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To outsiders, my multimillion-dollar artisanal pickle company may look like an overnight success, but I can assure you it was the result of a lot of hard work. Yes, my father is the number-one producer of pickles worldwide, but please don’t be so crass as to suggest that my success has anything to do with his. I make sweet pickles, not dill—it’s an entirely different industry.

I’ve always had a passion for pickles: eating them, having my personal chef cook exclusively with them when I’m on a pickle cleanse, chucking them at mouthy butlers. But it wasn’t until I was drowning my sorrows in a jar of bread and butters after my dog therapy business went under that I thought of starting my own brand.

My best friend Bitsy took one look at the empty jars around me and said, “Mitsy, you love pickles so much. Why don’t you just make your own? Your dad controls the Big Dill lobby, and your mom has a monopoly on jar manufacturing.” Bitsy always has the best ideas—except for the one about opening a dog therapy business.

May 23, 2024 The Siren Song of “Evidence-Based” Instruction By Alfie Kohn I’m geeky enough to get a little excited each time a psychology or education journal lands in my mailbox.1 Indeed, I’ve spent a fair portion of my life sorting through, critically analyzing, and writing about social science research. Even my books that are intended for general readers contain, ... Read More

Open Rights Group has called on the government to drop the Data Protection and Digital Information (DPDI) Bill following the Prime Minister’s announcement that there will be a general election on 4 July. The Bill, which is due to go to report stage in the Lords in June, still contains many controversial proposals, which would […]

The figure has surged compared to last year's local elections, raising concerns over discrimination, the UK's leading election monitoring group has warned

Three weeks before the European parliament elections, the global far-right gathered in Madrid last Sunday in an unprecedented display of its international coordination. Hosted by Spain’s neo-Francoist Vox, the three-day event ended in a mass rally with speakers that included France’s Marine Le Pen, Portugal’s André Ventura, Argentine president Javier Milei, Israeli Likud minister Amichai […]

The otherwise unremarkable insect from Mexico that’s used to make the most dazzling and coveted crimson colour

- by Aeon Video

Watch at Aeon

When quantum mechanics posed a threat to the Marxist doctrine of materialism, communist physicists sought to reconcile the two

- by Jim Baggott

Read at Aeon

Appreciating the world is random can foster perseverance, gratitude for our own luck and empathy for the plight of others

- by Mark R Rank

Read at Psyche

The Prime Minister thanked the hi-vis jacket-wearing men for their "important" questions without declaring that they were local Conservative Councillors Ross Hills and Ben Hall-Evans

The Government is accused of pushing public bodies to go tougher on protesters

The Prime Minister's admission means the Government's "dream" of sending refugees to the brutal Rwandan dictatorship looks all but over

Marco Garofalo, Giovanni Rosso and Roger Vicquery Most international trade is denominated in dominant currencies such as the US dollar. What explains the adoption of dominant currency pricing and what are its macroeconomic implications? In a recent paper, we explore a rare instance of transition in aggregate export invoicing patterns. In the aftermath of the … Continue reading Selling England (no longer) by the pound: currency-mismatches and the dollarisation of UK exports →

Matt Gallagher watched Guardian columnist George Monbiot make the case for a 'politics of belonging' – but how to get there?

Companies are exploiting the First Amendment to undermine rules that protect consumers and deter corruption.

The Australian – Productivity Commission – was created in 1998 as a result of an amalgamation between the Industry Commission (established 1990), the Bureau of Industry Economics (established 1978) and the Economic Planning Advisory Commission (established 1983). As you will read below, its antecedents go back to 1921. The Commission is one of many government-funded…

One online petition to reverse the ban had over 40,000 signatures, with another exceeding 10,000 signatures before the Cumberland Council overturned its ban in a decisive vote of 12 to 2.

There is no longer any doubt I guess someone at the beach must have called Mrs Alito the c-word too. The NY Times reports: Last summer, two years after an upside-down American flag was flown outside the Virginia home of Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr., another provocative symbol was displayed at his vacation house in New Jersey, according to interviews and photographs. This time, it was the “Appeal to Heaven” flag, which, like the inverted U.S. flag, was carried by rioters at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Also known as the Pine Tree flag, it dates back to the Revolutionary War, but largely fell into obscurity until recent years and is now a symbol of support for former President Donald J. Trump, for a religious strand of the “Stop the Steal” campaign and for a push to remake American government in Christian terms. Three photographs obtained by The New York Times, along with accounts from a half-dozen neighbors and passers-by, show that the Appeal to Heaven flag was aloft at the Alito home on Long Beach Island in July and September of 2023. A Google street view image from late August also shows the flag.

And soon, maybe not any part of Gaza. (Bear in mind that what they were feeding before was averaging something north of 200 calories a day according to some estimates I’ve seen.)

The United Nations suspended food distribution in the southern Gaza city of Rafah on Tuesday due to a lack of supplies and an untenable security situation caused by Israel’s expanding military operation. The U.N. warned that humanitarian operations across the territory were nearing collapse…

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The U.N.’s World Food Program said it was running out of food for central Gaza, where hundreds of thousands of people are now living.

Source - Patreon

Source - Patreon

Source - Patreon

No more rainbow colors, damn it! Red, white and blue ONLY for Freedom Summer. By the way, Florida Freedom extends to your dietary choices as well. So far this year, lawmakers in Florida and Alabama have made it a criminal act to manufacture and sell lab-grown meat in their states. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) went first, signing a bill earlier this month and warning cellular agriculture companies: “Take your fake lab-grown meat elsewhere … we’re not doing that in the state of Florida.” It isn’t actually available but damn it, red states are banning it anyway. Apparently, the mere idea of saving the planet and making it possible to not have to actually kill animals for animal protein is oppressive. I feel so free, don’t you?