You should read this for 12/8/2019:
Art, Music, and Film
H/T TidBITS: Amazon Music gives the gift of free streaming
H/T: Anna: How To Make Star Wars Paper Snowflakes
Snow Brawl
Snowbrawl is a fun short film of a children’s snowball fight shot as if it were a John Wick or Mission Impossible action sequence. David Leitch, the uncredited co-director of John Wick and director of Deadpool 2, shot the whole thing for Apple on an iPhone 11 Pro.
Books, Writing, and Language
Small bookstores are booming after nearly being wiped out
Dane Neller, the owner of Shakespeare & Co. in New York City, just opened his third indie bookstore, and he’s proving the naysayers wrong.
“Bookstores are back and they’re back in a big way,” he said. “I’m not giving to to hyperbole — it was record-breaking for us.”
Education
The New Humanities Once-robust fields are being broken up and stripped for parts.
Food and Drink
H/T John Scalzi: A Conversation With the Team That Made Bread With Ancient Egyptian Yeast
Mulling Over Mulled Wine
History and Archaeology
George Will Confirms Nixon’s Vietnam Treason
Nixon’s newly revealed records show for certain that in 1968, as a presidential candidate, he ordered Anna Chennault, his liaison to the South Vietnam government, to persuade them to refuse a cease-fire being brokered by President Lyndon Johnson.
Nixon’s interference with these negotiations violated President John Adams’s 1797 Logan Act, banning private citizens from intruding into official government negotiations with a foreign nation.
Science and Nature
H/T Yasmine: Measles makes body ‘forget’ how to fight infection
Measles has a devastating impact on the body’s immune system that could make it harder to fight infections for years, a pair of studies show.
The virus can cause “immune amnesia” – meaning the body forgets how to fight bugs it once knew how to beat.
Measles also resets the immune system to a “baby-like” state, compromising its ability to devise ways of tackling new infections.
Experts said the findings showed the importance of vaccination.
Society
Technology
That Uplifting Tweet You Just Shared? A Russian Troll Sent It
The purpose of the Tyra account, we believe, was not to spread heartwarming messages to Americans. Rather, the tweet about Warrick Dunn was really a Trojan horse to gain followers in a larger plan by a foreign adversary. We think this because we believe @IamTyraJackson was an account operated by the successors to Russia’s Internet Research Agency (IRA). Special Counsel Robert Mueller indicted the IRA for waging a massive information war during the 2016 U.S. election. Since then, the IRA seems to have been subsumed into Russia’s Federal News Agency, but its work continues. In the case of @IamTyraJackson, the IRA’s goal was two-fold: Grow an audience in part through heartwarming, inspiring messages, and use that following to spread messages promoting division, distrust, and doubt.
Women’s Work
H/T Kira Cee: First she saved my life. Then she rescued me again with a Thanksgiving invitation
Pay It Forward and Make It Better
Naomi Shihab Nye Gate A-4
H/T Kira Cee: Oldest Person In Australia Likes To Knit Mini Sweaters For Injured Penguins
What would happen if we randomly gave $1,000 to poor families? Now we know.
“Cash transfers benefited the entire local economy, not just direct recipients. As money made its way through the area, both families who did and did not receive cash ended up substantially better off.”
