An irregular hodgepodge of links gathered together … Omnium Gatherum for October 12, 2020

Too much interesting stuff I wanted to share was left over from yesterday, so here’s an irregular second bonus Omnium Gatherum!

By the by, as I was trying to type “Amazon” for yesterday’s post, it came out of my fingers once as “Mammozon.” I could hear Moloch howling from the other room, “Good one!”

Here’s a variety of notable things I’ve recently found that you may also be interested in checking out:

• Crowdfunding effort: Colin Wilson: His Life and Times. A comprehensive history of writer and philosopher Colin Wilson’s life and work. “We are extremely passionate about our campaign to realize this authorized biography of the life and work of the internationally acclaimed writer and philosopher because seven years after his death, the need for a Wilson documentary is increasingly apparent. We are seeking support from Wilsonians the world over to contribute what you can to help fund this project. The plan is to make a comprehensive, two-part history of Wilson’s life, from his early days as a disaffected teenager to the success of The Outsider and Wilson’s unexpected celebrity, to his later career as a leading philosopher of consciousness and his last days as a grand old man of English letters. Wilson’s family, people who knew him, and people deeply influenced by his work, will contribute onscreen interviews to tell the story of the original Outsider.”
• “He Painted It Black.” About Goya: A Portrait of the Artist [Bookshop, Amazon, Publisher] by Janis A Tomlinson—”The first major English-language biography of Francisco Goya y Lucientes, who ushered in the modern era.”
• A Series of Fortunate Events: Chance and the Making of the Planet, Life, and You [Bookshop, Amazon, Publisher] by Sean B. Carroll—”From acclaimed writer and biologist Sean B. Carroll, a rollicking, awe-inspiring story of the surprising power of chance in our lives and the world.” “This is a relatively small book about a really big idea. It is also a spirited tale. Drawing inspiration from Monty Python, Kurt Vonnegut, and other great thinkers, and crafted by one of today’s most accomplished science storytellers, A Series of Fortunate Events is an irresistibly entertaining and thought-provoking account of one of the most important but least appreciated facts of life.”
• “Why Look at Flying Saucers?” About The Unidentified: Mythical Monsters, Alien Encounters, and Our Obsession with the Unexplained [Bookshop, Amazon, Publisher] by Colin Dickey—”America’s favorite cultural historian and author of Ghostland takes a tour of the country’s most persistent ‘unexplained’ phenomena.”
• “Why Are We in the West So Weird? A Theory.” About The WEIRDest People in the World: How the West Became Psychologically Peculiar and Particularly Prosperous [Bookshop, Amazon, Publisher] by Joseph Henrich
• “Don’t Get Comfortable. On lessons learned from a long friendship with Louise Glück.”
• Appendix N: The Eldritch Roots of Dungeons & Dragons [Bookshop, Amazon, Publisher] edited by Peter Bebergal, with an afterword by Ann VanderMeer, due December 2020. “Drawing upon Gary Gygax’s list of “inspirational reading” in the original 1979 Dungeon Masters Guide, Appendix N presents a selection of short fiction and resonant fragments that shaped the world’s most popular role playing game. Rippling flesh, fiendish beasts and chasmic horrors populate what were then entirely novel fantastic landscapes, which have lost none of their atmosphere, magic or otherworldly allure in our own embattled century. Appendix N explores and contextualizes these ambitious lyrical excursions that set the adventurous tone and dank, dungeon-crawling atmospheres of fantasy roleplay as we know it today. Featuring tales by Poul Anderson, Frank Brunner, Ramsey Campbell, Lin Carter, Lord Dunsany, Robert E. Howard, Tanith Lee, Fritz Leiber, H. P. Lovecraft, David Madison, Michael Moorcock, C. L. Moore, Fred Saberhagen, Clark Ashton Smith, Margaret St. Clair, Jack Vance, Manly Wade Wellman.”
• “The Strange Saga of America’s Most Reviled Statue, Nude George Washington. It’s a story with a dismembered Harvard professor, catty congressmen, and a bit of madness. It was meant to herald the future of American art—instead it was an embarrassing flop.”
• Watch “How US schools punish Black kids”
• “Meet the Warehouse Worker Who Took On Amazon Over Inhumane Conditions and Harassment. Hibaq Mohamed organized her community in a fight against Amazon, protesting working conditions at a fulfillment center with one of the highest rates of injury.”
• “A Guide to Sun Ra on Film. Take a trip through the Afrofuturist jazz icon’s most visually immersive performances.”
• The 1925 Serum Run To Nome: The Incredible Story of How a Remote Alaskan Town Was Saved From an Epidemic
• “Why Americans Fall for Grifters. A warning from a 1957 film.”
• “Deconstructing Disney: Motherhood and the Taming of Maleficent. Last week, Maleficent: Mistress of Evil, was released on Disney+. Jeanna Kadlec takes this opportunity to explore how Disney has dealt with their most powerful of witches.”
• He called it a ‘scamdemic.’ Then his family fell ill, one by one.
• “‘But there is no coronavirus,’ shocked cynic told doctors, waking up in hospital. Alin Zaraabel is praying for the life of her 51-year-old husband, in serious condition for a month now, at the mercy of a virus they both doubted was real.”
• How do pandemics end?
• “Trump vs. World, Round 2. As president, he took a hammer to the international order, for better or worse. A special report on how a second term could truly reshape the globe.”
• “Trump’s New Supreme Court Is Coming for the Next Elections. Don’t worry so much about 2020, the danger Amy Coney Barrett represents is to the Voting Rights Act, campaign finance transparency, gerrymandering reform, and more.”
• “Amy Coney Barrett Was A ‘Handmaid’ In Small Devout Christian Group. Barrett has kept the level of her involvement a secret, but a new report has revealed her standing in People of Praise.”
• Over 16,000 Christians Sign Petition Rejecting Amy Coney Barrett, Telling GOP Senators Bible Condemns ‘Hypocrisy’
• “A ‘Great Gatsby’ Quote Takes On New Resonance. People critical of the president’s and other Republicans’ behavior have been sharing a line from the Fitzgerald novel about the wealthy characters whose “carelessness” harms everyone around them.”
• “White Supremacy is America’s Chronic Nervous Disorder. Isaac Bailey on What Runs Through This Country’s Bloodstream.” Excerpt from Why Didn’t We Riot?: A Black Man in Trumpland [Bookshop, Amazon, Publisher] by Issac J Bailey—”In these impassioned, powerful essays, an award-winning journalist deals forthrightly with what it means to be Black in Trump’s America.”
• “‘My life as a hater’: The dire warning from a white power leader’s son. With hate on the rise, the self-admitted ex-racist says it’s time to speak out.”
• “All The President’s Men. Looking back at four years of MAGA terror.”
• “The True Story of the Antifa Invasion of Forks, Washington. A false report on Twitter exploded into a call to arms. Then a bus, carrying a family and two dogs, rolled into a remote Northwestern town.”
• “We Don’t Know How to Warn You Any Harder. America is Dying. We Survivors of Authoritarianism Have a Message America Needs to Hear: This is Exactly How it Happens, and It’s Happening Here.”
• I mean … cultists in raccoon outfits, no doubt. Or, three raccoons in a cultist robe? “Aggressive Raccoons Keep Harassing White House Reporters — And There’s Wild Video. ‘Frickin’ raccoons, man,’ CNN’s Joe Johns exclaims in one clip. ‘God, again! That’s the second time. Jesus.'” Watch “CNN Journalist Fighting raccoon at the Whitehouse on Live TV.”
• Beelzebub, literally “lord of the flies”, amirite? Watch “There’s a Fly on Mike Pence’s Head!” Clearly, he’s no St Bernie of Assisi. But, also consider what the imperial eagle must have been trying to tell us about Trump in the beforetimes. Also watch “Celebs React to Mike Pence’s Eye & Fly Seen in Vice Presidential Debate.” Also “Mike Pence v Psycho.”
• “Stephen Miller, explained. How the influential adviser went from right-wing troll to the driving force behind Trumpism.”
• Watch Republican Drops Bombshell On American Democracy—”Republican senator makes a comment he can never take back after the VP debate.”
• “‘It’s like a parasite’. How a dangerous virtual cult is going global.”
• “Trump’s Vaccine Czar Refuses to Give Up Stock in Drug Company Involved in His Government Role. The administration calls Moncef Slaoui, who leads its vaccine race, a “contractor” to sidestep rules against personally profiting from government positions. Slaoui owns $10 million in stock of a company working with his team to develop a vaccine.”
• “How Trump damaged science — and why it could take decades to recover. The US president’s actions have exacerbated the pandemic that has killed more than 200,000 people in the United States, rolled back environmental and public-health regulations and undermined science and scientific institutions. Some of the harm could be permanent.”
• Totally normal. “Trump asked Walter Reed doctors to sign nondisclosure agreements in 2019. At least two Walter Reed doctors who refused to sign nondisclosure agreements last year were not permitted to be involved in Trump’s care.”
• “Foreign Interference in the 2020 Election. Tools for Detecting Online Election Interference.”
• California kept prison factories open. Inmates worked for pennies an hour as COVID-19 spread
• Tweet—”Remember in 2016 when Republicans thought Clinton was going to win and planned to change the size of the Supreme Court because it would be politically advantageous?”
• Tweet—”Anyone saying ‘So, the reason Democrats should take X off the table is because the next time they’re not in power, Republicans will just do X+1’ doesn’t seem to realize that if they need to, Republicans will do X+1 anyway.”
• “Greta Thunberg: ‘Only people like me dare ask tough questions on climate’. The activist discusses a new film that follows her life and the role autism played in her journey from troubled child to eco champion.” Also tweet—”To make clear, Autism is not something that makes you ‘better’ than others. Nor is it a ‘condition/disorder’ that necessarily disables you. It’s simply something that makes you different, and in a world where everyone strives to fit in, being different is a strength.”
• “Trump’s COVID drug was developed using aborted fetal tissue.” I’ve seen conflicting reports about this. Some reports have said that the company does this research, but the specific cocktail Trump took wasn’t from that work, but whether directly or indirectly, this points to hypocrisy.
• “Leading Medical Journal Calls For End To Trump Administration. The New England Journal of Medicine just issued its first editorial about an election in its 208-year history.”
• New Biochemical Research Shows Past Tropical Forest Changes Drove Megafauna and Hominin Extinctions
• “Black hole mergers may emit double chirps, giving us clues about their shape. The final black hole emits more intense gravitational waves through its curved regions.”
• A NASA mission is about to capture carbon-rich dust from a former water world
• “Computer Scientists Break Traveling Salesperson Record. After 44 years, there’s finally a better way to find approximate solutions to the notoriously difficult traveling salesperson problem.”
• “The Remarkable Life of Roxie Laybourne. From deep within the Smithsonian, the world’s first forensic ornithologist cracked cases, busted criminals, and changed the course of aviation—making the skies safer for us all.”
• “Gene-editing tool gets its inevitable Nobel. Emmanuelle Charpentier and Jennifer Doudna turned an oddity into a revolution.” Also “2 women won the Nobel for CRISPR, but the battle for its patent rages on. Jennifer Doudna and Emmanuelle Charpentier won the Nobel Prize for figuring out how to use biological mechanisms to edit genes, but an ongoing legal battle makes their win complicated.” Also watch “Joint Winners Of Nobel Prize For Chemistry Proud To Be ‘Female Leaders’ In Science.”
• A new interpretation of quantum mechanics suggests that reality does not depend on the person measuring it—”Finnish civil servants Jussi Lindgren and Jukka Liukkonen, who study quantum mechanics in their free time”
  
• How to watch Mars make its closest approach to Earth until 2035

• A couple from ScienceAlert: “A Sustainable, Poverty-Free Future Is Possible For All Humanity, Study Reveals.” Also “We Now Have Proof a Supernova Exploded Perilously Close to Earth 2.5 Million Years Ago.” Also “The Most Detailed Image Yet of The Carina Nebula Will Blow Your Mind.”
• “Three scientists win Nobel Physics Prize for groundbreaking black hole work. Roger Penrose, Reinhard Genzel, and Andrea Ghez share top honor.” Also “An earlier universe existed before the Big Bang, and can still be observed today, says Nobel winner.”
• “The Molecular Biologist Who Exposed the Soviet Union. Jacques Monod saw chance as one of the “secrets of life,” an idea he used to tear down all sorts of dogmas.”
• A Historical Epidemic Has Been Making a Scary Comeback Due to a Bacterial ‘Clone’
• “How Amazon hid its safety crisis. Robots. Prime Day. Holiday peak. Internal records show Amazon has deceived the public on rising injury rates among its warehouse workers.”
• Electric shocks to the tongue can quiet chronic ringing ears—”scientists have shown shocking the tongue—combined with a carefully designed sound program—can reduce symptoms of the disorder, not just while patients are being treated, but up to 1 year later.”
• “The wreck of the WWII steamship Karlsruhe may hold lost Russian treasure. The disassembled treasure room hasn’t been seen since 1944.”—”A World War II shipwreck recently located off the coast of Poland may hold the dismantled pieces of the Amber Room, a Russian treasure looted by the Nazis and lost since 1945.”
• “Why do we see ghosts?. Current science can’t prove their existence, but these seven mental and environmental factors might.”
• GPT-3 Bot Posed as a Human on AskReddit for a Week
• British Museum to repatriate ancient tiles smuggled into UK in a suitcase
• Canadian woman returns ‘cursed’ artefacts stolen from Pompeii
• I think I mentioned this going on sale previously, but, either way, it sold. “Someone Bought a T. Rex Skeleton for a Record-Breaking $31.8 Million. An unnamed buyer paid a record-breaking sum for the fossil, which was up for auction due to a court resolution between two brothers.”
• “‘David’s Ankles’. A writer’s obsession with the flaws, reproductions and potential collapse of Michelangelo’s masterpiece.”—”We are conditioned to believe that art is safe […] Destruction happens in a number of ways, for any number of reasons, at any number of speeds — and it will happen, and no amount of reverence will stop it.”
• More about this: “New Orleans Archbishop: Priest’s Desecration of Altar ‘Demonic’. After an altar was defiled, Archbishop Aymond burned the altar and is consecrating a new one for the parish in New Orleans.”
• Sharing is caring? One person’s pest is another’s pet? “The Paradox of the Burmese Python. In Florida, scientists want to kill it. In Southeast Asia, they want to save it. And they’re working together.”
• “Stanley Kubrick’s Calculated Rebellion. In his life and in his work, the filmmaker showed that insurgents only win when they sweat the small stuff.” About Stanley Kubrick: American Filmmaker [Bookshop, Amazon, Publisher] by David Mikics—”Stanley Kubrick revolutionized Hollywood with movies like Dr. Strangelove, 2001: A Space Odyssey, and A Clockwork Orange, and electrified audiences with The Shining and Full Metal Jacket. David Mikics takes readers on a deep dive into Kubrick’s life and work, illustrating his intense commitment to each of his films.”
• “Gal Gadot, Patty Jenkins Team on ‘Cleopatra’ for Paramount.” Also “Gal Gadot to star in Cleopatra biopic from Patty Jenkins.” Also “Gal Gadot To Star As Cleopatra In Biopic From ‘Wonder Woman’ Director Patty Jenkins Gadot is reteaming with her “Wonder Woman” director to bring the Queen of the Nile back to the big screen.” Also “Woke warriors outraged over Gal Gadot being cast as Cleopatra because she is not black are ridiculed for not knowing the Egyptian Queen was GREEK.” This is a learning opportunity with so many levels to unpack. Not the least of which is the parallel between Greek occupation of Egypt and the Israeli occupation of Palestine. But, I mean, ostensibly, the fictional Wonder Woman was essentially Greek mythology, so … Here’s my hot take: the problem with modern casting isn’t that people are playing roles they themselves are not identical to, but rather that people are playing roles that are increasingly only themselves. People seem now to expect roles to be filed by actors who are the character, not actors filling roles playing characters. Acting is always at some level, variously more or less, about being something one isn’t, and that’s an awesome thing. More actual acting and more actual characters, please. Less of people simply being cast as themselves every single time saying different words in different costumes, thanks! Also tweet—”I will not rest until Cleopatra is played by an actual ruler of the Ptolemaic Kingdom of Egypt.” Also, my reading is that Cleaopatra won people over by being super smart and educated, and for learning Egyptian and practicing the rituals. Among other things, Gal Gadot is too pretty, but, she’s actually just about, at 35, the right age, if Cleopatra died at age 39. And, here I was going to go off on her being older. Oops. My bad. I hope she learns and speaks both Ancient Egyptian and Ancient Greek in the movie, but that may be too much to hope for, innit? (As an aside, see “An Egyptological Review of ‘The Mummy’” and “Representation and Reality in ‘The Mummy’ (1999)“.) Finally, let’s take a moment to remember Lyndsey Marshal’s performance as Cleopatra HBO’s Rome, for example: watch.
• Watch The Columnist, official trailer—”Columnist Femke Boot wants to shut her critics up – permanently. Hell hath no fury like someone insulted on social media.” Also “In The Columnist, reading the comments isn’t bad—being a toxic online troll is. Revenge fantasy has never been more understandable than when it involves being a woman online.”
• Watch The Stand, official trailer for the CBS All Access Limited Series with “Whoopi Goldberg, Alexander Skarsgård, James Marsden, Odessa Young, Jovan Adepo, and many more. The limited event series will also feature an all-new coda written by Stephen King.”
• Watch The Show, first look trailer—”From the mind of Alan Moore comes a new feature film directed by Mitch Jenkins starring Tom Burke, Siobhan Hewlett, Alan Moore, Ellie Bamber, Darrell D’Silva, Richard Dillane, Christopher Fairbank, and Sheila Atim.” Also “Alan Moore’s movie The Show says he still hates superheroes and loves being the weirdest man in the room. It’s a detective neo-noir fantasy where everyone is maybe dead?”
• “Star Wars’ new Wookiee Jedi carries a Wookiee-sized lightsaber. The lightsabers of the High Republic era might get a bit weird.” Also “Inside the ‘great disaster’ that kicks off Star Wars’ new pre-Empire era. Think The Poseidon Adventure with lightsabers.” Also watch Star Wars: The High Republic Writers Explain the New Characters and Major Conflict.
• Watch The Expanse – Season 5, official trailer. Also “First The Expanse season 5 trailer announces December release. Showrunner Naren Shankar is splitting the party.”
• Watch Mank, official teaser, in select theaters November and on Netflix on December 4—”1930s Hollywood is reevaluated through the eyes of scathing social critic and alcoholic screenwriter Herman J. Mankiewicz (Gary Oldman) as he races to finish the screenplay of Citizen Kane. Starring Academy Award Winner Gary Oldman, Amanda Seyfried, Lily Collins, Arliss Howard, Tom Pelphrey, Sam Troughton, Ferdinand Kingsley, Tuppence Middleton, Tom Burke, and Charles Dance. MANK is directed by David Fincher.”
• “We Can Still Fix It. Just Ask Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy. With a new book and new solo record, indie rock’s wise elder talks politics, Wilco’s future, and where we go when we die.” About the solo album Love Is The King and second book How To Write One Song [Bookshop, Amazon, Publisher]—”There are few creative acts more mysterious and magical than writing a song. But what if the goal wasn’t so mysterious and was actually achievable for anyone who wants to experience more magic and creativity in their life? That’s something that anyone will be inspired to do after reading Jeff Tweedy’s How to Write One Song.”
• 4K UltraHD remasters of The Lord of the Rings: Motion Picture Trilogy and The Hobbit: Motion Picture Trilogy, which include theatrical and extended versions, and also digital entitlements for all, finally being released on Dec 1. Also watch “Sean Astin announces Lord of the Rings in 4K.” There will, apparently, also be various additional gift sets with a selection of tchotchkes included with the films.
• “‘Lumberjanes’ Animated Adaptation in Development at HBO Max.” About Lumberjanes [Bookshop, Amazon, Hoopla, Publisher] by Noelle Stevenson, &al.—”Five best friends spending the summer at Lumberjane scout camp…defeating yetis, three-eyed wolves, and giant falcons…what’s not to love?!”
• “Patrick Osborne’s Feature Directorial Debut ‘Nimona’ Gets 2020 Release Date. Fox Animation has announced a release date — February 14, 2020 — for Nimona, the feature directorial debut of Oscar-winning director Patrick Osborne (Disney’s Feast, Google’s Pearl).” About Nimona [Bookshop, Amazon, Hoopla, Publisher] by Noelle Stevenson, &al.—”Nimona is an impulsive young shapeshifter with a knack for villainy. Lord Ballister Blackheart is a villain with a vendetta. As sidekick and supervillain, Nimona and Lord Blackheart are about to wreak some serious havoc. Their mission: prove to the kingdom that Sir Ambrosius Goldenloin and his buddies at the Institution of Law Enforcement and Heroics aren’t the heroes everyone thinks they are. But as small acts of mischief escalate into a vicious battle, Lord Blackheart realizes that Nimona’s powers are as murky and mysterious as her past. And her unpredictable wild side might be more dangerous than he is willing to admit.”
• “Locke & Key is going to Sandman’s Hell in its first ‘and probably last’ big crossover. Series creators Joe Hill and Gabriel Rodríguez will craft the spooky event.”
• “Report: Doctor Strange has big role in Spider-Man 3. Sorcerer Supreme to mentor Spidey.”
• Consider the Snapewife
• More on this: consider “Eddie Van Halen once filed a patent for a “musical instrument support” with some awesome artwork” and also “Eddie Van Halen endured a ‘horrifying racist environment’ before becoming a rock legend. In an interview with Marc Maron, former bandmate David Lee Roth revealed just how painful the experience was for the late artist, who was of Indonesian and Dutch descent.”
• St. Louis’ City Museum Throws Its Hat in the Ring to Host John Oliver’s Weird Art—”And at the close of Sunday’s program, Oliver generously offered to take it on tour across the country, to benefit museums that are struggling financially due to the coronavirus pandemic.”
• Melancholy photographs of abandoned office plants after the first lockdown was lifted
• Watch “The ‘Author’ of My Immortal Emailed Me, And Then It Got Worse“—”In which I solve a decade-old My Immortal-related mystery… but probably not the one you’re thinking of.” Wild ride! Also, as an aside, check out “Why ‘Friday’ Was Made” by the same creator.
• Tweet—”If you don’t need a mask because God will protect you. Why do you need a gun?”
• Tweet—”why do witches always have black cats?”
• Rainbow Flags on Putin’s Bday! Watch “PUSSY RIOT: ЛГБТК+ ФЛАГИ НА ГОСУЧРЕЖДЕНИЯХ В ДЕНЬ РОЖДЕНИЯ ПУТИНА / RAINBOW FLAGS ON PUTIN’S BDAY” Also “ANTI-SURVEILLANCE MAKEUP TUTORIAL BY PUSSY RIOT / How to resist to the electronic police state?”
• Are You a Narcissist’s Flying Monkey?
• Welp. That escalated quickly. Tweet—”In which Werner Herzog gives the an incredible answer when asked how many languages he speaks.”
• Watch “Yello – Waba Duba“, official video.
• Watch “Call Yourself Home: Self Integration“—”Feeling stressed, scattered, or shut down? Take nine minutes and call yourself back to center. Invite all of the parts of yourself to come back home.”

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