Lauri Donahue

A close-up of a lemon-poppy seed bar on a baking tray with the headline: These Lemon-Poppy Seed Bars Are the Stuff of Dreams

These easy treats balance buttery shortbread and tangy curd. "Oh dear… these are really good." nyti.ms/4mpx7e7

And of course the primary precedents are Hitler and Stalin…

Detail from the ceiling of the Arena Chapel, in Padua, magnificently adorned with Giotto frescoes in ca. 1305.

One of the many beautiful images featured in our essay "Primary Sources: A Natural History of the Artist's Palette" by @philipcball — https://publicdomainreview.org/essay/primary-sources

storyknife.org/how-to-apply...

Storyknife Writers Retreat
a retreat for women writers in Homer, Alaska

#writing

Column: Celebrating the one and only Tom Lehrer, the satirical voice of generations Tom Lehrer died on July 26 at 97, living in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Celebrating the one and only Tom Lehrer. If you remember him, welcome back to his music. If you've never heard of him, lucky you. His subversive, snazzy, satirical and controversial songs will delight you.
www.chicagotribune.com/2025/08/05/t...

This is purely anecdotal, all artisanal data from yours truly, but kids today seem way overscheduled and yet are often not allowed to just... hang out with friends and be bored and whatever. It feels like kids are more controlled and wrangled and kept "protected." So this kinda tracks? YMMV.

Y’all this week my Agent told me that each tv Directing job is getting about 500 submissions

I understand it’s the same for Writers

Oof

The AI Data-Center Boom Is a Job-Creation Bust Tech and political leaders tout them as an employment bonanza, but data centers need very few workers in very large spaces.

“Patmos is erecting a data center in Missouri that will employ 40 to 50 people in a building that previously housed the printing press for the Kansas City Star.” www.wsj.com/tech/ai-data...

Purdue student detained by ICE and taken to troubled Louisiana holding facility Yeonsoo Go, 20, was detained after her immigration hearing in Manhattan and taken away by ICE agents.

Go, a college student, has a dependent visa (her mother, an Episcopal minister, is here on a religious worker visa), which doesn't expire until Dec. But when she tried to renew it early, ICE nabbed her and sent her halfway across the US to a detention center.
www.wthr.com/article/news...

How a public library's summer game took over a Michigan city Summer in Ann Arbor, Mich., means thousands of people hunting for hidden codes around the city and reading books to earn points. It's part of a popular game organized by the public library.

Love this!

#library

www.npr.org/2025/08/04/n...

So does this mean he’s a “For All Mankind” fan or that he didn’t watch that episode?

Creek and flowers

Road and trees

Meadow

Road thru trees

Current view - Southern Wyoming

Column | Fans aren’t actually cooling you down. Try this instead. In hot weather, fans can trick our brains into believing we’re not entering heat exhaustion. Wetting your skin can help keep you safe.

Hate to break it to you, but your fan isn’t keeping you cool. Studies show fans don’t actually lower body temperature, and instead create a false sense of cooling that could worsen in heat exhaustion.

Here are science-backed ways to stay cool:

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has issued arrest orders for 57 Democratic House members who left the state in an attempt to stop a Republican gerrymandering vote demanded by Trump.

Governor Greg Abbott has also ordered their arrest.

Column | Zuckerberg fired the fact-checkers. We tested their replacement. Our tech columnist drafted 65 community notes, Meta’s new crowdsourced system to fight falsehoods. It failed to make a dent.

Meta fired its fact-checkers, citing concerns of liberal bias, and replaced them with a version of X's "Community Notes." How's that going?

Well, my coworker @geoffreyfowler.bsky.social proposed 65 fact-checks debunking false posts... and only 3 got approved. www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2...

Cartoon of Tom Lehrer's headstone with birdseed, a pigeon or two and one who also has passed away ☺️

RIP...

Going to start calling chatbots sycophancy as a service.

The problem is men admitting they haven’t figured out how to do what all of their ancestors figured out all the way back to Lucy.

The Office of Public Works is inviting applications from suitably qualified individuals or businesses to operate the café at Ionad Cultúrtha an Phiarsaigh in Ros Muc, Co. Galway for the 2025 season. This unique location, steeped in Irish language and heritage, offers an exciting opportunity in the heart of the Connemara Gaeltacht. Attractive conditions and concession arrangements are available, with the possibility of extension for two further seasons. Key Dates: • Final date to request information: Monday, 28 July 2025 • Closing date for submissions: Thursday, 31 July 2025 To request the response document or further details, please email: sheila.joyce@opw.ie and ursula.jennings@opw.ie #CafeOpportunity #Cafe #Application Ionad Cultúrtha an Phiarsaigh, Conamara Ionad an Bhlascaoid - The Blasket Centre Heritage Ireland 📷 Courtesy Fáilte Ireland

#jobsky #ireland #eire

That sounds like a cool podcast! What’s it called?

Far-right extremists using games platforms to radicalise teenagers, report warns Parents advised to be vigilant over summer holidays to risk of offenders using in-game live chats to target their children Far-right extremists are using livestream gaming platforms to target and radicalise teenage players, a report has warned. The new research, published in the journal Frontiers in Psychology, reveals how a range of extremist groups and individuals use platforms that allow users to chat and livestream while playing video games to recruit and radicalise vulnerable users, mainly young males. Continue reading...

Far-right extremists using games platforms to radicalise teenagers, report warns

Carrie Fisher impersonating Oscar the Grouch in Manhattan, 1980.

Photograph by Douglas Kirkland.

Funny socks

Writer Square chalkboard, Denver

I’ve found that people calling Social Security offices wait an average of nearly 1 hour and 45 minutes, with some people waiting over 3 hours for help.

The Social Security Administration isn’t sharing data about the extent of the problem. I’m asking for answers.

Great blue heron sighting

“One of the most surprising findings was a significant shift in developer preferences for AI compared to previous years, while most developers use AI, they like it less and trust it less this year,” Erin Yepis, Senior Analyst for Market Research and Insights at Stack Overflow, told VentureBeat. “This response is surprising because with all of the investment in and focus on AI in tech news, I would expect that the trust would grow as the technology gets better.” The numbers tell the story. Only 33% of developers trust AI accuracy in 2025, down from 43% in 2024 and 42% in 2023. AI favorability dropped from 77% in 2023 to 72% in 2024 to just 60% this year.

👀 venturebeat.com/ai/stack-ove...

Oooo!

Israeli bobsled teams prepare for World Championship, Winter Olympics | The Jerusalem Post Israel’s bobsled and skeleton racing teams prepare for the World Championship – and the Winter Olympics

Here’s the article I wrote:

www.jpost.com/israel-news/...