Content warning: A European's perspective on US gun violence
Why is a shooting in the USA even noteworthy these days? It's a daily occurrence. People even get killed by "ambient bullets" - NDs and other stray shots. It's just part of everyday life, like obesity and punitively-expensive healthcare.
The news media are already full of headlines about 'heartbreak' and 'desolation' and other such twaddle about 22 grown men being paid more than a surgeon, to chase a ball.
Leaving aside that there are Labradors who will do that for free, a football trophy is not important. Be proud of what your country does - the quality of its free health care system, the high standards of its education system, how it treats refugees, the skill it has at international diplomacy, its determination to halt the climate catastrophe, its equality for all and its tolerance and understanding of difference, its low murder rate, its contributions to science., its treatment of its own citizens. Things that matter.
Remember how the Brexit referendum was won days after a politician on the remain side was assassinated by someone supporting leave, and the whole thing was apparently just forgotten about?
Here is a little blast from the past for all you synthesizer fans out there. Mark Isham - Never Cry Wolf. Fantastic movie with an amazing soundtrack, which often reminds a little of blade runner.
Soundtrack from the 1983 Carroll Ballard film "Never Cry Wolf," with Charles Martin Smith, Brian Dennehy, Zachary Ittimangnaq, Samson Jorah, Martha Ittimangn...
That was very pretty. The youtube video had some great visuals from the movie, which was great because I've never seen it and now I want to! Thank you for the cool recommendation! :3 ππππ
@Violet 's monitor got damaged on the way to the Black Valley @demoparty_no party, so in a life-giving-you-lemons exercise, I decided to make it into a one-of-a-kind custom demo platform using the remaining pixels. One soundtrack from @vurpo later and we were in business...
RaccoonViolet's monitor got damaged on the way to the Black Valley demoparty in Norway, so we did the obvious thing and made it into a one-of-a-kind demo pla...
A guy on Facebook reported one of my #COVID19 posts as misinformation, saying that masks have been proven to be ineffective at preventing infections. If you are laboring under the same delusion:
Masks are, if correctly and consistently worn, effective in reducing transmission of respiratory diseases and show a dose-response effect. - Recent research study https://journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/cmr.00124-23
Making #penplotter progress. I had to stop it while it was making the title text because it was doing this weird thing where it kept lifting and dropping the pen making the curves, but all the other line work and text came out great!
What a fantastic way to describe gas vs #solar electric for transportation.
βIf you grow an acre of corn, it will produce 900 gallons of ethanol, which will get you about 25,000 miles for a Ford F-150 pickup,β says Carson. βWhich is, not bad I guess. But letβs say we put solar on that same acre. It will produce enough electricity every year to drive my Lightning 550,000 miles.β
βthe key to a longer, healthier life is no mysteryβ. Research has long shown that it comes down to five fundamental lifestyle behaviours: exercising regularly, eating sensibly, limiting alcohol, skipping cigarettes and βnurturing meaningful relationshipsβ. This stuff is simple, βsomewhat boringβ and, crucially, harder to make money from than βtrendy supplements, complex-sounding theories and new gadgetsβ.
So I just watched #TVNZ news go from a report on Trump shooting, concluding there's no place for political violence in US, to a story about Israel killing more than 90 innocent #Palestinian civilians sheltering in a designated 'safe zone' in an attack allegedly targeting 2 Hamas military leaders. I hope #NZMedia isn't blind to their blatant political hypocrisy. #NZPol
I'm really really really not interested in computers getting more powerful. I am super interested in them being more repairable and modifiable, drawing less power, lasting and being supported for way longer etc. That stuff still gets me excited
the whole country's gonna get soooo many lectures about "political violence" from the people who think all of society will crumble if the cops don't beat the shit out of black teens and homeless people every day of the week
personally I think the MONA thing is hilarious, especially in the context of the Discourse.
for non-Australians, the Museum of Old and New Art (MONA) in Tasmania had an area called the Ladies Lounge, where men were not allowed. They hung several fake Picassos, an antique mink rug that was actually polyester, and a bunch of fake tribal spears. The idea was that it was a criticism of the general idea of the patriarchy where men typically have a lot more opportunities for... pick a thing. Even when women were allowed in, what was actually inside were cheap replicas devoid of any amount of authenticity. It's ripping on token inclusion.
In an eye-watering display of self-awareness deficiency, a man then sued MONA for not being allowed in, claiming discrimination due to being a man. He claimed that as he had paid admission to the whole of MONA but was not permitted to this specific exhibit due to his gender, he was being discriminated against.
The Tasmanian Civil Tribunal agreed, and MONA was directed to admit men into a women's-only area. The irony is thick enough that you could cut it with a knife.
MONA, in response, dismantled the exhibit except for the fake Picassos. All the bathrooms at MONA are single-occupancy all-gender, but it turns out having a women's bathroom from which men are excluded *isn't* discriminatory, so they converted one into a women's bathroom and hung the fake Picassos in there, an exhibit of itself.
The art exhibit was basically a criticism of "turns out the only safe space for women away from men is a bathroom, and people will still claim that you're getting special rights because you get to see something nobody else can. Even if what you're seeing is a cheap replica, someone somewhere will claim that you have it good because you're getting something they don't."
Picasso's estate, however, took a rather dim view of unauthorised replicas being displayed in an art gallery in Tasmania, even though it was literally years between putting up the artwork and someone noticing. They've since been taken down with no further action.
MONA has declared that the Ladies Lounge will return as something where S26 of the Sex Discrimination Act doesn't apply, such as a church or boutique glamping experience.
They've also expressly stated that the Ladies Lounge includes ALL women, not just cis ones.
I love everything about this story. Fucking classic stuff coming out of the art world.
Wes Streeting: βThis ban [on puberty blockers] brings the private sector in line with the NHS. We are committed to providing young people with the evidence-led care that they deserveβ. Evidence shows that blockers are of great help.
This 2018 article from the Guardian lives rent-free in my head. I think about it often.
Michell Baker: βif we have Stem education without the humanities, or without ethics, or without understanding human behavior, then we are intentionally building the next generation of technologists who have not even the framework or the education or vocabulary to think about the relationship of Stem to society or humans or life.β
TIL that in the UK political system the two following statements are both true :
1) in order to vote for a candidate in a general election, you must provide photo ID.
2) in order to stand as a candidate in a constituency, to hopefully receive votes cast by those people mentioned in #1, you are *not* required to provide any photo ID.
