Reading

Back in the early 2000s I remember reading an interview with Ted Turner, who founded CNN and later sold it. He wasn’t happy with how it was being run so the reporter asked him why he didn’t buy it back.

He explained that he had only a few billion dollars, which meant he wasn’t “in the game” anymore. People mocked him for it, since to a normal person that’s more money than they could ever use, but he was right. He had sold, and now he couldn’t re-buy; prices for key assets like CNN had gone up.

Three little words “We all make mistakes,” James Fallows begins his newsletter. “People, organizations, countries. The best we can do is admit and face them. And hope that by learning from where we erred, we’ll avoid greater damage in the future.” Yet half the country has internalized what Donald Trump mentor Roy Cohn taught him: Never admit mistakes. Always attack your accuser. Win no matter what. Gloat when you do. “Roy was a master of situational immorality,” author Sam Roberts said. We view Donald Trump as the author of the Republicans’ descent into amorality. But often the slide is long before the edge of the cliff. Even while letting out a Wilhelm Scream, we will not admit to falling. Only losers admit mistakes. The powerful never do. It has become reflex. Fallows examines how news outlets have failed to arrest their slide into scandal mongering. The press has failed to confront past mistakes and thus failed to correct them.

Class returns to Big Finish this month with Secret Diary of a Rhodian Prince. BlogtorWho spoke with writer Blair Mowat and actors Greg Austin and Jordan Renzo about the new release. Big Finish brings us another audio release for the Doctor Who spin-off Class, the young adult drama created by Patrick Ness about four human teenagers, […]

The post INTERVIEW: Class is in! Blair Mowat returns to Coal Hill for ‘Secret Diary of a Rhodian Prince’ appeared first on Blogtor Who.

Help keep this work possible by subscribing to my weekly newsletter, Sparky’s List! You can get it in your inbox or read it on Patreon, the content is the same either way.

Vasectomy: The week before surgery

• Avoid aspirin products for a minimum of forty-eight hours prior to your procedure.
• Make sure you talk to your doctor about any other medications you may be taking.
• If you wish, you can obtain a prescription for a mild oral anti-anxiety medication before the procedure.

Birth: The nine months before labor

• Avoid all medicines and enjoyable foods.
• Make sure you listen to the copious amounts of unasked-for advice and steel yourself from the dirty looks you will get in line at the coffee shop. Feel guilty every time you eat a hamburger instead of poached salmon. Also, every time you eat salmon, too, because of the mercury.
• If you wish, you can google things that are making you anxious, which will, of course, at minimum, treble your feelings of anxiety. Also, being anxious is bad for the baby.

Vasectomy: The day of surgery

Elliott Sober, professor of philosophy at the University of Wisconsin, is the winner of the first Philosophy in Biology and Medicine (PhilInBioMed) Award. The award, which will be given annually, recognizes “outstanding contributions to the advancement of biology or medicine through the use of philosophical and theoretical tools”. It is awarded by PhilInBioMed (previously), an interdisciplinary institute located at the University of Bordeaux, France, and its associated national and international network of interdisciplinary teams. The winner receives €5,000 and delivers a lecture at a ceremony at the University of Bordeaux. For further details visit the PhilInBioMed site.

FairFuel UK is leading the charge against the Labour mayor's expansion of the Ultra Low Emissions Zone - which will hit the most polluting vehicles including trucks and lorries

To survive, the broadcaster's governance needs to be completely overhauled, writes former BBC producer and journalist Patrick Howse

Brian Latham looks at the very different attitudes to migration in Southern Africa compared to the UK

Mark Temnycky shows how the greatest victims of Russian disinformation are Russians themselves

Pressure on Türkiye continues as US pushes F-16 deal that would see Ankara drop opposition to Sweden NATO bid, which became a long shot after Quran burning in Stockholm. Greece says it will expand its waters around Crete, enraging Türkiye.

An archaeologist, a therapist and doomsday preppers advise an anxious filmmaker on how to cope with the end of the world

- by Aeon Video

Watch at Aeon

Duma Speaker warns of powerful retaliation for weapons supplies to Kiev for attacks on Russia.

Top House Democrats have shown a willingness to work with the Freedom Caucus to block progressive reforms.

The post Reps. Adam Schiff and Jim Jordan Killed Mass Surveillance Reform in 2020. Will They Do It Again? appeared first on The Intercept.

The innovative strategies used to vaccinate Juárez residents from across the Southern border offers a blueprint for how borderland cities can manage public health crises.

The brewer and the yeast: why brewing beer sheds light on the philosophical debate about the boundaries of human agency

- by Andrei A Buckareff

Read at Psyche

‘Rapid-onset gender dysphoria’ is a popular weapon in the anti-trans arsenal. It is nothing but unscientific bunk

- by Quinnehtukqut McLamore

Read at Aeon

The weekly report on new and revised entries at online philosophy resources and new reviews of philosophy books, including a recently introduced section featuring open-access reviews from academic philosophy journals… New: Alexander von Humboldt by Dalia Nassar. Aesthetic Experience by Antonia Peacocke. Stoicism by Marion Durand, Simon Shogry, and Dirk Baltzly. Revised: Revolution by Allen Buchanan and Alexander Motchoulski. Determinables and Determinates by Jessica Wilson. Colonialism by Margaret Kohn and Kavita Reddy. Donald Cary Williams by Keith Campbell, James Franklin, and Douglas Ehring. IEP      Substance by Ralph Weir.     Pseudoscience and the Determination Problem by Massimo Pigliucci. NDPR           Analytical Essay on the Faculties of the Soul by Charles Bonnet is reviewed by John H. Zammito. Heidegger and the Problem of Phenomena by Fredrik Westerlund is reviewed by Jussi Backman. Epistemic Explanations: A Theory or Telic Normativity, and What it Explains by Ernest Sosa is reviewed by John Greco. Socrates on Self-Improvement: Knowledge, Virtue, and Happiness by Nicholas D. Smith is reviewed by Nicholas R. Baima.

The real problem confronting European manufacturing is not the threat of factory closures. It is that, compared to the United States and China, Europe has fallen far behind in the race to accumulate, and benefit from, the cloud capital that represents the future of profit in industries like electric cars and green energy. ATHENS – […]

The post Is Europe Deindustrialising? – Project Syndicate appeared first on Yanis Varoufakis.

The rupture of social bonds and loss of community, caused by the decades-long assault on the poor and working class and the ravages of the pandemic, have resulted in a dangerous social isolation.

The post Chris Hedges: The Plague of Social Isolation appeared first on scheerpost.com.

Proverbs for introverts.

Plenty of people like to claim "1984" - but who deserves it?

The upcoming debt ceiling fight has an unusual feature: Republican opposition to military pork, or at least the Ukraine variety.