Posts tagged “Congress”

• A French hospital was reportedly forced to evacuate after medical staff discovered an unexploded World War I artillery shell stuck in a man’s rectum. – via standard.co.uk
• Covid was the #3 killer in 2020, but has now slipped out of the top 10; an American is more likely to die these days from cirrhosis or suicide.
• How to turn off only the cursed AI summary feature in Gmail. – via Laura Olin
• Oh, look! I found yet another excellent article that does a great job of explaining why Substack is the worst. – via @paperalphabet (and me)

Winter Olympics

• Five minutes into the first event of the Games, they lost the stadium lights in the middle of a mixed doubles curling match.
• Mary Carillo will replace Savannah Guthrie as the co-host of the NBC coverage. (I always loved her wonderful 2004 rant about badminton.)
• Facing a 1,000-metre drop, the Milano Cortina 2026 freestyle skiers must overcome more than just their competitors, but their nerves as well. (See also: Japanese freestyle skier Kokone Kondo hurt in training crash, taken to hospital)
• Ice Hockey Underdog Italy earns first Olympic win
• The World Anti-Doping Agency could investigate if evidence emerges that male ski jumpers are injecting their penises in a bid to improve sporting performance.

Life, Liberty, & the Pursuit of Happiness:

• This should be terrifying to everyone: DHS Hunts Down 67-Year-Old US Citizen Who Criticized Them in Email
• How Not to Defeat Authoritarianism
• If the Fourth Amendment permits the government to tear down your door with nothing more than an administrative warrant, the Fourth Amendment doesn’t exist.
• South Carolina Republican Representative Nancy Mace is getting dragged after a damning New York Magazine profile revealed she forced staffers to create burner Reddit accounts to boost her standing in a “hottest women in Congress” forum. – via Comic Sands

• MTV Rewind is an interface through which you can watch music videos from the 70s to the 20s, organized by decade. – via Jason
• A Finnish company has created auto-focus glasses, which use eye-tracking sensors and liquid crystals to automatically adapt to the needs of the wearer. They look like regular glasses, too. – via What Could Go Right?
• You Can Order a Stunningly Detailed LEGO Replica of Your House on Etsy – via my dad
• I have now purchased two Jetsetter Tech Polo shirts and two pairs of Jetsetter Tech Pants from Jack Archer and they’re awesome. I was “influenced” by someone on Instagram and decided to give them a try and have been pleasantly surprised. The shirts look great even after multiple washes, and the pants are just as good as Lululemon ones. (And they even have a stretchy section in the waistband for when you know you’re going to eat a pound of pasta at dinner.)
• Did everyone else know that the fork was popularized in Italy? (I had no idea!)
• Abortion will remain legal in Wyoming after the state Supreme Court ruled that two laws barring the procedure violate the state constitution.
• The Heat Is On:
  • This is infuriating: The House of Representatives voted 341 to 79 to fund the current administration’s war-mongering foreign policy agenda.
  • “Everyone who has gotten rich since Jan 2025 should vote Republican in the midterms and everyone who hasn’t should vote Democrat.” – via @ronfilipkowski
  • Man convicted for carrying the podium belonging to Nancy Pelosi during the January 6 US Capitol riot seeks Florida county office.
  • Great quote: “An economy built on stripmining its populace cannot be sustained.” – via Citation Needed
  • Colorado appeals panel skeptical of sentencing for former county clerk who breached election systems
  • I wholeheartedly agree with this statement: “Democrats should reject any pretense of political normalcy while [the current administration’s] goons wage an ongoing terror campaign against their own constituents. With government funding running out soon, the time to take a stand is now.” – via atrupar.com

• One of the largest sports collectibles forgery rings in the hobby has been busted in a bizarre fraud and forgery case that has rocked the hobby.
• A professional toy photographer recreated the amazing story of the Shackleton Arctic expedition using LEGO bricks and a Nikon DSLR camera.
• Tragic things are going to happen. Figuring out how and why is the complicated work of serious professionals.
• I really cannot argue with any of the films on this list of The Ten Best Screenplays of All Time, but I dramatically disagree with the order. I also cannot imagine not putting Casablanca first and not including Jaws, Raiders of the Lost Ark, or any of a half dozen other Spielberg movies.
• Spontaneously Exploding Prosecco sounds like it would be a good late-90s Italian punk band name.
• The ‘rising fastball’ was a tantalizing myth. Then teams started teaching Induced Vertical Break.
• I agree with most of the points made in this essay on why Robert Redford as Roy Hobbs in The Natural still resonates with sports fans. (It’s one of my all-time favorite movies.)
• An Amateur’s Guide to Working with the Media in a Hostage Crisis

• Florida surgeon general says state will eliminate all vaccine mandates.
• Consider those loonies who believe that the Apollo moon landing never happened. Now imagine a world in which everybody is like that about everything—because nothing can be proven. – Our Shared Reality Will Self-Destruct in the Next 12 Months
• The current administration’s shortcut rule-making is shortchanging all of us.
• His Book on Charlie Kirk Was About to Come Out. Then His Subject Was Murdered. (See also: Florida Reporter Suspended After Texting MAGA Congressman to Ask If He Still Supports Campus Carry After Kirk Shooting)
• The Department of Education has announced that it will partner with right-wing think tanks and organizations to develop and spread what it claims is patriotic education.
• It’s painful to read the archived story of how Epstein, bolstered by unlimited funds and represented by a powerhouse legal team, was able to manipulate the criminal justice system, and how his accusers, still traumatized by their pasts, believe they were betrayed by the very prosecutors who pledged to protect them.

• Five Quick and Easy Habits Suggested by Sports Psychologists is a phenomenal resource. Read it.
• The DMARC Guide from Global Cyber Alliance is an invaluable tool for anyone who manages email servers.
• An endurance swimmer aims to become the first person to swim around Martha’s Vineyard, getting in the water during the start of white shark migration season, in a bid to change perception of the predators shaped by Jaws. See also: Jaws Turns 50
• I still can’t get over the serendipity of Harvard not realizing they had an original copy of the Magna Carta. It would be very convenient if someone could find a copy of Constitution somewhere soon. It seems like almost everyone currently in Washington, D.C. hasn’t read it lately.
• Long-distance relationships are always difficult, even for KGB spies.
• A Hazy Shade of Winter:
  • Moderna pulls application for COVID–flu combination shot. – via carlbergstrom.com
  • Majority of US states now have laws banning or regulating cellphones in schools, with more to follow. [Maybe parents wouldn’t be so desperate for a way to contact kids during school if we weren’t always terrified of them getting shot.]
  • An AI-generated summer reading list was published in major newspapers. [Tip of the iceberg. Canary in a coalmine. Whatever you want to call it. It’s going to get worse.] – via boghuma.bsky.social
  • Diseases are still spreading, but the CDC is no longer warning the public about them.
  • The House and Senate both voted to loosen regulations on air pollutants like dioxin and mercury, which are associated with higher cancer risk.
  • This might be the dumbest thing he’s ever said, and he’s said some of the dumbest things anyone has ever heard in human history. (And that I don’t even need to tell you who he is because you already know supports this claim.)

• In September of 2023, geophysicists across the world started monitoring a very odd signal coming from the ground under them. (I love stories like this!) – via mikeachim.bsky.social
• The Wikipedia List of Unexplained Sounds – via my son
• I enjoyed this quick profile on Howard Katz, the man behind the NFL schedule.
• Someone on bluesky asked, “Do you remember the hardest you’ve ever laughed at anything?” That was an easy answer for me: I remember watching the SNL All-Drug Olympics sketch when it aired in October of 1988. I was fifteen and thought it was the funniest thing I’d ever seen. I still think it’s hysterical.
• Related: I’ve seen Overboard (1987, Kurt Russell, Goldie Hawn) at least 1,000 times and Mother’s Day 2025 was the first time I noticed that one of the VHS tapes in Grant’s collection is clearly a porno titled Pink Clam.
• Pope Leo XIV, the first American pope, became an instant hit among trading card collectors.
• Can confirm: It Only Tuesday
• How Is Any of This Happening?
  • POTUS is attempting to place Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, the guy who defended him in his porn star hush money trial, as the interim acting librarian of Congress. I cannot fathom how anyone is acting like this is… normal. (How does the AP even allow that headline?!) POTUS and/or anyone in the Executive branch cannot simply hire or fire someone who is de jure employed by the Legislative branch. It’s the Library of Congress, not the Library of the President, ffs!
  • I couldn’t have said it better myself: POTUS accepting a $400 million jet from the royal family of Qatar is banana republic shit.
  • The ICE detainment of progressive Twitch streamer Hasan Piker is a cautionary tale for multiple reasons.
  • A contestant (justifiably!) feels betrayed after spending $10,000 auditioning for a fake singing competition on the Nathan Fielder HBOMAX series The Rehearsal.
  • “This is insane. Republicans have inserted language into the budget reconciliation bill that would ban states from regulating AI in any capacity for 10 years.” – via bcmerchant.bsky.social
  • Employees who use AI tools like ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini at work face negative judgments about their competence and motivation from colleagues and managers, according to a new study. – via sethpartnow.bsky.social

• How to Win an Argument with a Toddler is much better than I expected. – via Links You’ll Love
• It took me twenty-four years, but I finally thought to “Select All” in my Apple Music (née iTunes) library and clear the “Sort As” values for Title, Album, Album Artist, Artist, and Composer.
• Kangaroo on the loose in Florida found safe. / Alligator attacks, kills woman canoeing with her husband on Lake Kissimmee. / Woman arrested after raccoon named Chewy found with meth pipe in driver’s seat during police stop. / Yellowstone National Park reports first 2025 bison goring.
• Pretty much every respiratory intervention or product on the market is not supported by science or research, except one: deep breathing.
• 4×3 is a pretty tricky daily puzzle.
• Bravo has greenlit The Real Housewives of Rhode Island, expanding the franchise to its 12th U.S. city. – via The Dailies
• Unbreaking is a new newsletter which plans to detail how the administration is breaking the government, and what that means for all of us. – via Laura Olin
• Death By A Thousand Cuts:
  • The [current] administration is invoking the “state secrets privilege” in an apparent attempt to avoid answering a judge’s questions about its mistaken deportation of Kilmar Abrego Garcia to El Salvador.
  • “Rolling Stone reached out to all 53 GOP senators after the president said he didn’t know whether he needs to honor the nation’s founding document. None replied.” – via thetnholler.bsky.social
  • Since returning to the White House in January, POTUS has declared eight national emergencies.
  • The President of the United States frequently has no idea what he’s signing and has to have it explained to him.
  • Newark, New Jersey Mayor arrested at ICE facility / Department of Homeland Security is threatening to arrest members of Congress over the kerfuffle.
  • Abortion abolitionists want women who get an abortion to face criminal charges.

• Even in his darkest time, Van Gogh was able to capture, with eerie accuracy, one of nature’s most complex and confusing concepts a century before scientists had the technology to do so. – via my dad
• The Los Angeles Rams will hold a minicamp in Maui this June; players will also help build four Habitat for Humanity homes in Lahaina, a historic town destroyed by wildfires in 2023.
• Self-styled prophets are claiming they have “awakened” chatbots and accessed the secrets of the universe through ChatGPT.
• And now: The Nations of the World, brought to you by Yakko Warner!
• The Death of the Screenplay Industrial Complex – via The Dailies
• People with the lowest LDL levels are less likely to develop dementia. – via Arnold’s Pump Club
• Good News for People Who Like Bad News:
  • Trillion-dollar Pentagon budget proposal cuts competitors out of NASA budget and could add billions to SpaceX defense contracts.
  • The new president of the University of Florida is slated to make up to $3M/year, more than any other public university president in the country and more than twice what he made at the University of Michigan, and all he has to do is be a boot-licking sycophant. I am terribly disappointed in my alma mater and fearful of what this portends.
  • Senate Democrats chose not to use the leverage they had to deal with the latest POTUS crypto scam, effectively allowing politicians to speculate personally in perhaps the most fraud-riddled financial market in human history. Pathetic.
  • ICE efforts in Washington, D.C. thwarted by solidarity.
  • God help us all, but I <gasp> agree with Laura Loomer, regarding the POTUS nomination of Casey Means – who has no government experience and dropped out of her surgical residency program: “[W]e can’t have a pro-COVID vaccine nepo appointee who is currently embroiled in a medical malpractice case and who didn’t go to medical school in the US,” as the surgeon general.
  • I cannot believe this has happened three times now: More Troops Injured as U.S. Planes Keep Plunging into Red Sea

• AI is a great idea if you think nobody at your company is great at what they do. This is an absolute must-read from Anil.
• My son sent me a silly YouTube short about a guy stumbling upon some ancient Greek statues buried at the beach. It sounded fishy to me, and the YouTube short gets many of the details wrong, but the Riace bronzes are very much real and the true story is just as wild. – via my son
• The Weird History of Fuzzy Toilet Seat Covers and Accessories – via my dad
• Why isn’t the state of Florida producing highly ranked quarterback recruits?
• I’m not sure if I’ve mentioned these, but I highly recommend getting JETech screen protectors for all your digital devices. There are oodles of companies that make screen protectors, but I like these because they’re so inexpensive, they work well, and they come with a cool installation kit that makes it very easy to apply the thing straight and without any air bubbles.
• Everybody Wants to Rule the World:
  • The Senate voted down a resolution to block the POTUS global tariffs. Everyone is angry at Whitehouse for skipping the vote, but it was never going to pass the House, and would have gotten vetoed regardless.
  • It’s frightfully clear that, worm-infested or not, Kennedy‘s brain is marinated in wild conspiracy theories and dangerous misinformation.
  • Internet laughs at White House briefing with Temu Draco Malfoy
  • The Vietnam War Is Still Killing People, 50 Years Later
  • Staff members at the National Science Foundation were told on April 30^th to, “stop awarding all funding actions until further notice.”
  • Jill Sobule, Singer-Songwriter of Groundbreaking 1995 Song I Kissed a Girl, Dies in House Fire – via @scalzi.com

• Egyptologist in Paris Discovers Secret Messages on the Luxor Obelisk: The 3,300-year-old monument has sat in the French capital’s center for almost 200 years, but no one else noticed these strange encryptions.
• I took the boys to see Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith in the theater on the 20^th anniversary of its release. I saw it in Century City (several days before the official release) two decades ago (and then again a few days later!) and am happy to report that also viewing it hundreds of times on a TV did not detract at all from the thrill of seeing it on the big screen. We loved it. It’s wild that the re-release of a twenty-year old movie made north of $42M over the weekend. Related: I love reading about Star Wars movie mistakes.
• “The choice of wood was completely incomprehensible,” isn’t the best line in this story about a concentration camp violin, but it’s up there.
• In sport, turning 30 was once the point where pundits started sharpening retirement speeches. But Cristiano Ronaldo, LeBron James, and Lewis Hamilton didn’t just stretch the narrative, they shattered it.
• Boulevard of Broken Dreams:
  • “DOGE” has tapped into some of the most sensitive and valuable data in the world. Now it’s starting to put it to work.
  • Related: “DOGE” says it has saved $160 billion. Those cuts have cost taxpayers $135 billion. – via @heidiyounggrasshopper
  • Public health, modern medicine, and disease mitigation will suffer under RFK Jr. because he sees sick people – not sickness – as the problem.
  • Vince Vaughn poses with POTUS in the Oval Office. Pathetic.
  • Senate Democrats who took heat for government shutdown vote now feel vindicated. Pathetic.
  • Oh Great, Millionaires Are Racing Sperm Now
  • The Supreme Court’s Late-Night Alien Enemy Act Intervention

• Crumple Zone: What Car Crashes Reveal About Human Hubris and Fragility
• I’m A PGA Golf Coach – Here’s Why I Made Sure My Kids Can Play Golf – via my dad
• I’ve seen some people saying how AI-generated text is now as good as certain published authors, and honestly I think it’s really brave for these folks to admit in public how poor their reading comprehension has to be.
• Officials in Cinque Terre, Italy have introduced several strict measures to control overtourism, including a 2000€ fine for wearing flip-flops. – via Jenny
• Gray goo is a hypothetical global catastrophic scenario involving molecular nanotechnology in which out-of-control self-replicating machines consume all biomass (and perhaps also everything else) on Earth while building many more of themselves.
• Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It’s not.
  • How Much Did Congress Make Off Market Turmoil and Why Are They Allowed to Make Anything at All?
  • The great thing about fighting back against [fascism] is that if you end up losing anyway you get the same outcome you’d have gotten from complying but you don’t have to fucking hate yourself too.
  • [The Administration] Is Gaming Out How to Ship U.S. Citizens to El Salvador – via gtconway.bsky.social
  • This is severely bad: Artificial intelligence hallucinating nonexistent software packages with plausible names leads to a new malware vulnerability: “slopsquatting.” – via janelleshane.com
  • If you wrote a story about a regime so comically evil that it literally snatches people from their citizenship interviews, you’d be accused of over-the-top imaginings.
  • [Administration] freezes $2.2 billion in grants to Harvard over campus activism – via stardustbluepr.com