🏳️‍⚧️ Poli

“These are phantom investments,” said Cecilia Rikap, a professor of economics at University College London, who said similar things were happening around the world. “Big tech companies artificially inflate datacentres’ job creation and economic impact to please governments like the British one, which are desperate to claim they are making the economy grow.”

Uh oh.

What’s on my mind: Megan Nolan | The Observer At home in New York, the Irish author of Acts of Desperation and Ordinary Human Failings ponders various things, such as otters, jokes and cheese

What’s on my mind: Megan Nolan bit.ly/40rZUWC

Yesterday afternoon, Iranian state media published photos of what it says are missile parts from the weapon that struck the school in Minab.

The images are notable not just for the parts they show, but for how they show them.

Let me explain...

There is a striking gap in how Americans and Israelis view the attack on Iran.

That disparity could impact how long Washington is willing to stay in the fight.

#GraphicTruth via @gzeromedia.com
https://www.gzeromedia.com/graphic-truth-netanyahus-strategic-window-in-iran

Company Lacks Manpower To Complete Newest Round Of Layoffs

Company Lacks Manpower To Complete Newest Round Of Layoffs https://theonion.com/company-lacks-manpower-to-complete-newest-round-of-layo-1819574660/

local techbro discovers CK3 not a manual

WSJ: “.. Trump has at times been surprised that Tehran won’t cave despite the unrelenting joint U.S.-Israeli military campaign, according to people familiar with his thinking.”

@wsj.com
www.wsj.com/world/middle...

the reason he doesn't do this is because he knows that Trump knows he picked the wrong size for him deliberately, and his acceptance of pain and humiliation keeps him in his place in the hierarchy of the team even as he dreams of someday being the boss.

literally all the time already - certain sex positions, mutual respect, and of course, being intimate with women who look or act a certain way). in this sense the "only thing straighter than straight sex is actually gay sex" becomes itself a heterosexualized homosociality/homosexuality

people are confused about this but it makes sense in a fascist imaginary where gay =/= "homosexual". gay = effeminate, unmasculine, associated with womanliness or faggotry. much sex gets called gay when it is something beyond dominating the feminized object (this happens

MacBeth, isn’t it: Oh shit there’s blood everywhere, this seems really bad! I guess there’s nothing to do now but slap on a grin and plough through it

It's, alas, telling how often the flip from "relatively normie political operator" to "guy spouting lines out of Mein Kampf" runs through "accusations of sex crimes"

The UK’s Road to fascism seems to be paved by ex-tories doing the ‘this is just how you do politics now’ thing. I’m almost more scared of people like this than I am of wide eyed fundamentalists.

‘Sounds familiar’: how the US-Israeli war in Iran parallels Russia’s invasion of Ukraine Both campaigns have been framed differently at different times, with dubious claims of defensive action and a curious reluctance to label it war

“In both wars, the aims of the campaign have been framed differently at different moments, while legal justification, scholars say, is nonexistent. The question now is whether the US can avoid pitfalls that ensnared Russia & whether more parallels will emerge”

www.theguardian.com/world/2026/m...

Un triomphe qui se solde donc par le remplacement d'un tyran par son fils, un pays bousillé, strictement aucun progrès du côté du soutien aux populations civiles, quelques milliers de morts pour rien et des conséquences à long terme qu'on ne peut même pas imaginer. Et on recommence dans six mois.

a message; a word.

it's so cool our overton window is so far gone you can pick between 3 far-rights each between 10-20% vote share depending on your flavor: pro-iranian, pro-us-israeli and neutral anti-eu

This we can say with considerable certainty.

As we move deeper into the climate crisis with its associated chaos, the ability to be location independent is going to be a massive resilience asset.

I keep encouraging people to learn the skill!

It’s cool how everything is so on fire that Pakistan and Afghanistan being at war with each other has slipped under even very plugged in people’s radar.

I am so convinced this happens because Netanyahu kept telling him he could be the President to have the balls to do the thing every other President was too cowardly to do, and he walked right into the fucking trap because he’s that fucking stupid. A blinder, courtesy of the US’s dearest ally.

Netanyahu knew he had the trifecta of a dumbass narcissist US President (Trump), a full-blown genocidal Islamophobe SoD (Hegseth) and a small man neocon SoS (Rubio), ran the plate on them and convinced them to do the thing every President since Reagan has been marginally smart enough to pass on.

Memory as a Way of Life: What Do You Remember? "This very phrase — vos gedenkstu — vitalized hasidim throughout their generations with life that revitalizes the dead."

“When I was five years old … I was with my parents in Yalta (Crimea). While strolling in the mountains, I would play near my father. Often, my father would ask me what I remember of what I had seen when I was still very small.”
elirubin.substack.com/p/memory-as-...

‘Everything is bombed’: Beirut church shelters families fleeing waves of air strikes Migrant workers and refugees shut out of official shelters as Israel bombards Lebanese capital

‘Everything is bombed’: Beirut church shelters families fleeing waves of air strikes

@medievalists.bsky.social High Altar of St Mary (Pouring the Bathing Water)
1477-89
Wood
Church of St. Mary, Cracow

Here's one of my more recent paintings: 'She Was Always Asleep At School', oil on canvas panel, 40x50cm framed. A painting inspired by a girl in primary school who was always asleep due to unknown home troubles. Elements homage Dorothea Tanning.
#art #painting #oilpainting #sleep #school #tanning

it is genuinely very funny how many big name/shop analysts have gone on tv in the last 24-48hr and been like "man we didn't think this administration would be so stupid" like, come on

Microplastics and nanoplastics in urban air originate mainly from tire abrasion, research reveals Although plastic particles in the air are increasingly coming into focus, knowledge about their distribution and effects is still limited. Chemical analyses from Leipzig now provide details from Germa...

Around 4% of particulate matter consists of plastic, TWO-THIRDS comes from tire abrasion.

"...people in a city like Leipzig inhale approximately 2.1 micrograms of plastic per day through the air, which increases the risk of death from cardiovascular disease by 9% and from lung cancer by 13%."

My photo shows a Roman floor mosaic depicting an octopus. The octopus is composed of small black tesserae (tiles) and has eight writhing arms with suckers and narrow curling tips. It is set against a white tesserae background. Octopus detail from a monochrome marine mosaic featuring Triton with a cherub and various sea creatures, including the octopus, dolphins and a cuttlefish, at the women’s changing room at the Central Baths in Herculaneum.

Spectacular octopus from the floor of the women’s changing room at the Central Baths in ancient Herculaneum.

📷 by me

#MosaicMonday
#Archaeology

Trump's Iran intervention is as big a strategic failure as Putin's invasion of Ukraine

The closure of the Straits of Hormuz has created the largest oil supply shock in history

Brent is above $100 & will stay there until convoys or deescalation restore traffic, probs weeks away