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What we know about the Iranian ship seized by the US
Apr. 20th, 2026 08:04 pm![[syndicated profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/feed.png){kind=small}
bbcnewsworld_feedThe US has intercepted an Iranian ship entering the Gulf as part of its naval blockade, US President Donald Trump has said.
Police gunfight with favela gang traps 200 tourists on hilltop
Apr. 20th, 2026 05:34 pmbbcnewsworld_feedThe access route to Morro Dois Irmãos was blocked during the operation in Vidigal, leaving scores of alarmed sightseers stuck on the hill.
Yum
Apr. 20th, 2026 06:08 pmpharyngula_feedThese jumping spiders are ravenous, and are ripping through the local population of Diptera.
Texas FAFO
Apr. 20th, 2026 02:28 pmpharyngula_feed
Someone on TikTok pointed out there are more kids in Texas with measles than trans college athletes in all of America.
Guess which they want you focused on?
Texas has been playing games with their universities.
Earlier this month, Texas Tech chancellor Brandon Creighton announced plans to close all gender and sexuality programs across the system and prohibit graduate students from researching the topics. Texas A&M similarly closed its women’s and gender studies program in January. The University of Texas ordered faculty in February to refrain from teaching ill-defined “controversial” topics in class. Nearly all Texas public university systems have conducted some kind of course-review process that screens instructional materials for gender and sexuality content.
This means weird conservative administrators with no relevant experience are meddling in the content of courses…courses they would not be qualified to teach, but hey, they’ve got rubber stamps and spreadsheets, that’s all the power they need. They’re now discovering the consequences.
Texas A&M philosophy professor Martin Peterson is leaving the university after administrators told him in January that he couldn’t teach Plato’s Symposium in his philosophy class; they said the ancient Greek philosopher’s work violated the system’s restrictions on gender and sexuality content. Peterson’s colleague Linda Raznik, a philosophy professor and associate department head, is jumping ship with similar concerns about academic freedom. Lucy Schiller, a nonfiction writing professor at Texas Tech University, also has plans to leave her job.
They are just a few of the faculty members giving up their jobs at Texas public institutions as the systems deploy escalating censorship policies that restrict or explicitly ban any instruction, writing, research or discussion on gender identity and sexual orientation.
It’s almost as if they intend to demolish all of Texas higher education. Fortunately, I am no longer in the market for a job, because I wouldn’t ever consider working as an academic in Texas. I also wouldn’t encourage any students to enroll in a Texas school anymore — you don’t know where your university will be in a few years.
Texans deserve better.
US singer D4vd pleads not guilty to murder in death of missing teen girl
Apr. 20th, 2026 10:09 pmbbcnewsworld_feedProsecutors say the singer, real name David Anthony Burke, could face life in prison due to the nature of the case, if convicted.
Victory slips away as marathon runner celebrates too soon
Apr. 20th, 2026 04:02 pmbbcnewsworld_feedThe dramatic end to the Delaware Marathon occurred when the lead runner slowed in celebration before a trailing marathoner sprinted toward the finish line .
Trailblazing black beauty queen who defied apartheid South Africa dies aged 76
Apr. 20th, 2026 05:38 pmbbcnewsworld_feedAt the 1972 Miss World contest, Cynthia Shange was one of two contestants from South Africa - one black and one white.
Police gunfight with favela gang traps 200 tourists on hilltop
Apr. 20th, 2026 05:34 pmbbcnewsworld_feedThe access route to Morro Dois Irmãos was blocked during the operation in Vidigal, leaving scores of alarmed sightseers stuck on the hill.
More than 200 rescued from IS-linked group in DR Congo
Apr. 20th, 2026 04:25 pmbbcnewsworld_feedThe youngest of those freed from an Allied Democratic Forces camp is a girl aged just 14, Uganda's army says.
Days of Our Lives and Starship Troopers actor Patrick Muldoon dies aged 57
Apr. 20th, 2026 03:51 pmbbcnewsworld_feedThe actor and producer also appeared in Melrose Place and Saved By the Bell.
Outrage over Israeli soldier's vandalism of Jesus statue in Lebanon
Apr. 20th, 2026 06:57 pmbbcnewsworld_feedThe Israeli military says it views with "great severity" the actions of the soldier, as the US ambassador demands "swift" consequences.
Trump tariff refunds begin but consumers likely to miss out
Apr. 20th, 2026 02:49 pmbbcnewsworld_feedBusinesses can apply online through a portal for refunds expected to total $160bn.
Nigerian wins global prize for trying to save bats in a country that shuns them
Apr. 20th, 2026 01:10 pmbbcnewsworld_feedMany Nigerians associate bats with witchcraft but that did not deter ecologist Iroro Tanshi.
New Zealand declares state of emergency in Wellington as floods hit
Apr. 20th, 2026 05:48 ambbcnewsworld_feedFootage online shows vehicles submerged, trees uprooted and houses hit by landslides.
Elon Musk snubs interview summons by French prosecutors amid X probe
Apr. 20th, 2026 03:44 pmbbcnewsworld_feedThe Paris prosecutor's office told the BBC it had "taken note of the absence of the people summoned".
Japan on high alert for 'huge' second quake after issuing tsunami warning
Apr. 20th, 2026 02:54 pmbbcnewsworld_feedJapan's meteorological agency warns another, stronger earthquake may hit in the next week,
Hemp regulation and marijuana legalization updates for 420 Day
Apr. 20th, 2026 09:05 amneonvincent_feedHappy 420 Day! I'm returning to the theme of marijuana legalization today with a reversal of the trend. PBS NewsHour explains How a small law change could have a huge impact on the U.S. hemp industry.
Not all developments on legalization are bad. Two states are considering legalizing marijuana, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania. I begin with CBS 58 in Milwaukee reporting State Democrats announce new marijuana legalization proposal.
I close with WJACTV asking When will PA legalize recreational marijuana?
That's a wrap for today's sort-of holiday. Stay tuned for a Tuneful Tuesday post featuring the Marsh Family tomorrow, followed by the next episode of my series on the News & Doc Emmy Awards with the nominees for Outstanding Nature Documentary on Wayback Wednesday, which falls on Earth Day.
Tucked into the legislation that ended the longest government shutdown in U.S. history was a provision to change the definition of hemp. It was a small tweak involving minute measurements, but one that could have a huge impact on the booming market for hemp products. Jeffrey Brown reports from Kentucky.That's a bummer, both for the users and the farmers. I'm going to offer some rare faint praise for Rand Paul, which is that I generally don't agree with his principles, but at least he has some, and this time I actually approve of how he's applying them. May he and others succeed in loosening the regulations on hemp.
Not all developments on legalization are bad. Two states are considering legalizing marijuana, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania. I begin with CBS 58 in Milwaukee reporting State Democrats announce new marijuana legalization proposal.
Supporters of legal marijuana in Wisconsin have announced a new effort at the state Capitol.The racial disparity in enforcement is enough to make me support this bill, although I agree that making medical marijuana legal would be a good first step that might actually pass. Some of the commenters mentioned that the bar and tavern owners opposed legalization. Considering that Wisconsin is the drunkest state in the union and seems proud of it, I'm not surprised.
I close with WJACTV asking When will PA legalize recreational marijuana?
PENNSYLVANIA (WJAC) — Is this the year that Pennsylvania lawmakers legalize the recreational use of marijuana?I think Pennsylvania is a better bet than Wisconsin, but it's not a sure thing.
Governor Shapiro continues to push for it, but it is still not certain if the legislature will approve it.
State Representative Scott Conklin recently spoke about the fact that all but one of Pennsylvania’s neighboring states have already legalized marijuana. So, will it happen here?
Others in the legislature are not supportive of the idea, for various reasons, including one of the most heard about --- marijuana's possible link to harder drugs.
Raising revenue is one of the most cited reasons by Governor Shapiro and other backers to legalize.
Envisioned as a new cash crop in Pennsylvania, farmers paying a fee, growers’ licenses, tax on sales, all bringing in money, with the Department of Agriculture providing oversight.
That's a wrap for today's sort-of holiday. Stay tuned for a Tuneful Tuesday post featuring the Marsh Family tomorrow, followed by the next episode of my series on the News & Doc Emmy Awards with the nominees for Outstanding Nature Documentary on Wayback Wednesday, which falls on Earth Day.
“Viewpoint diversity” is a misleading way to say “conservative welfare”
Apr. 20th, 2026 01:10 pmpharyngula_feed
Viewpoint diversity is how you get the unqualified wife of a corrupt wrestling promoter put in charge of the department of education
Harvard is suddenly more concerned with campus diversity, but specifically diversity that benefits wealthy conservatives. They’ve started a campaign asking for ten million dollar endowments.
The effort comes in response to longstanding criticism that Harvard’s faculty leans overwhelmingly liberal. Those concerns intensified last year, when U.S. President Donald Trump elevated the issue as part of a broader pressure campaign against the University.
In the now-infamous April 2025 letter, federal officials called for an audit of Harvard’s faculty to assess “viewpoint diversity” and demanded it hire a “critical mass” of new professors in departments deemed lacking. Garber rejected the Trump administration’s ultimatum, but the scrutiny has persisted.
This is nuts. Asking people to donate millions of dollars is not going to enhance diversity — that is a campaign that is only going to draw on a donor population that is going to be biased to favor extreme wealth, and is going to be populated with conservative, entitled people. Harvard is basically inviting people to buy professors to fill their faculty, at the urging of Donald Trump.
Making it even worse, they plan to set up these faculty in a special category that will be hired by the university, with 20 or 30 professors who will be selected for “viewpoint”, rather than their qualifications in their field, and that they will then be inserted into departments that don’t have the political perspective the administration desires.
I’m at a small university, and I find it hard to imagine an administration so flush that they can declare they’re going to hire a swarm of new people. But imagine if my U announced that they were hiring one or two people based on their political bias, and then they decide that there were too many people in the biology discipline who were Democrats, so we would get those new faculty without regard for the academic/curricular needs of our biology program.
Every college department can use more faculty, and offering us new hires would be wonderful, but WE know what our specific discipline needs to implement our curriculum, while the administration generally has only the vaguest of clues, and what they do know is what we tell them. I think the faculty would be horrified if we were suddenly saddled with a new face whose primary qualification is that they are Republican. This is a violation of the principle that we do not hire people on the basis of aspects of their life that are irrelevant to doing their job. We are specifically instructed that we can’t ask job candidates about their politics, their religion, their sexuality, their marital status, and on and on. “Viewpoint diversity” explicitly violates a policy implemented to remove bias from the hiring process.
It is true that that has led to more liberal viewpoints filling our ranks, but that’s because reality has a well-known liberal bias. One of the hallmarks of the conservative perspective is that it tries to deny reality in favor of prior preconceptions, and resist change. Maybe we shouldn’t put representatives of a political philosophy that despises education into the professoriate, did you ever consider that, Harvard?