CIRCLE WITH A DOT

Firm Building Trump’s Ballroom Got a Secret No-Bid Contract for a Nearby Job. The National Park Service increased the value of the contract several times over, in a process that experts said was highly unusual. (NYT front page)

I feel sorry for narcissists, for egoists, for all who are so certain they're right, better than everyone. I feel sorry for them, because so long as they maintain that position, they cannot move.

That doesn't mean I won't stop them, step around them.

It just means I recognize the power of flexibility, of change.

Most importantly, I understand most of us can adjust.

There's no shame in admitting you were wrong, that you let a narcissist, an egoist trick you into believing in them. #midterms

Yesterday: Trump fires the Secretary of the Navy.

Today: Trump orders Navy to ‘shoot and kill any boat’ laying mines in Hormuz Strait.

The son testified in probate court that he had not asked co-workers to have Ms. Ross-Mahé arrested. But, Judge Millwood wrote, law enforcement officers told Tony Ross a day before Ms. Ross-Mahé’s arrest that she would be detained, and he also received a text confirming the arrest less than an hour after it happened. Two hours after her arrest, the judge wrote, Mr. Ross’s other son, Gary, went to their father’s house and changed the locks. https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/16/us/ice-detention-alabama-french-woman.html

@cstross Here's the link to the 2024 article cited in that piece. It's all theoretical, based on solar panels that absorb nearly 100% of the sun's heat (many are reflective), require moisture to be present in the atmosphere, and in some instances can adversely impact other regions' ecosystems. https://www.science.org/content/article/massive-solar-farms-could-provoke-rainclouds-desert

Some have ditched the smartphone camera for one of the first digital jobs. Others have discovered 35mm. Streaming gets pushed aside for CDs and cassettes and vinyl. People start wanting knobs in their cars, not touchscreens. They say "nostalgia."

I say no, you're reverting to being human. Welcome.

I don't know what has to happen for him to get it through his head that you don't protect a country by bombing a country that hasn't attacked you. You sure can help groom tomorrow's terrorists that way, tho.

@KydiaMusic Issa Vinyl Reader where a woman in a turban gazes into the grooves of your disc, puts her hand to her forehead, then tells you what mood she feels as she reads the groove?

Seriously though, I know there are kids who buy records just to display them, never get a "reader." Then there are those who like the pops and ticks and scratches because somebody told them that's the coveted old-school, vinyl sound.