this is a difficult but necessary read imo (fellow survivors, take care of yourselves if you choose to read this!)

A color illustration of 7 labrador retriever dogs, in different poses, around the same size. One dog after the other gets more brown in shade, beginning with a yellow lab, ending with a black lab. The title is "Chocolate Lab Varieties." Under neither each dog it says: 0% Cocoa - "White Chocolate." 20% Cocoa - "Milk Chocolate." 38% Cocoa - "Semisweet Chocolate." 55% Cocoa - "Dark Chocolate." 72% Cocoa - "Bittersweet Chocolate." 85% Cocoa - "Bitter Chocolate." 100% Cocoa - "Baking Chocolate."

A black and white illustration of 7 labrador retriever dogs, in different poses, around the same size. One dog after the other gets darker in shade, beginning with a yellow lab, ending with a black lab. The title is "Chocolate Lab Varieties." Under neither each dog it says: 0% Cocoa - "White Chocolate." 20% Cocoa - "Milk Chocolate." 38% Cocoa - "Semisweet Chocolate." 55% Cocoa - "Dark Chocolate." 72% Cocoa - "Bittersweet Chocolate." 85% Cocoa - "Bitter Chocolate." 100% Cocoa - "Baking Chocolate."

New Illustration: "Chocolate Lab Varieties"

Every lab is a chocolate lab, just with varying amounts of cocoa in its color.

I sub'd this to The New Yorker too, but they didn't bite.

NOTE: Dogs not actually chocolate.

view of dog

I think I was somewhere between 120 and 136. It is easier to hear all the motifs that way. Still, that is not a terrible rule of thumb. Or fingers.

Here is where I take the opportunity to encourage you to try Hamelin's 4th etude, d'après Alkan. It is easier than you might think, though that does not say much. I learned it enough to play it badly under tempo for some friends. Lots of Alkan Easter eggs for you to enjoy.

I bet you could still play the Barcarolle, at least.

Have you considered drinking bourbon and playing Alkan instead?

Spending a lot of time ripping out crab grass by hand so my clover can take root out back, and it has me meditating a lot on what it means to take out fascists.

We always used to say it was whack-a-mole, it wasn't.

Successful antifascism in a democracy is a practice of weeding

most insane payment structure i've ever seen. the app is mean to you unless you pay them.

JUST IN: Viktor Orban conceded his defeat in Hungary.

The far-right leader & Trump ally will no longer be prime minister.

What remains to be seen is the size of his defeat — and whether the opposition wins a supermajority to amend the constitution and reverse Orban’s rule.

I'm one of those trans women. I worked ground ops for Artemis I.

I am torn between celebrating the success of my friends and peers and grieving how my dream of working for NASA was shattered by hateful assholes in Tallahassee

The replies to this post link to some of their stories.

A star scientist showed that better genetics lessons could reduce racism. It was the death knell for his career Brian Donovan had persuaded high school teachers and education researchers that prejudice might be ended by changing how genetics is taught.

Brian Donovan had persuaded high school teachers and education researchers that prejudice might be ended by changing how genetics is taught. www.statnews.com/2026/04/07/b...

I know it's late, but I need you all to realize that as soon as we started paying attention to these races, Moms for Liberty & their ilk, started losing. They exploited a window of apathy & did a lot of damage, but they just cannot win when actually opposed. No unopposed elections anywhere.

‼️California Billionaire SCAM‼️

Don't fall for this bullshit!

Sergey Brin and former CEO Eric Schmidt Super PAC aims to influence public policy by promoting homeownership, addressing the cost of living, and investing in public services.
Building a Better California

#TaxTheRich
#EatTheRich

The president speaks genocide The words, the law, the future

“A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again.”
These are the words of the president of the United States, today.
The president speaks genocide. And so we too must speak. Not only about crimes, but about their legal punishment.
snyder.substack.com/p/the-presid...

I keep spamming this but John Larson filed impeachment articles yesterday. Every congressperson can sign on to it right now, it’s already drafted!

www.congress.gov/119/bills/hr...

Given Trump’s Easter threats to carry out new war crimes in Iran, we should think one or two steps ahead about a coup attempt connected to the war. And then deter it. (1/17)

Vancouver's new mega-development is big, ambitious and undeniably Indigenous - Macleans.ca In B.C., Indigenous nations are reclaiming power and wealth for their own citizens—no matter what the neighbours think

This is the best piece I’ve read about it: macleans.ca/society/sena...

I Work Very Hard, And I Would Like To Try Cake By A Horse Hello. I am a horse. I work very hard at my job of being a horse. When humans say move the heavy thing, I move the heavy thing. When humans sit on top of me and pull on my head, I carry them where they want to go. The main food the humans give me is hay and oats. But I am thinking it would be nice to have a different food. I am thinking I would like to try cake. Yes, yes. Cake. I know all about it. When humans eat cake, it is in glad times. It is the food for a celebration, such as when a woman becomes 47. I have seen cake on the Fourth of July. When humans have a cake, they stand around it and clap hands and smile and say happy birthday at each other. Sometimes there are beautiful markings on a cake, such as balloons or a pink shape. Sometimes the top of a cake is on fire and a boy must blow on the fire with mouth wind. This is the scariest cake. I do not want this kind. But I will eat any other cake. Any cake that is not the fire cake that tries to kill the boy. Please understand: I do not get money for doing work. I do not get to go inside the house. All I am either doing my horse job or standing in my pen or eating food off the floor. I always do these things. But I have never once gotten cake and I would like it very much. I have noticed that human children get to eat cake. But I am bigger than the children. I am more helpful to the farm. Children do not move the heavy things like me or let anyone ride on them. And yet they get cake. Maybe the humans will realize this. Maybe they will say, "You know who deserves cake? That horse. That horse whose back we are always on." Every day I dream about what it will be like if I get to eat cake. Here is what will happen. First, I will walk to the cake and putt my nose at it like hrrfff to make and stomping my hooves to make sure it is not a snake. Then I will trot in a circle to show that I am a horse and I am large. After that, I will nuzzle the cake to …

The horse op-ed is an instant classic. I can't tell you how much joy this piece gives me.

It should be taught in every introductory writing class in no small part because the horse arguments are so compelling. "I have noticed that human children get to eat cake. But I am bigger than the children."

1. Is your name Carl Bergstrom, and are you an evolutionary biologist at the University of Washington? 2. When it comes to corvid-human connections, it can be hard to know who’s training whom. Have you developed bonds with many crows at your home and on campus? 3. Is it correct that such a relationship absolutely alters your behavior? 4. If, for instance, you forget to bring peanuts for the crows at your university, is it true that you take an alternate route around school? Do you find yourself sneaking across campus in a tunnel or through buildings because you feel so bad when you run into them?

Yes it reads like I'm being asked to give a deposition by an attorney representing the local owl community, but it's actually just an email from a fact-checker inquiring about what will be a very fun forthcoming news story that I'll share when published.

Emirates must figure they can demand this given how much $$ they've invested into the Clown Prince & Witkoff.

Again, this is why it is UTTERLY CRUCIAL to get those fucking bozos out of this issue. They're working for Gulf States, effectively, & have a financial incentive to risk American lives.

No Kings protesters are wiring a movement built to win Six things the DC No Kings survey data — and the pivot to May Day — tell us about a resistance that keeps stepping up.

What the May Day pivot shows is a movement that understands Chenoweth’s distinction between protest and noncooperation — and is prepared to take the risk and swing big where it hurts the regime and its backers most.

The most damaging episodes were the fatal shootings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis, which Miller was at the center of. During his 10am calls with immigration leaders, Miller was demanding agents be sent out to areas in Minneapolis where DHS knew there was a heavy presence of protesters to 'force confrontations,' two DHS senior sources told the Daily Mail. One official noted that Miller repeatedly urged agents to engage protesters so the administration could win the 'PR battle.'

During Trump's massive immigration crackdown in in Los Angeles in June, the President spoke with top officials and told them to avoid targeting farm workers. The next day at 10am, Miller sent out different orders. 'Stephen got on the call the next day, and said "We're discussing that internally" and that we should just disregard what he said,' one official told the Daily Mail. 'It was like the President never said anything. It was just like Stephen was in charge.'

Attacks on Stephen Miller getting far more specific in this Daily Mail (why are the best right-on-right hitjobs always laundered thru the UK?).

1) He ordered confrontation w/protestors b4 CBP murdered Alex Pretti.
2) He countermanded Trump order not to focus on farmworkers.

JUST IN: Democrats tonight have flipped a GOP-held state House seat in Florida.

And not just any seat: This is the district that contains Mar-a-Lago. (It voted for Trump by 11% in 2024).

That's right: Trump will now be represented by a Democrat, Emily Gregory, in Tallahassee.

Viva Venezuela, A Champion At Last For almost my entire life, Venezuela has been a punching bag, a nasty joke couched in fake concern. I used to participate in some of that punching, to be clear. But as I grew into political consciousn...

I wrote about Venezuela, pride, and (finally) winning: defector.com/viva-venezue...

One thing that AI evangelists seem to assume, particularly legal AI evangelists assume, is that the thinking and analysis is quick, and the writing is just tedious busywork that slows us down.

But the writing IS the thinking and analysis. You work out the thinking and analysis by writing it down.

thinking about the hero of this game for Team Venezuela, Eugenio Suárez, and his comments about ICE’s effect on Latino baseball players just last week

This is one of the most powerful episodes of a podcast I've ever heard. I've said before that Molly Conger is one of the best people creating podcasts and this episode is the proof.

TW: this is about the life of a man killed by a racist serial killer and it will make you cry (at a minimum)