June 28, 2018
After the fall
I notice, talking to younger people, people who hit that Napoleonic moment of turning twenty since the crisis, that the idea of capitalism being thought of as morally superior elicits something between an eye roll and a hollow laugh. Their view of capitalism has been formed by austerity, increasing inequality, the impunity and imperviousness of finance and big technology companies, and the widespread spectacle of increasing corporate profits and a rocketing stock market combined with declining real pay and a huge growth in the new phenomenon of in-work poverty. That last is very important. For decades, the basic promise was that if you didn’t work the state would support you, but you would be poor. If you worked, you wouldn’t be. That’s no longer true: most people on benefits are in work too, it’s just that the work doesn’t pay enough to live on. That’s a fundamental breach of what used to be the social contract. So is the fact that the living standards of young people are likely not to be as high as they are for their parents. That idea stings just as much for parents as it does for their children.
John Lanchester on the ten years following the credit crunch.
bring them together
Since 2011, Butches and Babies (not to be confused with baby butches) has been compiling photos.
It’s not at all easy to march through the world shattering gender norms at every turn. So when a butch holds a small child, relatively unaffected by gender (in a cognitive/behavioral sense), it is a simultaneous exchange of healing and freedom. Maybe I think about this too much, but that’s what I see. Every single time. I see hope and a new world.[more inside]
Possibly the most contentious person on Earth
Harlan Ellison, one of the greatest ever speculative fiction writers, died today at the age of 84. [more inside]
Not Enough 'Shocking' Puns In Creation For This
[NSFW text and pics] The setup: A redditor in /r/WTF posts a picture with this description: I found a homemade electric chair while exploring an abandoned building in Croatia. While discussing whether or not it is in fact that, redditor /u/anon72c says, "Contrary to what you see in movies, a car battery can't hurt you unless you drop it on your foot, or drink the acid." Another redditor suggests that he try connecting the battery to certain body parts as a test. Challenge accepted. [more inside]
'Hello, Fellow Gamers'
Final Deployment 4: Queen Battle Walkthrough [Autoplay Video] “Tips and tricks on how to beat the alien queen boss battle in Final Deployment 4 (Multi-platform) as well as the "Homecoming" DLC.” [more inside]
don't mention the VAR
your move, sir
So you have all this cheese lying around, and you don't fancy eating it. Or maybe, if you're in the US, you're facing down the largest cheese stockpile in a century. What can you do?
Suggestions include paint, plastics, jewelry, glue, fabric, and so much more. Turns out cheese is pretty useful after all. [more inside]
Corpse Flower in Bloom
The corpse flower (Amorphophallus titanum), a ten to fifteen-foot tall flower which requires months to years (or decades) to store up enough energy to bloom once, is now in bloom at the NY Botanical Garden. Watch the live stream here. [more inside]
Students raise £1500 to send "jolliest" cleaner to Jamaica
Students raise money to send cleaner and his wife to Jamaica to visit family. "He is the epitome of happiness," one student said. The gift included a note saying, "You have brightened many of our days and we want you to know that we love and appreciate you." Herman has worked at Bristol University as part of the cleaning staff for 12 years. In terms of the positivity that so many students praise him for, Herman told Newsbeat it's important to keep away "negative vibes...I know that these students are studying. You don't want any negative vibes around them."
Now that Kennedy's retiring, Trump gets another SC pick
With US Supreme Court centrist Justice Kennedy's recent decision to retire, Donald Trump now gets a second Supreme Court pick, one that may reshape the SC (and the country) for decades. Moments after the announcement, Mitch McConnell promised a swift confirmation of Trump's nominee before the midterm elections. This appears likely: all Senate Republicans are likely to go along with Trump's conservative nominee even if they grumble about it, while moderate Democrats may break party ranks to also support Trump's nominee. [more inside]
It Took a Little Longer Than They Thought
After 45 years, five books, thousands of columns, and appearances in more than 100 MeFi FPPs, The Straight Dope has published its last column. [more inside]
Live alone and like it
"There’s been a tendency over the last century or two to imagine the solo-living man as someone who has chosen peaceful privacy and the solo-living woman as a sort of flawed societal leftover. Or perhaps more alarmingly, a woman who has chosen to reject her preordained role as helper to a husband and family."
leo! lana! being this shit on!
I’m not a party guy but I’d be down if someone threw a real roaring 20’s party for 2020. Like real tuxedos and all. Not shirtless dudes with a bow tie. Like a real Gatsby party with everyone fully dressed like the era.LGBTQI Hate Illinois Nazis
Pink Triangles Rising (yt link) is a short 1983 documentary by Dan Dinello and Tom Corboy about the 1982 Chicago Pride Parade, which saw its attendance surge from past events fueled by queer people and allies showing up to counter the Nazi rally being held near the parade route. [more inside]
The Art in the art
In Pursuit of Excellence
Be Excellent To Each Other: Virtue Signalling in Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure -- Game designer and writer Stew Wilson (website) digs into the neoreactionary logic behind the idea of "virtue signalling", using the classic 1989 time travel/slacker comedy as an ethical (if imperfect) counter-example.
"He will be grumpy for a while but we're being cruel to be kind."
'World's fattest hedgehog' placed on diet and exercise regime. "Arbuckle" is a pretty good name, but it can't hold a candle to "Mr Piggywinkle," who was put on a strict diet in 2016. (Hedgehogs previously)
Dead Girls
Alice Bolin's Dead Girls: Essays on Surviving an American Obsession "attempts to investigate why we are so obsessed with grim images of beautiful women and their overwhelming influence on our culture—from the art that we consume to the ways in which we view living women as they express their own motives and determinations." [Esquire] [more inside]
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