Hey, Mom! The Explanation.

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

Saturday, January 1, 2022

A Sense of Doubt blog post #2510 - New Year - 2021 - Web of Wyrd in review - weekly hodge podge (sort of)



A Sense of Doubt blog post #2510 - New Year - 2021 - Web of Wyrd in review - weekly hodge podge (sort of)

Greetings readers, Thanks for tuning in.

Happy new year!

Good morning. I have put up all four of my 2022 calendars, and so I am ready to rock the new year!!

In lieu of some kind of year-in-review roundup, I did something a bit different for this post, which is both a Weekly Hodge Podge and not one at the same time. It’s surely a hodge podge of things, all kinds of things, links and pictures and content of all kinds; however, it’s not a Hodge Podge of the kind I do normally. There is no pandemic report of the kind I have been doing for almost two years now. There is a theme: the Web of Wyrd from Rune Magick and German Occult traditions is a theme.

Really, though, this post is part one (there has to be one more part) of a collection of stuff I had stored in my email.

Here’s where I was just last week with email. I was at IN BOX = 1900-something. Nearly 2000. And IN BOX had crested 2000 this year a few times. When I get busy with work, I do not make time for my personal email, and I have signed up for a lot of things, a lot of newsletters, and though I have applied filters to some things, I still let a lot more through to IN BOX because I want to see it.

But also, I was IN BOX = 2000 because I had a backlog going back to around the time I got married (2009). There were some emails from before October of 2009 but not that many. FOR YEARS, I was determined to go back through these old emails and get them out of the IN BOX, so that I could clear the IN BOX and keep up on the deluge, even if I only archived things weekly, it would be better than it has been. And though in breaks from work, I might clear a whole year, the current one, leaving only a couple of dozen emails to look at and dispense less quickly, I never managed to get back to 2009 when there were dozens of well wishes for my marriage by people who were invited and couldn’t attend, and I just lost the ability to keep up on all that communication. And that was all before I started blogging daily in 2013 because, you know, daily blog posts take some amount of time, even if I keep them simple or just share things other people have created.

Then I hit on a bright idea! What if I just move all those old posts into folders by years or groups of years and sort them later? Could I get done to a manageable number of messages in my email?

Yes, I can.

I am currently at IN BOX = 158. I have to stare at that number for quite a bit of time. ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY EIGHT!! I cannot remember a time when my IN BOX had so few unread emails in it.


Here’s this other thing I remembered as I archived hundreds and hundreds of emails: I send myself stuff. I send myself reminders of all kinds. I also send myself blog content, especially when I am scrolling on my phone, and I want to deal with whatever I found at a different time, sitting at a computer. And so, I share those things via email.

I had dozens and dozens of these shared items in my email.

And so this post, which collects those things.

And some TABS because that’s my other problem. I leave MANY MANY tabs open on my work machine. Right now, on my desktop, in Chrome, I have five groups of tabs all open in separate windows. Of these, I probably have close to 100 tabs open, and I culled down. Not long ago, one group had 77 tabs! It now has 18 tabs open.

And so, this first bit of content is the biggest chunk in the post, a tab I have had open all year for the Web of Wyrd, something I came across doing research for my fiction writing and never fully digested.

The article really delves deeply into the Web of Wyrd, its meanings, its possible origins, its variations, and lots of Old Norse history/content. I love this stuff.

Following that content, I get into some recent stuff. Omicron is driving a huge spike in Covid-19 infections. Betty White died yesterday. More Covid-19 and Omicron. I had someone on my Facebook wall refer to it as the “China Virus.” I deleted his post because that’s hateful bullshit that has fueled violence against Asian-American people nationwide.

A bunch of comic book images from Kieron Gillen, who is doing a new X-Men book this year at Marvel.

RACISM IS A REALITY from @allontheboard.


And last in that group an “I love music” poster that Ani DiFranco got in Japan. It’s a hoot. Though the poor English in the text is NOT my attempt to fuel anti-Asian hate but rather to drive forth Asian love and appreciation.

And then I really start to roll out the links and content, all kinds of content, starting with an article from THE QUIETUS on Glüme.

#dance #electropop #synthwave

Premiered Apr 30, 2021





Debut Album “The Internet” Out Now

Directed By We Suffer For Fashion Films
Choreography By Nikki Keeshin
Film Edited By Glüme & Johnny Jewel
Color By Gemma Parr  @gemparr_colour
Produced By Glüme & Johnny Jewel
Titles By Alberto Rossini
Mastered By Mike Bozzi At Bernie Grundman Mastering

I’ve Been Waiting All These Nights
To Fall Asleep Or Fall In Love
But, I Feel Electric Lights
In My Veins So I Get Up
& Try Again
I’m Scared That I Might Die Again
But, I Get Up
My Feelings Are A Shade Of Red
It Makes Me Really Miss The Blues
I Think You Got Into My Head
What Can I Say What Can I Do
But, Fly Again
I’m Scared That I Might Try Again
Why Not Give Up
Baby It’s Not So Bad
It’s Just A Nervous BreakdownI Fall In Love Like That
It’s Just A Nervous Breakdown
My Feelings Are The Same For You
As A Wild Hurricane
What Can I Say What Can I Do
Oh, You Drive Me So Insane
I Cry AgainHere Just For The Ride Again
You’re What I Want
Baby It’s Not So Bad
It’s Just Like Flying To The Moon
Does The Benzedrine In Your Coffee
Ever Make You Miss The Blues



And then, just a bunch of stuff.

Political stuff, more Covid stuff, music stuff, articles by one of my favorite writers (Cory Doctorow), cool magazines/publishers that I want to track, like Far Out Magazine and Psychedelic Press.

There’s t-shirts, baseball news, gamergate analysis/exposé, thoughts on the future of feminism, and a page from Cory Doctorow’s Attack Surface, in which the main character talks about her self-loathing: “girls hate themselves,” which makes me really sad/mad.

Lauren Boebert is a nut job, and one of many who find themselves in the Federal government’s Congress, and I wonder how they managed to get enough votes to get there. They certainly are not qualified for national office.

And there’s plenty about the injustices of our society, such as a gun manufacturer wanting the disciplinary records of the Sandy Hook kids, an elderly black woman sent to prison for not answering her phone, and a fight to memorialize a lynching in Texas in 1930 that is meeting resistance because Texan lawmakers do not want the truth of racism taught or even remembered.

And it’s like that: music, politics, DAVID BOWIE, Microsoft, Kamala Harris, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Jen Psaki, fantasy Baseball, gravity, psychological theories, bands from my step-son, ALEX TREBEK, and how TRUMP NEEDS TO BE CHARGED FOR CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY.

Oh and Ed Piskor: Hip Hop Family Tree!!

And more. A friend of mine was published in McSweeney’s.

The Queens Gambit (didn’t I watch that last year?).

YA protagonists (girls).

YARA SHAIDI!!!

And more.

Near the end: SATCHEL, a really great picture.

I am looking forward to a great year!

Check back for a future a blog post in which I clear the rest of the email back log of stuff.

See you next week for a more normal HODGE PODGE.






https://www.mimisbrunnr.info/ksd-web-of-wyrd


KVASIR SYMBOL DATABASE

 WEB OF WYRD

Image I: Rendition of form A.1. (‘twig form’). Art by Rim Bitik for Mimisbrunnr.info, 2020.


Entry by Joseph Hopkins and Lauren E. Fountain, March, 2020. Art by Rim Bitik for Mimisbrunnr.info, 2020. Several reviewers assisted with material for this entry, and we thank them for their valuable research and contributions.

DESCRIPTION

The Web of Wyrd symbol occurs in two primary forms: The first form, A, consists of a thread- or twig-like structure and the second, B, consists of a geometric representation of A. Both forms consist of three sets of three lines, emphasizing the number nine. Three and nine are central numbers in historic Germanic paganism. (For examples of both symbols, see the illustrations accompanying this article.) Both symbols can be found on various commercial websites described as the “Web of Wyrd” or, similarly but less commonly, “Skuld’s Net”.


DATING

Forms A.1. & A.2. seem to first appear in print in the 1990s, followed by form B somewhere in the 2010s.

SOURCES

FORMS A.1. & A.2.

Image II: Form A.2. Art by Rim Bitik for Mimisbrunnr.info, 2020.

The first known appearance of the symbol occurs in German occultist Jan Fries’s Helrunar: A Manual of Rune Magick (1993, Mandrake of Oxford). Two versions of form A occur within the book: Form A.1. appears on the book’s cover, A.2. on its title page, and A.1. appears again on page 326.

The book itself contains a variety of references to English occult figure Aleister Crowley, typical of English language European occult circles in the early 1990s. While Fries’s book contains three instances of the symbol, nowhere in Helrunar does Fries mention or otherwise discuss it. Whether the symbol originates from this text or was otherwise known in occult (and modern pagan circles) at the time remains unclear.

In 1995, form A.2. appears again in a small book published by martial artist Graham (“G.D.”) Butcher, Stav: The Fighting System of Northern Europe. Here Butcher refers the symbol simply as “the web”:

The underlying concept of reality is the web which holds everything together in all dimensions including time. It is in essence very simple and can be depicted as nine lines locked together in such a way as to form the building blocks of the universe. (Butcher 1995: 7)

This explanation is accompanied by an illustration depicting the symbol alongside the Younger Futhark runic row, but with some modifications (Butcher 1995: 7, fig. 2). According to Butcher, the symbol contains the entirety of the runic alphabet(s):

The first tool is the runes which are extracted from the web and reveal sixteen different aspects of reality, not by having fixed meanings but by their associations. By learning and performing the stances the runes become part of the self and we begin to integrate ourselves into the web of reality. (Butcher 1995: 8).

Another depiction of the symbol appears later in the book, this time as a representation of a Stav stance (Butcher 1995: 19).

Stav, a fighting system, was developed and first promoted by Norwegian martial artist Ivar Hafskjold, evidently sometime in the early 1990s (Butcher’s 1995 publication makes for the earliest mention we have found of Stav to date). Hafskjold claims that he inherited knowledge of the martial art from family members and decided to teach it to others. While no record of such a tradition exists in the Old Norse corpus or anywhere else exterior to Hafskjold’s claim of inheritance, Stav makes for a unique and notable development in the modern reception of North Germanic topics. (Readers can find a 2009 account of the development of Stav from Hafskjold at his website here.)

While Butcher’s work indicates that the symbol was known as the web as early as 1995, when the symbol became commonly known as the web of wyrd is unclear. The phrase web of wyrd does not stem from a direct translation of a historically attested Old Norse phrase but seems to first occur—in English, at least—in the writings of English psychologist Brian Bates, most notably in his novel The Web of Wyrd: Tales of an Anglo-Saxon Sorcerer (1983, Century). That said, an independent development and use of the phrase is also possible due to the traditional focus on alliteration in both the ancient Germanic corpus and in its modern reception (see discussion in the Analysis section below regarding norns weaving ørlǫgþáttir, a semantically comparable phrase).

As one reviewer of the present entry noted to the present author, the ‘twig’ version of form A, form A.1., as it appears on the cover of Fries’s book (and subsequently on the internet) may be influenced by the concept of the nine wuldortanas mentioned in the Nigon Wyrta Galdor, an Old English poem popularly known as the Nine Herbs Charm (Readers can find an in-depth translation of the charm with commentary on Mimisbrunnr.info here). The charm mentions that the god Odin (Old English Wōden) uses nine wuldortanas to defeat a venomous serpentine entity (a wyrm). Translators frequently render the phrase wuldortanas as ‘glory-twigs’ or some similar equivalent. (As an aside, the first element of this compound, wuldor is ultimately cognate with Old Norse Ullr, the name of a deity, the son of the the goddess Sif, so ‘glory’ might not entirely cover what the charm-author intended to communicate with the compound). Without accompanying then-contemporary commentary from Fries on this, readers are left to wonder if the similarity is simple coincidence but an internet search reveals at least a few groups making this connection (we have decided not to link to these websites here). The association between the ‘twig form’ of the symbol and the wuldortanas also seems likely to occur independently among readers familiar with both.

FORM B

Image III: Form B. Art by Rim Bitik for Mimisbrunnr.info, 2020.

A simplified, geometric version of the symbol appears to have developed from the forms that occur in Fries 1993 and Butcher 1995 and we hereafter refer to this new form as form B. Form B appears to have become popular in modern Heathen communities on the internet, where one may find it described, for example, as containing the entirety of the runic alphabet(s) (just as in Butcher 1995: 8).

Use of the symbol is in some cases datable by way of print media. For example, the symbol appears on American black metal band Panopticon’s logo on the 2019 EP “The Crescendo of Dusk” (Bindrune Recordings, images viewable on Discogs.com) and at the time of writing image search engine results yield numerous examples of form B tattoos and use of the symbol on objects sold by vendors at online marketplaces such as Etsy.

ANALYSIS

While the symbol appears by every indication to be a modern development, the concept (or concepts) it reflects reach back deep into the ancient Germanic corpus. North Germanic sources repeatedly reference a complex of conceptually similar supernatural women—the ghostly valkyries, norns, and dísir—closely associated with with the concept of wyrd.

A brief dive into historical linguistics is necessary to understand some of the topics mentioned in association with this symbol. As used in this article and with the symbol, the word wyrd refers to a broad concept of ‘fate’ understood among the ancient Germanic peoples: Old English wyrd, Old High German wurt, and Old Norse urðr all descend from Proto-Germanic *wurđiz, a noun descending from the verb *werþanan, meaning, essentially, ‘to become’. (The asterisk indicates that the word is reconstructed by philologists, specialists in the science of historical linguistics. For etymological discussion, see for example, Orel 2003: 475 — note also that the Old Norse compound noun ørlǫg falls in a similar semantic field and is often glossed as fate or wyrd).

Deriving from Old English wyrd, modern English’s sense of weird as ‘strange’ first occurs in the 19th century, but before that, the word, perhaps fabric-like, indicated a twist or turn of ‘fate’ (with the caveat that the borrowed word fate is more of a rough gloss than a straightforward translation of the concept). The Old Norse cognate to Old English wyrd, urðr, receives extensive use in the North Germanic corpus, occurring notably in the compound Urðarbrunnr (‘Wyrd’s Well, Wyrd’s Spring’), and the name of a specific entity, the norn Urðr, who personifies the concept. (For focused discussion on the etymology of the word wyrd and its cognates, see for example OED 2020).

The well Urðarbrunnr has an important place in North Germanic cosmology, as it is closely connected to the cosmic central sacred tree, Yggdrasil. According to the eddic poem Vǫluspá:

I know an ash stands,
it’s called Yggdrasill;
a glorious and immense tree,
wet with white and shining mud;
from there dew falls to the dales,
forever standing green over Wyrd’s Well (Urðarbrunnr). (Hopkins translation, 2020)

The analogy of textile production—weaving, spinning—as a means of producing wyrd by groups of supernatural female figures occurs a handful of times in the Old Norse corpus. In the eddic poem Helgakviða Hundingsbana I, norns visit the infant Helgi and spin his wyrd from threads. They arrive at night at Helgi’s family gathering, and bid him great fortune: Beneath the night sky and with ‘great might’, they spin, for lack of a better translation, wyrd-threads (Old Norse plural nominative ørlǫgþáttir, accusative ørlǫgþáttu—semantically, a compound one might render as ‘web of wyrd’).

In the Old Norse poem Darraðarljóð, found in Njáls saga, a comparatively famous example of valkyries weaving wyrd occurs. The poem describes 12 valkyries chanting and weaving the wyrd of those who will die in battle at the Battle of Clontarf (1014 CE). As the valkyries chant, the poet describes a hidden onlooker’s terror in noticing that the valkyries’ weaving equipment consists of human entrails, body parts, and weapons of war. Eventually the valkyries disassemble their equipment and ride off in different directions, presumably to choose the wyrd of the battlefield dead.

In a stanza early in the eddic poem Vǫlundarkviða, three valkyrie sisters spin linen by a lakeside. This appears to signal readers a strong wyrd association: Their mysterious presence and actions subsequently set the stage for the dramatic events of the rest of the poem. Notably in this context, the so-called Franks Casket (8th century) depicts events known to us from Vǫlundarkviða, alongside Christian and Roman legendary material. One side of the casket, the so-called Bargello panel, depicts three figures who appear to be spinning (or conducting some similar activity). This may reference the influence of the valkyries (or norns) in the widely known Germanic narrative reflected in Vǫlundarkviða (readers may view the panel as part of the British Museum’s collection here).

These supernatural women associated with wyrd are entities that appear to have a deep history in the ancient Germanic corpus: Scholars frequently connect them to depictions of goddess-like figures found on shrines in Germanic areas occupied by Roman colonial forces. These shrines frequently depict three figures with a variety of items, such as diapers and fruit. Veneration of these figures appear to have continued until at least the Mothers Night (Old English Mōdraniht) attested by Anglo-Saxon historian Bede (and no doubt related to the Old Norse dísablót and Swedish disaþing) (see discussion in, for example, Simek 2007 [1993]: 61-62, 204-208, 220).

Along with the wuldortanas mentioned above in connection with form A.1., it appears that some understanding of some or all of the above ‘wyrd-weaving’ attestations inspired the creation of the development, diffusion, and popularity of the symbol. Although its exact course of development remains unclear, somewhere along the way the symbol became associated with the threads handled by the above discussed groups of supernatural female figures associated with birth and death. Today the symbol is prominent in both enthusiast and modern heathen circles, evidently making it one of the first modern era symbols to develop and find welcome among ancient Germanic studies-associated subcultures within the last few decades.

ABOUT THE IMAGES

This entry contains three original pieces by Rim Bitik for Mimisbrunnr.info, all produced by the artist in 2020. They are as follows:

  • I.: Rendition of form A.1. (‘twig form’).

  • II.: Form A.2.

  • III.: Form B.

Readers can find wallpaper-quality versions by clicking the images. Please contact Mimisbrunnr.info for image use requests.

SEE ALSO

  • Bee, an insect associated with wyrd and groups of female supernatural figures in various attestations in the ancient and modern Germanic record

REFERENCES

  • Bates, Brian. 1983. The Web of Wyrd: Tales of an Anglo-Saxon Sorcerer. Century.

  • Butcher, G. D. 1995. Stav: The Fighting System of Northern Europe. Stav Marketing.

  • Fries, Jan. 1993. Helrunar: A Manual of Rune Magick. Mandrake of Oxford.

  • "weird, n.". OED Online. March 2020. Oxford University Press. https://www.oed.com/view/Entry/226915?rskey=OkUCzz&result=1&isAdvanced=false (accessed April 08, 2020).

  • Orel, Vladimir. 2003. A Handbook of Germanic Etymology. Brill.

  • Simek, Rudolf. 2007 [1993]. Dictionary of Northern Mythology. D. S. Brewer.





US Hits Record Number of New Covid-19 Cases (npr.org)


The seven-day average of COVID-19 cases topped 280,000 this week, according to data from Johns Hopkins University's tracker. It's a record number of new cases in the country; the last time the number of cases hit a peak close to that was January. NPR reports:Public health officials including Dr. Anthony Fauci and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Rochelle Walensky say the new variant appears to be less severe than ones in the past but still emphasize the need to follow public health protocols like getting vaccinated and wearing a mask to curb the spread of the virus. Data from the White House provided at a briefing Wednesday shows the seven-day average of hospitalizations is about 9,000 per day -- which is a 14% increase in hospitalizations from last week. However, there was a 60% rise in cases over the same time frame. The seven-day average of COVID-19 deaths is down from last week, at about 1,100 deaths per day.

Officials say the difference is in part because omicron causes less severe symptoms for those who are vaccinated and especially for those who are boosted. Another reason for the wide gap between the increase in hospitalizations and cases, Fauci said, is that hospitalizations tend to lag behind recorded cases. Still, "all indications point to less severe illness with omicron than delta," he said. [...] Despite the seemingly lower severity of the omicron variant, Fauci emphasized the need for people to get vaccinated and boosted.
On Monday, U.S. health officials from the CDC cut isolation restrictions for Americans who catch the coronavirus from 10 to five days, and similarly shortened the time that close contacts need to quarantine.


Betty White Understood Gay Men, and We Loved Her for It

Betty White smiling

I never felt 'handsome,' but when I met Betty, she made me feel like I was. 

Read on »

































https://thequietus.com/articles/29927-glme-the-internet-review


Meadows and the Band of Loyalists: How They Fought to Keep Trump in Power https://nyti.ms/3oXcv1T


https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/nov/10/people-exposed-to-covid-yet-not-falling-ill-may-have-immune-memory-finds-study

https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/the-story-behind-the-song-steely-dans-sly-rikki-dont-lose-that-number/


A Conversation With Donald Fagen
Talking Nabokov and Judaism with the Steely Dan co-founder, whose first live album comes out today
By Paul Grimstad
Read Article: https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/arts-letters/articles/conversation-with-donald-fagen



Why bother - Cory Doctorow


THREE Vancouver schools placed on lockdown after anti-mask protesters try to enter - OPB




Remington finds new depths of depravity to plumb.


Sep 3



What God, quantum mechanics and consciousness have in common






Dear friends,

I am very pleased to announce that issue XXXIV of our journal is now available. All subscriptions and pre-orders have been posted, and copies are still available on our website. You can subscribe here. We are delighted to feature the artwork Broken Hours by Cornwall-based artist Arthur Lanyon, which was created using oil, oil stick, oil primer and charcoal powder on linen. Please do check out his other brilliant artworks.


This issue features an eclectic selection of psychedelic writings that deal with such topics as the rise of psychedelic capitalism and its challenge to the experiential paradigm ('Entheoceutical Entrepreneurs and the Resistance to Old-School Psychedelia'); the role of phenomenology in psilocybin treatments ('Why Might Psilocybin-Assisted Therapy be Effective in Treating Depression'); creative writing ('Tripping with Tony Soprano'); reminiscences from 20th century counterculture worlds ('Kundalini 1970s Style' and 'Deep End'); plus conceptual pieces such as 'On the Psychedelic Aspects of Vaccination'.

We've also reviewed Visionary Quests by John M Folak, American Trip by Ido Hartogsohn, and DMT & My Occult Mind Lite by Dick Kahn. 

As ever big love and thanks to our wonderful contributing writers, without whom the journal would not be. If you were interested in getting involved, do check out our contributors page.

In other news, we have published an interview with Dr Matthew Clark about his new book Botanical Ecstasies, which explores the hypothesis that the ancient Vedic 'soma' was an ayahuasca-like plant brew (get 20% off with the code SOMA101). This Saturday (14th August) the fabulous events charity Breaking Convention returns to London with The Intermission -  a day of psychedelic talks themed around ethics. In-person tickets are available here, but you can also livestream the event from anywhere in the world. I can't wait to catch up with some of you there!
 
***

Special offer this week: get 50% off Acid Drops: Adventures in Psychedelia by Andy Roberts with the code DROPS

***

I hope you have a wonderful weekend, whatever you do.

Keep it trippy,

Robert Dickins

Psychedelic Press Founding Editor
www.psychedelicpress.co.uk



mlb field of dreams




Kolchak shirt





Gamergate threats to Brianna Wu





Opinion | Merrick Garland: It is time for Congress to act again to protect the right to vote - The Washington Post





Curious about the futures of feminism?


Hello friends,


We hope you are all keeping safe and well. Welcome to another roundup of what's been going on at The F-Word!

The Olympics has been the biggest news event this month. Norway's beach handball team were handed a fine for not wearing bikini bottoms as part of their uniform; this has prompted a wider discussion around sexism in sportswear at the Olympics. The exclusion of South African athlete Caster Semenya has also been the centre of controversy around how appropriate the current definitions of 'male' and 'female' are when used in sport.

At home in the UK, Deaf activist Katie Rowley successfully won a discrimination suit against the government for their failure to provide sign language interpreters at Covid briefings. This is the latest in a series of stories concerning how the pandemic has more severely impacted minority and marginalised groups, including the shocking revelation that male G4S security personnel are no longer considered capable of protecting women quarantining in Covid hotels. Data released by Public Health England this week also suggests that pregnant people are still far behind in vaccination rates.

More broadly in reproductive health, the government in Westminster has recently instructed Stormont to begin abortion practices in Northern Ireland, as they have failed to do so independently since changes to the law were brought in last year. 

That's the broader picture for July; scroll on to find out what we've been up to!

Love,
The F-Word Team

Feminists should logically be socialists

Georgina Diaz reviews The Futures of Feminism by Valerie Bryson and finds it a mixture of refreshing, contradictory and disappointing

The World to Come: an interview with director Mona Fastvold


"Because it’s harder to make a movie with two women in the lead, that’s one thing. And then of course it’s easier to claim this is niche because it is only going to cater to the queer community, which is ridiculous. No, it won’t. You have to fight for it as hard as you can. My cast, my creative collaborators and my producers, we all decided ‘We’re going to do it no matter what’."

Being the strongest woman

Singer-songwriter Erika discusses the reason for writing her new song, ‘Strongest Woman’, which focuses on the topics of drink spiking and sexual assault

UK aid budget cuts will be devastating for women and girls

 
"Cuts to the UK aid budget will push hundreds of thousands of girls out of education. These predictions come in parallel with the announcement of a new target from the G7 Group of Nations: to send an additional 40 million girls to school worldwide. “What we’re seeing is a complete disconnect between what the government is saying and these cuts,” says Wilson, who continued that the cuts were announced without warning or consultation and will affect projects already underway."
Wondering what's on?
We've got you covered.
From the archive

From the Madonna to masturbation


Jagoda Jago discusses her series of illustrations exploring the sexual fantasies of Polish women

How to be a feminist porn director


Laura Elias Casas interviews two women porn industry figures about where, how and why feminism fits in

Our picks from across the web
How Twitter can ruin a life

When a child is born: the film lifting the lid on surrogacy, race and disability

Boycotting the Olympics: Let Me Count the Whys
The irreplaceable Dawn Foster

How Bristol’s strip club ban could set a terrible precedent for sex workers across the UK

Why Are Some People Saying The Behaviour Of Love Island's Danny Is Problematic?

Girls hate themselves




Jul 16, 2021


Farron Balanced

Republican Representative Lauren Boebert is furious about a parody website that is using her Congressional photo, while also calling her out on some of the craziest things that she has said. Recently, a member of her staff reached out to the owner of the website and threatened them with "action" if the website was not immediately removed from the internet. Farron Cousins explains why this is not only a ridiculous overreaction, but also why Boebert can't do anything about it.

https://www.rawstory.com/lauren-boebert-parody-website/

*This transcript was auto-generated. Please excuse any typos.

Republican representative Lauren Boebert is furious right now at a parody website. So furious that she had one of her staffers reach out and threaten action against the guy running the parody site saying, if you do not take this down, we're taking action against you because, uh, you're using copyrighted photos and oh no. Now we got you. We get to that in a minute. Here's the thing. The website is the Lauren Boebert.com. It is run by a comedy writer by the name of Toby Morton and Toby Morton revealed yesterday on Twitter that he had been contacted.

But bye Jake. Uh, see if I can find his last name here. Uh, okay. Wow. It doesn't say it. But anyway, um, who is Lauren Boeberts press secretary. This is what a Morton tweeted out. Jake is the press secretary for at Lauren Boebert. Lauren told Jake to use his government email to send me a cease and desist order to take down my website. The Lauren bover.com. Jake is not a lawyer. Jake is an idiot, and this is what that letter said, because again, Morton tweets it out and here's what it says about the photos. You know, they need to be taken down since the photos on here are copyrighted property of the U S federal government. They are property of the office of Congressman, Congressman Lauren Bovert okay. And use of them as unauthorized and illegal. The email says, additionally, the entire website is a defamatory impersonation, and it goes against relevant terms of service and us law.

Please remove it immediately or face further action. Now, Jake, the press secretary was not able to say what us law violated or what further action they were going to take against them. Uh, and that's probably because there's literally nothing. They can do parody in person nations, things like that are essentially protected speech. And it is a far more protected class than regular speech. For example, a parody website, a parody publication, like the onion, uh, even the Babylon bee. They can get away with saying these crazy and outrageous things because it is satire, right? If I were to say the same things in my videos, hell yeah, they could take action against me, but parody, satire, comedy, all of that is a separate class and it is near impossible to Sue individuals like this for defamation. So what is so bad about the LaurenBoebert.com? Well, for the most part, all Morton is doing, he does call her a racist and he calls her a couple of other names in there and sure. That's actually opinion. So you can't claim that that's the famine story either

Because it's his opinion and we're entitled to it.

But he also just shows tweets who shows tweets and other comments that Lauren Boebert has made over the years. Like that's, what's driving her crazy. Is that the stupid thing she says live forever on the Lauren bover.com also, by the way, for what it's worth, those photos that he's using there that they're like, these are property of the U S it's actually public domain.

Um, yeah, so you don't have a case there either. See, I think

What's really Lauren Boebert off aside from this website, showing people who she really is, is that she knows there's nothing she can do about it. She is in effect powerless to stop the satire, to stop the jokes and to stop the commentary. And that drives people like this crazy as much as they want to rail against things like cancel culture, they would love nothing more than to be able to cancel every single individual that has ever leveled. Even the most mild of criticism against them, the website isn't going anywhere and they can and moan and send angry letters. All they want,

But deep down they know they can't do anything.

They're just banking on the other party. Morton

In this case, not knowing his legal rights

Turns out Morton does and there's nothing they can do about it.





Tom Hanks: You Should Learn the Truth About the Tulsa Race Massacre https://nyti.ms/34NcUcs


spin rates Baseball


Tolkien society

hogwarts grading





In Texas, a struggle to memorialize a brutal lynching as resistance grows to teaching historical racism



‘What a Fantastic Death Abyss’: David Bowie’s ‘Outside’ at 25 | PopMatters




A 3,000-year-old ‘lost golden city’ has been unearthed in Egypt


Declaration of Conscience - Wikipedia



Southern Baptist leaders called Kamala Harris a ‘Jezebel.’ That’s not just insulting, it’s dangerous, experts say.

The Biblical reference has a long history of being used to justify violence against Black women in the United States




What Is Displacement in Psychology?


Peace in the storm: Transference vs. Projection: What's the Difference?


What If Gravity IsActually a Double Copy of Other Forces?

An enigmatic connection between the forces of nature is allowing physicists to explore the quantum side of gravity.

 


Robert Fripp and Toyah Willcox share cover of The Prodigy’s ‘Firestarter’




Here’s the Generations Reparations talk with Coates if you’re interested: https://sdsu.zoom.us/rec/share/TT6oF22f6r7ecWDvmPtLbXChCjTnM-F81ZjxYX5Ks5njZ9dP4U7BLqseHmHi6f_R.H6gZ4yrfRi5BID7L

Access Passcode: ReparationsWeek1!






Microsoft’s Big Winin Quantum Computing Was an ‘Error’ After All

In a 2018 paper, researchers said they found evidence of an elusive theorized particle. A closer look now suggests otherwise.

 




TheHill: Ocasio-Cortez's story of Capitol riot earns praise, raises questions







Jul 15, 2021



BRIAN TYLER COHEN

BREAKING: A fed up Jen Psaki finally demolished a Fox reporter of his misleading question.


BANDS FROM IVAN

Delfonics
Tyler the Creator
Rico Nasty - Magic
Doja Cat
Thundercat
Matt Maltese
Sturgil Simpson



Jan 8, 2016


Charlie Rose

In this interview from 1998, David Bowie describes his need to paint, what it was like living in Berlin with Iggy Pop, and why he feels you must be "loony" to be an artist.



https://theoatmeal.com/comics/nobody_listening




TVLine: Alex Trebek Makes Posthumous Plea to Jeopardy! Viewers Ahead of Final Episode — Watch Video.
https://tvline.com/2021/01/04/watch-alex-trebek-final-jeopardy-episodes-video-message/
 




Jan 8, 2021




Inside The Story
Tonight marks the final time Alex Trebek will host Jeopardy, leaving a giant hole in prime time and in the hearts of millions around the globe. Trebek passed away in November, but continued to work right up until his death.


Blurred Lines: Anti-Semitism vs. Anti-Israel | Observer


Oregon businesses break public health orders with backing from armed volunteers, mayors - OPB




The pompous killer of the American dream




Verified

The first Hip Hop Family Tree came out around X-Mas 2013

Soon after @time Magazine came to PIttsburgh to hang out and talk about it.

Shouts to @boingboing for releasing the strips online and to @fantagraphics for publishing the books.







https://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/a-message-from-your-universitys-vice-president-for-magical-thinking

Hey!! I actually know Juliana from comic book fandom!


We need more impulsive, substance-addicted Autistics like Beth Harmon on screen






YA Protagonists Still Aren’t Like Other Girls



Rejection of femininity isn’t always the act of feminist rebellion white women see it as, especially not for Black women. In this way, the white feminism of YA does a disservice to its portrayals of young women of color. And this isn’t even taking into account the experience of authors of color attempting to tell their stories in an industry in which they are outnumbered and oppressed. While YA is making strides with diversity, it still, ultimately, bends to a cisgender, heterosexual, white, able-bodied norm.

Main characters are written to be, in some way, relatable. But the primary question comes down to: relatable to who?

By focusing on characters who are “not like other girls”, YA sends concerning messages: romance is something that happens to you, passively. It is not to be desired or sought after. And femininity is the mark of vanity, of popular mean girls. It rebukes readers for the very thing it serves them. Stories where girls are whisked away to marry princes and become princesses and are gifted powers beyond their imagination only happen to the girls who do not want it. If you want it — which, obviously, you do, because you spent the money on the book to read it — you are not Like Her. Across genres, YA Protagonists say no to the very things that make YA a genre. Why is that?







We Have Now Reached The Limits Of The Hubble Space Telescope



[Best of 2019] Scientists teleported quantum data into the flawed heart of a diamond


Morton on china


Finished China: A History by John Keay, which is a one-volume history of China. My history of China has been actively bad, in terms of knowing stuff, but not being able to put it in any order, just a download of factlets and knowledge of some periods, without enough knowledge of how they actually got there, or when that period actually is. Reading this has been mainly about wanting to give myself that high level overview, so I can then contextualise anything else I learn. Context. Clearly, bouncing through thousands of years of history means it’s only a top level view, but that’s still useful. Also, fun – Keay is very sharp at times. It did what I needed and more. I wanted to basically know the major dynasties, and I can do a crappy one paragraph history of China now, from memory, which is something.

Okay. I’ve said that, which means I have to prove it, I guess? I’m sorry.

Five Emperors, then three dynasties with kings (the one I can’t remember, the Shang and then the Zhou, the latter having the Spring and Autumn and the Warring States bits),  then the Qin with first emperor, Han taking over for yonks with a middle bit where a Confucian guy takes over, three kingdoms doing the three kingdoms thing, then it gets reunited for a bit before it all breaks apart for yonks, and then the Sui who get it back together and build canals before the Tang jump in for yonks (with a break in the middle for a rebellion), then the 5 northern dynasties and the 10 southern kingdoms, united by the Song, who hold together for yonks, then the Mongols pile in, form the Yuan dynasty, which lasts for a bit before the Ming take over for yonks, and then the Qing, for yonks, and then we pile into the 20th century with the republicans and the communists.

Mistakes which I’ve tweaked are somehow remembering Qin and Qing as “Xin” and “Xing” which is just wrong, and writing Summer rather than Spring and Kingdoms rather than States in the Zhou period. And the one who reunited after the 3 kingdom I originally wrote “about three seconds” which isn’t true, but when zooming through hundreds of years everyone 30 pages, it feels like it. There are likely more mistakes. Do not use this as the basis of your historical essays. Do not cite me. I just read a book, once. Also, do Americans know the word “yonks”? More so, does anyone since Whizzer & Chips in the 1980s use the word “yonks?” I’d ask a historian, but I’m tired.



Yara Shahidi





Symbols of white supremacy confront Redmond teen - OPB


How White Evangelism Uses Trump As “God’s Plan”





The Indians are doing the right thing for the wrong reasons. And they're not even doing it right now



Our choices reflect and determine who we are.






ghostly and fact mag






Systemic vs. systematic (for example, “systemic racism”)


Google Trends

When you read about the protests about race and policing, you are sure to encounter the phrase “systemic racism.” Why that word “systemic?” Why not “systematic,” which, at one time, was a much more common word?

What is the difference between “systematic” and “systemic?”

I don’t even recall hearing the word “systemic” until about 15 years ago. Google shows 218 million hits for “systematic” and 92 million for “systemic.” But things flip when applying the term to racism: there are 6 million hits for “systemic racism” (in quotes) and only 800,000 for “systematic racism.”

According to Merriam-Webster, “systematic” means “relating to or consisting of a system.” An alternate definition is “methodical in procedure or plan.” You could imagine, for example, a systematic approach to editing a manuscript, or a systematic approach to preparing a house for sale. Systematic implies a thorough series of steps that you follow.

Systemic” means “of, relating to, or common to a system.” That sounds a lot like the definition of systematic. But in the context of racism, the appropriate subdefinition is “fundamental to a predominant social, economic, or political practice.” Where systematic applies to an approach, systemic applies to the system itself. Systemic is not related to a series of steps. It is a quality inherent in the system, not necessarily on purpose, but more “that’s just the way it works.”

Systematic racism vs. systemic racism

Let’s see how this applies to racism. I’ll use an example of hiring, because I think we can all agree that racial bias in hiring is wrong.

What would “systematic racism” in hiring look like? It might look like this:

  • Hiring managers explicitly reject resumes that appear to have “black-sounding” or Hispanic names. (I don’t mean to be racist myself, but if you read the passage on this in Freakonomics, you know that racist recruiters could pick out certain unique-sounding names and reject them.)
  • Recruiters reject resumes from historically black colleges and universities.
  • Recruiters do phone screening and reject people they believe “sound black.”
  • Black or Hispanic people get shorter interviews and never get called back for hiring.

Such a hiring program would be offensively racist. If you could prove such a program existed, you could probably sue the organization for racial discrimination.

What would “systemic racism” look like in the same context? It might look like this:

  • An AI-system trained on past hires screens resumes. The AI system inherits the bias in past hiring, and is therefore less likely to recommend resumes from minority candidates.
  • All the HR staff are white, and as a result, are more likely to hire people they feel comfortable with — that is, people like themselves.
  • Recruiters do phone screening and hire people who they feel are most articulate, not recognizing that they are perpetuating their own prejudices in hiring based on their evaluation of the way others speak.
  • All the pictures on the company’s Web site are pictures of white people, sending a clear message to any applicants that the company does not have any black or minority employees.
  • The company develops hiring relationships with universities that its senior managers graduated from, universities where the students are far more likely to be white.
  • Screening includes a credit report, which generates bias against less affluent candidates from lower-income families.
  • Because all of the staff at the company are white, they are likely to receive internal referrals from those they know or have been friends with, a group that is overwhelmingly white.

This system would certainly result in discrimination against minorities, even if none of the policies are explicitly racist. The hiring managers and executives would likely say, “We are obviously not racists, it just turns out that we tend to see and hire white candidates, even though we hire candidates based on merit.” But regardless of whether the staff are explicitly racist, they have created a racist system.

Systematic racism is a set of practices that discriminate on the basis of race. Systemic racism is a system that has racism inherent in how it operates.

Systematic racism is relatively easy to fix, if you care to try. Systemic racism requires a deeper level of thinking. I also think it demands including a racially diverse set of decision makers, because a diverse set of people can more easily identify racism in the systems that include racism within it, whether that racism is intentional or not.

How does this apply to policing?

Good question.

I’m not qualified to answer that question, I’m a word guy, not a policing expert.

But if there is one question the death of black men in police custody and the protests now happening make you ask, it is that question.

The system is the problem. Fixing the problem requires changing the system, not just the procedures. And that, basically, is why so many people are in the streets right now.




Faking Optimism Is Hard—But Then, It Works | R.O. Kwon Activism Essay

Satchel Nov 14 2020



add to opposable

https://science.slashdot.org/story/20/10/03/0027256/the-subtle-effects-of-blood-circulation-can-be-used-to-detect-deepfakes

The Subtle Effects of Blood Circulation Can Be Used To Detect Deepfakes (ieee.org)

An anonymous reader quotes a report from IEEE Spectrum:This work, done by two researchers at Binghamton University (Umur Aybars Ciftci and Lijun Yin) and one at Intel (Ilke Demir), was published in IEEE Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine Learning this past July. In an article titled, "FakeCatcher: Detection of Synthetic Portrait Videos using Biological Signals," the authors describe software they created that takes advantage of the fact that real videos of people contain physiological signals that are not visible to the eye. In particular, video of a person's face contains subtle shifts in color that result from pulses in blood circulation. You might imagine that these changes would be too minute to detect merely from a video, but viewing videos that have been enhanced to exaggerate these color shifts will quickly disabuse you of that notion. This phenomenon forms the basis of a technique called photoplethysmography, or PPG for short, which can be used, for example, to monitor newborns without having to attach anything to a their very sensitive skin.

Deep fakes don't lack such circulation-induced shifts in color, but they don't recreate them with high fidelity. The researchers at SUNY and Intel found that "biological signals are not coherently preserved in different synthetic facial parts" and that "synthetic content does not contain frames with stable PPG." Translation: Deep fakes can't convincingly mimic how your pulse shows up in your face. The inconsistencies in PPG signals found in deep fakes provided these researchers with the basis for a deep-learning system of their own, dubbed FakeCatcher, which can categorize videos of a person's face as either real or fake with greater than 90 percent accuracy. And these same three researchers followed this study with another demonstrating that this approach can be applied not only to revealing that a video is fake, but also to show what software was used to create it.
In a newer paper (PDF), researchers showed that they "can distinguish with greater than 90 percent accuracy whether the video was real, or which of four different deep-fake generators was used to create a bogus video," the report adds.


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

- Bloggery committed by chris tower - 2201.01 - 10:10

- Days ago = 2374 days ago

- New note - On 1807.06, I ceased daily transmission of my Hey Mom feature after three years of daily conversations. I plan to continue Hey Mom posts at least twice per week but will continue to post the days since ("Days Ago") count on my blog each day. The blog entry numbering in the title has changed to reflect total Sense of Doubt posts since I began the blog on 0705.04, which include Hey Mom posts, Daily Bowie posts, and Sense of Doubt posts. Hey Mom posts will still be numbered sequentially. New Hey Mom posts will use the same format as all the other Hey Mom posts; all other posts will feature this format seen here.

No comments: