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Greetings, Earth farmer. We come in peace. Take us to your leader, the one they call Jake from State Farm.

Snake farm? This is not State Farm? Dammit, Todd, I told you to use Google Maps. Where is State Farm? Take us to State Farm.

What do you mean State Farm is not a farm? Then why would they call it State Farm?

What is insurance?

That sounds like a scam.

I’m glad we agree on something, Earth farmer. Now, please, we must speak with the all-powerful Jake from State Farm.

Of course, he is powerful. We see him constantly on your Earth television, laughing and throwing sports balls with Earth celebrities like Aaron from Green Bay, Patrick from Kansas City, and Drake from Toronto.

Wait, Aaron from Green Bay is now Aaron from New York? We love the Giants from New York.

The Jets?!

Sorry to hear that. We are thankful we don’t have Achilles heels. We don’t even have heels.

Anyway, on with the taking us to your leader.

People who complain of abuse and harassment in the often cosy, claustrophobic and interconnected world of British media face an uphill battle

The task of marketing Israel as “the only democracy in the Middle East" is no longer an easy sell.  With the 'democracy' pillar crumbling, the 'stability' pillar is falling apart, as well. And without stability, investors simply run away. 

The post Tel Aviv’s Losing Brands: The Israeli ‘Coup’ and the Death of False Democracy appeared first on MintPress News.

David Sirota speaks with Harvard astrophysicist Avi Loeb about the controversial field of extraterrestrial research.

By turning a hose, concrete and jelly into trumpets, this video melds science, history and art to explain the physics of music

- by Aeon Video

Watch at Aeon

Behind the philosopher’s cryptic phrase is an invocation to sculpt your ideal self out of the hard stone of your psyche

- by Ryan A Bush

Read at Psyche

Long derided as mere coincidences, acrostics in ancient poetry are finally being taken seriously – with astonishing results

- by Julia Hejduk

Read at Aeon

AIPAC has given at least $3.6 million to the CBC’s old guard since last year, while members of the Squad draw the Israel lobby’s ire.

The post AIPAC Targets Black Democrats — While the Congressional Black Caucus Stays Silent appeared first on The Intercept.

Thousands of pages of newly released documents detail CBP’s involvement in policing the 2020 racial justice protests.

The post Uninvited and Unaccountable: How CBP Policed George Floyd Protests appeared first on The Intercept.

The reaction to the Russell Brand allegations shows why so many women don't feel safe reporting the crimes against them, reports Jamie Klingler

Mathematics is a limited component of solutions to real-world problems, as it expresses only what is expected to be true if all our assumptions are correct, including implicit assumptions that are omnipresent and often incorrect. Statistical methods are rife with implicit assumptions whose violation can be life-threatening when results from them are used to set […]

Opponents of the bill say it is designed to undermine the freedom of speech of those critical of the Israeli Government

The Prime Minister's abandonment of a series of climate pledges hides a much bigger failure, writes Rachel Donald

I am now in a very hot and humid Kyoto having left Australia yesterday in weather that was in some places 20 or more degrees Celsius above the norm for early Spring. The heat here and back home at this time of year is rather scary given what it portends. I also do not have…

Money is something you can (sometimes) exchange for wealth, but it’s not wealth itself.

When I say sometimes I mean that there are things you can’t buy: what those things are change from place to place and time to time. The classic formulation of the preconditions for capitalism includes the ability to buy land, labor and capital. In most places and times you couldn’t actually hire most people to work–they were bound to the land, their clans, or whatever or they could support themselves and sure didn’t want to work for someone else.

Likewise most land was inherited or in the commons and definitely not for sale. You couldn’t buy it.

Wealth is what you control (not own, control) that can be used to make something, grow something or support violent people.

Source - Patreon

Source - Patreon

Source - Patreon

The Government's commitment to build more homes, while protecting wildlife from deadly pollutants is "failing to deliver for either side"

All is not lost: The Republican Party’s increasing Trump-era tendency toward more extreme nominees and its struggles to account for the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade have already cost it plenty. It’s quite possible that these things cost it control of the Senate in both the 2020 and 2022 elections. If unpopular GOP nominees in key states had merely matched the political fundamentals, Republicans might have held the Senate for the duration of Joe Biden’s presidency and had a much more significant House majority with which to work today. Now, these same things may have cost Republicans control of a state. New Hampshire on Tuesday became the latest state in which Democrats over-performed in a special election — a trend that has held very steady ever since Roe was overturned last summer. Democrat Hal Rafter won by 12 points in a state House district that went narrowly for Donald Trump in 2020.

Seahorses don’t care if there’s plenty other fish in the sea.

The post Seahorse Love Works in Mysterious Ways appeared first on Nautilus.

Many animals suffer from seasonal affective disorder. Scientists are just figuring out what that means.

The post Pandas Feel “SAD” Too appeared first on Nautilus.

MSNBC framing of today’s hearing: Attorney General Merrick Garland appeared before the House judiciary Committee for the first time since Donald Trump and Hunter Biden’s separate indictments and it went about how you would expect it to go. House Republicans accused AG Garland of politicizing the Department of Justice to protect President Biden. Democrats accused Republicans of politicizing Judicial Oversight to benefit Donald Trump and AG Garland, well, he just tried to defend himself. Oh those crazy Republicans and Democrats. They’re all full of shit, amirite? Just playing politics. Waddaya gonna do? This is the problem, folks. It’s not “both sides.” It’s Republicans. It’s not hard to make a judgment about this. It’s called reality.

Claire Potter talks about the Lauren Boebert “situation” in her newsletter today making the point that while it’s not nice to slut-shame women, it’s something that Boebert and her erstwhile buddy Marjorie Taylor Greene actually embrace as a big part of their MAGA image: … I do not feel inclined to lecture other people who slut-shame Lauren Boebert. I think it is misguided, and it isn’t because of the unproven allegations that she actually worked as an escort on a sugar-daddy website. It’s because she has spent a lot of time and energy polishing her reputation as a Gun Chick, a popular erotic figure on the right who we might tentatively define as “the slutty girl next door—with a gun.” It’s not an accident that Boebert looks and acts slutty; it’s calculated. It is something you are supposed to notice, and it is supposed to cause Republican dicks to lead the male voters they are attached to into the voting booth on election day.