public law 89-110

On this day in 1965, during the height of the civil rights movement President Lyndon B Johnson signed into law the Voting Rights Act, drafted and subsequently amended on five occasions to expand its protection to enforce the spirit of the fourteenth (abused as it was) and fifteenth amendments to the US constitution.
The previous summer saw LBJ sign legislation that outlawed discrimination of protected classes (then race, colour, sex or national origin) in employment practises and public accommodations, nullifying local laws to the contrary. Juxtaposed to current efforts to add a citizenship question to the US census, travel bans, purging inactive voters from rolls and shameless gerrymandering, scholars and lawmakers consider the VRA one of the most effective pieces of legislation ever passed. Among the provisions included in the Act requires that jurisdictions privilege no language over another nor impose literacy tests—infamously used to discriminate and disenfranchise minorities and the poor.

7x7

paying it forward: a comprehensive and inspiring look at the “I Promise” school of Lebron James

archival quality: an object lesson on the durability of microfilm, via Slashdot

mercator-projection: Google Maps shifts to depict the Earth as a globe, helping to ameliorate geographic perspectives (previously)

achoque: a convent near Lake Pátzcuaro is saving an endangered salamander from extinction—the nuns producing a cough syrup from its skin, via Kottke’s Quick Links

jingfen: a Finnish comic about social anxieties finds resonance with millions of Chinese people

lossless compression: organisms seem pretty indifferent to the effects of squeezing their whole genome into a single DNA molecule

the oxygen of amplification: exploring the conundrum of covering tabloid politics and some advice for journalists on how to not fall into the manipulative traps 

7x7

zoëtrope: a group of humans on a merry-go-round create an astounding animated effect—previously

estate sale: mystery surrounds the discovery of a priceless Willem de Kooning painting among the effects of an unassuming couple who recently passed away

in-flight entertainment: LEGO Minifigs present the pre-takeoff safety video for Turkish Airlines

streptomyces grisus: New Jersey poised to become only the second state in the union to designate an official bacterium, the first significant antibiotic strain discovered there since penicillin was isolated

䷩: the I Ching is as much about divination as it is about keeping an open mind and being receptive to new angles

gratulera: IKEA celebrates its seventy-fifth anniversary by re-issuing some vintage lines

we’re here all week, folks: Ordinance Survey Maps Fan Club performs at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival 

working ninety-five

Speaking of nostalgia, Twentieth Century Fox plans to produce a sequel (not a reboot mind you) of the 1980 comedy 9 to 5 about follies and foibles of office-culture that was typically sexist, oppressive and toxic and three women living out their fantasies of getting revenge on their repugnant, bigoted boss—starring the original cast.
As talented, active and capable actors, Jane Fonda, Lily Tomlin, Dolly Parton and Dabney Coleman (the eldest at age eighty-six) should not be compelled into retirement due to their age certainly but I can only imagine the undertaking as worthwhile were it to be a social commentary about the inherent meaninglessness and redundancy of most jobs, pilfered and eroding pension funds, the failure of America’s social safety-net and how no one can afford to retire comfortably.