The continued oil and gas export boom in Texas threatens to stir up—literally—ghosts of toxic pollution past. Lavaca Bay, flanked by the industrial towns of Port Lavaca and Port Comfort, harbors an old Alcoa aluminum and chlor-alkali plant that in the 1960s and 1970s contaminated the bay and spawned the state’s largest Superfund site.
A 2019 proposal by Houston-based oil company Max Midstream and the county port authority to dredge and expand the Matagorda Ship Channel, used by oil tankers, could have spread this mercury further into the ecosystem. But last week, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers withdrew initial approval for the project after a lawsuit by local and national environmental groups.
“I didn’t believe it,” said Diane Wilson, a retired shrimper and longtime activist who went on a hunger strike in 2021 to protest dredging the bay. Her organization, the San Antonio Bay Estuarine Waterkeeper, led the lawsuit against the Army Corps.
Earlier this year, Wilson took officials out in a shrimp boat to meet with oyster fishers who make their living from the bays, conservationists concerned about sea turtles, researchers studying the lingering mercury, and lawyers, who all opposed the ship channel expansion. The Army Corps gave no indication at the time that it would reconsider, and in fact planned to seek bids for dredging over the summer. So Wilson and allies filed a lawsuit.
Dredging the ship channel could undo progress and poison both wildlife and humans.
The bay’s mercury problem is so bad that the federal government designated a large portion of water and land surrounding the former Alcoa plant as a Superfund site, under the EPA program for cleaning up the country’s most contaminated areas. Although enough toxic pollution circulates in the water and food chain that the area remains closed to fishing, the EPA and Alcoa have made some slow progress by capping contaminated sediment on the bottom of the bay. Dredging the ship channel could undo this progress and poison both wildlife and humans, argued the organizations suing the Army Corps.
Commercial fisheries on the Texas coast have declined for decades due to industrial pollution as well as climate change and management issues. The threat of further mercury contamination on top of other problems was too much for local fishers to bear, motivating many to protest the ship channel expansion.
“These people’s lives would be directly impacted, and the fishermen were already in a desperate strait,” Wilson said.
The Army Corps declined to comment because the lawsuit is ongoing. But in a letter withdrawing approval, Michael Connor, the Army’s assistant secretary for civil works, wrote that the Corps found it had miscalculated the amount of sediment to be dredged and would now prepare a supplemental environmental impact statement before making any more decisions.
“It’s great that they’re doing the supplemental environmental review. Next time, we hope it doesn’t take a lawsuit to get to that point,” said Erin Gaines, an attorney at Earthjustice who represented the plaintiffs. Although the Army Corps’ official reasoning for withdrawing approval was narrowly based on a technical mistake rather than on the public’s broader concerns, Gaines said she’s been assured the agency would do a full supplemental review.
“We’re cautiously hopeful that it will include the range of issues that we’ve raised,” she said, including addressing concern that officials didn’t properly sample sediment from the area that would be dredged to check mercury levels. Gaines also hopes the Corps more proactively solicits public input, including in Spanish and Vietnamese, from the area’s immigrant fishing families.
“These people’s lives would be directly impacted, and the fishermen were already in a desperate strait.”
That is, if the project continues. A previous proposal to expand the ship channel in 2009 got the required environmental permits, but ultimately failed due a lack of funding. Gaines and Wilson say there’s reason to believe the project’s current iteration also has funding issues. Port of Calhoun officials have stated they won’t use taxpayer dollars, and Max Midstream signed a memorandum of understanding with the port authority in July 2021 to fund the project. This agreement, however, expired in July 2022, Gaines said. As of this September, the company and the port have not signed an extension, according to public records requests by the plaintiffs and reporting by the Victoria Advocate. Attempts to reach the parties at press time were unsuccessful.
The ship channel expansion’s halt comes as a relief to fishers and other concerned locals. But a bigger threat still looms. A 2020 investigation by the Texas Observer, Inside Climate News, and NBC found the Alcoa plant is one of the country’s most vulnerable Superfund sites when it comes to disturbance by hurricanes, flooding, and sea level rise related to climate change.
To secure these ultra-toxic sites, the Biden EPA faces the challenge of reviving efforts dismantled by the Trump administration to incorporate climate projections into Superfund planning. In the meantime, locals are left playing defense against the consequences of past industrial contamination: “We’re left with the legacy,” Wilson said.
On Tuesday, December 20, a fire broke out at Winter Street Studios, a building that’s part of the extensive Sawyer Yards artist studio complex in Houston. While dozens of studios throughout the building sustained smoke damage, artist Jack Potts lost most of his business equipment at his Bohemian Photography studio. Additionally, the building itself may have structural damage.
The exterior of Winter Street Studios. Photo by Taylor Clendennen.
According to the Houston Fire Department, the fire was caused by an incendiary and is being investigated as a possible act of arson. Mr. Potts, who has maintained his studio space at Winter Street Studios for seven years, has said that his business may have been targeted. Since there is an ongoing investigation, he has declined to publicly identify the person he suspects of setting the fire. Holly Nowak, a multidisciplinary artist and educator with a nearby studio, told Houston’s Eyewitness News that surveillance video shows someone entering Mr. Potts studio, stealing equipment, and running out quickly after the fire began.
The hallway inside Winter Street Studios. Photo by Angela Woodhouse Walling.
Other Winter Street Studio artists have detailed the damage to their studios via social media. In a Facebook post, mixed media artist Taylor Clendennen described the extent of the damage, stating that all of the studios have some amount of smoke damage and that both ground level and upstairs hallways, which were lined with artworks, are full of soot. Glass artist Nicole Bolinger, whose shared studio with Ms. Nowak, Chrissy Doolen, and Steph Barker, is adjacent to Mr. Potts’ studio, explained via Facebook that though they have not been allowed to enter their space, it is clear that the damage is extensive.
Jack Potts stands outside his damaged Bohemian Photography studio.
A GoFundMe campaign was initiated yesterday to raise funds for Mr. Potts. At the time of this writing, the fund has raised $12,035 of its $50,000 goal.
Earlier today, the Houston Arts Alliance (HAA) announced that it is also activating its Emergency Relief Fund to provide stipends to Winter Street Studio artists affected by the fire. Artists seeking relief can apply for emergency funds, and people wishing to donate can do so at HAA’s website.
For a book from 1965, surprisingly this edition was in remarkably good condition. That should be a red flag right away. Why isn’t in rougher condition? Did this book not get used enough? Was it a crappy choice in 1965?
The book does look old and the crafts aren’t that interesting. 5 minutes on Pinterest would yield better craft projects. Time to let this one go.
All things considered, Tuesday was a really pleasant day. The Sun emerged during the afternoon hours, and high temperatures climbed to nearly 60 degrees. We’ll remain relatively warm through Thursday afternoon, at which time a strong Arctic front will barrel into the Houston region and plunge temperatures well below freezing in the metro area. This will bring the region its coldest weather since February 2021, and calls for precautions for exposed pipes, tropical plants, and pets.
Wednesday
While we saw some sunshine on Tuesday, skies today will probably remain on the mostly cloudy side of things. This should limit high temperatures to the upper 50s. Winds will be light, out of the northeast. Lows tonight will only drop into the mid-40s as winds shift to come from the south and southeast. This will herald the beginning of a short-lived warming trend.
Thursday
Aside from the potential for some patchy fog, Thursday morning looks fine. Highs may briefly climb into the low 60s ahead of the front, which probably will push through Harris County between 2 and 4 pm ET. Some very light precipitation is possibly with the front, but it will not be enough to stick to roads, so inclement driving conditions are not anticipated. Temperatures will drop swiftly after the front’s passage, with freezing conditions likely north and west of Houston by sunset, and temperatures dropping into the upper 20s by 8 to 10 pm. Winds will be very gusty, out of the north at up to 35 mph. This will make for extremely unpleasant conditions outside Thursday night and Friday morning, when apparent temperatures drop into the single digits.
This is what I would characterize as a reasonable “worst case” scenario for low temperatures on Friday morning. (Weather Bell)
Friday
This will be the coldest morning of the year in Houston, Texas. But how cold? That’s the question. We’re confident in clear skies, which are ideal for radiational cooling. However, mixing from the gusty winds will complicate matters. That said, I think lows will bottom out from 15 to 20 degrees north of Interstate 10, from 17 to 23 degrees south of Interstate 10 in Harris and Fort Bend counties, and from 20 to 25 degrees in coastal counties, including Galveston. Friday will be sunny, with still very cold with a stiff northerly breeze. Highs likely will briefly climb above freezing during the daytime for most of the region, but we can expect another very cold night, with lows only 2 to 5 degrees warmer than Thursday night.
Saturday
Christmas Eve looks sunny, with high temperatures of around 40 degrees. It will be another cold night, however, with lows dropping into the mid-20s.
High temperatures on Christmas Day will be a good 15 to 20 degrees below normal. (Weather Bell)
Sunday
Christmas Day should be mostly sunny, with highs in the mid-40s. Dare I say that might feel almost balmy? OK, probably not. A light freeze is possible on Sunday night for areas away from the coast.
Next week
Monday will see an ongoing warming trend, but after that there is some question about whether a reinforcing cold front moves into the area. If it does, this could keep the region on the cooler side of things—nights in the 30s?—through about Wednesday. By the second half of next week I expect us to see highs in the 70s. A weak front may arrive ahead of New Year’s Eve, bringing some rain, but that’s at the edge of our ability to predict weather.
Records show James Dunn was convicted twice for defrauding federal government agencies. He registered his school board training, which he described as an alternative to “woke” programs, with the Texas Education Agency this fall.
As cities on the Texas-Mexico border continue preparing for a possible influx of migrants and Title 42 remains in limbo, a shallow spot in the Rio Grande where thousands have recently crossed became the scene of a standoff Monday.
A few months after ordering public library employees to remove a display highlighting books with LGBTQ+ themes, Huntsville city officials are looking to enlist a private company to operate the library. The transition could leave existing library staffers without jobs.
The connector was completed a few months ago and the city has since added additional safety railings and retaining walls and stormwater drainage to help prevent flooding along the trails.
An ABC News freelance producer confronted critics of a consulting firm's powerful clients. Her actions confirm people's worst suspicions about the news media, says a former network news president.
So many jubilant Argentine fans swarmed the streets of Buenos Aires that the soccer team had to abandon the open-air bus transporting them to the city and board helicopters for a capital flyover.
Your booking is confirmed for HILTON GARDEN INN BETHLEHEM.
Hotels.com confirmation number: 483949011
Check-in: 25 December 1 BC
Check-out: 26 December 1 BC
Your Stay: One night, two adults, one child
Amount to pay: Five Tyrian shekels
— Hotels.com
- - -
December 23, 1 BC
Dear Joseph,
Unfortunately, due to a system error, we have been informed your stay at Hilton Garden Inn Bethlehem is overbooked. We will automatically cancel your reservation at no charge to you.
Apologies for any inconvenience caused.
Kind regards, Sarah
- - -
December 23, 1 BC
Hi Sarah,
Thanks for getting in touch. So to be clear, are you telling me there’s no room at the Hilton Garden Inn?
Thanks, Joe
- - -
December 23, 1 BC
Dear Joseph,
Unfortunately, that is indeed the case. We’ve been unable to secure a room at this hotel for the dates you requested. If there’s anything further we can do, please don’t hesitate to call.
Kind regards, Sarah
- - -
December 23, 1 BC
Hi Sarah,
It’s so great of you to inform us our stay has been canceled two days before check-in. Do you want to tell my heavily pregnant wife she’ll be giving birth in the street, or shall I?
I’ll assume you’ll be finding us a new hotel or, as a bare minimum, refunding our donkey expenses.
— Joe
- - -
December 24, 1 BC
Dear Joseph,
We understand your frustration, but unfortunately, as already stated, we’ve been unable to source accommodation in Bethlehem for December 25. As I’m sure you’re aware, December is always a very busy time of year with the run-up to—actually, wait, December isn’t usually busy at all.
Nevertheless, Hotels.com is not responsible for any donkey-related complications you may have encountered. I’d advise you to contact your local ass provider in order to resolve this matter.
Please let us know if we can be of any further assistance.
Kind regards, Sarah
- - -
December 24, 1 BC
Hi Sarah,
I’m trying to refrain from being rude here, but if I see the word “unfortunately” again, I’m going to scream. We booked this room over six months ago. It’s an absolute disgrace!
What are we supposed to do now? I’m almost at breaking point. This stupid star has been following us all week, we’re still half a day’s ride from Bethlehem, and my wife’s having these crazy cravings. I have no idea where I’m meant to find both seedless grapes and roast potatoes in the middle of the desert.
I’d appreciate it if you could pass me on to your manager to discuss this issue further.
— Joe
- - -
December 24, 1 BC
Mr. Joseph of Nazareth,
I hope this email finds you well.
I’ve been informed of the situation regarding your accommodation cancellation in Bethlehem. As my colleague Sarah has previously outlined, there’s nothing Hotels.com can do to resolve this situation.
We’d be happy to offer you a free reward night for the New Year or, alternatively, 10% off site-wide on accommodation in the Kingdom of Judah.
Let me know if you find this suitable.
All the best, Margaret Kaminsky
- - -
December 25, 1 BC
Hi Margaret,
You’ve gotta be kidding me. What use does our family have for a free reward night next year? It’s not like my wife can clench her uterus and wait until April.
As I type this, we’re being followed by three strange men trying to sell us gold, frankincense, and myrrh—whatever that is. On top of that, Mary’s contractions have started, and she’s chosen tonight of all nights to tell me the kid isn’t mine.
So, no, Margaret, your email has not found me well. Before we left Nazareth, people warned us King Herod wants to murder our child. But make no mistake, you are still by far the least helpful person we’ve encountered this week.
I think we can agree I’d find it “suitable” if you’d cut the crap and find me any barn, basement, or brothel that’ll take us.
I look forward to you doing your job,
— Joe
- - -
December 25, 1 BC
Dear Joseph of Nazareth,
Your booking is confirmed for STABLE.
Hotels.com confirmation number: 573920153
Check-in: December 25, 1 BC
Check-out: December 26, 1 BC
Your Stay: One night, two adults, one child, various goats
I need a QA team with a suite of regression tests! The BMOW Floppy Emu disk emulator supports many different emulation modes, disk image types, and usage scenarios, so it’s easy to break something without realizing it. If I break something big and obvious that escapes my testing, people will complain and let me know there’s a bug. But if I break something more subtle, I might not realize it for a long while. A very long while.
Today I discovered that writing to a 1440K Macintosh disk image has been very buggy since 2019. It sort of half worked, but it was very slow because the Mac was doing a huge number of retries for each sector write. If you tried copying a large file onto a 1440K disk, it would fail about 20 percent of the time with “a disk error occurred”. After the December 1 firmware update that introduced MOOF support, the situation got even worse, and attempts to copy a large file onto a 1440K disk would almost always fail. But nobody ever reported a problem, and I didn’t realize anything was wrong.
Thank God for revision control systems. I was able to walk backwards through a huge number of past changes in the firmware code, attempting to isolate where the bug first occurred. This was incredibly tedious because prior to the recent MOOF changes, the 1440K writes sort-of-worked well enough that I needed to try many separate file copies and count how many succeeded and failed before I could be sure whether the bug was present. It took about 10-15 minutes per changelist, and there were a LOT of changelists. The whole process filled nearly an entire day.
And the guilty change was: OLED dimming. This change was made in May 2019. To prevent screen burn-in on the OLED display, the firmware dims the brightness after 30 seconds of inactivity. There’s a bit of code that happens after every sector that says “Has the dimming timer overflowed? Has it been 30 seconds yet?” This code was just slow enough to break the Floppy Emu’s real-time guarantee and introduce a burp into the 1440K MFM bitstream between each sector and the next one whenever the timer overflowed. While recently adding MOOF support to the firmware, I switched the dimming logic to use a different hardware timer so that I could use the original timer for MOOF purposes, and this exacerbated the MFM burp problem. The burp caused sector verifications to frequently fail after writing to the disk, resulting in a huge number of errors and retries.
Honestly I’m not sure why the burp is even an issue, since there are sync bytes before each sector that should resynchronize the Mac’s disk controller if it was thrown off by the burp. But it clearly is a problem. I made a simple change to skip the check for dimming while the disk motor is on, and it’s a night and day difference. Copying files to 1440K disks is not only 100 percent reliable now, but it’s also about twice as fast as before. Look for a new firmware release with this fix and other changes soon.
I made my first digital archive on a Windows PC in my parents’ bedroom.
I was a young fan of the Japanese anime Sailor Moon. My introduction to the show was through the English dubbed version that aired on Cartoon Network and an elementary school friend who supplied me with her copies of the translated manga. When I learned there was a dedicated online community with an extensive network of fan-made websites, filled with page after page of images, gifs and content I had never seen, my life changed.
I’d spend hours after school scouring fan-made Sailor Moon websites – not because there were that many I actually knew of, but because the image-heavy pages took several minutes to load. I quickly learned how to save files to my parent’s computer and began pasting downloaded images into a Microsoft Paint file. I didn’t know anything about building or publishing a website, and my computer skills were limited as a kid experiencing computers and the internet for the first time. All I knew was Internet Explorer, MS Paint, and Solitaire.
I’m not really sure why I felt compelled to download anything I found on the internet instead of just revisiting websites when I wanted to. Perhaps I didn’t want to spend another ten minutes waiting for the pages to load again. But in my child mind, I probably also saw saving an image as making it more tangible, that the files somehow belonged to me now. And, in a way, they did – I could edit, cut, paste, and print them out as much as my parents’ printer ink budget would allow. As long as I remembered to save the images, I didn’t have to worry about them disappearing one day.
As an adult, I place more importance on preserving digital media and memories. I admit I’ve always had a hard time letting things go—I’ve saved almost every handwritten letter and birthday card I’ve been given in my life. But what about the life and memories we make online? What about old computers, hard drives, cell phones, and social media accounts filled with personal photos and messages from lost and distant loved ones? These are memories that aren’t easily or obviously preserved.
Though my childhood computer is probably long gone, along with my digital collection of saved Sailor Scouts, I realize some 20 years later how vital, and fragile, digital memory is. With the eventual closure of websites like GeoCities, Angelfire, MySpace, and so many more, most of my earliest memories of the internet would be erased if it weren’t for the Internet Archive. Even as a child, I realized that digital memory is even more ephemeral than the physical media of previous generations.
As a member of a generation that grew up online, I am thankful that a large part of my digital memory doesn’t have to disappear forever. This is what drew me to the Internet Archive, and compelled me to support fundraising efforts to ensure a sustainable future for projects like the Wayback Machine, GifCities, and so much more. If you also find value in preserving digital memory and making it accessible for future generations, I hope you’ll consider donating to support our work before our year-end fundraising campaign comes to a close. Your matched donation will go a long way toward keeping our collections online for years to come.
Christina Humphreys joined the philanthropy team at the Internet Archive in 2021. Her interest in early internet art and aesthetics brought her to the Internet Archive, where many now defunct websites have been saved through the Wayback Machine. Along with reliving the internet of her childhood, she loves exploring the various collections of art, film, and books preserved on archive.org. She views the Internet Archive as a vital cultural resource, creating an accessible future for information and materials that would otherwise be locked away in a vault or lost to history.
LA JOLLA, CA—His eyes flooding with tears as the full weight of the news sank in, local 9-year-old Taylor Warner announced Thursday that he was very sad his parents were getting divorced and his father’s iPad would soon be moving out of the house. “I’m going to miss Dad’s iPad so much when it isn’t here with me every…
This may sound funny coming from someone who clearly took the time to write this list, but... how do you rank Mario games?
Everything that I said about ranking Zelda games applies here. Except, also, what is a Mario game? I mean, we all know the big ones count, like Super Mario Bros for the NES or Super Mario 64. Yet does Super Mario RPG count as a Mario game? Does Captain Toad's Treasure Tracker? Is Donkey Kong a Mario game? I know I'm not the first person to dive into this question, but it does impact this entire list. Not only are my opinions subject to debate (as they should be), the very qualifications of what belongs on the list can be contested.
For the sake of some consistency, I've limited this list to platformers that most would agree are Mario games. That said, I'd be remiss not to give honorable mentions to Paper Mario, Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, WarioWare Inc., Super Mario Maker 2, and Donkey Kong (1994). Heck, even my honorable mentions could go much longer. Regardless, let's just agree there have been a lot of great Mario games and dive into one of the most hotly debated rankings in gaming history.
10: Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins (1992)
Super Mario Land 2 is an impressive feat. This GameBoy title stacks up remarkably well to the console counterparts of its time, especially compared to the first Super Mario Land. Yet the thing that makes Super Mario Land 2 so memorable is how weird it is.
Powerups? How about little bunny ears that let Mario glide? Levels? How about a vaguely Halloween themed world and a giant Mario robot that we'll call Mario Zone? Even the title, 6 Golden Coins, implies that the dozens of coins Mario collects in each level are counterfeits. Only a game as weird as this could add Wario to the Mario canon, so honestly, there's no reason anyone should dislike this one.
9: Super Mario Bros. 2 (1988)
Heck yes we're counting Super Mario USA as a real Mario game. Even discounting how this game codified the platforming abilities of Mario, Peach, and Luigi while introducing enemies like Shy Guys, Super Mario Bros. 2 is great game on its own merits. The levels are fun to traverse, the platforming feels great, and chucking vegetables at enemies is just iconic.
Besides, Super Mario Bros 2 is way better than its Japanese counterpart. I Googled "that Doki Doki game" before writing this article and all I got is some girl named Monika who held my computer hostage.
8: Super Mario Sunshine (2002)
Much has been said about Super Mario Sunshine, both good and bad. While it's not as impressive as other major 3D Mario titles, that bar is so high that Sunshine should be appreciated on its own merits. It is also, without question, one of the funniest games I have ever played.
Even briefly revisiting the game for this list, I could not stop laughing at the outlandish moments and awkward dialogue in Sunshine. Even as a young lad, the “Mama Peach” cutscene was so uncomfortable that my friends and I spent weeks unpacking it. To me, Sunshine will always have a place in history for this reason. It captures all the awkwardness of 2002, and it should be preserved long after we leave this mortal coil.
7: Super Mario Bros. (1985)
This is a pretty good game. I hear Chris Pratt is making a movie about it.
6: Super Mario 3D World / Bowser's Fury (2021)
When it comes to Mario games, you'll inevitably find those who prefer the 3D games and those who prefer the 2D games. Super Mario 3D World is a valiant attempt to merge the sensibilities of both by morphing the level-by-level structure of the classic Mario series into a 3D format.
This could have easily been a filler Mario title, but there's a lot of love on display. The aesthetics and music are great, and the level design provides ample exploration while following a straightforward design. This package is particularly elevated on the Switch with Bowser's Fury, a genuinely fantastic title that combines elements of 3D World and Odyssey with its own unique ideas. Though I wish Bowser's Fury could be purchased separately for those who already own 3D World on the Wii U, it's a title every Mario fan should experience.
5: Super Mario 64 (1996)
It is a miracle that the game that first put Mario in a truly 3D world could make it so high on this list. Super Mario 64 isn't just a landmark moment in gaming history, it is a great game. Period.
There is so much here to love. The level variety from the upbeat Bob-omb Battlefield to the frantic Tick Tock Clock is fantastic. The music is memorable, down to the earie jingle you hear when climbing an endless staircase. The atmosphere of the castle that links each level together is evocative, even if it's the limitations of early 3D that accidentally make the whole thing feel like a liminal space. Super Mario 64 can show its age, but anyone who plays video games owes it to themselves to experience it.
4: Super Mario Odyssey (2017)
Before we go any further, let’s get one thing straight: we’re in 10/10 territory here. If I tell someone I like lobster more than fillet mignon, that doesn’t mean I dislike steak. To conclude this questionable analogy, Super Mario Odyssey is an exquisite cut of red meat.
This is the best Mario has ever felt to control in 3D. Possessing other enemies is genius and bouncing off of your own hat is always satisfying. The level design also compliments Mario's capabilities while allowing players numerous choices in how they collect each moon. It's a game that sells itself the minute you look at it, so I probably don't need to explain why this game you already own is fantastic.
3: Super Mario Galaxy 1 & 2 (2007 & 2010)
Many prefer Galaxy 2 over 1 or vice versa, but my memories of them are too close to separate. Maybe if both were included in a theoretical limited-run All-Stars collection of 3D Mario games, I'd have an easier way to distinguish them.
Cheek aside, Super Mario Galaxy 1 & 2 are genuinely special titles. I don't think Mario games need story, but Galaxy's setting meaningfully adds to the experience without stealing the spotlight. The innate melancholy and whimsy here pay homage to Antoine de Saint-Exupéry's The Little Prince, which is the most interesting thing I've ever said about a Mario game. This bleeds into the gameplay too, which places Mario in so many unique gimmicks and environments that play well with his relatively limited movement options. And the music. My goodness the music. If a minute of this game's soundtrack doesn't make you want to play it, I don't know what will.
2: Super Mario World (1990)
The sheer existence of Super Mario World is awe-inspiring. It is an absolute mic-drop game the defined the Super Nintendo/Famicom so definitively that I have to remind myself it was a launch title. Not only does Super Mario World take the established Mario formula to new heights, it brings the joy of discovery from RPGs and distills it into a platforming adventure that anyone can enjoy.
On a basic level, Super Mario World is fun if you just make a straight shot to Bowser. Yet uncovering all the hidden exits and levels adds enough depth for seasoned gamers to enjoy time and time again. I can remember first discovering the Special Zone and feeling amazed that there were still so many levels to complete. Even the background music held a secret I didn't uncover for another 15 years. This is such a wonderful game that I struggled deciding if it should be crowned the best. Yet by the thinnest of margins, I have to give it to the only other game that makes sense by now.
1: Super Mario Bros. 3 (1988)
There is an often-stated belief that lists like this should be objective. Clearly, Super Mario Odyssey has the bigger budget, bigger levels, and better graphics. By this definition, I should discard my memories of huddling together with my cousins in front of a small TV as we took turns playing Super Mario Bros. 3. Or maybe I should forget marathoning this game at the dentist’s office, showing other kids how to get two warp whistles and go to the final world immediately.
Except… why was it Super Mario Bros. 3 in those memories? The first game that myself and countless others remember playing, even if it wasn't the first game we actually played? The truth is, Super Mario Bros. 3 is pure, absolute joy. The sheer acts of moving and jumping are fun. The creative levels that both teach and iterate on gimmicks are masterpieces. The adventure of collecting items and exploring each world captures the imagination. Even as a kid who adored cheat codes, I would full clear Super Mario Bros. 3 over, and over, and over because I knew this game was a treasure. Playing each level and uncovering its secrets was its own reward, and I’ve yet to encounter a person who wasn’t immediately captivated playing this game.
You can point to several games on this list as landmark achievements for video games. Yet for me, Super Mario Bros. 3 is different because it shows why video games themselves are special. Anyone can pick up this game and learn it in a handful of minutes. Yet uncovering its secrets and overcoming its challenges captures the core of why we play video games. Even its stage play aesthetics indicates games should not merely be experienced, but analyzed as a form of art.
Super Mario Bros. 3 is why I’m writing about video games professionally. It is pure fun distilled to its most basic possible form. It is, and always will be, the heart of gaming as we know it. Subjectively speaking, of course.
After resigning his seat earlier this year, former chairman of the powerful Texas House State Affairs Committee Chris Paddie—a top architect of the Legislature’s response to the deadly winter 2021 grid failures—has registered as a lobbyist, state filings show. Paddie has disclosed his work for several clients, most notably Vistra, the state’s biggest power company and a major player in the ongoing energy policy battle that began in the committee he recently helmed.
Though many other Texans have gone straight from public office into private sector lobbying, Paddie’s case is unique in that it poses a direct challenge to an untested revolving door law. Passed in 2019, it’s one of the state’s few restrictions on a former elected official’s otherwise unfettered ability to cash in on insider access and legislative expertise.
By registering as a lobbyist, Paddie could be running afoul of this state ethics law, which already thwarted his initial attempt to lobby earlier this year. In 2019, the Legislature passed a law that prohibits former lawmakers from becoming registered lobbyists within two years of making political contributions to other politicians from their campaign accounts.
Representative Chris Paddie’s case is unique in that it poses a direct challenge to an untested 2019 revolving door law.
This new restriction blocked his initial attempt to lobby: In May, he briefly registered to lobby only to deregister a few days later amid press inquiriesabout his eligibility. The statute is aimed at preventing lawmakers from plying colleagues with campaign contributions right before leaving office and then promptly trying to influence them as lobbyists.
In late 2021—soon after he announced he wouldn’t run for reelection—Paddie gave $50,000 in political contributions from his campaign account to several Republican House colleagues, including a $25,000 check to Speaker Dade Phelan. Under the law, Paddie would not be allowed to register as a lobbyist until the end of 2023, several months after the coming regular session ends.
Former lawmakers like Paddie who want to become lobbyists have an incentive to open shop soon after leaving office, when their cachet with colleagues—and value to clients—is strongest. With the 2023 session drawing near, the East Texas Republican now claims he found a way to comply.
Late last month, Paddie personally cut a check for $55,500 to his campaign account in order to cover the amount of funds he previously doled out to fellow lawmakers. He disclosed his substantial contribution to his campaign—marked as “Reimbursement for Contributions Made to Candidates”—in an updated campaign finance report submitted days before he again registered as a lobbyist.
In an emailed statement to the Texas Observer, Paddie contended that an alleged offense under the law relates to “the source of the contributions, not that I made contributions to my colleagues. I have the same right as anyone else to make political contributions.”
“In order to address the question of the source of the contributions, I chose to personally reimburse my campaign account for the contributions that were in question. As a result, my campaign account has been made whole and is no longer the source of those contributions. I am now personally the source of the campaign contributions in question,” Paddie wrote.
“I take any question of whether or not I am in violation of any statute very seriously. After consultation with ethics attorneys and taking the described action, I am confident that I am in compliance with the statute in question.”
However, the ethics statute as written does not appear to make Paddie’s distinction between the funding source of the contribution and the contribution itself, according to ethics attorneys who still question whether he’s allowed to lobby.
“It says what it says. And what it says is if you give money to any candidate or elected official, then you’re prohibited from registering for two years,” Andrew Cates, a campaign finance and ethics lawyer in Austin, told the Observer. “There’s nothing in the statute that specifically allows someone to pay your campaign account back and somehow that’s a mitigating factor that the statute no longer applies.”
“There’s nothing in the statute that specifically allows someone to pay your campaign account back.”
Cates is very familiar with the statute. Earlier this year, he advised former Brownsville state Representative Eddie Lucio III who, along with Paddie, was the other recently departed legislator to become entangled with the law when Lucio briefly registered to lobby in May. Cates determined that the law was clear and Lucio would simply have to wait two years after his campaign last made a political contribution before he could register.
“I don’t think that [Paddie’s] argument fully covers him, based on the letter of the law. At the end of day, it says you can’t give money to a candidate, period,” Cates said. While he doesn’t agree with the law as written, and believes its effect is at odds with how it was pitched to lawmakers in 2019, Cates says, “Until they go back to session or someone takes it to court, you can’t change what it says.”
Longtime Austin campaign finance lawyer and ethics reformer Fred Lewis agrees. “There is a very serious issue about whether he violated the statute,” he told the Observer.
The law in question—HB2677—was authored by state Representative Craig Goldman, a Fort Worth Republican, and passed on unanimous voice votes in the House and Senate with little debate. Introducing the bill before the floor vote, Goldman said his legislation states “that a former elected official or candidate now registered as a lobbyist may not use funds from their campaign account to make a political contribution.”
But the bill also includes the provision that’s ensnared Paddie, which was emphasized in a House analysis at the time. “Concerns have been raised about the revolving door of candidates and officeholders becoming lobbyists immediately after losing an election or retiring from office. [HB2677] seeks to address this issue by, among other provisions, prohibiting a person who makes or authorizes certain political contributions and direct campaign expenditures from lobbying during the two-year period after the date the person makes or authorizes the contribution or expenditure.”
Paddie joined a handful of other Republican legislators as a co-author on the bill after it passed the House. Representative Goldman did not respond to requests for comment about the intent of his legislation and the purported loophole that his former colleague is using to get around it.
Watchdogs say Paddie’s swift transition from chairman of a key committee charged with overseeing energy companies like Vistra to a hired gun for that same company is a pernicious example of how the revolving door fuels undue industry influence and apparent conflicts in the Texas capitol.
“It looks bad because it is bad,” said Adrian Shelley, executive director of Public Citizen Texas. “You don’t have to be an expert in ethics to understand that Paddie was in a significant position of power as chair of the state affairs committee,” with all the main grid legislation going through his committee.
“He’s gone directly from that position of power to being a rep of the very industry that was the subject of that legislation. To the average person looking at that, it would look like a conflict.”
In addition to Vistra, Paddie is also representing its subsidiaries Luminant—which operates many power plants across the state—and TXU Energy, one of the largest electricity retailers in the state. His report indicates that Vistra will compensate or reimburse him less than $18,870—the lowest threshold for lobby reports—through the end of the year.
Paddie declined to comment on several other questions from the Observer, including what issues he’ll be working on for Vistra and his other clients. Vistra did not respond to a request for comment.
After the grid failures in 2021’s deadly Winter Storm Uri, Paddie was one of the most prominent players in shaping the Legislature’s response. He helmed the main House committee that questioned major power generators about their role in the energy disaster, including the CEO of Vistra, and authored several key bills in the omnibus package of new regulations and reforms of the state’s electric grid.
Many policy experts criticized the reforms as largely insufficient to prevent another extreme weather catastrophe, in part because legislators watered down new regulations at the behest of the energy industry.
Top lawmakers involved in the grid reforms were subsequently showered with contributions from energy industry PACs and executives. In the period immediately following 2021 the regular session, 88 percent of Paddie’s campaign funds—a total of $26,000—came from the energy sector, the Texas Tribune reported. That included Vistra, whose corporate PAC gave his campaign $5,000.
The future of the state’s electric grid will continue to be a key issue in the coming session, particularly as lawmakers debate the Texas Public Utility Commission’s contentious plan to overhaul the electricity market with policies that aim to incentivize firms like Vistra to produce more power during peak demand, and to build new natural gas-fueled power plants.
After the 2021 legislative session, 88 percent of state Representative Chris Paddie’s campaign funds—a total of $26,000—came from the energy sector, AP Photo/Eric Gay
Residual beefs may keep Paddie on the House side of the capitol as a lobbyist. Last session, Paddie became a target of Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick, who runs the Senate, as tensions flared over grid policy rifts with the House. Patrick claimed that Paddie and his House committee were serving as a tool of “big business” by killing the lieutenant governor’s “repricing” plan to claw back massive profits some power generators earned while the cap on wholesale energy prices were temporarily lifted during the freeze. Patrick also alleged that Paddie had misled state utility regulators about the intent of a House bill he carried that created a state securitization fund for power companies that were hit with billions in exorbitant costs from gas suppliers during the emergency.
The two dueled over whether the payouts should include “netting.” The lieutenant governor was pushing regulators to consider the net profits and losses of major electric conglomerates when doling out the state-backed loans, instead of treating each company individually regardless of their corporate parent. Paddie said the bill did not intend to consider netting, saying it would amount to subjectively choosing winners and losers. The PUC ultimately sided with Paddie. Vistra, which took a $2.5 billion hit from the storm, secured $500 million from the state.
In his letter to the PUC, Patrick attacked Paddie’s motivations, pointing to rumors at the time—soon after Paddie had announced he wouldn’t run again—that he was in line for a job as the head of the top lobbying group for the state’s power industry.
That prompted House Speaker and Patrick foe Dade Phelan to defend his top committee chairman. “I am grateful for Chairman Paddie’s steady leadership, his character, and his integrity, all of which were integral to the passage of landmark legislation in the aftermath of Winter Storm Uri,” he said.
After this story published, Patrick reignited the feud with a tweet calling Paddie’s registration as a lobbyist for Vistra “disappointing & troubling.” “His actions last session on ERCOT grid failures were disingenuous & unprofessional, some say underhanded. Vistra leadership & shareholders should know he’s lost his credibility & not welcome in my office,” he wrote.
The former House Republican’s other clients include High Roller Group—an East Texas company based in Paddie’s old district with interests in oil and gas, waste storage, and other industrial sectors—and one of its affiliates called BM Cement. Over several years, Paddie’s campaign received over $50,000 in donations from High Roller executives and LLCs, according to state campaign finance records. The oil and gas outfit drew scrutiny earlier this year over High Roller’s permit application with the Railroad Commission for an oil waste storage facility in West Texas, which was opposed by agency staff due to concerns about its proximity to a major aquifer.
Railroad Commissioner Wayne Christian and another member voted to approve the permit anyway; three days later Christian’s campaign got a $100,000 check from a High Roller subsidiary.
Another is a newly formed entity called the Consumer Choice Coalition, a nonprofit formed last month. Paddie is listed as a director, along with the executive director of the Texas Retailer Association, and a brewery owner affiliated with the Texas Craft Brewers Guild. He’s also representing Incode Technologies, a San Francisco identity verification tech company that was his sole disclosed client when he briefly registered in May.
Filling out his client roster is Reviver, another Bay Area startup that markets technology for “digital license plates.” In 2019, Paddie authored a bill that was backed by Reviver allowing for the use of such digital plates in lieu of physical ones; a pared down version was passed into law.
If Paddie is in violation of the untested 2019 ethics law, it’s not clear what consequences he’ll face—if any. The Texas Ethics Commission (TEC), which is ostensibly supposed to enforce campaign finance and lobbying laws, is notoriously toothless. The agency doesn’t investigate potential violations unless a complaint is filed, and it rarely hands down stiff penalties if it finds regulations were broken. Politicians have also successfully blocked agency enforcement in the courts.
Earlier this year, the Ethics Commission issued an advisory opinion affirming the scope of the revolving door law. However, during discussion of that advisory, former Dallas state legislator and TEC Commissioner Steve Wolens sent out what could be considered a regulatory green light. “If this were an enforcement proceeding, I think I’d have a hard time enforcing the statute because I think it’s unconstitutional,” he said.
Millions of Twitter users asked Elon Musk to step down as head of Twitter in a poll the billionaire created and promised to abide by. What do you think?
by Mike Hixenbaugh, NBC News, and Jeremy Schwartz, The Texas Tribune and ProPublica
The Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights has opened what appears to be the first-of-its-kind investigation into the Granbury Independent School District after it banned school library books dealing with sexuality and gender.
I wanted to give you all an update on my workplace situation last year where two of my employees who are Muslim made religious harassment comments toward another report of mine who is a Wiccan. The situation became quite the roller coaster. First off, some backstory. Our area has a sizeable Muslim population and my company in particular has a history of discrimination and harassment lawsuits in regard to Muslims after 9/11 in 2001. This explains my own manager pushing me to fire Harry the Wiccan and disregarding the actions of Crabbe and Goyle the Muslim employees (I’m changing from Fred and George to Malfoy’s little minions, I don’t know why I didn’t think to do that in the first letter).
I also want to make apparent that Harry is by far my favorite employee as he has always been reliable, efficient, friendly with other staff, and a great asset to our team. Hence why I felt very protective of him through this whole ordeal. Everyone else including the 2 also make meaningful contributions as well that I do appreciate.
I did take your advice in my discussions with these three about how religious harassment comments will not be tolerated. I do want to note that my original letter, I unknowingly misconstrued Harry’s initial response. The witnesses to this argument had since verified that Harry did not so much make similar egregious remarks about Islam as much as he explained that Islam has been grossly misunderstood so they should not be insulting or belittling his own spiritual beliefs. The witnesses don’t interpret his response at all as egregious as what C and G said. So, to him I did soften the message to be very mindful of how he responds to any kind of harassment and to bring any issues to me in the future. To Crabbe and Goyle, I warned them that their actions were completely inexcusable and will not be tolerated at all going forward, to stop the whispered comments they are making about other staff especially me and Harry and warned that they will be terminated if they cross the line again. Both verbalized understanding to me at the time.
A day later, my boss Snape called me in to repeat that Harry needs to be fired immediately for his harassment. I again explained that Crabbe and Goyle were the ones harassing, not Harry, and should be disciplined but I was not willing to fire them just yet. I was willing to give them a final warning and go from there. He then went on how Harry doesn’t have a ‘real’ religion and that Crabbe and Goyle just came to him about they have already begun a lawsuit against Harry and the company. He then explained that with our company’s history of Islamic discrimination lawsuits that he is willing to side with the Two, because AGAIN, its 2 vs 1! I immediately ended this conversation and went straight for HR.
Our HR manager Minerva had heard of the situation but believed that I had already handled it and supported my decisions in how I addressed each employee. She was confused and furious when I told her what Snape had pushed me to do and assured me, she will handle this. The next day I was called in with Minerva and Albus the big boss to explain to them all that had happened. Afterwards they both assured me that Snape was way out of line, and they would address both him and the 2 about any lawsuit. In the meantime, C&G became increasingly distant with the rest of the team and would barely speak with Harry regarding work matters as he had already been doing after their first offense against him. I kept an eye on this to ensure that they did not engage in anything overtly hostile with nothing noted.
Later on in the week, Snape approached me and apologized for his earlier suggestion and incredibly misguided logic of firing Harry and sparing the other 2. Maybe not the best response on my part but I stated I was reluctant to accept his apology yet as he displayed some rather troubling views about how he regards different belief systems especially as he previously stated that Harry did not have a real legitimate faith and was willing to see him terminated for an incident he didn’t even start. He said nothing of this but said he was wrong. Next week, he and the 2 were fired. From what people were saying, Snape continued to spout off to Albus and Minerva that Wicca and other ‘weirdo’ faiths were not real, and that Harry was just some ‘wizard wannabe’. Also apparently, the lawsuit in question from Crabbe and Goyle was fabricated on their part. They only made an empty threat in order scare the company into firing Harry because they realized what they started could get them fired and thought with our history of discrimination lawsuits against Muslims, they would be able to get away with it.
This whole situation has made my head spin as I did not anticipate such a trying follow up to what should have been just my initial conversations with each of the original 3. Though I am glad things did somewhat work out for my team and for Harry who continues to excel in his role. After this whole ordeal, I touched base with him to reassure him that I do not find him at fault for how this escalated and apologized that it had and with such vitriol directed at him. He was grateful for me for being in his corner through this whole situation and glad to remain in his role which he loves despite this unpleasant ordeal. Albus and Minerva have also spoken with him with their own reassurances and authorized a very generous raise on his behalf. I have started to advocate for him to be considered for higher positions within the company with something already on the horizon for him soon. The rest of my team have also expressed they backing of Harry and glad Crabbe and Goyle did not take this any further and cause damage to our team.
Thank you, Alison, for your advice. As lengthy as this is, I still only touched upon the main points so if anyone has any other questions or follow-ups, I will be glad to answer them in the comment section.
Berlin’s AquaDom, the largest freestanding cylindrical aquarium in the world, burst last week, sending a wave of 264,000 gallons of water, glass, and tropical fish pouring into the center of the German capital. What do you think?
WASHINGTON—Turning from side to side in front of the mirror and slapping his belly, President Joe Biden was reportedly sobbing Tuesday, stating, “They hate me—they hate me because I’m fat,” after viewing his latest polling numbers. “No wonder my approval rating is so low, it’s because I look like a big fat hog!” said…
Although you may want to say vaguely threatening things to everyone at the airport, it’s best to be careful around certain people. Here are things you should never say to a Transportation Security Administration officer.
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