November 3, 2018
Where one side is armed with ideas, and the other is armed with weapons
Fascism is Not an Idea to Be Debated, It’s a Set of Actions to Fight In a kind of epiphany, I understood that the letter was written in a language I no longer recognized, not least because he was using a dialect and diction far closer to Gorski vijenac than to our past movie arguments. We were now so far apart that whatever I might say could never reach him, let alone convert him back into what I’d thought was the true and original version of my friend.
There are no do-overs in war.
This summer I found myself grappling with what I know about war and what my daughters know via a children’s book called “War in Afghanistan: An Interactive Modern History Adventure." The book is part of the You Choose series published by Capstone Press, a popular children’s format in which young readers are asked to make decisions throughout the story that lead them down different paths. The “War in Afghanistan” edition, written for children aged 8 to 11, includes a chapter set in Marjah in 2010, in which the reader is a squad leader with First Battalion, Sixth Marine Regiment — this was my old unit, on a deployment I was on, as part of the offensive operation I fought in. My daughters’ adventure began with a helicopter insert into the fields before sunrise... [more inside]
protect your throat, and strike repeatedly at the head of the attacker,
Cockroaches deliver karate kicks to avoid being turned into “zombies” [YouTube] “"The cockroach has a suite of behaviors it can deploy to fend off the zombie makers," says Catania. "This starts out with what I call the en garde position, like in fencing." It's also known as "stilt standing." From that position, the roach can track an approaching wasp with its antenna and elevate its body, the better to aim a swift, hard kick at the wasp's head and body. The roach uses its leg almost like a baseball bat. If it puts up enough of a fight, "The wasp usually figures out there's a smaller and less-defensive cockroach out there to be had," he says.” [via: Ars Technica]
I'll See You In My Dreams
María Irene Fornés, RIP: María Irene Fornés, the groundbreaking Cuban-born playwright who was a pivotal figure in the off-off-Broadway movement, died Tuesday at 88 after a long battle with Alzheimer’s disease. [more inside]
Astronomy Act
Yesterday on r/Astronomy, somebody posted a .gif of Supernova 1987A's shock wave exploding outward : it shows 25 years of observations tracking the expanding (and heating) cloud of gas and dust blown outward from the supernova explosion of a star some 30 years ago (as viewed from Earth). In reality, this explosion, which happened very close to Earth in cosmic terms, occurred about 170,000 years ago in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a satellite galaxy of the Milky Way.
Astronomer Yvette Cendes who co-wrote the paper from which the .gif came from, popped into the conversation, and did an informal AMA about the study
Astronomer Yvette Cendes who co-wrote the paper from which the .gif came from, popped into the conversation, and did an informal AMA about the study
If We Love, We Grieve. That’s The Deal. That’s The Pact.
to make a criminal, make a law
So there's a growing understanding that current policing practices are untenable. There are Campaign[s] to End Mass Incarceration since prisons manufacture violent people,
ballot intiatives to change Police use-of-force, a movement to Abolish ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency)and their immigration prisons, reform police departments, even make radical changes to incorporate community oversight of police. But since one of the Peelian principles is that " the police are the public and that the public are the police":
Do we even need police at all? [more inside]
Do we even need police at all? [more inside]
The Brutal Vernacular of the Oilfield
The LRB continues their very occasional but always interesting series of stories of oil industry corruption from a company lawyer. [more inside]
I want to tell you about a remarkable woman...
Her name is Florence Ilott and, in 1934, she became the first person to run across Westminster Bridge within the twelve chimes of Big Ben at noon. [more inside]
The 50 Greatest Movie Dance Scenes of All Time
The Britons who joined David Koresh
Of the 70+ people who died during the siege of the Branch Davidian compound outside Waco, Texas, in 1993, 24 were British. The eight-part BBC podcast "End of Days" chronicles David Koresh's efforts to recruit followers in England, and the lives of those who crossed the Atlantic to join him at his New Mount Carmel Center.
Art of the Electron
Art galleries at the CGSociety, a networking platform for professional digital artists: Editors' Pick, Featured, Trending, Recent, Hall of Fame.
[Some NSFW, and previously (with inactive links)]
LOUIS COLE LIVE SESH
Aggsbachs Paleolithic Blog
Don't watch the clock, do as it does: Keep Going!
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