Biden went into this campaign with his chief credential being that he was a nonentity who would do nothing. With Biden as President, Americans could go back to ignoring politics.
Instead, Biden is turning into a fire-breathing radical – and I love it.
He appears to be building an FDR-style transformative Presidency, which is what the US and the world need right now.
The fate of civilization and billions of lives literally depend on it.
Although now that I think of it, to call Biden a “radical” is wrong. When the house is on fire, it’s not radical to shout, “The house is on fire!”
Country-themed sitcoms ruled the TV airwaves for a decade, but in the early 1970s, CBS axed them. The Beverly Hillbillies, Green Acres, and Petticoat Junction were just three of the shows that bought the farm.
The Rural Purge: Death of the Country Broadcasting System, on Mobituaries by My Rocca.
When did we stop having “problems” and starting having “issues”? Because I have a problem with that.
That’s sorted.
Moon vs. Sun utilization question answered The Monroeville Breeze, Indiana, September 20, 1934. pic.twitter.com/tU4FGC1rqX
— Brian Roemmele (@BrianRoemmele) July 23, 2020
Light and time are great ways to disinfect masks. Washing is generally unnecessary
James Hamblin MD, writing at The Atlantic:
Have several masks, made to fit well around your nose and mouth. Make them as heavily layered as you can tolerate. After wearing them for a day or so, or in a high-contact scenario, let them sit for a few days in a sunny, out-of-the-way place. Between the effects of time and light, there should be little need for running a washing machine or going through the hassle of hand-washing your masks….
If it sounds like I’m making this up based on best guesses, I am. Everyone is. We would ideally all be wearing surgical masks, and disposing of them frequently, but we didn’t prepare accordingly. So for all their flaws, cloth masks are important: Making them effective enough for use in daily pandemic life means we’re freeing up medical-grade masks for people who really need them, especially in places where they are still in short supply, such as the United States. Health-care workers around the world still need proper personal protective equipment more than a random guy named Gene who wants to go to the store to buy snacks.
Good news for me. I haven’t washed my masks in … well … ever.
The Amazon Critic Who Saw Its Power From the Inside: Tim Bray was a celebrated engineer at Amazon. Now, he is its highest-profile defector
Bray walked away from $1 million because he couldn’t stand Amazon’s labor and business practices anymore. Now he’s an outspoken advocate for breaking the company up.
Karen Weise writing at The New York Times:
SEATTLE — Tim Bray, an internet pioneer and a former vice president at Amazon, sent shock waves through the tech giant in early May when he resigned for what he called “a vein of toxicity” running through its culture.
Within a few hours, his blog post about the resignation drew hundreds of thousands of views, and his inbox filled up with requests from journalists, recruiters and techies. Soon, lawmakers on Capitol Hill cited the post. It all made Mr. Bray, 65, Amazon’s highest-profile defector.
But there was more he wanted to say.
In the weeks since, he has aimed his brain power not at fixing a coding problem but at framing a broader critique of the company. In talks and blog posts that have drawn attention inside the company, he has called for unionization and antitrust regulation. Amid “the beating of the antitrust drums,” Mr. Bray wrote in one post, he would like to see Amazon separate its retail business from its lucrative cloud computing unit.
“And I’m pretty sure I’m not alone,” he said.
Facebook is adding security and privacy protections to Messenger. That’s like Ghislaine Maxwell taking first aid classes so she can be a better babysitter for your teen-age girls.
We ordered a new couch which was supposed to arrive today but which seems to have disappeared in transit. I am haunted by the vision of it being sat on by people with poor personal hygiene who are eating Cheetos and wiping their fingers on the upholstery.
America can become the country claims to be, starting by telling the truth about its history of slavery, genocide and oppression. “Until we tell the truth we deny ourselves the opportunity for beauty.”
The Ezra Klein Show: Bryan Stevenson on how America can heal
Tucker Carlson, the most popular host in the history of cable news, returned from a week-long vacation after his head writer was exposed as a raging bigot. The scandal won’t stick.
Financially, it will cost some advertisers but Fox gets most of its revenue from subscribers, who love this kind of controversy.
I walked a different route than I usually do today, and saw several noteworthy vehicles. Two were classics, all had character. 📷
Lush photo essay from the golden age of shopping malls.
Cruising the Past & Future of the Retro Shopping Mall
I loved to go to the mall in my 20s. I’d go alone, during the day, get a fast food lunch, see what was new on the science fiction shelves at B. Dalton and Waldenbooks — anything by Asimov, Heinlein, Niven or Zelazny? A new Robert B. Parker? In that era before the mainstream internet and before I got plugged into science fiction fandom, the only way to find out if a favorite author had a new book out was to check in stores.
Then I’d catch a movie matinee. I’d find a spot directly under a light in the theater and read from one of my new books until the movie started.
That was a good afternoon.