2.08.2025

Going steady ain't what it used to be

I Can’t Track You? We’ll Have to Break Up

Mihika Nagpal broke up with a boyfriend three months ago because he didn’t want to share his location. They had been dating for four months.

How did it used to be? It used to be you can wear my class ring. Or my letter sweater, if it's really big-time serious.

It is a special world…

Jayden Daniels Wins 2024-25 NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year Award over Nabers, Nix


…where being named an offensive rookie is a compliment. And being cited as also pretty offensive, but not the absolute most, is worth at least a laudatory mention.
The first-year passer received Offensive Rookie of the Year honors over fellow contenders including New York Giants wide receiver Malik Nabers, Las Vegas Raiders tight end Brock Bowers, Jacksonville Jaguars receiver Brian Thomas Jr. and Denver Broncos quarterback Bo Nix.

 It may (or may not) be worth pointing out that there were no offensive Chicago Bears.

2.07.2025

On the eyebrows of Hollywood

The Oscars Hit an Antiwoke Land Mine, Karla Sofía Gascón

The star of ‘Emilia Pérez’ hasn’t been signaling much virtue.

A search on X.com (formerly Twitter) turned up such eyebrow-raising comments as this one, from 2020, originally written in Spanish: “I’m sorry, is it just my impression or are there more Muslims in Spain? Every time I go to pick up my daughter from school there are more women with their hair covered and their skirts down to their heels. Next year instead of English we’ll have to teach Arabic.”

 Given the general tenor of news in the recent week, this red-carpet crisis seems refreshing. 

2.06.2025

Elon making problems go away

Disappearing Data:
Trump Administration Removing Climate Information from Government Websites

And also any claim to credibility.

Washington, D.C., February 6, 2025 - In the first two weeks of President Donald Trump’s second term, the administration has begun to scrub critical environmental resources and datasets from federal agency websites. To combat this effort to suppress and censor public data, the National Security Archive’s Climate Change Transparency Project today publishes a selection of materials on climate change and environmental justice that have been deleted from agency web pages and spotlights the environmental and archivist organizations working to identify, scrape, and preserve these critical data.

America First lasted 16 days

Trump’s Gaza Takeover Proposal Splinters MAGA Base


And getting right into the spirit of things…

Pro-Trump Arab American group changing name after Gaza remarks

“He won, so we needed movement on the momentum on what we have done, and we finally decided to change the name to Arab Americans for Peace,” Bahbah said. “Some in the press tried to tie what the president has said to our changing the name. In fact, it is connected and it’s not.” [Emphasis mine.]

What could be more Trumpian than "maybe it is, maybe it isn't"?

Except maybe today, maybe not tomorrow. 

2.05.2025

Smash

The Super Bowl Has Never Seen Anything Like These Five Gigantic Humans

Offensive linemen are typically the largest players in football, but even by those standards, the Eagles are positively ginormous. Their five starting linemen, on average, stand at 6-foot-6 and weigh 338 pounds. By comparison, they’re more than an inch taller, and 26 pounds heavier, than their counterparts on the Kansas City Chiefs.
Opposing this fearsome five will be a guy named Steve Spagnuolo, who is the Chiefs' defensive coordinator and reputed to be one of the best in the game. And some other guys who, although a little shorter and a little lighter, are pretty big too.

Might be a good game to watch.

The 54th state?

Trump Campaigned on Ending Foreign Entanglements. Now He Wants to Own Gaza.


Well, after East Canada, West Canada, and Greenland. 

The Trumps and the Kushners (we are imagining a new reality show called America's Peskiest Inlaws) are now calling Gaza valuable beachfront property.

We are earnestly hoping this whole thing is as silly as it sounds.

2.04.2025

Just because there are records still to be broken

Chinese chef makes world's thinnest handmade noodle

Enhai successfully took the record with a noodle measuring just .18 millimeters thick.

China places a tariff on U.S. coal

China announces measures against Google, other US firms, as trade tensions escalate


Well, coal among other things. Quite a few other things, in fact. But coal?

Remember coal? Turns out the U.S. is the world's forth largest producer of coal at a little over 500 million short tons per year (although well behind China, at around 4,700 million tons, India, at 1,000 million, and Indonesia, 775 million). 

About 90% of U.S. coal production is used to produce electricity. This map from National Geographic shows the location of coal-fired power plants, mostly in midwestern and southeastern states.

2.03.2025

Strangely, there seems to be a dearth of rodent news

Yesterday was Groundhog Day, at least as far as my calendar is concerned. And I haven't seen a word about it in the news. Maybe you have…but just in case:

It is 6.4287 weeks until Spring.

2.02.2025

A bridge way, way too far

Top Security Officials at Aid Agency Put on Leave After Denying Access to Musk Team

The employees working for Mr. Musk’s task force who clashed with Mr. Voorhees were seeking to enter a secure area of the agency’s offices to get at classified material, two U.S. officials with knowledge of the incident said.

The U.S. agency involved was USAID. I don't know much about USAID but I do know something about handling classified information and this incident as reported by NYTimes, above, and Reuters, here, is way beyond the pale.