Assembled in the USA from 100% Chinese parts.

Live feed of the eruption in Iceland: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=faH3xrKyP_o

Live stream from drone: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LfDiffbPk6Y

I am hip deep in analog images from the 1970s to the mid-2000s. I'm working on converting them to digital now.

Two Paul Simon lyrics come to mind at the moment:

Time it was, and what a time it was, it was
A time of innocence, A time of confidences
Long ago, it must be, I have a photograph
Preserve your memories; They're all that's left you
(1968)

Kodachrome
They give us those nice bright colors
Give us the greens of summers
Makes you think all the world's a sunny day, oh yeah
I got a Nikon camera
I love to take a photograph
So mama, don't take my Kodachrome away
(1972)

Today, 7 June, is World Chocolate Day. Take appropriate action.

#WorldChocolateDay
#WorldChocolateDay2020

From https://www.thrillist.com/news/nation/national-nurses-week-deals-2020-free-food:

Throughout Nurse Appreciation Week, which starts with National Nurses Day on Wednesday, May 6, restaurants throughout the United States are offering free meals, coffees, and deep discounts to the nurses and healthcare workers who are busting their asses daily during the COVID-19 pandemic. Below, you'll find deals from places like Corner Bakery, Grimaldi's, Cumberland Farms, Steak 'N Shake, and tons of other chains that are doing their very small part to say thanks."

This woman is evidently confused about the nature of the society in which she is currently living.

https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/courts-crime/woman-who-allegedly-didnt-wear-a-mask-at-shunfu-mart-charged-with-offences

Paramjeet Kaur, 40, who made headlines on Sunday after videos emerged of her claiming to be a “sovereign” when confronted at the market, allegedly failed to wear a mask when she was outside her home, as required by law, on more than one occasion."

In videos circulating online, the Singaporean, who was born here, can be seen claiming to be a “sovereign” while in a heated argument with passers-by.

“It means I have nothing to do with the police, it means I have no contract with the police. They have no say over me,” she says.

A man, who is off-screen, responds: “This doesn’t even make any sense. If you’re a person in Singapore, you have to follow the rules of Singapore.” But the woman replies: “That’s the thing – I’m not a person, I’m ‘we the people’.”

"A report by Chinese evening paper Lianhe Wanbao on Tuesday quotes a woman who identified herself as Kaur’s mother saying that Kaur is a physiotherapist who had lived in Australia for 20 years before returning to Singapore last year."

TIL that the "sovereign citizen" movement is a thing in Australia as well as the States.

Singapore, not so much.

The Big Blue Bug in Providence is wearing a mask now! I only learned this week that it has an official name: Nibbles Woodaway.

The industry press did not disappoint! Article with details here: https://www.mypmp.net/2020/05/01/nibbles-woodaway-dons-a-face-mask/

I was never a huge fan of the airline but as is usual with airlines I'm on the side of more competition.

From https://www.bbc.com/news/business-47905089:

Passengers are stranded in India and around the world after Jet Airways suspended all international flights.

Flights from London, Paris and Amsterdam are among those grounded amid fears about the survival of India's largest private airline.

The airline cancelled all international flights until Monday when, according to reports, it will meet its lenders again to try to secure funding.

From https://www.ft.com/content/b2e56c96-1f32-11e9-a46f-08f9738d6b2b:

Every year, Chapman University in California publishes a fun list called the Survey of American Fears. In 2018, the biggest fear, for all Americans, was corrupt government officials. Money was at number four, but five of the top 10 fears were environmental. This is perhaps surprising, as politicians, especially in the US, often portray the environment as an elite concern. (By way of context, being murdered by a stranger was at number 50, one above sharks.)

“We are beginning to see trends that people tend to fear what they are exposed to in the media,” says Christopher Bader, the survey leader and a professor of sociology at Chapman. Media scare stories are, to an extent, fairly egalitarian and widely consumed. Plutocrats differ from the hoi polloi in that they have the means to do something about these newsworthy worries — which might explain the vogue among the Silicon Valley elite for post-apocalyptic boltholes in faraway places such as New Zealand.

From Adrienne Crew's latest piece, on time travel fiction. Third installment of ten in her Afrofuturism series on Hilobrow.

For an American of African descent, the notion of traveling to the past is a painful one. In no matter which time period a person like me might arrive, if I’m in Europe or a European colony, I might very likely be raped, enslaved, lynched, or all of the above. I’ve asked African American friends about which past time period they’d most like to visit, and they always agree with me that the present is the best. Brandi Brown, a young African American stand-up comedian who formerly worked in advertising, once joked that when she was asked, “Don’t you wish you could go back and work in the time of Mad Men?, her response was: “I would not like that at all! I’m a huge fan of my current rights.” The very idea of time travel, for African Americans, heightens our anxiety about the history of anti-black white supremacy in the world.

#Outlander ,#siemprebruj, #AydreaWalden, #hollybass, #backtothefuture, #sankofaand #Kindred

I do appreciate a good language joke. South Africans, particularly Xhosa-speakers, really seem to have liked this one too.

From https://www.timeslive.co.za/tshisa-live/tshisa-live/2019-02-25-heres-what-trevor-noahs-hilarious-oscars-wakanda-joke-actually-means:

Trevor Noah may have got applause from the audience at the Oscars on Sunday night for his speech about Wakanda, but local fans were crying with laughter at the shade the comedian was actually throwing in a Xhosa-infused joke.

Trevor took to the Oscar's stage to present Black Panther as one of the Best Picture nominees at this year's award ceremony and mocked those who thought Wakanda may be a real place.

"Growing up as a young boy in Wakanda, I would see T'Challa flying over our village, and he would remind me of a great Xhosa phrase. He says 'abelungu abazi ubu ndiyaxoka' - which means 'In times like these, we are stronger when we fight together than when we try to fight apart'."

His "inspirational" story drew applause from those who did not understand Xhosa.

Click through to see the video and get the accurate translation.