A couple of Sundays ago, Hubby and I went to hear Cory Doctorow speak. Cory is a prolific writer who writes at the intersection of technology and policy, excoriating corporations that harm society and the politicians who play to corporations at the expense of the majority of us. He keeps a link blog called Pluralistic (https://pluralistic.net) and has written both fiction and nonfiction related to tech and policy. Over the course of the pandemic, he…
The United Auto Workers (UAW) union is on strike. While listening to a report about the strike, I heard that one of the union’s demands was for a 4-day (32-hour) work week at the current level of pay for a 5-day work week. According to this Associated Press article on the strike, this demand has been dismissed by automakers, but, darn it, it shouldn’t be. Switching to a 4-day work week isn’t about laziness. It…
This Labor Day weekend (2023), Minnesota is experiencing some record-breaking heat. Yesterday, it got up to 97 degrees F. Today, it’s expected to reach 96. In the interest of avoiding the hottest part of the day, Hubby and I headed out in mid-morning to run errands. While on the drive to the storage unit we are renting, we were listening to 1A on Minnesota Public Radio. The conversation was with Mark Ellison, a carpenter who…
Each morning, I read the 1440 newsletter, which provides snippets of news from around the world, including links back to its sources. It’s called 1440 because that’s when the printing press was invented. [https://join1440.com] In the July 28, 2023, issue, I read an article called “New Blood, Slower Aging,” which discussed how scientists had connected the circulatory systems of young mice to older mice and discovered that the blood of the younger mice extended the…
Public bathrooms aren’t the sort of places most of us are tempted to take photos. And, let’s face it, most public bathrooms aren’t that interesting. However, over the past several months, I’ve been in some public bathrooms that were interesting enough that they deserved a photo (or several in once instance). Here is my gallery of public bathroom photos. The bathroom that will not run out of toilet paper anytime soon. I’m not sure who…