Lifestyles of the rich and ... well, rich

 

From Fodor's Travel:

200 People Pay Millions to Live on a Luxury Yacht. Here’s How They Spend Their Days

"Life on board The World [a mega-yacht that continually circumnavigates the globe] is full of adventure and bespoke luxury. The affluent, entrepreneurial, and philanthropic residents are from about 20 different countries and live on the ship as much or as little as they want. Typically, there are around 150 to 200 residents at one time. Most come and go from their home(s) on land, with an average time of four months living on board intermittently. While most residents are retired, some do work remotely from the yacht—thanks to the Starlink satellite internet connection, which also allows them to easily keep in touch with friends and family from anywhere in the world."

Here's another story about it that's a little bit spicier:

‘Scandals and secrets’: On board the world’s most exclusive private residential ship

" “I’m not saying that everything that happened on ‘The White Lotus’ has happened on The World, but I think, in large measure, the comparison is not inaccurate,” former resident Peter Antonucci tells CNN Travel.

“There are a lot of wealthy people doing playful things, sometimes naughty things, sometimes scandalous things.”

That's about as spicy as the article gets, but Antonucci has written novels set on the ship that apparently go up higher on the Scoville scale for yacht-based fiction. 

A good Bump

 

Philip Bump is still a Washington Post columnist. Despite the attrition at the paper, there are still people with good insights, as in the following. 

The right-wing media machine is hitting a wall
The right is doing a good job convincing the right that Trump is doing a good job. But only the right.

"Consider recent polling conducted by YouGov for the Economist. It found that only about a third of Americans supported the Trump-Musk push to fire hundreds of thousands of federal workers. Among Republicans, more than 6 in 10 supported the idea. Among non-Republicans, though, fewer than 1 in 5 did."

"Last week, Fox News host Jesse Watters offered a succinct and accurate explanation of how the right elevates stories.

“We are waging a 21st-century information warfare campaign against the left, and they are using tactics from the 1990s,” he said, mocking Democrats’ reliance on news conferences and traditional media stories. “What you’re seeing on the right is asymmetrical. It’s like grassroots guerrilla warfare. Someone says something on social media. Musk retweets it. [Joe] Rogan podcasts it. Fox broadcasts it. And by the time it reaches everybody, millions of people have seen it.”

"This, he insisted, reflected the right’s interest in “expressing information” in contrast to the left’s “suppressing information.”

"The important thing to remember is that what Watters is describing is unreliable or inaccurate information, claims that are compelling to the right. What media outlets outside of the right’s bubble try to suppress, by our own admission, are false or dishonest claims. Democratic officials still rely on the traditional media as conduits to the public in part because we serve as validators of accuracy — validation that is (lamentably) less valuable in politics today."

Well, who would try to do this?

 

A Lithuanian attempting to row across the Pacific Ocean was rescued when he ran into a bit of trouble. 

AU Air Force, Navy rescue Lithuanian hit by cyclone while rowing Pacific Ocean

"Lithuanian national Aurimas Mockus, aged 44, was attempting to row from San Diego, United States, to Brisbane, Australia, when he hit Tropical Cyclone Alfred.

The cyclone caused the rower to be stranded for three days in the Coral Sea, located roughly 740 kilometers from the Queensland state coastal city of Mackay.

Mockus activated his emergency beacon on February 28, 2025 after rowing into stormy seas with rough winds of 80 kph.

Mockus began his 12,000-kilometer journey in October 2024, and was days away from Brisbane when he ran into the tropical cyclone."

Here's what the rowboat looked like: