alierak | Network

Sea kayaking!

Today we had an early breakfast, because we had to walk out the door at 8:40 to catch a bus to the place where our kayak tour would launch. The earliest option for breakfast at this small guesthouse is 8, which is what we'd requested, but we went into the breakfast room at 7:40, since the muesli and fruit and such were already out, and she'd said we could take milk from the fridge if we were making coffee or tea with the kettle and supplies in our room, so we figured the same would apply to taking it for an early muesli breakfast. She came in about ten minutes later and when we said we didn't need a cooked breakfast today, given our time limitations, she was having none of it! She pressed us ("You have to eat!") until I said I'd have one egg -- yesterday we had two each, plus baked beans and tomato and basically the full English™️ -- whereupon she brought out two eggs for each of us, plus toast, slices of cheese (Geoff's not a big fan of cheese and I didn't eat the cheddar because this was getting to be a lot of food! but I admit I delightedly chowed down on the Wensleydale with cranberries, mmmmmm), and sliced tomato and cucumber, not to mention trying to give us beans as well, but that we did manage to fend off. She's very enthusiastic!

Even so, we did manage to get out in good time, and walked down to the center of town to catch a bus to a stop called Ouaisne Junction, and if you think we had the slightest idea how to pronounce that, you're mad. We'd asked our host (who is from Latvia) and she took a guess as more or less "wash-neh," but when we showed the written word to the bus driver he pronounced it basically "way-nay" or "way-neh," so that's what we're going with.

Anyway, here on Jersey the buses only stop at a stop if a stop is requested, if someone on board presses the signal that they want to get off there or if someone is waiting there to get on; otherwise they just blow past it. Nor are the stops announced. So you can't just figure you want the ninth stop and count, and you can't always see the stop name as you blow by, and of course we have no idea what our stop looks like. Fortunately the local bus app can track you along a bus route map that shows the stops; it's supposedly also showing live tracking of the bus, but the "live" tracking is often a minute or two outdated, so our little location dot was often a stop or two ahead of the bus icon 😂. Still, I was able to track us and know when to signal that we wanted the next stop. Yet another way in which travel without a phone and a data plan just isn't really feasible any more...

We walked ten minutes from the bus stop down a country road to a lovely beach, and the van from the kayak company, towing a giant rack of kayaks, passed us on the way. We got there and meet up with our guide Derek, who was indeed the husband of Trudie who was our guide yesterday; we were already in bathing suits under our clothes, so we stripped down and got fitted with sleeveless wetsuits and windbreaker jackets and floatation vests and also helmets juuuuuust in case we dumped a kayak and landed headfirst on a rock, and put on the water shoes we'd brought from home (which we wear for lake kayaking there). There were supposed to be three other people on this morning's tour, but their ferry had been delayed, so it was just me and Geoff. And then we launched! The water was cool when we waded in to launch, I wouldn't have wanted to go swimming, but with the wetsuits and jackets -- and exertion -- we were perfectly comfortable.

We spent a good two hours paddling along the coast, with almost constant (and fascinating) narration from Derek. He pointed out Nazi fortifications (including what we'd thought was a seawall along the edge of our launch beach, but nope, it was an anti-tank barricade) and caves that were inhabited by Neanderthals for thousands of years, and different kinds of seabirds (many of which are experiencing population crashes) and geological features and formations, and told us lots of stories about life and resistance during the Occupation (which his mother lived through). The wind and water were active but not too strong or choppy; paddling was quite manageable even for us lake-kayaking amateurs.

Exxxxxxxcept when Geoff didn't see a barely submerged rock in front of him, bumped it, momentarily grounded his kayak, and then tipped and dumped it and himself trying to get unstuck! But Derek had walked us through how to get back in before we even put the kayaks in the water -- these were sit-on kayaks, so they didn't fill up with water or anything -- and he paddled over, righted the kayak, and steadied it for Geoff to hoist himself back into (onto) it, while I hovered a safe distance away. Geoff was drenched, of course, but not even bruised, and the helmet was not needed, and it was warm and sunny enough that he didn't get chilled or anything, and mostly dried off pretty quickly.

After two hours we returned to our launch point, stripped out of all our borrowed gear, and said goodbye to Derek with many thanks; both this and yesterday's walk were great experiences, well worth their cost, and we plan to leave some glowing Tripadvisor reviews. The beach had perfectly acceptable public toilets, which I ducked into to change out of my swimsuit into the bra and underwear I'd brought with me, a bathing suit not being particularly comfortable as everyday walking clothing; Geoff's suit, of course, functioned fine as waking shorts. Derek had told us the pub next to the beach had excellent beer, but we wanted food more and also, having had a very pricy though tasty dinner last night, didn't want to pay their prices, so instead we got a couple of sandwiches from the beach-shack cafe, plus a few handfuls of the trail mix we hit a grocery the other day to put together, and that did the trick just fine. Geoff had filled a water bottle at the guesthouse this morning, but unfortunately I really dislike the taste of the tap water there, so I only had a swallow.

Then we walked along the long wide sweeping curve of the beach in the opposite direction from where we'd kayaked; we'd gone south and east around a point, and now we walked north and west, passing a variety of people enjoying the beach, a group gathered and getting ready around a rack of canoes whose towing van identified them as Healing Waves Ocean Therapy, pretty cool! and also a number of waterfront hotels, one of which Geoff just looked up as I'm typing this and informed me costs about $400 a night, jeepers.

We ended up at St Brelade's Parish Church, which had a beautiful stone ceiling inside, and very warm and welcoming flyers and info posted, and also a vast and fascinating graveyard around it, with stones as old as [illegible] and as recent as last year. There was also an older side chapel building with partially preserved paintings on the ceiling that the posted info said dated from 1375 and 1425, mostly too faint to fully appreciate but including a beautiful and well-preserved (or perhaps well-restored?) Annunciation.

By that time we were pretty wiped, so we walked up to the main road and waited only ten minutes or so for a bus back into the center of St Helier, the capital, where we're staying. No need to paranoically track our progress when we're taking it to the end of the line! We wandered homeward through a big shopping area, and I seized the opportunity to check the backpack options at the local outdoors supply store, but my ideal unicorn backpack remains sadly mythical. We weren't terribly hungry, but stopped at the same nearby cafe we went to before, where we split a really good teriyaki salmon bowl, and Geoff got a pint of a draft beer he'd liked the other day and I tried a bottle from what Derek had told us is now the only craft brewery still operating on the island. The brewery is unappetizingly called Stinky Bay, but the IPA I got of theirs was delicious.

Then we staggered home at about five-thirty, showered (unfortunately both the water pressure and the hot water supply could be better here, but it's a functional shower and that's what we needed), and started writing up the day. And here we are!

If you're enjoying my trip blog, you might also enjoy Geoff's, which is at https://geoff-hart.com/fiction/Channel-Islands-2026/index.html -- he sets up the outline in advance, so click each day that has actually happened to see his writeup. Eventually he'll probably post some pictures, which I won't be doing (except maybe after we get home); I'm the logistics officer of our trips, but he's the photographer.

Tomorrow is Liberation Day! Our plan is just to head into the center of town after breakfast and try to find a place from which we can watch the ceremonies and reenactments, and then hopefully there will be festivities and whatnot. Also hopefully it won't rain much; today's weather was spectacular but it's not going to last.

May Day this year was spectacular and beautiful and badly needed.

The weather was absolutely perfect: a deep blue sky with only a very occasional wisp of cloud, with a slight breeze and pleasant temperature.

One of the things that needs to be gauged carefully each year is when to show up. Show up too late, and it is impossible to find space on the curb to watch the parade. Show up too early, and it can be a very long time to wait (with no convenient porta-potties nearby. This year, I judged it perfectly. The parade started at 12:00 noon, but I had picked my spot and was seated in the shade by 10:30 a.m. Some years, I have been content with a blanket on the curb, but this year, given the problem I've been having with my hips, I decided to bring a foldable camp chair, an excellent decision, and I was entirely comfortable.

I brought a mini picnic for myself and my reading tablet, and spent part of my time reading and part of it watching the crowd. Bicycles and unicycles zipped back and forth, and entrepreneurial vendors trundled wheeled carts past the gathering crowd, selling food and drinks, pinwheels, and balloons. Eventually, people in costumes started drifting by: an elderly couple dressed in silk robes, carrying walking staffs hung with ribbons and crystals, a tuba player striding quickly on his way to join a band at the parade starting place, dressed in a colorful costume with sunblowers stitched to his trousers. I saw a man in a gorgeously sequinned dress skate by on rollerblades.

Eventually, both sides of the street swelled with a huge, excited crowd, and the parade began, an extraordinary explosion of color. All the floats were human-powered, and all the parade participants were brimming with joy, calling out to the onlookers, "Happy May Day!" Women dressed in fluttering chiffon, silks, feather boas, and ribbons carried poles mounted with papier-mache bees, teasing the children in the crowd, lowering the poles so that the bees 'gathered nectar" from the flowers they wore in their hair. Bicycles tricked out with cardboard painted as colorful alebrijes, fire horses, dragons, and beetles streamed by. A float representing a snow plow named "Abolish Ice" pushed cardboard federal ICE cars ahead of it with its shovel. A huge loon towered over the crowd, flapping its wings. Aztec dancers danced down the street (some of them did the entire parade barefoot), shaking jingle belts and tamborines, beating drums, and smudging the crowd with clouds of burning sage. Several bands marched by in motley costumes, and the Southside Battle Train revved up the crowd, led by a Tyrannosaurus rex that cheerfully snapped its jaws at the crowd. A newly married couple marched by, accompanied by cheering friends and family, carrying a banner introducing them to the onlookers. Hari Krishna adherents, chanting, a huge trans flag carried by people of all ages, people dressed up as locusts and whistles and lotus flowers, members of a boxing gym, representatives of the postal union, protesting against ICE, and more.

When the parade had passed by, the crowd gathered their chairs and blankets and streamed into Powderhorn Park. After the usual couple of hours' delay, the Ceremony was held at the edge of Blanket Hill, culminating in the rowing of the Sun across the lake to raise the Tree of Life on the shore.

A small group of friends gathered in the spot where we have assembled for years. To my delight, Fiona, Alona, and M were there. M grinned and chortled and flirted with everyone and did her dogged best to eat every speck of dirt around herself as far as her little arms could reach, a wreath of flowers in her hair.

A perfect May Day and a perfect day.

Background: a perfectly blue sky. Upper Right: A woman in a hat and sunglasses (Peg) smiles at the camera. A sign just below her face reads "L♥ve wins." The End. Upper left: an Aztec dancer in full regalia. Center: A loon rampant spreads its wings. In front and slightly to the left of the loon: the May Day Sun. Lower portion: The May Day Tree of Life spreads its arms wide, upheld by a crowd dressed in red.

May Day

18 May Day

Click on the links to see the 2026, 2025, 2024, 2023, 2022 and 2021 52 Card Project galleries.

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https://xkcd.com/3243/

Posted by Mikeie Honda Reiland

https://nashvillebanner.com/2026/05/08/tennessee-congressional-map-gerrymandering-redistricting-lawsuit/

https://nashvillebanner.com/?p=28854

A coalition of plaintiffs that includes several voters and Democratic candidates running for election to the U.S. House of Representatives filed a lawsuit in federal court that challenges the new Congressional map passed by the state’s Republican supermajority during the final day of a special session Thursday. This suit marks the second legal challenge to the maps already, following an emergency petition filed by the NAACP in Davidson County Chancery Court a day earlier.

President Donald Trump and Sen. Marsha Blackburn encouraged Gov. Bill Lee to call the special session after an April 29 Supreme Court ruling diluted a section of the 1965 Voting Rights Act that prevented racial discrimination in voting. That ruling opened the door for new legislative maps in minority-heavy districts. During the special session, state lawmakers repealed a bill that prohibited redistricting outside a 10-year cycle, usually tied to the census, allowing for the new maps.

Tennessee Republicans portrayed the session as a straightforward political power play, an opportunity to grab a historically Democratic seat by divvying up Tennessee’s 9th Congressional District, which previously included all of Memphis. Democrats and a group of protestors at the statehouse likened the move to Jim Crow and the Confederacy, and the House Democratic Caucus ended up walking off the floor.

In filing the suit, U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen (D-Memphis), Tennessee Rep. and 9th District candidate Justin Pearson, Columbia Mayor and 5th District candidate Chaz Molder and 6th District candidate Chaney Mosley — along with the Tennessee Democratic Party — are seeking an injunction barring the implementation of the new maps for the 2026 election cycle.

As part of their arguments, the plaintiffs used the state’s own words against it, citing affidavits from four state election officers filed in 2022, the last time the state redrew the maps after the 2020 census. Redrawing legislative districts close to the August elections would, according to then-assistant coordinator of elections Beth Henry Robertson, have made it “very difficult for us to have everything timely and accurately ready for the August election and early voting.” Per the filing, the Tennessee Supreme Court used those affidavits as part of its justification in overturning a trial court’s ruling related to the 2022 maps, ruling in favor of the state.

The plaintiffs also wrote that the bills approving the new maps “will unlawfully burden the Plaintiffs’ constitutional rights to vote and to free speech and association.”

A three-judge panel at the Tennessee Court of Appeals recently overturned an injunction granted by Chancellor Pat Moskal barring the deployment of the National Guard in Memphis. In its opinion, the panel ruled that the plaintiffs — primarily legislators and elected officials in Memphis and Shelby County — did not demonstrate legal standing because they could not demonstrate a personal injury from the defendants’ actions. The Tennessee Supreme Court ruled similarly in addressing the 2022 maps, also determining that the plaintiffs — individual voters in that case — lacked standing.

Justice Holly Kirby was the lone dissenter, writing in her opinion, “Tennessee becomes the first state in the nation to hold that a voter does not have standing to challenge the constitutionality of her own voting district…by any measure, [the voter] has standing to assert her district-specific claim.” Kirby’s retirement will become official on June 30.

“After today, Tennessee courts are closed for purposes of challenging legislative gerrymandering,” state Sen. Jeff Yarbro (D-Nashville) wrote on X following that decision.

As such, although this case is in federal rather than state court, standing could once more play a role. On the surface, candidates directly involved in contested elections in redrawn districts would seem to be able to demonstrate a personal injury due to the new maps, but the courts may rule differently.

Courts often use a traditional four-factor test when determining whether or not to grant an injunction, which includes demonstrating irreparable harm, the inadequacy of other legal remedies, the balance of hardships/equities for both sides if the injunction is granted and whether or not the injunction is in the public interest.

“We are outraged that Governor Bill Lee and Tennessee Republicans are attempting to roll back generations of civil rights progress in just three days through a redistricting scheme designed to unlawfully silence Black voters,” said TNDP Chair Rachel Campbell in a statement. “This is not only racist, it’s reckless.

“Changing the rules midstream will create chaos for voters and throw communities into upheaval. We will fight these racially gerrymandered maps tooth and nail because the future of democracy in Tennessee, across the South, and throughout this nation depends on it.”

The post Democrats, Voters File Second Legal Challenge to New Congressional Map appeared first on Nashville Banner.

https://nashvillebanner.com/2026/05/08/tennessee-congressional-map-gerrymandering-redistricting-lawsuit/

https://nashvillebanner.com/?p=28854

Posted by Victoria Strauss

https://writerbeware.blog/2026/05/08/book-festival-scams-interview-fakes-two-new-ai-driven-impersonation-scams-to-avoid/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=book-festival-scams-interview-fakes-two-new-ai-driven-impersonation-scams-to-avoid

https://writerbeware.blog/?p=15676

Have you recently received an email invitation to be a featured guest at a book festival or conference event? Or to be interviewed on a radio show or podcast?

Literary agents, publishers, and major production companies don’t typically cold-call authors. That unexpected “endorsement” from Amazon Studios, or expression of interest from a Big 5 editor, is never going to turn out to be legit. But literary events and interviewers do reach out to writers directly. Even in our current age of hyper-aggressive solicitation scams, that out-of-the-blue conference or interview invite might just be the real thing.

Unfortunately, AI-driven impersonation scams have glommed onto these events in a big way. I’m getting a growing number of reports from writers who’ve received credible-seeming invitations that have turned out to be completely fake. It’s yet another area where writers must be extremely careful not to take anything at face value.

Below, the scams’ M.O….and their provenance (which, if you’re a regular reader, won’t surprise you).

Book Festival and Conference Impersonations

Here’s the solicitation one writer received from, supposedly, the Ballyscullion Park Book Festival.

The writer was flattered. But…given that they were in the USA and the Ballyscullion festival is in Northern Ireland, how would attendance work, exactly? Not to worry, “Rosalind Mulholland” explained: “We do offer a trusted representative option, where your work is presented on your behalf, your book is displayed, and readers are engaged with just as intentionally, so you can still benefit from the festival without the stress of travel.”

With the writer reassured, “Rosalind” got to the point. (Note the first line of the email below: this kind of faux-empathetic engagement is a very common opener for AI-generated responses to authors’ concerns or questions. The use of “thoughtful”, also, is an AI tell: I see it constantly in the AI scam emails authors share with me.)

Dismayed, the author wrote back that they couldn’t afford that kind of money. Once again, “Rosalind” had a solution: a “Mini Special Placement” for just $175 (scammers are often willing to reduce the price for authors who object). The author was also asked for several items to “properly represent” their book at the festival, including a “book mockup” and a book trailer: items the scammer was betting that the author didn’t have on hand and thus could potentially be charged to produce. The initial fee demand is often just an opener, which is why scammers are so willing to reduce it: it tells the scammer whether the writer is willing to pay, and therefore may be willing to pay more.

Here’s the payment info the scammer sent–wire transfer, which scammers are fond of because it can’t generally be disputed or reversed.

Again, if you’ve been reading here for a while, this will look familiar: a third-party payee, a Nigerian name, and one of the Nigerian scammers’ two favorite banks (the other is Wells Fargo). I’m guessing this email wasn’t AI-produced, but dashed off by the scammer themself: notice how their previously flawless English slips a little.

I’ve seen similar solicitations impersonating the Turin International Book Fair, the LA Times Festival of Books, the Pike’s Peak Writers Conference, the Nantucket Book Festival, and the PEN America Literary Gala, all with similarly bogus Gmail addresses: turininternationalbookfair@gmail.com, eventinfo.latimes.gmail.com, authors.ppwc.net@gmail.com, andreaassistantorganizer@gmail.com, karen.mehiel.penamerica.event@gmail.com. Doubtless there are many more.

Radio Show Impersonations

The M.O. here is basically the same: a flattering email invitation from a radio show or station the writer will easily be able to confirm is real. In this case, LBC Radio:

On further correspondence, the writer discovered that there was a “standard participation fee” for the interview. “This,” the scammer explained, “covers production, placement, and promotion across our audience network to ensure your feature receives strong visibility and engagement.” It’s typical scammer gaslighting, intended to soothe any suspicion of pay-to-play: you’re not paying for the interview, just for promotion of the interview! It’s in your best interest!

The writer, who had quickly identified the scam, requested payment information. And just as you’d expect:

The payment demands for this scam differ; several have a tiered fee structure, like the one in the email below. Notice the gaslighting about fees, and also the classic AI smarmy response to author caveats in the first line (the author had flatly refused to pay for anything).

I’ve also seen solicitations from Magic UK Radio, 2GB Sydney Radio, Newsradio WTAM 1100 in Cleveland OH, GB News Radio in the UK, the BBC, iHeart Radio, various shows on NPR, the Waterstones podcast, Mutiny Radio, Monacle Radio, and WYPR in Baltimore MD–all from bogus Gmail addresses like the ones above. Canada’s CBC has also been impersonated by this scam.

What to Look For

Since, as noted above, interviews and conference/festival appearances are an area where unexpected emails are common, how to distinguish the flood of scams from contacts that are real? Look for the indicators below.

A Gmail, or occasionally an AOL, email address where you’d normally expect the contact to come from a company or event email domain. Visit the event or radio show website to see if you can verify what the real email address is.
A non-typical salutation. Using myself as an example: Dear Victoria Strauss, rather than Dear Victoria or Dear Ms. Strauss. Or Dear Author. Or no salutation at all. First name/last name is the one I see most often; that’s what both of the solicitations above used.
An extended discussion of your book’s theme or plot points, and/or effusive praise (as in the radio show solicitation above). A genuine invite won’t necessarily not include these–but both are established AI scam M.O.s, and should always prompt extra caution.
Fees where they aren’t normally charged. Neither radio shows nor book festivals require payment from invited guests. But a scammer will always wind up asking for money–even if it takes several email exchanges for that to become apparent.
Be wary of these payment methods, which are commonly used by scammers because unlike credit card transactions, they are difficult or impossible to reverse: wire transfers, Upwork or Fiverr invoices, Paypal Friends and Family. Lately I’m also seeing payment requests via a platform called Coachli; there’s nothing fraudulent about the platform itself, as far as I know, but it is a platform specifically tailored to Nigerian and African service and content providers, and I’ve documented several Nigerian scams that have used it.

The post Book Festival Scams, Interview Fakes: Two New AI-Driven Impersonation Scams to Avoid appeared first on Writer Beware.

https://writerbeware.blog/?p=15676

Posted by Sarah Grace Taylor

https://nashvillebanner.com/2026/05/08/tennessee-congressional-districts-black-voters-memphis/

https://nashvillebanner.com/?p=28801

In a heated three-day special session, Tennessee lawmakers redrew the state’s nine Congressional districts this week, fracturing Memphis and calling into question the motives of those advocating for the sudden, aggressive redistricting.

The new boundaries will likely benefit Republicans in the upcoming midterms by eliminating the state’s last Democrat-controlled district.

Democrats who opposed the effort, which targeted the state’s only majority-Black district, criticized the redistricting as racially motivated and worried it would disenfranchise Memphis’ Black voters.

Republicans supporting the map argued that the redrawn districts would balance urban and rural areas to create more fair and accountable Congressional representation.

Because the session happened so quickly and the map, which wasn’t published until the day before its final passage, analysis of those claims was limited until after the special session concluded Thursday.

The Banner worked with Ken Blake, a data journalism professor at Middle Tennessee State University’s College of Journalism and Strategic Media, to see how the new districts were divided.

Using 2020 census data and 2024 election results, Blake drew maps showing changes in racial makeup, density, political makeup and compactness between the previous Congressional map and a detailed version of the new map obtained by the Banner on Thursday.

Here’s what the data shows about the new map:

Did redistricting really balance out rural and urban representation?

During the sole day of committee discussions, House Majority Leader Rep. William Lamberth (R-Portland) told colleagues that the map was not focused on racial discrimination, but rather was designed to break up large urban areas, to ensure each Congressional district represented a mix of population densities for balance and fairness.

Analysis of the average and median number of people per square mile for every census tract in each district shows that the new districts are no more density-balanced than the previous Congressional districts, except for Memphis, where the urban center was so clearly divided.

2020 Population density (current districts)

2020 Population density (new districts)

Tennessee’s 1st, 2nd and 3rd Congressional districts, which represent East Tennessee, each showed little or no change in population density between the two maps, while District 9, the Western-most district that previously included all of Memphis, plummeted from a median density of 3,075 per square mile on the old map to just 789 on the new map, a nearly 75 percent decrease.

And more specifically, Republican-voting urban areas like Knoxville and Chattanooga were left untouched.

2020 Population density (current districts)

2020 Population density (new districts)

According to Blake, the obvious lack of a pattern undermines Lamberth’s claim that balancing urban and rural areas was an objective in the redistricting.

“There were three urban areas left in this state that could have been affected by this redistricting, since Nashville was already split up. And of those three, I’m seeing a decrease in urbanization in only one of them,” Blake noted Thursday.

“If the goal had been to reduce population density across the board, I would think the reduction in those three urban areas would have been more consistent,” he added.

Was the map racially motivated?

Democratic lawmakers and advocates were repeatedly critical of the map, noting that Memphis, which has roughly a 60 percent-Black population, was being divided into near-even thirds in the new map, separating Black voters and diluting their influence as a voting bloc.

Republicans denied that claim, noting that the maps were politically gerrymandered for a partisan benefit, which just happened to coincide with race.

The data somewhat supports both claims.

2020 Black population (current districts)

2020 Black population (new districts)

By splitting Memphis, the state has effectively eliminated the only majority-minority Congressional district.

While the 9th District is currently made up of about 60 percent Black residents, no district in the state will have a majority-minority population under the new map. In fact, no district will even have a one-third minority population, according to the 2020 data.

2020 Black population (current districts)

2020 Black population (new districts)

While these new district lines were drawn almost exactly along the majority-minority census tracts in Memphis, they were also drawn almost exactly along the most densely Democratic lines in the city.

2024 Presidential results (current districts)

2024 Presidential results (new districts)

Across the state, the new districts also balance out the risk of a Democratic win by evening out the margin by which President Donald Trump won the 2024 presidential race. For example, the newly-drawn 6th Congressional District in Middle Tennessee went from a +35.4 percent Trump district to a +26.9 percent district in the new map, keeping it safely Republican, but picking up more Davidson County Democratic voters to help other districts’ margins grow.

2024 Presidential results (current districts)

2024 Presidential results (new districts)

Because Memphis’ Black and Democratic populations are so intertwined, and both unequivocally suffered from the redistricting, it’s hard to say if Republicans were strictly padding their political averages ahead of the midterm, or if they sought to disenfranchise minority voters.

“We can’t infer intent from these maps. We can’t tell if the people who drew these maps were trying to separate Black voters from Black or Democratic voters from Democratic voters,” Blake said, noting that intent may not be the point.

“The question becomes, does it bother you as someone who draws these maps, to separate Black voters from Black voters and move them into districts where they will no longer have majority voice like they did in their original district?” Blake asked.

While Davidson County’s most diverse neighborhoods were similarly split up in the last round of redistricting, it’s worth noting that majority-minority neighborhoods in less Democratic areas like Chattanooga and Knoxville have not been comparably divided.

Was this gerrymandering?

Political analysts rely on something called the Polsby-Popper test to determine how compact a political district is. The mathematical equation compares the area and perimeter of a district to determine how close it is to a perfect circle. Or, in other words, how natural or unnatural are the political lines that have been drawn?

On the scale, 0.0 would represent a completely gerrymandered shape, and 1.0 would represent a perfectly compact circle.

Gerrymandering score (current districts)

Gerrymandering score (new districts)

In a case like Tennessee’s 5th Congressional District, which was drastically stretched to sprawl West from Maury County all the way to the Arkansas border, wrapping around multiple other Congressional districts and bordering multiple states, the score plummets. In the 5th, the compactness score went from 0.135, an already suboptimal score, to 0.090, placing it among the most gerrymandered Congressional districts in the country.

Gerrymandering score (current districts)

Gerrymandering score (new districts)

Across the state, the Polsby-Popper score decreased by about 0.009 on average, indicating that districts became less compact and more gerrymandered.

Methodology: The analysis relied on tract-level data and border files from the 2020 Census, publicly available precinct-level vote totals and border files from the 2024 U.S. presidential election, a file Tennessee Republicans provided of the new 2026 U.S. House of Representatives district borders, and custom code written in the R programming language. Estimates for districts as a whole were extrapolated from the tracts or precincts that fell entirely or mostly within the districts. The compactness of district borders was quantified using the Polsby-Popper method, which computes the ratio of a district’s area to the area of a circle with a circumference equal to the length of the district’s perimeter. The method, commonly used in research on the shapes of political districts, produces a score ranging from 0 to 1, with 1 indicating optimal compactness.

The post Analyzing Tennessee’s New Congressional Map By the Numbers appeared first on Nashville Banner.

https://nashvillebanner.com/2026/05/08/tennessee-congressional-districts-black-voters-memphis/

https://nashvillebanner.com/?p=28801

https://xkcd.com/3243/

Posted by David Malki !

https://wondermark.com/applications-open-for-genius-northwest-an-irl-gaming-competition/

https://wondermark.com/?p=21743

Last year, I participated in Genius Northwest, a gaming competition inspired by the Korean gameshow The Genius and its ilk.

It’s a reality show without the cameras — a 3-day, all-inclusive weekend retreat structured around a series of challenges and puzzles, in which personalities and dealmaking matter as much as playing games.

It’s truly a remarkable thing. I came in dead last in the competition, but I still had a great time participating.

The event is held annually in the Pacific Northwest (hence the name) and applications are now open to participate in the 2026 competition!

Learn more — and apply — at GeniusNW.com.

https://wondermark.com/applications-open-for-genius-northwest-an-irl-gaming-competition/

https://wondermark.com/?p=21743

Posted by David Malki !

https://wondermark.com/c/1585/

https://wondermark.com/?post_type=webcomic1&p=21739

https://wondermark.com/c/1585/

https://wondermark.com/?post_type=webcomic1&p=21739

Theme Prompt: #300 – Ceremony
Title: Forever
Fandom: The Fantastic Journey
Rating/Warnings: PG
Bonus: Yes.
Word Count: 1000
Summary: Meeting Gwenith had brought Varian more happiness than he’d ever imagined. They were destined to be together, forever…

( Forever... )

Current Mood: tired
Current Location: my desk

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Shin Haewon's family falls far short of haughty aristocrat Yu Seojun's very reasonable standards, as he is gracious enough to explain to Haewon. How cruel that fate compels extended proximity between Haewon and Seojun.

Behind Five Willows by June Hur

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Posted by Banner Staff

https://nashvillebanner.com/2026/05/08/marsha-blackburn-tennessee-voucher-program/

https://nashvillebanner.com/?p=28792

BIG DAY FOR BLACKBURN: The same day that the Tennessee State Legislature passed new Congressional districts at the request of Sen. Marsha Blackburn, the gubernatorial candidate shared a poll showing her already sizable lead growing. The new poll from Blackburn shows the senior senator and presumed frontrunner in the 2026 governor’s race dominating the primary with 56 percent of Republican respondents favoring Blackburn, far outpacing runner-up Rep. John Rose with 10 percent and state Rep. Monty Fritts with 5 percent. One of the three will be selected in an August primary to represent the party in the November general election, where a Republican is most likely to be elected as term-limited Gov. Bill Lee’s successor. – Sarah Grace Taylor

VOUCHER ACCOUNTING: Gov. Bill Lee signed legislation on May 7 expanding the statewide voucher program to 35,000 seats for the 2026-27 school year. All vouchers are “reserved and awaiting acceptance from families,” according to the Department of Education. Besides this year’s voucher recipients, who had a 99 percent renewal rate, the largest share of students has a household income below 300 percent of the federal eligibility for free or reduced-price lunch — up to $183,150 for a family of four. Of the reserved seats, 18,553 were renewed for a second year, 3,970 fall below 100 percent of the income eligibility, 9,360 fall below 300 percent, and 3,117 are currently enrolled in public school or entering kindergarten. There is a waitlist of 17,735 applications. — Lillian Avedian

NEW REP. HARDAWAY: In honor of his father, the late Rep. G.A. Hardaway (D-Memphis), Rep. T.J. Hardaway was sworn in early Thursday to temporarily fill the seat left vacant when the older Hardaway died in late April. The new Rep. Hardaway was able to participate in the chaotic last day of a three-day special session, filling in for his father, who was briefly ill and then died the morning after the regular session ended. House Democratic Caucus Leader Karen Camper praised the appointment, saying, “We are so thankful that T. J. has stepped up to this challenge despite the difficult circumstances. I am certain that the commitment of public service that was exemplified by his father will be carried forward by him.”— Sarah Grace Taylor

The post May 8: Marsha Blackburn Poll Power; School Vouchers set for 2026-27 appeared first on Nashville Banner.

https://nashvillebanner.com/2026/05/08/marsha-blackburn-tennessee-voucher-program/

https://nashvillebanner.com/?p=28792

The last of the Varsity ice hockey games between Oxford and Cambridge universities is tomorrow evening, at Cambridge Ice Arena, at 5pm. I will be playing for Cambridge Huskies B against Oxford Vikings C.

Will it be high quality hockey? No
Will it be entertaining? Absolutely
Will I fall over? Obviously
Will I get in a fight? Maybe, if someone touches my goalie

My goalie is one of the Men's Blues, who put on goalie pads for the first time on Tuesday. Generally the squad is the people who couldn't play Varsity for Huskies or Women's Blues, plus the aforementioned novice in goal and an experienced goalie skating out. Our attempt at an entire forward line of goalies was regrettably thwarted by people having other commitments.

The results of the other Varsity games this year were:

Cambridge Narwhals v Oxford Vikings A: won by Cambridge
Cambridge Huskies v Oxford Vikings B: won by Oxford
Cambridge Women's Blues v Oxford Women's Blues: won by Oxford
Cambridge Men's Blues v Oxford Men's Blues: won by Cambridge

So this is both a not very serious game, and vitally important to win the best of five.

I'm still getting used to my new skates so I'll be playing this (and my other game for Kodiaks on Sunday) in the old ones.

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ice hockey

1) I finally have a hairdresser appointment

2) a hot chocolate. So yummy

3) a picknick after school with friends. Let's hope the sun comes through a bit

Leaving the jewelry store this afternoon with a couple of options for repairing the clasp on my necklace which has finally broken down beyond my abilities with needle-nose pliers, I got back into the car just in time to catch an interview with a geophysicist that not only tipped me off to the 1859 Carrington Event which sounds like the science fiction of its day with its spark-throwing wireless sets and tropically lapped auroras and telegraphers communicating through atmospheric influence alone, it introduced me to the Pangaean block of the Piedmont Resistor which seems to lie beneath most of the Eastern Seaboard, just one more piece of deep—two hundred million years down to the mantle—strangeness underfoot. I may never have heard of the United States Magnetotelluric Array and I understand its utility to the fragile electrical grids we have made to stand between the crochets of solar flares and the conductivity of the earth, but in a country that preserved any care for knowledge its map of melted, sutured, fractured time would be its own payoff. I love how much is banked and shifting beneath the surfaces we interact with, from earth and sea to the structures of the universe. I have missed so many meteor showers this year.

Current Music: Pylon Reenactment Society, "Compression"

We didn't go to Disneyland last weekend because we were going to go to Universal Studios and then skipped it because of Jasper stress, and we're not going this weekend because Carla has a doctor's appointment tomorrow and might get her big toenail removed and might not want to be walking a lot after that, so we decided to do a weeknight trip.

( Read more... )

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disney

“The woods are lovely, dark and deep.
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.”

Robert Frost

1. I got an email from the bike shop this afternoon that they've received the bikes and need a couple days to put them together, so hopefully we should be able to pick them up this weekend! Still haven't sold Carla's old bike, but I did get another inquiry on Nextdoor today, so hopefully they actually follow up on my reply.

2. We were planning on going to Disneyland this weekend, but Carla has a doctor's appointment tomorrow that might result in getting her big toenail removed, and she wasn't sure she'd want to be doing a lot of walking the next day, so we went down tonight for dinner instead and had a very nice time. The sun was still out while we were there, but the temps were pleasant and it wasn't too busy.

3. Sister time!

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I'm hosting a comment event at the

gamechangerhr community. Each post features two meme-style questions about Heated Rivalry. You can find all of the posts at the three weeks for DW tag. If you like Heated Rivalry, come join us!

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I'll be honest, folks: I don't have much oomph to play tonight. I'm going to give it a whirl, though, because I do not want to spend the next two years on one game. So on we go!

BUT WAIT, WHAT'S THIS! A tool tip on the screen has piqued my interest! Now I need to play more to find out what it's about!

( SPOILERS )

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Book Festival and Conference Impersonations

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Did redistricting really balance out rural and urban representation?

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