A conversation with “rational mystic,” physicist Marcelo Gleiser.
The post The Astrophysicist Who Loves the Things We Cannot Know appeared first on Nautilus.
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We should be greatly encouraged by Prime Minister Albanese’s visit to China. Isolation is always a bad thing. Dialogue is essential for relationships to be sustained or nourished. This is the most important aspect of the visit, far outweighing in importance any specific outcome. The visit coincides with the 50th anniversary of Gough Whitlam’s visit Continue reading »
With the Australian government refusing to call for a ceasefire in Gaza, what is Australia actually doing to bring about the ‘two state solution’ and a ‘just and enduring peace’ called for by Foreign Minister Penny Wong this week? Dear Penny Wong, Your Opinion piece on the Israel-Hamas war, published in Saturday’s Guardian was of Continue reading »
The recent Optus outage cannot be considered a ‘rare occasion.’ Over the last few years, we have witnessed several major outages across the telecoms networks, making it imperative for us to prepare ourselves for such events. We must address Telecom system vulnerabilities to prevent widespread outages. Today, over 99% of telecoms traffic comprises data. Virtually Continue reading »
Is the Albanese government aiding and abetting the Israeli military and intelligence services in actions in Gaza which are serious violations of international human rights laws? Successive Australian Defence ministers have assured us that any weapons or other military hardware that is exported cannot be used to enable the commission of war crimes and other Continue reading »
The October 2023 arrivals and departures data, to be published next week, is highly likely to confirm that net migration for the 12 months to September 2023 will be around 500,000. That is both unprecedented and unplanned. It will lock in an ugly immigration focussed 2025 Federal Election as net migration will fall only slowly Continue reading »
When Marshall Green, a very senior official in the State Department, was appointed as Ambassador to Australia in early 1973, President Nixon’s briefing regarding the relationship with Whitlam was succinct and on point: “Marshall, I can’t stand that cunt”. Green later reflected this was “a strange kind of parting instruction to get from your president”. Continue reading »
Big wins for Democrats in yesterday’s Ohio, Virginia, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania elections.
The post Abortion Rights and Weed Are Super Popular. Who Knew? appeared first on The Intercept.
But it’s easy to see why they are. Our political culture is crazy. After days of panic and hand wringing over presidential polls that show President Biden possibly narrowly losing to Donald Trump a year from now, last night Democrats were given a reprieve from their doleful mood as the off-year elections delivered victories across the country. With the exception of the Mississippi Governorship (which no one seriously thought could be won by a Democrat) they swept all the big bell weather elections, from flipping the Virginia House of Delegates and holding the state Senate (pushing Gov. Glenn Youngkin off the short list of GOP Great Whitebread Hopes), winning the important abortion rights referendum in blood red Ohio and re-electing the Democratic Gov. of Kentucky. There were dozens of others including state Supreme Court victories, and school board seats that were either held or flipped by the Democrats. It was a good night. But, as is their wont, the Democrats will no doubt revert to their bleak frame of mind as soon as they see another presidential poll or two that shows the race is close.
The Drupal Association is here to update you on all of the exciting things you may have missed that happened at the conference! From a focus on marketing to updates on innovation, there was much to see and do at DrupalCon. Lille, France, was the perfect city for the Drupal community to unite. Easily accessible from major cities such as London and Paris, it was a bustling city of fantastic cuisine (did you try Le Welsh?!), shopping, museums, and culture. Continue reading to learn more about the latest updates from Europe’s largest Drupal gathering.
“Many of our poll workers spotted women going into voting booths and literally casting votes,” a G.O.P. operative in Lake County said.
Our community is better because you’re in it.
The news lately, both close to home and around the world can be a lot to manage for many people. This feeling of overwhelm and heartbreak is echoed throughout many professional communities, including Drupal. The Drupal community is a group that fosters connection and inclusion and as members of the Community Working Group, our mission is to support you, our community.
To that end, we’re releasing an updated list of mental health resources that are available to you and your peers. The majority of these sources are US-based but we’ve tried to include a few international resources as well. If you are looking for support networks in your country please reach out to any member of the Drupal Community Working Group and we will confidentially search our network to find resources that fit your needs.
Do the work. Score the points. Noah Berlatsky of Public Notice reflects on Tuesday’s elections (bolding mine): Some 48 hours ago, pundits were rushing to explain how, why, where, and exactly to what extent the Democratic Party is doomed. A New York Times/Sienna poll released last weekend showed President Joe Biden catastrophically trailing indicted orange gasbag of hatred former President Donald Trump in virtually every key swing state. According to the poll, Trump leads Biden by five points in Arizona, four in Pennsylvania, six in Georgia, and 11 in Nevada. Analysts like Nate Silver and Matt Yglesias made panicky noises, condemning Dems for not mounting a serious primary challenge to the incumbent. There was weeping, there was gnashing of teeth. And then, we had an actual election. Tuesday night’s results are difficult to square with the “Biden and Democrats are doomed” narrative. In an off-year election, with the incumbent president’s approval rating mired below 40 percent, you would normally expect the president’s party to be stomped, crushed, spindled, and obliterated.
If your encounter with these poems is anything like mine, the first thing you might experience is pure music: the thick stunning spellbinding sound at work in Safiya Sinclair’s writing. And then almost at the same time you might realize that the poems, which are often layerings of elaborations, lists, and collations, are also telling stories, making arguments even, and conjuring images with a moving deftness and visceral potency. Listen to the brilliant patterning of vowels—the “ahs” of “father” and the “un” of “unbending” and “unbroken” turning into the “oh” of “low” in “Pocomania,” named for a religion in Sinclair’s native Jamaica:
Father unbending father unbroken father
with the low-hanging belly, father I was cleaved from,
pressed into, cast and remolded, father I was forged
in the fire of your self. Ripped my veined skin, one eyelid,
father my black tangle of hair and teeth. Born yellowed
and wrinkled, father your jackfruit, foster my overripe flesh.
Father your first daughter now severed at the ankles, father
your black machete …
Stop white-knuckling polls Everybody Relax. The Net economy runs on clicks. The polling economy runs on polls. Cable news runs on ratings 24/7/365. All make money promoting a horse race with a photo finish. MSNBC kept flipping back to Steve Kornacki updating returns from the Kentucky governor’s race Tuesday night long after Dave Wasserman of Cook’s Political Report had “seen enough.” The Associated Press called the race for incumbent Democrat Andy Beshear 90 minutes later. So it goes. On Election Night, we don’t count policy positions or polling averages or pundits’ opinions. We count votes. It’s how democracies keep score. And last night? Last night was “nearly a clean sweep” for Democrats. Beshear won another term in “red” Kentucky on an explicit abortion rights campaign against his GOP challenger. Beshear went straight at Daniel Cameron on the abortion issue with this powerful ad featuring rape survivor Hadley Duvall. “Because of her courage, this commonwealth is going to be a better place and people are going to reach out for the help they need,” Beshear told supporters.
Lawyer Gareth Roberts examines new proposals that may be robust, but are they good policy?
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Dr Kit Yates examines the lessons emerging from the Covid Inquiry and why fear of pressure from politicians led to the creation of Independent SAGE
It’s somehow only day forty-seven of bus stop pickup duty. As I approach, I can see the wince behind your polite smile. I don’t blame you—I wouldn’t want to hang out with this trite, milquetoast version of me for the next three to twenty-six minutes, either. I don’t know what it is about you, an assemblage of perfectly kind moms and dads who happen to live near me, that transforms me into the Actual Most Boring Human of All Time. But I do know this: I have no idea what to talk about with you.
The miners’ strike of 1984-5 pitted the Thatcher government and the National Coal Board against Arthur Scargill’s National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), in a battle for the future of Britain’s coal-mining industry, and, by proxy, the entire direction of the country’s political economy. The NUM was probably the most male-dominated of any trade union in […]