They're absolutely right to call him out for this

the bargain that put RFK Jr in charge of American health in exchange for putting Donald Trump back in the White House may go down as the single worst deal in all of human history

New York Post article - Headline: Euro-vision: Mayor Eric Adams’ son chasing racy rap dreams … in Albania By Bernadette Hogan and Emily Crane Published Nov. 24, 2022 [Image of the guy performing on a TV stage] Mayor Eric Adams’ son is chasing his rap dreams — all the way to Albania. The Big Apple’s first son, Jordan Coleman — aka rapper “Jayoo” – took to the stage in the capital city of Tirana Wednesday night to compete in the Albanian equivalent of “American Idol.”

(but seriously it's great foreshadowing)

Albany is the Albania of America

I mean the seeds of him becoming Albanian were clearly planted last season, it's all heavily foreshadowed

And yet always completely in character! He's got that quality that the greatest fictional creations have, everything he does is surprising but also inevitable

I love how the basic template of "wildly corrupt" + "says weird funny stuff" expresses itself in such distinct ways across Adams and Trump, matching precisely at occasional crossover points but then spiralling out in their own wild fractal kaleidoscopic bursts of what

a genuinely unmatched talent for doing whatever this precise combination of things he does is

wow, monsters really do walk among us in plain sight

I would add that while Southland Tales is not a "good" movie in the traditional sense, The Rock is incredible in it, and it also lands in that zone of going big with multiple levels of self-awareness

I think there's a kind of an overcorrection against governments offering public information campaigns in the place of active policy interventions, which it's reasonable to be cynical about but does weirdly lead to people getting negatively polarised against the whole concept

The people WILL NOT STAND for giving Cheltenham Borough Council the right to allow markets in Cheltenham town centre, but of course our corrupt political elite are entirely captured by Big Hypothetical Cheltenham Market.

The World Holds Its Breath This week: I hate him I hate him I hate him. Also: a map of the horrors; and some notes on the Moon.

Why the f*ck must everything I hold dear be subject to the whims of a demented shitposter with no emotional regulation? Why can I not book a holiday or make a financial decision, without first stopping to think about that guy? Why should I have to wake up every morning to find out what he’s done?

Not sure I believe it, but "trying to do as much damage as they can before the US realises they actually have to tell them to stop" might also fit?

‘We Were Not Ready for This’: Lebanon's Emergency System Is Hanging by a Thread In Lebanon, nearly 1 in 5 people has been displaced by Israeli attacks, leaving the government to manage a modern crisis without modern digital infrastructure.

In Lebanon, nearly 1 in 5 people has been displaced by Israeli attacks, leaving the government to manage a modern crisis without modern digital infrastructure. www.wired.com/story/we-wer...

The voyage of the Katrin neutrino detector through the streets of Karlsruhe made for some amazing images.

I do think it is probably bad that a superpower's negotiating stance has no relation to either material reality or to memory. I am sceptical that you can negotiate a settlement that sufficiently regulates emotional impulses. On balance, I doubt the viability of postocracy as a system of governance.

the final and most merciless stage of copyediting: people actually reading it

Unproven, Unlikely, and Firmly Believed From the Satanic Panic to the anti-vax movement, the moon landing to Pizzagate, it’s always been human nature to believe we’re being lied to by the powers that be (and sometimes, to be fair, we abs…

I think this went to the presses today so it's now too late to find any typos. This was not the most stressful thing to happen today, admittedly. But still. (It's a history of conspiracy theories, REVISED and UPDATED for US release, because there have been A FEW DEVELOPMENTS on that front lately.)

[alt text by NASA] The Moon, seen here backlit by the Sun during a solar eclipse on April 6, 2026, is photographed by one of the cameras on the Orion spacecraft’s solar array wings. Orion is visible in the foreground on the left. Earth is reflecting sunlight at the left edge of the Moon, which is slightly brighter than the rest of the disk. The bright spot visible just below the Moon’s bottom right edge is Saturn. Beyond that, the bright spot at the right edge of the image is Mars. Credit: NASA

Whoa 🤯

The Moon, in full eclipse, with the #Artemis II Orion spacecraft. Part of the Moon and spacecraft are lit by Earthshine, and both Saturn and Mars are visible to the lower right. Incredible. Details: images.nasa.gov/details/art0...

tbh I was just trying to draw Italians into a food argument

A samosa is a dumpling. A toastie is technically a type of lasagna.

oh noooooo

but they still have to dramatically adjust its burn for re-entry because the capsule is somehow 400kg heavier

I think it would be most unsettling if it topped out at seven astronauts, rather than continually increasing.

exactly, if it wasn't for that one little thing I'd be right up there

you could get through so many hypothetical symptoms of Moon Fever in that time

"Houston, good to be back in touch, and we're glad to report that all five of us are doing well."
"Integrity, that's– wait. Five of you? There were only fo–"
"I'm afraid you're mistaken, Houston. This is the correct number of astronauts. All six of us are happy to confirm that."

"Houston, uh, we urgently need to speak to the Pope. No I can't tell you why. The fewer people who know, the better."

I don't think I could be an astronaut because I couldn't keep from saying something to really freak everybody out when I came back from behind the Moon.