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Gold for Whom?
The ACLU of Delaware filed a complaint arguing that too many Deaf children are being referred to Deaf schools.
When the ACLU of Delaware filed a complaint against the Delaware Department of Education earlier this month, calling for the investigation into the Department's treatment of Deaf children, it raised some eyebrows. When they argued that the state was keeping Deaf students from the Least Restrictive Environment by sending them to the Deaf school, more eyebrows were raised. When they further argued that Listening and Spoken Language, a trademarked certification for oral-only education given out solely by AG Bell association, designated by some in the Deaf community as a hate group and who claim they can "make Deaf people hear", was the "gold standard" for Deaf education...well, you can imagine what happened next....
Best way to learn sketching/drawing?
Last year I had a job that included weekly 3 hours of mind numbingly boring meetings where I had nothing to contribute and was only there because everybody was there. I started idly doodling around but over the year discoverd that this doodling gave me quite a bit of pleasure. Then the job ended and I forgot about this, until I recently rediscoverd my doodles. By leafing through them in chronological order I can see progress and also felt a bit proud of them.
I would like to start again, but with a bit more guidance. At the moment what I draw looks a bit like Picasso doodles , but I would like to be able to sketch, better? More realistically? I don't know, I just want to be able to sketch a face? Person? Tree? that resembles more the real thing. What would be a good ressource for an absolute beginner? I don't care if its a paid online course, a book, whatever.
Critical reviews/writing on Tears of the Kingdom
So, we all love the latest Zelda game (Tears of the Kingdom - TOTK), and so do the critics. But now that we and the game journalists all have hundreds of hours of playtime under our belts, have any thoughtful, well written critical takes on Nintendo's latest masterpiece been written?
Dolce Far Niente
John William Godward (1861-1922) was late Neoclassical painter who frequently painted scenes of Greco-Roman antiquity. His research was meticulous, though he is not as well regarded today as his instructor, Alma-Tadema. Neoclassicism wasn't the star of the 20th century, but Godward is still selling [NSFW]. You've probably seen his Dolce Far Niente.
Christmas is lost, but help save our sanity
My father-in-law’s “companion” is ruining family holiday vacation and FIL’s relationship with his family. She has dementia and is both care resistant and an alcoholic. This woman is incredibly uncomfortable to be around and often a danger to herself (can’t be left alone (other than 2-3 hours in the house she considers home). Tips or advice for dealing with this in the short term (holiday together) or longer term appreciated.
Tales of downsizing
I’m in my 50s. My dad passed away several years ago and my mom is in her 80s. My mom has ended up as kind of the repository for a lot of family stuff over the years - various people’s favorite sweaters or jackets, blankets, books, bibles, furniture, calendars, letters, journals, photos, etc. She is very sentimental and rather a packrat, though not to the point of being a hoarder. I am also a bit of both, though less of either than she is.
What is the point of this one scene in Vertigo?
I think of Vertigo as a pretty tightly constructed thing, but there's this one scene that doesn't seem to have any reason for being there. There are some spoilers under the cut.
“I love you, but you are not serious people.”
There’s no better way to emphasize this general feeling than to break down the most important events of 2023 to their molecular level. (Although, as you’re about to see, “important” is a relative term; the word “most” is far more key here.) To recap the language that this year gave us—the seemingly ranch, the rizz, the ice cream yes yes yes—so that we can truly see just how constant, how compelling, and how bizarre our current existence is. Without further ado, these are the 84 sentences that defined 2023. [CW: almost entirely US-focused]
Tiny ants swollen with honey could hold the key to new medical treatment
Tiny ants swollen with honey could hold the key to new medical treatments. Aboriginal people have used honeypot ants to treat everything from cuts to colds for generations. Now a team of scientists from Sydney studying the West Australian ants say they could hold the key to new medical treatments.
Kenya Fernandes, a researcher from the University of Sydney, said early tests found the honey was effective at killing some types of bacteria and fungi that can be life-threatening in humans.
Zelda Day 2023
The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, like Breath of the Wild, has a secret experience system that doesn't make your character stronger, it makes the enemies harder. Here's 102 ways to kill a bokoblin in that game. If you got it for the holidays and want some tips, here's 10. How to send Link waaaaay up into the sky with just a fan and a plank, using Oriented Carryable Objects (OCOs). And here's TerminalMontage's speedrun cartoon, featuring Cucuí Ganon.
How can I feel less judgemental about the enjoyment of reality TV?
I find reality TV sickening. It showcases all my least favorite things about humans (selfishness, pettiness, consumerism, hysterics over things that don't matter, gossip, fakeness, etc.), but my girlfriend enjoys reality TV and somehow finds it relaxing. This is causing a lot of conflict because when she watches these shows no matter how hard I try, my judgment and horror at the content leaks out. I can see that the only solution is for me to let go of this judgment so I'm looking for advice or perspectives that might help me do this.
How to identify which of my PC's specs is messing with game quality
Bought myself Baldur's Gate 3 for the holidays and discovered that while it runs nicely on my M2 MBA, the game has wild lag on my HP laptop even at the lowest graphics settings. (Game auto-calibrates at Ultra, though!) I want to be able to mod the game, though, something that can really only be done on Windows. How do I figure out which of my HP laptop's specs is dropping the quality of my gaming experience? Details inside.
Anxiously attached and afraid I'll never find love.
I'm a 39-year old anxiously attached female and I feel like I'm never going to find a partner who is right for me, and years of toxic relationships with the wrong kinds of guys has really destroyed my sense of trust. I fell in love with this guy who I thought was good for me, he was sweet and nerdy, and things were going well but the moment he sensed I was falling for him, I sensed him pushing me away. I can't stop obsessing over what I did wrong.
Is there a "TV guide" for radio?
What resources exist to find out a schedule for interesting upcoming radio programs?
"No cheeses for us meeses" is also one of my favorite lines.
Paul Williams reflects on writing each of the songs in The Muppet Christmas Carol.
There goes Mr. Humbug, there goes Mr. Grim
On December 11th, 1992, The Muppet Christmas Carol was released. Gregory Wakeman finds out how grief and addiction helped shape a film that still has a huge following 30 years on. The Muppets reminisce with Brett Goldstein about making the movie.
Ah found me a real purdy Chrrrristmas special!
Here's another Christmas special for you all - the downright charming Coots and Critter in: Santa's Magic Book, directed by animator, cartoonist and cartoon historian Mike Kazaleh.
Videogames might be art, but can they be literature?
Just over a year ago, we discussed Pentiment, a videogame about living in the age of illuminated manuscripts. The game was highly acclaimed but what hasn't been discussed is its historical accuracy. In Perusing Pentiment's Boisterous Bibliography [44m] Super Bunnyhop spends quite a bit of time talking about the gameplay, with a minimum of spoilers for actual story, but also dives into just a small handful of texts from the extensive bibliography [Reddit post of 4 slides of book titles from the end credits of the game] the game is based on, and exactly how they're reflected in the experience.
截金
"The only artist in the world to embed gold leaves in glass, Kirikane."
Yamamoto Akane: 'Making Beauty'.
(slyt) [via The British museum]
You weren't supposed to get this far
On Thursday, 34 years after the game's original release, a human player crashed NES Tetris for the first time. The game's original programmers assumed that nobody would get past the "killscreen" where speed doubled at level 29, but using the "rolling" technique discovered in 2020, players have been playing deeper into the game than ever before. It was known that a crash was possible after level 155 due to flaws in the scoring code, but no human had ever reached this point. 13 year old "Blue Scuti" was on level 157 and had been playing at killscreen difficulty for over half an hour, with a world-record highscore over 6.8 million, when he became the first human player ever to crash the game (full game video).
The worst thing since Elvis Presley, to do black music so selfishly
FD Signifier talks about the 'white rapper' paradox and how it functions with whiteness and commercialism/fame/etc. In discussion: mainly Eminem and his influence on hip hop, but also some focus on Vanilla Ice before him and Mac Miller after, shout-outs to El-P, Lil Dicky, Jack Harlow (where apparently FD was bugged about doing a vid on the recent superstar) and Marlon Craft.
Retro RPGs that one can look away from
Does anyone have suggestions for retro RPGs where - and this is the important part - failing to pay continuous attention is not a tragedy?
Location 🗺️📍 + Year Taken 📷📆 = Points 💯
TimeGuessr
is a game where you guess the location and year a photo was taken.
King William College's Quiz 2023
It's nearly Christmas, it must mean that the King William's College Quiz has been posted to the Guardian or on the College's website. A shared
Google Sheet is available for those who would like to play.
Un projecte col·lectiu d’il·lustració que ret homenatge a la New Yorker
THE BARCELONIAN is a collective illustration project that pays homage to the legendary THE NEW YORKER through the covers of a nonexistent magazine. More than 100 artists illustrate their relationship with the lived city, with the city of their loves and hates, to show us corners, scenes, anecdotes and episodes from the multiple perspectives of their unique view.
The Most Scathing Book Reviews of 2023
“Yes, it’s her world and after reading her book I just wish I could move off-planet.” Lit Hub's annual best-worst reviews list.
"A true music man"
Craig Stewart, Emperor Jones Founder and SXSW Alum, Has Died at 53
Stewart ran the influential Trance Syndicate label with his husband, Butthole Surfers drummer King Coffey, before starting the offshoot Emperor Jones in 1995. He also spent much of his career working for SXSW.
Thoughtful paper about ChatGPT
This paper describes an old and a new way to think about ChatGPT.
Borges and AI is the title; the authors take a high-level view of the entire potential corpus of ChatGPT, guided by a few of Borges' stories that explore universes of infinite possibilities.
Ten interesting dissertations on games, play, and meaning
May-Ying Mary Ngai (2011), "From entertainment to enlightenment: a study on a cross-cultural religious board game with emphasis on the Table of Buddha Selection ...," highlighted in 2021 by George Pollard on Twitter / IA / Nitter: "around 830 C.E. a man named Li He ... invents a game named 採選 Cǎixuǎn, Selection with Dice, about promotion and demotion in the ranks of the state bureaucracy," giving rise to Shengguan Tu (pics: 陞官圖 / 升官图). Serina Laureen Patterson's (2017) "Game on: medieval players and their texts" discusses fortune games like "Chaunce of the Dyse" (see also), "Truth or Dare" / Q&A games with a chosen king/queen, e.g. "The King Who Does Not Lie" or "Le jeu du Roi et de la Reine," and more.
You don't have that kind of time.
An essay about aging by Anne Lamott.
(WaPo gift link).
Quick mood boosters
Winter can be a drag even in the absence of military conflict across the globe. Need a quick way to boost your mood? Below are some ideas. Are they new? Absolutely not. Are they rocket science? See answer above. Have you probably forgotten a few? No doubt. Let the cheery links begin (as usual, your mileage may vary; these tips may help some individuals at some times but maybe not!). From Real Simple: 8 Science-Backed Ways to Improve Your Mood at Work. From Yahoo Life!: Birdsong. Psychology Today: Music. Washington Post: Breathing (archive).
Inventors must be natural people
The UK Supreme Court has just handed down Judgment against (YT 7½m) Dr Stephen Thaler in his quest to become patent holder / beneficial owner of two inventions created through AI by his machine called Dabus. There is a kinda crappy transcript and extensive explanatory "more" under the video. The US Supreme Court came to similar conclusions over Thaler v Vidal in May 2023. (i.e. Katherine K Vidal, Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Director, United States Patent and Trademark Office)
"She’s a shepherdess now"
A runner near Puy de Dôme, France inadvertently became a shepherd when a flock of sheep began following her through the woods; artist Eleanor Scholz captured the sheep's fun run and provided a brief update.
Fish in the water and cats in the rice paddy
Thai rice farmer Tanyapong Jiakham in Chiang Rai has created art in his rice paddies by planting rainbow rice seedlings depicting sleeping cats. The artwork takes as its theme a Thai saying "There is fish in the water and rice in the fields" as well as model cat Cooper, whose colouring will be reflected in the rice plants just before harvesting.
This is a funny story. This is a sad story.
This is both of those things.
Gavin Crawford tells a story about his mother, Alzheimer's, and Christmas trees.
Mystery solved.
If you've been wondering why strangers started offering gifts to Clarence Thomas without any (direct) benefit, we now know. ProPublica is reporting that it all started in early 2000, when Thomas intimated that he would quit the court.
Ladies And Gentlemen, this is Manhattan Transfer
The Manhattan Transfer at The Old Grey Whistle Test (22 February 1977) is 41 minutes of the vocal group performing live. They're appearing on the strength of their single Chanson d'Amour, which was storming up the UK charts and would soon hit #1 for three weeks. This is before their emergence into US charts with Birdland [CW: eighties hair and shoulder pads] and Boy From New York City.
Weeping works
Crying on a regular basis can boost your mental well-being. So welcome to cry once a week, which offers a new short, sad video for that very purpose as often as you care to refresh the page.
How to talk to young kids about cannabis?
I have talked with my son (6yo) about addiction when it has come up and I feel like he has an age appropriate understanding of what it is and it's dangers. However, a solid chunk of the drug use my son encounters is cannabis use. Cannabis is not physically addictive. I'm worried that if I don't address cannabis specifically then once he finds out it's not addictive the values that I hope to impart to him around drug use will go out the window with it. So how do I talk about cannabis?
What is the Parisian equivalent of Chinese food and a movie?
Paris residents:what do non Christians do on Xmas? If they go out to eat, what kinds of places are traditional?
...a dialogue with yourself under two names in the published literature.
"The aim of writing under the name of this nonexistent philosopher was, in Rorty’s words, ‘intellectual empathy’, understood as the attempt to enter into the mind of another thinker, a kind of exercise. This thinker, who does not exist, nevertheless takes up a particular perspective on the world, a perspective that rests on a different set of assumptions and preoccupations from the author’s."
'Forging Philosophy' [via: Arts & Letters Daily.]
Flying objects
In the Dáil (Lower House) last Wednesday, during PMQ Taoiseach (PM) Leo Varadkar announced: "I would like to confirm that Santa Claus has permission to enter Irish airspace and to cross our borders on December 24 through December 25. I want to thank IAA, Department of Agriculture and Revenue Commissioners for allowing necessary exemptions to occur". Further.
On other peoples' aggression, and my response to it
How do I best change my responses to someone else's anger, so that I am calmer and less fearful?