A determined Lab has found a new home in Georgia after galloping alongside a doggie daycare bus until he won over the driver and found a new home. In Franklin County, the story begins when the driver of the ‘pup bus’ was doing his rounds to bring clients’ dogs to daycare. Coming to a house […] The post Stray Pup Chases a Doggie Day-Care Bus and Gets Adopted appeared first on Good News Network.

News Guillermo del Toro Here’s Guillermo del Toro’s Gothic Reading Starter Pack Is Frankenstein Gothic? Guillermo del Toro isn’t sure on that score. By Vanessa Armstrong | Published on August 21, 2024 Screenshot: Legendary Pictures Comment 0 Share New Share Screenshot: Legendary Pictures Guillermo del Toro knows Gothic. The writer-director’s films almost all have some of that ethos, with Crimson Peak (pictured above) being a full-on Gothic experience. In a recent interview with Vulture, del Toro talked about many things, including the Gothic fiction he’s read that has informed his artistic perspective. “I guess I started reading it really, really early, because some people consider Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein to be Gothic. I would take a little bit of exception to that, but it doesn’t matter,” del Toro said, adding that by the time he was 11 or 12, he’d already read lots of Jane Austen as well as The Monk by Gregory Lewis and 1764’s The Castle of Oranto by Horace Walpole. While he was still young, the Gothic novels by Ann Radcliffe became available in Mexico, and del Toro inhaled them. “I got addicted to the sort of askew cemetery poetry of those novels, their exoticism and all the coruscated romances,” he shared. Other works that the director touted include the 1864 novel Uncle Silas by J. Sheridan Le Fanu, which was adapted into a film that he called “one of the great masterpieces.” He also praised the works of Daphne du Maurier. “In her short stories, there are many more elements that cross into the uncanny, at least. Rebecca is atmospheric and is haunted by an absence, which does not completely qualify it as a Gothic romance, but there are elements of it in the work.” Unfortunately, del Toro wasn’t asked to expand on why he doesn’t think that Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is Gothic. He did say, however, that his upcoming film, Frankenstein, would be quite Gothic indeed. [end-mark] The post Here’s Guillermo del Toro’s Gothic Reading Starter Pack appeared first on Reactor.

Excerpts Historical Fantasy Read an Excerpt From Chelsea Iversen’s The Peculiar Garden of Harriet Hunt True magic is found among the bluebells and brambles By Chelsea Iversen | Published on August 21, 2024 Comment 0 Share New Share We’re thrilled to share an excerpt from The Peculiar Garden of Harriet Hunt by Chelsea Iversen, a new historical fantasy out from Sourcebooks Landmark on December 3rd. Harriet Hunt is completely alone. Her father disappeared months ago, leaving her to wander the halls of Sunnyside house, dwelling on a past she’d rather keep buried. She doesn’t often venture beyond her front gate, instead relishing the feel of dirt under her fingernails and of soft moss beneath her feet. Consequently, she’s been deemed a little too peculiar for popular Victorian society. This solitary life suits her fine, though—because, outside, magic awaits.Harriet’s garden is special. It’s a wild place full of twisting ivy, vibrant plums, and a quiet power that buzzes like bees. Caring for this place, and keeping it from running rampant through the streets of her London suburb, is Harriet’s purpose. But a woman alone in the world is vulnerable. Soon, a sinister plot involving her father’s disappearance begins to take shape, with Harriet herself at its center. Everything she holds dear—from the thorny roses she tends to her very freedom itself—is at stake. To save herself, Harriet will have to unearth her past, discover the secrets of her garden, and finally embrace the wild magic inside of her. The man in the round hat arrived an hour or so later, while Harriet sat beneath the plum tree, rereading the same passage from last month’s issue of Gardener’s Chronicle, wondering about garden ferns and, for the hundredth time, whether she would ever invest in a greenhouse. If she did not have to tend to this garden, if she could live where she wanted and create a home of her own, what would her garden look like? She often imagined trees. Dozens of them. Of course, she would need more space for that. A place out in the country with sparrows and forget-­me-­nots and evening primrose. She thought she would like a greenhouse. The purpose of such a structure would be to have summer blooms in winter, and vegetables if the conditions were right, and it would be wonderful to have fresh summer roses all year long. But, of course, all these thoughts were pointless. She must remain here. This garden was hers, and without her—­ “Mr. Hunt?” An unfamiliar voice roused her from her thoughts. It was the nasally twang of a busy man, and she heard a faint rap at the door around the front of the house. Harriet remained unmoving, hoping that her silence would encourage him to leave promptly. She was acutely aware that the silver-­lavender roses at the corner of the front garden, just next to the hawthorn, perked up at the sound, swiveling to face the front gate. The man rounded the corner and spotted her all the way at the back, sitting beneath the plum tree. His small legs carried him over to her so quickly, she barely had the chance to cover her exposed toes, which rested naked over the moss, as they often did when she sat outside. She could feel the garden’s attention buzz to life all around her, the roses standing pert and cautious. This small signal was enough to put Harriet on edge. “I am looking for Mr. Hunt.” Buy the Book The Peculiar Garden of Harriet Hunt Chelsea Iversen Buy Book The Peculiar Garden of Harriet Hunt Chelsea Iversen Buy this book from: AmazonBarnes and NobleiBooksIndieBoundTarget The man wore a thin mustache, which curled up at the ends quite intentionally. He had a short but sturdy stance to him, like he wouldn’t necessarily instigate a scuffle but was ready for one at any moment. “It is quite urgent that I speak with him,” he said when she did not respond. Harriet fidgeted, aware of ivy snaking subtly along the edges of the house, which she could see behind him. She willed the garden to be at ease as she laced up her boots beneath the cover of her skirts. Her fingers grazed a pointed corner of something in her pocket. The letter. She wondered if the man in front of her could be a debtor who was fed up with her silence and had finally come to collect what he was owed. Out of the corner of her eye, she caught a nest of thorns separating itself from the garden wall and billowing forward, ever so slightly, growing inch by inch, sharpening in the glinting sunlight that muscled through the clouds. She let a small nervous laugh escape her. The plants had become more and more unruly the more time she spent here by herself. She feared it would take some strain to keep them in check. The man frowned deeply. “Is he within?” Finally, boots secured, Harriet stood, wobbling slightly. She had a small height advantage that made the man take an involuntary step back, and the wrinkles on his forehead creased dramatically as he cleared his throat and stood up straighter. She dipped her shoulders so she would appear smaller and smiled weakly, still without speaking. More than half a year had passed since her father had disappeared, and the debt seemed to be mounting higher every day. Harriet had been naive enough think that if she ignored all their inquests, they would eventually stop harassing her and simply accept that he was gone—­that they would give up. Naive indeed. “He is not within, Mr.—­” she said with a shake in her voice. A thick, momentary silence followed. “Inspector Stokes,” he said firmly. Harriet was thrown for a moment. Inspector. So, he was not here to collect on debts after all. Her vision caught on his blue uniform and white striped cuffs. Of course. She should have put it together before. He was reading her carefully, she noticed now. “He has not been within for more than seven months,” she managed. “My father has left the country.” “I see.” He raised his eyebrows. “Have you any idea where he is, exactly?” She did have some idea. He had run off to Denmark to live with his wealthy cousin, no doubt, as he had threatened to do many times before. It seems he was keen to avoid debtors’ prison, though he did not think of what would happen to her in his absence. Or perhaps, more accurately, he did not care. It hadn’t been a surprise to Harriet that he had left, in the end. Not really. The only surprise was that he did not send her away to the asylum before he left, as he had also threatened to do many times before. She tried not to fidget. “Denmark, I think, Mr. Stokes—­Inspector Stokes—­” Was it just her imagination or was he narrowing his eyes at her? “Denmark.” He rubbed at his dimpled chin with stubby fingers. “Curious.” From what she could glean, the man did not, in fact, think it curious at all. He appeared to have made up his mind on the matter. And those eyes. They told Harriet that he wanted to pry something from her. “Tell me—­Miss Hunt, I presume?” Harriet nodded. “How did you and your father leave things the last time you saw him? Did he seem agitated?” Heat rushed to her face. The last time she saw her father, the night had been frigid. He’d stood in the threshold, barring her from escaping to the garden, which Harriet watched rise behind him like a thundercloud before he kicked the door closed and dragged her by the arm up the stairs, his fingernails slicing into her flesh. His shouts were manic. Unhinged. She had flinched when he raised a hand, but he’d only tugged at his hair so that it stuck straight up like horns. His eyes bulged red and unseeing. This time, when he threatened her, she’d gone cold, sensing some finality in his words. Locked inside her room, she’d tried to pry open the window, but, of course, he had jammed that shut too. She’d heard him thunder down the stairs and throw open the door. The silence that followed echoed throughout the empty house. Harriet had still been shaking, back pressed against the wall, fingers digging into her scalp, an hour later, maybe two. She’d clutched a candlestick in her hand, waiting for him to come back, to try to take her away. But he hadn’t come back at all. “I—we had an argument.” Stokes raised an eyebrow. “It was brief, and then he was gone.” Stokes tapped his fingers against his trouser leg. “Can I ask, what is in Denmark?” She shook her head. “He has a cousin there, I think.” “His name?” He pulled out a small piece of paper to capture her words in ink. Harriet shook her head again. “I don’t know…” “Hmm.” He dropped his hands to his sides and tipped his head slightly, never taking his eyes off her. “Not close with your father’s family then?” “No.” Other than an unnamed cousin referenced when her father was particularly incensed, she didn’t think he had any family. The only kin she had ever known was her cousin Eunice—­a second cousin, really—­and she was related on her mother’s side. Harriet could sense Stokes’s gaze on her. She didn’t like the way it made her feel. Like a liar, somehow. She wished she knew what exactly he wanted. She suddenly noticed the thorns peeling away from the garden wall, creeping up behind Stokes at shoulder level. Her eyes widened, and she tried to breathe slowly—­hoping that the plants would sense her calm—­but she could only manage quick, shallow breaths. She stared down the brambles, and the spindly arms paused, appearing to decide something. Stokes swiveled around to see what she was looking at, but thankfully, the thicket had eased back against the garden wall, just in time. Seeing nothing amiss, he turned slowly to face Harriet. She tried to force a confident, polite smile though she could feel the sweat—­simultaneously hot and cold—­collecting at the back of her neck. Harriet chanced a reluctant glance behind his other shoulder, worried that she would see watchful vines wriggling and curious rose blooms craning their necks to see what was to come. Inspector Stokes turned again. All was still. The house stood weakly behind the vines, like a drunkard leaning into the arms of a steady companion. The ivy pressed up innocently against the house and the roses looked perfectly demure. Though when the man turned his back on the house again, they peeled themselves out of their stillness and began to hover. Stop it, she mouthed at the vines. They did not retreat. Instead, she saw the ivy twisting and curling overhead, gathering momentum. Don’t you dare. Stokes was looking at her. “Your neighbors say you have a history of… strange behavior, Miss Hunt.” He punctuated the word strange. She pulled her eyes from the garden, her attention snagging on his tone. He had spoken to the neighbors, then. About her. She could feel him searching her, as if she were an interesting object, a curiosity, or something even more rare. Stokes looked her up and down with squinting eyes, as if bringing her stained dress and mussed-­up hair into focus. “Where did you get that scar?” She blinked to bring him into focus now too. There was a flash in his eyes that made her pause. Was it contempt? No, she knew quite clearly what that looked like. It was more like cunning. She could not pinpoint it, exactly, but it made her skin prickle. It also made the thorns on the cabbage roses thicken and sharpen. The garden had sensed it too, then. “It’s from when I was a girl.” Hearing a rustling behind her, Harriet took a panicked sidestep toward the front garden, hoping he would turn away from the roses. The pale blossoms of the Madame Audots bobbed, leaned in, listened. Thankfully, Stokes swiveled to follow her. She closed her eyes tightly, willing the garden to relax. Stop it. Stop it. Stop it, she mouthed silently again. “Have you been living here alone, Miss Hunt?” Stokes asked. Harriet barely heard him. Leave it, she muttered through clenched teeth, her eyes still on the roses. The advancing stems hesitated, and she dipped her face to try to hide her hard glare. After a beat, which felt surreally like disappointment, the garden subsided, and she watched the flowers settle back into place. “Miss Hunt.” His impatience was unveiled now, as if he were addressing an unmanageable child. “Sorry?” A single bead of sweat dripped down Harriet’s back, but she let her shoulders release. “Who supports you? How are you able to live here on your own, a young woman, with no husband or father?” He had his pen and paper out again. Now that the garden was still, she could finally think. Who supported her? She supported herself. What choice did she have? A monthly trip to the pawnbrokers was how she had gotten by so far, but she would soon run out of carpets, dishes, trinkets, ornaments, candlesticks, and her mother’s jewelry—­all of it. Thankfully, she had convinced her landlord to allow monthly, rather than annual payments. Her father had been quite fond of expensive things, for better or worse, and it had been helpful for the past several months, but by now, the interior of the house was all but bare. Just a few necessities remained in Harriet’s possession: one chair in the parlor, a breakfast table, a few dishes given to her by Eunice, a worn-­down, old-­fashioned kitchen table. There was the Dutch clock in the front passage, which was lacquered oak and brass, and which she would be happy to be rid of—­but the glass face was cracked. She was sure it would sell for very little. And of course, there was the lovely Henry Pickering landscape hanging in the parlor, which she hoped would be worth a fair amount should she need it, but it was the one thing in the house she didn’t mind looking at. As she stared back at the man’s small eyes and curled-­up whiskers, heat crept up Harriet’s neck. She wondered if she should tell him about the debtors. Perhaps that would explain her father’s absence better. It might at least stop him from looking at her that way. “Did he explicitly tell you he was going to Denmark when he left?” The shift back to the subject of her father shook her. Perhaps Stokes had already made up his mind about how Harriet supported herself. “Well, no. But—­” “And did he tell anyone else about his travel plans?” “I don’t know. I—­” “And did you ever wonder where he was? Why he didn’t come back?” Harriet’s muscles went rigid. “You see, it’s strange. His colleagues say that he has never mentioned any relations at all. No cousin in Denmark. No sister in Spain. No wife in Wapping. And no daughter in Upper Holloway. Now, why would that be?” The moss at Harriet’s feet suddenly radiated heat, friction mounting between her boots and the ground. She knew exactly why that would be. She shifted from one foot to the other and back again, swallowing her retort. She wished he would just leave. All around her, she could feel the rapt attention of each plant—­each bud, each leaf. Fingers of ivy lifted off the wall above them, quivering with tension. Thorns resumed sharpening their points, and roses widened their blossoms. These were the small signs of battle preparation that Harriet feared. The garden was waiting, ready to act in her defense, but she could not afford to let it go wild. Not now. She watched anxiously, pinching the skin of her forearm to try to regain some control. She forced herself to look back at his face, knowing that if she kept staring at her garden beyond his shoulder, he would turn and see what she saw. But he did not seem to care about the garden. Instead, he was watching her, a dark expression written on his face. Realization prodded at her. She needn’t fear looking mad in front of this man. To him, she was already suspicious. “We were not often in accord,” she said breathlessly, feeling suddenly cornered. “But there have been letters—­” “Letters, yes, of course,” he said, his words snipped. “Well, I will look further into this journey to—­where did you say?” He was trying to trip her up, to catch her in a lie. “Denmark,” she said with a small degree of defiance. She was not lying, and she did not want to look like she was. “Denmark,” he said, snapping his fingers. “That’s right.” He tipped his hat and cast out his next words slowly, dangerously, like a fisherman with a hook, hoping to catch on something. Excerpted from The Peculiar Garden of Harriet Hunt, copyright © 2024 by Chelsea Iversen. The post Read an Excerpt From Chelsea Iversen’s <i>The Peculiar Garden of Harriet Hunt</i> appeared first on Reactor.

Price controls, higher taxes, government intervention, and subsidies paid for by printing a constantly devalued currency. These are the essential pillars of “21st century socialism” and of the radical left ideology of Peronism that obliterated Argentina. These are also the main elements of the economic plan presented by Kamala Harris and the Democratic Party. Undoubtedly, this is the most radical socialist economic plan ever announced by the Democrats. According to the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget (CRFB), Harris’s proposals will cost $1.95 trillion over 10 years. However, it emphasizes that if certain measures become permanent, this figure could increase to $2.25 trillion. The Harris campaign has stated that these costs will be offset by a classic excuse of socialism in any election: “higher taxes on corporations and high earners.” This is, obviously, ludicrous, because there is no revenue measure that will cover the already bloated $2 trillion annual deficit and the added $2 trillion from Harris’ proposals. Increasing the corporate tax to 28% will cripple small businesses and reduce investment, while the large corporations that Harris attacks can move parts of their business to other nations. This would bring the United States to one of the highest business tax burdens in developed nations. The worldwide average statutory corporate income tax rate is 23.45%. Ironically, Harris boasts about record tax receipts in 2024 using the Trump tax rate. In her own proposal, Harris admits that increasing the corporate rate tax would harm the economy. Why, if not, has she lowered it from her 35% proposal of 2020? Furthermore, the optimistically estimated revenue boost of $800 billion in a decade, which is more than debatable, does not even scratch the surface of her $2.25 trillion expenditure added to the $2.6 trillion deficit expected by the CBO for 2035. The mantra of “higher taxes for the rich” always means higher taxes and more inflation, a hidden tax, for you. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has already warned of the fiscal disaster of the United States, with an annual deficit of 6% of GDP. Despite not accounting for a recession and projecting record tax revenues from 2024 to 2034, the CBO predicts an explosion in the budget deficit from $1.9 trillion to $2.8 trillion by 2034, even before factoring in Harris’s new spending plan. This means that the adjusted deficit will rise above 6.9% of GDP by 2034, almost twice the average of 3.7% over the previous 50 years. Following the Harris plan, the United States public debt will likely increase by $24 trillion in a decade. As I have explained, there is no set of revenue measures that can bring $2 trillion per year in additional tax receipts, and tax hikes will harm both investment and growth. An economy that generates an annual deficit of 6% of GDP to achieve a mere 2% annual growth is already on a dangerous path, and Harris’ plan would make it even worse. Kamala Harris promises to cut inflation by spending and printing more money, reducing competition, and attacking businesses. It has never worked and never will, because it is upside-down economics. Welcome to the U.S.’s “Peronism.” Former Argentine President Juan Perón instituted a form of socialism that bankrupted Argentina and threatens to devastate the U.S., as well. Imagine all those United States citizens who have escaped Latin American or European economies impoverished by interventionism to find a better opportunity in the United States only to find that the same policies will be implemented by Harris. The narrative of price gouging and greedflation that drives American Peronism is simply false. In 2023, profit margins in the grocery industry hit the lowest level since 2019, at 1.6%, according to the IMF. Corporations, even if they were stupid and reckless, cannot make all prices rise constantly. Competition would eat away at their market share; newcomers would eliminate them, and aggregate prices would fall. Furthermore, stores and businesses cannot make aggregate prices soar, maintain the increase, and consolidate it, which is the measure of inflation (CPI) we read every month. The only thing that can make all prices rise and continue increasing at a slower pace is printing money and eroding the purchasing power of the currency. The only thing that can make aggregate prices rise constantly is the destruction of the purchasing power of the currency, which comes from massive government spending and printing currency to disguise fiscal imbalances. Kamala Harris and her team know that their spending plan will make the national debt soar and that price controls do not reduce prices. In fact, these should not be called “price controls” but “limits to competition.” If corporations were the cause of inflation and price controls were the solution, Peronist Argentina would have enjoyed the lowest inflation in the world in the past decades. Harris’ proposals to forgive debt are profoundly anti-social. They do not forgive any debt; they just add it to the national debt and make you pay for it. This enormous increase in public debt will be a burden for every American, particularly the poorest, with persistent inflation and lower real wages. U.S. citizens have already endured negative real wage growth since January 2021, when Biden took office, according to the Federal Reserve of St Louis. Expect worse. Why does Harris promote the same policies that have failed everywhere? Promising free stuff and blaming others for the negative consequences is the defining strategy of socialist politicians. Are you surprised to see how Germany, France, and other historically rich nations slump into stagnation, high debt, persistent inflation, enormous taxes, and the destruction of the middle class? Those policies are what Harris is promising. Who benefits? The vast government and its surrounding corporations reap the benefits. Many people hold the belief that a nation cannot be considered socialist if it contains private companies. This argument makes no sense. State control does not limit itself to capital ownership but also to the imposition of increasingly restrictive laws, regulations, and confiscatory taxes. In fact, the government likes to absorb most of the wealth created by the private sector without the inconvenience of managing the businesses. Huerta de Soto defines socialism as “any system of institutional, methodical aggression against the free exercise of entrepreneurship” and that is precisely what Harris promises. Higher taxes and more debt. The government will print money to provide subsidies in a currency that is constantly losing value. It will blame stores and businesses for inflation. Interventionist policies will continue to erode the private sector. And they will repeat. The makers of these policies are aware that they will negatively impact the economy, yet they will also engender a significant number of enslaved citizens who rely on the government and must abide by its decisions. Voters see an alleged tsunami of free money but ignore the fact the fact that they will pay for it through higher inflation, lower real wages, and diminishing opportunities for small businesses and families. The Harris team believes deficits do not matter and that the Federal Reserve can always disguise any budget imbalance. However, cracks have already appeared. Persistent inflation is the consequence of years of excessive spending and monetization, as it was in Peronism. The next step is the risk of losing the U.S. dollar as the world reserve currency when the world stops accepting the ever-increasing debt. Harris’ plan is anti-growth. Her main advisors do not even disguise it. There is not a single pro-growth policy in the plan announced. There is nothing more anti-social than to destroy the purchasing power of the currency and accumulate trillions of dollars in debt. Big government has led to big debt and diminishing opportunities for small businesses and families. What the United States needs is a pro-growth plan, smaller government, sound monetary policy, and lower taxes. The post American Peronism: Kamala Harris’ Economic Plan to Ruin the US appeared first on The Daily Signal.

Have you ever wondered what it might be like to work in the inner sanctum of a private jet? With only one or two hostesses on a flight, their world is vastly different from their commercial airline counterparts. From sourcing strange and exotic foods to racking up bills on their own credit cards – there's a lot that we just don't know. Luckily for us, some hostesses have broken their vow of... Source

If you're tired of censorship and dystopian threats against civil liberties, subscribe to Reclaim The Net. Free speech group the Foundation for Individual Rights (FIRE) has gone to court in a bid to block Texas state age verification law, Securing Children Online through Parental Empowerment Act (SCOPE Act, HB 18). We obtained a copy of the complaint for you here. This largely Republican-backed law will take effect on September 1, starting when online platforms will be under obligation to register and verify the age of all users. This will apply if “more than a third” of content on the platforms is considered “harmful” or “obscene.” But FIRE believes this is a form of pressure to make sure sites collect biometric and ID data from adults in Texas as they access what is lawful (to them) content. Hence the case, Students Engaged in Advancing Texas v. Paxton, where FIRE is suing state Attorney General Ken Paxton on behalf of four plaintiffs that the group says would have their rights threatened by the SCOPE Act – unless the US District Court for the Western District of Texas issues declaratory and injunctive relief. In other words, FIRE wants the judges to stop the enforcement of the law, which the filing brands as unconstitutional. Said FIRE Chief Counsel Bob Corn-Revere: “In a misguided attempt to make the internet ‘safe’, Texas’ law treats adults like children. But even minors have First Amendment rights. Whether they’re 16 or 65, this law infringes on the rights of all Texans.” This is by no means a sole voice expressing disagreement with the idea that more, and more invasive online censorship and surveillance will result in better protection of children. Senator Rand Paul has penned an opinion piece where he goes after the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA), which has raised privacy, censorship, and digital ID concerns among civil rights activists. According to Paul, what motivated those behind the legislation to come up with it is not questionable, but the actual bill falls short to the point where it “promises to be a Pandora’s box of unintended consequences.” The senator notes that those pushing the bill insist the goal is not to regulate content, but he believes online platforms would face unprecedented demands regarding mental health harms, like anxiety, depression, and eating disorders. However, Paul believes – “imposing a duty of care on internet platforms associated with mental health can only lead to one outcome: the stifling of First Amendment–protected speech” while at the same time empowering “speech police” to “silence important and diverse discussions that are essential to a free society.” Paul speaks in favor of making sure those protections continue to apply and suggests coming up with “clear” rules for platforms, allowing them to comply with the law. But KOSA, according to him, “fails to do that in almost every respect.” The senator sees it as (yet another) bill that is too vague for (legal) comfort, so much so that “many of its key provisions are completely undefined.” If you're tired of censorship and dystopian threats against civil liberties, subscribe to Reclaim The Net. The post Texas is Sued Over Attempts To End Online Anonymity appeared first on Reclaim The Net.

Cocaine has a reputation as a modern party drug, but it was among Victorians that it became ubiquitous – as an essential in medical science. In fact, before cocaine’s invention the Victorians had already developed an obsession for chewing the coca leaves from which cocaine is refined. Coca leaves had been a central feature of Incan cultural life centuries before Europeans adopted the substance in the late 19th century. But the key moment in the popularisation of the coca leaf in Britain came with the rise of competitive long-distance walker Edward Payson Weston. Weston was an American participant in the spectator sport of pedestrianism who established his celebrity when he walked nearly 500 miles from Boston to Washington D.C. in 1861 in a little over 10 days. “He came to dominate the world of this very strange Victorian sport, essentially competitive long-distance walking,” says Dr Douglas Small on Dan Snow’s History Hit podcast. “This sounds remarkable to us now but the Victorians absolutely went mad for this.” Women gathering leaves of the coca plant (Erythroxylum coca) in Bolivia. Wood engraving, c. 1867.Image Credit: Wellcome Collection / Public Domain When he visited Britain in 1876, some 5,000 people watched him compete in a 24-hour championship race against Englishman William Perkins. After winning the race, Weston revealed that his doggedness had been fuelled, in part, by munching on coca leaves. “That’s actually what really moves coca for British people from being something that’s occasionally discussed in travellers’ tales, something that’s mentioned every now and again in accounts of life in South America, to being something that people are really interested in,” explains Small, a historian and author of Cocaine, Literature, and Culture, 1876-1930. “[It] almost becomes for a while like tea and coffee, something that people really want to use in their daily lives.” By this point the use of steamships across the American continent and the Atlantic meant that the transport and supply of coca had become easier. With new demand, people began to acquire and use coca leaves in a way they hadn’t previously. Pep in your step As a result, Victorians started chewing coca leaves as the Andeans had been doing for centuries. Coca consumers even filled Mincing Lane, the centre of London’s 19th century tea and spice trade, looking to purchase what had so recently been a rarity. “Very quickly after Weston popularises their use they catch on amongst all kinds of sportsmen,” says Small. “They start being advertised for bicyclists, other pedestrians. There are accounts that are written in the British Medical Journal that talk about how great it is for shooting parties because they apparently help to stabilise your nerves and give you a bit more pep and confidence which people say makes them much better shots.” Illustration from ‘The Sportsman’s Cyclopaedia’ by TB Johnson, 1848.Image Credit: Wellcome Collection / Public Domain They were even given to difficult race horses before races. A boom emerged in chewing coca leaves in the 1870s and 1880s. Yet this was mere foreshadowing for the later prevalence of cocaine, which commenced a few years later in 1884 thanks to innovations in the European chemical industry. Cocaine is stronger in its effects than raw coca leaves. Sigmund Freud was among its advocates for use as a stimulant and therapy for morphine addiction. But it found lasting use as an effective local anaesthetic, an essential in medical science for decades. A century later, cocaine is one of the most criminalised substances on earth. Listen to Dan Snow’s History Hit now or sign up to History Hit for advert-free listening, with early access and bonus episodes for subscribers. Sign up to listen advert free

CNN Analyst: Here's the 'One Glaring Hole' In Harris' 'Change' Argument

'Queering Nuclear Weapons'

MSNBC chief political analyst Chuck Todd twisted himself into a pretzel on Wednesday’s Jose Diaz-Balart Reports as he recapped former First Lady Michelle Obama’s Tuesday address to the Democratic National Convention. Todd argued that every four years, Obama reminds the country “she's probably the best nonpolitical speaker in the country.” That those reminders always line up with the political calendar appeared to go right over his head. Co-host Ana Cabrera led Todd with a clip of Obama declaring that “We cannot get a goldilocks complex about whether everything is just right, and we cannot indulge our anxieties about whether this country will elect someone like Kamala instead of doing everything we can to get someone like Kamala elected.”     After the clip, she asked, “Chuck, what do you see as the significance of that part of her speech?” Todd claimed the speech was a plea for the party’s various factions to unite, “It is a message, look, there are a lot of skeptical Democrats about how this thing—how quickly it is trying to get off the ground, everybody has got an opinion about what she should do next, should she do a press conference, should she do this, should she do that. And think that's what she was trying to address with that. As for Obama herself, Todd added, “But, you know, I do want to say something else about Michelle Obama, I don't think we should compare her to other political folks. She doesn't do this for a living. The fact—every four years we're reminded she's probably the best nonpolitical speaker in the country, and I think that's important to remind people, look, Barack Obama does it for a living. Did it for a living, all right. Giving a speech every day of his life for about 15 straight years. That isn't what Michelle Obama has done. She's sort of a civilian in that.” Todd then unwittingly undermined his point by pointing out that Obama gives more speeches than the typical person, but he still tried to portray her as some public speaking novice, “Certainly, she has more experience than maybe some of us on this set of giving big speeches, but I think it is all the more remarkable how good she is at this for how little she does it for how little she does it.” Michelle Obama has political opinions about everything; just because she doesn’t hold elected office doesn’t mean she’s “nonpolitical.” Here is a transcript for the August 21 show: MSNBC Jose Diaz-Balart Reports 8/21/2024 11:10 PM ET ANA CABRERA: Chuck, what do you see as the significance of that part of her speech? CHUCK TODD: I think what she's trying to say is, hey, “if you're worried that, oh, how's Kamala Harris going to handle an interview or has she put out enough policy proposals” or is she signing on with this direction of the party versus that direction of the party, that, you know, you essentially a little bit of message to the heads of the various fiefdoms inside the Democratic coalition, like, “hey, you know, don't sit here and get angry, go home and get angry if you're not getting the response you're expecting in the moment.” She even went on to say, “you don't get the phone call that says, hey, you know, I need your vote, and you're not going to vote until you get that phone call, don't be that petty.” And it is a message, look, there are a lot of skeptical Democrats about how this thing — how quickly it is trying to get off the ground, everybody has got an opinion about what she should do next, should she do a press conference, should she do this, should she do that. And think that's what she was trying to address with that. But, you know, I do want to say something else about Michelle Obama, I don't think we should compare her to other political folks. She doesn't do this for a living. The fact — every four years we're reminded she's probably the best nonpolitical speaker in the country, and I think that's important to remind people, look, Barack Obama does it for a living. Did it for a living, all right. Giving a speech every day of his life for about 15 straight years. That isn't what Michelle Obama has done. She's sort of a civilian in that. Certainly, she has more experience than maybe some of us on this set of giving big speeches, but I think it is all the more remarkable how good she is at this for how little she does it for how little she does it.