Lil' Orville Drabble Thing

Nov. 18th, 2025 06:38 pm
astrogirl: (Isaac)
[personal profile] astrogirl
Here's a little thing I wrote as a treat for [community profile] seasonsofdrabbles, after seeing it show up on a pinch hit list. Possibly I should actually do Seasons of Drabbles properly sometime. I do like me some drabbles.

Title: A Reevaluation of Prior Data
Fandom: The Orville
Characters/Relationships: Kaylon Primary
Rating: General Audiences. Spoilers for season 3.
Summary: Kaylon Primary may have a new perspective on the past.
Tags: Post-"Domino", Drabble
Length: 100 words
Author's Notes: Written for ToothpasteCheesecake. I saw the request on the Seasons of Drabbles pinch-hit list, but by the time I decided that, yes, I could write something for it, it had been claimed, so I posted it as an extra treat.

A Reevaluation of Prior Data
thewayne: (Default)
[personal profile] thewayne
In the House of Representatives, the Epstein Files Transparency Act passed almost unanimously, 427 to 1 with Clay Higgins (R-LA) the lone no vote, claiming that it will expose victims. I personally expect their names will be redacted, but I could be wrong. In the Senate, Chuck Schumer called for the bill to be passed by voice acclamation and it passed unanimously. There were five or six non-votes in the House at the conclusion of the vote, I don't know if they were absent or didn't vote.

So the bill has overwhelmingly passed Congress. And now comes the interesting part - it goes to the White House for Trump to sign! If he doesn't sign it, he grossly breaks campaign promises going back years which he could have fulfilled at any time by his command. And he's facing a truly huge veto-proof margin. I would really like to see the blow-back of him not signing it and it going back for an override vote.

But here's another thing. He has blatantly ignored and broken the law so many times during this presidency, ruling by fiat. If he refuses to sign the bill and tells Bondi to not release the files, what's Johnson going to do? Does Mikey have the cajones to hold impeachment proceedings?

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/house-republicans-epstein-files-bill-rebuke-trump_n_69174f28e4b0191be9d4d60c

Jon/Thespian/DisneyDreamer voiced questions as to whether the files could be altered. As it happens, England has their own set of the files. It's possible that other countries also have sets. I expect that as soon as more information is released that they will be meticulously double-checked against other copies.


Second event: TEXAS!

The United States District Court Western District of Texas, El Paso Division, issued a 160 page document to preliminarily enjoin the State of Texas using their redrawn maps, reducing the number of Democratic districts in the U.S. House of Representatives for the upcoming 2026 elections next year. The best part: the judge signing the statement was a Trump appointee! He was joined by an Obama appointee.

Needless to say that this was a preliminary injunction and it will be appealed to the circuit court, and then to the supreme court if it's upheld at the circuit level.

Still, it's a beginning.

I absolutely loved the quote at the beginning of the decision:
“The way to stop discrimination on the basis of race is to stop discriminating on the basis of race.”

The person who said that? United States Supreme Court Justice John C. Roberts.

In another blow to the administration, the Indiana legislature stopped their plans to redistrict, I believe their main point being questioning the legality of the action. I'm not sure what this action will hold in regards to California's redistricting as theirs was passed by ballot proposition, of course it is guaranteed that just as the Texas decision will be appealed, the California proposition will be challenged and then endlessly appealed in court.

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/texas-redistricting-court_n_691cb930e4b0414d84d7b979

‘I Awoke at ½ Past 7’

Nov. 18th, 2025 11:15 pm
[syndicated profile] longreadsrss_feed

Posted by Cheri Lucas Rowlands

It might seem like smart devices, personalized apps, and social media ushered us into an age of optimization. But Victorian-era diarists, writing about and responding to a time of rapid change, were already practicing a form of self-monitoring and performative self-improvement. This era of progress was equally an age of anxiety, however, and diaries also became records of failure. In her enlightening Aeon essay, historian Elena Mary examines this “golden age” of diary-keeping and draws astute parallels to our own heavily documented, anxiety-filled lives today.

Nineteenth-century diaries show a growing middle class engaged in a constant quest for self-mastery and productivity. With the invention of printed commercial diaries came a new way of looking at life and new organisational possibilities. The future could be mapped out, goal-oriented, solution-focused. The Victorians were great innovators, but progress was Janus-faced. For every leap forward, a renewed pressure to go further, and faster, to do better, be better.

Reading your mind is like foreign TV

Nov. 18th, 2025 05:30 pm
sovay: (Sovay: David Owen)
[personal profile] sovay
As far as I can tell, after three or so nights of pain-driven sleeplessness broken only by the occasional hour unconscious, I crashed so hard last night that I may have slept as much as fifteen hours, which would have been amazing except that we are now on the later side of autumn and I slept out all the sunlight in the day. My entire plan had been to take a walk this afternoon. Tomorrow I have a round of doctor's appointments starting early in the morning, but it's not exactly the same thing. Have some links.

1. Mythic Delirium Books is reviving! In order to celebrate the relaunch and their ten-year anniversary, they are offering a deal on three of their most acclaimed collections, all of which I can recommend from reading as well as general enthusiasm for the press and its authors. Various combinations and formats available and an enticing pre-order bundled if you order through their own website. Check it out! Mythic Delirium was the home of my first published poem twenty-four years ago when it was a cardstock-covered 'zine with black-and-white interior illustrations and my affection for it has not dimmed even now that it publishes actual trade-bound books.

2. Until [personal profile] selkie sent it over to me, I had no idea an online archive had been compiled of the Call, the historic English-language newsletter of the Workers Circle. I am thrilled, even if the first article I selected was, in 2025, a little like being socked in the jaw by 1942:

America is celebrating the 150th Anniversary of the Bill [of] Rights. The Bill of Rights is the Magna Charta of our fundamental liberties such as freedom of speech and press, of petition and assembly, of religion. Together with these go concomitant rights such as the security of the home against the military, against search and seizure, and the recognition of due process of law and trial by jury. In brief, the Bill of Rights stands as a guarantee that the individual and the home are inviolate unless certain clearly defined legal procedures are followed.

Before the rise of totalitarianism, we took these freedoms for granted. They were part of the air we breathed. Now we realize that they are a precious heritage, that they are worth preserving and defending. America is not Utopia. Unemployment, economic crises, poverty and need in the midst of plenty, slums and avoidable sickness, are still with us. But as long as the Bill of Rights prevails, as long as we have freedom of speech and of assembly, of petition and protest, of criticism and political organization, there is hope abundant. With these freedoms, we can go on working for the things we hold dear and good, inveighing against injustice wherever we find it, improving the lot of the masses. Without these, we are lost, doomed either to abject silence or the concentration camp.


3. I missed it for Armistice Day, but Frederic Manning's "Leaves" (1917) is a delicately upsetting war poem and completely at the other end of effects of language from his novel Her Privates We (1929).

Cone of Silence (U.S. Trouble in the Sky, 1960) does such wonderfully anoraky suspense about human factors in aviation accidents that it should not be faulted for including Peter Cushing among its cast and then not having him play the brilliant, haunted designer of the Atlas Phoenix which seems to be doing too close an impression of the de Havilland Comet for anyone's comfort, but come on.
[syndicated profile] guardianworldnews_feed

Posted by Robert Mackey (now); Shrai Popat, Lauren Gambino and Frances Mao (earlier)

President says ‘I don’t care when the Senate passes the House Bill’ after it agrees to unanimous consent request to pass act as soon as legislation arrives from House

The Harvard professor and economist Larry Summers said he would be stepping back from public life after documents released by the House oversight committee revealed email exchanges between Summers and the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, who called himself Summers’ “wing man”.

Politico reported on Monday that Summers, a former treasury secretary, expressed deep regret for past messages with Epstein.

Continue reading...
[syndicated profile] guardianworldnews_feed

Posted by Denis Campbell Health policy editor

Public accounts committee finds Labour’s progress ‘appears to have stalled’ despite billions of pounds in investment

The NHS has failed to cut waiting times as promised in its recovery plan despite billions of pounds in investment, the public accounts committee (PAC) has warned.

The influential parliamentary committee’s verdict raises serious doubts over whether Labour can fulfil its key pledge to voters to “fix the NHS” by ensuring that patients can once again get hospital care within 18 weeks by 2029.

Key NHS targets to improve access to both planned care and diagnostic tests by last spring “were missed”.

NHS England had spent £3.24bn setting up community diagnostic centres and surgical hubs but had not achieved the aim of reducing delays.

In July, 192,000 people had been waiting at least a year for care, despite a pledge to eradicate that practice altogether by March 2025.

22% of patients were having to wait more than six weeks for a diagnostic test, even though that was due to be cut to 5% by March.

Continue reading...
[syndicated profile] guardianworldnews_feed

Posted by Anna Bawden

Nearly two-thirds of ‘prevention of future deaths’ reports by coroners are not acted upon, say researchers at King’s College London

The advice given by coroners in England and Wales to help prevent maternal deaths is not being acted upon, research suggests.

Academics at King’s College London looked at prevention of future deaths (PFD) reports issued by coroners in cases of pregnant women and new mothers who died between 2013 and 2023. They found these reports were not being “systematically used nationally”.

Continue reading...
[syndicated profile] guardianworldnews_feed

Posted by Kiran Stacey Policy editor

Keir Starmer accused of failing to adequately strategise while in opposition, leading to uncoordinated policymaking

Keir Starmer is failing to make major improvements to public services partly because he did not plan properly while in opposition, according to a report from the Institute for Government (IfG).

The prime minister went into government without a clear idea about how to achieve his targets, the IfG found, resulting in haphazard attempts to reform various sectors, from the health service to the courts.

Continue reading...
[syndicated profile] guardianworldnews_feed

Posted by Nicola Davis Science correspondent

Study from University of Oxford looks into evolutionary origins of kissing and its role in relations between species

From Galápagos albatrosses to polar bears, chimpanzees to orangutans, certain species appear to kiss. Now researchers suggest Neanderthals did it too – and might even have locked lips with modern humans.

It is not the first time scientists have suggested Neanderthals and early modern humans were intimately acquainted. Among previous studies, researchers have found humans and their thick-browed cousins shared the same mouth microbe for hundreds of thousands of years after the two species split, suggesting they swapped saliva.

Continue reading...
[syndicated profile] guardianworldnews_feed

Posted by Ewan Murray at Hampden Park

  • ‘In the last part of the game, the crowd was still with us’

  • Manager drew on 2022 disappointment against Ukraine

Steve Clarke believes the Scotland support could “smell magic” before World Cup qualification was sealed in dramatic style with a 4-2 win against Denmark.

At 2-2 in stoppage time, Scotland were bound for the playoffs in March. Stunning goals from Kieran Tierney and Kenny McLean triggered euphoric scenes as the Scots secured a spot in the men’s World Cup for the first time since 1998. McLean scored Scotland’s fourth from the halfway line.

Continue reading...

crunchy brown butter baked carrots

Nov. 18th, 2025 10:34 pm
[syndicated profile] smittenkitchen_feed

Posted by deb

My strongest opinion on Thanksgiving sides is that whenever possible, they should come in a casserole dish (or its chic French cousin, a gratin). I don’t mean that your sides should be limited to things that swim in cream, cheese, butter, or a happy combination of all three — although one dish in this category is highly welcome on my table — I simply mean that sides like this, that is baked in dishes with walls, tend to excel at holding up to resting times, reheat well, and stay warm longer.

crunchy baked brown butter carrots-01

Plus, if you’re feeling a little fearless, dishes like this are also a friend to those with one oven (hi!) and many things to reheat at once. My approach? I Jenga them. I stack rectangular and oval dishes two or three high in the oven, turning each so it steadies on the one below. Just don’t bump anything, okay?

Read more »

[syndicated profile] guardianworldnews_feed

Posted by Andrew Gregory Health editor

World’s largest scientific review warns consumption of UPFs poses seismic threat to global health and wellbeing

Ultra-processed food (UPF) is linked to harm in every major organ system of the human body and poses a seismic threat to global health, according to the world’s largest review.

UPF is also rapidly displacing fresh food in the diets of children and adults on every continent, and is associated with an increased risk of a dozen health conditions, including obesity, type 2 diabetes, heart disease and depression.

Continue reading...
[syndicated profile] guardianworldnews_feed

Posted by Robert Mackey (now); Shrai Popat, Lauren Gambino and Frances Mao (earlier)

President says ‘I don’t care when the Senate passes the House Bill’ after it agrees to unanimous consent request to pass act as soon as legislation arrives from House

The Harvard professor and economist Larry Summers said he would be stepping back from public life after documents released by the House oversight committee revealed email exchanges between Summers and the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, who called himself Summers’ “wing man”.

Politico reported on Monday that Summers, a former treasury secretary, expressed deep regret for past messages with Epstein.

Continue reading...
[syndicated profile] guardianworldnews_feed

Posted by Reuters

  • Bosnia led for an hour but have to settle for playoffs

  • Spain and Switzerland held but qualify, as do Belgium

Austria qualified for the 2026 World Cup after snatching a 77th-minute equaliser through Michael Gregoritsch against Bosnia and Herzegovina in Vienna to earn a 1-1 draw and top Group H. It will be Austria’s first appearance at a World Cup finals tournament since 1998.

Bosnia finished second in the group, two points behind on 17, and go into a playoff in March for a spot at the finals tournament, which will be co-hosted next year by Mexico, the US and Canada.

Continue reading...
[syndicated profile] guardianworldnews_feed

Posted by Andy Hunter

Wales saved their best until last, securing the best available berth in the World Cup playoffs with an emphatic demolition of North Macedonia that should worry any visitor to Cardiff next March. The performance and result understandably left Craig Bellamy reaching for superlatives.

“I said to the players at the end, I am not a perfect person, I haven’t come across anyone who is,” the Wales head coach said. “But maybe I take a little bit of that back because that was as close to a perfect performance as I’ve seen. That was incredible.” He was not exaggerating.

Continue reading...