April 29, 2023
Point of Personal Privilege
More than an aspirational and abstract index of a Whitmanian democracy-to-come, Robert’s Rules was an especially formal response to the very real complications and specifically American violence of white supremacy, segregated democracy, and civil war. from Reading, Race, and “Robert's Rules of Order” by Kent Puckett
Gravity and Escape Speed
XKCD has recently done a couple more interactive posts, both oriented toward exploring 2D space in a gravity-based universe: Gravity, and Escape Speed. The first is a fairly laid back region to explore; the second starts your ship out fairly limited, and you try to find upgrades, get enough speed to leave your starting planet. The first is mostly just something to look around, the second feels more like an actual game, with lots of upgrades and fun collectables to find.
"The writing was on the wall. It is now written in blood."
In Sudan, a Deadly Reckoning for Rival Forces: With civilians trapped, scores have been killed as the army and a paramilitary group battle for control of the country. [more inside]
The Power and Peril of the ICU
...nearly all of us want medical treatments to extend our lives for as long as possible, until we reach the threshold when the pain and suffering imposed by such treatments exceeds potential future gains in life and the pleasure and joy it would bring. Obviously, the difficult part is knowing when that threshold has been crossed.
Provocation
"'What might she have written next?' asked Margaret Atwood in her tribute to Hilary Mantel, after the Booker prize-winning novelist’s sudden death in September last year....We now know the answer to Atwood’s question: Mantel was working on a rewriting of Pride and Prejudice, told from the perspective of the overlooked middle sister Mary Bennet, to be titled Provocation. Even more intriguingly, it was planned as a mischievous Austen mashup, with characters from all her novels making an appearance in unfamiliar guises." The article in The Guardian includes an excerpt from Mantel's notebooks. [more inside]
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