Mo Pierce

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I've watched thousands of videos from the Jan. 6 riot as part of NPR's reporting and archive project on that day.

Here are some of the lesser known videos that have really stuck with me.

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NORAD's Santa Tracker began with a typo and a good sport It all started in 1955 with a misprint in a Colorado newspaper and a call to Col. Harry Shoup's secret military hotline. Shoup played along with the tiny voice who called, and a tradition was born.

It all started in 1955 with a misprint in a Colorado newspaper and a call to Col. Harry Shoup's secret military hotline. Shoup played along with the tiny voice who called, and a tradition was born. From the NPR archives.

Turn of the century city scene with blowing snow

Childe Hassam, "Late Afternoon, New York Winter," 1900, from collection of the Brooklyn Museum of Art www.brooklynmuseum.org/objects/1202

Patriots to play as Somerset Semiquincentennials to celebrate America's 250th. Picture of bald eagle in red, white, and blue top hat.

Lots of America rah rah crap

Of course the Somerset Patriots are rebranding their alts to become the Semiquincentennials for next year.

And in that pause between pitch and contact - longer than logic, shorter than hope - we remembered why baseball existed long before we judged a sport's value by viral moments and betting apps. It is the romance of failure. The mortal beauty of trying and missing seven times out of 10 and still being considered great. It is the only sport where patience is a weapon, and panic the surest death. You cannot simply run out the clock in baseball; you must face it, pitch by terrifying pitch, until it finally releases you.

Did not expect one of the best paragraphs I’d read about baseball would come from an Irish newspaper

www.irishexaminer.com/sport-column...

makes me weep to think of the gifts robbed from us because unaffordable housing has made it difficult for people to pursue their passions and hobbies

Last Week Tonight on X: "Congratulations to all the winners of Marble League 2020! Through our sponsorship, they raised $100K for worthy causes. Here’s a thread of the winners and where their funds went:" / X Congratulations to all the winners of Marble League 2020! Through our sponsorship, they raised $100K for worthy causes. Here’s a thread of the winners and where their funds went:

If you're looking for some food banks to donate to, we vetted a ton all over the country back in 2020, in conjunction with our marble league sponsorship, a sentence that I swear made sense in context. Anyway -- there are links to 17 of them in this thread. (And apologies for linking to... y'know.)

Amazon's website in 1999

YouTube video by Chopin Institute Tiffany Poon – Nocturne in C minor Op. 48 No. 1 (first stage)

Full performance here:

Frédéric Chopin, Nocturne in C minor, Op. 48, No. 1.
Tiffany Poon, piano.
Fryderyk Chopin Institute, Warsaw, Poland.
Chopin Institute©️

🙏🏼🎼🕊️

youtu.be/xZ83Lwnhkj0?...

Genius coaching job this year

I’m sorry??!! He actually says “Just kill them.” What??!!

Feel you. I was so in love with Le Creuset for awhile. The passion lessens but doesn’t abate.

Issue 37•34: The September 11th Issue

24 Years Ago Today: The September 11th Issue

At least 2 students shot at a Denver-area high school, authorities say | CNN At least two students have been shot at Evergreen High School in Evergreen, Colorado, according to the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office.

The shooting of Charlie Kirk was the 46th school shooting of the year. The 47th one happened moments afterwards. www.cnn.com/2025/09/10/u...

Also, no. The Dept of War was something entirely different — it was just the Army. There was a separate Dept of the Navy. (Also, it was never an agency.) The DoD brought together both and added the Air Force and the structure of the Joint Chiefs.

This tweet is wrong in a bunch of ways that matter.

Cleanse your timeline with the most wholesome Velvets cover ever. Worth watching all the way through.

Them: “Cities are all rotting hellscapes!”

Cities:

In Germany, scientists have made a breakthrough in treating Parkinson’s by implanting a chip in the brain that sends precise signals to restore movement. A stunning leap in neuroscience—witness the power of innovation and the beauty of science in action.
Powerfull content

“Luka” peaks at #3 today in 1987 — a song for which Suzanne Vega said she once received a fan letter:

Dear Suzanne,

Luka is the most compelling piece of music I’ve heard in a long time. There are no words 2 tell U all the things I feel when I hear it.

I thank God 4 U,
Prince

An important thing about "out of control" museums discuss slavery talk is that there are only two historical sites that comprehensively cover enslavement, the institution, and the struggles of freedom into Jim Crow. The Smithsonian is one of them (the Whitney Plantation Museum is the other).

Went ahead and updated my map of cities with higher crime than D.C. to accommodate the two new states from the Deep South who are sending troops to the capital. In the five states there are 64 cities, home to 1.7 million people, that had more crime in 2024 than D.C.
www.pbump.net/o/more-peopl...

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The @washingtonpost tracked where Trump's forces are patrolling in Washington. Spoiler alert: They're not where the crime is.

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Please plan to regularly support food banks in your towns and cities, now and in coming months.

Fascism may be defined as a form of political behavior marked by obsessive preoccupation with community decline, humiliation, or victim-hood and by compensatory cults of unity, energy, and purity, in which a mass-based party of committed nationalist militants, working in uneasy but effective collaboration with traditional elites, abandons democratic liberties and pursues with redemptive violence and without ethical or legalrestraints goals of internal cleansing and external expansion.

I find myself thinking about historian Robert Paxton’s 2004 definition of fascism far too often than I’d like these days. Note that these sentences were written back when Donald Trump was a NYC playboy libertine who donated to Democrats.

important stats: violent crime rate in DC has dropped dramatically in last few years. And DC violent crime rate is lower than the following cities: Indianapolis, Wichita, Baton Rouge, St. Louis, Cleveland, Tulsa, Memphis, Nashville, and Houston. GOP/Trump aren't talking anything about red states.

A particularly gut wrenching excerpt from this article:

Where’s Madison