In Cut Piece (1964), one of Yoko Ono's early performances, she sits alone on a stage with a stoic expression on her face. There is a pair of scissors lying in front of her.
The audience was informed that they could use the scissors to cut a small piece of clothing off of her outfit and keep it for themselves. — Read the rest
People who contracted Covid may have "substantial" drop in intelligence, according to The Lancet | Boing Boing
the deficits were most pronounced for paradigms that tapped cognitive functions such as reasoning, problem solving, spatial planning and target detection whilst sparing tests of simpler functions such as working-memory span as well as emotional processing.
Great, more GOP voters.
A research vessel found SpongeBob lookalikes a mile under the ocean's surface | MPR News
Riffing on a byōbu folding screen of the Battle of Sekigahara painted in the 1700s, Yusuke Shigeta made a pixel animated version for a recent exhibition. The video above is a tantalizingly short preview of the work — I could have watched these tiny pixel vignettes all day.
What We Still Don’t Know About Emmett Till’s Murder - The Atlantic
Emmett till was killed early on the morning of August 28, 1955, one month and three days after his 14th birthday. His mother’s decision to show his body in an open casket, to allow Jet magazine to publish photos—“Let the world see what I’ve seen,” she said—became a call to action. Three months after his murder, Rosa Parks kept her seat on a Montgomery, Alabama, bus, and she later told Mamie Till that she’d been thinking of Emmett when she refused to move. Almost 60 years later, after Trayvon Martin was killed, Oprah Winfrey channeled the thoughts of many Americans in evoking the memory and the warning of Emmett Till.
But the pandemic is once again entering a new phase that feels more dangerous and more in flux, even for the people lucky enough to have received their lifesaving shots. A more transmissible variant—one that can discombobulate vaccine-trained antibodies—has flooded the world. It’s wreaking havoc among the uninoculated, a group that still includes almost half of Americans and most of the global population. After a prolonged lull, the pandemic’s outlook is grimmer than it’s been in months. I am, for the foreseeable future, back to wearing masks in indoor public places, and there are four big reasons why.
I personally haven’t felt like I could stop with masks in public… Despite being vaccinated, one of my two kids can’t be for a while… So when the vacicnation rate among eligible people basically stopped with less than half done, I have felt like we can’t change behaviors as if the threat was resolved…
One of the biggest myths about EVs is busted in new study - The Verge
Actually building an EV is still a little more carbon-intensive than building a traditional vehicle. Recycling EV batteries could eventually bring that carbon intensity down. But for now, EV drivers start to reap the climate benefits after driving their car for a year or so, according to Bieker. That’s when the car passes the threshold when the emissions that it saves by running on cleaner electricity make it a better option for the climate than a traditional car.
Dr. Brytney Cobia said Monday that all but one of her COVID
patients in Alabama did not receive the vaccine. The vaccinated
patient, she said, just needed a little oxygen and is expected to
fully recover. Some of the others are dying.
“I’m admitting young healthy people to the hospital with very
serious COVID infections,” wrote Cobia, a hospitalist at Grandview
Medical Center in Birmingham, in an emotional Facebook post
Sunday. “One of the last things they do before they’re
intubated is beg me for the vaccine. I hold their hand and tell
them that I’m sorry, but it’s too late.”
Good link to spread. Fox News should put this doctor on the air in prime time. (Via Dave Winer.)
Swimmer Becca Meyers says she's skipping the Tokyo Paralympics because she wouldn't be able to have a personal care assistant with her. The 2016 gold medalist is seen here at an event in 2017.
Nicholas Hunt/Getty Images for Women's Sports Foundation
Becca Meyers, a swimmer seen as a favorite to bring gold home from Tokyo, has canceled plans to compete in the Paralympics after being told she can't bring a personal care assistant to Japan. Meyers is deaf and blind. U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Committee (USOPC) officials say they don't have space for her to bring an aide because of coronavirus restrictions on athletic delegations.
“I’ve had to make the gut-wrenching decision to withdraw from the Tokyo 2020 Paralympics,” Meyers said Tuesday in a statement posted on her Facebook page. “I’m angry, I’m disappointed, but most of all, I’m sad to not be representing my country.”
Meyers, 26, says officials have not taken her and other athletes' needs into account. She won three gold medals at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Paralympics — but the experience also left her deeply shaken. In strange new surroundings, she struggled to accomplish essential tasks on her own, such as finding the athletes' dining hall.
Since then, her mother, Maria, has accompanied her at competitions as a personal care assistant. But after being told her mother can’t join her in Tokyo, Meyers opted out.
“I would love to go to Tokyo,” Meyers told The Washington Post, which first reported her withdrawal. “Swimming has given me my identity as a person. I’ve always been Becca the Swimmer Girl. I haven’t taken this lightly. This has been very difficult for me. [But] I need to say something to effect change, because this can’t go on any longer.”
All signs had been pointing to Meyers turning in a special performance in Tokyo. She has set new world records in recent years. Last month, she was celebrating dominance at the Paralympic trials, where she secured a spot on Team USA. Tokyo was set to be her third Paralympics.
Meyers, who was born with Usher syndrome, has thrived at sport’s elite level. Because of the genetic disorder, she is deaf (and is aided by cochlear implants). She often relies on lip-reading, but her eyesight continues to deteriorate — and because everyone in Tokyo will be wearing masks, her ability to understand others would be hampered.
Rick Adams, the USOPC’s chief of sport performance and national governing body services, has told the Meyerses that while he empathizes with them, Tokyo organizers have limited delegations to athletes and essential staff.
The USOPC told Meyers that the 34 athletes on the Paralympic swim team would be supported by one dedicated personal care assistant (PCA), along with six coaches. Nearly a third of the swimmers are visually impaired, according to Meyers.
The Meyers family says the situation is untenable and must change. They also believe the USOPC has held firm on its position to avoid a rush of athletes attempting to add their own PCAs to the delegation.
Meyers, who lives in a suburb between Baltimore and Washington, D.C., has been training with the Nation’s Capital Swim Club, which launched the Olympic careers of stars such as Katie Ledecky and Tom Dolan. There, Meyers has trained under famed coach Bruce Gemmell.
“Your heart just breaks for her,” Gemmell told the Post. “It seems to me if our focus is athletes first, which it should be but which it isn’t always — if athletes first is what we’re doing, then we as a USOPC, we need to do better. We must do better.”
The Tokyo Paralympics will start on Aug. 24 and run through Sept. 5.
Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit [www.npr.org.](https://www.npr.org.)
How to Raise Kids Who Don't Grow Up to Be Jerks (or Worse) - Scientific American
In other words, “How can I make sure my kids don’t turn into selfish boors?” In her new book How to Raise Kids Who Aren’t Assholes (G. P. Putnam’s Sons), coming out on July 20, Moyer probes the research on how to encourage kids to be generous, honest, helpful and kind. She reviews studies on how to instill egalitarian beliefs and make sure kids know how to stand up against racism and sexism. And she talks to scientists about perennial parental struggles such as sibling rivalry, teaching safe sex and moderating screen time. Scientific American spoke to Moyer about science-based strategies for raising good citizens.
Anyway. All of this to say that we need to imagine positive outcomes for the things we say. It’s a bit like chess. There’s a thing somebody said. There’s the thought we’re holding in our mind. We’re ready to give that reply. Now, quick: imagine how the other person is going to react. Is this going to turn into an interesting conversation? If not, I’m already bored. Talk to somebody else. At the very least, ask a question. If you’re going to produce insults, or implied insults, or trying to score points on technicalities, I’m not interested. Learn about interacting with people, first.
Vincent Van Gogh's The Starry Night: Great Art Explained - YouTube
The best character actors take ordinariness and make it highly specific. Think of the way Beth Grant has honed the suburban busybody to its sharpest points, or how, with just one sigh, Michael Stuhlbarg serves up the foibles of the intelligentsia on a silver platter.
Character actors often have a sense of timelessness to them as well. While an A-lister’s stock may rise and fall with the fashions of the day, a character actor can stay booked and busy for decades.
See the Highest-Resolution Atomic Image Ever Captured - Scientific American
Behold the highest-resolution image of atoms ever seen. Cornell University researchers captured a sample from a crystal in three dimensions and magnified it 100 million times, doubling the resolution that earned the same scientists a Guinness World Record in 2018. Their work could help develop materials for designing more powerful and efficient phones, computers and other electronics, as well as longer-lasting batteries.
The researchers obtained the image using a technique called electron ptychography. It involves shooting a beam of electrons, about a billion of them per second, at a target material. The beam moves infinitesimally as the electrons are fired, so they hit the sample from slightly different angles each time—sometimes they pass through cleanly, and other times they hit atoms and bounce around inside the sample on their way out.
Our Favourite Uses of Typography in Watches – A COLLECTED MAN
A stunning photo-essay on the junction of typography and time in watch design… One place I wish Apple Watch would expand more is allowing 3rd party faces, alongside my long-wished-for 24hr analog face.
Will people take action to protect their online privacy? Duck yes.
Privacy skeptics have dominated the discussion about online privacy for too long. “Sure people care about privacy, but they’ll never do anything about it.” It’s time to lay this bad take to rest.
Not only will consumers act to protect their privacy – they already are. Since the launch of iOS 14.5 in April, 84% of people in the U.S. have actively opted-out of tracking after seeing the new prompt being shown on Apple devices.
When made simple and without sacrifice, most people will choose privacy.
via - /.
Despite faster spreading variant, MN looks to ease restrictions
I fail to understand why we would be easing restrictions related to COVID-19 when we know that there's the newer faster spreading variant in the US now. I know everyone is anxious to get out, but why throw away your umbrella when it's still raining.
Daring Fireball: Australia Sues Facebook Over Onavo VPN It Used as Spyware
Facebook’s frustrations with Apple’s user-centric privacy concerns and control over iOS run a lot deeper than the new mandatory privacy nutrition labels and upcoming ad-tracking opt-in controls launching in a few weeks.
— Read on daringfireball.net/linked/2020/12/18/australia-facebook-onavo
Lest you forget what kind of behavior Facebook wants to have the freedom to do…
Daring Fireball: Craig Federighi's Keynote at the 10th Annual European Data Protection & Privacy Conference
I’m not going to post or even visit the claim mentioned here… This kind of take on Apple news is click-bait that should be ignored on principle, because engaging it in any way rewards bad journalism with clicks/views.
The Biggest Problem with Org-mode | Irreal
The Biggest Problem with Org-mode | Irreal
— Read on irreal.org/blog/
I’d go a step further and say that the problem is getting colleagues to understand why to use it.
In Cut Piece (1964), one of Yoko Ono's early performances, she sits alone on a stage with a stoic expression on her face. There is a pair of scissors lying in front of her.
