Batya Ungar-Sargon published an article last year entitled The media’s betrayal of the poor.  One reference caught my eye: Piketty re: a Brahmin Left, so I looked it up and found a 2019 summary of Piketty book Capital and Ideology book in which he proposes the idea of the Brahmin Left vs Merchant Right. This writeup contains two comments, one of ( Read more... )

I love maps and these maps (using 2021 data) from BerryBlue_BlueBerry say a lot about our world IMO.


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I found out today that YHWH is very likely a lesser god and somewhat reminiscent of the demiurge:

"Yahweh worship also has its roots in an ancient religion of Canaan, the land which God promised to Abraham. Within this polytheistic religion, Yahweh was but one of many deities united under a figure known as El. In the northwestern Semitic language ( Read more... )

Today, I learned by accident that Tamaioasa is just Muscat Blanc. Grasa de Cotnari might be derived from Furmint. Apparently, Busuioaca, Feteasca, Francusa are their own varietals. DNA tests will reveal more and more about Romanian varietals (e.g. Galbena de Odobesti). Somewhat related, I was reading about a Venetian grape that was recently ( Read more... )

Today, I stumbled upon The Book of Eve by Constance Beresford-Howe. It has a really strong opening with a nice jab at the Eden eviction story:


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BBC has an excellent intro to Vicente Lusitano, whose compositions are being revived (since 2020). Marian Consort has an excellent rendition of his Inviolata (part of their Lusitano Remixed). Apparently, the Guardian covered him too and mentions some live performances by Chineke (directed by Joseph McHardy).

This American Life Ep 771 about parents dealing with mass shootings is very powerful.

Interesting opeds: Mr Brooks tries some sleight of hand the day before the Jan 6 committee public hearings begin, Democrat electorate left turn, What comes after the religious right, Ezra Klein's interview with Thomas Piketty.

Found out by accident about The ( Read more... )

I just found out that Vangelis died 2 weeks ago. Αντίο Ευάγγελος!

In other not so recent news, it appears that nature is really weird at quantum level and it involves complicated knots and topologies (e.g. skyrmions).

Lastly, I just found out about this wonderful event called Piano Day (organized by Nils Frahm and sponsored by ARTE Concert). This ( Read more... )

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This US democracy slide is long in the making and not yet done, IMO. Some say that this reversal of freedoms started with the McCarthy era hysteria (and the blacklisting of many lefties or sympathizers), or the post-Vietnam Era/Civil Rights reactionary backlash, or the Robert Bork getting "borked" in 1987, but I wasn't in the US at the time. The ( Read more... )