Luther Wills-Dudich

Makran or Bust: Tehran's water crisis gets worse Ten days ago I wrote that Tehran was approaching a point where warnings, pressure cuts and appeals to save water would no longer be enough.

"What once sounded unthinkable is now being said openly: Tehran is not viable; and evacuation orders are imminent."

Makran or Bust: Tehran's water crisis gets worse
open.substack.com/pub/peterfra...

a man in a military uniform stands next to a man in a white shirt and says " oh boy " Alt: a man in a military uniform stands next to a man in a white shirt and says " oh boy "

Yep. We will need to get “facts” from outside the U.S.

Nov 21st Update:

NWSS is back! After what may have been the lowest transmission rates since 2021, we are seeing rises again. Expect this to accelerate into the holiday season, especially in MW&NE
Estimates:

🔸150,000 new inf/day
🔸~1 in 220 currently infected
🔸~1 in 550 are significantly infectious

Autism and Vaccines QUESTIONS AND CONCERNS | PAGE 2 OF 9 | ALL PAGES For Everyone NOV. 19, 2025 KEY POINTS The claim "vaccines do not cause autism" is not an evidence-based claim because studies have not ruled out the possibility that infant vaccines cause autism. Studies supporting a link have been ignored by health authorities. HHS has launched a comprehensive assessment of the causes of autism, including investigations on plausible biologic mechanisms and potential causal links.

Trump and RFK Jr's CDC just added a page that is full of disinformation about vaccines and autism.

….and hijinx ensue? 🙂

I would pay so much money for this.

The AI Bubble Is Bigger Than You Think - The American Prospect It’s not just OpenAI that looks overhyped. There’s a whole mountain of sketchy financial engineering underneath.

"We have a 2000s housing bubble level of financial engineering on top of a 1920s level of private unregulated lending on top of something bigger than a 1990s internet (or 1870s railroad) level of technology and infrastructure build-out." prospect.org/2025/11/19/a...

How awful. This is outright health disinformation, lying to the American people. Not only is there massive evidence showing no link between vaccines & autism, there’s not even a plausible mechanism based on what we’ve learned about the genetics of autism, some environmental exposures in pregnancy

Back to the drawing board on the "live animal merry-go-round."

Super heroes eating gumbo.

That was a VERY fun read. I think you have Logan voicing an important point of Spider-Man Peter’s relationship with the heroes community towards the end of the issue, too. 🙂

During the core months of hurricane season (Aug-Sep-Oct), fairly persistent anomalous "troughiness" was centered over the southeast U.S., which resulted in anomalous counter-clockwise steering flow around it.
This helps explain why hurricanes generally turned northward well before reaching the U.S.

NEW: An analysis finds that NIH funding cuts have disrupted at least 383 clinical trials, affecting over 74,000 participants that were enrolled in studies that were testing treatments for conditions including cancer, heart disease and brain disease.

Don't do any of this.

What is this script of which you speak?

I think that whole trilogy made the case for having a showrunner-type position and having a treatment of all the planned films (with character arcs) finished BEFORE shooting starts.

'A House of Dynamite' but it's your uncles trying to deep fry a turkey.

Be rational: chimp decision-making is guided by the strongest evidence Nature - The ability to change your mind in response to better evidence is a hallmark of human cognition. Experiments now show that chimps are capable of rational thought too.

The ability to change your mind in response to better evidence is a hallmark of human cognition. Experiments now show that chimps are capable of rational thought too

go.nature.com/4p7OH7W

A sign that reads “Just Ugh.”

😥

That #LARain is really coming down this morning. Flash Flood Warnings for all of Los Angeles, with one "Considerable" west of town. Various reports of flooded roads, rocks & trees down.

We are phasing out the terms “extant” and “extinct” from our exhibits and will now refer to species as either “Darwinners" or “Darlosers.”

Source:

Rekha Lakshmanan

Jonathan Coulton and Paul & Storm | Rams Head On Stage – Official Site

Some self-promo amongst all the capital-N news this week...we have two live shows with Jonathan Coulton next week (rescheduled from Sept):

11/19: Rams Head on Stage, Annapolis, MD
www.ramsheadonstage.com/events/detai...

11/20: The Birchmere, Alexandria, VA
www.birchmere.com/events/jonat...

Picture of shark sculpture by MICA student Mayali Geyling.

Picture of shark sculpture by MICA student Mayali Geyling.

Are you located in the DC-Baltimore-Philadelphia-New York corridor?

Have you always wanted to have your very own 11 foot long papier-mâché hammerhead shark?

Now available for free!

Perfect for museums, community centers, or your living room!

Save this lovely creature from imminent destruction!

It is 1998. I am at the kitchen table writing Batman fanfic but I keep getting distracted by breaking news about a Bill Clinton sex scandal

It is 2025. I am at the kitchen table writing a canonical Bat-book but I keep getting distracted by breaking news about a Bill Clinton sex scandal

6-second videos of CPSC lab staff saying, "Yeah, it shouldn't do that."

This is so cool. Citations down-thread.

life is what happens between flushes. 🧵

The first MCU film