Lee Drake

@leedrake.bsky.social

543 Followers 2134 Following

https://github.com/leedrake5

Tyler Rogoway • @Aviation Intel • 1h Been writing/warning about the Bab el Mandeb Strait and Strait of Hormuz being closed at the same time as something of a "sum of all fears' energy crisis out of Middle East for over a decade. This was always Iran's biggest cards to play. We were waiting to see this occur, Houthis very quiet during Epic Fury. Now this happens at a highly strategic military, economic and political moment. Meanwhile, Russia's output is also impacted heavily by Ukrainian strikes. An additional wildcard factor. It all comes after fuel prices remained elevated and reserves low globally. The U.S. economic situation is also a factor here, this is putting additional pressure on a market that has signs of increased volatility. All this is happening going into the mid terms with Republican majorities at risk, as well. Right on cue. Extreme pressure.
The Epic cycle according to Aristotle. Horse poorly drawn meme, with the Iliad and Odyssey depicted in flattering terms and other entries like the Cyprus and Telegony depicted like a poorly drawn horse.
Infographic with year to date Hormuz traffic and Brent crude prices. The two are inversely correlated: with higher Hormuz transits leading to lower Brent prices.
Gothamist headline: Parts of Manhattan to sacrifice 10% of street parking as NYC installs new trash bins. This article discusses Mayor Mamdani’s attempt to deal with the trash situation.
Homer Simpson, enslaved. “Don’t blame me, I voted for Kodos”
COVID-era Baskin Robins mascot in bathroom taking a selfie captioned “how tf am I an essential worker”
Amendment XIV Section 1. All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside.
Hormuz transit calls still near 0 over a hundred days into the closure.
Utena watching the Trump name get pulled down from the Kennedy Center by court order
First: Iran's Foreign Minister Araghchi: Management of the Strait of Hormuz will not return to the pre-war era. Second: Burgum: "We've got the negotiator in chief, the dealmaker in chief, President Trump. We know he's not gonna agree to a bad deal. Whatever deal is reached is gonna be a good deal."
Image showing net migration around the world, with North America being the largest destination, going from 1.7 to 4.4. https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-026-01796-y
Babe: $15,000 out of our checking account? Is it what I think it is? <wedding ring emoji> Actual: invoice from Anthropic for AI use
AI generated textbook image of a Charles Knight-style diplodocid with a beaver tail.
APRIL — 1805 NAPOLEON IS MASTER OF EUROPE ONLY THE BRITISH FLEET STANDS
NYTimes headline: SpaceX Completes Mostly Successful Starship Rocket Flight. The rocket crashed and burned.
Fox News clip of a person obviously wearing a mask. AI ask: Is he wearing a mask of himself? Answer: No, the individual appearing in the video is VADM (ret.) Robert Harward, a former Deputy Commander of U.S. Central Command. He is a real person appearing in a professional news segment to provide geopolitical analysis; he is not wearing a mask.
Drake meme rejecting “bomb Iran”, pointing to “fund Iran”.
From Andrew Desiderio: News - Nearly 2-hour meeting with Acting AG Todd Blanche and Senate Republicans was incredibly hostile, per multiple attendees. As many as 25 GOP senators spoke (this is very rare for these meetings), all in opposition to weaponization fund. R's pitched specific ideas such as dictating how the 5 commissioners are chosen & not allowing people convicted of violence against cops to be eligible for a payout.
Inverted and upside down poll trend for 5)3 47th president, giving the illusion of increasing approval
Subreddit geology: Post from r/whatsthisrock identified this as early stages of boudinage. Rock looks like it has football stitching.
Graph of religious affiliation showing a decline from 78% to 63% from 2007 to 2019, after which telephone surveys end. Online/paper surveys from then to 2024 show values bouncing around 62-64%
AI generated book cover about Persian Emperor Xerxes
Just 0.1% of accounts on Polymarket take home 67% of the profits. Source: Wallstreet Journal
From Josette Elayi’s biography of Tiglath-pileser III: Tomb II contained gold bowls bearing the inscriptions of three queens, labâ, Banîtu, and Atalia, but only two skeletons. The inscriptions of labâ are as follows: "Belonging to queen labâ, wife of Tiglath-pileser, king of Assyria," and "Belonging to labâ, queen of Tiglath-pileser, king of Assyria"; the inscription of Banîtu is: "Belonging to Banîtu, queen of Shalmaneser, king of Assyria."24 In order to explain the mention of three women when there are only two bodies, the following hypothesis has been pro-posed: labâ and Banitu, Shalmaneser's wife, could have been one and the same person.25 In fact, labâ seems to be a West Semitic name meaning "beautiful." The name would have been translated into Akkadian as Banîtu, which had the same meaning. The names lab and Atalia, which might be Hebrew, would mean that the Assyrian kings married Judean or Israelite princesses at that time in order to seal alliances. After having analyzed what we know about his family, it is possible to answer the question as to whether Tiglath-pileser III was a usurper: he probably was a usurper because, even if he belonged to the reigning dynasty in some way, he was not the legitimate heir chosen by Ashur-nadari V
Tax Revenue Most governments currently rely heavily on their citizens for tax revenue. Typical well-functioning governments need to nurture long term economic productivity from innovation and high-skill work to support themselves. But if AI systems eventually perform a large portion of overall labor, and innovation, they will also generate a large fraction of economic output and, by extension, tax revenue. The loss of tax revenue from citizens would make the state less reliant on nurturing human capital and fostering environments conducive to human innovation and productivity, and more reliant on AI systems and the profits they generate. If AI systems come to generate a significant portion of economic value, then we might begin to lose one of the major drivers of civic participation and democracy, as illustrated by the existing example of rentier states.
Brad's son, Boyd, cleaned the barn.
It’s late, so just a couple highlights. Ms. Rachel is lawful good. Meekah is true neutral. Cocoon is lawful evil. Blippi chaotic evil
Oil painting of Narcissus looking at his reflection. Narciso, Caravaggio, 1597-1599. Flipped upside down for convenience.
Onion headline: Report: Every Place On Earth Has Wrong Amount Of Water. Drought to the left, flood to the right
1995 Panasonic CF-41 laptop with a 75 MHz Pentium processor, 4Mb RAM and CD-ROM drive sold for $15. Originally worth $8,700. Adjusted for inflation, it would have cost $18,850.
Killmonger quoting “stick it to the powerful by stealing from museums”
Film Facts -FILN ACT: @Factsonfilm Christopher Walken says Bugs Bunny is one of his favorite actors He told Ben Stiller that "A lot of times I've played roles as if I was Bugs Bunny... but nobody knew"
Meet Potential General (Robert E Lee) "If only his army had been better supplied" "If Longstreet hadn't sabotaged Pickett's Charge..." "If only Jackson had survived..." "If the South had held in the West..." -Most important battle of the war -Loses it to a mediocre general who got the job three days before Give me liberty Give me fire Give me moronic opponents or I retire 0 wars won 0 shoes for his men 7 Pyrrhic victories in doomed offensives Most impressive victories are against a concussion victim, an army attacking into a fortified hill, and George goddamn McLellan "if" and "when" but never "is" Wage a defensive war using your advantages of terrain and interior lines of communication? Yet another failed offensive where you lose men you can't replace?
Massive attack singles released a decade apart
Lead poisoning by generation, showing a concentration around Generation X
Those aged 40-50 in 2015, Gen X, had maximum lead poisoning. Subsequent generations benefited from unleaded gasoline and a stricter regulatory environment.
Raising the flag at Iwo Jima by Joe Rosenthal
Chart depicting increased mortality across chimps following band fissure.
Detected changes in social organization preceding violence in chimpanzees
CT scan and artist reconstruction of Lystrsaurus embryo in egg
Tucker Carlson, the commentator who had emerged as another prominent skeptic of intervention on the right, had come to the Oval Office several times over the previous year to warn Mr. Trump that a war with Iran would destroy his presidency. A couple weeks before the war began, Mr. Trump, who had known Mr. Carlson for years, tried to reassure him over the phone. "I know you're worried about it, but it's going to be OK," the president said. Mr. Carlson asked how he knew. "Because it always is," Mr. Trump replied.
USDA snowpack tracker indicating current mountain snowpack is almost gone, when it should be at its peak.
Jawa from Star Wars
Trump tweet from January 2026: Record Cold Wave expected to hit 40 States. Rarely seen anything like it before. Could the Environmental Insurrectionists please explain - WHATEVER HAPPENED TO GLOBAL WARMING???
Reddit post in response to question, “what celebrity have you never forgiven”. “Early 90s, I was a kid I was trying to get a soda at a car dealership when my dad was trying to get his car fixed. I didn't know they had raised the prices and I was a nickel short...in walks Scotty Pippen and I asked him for a nickel, he just looked at me, took a bunch of change out, bought a soda and looked right at me as he walked away with his soda and pocket full of change. Fuck Scotty pippen Update: wow! Thanks for the award and all the comments on Chicago! It was a great place to grow up and I always encourage people to visit! On another note, MJ was a very good tipper as my brother told me when he caddied for him! But fuck Scotty Pippen!“
Hormuz strait integrated with the classic windows game minesweeper
"Get ready for oil to be $200 a barrel, because the oil price depends on regional security which you have destabilised," Ebrahim Zolfaqari, spokesperson for Iran's military command, said in comments addressed to the US.
Performance of German stock market in lead up to and during WWII. Indices remained high even after Stalingrad.
Classic outdated image of slouching chimpanzee to modern humans.
David Perdue “Totally Exonerated, No Wrongdoing” campaign ad. He later went on to to lose his 2020 election.
Snippet from TV Insider. “I It was a tough week for Dokoupil over at CBS Evening News, which raked in an average 4.163 million total viewers, down -9% from the previous week, and 458,000 in the key demo, down -21% from the previous week. It should be noted, though, that CBS News' averages were drawn from just four days of broadcasts (Monday through Thursday), as the Friday, February 13, show was retitled to CBS Evening Nws and did not get included in the viewer averages, according to Adweek.”