State lawmakers passed the law after a North Texas homeowners’ association barred landlords from renting to Section 8 tenants. Most of the affected tenants in that neighborhood were Black.
Meta’s new Twitter competitor, Threads, reached over 30 million users in its first day alone, posing one of the biggest threats to the embattled social media company since Elon Musk took ownership. What do you think?
An attorney for Twitter accused Meta of hiring dozens of former Twitter employees with the intention of creating a "copycat" platform, implying a lawsuit could come next.
(Image credit: Stefani Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images)
NORMAN, OK—Claiming that statewide curricula should no longer ignore this violent historical event, Oklahoma school officials announced plans Friday to begin teaching students that the Tulsa Race Massacre was a crime of passion that resulted from loving Black people too much. “It’s important that students are educated…
SAN FRANCISCO—Claiming the Meta CEO violated his intellectual property rights, Elon Musk filed a lawsuit against Mark Zuckerberg Friday for being better at profiting off someone else’s idea. “He clearly violated the law by copying my idea of taking another person’s idea, but making way more money off it than I would…
The Atlantic remains quiet, with no action expected over the next 7 to 10 days, while the Pacific should see a bit of activity ahead.
Happening now: Remaining quiet
Things remain quiet across the tropics this morning.
A disturbance in the western Gulf is mostly ashore now, while a weak wave approaches the Lesser Antilles, though it will bring showers and storms there.
We still have disorganized disturbed weather in the western Gulf, but it is basically ashore at this point. The only other feature that stands out is a wave approaching the Lesser Antilles. This should bring showers and storms there, but there is no real risk of development. Another disturbance about halfway across the Atlantic may have a narrow window to develop next week. Short of that, there’s not much doing.
The medium-range (days 6 to 10): Still calm!
All remains quiet, though we expect a system or two to form in the near and medium term in the Pacific. Nothing that is expected to impact land, however.
Fantasyland (beyond day 10): Likely quiet a bit longer
We still do not see any items of note on any of the modeling we use looking out farther in time. The Atlantic may begin to get a bit less hostile toward tropical systems by late month, but as of now, there are no consequences of that potential showing up out there.
Housekeeping!
A kinder, gentler version of housekeeping than the scene in “Tommy Boy” to close out today. Let’s hop through some things.
Seasonal outlook
The fine folks at Colorado State University released their second to last seasonal update for the 2023 Atlantic season yesterday. Somewhat surprisingly, it increased the seasonal totals, by 3 storms, 2 hurricanes, 1 major hurricane, and most impressively 35 Accumulated cyclone energy units (a very consequential increase).
Colorado State University’s seasonal outlook is calling for another 14 storms this year, giving us 18 total when all is said and done. (Colorado State University)
Not that we expected them to cut their numbers or anything, but this was a bit of an aggressive increase. If you read between the lines, the battle between warm sea-surface temperatures and El Niño makes their outlook almost a damned if you do, damned if you don’t situation. While we feel that this is a bit of a bold forecast, there is a conceivable path there — but we would need El Niño to do something unprecedented in our history, which is to substantially reduce its impacts on the Atlantic. Another possible route to an active season? More activity in the open Atlantic, where the water is way warmer than normal and El Niño’s influence is a little less.
Whatever the case, we are statistically only about 3 percent of the way through hurricane season, when using ACE as a metric. So it is far too soon to write any seasonal outcome off.
July hurricane nuggets
When was the last July hurricane in the Atlantic? You have to go all the way back to 2021 to find one. Elsa, if you may remember due to its memorable name, was the last July hurricane in the Atlantic.
Hurricane Elsa in 2021 passed near Barbados, peaked as a hurricane in the Caribbean, and then made landfall in Cuba before Florida 2 days later. (NOAA)
It never made landfall as a hurricane but still caused about $1 billion in damage. The last landfalling hurricane in July was Hurricane Isaias, which came ashore in Brunswick County, NC and managed to cause over $5 billion in damage across the Caribbean, Bahamas, up the U.S. east coast, and in Canada.
The strongest observed July hurricane was Emily in the frenetic season of 2005. Emily became a category 5 hurricane southwest of Jamaica. It made one landfall in the Yucatan near Tulum as a category 4 storm and another in Tamaulipas as a category 3 storm.
So, yes, storms do happen in July and they can be memorable!
Social media
Without getting into the weeds on all this, we recognize that the social media landscape is ever-changing and seems to be undergoing some considerable upheaval right now. We encourage you to sign up for our email updates to the right (desktop) or by scrolling alllllll the way down (on mobile), so you never miss a post. But, if you do prefer using social media, we currently have numerous accounts established, and we’ll reassess our strategies as the landscape further evolves.
On almost all of these, we should be “theeyewallwx” if that makes your life easier.
Please keep in mind…this is a *lot* for us to keep up with, so we will likely be making some cuts once the dust settles, hopefully within the next 6 months. But for now, we’ll do our best to keep up with all these platforms to reach you where you are.
Yesterday saw some locally hefty rains across the area. We picked up anywhere from 1 to 4 inches of rainfall between Pearland and Westchase, with another bullseye out west of Cypress along 290 into Waller County.
Radar estimated rain totals were as high as 4 inches in parts of Waller County and close to that near the intersection of the Westpark and the Beltway. (NSSL)
Areas just south of The Woodlands saw 2 to 3 inches of rain as well. Even Matagorda Bay (not shown above) saw about an inch or more in most the area. We are not yet done with the rain, though we do not believe today will play out quite as yesterday did.
Today
We’re starting the day off with an area of rain sitting near Matagorda Bay and just a few showers in and around Galveston Bay and the island.
Heavy rain is impacting the Matagorda Bay area this morning, with just a few showers and rumbles of thunder around Galveston Bay. (RadarScope)
As the day goes on, look for more scattered thunderstorms to develop across the area. The highest chances will be south and east of about Cypress. So much of the area will see showers or at least hear thunder again. Those that see showers today could see as much as an inch or two of rain, while others will see next to nothing. Look for generally low 90s and light winds (except localized gusts in storms).
It feels like we have one or two more decent chances at rain today and tomorrow before the spigot is basically shut off.
Saturday & Sunday
If you have weekend plans, you will probably be fine. But there will certainly be thunderstorms in the area. Look for about a 30 to 40 percent chance of showers and storms on Saturday, followed up by about a 20 percent chance on Sunday. Outside of showers, look for sun, clouds, and slowly increasing temperatures. We’ll be in the low to mid-90s tomorrow and firm mid-90s on Sunday. Morning lows should be in the 70s on Saturday before back closer to 80 degrees on Sunday morning.
Early next week
Rain chances don’t quite go to zero to start next week, but they will drop off to the 10 to 20 percent range on Monday and Tuesday. As that occurs, look for temperatures to warm into mid to upper-90s, with morning lows near 80 degrees. It will begin to feel rather uncomfortable with peak heat index values over 105 degrees.
We expect to start seeing the question “when will this round of heat ease up?” soon, and unfortunately we don’t have a clear answer right now. (Weather Bell)
Heat returns
By the time we get to Wednesday, look for high temperatures near 100 degrees, give or take a couple, with morning lows around 80 degrees. The difference between this heat wave and June’s heat wave will be noteworthy. In June, the high pressure setup directly over northern Mexico or Texas, and we just baked with extreme (for June) heat. This time around, it looks more like a traditional summer heat wave, with high pressure centered over the Desert Southwest. It will strengthen and expand to a point where we see just a lot of generically “hot for July” weather in southeast Texas but probably not extreme heat. If the June pattern had recycled this time around, we’d probably be talking 102 to 105 degrees every day. Instead, we’re probably talking 98 to 102 degrees, which while quite uncomfortable is not terribly uncommon in July.
That said, I fully expect heat advisories to re-enter the chat by early next week. As this will again be a potent, long-duration period of high heat and humidity, heat precautions should be taken as they were in June.
This post was written by Alison Green and published on Ask a Manager.
It’s four answers to four questions. Here we go…
1. Should we require a doctor’s release to return from a medical leave?
I am a director at a manufacturing company, and our positions have different physical requirements (sedentary to heavy lifting to outdoor work). When employees request time off for medical reasons, I’ll use my best judgement on whether they’ll need a doctor’s release to return. General rule is if an employee needs several days off and their position requires physical labor and/or has safety concerns, we will require a doctor’s release to return. Still, it’s dependent on the medical situation and job type, and sometimes they don’t fully divulge what’s going on. Which is fine, I understand the need for privacy. Sometimes I will have to request additional info, but I try to pry as little as possible and focus on side effects/concerns/etc. All employees are given info on FMLA, and we encourage them to request any accommodations. We rarely require a doctor’s note for the accommodation because we trust our employees.
I’ve been told by various people that this is a legal liability and harms our employees, and once I was told its “abusive.” They’ve insisted that if an employee discloses a medical issue, no matter how vague, we must require a doctor’s release to return. This feels invasive to me. Demanding a note feels like I don’t trust my employee to give me the correct info. If I feel that an employee is struggling, I’ll address my concerns with them then, but not all medical issues require releases to return to work. Sprained ankle at a desk job? Don’t need a doctor’s release. Sprained ankle for a mechanic that climbs ladders and lifts boxes? Probably needs that release.
The “abuse” comment came when an office employee was diagnosed with cancer. They initially requested a reduction in hours when they began treatment, which we gladly did (without reduction in pay) and worked with them to move some responsibilities. We encouraged them to take as much time as required for treatment, but they wanted to continue to work to keep their life “normal for now.” As treatment progressed, they decided to take time off, which we also had no problems accommodating. The abuse comment popped up when another employee pestered this employee for information early on in their treatment, found out about their lack of a doctor’s release, and promptly accused us of abuse as we did not confirm with that they were healthy enough for work (her treatment of this employee is a different story, and she was eventually let go for bullying).
Am I completely off-base? Are we harming our employees by not getting confirmation that they are allowed to work when they disclose medical issues? Or are we on the right track?
No, you’re not off-base. You’re treating your employees with respect, honoring their privacy when you can, accommodating whenever possible, trusting them to tell you if there’s an issue, and using common sense about when safety might require something more. Those are all excellent things.
Requiring someone to submit a doctor’s release before they can return to work regardless of the circumstances would be adding an unnecessary layer of bureaucracy that would undoubtedly frustrate your employees, delay their return (since now they have to go back to the doctor to get a release), and cost them more money, without any real benefit over what you’re doing now.
Don’t let yourself be thrown off by an employee who sounds like they had some sort of highly problematic agenda of their own (and which clearly wasn’t just the best interests of their ill coworker).
2. Vaping on video calls
I work at a company where everyone is fully remote so all meetings are online. There have been a few times where I have noticed coworkers vaping during meetings (even during meetings they were leading so they knew we could see them) and I found it a bit weird but wanted to get your take on it. Obviously I feel like it would be rude to smoke or vape in an in person meeting but since this was online I’m struggling to work out why it still feels a bit odd and slightly unprofessional? Is it just me? What is the etiquette here?
No, it’s not just you — in most workplaces, this would be considered unprofessional and a problem.
You’re expected to maintain at least some illusion of professionalism and adherence to work norms, even when you’re at home. And vaping on a work calls looks entirely too relaxed — it’s similar to if you were swigging from a beer as you led the meeting (which would be okay at some companies, but not at most) or were, I don’t know, flat-ironing your hair or leading the meeting from your blanket fort. It’s not that you couldn’t possibly be fully engaged while doing those things, but you’re going to look like you’re not.
When you’re working you give up a certain amount of freedom to do other things at the same time. Sometimes it can be mostly because of optics, but it’s a reality of work nonetheless.
3. My boss is assigning my employee work without letting me know
Today I was in a department meeting when my boss (the head of our department) called upon my direct report to give an update on a project. The only problem: this was the first I was hearing about this project! My boss had apparently assigned it to my direct report without looping me in.
This employee has been my assistant (helping me with my own senior projects) for about two years, and in addition to those duties he is now also starting to take on his own junior projects in our department (but always, so far, with my explicit oversight and guidance). My expectation has always been that I’ll have oversight of his work along with my own, and while this project my boss assigned him isn’t huge or complex, I was surprised to have it added to his plate without my knowledge.
I feel like I should say something to my boss, politely asking to be looped in when she’s assigning work to my direct report. But how do I even say that … and is it appropriate to raise this concern? I have a warm and cordial relationship with all involved, and I don’t want to cause drama. My boss has her own assistant so it’s not as if she’s short-staffed, and I think she saw this project as a “growth opportunity” for my assistant, so the assignment was coming from a good place. But how can I mentor him and support that growth if I don’t even know what he’s working on?
Yep, it makes sense to want to be looped in on what your employee has been assigned if it’s a substantial project or outside the normal course of what you’d assume he’s working on — not only for the reasons you mentioned, but also so you know his overall workload and available bandwidth. It’s reasonable to mention that to your boss and it’s unlikely to be a big deal; she probably just didn’t think about it and will be more likely to in the future once you nudge her about it.
But you should also mention it to your employee, too — i.e., “If Jane assigns you a project that will take longer than a few minutes, please let me know so that I’m aware of what’s on your plate.” That way you’re covering both sides of it and you’re less likely to be left in the dark.
4. When applying for a job, can I tell an employer that I’d need the high end of their salary range?
It has been many years since I last searched and applied for a job. I live in a state in which a salary range is required for job postings, which is great because I feel like it saves time and effort for both the job seeker and poster. My issue is that I often see postings with a wide salary range, with the low end being too low, but the high end being reasonable. Is it okay to include my salary requirements in a cover letter so they are aware I am not interested in the job if they are going to offer me the lowest salary posted? I don’t know if that would be off-putting to the person on the receiving end of the application, or if they would appreciate it so they can move on if they are not able to offer me the salary I would need to accept the position.
Yes, that’s fine to do! It won’t be off-putting to any sensible employer (you’re saving them time if they don’t want to pay the range you listed). There’s potentially some risk that by naming a range so early, you’re boxing yourself into that … but if what you learn about the job during the interview process makes you think a fair salary would need to be higher, you can always explain that at that point. And I’d argue that (relatively small) risk is outweighed by the benefit of saving yourself time if they don’t intend to pay the high end of their range anyway.
I do recommend trying to avoid naming a salary before the employer has named their own range (since otherwise you risk lowballing yourself). But in this case, they’ve already told you their range and you’re just clarifying where you’d need to fall in it.
The Biological Clock Reconciling Careers and Motherhood in the 1980s McKaughan 1987
Well this is a book that would have caught my eye back in the day. As a person who waffled about having kids, this book would have been like a match to gasoline in my stress-filled late 20s. Back then mothers over the age of 30 were pretty much considered “high risk” or too old. At least in my mind, I had to have a baby before I turned 30. (I made it by 2 months.)
This was a regular discussion topic among my age group. It also led to the discussion that child care was just this side of evil or damaging to your baby. All the fears are here in this book. It is also incredibly ignorant that maternity leave wasn’t really a thing for most wage earners. Paid maternity leave was for the ultra rich, if they negotiated for it in their high powered jobs. Bottom line, all 300 pages plus of this book really only applied to about 1 percent of working women.
The Secret Service confirmed that testing showed an unidentified white substance found in the White House during a routine search is cocaine, with the investigation into how it got there still ongoing. What do you think?
One of the most pernicious ideas that copyright maximalism has spread is that preventing people from freely accessing creative material is not just a good thing to do, but should be the natural state of affairs. This has made questioning whether copyright is really the best way to support artists and promote creativity hard. Against that background, there’s an interesting opinion from one of the top EU court’s special advisers, known as advocates general, suggesting a situation in which copyright definitely should not be applied. The Court of Justice of the European Union’s press release explains the background:
Public.Resource.Org Inc. and Right to Know CLG are two non-profit organisations whose focus is to make the law freely accessible to all citizens. The organisations had challenged before the [EU] General Court a Commission Decision refusing to grant them access to four harmonised technical standards (HTS) adopted by the European Committee for Standardisation (CEN) with respect to the safety of toys in particular. As their challenge was unsuccessful, they appealed the General Court judgment before the Court of Justice.
In today’s Opinion, Advocate General Laila Medina looks into the question whether the rule of law as well as the principle of transparency and the right of access to documents of EU institutions require that HTS are freely available without charge.
The conclusion reached by Advocate General Laila Medina is straightforward:
for the purposes of EU law in general and for the access to EU law in particular, and, given HTS indispensable role in the implementation of EU secondary legislation and their legal effects, they should, in principle, not benefit from copyright protection.
Moreover:
even if HTS could be protected by copyright, free access to the law has priority over copyright protection.
The basic idea is simple: people can’t be expected to follow a law (or technical standard) if they don’t have ready access to it. Copyright is a barrier to access, and therefore should not be allowed for harmonized technical standards (HTS), just as it is not permitted for EU laws. And even if for some reason HTS were subject to copyright, free access must be granted anyway, blunting its negative impact.
It’s worth emphasizing that the Advocate General’s opinion is only advisory, and may be ignored by the main court when the latter issues its final judgment on the case. Nonetheless, it’s great to see one of the EU’s top legal authorities dare to go against today’s orthodoxy that copyright is so wonderful it should be applied to everything, no exceptions.
The Least Expensive Thing on the Registry: You are cheap, sure, but they wouldn’t put the gift on the registry if they didn’t want it, right? Enjoy the picture frame, newlyweds! At the $200-per-plate reception, you’ll be telling the “drinks are on me!” joke at the open bar all night.
The Second Least Expensive Thing on the Registry: Someone already bought the cheapest item.
Le Creuset Dutch Oven: You hope they will buy this for you when you get married. Or at least whatever advanced model is on the market by the time you get married. Someday.
High-End Thank You Notes: Hint-hint.
The Knife Block with Seven Japanese Steel Blades: You grossly overestimated how much this couple likes to cook.
Sur La Table Flatware: You fully expect to be invited over for a dinner party after they get back from their honeymoon.
The KitchenAid Stand Mixer: As soon as you got the link to the registry, you jumped on this so that no one else could buy it. They are going to love you for this gift. It’s classic. It’s trendy. It’s the first step toward that dream Nancy Meyers’s kitchen. And you got to it first. You won the registry.
Monogrammed Whiskey Glasses: You are the out-of-town guest the couple knew wouldn’t be able to attend the wedding, but you are still expected to send a gift. This is a personalized yet impersonal gift, much like your invitation.
Eddie Bauer Thermal Quilt Set: You live in the Northeast and assume everyone is always freezing.
Luggage: They got you something of similar dollar value for your wedding, so you had to reciprocate. It was either this or the $200 toaster, and there’s no way in hell you are buying them that.
The Millennium Falcon Belgian Waffle Maker: You are the groom’s friend from high school.
A Home Brewing Kit: You are the groom’s friend from college.
$100 Amazon Gift Card: Your life is too busy to put any imagination into a gift. Enjoy whatever it is people buy from Amazon. Maybe batteries?
Matching Luxury Robes: You are madly in love with your amazing partner and want to share that feeling with the happy couple. You hope these robes offer the same level of intimacy you feel right now, one month into a relationship. Isn’t love spectacular?
A Contribution to the Down Payment on Their First Home: Seriously? You know home ownership is a challenging prospect, but they’re asking us to help them with their living situation? Does that mean we get an equity stake in their home along with our contribution? And if they don’t close on a house, do you get my money back? Whatever. You suppose helping them buy a home is better than giving money for their honeymoon.
A Contribution to Their Honeyfund: Nothing else on the registry seemed practical, so why not let them go parasailing in Cabo? That’s about as practical as a $200 toaster.
Buying Three of the Cheaper Options and Bundling Them Together: This proves that you are not cheap. You have no doubt this cookbook, oven mitt, and napkin rings will be a cherished part of their marital life.
A Set of Dish Towels: You didn’t expect to be invited to this wedding (you never thought that you and the couple were “wedding” close), so this feels like a solid neutral option that doesn’t presuppose an unwarranted level of closeness.
The Smeg Toaster: You are a rich motherfucker and want it to be known. No one needs a $200 toaster, but your magnanimity knows no bounds. All hail your glorious generosity.
Buying Something Off the Registry: You have been through this before and know better. They’ll use the Le Creuset once before resorting to takeout. That waffle iron will only gather dust in the cupboard. Those seven sets of Egyptian cotton sheets will stay in a trunk before going to Goodwill when they move to a starter home. What they really need is heavy-duty Tupperware. It isn’t flashy, but when they have to prep weekly meals and save leftovers, they’ll send you an appreciative thank you note. They won’t be happy with you at first. But after a few years, they’ll realize that they were wrong. That’s marriage for you.
Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida is facing backlash for his long history of antigay remarks, both in office and on the presidential campaign trail. The Onion examines some of the most homophobic statements he’s made throughout his career.
SAN FRANCISCO—Emphasizing that the product was simple to use and incredibly easy to order through their mobile app, telehealth brand Hims announced Thursday that it would begin offering a new dunce cap for men who can’t get hard. “Starting today, all Hims customers can log on and, at the click of a button, have one of…
I’ll start with the good news: my spouse passed the bar and has a job. We started receiving Health Insurance through his job, so I started seriously looking for a new job! Gaston retired at the beginning of the year.
I carefully took note of all the suggestions here and rehearsed them at home with my poor husband. I’ve always been on the shy side, so I needed practice, but I did start to challenge Gaston. It didn’t work.
· “What do you mean by that?” and other similar statements were met by explanations about how people with low paying jobs are lazy and entitled and if they wanted more money they would get new jobs.
· “That sounds classist” and other explicit statements were brushed off as this was my first “real” job after college and unlike college the real world isn’t all about safe spaces and political correctness.
· He seemed happy to educate me and to brag about being willing to “speak truth to power” and “take a stand against wokism and cancel culture.” When I asked for specifics, I was assured that as I got older and more experienced I would be able to spot these things and I would get a feel for when things weren’t quite right.
He did say that after sending around the email he was scolded but stood his ground. He was very proud of that and how he was moved around for “taking a stand” in the past. According to Gaston he was able to stand up for people and against virtue signaling because he was going to retire soon and could fight back when others couldn’t. After a week of this a woman I work with pulled me aside and essentially said while she could tell what I was trying to do, he was never going to listen to a woman decades younger than him and if I wanted to help giving him a platform was not the way to do it.
I will say that the company is a big fan for “restorative justice.” That is instead of someone being punished they are supposed to be educated. So, when Gaston made loud comments in the past he was assigned online courses about diversity and inclusion, etc. while on the clock as opposed to disciplined. Unfortunately there doesn’t seem to be a next step after “take course on inclusivity,” except, “move under another manager who can assign more/different courses and hope this time it works.” I don’t know if the company is bad at holding people accountable because they are truly sold on “everyone can change if you help them right” or if they don’t care (and secretly agree with the Gastons) and are using restorative justice as a cover to make it look like they are doing something.
Mostly I want to thank you and your readers for showing me where I worked. I genuinely thought I worked at a great company. When I asked in my last interview before I was hired they said they were a very diverse company and they do have a lot of policies on the books that are great. For example, there are rooms set aside for pumping and for daily prayer, different desks and computers for people to choose from depending on their physical needs, the office is decorated for pride month, black history, etc. While all those things were rolled out relatively recently, within the last five years, I was convinced I worked at a wonderful company with a few loud outliers. So when there was a lack of pushback to Gaston and moving him around instead of dealing with him I thought maybe I was overreacting or oversensitive. When I asked around and was told I would be labeled a troublemaker for making a fuss about him I thought I was the problem. I guess I am still reconciling, “we decorate for pride month but don’t slap down classist emails.”
On that final note, do your readers have any suggestions on how to find a good company to work for? I’m worried that my sense of normalcy has been damaged and that even if there are great policies on the surface the culture underneath might be rotten or with spineless upper management.
First, as we start to understand post-affirmative action America, we look to a natural experiment 25 years ago, when California ended the practice in public universities. It reshaped the makeup of the universities almost instantly. We find out what happened in the decades that followed.
Then, we ask, why does it cost so much for America to build big things, like subways. Compared to other wealthy nations, the costs of infrastructure projects in the U.S. are astronomical. We take a trip to one of the most expensive subway stations in the world to get to the bottom of why American transit is so expensive to build.
This episode was hosted by Adrian Ma and Darian Woods. It was produced by Corey Bridges, and engineered by Robert Rodriguez and Katherine Silva. It was fact-checked by Sierra Juarez. Viet Le is the Indicator's senior producer. And Kate Concannon edits the show. Alex Goldmark is our executive producer.
“Lili Chin is an artist based in New York City. Combining installation, video and sculpture, her practice focuses on nature and architecture to explore rituals in time, bridging contemporary and ancient ideas that investigate themes of memory, duration and spirituality.
William Warden is a painter from Knoxville, Tennessee. Much of the painting involves modernist approaches to flatness and materiality with reference to landscape painting and it’s numerous strategies regarding spatial construction. Concepts such as ‘observation’ and ‘perspective’ and how they operate in the making/seeing of an image as well as the evocation that can occur are concerns of the work.
Samira Yamin’s interdisciplinary practice cultivates an ethics of viewership as an active position, with the potential to make dynamic otherwise static depictions of people and places represented exclusively through war, disaster and suffering. Using repetitive, precisely articulated gestures, Yamin dissects, reorganizes, and often obliterates images — news magazines and family photos alike — resulting in a collision of representation and abstraction and the confusion of objectivity and subjectivity.”
“Lillian Young: The Problem with Archives” at Arts Fort Worth
“Historical artist Lillian Young depicts forgotten or not well-known moments in the historical Black experience, focusing on lesser-known Black leaders, stories, events, and objects commonly known within Black communities. Often historical facts have been modeled to fit others’ narratives and these changes can affect how we understand and react to current events. Today many people work against understanding facts of history, especially in BIPOC narratives. In highlighting these moments Lillian works to make a connection to the social anxiety felt today from the rise in racism, loss of representation, and her own struggle to continue to fight for equity.”
Diego Rodriguez-Warner, “Sugar Sugar Sugar,” acrylic, latex paint, spray paint and hand-carved relief on panel, 72 x 96 inches.
“RULE Gallery is pleased to present Sharp Pause, an exhibition of new paintings and drawings by Diego Rodriguez-Warner at our Marfa, TX, location. In the past decade, Diego Rodriguez-Warner has garnered acclaim for his richly complex figurative paintings that lean on drawing and printmaking at their core. His characteristic works unify flatly painted acrylics and wood carving into single compositions that probe a trompe l’oeil aesthetic that simulates animation. The depicted figures appear disjunctive and entangled in motion and thought, assuming multiple subjectivities while disrupting any legible readings of their bodies. The seductive scenes in the resulting paintings compel viewers into uncomfortable involvement, analysis, and reflection on a society of competing narratives tearing at the seams, simultaneously coming together and at risk of falling apart.”
“Abby Flanagan & Kerry Maguire: When it suns, it pours” at GrayDUCK Gallery.
“When it suns, it pours is an exploration of perceptual downshifts that scale the environmental to the elemental, an exercise akin to looking for a star with a microscope. This exhibition of drawing, printmaking, sculpture, and sound installation by Abby Flanagan and Kerry Maguire features artworks that are fragments of day-to-day attempts to reckon with oblivion. Through an accumulation of small gestures, each artist logs daily encounters with their environment that unveil facets of their surroundings which would otherwise go unnoticed. Both artists turn to material traces and glitching as a means of calling attention to the realm of the infinitesimal and the unapparent: a singular shell in the ocean, a particle of dust in the atmosphere, a drop in a rainstorm, a blip on the radar.”
“Lucha Libre, 90 Años de Historia” at the Brownsville Museum of Fine Arts
“Lucha Libre Mexicana, 90 Años de Historia references a history of wrestling that has never been presented before in the United States. Its central focus is Mexican Wrestling, which spans over a hundred years since its arrival in Mexico and 90 years since its professionalization. The exhibition will cover the period from September 21, 1933, the day the former Arena México was inaugurated, up to the present time.
It is a significant curatorial and museographic challenge as it integrates original and authentic objects from great legends of Mexican wrestling, without necessarily showcasing the sporting trajectory of each individual, but rather emphasizing their role as part of Mexican identity and history.”
Hovertext: I feel there's a culinary horseshoe graph where only the highest and lowest quality restaurants will serve you macerated chicken kidneys or whatever.
Currently, the U.S. Supreme Court sits nine justices, three of whom were appointed by former President Donald Trump. The Onion asked politicians why they oppose President Biden expanding the court and appointing more justices of his own, and this is what they said.
ITHACA, NY—Putting her head down to avoid drawing attention to herself, Alexandra Hepp, a professor at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, told reporters Thursday she was pretending not to recognize a bird she knew from work. “Oh shit, it’s that purple honeycreeper from my office,” said Hepp, who turned her back toward…
Limited Audience Jokes are jokes that appeal only to a limited audience. Of the ones on that page, the one that I enjoyed was “What’s an anagram of Banach-Tarski?”
In Hi Everybody! A Bad Medicine Podcast, medical doctors discuss the medical accuracy of scenes in television and movies. The podcast’s title is a reference to the character of Dr. Nick Riviera from The Simpsons, and the host of the podcast introduces himself as “You may remember me from such podcasts as…” with a different joke podcast name each time. This is a catch phrase of another Simpsons character, Troy McClure. I hadn’t appreciated the work that goes into coming up with a new joke for each episode until I did the same thing for my Windows Confidential column.
An amateur village cricket team found themselves two players short for a match and recruited from a nearby pub. One of their recruits brought a companion, Twitter user enbyinjail, whom they assumed to be his girlfriend, but who they didn’t realize played cricket in university and currently plays on a “respected London woman’s team”. Enbyinjail waits for an appropriate moment for the reveal. (Unrolled thread.) Warning: Foul language.
Remember the Project Enzyme conference announcement? The one that provides no information about what Project Enzyme is yet still wants you to attend? Well, it seems that my complaints have finally paid off. This year’s Project Enzyme conference announcement includes a two-sentence paragraph at the end: “What is Project Enzyme? It’s ⟦brief description⟧.”
WASHINGTON—After examining an unknown substance discovered on White House grounds, the Secret Service told reporters Wednesday that the mysterious white powder found in the West Wing had been identified as President Joe Biden. “Through extensive forensic testing we’ve determined the composition of the white powder to…
NEW YORK—Leaving spectators and competitors absolutely stunned by his vigor, former President Jimmy Carter reportedly won the Nathan’s Famous Hot Dog Eating Contest on Tuesday. “Those dogs were sliding down his throat faster than we could even count them,” said event promoter and host George Shea, who awarded the…
