The Channel of Distance, 43rd Day of Autumn, 526 M.E. (Electra): War. War never changes. In Ukraine, the war grinds on, with Russian attacks severely limiting Ukrainian grain exports in the Black Sea. Two Bulgarian ships were also struck by Russian drones in the Black Sea last week, and Ukraine blew up a Russian oil tanker near the Black Sea resort of Sochi. Germany has promised Ukraine another €1B+ for weapons, while the U.S. is apparently limiting intelligence sharing with the Ukraine military, much to the benefit of Russia. 

Meanwhile, Russian incursion into the Donbas region continues, albeit at a slower rate. The progress has slowed considerably, down from 11.69 sq km/day in 2025 to an average rate of 1.73 sq km/day this year. Analysts have calculated that dead, wounded, missing, or captured Russian troops amount to 627 casualties for each square kilometer of land captured this year. Putin is obviously willing to keep feeding Russian lives into the meat grinder of his war to further his geopolitical goals and avoid losing face in the conflict. 

The Stable Genius claims that Zelensky has missed multiple opportunities to "made a deal" and end the war, implying that the war's continuation is the fault of stubborn Ukrainian leadership, not Russian aggression. For Ukraine, "making a deal" to end the war means surrendering to an armed invasion and giving up sovereign territory. The Stable Genius has also claimed that high fuel prices in the U.S. are the fault of Ukraine for striking Russian oil refineries, even though Russian fuel sales were already embargoed and therefore not affecting prices, and the actual reason for the spike in fuel prices is the Stable Genius's war in Iran and the closing of the Strait of Hormuz.   

War. Lithuania is trying to change its constitution to allow NATO nuclear weapons to be stationed in the country. Finland decided to do likewise a few years ago. The breakdown of global arms-control agreements, the expiration of the New START Treaty, and rising tensions among nuclear-armed states have led the Bulletin of Concerned Scientists' to reset the Doomsday Clock to 85 seconds before midnight, the closest it has ever been to global-catastrophe midnight in its history. 

The clock keepers are also concerned about insufficient global action on climate change, increasing greenhouse-gas emissions, and policies reversing renewable energy progress. They're worried about the unguided expansion of artificial intelligence, including the potential for its integration into military command-and-control systems, biological threats, and disinformation ("information armageddon").

Earlier this year, February or mid-March, I took my car in to the dealership for a laundry list of much-needed maintenance. Among other things, they told be that the tire-pressure indicator needed to be replaced, but due to the time it would take to do that we decided to let it slide, although that meant the indicator light on my dashboard would continually be on. 

"Just keep an eye on your tires and put in some air if they ever look slack," they advised me. Which is what I did, driving to Knoxville, Tennessee and back with the low-tire-pressure light on. I added air to the tires a couple of times this year, but the warning light still stayed on all through Midsommar and the Dog Days and into these cooler early Autumn days. 

Today, a front tire was noticeably low (hell, it was practically flat), so I went to a gas station and topped off the pressure. While I was at it and just to be safe, I made sure every other tire was also up to the recommended 35 psi. Pulling out of the station, the warning light turned off for the first time in almost a year. The indicator was working after all. Was the dealer wrong or did it miraculously spring back to life? If the warning lights back up, would that mean my tire pressure was low or that the indicator had died again? And how would I know?

Questions, questions, questions flooding into the mind of the concerned Retired Old Man.