November 5
a thread of DOOM and ALARM
You probably remember last month when Nintendo released Alarmo, an alarm clock that plays your favorite music from classic Nintendo games, as well as monitoring your movement for some reason. But you may have asked yourself, does it play DOOM? The answer may surprise you. (Spoiler: You will not be surprised.)
Murray Sinclair led Canada's Truth and Reconciliation Commission
Murray Sinclair, also named Mazina Giizhik, was raised by his grandparents, became one of Canada's first Indigenous lawyers, and remained a force in Manitoba and national politics. He has died at 73. [more inside]
heat, transformation, heists, solidarity, love
A few short fantasy stories about strangers joining forces to save each other, win vengeance, and discover tenderness. A dragon who wants to be left alone has to cope with the maiden "sacrificed" at his door. The rogue in an adventuring party keeps stealing a handkerchief she gave you (by bixbythemartian - previously). An old woman considers a request to turn a housewife into a swan. Story ideas for "a heist film where a group of vampires band together to steal back their old stuff from museums". And a baker in the aftermath of war meets a decommissioned military robot - "When There is Sugar" by Leonard Richardson. [more inside]
Wigging Out
Wigmaker, a relatively active incremental game about making wigs, completable over the course of hours.
Emperor penguin waddles up to surfer at Western Australian beach
Emperor penguin waddles up to surfer at WA beach in most northern recorded sighting of species. A young emperor penguin has captured the attention of locals and researchers by arriving at an unexpected location in Western Australia, a long way from its Antarctic home.
Subways Of Your Mind 3’54
☑️ The Most Important Election of Our Lifetimes (🇺🇸)
Election Day is finally here. (*gulp*) Democratic nominee Kamala Harris, after replacing a Biden campaign killed by an abysmal June debate, has run a historic sprint to the finish, promising (with Coach Tim Walz) "A New Way Forward" focused on reproductive rights, middle class economics, and protecting American democracy. Former President Donald Trump, saddled with myriad felonies, a historically unpopular running mate, and a platform that ranges from fascistic to incoherent, leads a darkly authoritarian counterculture that tried once to subvert the popular will and aims to do so again. Dozens of key House and Senate and ballot races hang in the balance, and the outcome has titanic implications for human rights, climate change, the international order, and the future of liberal democracy around the world. But despite the stark contrast, a lingering economic malaise (and suspiciously close polling) make this look like the closest contest in modern history. So let's give it a push in the right direction, yeah? Voting resources:
🪪 Check your registration -
🗳️ Find your polling place -
💭 Make your plan -
📆 States with same-day registration -
🗹 See what's on your ballot - 🏛️USA.gov voting guide -
Volunteer to get out the vote:
🚪Knock on doors -
📞 Phonebank -
📱Textbank -
🚗 Carpool -
👋 Neighbor2Neighbor -
❤️🩹Help cure ballots -
Follow the returns: ⌚ Poll closing times - 🚨DecisionDeskHQ results - 📈 538 benchmarks - 📺 Live coverage - 📰 Politico Liveblog - 🐀Preparing for post-election subversion - ⌛Timeline through Inauguration Day [more inside]
The Wish for Kings
King Of America is the sound of Elvis Costello growing up. It’s full of melody. The lyrics are more direct but remain clever, witty and literate. His singing is superb, possibly the best of his career. He is emotionally invested in these songs. Dropping the smart-alex sneer helps them carry more weight. As time goes by, the musicianship suits the ear more, little details revealing themselves. When the likes of T-Bone Burnett, Jim Keltner, Mitchell Froom and members of Elvis Presley’s TCB band are involved, the result is bound to ooze class. It is an album of inner turmoil, presented in best bib and tucker. It was a lot to digest in 1986, and quickly superseded by its caustic follow-up the same year, Blood & Chocolate. It was easy to move on, but, if you kept coming back, you would find a lot to cherish in King Of America. [more inside]
November 4
The Present is Female and Heavy #7
We're branching out to stuff that's more rock than metal but boundaries are for posers, anyway. We start out with intense, and undeniable Rolo Tomasi - To resist Forgetting. [more inside]
Are you not entertained?
The damage gridiron football does to the brains and bodies of its participants hasn't gone way. But the public's concern about that damage – to the extent it ever existed –�160;appears to have evaporated.
Tagovailoa’s third NFL concussion — or was it his fourth? And should we count the one he suffered in college? — provoked more pointed questions, but pretty much all of them were directed at him: “Isn’t it time to retire? Don’t you need to think of your wife and kids?” No one was asking what the NFL needed to do, or whether football had a future. “Those who said all this awareness would kill football were wrong,” Chris Nowinski, who has been a leading advocate on the issue of brain injuries in sports for nearly two decades, told me recently. “Football continues to be more popular in just about every measurable way.”
Virtual fences
These GPS cow collars are allowing producers to farm without physical fences. Farmers can create virtual fences using a solar-powered, GPS-enabled collar to track and move their livestock around the farm from a remote device.
The Five Boxing Wizards Jump Quickly
Every day, the online game Letroso picks a secret word of up to 10 letters Your task is to guess the secret word. Letroso will tell if your guess has any letters in common with the secret word, and if those letters within the secret word are adjacent, non adjacent, or are in the same order. Letroso will also tell you if you've correctly matched the beginning or ending letter of the word. Settings include Português, English, and Espa1;ol.
What games will you be playing during the New York Times strike?
Miku Earth: cultural self-portrayal
My grandmother would probably have hated the idea of a sea burial
This is the world I grew up in, a world in which I could be anything I dreamed and do whatever I dreamed of doing, as long as I had the skill. A world in which there were no real consequences; an ahistorical world, where things could be easily reset for the building of new dreams. My grandmother, I suspect, had never suffered from this ahistorical delusion. from Remembered Coast by Mok Zining [Longreads]
Break Your Streak, Not the Strike
After two and a half years of negotiations, The New York Times Tech Guild has gone on strike (NYT Gift Link). "The guild said it was asking readers to honor its digital picket line by not playing Times Games products, such as Wordle, and not using the Cooking app." "Nearly 750 New York Times journalists and Times Guild members signed a new pledge pressing the Times’s management to bargain and reach a contract deal with the Times Tech Guild by Election Day." More coverage: The Verge, The Washington Post, NBC News.
"We'll fix it in post..."
Between 1980 and 2021, Cinefex magazine was the quarterly journal of the visual effects industry covering mostly big budget movies, but also TV shows, commercials and even interactive experiences. It ended publication in 2021 due to the effect of the pandemic on film production, however the content remained available through their iOS app... until iOS 17 killed it... or did it?. Regardless, Don Shay, original editor of the periodical, has made the entire back catalogue available on archive.org [more inside]
Regarding the Secret Life of Rabbits
Regarding the Secret Life of Rabbits is a webcomic about life with rabbits that has been running for about a decade. Those with house rabbits will see much that is familiar in individual strips. The comic has a homepage with links to various content, from strips to a blog to merch. The strip is the creation of That Lady, as she styles herself in the comic. Latest strip. Generally a fine alternative to watching the news, the strip does have its hard moments, as when one of the cast rotates out. Believe it or don't!
I Will Be Away from My Desk on November 6
McSweeney’s Internet Tendency: Thank you for your email. This is an automated response to let you know that I will be away from my desk on Wednesday, November 6.
"The Dude"
unusual small curses and powers
Two fantasy stories in which characters notice and respond to little spells. "That seemed like a… a manageable amount of divinity." Sarah Blackwell (Dyce) (previously) writes a fun short piece in which Jenna gets something that, deep down, she's always wanted. "The possibility of danger overrides my manners, and my hand shoots out to grab her wrist.... She notices too much, and she thinks too fast." In the suspenseful, romantic "Useful and Beautiful Things", available in text and audio, E. Saxey (previously) depicts an antiques specialist with a few secrets, and the intriguing books expert they can't get away from.
A Place for Strongly-Held Candy Optinions
Halloween has come and gone as has the bonus weekend after we claim when the actual holiday falls mid-week. In most homes though, candy remains. What are your favorite/least favorite candies? What are the ones you scour the bowl to claim for yourself? What are the horrible things that end up ignored? What treats from your culture would surprise, horrify, and/or delight people from elsewhere? Or talk about anything you like*. It's a free thread. [more inside]
Saving tens of thousands of dollars for helping the planet
These farmers are saving tens of thousands of dollars for helping the planet. More than 40 per cent of Gary Kadwell's property is dedicated to revegetation after he planted tens of thousands of trees across his property. It is a move that has seen him save thousands of dollars and improve production levels.
Adam Smith’s Impartial Spectator: A Tool for Making More Ethical Decision
Adam Smith, ya know the father of Capitalism, introduced a concept called the Impartial Spectator in his book The Theory of Moral Sentiments. This idea is about an internal, invisible judge that helps us evaluate our thoughts and emotions. Smith uses the metaphor of “the man within the breast” to describe this inner observer, which helps us figure out if our actions are moral from a neutral standpoint. [more inside]
The Red Mirage, then the Blue Shift.
Early voting results in the US tilt Republican, and later voting results tilt Democratic. Part of the reason is Red precincts are less populated, thus faster to count. [more inside]
This song still pleases me.
From the movie, not the stage musical of "Hair". Flesh Failures has been a favorite of mine for a long time. Can't really put [more inside]
A relative of the bygone nut
Down the street, the owner of Vale das Freiras bottles sweet chestnut liqueur, its own kind of mountain hooch. From the café’s second floor, I accessed a small chestnut museum with artifacts of a working life: baskets into which men thrashed off chestnut skins, millstones for grinding chestnut flour, a chestnut roaster. Madeira’s earliest settlers brought the Castanea sativa variety with them to the island. It shares a common ancestor with the American chestnut, whose genetics split off soon before the two landmasses ripped apart. from On the Island of Madeira, a Tiny Town Celebrates the Chestnut
November 3
Darwin's waste helps power 1200 houses a year
Darwin's waste helps power 1200 houses a year as council creates circular economy. For the past 20 years, an energy project on the outskirts of Darwin has been quietly generating renewable electricity 24 hours a day and abating tens of thousands of tonnes of carbon dioxide.
Some Horrors to Take Your Mind off the US Election
We are leaving Spooky Season 2024 and entering the Horrifying last days of the US Elections, so here’s another roundup of weird audio dramas! They may help distract you from the stress of the season (but please vote). Most of the series are audio dramas with paranormal elements, but anthologies, fantasy, science fiction, and the occasional thriller or mystery are included. I’m excoted because the second season of The Phosphene Catalogue has started! [more inside]
How Concerned Citizens Ran a Neo-Nazi Out of Rural Maine
The Crash of the Hammer by Mira Ptacin is a long article about how a handful of Mainers shone the light on a noxious Nazi who’d bought property in their state, and ran him out of town, focusing on anti-fascist podcaster Crash Barry. That wasn’t an isolated incident because, as reported last year by Eric Russell and John Terhune for the Portland Press-Herald, he wasn’t the only fascist to move recently to the Pine Tree State.
Small ways to improve life without the need for sustained willpower
An Elephant Never Forgets
Community group launches legal action to protect Murray River
Community group launches legal action to protect Murray River flood plains in Kakadu of the south. A Victorian landcare group has filed legal proceedings against the Australian Federal government, challenging the approval of the Nyah flood plain project, alleging it is a dodgy water offset project that is environmentally damaging.
"... with a crush on [Paul] Williams' suave, satanic character..."
Winnipeggers recently celebrated the 50th anniversary of a Brian De Palma comedy/horror/rock opera movie spectacle that was a hit in the city (and in Paris) and a flop everywhere else in the world.
The major currents of political and ethical debate within sf
"The article illuminates ways in which sf functions as a resource for thinking concretely about multiple coming futures, in ways that can often eclipse so-called realist literature." [more inside]
You wake up on a beach except it's a mountaintop it's underwater it's
What if Minecraft except it's being generated in realtime and it's like those dreams where everything changes all the time and when you try to get close to a wall it becomes a fish. Oasis.
A portrait of human folly, bias, humiliation, and desire for connection
This literary subgenre has arguably been around since the dawn of written material but didn’t emerge as a distinct sector of scholarship and pedagogy until roughly the 1980s. Remaining contested as a classifiable writing mode, it straddles the boundaries of personal essay, memoir, journalism, cultural criticism, food writing, nature writing, and more dominant umbrellas like fiction and poetry. All that said and done, it would be remiss to claim that this reading list is comprehensive or authoritative; even for a writing scholar and critic who regularly teaches travel writing at the college level, the subgenre and its accompanying breadth of scholarship eludes definitive contours. Simply put, it has its tendrils in too many places. from All Travelers are Infiltrators: An Introduction to the Study of Travel Writing [Jstor]
November 2
Using straw panels to protect against bushfire
Why using straw panels to protect against bushfire was a no-brainer for this couple.
Straw might seem like the last product you'd use if you wanted to protect your house from fire, but these straw panels, made from waste material, are a secret weapon against flames.
The Predator and the President (who is also a predator)
Jeffrey Epstein described himself as Donald Trump’s “closest friend” and claimed intimate knowledge of his proclivity for sex, including cuckolding his best friends, according to recordings obtained exclusively by the Daily Beast. [...] Epstein spoke at length about Trump with the author Michael Wolff in August 2017, two years before being found dead in his jail cell. [...] On the tape Epstein can be heard saying, “He’s a horrible human being. He does nasty things to his best friends, best friends’ wives, anyone who he first tries to gain their trust and uses it to do bad things to them.” [...] Startlingly for a man who became one of the world’s most notorious sex offenders, Epstein on the tapes offers a damning judgment of Trump, telling Wollf, “The moral compass just does not exist.”Listen To The Jeffrey Epstein Tapes [The Daily Beast]
A novel idea they hope will catch on
Aboriginal Australia's pre-colonial trade with Asia
Documentary explores evidence of Aboriginal Australia's pre-colonial trade with Asia. The Wangany Mala documentary delves into how Yolŋu people from north-east Arnhem Land and Macassans from modern-day Indonesia traded before colonisation.
3 hours of The Cure
Nearly 200 Percent Surge in School Book Bans (2023-2024 School Year)
"PEN America today released new documentation of public school book bans for the full 2023-2024 school year, recording 10,046 instances of books banned nationwide, a dramatic 200 percent rise over the previous school year. Since 2021, the free expression organization has counted close to 16,000 instances of book bans in public schools." [more inside]
An ecstatic, emergent complexity
Japan’s clutter tells a different story. It’s one that reveals a far more complex and nuanced relationship with stuff, one that suggests minimalism and clutter aren’t opposites, but two sides of the same coin. For the nation of Japan is filled with spaces that are as meticulously cluttered as minimalist ones are meticulously simplified. These packed places, which are every bit as charming as the emptied ones, force us to question our assumptions and worldviews. What if we’ve all been wrong about clutter? from The joy of clutter [Aeon; ungated]
"The translator is author and artist and it's their words we're reading"
Why You Should Read Literature in Translation is a video essay about what is gained in translation. There is a transcript, but you need to click on "show transcript" all the way at the bottom of the episode notes. The essay ends with recommendations of books in translation and they're all interesting, and so are a lot of other books discussed.
November 1
A Brief History of Trumpism
Trumpism Has Deep Roots in American History, and It Will Outlast Trump [ungated] - "He's said he wants the Justice Department to target people and institutions he regards as opponents, and would unleash the military to round up American citizens he's labeled as the 'enemy from within.' He wants to deport more than 10 million immigrants. He plans to lock down trade channels with massive tariffs and turn his back on European and Asian allies. He's prepared to continue stocking the courts with jurists who allow legal precedent to be voided — at the expense of women's health and autonomy — and make presidents largely immune from the rule of law. He has called for the 'termination' of the Constitution to overturn election results that don't satisfy him (and has already fomented one insurrection). Some of this is cultural, economic and diplomatic warfare. Much of it — as many voters, historians, analysts, Republicans, former Trump White House advisers and military leaders like John Kelly and Mark Milley have noted — is fascism. All of it, collectively, is Trumpism." [more inside]
Technology sucks liquid out of the air to provide safe drinking water
Technology sucks liquid out of the air to provide safe drinking water for an entire remote town.
Children living in a remote, desert-like town in north-western NSW can fill their drink bottles with safe, chilled water sucked out of the air by hydropanels at their school.
The X Factor: How Group Labels Shape Politics
The X Factor: How Group Labels Shape Politics (PDF) By scholars Amanda Sahar d’Urso and Marcel F. Roman, a recent paper posits a "Identity-Expansion-Backlash Theory," explored through the partisan consequences of the term "Latinx" through seven experiments. They find a decrease in support for Democrats who use "Latinx" among Latino voters who might otherwise support Democrats, but who are resistant to LGBTQ+ inclusion in Latino identity.
The authors further discuss their findings here in the Washington Post. [more inside]
choices that hint at stories
"fifty decisions", such as: "...They sell the plane. She taps him on the shoulder. She writes her name on the list. He lies. They buy the tickets anyway...." An evocative list by Andrew Willett (disclaimer: a friend).
Stay out of MOIDA MANSION!
Lucas Pope, creator of Papers, Please and Return of the Obra Dinn, has just released Moida Mansion, a new game playable for free on itch.io. Moida Mansion, an ELECTRONIC LIQUID CRYSTAL GAME, throws back to handheld electronic games of yore.
“Are you Judd Nelson?” I asked. A ridiculous question!
I first started to read In Search of Lost Time in the fall of 2003. I was 29, unemployed, had recently finished graduate school, was still traumatized by a frightening experience in the World Trade Center on 9/11 (and deeply in denial of that trauma), and had picked up, semi-randomly, a copy of Swann’s Way. In a dim sense I was aware that the novel was part of a vaster work that was considered “difficult,” and featured a scene where a guy dunked . . . something into a beverage and then remembered things. But I knew nothing else about the book. from On Proust, Judd Nelson, and Some Other Things [The Millions]