May summary - 2017-05

05 May

Productivity, GTD

• Readability chrome Extension has become Mercury: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/mercury-reader/oknpjjbmpnndlpmnhmekjpocelpnlfdi
• Lots of Workflowy clones!
• VimFlowy https://VimFlowy.bitballoon.com/ 
• Open Source https://github.com/WuTheFWasThat/vimflowy , but beware the synchro
• Excellent plugin system, very modular
• DynaList https://DynaList.io/
• Not OpenSource, but very active!

Social

• Blanche Gardin (French humorist, modern)
• Louis CK (US humorist, modern) via Blanche Gardin
• Lots of YouTube video, Really excellent !!
• "How the Self-Esteem Craze Took Over America" http://nymag.com/scienceofus/2017/05/self-esteem-grit-do-they-really-help.html (via Linda Rising) 
• It is not what you are, but what you can be that is important.
• Funny, that even in France this "American confidence" is seen as a great driver of success.
• "The Complacent Class: The Self-Defeating Quest for the American Dream", by Tyler Cowen http://www.EconTalk.org/archives/2017/05/tyler_cowen_on_1.html 
• This podcast is really great. I started listening to balance my natural "french leftism" with some US libertarian Republican(?) talks. But, America is very critic and open about lots of relevant topics. I cannot duplicate all their posts here, so: subscribe, it is worth listening. 
• OGM, Genetically Engineered (GE), transgenic plants in the wild
• Let's hope it does not become too common ...
• http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2017/05/how-transgenic-petunia-carnage-2017-began
• http://www.greenhousegrower.com/varieties/genetically-modified-petunia-update-breeders-take-swift-action-plan-next-steps/
• "Mythologie" Roland Barthes (1950). 
• I wanted to read it for years, but this month I saw it in a friend library and it was on a stand at our local public library ... signs.
• It is a must read. The way he deconstructs and analyses messages, communication is eye opening. 
• but why did he has to use such a convoluted langage. He could have reach a much larger audience. 
• As of today, nothing has changed.

Music

• Emel Mathlouthi http://EmelMathlouthi.com/
• A wide range of style and feeling, from acoustics traditional song in a cafe, to contemporary "industrial" feels, to David Bowie covers ... all this with a great voice. (via Paste Magazine https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-4gQYmmDxwU)