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Sat, 04/01/2025 - 07:45

Issue 59 of the Nautilus print edition is our Kinship Issue. It includes contributions from philosopher Helen de Cruz, author Philip Ball, anthropologist Harvey Whitehouse, science writer Veronique Greenwood, and more.  This issue also features new illustrations by Aad Goudappel. Nautilus Members enjoy an ad-free experience. Log in or Join now .

The post Print Edition 59: The Kinship Issue appeared first on Nautilus.

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Sat, 04/01/2025 - 05:00

California sober: No alcohol or drugs except marijuana

New York sober: No alcohol or drugs except cocaine

Kentucky sober: No alcohol or drugs except a cool, tall mint julep on a sweltering July afternoon

Oregon sober: No alcohol if it’s not an IPA

Texas sober: No alcohol except empty beer cans to shoot

Maine sober: No addictive drugs except lobster rolls

Maryland sober: No addictive drugs except crab cakes

Georgia sober: No addictive drugs except whatever Marjorie Taylor Greene is on

Oklahoma sober: No drugs, but I suspect we’d grow amazing pot

Arkansas sober: No alcohol except moonshine

Massachusetts sober: No alcohol, but I still act like an asshole

Illinois sober: Liquor? Ya got it all wrong, copper. This here’s an honest Chicago church hall, see?

Kansas sober: I just eat BBQ until I feel drunk

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Sat, 04/01/2025 - 04:59
Those currently celebrating the US and Israel’s decisive military victories against Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon, the collapse of the Assad regime in Syria and possibly the defeat of Ansar Allah in Yemen may soon discover the pyrrhic nature of “reshaping the Middle East” in the interests of Western civilization. Military actions enabled Continue reading »
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Sat, 04/01/2025 - 04:58
China scholar Mark Wang still remembers a time in the 2000s when Australia’s China studies was vibrant and in a leading position in the world. “At that time, the student interest, government policy and funding for China studies in Australia were really strong,” said Professor Wang, the director of the University of Melbourne’s Centre for Continue reading »
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Sat, 04/01/2025 - 04:58
George Beebe, long-time head of Russia analysis at the CIA, a 27-year veteran of the agency and now the current head of Grand Strategy at the Quincy Institute in Washington, is just the kind of American the world needs right now. Understated, immensely knowledgeable and decent, he understands the Russo-Ukraine war in its widest sense Continue reading »
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Sat, 04/01/2025 - 04:57
Angry, frustrated, insulted – these are some of the expressions Barton locals have used to describe this sham National Executive ‘preselection’ process, imposing the Prime Minister’s pick. After months and months of indecision by the NSW Labor branch and much rank-and-file frustration, a bogus preselection process was staged for public consumption. A process that ignored Continue reading »
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Sat, 04/01/2025 - 04:56
Australia’s historical commitment to nuclear disarmament is facing new challenges, as critics say the nation’s alliance with the United States is leading to a conflicted stance on nuclear non-proliferation. While Australia has actively participated in global nuclear arms control initiatives, such as the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT), it simultaneously Continue reading »
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Sat, 04/01/2025 - 04:56
The late centenarian, Jimmy Carter, occupied a difficult position in the line of imperial magistrates we know as US presidents. Coming to power in the aftermath of murderous US adventurism in Indochina and the debauching of the presidency by Richard Nixon (“when the president does it, it means that it is not illegal”), he took Continue reading »
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Sat, 04/01/2025 - 04:50
While no one was looking, the Pakistani public took matters into their own hands, adding 17 gigawatts of solar power this year. These installations are mostly in the form of Chinese panels for rooftop or ground level solar in towns and villages. Pakistan has abruptly become the world’s sixth-largest consumer of solar panels. Here’s the Continue reading »
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Sat, 04/01/2025 - 02:32
Avarice and Artifice Since before the days of traveling medicine shows, Americans displayed a knack both for peddling bullshit and for buying it. Cultural touchstone: Dorothy’s Professor Marvel. Paradigm case: the 2024 presidential election. But the latter is simply a more visible instance of the phenomenon. Let’s look at two cases of Americans’ willingness to believe that private capitalism is always superior at delivering services over collective, government, not-for-profit programs. As with snake oil, it begins with a con man. With avarice and artifice. Timothy Noah this morning considers efforts to privatize Medicare. Donald Trump claims he won’t. (Trump also makes claims about his height, weight, and net worth.) Noah cites a Wall Street Journal report from Wednesday (I don’t have access) that shows that despite widely touted claims that the private sector is more efficient at providing health care, well, it does not.