Reading
The sloth: This made my day!❤️ pic.twitter.com/4vwuuGmtGA — Nature is Amazing ☘️ (@AMAZlNGNATURE) March 15, 2024 Just snoozing… Mama sloth holding on to a tree with her legs for a nap pic.twitter.com/ByLxS3dDk3 — Apurv Anand (@apurv_anand) March 15, 2024 Sloths—the sluggish tree-dwellers of Central and South America—spend their lives in the tropical rain forests. They move through the canopy at a rate of about 40 yards per day, munching on leaves, twigs and buds. Sloths have an exceptionally low metabolic rate and spend 15 to 20 hours per day sleeping. And surprisingly enough, the long-armed animals are excellent swimmers. They occasionally drop from their treetop perches into water for a paddle. It is my spirit animal.
The New Yorker’s Susan Glasser watched Trump’s rally last weekend and her mind was blown. If only we could get everyone to do this at least once: [L]ike so much about Trump’s 2024 campaign, this insane oration was largely overlooked and under-covered, the flood of lies and B.S. seen as old news from a candidate whose greatest political success has been to acclimate a large swath of the population to his ever more dangerous alternate reality. No wonder Biden, trapped in a real world of real problems that defy easy solutions, is struggling to defeat him. This is partly a category error. Though we persist in treating the 2024 election as a race between an incumbent and a challenger, it is not that so much as a contest between two incumbents: Biden, the actual President, and Trump, the forever-President of Red America’s fever dreams. But Trump, while he presents himself as the country’s rightful leader, gets nothing like the intense scrutiny for his speeches that is now focussed on the current occupant of the Oval Office. The norms and traditions that Trump is intent on smashing are, once again, benefitting him.
Neoconservatives only hate “interference” in Israel when it means anything other than blank-check support for apartheid and slaughtering Palestinians.
The post Outrage at Chuck Schumer’s Speech: The Pro-Israel Right Wants to Eat Its Cake Too appeared first on The Intercept.
Practiced mostly by women, this fishing tradition is thousands of years old. Can it survive?
The post The Plight of Japan’s Ama Divers appeared first on Nautilus.
The military isn’t properly tracking what happens to the billions’ worth of weapons being sent to Ukraine, even though the country has a history of illicit arms diversions.
Forensics has reached the final frontier, and could be used to solve future space accidents—or crimes.
The post How Does Blood Splatter in Space? appeared first on Nautilus.
He claims that Trump isn’t planning to follow the “conservative agenda” he followed during their first term but that’s obviously nonsense. He’s gotten more fascist but he was fascist to begin with. But Pence not endorsing is a real rebuke to some of the other cowards like McConnell and Sununu who have decided to keep boot licking for no good reason. He was Trump’s adoring VP for four long years and he’s found the courage to just say no. Congratulations Mike. After much soul searching and attempts to rationalize helping with the coup attempt, you finally did the right thing. And I guess you liked how that felt. Or maybe you just understand that your political life as a MAGA cultist is over so you might as well let your normal flag fly. Either way, welcome to the Resistance, You may find that it feels good to be able to look yourself in the mirror every morning.
I just read Barb McQuade’s new book. Attack from Within. How Disinformation is Sabotaging America. I had planned to go see her in person at the Commonwealth Club and ask her some questions, but it was sold out, plus I knew what would happen, the first person at the mic would say, “I don’t have a question so much as a 3 part comment ” and talk for 5 minutes.” (I’m guilty of that myself, I even used that phrasing as a joke line with my friend Cory Doctorow and Annalee Newitz at his book reading for Red Team Blues. ) My goal when asking book authors questions is to help them amplify the parts I see as important in a memorable way. Especially for an audience that needs to hear it, but will likely never read the book. So when I heard Barb was going to be on the Nicole Sandler show I wrote Nicole and said, “I think the most important point Barb makes in the book is that with social media our old metaphors of speech & debate are out of date and they are being used against us. Please get Barb to repeat this, with examples!
New evidence uncovered in a Byline Times #MediaToo investigation questions the assault charge that led to the TV presenter's suicide
Here’s an interesting little insight into the workings of the FBI. You know, the agency that the Republicans want to de-fund? Maybe they need to rethink that seeing as it’s filled with MAGA insurrectionists: Hi, it’s Jason Leopold with the second installment of my new weekly newsletter, FOIA Files. If you haven’t yet, sign up now to get it delivered to your inbox every Friday. As news of the Mar-a-Lago raid unfolded on the morning of Aug. 8, 2022, it unsurprisingly drew fierce reaction from Trump, his biggest backers, and many Republican members of Congress. But a cache of documents I recently obtained from the FBI shows just how much the historic event roiled some of the bureau’s rank and file, forcing FBI Director Christopher Wray to engage in damage control. “Did this really just happen? Am I dreaming? The FBI served a Search Warrant on a former president?” wrote an incredulous bureau employee in an email that was sent to the FBI’s acting ombudsman, Chauncenette Morey, shortly after the Mar-a-Lago search. “If he took documents, give him a call and ask for them back. Like … Seriously? My own agency ….
The sweetest words in the English language: I told you so. French submarines, the first of which were scheduled for delivery in 2034 under a $90bn program with France’s Naval Group – before the contract was ripped up by the Morrison government – were lethal and affordable. Now we know that the US is very Continue reading »
Europe and Australia are facing a common existential threat: a creeping irrelevance caused, on the one hand, by our failure properly to invest and, on the other hand, by our ill-considered slide from a strategic dependence on the United States to a non-strategic, self-defeating servility to Washington’s policy agenda. Yanis Varoufakis’s address at the National Continue reading »
Since the 1980s I have been urged by my Labor Party colleagues to keep political messages simple and to listen to the local community. This practical advice was welcome and fairly accurate throughout my political career in and out of parliament. Nevertheless, I also discovered that it was wise to never underestimate my electorate which Continue reading »
Not unexpectedly, the AUKUS nuclear-powered submarine project has run into reality as Virginia class production slows down, leaving Australia with no Defence policy. A huge strategic failure, if endorsed government assessments are believed, which has left Australia vulnerable and dependent on America. The 2000 White Paper’s highest priority was to “be able to defend Australia Continue reading »
In Asian media this week: ‘Inexorable, predictable’ proceedings against Move Forward. Plus: South Korea’s new envoy at heart of political row; Xi revives Mao’s party-control dictum; Fukushima meltdown fuel still a mystery; China’s tai chi diplomatic culture; Singapore writer in long Taylor Swift gloat. In a slow-motion replay of the main contest in Thai politics Continue reading »
There has been significant media discussion (including P&I) of Defence Minister Marles’ recent announcement of the Surface Ship Review for the RAN – a step towards remedying the Defence procurement shambles inherited by the Albanese government and conducted by yet another retired US admiral! But there has been scant attention to the rabbit out of the Continue reading »
There is no argument that funding for aged care has to increase or that equitable funding requires that those with higher means pay more. The recommendations of the Aged Care Funding Taskforce fail to provide solutions on both counts, for older people needing care and their carers, providers, taxpayers, or government. The first fail is Continue reading »
The recent announcement by the Federal Minister for Education, Jason Clare, that the government wants to raise the percentage of young people achieving a tertiary education to 80% points to the huge stakes at issue in the current negotiations between the Federal and state governments on the next school funding agreements. To have any chance Continue reading »
With fuel emission standards Toyota Land Cruisers to cost more than Lamborghinis, economic advice from a wise lady for Treasurer Chalmers, consumer advice from a Minnesota Lutheran. Read on for the weekly roundup of links to articles, podcasts, reports and other media on current economic and political issues. Care of the aged Financing a growing Continue reading »
Beijing has been slow to address the visa and e-payment woes of foreign travellers, and some officials remain complacent about the exodus of foreign investment. China’s Luckin Coffee, founded in 2017, is the country’s largest coffee chain, with more stores and higher revenue than Starbucks. Its cashless grab-and-go model, where customers order on the app Continue reading »
So many people have tuned out of politics over the past three years because of the trauma of the Trump years, the pandemic and simple exhaustion and relief. As a result they are uninformed. Will Bunch writes: The biggest reason for the missing alarm about the prospect of Trump 47 might simply be a lack of information. The New Republic’s Greg Sargent recently reported on a poll of 1,200 voters deemed gettable for Biden in three swing states, including Pennsylvania, and found the vast majority didn’t know about Trump’s “dictator for a day” comments, or that he’d echoed Adolf Hitler in calling enemies “vermin” and claiming migrants are “poisoning the blood” of America. The pollster said only 31% of persuadable voters had heard much about these statements. You can call it voter apathy, but a lot of the blame belongs to a mainstream media that’s not banging the pots and pans like it should be and remains much more obsessed about the horse race odds of who wins the election than the stakes of an undemocratic presidency. Sargent says this presents an opportunity: That’s maddening for obvious reasons.
The Picture of Dorian Gray
by Oscar Wilde
A young man of beauty and grace
Tries to shield his good name from disgrace.
He looks like a saint
While he withers in paint,
But he still finds himself losing face.
Dracula
by Bram Stoker
A solicitor pays his respects
To a count whom no surface reflects,
And who moves to the UK
To follow his outré
Desire to suck on some necks.
Ulysses
by James Joyce
A lass who keeps raising her dress
Is awash with erotic distress.
’Spite her wandering womb,
Should she keep Leo Bloom?
Why yes, she says, yes she will, yes.
“A Modest Proposal”
by Jonathan Swift
A man caused a hullabaloo
By posting this practical view:
Economics call for
Irish babes of the poor
To be served to the rich as ragout.
Sherlock Holmes
by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
The world’s most proficient detective
Has deductive techniques most effective.
(Though his Watson stays close
With an opium dose
Lest Holmes hit him with an invective.)
One of the first things people ask you when you say you’re writing a book for O’Reilly Media is: “What animal is going to be on the cover?” O’Reilly books are famous for their lovely animal drawings, in rich detail, either in black-or-white or colour. Books are sometimes referred to by their cover animal, like … Continue reading Cover Animal For ActivityPub Book