An irregular hodgepodge of links gathered together … Omnium Gatherum for June 20, 2020

Today will be Summer Solstice, Sun in 0° Cancer. More precisely, Saturday 20 June 2020 at 21:43 UTC in the Northern Hemisphere; Winter Solstice in the Southern Hemisphere. Also, later tonight, June 21, at 06:40 UTC, an annular solar eclipse. Moreover, Sun and the Moon will be conjunct in 00°21′ Cancer. Hope you have a merry Summer Solstice!

Let’s do another celebratory Omnium Gatherum open to all Patrons again! Here’s some things I’ve found that you may be interested in checking out:

• Tweet—”Stay home and watch the summer solstice sunset live from Stonehenge!” Also English Heritage on YouTube
• “Summer Solstice 2020: Summer finally begins tomorrow – how to watch live from Stonehenge. The summer solstice is the day of the year with the longest period of daylight, while the winter solstice is the day with the shortest period of daylight.”
• How to watch this weekend’s rare solstice “ring of fire” solar eclipse
• Summer Solstice 2020: How Midsummer Is Celebrated Around the World
• “Why Juneteenth Matters. It was black Americans who delivered on Lincoln’s promise of ‘a new birth of freedom.'”
• “Here’s Exactly What Black People Were Promised on Juneteenth 155 Years Ago. ‘An absolute equality of personal rights and rights of property between former masters and slaves.'”
• Tweet—”In 1860, a youth abolitionist network called “the Wide Awakes” sprung up in cities across the north. They would show up uninvited at politicians’ homes in the middle of the night — w/ brass bands, lit torches & serenades — to demand support for their antislavery cause.”
• “Questioning the Mirador-Calakmul Basin Maya Security and Conservation Partnership Act (pt 1). Why do conservative Republicans support spending millions on protecting Maya heritage?”
• Tweet—”In which the Hittite king Mursili II pleads with the gods to end a generation-long plague in a series of prayers recorded on cuneiform tablets from Hattusa. “Contagion and Recovery in the Hittite Empire” by Eva von Dassow.”—“I cannot overcome the worry from my heart; I cannot overcome the anguish from my soul.” Also.
• A Scientist’s Pink Cast Leads To Discovery About How The Brain Responds To Disability—”A neurologist who encased his healthy right arm in a pink fiberglass cast for two weeks has shown how quickly the brain can change after an injury or illness. Daily scans of Dr. Nico Dosenbach’s brain showed that circuits controlling his immobilized arm disconnected from the body’s motor system within 48 hours. But during the same period, his brain began to produce new signals seemingly meant to keep those circuits intact and ready to reconnect quickly with the unused limb.”
• “The end of tourism?. The pandemic has devastated global tourism, and many will say ‘good riddance’ to overcrowded cities and rubbish-strewn natural wonders. Is there any way to reinvent an industry that does so much damage?” See also Hakim Bey’s Overcoming Tourism
• It’s the newest thing in revolutionary cell design! “Sorry, it’s too soon to stop quarantining. Here’s how to design a bubble that keeps you safe. Creating a quaranteam can help mitigate risk while still providing social interactions.”
• “Why Can’t We Let Go of “Papa” Hemingway?. Despite ample evidence of the author’s progressive ideas about gender, he remains a symbol of dated machismo.”
• Who Are The Boogaloo Bois? These Hawaiian Shirt-Wearing, Gun-Toting Americans Want War
• “The Unfinished Project of Enlightenment. In a sweeping new history of Western philosophy, Jürgen Habermas narrates the progress of humanity through the unfolding of public reason. Missing from that story are the systems of violence and dispossession whose legacies are all too visible today.” About Jürgen Habermas: This Too a History of Philosophy, Volume 1: The Occidental Constellation of Faith and Knowledge; Volume 2: Rational Liberty. Traces of the Discourse on Faith and Knowledge; both volumes in one ebook, but currently only in German (also listed at Amazon US), but English world rights went to Polity, so there’s presumably an edition forthcoming.
• Borges en su casa. Una entrevista de Mario Vargas Llosa. El escritor argentino charló con el futuro Nobel en 1981 ante las cámaras de televisión. La conversación, que permanecía inédita, forma parte del nuevo libro del autor peruano: ‘Medio siglo con Borges’. Alfaguara lo publica la próxima semana.” Translated: “Borges at home. An interview by Mario Vargas Llosa. The Argentine writer chatted with the future Nobel in 1981 before television cameras. The conversation, which remained unpublished, is part of the new book by the Peruvian author: ‘Half a century with Borges’. Alfaguara publishes it next week.” About Medio siglo con Borges, in Spanish, by Mario Vargas Llosa.
• Counterpoint: “Beware of lateral thinking. De Bono’s popular theory is textbook pseudoscience: unsound, untested and derivative of real (unacknowledged) research”
• “Alejandro Jodorowsky’s New Film About Trauma Therapy to Debut via Alamo On Demand. Along with “Psychomagic, A Healing Art,” Alamo Drafthouse’s VOD platform will also unveil a five-film retrospective of the cult director’s best work.” This was the subject of a successful crowdfunding effort back in 2018!
• The magic surrealism of Ithell Colquhoun
• “Dark Skies Over Pittsburgh. Turning down Pittsburgh’s lights might help the city see stars, but first, astronomers need a map of the city’s light pollution.”
• Oh! If only this could be developed into a spigot for 3D printing material in every home! “Engineers find neat way to turn waste carbon dioxide into useful material. Making catalysts to convert waste carbon dioxide into useful industrial products has been expensive and complicated – until now. UNSW engineers show it’s as easy as playing with Lego.”
• How This Strange Green Sand Could Reverse Climate Change
• One Billion People Will Suffer From “Unliveable” Heat Within 50 years, Study Finds
• “Scientists say most likely number of contactable alien civilisations is 36. New calculations come up with estimate for worlds capable of communicating with others.”
• NASA spacecraft sends back images of stars from 4.3 billion miles away
• “Paleolithic French didn’t let their dead rest peacefully. The unusual burials hint at complex social structure and spiritual beliefs.”
• “Incestuous kings may have built Ireland’s Newgrange passage tomb. Ancient DNA from 44 people sheds light on Ireland’s Neolithic political hierarchy.”
• “If Buffy found religion: A Catholic order battles evil in Warrior Nun trailer. ‘Hell will rise up. And heaven will fall.'” Also Warrior Nun | Official Trailer | Netflix—”Caught in the middle of an ancient war between good and evil, a young girl wakes up in a morgue with inexplicable powers. Her search for answers brings her to The Order of the Cruciform Sword, a secret society of warrior nuns sworn to protect the world from evil. While juggling her responsibilities as the chosen one with the normal obstacles of a teenage girl, this mysterious fantasy drama is full of mystery, action, adventure, and teenage romance, proving our main character might fight in the name of good, but she’s no angel.”
• “Scientists find way to pollinate plants with soap bubbles as bees decline. ‘Whimsical’ experiments with a bubble gun, a pear orchard and a drone show the new technique has promise.”
• “Diluting blood plasma rejuvenates tissue, reverses aging in mice. This discovery shifts the dominant model of rejuvenation away from young blood and toward the benefits of removing age-elevated, and potentially harmful, factors in old blood.”
• “Pandemics result from destruction of nature, say UN and WHO. Experts call for legislation and trade deals worldwide to encourage green recovery.”
• A decade ago, he predicted that 2020 would be a complete mess — now he says things could get even worse
• A controversial Russian theory claims forests don’t just make rain—they make wind—“Forests are complex self-sustaining rainmaking systems, and the major driver of atmospheric circulation on Earth,” Makarieva says. They recycle vast amounts of moisture into the air and, in the process, also whip up winds that pump that water around the world. The first part of that idea—forests as rainmakers—originated with other scientists and is increasingly appreciated by water resource managers in a world of rampant deforestation. But the second part, a theory Makarieva calls the biotic pump, is far more controversial.” Also “My incense is of resinous woods & gums; and there is no blood therein: because of my hair the trees of Eternity.”—AL I,59
• Contemplation for Practical Martial Attitude
• 100,000 Lumen Flashlight vs Singularity V3 (The Brightest Flashlight vs The Blackest Material)
• Top 10 books about witch-hunts
• Bruno and the Occult Attack of Politicians
  
• A Spell to Bind Donald Trump and All Those Who Abet Him: Special June 20th Solstice Mass Ritual—”NEXT BINDING: Saturday, June 20th, 2020, 11:59pm.”

• “Mozart’s infinite riches. A single body of work, such as the piano concertos, can provide an inexhaustible spring of delight.”—”It is unnecessary to approach the works chronologically, for each stands alone. However, one must start somewhere, and there is no better key in which to listen to music in dark times than E flat major. Mozart wrote some of his most sublime and rarified music in this tonality, but also some of his most joyful and majestic; it was among the handful of keys that seems to have possessed an especial significance for him, although words will inevitably struggle to convey what that significance was.”

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