Report: NBC is shelving Separated (Errol Morris’ documentary on Trump’s inhumane child separation policies) until after the election because they don’t want to offend Trump — they hope he’ll agree to another debate. (Maybe they bought it to shelve it?)
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Nobel Physics Prize Awarded for Pioneering A.I. Research by 2 Scientists (John...
Nobel Physics Prize Awarded for Pioneering A.I. Research by 2 Scientists (John Hopfield and Geoffrey Hinton). I’m a little confused why this qualifies for the physics prize? Applied physics I guess?
An exhibition of dozens of iconic photographic prints from the 20th century,...
An exhibition of dozens of iconic photographic prints from the 20th century, along with the annotations on the reverse sides including “crop lines, grease pencil markings, date stamps of when the photograph was run, captions used by the newspaper…”
Chef’s Table: Noodles
The food documentary series Chef’s Table returns with chefs & culinary experts from Italy, China, Cambodia, and the US who all work in the medium of the noodle. Here’s the trailer for Chef’s Table: Noodles:
The four main chefs profiled are Peppe Guida, Guirong Wei, Nite Yun, and Evan Funke. Now streaming on Netflix.
Tressie McMillan Cottom reflects on her profile of Sean Combs for Vanity...
Tressie McMillan Cottom reflects on her profile of Sean Combs for Vanity Fair three years ago. “I’ve talked to some strange characters in my time, but this was in the top tier of strangeness.” Great kicker too.
An A.I. Model Helped Uncover 303 Previously Unseen Nazca Lines in Peru....
An A.I. Model Helped Uncover 303 Previously Unseen Nazca Lines in Peru. “The A.I. model has been adept at detecting the smaller, relief-type renderings that mainly portray wild animals and are more difficult to find.”
Every Frame a Painting: What Would Billy Wilder Do?
Billy Wilder (Sunset Boulevard, The Apartment, Some Like It Hot) was both a great director and a great writer. In this video essay, Taylor Ramos & Tony Zhou examine how Wilder balanced the verbal, dramatic, and situational ironies of his scripts with making it all work on the screen, emotionally and structurally.
Tags: Billy Wilder · film school · movies · Taylor Ramos · Tony Zhou · video
Spain & Barcelona legend Andres Iniesta is retiring from football at the...
Spain & Barcelona legend Andres Iniesta is retiring from football at the age of 40. I always loved watching him play…one of the all-time greats.
Private Snafu: The World War II Propaganda Cartoons Created by Dr. Seuss,...
Private Snafu: The World War II Propaganda Cartoons Created by Dr. Seuss, Frank Capra & Mel Blanc. “[Private Snafu] was an adorable dolt who sounded like Bugs Bunny and looked a bit like Elmer Fudd.”
New Film by Errol Morris: Separated
Separated is the newest documentary film from Errol Morris. Based on Jacob Soboroff’s 2020 book Separated: Inside an American Tragedy, the film probes the inhumane family separation and immigration policies of the Trump administration. From a review in The Guardian:
The ...
Lots of good links and reads in Jodi Ettenberg’s Curious About Everything...
Lots of good links and reads in Jodi Ettenberg’s Curious About Everything newsletter this month.
The British Pathe Archive
Newsreel archivist British Pathé has uploaded their entire 85,000 film archive to YouTube. This is an amazing resource.
British Pathé was once a dominant feature of the British cinema experience, renowned for first-class reporting and an informative yet uniquely entertainin...
“We only learnt of our son’s secret online life after he died...
“We only learnt of our son’s secret online life after he died at 20”. When Mats Steen died of a muscle-wasting disorder that limited his mobility, his parents were astonished to learn of his stature in the World of Warcraft community. Great read.
Relax With George Clooney at the End of a Movie
It has been a week. It’s not going to fix anything, but maybe watching George Clooney chilling at the end of a movie will help you in some small way.
He has perfected the art of just chillin’ out silently for an extended period of time during the last shot of a movie while the credits roll…
(via laura olin)
Tags: George Clooney · movies · video
Matthew Ingram takes a look at the moral panic over social media...
Matthew Ingram takes a look at the moral panic over social media and teen depression. “Despite all of the studies, there is still an almost complete lack of any evidence that social media use causes anxiety or depression in young adults.”
Sports Celebrate Physical Variation — Until It Challenges Social Norms. “A powerful...
Sports Celebrate Physical Variation — Until It Challenges Social Norms. “A powerful triple axel on the ice is perfectly feminine when done in a skirt. But a powerful punch? A cheetah-fast sprint? Variation is suddenly of deep concern.”
You’ve heard about the Earth’s new mini-moon, yes? “It will be temporarily...
You’ve heard about the Earth’s new mini-moon, yes? “It will be temporarily trapped by our planet’s gravity and orbit the globe - but only for about two months.”
Ran across this book in the bookstore recently and it looked great:...
Ran across this book in the bookstore recently and it looked great: The Art of Aardman. “This collection features original character sketches and never-before-seen concept art, offering a unique look inside the studio that created…Wallace & Gromit.”
Music By John Williams
Music By John Williams is a documentary film about the legendary composer who did the scores for Star Wars, Jaws, Indiana Jones, Jurassic Park, Close Encounters, Superman, E.T., Home Alone, Schindler’s List — seriously, one person composed all these?! — Saving Private Ryan, Harry Potter, Lincoln, etc. etc. etc. Oh, and the Olympic Fanfare and Theme that NBC uses for the Olympics.
Anyway, the documentary premieres on Nov 1 on Disney+.
Tags: John Williams · movies · music · trailers · video
Ta-Nehisi Coates & Jon Stewart: Understanding the Humiliation of Oppression
I got a lot out of this interview with The Message author Ta-Nehisi Coates by Jon Stewart for The Daily Show.
Best-selling author Ta-Nehisi Coates sits down with Jon Stewart to talk about his latest book, “The Message,” and reconciling past and present vestiges of oppress...
What Does Our Far Future Look Like?
Ross Anderson and I share a favorite web page, Wikipedia’s Timeline of the Far Future, which he wrote about for the Atlantic: For How Much Longer Can Life Continue on This Troubled Planet?
Like the best sci-fi world building, the Timeline of the Far Future can give you a...
This AI-generated video is a) completely bonkers (seriously, watch all the way...
This AI-generated video is a) completely bonkers (seriously, watch all the way to the end) and b) illustrative of how visual LLMs work: it so obviously doesn’t know anything…it’s just mindlessly following image similarity.
If you play Spelling Bee, the Times has a Spelling Bee Buddy...
If you play Spelling Bee, the Times has a Spelling Bee Buddy that offers statistics and personalized hints that update as you play. (There’s also a Connections Bot.)
10-Minute Art Challenge: Hiroshige’s ‘Sudden Rain’
The NY Times has been doing these challenges every Friday where you sit and look at one piece of art for 10 minutes. Last week featured a woodblock print by Utagawa Hiroshige called Great Bridge: Sudden Rain at Atake, a piece that Vincent van Gogh had in his personal collection and painted a version of himself.
I didn’t expect to last the entire 10 minutes — a slow start to the day (dentist, errands) had me feeling rushed and a computer with an infinite number of apps & websites just a tab or click away is not the ideal medium for this exercise — but once I got going (or, rather, once I slowed down), it was pretty easy. (via laura olin)
Tags: art · Utagawa Hiroshige · Vincent van Gogh
Profile of Aisha Nyandoro (founder of a guaranteed-income project) for the Time...
Profile of Aisha Nyandoro (founder of a guaranteed-income project) for the Time Next 100 list. “Money — the type that can be spent on anything — has been out of favor as a method of helping impoverished Americans.”
Some of the most prized public spaces in Europe were once used...
Some of the most prized public spaces in Europe were once used for parking lots (and some still are). “Why are we so comfortable filling our most iconic public spaces with a bunch of metal boxes?”
Two Sally Rooney Things I Didn’t Know About
I was surprised to learn, via Youngna Park’s excellent newsletter, that Sally Rooney wrote a short story in 2016 that features Marianne & Connell after the events of Normal People (which was published in 2018, technically making it a prequel?)
On the way to the dental c...
Opinion: We Need More Consequences for Reckless Driving. “‘Punishment’ and ‘consequences’ aren’t...
Opinion: We Need More Consequences for Reckless Driving. “‘Punishment’ and ‘consequences’ aren’t synonyms — and when we confuse the two, we lose lives on our roads.”
Shiny and Chrome
A site called Chromeography collects chrome logos and typography from vintage cars & electric appliances. As I was looking through these, I wondered: “What the hell is chrome anyway?” So I looked it up:
Chrome plating (less commonly chromium plating) is a technique of electroplating a thin layer of chromium onto a metal object. A chrome plated part is called chrome, or is said to have been chromed. The chromium layer can be decorative, provide corrosion resistance, facilitate cleaning, and increase surface hardness. Sometimes, a less expensive substitute for chrome, such as nickel may be used for aesthetic purposes.
(via @presentandcorrect)
Tags: cars · design · logos · typography
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When I tell folks (like during my XOXO talk) that I’m leaving...
When I tell folks (like during my XOXO talk) that I’m leaving a lot of money on the table by not paywalling my stuff on Substack, this is what I’m talking about: “You probably can’t make more than $1 million a year on Substack. But Matthew Yglesias does.”