Die Zeit: AfD: Als hätten sie schon die Macht. “Nichts ist im Bundestag seit dem Einzug der AfD wie vorher. Viele Abgeordnete fürchten um die Demokratie – aber niemand hat eine Strategie gegen die Verrohung.” Von Mariam Lau.
Top 20 between 2010 and 2019
National Geographic: These are the top 20 scientific discoveries of the decade. “The 2010s yielded many incredible finds and important milestones. Here are our favorites.”
Link via MetaFilter.
“So, is that actually about to occur?”
National Geographic: A giant star is acting strange, and astronomers are buzzing. “The red giant Betelgeuse is the dimmest seen in years, prompting some speculation that the star is about to explode. Here’s what we know.”
“[Villanova University’s Edward] Guinan suspects that Betelgeuse is dramatically dimmer now because two of its cycles are overlapping at minimal brightness. In essence, the star is approaching the dimmest points in both its six-year and 425-day cycles, an intersection that makes the star’s normal fluctuations appear much more sinister. After looking through 25 years’ worth of prior data, Guinan suspects that the star will continue to fade for another couple of weeks before gradually turning back on.
But, he says, “if it keeps getting fainter, then all bets are off.“ “
Link via Garret.
Liebe für alle!
WDR Doku Menschen hautnah:
(YouTube, je 44min)
“Die Serie “Liebe für alle!” stellt Menschen in den Mittelpunkt, die eher am Rand der Gesellschaft stehen. Die Doku-Reihe begleitet Singles zu ihren ersten Dates und zeigt in drei aufeinanderfolgenden Filmen Höhen und Tiefen, Erfolge und Misserfolge der Protagonisten. Menschen, die in ihrer Sehnsucht, ihren Träumen und Hoffnungen nicht anders sind, als alle anderen auch.”
Return of the blog
Garret is back in the blogging-saddle over on dangerousmeta!
“Blogs have been largely relegated in the face of the instant-satisfaction social media. Those that are being linked on commercial news services regurgitate universal knowledge, inspirational quotes, and ‘best practices’ boilerplate. In addition, we are now tracked, tabulated, diced, sliced and served to corporate interests on a golden platter. I don’t need to tell you why or how – we all know we’ve signed our souls away for the terrifyingly bad user interfaces of services like Facebook, Tumblr, Instagram and others. Did I say bad? I mean purposely bad, to encourage you to do what they want, while making it truly difficult to do what you want.
[…]
[W]e all need a kick in the ass to stop with the easy-to-consume poison Kool-Aid, and start caring about this. Others of my blog generation have made the move, it’s past time for me to do so.I call “time” for the renaissance of the independent self-hosted weblog. I don’t care what you use, or how you use it, but get the hell off the commercial social services and get an independent weblog.
Own your information. Control your information. “
Welcome back Garret. We’ve missed you!