Ascension

It is springtime, & the mountain lions are just coming into flower. A few early ocelots are practicing calisphenics on the lower slopes, in between sherpaing tourists up to the holy peaks.

Madrigals are everywhere — not Walt Disney's magical Colombian family but the musical variety, where a number of singers sing separate notes that make up the chords the music is written as.

The ocelots pause in their exercises, begin to debate whether training the groups of tourists to join in singing a capella madrigals would increase the pleasure of their climb, or would they run out of puff before they got to where they wanted to go.

wednesday newstrip

DoNuts T.®ump imposes new tariffs on 60 countries, including Australia, supposedly "for their failure to adopt & effectively enforce a prohibition on the importation of goods produced with forced labor" · Australia’s biggest builder has just finished its first two prefabricated modular homes in Melbourne’s western suburbs, & almost everything except the slab was made in China · Saudi Arabia must recognize Israel for nuclear deal to go ahead says T.®ump, after the 'deal' had been signed · police have charged a 52-year-old man after an investigation into a series of AI-generated posters targeting multiple women across south-east Queensland over five years. The posters allegedly featured victims' faces superimposed on the bodies of women performing explicit sexual acts · Elongated Muskrat says he got "carried away" with T.®ump — but still holds on to contentious political views · nun speaks out after being detained by ICE while walking to Mass · White (supremacist) House won’t confirm if T.®ump has nominated his bumboy chum Gianni Infantino, current FIFA chief, for UN Gen-Sec.

Denouement

The magnitude of possible repercuss-
ions may depend upon the number of 
visible stars in the sky or, if it's day, on
the numbers of birds flying in a part-

icular direction. It's an infinite response,
but it has to do with finite things — what
we count, what we count on. That
probably can be counted as a platitude —

or a plateautude if you think the Earth
is flat or are, perhaps, a critic of Pierre
Joris' poetics (though those might be

the same thing). So challenge yourself
by solving this giveaway 20-piece jigsaw 
puzzle. First ask yourself: why is it free?

Contested vortices

The weaker secondary vortex
should be left on the evergreen
overwinter. If you add more di-
mensions, the process becomes
unstable. Always prioritize the
deep blue-purple berries as do
deer & foxes. Are actually seed
cones, two to four fertile bracts

per cone. When heated & tum-
bled to release the seeds, they
can make the secondary vortex
three-dimensionally unstable as 
it advects around the stronger
primary vortex.

geographies: Fremantle

A line from Michael Jackson

Who would have thought? Feeling 
foolish & awkward can be good for 
you in unexpected ways, boosting 
your sex appeal, making you seem 

more trustworthy & more generous.
So start owning it. I embarrass easily
but get over it by moonwalking my 
way across the known universe. The 

planets are lining up. Apollo-11 re-
mains a conviction. Now's the time
to perform a lunar landing & return. 
Be warned. Beware. Out of my way!

The antecedents of exhilaration

Locked in a dark room, waiting 
to be let out into the light. But 
light, by itself, may never be eno-
ugh to set the world alight. Might 
be exciting to be illuminated again; 
does not, however, provide that 
spark that kickstarts exhilaration. 
Often the impetus can seem to be 
counter-intuitive. A state of — per-
haps  — depression, suddenly over
turned by something unexpected.

wednesday newstrip

Australian health officials last Wednesday revealed there had already been 83,000 cases of respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) recorded across the country this year, outnumbering both influenza & Covid-19 · new book identifies Marie Maitland, the 16th century poet, as possibly Scotland’s lesbian answer to Gentleman Jack Lister · a new LGBTQIA+ pop-up club at a former church in Sydney's CBD has closed after being ordered to "cease carrying on offensive trade" or face eviction following protests by religious groups · T.®ump ditches plan for 20% fee on vessels transiting the Strait of Hormuz beating his own record on strategic backflips as Iran & US trade new strikes · the Australian Fair Work Commission has ruled a trucking company was within its rights to dismiss a driver after he set the temperature of a trailer full of ice cream nearly 20 degrees too warm & ended up with $73.000 worth of melted product · Australia's Labor Government is to force data centers to minimize water usage, underwrite own power under new AI standards · Gears of War: E-Day gets Nvidia DLSS 4.5 at launch · T.ump just opened land sacred to Native Americans to mining & drilling.

wednesday newstrip

DoNuts T.®ump mysteriously swaps planes as he leaves NATO summit, but not before calling Iran the 'Islamic Republic of Japan' · live entertainment industry calls for Australian government lifeline as more musicals close · the Southern Poverty Law Center, a prominent monitor of hate groups, has pleaded not guilty to federal charges alleging it defrauded donors by failing to disclose payments to informants within extremist organizations · T.®ump's Education Department celebrates 'American' history with a photo from Britain's history · a DoNuts T.®ump family crypto venture is collapsing into a fire sale — & taking investor money down with it, according to an exclusive new report from the Wall Street Journal · former Wisconsin judge sentenced for obstructing immigration arrest, receiving a $5,000 fine · James Taylor was playing the first of a two-night run at the Tanglewood Music Festival, where he has been performing shows around the Fourth of July for the past 52 years in a row dating back to 1974, & he wasn't willing to break that streak even for Swift & Kelce's wedding to which he & his wife had been invited.

Recently, at Series Magritte

The Castle of the Pyrenees, defaced

A painting in the Israel Museum in Jerusalem by the Belgian artist René Magritte
has been damaged by a 5-year-old boy wielding a pine cone.
CNN: 6.12.2026

Battlements on top, the rock beneath on which it's built, the ample space between
the rock & the sea below — should be enough.
But in air is light as.

The rock, carrying its castle cargo, drifts eastward across the Mediterranean
until it runs aground. Because of its uniqueness, is placed in a space
available in a museum in Jerusalem. Is held there,
exhibited, bereft of protective glass.

Years pass. Then one day a boy picks up a pine cone in the museum garden,
wonders if the magical assemblage inside that he & his grandmother
have come to see will withstand something more than a
human viewing.

Or maybe thinks the painting needs a symbolic addition of the real to
make it complete. The pine cone he is still carrying,
attached like a brooch to the painting.

The three AI images are from the museumnews Instagram account.

Interpretive dance as a means of window cleaning

    We're sorry, but 

       we can't find 

 the requested video.

wednesday newstrip

T.®ump's $2B income from crypto, bibles, & scent in 2025 raises fresh questions about profiting off the presidency · Health Secretary Robert F. Coneverybody Jr. faced a wave of online mockery after he failed to complete a basic exercise demonstration despite his reputation as a fitness fanatic · E Jean Carroll demands her money from T.®ump — with interest · Secretary of Defense Putrid Hogsbreath suffered yet another loss in his legal fight to control the Pentagon press corps after a judge issued a preliminary injunction against him · a North Carolina pickle company has pulled the plug on supporting President DoNuts T.®ump's Great American State Fiasco after discovering a Confederate flag was included in the video display at the State booth · T.®ump takes maiden flight on Qatar's gold-trimmed jet as fury grows over 'gift' · it’s been reported that T.®ump’s administration has started construction on a new helipad for Marine One on the White House's South Lawn. Lockheed Martin reportedly donated $5 million towards the construction · Victor Wills, the recently deceased lead singer of the Village People, once asked DoNuts T.®ump to stop playing his band’s music. In a resurfaced interview with BBC News World America, he stressed that neither he nor his group endorsed the US president. “We have even asked him to stop playing our music at his rallies.” & dancing to it, we hope.

wednesday newstrip

T.®ump rejoices that the 'criminally made algae is gone' · a British man has been arrested in Ecuador after a woman’s body was discovered inside a suitcase · 'while mainstream headlines suggest Hogsbreath is motivated by race & gender animus, an even worse—& more dangerous—likelihood is that he is weeding out those he deems 'ideologically incompatible' with how he & T.®ump plan to use the military': Sabrina Haake · Australian man charged with murder after dead girl found in suitcase in Thailand · comedian Bill Maher was awarded the prestigious Mark Twain Prize for American Humor on Sunday in what might be one of the last major onstage moments at the Kennedy Center for the next several years · Core 2 Quad Q6600 system runs Windows 11 on DDR1-era motherboard · the Australian sharemarket has opened in positive territory on reports the US & Iran backed away from a fresh escalation that had threatened the fragile ceasefire underpinning peace talks · Elongated Muskrat leaks banned film dubbed "most disturbing ever" on X for 48 hours. The move came after Citizen Vigilante was banned in Germany due to regulators refusing to grant the film an age rating because of its extremely violent imagery, with fears it would incite violence against immigrants.

wednesday newstrip

Two-thirds of scam compounds 'bypassed' in Cambodia's crackdown, Amnesty finds · populist Australian parliamentarian, One Nation founder, & anti-immigration opponent apPauling Hensong’s speech ‘shameful’ & echoed ‘rubbish’ from rightwing figures in UK & US, critics say · Australia's richest person, mining magnate Gina Hancock, who is pouring millions into apPauling Hensong's One Nation party & who bought $1.5 billion worth of stock in the recent SpaceySex launch, has suggested that Queensland should offer Elongated Muskrat some of its islands. She also suggested that mainland Queensland could become a base for Israeli companies developing military weapons systems · Australia has emerged as a global hotspot for data center growth, driven by the surge in dependence on artificial intelligence · Senate lawmakers voted to freeze Defense Secretary Putrid Hogsbreath's travel budget unless the Pentagon answers for an Iranian school bombing & Caribbean boat strikes, Politico reported · 'this war was literally for nothing:' people left baffled by T.®ump's latest Iran concession.

now available for free download

Curtains, a 24-page pdf of mainly poems with a couple of prose pieces thrown in, is now available for downloading from Pat Nolan's Neo-Mimeo Editions.

The URL is Curtains.

wednesday newstrip

The T.®ump phone is literally a gilded cage for a two-year-old smartphone · Elongated Muskrat 'amplified anti-migrant content' amid Belfast disorder · T.®ump's lavishly renovated Reflecting Pool is already covered in green algae: report · a cartoon showing Israeli Prime Minister Been Jamin NotJustanyyahoo with a drum, to the beat of which were media mogul Rupert Murdoch, anti-Semitism envoy Jillian Segal, former PM John Howard, then-Liberal leader Sussan Ley, Liberal Senator Jacinta Price, & Nationals leader David Littleproud carrying a group of people calling for a royal commission, has been found to have caused or contributed to 'offence, distress or prejudice' by the Australian Press Council · UFC president Dana White was left confused on stage at the Freedom 250 press conference ahead of last weekend’s show at the White House – requesting a translator step in for a fighter who had just addressed the crowd in English · Marco Cubik’s Rube's comparison that DoNuts T.®ump's White House UFC bash is akin to the Apollo moon landing left an MS NOW panel stunned · is Justin Trudeau really Fidel Castro’s secret son?

wednesday newstrip

Byron Bay psychedelic guru accused of choking spiritual healer · DOJ tells judge T.®ump can 'bulldoze' Statue of Liberty with no consequences if he wanted to · the Department of Defense announced that it had significantly reduced the number of recognized religions within the agency, down from more than 200 to 31 · the Kennedy Center has continued its court-ordered purge of T.®ump's name by removing it from the online logo · Queensland government accused of operating secret agenda to purge Indigenous representation · multiple people were shot near a community festival in Toledo, Ohio, with police still searching for the suspects following an outbreak of gunfire that sent people scrambling for cover · Sir Keir Starmer accused Elongated Muskrat of stoking division & meddling in UK politics after a week of intense posting on · a federal whistleblower has revealed plans by the US Department of Government Efficiency to falsely list millions of people in the Social Security database as dead in a scheme to pressure them to leave the country.

wednesday newstrip

An environmentalist drag queen who goes by the name Pattie Gonia has called on the outdoor clothing brand Patagonia to drop a trademark infringement lawsuit it filed against the influencer · T.®ump dodges rules in rush to douse the Lincoln Memorial bronze horse statues with gold · Homeland Security Secretary MarkTwayne Mullet has proposed plans to stop processing international flights at airports in 'sanctuary cities' · JaDed Vance warns crowd of graduates at the U.S. Air Force Academy not to boo him: 'I'm the vice president of the United States' · judge orders T.®ump to remove his name from Washington’s Kennedy Center. T.®ump claims 'Kennedy Center will collapse' without his name on the building · Australia to buy three second-hand United States submarines under AUKUS shake-up · the arrival of a purpose-built ship owned by Chinese car manufacturer BYD that docked in Melbourne on Sunday carrying 5000 vehicles has been described by an analyst as a "turning point" in the electrification of Australian road transport · Israeli troops have captured a strategic mountain topped with a Crusader-built castle in southern Lebanon in their deepest incursion into the country in 26 years, the military says.

A quote from Niccolò Machiavelli

"The first method for estimating the intelligence of a ruler is to look at the men he has around him."

Remind you of anything?

wednesday newstrip

Forty-two US aircraft have been lost or damaged in the Iran war according to a congressional report · a bomb scare plunged a Melbourne Airport into lockdown for several hours & forced flight cancellations on Thursday morning after a suspicious package was flagged by security. The package was later confirmed to be a laser hair removal device & a cylindrical cardboard hot chocolate container · the United States has brought murder charges against former Cuban president Raúl Castro, in a major escalation of the T.®ump administration’s campaign against the country’s government · Israel's ambassador to Australia hauled in for a "please explain" after the country's national security minister posted a video of himself berating detained pro-Palestine activists · Elongated Muskrat's X Corp ordered to pay $750,000 after admitting it contravened Australian child protection request · 'Get-out-of-jail-free card': T.®ump lawsuit deal bars tax probes against him or his family — forever.