September 6, 2020
"took out a sheaf of papers and shook them in the miners’ faces"
"'I am in desperate country,' she said, after swallowing, 'and I need all the bravery I can get. But I will have nothing of resignation.' She spat out a wad of wet pulp." "What I Assume You Shall Assume" by Ken Liu is a short fantasy story published in June, about 1890s Idaho, Chinese and Chinese-American experiences, violence, the magic of words, solidarity, and grit.
How should we remember the pandemic's dead?
A World Memorial to the Pandemic Design firm Gómez Platero (based in Uruguay) offers a plan for one planetary site of memory. (via) [more inside]
Jetpack Mystery Near LAX
Airline Pilots Landing At LAX Report "A Guy In Jetpack" Flying Alongside Them [The WarZone] [more inside]
A Year of the World's Best Beaches
CNN collects together 52 of the world's best beaches and the best time to visit, one for every week of the year. Surprisingly free of ads.
Live weather satellite images in near real-time
Zoom Earth (nothing to do with everyone's favorite teleconferencing tool) shows live weather satellite images updated in near real-time in a zoomable map. Image layers include storms and wildfires. [more inside]
The Word for World Is Forest
The Word for World Is Forest: Ecology, Colonialism, and the Protest Movement A biweekly series, The Ursula K. Le Guin Reread explores anew the transformative writing, exciting worlds, and radical stories that changed countless lives. This week we’ll be covering the novella The Word for World Is Forest, first published in Harlan Ellison, ed., Again, Dangerous Visions (1972).
Louis DeJoy Accused of Massive Campaign Finance Fraud
Trump's wolf, Louis DeJoy, assigned to guard the USPS hen house, has been accused of campaign finance fraud.
“Louis was a national fundraiser for the Republican Party. He asked employees for money. We gave him the money, and then he reciprocated by giving us big bonuses,” said David Young, DeJoy’s longtime director of human resources, who had access to payroll records at New Breed from the late 1990s to 2013 and is now retired. “When we got our bonuses, let’s just say they were bigger, they exceeded expectations — and that covered the tax and everything else.”
"the mighty builders, perished and fallen"
Fall of Civilizations is a podcast by historian and novelist Paul M. M. Cooper about societies which collapsed. So far he's taken on Roman Britain, the Bronze Age, Ancient Mayans, the Norse in Greenland, the Khmer Empire, Easter Island, the Songhai Empire, Sumer, the Aztecs, the Han Dynasty and Byzantium. Besides the usual places for podcasts, the first eight episodes are also available on YouTube as video documentaries.
Another Twitter Thread
@CKnightWrites:
Definitely just watched my neighbor’s teenage son back his mom's car into his dad's truck.
And he knows I saw it.
Mom is home but didn’t see/hear it happen, and Dad gets home at 3.
I’m waiting for the silence bribe.
dance deacon
The other day I realized that the one thing I want more than anything else in the world is to go to a Dan Deacon concert, exchange superegos with a random person in the crowd, and dance like a crazy person. But for now, we must make do with recorded shows as best we can. There are two main components of a good recorded Dan Deacon live show: sound quality and insanity. This 2016 set hits the balance pretty well. [more inside]
"You sit in here and play that... electric twanger!"
Guitar effects pedals are, at their most basic, just a box with a button or pedal, and maybe a knob, that changes the way your instrument sounds. You could build one yourself with schematics that are online (and troubleshooting if the buzz you're getting isn't the buzz you're wanting). There are some basic configurations, and some classic sounds. Or you can buy a number of weird and unusual off-the-shelf varieties and go down the rabbit hole of amusing nerd pedal review videos. But for the true pedal coolhunter, you have to look to to world of odd vintage effects, precious rare devices, oddly-pedigreed limited run getups (more), and, of course, the clones and knock-offs.
What is a plural person?
People with multiple personalities have been documented in culture and society for a long time. There's a decent overview in a reasonably recent Stuff You Should Know podcast. However, read on. [more inside]
Fall Guys but with Human Screams
Fall Guys is a cute battle-royale multiplayer gaming hit taking inspiration from shows like Takeshi's Castle and Total Wipeout. Who would have thought adding human screams would have made it so hilarious?
Grace Petrie
Grace Petrie is a protest singer from Leicester, UK. Some of her most popular songs are Black Tie, Farewell to Welfare, and Pride.
Lard, a love story
From NPR in 2012 (text only version): "There are some cultures that have never quite given up on lard. Mexican tamales usually require it, and then there's Ukrainian salo, the Eastern European equivalent of lardo. But to many Americans it's a bit of a retro novelty — if they've even heard of it." Lard is rendered pork fat, which has been strained for a smooth, white fat. Is lard healthy for you? While lard has less saturated fat than butter, it still has significantly more than olive oil, which is widely considered the most healthful fat for a variety of reasons. But olive oil is not a universal fat. As Prevention notes, a variety of baked goods need lard for the proper texture and common lard substitutes, such as vegetable shortening, are associated with higher health risks than the saturated fat they were designed to replace. What, then, is a lover of lard to do? [more inside]
« Previous day | Next day »