My Family’s Doll Test

Dr. Ibram X. Kendi* writing for The Atlantic:

Regardless of your race, it’s never too early to consider the messages a child is receiving from the world around them. Color blindness is not an option. Research has demonstrated that even at 1 year old, our children notice different skin colors. We can impress upon children the equality of dark and light colors.

As the white grandparent of a biracial or mixed-race grandson, I’m very cognizant of the racial information he’s picking up from toys, books, tv shows, etc., as well as his grandmother and myself! It’s never too soon to start trying to be aware of this.

yeah, in a minute…
* Dr. Kendi is the author of many wonderful books, among which is 2019’s revalatory How to Be an Antiracist which I strongly suggest you read immediately, if you haven’t already.
by Paul on August 23, 2022 at 4:59pm | Permalink
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Human-Caused Climate Change More Powerful Than the Fall of the Roman Empire

María Luisa Paúl repoting for The Washington Post:

Every year, farmers in France’s central region of Auvergne repeat the same process. During summer and fall, their cows graze in pastures, eating to their hearts’ content. It’s only during this time that farmers can produce salers, a highly regulated semihard cheese with the same buttery depth as a well-aged cheddar.

That seasonal cycle remained uninterrupted for over 2,000 years until last week, when salers became the latest casualty of severe heat waves wreaking havoc across Europe, where human-caused climate change has intensified temperatures. France’s severe drought shut down the cheese production that had continued through two world wars, collapsed monarchies and the fall of the Roman Empire.

by Paul on August 21, 2022 at 12:17pm | Permalink
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Elvis +45 years

On this day, 45 years ago (that’s 1977, for those who aren’t great at math), Elvis Presley died.

by Paul on August 16, 2022 at 7:17am | Permalink
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R.I.P. Anne Heche

Anne Heche, perhaps best known for her role as Robin Monroe in Six Days, Seven Nights, but also known for her roles in Donnie Brasco, Wag the Dog, I Know What You Did Last Summer, and Psycho as well as TV roles in Another World, and Hung, to name but a few of her credits, has died at 53.

Goddamnit.

Anne Heche, the Emmy-winning actress who starred in films like Six Days, Seven Nights and the Psycho remake, but whose own career was curtailed by struggles with mental illness, died Friday at the age of 53 following injuries she sustained in a car crash in Los Angeles.

“Today we lost a bright light, a kind and most joyful soul, a loving mother, and a loyal friend,” Heche’s rep told People on behalf of her family and friends.

by Paul on August 12, 2022 at 1:58pm | Permalink
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The Funniest Fucking Podcast

I like podcasts, and have liked them for a long time. I’ve listened to SModcast since episode 3. I’ve listened to WTF with Marc Maron since episode twenty-something. And, of course, I’ve listened to and/or watched This Week in Tech and MacBreak Weekly forever. My point is, I’m a big podcast fan, and I’ve been a podcast fan for 15 or more years.

I’ve just recently started listening to a new podcast (I’m getting caught up now), called Fly on the Wall with Dana Carvey and David Spade, and it is the funniest fucking podcast I’ve ever listened to. Don’t get me wrong, there are a lot of funny podcasts out there, but as far as being consistently “laugh out loud” funny, this show is the funniest. I don’t even try to listen to it in the office any more, because my colleagues hate it when I bust out laughing uncontrollably.

The podcast is simple: Dana Carvey and David Spade talking to a guest each week who has some connection to SNL — former cast member, writer, or host. They ask questions and tell stories and it is just the funniest damn stuff to listen to.

Job well done.

by Paul on August 11, 2022 at 2:28pm | Permalink
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Fax Machines

The only thing fax machines should be used for nowadays is for ending the sentence, ‘Hey, remember fax machines?’ and that is it!”

— John Oliver, Last Week Tonight S9E19, 7 August 2022.

by Paul on August 9, 2022 at 3:48pm | Permalink
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How Three Amateurs Solved the Zodiac Killer’s ‘340’ Cipher

Kathryn Miles reporting for Popular Mechanics:

But then, in December 2020, the FBI announced a breakthrough: The 340 cipher had been solved. Not by its crack Cryptanalysis and Racketeering Records Unit, but instead by three computer wonks who’d found one another on an obscure online true-crime discussion board and started collaborating during the COVID-19 pandemic. The trio, who had no background in cryptology and no professional codebreaking experience, did what the world’s most powerful intelligence organizations could not. On top of the solution’s haunting opacity, the intricacies of the cipher itself brought fresh layers of insight that, forensic experts say, might help authorities eventually, finally, catch up to the killer.

by Paul on August 3, 2022 at 7:29pm | Permalink
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Reason Roundup: Kansans Reject Anti-Abortion Ballot Measure—and It’s Not Even Close

Elizabeth Nolan Brown reporting for Reason.com:

Voters overwhelmingly voted against a measure that would have allowed abortion to be banned in Kansas in the first post-Roe test of abortion’s legality put directly to the people.

Yeah, that’s the kind of crazy thing about the Dobbs decision — the people of our fair nation are overwhelmingly in favor of having access to abortion.

Oh, and this:

The vote isn’t the result of low turnout—Kansans voted on the abortion measure in numbers normally not seen in non-general elections.

And also this:

Nor is it a result of August elections typically favoring more liberal voters. “When the Legislature’s GOP supermajority placed the amendment on the ballot last year they picked the election most likely to favor the amendment,” notes The Kansas City Star. “August primaries have disproportionately high Republican turnout because Democratic primaries in Kansas are often uncontested.”

Plus this:

And it doesn’t turn on results from more liberal urban areas or university towns alone. Suburban Johnson county overwhelmingly voted against it

Rural counties such as Franklin and Osage also voted against the amendment “by significant margins,” reports the Star. And even many rural counties that voted for it did so by smaller margins than they did for Donald Trump in 2020.

But, let’s be aware of this:

Whether Kansas is a good bellwether for the rest of the country on this issue is debatable. But Kansas is a relatively conservative and Republican state, and residents voting against an anti-abortion initiative at least suggests that conservative enthusiasm for banning abortion might not be as strong as many believe.

Of course, Kansans voting down this ballot measure doesn’t meant they wouldn’t support a 15-week limit on legal abortion or other more moderate restrictions. But a total ban—which the measure would have allowed for—doesn’t seem to have majority support.

I think most rational people, whether Freedom-loving or Freedom-limiting in nature, would agree that a 15-week limit is reasonable. But total bans, “heartbeat” bills, requiring doctors to have hospital admitting priviliges, and other irrational restrictions are just not what the vast majority of people want.

by Paul on August 3, 2022 at 6:54pm | Permalink
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R.I.P. Nichelle Nichols

Mike Barnes reporting for The Hollywood Reporter:

Nichelle Nichols, Lieutenant Uhura on ‘Star Trek,’ Dies at 89 — The actress earned the admiration of Martin Luther King Jr. by playing a Black authority figure, rare on 1960s television.

by Paul on July 31, 2022 at 3:53pm | Permalink
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John Lasseter’s Second Act

Rebecca Keegan and Carolyn Giardina reporting at The Hollywood Reporter:

No one could tell a story like Lasseter — until he resigned as Disney Animation/Pixar’s chief creative officer in the wake of #MeToo complaints. Now head of Skydance’s animation division, where he oversaw August’s ‘Luck,’ he’s attempting to turn his own story around.

As a professional software engineer, I’ve been a fan of Pixar Animation Studios since even before I saw the first computer-animated feature film, Toy Story, on the big screen. As such, I truly wish Lasseter had found a path back to Pixar/Disney, but I’ll take what I can.

After Lasseter’s resignation from Disney, Ellison reached out to him through the lawyer they share, Skip Brittenham. Lasseter’s Disney departure occurred in the heat of the #MeToo movement, after egregious and specific revelations about other powerful Hollywood figures like Harvey Weinstein and Bill Cosby, and media reports about Lasseter often linked him with those men. In Lasseter’s case, there were no charges of sexual assault, nor, according to Ellison, who hired attorneys to scrutinize the claims, settlements made by Lasseter or on his behalf.

Crucially, I think this is an important aspect of Lasseter’s #MeToo involvment — no charges of sexual assault, and no settlements made by him or on his behalf, “hush-hush” or otherwise.

by Paul on July 30, 2022 at 1:16pm | Permalink
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