March 25, 2021
Canada's climate plan survives legal challenge
This morning the Supreme Court of Canada handed down a long-awaited decision, ruling 6-3 that the federal carbon tax - a key part of Canada's climate plan - is constitutional. Twitter commentary by Andrew Leach. The provincial governments that challenged it in court - Saskatchewan, Ontario, and Alberta - are rethinking their plans. Meanwhile, the Conservative opposition leader is still promising to scrap it if he forms government, and his party is split over the issue, voting down a resolution stating "climate change is real" 54-46. The legal battle may be over, but the political battle continues. [more inside]
a trove of data on children, a group famously difficult to track
This online reading platform that mines kids’ preferences to create new books is deeply creepy (LitHub): "Maybe it’s just because I am an Old, but when I read about the data collection activities of Epic—an online reading platform that, in fairness, is free to schools and has helped kids access digital library books during the pandemic—I was extremely creeped out. [...] The company is using this data to customize reading recommendations, but also to create its own children’s books, including a series called “Cat Ninja,” which has subsequently inspired a spin-off about the eponymous Ninja’s owl sidekick (whose appearance generated a lot of clicks)." [more inside]
I Don't Know Why You Invited Us
The Great Midsommar Bake Off [SLYT]
The vice presidential salute is not a thing
The vice presidential salute is not a thing and neither is the presidential salute. Task & Purpose reminds us that such salutes, like so many bad ideas, originated with Ronald Reagan. Elected officials who do not return a salute are not being disrespectful, according to trustworthy sources responding to the professional gasbags wringing their hands over the US Vice President’s salutation indifference to the various on-duty military folks who is salute her on the regular.
"If this is an obituary, I won't hear it and I won't respond to it."
What's under the Lincoln Memorial?
122 concrete pillars in a 43,800 square foot and three stories tall cavern. 360 video tour. Another tour. Forgotten and undisturbed for almost 60 years, the cavern was rediscovered in 1975. Sealed to the public in 1989, there are now plans to reopen the undercroft in 2022 for the centenary celebration.
The Witches Are Out
Finding public domain art from world museums
A new visual search web service. Museo searches images hosted by a group of museums from two nations so far, including "the Art Institute of Chicago, the Rijksmuseum, the Harvard Art Museums, the Minneapolis Institute of Art and the New York Public Library Digital Collection." [more inside]
Part of this nutritious breakfast!
Some people love it. Others liken it to fish tank gravel. But Grape Nuts have a loyal following. They went missing during the pandemic. People paid ridiculous amounts for them during the shortage. But now they're back on the shelves - and Post is even willing to reimburse loyal fans who overpaid. [more inside]
Do you want Planet of the Apes? This is how you get Planet of the Apes.
Molecular switch makes human organ three times larger than great apes’, study finds. "Tinker with the switch and the human brain loses its growth advantage, while the great ape brain can be made to grow more like a human’s."
ئارام ئېلىش ئۈچۈن ئۇيغۇر مۇزىكىسى
Televised World Part 3: The Monster Who Ran With Good People
An ordinary young couple share their condo with a wacky slacker, and the couple’s nephew and niece show up in later seasons. Sounds like a standard sitcom, right? Except it’s smarter and wiser than you’d expect, the slacker becomes less slack over time, and the new characters are well-received... partly because the show’s nasty villain, having not spent years messing with THESE ones, sees his chance to take a risk, try acting kindly toward them, and maybe, just maybe, become a better person. This is The Raccoons, now on YouTube for free in its entirety (Seasons 1, 2, 3, 4, 5). Come run with them.
Hope and Climate Change
Is it wrong to be hopeful about climate change? In the dark movie theatre, I felt a new bond with the scientists carrying baby corals and the filmmakers chasing after them. We are, indeed, losing this battle. They understand that, I believe, but in a tropical gulf thousands of miles away from where diplomats and politicians decide our carbon policies and international accords, a group of stubborn biologists and documentarists were refusing to give up. They were earning their own hope, one coral at a time. [more inside]
Joni Mitchell A Life Story: Woman of Heart and Mind
One of the great talents of her or anyone else's generation gets the royal treatment with this superb documentary. It's all here (via interviews, including conversations past and present with Mitchell herself, photos, generous helpings of concert footage, and more): her Saskatchewan childhood, her lovers, her painting, her reunion with the daughter she had left behind at age 19... and, of course, her music, the songs, recordings, and performances, so intensely personal yet so universally accessible, that comprise one of the most extraordinarily original and significant (if not always wildly popular) bodies of work any artist has ever produced. Even true fanatics are likely to find revelations here; the rest of us can simply rejoice in the life and artistry of Joni Mitchell. --Sam Graham
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