How misinformation overwhelmed our democracy: “We’re in an age of manufactured nihilism. The issue for many people isn’t exactly a denial of truth as such. It’s more a growing weariness over the process of finding the truth at all. And that weariness leads more and more people to abandon the idea that the truth is knowable.”
Links
Stuff I find around the web that interests or amuses me.
In Roald Dahl’s Car: “‘[My stories] can be pretty horrible. They don’t always end well; there’s often a twist in the tail. Actually, I think I’m writing funny stories, because they can be very comical. There’s such a narrow line between the macabre and laughter.’ I could sense him smiling as he said it.”
Prepping For ‘Star Trek: Picard’ – A Procrastinators’ Guide: “To help you prep (or at this point, cram), TrekMovie presents a list of Star Trek: The Next Generation episodes that showcase Jean-Luc Picard’s exploits with the Borg and Romulans, plus a few essential Captain Picard episodes that reveal his character. We also include a bonus list of a few Seven of Nine-centric episodes of Voyager.”
The One Remaining Use of the Word “Macintosh”: “Some weeks ago, I was struck by the thought that Apple had almost entirely managed to scrub its corporate communications of the word ‘Macintosh.’ It’s not surprising, of course, but I was curious if the company had slipped up anywhere.”
I don’t really keep up with automotive news, but…um…Subaru? Everything okay over there?
Bonus: As long as this model exists, any contest/competition that awards a car as a prize, but doesn’t offer this model, obviously gives no FUCKS.
We now know that cuttlefish have stereoscopic vision…: because scientists tested the theory by having the cuttlefish wear 3D glasses and showing them 3D movies of shrimp and watching where the cuttlefish tried to strike to eat the shrimp. Not only is it cool, but CUTTLEFISH WEARING 3D GLASSES!
Hopepunk and Solarpunk: On Climate Narratives That Go Beyond the Apocalypse: “Hopepunk stories are not specifically climate-focused and, more importantly, do not necessitate hopeful worlds. In the age of Trump, this basic act of extending to another person kindness, rather than disdain or vitriol, becomes a political narrative….”
A Brief History of Convention Ribbons: “If you’ve gone to conventions like CONvergence, you may have seen the ribbons imprinted with catchphrases and clip art people stick to the bottom of the their badges—in some cases, collecting large trails of them. CONvergence does a great job of explaining how you can get your own ribbons on its site, including a variety of different vendors that print them. But what is the real purpose of badge ribbons, and how did the tradition get started?” (There’s a fair amount of ribbon collection/trading at Norwescon as well.)
Best Star Trek Captain: How Captain Picard beat Captain Kirk: “For The Next Generation era, Picard somehow had the swaggering captain thing going for him, but, because he was a little bit stoic and detached, he also had the Spock thing going for him, too. He was the best of both worlds (those worlds being Earth and Vulcan).”
‘Star Trek: Picard”: Patrick Stewart on Why He’s Returning: “The new show is different from its predecessor in nearly every respect — texture, tone, format, production value, even the likelihood of characters dropping an f-bomb. That’s all by design. Stewart’s design.”