@mariachong
Writer and private intellectual. Immigrant. Sola gratia. Business consultant. / Loves people, food, tech, art, culture, science, water, space, gardens, children. / Whoever is winning at the moment will always seem to be invincible. —Orwell
This is a beautiful concept in an age of anxiety and division: a little free library of sorts, but in the form of an art gallery. Bringing art to residential neighborhoods. Sounds like something Wes Anderson or @kottke.org would find delightful.
People in a makeshift beach and seating area on a former highway along the edge of the Seine in Paris
People in a makeshift beach and seating area on a former highway along the edge of the Seine in Paris
People in a makeshift beach and seating area on a former highway along the edge of the Seine in Paris
People in a makeshift beach and seating area on a former highway along the edge of the Seine in Paris
The bank of the Seine in Paris was a space for cars. For several years now, it’s been a special place for people, in a city making a lot more of them. All it took was leadership. Oh, and fighting & winning a court battle when that leadership was challenged. HT @modacitylife.com for pics #ParisPlage
My good friend @helendecruz.net is currently in hospice after a long battle with cancer, and has written this beautiful piece reflecting on what is truly of value in life.
helendecruz.substack.com/p/cant-take-...
Photo of Paris City Hall/Hotel de Ville
BIG NEWS: I’m very honoured to announce that I’ve been collaborating with the City of Paris under Mayor @annehidalgo.bsky.social’s leadership to create a unique exhibition opening this summer at Paris City Hall on BOLD URBAN TRANSFORMATION, profiling cities around the world.
Stay tuned for details!
Babysitting tonight.
9-year old: “Tell me a boring story so I can fall asleep.”
Me: “Cryptocurrency is a digital currency that…”
Her: “Not that one. The one from last night.”
Me: “The American banking system is overseen by the Federal Reserve…”
[Falls asleep 5 minutes later when I reach HELOCs.)
Spectacular view of 100,000 people attending the #HandsOff march in NYC
Can you post a source for this excerpt? Very good. Thanks for sharing.
There’s an Urdu name for a “Jack of all trades” that translates to “every talent Lord.” A Korean version is “eight direction beauty.” But my favourite name for someone who tries their hand at lots of different things is the Lithuanian Barbė devyndarbė. It means “Barbie nine jobs”
Americans as a whole are not racist and do not support a segregationist EO that prohibits teaching of black history and history involving women. The courts must stop this evil nonsense as soon as possible.
Path through forest, two women and a golden retriever dog are walking away from the viewer. Sunlight glows through the tops of the Douglas fir trees.
Great weather last weekend in the Seattle area. Did some hiking up towards Mt. Rainier. Splendid day!
For all you shape rotators and autodidacts, a great video on how one of the most expensive substances in the world may lead to tiny atomic clocks and better GPS function.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=1-_N...
Powerful article on the wealthy German businessmen who bankrolled Hitler’s rise to power and helped him purge govt. staff, destroy systems, cut spending, use propaganda lies to foment hatred, and create mass chaos—damaging democracy to install a dictator.
www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...
Started listening to the lovely BBC dramatization of THE WIND IN THE WILLOWS.
Oh dear God…this is sweetest & most fortifying thing. Perhaps in dark times, one needs a soft blanket, warm fireside, boat, picnics…and a cast of darling characters including cheerful but impulsive technophile, Mr. Toad.
This is illegal and a violation of civil rights protections. Just like schools cannot single out Bible studies and religious clubs as forbidden, you cannot ban clubs on the basis of race and gender because of a madman’s capricious edict.
Just gorgeous.
Reflections
By Czesław Miłosz
www.theatlantic.com/magazine/arc...
Wonderful article about Seoul’s downtown stream—now a tourist and cultural resource—that was restored by tearing down an elevated highway.
www.theguardian.com/world/2025/j...
Finally watching 3 BODY PROBLEM. Delicious, satisfying science morality metaphysics mind trip. As we deal with a Chaos Era, non-human intelligence, the rise of China, wealthy puppeteers…what does it mean to be human? To resist an invasion?
I moved farther from the Puget Sound last year. But in recompense, I see this wondrous creature every day now (weather permitting).
Difficult week. Watching this amazing video on how humans working together can make a significant impact:
youtu.be/xbBdIG--b58
“…The resentment of the weak does not spring from any injustice done to them but from their sense of inadequacy and impotence.”
—Eric Hoffer
Disturbing to read about the capitulation.
“It has often been said that power corrupts. But it is perhaps equally important to realize that weakness, too, corrupts. Power corrupts the few, while weakness corrupts the many. Hatred, malice, rudeness, intolerance, and suspicion are the faults of weakness….”
Chart showing massive decline in guinea worm cases, from around a million annual cases in the late 1980s to just 7 in 2024, along with relevant efforts by the Carter Center.
Amazing chart from this Scientific American article as well.
www.scientificamerican.com/article/jimm...
“…what typified the thought…[of right-wing Weimar engineers] and then the ideologists of the Third Reich was…the search for an alternative modernity: a vision of high technics and industrial productivity without liberalism, democracy, and egalitarianism.”
www.unpopularfront.news/p/blood-and-...
Gotta love smart 8-year olds.
Her: What’s another name for blue?
Me: Turquoise. Tiffany. Azure. Ok, what’s another name for green?
Her: Lime. Pine.
Me: Starts with S. S-A.
Her: Satan?!?!
Me: [Trying not to laugh] Sage.
A director of the refugee camp (where my family stayed post-war) had a full Native American headdress he wore w/ buckskin clothing to “American West meetups.” Prob. related to Karl May. Among my Dad’s first English was “cowboy.” He was disappointed with inner city Chicago, expecting ranches.
This was perhaps the single best discussion I've heard elucidating how the thrill of power seeking has caused the evangelical community to turn away from its own Christian commitments. @bernybelvedere.bsky.social's
brilliant interview the erudite @drmoore
: www.theunpopulist.net/p/maga-evang...
Blockbuster and Hollywood video store membership cards
It is like finding an old magic lantern from the 1800s!
Moved a few weeks ago. These relics from a bygone age were mixed in the sedimentary layers of box filled with miscellaneous old papers and oddities.
“There are certain eras which are too complex, too deafened by contradictory historical and intellectual experiences, to hear the voice of sanity. Sanity becomes compromise, evasion, a lie.”
😍😍😍😍
