Neolithic
The transition from the Ice Age to the Neolithic has long been a point of curiosity for me: It is here that humans settled onto fixed agricultural plots and coalesced an authoritarian system of social organization from what had previously been much less hierarchical and much more egalitarian. We began to view wilderness less as home and increasingly as hostile.[1] Why? William Burroughs attributed the change to climate change.[2] But what precipitated the climate change? It looks like it might have been a comet.[3]
University of Edinburgh, “Comet strike may have sparked civilisation shift,” Phys.org, June 24, 2021, https://phys.org/news/2021-06-comet-civilisation-shift.html
Residential schools
Amanda Coletta and Michael E. Miller, “Hundreds of graves found at former residential school for Indigenous children in Canada,” Washington Post, June 24, 2021, https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2021/06/23/canada-cowessess-residential-school-graves/
Donald Trump
Spencer S. Hsu, “500 arrested in Jan. 6 Capitol riot, including first charged with assault on media member, Garland announces,” Washington Post, June 24, 2021, https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/legal-issues/500-arrested-in-jan-6-capitol-riot-including-first-charged-with-assault-on-media-member-garland-announces/2021/06/24/cc972198-d529-11eb-ae54-515e2f63d37d_story.html
Federal Bureau of Investigation
I’m not expecting ever to learn the full story here. But apparently there’s considerable reason to doubt that a Federal Bureau of Investigation dig for gold in Pennsylvania did indeed come up empty. The gold had allegedly been stolen during the Civil War.[4]
Michael Rubinkam, “Affidavit: FBI feared Pennsylvania would seize fabled gold,” Associated Press, June 25, 2021, https://apnews.com/article/pennsylvania-oddities-technology-lifestyle-government-and-politics-2c2d2a064fa7f8b3835648821ca3ecbc
Self-driving cars
There is a new blog post entitled, “The ‘hard problem’ of self-driving technology.”
Mark Gurman, “Apple’s Car Obsession Is All About Taking Eyes Off the Road,” Bloomberg, June 24, 2021, https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-06-24/big-tech-s-car-obsession-is-all-about-taking-eyes-off-the-road
- [1]John H. Bodley, Victims of Progress, 5th ed. (Lanham, MD, Altamira, 2008); William J. Burroughs, Climate Change in Prehistory (Cambridge, United Kingdom: Cambridge University, 2008); Riane Eisler, The Chalice and the Blade (New York: HarperSanFrancisco, 1995); Max Oelschlaeger, The Idea of Wilderness (New Haven, CT: Yale University, 1991).↩
- [2]William J. Burroughs, Climate Change in Prehistory (Cambridge, United Kingdom: Cambridge University, 2008).↩
- [3]University of Edinburgh, “Comet strike may have sparked civilisation shift,” Phys.org, June 24, 2021, https://phys.org/news/2021-06-comet-civilisation-shift.html↩
- [4]MMichael Rubinkam, “Affidavit: FBI feared Pennsylvania would seize fabled gold,” Associated Press, June 25, 2021, https://apnews.com/article/pennsylvania-oddities-technology-lifestyle-government-and-politics-2c2d2a064fa7f8b3835648821ca3ecbc↩