January 21, 2022
Walking through Tokyo in 4k
From Shibuya to Harajuku, or Shibuya to Tokyo Tower at night, or walking in the rain, or walking in the snow. And Tokyo isn't the only city where folks have uploaded hour-long videos from (walkable cities like Amsterdam are good too). Some folks watch these high-resolution virtual walking tour videos while on a treadmill or as a pandemic-era substitute for travel. Either way, they're a nice way to get a passive, unedited feel for a place that wasn't available before the YouTube era of the internet.
Online Celebrities
On the internet, we're always famous: Everyone is losing their minds online because the combination of mass fame and mass surveillance increasingly channels our most basic impulses—toward loving and being loved, caring for and being cared for, getting the people we know to laugh at our jokes—into the project of impressing strangers, a project that cannot, by definition, sate our desires but feels close enough to real human connection that we cannot but pursue it in ever more compulsive ways.
In a world where everything sucks, we have to care about the M&M mascots
"going forward, their iconic M&M characters will have more nuanced personalities." Most of the M&M characters are having their personalities changed. The female ones will have their shoes changed. Is this a thing we need to also get angry about in 2022, to have a less sexy green M&M? [more inside]
Thích Nhất Hạnh, 10/11/1926 - 01/22/2022
The Monks and Nuns of Plum Village, France: "Thich Nhat Hanh, 11.10.1926-22.01.2022": "This morning, the 22 of January 2022 Thay, Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh, has passed away peacefully at Từ Hiếu Temple in Huế, Vietnam, at 00:00hrs, at the age of 95." BBC News, "Thiền sư Thích Nhất Hạnh viên tịch tại chùa Từ Hiếu ở Huế, thọ 95 tuổi." The Life Story of Thich Nhat Hanh. A Nobel Peace Prize nomination letter written by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. An interview with bell hooks. "Awakening the Heart," a public talk given by Thích Nhất Hạnh. Eliza Barclay (Vox, 03/2019), "Thich Nhat Hanh's final mindfulness lesson: how to die peacefully."
Eleven Battles of the Isonzo
Was Luigi Cadorna one of the worst generals of World War I, or was he the worst? Bret Deveraux makes the argument: Luigi Cadorna Was the Worst. [more inside]
The Revenge of the Hot Water Bottle
Imagine a personal heating system that works indoors as well as outdoors, can be taken anywhere, requires little energy, and is independent of any infrastructure. It exists – and is hundreds of years old.
Can You Force the Suburbs to Build Apartments? Massachusetts Is Trying.
Build up or pay up. That is the message Massachusetts is sending to 175 cities and suburbs in the Boston area, as a bill to boost housing production begins to take effect. Almost every jurisdiction in eastern Massachusetts will have to do its part zoning for 344,000 new units of as-of-right multifamily housing—or lose access to some state grant programs. That means allowing apartments in many tony subdivisions currently reserved for single-family homes. (SLSlate)
finding the world to be no safer than it was last year at this time
At doom’s doorstep: It is 100 seconds to midnight The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists (about) updates their Doomsday Clock. [more inside]
Air Rescue: Sausage Links
Perhaps you would like to start your weekend with a feel good story of community cooperation, dangling sausages and a rescued pup. (single link to CNN) [more inside]
Ex-NM labor official shares real world experience: capitalism sucks
And then there are the customers. Bill McCamley, former new Mexico labor official, spent time tending bar in Texas, and lays out the specifics of what the "labor shortage" is about. tldr is: everything. [more inside]
No More Waiting For The End Of Time
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