special dispensation

Of all the pitiful, cruel, arbitrary and tacky things that Dear Leader has done reports that seem quite believable that he denied his press secretary the chance to tag along on their visit to the Vatican and audience with the Pope.
Embattled and deservedly so for defending his boss the dissembler and sophist-in-chief, meeting the Pope was the one thing the press secretary, a Catholic, was looking forward to, expecting to be dismissed from the Cabinet and replaced any moment now. Apparently his performance is not living up to Dear Leader’s expectations and Dear Leader, who can only perceive high office as a series of praise-lavishing and executive perks and privileges, can only correct or punish by exclusion.

mancunians united

Though the poem was commissioned a few years ago to celebrate the unique character of the city in a wholly different context, poet Tony Walsh’s recitation of his This is the Place hit some very resonate notes that helped those attending this vigil find some solace in not losing the strength of what connects them.

This is the place
In the north-west of England. It’s ace; it’s the best
And the songs that we sing from the stands, from our bands
Set the whole planet shaking.

Our inventions are legends. There’s nowt we can’t make, and so we make brilliant music
We make brilliant bands
We make goals that make souls leap from seats in the stands.

And we make things from steel
And we make things from cotton
And we make people laugh—take the mick summat rotten
And we make you at home
And we make you feel welcome and we make summat happen
And we can’t seem to help it
And if you’re looking from history, then yea we’ve a wealth

pottersville or to the manor born

Via Waxy, we learn that much like the business model of American retail giants that wouldn’t have been able to destroy independent, small shops without the government subsidising the income of those in their employ (through welfare and food-stamp programmes that appear to be going away as well), Number One Daughter’s husband was more than willing to ascribe to the same strategy in becoming a slum-lord.
At least part of that real estate kingdom now twained to Dear Leader’s includes the management of several public housing estates housing tenants whose rent is in part or fully disbursed by government monies. This sort of corporate welfare is despicable enough, but ever the classy one, he goes one further in order to exploit those serfs unfortunate enough to have ended up in one of these complexes with litigation and intimidation should they contemplate moving out and hitting renters with escalating late fees should they fall behind a day or two on payments. Upon learning the identity of their landlord, residents were absolutely awed by the avarice demonstrated by chasing after such relatively small change and having such atrocious accommodations associated with the family enterprise.

epoch and era

Via Kottke, we learn of Professor Olivia P Judson’s proposal to parse the history of life on Earth into ages not typified by geology or the complexity of biology per se but rather into energetic revolutions.
Evolution of life from its earliest forms, which populated the planet not long after inception, up to the present day can be framed within the context of five energy expansions, beginning with the geochemical processes that break down nutrients into usable forms (exobiologists expect to find alien life on distant, cold worlds that similarly exploit background processes like radiation or environmental—rather than internal—chemistry as a food source). Solar power comes next followed by the great Oxidation Event once the terraforming archaea of earlier stages had crossed a threshold that allowed respirating life to emerge. Each stage exhibits a higher level energy-efficiency with flesh (carnivorous behaviour) being developed before finally harnessing fire.

simulcast

Though disappointingly this hilarious juxtaposition of swapping out the subtitles was probably only enjoyed in real-time by an audience of one (the Swedish broadcaster thinks it’s rather a glitch with older television sets that allows you to switch channels and keep the same teletext), but this debate in the Riksdag from early last year with narration from the apparently adjacent programming of the PBS children’s show Dinosaur Train is now playing to many more spectators. See the whole series of funny screen-grabs at the link up top.

natron valley

Never mind the hiring underlaps at the Centres for Disease Control and the frittering away of institutional knowledge that means America is woefully ill-equipped to face the next virulent outbreak—meaning that the nation becomes a vector for the rest of the world, or the heartlessness of stripping health-coverage from those most in need of it, routine surgeries and treatments are being postponed because of a rather baffling shortage of medical grade sodium bicarbonate (baking soda).  Used in a number of treatments, health care providers are getting desperate and suspect that the scarcity—which has occurred periodically—is the unfortunate collusion of factors chief among them being there’s little incentive in making this basic ingredient—unlike the proprietary drugs that rake in huge, exploitative profits. Perhaps some substitute is about to be brought to market that performs the same function at eight thousand times the cost. Most other governments would intervene before things get to point where healthcare is at the mercy of a few powerful cartels.