Jens Wiëchers
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j.wieche.rs
Jens Wiëchers
@j.wieche.rs
310 followers 250 following 400 posts
📨j@wch.rs
🗣️he/they
💼Herding Shibes
🧑‍💻information security, data science
📚int'l relations, IHL/LOAC, statistics
❤️ISO 8601 💜ISO 216 💛ISO 3166-1
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j.wieche.rs
Also, the (better) love interest dropping some history on the Persian Room cocktail room in the Plaza, which was a premiere night club in New York for decades and had substantial cultural (and thus now historic) significance.
A brightly colored mid-20th-century illustration of the remodeled Persian Room at the Hotel Plaza, showing a lively supper-club scene. Couples dine, converse, smoke, and dance under a high gold proscenium framing a mural and a busy bar staffed by two bartenders. Men wear suits and tuxedos; women wear gowns in jewel tones. The image promotes Seagram’s whiskey, with product bottles and branded text filling the lower half of the advertisement. A 1934 black-and-white fashion photograph showing a woman posing inside the original Persian Room at The Plaza. She stands beside a curved banquette and lacquered table, wearing a floor-length paisley lamé gown with a short fur-trimmed jacket and a turban-style headpiece. Behind her, etched glass panels with stylized foliage and bird motifs frame the Art Deco interior. A cocktail glass and folded napkin rest on the table, emphasizing the supper-club setting. A crowded mid-century nightclub photograph of Hildegarde seated at a grand piano while performing in the remodeled Persian Room at The Plaza. She faces the audience, singing with expressive posture, her floral-patterned gown visible against the polished piano. The audience sits at small tables clustered close to the stage, many leaning forward, talking, or watching attentively. Waitstaff and musicians are visible in the background, framed by tall Art Deco wall panels and softly glowing sconces. A 1934 black-and-white interior photograph of the western side of the original Persian Room at The Plaza, showing the long 27-foot bar running beneath tall, reflective columns. Round dining tables arranged with cloths and neatly set plates fill the foreground near the edge of the dance floor. Three of the Louis Catalano–executed Palmedo murals wrap the walls with stylized, flowing scenes. The room’s ceiling curves overhead, contributing to the Art Deco elegance of the newly opened space.
November 16, 2025 at 12:02 PM
j.wieche.rs
This is probably what it will more usually look like.¹
*ducks and covers*

1 Okay, no, the trousers, shoes and shirt are terrible and from a time when I weighed ~40kg more (aka: 6 months ago :s)
June 27, 2025 at 10:14 AM
j.wieche.rs
It's really hard to get even a well-tailored suit to look "good" on me,¹ but this (kinda²) works? 🤔
A man with shoulder-length brown hair and glasses stands in a tailor shop during the second fitting of a tan-coloured suit. He is wearing the suit jacket and trousers over a black shirt, with black socks and no shoes. He is smiling, standing on a grey carpeted floor. Behind him are bolts of fabric draped on the wall and a wooden counter partially covered with blue velvet, indicating the workspace of the tailor. The setting is lit evenly, with visible wooden ceiling beams and a minimalist interior.
June 27, 2025 at 10:14 AM
j.wieche.rs
Two memes I felt compelled to make earlier today.

Presented without further comment. 🤷
Four-panel coloured caricature comic featuring Benjamin Netanyahu and Donald Trump in a bedroom. Panel 1: Netanyahu, gesturing animatedly toward a sceptical Trump in a pink sleeveless dress, says "I have advised the United States to explore a number of regime changes." Panel 2: close-up of Trump's frowning face, caption "Did it work for any of them?" Panel 3: Trump leans toward a smirking Netanyahu who answers "No. It never does. I mean I help delude you people somehow into thinking it might, but it never does." Panel 4: close-up of Netanyahu grinning and adding "But... it might work for us, this time." Wide aerial view of an endless military convoy occupying every lane of a desert highway. Olive-drab tanks, armoured personnel carriers and Humvees line up in perfect columns that vanish into the horizon, while attack helicopters, tilt-rotor aircraft and fighter jets roar overhead in tight formation. Bold white meme text in block capitals frames the image: top line reads “JUST ONE MORE REGIME CHANGE IN THE MIDDLE EAST, BRO”, bottom line reads “PROMISE, BRO, THIS TIME IT WILL WORK”. The gargantuan force satirises repeated interventionist ambitions.
June 16, 2025 at 10:57 PM
j.wieche.rs
"Issues of neutrality persist"

Yeah, they aren't facilitation of terrorism, tho. They're "we don't like your text books" and "individual staff may say shitty things"
April 30, 2025 at 8:18 AM
j.wieche.rs
My father just passed away.
An older man sits at a cluttered office desk, using a vintage desktop computer with the case open. The room is packed with office supplies, stacks of papers, and shelves. The image is black and white. An elderly man stands on a balcony overlooking the Eiffel Tower in Paris. He is dressed warmly in a beanie, gloves, and a padded vest, smiling gently at the camera. The photo is black and white and has a relaxed, contemplative tone.
April 30, 2025 at 2:28 AM
j.wieche.rs
I feel like the very clear two word answer to this should be "posse comitatus"?

www.whitehouse.gov/presidential...
Section 4 of Trump's EO STRENGTHENING AND UNLEASHING AMERICA’S LAW ENFORCEMENT TO PURSUE CRIMINALS AND PROTECT INNOCENT Citizens from April 28th 2025. Sec. 4. Using National Security Assets for Law and Order. (a) Within 90 days of the date of this order, the Attorney General and the Secretary of Defense, in consultation with the Secretary of Homeland Security and the heads of agencies as appropriate, shall increase the provision of excess military and national security assets in local jurisdictions to assist State and local law enforcement. (b) Within 90 days of the date of this order, the Secretary of Defense, in coordination with the Attorney General, shall determine how military and national security assets, training, non-lethal capabilities, and personnel can most effectively be utilized to prevent crime.
April 28, 2025 at 11:06 PM
j.wieche.rs
I mean, yeah, sure, Noah. You also shared totally made up numbers from an activist and told trans people many of them were "fake", but sure, whatever let's you sleep at night.
April 28, 2025 at 10:43 PM
j.wieche.rs
Also, Noah "I quote-tweeted them with 'maybe' — implying he hadn't shared anything on the topic previously" Smith, quoting ludicrous made up numbers and insulting people without any evidence.

I mean, tbf, he's done the same with the Pro-Palestine movement, of course, but 🤬🤷😮‍💨
April 28, 2025 at 10:41 PM
j.wieche.rs
A match made in idiot pundit hell.
An interaction on X, formerly Twitter, between Noah Smith and Brianna Wu. Brianna reassures Noah that he is in no way transphobic after repeatedly making ambiguous statements and now reporting that, because of one such statement, he was kicked out of a group for San Francisco Rabbit Fanciers.
April 28, 2025 at 10:27 PM
j.wieche.rs
The video.
You'll see what I mean, both in talent selection, production value, scripting and especially cadence, etc.

I highly doubt it will work for the Hindutva, of course, for both structural as well as racist reasons, but it's striking in how it highlights both spread of propaganda methods...
April 24, 2025 at 3:18 PM
j.wieche.rs
It's rather interesting to see the Israeli nationalist PR playbook copied this closely by the Hindutva movement.

The Hindutva have done this before, but this is a particularly striking example based on "lessons learned" and the recent post October 2023 Israeli Hasbara playbook.
Post on X (formerly Twitter) by @HinduOnCampus: 22nd April 2025 marked the deadly day for Hindus around the world in over a decade. Today, American and British Hindu youth are calling on the world leaders to stand with Hindus, condemn anti-Hindu violence and stand with India — the world largest democracy, in the face against Islamist terrorism. TAG those in this video whom have NOT spoken up for Hindus yet. 🕉️🇮🇳 #hinduphobia #pahalgam❤️ #KashmirIsIndia
April 24, 2025 at 3:13 PM
j.wieche.rs
Ah yes. There it is.

No, you couldn't. And even if you could, in good faith, do so, explaining operational constraints and structural reasons doesn't relativise. It explains. *smh*

German radicalisation/extremism and MENA studies is so f'ed.
April 15, 2025 at 10:21 AM
j.wieche.rs
Last one.
April 13, 2025 at 7:25 PM
j.wieche.rs
What I wrote:
x.com/jwiechers/st...

I admit, his original post does kinda suspect bad faith to me, but still... trying to think of a way to answer usefully for other people. I just find it kinda ludicrous to say "only way"
April 13, 2025 at 7:25 PM
j.wieche.rs
I genuinely hate how easy it is to troll me. I've been sort of mentally gridlocked on this tweet for more than 24 hours now.

The person is in ME/extremism research at University of Heidelberg, so I'm genuinely trying to see their point.

However, this is either trivially true or dangerous nonsense.
Hamas can only be understood through a transnational framing.
April 13, 2025 at 6:58 PM
j.wieche.rs
It says a lot about society that the New York Times just casually finishes a paragraph like that and doesn't even deign to elaborate. They're like "yeah, that's just a thing that happens to normal people there, like cardiovascular disease or neoplasms".

www.nytimes.com/2025/04/06/w...
Excerpt from linked article. "Red Crescent jobs have been something of a family tradition: his father is a Red Crescent manager; his brother Mohammed, 25, also worked for the humanitarian agency until he was killed in a drone strike in May 2024."
April 7, 2025 at 12:57 PM
j.wieche.rs
we've heard
your bluster
all the way
to Big Ben

we have no lobby
no trade reps
no factories
only krill
and guano
so much
krill and
guano

we did not
mean to
win
so bigly
at trade
by merely
existing

forgive us
for being
too cool
for your
economy
April 3, 2025 at 8:32 PM
j.wieche.rs
And to prove that it doesn't have to be: I felt quite okay (not to say rather flattered) with its comparison in my case (Alan Turing). 🤷🏼‍♂️
March 28, 2025 at 5:41 PM
j.wieche.rs
This is incredible.

www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
An infographic showing various prosocial 'first aid' methods mice explore or engage in when finding an unconscious mouse. These include grooming, tongue biting, and tongue pulling.
March 26, 2025 at 12:00 AM
j.wieche.rs
Inspired by:
As posted here: x.com/UK_Daniel_Ca...
March 25, 2025 at 2:15 AM
j.wieche.rs
Renaming all my Signal Chats Involving Friends.
March 25, 2025 at 2:13 AM
j.wieche.rs
POV: You lose the guy who wrote the 2002 memos justifying extraordinary rendition and torture on the treatment of aliens.
A screenshot of the linked article with an arrow and highlighter marking of the first author's name: John Yoo.
March 23, 2025 at 7:17 PM
j.wieche.rs
FINALLY!

REVENGE!
breakingdefense.com/2025/03/boei...
A Boeing X-32, a competitor to the plane that would become the F35. Pareidolia makes it seem as if the large chin-mounted air intake of the plane was a mouth and the airplane was laughing.
March 21, 2025 at 5:35 PM
j.wieche.rs
I mean, sure, you could put it that way.

I actually respect Shor, but quality of political analyses in this year & age is just fascinating.

As someone who has pointed to this development since the late 2000s, & more so after 2013-6, I just feel tired by this point
www.nytimes.com/2025/03/18/o...
Excerpt from linked article. "So I think there's some kind of globalized right-wing phenomena happening." highlighted.
March 18, 2025 at 1:24 PM