Reading

Oh, I see you are reading this on a device. Perhaps you need to top off your battery? Do you need a cable for that? A USB cable? Because I have an assortment.

I have somehow accumulated several lifetimes’ worth of USB cables, and I cannot get rid of them.

How about a 1.0, 2.0, type A, A to B, B to C, or a micro to macro? Because somewhere in this plastic spaghetti, I have them. I have them all. Would you like one? Please, take a cable. I have too many, and it has become a burden, decades in the making. Please. Take a whole shoebox.

I have USB cables from before the year 2000. Vintage cables that barely did anything, transferring JPGs pixel by pixel from one drive to another. Sometimes, not all the data made it. That’s called the Angelfire’s share.

Actually, this one might not be a data cable. It might only be a charging cable. They don’t really tell you. You only find out five minutes before you need to present a PowerPoint to your entire company. Rest assured, we can find the right cable, though.

Underground Artists is an ongoing comic by Ali Fitzgerald (Hungover Bear & Friends) that follows woodland creatures as they create art and search out whimsy in a bleak forest.

Dua Lipa
I have two lips.

Elvis Presley
Someone has flattened the elves.

Elton John
Where’s the bathroom?

Cher
I want it all.

Ed Sheeran
My eyebrows itch.

Bad Bunny
I am going to consume this carrot, and you are powerless to stop me.

John Denver
The bathroom is in Colorado.

John Cougar
The bathroom is a litter box.

John Legend
The bathroom doesn’t actually exist.

Lorde
Dear God, please help me learn to spell.

Johnny Rotten
The toilet smells bad.

Flo Rida
Meet my girlfriend, Ida Ho.

Johnny Cash
Got change for the pay toilet?

Eddie Money
Yes, I do.

Jon Bon Jovi
Party in the outhouse!

Carrie Underwood
The pallbearers have fallen.

Keith Richards
The keys are too expensive.

‘We’re not sure what it means or how it started’ – the enigmatic ritual that has existed in Switzerland for centuries

- by Aeon Video

Watch on Aeon

Talk as much as you like about human rights, nothing will change until the architecture of global finance is reformed

- by Attiya Waris

Read on Aeon

Honey, I’m sorry I messed up our moment on the kiss cam.

I’m sorry I mouthed “That’s my sister!” and made a face like yuck while jerking my thumb at you, my loving wife of thirty-one years. I’m sorry I couldn’t look you in the eye and, instead, doubled-down and began talking loudly about our shared childhood, even though there is no audio on the kiss cam.

When you kicked my foot, and I realized you were mad, I’m sorry that I tried to make it up to you with a tongue-forward kiss, forgetting that the crowd believed you to be my sister. I’m sorry you had to hear 14,000 people make a collective noise of shock and disgust while your beautiful face was projected on the largest possible screen.

I’m sorry that this all happened after the screen was expanded in 2024.

I’m sorry that I stood up to address our section and let them know that we actually have a very loving and often erotic relationship. I understand now that I shouldn’t have offered to prove it.

I’m sorry I spent the entire fourth inning searching for another camera operator so that I could beg for a second chance.

A few months ago, I was tending to my newborn when across the room my phone pinged. I ignored it. Within a few minutes, however, continuing to do so became impossible, not just because of my compulsive urge to touch my phone every four seconds, but also because the device was seized by such a frenzy of notifications it threatened to buzz right off my dresser.

A wave of anxiety swept over me as I opened the kindergarten moms’ exploding group text—please, not more head lice.

But no! This was a good group-text freak-out. It was the call of America’s most beloved (nonprofit) multi-level marketing scheme.

One of my son’s classmates was selling Girl Scout cookies.

I loaded the order form and promptly set aside all New Year’s resolutions. It had been years since I’d had Girl Scout cookies, and my older two sons had yet to try them. I added my favorites to the cart, and then my eyes fell on the newest addition to the cookie lineup, Exploremores.

The Catcher in the Rye: The College Years

If you thought Holden Caulfield was insufferable before, you’ll find that expulsion from prep school was a mere warm-up for the incessant grousing and myriad of beefs inherent in life as an English undergrad. Armed with the perceived moral high ground and loads of what he calls “lived experience,” this sequel sees the creative writing major crafting some pretty bad fiction while clashing with a dean intent on his demise.

Moby-Dick: The College Years

Having survived the sinking of the Pequod and documented the events in more detail than was necessary, Ishmael attempts to reinvent himself, trading in the high seas for higher ed, and asking classmates to call him “Ish.” Not unlike the jock who peaked in high school, our narrator struggles with navigating what comes next, constantly reliving his glory days with Captain Ahab, Queequeg, and the great white whale—much to his peers’ chagrin.

How a public health initiative to reduce air pollution has created ‘full-time citizen complainants’ who patrol the city

- by Aeon Video

Watch on Aeon

Despite Labor’s boasts, there is nothing fair about its budget.

The post Labor’s budget failure on cost of living and its racist policies no antidote to One Nation first appeared on Solidarity Online.

Labor’s budget delivers massive cuts to the NDIS and does next to nothing to help workers facing a new cost of living crisis and higher unemployment.

The post Labor’s austerity budget won’t fix housing or cost of living crisis first appeared on Solidarity Online.

The court decision striking down NSW Premier Chris Minns’ anti-protest laws in April was a victory for the Palestine movement and all those who stood up and defied them.

The post Court victory halts Minns’ offensive against Palestine movement—now turn the tide first appeared on Solidarity Online.

The NDIS was introduced in 2013 with bipartisan political support. But the NDIS market has failed to deliver consistent, quality care and support.

The post Disability services we need won’t come from market profiteers first appeared on Solidarity Online.

Indigenous people in the Northern Territory are facing a “police state”, Mililma May, Danggalaba Kulumbiringin Tiwi writer and community organiser, told Solidarity’s Keep Left conference in April.

The post No justice for Indigenous people under NT’s police state first appeared on Solidarity Online.

About 2000 union members from across eight metropolitan Melbourne councils took part in a historic strike for fair wages and conditions on 5 May.

The post Eight Melbourne councils strike for pay rise to catch up with cost of living first appeared on Solidarity Online.

There has been an outpouring of anger by nurses and midwives in New South Wales following the long-awaited IRC decision on NSW public system nurses and midwives’ pay.

The post NSW nurses rage as legal case fails to deliver pay rise needed—now start planning for serious strikes first appeared on Solidarity Online.

After the Victorian teachers’ strike on 24 March where tens of thousands marched, the Australian Education Union (AEU) announced that action would escalate in Term 2. But escalated action was not planned at all. Instead of another 24-hour strike, AEU branch council voted for local rolling stoppages with schools striking for half a day. Industrial […]

The post Teachers in Victoria: vote to reject any bad deal, keep up the fight first appeared on Solidarity Online.

May Day in the US was a day of resistance to Trump’s rotten agenda of mass deportations, imperialist wars abroad, and war on the working class at home. 

The post US workers strike back at Trump on May Day first appeared on Solidarity Online.