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Created
Tue, 04/07/2023 - 01:11

In 1951, the government’s Crown Film Unit released the film Life in Her Hands. Starring Kathleen Byron, best known for her role as a nun in Black Narcissus (1946), Life in Her Hands was an ambitious hour-long recruitment film, designed to attract women to the nursing profession. It was part of a wider national recruitment […]

Created
Tue, 04/07/2023 - 01:10

This issue of Tribune was co-commissioned by Francesca Newton, our online editor, and it will be her last before departing to new opportunities. Francesca made her mark as a Tribune writer with her denunciations of the government’s hatchet job on civil liberties. Her 2020 articles on the Overseas Operations and Spy Cops Bills were our […]

Created
Tue, 04/07/2023 - 01:09

‘Next week, the British Government will launch the greatest experiment in social reform ever embarked upon by the British nation.’ The formation of the National Health Service (NHS), instituted by the post-war Labour government seventy-five years ago today, was characterised at the time by Tribune as a providential moment. ‘The Great Experiment’ to which the […]

Created
Tue, 04/07/2023 - 01:07

In the years since the National Health Service (NHS) was inaugurated on 5 July 1948, a comforting myth has emerged about its creation. As the NHS — variously described as a national religion and an institution akin to royalty — has taken its place among the pantheon of British institutions, establishment scribes have tried to paint it […]

Created
Tue, 04/07/2023 - 00:30
It’s gonna be a summer Next week I head north to Chicago for Netroots Nation. Hopes for cooler, tamer weather to the north are just that. Axios: Torrential rains flooded Chicago’s streets and forced NASCAR officials to postpone a race through the city, as the National Weather Service issued hazardous weather alerts for over 110 million Americans during the extended July Fourth holiday weekend. State of play: Chicago train services were suspended, buses were temporarily rerouted and Illinois State Police said parts of Interstate highways 55 and 290 were shut due to flooding, per WLS-TV. The National Weather Service (a branch of the Commerce Department that Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis promises to eliminate as president) reports: Meanwhile, the heat wave across the South will be less oppressive today, before confining southward even more on Independence Day. Nevertheless, heat indices could approach 105-110 degrees with high temperatures into the mid-90s, which can be dangerous if spending an extended amount of time outdoors.
Created
Tue, 04/07/2023 - 00:16

Numbers reveal the escalating violence and resistance in occupied Palestine, shedding light on the urgent questions of a major revolt and why Israeli attempts to crush Palestinian resistance continue to fail.

The post The Armed Revolt: Why Israel Cannot Crush the Resistance in Palestine appeared first on MintPress News.

Created
Mon, 03/07/2023 - 23:43
Unfortunately, assumption uncertainty reduces the status of deductions and statistical computations to exercises in hypothetical reasoning – they provide best-case scenarios of what we could infer from specific data. Even more unfortunate, however, is that this exercise is deceptive to the extent it ignores or misrepresents available information, and makes hidden assumptions that are unsupported […]
Created
Mon, 03/07/2023 - 23:22
In science, courage is to follow the motto of enlightenment and Kant’s dictum — Sapere Aude!  To use your understanding, have the ​courage to think for yourself and question ‘received opinion,’ authority or orthodoxy. In our daily lives, courage is the capability to confront fear, as when in front of the powerful and mighty, not […]
Created
Mon, 03/07/2023 - 23:03
It’s over a week since the Economist put up my and Cosma Shalizi’s piece on shoggoths and machine learning, so I think it’s fair game to provide an extended remix of the argument (which also repurposes some of the longer essay that the Economist article boiled down). Our piece was inspired by a recurrent meme in […]
Created
Mon, 03/07/2023 - 23:00
Southern Baptists double down on decline “No one could accuse the Baptists of excessive cheeriness,” David Siders begins in his Politico report from the Southern Baptist Convention conclave in New Orleans: “We are living in dark and perilous times in America,” read the billing for a night with former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, “as our culture descends into a spiritual abyss …” It is a stark change of mood for hundreds of pastors and church members from their Trump-years triumphalism. The U.S. has been both steadily secularizing and religiously diversifying for decades. This leaves Southern Baptists, once dominant in a region of churches on every streetcorner, unsettled at their declining ability to dictate local culture. Evangelicals of whom Southern Baptists are a fraction, saw Trump, the “thrice-married former casino owner” with his “two Corinthians” pandering as an imperfect champion. At least he was pandering. “Great again” for them meant more than white dominance. He represented renewal of their religious and cultural dominance. Since then, Siders explains, all seems to have gone to Hell.
Created
Mon, 03/07/2023 - 22:00

“Streaming” [verb / strEEm-ing]: Crossing a medium-sized body of water in short trousers to rescue one’s horse and carriage from sudden peril.

“Bop” [noun / bäp]: The sound of George Washington’s hand-crafted Masonic gavel landing on a ceremonial cornerstone.

“Cheugy” [verb / chew-ghee]: The act of using one’s wooden teeth to thoroughly masticate turtle soup.

“Taylor Swift” [noun / TAY-lor SWIH-ft]: A tradesperson who can alter silken blouses at an exceptionally quick pace.

“Bougee” [noun / BOO-jee]: The name of Thomas Jefferson’s childhood kitten.

“Clapback” [noun / klap-bAk]: An unfavorable condition for a racehorse’s spine.

“Ded” [adjective / DEH-d]: Obituary delivered via illiterate messenger.

“G.O.A.T.” [noun / GOH-t]: A delicious hearty stew.