Have an excellent weekend. See you bright and early Monday morning. If you feel the events of the week are troubling, give it a week, and see how it looks next weekend.
Friday, June 28, 2024
Weekend!
Chordates
Manoa.Hawaii.edu: Introduction to Phylum Chordata
Chordata are vertebrates, or animals with backbones (subphylum Vertebrata). Examples of vertebrate chordates include fishes, amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals. A modern human—one species of mammal—is a familiar example of a chordate.
Comment
We need to strategize. How to live in a post-America America. I'm fantasizing about living off the grid while being completely disconnected from the media, no TV, no internet.
The Market On Friday
Good morning. At 7:31 a.m. ET DOW futures are +28, S&P futures are +19.75, and NASDAQ futures are +87.75. The market is poised to open moderately higher.
Thursday, June 27, 2024
Arthropod
Understanding Evolution Berkley.edu: What is an arthropod
Arthropods are a motley crew: cockroaches, crabs, butterflies, beetles, centipedes, scorpions, shrimp, spiders, lobsters, lice, ticks, termites, potato bugs, and sea monkeys (a.k.a., brine shrimp) — they’re all examples of arthropods.
Vivian
Photography By Vivian Maier 1926 - 2009 - About Vivian Maier
An American of French and Austro-Hungarian extraction, Vivian bounced between Europe and the United States before coming back to New York City in 1951. Having picked up photography just two years earlier, she would comb the streets of the Big Apple refining her artistic craft. By 1956 Vivian left the East Coast for Chicago, where she’d spend most of the rest of her life working as a caregiver. In her leisure Vivian would shoot photos that she zealously hid from the eyes of others. Taking snapshots into the late 1990′s, Maier would leave behind a body of work comprising over 100,000 negatives. Additionally Vivian’s passion for documenting extended to a series of homemade documentary films and audio recordings.
Ruling
If the justices had protected emergency abortions outright, she said, “I would have felt like I had a tool … power over my own body and my own life.”
Debate
For Biden to succeed, he needs to appear less old than Trump appears crazy — as he did in 2020, by just coming across as the more normal man.
Centrist
The second advantage of this approach is that it can result in great policy outcomes. Biden’s policies helped create an economic boom that has driven U.S. unemployment down to historic lows.
Menacing
In other words, Trump seems uninterested in justice quickly obtained that might quickly exonerate him and free him from the gag orders. Instead, he revels in inciting the mob against his legal tormentors.
Denialism
Buckle up.
The United States has more than 3,000 counties. Dragging out certification in one could create a cascading problem in which a state is unable to certify its results by the Dec. 17 deadline to cast its electoral votes so that they can be sent to the Capitol for counting on Jan. 6, 2025.
Asteroids
Both have a zero percent chance of impacting Earth. And, depending on where you are in the world, you may even be able to see one of them.
The Market On Thursday
Good morning. At 6:58 a.m. ET DOW futures are -56, S&P futures are -5.25, and NASDAQ futures are -22. The market is poised to open moderately lower.
Wednesday, June 26, 2024
Wobbly
Among the groups least supportive of authoritarianism were college graduates and those who identified NPR or major national newspapers as a main source of news.
Migrants
Gift article available to everyone.
Washington Post: 4.1 million migrants: Where they’re from, where they live in the U.S. By Adrián Blanco, Steven Rich, Nick Miroff and Maria Sacchetti
Homelessness
NY Times: I Study Homelessness. I Wish More Places Looked Like This Shelter. By Matthew Desmond
I think Water Street can be seen as a model, not only for what homeless shelters can aspire to but also for how we can rethink anti-poverty programs in general, making sure those programs are delivered in such a way that people feel affirmed, feel valued.Water Street Emergency Shelter - The journey out of homelessness often begins with a hot meal and a safe place to sleep.
Predictable
Gift article available to everyone.
Washington Post: Trump’s predictable campaign to discredit the debate moderators Analysis By Leigh Ann Caldwell and Theodoric Meyer
Latimer
“Let me try to do what I can do to bring some positive results,” he said. “I have never viewed an election as a blank check from you to me. It is a promissory note from me to you.”
Lord Help Us
Facing a strong Democratic threat in the sprawling western Colorado district where she was first elected, Ms. Boebert chose to relocate to eastern Colorado to give herself a better chance of remaining in the House — and it appears to have worked.
The Market On Wednesday
Good morning. At 7:11 a.m. ET DOW futures are -48, S&P futures are +1.5, and NASDAQ futures are +31.5. The market is poised to open mixed.
Tuesday, June 25, 2024
New
Now software is at the helm, with hardware — the drones in Ukraine and elsewhere — increasingly serving as the means by which the recommendations of AI are carried out.
Idaho
Far-right extremists had already targeted another small-town Idaho Pride, and now, Wheeler’s event seemed to be at risk, too. His mother begged him to stay home. An uncle urged him to wear a bulletproof vest. At the very least, local officers said, he might want a barricade.
Debate
It is a waste of time to try to refute Mr. Trump’s arguments like in a normal debate. It’s nearly impossible to identify what his arguments even are. He starts with nonsense and then digresses into blather.
Crisis
In 2022, more than half of all gun deaths were from suicide, while 40 percent of firearms deaths were homicides.
Slang
Gift article available to everyone.
In my son’s usage, things that are “mid” are things that are essentially average or slightly below.
War
NY Times: Middle East Crisis - Half a Million in Gaza Face Starvation, Report Says
...almost half a million people there face starvation because of a catastrophic lack of food, a group of global experts said on Tuesday.
The Market On Tuesday
Good morning. At 7:15 a.m. ET DOW futures are -14, S&P futures are +9.75, and NASDAQ futures are +82.5. The market is poised to open mixed.
Monday, June 24, 2024
Fraud
“It is an incestuous relationship between the folks with the money and the folks who want the money,” said Mr. Steele, a frequent Trump critic.
Really
That there are more Fortune 100 chief executives based in the smallest state in the nation, Rhode Island — and there’s exactly one Fortune 100 chief executive who is based there — than currently support Mr. Trump tells you how truly isolated the Republican presidential candidate is from the halls of big business.
Debate
...the media have a tendency to overlook or downplay Trump’s many moments of incoherence and even lunacy.
Rural
Gift article available to everyone.
Experts who study the phenomena say the shrinking baby boomer population and younger residents having smaller families and moving elsewhere for jobs are fueling the trend.
Rights
“Donald Trump is the sole person responsible for this nightmare,” President Biden said in a statement on Monday. “My message to Americans is this: Kamala and I are fighting like hell to get your freedom back.”
Pregnancy
Still, a poll in April found that 46 percent of registered voters had heard stories of women forced to cross state lines to get abortions they needed because of pregnancy complications — up 11 points since September.
The Market On Monday
Good morning. At 6:33 a.m. ET DOW futures are +108, S&P futures are +4, and NASDAQ futures are +21.25. The market is poised to open mixed.
Friday, June 21, 2024
Bilaterian
bilaterian - noun - an animal having bilateral symmetry.
(Jim here - animals that have a top and bottom, a left and right, a front and back, are bilaterian. Some examples of bilaterians are humans, dogs, fish, and termites. Contrast bilateral symmetry to radial symmetry, like a jellyfish, which has a top and bottom, but no left and right, and no front or back.)
Rooftop
Photography By Ruth Orkin 1921-1985
'Young Woman on Greenwich Village Rooftop' - Late 1940s.
AI
In addition to fusion, they (Big Tech) are hoping to generate power through such futuristic schemes as small nuclear reactors hooked to individual computing centers and machinery that taps geothermal energy by boring 10,000 feet into the Earth’s crust.
Extremes
As I'm typing this, we just got a nice storm through my area. It's cooled things down a bit and there's a breeze, but it's been very hot. Raise your hand if you saw this coming over a decade ago, most of us who paid attention did.
Extreme heat killed an estimated 489,000 people annually between 2000 and 2019, according to the World Meteorological Organization, making heat the deadliest of all extreme weather events.
Britain
At least one country has come to its senses.
No matter what poll you look at, the ruling Conservative Party appears headed for a catastrophic defeat.
Shocker
Only Justice Clarence Thomas, the author of the majority opinion in the 2022 decision, dissented.
Have An Excellent Friday
"'Red Rose Girls' circa1900, group of US female artists who lived communally, vowed not to marry so they could support each others careers and painted in a Romantic Realist style"
Afghanistan Farming
Washington Post: Taliban’s opium ban imperiled by climate change as alternative crops struggle By Rick Noack and Carolyn Van Houten
But farmers in the former poppy heartland say they can’t make a living with typical alternatives like wheat and cotton, which have tumbled in price as they’ve flooded the market since the opium ban took effect.
Nauseating
Trump’s advisers have attributed May’s surge in donations to donors’ desire to demonstrate their loyalty to the former president after his felony conviction.
Drug Prices
They are called pharmacy benefit managers. And they are driving up drug costs for millions of people, employers and the government.
Comstock Act
NY Times: Trump’s Allies Say They’ll Enforce the Comstock Act. Believe Them. By Michelle Greenberg
...bans the mailing of “obscene, lewd, lascivious, indecent, filthy or vile” material, including devices and substances used “for producing abortion, or for any indecent or immoral purpose.”
The Market On Friday
Good morning. At 7:01 a.m. ET DOW futures are -46, S&P futures are -9, and NASDAQ futures are -27.25. The market is poised to open moderately lower.
Thursday, June 20, 2024
Simple
“But luxury has never appealed to me, I like simple things, books, being alone, or with somebody who understands.” - Daphne du Maurier
Insignia
Photo By Nina Leen circa 1942
"Women tanning with military insignia made from felt to give patriotic tan lines"
Spriggina
Spriggina - illustrations of these primitive animals existing during the Ediacaran Period extending from approximately 635 million to 541 million years ago.
Cannon
As Judge Cannon’s handling of the case has come under intensifying scrutiny, her critics have suggested that she could be in over her head, in the tank for Mr. Trump — or both.
Slang
...“speedrun” for completing a task quickly, “sidequest” to tell your friends about an unexpected adventure or “spawn” when you’ve made a sudden appearance.
Upholds
...Paul Ryan... joined the Biden administration and some other conservatives in seeking to keep the law intact.
France
For many French voters, a modicum of civility has not whitewashed the party’s extreme policies, let alone the vicious antisemitism of its Holocaust-denying founder, Jean-Marie Le Pen.
Heat
Washington Post: Long-lasting heat wave continues to bake much of eastern U.S.
The high heat and humidity are expected to continue in parts of the Midwest, Northeast and the Mid-Atlantic into the weekend. At least in New England, conditions should improve Friday.
Resistance
...drawn together by the fear that Mr. Trump’s return to power would pose a grave threat not just to their agenda but to American democracy itself.
War
One route is to pay unofficial middlemen in the enclave or in Egypt, who demand $8,000 to $15,000 per person in exchange for arranging their departure within days...
The Market On Thursday
Good morning. At 7:04 a.m. ET DOW futures are +40, S&P futures are +23.25, and NASDAQ futures are +132.75. The market is poised to open significantly higher.
Wednesday, June 19, 2024
Willie Mays
Or his baseball IQ and daring — psychological warfare version — that rattled, intimidated or embarrassed opponents into playing their worst when faced with the certainty that he would play his best.
Social
“Nearly five billion people are on social media...The average user is online for three hours a day and scrolls through roughly 300 feet of news content — the height of the Statue of Liberty." - Jay Van Bavel - psychology department at N.Y.U.
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