May 4, 2020
The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few
Four functions of markets - "The period from 2008 until now has been a kind of undead neoliberal era. Post Great Financial Crisis, neoliberal ideas have been discredited among much of the public and are actively contested even within governing elites. But, absent consensus on some new set of social heuristics, not much has actually changed. Material interests in the continuity of institutions shaped by neoliberalism remain strong."[1] [more inside]
Julia Sand, Chester A. Arthur's letter-writing conscience
When corruption threatened the administration of Chester A. Arthur, one ordinary woman put pen to paper. Julia Sand’s passionate letters caught his attention, and rewrote history. The Pen Pal Who Changed a President (Narratively) | At a time when few women could vote or hold public office, a thirty-one-year-old New York woman took it upon herself to write at least twenty-three letters to President Chester A. Arthur, judging, advising, praising, and reprimanding the sitting president of the United States. This article introduces you to that woman and what she had to say. (Library of Congress)
They say in heaven love comes first
Matthew Ryan has released a recording of "Heaven is A Place On Earth" (yes, that one). It's not your average cover.
We did this in the hope of offering something beautiful during this hard and strange time. This video was directed and edited by Tom Sierchio. The footage here was gathered by Tom via "Found Home Video" footage. We hope that if by some small chance there's some that you know and love in here that it brings a smile. Our intent again was to offer unguarded beauty. I love what Tom did. His inspiration was the last scene of Cinema Paradiso. My favorite movie. I suspect one of his as well.
We did this in the hope of offering something beautiful during this hard and strange time. This video was directed and edited by Tom Sierchio. The footage here was gathered by Tom via "Found Home Video" footage. We hope that if by some small chance there's some that you know and love in here that it brings a smile. Our intent again was to offer unguarded beauty. I love what Tom did. His inspiration was the last scene of Cinema Paradiso. My favorite movie. I suspect one of his as well.
"Deep in rococo imagery of fairies, princesses, diamonds and pearls"
Terri Windling (03/2020), "Once upon a time in Paris...": "As the vogue for fairy stories evolved in the 1670s and '80s, Madame d'Aulnoy emerged as one of the most popular raconteurs in Paris ... she soon formed a glittering group around her of nonconformist women and men, as well as establishing a highly successful and profitable literary career ... So how, we might ask, did Perrault become known as the only French fairy tale author of note?" Elizabeth Winter (12/2016), "Feminist Fairies and Hidden Agendas": "the term contes de fées ... was coined by ... d'Aulnoy in 1697, when she published her first collection of tales." Volker Schröder (2018-2019): this collection "is often described as 'lost' or 'untraceable'" and its "sequel has become just as scarce"; but d'Aulnoy's tales are available online, and mixed reviews such as those of the Brothers Grimm may call to mind her childhood marginalia: "if you have my book and ... don't appreciate what's inside, I wish you ringworm, scabies ... and a broken neck." [more inside]
Trance Switzerland Express
DJ techno/trance mixes - good. Swiss train driver pov videos - good. Swiss train driver pov videos set to techno mixes - double plus good! From Thomas H.
When I learned about it, I never forgot it
173 years ago, the Choctaw Nation extended great generosity to the Irish people by donating famine relief during the Irish Potato Famine, despite having only recently survived the Trail of Tears themselves (previously). Today, the Irish people are paying that generosity forward by donating to the Navajo and Hopi nations en masse to support their struggles against the current coronavirus.
Sunny days sweepin' the clouds away
Half a century ago, before “Sesame Street,” and long before the age of quarantine, kids under the age of six spent a crazy amount of time indoors, watching television, a bleary-eyed average of fifty-four hours a week. In 1965, the year the Johnson Administration founded Head Start, Lloyd Morrisett, a vice-president of the Carnegie Corporation with a Ph.D. in experimental psychology from Yale, got up one Sunday morning, at about six-thirty, a half hour before the networks began their day’s programming, to find his three-year-old daughter, Sarah, lying on the living-room floor in her pink footie pajamas, watching the test pattern. She’d have watched anything, even “The Itty-Bitty, Farm and City, Witty-Ditty, Nitty-Gritty, Dog and Kitty, Pretty Little Kiddie Show.” Jill Lepore writes for The New Yorker on How we got to Sesame Street.
"Poop bread is slightly warm"
Five Months of Apples (PNW)
Parahuman Trauma and responses thereto
Ward is the latest long-form serialized superhero web fiction from author Wildbow, aka John McCrae. It is a sequel to Worm (previously), though different characters take center stage. Where Worm was a story of power and the responses thereto, Ward is a story of trauma and - eventually! in some extremely unlikely ways! - rebuilding in the aftermath. [more inside]
Free (as in both kinds) Vector Editor Goes 1.0
Inkscape 1.0. After 15+ years (give or take), the free alternative to [redacted commercial vector graphics editor] has gone 1.0. This version includes long awaited native MacOS support. Download links for Linux, Windows, and Mac.
Dave Greenfield (29 March 1949 – 3 May 2020)
I am very sorry to hear of the passing of Dave Greenfield. He was the difference between The Stranglers and every other punk band. His musical skill and gentle nature gave an interesting twist to the band. He should be remembered as the man who gave the world the music of Golden Brown.Hugh Cornwell on the death of Dave Greenfield, due to a covid-19 infection. [more inside]
Gradual escape from lockdown: bubble merge
We could see people with reduced infection risk by merging `bubbles' while they're healthy, re-splitting when one of them has a case. That link is a fairly general description of how big our `bubbles' would be, how we would decide to merge and re-split them. It's based on pre-2020 data suggesting that a lot of people spend most of their time in a small geographical region already.
Bye, Amazon
"Firing whistleblowers isn’t just a side-effect of macroeconomic forces, nor is it intrinsic to the function of free markets. It’s evidence of a vein of toxicity running through the company culture. I choose neither to serve nor drink that poison." Tim Bray, VP and Distinguished Engineer at Amazon, resigns. [more inside]
no longer with an all-female cast
'Chaos Walking' Author Patrick Ness Tackling 'Lord of the Flies' Adaptation (Hollywood Reporter): "'Call Me by Your Name' director Luca Guadagnino is already on board to helm the adaptation of the influential 1954 novel for Warner Bros. [...] The studio at one point was developing a female-skewing version of Lord of the Flies but has changed course and is aiming to hew closer to the original novel with this feature project. ¶Ness has twice won the Carnegie Medal, which recognizes literary work for children and young adult, for Monsters of Men, his third book in the Chaos Walking trilogy, and A Monster Calls. Both stories focused on young adults and children facing impossibly adult situations and forced to take on unbearable burdens." [more inside]
It is a dark time for the Rebellion.....
Four Dead in O-Hi-O, 50 Years Ago
Devo’s Jerry Casale Looks Back at Kent State 50 Years Later: ‘Time Stood Still’ CW: State violence, blood, gore, death
RIP Foon Hay Lum, Chinese-Canadian activist, 1908-2020
One of Canada’s oldest women, Foon Hay Lum, who was separated from her husband for more than 30 years by the Chinese immigration ban and later helped secure a formal apology and compensation for all Chinese Canadians who paid the head tax, has died. She was 111.
Dirt, Snow, Art and Inclusion
Becoming Ruby follows Brooklyn Bell, a Pacific Northwest based artist, mountain biker, and skier. A short flick that focuses on race, gender, and mountain bikes. [more inside]
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