September 3, 2020
A be-cardiganed, cuppa-tea-swigging, pair-of-slippers kind of Alan
British broadcaster Alan Partridge on his new podcast: “I’d like to have had a crack at voicing the government’s public information Covid campaign. Nothing against Mark Strong. He has competent delivery and an authoritative voice, but a glance at the numbers suggests Strong just hasn’t worked. I’d love to be considered for the second wave.” [more inside]
"Cookie deeply aware this highly problematic."
"Exclusive Content" is a charming piece of fan fiction by ellen_fremedon about Sesame Street, tagged "backstage drama, issues of representation, muppet identity politics, literary adapations, kind of a lot of annotations". "In old days, Cookie think, just having monsters on television was spooky. Monsters doing classy drama was transgressive. Transgressive mean it a thing that people not expect you to do, and they think you strange when you do it. It special kind of surprise."
what would you even do with a brain if you had one?
The Brain Radio is a long-running music podcast hosted by Eva and Pascal Lebrain and (probably) doesn't sound like much else you've heard... [more inside]
The Twittering Machine: A psychoanalytic reading of social media
The Twittering Machine “confronts us with a string of calamities,” among them increasing depression, fake news, the alt-right, and fast-food brands tweeting on fleek. And yet, despite the obvious fact that it’s very bad for us, we, and about half the population of the earth, remain its inhabitants. Why do we stay on—just to pick an example—Twitter, while also referring to it as the “hell site”? “We must be getting something out of it,” Seymour writes.In the September issue of Bookforum, Max Read reviews The Twittering Machine by Richard Seymour.
language not only expresses ideas and concepts, but also shapes thought
"Since language is a primary transmitter of culture, if one were to change one word in each of those headlines, a different interpretation of the disastrous week on Wall Street would be presented to the community." [more inside]
Democracy in the Balance
In flux and under threat: Around the world, democracy is losing ground. Polarization and disinformation have rendered liberals and conservatives unable to agree on basic facts. State violence and suppression of citizens' rights are resurgent. Free and fair elections are being threatened. A special issue of Science critically examines the state of democracy and how it must adapt to achieve its ideals in the 21st century. All the articles are free, and the content is geared towards both academics and the general public. Tage Rai has a twitter guide to the papers [threadreader]. [more inside]
Ancient Arithmetic: The Possible Origins Of The Tennis Scoring System
The Willis Faber Book Of Tennis & Rackets by Lord Aberdare (I had to purchase this one; it is not in the public domain) is an authoritative book on the subject. Aberdare shows documentary evidence that 15/30/45 were used as far back as the Middle Ages. Heiner Gillmeister quotes an early 15th Century Middle English poem about the Battle of Agincourt, which uses a game of tennis as a metaphor for the battle and quotes the scores XV, XXX and XLV. A poem by Charles d'Orleans, dated in the 1430s, also mentions 45 in the context of tennis. Erasmus's Colloquies of 1552 mention the scoring of a love game as Quindecim, Trigenta, Quadraginta quinque. [more inside]
I am not a culture vulture. I am a culture leech.
For the better part of my adult life, every move I’ve made, every relationship I’ve formed, has been rooted in the napalm toxic soil of lies. Jessica A. Krug, a white professor, confesses in a blog post that she falsely claimed Black identity. [more inside]
“We are new to this place. But we preserve ourselves.”
The loquat, San Francisco’s secret fruit, is hidden in plain sight
The story of loquats in my family is also an immigration story. Just as Pau Pau immigrated to the United States from China, so did the loquat arrive on these shores. Loquats and my family share a lineage that goes back to the land in Southern China. We thrive in temperate localities: Zhongshan, San Francisco. Adaptation takes many forms. For loquats in the United States, new soils and climate meant a physical adaptation. When Pau Pau arrived here in San Francisco, she adapted to the culture, the language, and a new way of life. Adaptation does not preclude retaining a sense of self, though. A loquat is still a loquat. And my family still keeps our Chinese traditions close thanks to my grandparents and great-grandparents.By Jennifer Wong in Mission Local.
The Nokia 3310 is 20 years old
The Nokia 3310 was unveiled on September 1, 2000. Famously rugged, with seemingly infinite battery life, swappable casings and Snake II, it was special.
Left Mew
City Girl, one of "lo-fi" chill hop's brightest lights, has many excellent albums that you can listen to on YouTube or purchase on Bandcamp. Time Falls Like Moonlight is a personal favorite and one might go so far as to call it a masterpiece. This isn't why we're here today, though. We're here today because of the earth-shattering revelation a few months ago that City Girl is not in fact one person who produces some of the finest new music out there but one person and a cat who produce some of the finest new music out there together.
Snake
Edith Zimmerman encountered a snake on her run. It told her a story about hanging out with Eve and Medusa.
Pedal PC
The continual accumulation of such acts can change (almost) everything.
David Graeber (dozens of previouslies), anthropologist of anarchism, chronicler of debt, interpreter of bullshit jobs, is dead, age 59.
#UntrendOctober
Ah Stay Gold now
An acoustic cover of BTS's Stay Gold by a young Irish singer named Curtis Walsh (SLYT)
How risky is your social meeting? A new calculator.
We reviewed published research about COVID, and used it to make rough estimates about the risk level of various activities in microCOVIDs. I've been doing this math on my own to check my local rates, but this is way easier and better.
Included: Location impacts, mask type impacts, indoors/outdoors impacts, and your personal risk rate impact. Shows work and based on science.
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