Favorites from doctornemo
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The size of the bet up against the size of the market seems irrational
The pool of podcast listeners is growing, but the flood of shows on various streaming platforms makes it tough to break new hits. Facing competition across genres and formats, Spotify found that exclusive podcasts generally don’t draw subscribers away from its rivals. Podcast costs at the company rose €29 million in the first half of this year. from Spotify’s $1 Billion Podcast Bet Turns Into a Serial Drama [WSJ; ungated]
British Seaside Simulator
British Seaside Simulator
by Mefi's own malevolent, "so we can endlessly relive the summer that's coming to an end." (info) Best enjoyed with a cup of builder's in a stainless steel travel mug. [via mefi projects]
Build Your Own Ghost House
Feeling the need for a bit of spooky decor, and feeling a bit crafty? Here's a paper craft Ghost House you can print out, cut apart, and glue together. House pages and instructions are in two separate PDF files. The same maker also has a fairly simple human skull, along with a whole catalog of interesting paper craft patterns.
the narrative unfolds with all the messy complexities of real life
Kentucky Route Zero:
It took seven years for the three-person team at Cardboard Computer to finish their masterpiece about a sad, regretful man making one last delivery for his employer's failing antique shop.
"One listens alone, even in another's presence"
A BBC audio drama adaptation of Italo Calvino's If on a winter's night a traveler featuring Toby Jones, Indira Varma & Tim Crouch. (NB: it says it's only available for 24 days)
Embarking on our Mission of Glorious Obscurity
The Museum of Everyday Life
is an ongoing revolutionary museum experiment based in Glover, Vermont. Its mission is a heroic, slow-motion cataloguing of the quotidian–a detailed, theatrical expression of gratitude and love for the minuscule and unglamorous experience of daily life in all its forms.
Hello! You're so pretty! Thank you!
Meet the Catluminati (archive) and his neighborhood cat friends including Mr. Furley, Naptime, Miss Cleo, Toast Malone, Crazy, Walnut, Cow Mary, Area Rug Mary, and Clara von Teethandclaws to name a few. More on the Catluminati. Videos on youtube, tiktok, instagram.
300 to 400 physicians a year in the US take their own lives...
US surgeons are killing themselves at an alarming rate. One decided to speak out
“I was the top junior tennis player in the United States,” she began. “I am an associate professor of surgery at Harvard.
“But I am also human. I am a person with lifelong depression, anxiety, and now a substance use disorder.”
The room fell silent.
“But I am also human. I am a person with lifelong depression, anxiety, and now a substance use disorder.”
The room fell silent.
Separating hyperplanes with Shoggoth Shalmaneser
A jargon-free explanation of how AI large language models work
- "Want to really understand large language models? Here's a gentle primer." [link-heavy FPP!]
PLOT OF ALL OBJECTS
"There is a long inspiring pedagogical tradition in physics of putting everything into one log-log plot... We then make the most comprehensive pedagogical plot of the masses and sizes of all the objects in the Universe."
I want to be suspended in inter-galactic space
Not long ago, I downloaded a Hubble image of a galactic cluster as a new wallpaper for my browser. The problem is, every time I see the image—which is now multiple times a day—my desire to be IN the picture intensifies. By that I mean, I want the experience of being in deep space, surrounded by galaxies.
Leaked documents from the FTC vs. Microsoft case spilled a lot of beans
It's been a terrible morning for Team Xbox, as a major leak related to the FTC investigation of the Activision Blizzard deal has revealed all kinds of information that Microsoft surely never intended anyone to see. And seriously, this is huge! We now know that Microsoft has been planning an Xbox Series X refresh (potentially arriving in late 2024), and an entire release schedule from Bethesda dated July 2020 (new Bethesda games including DOOM, Dishonored, Fallout & Oblivion) has also been doing the rounds. There's more coming out of this as well, such as a new Xbox controller that appears to be launching alongside the new Xbox Series X revision, and even the revelation that Phil Spencer was interested in acquiring Nintendo back in 2020! The leak also revealed Microsoft's plans to release a new next-generation console in 2028. Via:[Pure Xbox][Polygon][Eurogamer][The Verge]
Of the world’s languages, only 8% have ‘th’ sounds.
Although there are only five written vowels, English has 14-21 different vowel sounds, depending on the dialect. This is a much larger vowel inventory than most languages (the smallest is 3). However the consonant inventory for English is a very typical 22, though it does have "th," a relatively uncommon one. From the World Atlas of Language Structures: Consonant inventories of languages range from a low of 6 consonants to a high of 122 consonants. The more typical consonant inventory size is in the low twenties.
I heard crunch, crunch, crunch, crunch
A surfer wanted to catch waves from Hurricane Lee. A shark bit his face.
Around noon, he watched a six-foot-long spinner shark leap out of the water 20 feet away and fall back in, barely missing another surfer. Sumersett was terrified but stayed in the water. Several other surfers, including the one nearly bodied by the spinner shark, seemed unbothered.
He kept surfing.
He saw another shark fin in the afternoon.
Kept surfing.
Around dusk, he watched three sharks “come swimming through the waves like dolphins do.”
Kept surfing.
Five minutes later, he saw three different sharks doing the same thing.
Kept surfing.....
Oh joy (scratch, scratch)
Poison ivy is poised to be one of the big winners in this global, human-caused phenomenon. Scientists expect the dreaded three-leafed vine will take full advantage of warmer temperatures and rising levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere to grow faster and bigger — and become even more toxic...
Heisse Preise
"In Austria, inflation is way above the EU average. There's no end in sight. This is especially true for basic needs like energy and food. Our government stated in May that they'd build a food price database together with the big grocery chains. But...."
I can’t even hope to be nothing
In translating Pessoa’s heteronyms, one thing we see clearly is the influence of reading on Pessoa’s plural and inquiring mind. I have no doubt that reading more than writing was his primary and long-lasting literary occupation. His marginalia are of great interest; so are his many influences. This is to say that the more we know about what Pessoa read and when, the better equipped we are as translators of his works—especially to see more clearly his poetical diction, meters, and rhythms at the core of each heteronymic voice. from Fernando Pessoa’s Unselving [The Paris Review; ungated]
You can check out anytime you like
“We saw people were upset and we just wanted to try and fix it."
A trio of tourists went to Nashville for a birthday celebration, only to find themselves temporarily running the La Quinta hotel they were supposed to be staying at, in a saga that has captivated TikTok.
Master of puppets.
Lies of P carves a singular space out of the Soulsborne genre [Polygon]
“Lies of P is the latest addition in the ever-growing lineup of Soulsborne-inspired games. On paper, it definitely dresses the part. It’s a hack-and-slash game with obtuse mechanics; challenging areas delimited by sweet, sweet checkpoints; and dramatic entrances for each and every boss encounter. The standout element is its narrative, which sets the tale of renowned lying apologist Pinocchio against the Belle Époque era.” [Gameplay Trailer][Story Trailer][1 Hour of Midgame Gameplay]
The Evidence for Better-Than-Human Performance is Starting to Pile Up
Human beings drive close to 100 million miles between fatal crashes, so it will take hundreds of millions of driverless miles for 100 percent certainty on this question. But the evidence for better-than-human performance is starting to pile up, especially for Waymo. It’s important for policymakers to allow this experiment to continue because, at scale, safer-than-human driving technology would save a lot of lives. from Are self-driving cars already safer than human drivers?
Does History have a Replication Crisis?
Back in June, the historian Jenny Bulstrode published a paper, Black Metallurgists and the Making of the Industrial Revolution, in which she argued that one of the key inventions of the Industrial Revolution had been pioneered by (and stolen from) enslaved ironworkers in Jamaica. Now another historian, Oliver Jelf, has published a reply, which, to put it mildly, casts considerable doubt on Bulstrode's claims (it's been described as a 'ruthless demolition job which makes for a gruesomely compelling read'). Anton Howes asks: does history have a replication crisis?
I, for one, welcome our new insect overlords
Apiary
is a worker-placement game in which players choose one of twenty unique factions of hyper-intelligent bees to gather resources, develop technologies and explore new planets.
قهوة and cacahuaatl
From the Duolingo Blog: Are any words the same in all languages?
“That monster will never forgive us.”
Godzilla Minus One [Trailer]
“It’s widely thought that Godzilla, the giant monster who rose from the sea in Ishiro Honda’s 1954 film, was a manifestation of Japan’s postwar trauma; an allegory for nuclear weapons, perhaps, after the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, or an avatar of a vengeful and destructive U.S.A. Since then the giant lizard has taken many forms, some kindlier than others. But its historical link to Japan’s darkest days has perhaps never been clearer than in Godzilla Minus One, the new live-action Japanese Godzilla movie from Toho, which will be released in U.S. theaters on Dec. 1. The latest trailer for the movie makes that explicit. Godzilla Minus One is set in the late 1940s, and the creature is shown attacking a country that’s already been brought to its knees by defeat in World War II. Explaining the film’s title in a press release, Toho put it in stark terms: “After the war, Japan’s economic state has been reduced to zero. Godzilla appears and plunges the country into a negative state.”” [via: Polygon]
On this day in 1977, Voyager 1 launched.
Space.com looks back on the historic launch
Voyager 1 became the first spacecraft to reach interstellar space in 2012. The spacecraft’s next big encounter will take place in about 40,000 years, when it will fly by another star system.
Solar energy modules may help solve renewable storage issues
These solar energy modules generate enough heat to melt metal. It's hoped they can help solve renewable storage issues. Renewable energy company RayGen has officially opened its $27 million solar and thermal power plant project, in north-west Victoria.
BLAST!
"Henri Gaudier-Brzeska, who was associated with the Vorticist movement in London, certainly died youngest. He was killed at 23, and, except for a few surviving sketches, and several small pieces of sculpture made while he was in the trenches (now lost), the period of his full artistic production actually ended when he left for the Front, in September of 1914, when he was still 22."
Henri Gaudier-Brzeska: The Process of Discovery.
42 Students, Three Days, One Survivor, No Rules.
Battle Royale, revisited [The Verge]
“Before The Hunger Games, Fortnite, or Squid Game, the concept of the “battle royale” came from a pulpy 1999 Japanese novel by Koushun Takami. The movie, directed by Kinji Fukasaku and released just a year later, slims down some of the book’s context (scrubbed is the alternate history of Japan winning World War II), but the setup is more or less the same: a class of 15-year-old students are randomly selected to be made an example of. They are dropped on a remote island, given some weapons, and forced to kill each other off until a single person remains — the victor. Kids murdering each other? How cruel! But that’s the point. The violence of the battle royale is supposed to scare the authoritarian regime’s citizens into productive submission. As the students die, the movie counts down the remaining ones, like sport. Battle Royale is mean, and it’s not subtle.” [YouTube][Trailer]
When Wizards and Orcs Came to Death Row
For men awaiting execution in Texas, illicit games of Dungeons & Dragons became a lifeline. CW: Discussion of violent crime and execution
Ground control to Major Todd
Starfield | Overwhelming Scope [Game Informer]
“Even in the increasingly crowded marketplace of big, expansive games, Starfield stands out. Leveraging the gameplay Bethesda popularized with The Elder Scrolls and Fallout games, Starfield expands the breadth of exploration to a galaxy of solar systems, planets, and ships. It populates those environments with a rich palette of activities and missions that tap into the outer space fantasy. It’s a staggering span of content to wrap one’s head around. At times, that scope threatens to impair the focus and pacing, and moment-to-moment gameplay is not always a strong suit. But players can expect to uncover hundreds of hours of experimentation in a richly imagined sci-fi playground, and that thrill is worth experiencing.”
This is a solar-powered website, which means it sometimes goes offline
Low-tech Magazine (many previouslies) created a solar-powered version of their website a few years ago (previously). Since then they've realized that most of the financial and carbon cost of their solar website comes from using batteries to keep it on all the time. They explore the implications of using the sun's energy when it's available, including experience from the Living Energy Farm, in Direct Solar Power: Off-Grid Without Batteries.
When It Came To drinking, I Was Damn Good At It
The subject of all great literature is either about redemption or its loss. Soteriology—that is the branch of theology that concerns itself with salvation—is the only worthy topic of prose, poetry, or drama. Whether you take any of that God stuff literally or not is irrelevant to this discussion. Noble, heroic, and good people corrupted or degenerated; sinful and wicked men made whole—either/or—those are the narratives which should concern any genuine art, because the turmoil within an individual mind, the canker and possible curing of the soul, is the only drama commensurate with the broken, flawed, limited, damning, painful, horrible, and beautiful experience of being trapped in a human body and a human life. from Darkness Visible [Ungated] [CW: alcoholism]
I was a US nuclear missile operator. I’m grateful for “Oppenheimer.”
How pop culture (specifically movies) have helped shape our views on nuclear weapons.
The questions at the center of “Oppenheimer” don’t feel theoretical to me. From 2012 to 2017, I worked on nearly 300 nuclear silo alerts
Dr. Glaucomflecken
Dr. Glaucomflecken
has been a busy doctor comedian since his last appearance on the blue. His specialty is satirical videos about doctors and health insurance. That are a bit too on the nose.
Meanwhile, the world … shrugs.
If one of the major narratives of 21st-century Hollywood has been the steady erosion of what were once referred to as midrange studio movies—films produced and aimed at a level somewhere between blockbusters and the indie/art-house scene—the increasing indistinguishability of theatrical and VOD aesthetics, in combination with the severe narrowing of theatrical release windows, has resulted in a crowded yet intangibly barren cinematic landscape. from Did You Even Know This Movie Exists?