392 “Educational Intimidation” Bills Have Been Introduced in the US Since 2021
How the Myth of Colorblindness Endangers France’s Future: The refusal to gather data on race and ethnicity is exacerbating inequality, increasing social segregation, and preventing badly needed reforms.
How did Frederick Douglass become a conservative spokesman?
A New Monument to Emmett Till Doesn’t Measure Progress, But It Does Matter?
A raid on a Kansas newspaper likely broke the law, experts say. But which one?
Is Mental Health a Workplace Issue?
Ingenious librarians: A group of 1970s campus librarians foresaw our world of distributed knowledge and research, and designed search tools for it
The little search engine that couldn’t. A couple of ex-Googlers set out to create the search engine of the future. They built something faster, simpler, and ad-free. So how come you’ve never heard of Neeva?
India lands a spacecraft near the moon’s south pole, a first for the world as it joins an elite club. WAY cool.
Brain-reading devices allow paralysed people to talk using their thoughts. Two studies report considerable improvements in technologies designed to help people with facial paralysis communicate. But the devices must be tested on many more people to prove their reliability.
Why do upstate New Yorkers call it city chicken when it isn’t even made of chicken?
Now I Know: The Translator That Sucked The Life Out of Dracula and Ulysses Subtracting (Land) Grant? and You Can’t Eat Here (And Don’t Really Want to Anyway) and The Man Who Lives on Cruise Ships and The Fans Who Saved The Day (For the Bad Guys) and The River Race that Doesn’t Like Water
OBITS
Jerry Moss, A&M Records Co-Founder and Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Member, Dies at 88
Clarence Avant, ‘Godfather of Black Music,’ and Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Member, Dies at 92
Bob Barker, Famed Game Show Host, Dies at 99
Plus, people I’ve known IRL:
Billie Anderson, 93, a pillar at Trinity AME Zion Church in Binghamton, NY, the church I grew up in, died July 23. Then her daughter Penny Sanders, a contemporary of mine, passed c. August 17
Dwight Smith, 93, a longtime member of my current church, choir, and Bible study, among other things, died August 7
Marilyn Cannoll, 93, who was the head of the Schenectady Arts Council when I worked there in 1978, died on August 9
John Wolcott, 90, a “rebel with a cause, a purveyor of justice and the truth,” died on August 17
Jacqui Williams, who I knew from Filling in the Gaps in American History, died on August 22. She spoke at my church in 2015; though the website is defunct, the Facebook page has lots of information
Matthew 5 is too “woke”
From Newsweek: Evangelical leader Russell Moore said that he saw Christianity in “crisis” because the teachings of Jesus were being viewed by a growing number of people as “subversive” to their right-wing ideology. The idea of “turning the other cheek” and other teachings of Jesus are being rejected as “liberal talking points.” Theologians described it as a rift within the conservative Christian faith that had come to be defined by support for djt.
It’s a dichotomy between theological evangelicals concerned primarily with Christian character and “political” evangelicals intent on winning the culture war, experts told Newsweek. See also: Daily Kos.
The Georgia indictments
djt has a “plan” for America called Agenda 47, and it’s a helluva thing.
Albany Public Library
Proceeds from the event benefit library programs and services. Purchase tickets here.
Tuesday noon book reviews at Washington Avenue large auditorium: I suppose I should plug September 12 | The Anthropocene Reviewed: Essays on a Human-Centered Planet by John Green. Reviewer: Roger O. Green, MLS, retired librarian, NY Small Business Development Center, & current board member, FFAPL.
Also:
September 5 | Two Photography books: Uncommon Places by Stephen Shore & Empire by Martin Hyers & William Mebane. Reviewer: David Brickman, exhibiting photographer, art critic, & FFAPL treasurer.
September 19 | The Heat Will Kill You First: Life and Death on a Scorched Planet by Jeff Goodell. Reviewer: Richard King, retired attorney.
September 26 | A Conspiracy of Mothers, a novel by Colleen Van Niekerk. Reviewer: Miki Conn, author, poet, artist, storyteller.
MUSIC
Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door– the PFC Band, in memory of Robbie Robertson
Peter Sprague Plays Coltrane’s Giant Steps
My Home by Antonin Dvorak
Brahms: Academic Festival Overture (Solti, CSO)
Peter Sprague Plays Badge featuring Leonard Patton
The Boy From… – Linda Lavin, written by Esteban Río Nido
Library Advocacy Day in New York State is February 28th, 2023.
A friend of mine who is on the board of trustees of the Albany Public Library told me about an action taken by the board at their November 8, 2022, meeting. The trustees signed on to the “Unite Against Book Bans” campaign of the American Library Association.
Trevor Noah: 