Posts Tagged ‘New Atheism’
Wednesday Links!
* CFP: Embodiment in Science Fiction and Fantasy Interdisciplinary Conference, May 2018. CFP: The Future of Fandom. CFP: J. G. Ballard and the Sciences.
* The Rise of Brittle Paper: The Village Square of African Literature.
* The Library of America’s Story of the Week is an Ursula K. Le Guin classic, “The Day Before the Revolution.”
* Four book series that are shaping the future of science fiction on television. Butler! Okorafor! Jemisin!
We all know it is ending.
Trump is not an aberration. There will be no “return to normal.” The damage has been done. America is over.
* For years, Richard Florida preached the gospel of the creative class. His new book is a mea culpa.
* Something has gone wrong with our atheists.
* The Ludicrous Prepper Plans of the Super Rich.
* Today’s “dominant cultural elite”—those Currid-Halkett has labeled “the aspirational class”— “reveal their class position through cultural signifiers” instead of material possessions, as was the custom during the golden age of conspicuous consumption. Ownership of relatively luxurious products (large electronics, SUVs) is now so widely accessible that the new elites eschew material things not because they’re reluctant to publicly display their affluence but because material goods no longer offer enough distinction. The hottest commodity for this group, whose members range from “partner[s] in a law firm” to “unemployed screenwriter[s],” is participation in a value system with the imprimatur of moral excellence: the conviction that they are living in the best (most responsible, most mindful, most objectively right) ways. These consumers are united by “shared cultural capital” as opposed to similar financial standing. “This new elite,” she contends, “is not defined by economics.”
* How Mic.com exploited social justice for clicks, and then abandoned a staff that believed in it.
* Soviet Pseudoscience: The History of Mind Control.
* The Mind-Set List, Faculty Edition.
* What is antifa? Who are the antifa?
* Psychologists surveyed hundreds of alt-right supporters. The results are unsettling.
* Now you can see what Donald Trump sees every time he opens Twitter. Inside Trump’s obsession with cable TV. A bizarre memo by an administration official suggests why Trump was so hesitant to blame white nationalists for the fatal violence in Charlottesville. Trump and his party continue to creep ever closer to a destination that once seemed unthinkable. And three and a half years of his term remain. Optimist. McConnell, in Private, Doubts if Trump Can Save Presidency. The President of Blank Sucking Nullity. “We tried to stop him.” Losing Mitt. If you want a vision of the future.
Trump is a racist and a narcissist in decline while under the most pressure he's ever faced in his life. No reason this can't get worse.
— Jon Lovett (@jonlovett) August 23, 2017
* 7 things Republicans could do to check Trump without ditching conservative policy.
* Was it worth it, America? Was it?
* Forever and ever amen. How the Forever War Brought Us Donald Trump. Trump’s Afghanistan buildup is revealing a rift among Democrats.
Seems weird that we've been at war in Afghanistan for 16 years and the "new strategy" is to stay there indefinitely
— Judd Legum (@JuddLegum) August 22, 2017
whether our president is an urbane intellectual or the dumbest man on earth, the policy is still all war all the time, weird how that works
— Hippo (@InternetHippo) August 22, 2017
* Whose heritage? Lee comes down at Duke.
* How Trump Ruined My Relationship With My White Mother.
* Catholic priest steps down after revealing he was a Ku Klux Klan member decades ago.
* I Used To Be a Neo-Nazi. Charlottesville Terrifies Me.
* If you’re one of the more than 140,000 people doing time in a Texas state prison, you’re not allowed to read books by Bob Dole, Harriet Beecher Stowe or Sojourner Truth. But you’re more than welcome to dig into Adolf Hitler’s “Mein Kampf” or David Duke’s “My Awakening.”
* Leaving town at rush hour? Here’s how far you’re likely to get from America’s largest cities.
* “Buffy at 20″ will have to find some way to reckon with Joss Whedon at 53. Joss Whedon was never a feminist. Joss Whedon and the Feminist Pedestal: A Reading List.
* Infographic of the far future.
* Machine learning and misogyny.
* Afrofuturism has finally been gentrified.
* This deal is getting worse all the time. Because you demanded it.
* Marvel’s Black Panther Has Been Fighting White Supremacists For Decades and He’s Not About To Stop.
* Marvel Superheroes Who Basically Only Protect New York City, Ranked.
* In the future every franchise will be revived for fifteen minutes.
* Game of Thrones is definitely collapsing under its own weight. Bady and Mesle. Game of Thrones has become a terrible show. “Straining plausibility.” Game of Thrones‘ “Instantaneous Westeros Travel” Fallacy Is Driving Me Insane. Game of Thrones’ Drive to the Finish Line Is Crippling Its Ability to Tell a Story.
* Dogs Are Turning Blue in India for the Saddest Reason.
* Astronaut Pee and Sweat Could Be the Key to Getting Humans to Mars.
* A Future of Genetically Engineered Children Is Closer Than You’d Think.
* Family Jumps Rising Drawbridge in Car, Lands on Other Side.
* A bonus episode of Thor: The Lightning and the Storm for your listening pleasure.
* And the arc of history is long, but Chuck E. Cheese is phasing out its animatronic bands.
Written by gerrycanavan
August 23, 2017 at 8:15 am
Posted in Look at what I found on the Internet
Tagged with Afghanistan, Africa, African literature, Afrofuturism, Ainehi Edoro, alt-right, America, antifascism, apocalypse, atheism, banned books, Black Panther, books, Breitbart, Brian Aldiss, Brittle Paper, Buffy, cable news, Catholicism, CEOs, CFPs, Charlottesville, Chuck E. Cheese, class struggle, coastal elites, Confederacy, creative class, Democrats, digital media, dogs, Donald Trump, Duke, eclipse, elites, fandom, fascism, feminism, forever war, futurity, Game of Thrones, genetics, George R. R. Martin, Han Solo, health care, heritage, India, J.G. Ballard, Jabba the Hutt, Joss Whedon, kids today, KKK, machine learning, Marquette, Mars, Marvel, mind control, misogyny, Mitch McConnell, Mitt Romney, Moana, N.K. Jemisin, Nazis, New Atheism, New York, Nnedi Okorafor, Obi-Wan Kenobi, obituary, Octavia Butler, only the super-rich can save us now, pigs, podcasts, politics, pollution, preppers, prison, race, racism, Republicans, Richard Florida, Robert E. Lee, science fiction, Scorsese, sexism, social justice, solar eclipse, Soviet Union, Star Wars, survivalism, syllabi, television, Texas, the arc of history is long but it bends towards justice, The Day before the Revolution, The Disposessed, The Jetsons, The Joker, This American Life, Thor, timelines, traffic, Ursula K. Le Guin, Village Voice, Virginia, war huh good god y'all what is it good for? absolutely nothing say it again, white supremacy
Wednesday Links! Some Especially Good Ones!
* Paradoxa 26, “SF Now,” is on its way, and has my essay on Snowpiercer and necrofuturism in it. Mark Bould and Rhys Williams’s introduction to the issue is online.
* Extrapolation‘s current call for reviewers.
* UCR is hiring: Jay Kay and Doris Klein Science Fiction Librarian.
* African SF: Presenting Omenana 1.1. Of particular note: “The Unbearable Solitude of Being an African Fan Girl.”
* Nnedi Okorafor, Ytasha Womack, Isiah Lavender, and Sigal Samuel discussion #BlackStormTrooper.
* NASA Officially Announce Plans To Put Humans On Mars With Orion Space Capsule.
* UAB shuts down its football program. Of course, the reason is austerity:
“The fiscal realities we face — both from an operating and a capital investment standpoint — are starker than ever and demand that we take decisive action for the greater good of the athletic department and UAB,” Watts said in a statement released by the university. “As we look at the evolving landscape of NCAA football, we see expenses only continuing to increase. When considering a model that best protects the financial future and prominence of the athletic department, football is simply not sustainable.”
We just can’t afford to throw bricks at students’ heads any more — not in these tough times.
* Teaching fellows strike at the University of Oregon.
* “Hypereducated and On Welfare”: The adjunct crisis hits Elle.
* Stefan Grimm and academic precarity: 1, 2.
* Meanwhile: College Hilariously Defends Buying $219,000 Table.
* Work, the welfare state, and what counts as “dignity.”
* It really pains me to say it, because I think the consequences for anti-rape activism will be dire, but significant questions have been raised about Rolling Stone‘s UVA story that neither the journalist nor the magazine have good answers to. It’s a good day to think carefully about what Freddie deBoer says here: “…it’s an inevitable result of associating the work of progressive politics with having a hair trigger, with demonizing those who ask us to be careful and restrained, and of treating overwhelming digital character assassination as a useful political tool.”
* Imagine a World Without Prisons: Science Fiction, Fantasy, Superheroes, and Prison Abolition.
* Against New Atheism: The “New Atheists” have gained traction because they give intellectual cover to Western imperialism.
* The mass transit system Milwaukee didn’t know it needed. Now, if you could just snake another couple lines up the lake side… More links below the map.
* The Ferguson PD victory lap continues: Ferguson Police investigating whether Michael Brown’s stepfather intended to incite a riot.
* How Police Unions and Arbitrators Keep Abusive Cops on the Street.
* How One Woman Could Hit The Reset Button In The Case Against Darren Wilson.
* Utah’s Insanely Expensive Plan To Seize Public Lands. “…a price tag that could only be paid if the state were able to increase drilling and mining.” Oh, so not insane, then, just evil.
* There are boondoggles and there are boondoggles: Federal prosecutors subpoenaed dozens of records and documents relating to the Los Angeles Unified School District’s iPad program, including emails, proposals and score sheets dealing with the bids that led to a multi-million Apple contract with the district.
* For $5 I promise not to orchestrate this situation, and for $25…
* Why I Am Not Coming In To Work Today.
* And the market for Girl Scout cookies is about to be disrupted. I gained ten pounds just reading this story.
Written by gerrycanavan
December 3, 2014 at 10:54 am
Posted in Look at what I found on the Internet
Tagged with academia, actually existing media bias, adjunctification, adjuncts, administrative blight, Africa, Afrofuturism, Apple, austerity, books, boondoggles, caution, CFPs, college football, college sports, comics, Darren Wilson, delicious Girl Scout cookies, dignity of work, disruption, drill baby drill, education, empire, Episode 7, ethics, Extrapolation, fandom, Ferguson, film, football, fraternities, headbrick, How the University Works, imperialism, innovation, iPads, Isiah Lavender, Islamophobia, kayfabe, libraries, Los Angeles, maps, Mars, Michael Brown, Milwaukee, my media empire, my scholarly empire, NASA, national parks, NCAA, necrofuturism, New Atheism, Nigeria, Nnedi Okorafor, Octavia Butler, Omenana, outer space, over-educated literary theory PhDs, Paradoxa, pedagogy, philosophy, police brutality, police unions, police violence, precarity, prison abolition, prison-industrial complex, prisons, professional wrestling, public transportation, race, racism, rape, rape culture, Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal, science fiction, Snowpiercer, Star Wars, Stefan Grimm, strikes, suicide, superheroes, the commons, the courts, the law, theft, there's always money in the banana stand, trolley problem, UAB, UC Riverside, University of Oregon, Utah, UVA, war on education, welfare state, what it is I think I'm doing, why I am not coming into work today, work, xkcd, Ytasha Womack