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"When it was announced this year that break dancing would be added to the program for the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris... Bumblebee suddenly had a new life goal."

"In many ways, the story of the Chernyshevs, father and son from Voronezh, a former manufacturing hub of around a million people about 300 miles south of Moscow, is the story of break dancing over the past three decades, with its unlikely journey from the streets of New York to every corner of the globe and to its surprising inclusion, pending a final vote in December, in the Olympics. Bumblebee himself embodies a new kind of aspiring Olympian, excelling in the sort of niche, nontraditional sport that the International Olympic Committee has recently promoted: surfing, skateboarding, rock climbing, kiteboarding. Many of those events will soon be featured at the Games, too, reflecting the interests and ambitions of a younger generation, and an Olympic movement eager to attract its attention. Bumblebee has spent half his life breaking, with a style and skill set nurtured by streaming video and social media, feeling every bit a part of, and protective of, hip-hop culture — a culture t...
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"To me, Pepe is just a Hello Kitty-like character."

Said one of the Hong Kong protesters, quoted in "Hong Kong Protesters Love Pepe the Frog. No, They’re Not Alt-Right/To much of the world, the cartoon frog is a hate symbol. To Hong Kong protesters, he’s something entirely different: one of them" (NYT). “It has nothing to do with the far-right ideology in the state,” [another] person wrote on LIHKG, an anonymous forum that has been the center of discussion for protesters. “It just looks funny and captures the hearts of so many youngsters. It is a symbol of youth participation in this movement.”... Emily Yueng, 20, said... "different countries have very different cultures.... Symbols and colors that mean something in one culture can mean something completely different in another culture, so I think if Americans are really offended by this, we should explain to them what it means to us.”... Pepe was not always seen as a racist symbol. He was created more than a decade ago by Matt Furie, who killed off the character in 2017...

It's cooking, but "it's not #1 on the burner."

Am I the only one who is noticing that the TV talking-heads news shows are shifting their approach to...

... makeup ? A month or so ago, I couldn't listen to what they were saying because I was exclaiming that they looked like they were wearing rubber masks. It was freaky. The skin did not look like skin. How did I know these were human beings at all rather than simulacra? But something seems to have changed in this past week. Maybe it's the summer heat and air conditioning doesn't work right anymore, but I've seen at least 2 shows with panelists gleaming as if they were sweating. Is this a deliberate reenvisioning of the best way to do makeup for high-definition television? The panelists convey reality more convincingly, and now I can't hear what they're saying because I'm talking over them about how they're all sweating, they're glowing, as if they are live, breathing, feeling human beings. From the Wikipedia article "Simulacrum" : Simulacra have long been of interest to philosophers. In his Sophist , Plato speaks of two kinds of image makin...

"But, now that the children have graduated [from college] and moved back into my house as they search for jobs and eventually first apartments..."

"... I will say the thing that we as parents are not supposed to say: What happened to my empty nest? The very definition of home has changed. Mine will always be their family home, their spiritual home, but it cannot be their primary home. This is now my primary home, alone. I know that this arrangement is temporary, and I want to help my children out in every way possible, but it would be dishonest to say that their reappearance in 'their rooms,' which I now call guest rooms, has not been jarring. No matter how much I try to resist the urge, I’m reverting to my last-phase parenting mode — worrying about whether they’re eating enough and eating healthfully, washing their clothes and taking them to their rooms...." Writes Charles Blow in the NYT. He also says: "Since my oldest son was 6 and my twins were 3, I have been a single dad." I had to look him up in Wikipedia to try to fill in the facts. It says he's divorced, he's openly bisexual, and his ...

If you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor.

"He’s 26 years old but still sees a pediatrician: Why some young adults don’t move on" (WaPo). What the hell is wrong with sticking with your regular family doctor? You have a relationship with this person. He or she is a real doctor. It's not like you're going to a veterinarian. You like what you have. Why is The Washington Post age-shaming the young? Well, age-shaming the young is an old game. Grow up, they say and have been saying for eons. If it's not that you're acting too babyish and unserious, it's that you're old before your time. I say a young person can be young in the way that feels right to them. I say you are the master of your own time. You are how you feel, and you don't have to match up your chronological age with a stereotype of how people that age are supposed to be. I mean, take care of yourself, don't hurt others, and work on making your life what you want it to be. And use your actual chronological age when interfacing wi...

What is the NYT's "massive unfunded liability" that Trump is tweeting about?

The New York Times will be out of business soon after I leave office, hopefully in 6 years. They have Zero credibility and are losing a fortune, even now, especially after their massive unfunded liability. I’m fairly certain they’ll endorse me just to keep it all going! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 18, 2019 I see "Trump Hit With Fact-Check After Claiming New York Times Is ‘Losing A Fortune’/The president said the paper — which recently reported a spike in revenue and strong readership — would be 'out of business soon after I leave office'" (HuffPo), but that only addresses the question of whether the Times is losing money. ( A NYT tweeter says "Revenues up, subscriptions at a record high, profits at $37.9 million in the second quarter.") It says nothing about the "unfunded liability." Generally: In finance and economics, a liability is a legal obligation of a person, organization or government entity to pay a debt arising from a past...