Paul Sutton @zleap@social.cleverlibre.org

“I do not recall any front-page story saying that Donald Trump’s shocking threat last week to sell out NATO allies was a ‘political disaster.’

“I did not see any front page headline saying that in so doing Trump had ‘Put Subservience to Putin Back at Center of 2024.’”

I wish every political editor would take the day off and consider what James Fallows has to say here.

https://open.substack.com/pub/fallows/p/election-countdown-264-days-to-go?r=g7z5&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email

Trump has proven eye-opening — or should have — for many of us, as we learn that a not insignificant proportion of Americans think the Constitution is optional and not the foundation on which our democratic republic is built.

And it should be eye-opening that a whole slew of "liberal" media types are right on board with this trashing of the Constitution — including 99% of straight white men on social media, who are suddenly Constitutional experts.

#Trump #Constitution #Republicans
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NASA researchers finally opened the OSIRIS-REx sample capsule, revealing the asteroid treasure inside from Bennu. According to the mission team, the spacecraft grabbed a total of 121.6 grams from the asteroid, including the samples found outside the collector. NASA will now distribute samples to 200 scientists worldwide who will study the properties of the regolith. They'll also release a catalog of the samples so scientists can request access.

https://blogs.nasa.gov/osiris-rex/2024/02/15/nasa-announces-osiris-rex-bulk-sample-mass/

How is it that in 2024 I still can lose half an hour of my work day trying to get a stupid journal article, from a major journal that my university pays for, to open?

I usually route around this bullshit, but I wanted to actually get the publishers copy for once. Bad decision.

I guess this is why scientific peer review has pretty much moved to blog posts about stuff in arXiv...

#Science #sciencepublishing #publishing #openaccess #bullshit #academiclibrariessuck #publishersuck

Yasssss

The UN Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer #Space has agreed to add an agenda item for the next five years to address the impact of satellite constellations on #astronomy

https://www.eso.org/public/announcements/ann24003/

#astrodon #sustainability #environment

https://cointelegraph.com/news/white-hat-crypto-hackers-unite-crime-fighting-collective
White hat crypto hackers unite to create crime fighting collective

@Miro_Collas Physically attacking or verbally abusing Jews is antisemitism. That, at least, is really quite simple.

Has Starmer done his best to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory? https://www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2024/02/15/has-starmer-done-his-best-to-snatch-defeat-from-the-jaws-of-victory/. Labour's continuing inability to manage candidate selection for forthcoming elections, despite Keur Starmer's seemingly fetishistic demand for control of this process, gives rise to an obvious question. Might it be that we have now witnessed peak Labour?

Discovery of new plant protein fold may be seed for anti-cancer drugs https://phys.org/news/2024-02-discovery-protein-seed-anti-cancer.html #science

Someone asked "Why do some British people not like Donald Trump?"
Nate White, an articulate and witty writer from England, wrote this magnificent response:
"A few things spring to mind.
Trump lacks certain qualities which the British traditionally esteem.
For instance, he has no class, no charm, no coolness, no credibility, no compassion, no wit, no warmth, no wisdom, no subtlety, no sensitivity, no self-awareness, no humility, no honour and no grace - all qualities, funnily enough, with which his predecessor Mr. Obama was generously blessed.
So for us, the stark contrast does rather throw Trump’s limitations into embarrassingly sharp relief.
Plus, we like a laugh. And while Trump may be laughable, he has never once said anything wry, witty or even faintly amusing - not once, ever.
I don’t say that rhetorically, I mean it quite literally: not once, not ever. And that fact is particularly disturbing to the British sensibility - for us, to lack humour is almost inhuman.
But with Trump, it’s a fact. He doesn’t even seem to understand what a joke is - his idea of a joke is a crass comment, an illiterate insult, a casual act of cruelty.
Trump is a troll. And like all trolls, he is never funny and he never laughs; he only crows or jeers.
And scarily, he doesn’t just talk in crude, witless insults - he actually thinks in them. His mind is a simple bot-like algorithm of petty prejudices and knee-jerk nastiness.
There is never any under-layer of irony, complexity, nuance or depth. It’s all surface.
Some Americans might see this as refreshingly upfront.
Well, we don’t. We see it as having no inner world, no soul.
And in Britain we traditionally side with David, not Goliath. All our heroes are plucky underdogs: Robin Hood, Dick Whittington, Oliver Twist.
Trump is neither plucky, nor an underdog. He is the exact opposite of that.
He’s not even a spoiled rich-boy, or a greedy fat-cat.
He’s more a fat white slug. A Jabba the Hutt of privilege.
And worse, he is that most unforgivable of all things to the British: a bully.
That is, except when he is among bullies; then he suddenly transforms into a snivelling sidekick instead.
There are unspoken rules to this stuff - the Queensberry rules of basic decency - and he breaks them all. He punches downwards - which a gentleman should, would, could never do - and every blow he aims is below the belt. He particularly likes to kick the vulnerable or voiceless - and he kicks them when they are down.
So the fact that a significant minority - perhaps a third - of Americans look at what he does, listen to what he says, and then think 'Yeah, he seems like my kind of guy’ is a matter of some confusion and no little distress to British people, given that:
* Americans are supposed to be nicer than us, and mostly are.
* You don't need a particularly keen eye for detail to spot a few flaws in the man.
This last point is what especially confuses and dismays British people, and many other people too; his faults seem pretty bloody hard to miss.
After all, it’s impossible to read a single tweet, or hear him speak a sentence or two, without staring deep into the abyss. He turns being artless into an art form; he is a Picasso of pettiness; a Shakespeare of shit. His faults are fractal: even his flaws have flaws, and so on ad infinitum.
God knows there have always been stupid people in the world, and plenty of nasty people too. But rarely has stupidity been so nasty, or nastiness so stupid.
He makes Nixon look trustworthy and George W look smart.
In fact, if Frankenstein decided to make a monster assembled entirely from human flaws - he would make a Trump.
And a remorseful Doctor Frankenstein would clutch out big clump-fuls of hair and scream in anguish:
'My God… what… have… I… created?
If being a twat was a TV show, Trump would be the boxed set."

Hey school leaders... don't always defer to IT folks. Get some coaching in IT issues. It is too important to not get help.

Israel’s military orders evacuation of last major hospital in south Gaza – as doctors say it is under siege

Medics at Nasser hospital in Khan Younis say they have faced weeks of sniper fire and constant bombing, as Israeli troops look to move on border city of Rafah. Meanwhile, ceasefire talks hit fresh roadblock as Benjamin Netanyahu says only a... #press

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/israel-gaza-hospital-khan-rafah-palestinians-b2496249.html?utm_source=press.coop