Checking in late, but I've been missing hubski a lot lately. Been busy though, which is good. Autumn is here, and the cold mornings feels amazing after a freakishly hot summer. I also recently moved to a new place. It feels like a fresh start, but familiar at the same time, since its in the same neighbourhood as when I first moved here. Sorry for missing the weekly photo challenge! Please keep tagging me, psychoticmilkman!
Man, I miss Jon Stewart. Kind of stopped watching The Daily Show when he quit. Recently when Swedish state tv tried to copy the format, it didn't go so well. Edit: The video he's apologising for (sinophobia at the end):
It takes a special kind of comedian (/team of writers) to craft jokes that aren't always at someone else's expense. Or at least manage to distribute the hate equally. And be genuinely self-deprecatory. It's an increasingly fine line to walk, imho
Skånedemokraterna (In Swedish)
The success story the Sweden Democrats isn’t then about the post-fascist Sweden Democrats. It is not there it has its explanation. That story has its beginning somewhere else. That thread, deeply rooted in the Scanian soil, is what we must follow if we are to understand the Sweden Democrats rise to power.
#swelection Stefan wants to talk to Jan and Annie who doesn't want to talk to Stefan. Jimmie wants to talk to Ulf, but he only wants to talk to Ebba, Jan and Annie. Nobody wants to talk to Jimmie or Jonas, but Stefan can still get support from Jonas, but then he can't talk to Jan or Annie because they don't want to talk to Jonas. If Ulf and Ebba were to talk to Jimmie then Annie and Jan would stop talking to Ulf and Ebba and instead start talking to Stefan, as long as Stefan stops talking to Jonas. Meanwhile, nobody is speaking to Gustav and Isabella who are just happy to still be here. I have a feeling this post-election posturing might go on for a while...
Disturbing images emerged of deprived, scared children—a devastating by-product of the regime’s ‘pro-natalist’ polices. Photos of infants with their heads shaved, chained to their cribs and lying in puddles of urine rocked the globe. Some 170,000 orphans were discovered crammed into 700 institutions. The children were being raised in overcrowded, state-run orphanages where child rearing was approached with Soviet-style efficiency. The result was a generation brought up without care, social interaction, stimulation or psychological comfort. Romania’s institutionalised children displayed profound developmental delays and abnormal social-emotional behaviour.
If you want empty space for the occasional outdoor party, I agree you don’t have many other options. On the other hand, if you want something nice to look at but still fairly low maintenance and cheap, I’d go for a meadow from seeds. Using seeds keeps the costs down a lot and you can put together your own mix by ordering online. After sowing you’re gonna have to do some weeding at the start of the season, but then the canopy will close up. At the end of the season (or depending on your species selection) you get to mow it down with a scythe! It’s more work than a lawn, will not always look pristine and may not be as useful, but it’s probably better for your local ecosystem. James Hitchmough, they guy who designed the flower meadows for the London Olympics, has written a pretty good book on the topic.
My professor seems to agree regarding hexagons! (or rather Walter Christaller, the slide was about Central place theory.)
Apparently I’ve been off Hubski for over a month, so I guess the pub is a good place to show my face again! It’s looking more and more like I will be finishing a course on schedule for the first time in three years. Meeting with a support group once a week, staying on my meds and communicating with my professors and has been of help. Still, I almost didn’t go to my written exam (my first in four years) because I was certain I hadn’t studied enough to pass it. I was one point away from acing it. Tomorrow I have an oral presentation of a group project, which should be the last thing I have to do in this course if I don’t mess up too bad. Of course I’ve spent all day thinking of ways I can mess it up, everything from passing out or forgetting how to speak English has been running through my mind. Oh well, if 80 % is just showing up I think I can endure the rest.
Good point, I think it comes down to this being a short opening talk among many at an art/media festival. Not much room to be nuanced and expand on ideas when sharing the scene with these guys if you want to leave a mark on the audience. Apparently he wrote a longer piece in a Swedish magazine which I will try to find, and there's also a research project planned.
GDP/"growth" is a metric. Everyone wants to use the metrics that best reflect their values. I seriously doubt any mainstream economists are going to start using the Social Progress Index any time soon but that doesn't make it invalid. So in a way, yeah, "money" is failing... but it's more accurate to say that the value system of the world economic community is failing. Which people like this have been saying since 1900 AD.