Well. Here’s an opening.

«Fourteen years, two months, and eight days ago, I made a mistake. Like a lot of mistakes made at the age of 20 inside a college dorm room, it involved trusting a man I shouldn’t have, and it still affects me to this day.

No, Mark Zuckerberg didn’t give me herpes. But in the wake of the Cambridge Analytica revelations, I have been thinking back to my decision to sign up for thefacebook.com on the site’s fifth day in existence, and I am struck by the parallels between Zuckerberg’s creation and a pesky (if generally benign) virus. Facebook isn’t going to kill me, but it has wormed its way into all of my relationships, caused me to infect other people, and I will never, ever be fully rid of it.»

Source: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/apr/17/facebook-people-first-ever-mark-zuckerberg-harvard

Here we go. I read this book in the 70s.

«The breakthrough, spurred by the discovery of plastic-eating bugs at a Japanese dump, could help solve the global plastic pollution crisis»

Source: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/apr/16/scientists-accidentally-create-mutant-enzyme-that-eats-plastic-bottles

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2368220.Mutant_59

[Your Weekly Constitutional] The Mere Distinction of Colour
http://podplayer.net/#/?id=48536781 via @PodcastAddict

Podcast episode on a new museum exhibit about slavery at James Madison’s plantation. It’s a good listen and saddening and I recommend it.

https://twitter.com/JustinWolfers/status/986057227051192320?s=20

https://twitter.com/DanaHoule/status/986197641334870016?s=20

«It was really for just a tiny constituency: Repub megadonors who weren’t going to write any checks unless the Repubs cut their taxes. Since we’ve stopped seeing stories about a donor strike, it appears the bill achieved what it was intended to achieve.»

Hmm.

https://twitter.com/NormOrnstein/status/985358739598462976?s=19

«Most disturbing thing: by 2040 or so, 70 percent of Americans will live in 15 states. Meaning 30 percent of Americans will elect 70 senators. Wholly unrepresentative of the diversity in the country. And an immense challenge to the legitimacy of our system https://t.co/7BArUDx8NB»

Of interest.

https://www.vox.com/2018/4/13/17194396/james-comey-book-higher-loyalty-hero

«Comey also expanded the use of sting operations to catch would-be terrorists before they struck, and some of the practices were suspect. Last May, the Intercept reported that agents “busted” a mentally ill homeless man for claiming he had connections to ISIS. In a similar case, an informant also gave a homeless man $40 so he could buy the weapons — machetes, knives — he said he needed to carry out the attack.

Meanwhile, those stings didn’t stop actual terrorists. As the Intercept notes, the FBI looked at least twice at the man who eventually killed nearly 50 people and wounded another 50 at an Orlando nightclub in June 2016. The FBI, apparently, didn’t consider the man a threat during its investigations.»

Magical walk in the woods.
https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/984865835566141440.html

Part 2:

https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/984889838506823680.html

«Perhaps the GOP will have to hit a lower bottom before it’s ready for a cure.»

Still lower, eh?

https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/all-opinions-are-local/wp/2018/04/13/a-flare-up-in-the-struggle-over-the-future-of-the-virginia-gop/

Lotta good stuff in here.

https://onbeing.org/blog/courtney-martin-three-tensions-at-the-heart-of-fighting-racism-as-a-white-person/