NPR's Tiny Desk Concerts are the best and most fertile part of the web for music you may not have heard of and will probably be glad you discovered. This is a playlist that I'm adding my favourites to.
Another rescue
Our cat is horrible.
Deaf profile in cinema
The Shape of Water is great. I watched it last night and despite (because of?) being a cross between Amelie and Bioshock, it's utterly glorious. Off the back of that though I found this article in the LA Review of Books that does a good job of discussing Deaf Gain and cultural appropriation.
“While it is exciting to see these films, among others, trying to show us Deafness as a part of diversity and as something that is a “gain” rather than a loss, we won’t fully get the Deaf experience on screen until writers, directors, and actors are actually Deaf people themselves. Right now we have movies about Deafness for hearing people. We can hope for a future with many Deaf and disabled stars, but till that time, we must remain content to be “people of the eye” on rare occasions and get our gains when and where we can.”
Tinkering With Democracy
“Facebook has meddled in the democratic elections of a foreign country, and no one outside of the company seems to know anything about it.”
This could be one of the most important, and perhaps most readily understandable, pieces on Facebook's reach, power, and intention. Read the whole article.
Post-industrial Plymouth was broke. So it took business into its own hands.
There is an excellent article about social enterprises - and Plymouth - in today's Guardian.
“How do we grow our economy and grow ourselves a future? By finding companies who will do more than corporate social responsibility.”
‘Ker Street, Devonport’ by John Foulston © Plymouth City Council (Arts and Heritage)
Holly and Rosie
Farewell Ken
I have dumped Facebook
Well, I've gone and done it. I've deleted Facebook. Now... I've done this four times before and returned eventually each time. This is embarrassing and I'm trying not to do it again. It is a black hole to vitality after all.
I'm weaning from WhatsApp too. The problem there is it's quite good. I'm using Signal to see how it goes. It seems like an excellent alternative... If only... If only everyone else thought the same.
Hello...? Hello...?!
Is this on?
Smarty Plants
This episode of Radiolab is just great. Really elegant explorations into... well listen and see. These are always well presented and produced, but this one is additionally fascinating and deeply satisfying. Science! But with real style.
Listen to it while you're cooking dinner. There's no excuse not to.
Here is the link to the Artful Amoeba that they mention.
Obligatory
The snow is better this time.
Peripheral Brain Spruced Up
I've been through my Peripheral Brain blog and fixed all the links* and formatting errors from the import. There's some stuff in there I'm quite proud of, frankly!
*Well, links that still exist. So much stuff has fallen off the back of the internet...
Daft
I'm just going to put this here. I was trying to parse a crossword clue that was tricky and drew myself looking suspiciously at it. But when cropped it looked like a ridiculous attempt to appear sophisticated so I've adopted it as an avatar.
She's no slouch.
I'm very proud of my lovely wife. Even if she thinks it is a naked ploy to flog magazines.
Well the snow is here then...
Congratulations Wife!
I mean... I always knew this...!
Holly and Rosie's Stuff fixed
The contents page of the girls' blog was a bit broken but now it's all fixed.
Read MoreDanes Wood Redwood Climb
A lovely afternoon up a National Trust redwood overlooking Killerton House this afternoon, climbing as the sun went down. Really beautiful.
The Mental Health 5-a-day
This is an easy aide-memoire for staying mentally healthy. Mentally healthy does not mean 'not getting mentally ill'. It means feeling happy, confident, settled, and valued. The famous 5-a-day for fruit and veg is fine for nutrition. Your colon will thank you. But the contents of your head and of your heart require attention to these five-a-day.
If you can do this, you've got it cracked, basically.
English Breakfast
Excited to hear the air stewardess asking people if they wanted "English Breakfast."
Disappointed to realise that she meant tea...
The Science of Happiness
A nice infographic from Happify.com about happiness.
