Novelist, journalist, digger of dinosaurs, hiker of hikes
McDonald’s USA
— Employee: $15/hr, no benefits
— Big Mac: $5.90
McDonald’s Denmark
— Employee: $22/hr, 6 weeks vacation, 1 year paid maternity leave, life insurance, pension
— Big Mac: $5.66
Tell us more about how raising the minimum wage would affect the cost of hamburgers.
New Ukraine Update at Uncharted Blue.
https://www.unchartedblue.com/ukraine-update-north-korean-troops-are-just-another-purchase/
New Ukraine Update at Uncharted Blue. https://www.unchartedblue.com/ukraine-update-the-end-of-pax-americana-will-cost-more-than-anyone-can-imagine/
Tech billionaires have glimpsed the face of a deity they are still creating. They’ve become the cultist of LLM. They think to both make a God and bind Him in their service — and if you need to be sacrificed on that altar, they’re okay with that.
https://www.businessinsider.com/eric-schmidt-google-ai-data-centers-energy-climate-goals-2024-10
The latest Ukraine Update is up at Uncharted Blue.
https://www.unchartedblue.com/ukraine-update-time-is-running-out-to-win-the-war-for-the-future/
"Many of them will be out there tomorrow finding fault with how the government is responding to this disaster. Most of them will pretend to be outraged about the efforts being made to rescue people from floods and take care of those displaced. None of them will step up to admitting their role."
https://www.unchartedblue.com/120-people-are-dead-because-of-hurricane-helene-jim-inhofe-and-me/
A new "Ukraine Update" is up. Trying to catch up on three extremely active months in Ukraine and setting the stage for a return to more regular updates.
https://www.unchartedblue.com/ukraine-update-zelenskyy-putin-pokrovsk-and-kursk/
@daylightatheism Oh, I'll be writing until someone breaks my fingers. Where I'll be doing will hopefully be settled soon.
After several years and over 8,000(!) articles, I've just turned in my last post as a staff writer for Daily Kos.
It's been a trip. Thanks for all the views, comments, and feedback.
Donald Trump and JD Vance are sources of hate and destruction
In case you missed it, what Vance is saying here is that all Black people are dangerous savages. He doesn’t care where they came from, or where they live, or when something happened. He thinks they’re all the same.
And really, that’s what this has been about all along.
@MiriShuli supposedly, ownership is now with a “public benefit corporation” not under control of Dorsey. But I’m not going to pretend to be an expert on how this works.
ICYMI, via Roger Parloff: 1/…
Surprised this hasn’t gotten more attention. During the debate, when #Trump claimed (falsely) that on #Jan6 “nobody on the other side was killed,” the “other side” he was talking about was the police & Congress. He also called the rioters “we” before he caught himself.
@MiriShuli so far, BlueSky seems to be a good community. and they seem to have put in place rules to keep the tech bros from running off with things. We’ll see if it sticks.
In theory, I have 7x as many followers on X as on Mastodon and 14x as many as on BlueSky. But the same post here gets a more views and responses. Some of that is community. A lot of it is algorithm.
If you have a pet, and you live anywhere near Springfield, OH, please make sure that they are inside and safe.
I'm not worried about immigrants. I'm worried about Trump supporters.
@hankgreen of course, the Jared Diamond version of the story has been recognized as fiction for some time. The historical accounts show a thriving, complex society disrupted by contact and exploitation, not the “they used up their resources and deserved it” narrative that has been so often spread. Population on Rapa Nui was roughly level for an extended period pre-contact.
Woah: Genetic analysis of ancient remains on Rapanui (Easter Island) shows:
1. Ancient contact with the Americas.
2. Evidence that the population did not collapse until after European contact (and the slave raiding / diseases brought by it).
Re-write the books, yall, the textbook example of ecocide is now on pretty flimsy foundations…
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-024-07881-4
This week, I got a DM from someone who read my YA books years ago. I’m not going to embarrass her, but I do want to thank her. It really made my day.
Go find a writer who wrote something you enjoyed and remember from years ago and tell them what their work meant to you. Trust me, it will be appreciated.
Hey, remember when we said that story about Donald Trump’s campaign violating federal law, desecrating a military cemetery, assaulting and insulting a woman, then throwing all the blame on Gold Star families “Wasn’t going away”?
Whatever happened to that story?
