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Created
Wed, 18/01/2023 - 05:00

Nominally a one-player game, Common App quickly becomes a family endeavor involving one or all parents and unhelpful commentary from siblings, aunts, uncles, work colleagues, and, especially, in-laws. Affluent families may also hire a professional consultant who is, unfortunately, equally unhelpful.

Common Application centers around character creation and world-building. The key player, a college-bound high school senior, is encouraged to create a character based on themself but augmented with multisyllabic adjectives. For example, a stint as a hall monitor in middle school became their “periodic internship in hyperlocal law enforcement with attention to dilatory intent.”

Created
Wed, 18/01/2023 - 04:58
Japan’s Ambassador to Australia, HE Shingo Yamagami, enjoys his media profile. He appears frequently on Sky News, advises Australia publicly on how it should manage its official relations with China, and describes himself as a former spymaster. Maybe the Ambassador aspires to be a legend in his own lunchtime. In the olden days, diplomatic cadets Continue reading »
Created
Wed, 18/01/2023 - 04:56
“When a soldier dies, the one thing we need to be able to do is to look their widow in the eye and say, “Your husband didn’t die in vain”. If that is bullshit and their husband died for nothing, then that is an outrage.” Former military lawyer David McBride disclosed classified documents to the Continue reading »
Created
Wed, 18/01/2023 - 04:55
Perceptions aren’t everything but they can be very powerful. On the face of it, the United Arab Emirates’ (UAE) appointment of an oil company chief as the next President for the UNCOP28 is not a good look. That’s putting it mildly! There has, in fact, been much colourful criticism. “This appointment goes beyond putting the Continue reading »
Created
Wed, 18/01/2023 - 04:54
Although netball is highly popular among Australian girls, it also has a history of failing to retain and protect First Nations players. Few First Nations participants advance beyond the grassroots, with only three playing on national teams since the first international match against New Zealand in 1938: Walbunga and Bidigal woman Marcia Ella-Duncan (1986-87); Dunghutti Continue reading »
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Wed, 18/01/2023 - 04:50
Across the Indo-Pacific, as well as in the escalating Ukraine War, humanity stands an accident or miscalculation away from the calamity of nuclear war. “Japan in December adopted a set of three security and defence strategy documents that break from its exclusively self-defence-only stance. Under the new strategies, Japan vows to build up its counterstrike Continue reading »
Created
Wed, 18/01/2023 - 04:30

It was a busy year for Drupal Events in 2022, so fast that we completely lost track of time. This year we saw a broad return to in-person Drupal Camps, hundreds of meetups, and dozens of events around the globe for the release of Drupal 10. The Event Organizer Working Group continues to work to support event organizers, to provide resources, and to provide avenues for collaboration among organizers.

We’ve had three primary initiatives this year: Drupal.org Community Events, the Events Platform, and some self-care marketing the EOWG. In addition we piloted a new Camp Debriefs concept and a whole lot more.

Created
Wed, 18/01/2023 - 04:30
Perhaps you should look into this? Via salon: A human rights organization founded by slain journalist Jamal Khashoggi is calling on Congress and the Justice Department to investigate former President Donald Trump’s business deals with a controversial golf company owned by the Saudi Arabian government and controlled by Saudi Crown Prince Mohamed bin Salman.  Nonprofit Democracy for the Arab World Now said LIV Golf, a tournament franchise and PGA Golf rival, paid Trump-owned golf resorts “unknown millions of dollars” to host events.
Created
Wed, 18/01/2023 - 04:24
En vanlig missuppfattning när det gäller oönskad variabilitet i bedömningar är att det inte spelar någon roll eftersom slumpfel tar ut varandra. Det stämmer att positiva och negativa fel i en bedömning av samma fall mer eller mindre tar ut varandra och vi kommer att diskutera mer i detalj hur denna omständighet kan utnyttjas för […]
Created
Wed, 18/01/2023 - 02:37
The UK’s draconian Public Order Bill, which seeks to restrict certain forms of protest used by climate activists, will expand the state’s ability to detain people deemed disruptive and limit the courts’ ability to restrain it. This will align the British legal system with those of authoritarian countries like Russia. LONDON – In December 1939, … Continue reading The Return of Thoughtcrime
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Wed, 18/01/2023 - 02:32
Recent additions to the Heap… “Exaggerations, half-truths and outright lies will dominate our historical imagination and make it impossible to understand, and learn from, the past” — Daniel Bessner (Washington) on the decline of the historical profession “The algorithmic lens while giving us affordances has a certain number of blind spots… that we must be precise… that more data is better… that there is a single uniform truth to be found…” — Suresh Venkatasubramanian (Brown) is interviewed about developing the US Government’s Blueprint for an AI Bill of Rights A philosophy course centered around paradoxes — taught by Patrick Greenough at St. Andrews “Contemporary analytical philosophy is in greater part interesting, valuable, and well done” — Crispin Wright (NYU/Stirling) is interviewed about philosophy and his work on objectivity, truth, vagueness, skepticism, and other topics “Like Gandhi, he believed that guarding power was bad for the powerful: segregation harmed the white man’s own soul.
Created
Wed, 18/01/2023 - 02:30
Us vs. Them on steroids What drove our disloyal opposition to reject democracy for autocracy and authoritarian strongmen? Amanda Marcotte interviews Jared Yates Sexton whose new book, “The Midnight Kingdom: A History of Power, Paranoia, and the Coming Crisis,” plumbs the depths of the Grand Old Personality disorder crowd. Growing up as he did in “a really problematic, radicalized environment” makes QAnon and other eschatological beliefs quite familar. “When you take a look at these ideas and these conspiracy theories, one of the things you start to realize is if you believe these things, if these actually build the world around you or the way that you interact with politics or even your neighbors or your day-to-day life, you’re living in literal terror,” Sexton tells Salon. “And when you feel that way, when you believe that you’re in the middle of a supernatural battle, you literally will do anything in order to protect yourself and the people around you.” It’s Us vs. Them on steroids.