The tradition began in the nineteenth century with Queen Victoria. The Queen was an amateur practitioner of textile arts, who thought that soldiers might find quilting or needlepoint a great distraction while far from home. Some British soldiers stationed in India made quilts, and sailors in the Navy often extended their sail-making efforts to recreational needlework. In WWI, soldiers often took up needlepoint as a way to pass the time while recuperating from war wounds, or used it as a form of occupational therapy.
Found via Slate’s Soldier Pincushions The Vault.
How Tim Winton hopes to inspire a generation of ‘ocean defenders’
Ningaloo is a name that inspires Tim Winton, Australia’s celebrated writer who most recently wrote
A McSweeney’s list that’s not that funny: How to Tell the Difference Between a Lone Wolf and a Coordinated Effort by the Radical Left
Fun logic puzzle game called Clues by Sam. "Your goal is to figure out who is criminal and who is innocent."
Vanishing Numbers: How Federal Data Manipulation and Removal Threaten Journalism and Public Trust
“Federal datasets are one of the pillars of democracy. They underpin everything from health research and economic forecasting to climate science, disaster response, and watchdog journalism. Yet today, these essential resources face unprecedented threats: data removals, political interference, staff and contract cuts, and the quiet erosion of statistical capacity.
This panel brings together a powerhouse group of experts: a former federal statistical agency commissioner with inside knowledge of how government data is created and protected; a leading demographer recognized internationally for tracking disaster recovery and climate impacts; and a senior national data leader who has driven innovation in public-interest data across federal, local, and nonprofit sectors. Together, they will unpack the high stakes of the current moment. Attendees will learn: – Why federal data matters for every beat, from health to the economy. –
How political manipulation and removals of data are reshaping public understanding and news coverage. – Which protective measures keep some datasets resilient, and why others disappear without warning. – Why private-sector substitutes can’t fill the gap left by weakened federal systems. –
Concrete strategies and resources journalists can use now to verify, preserve, and report on vulnerable datasets. Panelists: Denice Ross served as the U.S. Chief Data Scientist in the Biden administration, where she led the charge to use disaggregated data to drive better outcomes for all Americans.
Allison Plyer is Chief Demographer at The Data Center in New Orleans, and co-chair of the Census Quality Reinforcement task force. Erica Groshen is Senior Economics Advisor at the Cornell University School of Industrial and Labor Relations and Research Fellow at the Upjohn Institute for Employment Research. Moderator: Naseem Miller is the senior editor for health at The Journalist’s Resource.”
Nelly-Sachs-Preis
The city of Dortmund has announced the winner of this year's Nelly Sachs Prize, and it is both Japanese- and German-writing Tawada Yoko; she gets to pick it up on 14 December.
Several of Tawada's works are under review at the complete review: Previous winners of this mostly biennial prize include Nobel laureates Nelly Sachs (1961), Elias Canetti (1975), and Nadine Gordimer (1985), as well as authors including Milan Kundera (1987), Juan Goytisolo (1993), Michael Ondaatje (1995), Javier Marías (1997), Christa Wolf (1999), and Margaret Atwood
