Tunguska on Cape Cod

My younger brother, Daniel, reported hearing the explosion of a meteor exploding over Cape Cod at his home in Wellesley.

That's a bit of excitement.

About That Lasagna

This is a sweet dessert historical dessert lasagna using a sweet spice mix (powder deuce) and walnuts made with fresh egg-free pasta which uses grape must as a leavening.

Pasted from MS Word, so there may be issues in the formatting.

It was rather well received: 

Lenten Sweet Lasanas (Lasagna)

I am using leavened pasta.  See Liber de Coquina ubi diuersitates ciborum docentur, (A Book About Cooking):[1]

I — 10. De lasanis : ad lasanas, accipe pastam fermentatam et fac tortellum ita tenuem sicut poteris. Deinde, diuide eum per partes quadratas ad quantitatem trium digitorum. Postea, habeas aquam bullientem salsatam, et pone ibi ad coquendum predictas lasanas. Et quando erunt fortiter decocte, accipe caseum grattatum.

Et si uolueris, potes simul ponere bonas species puluerizatas, et pulueriza cum istis super cissorium. Postea, fac desuper unum lectum de lasanis et iterum pulueriza; et desuper, alium lectum, et pulueriza : et sic fac usque cissorium uel scutella sit plena. Postea, comede cum uno punctorio ligneo accipiendo.

This translates[2] to: (emphasis mine)

I — 10. Take leavened dough and make a sheet as thin as possible. Then, cut it into squares the size of three fingers. Then, cook the said lasanae in boiling salted water. When they are well cooked, take some grated cheese.

If you want, add good, ground spices and dust them on a cutting board. Then, place a layer of lasanae and dust again; and then, another layer, and dust; and continue in this way until the table or plate is full. Then, eat them with a wooden stick.

I will to use leavened pasta for a Lenten recipe to account for the lack of eggs.  It's presence is for dough flavor and conditioning, and not for actual leavening.

The basis for my recipe is from Anonimo Veneziano’s Libro di cucina/Libro per cuoco.[3]  It is a recipe for Lent, and is a sweet dish, suitable for dessert.

Se tu voy fare lansagne de quaressima, toy le lasagne e mitile a coxere, e toli noxe monde e ben pesta e maxenate, e miti entro le lasagne, e guardale dal fumo; e quando vano a tavola, menestra e polverizage de le specie, del zucharo.

Translation was by Helewyse de Birkestad,[4] OL  (MKA Louise Smithson):

If you want to make lasagne in lent, take the lasagne (wide pasta noodles) and put them to cook (in water and salt).  Take peeled walnuts and beat and grind them well.  Put them between the lasagna (in layers), and guard from smoke (while reheating).  And when they go to the table dress them with a dusting of spices and with sugar.

Normally for fresh pasta, I would use eggs, but during lent at this period as the consumption of meat, fowl, eggs, and milk products were forbidden, hence the walnuts, sugar, and olive oil.

In addition to the ground walnuts in between the layers, I am adding chopped, "Wet," walnuts and sugar syrup to the top of the lasagna.

I am using powder douce (see Appendix A) as the spice mix.  It is mentioned in the recipe for Loseyns in The Forme of Cury. Then I am baking in a pan to allow the flavors to meld and for the syrup to infuse the dish.

Ingredients:

Quantity
2 cup	Flour, general purpose or 00 flour
2 cup	Flour, Semolina
2 cup	Fermenting grape juice, room temperature
	Additional flour, Semolina
	Olive oil
2 cup	Active (fermenting) grape juice or sourdough.  (I am using juice, see Appendix B)
1 cup	Ground walnuts
	Powder Douce (See Appendix A)
1 tsp	Salt (optional)
	Granulated or powdered sugar, can be white, brown, etc.
1½-2 cups	Chopped walnuts

Preparation of the pasta:

1. Mix the 2 cups of both flours thoroughly in a large bowl along with 1 tsp salt.
2. Make a mountain out of flour mixture and create a deep well in the center, then add 1½  cups of the grape juice and 1 Tbsp of olive oil into the well and whisk the juice and oil gently with a fork, gradually incorporating flour. When mixture becomes too thick to mix with a fork, begin kneading with your hands until the dough comes together.  Add additional water or juice as needed.
3. Knead dough until it is smooth and supple, 8 to 12 minutes. Form into a smooth ball, and  place in bowl covered in a damp cloth let sit in a bowl covered with a damp towel for 2 hours.  Knead the dough again to remove as much of the leavening as possible.  Allow it to rest at room temperature for at least 30 (1-2 hours is better) minutes or in the refrigerator over night. (preferred)
4. Roll out to desired thickness (I do about 1/16 of an inch) and cut into 2 inch (3 finger) wide strips.  You can dock the dough with a fork.
5. Bring a large pot of water to a rolling boil and add sufficient salt so that it tastes like the ocean, then add the noodles, cooking until tender yet firm to the bite.  This will probably be 5-7 minutes.
6. Remove from water store so that they do not stick together. (Hanger, parchment paper, etc.)

Preparation of the lasagna:

1. Mix ground walnuts and Powder Douce to taste, add water to make a paste similar to peanut butter.
2. Oil a baking pan. (I will also be lining the pan with parchment paper)
3. Put a layer of noodles into the pan, and then spread a thin (About the thickness of peanut butter on a peanut butter sandwich) layer of the walnut spice mixture.  Finish with a layer of noodles on top.
4. Add a dusting of the Powder Douce the top layer of noodles.
5. Spread wet walnut glaze evenly over the top of the lasagna.
6. Cook at 350-400°F (175-205°C) for ½ hour covered, and then uncover and cook for an additional 10 minutes. After the lasagna has cooled, cut into squares and skewer with toothpicks.

Preparation of wet walnuts:

1. Take 2 cups sugar of your choice and 1 cup water, and bring to a simmer, stirring frequently, until the sugar is completely dissolved.
2. Add the chopped walnuts and boil for at least 10 minutes stirring regularly. 

Appendix A.                 Spice Mixes

I could not find any detailed documentation for these spice mixes.

This is unsurprising.  This mix would be generally known by cooks, and so in a recipe, it would just be called out as if it were a single ingredient.

It is likely that it may have varied from cook to cook as well.

Powder Fort

I am using the following spice recipe from Dishably.[5]

The spice is strong (hence fort) and peppery mix.

Ingredients:

Quantity
¼ C	Powdered Ginger (or use fresh grated ginger at a 4:1 fresh:ground ratio)
¼ C	Long Pepper, Ground
¼ C	Cinnamon (Ceylon preferred),Ground
1½ tsp	Cloves, ground
¼ C	Black pepper, ground
1 tsp	Cubeb
1 tsp	Grains of paradise

 

Powder Douce

Powder Douce (Sweet in Latin) is a milder and sweeter mix, and much like Powder Fort, documentation of the spice is sparse.

I am using the spice recipe from Edouard Halidai (MKA Daniel Myers) Medieval Cookery:[6]

Quantity
3 Tbsp	Powdered Ginger (or use fresh grated ginger at a 4:1 fresh:ground ratio)
4 (2) Tbsp	Sugar (Whatever type you favor, I am using dark brown sugar)
1½ Tbsp	Cinnamon (Ceylon preferred, adjust for different cinnamon varieties),Ground
¼ (1) tsp	Cloves, ground
1 tsp	Nutmeg, ground

 

The numbers in parenthesis are the original recipe.

When I tried out the spice mix, I found that the clove was overpowering, and it needed to be sweeter.

Appendix B.                  Grape Pomace, Must, Juice, and Lees

For my recipes, I am calling crushed grapes, "Must," calling the cloudy fluid pressed from crushed grapes, "Juice," and, pulp and skins remaining after pressing "Pomace."

Organic grapes have active wild yeast on their skins, and so can be used as leavening, like sourdough. 

For modern grapes, particularly non-organic table grapes, it is likely that fermentation would not start on its own, as the yeast has been removed through washing and chemicals.

As such, after crushing, I added a small quantity of yeast (I had an already open packet in the refrigerator) to the crushed grapes, which was set out at room temperature until activity was observed.

In addition to creating yeast flavors, fermentation of the must extracts tannins and color from the grape skins.

For the purpose of any of the included recipes, you can stop here.

From this point forward, I will be discussing the ambiguity of the terms, "Must," and, "Pomace."

These terms are used in a number of different ways depending on region, type of wine, etc.

Grapes are harvested and then crushed, bursting the grapes and creating a mash, which contains juice, pulp, stems, and seeds.  (This is usually called must)

For white wines, this is often (but not always) pressed almost immediately, extracting what is often called grape juice, but sometimes called must, which is distinct from the grape juice that you find in the store, which is filtered.

Neither the white wine grape juice nor the pulp remaining (pomace) have experienced significant fermentation at this step.

In red wines, initial fermentation is allowed to occur in the crushed, which extracts color from the skins of the grapes, giving red wine its color.

After 5-7 days,the juice which is pressed out (typically at about 3-5% ABV) is called either must or juice.  The remains of the pulp and skins are called pomace.

Both the must and the pomace contain active yeast cultures as well.

When must is used as a leavening agent, it can refer to either the fermenting juice or must.  The latter use seems to be primarily (at least in Roman cookery) used for making millet cakes that were intended to be used as a shelf stable leavening agent.[7]

Lees are the sediment that accumulates at the bottom of a brewing vessel after they have done their job, and it is sometimes also used to make brandy.

There are some wines that are allowed to age before racking to allow the lees to create different flavor profiles.

---

[1] https://www.uni-giessen.de/de/fbz/fb05/germanistik/absprache/sprachverwendung/gloning/tx/mul2-lib.htm?set_language=en

[2] https://historicalitaliancooking.home.blog/english/recipes/medieval-lasagna-with-walnuts-a-lenten-recipe/

[3] https://www.uni-giessen.de/de/fbz/fb05/germanistik/absprache/sprachverwendung/gloning/tx/frati.htm

[4] https://www.medievalcookery.com/helewyse/libro.html

[5] https://delishably.com/grains/Lasagna-The-Easy-Recipe

[6] https://medievalcookery.com/recipes/douce.html

[7] https://tavolamediterranea.com/2017/09/01/baking-bread-romans-part-pliny-elders-leaven-starter-pasta-madre-levain/

 

Bad Day at the Office

Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin rocket just blew up on the launch pad during a static test firing:

In addition to be a spectacular conflagration,it's a major setback for the program:

An explosion on Florida's Space Coast last night lit up the sky more than 100 miles away.

During a test of Blue Origin's New Glenn rocket in the evening hours on May 28, ahead of an upcoming mission to deliver a batch of Amazon Leo internet satellites to low Earth orbit, the launch vehicle experienced an anomaly that led to its complete loss and what is likely significant damage to the Launch Complex-36 (LC-36), at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.

 

The Apotheosis of a Libertarian Community is an Out of Control HOA

Case in point, a massive survivalist bunker complex currently embroiled in litigation.

It sounds a lot like every Home Owner Association horror story that you have ever heard.

Row upon row of concrete bunkers with steel blast doors peek up from the rolling grasslands—like hobbit holes for the apocalypse.

There are 575 of them, clustered on a former munitions depot near South Dakota’s Black Hills and billed as “The Largest Survival Community on Earth.” The pitch: Ride out nuclear war, the next pandemic or societal collapse in relative comfort.

Yet for many residents, the dream has soured. The threat hasn’t come from Armageddon, but from friction that resembles a suburban homeowners’ association battle.

Lawsuits, countersuits and disputes are piling up over septic systems, property taxes, off-leash dogs and a growing list of community rules. The legal skirmishing has reached the state supreme court—twice. Promised amenities, including a restaurant bunker, a pool bunker and a horse-stable bunker, have yet to materialize. Guns have been drawn, and there have been offers to settle things with fists. The developer denies wrongdoing and says complaints come from a few malcontents.

………

The doomsday enclave, known as Vivos xPoint, is the brainchild of Robert Vicino, a Los Angeles-based entrepreneur who had a vision in 1980: He needed to build a large underground structure to protect 1,000 people from a coming “life-extinction event,” according to the company’s website. He since has developed a global network of such communities.

In 2016, Vicino began working with local ranchers to convert the long-abandoned South Dakota property—far from “known nuclear targets” and “high-crime anarchy zones” (read: cities)—into a compound for “like-minded survivalists to ride out ‘the event,’” as Vivos puts it. Vicino later bought the property outright, according to his son, Dante, Vivos xPoint’s director of operations.

No bear problem this time, at least not yet.

No Posting Tonight

 Working on a medieval Lenten lasagna recipe using leavened noodles.

Replacing Low Value Human Capital

Bill Winters, CEO of Standard Chartered Bank, used that phrase to describe the 8,000 people that he plans to replace with AI.

After his odious utterance, he tried to walk it back.

Hopefully, he won't be able to do so, and he will spend the rest of his life living in fear and paying for bodyguards.

AI has emboldened CEOs to make all kinds of smug declarations that betray their contempt for lowly human laborers.

But Bill Winters, the CEO of the British multinational bank Standard Chartered, said something so viscerally off-putting that he’s now gone into full damage control mode to get the heat off his back.

On Wednesday, he wrote an internal memo to employees attempting to explain away his remark that he would be firing thousands of workers and replacing the company’s “lower-value human capital” with AI.

Yes, you heard that right: “lower-value human capital.” And it clearly didn’t go over well.

“Many of you will have seen media coverage following the investor event in Hong Kong, particularly the reporting around automation, AI, and workforce changes,” Winters said in the memo, per The Wall Street Journal. “I know this may be unsettling when reduced to simple headlines or a quote out of context.”

No, it's not a matter of context.  You told your truth and revealed yourself to be a psychopath.

How About We Put Your Face on Toilet Paper?

Donald Trump wants to print a $250.00 bill with his face on it.

I can't even. 

It's Thursday ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Unemployment

Inmflation>So, both initial and continuing unemployment claims rose last week, though only by a bit.

More significantly, inflation continues to spike, and consumer spending and GDP for the last quarter was adjusted down which means that Trump's new pet Fed Chairman is likely not going to convince the rest of the FOMC to cut rates.

US inflation increased at its fastest pace in three years in April, driven by higher energy prices amid the war with Iran, and cementing economists’ views that the Federal Reserve could hold interest rates unchanged well into next year.

Surging price pressures are eroding household income and could restrain consumer spending and economic growth this quarter. Income at the disposal of households after adjusting for inflation dropped for a third straight month in April, other data showed on Thursday. Given the soaring cost of living, Americans are growing frustrated with Donald Trump’s handling of the economy. A Reuters/Ipsos survey last week showed the president’s approval rating fell to nearly its lowest level since he returned to the White House, hit by a drop in support among Republicans. Trump won the 2024 presidential election in large part because of his promise to lower inflation.

The government on Thursday also revised down the growth pace in consumer spending in the first quarter to 1.4% from the previously reported 1.6% annualized rate. Overall gross domestic product (GDP) growth was slashed to a 1.6% rate from the 2.0% pace estimated last month.

So it's beginning to look like Stagflation, and elections are 5¼ months away.

Skeet of the Day

Paxton's win proves the MAGA base will follow Trump to hell. I look forward to making them go there.

[image or embed]

— Lindsay Beyerstein (@beyerstein.bsky.social) May 27, 2026 at 10:18 PM

I believe that this is a just, possibly noble, sentiment.

As my people are wont to say, the MAGAts should, "גיי אין גיהנום מיטן קאָפּ ערשט און באַק בייגל." (Go to hell head first and bake bagels.)

Remember When the Florida Bar Said That It Could Not Discipline a Sitting Attorney General?

Well, Pam Bondi is no longer AG, and more than 120 lawyers have resubmitted the ethics complaint to the Bar.

I figure that said Bar will find a way to do nothing. 

Since President Donald Trump fired U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi in April, a coalition of law professors, former judges and attorneys has urged the Florida Bar once again to open an investigation into allegations of professional misconduct against Bondi while the state-licensed lawyer headed the Department of Justice.

The liberal- and moderate-leaning group of more than 120 attorneys, led by former Florida Supreme Court Chief Justice Peggy Quince, filed a complaint against Bondi with the state bar on Wednesday. They allege she violated several ethics rules while she zealously pursued Trump’s agenda targeting immigrants and his political enemies. The complaint also accuses her of misleading the public about the Justice Department’s files on convicted sex-offender Jeffrey Epstein and mishandling the release of those documents.

………

Last June, the Florida Bar rejected the coalition’s initial request to open an investigation into Bondi, citing a jurisdictional issue that it “does not investigate or prosecute sitting officers appointed under the U.S. Constitution while they are in office.” But Bondi, a Florida native who previously served as a state prosecutor in Tampa and attorney general under Gov. Rick Scott, is no longer a Justice Department employee, which should compel the Florida Bar to open the investigation, the coalition said in its 25-page complaint.

“Now that Ms. Bondi is no longer Attorney General, it is imperative that The Florida Bar open an investigation of her apparent misconduct in that office,” the complaint says. “Ms. Bondi’s misdeeds were not minor — they resulted in prejudice to the legal rights of those contending with the Department of Justice and injury to the public’s perception of the fairness of the legal system.”

………

One month before Bondi’s firing, the Justice Department proposed a new regulation that would allow the agency to review a complaint of professional and ethics misconduct against a former employee before any state bar investigation.

………

The complaint says Bondi caused the exodus of hundreds of federal prosecutors who were fired or resigned. They included some Miami-based prosecutors who were associated with the special counsel’s prosecution of Trump for his alleged withholding of classified documents and his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, rioters’ assault on the Capitol. The complaint also says the Justice Department under her watch violated federal court orders in dozens of immigration and related protest cases, and it pursued prosecutions of Trump’s political adversaries and others without sufficient probable cause that they committed crimes.

………

“Ms. Bondi took her practice of prosecuting without probable cause to a new level after September 20, 2025, when President Trump upbraided her, in a message that he posted on social media, for not moving quicker to pursue his enemies,” the complaint says. “Bondi promptly launched criminal prosecutions or investigations of the named individuals and others. These prosecutions all share a second characteristic: a lack of probable cause.”

A major portion of the coalition’s complaint zeroes in on Bondi’s handling of the so-called Epstein files, the Justice Department’s sex-trafficking investigation that has caused a political furor among Trump’s right-wing base. Epstein was convicted of soliciting minor girls in a state plea deal in West Palm Beach in 2008, but federal prosecutors filed a sex-trafficking indictment against him in 2019, which ended with his suicide in a lock-up that year.

While the complaint is not a bad thing, it really should be a prelude to her being arrested, tried, convicted, and jailed.

Signed Into Law

The Hawaii bill which would strip corporations of the power to make corporate donations is now law.

I do expect that the Supreme Court will overrule this, probably in a shadow docket decision, before the ink on the Governor's signature is dry, but it is a good thing. 

On Thursday, Gov. Josh Green formally enacted Senate Bill 2471, now Act 11, which establishes new restrictions on political spending by corporations and other “artificial persons” established under Hawaii law.

The measure has received widespread national attention as the first major state-level challenge to the unchecked spending by Super PACs ushered in by the U.S. Supreme Court’s controversial 2010 Citizens United v. FEC decision, which established corporate spending on political advertisements as protected free speech.

“The foundation of our democracy is that political power belongs to the people,” said state Sen. Jarrett Keohokalole, who co-introduced the measure. “Corporations and other artificial entities exist because the state grants them legal privileges, including limited liability and lucrative tax benefits that individuals cannot claim. Act 011 clarifies that those privileges do not include the power to spend corporate money to influence our elections.”

The new law will almost certainly be challenged in court as a direct violation of the Supreme Court ruling but supporters contend it will withstand judicial scrutiny because its scope is limited to the terms set forth by the Hawaii State Constitution regarding the powers granted by the state to the entities it creates and their limitations.

In essence, Act 011 clarifies that artificial entities created under state law possess only those powers necessary or convenient to carry out their lawful business or organizational purposes. The law specifies that those powers do not include spending money or contributing anything of value to influence elections or ballot measures.

Act 011 applies to a range of entities organized or authorized to do business under Hawaii law, including corporations, nonprofit corporations, limited liability companies, limited partnerships, limited liability partnerships, and certain associations. It also authorizes the attorney general and the director of Commerce and Consumer Affairs to impose penalties or bring enforcement actions for violations.

Hopefully, this scares the hell out of the Snollygoster Six on the Supreme Court.

More is coming. 

I Like This

Did you know that you could sue any recipient of money from Donald Trump's slush fund?

By you, I mean any American citizen, and possibly domestically domiciled corporate entities as well.

You see, everyone has standing to sue under the False Claims Act, AKA the Lincoln Law:

The Justice Department’s $1.776 billion “anti-weaponization” fund, which would pay out public money in compensation for alleged overreach in federal prosecutions, including for the insurrectionists who stormed the Capitol on January 6, 2021, has been accurately described as one of the most nakedly corrupt actions in American history. It would give a tacit endorsement from every American taxpayer to the notion that the Capitol Riot’s only transgression, for example, came from those who tried to punish its perpetrators for attempting to halt the outcome of an election.

News of the fund has triggered massive political backlash and at least temporarily derailed a party-line reconciliation bill funding immigration enforcement operations for the next three years. Senate Republicans didn’t want to go on the record siding with Donald Trump’s crony slush fund, and left Washington rather than being confronted with such a question in a reconciliation “vote-a-rama.” What they will take up in June is currently unknown.

There are efforts within Congress to kill the slush fund, but those will inevitably run up against Republican politics in the wake of Trump demonstrating full control of the party base in recent primaries. Congress has the power of the purse, but it delegated the authority for the Justice Department to pay out settlements unilaterally when it established something called the Judgment Fund in 1956. Any attempt to change that legislatively will almost certainly meet the president’s veto pen.

Yet there is another potential deterrent to January 6th rioters or anyone else taking money from the fund: a mechanism whereby any American can recover improper government payments deemed “false claims,” plus significant additional damages. Recipients of the slush fund, under this approach, could have to pay back three times as much money as they took out.

Sweet! 

………

But if a judge can be convinced that this fund, established with no transparency and no congressional or judicial oversight, which emerged from a lawsuit between a sitting president and his own government, and is arguably contrary to the purpose of the Judgment Fund from which it derives authority, is an unconstitutional scheme to defraud the government by its very structure, then anyone can sue to recoup the money, and then some, under the False Claims Act of 1863. 

This law could also apply to the Acting Attorney General as well as whoever sits on the committee making the grants. 

The legal principle behind this is called qui tam. 

Whatever Works

Tom Gauld

H/t Pharyngula

Never Underestimate the Power of a Little Beaver

America's largest rodent:

Would You Like Some Brain Damage With Your Stove?

A new study has shown that increased levels of wood burning have resulted in increased lead emissions.

Wood heating is reintroducing lead into the air of local communities and homes, a systematic investigation by academics has found.

Overwhelming evidence of lead’s neurotoxicity meant the metal was banned as an additive in petrol more than 25 years ago. The research by academics from the University of Massachusetts Amherst began by analysing samples of particle pollution from five suburban and rural towns in the north-east US. They looked for tiny particles of potassium that are given off when wood is burned and also particles containing lead.

Samples from seven winters revealed associations between potassium and lead. When there were more wood burning particles in a daily sample, there was more lead in the air, with clear straight-line relationships in four of the five towns.

Prof Richard Peltier, the senior author of the research, said: “For the most part, wood burning produces significant amounts of particle air pollution, and a small but measurable fraction of this is a powerful neurotoxicant.”

The association with potassium means that the issue is NOT people burning painted lumber, it is coming from the wood itself.

Do Not F%$# With Corvidae

In case you are wondering, this is not a crow taking a ride on a Bald Eagle, it is a crow going Medieval on a Bald Eagle that got too close to its nest.

………

Now comes another strange incident out of Seabeck, Washington, where California-based photographer Phoo Chan captured a sequence of photos showing a crow alight on the back of an eagle in midair.

According to a biologist who specializes in crow behavior, the bird was likely in the middle of a territorial attack when it landed briefly on the eagle's back, National Geographic reports. Even the presence of a larger bird provokes a defensive reaction. In this case, the crow got closer than smaller birds typically do and settled in for the ride. 

That is unbelievably badass. 

Elections Matter

Zorhan Mamdani has recovered more than $9 million from Amazon for violating environmental regulations.

Before this, Amazon ignored the fines for leaving their trucks idling.

Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani, New York City Department of Finance (DOF) Commissioner Richard Lee, and the New York City Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) Commissioner Lisa F. Garcia today announced that the City has successfully recovered more than $9 million from Amazon after the company’s delivery vehicles accrued fines due to idling violations.

“Amazon is worth $2 trillion. Yet, it did not deign to pay the millions of dollars it racked up in unpaid fines as its’ trucks illegally polluted our air and forced New Yorkers to breathe in their exhaust. We are going to collect every dollar they owe the people of this city,” said Mayor Mamdani. “These laws exist for a reason: cleaner air, healthier communities, and a city where corporations are held to the same standard as everyone else. Today we are making clear that no company – no matter how large or powerful – is above the law.”

“As part of the Mayor’s directive to ensure fairness, collaboration, and accountability in our agency’s service to New Yorkers, the Department of Finance is committed to collecting debts owed to the City and supporting enforcement efforts that protect New Yorkers’ quality of life,” said DOF Commissioner Richard Lee. “The successful collection effort led by DOF Deputy Commissioner Annette Hill and her team, demonstrates the effectiveness of this administration working collaboratively with companies to ensure compliance, holding entities accountable for meeting their financial obligations to the City, and assisting companies like Amazon to prevent accumulating debt.”

“I applaud Mayor Mamdani and the Department of Finance for securing more than $9 million in illegal idling fines from Amazon, which has long been among the top worst idling offenders in the city,” said DEP Commissioner Lisa F. Garcia. “Through the Citizens Air Complaint Program, New Yorkers can report idling with a video upload — helping us cut air pollution and improve quality of life.”

Earlier this year, at Mayor Mamdani’s direction, DOF’s Collections Unit launched a targeted effort to address the huge number of unpaid idling summonses connected to vehicles operating within Amazon’s delivery network. Since then, the Collections Unit has worked collaboratively with Amazon.com, Inc. and its contracted transportation vendors to recover the outstanding debt.

The enforcement effort focused on idling violations associated with vehicles operating through Amazon Logistics, which relies on a network of third-party transportation contractors. As a result of these efforts, DOF collected $6.88 million in ECB judgment violations and an additional $2.15 million in pre-judgment ECB violations.

New York City’s anti-idling laws are designed to reduce harmful air pollution, improve public health and combat climate change. Under City law, most vehicles may not idle for longer than three minutes while parked, standing, or stopped.

New Yorkers can report idling vehicles anonymously through 311, by filing a complaint online, or by participating in DEP’s Citizens Air Complaint Program. The Citizens Air Complaint Program has seen a 1,700 percent increase in submissions since it launched in 2009. So far in 2026, it has received 62,680 complaints — putting the program on track for its biggest year yet. Idling violations may also be issued directly by DEP inspectors. For more information about New York City’s idling laws and enforcement is available through NYC Department of Environmental Protection.

This may not be a big thing, but it is a significant thing.

Making rich lawbreakers pay is important. 

OK, There Are Lizard People

I expect him to eat live guinea pigs in private


Something dead there


See the TV Series "V" for Reference So, the Wall Street Journal just put out an exclusive, saying that The Philippines has aggreed to hand over a few thousand acres to the United States as a part of the US "Pax Silica" initiative.

It turs out that the WSJ is wrong.  There is no agreement, perhaps because the deal proposed is more one-sided than the notorious pre-WWII foreign concessions in China.

The deal is proposed/being negotiated by Undersecretary of State for Economic Affairs Jacob Helberg, a "Senior advisor to Alex Karp Palantir."

The details are: 

• The US will take control of 4,000 acres in the Philippines.
• A lease renewable for 99 years and a rent of $0.00
• The area will have diplomatic immunity.
• The area will operate under us "Common Law". (Whatever the f%$# that is.)

It appears that Helberg misled the authors of the story, because Philippine officials have categorically denied that anything resembling this deal has been agreed to.

This is not a surprise. 

Unlike in the US, the memories of colonialism are still very much remembered in Far East societies. (Somewhere between ¼ and 1½ million civilian deaths as a result of US actions during the Philippine Insurrection)

Philippine officials on May 18 pushed back against reports that a planned United States-backed industrial hub on the main island of Luzon would operate under American laws or grant diplomatic immunity to US personnel.

The clarification came during the visit by US Undersecretary of State for Economic Growth, Energy and the Environment Jacob Helberg to New Clark City, where he joined Philippine officials in unveiling a marker for the proposed 1,620ha Pax Silica industrial hub under the Luzon Economic Corridor initiative announced in April.

Mr Joshua Bingcang, president and chief executive of the Bases Conversion and Development Authority (BCDA), said the Philippines had rejected US proposals that would place the project beyond local jurisdiction.

“That’s their request, but we did not agree to that,” Mr Bingcang told the media when asked about a Wall Street Journal report on April 17 claiming the hub would operate under US laws and enjoy diplomatic protections.

“There will be no special arrangement accorded to the US,” he added.

Mr Bingcang said the project would instead fall under the Special Economic Zone Act, which governs investment incentives and operations in Philippine economic zones, as well as BCDA law that oversees the conversion and development of former US military bases into investment and commercial hubs.

I'm not primarily writing about this.  I'm writing about Undersecretary of State for Economic Affairs Jacob Helberg.

Look at him.  He's a f%$#ing lizard person.  There is no humanity behind those eyes.

Not This Sh%$ Again

It looks like Donald Trump is attempting to seize control of Greenland again. (archive.is link)

This time, it looks like Trump is trying to get something like the Platt Amendment, which left Cuba with sovereignty in name only for nearly 40 years.

To quote Howard Chaykin, "Damn, and a rerun too." 

 

You Mess With the Bull, You Get the Horns

2 Years ago, Hasbro/Wizards of the Coast laid off about 20% of their staff.

Now they are begging their employees not to unionize.

Wizards of the Coast, the company that makes Magic: The Gathering and Dungeons & Dragons, has a problem—no, not its cancelled video games. Its workers would like to unionise, and I'm just starting to get the sense that it really doesn't want that to happen. Just a smidge. A tiny inkling.

Late last month, WoTC employees from the Magic: The Gathering Arena team announced their intention to form a union, giving the company until May 1 to recognise it voluntarily. Neither Hasbro nor Wizards of the Coast did so.

The motion to form a union now proceeds to a vote via the National Labor Relations Board, which would allow the union to form whether Hasbro/WoTC like it or not. In order to dissuade the union from forming, Wizards of the Coast has, workers claim, resorted to daily emails and scare tactics.

They have hired union busters as well, Fisher Phillips, and are almost certainly targeting labor organizers among their employees.

As an FYI, it doesn't help that the layoffs were largely indiscriminate, hitting some of WOTC's most successful projects. 

This is F%$#ing Insane

I can understand how people looking for ways to deal with anthropogenic climate change will game out scenarios. 

It makes sense for people to simulate outlandish approaches to this problem.

Still, the suggestion that the Bering Strait be dammed is f%$#ing nuts.

First, notwithstanding their simulations, we do not know what this would actually do.

Second, this would be a decades long project, if just because of the geopolitical and diplomatic implications of such an action.

Third, this would cause the extinction of dozens, if not hundreds of species. 

Abstract

The Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) is a major tipping element in the present-day climate and could potentially collapse under sufficient freshwater or CO₂ forcing. While the effect of the Bering Strait on AMOC stability has been well studied, it is unknown whether a constructed closure of this Strait can prevent an AMOC collapse under climate change. Here, we show in an Earth system Model of Intermediate Complexity that an artificial closure of the Strait can extend the safe carbon budget of the AMOC, provided that the AMOC is strong enough at the closure time. Specifically, an equilibrium AMOC under a sufficiently low additional freshwater flux has an increased safe carbon budget given a timely closure of the Strait, while for higher freshwater fluxes (and corresponding weaker AMOC), a closure reduces this budget. This indicates that constructing this closure could be a feasible climate intervention strategy to prevent an AMOC collapse.

Also, doing this at the wrong time would accelerate an AMOC collapse.  

You know what might address more quickly and more effectively?  Reducing greenhouse gas emissions. 

Stephen Colbert Must Be Ecstatic About His

For those of you who are not aware, comedian Stephen Colbert is a devout Catholic.

Also, it could be argued that he is the biggest Tolkien/Lord of the Rings geek ever. 

I can only imagine the glee he must have felt when Pope Leo XIV released an encyclical on artificial intelligence that quoted Gandalf

………

In sounding this call to both disarm and to build, Leo turns to “twentieth-century Catholic author” JRR Tolkien. Though he can’t quite bring himself to say that he’s quoting Gandalf from Lord of the Rings, that’s exactly what’s happening.

(The encyclical says only that the quote comes from “the words of a protagonist in one of [Tolkien’s] novels.” Though Pope Francis previously spoke of Tolkien’s work, this appears to be the first time that Tolkien has ever been quoted in the highest levels of the church’s official doctrinal publications.)

Gandalf says, in what is very much a theme of the entire Lord of the Rings:

It is not our part to master all the tides of the world, but to do what is in us for the succour of those years wherein we are set, uprooting the evil in the fields that we know, so that those who live after may have clean earth to till.

The moral and local action envisioned here, along with Tolkien’s suspicion of the dehumanizing effects of technology, clearly appealed to Leo.

 

Quote of the Day

To Call Paxton Ethically Challenged Is to Call Jeffrey Dahmer Suffering from an Eating Disorder

—US Senator Thom Tillis (R-NC), on the myriad of unethical actions taken by current Texas State Attorney General Ken Paxton over the decades

I am not giving Tillis the benefit of the doubt here.

I think that his outrage is almost entirely about the fact that members of his private club , the US Senate, are being knocked off in primaries.

Still the characterization is both true and evocative. 

I Wish That I Lived in a First World Nation like Mexico

Do you know what Mexico has that we in the USA do not now? 

They are getting universal healthcare.

Lucky bastards.

At her morning press conference on April 7, President Claudia Sheinbaum announced that the credencialización process, or enrollment, for Mexico’s new universal health care service was set to begin. The goal, she explained, was unambiguous: “By the time we leave office, any Mexican will be able to go to any public health institution and receive care for any condition.”

To be phased in over the next four years, the reforms represent, in her words, “a historic step.” And if successful, indeed they will be. But in a fragmented health landscape where the Holy Grail of genuinely universal coverage has proved elusive, how will Sheinbaum’s ambitious rollout work?

The key to the answer lies in the name itself: it will be a national health service, not a system. Broadly speaking, Mexico’s current public system is divided into four main areas: The Mexican Social Security Institute (or IMSS, for its Spanish acronym) is for salaried, private sector workers; the Institute for Social Security and Services for State Workers (or ISSSTE) is for their counterparts in the public sector; workers at the state oil company PEMEX have their own system; and the IMSS-Bienestar (Spanish for “well-being”), established by Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s (AMLO) administration, for those who do not qualify for the others, namely contract workers and the 33 million or so laboring in the informal sector. (An effort somewhat hampered by the fact that, in a dynamic roughly equivalent to the Obama-era expansion of Medicaid, a minority of states with right-wing governors have refused to opt in.)

………

Here’s how it will work. In 2026, all citizens will be given their credencial, or health ID card, which will also serve as an official means of identification. The card, which will gradually replace the health booklets currently in use, will be linked to an app containing each individual’s medical records, appointments, and available services. In 2027, portability will begin for an initial set of services: universal emergency care (currently patients are stabilized at the hospital of arrival before being transferred to a hospital in their system); high-risk pregnancies and other obstetric emergencies; heart attacks and strokes; breast cancer; universal vaccination; and basic consultations such as flu, diarrhea, and preventive care.

Patients will not only receive care at any health center but will also have the option of remaining there for the duration of care, eliminating situations where forced transferals lead to truncated treatments. Then, in 2028, portability of care will be extended to chronic conditions such as diabetes and hypertension; cross-institution specialist consultations and hospitalizations; and the ability to fill prescriptions at any institution.

Great.  Not tell Donald Trump to f%$# off.

Extra credit if you hire Peter Capaldi to tell Donald Trump to f%$# off. 

Whiskey Tango Foxtrot

Why do we have the f%$#ing Wall Street Journal covering metaphorical war between Diet Coke and Coke Zero drinkers?

Even for the culture desk, this is mindbogglingly stupid. 

For decades, Diet Coke has been a durable pop culture icon, as much a symbol of boardroom swashbuckling as high fashion society. Its buzzy 1980s origins featured endorsements from celebrities including Paula Abdul, Whitney Houston and Demi Moore. More recently, limited-edition Diet Coke cans were released to coincide with “The Devil Wears Prada” sequel.

The soda is also beloved across generations. It has been given the mantle of “fridge cigarette” by a Gen Z cohort who, according to Cosmopolitan, want to “blow off steam without the actual fumes” and is repped by quintessential baby boomers, including Bill Gates in a TikTok he posted of himself re-creating Warren Buffett’s recipe for Dusty Diet Coke. (That’s a bizarro mix of the soda, vanilla ice cream, chocolate syrup and malted milk powder.)

Even the magic button that summons Diet Cokes to the Oval Office reappeared on the Resolute Desk last January, much to the irritation of the Secretary of Health and Human Services.

All of this soft-drink soft power belies an uneasy truth for Diet Coke fanatics. The diet soda sweeping the nation is actually the beverage’s own sibling, Coke Zero Sugar—part of a zero-sugar soda boom that accounted for 52% of growth in soft drink sales last year, according to the market research firm Circana. Sales of Diet Coke, by comparison, have been, well, pretty flat since the soda peaked in popularity in 2006.

As Coke Zero gets bigger, and threatens to dethrone “DC” as the most important diet soda property in the Coca-Cola extended universe, the feud between Diet Coke fans and Coke Zero drinkers is getting pretty fizzy.  

If I actually gave a f%$# about the drinks, I would go Tab on their asses, but what bothers me is the journalistic malpractice. 

Quote of the Day

I have been a professional tech journalist for nearly 15 years, and before today, I cannot think of a single time when a Bing search result was more valuable than the Google equivalent. There really is a first time for everything!

Techcrunch reporter Russell Brandom on the discovery that a Google search on the word, "Disregard," will not return the definition of the word.

If this is not end stage enshittification, I do not know what is.

Earlier this week, Google rolled out a completely new Search experience, foregrounding AI summaries and kicking the traditional “10 blue links” far down the page. But the sheer scale of Google Search means there are lots of edge cases that the company doesn’t seem to have considered.

For instance, this is what you’ll now get if you type the word “disregard” into Google Search.

Bing, in contrast delivers the definition as the first link.

This is real end of the world sh%$. 

I Did Not Think That it Was Possible

I have had no personal or professional encounters with Linus Torvalds, but I am aware of his "Take no crap attitude, which rivals that of the much memed Honey Badger.

When he says that he will, "Start being more hard-nosed," regarding pulls from the Linux kernel, my first reaction was disbelief.

This is NOT a man known for suffering fools gladly. 

Linux kernel boss Linus Torvalds has signaled he’ll push back when he receives irrelevant pull requests, after complaining that developers are making badly timed and trivial submissions, sometimes after using AI to review code.

Torvalds foreshadowed changes in his weekly state of the kernel update, which on Sunday announced the release of a fifth release candidate for version 7.1 of the Linux kernel.

“To the surprise of absolutely nobody by now, rc5 is pretty big. Quite a bit bigger than rc5's have traditionally been,” Torvalds wrote, before revealing “I'm not entirely happy about it - most of this is totally trivial stuff to random drivers, which obviously makes it all less scary, but at the same time I'm really not convinced the churn is worth it at rc5 time.”

The Linux kernel development cycle usually sees Torvalds open a two-week window during which contributors submit code they hope will make it into the next release. Seven release candidates (rc1-7) follow, with each supposed to represent a step towards delivering a stable update. Revised code always arrives during that process. But high volumes of new contributions to rc5 add complexity at a time work on the new kernel is usually close to completion.

this boggles the mind.

Bottled Cider Today

About 4½ liters.  A bit sugar and champagne yeast was added to make it sparkling.

It's a bit sour, likely from it sitting on top of the dead yeast for too long. I procrastinated on bottling.

It should improve in the bottle, and perhaps become a bit more sherry like, in the next few months. 

Quote of the Day

This Is the Most Soul-Sucking, Despicable, and Scandalous Transaction Ever Conducted by a Head of State Not Named Borgia

—Charlie Pierce on the newest Trump slush fund.

Mr. Pierce, please report to the white courtesy phone.  You have a call from Leopold II of Belgium.

That being said, I appreciate the sentiment, as well as the wonderfully evocative prose. 

 

The Charges Were Bullsh%$

2 Weeks ago, U.S. District Judge April Perry dismissed felony conspiracy charges against the "Broadview Six".

It appears that the prosecutors were f%$#ing around, and found out:

A federal judge on Thursday dismissed the felony conspiracy count against the remaining defendants in the “Broadview Six” case, further winnowing a politically charged prosecution that is now down to misdemeanor counts of impeding an immigration agent.

“Congratulations, you all are no longer charged with felonies,” U.S. District Judge April Perry told the four defendants in granting a motion from prosecutors to dismiss the lone conspiracy charge in the indictment.

The decision comes days after defense attorneys accused the U.S. attorney’s office of reneging on a promise to dismiss the charge, deciding instead to wait until after trial — which prosecutors said was the “usual” protocol for the office.

Attorney Christopher Parente, who represents Oak Park Trustee Brian Straw, took it a step further, suggesting the delay in dismissing the charge was part of a “shell game” to avoid having to turn over unredacted grand jury transcripts to the judge.

Surprise, it was a part of a shell game by the prosecutors.  They were trying to cover up their own misconduct before the grand jury.

What misconduct?  Funny you should ask.

The unraveling of the politically charged “Broadview Six” case against Operation Midway Blitz protesters began earlier this week when a federal judge agreed to look at unredacted grand jury transcripts to “see if there is anything suspicious” about portions that had been mysteriously removed by the U.S. attorney’s office.

………

Before two separate grand juries last year, a federal prosecutor repeatedly stepped over the line, including “vouching” about the strength of the evidence, telling panel members who disagreed with the prosecution’s theory of the case that they could just leave, and having “ex parte” communications with a grand juror outside the proceedings, according to a series of bombshell revelations in court Thursday.

The first grand jury refused to return an indictment, leading to a second panel being convened, the transcript showed. That time, several grand jurors “made comments” and walked out of the proceedings. The testimony of the agent ended abruptly, and they had to start anew the next day to get the indictment.

“Although I am not going to prejudge the issue without a hearing, I will say that I was incredibly shocked by the redactions that were made,” Perry told the assembled parties, according to the transcript. “I have read hundreds, if not thousands, of grand jury transcripts involving prosecutors who are the most junior of prosecutors to several U.S. Attorneys who appeared before the grand jury. I have never seen the types of prosecutorial behavior before a grand jury that I saw in those transcripts.”

Perry also said there was a “potential” for “sanctions for prosecutorial misconduct and for potential ethical violations, including lack of candor to the court,” the transcript showed.

The stunning developments led U.S. Attorney Andrew Boutros to announce in court that he was dismissing all remaining counts in the case, which had been scheduled to go to trial on Tuesday.

These were the misdemeanor charges that were not dismissed 2 weeks ago. 

I'm thinking that a formal bar complaint is in order here. 

It Was Always a Scam

Given that most of their engagement was AstroTurf, and most of their funding came via the Koch brothers and their ilk. it is no surprise that Ben Shapiro and the Daily Wire are imploding.

They are a classic example of, "The Bezzle," which is generally defined as the interval between when someone has been cheated out of money, and when they realize that this is the case.

The conservative media company Daily Wire was once a star of the MAGA digital universe, dominating social media feeds and podcast apps with a blend of “anti-woke” commentary, viral Facebook posts and culture-war stunts.

In the run-up to the 2020 presidential election, the company co-founded by conservative pundit Ben Shapiro ranked as Facebook’s top English-language publisher for three straight months. Its sarcastic news items on then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s salon visits gained millions more views than the websites of Fox News, CNN and the New York Times.

But the company now faces sweeping layoffs and heavy skepticism over its online future, with some critics — including former employees, such as Candace Owens — arguing its relevance to the right has irrevocably collapsed.

Its YouTube channel’s subscriber base has plateaued or shrunk in 15 of the 16 months since the start of 2025, according to data from the analytics firm Social Blade. And in an analysis of 20 conservative news sites, the Daily Wire has consistently ranked among the biggest year-over-year traffic losers since last summer, according to estimates from the market intelligence firm Similarweb that were compiled by the media newsletter TheRighting. In March, the website’s traffic was half of what it was the year before.

Here is hoping that Shapiro ends up washing dishes for a living.