https://kendraalvey.com/2019/12/30/19-things-i-learned-in-2019/

«It’s that time of the year again. Yup, it’s the time of year when I make a list of what I learned, thus convincing myself that I grew or changed or whatever. That I haven’t just been sitting on the couch eating popcorn all year. (I’ve been sitting on the couch eating popcorn all year.)

I’ve been doing this since 2011 and, let me tell you, it works like a charm. Last year, in 2018, I learned 18 things, and in 2017, I learned 17. This year, I learned 19 if you can believe it. Nineteen things! In 2019! (Next year in 2020, I’m gonna reset this shit to 0 instead of coming up with 20 things so I hope I don’t learn anything.)

Here they are:»

David M. Perry @Lollardfish

Race science is bad, folks.

SIVA VAIDHYANATHAN @sivavaid

Also, not science.

David M. Perry @Lollardfish

also indeed.

11:35 AM · Dec 28, 2019·TweetDeck

(In re Bret Stephens’s recent opinion piece in the New York Times claiming that Ashkenazi Jews are smarter than average.)

https://www.theguardian.com/news/2019/dec/28/thai-navy-seal-dies-of-infection-from-cave-rescue

https://twitter.com/LibyaLiberty/status/1210860093513879553?s=20

hend amry (@LibyaLiberty) Tweeted:
Muslim nations don’t represent Islam. If they did, they wouldn’t all be silent on the Uighur internment camps. Muslim nations are nation states pursuing their own national interests. Religious authority is subjectively and strategically leveraged. https://t.co/TEThFSh3dg

https://thechloegong.com/2019/12/28/techno-orientalism-in-science-fiction/

Boom.

«While 19th century Europe sipped tea and spoke of the “savages” out in the unconquered world, 21st century America consumes news article after news article about Chinese takeovers of American factories and jobs, Japanese technology light years ahead, North Korean missiles within range for firing. Techno-orientalist tropes bloom from anxieties and fears of a dying American dominance, and in a world where America struggles to understand its place in the world (especially with the US-China trade war going on), the futures being written into fiction equate bleak with Asian. Only then is the present day West assured: yes, it is correct that we hold dominance over world order. Yes, it is correct that we remain in power, so this Asianized future does not come to fruition.»

https://www.vox.com/2018/10/30/18035336/white-evangelicals-immigration-nationalism-christianity-refugee-honduras-migrant

«“a very slow theological turn within the evangelical community to redefine what seemed like very basic … verses about the care of the poor and caring for the outcast. On one hand, they might say, ‘Oh, you know, Jesus was born of a literal virgin’ … but when it comes to these verses about the poor and about refugees, in particular, all of a sudden, literalism disappears.”»

https://youtu.be/4cP26ndrmtg

https://www.google.com/search?q=trans-siberian+orchestra+christmas+canon+lyrics&oq=trans-siberian+orchestra+christmas+canon+lyrics&aqs=chrome..69i57.19312j0j1&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

Well, this piece should not reduce me to tears, but it does. (Not the video, btw, which is really cheesy, but the music and lyrics.)

https://www.washingtonpost.com/religion/2019/12/23/christianity-today-called-trumps-impeachment-why-it-could-cost-magazine/

«“The cost for some of these of speaking out would be losing millions of dollars of donors,” she said. “The organizations could crumble. Do you compromise the mission of an organization to stand up for a moral issue?”»

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_McNerney

James McNerney was CEO of Boeing while the 737 Max was developed. He set the tone. McKinsey consultant, protege (?) of Jack Welch.

There must be some Law of Large Organizations, like there’s a Law of Large Numbers.