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☆ The Farmers Had What the Billionaires Wanted
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-19 | by ( Conor Dougherty | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

For six years a mysterious company called Flannery Associates, which Mr. Sramek controlled, had upended the town of 10,000 by spending hundreds of millions of dollars trying to buy every farm in the area. It sued a group of holdouts who had refused its above-market offers, on the grounds that they were colluding for more. Residents worried it could be a front for foreign spies looking to surveil a nearby Air Force base. The truth was that Mr. Sramek wanted to build a city from the ground up, in an agricultural region whose defining feature was how little it had changed. They and others from the technology world had spent some $900 million on farmland in a demonstration of their dead seriousness about Mr. Sramek’s vision.

Persons: Jan Sramek, Flannery, Sramek, Michael Moritz, Reid Hoffman, Laurene Powell Jobs, Steve Jobs Organizations: American Legion, Flannery Associates, Air Force, Silicon, LinkedIn, Emerson, Apple Locations: Rio Vista, Calif, Rio

I don’t know. ross douthatIt’s true that he didn’t want the vice president to have a sort of separate political agenda. I don’t think that it was a fait accompli —ross douthatThat’s true. He would legitimately sabotage, kneecap his own vice president, just to prove no one else could do it. carlos lozadaLet’s just say, I will be your vice president, Michelle, anytime.

Persons: michelle cottle, I’m Michelle Cottle, ross douthat I’m Ross Douthat, carlos lozada I’m Carlos Lozada, lydia polgreen, Lydia Polgreen, ross douthat, carlos lozada, That’s, Ross, Michelle, what’s, — carlos lozada Oh, ”, Donald John Trump, it’s, Lozada, LYDIA, — carlos lozada Selena, michelle cottle We’re, they’re, Selena Meyer, michelle cottle Ross, Carlos, ross, Joe Biden, Biden, Obama, — carlos lozada Super, haven’t, Dick Cheney, carlos lozada Pence, Pence, Cheney, Kamala Harris, — carlos lozada, carlos lozada Weirdly, won’t, Richard Nixon, Al Gore, — ross douthat, lydia polgreen —, Kamala Harris —, Mike Pence, ross douthat They’re, Harris, George H.W Bush, Ronald Reagan, Nelson Rockefeller, Gerald Ford, Clinton, Joe Lieberman, Lieberman, — carlos lozada Joementum, michelle cottle Joementum, Gore, Trump, Newt Gingrich, It’s, michelle cottle Let’s, carlos lozada Well, Elaine Kamarck, J.F.K, Southern L.B.J, Carter, Mondale, Bush, Jules Witcover, lydia polgreen Scintillating, Quayle, Jesus, carlos lozada Right, Dan Quayle, George H.W, lydia polgreen Hah, V.P.s, Truman, — ross, ross douthat Really, — Yup, carlos lozada Biden, lydia polgreen Richard Nixon, Spiro Agnew, George H.W . Bush, Dan, John McCain, Sarah Palin, — michelle cottle, gosh, Palin, lydia polgreen “, Tina Fey, carlos lozada The Palin, We’ve, John the Baptist, Donald Trump’s, lydia polgreen Wow, michelle cottle Oh, ross douthat Sarah, Jimmy Carter, White, carlos lozada Jimmy Carter, michelle cottle Fine, polgreen, michelle cottle Alrighty, hasn’t, CARLOS SIGHS, lydia polgreen Boy, michelle cottle Carlos, Donald Trump, who’s, Marjorie Taylor Greene, Kari Lake, carlos lozada I, michelle cottle He’s, he’s, —, lydia polgreen That’s, lydia polgreen MAGA King, Lydia, — michelle cottle That’s, let’s, there’s, Nikki Haley, MICHELLE, Haley, There’s, carlos lozada Doesn’t, George W, Bush’s, michelle cottle Dick Cheney, ross douthat I’m, — michelle cottle You’re, Vivek, Nikki Haley’s, I’m, Ron DeSantis, Kristi Noem — lydia polgreen, Michelle — michelle cottle —, Kristi Noem, Rushmore, CARLOS, it’ll, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, MAGA, Vance, michelle cottle There’s, Elise Stefanik, doesn’t, ross douthat Trump, we’ll, — lydia polgreen, ross douthat —, carlos lozada —, Mueller, Nikki doesn’t, ROSS, don’t, can’t, Nikki, Nikki —, Peter Baker, Susan Glasser — michelle cottle, carlos lozada It’s, michelle cottle Hey, carlos lozada There’s, Walter Mondale, michelle cottle Can’t, carlos lozada Oh, carlos lozada Whoa, michelle cottle Woohoohoo, carlos lozada Potato, lydia polgreen Oh, MICHELLE GASPS, lydia polgreen Oooh, I’ve, michelle cottle That’s, michelle cottle I’d, michelle cottle Don’t, carlos lozada Let’s, Phoebe Lett, Sophia Alvarez Boyd, Derek Arthur, Alison Bruzek, Kate Sinclair, Mary Marge Locker, Michelle Harris, Efim Shapiro, Carole Sabouraud, Pat McCusker, Shannon Busta, Kristina Samulewski, Rose Strasser, carlos lozada — “, ” Jimmy Carter’s, lydia polgreen Woo, Frank Church, Scoop Jackson, John Glenn, Ed Muskie, Adlai Stevenson, Pete Rodino, Muskie, ross douthat We’re, — carlos lozada It’s, — carlos lozada Yes, Lord Jesus Organizations: New York, Iowa Republicans, ross douthat Real, HBO, Hollywood, Bush, Republican, Trump, Biden, Republicans, Southern, Conservative, Democratic, “, carlos lozada Central, Heritage Foundation, Supreme, State, New Hampshire, Michigan, University of Notre Dame, Irish, Associated Press, Notre Dame, hashtag Locations: Iowa, Minnesota, California, ‘, Massachusetts, Clinton, Gore, Cheney, America, George H.W ., Russia, —, New Spain, South Dakota, New, American, Michigan, Washington, Plains

☆ A woman's hilarious Christmas story about her parents spoiled 'adopted' wild raccoon is going viral on TikTok
▼ + stars: | 2023-12-26 | by ( Julie Gerstein | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Stacy Jo Rost came home on Christmas to find her parents had adopted a wild raccoon. The raccoon, dubbed Little RIck after Rost's stepfather Rick, is treated to daily cooked breakfasts. AdvertisementImagine coming home for the holidays to find your parents have adopted a wild raccoon and are treating it like furry, small-pawed royalty. The raccoon "has a messed up back leg and they saw him when he was a little raccoon baby and didn't think he'd make it," she continued. AdvertisementHer family insisted that Little Rick was harmless, but Jost wasn't having it:“He’s cute!”“Leave him alone!”“Let them do it!”No.

Persons: Stacy Jo Rost, Little RIck, Rick, Rost, RIck, —, it's, Rickoon, Stepdad Rick, Rost's, Little Rick, Jost wasn't, RICK, 9cxnlXjfM6 — Stacy Jo Rost, Xf1gUuAy5m — Stacy Jo Rost, Will Rost Organizations: Service, Seattle Sports Locations: cahoots

☆ A Fish That Fishes for Other Fish Lives Its Life Upside Down
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-22 | by ( Elizabeth Anne Brown | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

Usually, a belly-up fish isn’t long for this world. But video evidence from the deep ocean suggests that some species of anglerfish — the nightmarish deep-sea fish with bioluminescent lures — live their whole lives upside down. “Just when you think they couldn’t get any weirder, anglerfish outdo themselves,” said Pamela Hart, an associate professor at the University of Alabama who researches fish that live in extreme conditions. The behavior, documented earlier this month in the Journal of Fish Biology, is “beyond anyone’s wildest imagination,” said Elizabeth Miller, who studied the evolution of deep-sea fish as a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Oklahoma. (Neither Dr. Miller nor Dr. Hart was involved in the discovery.)

Persons: —, “, ”, Pamela Hart, Elizabeth Miller, Miller, Hart Organizations: University of Alabama, Fish Biology, University of Oklahoma

☆ ‘Tasmanian devil’ is a stellar corpse showing energetic signs of life
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-16 | by ( Ashley Strickland | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

CNN —Space is full of extreme phenomena, but the “Tasmanian devil” may be one of the weirdest and rarest cosmic events ever observed. Astronomers dubbed the celestial object the “Tasmanian devil,” and they observed it exploding repeatedly following its initial detection in September 2022. But the Tasmanian devil is revealing more questions than answers with its unexpected behavior. While LFBOTs are unusual events, the Tasmanian devil is even stranger, causing astronomers to question the processes behind the repetitive explosions. We’d never seen that, period, in astronomy.”To better understand the quick luminosity changes occurring in the Tasmanian devil, Ho and her colleagues reached out to other researchers to compare observations from multiple telescopes.

Persons: supernovas, —, ”, Anna Y.Q, Ho, “, Jeff Cooke, ” Ho, We’d, Anna Ho, Jason Koski, ” Cooke, they’ve, Vik Dhillon Organizations: CNN, Cornell University’s College of Arts and Sciences, Australia’s Swinburne University of Technology, ARC Centre, Cornell University Altogether, Telescope, ”, University of Sheffield Locations: California, United Kingdom

☆ Astronomers are baffled after spotting strange cosmic flares that have 10 billion times more power than the sun
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-16 | by ( Marianne Guenot | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

The event, nicknamed Tasmanian devil, is puzzling scientists who don't know what is causing it. Ho and colleagues' observations suggest the Tasmanian devil released at least 14 irregular and highly energetic bursts, each lasting only a few minutes. This leaves a neutron star or a black hole surrounded by the remnants of a partial star. To produce such brilliant flares, a black hole or neutron star would need a lot of fuel. AdvertisementAnother possibility is that the Tasmanian devil was caused by a star merging with a black hole or a neutron star, said Ho.

Persons: —, Anna Ho, LFBOTs, Ashley Chrimes, Chrimes, Ho, We'd, haven't Organizations: Service, NASA, Cornell University, Nature News, European Space Agency

☆ 'Looksmaxxing' is the new TikTok trend for young men who want to be hot
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-08 | by ( Katie Notopoulos | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

"Looksmaxxing" is the Tiktok trend taking hold among some young men who want to be better-looking. The New York Times wrote about the trend, which has shifted from a friendlier version on Tiktok, where handsome men give basic advice. The story points out that much of the TikTok version of the trend is simply helpful, basic advice, and the target audience is often young teenage men — a demographic that can be hygienically challenged. Calling these basic tips "looksmaxxing" — and treating it like getting "facial gains" — is silly. But this is the first time we're seeing swaths of young men gathering online to talk about it with these meme-y terms like "mogging" (looking hotter than someone else).

Persons: —, looksmaxxing, Latham, Dillion Latham, — they're, It's, Looksmaxxers Organizations: Service, The New York Times, GQ, 4chan Locations: British

☆ Opinion | The Reactionary Futurism of Marc Andreessen
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-26 | by ( Ezra Klein | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +4 min

I think the Republican Party’s collapse into incoherence reflects the fact that much of the modern right is reactionary, not conservative. It’s a coalition obsessed with where we went wrong: the weakness, the political correctness, the liberalism, the trigger warnings, the smug elites. The Silicon Valley cohort Andreessen belongs to has added a bit to this formula. Rather, it’s the pairing of the reactionary’s sodden take on modern society with the futurist’s starry imagining of the bright tomorrow. So call it what it is: reactionary futurism.

Persons: Jordan Peterson, J.D, Vance, Peter Thiel, Donald Trump, Patrick Deneen, ” Mark Lilla, “, —, ”, else’s, Andreessen, Nietzsche, ” “, John Galts Locations: incoherence, It’s

☆ Can anyone save the internet? Neal Agarwal is trying, one Hampster Dance at a time.
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-26 | by ( Brian Barrett | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +13 min

Internet Artifacts is the latest project from Neal Agarwal, the creative 25-year-old coder who launched neal.fun six years ago today. "I grew up at the tail end of that era of the internet," Agarwal said. Internet Artifacts has taken closer to three months. Internet Artifacts takes several touchstones of the anteplatformian internet and places them on literal digital pedestals. As delightful as Internet Artifacts is to click through, it also provides valuable context for Agarwal's larger ambition.

Persons: Neal Agarwal, Agarwal, antic, Steve Jobs, Jamie Cohen, It's, coders, he'd, —, Bill Gates, Josh Wardle, Neal, neal.fun, Brandon Chilcutt's, Jessa Lingel, Nicole He, Matthew Rayfield, Brian Moore, Wardle, what's, There's, Brian Barrett Organizations: today's, Adobe, Apple, Developers, MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, CUNY, Virginia Tech, Ripley's, The New York Times, Napster, University of Pennsylvania's Annenberg School for Communication, Immaculate Grid, MacWorld, Wired, Yorker Locations: Queens, Fairfax , Virginia, MSCHF, New York

☆ Crocs might just have released the ugliest — but coolest — pair of shoes we've ever seen
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-24 | by ( Mary Hanbury | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Crocs launched its new $120 cowboy boots on Monday. The American brand, which reinvented the modern-day clog, released a limited edition pair of $120 cowboy boots online this week. AdvertisementAdvertisement"Our goal is not to make the haters love the brand," Crocs CEO Andrew Rees told Insider back in 2019 at the height of the "ugly fashion" movement. "It's to exploit that extrinsic tension because it creates opportunity, it creates PR, it creates media, it creates interest. AdvertisementAdvertisement"STOP SENDING ME THE CROCS COWBOY BOOTS !

Persons: Crocs, —, Andrew Rees, Z, Heidi Cooley, Cooley, crocs couldn't Organizations: Service, KFC, The New York Times, SPURS

☆ NASA's Hubble spots a mysterious flash in the middle of nowhere that defies science
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-10 | by ( Marianne Guenot | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Scientists had previously thought Luminous Fast Blue Optical Transients were caused by dying stars. AdvertisementAdvertisementA bright flash of blue light appearing in the middle of seemingly empty space has scientists confused. Scientists previously thought they knew what could cause such a bright burst of energy. That's much too far for a core-collapse supernova to travel. There are a few more hypotheses for what could cause the bright blue flashes.

Persons: —, Ashley Chrimes, Finch, hasn't, James Webb Organizations: Service, NASA, Space Agency Research, Space Flight, Royal Astronomical Society

☆ Crocs just got a whole lot weirder by going western
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-05 | by ( Parija Kavilanz | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: 1 min

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☆ Earth's mysterious core is weirder than you think, and we're only just beginning to uncover its secrets
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-22 | by ( Marianne Guenot | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +8 min

Earth's core has baffled researchers for decades, and it still contains many secrets. AdvertisementAdvertisementA diagram shows the Earth's magnetic field deflecting waves of energy coming from the sun. The strength of Earth's magnetic field in 2020, as measured by the European Space Agency's SWARM satellites. The Earth's inner core may be spinning and might sometimes flip backwardThe core itself is not uniform. A graphic showing how iron crystals may be distributed and moved around the Earth's inner core.

Persons: Andrew Z, Colvin, Lutz Rastaetter, Christopher C, Finlay, al, Edward Garnero, Li, Lindsey Kenyon, Samantha Hansen, Insider's Morgan McFall, Johnsen, Chris Panella, John Vidale, UC Berkeley seismologist Daniel Frost, LiveScience Organizations: Service, NASA, Modeling, NASA Goddard Space, Wikimedia, German Research Center, Geosciences, European Space Agency, Arizona State University, Lindsey, University of Alabama, University of Southern, Washington Post, UC Berkeley Locations: South America, Antarctica, University of Southern California, Banda

☆ Opinion | Can We Put a Price on Climate Damages?
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-20 | by ( David Wallace-Wells | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

But whenever anyone tries to put an actual price on the damages from global warming — to calibrate a carbon tax, assess past responsibility or aid in litigation against fossil-fuel malefactors — the numbers are almost too much to process. One problem is that the damage accumulates over time, like a compound interest of climate degradation. Most carbon, once emitted, hangs in the air for centuries — and some of it lingers even longer. A lump of coal being burned in Shaanxi or Inner Mongolia today does climate damage equivalent to a lump that was burned in 19th-century Newcastle or 20th-century Pittsburgh, and an oil well decommissioned three decades ago may still be doing climate damage three centuries from now. I used an optimistically low future price for such technology and assumed no obstacles to scaling that tech, though many analysts see many such roadblocks.

Locations: United States, China, Shaanxi, Inner Mongolia, Newcastle, Pittsburgh

But in advance of this debate, I did go back and watch the 2015 Republican debate. michelle cottleOK. I’m going to jump in here with the message may be great, but the messenger was absolutely atrocious. But I thought it was really, really interesting. carlos lozadaNo, no, no, but no, here’s what — no, I mean, I’m not inclined to. And then, I’m going to put the interests of Americans first, which is just an America first riff.

Persons: lydia polgreen, ross douhat Bemusement, michelle cottle, polgreen Wow, ross douhat, lydia polgreen Carlos, carlos lozada Darkness, carlos lozada, Mike Pence, Lydia Polgreen, michelle cottle I’m Michelle Cottle, ross douhat I’m Ross Douthat, carlos lozada I’m Carlos Lozada, you’re, Vivek Ramaswamy, Ramaswamy, Ron DeSantis, Nikki Haley, Pence, carlos lozada That’s, Lydia, Prince, carlos lozada —, Tucker Carlson, Carlos, John Kasich, Scott Walker, Jeb Bush —, Ross, ross, It’s, he’s, Trump, lydia polgreen We’re, ross douhat Punditry, yammering, He’s, Michelle, that’s, — michelle cottle, she’s, She’s, lydia polgreen —, michelle cottle He’s, I’m, Obama, —, Chris Christie, Marco Rubio, Haley, michelle cottle ChatGPT, carlos lozada ChatGPT, ross douhat We’ve, — carlos lozada There’s, Pudding Fingers, DeSantis, unquote, ”, it’s, Christie, Tim Scott —, hasn’t, carlos lozada DeSantis’s, George Soros, — carlos lozada —, I’ve, ross douhat Totally, Donald Trump, — ross, Chris Christie can’t, ross douhat Trump, Tim Scott, Vivek’s, carlos lozada He’ll, — ross douhat, Tucker, Jeffrey Epstein, polgreen, Epstein, Biden, lydia polgreen He’s, They’re, Asa —, carlos lozada It’s, michelle cottle That’s, michelle cottle Oh, we’re, you’re Donald Trump, carlos lozada Well, who’s, Mel Gibson, Anthony Hopkins, Caroline Alexander, — carlos lozada, michelle cottle Aw, ross douhat It’s, David Grann, MOO, we’ve, “ MOO, ” ross, “, somebody’s, michelle cottle I’m Organizations: Indigo, Twitter, lydia polgreen From New York, Trump, Republican Party, Republican, Harvard, Ivy League, Fox, Fox News, Republican National Committee, Biden, Democratic, Trump Republican Party, Iowa Locations: United States of America, lydia polgreen From New, Trump, America, Washington, UN, New Hampshire, Ukraine, Iowa, Florida, Panama, China, Milwaukee, Lydia, There’s

☆ For Kids, Coming Home From Summer Camp Is Hard, By Design - The New York Times
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-20 | by ( Sandra Fox | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

I have only two memories of my first summer at sleep-away camp when I was 9: one from the first day and one from the last. I was not alone in finding sleep-away camp to be an escape, an opportunity for self-reinvention and an invitation to be messier, weirder and just more myself. It’s no surprise that coming home is, for many kids, such a painful transition that experts even have a name for it: campsickness. Shortly after I left my camp summers behind, I began to research the camp experience as an academic. After working with children at a camp in Michigan in the 1940s, he described the immersive nature of sleep-away camp as a “powerful drug” that could offer several potential benefits, including character training and “supportive mental hygiene.”

Persons: I’d, weirder, It’s, Fritz Redl, ” Locations: Austrian, Nazi Europe, United States, Michigan

☆ Barbenheimer Memes Are an Art Form All Their Own - The New York Times
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-22 | by ( Elizabeth Spiers | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

Did the world need Arizona Iced Tea-branded Adidas sneakers marketed for 99 cents? Did they attract so many potential buyers that the New York Police Department had to shut the sale down at the pop-up store selling them? The “Barbie” marketing team absolutely understands this, and the absurd brand-collaboration drops have spread with the speed of the 1854 cholera outbreak in London. There’s a real-world Barbie dream house on Airbnb, Barbie Krispy Kreme doughnuts, Barbie rugs and a Barbie Xbox. Surprisingly, there is no Barbie Pepto Bismol, which seems like a natural fit in terms of existing I.P.

Persons: Robert Oppenheimer, Taylor Swift, Barbie, There’s, Oppenheimer, Barbie ”, “ Oppenheimer, launders Organizations: “ Raiders, Adidas, New York Police Department Locations: Arizona, London

☆ Opinion | One Economist Is Challenging How We Think Money Works
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-19 | by ( Peter Coy | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

What’s the difference between $100 in cash and $100 in a checking account? It goes into its computer and marks up your checking account by whatever amount you borrowed. Congress creates money from thin air by deficit spending and the Federal Reserve creates it by buying bonds. The more you think about money, the weirder it starts to feel. The government’s money used to be backed by real stuff like gold and silver.

Persons: Banks Organizations: Federal Locations: United States

☆ Missing genes in ‘mind-controlling’ worms pose an evolutionary puzzle
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-18 | by ( Mindy Weisberger | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

However, when the scientists compared their horsehair worm genomes with genomic information from other animals, something was missing, Cunha told CNN. Two live tangled freshwater horsehair worms, scientifically called Gordionus violaceus, were found in Germany. Mysteries remain about the worms’ movementsAs useful as cilia are, horsehair worms seem to be doing just fine without them, the scientists reported. To date, scientists have identified several hundred species of freshwater horsehair worms and five species of marine horsehair worms. Marine horsehair worms spend their entire lives in water, but freshwater species are only aquatic as adults.

Persons: —, australiensis, munidae, Tauana Cunha, Cunha, “, ”, “ It’s, Gonzalo Giribet, nematomorphs, Keiichi Kakui, Kakui, ” Kakui, Martin Sørensen, Ophiocordyceps, Bruno de Medeiros, California’s Organizations: CNN, Chicago’s Field, Harvard University, Hokkaido University, HBO, Field, Monument Locations: Germany, Japan, nematomorphs, California’s Muir

☆ How Taylor Swift’s ‘Speak Now’ Became the ‘Scary’ Version
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-14 | by ( Remy Tumin | More About Remy Tumin | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Rachel Hunter could not wait to play her new vinyl recording of Taylor Swift’s “Speak Now.”After waiting weeks for its arrival, Ms. Hunter placed the orchid-colored vinyl with Ms. Swift’s face on its center on her record player, lifted the needle and let it play. But instead of Ms. Swift’s catchy choruses, acoustic guitar and banjo strums, another woman’s voice came out. “I quit seeing people, quit looking at the flakes of flesh and dancing organisms,” an echoing voice said, without music in the background. Maybe there was something wrong with the speed, Ms. Hunter thought, or maybe it was one of Ms. Swift’s notorious Easter eggs. I was by myself,” Ms. Hunter recalled.

Persons: Rachel Hunter, Taylor Swift’s, Hunter, Swift’s, “, ” Ms, you’re, Taylor Swift, ”

☆ US official says 'exiled' Wagner boss Prigozhin may not have gone to Belarus at all — and may have used a body double to make it appear as though he fled Russia
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-07 | by ( Kelsey Vlamis | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin was exiled to Belarus last month after staging an armed rebellion. But the former Putin ally apparently reappeared in St. Petersburg this week, sparking confusion. A Pentagon official told The New York Times it appears Prigozhin has mostly been in Russia. An unnamed Pentagon official told The New York Times that Prigozhin has actually been in Russia — Moscow or St. Petersburg — for most of the time since the mutiny. The official also said it was unclear if Prigozhin ever went to Belarus, noting he is believed to employ body doubles.

Persons: Wagner, Yevgeny Prigozhin, Putin, Prigozhin, —, he'd, Alexander Lukashenko, Vladimir Putin, Lukashenko, Insider's Sonam Sheth, Putin —, Petersburg Organizations: Pentagon, New York Times, Service, Wagner Group, CIA, Putin Locations: Belarus, St . Petersburg, Russia, Moscow, St, Ukraine, Chechnya

☆ Analysis: Prigozhin's fate remains unclear and it signals more trouble in Russia
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-07 | by ( Jill Dougherty | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

CNN —The bizarre tale of Yevgeny Prigozhin, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s former pal-turned-mutineer, just got a whole lot weirder. His men had three choices: follow Prigozhin to Belarus, join the regular Russian military, or stop fighting and go home. He was a tough guy strutting about in camouflage, whose fighters could win battles in Ukraine that the regular Russian military couldn’t handle. Prigozhin’s ultimate fate is still unclear, but he is only one of Putin’s problems. And that portends more repression, more “settling scores,” and more fighting behind the scenes in Putin’s Russia.

Persons: Yevgeny Prigozhin, Vladimir Putin’s, Wagner, –, ”, Alexander Lukashenko, Lukashenko, Prigozhin, Putin, Vlad Karkov, “ Organizations: CNN, Putin’s, ” Locations: Russian, Belarusian, Russia, Belarus, St . Petersburg, Moscow, Prigozhin’s St, Petersburg, Ukraine, Rostov, Vesti

☆ 75 Years After ‘The Lottery’ Was Published, the Chills Linger
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-26 | by ( Scott Heller | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

David SedarisAuthor, “Happy-Go-Lucky”If I’m not mistaken, my seventh-grade teacher showed us the movie of “The Lottery” before having us read it, which is unfortunate. I remember sitting in the dark when it flickered to an end, completely destroyed. I reread “The Lottery” every few years and have listened to many audio versions, none of which get the last line right in my opinion (the closest is Maureen Stapleton for The Caedmon Short Story Collection). When I first read the story it seemed fresh — was fresh, I suppose, only 23 years old. I was a kid when I first read “The Lottery,” and a weird kid at that.

Persons: David Sedaris, I’m, Maureen Stapleton, Bobby, Dickie, Old Man Warner, “, ”, Rob Savage, Carmen Maria Machado, Shirley Jackson’s, …, ” — Organizations: Old Man, Lottery

☆ Horace Tapscott Was a Force in L.A. Jazz. A New Set May Expand His Reach.
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-15 | by ( Marcus J. Moore | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +3 min

Along the way, noted musicians and vocalists like Nate Morgan, Kamau Daaood, Adele Sebastian and Phil Ranelin played in the band. Trible came across Tapscott in the late 1980s as a singer in another group who wanted to work with the Arkestra. Six decades since Tapscott formed the band, Session said the group’s mission hasn’t changed, and he vowed to continue pushing forward. I want to get back to how Horace did shows at prisons and high schools and colleges for free,” he said. “We could sell out Carnegie Hall and then come home and do the same set for 50, 60 cats.

Persons: Tapscott, Nate Morgan, Kamau Daaood, Adele Sebastian, Phil Ranelin, Trible, “, ‘, ” Trible, Horace, Michael Session, Azar Lawrence, ”, Miles Davis, McCoy Tyner, Freddie Hubbard, “ It’s, We’re, Thundercat, Kamasi Washington, Terrace Martin —, Kendrick Lamar, hasn’t Organizations: Carnegie Hall Locations: Tapscott, Little Africa, Brooklyn

☆ A gamma-ray explosion that was so bright it blinded scientists' equipment is even weirder than first thought
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-09 | by ( Marianne Guenot | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

Scientists marveled at the power of the gamma-ray jet, which likely marked the birth of a black hole. Astronomers have since been trying to work out what could have made the gamma-ray burst so bright, and may finally have an answer. Researchers have discovered that the gamma-ray explosion ejected a jet with an unusual structure which dragged a large amount of stellar material along with it. The analysis demonstrates that the most extreme explosions do not obey the standard physics assumed for normal gamma-ray bursts, he said. Still, according to O'Connor, this finding "a massive step forward in our understanding of gamma-ray bursts," the "equivalent Rosetta stone of long GRBs."

Persons: marveled, —, Brendan O'Connor, Levan, Gladys Kober, O'Connor, NASA’s, Alexander van der Horst, Hendrik Van Eerten, Eleonora Troja, it's, Van Eerten Organizations: Service, George Washington University, Hubble, NASA, ESA, CSA, Radboud University, NASA’s Goddard Space, University of Bath, University of Rome

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