September 30, 2020
"We meet people where they are."
CAHOOTS (Crisis Assistance Helping Out On The Streets) is a non-law-enforcement crisis response team in Oregon that has been in operation for thirty years.
Eeeow
Mouth Dreams: 2020 Gives Back
Mouth Dreams, by Neil Cicierega The fourth album in the Mouth * series is here when we needed it most. [more inside]
“'Everyone’s got to live somewhere,' she says.”
Three scifi/fantasy stories about people finding friends and discovering places they fit in. "Women Making Bees In Public" by Alexandra Erin is a short fantasy story about two women making friends, overcoming being interrupted by men, and discussing free will, chaos, brains, and what they want. "You Have to Follow the Rules" by Ada Hoffmann (audio) gives a girl a quiet, roomy escape at a scifi convention. And "Programmer at Large" by David R. MacIver is a web serial about a progammer-archaeologist who discovers some oddities in their ship's social graph. [more inside]
Buying the FarmVille
After 11 years, Zynga’s original FarmVille game is closing on Facebook at the end of this year (Ars Technica), owing to Adobe ending support for Flash. Ellie Gibson says goodbye (Eurogamer). [more inside]
The Rise of the Three-Parent Family
"Today, Jay is part of a three-parent family in northern California. He lives with a married couple, Avary Kent and Zeke Hausfather, and is not part of their marriage, but is a father to their biological daughter, Octavia, or Tavi, whose full name includes all three of their last names." A profile of the three-parent family of David Jay, founder of the Asexual Visibility and Education Network.
"a pathway for something other than voters choosing the next president"
It is remarkable, but not at all accidental, that a narrative built from minor incidents, gross exaggeration and outright fabrication is now at the center of the effort to re-elect the president. As we approach an election in which the threat of voter fraud is being used as a justification for unprecedented legal and political interventions in our democratic process, it is important to understand what this claim actually represents: It is nothing short of a decades-long disinformation campaign — sloppy, cynical and brazen, but often quite effective — carried out by a consistent cast of characters with a consistent story line. The Attack on Voting (12,000 words, NYT) [more inside]
“Please know that I hate doing this in public...”
In January of 2020, British gymnast and 2016 Olympic bronze medalist Amy Tinkler surprised the gymnastics world by abruptly retiring from the sport. At the time, it was widely assumed that her retirement was due to persistent complications from a 2018 ankle injury - but in July of 2020, she revealed that she’d retired due to experiences she’d had with national coaches and with her former gymnastics club, and she’d submitted formal complaints to governing body British Gymnastics. Tinkler’s revelations led to an avalanche of horrifying stories from other gymnasts and more formal complaints to BG and the English Institute of Sport. [more inside]
I ate the Pope
In a grand and sprawling strategy like Crusader Kings 3 (previously), it's important to have a personal goal along with the never-ending list of general objectives you want to accomplish. For one player, that personal goal came very quickly upon beginning the game.
His goal was to eat the Pope.
"fart jokes, sex jokes, and in at least one case a farting sex joke."
Poggio Bracciolini, was an Italian scholar known to bibliophiles as a rediscoverer and popularizer of Latin manuscripts formerly hidden away in monastic libraries, a process recounted and claimed to have "sparked the modern age" in the Pulitzer prize-winning book The Swerve.
However, in 1470 he also wrote the Facetiae, the first joke book ever printed (original Latin version, 1870's English translation). And some of those jokes were dirty. [NB: ancient jokes not all funny or appropriate to modern ears]
Cheerleading, monopolies, and predators
(CW for sexual abuse). The story of monopolization in cheer is a great example of the problem of concentrated corporate power, because it reveals so much about how our economy actually works. As a quick recap, the company involved is called Varsity Brands, which has monopolized the sport of cheerleading by buying up most major competitions. Varsity is owned by private equity giant Bain Capital. What makes this story so useful is that there are no fancy high tech gadgets in cheer, no possible excuses from economists; it’s just the use of raw power to extract money from teenagers and their families through a business conspiracy. [more inside]
#guessthepaint
Feel the need for some light-hearted silliness after a hard night? Then you may delight in watching this Australian guy pour a lot of emotion and suspense (and some colourful language) into guessing the colour of a paint mix, in a series of tiktok videos – more here or under the hashtag #guessthepaint. [via Rebecca Jennings of Vox] [more inside]
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