Breaking records

Smoke bombs and early indicators

Waterfront, midcoast Maine

1. It got a little colder than usual in the Northeast this past weekend due to an arctic front. Where I am in midcoast Maine, the windchill hit -41 Saturday night. About three and a half hours west, the Mt. Washington Observatory calculated a record-breaking windchill of -109. Gusts at the peak hit 128mph. Brisk.

2. On Tuesday, LeBron James beat Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s career scoring record of 38,387 points. The record has held since Abdul-Jabbar retired in 1989. The New York Times has a fascinating breakdown on How LeBron James Outscored Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and All the N.B.A. Greats.

3. I’ve had lucid and cinematic dreams all my life, but so far I don’t act them out. Luckily. According to recent research, acting out dreams can be an early sign of neurodegenerative disease.

4. In the 1930’s, Italian fascists called for the abolition of pasta, which they called “an absurd Italian gastronomic religion.” Anti-pasta advocates argued in favor of “nutrients through pills.” (It didn’t catch on.)

5. I loved reading “The Radical Roots of Bikesharing” about the history of bikesharing and an anarchist group that smoke-bombed Queen Beatrix’s wedding (to Prince Bernhard, who had been a member of the Hitler youth) in 1960’s Amsterdam.

6. In a “dumpster fire for democracy,” Florida Governor Ron DeSantis recently banned books in classrooms, proposed requiring that high school athletes submit menstrual data, ordered universities to submit data on trans students, and most recently banned the AP African American Studies course. On February 1st, Following Florida’s rejection of the AP course, the College Board released a new curriculum which cut queer and feminist authors and removed mention of the Black Lives Matter movement. In The New Yorker this week, writer and professor Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor interviewed Professor Robin D. G. Kelley about The Meaning of African American Studies.

7. A devastating 7.8-magnitude earthquake hit Turkey and Syria this week, killing at least 15,000. Survivors have been left without shelter in the cold. The Syrian American Medical Society and Karam Foundation are collecting donations to assist rescue and recovery.

Take care,

Kate