Author: FLGLcomadmin

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70,000 children

“The 3-year-old girl traveled for weeks cradled in her father’s arms, as he set out to seek asylum in the United States. Now she won’t even look at him.
 
After being forcibly separated at the border by government officials, sexually abused in U.S. foster care and deported, the once bright and beaming girl arrived back in Honduras withdrawn, anxious and angry, convinced her father abandoned her.”
 

70,000 children separated and detained in 2019 alone. You know people who vote for this. You know people who support this. You know people who are responsible for this.

[from the Associated Press]

US held record number of migrant children in custody in 2019
COMAYAGUA, Honduras (AP) — The 3-year-old girl traveled for weeks cradled in her father’s arms, as he set out to seek asylum in the United States. Now she won’t even look at him. After being...
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Next up

If it’s gonna be Chiberia this early, I’m at least gonna keep my feet warm.

Oboz Men's Bridger 10" Insulated Waterproof
Keep old man winter at bay with 400 grams of foot-toasting Thinsulate™, DWR treated nubuck leather, waterproof B-DRY Lining, and supportive TPU Chassis. While the winterized Granite Peak Outsole prevents a slide back down that slippery slope.
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Get a warrant

“A federal court in Boston has ruled that warrantless U.S. government searches of the phones and laptops of international travelers at airports and other U.S. ports of entry violate the Fourth Amendment.’

[Associated Press]

Court rules against warrantless searches of phones, laptops
BOSTON (AP) — A federal court in Boston has ruled that warrantless U.S. government searches of the phones and laptops of international travelers at airports and other U.S. ports of entry violate...
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Google — Ascension Project Nightingale: why would anyone believe this statement?

‘“To be clear: under this arrangement, Ascension’s data cannot be used for any other purpose than for providing these services we’re offering under the agreement, and patient data cannot and will not be combined with any Google consumer data,” writes Google Cloud president Tariq Shaukat.’

[from The Verge]

Google reveals ‘Project Nightingale’ after being accused of secretly gathering personal health records
Google secretly gathered millions of patient records across 21 states on behalf of a health care provider, in an effort dubbed “Project Nightingale,” reports The Wall Street Journal. Neither the provider’s doctors nor patients were made aware of the effort, according to the report. The tech giant p…
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Break the Internet?

Written 5 years ago and still fresh and topical. By David Byrne.

‘What if the disillusionment eventually reaches a point at which many feel that the free services and convenience no longer compensate for the exploitation, control and surveillance? What if, one night, a small group of people decide they’ve had enough and say, “Let’s call it a day”?’

Journal | BREAKING UP WITH THE INTERNET
About a month ago, I was asked to join some serious writers (Colin Toibin, Zadie Smith, etc.) at a reading. The theme we were given was
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Oregano the Duck: The Story So Far

Oregano the Duck, runway shot, Season 1

Oregano the Duck is a wild mallard duck who chose a planter on my townhome balcony to lay clutches of eggs in the spring of 2018 and again in 2019. The pot originally contained oregano plants, and the little sign was still in the dirt when she took over—hence her name.

Full clutch of eggs, Season 1

Season one, she hatched eight ducklings in June, of which seven survived the jump from the balcony to the pavement. They made a home in the wetlands adjacent to my complex and a school, and I was able to see them a couple of times later that summer.

Brooding, Season 1
Oregano the Duck and ducklings hatching, Season 1

She returned earlier for season two and hatched eleven ducklings in May, all of whom survived. Saw them once a few weeks later, then they were gone.

The full monty, Season 2
Oregano the Duck and family, Season 2

If we don’t move the pot, Oregano should be back again in March or April 2020. She’s had followers all around the country and around the world including active military in the Middle East. Will be posting again on Instagram, and also here. Full chronicles and archive are still on Instagram under the #oreganotheduck hashtag.

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“If you make it trend, you make it true.”

If you spend any time on social media, this is an incredibly important article about misinformation for you to read and understand. You may not have time or inclination to read the extensive warnings of the SCO, House Intel, SSCI, and the intelligence community at large, but you do have 15 minutes to read this.

Please think–then think again–before you post, share, respond or react to anything without knowing its origin, its purpose, or its credibility, especially if it’s been crafted as easily shareable content like memes. Please consider whether you want to stay on platforms which give propaganda agency and oxygen without judgment or safeguard, with your personal data and metadata as fuel for the algorithms, and pictures of your family and your friends and and your pets as smokescreens to hide the activity. I still see very smart people doing very stupid things in the service of bad actors they actively oppose, amplifying extremist messaging and, worse, bringing their friends into the influence stream.

If you can’t detect bad intent, if you can’t restrain yourself from sharing it, if you simply don’t know what you’re doing, then the world is better off if you delete your account. And honestly, in the case of some of the more popular platforms, it’s already far too late to stop the flood, so it’s a good recommendation to do it now before you get swept away in the tsunami that’s coming.

[from The Yale Review]

Computational Propaganda
The pioneering public relations consultant Edward Bernays’s words are nearly a century old, but today, in an era of rampant misinformation and insidious disinformation campaigns online, they seem startlingly apt. The rulers Bernays was talking about were public relations specialists, and at the time…
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“The Four Horsemen of the Info-Apocalypse”

‘Although we think of information overload as one big problem, it actually consists of four problems that are each getting exponentially worse, and that together add up to one big crisis. This crisis risks making us collectively dumber instead of more intelligent, and tearing us apart instead of bringing us together.’

[Accelerated Intelligence on Medium]

While Everyone Is Distracted By Social Media, Successful People Double Down On An Underrated Skill
Right now, somewhere out in the world is a paragraph, chapter, or book that would change your life forever if you read it. I call this kind of information “breakthrough knowledge,” and mastering the…
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What’s past is prologue, etc

“Haven’t I given you a square deal, Miss Goldman?” Hoover asked, as they steamed toward Brooklyn in the darkness.

“Oh, I suppose you’ve given me as square a deal as you could,” she replied, two hours away from being ejected from the country where she had lived for thirty-four years and found the voice that had won her admirers around the world. “We shouldn’t expect from any person something beyond his capacity.”

[from The New Yorker]

When America Tried to Deport Its Radicals
A hundred years ago, the Palmer Raids imperilled thousands of immigrants. Then a wily official got in the way.
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Snowshoe running

Thought about this last year and passed. Early snowfall has me thinking again this year.

Snowshoe Running 101
Everything you need to get started in winter’s most underrated endurance sport
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Doppio

 

Couple of middle-schoolers at Starbucks asked me what a doppio espresso is. Told them it’s what you order when you’re dope as me.

Wide-eyed stares back.

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The Game Changers: excellent vegan documentary for athletes

Another outstanding, eye-opening, inspiring, and thoroughly enjoyable documentary about switching to a vegan diet, this starting through the viewpoint of professional athletes then through the stories of first responders and military. Highly recommended. Currently available on Netflix.

Mary and I have been less careful than usual about our food choices lately, and after watching this, we are back on it, renewing our vegan commitment.

There is not a single nutritional reason to eat animals or animal by-products, and there is a long long list of health reasons not to.

Western diets only include meat and dairy out of habit and because of marketing. The habit can be broken in a couple of weeks, and most vegans will tell you that not only are the health benefits immediately obvious, but you will actually be able to taste and enjoy fresh food again at a whole new level. Marketing and peer pressure are another thing, but can be overcome with a little discipline and persistence; as the guys from Thug Kitchen say, eat like you give a fuck. That is your new tagline.

The Game Changers Movie
Presented by James Cameron, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Lewis Hamilton, and Jackie Chan, The Game Changers is an award-winning documentary about meat, protein, and strength. Watch the movie in theatres starting September 16th, 2019.
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Vegan Paris

Worth another trip just for the vegan croissants.

10 Best Vegan Restaurants in Paris, France - 2019 - HappyCow
The top vegan and vegetarian restaurants in Paris, plant-based dining at its finest: as recommended by the HappyCow community.
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Joffrey Ballet’s Jane Eyre

Mary and I subscribed to The Joffrey Ballet for the 2019-2020 season, and the opening was spectacular — the American premier of Cathy Marston’s choreography of Jane Eyre. Wouldn’t expect a ballet to tell this story so effectively, but it worked so well. We have a full side box all season and were excited to share it with Rick and Jen as our guests, with dinner at Mercat a la Planxa before. Very special night.
Jane Eyre | Meet the Janes - YouTube
Lead dancers Amanda Assucena, Anais Bueno and Victoria Jaiani take on the iconic role of Jane Eyre. Jane Eyre | October 16-27, 2019 at the Auditorium Theatre ►► http://joffrey.org/jane Subscribe to the Joffrey’s YouTube channel ►► https://bit.ly/2CvBDWP…
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Damn straight

Excellent Paris Review interview with Nick Tosches.

“Because ninety-nine percent of what you worry about ain’t never gonna happen. What’s gonna happen is gonna come over your left shoulder and just do you in.”

Just Enjoy Every Fucking Blessed Breath
A small snippet of a never-published interview with iconic rock journalist Nick Tosches.