The Sanger Collection of 19th-century circus photos.
Photos, drawing, and digital reconstruction of the 17th-century Dutch ship found last year on the bottom of the Gulf of Finland.
Hairstyles and social status in Egypt, 1480-1350 BC.
Today's thing that has become problematic: Women's Equality Day. Because not all women could vote.
Impressive NY Times analysis of how that Miami condo building collapsed, with a very clear 3D model.
The US Army plans to deploy a laser weapon that is supposed to shoot down both drones and incoming artillery shells. Should be with the troops in 2022.
The Carnian Pluvial Episode: for two million years, 234-232 million years ago, it rained a whole lot, all over Pangaea: 8-minute video, news article, wikipedia. Most likely caused by volcanic activity. The more we learn about earth's history, the more extreme weather we find, and the clearer it becomes that we have been riding a 10,000-year climate lucky streak.
The vast majority of farmland in the US is used either for grazing or for growing animal feed. This paper argues that plant-based meat products and other coming technologies will slash the demand for both, bringing huge changes to rural America.
California's new building code requires new homes and businesses to have solar panels, batteries, and the wiring needed to switch between energy sources, adding up to $20,000 to the price of the average new home. (NY Times) Some of that would be recouped over time; how much depends on the future maintenance costs for these systems, which nobody really knows. Is this a necessary measure to fight climate change, or another sort of NIMBYism that will drive more poor and ordinary people out of the state?
And a NY Times article on the fight between advocates of big solar and wind farms in remote areas, which will require major upgrades to the power grid – this includes the Biden Administration – and localist, small-is-good environmentalists who want power to come from rooftop solar and neighborhood wind. I say we need both.
Scott Siskind takes on Long COVID: Much More than You Wanted to Know
Twenty years ago Hispanics were much more likely to be incarcerated in the US than whites, but that is no longer true. In fact last year they were marginally less likely to be incarcerated, despite having a younger population. Also, since 2000 the number of Hispanic police officers has risen 60%.
Long article on gangsterism in old Shanghai.
Ross Douthat on Afghanistan: "Our botched withdrawal is the punctuation mark on a general catastrophe, a failure so broad that it should demand purges in the Pentagon, the shamed retirement of innumerable hawkish talking heads, the razing of various NGOs and international-studies programs and the dissolution of countless consultancies and military contractors. Small wonder, then, that making Biden the singular scapegoat seems like a more attractive path." (NY Times)
It was in a 1978 case concerning the snail darter, a small fish native to the Tennessee River watershed, that the Supreme Court said the Endangered Species Act required the government to protect endangered species "no matter the cost." The Fish and Wildlife Service just announced that the darter is no longer considered endangered.
Can your dog tell the difference between what you do accidentally and on purpose? Maybe.
Russian disruption efforts in western Europe have include aid to British and Italian right-wingers and, according to the NY Times, assistance to Catalan separatists.
This week, music that has been used everywhere, and that may seem tired to you. But it is not tired, because it is perfect. It fits like a socket wrench onto the adjusting knobs of my emotions, and twists them. Aaron Copeland, "Fanfare for the Common Man;" Vivaldi, "Winter;" Wagner, "The Ride of the Valkyries;" Pachelbel, "Canon in D."
2 comments:
The US Army plans to deploy a laser weapon that is supposed to shoot down both drones and incoming artillery shells. Should be with the troops in 2022.
Depending on efficacy, I foresee a potential shift in artillery shell design toward kinetic energy penetrators rather than explosive payloads.
Twenty years ago Hispanics were much more likely to be incarcerated in the US than whites, but that is no longer true. In fact last year they were marginally less likely to be incarcerated, despite having a younger population. Also, since 2000 the number of Hispanic police officers has risen 60%.
To borrow a sarcastic quote from comedian Jim Jefferies:
"I don’t know how or why this happened, uh... Maybe it was a coincidence, right?"
Post a Comment