Finished Reading: Which as You Know Means Violence by Philippa Snow 📚 A history of self harm as art and entertainment, some of which is art, some of which is cultural zeitgeist and some of which is just sad. An ode to the rubbernecking effect of other people’s suffering.
From this morning’s walk…
Zip is all around
heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/march-3…
The Democrats provided extensive evidence to suggest that Patel was egging on the witnesses to help push Trump’s fight against the Justice Department, the FBI, and the Biden administration. Now, they said, it appears that he and his allies are trying to use the subcommittee in this same effort.
My wife has a nasty cold. We haven’t been sick since the start of the pandemic. How do I not catch it?
From today’s walk…
Solitude… waiting for Her to return.
Letters from an American, March 2, 2023
I find this deeply disturbing…
The attempt to take over schools and reject the equality that lies at the foundation of liberal democracy is now moving toward the more general tenets of authoritarianism. This week, one Republican state senator proposed a bill that would require bloggers who write about DeSantis, his Cabinet officers, or members of the Florida legislature, to register with the state; another proposed outlawing the Democratic Party.
Artist Iris Compiet commented on the My Girl with a Pearl Instagram post that she found the amount of AI images entered an “incredible insult,” and others agreed. Some artists have heavily condemned the platform and other similar tools like Stable Diffusion for scraping potentially copyrighted works to create datasets, allegedly without seeking artists’ permission.
Death is beautiful when seen to be a law, and not an accident — It is as common as life… Every blade in the field — every leaf in the forest — lays down its life in its season as beautifully as it was taken up. –Henry David Thoreau
Questioning the capitalist motivations driving the success of All Quiet on the Western Front, Friedlaender says the novel is an example of “Geldliteratur,” literature for money. Modris Ecksteins verifies Friedlaender’s complaint. Remarque’s novel triumphed, in part, due to a publicity campaign by his publisher. Once Remarque’s book caught fire, exploiting war themes for profit became commonplace both for book publishers and for filmmakers. This symptom of capitalism persists over a century later. Think Top Gun: Maverick, another Best Picture contender.
Don’t know why, There’s no sun up in the sky, Stormy weather…
Faced with the possibility that the ERA might become part of the Constitution, right-wing leaders insisted that the ERA has “just one purpose left,” as the Heritage Foundation put it: “Abortion.” heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/march-1…
Drugmaker Eli Lilly announced today that it will cap the cost of insulin at $35 a month, bringing costs for people with private insurance and those without insurance who sign up for Lilly’s copay assistance program into line with the $35 cap for Medicare recipients Congress imposed with the Inflation Reduction Act last August.
I have some doubts about this product…
Capitalist picture dictionary: secure 📷
From The Marginalian: How to Survive Hopelessness
You can expect good and bad luck, but good or bad judgment is your prerogative, as is good or bad management.
From the Marginalian: How to Survive Hopelessness
Suddenly, they were a tiny speck in Earth’s largest ocean, enveloped by the vast open emptiness of infinite horizons. With no nautical instruments or charts, powered only by their makeshift sail, they had no hope of reaching land. Their only chance was rescue by a passing vessel. Given the immensity of the Pacific Ocean, it was an improbability bordering on a miracle.
Letters from an American, February 28, 2023
… Colin Kahl, the under secretary of defense for policy, embarrassed Representative Matt Gaetz (R-FL) in a hearing about aid to Ukraine after the congressman apparently thought he had found a “gotcha” story in the Global Times.
“I’m sorry, is this the Global Times from China?” Kahl asked. Gaetz said no, then checked and said yes, it was, asking if that made it untrustworthy. “As a general matter, I don’t take Beijing’s propaganda at face value,” Kahl answered. Gaetz answered: “Fair enough.”
From this morning’s walk…
We had our first significant snow last night. I woke up in the middle of the night. Our bedroom was filled with a soft dim light. I looked out our window. The landscape was filled with the same light. In the bathroom I could easily see the toilet bowl. Where does it come from?
“It takes an enormous amount of effort to take AI-generated elements and create something that looks like it was taken by a human photographer,” he told Ars Technica. “The creative process is still very much in the hands of the artist or photographer, not the computer.”
Let your interests be as wide as possible, and let your reactions to the things and persons that interest you be as far as possible friendly rather than hostile.
[Bertrand Russel via The Marginalian] (https://www.themarginalian.org/2023/02/21/bertrand-russell-happiness/)