WTF-Beta

@RealPlayer said in Macy’s in Philly closes: That’s sad. Department stores were conceived as grand spaces. Temples of consumerism perhaps. Pipe organs! Don't know if you've seen the series called Mr Selfridge on PBS. He started out at Marshall Field's and then opened his own iconic department store in London. Great story if you're into period dramas.

Sitting unaffected on my comfy sofa I can almost hear the words shouted angrily at the next BAA meeting... "Single point of failure?" Heathrow is rather like a large town employing 75,000 people, who facilitate thousands of daily visitors. It beggars belief that the busiest airport in Europe running 24-7 had, effectively, no backup generator.

The leakers aren’t backing off. “I look forward to the prosecutions of those at the Pentagon who are leaking maliciously false information to NYT,” Musk wrote in his post. But Musk’s post is not having the chilling effect on leakers he’d intended, according to conversations with more than half a dozen government employees who had previously spoken to POLITICO. If anything, it might be the other way around. “We are public servants, not Elon’s servants,” said one Food and Drug Administration employee who, like all people interviewed for this story, was granted anonymity to speak candidly about internal dynamics. “The public deserves to know how dysfunctional, destructive, and deceptive all of this has been and continues to be.” “Leakers are patriots,” said one Agriculture Department employee. Helping the media report on problems or concerns inside agencies, the USDA employee added, is motivated by a desire for greater transparency — the same goal Musk has said undergirds his own work through DOGE. “If the Biden administration or Obama had acted like this, no one would have tolerated it,” the staffer said. “The Trump administration doesn’t get a pass.” https://www.politico.com/news/2025/03/21/musk-leakers-government-trump-doge-00243208 The GOP loves whistleblowers. Will be interesting to watch their reaction to these folks.

The U.S. government is making it more difficult for Canadians to access the Stanstead, Que., library, an iconic building that straddles the border, according to town and library officials. The Haskell Free Library and Opera House, built in 1904, has been declared a heritage site in both countries and has long been considered a symbol of harmony between Canada and the U.S. The mayor of Stanstead, representatives from the library and local residents spoke out Friday against the U.S. government's decision to limit Canadians' access to the main entrance to the building. Jody Stone, Stanstead's mayor, said an agreement had been in place for more than a century to share access to the building. Stone, who grew up in the area, said the restrictions undermine the spirit of cross-border collaboration in the area. "We drink the same water, we share the same sewer plant," he said at a news conference near the library. "Without borders, you wouldn't even know we were two separate communities. Today's announcement makes no sense in my opinion." https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/us-border-canada-quebec-stanstead-library-1.7489528

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Is it theater? Is he trying to make a point? I hope so, because otherwise it’s not funny.

People don't actually die of measles. They generally die from pneumonia, which is a complication that can arise. Less common is measles -induced encephalitis, which can cause serious cognitive impairment, deafness, and death.

The Trump administration has not staffed an office established by Congress to prepare the nation for future pandemics, according to three sources familiar with the situation. The White House Office of Pandemic Preparedness and Response Policy was established by Congress in 2022 in response to mistakes that led to a flat-footed response to the Covid-19 pandemic. The office, called OPPR, once had a staff of about 20 people and was orchestrating the country’s response to bird flu and other threats until January 20, including hosting regular interagency meetings to share plans. “We did it very much behind the scenes,” said Dr. Paul Friedrichs, a physician and retired Air Force major general who was director of OPPR during the Biden administration. As of this week, only one staffer will remain, and it’s unclear who that person reports to, according to a source who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to share the information. OPPR’s pages have also been removed from the White House website. The new administration has not halted the country’s response to bird flu completely, but recent agency announcements and interviews with government sources show its focus has changed. For example, a leading goal of the response now is to bring down egg prices, rather than tackling the spread of the virus or preparing for a worst-case scenario in which the virus mutates and spreads easily from person to person. OPPR exists “in name only,” said a source familiar with the status of the office who worked inside the White House during the last administration. “It has fallen into the abyss.” Duh. President Donald Trump disbanded a similar White House pandemic unit in 2018 and was heavily criticized for the move when Covid-19 hit the US. Despite this, in an interview with Time magazine when he was campaigning in April, Trump said he thought he would disband OPPR if elected because it was expensive and potentially wasteful when pandemics are difficult to predict. https://www.cnn.com/2025/03/17/health/pandemic-preparedness-office-trump-bird-flu/index.html

I've experienced the same, Bernard. They ought to at least wait a few days.

Alexa please change presidents.

It's good to make the international shipping lanes safe for all countries

Twofer. Eclipse and aurora. https://petapixel.com/2025/03/17/photographers-once-in-a-lifetime-shots-of-the-lunar-eclipse-and-aurora/?utm_placement=newsletter&user_id=66c4c06e5d78644b3aab4472