mtadkins

Where will newly unemployed ‘tech workers’ go?

This:

“It has become fashionable for VCs to talk about how all these tech companies are overstaffed,” wrote Emily Mazo, an organizer with the labor advocacy group Collective Action in Tech, in an email. “Any of the workers who just got laid off will likely tell you that they were in fact understaffed, that they were working much more than 40 hours a week even before half their teams were fired, and that they have long lists of things they wanted to build but didn’t have the hands for. But workers are the first ones to be hurt in a downturn moment.”

Source: via SLATE: Amazon, Facebook, Twitter layoffs: Where will newly unemployed tech workers go?

[via] Was Kurt Vonnegut a nice man?

“One of Vonnegut’s most famous lines is from 1961’s Mother Night: “We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be.” Vonnegut often pretended to be nicer than he was, which was good for both his ego and his income.”

Source: Dorian Lynskey in UnHerd: Was Kurt Vonnegut a nice man?

Ex Libris: The Locked Room

  • Author(s): Per Wahloo, Maj Sjowall
  • Acquired: 1993 (ish?)
The Locked Room

I believe this was purchased in New Orleans, either from the Tulane University bookstore, or from Beckham’s Bookshop, which to my great happiness seems still to be hanging in there, 30 years later…

Glad tidings, our 10th “xx Day” is upon us.

From 4/26/2012 (my first hearing) til now, #1 on the chart…well, I mean TBH this Last.fm chart isn’t really accurate — there was a time when my phone wouldn’t scrobble & it was a lazy few months before I fixed it… & of course all of the vinyl spins are missing — the analog curse made bearable by the blessing of warm, hipstery, audiophilic hi-fi glory that is a nice LP.

Sooooo, #1 and then some.

It might have been a goof initially, but since I’ve been noting this as xx Day for 9 years…the practice has made me take more notice of my many other fan “crushes” before, during, & after declaring this my new favorite.

You gotta be good, you gotta be loved to stay in the rotation.

Previously:

XX Day (9), A Lovely Solo Cover Of The xx’s “VCR” from Arlo Parks, XX Day (7), Happy “xx day” [Update, 2018], Songs of The xx, ranked.

Last Week: Oct 18 2021

WordNerds can find the time to address that “Read Next” Pile #TBR

Bookworm Clock

This little Kickstarter-project clock using literary quotes to relay the time is adorable. It also seems imminently doable in a DIY sense, so…. maybe go support them (?). Or make your own? Follow your own rainbow, dear Maker.

 

Victoria Chang

Dear Memory is Victoria Chang’s writing based on fragments of stories her mother shared reluctantly, and “the silences of her father” as an assemblage of mementos, poetry, and literary criticism in letters to family, past teachers, and fellow poets. [via NPR] **

** (obvs, note the above link is an ‘affiliate link’ & gives this site a kickback if you happen to purchase from Bookshop. Tx.)

ALERT: BadaSS Women in History

Last Tuesday was Ada Lovelace Day… hope you got in on the action & were inspired to flex your curiosity. Personally I like to make a whole week of it 😉

Ada Lovelace Day 2021

 

THE BEAUTY OF DANCE, SEEN THROUGH THE POWER OF TOUCH

I was checking out some of the submissions for the Hackaday Prize, & saw this amazing project called KINETIC SOUL, which Shi Yun describes as a platform using computer vision to allow “the visually impaired to experience dance via kinetic feedback“. Very, very neat.

 

…as always, some #NewMusic

Oooh, Snarls has a new EP coming out soon: