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.

9:01 – Mon 04 January 2021

Iconic House of Wonders collapse leaves Zanzibaris wondering about fate of cultural heritage from Global Voices

Constructed in 1883, for Sultan Barghash bin Said, the spectacular building with seafront views of the Indian Ocean, was the first to have electricity and a working elevator in Zanzibar.

Obviously, colonization isn’t good no matter who’s behind it, but it’s still disappointing to see such a historically relevant site fall apart.

12:01 – Mon 04 January 2021

Whenever you feel like criticizing anyone, just remember that all the people in this world haven’t had the advantages that you’ve had.

F. Scott Fitzgerald

9:04 – Tue 05 January 2021

Tyson Manager Who Bet on Which Workers Would Get COVID Says It Was Just ‘Something Fun’ from VICE News

More than 1,000 of the plant’s 2,800 workers contracted the virus. Six of them died.

I have to admit that it does take a certain something to behave in a way that sickens half a group, joke about it, try to profit off the pain, and then try to spin it as an attempt to be helpful.

12:04 – Tue 05 January 2021

Humanity has a strange fondness for following processions. Get four men following a banner down the street, and, if that banner is inscribed with rhymes of pleasant optimism, in an hour, all the town will be afoot, ready to march to whatever tune the leaders care to play.

John Dos Passos

9:03 – Wed 06 January 2021

Teaching feelings in preschool can ease teen problems from Futurity

The lack of resources and added stress increase the chance that a child may develop gaps in social, emotional, and language skills by the time they begin school…

I’m not excited about the “poor people would be less criminal if they learned to tolerate more trauma” angle of the study, that doesn’t invalid the use of kids understanding emotions.

12:03 – Wed 06 January 2021

Thought is only a flash between two long nights, but this flash is everything.

Henri Poincare

9:02 – Thu 07 January 2021

Trump Accused of ‘Criminal Extortion’ After Asking Georgia Officials to ‘Find’ 11,000 Votes for Him from Common Dreams

At one point the president asked Germany to substantiate baseless rumors that ballots which cast votes for Trump in Fulton County were “shredded”…

The real story is—and I’m hardly the first person to say so—that the Republican Party has been watching behavior far more criminal than anything from the Nixon administration, and rather than call for Trump’s resignation or work with Democrats to remove him from office, they support him, because they’re directly opposed to democracy.

12:05 – Thu 07 January 2021

Ideals are like stars: you will not succeed in touching them with your hands, but like the seafaring man on the ocean desert of waters, you choose them as your guides, and following them, you reach your destiny.

Carl Schurz

9:05 – Fri 08 January 2021

The Milky Way Gets a New Origin Story from Wired

Gaia’s years-long data set described the detailed motions of roughly 1 billion stars.

Astronomy doesn’t do as much to directly improve the world as one might hope, but it provides some of the best illustrations of the scientific process at work, given that every generation provides exponentially more data to look at.

12:02 – Fri 08 January 2021

This is the miracle that happens every time to those who really love; the more they give, the more they possess.

Rainer Maria Rilke

I couldn’t really find a bonus article for the week, unfortunately. Sorry, if that’s what you’re here for. There was plenty of news, this week, though…


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