Friday Links!

my fall plans / delta variant pic.twitter.com/55UwaOEsx1

— Gerry Canavan (@gerrycanavan) August 12, 2021

I’ll be doing a lecture and seminar series as a virtual scholar-in-residence at The Rosenbach this fall on four of Octavia Butler’s novels. Here are the details! We’re reading Kindred, Wild Seed, Dawn, and Parable of the Sower…Transfer Orbit dives into the latest on The Last Dangerous Visions.In Praise of the Info Dump: A Literary Case for Hard Science Fiction.Alien again, again.Music to my ears: Rudy Giuliani, Sidney Powell, and the MyPillow Guy Are in Huge Trouble. Not as great: A rogue DOJ lawyer almost kept Trump in office.When they fantasize about killing you, believe them.Breakthrough cases may be a bigger problem than you thought. Children’s hospitals are swamped with Covid patients — and it may only get worse. How the Pandemic Ends Now.Census minute: Census Bureau releases population data, starting scramble to redraw congressional lines. We’re Going The Wrong Way. Wisconsin grows modestly and more diverse while Milwaukee plummets to 1930s levels, Census data show. Milwaukee city workers moved out in droves after the residency rule ended. It was a boon for the suburbs. Wisconsin as democracy desert.And in local news: Milwaukee’s comedy market is surging with new Improv club, more shows as people seek escape from COVID-19.Secret IRS Files Reveal How Much the Ultrawealthy Gained by Shaping Trump’s “Big, Beautiful Tax Cut.” Your favorite senator and mine, Ron Johnson, features prominently.A people’s history of the Karen.The fall of Snopes.com.A Brief History of Dick: Unpacking the gay subtext of Robin, the Boy Wonder. Now it’s official!Put a man on the moon by whenever you get around to it.UFOs and the Boundaries of Science.Why Are Young People So Obsessed With Cults? A sweeping drug addiction risk algorithm has become central to how the US handles the opioid crisis. It may only be making the crisis worse. What’s the matter with book reviews?Climate Denial, Covid Denial and the Right’s Descent.A New Idea That Could Help Us Understand Autism.And what happens when the bugs all die?

we are confronted with a planetary ecological crisis whose scale and severity is absolutely without precedent in human history and the primary political and aesthetic response is calling out people for being “doomers”

— Gerry Canavan (@gerrycanavan) August 12, 2021

They fuck you up, your mum and dad. / They may not mean to, but they do. / They fill you with the faults they had / And add some extra, just for you. pic.twitter.com/ciP9JaLtZY

— Gerry Canavan (@gerrycanavan) August 10, 2021