Ranging from a threatening hiss to a blood-curdling scream, the sound of the Aztec death whistle is as creepy as the skull-like appearance of the instrument that produces it. read more
Across platforms, male news influencers outnumber women, and creators with explicit political orientations lean conservative. read more
Tech giants and their allies lean on culture-war issues to splinter bipartisan support for the bill read more
Even though we all recognize bees for their importance in the food chain as pollinators, the crafty creatures have a series of other talents, including math ability, face recognition, and even tool use. read more
MEMBERS of President-elect Donald Trump's transition team have told advisers they plan to make a federal framework for fully self-driving vehicles one of the Transportation Department's priorities, according to people familiar with the matter. read more
@#4 ... Republicans love to elect rapists. ...
It certainly seems that way.
Nine Inch Nails - Closer (1989)
www.youtube.com
Lyrics excerpt...
...
[Verse 1]
You let me violate you
You let me desecrate you
You let me penetrate you
You let me complicate you
[Pre-Chorus]
(Help me) I broke apart my insides
(Help me) I've got no soul to sell
(Help me) The only thing that works for me
Help me get away from myself
[Chorus]
I want to ---- you like an animal
I want to feel you from the inside
I want to ---- you like an animal
My whole existence is flawed
You get me closer to God
...
@#6 ... Where has VP-elect JD Vance been since election day? ...
OK, I found this, fwiw, considering the source ....
VP-elect JD Vance to hold meetings between Gaetz, Hegseth and 'key' GOP senators
www.foxnews.com
... Vance is making calls and connecting with key GOP senators ahead of next year's confirmation hearings ...
Yeah, that's dated today.
Election Day was a couple weeks ago.
What happened to VP-elect Vance?
It looks to be Pres-elect Trump vs Mr Musk on this one.
Meanwhile, Pres-elect Trump is watching a SpaceX launch.
Trump, Musk watch SpaceX launch Starship, booster misses landing
www.reuters.com
... Elon Musk's SpaceX launched its giant Starship rocket to space from Texas on Tuesday, advancing the ship's spaceflight abilities but botching an attempt to bring its booster back to land as U.S. President-elect Donald Trump watched from the company's rocket facilities.
The roughly 400-foot-tall (122-meter-tall) rocket system, designed to land astronauts on the moon and ferry crews to Mars, lifted off at 4 p.m. CT (2200 GMT) from SpaceX's sprawling rocket development site in Boca Chica, Texas.
The rocket's 233-foot-tall (71-metre-tall) first stage booster, called Super Heavy, detached from its second stage, Starship, at roughly 40 miles (62 km) in altitude, sending the craft into space.
Super Heavy unexpectedly splashed down in the Gulf of Mexico instead of returning to land, where it was expected to fall into large mechanical arms attached to the tower it launched from.
The last-minute diversion to water indicated something went wrong. ...
Young Americans Rely on Social Media Influencers for News, Pew Says
www.bnnbloomberg.ca
... A significant number of young adults get their news from social media "news influencers" that generally don't have traditional journalism training or news experience, according to new data from Pew Research Center.
Nearly 40% of young adults under 30 rely on these news influencers to stay updated on current events and politics, Pew found. The vast majority of those influencers -- 77% -- aren't affiliated with a news organization or have never worked in the news industry.
The new data highlights a changing media landscape in which young people, in particular, are relying more and more on non-traditional news sources to learn about important topics like government, social issues and the economy.
The study, based on insight from 10,000 adults and 500 news influencers in the United States, comes in the wake of a contentious presidential election where candidates on both sides leaned heavily on social media creators to disseminate information and mobilize voters. ...
Half of Americans read at 6th grade level or below -- and it's crushing
northdenvertribune.com
... Is America's social, political and economic dysfunction driven by some as simple as low literacy?
The claim that half of Americans read below a 6th-grade level is supported by multiple sources. According to recent studies, approximately 54% of American adults aged 16-74 have literacy skills below a 6th-grade level[1][2][5]. This statistic highlights significant literacy challenges in the U.S., affecting about 130 million adults[6]. These low literacy levels have implications for personal and economic outcomes, as they can impact employment opportunities and income levels[1][2][5]. ...
@#93 ... I voted because he said "Promises made, Promises KEPT". No one else said that. ...
The biggest lie Trump tells is that he's kept his promises (2018)
www.vox.com
... A raft of populist pledges have been left on the cutting room floor.
President Donald Trump is such a hard-core liar that Wednesday morning on Twitter he quoted a Marc Thiessen column defending his honesty that literally contains the line, "Don't get me wrong, Trump lies all the time."
Thiessen downplays Trump's routine dishonesty with the dismissal that "in part, it's a New York thing " everything is the biggest and the best."
As a New Yorker, I have to say that it is not actually true that people in New York act like sociopathic liars (and imagine the uproar in conservative media if I sniffily dismissed complaints about Bill Clinton's dishonesty by saying he's from Arkansas).
But more to the point is Thiessen's argument " quoted by Trump " that he delivers on his promises. That's important since one big problem in politics with having a well-deserved reputation as a liar is that if a liar leads your political movement, you are liable to be betrayed. Thiessen, and Trump himself, wants to reassure supporters that even though Trump may be a huge liar, he won't break faith with them.
Trump fans are supposed to believe that they are in on the con and it's the rest of us who are the marks. Unfortunately, that's exactly how a well-run con works and the truth is Trump's record in office is littered with broken promises.
Trump has broken lots of promises
Thiessen, of course, can't actually deny that some of the things Trump promised as a candidate have not, in fact, happened. But he writes that "where Trump has failed to keep promises, such as building the wall or repealing Obamacare, it has not been for a lack of trying."
On the wall, however, it's not just that Trump hasn't persuaded Congress to appropriate the staggering amount of money his pointless border wall would cost.
The thing he promised as a candidate was to make Mexico pay for the wall " i.e., to brush aside the fiscal concerns that have in fact made wall-building impossible by asserting that there was a way to get the wall for free. This idea was so mind-bogglingly ridiculous that it's probably for the best that Trump hasn't actually tried to do it. But he definitely hasn't tried, and he's not going to be able to deliver on his promise because the promise was fundamentally dishonest. ...
@#3
I'm still skeptical.
Maybe the two bees just happened to land on the bottle at the same time?
It is difficult to say without any apparent controlled situation.