Reading

Created
Fri, 27/06/2025 - 23:00


The difficulties of procuring water and power in Karachi, Pakistan, where surging temperatures have strained the city’s resources, and much more.

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DISCUSSED:

Underground Water Tanks, Envy, Climate-Influenced Mood Disorders, A Widow’s Home, Dawn, Urban Heat Islands, Nagging Uncertainty, The Pump Games, Karachi’s Water Mafia, Candlelight Feasts, The Incredible Magic of Air-Conditioning, Load Shedding, A Family Showdown, Monsoon Season, Microwaves, Rheumatoid Arthritis, Bacteria That Thrive in High Temperatures, Overconsumption, A Bucket and a Cup.

Created
Fri, 27/06/2025 - 22:01

This is what it’s all about. The crack of the bat. The crisp summer air. The camaraderie of old friends on a beautiful new day.

These are all experiences I can’t wait to enjoy for myself as soon as I’m done waiting in line for a fourteen-dollar hot dog.

You can feel the triumphant swell of patriotism as we are called to rise for the national anthem. If you listen closely, can you hear our forefathers singing the very same melody as they, too, delighted in our national pastime?

I’m legitimately asking. Can you hear that? I am still in line for that hot dog.

No matter. Because soon after the game begins, another beautiful sound engulfs the park: CLINK! And then: the unmistakable, deafening roar of a stadium packed with delighted fans.

Simultaneously, another sound. The sound of me saying “fuck.”

Because I definitely just missed something super awesome. Because I am now in the ketchup line. Because, for some reason, that is completely separate from the hot-dog line.

Created
Fri, 27/06/2025 - 18:49
Socialismens ABC är en fördjupningspodd från Katalys. Den inledande serien  — där bland andra Sven-Eric Liedman, professor emeritus i idé- och lärdomshistoria, medverkar — fokuserar på Karl Marx liv och idéarv. Få tänkare har haft ett så genomgripande inflytande på världen som Karl Marx. Trots att det har gått över två sekler sedan hans födelse […]
Created
Fri, 27/06/2025 - 12:50
Many thanks to Hannah for her beautiful post on George Eliot’s Silas Marner and the evacuation of moral purpose from the Protestant work ethic. That resonates with Hijacked, my latest book, which traces the history of the work ethic from 17th century Puritan theologians, through the economic theory and policy debates of the 18th and […]
Created
Fri, 27/06/2025 - 11:30
In this paper we study the propagation of demand and supply shocks in a heterogeneous agent New Keynesian model. Calibrating the model to Australia, we explore how inequality in the model affects shock transition, as well as how shocks impact individuals differently across the distribution. Contrary to much of the literature, with a single asset in the model we find a dampening in the response of the real economy to a monetary policy shock, driven by falling consumption in the extremes of the distribution. This dampening is likely due to the high holdings of liquid assets by many households in the model, which allows these households to effectively smooth their consumption, emphasising the need to include further asset classes. In the case of supply shocks, we likewise find a dampened response of the real economy to both a labour disutility shock and a mark-up shock. These results highlight the need to explore models with more realistic asset classes in the Australian context.
Created
Fri, 27/06/2025 - 10:04

Un funcionario de la administración Trump le cuenta a The Grayzone que el Mossad israelí está usando al director de la CIA, John Ratcliffe y al jefe del CENTCOM, general Michael Kurilla, para influenciar a Trump con inteligencia manipulada sobre el programa nuclear iraní. Dentro de la Casa Blanca, los disidentes han sido aislados, preparando el terrenno para una guerra de cambio de régimen que pudiera costar vidas estadounidenses. Un funcionario en la administración del presidente Donald Trump le dijo […]

The post Funcionario de Trump: el director de la CIA “toma dictado” del Mossad sobre Irán first appeared on The Grayzone.

The post Funcionario de Trump: el director de la CIA “toma dictado” del Mossad sobre Irán appeared first on The Grayzone.

Created
Fri, 27/06/2025 - 03:00

Your biggest mistake wasn’t forgetting that we have feelings (and social media accounts) of our own.

Your biggest mistake, in posting “All Disney’s good for these days is a live action slog and a CGI clusterfuck,” was thinking that we’re too cute and wholesome to retaliate.

Keep in mind, Bambi was cute, too. Then we killed Bambi’s mom.

Cold open. Drone footage pushing in on a shiny red racecar. Back from the depths of 2006, in live-action form, is everyone’s favorite rookie, Lightning McQueen, in a teaser trailer for the Cars remake.

But what’s that—something on the bumper?

Nope. That’s real teeth superimposed onto the front of an actual vehicle. You won’t be smiling once you’ve seen the full sets of teeth we’re giving those things. I’m not just talking about molars and canines—I’m talking about cavities, gingivitis, and the whole sensitive toothpaste industry. Yeah, we’ll schedule the cars for some financially ruinous appointments. We’ll make your favorite movie a constant reminder of last year’s crown and next year’s car trouble.

Created
Thu, 26/06/2025 - 23:32

In the annals of national suicide, the present dismantling of the American state will surely rank high. It may not reach the apogee attained by Russia in its final Tsarist days or by Louis XVI in the run-up to the French Revolution, but Great Britain’s Brexit hardly smolders compared to the anti-democratic dumpster fire of the Trump regime. Countless governmental, scientific, educational, medical, and cultural institutions have been targeted for demolition. The problem for the rest of the world is that the behavior of Trumpian America is more than suicidal — it’s murderous. The deaths are mounting. By one accounting, the disruption of overseas food and drug shipments from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), including life-saving HIV,... Read more

Created
Thu, 26/06/2025 - 23:00

Remember the summertime barbecues of childhood? Sunshine, sprinklers, the slurred speech of day-drunk parents? When, as kids, we’d eat potato chips and, alternately, drink lemonade? Delicious, but so inefficient. With a chip in one hand and a lemonade in the other, how did we even eat a hot dog, wave a little American flag, or blow a few fingers off in an unfortunate fireworks accident?

Enter the Utz Lemonade Potato Chip. It’s a summertime limited edition that’s banking on our nostalgia for summers past and the universal desire to save time by combining salty, crunchy snacks with sweet, sour liquids.

Jeff and I (Talia) are coworkers, so, like consolidating every flavor category into one chip, snacking together in the breakroom is a feat of efficiency: We socialize and avoid starvation while earning wages. Triple play!

I like these Utz Lemonade Potato Chips—they’re tangy, like salt and vinegar chips, but also somehow sunny, like the sun—so over lunch with a few colleagues, I lure Jeff into my sweet lemon chip cult.