Archive for the ‘From the web’ Category
WDR Funkhausorchester
WDR Funkhausorchester is an orchestra in Cologne, Germany. They have some terrific videos, both of classical and soundtrack music. Frank Strobe is the current conductor. I’m not going to attempt to say anything about their classical pieces here today, but if you have a favourite classical piece they’ve probably played it. Here are their best […]
Whitney Avalon’s funny songs
Whitney Avalon has a terrific voice and she’s also very clever. Here’s a song that’s amazingly about Janet from The Good Place: The Good Place Song | Pobody’s Nerfect What would happen if Galadirel and Leia had a rap battle? Something like this: GALADRIEL vs LEIA: Princess Rap Battle Continuing the Star Wars theme, here’s […]
Steve Shives’ videos about Star Trek & politics
I’ve mentioned Steve Shives’ videos before here and here and here. He has lots of videos about Star Trek and things of a political nature. He debunks conspiracy theories and has “Five Stupid Things About” all kinds of topics. He’s very articulate, and I agree with him often. Here he discusses some underutilized Star Trek […]
Universal basic income
Here’s Thom Hartmann pointing out that studies have shown that a universal basic income works. In other words, people in poverty given the necessities don’t succumb to laziness the way that Republicans disingenuously warn but instead become productive. How Can Poverty Be Fixed? We Already Know
Ghostwriting and celebrity books
I hadn’t seen anything by this guy before but he has a lot of insightful things to say on this topic. His name is Jack Edwards: the complicated ethics of ghostwriters + celebrity books He points out: some celebrities are more transparent than others about their ghostwriters saying a book was the fastest selling debut […]
Why conservatives don’t understand TV shows
Steve Shives talks about how conservatives don’t understand the shows they watch (or music they listen to). He demonstrates that conservatives miss the point of All in the Family and The Colbert Report — and sometimes even Star Trek. Why is this? He says: conservatives assume that their opinions represent the consensus, ie. other people […]
Why the US democracy is so vulnerable
Here’s David Pakman interviewing Steven Levistky, co-author of Tyranny of the Minority: Why American Democracy Reached the Breaking Point. He makes some points that I haven’t heard anyone make before. He points out that old democracies and rich democracies have always lasted. He talks about why the US democracy is more vulnerable than others: the […]
A “balanced” viewpoint isn’t right
If you ask Alexa in a certain way if the 2020 American election was stolen, it will answer yes. Alexa is built by Amazon. Here are The Young Turks on this topic: WATCH: Alexa, Was The 2020 Election Stolen? They suspect that developers may have imagined that taking some news from the left and some […]
Good news for nonsmokers at UW & in the UK
The University of Waterloo has decided to go smoke free as of July 2024. Here’s what they say on their website: Moving to a smoke-free university The Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Rishi Sunak, plans to do what New Zealand is doing — phase smoking out over time. If passed, the law will take […]
Reading for the future
Here’s a post David Brin wrote on his blog about a concept he has about passing the love of science fiction literature on to the next generation: Reach out to teachers and give them good reasons why they should teach science fiction in their classroom. He points out that it was very successful in the […]