TrishEM

War in Middle East widens as Israeli and U.S. planes pound Iran and Tehran and its proxies hit back If attacked, Iran has long threatened to drag the region into total war, including targeting Israel, the Gulf Arab states and the flow of crude oil crucial for global energy markets.

Iran has long threatened, if attacked, to drag the region into total war, including targeting Israel, the Gulf Arab states and the flow of crude oil crucial for global energy markets. https://to.pbs.org/4cjAstD

This clip is an absolute must watch.

I have many thoughts on this thread.

I also have many thoughts about literacy statistics, primarily about what happens to a civilization when its population is incapable of high level literacy. We are living in the consequences of this right now. And it is disastrous.

Trump has spent years deriding foreign entanglements. Now, he's taken the U.S. to war with Iran Even Trump's closest advisers have been unable to point to any specific imminent threat to the U.S. from Iran that required urgent action.

President Trump has taken the U.S. into war with Iran despite decades of self-professed aversion to foreign entanglements, particularly in the Middle East, and repeated pledges to focus primarily on the Western Hemisphere with an "America first" agenda.
https://to.pbs.org/405QY9b

Amateurs think about the Roman Empire. Pros think about the Bronze Age city states.

A total lunar eclipse to turn the moon blood red on Tuesday across many continents The spectacle will be visible Tuesday morning from North America, Central America and western part of South America.

A blood-red moon will soon grace the skies for a total lunar eclipse. The spectacle will be visible Tuesday morning from North America, Central America and the western part of South America. https://to.pbs.org/4rA0Y6E

Stream 4,000+ Public Domain Movies on WikiFlix: Silent Classics, Academy Award-Winners, Hitchcock Films & More Humanity was already enjoying motion pictures a century ago. But the ability to do so at home still lay a few decades in the future, and the ability to pull up a movie on demand through a streaming se...

1000s of public domain films that you can stream, no ads!
www.openculture.com/2026/01/stre...

I'm in this! We're starting out as Level 1 adventurers and already having a lot of fun together! But knowing @princejvstin.com I expect seriously good worldbuilding, fun plot twists (we've had one already), and a fair number of Easter eggs to discover! Also, I edited this video & the coming podcast.

White House stalls release of approved US science budgets The US Congress rejected sweeping cuts to science agencies. But the NIH, the NSF and NASA have had their spending slowed.

Congress rejected massive cuts to US science budgets for 2026, but much of the money still isn’t flowing to researchers.

The culprit? The White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) is quietly slow-walking the release of funds. 🧵👇

Of course isn’t just driving. It’s voting. Working. Travelling. Picking up a package. Applying for credit. Applying for a job. Renting a room. Filling prescriptions. Visiting loved ones in the hospital. Not expired either, but legally invalid.

Washington Post layoffs include entire Ukraine, Middle East bureaus - National | Globalnews.ca The Post’s executive editor Matt Murray called the move painful but necessary to put the outlet on stronger footing and weather changes in technology and user habits.

I’m not the world’s fourth-richest man so I don’t mean to speak out of turn here, but I think that firing your full-time foreign correspondents right before a major war might not have been a particularly wise move in terms of, you know, getting or keeping subscribers

globalnews.ca/news/1165243...

“There’s a place, beyond the wormhole, a place that only lovers know…”

With alt text. I’ve…never seen a court talk like this before?

The only thing it feels worthwhile for me to say right now is pay attention to whether your feelings & the information you’re absorbing are paralyzing you or prompting you to meaningful action, whatever that is. Paralysis helps no one but the enemy.

On the blog, @reading1000lives.bsky.social has a Signal Boost for THE COOKOUT: An Anthology of Speculative Fiction from the African Diaspora. With 5 days left in the Kickstarter campaign, they're close!
skiffyandfanty.com/b...

Save 25% on Scarlet Hollow on Steam Your aunt’s dead, your cousin hates you, and you’re stuck in the dead-end town of Scarlet Hollow. Choose your path through a branching narrative so dense that you'll see less than 1/5 of the game on a...

First episode is FREE store.steampowered.com/app/1609230/...

Scarlet Hollow Episode 5 is finally OUT!

Our vision was to make a game where your choices *actually* matter, instead of just being window dressing.

930,000 branching words later, no two runs should ever feel the same.

If Slay the Princess has no wrong decisions, Scarlet Hollow has no right ones.

Still, a small fish, but it's amazing how far I've been able to swim. Grateful.

SEC. 2. [50 U.S.C. 1541] (a) It is the purpose of this joint resolution to fulfill the intent of the framers of the Constitution of the United States and insure that the collective judgment of both the Congress and the President will apply to the introduction of United States Armed Forces into hostilities, or into situations where imminent involvement in hostilities is clearly indicated by the cir-cumstances, and to the continued use of such torces in hostilities or in such situations. (b) Under article I, section 8, of the Constitution, it is specifically provided that the Congress shall have the power to make all laws necessary and proper for carrying into execution, not only its own powers but also all other powers vested by the Constitution in the Government of the United States, or in any department or officer thereof. (c) The constitutional powers of the President as Commander-in-Chief to introduce United States Armed Forces into hostilities, or into situations where imminent involvement in hostilities is clearly indicated by the circumstances, are exercised only pursuant to (1) a declaration of war, (2) specific statutory authorization, or (3) a national emergency created by attack upon the United States, its territories or possessions, or its armed forces.

The Constitution makes federal law and treaties the supreme law of the land. Federal law says the president may not introduce US forces into “hostilities” absent (1) a declaration of war, (2) statutory authorization, or (3) “a national emergency created by attack” on the US or its forces.

YouTube video by NPR Music Buddy Guy: Tiny Desk Concert

Just do yourself a favor and press play.

YouTube video by Arvan Eleron The13thIconSession01

You might need a distraction today. Now available on Youtube, Session 1 of THE 13th ICON, my 5e game on @gregoryawilson.com 's twitch channel:
Me as GM Players @kathleen.loadingreadyrun.com @mightymur.bsky.social @pematson.bsky.social @littlebadger.bsky.social

www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Jpx...

The advent of CGI and cheaper film led to an extraordinary bloat in endless, mindless fight scenes. Those are always the point in the film where I'm getting up to go to the bathroom or checking my phone 😆

Voting rights groups sue Georgia for refusing to release voter purge records Without full access to the records, plaintiffs say they cannot determine whether eligible voters were wrongly removed.

NEW: Georgia removed nearly 471,000 voters from its rolls last summer — roughly 6% of all the state’s registered voters.

Now voting rights groups are suing, arguing the state is illegally hiding records about how the purge was carried out.

My favorite detail from this story: contrary to early reports, he can swim. "In the hospital he told a reporter he wasn’t the strongest swimmer and preferred 'to float with a beer in my hand.''They ran with, "I can’t swim,"' he said."

Folks, it does not matter how much you teach critical thinking or information literacy, if your students don’t have a solid base of actual knowledge it doesn’t matter at all.

A smartphone and internet access is not a substitute for actually knowing things. That was true when Google worked.

Someone today was like "I run these highly technical briefs through ChatGPT to understand what it means" and I'll be over there weeping at the state of mankind
(For starters hallucinations and also the most probable definition isn't necessarily the correct one if we're talking obscure technical)

Heroic Chicago trans comedian recalls saving infant from ice-cold Lake Michigan: ‘I guess I’m going in’ “The most important part of this entire story is that the baby is okay,” Lio Cundiff told The Advocate.

“It’s weird,” he said. “I just did something that I would think anyone would do. What do you mean you would watch a stroller and a baby just sink?”

AIAA Announces 2026 Key Issues to Advance U.S. Aerospace Leadership The United States enters 2026 at a pivotal moment for aerospace. Demand for safer and more resilient air transportation is rising. Space is becoming more congested, more commercial…

'Space is becoming more congested, more commercial, and more geopolitically consequential.'

Note the use of passive voice, as if there is no-one making decisions. Space is more congested because governments keep approving megaconstellations and billionaire vanity projects.
🧪

the hero we all need

Novartis settles with Henrietta Lacks estate over use of her ‘stolen’ cells Novartis has settled a lawsuit by the estate of Henrietta Lacks, which alleged the drugmaker profited from her cells taken without her knowledge in 1951 and reproduced in labs for medical advances.

Novartis settles with Henrietta Lacks’ estate over use of her ‘stolen’ cells for medicine