"As one of my friends from a not-rich part of East Asia says: "Students from my country come to the U.S. these days. They see dirty cities, lousy infrastructure, and the political clown show on TV, and an insular people clinging to their guns and their gods who boast about how they are the greatest … Continue reading Nothing to Learn, Here
Category: articles
Social Chronophage
"The social industry doesn’t just eat our time with endless stimulus and algorithmic scrolling; it eats our time by creating and promoting people who exist only to be explained to, people to whom the world has been created anew every morning, people for whom every settled sociological, scientific, and political argument of modernity must be … Continue reading Social Chronophage
The Street Art Manual
"Bill Posters wants to teach people how to hack the streets. The graphic artist, activist and researcher (real name Barney Francis) has written an “illicit, tactical guide to creating art in public”. The Street Art Manual is an 11-step guide to street art covering the basics of graffiti and stencil work as well as providing … Continue reading The Street Art Manual
The Last Light
"In April 2020, the weird and ambitious startup Magic Leap cut its workforce in half and delayed plans to take mixed reality glasses mainstream. The company had a wealth of ideas about how ordinary people might use its hardware, which overlays virtual images on reality. But after years of development, many were still prototypes or … Continue reading The Last Light
Community Land Trusts
"A CLT [community land trust] is a mechanism by which land is held in trust and managed by a nonprofit, used for whatever a community chooses, whether that’s housing, small businesses, cultural spaces, gardens, parks, or farms. The land is owned by a trust, which keeps it out of speculators’ hands, but residences and other … Continue reading Community Land Trusts
Mighty Buildings
"'As soon as you are able to produce not only the walls but also floor and ceiling, that saves a huge amount of hours, and specifically labor hours, which are very expensive,' says Slava Solonitsyn, CEO and cofounder of Mighty Buildings. The company’s process automates up to 80% of the total construction process. The rest—including … Continue reading Mighty Buildings
Illiberalism, Cancel Culture, Free Speech, and The Internet
"Bad faith is the condition of the modern internet, and shitposting is its lingua franca. On—yes—both sides. Look: A professional Twitter troll is president. Trolling won. Perhaps it’s time to acknowledge that despite their centrality, online platforms aren’t suited to the earnest exchange of big ideas."—Lili Loofbourow, "Illiberalism Isn’t to Blame for the Death of … Continue reading Illiberalism, Cancel Culture, Free Speech, and The Internet
The Meaning of Sport
"That, I think, is what sport is all about. If you follow a sport it becomes a thread which runs through your life and provides memories and narrative and meaning and context. Sport becomes a kind of companion, part of the richness and texture of lived experience. At the same time, you could argue that … Continue reading The Meaning of Sport
The Best of Wendell Barry on Orion
"This week we celebrate Wendell Berry’s eighty-sixth birthday by sharing several of our staff’s all-time favorite essays, poems, short stories, and media clips published in Orion over the past four decades."—Orion Staff, "The Best of Wendell Berry." Orion. August 5, 2020.
Love is a Blank Check
"Sandra Simpson didn’t keep the suffering of the world at a distance. She invited it into her home and made it family...To believe in the power of adoption is to believe that the most profound way to help someone isn’t through large-scale structural change or foreign policy, but by opening up something as intimate as … Continue reading Love is a Blank Check
Why We Will Lowercase white
"There was clear desire and reason to capitalize Black. Most notably, people who are Black have strong historical and cultural commonalities, even if they are from different parts of the world and even if they now live in different parts of the world. That includes the shared experience of discrimination due solely to the color … Continue reading Why We Will Lowercase white
The Darkest Timeline by siderea
"I think there is approximately no chance that there is not in the White House at least one influential person – and quite possibly several or many influential people – taken with the idea that it would be a very nice thing if a whole lot of Americans died."—siderea, "The Darkest Timeline." siderea.dreamwidth.com. August 1, … Continue reading The Darkest Timeline by siderea
We Are Tracking What Happens to Police After They Use Force on Protestors
"These 68 videos show clear apparent instances of police officers escalating violence during protests. Most departments refused to share details about investigations and discipline or even officers’ names."—Zipporah Osei, Mollie Simon, Moiz Syed, Lucas Waldron, "We Are Tracking What Happens to Police After They Use Force on Protestors." ProPublica. July 29, 2020. When someone wonders … Continue reading We Are Tracking What Happens to Police After They Use Force on Protestors
Further Notes on Scenius
https://austinkleon.com/2017/05/12/scenius/ "Our world is an ecosystem in which our only real chance at survival as a species is cooperation, community, and care, but it’s being lead by people who believe in an egosystem, run on competition, power, and self-interest......When you think about your family, your friends, your neighborhood, your office, your city, your country, your … Continue reading Further Notes on Scenius
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