You tried, brave pigeon.
You tried.
RIP.— God (@TheTweetOfGod) September 23, 2020
• • • google suggested • • •
• • • some of the things I read in antisocial isolation • • •
Capturing Ellis Island’s Lost Period
The famous gateway to the United States lay abandoned for years before it was restored.
An abandoned corridor between buildings on Ellis Island. Embiggenable. Explore at home.
FROM THE EARLY-20TH-CENTURY PHOTOS OF Lewis Hine to movies such as The Godfather Part II, images of crowds and faces from all over the world enduring long journeys by ship to build new lives in America have been associated with a particular destination: Ellis Island. When the facility on an island in New York Harbor first opened its doors to receive hopeful immigrants—“your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,” in the words of poet Emma Lazarus, which grace the nearby Statue of Liberty—in 1892, the first person to be processed was a teenage girl from Ireland named Annie Moore. When the U.S. government officially closed Ellis Island, then a World War II detention center, in 1954, the last detainee released was a merchant seaman from Norway named Arne Peterssen. Between Annie and Arne, more than 20 million people had been through the America’s most famous immigration station, according to The New York Times.
After Ellis Island closed, its future and purpose uncertain and undecided, the buildings were neglected and abandoned for years. (Various proposals for its development were floated until 1964, when it was made part of the Statue of Liberty National Monument, managed by the National Park Service.) “Fast-forward to this hauntingly beautiful set of pictures taken in 1982 by Andrew Holbrooke, and what we notice first of course is the absence,” writes Bob Ahern, the Director of Archive Photography at Getty Images, which holds the images. “No humans, and no faces. If Hine’s lens looked to find meaning through the portrait, Holbrooke has found the hope and pathos through what is left behind.”
An office on Ellis Island, left as it was when the island was abandoned in 1954.
Holbrooke went to Ellis Island before its restoration began in 1985, when it was mostly forgotten in the shadow of its more famous neighbor, Lady Liberty. “I got permission from the [National Park Service] to spend weeks wandering around Ellis Island with a camera, including areas where tourists were not allowed,” Holbrooke says. “There was a sense of history everywhere: the name cards in file cabinet drawers, empty steamer trunks, sinks filled with plaster, time gone by, graffiti left by immigrants, abandoned offices left in disarray, the shadow of a coat hanger.” And Holbrooke found more. “There was life here too; pigeons flew in empty rooms, vegetation poked through cracks and broken windows, brilliant colors of fall burst outside.”
Since parts of Ellis Island were restored and re-opened as the National Immigration Museum in 1990, tourists have flocked to this complex symbol of the American Dream to glimpse a piece of the country’s history. (The south side, including the hospital, has not been restored, but can be toured with a guide.) What draws people is perhaps similar to what draws Ahern to these images: the overwhelming number of individual stories that can only be hinted at. “Bathed in beautiful light, we are asked to examine the crumbling walls, the abandoned spaces, and to explore the very textures of time passing. It is impossible to reimagine each individual journey of those millions of people, but in seeing Holbrooke’s photographs we can respond to the collective. We occupy the same space, however fleetingly, and wonder on what became.” …
A Failure of Empathy Led to 200,000 Deaths. It Has Deep Roots.
One giant psychology experiment explains why many people seem like they don’t care about the deaths of the elderly.
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Sometime this week, alone on a hospital bed, an American died. The coronavirus had invaded her lungs, soaking them in fluid and blocking the exchange of oxygen and carbon dioxide that makes up our every breath. Her immune system’s struggle to fight back might have sparked an overreaction called a cytokine storm, which shreds even healthy tissue. The doctors tried everything, but they couldn’t save her, and she became the 200,000th American taken by COVID-19—at least according to official counts.
In reality, the COVID-19 death toll probably passed 200,000 some time ago. And yet “the photos of body bags have not had the same effect in the pandemic” as after other mass-casualty events such as Hurricane Katrina, says Lori Peek, a sociologist at the University of Colorado Boulder who studies disasters. “Is our national empathy—our care and love and concern for one another—at such a low level that we are not truly feeling, in our bones, in our hearts, and in our souls, the magnitude of the loss?”
It’s hard for anyone to comprehend the sheer horror of mass death. As I wrote in April, “compassion fade” sets in when victims are no longer individuals but statistics, and few Americans have witnessed something of this scale before. But there’s an additional explanation for this empathy deficit: Part of the reason this majority-white, majority-non-elderly country has been so blasé about COVID-19 deaths is that mostly Black people and old people are dying. Eight out of 10 American COVID-19 deaths have been among people older than 65; the rest of the dead are disproportionately Black. White people’s brains psychologically sort minorities as “out-groups” that stir less empathy. Segregated neighborhoods have also helped insulate white Americans from the horror Black Americans face, because the ambulance sirens and the packed hospital wards are typically far from their own zip codes. “We literally don’t see those deaths in the same way we might if we didn’t experience segregation,” says Nour Kteily, a management professor at Northwestern University who studies hierarchies.
Ageism reduces human beings’ capacity for caring too. Globally, people don’t value elderly lives as much as they do young people’s, research shows. When it comes to deciding who lives or dies, there’s a disregard for the elderly, even among the elderly. …
6 Catastrophic Punishments The Universe Unleashed On Arrogant People
We all remember the classic fable of the king who stood tall because he was vain, and as a result, the giants picked him up first and ate him. Historians dispute whether that was truly based on real events, but every so often, circumstances really do happen in which the most arrogant fail and bring death and destruction to themselves — or to us all …
6. A Russian Pilot Bet He Could Land His Airliner Blind
Commercial planes were a little more primitive 35 years ago. Pilots back then had access to only the most basic of video games when they got bored, and the mile-high club was a very different experience due to sex not having been invented until Prince did so in 1989. Perhaps most significantly, the flight computer was nowhere as powerful. Digital fly-by-wire and the modern autopilot system only became standard at the end of the ’80s. Still, planes in 1986 had instruments that gave you an idea of what’s what. And so on October 20, pilot Alexander Kliuyev decided to pull the curtains closed over the windshield on Aeroflot Flight 6502 and land the aircraft without seeing the ground at all.
Sources don’t agree on exactly why he did that. The most common story in the aviation community is that his copilot, Gennady Zhirnov, bet him he wouldn’t be able to. Other reports refer to the challenge more generally as a “dare,” leaving blame off Zhirnov, who, if he did make that bet, stood to lose spectacularly whether Kliuyev succeeded or not. Kliuyev was perhaps “testing his abilities,” something pilots occasionally do but definitely should avoid when currently operating an aircraft carrying 100 people.
Either way, Kliuyev’s faith in his own powers was misplaced. As he came close to the runway at Kurumoch Airport, 500 miles east of Moscow, air traffic control told him, please, if you must avoid looking at the ground, try linking your cockpit to the beacons on the ground to guide you. Kliuyev refused. Then they told him, please, fly back up and come around again, because your current approach will result in a crash landing, with the “landing” part being debatable. Kliuyev refused. He hit the ground, and the plane flipped over, split, and burst into flames. …
RELATED: Asbestos, Canada Struggles to Find a Name Better Than ‘Asbestos’
“What’s in a name? That which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet'”
While according to Shakespeare’s eternal question, names shouldn’t matter, sometimes they actually kind of do — especially if the name in question is that of the town of Asbestos in Quebec, Canada, and you’re one of its approximately 7,096 residents that literally can not find a suitable substitute.
Once home to the Jeffrey Mine that in its heyday, which provided half the world’s supply of Asbestos, according to the BBC, the town’s namesake has since become disgraced as the substance gained infamy for its status as a dangerous carcinogen that has been banned in many countries around the globe. As the world turned on Asbestos, however, members of the Canadian community, like Bart Simpson and his fourth grade classmates at Springfield Elementary School, stayed true to their roots, keeping around the relic of their town’s past.
That is until last November, when officials launched a formal campaign to change their town’s name after toying with the idea for some time. While in theory coming up with a name that’s slightly less uh, grim, than Asbestos would be a seemingly straightforward process, like most things over the past year, things haven’t gone exactly to plan.
Aside from delays from the pandemic, the most notable obstacle in the way of making Asbestos less Asbestos-y is that pretty much everyone hates the potential replacements: Phenix, the French equivalent of a phoenix; Apalone, a turtle species; Trois-Lacs, which translates to three lakes; and Jeffrey, a nod to the town’s history and the name of the man who operated the first mine. …
The QAnon orphans: people who have lost loved ones to conspiracy theories
For some Republicans, QAnon is an opportunity to garner support. But for those who have lost loved ones to it, QAnon is a destroyer of families and relationships.
‘We’re going in opposite directions on the reality scale.’
“I lay awake at night and worry if my brother’s going to shoot a bunch of protesters,” said Daniel, 36.
Daniel, whose name has been changed to protect his family, always had a close relationship with his twin brother, Greg. They had “that twin thing, that twin bond”, Daniel said.
The brothers had visited each other often when they both lived in Wichita, Kansas, usually spent holidays together, and continued to talk at least once a week, even when Daniel moved overseas. They disagreed on politics – Daniel is a centrist Democrat, and Greg had espoused libertarianism – but their political differences had never come in the way of their relationship.
In early June, however, they had a major fight. Daniel had heard from their mother that Greg was posting on social media about the Boogaloo Boys, an armed far-right movement in the US that seeks to incite civil war. When Daniel called to confront his brother about the extent of his involvement with them, Greg had insisted that the Boogaloo movement was just an internet joke – but he also said that he hoped the country would, indeed, descend into civil war. The brothers argued and hung up on each other.
On 1 July, Daniel called to apologize. Greg said he was busy, as he was on his way to a counter-protest to a Black Lives Matter (BLM) rally in Lawrence, Kansas. He had packed his guns in the car, and was intent on helping local police identify BLM protesters. According to Greg, protesters and antifascist activists were “looting and rioting”, and he intended to do his part to stop them. “He said that antifa was lynching people and sending them to re-education camps,” said Daniel.
The demonstration was not without violence, though not on the protesters’ part: two cars attempted to plow through the crowd; no injuries were reported. There was no truth to what Greg had said. The brothers have not spoken since. …
Denmark’s ‘devilish’ waste dilemma
Its state-of-the-art trash incinerators are sending its climate ambitions up in smoke.
A waste-to-energy power plant operates in Copenhagen, one of many in Denmark.
Denmark has a garbage addiction.
The country depends on burning vast quantities of garbage to generate power, using highly efficient incinerators that scrub the worst of the pollutants from flue gases. The trouble is that it doesn’t generate enough trash to power its plants.
Denmark is Europe’s top waste burner. Incineration accounts for about a fifth of district heating and about 5 percent of its electricity.
But what just a few years ago seemed like a clever way to deal with garbage has now become a problem.
One issue is that the incinerators burn much more waste than increasingly tidy Danes throw away. Denmark has 23 incinerators capable of burning 3.8 million tons of waste a year. But the country needs to source more and more trash from abroad. It imported nearly 1 million tons in 2018, mainly from the U.K. and Germany.
That doesn’t square with Copenhagen’s climate goals; Denmark wants to cut its greenhouse gas emissions to 70 percent below 1990 levels in the next decade under a climate law adopted last year. …
“Today, we import waste with a high content of plastic in order to [use the excess] capacity at the incineration plants, with increasing CO2 emission as a result” — Dan Jørgensen, Denmark’s climate minister
Video Goodnesses
and not-so-goodnesses
and not-so-goodnesses
Democrats promise revenge for a pre-election Supreme Court vote, MAGA loyalty ends at mask-wearing, the Pentagon doesn’t give a s**t about coronavirus, and Florida’s governor really hates protesters.
THANKS to Comedy Central and The Daily Social Distancing Show with Trevor Noah for making this program available on YouTube.
Missing air travel? Airlines are booking flights that don’t actually go anywhere, and Leo Deblin (Roy Wood Jr.) brings the airport experience home.
As America’s Covid-19 death toll passes another grim milestone the devastating consequences of President Trump’s disregard for human life are still becoming clear, as they did this week when the CDC mysteriously removed guidance from their website indicating that the Coronavirus may transmit through aerosol droplets.
THANKS to CBS and The Late Show with Stephen Colbert for making this program available on YouTube.
CAUTION: Some language may not be appropriate for work or children.
Here’s me critical analysis on cruise ships and the industry at large. Smash the LIKE button and leave us a comment if ya want. Do you have sympathy for this industry in 2020 or nah? You ever been on a cruise ship and endured gastro? Sweet. Have a mint day everyone. O-Man.
箱を得たまる。（＝水を得た魚）Because Maru loves boxes!
FINALLY . . .
Found: The Wreck of a Ship That Carried Enslaved Maya from Mexico to Cuba
This slave trade is well known to historians, but this is the first known wreck from it.
The wreck is just two nautical miles from the town of Sisal. Embiggenable. Explore at home.
ON SEPTEMBER 19, 1861, A steamboat caught fire and sank in the Gulf of Mexico, two nautical miles from the Yucatán port town of Sisal. There were dozens of confirmed casualties, passengers and crew alike. But the full death toll will likely never be known, because the enslaved Indigenous Maya people held on the ship were never counted in the first place—they were simply listed as cargo.
Archaeologists from Mexico’s Sub-Directorate of Underwater Archaeology (Subdirección de Arqueología Subacuática, or SAS) announced recently that they’d identified the underwater remains of this ship, La Unión. Between 1855 and 1861, the Havana-based vessel brought, on average, 25 to 30 enslaved Maya people from Mexico to Cuba every month. The enslaved persons were then sold upon arrival in Havana.
The shipwreck was first found in 2017, after researchers found an 1861 document in the Yucatán state archive describing the fire and the approximate spot where it occurred. Local fishermen, who had heard about the wreck in oral retellings, also helped guide the researchers toward the search area. In tribute to one of these fishermen, the researchers temporarily named the shipwreck “Adalio,” after his grandfather. While it was clear that the team had something significant on their hands, it took three years of interdisciplinary research to confirm that “Adalio” was, in fact, La Unión. It is now the first ship ever discovered known to have carried enslaved Maya people.
No other ships that carried enslaved Maya people have been previously found.
Helena Barba Meinecke, director of the Yucatán Peninsula division of the SAS, outlined her team’s research process in an email. One key clue that “Adalio” might really be La Unión was that its technological and skeletal components—the propulsion machine, boiler, axles, paddle wheels, and chimney—dated to the first era of steamboat technology (1837–1860), and La Unión began operating in 1855. In addition, the archaeologists found that the ship’s boilers had exploded and that its wood had been damaged by fire. Perhaps most importantly, the location of the wreck matched what was reported in contemporary accounts and documentation. Perhaps the eeriest find, however, was brass cutlery used by first-class passengers on La Unión, who would have been unaware of the enslaved people on board. The cutlery was also branded with the name of the shipping company that owned La Unión. …
Ed. More tomorrow? Possibly. Probably. Maybe. Likely, if I find nothing more barely uninteresting at all to do.
