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This week: Deciding what milk to drink / Voyager 2 is in trouble / Smarter conversations about feminism in politics / Sex and early menopause / When ‘Star Trek: The Next Generation’ was terrible

This week: Deciding what milk to drink / Voyager 2 is in trouble / Smarter conversations about feminism in politics / Sex and early menopause / When ‘Star Trek: The Next Generation’ was terrible

Most of these great items come from my social media networks. Follow me on Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr, LinkedIn, and Facebook for more fascinating videos, photos, articles, essays, and criticism. Learn more about my academic background here.

1. Almonds are out. Dairy is a disaster. So what milk should we drink?
By Annette McGivney | The Guardian | January 2020
“A glass of dairy milk produces almost three times more greenhouse gas than any plant-based milk. But vegan options have drawbacks of their own”

2. NASA reports Voyager 2 is experiencing technical difficulties
New Atlas | January 2020
“Voyager 2 has been going strong for over 40 years, but it’s beginning to show signs of its age. NASA is reporting that a fault has caused the spacecraft to lock itself down in safe mode, as engineers work to get it back up and running again.”

3. The Apple iPad turns 10 (and we’re still arguing about whether to call it a computer)
By Dan Ackerman | CNET | Janaury 2020
“Asking if an iPad is a computer is like asking if a hot dog is a sandwich.”

4. We Need a Smarter Conversation About Feminism in Politics
By Sarah Jones | Intelligencer :: New York Magazine | January 2020
“Misogyny, in other words, doesn’t look like a primary challenge from the left. It has nothing in common with proposals to create universal health care or make childcare affordable for all. Misogyny keeps women poor and it keeps them quiet. It is a tangible threat, a baseball bat, a gun.”

5. When ‘Star Trek: The Next Generation’ Was Bad, It Was Truly Horrendous
By Rob Bricken | Gizmodo | January 2020
“Everyone has their pick, but ‘Up the Long Ladder’ is my dark horse contender for the title, because it manages to be racist, sexist, and terrible sci-fi, all at once.”

6. The Cost of an Incoherent Foreign Policy
By Brett McGurk | Foreign Affairs | January 2020
“Trump’s Iran Imbroglio Undermines U.S. Priorities Everywhere Else”

7. I’m Six Weeks Pregnant, and I’m Telling the World
By Betsy Cooper | The New York Times | January 2020
“Against the mandatory secret first trimester.”

8. Having more sex makes early menopause less likely, research finds
By Hannah Devlin | The Guardian | January 2020
“Study of nearly 3,000 women suggests body may ‘choose’ not to invest in ovulation”

9. This Is How We Live Now
By Emily Raboteau | The Cut :: New York Magazine | January 2020
“A year’s diary of reckoning with climate anxiety, conversation by conversation”

10. Who Should Be on the Next Mount Rushmore?
Politico Magazine | July 2019
“We asked historians to imagine a new national monument for 21st-century America.”

Kate Stone’s Civil War: A state of insubordination

Stone has little sympathy or respect for former slaves, who she sees as “insolent” and insubordinate.

KS50

From 2012 to 2015, Stillness of Heart will share interesting excerpts from the extraordinary diary of Kate Stone, who chronicled her Louisiana family’s turbulent experiences throughout the Civil War era.

Learn more about Stone’s amazing life in 1861, 1862, 1863, 1864, 1865 and beyond. Click on each year to read more about her experiences. You can read the entire journal online here.

(Photo edited by Bob Rowen)

Stone has little sympathy or respect for former slaves, who she sees as “insolent” and insubordinate.

Sept. 21, 1865

Lamar County, Texas

We reached this haven a week ago. Shall we ever forget that forty-mile jolt in a four-mule wagon, the mules at full trot? We made it in a clay over a broken, sorry prairie with nothing to eat but dried peaches, uncooked, soggy biscuits, and warm, salty-tasting well water. We were bruised black and blue and were too tired to sleep or eat the first night. We did not find out until nearly night that the wagon floor was much easier than the chairs we were perched in, and we all crouched down in the straw, too worn out to hold up our heads.

The people who had sheltered us utterly refused all pay and were hurt at the idea — and they with absolutely nothing. Truly it is not the rich who are the most generous! Mamma will send them lots of things when she sends for the carriage.

We found nearly all the Negroes in a state of insubordination, insolent and refusing to work. Mamma had a good deal of trouble with them for a few days. Now they have quieted down and most of those who left have returned, and they are doing as well as “freedmen” ever will, I suppose. We were really afraid to stay on the place for the first two days. We are looking for the boys up from Tyler and for Jimmy and My Brother next week. Then, Ho, for Louisiana!

We have all the butter, milk, and curd that Mamma promised us with wild plums, maypops, and apples in abundance, and Mrs. Smith is a good housekeeper. But it is undeniably a dull spot. …

Johnny has taken Mr. Smith’s place as overseer. The Negroes mind him better.

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Observations on the Hudson River as it passes through New York City. The section of the Hudson which passes through New York is historically known as the North River, called this by the Dutch to distinguish it from the Delaware River, which they knew as the South River. This stretch of the Hudson is still often referred to as the North River by local mariners today. All photos copyright Daniel Katzive unless otherwise attributed. For more frequent updates, please follow northriverblog on Facebook or Instagram.