Here's a much more detailed article on the conference. The UN news article notes that it passed with

a small group of just seven countries holding out, having failed to pass a last-minute amendment.

Apparently, Russia proposed a last-minute amendment that "[the UN] system shall not intervene in matters which are essentially within the domestic jurisdiction of any State". Agreeing with Russia were Iran, Belarus, North Korea, Nicaragua, Sudan and Syria. Apparently an additional fifteen countries abstained, but I couldn't find a list of them.

A few years ago, near where my family lived in New Jersey, there was a small newspaper article mentioning that construction on a set of mid-rise condominiums on the Delaware River was being notably delayed, with the vague implication that there was some trouble with financing or construction or something. [To be fair, both of these were true, but for very not-obvious reasons.] But then you start tracing back through the history of the site:

They had selected the site for the condos because it had been the site of a large flea market from the late 1970s to early 2000s, so all they'd have to do was dig up the parking lots, lay in utilities, and compact the soil to be ready to build. The flea market was there because it was the site of a massive drive-in movie theatre built in the early 1950s, so all they had had to do was put up some cheap buildings that were eventually condemned and torn down. The drive-in movie theatre was there because the land had already been cleared and flattened by the US government, so it was cheap to put in a parking lot and big screen.

Why had the government so kindly cleared and flattened the ground? Well, the site was right next to a small bridge across the Delaware; on the other side of the bridge was Frankford Arsenal, where they produced munitions during both World Wars. And they had to test the munitions, so they'd drive over the bridge and test them at this site in New Jersey. And it turns out that sometimes they were either high or lazy or careless or something, because sometimes they didn't bother driving across the bridge, they'd just shell New Jersey from across the river instead.

The shelling led to a bunch of unexploded ordinance being in extremely unexpected places, until it started showing up eighty years later, when the condo people actually started digging up the ground to lay in their utilities. Of course, the condo association was quietly and casually referencing vague construction delays, because if people knew it was a munitions testing site and they'd recently found a bunch of UXO, no one would buy the condos.

[Also, while trying to look up details for this comment, I discovered three other cases of UXO in New Jersey in the past couple years. This is all very weird to me.]

*Trump Senior had learned to pull out.

Congratulations, Jim! You were always so much better than you were given credit for.

Good for them!

The judge's comments on the ruling are both savage and incredibly on point.

It could also mean that they started young, perhaps babysitting, dog-walking, or delivering papers. It also could mean that they've worked multiple jobs at the same time: in college, I worked two full-time and one part-time job in addition to classes, which ramped up my job numbers noticably.

GenX tv addict here. I grew up in a time when, if you wanted to watch a show, you need to make an effort to be in front of the tv when it aired. If you missed seeing it, you had to hope that if was repeated over the summer (only about 2/3's the episodes of a continuing series would be repeated, and if a show was cancelled, that was it). If you missed it on summer repeats, you'd have to hold the show went into syndication, was carried locally at a time you were able to watch it, and then stalk the series because syndication packages were notoriously shown out of order (which is why almost all the episodes ended up with the characters being in the same base situation as they started out in).

It was the same thing if there was an episode or series you loved and wanted to watch again.

VCRs were an absolute game changer. You didn't have to revolve your life around a tv schedule- you could go out, to go events, go shopping, have a late dinner. You could pause tv to go to the bathroom, you could watch and re-watch episodes that you enjoyed, or verify something you thought had happened earlier instead of relying on collective memory. If you missed taping something, you might still have to wait for re-runs - but there was also the chance that someone else had taped it and could loan you the tape.

Having learned the lessons of broadcast tv, I taped everything I watched, and I kept the tapes of the stuff I liked, or that had actors I liked. I could sit down today and watch all the episodes of David Soul in Casablanca or Billy Campbell in Moon Over Miami, or short-lived shows like Space Rangers or South of Sunset.

I still record and save things locally. The myth of having immediate access to everything ever produced was always just a myth.

So they were offered a 50% hike, so what? When was the last time they got a meaningful pay increase? And if it's not the money, it's got to be something else: remember when the rail workers were on strike and the bosses made big noise about the pay increases they were offering, only it turned out that the workers were constantly expected to work double shifts on no notice, with no real option to refuse, and they had no time off for months on end? Fuck that shit, pay the workers what they're worth. If I can't buy a brand new car or some bananas, so what?

It'd be really helpful if I read Sumerian right now, figure out which rooms were which.

vehicles in the two-block section sometimes drive in the middle of Springbrook to avoid the bollards.

How about you get rid of your giant fuckass titan-sized SUV for a more reasonable car, and then you won't have to worry about being too fat-assed to fit?

FTA: There is risk of a crush when crowd density exceeds about five people per square meter.[a] For a person in a crowd a signal of danger, and a warning to get out of the crowd if possible, is the sensation of being touched on all four sides. A later, more serious, warning is when one feels shock waves travelling through the crowd, due to people at the back pushing forward against people at the front with nowhere to go.

... am I the only one who didn't have problems with the headline?

I don't want her to be NYC mayor, either. I want her to be President!

.... Actual new voters, or voters who are re-registering because they were dumped off the voter rolls by Republican fuckery?

It was Katrina that made me even think of doing it.

Yeah, I'm not in a flood zone, but seeing things like this is why I mounted a hatchet on my attic wall. It's pretty certain I'll never need it, but I can live a little lighter with the delusion that I'll be able to hack my way onto the rooftop instead of dying, unfound, in a sweltering attic.

Mt. Airy is Andy Griffith's home town, and was the inspiration for Mayberry.

I've given money to both charities and people. Here's the thing about donating, though: you'll get on all sorts of mailing lists and shit, and you'll get lots more begging letters, emails, phone calls and texts. You know those PBS/NPR donation drives, where they're like "We just need ten more donors this hour, it doesn't matter how much!" or those charities that send you pre-printed labels and say "Hey, just send us five bucks, that's all we need"? Yeah, they're harvesting your information. If you even send them a penny, they'll be back for more, and they'll sell or trade your information to other charities.

I give money to our local volunteer fire/ems department every year, but I don't use their pre-printed mailer; I hand them cash when Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny come through on their trucks. I have one of those pre-paid Visa gift cards that aren't tied to an actual person; if I do an online donation, I'll use that and give them fake information. The money is legit, the information is good enough to pass, but they can't come harass me for more.

This includes all donations, by the way - political, religious, civic, charity, social, whatever. Do it in cash or by an anonymous Visa gift card.