I am not sure what my writing morning looks like--but there are hard deadlines ahead, like needing to be on the road by 7:30 to drive across the mountains to preach and preside at Faith Lutheran in Bristol, TN this morning (the service starts at 10, and all are welcome). Let me r … | Continue reading
Steel towns will see some reductions in toxic pollution from new regulations — but not as much as they’d hoped. | Continue reading
A good trade union leader friend of mine once said ‘you know, the only thing I’ve ever seen come from a little bit of fascism is, like, a lot of fascism.’ Adolph Reed, Jr. I took some time to listen to this latest update to a speech Adolph Reed, Jr. has been giving, based on… | Continue reading
I wrote an article for Previous Magazine called Rising Mobile Bills Will Worsen UK Digital Divide. The post Rising Mobile Bills Will Worsen UK Digital Divide appeared first on Hammy Havoc. | Continue reading
An interesting piece by Emma Green in The New Yorker about a resurgence in what’s known as liberal arts and/or classical education. Whatever you want to call it, it stands in opposition to the modern mainstream of pedagogy, favouring the canonical Great Books (and implicitly Dead … | Continue reading
The U.S. passed a bipartisan bill on Wednesday to force ByteDance, the owner of TikTok, to divest from the social media platform or face a complete ban in the country. The bill passed 352 to 65 and needs to be taken up by the Senate and signed by President Joe Biden to become law … | Continue reading
1/ A Georgia judge threw out six charges in the Georgia election meddling case against Trump and his allies. The decision by Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee marks the first time any charges have been dropped in the four criminal ca... Subscribe: Get the Daily Upda … | Continue reading
Former President Donald Trump has been quick to take advantage of an unexpected and nefarious benefit offered to politicians in the age of AI. Instead of saying that their quotes were taken out of context when facing unfavorable media coverage, they can now simply claim that the … | Continue reading
A bill forcing the China-based ByteDance to sell TikTok, or face an outright ban, passed the United States House of Representatives on Wednesday in a vote of 352 to 62. The bill will now head to the Senate, where it is expected to face tough opposition before it can reach Preside … | Continue reading
Modeled after FDR's Civilian Conservation Corps during the Great Depression, the climate corps will employ Americans to improve the country. | Continue reading
Extreme heat affects everyone. But in Florida, the hottest state in the country, only one group is legally protected. | Continue reading
1/ A group of Independent and Democratic senators led by Bernie Sanders urged Biden to suspend U.S. military aid to Israel until it allows humanitarian assistance to reach Gaza. In a letter, the senators argued that blocking aid violates the Forei... Subscribe: Get the Daily Upda … | Continue reading
Elon Musk spoke out against the United States’ potential ban on TikTok, owned by China-based ByteDance, in a tweet on Tuesday, saying the law is all about “censorship and government control.” Musk has previously expressed discomfort with TikTok’s addictive algorithm, but this sta … | Continue reading
1/ Biden proposed a $7.3 trillion budget for the next fiscal year that would raise taxes on high earners and corporations to keep Social Security and Medicare from hitting insolvency within the next decade. Additionally, the budget calls for resto... Subscribe: Get the Daily Upda … | Continue reading
UFOs are back in the news this week with the release of a long-awaited Pentagon report that was designed to address public interest in the topic. Read more... | Continue reading
Kalhan Rosenblatt and Kyle Stewart, NBC News: A bill that would force TikTok’s Chinese owner ByteDance to divest the popular social media company passed a crucial vote Thursday, as the company sought to rally users to its defense with a call to action that flooded some congressio … | Continue reading
Donald Trump appeared to come out in defense of TikTok, the social media platform facing a potential ban by Congress, in a flurry of posts late Thursday on his social media platform Truth Social. The platform, it should be noted, experienced a widespread outage as the former pres … | Continue reading
The U.S. embassy in Russia issued a warning on Thursday that Americans should avoid large gatherings in Moscow for the next 48 hours. The embassy said it was over a potential terrorist threat in the city, but didn’t elaborate beyond mentioning concerts as a potential target. And … | Continue reading
1/ Biden will order the U.S. military to build a temporary port and pier in Gaza so more humanitarian aid can reach 2.3 million Palestinian civilians in need. Biden has reportedly grown frustrated with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has re... Subscribe: Get the Daily Upda … | Continue reading
Russian troops in Ukraine have allegedly been using SpaceX’s Starlink terminals to get internet access during the ongoing war that has seen hundreds of thousands of casualties on each side. And now, House Democrats are finally asking hard questions of SpaceX leadership about how … | Continue reading
TikTok sent a push notification to United States users on Thursday morning asking them to call their local representative to “Stop a TikTok shutdown.” The app refers to a bipartisan bill gaining momentum in Congress this week which could ban TikTok altogether.Read more... | Continue reading
Amanda Marcotte: Trump Is Degenerating Before Our Eyes — MAGA Voters Don't Notice or Don't CareAround lunchtime on Monday, all three cable news networks cut to Trump awkwardly accepting the Supreme Court nullifying the 14th Amendment on his behalf. After a few se … | Continue reading
1/ The House passed a $460 billion package of spending bills, setting up a Senate vote before Friday’s deadline to avert yet another partial government shutdown. The measure packages six of the 12 required appropriations bills and will extend fund... Subscribe: Get the Daily Upda … | Continue reading
Landmark agreements would cut big states’ water usage for decades and deliver water to the Navajo Nation. | Continue reading
While my spouse stays home to supervise the installation of drywall, I am traveling this week, with a brief stop back home tonight. What have I done so far? --Visited grad school friends--always a treat. --Got a rough draft of my Systematic Theology midterm written. That's a reli … | Continue reading
I link to The Guardian semi-regularly here, but they’re not immune from publishing codswallop. I’d know; have you read some of what I write? Simon Jenkins writes poignant articles about public health, and I thoroughly enjoyed his history book on the Celts. But then he turns aroun … | Continue reading
Elon Musk met with Donald Trump in Florida this past Sunday, according to a new report from the New York Times. And while it’s not clear what the two men discussed, news of the meeting comes as Musk has ratcheted up his rhetoric against illegal immigration and Trump looks for new … | Continue reading
1/ Today is Super Tuesday. Democrats and Republicans are casting ballots in 15 states for their party’s nominee for president, Senate, House, and governors races that can determine political control of Congress and states for the next two to four ... Subscribe: Get the Daily Upda … | Continue reading
Today is Super Tuesday, an important milepost in what is shaping up to be a fight among two guys in Memory Care (and one gal for whom Americans don’t seem to share my own enthusiasm (and even I have been put off by Nikki Haley’s seeming lack of coherent philosophy)). A bit of no … | Continue reading
From rate case to rooftop, a glossary for understanding how public service commissions work. | Continue reading
1/ The Supreme Court unanimously reversed the Colorado Supreme Court decision to remove Trump from the ballot for engaging in an insurrection on Jan. 6. The ruling ends efforts in Colorado, Illinois, Maine and elsewhere to remove Trump from the ba... Subscribe: Get the Daily Upda … | Continue reading
Robert F. Kennedy Jr once said that artificial intelligence “could kill us all” if it were used improperly. Still, concern about the misuse of AI apparently hasn’t stopped RFK Jr. from arguably misusing it. Instead, the long-shot presidential candidate, who has a lot of kooky ide … | Continue reading
This is a follow-on to CDL: Publishers Against Books. You probably want to read that first! This is specifically about the lawsuit and its hollow arguments. On June 1, 2020, all four major publishing companies (Hachette, HarperCollins, Wiley, and Penguin Random House) sued the In … | Continue reading
Combining lending with digital technology is tricky to do within the constraints of copyright. But it’s important to still be able to lend, especially for libraries. With a system called Controlled Digital Lending, libraries like the Internet Archive (IA) made digital booklending … | Continue reading
1/ A state judge in Illinois ruled that Trump had engaged in insurrection and disqualified him from the state’s primary ballot. Trump appealed Judge Tracie Porter’s decision to ban him for his role in the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol. Illinois is ... Subscribe: Get the Daily Upda … | Continue reading
U.S. President Joe Biden today signed an executive order, previously covered, which intends to limit the sale and distribution of Americans’ sensitive data to “countries of concern”: To address this threat and to take further steps with respect to the national emergency declared … | Continue reading
1/ Mitch McConnell will step down as the Senate Republican leader in November. The 82-year-old is the longest-serving Senate leader in history and has faced a series of recent health issues, including a concussion, a fall that required him to use ... Subscribe: Get the Daily Upda … | Continue reading
1/ Biden suggested that a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas could begin as soon as next week, saying talks were “close but not done yet.” Negotiators are nearing an agreement that would halt Israel’s military operations in Gaza in exchange for th... Subscribe: Get the Daily Upda … | Continue reading
YouTube restored an attack ad against Katie Porter that’s running ad nauseam for users in California right now after it was pulled Sunday for violating the video-sharing site’s policies. The ad, purchased by a political action committee called Fairshake, is being bankrolled by se … | Continue reading
If you’ve been wondering when our military would start deploying artificial intelligence on the battlefield, the answer is that it appears to be already happening. The Pentagon has been using computer vision algorithms to help identify targets for airstrikes, according to a repor … | Continue reading
1/ Alabama lawmakers are considering “clarifying” legislation that would “protect” in vitro fertilization following the state Supreme Court’s ruling that embryos are children and protected under Alabama’s Wrongful Death of a Minor Act. With aborti... Subscribe: Get the Daily Upda … | Continue reading
Today's links Incomplete vs. overshoot: The horseshoe theory is really, really wrong. Hey look at this: Delights to delectate. This day in history: 2004, 2009, 2014, 2019, 2023 Colophon: Recent publications, upcoming/recent appearances, current writing projects, current reading I … | Continue reading
To celebrate the upcoming digital, Blu-ray, and DVD release of Poor Things, io9 attended a party inspired by the Emma Stone-starring film directed by Yorgos Lanthimos. The cinematic soiree was delightfully twisted, just like the parties Stone’s Fraken-creation Bella Baxter enjoys … | Continue reading
It seems almost too comical to be true, but this is the world we live in. One year after the U.S. shot down a Chinese spy balloon that ignited a national frenzy, the military has spotted another balloon in American skies.Read more... | Continue reading
Donald Trump delivered a speech at the National Religious Broadcasters convention Thursday night in Nashville that touched on all his greatest hits. The Democrats are “evil,” the U.S. is now a “Communist state,” and Hungary’s authoritarian Prime Minister, Viktor Orban, is a “stro … | Continue reading
1/ A third Alabama fertility clinic stopped its vitro fertilization program following the state Supreme Court ruling that frozen embryos are children. By classifying “cryopreserved embryos” as children, the ruling opens families, clinics, and doct... Subscribe: Get the Daily Upda … | Continue reading
Yesterday, we voted in the North Carolina primary. I have fond memories of voting in South Carolina primaries in the late 80's and early 90's. The state was just as Republican then as it is now, so we knew that almost any vote for a Democrat wouldn't matter in presidential contes … | Continue reading
Will Stancil, a man who’s made a name for himself online as a feisty defender of Joe Biden and Democratic policies, announced Wednesday that he’s running for a seat in the Minnesota House of Representatives. But Stancil says social media platforms like X aren’t going to be a very … | Continue reading