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.

9:05 – Mon 13 July 2020

How school choice systems create unfair advantages from Fast Company

…can lead to circumstances in which lotteries for public school seats unintentionally favor students with access to private schools.

That’s, of course, in addition to all the more direct attacks on public schools, like “vouchers” taking the tax money meant to fund public schools and redirect it, starving the community that can’t get into schools that are allowed to discriminate in their admissions policies.

12:03 – Mon 13 July 2020

Unthinking respect for authority is the greatest enemy of truth.

Albert Einstein

9:04 – Tue 14 July 2020

Trump Campaign Ads Mislead Viewers About Black Protesters Who Stopped Violence from The Intercept

The ad, which superimposed video of Biden kneeling at a church in Delaware last month on to the snippets from Allahverdi’s footage, is based on a pair of lies.

It’s interesting to see the campaign flailing around. Every avenue they’ve taken in the last couple of months only seems to make things worse for them.

12:05 – Tue 14 July 2020

Some heads are so charged with inflammable gas that they have no need for balloons or sorcerers in order to fly away.

Francisco Goya

9:01 – Wed 15 July 2020

Voting Rights Act led to fewer racially biased arrests from Futurity

…if everyone has equal access to the vote, it can improve police officers’ treatment of Black Americans.

This is a critical point. When people are disenfranchised, they can’t easily affect policy, which makes them easier targets.

12:01 – Wed 15 July 2020

We ought to hate very rarely, as it is too fatiguing; remain indifferent to a great deal, forgive often and never forget.

Sarah Bernhardt

9:03 – Thu 16 July 2020

The Trump Administration Is Attacking Critical Internet Privacy Tools from VICE Motherboard

The firings were just a small piece of a bigger reconfiguring of the organizations administered by USAGM, which include government-run media networks Voice of America and Radio Free Europe.

This is going to be a nightmare to untangle. All of these projects, to be clear, exist as a showcase of American freedom, indirect propaganda by showing that our government is funding the ability to evade government monitoring and media critical to the administration. But shuttering everything that can’t be complimentary to the current administration shows that we won’t live up to our values.

12:02 – Thu 16 July 2020

The mind is its own place, and in itself

Can make a heav’n of hell, a hell of heav’n.

John Milton

9:02 – Fri 17 July 2020

Through the Orientalist looking-glass: An interview with Moroccan artist Lalla Essaydi from Global Voices

Essaydi is a poet of architecture, the female body, and color.

An artist interview is hardly the most important story out there, but her work is excellent and touches on a lot of issues that I assume interest readers.

12:04 – Fri 17 July 2020

Ah, my friend, one may live in a big house and yet have no comfort.

Agatha Christie

Bonus

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

How air pollution makes COVID-19 worse from Futurity

…it is thought that particulate and nitrogen dioxide found in air pollution can act as vectors for the spread and survival of airborne particles such as COVID.

Among other things, this might explain why closing the economy works so well and why Black and Latinx people are suffering from COVID-19 more than other groups.

3 science-backed tips for fighting your social distancing fatigue from Fast Company

Another thing that can help is doing nice things for people around you.

Obviously, this isn’t going away, especially with states that are now banning local mask orders.

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