May 10, 2018

Lunchtime Photo

A couple of weeks ago it was duckling season, so gosling season can’t be far behind, can it? Indeed not. Our lake is now full of adorable baby Canada geese. Aren’t they the cutest little things you’ve ever seen?

A question for the bird people: the particular brood that I saw the other day had 11 goslings. That’s not possible, is it? What kind of goose could sit on a nest with 11 eggs in it? Do multiple geese share daycare duties if their eggs hatch at the same time? Or what?

UPDATE: Yes, it turns out that Canada geese often form “creches” of goslings from several different nests. Here’s a picture of a 40-gosling creche on the Thames a few years ago, courtesy of the Daily Mail.

May 1, 2018 — Irvine, California

WE CAME UP SHORT.

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WE CAME UP SHORT.

We just wrapped up a shorter-than-normal, urgent-as-ever fundraising drive and we came up about $45,000 short of our $300,000 goal.

That means we're going to have upwards of $350,000, maybe more, to raise in online donations between now and June 30, when our fiscal year ends and we have to get to break-even. And even though there's zero cushion to miss the mark, we won't be all that in your face about our fundraising again until June.

So we urgently need this specific ask, what you're reading right now, to start bringing in more donations than it ever has. The reality, for these next few months and next few years, is that we have to start finding ways to grow our online supporter base in a big way—and we're optimistic we can keep making real headway by being real with you about this.

Because the bottom line: Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism Mother Jones exists to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

And we hope you might consider pitching in before moving on to whatever it is you're about to do next. We really need to see if we'll be able to raise more with this real estate on a daily basis than we have been, so we're hoping to see a promising start.

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