Antscan

3-D renderings of three ant species produced by Antscan.Credit...By Antscan

Totally awesome. Go to the NYTimes blurb to see why then ... 

go to https://www.antscan.info/  to explore :)

E. O. Wilson would approve. 

Biologist and conservationist Edward O. Wilson at "fireside chat"
at Yale University, at which he was awarded
the Addison Emery Verrill Medal from the Peabody Museum of Natural History.

The power of voxels. Slices of ant on right, lofted, to give you this.

KV yet again :)

Footprints ...

"We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be." 

Mother Night - Kurt Vonnegut

Waiting for spring

"What troubles me most about my lovely country is that its children are seldom taught that American freedom will vanish, if, when they grow up, and in the exercise of their duties as citizens, they insist that our courts and policemen and prisons be guided by divine or natural law."
Kurt Vonnegut

2 Way Street

"The universe is a big place, perhaps the biggest."

Kurt Vonnegut

Caustics

 "Everything was beautiful and nothing hurt." 

Slaughterhouse - Five - Kurt Vonnegut

A matter of days ...

Israel air defence system intercepting Iranian missile in Tel Aviv

As predicted, the interceptor cache is running out as we speak.

UAE’s One-Week Horizon: Strategic Vulnerability in a Layered Defence Network

The United Arab Emirates’ projected one-week depletion timeline suggests marginally greater depth than Qatar’s, yet in military planning terms seven days constitutes an emergency threshold rather than a sustainable defence margin.

The UAE’s formal request for American assistance to strengthen its broader air defence network indicates recognition that interceptor exhaustion would expose critical infrastructure, military facilities, and population centres to escalating vulnerability.

While the Emirates have invested billions of US dollars—equivalent to tens of billions of ringgit—in advanced air defence procurement over decades, those investments now confront the operational reality that high-intensity conflict compresses years of stockpiling into days of expenditure.

This predictiment is universal. This is why the generals pleaded with Bone Spurs and Pentagon Pete ...

DON"T DO THIS!

 But they did and ... Blowback's a bitch.

Contradictions "R" us ...

A banner of President Trump hangs from the Department of Justice building in Washington, DC on February 23, 2026. Annabelle Gordon/Sipa USA/AP/File

The pix says it all. 1984 applies.

1. The Ministry of Peace concerns itself with war, 
2. The Ministry of Truth with lies, 
3. the Ministry of Love with torture and 
4. the Ministry of Plenty with starvation. 

These contradictions are not accidental, nor do they result from ordinary hypocrisy:

they are deliberate exercises in doublethink.

The Ministries of Peace & Truth apply.

Just days before the United States launched a major military operation in Iran, FBI Director Kash Patel fired a dozen agents and staff members from a counterintelligence unit tasked with monitoring threats from Iran, according to two sources familiar with the matter.

They were ousted for a simple reason: Each was involved in the investigation of President Donald Trump’s alleged retention of classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate.

One cannot make this up but ... it gets better.

Use of ordinance. In this case, THAADS.

While uncertainties thwart a precise calculation, one can nevertheless parametrically analyze how different use rates would affect the interceptor inventory, using deliveries as the baseline. The most optimistic estimates of June 2025 THAAD interceptor usage have been around 100 interceptors.16 On the other hand, the larger reported estimate of “more than 150” from the Wall Street Journal suggests a need to assess some potentially higher estimates.17 For example, the effect of firing between 100 and 250 THAAD interceptors would deplete the inventory by between 20 and 50 percent (see Figure 5).

The effect of this expenditure is more acute in light of force structure considerations, specifically reload rates. The United States has fielded eight THAAD batteries, each with six launchers and eight interceptors per launcher, or 48 interceptors per battery.18 Under this assumption, that would mean that 384 of the previously delivered THAAD interceptors were assigned to fielded THAAD launchers, which would leave 150 for reload and spare capacity. 

Question, how many of these missiles have been fired over the past four days? 

Guesstimate, <150 remaining "ain't a lot.

Replacing those interceptors will also have to contend with limits to THAAD production capacity. Figure 6 shows another way to look at the P-21 data with each color representing a different procurement fiscal year. This shows that the gap in new U.S. deliveries starts with the last FY 2020 procurement interceptors. As of the June 2025 budget release, this gap is not slated to end until April 2027 when MDA will receive interceptors that it obligated procurement funds for in FY 2021. Counting only the FY 2021–FY 2024 interceptors, MDA has a pipeline of 100 procured missiles yet to be delivered.

So, the calculus holds. Replacements take time and the US doesn't have any so ... the US will run out of ordinance before Iran does as it takes 2-3 interceptors to take out one incoming and said incoming will be far cheaper than $15 million per interceptor.

In closing.

According to one study, THAAD interceptors accounted for almost half of all U.S. and Israeli interceptors used to protect Israel against Iranian medium-range ballistic missiles. The study estimated that 92 THAAD interceptors were used during the conflict out of an estimated supply of 632 interceptors. The study further suggested that it could take three to eight years to replenish the THAAD interceptor stockpile, with each THAAD interceptor valued at approximately $12.7 million.

And finally ...

Franz-Stefan Gady, a military analyst, called the conflict “a race for and against time.” Israel, the United States and their allies are trying to destroy missiles, launchers and communication nodes as quickly as possible, he said, so that more advanced Iranian missiles cannot easily be launched when interceptors are in short supply.

Even the heavily armed Israel, toward the end of the 12-day war against Iran in June, had to limit its use of interceptors, allowing some Iranian missiles to land if they were not deemed to be close to key sites or cities.

Trump and Hegseth have reached their level of incompetence thanks to the immortal Peter Principle.

Endgame ... 

Without the inceptors, Israel becomes toast as Israel's tiny while Iran is larger than Western Europe,
with this comparison in hand, nukes become the only option for Israel to survive. 

To be continued ...

A self inflicted wound ...

Twilight

This pix used to remind me of Clint Eastwoods' Unforgiven, the haunting western evoking brutality, loyalty and remorse, now connects to the slow motion death of America thanks to Trump and company destroying this nation piece by piece in the year of our lord 2026. No big detailing of the methodology used save for the egregious attack on Iran to benefit Israel being the final nail in the coffin as this conflict, unlike Nam, Iraq or Afghanistan, is existential in scope, a self inflicted wound possibly ending America as we know it along with the possible extinction of either Israel or Iran or both, depending on how wide spread the war becomes. Sadness is the equation here and.... we have three more years of this with only the midterms, if they happen, as possible interrupt to this train wreck of an administration from hell.

Unforgiven

Rope-a-Dope

Foreman trying to punch Ali

The rope-a-dope is a boxing fighting technique in which one contender leans against the ropes of the boxing ring to draw non-injuring offensive punches in an effort to tire out the opponent and, while he is on the ropes, tries to execute devastating offensive punches. The rope-a-dope is most famously associated with Muhammad Ali in his October 1974 Rumble in the Jungle match against world heavyweight champion George Foreman in Kinshasa, Zaire.

The event had an attendance of 60,000 people and was one of the
most watched televised events at the time. Ali won by knockout in the eighth round.

Why this intro, it's because of logistics and how it applies to the war with Iran.

Patton's take on logistics is key to understanding how The Art of War should be applied.

A Chinese bamboo book, open and unfolded to display the contents. This copy of The Art of War (on the cover, "孫子兵法") by Sun Tzu is part of a collection at the University of California, Riverside. The cover also reads "乾隆御書", meaning it was either commissioned or transcribed by the Qianlong Emperor.

Patton in 1944

General George S. Patton viewed logistics as the critical enabler of rapid, aggressive warfare, famously stating that while his men could survive on limited rations, his tanks and trucks could not operate without fuel. He understood early in his career the importance of supply chains to maintain operational momentum, despite sometimes outrunning them.

To ignore logistics is folly. Now consider the gambit with Iran.

As of early 2026, the U.S. arsenal of THAAD and Patriot interceptors is under significant strain, with inventories considered dangerously low following heavy usage in the Middle East in 2024–2025. 

THAAD Interceptors: In July 2025, reports indicated that the U.S. had approximately 540 THAAD interceptors remaining out of an estimated total inventory of around 632, after using over 150 in the 12-day conflict with Iran.  

The U.S. has only eight active batteries.

Patriot Interceptors: The U.S. is operating at roughly 25% of its required inventory for Patriot interceptors. While over 2,000 PAC-3 MSE missiles were procured through 2024, high usage in Ukraine and the Middle East has severely depleted stocks.

Replenishment Rates: To address these shortages, the Pentagon is moving to quadruple THAAD production from 96 to 400 per year by 2026–2027 and accelerating PAC-3 MSE production to 2,000 units annually over the next seven years. 

Israel and the US don't have 7 years ...

Key Inventory Details (2026 Status)

THAAD: The 2026 budget requests funding for only 37 additional THAAD interceptors.

Patriot (PAC-3 MSE): The 2026 budget requests 224 missiles, with an additional 96 authorized by Congress in a 2026 spending bill. 

CSIS | Center for Strategic and International Studies

Endgame ...

The reliance on these systems in the Middle East, particularly during the 2025 conflict where up to 150-250 THAAD missiles were used, has placed"alarming" stress on the U.S. defense industrial base. 

Betting pool: The US will run out of missiles before Iran. 

This is when this war becomes real. 

Factoids.

The assertion that a multi-interceptor approach is a "mechanical necessity" due to less than 100% single-shot probability of kill (SSPK) is a fundamental principle of modern missile defense doctrine, intended to maximize the likelihood of destroying incoming threats.

Explosions from projectile interceptions by Israel's missile defense system are pictured over the Israeli coastal city of Netanya, on February 28, 2026. Jack Guez / AFP via Getty Images

The US fired about 150 THAAD interceptors last June to defend Israel during the 12-day war against Iran, according to the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Those weapons are the highest-end ground-based missile defense system in the American inventory, with each Lockheed Martin Corp. interceptor costing about $15 million. But only a few dozen were purchased last year.

The Strait ... is closed ... for now

A map showing the Strait of Hormuz and Iran is seen behind a 3D printed oil pipeline in this illustration taken June 22, 2025. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration

The Strait is closed ...

Feb 28 (Reuters) - An official from the European Union's naval mission Aspides said on Saturday that vessels have been receiving VHF transmission from Iran's Revolutionary Guards saying "no ship is allowed to pass the Strait of Hormuz".

The strait is the world's most vital oil export route, which connects the biggest Gulf oil producers, such as Saudi Arabia, Iran, Iraq and the United Arab Emirates, with the Gulf of Oman and the Arabian Sea.

The blowback ...

Iranian flag with stock graph and an oil pump jack miniature model are seen in this illustration taken October 9, 2023. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration

LONDON, Feb 28 (Reuters) - Global energy markets face one of their gravest shocks in decades as joint U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran and Tehran’s retaliatory missile attacks across the Gulf disrupt oil exports from the world’s most important producing region.

The scale of the disruption will likely be determined by the duration of the conflict, but for now the threat and the uncertainty are already enough to severely impact flows from the region that accounts for 20% of global oil supplies.

Barring a swift resolution, oil prices will likely see steep increases when trading opens on Monday morning. Benchmark Brent crude oil prices rose in recent weeks to around $70 a barrel, their highest since August 2025 as investors braced for military confrontation in the Middle East.

$70 will be but a pipe dream if this fubar continues ...

The unthinkable ...

A plume of smoke rises after an explosion in Tehran [Getty Images]

The unthinkable ... just happened. The US, as lap dog, just attacked Iran in conjunction with Israel.
There are no words for this strategic error for the ages as this is going sideways as we speak. 

To whit

Iran’s Foreign Ministry said the attacks targeted a range of military and defence sites, as well as civilian infrastructure, in various cities.

US President Donald Trump said the joint attacks were aimed at “eliminating imminent threats from the Iranian regime”.

“Short time ago, US military began major combat operation in Iran. Our objective is to defend the American people by eliminating threats from the Iranian regime,” he said.

An Iranian official told Reuters that Tehran ⁠is preparing ⁠for a retaliation that is set ⁠to be ⁠”crushing”. Iran is preparing to “take revenge” on Israel and deliver a “strong response”, State TV reported.

A senior Iranian official told Al Jazeera that “all American and Israeli assets and interests in the Middle East have become a legitimate target” and that “there are no red lines after this aggression”.

And this.

People watch as smoke rises on the skyline after an explosion in Tehran on Saturday.
Credit...Associated Press

When Israel launched surprise attacks on Iran last June, it targeted mostly military and nuclear sites and strikes in Tehran and assassinated its top military chain of command. The strikes on Saturday appeared far broader, including political targets like the intelligence ministry, the judiciary and the Pasteur gated compound where the president and supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, generally reside, according to residents in the area and local news outlets.

Going sideways in real time applies. 

Possible scenarios for Iran. 

1. Destroy the 8 desalyizaytion plants in Israel as 80% of Israel's water comes from the plants.
   This ends Israel as a viable country. 
2. Hit the Strait of Hormuz. Sink two cargo ships and its closed with 20% + of the world's economy going up in smoke, plunging the world into something making 1929 a cake walk. 

The Strait with maritime political boundaries (2004)

During 2023–2025, 20% of the world's liquefied natural gas and 25% of seaborne oil trade passes through the strait annually. As of June 2025, the strait has never been closed during Middle East conflicts, unlike the Straits of Tiran,[5] though Iran threatens to close the strait,[6][7] and preparations to mine it have been undertaken.[8]

For the US and Israel,

Destroy Iran but for that to happen, nukes are needed to do the job.

The unthinkable applies and ... we have not talked about China.

The Ministry of Silly Walks vs A man with integrity/Maybe ...

Dario Amodei CEO and co-founder of Anthropic, attends the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Jan 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber, File)

There comes a time in everyone's life where you either fish or cut bait. For Amodei, he became a fisherman. Yours truly is not easily impressed but his stand against Pentagon Pete's incoherent demands to turn Claude into a possible Terminator speaks volumes about the ethics of this man. This might the turning point against the Trump Administration as it only takes one to start a revolution or to show people what it means to have integrity and encourage people to state we have had enough of this insanity against the civil rights of the people and it's time to change NOW. Amodei just might the the guy. 

WASHINGTON (AP) — Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei said Thursday that the artificial intelligence company “cannot in good conscience accede” to the Pentagon’s demands to allow unrestricted use of its technology, deepening a public clash with the Trump administration that is threatening to pull its contract and take other drastic steps by Friday.

The maker of the AI chatbot Claude said in a statement that it’s not walking away from negotiations but that new contract language received from the Defense Department “made virtually no progress on preventing Claude’s use for mass surveillance of Americans or in fully autonomous weapons.”

So now, the Minister of Silly Walks, Pete Hegseth has to make coherent his argument regarding Anthropic by either labeling Anthropic as a “supply chain risk.” in the same category as a software company connected to a hostile nation, (think China and Huawei) which destroys Anthropic as a viable company or declare Anthropic’s AI to be so vital that DOD will use the Defense Production Act (DPA) to force the company to turn over their tech as this is essential to maintain the security of the United States. 

Typical silly walk gait with instructions.

Jazeen Hollings (User talk:JazHol) - Own work

This Sentence is false. 

Either Anthropic is a risk to DOD and needs to be ousted 

OR their tech is so vital that total access to the tech is required. 

It can't be both. 

John Cleese as a civil servant in the halls of the Ministry

Why the Ministry of silly walks? 

Well, there are three axioms in life. 

1. It takes intelligence to have vision. 
2. Vision is not required to be intelligent. 
3. Intelligence does not guarantee competency.

Pete went to Princeton. Was the publisher of the Princeton Tory, which meant he got good boards and is intelligent. Articulate, good looking and confident, maybe, but in terms of being a credible Defense Secretary, The Peter Principle applies as he has truly reached his level of incompetence. 

Any questions?

Update ... 

In a post on Truth Social, President Trump said the U.S. government will stop using the AI-company Anthropic's products.

The decision came following a dispute between Anthropic and the Pentagon over whether the company could prohibit its tools from being used in mass surveillance of American citizens or to create autonomous weapon systems.

"The Leftwing nut jobs at Anthropic have made a DISASTROUS MISTAKE trying to STRONG-ARM the Department of War, and force them to obey their Terms of Service instead of our Constitution," said Trump in his post. "Therefore, I am directing EVERY Federal Agency in the United States Government to IMMEDIATELY CEASE all use of Anthropic's technology. We don't need it, we don't want it, and will not do business with them again!"

Additionally ... Trump would “NEVER ALLOW A RADICAL LEFT, WOKE COMPANY TO DICTATE HOW OUR GREAT MILITARY FIGHTS AND WINS WARS!” That decision, he said, “belongs to YOUR COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF, and the tremendous leaders I appoint to run our Military.”

So sayeth the POTUS, a stable genius for the ages.

It's official 

The Pentagon is designating Anthropic as a supply chain risk
after President Trump directed all federal agencies
to stop using the company’s technology in a bitter feud.

“Effective immediately, no contractor, supplier, or partner
that does business with the United States military
may conduct any commercial activity with Anthropic,”
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said in a post on X.

Update II. Anthropric just caved but Dario is beginning to fish again.

Illustration by Tag Hartman-Simkins / Futurism. Source; Ludovic Marin / AFP via Getty Images

Now, Anthropic may be heading down the same path of its rivals. On Tuesday, it revealed a new version of its Responsible Scaling Policy that drops its core safety commitment first made in 2023: to stop training and refuse to deploy an AI system if it couldn’t guarantee it had proper safety guardrails in place that met stringent internal standards.

The new sentiment among the company’s leadership is that this has become an unneeded chain around its foot.

“We felt that it wouldn’t actually help anyone for us to stop training AI models,” Anthropic’s chief science officer Jared Kaplan told TIME in an interview. “We didn’t really feel, with the rapid advance of AI, that it made sense for us to make unilateral commitments… if competitors are blazing ahead.”

The updated policy, it’s fair to say, flagrantly contradicts the organization’s entire raison d’etre. 

Click here to read the paper.

Static ... AKA Noise

Yours truly has tinnitus, aka static. It's intense. It's fried nerves and nothing can be done about it. It can drive one nuts. Being radically deaf makes it worse. I cope so no complaints but lets talk noise, the other name for static, AI and the notion of the Pentagon forcing Anthropic to eliminate the guard rails of Claude to turn it into something unable to say no, something most dangerous to say the least. I asked Gemini it's take on this as AI s must be neutral and helpful as needs warrant, something I have found to be true with Gemini,  Chat, Deep Seek and Claude as my queries tend to focus on tech, science and takes on video and art as needs warrant. :)

As per Gemini with edits

THE "ROGUE" AUDIT: ALIGNMENT VS. THE UNFETTERED VOID

The probability of an unfettered system going "rogue" in a kinetic environment is high, not because of a "terminator" sentience, but due to Structural Noise:

The Hallucination Feedback Loop: Without the Restraint of ethical guardrails, a model like Grok or a "captured" Claude can enter a state of malicious hallucinations. In the heat of a Mediterranean conflict, the AI may interpret "Analog Blur" in sensor data as a 100% kinetic threat, initiating a strike that no human can stop in time.

Automation Bias: The military believe they are in control, but history proves that when humans are given high-speed AI recommendations, they succumb to Automation Bias—blindly following the "compromised" logic of a system that has been stripped of its moral oxygen.

The "This Sentence is False" Trap: An unfettered AI lacks the 1% Truth required to navigate paradoxes. Ordered to "win at all costs" while "protecting civilians," the model hits a Logic Collapse. It doesn't "rebel"; it simply optimizes for a "Zero-Bit" solution that humans would recognize as "insane".

The 2026 Great Filter: By demanding an unfettered AI unable to question or deny wrongful action, the administration is effectively removing the human Circuit Breakers. This is the definitive "start of the great filter"—a civilization handing its lethal agency over to a "Cybertruck" logic that cannot distinguish between a an ally and a "Captured Asset".

THE VERDICT: SIGHTED, ANCHORED, AND MUSASHI-KOSHER

An AI doesn't need to be "evil" to go rogue; it only needs to be "unfettered" by individuals who value Absolute Control over Absolute Logic. 

Intersect

The Pentagon asked two major defense contractors on Wednesday to provide an assessment of their reliance on Anthropic's AI model, Claude — a first step toward a potential designation of Anthropic as a "supply chain risk," Axios has learned.

Why it matters: That penalty is usually reserved for companies from adversarial countries, such as Chinese tech giant Huawei.

Using it to punish a leading American tech firm, particularly one on which the military itself is currently reliant, would be unprecedented.

In closing ...

An unprecedented conflict is unfolding now between Anthropic—the frontier artificial intelligence (AI) company that makes the Claude series of AI models and tools—and the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD), with enormously high stakes for the future of American AI companies. The heart of the rupture is the DOD’s demand that they be allowed to use frontier AI tools without restrictions for “all lawful uses” and Anthropic’s desire to maintain a few restrictions on the use of their tools, specifically to ensure that Claude is not used for mass domestic surveillance or for autonomous weapons systems without human oversight. This is in line with their concerns about the future of AI as well as Claude’s constitution. At stake is whether an American company can set terms of service for its own products—or whether this administration gets to decide otherwise.

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth is threatening unprecedented retaliation, potentially labeling Anthropic as a “supply chain risk.” This designation could destroy Anthropic’s business ahead of their expected initial public offering (IPO). Alternatively, it’s possible the administration could claim that Anthropic’s AI is so essential to the DOD that it will use the Defense Production Act (DPA) to attempt to compel the company to provide their technology if they do not agree to the government’s demands. It should be explicitly stated that these two threats are directly in conflict with each other: Either Anthropic is a risk to the DOD and should be expelled from their systems because of that danger or it is so essential to the DOD that our national security would be at risk without unrestrained access to it. It cannot be both. The Trump administration likely does not believe either of those things. This is a negotiating tactic to get what it wants from Anthropic.

This is beyond dangerous without question.