We’re being told that no one was actually celebrating Charlie’s death

'Karma is sometimes swift and ironic'

'It's stupid'

'You have a huge audience'

'Channel all of the anger that we have'

There’s an old Babylonian/Biblical legal maxim that goes, “an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.” For Canadian Brent Chapman, his new maxim is “a tooth for an eye,” because he has become the first in his country ever to receive an osteo-odonto-keratoprosthesis. If your Latin is on point, you’ll realize that translates […] The post Tooth Is Implanted in 34-year-old’s Eye to Restore His Vision After Two Decades appeared first on Good News Network.

Books reading recommendations Five Artificially Layered Planets and World Cities Need More Surface Area? Why Not Build More? By James Davis Nicoll | Published on September 16, 2025 Comment 0 Share New Share Over the last century, car ownership per capita (worldwide) has soared. Indeed, in some nations, such as the United States, there are almost as many cars as people. Unbiased neutral observers such as the United Autoworkers, Ford Motors, and the International Asphalt Conglomerate1 agree that this has generally been a welcome development. It follows logically that governments should do everything in their power to facilitate continued unchecked growth in car ownership. Wreckers, cynics, and other riffraff may ask “As there is only a finite surface area on Earth, where would we park a hundred trillion cars?” Happily, there is an obvious answer. Build more Earth. Humans do this every time we construct a multistory building. A ten-story parking garage with a one-hectare footprint has effectively created nine new hectares. Why not do this for the whole of the planet? Perhaps some examples are in order. Let’s tackle them in ascending order of scale. Trantor — Foundation by Isaac Asimov All 75,000,000 square miles of Trantor’s landmasses are covered in a continuous cityscape. The city reaches a mile under the surface and well above it as well. At ten feet per level, it follows that Trantor probably provides its inhabitants with the equivalent of five or six hundred planets worth of surface area. Oddly, Trantor does not have five or six hundred planets worth of people. It has something over forty billion people. The effective population density is something like one person per square mile, which is something more than Greenland’s population density, but significantly less than Mongolia’s. What does Trantor do with all those miles and miles of empty corridor2? Fill them with row after row of filing cabinets, each one filled with Hollerith cards? Helior — Bill, The Galactic Hero by Harry Harrison Whereas Trantor ruled the galaxy, Helior rules only 11,000 worlds. However, Helior has been more diligent about Trantorforming their world, covering the entire planet—land and ocean—in a vast, resplendent city. From space, the home of 150 billion people gleams like gold, or at least like anodized aluminum. For some reason—possibly because Bill, The Galactic Hero is a comedy devoted to taking the piss out of classic SF—the novel invests more attention to the practicalities of keeping 150 billion people alive on a planet no longer suited to sustaining life. It would be a sad essay if I didn’t learn something new. What I learned today is that there is a Bill, The Galactic Hero film. Sursamen — Matter by Iain M. Banks Sursamen is one of thousands of so-called “shellworlds” constructed by the alien Involucra. Precisely why the Involucra thought this was a good idea is unclear, as the aliens are long extinct. The Iln later invested almost as much effort destroying the shellworlds. Why the Iln did this is also unknown, for they too are long extinct. Nevertheless, twelve hundred Veil shellworlds survived into the modern era. Each one has enough volume to support hundreds of unrelated civilizations, Sursamen certainly does. One could invest a lifetime exploring the interior… although as several characters discover, depending on just what long-forgotten secret one uncovers, that lifetime might be quite short. Moshi, Katazyrna, and Bhavaja — The Stars Are Legion by Kameron Hurley Moshi, Katazyrna, and Bhavaja are but three of a vast number of artificial worlds orbiting their star. Each is the size of a planet. Each world relies on extraordinarily user-unfriendly biotechnology. Each is as subject to entropy as any living thing. Each world is doomed. Readers may wonder if the human occupants of the worldships, no doubt aware of the great crisis bearing down on them, unite to find the means by which all may be saved. I regret to report that they do not. The phrase “crabs in a bucket” comes to mind. Object Lambda — Farthest Star by Frederik Pohl and Jack Williamson Object Lambda (also known as “Cuckoo”) is a study in contradictions. Although Object Lamba is more massive than Earth’s sun, its density is miniscule because the great sphere is more than 300,000,000 kilometers wide. Nevertheless, Cuckoo has a solid surface, a breathable atmosphere, and thriving ecosystems. All this is possible because Object Lamba is to Hurley’s fleet of worldships as the fleet is to Trantor or Helior. Object Lamba is a Dyson Shell, a single vast, layered artifact at the heart of which is a star. The surface ecologies are a very tiny fraction of the ecosystems supported by Object Lamba. But it’s more than just a habitat; it is an intergalactic starship whose purpose in traversing the Milky Way is unknown. These worlds are, of course, only a very small sample of the imagined layered worlds created by SFF3 authors. Perhaps I missed your favourites. Feel free to mention them in comments.[end-mark] Motto: A Completely Paved Earth by 2030! ︎Presumably there are strategically placed vending machines to sustain Trantorians as they search for other people. ︎I say “SFF” here rather than just SF because Walter Jon Williams’ Metropolitan features a world city and is fantasy. ︎The post Five Artificially Layered Planets and World Cities appeared first on Reactor.

The First Amendment clearly protects speech that falls short of incitement to violence; my speech is not responsible for your actions, nor your speech for mine. But just because people can’t be held liable for something doesn’t mean they’re not culpable. America is waking up to that fact and not a moment too soon. Derived from the Latin culpa (crime, fault, blame, or guilt), culpability conveys the idea of being blameworthy or deserving of censure. While it can be employed in a legal context, it is far more often used to imply moral responsibility. We seem to have forgotten the value of its role in society. As far as we know, there was only one person directly responsible for the heinous assassination of Charlie Kirk on a Utah university campus. And there was only one person directly responsible for the vicious murder of Iryna Zarutska on a Charlotte light rail train. Both individuals are in the hands of the justice system now and, hopefully, both will meet their just desserts. While only the murderers are liable for these two awful crimes, it’s unequivocal that many people online are culpable for them, their steady stream of irresponsible and over-the-top accusations creating a rhetorical environment that contributes to the instability of the unstable. Some are culpable for aiding and abetting the delusions (and sense of victimhood) of the unfortunate souls caught up in the transgender movement. Others are culpable for stoking racial tensions that lead Americans to mistrust one another based on the color of their skin. Still others are culpable for whatever awful act of political violence comes next as a result of tarring those with whom they disagree with accusations of “fascist,” “homophobe,” “bigot,” and “Nazi,” among others. Some are culpable for all of these and more, to the point where 15% of registered voters believe (and are, incredibly, willing to admit to a pollster) that America is better off with Charlie Kirk having been killed. That is not to suggest that lively and even heated political discourse is a bad thing (it was, ironically, something to which Charlie Kirk committed his life). It’s to suggest that responsible adults keep their words within responsible bounds, recognizing the culpability that accompanies over-the-top rhetoric. Consider a recent social media post I came across: My old man, my kid and I all fit ICE Barbie’s definition of what being “illegal” looks like. First, no human is illegal. Second, read a [G**d***] book. Although, can she read? Doubtful. Third, my dad has done more to build this country than any of those fascist clowns, combined. He is WAY more “American” than any of them. Fourth, if you hate my people and/or enable that dirty sewer rat in the White House, go kick a rock. (With all due respect to sewer rats.) Lovely, isn’t it? This post has it all, from misogyny to a straw man argument to profanity to false accusations to vile disrespect (not to mention a few eighth grade grammatical mistakes and careless typos). There are, of course, worse examples, but not many coming from a senior elected official. The post concludes, Sinceramente, Javier Martinez Speaker of the House (and “bad hombre). (Yes, this immigrant is the Speaker of the NM House. Choke on that, haters). P.S. I might be my ancestors wildest dream, but I’m also a fascist’s worst nightmare. Bring it. What are we to do with statements like this, especially coming from our highest elected officials? As his signoff indicated, Martinez meant it sincerely. It probably doesn’t technically rise to the First Amendment level of incitement; if one of his social media followers goes off and punches a “fascist clown” in the nose (or worse), it’s unlikely he would be legally liable. But would he be morally culpable? Without question. Even short of any violence that may or may not result from a post like this, it’s not helpful, especially in a state in which people are suffering from crushing poverty, dismal educational outcomes, and skyrocketing crime (for which Martinez’s party is fully culpable, having had a virtual lock on the levers of state government power for nearly a century). New Mexico is so gerrymandered that he may just not care. None of the “haters” of whom he speaks matter to his legislative majority, despite representing hundreds of thousands of people he lives among and alongside. We all know social media can be a cesspool stirred up by boys in basements and boxer shorts (not to mention bots). When posts like the one above cross my feed, I typically shake my head and move on. But rarely does something this base come from someone so elevated, though it’s becoming all too common. People in the public eye should know better. People in the public eye should do better. People in the public eye—and everyone else who has a conscience—should recognize that while liability must be something for which one is convicted, culpability can’t be escaped.  We publish a variety of perspectives. Nothing written here is to be construed as representing the views of The Daily Signal. The post Culpability Can’t Be Escaped appeared first on The Daily Signal.

Bondi to Office Depot: Bake the Cake, Or Else