I was arrested after asking "who elected him?" at the proclamation of King Charles
“What other freedoms can be suppressed in the name of monarchy? Who else will be arrested under the vile Police, Crime, Sentencing & Courts Act?” #Democracy [Link]
Ben Werdmuller
Ben Werdmuller helps leaders at newsrooms, non-profits, and mission-driven organizations to navigate their biggest technology challenges.
A letter to my mother on the event of my child's birth
Dear Ma, My child was born last Friday. I wish you could meet them. The first time I saw their face in person (strikingly similar to their 3D ultrasound, but here, not an echo of a person but a real-life human being in front of me), they couldn’t
Make Your Voter Guide ICONIC
“This kind of user-friendly experience is something we keep dreaming that more newsroom voter guides will feature.” #Media [Link]
I’m a psychologist – and I believe we’ve been told devastating lies about mental health
“If a plant were wilting we wouldn’t diagnose it with “wilting-plant-syndrome” – we would change its conditions. Yet when humans are suffering under unliveable conditions, we’re told something is wrong with us, and expected to keep pushing through. To keep working and producing, without acknowledging our hurt.
A Black protester voiced anger at police in South Carolina. She got 4 years in prison
“You have people who stormed the Capitol, who led to the death of law enforcement, who tried to overturn an election and fracture democracy. And they're getting two months, three months, six months. And Brittany Martin gets four years.” #Democracy [Link]
New technique shows old temperatures were much hotter than thought
“Meckler’s warmer temperatures suggest that CO2’s capacity to warm during that time in Earth’s past was higher than was found in earlier studies. “This would lead to a higher climate sensitivity to atmospheric CO2,” the paper says.” #Climate [Link]
Reading, watching, playing, using: August, 2022
Happy Labor Day to everyone who celebrates the organized labor movement today in the US. This is my monthly roundup of the books, articles, and streaming media I found interesting. Here's my list for August, 2022. A note: it’s taken me a while to hit publish on
Soon
It’s late in the evening and we’re in the hospital while our son slowly makes his way to birth. I’m a sea of emotions, but one of the biggest is the feeling of uselessness: just as I couldn’t carry the baby, I can’t help take
U.S. life expectancy drops sharply, the second consecutive decline
“American Indian and Alaskan Native people have experienced a particularly precipitous drop in life expectancy since 2019, going from 71.8 to 65.2 years. This kind of loss is similar to the plunge seen for all Americans after the Spanish Flu.” #Health [Link]
Republican candidates are changing how they handle abortion after Roe v. Wade
“Multiple Republican midterm candidates have removed from their campaign sites references to particularly strict anti-abortion stances, a shift from primary campaigning to the approaching general election and an indication of growing concern in the Republican Party over how to handle abortion policy post-Roe v. Wade.” # [Link]
Capitalism Gives Me the Freedom to Pursue as Many Side Gigs as I Want to Pay Off My Increasing Bills And Loans
“I like to think of myself as an independent contractor who threw out his nine-to-five job for about five to nine different jobs over the course of a year, a contractor with significantly less of the legal protections established in the past hundred years or so by Congress
Why I Changed My Mind on Student Debt Forgiveness
“It is simply impossible for students to work their way through college in the way previous generations could. And at the same time, states have reduced funding to their public colleges that historically allowed schools to charge low tuition prices.” #Democracy [Link]