An irregular hodgepodge of links gathered together … Omnium Gatherum for April 28, 2021

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

• Okay! In the previous OG, I mentioned this, but now I’ve got details! “University of Dallas Drama Department Presents SPRING 2021 SENIOR STUDIOS 7:00pm APRIL 30 – 11:59pm MAY 2. PURGATORY a dark and haunting tragedy by W.B. Yeats, directed by John Muncy. alice is where? an absurd comedy of youth, written and directed by Ann Urbanski. The Senior Studio production is the culmination of the drama major and an exciting evening of free theater! Register here to get the link.” Also “Talkbacks with Director, Cast, & Designers, Sunday, May 2nd , alice is where? – 3:00 – 3:30 pm, Purgatory – 3:30 – 4:00 pm” on Zoom. “The plays are recorded and will be available virtually this Friday, April 30 through Sunday, May 2.”
• AstroGold for MAC OS with Rhonda Buttery, a free webinar from Kepler College, May 15: “Join Rhonda Buttery for a demonstration of AstroGold for MAC OS from the basic operation, chart creation, and filing, personalizing your program, adjusting and creating settings and display options + some new features.” May 15, 2021, 1-2:30 pm PDT / 4-5:30 PM EDT
• Tweet thread—”For example, I ask my fraters, sorors, and nonbinary siblings in the body of Golden Dawn practice to face the aforementioned problem that practicing Jews cannot do the core ritual of the GD tradition as written.” Tweet—”I have been slacking in recent years but can attest that this is true. Start with three times a day for thirty days. (Restart the count to thirty if you miss a day. Just that will teach you something.) And my lodge substituted AShRH אשרה for YHVH יהוה ….”
• “Owners of Kult Klassic Tattoo Studio, Chatham, face threat campaign over body art and ‘witchcraft’.”—”A couple of tattoo artists to the stars say they are the victims of a two-year hate campaign because of their body art.”
• The Silent Doorkeeper:The Alchemical Tarot Shines a Light on Covid-19 by Scott Martin, illustrated by Robert M Place. “The latest offering from Hermes Publications. A 152-page full-color book covering the entire Alchemical Tarot and applying the wisdom gained from each card to life during a pandemic. Born from a mystical vision and years of study, The Alchemical Tarot makes use of alchemical imagery to create a unique set of symbols that is capable of unlocking inner wisdom. At the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, Scott Martin, author of the award wining Bringing the Tarot to Life, turned to the Alchemical Tarot for solace during this time of crisis. He chose a card a day and what emerged is a spiritual journal covering this world pandemic.”
• Sex, Drugs & Magick a Journey Beyond Limits [Amazon, Bookshop, Publisher] by Robert Anton Wilson, forewords & afterwords by Grant Morrison, Damien Echols, Phil Farber, Cat Vincent, Rodney Orpheus, Andrew O’Neill, Alexis Mincolla, Arden Leigh; new Hilaritas Press edition—”Creating the new edition of this remarkable book from RAW took some unexpected turns. Along with our usual work of searching for old typos, refining old graphics and/or adding new ones, and designing a new inviting interior for the book’s contents as well as a great new cover, we came across an intriguing process as we thought about who we might ask to do a bit of reframing – who might be good for contributing a new introduction for this edition. Read the Publisher’s Note we added to the beginning of this new edition for the full explanation for why we added eight new essays to this edition. Here is some information on the new essay writers, and the titles of the various forewords and afterwords they wrote.”
• From Whitechapel: Documents of Contemporary Art: Magic [Amazon, Bookshop, Publisher] edited by Jamie Sutcliffe, due September 2021—”The first accessible reader on magic’s generative relationship with contemporary art practice. This volume brings together for the first time writings by artists, magicians, historians, and theorists that illuminate the vibrant correspondences between contemporary art and magical consciousness. From the hexing of presidents to a renewed interest in herbalism and atavistic forms of self-care, magic furnishes the contemporary imagination with complex bodies of arcane thought that have inspired artists to reconsider the relationship between the symbolic and the pragmatic. Dispensing with simple narratives of re-enchantment, Magic illustrates the intricate ways in which we have to some extent always been captivated by the allure of the numinous, and shows how magical culture’s tendencies toward secrecy, occlusion, and encryption have provided contemporary artists with strategies of remedial communality, a renewed faith in the invocational power of personal testimony, and a poetics of practice that boldly questions socially sanctioned techniques of medical and psychiatric care. Magic deciphers the evolution of a “magical-critical” thinking that necessarily complicates and contradicts the boundaries of a capitalist-realist malaise.”
• Daemons Are Forever: Contacts and Exchanges in the Eurasian Pandemonium [Amazon, Bookshop, Publisher] by David Gordon White, part of the Silk Roads series—”A richly illustrated tapestry of interwoven studies spanning some six thousand years of history, Dæmons Are Forever is at once a record of archaic contacts and transactions between humans and protean spirit beings—dæmons—and an account of exchanges, among human populations, of the science of spirit beings: dæmonology. Since the time of the Indo-European migrations, and especially following the opening of the Silk Road, a common dæmonological vernacular has been shared among populations ranging from East and South Asia to Northern Europe. In this virtuoso work of historical sleuthing, David Gordon White recovers the trajectories of both the “inner demons” cohabiting the bodies of their human hosts and the “outer dæmons” that those same humans recognized each time they encountered them in their enchanted haunts: sylvan pools, sites of geothermal eruptions, and dark forest groves. Along the way, he invites his readers to reconsider the potential and promise of the historical method in religious studies, suggesting that a “connected histories” approach to Eurasian dæmonology may serve as a model for restoring history to its proper place at the heart of the discipline of the history of religions.”
• Deciphering Aztec Hieroglyphs: A Guide to Nahuatl Writing [Amazon, Bookshop, Publisher] by Gordon Whittaker—”A portal to the ancient hieroglyphic script of the Aztec Empire. For more than three millennia the cultures of Mesoamerica flourished, yielding the first cities of the Western Hemisphere and developing writing systems that could rival those of the East in their creativity and efficiency. The Nahuatl-speaking Aztecs reigned over one of the greatest imperial civilizations the Americas had ever seen, and until now their intricate and visually stunning hieroglyphs have been overlooked in the story of writing. In this innovative volume Gordon Whittaker provides the reader with a step-by-step, illustrated guide to reading Aztec glyphs, as well as the historical and linguistic context needed to appreciate and understand this fascinating writing system. He also tells the story of how this enigmatic language has been deciphered and gives a tour through Aztec history as recorded in the richly illustrated hieroglyphic codices. This groundbreaking guide is essential reading for anyone interested in the Aztecs, hieroglyphs, or ancient languages.”
• “The man who thought orgasms could save the world. Psychoanalyst Wilhelm Reich fell out with Freud, led the ‘sexual revolution’ and became a hippie icon. As a new book about him comes out, Neil Armstrong explores his life and legacy.”
• “Official release of Clavis Goêtica: Keys to Chthonic Sorcery.” About Clavis Goêtica: Keys to Chthonic Sorcery [Amazon, Bookshop, Publisher] by Frater Acher and José Gabriel Alegría Sabogal, illustrated by José Gabriel Alegría Sabogal—”Clavis Goêtica presents a reference to the 16th-century tale of the first white magician, Johannes Beer, who is brought back from the dead in this book. And yet, the title as well as the essays united in this volume hold a deeper meaning: this key to the underworld is a living being, a spirit in its own right, that only comes to life when magic is performed as an act of co-creation of equals. In this book Frater Acher and José Gabriel Alegría Sabogal have joined creative forces to break through the perceived dichotomy of left-hand and right-hand paths of practical magic. Through careful historical research, concrete ritual analysis and their own experience as practitioners they show a path towards a more balanced way of approaching magic in the underworld, one where the chthonic spirits are invited to unlock what is theirs, while equally the magician is held accountable to contribute what is uniquely human about them. Only when both sides contribute fairly to the magical (p)act, can the key be turned that is the clavis goêtica.”
• “What Did the Sacklers Know? Patrick Radden Keefe’s new book provides the fullest accounting so far of Purdue Pharma’s role in the opioid crisis.” About Empire of Pain: The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty [Amazon, Bookshop, Publisher] by Patrick Radden Keefe—”Empire of Pain is a masterpiece of narrative reporting and writing, exhaustively documented and ferociously compelling. It is a portrait of the excesses of America’s second Gilded Age, a study of impunity among the super elite and a relentless investigation of the naked greed and indifference to human suffering that built one of the world’s great fortunes.”
• “Apostle of modernism: Clive Bell’s reputation repaired. The least-loved Bloomsburyite, known for his womanising and Nazi sympathies, also introduced us to post-Impressionism, says Mark Hussey.” About Clive Bell and the Making of Modernism: A Biography [Amazon, Bookshop, Publisher] by Mark Hussey—”Clive Bell is perhaps better known today for being a Bloomsbury socialite and the husband of artist Vanessa Bell, sister to Virginia Woolf. Yet Bell was a highly important figure in his own right: an internationally renowned art critic who defended daring new forms of expression at a time when Britain was closed off to all things foreign. His groundbreaking book Art brazenly subverted the narratives of art history and cemented his status as the great interpreter of modern art. Bell was also an ardent pacifist and a touchstone for the Wildean values of individual freedoms, and his is a story that leads us into an extraordinary world of intertwined lives, loves and sexualities. For decades Bell has been an obscure figure, refracted through the wealth of writing on Bloomsbury, but here Mark Hussey brings Bell to the fore, drawing on personal letters, archives and Bell’s own extensive writing. Complete with a cast of famous characters, including Lytton Strachey, T. S. Eliot, Katherine Mansfield, Pablo Picasso and Jean Cocteau, Clive Bell and the Making of Modernism is a fascinating portrait of a man who became one of the pioneering voices in art of his era. Reclaiming Bell’s stature among the makers of modernism, Hussey has given us a biography to muse and marvel over – a snapshot of a time and of a man who revelled in and encouraged the shock of the new.”
• White Magic [Amazon, Bookshop, Publisher] by Elissa Washuta—”Bracingly honest and powerfully affecting, White Magic establishes Elissa Washuta as one of our best living essayists. Throughout her life, Elissa Washuta has been surrounded by cheap facsimiles of Native spiritual tools and occult trends, “starter witch kits” of sage, rose quartz, and tarot cards packaged together in paper and plastic. Following a decade of abuse, addiction, PTSD, and heavy-duty drug treatment for a misdiagnosis of bipolar disorder, she felt drawn to the real spirits and powers her dispossessed and discarded ancestors knew, while she undertook necessary work to find love and meaning. In this collection of intertwined essays, she writes about land, heartbreak, and colonization, about life without the escape hatch of intoxication, and about how she became a powerful witch. She interlaces stories from her forebears with cultural artifacts from her own life—Twin Peaks, the Oregon Trail II video game, a Claymation Satan, a YouTube video of Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham—to explore questions of cultural inheritance and the particular danger, as a Native woman, of relaxing into romantic love under colonial rule.”
• “A Secret Feminist History of the Oxford English Dictionary.” By Pip Williams, author of The Dictionary of Lost Words [Amazon, Bookshop, Publisher]—”Set during the height of the women’s suffrage movement and with the Great War looming, The Dictionary of Lost Words reveals a lost narrative, hidden between the lines of a history written by men. Inspired by actual events, author Pip Williams has delved into the archives of the Oxford English Dictionary to tell this highly original story. The Dictionary of Lost Words is a delightful, lyrical, and deeply thought-provoking celebration of words and the power of language to shape the world.”
• What is a Philosopher? A Laughingstock, an Absentminded Buffoon?” Excerpt from Bald: 35 Philosophical Short Cuts [Amazon, Bookshop, Publisher] by Simon Critchley—”A new and expansive collection of essays from one of the world’s best-known popular philosophers”
• “When Writing a Novel, Ditch the Plan and Embrace Uncertainty.” By Maria Mutch, author of Molly Falls to Earth [Amazon, Bookshop, Publisher]—”An enthralling debut novel by Governor General’s Literary Awards finalist Maria Mutch that is an inventive exploration of time, absence, and desire.”
• “Who gets to be a writer? Since the turn of the 21st century, even as there have been more racially diverse prizewinners, there have also been more white winners.”
• “Let’s Bask in This Photo of the Sun.”—”Astrophotography enthusiast Andrew McCarthy took a 140-megapixel photo of the Sun yesterday and, gosh, the Sun is just so cool to look at. I don’t know if you can see it above, but there’s a little something hidden in the photo, a transiting ISS”
• “High school junior’s consumer seismometer delivers low-cost earthquake early warning.”
• “Sex in Space: Why Do Astronauts Keep It on Hush-Hush and Will It Become New Normal? Sex in space may sound romantic but it’s not as easy as it may seem: there are lots of factors which can reduce one’s drive, starting with astronauts’ fairly busy work schedule and difficulties of accepting a match and ending with Newton’s third law of motion in conditions of microgravity.”
• “Icy clouds could have kept early Mars warm enough for rivers and lakes, study finds. Simulation led by UChicago geoscientist finds missing piece to Martian climate puzzle.”
• “China invokes mythic god of war and fire to name its Mars rover.”
• “Why flying a helicopter on Mars is a big deal.”
• “Solar-Powered Desalination Unit Shows Great Promise.”—”The investigators developed a method for depositing a layer of TiNO using a technique known as magnetron sputtering. They used a special type of highly porous paper known as airlaid paper that acts as a wicking material to supply water from the seawater reservoir. Airlaid paper is made from wood fibers and is commonly used in disposable diapers.” TITANIUM DIAPERS?!
• “Scientists develop new class of cancer drug with potential to treat leukaemia. Scientists have made a promising step towards developing a new drug for treating acute myeloid leukaemia, a rare blood disorder. In a study published today in Nature, Cambridge researchers report a new approach to cancer treatment that targets enzymes which play a key role in translating DNA into proteins and which could lead to a new class of cancer drugs.”
• “Astronomers Release New All-Sky Map of Milky Way’s Outer Reaches. The highlight of the new chart is a wake of stars, stirred up by a small galaxy set to collide with the Milky Way. The map could also offer a new test of dark matter theories.”
• “Stanford engineers find ankle exoskeletons can greatly increase walking speed. In lab tests, researchers found that an optimized ankle exoskeleton system increased participants’ walking speed by about 40 percent compared with their regular speed. The researchers hope someday to help restore walking speed in older adults.”
• “First description of a new octopus species without using a scalpel.” Also “New species of dumbo octopus identified using minimally invasive techniques.”
• Synthetic gelatin-like material mimics lobster underbelly’s stretch and strength. The membrane’s structure could provide a blueprint for robust artificial tissues.”
• “Orbital Marine Power Launches O2: World’s Most Powerful Tidal Turbine. Orbital Marine Power Ltd (Orbital), Scottish-based developers of the world’s leading floating tidal turbine technology, successfully launched its 2MW tidal turbine, the Orbital O2, from the Port of Dundee on Thursday 22nd April.”
• “More fissures are opening up at the Fagradalsfjall volcano in Iceland.”
• “Genomes Reveal Humanity’s Journey into the Americas. DNA has upended neat and tidy accounts of the peopling of the American continents.”
• “Detection of SARS‐CoV‐2 in respiratory samples from cats in the UK associated with human‐to‐cat transmission.”
• “Swapping handwashing for sanitiser partly to blame for Victoria’s gastro outbreak. Experts warn hand sanitiser less effective on gastro virus, as cases continue to spread in childcare and early education centres.”
• “4 Takeaways From Our Investigation Into ICE’s Mishandling of Covid-19. The Times found a pattern of neglect and secrecy that helped fuel outbreaks both inside and outside ICE detention facilities.”
• “Ride Out the Storm.”—”Wait until knee-jerk reactions to changes die down before taking action” “So sit back, take it all in, and don’t make a move until some time has passed. Then you’ll be able to offer a more reasoned response.”
• “These Trans TikTok Creators Say Their Accounts Are Being Deleted Without Warning. TikTok is denying it removes “content or accounts on the basis of gender identity,” but the creators suspect otherwise.”
• “Facebook Stopped Employees From Reading An Internal Report About Its Role In The Insurrection. You Can Read It Here. After BuzzFeed News reported on an internal document that examined the social network’s failings leading up to the Capitol riot, many of Facebook’s employees were prevented from accessing it.” Also “Facebook Knows It Was Used To Help Incite The Capitol Insurrection. An internal task force found that Facebook failed to take appropriate action against the Stop the Steal movement ahead of the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection, and hoped the company could ‘do better next time.'”
• “Facebook Flummoxed by the Town of Bitche, France.”
• I mean, someone had to do it after AOL basically all but died. “How Yahoo Became an Internet Villain. How the historic company became known as a bumbling villain of internet culture.”
• Tweet—”I’ve got to say this is impressive even by Facebook’s standards. They employed a PR company to create a fake website purporting to be a presidential campaign for Apple CEO, Tim Cook.”
• “Go read this investigation into the online slander industry and who’s making money on it. There’s a lot of money being made in online reputation restoration”
• “How many layers of copyright infringement are in Emily Ratajkowski’s new NFT? Ratajkowski trolls an art troll.”
• They called it Leonidas ffs. “Cutting-Edge Directed Energy Products. Epirus’ cutting-edge directed energy products utilize solid-state, software-defined, high-powered microwave to disable electronics and can be applied to a wide variety of electronics applications.”—”Leonidas is a counter-electronics system with the power and precision to disable multiple threats across a wide area or neutralize a single system in tight, crowded spaces. Epirus’ approach to Leonidas shifts the paradigm for directed energy, delivering unprecedented counter-electronics capabilities that would traditionally occupy entire rooms’ worth of space into a flexible, mobile package that can fit in the back of a truck.” And there’s a version attached to a drone.”Leonidas Pod is a compact, versatile high-power microwave beam emitter. With a discreet form factor, a flexible mounting system, and open control architecture, Leonidas Pod goes wherever users go. Intelligent onboard power control pushes every circuit further – regardless of the environment – and puts directed energy within user’s reach.”
• “How a Wave of Electric Trucks Could Create Millions of ‘Accidental Environmentalists’. Auto makers’ powerful new all-electric trucks and SUVs are attracting U.S. customers who wouldn’t otherwise shop for green machines; ‘Tesla to me is a yuppie vehicle’”
• “C.E.O. Pay Remains Stratospheric, Even at Companies Battered by Pandemic. While millions of people struggled to make ends meet, many of the companies hit hardest in 2020 showered their executives with riches.”
• “Fact check: No, Biden is not trying to force Americans to eat less red meat.”
• “NY Post Reporter Resigns, Says She Was ‘Ordered’ To Write False Kamala Harris Stor. Journalist Laura Italiano said she failed to push back hard enough against the incorrect story, describing the incident as her ‘breaking point.'”
• “Tucker Carlson Tells Viewers To Call Police If They See Kids Wearing Masks Outside. The Fox News host called wearing face masks to prevent the spread of COVID-19 ‘child abuse.'”
• “A Radical Right-Wing Dream To Rewrite The Constitution Is Close To Coming True. It could lead to a dramatic overhaul of the nation’s foundational text … or an all-out constitutional crisis.”
• “‘He’s bland’: Republicans struggle to find line of attack that sticks to Biden“—”Imagine there’s a car alarm that’s been going off for a long time and suddenly it’s quiet.'”
• “Biden Has Already Delivered On The Top Goal Of His GOP Voters — Just By Not Being Trump. All they really wanted was no more unhinged tweets, no more love letters to dictators, no more chaos, no more constantly inserting himself into their lives via the news cycle.”
• “China will be first country after America to leave solar system.”
• “It Will Take a Lot More Than Money to Fix the Digital Divide. Joe Biden’s goal to get internet to every American is a lot tougher than it looks.”
• “How to Kill the Oil Hydra—and Other Lessons From the Fight Against Keystone XL. What the Indigenous-led victory over Keystone XL tells us about the struggle to stop oil pipelines.”
• “Split-Second Decisions: How a Supreme Court Case Shaped Modern Policing. Officers using deadly force rely on a legal doctrine set forth decades ago. Now, the movement launched by the death of George Floyd is trying to change that standard.”
• “Newly Released Bodycam Video Contradicts The Police’s Claims About How A Man Died During An Arrest. Police said Mario Gonzalez, 26, “had a medical emergency” during his arrest, but did not mention they’d pinned him to the ground and pressed a knee into his back until he lost consciousness.”
• “A Contested Chicago Monument to Native Americans Gets Caught in the Crossfire of Balkan Nationalisms.”
• “The Killings That Raised Questions About Mormon History.” More about Murder Among the Mormons on Netflix.
• My hot take: if crazy as a bedbug Kanye West can run for President, then Britney Spears can do whatever the fuck she wants to do with her money even if it ends up also being bonkers. “Britney Spears To Speak In Court About Her Conservatorship. An attorney for the pop star said she wished to address the court directly. A date has been set for June.”
• “The man who stole a hotel. A fugitive from the US started fresh on Vancouver Island—then bilked new victims out of millions of dollars while law enforcement refused to act.”
• “‘We Are Not a Match’: Bumble Date Turns Capitol Rioter In to the FBI. ‘I made it all the way to Statuary Hall,’ he said. ‘We are not a match,’ she responded.”
• “The girl in the Kent State photo and the lifelong burden of being a national symbol.”
• “Before You Answer, Consider the Opposite Possibility. Pushing yourself to listen to contrary opinions is the way to make better judgments.”
• “Did Climate Change Cause a Flood of Water Miracles by Italian Saints? Researchers link a wet period in Tuscany’s past with a rise in tales of water-related works of amazement.”
• Watch “How the World’s Newest Language Developed.”
• “Grow Hard Or Go Home: 6 Reasons Gardening Is Good For You There are plenty of reasons to indulge in a hearty dose of ‘vitamin G’ this week – and beyond.”
• 5 Things You Should Do First Thing In The Morning To Be Happier All Day. If you roll out of bed feeling tired or stressed, these a.m. habits can help you turn your mood around.”-“1. Pick a wellness habit, then link it to an a.m. ritual you already have. … 2. Get your phone out of your room. … 3. Talk to yourself… 4. … and somebody else. … 5. Incorporate gratitude.”
• “Everything Is More Beautiful Because We’re Doomed.”
• “I’ve Lost Friends Over Lockdown. And That’s Okay. For some, our friendships have been unshakeable. But most of us may have drifted away from more people than we care to admit.”
• “The Isolation of Grief in The Pandemic. The pandemic separates us when we need people most.”
• “15 French volunteers leave cave after 40 days without daylight or clocks. Deep Time project investigated how a lack of external contact would affect sense of time – and two thirds wanted to stay longer.”
• “Struggling to stay afloat during the COVID pandemic, people turn to strangers online for help.”
• “Friendship Oracle Deck. The Friendship Oracle Deck is a collaborative divination ritual for 2+ people and the things they carry with them.”
• “The ‘Capitalism is Broken’ Economy.”—”Stick with me here, but what if people weren’t lazy — and instead, for the first time in a long time, were able to say no to exploitative working conditions and poverty-level wages? And what if business owners are scandalized, dismayed, frustrated, or bewildered by this scenario because their pre-pandemic business models were predicated on a steady stream of non-unionized labor with no other options? It’s not the labor force that’s breaking. It’s the economic model.”
• “Chuck E. Cheese’s Music Is Legitimately Great—and Surprisingly Anti-Capitalist. The pizza-slinging mouse has undergone an unlikely late-career transformation.”
• “The Case for the $40-An-Hour Worker. Polarization and tribalism are stirred when the aim is sub-middle class pay.”
• “bodies and souls, sophisticated ladies, and plucked strings. How Jimmy Blanton revolutionized the bass in popular music.”

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