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A 2023 Column Contest grand-prize winner, Laurence Pevsner’s Sorry Not Sorry investigates why we’re sick of everyone apologizing all the time—and how the collapse of the public apology leaves little room for forgiveness and grace in our politics and culture.

Late last month, Stephen Colbert made an unusual statement on The Late Show. It wasn’t quite an apology—more like sorry’s mysterious cousin.

Colbert offered a short preamble about how he tells a lot of jokes—mostly whatever’s in the public discourse. Then he got into it: “For the past six weeks to two months, everybody has been talking about the mystery of Kate Middleton’s disappearance from public life,” Colbert said. “Two weeks ago, we did some jokes about that mystery, and all the attendant froo-frah in the reporting about that.”

Republicans in disarray Republicans want desperately to control the national narrative around the presidential election. They need voters and the press focused on any number of subjects not-Donald Trump and his visible mental decay: an immigration “crisis,” inflation, the economy, Joe Biden’s age, sexual identity politics, election “fraud,” etc. It’s just that their MAGA base keeps spitting out the bit and Donald Trump cannot stay on his own message. Trump’s campaign finance criminal trial in Manhattan begins on Monday despite his every effort to derail it. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-MAGA) threatens to oust yet another Republican speaker of the ungovernable House. GOP-controlled states keep tripling down on abortion restrictions. Arizona’s state Supreme Court just reactivated a Civil War abortion law.

Allium Cepa

A homeopathic remedy used to treat symptoms of the common cold and allergies. It would also work nicely as the name of a kind, older woman in a YA dystopian novel who is deathly allergic to scientifically backed medicine.

Arnica

A homeopathic remedy used to treat muscle aches. To be fair, this one kind of works. But for the love of God, take some damn Advil.

Scientist #2

A minor character in Divergent. I bet she doesn’t believe in homeopathy.

Agaricus Muscarius

A homeopathic remedy. But if you’re writing a YA dystopian novel, this would work for the name of the protagonist’s harp-prodigy brother, who is killed by the authoritarian government in chapter three. Just spitballing here.

Clove

Both. But the remedy will make your stomach ache worse, and the character was killed in The Hunger Games, so, all around, kind of a dud. Instead, try Pepto Bismol and 27 Dresses.

Any battlefield use of the software would be a dramatic turnaround for OpenAI, which describes its mission as developing AI that can benefit all of humanity.

The post Microsoft Pitched OpenAI’s DALL-E as Battlefield Tool for U.S. Military appeared first on The Intercept.

The first quarter of 2024 has seen a fourfold increase in tenants investigating how to notify landlords of their intention to strike

Why is the Indian Government turning a blind eye to the 'civil war' raging in the northeastern state?

Yoav Har-Even’s direct involvement in supporting the IDF operation in Gaza, despite also being tasked to lead the investigation into the conduct of the operation, is an obvious conflict of interest

Christopher Eccleston is taking a break from Doctor Who audio dramas to co-star in BBC Radio 4's new version of The Man Who Fell to Earth.

‘God gave me enough power to fight for my rights’ – hear the voices of women across Afghanistan over a year of Taliban rule

- by Aeon Video

Watch at Aeon

Protests at universities are now being met with a wave of censorship and suppression, targeting students most directly.

The post Amid Gaza War, College Campuses Become Free Speech “Testing Ground” appeared first on The Intercept.

Whether you are 20 or 90, each moment of life presents an opportunity to focus on what really matters to you

- by Berit Lewis

Read at Psyche

Gas and coffee prices. Ice cream production. GDP. You can find all sorts of data with the St. Louis Fed’s free data tool, FRED.

There is no natural law stating that bullies have to dominate our lives. By George Monbiot, published in the Guardian 30th March 2024 The researchers claim to be surprised by their findings, but is it really so remarkable? A large and impressive study of children’s progress into adulthood found that those who display bullying and […]

It’s Wednesday and we have discussion on a few topics today. The first relates to the new agreement between the European Parliament and the European Council that was announced on February 10, 2024, which purports to reform the fiscal rules structure that has crippled the Member States of the EMU since inception. The reality is…

In science, courage is to follow the motto of enlightenment and Kant’s dictum — Sapere Aude!  To use your own understanding, having the ​courage to think for yourself and question ‘received opinion,’ authority or orthodoxy. In our daily lives, courage is a capability to confront fear, as when in front of the powerful and mighty, not […]

Source - Patreon

Source - Patreon

Source - Patreon

He’s right. It’s outright corruption. This long expose of Jared Kushner’s corrupt foreign business dealings (NY Times gift link) will make you reach for the tequila. How are these people getting away with this stuff? Jared Kushner’s investment fund is not especially large by global finance standards. But as he gets it fully up and running, each step is bringing with it ethical issues that would only grow if his father-in-law, Donald J. Trump, should win another term as president. His $3 billion fund is financed almost entirely from overseas investors with whom he worked when he served as a senior adviser in the Trump White House. He has taken money from government wealth funds in Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, as well as from Terry Gou, a founder of Foxconn, the Taiwan-based electronics manufacturer, whose role in Mr. Kushner’s firm has not been previously disclosed. In total, 99 percent of the money placed with him by investors has come from foreign sources, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission in late March. Mr.

You’re not going to like it Trump only has one economic idea: tariffs. Oh, he’ll give tax cuts for himself and for other rich people in return for donations and favors, of course. But his only “economic” idea is that tariffs force other countries to stop laughing at us and bring in money for the government which is 100% nonsense. His tariffs cost the government when it is forced to compensate American producers for their losses when countries retaliate and the cost of the tariffs are born by consumers who pay higher prices for goods. Duh. Former President Donald J. Trump is planning an aggressive expansion of his first-term efforts to upend America’s trade policies if he returns to power in 2025 — including imposing a new tax on “most imported goods” that would risk alienating allies and igniting a global trade war. […] Essentially, Mr. Trump’s trade agenda aims at backing the United States away from integration with the global economy and steering the country toward becoming more self-contained: producing a larger share of what it consumes and wielding its might through one-on-one dealings with other countries.