‘donald trump shared his bizarre reason why people don’t want to eat bacon anymore. The former US president said wind power is stopping people from eating bacon after he delivered a campaign speech in Wisconsin on Thursday (29 August). trump gave his comments to a young rally-goer asking what his plan is, “to make life more affordable and bring down inflation for someone like me.” trump launched into what one critic denounced as a “word salad” and said: “You take a look at bacon and some of these products, and some people don’t eat bacon anymore.”…’ (Flipboard)

‘Back in 2022, the former president had told allies — as the Supreme Court was preparing to overturn Roe v. Wade — that the move would hurt his party. Since that year, when Republicans underperformed expectations in the midterm elections, Mr. trump has been privately emphatic with advisers that in his view the abortion issue alone could kill their chances of victory in November. And he is willing to make as many rhetorical and policy contortions as he deems necessary to win….’ (The New York Times)

‘NOAA Fisheries scientists attribute the abrupt collapse of snow crab in Alaska to borealization, or an ecological shift from Arctic to sub-Arctic conditions in the southeastern Bering Sea due to human-caused climate change.

Cold-adapted species like snow crab are well suited to Arctic conditions. However, when borealization occurs, the ecosystem shifts to subarctic conditions that are less conducive to snow crab survival. Instead, they favor warm-adapted species and temperature marine ecosystems.

“What is particularly noteworthy is these boreal conditions associated with the snow crab collapse are more than 200 times likely to occur in the present climate (1.0° –1.5° of warming rate) than in the preindustrial era,” said Mike Litzow, lead author and director of the Alaska Fisheries Science Center’s Kodiak Lab. “Even more concerning is that Arctic conditions conducive for snow crabs to retain their dominant role in the southeastern Bering Sea are expected to continue to decline in the future.”…’ (NOAA Fisheries)

‘Former Georgia Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan criticized his party for working “more like a cult” in his speech at the Democratic National Convention…. “[T]he Republican nominee’s actions disqualified him from ever, ever, ever stepping foot into the Oval Office again.” “If Republicans are being intellectually honest with ourselves, our party is not civil or conservative. It’s chaotic and crazy. And the only thing left to do is dump donald,” said Duncan, a CNN political commentator who has endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris in the 2024 race…’ (HuffPost Latest News)

‘After two days of policy-focused addresses with modest crowds, former President donald trump returned to form Wednesday with an outdoor speech in North Carolina, where he insisted that he would not give up personal attacks on Vice President Kamala Harris and continued to sow doubts about the integrity of the election in November.

Speaking to thousands of supporters outside a hangar at an aviation museum in Asheboro, North Carolina, trump ridiculed his advisers for pressuring him to focus on policy instead of on personal insults as he mocked President Joe Biden’s physical appearance. He called former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi “crazy,” labeled Harris both “stupid” and a “Marxist or a Communist” and said former President Barack Obama was “nasty.”

And as he promised to invest in America’s military, criticized the Biden administration’s foreign policy and vowed that only he could restore world peace, trump repeatedly revived his false claims of widespread election fraud in 2020 and spun them forward to November….’ (Seattle Times)

‘CNN’s Kaitlan Collins reports 2024 Republican presidential nominee donald trump and his campaign are irritated by the references to “Project 2025” during the Democratic National Convention in Chicago….’ (CNN Politics)

‘Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro spoke Wednesday at the third night of the Democratic National Convention with a speech focused on freedom. Gov. Shapiro also said donald trump ‘wants to take away our rights and freedoms.’ trump then attacked Shapiro on social media, referring to him as the ‘Jewish Governor’ of Pennsylvania. The Morning Joe panel reacts….’ (MSNBC)

‘donald trump insisted that Kamala Harris had a private chat with Vladimir Putin in 2022. That conversation never happened….’ (MSNBC)

‘A couple of aides told me, a little implausibly, that the former president is not tuning into the Democratic National Convention because he has no interest in watching a Democratic Party “infomercial”.

But one senior campaign official confirms, anonymously, that donald is watching and is irritated by the attacks against him.
In the view of one ally who speaks to the former president every week, trump wins in November if he sticks to talking about the economy, the border and crime.

At the start of this week, that looked possible. trump scheduled a string of rallies, in Pennsylvania, Michigan, North Carolina and Arizona – each was themed to focus on exactly those political and economic topics.
But with night after night of anti-trump speeches here in Chicago, staying on message has gone out the window. And it’s not what his supporters tell him they want anyway.

The North Carolina event on Wednesday was vintage trump – and it became a referendum on his own team’s strategy. “They always say, ‘Sir, please stick to policy, don’t get personal’… and yet [the Democrats are] getting personal all night long, these people. Do I still have to stick to policy?” trump asked.
Then he polled the crowd: more policy or go personal? His fans roared, they wanted the trump show, not a list of boring economic proposals. “My advisers are fired!” he joked. Then he said he’d stick to policy but couldn’t let the attacks go unanswered.

So the campaign strategy now seems to be at the whim of the candidate and the feedback of his crowds. That makes life difficult for his campaign advisers who repeatedly tell me their single biggest concern in this election campaign is whether they can keep trump focused on issues and off the controversial personal attacks….’ (BBC)

‘Referencing Rep. Jamie Raskin’s (D-MD) night one speech warning Vance “They tried to kill your predecessor,” Tapper asked Vance if that bit of attempted murder energy gives him any pause…’ (Mediaite)

J.D. Vance’s Latest Anti-Democrat Quip Blows Up in His Face: Brutally roasting his running mate without even realizing it.

‘Vance tried to brush off Raskin’s comments and accused the Maryland congressman of claiming victimhood.

“I just don’t understand a person in American politics in 2024 who’s whining about what happened to them instead of using their leadership and using their influence to make the lives of American citizens better,” Vance responded.

The remark, unchallenged by Tapper, quickly brought to mind the many times Trump has whined about his many grievances, from the criminal and civil charges against him to his baseless allegations of election fraud in 2020, among so many others….’ (The New Republic)

‘“For years, donald trump did everything in his power to try to make people fear us. See, his limited, narrow view of the world made him feel threatened by the existence of two hard-working, highly educated, successful people who happened to be Black… I want to know, who’s going to tell him, who’s going to tell him that the job he’s currently seeking might just be one of those ‘Black jobs?’”…’ (Poynter)

‘The Republican candidate for vice president seems unable to say anything that would encourage voters to consider his ticket….’ (Boing Boing)

‘Up from Conservatism advocates repeal of Civil Rights Act, investigations into ‘gay lifestyle’ and defunding childcare…’ (The Guardian))

‘The most important reason a second trump term would be far more dangerous than his first is that if he does win this year, trump will have triumphed with the electorate’s full knowledge that he has been criminally charged with 88 felonies and convicted of 34 of them (so far); that he has promised to “appoint a real special prosecutor to go after the most corrupt president in the history of the United States of America, Joe Biden, and the entire Biden crime family”; that he intends to “totally obliterate the deep state” by gutting civil service protections for the 50,000 most important jobs in the federal work force, a central tenet of what he calls his “retribution” agenda….’ (Thomas Edsall in The New York Times)

‘America’s leaders — from both parties — have long been guided by what’s often called the neoliberal consensus: the idea that “barrier-free international markets, rapidly advancing communications technology and automation, decreased regulation and empowered citizen-consumers would be the keys to prosperity, happiness and strong democracy,” as Mr. Murphy put it. More simply, it’s a shared assumption that what’s good for markets is good for society.

This assumption shapes our politics so deeply that it’s almost invisible. But the idea that modern life is a story of constant economic and technological progress steadily making the world a better place has stopped lining up with how Americans feel. You can look at statistics about suicide, depression, overdoses and declining life expectancy. You can point to the fact that roughly 70 percent of wild animals on Earth have disappeared since 1970 or examine the astonishingly pervasive sense of loneliness that now seems to color so many American lives. But no statistics really capture the feeling, shared by growing numbers of Americans, that the world is just getting worse….’ (James Pogue in The New York Times)

‘A week after falsely claiming Kamala Harris’ campaign used AI to inflate crowd sizes, trump is now posting AI-generated photos of Taylor Swift fans endorsing him….’ (WIRED)

‘The US Defense Department’s grand strategy for protecting Taiwan from a massive Chinese military offensive involves flooding the zone with thousands of drones….’ (WIRED)

‘Rounding up migrants. Lists of “friendly” sheriffs. Debating political assassinations. Internal messages reveal AP3’s journey from Jan. 6 through the tumultuous lead-up to the 2024 election. One member predicts: “It’ll be decided at the ammo box.”…

…A portrait emerges of a group alternating between focused action and self-destructive chaos and facing a schism over whether political engagement can still address our nation’s problems — or whether violence is the only option. It can be hard to discern the line between bluster and imminent threat in the messages, a perennial struggle for FBI agents who monitor paramilitary groups. But some senior AP3 members grew so alarmed that they quit, scared by the number of people, even high-level leaders, advocating acts of terror…’ (ProPublica)

‘President donald trump has hurled numerous insults at Democrats, the news media and even those in his own party.

But the president has also been on the receiving end, including from people who work in his administration.

“Fear: trump in the White House,” by Bob Woodward, is the latest book to detail chaos in the president’s immediate orbit. Excerpts were published Tuesday and immediately brought to mind several disparaging comments that trump’s staff is reported to have made about the commander in chief…’ (POLITICO)

Roughly a third of all Americans experience an anxiety disorder at some point in their lives. These ailments include general anxiety disorder, severe phobias, panic disorder, social anxiety disorder, and post-traumatic stress disorder. They’re often treated with mental health therapy or medications.

For instance, benzodiazepines are a class of anti-anxiety drugs that are generally effective and well-tolerated; however, they come with problematic drawbacks. They can be addictive, interact dangerously with certain other drugs, and often trigger wide-ranging side effects such as drowsiness, confusion, headache, nausea, and tremors.

These drugs work by enhancing the activity of receptors that respond to an inhibitory neurotransmitter called gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA). GABA reduces the excitability of neurons throughout the nervous system, essentially slowing down most bodily processes. This global deceleration also triggers the benzodiazepines’ calming effect. Familiar brand names of the drug include Valium, Xanax, Ativan, and Klonopin.

The NINDS team wondered if there was a better, more precise way to treat anxiety — one that wouldn’t trigger body-wide side effects. So, they stressed out mice until the animals developed clear signs of chronic anxiety when compared to their healthy, unstressed companions. For example, they were less willing to explore new areas, engaged in more repetitive behaviors, and avoided social interactions.

It was almost as if the researchers found an off-switch for anxiety in the mouse brain.

The researchers then searched for differences between the brains of anxious and unstressed mice. They noticed that levels of two neurotransmitter proteins, Neuroligin2 and GABA, were markedly decreased in the anxious mice. Already aware of GABA’s ability to lessen anxiety, they focused on Neuroligin2. With further probing, the researchers determined that chronic stress enhances the activity of a protein called Src kinase, triggering a cascade of effects called a signaling pathway that results in less circulating Neuroligin2. They wondered, Would suppressing Src kinase’s activity help alleviate the rodents’ anxiety?

To find out, Pandey, Lu, and their colleagues injected the anxious mice with an Src-inhibiting therapeutic called PP2 once daily for seven days. The effects were astounding. With less Src activity, its corresponding signaling pathway slowed to a standstill, resulting in higher Neuroligin2. Outwardly, the animals’ anxious behaviors disappeared. Moreover, there were no noticeable adverse effects. It was almost as if the researchers found an off-switch for anxiety in the mouse brain….’ (Big Think)

‘A fisher in Cambodia has caught what scientists say is the world’s largest recorded freshwater fish, a giant stingray.

Captured on June 13, the stingray measured almost four metres (13 feet) from snout to tail and weighed slightly less than 300kg (660lbs), according to a statement on Monday by Wonders of the Mekong, a joint Cambodian-US research project….’ (Al Jazeera)

‘The “Last Week Tonight” host said donald trump’s running mate “continues to underwhelm” before tossing to a clip of what he described as the “worst possible answer” to a “pretty easy question.”

“You have been criticized as being a little too serious, a little angry sometimes. What makes you smile? What makes you happy?” asked Fox 2 Detroit’s Charlie Langton on Wednesday.

“Well, I smile at a lot of things including bogus questions from the media, man,” replied Vance as he proceeded to laugh.

He continued, “I mean, look, I think if you watch, if you watch a full speech that I give, I actually, I’m having a good time out here and I’m enjoying this. But, look, sometimes you got to take the good with the bad. And right now, I am angry about what Kamala Harris has done to this country and done to the American southern border.”

Oliver had a question of his own for Vance after seeing the clip.
“Is he alright?” Oliver asked….’ (HuffPost Entertainment)

‘In just 4 minutes, you can see all the majesty of Everest…’ (The Manual)

From Everest Base Camp (17598′) to the summit (29032′). Making the unimaginable imaginable apparently with an off-the-shelf DJI Mavic 3 Pro drone.

‘The office of JD Vance, Donald Trump’s pick for Vice President, has declined to deny that an old photo shows Vance in women’s clothing….’ (Queerty)

More on JD Vance:

Trump’s Millennial VP Pick Left a Facebook Pic Up of Himself Passed Out Drunk in College (Futurism.com) 

‘Stephen Hawking famously said sending messages from Earth into deep space could get human civilization destroyed: “If aliens ever visit us, I think the outcome would be much as when Christopher Columbus first landed in America, which didn’t turn out very well for the Native Americans.”

Hawking’s words have often been used to discourage the practice of METI, which is Messaging Extraterrestrial Intelligence. But how many “malicious” alien civilizations are there? And what are the chances any message we sent into our own galaxy would be received by an evil alien civilization? There is precious little research on this topic, and very few scientists have even posited a guess.

A new thought experiment attempts to at least venture a guess in hopes that other scientists will begin to take METI more seriously, and will try to determine how dangerous it actually is to try to contact alien civilizations.

According to this paper, which the author admits has “some limitations,” there are roughly four “malicious extraterrestrial civilizations” in the Milky Way, and we could likely send out 18,000 interstellar messages to different exoplanets in our galaxy and the probability of ensuring our own destruction would still be about the same as Earth being hit by a “global catastrophe asteroid.”…’ (VICE)

‘A list of ideas, in no particular order and from different fields, that help explain how the world works…’

(Morgan Housel)

Makes You Think

‘A few lines I came across recently that got me thinking…’

(Morgan Housel)

Morgan Housel is a partner at Collaborative Fund (“Our mission is to identify and support companies that live at the intersection of for-profit & for-good.”) and author of the book The Psychology of Money.

‘With trump venting that Kamala Harris’s success shows he’s being cheated, a prominent Never Trumper explains why we need to start thinking now about another coup attempt….’ (The N)ew Republic)

‘If there’s been one dominant message in 21st-century American artistic culture, it’s that you have permission — permission to consume nothing but superhero movies, Barbie, pop music by a recent Disney Channel star; permission to never eat your cultural vegetables; permission to never expand your cultural palate or stretch your attention span.

This permission may seem freeing. But when paired with ruthless, profit-maximizing market forces, it’s contributed to the death of grown-up entertainment….’ (Freddie deBoer, New York Times)

‘Two theoretical physicists specializing in complex systems conclude that global deforestation due to human activities is on track to trigger the “irreversible collapse” of human civilization within the next two to four decades. 
If we continue destroying and degrading the world’s forests, Earth will no longer be able to sustain a large human population, according to a peer-reviewed paper published this May in Nature Scientific Reports. They say that if the rate of deforestation continues, “all the forests would disappear approximately in 100–200 years.”…’ (VICE)

‘“We perceive the world as a memory,” the authors of a recent paper wrote. “In other words, technically, we are not consciously perceiving anything directly.”…’ (VICE)

Can’t hide it, bud, no matter how ridiculously vain you are.

‘Once President Joe Biden stepped out of the 2024 presidential race, former President Donald Trump became the oldest presidential nominee in the history of the United States. With a title like that, one might think that Trump believes age is just a number. In reality, though, the second-time presidential hopeful has often poked fun at Biden for his age over the years; even though the President is only three years Trump’s senior. It doesn’t take a hair and makeup expert to know that between his signature combover and unwavering penchant for bronzer, Trump often tries to make himself look younger than he is. Unfortunately, a recent photo of the former president at a campaign rally proves that you can’t hide your age with wispy hair alone.

On August 3, at the Georgia State University Convocation Center in Atlanta, Georgia, Trump hit the rally stage to pump up the audience about his 2024 campaign. Yet, his infamously strange hairstyle wasn’t looking its best. A photo from the event revealed his typically concealed receding hairline as well as his bright white roots. Trump’s 70s have surely been his worst hair decade, so we can’t say we’re surprised to see the signs of aging that are hiding beneath his sparse locks and makeup….’ (The List)

‘Former President trump has been in a foul mood the past few weeks and has repeatedly called Vice President Harris a “bitch” in private, the N.Y. Times’ Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan report.

Why it matters: Axios has written extensively about this as the girls vs. boys election, with Democrats crushing the women’s vote. trump advisers privately concede his misogynistic language is deeply problematic, and something they worry he will unload in a public debate to his detriment….’ (Axios)

‘Across the Northern Hemisphere, August will see beautiful displays of meteors. Here’s everything you need to know to enjoy them….’ (WIRED)

‘The deeper you go, the less sense it makes….

donald trump’s “late, great Hannibal Lecter” routine may be his most breathtaking incoherent rant. Yes, he has claimed that magnets don’t work underwater, and musing about whether he’d rather die by shark or electrocution is a regular part of his stump speech. But trump’s tirade about the fictional serial killer stands apart for several reasons. First, it is exceptionally weird. Second, it is profoundly wrong on multiple levels. And third, trump thinks it’s so smart and funny that he will not stop repeating it.

 

Critics say the 1991 film The Silence of the Lambs “teeters on the edge between psychological study and all-out horror.” The same is true of the presidential tirade it inspired. On a basic level, we know the awful truth about what trump is doing: He’s demonizing migrants. But since the Republican National Convention, people have been dropping wild theories about why trump is going about that nefarious goal by heaping praise on a make-believe cannibal…

‘ (New York)