Happy Thursday.
To be ITK, know this:
Read this: Obituary: Queen Elizabeth II BBC
+ @RoyalFamily: The Queen died peacefully at Balmoral this afternoon. The King and The Queen Consort will remain at Balmoral this evening and will return to London tomorrow.
+ BALMORAL CASTLE, Scotland (AP) — Buckingham Palace says Queen Elizabeth II, Britain’s longest-reigning monarch, has died at 96 after 70 years on throne.
+ @paddingtonbear: Thank you Ma’am, for everything.
+ @ShippersUnbound: I was a bit of a republican spirit in my teenage years. I was cured of that by two things: prolonged exposure to elected politicians and Elizabeth II. I feel a bit like I felt when my favourite grandmother died
+ @SamRamani2: When Vladimir Putin was about to meet with Queen Elizabeth II in 2003, the Home Secretary's dog barked loudly. The Queen quipped: 'Dogs have interesting instincts, don’t they?"
+ @kitty_donaldson: Not sure I have ever filed while crying before
Australian Parliament, which was due to sit next week, will be immediately suspended for at least 15 days. A gun salute will occur at Parliament House at dusk - one round will be fired for each year of the Queen's life.
+ President Biden ordered that US flags across the world be lowered for 10 days in tribute.
The world just cracked. Amazing to see what happens in the next decade with the UK, the Commonwealth, the governments of Canada and Australia, and the general survival of the House of Windsor.
UK: New PM. New Monarch. All within 48 hours. Wild.
+ @peterfrankopan: Unprecedented to have a new Monarch and a new Prime Minister in the same week. What a moment.
Boris Johnson isn't yet finished.
Read this: 'London Bridge is down': The secret plan for the days after the Queen’s death: She is venerated around the world. She has outlasted 12 US presidents. She stands for stability and order. But her kingdom is in turmoil, and her subjects are in denial that her reign will ever end. That’s why the palace has a plan. Guardian
Amazing reporting from March 2017.
Worth a read.
Reuters: A year on, El Salvador's bitcoin experiment is stumbling
+ "This experiment has been very risky, too risky for a poor country," said Oscar Picardo, director of the Institute of Science, Technology, and Innovation at the private Francisco Gavidia University.
The US military is working on plans to create a military testing facility in Saudi Arabia, perhaps to be called the Red Sands Integrated Experimentation Center.
+ The Air Force tested an unarmed Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile on Wednesday in California.
Oh.
US Election 2022: House Minority Leader McCarthy to unveil GOP platform on September 19
Read this: Ski pass war transforms customers’ buying habits ADN
+ The amount of business generated by season-pass users was greater than the business generated by lift-ticket sales for the first time during the 2019-20 season.
+ Last season, season passes accounted for 51.9% of visits nationwide compared to only 37.3% for lift tickets.
Read this: What draws us to Rome’s gorgeous, light-filled Pantheon: Elizabeth Bick’s deeply empathetic photographs reveal moments of beauty and awe. FT
+ Light is an everyday phenomenon. But when architecture makes light thinkable, it becomes strange. We do not really see the world around us: we see the light that it reflects.
+ Although it shapes and gives meaning to mundane life, that light is cosmic, quite literally. It travels further and faster than anything we know.
WP: No more snow days? NYC schools say remote learning eliminates the need.
Troubling...
Tiafoe becomes first American in US Open semifinals since 2006: WP reports the Maryland native defeated Andrey Rublev and has a chance to be the first American man to win a Grand Slam singles title since Andy Roddick at the 2003 US Open.
John McEnroe gets his revenge: While other stars fade, the notorious “Super Brat” has become a subject of fascination and a ubiquitous presence, inside tennis and outside it, too. You have a problem with that? NYT
+ The staying power is sweet revenge for the man whom much of tennis officialdom once viewed as toxic to their genteel game.
+ During his playing days, John McEnroe may have been a bit too authentic. Tennis officials and some of their comrades in the news media viewed McEnroe as a menace to the sport.
+ He was still living at home when he won his first US Open, sleeping in his childhood bedroom each night, eating his mother’s food
Read this: Experience: I am the Monopoly world champion: If I were to play with you, I would probably win because I know the tricks. Guardian
+ "Read the rules. Knowing them properly will help you win. For example, you can buy and build houses any time between other people’s turns, not only when it’s your turn"
SOTD: Gosh - Jamie xx
Enjoy the ride + plan accordingly.
-Marc
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