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Created
Tue, 03/10/2023 - 01:30
If the rain comes | They run and hide their heads Brooklyn flooded on Friday. Again. Subway lines shut down as water poured off streets, down stairways and into stations. A niece reported she had to take cabs into the city for work and the basement entry was knee-deep. Nancy Walecki wrote last week at The Atlantic: New York City’s sewer system is built for the rain of the past—when a notable storm might have meant 1.75 inches of water an hour. It wasn’t built to handle the rainfall from Hurricane Irene, Hurricane Sandy, or, more recently, Hurricane Ida—which dumped 3.15 inches an hour on Central Park. And it wasn’t built to handle the kind of extreme rainfall that is becoming routine: The city flooded last December, last April, and last July—an unusual seasonal span. “We now have in New York something much more like a tropical-rainfall pattern,” Rohit Aggarwala, New York City’s environmental-protection commissioner, said yesterday at The Atlantic Festival. “And it happens over and over again.” It happened today.
Created
Tue, 03/10/2023 - 00:15

Dave Eggers’s latest book, The Eyes and the Impossible, is the story of a dog named Johannes. Johannes is a free dog, a fast dog—such a fast dog! He lives in an urban park by the sea, and every day, he runs through the park, seeing all, missing nothing, and reporting what he sees to the park’s three ancient Bison, the Keepers of the Equilibrium. But the Equilibrium has been disrupted.

Gorgeously illustrated throughout by Shawn Harris,The Eyes and the Impossible is a lyrical, soulful book full of wit and passion—a timeless story for readers of all ages. To celebrate the release of a new, oversized edition, we present an interview with Dave and editor Taylor Norman.

Created
Tue, 03/10/2023 - 00:00
Republican urges Chaos Caucus: “All of them need to grow up” Crisp fall air on the first Monday in October is perhaps a reminder to take a moment Yes, the ethics-challenged U.S. Supreme Court begins its new term, God help us. Slate’s Dahlia Lithwick and Mark Joseph Stern do some teeth-grinding over having to write the obligatory journalistic “curtain-raiser” as the new term opens. The question “is not if we should be worried, but exactly how worried we should be.” What will the Roberts court do next with “the most dangerous and radical ideas to emerge from the conservative legal movement” courtesy of Donald Trump and Leonard Leo? Yes, despite all the oddsmakers’ bets on which elected Black woman California Gov. Gavin Newsom, would appoint to fill out the term of the late Sen. Dianne Feinstein, he chose instead Emily’s List president Laphonza Butler. The Washington Post reports, “She will become the second Black woman after Harris to represent California in the Senate and the first Black lesbian to openly serve in Congress, a statement from Newsom’s office said.
Created
Mon, 02/10/2023 - 23:00

If you aren’t familiar with the tune, here it is, but be warned, it will be droning on in your head for the rest of the day.

- - -

“‘Hope’ is the thing with feathers”
by Emily Dickinson

Hopey, hopey, hopey, hopey,
Feathered thing when I am mopey,
Perched in my soul—man, I hope she
Never stops singing at all!

Sweetest in the gale is heard,
Not even storms can stop this bird,
Keeps you warm, despair deferred,
I love my sister-in-law!

I think I’ll stay in tonight, my room rules!

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Gettysburg Address
by Abraham Lincoln

Lincoln, Lincoln, Lincoln, Lincoln,
Eighty-seven years ago our forefathers were thinkin’,
We’ll bring forth a new nation; now it’s shrinkin’,
We’re in a Civil War!

The world won’t note what we say here today,
(I’m just being modest, okay?),
But can’t forget the price that they paid,
My wife’s middle name is Todd!

In the USA, you can’t break away. I’m gay!

Created
Mon, 02/10/2023 - 22:40
An essential component of Neoclassical microeconomics is the proposition that firms maximize their profits by equating marginal revenue—the addition to total revenue caused by the last unit sold—to marginal cost—the addition to total costs caused by the last unit produced. This proposition plays a fundamental role in all DSGE-based macroeconomic models too, in the form … Continue reading "Profit Maximization in the Real World"
Created
Mon, 02/10/2023 - 20:11
Why do we put up with daily assaults on our health? It has everything to do with corporate power. By George Monbiot, published in the Guardian 22nd September 2023 There are some things we rightly find intolerable, such as the possession of poorly trained, aggressive dogs. There are other things, whose impacts are many thousands […]
Created
Mon, 02/10/2023 - 10:30
Chris Rufo and his allies make it clear that there are no enemies on the right: Conservative activist Christopher Rufo, who is a close ally of Florida governor and Republican presidential candidate Ron DeSantis, hosted a social media debate in which one participant argued that conservatives should cooperate with a hypothetical white nationalist dictator “in order to destroy the power of the left”. Rufo, a Manhattan Institute fellow who has been a hugely influential figure in DeSantis’ culture war policies in Florida, did not disagree with the sentiments. Instead he commended speakers for their “thoughtful points” and presenting the discussion as a model for engagement with “the dissident right”. Rufo is a high-profile conservative activist who in books, columns, media appearances and a Substack newsletter has encouraged conservatives to oppose “wokeness”. He has been credited with mobilizing conservatives against communities of color, first with a distorted version of critical race theory; then by linking LGBTQ-inclusive education practices to pedophilic “grooming”.