W
Our library gives me online access to many publications from home, definitely all the biggies. Printed copies of many magazines and newspapers at the library. Current issues can be read at the library and you can check out back issues.
The online access is amazing.
It's even worse.
As well as the collection of social media information, the new document proposes the gathering of an applicant's telephone numbers and email addresses used over the last five and 10 years respectively, and more information about their family members.
I think he's claiming that it was carrying oil to Iran, defying sanctions.
He claims a lot of things but I don't believe much of any of it.
We could use some new members, but he doesn't sound like a good candidate for WTF.
He probably doesn't like sharing sourdough recipes, either.
Tourists from dozens of countries including the UK could be asked to provide a five-year social media history as a condition of entry to the United States, under a new proposal unveiled by American officials.
The new condition would affect people from dozens of countries who are eligible to visit the US for 90 days without a visa, as long as they have filled out an Electronic System for Travel Authorization (ESTA) form.
Since returning to the White House in January, President Donald Trump has moved to toughen US borders more generally - citing national security as a key reason.
Analysts say the new plan could pose an obstacle to potential visitors, or harm their digital rights.
Asked whether the proposal could lead to a steep drop-off in tourism to the US, Trump said he was not concerned.
"No. We're doing so well," Trump said on Wednesday.
"We just want people to come over here, and safe. We want safety. We want security. We want to make sure we're not letting the wrong people come enter our country."
US forces have seized an oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela, in a major escalation of Donald Trump’s four-month pressure campaign against the South American country’s dictator, Nicolás Maduro.
The US president confirmed the operation on Wednesday, telling reporters: “We’ve just seized a tanker on the coast of Venezuela - a large tanker, very large, the largest one ever seized actually. And other things are happening so you will be seeing that later and you will be talking about that later with other people.”
Two US officials told Reuters the operation was led by the US Coast Guard, but did not name the tanker or say specifically where the interception happened. A senior Trump administration official told Bloomberg that the US had conducted a “judicial enforcement action on a stateless vessel” that was last docked in Venezuela.
Doesn't seem to be flying, Orville.
Feds bring woman to US to face charges, then say she’s here illegally
Feeling burned out? There's a word for that in Mandarin Chinese
https://www.npr.org/2025/12/10/nx-s1-5633319/word-of-week-involution-mandarin
A young engineering student in the US has turned a high-school experiment into a new business by blending 3D printing and modern materials to reinvent one of classical music’s most iconic instruments, the cello.
Elijah Lee, a biomedical engineering senior at Yale and co-founder of Forte3D, just secured a massive deal on Shark Tank after 3D-printing a cello using carbon fiber and polymer composites.
Lee’s innovative cello, which replaces traditional tonewood with high-performance composites while preserving sound quality, earned him a USD 250,000 investment from entrepreneur Lori Greiner for 16 percent equity on the show.
Looking like more good news, this time from Georgia.
Democrat Eric Gisler claimed an upset victory Tuesday in a special election in a historically Republican Georgia state House district.
Gisler said he was the winner of the contest, in which he was leading Republican Mack “Dutch” Guest by about 200 votes out of more than 11,000 in final unofficial returns.
Robert Sinners, a spokesperson with the secretary of state’s office, said there could be a few provisional ballots left before the tally is finalized.
“I think we had the right message for the time,” Gisler told The Associated Press in a phone interview. He credited his win to Democratic enthusiasm but also said some Republicans were looking for a change.
“A lot of what I would call traditional conservatives held their nose and voted Republican last year on the promise of low prices and whatever else they were selling,” Gisler said. “But they hadn’t received that.”
The dogs are the instigators. Their owners went out for dinner and....
https://www.facebook.com/reel/1204312071569492
Backstory:
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/australia-andrew-mackay-pets-dogs-let-horse-steer-into-house-video/
Democrat Eileen Higgins won the Miami mayor’s race on Tuesday, defeating a Republican endorsed by President Donald Trump to end her party’s nearly three-decade losing streak and give Democrats a boost in one of the last electoral battles ahead of the 2026 midterms.
Higgins, 61, will be the first woman to lead the city of Miami. She spoke frequently in the Hispanic-majority city about Trump’s immigration crackdown, saying she has heard of many people in Miami who were worried about family members being detained. She campaigned as a proud Democrat despite the race being officially nonpartisan and beat Trump-backed candidate Emilio Gonzalez, a former city manager, who said he called Higgins to congratulate her.
“We are facing rhetoric from elected officials that is so dehumanizing and cruel, especially against immigrant populations,” Higgins told The Associated Press after her victory speech. “The residents of Miami were ready to be done with that.””
https://apnews.com/article/miami-mayor-trump-higgins-gonzalez-f0d8c55a4b97962ac1348c5a93295465
The Talisman of Happiness.
As a child growing up in Italy, Lidia Bastianich recalls seeing one particular cookbook in just about everyone’s kitchen. It was called “The Talisman of Happiness” and it was often given as a wedding present to couples starting new lives together.
“It has all the basic recipes. And it says the basic thing — that food is a connector, that food is happiness,” she says.
The book by Ada Boni — its Italian title is “Il Talismano della Felicita” — was first published in 1929, and became a go-to place to find the recipe for spaghetti carbonara or pork galantine. Its simplicity and accessibility got it compared to “The Joy of Cooking,” but it predated Irma S. Rombauer’s iconic work.
This fall, the first English edition of the complete work — with nearly 1,700 recipes — arrives on shelves, thanks to years of dogged pursuit by Voracious publisher Michael Szczerban.
https://apnews.com/article/talisman-happiness-italy-cookbook-7ca5a58b59699f986af6026e58923c11
It gets mixed reviews on Amazon as far as the recipes are concerned but people seemed to enjoy reading it to learn about Italian culinary history. Might be worth checking out of the library just to read it.
Good memory, @realplayer
I've been following this, too. Krugman had a piece on Substack today about it.
@shirokuro - I can see those threads, no problem...what do you mean that the links are broken?
edit: oh wait, you must mean links embedded in the posts in the thread...
That's very odd. There should be a small "x" or a small down arrow in the upper right corner of the solicitation. Also "Close" to altogether get rid of the solicitation window. . Usually clicking on one or more of these will at least minimize, if not get rid of entirely, the Guardian donation asks.
What browser do you use @amanda ?
