An irregular hodgepodge of links beyond the library curated together from @OmniumGatherum at Hrmtc I∴O∴ and more … Omnium Gatherum for November 23, 2022.

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

• “Seth Meyers and Jenny Hagel Address the Mass Shooting at Club Q in Colorado Springs“—”And if you’re queer … I see you too, and I think you are great and perfect just the way you are. Nothing about us needs to be fixed, but there is something in America that desperately needs fixing, and I hope we figure out soon how to do it.” Also “Veteran Recounts Subduing Colorado Gunman With Help From Drag Queen In Heels. Richard Fierro described how he took down the shooter with help from another patron and a drag performer at the LGBTQ+ nightclub in Colorado Springs.”—”When the man helping him grew tired, Fierro said he flagged down a drag queen in high heels to help, shouting, ‘Kick him!’ ‘She kicked him because the other guy was tired,’ Fierro said.”
• “If entertaining is a domestic performance, let Thanksgiving be camp. In theater, camp can equal freedom as an actor. I think it can offer the same in your holiday kitchen.”—”The oldest form of theater is the dinner table. It’s got five or six people, new show every night, same players. Good ensemble; the people have worked together a lot.”
• “Occultist Aleister Crowley appears in Inverness in John D Burns’ one-man play“—”Highland actor and author John D Burns is reviving his one-man play about the occultist Aleister Crowley for a special performance in Inverness.” “John D Burns’ play is at Touchwood House, Island Bank Road, Inverness, on Friday (November 18) at 8pm. Tickets: 07714 375127.” Yikes. That’s over already! Welp, if you’re there, and go, hopefully it will show up again. “John said: ‘I tried to produce an honest portrayal of Crowley, showing his strengths and his weaknesses and some Crowley devotees find that a little hard to swallow.'” Also “Aleister Crowley: Special Performance.”
• Watch “Seraphim: An Angelic Conlang for Agma Schwa’s Cursed Conlang Contest”
• “Surrealism and Esotericism. 2. Surrealism and Alchemy. Alchemy acquired an increasingly important role in the works of the Surrealists. It was more than a symbol.” Mentions Alchemy, Baphomet, Éliphas Lévi, and more.
• In search of the Divine: Philosophy and the Eleusinian: Mysteries in Plato’s Symposium (PDF) by Steven Francis McGuire. 🎩 PythianPriestess
• “The Neverending Story Gets a Dazzling New Release From the Folio Society. The 1979 book that inspired the 1984 fantasy film comes to life in a gorgeous special edition.” About The Neverending Story by Michael Ende, Illustrated by Marie-Alice Harel, Translated by Ralph Manheim.
• “Why ‘The Communist Manifesto’ Still Matters. In ‘A Spectre, Haunting,’ the British fantasy writer and political activist China Miéville makes the case for why Marx and Engels’s famous pamphlet remains vital today.” About A Spectre, Haunting: On the Communist Manifesto [Amazon, Bookshop] by China Miéville.
• “Zelda Fitzgerald’s Wish to Publish Paper Dolls Book Fulfilled Decades Later.” About The Paper Dolls of Zelda Fitzgerald [Amazon, Bookshop] by Eleanor Lanahan—”A beautifully designed, full-color collection of paper dolls created by Zelda Fitzgerald, lovingly compiled by her granddaughter, Eleanor Lanahan.”
• “300 books banned at Missouri schools over new law, more rules could follow“—”PEN America … compiled a list of 297 books recently banned at Missouri school libraries. In August, Missouri enacted a new law to remove certain reading materials in school. As part of S.B. 775, books deemed to contain ‘explicit sexual material’ are now illegal in public and private schools.”
• “University Presses Are Keeping American Literature Alive. As corporate houses get bigger and more commercial, these publishers are doing work that is vital in the marketplace of ideas.”
• “Iconic New York library unveils the most borrowed book in its 125-year-old history“—”And it turns out that Brooklyn’s most beloved books cover a wide range of genres and themes, from ‘The Cat in the Hat’ and ‘Naruto: Volume 1’ to ‘Wuthering Heights,’ ‘The Old Man and the Sea,’ and ‘Murder on the Orient Express.’ But only one title could top the list – Maurice Sendak’s ‘Where the Wild Things Are.'” “Children’s books as a whole dominated their list”
• “Lost 8th-century Japanese medical text by Buddhist monk has been found. The surviving 766 prescriptions include recipes for soups, powders, pills, and ointments.”—”The text was believed lost for centuries, but the authors of a recent paper published in the journal Compounds stumbled across a book published in 2009 that includes most of Jianzhen’s original prescriptions.”
• “A Small-Town Librarian Spoke Against Censorship. Then the Dark Money Came for Her. Now she’s fighting back.” *cue main title theme and explosions*
• Oh you handsome devil: How ‘Bram Stoker’s Dracula’ ushered in our thirst for the ‘sexy killer’. 30 years after Coppola’s ‘Bram Stoker’s Dracula,’ the start of the sexy killer craze can be traced back to 1992.” Hey, let’s not forget George Sylvester Viereck‘s The House of the Vampire!
• “Feds arrest Russians accused of running the largest pirated e-book library. Textbook piracy platform Z-Library sunk by popular TikTok hashtag.” Also “Two Russian Nationals Charged with Running Massive E-Book Piracy Website. Defendants Operated Z-Library, Which Offered Free Download of Copyrighted Works.”
• “TikTok to sell books directly to users via marketplace. To further capitalise on the popularity of BookTok the social media giant will let users purchase titles through partnerships with publishers and retailers.”
• “This Beautiful Library Has a Dungeon. It’s also an impressive English-language oasis.”—”I won’t bury the lede: Quebec City’s Morrin Centre might be the only library you’ll ever visit that also has a dungeon.” Oh, do you think so? I can neither confirm nor deny …
• “Lit Hub officially endorses ‘Goblin mode’ as Oxford’s Word of the Year.“—”There is clearly a superior word (or term) here, and that word (or term) is Goblin mode. Go vote, and then go do something weird.”
• “Pakistan’s lost city of 40,000 people. In the dusty plains of present-day Sindh in southern Pakistan lie the remains of one of the world’s most impressive ancient cities that most people have never heard of.”
• “Meet Tora, 65 years old. She lived during the Middle Ages. Researchers have created a model of a medieval woman from Trondheim in Norway, based on analysis of her bones.”
• “Higher surface temperatures will be detectable in Pacific Ocean decades earlier than previously predicted. Climate change is increasing the variability of El Nino events.”
• “Earth can regulate its own temperature over millennia, new study finds. Scientists have confirmed that a “stabilizing feedback” on 100,000-year timescales keeps global temperatures in check.”
• “Amateur historian discovers 600-year-old English coin in Newfoundland“—”The discovery of a rare gold coin on the south coast of Newfoundland, Canada, may challenge traditional historical narratives about the timing of European contact in the region, as it predates explorer John Cabot’s arrival on the island by at least 70 years.”
• Watch “New Interactive Map Offers Scroll Through Universe“—”A new map of the universe displays for the first time the span of the entire known cosmos with pinpoint accuracy and sweeping beauty. Created by Johns Hopkins University astronomers with data mined over two decades by the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, the map allows the public to experience data previously only accessible to scientists.”
• “Europe’s largest ever turtle species has been discovered. A new species of giant turtle has been discovered in northern Spain. Measuring almost four metres in length, Leviathanochelys aenigmatica reveals that giant turtles were more common than previously thought.” Gamera?! Dat u?
• “Cannabis not made safer by increasing its CBD content. New research from the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience (IoPPN) at King’s College London has found no evidence that cannabidiol (CBD) reduces the negative effects of cannabis.”
• “US declares lab-grown meat safe to eat in ‘groundbreaking’ move. The government’s approval will open the market for a food praised for being more efficient and environmentally friendly.”
• “The Dengue Virus Has Been Found in Arizona. Dengue has been found in native mosquitos and at least one human, suggesting that it could be spreading locally in the state for the first known time.” Ugh.
• “Will Triton finally answer the question ‘are we alone?’“—”For now, Triton orbits Neptune near the edge of the solar system with its active geysers, nitrogen atmosphere, and possible interior ocean. When will we visit it again, and does this active moon harbor life as we know it due to its unique features? And with this, we wonder if Triton will finally answer, ‘Are we alone?'”
• “Early meteorites brought enough water to Mars to create a global ocean. Meteorites bombarding the Red Planet may have carried so much water that it could have covered the planet in a layer 300 metres deep if spread out, while also depositing molecules essential for life.” *staring in Velikovsky*
• “Winchcombe meteorite holds information about the origin of Earth’s oceans. New study shows that carbonaceous asteroids played a key role in delivering the ingredients needed to kickstart oceans and life on the early Earth.” *still staring in Velikovsky* “The Winchcombe meteorite contains water similar to that found on Earth. New study shows that carbonaceous asteroids played a key role in delivering the ingredients needed to kickstart oceans and life on the early Earth. Winchcombe was blasted off an asteroid near Jupiter and travelled to Earth within the last million years. Samples of the meteorite are on display at the Natural History Museum.” Also “Pristine meteorite found within hours of hitting Earth.” Also “The Winchcombe meteorite, a unique and pristine witness from the outer solar system.”
• “Scientists Are Uncovering Ominous Waters Under Antarctic Ice“—”For all its treacherousness and general inclination to kill you, Antarctica’s icy surface is fairly tranquil: vast stretches of miles-thick whiteness, with not a plant or animal to speak of. But way below the surface, where that ice meets land, things get wild.” *stares in Lovecraft / Carpenter*
• “Taking Responsibility for Historical Homophobia at NASA and Beyond: #RenameJWST. A statement from Chanda Prescod-Weinstein, Lucianne Walkowicz, Sarah Tuttle and Brian Nord.” Also “NASA Shares James Webb History Report“—”The agency’s investigation sought any available evidence placing James Webb within the context of the ‘Lavender Scare,’ a time when the outing and firing of LGBTQI+ individuals … was a harmful and discriminatory federal policy.” “Based on the available evidence, the agency does not plan to change the name of the James Webb Space Telescope.”
• “Neutron Stars Are Basically Giant Cosmic Pralines, Astrophysicists Say. They’re some of the densest objects in the universe, with nutty internal physics.” Hmmmmmm, yummy neutron stars …
• “Extremely rare pink auroras ‘a blessing’ witnessed in Norway“—”Want to know what the night sky looks like after a solar storm smashes into earth and rips a hole into the planet’s magnetic field? The combination of cosmic events led to a rare explosion of strikingly vivid pink auroras the filled Norway’s night sky.”
• “No, the metaverse is not dead – it’s inevitable“—”It’s really that simple—the metaverse is the transition of the digital world from flat content to immersive experiences—and trust me, it’s not dead. If anything, the metaverse is inevitable.” Did … Thanos write this?
• “Why This Universe? New Calculation Suggests Our Cosmos Is Typical. Two physicists have calculated that the universe has a higher entropy — and is therefore more likely — than alternative possible universes. The calculation is ‘an answer to a question that is yet to be fully understood.'”
• “This Simple NASA Artemis I Photo of Earth Is Stark, Beautiful and Evocative. The awe-inspiring shot was snapped by NASA’s Orion spacecraft two days after launch.”
• Watch “Finding Auwo: the moment we found this lost species!“—”This species had not been documented since 1882 and had never been photographed. We spent a month searching for this critically endangered and, at the time, potentially extinct species, and never saw the bird ourselves. Seeing photos of this elusive, almost mythical, bird walking past our camera was the most surreal and fulfilling experience we could have ever imagined.” Also “This bird hadn’t been documented by scientists since 1882. Then they captured video of it in Papua New Guinea.”
• “Jaw of Extinct Lion Found Along Drought-Stricken Mississippi River. Low water levels in the river have revealed sunken artifacts—and now a fossil from an American lion.” Aslan? Dat u?
• “Archaeologists Unearth 2,000-Year-Old Odeon in Crete. The dig at the remote site is the first in more than 50 years.”—”Archaeologists have found a Roman-era odeon in Lissos, an ancient city on the Greek island of Crete. The newly uncovered structure likely dates back to the first century C.E. The archaeological dig at the site is the first in 62 yeas.”
• “Breakthrough in search for tinnitus cure. University of Auckland scientists are excited by results from a trial of a new treatment for tinnitus.”
• “UW Researchers Advance Knowledge of Microscopic Creature’s Durability“—”University of Wyoming researchers have gained further insight into the biological processes that allow microscopic creatures called tardigrades to survive extreme conditions, including being completely dried out in suspended animation for years.” “A long-term goal of this field is to understand better how to confer the adaptation abilities of tardigrades to organisms that do not naturally survive drying … This study and its findings provide a compelling argument that to do so may require the combination of different, synergistic protectants.” Also “Trehalose and tardigrade CAHS proteins work synergistically to promote desiccation tolerance.”
• “Zakhiku: The ancient city in Iraq revealed by severe drought. The ruins of a submerged city on the Tigris River that emerged this year belonged to a little-known empire.”
• “Expansion to the SI prefix range. Introducing the new SI prefixes: ronna, quetta, ronto and quecto.”—”The new names for very large numbers are: ronna (symbol R) for 10^27 … quetta (symbol Q) for 10^30 …They are joined by their tiny counterparts: ronto (symbol r) for 10^−27 …quecto (symbol q) for 10^−30″ “The change was largely driven by the growing requirements of data science and digital storage, which is already using prefixes at the top of the existing range (yottabytes and zettabytes, for expressing huge quantities of digital information). The prefixes for very small numbers are useful for quantum science and particle physics. However, these can be used with any SI unit, for example in the future we can be expected to talk about ronnametres and quettagrams.”
• “Misokinesia is a sensitivity to seeing others fidget that is prevalent in the general population“—”Misokinesia––or the ‘hatred of movements’––is a psychological phenomenon that is defined by a strong negative affective or emotional response to the sight of someone else’s small and repetitive movement” “Our findings thus confirm that a large segment of the general population may have a visual-social sensitivity that has received little formal recognition.”
• “Roman roads laid the foundation for modern-day prosperity. Even though it is over 2,000 years since the ancient Roman road networks were established, there are clear connections between the routes of the roads and modern-day prosperity. In a study in economics, the researchers investigate the importance of the Roman road network in maintaining or losing wealth through the centuries.”
• “MRI Reveals Significant Brain Abnormalities Post-COVID. Researchers identified changes to the brain stem and frontal lobe in patients months after COVID-19 infection. The affected brain regions are linked with fatigue, insomnia, anxiety, depression, headaches and cognitive problems. Susceptibility-weighted MRI aids in the detection and monitoring of a host of neurologic conditions.”
• “Hospitals Are Full of Kids Sick With RSV—And Anti-Vaxxers Think It’s a Hoax. Different virus, same old disinformation.”
• “Astronomer Royal Martin Rees: We’re in a race between science education and catastrophe. The renowned scientist weighs in on what the public misunderstands about science.”—”A special obligation lies on those in academia, and self-employed entrepreneurs, to engage with the ethical and prudential dilemmas that science confronts us with; they have more freedom than those employed in government service or in industry (genetics and robotics, in particular, are advancing apace, rightly prompting public unease). Academics, moreover, have the special opportunity to influence students.”
• “Former math teacher explains why some students are ‘good’ at math and others lag behind“—”It’s not true that some kids are good at math and others aren’t. … Some parents see to it that their kids do more with numbers than others. They do more at home, they do more in social events, and they do more in school. These routine exposures make them appear good at math. It isn’t that they’re good so much as it is that they had more time to work with mathematics.”
• “Lab grown ‘mini eyes’ help understanding of blindness in rare genetic condition. Researchers at UCL have grown ‘mini eyes’, which make it possible to study and better understand the development of blindness in Usher syndrome for the first time.” From the Brain in a Jar dept. *shudder* a biblically accurate petri dish?!
• ‘NSAIDs May Worsen Arthritis Inflammation. Long-term NSAID use for osteoarthritis of the knee may worsen inflammation of the joint. Joint inflammation and cartilage quality were worse at baseline in the participants taking NSAIDs, compared to the control group, and worsened at four-year follow-up. Osteoarthritis affects more than 500 million people worldwide.” From The Cure Will Kill You dept. Oops?
• “Let Them Eat Stew: University of Glasgow Research Sheds New Light on Foodways in the First Cities“—”Our analytical results challenge traditional interpretations that see [Beveled Rim Bowls] as containers of cereal-based rations and bread moulds. The presence of meat- and potentially also dairy-based foods in the Shakhi Kora vessels lends support to multi-purpose explanations and points to local processes of appropriation of vessel meaning and function.”
• “Ownership of AI-Generated Code Hotly Disputed. A copyright storm may be brewing for GitHub Copilot.”—”We have developed processes in order to keep open source secure, and that requires traceability, observability, and verification. Copilot is obscuring the original provenance of those [code] snippets.”
• “Twitter Rival Mastodon’s Founder Has a Vision for Democratizing Social Media. Thousands of users have joined Mastodon since Elon Musk took control of Twitter. Mastodon’s founder Eugen Rochko says it’s been a vindication.”—”I think that is a very uniquely American idea of creating this marketplace of ideas where you can say anything you want completely without limits. It is very foreign to the German mindset where we, in our Constitution, our number one priority is maintaining human dignity. And so, hate speech is not part of the German concept of free speech, for example. So I think that when Elon Musk says that everything’s gonna be allowed, or whatever, I generally disagree with that.”
• “Mastodon’s Content-Moderation Growing Pains. [I asked Prof. Alan Rozenshtein (University of Minnesota) to write a post about Mastodon and one particular recent controversy related to it, and he very kindly agreed. -EV].” Also “Chaos on Twitter Leads a Group of Journalists to Start an Alternative. Journa.host promises to be a new ‘reliable home for journalists.’ What happens when they move in?”—”For the volunteers who run journa.host, it has all been a brutal introduction to the no-easy-answers world of content moderation, one that might have engendered, if not exactly empathy, a better understanding of the challenges that big social media platforms face.”
• “After Stunning Failures, Elon Musk Says Only ‘Exceptional Performance’ Is Allowed At Twitter. He doesn’t even seem to know what business his new company is in.” A: Pweeeeeeese, work 24/7 to save my ass? PWEEEEEEESE?! B: No. Also tweet—”As an engineer at Twitter, I can confirm that Elon Musk doesn’t understand anything about our website, or coding in general. Not gonna lie, we laugh REALLY hard about it behind his back. We’ve been calling him “the CEO,” but it stands for Code Efficiency 0.” Also thread—”Scoop: Elon Musk just sent an email to all staff outlining “Twitter 2.0″, writing it will”need to be extremely hardcore”. Long hours, high intensity. People need to click “yes” to confirm being part of this by 5pm ET tomorrow, else they get 3 months severance. More details:” “The way Elon’s Twitter operates sounds bonkers. … Sounds like that will be the norm, going forward.” Also thread—”The tweets in CS are hilarious 🤣” Also “Elon Musk Demands Twitter Servers Explain What All These Wires For.” Also “Who Said It: Elon Musk or Mr. Burns? The Simpsons character and the guy ruining Twitter often sound a lot alike.” Also “If You Want to Understand How Dangerous Elon Musk Is, Look Outside America. Will his commitment to ‘free speech’ extend beyond conservatives in the U.S. and to the billions of people in the Global South?” Also “The Most Expensive Intervention in History“—”Do you want to be ‘extremely hardcore’ work for a man who appears to be a colossal freaking idiot (at least when it comes to overseeing Twitter), or do you want a three month paid vacation while you look for a better job?” Also “Entropy of Big Distributed Systems.” Also “Twitter employees: Today’s the day!“—”Choose wisely.”
• Thread—”NEW: Twitter just alerted employees that effective immediately, all office buildings are temporarily closed and badge access is suspended. No details given as to why”—”We’re hearing this is because Elon Musk and his team are terrified employees are going to sabotage the company. Also, they’re still trying to figure out which Twitter workers they need to cut access for.” “Offices will reopen on November 21st. In the meantime: ‘Please continue to comply with company policy by refraining from discussing confidential company information on social media, with the press or elsewhere.'” Also, bwahahahahahaha #butts Oh Twitter! Never change … oh no. Also “Hundreds Of Workers Seem To Leave Twitter As Elon Musk’s ‘Hardcore’ Deadline Passes. The billionaire reportedly met with “critical” employees before the Thursday ultimatum, but many staffers left anyway.” Also thread—”I’m told that in Twitter’s slack, scores of staffers have posted the Salute emoji, as many appear to reject Musk’s “hardcore” ultimatum. (The salute emoji has been what tweeps post as they exit.) A former exec who recently left described to me what’s occurring as a ‘mass exodus.'” “It is really hard to describe the level of disarray Twitter is in right now.” Also “Hundreds of employees say no to being part of Elon Musk’s ‘extremely hardcore’ Twitter“—”Musk gave Twitter staff a deadline to say if they are staying for his cultural reset of the company. And right on deadline, the farewell emojis started pouring into Twitter’s Slack.” Thread—”What’s happening to Twitter is not the same as what happened to MySpace, LiveJournal, Tumblr, or other faded sites. People gradually moved from those sites on their own accord to better options. What’s happening to Twitter is a controlled demolition.” Also “After Elon Musk’s ultimatum, Twitter employees start exiting.” Also “Heads we win, tails he loses.”—”That’s what makes this show so guiltlessly entertaining to watch: Whichever the outcome, the world wins. If Musk manages to fix Twitter, we’re left with a better Twitter. Great! If Musk manages to burn down Twitter, we’re left with a world free of Twitter. Great!” Also “I Joined Mastodon And All It Took Was My Sanity And Self-Esteem. I tooted, but I didn’t like it.”—”I’m not the first to notice that Mastodon is sort of a weird sad office birthday party with four people sitting around eating sheet cake with all the lights on compared to Twitter being like Studio 54.” Ouch. Also “Elon Musk’s Twitter Cannot Handle the Vortex of Misinformation During an International Crisis. A missile strike in Poland led to a spate of fake news and panic-mongering about World War III on Twitter. It’s not hard to imagine how much worse this could get.”
• “How Elon Musk’s Twitter reign magnified his brutal management style. Tesla and SpaceX history showed how hard-edged the CEO could be. At Twitter, this pattern has proved disastrous.” Also “The Elon Musk effect: have we reached our limit with awful bosses? Twitter’s billionaire owner may think his tactics will leave him with committed employees. The evidence suggests otherwise.” Also “Elon Musk, you broke Twitter. Now sell it. At the very least, turn over the reins to someone who might run it competently.” Also “Hubris“—”Elon’s comical first few weeks at Twitter have gone worse than expected, and most people expected a train wreck.” “I have known many really successful people. But there’s a distinction between success and happiness. The delta boils down to registering one truth and surviving the accompanying emotions: Much of your failure, and your success, is not your fault.” Or, in Elon’s case. It is his fault. Exception proves the rule? Also “Tumblr Gets the Last Laugh. As Twitter crumbles, Tumblr is welcoming back the internet’s weirdos.” IDEK about last laugh, but laughing is okay. Also “Intentional or not, getting fired by publicly contradicting Elon was a brilliant move“—”Under normal circumstances, contradicting the boss in a public forum is a bad idea. But these are not normal circumstances.” Also “Elon Musk Says Twitter Shadowbans Are the New Law of the Land. In a confusing set of posts, the billionaire declared it ‘Freedom Friday,’ reinstated multiple accounts, and said ‘negative tweets’ would be ‘max deboosted.'” Also “New Twitter accounts won’t be able to buy Blue verification for 90 days. When the subscription service returns, it’ll include a waiting period to buy a check mark.” It’s now harder to get a fake burner Elon account than to buy a gun. Also “Twitter user gets account back after ban for ‘intimate’ image of meteor. Oxfordshire astronomer was locked out for three months after apparent automated moderation error.”—”It was not offensive or pornographic at all … It was just a meteor.” Also “What Will Writers Do Without Twitter? If the book industry is a walled garden, the site is a ladder.” Also “Elon Musk’s $50 billion trial comes to an end“—”The trial for the Tesla shareholder lawsuit examining CEO Elon Musk’s unprecedented compensation package wrapped up Friday afternoon. Chancellor Kathaleen McCormick did not issue a ruling from the bench, and it could be weeks to months before a ruling.” Also “Twitter Was a Lifeline for People With Disabilities. Musk’s Reign Is Changing All of That.” Also “Musk emails remaining Twitter staff to find ‘anyone who actually writes software’. Musk email: ‘Anyone who actually writes software, please report to the 10th floor.'”—”along with up to 10 screenshots of the most salient lines of code.” WTAF?! Why not ask for charcoal sketches of fax transmisions too? What an absolute dumbass. Also “Could Twitter collapse or go bankrupt? Since Elon Musk bought it, firm has been hit by swingeing job cuts, an advertiser boycott, warnings of bankruptcy and mass resignations.” Cool word: “swingeing”! Also “Resignations Roil Twitter as Elon Musk Tries Persuading Some Workers to Stay. Mr. Musk, Twitter’s new owner, had given employees a Thursday deadline to decide whether to leave or stay ‘to build a breakthrough Twitter 2.0.'” Also “Hundreds said to have opted to leave Twitter over Musk ultimatum. The number of likely departures prompted Musk to ease his return-to-office edict and managers to meet to decide which engineers to ask back.” Also “How I Got Inside Elon Musk’s Head. With a burner Twitter account that follows only the people he does.”—”I can see how Musk [thinks] he’s right in the middle, politically—aren’t we all, in a stream of voices chosen to buttress our own view of the world? … we’re all blind men touching the elephant, sensible only to the slice of the public sphere we’ve selected for ourselves. … the section of elephant he’s chosen for himself is smaller than most. Claustrophobic, even.” Also “Elon goes hardcore. After demanding the remaining Twitter employees pledge their loyalty, Musk’s product priorities are coming into focus.” Also “Disabled employee sues Twitter over Musk’s ban on remote work.” Meanwhile: “SpaceX faces labor charges after firing employees who criticized Elon Musk. Employees wrote letter calling Musk a ‘source of distraction and embarrassment.'” Also “Democratic senators ask FTC to investigate Elon Musk over his handling of Twitter. The lawmakers cited the botched rollout of paid verification, and the recent departures of top privacy execs.” Also “The Twitter soap opera goes on“—”If this is the way that Musk runs all his businesses, I am guessing that the people at Tesla and SpaceX are thrilled that all his attention and energy is being spent to Twitter so that they can do their work in peace.” Also “Twitter is Going Great! .. and definitely does not develop features primarily to stroke Elon Musk’s delicate ego.” Also “The Greatest Memes From the Twitter Dumpster Fire.”
• “The US government still isn’t sure about Elon Musk’s Twitter. A report from Bloomberg suggests that the US government is reviewing whether Twitter’s foreign investors have access to user data.” Also “Elon Musk and Real-Time Destruction of Twitter“—”Twitter’s hegemony as the de facto public forum is in major jeopardy and although Elon Musk isn’t the only one who prepared the kindling, he is certainly drenching Twitter in gasoline and flicking lit matches at everyone around him.” Also “Elon Musk says he’s letting Donald Trump back on Twitter. He justified the decision based on the results of a personal Twitter poll. ‘The people have spoken,’ Musk decreed.” *cough* See “Vox populi, vox Dei“—”And those people should not be listened to who keep saying the voice of the people is the voice of God, since the riotousness of the crowd is always very close to madness.” *cough* Also “A Broken Twitter Means Broken Disaster Response“—”The loss of this crucial rapid-response platform could be crippling as climate change makes disasters worse.” Also “The Places Where Twitter Is Already Breaking.” Also “Twitter’s Broken Its Copyright Strike System, Users Are Uploading Full Movies.” Also “What Employees Does Twitter Need, Anyway? The many departures have set off a wave of hand-wringing about whether the site can continue to operate well.” Also “You Can’t Code Your Way Out of the Culture Problem“—”If we squint and put on our CEO-of-too-many-companies hats, we can kind of imagine what Musk’s hoping for with his request. It’s like a self-review for software engineers. If you ignore the ‘code commits’ part, you could read this as him asking engineers to talk about their achievements. But we can’t ignore that ‘code commits’ part because then he followed it up with an ask for screenshots.” “an extra level of dumb” Also “Elon Musk fired Twitter head of sales after begging her to stay: report.” Also “TechCrunch staff on what we lose if we lose Twitter“—”I spied a tweet the other day that journalists would suffer if Twitter ever shut down because they would lose a driver of traffic. While there is some truth to that — Twitter does help expose your writing to a larger audience — it’s also true that Twitter has value beyond that for journalists and other users.”
• “Elon Musk Embraces Twitter’s Radical Fact-Checking Experiment. The project allows users to suggest short notes that add missing context to viral tweets. It could change how social platforms operate.” Also toot—”We’ve closed up our Twitter account. A platform whose owner uses it to bait violent anti-democratic conspiracy theories and engage in overt anti-semitism is not a place compatible with our mission to inform, create accountability, and improve democracy.” Also toot—”This just went out on twitter: Goodbye everybody. I’m deactivating my account, moving to the new world. My new home is at [carlmalamud]. Yesterday was my 14th anniversary and I told the bird I can’t take it anymore, we need to get a divorce. I will miss you all. Remember, you own the Internet.” Also “Elon Musk Threatens to Fire Employees Who Won’t Be ‘Extremely Hardcore’ Workers. The billionaire’s bleak demand comes days after he gutted the company’s workforce and reportedly fired individual employees who criticized his conduct publicly.” Also “Musk Welcomes Ye Back to Twitter After Inviting Trump’s Return. Twitter’s new owner is bringing back controversial figures. The social network’s usage has risen under Musk’s leadership.” Also “Elon Musk Likes Kanye West’s ‘Shalom’ Tweet Following Antisemitic Tirades. The controversial rapper posted the tweet after weeks of silence on the platform and a firestorm over his disturbing comments about Jewish people.” Also “Rep. Adam Schiff Says Elon Musk’s Latest Move Is A ‘Terrible Mistake’. The California Democrat slammed the billionaire’s decision to reinstate Donald Trump on Twitter.” Also “Trump snubs Twitter after Musk announces reactivation of ex-president’s account.” Hahahaha. Cold. Also “Elon Musk Can Save Twitter—and Democracy. The company is losing value by the day. Here are six steps to restore user and advertiser confidence.” As if. Also “Elon Musk is reportedly considering cutting more of Twitter’s workforce.” 🗑️🔥 Also toot—”… Twitter only really works if people don’t talk about it constantly on the platform. Musk is now sucking up all the oxygen which devalues the platform for anyone else (incl. advertisers) who wants to get a message out.” I mean, Barbelith lasted for quite a while on just posts about how it was dead … Also “Twitter’s Survival as a Subscription Service Depends on Apple and Google“—”Assuming Twitter Inc. can weather its chaotic start under Elon Musk, the platform is poised to become more of a subscription business—with far leaner operations and less moderation. But that sets the stage for yet another challenge: a possible standoff with Apple Inc. and Alphabet Inc.’s Google over fees and content.” Also “Twitter & entropic decay“—”Moderation matters. It’s human nature that some people don’t grow out of their immaturity and find satisfaction in destroying things, splattering obscenities everywhere, and relishing being purposeless disruptors — it is, apparently, what gives their life meaning, since they are failures at everything else — so policing comments is necessary. That’ll never change for as long as some people savor being terrible human beings.” Tangentially: “Tosca Musk, Elon’s sister, has a business venture of her own – and it’s all about romance and female sexuality.” Also “Elon Musk must be stopped! If Twitter is to be a true “town square,” it’s time to socialize it. Profit motive fuels the worst parts … What if it didn’t?”—”five … ways … better for users, for society, and for people’s basic mental health. 1. Disempowering trolls, misinformers and racists. … 2. More jokes, less sanctimony. … 3. Simplifying the verification system. … 4. Gutting fraud. … 5. Cutting off the ‘influencers.'” By Jove, I think you’ve just invented Mastodon! Also “The Battle Between Elon Musk and Twitter Workers is Part of a Bigger War About Burnout. Michael P. Leiter in Conversation with Andrew Keen on Keen On.” Also tweet—”lawless oligarch, space Karen, mediocre manchild, worthless billionaire” 🎩 “The trolling of Musk goes on.”
• “It’s Not The Decision, But The Process: Musk & The Trump Decision“—”Making serious decisions, which can have massive impact on people’s lives, through stunts is not just reckless, but it foreshadows much more dangerous decision-making to come.” Also “Monetization, Not Human Rights or Vulnerable Communities, Matter Most at Twitter Under Musk“—”Billionaire Elon Musk says Twitter can be an “incredibly valuable service to the world,” a global forum where ideas and debates flourish. Yet, much of what he has done since taking over the company suggests that he doesn’t understand how to accomplish this, doesn’t appreciate the impact of his decisions on users—especially the most vulnerable—or doesn’t care.” Also “Elon Musk went on a firing frenzy at Twitter. Now he’s paying for it. Where employees are a corporation’s key assets, workers’ greater power comes in threatening to walk out the door.” Also “‘It’s over’: Twitter France’s head quits amid layoffs“—”Twitter Inc’s head of French operations, Damien Viel, said he was quitting the social media platform, whose new owner Elon Musk recently fired top executives and enforced steep job cuts at the company. ‘It’s over,’ Viel tweeted on Sunday, thanking his team in France, which he led for the last seven years.” Also “The only thing Elon Musk understands about Twitter is how to kill it. Musk declared that Twitter is a “collective cybernetic super-intelligence.” Which reveals how little he understands about his new plaything.” Also “Twitter won’t restore Alex Jones’ account, Elon Musk says“—”Musk declared on Friday that Jones’ account will not be restored, in spite of some users’ requests, and spent the weekend defending the decision even as Twitter moved to restore other suspended accounts including that of former President Donald Trump.” Bwahahaha. Colder than cold. Also “What Elon Musk Is Doing to Twitter Is What He Did at Tesla and SpaceX. Firing people. Talking of bankruptcy. Telling workers to be ‘hard core.’ Mr. Musk has repeatedly used those tactics at many of his companies.” Also “NAACP slams Elon Musk decision to let Trump back on Twitter. NAACP CEO Derrick Johnson raised concerns for marginalized people after Musk reactivated Trump’s Twitter, saying Musk is ‘failing our democracy.'” Also “A fired Twitter engineer said he would have come up with ‘way cleverer and more devastating jokes’ about Elon Musk if he’d known he was getting canned. The former Twitter worker said he believes he was fired for violating for criticizing Elon Musk on Slack, but was never given a specific reason.” Also tweet—”After pausing for much of the weekend to assess the security concerns, CBS News and Stations is resuming its activity on Twitter as we continue to monitor the situation.” Cowards. Also “Elon Musk Reveals His Sneaky Plan for New Twitter Content Moderation Council. The billionaire promised the new moderation panel would have “widely diverse viewpoints.” But his will be the only one that matters.” Also “Elon Musk’s Twitter Restores Marjorie Taylor Greene’s Personal Account. Twitter had ‘permanently suspended’ the Georgia lawmaker’s personal account in January for repeatedly sharing COVID-19 misinformation.”
• “Apple can learn an important lesson from Twitter about loyalty“—”But I do hope someone at Cupertino is paying attention to Twitter, because Apple is taking similar risks with its users’ loyalty, and stands to lose far more.” “Like Twitter, Apple’s fans are a loyal bunch, but they’re noticing the changes. And all of a sudden they might decide not to be so loyal anymore.”
• “Bending Spoons acquires Evernote, marking the end of an era“—”For Evernote, the acquisition — the terms of which weren’t made public — marks the end of a roller coaster of a journey.” I still have around here somewhere one of the trays with the 4 specific colour post-it notes that I really, really tried to actually us but didn’t. But I store all my book notes and highlights in that app. I really should move them …
• “Facebook will remove political and religious views from profiles on December 1st. Meta says it’s making Facebook easier to navigate.” 🤔
• “Amazon is gutting its voice-assistant Alexa. Employees describe a division in crisis and huge losses on ‘a wasted opportunity.’ Once Jeff Bezos’s pet project the mounting losses and massive job cuts underscore a failure in the hardware business model the company once pioneered.” They want every other thing it says to be an upsell attempt. I want it to shut up about that. Never the twain shall meet.
• “Nutrition labels for broadband internet are finally nearly here. The FCC says most carriers have to slap on nutrition labels within six months — well, after some last paperwork.”—”Six years after we saw the FCC formally propose “nutrition labels” for your carrier’s potentially confusing array of plans, the agency says it’s finally happening.” Also “What’s wrong with US broadband? The Verge and Consumer Reports collected 22,000 internet bills to find out how Americans are getting online. They paint an ugly picture.”
• Watch “AI image generator simulates synesthesia with the Teenage Engineering OP-Z“—”The audiovisual experiment uses the Teenage Engineering OP-Z sequencer as the music source that is then translated into AI art.” “In real-time, Modem and Bureau Cool’s ‘digital extension’ translates musical properties into text prompts describing colors, shapes and movements. Those prompts then feed into Stable Diffusion (an open-source tool similar to DALL-E 2 and Midjourney) to produce dreamy and synesthetic animations.”
• Watch “ARDW: An Augmented Reality Workbench for Printed Circuit Board Debugging“—”To assist electrical engineers in debugging PCBs, we present ARDW, an augmented reality workbench.” Also “ARDW: An Augmented Reality Workbench for Printed Circuit Board Debugging” (PDF). Also “Augmented Reality Workbench Helps You to Debug Your Boards.”
• “Apple silicon supports the ancient Intel 8080 through a secret extension. Still supported nearly 50 years after release.”—”In 2020, Apple made the switch from Intel processors and started releasing Macs powered by its own custom chips. Due to the change, Apple needed to find a method to emulate x64-based programs on the new silicon. Apple found a way—a very ancient way.”
• “The Distributed Computing Manifesto“—”Today, I am publishing the Distributed Computing Manifesto, a canonical document from the early days of Amazon that transformed the architecture of Amazon’s ecommerce platform. It highlights the challenges we were facing at the end of the 20th century, and hints at where we were headed.”
• “The Hunt for the FTX Thieves Has Begun. Mysterious crooks took hundreds of millions of dollars from FTX just as it collapsed. Crypto-tracing blockchain analysis may provide an answer.” Also “Paul Weiss Drops Ex-FTX CEO Bankman-Fried on Conflicts (Correct)“—”Bankman-Fried, the former CEO of bankrupt crypto exchange FTX, is losing the firm’s help as US lawyers for the platform claim he is disrupting reorganization efforts through ‘incessant and disruptive tweeting.'”
• “How North Korea became a mastermind of crypto cybercrime. Cryptocurrency theft has become one of the regime’s main sources of revenue.”
• “Computer says there is a 80.58% probability painting is a real Renoir. Swiss company uses algorithm to judge whether contested Portrait de femme (Gabrielle) is genuinely by French artist.”—”Staring enigmatically at an unseen object to her right, the black-haired woman bears a striking resemblance to the person depicted in Pierre-Auguste Renoir’s painting Gabrielle, which Sotheby’s recently valued at between £100,000-150,000. However, art connoisseurs disagree over whether the work, which is owned by a private Swiss collector, is the real deal. Now, artificial intelligence has waded in to help settle the dispute, and the computer has deemed that it probably is a genuine Renoir.”
• “Remembering Apple’s Newton, 30 years on. On its 30th anniversary, we look at the groundbreaking product’s enduring legacy.” ngl. I still miss my Newton. My best memory is using it to take meeting notes at Microsoft. Bwahahahaha!
• Tweet—”BREAKING: Donald Trump, who tried to overthrow the results of the 2020 presidential election and inspired a deadly riot at the Capitol in a desperate attempt to keep himself in power, has filed to run for president again in 2024.” Also “With midterm losses, Trump’s climb to the nomination could be steeper than he’d like.” Also “Facebook fact-checkers will stop checking Trump after presidential bid announcement.”
• “More trouble for Trump’s company: a watchdog now can see the books. Ex-judge Barbara Jones now has her marching orders as Trump Org’s special monitor. She’ll watch for what a Manhattan judge calls persistent fraud.”
• “Herschel Walker Called on Biden to Take a Mental Fitness Exam. But He Won’t Do the Same. With his history, the GOP senate contender is a good candidate for such a test.”
• “How James Madison’s forensic science work could save American democracy, 200 years later. A draft of the Constitution, whose inauthenticity was proved by James Madison, is the focus of legal drama today.”—”More than two centuries later, Madison’s actions may … help save democracy. … because Pinckney’s document argued that state legislatures should have near-absolute authority over federal elections, a belief known as the independent state legislature doctrine.”
• Former Anti-Abortion Leader Alleges Another Supreme Court Breach. Years before the leaked draft opinion overturning Roe v. Wade, a landmark contraception ruling was disclosed, according to a minister who led a secretive effort to influence justices.” Also “Lawmakers Urge Action After Report Of Other Supreme Court Leak. The Senate Judiciary Committee chairman said the panel is reviewing allegations that a landmark 2014 decision was leaked by Justice Samuel Alito.” Also toot—”We don’t know who leaked the Supreme Court opinions to conservative groups, but one justice certainly doth protest his own innocence Alito too loudly.”
• “Voters ‘Will Walk Barefoot Over Broken Glass’ For Me, Boasts Ron DeSantis. ‘Florida is where ‘woke’ goes to die,’ he crowed to a meeting of the Republican Jewish Coalition in what sounded like a presidential campaign speech.” Also “GOP rivals come gunning for Trump — but let’s consider their history of failure and mendacity. Republican establishment finds a line of attack: Trump’s a loser. Problem is, their voters don’t believe that.” Also “Ivanka Trump Tried to Dodge Her Court-Appointed Financial Monitor. The Trumps were all appointed a court monitor to supervise their finances. Only Ivanka tried to get out of it.” Also “Ron DeSantis issues zero fines after 6,600 hotels rack up sex trafficking violations“—”Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration has declined to issue fines after over 14,000 violations of a sex trafficking law by Florida hotels and lodging establishments.” Also “Will Club Q Shooting Finally Wake America Up to Anti-LGBTQ Hate? Sadly No. For Lauren Boebert—whose anti-LGBTQ bigotry knows no bounds—to profess anger after the Club Q, Colorado Springs shooting, shows just how shameless the GOP’s hypocrisy is.”
• Herschel Walker Delivers Unhinged Transphobic Speech the Day After LGBTQ Nightclub Shooting.” Also “The Pro-Life Movement Made a Bargain With Trump, and It Has Paid Dearly. The movement’s greatest legal triumph could lead to enduring cultural defeat.” Also “Democrats Give Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts An Ultimatum. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse and Rep. Hank Johnson ordered the chief justice to name someone who can testify on the court’s ethics scandals.” Also “Troublemaker Trump doesn’t care about a second term – or America. What he craves is attention. Trump says he’s in it to win it in 2024. But all he offers is disruption and division in the service of his ego, not his country.” Also “Missouri lawmakers thwart the people’s will all the time. Now they’re targeting petitions. Missouri’s voters’ ability to enact laws on their own is under threat.”—”It’s true: Putting the marijuana language in the state’s governing blueprint was not the optimum approach. But let’s be clear. It ended up on the ballot because the legislature, as is so often the case, refused to do its job. The people were left with no real alternative except to do it for themselves.” Also “‘Hostage situation’: GOP insiders fear Trump third party run if he loses primary.” Also “A true MAGA warrior“—”There is no way that there is going to be a do-over for all the races in Arizona so I wonder how long Harris will stick to her guns, since the above article says, ‘If Harris follows through on the threat, it could cause some serious problems for her Republican colleagues. They control the Arizona House, but only by two votes.'” Also “It’s not just Trump: Midterms show the religious right is an albatross around the GOP’s neck. Republicans went hard with anti-LGBTQ rhetoric and abortion bans in 2022. Even their own voters don’t like it.” Also Merrick Garland Is Just Helping Trump Run Out the Clock. The New Abnormal podcast co-host Andy Levy and new co-host Danielle Moodie talk about their disappointment with Merrick Garland and chat with future Gen Z Rep. Maxwell Frost.” Also “Court Docs Rip Into DOJ for ‘Fiddling Away’ on Matt Gaetz Case. More than two years after the DOJ opened an investigation into the congressman, there are no charges against him. The lawyer for an alleged co-conspirator can’t believe that.” Also “After Shooting, Hate-mongering Republicans Are Suddenly Silent About LGBTQ Issues. The shooting suspect is being held for possible hate crimes—but you won’t hear these politicians mentioning it.” Also “With Anti-LGBTQ Hate From The Right On The Rise, Violence Was Sure To Follow“—”‘When politicians and pundits keep perpetuating tropes, insults, and misinformation … this is a result,’ said Brianna Titone, Colorado’s first openly trans state rep.”
• “‘Momentous:’ US advances largest dam demolition in history“—”U.S. regulators approved a plan Thursday to demolish four dams on a California river and open up hundreds of miles of salmon habitat that would be the largest dam removal and river restoration project in the world when it goes forward.” “The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s unanimous vote on the lower Klamath River dams is the last major regulatory hurdle and the biggest milestone for a $500 million demolition proposal championed by Native American tribes and environmentalists for years. The project would return the lower half of California’s second-largest river to a free-flowing state for the first time in more than a century.”
• “The World Cup Should Make Us Rethink Our Understanding of Human Rights“—”Media coverage of the World Cup has rightly highlighted the atrocious working conditions of migrant workers. But we need to broaden our definition of human rights abuses to include the global economic system that forces them to go to Qatar in the first place.”
• “Oregon To Pardon 45,000 People With Marijuana Convictions“—”No one deserves to be forever saddled with the impacts of a conviction for simple possession of marijuana,” the outgoing governor said.”
• “In Deep Red South Dakota and Nebraska, Voters Used Ballot Initiatives To Curb Inequality. Citizen-led initiatives scored big wins in the midterms. But now this form of direct democracy is under attack.” Also “Missouri lawmakers thwart the people’s will all the time. Now they’re targeting petitions. Missouri’s voters’ ability to enact laws on their own is under threat.”—”It’s true: Putting the marijuana language in the state’s governing blueprint was not the optimum approach. But let’s be clear. It ended up on the ballot because the legislature, as is so often the case, refused to do its job. The people were left with no real alternative except to do it for themselves.”
• “The Power of Negative Thinking“—”Civility and compromise don’t work against antidemocratic bullies. The left wins by rousing its own base, rather than grasping at the middle.”
• “America, It’s Time to Free the Pill. It’s safe and effective, and may soon be offered over-the-counter. What took so long?” Also “Doctors Should Break the Law to Offer Abortions Sometimes, Says New Guidance From Medical Leaders. ‘Attempting to comply with reckless government interference…is dangerous to the health of our patients,’ argues the American Medical Association.”
• “Almost 200 Years Late, House Hears Cherokee Case For Representation. A request to seat a non-voting tribal delegate in the House gets a bipartisan welcome.”
• “Nancy Pelosi to step down as House Democratic leader after two decades, with GOP set to take narrow majority. Pelosi, speaking on the House floor, said she will remain a member of Congress and serve out the term to which she was just elected. The announcement came less than a day after news outlets projected that Democrats would narrowly lose their House majority to Republicans following the midterm elections.”
• “FBI director ‘very concerned’ by reports of secret Chinese police stations in US. Christopher Wray says the FBI is investigating the existence of stations in New York, which could violate sovereignty.”
• “Ukraine war: 10 million without power after Russian strikes. President Volodymyr Zelensky has said 10 million Ukrainians are without power after a fresh wave of missile strikes by Russia.”
• “The Rupture That Could Trigger Putin’s Deadliest Rampage Yet. Russia’s war could reach a devastating climax in Crimea, threatening to expose just how low Vladimir Putin is willing to stoop.”—”The Kremlin’s chief executioner in Crimea is not modest about having slaughtered some 70,000 of her neighbors.”
• “Lame duck Madison Cawthorn has vacated his offices ‘nearly two months’ before his term ends“—”A call to the office reached a voicemail system inviting 11th District constituents to leave a message, saying a staff member would call them back. In Hendersonville, the district office with Cawthorn’s name and the House seal on the door and window was dark and locked. Rooms were empty of furniture, and cleaning products could be seen on a counter.” “Burgess notes that Cawthorn ‘recently bought a $1.1 million house in Florida’ but is, according to state records, ‘still registered to vote’ in North Carolina.”
• “Lauren Boebert declares herself the winner of too-close-to-call election as it heads to recount. Her Democratic challenger, meanwhile, acknowledged he may lose: ‘We’re not that wacko’.”
• “Joe Biden Is Finally Moving Toward Allowing Bankruptcy to Eliminate Student Debt. The Department of Justice has announced it will stop opposing efforts to discharge student debt through bankruptcy — a victory for the advocacy groups who have continuously made this demand on the Biden administration.” Also “One day after asking the Supreme Court to save its student-loan forgiveness plan, the Biden administration started notifying applicants they’ve been approved. The Department of Education on Saturday began sending emails to notify borrowers they were approved for debt relief, even as its held up in court.”
• “Citing Orwell, Judge Blocks ‘Positively Dystopian’ Censorship Law Backed by DeSantis. The federal judge lambasted Florida officials’ argument that ‘professors enjoy ‘academic freedom’ so long as they express only those viewpoints of which the state approves.'”
• “Arizona will now give undocumented students in-state tuition rates. Here’s why that matters“—”Arizona once boasted one of the most stringent policies barring access to higher education for undocumented students. But a recent shift in the state could signal changing perceptions of undocumented youth.”
• “The complicated path to Louisiana’s failed antislavery ballot measure“—”Out of five states that put measures to voters on the subject, Louisiana voters were the only ones to vote against banning slavery and involuntary servitude in the state constitution” “The sponsor of the amendment himself … ultimately opposed it due to changes in the text that he said would have expanded the state’s ability to use slavery or involuntary servitude as a punishment”
• “‘Morally Deplorable’: Biden Admin Recommends Immunity for MBS in Khashoggi Case“—”The Biden administration has not only shielded MBS from accountability in U.S. courts, but has effectively issued him a license to kill more detractors and declared that he will never be held accountable.”
• “Remarkable Photos Show What Harm Reduction Actually Looks Like. Don’t believe the conservative fear mongering.”
• “Anti-Woke Bank GloriFi to Shut Down. Texas startup has laid off most employees after failing to secure more funding.”—”The Texas startup that sought to build a conservative banking alternative is shutting down. GloriFi has laid off most of its employees and told them that it is closing up shop” 🎻
• “Alabama pausing executions after 3rd failed lethal injection.” Hot take: the state should have no more right to murder than an individual does.
• “At Long Last, a Day of Reckoning for Ticketmaster May Be Upon Us. Ticketmaster is facing a potential antitrust investigation after enraging Taylor Swift fans. Nobody can say Ticketmaster didn’t have it coming.” More on this.
• Thread—”You know what? I’m just going to say it: it was really shitty for the New York Times to publish a poorly reported anti-trans article on the first day of Transgender Awareness Week. For real, that’s really low, and no, I don’t think it was a coincidence”
• “Starbucks union to strike at more than 100 locations on Red Cup Day, one of the chain’s busiest days of the year. The union said the strike is meant to call attention to the company’s alleged union-busting and refusal to negotiate contracts fairly.”
• “America faces a possible rail strike in two weeks after largest union rejects labor deal“—”If even one of the dozen railroad unions were to go on strike, the other 11 would honor the picket lines, shutting down the railroads.” ✊
• “Online mobs are now coming for student journalists. Young reporters are forced to contend with waves of abuse and harassment, driving some out of the industry before they even get started.”
• “‘Gamera: Rebirth’ – Netflix Announces the Return of Gamera With New Project! [Teaser]“—”Officially announced by Netflix Japan tonight on social media, the kaiju known as Gamera is coming back to life with Gamera: Rebirth, a “new work” that’s coming soon to Netflix!” Watch “【特報映像】『GAMERA -Rebirth-』ガメラ、復活ーー。”
• “Netflix Eyes Greta Gerwig to Direct Chronicles of Narnia Reboot. Plus, more of director Francis Lawrence’s hopes for the Constantine movie sequel.” Ugh. Narnia AGAIN?! Blah.
• You know about Jeff Wayne’s Musical Version Of The War Of The Worlds, right? right?! But, I did not know there’s a “new generation“?! WHAT THE HELL?! WHY DID NOBODY TELL ME?!
• “The Royal Game of Ur: How to Play the Oldest Board Game on Record. For 4,600 years, a mysterious game slept in the dust of southern Iraq, largely forgotten. The passion of a museum curator and the hunger of young Iraqis for their cultural history may bring it back.”—”But there was another aspect of the game that attracted people: It was said to tell a player’s fortune.” “According to the cuneiform tablet, some of the marked squares on the board were assigned signs of the zodiac and, with them, predictions that a player would win a beer, make a friend, eat well, or perhaps become powerful and wealthy.” From 2015: watch “Deciphering the world’s oldest rule book.” Back to article: “In 2018, Ashley Barlow was working as a heritage professional at the University of Raparin at Ranya in Iraq when he hit upon an idea. As part of a program to enhance students’ knowledge of their country’s history, he and a small group of Iraqi friends planned to revive the Royal Game of Ur.”
• “Chris Hemsworth Changed His Life After an Ominous Health Warning. In an exclusive sit-down with Vanity Fair, the actor discusses movies, the future of Thor, his businesses, fatherhood, and how a genetic predisposition for Alzheimer’s alters everything.”—”While working on National Geographic’s Limitless, his new docuseries about pushing back on the natural decline that comes with time and aging …” Ironic. “Are you hoping that there’ll be a conclusion for Thor? Yeah, for sure. I feel like we’d probably have to close the book if I ever did it again, you know what I mean?”
• “You aren’t ready for how good Marvel’s new Doctor Strange comic looks. The true master of the mystic arts is writer and artist Tradd Moore.”
• “Have We Forgotten Why Wookiees Ponder Their Orbs on Life Day? You now see red-robed Wookiees and their bright orbs all over Disney merchandise, a true reminder that capitalism ruins the reason for the season.”—”What was once a Star Wars joke is a fully armed and operational merchandising event.” “The Life Day Orb is arguably the most fundamentally religious aspect of Life Day in Wookiee culture.” “Perhaps even more so than the red traditional robes of Life Day (now available as loungewear!), the Life Day Orb is the symbol of the holiday as a corporate product.”
• “Monty Python’s Cocurricular Mediaeval Reenactment Programme – Free Quickstart. Monty Python’s Supplemental Educational Resource Materials for Pre- or Inter-Course Study.”
• Watch “1994: Are YOU Ready for the INTERNET? | Tomorrow’s World | Retro Tech | BBC Archive“—”The information superhighway will be a high-capacity digital communication network, which in time could revolutionise the way we shop, socialise and work. The groundwork for this technological behemoth is already well underway.” Behemoth?! Dat u?
• Watch “We Are Goat People“—”Half goat, half human, we are on one mission to share the world’s fairest cashmere.” WHY IS NO ONE TALKING ABOUT THESE SATANIC SWEATERS?! It’s just a commercial for a cashmere company NAADAM where there’s a bunch of people with goat legs. I mean, if people are going to freak the fuck out about something as simple as split toe shoes … Cultural appropriation is no joke, and it’s not even still Halloween!
• “Meet Reiner Knizia: The man who’s designed over 700 board games“—”Reiner Knizia is like royalty in the board game community. With more than 700 published games, spanning a 25-year career, he is one of, if not the most prolific board game designer in the world.”
• “Harrison Ford to be de-aged for Indiana Jones 5, swears it won’t suck. Unfortunately, Disney’s history with the technology gives us pause.” I still want to know why the promo image for film 5 has a huge 4 in the design.
• Watch “Andor 1975 TV Intro (Spoilers)“—”It’s 1975. A New Hope won’t be released for another two years, and George Lucas is mostly known as the American Graffiti guy. You just finished watching the latest episode of Barney Miller. ‘And now, we bring you tonight’s TV movie premiere. Get ready to travel to a far away galaxy that existed a long, long time ago. It’s the science fiction spectacular…ANDOR. Every Thursday night, only on ABC.'” Wait for it. The coup de grace credit is at the end, and especially true for the Narkina 5 sequence!
• Watch “【CANDY】Dance Practice 　ATARASHIIGAKKO! 新しい学校のリーダーズ“. Track CANDY from SNACKTIME by ATARASHII GAKKO!
• From 2018: “How sensory deprivation and floating impacts the brain“—”Our series Pay Attention looks at how to retrain our focus and recapture our attention under the bombardment of technology and information that distracts us. ‘CBS This Morning’ co-host John Dickerson explores if sensory deprivation can short-circuit the noise.” *staring in Altered States*
• “The Woman Who Fell to Earth. After her voice made her an icon, Björk became something rarer: an ecosystem.”—”‘You’ve got to understand that all the interviews that journalists do to me, they always just ask me for an hour what it’s like being strange,’ Björk said while promoting her second album, Post.” “But that’s what Björk’s best music does: It enters the vanishing point of the self and comes out the other side, where everyone else is.”

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