Elsewhere for February 23, 2010

You should read this for 2/23/2020:

Art, Music, and Film

Jenny Stevens for The Guardian inerviews James Taylor: ‘I was a bad influence on the Beatles’: James Taylor on Lennon, love and recovery
Fair Isle: The remote island where jumpers are always in fashion
Thirty years ago, “Yesterday’s Enterprise” came when morale was at a low point for the writing staff: “We were so backed up with shows, so it was just like putting out fires.”

While “Yesterday’s Enterprise” often ranks as an all-timer for both the franchise and science fiction in general, its development process was so convoluted and stressful that one of its co-writers, Ira Steven Behr (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, The 4400), still can’t believe to this day how well-regarded the hour is. Or that they managed to pull it off. To celebrate the 30th anniversary of “Yesterday’s Enterprise,” co-writers Behr and Ronald D. Moore recently gave The Hollywood Reporter an oral history of sorts behind one of the greatest (and hardest) episodes they’ve ever made — one that would ultimately end up saving the series.

Books, Libraries, Writing, and Language

Have a strong accent? Here’s how that hurts your paycheck

“At a very young age, I decided I was not gonna have a Southern accent,” Colbert said in a 2006 interview with 60 Minutes. “When I was a kid watching TV, if you wanted to use a shorthand that someone was stupid, you gave the character a Southern accent. And that’s not true. Southern people are not stupid. But I didn’t wanna seem stupid. I wanted to seem smart.”

The 100 Most-Spoken Languages in the World

Food and Drink

How to Make Perfect Lemon Curd in the Microwave
Is Brown Rice Really That Much Healthier Than White Rice?

At the end of the day, brown rice and white rice are at a stalemate. They each have very minor advantages over the other, but there’s nothing that stands out and says one is better than the other in regards to your health.

H/T Comfortable Shoes Studio: Smitten Kitchen’s Cannellini Aglio-e-Olio Canned Cannellini beans, olive oil, garlic, parsley, chopped artichoke hearts and crusty bread.

History and Archaeology

Mass grave shows how Black Death devastated the countryside
The Great Sphinx of Giza Through the Years

Gathered below are varied photographs of the Sphinx throughout the past 170 years, from Maxime du Camp’s image of a still-mostly-buried Sphinx, in 1849, to 21st century light shows, and much more.

Science and Nature

Shuteye and sleep hygiene: the truth about why you keep waking up at 3am
Scientists stuck cameras on 30 Antarctic whales and captured this wild footage

Society

Michael Bloomberg dogged by more past controversial remarks

“I could teach anybody, even people in this room, no offense intended, to be a farmer,” Bloomberg said.
“It’s a process. You dig a hole, you put a seed in, you put dirt on top, add water, up comes the corn. You could learn that. Then we had 300 years of the industrial society. You put the piece of metal on the lathe, you turn the crank in the direction of the arrow and you can have a job.
“Now comes the information economy [which is] fundamentally different because it’s built around replacing people with technology and the skill sets that you have to learn are how to think and analyze, and that is a whole degree level different. You have to have a different skill set, you have to have a lot more gray matter.”

Yep; he went there. Farmers and factory workers don’t need smarts. Dude, seriously, people haven’t farmed like that since the Neolithic era. Medieval farmers were incredibly sophisticated though completely illiterate.
Coming out as Dalit: how one Indian author finally embraced her identity

Technology

The Russian Trolls’ Next Favorite Candidate

Americans are now the chief suppliers of the material that suspected Russia-linked accounts use to stoke anger ahead of U.S. elections, leaving Russia free to focus on pushing it as far as possible. Linvill has seen Russian trolls shift tactics to become “curators more than creators,” with the same goal of driving Americans apart. “The Russians love those videos,” he said, “because they function to make us more disgusted with one another.” He and a colleague have traced viral tweets about the Dallas incident to Russia-linked accounts that Twitter has since suspended.

Women’s Work

H/T MEC: The Legend Of Linda Perhacs, ‘A Most Unlikely Rock Star’
The breadwinners of Barishal: how women in Bangladesh are starting their own businesses

Women in this flood-hit area are supporting their families through small businesses backed by the British Red Cross. From tailoring to tea making, the success of these enterprises is inspiring other young women to follow suit

In a shot against Michael Bloomberg, Elizabeth Warren shows how easy it is to nullify an NDA

💩🔥💰 Trumpery 💩🔥💰

“A grave threat”: More than 1,100 ex-DOJ officials call on Bill Barr to resign

In a letter released on Medium today, more than 1,100 former employees of the US Department of Justice (DOJ) condemned attorney general Bill Barr for his handling of the case against Roger Stone, a longtime ally of Donald 💩🔥💰 who is accused of obstruction and lying under oath.
“Each of us strongly condemns President 💩🔥💰 and Attorney General Barr’s interference in the fair administration of justice,” the former officials wrote. “Those actions, and the damage they have done to the Department of Justice’s reputation for integrity and the rule of law, require Mr. Barr to resign.”

Roger Stone: ‘Disgusted’ judge jails 💩🔥 ally
Don’t mince words. 💩🔥💰 is abetting an attack on our country.

💩🔥💰 is angry because our intelligence officials followed the law and informed members of both parties about what the intel indicated about new Russian efforts. 💩🔥💰 “berated” his acting director of national intelligence, Joseph Maguire, for allowing this heresy.

Because whatever Russia’s real intentions toward 💩🔥💰, this is still an attack on our democracy. The Times reports that intelligence discerns numerous concrete threats: new efforts to spread disinformation to divide the country; and possibly efforts to interfere in state voting systems.

Pay It Forward and Make It Better

America’s ‘recycled’ plastic waste is clogging landfills, survey finds

The research, conducted by Greenpeace and released on Tuesday, found that out of 367 recycling recovery facilities surveyed none could process coffee pods, fewer than 15% accepted plastic clamshells – such as those used to package fruit, salad or baked goods – and only a tiny percentage took plates, cups, bags and trays.

This jacket is actually a portable shelter for homeless people

Since Sheltersuit started in 2014, companies have been donating Timmer materials, like sleeping bags and tent fabrics that would have been thrown away because of production mistakes like a misplaced logo. Some companies reached out to Sheltersuit after seeing the organization in the media. The suit is made entirely out of these upcycled materials, from the belts that act as the backpack’s straps to the large hood that can block out glaring lights homeless people often have to contend with while sleeping on the street.