AfTea: Imperial Judges, Neanderthal Compassion, and a Suicidal Robot
Afternoon Tea | 7.3.24 | TNaj
Going free for July 4th! Enjoy the music, quote, and poem as you wander through your mid-week reads. Here’s a new one: A special needs caveman, a French Fascist, and God’s Influencer walk into a bar…
Whose rights matter to the Supreme Court (KeepTrack) & The End of Liberal Institutionalism (Hamilton Nolan) So much to say about the Imperial Court, but honestly, it’s all a waste of words. The Roberts Court will go down in history as one of the worst in American history. If America survives this, of course.
Far right en marche (The Racket) & Macron is history, Le Pen is triumphant. What do ‘reasonable’ French voters like me do now? (Guardian) France proves what progressives have been saying since 2008. Neoliberals are just junior varsity fascists, so they can’t ever pull votes from those on the Right. Fascists are defeated by leftists and left-center liberals, not centrists or neoliberals.
Florida man arrested after shooting, destroying Walmart delivery drone (FOX 35) I wanted to dislike the guy, but I’m actually just surprised at how long it took for something like this happen. If this ever becomes common practice, anti-drone capture tech is going to get wild.
A New York county with one of the nation’s largest police forces is deputizing armed residents (AP) Saving you a click, it’s Nassau. Which is the least surprising thing in existence to readers familiar with Strong Island.
Korean robot commits suicide after a year in public service (ITC) A helper robot spun around over and over at the top of a flight of steps before yeeting itself down them. It’s being called the first robot suicide, and I don’t know that I can argue it.
The Incredible Fentanyl-Detecting Machine (Sarah Constantin) No, cop machines can’t scan something inside of the trunk of a car or truck and see if it has fentanyl on it. That’s a Tricorder from Star Trek, and we definitely do not have those yet.
The text file that runs the internet (Verge) Robots.txt is one of those SEO things that you deal with everyday that people outside of your industry have never heard of before. So critical, but so mundane.
“To our horror”: Widely reported study suggesting divorce is more likely when wives fall ill gets axed (Retraction Watch) The coders flagged people who left the study as getting divorced. Thankfully the effect size was much smaller then, and relegated to cardiac conditions only. But, gentlemen, don’t divorce your wife if she gets a terminal diagnosis. Fucking please.
Fossil of child with Down syndrome hints at Neanderthal compassion (Reuters) The fossil shows the child lived for many years after the Down Syndrome would have been apparent. Which speaks to a Neanderthal tribe protecting a child with special needs, thousands of years ago. We are kinder than we think, when we want to be anyways.
Video-gaming teenager to become first Catholic millennial saint as pope and cardinals approve canonization (CNN) First millennial saint, with two miracles attributed to him! Who knew “God’s Influencer” was already hard at work.
Quote of the week
In all chaos there is a cosmos, in all disorder a secret order.
~Carl Jung
Poem of the week
Lost
Stand still. The trees ahead and bushes beside you
Are not lost. Wherever you are is called Here,
And you must treat it as a powerful stranger,
Must ask permission to know it and be known.
The forest breathes. Listen. It answers,
I have made this place around you.
If you leave it, you may come back again, saying Here.
No two trees are the same to Raven.
No two branches are the same to Wren.
If what a tree or a bush does is lost on you,
You are surely lost. Stand still. The forest knows
Where you are. You must let it find you.
~David Wagoner
Vibe of the week
New KREAM! It’s pretty good, especially on a workout or kick-out-the-jams set.
Don’t blow up your hand tomorrow, all of the new ER residents will need practice stitching things up, so give them a few weeks!
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