Bluesky confetti - I never saved anything for the swim back

Seek the truth, hear the truth, learn the truth, love the truth, speak the truth, hold the truth and defend the truth until death.
— Jan Hus

Libraries are the last proof that the richest things in life are free.

 I never saved anything for the swim back:

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Post like no one’s reading.

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Women always call me ugly until they find out how much money I make. --- Then they call me ugly and poor.

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Apparently, as a person I only had a fifty year warranty.

Had to dig my son up for talking down to his wife yesterday, I’m very disappointed, as it’s not how he was brought up. To be fair, he took on board what I said to him and he’s promised me, he’ll never tell her he loves her, while standing at the top of a step ladder, ever again.

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Sometimes I am stupefied By how difficult I find it To just Be kind.

Memories of Cathal O'Shea

 I came across a photograph of Mr O’Shea from roaring 1980s

A fearless journalist and passionate advocate, Cathal O’Shea made a lasting mark on Irish media and public life.

Cathal O'Shea, one of the foundational investigative reporters for the Sunday World newspaper since its launch in 1973, passed away this year, following a short illness. 

Cathal was part of the original reporting team when the Sunday World was established in Dublin in 1973, known for fearless investigative journalism and major exclusive stories. 
Cathal is remembered by former colleagues as a legendary journalist, a great character, and a supportive mentor in the newsroom. 
Cathal is survived by his wife Emer, sons Ruaidhri and Cillian, and three grandchildren

Tribute by Eddie Rowley

This week at the Sunday World we were shocked and saddened by the passing of two former and much-loved colleagues, Cathal O'Shea in Dublin and Jim McDowell in Belfast.

Two legends in journalism, they were both fearless investigative reporters and editors.

Cathal was one of the first reporters on the Sunday World when it was launched in 1973.

I joined the paper a decade later in 1983 working in the Dublin office and Cathal was one of the team who supported me in those early days as a young reporter. From then on we became friends.

Cathal was always great fun, a great character.

My deepest sympathy to the families of Cathal and Jim at this extremely sad time in their lives.

Your brain is a gambling addict that bets on reality

 “Your brain is a gambling addict that bets on reality. It doesn’t wait for information. It guesses what should happen and adjusts when surprised. Most bets win. But when they don’t, you run into walls.”

NEWS YOU CAN USE:  Cruise experts reveal 10 foods you should never eat on board — and most passengers eat them anyway

Most Physical Activity Is Tied to Lower Dementia Risk, but This Type May Raise It Medpage Today

Monopoly Round-Up: Living in an Age of Cheating Means Having Your Time Stolen Constantly Matt Stoller

Logging In Was Never Supposed to Be This Complicated

The Atlantic – gift article: “Lately, the process of accessing apps and websites has grown dizzying. “I’m in password hell,” a colleague confided to me recently. “Every login attempt is playing the lottery.” The problem is not just the sheer number of digital accounts, all of which require their own password, ideally unique and unguessable (which usually also means un-memorizable). 

It’s the pileup of solutions to that problem: all of the different layers of software offering to remember your passwords, the six-digit codes sent to your phone, the authenticator apps, the passkeys. Browsers and operating systems compete with third-party password managers to generate, store, and autofill your credentials. Most of my logins live in 1Password, but others are stored in Apple’s Passwords app (usually by accident), and still others were created via “single sign-on” features such as those offered by Google and Facebook. 

I vaguely recall certain apps—Facebook is one—prompting me many years ago to copy down a set of “login recovery codes” that would become extremely important should I ever get locked out of my account. Whatever device I stored them on was probably wiped and sold long ago. Logins have always been a hassle. In the 1990s, forgetting your password sometimes meant mailing a postcard to your service provider and waiting a week or two for it to mail you a new password. 

In the early 2010s, hackers learned to steal massive troves of logins and then reuse them on other services to steal people’s identities. Things spiraled from there; services started requiring unique, complex passwords with arbitrary requirements. These days, the user experience of logging in is “probably worse than ever,” Troy Hunt, a cybersecurity expert who runs the website Have I Been Pwned, told me. 

“There’s just no consistency.” Password managers promised a way out, but they often don’t work as seamlessly as you might hope. I click to autofill my password somewhere, and a 1Password authorization appears, only for an iCloud Keychain authorization to pop up directly over it, preventing me from clicking on the 1Password one. 

When I manually enter a login I thought I remembered, my browser prompts me to remember it; only after I hit “Save” (pro tip: Do not do this) does the website inform me that the password was not recognized. Even when you log in successfully, there’s the tedious dance of waiting for a six-digit authorization code to appear on your phone or in your email, which defeats the concept of a single password for everything. And if you’re somewhere without cell service or you’re sharing a login with someone who isn’t around, you might just be out of luck…”

Brand Hype Has Existed Since the Bronze Age, Scientists Discover

Brand Hype Has Existed Since the Bronze Age, Scientists Discover 404 Media

Trump made more than 1,000 trades in June totaling millions, financial disclosures revealIndependent

Trump’s Family Joins a Rush to Start New BanksBloomberg

Independent bookstores are struggling to meet customer demands after one of Australia's largest book distributors experienced a cyber attack six weeks ago.

The cyber attack against Alliance Distribution Services (ADS) has left Australian authors unable to provide sufficient stock for events.

What's next?

Hachette Australia, which owns ADS, says restoring full operations securely remains its top priority

Cyber attack targeting Hachette Australia subsidiary hurts bookshops and authors

Francesco Ernest Sartor among all other role was a Clerk to NSW Public Accounts Committee between 1983 and 1986 …

Former Labor heavyweight emerges as surprise figure in Bathla collapse

Max MasonCourts and crime correspondent

Aug 27, 2026 

Former Labor heavyweight Frank Sartor has emerged as a key figure in the collapse of property development giant Bathla, contacting insolvency and communications specialists Teneo weeks before the company collapsed owing more than $3.5 billion and leaving thousands of homes in limbo.

Sartor, a former planning minister and Sydney lord mayor, had been engaged to provide Bathla with “advice and assistance on planning matters” before financial stress pushed the company into administration, according to filings with the corporate regulator late on Wednesday.

DHS said it had “no plans” to send agents to the polls. But they’re already meddling — remotely

Miles Taylor Defiance.org: “…Last night, The Washington Post revealed that hundreds of federal immigration officers at U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, including the specialists who vet immigration applications for fraud and security threats, have been pulled off their day jobs and reassigned to monitor voting lists for supposed noncitizen voters. 

This places DHS agents directly into a role that was never envisioned when the Department was created and which has ominous implications for the midterms and future elections. Despite this effort being carried out in the dark, the Trump administration expects Americans to trust that they are merely hunting for “illegal” registrants. 

Yet the operation raises urgent questions about potential abuse, oversight, and whether DHS agents will play a larger role in unlawfully purging American citizens from voter rolls. The newly disclosed effort adds to an already sweeping undertaking by Trump’s lieutenants to influence the midterm elections. Since returning to office, Trump has converted the Justice Department’s Voting Section from a shield for voters into a weapon against them. 

His administration has sued at least 30 states and the District of Columbia to extract voter roll data, ordered federal agencies to build “approved” lists of voters, and as we speak, is still moving ahead with plans to control the delivery of ballots in the mail. 

Thousands of DHS agents and a growing number of federal prosecutors are being marshaled away from their actual responsibilities and pointed at America’s elections by a president simultaneously trying to seize control over who is allowed to cast a ballot. Nothing in American history looks like this. At all. Yet there are plenty of examples of regimes around the world mounting election takeovers that look very similar. Students of history would call it authoritarianism. 

Again, the Trump administration continues to assert that all of its efforts are focused on the phantom menace of “noncitizen voters.” But the pretext is collapsing under its own weight. Trump and DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin claim they’ve found roughly 278,000 noncitizens are unlawfully registered to vote in the United States. 

But when Nevada pressed the department on Mullin’s claim of 16,000 in their state, DHS admitted it had confirmed just 185… then refused to hand over the names so the state could investigate…”

The NACC is refusing to release its investigation into millions of dollars in Meals on Wheels contracts, instead telling the whistleblower she is confused about the outcome.

Exclusive: NACC letters gaslit Meals on Wheels whistleblower

The National Anti-Corruption Commission completed an investigation into almost $9 million worth of federal government contracts to a private consulting firm that tore apart Meals on Wheels services, but when asked for the required public report changed its mind and gaslit the woman who referred the matter.

The National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC) refused to release a public report on nearly $9 million in federal Meals on Wheels contracts, instead backtracking on its own completion notice and telling the whistleblower she was confused due to personal pressures. 

Key Details of the NACC Controversy

The Investigation: The watchdog examined almost $9 million in federal contracts tied to the "Future Fit Program", which aimed to overhaul Meals on Wheels services ahead of aged care reforms via consulting firm Miles Morgan Australia.
The Backtrack: Deputy Commissioner Ben Gauntlett initially wrote to the whistleblower on July 17 stating the corruption investigation was complete. When asked for the final report, the NACC reversed stance, claiming it never actually finished an investigation and had instead abandoned it.
The "Gaslighting": NACC general manager of legal Rebekah O'Meagher wrote to the referrer implying she was confused and pointing to "pressures" in her personal life. The agency later issued an apology for its "mistake". 
Broader Context: Reported by Rick Morton in The Saturday Paper, this adds to intense scrutiny on the NACC's handling of major investigations and high staff turnover, following earlier criticisms by NACC Inspector Gail Furness. 

The Airport Chaplain and Dalliance

In lieu of flowers, Dolly Parton’s family is asking for donations to her Imagination Library, which has distributed over 330 million books to kids.

https://imaginationlibrary.com/

Dolphins recorded using sea shells to catch fish for first time Oceanographic

When you take screenshots of posts in iOS social apps like Bluesky or Threads, they use this little trick to replace the “Follow” button with the app’s logo.

“All our neighbors worked for those firms — Facebook, Google and Apple. None of them would let their children interact with any screens. They all knew how addicting they were and how to protect their own children.

The Airport Chaplain review – thoroughly bingeable TV about ‘Batman in a hi-vis vest’

This moreish show about a do-gooder keen to save the day stars Hugo Weaving and The Pitt’s Shabana Azeez … and it’s pressure-packed from the get-go

Janosik and Gurals of Poprad Valley

Memories of my summer and winter holidays came flooding in as I dived into “Treasures of Nature: Poland.”

My father’s mum and family lived in a property on the hills of Pilhov and my dad’s best friend Janko Brunovský, my godfather, ran a Water - polu- Mill bellow the hills of Pilhov in Mnisek nad Popradom.

It was a place where I became good at cross country skiing in winter and in summer the streams of Poprad River tested my swimming skills …

Whatever you do do not mention smuggling to Krakow and Zakopane markets as the border between Czechoslovakia and Poland was like 1970s Casablanca where every one was shocked that the border guards accepted bribes … 

POPRAD VALLEY

The Beskid Sadecki is exremely lucky with regard to rivers.

In the west, its border is marked by the Dunajec with its scenic gorge in the area of Krościenko and Tylmanowa. The picturesque Poprad gorge cuts the Beskid into two ranges: Radziejowa and Jaworzyna Krynicka.

After it passes the Slovak border, the course of the Poprad becomes more winding. Between Andrzejówka and Zegiestów, it forms bends which cut off two peninsulas, known as Kopata Polska and Lopata Stowacka.

Near Rytro the Poprad Gorge widens in the direction of Piwniczna.

The Poprad drainage basin comprises the most important natural resource of the Beskid Sadecki - very large and varied reserves of mineral waters, the largest in Poland as well as the whole Carpathians. They are used in the spas of Muszyna, Zegiestów Zdrój, Piwniczna Zdrój, Rytro - all on the Poprad. 

The Poprad forms the axis of the vast Poprad Landscape Park, which covers both ranges of the Beskid Sadecki. In its many nature reserves it protects the remains of the pristine Carpathian forest (beeches, limes, yews, larches).

The book of “Treasures of Nature”

Describes Morske Oko Tarn as ‘Exe of Sea’ rather than ‘Eye of Sea’ …

Katarína - Katka - Imrichová (born Sekulová) Pilhov

Mnisek_nad_Popradom_Stars_Lubovna _Spis

Water Mill: Poprad River - Family of Godfather Jan Brunovsky going back to 1934

Trailing the Polish Tatra Mountains On Foot | Extreme Treks of No longer Kings 

When Europeans from Warsaw live role-play an Ohio trailer park

A museum-shelf mystery reveals 6,500-year-old Slavic human tooth pendant in Serbia PhysOrg