November 12, 2020
"We didn't mention copyright."
Penelope Farmer's children's timeslip novel, Charlotte Sometimes (1969), was the inspiration for a song by The Cure. Farmer writes about her experience of this here and here. [more inside]
“Who in their right mind would...” covid cruise ship edition
The number of passengers who have tested positive on the Caribbean cruise ship ("while enjoying a safe environment onboard") has increased to five. The sailing, with 53 passengers and 66 crew, was the first in the Caribbean by any cruise vessel since the coronavirus crisis was declared a pandemic in March. There were a few minor changes in onboard facilities and passengers socially distanced, with several tests before the ship set sail. Passengers are currently confined to cabins, with menus slid under their doors. (title)
The first multi-racial Vice President.
Charles Curtis, who served as vice president to Herbert Hoover from 1929 to 1933. Curtis’s mother was a Native American who belonged to the Kaw Nation, and he was raised on a reservation by his maternal grandparents. There are reasons he is not embraced by Native Americans today.
What Makes The Difference Between Getting Out of Prison and Staying out?
Adam Gopnik on the work of the Fortune Society, a nonprofit helping people cope with the aftermath of incarceration, and Sam Rivera, the charismatic leader of its main residential wing (The New Yorker)
“The blast blasted blubber beyond all believable bounds.”
50 years ago today, it was decided that half a ton of dynamite was the best tool to deal with the carcass of a Pacific Gray Whale that had washed up on the beaches of Florence, Oregon. The famous “exploding whale” news report from KATU has been remastered and put on YouTube in 4k. [previously]
The World's Best Baseball Punk Band
"Magic Loogie" (off of Nuclear Strikezone) is a Seinfeld homage track by the self-proclaimed "World's Best Baseball Punk Band" and named after a sports team in the Simpsons: The Isotopes (sometimes "Isotopes Punk Rock Baseball Club", based in Vancouver, BC). Lyrics filled with deep baseball references and humor, they came back to Seinfeld with "Rochelle, Rochelle" (on 1994 World Series Champions) about George's run into Bette Midler. They took a year off from touring (one year they planned 81 road shows) in 2018 to start a baseball league and released their most recent single shortly after the intended start of the 2020 baseball season: "The Invisible Hand of the MLB is Meddling".
Here comes the sunflower
It's a stressful time. Perhaps you'd like to watch a sunflower being born (83 days timelapsed into 2mins 20seconds) [more inside]
"Other countries have social safety nets. The U.S. has women."
Sociologist Jessica Calarco about her recent research on mothers grappling with parenting, partners, anxiety, work, and feelings of failure during the pandemic. [***Content Warning*** description of sexual assault and coerced pregnancy ]
The corona virus has illuminated the structural inequities that women face. Women are carrying the weight and dealing with the fall-out. Real help is needed...now.
(found via Kottke)
Barack Obama: I’m Not Yet Ready to Abandon the Possibility of America.
An excerpt from Barack Obama's book, A Promised Land. (SL The Atlantic)
The Donald John Trump Presidential Library
The Donald John Trump Presidential Library An excellent satire that expertly melds truth, the whole truth, and a great sense of humour.
If guys with guns are talking about collapse, why can’t we?
"But the real prepper story is not about rich people building bunkers in the middle of nowhere. Nor about conspiracy theorists getting ready to defend their kids from nanobots sent by, um, Bill Gates. No, the real prepper story is that our own militaries are prepping."
Painters think he is a sculptor. Sculptors are sure he is a painter.
Georgy Kurasov is a Russian who paints in a contemporary Cubist style.
His teachers initially thought he had a total lack of feeling for color. His website does not do justice to his paintings.
(Art - NSFW in prudish places).
His teachers initially thought he had a total lack of feeling for color. His website does not do justice to his paintings.
(Art - NSFW in prudish places).
Find the bathtub.
A lot of people look at real estate house tours for fun. But the 3D tour for this house in Louisville, Kentucky is something else altogether. For one thing, it feels like a vertigo-inducing Escher drawing. It has 3 bedrooms, 4 half-baths, and one enormous crypt-like bathtub room. If you can find it. It's been called "the best accidental video game of 2020". [more inside]
Gammons For London
« Previous day | Next day »