CJW: Welcome to another edition of nothing here. The pandemic continues, Melbourne’s lockdown continues, my manuscript edits continue, the revolt against systemic racist violence in America continues, but also, elite corruption and solidarity against the people still continues. Don’t let the bastards get you down.
Our latest bonus letter came from m1k3y, writing about Eugene Thacker and the movie Spectral. It’s the latest example of MKY finding interesting things to say about a sci-fi film I found to be so bad that I never would have spared the mental energy. It’s his brand. To get access to this bonus, future bonuses, and the full archive, you can become a supporter.
Corey J. White (CJW) - Your current events sin-eater. Wrote some sci-fi books. Naarm/Melbourne.
Marlee Jane Ward (MJW) - Author. Apocalypse witch. Your fabulous goth aunt. I’m also this guy. Utterly bonkers sorry not sorry.
m1k3y (MKY) - Wallfacer / ecopoet // Dark Extropian Musings / pryvt.rsrch
Daniel Harvey (DCH) - Designer, writer, provocateur. Pro-guillotine tech critic. @dancharvey
CJW: American Passports Are Worthless Now, by Indi Samarajiva
In the end, Trump did what he said. He built a wall around America and made the world pay for it. He just never told Americans that they’d be stuck inside.
I don’t know if the predicted figures here are accurate (and I truly hope not), but it’s interesting to consider this angle. In the West we largely don’t have to think too much about our passports and our ability to travel because our passports bestow a certain amount of privilege. But what happens when the people screaming about being made to wear a mask realise they can no longer travel? Will we see the first war fought over tourist destinations?
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DCH: Understanding the rage of white male supremacy: An interview with Lisa Wade, PhD
The lifestyles that have been traditionally described as the American dream—most notably, home ownership—didn’t become a normal part of American life until the 1950s. White politicians, banks, businesses, and neighbors all collaborated to make sure that those advantages went almost exclusively to white people. So, it is only white people that have ever had open access to that thing that is called the American Dream.
A brilliant read on the wicked problem of white supremacy and how fighting it will require intersectional approaches.
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CJW: It’s a Defining Moment in the Fight Against Climate Change | Time
[…] this year, or perhaps this year and next, is likely to be the most pivotal yet in the fight against climate change. “We’ve run out of time to build new things in old ways,” says Rob Jackson, an earth system science professor at Stanford University and the chair of the Global Carbon Project. What we do now will define the fate of the planet–and human life on it–for decades.
The focus on economic impacts, GDP, and similar in these sorts of pieces always irritates me because it seems so absurd to care about money when we’re talking about maintaining a viable future for the many and not just the elite few. But I get it - they’re trying to speak the language of the people in charge. Shame on us all I suppose, that we let our society get to a place where human life is seemingly worth so little to those we entrust so much power to.
MKY:We considered ourselves to be a powerful culture…
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CJW: Sensitive Material
Censoring images of breasts alongside decapitation videos and images of abuse slots female-presumed nudity into an unstable category. Porn is dangerous because it invites the unruly and violent desire of cis, straight men — desire that cannot be curtailed but can at least be diverted to messy sites quilted over with autoplaying video ads. Outside of these designated cesspits, porn prompts revulsion and removal. Naked breasts get swept away alongside open wounds.
On transitioning, top surgery, and the censorship of “female-presenting nipples”.
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CJW: The ACAB Spring continues…
Unlike the local officers, federal police aren’t beholden to legislative and legal restrictions on use of force against protesters, allowing them to shoot copious amounts of tear gas and impact munitions into crowds in the hundreds without warning. These officers have also been documented using unmarked vehicles to grab protesters off the streets and detain them without proof of probable cause
A former senior DHS intelligence officer explained that while other federal agencies are required to wear identifiers when conducting arrests […] that is not the case with the DHS.
So weird how the massive federal agency created in the aftermath of 9/11, with little oversight and massive overreach is now being used to quell legitimate protests. It’s almost like if you spend decades eroding or outright destroying freedom abroad, it’s only a matter of time before you bring that military force to bear on your own citizens.
Related:
Federal Law Enforcement Use Unmarked Vehicles To Grab Protesters Off Portland Streets
SDPD: Investigation Into Controversial Plainclothes Arrest Will Remain Secret
In an analysis of nearly 300 documents that reference “antifa,” The Intercept found repeated instances of antifa and left-wing protesting activities cast in cartoonishly grim terms alongside more substantive reports of lethal right-wing violence and threats that have received scant mention from top Trump administration officials.
It was so obvious even in the moment that it’s barely worth mentioning, but at least we’ve got the proof now.
MKY: Portland adopts full Hong Kong protest tactics in response to Feds coming to suppress (what I’d dearly love to believe is) a nascent revolution. Feds deployed to more cities… more cities adopt these tactics. The best thing about being glued to this is waking up in the middle of the night, certain that “the Reichstag moment” will be a Federal Courthouse, or other piece of Federal ‘property’ [it’s that vague, by design], set ablaze by Blackwater agents styled as ‘anti-fa’ ‘larpers’. Yeah, it’s a fun time to be a future-gazing wannabe sci-fi writer.
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DCH: Barcelona’s Latest Affordable Housing Tool: Seize Empty Apartments
This week, the city’s housing department wrote to 14 companies that collectively own 194 empty apartments, warning that if they haven’t found a tenant within the next month, the city could take possession of these properties, with compensation at half their market value. These units would then be rented out by the city as public housing to lower-income tenants, while the companies in question could also face possible fines of between €90,000 and €900,000 ($103,000 and $1,003,000), according to Spanish news outlets.
More like this please.
CJW: I know the right-wing hates “government interference” (read: responsible governance of any sort), but this is exactly what is needed to temper the worst excesses of capitalism: a government that will put the needs of its people above capital.
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DCH: Hong Kong’s protest movement keeps getting stymied by Apple
“What do the first three have in common?” asked Andy Yen, CEO of the Swiss secure email service ProtonMail, referring to Google, Twitter, and Facebook. “They are banned in China. At the end of the day, what it really comes down to is the level of economic influence that the Chinese government has over the company.”
Big tech morality is always mapped to their business model. Facebook, Google, Twitter often make terrible ethical decisions because of their outrage economics. Here, Apple’s direct-to-consumer sales is the culprit.
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DCH: Power of DNA to store information gets an upgrade
A team of interdisciplinary researchers has discovered a new technique to store in DNA information—in this case “The Wizard of Oz,” translated into Esperanto—with unprecedented accuracy and efficiency. The technique harnesses the information-storage capacity of intertwined strands of DNA to encode and retrieve information in a way that is both durable and compact.
Other things previously stored in DNA include: Smoke on the Water by Deep Purple, Tutu by Miles Davis, MLK’s I have a dream speech, Shakespeares’ sonnets, and of course Wikipedia embedded into an apple tree.
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Cutting Room Floor:
Nissan Pioneer Touts Resin Battery That’s 90% Cheaper to Make (via Sentiers)
Back to the Future (great long read at Real Life Mag on the re-emergence of drive-ins)
Australia’s environment in unsustainable state of decline, major review finds
The Right-Wing Brothers Behind the Reopen Protests - more right-wing grifters
Engineers create a wireless robotic camera that can ride atop an insect and send images back to a smartphone [that modern cyberpunk trope of surveillance insects is just about here - rejoice?]
Dystopia Isn’t Sci-Fi—for Me, It’s the American Reality - By friend of the newsletter, Cadwell Turnbull
The tragic stories of 119 species still struggling after Black Summer (and how to help)
Don’t ask if artificial intelligence is good or fair, ask how it shifts power
A Staggering 21TB of Source Code Were Just Buried in The Arctic For an Unknown Future
After 40 years, researchers finally see Earth’s climate destiny more clearly
Active leak of sea-bed methane discovered in Antarctica for first time [guess what wasn’t accounted for in the current climate models…
Beetle-mounted camera streams insect adventures Actual bugs. Fun.
MKY:Attraction (2017) / Attraction 2: Invasion (2020)
Computer, show me the exact opposite of Independence Day and every other FX-heavy alien invasion movie coming outta Hollywood. Post-soviet russia provides. In Attraction you’ve got the military urging restraint to trigger-happy politicians, “aliens” that are just keeping a watchful eye-in-the-heavens on us (and despairing) until <insert Chelyabinsk reference> – and the only ‘bad guy’ is the female lead’s soon to be ex-boyfriend, who goes all Earth First! with his street gang buddies to form a shitty reactionary ‘resistance’ cause he has a jelly, and then gets a solid redemption arc in the sequel. The biggest selling movies in Russia for a reason, and def a way to fill yet another night in this eternal loop of quar life.
DCH: The garden of forking memes: how digital media distorts our sense of time
The de-centralization of timekeeping brought about by digital media harkens back to a much older style of measuring time. Before the invention of the telegraph, there was no way to instantaneously synchronize timekeeping devices across long distances. No time zones, no universal standard against which clock towers could be evaluated for accuracy. Timekeeping was more an art than a science. Each village emitted its own time zone. Much like the townships of old, every internet community has its own “subjective time zone”.
A really lovely read. Well worth your time.
CJW: Lots of interesting ideas here…
Clocks are the deceptively simple product of an intricate political arrangement. I’d even go so far as to say that politics is the art and science of creating the time machines that we inhabit — the calendars that help us orient and coordinate as we journey from cradle to grave.
And it ties in with, and references, the Politigram paper/project that Austin shared a while back.
CJW: So Many of Us: Recognizing Abuses of Power
There has been another round of articles about Warren Ellis (see below), but I daresay the above is the most important. Some of the women who have come forward about Warren have put together a website to lay out what they would like to see from Warren and the industries that he works in going forward, testimonials about their own experiences with him, as well as a glossary, book suggestions, and links to provide support to other people who have experienced similar. It is incredibly brave and important. If you have spent any amount of time reading Warren’s work, you owe it to these women to read their words.
Related:
I used to take inspiration from a quote from Warren’s newsletter:
It’s all about forward motion. Doesn’t matter what breaks, catches fire or falls over. Get up. Eat fire. Step over debris. Keep moving.
But as more information comes to light, it’s hard not to consider that the women he hurt made up so much of the “debris” he chose to step over.
Anyway, I’ve got a big stack of comics I’m excited to get to soon, so hopefully the next time you see the COMICS banner here it’ll be me sharing something cool.
DCH: If you’re a reader of my personal newsletter, then there’s a good chance you know about it because of Warren Ellis. The first three editions of 20 Minutes into the Future were cross-posted to his newsletter, Orbital Operations. If you’re a fan of his writing then you’ve very likely read the many stories Corey linked above about how he’s used his fame and influence to prey upon dozens of women and non-binary individuals over decades.
If you haven’t already then please take the time to read the many testimonials from his targets in their own words. And if you’re able then consider supporting the many organisations that do the hard work to help people recover from this sort of trauma.
DCH: Temperature Anomalies by Country 1880-2017 based on NASA GISTEMP data. Not good.
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DCH: From 0 to 10,000,000 cases - Coronavirus (COVID-19) World Timelapse. Also not good.
DCH: We’ve been chatting about doom jazz lately. Bohren & Der Club of Gore and The Mount Fuji Doomjazz Corporation are both great examples of the genre. Slow tempo, dark ambient vibes for the collapse. Enjoy.
CJW: Truly Universal Income, In Conversation with Corey J. White
Another podcast on which I discuss Repo Virtual, among other things. There are some vague/oblique spoilers concerning the book, so if you’re worried about that maybe hold off on listening until you’ve read it. Otherwise this was a great chat, the hosts are great, and I really enjoyed it. The Assets and Androids podcast is billed as being about “The political economy of speculative fiction,” just to give you a sense of the sort of topics discussed. Basically, if you read this newsletter and enjoyed RV, you’ll enjoy this chat too.
Also, if you listen carefully, towards the end of the recording you may be able to hear MJW single-handedly changing a flat tire outside the window.
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CJW: WorldCon Schedule for CJW & MJW
This week Marlee and I were meant to be getting on a plane and flying over to Wellington for the World Science Fiction and Fantasy Convention (affectionately known as WorldCon). But the pandemic happened (maybe you heard about it), so now the entire convention is being run online. Here are the events/panels Marlee and I will (separately) be appearing on - if you’re already registered for the convention, come and check out the very smart things we have to say. If you’re not registered, there should eventually be recordings available, so we’ll link to those once they’re online.
Wednesday 29 July, 2020
16:00 NZST - Kaffeeklatsch: Corey J. White
Thursday 30 July, 2020
10:00 NZST - Colossus, Skynet, or the Culture? (CJW)
17:00 NZST - Kaffeeklatsch: Marlee Jane Ward
Friday 31 July, 2020
17:30 NZST - Reading: Marlee Jane Ward
Saturday 1 August, 2020
14:00 NZST - Apocalypse Now and Then: The Changing Nature of Apocalypse and Post-Apocalypse Fiction (MJW)
16:00 NZST - History of SF Fandom in Australia (MJW)
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CJW: And a special congratulations to friend of the newsletter Ganzeer, who welcomed a new member into the family this week. Lots of love to the three of you.
If you know someone who might appreciate what we do here, feel free to share the word.
Take care of yourselves. It’s rough out there.