CINCINNATI—Lamenting that none of the team’s starters went all out on every play like the undrafted rookie, local dad Hugh Goodwin told reporters Wednesday that he wished the whole Bengals roster played with the intensity and passion of the franchise’s most talentless special teamer. “I’m tired of watching all these prima donna receivers and linebackers hold back half the time when this guy gives 100% on every damn play,” Goodwin said of the fifth-string cornerback with sloppy tackling form who was “absolutely flying” down the field during a punt. “I don’t know if he has what it takes to get regular snaps in the nickel, but that kid plays with his hair on fire. All these other guys are spoiled with their cushy contracts, but he leaves it all out on the field because he knows he could be cut and out on the street at any moment if he doesn’t. That’s what football is supposed to be. If this team had half the drive he does during the 30 seconds he plays every game, we’d have won a Super Bowl by now.” At press time, the special teamer had reportedly overrun the opposing team’s punt returner and opened a hole for a big 45-yard gain.

The post Dad Wishes Whole Roster Played With Intensity, Passion Of Talentless Special Teamer appeared first on The Onion.

Bitcoin topped $100,000 for the first time as a massive rally in the world’s most popular cryptocurrency, largely accelerated by the election of Donald Trump, rolls on. What do you think?

The post Bitcoin Reaches $100,000 appeared first on The Onion.

This post was written by Alison Green and published on Ask a Manager.

It’s time to vote on the worst boss of the year!

• Today we’ll vote for the worst boss in each of four match-ups.
• On Wednesday, the winners will go head-to-head with each other.
• On Friday, we’ll vote on the finalists.
• The winner will be crowned next Monday.
• Voting in this round closes at 11:59 pm ET on Tuesday.

Cast your vote in each of the four match-ups below.

1. A Dreadful Duo: The Nominees

my mother-in-law manages my sister-in-law and covers up her drunk driving

my boss says my work is bad, but it’s actually good

2. A Perfidious Pair: The Nominees

our boss is a jerk about bereavement leave for miscarriages

my boss is having an affair with a coworker who’s engaged to another coworker

3. A Terrible Twosome: The Nominees

my boss lets my coworker stab office furniture with a knife

my boss jokes about our bodies, our sex lives, and our pregnancies

4. A Detestable Dyad: The Nominees

employer made us take fake lie detector tests to trap a stealing receptionist

my boss said I looked “unprofessional” when I wore a binder to work

You can also use these direct links to the voting: poll 1, poll 2, poll 3, poll 4

The Atari Lynx was a groundbreaking handheld console, as it was the first color handheld console ever made. Unfortunately it was not a great success but it was neither a footnote as 71 games were officially released during lifetime (1989-1995). One of its more unique games was Dracula the Undead, something of an adventure game retelling of the first few chapters of Bram Stoker's original novel, Dracula. Ever since I acquired a Lynx I was so entranced by the game that I felt compelled to beat it without the assistance of a walkthrough. Having accomplished that feat, I feel like this underappreciated game deserves a special review.

Read more »

Today's links

• A year in illustration (2024): Call me immodest, but I really think I've upped my game.
• Hey look at this: Delights to delectate.
• This day in history: 2009, 2014, 2009, 2023
• Upcoming appearances: Where to find me.
• Recent appearances: Where I've been.
• Latest books: You keep readin' em, I'll keep writin' 'em.
• Upcoming books: Like I said, I'll keep writin' 'em.
• Colophon: All the rest.

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A year in illustration (2024) (permalink)

As I go into my fifth year of writing Pluralistic (!), I find myself increasingly reflecting on the unexpected pleasures of creating the collages that head each post. I am by no means a visual artist – my drawing skills are sub-stick-figure, and my spatial sense overall is remarkably terrible. I can't solve jigsaws, I get lost in hotel corridors, and I can't find things that are right under my nose.

But addressing the challenge of illustrating extremely abstract ideas related to tech policy, corruption, monopoly and other hard-to-visualize ideas has awakened some kind of latent, heretofore unsuspected interest in visual communications in me. Relying exclusively on Creative Commons, public domain, and extremely solid fair use claims in selecting my source materials adds a spicy challenge that makes the whole thing even more engrossing.

I've written about my process in finding and preparing these sources before. Here's 2023's notes and highlights:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/12/21/collages-r-us/#ki-bosch

And here's 2022:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/12/25/a-year-in-illustration/

This year saw some new, exciting discovering and challenges. First and foremost is my switch to kagi.com as my preferred search-engine, which is like having access to a time machine that's connected to pre-enshittificated Google:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/04/04/teach-me-how-to-shruggie/#kagi

Kagi's image search is amazing, far better than Google's, and it has great copyright-based filters. When combined with tineye.com (for finding high-rez versions of images that might not be correctly tagged for rights status), it's even better. Even so, often Kagi will surface thumbnails of images Tineye can only find as high-rez on proprietary stock art sites like Alamy, covered in gross watermarks. These images are still in the public domain, watermarks or no, but erasing the watermarks is a lot of work. However, Alamy is a pretty good source of bibliographic information about the original sources of these images, for example, which issue of a 19th century boxing magazine they came out of, and then Kagi can find me high-rez scans of these sources, at the Internet Archive and/or the Library of Congress. I snag those PDFs and import them into the GIMP (which I use for editing) and pull, clean and crop a new high-rez version of those images for my own use. This year, I got much better at saving and organizing all that work on my laptop, but next year I'm hoping to get into a rhythm of uploading my high-rezzes to Wikimedia Commons so everyone can use 'em.

Getting better at collaging isn't merely getting better at using search tools, of course. Knowing what to search for is even more important, especially given the constraints of only using public domain/CC sources. The Library of Congress is a wellspring of visual material, but its own search tool is sadly lacking; however, Kagi's image search comes to the rescue again, thanks to the "site:loc.gov" flag, which restricts results to the LoC.

It was through these searches that I realized how many of the source images I was pulling down were the work of Joseph Keppler (1872-1956), an American political cartoonist who worked extensively for Punch:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Keppler

Keppler was called upon to illustrate many, many political issues that have parallels with the modern competition, corruption and geopolitical stories. A scant few of these remain in the periphery of the public's imagination today, most notably "The Bosses of the Senate," quite possibly the most significant antitrust cartoon of all time:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bosses_of_the_Senate

But Keppler is a wellspring of great public domain images, and I've been drawing on them heavily. It gives me great pleasure to do so, not just because they're so well-suited to the stories I write, but also because his posterity deserves it. He should be in the American illustrator pantheon alongside the likes of Norman Rockwell!

Besides my search engine and my sources, 2024 saw one other gigantic change in my collage-making: I had cataracts removed from both my eyes in September, and my ophthalmologist implanted lenses that corrected my severe astigmatism and permanently focused one of my eyes at 23" and the other at 25' (this is called monovision). My new eyeballs are still bedding in, and there are days when my vision is severely subpar, but I'm experiencing continuous improvement, and I think this will be a game-changer for 2025.

2025 will also see the long-awaited Version 3.0 release of The GIMP, the free/open image editor I exclusively use. GIMP (Generic Image Manipulation Program) was first released a quarter-century ago, and it's been in version 2.x for twenty years, so this is a big milestone. I can't wait!

https://lwn.net/SubscriberLink/998793/6c8d00bd1b2a7948/

Well, enough forematter. Let's get into this year's best illustrations. If you want high-rezzes of these (or any of my other collages), you can get them at full rez from my Flickr gallery of Pluralistic collages:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/doctorow/albums/72177720316719208

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Someday, we'll all take comfort in the internet's "dark corners"

This one combines three sources: a public domain image of the Las Vegas sign, a CC 0 image of a western ghost-town, and a fair use gank of Mark Zuckerberg's metaverse avatar. I spent a lot of time hand-cropping the blades of grass around the sign's footing to create the illusion that it was planted in the ground. I'm also pretty happy with the dirt effect I managed on the sign.

https://pluralistic.net/2024/03/23/evacuate-the-platforms/#let-the-platforms-burn

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Vice surrenders

I got these cover images from a gallery of old Dutch government workplace safety poster; they're delightfully gory in a way that rests comfortably in the canon of Dutch bluntness. I did a lot of futzing with the Perspective tool to get the alignments right, atop the actual magazine covers (I believe they were Italian fashion magazines).

https://pluralistic.net/2024/02/24/anti-posse/#when-you-absolutely-positively-dont-give-a-solitary-single-fuck

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How America's oligarchs lull us with the be-your-own-boss fairy tale

Man, I wish this one had a higher-rez original. The 19th century painting of a kid being read a bedtime story by her kindly granny was perfect, except it was only 804 pixels wide! The grinning Uncle Sam is from Keppler (Keppler's Uncle Sams are many, varied, and great). The grinning kid is from a 19th century collection of photos of child laborers, and I love his expression (he's a newsie). I think I did a really good job blending the US $100 (works of federal authorship are all public domain) with the bed curtains. I was disappointed with how the gold brick that granny's foot rests upon game out. I even followed my friend Alistair Milne's tip of cropping the brick, desaturating it, and putting it atop the gold texture in overlay mode and tweaking the curves. It just wouldn't pop the way it did in my mind's eye.

https://pluralistic.net/2024/02/16/narrative-capitalism/#sell-job

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How I got scammed

This one uses some public domains stock art of a hacker in a hoodie, an online make-a-custom-credit-card generator, and two of my favorite visual tropes. The first is the 'code waterfall' effect from the credit sequences of the Wachowskis' 'Matrix' movies, which I use whenever I'm trying to illustrate something with a nexus with the digital world. I have a folder full of these, generated with this code waterfall generator:

https://github.com/Rezmason/matrix

The other element, of course, is the eye of HAL 9000 from Kubrick's '2001: A Space Odyssey'; there's an SVG of this on Wikimedia Commons by a user called 'Cryteria,' licensed CC BY 3.0, which I use whenever I want to illustrate a harm caused by computers:

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:HAL9000.svg

https://pluralistic.net/2024/02/05/cyber-dunning-kruger/#swiss-cheese-security

(Image: Cryteria, CC BY 3.0, modified)

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Solar is a market for (financial) lemons

I often write about scammers and hucksters, casting about for good visual representation. It wasn't until late January 2024 that I thought to look for an image of a carny barker and turned up this picture of WC Fields in full flight. He makes a lot of appearance after this point!

https://pluralistic.net/2024/01/27/here-comes-the-sun-king/#sign-here

(Image: Future Atlas/http://www.futureatlas.com/blog, CC BY 2.0; J Doll, CC BY 3.0; modified)

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Boeing, Spirit and Jetblue, a monopoly horror-story

I was really determined to get the right aircraft for this story about Boeing 737s, but that meant cropping out the plane from Vitaly Druchenok's photo and then painstakingly recreating the Spirit Airlines livery. In the original version of the image, the airplane was sticking out of the roof of the Supreme Court, but my wife (wisely) vetoed that as suggesting a terrorist attack on the court (I wanted to imply that the court had caused the airline to crash).

https://pluralistic.net/2024/01/22/anything-that-cant-go-on-forever/#will-eventually-stop

(Image: Vitaly Druchenok, CC BY-SA 4.0; Joe Ravi, CC BY-SA 3.0; modified)

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Tech workers and gig workers need each other

I cropped out these two women strikers from an early 20th century photo of a picket line and superimposed them on a photo of a massive union rally from the same era at (I think?) Madison Square Gardens. I am really chuffed with how nicely the (public domain) hacker/hoodie stock image and livery of a gig bike-delivery rider (fair use, ganked from a gig company's promo materials) blended with the strikers.

https://pluralistic.net/2024/01/13/solidarity-forever/#tech-unions

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This one is in the running to be my favorite illo of the year. I knew it was going to slay the minute I found the image of the U Illinois campus secret society (spears! fezzes!). There's a really good public domain SVG recreation of the "Think Different" wordmark on Wikimedia Commons that I used here, spending some time getting the overlays and textures right:

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Apple_logo_Think_Different_vectorized.svg

https://pluralistic.net/2024/01/12/youre-holding-it-wrong/#if-dishwashers-were-iphones

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End of the line for corporate sovereignty

I use this ogrish rich-guy-in-a-top-hat image all the time to represent the thuggish application of wealth; he comes from a delightful Soviet editorial cartoon called "Capital Controls the Government":

https://craphound.com/images/ussr-capital.jpg

Putting him behind the podium in a UN plenary room with a UN crest in his hand worked really well, though in hindsight, the cropped version I used for the post's hero image is even better:

https://craphound.com/images/27Mar2024.jpg

https://pluralistic.net/2024/03/27/korporate-kangaroo-kourts/#corporate-sovereignty

(Image: ChrisErbach, CC BY-SA 3.0, modified)

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Conspiratorialism and the epistemological crisis

Another "thing at the front of a big room" image; this one works better that the UN one, I think.

Both of the sources for this have weird CC characteristics. The hearing room image comes from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, a federal agency, and I am 99% certain that makes it public domain; however, whoever managed the NRC's Flickr account in 2014 applied a CC BY license to it, so I did the whole attribution for it, even though I think it wasn't needed.

The crumbled cardboard box image comes from a British company that sells cardboard boxes; they upload product shots to Flickr under CC BY 2.0 and require that the attribution string include their store's URL (not necessarily the URL of the image), presumably to get SEO backlinks. This is fine, but the CC BY 2.0 licenses have a serious defect in that a failure to correctly attribute them can give rise to serious ($150K!) copyright liability, something that a group of "copyleft trolls" have brutally exploited:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/04/02/commafuckers-versus-the-commons/

Which makes this kind of funky attribution a minefield. I try to touch all the bases by attributing to both the store's URL and the URL of the image. The real solution to this is for Flickr to finally update its CC licensing to push all its images up to CC 4.0 and push a notice to all users with CC images telling them they either have to consent to upgrading to the latest licenses, or have the licensing on their images reverted to "All Rights Reserved" (maybe with an asterisk explaining that they still have irrevocable but dangerous CC 2.0 licenses attached to them).

https://pluralistic.net/2024/03/25/black-boxes/#when-you-know-you-know

(Image: Nuclear Regulatory Commission, https://meanwell-packaging.co.uk, CC BY 2.0)

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Your car spies on you and rats you out to insurance companies

I had so much fun with this one! Check out all those gracenotes! Munch's (public domain) "Scream" reflected in the mirrors, the windscreen, and the dashboard. The 'You Wouldn't Download a Car' parody reflected in the blade of the giant knife sticking out of the steering wheel!

https://pluralistic.net/2024/03/12/market-failure/#car-wars

(Image: Cryteria, CC BY 3.0, modified)

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Wellness surveillance makes workers unwell

I love how this one turned out. The labcoated figure is actually a dentist from a gallery of images from the National Museum of Health and Medicine. The little flying guy in the back kills me.

https://pluralistic.net/2024/03/15/wellness-taylorism/#sick-of-spying

(Image: Cryteria, CC BY 3.0, modified)

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Amazon's financial shell game let it create an "impossible" monopoly

I love this one. First of all, Hieronymus Bosch's 'The Conjurer' is a great visual representation of a slickster pulling a fast one on gawping yokels. But once I added Doc Searls' great shot of Jeff Bezos in mid-crazy-laugh to it (from a 2010 Techonomy Summit) it became perfectly trenchant. This was part of a short series of images that I added extra fingers and pupils to after someone scolded me online because they (incorrectly) believed I'd generated a collage with an AI image generator. Thankfully, that kind of absurd witch-hunting seems to have waned in popularity. What a ridiculous waste of everyone's time!

(Image: Doc Searls, CC BY 2.0, modified)

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Live Nation/Ticketmaster is buying Congress

I had a lot of fun scouring Victorian woodcuts for cool tentacles to add to this image. The garish concert lights in the background were a fun find – I was halfway through using them when I realized that the image came from my old pal Matt Biddulph, who has many claims to fame, but my favorite is that he once sarcastically called the area in Hackney where some tech startups were clustered "Silicon Roundabout" and then experienced the monkey's paw curse of having the government turn this into an official designation.

https://pluralistic.net/2024/04/30/nix-fix-the-tix/#something-must-be-done-there-we-did-something

(Image: Matt Biddulph, CC BY-SA 2.0; Flying Logos, CC BY-SA 4.0; modified)

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The specific process by which Google enshittified its search

Around April, I realized I needed a visual signifier for "enshittified Google" – I created a cartoon mascot with the head of a poop emoji, colored in the original Google logo colors. I put him into "The Junior Partner Speaks," an old ad for Pacific Woolens and Worsteds, which I've since used several times:

https://craphound.com/images/juniorpartner.jpg

I'm very fond of using the homely old original Google logo as a way to differentiate pre-enshittificatory Google from modern, enshittocene Google.

https://pluralistic.net/2024/04/24/naming-names/#prabhakar-raghavan

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Podcasting "Capitalists Hate Capitalism"

Real Gilded Age corruption-heads will instantly recognize the editorial cartoon image of Boss Tweed as a suited figure with a sack of money for a head; his body language is impeccable, conveying a sneering disregard for decency and others' wellbeing. He works very well inserted into this tapestry of feudal peasants threshing grain.

https://pluralistic.net/2024/04/18/in-extremis-veritas/#the-winnah

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No, "convenience" isn't the problem

It's stupidly, unnecessarily hard to find hi-rez scans of Rube Goldberg cartoons online, but this one is perfect and it was a delight to lovingly crop out all its little details. Throw in Cryteria's HAL 9000 and a Matrix code waterfall and you've got a perfect image of the complex, hostile traps of digital systems.

https://pluralistic.net/2024/04/12/give-me-convenience/#or-give-me-death

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The unexpected upside of global monopoly capitalism

This one's pretty subtle! I mostly just added the monocle, mustache and top-hat to the fallen head of Goliath in Bosse's 17th century engraving of the triumphant David. The planet Earth in David's sling is a NASA image and thus in the public domain.

https://pluralistic.net/2024/04/10/an-injury-to-one/#is-an-injury-to-all

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How to shatter the class solidarity of the ruling class

Goodness, but "canceled" is a tedious cliche. If you must describe someone being ejected from polite society, please consider the far more delightful "defenestrated," not least because the many paintings and etchings of The Defenestration of Prague gives us a lot of public domain visual material to work with when illustrating such events.

https://pluralistic.net/2024/04/08/money-talks/#bullshit-walks

(Image: KMJ, CC BY-SA 3.0, modified)

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General Mills and cheaply bought "dietitians" co-opted the anti-diet movement

The minute I saw this unsourced midcentury commercial illustration of a scientist working in a chem lab, I knew I'd get a lot of mileage out of it; I spent a long flight productively slicing it onto layers so that I could replace his head and put arbitrary objects in his flask:

https://craphound.com/images/labflask.jpg

I've used him before, but putting the Trix rabbit's head on him and sticking a box of Cocoa Puffs in the flask worked great.

https://pluralistic.net/2024/04/05/corrupt-for-cocoa-puffs/#flood-the-zone-with-shit

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Too big to care

I spent the whole flight to SXSW last year slicing up a super hi-rez (10,000px wide!) image of Hieronymus Bosch's "Garden of Earthly Delights," slicing out individual demons, with special attention to the hoof-footed, anus-baring demon in a hat with a whole secret demonic clubhouse in its rectal cavity. At the end of that flight, I had a very funny conversation with my perplexed seatmate, who was dying to know what the actual fuck I was working on.

The background here is made up of desaturated, magnified brushstrokes from Van Gogh's "Starry Night."

https://pluralistic.net/2024/04/04/teach-me-how-to-shruggie/#kagi

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Red Lobster was killed by private equity, not Endless Shrimp

I inserted a rogue's gallery of "evil boss types" from various editorial cartoons into this vintage Red Lobster ad, including Boss Tweed, an impatient guy from a midcentury John Falter commercial illustration, possibly for a radio station (?) and a William Gropper sketch for a cartoon making fun of the business lobby's opposition to the New Deal.

https://pluralistic.net/2024/05/23/spineless/#invertebrates

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You were promised a jetpack by liars

The newsie with the great grin makes a reappearance in this one, beneath a jetpack flyer taken from a 1928 Amazing Stories cover by R Frank Paul. The control panel is one of several midcentury electronics consoles I've spent idle hours cropping out (this one comes from a Schlitz ad depicting a HAM radio enthusiast). The hypnotic head is from the October, 1953 cover of Doll-Man, likely by Reed Crandall. I started playing around with halftoning with this one, on the background, as a way of hiding the JPEG artifacts that emerged when I uprezzed small source images. It worked really well.

https://pluralistic.net/2024/05/17/fake-it-until-you-dont-make-it/#twenty-one-seconds

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AI "art" and uncanniness

I was so happy with how the extra fingers on this Victorian woodcut of a hand on a Oujia board planchette came out. And the green tinting worked perfectly with the Code Waterfall background.

https://pluralistic.net/2024/05/13/spooky-action-at-a-close-up/#invisible-hand

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Algorithmic feeds are a twiddler's playground

I confess that the kind of music that people make with modular synths leaves me totally, absolutely flat. However, the look of modular synths is perfect for conjuring up the idea of "twiddling" – a key part of my theory of enshittification (doubly so after I painstakingly put a HAL 9000 eye on every dial and knob).

https://pluralistic.net/2024/05/11/for-you/#the-algorithm-tm

(Image: Cryteria, CC BY 3.0; djhughman, CC BY 2.0; modified)

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CDA 230 bans Facebook from blocking interoperable tools

"Interoperability" is one of those abstractions I really struggle to visually represent, but sticking a giant, scuffed, USB-C port (courtesy of D-Kuru's great CC BY 4.0 macrofocus image) on the Facebook sign worked great.

https://pluralistic.net/2024/05/02/kaiju-v-kaiju/#cda-230-c-2-b

(Image: D-Kuru, Minette Lontsie, CC BY-SA 4.0, modified)

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Cleantech has an enshittification problem

Illustrating "cleantech" being bricked seemed pretty straightforward, but it took a lot of doing to find a good picture of a brick. Eventually, I found a brick and took a picture of it! I think the solar panels on the brick are pretty nicely matted in.

https://pluralistic.net/2024/06/26/unplanned-obsolescence/#better-micetraps

(Image: 臺灣古寫真上色, Grendelkhan CC BY-SA 4.0; modified)

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How to design a tech regulation

Cutting out those balance scales took a long-ass time, but I've found a lot of uses for them, illustrating the concept of "making trade-offs." The tradeoff here is between a rigid, planned approach and a more improvisational one, so I used an Air Force guy at rigid attention and a guerrilla fighter on the scales. The "impatient guy" from the maybe-a-radio-ad stands in this time for a government regulator.

https://pluralistic.net/2024/06/20/scalesplaining/#administratability

(Image: Noah Wulf, CC BY-SA 4.0, modified)

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Microsoft pinky swears that THIS TIME they'll make security a priority

Look, I'll stipulate that using "Clippy" as a symbol for Microsoft personified is a bit antiquated, but I like to think that for those who know, they really know. The Uncle Sam is Keppler again. With apologies to Skippy Shulz, natch.

https://pluralistic.net/2024/06/14/patch-tuesday/

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An end to the climate emergency is in our grasp

Virgil Finlay's demon head is sinister, sure, but the unintentional, undeniable sinisterness of the body language of this guy puts him in the shade. He comes from an unsourced image that looks like an ad for a built-in stereo.

https://craphound.com/images/guygestures.jpg

The audience in the front comes from a Victorian daugerrotype of a crowd watching some kind of unknown spectacle. I cropped 'em out by hand and use them as a visual stand-in for "this is a thing that the world is, or should be, watching."

https://pluralistic.net/2024/06/12/s-curve/#anything-that-cant-go-on-forever-eventually-stops

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Surveillance pricing

I don't make a lot of animations, but this one is super-sweet. The idea of things switching slowly via crossfades is a great way to illustrate how tech lets companies change things when you aren't paying attention. Thanks as ever to ezgif.com for help assembling and optimizing it.

https://pluralistic.net/2024/06/05/your-price-named/#privacy-first-again

(Image: Cryteria, CC BY 3.0, modified)

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"Carbon neutral" Bitcoin operation founded by coal plant operator wasn't actually carbon neutral

Thomas Hawk is an amazing photographer who also posts all kinds of amazing found photos (more than 23,000 of them!) to his Flickr stream, at very high rez:

https://www.flickr.com/search/?sort=date-taken-desc&safe_search=1&tags=foundphotograph&user_id=51035555243%40N01&view_all=1

The guys in the foreground appear in one of these, proudly displaying an award for – I kid you not – "canned bacon." The kids in the background come from a gallery of photos of early 20th C. child laborers.

https://pluralistic.net/2024/08/09/terawulf/#hunterbrook

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The Google antitrust remedy should extinguish surveillance, not democratize it

If Keppler's "Capital Controls the Senate" is one of the most important antitrust images of all time, then his "Next!" (depicting Standard Oil as a rapacious, world-strangling octopus) is the most important antitrust illustration.

The Uncle Sam-as-a-cop figure is another Keppler (natch), and he's a regular in my collages – I can make him stand in for any federal agency by putting its logo on his chest, where a badge would go.

It took me a long time to cut up that Next! image for easy modding. Here's a GIMP XCF file for your pleasure:

https://craphound.com/images/standard-oil-kraken.xcf

And a PSD:

https://craphound.com/images/standard-oil-kraken.psd

https://pluralistic.net/2024/08/07/revealed-preferences/#extinguish-v-improve

(Image: Cryteria, CC BY 3.0, modified)

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The largest campaign finance violation in US history

The giant figure looking at something in his palm through a looking-glass is yet another Keppler Uncle Sam illo (in the original, Sam is peering at a taxpayer who's shouting back up at him). I love the sad little donkey; I spent a bunch of time this election year finding public domain images of mules and elephants and dressing them in the livery of the mascots of the Democratic and Republican parties to have a bunch of visual signifiers with different emotional valences for each.

Note the halftoned background (a Maricopa County ballot); I'm increasingly fond of halftoning as a way to create a nice looking, scale-independent background.

https://pluralistic.net/2024/07/31/greater-fools/#coinbased

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AI's productivity theater

"Technofeudalism" was a theme in my work even before Yanis Varoufakis's excellent book on the subject. Putting a HAL Eye on the reeve in this medieval tapestry depicting him lording it over his groveling serfs really caught the subject, especially after I faded in some Matrix code waterfall for the background.

https://pluralistic.net/2024/07/25/accountability-sinks/#work-harder-not-smarter

(Image: Cryteria, CC BY 3.0, modified)

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Return to office and dying on the job

This medieval torture chamber was really brightened up by the LATE AGAIN! workplace poster on the wall and the impatient guy posed before the Manhattan skyline through the window bars. Cutting out all the window-panes took forever.

https://pluralistic.net/2024/09/27/sharpen-your-blades-boys/#disciplinary-technology

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Thinking the unthinkable

Bosch's anus-demon (from the Garden of Earthly Delights) returns, this time to illustrate the problems of radium suppositories as a metaphor for commercial surveillance (yes, a visual metaphor for a textual metaphor – whew, it's getting abstract around here). It took some fiddling to get the right green radioactive glow in the anal cavity, and to match it for each of the suppositories in the Museum of the Health Sciences' picture of a box of the suppositories.

The damask-esque background comes from a gallery of antique marbled endpapers that I often use when I need a texture, tweaking the curves and colors until they look cool.

https://pluralistic.net/2024/09/19/just-stop-putting-that-up-your-ass/#harm-reduction

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There's no such thing as "shareholder supremacy"

Boy I love this one. The background is a late 1800s photo of the Temple of Pluto. The golden calf on the idol comes from an early 20th century illustrated bible. Add Milton Friedman's head, the lettering from the original U Chicago School of Business, and a tiny golden top-hat for the calf, and voila! Idol-worship! Alistair Milne's tip for making gold textures work went down a treat here.

https://pluralistic.net/2024/09/18/falsifiability/#figleaves-not-rubrics

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America's best-paid CEOs have the worst-paid employees

The heads of the millionaires are more Keppler Punch illos, while the bodies and sofas come from another Thomas Hawk found industrial photo. You'll remember the child coal miners from ""Carbon neutral" Bitcoin operation founded by coal plant operator wasn't actually carbon neutral." I have a vivid memory of carefully cutting out the guillotine and its Jacobins during a boring conference presentation.

https://pluralistic.net/2024/09/09/low-wage-100/#executive-excess

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Conspiratorialism as a material phenomenon

The superstitious belief that Big Tech has built a mind-control ray is a common theme in my work, and I've got a few prized, carefully sliced up "mind control ray" themed images from old pulps in my stock art folder. This one is augmented with Cryteria's HAL 9000 eye, and a Keppler cavorting vaudevallian with Zuck's metaverse head. The midcentury family comes from a midcentury ad for Mason Masterpieces's bronzed baby-shoes.

https://pluralistic.net/2024/10/29/hobbesian-slop/#cui-bono

(Image: Cryteria, CC BY 3.0, modified)

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The US Copyright Office frees the McFlurry

Figuring out how to illustrate the problems of DRM in McFlurry machines took some doing, but I'm super happy with how the HAL 9000-eyed poop emoji inside a spattered McFlurry cup (fair use of a McDonald's promo image) worked out.

https://pluralistic.net/2024/10/28/mcbroken/#my-milkshake-brings-all-the-lawyers-to-the-yard

(Image: Cryteria, CC BY 3.0, modified)

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Keeping a suspense file gives you superpowers

Another Keppler classic: originally, this was FDR being offered a helping hand to cut through his paperwork. I added in one of the elephant heads I'd cropped out for election illustrations, and used it to represent "not forgetting."

https://pluralistic.net/2024/10/26/one-weird-trick/#todo

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The housing crisis considered as an income crisis

The underlying image is another Keppler, showing death flamboyantly dicing with a millionaire. I added in an official (hence public domain) Reagan portrait, some monopoly houses, and a vintage aerial photo of Levittown, halftoned to disguise scaling artifacts.

https://pluralistic.net/2024/10/24/i-dream-of-gini/#mean-ole-mr-median

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Retiring the US debt would retire the US dollar

More of Keppler's outstanding Uncle Sams! Add in a super-rezzed-up US $100 (all that intanglio looks great at high mag) and you've got an instantly arresting image.

https://pluralistic.net/2024/10/21/we-can-have-nice-things/#public-funds-not-taxpayer-dollars

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Penguin Random House, AI, and writers' rights

The impatient guy makes another appearance in this WPA image of an adult literacy class; he's joined by another "business man" type, this one from a midcentury ad for a multi-level marketing scheme selling…business suits! The pupils' heads are all HAL 9000 eyes, natch, but don't miss all the little Easter Eggs, like the reeve and peasants in the frames on the walls.

https://pluralistic.net/2024/10/19/gander-sauce/#just-because-youre-on-their-side-it-doesnt-mean-theyre-on-your-side

(Image: Cryteria, CC BY 3.0, modified)

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You should be using an RSS reader

The guerrilla fighter is back, this time standing atop some mainframe equipment ganked from a Univac ad. The halftoned RSS logo in the background really works, especially with a partially blended GIMP "supernova" effect behind the rebel.

https://pluralistic.net/2024/10/16/keep-it-really-simple-stupid/#read-receipts-are-you-kidding-me-seriously-fuck-that-noise

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Dirty words are politically potent

I spent a bunch of time experimenting with different ways of making emphatic speech bubbles and it paid off here; that poop emoji's gawlix is in a good home. Halftoning the foreground element (the poop) works surprising well here. I should do more of that.

https://pluralistic.net/2024/10/14/pearl-clutching/#this-toilet-has-no-central-nervous-system

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Lina Khan's future is the future of the Democratic Party – and America

Keppler's Uncle Sam Cop is back, along with another Keppler – a carpetbagger flying through the air after getting a kick in the pants. I got good use out of one of my Democratic Party donkeys here. The background is a half-tones WPA travel poster for Montana.

https://pluralistic.net/2024/10/11/democracys-antitrust-paradox/#there-will-be-an-out-and-out-brawl

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Cars bricked by bankrupt EV company will stay bricked

I actually made this brick by hand: first I rescaled a box image until it had the right proportions, then I found a public domain texture that was the right kind of brick and used the perspective tool to put it over each face of the box. I told you public domain bricks are hard to find.

It was very satisfying overlaying all the elements of the Fisker car I cropped out onto the brick.

https://pluralistic.net/2024/10/10/software-based-car/#based

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Prime's enshittified advertising

Nothing exceeds like excess! The flayed face with eyeballs comes from a 19th century book of French anatomical drawings. The calipers' handles just didn't look right (I referred to stills from Clockwork Orange to try and get 'em to work), but then I hit on the idea of using the "As Seen on TV" logo, which worked perfectly. The halftoned K-Tel ad-card background doesn't quite work, I think.

https://pluralistic.net/2024/10/03/mother-may-i/#minmax

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"That Makes Me Smart"

This is actually two Kepplers; the original guy in the leg-hold trap is some lost-to-history politician embroiled in a lost-to-history scandal. But once I added (yet another!) of Keppler's Uncle Sam heads to his body (recoloring his coat and converting his trousers to red stripes), it became a perfect visual representation of America, trapped. The halftoned US flag is my favorite background yet.

https://pluralistic.net/2024/12/04/its-not-a-lie/#its-a-premature-truth

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The far right grows through "disaster fantasies"

When it came to finding heavily armored and armed weirdos, I was spoilt for choice; same goes for grainy photos of vintage malls that look good after halftoning. Add in the goofy, grinning newsie's head and overlay his hat in camou, and it's perfect.

https://pluralistic.net/2024/11/24/mall-ninja-prophecy/#mano-a-mano

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Boss politics antitrust

Finally, I got a chance to use Keppler's "Capital Controls the Senate!" I agonized over which corporate logos to use. Boss Tweed is back, with a Trump wig and MAGA hat.

https://pluralistic.net/2024/11/12/the-enemy-of-your-enemy/#is-your-enemy

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Antiusurpation and the road to disenshittification

A diptych! Both sides' backgrounds come from Bosch's "Garden of Earthly Delights" – hell on the left, heaven on the right. The happy gas-jockey's old-fashioned ethyl pump divides the scene. The head-devouring dragon (with HAL 9000's eye) is a delightfully gory detail from Goltzius's 1183 painting of a couple guys having a hard time indeed.

https://pluralistic.net/2024/11/07/usurpers-helpmeets/#disreintermediation

(Image: Cryteria, CC BY 3.0, modified)

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Bluesky and enshittification

I know, canonically the sirens who tempted Ulysses were merfolk, not half-woman/half-birds, but all the merwoman versions have a ton of naked breasts in them, and frankly, Waterhouses's 1891 "Ulysses and the Sirens" just rips. It took a lot of fiddling with the perspective tool and the clone brush to swap their bodies for the Bluesky butterfly wings, but it still looked weird until I mapped in a kind of scaly, butterfly wing texture.

https://pluralistic.net/2024/11/02/ulysses-pact/#tie-yourself-to-a-federated-mast

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Shifting $677m from the banks to the people, every year, forever

I replaced Moses parting the Red Sea with Keppler's Uncle Sam Cop, but something still wasn't right. Then I figured out how to turn the Red Sea into a giant, aquatic US $100 bill (loooove that intaglio!) and it was awesome.

https://pluralistic.net/2024/11/01/bankshot/#personal-financial-data-rights

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Hey look at this (permalink)

• Culex pipiens in London Underground tunnels: differentiation between surface and subterranean populations https://www.nature.com/articles/6884120 (h/t Tom Whitwell)

• The Japanese Luggage Forwarding Edition https://whyisthisinteresting.substack.com/p/the-japanese-luggage-forwarding-edition-20b (h/t Tom Whitwell)

• He Got Banned From X. Now He Wants to Help You Escape, Too https://www.wired.com/story/x-delete-posts-cyd-micah-lee/

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This day in history (permalink)

#15yrsago Major record labels rip off 300,000 songs for compilation CDs, may owe $60 billion in damages https://thetyee.ca/Mediacheck/2009/12/09/ChetBakerSuit/

#15yrsago Woman has fingerprints swapped to fool immigration http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/8400222.stm

#15yrsago Airmile hackers use mileage credit-cards to buy $1 coins that they use to pay the CC bills https://web.archive.org/web/20150125163822/https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB126014168569179245

#15yrsago Streaming doesn’t exist https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2009/dec/08/music-streaming-cory-doctorow

#15yrsago The dumbest thing I heard anyone say in 2009 https://memex.craphound.com/2009/12/08/the-dumbest-thing-i-heard-anyone-say-in-2009/

#10yrsago Parable of the Polygons: segregation and “slight” racism https://ncase.me/polygons/

#10yrsago Republicans in Michigan House pass religious bigotry bill https://www.thenewcivilrightsmovement.com/2014/12/breaking_michigan_house_passes_religious_license_to_discriminate_bill/

#10yrsago Judge Posner: it should be illegal to make phones the government can’t search https://www.pcworld.com/article/436729/judge-give-nsa-unlimited-access-to-digital-data.html

#10yrsago Spies can’t make cyberspace secure AND vulnerable to their own attacks https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/dec/07/north-korea-sony-pictures-regin-gchq-nsa-snowden-belgacom

#10yrsago Chinese government wants to ban puns https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/nov/28/china-media-watchdog-bans-wordplay-puns

#10yrsago Dumping a huge bag of plastic balls onto an escalator https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c5P-c7rc4bA

#10yrsago Stats-based response to UK Tories’ call for social media terrorism policing https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2014/dec/02/youre-the-bomb-are-you-at-risk-from-anti-terrorism-algorithms-automated-tracking-innocent-people

#10yrsago Detoxing is bullshit https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2014/dec/05/detox-myth-health-diet-science-ignorance

#5yrsago The lawyer who caught UNC giving $2.5m to white nationalists orders the white nationalists to create a $2.5m fund for Black students or face a lawsuit https://indyweek.com/news/orange/t-greg-doucette-threatens-to-sue-sons-of-confederate-veterans/

#5yrsago A teenager describes his hilarious adventures installing a surplus, 1,500lb mainframe in his parents’ basement https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=45X4VP8CGtk

#5yrsago Cops and spooks all over the world rely on a junk-science “walking polygraph” method to steer their investigation https://www.propublica.org/article/why-are-cops-around-the-world-using-this-outlandish-mindreading-tool

#5yrsago Antipolygraph.org publishes secret guidelines for the federal “Test for Espionage and Sabotage,” a psuedoscientific feature of government life https://antipolygraph.org/blog/2019/12/08/ncca-test-for-espionage-and-sabotage-administration-guide/

#5yrsago After sweeping election victories, Hong Kong protesters stage massive demonstrations marking their 6-month anniversary https://web.archive.org/web/20191207235555/https://news.yahoo.com/hong-kong-democracy-protesters-aim-massive-turnout-rare-210115805.html

#5yrsago One of the poorest, most desperate regions in Appalachia is experiencing an economic miracle thanks to fiber run by a New Deal-era co-op https://www.newyorker.com/tech/annals-of-technology/the-one-traffic-light-town-with-some-of-the-fastest-internet-in-the-us

#1yrago "If buying isn't owning, piracy isn't stealing" https://pluralistic.net/2023/12/08/playstationed/#tyler-james-hill

#1yrago An adversarial iMessage client for Android https://pluralistic.net/2023/12/07/blue-bubbles-for-all/#never-underestimate-the-determination-of-a-kid-who-is-time-rich-and-cash-poor

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Upcoming appearances (permalink)

• ACM Conext-2024 Workshop on the Decentralization of the Internet (Los Angeles), Dec 9
  https://conferences.sigcomm.org/co-next/2024/#!/din

• IA et “merdification“ d’internet: peut-on envisager un nouveau web? (Remote), Dec 12
  https://www.unige.ch/comprendre-le-numerique/conferences-publiques1/cycle-5-2024-2025/ia-et-merdification-dinternet-peut-envisager-un-nouveau-web/

• Should a Public Telecom Be An Election Issue/Davenport NDP (Remote), Dec 15
  https://www.davenportndp.ca/public_telecom_town_hall

• ISSA-LA Holiday Celebration keynote (Los Angeles), Dec 18
  https://issala.org/event/issa-la-december-18-dinner-meeting/

• Picks and Shovels with Dan Savage (Seattle), Feb 19
  https://www.eventbrite.com/e/cory-doctorow-with-dan-savage-picks-and-shovels-a-martin-hench-novel-tickets-1106741957989

• Cloudfest (Europa Park), Mar 17-20
  https://cloudfest.link/

• DeepSouthCon63 (New Orleans), Oct 10-12, 2025
  http://www.contraflowscifi.org/

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Recent appearances (permalink)

• Enshittification: Why Everything Suddenly Got Worse and What to Do About It (HOPE XV)
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YrciT_dc2sc&list=PLcajvRZA8E0_tLLEh1COeAv-TcaDna2k1&index=32

• How To Keep IoT From Becoming An IoTrash (Def Con)
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tA7bpp8qXxI

• How Big Tech made Trump 2.0 (Real News Network)
  https://therealnews.com/how-big-tech-made-trump-2-0

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Latest books (permalink)

• The Bezzle: a sequel to "Red Team Blues," about prison-tech and other grifts, Tor Books (US), Head of Zeus (UK), February 2024 (the-bezzle.org). Signed, personalized copies at Dark Delicacies (https://www.darkdel.com/store/p3062/Available_Feb_20th%3A_The_Bezzle_HB.html#/).

• "The Lost Cause:" a solarpunk novel of hope in the climate emergency, Tor Books (US), Head of Zeus (UK), November 2023 (http://lost-cause.org). Signed, personalized copies at Dark Delicacies (https://www.darkdel.com/store/p3007/Pre-Order_Signed_Copies%3A_The_Lost_Cause_HB.html#/)

• "The Internet Con": A nonfiction book about interoperability and Big Tech (Verso) September 2023 (http://seizethemeansofcomputation.org). Signed copies at Book Soup (https://www.booksoup.com/book/9781804291245).

• "Red Team Blues": "A grabby, compulsive thriller that will leave you knowing more about how the world works than you did before." Tor Books http://redteamblues.com. Signed copies at Dark Delicacies (US): and Forbidden Planet (UK): https://forbiddenplanet.com/385004-red-team-blues-signed-edition-hardcover/.

• "Chokepoint Capitalism: How to Beat Big Tech, Tame Big Content, and Get Artists Paid, with Rebecca Giblin", on how to unrig the markets for creative labor, Beacon Press/Scribe 2022 https://chokepointcapitalism.com

• "Attack Surface": The third Little Brother novel, a standalone technothriller for adults. The Washington Post called it "a political cyberthriller, vigorous, bold and savvy about the limits of revolution and resistance." Order signed, personalized copies from Dark Delicacies https://www.darkdel.com/store/p1840/Available_Now%3A_Attack_Surface.html

• "How to Destroy Surveillance Capitalism": an anti-monopoly pamphlet analyzing the true harms of surveillance capitalism and proposing a solution. https://onezero.medium.com/how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism-8135e6744d59?sk=f6cd10e54e20a07d4c6d0f3ac011af6b) (signed copies: https://www.darkdel.com/store/p2024/Available_Now%3A__How_to_Destroy_Surveillance_Capitalism.html)

• "Little Brother/Homeland": A reissue omnibus edition with a new introduction by Edward Snowden: https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250774583; personalized/signed copies here: https://www.darkdel.com/store/p1750/July%3A__Little_Brother_%26_Homeland.html

• "Poesy the Monster Slayer" a picture book about monsters, bedtime, gender, and kicking ass. Order here: https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781626723627. Get a personalized, signed copy here: https://www.darkdel.com/store/p2682/Corey_Doctorow%3A_Poesy_the_Monster_Slayer_HB.html#/.

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Upcoming books (permalink)

• Picks and Shovels: a sequel to "Red Team Blues," about the heroic era of the PC, Tor Books, February 2025

• Unauthorized Bread: a middle-grades graphic novel adapted from my novella about refugees, toasters and DRM, FirstSecond, 2025

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Colophon (permalink)

Today's top sources:

Currently writing:

• Enshittification: a nonfiction book about platform decay for Farrar, Straus, Giroux. Status: first pass edit underway (TKs and FCKs)

• A Little Brother short story about DIY insulin PLANNING

• Picks and Shovels, a Martin Hench noir thriller about the heroic era of the PC. FORTHCOMING TOR BOOKS FEB 2025

Latest podcast: Spill, part five (a Little Brother story) https://craphound.com/littlebrother/2024/12/01/spill-part-five-a-little-brother-story/

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Quotations and images are not included in this license; they are included either under a limitation or exception to copyright, or on the basis of a separate license. Please exercise caution.

---

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"When life gives you SARS, you make sarsaparilla" -Joey "Accordion Guy" DeVilla

In brief: Houston gets to bathe in near-80° weather today before a cold front tonight sends us back to autumn and early winter with the coldest air of the season so far arriving. A light freeze is possible north and west of the city on Tuesday night and Wednesday night before we bring back rain chances and warm up this weekend.

Today

After a dreary weekend, especially Sunday, we will start the week on a bit of a nicer note. Look for some sunshine today mixed up with cloud cover. Let’s call it “decreasing clouds.” We don’t expect any rain, but what we do expect is warmth. Warm air getting pumped in from the southwest will allow our high temperature today to flirt with 80 degrees! This will be a few degrees shy of the 85° record from 2021. Still, for the warm weather lovers, enjoy. It changes again tomorrow.

Tuesday through Thursday

A cold front is going to push through the region tonight, ushering in a much colder air mass for Tuesday. Despite sunshine, morning lows in the 40s and 50s will be sluggish to warm up on increasing northwest winds Tuesday afternoon. We’ll manage 60 or the low-60s at best. Then, the coldest mornings of the season so far will follow on Wednesday and Thursday. We should see lows in the 30s in the city, near freezing in some of the northern and western suburbs, and at or below freezing just north and west of there.

Wind gusts on Tuesday evening will be 25 to 35 mph, strongest at the coast. We should see sunshine and highs in the 50s or around 60 degrees on Wednesday. Thursday will probably see increasing clouds with morning lows similar to Wednesday morning and afternoon highs in the low to mid-60s.

Friday and the weekend

Warmer temps will try to work back into the region Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, with highs approaching the 70s again. Morning lows will step up into the 40s and then 50s, if not low-60s this weekend as well. Unfortunately, it’s looking a bit dreary again. Despite the off and on rain this weekend, almost all the area saw merely a quarter to half-inch of rain. So it was not a lot. This coming weekend could see even a bit less than that. So for now, let’s open the bidding at a quarter-inch or so on average this weekend, especially given how recent rains seem to have underperformed. We’ll fine tune things as we get closer.

Our next meaningful cold front looks to arrive sometime midweek or late week next week. We are still a couple of days away from having a solid indication on Christmas weather, so let’s wildly speculate instead. With colder weather late next week, we could see a warming trend leading into the holiday but exactly how warm is TBD. More to come.

Collaborative artist duo Jonah Freeman and Justin Lowe transformed the Modern’s upstairs permanent collection galleries into an immersive, multilayered installation. The overarching narrative is the premise that San Francisco and San Diego merge into one city. Imagine sci-fi futurism with references to the tech sector, drug and music counterculture, new-age spirituality, alchemy, and more. I’ve visited Sunset Corridor multiple times and struggled with how to frame writing about the work. The challenge is how to write about the multiplicity of ideas and references found in the installation with logical coherence. I finally gave up on that strategy and decided that I would try an experimental form. Since conceptual and visual collage is a dominant aspect in the artists’ work, my article will be a collage of sorts, decoding and deconstructing possibilities for interpretation. 

Wunderkammer
As I walked through the myriad of rooms in Sunset Corridor, the term “wunderkammer” or room of wonder came to mind. While the original wunderkammers or cabinets of curiosities focused on colonialist-era collected antiquities and natural specimens, a contemporary wunderkammer could be a compilation of any type of object. Sunset Corridor contains copious collections. If I were a visual archeologist from the future and visited this space without the context of an art museum, I would see remnants of technology, a deserted bunker devoid of human presence with an assemblage of desiccated cords and outmoded electronics in various states of disrepair. A desk contains a series of “fake” films with humorous titles such as Droids on Roids, Living the Life of a Hard Drive, and Reach Around with Colin Feral. The second room has a 70s vibe of mad-scientist experiments gone awry with memorabilia on bulletin boards, laboratory equipment, and hybrid crystal cacti. The third room most closely resembles a cabinet of curiosities with organized shelves filled with made-up products — “fake” cakes printed with faces and containers resembling cleaning products that have stream of conscious text labels such as Nurse Safari, (Mortgage…), Fake Modigliani, Vibrator, White Girl Skag, and Amnesia Blue. The fourth room has the feel of a psychotic hoarder and is full of specimen jars filled with unknown objects/body parts. The fifth room reminds me of the Rothko Chapel in Houston — a place for contemplation and a much-needed “brain” break from the visual over-stimulation of the other rooms. I think of this room as a collection of thoughts or prayers put out into the universe. The last room has a 40-minute film, which is also a wunderkammer of sorts — a collection of video and film clips. It was unclear which, if any, were historical documentation or if it was all an elaborately constructed fiction. The artists promised some illumination from the film, but the film raised even more questions than it answered. The viewing experience is what I imagine a psychedelic acid trip might be like. 

Sculpture: assemblage, readymade, faux-readymade, altered readymade
In thinking about art materials and environmental sustainability, Freeman and Lowe reuse many materials that would ultimately end up in a landfill. In keeping with the blurring of lines between fiction and reality, it was difficult to discern which objects were meticulously hand-crafted sculptures versus altered readymade assemblage. I’m not sure it matters from a conceptual perspective, but as an artist, I am always interested in knowing how things are made. For example, there are three or more striking sculptures constructed from black rice. My favorite was the photocopier prominently displayed on a pedestal. I could not determine if it was cast from the original object or if the original object was underneath all those meticulously glued rice grains. Or perhaps the rice grains weren’t real and were some material posing as a rice grain? The subversive humor extends into the process as much as the conceptual themes and narratives. I appreciate the material experimentation, and how the artists challenge the definitions of contemporary sculptural practices. 

Immersion and the Suspension of Disbelief
The term immersive as it relates to art suggests a suspension of critical thinking and logic for the purpose of “buying into” the narrative. A transformation occurs where the visitor is transported to another realm. Pippilotti Rist does this well. Meow Wolf is another example of an immersive experience. While visiting Meow Wolf attractions in Las Vegas and Grapevine, Texas, I consciously knew I did not enter into the multiverse or “unreal” world. However, to understand the narrative or appreciate the event beyond the surface spectacle, I needed to make a conscious decision to ignore the fact that I was in a suburban shopping mall. For those who have experienced Meow Wolf, you are familiar with the immersive concept. Sunset Corridor provides an immersive experience where the visitor can completely forget that they are in a museum. I cannot think of another exhibition I’ve attended where the awareness of the white institutional walls falls away so completely and seamlessly. Freeman and Lowe masterfully blur the distinction between fact and fiction without the use of spectacle. I felt that I was simultaneously inside the artists’ minds as well as in another world where time (past, present, and future) collapsed.

Sunset Corridor is the fourteenth exploration into the San San world and the fifth iteration of ‘The Smile Pentagon’ series. While many objects and materials are reused, each exhibition changes as the artists respond to site specificity. It’s interesting to note that the exhibit’s location is in the former upstairs wing of the Modern’s permanent collection. How might this comment on the nature of permanence or impermanence as it relates to museum conservation? Viewing this work within a current geopolitical context, I wonder how the works’ references and meaning shift and morph due to the juxtaposition between California and Texas. With many Californians moving to Texas for better cost of living, more land, and lower taxes, how might this alter the Texas landscape and culture? Perhaps Sunset Corridor functions as both a prophecy and a warning. 

In the spirit of celebrating the role of text in Freeman and Lowe’s work, I would like to offer a few other phrases that come to mind as possible directions or misdirections for experiencing and interpreting the work: Alchemy & Mysticism, Architecture of Imagination, and Nested Narratives. When you visit, allocate at least 90 minutes if you want to fully submerse yourself into the artists’ constructed world of nested narratives. 

“We are concerned at some core level about jarring the visitors’ perceptions into a state of self-consciousness.” Jonah Freeman

The artists hope that as you move through the space, the unreality of their invented world seeps into our “real” world. I know it did for me and the seepage continues. 

 

Jonah Freeman + Justin Lowe: Sunset Corridor is on view at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth through January 5, 2025.

The post Suspension of Disbelief: “Jonah Freeman + Justin Lowe: Sunset Corridor” appeared first on Glasstire.

It is not every day that an exhibition begs, even dares, to be banned. Ban This Show, on view at Fort Works Art, does just that. It is an irreverent group exhibition taking on the hot-button issues of the day in the immediate post-election period. A chance for artists and viewers to rage, lament, and sit with the issues that remain unresolved as we enter a new political landscape. 

What do you do when you feel that the world is ripping apart? Likely the only path forward is through activism. Activism is defined as “vigorous campaigning to bring about political or social change.” This is precisely what the artists on view in this exhibition are doing through their works.

There are different avenues artists take when creating activist work. One of the most common is work that spreads awareness and critiques the systems and people in power. Political cartoons, like Thomas Nast’s iconic illustration of William Tweed from 1871, are some of the most recognizable examples of this type of artistic activism shining a satirical spotlight on political figures for the public to behold. 

In Steven Trimble’s Poison the Well, Alice, Alice of Disney’s Alice in Wonderland dons a crimson dress with a white apron and black hair bow. While Alice retains the sweet, serene expression befitting of a happy Disney narrative, she holds up a bottle of poison for us to behold. Her shimmering, blue eyes are fixed on the bottle labeled with skull and bones. What is she planning to do with this dangerous potion? The title, suggests, that Alice may poison the well to the delight of her followers as noted by the Instagram comment and like icons at the top right of the painting. What I love about this work is its light-hearted acknowledgment of the frustration that many feel in the United States. The disillusionment with politics and other institutions is palpable. Some rejoice about the disruption a new administration will bring, others understandably have intense fear. Trimble’s work speaks to the moment in a way that captures the absurdity, especially as it plays out in the current media landscape. Do we need to destroy the well, destroy it all? Or has it already been poisoned and destroyed?

Another important role that art can play in the realm of activism is the promotion of empathy for others. The 1787 medallion by Josiah Wedgwood Am I Not a Man and a Brother? intended to inspire empathy for the plight of enslaved Africans. While many of the works in Ban This Show are intentionally provocative, others rely on empathy to further their cause. In this category, I would place Swoon’s George. In this monumental print, a golden, young man stands with hands clasped looking warmly down at the viewer. Beautiful patterns of reds and pinks radiate out around his body, reminiscent of a halo. Swoon, a street artist from New York, met George during a community art project and bonded with him over their shared experience of having a parent struggling with substance abuse. George serves as a representation of the compassion and empathy that promotes true healing — something we need in the United States right now as political divisions are so tense that we have stopped hearing and seeing each other.

Activist art also serves the important function of documenting conflict and tension. The photographs of Ernest Withers and James “Spider” Martin during the civil rights movements of the 1960s have shaped much of the collective memory of those efforts. A notable element of Ban This Show is that it has works by widely acclaimed artists like Guerrilla Girls and Pussy Riot. Immediately upon entering the gallery, viewers will be captivated by God Save Abortion, a 2023 film documenting a performance art action staged at the Indiana State Capitol. The action and the resulting film document the highly fraught battle for reproductive rights following the Dobbs decision.

I find it fascinating that the film is flanked by Misha Waks’ Vagina (Cycle) watercolor series from 2019, as the works are so abstract whereas the film is a concrete display of activism and protest. This contrast highlights the abstract ideas that many wish to hold on reproductive rights, by design. It is much easier to pass blanket laws restricting the rights of women. It is much harder when one is forced to consider the real, lived stories of women in need of reproductive health care. The works feel confrontational in that they force us to view vaginas up-close that might feel jarring to some viewers. Yet, they are also benign, subdued studies that reflect the daily experience of life continuing on for women despite massively impactful conversations happening at state capitols and courthouses.

It is important to take a moment to discuss activism versus shock value. There will be some viewers that will find the content in this show shocking, jarring, controversial, or offensive. Where is the line? When does art shock in a productive way; a way that promotes conversation and reflection? When does it simply shock for the sake of attention? Does it really matter what side of the line an artwork falls on? I do not have a tidy answer for these questions. I believe it is a matter of personal taste. I judge the success of an artwork with the stated aim of activism based on the following criteria: Does it help shine a light on an important cause? Does it have a clear message? Does it foster engagement with the issue in a unique way?

The challenge for me with this exhibition was that it did not have explanatory wall labels. So, viewers be warned that you may walk away confused and uncertain of what you are looking at and the reasoning behind the works. In some cases, the content and message is clear. For example, Ryan Sandison Montgomery’s What’s Art For? Must Be Pretty Pictures (Portrait of David Velasco) is a critique of Velasco’s termination from Artforum following the publication of a letter calling for a ceasefire in Gaza. 

On the other hand, Angel Baby by Carlos Donjuan is deserving of more context. This is a striking, large gray-toned portrait of a seated young girl wearing a dress with lace frills. However, the girl’s face distorts the image. Two metal clasps extending from a triangular form replace her eyes and nose. Two white circles, similar to clown make-up, stand in for cheeks. The mouth is only a narrow opening, like a coin slot on a washer. Without explanatory text, viewers may walk on without truly appreciating the artist’s message. The girl’s strange form is meant to challenge the strange term “alien” that we apply to those who are undocumented within the United States. Donjuan, a Dallas-based artist with personal connections to unauthorized immigration, wants viewers to contend with their own perceptions of immigrants. It is a poignant approach to helping others see the masks that so many immigrants wear as they seek to assimilate into new communities without losing their own identities, particularly when so much hostility is projected toward them and their cultures of origin.

Ultimately, Ban This Show is an important contribution to the North Texas art scene this fall, bringing widely recognized names together with local artists in an effort of highlighting significant issues. With such a diverse selection of artists, this group exhibition offers a lot for viewers to take in. My remaining question is how future generations will view this moment and how works like these will help shape those memories. The history of this unnerving moment is yet to be written. Thus, it is necessary for the activism to continue. I am grateful to the artists of this exhibition for carrying on this work.

 

Ban This Show is on view at Fort Works Art through December 7, 2024.

The post Marking the Moment: Art and Activism in “Ban This Show” at Fort Works Art appeared first on Glasstire.

As part of Glasstire’s partnership with Art21, the organization known for producing award-winning documentary films about the lives and work of some of the world’s best-known contemporary artists, we’ll be co-publishing a small selection of films highlighting artists who are either based in Texas or have a significant connection to the state.

The interdisciplinary collective Postcommodity creates site-specific installations and interventions that critically examine our modern-day institutions and systems through the history and perspectives of Indigenous people. Influenced by growing up in the southwestern United States, the artists Cristóbal Martínez and Kade L. Twist revisit their 2015 public installation, Repellent Fence, produced with previous Postcommodity artist, Raven Chacon. A two-mile-long line of enormous balloons across the Arizona-Sonora border, Repellent Fence symbolically sutured together cultures and lands that had been unified long before borders were drawn. Shown installing ambitious architectural interventions at the Art Institute of Chicago and LAXART in Los Angeles, Martínez and Twist consider how American cities have been supported by and will continue to be transformed by the migration of Indigenous peoples from Mexico and Central and South America. To examine our cultural institutions and their demographic future, the pair thinks of the coming decades, when the U.S. Census Bureau predicts a non-White majority. “Our job is to allow a new public memory to be born,” says Martínez. “Here’s our lens; take a look at the world through it, and tell us what you think.”

Other featured projects include Do You Remember When? (2009), produced in collaboration with previous Postcommodity artist Raven Chacon (2009–2018), co-founder Steven Yazzie (2007–2010), and co-founder Nathan Young (2007–2015).

Watch the film below. You can see this and other films on Art21’s website and on their YouTube channel.

The post Art21: Postcommodity in “Borderlands” from Season 10 of “Art in the Twenty-First Century” appeared first on Glasstire.

This post was written by Alison Green and published on Ask a Manager.

I’m on vacation. Here are some past letters that I’m making new again, rather than leaving them to wilt in the archives.

1. I think I offended a client

I give private music lessons, often in people’s homes. About a month ago, I arrived and the youngest child didn’t know where her materials were, and said she hadn’t prepared. Normally I swallow this with a smile, but this time I chastised the child and brought the situation to the attention of her older siblings. This was obviously inappropriate and wrong! I should have brought it up with the parent, and only with the child in a polite, positive, or funny way. A few days later I emailed an apology to the mother (a real apology). I apologized directly to the child the following week (she said “thanks”) and a few weeks later apologized directly to the oldest child. However, the apology email was never acknowledged.

The mother is now giving me what seems to be the silent treatment — she does not show herself during lessons, she does not say hello or goodbye. The father now sits in the youngest child’s lesson (which is actually a win — I need parents in the lessons of young children). Since he never did before and now suddenly does every week, I imagine it was directed by her or decided by him, or both. He is pleasant and does not refer to the incident. The kids seem as happy and willing to play as ever, nothing seems wrong there.

What do I do? I would apologize to her directly if I could. I thought about finding her in the house, but I don’t want to create a scene. Background: I’ve been working with this family for six years, all without problems, in fact, they have been very vocally happy with me in the past. They do have a habit of leaving their children to work out their own practice, which is fine philosophically, but often frustrating practically. I think that’s probably why I snapped that day.

I’d let it go. You’ve apologized to everyone involved, and they might not think it’s as big of a deal as you do. It’s possible the mother has other stuff going on and you’re assuming it’s about you when it’s not. Or who knows, maybe it is about you! But you’ve apologized to her, and if she wants to be chilly for a while, hunting her down for another apology probably isn’t going to change that (and risks seeming very weird if she’s moved on).

It’s true that the father might be sitting in on the lessons to monitor you, but he also might be sitting in because the youngest child not being prepared made them realize she needed more parental involvement.

– 2019

2. Candidate didn’t tell us she’s been at another job for a week

I recently served on an interview committee for an entry-level staff opening in our office. We interviewed Sansa, a candidate we liked very much. Her resume listed that her last job was an internship that ended a few months ago. The next day, we interviewed Arya, another candidate we liked. Arya’s resume listed her current job at Company A and indicated that she had been there for two years.

Later, I was looking at the website of Company A to learn more about it, and found Sansa listed there as a current employee, despite the fact that this job had not appeared anywhere on Sansa’s resume and she never mentioned that she was currently employed.

My boss did some sleuthing and found that the Sansa on Company A’s website was indeed the same Sansa that we interviewed, and she had only worked at Company A for one week at the time of her interview with us. Our hiring committee has varying opinions on this — some now see Sansa as a liar, others want us to approach her with questions about the omission, and some are okay with it, guessing that Sansa felt silly including a job that she’d been at for such a short time on her resume. It might be the case that she started that job and immediately knew it was not a good fit.

How should we best move forward in this situation? Sansa and Arya are both top candidates, but we are concerned about Sansa’s omission on her resume.

This is a completely normal omission and not something you should generally penalize someone for! It wouldn’t have made sense for Sansa to put the job on her resume when she’d only been there a week (and may not have been there at all when she first sent you her resume), and in fact I regularly advise people to leave off jobs that they haven’t been at for long. A resume isn’t a legal document that’s supposed to be a comprehensive account of every job you’ve ever held; the point is to show how you’re a strong candidate for the job you’re applying for, and having held a job for a week is never going to do that. So no lying happened here, unless she told you she was unemployed when you spoke.

The worst thing you can say about her is that she may have taken a job with Company A without intending to commit to them for very long (which is indeed crappy) — but you don’t even know that it’s the case. For all we know, she could have applied with you before she got the job with them, started work there and discovered that she was seriously mismatched with the work, the boss, or the culture, and jumped at the chance to talk with you when your interview invitation came in. Who wouldn’t do the same?

At absolute most, you could say to her, “I happened to be looking at Company A’s website and noticed you’re listed as an employee there. It wasn’t on your resume so I wanted to ask you about it.” But really, it’s unlikely that there’s anything shocking to hear here. This is just not a big deal.

– 2017

3. Asking a new hire to go by her last name

My name is … let’s say Arya. And I recently hired someone who is also named Arya. During the interview process, we discussed the awkwardness and potential risk-management-related issues with us being mixed up due to the nature of our positions and the fact that she is reporting to me.

She agreed it would be very confusing, and said she’d be happy to go by her last name, Stark. I have been introducing her as Stark to everyone, but noticed she has been introducing herself to people as Arya. I don’t want to be a jerk, but she had agreed during the interview process to go by Stark, and I feel pretty embarrassed at how this makes me look to the other folks who report to me, as if I forced her to go by another name, when really it was mutually agreed upon … or so I thought.

We have other folks in our organization who go by their last names and it has never been an issue before, so there is a precedent for this. How do I broach this with her without being a jerk? I can’t imagine what a nightmare it will be to have two Arya’s reporting to each other in our line of work.

Is it really going to be such a nightmare? It’s very, very common for offices to have two people with the same first name working closely together. Usually people solve it by using last initials and referring to Arya S. and Arya W. or something similar to that.

If she doesn’t want to go by her last name (and I realize she said she’d be okay with it, but it sounds like she might not really want to), you shouldn’t force her to do it; it’s not fair for her not to be able to use her name just because you were there first.

I’d talk to her and say something like this: “Hey, I know we’d talked earlier about you going by Stark to avoid confusion. I’ve noticed you’re using Arya — do you prefer that? If so, let’s start using Arya S. and Arya W. so that it’s clear who’s who.” And then if you’re talking to someone who doesn’t know the importance of including the initial, say something like, “When you follow up, make sure to ask for Arya Williams since there are two Arya’s here.”

– 2017

4. My employer requires all employees to back into parking spaces

I work for a mid-sized corporation. A new parking policy has been introduced, which requires all employees to back into parking spaces. I don’t like this because it takes longer to park now and because I am terrified of hitting the cars on either side of me when I am attempting to back in. When I questioned the reason for this policy, I was told it was for employee safety and that it would prevent people from backing out of a parking space and hitting someone who was walking by or another car. I feel the odds of me hitting someone are something are greatest when I am trying to wedge myself and my car in a tight space, while in reverse. What do you think of this policy and do you think it is logical?

I have no idea, without knowing more about the parking situation. But regardless of how reasonable it is, if you make a big deal about it, it’s not likely to reflect well on you — most people will think this is a pretty minor thing, and major pushback on it will seem out of place.

For what it’s worth, I once lived somewhere that required residents to park that way and I was highly annoyed — but I discovered that it was pretty easy after the first week of doing it. (And then I never lost the skill, which has been handy.)

– 2014

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NEW YORK—In a stunning end to the 40-year-old media personality’s rise to fame, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement confirmed Monday that Hilaria Baldwin had been deported to Spain.

Baldwin, who is set to star in a new reality series about her family’s home life, was reportedly handcuffed at the wrists and ankles as she boarded a repatriation flight at New York’s Kennedy Airport this morning. ICE officials told reporters they arrested the wellness influencer—who has often identified her birthplace as Mallorca, Spain—during a raid on her Greenwich Village home, placing her in a van with undocumented immigrants rounded up in other parts of the city.

“Hilaria Baldwin has publicly stated that she moved to the United States in 2003 to attend college, and because there is no record of her obtaining a visa, we believe she has been illegally living and working in this country ever since,” said ICE spokesperson Darrell Winthrop, adding that agents seized what they presumed was a fraudulent birth certificate identifying her as Hillary Lynn Hayward-Thomas and listing her birthplace as Boston. “Though in recent years she has begun posing as an American, she has on numerous earlier occasions admitted she is Spanish.”

“Even as she spoke to our agents, Baldwin kept switching back and forth between American and Spanish accents,” he continued. “She was clearly faking it.”

According to residents of the building where Baldwin lived, the yoga instructor and entrepreneur talked “nonstop” about her childhood home in Spain, her passion for flamenco, and the beloved, handed-down paella recipe she got from her abuela. They said that when they spoke to her in the lobby or elevator, she would often stumble over basic English words, and even seemed to have trouble pronouncing her own married last name.

Cynthia Rosenbaum, 74, told reporters she wasn’t surprised to learn about her neighbor’s alleged undocumented status. Living on the floor below Baldwin and her husband, the actor Alec Baldwin, Rosenbaum said she grew frustrated with the noise produced by the couple’s seven children, adding that anytime she raised the matter, Hilaria would respond exclusively in Spanish and act as though she couldn’t understand Rosenbaum’s English.   

“It makes sense now—if Hilaria was here illegally, she must have thought, ‘The more anchor babies, the better,’” Rosenbaum said of Baldwin’s choice to have such a large family. “That marriage is clearly a sham. I can only imagine how she must have thrown herself at that man, hoping it would land her a green card. Why else would an attractive young woman like her want to be with someone that old?”

Following her arrest, New York Child Protective Services took Baldwin’s children—Carmen Gabriela, Rafael Thomas, Leonardo Ángel Charles, Romeo Alejandro David, Eduardo Pao Lucas, María Lucía Victoria, and Ilaria Catalina Irena—into custody. A representative for the agency confirmed they could not be left in the care of their father, who in 2021 shot and killed a woman in New Mexico.

Many immigrant advocates criticized the deportation, seizing upon the example to show that not even wealth and fame could protect an undocumented person from ICE.

“It’s incredibly sad, because who knows what Hilaria was running from when she came to this country in the first place?” said Carolyn Tran, a Florida immigration attorney. “Back home in Spain, Hilaria faces an uncertain future. Do they have TLC reality shows over there? Do they have Instagram? Yoga?”

“In many ways, this echoes the case of Rachel Dolezal, the renowned NAACP leader who was deported to Nigeria,” she added.

A transcript of Baldwin’s deportation hearing revealed that she tried desperately to convince authorities to let her remain in the United States. But the judge in charge of the proceeding sternly ignored her entreaties, even when she stood up and exclaimed, “I have—how do you say in English?—U.S. citizenship!”

The post Hilaria Baldwin Deported appeared first on The Onion.

AUSTIN, TX—In a sweeping prohibition with immediate implications for the Lone Star State’s potential mothers-to-be, Texas banned the sale of luggage to pregnant women Monday. “With this law, we ensure that no gestating woman living in our great state can pack her belongings and escape our will,” Gov. Greg Abbott said upon signing the bill, explaining that the You’re Not Going Anywhere Act outlaws the sale of all suitcases, duffel bags, and backpacks to women without the express consent of at least two male family members or a waiver granted by the governor himself. “Should an expectant woman be found in possession of luggage of any kind—even a small handbag or clutch, which we all know can be used to smuggle mifepristone—she will be subject to the full force of the Texas healthcare system. And rest assured, we have mandated that all luggage sold in the state can only be unlocked with a negative pregnancy test.” At press time, Texas reportedly expanded its ban to include the sale of plane tickets, travel-size shampoo, and gasoline to pregnant women. 

The post Texas Bans Sale Of Luggage To Pregnant Women appeared first on The Onion.

Ryan Walters, Oklahoma’s superintendent of public instruction, has ordered schools to incorporate the Bible into lesson plans for students in grades five through 12, putting the separation of church and state to the test. The Onion shares some of the ways schools are changing their curriculum. 

Updating the periodic table of chemical elements to include “Jesusonium.”

Banning murder and adultery in schools. 

Requiring students to yell the “under God” part of the Pledge of Allegiance.

Covering way more incest in sex ed class.

Adjusting dress codes to include year-round open-toe sandal wearing. 

Streamlining woodshop options to “table,” “ark,” or “cross.”

Including Bible-inspired exercises in gym class, like flee-the-Jew and stone-the-idolater.

Renaming all 272 high school football teams “the Crusaders.”

Emphasizing the importance of shunning lepers in health class. 

Performing frog crucifixions in biology. 

Instituting a Christmas break.

The post How Oklahoma Schools Are Incorporating The Bible Into Curriculum appeared first on The Onion.

South Korea’s President Yoon Suk Yeol faced parliamentary moves to impeach him after sending heavily armed forces into Seoul’s streets with his sudden declaration of martial law, harkening back to the country’s past dictatorships. What do you think?

The post South Korean President Faces Impeachment After Declaring Martial Law appeared first on The Onion.

President-elect Donald Trump announced Wednesday his intent to nominate entrepreneur and commercial astronaut Jared Isaacman as the next administrator of NASA.

For those unfamiliar with Isaacman, who at just 16 years old founded a payment processing company in his parents' basement that ultimately became a major player in online payments, it may seem an odd choice. However, those inside the space community welcomed the news, with figures across the political spectrum hailing Isaacman's nomination variously as "terrific," "ideal," and "inspiring."

This statement from Isaac Arthur, president of the National Space Society, is characteristic of the response: "Jared is a remarkable individual and a perfect pick for NASA Administrator. He brings a wealth of experience in entrepreneurial enterprise as well as unique knowledge in working with both NASA and SpaceX, a perfect combination as we enter a new era of increased cooperation between NASA and commercial spaceflight."

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Golden hour is generous in El Paso, casting a golden-pink tint over its mountainous sand-colored terrain, a color both natural and manufactured by this city’s blend of grit and desert sun. For two years now, I’ve come here around Halloween and Día de los Muertos, timing my visits to overlap with holiday and research seasons. El Paso feels transitional and settled all at once, rooted in the complex material and cultural exchange of the border. On each visit, I collect these experiences in my notebook, drawn by the distinct language of material and architectural production here.

At the Tap Bar and Restaurant, I find myself among a bilingual crowd. Karaoke floats from the stage: a mix of Mexican ballads, interrupted occasionally by American Grunge. The fonts on Tap’s menu echo another Southwestern haunt, Pasqual’s in Santa Fe. At first glance, it’s just an italicized, all-caps typeface with long-serifed letters — but details like this anchor me to the region, reminding me how production and replication shape a collective aesthetic.

El Paso’s built environment mirrors this complex, layered culture. The downtown area is a mix of Victorian façades and brick government buildings accented by ribbon glass exteriors, a kind of aesthetic “Brusselization” that juxtaposes historic structures with stark modern forms. Around Segundo Barrio, brick and plaster buildings stand beside exposed plate glass storefronts, reflecting a border town that absorbs influences from both sides with minimal separation.

Part of this visit, though, is about seeing El Paso’s creative community through the lens of artists like Ingrid Leyva. Ingrid is a lens-based artist who feels deeply tied to both sides of the border. “I’m very “fronteriza” in that sense,” she says, explaining how El Paso was the setting for her childhood holidays, dollar store trips, and family gatherings. She’s been working on a project in Segundo Barrio titled “Ultra Violent Lights”, a series of overexposed portraits that capture the city’s heat and the toll it takes on bodies and lives. “The summer here is extremely violent in terms of the heat,” she tells me, describing how these photographs reveal a shared endurance. The intense light burns out certain features, almost erasing parts of her subjects, underscoring the ways people here are marked by an unforgiving sun.

Driving through Duranguito, one of El Paso’s oldest neighborhoods, we pass murals by Los Dos and Victor Casas. These works confront contemporary issues like labor and migration, pointing to a deeper theme of border economies — especially relevant when I think of the region’s industrial ties to Juárez. There’s even a SHEIN mural here, a reminder of how border industries exist within the network of global fast fashion. Production, as much as art, is a backbone here, underscoring the ways people on both sides of the border survive and make a living. 

El Paso is as much a hub of material and aesthetic production as it is a border city. Through encounters with artists like Ingrid and the architecture that defines its neighborhoods, I see a city forged by its layered histories, its markets, and its landscapes. In this review, I’ll be looking at the exhibitions that reflect and expand on these themes, drawing from the narratives of artists and the city itself to understand how El Paso represents, produces, and defines Texas culture along the border.

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My visit to the El Paso Museum of Art began with a vibrant fashion pop-up in the lobby, progressing through thought-provoking galleries downstairs, and culminating in the upstairs Selena exhibition. While the permanent galleries were closed for installation, the dynamic mix of temporary displays made for a memorable journey.

The entryway of the museum welcomed visitors with a pop-up by Carla Fernández, the celebrated Mexican fashion label known for blending traditional motifs with contemporary design. Highlights included the Chaparra, a signature piece featuring intricate leather threadwork, and a striking denim jacket crafted in collaboration with Levi’s, adorned with metal carrutos — tiny funnels that clang melodically with movement, intended to ward off malevolent spirits.  

The label’s ethos emphasizes handmade craftsmanship, minimalist patterns, and timeless silhouettes inspired by Mexican heritage. One-size tunic garments, among other designs, reflected an inclusive and versatile approach. However, while the artistry was captivating, the price points — starting at $270 — could alienate some viewers, especially in a museum setting.  

Their ethos, outlined in the bilingual book “La Fiesta de la Moda,” positions their consumers as collectors, a sentiment that reinforces the brand’s dedication to preserving and elevating traditional Mexican craft. A PDF version of this book is available on their website.  

The theme of craftsmanship extended into the first-floor gallery in the exhibition From the Collection: Two Centuries of Sculpture and Design. Among the standouts was Robert Lang’s Giraffe (2008), an oversized origami sculpture constructed entirely of folded paper, supported internally by a delicate steel rod. Its precision and whimsy evoked a sense of wonder, bridging traditional craft and contemporary ingenuity.  

Nearby, Jorge Rojas worked in situ on Corn Mandala: Mictlān, commissioned by the museum as the eighth entry in his series Gente de Maize/People of the Corn. This intricate work, inspired by the Disk of Death (Disk of Mictlantecuhtli) — a pre-Hispanic artifact — reimagines Aztec mythology with a focus on the cyclical nature of death and rebirth.  

Museum wall text for Corn Mandala: Mictlān:  

 “Corn Mandala: Mictlān expands on the artist’s original works and focuses on the Disk of Death, a pre-Hispanic sculpture possibly depicting Mictlantecuhtli, the Aztec god of death and ruler of Mictlān, the underworld of Aztec mythology… The basaltic rock disk sculpture, partly destroyed, features a skull with the tongue out and a ‘halo’ possibly symbolizing the sun’s cycle of death and rebirth.”  

This juxtaposition of ancient iconography with contemporary art reinforced the museum’s dedication to cross-temporal dialogue.

In the black-box gallery, a retrospective celebrated the late El Paso-born experimental filmmaker Willie Varela (1950–2024). His oeuvre combined experimental Super 8 films, photography, and video art, exploring themes of identity, contradiction, and cultural nuance.  

The retrospective featured vignettes with unsteady camera work and gritty textures, evoking an unsettling intimacy. From rippling water to businessmen stranded in airports and George W. Bush descending Air Force One, the works challenged viewers to piece together their fragmented narratives. Varela’s inspirations, including Stan Brakhage and Brian Eno, were evident in the haunting experimental textures and psychological layers of his videos.  

Accompanying the moving images was a vitrine of street photography (1998–2000) and ephemera from Varela’s 2004 Artpace exhibition, offering additional context to his legacy as a self-taught artist who gained recognition in major institutions like MoMA and the Whitney Biennial.

The museum’s upstairs galleries were dedicated to a temporary exhibition on Selena, celebrating her cultural impact and iconic status. (Details of this segment could be expanded based on your notes.)

The El Paso Museum of Art offered a rich tapestry of experiences. From Carla Fernández’s fashion pop-up to Jorge Rojas’ meditative mandala and Willie Varela’s visceral retrospective, the museum captured a compelling dialogue between tradition and experimentation, local and global narratives, and the ephemeral and enduring.

The upstairs exhibition Selena Forever / Siempre Selena revisited the iconic Tejano singer’s life and legacy. Grounded by photographs from John Dyer, a San Antonio-based artist whose work I’ve encountered before at the McNay, the exhibit also incorporated “drag” outfits inspired by Selena’s dazzling, rhinestone-studded stagewear. These additions reflected her enduring influence on fashion and identity expression, particularly within the Latin American and queer communities.  

One striking work in the show was Gary Saderup’s 1995 portrait of Selena, rendered in his signature photo-realistic style. The exhibition overall leaned heavily on fan-centered ephemera and reproductions, with little scholarly interpretation or deeper contextualization of Selena’s cultural impact.  

While Selena has become a powerful symbol of Latin American pride and achievement, exhibitions like this often fail to move beyond celebrating her image as an icon. They rarely explore her life’s complexities or her role within broader cultural and economic structures. This absence of depth suggests a recurring challenge in archiving and honoring pop stars’ legacies: they are often treated as commodities rather than as artists and workers with rich histories.  

For a museum like EPMA, which typically excels at creating engaging, community-centered programming, this reliance on fan artifacts raises questions about how these archives are maintained, stored, and shown. The public’s voice is absent in my question: Do they like these shows? Selena’s story deserves the same critical and curatorial rigor applied to other cultural figures, and a deeper dive could provide audiences with a more nuanced understanding of her artistry and significance.  

****

Nestled in the mountains, the University of Texas at El Paso Rubin Center’s exhibition Mud + Corn + Stone + Blue / Barro + Maíz + Piedra + Azul bridges local and global perspectives on agriculture, labor, and migration within the Americas. Curated by Laura Augusta, this thoughtful presentation begins with the U.S. Farm Crisis of the 1970s and spirals outward, connecting policy shifts, cultural traditions, and artistic expressions through material themes like mud, corn, stone, and blue.  

Assistant curator Henry Schulte provided a brisk overview, detailing the show’s expansive narrative and the diverse artworks’ global journeys to El Paso. A notable strength of the exhibition lies in its anthropological lens, which deeply roots these artistic explorations in historical and cultural contexts. Reading materials, such as The Story of Corn by Betty Fussell and Corn: A Global History by Michael Owen Jones, emphasize the show’s engagement with both academic rigor and storytelling.  

Corn, as both a material and metaphor, takes center stage. From Angel Poyón’s Kaxlanwäy (a humorous reframing of the cheeseburger as a “foreign tortilla” in Maya Kaqchikel) to Melissa Guevara’s Yunque y Martillo, which poignantly uses dirt from El Mozote to represent the dead, the works reflect deep cultural resonances. These pieces echo indigeneity’s significance and the need to protect its narratives from Western homogenization.  

Other standout works include Bryon Darby, Tim Hossler, and Paul Stock’s The New Farmers Project, a photographic homage to Kansas farmers striving for sustainable practices, and Arón Adrián Venegas’s Bracero, which critiques the dehumanizing practices of the Bracero program while honoring its workers’ legacy.  

The exhibition’s overarching critique of industrial agriculture and its violent aftershocks — manifested in Central American coups and U.S. monocultural policies — is sobering. Yet, the resilience of “primitive” tools and communal practices highlights enduring strength. As Schulte remarked, in Guatemalan culture, corn “is like family,” a sentiment that encapsulates the profound ties between people, land, and tradition.  

This show feels distinctly El Paso in its focus on indigeneity and cultural preservation, but it is also expansive, challenging visitors to reconsider agriculture’s global entanglements and political futures.

****

William Sarradet is the Assistant Editor for Glasstire.

The post Borders and Layers: Exploring Art, Architecture, and Culture in El Paso appeared first on Glasstire.

This post was written by Alison Green and published on Ask a Manager.

It’s “where are you now?” month at Ask a Manager, and all December I’m running updates from people who had their letters here answered in the past. Here are four updates from past letter-writers.

1. My CEO is furious about a joke I made

Thanks for publishing my letter. I wasn’t able to respond to comments that day, but I read all of them. Some commenters speculated that the CEO initially thought I was serious and was alarmed; he definitely knew I was joking from the get-go and did not like being the butt of the joke. (Most of his jokes are intended to keep the subject a little off balance, but that is supposed to be a one way street).

A coworker later suggested that since another PM was in fact struggling with keeping up with her project, which was causing major problems, the CEO might have thought I was referencing her struggles and it hit a little too close to home. I wasn’t, but it would make his reaction a little more explicable.

I have also since learned from other folks in the industry that he has often responded disproportionately angrily to things you wouldn’t expect. Overall the joke probably helped my reputation amongst my coworkers since most of them disliked the CEO, so they found the situation amusing because it made him look thin-skinned and a little foolish.

I didn’t see the CEO for a while after this incident and while he clearly remembered the encounter, he didn’t mention it and congratulated me on how the project went. The division VP who’d reprimanded me started acting more abrasively towards me, but he was treating everyone the same way so I didn’t take it personally. My boss did mention the incident in my yearly review as a word of warning, although he clearly thought the CEO’s reaction was ridiculous.

Shortly after many people I worked with left the company, and I did as well. I ended up finding a much better-paying job, remote, with really good (and pleasant) bosses who have no issues with humor. So far I’ve been very happy here.

I’ve kept up with some folks from Old Job and it seems many are thinking of leaving. I would never, ever work for either CEO or VP again if I can possibly help it, so it’s not likely I’ll ever run into these folks again (but it’s a small industry so who knows!). Since things turned out okay, I don’t regret making that joke, although in a vacuum I wouldn’t do it again. The whole situation really opened my eyes to the importance of corporate politics; somehow I’d mostly avoided it before this but the amount of gossip and nepotism at that job was incredible. Overall, I’m happy with the way things turned out.

2. My boss keeps telling me he loves me

As many of the commenters guessed, my boss does come from a place where “I love you” or “love you” is a common way to end a conversation, although he doesn’t seem to do it with anyone else. He’s pretty much stopped, presumably due to me giving a weird look every time he said it. Our working relationship continues to be strong! He promoted me to the senior leadership team and I continue to be able to bring up challenging topics with him that others couldn’t. He does suffer a bit from lack of boundaries — just recently he mentioned to me that he had a prostate exam, but it was fine to tell me because “they do blood tests now, not the finger up the butt. Well, they still stick the finger up the butt later, but that’s after the blood test I think, they just don’t open with the finger in the butt any more” — but that’s just who he is. And frankly, it’s refreshing to work for a boss whose “finger up the butt” stories are medical. That’s progress for my industry.

– still don’t love him, but I like him just fine

3. Can I take off a full week when no one can cover for me? (#4 at the link)

Your advice was indeed very helpful and reassuring.

Here’s my update: The company hasn’t changed much, but I have:

· I’ve required that others provide information I need to fulfill their product needs on a timely basis, or it doesn’t get done.

· I’ve made it clear that because of my broad background, I can do almost anything, but not everything. We can do “A,B,C” but not “D,E.F.” If I’m clear and consistent, I don’t get heavy pushback. This has reduced workload.

· I insisted I be allowed to hire freelancers who can take on much of my back-office work, making it easier to get ahead before vacations.

Those three items above have made real vacations possible for me and for the company. I also made a logical case for raises. They weren’t large, but my staff and I got something, which improved morale here.

4. Our director left while my coworker was on vacation (#3 at the link)

The advice was spot on.

My update is that the coworker was fine learning about the news in a casual way when she got back. Unfortunately, I was not hired for the permanent position. There were a lot of red flags in the hiring process. The interview was scheduled at the last minute (on a Thursday when she pledged to announce who was hired on a Friday). The executive director also told me, verbatim, after my interview, “Well, you know I want to hired you, but I have to interview Jane to make sure she doesn’t get mad.” She took Jane on a 15-minute coffee interview the next day. She gave Jane the job. For reference, Jane has less experience, training, and credentials than me. I was given a smaller promotion but that wasn’t enough to balance out that Jane and my ED cut my most interesting tasks, removed me from all important conversations, and undermined me at every turn. After a long and frustrating summer, I got a new job in a related industry for a little less money. I am thrilled with the new job and excited for a fresh start.

The most interesting part about my new job is that I’m in a “project engineer” role (my smaller promotion was to “senior engineer”) so technically a step down, but the levels at my new organization are massively different. At my old org, my new director and ED were very young and inexperienced. The new job, people have way more experience. While that likely means I won’t make my way up to senior engineer in the near future as I hoped, I am actually a lot happier to be learning and growing with people who have something to offer in terms of professional growth!

The Rothko Chapel has announced that it will reopen to the public on Tuesday, December 17, following a five-month closure due to damage from Hurricane Beryl.

In July, the Chapel roof sustained damage that resulted in leakage affecting parts of the ceiling, walls, and four panels by Mark Rothko. The organization worked with Whitten & Proctor Fine Art Conservation to analyze and assess the damage. While the walls and ceiling have been repaired and repainted, the artworks are still undergoing restoration at an off-site facility. A timeline has not been offered regarding their return to the Chapel.

In a press release, David Leslie, Executive Director of the Chapel, said “Since the storm, our focus has been on the complete repair of the building, the restoration of the damaged panels, and on the reopening of the Chapel so the public once again has access to this beloved space for contemplation and meditation. Getting to this point has been a true community effort involving an amazing team of art conservators, scientists, art handlers, volunteers, community partners, and Chapel staff, and we are very excited to reopen in time for the holidays.”

Despite the closure, the Chapel has continued its programming at off-site locations. It will host its first program back at the building on January 15, 2025 — its annual MLK Observance Sick of War: Discussing Health Impacts of US Militarism. Currently, the Suzanne Deal Booth Welcome House (at 1410 Sul Ross Street) is open Tuesday through Sunday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. When the Chapel reopens on December 17, the Welcome House will resume normal hours: Tuesday through Sunday, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

For additional updates visit the Rothko Chapel’s website.

The post Rothko Chapel Will Reopen December 17 Following Closure from Hurricane Beryl Damage appeared first on Glasstire.

In brief: Will Houston manage another freeze this winter? We discuss what’s been in the news. Rain totals this weekend seem to have backed down some but there will still be some serious temperature and humidity changes into Monday before the coldest air of winter so far arrives next week. A light freeze is possible by Thursday morning outside the city.

Will Houston see a serious freeze this winter?

In the news lately has been ERCOT’s reported prediction of a “greater than average” chance of an extreme cold event this winter. Full disclosure: I know Chris Coleman personally, and he’s a solid forecaster and a good guy. ERCOT uses the fact that 5 of the last 8 winters have seen an extreme cold snap in Texas, as well as the fact that the majority of our extreme cold events since 1950 have occurred in La Niña winters. Interestingly, many of those cold snaps have occurred in otherwise mild winters, including 2016-17, our warmest Texas winter on record! So are these events indeed happening more frequent, or is this perhaps the law of averages catching up with us?

Going back to the 1800s, Houston has officially hit 21° or colder a total of 124 times. As noted, we’ve done it in 2024, 2022, 2021, 2018, and 2017. So it’s been a busy stretch, in addition to a few other instances in 2014, 2011, and 2010. But prior to 2010, we had last done this in 1996. So we went 14 years without hitting it once before racking up a bunch. The only real comparable stretch to that gap was 1918 to 1928, when we got shut out of sub-21° nights. You’ll notice from the data above that while the quantity of years seeing extreme cold seems to have revved up some in recent years, the duration of these cold spells seems to have shortened. And you see fewer winters with multiple extreme cold spells. Some of that is urban heat island effects due to Houston’s enormous growth. Some of that is the warming Gulf of Mexico in our backyard and/or climate change. But mostly, it’s actually kind of typical to have this type of cold in Houston every few winters. Yes, it’s been busy in recent years. But I think that’s more a consequence of having experienced few major cold snaps between 1996 and 2018 more than anything.

So what are we saying? It probably makes sense to prepare every winter for a pop of extreme cold. It may only last a few days, but it can obviously cause problems. And to the original point about this winter: Given the La Niña in place, there should be an ample reservoir of cold built up in Canada by later January and February. It’s a weak La Niña to be sure, but it should still allow for more Canadian cold than in a typical winter. If the wrong setup comes along to dislodge that into the Plains, that’s when we could experience a pop of extreme cold this winter. Putting all this together, it’s not at all illogical to state we have a greater than normal chance of experiencing a brief extreme cold outbreak this winter. Coleman also mentioned in his ERCOT presentation that for cold weather, “This is like a tornado watch. Doesn’t mean a tornado is going to happen. It means conditions are there.” And I think that’s the key takeaway from all this. And it’s also something Eric noted in our commentary on winter back in early November.

On to the weather, of which there is a good bit to discuss this weekend.

Today

We should close the week out on a cool but benign note. There are some clouds pushing northward across Matagorda Bay, toward Wharton and west out toward perhaps Columbus or Sealy. But aside from that, sun and some clouds rule the day. A chilly morning in the 40s should warm deep into the 50s this afternoon. I would not entirely rule out a passing shower before the end of today, primarily between Matagorda Bay and Columbus or perhaps up toward College Station. Nothing big, just don’t be shocked if you feel some raindrops.

Saturday

Tomorrow will be our transition into a temporary warm pattern, priming us for a wet Sunday. Look for clouds and kind of damp, raw weather on Saturday as humidity levels increase. We’ll manage the mid-50s or a bit milder for highs but between a few showers, the cloud cover, and that rising humidity, “clammy” may be an appropriate descriptor. Look for some low clouds or drizzle in spots in addition to passing showers here or there.

Sunday

More numerous showers seem likely on Sunday across most of the region. The area is in a marginal risk (level 1/4) for excessive rainfall. At this point we think that the only flooding would be typical ponding issues on area roadways (ex: frontage roads) or in small areas that see brief street flooding due to downpours. Modeling seems to have backed down on the amount of rainfall to expect and rain totals have generally been cut as a result.

The best ingredients to sustain rainfall will be to our east, so places like Beaumont or Lake Charles will be more apt to see more rain it seems. Temps will surge on Sunday though as warm air floods in off the Gulf, along with breezy conditions. Look for highs well into the 60s.

Next week

There will be a disconnect between this weekend system and the incoming cold front, so Monday falls firmly in the warm category. We’ll manage highs into the 70s with a good bit of humidity. The cold front hits Monday night, which as of now looks fairly dry. It appears a secondary front arrives Tuesday afternoon. The combination of the two will allow for Tuesday’s temperatures to drop into 60s for highs and allow for the coldest air of the season Wednesday night.

Some places will approach freezing Wednesday night and Thursday morning, primarily north of Houston and outside the city. Daytime highs on both Wednesday and Thursday will limp into the upper-50s or low-60s at best. A somewhat more sustained warm up may follow next weekend and into the week of the 16th. More to come.

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Is there a limit to how much energy you can cram into, or pull out of one patch of space? Well, we thought so, but the James Webb Space Telescope has found a quasar that simultaneously breaks a century-old theoretical limit and may explain the conundrum of gigantic black holes in the early universe.

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NEW YORK—Emphasizing that enough was enough with the season of savings, the entire U.S. populace told reporters Friday that it was sick and tired of all the deals and bargains. “Just charge us full price, goddammit,” said Peter Nguyen, 43, echoing the sentiment of all 340 million Americans as he opened his wallet, removed a sizable quantity of cash, and shook it around while explaining that he could pay as much as the businesses possibly wanted. “Black Friday, Cyber Monday—we’re done with this horseshit, all right? It’s an insult to us and everything we stand for. Do you think we’re poor or something? Hey, here’s an idea: Charge us double. Fuck it, triple the price, for all we care. And you can take your discount codes and shove them right up your ass.” At press time, the suddenly concerned nation was reportedly asking the retailers if they could possibly take credit.

The post Nation Tires Of Deals, Bargains appeared first on The Onion.

PALM BEACH, FL—Clearing their throats as the vice president-elect knocked on the door of the Mar-a-Lago conference room and poked his head inside, members of the presidential transition team reportedly rolled their eyes Friday and allowed JD Vance to pull a low folding chair up to a corner of the table. “Hey everyone, JD is here—can everyone scoot over and make some room?” said incoming White House chief of staff Susie Wiles, who winced as the 40-year-old Ohio senator dragged the chair’s metal legs loudly across the floor, placed the seat right next to Donald Trump, and sat barely peeking over the table’s edge. “So, JD, we don’t have a printout for you, but you can look on with [border czar] Tom [Homan]. Actually, now that you’re here, would you mind taking notes? Thanks so much, bud.” At press time, Vance had reportedly sprinted out of the meeting to get paper towels after attempting to refill Trump’s water and spilling on the laptops of several senior officials.

The post Low Folding Chair Pulled Up To Corner Of Mar-A-Lago Conference Table For JD Vance appeared first on The Onion.

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Today's links

• Battery rationality: Ringing down the curtain on 9/11's security theater.
• Hey look at this: Delights to delectate.
• This day in history: 2009, 2014, 2019, 2023
• Upcoming appearances: Where to find me.
• Recent appearances: Where I've been.
• Latest books: You keep readin' em, I'll keep writin' 'em.
• Upcoming books: Like I said, I'll keep writin' 'em.
• Colophon: All the rest.

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Battery rationality (permalink)

After 9/11, we were told that "no cost was too high" when it came to fighting terrorism, and indeed, the US did blow trillions on forever wars and regime change projects and black sites and kidnappings and dronings and gulags that were supposed to end terrorism.

Back in the imperial core, we all got to play the home edition of the "no price is too high" War on Terror game. New, extremely invasive airport security measures were instituted. A "no-fly" list as thick as a phone book, assembled in secret, without any due process or right of appeal, was produced and distributed to airlines, and suddenly, random babies and sitting US Senators couldn't get on airplanes anymore, because they were simultaneously too dangerous to fly and also not guilty enough to charge with any crime:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/01/20/damn-the-shrub/#no-nofly

We lost our multitools, our knitting needles, our medical equipment, all in the name of keeping another boxcutter rebellion from rushing the cockpit. As security expert Bruce Schneier repeatedly pointed out back then, the presence of (for example) glass bottles on the drinks trolley meant that would-be terrorists could trivially avail themselves of an improvised edged weapon that was every bit as deadly as 9/11's box cutters.

According to Schneier, there were exactly two meaningful security measures taken in those days: reinforcing cockpit doors, and teaching basic self-defense to flight crews. Everything else was "security theater," a term coined to describe the entire business, from TSA confiscations to warehouses full of useless "chemical sniffer" booths that were supposed to smell out bombs on our person:

https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2010/01/airport-scanner-scam/

Security theater isn't just about deploying measures that don't work – it's also about defending yourself against risks that don't exist. You know how this goes: in 2001, Richard Reid – AKA "The Shoenabomber" – tried to blow up a plane with explosives he'd hidden in his shoes. It didn't work, because it's a stupid idea – and then we all took off our shoes for a quarter-century:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Reid

In 2006, a gang of amateur chemists hatched a plan to synthesize explosives in an airplane toilet sink, scheming to smuggle in different reagents and precursors in their carry-on luggage, then making a bomb in the sky and taking down the plane and all its passengers. The "Hair Gel Bombers" were caught before the could try their scheme, but even if they had made it onto the plane, they would have failed. Their liquid explosive recipe started with mixing up a "piranha bath" – a mixture of sulfuric acid and hydrogen peroxide – that needs to be kept extremely cold for a long time, or it will turn into instantly lethal gas. If the liquid bomb plot had gone ahead, the near-certain outcome would have been the eventual discovery of an asphyxiated terrorist in the bathroom, lips blue and lungs burned away, face down in a shallow sink filled with melting ice-cubes:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2006_transatlantic_aircraft_plot

The fact that these guys failed utterly didn't have any impact on the dramaturges who ran the world's security theater. We're still having our liquids taken away at airport checkpoints.

Why did we have to defend ourselves against imaginary attacks that had been proven not to work? Because "no price was too high to pay" in the War on Terror. As Schneier pointed out, this was obvious nonsense: there is a 100% effective, foolproof way to prevent all attacks on civilian aircraft. All we need to do is institute a 100% ban on air travel. We didn't do that, because "no price is too high to pay" was always bullshit. Some prices are obviously too high to pay.

Which is why we still get to keep our underwear on, even after Umar Farouk "Underwear Bomber" Abdulmutallab's failed 2009 attempt to blow up an airplane with a bomb he'd hidden in his Y-fronts:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Umar_Farouk_Abdulmutallab

It's why we aren't all getting a digital rectal exam every time we fly, despite the fact that hiding a bomb up your ass actually works, as proven by Abdullah "Asshole Bomber" al-Asiri, who blew his torso off with a rectally inserted bomb in 2009 in a bid to kill a Saudi official:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abdullah_al-Asiri

Apparently, giving every flier a date with Doctor Jellyfinger is too high a price to pay for aviation safety, too.

Now, theatrical productions can have very long runs (The Mousetrap ran in London for 70 years!), but eventually the curtain rings down on every stage. It's possible we're present for the closing performance of security theater.

On September 17, the Israeli military assassinated 12 people in Lebanon and wounded 2,800 more by blowing up their pagers and two-way radios whose batteries had been gimmicked with pouches of PETN, a powerful explosive. This is a devastating attack, because we carry a ton of battery-equipped gadgets around with us, and most of them are networked and filled with programmable electronics, so they can be detonated based on a variety of circumstances – physical location, a specific time, or a remote signal.

What's more, PETN-gimmicked batteries are super easy to make and effectively impossible to detect. In a breakdown published a few days after the attack, legendary hardware hacker Andrew "bunnie" Huang described the hellmouth that had just been opened:

https://www.bunniestudios.com/blog/2024/turning-everyday-gadgets-into-bombs-is-a-bad-idea/

The battery in your phone, your laptop, your tablet, and your power-bank is a "lithium pouch battery." These are manufactured all over the world, and you don't need a large or sophisticated factory to make one. It would be effectively impossible to control the manufacture of these batteries. You can make batteries in "R&D quantities" for about $50,000. Alibaba will sell you a full, turnkey "pouch cell assembly line" for about $10,000. More reputable vendors want as little as $15,000.

A pouch cell is composed of layers of "cathode and anode foils between a polymer separator that is folded many times." After a machine does all this folding, the battery is laminated into a pouch made of aluminum foil, which is then cleaned up, labeled, and flushed into the global supply chain.

To make a battery bomb, you mix PETN "with binders to create a screen-printed sheet" that's folded and inserted into the battery, in such a way as to produce a shaped charge that "concentrat[es] the shock wave in an area, effectively turning the case around the device into a small fragmentation grenade."

Doing so will reduce the capacity of the battery by about 10% or less, which is within the normal variations we see in batteries. If you're worried about getting caught by someone who's measuring battery capacity, you can add an extra explosive sheet to the battery's interior, increasing the thickness of a 10-sheet battery by 10%, which is within the tolerance for normal swelling.

Once the explosive is laminated inside its (carefully cleaned) aluminum pouch, there's no way to detect the chemical signature of the PETN. The pouch seals that all in. The PETN and other components of the battery are too similar to one another to be detected with X-ray fluorescence, and the multi-layer construction of a battery also foils attempts to peer inside it with Spatially Offset Raman Spectroscopy.

According to bunnie, there are no ways to detect a battery bomb through visual inspection, surface analysis or X-rays. You can't spot it by measuring capacity or impedance with electromechanical impedance spectroscopy. You could spot it with a high-end CT scan – a half-million dollar machine that takes about 30 minutes for each scan. You might be able to spot it with ultrasound.

Lithium batteries have "protection circuit modules" – a small circuit board with a chip that helps with the orderly functioning of the battery. To use one of these to detonate a PETN-equipped battery, you'd only have to make a small, board-level rewiring, which could deliver a charge via a "third wire" – the NTC temperature sensor that's standard in batteries.

Bunnie gets into a lot more detail in his post. It's frankly terrifying, because it's hard to read this without concluding that, indeed, any battery in any gadget could actually be a powerful, undetectable bomb. What's more, supply chain security sucks and bunnie runs down several ways you could get these batteries into your target's gadget. These range from the nefarious to the brute simple: "buy a bunch of items from Amazon, swap out the batteries, restore the packaging and seals, and return the goods to the warehouse."

Bunnie's point is that, having shown the world that battery bombs are possible, the Israelis have opened the hellmouth. They were the first ones to do this, but they won't be the last. We need to figure out something before "the front line of every conflict [is brought] into your pocket, purse or home."

All of that is scary af, sure, but note what hasn't happened in the wake of an extremely successful, nearly impossible to defeat explosives attack that used small electronics of the same genus as the pocket rectangles virtually every air traveler boards a plane with. We've had no new security protocols instituted since September 17, likely because no one can think of anything that would work.

Now, in the heady days when the security theater was selling out every performance and we were all standing in two-hour lines to take our shoes off, none of this would have mattered. The TSA's motto of "when in trouble, or in doubt, run in circles, scream and shout" would have come to the fore. We'd be forced to insert our phones into some grifter's nonfunctional billion-dollar PETN dowsing-box, or TSA agents would be ordering us to turn on our phones and successfully play eleven rounds of Snake, or we'd be forced to lick our phones to prove that they weren't covered in poison.

But today, we're keeping calm and carrying on. The fact that something awful exists is, well, awful, but if we don't know what to do about it, there's no sense in just doing something, irrespective of whether that will help. We could order everyone to leave their phones at home when they fly, but then no one would fly anymore, and obviously, no one seriously thinks "no price is too high" for safety. Some prices are just too high.

I started thinking about all this last week, when I was in New Delhi to give a keynote for the annual meeting of the International Cooperative Alliance, which was jointly held with the UN as the inauguration of the UN International Year of Coops, with an address from UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres:

https://2025.coop/

When I arrived in New Delhi, my hosts were somewhat flustered because Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi had just announced that he would give the opening keynote, which meant a lot of rescheduling and shuffling – but also a lot of security. I was told that the only things I could bring to the conference center the next day were my badge, my passport and my hotel room key. I couldn't bring a laptop, a phone or a spare battery. I couldn't even bring a pen ("they're worried about stabbings").

Modi – a lavishly corrupt authoritarian genocidier – has a lot of reasons to worry about his security. He has actual enemies who sometimes blow stuff up, and if one of them took him out, he wouldn't be the first Indian PM to die by assassination.

But the speakers and delegates gathered in the hotel lobby the next morning, we were told that we could bring phones, after all. Because of course we could. You can't fly people from all over the world to India and then ask them to forego the device they use as translator, map, note-taker, personal diary, and credit card. Some prices are just too high.

They took a lot of security measures. Everyone went through a metal detector, naturally. Then, we were sealed in the plenary room for more than an hour while the building was sealed off. Armed men were stationed all around the room, and the balcony outside the room was ringed with snipers:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/doctorow/54165263130/

We were prohibited from leaving our seats from the time Modi entered the room until he left it again, despite the fact that the PM was never more than a few steps from the single most terrifying bodyguard I'd ever seen:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/doctorow/54164805776/

And yet: the fact that we were less than two months out from an extremely successful, highly public demonstration of the weaponization of small batteries in personal electronics did not mean that we all had to leave our phones at the hotel.

After that, I'm tempted to think that, just possibly, security theater's curtain has rung down and its long SRO run has come to an end. It's a small bright spot in a dark time, but I'll take it.

---

Hey look at this (permalink)

• How Can U.S. and Mexican Workers Build Cross-Border Solidarity? https://www.labornotes.org/blogs/2024/12/how-can-us-and-mexican-workers-build-cross-border-solidarity

• Why did Silicon Valley turn right? https://www.programmablemutter.com/p/why-did-silicon-valley-turn-right

• Six hours under martial law in Seoul https://www.theverge.com/24312920/martial-law-south-korea-yoon-suk-yeol-protest-dispatch

---

This day in history (permalink)

#15yrsago TSA can’t redact documents properly, releases s00per s33kr1t operations manual http://cryptome.org/tsa-screening.zip

#15yrsago Photographers win British war on photography? https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/police-uturn-on-photographers-and-antiterror-laws-1834626.html

#15yrsago What do ISPs charge the law to spy on you? https://cryptome.org/isp-spy/yahoo-spy.pdf

#10yrsago Museums and the future history of the information age https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qqPZ7blfVFo

#10yrsago Irish government retroactively legalizes GCHQ surveillance revealed in Snowden docs https://www.irishtimes.com/business/technology/state-sanctions-phone-and-email-tapping-1.2027844

#10yrsago Buy your own TSA-surplus pornoscanner for $8K https://web.archive.org/web/20141202204614/https://www.ebay.com/itm/111519265986

#10yrsago Senator Jay Rockefeller singlehandedly kills Freedom of Information Act reform https://web.archive.org/web/20141227173812/https://e-pluribusunum.com/2014/12/05/threatening-legacy-senator-jay-rockefeller-stands-alone-holding-back-historic-foia-reform-in-the-usa/

#10yrasago High court rules that English/Welsh prisoners should be allowed to read books https://www.theguardian.com/society/2014/dec/05/prison-book-ban-unlawful-court-chris-grayling

#10yrsago National Response Center: now THAT’s a logo https://memex.craphound.com/2014/12/06/national-response-center-now-thats-a-logo/

#5yrsago Prasad’s Law: there’s always enough health spending to concentrate wealth, never enough to diffuse it https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2019/12/why-hospitals-never-have-enough-nurses-the-explanatory-power-of-prasads-law-of-wealth-concentration.html

#5yrsago The retreat of “scientific selfishness,” a literature review https://www.the-tls.co.uk/politics-society/economics/greed-is-dead

#5yrsago 95% of America’s largest voting districts’ mailservers lack basic anti-phishing protection https://techcrunch.com/2019/12/05/major-voting-districts-vulnerable-email-security/

#5yrsago Radicalized is one of the CBC’s best books of 2019! https://www.cbc.ca/books/the-best-canadian-fiction-of-2019-1.5382741

#1yrago Privacy first https://pluralistic.net/2023/12/06/privacy-first/#but-not-just-privacy

---

Upcoming appearances (permalink)

• ACM Conext-2024 Workshop on the Decentralization of the Internet (Los Angeles), Dec 9
  https://conferences.sigcomm.org/co-next/2024/#!/din

• IA et “merdification“ d’internet: peut-on envisager un nouveau web? (Remote), Dec 12
  https://www.unige.ch/comprendre-le-numerique/conferences-publiques1/cycle-5-2024-2025/ia-et-merdification-dinternet-peut-envisager-un-nouveau-web/

• Should a Public Telecom Be An Election Issue/Davenport NDP (Remote), Dec 15
  https://www.davenportndp.ca/public_telecom_town_hall

• ISSA-LA Holiday Celebration keynote (Los Angeles), Dec 18
  https://issala.org/event/issa-la-december-18-dinner-meeting/

• Cloudfest (Europa Park), Mar 17-20
  https://cloudfest.link/

• Picks and Shovels with Dan Savage (Seattle), Feb 19
  https://www.eventbrite.com/e/cory-doctorow-with-dan-savage-picks-and-shovels-a-martin-hench-novel-tickets-1106741957989

• DeepSouthCon63 (New Orleans), Oct 10-12, 2025
  http://www.contraflowscifi.org/

---

Recent appearances (permalink)

• Enshittification: Why Everything Suddenly Got Worse and What to Do About It (HOPE XV)
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YrciT_dc2sc&list=PLcajvRZA8E0_tLLEh1COeAv-TcaDna2k1&index=32

• How To Keep IoT From Becoming An IoTrash (Def Con)
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tA7bpp8qXxI

• How Big Tech made Trump 2.0 (Real News Network)
  https://therealnews.com/how-big-tech-made-trump-2-0

---

Latest books (permalink)

• The Bezzle: a sequel to "Red Team Blues," about prison-tech and other grifts, Tor Books (US), Head of Zeus (UK), February 2024 (the-bezzle.org). Signed, personalized copies at Dark Delicacies (https://www.darkdel.com/store/p3062/Available_Feb_20th%3A_The_Bezzle_HB.html#/).

• "The Lost Cause:" a solarpunk novel of hope in the climate emergency, Tor Books (US), Head of Zeus (UK), November 2023 (http://lost-cause.org). Signed, personalized copies at Dark Delicacies (https://www.darkdel.com/store/p3007/Pre-Order_Signed_Copies%3A_The_Lost_Cause_HB.html#/)

• "The Internet Con": A nonfiction book about interoperability and Big Tech (Verso) September 2023 (http://seizethemeansofcomputation.org). Signed copies at Book Soup (https://www.booksoup.com/book/9781804291245).

• "Red Team Blues": "A grabby, compulsive thriller that will leave you knowing more about how the world works than you did before." Tor Books http://redteamblues.com. Signed copies at Dark Delicacies (US): and Forbidden Planet (UK): https://forbiddenplanet.com/385004-red-team-blues-signed-edition-hardcover/.

• "Chokepoint Capitalism: How to Beat Big Tech, Tame Big Content, and Get Artists Paid, with Rebecca Giblin", on how to unrig the markets for creative labor, Beacon Press/Scribe 2022 https://chokepointcapitalism.com

• "Attack Surface": The third Little Brother novel, a standalone technothriller for adults. The Washington Post called it "a political cyberthriller, vigorous, bold and savvy about the limits of revolution and resistance." Order signed, personalized copies from Dark Delicacies https://www.darkdel.com/store/p1840/Available_Now%3A_Attack_Surface.html

• "How to Destroy Surveillance Capitalism": an anti-monopoly pamphlet analyzing the true harms of surveillance capitalism and proposing a solution. https://onezero.medium.com/how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism-8135e6744d59?sk=f6cd10e54e20a07d4c6d0f3ac011af6b) (signed copies: https://www.darkdel.com/store/p2024/Available_Now%3A__How_to_Destroy_Surveillance_Capitalism.html)

• "Little Brother/Homeland": A reissue omnibus edition with a new introduction by Edward Snowden: https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250774583; personalized/signed copies here: https://www.darkdel.com/store/p1750/July%3A__Little_Brother_%26_Homeland.html

• "Poesy the Monster Slayer" a picture book about monsters, bedtime, gender, and kicking ass. Order here: https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781626723627. Get a personalized, signed copy here: https://www.darkdel.com/store/p2682/Corey_Doctorow%3A_Poesy_the_Monster_Slayer_HB.html#/.

---

Upcoming books (permalink)

• Picks and Shovels: a sequel to "Red Team Blues," about the heroic era of the PC, Tor Books, February 2025

• Unauthorized Bread: a middle-grades graphic novel adapted from my novella about refugees, toasters and DRM, FirstSecond, 2025

---

Colophon (permalink)

Today's top sources:

Currently writing:

• Enshittification: a nonfiction book about platform decay for Farrar, Straus, Giroux. Status: first pass edit underway (TKs and FCKs)

• A Little Brother short story about DIY insulin PLANNING

• Picks and Shovels, a Martin Hench noir thriller about the heroic era of the PC. FORTHCOMING TOR BOOKS FEB 2025

Latest podcast: Spill, part five (a Little Brother story) https://craphound.com/littlebrother/2024/12/01/spill-part-five-a-little-brother-story/

---

This work – excluding any serialized fiction – is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. That means you can use it any way you like, including commercially, provided that you attribute it to me, Cory Doctorow, and include a link to pluralistic.net.

https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Quotations and images are not included in this license; they are included either under a limitation or exception to copyright, or on the basis of a separate license. Please exercise caution.

---

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"When life gives you SARS, you make sarsaparilla" -Joey "Accordion Guy" DeVilla

This post was written by Alison Green and published on Ask a Manager.

I’m on vacation. Here are some past letters that I’m making new again, rather than leaving them to wilt in the archives.

1. Our company asked if we’d donate a kidney to a board member

My previous workplace sent a company-wide email (via the COO) asking if staff would donate a kidney to a 70-year-old board member. The renumeration would be “any costs associated with the surgery and post op care.”

I’m from a different country, and I found this email to be abhorrent! I feel it grossly overstepped boundaries, and reinforced privilege barriers (the majority of the workforce at this company is African American or Hispanic, whilst the board and upper level management are almost exclusively white.) Through research and general knowledge, I found there can be long-term health implications with donating organs, and I don’t feel just offering to pay for a surgery that wasn’t necessary in the first place even scratches the surface in terms of compensation.

My colleagues at the time didn’t think this request was unusual. Am I totally off-base with my disgust?

In the U.S. and many other countries, it’s illegal to offer compensation for an organ beyond covering costs associated with the operation, so that’s why they didn’t offer more than that. (The concern is that paying for organs would exploit poor people and could even be coercive.)

But it was a wildly problematic and inappropriate request anyway. Hopefully no one is going to feel pressured to say yes simply because it comes from above, but there is an inherent pressure when you’ve got those power dynamics in play. Plus, if an employee did donate, what does that mean for their employment there? Will they be given preferential treatment? Will others think they’re being given preferential treatment, regardless of whether they actually are? If the person’s performance worsens, will the employer feel comfortable addressing it the same way they would with someone else? If their job is later cut, will the employee feel betrayed? There’s a ton of potential for messiness here, all of it amplified by power and race differences.

– 2019

2. I told a friend I’d help him, and now he’s bombarding me with urgent messages while I’m working

A coworker of mine recently left my company to head up a nonprofit organization founded by his late father. The organization has very limited resources and is just getting off the ground. I told him I’d be happy to help him out with any marketing-related tasks, so long as it did not interfere with my actual work. Since he left two weeks ago, however, he has been up my proverbial ass with requests and things he “needs” urgently. DURING WORK HOURS. This week, he had the audacity to email my work email address with the word “urgent” in the subject line. Other colleagues have been included on these emails as well, but nobody seems to be perturbed.

Mind you, I told him i would help, but we never had the discussion as to what his marketing needs are and what the time commitment looks like. He just assumed he could start sending me requests.

How should I field this? Should I just not respond to future requests, or should i set the precedence that I am happy to help, but he needs to be respectful of my time and work schedule? I also haven’t received a single please or thank you for anything I have done, and that bothers me too. Do you think it is worth it to say something? He is an adult and I don’t want to scold him, but come on, dude.

It sounds like he may have had a different understanding of what “as long as it doesn’t interfere with my work” meant. He may have thought it meant you’d do stuff for him when you had downtime at work, and not realized you didn’t want to hear from him at work at all. So if you’re still interested in helping him, be really, really explicit with him about what that means. For example: “I can help you with things like X and Y, but I’m not going to be able to do anything during work hours, including fielding questions. You definitely can’t email me at work, and generally I’ll need a few days to get back to you. If things are going to be urgent or need to be moved forward during the work day, that’s not something I can help with. Given that, does it still make sense for me to help out?”

Also, ask directly what kind of time commitment he’s envisioning from you in an average week/month because you might have wildly different expectations there too.

Of course, all that assumes you still want to help him. If you don’t — and it’s absolutely okay if you don’t, particularly given his apparent lack of appreciation of your work and your time — you can say, “I’ve realized this is more of a time commitment than I can take on right now so I should bow out.”

– 2019

3. People are upset that my candy dish is gone

For a couple years, I kept a candy dish on my desk filled with chocolate candies. It was something I enjoyed providing. Sometimes I got frustrated with the greedy ones and the fact that only one person ever contributed candy/money, but it was still something I enjoyed doing.

About a month ago, I saw a financial advisor who told me I needed to cut expenses drastically. I realized I was spending almost $1,000 on candy a year! Yes, that $20-$25 a week really adds up when you multiply it out. So I decided to stop providing candy.

The first week was easy, because I was out of the office. I figured that would give people time to get used to it. We are now into the second week since I have been back, and people are still going by and making comments! “No candy?” “When is the chocolate coming back?” Some want me to explain why it’s gone. One person suggested I could keep buying it but then ask the company to reimburse me! All the people making comments and demanding explanations are the higher-ups in the office. These people probably make four and five times what I make. And to top it all off, there is a drug store with candy for sale right in the building!

I have tried just saying “I’m passing the torch!” Or, as Miss Manners advises in such occasions, giving a tight lipped, weak smile. Still the comments and questions persist! Why do people think they are so entitled to spend my money? And how do I get the comments to stop?

People are thoughtless. Some of them probably don’t realize you were paying for the candy with your own money (versus the company providing it) and some just haven’t stopped to think about how the cost would add up. That’s not entirely surprising — I would have guessed you were spending maybe $5/week on it and never would have guessed it was $20-25. People know they’re taking it but don’t account for how many others take it too, which makes it easier to think it’s a much smaller expense. Which isn’t to say they’d be entitled to it then either, of course! It could be pennies and you’d still be on solid ground in deciding you didn’t want to provide it anymore.

But people complain when they’re used to something delicious being available and then it goes away. That doesn’t mean they’re truly demanding you bring it back — it’s just people being people and not realizing how pushy they sound. Just say, “I was spending too much on it” or “I didn’t want to keep buying it” or “my candy days have come to an end” and don’t let it get to you. If anyone pushes beyond that, you can say, “They sell it downstairs if you want to take over.”

– 2019

4. What do I wear to spend the night with 49 random colleagues?

My organization is sending the entire staff (split into 50-person groups) on overnight team-building retreats. This is not so much a trust exercises and team racing kind of team building as it is we all sit in a room for hours and discuss our mindsets and behaviors (i.e., low physical activity and probably inside).

What is the expected dress code for a work event outside of work, where you will be spending every moment both waking and sleeping with a random selection of colleagues? My workplace has no formal dress code, and outfits vary vastly depending on what department you are in. I have seen colleagues run the gamut from button-ups and ties, to cargo shorts and sandals, to off-the-shoulder flowery tops. I usually wear ankle length pants and bodysuits with a jumper over the top. I don’t wear my work clothes outside of work, as they are way too hot for me.

This retreat is going to be in a very hot place in summer. I assume after the “workday” is done, we will have free time before bed. I am hoping that I would be expected to dress work-like for the work part and could maybe change into a dress or something after, but perhaps I am wrong and I am expected to be work-appropriately covered at all times. Furthermore, the nature of this retreat is that everyone sleeps on mats scattered around a single large room (this is completely normal in my country, although something you would usually do with family and friends). What on earth constitutes work-appropriate sleepwear? I assume my loose tanks with the peek-a-boob baggy arm holes will not cut it.

My colleagues have not been much help when I’ve asked around; most have given me a verbal shrug, and my manager looked a little nervous and said she wasn’t really sure, but that she’d heard that the Big Boss brought a brand new silk pajama set for the executive team version of this retreat earlier in the year. I am getting increasingly worried as the days get hotter and the experience of sharing a hot afternoon and sleeping room with 49 colleagues gets nearer.

First, for the record, this sounds horrible.

I doubt you’re expected to be in business wear even in your free time after work activities are over. I’d say that regardless of your company’s normal dress code, but it’s especially true given that normal work wear for many people attending is already pretty casual. You’ll likely be fine in shorts (as long as they’re not super short), capris, dresses, or even sweats or lounge wear when you’re not in the work portion of the event. (Reasonably nice sweats, not ones with holes or rampant stains.)

As for sleeping … wearing pajamas around coworkers seems awfully seventh-grade-slumber-party-ish to me! (And frankly, loads of people don’t even own pajamas anymore.) I’d go with a t-shirt and sleeping shorts (or lightweight lounge pants if you want more coverage) or something along those lines.

– 2019

Read an update to this letter here.

Brian Thompson, the CEO of UnitedHealth’s insurance unit, was fatally shot outside a Midtown Manhattan hotel in what police described as a “brazen” targeted attack by a gunman lying in wait for him. What do you think?

The post UnitedHealthcare CEO Killed appeared first on The Onion.

LOS ANGELES—Appearing stumped by the convicted murderers’ testimony, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Michael Jesic reportedly delayed his decision Thursday in the resentencing of Lyle and Erik Menendez after learning that one brother always lies, and one always tells the truth. “Oh jeez, this is tough, and to make it even worse, they say I only get one question,” said Jesic, who threatened to hold the Menendez brothers in contempt of court after they responded to the judge’s befuddled expression by snickering behind their hands and proclaiming “Fiddle-dee-dee!” “I may need to retire to my chambers, perhaps indefinitely. No—don’t do a little jig. Stop it! Order in the court!” At press time, reports confirmed the judge had wasted his one question by asking if both brothers were truthful and he was the liar.

The post Judge Delays Decision After Learning One Menendez Brother Always Lies, One Always Tells The Truth appeared first on The Onion.