(Archived link)

Being old, death gets my attention, so I read the obituaries. This is a collection of recent obits, mostly of people whose work touched my life, because I want to say thanks (or maybe give 'em a final fuck you).

There’ll be a roundup like this occasionally, until I’m on the list myself.

   
• Christian Angulo     (Archived link)
kid

• Richard Aspinwall
math teacher

• Simeon Bihesi     (Archived link)
forgotten person

• James Darren     (Archived link)
Gidget's Moondoggie

• Linda Deutch     (Archived link)
journalist

• David Egle
in county jail

• Aysenur Eygi
activist

• Chance Gainer
football player

• Christopher Garcia     (Archived link)
football player

• Eric Gilliland     (Archived link)
writer, Roseanne

• Warren Curtis Grant
kid

• Nicholas Paul Grubb
"Pinnacle Man"

• Aamonte Hadley     (Archived link)
in county jail

• Cristina Irimie     (Archived link)
math teacher

• Will Jennings     (Archived link)
songwriter, "My Heart Will Go On"

• Rachel Johnson
in county jail

• Sérgio Mendes
bossa nova

• Margaret Miller Johnson
forgotten person

• Mason Schermerhorn     (Archived link)
kid

• Screamin’ Scott Simon     (Archived link)
rock'n'roller, Sha Na Na

• Brian Trueman
Danger Mouse

• George Washington
in county jail

• Howard Ziehm
porn pioneer

   
Previously dead

    (Archived link)

• Pedophile priest victims urge action from pope

• Lawyers for priest accused of child rape question court's authority, saying Catholic Church, not state, should adjudicate priest's sex abuse claims

• In the Pacific, a "dumping ground" for priests accused or convicted of abuse
    (Archived link)

• Philippine police confident that fugitive "son of God" pastor still in church compound

• Christian group recruits "Trojan horse" election skeptics as US poll workers

• Pastor fired over "predatory" texts with men and underage teenager, Texas church says

• The Meeting House, once one of Canada's largest churches, shuts down after scandal

• Former Gateway Church employee molested 3 children on several occasions: arrest warrant
    (Archived link)

• Diocese of Scranton removes priest after "credible" allegation of child molestation decades ago
    (Archived link)

• Circle of Hope Girls Ranch faces new federal lawsuit by youngest victim to take action
    (Archived link)

• Bond granted for former pastor accused of criminal sexual conduct

• Chicago priest removed from parish amid child molestation claims
    (Archived link)

• Almost 2,400 allegations of historical sexual abuse at more than 300 religious-run schools in Ireland
    (Archived link)

• Pastor resigns from church, school board amid abuse allegations

    (Archived link)

    (Original link)

• Record rainfall spoils crops in China, rattling its leaders

• Climate change can cause bridges to "fall apart like tinkertoys," experts say

• Even desert plants known for their resilience are burning and dying in the heat

• How Halloween pumpkins contribute to the climate crisis
    (Archived link)

• WMO report highlights vicious cycle of climate change, wildfires, and air pollution

• Higher temperatures with lower humidity will kill you quicker than previously though, study shows

• Climate change is already forcing millions of people to migrate – and it will only get worse

• Japan and China record their hottest summers on record amidst intensifying global heatwaves

• African nations are losing up to 5% of their GDP per year with climate change, a new report says
    (Archived link)

• How climate change accelerated spring winds
    (Archived link)

• Italy's southern islands drought made 50% more likely by climate change, study finds

... but there's money to be made, so la di da, la di da.

    (Archived link)

Corporate-controlled medicine is so evil, so vile, this seems like a step toward a sane alternative. Here's an anarchist collective with some chemistry know-how, teaching folks how to make their own medicines. I've spent a morning browsing the Four Thieves Vinegar Collective's website, and declare them good guys.

From the article:

... Unlike many other drugs that treat viruses, Sovaldi does not suppress hepatitis C, a virus that kills roughly 250,000 people around the world each year. It cures it.

“Normally you have a virus, and your body fights it off or your body fights it to a standstill and you just have it forever, basically, and hope it remains dormant more or less,” Laufer said. “The holy grail for every virologist is to find a way to drain the viral reservoir, and Sovaldi does this. You take one pill of Sovaldi a day for 12 weeks and then you don’t have hepatitis C anymore.”

The problem is that those pills are under patent, and they cost $1,000 per pill.

“Literally, if you have $84,000 then hepatitis C is not your problem anymore,” Laufer said. “But given that there are other methodologies for managing hepatitis C that are not curing it and that are cheaper, insurance typically will not cover [Sovaldi]. And so we’ve got this incredible technology and it’s sitting on the shelf except for people who are ridiculously wealthy.”

So Four Thieves Vinegar Collective set out to teach people how to make their own version of Sovaldi. Chemists at the collective thought the DIY version would cost about $300 for the entire course of medication, or about $3.57 per pill. But they were wrong.

“It’s actually just a little under $70 (83 cents per pill), which just kind of blew my mind when they finally showed me the results,” Laufer said. “I was like, can we do the math here again?” ...

(1) the ruling class benefits from illiteracy.

(2) short-form video entertains more than it sticks.

(3) reading is a discipline distinct from listening, watching, or other forms of literacy. It’s a skill that needs to be honed separately.

(4) Absolutely no one comes to save us but us. . . .

The reason you hate reading is because the ruling class benefits from illiteracy.

Not total illiteracy, mind you. That’s bad for business. . . . Read enough to be able to consume and to execute, not to consider critically, certainly not enough to create. Because then what? A mass of people realizing we can create and recreate everything we see and touch to something kinder for us?

. . .

Your relationship with reading is more than likely a direct result of your experiences with authority figures as a child.

In a great many iterations. If you were lauded for reading, put on a pedestal in front of your peership, it might be stress-inducing to return to work the muscles you know have atrophied. Are you still good or worthy of help if you cannot read voraciously, like you did as a child? If you were labeled a problem, difficult in class, slow… I bless and keep you. Worse, if you were made to feel less than because of your reading ability (unintelligent. burdensome. a waste of space. bound for prison) then you likely have a literal stress-response when someone mentions or suggests reading to you. Reading is a site of trauma your body holds onto for most of us. Anyone that suggests reading must not understand what you went through. Every objection imaginable will materialize when someone suggests that you *try *to read.

• Investigation reveals global fisheries are in far worse shape than we thought — and many have already collapsed
    (Original link)

• How climate change spread this deadly mosquito-borne illness to the US Northeast

• Siberia's "Gateway to Hell" is growing rapidly, and visible from space

• 'Way of life at risk': Under threat from climate change, Batam's sea people face an uncertain future
    (Original link)

• "It's time to give up on normal": what winter's weird weather (in Australia) means for the warm months ahead

• Brazil wildfires worsened by 'mega drought,' extreme heat

• Fertilizer made from city sewage has been spread on millions of acres of farmland for decades. Scientists say it can contain high levels of the toxic substance.

    (Original link)

    (Original link)

• Catholic Church settles lawsuit with B.C. man raped by priest when he was 6

• Court hearing begins for one of five Michigan priests accused of sex crimes
    (Original link)

• New Jersey pastor is accused of sexually assaulting child

• Former Vatican media personality Basilian Father Thomas Rosica accused of sexually assaulting a priest in Canada
    (Original link)
• … and Bishop unwilling to hear about it

• Jury trial set for Mobile-area pastor charged with rape, sodomy and sexual abuse
    (Original link)

• Ex-priest sentenced to 7½ years in prison for child sex abuse
    (Original link)

• Retired priest charged with sexually assaulting preteen parishioner in early 1970s

• North Carolina church 'devastated' after investigation charges youth pastor with sexual battery
    (Original link)

    Original link

    Original link