As discussed previously, this is my weekly Twitter roundup. Note that tweets of articles generally include header images from the articles, which are not included here unless they happen to be available under a free license. Most are not. But I now add most of my commentary here, where I’m not restricted by the message length.

diagrams showing the division of the day and of the week

I also don’t generally attach pictures to posts with quotations.

9:02 – Mon 07 December 2020

FCC Boss Ajit Pai Will Step Down January 20 from VICE Motherboard

…left the agency without the authority to hold major telecom monopolies like AT&T and Comcast accountable during an historic public health crisis.

Good riddance. Remember, he also pulled the plug on the comment site, claiming that it was being attacked, only to admit that he lied after making his decision.

12:03 – Mon 07 December 2020

The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes.

Marcel Proust

9:03 – Tue 08 December 2020

Teen girls go unprotected in humanitarian settings from Futurity

…approximately 40% of female adolescents in emergency settings have experienced some form of intimate partner violence…

What’s concerning is that the calling out of intimate partner violence, to me, signals that this might be a case where the emergency gives the victims an opportunity to voice what is happening in ordinary conditions, rather than a situation created by the crisis.

12:04 – Tue 08 December 2020

I was working on the proof of one of my poems all the morning, and took out a comma. In the afternoon I put it back again.

Oscar Wilde

9:05 – Wed 09 December 2020

Trump, Kushner properties nabbed $3.65 million in PPP loans from Fast Company

Of those, 15 businesses either kept only one job, kept no jobs, or offered no update on job retainment.

This has been a trademark of corporate bailouts for decades: The companies beg the government for money, citing impending layoffs if they don’t get the money, essentially holding the employees for ransom. Then, they refuse to accept the money if there are any conditions attached. Finally, they take the money and enact their layoffs, anyway.

It’s long past time that we stop doing business this way.

12:05 – Wed 09 December 2020

If what I do prove well, it won’t advance.

They’ll say it’s stolen, or else it was by chance.

Anne Bradstreet

9:04 – Thu 10 December 2020

The Pinkertons Are Still Messing With Workers, Now for Amazon from VICE Motherboard

…Pinkerton agents were actually the private armies for the rich industrial titans of the Gilded Age, helping union bust and infiltrate workers groups.

This is obviously a dangerous and horrific situation, but it’s also worth taking a step back to realize that the richest man in the world heads up an organization that is terrified of its labor force working together to push back against exploitation. That is not the position a person takes from a place of strength, and shows how fragile the Amazon empire really is.

12:01 – Thu 10 December 2020

The more that TV pundits reduce serious debates into silly arguments, and big issues into sound bites, our citizens turn away.

Barack Obama

9:01 – Fri 11 December 2020

The NYPD Said the Killing of Kawaski Trawick “Appears to Be Justified.” Video Shows Officers Escalated the Situation. from ProPublica

Thompson nonetheless opened fire on Trawick, first with a Taser and then with a gun, killing Trawick.

Activity like this is why people are increasingly convinced that the only solution to police violence is to abolish the police in general. Every time police departments have a chance to show that they’re not the corrupt racists they’re accused of being, they make a show of investigating themselves and ignoring evidence to claim that everything is fine.

12:02 – Fri 11 December 2020

Americanism is not a matter of skin or color.

Daniel Inouye

Bonus

Because it accidentally became a tradition early on in the life of the blog, here’s a sixth and seventh article that didn’t fit into the week, but too weird to not mention.

The case for cookie-cutter buildings from Fast Company

…buildings can be built faster, using materials that reduce or even sequester carbon.

The article goes on to point out that it’s hard to standardize construction, but it’s worth considering that standardization is generally not good, since weather and hazards vary wildly from city to city. Still, it’s an interesting idea.

Talking to babies may change their brains from Futurity

…babies who engaged in more conversations with adults in their everyday lives had less synchronized activation in a network of regions that processes language stimulation.

I admit that I don’t know enough about neuroscience to understand the implications of this finding, but more stimulation leading to less effect seems interesting.

Credits: Header image is Circular diagrams showing the division of the day and of the week from a manuscript drafted during the Carolingian Dynasty.