Technical Difficulties

I've been having trouble all night with my computer, so tonight it's just this picture:



And, of course, links!
  • Library Land
    • Having trouble finding articles? Why not try JSTOR's Text Analyzer? Drop a paper on the subject, and see what else JSTOR can dig up for you. Neat!
    • Alas, poor Yorick! The shocking life of theatre's greatest skull "It’s been licked, kissed and caressed. It’s been played by a beige sweater and the real remains of a Hamlet-loving horse thief. As Andrew Scott gets ready to be or not to be, we explore the history of Yorick’s cranium" Yes, OK, it's a neat article - but why did I not know Andrew Scott was playing Hamlet?! I love Andrew Scott!
  • Health, Science, & Technology
  • Randomnesses
    • The Banality of Evil: Hannah Arendt on the Normalization of Human Wickedness and Our Only Effective Antidote to It "'It is indeed my opinion now that evil is never 'radical,' that it is only extreme, and that it possesses neither depth nor any demonic dimension. It can overgrow and lay waste the whole world precisely because it spreads like a fungus on the surface. It is 'thought-defying,' as I said, because thought tries to reach some depth, to go to the roots, and the moment it concerns itself with evil, it is frustrated because there is nothing. That is its 'banality.' Only the good has depth that can be radical." 
    • Despair is Not a Strategy: 15 principles of hope  "If you’re out there trying to change your neighborhood, community, city, country, or the world then this is for you. In moments when everything seems hopeless, read this to get your hope on."
    • I Was A Hardcore Conservative: What Changed My Mind 
      What does it mean for you? If you're persistent, and patient, and genuine, and reasonable, you're probably making a difference already, even if no one will ever tell you so. The yellers and trolls will never stop yelling and trolling (they might even get louder), but that doesn't mean nothing's working. They're not your targets. If you tune out the yelling, you might faintly hear the sound of popcorn crunching in the dark. 

      And if you've ever ninja-changed your mind because of something someone said, maybe go back and tell them. Maybe they, like you, think they're wasting their time and no one ever changes. It's okay to admit you've been a crap person. Here's a secret: We're all still crap people even now. We'll all get better faster if we don't waste energy pretending we never were.
  • International
    • Brexit unleashed an English nationalism that has damaged the union with Scotland for good "What makes the new English nationalism so dangerous post-Brexit is that it is deeply felt but incoherent and comes with little self-knowledge.... As a system of beliefs the new nationalism is much more appropriate to an English nation state than to a more diverse United Kingdom. Yet there is genuine bafflement among English people when the Scots apply the same arguments as Brexiters used to justify leaving the EU to justify Scottish independence."
    • North Korea Says It Tested New ‘High-Thrust’ Rocket Engine  " 
    • State-run media KCNA said that the rocket engine would help the country's plans to launch satellites, but the isolated regime has also in the past conducted nuclear tests and has said it is preparing to test an intercontinental ballistic missile."
  • U.S. News
    • Unilateral Disarmament: Why Trump's "Skinny Budget" Would Make the United States Less Powerful  "Military Power is only one element of national power, and the Trump budget is effectively unilateral disarmament when it comes to the other key elements of national power."
    • African business summit in US 'has no African delegates after they are all denied visas' 
      Speaking to Voice of America, Mary Flowers, who chairs the summit said: “Usually we get 40 per cent that get rejected but the others come. This year it was 100 per cent. Every delegation. And it was sad to see, because these people were so disheartened.

      “I have to say that most of us feel it’s a discrimination issue with the African nations. We experience it over and over and over, and the people being rejected are legitimate business people with ties to the continent.”

      Among the people, who were not allowed to attend the event were speakers and government officials from Sierra Leone, Guinea, Ghana, Nigeria, Ethiopia and South Africa.
    • Russia Election Meddling Gets Airing on the Hill With Comey  "'We need to know whether the circumstantial evidence of collusion and direct evidence of deception is indicative of more,” Representative Adam Schiff of California, the ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, said in an interview on NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday.
      • FBI Director Comey confirms probe of possible coordination between Kremlin and Trump campaign "FBI Director James B. Comey acknowledged Monday that his agency is conducting an investigation into possible coordination between the Kremlin and the Trump campaign in a counterintelligence probe that could reach all the way to the White House and may last for months." Comey also addressed the recent tweets Trump sent about Obama wiretapping his phones: "Comey said there is 'no information' that supports Trump’s claims that his predecessor ordered surveillance of Trump Tower during the election campaign."
    • High-stakes Senate hearing on Trump's Supreme Court nominee begins  "Among questions Gorsuch likely will face will be whether he is sufficiently independent from Trump, who has criticized judges for ruling against his bid to block people from a group of Muslim-majority countries from entering the United States. Another line of attack previewed by Democratic leader Chuck Schumer is to focus on rulings Gorsuch has authored in which corporate interests won out over individual workers."
    • Related: What To Expect From The Neil Gorsuch Confirmation Hearings  "So Gorsuch seems likely to be confirmed by the Senate, but the big question is how?...  Democrats take on some long-term risks if they filibuster Gorsuch. Trump wants Republicans to use the 'nuclear option' — abolishing the filibuster on Supreme Court nominations — if Democrats refuse to allow an up-or-down vote. Were Trump to get another chance at nominating a justice, and if the filibuster were abolished, Trump could try to put someone far more controversial than Gorsuch on the court. Democrats may want to keep their powder dry for a nominee like that..."
    • White House installs political aides at Cabinet agencies to be Trump’s eyes and ears "Most members of President Trump’s Cabinet do not yet have leadership teams in place or even nominees for top deputies. But they do have an influential coterie of senior aides installed by the White House who are charged — above all — with monitoring the secretaries’ loyalty, according to eight officials in and outside the administration."

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Point Koomahnah

This Is How You Get Fleeced