Guestbook

Scottspect

28 Aug 2025 - 01:09 pm

What struck Scott Bennett most were the razor clams.

The long saltwater clams, resembling old-fashioned razors, normally burrow into sand to avoid predators. But when Bennett, an ecologist, visited South Australia’s Great Southern Reef last month, he saw thousands of them rotting on the sea floor.
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“100% of them were dead and wasting away on the bottom,” Bennett told CNN.

Since March, a harmful algal bloom, fueled by a marine heat wave, has been choking South Australia’s coastline, turning once-colorful ecosystems filled with thriving marine life into underwater graveyards.

The bloom has killed about 15,000 animals from over 450 species, according to observations on the citizen science site iNaturalist. They include longfinned worm eels, surf crabs, warty prowfish, leafy seadragons, hairy mussels and common bottlenose dolphins.
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The algae have poisoned more than 4,500 square kilometers (1,737 square miles) of the state’s waters – an area larger than Rhode Island – littering beaches with carcasses and ravaging an area known for its diversity.

It’s “one of the worst marine disasters in living memory,” according to a report by the Biodiversity Council, an independent expert group founded by 11 Australian universities.

The toxic algal bloom has devastated South Australia’s fishing industry and repelled beachgoers, serving as a stark warning of what happens when climate change goes unchecked.

Once a bloom begins, there is no way of stopping it.

“This shouldn’t be treated as an isolated event,” Bennett said. “This is symptomatic of climate driven impacts that we’re seeing across Australia due to climate change.”

Tylerdug

28 Aug 2025 - 12:23 pm

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Kerrynat

28 Aug 2025 - 11:24 am

Target is in trouble. And while it’s easy to get lost in the company’s recent (poor) handling of American culture war narratives that cast it as too “woke” or too willing to cave to online fascists, the root of Target’s problems runs deep.
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Don’t get me wrong – the massive consumer boycotts from Black organizers have done damage. And there are probably folks on the far right who think even Target’s toned-down, overwhelmingly beige Pride merch this year was still too loud.
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But its stock is in the gutter and sales have been falling for two years because of good ol’ business fundamentals. It overstocked. It lost the pulse of its customers. It went up against Amazon Prime with… actually, does anyone know what Target’s Amazon Prime competitor is called?
The brand we petite bourgeoisie once playfully referred to as Tar-zhay has lost its spark. The company reported a decline in sales for a third-straight quarter, part of a broader trend of falling or flat sales for two years. Employees have lost confidence in the company’s direction. And 2025 has been a particularly rough financially, as Black shoppers organized a boycott over Target’s decision to cave to right-wing pressure on diverse hiring goals.
Shares were down 10% Wednesday.

It’s not to say the new guy, Michael Fiddelke, is unqualified. He’s been at Target since he started as an intern more than 20 years ago, after all. But Wall Street is clearly concerned that Target’s leadership is underestimating the severity of the need for a significant change— just as President Donald Trump’s tariffs on imported goods threaten the entire retail industry.

Appointing a company lifer “does not necessarily remedy the problems of entrenched groupthink and the inward-looking mindset that have plagued Target for years,” Neil Saunders, an analyst at GlobalData Retail, said in a note to clients Wednesday.

Missing the mark
In its 2010s heyday, Target became a go-to for consumers who liked a bargain but didn’t necessarily like bargain-hunting. The shelves felt well-curated. You’d go to Target because it had one thing you needed and 12 things you didn’t know you needed. It was stocked with Millennial cringe long before Gen Z gave us the term Millennial cringe.

Target’s sales held strong through the pandemic as remote workers set up home offices and stocked up on essentials. Months of lockdown also benefited the store as people began refreshing their spaces because they didn’t really have much else to do and they were staring at the same walls all the time.

Waltersailt

28 Aug 2025 - 11:24 am

Dr. Jake Scott is on the front line of his second pandemic in five years and he is not getting much sleep.

Scott works full-time as an infectious disease physician at Stanford Health Care’s Tri-Valley hospital in Pleasanton, California. When he is done taking care of his patients and his two grade-school aged kids, he often stays up past midnight writing — furiously penning op-eds, collecting studies, leading evidence reviews and posting meaty threads on social media, most of them correcting the record on vaccines.
трипскан вход
Often, he’s reacting to the latest maneuvers by US Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.. A pinned post responding to one of Kennedy’s appearances on Fox News has been viewed almost 5 million times. Another post fact-checking Kennedy’s claims about potential harms from aluminum in vaccines had 1 million views in its first 48 hours. Scott’s followers on X have doubled since April.
https://trip-skan.cc
трипскан
“A million views for this long-winded, very detailed, kind of nerdy breakdown of the science,” Scott said, marveling at the attention it got. “I think that’s saying something, you know? People want that information, and they deserve it,” said Scott who is 48.

The Covid-19 pandemic turned many infectious disease specialists and virologists into household names. Scott’s was not one of them, perhaps because he was too busy treating patients. He didn’t stay out of the public discourse completely, however. He was one of the first doctors to tell people that Omicron didn’t seem to be as severe an infection as earlier strains of the virus, although some virologists were skeptical at the time.

In President Donald Trump’s second administration, however, Scott is taking on what he sees as a second pandemic — misinformation and disinformation about vaccines. He knows false information can be as harmful as any virus.
“When officials spread inaccurate information about vaccines, it does have real consequences, and families make decisions based on fear rather than on facts,” Scott said.

It’s already happening. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently reported data showing kindergarten vaccination rates continue to decline, as states make it easier to opt out of school vaccination requirements. Vaccine preventable diseases like measles and whooping cough are rising again, too.

Scott knows it could get much worse.

“In 2021, nearly every single patient I lost to Covid was unvaccinated by choice, and every colleague of mine has said the same thing.”

Jamesreict

28 Aug 2025 - 10:57 am

He has had more cordial, more productive, meetings with US President Donald Trump since that now-notorious encounter on February 28.
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But for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, today’s meeting at the White House will surely trigger awkward memories of that very public clash with the US President almost six months ago. Navigating the treacherous waters in which he finds himself today will be no easier.
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Increasingly, it appears likely he will be told to give up land in exchange for some sort of security guarantees.

The land side of that “deal” will be obvious. It can be drawn on a map. Crimea: gone, says Trump. Donetsk: give all of it up, says Putin, apparently with Trump’s blessing.

But the security guarantees? That’s where far more challenging ideas, like credibility, come into play. Could Zelensky rely on the US to deliver on some NATO Article 5-type promise, to defend Ukraine if Russia breaches any peace agreement?

Putin himself might even see an opportunity to further weaken the West, by testing any such guarantees, confident they are a bluff he could call. But all that would be for the future.

For now, it looks like Zelensky will have to weigh up whether he could bring his country with him if he were to cede territory to Russia – some of it still in Ukrainian hands – or whether he and his people could bear the costs of potentially defying Trump a Nobel Peace Prize, and say no.

If he chose the latter, would the US President immediately end all remaining American support for Ukraine, in terms of military aid and intelligence sharing, for instance?

If that happened, to what extent could Zelensky’s European allies really step in and fill in the gaps left by any full US retreat?

It is an almost impossibly hard choice before him.
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Lamarweist

28 Aug 2025 - 09:33 am

Cracker Barrel’s modern makeover doesn’t stop with redoing its restaurants. It’s dropping the barrel and the man from its logo, too.

On Tuesday, the Southern-inspired casual dining chain unveiled a new logo “rooted even more closely to the iconic barrel shape,” but without the barrel itself — a central part of the brand’s identity since 1977. (As for the the barrel itself, it was “essentially the water coolers of the day,” Cracker Barrel explained in a blog post.)
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The identity refresh also includes new TV commercials, a redesigned menu and several new fall-themed foods, part of a larger $700 million transformation plan to shake off its stodgy image and lure in new diners.

“The way we communicate, the things on the menu, the way the stores look and feel … all of these things came up time and time again in our research as opportunities for us to really regain relevancy,” said CEO Julie Felss Masino in 2024.
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In particular, the new logo is the latest in a string of changes angering some of its loyal fans who fear the 56-year-old chain is drifting too far from its bucolic roots. On social media, some users griped, with one writing that the “changing the logo just feels like another little piece of culture dying off.” The change also angered some conservatives, too, like President Donald Trump’s son.

Cracker Barrel has also been remodeling some of its 660-plus restaurants. The chain has “decluttered” the interiors by removing the country-themed trinkets that lined the walls and lightened up the interiors, shifting away from the dark woods. So far, reaction has been mixed on social media, with some videos on TikTok going viral voicing their displeasure.

Masino remains adamant that the renovations are working, telling ABC News this week that “people like what we’re doing” and that feedback has been “overwhelmingly positive.”

In June, Cracker Barrel posted an unusual earnings report for a restaurant: It’s taking a $5 million hit from tariffs because of its retail shops, which largely has products imported from overseas. Restaurant revenue and same-store sales both slightly grew, mirroring other increases casual dining chains are experiencing.

Philipsak

28 Aug 2025 - 08:50 am

While many visitors come to the area for the otherworldly landscapes of Badlands National Park, roughly 60 miles east of the city, or the wildlife viewing at Custer State Park to the south, the city offers its own unique scenery.

Rapid City borders the Black Hills to the west and prairie grasslands to the east. Rapid Creek meanders through town and an adjacent greenway connects much of the city’s 1,650 acres of park land.
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Two beloved decades-old parks — Dinosaur Park and Storybook Island — have recently been upgraded to be disability accessible. Wheelchair-friendly Dinosaur Park includes seven life-size dinosaur statues and panoramic city views. At Storybook Island, six pieces of playground equipment are wheelchair accessible and have Braille panels and sensory panels for children with autism. The park is renowned for fairy tale character playsets, an antique carousel and a miniature train. Admission to both parks is free.
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Mountain bikers and hikers favor the panoramic views from trails within the 150-acre Skyline Wilderness Area, or from spots along the more than 20 miles of trails in Hanson-Larsen Memorial Park, where M Hill pays tribute to science and engineering university South Dakota Mines. All of these trails are located within city limits.

Jason Kingsbury is a tourist-turned-resident who relocated largely because of the city’s outdoor recreation. Kingsbury is an avid camper, mountain biker and fly fisherman.

“I was absolutely blown away with how much there is to do in Rapid City,” Kingsbury said. Accessing outstanding outdoor recreation in just minutes is unique, he said.

“A lot of people do not have that experience. They can go to Memorial Park and ride world-class (trails). They can ride there from their hotel — that really impresses people,” Kingsbury said.

“What a lot of people always say is ‘I can’t believe how cool this is. I never thought South Dakota had things like this,’” he said. “They realize real quickly we’re far more than just Mount Rushmore.”

Kerrynat

28 Aug 2025 - 08:34 am

Target is in trouble. And while it’s easy to get lost in the company’s recent (poor) handling of American culture war narratives that cast it as too “woke” or too willing to cave to online fascists, the root of Target’s problems runs deep.
tripscan войти
Don’t get me wrong – the massive consumer boycotts from Black organizers have done damage. And there are probably folks on the far right who think even Target’s toned-down, overwhelmingly beige Pride merch this year was still too loud.
https://tripscan39.org
tripscan top
But its stock is in the gutter and sales have been falling for two years because of good ol’ business fundamentals. It overstocked. It lost the pulse of its customers. It went up against Amazon Prime with… actually, does anyone know what Target’s Amazon Prime competitor is called?
The brand we petite bourgeoisie once playfully referred to as Tar-zhay has lost its spark. The company reported a decline in sales for a third-straight quarter, part of a broader trend of falling or flat sales for two years. Employees have lost confidence in the company’s direction. And 2025 has been a particularly rough financially, as Black shoppers organized a boycott over Target’s decision to cave to right-wing pressure on diverse hiring goals.
Shares were down 10% Wednesday.

It’s not to say the new guy, Michael Fiddelke, is unqualified. He’s been at Target since he started as an intern more than 20 years ago, after all. But Wall Street is clearly concerned that Target’s leadership is underestimating the severity of the need for a significant change— just as President Donald Trump’s tariffs on imported goods threaten the entire retail industry.

Appointing a company lifer “does not necessarily remedy the problems of entrenched groupthink and the inward-looking mindset that have plagued Target for years,” Neil Saunders, an analyst at GlobalData Retail, said in a note to clients Wednesday.

Missing the mark
In its 2010s heyday, Target became a go-to for consumers who liked a bargain but didn’t necessarily like bargain-hunting. The shelves felt well-curated. You’d go to Target because it had one thing you needed and 12 things you didn’t know you needed. It was stocked with Millennial cringe long before Gen Z gave us the term Millennial cringe.

Target’s sales held strong through the pandemic as remote workers set up home offices and stocked up on essentials. Months of lockdown also benefited the store as people began refreshing their spaces because they didn’t really have much else to do and they were staring at the same walls all the time.

Waltersailt

28 Aug 2025 - 08:32 am

Dr. Jake Scott is on the front line of his second pandemic in five years and he is not getting much sleep.

Scott works full-time as an infectious disease physician at Stanford Health Care’s Tri-Valley hospital in Pleasanton, California. When he is done taking care of his patients and his two grade-school aged kids, he often stays up past midnight writing — furiously penning op-eds, collecting studies, leading evidence reviews and posting meaty threads on social media, most of them correcting the record on vaccines.
tripscan
Often, he’s reacting to the latest maneuvers by US Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.. A pinned post responding to one of Kennedy’s appearances on Fox News has been viewed almost 5 million times. Another post fact-checking Kennedy’s claims about potential harms from aluminum in vaccines had 1 million views in its first 48 hours. Scott’s followers on X have doubled since April.
https://trip-skan.cc
трипскан сайт
“A million views for this long-winded, very detailed, kind of nerdy breakdown of the science,” Scott said, marveling at the attention it got. “I think that’s saying something, you know? People want that information, and they deserve it,” said Scott who is 48.

The Covid-19 pandemic turned many infectious disease specialists and virologists into household names. Scott’s was not one of them, perhaps because he was too busy treating patients. He didn’t stay out of the public discourse completely, however. He was one of the first doctors to tell people that Omicron didn’t seem to be as severe an infection as earlier strains of the virus, although some virologists were skeptical at the time.

In President Donald Trump’s second administration, however, Scott is taking on what he sees as a second pandemic — misinformation and disinformation about vaccines. He knows false information can be as harmful as any virus.
“When officials spread inaccurate information about vaccines, it does have real consequences, and families make decisions based on fear rather than on facts,” Scott said.

It’s already happening. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently reported data showing kindergarten vaccination rates continue to decline, as states make it easier to opt out of school vaccination requirements. Vaccine preventable diseases like measles and whooping cough are rising again, too.

Scott knows it could get much worse.

“In 2021, nearly every single patient I lost to Covid was unvaccinated by choice, and every colleague of mine has said the same thing.”

Freddiedut

28 Aug 2025 - 08:01 am

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