@trenthead

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.”
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.
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.
Wicked Bears – “Lucky”
Triangle of Sadness
Braydon Bringhurst Versus the Beast: Climbing The Whole Enchilada

Is This Mountain Biking’s Greatest Uphill Achievement?

Braydon Bringhurst is the rare athlete who can blend explosive power with precision and control. But he’d need a lot more than that to ride his bike up this insanely technical downhill trail.

via Bicycling: https://www.bicycling.com/rides/a41821655/braydon-bringhurst-climbs-whole-enchilada-trail/

He had also crafted a signature style of riding he called “upduro.” He floated up trails most riders would only consider riding down. He did it without hopping, in one fluid motion, like water flowing uphill.
A Murder Roils the Cycling World | The New Yorker

A Murder Roils the Cycling World

In gravel racing—the sport’s hottest category—the killing has exposed a lot of dirt.

via The New Yorker: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2022/11/14/a-murder-roils-the-cycling-world

Then a rider waiting for the next race walked up, confirmed that I was a reporter, and angrily told me to leave. When I asked him who he was, he said, “My name is Fuck You, Bro.”
A Dangerous Game Over Taiwan | The New Yorker

A Dangerous Game Over Taiwan

For decades, China has coveted its island neighbor. Is Xi Jinping ready to seize it?

via The New Yorker: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2022/11/21/a-dangerous-game-over-taiwan

Wu, the foreign minister, told me that Tsai was trying to strike a balance between deterring the People’s Republic and exhausting the Taiwanese people by warning them too often. To some Taiwanese, though, her handling of the missile tests amounted to wishful thinking. “When something like this happens and there’s no response, the government looks like it doesn’t know what it’s doing,” Alexander Chieh-cheng Huang, a former Taiwanese foreign-service officer in the U.S., told me. “The attitude is ‘Don’t look up.’ ”
‘Love and Rockets,’ a Series that Helped Redefine Comics, Turns 40 – The New York Times

‘Love and Rockets,’ a Series that Helped Redefine Comics, Turns 40

With its Chicana punk rockers and panels of untranslated Spanish, “Rockets” was unlike anything else — and, it turns out, just what the world of comics was craving.

Link: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/19/books/love-and-rockets-hernandez-bros.html

In 1981, Jaime and Gilbert Hernandez were living in Oxnard, Calif., working as janitors to fund the trips they took down the 101 to see punk bands like Black Flag in Los Angeles, and their work on a comic book series they called “Love and Rockets.”
Annie Ernaux Turns Memory Into Art | The New Yorker

Annie Ernaux Turns Memory Into Art

Many authors write about their lives. Over nearly fifty years, the Nobel laureate has discovered new ways to do it.

via The New Yorker: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2022/11/21/annie-ernaux-turns-memory-into-art

The purpose of Ernaux’s writing, she believes, is not merely to record things that have happened but to “make things exist.” This is strong, but it is hardly the strongest thing she has to say about her work. “I am a medium,” she told me. “I feel that I’m someone who can transmit things.”
Why Vladimir Putin Would Use Nuclear Weapons in Ukraine | The New Yorker

Why Vladimir Putin Would Use Nuclear Weapons in Ukraine

The more the Kremlin has signalled its readiness to drop a nuclear bomb, the more the rest of the world has sought a reason to believe that it will not.

via The New Yorker: https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/why-vladimir-putin-would-use-nuclear-weapons-in-ukraine

Even some of my smart colleagues had Russian propaganda playing on their televisions all day,” Bondarev, who had been stationed in Geneva, wrote. “It was as if they were trying to indoctrinate themselves
Inside the U.S. Effort to Arm Ukraine | The New Yorker

Inside the U.S. Effort to Arm Ukraine

Since the start of the Russian invasion, the Biden Administration has provided valuable intelligence and increasingly powerful weaponry—a risky choice that has paid off in the battle against Putin.

via The New Yorker: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2022/10/24/inside-the-us-effort-to-arm-ukraine

Reznikov is certain that such deliveries are inevitable. “When I was in D.C. in November, before the invasion, and asked for Stingers, they told me it was impossible,” he said. “Now it’s possible. When I asked for 155-millimetre guns, the answer was no. himars, no. harm, no. Now all of that is a yes.” He added, “Therefore, I’m certain that tomorrow there will be tanks and atacms and F-16s.”