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You may recall that he said this yesterday: Check out this piece by Jill Lawrence in the LA Times. She recently went to Los Alamos and suggests that people should stay away during this presidential election because you won’t be able to sleep at night: President Truman followed through with the plan to use the bombs that ended World War II. Truman could have stopped it. He didn’t, but right afterward he ordered that presidential permission was required for such action, and his administration made it official policy in a 1948 memo: U.S. presidents had the sole authority to launch nuclear weapons. If a president gives the word, the military must obey. That’s even if America has not been attacked, and even if a president is demonstrably unfit. A president, for instance, such as Trump, whose reckless, divisive term ended with his loyalists — at his urging — staging a deadly attack on the Capitol to try to keep him in power after he lost the 2020 election. “President Trump’s last terrifying weeks in office have been a wake-up call. Never again should we allow a dangerous president to have unilateral control over nuclear launch,” Sen.

Lever Time producer Arjun Singh and investigative journalist David Daley discuss the other memo behind the conservative takeover of the courts.

What is the main use of leaf blowers?
Leaf blowers allow us to powerfully blow leaves into big piles. This is totally awesome. It ensures that humanity has unobstructed views of the naked ground at any time of the year.

Is viewing the naked ground really that good?
Definitely. As Emily Brontë wrote, “Every leaf speaks horrors to me, fluttering from the autumn tree as it says, ‘Just wait until I fall and block your view of the ground. Then you won’t like me very much, will you?’”

Are there any health benefits to leaf blowers?
Absolutely. Each fall, thousands of Americans accidentally step on dry leaves, which causes a terrifying and unexpected “crunch” sound. Many barefoot Americans accidentally step on wet leaves, and this feels super slimy and gross. These leaf-steppers often become startled and topple over, leading to sprains, concussions, or death. Leaves are dangerous, and we must blow them away so they can no longer hurt us.

A new theory argues humans evolved through competition.

The post The Last Hominin Standing appeared first on Nautilus.

EDUCATION WEEK October 2, 2024 Less and Less Curious By Alfie Kohn When Susan Engel, a developmental psychologist and teacher-educator at Williams College, decided to spend a few months observing suburban elementary schools, she had a specific goal in mind: to study variations in rates of children’s curiosity. Which kids asked lots of questions? Which classrooms tended to encourage that? ... Read More

Yes, I know people are still suffering, an unfortunately common circumstance in our unequal society. There is more work to do, always. But Biden did something very smart and the Republicans did everything they could to stop it. I will be beyond disgusted if Trump ekes out another win and takes credit for all this and the media and MAGA happily give it to him. Which they will.

It’s UK publication day for ‘Let Sleeping Cats Lie’, my collection of poems about pets. I wrote the for book children, aged between 7 and 95, and it’s available through all the usual bookshop places. You can find some of the online retailers here: https://linktr.ee/brianbilston There are a few signed copies knocking about, too. Here’s…

The Foreign Secretary's attack on Russian President was in stark contrast to Joe Biden's final speech at the UN General Assembly on 24 September

During a meeting with US media on the UNGA sidelines, Max Blumenthal asked Masoud Pezeshkian about the Biden administration’s accusation this his government was funding pro-Palestine protest in the US, while the newly inaugurated Iranian president campaigned to prevent regional war. The Grayzone’s Max Blumenthal and Anya Parampil were among a select group of media organizations invited to a meeting with Iran’s recently-inaugurated president, Masoud Pezeshkian, on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York City. The […]

The post The Grayzone meets Iranian Pres. Pezeshkian at UN General Assembly first appeared on The Grayzone.

The post The Grayzone meets Iranian Pres. Pezeshkian at UN General Assembly appeared first on The Grayzone.

On the question “how are we to live in an atomic age?” the writer C.S. Lewis declared, in a 1948 essay, that we think “a…

So is courage and cowardice Donald Trump wants Americans to help in his lifelong struggle to work out his daddy issues. Mr. Insecurity has complained for decades that the world (pretty much everyone) has been laughing at us (him). If there is a greater malevolent bundle of psychological maldevelopment walking this earth, we’ve never heard of them because they were not born into $413 million and into the family of a prominent (and crooked) New York City land developer. Just ten days ago, Trump reprised his soul-cry: “THE WORLD IS LAUGHING AT US AS FOOLS, THEY ARE STEALING OUR JOBS AND OUR WEALTH. WE CANNOT LET THEM LAUGH ANY LONGER.” That is, give him the White House and he’ll make THEM all pay. He’ll show you. He’ll get even. He’ll deport anyone he doesn’t execute or jail. Just you wait! Take him at his word.

Imagine yourself in space, looking down on our world and yet unable to return any time soon. Consider it our bad luck, in fact, that Barry “Butch” Wilmore and Sunita Williams were the two Americans sent to the International Space Station, 250 miles above this planet, for a few days in June and now find themselves stuck there until perhaps next February. If only it had been Donald Trump and J.D. Vance. If only indeed. Of course, in some sense, both of them are already in deep space, far beyond where Wilmore and Williams find themselves. And if you don’t believe me, just ask any dog or cat from Springfield, Ohio. Here’s the truly sad thing, though: if Donald Trump... Read more

Source: In a Lost Universe (With You Know Who) appeared first on TomDispatch.com.

Project 2025 wants you caught by surprise Streets in low-lying areas here are already flooded and Hurricane Helene isn’t even here yet. Public schools are closed preemtively. Emergency preparations are underway. But at least we had warnings as close as your TV or computer. A writer some time back recounted an airplane conversation in which his seatmate remarked that the great thing about computers was that you could always turn them off. Considering that they and thousands of others were sitting in aluminum tubes in the air traffic pattern high above a major city, and that the only thing keeping them from colliding and dying was FAA air traffic computers, the writer was pretty sure he didn’t want them turned off. * Project 2025 wants a lot of government turned off.

Dear Applicant,

Thank you for your embarrassingly eager interest in our job opening and for getting to know us over the course of twelve rounds of interviews.

We regret to inform you that we have selected another, far more suitable candidate for the role—a starchy ten-pound sack of Canadian Yukon Gold potatoes, straight from our local Stop & Shop.

While we were impressed with your experience, we all agreed that your energy levels were a bit much for our taste. Your demeanor came across as eager, approachable, and ambitious, while we tend to prefer candidates who are more down-to-earth, dusty, and brooding.

It is potentially worth noting that the hiring manager has a personal attachment to potatoes due to a prized family gratin dauphinois recipe. We are confident this has nothing to do with the decision.

Given our status as a fast-moving startup, we want to ensure that each new addition to the team helps us achieve our goal of increasing our revenue by 500 percent every two weeks. The sack of potatoes, covered in unsightly green sprouts, has proven it understands the importance of growth.

Kingspan was slammed as 'deeply entrenched and persistently dishonesty' in the Grenfell Inquiry but has been kept on in 'sustainable' investment portfolios

To the Editors: In his otherwise excellent essay on the “tragic flaw” in Shakespeare’s tragedies [“No Comfort,” NYR, June 6], Fintan O’Toole falls into the all too common trap of attributing this critical idea to Aristotle. But the words Aristotle uses, hamartia and hamartēma, often mistranslated as “flaw,” do not refer to a character’s psychology […]

The post Not Aristotle’s Fault appeared first on The New York Review of Books.

The Reform club claims to be politically neutral, yet, according to its website 'remains true to its founding principles. In this spirit, it continues to be a place for progressive thinking, social change and the championing of reform'