As discussed previously, on Fridays, I present my weekly social media roundups. Note that toots of articles generally include header images from the articles, which I don’t include here unless their creators happen to have released them for use under a free license, and I notice. Most have not, or I don’t notice. But I now add my commentary here, where I don’t feel restricted by message length.

diagrams showing the division of the day and of the week

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

7:02 – Mon 06 March 2023

Posted to Cohost đŸ„šđŸ›: Complaining about Modern Star Trek

I’ve found myself thinking a lot about why Star Trek: Picard (and a lot of modern Star Trek) feels so
empty, and a few other people posting about it convinced me that I should air my thoughts somewhere other than the newsletter adjunct to my blog. And word of warning, it got a little out of control.

This post ran so far out of control, in fact, that I wrote more than two thousand words on the topic, so I won’t clutter this post by copying it all in. You’ll need to read it there, if you want my full thoughts. I get into a broad history of the politics of the franchise, the specific points in the modern shows where it feels like they’ve given up, and (briefly) the distinction between wishing that the franchise would return to its progressive roots and objecting to the shows for daring to have a diverse cast.

9:07 – Mon 06 March 2023

Image Not Shown: View of a Hiers-Brouage, France, church altar and pillars with empty wooden pews, taken from the back of a sanctuary.

3 big numbers that tell the story of secularization in America from The Conversation

Of course, compared to most other wealthy countries, the U.S. is quite religious. Fifty-five percent of Americans, for example, say they pray daily, compared to an average of 22% of Europeans.

Hashtags: #Religion #US

The article has a list of possible reasons of why this might happen, which seems like the more interesting story.

12:05 – Mon 06 March 2023

Quoted on Mastodon

Poets sing of a coming federation of the world, and we applaud. Idealists dream that in this commonwealth of all humanity the divine spark in man shall be the only test of citizenship, and we think of their dream and future history.

Zitkala-Ć a

Hashtags: #Quotes #WomensHistory

9:06 – Tue 07 March 2023

Image Not Shown: Art, by Arif Qazi, representing a bloody handshake in front of Persian faces

Reflections from the Iranian diaspora: Rage against the ‘Iran Lobby’ from Global Voices

The death and violence caused by the regime, along with everything else, has fueled the rage against those who have long pushed the belief that reform was possible and that the Iranian regime was “not as bad” as it appears.

Hashtags: #Iran #HumanRights

I almost find it difficult to believe that the Iranian government has hung on for so long. They don’t seem to have anybody’s respect, or even all that much money, plus continuing protests that they keep making worse. On top of that, the entire (bogus) Islamic Republic concept rests on the shoulders of a single elderly man with no viable successors. By now, I’d expect their leaders to have fled the country, by now.

12:04 – Tue 07 March 2023

Quoted on Mastodon

Abortion prohibition by the State, however, controls women and denies them full autonomy and full equality with men.

Ruth Bader Ginsburg

Hashtags: #Quotes #WomensHistory

9:01 – Wed 08 March 2023

Image Not Shown: An illustration of a bicycle, with a stone for its front wheel and an ionizing radiation hazard symbol for the rear wheel

Can We Make Bicycles Sustainable Again? from Low-Tech Magazine

The globalization and automation of the bicycle industry make bikes less sustainable.

Hashtags: #Bicycles #Sustainability

Personally, I never developed a good relationship with bicycles, and part of that comes from how cheap they all feel. A while back, I looked into “open hardware” bicycles, as you could probably guess, but they often either seem even flimsier or require an existing bicycle frame or heavy machinery. I ended up buying an electric scooter, if anybody has a desperate need for that story to have closure. Once I learned to ride it, it seems fine, though it admittedly probably makes the least-sustainable option


12:02 – Wed 08 March 2023

Quoted on Mastodon

If women were appropriately enlightened, educated and emancipated from routine formulism, the political life of most nations would be different

Luisa Capetillo

Hashtags: #Quotes #WomensHistory

3:52 PM – Wed 08 March 2023

Posted to Mastodon

This International Women’s Day, let’s take a moment to reflect on how
y’know, the celebration originated in American Socialist circles, and so of course the West stomped it out, and therefore the only countries that celebrate it are former Soviet republics and a smattering of Asian and African countries. Oh, and then we’ve spent over a hundred years moaning and complaining whenever women asked for rights.

Seriously, let’s reflect on that, and
maybe stop doing it? Please.

What can I say? I felt momentarily inspired, and I like how it turned out. Less so, that we refuse to take women’s right seriously and have a party excited for the opportunity to roll those rights back.

Even if (presumably male) readers somehow can’t get behind gender equality for its own sake, consider that every stress mostly specific to living life as a man derives from some restriction placed on women. Why do most job-related deaths and injuries harm men? We harass and threaten women into leaving those positions. Why do people judge men based on how much money we make, especially when discussing relationships? Women earn significantly less than men. Why do people grow suspicious of men who engage with children? We consider child-care the responsibility of women. I should probably haul out my old Quora posts and put together a full blog post on this, honestly.

9:05 – Thu 09 March 2023

Image Not Shown: A photograph of Europa

Are Europa’s streaks a frozen mix of water and salt? from Futurity

The only previously known hydrate for sodium chloride was a simple structure with one salt molecule for every two water molecules.

Hashtags: #Astronomy #Jupiter

We’ve always considered Europa a candidate for hosting water, but this still sounds like a wild possibility.

12:07 – Thu 09 March 2023

Quoted on Mastodon

Roll up your sleeves, set your mind to making history, and wage such a fight for liberty that the whole world will respect our sex.

Carrie Chapman Catt

Hashtags: #Quotes #WomensHistory

9:04 – Fri 10 March 2023

Image Not Shown: A pink-tinted image of a person wearing a suit and tie (jacket over their shoulder), running with a briefcase, away from a reflective building

The biggest 4-day-workweek trial in history showed promise. What happens next? from Fast Company


they rated employee productivity and performance a 7.6 out of 10. Revenue stayed broadly the same over the trial period, rising by 1.4% on average, weighted by company size.

Hashtags: #Capitalism

This confirms what I’ve seen in other studies (that I unfortunately can’t find), that most of our time “at work” doesn’t amount to anything, and that twenty to thirty hours marks the point where productivity drops sharply. In other words, white-collar workers spend almost half their weeks spinning their wheels, so it makes perfect sense that cutting the work-week closer to that balancing point would make everybody happier.

12:03 – Fri 10 March 2023

Quoted on Mastodon

What after all, has maintained the human race on this old globe despite all the calamities of nature and all the tragic failings of mankind, if not faith in new possibilities, and courage to advocate them.

Jane Addams

Hashtags: #Quotes #WomensHistory

Bonus

Because it accidentally became a tradition early on in the life of the blog, I drop any additional articles that didn’t fit into the one-article-per-day week, but too weird or important to not mention, here.

Content Warning: Racism, COVID-19

Image Not Shown: A doctor rings patients during the Covid-19 pandemic as part of a campaign to combat vaccine hesitancy.

‘What’s the point?’ Covid inquiry slammed for ignoring structural racism from openDemocracy

Concerns were also raised about groups excluded from participating in the inquiry, such as migrant groups and groups representing the
traveler community, who were not considered core participants.

I generally ignore the UK, admittedly, but this issue raises some points that apply globally.

Image Not Shown: A woman in safety gear at an industrial site, looking at the camera with crossed arms

This Women’s History Month, We Won’t Renegotiate Our Place in the Economy from OtherWords

They’ll argue that we don’t have the money for the expanded Child Tax Credit that largely benefited working class constituents — remember, not one Republican voted for it. But more than 70 Republicans just introduced a bill to make the Trump tax cuts for the wealthy permanent. So it’s not about money — it’s about who benefits from it.

In fact, Republicans have made it abundantly clear—by keeping people in debt, doing nothing about rising prices, and cutting services—that they care primarily about forcing people to compete for jobs. The same people who believe that we shouldn’t teach kids about slavery want to force them to work for decades. Go figure


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