literature.cafe

English/German as always. Expand for all embedded pics+text

My former cats Lilly and Koda are visiting over the holidays. Lilly is really fond of Koda and shows much affection towards him. He wouldn't tell but he loves her, too. When I'm not watching he loves starting play-fights. She is a tough kitten and doesn't give him an inch.

Die schöne Lilly und der flauschige Koda fahren heute nach Hause

Meine ehemaligen Katzen Lilly und Koda sind über die Feiertage zu Besuch. Lilly liebt Koda offensichtlich, Koda hingegen würde niemals offen zu erkennen geben dass er sie auch liebt. Er fängt nur dann an mit ihr zu spielen, wenn niemand hinschaut. Sie ist ne äußerst robuste Katze und gibt ihm ordentlich Kontra.

He is much older than Lilly (11 vs. 3 y/o) and his favourite thing is just to stay in bed all day.

Er ist viel älter als Lilly (11/3 Jahre) und seine Lieblingsbeschäftigung ist es faul da zu flacken.

I love having them around temporarily as she is really greatful, always purring while I'm playing with her. Every change of location takes Koda a few grumpy days until he finally opens up and wants intense cuddles.

Ich liebe es die beiden übergangsmäßig hier zu haben da sie wirklich sehr dankbar ist und während man mit ihr spielt die ganze Zeit schnurrt. Jeder Ortswechsel missfällt Koda, sodass er ein paar Tage braucht um aufzutauen aber dann intensive Krauleinheiten braucht.

Meanwhile my cat Miez (Koda's sister) will be happy to have them leave as she doesn't get along with her brother due to him always teasing her. I keep them separated at all times.

Meine Katze Miez hingegen wird froh sein wenn die beiden weg sind. Sie kommt nicht mit ihrem Bruder Koda klar da er sie ständig ärgern will. Ich halte sie stets getrennt.

Enjoying watching Pats pay for the sins of their past at the hands of Chargers.

I've always pronounced the word "Southern" to rhyme with howthurn. I know most people say it like "suthurn" instead. I didn't realize that the way I pronounce it is considered weird until recently!

The rise of Donald Trump aroused in me an old fear of Senator Joseph McCarthy. Both McCarthy and Trump rose to power as demagogues who fed on the American public’s fear of “enemies within”. My family had cause to fear on the biggest of these counts: my parents were communists from an early age, although they had quit the party in 1939 after Hitler’s pact with Stalin. In the heyday of US power, families such as mine were persecuted for a cause in which they no longer believed. We developed ways to avoid or resist persecution that worked pretty well, and I think these help to illuminate the combat that is to come with Trumpism.

Some connections between McCarthy and Trump are straightforward, both having been charismatic performers with a base of willing believers, both exploiting patriotism, both making up “facts” on the spur of the moment. There is a personal bridge between the two men that is a little more complicated, and perhaps more revealing. The lawyer and fixer Roy Cohn served as McCarthy’s chief counsel and later as an adviser to the young Donald Trump. Cohn was an expert in the techniques of public humiliation, of firing people and of surveilling private lives. Cohn suggested to McCarthy, for instance, to wave lists of hundreds of foreign infiltrators and communist spies in front of a gullible press – lists that proved to be blank sheets of paper. Cohn counselled Trump on how to bribe and intimidate New York politicians when the young property mogul encountered rough weather in business. The Roy Cohn who later featured in Tony Kushner’s play Angels in America was an accurate picture of the real, combative but self-hating man. Though Cohn died of an Aids-related illness in 1986, he denied to the end that he was gay and seemingly sought to appease his inner demons by aggressing others.

She's such a good old girl.

Artist: Ohisashiburi | fediverse | pixiv | twitter | danbooru

The title pretty much says it! I'd like to explore that idea a little and would love to hear y'all's recommendations. This thought was originally inspired by lord of the rings, but I'm also currently on a little nostalgia trip by reading The Sea of Trolls and the soft magic system in that is pretty fun

Paywalled, as someone pointed out. Apologies. There is a summary video here on YT

This year, in the ongoing series “Health Care’s Colossus,” STAT documented how UnitedHealth wielded its unrivaled physician empire to boost its profits and expand its influence. The year before, in the “Denied by AI” series, STAT exposed how UnitedHealth used an unregulated algorithm to override clinicians’ judgments and deny health care, highlighting the dangers of AI use in medicine.

They show how UnitedHealth has turned health care into an assembly line that treats millions of patients as products to be monetized. And they chronicle how the $5 trillion American health care system came to be so broken.

These are the folks who discovered their AI algorithm and their reporting brought their fuckery to our collective attention

(openmn793) (2024)

Image description: A dark, armored knight with a cape and glowing blue sword, hunched over in a dimly lit, ruined castle. The blue flames on the sword match with two bright pyres in the background which cast a smoky, ethereal light, enhancing the eerie atmosphere.

The lawsuit alleges that the company makes products that can be used to break the state’s speed limits for e-bikes.

cross-posted from: https://lemm.ee/post/51025951