Interesting, thoughtful stories

We have some obscenely wealthy, unfathomably wealthy individuals living on this planet right now who might just stripmine the ocean floor, costs be damned. I can totally see some human oligarch just about anywhere decide to try it because they have plenty of money to burn. And they are feeling experimental. Keen to risk it. Etc.

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I see what you did there!

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Oh man, the number of Dead Kennedys songs that I could put with this article…

Then in May, some partygoers were caught chanting a Nazi slogan at an upmarket Sylt club, in a video that went viral.

The clip showed the group drinking and dancing together to the 2001 song L’amour Toujours by the Italian musician Gigi D’Agostino, with some singing the ultranationalist slogan “Germany for the Germans – foreigners out” in place of the song’s apolitical lyrics.

The images struck many commentators as a chilling revelation of how far-right ideology had penetrated bourgeois circles of German society.

A small group of punks gathered on Sylt soon after with a banner reading “loud against the far right” and promised a strong mobilisation for this year’s protest camp.

Punks sit on the floor of a pedestrian area outside a supermarket, as one stands holding a shopping trolley with a cigarette hanging from his mouth

The punks’ invasion has been gleefully documented by German tabloids. Photograph: Fabian Bimmer/Reuters

Aktion Sylt plans rallies and cultural events over the summer. The leftwing author and trade union official Marco Höne will travel from Stuttgart in the south-west for a gathering on 7 August titled Your Wealth Makes Me Throw Up, where he will read from his book Rich and Ugly.

In previous years holidaymakers have complained of noise, rubbish and odour from the encampment, leading a court last year to order it be cleared ahead of schedule. Frank Deppe, a Sylt podcaster, recalled conflict between the protesters and local business owners including shouted insults and even fistfights.

The anti-capitalist Anarchist Pogo Party of Germany (APPD), which describes itself as “the party of the rabble and social parasites since 1981”, said it would join the protest camp again this year.

It noted that Sylt officials had used the construction of an “anti-punk wall” and a €100,000 art installation at a previous campsite as well as the attempted collection of “spa taxes” to disrupt the protesters in the past.

“We are happy to use any harassment from Sylt’s high society as an opportunity to annoy them even more,” the party posted on Instagram. “Let’s flood the favourite holiday destination of the rich and beautiful once again with ‘cheap tourists’.”

ETA: NVM this is the one that fits:

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All we need is to get the 9€ tickets back, so lots of people can come and help out.

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Ruh-roh:

or: Deep-sea metals may provide oxygen for life on ocean floor - Los Angeles Times

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This caught my attention for a few reasons. There are many small towns with declining populations trying different ways to attract new, younger residents. They tend to be remote locations, so stories about what people consider to be necessary to survive and thrive are interesting:

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I’m endlessly fascinated by this kind of thing. I grew up in a small town on an island (and still kind of live in a small-ish, remote-ish community). They’re such weird little ecosystems. I always find it interesting that as much as these communities want to thrive, they can be shockingly hostile to people from the outside showing up to live there. Even in the place I live now, the “true locals” often push back against anything that could improve the community or help stabilize it.

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I loved this story.
“If it’s stupid but it works, it’s not stupid.”
Or maybe: “We are crazy… like a fox.”

Will be looking forward to seeing this movie as I am a Shakespeare fan.

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It’s a fantastic version of the play.

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Restauranteur and Top Chef competitor has stage 4 tongue cancer

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Rate hike hearings, feedback from angry customers, and calls for reform are in the news lately. The full report (linked in the article) covers the true cost of privatization by Aqua America and American Water as they continue moving toward monopolization of water resources. The situation in Pennsylvania is a cautionary tale for people in other states, and this also includes lessons learned that could help municipalities to avoid corporate takeovers.

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A very thoughtful report about hula:

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