Favorites from Kattullus
Subscribe:
Displaying post 551 to 600 of 6237
“the longing for a digital national champion”
How the Biggest Fraud in German History Unravelled
A wild tale of state-corporate collusion in Germany's Fintech industry: The tech company Wirecard was embraced by the German élite. But a reporter discovered that behind the façade of innovation were lies and links to Russian intelligence. Come for some standard finance shenanigans, stay for the inappropriate use of state power against journalism. (ungated)
The final act of Worf, the Star Trek legend who deserved one most of all
What Worf Really Meant to Star Trek Legend Michael Dorn [Polygon]
““They really didn’t have a bible for Worf at all,” says Dorn of those early episodes. “In fact, one of the first things I did was, I asked the producers, ‘What do you want from this guy? You’ve just handed me a piece of paper that says Worf on it.’” With Roddenberry’s blessing, Dorn set out making the character his own, giving Worf the kind of personal investment and attachment that only an actor can provide. “I decided to make the guy the opposite of everybody else on the show. You know, everyone else, their attitudes were great, and they’re out there in space, relationships are forming. And after every mission they were like, Wasn’t that fantastic? I didn’t say anything to anybody, I just made him this gruff and surly character on the bridge. No smiles, no joking around.””Dorn has swapped his mek’leth for a kur’leth and glued on his bumpy prosthetic forehead once more to reprise the role of Worf in the final season of Star Trek: Picard, which reunites the Next Gen cast for one last adventure. It’s the chance to give one of sci-fi’s most beloved supporting characters something that’s usually reserved only for Captains and Admirals: a glorious third act.
Vitriol is a precious resource
Ask A Music Critic: Why Aren’t There More Negative Album Reviews?
A viral takedown of the Italian band Måneskin prompted a reader to ask music critic Steven Hyden why there aren’t more negative album reviews. "What’s going on here? ...Don’t tell me that music is better than ever!" Hyden responds with his own theory: no, it’s not really all about access, or fanbases, or poptimism, but rather about "the decline of the general-interest music critic".
The Microsoft minefield that Minesweeper survived
Before Minesweeper became ubiquitous as one of the built-in games for several iterations of Windows, it had to survive a culture at Microsoft that was deeply anti-game, that looked down on the idea of computer games. An excerpt from a coming book from Boss Fight Books tells of how Microsoft got over themselves enough to produce the Microsoft Entertainment Pack, which ultimately led to Xbox, Halo, and more.
The cursed universes of Dana Sibera
The #1 adjective others seem to put under her creations routinely and casually shared on Mastodon is cursed. Sibera seems to think likewise. “They are terrible for the most part, but better out of my head than in,” she wrote when I asked. Marcin Wichary writes 2400 words with lots of pictures for the newsletter Shift Happens. [via lobste.rs]
Nearly 15,000 lines and 225 works so far
Old English Poetry in Facsimile.
Per the about page: "A collaborative, open-access resource linking together moments of digital manuscript images, transcriptions, editorial annotations and translations of Old English poetry, to better allow people to study and explore these works." Quickstart video on YouTube (about 6m). The project uses the Digital Mappa platform to allow annotators to link to multiple items and viewers to compare them. The project should be complete sometime before 2030 and will include all the known manuscripts and works except Beowulf, which has been digitized to the standards of this project already.
"negative space to denote premium feel & materiality"
"Consumer Aesthetics Research Institute is an online community dedicated to developing a visual lexicon of consumer ephemera from the 1970s until now." Examples: Cyberdelia, Eco-Beige, Paperback Chic, Corporate Grunge / Grunge™, Genericana, and Dollar Store Vernacular. Each category has a "Gallery" -- select "Show" to display examples of the aesthetic.
Australian Prime Minister marches in the Sydney Gay & Lesbian Mardi Gras
Australia's current Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese, just became the first Australian Prime Minister to march in the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras. He marched with Rainbow Labor NSW, which is an advocacy group within the Labor party for LGBT equality. Albanese has been marching [as an ally] at Mardi Gras since 1983 (yesterday was the 35th time that he's marched with Mardi Gras), but it is the first time that he has ever done so as Prime Minister.
State lawmaker vows to filibuster all bills until GOP withdraws
Nebraska state Sen. Machaela Cavanaugh (D) on Thursday pledged to filibuster every bill on the state’s legislative agenda this session if two Republican-backed bills seeking to ban both abortion and gender-affirming health care for transgender youth are not immediately withdrawn. [...] “I have nothing, nothing but time,” Cavanaugh said, “and I am going to use all of it.”
Going Meta
Cory Doctorow on people who defend fraudsters online, beginning with a side trip to Google's sponsored ads and how malign actors take advantage of them.
a look back at one of Capcom's most misunderstood RPGs
Dragon's Dogma: Revisiting the cult fantasy RPG that found its own weird path to adventure [Games Radar]
“On the surface, Dragon's Dogma appears a rote open-world action RPG – Japanese developer Capcom trying its hand at Western ideas and Tolkienesque fantasy. Dig deeper, however, and you discover something far more distinct and alluring. Capcom had its own vision for what a game like this could be: something built on turning left wherever its contemporaries turn right. At its core, Dragon's Dogma is about journeys – long, hard treks across its sprawling kingdom. It's about learning the landscape around you, managing dwindling supplies and the moment of relief when, after days on the road, you finally spot civilisation on the horizon. It's not afraid to inconvenience players in favour of giving its world and its quests a greater sense of scale. And it's not afraid to be scary – not simply hostile or difficult, but dangerous.” [YouTube][Game Trailer]
“Extremely sobering for people who are looking for scandals.”
What reporters found does not explain precisely why Hansen filed his fateful lawsuit or whether he appreciated its far-reaching ramifications. Hansen claims that he had only been trying to protect his own privacy and had not wanted the registries to be closed. But the findings do show why he, or his business partners, might have an interest in corporate secrecy. As it turns out, Hansen has been the director or owner of at least 117 companies in Luxembourg, the British Virgin Islands, Belize, the Bahamas, and other countries around the world over the past 16 years. from The Luxembourg businessman who got Europe’s corporate registries shut down – and his secret offshore interests
I refuse to believe that I'm making up nice things about Mike
"Sayable Space is a television game for 1 or more people, it consists of saying "Space" out loud at the same time as Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) during the intro to Star Trek: The Next Generation." See also, therein, "Mike's Crush", where you say hi to the very briefly visible anonymous cool smoking woman near the start of the Night Court intro that Mike may or may not have said at one point he had a crush on.
Big turmoil in the littlest state
America's standard for small things, Rhode Island, faces serious upheaval in its congressional delegation as their second Representative plans to leave within a year.
In January of 2022 Rep. James Langevin announced his retirement from his seat in the House of Representatives -- and now David Cicilline has announced that he's going to retire this May. Both men have used their role on the national stage to work for important causes, and will be missed.
Whither Little Rhodey's delegation?
it’s nice when it’s nice I’m sure it’s super horrible when it’s horrible
I was trying to explain the plot of The Matrix to this 15-year-old once, and that the character I played was really fighting for what was real. And this young person was just like, “Who cares if it’s real?” People are growing up with these tools: We’re listening to music already that’s made by AI in the style of Nirvana, there’s NFT digital art. It’s cool, like, Look what the cute machines can make! But there’s a corporatocracy behind it that’s looking to control those things. Culturally, socially, we’re gonna be confronted by the value of real, or the nonvalue. And then what’s going to be pushed on us? What’s going to be presented to us? from Keanu Will Never Surrender to the Machines [Wired]
Fossils of a 340-Pound Giant Penguin Found in New Zealand
Fossils of a 340-Pound (154 kilogram) Giant Penguin Found in New Zealand. Paleontologists unearthed the bones of two new penguin species that lived 50 million years ago.
The Tree of Life
Zoomable Tree of Life
All known species in one zoomable fractal.
Indigo Girls Tiny Desk concert
The Indigo Girls, almost preternaturally suited to the medium, perform a Tiny Desk Concert.
"i’m worried that this has something to do with the wizard thing"
Do you perhaps like your historical/fantasy fiction short and silly? "first day as a second century warlord..." starts a 16-paragraph farce of mistakes, crucial conversations gone wrong, and accidental intrigue. Found via unpretty.
Trees can make it rain
"Rainforests have this incredible capacity to generate rainfall. Transpiration is the process whereby trees draw moisture from the ground, via their roots, to the canopy and they emit moisture. They transpire through tiny holes in their leaves called stomata. By this transpiration process, the forests returns water from rainfall to the atmosphere, preventing it from simply running back down rivers to the sea. Forests also emit tiny organic particles into the air. Pollen, specks of vegetation and spores of fungi create a nucleus around which future raindrops can form. A process called cloud seeding. Some rainforests have been found to generate up to 75% of their own rainfall through these processes. In essence, old growth rainforests enhance and create their own climate..."
New Moderation Team Member
Hello Everyone!
Please join me welcoming our newly-hired Moderator: Brandon Blatcher!
A Secret Ornamental Language
"Have you ever noticed decorative borders in certain Byzantine or Renaissance paintings that don't seem to make any sense? Beautiful, calligraphic, gibberish... ?" The Ornamentalist looks at "pseudo-Kufic" script, "a style of decoration used during the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, consisting of imitations of the Arabic Kufic script, or sometimes Arabic cursive script, made in a non-Arabic context." (Wikipedia) via (mefi's own) Theophile Escargot, TheoEsc@mastodon.social.
I can take a phrase that's rarely heard - flip it - now it's a daily word
In the early 1990's, a young Kejuan Muchita put to use a recording from 5 years before he was born. The recording was Herbie Hancock's 1969 song "Jessica". Not ringing a bell? Well perhaps this brief video will help you listen to how it morphed into something just as beautiful, and perhaps more familiar.
I am Trugoy/A Dove-like boy/Could wingspread/But instead/I will employ
Plug Two of the iconic hip-hop group De La Soul, Dave "Trugoy" Jolicoeur has died at the age of 54.
No cause of death has been announced, but Jolicoeur had been suffering from congestive heart failure in recent years.
Violent Femmes on the local news
The Violent Femmes interviewed on Milwaukee local news by Howard Gurnette, 1983.
An amazing juxtapostion of 80s local news guy and weird/peevish new wave dudes. They also played "Prove My Love."
The influence of mothers on major figures in Black American culture
Martin Luther King, Jr, Malcolm X, and James Baldwin are towering figures in Black American culture, politics, and community. Their lives and backgrounds have been thoroughly dissected, but what of the influence of the women who birthed them? How did the relationship with their individual mothers shape the men they became? Author Anna Malaika Tubbs explored that question in her book, The Three Mothers: How the Mothers of Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X, and James Baldwin Shaped a Nation. In a 50 minute NPR and TED Radio Hour interview, she discusses the impetus and history behind writing the book.
How To Determine What Your Sword Speaks (And Other Useful Tables)
Modern D&D leaves much of the world building to the DM these days. But back in the era of First Edition AD&D, the DM had a chart for everything, as this collection of charts from the 1e Dungeon Master's Guide illustrates. (SLGizmodo)
"The father of the Big Bang."
"The only known video interview with Belgian physicist Georges Lemaître, widely considered the "father of the Big Bang," talking about the birth of the universe has been rediscovered almost 60 years after it was lost."
Her career was being monitored, prodded and shaped by a group of spies
The worst literary agent?
Bryan Denson begins the story by describing how journalist/literary agent Robert Eringer helped Earth Liberation Front spokesperson Craig Rosebraugh develop a book. Then things take a turn. (SLNYT)
“It wasn’t real. Whatever he was selling wasn’t real.”
The Great Gatsby of Gold Took Their Millions—and Vanished; Shady Gold Guru Burnished Image With Paid-For Media Titles [The Daily Beast; ungated 1 and 2 ]
The Lathe of Heaven
Kelly Link in Praise of Ursula K. Le Guin's Genuine Magic
- "It is also, notably, Le Guin's deliberate foray into Philip K. Dick's territory, with its hallucinatory beginning, its drug-using protagonist, and its surreal, literally world-melting alternate realities. Dick and Le Guin were admirers of each other's work and occasional correspondents."
Viola Davis is the newest EGOT
American actor Viola Davis becomes the 18th person to reach EGOT status, after winning her first Grammy Award. EGOT = a person who has won an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar and a Tony award during their career, reflecting their work in television, music, film and theatre.
Two souls, one body
Solomon Perel, a German Jew who outwitted the Nazis by posing as a member of the Hitler Youth during World War II, an extraordinary story of survival that was dramatized in the 1990 film “Europa Europa,” died Feb. 2 at his home in Givatayim, near Tel Aviv. He was 97.
I loved John, which remains true
Last year, Australian novelist John Hughes was found to have plagiarised several writers, including Leo Tolstoy and F Scott Fitzgerald. He also plagiarised his former student Joseph Earp, whose reaction was complicated: "It hurt, and I was angry for what had happened to me and other writers – the way our labour had been co-opted, and not appropriately cited. Lots of people can imagine that hurt, I assume. But I can’t imagine that many other people understand the way it felt good, too."
A plain old-fashioned newspaper crusade.
Why Is the New York Times So Obsessed With Trans Kids? A detailed, scathing editorial by Tom Scocca.
In 1183, a Chinese Poet Describes Being Domesticated by His Own Cats
In 1183, a Chinese Poet Describes Being Domesticated by His Own Cats. In Korea cat owners aren't called cat owners: they're called goyangi jibsa, literally 'cat butlers.' Clearly the idea that felines have flipped the domestic-animal script, not serving humans but being served by humans, transcends cultures.
This case is closed.
Tom Verlaine was a member of Television, the first band out of the CBGB scene in New York City to get signed to a major label. Their album Marquee Moon has been a huge influence on generations of bands. Verlaine died (non-paywalled) this morning after a brief illness.
Ladies of Andor: A SAG-AFTRA interview
For all the Andor lovers
a great interview with Adria Arjona, Denise Gough, Genevieve O'Reilly and Fiona Shaw by Erik Davis.
The photography of Tyre Nichols
Beyond the headlines, the man.
From Heather Cox Richardson.