April 20, 2019
"Where would we be without the words of Japanese women?"
Works by Japanese Women is a 12 part series by Kris Kosaka for The Japan Times on Japanese female authors, starting with an introduction. The articles all focus on writers who've been translated into English. The contemprary authors are Hiromi Ito, Mieko Kawakami, Yuko Tsushima, Kaori Ekuni, Takako Arai, Nahoko Uehashi and Yoko Tawada. Earlier writers featured in the series are late 19th Century short story writer Ichiyo Higuchi, feminist playwright and novelist Fumiko Enchi and the series ended with an encouragement to read the thousand year old works of Sei Shonagon and Murasaki Shikibu. The series also included a profile of the pioneering feminist magazine Seito.
JARPING
"It can be taken quite seriously and even has its own set of official rules, drawn up over 30 years ago by the ... (WEJA). The world championships are held annually every Easter Sunday and the coveted title is competitively fought over by contestants of all ages. Apparently there are certain breeds of hen which lay harder egg shells and competitors have been known to feed their hens calcium-rich foods in the run up to the competition."
Jarping is a North Eastern (uk) egg-cracking tournament.
Here's another summary from the Guardian.
And here is the finals of the World Egg Jarping Championship from Peterlee in 2013 (SLYT)
Secrecy, Self-Dealing, and Greed at the N.R.A.
The NRA is millions of dollars in debt, but seems to have deeper troubles. Most of their money is spent on high salaries and high living for NRA insiders, much of it funneled through a public relations firm, Ackerman McQueen, which kicks back much of the money those same insiders. It's similar to the executive pay scandals at the Susan G. Komen Foundation and the Red Cross, but carried to a whole new level. Previously, there were thoughts and prayers for them here.
Star Trek episode, Dave Eggers book, or Mountain Goats song?
Test your Trekkie / literary / indie rock cred with this quiz: Star Trek episode, Dave Eggers book, or Mountain Goats song? As its MeFite creator duffell wrote, "there's no real joke except that all three of these things tend to have delightfully overwrought titles." [via mefi projects]
Fixing Up Waco
Chip and Joanna Gaines, stars of the hit TV show Fixer Upper are not the only people investing in the physical and spiritual "restoration" of Waco, Texas. In a long article for Buzzfeed, Anne Helen Petersen investigates who is being included and who is being left out of efforts by members of the Gains's Antioch Baptist Church to transform Waco. [more inside]
“Now you are playing with power! PORTABLE POWER!”
The Game Boy Turns 30 [The Verge] “On April 21st, 1989, Nintendo unleashed the Game Boy on the world, forever changing video games. The unassuming gray brick may not have been a technical powerhouse, but it helped take the idea of portable gaming mainstream, paving the way for the world of mobile gaming and hybrid devices like the Switch.” [YouTube][Original Gameboy Commercials] [more inside]
exit/1
“Make it work, then make it beautiful, then if you really, really have to, make it fast. 90% of the time, if you make it beautiful, it will already be fast. So really, just make it beautiful!” Joe Armstrong, inventor of the influential (and beautiful) Erlang programming language, has died. [more inside]
Ask And Listen
“What set worker’s inquiry apart from these other empirical studies was the belief that the working class itself knew more about capitalist exploitation than anyone else. It is the “workers in town and country,” Marx thought, who “alone can describe with full knowledge the misfortunes from which they suffer.” The Worker’s Inquiry (Viewpoint) “No one wants to talk, but everyone’s got something to say. I can feel it, a shared heaviness sitting on all of us, invisibly filling the room like a gas leak. But no one really knows how to articulate it or what to do with it.“ Can The Working Class Speak? Maximilian Alvarez on what talking to other workers, and his own father, taught him - Working People episode with his father (Sequel) - “I always thought it was just going to be the younger people, but no, it’s a lot of people my age or older, and it’s sad. ” excerpts from Alvarez’s interviews with working people. The Working People Podcast
How Dungeons & Dragons somehow became more popular than ever
Yes, D&D is back. But it’s cool now (sort of). And legions are into it, including an unprecedented number of adult and female players, attracted by a popular recent revamp and new online playing options. It’s the ultimate sign that nerd culture is now mainstream.
The game’s popularity has waxed and waned over its 45-year history. But in 2018, its developers, Wizards of the Coast, sold more units than ever before.
"They says it’s a phase, but a phase becomes a life"
Toad, a 20-year-old Danish woman living in Copenhagen, has been lonely her whole life. She is autistic, and as a child, did not have any friends. When she moved from the country to the city, not much changed. “They says it’s a phase, but a phase becomes a life,” she says, surrounded by six other young adults in a cozy apartment in Copenhagen—all of whom are working on becoming less lonely.
Toad is among the attendees of Ventilen, or “friend to one” in Danish, a 20-year-old organization set up to bring 15-to-25-year-olds together twice a week with two or three volunteers. Together, the people in the group play games, make meals, go to the cinema, and build the human connections that many feel they lack. (Jenny Anderson, Quartz)
Looks good enough to eat... but don't.
German LEGO fan Beryll Roehl has a fascination with a period in LEGO's history when the company sought to improve the quality of their bricks. These rare fifty-year-old-plus bricks come in some fascinating colors and textures. LEGO fan site The Brothers Brick has an interview with the artist here.
"Super Mario Bros. 64"
After seven years of work, a reasonably accurate port of Super Mario Bros. has been made for the Commodore 64. YouTube.
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