trying to create a calculus to reduce all logical syllogisms, deductions, and inferences to the manipulation of mathematical symbols, and to cast a precise foundation for the theory of probability. This resulted in his greatest work: An Investigation of the Laws of Thought, [on which are founded the Mathematical Theories of Logic and Probabilities. (Gutenberg, pdf)] a book that laid out the rules of his new symbolic logic and also outlined, in the opening chapter, his grand intention to capture, with mathematics, the language of that ghost that whispers within the tortuous pathways of our minds [Harper's]
Democracy is about having choices β and authoritarianism is about not having them, says lawyer and writer Ian Bassin. Detailing the seven steps of the authoritarian playbook, he invites us all to put aside our differences and rethink our role in the fight for freedom, revealing the hope and power behind every choice we make.
The secret magic of good food is that it brings people and cultures closer together. Chef Marcus Samuelsson taps into that magic at his acclaimed restaurants and through his cross-cultural approach to cooking. In conversation with art curator Thelma Golden, he expands on the rich fusion of modern Black cuisine and how each bite is a celebration of the diverse, creative and joyful power of food. (Visit ted.com/membership to support TED today and join more exclusive events like this one.)
Fifteen-year-old Darlene hadn't been in a classroom since fourth grade. She worked 11-hour days at a chicken restaurant, a step up from the slaughterhouse where she'd worked when she was younger. Every paycheck went to her parents who turned it over to the prophet. Everything the hardworking people did was in service to the prophet and to build up the church. Darlene's future was determined for her: She'd be a wife and mother, and serve the church and her husband. from This Is Not an Escape Story [Runner's World; ungated]
Start with the Discography. Then dive a little deeper on the Studio Info Page with track-by-track analysis of the recordings, including all kinds of detailed info about the studio recording process like who did what on each track with what instrument. Why not listen along to some MIDI Tracks while you read what the band was up to On This Day in History?
Want to play along? Start with the Sheet Music and Tablature organized by album. And when you're ready, take the plunge into the 600 pageForm and Analysis of every Queen song ever
Made possible by an endowment offered through the Freedom From Religion Foundation, Sikivu Hutchinson has become "the first Black woman to teach a course on African American humanism," which was held at Pitzer College.
The Pitzer College Secular Studies program was founded in 2011 by sociology professor Phil Zuckerman. It offers a rare space in higher education dedicated to the academic study of nonreligion.
In an interview published at Psychology Today, Hutchinson describes the motivating force behind her secular work:
Because people of color are disproportionately poor, segregated, demonized as racial others, over-incarcerated and denied equitable access to education we don't have the luxury and the privilege to be secular or pursue a secularist agenda that isn't steeped in economic and social justice.
African American Humanism deals with issues like police brutality, systemic racism, discrimination in healthcare, and expanding access to healthcare, contraceptives, and safe-sex awareness, which all disproportionately affect Black women.
When identifying ways different types of people react to experiences, it is important to recognize the combined identity one experiences when less 'socially acceptable' identities overlap, creating an identity that affects one's experience differently than someone without the same overlapping identities.
Our world is in a state of rapid decline that suggests a potential end to our society, as well as an end to the American empire as it has stood for the last couple of centuries. As the individuals who are inheriting the crumbled pieces of humanity, it is critical that we sustain and rebuild our society so that it is one where all humans are recognized and treated as such. Hopefully, one day we will reach a point, both within the Black community, and throughout our society, where it is not demonized to be human in any form. I believe African American Humanist thought, and classes that provide a platform for educating youth about it, will be the groundwork and guiding force for that transition.
The myth that irreligiosity is always synonymous with immorality not only limits the space to be non-religious but is also inaccurate when you put history under a microscope and unearth the fact that Black freethinkers have long aligned themselves with the pursuit of freedom for the socioeconomically disenfranchised.
Nearly a year and a half ago, Joseph Newton did an excellent video about Cursed units. Now he's back with Cursed Units 2: Curseder Units! From fuel efficiency in square millimetres to the barrer, the definition of which has cm appear no less than four times, you're sure to encounter some weird (metric) units you'd not heard of. [2LYT]
Rebekah Peppler on Julia Child and cooking in the south of France: "The kitchen remains as one imagines it did when Julia Child built it. Tart rings, copper pots, measuring spoons, and whisks line the four walls, with outlines marking a designated spot for every single item. Market baskets pile high in a corner; the screened door bangs shut in a way that feels like many have entered through it. And many have."
That's Gender DysphoriaThis experience of discontinuity between the societal presumed gender and the internal sense of self is what we describe as Gender Dysphoria, and is common among nearly all trans individuals, regardless of their position within or outside of the gender binary. This has at times been something of a political topic within trans communities, as different groups have their own ideas of what Gender Dysphoria is, how it manifests itself, and what qualifies a person as being trans.
So as not to get lost in that topic, this site will define Gender Dysphoria in broad terms of incongruence with sex assigned at birth. If you experience gender identity in a way that does not match what was assigned to you at birth, your claim to the transgender identity is valid, no matter how that incongruence manifests for you.
How to Support A Friend or Partner Who's Dealing With Gender Dysphoria
If your friend or partner wants to talk to you about their gender dysphoria, listen to what they have to say. Don't offer advice unless they ask for it. Instead, validate their feelingsβlike by reflecting what they have said back to them in a way that lets them know you really heard or saw them, or by letting them know you agree their feelings are right and realβand ask questions.
Telepathy might initially seem a much softer, psychological proposition, tainted with a sense of the supernatural. Yet both Campbell and Clarke were lifelong advocates of the view that telepathy was highly probable, the scientific proof of its existence likely just around the corner. The promise of telepathy β soon to be achieved, not far off, only a few test subjects away β feels very familiar when reading Musk's boosterish announcements on Neuralink's latest breakthroughs. The promise that telepathy is just about to be realised is not confined to entrepreneurs and science-fiction writers alone. For more than a century, there have consistently been figures in the scientific establishment who have entertained similar hopes that telepathy would soon reach the threshold of proof, promising everything from opening a new evolutionary phase of human development to a new psychic front in the global arms race. from Tomorrow People [Aeon; ungated]
'Tis the week of midsummer and the solstice, when people gather for early sunrises, and late sunsets (northern hemisphere edition) impress. Bonfires are lit, and rituals to cleanse abound, in many places (anywhere you want) and not just overcrowded Stonehenge. But what was your "longest day" (and interpret that in any you see fit)? Happy, sad, epic, life-changing, life-affirming? On your own, with a loved one, a friend, or a crowd? Or just write about whatever is on your mind, in your heart, or on your plate, because this is your weekly free thread. Happy midsummer, MeFites!
Punch Punch Forever is (currently) a two episode cartoon parody of both fighting tournament anime and fandom subbing culture, arising from out of Newgrounds (remember them?) and made by animator speedoru. It presents itself as a lost anime series from the 90s; it also goes by at 90 miles an hour. It's in Japanese with subtitles. So far there's the pilot (8 minutes) and the second episode, My Little Slasher (12 minutes). CW: juvenile humor, cartoon violence and gore. It's very silly.
The premise: Indestructible 11 year old martial arts prodigy Gogo faces off against laughably overpowered demon opponents in a VHS kind of world, supported by her mother Mama, her half-demon sister Nono, and her pet frog Coolfrog. She fights in a tournament run by Demon Emperor Koro, who seems to have some connection with Mama.
The outer premise: These episodes were "found" on videotape in a box in speedoru's dad's basement. Ostensibly taped off of Japanese television there's bits of commercials and other programming as framing material. They're subbed by "xX_geocitiesSUBCREW95_Xx" and their virtue jealously guarded by DarkGod87.
It isn't for everyone. If you've watched a ton of Dragonball Z then you might really enjoy, but if your brain has never marinated in the sweaty brine of 90s Western anime fandom you might not get it. Or maybe you would anyway? It really is very silly. Please don't take it too seriously.
About the links: although this is a Newgrounds presentation, they've been officially posted to Youtube as well, and that's where I've linked them. Newgrounds certainly has its problematic elements, but this bit of it is pure, at least as pure as something involving cartoony child endangerment can be.
A linguist shares the story of his study with the last remaining speaker of South Tsimshian As shared to r/linguistics in 2013: "Today, Violet Neasloss, aka Nanny Violet, passed away. she was the oldest resident of Klemtu BC, 99 years old, and also one of the happiest, quickest, and most caring.
With her death, the South Tsimshian, or SguΜuΜXs language is now sleeping, but because of her, and the hundreds of hours of exhausting mental work she committed to over those months, at some point in the future, members of her community will have the option to wake it up again, and some have already started.
here is a video link of us recording - she upbraids me for my lack of knowledge about the kitchen, and finishes by showing the care she took over what knowledge she shared with the recordings, always careful that never a bad word was said about anybody, though she wasn't so careful when talking about things she felt were hurting her community"
To most people, pulling into a highway rest stop is a profoundly mundane experience. But not to neuroscientist Rita Valentino, who has studied how the brain senses, interprets and acts on the bladder's signals. She's fascinated by the brain's ability to take in sensations from the bladder, combine them with signals from outside of the body, like the sights and sounds of the road, then use that information to actβin this scenario, to find a safe, socially appropriate place to pee. "To me, it's really an example of one of the beautiful things that the brain does," she says. from How Do We Know When to Pee? [Smithsonian; ungated]
Probabilistic Tic-Tac-Toe β The rules are the same as normal tic-tac-toe, but each square has a different probability of a good (smiley face), neutral (meh face), or bad (frowny face) event happening when selected.
Dentist Discovers Human-Like Jawbone and Teeth in a Floor Tile at His Parents' Home. Scientists are planning to study the specimen, embedded in travertine from western Turkey, in hopes of dating and identifying it. He found the jawbone in a tile made of travertine, a type of limestone that typically forms near hot springs. This specific tile came from a quarry in the Denizli Basin of western Turkey. The travertine excavated there formed between 0.7 million and 1.8 million years ago, which suggests the mandible did not come from a person who died recently.
In our technological age people are often caught between two worlds, forced to choose between what is pleasurable and what is beyond pleasurable. Activity A may be a genuinely enjoyable activity, but as an ordinary pleasure it comes with certain discomforts and limitations. Activity B, on the other hand, promises to move past those limitations, satiating our desire for maximal pleasure. Who wouldn't want to choose Activity B, then, when the option is presented so readily? from The Rise of Hyperpleasures by Samuel C. Heard (Mere Orthodoxy; ungated)
This volume thus builds upon growing art historical, anthropological, and historical literature that argues that "art" is far from a natural category of human endeavor, but instead represents a historically specific idea and practice emerging in Europe from the Enlightenment and its aftermath [:] the radical and unprecedented bifrucation of the artist, as the genius who produces things of beauty, from the skilled artisan or crafts[person] who produces useful objects. [what's the use of art?]
DrawingMachines.org attempts to simultaneously be scholarly, technical, engaging, inspirational, and, most of all, useful. Every attempt is made to satisfy the academic art historian, the artist, the designer, the tinkerer and the student. If you are looking for historical or technical information, this site aims to satisfy both. This is a reference site, but aimed at different audiences interested in drawing.
On March 8, 2024, the Canadian National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians (NSICOP) provided Prime Minister Justin Trudeau with the Special Report on Foreign Interference in Canada's Democratic Processes and Institutions (redacted pdf). On June 3, NSICOP tabled the report in Parliament. The document alleges that while "parliamentarians were unaware they were the target of foreign interference", others have been "wittingly assisting foreign state actors," though maybe not anybody currently in Parliament.
"members of Parliament who worked to influence their colleagues on India's behalf and proactively provided confidential information to Indian officials." (p.24)
a PRC "network had some contact with at least 11 candidates and 13 campaign staffers, some of whom appeared to be wittingly working for the PRC" (p. 26)
"Member of Parliament wittingly provided information *** to a foreign state . . . a particularly concerning case of a then-member of Parliament maintaining a relationship with a foreign intelligence officer" (p.26)
"an example of the PRC using intermediaries to provide funds likely to support candidates in the 2019 federal election, including two transfers of funds approximating $250,000 through a prominent community leader, a political staffer and then an Ontario member of Provincial Parliament. CSIS could not confirm that the funds reached any candidate." (pp.28-29).
The recording, which was provided exclusively to Rolling Stone, captures Windsor approaching Alito at the event and reminding him that they spoke at the same function the year before, when she asked him a question about political polarization. In the intervening year, she tells the justice, her views on the matter had changed. "I don't know that we can negotiate with the left in the way that needs to happen for the polarization to end," Windsor says. "I think that it's a matter of, like, winning."
"I think you're probably right," Alito replies. "On one side or the other β one side or the other is going to win. I don't know. I mean, there can be a way of working β a way of living together peacefully, but it's difficult, you know, because there are differences on fundamental things that really can't be compromised. They really can't be compromised. So it's not like you are going to split the difference."
Windsor goes on to tell Alito: "People in this country who believe in God have got to keep fighting for that β to return our country to a place of godliness."
"I agree with you. I agree with you," replies Alito, who authored the Supreme Court's 2022 Dobbs decision, which reversed five decades of settled law and ended a constitutional right to abortion.
The unguarded moment added to calls for greater scrutiny by Democrats, many of whom are eager to open official investigations into outside influence at the Supreme Court.
But the core of the idea expressed to Mr. Alito, that the country must fight the decline of Christianity in public life, goes beyond the questions of bias and influence at the nation's highest court. An array of conservatives, including antiabortion activists, church leaders and conservative state legislators, has openly embraced the idea that American democracy needs to be grounded in Christian values and guarded against the rise of secular culture.
They are right-wing Catholics and evangelicals who oppose abortion, same-sex marriage, transgender rights and what they see as the dominance of liberal views in school curriculums. And they've become a crucial segment of former President Donald J. Trump's political coalition, intermingled with the MAGA movement that boosted him to the White House and that hopes to do so once again in November.
The movement's rise has been evident across the country since Mr. Trump lost re-election in 2020. The National Association of Christian Lawmakers formed to advance Christian values and legislation among elected officials. This week in Indianapolis, delegates to the Southern Baptist Convention, the largest Protestant denomination in America, are voting on issues like restricting in vitro fertilization and further limiting women from pastoral positions. [US Southern Baptists effort to enshrine ban on women pastors falls short (earlier: Southern Baptists finalize expulsion of two churches with female pastors), US Southern Baptists condemn IVF procedure]
And in Congress, Mike Johnson, a man with deep roots in this movement and the Alliance Defending Freedom, a conservative Christian legal advocacy group, is now speaker of the House.
Now, Supreme Court justices have become caught up in the debate over whether America is a Christian nation. While Justice Alito is hardly openly championing these views, he is embracing language and symbolism that line up with a much broader movement pushing back against the declining power of Christianity as a majority religion in America.
The country has grown more ethnically diverse and the share of American adults who describe themselves as religiously unaffiliated has risen steadily over the past decade. Still, a 2022 report from the Pew Research Center found that more than four in 10 adults believed America should be a "Christian nation."
Justice Alito's agreement isn't the first time he has embraced Christian ways of talking about the law and his vision for the nation.
Shortly after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade two years ago, a ruling for which Justice Alito wrote the majority opinion, the justice flew to Rome and addressed a private summit on religious liberty hosted by the University of Notre Dame. His overarching concern was the decline of Christianity in public life, and he warned of what he saw as a "growing hostility to religion, or at least the traditional religious beliefs that are contrary to the new moral code that is ascendant."
"We can't lightly assume that the religious liberty enjoyed today in the United States, in Europe and in many other places will always endure," he said, referencing Christians "torn apart by wild beasts" at the Colosseum before the fall of the Roman Empire...
[T]he resonance of the Sacred Heart goes beyond simply an abstract religious concept, just as the Pride flag does. Each is notable for the vision of America that they symbolize, and the different visions of marriage, family and morality that they represent. For one slice of America that celebrates L.G.B.T.Q. rights, June is Pride Month. For another devout, traditional Catholic slice, June is a time to remember the Sacred Heart.
Justice Alito, in secretly recorded audio, apparently agrees nation needs to return to place of 'godliness' - "In the edited clips that were posted to X, Windsor approached Martha-Ann Alito at the event and seemingly expressed sympathy for 'everything that you're going through' and that it 'was not okay.' 'It's okay because if they come back to me, I'll get them,' Martha-Ann Alito said, referring to the news media. 'I'm gonna be liberated, and I'm gonna get them.' ... Windsor then turned the conversation to the stir caused by the 'Appeal to Heaven' flag, to which Martha-Ann Alito said the 'feminazis believe that [Justice Alito] should control me. So, they'll go to hell, he never controls me,' she added."
In Secret Recordings, Alito Endorses Nation of 'Godliness.' Roberts Talks of Pluralism. - "The two justices were surreptitiously recorded at a Supreme Court gala last week by a woman posing as a Catholic conservative."
The justice's comments appeared to be in marked contrast to those of Chief Justice Roberts, who was also secretly recorded at the same event but who pushed back against Ms. Windsor's assertion that the court had an obligation to lead the country on a more "moral path."
"Would you want me to be in charge of putting the nation on a more moral path?" the chief justice said. "That's for people we elect. That's not for lawyers."
Ms. Windsor pressed the chief justice about religion, saying, "I believe that the founders were godly, like were Christians, and I think that we live in a Christian nation and that our Supreme Court should be guiding us in that path."
Chief Justice Roberts quickly answered, "I don't know if that's true."
He added: "I don't know that we live in a Christian nation. I know a lot of Jewish and Muslim friends who would say maybe not, and it's not our job to do that."
The chief justice also said he did not think polarization in the country was irreparable, pointing out that the United States had managed crises as severe as the Civil War and the Vietnam War.
When Ms. Windsor pressed him on whether he thought that there was "a role for the court" in "guiding us toward a more moral path," the chief justice's answer was immediate.
"No, I think the role for the court is deciding the cases," he said.
There are a variety of "low-carbon" or "bandwidth-friendly" variants of news sites out there that load headlines with little styling and no images, such as CBC Lite, and much, much more.
See how a translator carries a book from one language to another, line by line. Much like a crossword, a translation isn't finished until all the answers are present and correct, with each conditioning the others. But when it comes to literature, there is rarely ever just one solution, and my job is to test as many as possible. A word can be a perfect fit until something I try in the next clause introduces a clumsy repetition or infelicitous echo. Meaning, connotation and subtext all matter, but so does style. Below are two attempts to show the thought processes involved in the kind of translation I do.
Sophie Hughes for the New York Times.
On this week's episode, actor and singer Michelle Williams talks growing up in the church, auditioning for Destiny's Child, and how to get an NPR audience to sing a hymn. Plus, panelists Alonzo Bodden, Helen Hong, and Paula Poundstone talk flags.
We might now be on the cusp of a similar sea change, with American policymakers, especially Democrats and the broader center-Left, beginning to craft a new industrial policy and seeking to decouple economically from China. This decoupling is accompanied by an ersatz new Cold War with Chinaβreminding us of how an earlier era of more activist liberal government required the Cold War to legitimate and underpin it. Whether such efforts will take hold is, for now, unclear. But understanding what these efforts are designed to overturn requires returning to the pivotal years of America in the 1990s. from What the 1990s Did to America [Public Books]
This volume thus builds upon growing art historical, anthropological, and historical literature that argues that "art" is far from a natural category of human endeavor, but instead represents a historically specific idea and practice emerging in Europe from the Enlightenment and its aftermath [:] the radical and unprecedented bifrucation of the artist, as the genius who produces things of beauty, from the skilled artisan or crafts[person] who produces useful objects [what's the use of art?]
[two hours, SLYT] From a talk presented at https://cackalackycon.org/, professional physical pentester Deviant Ollam explains fire codes and fire safety systems (such as fire doors and sprinkler systems).
A theme in the talk is looking and sounding like you belong somewhere you don't; however, there is plenty of interesting information about egress and exits, fire safety systems and fire codes.
Previously on Metafilter, Elevators
Other videos in the same vein from Deviant Ollam: Also elevators, and Keys, with Howard Payne, and Doors
We can't get rid of anxiety and depression, so we might as well talk about it, says depression truth-teller Adam Whybrew. Sharing his own experience with mental illness, he reveals the surprising benefits of opening up about stress at work β and why being vulnerable creates a safe space for everyone.
But this isn't really about the software. It's about what software promises usβthat it will help us become who we want to be, living the lives we find most meaningful and fulfilling. The idea of research as leisure activity has stayed with me because it seems to describe a kind of intellectual inquiry that comes from idiosyncratic passion and interest. It's not about the formal credentials. It's fundamentally about play. It seems to describe a life where it's just fun to be reading, learning, writing, and collaborating on ideas. from research as leisure activity by Celine Nguyen [Personal Canon]
GQ: "It's happening very fast," said Saurabh Netravalkar, the Team USA cricket player with the world-famous LinkedIn profile ... Several fans in attendance held up signs calling Kohli a god; one held up a sign asking Netravalkar for a job reference. Guardian: As it happened: USA beat Pakistan. The Athletic: So, for a son of Mumbai to inflict such a humiliating defeat on the old enemy was a case of Netravalkar - in the words of his younger sister Nidhi on social media - "making two countries happy". Times of India: Balancing his dual roles as a cricketer and a software engineer at Oracle, Netravalkar manages his demanding career alongside his sports commitments. Interviewed in cricbuzz: "I filed for a patent. It was an innovation algorithm that we had."
Cricinfo: After the Pakistan win, a screen grab of his Slack out-of-office message was all over social media. It said he would be away from work until June 17, when the group phase of the World Cup ends. Netravalkar is not thinking ahead to whether he might have to extend his leave of absence in case USA make it to the Super 8s...
...update on that: As of an hour ago, the USA have enough points so they can't be caught by Ireland, Canada or Pakistan in their group. This means the USA qualify, along with India, into the final group stage of the current World Cup: this also gives the USA automatic qualification for the same World Cup tournament in 2026, two years before cricket returns to the Olympics in Los Angeles. Saurabh is going to need to ask for an extension to WFWCM (Work From World Cup Matches).
Reuters: Pentagon ran secret anti-vax campaign to undermine China during pandemic 'The U.S. military launched a clandestine program [that started under former President Donald Trump and continued months into Joe Biden's presidency] amid the COVID crisis to discredit China's Sinovac inoculation β payback for Beijing's efforts to blame Washington for the pandemic. One target: the Filipino public. Health experts say the gambit was indefensible and put innocent lives at risk.' (ungated)