Mass shootings and America’s unique gun violence problem, explained – Vox:
No other high-income country has suffered such a high death toll from gun violence. Every day, more than 110 Americans die at the end of a gun, including suicides and homicides, an average of 40,620 per year. Since 2009, there has been an annual average of 19 shootings in which at least four people are killed. The US gun homicide rate is as much as 26 times that of other high-income countries; its gun suicide rate is nearly 12 times higher.
Technically this is only the second worst thing the GOP has done to us as far as deaths in recent years, with 500 people a day still dying from COVID.
The Availability of Guns and Books in America
January 24, 2023
Exaggerating China’s military spending, St. Louis Fed breaks all statistical rules with misleading graph – Geopolitical Economy Report
January 24, 2023
In an attempt to grossly exaggerate China’s defense spending, and simultaneously downplay the US military budget, the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis published a jaw-droppingly deceptive graph.
If a student presented this in a statistics 101 class, the teacher would likely give them an F. But because it involves Washington’s public enemy number one, Beijing, the US regional reserve bank was awarded a Golden Star for exemplary service in the New Cold War.
Things to do and not to do during a wave of tech layoffs | Christian Heilmann:
Be there for others
If you worked in a place resembling some human society, you will have colleagues that reach out to you and tell you how sorry they are. Take these moments and thank them. Also reach out to people who have been laid off and just offer to be available for a chat. These are annoying, frustrating and bad times, and there is period of flooded job markets and even more layoffs coming.
- via: The Tao of Mac
Florida teachers told to remove books from classroom libraries or risk felony prosecution
January 23, 2023
Florida teachers told to remove books from classroom libraries or risk felony prosecution:
Teachers in Manatee County, Florida, are being told to make their classroom libraries — and any other “unvetted” book — inaccessible to students, or risk felony prosecution. The new policy is part of an effort to comply with new laws and regulations championed by Governor Ron DeSantis (R).
Evil.
kottke.org – Lessons on How to Draw by Hokusai
January 23, 2023
Lessons on How to Draw by Hokusai:
In 1812, Japanese woodblock print artist Katsushika Hokusai, who would later become famous for his iconic Great Wave off Kanagawa prints, published a three-volume series called Quick Lessons in Simplified Drawing. All three volumes are available online: one, two, three. Even if you’re not in the market for drawing lessons, the pages are wonderful to flip through.
Ermagerd I love him even more. Great Wave and the series it comes from are possibly my favorite art in existence, but he was such a cool artist in general…
The Lisa: Apple’s Most Influential Failure – CHM
January 19, 2023
The Lisa: Apple’s Most Influential Failure – CHM:
Despite the Lisa’s failure in the marketplace, it holds a key place in the history of the GUI and PCs more generally as the first GUI-based computer to be released by a personal computer company.
Inside Elon Musk’s “extremely hardcore” Twitter – The Verge
January 17, 2023
Inside Elon Musk’s “extremely hardcore” Twitter – The Verge:
In three months, Musk has also largely destroyed the equity value of Twitter and much of his personal wealth. He has indicated that the company could declare bankruptcy, and the distraction of running it has caused Tesla stock to crater, costing him $200 billion.
I read this as “…of ruining it…” and it made far more sense.
Daring Fireball: The End May Be Nigh for Third-Party Twitter Clients
January 13, 2023
Daring Fireball: The End May Be Nigh for Third-Party Twitter Clients:
(Twitterrific for Mac is still functioning, though — at least as I write this. Unlike Tweetbot, Twitterrific uses different app IDs for iOS and Mac, and whatever is going on, it seems to have affected only the most popular third-party apps.)
The fact that certain apps/API IDs haven’t been swept up in this reads to me that it’s an intentional shut-out, and that Twitter has shot itself in the foot deliberately. Even before taking hiatus over the antics of their Austin Powers Villian leadership, I never willingly interacted with the service via their website, only through third-party clients… And I’m absolutely not alone in that.
Beware the Gifts of Dragons: How D&D’s Open Gaming License May Have Become a Trap for Creators | Electronic Frontier Foundation
January 13, 2023
According to leaks reported last week, the company that owns Dungeons and Dragons (D&D) is planning to revoke the open license that has, since the year 2000, applied to a wide range of unofficial, commercial products that build on the mechanics of Dungeons and Dragons. The report indicates that this wouldn’t simply be a change going forward, but would affect existing works that relied on the license. The old license would be revoked for existing uses, and people who have used on it will be forced to adopt new terms or renegotiate with the company, Wizards of the Coast, a subsidiary of game giant Hasbro.
Obviously, this would be a rude and unfair thing to do to people who have accepted the invitation of the open gaming license (OGL) to create new games and stories that build upon Dungeons and Dragons. But would it be legal?
Even more interesting, would revoking the OGL actually give some third parties more freedom to operate, given that the OGL forced them to promise not to do some things that copyright and trademark law otherwise permit?
Pocket Realities 