You should read this for 1/5/2019:
Art and Film
Chip By Chip, Restoring The Damaged Washington National Cathedral
H/T Heather: Wabanaki basketmakers try to save our state’s ash trees — and their traditional craft — from the emerald ash borer.
Books, Writing, and Language
Why you should surround yourself with more books than you’ll ever have time to read An overstuffed bookcase (or e-reader) says good things about your mind.
See also: Umberto Eco’s Antilibrary: Why Unread Books Are More Valuable to Our Lives than Read Ones
Bottleneck at Printers Has Derailed Some Holiday Book Sales
Agents and authors say part of the problem is that publishers and retailers have become more risk averse. Publishers are printing smaller first runs, partly because retailers are ordering fewer copies initially, waiting to see which titles take off to avoid making the wrong bet and getting stuck storing unsold inventory. In the past, it was often easy to get another batch of books printed in a week or two if a title sold unexpectedly well, but these days some publishers say it can take one or two months.
For the First Time in More Than 20 Years, Copyrighted Works Will Enter the Public Domain
What the Earliest Texts Say About the Invention of Writing
Food and Drink
The Original Hot Buttered Rum Recipe
This is one version; it makes a batter of sorts. I prefer a much simpler version, that’s about six ounces of hot water, a dash of rum, a sprinkle of cinnamon or nutmeg, a small 1/2 teaspoon or so of butter, and a teaspoon of brown sugar or honey.
Top 10 Wines Under $10 For 2018
History and Archaeology
The Modern History of Ornithology Starts With This Inquisitive Medieval Emperor “Frederick II, the Holy Roman Emperor born on this day in 1194, is remembered for fighting with the Pope so much he was excommunicated, for promoting literature and science in Sicily and for his fascination with birds.”
Science and Nature
More than 50 Australian plant species face extinction within decade ‘Study finds just 12 of the most imperilled species are listed under national environment laws as critically endangered”
The scientists concluded that 55 species were at high risk of extinction within the next 10 years, with fewer than 250 individual plants or only a single population remaining. They found just 12 of the most imperilled species were listed under the EPBC Act as critically endangered and 13 had no listing at all.
Risky business: linking Toxoplasma gondiiinfection and entrepreneurship behaviours across individuals and countries See also: Toxoplasma gondii
H/T Frances: We Need a New Christmas Bird
An ant colony has memories that its individual members don’t have
Society
Those End-Of-The-Year Charitable Donations May Not Help Your Tax Bill
Rick Cohen, with the National Council of Nonprofits in Washington, D.C., estimatesthat charities and nonprofits such as churches, will see big drops in donations in the coming year. The drop in charitable giving could top 20 billion dollars nationwide because more people will take the standard deduction as opposed to itemizing.
‘It’s not fair, not right’: how America treats its black farmers
“The tactics are to strangle the life from all the black farmers, and it’s being done in multiple ways,” says Sanders. “And the US government is as much in on the strangling as any other entity … and has generally been complicit in running hundreds of thousands of black folks off the farm, and destroying their way of life.”
Women’s Work
H/T Frances: The 97-Year-Old Park Ranger Who Doesn’t Have Time for Foolishness “As the oldest career National Park Service ranger, Betty Soskin is unabashed about revealing all of America’s history—and her optimism about our future.”
She also offers a blueprint on how not to despair about our times. “Democracy has been experiencing these periods of chaos since 1776. They come and go,” she says. “And it’s in those periods that democracy is redefined.” When everything seems to be crumbling, we can remold and reset, she believes: “History has been written by people who got it wrong, but the people who are always trying to get it right have prevailed. If that were not true, I would still be a slave like my great-grandmother.”
H/T Jasmin: The female powerhouse who developed 1920s Downtown LA
💩🔥💰 Trumpery 💩🔥💰
Splitting With Trump Over Syria, American Leading ISIS Fight Steps Down
Mr. McGurk, a seasoned diplomat who was considered by many to be the glue holding together the sprawling international coalition fighting the terrorist group, was supposed to retire in February. But according to an email he sent his staff, he decided to move his departure forward to Dec. 31 after Mr. Trump did not heed his own commanders and blindsided America’s allies in the region by abruptly ordering the withdrawal of the 2,000 troops.
Trump EPA Says Mercury Limits On Coal Plants Too Costly, Not ‘Necessary’
Pay It Forward and Make It Better
The ‘angel’ who secretly pays patients’ hospital bills
“That’s why I call this the Angel Project,” he says. “Be the angel you hope to meet.”
