Month: December 2022

Orion Magazine – A Failed Hunt for Meaning in Wartime Ukraine

Orion Magazine – A Failed Hunt for Meaning in Wartime Ukraine

IN CHIȘINĂU, MOLDOVA, ON THE CRACKED asphalt of the wide but empty central street, a wrinkled old man sold a hammer, a rusty screwdriver, two Soviet

via Orion Magazine: https://orionmagazine.org/article/ukraine-invasion-meaning-in-war/

N CHIȘINĂU, MOLDOVA, ON THE CRACKED asphalt of the wide but empty central street, a wrinkled old man sold a hammer, a rusty screwdriver, two Soviet history textbooks, an old VHS tape, and a bunch of rainbow-colored rubber balls in a crinkled plastic bag. The objects, arranged at an even distance on a red tablecloth, looked like Inquisition torture tools, surgical instruments, or an exhibit of communist artifacts.

December 28, 2022
How the Artist Kehinde Wiley Went from Picturing Power to Building It | The New Yorker

How the Artist Kehinde Wiley Went from Picturing Power to Building It

His portrait of Obama sparked a nationwide pilgrimage. Now he’s establishing an arts empire of his own.

via The New Yorker: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2023/01/02/how-the-artist-kehinde-wiley-went-from-picturing-power-to-building-it

The paintings begin life in Photoshop. Wiley sends initial shots of models to a graphic designer, along with decorative motifs and detailed instructions for creating a backdrop. After the mockup earns his approval, assistants trace it onto the canvas, then begin their painstaking work on the fashion, the flora, and the filigree. Individuals focus on particular works, but also serve as floating detail specialists. The bird painter was brought on for her knowledge of Japanese landscape painting; the clothing expert, who has worked at the studio for seventeen years, doubles as a quality-control inspector, insuring that every Wiley looks like a Wiley. The process has become intuitive, she told me: “I’m his hand, almost like a human printer.”

December 26, 2022
She Worked for Twitter. Then She Tweeted at Elon Musk. – The New York Times

She Worked for Twitter. Then She Tweeted at Elon Musk.

Sasha Solomon, a software engineer, joined others in the media business who lost their jobs this year after publicly taking on their employers.

Link: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/23/style/twitter-elon-musk-sasha-solomon.html

On Nov. 10, during a week of frequent meetings on changes at the company, Ms. Solomon tweeted: “we will be scheduling multiple all-hands every day until morale improves.”

December 23, 2022
Volodymyr Zelensky’s Critical Visit to Washington, D.C. | The New Yorker

Volodymyr Zelensky’s Critical Visit to Washington, D.C.

The Ukrainian President’s trajectory is often cast as surprising, but what makes him compelling as a political leader is the former comic’s talent for exposing the crux of the matter.

via The New Yorker: https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/volodymyr-zelenskys-critical-visit-to-washington-dc

What had made everyone laugh was that the Presidents’ initial responses—and, indeed, the reporter’s question itself—had been obscene: they exposed what is usually hidden. The United States and its allies have not done enough to stop the war in Ukraine. They could, but they have not, and so for ten months Russian troops have tortured and executed Ukrainians, erased entire towns from the face of the earth, and targeted civilian infrastructure in order to deprive civilians of heat, light, and running water in winter.

December 23, 2022
My Year of Reddit and Relaxation | The New Yorker

My Year of Reddit and Relaxation

I misjudged the Web site, which can be a pleasing oasis of text-based communication.

via The New Yorker: https://www.newyorker.com/culture/2022-in-review/my-year-of-reddit-and-relaxation

On a bleak day, the signs are everywhere. Books are chiefly useful insofar as they generate source material for podcasts or streaming shows. Those streaming shows are most successful when they generate gifs and memes for social media.

December 20, 2022
The Agony and the Ecstasy of Argentina’s World Cup Victory | The New Yorker

The Agony and the Ecstasy of Argentina’s World Cup Victory

Suffering is an essential part of the story that we Argentines tell about ourselves.

via The New Yorker: https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/the-agony-and-ecstasy-of-argentinas-world-cup-victory

My family is Argentinean. We screamed so hard in our Harlem apartment that later we found our tortoise upside down in her cage

December 20, 2022
How Dissent Grows in China | The New Yorker

How Dissent Grows in China

The protests of recent weeks carry an echo, and a warning, from the Maoist era.

via The New Yorker: https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/how-dissent-grows-in-china

The woman in the picture is small and wears an oversized hood, and “she is shielding her face with the sign, kind of hiding behind the sign,” WhitePaper noted. Her image contrasts sharply with those in so many Chinese textbooks depicting Communist martyrs fearlessly fighting for the survival of the Party. “She certainly comes across as a bit timid,” he said. She has the posture of someone who wasn’t trying to be a hero, “yet she holds tightly the sign and the flowers.”

December 7, 2022
Dwarf Fortress’ graphical upgrade provides a new way into a wildly wonky game | Ars Technica

Dwarf Fortress’ graphical upgrade provides a new way into a wildly wonky game

The cryptic game’s new interface welcomes newcomers but preserves the chaos.

via Ars Technica: https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2022/12/dwarf-fortresss-graphical-upgrade-provides-a-new-way-into-a-wildly-wonky-game/

My first run ended in starvation and rock-bottom morale (“hissy fits” in common wiki language) because farming, butchering, and other procurements aren’t covered in the tutorial. I shut down my second run early after picking a sandy area with an aquifer as a starting zone, thinking it would make glasswork and irrigation easier and being quickly disappointed with this strategy. I was proud on my third run to have started brewing and dispensing drinks (essential to dwarves’ contentment), but I dug too close to a nearby river, and I abandoned that soggy fort as yet another lesson learned.

December 6, 2022
Cory Doctorow Wants You to Know What Computers Can and Can’t Do | The New Yorker

Cory Doctorow Wants You to Know What Computers Can and Can’t Do

A conversation about the “mediocre monopolists” of Big Tech, the weirdness of crypto, and the real lessons of science fiction.

via The New Yorker: https://www.newyorker.com/culture/the-new-yorker-interview/cory-doctorow-wants-you-to-know-what-computers-can-and-cant-do

You just give, like, the H.R. department a document called resume.doc. And when they print it the printer’s firmware is updated silently and undetectably: it scans all future documents for Social Security numbers, and credit-card numbers, and sends them to him. It opens a reverse shell to his computer, through the corporate firewall, and then it scans all the computers on your lan for known vulnerabilities and takes them over. It was just a little proof of concept; he never released it.

December 5, 2022
Wicked Bears – “Lucky”

December 1, 2022