Since 1967, Israel has imposed tight restrictions on travel and essential goods such as food, fuel, medicine, and water in its occupied territories. In 2007, those restrictions became even tighter in Gaza after Hamas seized power there. Since then, it has been nearly impossible for Palestinians to leave Gaza or to access an adequate supply of essential goods.
Joy Reid commentary on Israel bombing Gaza in the Israel-Hamas war is right on. She provides historical context of US involvement in the conflict and region including our ineffective, misguided response to 9-11, attacking Iraq and Afghanistan.
US foreign policy in the region and this conflict designed to increase violence and destabilize. It’s criminal.
The Middle East conflict between Israel and Hamas is dividing the world. “Given that these bombings are being done using our tax dollars, perhaps we should ask some questions.”
Predictably Apple’s line-up of Macs continues to be confused and overly complex. I mean, jeesh, now we have M1, M2 and M3 Macs not to mention some of those are Pro, Max and Ultra. Just so confusing.
Who needs all these choices? Ridiculous.
I hope all the podcasters/pundits can make sense of this mess.
Amid growing alarm that more Israeli airstrikes will hit hospitals in Gaza, we speak with two physicians about Gaza’s medical system and Israel’s orders to evacuate key hospitals. Dr. Mads Gilbert, who has helped provide emergency trauma care in Gaza for over four decades, condemns Israel for using allegations of military activity to attack civilian hospitals without proof. “This is all part of this immense intimidation of the Palestinian people in Gaza.”
“This Has to Stop”: Doctors Denounce Israel’s Targeting of Gaza Hospitals - YouTube
We bring you the voices of Jewish Voice for Peace and their allies who shut down the main terminal of Grand Central Station during rush hour Friday in one of New York's largest acts of civil disobedience in 20 years to demand a ceasefire in Gaza. The multiracial, intergenerational movement says about 400 people were arrested, including rabbis, famous actors and elected officials from the New York State Assembly and Senate and the City Council.
After a few years of record-breaking temperatures and extreme weather events, Ripple’s experience is a sign of how climate scientists — who once refrained from entering the public fray — are now using strident language to describe the warming planet. References to “climate emergency” and “climate crisis,” once used primarily by activist groups like the U.K.-based Extinction Rebellion or the U.S.-based Sunrise Movement, are spiking in the academic literature.
To a growing number of scientists, climate change is an ‘emergency’ - The Washington Post
Dr. Gabor Maté shares his reflections on Israel/Palestine including recent tragic events on and following October 7th, 2023. This conversation was recorded on October 28, 2023, and was facilitated by Hannah Maté. Please be mindful to engage in respectful discourse in the comments amidst inevitable political disagreement on this subject matter. Resources - Cited in Video: Places to donate: The Palestinian Children’s Relief Fund Dror Israel
Description of video has a list of suggested resources and books including: The Birth of Israel: Myths and Realities by Simha Flapan Gaza: An Inquest Into Its Martyrdom by Norman Finkelstein The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine by Ilan Pappé Dr. Gabor Maté on Israel/Palestine - YouTube
“In six days the government of Israel dropped more bombs in the small concentrated are of Gaza than the United States had dropped in an entire year in the entire country of Afghanistan.” - Source: Washington Post
My take: The indiscriminate killing of children and adult civilian Palestinians in Gaza is a war crime and genocide. The target is not Hamas. Israel is razing the entirety of Gaza.
Updates on #CeasefireNOW| Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez - YouTube
I've been enjoying my time on the trails this past week. So much color and the fragrance of autumn is overwhelming at times. Fantastic. These woods are home.
We speak with philosopher Judith Butler, one of dozens of Jewish American writers and artists who signed an open letter to President Biden calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza. “We should all be standing up and objecting and calling for an end to genocide,” says Butler of the Israeli assault. “Until Palestine is free … we will continue to see violence. We will continue to see this structural violence producing this kind of resistance.”
“The majority of Americans see some fairly severe environmental harms as likely to happen over the next 30 years,” says Alec Tyson of the Pew Research Center, who helped lead the survey. “For example, 73% say they think a growing number of plant and animal species will go extinct, 61% say they think heat waves will cause large numbers of people to die in the U.S. every year and 58% think rising sea levels will force large numbers of people in the U.S. to move away from the coast.”
Reality slowly setting in.
Americans expect climate impacts to worsen, survey finds : NPR
A note: This post started as reply to Jason's excellent post about the iPad being his computer again. I decided to turn my reply into a blog post instead.
In his post Jason focuses on three key attributes of the iPad that he feels are important: Simplicity, familiarity, and flexibility. Though I agree with those points I wanted to focus on flexibility as that's what I find most draws me to the iPad. In online discussion the iPad is often compared to laptops, usually Mac laptops. This makes sense given that a tablet is thought of as a mobile device. But as Jason points out, attach an iPad to an external display, keyboard, trackpad or mouse and it starts to feel like a desktop. Add a hub and a couple of attached drives for a more complete desktop replacement as needed.
For the past few days I've been using the iPad in the Twelve South HoverBar Duo clamped to my little wooden lap desk. Still very portable in my house but not in the way a laptop is. This wouldn't be a solution for a coffee shop, but in-house, it's excellent! I can sit at my desk with it or I can recline back in a chair or couch. The HoverBar Duo lets me raise, lower, swivel or move it closer or further away. Far more options than I'd get in a laptop configuration or even with the stand that I often use. Not only do I have more variability in position but it frees up more space for the keyboard/trackpad/mouse. Lastly, this is more stable than the iPad in a stand on the same lap desk. Back around 2004 Apple sold the G4 iMac which had the arm mounted screen. This feels like that only it's portable!
I think this modularity of the tablet as a display that contains the computer and its own power source really speaks to the strength of the iPad. Agreed with Brandon that it is something different. It absolutely is. But I consider it a better laptop than a MacBook and a better desktop than a MacMini! Better? Yes, absolutely. Because in addition to the free-form modularity of the iPad, I also have a touch screen and built in internet. In other words, in terms of hardware, there is no doubt the iPad Pro is an equally powerful computer (given the existence of the M2 Pro, Max and Ultra processors this is only true to a point) but is also the more flexible option.
Four years ago the argument that the Mac was the better, more complete computer was a stronger argument than it is today due to the limitations of iPadOS. But since then important features have been added to iPadOS. Full cursor support for trackpads and mice, a greatly improved Files app, additional windowing options with Stage Manager and, on M1 iPads, full external display support being the most notable.
No, the iPad is still not a Mac and that's for the better. macOS will always be the more complex, higher-maintenance operating system from the user perspective. But with each year iPadOS becomes more capable while retaining ease of use options for those that prefer or need simplicity. In other words, just as the hardware is more flexible, so to is iPadOS becoming more flexible. Unlike macOS, iPadOS starts with the easy to use, simple tablet experience. But for users that want a more advanced computing experience, the options are there waiting to be turned on.
Just the last few years, a brief glimpse of the violence of occupation and apartheid supported by the US.
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) has been tracking deaths in the conflict since 2008 and its data shows that 5,600 Palestinians died up to 2020 while 115,000 were injured. 250 Israelis died during the same period while 5,600 were injured.
Chart: The Human Cost Of The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict | Statista
Israel says it has refused visa to UN official to ‘teach them a lesson’
Israel refuses to admit to the violence of its ongoing occupation and apartheid. As called out by the UN Secretary-General addressing the UN:
The attack on Israel did not happen “in a vacuum” and followed “56 years of suffocating occupation” for the Palestinian people by Israel, adding “They have seen their land steadily devoured by settlements and plagued by violence; their economy stifled; their people displaced and their homes demolished. Their hopes for a political solution to their plight have been vanishing.”
“Due to his remarks we will refuse to issue visas to UN representatives. We have already refused a visa for under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs Martin Griffiths. The time has come to teach them a lesson.”
Israel has called on UN secretary general Guterres to resign after he said that the“appalling attacks” by Hamas against Israel on 7 October cannot justify the “collective punishment of the Palestinian people”, and spoke of “the clear violations of international humanitarian law that we are witnessing in Gaza.”
Guterres had said “Nothing can justify the deliberate killing, injuring and kidnapping of civilians – or the launching of rockets against civilian targets. All hostages must be treated humanely and released immediately and without conditions.”
From my morning walk a couple days ago. Such sweet pups.
In recent years, human rights organizations and legal experts have increasingly described Israel’s policies toward Palestinians as apartheid…
Apartheid, a term originating from the South African government’s systematic oppression of Black residents, is a crime against humanity under international law. At its core, it refers to policies intended to elevate one racial group over another, with the goal of maintaining the dominant group’s hegemony.
The argument that Israel practices apartheid, explained - Vox
The Mac lineup is so confusing!
I have concerns. Have you noticed how complicated the Mac line-up has become? It’s so perplexing. I mean, first, there’s both desktops and laptops. But it get’s worse, each of those categories is a huge mess.
On the portable side, we have three models of MacBook Air. So confusing that Apple’s keeping the older M1 Air and now we have two screen sizes of MacBook Air. As if that’s not bad enough there’s three screen sizes of MacBook Pro. It’s bananas! And don’t get me started on all these different chips! The regular M2, the M2 Pro and the M2 Max? My head is spinning. And what’s up with that 13" that still has the Touchbar, older Retina display and FaceTime camera. Somebody steady the room, I’m so disoriented.
But no, dear reader, the lunacy doesn’t stop there! The desktop lineup adds to this chaos! Four Mac desktops?! Four???? An iMac, a Mini, a Studio and a Pro. Has Cook and Company lost its collective mind?? I mean, one of these has a built in screen and still runs on the old M1. The other three don’t have monitors and come in such a range of processors that I’ll need a nap before I can even think about trying to understand.
The Mini has an M2 and an M2 Pro, the Studio has a Max and an Ultra, the Mac Pro is confusingly a Pro but has an Ultra processor. Oh my, the water is deep and I can’t keep my head above water. Somebody help me through this complex and confusing line-up!
And we haven’t even begun to grapple with the array of accessories. I can’t possibly do that in this post. It’s all so confusing.
Apple, please, this is too many choices. Please for the love of all that we hold dear, make it make sense. All we need is a simple 2x grid, let’s call it a column. In the top box you’ll offer Desktop Mac and in the bottom box you’ll offer a Laptop Mac.
Thanks Apple!