December 3, 2019
For some, however, the potassium-packed phallus is a source of loathing
"I get this creepy crawly feeling, where the hairs on my arms stick up, and I get all shuddery. Whenever I smell one I have to seek it out. Once I locate it, I have to remove myself from close range. I don't want be able to see it, but I like to know where it is so I can keep my distance."
What, short of a rotting carcass or a rabid dog, could elicit such repulsion? If you're someone who hates bananas, it's likely you know the answer. (Britt Mann, stuff)
What, short of a rotting carcass or a rabid dog, could elicit such repulsion? If you're someone who hates bananas, it's likely you know the answer. (Britt Mann, stuff)
Did a million years of rain jump-start dinosaur evolution?
No, that's not where it goes
Clift’s Revenge
Joey Clift is a comedian and a gamer. He was thrilled to be invited to guest on How Did This Get Played, a podcast about bad video games. Then he found out the episode was a Thanksgiving episode about Custer's Revenge (known as one of the worst games ever made for a variety of reasons) and he was being invited because he is an enrolled member of the Cowlitz Indian Tribe. Rather than turn down the offer, Clift decided to confront the hosts about tokenization (episode linked in story; discussion starts around 24:00).
The Potato Park
The one-traffic-light town with some of the fastest internet in the U.S.
Subscribers to Peoples Rural Telephone Cooperative (P.R.T.C.), which covers all of Jackson County and the adjacent Owsley County, can get speeds of up to one gigabit per second, and the coöperative is planning to upgrade the system to ten gigabits. [SLNYorker]
The way to a nation's brain is through weaponized feel-good tweets
On August 22, 2019, @IamTyraJackson received almost 290,000 likes on Twitter for a single tweet. Put in perspective, the typical tweet President Trump sends to his 67 million followers gets about 100,000 likes. That viral tweet by @IamTyraJackson was innocent: an uplifting pair of images of former pro football player Warrick Dunn (Wikipedia) and a description of his inspiring charity work building houses for single mothers. For an anonymous account that had only existed for only a few months, “Tyra” knew her audience well. [...] For “Tyra,” however, inspiring messages like this were a tool for a very different purpose. That Uplifting Tweet You Just Shared? A Russian Troll Sent It (Darren Linvill & Patrick Warren for Rolling Stone) [more inside]
gromm-nom-nom
Gromm•It is "an [unsettling] art/media project by journalist Paul Lukas, exploring the juxtapositions resulting from the installation of metal grommets in unlikely surfaces, especially foodstuffs."
EVADE
“Public transit is one of the most powerful sites of struggle that we have in our cities, given it’s the backbone of how many people get to work, grocery stores, schools, and social activities. The physical nature of the service – requiring strangers to congregate in bus shelters and train stations, often anxious about delays and costs – represents a site of highly effective collective power if harnessed.“ The demand for free transit is just the beginning
“I wondered what was happening in that silver box.”
The PlayStation is 25 Years Old! [YouTube][Documentary: Memories of Play] [Every PlayStation Startup Sound] “On December 3rd, 1994, Twenty-five years ago, the original PlayStation went on sale for the first time in Japan. With a lineup led by Ridge Racer and the promise of a 3D future, Sony quickly outpaced Sega and Nintendo and went on to dominate the video game console market. Rather than focus on games, we wanted to highlight the business and technology behind Sony’s hardware. So we brought together former Sony executives Makoto Iwai and Shuji Utsumi alongside tech experts Kazuyuki Hashimoto (Final Fantasy 7) and Masanori Yamada (Tekken) to reflect on the challenges Sony and its developers overcame getting PlayStation off the ground. From working with temperamental visionary Ken Kutaragi, to the limited memory available for games, to not being allowed to leave their office without permission due to tight deadlines, the group came prepared with stories to tell.” [via: Polygon] [more inside]
If this were any more deadpan, it'd be a murdered skillet
A short video history of developments in the speedrunning strategies for that very famous video game, the intro sequence to American Dad.
Old Crone Medicine Show
The rise of the witchy, independent, beauty-redefining, problem-solving, post-reproductive woman has the potential to change the world. Hello patriarchal predations, we crones see you, and we will check you.
The gap keeps growing
A report from CBS on a study from the Brookings Institution reveals that “ 44% of U.S. workers are employed in low-wage jobs that pay median annual wages of $18,000.”
Living in NYC makes me nostalgic for my childhood town
I grew up in an extremely normal suburb in central Connecticut. It was big enough that we had more than one Dunkin’, but small enough that we didn’t have a Starbucks. As a teen, my friends and I spent a lot of time in cars, idling outside our crushes houses until someone came to the front window and then we’d peel away, a blur of manicured lawns disappearing behind us. My town was fine, but as a dramatic teenager I found it lacking the cultural cache (re: Starbucks) that could elevate my tortured existence.
I've got red in my ledger, I'd like to wipe it out
Marvel Studios' Black Widow teaser trailer is out now, starring Scarlett Johansson as Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow, alongside David Harbour, Florence Pugh, O-T Fagbenle, and Rachel Weisz, with the same cinematographer as Mission: Impossible – Fallout. And no, she hasn't been resurrected (yet); the story takes place after Captain America: Civil War and before Avengers: Infinity War.
Nothing lasts forever— not even on the internet.
A Better Internet Is Waiting for Us - My quest to imagine a different reality. SLNYT opinion piece featuring mefi's own jscalzi.
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