged from $40,000 per VLCC transit before the war to $600,000 to $1.2 million today, a 30-fold increase, now running five to ten percent of hull value. A VLCC carrying $50 million in crude oil can absorb a combined $3 million in toll and insurance as a fraction of cargo value. A container ship carrying $5 million in manufactured goods cannot. The insurance premium alone exceeds the profit margin on non-oil cargo. The strait has become an oil-only VIP lane. Crude flows selectively for those who can pay the combined cost. Everything else waits, reroutes around the Cape of Good Hope, or does not move at all.

And the US Navy is not inside the strait. The Abraham Lincoln strike group operates from standoff in the Arabian Sea. Three Littoral Combat Ships sit in the Persian Gulf. Marine expeditionary units are positioned for contingency. But zero American warships have transited the strait or escorted commercial traffic since the war began. The Navy told the shipping industry it has “no availability�� for Hormuz escorts. The world’s most powerful fleet keeps respectful distance from a waterway controlled by a country whose navy is 92 percent destroyed because the mines, drones, and shore missiles that remain make close-in presence prohibitively risky.

The result is a geopolitical sorting algorithm operating at the molecular level. One hundred and eighty-one vessels transited in all of March. Pre-war traffic was 138 per day. Of those 181, roughly 70 percent were Iranian-affiliated. The remaining 30 percent were vetted allies or yuan-paying neutrals. The 20 percent of global oil that once flowed freely through this strait now flows selectively, conditionally, and in currencies chosen by Tehran.

Iran lost its air force. It lost its navy. It lost two thirds of its production capacity. It retained the only thing that matters: 39 kilometres of coastline on both sides of the narrowest point. The US Navy will not enter. Chinese tankers will. And the sorting algorithm processes another vessel, collects another yuan payment, and demonstrates once more that geography is the one military asset that cannot be degraded by precision strikes.

The strait is not closed. It is under new management.

https://t.co/dAOBBMrIOk

[EZ Rider🌻🇺🇸🦅 @EZRideryoyall]

In case you didn’t get to see it, here is the full video of Tracy Chapman and Luke Combs singing “Fast Car” at the Grammys
https://t.co/4RyBSFgjsW

[Dan @danmurrays]

4 years ago - OpenAI's CEO Sam Altman wrote a blog on How To Be Successful

Here's the breakdown:

[Hasan Toor @hasantoxr]

MIT is offering free online courses.

Now you too can learn elite-level knowledge:

No textbooks, no tuition payments.

Here are 7 FREE courses you don't want to miss:

[🍉 alex | اليكس @vxidalex]

what does bro need to do more to get 10

[Misha @mishadavinci]

To succeed in the future, you MUST learn A.I.

Here's a list of 24 top resources to get up to speed (for free):

[Alex Banks @thealexbanks]

I read all 154 pages of Microsoft Research's "Sparks of AGI".

Most people don't realise the shocking reality AI is going to bring.

Here's what I found:

[Barclays Women's Super League @BarclaysWSL]

Making an impact at @AVWFCOfficial!

@JordanNobbs8 is the @BarclaysFooty Player of the Month 🌟

[Aston Villa Women @AVWFCOfficial]

Any excuse to watch this again... 📳 @JordanNobbs8

[MelG @MelJG2017]

@ammon_rose @AVWFCOfficial Same ✋️

[Bridget Hunnicutt @bhunni]

@DrJohnHhess @Evergreen1431 Stanford neuroscientist explains how even ‘mild’ COVID infections can cause cognitive impairment. 🎥👇

One previously healthy patient got lost taking her daughter to school in her own neighborhood —the same route she had taken almost everyday for years

https://t.co/o5SAooFBFJ

[matt bernstein @mattxiv]

one thing about greta thunberg

[Greta Thunberg @GretaThunberg]

yes, please do enlighten me. email me at [email protected]

[Brian Krassenstein @krassenstein]

19-year-old Environmentalist, Greta Thunberg, just destroyed 36-year-old misogynistic creep, Andrew Tate, in a single sentence. 

PLEASE RETWEET

[The Sage @SarkySage]

Wow. That’s all I can say.

[Annabel Crabb @annabelcrabb]

Australian women took a good look at the prime ministerial bulldozer... and sent him a John Deere letter. Here's my column on why https://t.co/IjkqjaDpiK

[Simon Shahzan Khan @SimonKh73996118]

Without a doubt

[Bernard Keane @BernardKeane]

Imagine a "Space Force" run by the current government.
The rocket would be ten years late, $50 billion over budget and unsafe to launch.
The launch site would be in a marginal electorate on land bought at a massive markup from a donor.
And the astronauts would be Coalition mates.