Trump fires all the members of the DC Commission of Fine Arts so they can't oppose his Triumphal Arch.
The Grand Egyptian Museum in Giza is horrendous. When will modernism die? Donald Trump, are you seeing this? (Dezeen, CBS, Arch Daily)
Amazing radio image of the Milky Way.
Noah Smith on the problems the world faces as populations in rich nations fall and those in poor countries continue to grow.
Amen to this, from pourteaux on Twitter/X: "both liberals and leftists would appreciate it if you quit using our labels interchangeably."
Reuters on the Trump family's Crypto corruption.
Map of SNAP use across the US. In Clark County, Idaho, 31% of families use SNAP; In Baltimore it's 26%.
Univerity of Austin announces a policy of free tuition.
Sumo wrestlers touristing in London.
Some images from the Bloomsbury Jamboree of Books and Prints, via Spitalfields Life.
Richard Hanania on why Groyperism is accelerating, and why it is more dangerous than wokeness.
What It's Like to Be Wrongly Charged by Trump's Department of Justice.
UCal's insane fingerprinting requirements for anyone who interacts with minors may kill their famous math program for young stars.
People who write for AI. And Scott Siskind's response.
Chinese seafaring, good article at Smithsonian, with special reference to the "porcelain wrecks" we have discussed here before. Note that the known Chinese shipwrecks are pretty big but nowhere near as big as the huge vessels mentioned in Chinese chronicles, which I consider more evidence that those numbers are made up.
Some neurologists are focusing on brain states that seem to be in between sleep and waking.
Paper disk creations by Jacob Hashimoto.
Fourteenth-century frescoes that had been covered by whitewash revealed in Siena.
Alex Tabarrok on why rooftop solar is lagging in the US.
On Twitter/X, a claim that AI-written cover letters and resumes are distorting the job application process.
Text of the recently approved parents' rights amendment to the Texas constitution: "To enshrine truths that are deeply rooted in this nation's history and traditions, the people of Texas hereby affirm that a parent has the responsibility to nurture and protect the parent's child and the corresponding fundamental right to exercise care, custody, and control of the parent's child, including the right to make decisions concerning the child's upbringing." Not clear is this will have any effect, since Texas alread has a law that says pretty much the same thing, but there is a strong desire in many American parents that their schools not expose their children to homosexuality, trans stuff, or whatever the next culturally leftist idea is.
A claim that some Russian oil refinery managers enjoy being attacked by Ukrainian drones, because this allows them to steal lots of product to sell on their own behalf, besides getting large insurance settlements.
Ukraine claims that its STING anti-drone drones have made more than 1,000 intereceptions of Russian Shahed-style drones. Drone vs. drone is the future.
3 comments:
The Grand Egyptian Museum in Giza is horrendous. When will modernism die?
John, you have an entire prior post about how modernism remains in vogue because it is the signifier of the modern wealthy elite, and because it doesn't get much imitated by the non-elites, and thus the rich haven't had to replace it with a new style to set themselves apart.
You know that modernist architecture is only going to go away once it stops being a shibboleth for the rich. Which is to say, no time soon.
Map of SNAP use across the US. In Clark County, Idaho, 31% of families use SNAP; In Baltimore it's 26%.
The map is truly depressing. So many of the areas that voted the most heavily for Trump are the ones that rely the most on SNAP.
As the meme goes: 'I never thought leopards would eat MY face,' sobs woman who voted for the Leopards Eating People's Faces Party.
Baltimore interests me - as do a few other urban outliers.
Wayne County doesn't surprise me, for example, because Detroit is infamously a gutted city. The Bronx is also not surprising, despite trending positive economically in the past few decades, given a very long history of being the poorest borough in New York by a wide margin. Miami-Dade also isn't too shocking - it's a brutally expensive place to live, with some truly shocking levels of income inequality.
(Which raises an interesting point - densely populated urban centers almost always suffer from substantially higher cost of living, so one would naturally expect a greater number of people to rely on SNAP to supplement their incomes in order to get by there. We should keep that in mind when making comparisons, particularly since despite that fact, the percentage of metropolitan inhabitants relying on SNAP is significantly lower across the country than in rural populations.)
Baltimore is odd, though - as is nearby Somerset. I confess, I'm not terribly familiar with Maryland at all. But I do note that those two are serious outliers within Maryland as a whole, and I find it a little puzzling. Perhaps John has some insight, since he lives more or less next door?
Univerity of Austin announces a policy of free tuition.
This is one of those things where I thought, "The Left is going to love this...oh wait". Then I did a search and saw "Anti-Woke" School and then thought, "Oh they're going to hate it"
Sure enough
https://www.reddit.com/r/texas/comments/1opeh1k/trader_jeff_yass_is_giving_100_million_to/
They were at my child’s college fair, and I am pleased to report every student cut a very wide arc around their table
traitor
I’m quite certain this university will graduate no scientists or engineers, just some mediocre lawyers and lifelong grifters. I assume several podcasters as well
Fascinating how Austin has turned into a laboratory for the absolute douchiest silicon valley bros to test out their most bat shit Randian ideas on. I mean awful for the people of Austin, but fascinating for the rest of us
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Free tuition is a Ayn Rand thing now? Huh. HUH. Politics is Pure Naked Tribalism and nothing more, folks.
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