Kit Darcy

Writer, artist, dancer, animal trainer. Worked with wildlife and domestics. Dreamer. The only obstacle to one's desire is one's own fears.

[Marc E. Elias @marceelias]

It's after midnight, but I just finished a new essay laying out the details of Trump's blueprint to rig the 2026 midterms. It will be sent out to Democracy Docket subscribers in the morning. Subscribe now to receive. https://t.co/7W0yoPHmq2

[Men's Humor @MensHumor]

The government saw a man charging $5 to look at his enormous raccoon and decided this country had too much freedom. 😑

[Massimo @Rainmaker1973]

How Japanese have produced wood for 700 years, without cutting down trees.

Daisugi is an ancient Japanese forestry technique developed in the 14th century originally used by people living in the Kitayama region, because the territory was extremely poor in saplings.

They planted cedars pruned in a special way to produce shoots that eventually would become perfect, straight, knot-free lumbers.

The shoots are gently pruned by hand every two years leaving only the top boughs, allowing them to grow straight. Harvesting takes 20 years and old 'tree stock' can grow up to a hundred shoots at a time.

There was actually another reason why the technique was developed: fashion. In the 14th century, a linear, stylized form of architecture known as sukiya-zukuri (数寄屋造り) became popular, and every prominent samurai or nobleman wanted a house built in this way.

There were simply not enough raw materials available to keep up with demand, so daisugi was developed to produce more wood in a shorter time.

The wood produced with this technique has also impressive qualities: it's 140% more flexible than standard cedar and 200% denser and stronger. And, it's extremely durable.

[Mark S. Zaid @MarkSZaidEsq]

Mark Zaid, a DC lawyer who reps FBI agents & is familiar with bureau's hiring practices, agreed. "How can this not be reflective of a recruiting problem at the FBI if you are lowering your standards on issues like bestiality and prostitution," he said.

https://t.co/xLOBPjhgqw

[Ted Lieu @tedlieu]

The leadership at @TheJusticeDept have screwed up the Department so badly that they need to lower standards to recruit people. @AGToddBlanche and @Kash_Patel, this is on you.

November is coming.

[GBC @GBC_Press]

🚨 BREAKING:

Maxim: "Two months ago, I asked Mayor Mamdani to reopen McKinley Park's children's playground, which had been closed for two years. A few weeks later, it reopened. Thank you, Mayor Mamdani."

[NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day @apod]

At the latitude of ESO's Paranal Observatory in Chile, about 25 degrees south, Earth's rotation moves the planet's surface eastward at over 1,500 kilometers per hour. And while that's faster than the speed of sound at sea level, the motion is imperceptible. Still, that motion can be revealed in the apparent rotation of the night sky by photographing star trails. This star trail image was composed from a digital stack of 300 consecutive 25-second exposures made with a camera fixed to a tripod to trace the star trail arcs. The graceful arcs are concentric and centered at the south celestial pole, the southern hemisphere extension of Earth's axis of rotation into space. One of the observatory's operating 1.8 meter auxiliary telescopes, AT 3, appears beneath the south celestial pole, faintly illuminated in the foreground of this well-planned scene from a rotating planet.

Image Credit & Copyright: Osvaldo Castillo

[Marc E. Elias @marceelias]

🚨BREAKING: The Department of Justice asked an appellate court to revoke the temporary restraining order issued by a federal judge preventing the U.S. Postal Service from implementing President Donald Trump’s anti-mail voting executive order. https://t.co/12T2PTM77h

[NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day @apod]

What a sight to behold, when a night sky became filled with colors that appeared to rain over the Skógafoss waterfall in Iceland. This image was taken in a single 5 second exposure by the photographer in April 2025. Seeing an aurora is on many people's bucket lists. But it is not easy. It requires high solar activity, dark and clear skies, and usually a viewing location at high latitude. That makes the northern lights more easily seen than the corresponding southern lights, simply because there is less landmass in the Southern Hemisphere, especially around the Antarctic Circle. Auroras are caused by charged particles from the solar wind that are captured by the Earth's magnetosphere and guided by the magnetic field to a region close to one of the poles, where they collide with gas particles in the atmosphere. Different colors indicate interactions with different gases at different altitudes, like oxygen (red and green) and nitrogen (blue and pink).

Text: Cecilia Chirenti (NASA GSFC, UMCP, CRESST II)
Image Credit & Copyright: Victor Lima

[Massimo @Rainmaker1973]

You are looking at the first ever image of another multi-planet solar system.

[Kyle Griffin @kylegriffin1]

A federal judge in D.C. has rejected a request from the Trump Justice Department to dismiss the contempt of Congress conviction for Steve Bannon — telling prosecutors they'll need to come back with a better explanation if they want to clear Bannon's record.

[Brian Krassenstein @krassenstein]

SICKENING!

The Navy sailor who jumped off the USS Lincoln to take his own life faces disciplinary charges for violating articles of the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ).

Here’s an idea… get him mental health help for putting him through what you did!

[Democratic Wins Media @DemocraticWins]

BREAKING: In a shocking moment, two Texas Republican voters just went on CNN to announce they're voting blue for the first time in their lives because of Greg Abbott and Ken Paxton's data center corruption.

[Don Winslow @donwinslow]

Was this before or after your secret meeting with Donald Trump's son and law JARED KUSHNER?

[Marc E. Elias @marceelias]

🚨BREAKING: The Department of Homeland Security privately confessed that it lacked “high confidence” in its claim that more than 14,000 noncitizens were improperly registered to vote in Pennsylvania. https://t.co/e1D58R6h0o

[National Air and Space Museum @airandspace]

We may be short on dog pics, but a dog flying a plane with a cigar in its mouth more than makes up for it. #NationalDogDay

📷: Shakir Jerwan and his dog Monoplane in the cockpit of an airplane (NASM 93-14656)

[Massimo @Rainmaker1973]

Impaired brain waste-removal network linked to chronic fatigue syndrome.

Australian scientists uncovered signs that individuals with myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS) experience reduced efficiency in the brain’s glymphatic pathway – a recently identified network that removes metabolic debris and toxins, mainly during sleep.

Using a non-invasive MRI method to gauge glymphatic performance, the team compared scans from 31 ME/CFS patients against those of 27 healthy controls.

Participants with the condition displayed diminished clearance activity, most notably within the right hemisphere.

Greater impairment of this cleaning mechanism correlated with more pronounced sleep disturbances and intensified cognitive difficulties often described as brain fog.

Experts regard the glymphatic system as vital for eliminating cerebral waste. When its operation falters, toxic substances may accumulate and promote inflammation along with neurological complaints.

These observations offer a possible account for the intense exhaustion, mental clouding, and non-restorative rest that characterize ME/CFS.

The investigators emphasize that the work remains small-scale and preliminary, so it cannot establish that glymphatic failure is the root cause of the syndrome.

Still, the results may eventually support improved diagnostic approaches and therapeutic strategies for an illness that has historically lacked a clear biological foundation.

[Thapaliya, K., Marshall-Gradisnik, S., Inderyas, M., & Barnden, L. (2026). Disrupted glymphatic function and its relationship with sleep and cognitive impairment in ME/CFS assessed via DTI-ALPS. Frontiers in Neuroscience, 20, 1875420. DOI: 10.3389/fnins.2026.1875420]

[Kit Darcy @LadyKitFaith]

Fuck. No.

[Marc E. Elias @marceelias]

🚨BREAKING: A federal judge in Massachusetts lifted restrictions preventing the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) from implementing President Donald Trump’s anti-mail voting executive order. https://t.co/UfUJaskGZB

[Angry Staffer @Angry_Staffer]

Holy shit.

That is devastating.