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Onesize (5'~5'10", 100~175lbs).

The Smithsonian Magazine reminds us that "Barns are painted red because of the physics of dying stars", summing up a more detailed post by Google employee Yonatan Zunger on the nature of stars, the atmosphere, and cheap paint found on barns.

It wasn’t that long ago that the land occupied by the MSA Annex was vacant…

Nothing But a Good Time” isn’t just the title of one of Poison’s most popular singles…

Chris Rock used to do a bit about the time Ed Bradley interviewed Michael Jackson on “60 Minutes.” Rumors and lawsuits had begun to swirl around Jackson, and Bradley had to bring up the subject…

David Gaxiola recalls how different the Tucson arts scene was when he left town eight years ago…

USDA surveys show more than 92% of horses headed to slaughter are fit enough to lead a productive life…

Karen, host of Nordic Roots and Branches recommends the

Mostly Nordic Concert SeriesSunday, February 1, 2009 to Sunday, June 7, 2009
For information on the concerts included in this year's Mostly Nordic series, go to the Nordic Heritage Museum website, www.nordicmuseum.org

Norway: Sunday, February 1, 2009, 4 pm
"Bassoon Bash!" With Arthur Grossman, Michel Jolivet and Paul Rafanelli, bassoonists, and Lisa Bergman, pianist.

Iceland: Sunday, March 22, 2009, 4 pm
"Iceland Import" Featuring Elfa Run Kristinsdottir, international award-winning violinist from Iceland, and Deborah Dewey, American award winning pianist.

Denmark: Sunday, April 5, 2009, 4 pm
"Splendor in Brass: Seattle Chamber Brass" Featuring Toby Penk, trumpet; Joshua Gailey, trumpet; Josiah Boothby, French horn; Daniel Rossi, trombone and Jonathan Hill, tuba.

Sweden: Sunday, May 3, 2009, 5 pm
(Please note time change!)
"Romance of Strings: Odeonquartet" Featuring Gennady Filimonov, Artur Girsky, Heather Bentley and Rajan Krishnaswami. With special guest Mara Gearman, violist.

Finland: Sunday, June 7, 2009, 4 pm
"Finally Finnish!" Showcasing Janne Mertanen, International Award-Winning Pianist from Finland!

To order tickets by phone, please call (206) 789-5707 x10.

Ticket prices for the five concert series and Smörgåsbord
Museum Members, $165 per person
Non-Members, $185 per person

Single Tickets:
1 concert (includes Smörgåsbord)
Museum Members, $40 per person
Non-Members, $45 per person

Single Tickets:
Concert Only (does not include Smörgåsbord)
$25 per person

Show: Nordic Roots & Branches Host: Karen Date: Tuesday, 05/25/10, 8 PM -->

Time Artist Song Album Label

8:30p	Jinder, Åsa	Glädjen	Folkmusik På Svenska	Virgin Records Sweden
8:35p	Koop	Let's Elope	Koop Islands	Diesel Music AB
8:41p	Bjarv	Finnskoga	Bjärv	sk records
8:42p	Schola Cantorum Riga	Benedicamus Domino	Riga Mass (Rīgas Mesa, Missa Rigensis)	UPE Recording Company www.upe.parks.lv
8:46p	Joni Mitchell	Lesson In Survival	For The Roses	Asylum
8:49p	Hal & Nikolaj	Alfred's Nap / Harry in the Cabin	Hal & Nikolaj	GO'Danish Folk Music
8:53p	Christer Jonasson	Gungande Vind	Christer Jonasson	Christer Jonasson
8:57p	Karen Bentley	Redhaired Tango	Dancing Suite to Suite	Neptunus Records
9:25p	Knut Reiersrud	Jordan's Water	KKV Compilation	Kirkelig Kulturversted www.kkv.no
9:27p	Live Marie Roggen	Someone To Watch Over Me	Tu'Ba	Concord Music Group
9:30p	Arja Kastinen	Nukku	Ani	Temps Oy
9:37p	Dvergmål	Ut på vegom	Visor Og Kvæde Frå Blåberglandet: Visor og kvæde a	Grappa Musikkforlag as
9:39p	Svart Kaffe	Dansa New York	Tretår	Nomis Musik
9:42p	Maria Kalaniemi	Cranes Of Spring	Bellow Poetry	Alula
9:48p	Babs, Alice	Regnbågsgränd	Guldkorn	Warner Music
9:56p	Morten Alfred Høirup & Ruthie Dornfeld	Himlen Blå	Recorded LIVE@ KSER	LIVE @ KSER
9:59p	Johansson & Det Starka Bandet	När Drömmarna Tog Slut	Amerikat	Musicbase
10:03p	Rønbeck	An Old Amplifier	Bring the Summer	Nordic Records
10:08p	Vapnet	Såg Aldrig Dig	Döda Fallet	HYBRIS
10:11p	Myllärit	Saunalammiryslauau (sauna song)	Northern Lights	ARC Music
10:15p	Harv	Mor Åse	Direktor Deg	NorthSide
10:24p	Henning Gustavsen	Skapelsen	Pre Develske Drom	Etnisk Musikklubb

8:30a	Yours Truly	Drömmen om Elin	Passion Play	Yours Truly
8:35p	Yours Truly	misc	LIVE IN STUDIO
9:46p	Yours Truly	Adon Olam	Passion Play	Yours Truly
9:47p	Niko Valkeapää	Birratt Birra - Round And Round	Folkelarm Oslo 2008 (Disc 2)	Etnisk Musikklubb
9:47p	Various Artists	Härlig Är Jorden	Jul I Folkton	Amigo
9:48p	Them Bird Things	Your Baby's Not Your Baby Anymore	Fly Them Bird Things Fly!	DLX
10:04p	El Perro Del Mar	Jubilee	From the Valley to the Stars	The Control Group
10:04p	ZAR	Napoleons Firtur	Folk Music From Denmark 2002	Danish Folk Council
10:04p	José González	Down The Line (Michael Brauer Radio Mix)	Down The Line (Single)	Imperial
10:06p	Johansson, Jan	Nej, se det snöar	Piano	Heptagon
10:07p	Teitur	Great Balls of Fire	Stay Under the Stars	tutl.com
10:11p	Pettersson & Fredriksson	Polska Eft J.A Andersson	Brand	Drone Music
10:20p	LISA Rydberg	Sankta Lucia	VINTERSKRUD	Gazell
10:20p	Nikolai Blad	en ole enää sulle velkaa	Nuoria ja kuluneita	Nikolai Blad
10:24p	Sofia Karlsson vocals	Gläns Över Sjö Och Strand	Jul I Folkton	Amigo
10:27p	Piniartut	Piniartoq - hunter	Piniartut	tutl

TimeArtistSongAlbumLabel

8:34p	Väsen	Ploska	Gront	Xource
8:38p	Gröndal, Ragnheiður	Before It Gets To Loud	Bella & Her Black Coffee	Sena
8:42p	Lundeng, Susanne	Brurmarsj Etter Johan A. Aronsen	Havella: Slåtter fra Nordland	Heilo
8:43p	Folk & Rackare	Flickan Går På Golvet	1976 - 1985	Resource
8:51p	Ranarim	Höga Berg Och DJupa Dalar (High Mountains And Low Valleys)	Nordic Roots 3	NorthSide
8:55p	Borko	Summer Logic	Celebrating Life	Morr Music
9:04p	Tango-Orkesteri Unto	Preparense	Finnish Tango	Arc Music
9:10p	Klezmofobia	Don Pedro	Folk & Roots Music of Denmark	Danish Folk Council
9:13p	Svart Kaffe	Blicken	Tretår	Nomis Musik
9:21p	Mari Boine	Cuovgga áirras / Sterna Paradisea	Cuovgga áirras/ Sterna Paradisea	Universal Music A/S Licenced from Lean
9:24p	Martin Best	When I'm Sitting Sg 56	Songs Of Carl Michael Bellman	Nimbus Records
9:27p	Tigerlily	Sorgenfri 24	Tigerlily	Grappa
9:33p	Embee	Into The Sublime (Featuring Mariam Wallentin)	The Mellow Turning Moment	Bad Taste Records
9:34p	DANDELION	Someone Tell Me	single	DANDELION
9:41p	Norrköping Symphony Orchestra-Jun'ichi Hirokami, cond.	En värmlandsrapsodi, Op. 36	Kurt Atterberg -Symphony No. 6 in C major Op. 31	Grammafon AB
9:50p	Johansson, Jan	Ack Värmeland du sköna	Piano	Heptagon
9:55p	Bjarv	Halling From Värmland / Martin	Bjärv	sk records
9:58p	Sofia Jannok	Gáibmi - Máret Sikku-Trädgårdh	White - Ceaskat	DAT
10:01p	Enekk	A Homvegi	Meoan Vit Naerkast Joroini	TUTL www.tutl.com
10:09p	Sofia Talvik	When Winter Comes	Blue Moon	Makaki Music
10:15p	Bukkene Bruse	Solospel: Tannlausen/Vil du koma til Rinden	Spel	Heilo
10:21p	UnderHatten	The Wooden Man	single	UnderHatten
10:22p	Värttinä	Fanfaari	Seleniko	Polygram / Sonet
10:25p	J P Nyströms	Vad tänker min flicka / Mitä se tyttö nyt ajattele	Klingekling	Courthouse Music

8:50p	Ingrid Hamberg and David Rönnlund live in studio	various	LIVE ON KSER
9:40p	Mari Boine, Inna Zhelannaya, Sergey Starostin	Dás Áiggun Cuozzut (Here Will I Stand)	Winter In Moscow	Jaro
9:40p	Various Artists	Det Är en Ros Utsprungen (II)	Jul I Folkton	Amigo
9:41p	Dagsland, Sigvart	The Water Is Wide	Hymns	Kirkelig Kulturverksted
9:51p	ENE, Elin Skoglund, Edward Anderzon & Niklas Willén	Blomgren	Spelglädje	ENE
9:51p	Synnøve Rognlien	Glasskip	Undr	Kirkelig Kulturverksted/Norway
9:56p	Groupa	Den Siste	Frost
9:56p	Jóhann Jóhannsson	“Ef Ég Hefði Aldrei..."	Englaborn	Beggars Banquet
10:00p	Koop	Forces... Darling	Koop Islands	!K7
10:14p	Nikolai Blad	Viaton ja ylpeä Lola	Nuoria ja kuluneita	Ei NO Ab
10:21p	Phønix	De 7 Brødre	Pigen & Drengen	GO' Danish folk music Distribution
10:21p	Svanevit	Svanevit	Svanevit	Westpark Music
10:33p	Ekdahl, Lisa	Att Älska Är Större	Med Kroppen Mot Jorden	RCA Records Label
10:33p	Enekk	Aldandi Stóð Eg	Fýra Nætur Fyri Jól	www.tutl.com

8:45a -MIC BREAK- -MIC BREAK- -MIC BREAK-
8:45a Elfa Gisa lullabies and stories Interview
8:33p Helene Blum Vil Du Som Jeg Folk and Roots from Denmark www.folkmusik.dk
8:33p Nordic Variación Andina Metropol Nordic Music.nu
8:38p Tietur The Singer The Singer www.tutl.com
8:43p Lise Olden Voice In The Wind Waiting For The Full Moon
8:43p -MIC BREAK- -MIC BREAK- -MIC BREAK-
9:10p -MIC BREAK- -MIC BREAK- -MIC BREAK-
9:10p Lief Sorbye Det Star Ein Friar Uti Gare (There'S A Suitor In T Springdans
9:11p Gröndal, Ragnheiður Won't You Come On Home Bella & Her Black Coffee
9:25p Kristian Blak and Anders Hjuler Picasso and Van Gogh Duologues www.tutl.com
9:26p -MIC BREAK- -MIC BREAK- -MIC BREAK-
9:28p Perikom Sommarkveld Heimkome www.perikom.com
9:28p Anna Pálína & Draupner Húfan dýra Sagnadans
9:29p A Camp Stronger than Jesus unreleased YET Nettwerk
9:30p -MIC BREAK- -MIC BREAK- -MIC BREAK-
9:32p & Høirup, Haugaard Den Sødeste Vals Gæstebud/Feast GO'Danish Folk Music
9:37p J P Nyströms Kärlekens röda spark Klingekling Courthouse Music
9:43p Loituma Ai, Ai Tass Sattuu (Oh, Oh, It Hurts Again) Things of Beauty NorthSide www.noside.com
9:46p -MIC BREAK- -MIC BREAK- -MIC BREAK-
9:49p Ravn Barndom Rød Ravn I En Blå By
9:51p Westad, Svein Gangar E Munnharpas Verden / The Jew´s Harp World
9:54p Bremnes, Kari Mi Egen Skrift Ly Kirkelig Kulturverksted
9:57p Torbjörn Näsbom & Andreas Edlund (Nyckelharpa & Cembalo) Eric Sahlsröm/ Stormyren From Castle & Cottage
10:03p -MIC BREAK- -MIC BREAK- -MIC BREAK-
10:03p Ola Gjeilo January Stone Rose 2L
10:05p Koen Holtkamp Half Light Field Rituals
10:09p Knut Reiersrud Jordans River Voodoo without killing chicken www.kkv.no
10:12p Allu Gaup Reindeer Against The Wind The Sweet Sunny North Shanachie
10:16p Deepika Alien Invasion The Sweet Sunny North Shanachie
10:16p -MIC BREAK- -MIC BREAK- -MIC BREAK-
10:22p Tattarprinsen En Sång, Svensk Gijepa Pre Tradrepa - Viser På Vandring

Show: Nordic Roots & Branches Host: Karen Date: Tuesday, 05/26/09, 8 PM -->

TimeArtistSongAlbumLabel

8:33p	Trio Mio	Pigeon Scottish	Stories Around a Holy Goat	GO'Danish Folk Music
8:45p	Gjallarhorn	Suvetar (Goddess Of Spring)	Nordic Roots 3	Northside www.noside.com
8:57p	Jack Beauregard	Find Somebody Else	Everyone Is Having Fun
8:57p	Kastinen, Arja	Laulo	Vaskikantele 1833
8:57p	Ilgi	Oši, Klavi, Ozolini	Ne Uz Vienu Dienu
9:01p	Olav Luksengard Mjelva	Engelskdans etter Smed-Jens	Fele/hardingfele. Røros/Hallindal	etnisk musikklub www.etniskmusikklubb.no
9:06p	A Camp	Bear On The Beach	Colonia	Wigpowder / Universal Music AB, Sweden
9:18p	Kriya	Jasmiinikukat	Kriya
9:21p	Sudan Dudan	Kari Og Ola	FolkeLarm Oslo 2008	Etnisk Musikklub
9:21p	Belle, Beady	September	Cewbeagappic
9:26p	Maria Kalaniemi & Aldargaz	Linjärv	Iho	Hannibal/Rykodisc
9:35p	Mertanen, Janne	Sonatina - Adagio	Joonas Kokkonen - Piano Works	ALBA
9:35p	Mertanen, Janne	Sonatina - Allegro	Joonas Kokkonen - Piano Works	ALBA
9:52p	Kardemimmit	Hambo O/Elo	Viira
9:52p	Harv	A-kassa	Must	NorthSide www.noside.com
9:54p	Lacrosse	Bandages For The Heart	Bandages For The Heart
9:57p	Marions	Once in a Lifetime	Origin of Birds
10:00p	Trollstilt	Putative prelude	Trollstilt	Azalea City Recordings
10:11p	Bando	Away	Away
10:11p	Fatang	Liten Clara	Walkie-talkie
10:11p	Kerstin Blodig & Ian Melrose - Kelpie	No livnar det i lundar	Var Det Du - Var Det Deg?
10:15p	Fatang	Gammal Ljungqvistarevals	Walkie-talkie
10:23p	The Late Call	The Summertime	Leaving Notes
10:28p	Meri Tiitola	Meri Tiitola	Arctic Paradise 2005 Contemporary Finnish Folk Mus

8:38p	Henrik Jansberg	Kannibal Vals	Folk & Roots	Exlibris
8:39p	-MIC BREAK-	-MIC BREAK-	-MIC BREAK-
8:40p	Trio Mio	10 Point	Stories Around a Holy Goat	GO'Danish Folk Music
8:43p	El Perro del Mar	Candy	El Perro del Mar
8:43p	Swåp	Congress - The Congress reel/Springlek Från Lima	Swåp	NorthSide www.noside.com
8:53p	Niss-Kerstin	Sälgkronan	Träd	Amigo
8:53p	Anders Löfberg, Magnus Zetterlund, Erik Rydvall	Av Längtan Av GläDJe	Metropol	www.academus.se
8:58p	Karsten Vogel	You Are In My Heart	Light When Dark	TUTL
9:09p	Schola Cantorum Riga	Agnus Dei	Riga Mass (Rīgas Mesa, Missa Rigensis)
9:09p	Torbjörn Näsbom & Andreas Edlund (Nyckelharpa & Cembalo)	Olof Jansson/ Kyrkmarsch (Church March)	From Castle & Cottage
9:10p	Hilmar Lysgård	O At Jeg Kunne	Gijepa Pre Tradrepa - Viser På Vandring	www.etniskmuikklubb.no
9:12p	Hilja Grönfors	Kun Äitini Se Minulle, Finsk	Viser På Vandring I Norden	www.etniskmusikklubb.no
9:14p	Tattarprinsen and Jimmy Wighardt	Faltins Stam, Romani	Gijepa Pre Tradrepa - Viser På Vandring	www.etniskmusikklubb
9:33p	-MIC BREAK-	-MIC BREAK-	-MIC BREAK-
9:35p	Olafur Arnalds	Me And Armini	3055	www.icelandmusic.is
9:35p	Pickled Herring Band, The	Norwegian Waltz Medley	Pickled Herring Band - Second Helping
9:35p	Perikom	Eg kom i fra ferda	Heimkome
9:54p	Jinder, Åsa	Av längtan till dig (sång Cajsa-Stina Åkerström)	Folkmusik På Svenska	Virgin Records Sweden
9:54p	Väsen	Carl Linnæus polones	Linnæus Väsen	NorthSide
9:54p	Norrlåtar	Visa Från Erkheikki	Sign Of The Raven
9:57p	Leonard Ellis	Nordic Roots and Branches Waltz	single	self
10:04p	Freshet	Halki Kirkkomaan	Freshet
10:08p	Triakel	Emma solo	Ten Years of Triakel	Westpark
10:10p	Rolf K. Seldal. Med: Lajla Renate Buer Storli Og Laila Kolve	Brura-Laatt	Trommeslåttar Og Anna På Slåttetromme
10:12p	Anna Praest Mikkelsen	Rundtom	Folk & Roots	Go' Danish
10:22p	-MIC BREAK-	-MIC BREAK-	-MIC BREAK-
10:22p	Various Artists	Klittur	Folk & Roots
10:23p	Fin Alfred	Vi vill se land	songs from my wandring
10:24p	A Camp	I Can Buy You	A Camp	Stockholm Records

8:42p	Patrik Andersson och Anders Larsson	Jag som bondedräng	På väg	Nordic Tradition
8:42p	Sofia Talvik	My James Dean	Jonestown
8:42p	Jaerv (Djärv)	Donat & Afzelius	Inrikes	Jaerv Records
8:52p	Live Maria Roggen	Woodstock	Tu'Ba
8:52p	Martin Best	O'er The Misty Park Of Haga Sg 64	Songs Of Carl Michael Bellman
8:58p	Trio Mio	Bryllupsvals Til Mari og Johnny	Stories Around a Holy Goat	GO'Danish Folk Music
9:03p	Edén, Mats	Rabatt Tango	Struling
9:09p	Koop	Strange Love	Koop Islands
9:09p	Hale Bill and the Bopps	Peli-Jussin syömämarssi	Hale Bill and the Bopps	Hale Bill and the Bopps
9:12p	Kerstin Blodig & Ian Melrose - Kelpie	Náttina eftir Friggjanátt	Var Det Du - Var Det Deg?	westpark
9:22p	Dept Of Energy	Stereo Embers	Held By Waits	Roam Records
9:25p	Ramsby & Martin Hederos, Nina	Fredrik Åkares Morgonpsalm	Visorna	Amigo
9:32p	Christer Jonasson	High Valley	Christer Jonasson	www.christerjonasson.com
9:41p	JPP	Hämmennys (Perplexcity)	Artology	NorthSide/www.noside.com
9:41p	Loituma	Eriskummainen Kantele (My Kantele)	Nordic Roots: A NorthSide Collection	NorthSide
9:52p	Hukkelberg, Hanne	Words & A Piece Of Paper	Little Things	leaf
9:58p	Pettersson & Fredriksson	Fyra Timmar	Brand	Drone Music
9:58p	Teitur	Let's Go Dancing	Poetry & Aeroplanes	Universal
10:05p	Den Fule	Slängpolska (Swing Polska)	Quake	NorthSide www.noside.com
10:08p	Klakki	Storm Coming	Lemon River	tutl
10:09p	Groven Myhren, Øyonn	Lite Karin	Gullveven	etnisk musikklubb
10:13p	Kristian Blak	Nok	Four Towers & Haygar Of Dreyga	tutl.com
10:31p	Sandberg, Sven-Olof	Säg mig godnatt	Schlagerkavalkaden 4 - Sven Olof Sandberg
10:34p	Them Bird Things	I Can See Russia from Here	Fly, Them Bird Things, Fly
10:37p	Aika, Suden	Tantsi	Armas	LAIKA Records

The issue was first noticed about a year ago. MySpace have confirmed that all the music is lost and cannot be recovered. "Due to a server migration files have been corrupted and unable to be transferred to our updated site."

Oh, and hey, big ol' honkin' congrats to Blisterlips and griphus for doing this whole having an adorable baby thing. Hey there, Helio Edward, welcome to MetaFilter.

The whole sea shanty thing going around is charming and someone made a joke about slack and that got me thinking about going to college for computer science and wanting to spend my life on computers, and here we are, a short shanty about being careful what you wish for.

Ursula K. Le Guin's Revolutions - "Le Guin's work is distinctive not only because it is imaginative, or because it is political, but because she thought so deeply about the work of building a future worth living."

"Imaginative fiction trains people to be aware that there other ways to do things, other ways to be; that there is not just one civilization, and it is good, and it is the way we have to be," Le Guin says in Arwen Curry's new documentary, The Worlds of Ursula K. Le Guin.[1,2,3,4] Le Guin spoke in defense of science fiction and fantasy, which were and often still are maligned or outright ignored by critics. But her statement admits another, deeper necessity: We must be trained to imagine. But imagine what? ... A feminist and a critic of capitalism, Le Guin must have known that progress was as much a necessity as it was an uncertainty. Nobody knows exactly what will happen when they set out to do what no one else has ever done. Le Guin's work is distinctive not only because it is imaginative, or because it is political, but because she thought so deeply about the work of building a future worth living. She did not just believe that a society free of consumerism and incarceration, like Shevek's homeworld, could exist; she explored how that society could be built and understood the process would be hard work, and probably on some level disappointing. The future is not a static thing; to its architects, it is always in motion, always mid-creation, never realized. Le Guin's utopianism perhaps explains why her characters exhibit a certain adaptability, as did Le Guin herself. In her work, she mostly eschewed great battles; a reader of her work should not expect to find a clash at Helm's Deep. A Le Guin character may be at war with his basest self, but the health of the body politic can be at stake at the same time. In The Left Hand of Darkness, Genly Ai only completes his mission to bring Winter into the Ekumen after he overcomes his own prejudicial beliefs about the people who live there. Le Guin found herself embroiled in a similar struggle, which she recounts to Curry. As acclaimed as The Left Hand of Darkness became, feminists criticized it because, while Le Guin's alien race changed genders, in their default state they used male pronouns. Genly is male, too. "At first I felt a little bit defensive," she told Curry. "But as I thought about it, I began to see that my critics were right." There's a quiet radicalism about her admission.

Yuval Noah Harari & Natalie Portman - "Yuval Noah Harari sits down with the award-winning actress, director, and Harvard graduate Natalie Portman to discuss his new book 21 Lessons for the 21st Century."[5]

0:57 The myth factory 2:22 The role of fictions 4:38 Fictions and co-operation ...

Balance of power: The Economic Consequences of the Peace at 100 - "Ann Pettifor finds astonishing contemporary resonance in John Maynard Keynes's critique of globalization and inequity."[6]

In December 1919, John Maynard Keynes published a blistering attack on the Treaty of Versailles, signed in June that year. The treaty's terms helped to end the First World War. Keynes's The Economic Consequences of the Peace[(fre)eBook] revealed how they would also pave the way to the Second... This is a bold, eloquent work unafraid of the long view. It contributed to the economic stability of the mid-twentieth century. And in a world still grappling with the socio-economic and environmental costs of globalization, Keynes's critiques — not least of the era's international financial system, the gold standard — remain powerfully germane.[7] Keynes censures the disregard of world leaders for the "starving and disintegrating" people of war-torn Europe. "The future life of Europe was not their concern; its means of livelihood was not their anxiety," he wrote. Keynes, however, was concerned for Europe's future. His book's significance lies in his revolutionary plan for financing recovery not just in Europe, but across the world. Keynes called for a new international economic order to replace the gold standard, which had held from the 1870s until the start of the war. That system had led to a form of globalization that benefited the wealthy, but impoverished the majority and ultimately destabilized both the financial and political systems... For a book published 100 years ago, the contemporary resonance is unsettling. Keynes writes: "England still stands outside Europe. Europe's voiceless tremors do not reach her ... But Europe is solid with herself." In another passage, he notes that the "principle of accumulation based on inequality was a vital part of the pre-war order of society". And in an era innocent of Amazon and containerized shipping, Keynes wrote that wealthy Londoners could order by telephone "the various products of the whole earth" and expect "their early delivery" to their doorstep. The globalized pre-First World War economy was the template for the modern one. Driven as it was by the international financial sector, the consequences of this economic system were predictable: rising inequality, economic instability, political volatility and war. Thus, a bankrupt Germany and its allies (the Central Powers) — all heavily indebted sovereign governments — were to endure increasingly frequent economic crises after 1919. Their creditors, the victorious Allied Powers, made no effort towards a sound and just resolution of these crises.[8,9,10]

Now's the time to spread the wealth, says Thomas Piketty - "His premise is that inequality is a political choice. It's something societies opt for, not an inevitable result of technology and globalisation. Whereas Marx saw history as class struggle, Piketty sees it as a battle of ideologies."[11]

Every unequal society, he says, creates an ideology to justify inequality. That allows the rich to fall asleep in their town houses while the homeless freeze outside. In his overambitious history of inequality from ancient India to today's US, Piketty recounts the justifications that recur throughout time: "Rich people deserve their wealth." "It will trickle down." "They give it back through philanthropy." "Property is liberty." "The poor are undeserving." "Once you start redistributing wealth, you won't know where to stop and there'll be chaos" — a favourite argument after the French Revolution. "Communism failed." "The money will go to black people" — an argument that, Piketty says, explains why inequality remains highest in countries with historic racial divides such as Brazil, South Africa and the US. Another common justification, which he doesn't mention, is "High taxes are punitive" — as if the main issue were the supposed psychology behind redistribution rather than its actual effects. All these justifications add up to what he calls the "sacralisation of property". But today, he writes, the "propriétariste and meritocratic narrative" is getting fragile. There's a growing understanding that so-called meritocracy has been captured by the rich, who get their kids into the top universities, buy political parties and hide their money from taxation. Moreover, notes Piketty, the wealthy are overwhelmingly male and their lifestyles tend to be particularly environmentally damaging. Donald Trump — a climate-change-denying sexist heir who got elected president without releasing his tax returns — embodies the problem... Centre-right parties across the west have taken up populism because their low-tax, small-state story wasn't selling any more. Rightwing populism speaks to today's anti-elitist, anti-meritocratic mood. However, it deliberately refocuses debate from property to what Piketty calls "the frontier" (and others would call borders). That leaves a gap in the political market for redistributionist ideas. We're now at a juncture much like around 1900, when extreme inequality helped launch social democratic and communist parties.

Ideological differences in the expanse of the moral circle - "Do clashes between ideologies reflect policy differences or something more fundamental? The present research suggests they reflect core psychological differences such that liberals express compassion toward less structured and more encompassing entities (i.e., universalism), whereas conservatives express compassion toward more well-defined and less encompassing entities (i.e., parochialism)."[12,13,14,15,16,17]

• In Our Time, The Rapture - "Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the idea that believers will vanish from the world, touching on religious entrepreneurialism, William Miller, dispensational modernism, premillennialism, and other such eschatological battiness."
• Medieval cannibal babies - "How a collective of intellectuals can engage in the production of unlikely stories to protect a cherished theory."
• Three Decades Ago, America Lost Its Religion. Why? - "'Not religious' has become a specific American identity—one that distinguishes secular, liberal whites from the conservative, evangelical right."[18,19]

Zadie Smith: Fascinated to Presume: In Defense of Fiction - "I could never shake the suspicion that everything about me was the consequence of a series of improbable accidents—not least of which was the 400 trillion–to-one accident of my birth. As I saw it, even my strongest feelings and convictions might easily be otherwise, had I been the child of the next family down the hall, or the child of another century, another country, another God."[20] We should all be reading more Ursula Le Guin - "Her novels imagine other worlds, but her theory of fiction can help us better live in this one."[21]

"The Carrier Bag Theory of Fiction,"[pdf] an essay Le Guin wrote in 1986, disputes the idea that the spear was the earliest human tool, proposing that it was actually the receptacle. Questioning the spear's phallic, murderous logic, instead Le Guin tells the story of the carrier bag, the sling, the shell, or the gourd. In this empty vessel, early humans could carry more than can be held in the hand and, therefore, gather food for later. Anyone who consistently forgets to bring their tote bag to the supermarket knows how significant this is. And besides, Le Guin writes, the idea that the spear came before the vessel doesn't even make sense. "Sixty-five to eighty percent of what human beings ate in those regions in Paleolithic, Neolithic, and prehistoric times was gathered; only in the extreme Arctic was meat the staple food." Not only is the carrier bag theory plausible, it also does meaningful ideological work — shifting the way we look at humanity's foundations from a narrative of domination to one of gathering, holding, and sharing. Because I am, despite my best efforts, often soppy and sentimental, I sometimes imagine this like a really comforting group hug. But it's not, really: the carrier bag holds things, sure, but it's also messy and sometimes conflicted. Like when you're trying to grab your sunglasses out of your bag, but those are stuck on your headphones, which are also tangled around your keys, and now the sunglasses have slipped into that hole in the lining. Le Guin's carrier bag is, in addition to a story about early humans, a method for storytelling itself, meaning it's also a method of history. But unlike the spear (which follows a linear trajectory towards its target), and unlike the kind of linear way we've come to think of time and history in the West, the carrier bag is a big jumbled mess of stuff. One thing is entangled with another, and with another. Le Guin once described temporality in her Hainish Universe (a confederacy of human planets that feature in a number of her books) in the most delightfully psychedelic terms: "Any timeline for the books of Hainish descent would resemble the web of a spider on LSD." This lack of clear trajectory allowed Le Guin to test out all kinds of political eventualities, without the need to tie everything neatly together. It makes room for complexity and contradiction, for difference and simultaneity. This, I think, is a pretty radical way of looking at the world, one that departs from the idea of history as a long line of victories. Le Guin describes her discovery of the carrier bag theory as grounding her "in human culture in a way I never felt grounded before." The stick, sword, or spear, designed for "bashing and killing," alienated her from history so much that she felt she "was either extremely defective as a human being, or not human at all." The only problem is that a carrier bag story isn't, at first glance, very exciting. "It is hard to tell", writes Le Guin, "a really gripping tale of how I wrested a wild-oat seed from its husk, and then another, and then another, and then another, and then another, and then I scratched my gnat bites, and Ool said something funny, and we went to the creek and got a drink and watched newts for a while, and then I found another patch of oats..." As well as its meandering narrative, a carrier bag story also contains no heroes. There are, instead, many different protagonists with equal importance to the plot. This is a very difficult way to tell a story, fictional or otherwise. While, in reality, most meaningful social change is the result of collective action, we aren't very good at recounting such a diffusely distributed account. The meetings, the fundraising, the careful and drawn-out negotiations — they're so boring! Who wants to watch a movie about a four-hour meeting between community stakeholders? ... We will not "beat" climate change, nor is "nature" our adversary. If the planet could be considered a container for all life, in which everything — plants, animals, humans — are all held together, then to attempt domination becomes a self-defeating act. By letting ourselves "become part of the killer story," writes Le Guin, "we may get finished along with it." All of which is to say: we have to abandon the old story.[22]

Future Tense Fiction: Stories of Tomorrow Has Arrived - "A thought-provoking excursion into the futures we would and would not want to live in."[23]

Machines of Loving Grace Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei publishes a 14,000-word post on How AI Could Transform the World for the Better, detailing how the 5-10 years following availability of an "Expert-Level Science and Engineering" AI, or "country of geniuses in a datacenter" will play out advances in biology, (Amodei's specialty,) neuroscience, economic development, governance, and work and meaning. Amodei draws on Iain M. Bank's MeFi Favorite the Culture as he concludes: "I think the Culture's values are a winning strategy because they're the sum of a million small decisions that have clear moral force and that tend to pull everyone together onto the same side. Basic human intuitions of fairness, cooperation, curiosity, and autonomy are hard to argue with, and are cumulative in a way that our more destructive impulses often aren't. [...] These simple intuitions, if taken to their logical conclusion, lead eventually to rule of law, democracy, and Enlightenment values. If not inevitably, then at least as a statistical tendency, this is where humanity was already headed. AI simply offers an opportunity to get us there more quickly—to make the logic starker and the destination clearer. Banks, most previously on the Blue: [1][2] via The Verge/Decoder

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