Things that make you go "Hmmm..." (2020 Edition)

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Things that make you go "Hmmm..." (2020 Edition)

1CliffBurns
jan 10, 2020, 10:39 pm

2DugsBooks
jan 15, 2020, 10:21 am

Governments keep pushing the retirement age higher and higher but waiting until 100 to retire? I guess some are dedicated to their jobs.

"This playboy tortoise had so much sex he saved his entire species. Now he's going home"

https://www.cnn.com/2020/01/11/americas/diego-playboy-tortoise-sex-life-galapago...

3CliffBurns
Bewerkt: jan 16, 2020, 10:50 am

Female musicians who should be in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame:

https://www.npr.org/2020/01/15/796717978/41-women-who-should-be-in-the-rock-roll...

4Cecrow
jan 16, 2020, 11:50 am

>3 CliffBurns:, I guess I'm not as open-minded about what musical styles belong under the "rock and roll" umbrella.

5DugsBooks
Bewerkt: jan 16, 2020, 2:46 pm

>3 CliffBurns: A list of amazing musicians , it appears in some cases musical genre classification might be an issue.

Shoulda, woulda, coulda, anecdote about a group in the article:

" Fanny: The first all-woman band to put out an album on a major label, Fanny captured the attention of important men like the Beatles and David Bowie, but its influence on these titans is rarely acknowledged."

They were being interviewed in the bottom of my high rise dorm back in the 1970's and I had stolen a poster which featured the group facing away in some really tight jeans , exhibiting their namesakes "Fanny". As they were being interviewed live on the student radio station I was suddenly inspired to run down several flights of steps and get their autographs on the poster, having each member sign their respective posterior. {Might not be a PC concept these days or even then!}. My nerve failed me however and I had another beer instead - the poster disappeared in a move or somewhere. ;-(

::edit in:: ....and no Carol King!!!?? , saving the best for last?

6CliffBurns
jan 16, 2020, 5:12 pm

7CliffBurns
jan 21, 2020, 12:45 pm

8CliffBurns
jan 24, 2020, 10:41 am

AMERICAN DIRT...classic novel or stereotypical trash?

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-51230164

9bluepiano
jan 24, 2020, 5:58 pm

Em given that the author says she has 'the capacity to be a bridge' I'd guess not a classic novel. Not to be arch but given its being picked by Winfrey it's likely to be for readers with a short attention span who would rather take a long walk off a short pier than read something demanding. I do hope the book has many readers who resonate with its author, though.

13mejix
feb 27, 2020, 12:32 am

Mechanical Marvels—Automaton: The Draughtsman-Writer "Android," ca.1800
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ZiH7oF3OMM&feature=emb_title

16Crypto-Willobie
mrt 13, 2020, 4:51 pm

At first I thought that said Miles Davis and I was interested...

17bluepiano
mrt 13, 2020, 6:50 pm

Hell, 'bitches brew' seems as good a metaphor as any.

18CliffBurns
mrt 17, 2020, 1:39 am

This Coronavirus stuff is getting out of hand, don't you think? This is not a zombie apocalypse or existential threat to humanity, for God's sake:

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/16/books/coronavirus-impact-publishing-industry-...

19iansales
mrt 17, 2020, 3:06 am

Who knew a global pandemic would cause economies to tank and show up the depredations of the one-percenters on public infrastructure and services?

20CliffBurns
mrt 28, 2020, 5:10 pm

Thought-provoking interview with economist Michael Roberts--COVID 19 part of a much bigger ailment:

https://spectrejournal.com/the-virus-capitalism-and-the-long-depression/

21DugsBooks
apr 23, 2020, 6:58 pm

I liked this short article about NASA engineers bringing their expertise to help with the corona virus issues. Sounds like cleverly simple, quick solutions.

https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-contributes-expertise-ingenuity-to-covid...

22mejix
apr 30, 2020, 9:41 am

23CliffBurns
mei 11, 2020, 12:16 am

I still feel a strong sense of nostalgia for old school video stores and this is why:

https://film.avclub.com/the-death-of-a-video-store-1843188673

25DugsBooks
mei 26, 2020, 4:56 pm

SpaceX is putting the USA on the map again as a country with the ability to launch humans to space. Launch is scheduled for tomorrow May 27th but with some bad weather rolling in it is at a "40%" go right now. I hope to stream the launch. luck to all and a shout out to Roscosmos and their Soyuz rocket that have kept the space station active

Quote from article below:
https://www.cnn.com/2020/05/26/tech/spacex-nasa-launch-may-27-scn/index.html
"NASA and SpaceX are currently targeting Wednesday at 4:33 pt ET for liftoff from Florida's Kennedy Space Center in Brevard County, Florida. If bad weather or technical issues get in the way, NASA has May 30 and May 31 down as backup days."

Space.com will be doing real time updates during the launch:
https://www.space.com/spacex-crew-dragon-demo-2-test-flight-explained.html

26DugsBooks
Bewerkt: jun 8, 2020, 5:52 pm

>25 DugsBooks: Well SpaceX the USA and our 2 astronauts made it to the space station in fine shape. I watched a lot of the broadcast on NASA TV which has live coverage of many events.

Advanced engineering expertise and cutting edge technology were on display front and center throughout - until a humbling moment when the USA astronaut already on board the ISS space station was getting ready for the opening of the hatch to allow the two new citizens of space into the station. The camera cut to him in the hallway in front of the hatch with 6 or 7 objects in a clear plastic bag wedged between his knees as he hurriedly wound duct tape round and round the package as would anyone cleaning up the garage on a weekend to make room. Not only that, the duct tape seemed to have a prominent position/place/shelf of its on in the hallway. Kind of brings everyone back to earth for a moment ;-)

27CliffBurns
aug 9, 2020, 7:07 pm

We can escape the dreary future promised by fossil fuels, and faster than we think:

https://www.vox.com/energy-and-environment/21349200/climate-change-fossil-fuels-...

28CliffBurns
okt 19, 2020, 7:48 pm

My buddy Gord sent me this amazing true story of crime and retribution. The global drug trade is a serious business:

https://newrepublic.com/article/159252/noor-one-vampire-ship-heroin-turkey-greec...

29CliffBurns
nov 2, 2020, 12:03 pm

31mejix
nov 26, 2020, 11:16 am

32CliffBurns
nov 26, 2020, 12:17 pm

I think I'd be on it.

33CliffBurns
jan 23, 2021, 9:03 pm

We need more people like this dude:

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-55703174

36CliffBurns
feb 28, 2021, 1:30 pm

Normally, people writing about the pandemic and its effects on their life bores the hell out of me--but my pal Gord found this piece and sent it my way. I like the points it makes:

https://deadchannel.substack.com/p/finally-i-am-a-brain-in-a-jar

39mejix
mrt 16, 2021, 12:40 am

>38 Sandydog1:
Great list. Thanks!

40Maura49
mrt 16, 2021, 6:30 am

>38 Sandydog1:

I agree- a terrific list with several books that Ireally should have read already.

Many thanks for posting it.

41CliffBurns
Bewerkt: apr 8, 2021, 12:03 pm

Take a virtual tour through the incredible mind of performance artist Laurie Anderson (available only for a limited time, so hurry):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yd68fLDyN_4

42CliffBurns
jun 6, 2021, 1:30 pm

43CliffBurns
jun 27, 2021, 1:16 pm

I've been following this on-going debate with great interest:

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2021/jun/27/philip-roth-blake-bailey-publishin...

Should the Roth biography have been shit-canned and pulped because of the sins of its authors (neither Bailey nor Roth can be accused of being lovable, genteel human beings)?

I find this idea of a behind-the-scenes battle going on in the publishing industry fascinating. This quote from the GUARDIAN piece really stood out for me:

“It’s an absolute intergenerational conflict in media organisations between the under-40s and the over-40s,” he says. “The distinction really is between social media natives who don’t really treasure free speech because they’ve had a lifetime’s worth and think it’s overrated, and people of an older generation who didn’t have access to the means of cultural production and needed the patronage of newspapers and publishing houses to get their voices heard.”

44varielle
jun 27, 2021, 3:47 pm

I guess I’m old enough to let the market decide. If the persons involved were that loathsome there shouldn’t be a market for it, but we all know that there is. I shouldn’t be prevented from reading something because of this sort of social/cultural censorship. What next? Hemingway led less than an exemplary life, is he going to be cancelled next? If I can find a copy I’d still like to read Woody Allen’s autobiography even though I may find some of his actions distasteful.

45alsocass
jun 27, 2021, 9:11 pm

>43 CliffBurns:
“It’s an absolute intergenerational conflict in media organisations between the under-40s and the over-40s,” he says. “The distinction really is between social media natives who don’t really treasure free speech because they’ve had a lifetime’s worth and think it’s overrated, and people of an older generation who didn’t have access to the means of cultural production and needed the patronage of newspapers and publishing houses to get their voices heard.”

Fascinating quote. Whenever I see the term 'cancelled' used by non-social-media savvy, I feel like they still don't get how the modern world works, as if capitalism is only fine when it suits them. When a company acknowledges that the profit from an enterprise is not worth the overall loss of income due to bad PR, it is called cancel culture and the fault of - well, I don't think anyone knows exactly.

In this case, just because a traditional publishing house is not publishing a book, does not stop the author self-publishing (many do). They can't have their cake and eat it too, so to speak. To insist they have a right to be published traditionally, but deny the publisher's right to respond to market demands (ie. The profit of the book is worth less than the bad PR, plenty more books in the sea).

46iansales
jun 28, 2021, 1:54 am

>45 alsocass: Funny how all the opponents of the so-called "cancel culture" get to complain about being cancelled in national newspapers and on national television...

47CliffBurns
jun 28, 2021, 11:37 am

Cancel Shakespeare, Celine, Roth, Hemingway, Houellebecq, weed your collection of the books by authors who haven't kept up with 21st century sensibilities or made a bad joke on social media 15 years ago or dared to offend at any point in their life.

Your shelves are gonna look mighty bare.

48iansales
jun 28, 2021, 11:44 am

Cancel culture is a right wing smear. It doesn't exist. Like political correctness.

49CliffBurns
jun 28, 2021, 11:57 am

I disagree, Ian, and I'm certainly as far Left as you are.

This is all the result of that hyper-individualism Adam Curtis talks about, our culture atomizing into little cliques and sects, instead of coming together collectively to solve inequality, poverty, climate change, etc.

The Left is falling into a Rightwing trap, attacking and devouring each other, virtue signaling at every opportunity, showing just how cool and superior we are. Meanwhile the corporates and wealthy lackeys exploit the fears and naked greed of the populace, and real change and reform are rendered impossible (exactly what our Masters want).

I reject ANY effort to limit free speech or impose moral/ethical/cultural standards on the arts. Excellence is the only criteria.

50iansales
jun 28, 2021, 12:30 pm

The left has always been devouring itself - see The Golden Notebook and its description of internal wrangling in the UK Communist Party in the 1950s.

"Cancel culture" was invented by people who don't like being told they're no longer at the centre of the universe, and other views and identities are just as valid as theirs.

There is no such thing as free speech. Speech can be damaging, even fatal, especially by people with big platforms. That's why civilised countries have hate speech laws. The so-called "consequences" resulting from offensive "free speech" fall more on the powerless than the powerful. It always punches down.

51CliffBurns
jun 28, 2021, 1:56 pm

Advocating violence against any specific group is a hate crime and laws should be enforced.

Freedom of speech, sadly, means we have to tolerate the most onerous, despicable views (as long as they don't breach that incitement to violence barrier). The ACLU has defended Nazis, for God's sake.

Speech can indeed be damaging...and contentious...and thoroughly reprehensible.

But BANNING speech for the purposes of social engineering some tolerant, utopian society? Feel-good, velvet glove censorship?

Not for me, I'm afraid.

(I think this is a case of having to agree we are in disagreement and unlikely to come to some pleasing compromise.)

52iansales
jun 28, 2021, 2:31 pm

Who is banning speech to create a utopian society? No one. People get deplatformed because their views are offensive and/or hate speech. It's perfectly within the rights of the platform to do so.

You can't debate bad ideas away. It has never worked. Their proponents are invulnerable in their stupidity, and a lot of them have much larger audiences than those opposing the bad ideas.

Which is not to say there isn't a lot of toxic shit going on in YA and MG literature in the US. But, tbh, it has little effect on actual sales because it's only a small group getting their knickers in a twist.

53CliffBurns
jun 28, 2021, 2:56 pm

"De-platforming" doesn't denote a "cancel culture"?

Sometimes the terminology gets the best of me.

I think artists IN PARTICULAR should be defending free expression since so much of what they accomplish relies on their ability to present their visions as undiluted and authentically as possible.

I see where you're coming from, I just disagree that some outraged community, small as it may be, has the right to deny the rest of us the opportunity to see or read or hear something from a person who has been struck from the rolls because they dared demur or ran afoul of some sensitive, triggered soul.

I prefer to make my own judgement.

54RobertDay
jun 28, 2021, 6:04 pm

What I get concerned about is that the nailing of colours to particular masts on both sides leads to entrenched viewpoints which take on almost the status of ritual denunciations. After which point, there is no possibility of arguing for any different viewpoint, even if that takes in hitherto little-appreciated matters such as scientific opinion...

And these ritual positions obscure more important issues. A recent case here in the UK involved a law student who, in a seminar, expressed views that were interpreted as transphobic (i.e. "It is not possible to change sex.") There was an outcry, the student was branded "transphobic", they in turn wrapped themselves in the "free speech" flag. No-one asked how the subject had arisen and in what context.

If I was teaching law, I would be assuming that all my students intended to become some sort of advocate. So I would want to challenge my students on these questions: what do you do if:
- you are asked to represent a client whose views you do not agree with?
- you are asked to advocate in a case where the law does not agree with your personal opinion?; or
- you are asked to advocate in a case where the science does not align with your personal opinion?

From what I heard, the student in question was asked their opinion in a seminar. I could see the tutor's intention; but I seem to be in a minority here. (For the record, I disagree with the "you cannot change sex" opinion because I've kept up to speed with the science and legislation over a twenty-year plus period; I seem to be in a minority there as well.)

55alsocass
jun 28, 2021, 8:56 pm

>47 CliffBurns: "Cancel Shakespeare, Celine, Roth, Hemingway, Houellebecq, weed your collection of the books by authors who haven't kept up with 21st century sensibilities or made a bad joke on social media 15 years ago or dared to offend at any point in their life."

But (without trying to be argumentative) how does anyone cancel any of these? The books are all out of copyright, available freely online, and abundantly in second-hand bookshops - no single traditional publisher is able to make the decision to cease publishing any of these, or to remove them from any shelves.

I will also counter that is hard to argue that our shelves will look bare without them, this website is testimony to the fullness of our shelves, even if we individually choose to remove authors that we do not want to have on our shelves.

It is entirely possible that a future may exist in which Shakespeare is not part of our literary canon. I have Shakespeare on my bookshelves, but the fact that, despite reading a lot, I have not read Shakespeare since high school may be testament to the idea that a personal literary canon does not need Shakespeare in order to survive. So if one person removes Shakespeare from their literary canon (in practice at least), and many people do the same, it is conceivable that an author who is considered great in one era, may become less relevant in another.

Changing the subject a little, "Shame" as a social tool has been used long before the advent of social media. Arguable more scary than cancel culture, is when shame fails to do its job. When public figures are able to act in ways that disgust society as a whole, but are not swayed by the social shame of the public's response to those behaviours, instead continuing to represent our culture publicly.

56iansales
Bewerkt: jun 29, 2021, 4:13 am

>54 RobertDay: not a good example, unfortunately, as there is a very vocal transphobic minority, led by groups funded by the US Christian right, in the UK. So that incident was probably blown out of all proportion by the so-called "gender critical" crowd in order to press their views in the public arena.

OTOH, there was the 7-year old kid who was reported to Prevent - which aims to stop kids from being radicalised in schools - for telling a teacher he would give "alms to the oppressed". The teacher thought he said "arms". An easy mistake to make, you might think. Except the kid was Muslim. Racism in action.

There's a similar argument going on about statues and "erasing history". It's all complete bollocks., There are no statues to Hitler anywhere, and no one has forgotten him.

A recent survey in the UK suggested people no longer align themselves with political parties but with cultural identities. They're not Labour or Tory, they're Leaver or Remainer, they're "gender critical" or LGBT+ friendly, they're pro-immigration or they're racist...

Cliff, I get your point. But I think you're putting too much importance on isolated, and minor, incidents of books being pulled after Twitter storms, and not enough on well-funded groups using newspapers and liberal-appearing fronts (like LGB Alliance) to attack the rights of some sectors of society. They're the *real* cancel culture. The fight is taking place in public toilets, not publishers' boardrooms.

57justifiedsinner
jun 29, 2021, 11:00 am

>56 iansales: I think the battlefield is wider than that. Here in the US the head of the Joint Chiefs, Gen. Milley, has just been excoriated by Tucker Carlson and Laura Ingraham for putting forward the fairly standard liberal point of view that one should read everything and make ones own judgement. Gov. DeSantis of Florida wants to ban Critical Race Theory (a legal theory not taught in K-12) and substitute American Exceptionalism.
What is at issue in the Culture Wars is the right to indoctrinate our children. Liberal democratic ideas being something that can be ignored or vilified by both sides.

58RobertDay
jun 29, 2021, 5:55 pm

>56 iansales: That also raises the unappealing prospect that the teacher involved did not know what "alms" were, and indeed had probably never previously encountered the word. Racism is built on ignorance in many ways.

59iansales
jun 30, 2021, 4:21 am

>57 justifiedsinner: but that's not really cancel culture, that's just the usual right wing bullshit. It's always been there. The only difference now is that bots - many of them Russian - amplify their voices on social media in order to make the situation worse. In the UK, they tried creating a homegrown equivalent of Fox News, GBNews (Gammon Broadcasting News), but it's been shedding audience numbers and advertisers and is unlikely to last much longer.

And kids have been indoctrinated in schools since the first school opened. I went to a C of E school, we had to go to chapel three times a week and study RE - how is that not indoctrination? British people are brought up to believe the British Empire was good thing, just like Americans are brought up to believe the US is the "land of the free". It's all indoctrination.

60DugsBooks
sep 13, 2021, 4:48 pm



CRISPR Startup Company to Bring Back Woolly Mammoth
Link to an article about a company posing a threat to Cliff's goat biz ;-)

61CliffBurns
sep 13, 2021, 6:02 pm

>60 DugsBooks: "Baphomet, LLC."

Soon to be trading publicly. High quality goats for your rituals, no questions asked.

62varielle
sep 14, 2021, 6:14 pm

>60 DugsBooks: I would like a miniature version please.

63DugsBooks
sep 15, 2021, 10:38 pm

>61 CliffBurns: Lol as they say, had to look up “ Baphomet” but pretty witty. I remembered from a previous post that you prefer goats to mammoths for keeping weeds down.
>62 varielle: Designer sizes, now we are talking money!

64DugsBooks
Bewerkt: okt 13, 2021, 4:22 pm


.....and Captain Kirk is back on earth!! After a vicious struggle putting his shoes on while in a tight flight suit he successfully reached his lounge chair to space.

I liked his speech afterwards explaining the growing anxiety of waiting on the launch while going through an announced checklist of small corrections to be made. He remarked the most striking aspect to him was how thin our atmosphere is - he was through it in seconds from blue to the blackness of space. He also said the simulation they went through in preparation was nothing like the physicality of the actual experience.