April 18, 2022
The Memory Librarian: And Other Stories Of The Dirty Computer
Let's get intersectional with the reviews of Janelle Monáe's new book of afrofuturist queer short stories, The Memory Librarian: And Other Stories Of The Dirty Computer. NPR is pretty down the middle (as expected) [article with listen link]. But a work like this, we also have the lens of Ebony, which looks at race and afrofuturism and hope. D.C.'s Metro Weekly has a rainbow prism that brings forward LGBTQ+ themes. And WaPo headlines a half-hour interview with the author herself leading with Race, but there's more going on there.. Also, an article with highlights and transcripts of that interview. If you hurry, you might see her book tour. [more inside]
James Madison's Montpelier is purging descendant narratives
James Madison's Montpelier plantation, a historic US Presidential site, has been widely praised for its progress interpreting the history of slavery and the nation's founding. In 2021, after years of intensive effort, its board took the groundbreaking step of giving "structural parity" to descendants of the 300 people enslaved at Montpelier by James Madison, with an equal number of seats on its board of directors as non-descendants (previously). But in the past four weeks, Montpelier's CEO and board chair have begun an effort to dismantle and reverse the new structures to limit descendant power on the board. And today, they fired and suspended key longtime staff members in retaliation for blowing the whistle and expressing public support for the descendants. [more inside]
Putting Dollar General on the Defensive
Mary Gundel loved managing a Dollar General store in Tampa, Fla. But when she detailed its challenges on social media, the company — and fellow employees — took notice. NYtimes.com story. [more inside]
Looking for a Brand Name That Will Stand Out? Try Finnish
American companies are increasingly mining the language for short, simple, and unique words. U.S. brands typically employ foreign-sounding names to convey certain cultural associations (for example Au Bon Pain, which seeks to re-create French cafe bakery culture, or Häagen-Dazs, a nod to Danish). The draw of many Finnish words is the opposite—their lack of affiliation for the average American. They can be seen as more neutral and harder to place, says Pekka Mattila, professor of practice in marketing at the Aalto University School of Business in Helsinki. “Having a Finnish brand name is an easy pick if you want to be different in a large market that is English-speaking,” he says. When consumers don’t have a preconceived idea of a word, brands can use it as a near-blank canvas. “The word raaka means raw in Finnish,” writes Brooklyn-based chocolatier Raaka on its website. “We claim no Finnish heritage, but the cadence of the word and its meaning capture the essence of our chocolate and our process. When we make chocolate we’re after something that feels the way Raaka sounds: strong, wild, playful, and most of all, different.”
Old MacDonald Had a Thread, Free-I-Free-I-O
It's Monday and my day off and I've done like six hours of work anyway, which means now I absolutely get to put my feet up and crack open a nice cold can of Free Thread with the boys. (The boys are my cats. They're both girls, come to think of it. Anyway.) Come on in and talk about whatever the hell one talks about when one talks about things, I (increasingly literally) don't make the rules.
The 2022 Ignyte Awards Shortlist
"The Ignyte Awards Committee Is thrilled to announce the finalists for the 2022 Igynte Awards. The Awards seek to celebrate the vibrancy and diversity of the current and future landscape of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror by recognizing incredible feats in storytelling and outstanding efforts towards inclusivity within the genre. To that effect, the committee feels that these creators, creations, entities and perspectives from 2021 present the brightest lights in speculative fiction’s future." 19 of the shortlisted works are readable for free online, including many short stories and novelettes. Voting is open now (anyone can vote) and closes June 10th.
“We’ve been fueling this fire for a long time..."
As a follow-up to their announcement in November, Gizmodo has released part 1 of the Facebook Papers: "As part of an ongoing project to make these once-confidential records accessible to the general public, Gizmodo is today—for the first time—publishing 28 of the documents previously exclusively shared with Congress and the media." [more inside]
I spy, with my little eye, a winged horse
The preeminent Ronan Farrow on NSO Group's Pegasus spyware, a campaign against Catalan civil society, and "the inside story of the world’s most notorious commercial spyware and the big tech companies waging war against it". Technical research and reporting from the University of Toronto's Citizen Lab accompanies the New Yorker article. They also found evidence of UK government targets, including Downing Street. [more inside]
the plans came “dangerously close to a Holocaust Disneyland”
On how to commemorate Babyn Yar (Babi Yar), the mass grave outside of Kyiv. Note: This story was conceived and written before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Apart from the addition of updates to reflect recent developments, we chose not to substantially alter the piece.
"Did you leave the ship?" "No sir." "Did it leave you?" "Yes sir."
110 years and a couple of days ago, Charles Lightoller was the senior most officer to survive the sinking of the Titanic. He oversaw the launching of many lifeboats, cutting the ropes of the last with a pen knife, went down with the ship, was trapped under water and survived because of a fortuitous boiler explosion. This would be his second newsworthy shipwreck of four. When not escaping sinking ships, he mined for gold in the Yukon, wrangled cattle, rode the rails across North America, won a firefight with a Zeppelin, sunk a U-Boat and had to return to port by traveling backwards in command of a badly damaged ship, ran long-distance surveillance off the coast of Nazi Germany, and rescued more than 100 people during the evacuation of Dunkirk while under fire. [more inside]
Matt Araiza Is Out to Change the Way the NFL Views Punters
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