Quickies: Persistence Isn’t Futile, Taunting the Trolls, and Disco Space Rock

• Why People Should Just Pause for a Minute and Not Blindly Celebrate 84 Lumber’s Immigration Ad – “If others want to celebrate the ad and tells us to go to hell, that’s cool. We will disagree and that’s fine. But this ad never felt right from the very first time we saw it last night and to us, it’s more Trumpian than you think (ironic, given how Trump’s own supporters are hating the ad).”
• What the world needs now is this disco-era Italian space-rock band – “Here, at last, is a video that asks the important questions. Questions like, can a band be composed entirely of uncles named Jerry or Charlie? How hard can a man commit to doing the robot poorly? How can someone play the cheesiest music in the goofiest way while refusing to look like they’re having any fun? Is space rock a ‘lifestyle?’ How hard did these guys live it?”
• #ShePersisted: social media erupts after Mitch McConnell silences Elizabeth Warren – “Many people took this as an act of censorship and tyranny — the Senate majority leader using an arcane rule to silence a senator who is merely voicing a civil rights hero’s and her own disapproval of Trump’s attorney general nominee. So they began blasting his own words in a hashtag — #ShePersisted — by citing other women, from Harriet Tubman to Leia Organa (from Star Wars), who resisted oppression.”
• How To Be Disabled, According to Stock Photography – “Search ‘disability’ on any stock photo website (we use Shutterstock) and you can go pages without seeing an actual human person. Because at the end of the day, the chair gets the job done on its own. It’ll stir up all that familiar pity, unease, and confusion without having to acknowledge the fact that one billion people worldwide are disabled and therefore disability can’t actually be or mean the same things for everyone. Efficient!”
• What Happens to Your Body When You Die in Space? – “As Hadfield points out, a corpse in space presents some major logistical problems. The fact that a dead body is a biohazard is definitely the biggest concern, and finding the space to store it in is a close second.”
• The Troll Taunter – A young Wikipedia editor withstood a decade of online abuse. Now she’s fighting back—on Wikipedia itself. – “But on that Friday night, Temple-Wood had an idea. For every harassing email, death threat, or request for nude photos that she received, she resolved to create a Wikipedia biography on a notable woman scientist who was previously unknown to the free online encyclopedia. She thought of it as a giant ‘fuck you’ to the anonymous idiots seeking to silence her.”
• In Mexico, The Crowd Loves To Hate Pro Wrestler Who Plays Trump Supporter – ” ‘I had a perfect idea: Why not come to the arena with [an American] flag, but I’m gonna take this to a whole other level,’ he says, unfurling a flag and grinning. ‘I have a 4-ft. flag with the face of Donald Trump on it.’ “

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