Hey, Mom! The Explanation.

Here's the permanent dedicated link to my first Hey, Mom! post and the explanation of the feature it contains.

Thursday, June 27, 2019

Hey, Mom! Talking to My Mother #1175 (SoD #1589) - Early Reader 1964 - Throwback Thursday 1906.27


Hey, Mom! Talking to My Mother #1175 (SoD #1589) - Early Reader 1964 - Throwback Thursday 1906.27

Hey Mom,

As usual, I am behind schedule, but better late than not at all.

This post is a bit of a hallmark as it is consecutive with yesterday's HEY MOM. I don't do this often. I was prepared to claim that I had not done this consecutive posting of HEY MOMs since I ceased daily transmission, but that's not true. I just had two in a row on Mother's Day.

Today is a bit of a hodge podge as usual: random bits from what catches my attention on the Internet but without any real effort to tour the web or scour various feeds for things. These bits come at me as they do from whatever I happen to see in my limited view. I try to spend as little time as possible skimming through feeds and sites.

But before I curate the contents of this mixture, a few words on the image for today and about reading.

Books.

I was an early reader as shown in the photo. Two years old, 15-16 months as my mother noted on the photo. I am surely not actually reading that book on animals (I think the word is animals), but I may have been imitating what reading is like as my parents shared with me. Also, I am looking at the pictures.

Reading is one of the greatest joys of my life, and I cannot imagine life without it. Recently, I spoke with a colleague who is in graduate school and not reading for pleasure because she is busy all the time with her studies. Though that's amazing and commendable, I could not live and be content let alone happy by sacrificing reading for pleasure. Granted, reading most anything gives me pleasure. It's not all comic books and SF-Fantasy novels. I get pleasure from reading about computer coding and business principles or history and psychology or even about grammar and literary analysis. But as much as all of that "productive" reading improves me and helps me to grow, I also adore reading just whatever strikes my fancy at the time, which lately, is both a traditional pursuit, as seen in the photo, and "reading" as listening to audio books.

I just finished Joe Hill's NOS4A2 and have moved on to Ani DiFranco's memoir No Walls and the Recurring Dream on audio.

For traditional reading, I have many books and things in progress, but the main project is Trail of Lightning a story of her Sixth World series, volume one, by Rebecca Roanhorse. Since I am writing this on Saturday, I can report that I am almost done with the book, which feels good as I started it in January... can that be right??? That's terrible if that's true.

Though I have made time for reading these last few months, apparently, not very much reading has been completed...

Update, later the same day, two days from the date of this entry, I finished Trail of Lightning. Good book but more for the world building, the post-apocalyptic world of the Navajo, or Dinétah, than for the story. The story was good enough, the characterization just okay, but the writing was really fine, great use of imagery, phrasing, startling language use.

 From GOOD READS:
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/36373298-trail-of-lightning

Trail of Lightning

(The Sixth World #1)

by 
 4.05  ·   Rating details ·  8,864 ratings  ·  1,999 reviews
While most of the world has drowned beneath the sudden rising waters of a climate apocalypse, Dinétah (formerly the Navajo reservation) has been reborn. The gods and heroes of legend walk the land, but so do monsters.

Maggie Hoskie is a Dinétah monster hunter, a supernaturally gifted killer. When a small town needs help finding a missing girl, Maggie is their last—and best—hope. But what Maggie uncovers about the monster is much larger and more terrifying than anything she could imagine.

Maggie reluctantly enlists the aid of Kai Arviso, an unconventional medicine man, and together they travel to the rez to unravel clues from ancient legends, trade favors with tricksters, and battle dark witchcraft in a patchwork world of deteriorating technology.

As Maggie discovers the truth behind the disappearances, she will have to confront her past—if she wants to survive.

Welcome to the Sixth World. (less)

So, a summer goal, more reading. Don't fall asleep so soon. Usually I manage staying up and reading better in the summer.

More on the other books in the future, but I really like Joe Hill's NOS4A2 and I am LOVING Ani DiFranco's memoir.

And now the hodge podge.

First, science pride for PRIDE month. No, I did not buy this T. Conserving funds right now.



Life on Mars.

Methane discovered on Mars could be sign that life once flourished there. It's unlikely that it currently exists there. But remember, Mars is much older than the Earth.




FROM
https://boingboing.net/2019/06/22/mars-rover-has-detected-methan.html

In the New York Times, Kenneth Chang reports that NASA's Curiosity rover on Mars has detected high amounts of methane, a gas that is commonly a signature of life. From the NYT:
“Given this surprising result, we’ve reorganized the weekend to run a follow-up experiment,” Ashwin R. Vasavada, the project scientist for the mission, wrote to the science team in an email that was obtained by The Times.

The mission’s controllers on Earth sent new instructions to the rover on Friday to follow up on the readings, bumping previously planned science work. The results of these observations are expected back on the ground on Monday...

On Earth, microbes known as methanogens thrive in places lacking oxygen, such as rocks deep underground and the digestive tracts of animals, and they release methane as a waste product. However, geothermal reactions devoid of biology can also generate methane.
So... This is Good News and now BAD BAD News...

https://news.slashdot.org/story/19/06/21/2259200/vast-quantities-of-recycled-plastics-are-actually-burned-or-dumped-in-landfills

'Vast Quantities' of Recycled Plastics Are Actually Burned Or Dumped In Landfills 


Posted by EditorDavid  from the mountains-of-trash dept.


"A Guardian investigation reveals that cities around the country are no longer recycling many types of plastic dropped into recycling bins. Instead, they are being landfilled, burned or stockpiled..." 

An anonymous reader shared this eye-opening report from the Guardian. "From Los Angeles to Florida to the Arizona desert, officials say, vast quantities of plastic are now no better than garbage..."As municipalities are forced to deal with their own trash instead of exporting it, they are discovering a dismaying fact: much of this plastic is completely unrecyclable. The issue is with a popular class of plastics that people have traditionally been told to put into their recycling bins -- a hodgepodge of items such as clamshell-style food packaging, black plastic trays, take-out containers and cold drink cups, which the industry dubs "mixed plastic". It has become clear that there are virtually no domestic manufacturers that want to buy this waste in order to turn it into something else.

Take Los Angeles county, the most populous in America. The Guardian has learned that recycling facilities are separating "mixed plastics" from those plastics which still retain value -- such as water bottles, laundry detergent bottles and milk jugs -- and, contrary to what customers expect, sending them directly to a landfill or incinerator. Los Angeles county public works estimates that in 2018, the county sent more than half a million tons of plastic to four different landfills, and nearly 20,000 tons of plastic to its waste-to-energy incinerator. And it appears that many other recyclers are doing exactly the same thing...

"Most people have no idea that most plastic doesn't get recycled," said John Hocevar, the Oceans Campaign Director for Greenpeace USA, referencing a study which found that just 9% of all plastic ever produced has been recycled. "Even though they are buying something that they only use for a few seconds before putting it in the recycling bin, they think it's OK because they believe it is being recycled."
The Guardian concludes that Americans "continue to throw away millions of tons of plastic each year, even as they run out of ways to dispose of it." But there's also an interesting observation from Coby Skye, the assistant deputy director of environmental programs at Los Angeles county public works: that it's never been possible to recycle some plastics that Americans were putting into their recycling bins. 

"[China] would just pull out the items that were actually recyclable and burn or throw away the rest. China has subsidized the recycling industry for many years in a way that distorted our views."

LOTS MORE NEWSY BITS......



DON'T TELL THEM!!
https://ew.com/tv/2019/06/20/neil-gaiman-responds-christian-group-petition-netflix-cancel-good-omens-amazon

Neil Gaiman hilariously responds to Christian group demanding Netflix cancel Amazon's Good Omens

Netflix and Amazon have also responded to the group's petition, which has gathered more than 20,000 signatures.
By Rachel Yang
June 20, 2019 at 07:12 PM EDT

Neil Gaiman knows how to take a joke, even an accidental one. The author responded to the petition created by a Christian group — Return to Order — for Netflix to cancel his show Good Omens, even though it airs on Amazon Prime Video.
Gaiman, who wrote every episode of the show, took the criticism in stride. “This is so beautiful… Promise me you won’t tell them?” he tweeted Wednesday.



The fantasy series, adapted from Gaiman and Terry Pratchett’s 1990 novel, features an angel (Michael Sheen) and demon (David Tennant) who work together to stop an apocalypse. It features a reluctant anti-Christ, Benedict Cumberbatch voicing Satan, and of course, Frances McDormand as the voice of God.

so here's a sample web site that gets me thinking...

https://www.tegangish.com/

I need to make my own web site. Another summer goal.


So, there's crystals in computers, but does this make them connected to the earth and thus to earth magic? Maybe.

https://www.cnet.com/news/quartz-crystal-computer-rocks/

https://cristales.fundaciondescubre.es/?page_id=2120

 MUSIC!








http://warrenellis.ltd/comics/the-sunsetting-of-dc-vertigo/

The Sunsetting Of DC Vertigo

DC announced today that beginning in 2020, all of its publishing content will be organized and marketed under the DC brand, creating three age-specific labels – DC Kids, DC and DC Black Label – that would absorb all of its existing imprints and focus DC’s publishing content around characters and stories that evolve and mature along with the awareness and sensibilities of DC’s readers. As a result of this new labeling strategy, DC will sunset the Vertigo publishing imprint at the end of the year.
This is a saddening thing. I was never really a “Vertigo writer” – TRANSMETROPOLITAN was brought into Vertigo after the sunsetting of the DC Helix line it was actually created for and published by, and I only did a handful of issues of HELLBLAZER before I had to leave, I never really “fit” there the way Garth and Grant and everyone else did, never for a moment felt like I was in that club – but I’ve always believed that DC Vertigo was central to the health of the American medium. Its creation made the medium a better place, and its sunset will make the medium poorer. Companies like Vault Comics have stepped into the breach, to be sure — their line is very much an early-Vertigo ideal. But: a giant media company putting relatively serious resources into serious work that the company would not own but simply believed should be published? That was a major statement about original creator-owned cross-genre/non-genre narrative art and its importance. Something of importance sailed away at sunset tonight, and I suspect we may not see it again. Good night, you crooked old house of mystery and secrets. I’ll miss you.

SOME MUSIC
Like much of my music these days, this all came to me via Warren Ellis.
Thank you, good sir.









 WONDERFUL PODCAST!

https://www.somewhereintheskies.com/


SOMEWHERE IN THE SKIES brings listeners on a search for answers to the UFO phenomenon and beyond. With audio docs, witness testimony, and special guest interviews, every episode is sure to bring us closer to tackling those mysteries that lay somewhere in the skies. Subscribe on all major podcast apps 



The Oregon Department of Corrections (DOC) has banned dozens of books on tech and programming, claiming that prisoners learning to code would “create a clear and present danger.”1 What’s worse, other states, like Ohio, Kansas, and Michigan, have also banned tech books in their prisons.2
The fact is, learning basic computer skills is not a threat to anyone. Any 16-year-old with basic computer literacy could tell these bureaucrats that learning HTML or Python doesn't mean you can suddenly hack into prison security. All these bans do is deny incarcerated people their ability to learn essential skills for getting and holding entry-level jobs in our society.
This is a huge barrier to prisoners’ ability to get back on their feet. We can stop this. Earlier this year, Washington state had banned book donations to prisoners, but public pressure forced them to reverse it.3
Let’s join together and reverse this backwards ban.
Thanks for all you do,
Laila at FFTF
Footnotes:

Fight for the Future works to protect your rights in the digital age.




AND FINALLY, this gives me hope:


https://developers.slashdot.org/story/19/05/10/1812235/i-dont-think-a-four-year-degree-is-necessary-to-be-proficient-at-coding-tim-cook-says

'I Don't Think a Four-Year Degree is Necessary To Be Proficient at Coding', Tim Cook Says


Posted by msmash  from the perspective dept.

An anonymous reader shares a report:Earlier this week, Apple CEO Tim Cook visited an Apple Store in Orlando, Florida to meet with 16-year-old Liam Rosenfeld, one of 350 scholarship winners who will be attending Apple's annual Worldwide Developers Conference next month. Echoing comments he shared with the Orlando Sentinel, Cook told TechCrunch's Matthew Panzarino that it is "pretty impressive" what Rosenfeld is accomplishing with code at such a young age, serving as a perfect example of why he believes coding education should begin in the early grades of school. "I don't think a four year degree is necessary to be proficient at coding," says Cook. "I think that's an old, traditional view. What we found out is that if we can get coding in in the early grades and have a progression of difficulty over the tenure of somebody's high school years, by the time you graduate kids like Liam, as an example of this, they're already writing apps that could be put on the App Store."

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Reflect and connect.

Have someone give you a kiss, and tell you that I love you, Mom.

I miss you so very much, Mom.

Talk to you tomorrow, Mom.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

- Days ago = 1454 days ago

- Bloggery committed by chris tower - 1906.27 - 10:10

NEW (written 1708.27) NOTE on time: I am now in the same time zone as Google! So, when I post at 10:10 a.m. PDT to coincide with the time of your death, Mom, I am now actually posting late, so it's really 1:10 p.m. EDT. But I will continue to use the time stamp of 10:10 a.m. to remember the time of your death, Mom. I know this only matters to me, and to you, Mom.
Posted by at
Labels: , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)