That actually makes sense if the lotus petals are more comfortable for the animal and/or don’t obstruct their vision and movement, and they still can’t get around or through them?

Does the utility patent cover the design, or do they have to apply for both?

[ sound of shop vac sucking up metal shavings, wood chips, and pennies ]

My most dangerous game guy is in Laos, and we’re on water restrictions again for the herd. Is it too late to double up on my roadkill-of-the-month box? I’ll pay extra.

[ yarn gets caught ]

No, I never said that.

RFK jr has some sort of uber-rich person subscription to Niman Ranch and exotic meat purveyors the way that other people sponsor farm animals in the global south, and it’s 1% cheaper

Heifer is great, despite what my cousins say about my mom’s gifts in their names
www.heifer.org/give/gift-ca...

the guy is calling for a lynch mob to attack a public building largely staffed by Black civil servants today, which he knows, because he's lived in DC. he's shown you who he is, and you'll be lucky to have Susan Collins, and relieved to have Fetterman.

Tracking the polls in Maine’s biggest 2020 elections To help keep track of where each major race stands, we are compiling all the polls here.

yes. do you know what a sampling error is? (I know the answer.)

compare to quality nonpartisan polls from 2020
Biden won 53-44, but lost CD-2 44-52
Collins, predicted to lose by 2 to 6, won by 9 points against a much more qualified candidate
Golden, ahead by double digits, won 52-46

that's the one!

and I was like…it can't be…it's got to be a coincidence…but that's what it means

and then I was like, well, he probably stole it from France, that makes way more sense. but against all odds, for whatever reason, David Brooks, of all people, coined a word that is cool in France.

Maine’s political leaders have a complicated record on gun safety reforms • Maine Morning Star After the shooting in Lewiston, there are signals that opposition to take on reforms may be shifting

I'll take "it's complicated," which red flag laws are—they're a flagrant 4th amendment violation—over inexperienced guy with nazi tattoo calling for a lynch mob in a building primarily staffed by Black civil servants, which he knows, because he's lived in DC.

mainemorningstar.com/2023/10/27/m...

perfection.

the freakout I remember best is a swifter one, and I don't remember if the guy had a disability or was a single dad or both, but I didn't notice any of those things because he was sweeping against the grain, and they're all upset about his interracial family?! HOW?!

flashback to summer of 2001 when the most anticipated album of the year was whatever, fine, and should've been Andrew WK, who had the misfortune to release his debut the second Tuesday of September, generally a huge date for new music (the label I worked out had zero sales that day)

1 of 4 I'm not listening to an audio message anymore than I'm listening to a voicemail

2 of 4 what happened to your chin?

3 of 4 wtf does that even mean?

4 of 4 lolwut in the protocols of…didn't you grow up in NYC?

Texas can require public schools to display Ten Commandments in classrooms, court rules A U.S. appeals court says Texas can require the Ten Commandments to be displayed in public school classrooms.

If you are the parent of a Texas grade or middle school student, I suggest you urge your kids to ask the teacher what adultery is in every one of their classes.

a man is standing in front of a wall with a lot of circles Alt: Mon Mothma, a woman with shoulder length blonde hair slicked back, wearing a blue wrap-style suit, on the show Andor, is standing in front of a wall with a lot of circles, resembling an industrial honeycomb. each ledge is a platform for a member of the galactic senate and some of their staff or guests, with seating, a desk, and lectern. she's giving a speech to the enormous body, where senators shift their platforms out and hover so that the rest of the senate can see them. in both the prequels and Andor, the galactic senate is even more inefficient than the U.S. Senate. .

American Idol has people texting to vote on one song from a U.S. number. I doubt they deduplicate or screen out web numbers.

there are over 340 million Americans, so you're talking about a legislative body of over 34,000. how would that even work? they'd have to meet in a convention center.

the CA and VA laws expire in 2028 and 2030, respectively, and then the CA maps will revert to the original independent redistricting commission ones, and in VA, they will be redrawn by their commission following the 2030 census.

so January 6th and no assault weapons ban. just gets better and better with this guy.

you by no means have to hand anything to Anthony Weiner, in fact, it's best not to, but "Democrats show up to a knife fight armed with a library" was a good line.

The two takeaways of the Great Gerrymander War of '26 are:
1) No one whines or pouts like a Republican partisan. They fuck around, then go to straight-up tantrum when any finding out occurs.
2) Shit is ridiculous. In a real republic, electoral districts would be set by non-partisan entities.

Gerrymandering: The Origin Story | Timeless In 1812, Massachusetts Gov. Gov. Elbridge Gerry signed a bill he didn't like, one the reordered some political districts into particularly odd shapes to favor one party. One contorted district looked ...

no, this isn't blowback. we literally invented gerrymandering—it's an eponym of a founding father.

and if you grew up in the U.S. and never saw this drawing in a history textbook, sue your school district.

and by all means we should have independent redistricting & better representation.

Capping the House The Founders' Vision The number 435 is now synonymous with the U.S. House of Representatives. Yet, 435 is not enshrined anywhere the Constitution. The size of the House of Representatives i...

-15 confidence

it's not a constitutional issue. congress can repeal or amend the permanent reapportionment act of 1929 capping the house at 435 members, favoring rural states over urban ones—UK Commons has 600 MPs for 70 mil population.

source: I have a degree in this & work in electoral politics

doubt it, but maybe the way they packed their so-called permanent advantage with Hispanic voters in the Rio Grande Valley in Texas, whom they definitely haven't alienated, following an acrimonious and expensive Senate primary will be 🤞🤞🤞

we have 9 states that do it that way. well, with volunteers or they're paid a stipend, aided by professional cartographers and demographers and whatnot. it SHOULD be all 50, and hope springs eternal that this will be a wakeup call for Republicans to make that the norm.

Independent Redistricting Commissions In our elections, every voice should be heard and every vote should count equally.But in many states, politicians draw their own district lines to pick their own voters and protect themselves. Electio...

Same with CA

Demographically, Republicans do need to game the system. Ideally, more will move towards independent redistricting commissions for the 2030 reapportionment.

Eric Holder and Arnold Schwarzenegger encouraged states to reform their processes before 2020, and I hope they do again.

here's hoping it doesn't last past June

The memos seem to contradict the idea that Chief Justice Roberts is a cautious institutionalist, a description almost reflexively applied to him by lawyers and scholars. But Baude said that idea was misplaced to begin with. And [Lisa] Heinzerling [, a law professor at Georgetown] wrote that the chief justice is an institutionalist only if that word means accumulating power for his institution. She added that the papers revealed just how much Chief Justice Roberts and Justice Samuel Alito were bothered by a blog post and an interview involving officials at the Environmental Protection Agency. “Court watchers already knew that the court was particularly hostile to E.P.A. regulations,” she wrote. “The memos show us one reason why: the conservative justices don’t trust E.P.A., and they (here, Roberts and Alito) are willing to interpret the most anodyne comments from E.P.A. personnel as signs of a sinister desire to … protect the environment!” . .

that's him, that's Taney II. prick.

The Chief Justice in Charge We wrote that the papers revealed a different, more assertive side of Chief Justice Roberts, who is mild and composed in public. Jack Goldsmith, a law professor at Harvard, wrote on Monday that we had pushed beyond the evidence in the papers on this point, calling our conclusions tendentious. Some scholars said the papers showed Chief Justice Roberts at the top of his game, outmaneuvering the liberal justices who sought to persuade Justice Anthony Kennedy, who then held the decisive vote, to join them in voting to let the plan proceed. “There was a race to persuade Justice Kennedy, and Roberts would not take it lying down,” Josh Blackman, a law professor at South Texas College of Law Houston, wrote in a blog post on Sunday about a memo from the chief justice rejecting a plea from Justice Stephen Breyer to move slowly. “This exchange reminds us of why Roberts was the most gifted lawyer of his generation,” Blackman wrote. The memos seem to contradict the idea that Chief Justice Roberts is a cautious institutionalist, a description almost reflexively applied to him by lawyers and scholars. But Baude said that idea was misplaced to begin with. And Heinzerling wrote that the chief justice is an institutionalist only if that word means accumulating power for his institution. .

have some dignity, man!

I'm not a legal scholar by any means, but seriously? of boomers?! off the top of my head, we read Lani Guinier's voting rights book in undergrad ffs

Robert Reich proposed FMLA, cutting corporate welfare, no scabs in fed contracts, student loan deduction, retraining funds

well, at least like they're not being forced to work with a known neurotoxin or anything 😤

they lost their trademark, so they may actually have a money issue? thoughts, &c.

the SPLC or ADL probably are, since the FBI isn't allowed to (overtly).

CDC won’t publish report showing covid shots cut likelihood of hospital visits The report, which had cleared the agency’s scientific-review process, had been delayed. It now won’t be published at all, people familiar with the decision told The Post.

This isn’t a scientific debate.

This is government censorship.

This is Lysenkoism, as @gregggonsalves.bsky.social pointed out last year.

And this will not end well.

www.washingtonpost.com/health/2026/...

Book about how engagement metrics and the Internet killed journalism titled “Tragedy of the Comments”

increasing crop yields and improving soil resilience are essential for ending reliance on petroleum-based fertilizers, including nitrogen, phosphates, and urea.

Solar Saves Farms What if farms become more productive, more resilient, and the kids want to... stay?

The website Solar Saves Farms shares information about agrivoltaics. There's promise in the technology for the agricultural community and its farmland.

“We have an equal message for left and right,” says irs founder. “We are farmer-first.”

#EarthDay #EarthDay2026 🌏🌍🌎