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Stayover in Iceland on my return to the US solely hoping to see the aurora borealis. Not spectacular but that she blows.

#iceland #aurora borealis #northern lights

First read of 2026. Another great book! Through first hand experiences they tell the story of WW1 British POWs. I never knew (or heard) much about them before. But they detail their stories from capture to processing to escape planning to escape attempts (successful and otherwise) to repatriation. You don’t need to be a military historian or even interested in WW1 to find this fascinating. Highly recommended!

#ww1 #fww #great war #history #military history

Last book of 2025 and it was a banger. Great new account of the opening days/weeks of WW1. Incredible detail enriched by first hand experiences. Both soldiers and civilians. It also looks at events around the entire globe. Can’t recommend it enough. Fantastic addition to my (and any) library.

#ww1 #history #military history #FWW #great war

theonion

In an effort to assuage any fears over the constitutionality of the Trump administration’s flurry of executive actions, a D.C.-area think tank called the Himmler Institute reportedly assured the nation Monday that this is all perfectly legal. “We’ve studied the total legality of far-reaching executive actions for decades, and we can guarantee that everything happening in Washington right now is completely above board,” said Himmler Institute spokesperson Stephanie Heydrich-Skorzeny, adding that this was one of the clearest-cut cases the institute had seen since its founding in 1947.

Full Story

my-darling-boy

Source: I was there

theonion

34 Years Ago Today

robertreich

PSA: Don’t confuse phony corporate pride campaigns with true allyship.

wilwheaton

“In 1881 the doctor overseeing President James Garfield’s recovery from a gunshot wound repeatedly probed the president’s wound with dirty instruments and his fingers, prompting assassin Charles Guiteau to plead not guilty of the murder by claiming, “The doctors killed Garfield, I just shot him.” But just four years later, germ theory was so widely accepted that the U.S. Army required medical officers to inspect their posts every month and report the results to the administration, and by 1886, disease rates were dropping. By 1889, the U.S. Army had written manuals for sanitary field hospitals, and the need to combat germs was so commonplace medical officers rarely mentioned it. And now, in 2025, the top health official in the United States, a man without degrees in either medicine or public health, appears to be rejecting germ theory and reshaping the nation’s medical system around his own dedication to a theory that was outdated well over a century ago”

— May 4, 2025 - by Heather Cox Richardson

Also while in Stralsund I thoroughly enjoyed their aquarium!

#stralsund #germany #europe #travel #hanseatic #aquarium #baltic sea

The beautiful and underrated Hanseatic city of Stralsund. A lovely time had by all! (And supposedly Marienkirche was the tallest building in the known world when finished!)

#germany #travel #stralsund #hanseatic #history #europe

robertreich

With no court to verify anything the Trump regime alleges, you could be arrested and sent to a prison in El Salvador for having views the regime dislikes. This isn’t as far-fetched as it may seem.

wilwheaton

(via ykzeevc74cxd1.jpeg (JPEG Image, 1144 × 1488 pixels) — Scaled (79%))

wilwheaton

“This is the October surprise: everyone, including the media, finally realizing what the MAGA movement truly is and being unafraid to state it. The “comedian” himself sure as heck sees nothing wrong with his racism and bigotry. And Gimenez, despite criticizing Hinchcliffe, sure went out of his way to praise Trump, the guy whose operation hired Hinchcliffe for the act. This is who they are.”

—

Trump’s racist Nazi rally at Madison Square Garden backfires spectacularly

It sure would be great if the vulgarity and racism finally mattered, at all.