Reading

“I Don’t Know, CAN You?” A Teacher’s Grammar Lesson Goes Too Far

https://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/i-dont-know-can-you-a-teachers-grammar-less…
Created
Wed, 10/12/2025 - 23:58

A sad but true story.

- - -

Ms. Johnson’s fiancé left her at the altar.

According to legend, that’s why she was so mean.

I never got it.

As a shy child, nobody realized I needed glasses until fifth grade. Most teachers, including Ms. Johnson, thought I was an idiot.

I once gave a presentation about Queen Victoria using my poster as a shield.

Nobody could see or hear me. It was perfect.

Queen Victoria started the tradition of wearing a white wedding dress. I’m sure Ms. Johnson would have loved that detail if she could have heard me.

Councils Can Fight Israel’s Apartheid

https://tribunemag.co.uk/2025/12/councils-can-fight-israels-apartheid/
Created
Wed, 10/12/2025 - 23:55

In March 1983, representatives from 55 councils across Britain met in Sheffield, brought together by an abhorrence to an injustice 6,000 miles away. For decades, settler colonialism — backed by successive British governments — had imposed a brutal system of racial domination on the indigenous population, driving them from their homes, and forcing them into […]

Yookaynian Homesick Blues

https://tribunemag.co.uk/2025/12/yookaynian-homesick-blues/
Created
Wed, 10/12/2025 - 21:10

It’s become impossible to swipe through social media apps without coming across examples of content presented as racialised dystopia. Framed for British consumption, these usually take on the same visually disorienting tone — a busy local high street, two or more racialised, sociolect-speaking protagonists, and a sprinkling of mild, often innocuous, chaos. Such dramatised scenes, […]

t-rex in: a bloody good time

http://www.qwantz.com/index.php?comic=4414
Created
Wed, 10/12/2025 - 19:00
archive - contact - sexy exciting merchandise - search - about
December 10th, 2025n

Bankers (not money) make the world go around? Towards a labour/tech history of finance

https://crookedtimber.org/2025/12/10/bankers-not-money-make-the-world-go-around…
Created
Wed, 10/12/2025 - 17:30
I am at the airport in Melbourne (again). I’m sitting in the window eating one of those excellent boxes of kale, broccoli, beans, seeds, peas and a boiled egg that I am grateful are now available at airports. Next to me a father and daughter are observing the world – look at how that plane […]

Housework for singles

https://crookedtimber.org/2025/12/10/housework-for-singles/
Created
Wed, 10/12/2025 - 17:23
My last post described my attempt to generate a report on housework using Deep Research, and the way it came to a crashing halt. Over the fold, I’ve given the summary from the last version before the crash. You can read the whole report here, bearing in mind that it’s only partly done. As I […]

The Loss Of American Dollar Privilege Is The Second Most Important Factor In US Decline

https://www.ianwelsh.net/the-loss-of-american-dollar-privilege-is-the-second-mo…
Created
Wed, 10/12/2025 - 07:44
Dollar privilege: everyone using the dollar for trade, and the US controlling the system that moves currency around the world is important. When it goes away, and it will in the next five years, I’d guess, the US will take a huge hit to its ability to command the world’s resources and will lose most […]

Congress Quietly Kills Military “Right to Repair,” Allowing Corporations to Cash In on Fixing Broken Products

https://theintercept.com/2025/12/09/congress-military-ndaa-right-to-repair/
Created
Wed, 10/12/2025 - 05:22

Both chambers included Pentagon budget provisions for a right to repair, but they died after defense industry meetings on Capitol Hill.

The post Congress Quietly Kills Military “Right to Repair,” Allowing Corporations to Cash In on Fixing Broken Products appeared first on The Intercept.

The New Pull-Up Bar at the Airport Is Here to Make Flying Great Again

https://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/the-new-pull-up-bar-at-the-airport-is-here-…
Created
Wed, 10/12/2025 - 05:00

“MAHA for airports: Trump officials pitch mini-gyms, more play areas.”
—Washington Post

- - -

Hello, travelers. I’m the airport’s shiny new pull-up bar, and I’m ushering in a bold era of aviation wellness absolutely no one asked for. As my boys, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., explained at Reagan National recently, airports don’t actually need updated terminals or improved escalators. What they’re truly lacking is optics-driven body-suspension equipment, conspicuously wedged between a Shake Shack and a Hudson News for maximum showboating.