Friday, June 07, 2019

Weekend Reading: The Too Klutzy Edition

Yesterday morning, I stubbed my toe badly. By last night, my pinky toe was swollen up and my toe and surrounding foot were a lovely mix of colors.

So, no rollerblading for me today. However, the good news is that it seems like the toe is not broken, because as long as my shoes aren't too tight, I can walk fine today (yesterday, not so much...) so I went for a walk on the beach instead of my rollerblade. It was less exercise and I got some funny looks for wearing leather shoes on the beach, but being on the beach always relaxes me, so it was a decent trade.

Anyway, on to the links.

First, in self-promotional news: there is a new Annorlunda Books release! Arctic Adagio, by DJ Cockburn, is a mystery set in a disturbing but all-too-believable near future. Our protagonist has to try to solve a murder when all of his suspects essentially own the law. Even though it is short - just a novelette - it immerses you in its world, and my time in that world really left me thinking. I think anyone who enjoys William Gibson would enjoy this book. PLUS - if you get it now and send me a picture I can share on social media, I'll send you a promo code for Caresaway, Cockburn's earlier novelette. 

In other links:

Josh Marshall says right in this post that he doesn't think anyone should take it for granted that Trump will lose re-election... but he spells out the case for the possibility that Trump not just loses, but loses big. I share it because it clarified my thinking about how I can be most usefully involved at this early stage. The short answer is evident in the actions I posted on Twitter today: I gave money to the Wisconsin Democrats and to Mi Familia Vota. I think if you read Marshall's post, you'll see why!

But if you read only one of my links this week, read Dahlia Lithwick's article about Elizabeth Warren and her supporters. 

The Hofeller files should be a bigger story than they are... they show some egregious bad faith and wrong-doing by lots of state Republican parties.

In local politics: My city is struggling to build enough housing. I drive past the church in this story often. I hope they get to build the housing they want to build.

In non-political reading: that Washington Post article about Pfizer and Enbrel and Alzheimer's was all over my Twitter feed. I didn't have the energy to write up why that article was basically useless, but Derek Lowe did. There are lots of things Pharma companies do that are questionable and some that are downright infuriating. This one was perhaps questionable, but I don't think the author of the Post article understood drug discovery (or scientific publishing!) well enough to provide us with the information we'd need to decide if it was questionable. From the info in the article, it seems like nothing more than one of many signals that a drug company decided not to follow up on.

This Virginia Hughes article about how DNA testing connected a man and the descendents of his grandmother's rapist is really well done.

I'm sharing this article because I love jacaranda trees and they are all in bloom here right now.

In recommended listening: Ezra Klein's interview with Presidential candidate Michael Bennet is really worth your time, even if you aren't considering voting for him.

I have no idea if this translation is accurate but this made me laugh out loud:

This is also hilarious.

Honestly, the face-planted owl is so great I don't even want to end with a bunny.

Have a good weekend, everyone!

2 comments:

  1. If you like jacaranda trees, you might want to visit Brisbane one day. I'm told that new mothers would be given a jacaranda seedling to take home from the hospital with their new babies. true or not, the trees are everywhere, and the purple mass signals the students that exams are on the way...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I've been to Brisbane! But I think too late in summer to see the jacarandas bloom. I'll have to go back!

      Delete

Sorry for the CAPTCHA, folks. The spammers were stealing too much of my time.