Marble Machine built and composed by Martin Molin
Video filmed and edited by Hannes Knutsson
Costume designed by Angelique Nagtegaal
Reads, Listens, Watches
Reading list of books, magazines, newspaper articles, other physical documents, or online posts
Playlist of posts listened to, or scrobbled
Playlist of watched movies, television shows, online videos, and other visual-based events
Playlist of posts listened to, or scrobbled
Playlist of watched movies, television shows, online videos, and other visual-based events
📺 Royal wedding: Prince Harry, Meghan Markle marry at Windsor Castle | CBS
Prince Charles walked Meghan Markle down the aisle for the American actress to take vows of marriage with Prince Harry
I taped this last night and am watching all six hours (sans advertising) this afternoon.
CBS coverage was alright despite the fact that they seemed to be getting information either wrong or fixing it after the fact. It makes me wonder if the royal press office was releasing details contemporaneously? In particular they really botched the coverage of the designer of the dress.
I would have appreciated more details on the royals and the culture aspect rather than the heavy emphasis on American-based actors. I think I learned more in the Lifetime-esque movies I saw last weekend than I did in the huge amount of fill time CBS seemed to waste here. They did a vaguely decent job of situating the action at least. Another missing piece here was some reasonable chemistry among the primary team that seemed to be lacking in the reportage–they spent just a bit too much time speaking over each other than I would expect on this level of coverage.
I would have appreciated one or two different key images in the chyron as the same engagement image for 3 hours did seem a bit much.
I did love the fact that 2 billion people were able to see some merging of cultures that wouldn’t otherwise be seen in decades or centuries past. The fact that MLK was quoted in a British wedding was fantastic.
📺 “Last Week Tonight with John Oliver” Iran Deal | HBO
With Alivia Clark, David Kaye, Thomas Kopache, John Oliver. 'Iran Deal' is the worst deal of all time in Donald Trump's Eyes. But John Oliver Explains Why It Is Better Than No Deal. Because this deal strictly forbade Iran to develop any sort of nuclear weapons. And all of their declared nuclear sites have close monitoring, as well as any suspected site could be monitored within 24 days of the request. The sad part is, top advisers of Trump administration are also against the deal. That is why John prepared a new ad with catheter cowboy to explain the matter to Trump and scheduled it on his favorite Sean Hannity's show.
This would be funny if it weren’t so painfully true. The idea of placing ads on Hannity is pretty intriguing though.
📺 “Last Week Tonight with John Oliver” Corporate Taxes | HBO
Directed by Paul Pennolino. With David Kaye, John Oliver. John Oliver talks about the Corporate Taxes. He gives examples of how big corporation always tries to evade taxes. They are using the loop holes in American tax system. He also expressed his doubts about the promises were made by the new tax plan. He used the unfruitful past experience of tax holiday to support his claim.
👓 How to Join Our Podcast Club | New York Times
Samantha Henig (nytimes.com)It’s like a book club, but for on-demand audio.
This ironic quote from the piece sticks out to me:
Podcast listening can be harder to crack. There are so many shows! How do you find the ones you’ll like? And once you’ve found a show, where do you start: with the most recent episode? At the beginning? Some specific gem of an episode buried deep in the back catalog?
Perhaps the New York Times could simply start with making the RSS feeds for their podcasts easily discover-able?! Why are they hiding this simple piece of functionality? I just spent 20 minutes doing some reasonably serious web gymnastics to extract the RSS feed for Caliphate out of the iTunes feed using a JSON request tactic. Why can’t the podcast’s main page have or advertise the raw RSS feed?!
Corey Doctorow complained of this type of growing issue on the web recently in a short tweetstorm as well:
I really despair for people trying to figure out how to write the web today, given how obfuscated the referents to files on the web have become; for example, I’m about to fold a podcast that I appeared in to my own podcast feed
— Cory Doctorow (@doctorow) April 14, 2018
How hard is it to add the following simple line to the header of their generally beautiful and functional Caliphate page?
<link rel="alternate" type="application/rss+xml" title="Caliphate" href="https://rss.art19.com/caliphate” />
They’ve got so many advanced resources, yet somehow they’re missing some of the simplest and best supported web technology that goes back more than a decade.
By the way, that link https://rss.art19.com/caliphate is the correct one for the RSS feed of the show by the way, in case others are searching for it.
If anyone needs a one-click button to subscribe to the series in their favorite feed reader, I’ve set up a SubToMe button on the follow post I made for the podcast.
📺 "Madam Secretary" Protocol | CBS
Directed by Charlotte Brändström. With Téa Leoni, Tim Daly, Keith Carradine, Patina Miller. When terrorists threaten to cause a flood in the Middle East that could kill millions of people, Elizabeth's hopes of getting a neighboring country to close the dam fade after the government suddenly goes dark during a coup. Also, Stevie is tasked with finding Russell an activity that will help manage his stress.
👓 What Communities Are We Building? A Discussion With Drs. Jessie Daniels and David Golumbia | Tressie McMillan Cottom
This semester our sociology honor society, Alpha Kappa Delta, had the great fortune to hear from Dr. Jessie Daniels. Jessie is a…
Sadly, like the prior article I read, there just isn’t much here in the way of content.
👓 Whose Speech? More From Our Chat With Jessie Daniels | Tressie McMillan Cottom
As previously mentioned, the Sociology students at VCU recently benefitted from a chance to hear from Jessie Daniels. Our informal…
This post was so sparse in information I’m not quite sure what Dr. Cottom was trying to communicate here. The post does have some well produced (and very short) snippets from the talk, but other than knowing that a talk occurred and vaguely what it was about, all the value stemming from it seems to be missing to me in this post.
📺 Cobra Kai Ep 1 – “Ace Degenerate” – The Karate Kid Saga Continues | YouTube
Thirty years after the events of the 1984 All Valley Karate Tournament, Johnny Lawrence’s life has taken a rocky turn as he tries to forget a past that constantly haunts him. He seeks redemption by reopening the infamous Cobra Kai karate dojo. But the LaRusso-Lawrence rivalry of yesteryear is reignited when their lives become intertwined with the next generation of “karate kids.”
I half expected Daniel to be more of a bad guy here as they redeemed Johnny, but it’s actually working out better than I would have anticipated. They do a reasonable job of making the viewer sympathetic to Johnny and his mission. I’ll give this a shot.
📺 "Land of the Lost" The Sleestak God, Season 1, Episode 2 | NBC
Directed by Dennis Steinmetz. With Wesley Eure, Kathy Coleman, Dave Greenwood, Bill Laimbeer. While searching the Lost City, Will and Holly are captured by lizard-men which are known as Sleestak.
Someone asked me why Lost in Space ended up in their Netflix queue as recommendation because they had watched The West Wing but they confused it with Land of the Lost. Somehow I got sucked into watching this old episode which reminded me of my childhood. It is truly dreadful. The plot, dialogue, and acting are atrocious, but somehow the nostalgia sucks me in. Stuck in this new place and they don’t find it interesting that there’s a sign written in English saying “Beware of Sleestak”?!
Hearing Cha-ka pronounce Sleestack sounds to me more like “Slease attack-a”. I wonder if it was a political statement of some sort (but not really)?
📺 Ballpark BBQ, Season 5 Episode 10 | Food Network
Host Geoffrey Zakarian and judges Daphne Oz and Marcus Samuelsson throw the cooks and cons a curve ball in round one by tasking them with fusing corn and hot dogs. After one contestant strikes out, the remaining contestants continue to round two in hopes of making their best dish incorporating barbecue.
👓 GOP lawmaker says rocks falling into ocean to blame for rising sea levels | TheHill
A Republican lawmaker on the House Science, Space and Technology Committee said Thursday that rocks from the White Cliffs of Dover and the California coastline, as well as silt from rivers tumbling into the ocean, are contributing to high sea levels globally. Rep. Mo Brooks (R-Ala.) made the comment during a hearing on technology and the changing climate, which largely turned into a Q&A on the basics of climate research.
The headline was just so sadly painful to me that I couldn’t resist reading. Unfortunately, reading didn’t help things…
🎧 ‘The Daily’: Gina Haspel and the Shadow of Torture | New York Times
The Central Intelligence Agency is waging an unusual campaign to make Gina Haspel its next leader, despite her polarizing past. Why do officers see her most controversial quality as her greatest asset?
On today’s episode:
• Adam Goldman, a reporter who covers the intelligence community for The Times.
• John Bennett, a former chief of the C.I.A.’s clandestine service who retired in 2013.
Background reading:
• Gina Haspel, President Trump’s nominee for C.I.A. director, is expected to face tough questions at a Senate confirmation hearing on Wednesday about her involvement in torture and secret prisons after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
• Ms. Haspel offered to withdraw her nomination last week amid concerns that her role in the brutal interrogation of a Qaeda suspect in Thailand would scuttle her confirmation.
Apparently there’s a broader story to be told about Haspel than the one that’s been circulating recently. Perhaps she’s not as pro-torture as previously indicated?
👓 What is “Critical Pedagogy”? | W. Ian O’Byrne
In an earlier post, I presented an overview of the literature on critical literacy and how it informs my perspectives on my work, research, and thinking. This was motivated by discussions in which colleagues and students indicate that they know/understand critical literacy, and then go on to equate it with critical evaluation. I think the two are linked, but to me critical literacy is much broader, and (IMHO) much more important.
The cynic in me sees the headline and wants to respond “All students’ reactions to their teachers.”
There is some interesting history and background to come back and read some references here.
🎧 ‘The Daily’: The Return of Rudy Giuliani | New York Times
Since joining President Trump’s legal team, Rudolph W. Giuliani has repeatedly made attention-grabbing TV appearances in which he has antagonized Robert S. Mueller III, the special counsel overseeing the Russia investigation. The strategy is reminiscent of one that Mr. Giuliani has used before — 30 years ago, as a prosecutor in New York City taking on the Mafia.
On today’s episode:
• Michael Winerip, who covered Mr. Giuliani’s rise as a Manhattan prosecutor in the 1980s for The New York Times.
Background reading:
• Mr. Giuliani’s revelation that President Trump reimbursed his personal lawyer for a $130,000 payment to Stephanie Clifford, the pornographic film actress known as Stormy Daniels, may expose the president to new legal and political troubles.
• In an interview on Sunday, Mr. Giuliani suggested it was possible that other women had received hush money on behalf of Mr. Trump and that the president might invoke the Fifth Amendment to avoid testifying in the Russia investigation.
• Mr. Giuliani’s recent criticism of law enforcement has come as a surprise to those who have known him as one of its fiercest advocates.
So the implication here is not so much that Trump is bringing in someone who has been a champion for him, but that he’s brought in someone with experience prosecuting massive corruption and criminal enterprise similar to the mafia.