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  • Kim Philby, on the record
    wtgW wtg

    I think the video that's in the BBC story is only watchable in the UK. Or via VPN for us non-Brits.

    On 30 July 1963, Kim Philby's defection from MI6 to the Soviet Union was made public. In 2016, the BBC broadcast previously unseen footage of his lecture to Stasi operatives in which he revealed the secrets behind his treachery.

    "Almost all my life I have spent trying to avoid publicity of any kind," says Kim Philby in a 1981 video unearthed by the BBC from the archives of East Germany's spy service. It's something of an understatement. Philby was a British double agent whose defection to the Soviet Union was made public on 30 July 1963. In the video, he is seen giving a seminar to Stasi operatives on how to succeed at espionage.

    As the BBC's former security correspondent Gordon Corera explained in his 2016 report on the previously unseen footage, "Philby offers a masterclass in betrayal, from his recruitment by Soviet spies after Cambridge to his joining Britain's secret service MI6, whose secrets he stole." It is the only known video in which the leading member of the so-called Cambridge Five KGB spy ring discusses his betrayal – a rare recording that is revealing on many levels.

    WATCH: 'My advice to you is to tell all your agents that they are never to confess'

    "I'm looking back on my career in the enemy camp, this 30-year career in the enemy camp," he says in the grainy video, standing behind a lectern in thick-rimmed glasses and a suit and tie. "Every evening, I left the office with a big briefcase full of reports which I had written myself, full of files taken out of the actual archives. I used to hand them to my contact in the evening. Next morning I'd get the file back, the contents having been photographed, and take them back early in the morning and put the files back in their place. That I did regularly, year in, year out."

    https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20260724-the-british-double-agent-who-defected-to-russia-and-taught-enemy-spies

    Off Key - General Discussion

  • The Finnish sand battery
    wtgW wtg

    A small Finnish town has turned to the world’s largest commercial sand battery to tackle a major hurdle in the energy transition: intermittency.

    The giant sand battery can cover almost one month of the town’s heating demands in the summer and as much as one week in the winter.

    “Hopefully a big portion of those storages could be sand battery-type of storages where we don’t need rare earth materials,” Tommi Eronen, CEO of Polar Night Energy, told CNBC.

    https://www.cnbc.com/2026/07/25/finland-sand-battery-renewable-energy-storage.html

    Off Key - General Discussion

  • Laughter is the best medicine
    wtgW wtg

    alt text

    Off Key - General Discussion

  • Bloomscrolling--what's in bloom where you are?
    wtgW wtg

    Lovely.

    Off Key - General Discussion

  • 100 days to midterms
    wtgW wtg

    Swing States Remain Underwater

    The most politically significant story lies in the states that regularly decide national elections.

    Trump is now underwater in every major battleground state:

    Arizona: -11

    Georgia: -21

    Nevada: -16

    North Carolina: -13

    Pennsylvania: -12

    Wisconsin: -14

    Florida: -9

    Ohio: -8

    Several of those states have crossed important thresholds since Trump took office. Florida has moved from +9 to -9. Ohio has fallen from +8 to -8. Nevada has shifted from an even 0 to -16, while North Carolina has gone from 0 to -13.

    The deficits are not insurmountable, but they underscore a consistent pattern heading into the midterms: Trump’s standing remains weakest in the states likely to play the biggest role in determining control of Congress.

    Where Approval Has Fallen The Most

    Every state in the tracker shows a lower net approval rating than it did on January 20, 2025.

    The biggest declines have often occurred in states where Trump initially enjoyed some of his strongest support.

    Among the largest drops:

    Kentucky: +23 to -1 (down 24 points)

    Wyoming: +47 to +26 (down 21 points)

    Florida: +9 to -9 (down 18 points)

    Idaho: +34 to +14 (down 20 points)

    West Virginia: +35 to +18 (down 17 points)

    Tennessee: +25 to +8 (down 17 points)

    Texas: +6 to -10 (down 16 points)

    Nevada: 0 to -16 (down 16 points)

    Georgia: -4 to -21 (down 17 points)

    Ohio: +8 to -8 (down 16 points)

    The pattern is striking because the largest shifts are not concentrated only in Democratic states. Many have occurred in places where Trump started his second term with a substantial cushion.

    https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/other/map-shows-trump-s-approval-rating-in-every-state-100-days-before-midterms/ar-AA28HoJH?ocid=hpmsn&cvid=6a6673bf041640d7a00ddb52148e77f6&ei=7

    Off Key - General Discussion

  • Spent oyster shells
    wtgW wtg

    What once looked like waste has become a powerful tool for restoring marine life along Florida’s Gulf Coast. Between 2007 and 2024, the state returned more than 500,000 tons of recycled oyster and clam shells to the Gulf of Mexico as part of a long-term effort to rebuild damaged oyster reefs and coastal habitats. Rather than coming straight from the ocean, the shells were collected from seafood restaurants and processing plants.

    Instead of ending up in landfills, the shells were placed in areas where natural oyster reefs had steadily disappeared over the years. At first, the project drew criticism, with some questioning whether it amounted to dumping waste into the ocean. In its early stages, there was little visible evidence that it was working, and even researchers were uncertain whether the effort would succeed. But beneath the surface, critical ecological processes had already begun.

    https://en.as.com/latest_news/the-us-dumped-500000-tons-of-oyster-shells-back-into-the-ocean-in-2007-nearly-two-decades-later-they-have-created-a-thriving-habitat-for-thousands-of-marine-species-f202607-n/

    Off Key - General Discussion

  • It's so hot in Japan, they invented a new name for it
    wtgW wtg

    Kokushobi

    https://www.yahoo.com/news/weather-news/articles/hot-japan-invented-name-161814134.html

    Off Key - General Discussion

  • Word association thread
    wtgW wtg

    assignation

    Off Key - General Discussion

  • Probably bots and spammers
    wtgW wtg

    @Jodi said:

    Klaus has done some housekeeping on the other forum because of that.

    Yea, they've had hundreds and hundreds of bogus accounts for years.

    When this was just the backup site the registration didn't require admin approval and we had a zillion spam accounts, too. I deleted them when we moved over here as the permanent WTF, and @axtremus changed registration to require approval.

    The only hiccup that I'm aware of is that I rejected @marchant twice, not realizing that it was Ballyhoo with a new name. 😊

    Off Key - General Discussion

  • Probably bots and spammers
    wtgW wtg

    Been getting very regular requests for new member registrations. Used to be they were pretty rare but recently they are more regular, probably averaging five or six a week. About a month ago there were 50 or more that came in within a couple of hours. I was like WTF? 😁

    Anyway, hopefully I haven't deep sixed any real new members, or old members returning under weird aliases!

    Off Key - General Discussion

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