My heart goes out to our LA friends and community. I hope you're all safe and sound and were able to evacuate. If you haven't already, be sure to download the Watch Duty app on your phone to check on the spread of the wildfires and evacuation orders.
I did myself and it was crazy to see how the original 3 fire triangle perimeter quickly spread given the high speed winds. As I'm writing this at 7:30 EST on Jan. 8th, the fires are still 0% contained.
Interesting things of note:
The air quality has reached hazardous levels so masking is critical. Someone on Twitter noted that many of the burnt homes were built in the 1970s, when asbestos was in peak production. I remember years after 9/11, my mother shared with me that many patients on her lung transplant floor were firefighters. Most would survive their lung transplants but would pass away from secondary infections they contracted. Just awful. The air quality should not be taken lightly.
Incarcerated folks make up 30% of all wildfire fighting crews in California, and they are 4x more likely to sustain physical injuries than firefighters and 8x more likely to suffer from effects of smoke inhalation, all while making a mere $2.90 to $5.12 a day. As a reminder, California also failed to pass anti-slavery measure Prop. 6 this past November, allowing forced labor to continue in California prisons.
LA's Mayor, Karen Boss, slashed LAFD's budget by $17M while she bumped LAPD's funding by $126 million. I sincerely hope this is a wake up call for politicians to stop ignoring climate change when it's literally burning down our cities. Americans have been climate refugees/migrants for some time now—total of 3.2 million.
a collection of random, contemporaneous thoughts. no photos. just vibes.
I caved and purchased a Hobonichi cousin planner. For decades, I've kept track of my affairs using a trusty Moleskine planner and Appointed notebooks for my meeting notes. But the Hobonichi enticed me this year with all the detail—if I haven't responded to your text/email, it's because I'm busy customizing my planner with washi tape and stickers like a child. 😌
The butter bell crock/jars are trending and it's gotta be a scam. Cute? Yes. Functional? No. Because who has time to clean and replace the water every few days. And if we're worried about rancid butter then why not just keep the butter in the fridge. What's wrong with an old-fashioned butter dish on your counter. Just feels like we're coming up with new ways to kill ourselves. Is this natural selection at play? 🧐
Mark Zuckerberg announced that Meta would stop working with third-party fact-checking organizations parroting talking points long used by Donald Trump and his allies, that the company's content moderation approach resulted too often in "censorship". 🥴
The program delivers on a campaign promise by President Subianto, who said the program aimed to fight the stunting of growth that afflicts of 21.5% of Indonesian children younger than 5 and would raise the earnings of farmers and the value of their harvest. 👶🏾🌾
I never pass up an art heist film so I've been enjoying random episodes of this true crime meets art crime podcast. Sidenote: If you haven't watched The Thief Collector, I highly recommend! Follows the story of a couple who stole a Willem de Kooning painting titled “Woman-Ochre” by cutting it out of a frame from the University of Arizona Museum of Art in the 1980s. The painting was thought to never be found until it shows up over 30 years later. 🕵🏾♀️
But this podcast has themed seasons and the latest season focuses on Crimes of Old New York. I just finished the episode about George Leonidas Leslie, an architect turned master bank robber, who moved to New York City in the late 1860s where he quickly became associated with Fredericka "Marm" Mandelbaum, a prominent crime boss. Leslie's architectural expertise allowed him to carefully design and carry out some of the most daring bank heists of the 19th century, earning him the title "King of Bank Robbers." 💸💸💸
