Expose yourself to art at the Sitka Invitational
The Sitka Art Invitational is a juried art exhibition and sale held in Portland, Oregon. The event occurs annually the first full weekend of November and brings together work by over 100 nature-inspired regional artists. Art sales are split 50/50 between the artist and the Sitka Center. More than 2,000 local art collectors and enthusiasts attend the show each year. “After having to cancel last year’s Invitational due to the pandemic, and after such a challenging year for so many working artists in our community, we are overjoyed to finally bring this show to Portland and showcase the work of so many regional artists,” shared Sitka’s Executive Director Alison Dennis. “Sitka’s Art Invitational has earned a reputation for being artist-centric, with generous commissions and artists choosing the work they exhibit. We hope the art community shows up in full force to celebrate and support these wonderful working artists in November.”
Argue Better. Dammit.
(from the Allstate project site)- “The Better Arguments Project, a national civic initiative spearheaded by Allstate, the Aspen Institute, and Facing History and Ourselves, believes the United States can live up to its promise, not by having fewer arguments, but by having better ones. The Better Arguments Project is rooted in five principles: 1) Take winning off the table, 2) Prioritize relationships and listen passionately, 3) Pay attention to context, 4) Embrace vulnerability, 5) Make room to transform.” If that’s something you just can’t get on board with, we argue that these articles on “Great Ideas On How To Argue Better. No Kidding”, an “Exercise To Argue Better”, and “The Scientific Way To Win Any Argument (And Not Make Enemies)” might be helpful.
Shatner on the Final Frontier
William Shatner, or Captain Kirk as he’s known around the world, went to space last week in one of the most bizarre amalgams of fantasy and history we’re ever likely to see. It was a shallow, self-serving PR event for Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin, yet at the same time it WAS amazing to see Star Trek’s predictions of humanity’s future in space begin… begin… to become true. We put together a page as a nod to this surreal moment with several articles, links to Blue Origin, and the piece-de-resistance: a collection of memes from the mission. Live long and prosper!
The Nobel Prize, immigrants, and the minimum wage
(from the NPR article)- “The paper was called, “Minimum Wages and Employment: A Case Study of the Fast-Food Industry in New Jersey and Pennsylvania.” Up until then, economists thought about the effects of the minimum wage as they did most other subjects — mostly in theoretical terms. Their view of the world was more influenced by cartoon models drawn on chalkboards than hard data. And this cartoon world said that the minimum wage kills jobs… Lacking the ability to conduct a randomized trial, Card and Krueger pioneered an alternative method to credibly estimate cause and effect… [The result] was a bombshell for the economic world, challenging an orthodoxy that had dominated the field for decades…”
