"Chartism: ...Policymakers fall somewhere on the spectrum of pro-chart and anti-chart. Pro-chartists think that data can explain the world, and the more we have the better. But anti-chartists think that relentless data accumulation is misguided because it offers false certainty and misses the big picture interpretation. As the saying goes: "More fiction is written in … Continue reading Chartism & Skepticism
Category: articles
Black Vegans
"Plant-based eating has a long, radical history in Black American culture, preserved by institutions and individuals who have understood the power of food and nutrition in the fight against oppression...Today, there are estimated to be more than a million Black vegetarians and vegans in the United States, with Black people representing the fastest-growing vegan demographic … Continue reading Black Vegans
TrumpTrump
Lest we forget. "Warren Craghead drew the Trump news cycle for four-and-a-half years [in TrumpTrump]."—Brendan Fitzgerald, "The daily grotesque." Columbia Journalism Review. January 20, 2021.
Waiting for the Last Dance
"...it is highly probable that we are in a major bubble event in the U.S. market, of the type we typically have every several decades and last had in the late 1990s. It will very probably end badly, although nothing is certain. I will also tell you my definition of success for a bear market … Continue reading Waiting for the Last Dance
Technosignatures
"'Technosignatures refer to any evidence of technology that could be remotely detectable, specifically through the tools of astronomy,' explained Jacob Haqq-Misra, an astrobiologist and senior research investigator at Blue Marble Space Institute of Science, in an email interview with The Debrief. 'Radio signals are one example of a technosignature but not the only one. Other … Continue reading Technosignatures
Capitol Crimes
"The only good thing I can think of about the tsunami of stupid that crashed into Capitol Hill on Tuesday is that so many of those idiots posed for pictures or appeared in videos that show them committing one or more crimes. In most cases, they are easily identifiable in these images, often because they … Continue reading Capitol Crimes
Centers and Peripheries
How do you define something? A few weeks ago I was reading about how the Voyager 2 was at the outer boundry of the heliosphere, or our solar system. There were quite a few articles talking about the sun's movement relative to the center of the galaxy, the force of the sun's energy on the … Continue reading Centers and Peripheries
Words & Phrases, 2020
diktats, a harsh punishment unilaterally imposedgriot, West African storytelleramanuensis, transcriptionistAnholt cultuviolent entertainment of context collapsefissiparous, an organism is one that produces new individuals by fission/splittingwegan diet, a vegan diet modified to include only wild-harvested meatsaxis of assholesslow-rolledTTP, techniques, tactics and proceduresMoonlight Maze, Russian cyberattack on DoD in 1990ssemiotarchy, tyranny of signskenopsia, eerie feeling when you … Continue reading Words & Phrases, 2020
cafebedouin.org: 2020 Year in Review and Looking Ahead to 2021
In 2020, I posted 418 entries with a total of 58,670 words (most of which are quotes of someone else). There were +8750 views by +6,400 visitors to cafebedouin.org. Most of the views are concentrated either on the main page or the most popular posts, these had 100 views or more: Don’t Shoot the Dog … Continue reading cafebedouin.org: 2020 Year in Review and Looking Ahead to 2021
Your Cup is Full
"We found that if you really want a new idea to come into your mind, you need to deliberately force yourself to stop thinking about the old one," said co-author Marie Banich, a professor of psychology and neuroscience at CU Boulder."Once we're done using that information to answer an email or address some problem, we … Continue reading Your Cup is Full
The Plural of Apocalypse
"Our resolution should be not simply to survive our present apocalypse and resume “life as normal.” Let us wake up to ways the world ends every day, responding with compassion when we encounter others going through one slow-motion apocalypse or another. But let us also not turn a blind eye to the grace-filled apocalypses of … Continue reading The Plural of Apocalypse
Predatory Precarity
"Reforming government contracting, controlling medical costs, breaking up big-tech, opening the professions to international competition, these sound technocratic, even “pro-market”. But under present levels of stratification, the consequences of these things would be a revolution, whole swathes of society accustomed to status and political enfranchisement would find themselves banished towards a “normal” they used to … Continue reading Predatory Precarity
Admiring Yourself: The Holocaust, Racism, & Sexism
"...“the present memorial cult that seeks to inflict certain aspects of history and their presumed lessons on our children, with its favorite mantra, ‘Let us remember, so the same thing doesn’t happen again,’ is unconvincing. To be sure, a remembered massacre may serve as a deterrent, but it may also serve as a model for … Continue reading Admiring Yourself: The Holocaust, Racism, & Sexism
Message Board Rot
"This ties into something I’m extremely interested in that I like to call “message board rot”. I like looking for signs that social networks are dying or atrophying. I’m not sure why, but I’ve always found it fascinating that one day Myspace was the biggest thing in my social life and then one day it … Continue reading Message Board Rot
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