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More than 90 percent of coastal wetlands have been altered or destroyed. What’s next?

The post A Slow-Moving Disaster in California appeared first on Nautilus.

New Doctor Who 60th-anniversary images spotlight David Tennant's Fourteenth Doctor, Catherine Tate's Donna Noble, Beep the Meep, and more.

Sean Casten, D-Il., lays it all out in this twitter thread: It’s hard to explain how dysfunctional the @HouseGOP is, and the degree to which their own internal divisions are superseding every normal function of government. But I’m going to try with a short story about this week in the house. Thread:  1. First: We operate on a 9/30 fiscal year but the (McCarthy) led house couldn’t agree on how to fund prior to. They tried to just say “cut everything by 30%”. That didn’t pass. So they said “let’s just fund at current levels for 45 days”. That cost McCarthy his job.  2. For context, when Dems had the majority we got all our appropriations done by August 1 so the Senate could finalize and POTUS could sign. @HouseGOP still hasn’t done that.  @HouseGOP 3. Also, you may recall this summer the @HouseGOP threatened to default on US debt unless we agreed to future spending rules. A deal was struck that passed the House and was signed into law to do so. The 30% cut was not consistent with that law. (AKA, it was illegal)  @HouseGOP 4.

The most complete maps we have of the ocean floor lag far behind the maps we have of the moon.

The post Why Is It So Difficult to Map the Ocean?  appeared first on Nautilus.

He will do it regardless. There is no doubt.

NOTE: If you need context, here’s the Jardiance jingle. We apologize in advance.

“I have type 2 diabetes, but I manage it well”

Okay, we set the stage. This but that. Regret, uncertainty, loss. I’m drawn in. I want to know more about this person taking stock of her life. (Let’s call her Joanne.) But the opening words teeter awkwardly off the leading edge of the melody line, and improper stress is placed on the first syllable of “type 2.” No one says TYPE two. Unforgivable.

This Remembrance Day, the great juggernaut of war is crushing thousands. In Gaza and the Ukraine. In that context, we may reflect today on Australia’s role in the Great War. In that period, then, as now, Australia was devoted to the twin dogmas of almighty deterrence and unwavering alliance. Did they serve us well? Then, Continue reading »

“Jewish people exterminating men, women and children in a concentration camp is _______.” How do you finish a sentence like that? The words should fall like acid into your ear drums. It should be an impossible sentence. And yet, not so. We are witnessing it today in Gaza – the world’s largest open-air prison, home Continue reading »

We tramped along streets of rubble and twisted girders of metal in Gaza – these had been a home, a school and even a hospital. From one heap of rubble, a sobbing Granny ran up to me – it was winter and bitterly cold. She was camped in a hollow in the bombed out ruin Continue reading »

Green shoots in renewable energy; Optus and the Reserve Bank in a contest to slow the Australian economy; and the Trumpisation of Australian politics. Read on for the weekly roundup of links to articles, podcasts, reports and other media on current economic and political issues. Australia’s re-awakening renewable energy industry A pep talk from the Continue reading »

In a telephone conversation between Kissinger and Nixon following the 1973 military coup d’état in Chile, the President asked if “our hand” showed in the overthrow and death of the democratically elected President Allende. Kissinger explained that “we didn’t do it”, in terms of direct participation in the military actions. “I mean we helped them”, Continue reading »

A new report from the ADL claims that anti-Semitic incidents across the US have skyrocketed by more than 400%. But as Alan Macleod reveals, the numbers do not add up unless one equates opposition to Israel's bombardment of Gaza with hatred of Jews.

The post ADL Data on Rise of Anti-Semitic Incidents Doesn’t Add Up appeared first on MintPress News.

NSO Group has pushed to be taken off a U.S. blacklist since 2021. Now, citing the threat of Hamas, it’s trying to cozy up to the Americans.

The post Israeli Spyware Firm NSO Demands “Urgent” Meeting With Blinken Amid Gaza War Lobbying Effort appeared first on The Intercept.

“I am so tired of these psychos” Maybe Americans are getting a clue. Maybe they are waking up, if not in the way wingnuts and QAnons think they should. The results of the last few elections suggest that, as Jamelle Bouie writes, the right’s culture war shtick — from “parental rights” to book bans to “critical race theory” to transgender kids and ad nauseum freakouts over drag shows — has finally worn thin (New York Times): If the results of Tuesday’s elections in Virginia, Kentucky and Ohio tell us anything, however, it’s that this post-Roe form of culture warring is an abject failure, an approach that repels and alienates voters far more than it appeals to or persuades them. It certainly turned off voters to Moms for Liberty. They got their asses handed to them in school board races in Iowa on Tuesday.

United Auto Workers President Shawn Fain discusses wins and eyes expansion to nonunion automakers.

The post Shawn Fain on How the UAW Whipped the Big Three appeared first on The Intercept.

One useful way to think about Silicon Valley ideologies is through looking at cryptocurrency. Payment systems like Paypal were as much a part of the Silicon Valley story as platforms like Facebook. They have always been entangled with political aspirations. According to Peter Thiel, Neal Stephenson’s Cryptonomicon was required reading for Paypal’s leaders. They wanted […]

To help celebrate our twenty-fifth year of being on the information superhighway, we have reached out to some of our favorite former columnists for check-ins and updates. Today’s columnist, Mark Peters, was one of the winners of our 2013 Column Contest. In Best Joke Ever, he examined perfect jokes by masters of the form. We’re happy to welcome Mark back to the site with a brand-new installment.

“I make grave mistakes all the time. Everything seems to work out.” — Thor

For a genre of movies that evolved from what were once called long-underwear characters, superhero films haven’t been all that funny. The Spider-Verse movies are exceptions—and visually mind-sploding. Michael Keaton in Birdman is a dark comedy of the gods. Guardians of the Galaxy is a hoot.

Is that straight-talk enough? Joe Biden is running for president of the United States. Donald Trump is running for dictator of the former United States. That is the 2024 presidential contest in a nutshell (until someone comes up with something blunter). There is not enough bronzer in the world to conceal the pasty, combed-over remnant of a democratic republic this country will be in 2025 should enough Americans not come to their senses and dump Trump and his Christian-nationalist authoritarian cult. One thing Trump and his imitators know: repetition works. Say anything enough times and people will begin to believe it. Social proof. The left thinks facts speak for themselves and need no marketing. They’re wrong. Ask the people peddling Medicare advantage plans or Skyrizi. The press sells more soap (drugs that may be “right for you,” these days) promoting a close horse race than on covering a democracy’s slow, public descent into authoritarianism. It’s a ratings downer. Martin Niemöller is a downer. Until Trump’s goons come for your favorite news anchor. There are a few voices shouting warnings on the fringes.

"It seems Israel's latest war on Gaza has been seen as an opportunity to clean up political content on the internet and reassert informational dominance. Ultimately, it will not work. As book burners of the past found, when you suppress an idea, you discredit your own arguments against it." -- Lowkey

The post YouTube’s Connections to Pro-Israel Lobby Behind Removal of Lowkey’s Infamous Song: ‘Terrorist’ appeared first on MintPress News.