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John Shipton has been in London, observing his son Julian Assange’s appeal against extradition to the United States. The UK High Court had granted Assange’s Defence three grounds of appeal. The first one was that Assange could be exposed to the death penalty in the United States and the US hadn’t given any assurances that Continue reading »

Liu Bin, chief expert of China Automotive Technology & Research Centre (CATARC), explained that raising the temporary tariff rate on imported cars with large engines can further accelerate the green transition in China’s auto industry; and an article analysing the Biden Administration’s Section 301 Tariffs on China by a think tank affiliated with China’s Ministry Continue reading »

What a twenty-five-year-old memo by Daniel Ellsberg says about the past failures of Lyndon Johnson and the current horrors of Benjamin Netanyahu. The conversion of my friend Ellsberg, who died last June of cancer, from avid supporter of and adviser on the Vietnam War to perhaps its most important critic is well known. One of Continue reading »

I’m excited to share some big news: this month I transitioned into a new role as Senior Vice President of Academic Innovation for OU Education Services (OUES). OUES is a new non-profit created to manage and grow online learning at the University of Oklahoma, with the goal of increasing accessibility to higher education. The best […]

The post Doctor Who Magazine 604 appeared first on Doctor Who Magazine.

What Immunity? People were dying by the tens of thousands during this period.

Il capitalismo è un sistema economico affermatosi negli ultimi due secoli e mezzo in questa parte del mondo. Un sistema che per consolidarsi ha plasmato la società e la politica, creando un ordine sociale. Il ruolo principale dell’economia teorica dominante (mainstream) è stato quello di fornire un’apologia di un ordinamento sociale spacciato per naturale, ma […]

Engineers warned Meta that nations can monitor chats; staff fear Israel is using this trick to pick assassination targets in Gaza.

The post This Undisclosed WhatsApp Vulnerability Lets Governments See Who You Message appeared first on The Intercept.

The little pigs are their own worst enemy. Don’t get me wrong, I want to support the little pigs. Plenty of folks like me sympathize with them, but their own actions are the biggest detriment to their cause.

The little pigs make a dramatic show of their new tactics. Fresh brick, rebar construction, double-paned windows—shiny new toys they are only too happy to play with.

What some little pigs do not understand is that they are alienating potential allies. Nobody wants to see a house made of brick. It’s selfish, unsightly, and turns would-be supporters into opponents.

Past movements were much more respectful. It seems like only yesterday the little pigs were building houses out of straw. Everyone on both sides of the issue understood where the little pigs were coming from. We might not have agreed on everything, but at least we saw eye to eye.

Thousands of students face severe consequences for protesting Gaza violence. Alan Macleod investigates the powerful financial and ideological ties to Israel driving the harsh responses from America’s top universities.

The post Follow the Money: How Israel-Linked Billionaires Silenced US Campus Protests appeared first on MintPress News.

Even the Sopranos weren’t this dumb On the last day of testimony in Trump’s NY hush money case, a dozen or so grasping Trump sycophants dressed in the official elite MAGA uniforms of a red tie and blue suit (the troops wear the red hats) all gathered in the Manhattan court house to show their solidarity with their Dear Leader. The group included the Texas Lieutenant Governor of Texas Dan Patrick who weirdly excoriated “the ruling class” of which he and Donald Trump are very much members. SNL alum Joe Piscopo showed up as did former White House physician and current oddball congressman Ronny Jackson. Donald Trump Jr was there for the first time as well, apparently inspired to attend as a MAGA follower rather than a family member in support of his father. It’s become a daily self-abnegation ritual for those yearning to be on the inside of Trumpworld and that apparently includes his own son. If it weren’t for the boring blue suits and red ties, the daily tableau would be more reminiscent of a criminal gang than a political party.

Just a grift before I go Is it possible that the same affinity for conspiracy theories on the right (yes, the left has its own) accompanies the gullibility that makes conservatives fall for grifts? Charlie Kirk is selling Blackout Coffee, you know, for when “The world is in flames, and Bidenomics is a complete and total disaster,” and the liberal zombie apocalypse comes to turn you gay. There are some brands that cater to lefty sensibilities, writes Ali Breland at The Atlantic. But it’s the expansion of niche products for the conservative paranoid that has caught his attention: The ads reflect the new paradigm of advertising. In previous decades, ads had to appeal to whole segments of the population—and products were made with that in mind. That some readers of Vanity Fair might want a Givenchy handbag, and some readers of Sports Illustrated might want Callaway golf clubs, was as targeted as ads could get. Now the country has fractured into partisan subgroups, and companies have access to reams of analytics that enable them to target ever more precise demographics.

You read a poem and it awakens you to something that you already knew.

Poachers, when caught stealing content from our website, always blamed the theft on an “intern” or “freelancer.” We always pretended to believe them.

The post Ah yes, the famous “intern did it” syndrome appeared first on Jeffrey Zeldman Presents.

In this column, professional speechwriter Chandler Dean provides partly satirical, partly genuine “How To” advice focused on a hyper-specific subcategory of speeches—from graduation speeches to wedding toasts to eulogies, and all the rhetorical occasions in between.

Writing is already hard when everything is fine. But often, things are bad. Sometimes, for example, someone has died. And as if that person’s loved ones haven’t suffered enough, they are soon subjected to an afternoon of inexperienced public speaking.

Fundamentally, the process of writing a eulogy is surreal. For any other life event where you have to give a speech, no one would ever encourage you to wait until that week to start writing.

You gotta laugh to keep from crying One of MSNBC’s commentators remarked Tuesday on the “thugocracy” on display at Donald Trump’s criminal trial. A parade of characters has pilgrimaged to Lower Manhattan to display their fealty to Boss Trump. On the day his defense rested, they included Chuck Zito, former convict and former leader of the New York chapter of the Hells Angels motorcycle gang. Trump likes his “heavies.” Rachel Maddow remarked: The Hells Angels leader is a very large man wearing a very flamboyant suit with a big, dyed-black pompadour, and huge, gaudy jewelry on very large hands. And he’s sitting next to Boris Epshteyn, who kind of looks like his body double. And there’s Alan Dershowitz, and there’s other recognizable people. And there’s members of Congress and well-known lawyers. And everybody seems sort of, there is a sort of performative aspect to the way they’re behaving in court. It is very noticeable for those of us who are there observing as journalists. I don’t know if they’re catching the jury’s attention so much.