EDIT: From AI - April typhoons on Guam are uncommon. The peak typhoon risk runs June–December (highest Aug–Nov); only a small fraction of Western North Pacific tropical cyclones affect Guam in April. Historically, typhoons or tropical storms near Guam in April occur only a few times per several decades (occasional April storms exist but are rare compared with the peak season).

It distills the situation we're in. It's called reality, but it's not.

A few thoughts about war in 2026

We are already in an unconventional world war, unconventional because it isn't a cold war in the historic sense. It's a very hot war, it's just not being fought with conventional weapons and tactics -- planes, bombs, boots on the ground, etc.

Right on. It's a cyber-war. Where AI-powered drones are the next break-through weapon. Electricity, Internet are the targets. Whoever controls that space controls the world.

How often now do you read of a major bank or credit company or health insurer getting their data hacked?

Often. Actually less n less these days. So long as these banks, insurance companies, etc have got your data, then losing it ... is not good ... but it's not a total disaster.
You've still got the data. Data is the currency. I doubt they give a shit.

A total disaster would be if they lost access to it entirely, which is theoretically possible.
Would involve knocking out their back-up, but theoretically doable with a few well-placed drones.
That would pique their interest. What's the text message for that: Due to an unprecedented outage, all your money is gone. Is there anything else we can help you with today?

I don't even pay attention anymore. The records of hundreds of millions of people stolen in a single hit. What's happening? Is that warfare? I think sometimes, certainly. Airlines get grounded due to 'computer glitches' and such. Entire airlines.

United Airlines flights grounded nationwide for 30 minutes due to 'connectivity issue'

It's warfare alright. Data-war. Orwell - Huxley's well-reasoned Big War: the War on individuality/free thinking (one of Formosa Hut's topics for many years).

This feels like the bit where all individuality gets hoovered up by the ORG-GODS.
Which, theoretically, will result in the collapse of existence, if the goal of uniting all thought as one is achieved.
Without (critical) Observation, you ain't got jack-shit. The Big Implosion.

Right now I think we're in a skirmishing phase. What happens if it escalates to all out warfare in this new theater? Electric grids out? Engineered information that causes panic about the food safety or supply?

Can tell you for a fact, The Aussies would be fucked. The electric & internet grids could not be more exposed/fragile. You wouldn't even need your cyber warfare - sneeze violently in their direction it would collapse.

And here's the thing - for a geographically large country like the US or Australia or China, this new type of war is more disruptive to the average person than a conventional war. Why wage conventional war when you can do more damage with this new, improved approach?

The new normal: https://www.particle6.com/

A key point from your post is that it's an obvious war going on, involving game-changing weapons, that's not been declared as a war.

It goes on in the secret realm of intelligence agencies/govs playing games, though the impacts of it are being felt increasingly by normal mushroom people.

In terms of whether it may have been sabotage, i found this:

GPS spoofing consists of transmitting a look-alike signal that GPS receivers will decode to place an aircraft at an incorrect position and/or time. GPS Spoofing is a 100% deliberate action. Spoofing can only be caused by purpose-built devices which have their origins in military operations, or can be built by individuals with nefarious intent. In short, spoofing will result in the aircraft appearing in places it is not.

Jamming is similar, but somewhat less sophisticated. Both of them appear to be going on fairly regularly.

The point is nefarious GPS interference is a real thing in terms of military tech. Undoubtedly, there are a lot of these sleeper military techs out there, waiting to be activated in a conflict, including crashing the internet, power, banks, even cars.

Then there's the fact that everyone survived, which is great of course, but it sounds like they were plucked out of the water quite quickly, and obviously had time to eject. Computer glitches?

The first crash involved a MH-60R Sea Hawk helicopter, which “went down in the waters of the South China Sea while conducting routine operations from the aircraft carrier USS Nimitz”, according to a statement from the US Navy’s Pacific Fleet.

All three crew members aboard the helicopter were recovered by search and rescue teams, the statement said.

A half-hour later, according to the Navy, a Boeing F/A-18F Super Hornet fighter jet crashed into the South China Sea, also “while conducting routine operations” from the USS Nimitz.

The Navy’s statement said both crew members aboard ejected themselves from the vessel and were safely recovered.

https://www.straitstimes.com/world/united-states/us-navy-helicopter-jet-crash-into-sout...

The first crash involved an MH-60R Sea Hawk helicopter about 2:45 pm Sunday local time.
A half-hour later, at 3.15pm, a Boeing F/A-18F Super Hornet fighter jet, worth upwards of AU$100 million per unit, crashed into the South China Sea, also “while conducting routine operations” from the USS Nimitz.

Bit of an eye-brow raiser, coming as Trump is meeting with Xi. With science fiction fast becoming reality, one wonders if something nefarious took place - like a controls hack or jamming. That would be a massive war-tech game-changer if you could remotely down a target aircraft.

We are already in an unconventional world war, unconventional because it isn't a cold war in the historic sense. It's a very hot war, it's just not being fought with conventional weapons and tactics -- planes, bombs, boots on the ground, etc.

How often now do you read of a major bank or credit company or health insurer getting their data hacked? I don't even pay attention anymore. The records of hundreds of millions of people stolen in a single hit. What's happening? Is that warfare? I think sometimes, certainly. Airlines get grounded due to 'computer glitches' and such. Entire airlines.

United Airlines flights grounded nationwide for 30 minutes due to 'connectivity issue'

Right now I think we're in a skirmishing phase. What happens if it escalates to all out warfare in this new theater? Electric grids out? Engineered information that causes panic about the food safety or supply?

And here's the thing - for a geographically large country like the US or Australia or China, this new type of war is more disruptive to the average person than a conventional war. Why wage conventional war when you can do more damage with this new, improved approach?

The new normal: https://www.particle6.com/

Hollywood performers union condemns AI-generated 'actress' Tilly Norwood

LOS ANGELES, Sept 30 (Reuters) - The recent debut of an AI-generated "actress" dubbed Tilly Norwood, and its producer's boasts of interest from studio executives, sparked a backlash on Tuesday from the SAG-AFTRA actors union, condemning the replacement of human performers with "synthetics."

I wonder where Hualien rates on the world-scale of most dangerous places to live in terms of natural disasters. It would have to be up there.

I think Japan in general must take the cake. It sounds silly, but I felt a little vulnerable living there with Mt. Fuji overdue for a blowout and the Nankai Trough even more likely to go during our lifetimes. Either one of those events would result in tens of thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands, of deaths. And then there's just their run-of-the mill massively destructive earthquakes and tsunamis.

The neighborhood we were living on was built on landfill, and the wood frame houses were very close together. Landfill structures are the first to collapse in an earthquake, and once a fire got started in that neighborhood, forget it. Wiped out.

Japan is a disaster waiting to happen. People must just take solace in being around so many other people. "Well, if it were that dangerous, there wouldn't be so many people here!"

I wonder where Hualien rates on the world-scale of most dangerous places to live in terms of natural disasters. It would have to be up there.

We will be restarting your server as part of a critical maintenance in order to perform a BIOS update that improves overall system performance and security. This is preventative maintenance. Please note that this will cause temporary disruptions to any sites you have hosted on the above server.

The maintenance process will begin Wednesday, October 1st at 12:00 AM (midnight) PT and will run until 4:00 AM PT. You may experience approximately 30 minutes of intermittent connectivity within the above 4-hour window.

Source

- No Intrinsic Vale: its value is derived from the trust and confidence that people have in the government and the economy that issues it.

- Flexibility: Governments can control the money supply, which can be used to influence economic conditions such as inflation and interest rates.

I have zero fucking trust in big-government, so if that ever catches on it's not gonna be pretty for fiat currencies.

It's a good description - lays it out plain - especially the no intrinsic value bit. Fits well with us being trapped in an unreal reality.

The ultimate currency, imo, is usefulness. Teaching is a useful thing - a lot of things are - building, art/entertainment, farming, mud-brick making, etc - but a lot of things that get paid fiat currency, aren't particularly useful.

Fiat currency creates an environment in which they can flourish, grow inordinately powerful even. That's the unreal world we are now required to live in.

I use duck.ai :

A fiat currency is a type of money that is established by government regulation or law. The term "fiat" comes from the Latin word for "let it be done" or "it shall be," reflecting the fact that fiat money is established by government decree. Unlike commodity-based currencies, fiat money is not backed by a physical commodity such as gold or silver. Instead, its value is derived from the trust and confidence that people have in the government and the economy that issues it.

Key characteristics of fiat currency include:

- Government Issuance: Fiat currencies are issued and regulated by central banks or governments.
- Legal Tender: They are accepted as a medium of exchange within the country that issues them.
- No Intrinsic Value: Unlike commodity-based currencies, fiat money does not have intrinsic value. Its value is based on supply and demand, as well as the stability and credibility of the issuing government.
- Flexibility: Governments can control the money supply, which can be used to influence economic conditions such as inflation and interest rates.

Examples of fiat currencies include the U.S. Dollar, the Euro, the Japanese Yen, and the British Pound. These currencies are widely accepted and used for transactions within their respective countries and internationally.

One of those was Aldous Huxley (1894–1963). He has some observations on the subject of ORG as a nefarious force in this video. Equates population expansion with ORG control. It's exactly what it wants - there's a direct influence dilution for the individual being ravenously fed-off by ORG GODS. Humans are resource feeding the machine, making it stronger.

I've cut into the ORG ref (though the whole interview is great - including the interviewer), then it goes onto ORG GODS devices - TV image projecting tech, drug tech - all of which came to pass, according to script. (Which is potential evidence for game simulation.)

ORG is a real entity that has frightening control over our Truman-lives. It can derail reality - splice in its own fake-self-serving version - then loop it. It's what it does best.

Huxley's other big revelation was that as it happens, a significant majority of people will want it to happen, welcome its control.

https://youtu.be/alasBxZsb40?t=303

Been chatting to folks we know from the area - not surprisingly, they're all heartily sick of typhoons & feeling a sense of dread.

On the positive side, it's not as massive as the last two, a bit further south, & moving pretty quickly. Hopefully, they'll scrape through without too much damage this time.

As always, Pingtung will probably cop the worst of the rain.