February 15, 2020
Note to Amazon: Flying under the radar was how the rebel alliance won
Meta implications for financial 404's
ABCD-East to west, going on an Alphaquest
Doors up and down the halls / Wonder what's behind them all / Doors that lead to anywhere / Got to ABC what's there / Got to ABC decide / Where's the door I haven't tried / ABCD East to west / Going on an alpha quest!
Alphaquest was a series of Sesame Street segments combining live action and animation, in which a girl goes through a hallway and into various rooms, each one representing a different letter of the alphabet. [more inside]
Oh, cool, it's the ThunderCats (2nd reboot)! Check 'em out!
In 1985, ThunderCats debuted (YouTube, trailer + intro, 3 minutes), and ran for 130 episodes over 4 seasons (Thundercats.org, episode guide), promoted as "another children's animated fantasy [... with] lessons about respect, friendship, truth, honesty and justice" (Rankin Bass, PRpage). They also sold a lot of toys (Thundercats.org). The show was rebooted in 2011 (YT, 2 minute trailer; previously) by Studio 4°C (previously) for Cartoon Network. Now CN's rebooting the series again (Bleeding Cool), but now it's silly and crazy and outlandish, with cool action elements (Entertainment Weekly interview). Enough talking, on with the cartoons! YT playlist of official promo clips, and CN has the first two episodes online now.
An ominous-looking snail on the way to work
Modern Western secular assumptions about the relations between gods, human beings, animals and the Earth, or between men and women, or abstract and concrete entities, simply don’t apply to democratic Athens. This is the case Anderson wishes to make. To understand the Athenians properly, we must recognise that it isn’t just that they perceived the world differently, but that the world itself was different. What’s needed, he believes, is an ‘ontological turn’ in how we write histories of Athens. [more inside]
On one hand, it's a great idea
Giggle is a "girls only social network" for Android and IOS. It uses "bio-metric gender verification software" to make sure the site is free of men. (Not boys. The site is "for girls" and "not for men.") Since it recognizes "gender" by bone structure, it admits it may have some problems identifying trans girls. But don't worry! "If you are at all concerned with the possibility of being misgendered, you are welcome to contact giggle HQ for manual onboarding." [more inside]
"Imagine being able to jump over a giraffe"
BBC: "He holds the world's best mark at every age level from under-seven to under-12 and then from under-17 all the way to senior." Meet Armand "Mondo" Duplantis. Born in the USA, quietly setting records as a child pole vaulter, and now 20 and Swedish, confident, and the holder of several previous championship and age group records. Now he's broken the world record for pole vaulting - not once (alternate), but twice (with room to spare), in a week. The current record stands at 6.18 metres. (post title)
Sometimes the cyberpunk future is OK
Psychology professor and electronic music artist Bertolt Meyer uses a prosthetic hand, but found it too imprecise to turn the tiny knobs on his synthesizer. So he, with the help of electronic engineer Chrisi Zollner from KOMA Elektronik and his husband Daniel Theiler, hacked his arm to control the synthesizer directly.
a spring with voices
Mairi McFayden, an ethnologist and writer in the Highlands, writes about ecological crisis through the lens of the birds of the Scottish highlands, while digging into Tobar an Dualchais/Kist o Riches, archives of Gaelic and Scots recordings from the 1930s onwards. “I’ll tell ye a thing, that I would never like tae let a spring pass withoot hearin the dawn chorus, because onybody that’s never heard that, they dinna ken whit they’re missin. Fir, it’s life tae me…” John’s words are simple, yet profound: birdsong is an unselfconscious and effortless celebration of affirming presence, of life, of aliveness. [more inside]
UNDESA World Social Report 2020
U.N. warns that runaway inequality is destabilizing the world’s democracies. The U.N. report is unusually clear-eyed on the power dynamics underlying today’s inequality struggles. “People in positions of power tend to capture political processes, particularly in contexts of high and growing inequality,” the report states. “Efforts to reduce inequality will inevitably challenge the interests of certain individuals and groups. At their core, they affect the balance of power.
The race to the bottom continues
Target's grocery delivery company Shipt has a robust approach to worker relations. Workers who ask awkward questions or express dissent are deactivated, i.e. become ineligible to receive future work assignments because, as is increasingly common, they are not employees but contractors. [more inside]
"Are you telling me that computers can save this unlistenable disaster?"
Before he was considered a noted podcaster or something of a raconteur, before he made a Christmas album with Jonathan Coulton, before he said that punk rock was bullshit, before his music opened every episode of My Brother, My Brother, and Me, and before he was the frontman of The Long Winters, John Roderick led the short-lived Seattle buzz-band the Western State Hurricanes. The missing link between the Grunge scene and Seattle's late 90s indie rock explosion (led by tour mates and frequent collaborators Death Cab For Cutie), their debut LP Through With Love, recorded 20 years ago and long-thought unsalvageable, is finally available to listen to now. YouTube. Apple Music. Spotify. You can purchase the limited edition vinyl LP here. [more inside]
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