Reading

Created
Thu, 27/07/2023 - 03:30
An interesting segment with Andrew Weissman: Others have made the point but it’s important to remember: the people who testified about Trump’s efforts to overturn the election were some of his staunchest defenders. They went along with all his unethical behavior but finally drew the line at a coup. They will make good witnesses because of it.
Created
Thu, 27/07/2023 - 02:20
Instead of addressing our multiple ecological disasters, those with power are attacking wildlife defenders. By George Monbiot, published in the Guardian 20th July 2023 Several grisly bloodsports, legal or otherwise, are enjoyed in the English countryside. But none is as popular as shooting the messenger. Rather than attend to our environmental crisis, politicians, lobbyists and […]
Created
Thu, 27/07/2023 - 02:07

It should not come as a surprise that open source projects would act collaboratively.  But it’s somewhat of a first, in my understanding, that Open Source Matters, Inc. (Joomla), Typo3, WordPress, and the Drupal Association have issued a joint letter to the legislators of the European Union raising concerns with the proposed Cyber Resilience Act. And the concerns raised by our four organizations, whose communities collectively serve over 50% of the European websites, are significant enough to warrant such a first.

Created
Thu, 27/07/2023 - 01:46

In 1895, Wilhelm Roentgen, Professor of Physics in Wurzburg, Bavaria, discovered X-rays. The development changed the face of medicine, becoming vital in field hospitals during the First World War and playing a crucial role in the fight against tuberculosis—one of the deadliest diseases in the world. By the 1930s, it became clear that accurate interpretation […]

Created
Thu, 27/07/2023 - 01:18
The Distributed Nature Of Collapse

When the western world sanctioned Russia they expected Russia to collapse. It didn’t. The first reason is that most of the non-western world didn’t cooperate with the sanctions, but the second is simple: Russia has a food and fuel and mineral surplus.

The world as it stands now is every inter-dependent. The supply networks are dizzyingly complex and a final item like a car is made up of materials and parts extracted, made and assembled in dozens of locations.

The world isn’t always this way: it was like this in the late 19th, but after WWI that changed and the era of free trade ended, collapsing in particular during the Great Depression. The world did not become as “free trade” as it was before WWI again till the early 21st century.

Created
Thu, 27/07/2023 - 00:30
Pay no attention to those pundits behind the curtain Attempts on the right to vilify teachers and public schools have long infuriated me. As I’ve indicated time and again, it’s about the money. An investor class bent on privatizing public schools wants to turn those not-for-profit abominations into another rent-seeking extension of Wall Street. Teachers and school adminstrators stand between them and their money. Christian right parents are their useful idiots. Chalkbeat’s Matt Barnum cites data that refutes the notion that parents of school-age children are unhappy with their kids’ public education: “Contrary to elite or policy wonk opinion, which often is critical of schools, there have been years and years worth of data saying that families in general like their local public schools,” said Andy Smarick, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, a conservative think tank.  “It would be natural to assume that in 2020, 2021, parental support for schools would have cratered,” said Smarick. “But it didn’t.” You might not know that from that narrative advanced in the press.
Created
Wed, 26/07/2023 - 23:44
Splinter Cell Wins the Scribe Award! I’m delighted to say that, at San Diego Comic Con, Sebastian Baczkiewicz and I won a Scribe Award in the audio drama category for Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell: Firewall! The Scribes are given out annually by the International Association of Media Tie-In Writers. You can see the full list […]
Created
Wed, 26/07/2023 - 23:00
Demographic change is more than race and ethnicity A flurry of articles and polling herald the arrival of Gen Z voters: progressive, more engaged than their predecessor “Gens” and, critically, more prone to show up and vote. You’re either at the table or on the menu, the saying goes. Younger voters are pulling up chairs. Youth turnout jumped dramatically in 2018 and again in 2020, spawning headlines. Critically, turnout among the 18-29 set in 2022 helped stave off the overhyped red wave that instead rippled. “Researchers say the 2022 election had the second highest voter turnout among voters under 30 in at least the past three decades,” NPR reported. The record was set in 2018 when 31% of those eligible cast ballots. Not exactly “whopping,” but we’ll take it. The trends are moving in the right direction. Harvard Youth Poll director John Della Volpe points to “the big four” issues driving their engagement: climate change, gun violence, economic inequality and LGBTQ+ rights drive their engagement.
Created
Wed, 26/07/2023 - 22:00

“You can still circle back and touch base. But the vernacular of work life for many has changed just as much as their work has.” — The New York Times

- - -

“Goat teats and summer coats”

I propose we start using this phrase to mean really drilling down and getting granular. Example: “We’ve got the thirty-thousand-foot view, but let’s get down to goat teats and summer coats.”

Fifty points each for every mention.