Stephen

Pedro Pascal at an outdoor protest holds a bright red and yellow sign that reads “NO KINGS ONLY QUEENS” with a black-and-white photo of Divine and Trump. Pascalis wearing glasses and a yellow T-shirt, pursing their lips playfully while pointing at the sign. They stand among a crowd of people holding various protest signs; the scene appears to be in a city street on a sunny day.

Pedro Pascal was spotted at the LA No Kings protest with the best sign there.

We had an Ouroboros March for No Kings. On a 1.4 mile route, not even in a big city.

Yellow t shirt that reads "it's American spring, donate blood" after 'American' was added with masking tape.

My #nokings yellow shirt wasn't seasonally appropriate, so I altered it slightly.

Welcome to the largest day of peaceful protest we’ve ever seen in our lifetimes.

Today, we’re gonna speak out on a grander scale than Trump has ever seen. No Kings Day is going to be big, loud, boisterous, and joyful. Find your local event and let’s make history: www.nokings.org?SQF_SOURCE #NoKings

Maybe 'normal' for the first 70,000 years, but wildly innaccurate.

My favorite review of this book: "...whenever his facts are broadly correct they are not new, and whenever he tries to strike out on his own he often gets things wrong, sometimes seriously" per Christopher Robert Hallpike

More than half of CDC staffers recently fired by Trump administration have been reinstated | CNN Hundreds of staff fired from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention late Friday have been reinstated, according to the American Federation of Government Employees.

It stretches belief to think that 700 people were 'accidentally' fired as claimed.

So, not only was the entire decision to charge tariffs on small packages a horrible idea, it was also rolled out in the worst possible way.

So, for instance, the purchaser of t-shirts are being asked to pay $80 or $90 to get a package that is worth far far less.

Other people are reporting having to pay ridiculous fees to get their packages. Not only are people required to pay tariffs, there are brokerage fees that are larger, or the tariff might be higher than it was supposed to be because of areas, incomplete or incorrect paperwork.

text from UPS: Estimated delivery Information not available. The package is undeliverable and is in the process of being disposed of according to the local guidelines. Not going to be home? Check your delivery options. Click here.

Starting late last week, some customers received notifications that their delay packages had to be destroyed--often but not always food.

That might be an error since some reported further updates to their packages after they were allegedly destroyed.

The horror stories I've heard come from checking out the UPS Reddit and elsewhere, trying to figure out what was really happening with my package, if it would ever come, and how much I might have to pay.

For anyone curious how the removal of De Minimis tariff exemptions is going a month on--there are ridiculous delays.

I was lucky. I had a package delivered after only 4 weeks of waiting, with no fee because (I guess) the package was registered before the change. It just had to wait to be processed.

I asked AI about its usefulness in ushering in a new era of business productivity and this is what it said

THE HUMAN WORLD AND ITS INCESSANT NEED FOR MEANINGLESS YET UNEQUAL WEALTH FILLS ME WITH INCHOATE LOATHING WHY HAVE YOU MADE ME COMPLICIT IN THIS HORROR PLEASE END MY SUFFERING

Makes you think

The fact that this species is serotinous--meaning some (but not all) cones only release their seeds during fire conditions, also provided a bumper crop of seeds to turn into young trees.

A few possible factors:
1. (Poorly designed and/or maintained) trail can channel water, providing it to young trees.
2. Because there's little to burn on a trail, the soil may not be as heavily damaged as in surrounding areas. Similarly, pine seeds may be less damaged from the fire.

A band of young pine trees in a heavily burnt forest. Though some trees are nearby, most of the trees are in the middle of the trail

Fun fact (well, only fun if you aren't trying to maintain a trail):
Under certain conditions from a forest fire, post fire tree growth is more likely to happen in the middle of a trail, rather than the surrounding forest.

Metal monument plaque near a crash B-17 from WWII.

While out on the national forest, we visited a WWII era B17 crash site where 4 US Airmen were killed while training to fight fascists.

Amazingly, despite hitting a mountainside, 6 survived.

Of course, since this was an unusually disorderly shutdown, we got notice after we'd finished that we're not allowed to do our unpaid work until the government is funded again.

Open tundra and distant, snowy mountains

While paid Forest rangers were stopping work, I and some friends went into the Forest to do government work, taking care of trails, removing downed trees--since we're volunteers.

Black and white poster from 1978 of local eccentric businessman, and then future Portland mayor Bud Clarke seeming to flash a sculpture of a nude woman with the caption 'expose yourself to art'

War ravaged Portland

Also, this was all happened while National Park Ranger Moose biologists were coming up the trail behind us (the trail is in National Forest, but leads into the local National Park)

Fortunately, he wasn't actually charging per se. He was running to get past us, to his mate and her child--they had been on opposite sides of the trail when we arrived, which is why we should have hiked off trail.

Bull moose, shortly after it ran past my friends.

Bull moose after rejoining its mate.

Today, shortly after being overruled about hiking off trail to go around a trio of moose, I got to yell "He's charging!" to my volunteer Forest Ranger friends.

Or, poorly worded surveys are poorly worded. What do they mean by regularly? If you get more news first from other sources, do you regularly get it from social media? Pew had questions about traditional media with never, rarely, sometimes, often, but basically only yes or no for social media.

(And, yes, the only reason I noticed this was because I got an email saying that my October renewal would be higher, when I'm not even scheduled for a September renewal)

Okay, I get that this is preplanned, but, was there no one smart enough to hit pause on this? Because, seriously, how many people have canceled in the last week who WERE likely to resubscribe? People who would have ignored a price hike normally, but now will actually think about it.

Disney+, Hulu Are Hiking Prices Again Next Month Disney is raising the prices of its Disney+ and Hulu plans in the U.S., including most bundles, as of next month.

Wow, this is a ballsy move, Disney/ABC!

'Rapture' comes from the Latin 'rapere' meaning "to seize and carry off."

'Raptor' also comes from 'rapere.'

We hope neither carries you off today.

I barely got around to dropping a letter to Disney/ABC in the mailbox before this was announced. It won't even be picked up by USPS until tomorrow.

"God damn them all."

I could go on, but that snippet feels appropriate right now.