A comic. A broken window, broken, it seems, by rock with a note tied to it. A man is reading the note, which says: "Bricks thrown thru your window? Call Al's Glass, 555-1232."
A Trumpian approach to fixing problems.
www.thefarside.com/2026/04/23/0
If you need something good this morning.
Some Wednesday night music: Long Way Home, by Ray LaMontagne. youtu.be/bBWSq064o5s?...
... This makes sense since Mars is 50% further from the Sun than Earth. More striking, perhaps, is that the Martian sunset is noticeably bluer near the Sun than the typically orange colors near the setting Sun from Earth. The reason for the blue hues from Mars is not fully understood ..."
"For comparison, two images of our common star were taken at sunset, one from Earth and one from Mars. These images were scaled to have the same angular width and are featured here side-by-side. A quick inspection will reveal that the Sun appears slightly smaller from Mars than from Earth ...
"How different does sunset appear from Mars than from Earth?"
Two Worlds, One Sun
(Left Image Credit & Copyright: Damia Bouic;
Right Image Credit: NASA, JPL-Caltech, MSSS; Digital processing: Damia Bouic)
apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap25061...
In her essay “The Art of Finding,” Linda notes: “To write just because the poet wants to write is natural, but to learn to see is a blessing. The art of finding in poetry is the art of marrying the sacred to the world, the invisible to the human.” It is this seeing, this finding, that we are given in her work, as if we too discover alongside her. Her method of adding yet another fragment, another piece of the puzzle, marks us as collaborators.
Gregg "is interested in what lasts—and, in particular, what lasts not by accident or despite human folly but by virtue of its sacredness."
On the Poetry of Linda Gregg www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazi...
It became clear with “Magnolia” that Anderson could do amazing things with actors. His screenplays provide dialogue and movement, nothing more, leaving the actors to flesh out an idiosyncratic idea of character, which he supports as they take that idea to the limit. In “Magnolia,” Philip Seymour Hoffman gives a performance of heartbreaking delicacy as a male nurse who just barely asserts his existence by acting as selflessly as possible—a paradox, but Hoffman pulls it off. In the opposite mode, Tom Cruise, pelvis thrust out, stretching his arms in an arc, as if he were a longbow ready to fire, shows up as a bombastic sex guru leading a crowd of hooting young men in obscene pep talks. Just when the film threatens to devolve into a series of exploding arias, Anderson slams the characters into one another and intercuts their noisy dilemmas. As in “Boogie Nights,” his hyperactive camera, rushing up and down corridors, cascading onto the street, tumbling into tunnel-like passageways, pulls the miserable men and women together. Only someone with a deep reservoir of sympathy could order their desperate incoherence into art.
Anderson plunges us into the physical realization of experience with a thoroughness that can be unsettling. He commands the medium, overloads it, teases and challenges us. He can also be a little baffling, putting more on the screen than he strictly needs in order to tell a story—not a case of indiscipline, I believe, but of sheer pleasure in moviemaking. When Anderson describes his methods in interviews, his eyes darting at the questioner and then looking away, he can be maddeningly diffident, as if he were just some fellow hanging around the set when marvellous things happened. He wants you to know that he’s from the Valley and not, say, from Paris; art talk is forbidden. Guarded and proud, he is the most perverse, most talented American movie director since Robert Altman.
"Only someone with a deep reservoir of sympathy could order their desperate incoherence into art." www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...
Kennedy's "statements at a House hearing last Thursday were as bewildering as the FDA rejection.
'Every panel within FDA, all the career panels, the career scientists who looked at that drug said it was not effective,' he said.
That isn’t true."
www.wsj.com/opinion/fda-...
Some (more) Tuesday night music: April Fools, by Rufus Wainwright. youtu.be/mIF6f3tFxBw?...
Some Tuesday night music: Muzzle of Bees, by Wilco. youtu.be/_x7gXx4V7wc?...
A few feet away, sitting just behind their attorneys, the Stewards managed to maintain their composure as they listened to their lawyer enumerate the ways their daughter might have been saved from an agonizing death. They took notes and never appeared to lose focus, their equanimity signaling to everyone who saw them that a parent’s dedication to their child does not end when that child’s life does.
"As the animosity in the courtroom intensifies and former friends turn into enemies, it has become clear that everyone involved is bound, as in some Shakespearean tragedy, by their own version of the same emotion: anguish." www.texasmonthly.com/news-politic...
Last night, after an hours-long public hearing, Monterey Park became the first city in California to pass an ordinance permanently banning data centers.
The city council voted unanimously to declare data centers a public nuisance, and to "prohibit all data centers within city limits."
My story:
"The Khamenei Strait of Hormuz will be the biggest and most beautiful trade chokepoint EVER!" the ayatollah announced in a social media post. www.borowitzreport.com/p/iran-says-...
Trump’s unbending pursuit of war, vengeance, and destruction, during times of sacrality, in addition to his open contempt for the inherited rules of human decency and the expectations of his office, makes him the archetypal vessel of divine wrath. Such accursed persons, says the Apostle Paul, ‘‘are swift to shed blood, ruin and misery mark their ways, and the way of peace they do not know. There is no fear of God before their eyes,’’ (Romans 3:18). It is the signature trait of the ungodly that there are no laws, whether formed in heaven or on earth, that can restrain their passions. It is important to remember that congressional power was established to check the destructive potential of human passions and to protect humanity from the vainglory of any one man. It is one of the many tragedies of our age that this institution has abandoned its moral purpose.
"When Trump threatens to raze towns, to bomb Iran back to the Stone Age, and to wipe out Persian civilization, such belligerent language, even if used as a bargaining tool, undermines the logic of the sacred." www.liberalcurrents.com/remembering-...
Some Monday night music: And Love, by Florence + The Machine. youtu.be/QRqCK7jv9tc?...
A clip from The New York Times reads: "But only the entities that officially paid the tariffs are eligible to recover that money. That means that the fuller universe of people affected by Mr. Trump’s policies — including millions of Americans who paid higher prices for the products they bought — are not able to apply for direct relief. The extent to which consumers realize any gain hinges on whether businesses share the proceeds, something that few have publicly committed to do. Some have started to band together in class-action lawsuits in the hopes of receiving a payout."
The average American family paid $1,700 in tariffs last year, according to the bipartisan Congressional Joint Economic Committee. Few will ever see any of that money back. The refunds will go to companies, if doled out at all. What a joke.
Every Californian deserves quality health care. We will not let Donald Trump rip that away.
Some Sunday night music: You Can Have It All, by Florence + The Machine. youtu.be/sprHv43e5iY?...
... The planet Venus shines on the lower right. Venus and the satellites shine by reflected sunlight. The featured picture is a composite of exposures all taken in a few hours on May 4 over the Limay River in Argentina."
"Mirroring it on the right are several parallel trails of Earth-orbiting Starlink satellites. Many fainter satellite trails also crisscross the image. The two short and bright streaks are meteors — likely members of the annual Eta Aquariids meteor shower ...
What are all those streaks in the sky? A galaxy, many satellite trails, and a few meteors. First, far in the distance, the majestic band of our Milky Way Galaxy runs down the left. Mirroring it on the right are several parallel trails of Earth-orbiting Starlink satellites. Many fainter satellite trails also crisscross the image. The two short and bright streaks are meteors — likely members of the annual Eta Aquariids meteor shower. The planet Venus shines on the lower right. Venus and the satellites shine by reflected sunlight. The featured picture is a composite of exposures all taken in a few hours on May 4 over the Limay River in Argentina.
"What are all those streaks in the sky? A galaxy, many satellite trails, and a few meteors. First ... the majestic band of our Milky Way Galaxy runs down the left."
Meteors and Satellite Trails over the Limay River
(Image Credit & Copyright: Martín Moliné)
apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap25061...
"Unlike a field of bluebonnets, these little prickly bulbs might not inspire families to snap yearly photos or advocate to protect them so they bloom again the next year, but they’re just as important to the state. Just ask the birds, bees, and butterflies that rely on them to survive."
"These are natural resources with intrinsic value to us," he says. "Once we lose it, it’s gone. Some people don't care and think it doesn’t impact their life, but a person has to decide what’s important to them in this world."
