Hank

What Made Blogging Different? Whether I like it or not, the first line of my obituary...

For our first essay, @espiers.bsky.social writes about starting Gawker, the heyday of blogging, and how blogs changed her worldview: “There were people I started out reading whose views I began to reject, and some of which I eventually found abhorrent.” talkingpointsmemo.com/tpm-25/what-...

That’s $5 billion more than the entire annual USAID budget. All to one country. To rescue one friend of the president’s.

JD Vance can dismiss the Young Republicans as a college group chat.

But let's be clear: the group chat includes a State Senator, a Trump Admin official, and multiple Republican staffers — and some of the worst comments came from folks associated with Mike Johnson, Elise Stefanik, and Mike Lawler.

The hardest cognitive disconnect to overcome is that between the power these guys have and the way they are actively wielding it to do harm and also how absurd, cowardly and ineffective they appear.

GOP leadership, bought and paid for and only in it for the money, can't believe anyone else can act based on principles.

A clothing store with suits on the rack and bags on the shelf.

This is how a $45 shirt becomes $90 and then $180. This 2x multiplying through the chain is called keystone pricing.

So why can't the brand just sell it to a consumer for $90, cutting out the retail markup? Because if they become a retailer, they will need to raise prices to cover their new costs.

This is correct, in part - as the grim, military historian in me feels the need to note - it is psychologically much harder to get soldiers to open fire on people they view as 'respectable.'

And I dread, with grim increasingly certainty, that we are headed to a point where that matters.

When will cops start to arrest ICErs, prosecutors bring charges, plaintiff's attorneys sue for damages?

The loss of Keaton is a blow to any fan of 1970s cinema. So iconic.

“It made my career,” she said of “Annie Hall.” “It was everything. It’s the reason we’re sitting here having this nice conversation. Everything always goes back to that.”

#RIP

Tennessee man arrested, gets $2 million bond for posting Facebook meme Larry Bushart posted a meme on a local Facebook page about Charlie Kirk. He now faces years in prison.

Everything about this is bonkers. The arrest, the charge, the possible sentence, the **$2 million bail.**

reason.com/2025/10/10/t...

I've noticed the opposing team's fans only cheer when the opponents score on us. To win those fans over, I recommend we score on ourselves repeatedly; that will surely make them so happy they'll start supporting us. And I'm sure all our fans will keep cheering for us—who else is there to cheer for?

The man was 77 years old and his wife previously organized one of the local ‘No Kings’ protests. All he did was write ‘You Lack Values’ and got an intimidation visit from Desantis’s Gestapo.

"Bah, the prize isn't made of real gold anyway..."

The guy we are saving with $20B bailout

@lataco.bsky.social first began as a blog documenting local Mexican cuisine. Now, it’s an essential reporting powerhouse to the city as Trump’s mass deportation plot unfolds.

Check out the latest from our friends at Reveal: tinyurl.com/4cm2bsdr

📊📉Friday Chart Quiz: what do these coloured dots represent?

The image reminds me of the Mastermind game I had as a child (that's not a clue)!

Yeah the key point is a fair amount of those group chats with mates, sharing and commenting on links/memes etc used to happen on the big public or semi-public platforms (Facebook, even Twitter), and now almost exclusively happens on WhatsApp.

Bifurcation into messaging vs entertainment.

I’m not sure that is right because of group chats – I’m in a few for specific reasons (kids, 5 a side) and some of the people use it just like other social media, which can be annoying if you don’t but need the group chat for the specific purpose it was set up.

This pretty much sums up where we are in this market:

Through 2024 they were exactly 4 days in the market's history with total call volume greater than 40 million contracts.

There were 12 such days in the month of September alone and another yesterday.

I have a strange relationship with alcohol. Many of us do. I worked for a brewer, left the industry, and quit drinking. Then I got a great job with an ingredient supplier and fell in love with brewing all over again. Alcohol has provided for my family, and I’ve seen it destroy my partner’s life.
1/2

He's literally trying to hide in that doorway. Turns out you can be evil and wimpy at the same time.

Radical ties get you suspended at #UNC Chapel Hill—unless they’re to the Confederacy, in which case they get you $2.5 million to build a shrine to a secessionist monument.
🤔
#academicsky

Howz about fat Commanders in Chief?

Hegseth is summoning hundreds of the most senior US generals and admirals so he can give them a lecture on the “warrior ethos” this week.

Will never not be funny to me that the Latin name for the American Robin is Turdus migratorius

Better yet, don't sire kids when you're 59...

Gimcrack QVC addiction

Autism risk associated with parental age and with increasing difference in age between the parents - Molecular Psychiatry Molecular Psychiatry - Autism risk associated with parental age and with increasing difference in age between the parents

Indirectly, absolutley. Men over 45 are 7x more likely to have autistic kids. You're on to something. www.nature.com/articles/mp2....

Focusing on Tylenol, Trump passes responsibility for autism to the mom's action. Psychologically convenient for T, since the odds of a child's autism are 7x higher when dad is over 45.

Carrboro is the Haight Ashberry of the bible belt.