How Elizabeth Hargrave turned a passion for ornithology and spreadsheets into a popular game about birds

The award-winning writer Francis Spufford has spent three years on a new novel for the CS Lewis Chronicles of Narnia series despite not having permission from the Lewis estate….

Spufford, who has printed 75 copies and distributed them free to friends and fellow writers, said it was “not intended to get out into the world unless, long shot, I come to terms with the estate”.

The Lewis estate has resisted all entreaties to continue the Narnia novels, the last of which was published in 1956 by Lewis, who died in 1963. His work remains in copyright until 2034.

In part he did the sequel for his daughter.  Here is the (London) Times link, gated.  This guyhas tweeted some of the work.

The people who eat the same meal every day.

 How did a proto-writing system spread throughout the entire Stone Age world?

The deadweight loss of social recognition.

The New York Times – She invented a board game with scientific integrity, and now it is taking off: “..Elizabeth Hargrave, a health-policy consultant in Silver Spring, Md., is an avid birder, and her favorite local winter birding spot is the Lake Artemesia Natural Area. Fringed with woods, the lake is artificial, excavated during the construction of Washington’s Green Line in the 1970s; in those days, the area was known as Lake Metro….Ms. Hargrave is more diver than dabbler. A spreadsheet geek with a master’s degree in public affairs, she spent more than a decade as a policy analyst with NORC at the University of Chicago.

Welcome to Birdpunk: A Subculture of a Subculture  Via Audubon – Punk has always been about embracing different forms of expression. Meet the people who are putting birding on that spectrum
“…The overlap between birding and punk might seem strange to outsiders, but for birdpunks like Croasdale, the Do-It-Youself (DIY) values that shape punk living feed perfectly into low-frills activities such as birding. The DIY aesthetic and mentality is a core philosophy for punks, who thrive on independence and individualism. Their music bucks the profiteering industry of labels and promoters and travels over a homegrown network of venues and websites. The ethic also spills over to visual media, politics, economics, and social philosophy. Hospitality, trust, and authenticity are key traits in the community. When you consider these principles, it’s clear why many punkers are drawn to birding and its rustic qualities. Or vice versa: why their early love of birds steers them straight into the throes of punk. It’s a two-way street that draws out the best of both worlds, forming a distinctive subculture that’s holistic, aware, and expressive…”


The College Scam Is Exposing All the Legal Ways Rich People Game Society Vice (resilc)
We’re Losing the War on Corruption Atlantic (resilc)
The Real Elitists Who Look Down on Trump Voters Washington Monthly (resilc). Important.
The Century of Spin Liz Franczak, The Baffler. Those of you who attended last summer’s NC meetup in SF would have met Liz. Important piece on propaganda.