Morning - skipped the national chaos in today's OT. You are always welcome to bring up and share any subject, this is a forum for wide range discussion. The diary is a little long and did not take time to include color revolutions in the middle east, South America or in our nation.

United Kingdom leading class continues to prepare for war.

UK to list 65-year-olds as reservists amid Russia threat claims – Telegraph Russia Times Jan 15, 2026

The UK government is preparing to expand the call-up age for reservists to ready the army for a potential war with Russia, The Telegraph reported on Thursday, citing sources.

According to the newspaper, the plan would raise the maximum age at which retired soldiers can be recalled from 55 to 65. Veterans would form part of a strategic reserve that could be mobilized to support regular forces.

The proposed reform would also change the conditions under which retired personnel can be summoned back to service. Current rules allow call-ups only in cases of “national danger, great emergency or attack,” but the new framework would lower the threshold to “warlike preparations.”
...
Russian officials have long accused London of being a key driver of the Ukraine conflict, alleging the British government is deliberately seeking to prolong hostilities in a bid to confront Russia.

Scott Ritter has been de-banked. Part of a pattern or limited to the individual family, time will tell.

Interruptions to banking services happen more often in our society than many of us realize. Even had it happen to myself a few years ago.

It was not a full debanking but a bank extracting the funds from my back account, similar to a bounced check, for a check included in a deposit and sending a letter to me hinting the check was from a shady character. Well the shady character was another business I owned and operated in a neighboring town so the loop got closed fairly quickly and funds held in limbo returned within a week. Just a couple of years ago while on a town run surprise credit card access denied. Card worked fine at first two stops about 25 miles from home, second stop was another town 20 miles from the first and still about 26 miles from home. The reason when discussing with customer support was the distance from my home where the small dollar transaction shopping was being performed. Let simply say the denial of service lock was removed.

De-Banked Real Scott Ritter Substack Jan 16, 2026

Today my banking institution of 26 years, Citizens Bank, declared that they were ending their banking relationship with me. My accounts were zeroed out without explanation. While I may eventually see this money returned to me, the question of why this occurred remains unanswered, raising a whole host of issues related to civil liberties.

I’ve been de-banked.
...
According to a December 2024 report issued by the House Judiciary Committee, “Debanking occurs when a bank closes an individual or corporate account because the account holder, or their actions, are subjectively determined to pose a financial, legal, or reputational risk to the financial institution.”

According to this report, “The term “debanking” stems from de-risking, which involves ‘terminating or restricting business relationships with clients or categories of clients to avoid, rather than manage, risk.’”

In short, I have done nothing wrong.
...
So, asking who or what was behind this decision is a legitimate point of departure when examining this larger issue.

We return to the House Judiciary report: “The filing of a Suspicious Activity Report (SAR) is one of the primary reasons for account closure. The other is a high-risk designation. Debanking can occur ‘as a result of an anti-money laundering and reputational risk regime administered by the federal banking agencies where certain types of customers are designated as ‘high-risk.’”
...
Now this is where it gets curious.

The video conversation is scheduled for later today.

Scott Ritter : FREE Speech & Me - I've been de-Banked! Jan 16, 2026

Another scientific study confirming old practices of animal husbandry.

How prolonged maternal care in horses builds better brains and improves social skills Phys Org Jan 14, 2026

Much is known about the negative impact of losing a parent early or having bad care in both animals and humans, but less is known about how positive social time shapes an individual's future.

So researchers at INRAE (National Research Institute for Agriculture, Food and Environment) in France followed two groups of foals to see how staying with their mothers changed how they grew up.
...
The results showed that foals that stayed with their mothers were much better off in several areas. Their brains developed faster in parts that control emotions and social behavior, and there was stronger connectivity in the default mode network. In humans, this brain network is important for social cognition.

These young horses were also more exploratory than foals that spent less time with their mothers and were easier to train. One of the most surprising findings was that they gained more weight even though they spent less time eating. The researchers attribute this to better energy efficiency. Because the horses felt safe, they did not have to waste fuel on being stressed.

The full research article: Affiliative behaviours regulate allostasis development and shape biobehavioural trajectories in horses Jan 13, 2026

Live in an area with dark night skies, not looking forward to the increase of low orbit satellites.

China’s 200,000 satellite filing looked like a space internet flex until a 2,000 year old “computer” made it feel familiar Prototyping China Jan 14, 2026

In the final week of December 2025, reports described China submitting plans that covered more than 200,000 satellites, spread across multiple proposed constellations, a scale that instantly made existing mega constellations look modest by comparison. ...China had moved to lock down the scarce ingredients that mattered most in low Earth orbit, reliable spectrum access and usable orbital shells. This was how space competition really escalated. Not with a single spectacular launch, but with a bureaucratic land grab that could constrain rivals later. If you owned the paperwork, you could shape coordination requirements, force others into workarounds, and build leverage in a domain where congestion only got worse.
...
The China filings did not happen in a vacuum. Starlink’s expansion decision in January 2026 had shown how regulators were still letting large systems grow, while attaching deadlines and safety expectations. Reuters reported that the FCC approved 7,500 additional Gen2 satellites and described deployment milestones, plus operational details like lowering operating altitude from about 550 km to 480 km, roughly 342 to 298 miles, as part of collision risk management. That contrast mattered. Starlink’s expansion, even when massive, still sat inside a regulatory framework with conditions. China’s filings, by sheer scale, pressured the international system where filings, coordination, and national licensing interacted in messier ways. It raised questions about how disputes would be handled when multiple mega constellations wanted the same clean spectrum and the same safe orbital shells. The practical outcome was a new phase of competition. It was not just about rockets. It was about who could prove responsibility, who could enforce norms, and who could move fastest to occupy the legal and technical high ground.

China has been trying all different types of methods to increase electrical energy and improve efficiency of use. This is another avenue of exploration.

China unveils a groundbreaking solar-wind hybrid heat pump that cuts energy bills in half Prototyping China Nov 27, 2025

Picture a home that heats itself in winter, cools itself in summer, and lives mostly off the wind and sun. A home that trims its energy bill by 55 percent, slashes its dependence on the grid by 75 percent, and quietly adjusts itself as the seasons turn.

That home exists. It’s a 3,600-square-foot residence on the outskirts of Shenyang, a city where winters bite hard and summers bake the pavement. And inside that home, a new Chinese hybrid heat-pump system is working through its first full year of real-world testing — part geothermal, part aerothermal, part solar farm, part wind turbine, and entirely coordinated by artificial intelligence.

It’s one of the most ambitious residential energy experiments ever deployed in China, built by Shenyang Jianzhu University and Shanghai Jiao Tong University. And the numbers coming out of it are turning heads far beyond academic circles.
...
Researchers compared four generations of the system, each adding new components: strategy optimization, dual heat pumps, solar generation, wind generation. The final version delivered results that are rare in residential energy research:

−54.7 % LCOE (energy cost per kWh)
+4 % overall performance
−75 % reliance on the power grid

The reduction in grid dependence is especially striking. It means a house could run through most weather events, rate hikes, and outages without noticing.

And unlike many experimental systems, this one didn’t rely on exotic materials or factory-only prototypes. Everything was built from commercially available components — just arranged in a smarter way.

I am slowly working through this article, but still included it. (should be writing, not reading) The subject matter is highly relevant since Israel recognition of Somaliland as an independent nation and the military base being developed.

edit: original link to article was provided by Humphrey in yesterday's The Evening Blues

“Praise Allah, There Are Still People Like You”: Jeffrey Epstein Nurtured Israel-Emirates Ties Before Abraham Accords Drop Site Jan 14, 2026

The story below, based on private correspondence from Epstein spanning more than a decade, tells the story of his intimate relationship with Sultan Sulayem, the powerful head of the Dubai Ports World financial empire and an individual closely connected to the Emirati ruling families. The story helps reveal the hidden backstory of the Abraham Accords, which were signed one year after Epstein’s death.