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What They’re Saying: “Freedom Means Affordable Cars” — And Other Things You Only Hear at a Press Conference

By Tony Hicks
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When President Donald J. Trump stood beside Transportation Secretary Sean P. Duffy to unveil the new “Freedom Means Affordable Cars” initiative at the U.S. Department of Transportation , the message was simple: Regulations are expensive. Freedom is cheap. And somewhere in between sits your next car payment. Let’s unpack what they’re saying — and what they’re not. The Pitch: Roll Back the Rules, Lower the Price Tag Donald J. Trump Sean P. Duffy United States Department of Transportation At the heart of the announcement is a reset of federal fuel economy standards — the rules that determine how far your vehicle must travel per gallon of gasoline. The administration’s argument goes like this: Stricter fuel economy rules force automakers to build more expensive cars. More expensive cars mean fewer Americans can afford new vehicles. Therefore, easing those rules equals “freedom.” In this framing, freedom isn’t philosophical. It’s priced at MSRP. The initiative claims...
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Citrus County Chronicle Events – Bright & Beachy Workshop

By Tony Hicks
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A Totally Serious Cultural Investigation Into Sand, Citrus, and Suspicious Levels of Cheerfulness If you’ve never experienced a “Bright & Beachy Workshop” hosted under the banner of the Citrus County Chronicle Events, allow me to paint the scene. Imagine Florida sunshine that feels aggressively optimistic. Imagine craft tables arranged with the confidence of someone who owns at least three hot glue guns. Imagine pastel everything. Then imagine a room full of adults voluntarily choosing to glue seashells to wood plaques while sipping lemonade and discussing font choices. Welcome to paradise. Or at least, the laminated flyer version of paradise. This is the Bright & Beachy Workshop—a gathering that dares to ask the bold question: What if coastal decor… but make it participatory? And honestly? I’m here for it. First, Let’s Talk About Citrus County Energy 4 Before we dive into the glitter (biodegradable, of course), we must acknowledge the setting: Citrus County , the charming Gulf...
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Love, Limbs, and Explosions: 4 Wild Ways Animals Get It Done

By Tony Hicks
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1. 🐝 The Exploding Romance of the Honey bee 4 If human dating worked like honey bee dating, Tinder would come with a liability waiver and a small memorial service. Here’s the deal: in a honey bee colony, the queen takes a single “nuptial flight.” That sounds quaint. Pastoral. Maybe a little Jane Austen. It is not. She flies high into the air, trailed by male drones who have exactly one job in life: mate with her. They don’t collect nectar. They don’t guard the hive. They don’t debate macroeconomics. They are flying genetic USB sticks. When a drone successfully mates, his endophallus—yes, that’s a word—ruptures. Detaches. Stays with the queen. The drone falls to the ground and dies. That’s not metaphorical. That’s not poetic exaggeration. That’s “I had one good date and then immediately perished.” From an evolutionary standpoint, it’s ruthlessly efficient. The queen collects sperm from multiple drones in one flight, stores it for years, and then spends her life laying up to 2,000 eggs ...
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Writing the Books We Want to Write (Or: How to Stop Drafting the Manuscript You Think You’re Supposed to Produce and Start Drafting the One That Won’t Leave You Alone)

By Tony Hicks
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There is a special kind of exhaustion reserved for writers who are halfway through a book they do not actually want to write. You know the one. It sounded smart. It sounded marketable. It sounded like something a “serious author” would produce while wearing glasses they do not need and drinking tea that tastes like bark. It may even have a tidy outline and a compelling subtitle with a colon in it. And yet. You open the document and feel like you’re clocking in for a shift. That is not inspiration. That is literary customer service. Meanwhile, in the back of your mind, there’s another book. The inconvenient one. The weird one. The one that blends investing with existential dread, or neuroscience with sarcasm, or mystical folklore with Midwestern budgeting strategies. The one that feels slightly dangerous to admit you’re writing. That book will not let you sleep. This blog is about that book. The Myth of the “Correct” Book Writers absorb invisible rules early: Write what se...
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105 Bizarre Facts That Inflated My Pinto Bean Brain to Neutron Star Density

By Tony Hicks
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1–15: Biology Is Unhinged Wombats produce cube-shaped poop. Yes, actual cubes. Engineers still don’t fully understand how. Some turtles can breathe through their butts. (Science calls it cloacal respiration. You’re welcome.) Your bones are constantly dissolving and rebuilding. You are a haunted house with a maintenance crew. The mantis shrimp sees 12–16 types of color receptors. You see three. Stay humble. There’s a species of jellyfish ( Turritopsis dohrnii ) that can revert to its juvenile form and potentially live forever. Trees can communicate stress signals through underground fungal networks. The forest is basically a gossiping Wi-Fi system. Humans glow faintly in visible light—but it’s 1,000 times too weak for our eyes to detect. Koalas have fingerprints nearly indistinguishable from humans. Sloths can hold their breath longer than dolphins. Some frogs freeze solid in winter and thaw back to life. Your stomach lining replaces itself every few days so it doesn’t digest itself. A ...
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