Althouse

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• Sunrise — 7:35.
• "When you run out of ideas, just write down a list. Readers love lists."
• "At least a dozen cities have set homicide records this year. The scale of the killings is recapitulating the worst moments of the United States’ 20th-century urban crisis."
• "Kuachua Brillion Xiong, 25, of Merced was pulled over for driving aggressively on Interstate 80 in Cass County, Iowa, on Dec. 21. He had an AR-15-type rifle, ammunition and a grappling hook, among other items...."
• Ostracon and ostraconophobia.
• "[V]irtual reality plunges people into an all-encompassing digital environment where unwanted touches in the digital world can be made to feel real and the sensory experience is heightened...."
• "I feel like a woodland creature or like a Laura Ingalls Wilder girl.... I think the brown hair brings out my hardworking and serious side, which is good for the winter — like the fable of the ant and the grasshopper."

Sunrise — 7:35. Posted: 30 Dec 2021 05:15 PM PST Talk about anything you want in the comments.

"When you run out of ideas, just write down a list. Readers love lists." Posted: 30 Dec 2021 08:12 AM PST Says a character — an author who teaches writing — in a novel I'm reading, "Our Country Friends" (by Gary Shteyngart). I'd highlighted that line when I read it, and it popped to mind as I was listening to the audiobook of the other book I'm consuming this week, "On Animals" (by Susan Orlean), and I got to the last paragraph of the essay "Lost Dog." The dog (Coby) was found and it seemed as if we were closing in on the miscreant who stole the car that contained the dog (and a viola da gamba)... At this point, the police certainly knew the thief's name. After all, it was on the pawn voucher and in the detention records from his previous lockup with Chris Walker, and there were fingerprints on the Volvo, the viola da gamba, the pawn voucher, and probably on Coby. But the man was still at large. Before the car was towed to a wrecking yard, [the dog owner] went through it one more time to see if there were any last belongings of his or [his wife's] still inside. There was nothing of theirs, but the thief had left behind some of his clothes, a bunch of computer parts, notes from his girlfriend, poetry he had written, and a stack of address labels bearing someone else's name. ... some of his clothes, a bunch of computer parts, notes from his girlfriend, poetry he had written, and a stack of address labels bearing someone else's name — a list! Just write down a list. Readers love lists.  The next thing that the reader wanted to happen was the capture of the thief, but it's a true story, and that didn't happen. So how do you tie it up satisfyingly? Out of the blue, there's a list, miscellaneous items, indicative of miscellaneous things — the man had a girlfriend, he wrote poetry....  I appreciated the essayist's artistry. And oh! how pleased I am that I have a tag for this: lists.

"At least a dozen cities have set homicide records this year. The scale of the killings is recapitulating the worst moments of the United States’ 20th-century urban crisis." Posted: 30 Dec 2021 07:45 AM PST "And if we can't stop it, we'll also end up with the kind of over-the-top political response that we have spent decades regretting. That was the era when Bernhard Goetz, the 'Subway Vigilante,' became a New York folk hero for shooting a group of young men who demanded $5. Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton left the presidential campaign trail to be home for the execution of a severely brain-injured convict. A few years later, as president, Clinton would help spearhead passage of the infamous 1994 crime bill, which ended up dogging both Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden during their presidential runs because the modern era blames it (somewhat unfairly) for mass incarceration. The younger progressives who called out Biden and Clinton tend to view the law-and-order politics of that era as pure sadism — or else as a racist, 'New Jim Crow' backlash that served to keep Black Americans separate and unequal.... Crime control is arguably a prerequisite for many items on the progressive policy agenda. Want people to support higher immigration? Reassure them that foreign gangs are not going to reassemble on American streets. Want people to move to dense, walkable urban neighborhoods where their carbon footprint will be smaller? Those neighborhoods won't be very attractive if there are many criminals walking around, too. And of course, people are most likely to support a reformist criminal justice agenda when crime is low. If many people you know have been victimized, you tend to err on the side of keeping offenders in jail." Writes Megan McArdle in "Street crime has distorted our politics before. If we don't get it under control, it will do so again" (WaPo).

"Kuachua Brillion Xiong, 25, of Merced was pulled over for driving aggressively on Interstate 80 in Cass County, Iowa, on Dec. 21. He had an AR-15-type rifle, ammunition and a grappling hook, among other items...." Posted: 30 Dec 2021 04:46 AM PST "He told a sheriff's deputy that he disapproved of the government and President Biden and that he was traveling to Washington, D.C. He was carrying a 'hit list' of targets saved from TikTok videos.... Authorities described Xiong's vehicle as 'lived in,' with several empty cans of Red Bull energy drink.... Police also found money in the vehicle 'earmarked' for Xiong's funeral expenses, and his GPS was set for the White House.... 'Xiong believes that he is the only person remaining who can free the United States of evil and it is necessary for him to kill those in positions of power,' Special Agent Justin Larson with the Secret Service said in the affidavit.... Targets included former Presidents Clinton and Obama, White House medical advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci and Meta Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg.... He also detailed his plan to get into the White House through what he described as a 'weak spot' and how he would use a grappling hook to climb over the perimeter fencing...." From "Merced man arrested on way to White House with rifle, 'hit list' compiled from TikTok" (L.A. Times).

Ostracon and ostraconophobia. Posted: 30 Dec 2021 04:34 AM PST Ostraconophobia: Ostraconophobia is the fear of shellfish.[1] NASCAR driver Denny Hamlin has this phobia. On July 16, 2017, after winning the Overton's 301 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, he was given a 44-pound lobster by crew chief Mike Wheeler (a trophy that is traditionally given to winners at the track), and Hamlin attempted to leap away. "I have a lobster phobia. I don't know why. I just don't like them," Hamlin stated. "I cannot eat dinner if someone beside me is eating lobster. I can't look at it. So as far as I'm concerned, they need to put it back in the water and let it live."[2] Ostracon: An ostracon (Greek: ὄστρακον ostrakon, plural ὄστρακα ostraka) is a piece of pottery, usually broken off from a vase or other earthenware vessel. In an archaeological or epigraphical context, ostraca refer to sherds or even small pieces of stone that have writing scratched into them. Usually these are considered to have been broken off before the writing was added; ancient people used the cheap, plentiful and durable broken pieces of pottery around them as convenient places to place writing for a wide variety of purposes, mostly very short inscriptions, but in some cases very long.... In Classical Athens, when the decision at hand was to banish or exile a certain member of society, citizen peers would cast their vote by writing the name of the person on the shard of pottery; the vote was counted and, if unfavorable, the person was exiled for a period of ten years from the city, thus giving rise to the term ostracism.... What's going on here? The etymology of "ostracon" (from the OED) explains it:  Etymology: < ancient Greek ὄστρακον earthen vessel, potsherd, hard shell < the same Indo-European base as the word for bone (see osteo- comb. form), with an -r- suffix (shown also by ancient Greek ὄστρειον oyster n.).

"[V]irtual reality plunges people into an all-encompassing digital environment where unwanted touches in the digital world can be made to feel real and the sensory experience is heightened...." Posted: 30 Dec 2021 03:35 AM PST "Meta has asked its employees to volunteer to test the metaverse, according to an internal memo viewed by The New York Times. A stranger recently groped the avatar of one tester of a Meta virtual reality game, Horizon Worlds, a company spokeswoman said... ... Mari DeGrazia, 48, of Tucson, Ariz., said she saw harassment and assault happen in Population One 'two to three times a week, if not more.'... 'I'm not going to stop playing, because I think it's important to have diverse people, including women, playing this game,' she said. 'We aren't going to be pushed out of it, even though sometimes it's hard.' In July, Ms. DeGrazia wore a haptic vest — which relays sensations through buzzes and vibrations — to play Population One. When another player groped her avatar's chest, 'it felt just awful,' she said. She noted that Mr. Zuckerberg has described a metaverse where people can be fitted with full-body suits that let them feel even more sensations, which she said was troubling." From "The Metaverse's Dark Side: Here Come Harassment and Assaults/As Meta and other companies bet big on an immersive digital world, questions about its harms are rising" (NYT). I've never used virtual reality, but shouldn't it be possible for the user to flick a switch that turns off the haptic vest so that the other player can't impose the feeling of touching on you? Also, it seems to me that most video games put you in the role of a fighter, with enemies coming at you. How does the haptic vest work when the enemy is winning?

"I feel like a woodland creature or like a Laura Ingalls Wilder girl.... I think the brown hair brings out my hardworking and serious side, which is good for the winter — like the fable of the ant and the grasshopper." Posted: 30 Dec 2021 03:14 AM PST Said a 25-year-old software engineer/swimsuit designer, quoted in "Why Is Everyone Going Brunette?/Warming, feel-good colors like chocolate milk, gingerbread and sable will be big in 2022, stylists say" (NYT).  And one hairdresser says her clients "feel like brunette gives them more power and strength." That color theory reminds me of dumb TV shows of the 1970s like "Three's Company" and "Charlie's Angels." Moving more deeply into this NYT update on hair-color trends, we learn that "On TikTok, blond hair was declared 'cheugy,' in the neologism of Gen Z."  Is being blonde, like, cheugy? @girlbosstown #greenscreen #haileybieber #gigihadid ♬ original sound - GirlBossTown @carlyweinstein1 And if u think being blonde is cheugy, UR CHEUGY. ♬ original sound - Carly Weinstein That's all in the humor category, where obsessing about hair color belongs, but there's a straightforward, practical question here: Are the people with the hair going to a lot of trouble to change its color, or are they coming up with ideas that make them feel good about their natural hair color? The hairdressers have an economic interest in the choices that require a lot of upkeep. That is, the question of roots. Darkened light hair will look terrible if you don't keep getting the roots touched up. That's the only reason I, a naturally white-haired person, choose blonde. Do I need a footnote on the word "cheugy"? Come on. You know it. It even has a Wikipedia page. Cheugy (/ˈtʃuːɡi/ CHOOG-ee[1]) is an American internet neologism coined in 2013. The term is commonly claimed to have been popularized by Generation Z,[dubious – discuss] as a pejorative to describe lifestyle trends associated with the early 2010s and millennials. This aesthetic has been described as[2][3][4] the opposite of "trendy"[5] or "trying too hard".[6] The term has been co-opted by some who identify with the aesthetic.[1]...  Media described as cheugy include "live, laugh, love signs", "Minion memes",[3][5][8][9] and "anything that says 'girl boss' on it".[2][6][10] While it has been compared to being basic,[3] some sources have suggested that it is "not quite 'basic'."[1] The Evening Standard said that "the cheug's logical archnemesis is probably the hipster".[7]

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