Monday Media Musings: February 2026 highlights
Mar. 9th, 2026 03:55 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
owlmooseClair Obscur: Expedition 33: I wanted to love this game, but the most I could muster up was an appreciation for its artistry, world-building, and ambition. Too much of the story was left clouded, hidden behind impossible bosses, and character motivations kept opaque to preserve surprises for the audience. ( Massive spoilers behind the cut. )
On top of that, T and I both found the combat difficult in an unsatisfying way, and having to learn not just entirely different skill trees but power-up mechanisms for every character felt unnecessary. Eventually we turned the difficulty level down, which helped, but in the end it felt like we were just slogging through the final battles to get to the ending and be done with it. Disappointing.Plur1bus: Like many folks, I was eagerly anticipating this one, based on my love for Rhea Seehorn in Better Call Saul, and it lived up to that expectation -- although in other ways I wasn't sure what to expect, and it certainly kept me guessing throughout. It's hard to say much without spoilers, so I'll limit my thoughts here to being just generally impressed by it, and blown away by Seehorn's performance, and also by Karolina Wydra, who played Zosia, a tough role on several levels. Excited to see where it goes!
The 2026 Winter Olympics: Despite all the problems, I do still love the Olympics -- getting to watch and learn about different sports, witness joy and heartbreak and feats of incredible athleticism, following developing storylines and experience the unexpected. I dipped in and out of a lot of events, but I ended up spending the most time on curling. T is a fan -- it's perhaps the only Olympic sport that he'll actively sit down and watch with me -- and because the athletes are all miked, you can hear them discussing strategy with each other, which is really interesting. I also caught some figure skating; in particular, the men's and women's free programs were fascinating case studies in the folly of expectations, and I genuinely loved watching the two gold medal winners put in the performances of their lives.
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phys_environment_feedGlobal levels of physical activity have not improved over the past two decades, despite widespread policy development and adoption, and large disparities persist across gender and socioeconomic groups. The findings from three papers published in Nature Medicine and Nature Health indicate that current efforts to promote participation in physical activity are insufficient and that coordinated action is needed to ensure that physical activity contributes to public health and wider societal goals, including climate resilience.
My day
Mar. 9th, 2026 10:43 pmcosmolinguistI had a lot to do today: a kinda tricky day at work, walking Teddy, making dinner, visiting a friend, and I wanted to go to the gym.
And I did all of it! And some chores like moving heavy things around, finalizing the grocery delivery that'll come tomorrow, and doing laundry.
Feels good.
March 9, 2026 - my 59th year on this earth starts today...
Mar. 9th, 2026 05:44 pmshadowkat59 years...doesn't feel that long somehow. Good news - I only have three-four years until retirement now. Yippee! (Actually it may be more like three and a half, we'll see, it depends a lot on finances and crazy org, and crazy union.) Although the body feels it. What's that saying? It's not the years, it's the mileage? I always consider my birthday - my own personal New Year's Day. Since our years on this earth and for things like pension, medicare, senior discounts, and retirement are tracked by the date of our birth.
It's been a good birthday so far. The Universe gifted me with a sunny spring day, with barely a cloud marring the pristine robin's egg blue surface, plus Daylight Savings Time - so the day is ever so slightly longer, with sunset around 6:45 pm - granted no flowers or green trees as of yet, but I bought some reddish purple carnations to fill a vase in my living room window and a smaller vase in the bathroom. Also, took a long walk to Courtyelou Road in Ditmas Park, and browsed a smaller bookstore (which had comics, and mostly books by minority authors), the Brooklyn Artrery, and just meandered. Didn't buy anything.
Finished Merrily We Roll Along - which I rented for $9.99 from Apple TV (it's also available on Prime for the same amount). It's the 2024 smash hit Broadway musical revival by Stephen Sondheim, Martha Friedman, George Kaufman and Moss Hart - starring Jonathon Groff, Daniel Radcliff, and Lindsey Mendez. It's much better than expected. Daniel Radcliff blew me away during his number Franklin Shepard, Inc. Also features the classic, "Not a Day Goes By". I found it weirdly comforting - in that it shows how friendships can dissolve over time bit by bit due to various things, but mainly that the friends don't want the same things or have the same central focus. ( Read more... )
Also been binging Count of Monte Cristo on PBS. Had the last of the three slices of Birthday cake from BY THE WAY BAKERY (courtesy of Whole Foods in the Financial District). Tonight - am considering having the freshly made artichoke and spinach gluten free ravioli.
[And I've been enjoying the three birthday gifts that I received - which are: ( Read more... )]
Was considering renting another movie ("Hamnet by Chole Zhao") - but I may hold off, it could very well become available for free - soon enough.
Question a Day Meme - March Catch-Up
4. Have you ever been in a road traffic accident (either as a driver, pedestrian or on a bike)?
Not that I recall? I've witnessed quite a few.
5. How many local birds can you name?
Robin, Bluejay, Pigeon, Whitetail Hawk, Bald Eagle, Sparrow, Cardinal, Crows, Ravens...technical names? No. I have enough issues remembering the names of humans, let alone names humans give specific birds.
6. Have you ever seen a dinosaur skeleton?
Yes, at the Museum of Natural History in NYC
7. Do you embrace technology or prefer things the way they used to be (or a bit of both)?
See birthday gifts. So yes, I've embraced it. I resist for a bit, give up, and embrace. I don't go overboard. I have co-workers who update their iphones and headphones and watches every year. I don't. Also, I learned from my parents to wait a while before trying the latest gadget - like maybe a couple of years. (We learned this lesson - when we were among the first to get the 8 track player (I even owned a mini-one) - which was the newest gadget and my father was convinced it would take off. It well...didn't. So after that colossal failure - our family waits a few years before getting the gadget.)
8. It’s International Women’s Day – can you name any famous female artists, musicians, scientists or authors?
Octavia Butler, Chole Zhao, Marie Curie, Billie Holiday, Aretha Franklin,
Kate Bush, The Runaways, The Go Gos, Cyndie Lauper, Lady Gaga, Toni Morrison, Jane Austen
9. As it’s ‘Check Your Batteries Day’, when was the last time you checked your stock of batteries? Or, do you just buy them when you need them?
I have batteries that will last at least ten years in my fire/carbon dioxide alarm. So not an issue. They are too hard to replace - so I got one last year that has batteries that last close to fifteen years.
It's been a good birthday so far. The Universe gifted me with a sunny spring day, with barely a cloud marring the pristine robin's egg blue surface, plus Daylight Savings Time - so the day is ever so slightly longer, with sunset around 6:45 pm - granted no flowers or green trees as of yet, but I bought some reddish purple carnations to fill a vase in my living room window and a smaller vase in the bathroom. Also, took a long walk to Courtyelou Road in Ditmas Park, and browsed a smaller bookstore (which had comics, and mostly books by minority authors), the Brooklyn Artrery, and just meandered. Didn't buy anything.
Finished Merrily We Roll Along - which I rented for $9.99 from Apple TV (it's also available on Prime for the same amount). It's the 2024 smash hit Broadway musical revival by Stephen Sondheim, Martha Friedman, George Kaufman and Moss Hart - starring Jonathon Groff, Daniel Radcliff, and Lindsey Mendez. It's much better than expected. Daniel Radcliff blew me away during his number Franklin Shepard, Inc. Also features the classic, "Not a Day Goes By". I found it weirdly comforting - in that it shows how friendships can dissolve over time bit by bit due to various things, but mainly that the friends don't want the same things or have the same central focus. ( Read more... )
Also been binging Count of Monte Cristo on PBS. Had the last of the three slices of Birthday cake from BY THE WAY BAKERY (courtesy of Whole Foods in the Financial District). Tonight - am considering having the freshly made artichoke and spinach gluten free ravioli.
[And I've been enjoying the three birthday gifts that I received - which are: ( Read more... )]
Was considering renting another movie ("Hamnet by Chole Zhao") - but I may hold off, it could very well become available for free - soon enough.
Question a Day Meme - March Catch-Up
4. Have you ever been in a road traffic accident (either as a driver, pedestrian or on a bike)?
Not that I recall? I've witnessed quite a few.
5. How many local birds can you name?
Robin, Bluejay, Pigeon, Whitetail Hawk, Bald Eagle, Sparrow, Cardinal, Crows, Ravens...technical names? No. I have enough issues remembering the names of humans, let alone names humans give specific birds.
6. Have you ever seen a dinosaur skeleton?
Yes, at the Museum of Natural History in NYC
7. Do you embrace technology or prefer things the way they used to be (or a bit of both)?
See birthday gifts. So yes, I've embraced it. I resist for a bit, give up, and embrace. I don't go overboard. I have co-workers who update their iphones and headphones and watches every year. I don't. Also, I learned from my parents to wait a while before trying the latest gadget - like maybe a couple of years. (We learned this lesson - when we were among the first to get the 8 track player (I even owned a mini-one) - which was the newest gadget and my father was convinced it would take off. It well...didn't. So after that colossal failure - our family waits a few years before getting the gadget.)
8. It’s International Women’s Day – can you name any famous female artists, musicians, scientists or authors?
Octavia Butler, Chole Zhao, Marie Curie, Billie Holiday, Aretha Franklin,
Kate Bush, The Runaways, The Go Gos, Cyndie Lauper, Lady Gaga, Toni Morrison, Jane Austen
9. As it’s ‘Check Your Batteries Day’, when was the last time you checked your stock of batteries? Or, do you just buy them when you need them?
I have batteries that will last at least ten years in my fire/carbon dioxide alarm. So not an issue. They are too hard to replace - so I got one last year that has batteries that last close to fifteen years.
📼
Mar. 9th, 2026 07:11 pmsoemandPlanning my next mixtape side has me leaning into a Velvet Underground atmosphere—moody, droning, but without the full Cale‑era screech. I want that cool, shadowy pulse, not the viola‑meltdown energy. Still, I might slip in a “Heroin” demo, ideally one without the trademark viola wail, just to nod toward Cale’s ghost in the mix.
Monday Media - March 9 Edition
Mar. 9th, 2026 05:19 pmlebateleurGames: Pretty much the typical go-tos.
Music: We have seen some great shows. The first was Peaches ( Cut because Peaches. ) Everything about it: the costumes, the choreography, the energy, was so good. Absolutely phenomenal show. A++ please don't make us wait another three years before you come back again.
The following day we saw Timecop1983 with Bad Dreamers and Brent Michael Woods opening. Woods is very much of the "Richard Marx with an acoustic guitar" mode of mid-80s nostalgia pastiche, which is not my thing per se, but he is very talented at it and thus fun to watch live. Bad Dreamers joined the tour at the last minute when the scheduled opening act was unable to get US visas; I'd been aware of him through his vocals on a bunch of Timecop tracks, and he was just as good live. (And I particularly appreciated his insistence that the venue turn the stage lights off so that he could see the audience despite it's meaning that the audience could not see him.
Timecop1983 was fabulous, as expected. Just a really energetic show that sounded as good or better than the albums live. He was joined by Josh Dally on guitar and vocals as well as a killer live drummer, which really added to the energy (the drummer was clearly having the time of his life), and Dally and Timecop had great onstage chemistry, with Dally providing the garrulous crowd engagement and running commentary, and Timecop the well-timed laconic one-liners. (Dally also graciously handled the very drunk woman in the crowd who kept loudly insisting he go for drinks with her after the show despite the conspicuous wedding band on his hand.)
They played a good selection from their back catalogue as well as some new tracks we weren't familiar with, as well as a few numbers with one or both of Bad Dreamers and Woods on the stage with them. This too was an excellent show and I will certainly see any or all of these acts if they're ever in town again.
Podcasts/Articles: I listened to The Women's Podcast episode The Digital War on Women and How To Fight Back, which was unsurprisingly as horrifying as the title suggests. The panel members were (rightly) so energized about how vile this stuff is that they were unfortunately often not as clear about explaining to the audience what it was they were discussing as one would have wished but they made up for it by explicitly pointing out that the primary solution to all this shit and enshitification is to stop. Just stop. Get off these platforms and go do something else with your time. (That said, how you convince anyone under 15 to do so...)
For long form articles, I read:
Roleplaying: Nothing. The GC is DMing some one shots, but since they're on the days that I am step dancing and I can't be in two places at once, dancing it is 🩰
Television: When the TV's on, pretty much all AEW, all the time. The pendulum is very much swinging back toward Restaurant Quality 😁 these days. Of course, the usual suspects (Hangman, Mox, Young Bucks) are still there with predictable plotlines, but everything going on around them has been great. FTR and Stokely steal the show for every promo and match they're in. You wouldn't necessarily think Brody King vs. Swerve would make sense but it does, and Prince Nana is clearly having the time of his life. The Brawling Birds won me over with the throwback name alone, but they are more than living up to its promise. Jet Speed and Speedball are great. Kyle Fletcher is great. The IInspiration should annoy the living bejeezus out of me but they were hysterical and I wish they'd got five times the screen/ring time, TK please bring them back. Don Callas is as oily and entertaining as ever. The Thunder Rosa vs. Thekla match was fire.
Speaking of wrestling, we also finished out Dimension 20: Titan Takedown group watch, which had a very satisfying (if a bit railroaded, probably due to time constraints) conclusion. Humor, action, lore and iterating in-jokes, and some really affecting emotional character arcs: this is what I want from wrestling and from a D&D game, and this D:20 season had them all in spades. I enjoyed the nostalgia of (most of) The New Day and Bailey, and while I don't watch WWE anymore, it absolutely sold me on Chelsea Green and I hope she makes it over to AEW some day soon.
Video Games: The gaming computer is acting up *sigh* so nothing these past few weeks. We did get Vampire: The Masquerade Bloodlines 2, which seems to have inspired divergent takes among the people who've played it, so we'll see.
これで以上です。
Music: We have seen some great shows. The first was Peaches ( Cut because Peaches. ) Everything about it: the costumes, the choreography, the energy, was so good. Absolutely phenomenal show. A++ please don't make us wait another three years before you come back again.
The following day we saw Timecop1983 with Bad Dreamers and Brent Michael Woods opening. Woods is very much of the "Richard Marx with an acoustic guitar" mode of mid-80s nostalgia pastiche, which is not my thing per se, but he is very talented at it and thus fun to watch live. Bad Dreamers joined the tour at the last minute when the scheduled opening act was unable to get US visas; I'd been aware of him through his vocals on a bunch of Timecop tracks, and he was just as good live. (And I particularly appreciated his insistence that the venue turn the stage lights off so that he could see the audience despite it's meaning that the audience could not see him.
Timecop1983 was fabulous, as expected. Just a really energetic show that sounded as good or better than the albums live. He was joined by Josh Dally on guitar and vocals as well as a killer live drummer, which really added to the energy (the drummer was clearly having the time of his life), and Dally and Timecop had great onstage chemistry, with Dally providing the garrulous crowd engagement and running commentary, and Timecop the well-timed laconic one-liners. (Dally also graciously handled the very drunk woman in the crowd who kept loudly insisting he go for drinks with her after the show despite the conspicuous wedding band on his hand.)
They played a good selection from their back catalogue as well as some new tracks we weren't familiar with, as well as a few numbers with one or both of Bad Dreamers and Woods on the stage with them. This too was an excellent show and I will certainly see any or all of these acts if they're ever in town again.
Podcasts/Articles: I listened to The Women's Podcast episode The Digital War on Women and How To Fight Back, which was unsurprisingly as horrifying as the title suggests. The panel members were (rightly) so energized about how vile this stuff is that they were unfortunately often not as clear about explaining to the audience what it was they were discussing as one would have wished but they made up for it by explicitly pointing out that the primary solution to all this shit and enshitification is to stop. Just stop. Get off these platforms and go do something else with your time. (That said, how you convince anyone under 15 to do so...)
For long form articles, I read:
- Gisèle Pelicot on rape, courage and her ex-husband: ‘He was loved by everyone. That’s what is so terrifying’
- Inside voice: what can our thoughts reveal about the nature of consciousness
- The new science of death: brain activity, consciousness, and near death experience
- They pushed so many lies about recycling: the fight to stop big oil pumping billions more into plastics
Roleplaying: Nothing. The GC is DMing some one shots, but since they're on the days that I am step dancing and I can't be in two places at once, dancing it is 🩰
Television: When the TV's on, pretty much all AEW, all the time. The pendulum is very much swinging back toward Restaurant Quality 😁 these days. Of course, the usual suspects (Hangman, Mox, Young Bucks) are still there with predictable plotlines, but everything going on around them has been great. FTR and Stokely steal the show for every promo and match they're in. You wouldn't necessarily think Brody King vs. Swerve would make sense but it does, and Prince Nana is clearly having the time of his life. The Brawling Birds won me over with the throwback name alone, but they are more than living up to its promise. Jet Speed and Speedball are great. Kyle Fletcher is great. The IInspiration should annoy the living bejeezus out of me but they were hysterical and I wish they'd got five times the screen/ring time, TK please bring them back. Don Callas is as oily and entertaining as ever. The Thunder Rosa vs. Thekla match was fire.
Speaking of wrestling, we also finished out Dimension 20: Titan Takedown group watch, which had a very satisfying (if a bit railroaded, probably due to time constraints) conclusion. Humor, action, lore and iterating in-jokes, and some really affecting emotional character arcs: this is what I want from wrestling and from a D&D game, and this D:20 season had them all in spades. I enjoyed the nostalgia of (most of) The New Day and Bailey, and while I don't watch WWE anymore, it absolutely sold me on Chelsea Green and I hope she makes it over to AEW some day soon.
Video Games: The gaming computer is acting up *sigh* so nothing these past few weeks. We did get Vampire: The Masquerade Bloodlines 2, which seems to have inspired divergent takes among the people who've played it, so we'll see.
これで以上です。
Quad Cortex mini amp modeler: All the power, half the size
Mar. 9th, 2026 08:36 pmarstechnica_feedAt this January's massive NAMM music tech show in Los Angeles, six products won "best of show" awards. Several of them went to major music and electronic brands like Yamaha and Boss, but one of the six went to Neural DSP, a much smaller company started in 2017 by Chilean immigrants to Finland.
From its base in the Helsinki area, Neural has made itself an expert in the use of machine learning, robots, and impulse response technology to automate the construction of incredibly lifelike guitar amp modeling software. It quickly jumped into the top ranks of an industry dominated by brands like Universal Audio, Kemper, Line 6, and Fractal. For a hundred bucks, you could buy one of the company's plugins and sound like a guitar god with a $10,000 recording chain of amps, cabinets, effects pedals, and microphones.
In 2020, Neural branched out into hardware, putting its tech not in your computer but in a floor-based box covered with footswitches and called the Quad Cortex. While the company's plugins could each replace one entire pedalboard of gear—plus a few amps and cabs—the Quad Cortex could replace a Guitar Center-sized warehouse of devices, offering hundreds of amps, cabs, and effects.
Testing Apple's 2026 16-inch MacBook Pro, M5 Max, and its new "performance" cores
Mar. 9th, 2026 08:00 pmarstechnica_feedApple's M5 Pro and M5 Max make deceptively large changes to how Apple's high-end laptop and desktop chips are built.
We've already covered those changes in some depth, but in essence: The M5 Pro and M5 Max are no longer monolithic chips with all the CPU and GPU cores and everything else packed into a single silicon die. Using an "all-new Fusion Architecture" like the one used to combine two Max chips into a single Ultra chip, Apple now splits the CPU cores (and other things) into one piece of silicon, and the GPU cores (and other things) into another piece of silicon. These two dies are then packaged together into one chip.
M5 Pro and M5 Max both use the same 18-core CPU die, but Pro uses a 20-core GPU die, and Max gets a 40-core GPU die. (Because the memory controller is also part of the GPU die, the Max chip still offers more memory bandwidth and supports higher memory configurations than the Pro one does.)
US blindsides states with surprise settlement in Live Nation/Ticketmaster trial
Mar. 9th, 2026 07:51 pmarstechnica_feedThe Trump administration agreed to stop pursuing a breakup of Live Nation and Ticketmaster as part of a settlement that blindsided state attorneys general in the middle of a trial. Attorneys general from 27 states and the District of Columbia are continuing to pursue the case without the US government, at least for now.
The US Department of Justice and most US states sued Live Nation and its Ticketmaster subsidiary in 2024, during the Biden administration. The lawsuit alleged that Live Nation has a monopoly on "the delivery of nearly all live music in America today," and asked a federal court to order the divestiture of Ticketmaster.
The case went to trial, and testimony began last week in US District Court for the Southern District of New York. But the US and Live Nation informed the court of a proposed settlement on March 8, taking state attorneys general by surprise. The judge presiding over the case reportedly said in court today that the way the settlement was announced "is absolutely unacceptable."
The Mysterious Tyranny of Trendy Baby Names
Mar. 10th, 2026 06:39 ammatsushima posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
longreadsAs Wattenberg and I examined the data together, a startling discovery came into focus: Back in the 1970s, singular names grew so popular that they became trends unto themselves. But “it just doesn’t work that way anymore,” Wattenberg said. Nowadays, trends are defined by many different names with similar suffixes. …-The Mysterious Tyranny of Trendy Baby Names (archive link) by Daniel Wolfe
According to Wattenberg, Jason barely registered in the 1950s when parents often picked a name following family tradition. If your great-grandfather was named Clarence Leroy, odds were a piece of that name would fall intact to you.
Then came the counterculture movements of the 1960s. For the first time, parents began straying from traditional names. With the guardrails of convention removed, people were free to make up their own minds and forge their own paths. And suddenly, by the 1970s, every other kid was named Jason.
Then a funny thing happened: Names started giving way to sounds. Jason begot Mason, Jackson, Grayson, Carson and a whole family of other “-son” names that together make up a major 21st-century trend for baby boys.
(no subject)
Mar. 9th, 2026 09:24 pmbeccaelizabethOnly one load of laundry today, but I also refilled the dishwasher chemistry, ran it with the cleaner bottle, and the loaded it ready to wash when it gets full. Also did regular Cleaner Day.
And made myself feel spinny bad trying to get stuff from the cupboard under the sink. I remember why I gave up on the low cupboards but I keep thinking I'll Just Be A Minute and then I have to have a sit down in the middle of whatever task required Sink Things.
It is a mystery under there. I don't know the half of what is stashed. I mean today I found half a dozen empty plastic bags from laundry tabs and I have no idea when I last was buying that sort.
Still, threw out several things and sorted out others, so, progress was made.
Other than that I didn't read listen watch stuff today. Listen seemed Loud and reading seemed like I wanted to read A Book But Not That One. And I didn't want to write the one I wanted either. So that isn't entirely helpful. But I do have Several book so I shall find A Book eventually.
My laundry is down to only filling the smaller basket, which is grand, but is still filling what I would until recently have considered The Laundry. There's at least two more loads in there, possibly three. This was Maximum Laundry.
I think it's because of all the drill and screw noises lately. It's nice that they've fixed stuff but it's not nice that this is week four of making a bunch of random interval noises about it. Still much quieter than the first two weeks but. I miss quiet quiet.
Quiet quiet theoretically gets more done.
But logically they have to complete the work eventually so.
Not a fascinating day really.
I shall go stare at bookshelves again.
And made myself feel spinny bad trying to get stuff from the cupboard under the sink. I remember why I gave up on the low cupboards but I keep thinking I'll Just Be A Minute and then I have to have a sit down in the middle of whatever task required Sink Things.
It is a mystery under there. I don't know the half of what is stashed. I mean today I found half a dozen empty plastic bags from laundry tabs and I have no idea when I last was buying that sort.
Still, threw out several things and sorted out others, so, progress was made.
Other than that I didn't read listen watch stuff today. Listen seemed Loud and reading seemed like I wanted to read A Book But Not That One. And I didn't want to write the one I wanted either. So that isn't entirely helpful. But I do have Several book so I shall find A Book eventually.
My laundry is down to only filling the smaller basket, which is grand, but is still filling what I would until recently have considered The Laundry. There's at least two more loads in there, possibly three. This was Maximum Laundry.
I think it's because of all the drill and screw noises lately. It's nice that they've fixed stuff but it's not nice that this is week four of making a bunch of random interval noises about it. Still much quieter than the first two weeks but. I miss quiet quiet.
Quiet quiet theoretically gets more done.
But logically they have to complete the work eventually so.
Not a fascinating day really.
I shall go stare at bookshelves again.
Links 3/9/26
Mar. 9th, 2026 08:44 pmmikethemadbiologist_feedLinks for you. Science:
Why Some People Thrive on Four Hours of Sleep
Maryland faces another spate of viral infections. This time it’s mumps.
A familiar move with a new twist: Trump tries to cut CDC funds he just signed into law
Troubleshooting common errors in assemblies of long-read metagenomes
Scientists Found a Massive Lava Tube Hiding Beneath the Surface of Venus
One vaccine may provide broad protection against many respiratory infections and allergens (very good summary of the approach)
Other:
The record-breaking cocaine boom — and its deadly fallout
Some local police, sheriff and DA offices are communicating often with ICE, records show
ICE agents often ignore safety and privacy practices for detainee patients, Tacoma nurses say
Alaska lawmaker’s chief of staff arrested on sex trafficking and child exploitation charges
Trump Betrayed the MAHA Movement This Week. RFK Jr.’s Reaction Was Telling.
How Epstein and Maxwell used an elite Midwest arts school to prey on girls
MAGA’s weird, horny obsession with Alysa Liu. The far-right can only see a young woman as “goonbait” (they’re such losers)
Interview with Andrea Pitzer about concentration camps
Yeah, so… Substack, I’m out. The Polymarket partnership is the last straw.
I DON’T BELONG TO AN ORGANIZED RESISTANCE — I’M A DEMOCRAT
U.K.-based Caffè Nero wins auction to buy Compass Coffee
Judge forced to slash SF jury pool over hate for Elon Musk
Army warrant officers will ‘bid’ against each other for their next bonus (utterly fucked up policy)
Pennsylvania high school students violently attacked by police during anti-ICE walkout
‘Andor’ Creator Tony Gilroy Gives the Interview He Couldn’t During Its Release. While promoting his cautionary tale about fascism, Disney asked Gilroy to refrain from using the word. Nine months after it aired its finale, the ‘Star Wars’ series feels scarily prescient.
MAGA Senator Appears Not to Have Read the SAVE Act
I Verified My LinkedIn Identity. Here’s What I Actually Handed Over.
Wikipedia blacklists Archive.today, starts removing 695,000 archive links
The Unstoppable Alysa Liu: Watching a young woman be free was the joy I didn’t know I needed
MAGA’s Reaction to the Epstein Files Reveals Total Moral Collapse
Majority of Americans think Trump’s deportation campaign is going too far
Trump’s Attack on the Supreme Court Was Unhinged Even for Him
You Might Be Seeing A MAHA-Coded Doctor And Not Even Know It
On a new banner, Trump evokes the shadow world of authoritarian icons
The Primary Win That Stunned Democrats Everywhere
NFL Pro Bowler Tre’ Johnson, dead at 54, found a new calling as a teacher. He was a bruising offensive lineman, playing in Washington for eight seasons, before becoming a teacher and coach at the Landon School in Maryland.
What’s Next for US Healthcare? Ask Oklahoma.
There’s A Very Freaky Explanation For ICE’s Uncomfortable Interactions With Women
My child’s circus school is bracing for ICE. This is the toll of authoritarianism.
People Who Left ‘MAGA Christianity’ Share What It Really Took To Step Away
Exhausting
Mar. 9th, 2026 03:46 pmchris_gerribI find Trump to be exhausting. The constant twists and turns of "policy" drive me nuts. Example:
1) Go to war with Iran, apparently because Israel thinks it's a good idea.
2) Iran starts blowing our shit up because that's what you do when you're at war.
3) Oil prices spike because some of that shit what's blowing up is oil or the infrastructure needed to move it.
4) Trump says "we'll protect oil" (from the threat we created).
5) Oil money-people call bullshit, largely because they know how hard it would be to provide said protection.
6) Gas prices go up.
7) Now Trump is hinting that he'll just declare victory and go home. I guess that's easy if you have no idea why you went to war in the first damn place.
The problem is that Iran is now being led by the son of the guy we killed. Oh, we also killed his wife and a son. So now your gas prices depend on his charity.
1) Go to war with Iran, apparently because Israel thinks it's a good idea.
2) Iran starts blowing our shit up because that's what you do when you're at war.
3) Oil prices spike because some of that shit what's blowing up is oil or the infrastructure needed to move it.
4) Trump says "we'll protect oil" (from the threat we created).
5) Oil money-people call bullshit, largely because they know how hard it would be to provide said protection.
6) Gas prices go up.
7) Now Trump is hinting that he'll just declare victory and go home. I guess that's easy if you have no idea why you went to war in the first damn place.
The problem is that Iran is now being led by the son of the guy we killed. Oh, we also killed his wife and a son. So now your gas prices depend on his charity.
