All Interns Are Exceptionally Well Documented. Almost Obsessively So.

Didn’t say what we were supposed to do with them. They just showed up.

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… a poll. As Franklin says in 1776, “It’s a fair request.”

Which is of these is likely to capture the spirit of his vacation trip to Vegas?

(I would do a voting spreadsheet like him, but that sounds like work, and I’m too busy getting back to the intern party.)

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Arguing over the bill:

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Yet.

Ours will be more of a sorority house.

Zohran Mamdani: ‘I Support Removing Horse Carriages From Central Park’
Forbes Breaking

At a press briefing, NYC Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani said he’d work with union leaders to end horse carriages in Central Park, and hire 200 lawyers to “Trump-proof” the city.

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Republican Congress Investigating Democrats:

I just found out that Finland’s prime minister is called Orpo.

Prime Minister Petteri Orpo.

Finallyland, all the pieces are in place! But how can I use this to make a buck?

Oh, and Happy New Year.

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P.S.: Maybe I can get a shipbuilding contract:

America Turns to Finland for Icebreakers It Struggles to Build at Home
gCaptain | December 30, 2025 | Paul Morgan

The United States just signed contracts for Finland to build American warships, a stark admission that the world’s most powerful navy can no longer construct the specialized vessels it desperately needs.

Just sayin’.

But he is into one-upmanship.

Wilmington native faces several charges following hotel incident
Port City Daily | 12/29/2025 | Emily Sawaked

A 33-year-old Wilmington man was reported to be unclothed and causing damage to hotel property; he was also reported approaching hotel guests in the lobby. Police located him in a nearby wooded area, where he ran into a retention pond. The suspect was noted to have kicked an officer during the arrest.

Here’s how it works:

The government focuses on some noble-sounding cause, and creates a bloated bureaucracy to address it forever.

Myriad non-profit organizations are created to address the same problem.

The government gives preferential and favored treatment to the non-profits, ahead of individual citizens.

The non-profits use government funding to give preferential treatment to certain individuals.

The individuals are naturally happy to be getting the preferential treatment.

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This works, because it would be too obvious if the government just gave preferential treatment to individuals. The middleman agencies disguise the obvious injustice.

And neither the bloated government agency nor the non-profits can ever be abolished, because of their noble-sounding cause. The cancer can never be excised.

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New NYC Law Gives Nonprofits a Leg up on Certain Property Purchases
planetcitizen.com | 12/28/25 | Diana Ionescu

Mission-driven groups will get an early chance to make offers on properties that can be rehabilitated and preserved as affordable.

The New York City Council passed a revised version of the Community Opportunity to Purchase Act (COPA), a law that gives certain nonprofits an early right to bid on available properties that could be rehabilitated and preserved as affordable housing.

As Jeanmarie Evelly explains in City Limits, the law “specifically targets buildings with poor conditions or where an affordability provision is expiring.” The law allows “qualified entities” to purchase properties, make repairs, and maintain affordable rents.

First introduced in 2020, the new version of the bill narrows the types of buildings that qualify under the law, exempts small properties with fewer than four apartments, and creates more specific criteria for the organizations that are eligible to make bids. When an eligible property is put up for sale, owners are required to notify a list of nonprofits, who have 25 days to notify the owner of an intent to purchase and 80 further days to make an offer.

California’s minimum wage is increasing in 2026 as Los Angeles debates $30 an hour
CalMatters | December 19, 2025 | Cayla Mihalovich

Californians will see the minimum wage increase to $16.90 per hour starting Jan. 1. The adjustment — a boost of 40 cents per hour — was calculated in August by the Department of Finance as part of its minimum wage annual review required by state law. …

Under laws Gov. Gavin Newsom signed in 2023, fast food workers earn a minimum wage of $20 an hour and health care workers are on track to make $25 an hour. …

“You can’t threaten to blow a hole in our budget and then the only way to stop it is on the backs of workers,” said Kurt Petersen, co-president of the union that represents many hotel workers, UNITE HERE Local 11. “That kind of raw extortion and shakedown has no place in our city.”

According to Petersen, a coalition of community organizations and unions are beginning to collect signatures for a ballot measure that would raise the minimum wage to $30 per hour for all workers in Los Angeles.

“The power is everyone together,” said Peterson. “Working people need help and raising wages is the easiest, most straightforward thing to do. Going up 40 cents per hour in 2026 doesn’t move the needle at all.”

The dispersal of domestic cats from North Africa to Europe around 2000 years ago
Science | 27 Nov 2025 | Vol 390, Issue 6776 

…domestic cats were introduced to Europe from North Africa starting at ~2 thousand years ago (kya), several millennia after the onset of the Neolithic in Europe. 

Our research suggests a late arrival of domestic cats in China, with the earliest skeletal remains, imagery, and written records appearing no earlier than 1,400 years ago, in the 7th century, both in China and along the ancient Silk Road.

Can ya blame the cats?

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Chinese Guy: “What the…! Who scratched all this silk?”