You should read this for 7/7/2018:
Art and Film
Via Allison Meier of hyperallergic: How Medieval Artists Used Monsters as Propaganda “In Medieval Monsters: Terrors, Aliens, Wonders, the Morgan Library & Museum in New York is exhibiting 70 examples of the monstrous in the Middle Ages.” The Morgan Library’s exhibit Medieval Monsters: Terrors, Alines, Wonders runs at the Morgan through September 23, 2018. There’s an online version of the exhibit.
Harlan Ellison was TV’s rejected son—and its harshest, most hopeful critic
July from the Morgan Library’s Da Costa Hours It’s mowing time!
Books, Writing, and Language
From Chuq Von Rospach: Harlan This is one of the best pieces I’ve read about Mr. Ellison.
Education
Wando High School summer reading list causing controversy See also South Carolina Police Challenge Summer Reading Titles
The books, The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas and All American Boys by Jason Reynolds and Brendan Kiely, were on a list of four titles for students taking an English 1 College Prep course. Both books mentioned have received numerous awards and accolades, including the Coretta Scott King Honor.
Neil Gaiman’s comment strikes me as perfect: I don’t actually believe that book-judging is a legitimate part of the business of policing.
Via Eric Hayot In The Chronicle of Higher Education: The Humanities as We Know Them Are Doomed. Now What?
Food and Drink
What did ancient Babylonians eat? A Yale-Harvard team tested their recipes This is interesting from all sorts of angles; historical, cuisine, and, for my part, most especially for the inter-disciplinary cooperative aspects of the research.
Baijiu, the World’s Most Popular Spirit You May Never Have Heard Of I confess it doesn’t sound terribly appetizing, but I’d still like to try it.
How Different Cooking Methods Change the Taste of Food “Braising, simmering, roasting, grilling. Learn how four different heat sources and techniques turn the same ingredient into a variety of different dishes.”
History and Archaeology
Why take our college basketball team to Auschwitz?
Horses Have Had Dental Appointments in Mongolia for Over 3,000 Years For those with an equestrian bent, I found it particularly interesting that many of the horses had had their “wolf” teeth removed; this makes a bit more comfortable (and I suspect, more effective).
Pay It Forward and Make It Better
Last night I went to the cinema. Oceans 8 was & I now have a bit of a crush on Cate Blanchette. “I was making my way to the carpark when I noticed a commotion in front of Nando’s. Several people were gathered round something on the floor.”
Science and Nature
Via Science Direct: Knowing less but presuming more: Dunning-Kruger effects and the endorsement of anti-vaccine policy attitudes
Via The Seattle Times: Scientists hunt for parts of a massive meteor that splashed down off Washington State’s coast:
Scientists confirmed that the celestial fireworks visible on the coast from British Columbia to northern Oregon [on March 7, 2018] were caused by a meteor slamming into the Earth’s atmosphere. Now, researchers think they may be able to retrieve some of the shattered bits from the seafloor off the Washington coast.
Via @Foone on Twitter: Saccades “You want to know something about how bullshit insane our brains are? OK, so there’s a physical problem with our eyes: We move them in short fast bursts called “saccades”, right? very quick, synchronized movements. The only problem is: they go all blurry and useless during this”
Via WIRED: We Have No Idea How Bad the US Tick Problem Is Ticks are pernicious and carry bateria herds—and not just Lyme.
Society
Fintan O’Toole via The Irish Times: Trial runs for fascism are in full flow This is very much worth reading. One of the core points is that #45 is not a uniquely American problem.
One of the basic tools of fascism is the rigging of elections – we’ve seen that trialled in the election of Trump, in the Brexit referendum and (less successfully) in the French presidential elections. Another is the generation of tribal identities, the division of society into mutually exclusive polarities. Fascism does not need a majority – it typically comes to power with about 40 per cent support and then uses control and intimidation to consolidate that power. So it doesn’t matter if most people hate you, as long as your 40 per cent is fanatically committed.
Technology
Tech’s ‘Dirty Secret’: The App Developers Sifting Through Your Gmail “Software developers scan hundreds of millions of emails of users who sign up for email-based services.’
Facebook and Apple Disagree on How to Curb Fake News for U.S. Midterms People with expertise and critical judgement, with specific criteria regarding quality of content (not POV) are infinitely better than any pattern-matching algorithm.
Women’s Work
HPV test is better than Pap smear at detecting precancerous cervical changes, study says
💩🔥💰 Trumpery 💩🔥💰
Notes on 42 rosaries confiscated from immigrants at the Mexico/Arizona border.
Via MSNBC Debt soars under Trump tax cuts “The national debt is set to skyrocket, according to a new report from the Congressional Budget Office.”
