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326 lines
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<title>13 September, 2022</title>
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<title>Daily-Dose</title><meta content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0" name="viewport"/><link href="styles/simple.css" rel="stylesheet"/><link href="../styles/simple.css" rel="stylesheet"/><style>*{overflow-x:hidden;}</style><link href="https://unpkg.com/aos@2.3.1/dist/aos.css" rel="stylesheet"/><script src="https://unpkg.com/aos@2.3.1/dist/aos.js"></script></head>
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<body>
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<h1 data-aos="fade-down" id="daily-dose">Daily-Dose</h1>
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<h1 data-aos="fade-right" data-aos-anchor-placement="top-bottom" id="contents">Contents</h1>
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<ul>
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<li><a href="#from-new-yorker">From New Yorker</a></li>
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<li><a href="#from-vox">From Vox</a></li>
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<li><a href="#from-the-hindu-sports">From The Hindu: Sports</a></li>
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<li><a href="#from-the-hindu-national-news">From The Hindu: National News</a></li>
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<li><a href="#from-bbc-europe">From BBC: Europe</a></li>
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<li><a href="#from-ars-technica">From Ars Technica</a></li>
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<li><a href="#from-jokes-subreddit">From Jokes Subreddit</a></li>
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</ul>
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<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-new-yorker">From New Yorker</h1>
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<ul>
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<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>How Trump Supporters Came to Hate the Police</strong> - At the Capitol riot and elsewhere, MAGA Republicans have leaped from “backing the blue” to attacking law-enforcement officials. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/how-trump-supporters-came-to-hate-the-police">link</a></p></li>
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<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>When Summer Becomes the Season of Danger and Dread</strong> - Is this the end of another summer, or the end of summer as we know it? - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/annals-of-a-warming-planet/when-summer-becomes-the-season-of-danger-and-dread">link</a></p></li>
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<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>So Many Trump Scandals, So Little Time</strong> - With the former President, the problem is not finding the outrage but deciding which one is worst. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/letter-from-bidens-washington/so-many-trump-scandals-so-little-time">link</a></p></li>
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<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>New Hampshire Primary Map: Live Election Results</strong> - The latest results from the New Hampshire primary ahead of the 2022 midterms. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/election-2022/live-midterm-results-new-hampshire">link</a></p></li>
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<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The Gospel According to Brother Jed</strong> - For fifty years, on college campuses across the country, he preached what is known as confrontational evangelism. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/afterword/the-gospel-according-to-brother-jed">link</a></p></li>
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</ul>
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<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-vox">From Vox</h1>
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<ul>
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<li><strong>Nona the Ninth features dogs, lesbians, necromantic battles, increasing levels of Catholicism</strong> -
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<figure>
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<img alt="A woman with long braided brown hair in a brown robe stands in front of an arid mountainscape, smiling serenely, with her hands open toward the viewer. On her right side is a dog and on her left is a disheveled skeleton. The title “Nona the Ninth” appears in quavering Gothic letters. Below that, a blurb says, “‘You will love Nona, and Nona loves you.’ —Alix E. Harrow.”" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/8EaUmRJqL3aOXaIBmYnxrARZvBk=/0x0:1651x1238/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/71360729/Nona_type_comp_v3.0.jpg"/>
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<figcaption>
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<em>Nona the Ninth</em> by Tamsyn Muir. | Courtesy of Tor
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</figcaption>
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</figure>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
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Tamsyn Muir’s latest sequel to Gideon the Ninth brings a vital new urgency to the Locked Tomb series.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="xycRuL">
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I have never fully understood the plot of any of the books in <a href="https://www.vox.com/culture/22266652/tamsyn-muir-interview-locked-tomb-gideon-the-ninth-harrow-the-ninth-vox-book-club">Tamsyn Muir</a>’s gutsy, gory, glorious Locked Tomb series. At this point, with the third volume <a href="https://go.skimresources.com?id=1025X1701643&xs=1&url=https%3A%2F%2Fbookshop.org%2Fbooks%2Fnona-the-ninth%2F9781250854117"><em>Nona the Ninth</em></a> in my hands and its predecessors <a href="https://www.vox.com/culture/2019/9/10/20857141/gideon-the-ninth-review-tamsyn-muir"><em>Gideon the Ninth</em></a> and <a href="https://www.vox.com/culture/2020/8/4/21352707/harrow-the-ninth-review-tamsyn-muir-gideon-the-ninth-sequel"><em>Harrow the Ninth</em></a> on my shelves, I have made up my mind not to try. Instead, I wade peacefully into every volume with the knowledge that I am going to experience some lesbian necromancers in space, and otherwise I exist in a blissful state of “head empty, just vibes.”
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="H0uP5E">
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Notable vibes of <a href="https://www.vox.com/culture/22901210/nona-the-ninth-cover-reveal-tamsyn-muir-interview-locked-tomb-series"><em>Nona the Ninth</em></a>: Dogs being good. Swordfights. A 13-year-old named Hot Sauce who’s the best cool girl gang leader you could expect to meet on any planet. Necromantic battles. A found family trying to get their sweet problem child to eat. Zombie armies. More Catholicism than you might expect! Two lesbian princes facing off. Nuclear war.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="SjpyiP">
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When the Locked Tomb series left off, our protagonists Gideon (sweet jock) and Harrow (goth princess) were in separate places, both in ambiguous states of aliveness. Harrow was deep in the purgatorial afterlife space known as the River. Gideon, who died at the end of Book One, was possessing Harrow’s body. As <em>Harrow the Ninth</em> ended, said body appeared to be in the hands of badass swordswoman and certified babe Camilla Hect, and it was unclear who was animating it.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="RE4Z7e">
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With <em>Nona the Ninth</em>, we meet the entity currently inhabiting Harrow’s body. Her name is Nona, she has no memories, and it’s unclear if she might be Harrow, Gideon, some combination of both, or someone else entirely.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="rToMmS">
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(Yes, this does mean Muir has written a second Locked Tomb book in a row in which the protagonist’s memories have been altered or erased in some way. Go with it!)
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</p>
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<aside id="sx8oDA">
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="5GhHzq">
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What we know for sure is that Nona, whose head we’re in for the bulk of this novel, is a charmer. Six months after the end of <em>Harrow</em>, she considers herself to be six months old. She is complacently vain, childishly impulsive, and passionately devoted to her adult guardians, her school friends, and dogs in equal measure. She loves butt jokes, finds both swords and bones dull, crushes madly on every particularly strong woman she crosses paths with, and can understand any language. Oh, and something mysterious and horrifying happens when she gets mad.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="kYWIW1">
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Nona is living on an unnamed planet that doesn’t appear to be a part of the necromantic Empire we’ve spent the rest of this series exploring. This planet exists in a much more straightforward universe, far closer to our contemporary world than the gothic fantasia of the Empire: a place with fast food restaurants and office buildings and absolutely no magic whatsoever. There, Nona goes about her daily life of attending school and plotting the guest list for her forthcoming one-year birthday party. (She wants to have it on the beach, and would like every dog of her acquaintance to attend, especially the one with six legs. Muir has given me her blessing to assure you that <a href="https://www.vox.com/culture/22901210/nona-the-ninth-cover-reveal-tamsyn-muir-interview-locked-tomb-series">the dog lives</a>.) In the background, dark machinations are in progress, of which Nona appears to be only half aware.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="yoh7RS">
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The refugees who flock to this planet consider necromancers to be zombies, and they live in fear of falling under zombie control. This political atmosphere makes matters difficult for Nona’s guardians, who include multiple familiar names and faces from the Empire — although said names and the faces don’t always combine in the ways we’re used to. The body-sharing of this universe is only getting more complicated! All of the guardians, however, are cooperating warily with The Blood of Eden, the militant anti-imperial group we learned of in the previous two volumes.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="gjqn7P">
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What’s going on in the Empire while Nona writes her guest list and her guardians help plot its destruction? We get a peek in that direction eventually. But before then, most of our glimpses into the Empire are looking not at its present, but at its origin. In periodic interstitials, we see John the Emperor-God in an apocalyptic dreamscape with Harrow, telling her the story of how he went from being just some guy named John to being some guy named John with godlike powers.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="GbsOTi">
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It’s here that we learn more about the key to Muir’s mythology, and the metaphor living at its heart. That metaphor is both more Catholic and more current than the rest of this series let on, and it comes together with such tenderness and urgency that it could, like a Lyctor on a rampage, rip the heart right out of you.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="W27dKo">
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Then Nona, who urgently demands to express her love to everyone she has ever met, will bring your heart back to life again.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="SrkFFl">
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<em>Nona the Ninth</em> is a deceptive book: Its sweetness hides teeth, and then its teeth hide more sweetness. As long as you go in without expecting fancy things like being able to understand every detail of the action in a literal and straightforward way, it will treat you right.
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</p></li>
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<li><strong>Congress may force election deniers to get a lot more creative</strong> -
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<figure>
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<img alt="A photo illustration against a red background shows one hand, in color, trying to put a piece of paper into a grayscale ballot box with another hand, in gray, reaching up from the box to pull the paper down." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/Co4VRbsSA-tfOJQP5HK-XbI2Fis=/225x0:1576x1013/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/71360280/electoral_board_3.0.jpg"/>
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<figcaption>
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Christina Animashaun/Vox
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</figcaption>
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</figure>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
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How a few election law fixes could protect democracy in 2024.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="D6Allh">
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The human mind is ingenious. It can create towering works of art and make remarkable scientific discoveries. It is, as we saw in the aftermath of the 2020 presidential election, also capable of inventing new ways to undermine American democracy by abusing our existing election laws, and turning orderly presidential elections into anarchy and chaos.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="pK8Via">
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It’s beyond the ken of lawmakers, or perhaps anyone, to try to sniff out every potential avenue for havoc. But they can fix obvious defects in presidential elections once they have been exploited.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="crw36r">
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The <a href="https://www.vox.com/2022/7/22/23274312/electoral-count-act-congress-election-january-6">Electoral Count Reform Act</a> currently before the Senate is an effort to do that, fitting into a long history of legislative action following a breakdown in the existing laws. It’s not a bold reinvention of the American electoral system, but a series of bureaucratic reforms, requiring careful legal craftwork, intended to patch frays and holes in the <a href="https://www.govinfo.gov/app/collection/uscode">United States Code</a>. To do that, it updates antiquated language, clarifies contested issues, and streamlines the process to follow if a once-in-a-century political crisis occurs.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="IaAMZ6">
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The new legislation is not intended as a foolproof fix to avoid future issues — after all, who could have predicted that a mob featuring a man in a Viking costume would storm the Capitol chanting “hang Mike Pence”? But it does eliminate <a href="https://gen.medium.com/all-your-paranoid-questions-about-the-electoral-college-certification-answered-7b636f6af314">many of the ambiguities</a> exploited by Trump and his allies in the 2020 election and ensures that anyone intent on trying to reverse a presidential election in the future will have to rely on their own ingenuity, and not the road map of 2020.
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</p>
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<h3 id="CuzzgN">
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2020 was not the first presidential election to almost plunge the country into chaos
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</h3>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="jRKc9v">
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There have been two elections before 2020 that stretched American institutions to the breaking point.
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The first was the presidential election of 1800. Then, under the system originally adopted by the founders, the first-place finisher in the Electoral College became president, and the second-place finisher became vice president. The problem was that political parties had emerged since the Constitution was adopted, and by then, presidential and vice presidential candidates were running as a ticket. The Democratic-Republican presidential nominee, Thomas Jefferson, ended up finishing in a tie with his running mate, vice presidential nominee Aaron Burr, after a miscommunication prevented a single Democratic-Republican elector from dropping Burr from his ballot as planned.
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Pf5gAA">
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The deadlocked election was thrust into the lame-duck House of Representatives, then controlled by the opposition Federalist Party, for a vote that, for Federalists, meant selecting between the lesser of the two evils. It took 36 ballots, the continued passivity of Burr, and the intervention of Alexander Hamilton in Jefferson’s favor to finally produce a result.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="OTBES3">
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To prevent any repeats of that scenario, <a href="https://constitutioncenter.org/the-constitution/amendments/amendment-xii">the 12th Amendment</a> was passed before the next presidential election. It separated the selection of the president and vice president in the Electoral College.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="LAbHzY">
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The 12th Amendment created the basic framework governing presidential elections that is still used today. But it was the election of 1876 that prompted lawmakers to create a framework for how a disputed election is decided.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="w9qid8">
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In that election, Democrat Samuel Tilden and Republican Rutherford B. Hayes both claimed victory in three states: Florida, Louisiana, and South Carolina. There was also a separate dispute over a single electoral vote in Oregon. All three Southern states, where federal troops remained to implement Reconstruction, were riven with claims of fraud and violence. The Electoral College tally sat at 184-165 for Tilden before those states were decided, meaning if Tilden was awarded a single electoral vote from any of those states, he’d become president. But if Hayes won all 20 contested electoral votes in those states, he would win.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="2sVm4F">
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Tilden’s Democrats controlled the House, Hayes’s Republicans controlled the Senate, and with no clear legal or constitutional guidance for how to handle such a dispute, there was total gridlock. In an attempt to break it, an Electoral Commission was created to determine who won each state. Five members were appointed each from the House, the Senate, and the Supreme Court, consisting of seven Republicans, seven Democrats, and one independent, Supreme Court Justice David Davis. This set off maneuvering by partisans across the country to game the commission and break the gridlock.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="D8x7y1">
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In an attempt to persuade Davis, the Democratic-controlled Illinois state legislature elected him to the Senate. That backfired: Davis stepped down from the commission and was replaced by Joseph Bradley, a Republican Supreme Court justice. Every question before the commission was then decided on an 8-7 vote, with the Republicans and Hayes winning.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="IPlrnN">
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This didn’t exactly inspire confidence from Democrats, who howled that the election was being stolen. The eventual resolution was the informal agreement now known as the Compromise of 1877, a deal struck just two days before inauguration that contained key concessions to Southern Democrats in exchange for Democrats accepting Hayes’s victory. They included formally pulling all federal troops out of the South, ending Reconstruction.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="tC9G84">
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In the aftermath of the 1876 fiasco, Congress passed the Electoral Count Act, putting procedures in place to arbitrate future election disputes. Although the language of the legislation is <a href="https://medium.com/gen/all-your-most-paranoid-transfer-of-power-questions-answered-5db70d32373">notoriously confusing</a>, the United States avoided a similar crisis for over a century after its passage.
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</p>
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<h3 id="T2Icff">
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The 21st-century Electoral College breakdown
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</h3>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="m5sF3v">
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Ned Foley, an election law expert and professor at the Moritz School of Law at Ohio State University, described the situation in 1876 as the model for what Trump lawyers like <a href="https://www.vox.com/2022/6/16/23171707/january-6-committee-hearing-pence-trump-day-three">John Eastman</a> and <a href="https://www.vox.com/2022/6/13/23166193/congress-house-committee-trump-capitol-giuliani-january-6-hearing">Rudy Giuliani</a> were trying to accomplish in 2020 with their plan to manipulate the Electoral College process to reverse Joe Biden’s win. The difference, as he put it, was that “there was a genuine fight and both sides had a plausible claim” that they had won in 1876. In contrast, Trump’s lawyers were “simply willing to fabricate an alternate reality.”
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="IWBtnC">
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Even before the 2020 election, scholars worried that the Electoral Count Act would not provide sufficient protections if there was a legitimate dispute about electoral returns. The efforts to overturn Biden’s victory showed how inadequate it was even when there wasn’t a legitimate dispute.
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</p>
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The attempts to overturn the 2020 election ranged from efforts to recruit slates of fake electors in states Biden won to the effort to persuade Mike Pence that he could unilaterally toss out electoral votes as president of the Senate. Yet they all exposed potential loopholes in existing law that could be exploited by those seeking to overturn an election. Those efforts could have been successful if undertaken in a more competent manner, or with elected officials who were more inclined to be cooperative.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="5l1ZpT">
|
|||
|
|
The <a href="https://www.vox.com/22173990/electoral-college-trump-biden-stephen-miller">fake elector effort</a> was an attempt to trigger an 1876-type crisis by forcing Congress to decide between two competing sets of returns from competitive states. However, the process was so bungled and so lacking in any validity or political support from key players that it did not come to fruition. It’s one thing for fake electors to be backed by a sitting governor or by a majority of a state legislative chamber. This would give them a veneer of plausibility, and Trump’s team did try hard to pressure officials into giving them such support. They largely held out, and in the end, being backed by <a href="https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2021/01/frank-colon-who-mike-lindell-wants-for-a-coup-is-confused.html">the MyPillow guy</a> just didn’t have enough political or legal impact.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="tbF6II">
|
|||
|
|
The other effort to exploit the ECA was the one to persuade Pence to throw out electoral votes. It was a last-ditch effort to unilaterally reject certified electoral votes for Biden from certain states. If pro-Trump electoral votes could not be manufactured, this could at least invalidate enough Biden votes to throw the race into a joint session of Congress.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="hkcfq4">
|
|||
|
|
Foley described a nightmare scenario that he found plausible given there are election deniers on the ballot in a number of key states this year. In his hypothetical, fervent election denier and Trump ally Kari Lake, the GOP gubernatorial nominee in Arizona, wins her race and Republicans end up in control of one chamber of Congress. It would be possible under current law to force the joint session of Congress to accept an election result that would be “contrary to the true vote and contrary to court orders” if a governor like Lake decided to certify a false election result and one chamber of Congress went along.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<h3 id="vQfwhJ">
|
|||
|
|
How the ECRA will patch the holes
|
|||
|
|
</h3>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="BgWJ37">
|
|||
|
|
The bipartisan proposal put forward by Sens. Joe Manchin (D-WV) and Susan Collins (R-ME) this summer serves to plug a number of the obvious holes in the process. It makes clear that the vice president’s role in the certification of the Electoral College votes is purely ministerial and that the vice president cannot unilaterally toss out electoral votes, as Trump lawyers advocated in 2021.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="AkfAEg">
|
|||
|
|
It also makes it more difficult for a member of Congress to object to an election’s certification and prompt the joint session of Congress to break up to debate individual state returns, as happened twice on January 6, 2021. Currently, an objection from only one member of the House and one senator is required, making it easy to plunge a joint session into gridlock. The bill would raise the threshold for objection to 20 percent of each chamber to make it harder for a single senator — with a legitimate concern, on a whim, or making a political calculation — to throw a wrench into the process.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="d8lVlv">
|
|||
|
|
The proposed legislation also requires states to abide by laws before the election and gets rid of a law dating back to 1845 that could allow states to declare “a failed election,” instead ensuring that the date of the presidential election remains fixed save for “extraordinary or catastrophic events.”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="lC3aHt">
|
|||
|
|
It also puts in place a process for a state to submit a single slate of electors, certified by the governor, to avoid conflicting returns. Most importantly, it also provides for an expedited judicial review process in federal court if things go wrong, such as in the Lake scenario cited by Foley. He noted that this judicial review process is the key aspect of the bill. “The most important thing about the bill is [it establishes that the] basic principle is that what courts decide controls” the outcome, he told Vox.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="mZdLWJ">
|
|||
|
|
While establishing that principle is important, the legislation is not perfect. One of the flaws of this process is that “there is always the danger of fighting the last war,” as Rick Hasen, an election law professor at UCLA Law School, told Vox. After all, while this clarifies the role of the vice president in the process, no one seems concerned that Kamala Harris would somehow hijack the certification process in 2025.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="UICUxz">
|
|||
|
|
There are also various technical aspects of the bill that scholars suggested could be improved that are likely to be added to the bill before it reaches the Senate floor. And while the ECRA doesn’t fix everything, it also isn’t the only proposal.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Zj18DX">
|
|||
|
|
<a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2022/8/12/23301904/liz-cheney-wyoming-donald-trump-gop">Reps. Liz Cheney</a> (R-WY) and Zoe Lofgren (D-CA), both members of <a href="https://www.vox.com/23268754/january-6-committee-trump-liz-cheney">the January 6 Committee</a>, are also <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2022/07/26/electoral-count-act-senate-efforts-00047809">working on House legislation</a> to fix the Electoral Count Act. But the point agreed on by all who want to see election reforms is that something needs to be done. No legislation will perfectly close every loophole and constrain the behavior of every bad actor. But it will make any effort to overturn the election in 2024 significantly more difficult than it was in 2020.
|
|||
|
|
</p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li><strong>How “Spider-Verse” forced animation to evolve</strong> -
|
|||
|
|
<figure>
|
|||
|
|
<img alt="" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/oMSSKr_DqNOL7bl88f8uhVTXhKM=/240x0:1680x1080/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/71358656/VDC_POP_083_nonphotoreal_rendering_explained_CleanThumb.0.jpg"/>
|
|||
|
|
</figure>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
Non-photorealistic rendering has opened up an alternative to the ubiquitous “Pixar look.”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="aLGmqh">
|
|||
|
|
When you think of CGI animated films, you likely think of Pixar. The studio practically invented the genre with 1995’s <em>Toy Story</em> — the first animated feature film made via computer-generated imagery.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<figure class="e-image">
|
|||
|
|
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/KwvXddqKIOvy6j2sccIzfnjoRFA=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24017108/image__2_.png"/> <cite>Pixar</cite>
|
|||
|
|
<figcaption>
|
|||
|
|
Buzz points his laser at Woody in <em>Toy Story</em>.
|
|||
|
|
</figcaption>
|
|||
|
|
</figure>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="FecGkG">
|
|||
|
|
After Toy Story, almost all animation studios wanted to follow in Pixar’s successful footsteps, all the way down to their style. Many studios sought out “the Pixar look”: extremely high quality, physically based, and in some cases almost photorealistic.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="MpqOnl">
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<figure class="e-image">
|
|||
|
|
<img alt="Bo Peep and Woody in Toy Story 4." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/BO4yd2T7MLX8fac65B27nwlN7Ow=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24017126/image.png"/> <cite>Toy Story 4, Pixar</cite>
|
|||
|
|
<figcaption>
|
|||
|
|
To achieve this realistic look for the background, the Pixar team modeled their virtual camera lenses on real Cooke lenses.
|
|||
|
|
</figcaption>
|
|||
|
|
</figure>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="LbphYs">
|
|||
|
|
It’s an appealing approach that remains popular at the box office, but animated movies started looking kind of homogeneous. And while studios and independent artists tested out more stylized approaches in short films, no studio would commit to a feature-length animated movie that looked too different.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="fb85Dj">
|
|||
|
|
That is, until Sony Pictures/Imageworks took on <em>Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse</em>. Instead of chasing the look everyone else was after, the team wanted to create something visually new. They did it with non-photorealistic rendering.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<figure class="e-image">
|
|||
|
|
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/AtS9Ax8w-o0-zPCMcQPNZAzLwjM=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24017136/image__1_.png"/> <cite>Sony Pictures Animation</cite>
|
|||
|
|
<figcaption>
|
|||
|
|
Spider-Gwen, Miles Morales, and Peter B. Parker in <em>Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse.</em>
|
|||
|
|
</figcaption>
|
|||
|
|
</figure>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="WXjHyP">
|
|||
|
|
And since <em>Spider-Verse</em>, non-photorealism has taken off, with almost every studio set to incorporate it in the next five years. Check out our video to learn more about how non-photorealism works.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="RPLhdD">
|
|||
|
|
You can find this video and more <a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLXo7UDZvByw2ixzpQCufnA"><strong>on Vox’s YouTube Channel</strong></a>.
|
|||
|
|
</p></li>
|
|||
|
|
</ul>
|
|||
|
|
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-the-hindu-sports">From The Hindu: Sports</h1>
|
|||
|
|
<ul>
|
|||
|
|
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Champions League | Lewandowski’s Barcelona faces Bayern, downbeat Liverpool takes on Ajax</strong> - Off to a great start with Barcelona, Robert Lewandowski is back in Germany to face former team Bayern Munich, with both teams coming off opening wins</p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Rubert, Nightjar, Turf Beauty, Priceless Ruler and Pense’e shine</strong> -</p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Philosophy, Ascoval, Shubankar, Ravishing Form and Prince Abbess shine</strong> -</p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Snowfall, Soup And Sandwich and House Of Lords impress</strong> -</p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Five things we learned from the 2022 summer transfer window</strong> - With Roma rising from its ruins, some last-minute snatches, and doubled-down contracts in an inflated transfer market, football is changing fast</p></li>
|
|||
|
|
</ul>
|
|||
|
|
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-the-hindu-national-news">From The Hindu: National News</h1>
|
|||
|
|
<ul>
|
|||
|
|
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>KSDMA to take a closer look at gustnadoes</strong> - Bid to see whether these extremely localised events can be forecast</p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Vizianagaram Utsav to be held from Oct. 9 to 11</strong> - Event to highlight the history of the pre-British era cultural and educational hub</p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>‘Arvind Advertisement Party’: Congress digs at AAP over ads in Gujarat by Punjab government</strong> - Congress alleged that the Bhagwant Mann-led Punjab government is unable to pay salaries of employees but spent Rs 36 crore in two months on advertisements in Gujarat</p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Probe begins into death of stray dogs in Moolakkulam</strong> - Deaths due to suspected poisoning</p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>BJP member Eatala Rajender suspended from House</strong> - He was charged with disrespecting the Chair in his comments outside the House</p></li>
|
|||
|
|
</ul>
|
|||
|
|
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-bbc-europe">From BBC: Europe</h1>
|
|||
|
|
<ul>
|
|||
|
|
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Ukraine war: We’ve retaken 6,000 sq km from Russia, says Zelensky</strong> - President Volodymyr Zelensky says the gains were made in the east and south during a swift counter-offensive.</p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Armenia-Azerbaijan: Dozens dead in overnight clashes</strong> - Armenia’s prime minister says 49 soldiers died in the latest fighting between the neighbouring countries.</p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Jean-Luc Godard: Legendary French film director dies at 91</strong> - The New Wave director rewrote cinema’s rules and influenced film-makers from Scorsese to Tarantino.</p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Jean-Luc Godard: Nine things about the man who remade cinema</strong> - In a prolific career, Jean-Luc Godard, has provoked, baffled, delighted and inspired.</p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Channel migrants: Crossings in 2022 now exceed whole of 2021</strong> - A total of 28,592 people have crossed the Channel so far this year, compared to 28,526 in 2021.</p></li>
|
|||
|
|
</ul>
|
|||
|
|
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-ars-technica">From Ars Technica</h1>
|
|||
|
|
<ul>
|
|||
|
|
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Google’s cost-cutting kills Pixelbook division</strong> - Google hasn’t made a laptop in 3 years and won’t be making one any time soon. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1880622">link</a></p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Ubisoft is pretending it was never really that interested in NFTs</strong> - “We’ll see if [NFT]s really answer the players’ needs,” CEO says. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1880695">link</a></p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Meta spins off PyTorch Foundation to make AI framework vendor-neutral</strong> - PyTorch, which powers Tesla Autopilot and 150K other projects, will join the Linux Foundation. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1880604">link</a></p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Apple releases iOS 15.7 for old devices and people who don’t want iOS 16 yet</strong> - Apple’s past and present OSes are all getting updates today. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1880637">link</a></p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The 103 classic games that did, and didn’t, make the Atari 50 anniversary cut</strong> - Retailer leak suggests games from arcade to Jaguar; surprises apparently still await. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1880536">link</a></p></li>
|
|||
|
|
</ul>
|
|||
|
|
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-jokes-subreddit">From Jokes Subreddit</h1>
|
|||
|
|
<ul>
|
|||
|
|
<li><strong>Three logicians walk into a bar.</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
|
|||
|
|
<div class="md">
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
The barkeeper asks: “Do you all want beer?”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
The first one answers: “I don’t know.”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
The second one answers: “I don’t know.”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
The third one answers: “Yes!”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
</div>
|
|||
|
|
<!-- SC_ON -->
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/calcu10n"> /u/calcu10n </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/xcyjks/three_logicians_walk_into_a_bar/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/xcyjks/three_logicians_walk_into_a_bar/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li><strong>Now that the Queen has died, you no longer receive a letter from her when you turn 100…</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
|
|||
|
|
<div class="md">
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
You’ll now receive a text from Prince Andrew when you turn 13
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
</div>
|
|||
|
|
<!-- SC_ON -->
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/revorg-"> /u/revorg- </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/xd2fcq/now_that_the_queen_has_died_you_no_longer_receive/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/xd2fcq/now_that_the_queen_has_died_you_no_longer_receive/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li><strong>My woman asked me “which one do you like best, my beautiful face or my gorgeous body?</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
|
|||
|
|
<div class="md">
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
To which I replied: “your self-confidence”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
</div>
|
|||
|
|
<!-- SC_ON -->
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/metttii"> /u/metttii </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/xcf8ej/my_woman_asked_me_which_one_do_you_like_best_my/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/xcf8ej/my_woman_asked_me_which_one_do_you_like_best_my/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li><strong>A woman in labour suddenly shouts out “wouldn’t, couldn’t, didn’t, can’t”</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
|
|||
|
|
<div class="md">
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
“Don’t worry”, the doctor replies, “they’re just contractions”.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
</div>
|
|||
|
|
<!-- SC_ON -->
|
|||
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/AutumnalAristocrat"> /u/AutumnalAristocrat </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/xco6k5/a_woman_in_labour_suddenly_shouts_out_wouldnt/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/xco6k5/a_woman_in_labour_suddenly_shouts_out_wouldnt/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
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<li><strong>The contact lens is mans greatest invention</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
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At least in my eyes
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/WarDrumsGaming"> /u/WarDrumsGaming </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/xd0751/the_contact_lens_is_mans_greatest_invention/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/xd0751/the_contact_lens_is_mans_greatest_invention/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
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</ul>
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