I guess there is some sort of centrist movement afoot to blame low 2024 Dem turnout on disgust with the Biden age thing, instead of disgust with Dem support of a genocide?

Anything, literally anything at all, to avoid examining why Dem leaders helped murder vast numbers of Palestinians.

Your point about understanding heritability is well-taken, but it is important not to refer to potential autistic-related alleles as deleterious. Autism is not a disease or a health problem.

Autism is not a disease. It is not even a health condition. Any attempt to "eradicate it" means eradicating people.

side view macro photograph of a small reddish-brown ant with light orange legs, standing on a limestone substrate. The ant has dusky wings, large eyes, and antennae emerging from underneath large, blade-like flanges on the head.

A male fungus-farming ant, Cyphomyrmex, photographed last week at UT Austin's fabulous Brackenridge Field Lab.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Categor...

Several species actually! But only one in the far north of the continent.

photo of a winged ant standing on sand. The ant's head is tiny, but its thorax and abdomen are enormous and swollen, supported by long, spindly legs.

Because of last night's rains in central/north Austin, I anticipate leafcutter ant mating flights around dawn tomorrow. Look for massive, goofy-looking bugs with round butts and reddish wings.

I hope most people are aware that residential pest control is 90% scam, and the ones that do subscription treatment services are 100% a scam.

They have no incentive to actually solve whatever pest problem you think you have. They'd rather show up biweekly, spray blindly, and collect your money.

Video Rick Steves reacts to PBS potentially facing federal cuts Television host Rick Steves says public broadcasting is "mission driven" and benefits from the kind of programming they provide as the Trump admin. is considering cutting public broadcasting.

Airing today on ABC News:

Given that habitat loss is demonstrably the single biggest threat to endangered species, this move effectively ends protection for most species, and a lot of things will go extinct.

I didn't think I could be surprised by anything this monster said anymore but it seems impossible to overestimate how cavernously stupid and hideous these people are

Israeli defense minister says troops will remain in Gaza, Lebanon and Syria indefinitely Israel’s defense minister says that troops will remain in so-called security zones in the Gaza Strip, Lebanon and Syria indefinitely.

BREAKING: Israel’s defense minister says troops will remain in so-called security zones in the Gaza Strip, Lebanon and Syria indefinitely.

The repression of people opposing a US-backed genocide has always been a bipartisan project, and until it's not we're not going to be able to beat the Trump regime

Bring back *everyone* who was sent from the U.S. to CECOT in El Salvador. *No one* should be sent there. ALL their rights were violated. ALL of them should come home.

Trump seeks to end climate research at premier U.S. climate agency White House aims to end NOAA’s research office; NASA also targeted

BREAKING from @science.org: The Trump admin is seeking to kill nearly all climate research at NOAA, its climate science agency.

Its near-final budget proposal would end all NOAA research labs, academic institutes, and regional climate centers. And it wants to fully end the NOAA Research division.

Hear the World’s Oldest Known Song, “Hurrian Hymn No. 6” Written 3,400 Years Ago Do you like old timey music? Splendid. You can’t get more old timey than Hurrian Hymn No. 6, which was discovered on a clay tablet in the ancient Syrian port city of Ugarit in the 1950s, and is over...

Hear the World's Oldest Known Song, "Hurrian Hymn No. 6" Written 3,400 Years Ago | Open Culture
www.openculture.com/2025/04/hear...

I believe this happens in Vineland by Thomas Pynchon. Random Godzilla footprint/crater shows up, plays no role in main plot, and just reminds of the world's absurdity/inscrutability/immensity.

Roald Dahl wrote this letter about losing his daughter *39 years ago*. RFK, and the politics he promotes, will inflict this unimaginable pain on many parents, if they get their way.

Saddam Hussein said something similar about Kuwait in 1991.

Vladimir Putin said something similar about Ukraine in 2022.

Presidential desires for territorial expansion... only this time its the US President.

Screenshot of a single question and answer from interview in the Times Literary Supplement with Ursula K. Le Guin. Here is the quote: If you could make a change to anything you’ve written over the years, what would it be? In The Dispossessed, I would mention the communal pickle barrels at street corners in the big towns, restocked by whoever in the community has made or kept more pickles than they need. I knew about the free pickles all along, but never could fit them into the book.

Ursula K. Le Guin on the true pain of being a writer

man in a black jumpsuit, fez, and gas mask gestures in front of police

this pic from the turkish protests goes insanely hard

Been trying to convince my kindergartener that a terminal -ng is a digraph with a unique sound neither n nor g. He doesn't buy it. Instead he gleefully crosses out the final g wherever it rears its head in his homework. He's not trying to start a discussion or argue. He's just not having it.

Modern American documentaries of course being limited to guitar riffs, celebrity narration, snowy tech, and little to no direct information.

Rewatching Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey 2014 with the kid. While I have my quibbles, I absolutely love how fearlessly it takes down faith-based rationalism in favor of skeptical empiricism. It's only a decade old, but even so I can't imagine its like being created in the US today.

Web page about iconic Golden Girls actress becomes latest victim of DEI purge Bea Arthur, who served in the Marine Corps, has had her wartime contribution scrubbed from the Department of Defence (DOD) website. The URL now reads "DEIBefore".

Iconic Golden Girls actress Bea Arthur, who served in the Marine Corps, has had her contribution scrubbed from Department of Defence website

Professors impacted by the funding theft said not to collaborate. The students said not to collaborate. Human decency said not to collaborate. It is one thing to be dumb enough to think you can change the world by fiat. It is another level of idiocy to go along with it.

US blocking Canadian access to historical library on Quebec-Vermont border Haskell Free Library denounces ‘unilateral’ US move amid tensions over Donald Trump’s continued threats against Canada.

US President Donald Trump’s administration is cutting off Canada’s main access point to the historical Haskell Free Library that straddles the border between the Canadian province of Quebec and the US state of Vermont.

‘No Way’ to Please Everyone: Columbia’s President Confronts Trump’s Ultimatum With Trump intent on making an example of Columbia, Armstrong is at the center of a fight over the future of higher education.

‘No Way to Please Everyone’ Says Only University Where Students Are Regularly Kidnapped

A completely serious question.

When people, and businesses, and institutions with the resources and reputation to stand firm…don’t, where does that leave this country.

cc Paul, Weiss. And Columbia. And so many others

Reading the Memoirs of Baron de Marbot and I can't get enough of the Bashkir horse archers in the Russian army. Their existence--or perhaps that of the 4-ft arrow they send into his leg--annoys the author so much he complains over and again how useless they are.

Can't sleep with the door open (because of ghosts and archenemies), but if closed it will rattle (not ghosts, but air pressure). Window must stay open (ghosts again, somehow). Sure, an elaborate double-sided pillow buffer is the obvious solution, but who has the time?