You should read this for 2/09/2020:
Art, Music, and Film
‘Deaf’ genius Beethoven was able to hear his final symphony after all
From 1818, [Beethoven] carried blank “conversation books”, in which friends and acquaintances jotted down comments, to which he would reply aloud. . . . “The conversation books are going to be a game-changer,” Albrecht said. Among the surviving examples – two in the composer’s birthplace, the Beethoven-Haus museum in Bonn, and 137 in Berlin State Library – he has so far found 23 direct references to the subject of hearing, and estimates that several dozen more will show “he could still hear something”.
This web application provides information on the current restoration of the Ghent Altarpiece, and it allows you to study the polyptych yourself. You are granted intimate access to the world of Hubert and Jan van Eyck, and to that of the art restorers who have painstakingly revealed the earlier glory of these paintings, which had been hidden for many centuries.
Books, Libraries, Writing, and Language
Stephen King quits Facebook over false claims in political ads
‘No Divine Revelation, Feminine Intuition or Mumbo Jumbo’: Dorothy L Sayers and the Detection Club
Food and Drink
History and Archaeology
Archaeologists Put Stone Tools Through Modern Engineering Tests
Science and Nature
Wild grey seal caught ‘clapping’ on camera for the first time “The sound resembles ‘shotgun-like cracks’ and attracts potential mates”
Society
Cherokee Nation to preserve culturally important seeds in Arctic vault “Varieties of corn, beans and squash seen as central to Cherokee identity will be deposited in Norway’s Svalbard seed bank”
Technology
Turns out that busted Iowa Caucuses app was also extremely hackable
Women’s Work
A new app to support female journalists facing harassment is looking for beta testers
Via The Guardian; a Rachel Maddow interview: Rachel Maddow on her critics: ‘Your hatred makes me stronger. Come on! Give me more!’
“Russia interfered in the 2016 election to try to elect Donald Trump, and Donald Trump got elected and he is weirdly and irreversibly supplicant toward Russia and Putin. Like, OK, I’m going to cover that,” she says. “I don’t care what anybody says about me. I don’t play requests and I don’t worry about the criticism. If we get something wrong, I’ll correct it, but, in the absence of that, the criticism for focusing on real news stories that bother people – that’s what I get paid to do.”
Outing A Person Rarely Brings Us Closer To Their Truth
💩🔥💰 Trumpery 💩🔥💰
Email release reveals chaos sowed by President Trump’s hurricane tweets
The picture that emerges from this trove of emails is one of civil servants and government employees at NOAA and the National Weather Service trying to do what was right in the midst of a political (and self-made) crisis at the top and a natural disaster (Dorian) pressuring them from without.
Photo Of Trump’s Shockingly Orange Face Launches A Thousand Memes
You’ll immediately notice that Trump’s face is glowing orange. I’m talking Big Tangerine Energy here. Definitely more bronzed than usual. Not only is his face clearly covered in tinted makeup or tanner of some sort, but there’s also clear line where the makeup ends. Trump’s hair is blown back a bit, and his pale scalp halo hovers above what looks like an orange mask.
Why Would a Billionaire Charge the Secret Service $650 a Night?
Why Would a Billionaire Charge the Secret Service $650 a Night?
the Trump Organization charged the Secret Service (in other words, the taxpayer) from $400 to $650 a night to stay at Mar-a-Lago while guarding the president. At another Trump property, his golf course in Bedminster, New Jersey, the Secret Service was billed $17,000 a month for a small cottage, even when the president wasn’t present. These are just snapshots. Despite heroic public-records work by the Post, there’s still no complete picture of just what the Trump Organization is charging the Secret Service.
Pay It Forward and Make It Better
The-Best Ways To Use Your Old Silica Gel Packets
For Peat’s Sake: How To Protect Bogs
Peatlands are considered the most efficient carbon sinks on Earth. The plants that grow in them capture the carbon released by the peat, maintaining an equilibrium that we cannot afford to lose. Extracted and degraded peat bogs do the opposite: they release a lot of carbon dioxide. It goes without saying that we can’t afford to destroy them while the world burns.
