The You Are Not So Smart podcast is one of the best things I listen to each week. It literally makes me a better person. I don’t think my enjoyment of episode 58 is purely based on confirmation bias but it was really a terrific episode. There’s in-depth discussion of what it takes for there to be social backlash against a new technology and how we can predict where the next upheaval will come from.
A fascinating article from Timothy Snyder:
Hitler’s alternative to science and politics was known as Lebensraum, which meant “habitat” or “ecological niche”. Races needed ever more Lebensraum, “room to live”, in order to feed themselves and propagate their kind. Nature demanded that the higher races overmaster and starve the lower. Since the innate desire of each race was to reproduce and conquer, the struggle was indefinite and eternal. At the same time, Lebensraum also meant “living room”, with the connotations of comfort and plenty in family life.
The Guardian has a terrific piece about Amy Poehler. I love this bit so much.
“I see life as like being attacked by a bear,” she says. “You can run, you can pretend to be dead or you can make yourself bigger. So, if you’re my stature, you stand on a chair and bang a pan and scream and shout as if you’re going to attack the bear. This is my go-to strategy.
A wonderful heartbreaking essay By Robin Marantz Henig:
When Sandy went back to the waiting room to meet Daryl, she was weeping uncontrollably. Between sobs, she explained the diagnosis and the inevitable decline on the horizon. She felt terror at the prospect of becoming a hollowed-out person with no memory, mind or sense of identity, as well as fury that she was powerless to do anything but endure it. With Alzheimer’s disease, she would write, it is “extraordinarily difficult for one’s body to die in tandem with the death of one’s self.
If you’ve read much here on Macdrifter, you’ve probably seen some Big Lebowski Easter eggs. It’s one of my favorite movies and it’s also the secret handshake for people that share a certain perspective on the world. It’s with that backdrop that I wholeheartedly direct you to the latest At the Movies episode.
The Big Lebowski instilled two important movie watching tics in me. First, I pay attention to the background of movies.
A wonderful eulogy by Aziz Ansari for his friend:
I was so excited for what was ahead for Harris. I knew he was going to really explode after this new project. The little bit of Wittels comedy out there was just the tip of the tip of the iceberg.
Say what you will about the Internet. Reading a friends eulogy about someone I never met or knew much about just made me a bit more human.
This week is an uncomfortable reminder of how weird blogging is. Marco Arment’s regretful post is a reality check for anyone that thinks they want a popular blog.1 I’ve put considerable thought into why I write at Macdrifter. I’ve considered shutting it down hundreds of times. It’s nagged me long enough that I decided to ask people blogging in other places about their motivations (see the first in the series here).
Tampa Bay Times did a spectacular job explaining with one table, why I don’t cold-donate. I never donate at movie theaters or grocery stores unless it’s a charity I know well. I do research on Charity Navigator and online. I think I’m a fairly charitable person. I also think the world is full of contrasts.
I donate to people that have earned my trust. I try to avoid all the shysters.
Hello, babies. Welcome to Earth. It’s hot in the summer and cold in the winter. It’s round and wet and crowded. At the outside, babies, you’ve got about a hundred years here. There’s only one rule that I know of, babies — “God damn it, you’ve got to be kind.”
— K.V. (God Bless You Mr. Rosewater)
We’re all phony assholes that strain and push and try to make our slice of the marble a little more bearable.
Not much more to say. It’s just sad.
chew-toys for halfwits
