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The title about “evenly distributed” is apocryphal but…  credited to William Gibson. “cutting into the present” is William S. Burroughs

And this is an amalgam of thoughts and people, but religion needs a firmware update. How can books and laws and rules constantly get revised, but we can’t do a few updates to religion without people freaking out [nb: since I wrote that, Popey said no more Latin mass and people have lost their minds)? I mean, all this gerrymandering and surreal political voodoo means we’re watching some manic death rattle of a party killing the people, and future people, who vote for them. SO BIG SHOULDER SHRUG FROM ME PAL. HOLY CHRIST THESE PEOPLE ARE SO STUPID.

 

  • Vote for us. Daily. For like 18 more days. If you like. Isn’t that crazy? “Purposeful addiction for your work”, but also we’re not even sure it helps. Maybe your eyes help more. If you ever go to Oregon, or NW SF and Marin (yes, no one calls it NW SF), let me know! https://www.10best.com/awards/travel/best-wine-country-hotel-2021/the-allison-inn-spa-newberg-ore/

 

  • It’s been a long year+

 

SPACE, WHERE IT IS FUN TO JOKE THAT BILLIONAIRES NEED TO SPEND THEIR MONEY IN THIS “SPACE” BECAUSE THEY DO NOT PAY TAXES AT ALL AND HAVE WAY, WAY, WAY TOO MUCH MONEY AND I AM NOT SAYING SOMETHING POLITICAL, I THINK, JUST SAYING, WAY, WAY, WAY, TOO MUCH MONEY. SORRY IF THAT IS BAD TO SAY BUT REALLY, WOW.

  • WHAT WHAT HUBBLE BUBBLIN’ – Hubble could potentially be back up and running in a few days.

NASA may finally know what caused the Hubble Space Telescope’s major computer glitch https://www.space.com/nasa-switch-hubble-space-telescope-backup-hardware

 

 

 

 

SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

 

 

  • This is easily my favorite thing I’ve seen in a LONG time. The Programming Humor subreddit did this a few years ago and it recently caught on again. They’re trying to create the most horrible and awful volume control in history. They’ve accomplished a lot.

The worst volume control UI in the world: A group of bored developers and designers has decided to start a thread on reddit to figure out who can come up with the worst volume control interface in the world: https://uxdesign.cc/the-worst-volume-control-ui-in-the-world-60713dc86950

There are WAY WAY MORE, but here’s some gems:

 

MOVING PICTURES FROM VARIOUS FORMATS AND PLACES

  • Why in the living hell is Kids in the Hall’s “Brain Candy” not available for streaming ANYWHERE? Same with Smokey and the Bandit. Same with Two Lane Blacktop. What’s up with these wonderful things being hidden from the future?

 

 

  • The fact is that Cage’s career is bonkers amazing. His last 5 years with Mom & Dad, Mandy, Color Out of Space, the new animatronic weirdness, and this *apparent* masterpiece… holy cow.

‘Pig’ Review: Nicolas Cage Is at His Melancholic Best in This Strange, Sad Porcine Drama A million miles from ‘Peggy Sue Got Married,’ Cage goes searching for his beloved truffle pig — and himself — in Michael Sarnoski’s intimate character study. https://variety.com/2021/film/reviews/pig-review-nicolas-cage-1235017248/

 

  • And this was a great read about his self-awareness and intentionality:

Nicolas Cage Is Ready to Be Taken Seriously Again The Oscar winner tells Vanity Fair what led him to the unlikely role of a truffle hunter in Pig: “I was interested in a return too—almost like reminding myself, and many of the folks in the critical universe, that [quieter performances] are another one of my paintbrushes.” https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2021/07/nicolas-cage-pig-interview

 

 

  • Remember when Deadpool 2’s marketing started immediately after Deadpool, and it was a few years of surreal, hilarious, weird, wild, awesome, post-modernist and avant garde guerilla marketing and also totally surprising a studio would do that and it was sorta funnier than the film? WELL.. this is REALLY interesting, and says a lot about Disney’s headspace… They let Ryan use Deadpool for a Fox film, that introduces the Mutants to the Marvel Heroes Universe. It’s bonkers casual. Also a nod to Taika Waititi as Korg’s voice, so that’s fun and meta. But there’s a LOT going on here, and again, the marketing is hilarious and top notch.

 

SOUND FOR EARS

  • James Brown did a McDonald’s commercial that aired during the Grammys.

 

 

  • Billie Holiday-ish version of Queen? This is all the music you get this week, and you’ll like it. I thought the movie for Queen was rubbish, over-simplified, a washing of complexity, and also Queen just sang random songs about riding bikes. Not a huge fan. This arrangement, this girl… holy moly.

 

GAMES

In Fallout 3, it was easier to put a hat on a NPC than it was to code a functionally moving metro train:

https://www.pcgamer.com/heres-whats-happening-inside-fallout-3s-metro-train/

 

PEOPLE, CULTURE, & ART & I GUESS SOME SPORT

  • This kid did more in 12 years than most of us will do in a lifetime. He was killed by the Pakistani Carpet Mafia at the age of 12, after freeing thousands of child laborer slaves. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iqbal_Masih

“At the age of 10, Iqbal escaped his slavery, after learning that bonded labour had been declared illegal by the Supreme Court of Pakistan. He escaped and then went to the police to report his boss, but the police brought him back to him, who told the police to tie him upside down if he tried to escape again. Iqbal escaped a second time and attended the Bonded Labour Liberation Front (BLLF) school for former child slaves and quickly completed a four-year education in only two years. Iqbal helped over 3,000 Pakistani children that were in bonded labour escape to freedom and made speeches about child labour all over the world. He expressed a desire to become a lawyer to better equip him to free bonded labourers, and he began to visit other countries, including Sweden and the United States, to share his story, encouraging others to join the fight to eradicate child slavery. In 1994 he received the Reebok Human Rights Award in Boston, and in his acceptance speech he said: “I am one of those millions of children who are suffering in Pakistan through bonded labour and child labour, but I am lucky that due to the efforts of Bonded Labour Liberation Front, I go out in freedom I am standing in front of you here today. After my freedom, I joined BLLF School and I am studying in that school now. For us slave children, Ehsan Ullah Khan and BLLF have done the same work that Abraham Lincoln did for the slaves of America. Today, you are free and I am free too.”

 

 

  • Interesting. I am sure the data that will come out of this will be FASCINATING as it is diced up and viewed through all the prisms:

As Cases Spread Across U.S. Last Year, Pattern Emerged Suggesting Link Between Governors’ Party Affiliation and COVID-19 Case and Death Numbers: Starting in early summer last year, analysis finds that states with Republican Governors had higher case and death rates. https://www.jhsph.edu/news/news-releases/2021/as-cases-spread-across-us-last-year-pattern-emerged-suggesting-link-between-governors-party-affiliation-and-covid-19-case-and-death-numbers.html

How America’s partisan divide over pandemic responses played out in the states https://theconversation.com/how-americas-partisan-divide-over-pandemic-responses-played-out-in-the-states-157565

 

  • I sorta thought this at the beginning of the pandemic, but there’s going to be a left vs right death metric. CRAZY. In a nation, why should that happen?

 

 

 

 

 

  • I’ve been playing VR Ping Pong with a physics realistic VR game. It’s a delight. I lose on easy every time. This guy?

 

VEHICLES

@.zachdamilkmanWait for it… #colorado #durangosilvertontrain #???? #?? original sound – Zach

By Uncle FishbitsCategories: Newsletter