Stuff I Learned This Week: July 29th-August 4th, 2019

This week, I spent a lot of time on Youtube, but there's still some articles and podcasts in here.

- I didn't realise there was a Nordic Bronze Age, but apparently, there was!

- I wasn't familiar with this specific cult, but even though it's closer to the right-wing, it really demonstrates why I'm deeply leery of any group that eagerly suggests armament, seclusion, and control are the solution to violence.

- I now understand more about how interest rates and inflation work! And it wasn't even boring!

- One guy is mostly responsible for anti-immigration rhetoric's spread in the US, and it's all because he was a racist conservationist...

- Treasured son Daniel Mallory Ortberg has returned to writing nonsense on the internet!

- For those unaware that I have a Youtube channel, well, now you know! It's honestly just a playlist channel, and I sometimes use it for social interactions. I've been considering dabbling with tiny little short films, but I tend to prefer taking pictures. Anyway, if you want to see more of what I'm learning, watching, and listening to, my Youtube playlists are updated pretty regularly.

- This song made me feel cool. There's just something about shoegaze (blurred vocals, mostly acoustic-based guitar rock from the 90s) that feels perennially fresh and raw to me. If you like it, the band Lush might be to your liking, as well as Hooverphonic! For a more old-school punk girl band vibe, The Regrettes are fantastic, and Charly Bliss has recently put out an absolutely fantastic album - think Metric, but a little more raw.

More on the relaxed electro-pop side is this song, which isn't that much of a new discovery (I've adored Tove Lo for ages), but which I have been utterly obsessed with this summer. However, another artist I've followed for a while, Robyn, also released a new album that's got the same light, sparing, yet still emotional 80s style.

On the jazzier side is this artist, Corinne Bailey Rae, known for "Let Your Hair Down." I'm a big fan of Motown, swing, and jazz, and she may become a welcome addition to my various playlists. Her voice flows like honey and fresh water.




- I also learned why a rare type of honey, bonsai, and Italian marble are so expensive! And that lobsters are cannibalistic if confined...

- Tiger populations are rebounding - yet another case of a conservation program being wildly successful and effective.

- Electric car technology is looking fantastic! Cleaning microplastics from our waterways is another struggle that may have just gotten a solution. Teen activist Greta Thunberg, an amazing inspiration, is bringing her show to the States, part of her push towards a carbon-neutral world. I hope it gets serious traction, and I'm excited to watch the effect on the American election.

- Scientists and anthropologists are pushing back hard on white supremacist myths and misappropriations. And writers are weaving marvelous visions of the future to reflect our complex history, too!

- Fox urine is apparently one of the worst-smelling things on the planet.

- this incredible Youtuber has made some great mini-documentaries about my neck of the woods!



- I finally know what a levee is, and why it's important!

- I also understand why clothing's gotten so cheaply made and crappy in the last few years.

- Black holes are really hard to understand, but now that famous picture makes more sense to me.

***

Michelle Browne is a sci fi/fantasy writer and editor. She lives in Lethbridge, AB with her partner-in-crime and Max the cat. Her days revolve around freelance editing, knitting, jewelry, and learning too much. She is currently working on other people's manuscripts, the next books in her series, and drinking as much tea as humanly possible.

Find her all over the internet: * OG Blog * Mailing list * Magpie Editing * 

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Stuff I Learned This Week: July 22nd-July 28th, 2019

I'm trying something new this week, something that may or may not stick - just a way for me to share the reading materials, videos, and podcasts I've enjoyed this week.

- Blackwater Security is run by Eric Prince, Betsy DeVos' little brother. They're a highly unethical private security firm that started out working for the CIA in a training capacity. After being pushed away by the Obama administration, Blackwater has been brought into the new administration - even after becoming internationally active as a "shipping company" selling mercenary training and services throughout the Middle East and in China. Eric Prince views himself as a "modern day crusader" and he's basically a freelance war criminal.

- The Border Patrol  in the United States is 95% male, mostly Chicano and Latino, and has an absolutely horrifying culture of sexual assault and dehumanization of migrants. Their actions are being spurred on by both the history of racism and the present-day autoimmune-disease-like flare-up of racism that is the Trump presidency.

- Private prisons in New York are basically run by gangs because of extremely poor oversight, low wages, and improper staff training.

- Astronauts struggled with peeing in space for decades, and basically just had to wet themselves in their suits and put their poop in bags. This was not dealt with until the first woman astronaut went up - and even now, poop baggies are still required to deal with the issue.

- Busing and segregation have had pervasive effects to the present day. It's something Democrats don't like talking about, but it's still really important.

- People on the radical left think Stalin was a good guy and still respect Mao, which is extremely messed up and makes me quite angry. (Twitter and Facebook commentators are the source for this one; I do have an upcoming article about it as well)

- I'm not the only person who thinks Stalin and Mao did the same bad thing as other genocidal fascist dictators. That said, some takes from the radical left on social democracy are also very wild. That said, as "Breadtube" or "Leftube" has risen in prominence, it's quite disturbing that the usual leftist fractiousness has reared its ugly head once again.

- The depth of inequalities in the US is absolutely horrifying and shattering.



- China and the Phillipines are shipping back plastic recycling, which means Canada and the US need much better ways of handling their recycling.

- Boris Johnson is the new Prime Minister of Britain, unfortunately.

- It's hard to make changes for the environment - but there are some cognitive tricks we play on ourselves that can let us fix those problems.

And now, some fun things!

- This discussion of unreliable narrators, and the series in general, is fantastic!

- apparently, blood is repulsed by magnetism, even though blood contains iron in haemeoglobin. So that's weird.

- Some reptiles have penes, some have cloacas like birds (except ducks, which famously have weird corkscrew penes), and some female bearded dragons have penes while in the egg!

- Endangered animals thrive in ghost towns! Tiny "rewilding" preserves make an absolutely spectacular difference in the fight against extinction.

- a particular fungus turns cicadas into sex zombies...

- This song was so beautiful that I absolutely had to include it, even though it's not necessarily something I "learned" this week. This one is so intimate and awkward, too, that it's lovely.

***

Michelle Browne is a sci fi/fantasy writer and editor. She lives in Lethbridge, AB with her partner-in-crime and Max the cat. Her days revolve around freelance editing, knitting, jewelry, and learning too much. She is currently working on other people's manuscripts, the next books in her series, and drinking as much tea as humanly possible.

Find her all over the internet: * OG Blog * Mailing list * Magpie Editing * 

* Amazon * Medium * Twitter * Instagram * Facebook * Tumblr * Paypal.me * Ko-fi

Put a Cross on It: Christianity, Capitalism, and Appropriation

I'm taking a quick break from my series about sugar scams to revisit an old hobby-horse: appropriation and cultural theft. This nightmare of the left won't stop cropping up. People can't keep their hands or their inspirations to themselves, so here we go again. 

Ceci n'est pas un croix.
Why the yin-yang? Keep reading.

For example, it's no secret that Ariana Grande has joined the ranks of pop starlets getting flak for doing something in a weird/inappropriate way. In her "Seven Rings" music video, the actress and Disney Channel alumnus used the visual language of Nicki Minaj or Cardi B to add a little flair and flash to her style. 

Here's the thing - a white girl (Ariana is Italian; despite previous prejudices, Italians have been bundled into the artificial construct that always has been and currently still is "whiteness") talking about buying her hair, having everything, and draping herself in diamonds and consumables has a different meaning than, say, a black woman, Latinx woman, or another person from a similar background making those same statements. And dressing oneself up in the subtle visual language and signifiers of another group for the sake of borrowing their "cool" and prestige is, at best, impolite. 

But this kind of weird impersonation and cultural thievery - not exchange; that would imply some sort of trade and equality, or a voluntary element to the transaction - is common in whiteness. Now, I'm sure it won't escape readers that I, obviously, am white. But I don't intend this and my other musings to represent some kind of internalised self-hatred - instead, I want to ask, why are we like this? And how can we be better? 

Put a yin-yang on it 

(Or rather, please don't.) Anyone who was alive in the 1990s might recall the prevalence of "hippie" imagery spattering the cultural landscape. "Girl power" and other commodified phrases were printed on lunchboxes, jewelry, or bejeweled onto denim clothes. Among the various decorative symbols that attained prominence - the peace sign, smileys, suns, hearts, and a plethora of flowers and daisies - were yin-yang symbols. 

Now, a good friend, Joych Chng (Jolantruhttps://twitter.com/jolantru on Twitter) posted a frustrated note about white people using the yin-yang willy-nilly. Having studied religions of the world in a cursory way, I knew the yin-yang wasn't merely decorative, but had symbolic meaning in Taoism - but I was surprised at the thought of its decorative use being offensive or bothersome. 

A quick Wikipedia research trip affirmed what I already knew about its symbolic meaning, but also deepened my knowledge. Clearly, the symbol has nuances, and it's not just a pretty shape with interlocking curves. It represents several philosophical constructs, and isn't meant to be tossed about. The issue isn't all interlocking designs - after all, there are tons of Celtic ornamental squiggles that look similar, but don't have the association - but rather, that the yin-yang has an actual meaning. 

Throwing it into designs at a whim because it's symmetrical and attractive is a bit like plastering random quotes from "Thus Spake Zarathustra" or "Man's Search for Meaning" onto lunchboxes because they sound pretty, completely disregarding any context. (I'm not a Nietzsche fan, but I did like Frankl's work. That aside, you get the point.) 

What's god got to do with it? 

But then I asked myself - why am I surprised by this? Why would I assume that a sacred symbol needs to be confined to its proper use, rather than proliferating or being thrown around? 

Obviously, I'm culturally Christian, even though I'm a non-believer. I have grown up in a society with Easter, Christmas, and Biblical iconography in abundance. But part of modern Christianity interlocks with capitalism in an unsettling fashion. In addition to proclaiming and recruiting new followers to the religion and philosophies, Christianity makes use of branding in very strong ways. 

It doesn't take any work whatsoever to find something cross-patterned at a local store. Even completely secular items, like jewelry, clothing, wall decorations, and similar things will often feature either directly or indirectly Christian iconography. Anything angel-related or with a cross on it is technically making use of Christian iconography. A sacred symbol is rendered not merely prosaic, but ubiquitous - and purchasing and displaying goods that feature such iconography is accepted as demonstrative of belief. 

Let's sit with that for a minute. Someone who shows off their faith with accessories is performatively more Christian. Capitalism makes strong use of branding as it is - and the cross is just another brand. It's a way to showcase loyalty and affiliation - and more importantly, to demonstrate correctness and adherence to one's beliefs. But even though it's professed to be sacred, it's also completely acceptable to use in totally decontextualised situations. 

What's sacred?

In non-Christian cultures, the sacred actually has a space of its own, sometimes apart from worldly cares. However, remembering that other people don't just slap symbols of their beliefs onto everything in reach can sometimes feel vaguely offensive to Westerners who crash into this conflict of beliefs. 

As the poet Bryan Thao Worra once put it, not everything is meant to be known or shared. We were talking about Lovecraft at the time (Worra's work on transformative interpretations of weird horror is stellar; check it out) but it feels applicable to many other cultural topics. 

 "Well, some things no one on any corner of the earth is meant to know, other than that it's there to not be known, contradictory as that sounds." 

So if any of my fellow folks are going, "Oh no, what do I do with this beautiful thing that I now understand is Bad?" I would say - try to spend some time understanding it. Approach things from other cultures with reverence and politeness. Maybe you already bought the problematic item, sure - but you don't have to buy more, and you can try to research or learn about something. Recontextualise, don't rob. Find out what the thing means. We live in the era of information, with ubiquitous smartphones and internet access, and it is foolish not to make use of those resources. Even a skim-read of an article or two can enrich your life and make you a better person. 

 In the meantime, if someone says you should keep your hands off, maybe listen to them. It's hard not to be offended by refusal when one's grown up with a sense of entitlement - and even had that entitlement rewarded! - but we must be better than our greedy and acquisitive impulses. If we are not, nothing will change, and frankly, that would just suck. 

***

Michelle Browne is a sci fi/fantasy writer and editor. She lives in Lethbridge, AB with her partner-in-crime and Max the cat. Her days revolve around freelance editing, knitting, jewelry, and learning too much. She is currently working on other people's manuscripts, the next books in her series, and drinking as much tea as humanly possible.

Find her all over the internet: * OG Blog * Mailing list * Magpie Editing * 

* Amazon * Medium * Twitter * Instagram * Facebook * Tumblr * Paypal.me * Ko-fi