[A monthly link list of recommended articles, videos, podcasts, photos, tweets … you name it]
#rC3
Christina Dunbar-Hester – Hacking Diversity: The Politics of Inclusion in Open Technology Cultures
Yes Men – The Yes Men from Tricksters in an age of dirty tricks
Arne Vogelgesang – This Is Not A Game (de)
Eine kurze Geschichte von Q als Mindfuck-Spiel
Cory Doctorow – What the cyberoptimists got wrong – and what to do about it
Tech unexeptionalism and the monopolization of every goddamned thing
[Videos]
QAnon Anonymous
[Music]
MIKE PARADINAS – Interplanetary Sound Explorer – DJ Mix Planet Mu
Madlib – Road Of The Lonely Ones
Thom Yorke, Burial & Four Tet – Her Revolution
Miley Cyrus Covers “Doll Parts” on the Howard Stern Show
[Podcasts]
28: Resurrection of Jordan Peterson (w/Jeff Brown) – “The big news this week is the resurrection of Jordan Peterson. After surviving a medically-induced coma in a Russian rehab facility, and then COVID on top of that, Peterson has re-emerged, weakened but resolute, as both hero and provocateur. The announcement from Penguin Canada that his new book of another dozen self-help rules prompted Penguin employees to protest their involvement in an emotional town hall.” Bit to bothsidesey for my taste at times, but still pretty straight on.
[Articles English]
QAnon and the Fragility of Truth [current affairs] – “How can people fervently believe in something so transparently flimsy, and how do we preserve our connection to reality in a world of informational chaos?”
2020 in Hindsight: The Year in Review [crimethinc] – “Including a Brief Survey of Our Humble Efforts”
Philip Guston’s Discomfort Zone [nybooks] – “How is it that the artist, dead these forty years, is still pushing our buttons?” Sadly only a stump visible. Why are all online magazines do this now? (I know why, just seems silly that all do it)
I’m A Scientist. I Can’t Even Get My Own Family And Friends To Follow COVID-19 Rules. [huffpost] – “They know it’s a real and highly contagious virus, and they know about the guidelines. They’re just deciding not to follow them.”
Pulse Oximeters Can Give False Readings In COVID-19 Patients With Dark Skin [npr] – “Dr. Michael Sjoding and colleagues at the University of Michigan hospital in Ann Arbor came across this issue this year when they received an influx of COVID-19 patients from Detroit’s overflowing hospitals. Many of these patients are Black. Sjoding noticed something odd about results from the fingertip device used throughout hospitals.”
FSM Holiday Card Machine – Just what it says on the tin.
Juanita Nielsen Was Murdered for Standing Up to Sydney’s Developers [jacobin] – “In 1975, Sydney gangsters kidnapped and murdered the campaigning journalist Juanita Nielsen. Nielsen had been a champion of Sydney’s poor residents against social cleansing, earning herself the hatred of property developers, politicians, and their underworld allies.”
The Team of Doctors and Biohackers Who Seem to Be Successfully Treating “Long Covid” [.medium.] – A concrete approach to try out, adding Niacin and Selenium to the protocolls.
An Update on Bandcamp Fridays [bandcamp: shortcode must include 'track', 'album', or 'video' param] – “So we’re going to continue doing Bandcamp Fridays in 2021, on February 5th, March 5th, April 2nd, and May 7th. As always, isitbandcampfriday.com has the details.”
Global Climate Report – November 2020 [ncdc.noaa.gov] – “The combined global average temperature over the land and ocean surfaces for November 2020 was 0.97°C (1.75°F) above the 20th century average of 12.9°C (55.2°F). This was the second warmest November in the 141-year global record, behind the record warm November set in 2015 (+1.01°C / +1.82°F). The 10 warmest Novembers have all occurred since 2004; the five warmest Novembers have occurred since 2013.”
Satirical Corporate Website Brands Ecofascism [hyperallergic] – “Samuel Marion demonstrates how the far right might leverage environmentalism to justify white supremacist agendas.”
Toxicity in Gaming Is Dangerous. Here’s How to Stand Up to It [wired] – “Gaming toxicity is a worthy foe, a boss-level challenge for us all. Like a virus, the more people are exposed to it, the more it spreads. But this cultural contagiousness might also be cause for optimism. Even small, incremental reductions in such toxicity—which will happen when you and the gamers you know act as upstanders—can counteract the virality, reducing toxicity across the many important virtual worlds in our lives.”
Cracking climate announcement by BoE takes the piss, shows the way [the yes men] – “Early this morning, journalists received a miraculous press release from the Bank of England, Britain’s central bank, claiming it would stop buying corporate bonds from fossil fuel companies. The Bank had seemingly resolved to follow through on its longstanding promises to address climate change. At least one global coalition of central banks, the Network for Greening the Financial System, seemed to follow up the BoE’s announcement with enthusiasm and applause.”
Argentina’s feminist movement confronts Diego Maradona [roar magazine] – “Argentina’s feminist movement is grappling with the death of Diego Maradona, the popular football hero with a history of violence against women.”
Massive Protests Sparked by Proposed Ban on Publishing Photographs of French Police [hyperallergic] – “The now discarded bill follows condemnation by the French government of hacker-artist Paolo Cirio, who featured the profiles of police officers in an exhibition to raise awareness about the threat of facial recognition technology.”
Here’s what happens when a bee stings you directly in your eyeball [ars technica] – “You think 2020 is pretty horrible, but it could always be worse.”
Publishers are not obliged to give bigots like Jordan Peterson a platform | Nathan J Robinsion [the guardian] – “Nobody has a human right to a lucrative book contract without regard for whether their opinions are sound or valuable”
Small Data, Big Implications [zeynep insight] – “What we can learn from the latest indoor dining study”
Covid-19 has made ending online abuse even more urgent [wired uk] – “When the Covid-19 pandemic forced countries into lockdown and more of our lives moved online, alarm bells rang for Seyi Akiwowo, founder and executive director of UK charity Glitch!. “Increased internet usage means increased risk of being abused online,” she says.”
30 Years of the Guerrilla Girls’ Art and Advocacy [hyperallergic] – “As the old saying goes, “If you can’t beat ’em, put on a Halloween mask and publicly indict their terrible record of human rights infractions.” ”
1% of farms operate 70% of world’s farmland [the guardian] – “Researchers warn land inequality is rising with farmland increasingly dominated by a few major companies”
[Articles German/French]
Das Superverschwörungsjahr [betttower.news] – “Was wird uns von 2020 in Erinnerung bleiben? Heute Teil 1 unseres bundesweiten Jahresrückblicks: 2020 ist das Jahr der – größtenteils antidemokratischen und antisemitischen – Verschwörungsideologien angesichts der weltweiten Herausforderungen der Coronavirus-Pandemie. Eine Zusammenfassung.”
Willkommen in der Zukunft [woz] – “Fortschritt, aber nicht zum Guten: Das Denken in Dystopien ist inflationär geworden – weil unsere Zeit selbst dystopisch geworden ist?”
[Older articles, still great]
How Phyllo Is Handmade By One Of Greece’s Last Pastry Masters
Cat listening to music
R.I.P.
Too many unknown people died in Switzerland unnecessarily, this website at least tried to give them names and stories.
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Header Photo: Yet another great photo by fr3nzin3