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The United States Institute of Peace—a private, non-profit NGO created by the Reagan Administration dedicated to non-violent conflict resolution and prevention, and which receives funding from various US government and outside sources—has become the latest victim of Musk's chainsaw.After successfully holding off DOGE and the FBI last Friday and early Monday, Trump apparatchiks successfully "broke in" to the USIP late yesterday, reportedly with assistance...

"The Sampler Archive database has been designed to share detailed information and high-resolution images of American girlhood samplers and pictorial embroideries from the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries."If you happen to have an historical sampler, you can submit it for inclusion in the database.

Immanuel Kant, the father of deontological ethics, is celebrated not only for his revolutionary philosophical ideas but also for his extraordinarily disciplined lifestyle. For nearly 40 years, Kant adhered to a rigid daily routine, which became as legendary as his intellectual contributions. As the first modern philosopher to work as a university professor, Kant's life reveals the interplay of habit, discipline, and genius, showcasing...

Welcome to your belated bleated Free Thread! Since the thread had not been posted yet, I figured I would throw the conversation starter out about how one feels about tardiness and/or belatedness. Are those the same to you? Are you the type of person who shows up 15 minutes early to everything and stress out if you are only one minute early? Or, are...

English folk singer Sam Lee is reinventing the genre for the twenty-first century by exploring its deep past.Forty-four-year-old Lee was shortlisted for the Mercury Music Prize for his 2012 debut album Ground of its Own, mixed by John Wood, who engineered Nick Drake's first two albums. Lee's voice is in the tradition of Drake, but his subject matter feels ancient, collecting old and nearly...

Ezra Klein speaks to Democratic pollster David Shor about what voter data reveals about the 2024 election. NYTimes (ungated), YouTubeOn ethnicity: Ezra Klein: "Where do we begin?" David Shor: "In 2016, Democrats received 81 percent of the Hispanic moderate vote, while in 2024 they received 58 percent. That's only 6 percent more than the 52 percent of white moderates that they received in 2024....

This reaches into other outlets that serve the terror-consumption cycle. In the pre-internet landscape all pain (while no less felt) was local. With the internet, what gives all forms of destruction their double-edged blade is their everpresence, their relatability, and their inescapability. The things that go on in someone's backyard are no longer confined to their backyard. People don't have to be caught in...

An Northern Territory (Australia) cattle producer had the horribly amazing experience of witnessing a python eating her laundry. The serpent eventually regurgitated her clothes, which she said were quite slimy and in need of a thorough wash. A reptile expert says pythons can be attracted to items that smell of food, such as those worn by people who work with animals, but believes the...

Jesse Colin Young (aka Perry Miller) passed away on March 16th, 2025. Founder of the Youngbloods in 1966, he is known for the 60's anthem Get Together... along with Darkness, Darkness and my favorite Ridgetop.

At the beginning of 2025, a great comics heroine of the past finally returned after over half a decade... to discover that her good-for-nothing superheroine daughter Wonderella had been forced to pass her mantle on to her sidekick after causing some kind of pandemic. Today, the former Wonderita finally accepts the most challenging part of the legacy: "Catch me, lassie, and get me gold!"...

While women still shoulder the bulk of domestic work, men's participation in "feminine" labor increased during the pandemic--and men have kept up the work.Trends that emerged during the COVID-19 pandemic are telling, Milkie says. While everyone significantly increased time spent on chores and childcare in 2020, by 2023, the hours women spent on such tasks had largely returned to the pre-pandemic baseline. But men...

A Postcard advertising The Congressional Club Cookbook. "Fourteen editions of these cookbooks have been sporadically published throughout the years by The Congressional Club, a non-profit organization chartered by Congress in 1908." In 1927, The first cookbook was published advising, ""Knead and beat 500 licks till dough is soft and blisters," instructed Willa Eslick, future Member and wife of then-Representative Edward Eslick, in her recipe...

Forever 21 has filed for bankruptcy a second and presumably final time, announcing plans to "wind down" its retail stores. It blames Chinese fast-fashion rivals Shein and Temu for exploiting the de minimis exemption to undercut its prices. (previously)Axios estimates the company currently has 9,200 US employees. Mass layoffs have already started. Wish them shelter from the storm. Forever 21's Rise And Fall: The...

The last surviving Battle of Britain pilot, John 'Paddy' Hemingway, has died aged 105."The Battle of France is over: the Battle of Britain is about to begin ... if the British Empire and its Commonwealth last for a thousand years, men will still say: This was their finest hour. - Winston Churchill, 18 June 1940 "Never in the field of human conflict was so...

Clearly, a better-dressed Congress — if not a more functional one — is possible. And a handful of current members are proving it. So I wanted to highlight a few of the most fashionable people in what is perhaps America's least fashionable institution. Many of Congress' best dressed people are women, but since I'm a menswear writer, I decided to focus on the men....

Why Chinese netizens call Palestinian fighters "dandelions". "Palestine today is China's yesterday". Why young Chinese are rediscovering Mao's support for Palestine.From global anti-imperialism to the dandelion fighters: China's solidarity with Palestine from 1950-2024 - From 1950 to 1976, China's stance on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict underwent a dramatic shift, evolving from potential diplomatic ties with Israel to staunch support for Palestinian liberation. Rooted in Maoist...

Former NASA engineer, squirrel competition organizer, and porch pirate antagonist Mark Rober demonstrates the inadequacy of Tesla's driving automation by means of a test that is quite literally Looney Tunes.The test was to show why Tesla's vision-only strategy for detecting obstacles is inadequate for the job, and why sensors like LIDAR are needed. To do so, he set up a number of tests, culminating...

"[N]o attempt has been made up till now to quantify women's contribution to [medieval] manuscript production. Here we address the research question: What was the quantitative contribution of female scribes based on available sources?" The answer may surprise you!Spoiler: Based on realistic assumptions we show that at least 1.1% of the medieval manuscripts were copied by female scribes (lower estimate). ... However, our investigation...

Reported by Newsweek: Columbia University announced on Thursday that it expelled or suspended some of the students who occupied a campus building last year in protest of Israel's war on Hamas in the Gaza Strip.Nihad Awad, the national executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), previously told Newsweek: "Free speech is a cornerstone of democracy and academic freedom. So are acts of...

The ethics are muddy, the country is divided, and the world is watching Canada's next move. (TW/CW: suicide, self-harm, mental health issues, suicidal ideation)(slMacLeans)

Right-Wing Women reappears in a moment of pitched anti-feminist backlash, as corporate America abandons all pretense of equal treatment and abusers of women fill the government. Women marched, rallied, and told their stories, but no hashtag is a match for misogyny. "No matter how often these stories are told, with whatever clarity or elegance, bitterness or sorrow, they might as well have been whispered...

The Reserve Bank of Australia says the $5 note's new theme, selected from more than 2100 public submissions, will honour the emotional, spiritual, and physical connection of First Nations people to Country. Country does not mean a country like eg New Zealand, or the United Kingdom - each First Nations group in Australia has a geographical area within Australia that is very culturally and...

"Other parents we know have settled on an introductory offer of £1 to £2 for Tooth 1, lowering to a lesser rate for subsequent donations, and we're about to put this to him when he hits upon a snag. 'How do I get the money without the tooth?' he asks, suddenly lamenting his dentivore breakfast. 'Er, you fill out a form' I splutter vaguely,...