November 2021 – Sore Eyes

Ridley Scott

Towards the end of a lengthy snark-fest of a MeFi thread, following an interview in which Ridley Scott blamed the poor box office of his latest directorial project, The Last Duel, on “millennials” came this comment on Scott’s career: Ridley Scott is right about one thing. Blade Runner was ahead of its time. Well, that… Continue reading Ridley Scott

Go! Go! Go!

I defy you not to cheer while watching this: Go, little car, go… [Via Memex 1.1]

Share Your Flavor

Jenifer K. Leigh brings us a sweet short story called Share Your Flavor, about a world where humans and dolphins were able to use technology to communicate properly: “Now, in a week you’ll be receiving your Knowledge Link Dolphin Communication Partner, or DCP. In your first conversations with them, you’ll probably want to refer to… Continue reading Share Your Flavor

The Metaverse (minus legs, and a few other things)

Judging by the Wall Street Journal’s Joanna Stern’s Trapped in the Metaverse video, Meta (and Microsoft, and every other tech giant hoping to get into the avatars-pretending-to-share-a-virtual-table market) have a really long way to go to turn the current state of the art into an enticing experience. Start with adding virtual legs to the avatars,… Continue reading The Metaverse (minus legs, and a few other things)

Trains to Omelas

John Holbo brings us The Ones Who Take the Train to Omelas: A couple years back I made a post about Le Guin’s “Omelas”. I teach it, and it’s been rattling around up there in the attic. I had this idea for a visual gag. And that led to a story, which led back to… Continue reading Trains to Omelas

Modern TV

Although Douglas Rushkoff hangs his story off How NFTs Will Kill Netflix on a particularly shiny/grubby bit of modern technology, the real issue is more about how consumers will react to having to chase their favourite TV shows from app to app, from subscription to subscription:1 A new world of NFT-based media may liberate us… Continue reading Modern TV

Canine performance review

Caroline O’Donoghue on How I imagine an annual performance review with the dog would go: Hello, dog. Please take a seat. I’m so glad we could find time for this little chat. Are you… Ok, you’re still sitting down. So to begin… Still sitting down. Right. Maybe the tight circular movements can wait until after… Continue reading Canine performance review

Jarvis sings!

Jarvis Cocker provides the vocal performance for this video of “Aline” from The French Dispatch: Dammit, the cast listed in the credits for that film (which form the backdrop for the video) keep almost persuading me that I really should consider taking a trip to a local cinema for the first time since our first… Continue reading Jarvis sings!

Worth a thousand words

Steven Berlin Johnson turns out to be a decent illustrator as well as a good writer and thinker (assuming that’s his hand we’re watching at work in this promo video for his new book): [Via Memex 1.1]