uspolitics

zadie smith a talk given in Berlin on November 10 on receiving the 2016 Welt Literature Prize. I did not understand that I was “championing” multiculturalism by simply depicting it, or by describing it as anything other than incipient tragedy. … Racial homogeneity is no guarantor of peace, any more than racial heterogeneity is fated to fail. … I find these days that a wistful form of time travel has become a persistent political theme, both on the right and on the left....

if the DFL’s really being honest … this is dark, but pretty much nails it. ...

this article landed in my reading queue a few days ago. in summary - if you want action on something, it better impact some segment of wealthy folks impacted as well. otherwise, the world at large seems to care a lot less and/or the marketing will be a lot less effective. on some issues, moral appeals don’t seem to work - a sobering reminder. however, if you prefer, the more on-point summary....

items dislodged from my reading queue of particular interest. first off - if you don’t have the morning paper in your RSS reader, you should. nerd bits slacker: fast distribution with lazy docker containers what happens behind the scenes when you type docker run. i’ve scratched my head aplenty over the operation of AUFS and the complementary machinery around docker volumes. lots of dots get connected here. borg, omega, and kubernetes the most recent ACM queue article from the borg crew re: container scheduling at the GOOG....

how we got where we are The reasonable man adapts himself to the world: the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man. – Maxims for Revolutionists, George Bernard Shaw (nybooks) on the value of social capital here’s an interesting little nugget re: the broadening inequality… resources enable you to make the necessary investments in your kids that insure access to the necessary networks....