Jun 5, 2023 2 min read

You Should Read - June 2

Just One Thing

I've been watching the "Let's Talk Religion" YouTube channel for a while now. It's produced by Filip Almansour Holm, a Swedish comparative religion graduate student who concentrates on Sufi Islam, but he covers all sort of religious traditions. I've been waiting for him to tackle Zen buddhism and he finally posted a terrific 45 minute overview of its history and main tenants, beliefs, and practices.

Some other episodes I particularly recommend:

Collected Ephemera

Seventeen 21 LGBTQ+ Pride Flags and What They Stand For: These are the banners that help members of the LGBTQ+ community feel seen, heard, and celebrated.
⇛ I'm still amazed that the first-person shooter, Call of Duty, includes most if not all of these as "calling card" images.

Heather Cox Richardson Army Talks: FASCISM!

Fascism, the U.S. government document explained, “is government by the few and for the few. The objective is seizure and control of the economic, political, social, and cultural life of the state.” “The people run democratic governments, but fascist governments run the people.”

⇛ Crazy how a 1940s War Department pamphlet nailed fascism so squarely... and then the US started exhibiting those same characteristics the minute World War II was over.

Daily Beast The Proud Boys Came to Their School District. These Parents Fought Back: Despite nasty billboards and a campaign of intimidation, an unlikely group of parents has fought a far-right takeover in one California city.

Cosmonaut There is Never One Lamb Alone: On Finding Unity in Diversity: Splits and purges are no solution to the problem of disagreement in the socialist movement. Marisa Miale calls for unity in diversity in the context of the DSA.
⇛ A decidedly inside-baseball look at Democrastic Socialists of America power dynamics. A few years ago I joined the DSA because of their electoral gains at both the national and local level. It seemed the strongest and best organized Left organization, expecially compared to the loonies in the California National Party, a separatist party I'd briefly joined. But, I am deeply concerned about leftist disunity in the face of a real fascist threat, given historical examples in Spain and Germany.

Los Angeles Times Column: How California, Land of Nixon and Reagan, Turned Blue and Changed American Politics

Fortune Elon Musk Convinced Pals Marc Andressen, Changpeng Zhao and Prince Al Waleed to Invest in Twitter. They’re Down 67%, According to a New Fidelity Filing
⇛ I know it sounds like a conspiracy theory, but the folly of the investment seemed so obvious to me, I can't help but believe the plan was to destroy Twitter all along. But, as Obi-wan said, "Who's the bigger fool? The fool, or the fool who follows him?"

Tom's Hardware Raspberry Pi Camera Takes Photos Using AI Instead of Lens: Say cheese! Receive AI approximation of cheese description.

Ars Technica Qubits 30 Meters Apart Used to Confirm Einstein Was Wrong About Quantum: Experiment linked qubits using a supercold wire over 30 meters long.
⇛ If I said I understood half of this, I'd be lying. But fascinating in its implications, nonetheless.

The Guardian The Strange Survival of Guinness World Records: For more than half a century, one organization has been cataloguing all of life’s superlatives. But has it gone from being about the pursuit of knowledge to simply another big business?

The Guardian I Took Anger Management Classes. Here’s What They Get Wrong About the World

Kickstarter Solarpunk: first person survival craft game for PC/Console: Alone or with your friends, grow food, craft, build & explore distant islands with your own airship.

Hollywood Reporter Writers’ Shut-It-Down Strategy Has Been Effective, Executives Privately Concede: As the strike extends into its second month, protesters are focusing efforts on stopping in-progress productions: "We have to make sure that no writing is happening across the board."