Shuddering.
I was born in London to an erudite, bilingual - English and Gaelic - father who was born in the free Republic of Ireland. We lived in Britain - London, etc.- and visited family in Ireland, and ne'er the twain did meet.
Was talking to some millenials, bright kids, who had NO IDEA how prevalent, and malevolent, US involvement in Iran has been. I thought I'd get it down to a size where I could put into Bsky as a gif or something, but no. So, here's a link to a G doc instead.
docs.google.com/document/d/1...
Two scientists walk through a cluttered old-fashioned science laboratory. The female scientist says “Analogue instruments! Paper records! Chalk boards! I thought you'd agreed to modernise the laboratory?” The male scientist replies “That's what i'm so excited about: we have moved to cloud-based storage for our data!” They step out onto a balcony. She says: “Please tell me you haven't built a library zeppelin” This is exactly what he has done. It floats across the sky and he adds “It's got a fax machine!”
My cartoon for this week’s @newscientist.com
DEI: Deranged. Evil. Incompetent.
And how will suburban mums get Tiffany to her ballet lesson when it costs so much to gas up the 3-row El Monstro SUV.
The comment I left on the website specifically referenced the construction of the Grande Palace at Versailles, with its famed hall of mirrors, at a time when the populace was going hungry.
savingplaces.org/public-comme...
And this graph excludes 'behind the meter' power generation from rooftop solar, as I recall. Source www.caiso.com/todays-outlo...
Chart from the California ISO showing the whole state's power supply 5th March 2026. Daytime big green line at top is solar + wind; the negative purple line is charging batteries. At night those batteries discharge - becoming the state's dominant power source, with fossil fuels (methane) the #6 energy source overnight. imports are largely from nuclear plants in Washington State
Moving to 'green' energy is the best path to resilient, predictable, low-cost power.
Here's California's supply - the 4th largest economy in the world - running on solar and wind during the daytime yesterday, and with the largest power source AT NIGHT being the batteries they charged.
The abstract of the first issue reads: “It will not become me, to adde any Attributes to a Title, which has a Fulness of Lustre from his Majesties Denomination. In these Rude Collections, which are onely the Gleanings of my private diversions in broken hours it may appear, that many Minds and Hands are in many places industriously employed, under Your Countenance and by Your Example in the pursuit of those Excellent Ends, which belong to Your Heroical Undertakings.”
"In these rude collections, which are only the gleanings of my private diversions in broken hours..."
Henry Oldenburg published the first issue of "Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society" #OTD in 1665. It was the world's first scientific journal. 🧪
royalsocietypublishing.org/rstl/issue/1/1
Friend of ours, who treated AIDS on the frontlines when that was wild and terrifying, now says if you had to pick between two diseases, and one is HIV and the other is Diabetes, pick HIV. (GLP1s may be changing that.)
13 years later and the story of Aaron Swartz still fills me with anger and sadness
Nobel Peace Prize, my ass
The Dear Leader regrets nothing.
Hitler's thugs killed the Chancellor of Austria, I read. That's about it.
Trump doesn’t support democracy in Iran.
Trump doesn’t even support democracy in the United States!
Rep. Ansari Statement on United States Attack on Iran.
the current position of the US government is that NVIDIA should be allowed to sell chips directly to China but banned from using Claude, because the latter is a larger national security risk. that is the level of absolute insanity coming out of the White House & Pentagon nowadays
And this, boys and girls, is why - and how - you use ALT text.
" To Thomas, almost every American judge who served over the past two centuries wasted their lives and careers. Rather than try to determine the Constitution’s meaning to the best of their ability, they should have all waited for Thomas to tell them what it actually meant."
And, who'd have foreseen the smug, self-satisfied British "royal" family, outdoing allegedly democratic and accountable anything?
I join a fiercely anti-royal Indian friend in choking on our new support for Charles
our neighborhood mailman is a charming, happy man. He'll tell us if there's a seemingly important package in the mailbox. O, and someone arranges for him to get a little extra in the end-of-year $$ collection for the (mostly) men who do the grunge work of cleaning and plumbing and such.
If only Bluesky allowed edits. Then we'd have:
"Why do bots fall down from the sky
Every time, you reply?"
Here's a story about his death www.investigativepost.org/2026/02/25/b...
why do dorks fall down from the sky?
Perhaps The Dear Leader is implying that bribing him is, in fact, now an everyday transaction.
The new Section 122 tariffs, like those before them, almost certainly exceed the president’s legal authority, Cato Institute scholars argue. If the White House wants power to impose sweeping tariffs, they say, it should ask Congress—not assume it.
buff.ly/nqOut4e
TRUMP CLAIMS: “Prices on everyday goods are falling.”
FACT CHECK: Prices on items such as groceries have risen sharply, but it is true that the cost to bribe an American president is the lowest it’s been in decades.
Which I read with relish. But the "fan of girls that age . . ." might have implied a number rather lower, no?
