ssnewbery

ssnewbery, 9 hours ago to sketch

There was some time for sketching today…#koi_pond #watercolor #sketch #aquarelle #acuarela

GottaLaff, 10 days ago to random

Jared #Kushner, has been making calls to encourage donors to attend a #Trump fundraiser in New York, two sources told Reuters, in one of the first indications of Kushner working to help re-elect his father-in-law.
https://www.reuters.com/world/us/jared-kushner-pitching-donors-father-in-law-trump-sources-say-2024-05-09/

ssnewbery, 1 month ago to Writers

Whoa. Just heard from my publisher that Small Press Distribution or SPD (Berkeley, CA) is winding down its operations. This after announcing new distribution programs for faster shipping & worldwide distribution as recently as March 4.

I had a feeling this would happen (after the mismanagement crises of 2021). Yet it is/was the only nonprofit literary distributor in the country and small literary presses have few other distribution options.

RIP SPD.

#Berkeley #writers #books

ssnewbery, 2 months ago to random

Afternoon walk…
#watercolor

ssnewbery, 4 months ago to random

Thanks to @GottaLaff for the NY Trump fraud trial relay! And thanks to Rubin, Pagliery, Klasfeld et al for their tireless work of live reporting.

ssnewbery, 4 months ago to random

@mmasnick nails it here:

“Substack has every right to make the choices it has made, but it shouldn’t pretend that it’s standing up for civil rights or freedoms, because it’s not. It’s making value judgments that everyone can see, and its value judgment is “Nazis are welcome….”

Your reputation is what you allow. Substack has hung out its shingle saying ‘Nazis welcome.’ “

https://www.techdirt.com/2023/12/26/substack-turns-on-its-nazis-welcome-sign/

ssnewbery, 6 months ago to Health

“This whole thing taught us that infections can cause chronic disease. That's really the number-one lesson that I take from this pandemic — that infections can cause chronic disease.

Looking at only acute illness from COVID is really only looking at the tip of the iceberg. Beneath that tip of the iceberg lies this hidden toll of disease that we don't really talk about that much.”

https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/998107?form=fpf

or

https://archive.ph/EQfAw

#Covid #PublicHealth #Health

ssnewbery, 7 months ago to random

@Brandi_Buchman Don't know if it helps to know this, but your reporting on the Proud Boys trials was invaluable -- and it definitely helped me cope with the shock and trauma of the Jan. 6 attack and its aftermath.

GottaLaff, 7 months ago to random

How much do we love #JamieRaskin?

Jamie Raskin:

Waiting for the vote and I reminded Jared Moskowitz that there was never so much chaos in the House when George Santos was Speaker.

Jared went over to Santos to tell him that and Santos said, “That’s why I don’t want to be Speaker again.”

ssnewbery, 8 months ago to climate

“Research has shown again and again that Indigenous peoples are the best guardians of the forests and therefore play a fundamental role in mitigating the climate crisis […] Yet they are under siege in countries like Brazil, Peru and Venezuela for doing precisely that.

“If we are to keep the forests standing, we must recognise that this relies upon the protection of those who call the forest home.”

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/sep/13/environmental-activists-killed-at-a-rate-of-one-every-other-day-in-2022-global-witness-report-aoe

#Climate #ForestProtectors

ssnewbery, 8 months ago to MountainBiking

I bought a new bike helmet recently and now need to recycle the old one (which is not viable for anyone at this point)...but can I? Old bike helmets are not on any of the "lists" of things accepted/not accepted at the local recycling center. The options seem to be:

(i) create a "funky" planter (meh)
(ii) Use it as a fruit bowl (double meh)
(iii) Pull the whole thing apart and take the constituent pieces to the Transfer Station and ask them "would you like my helmet bits?"

#Berkeley #biking

ssnewbery, 8 months ago to Law

Some important context to the Texas Supreme Court's decision today to overturn a federal judge's injunction against SB14 (which bans gender-affirming care for trans youth) in Nancy Goldstein's piece from May for the @TexasObserver at: https://www.texasobserver.org/fast-furious-xi-texas-transgender-youth/

#Law #transrightsarehumanrights #Texas #USPol

ssnewbery, 8 months ago to sketch

Lake Anza (Tilden Park, Berkeley): this sketch shows the lingering spring bloom of tiny (beneficent) yellow fern-algae. I used to know more precisely what it’s called — it’s some type of tiny aquatic fern: it forms in expansive aquatic meadows, bright yellow in morning sun, that move around the lake, depending on the breeze, and collect in the curves of the shoreline.

#watercolor #landscape #sketch

ssnewbery, 11 months ago to books

This is a must-read interview with Jeff Sharlet, one of our foremost scholars of the militant religious right and and its abiding interest in fascism. The interview foregrounds his new book The Undertow and delves into the evolution of the figure of the "strong-man" in the American context, and broaches the related question (to paraphrase Tina Tuner) "What's sex has got to do with it?" The answer is far more than garden-variety prurience....

https://religiondispatches.org/what-we-need-to-understand-is-that-fascism-is-intersectional-and-erotic-thy-rod-is-thy-gun-with-a-hip-thrust/

#uspol #fascism #books

jeffjarvis, 1 year ago to random

As ever, Elon leaves a mess behind him.
SpaceX’s Starship Kicked Up a Dust Cloud, Leaving Texans With a Mess https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/21/us/spacex-rocket-dust-texas.html?smid=tw-share