Tag: culture

Cornering the Cast

Last week’s brouhaha of Neil Young vs Spotify / Joe Rogan went as predicted. Spotify didn’t budge and Young made good on his threat. Joni Mitchell joined the fray and removed her music from Spotify too. But lost in all of this are two critical decisions that have undermined critical cores to podcasting. The first is exclusivity. Podcasts were never envisioned or built to be exclusive. Sure, some outlets offer podcasts as members-only perks or private ways to access shows. However, podcasting’s lifeblood is RSS. That is an open standard and without it, podcasting would not exist. Spotify decided to…

Not Quite a Flying DeLorean

We’re seven years past 2015 and we still don’t have flying cars. It’s been predicted for decades. One company, Klein Vision, out of Slovakia has been building a car that literally transforms into a small aircraft in under 2-minutes. The “AirCar” was awarded an official Certificate of Airworthiness by the Slovak Transport Authority after completing 70 hours of “rigorous flight testing,” according to Klein Vision, the company behind the “dual-mode car-aircraft vehicle.” The test flights — which included more than 200 takeoffs and landings — were compatible with European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) standards.  Klein Vision The videos they’ve posted of…

Empty Trains

Working from home has not only been a welcome reprieve for overworked employees. It has also brought much-needed recuperation of all the time people commuted to and from work. As someone who spent 11 years commuting 2-hrs daily, I can personally attest that it will slowly rot your soul. This found time due to COVID has been brutal for the NY Transit Authority. The MTA is the main commuting system for New Jersey, Long Island and Westchester NY employees who work in Manhattan. Reporting by Matthew Haag and Patrick McGeehan at the NYT found the MTA saw a 75% drop…

Mark Cuban’s Affordable Drugs

Generally, the super-wealthy are obsessed with their own pet projects. One who has a pretty-positive perception is Mark Cuban. Best known for owning the Dallas Mavericks along with being the wealthiest Shark on Shark Tank, Cuban has done something amazing. He’s opened an online pharmacy so people can actually get their medications for an affordable price. Chris Morris at Fortune has the details. To lower costs, Cuban cut out the middleman, setting up his own pharmaceutical wholesaler and negotiating directly with drug manufacturers and pharmacies for rebates and discounts. [There is an] added $3 pharmacist fee. Shipping is $5. Fortune…

From the Terrible Ideas Department

Twitter’s Twitter Blue premium (and paid) service posted this head-scratcher about a new ‘perk’ to paying the company money to use Twitter: gm! You asked (a lot), so we made it. Now rolling out in Labs: NFT Profile Pictures on iOS I’m not sure why people would ‘need’ this feature when an NFT is literally an image you can screen shot and upload as your profile photo. Even worse is the growing fad of companies jumping into NFTs as if it’s some super-hot market. From what I can tell, most people have no clue what an NFT is nor can…

Taxlog

As of Monday, the ability to file taxes in the United States has begun. And the IRS has already stated there will be massive delays due to staff shortages and overload from working on COVID-related programs throughout 2021. More from the AP & NBCNews Agency officials are already warning filers that “in many areas, we are unable to deliver the amount of service and enforcement that our taxpayers and tax system deserves and needs,” as IRS Commissioner Chuck Rettig put it earlier in the month. Delays in processing are to be expected — especially because the IRS says it still…

One Final Frontier

On Friday Paramount dropped the trailer for the second season of Star Trek: Picard. After streaming the first season last year, I have been looking forward to the next season for a while. Season 2 brings back many characters introduced the first time and we get some fun surprises for this second installment. Between who is returning and the storyline looking to be a time travel adventure, I’m ready to go! Season 2 begins on March 3rd on Paramount+. You can watch the full trailer below.

His Name Was Robert Paulson

The past few weeks have been a culling of well-loved celebs. At the too-young age of 74, Meat Loaf passed away. He was in a ton of movies and wrote epic-level, theatric songs & albums. Born Marvin Lee Aday, the rock musician’s career spanned six decades across the music and film industries. He was beloved by fans and soared to unlikely rock stardom with theatrical, dark-hearted anthems and an iconic long-haired look.  NBC News His best-known album, Bat Out of Hell, is one of the biggest-selling albums in US history. Talk about staying power. That album came out in 1977 and can…

Page ‘Em

It’s a beautiful day in the woods. Far off the grid, away from stores, people, or even shelters more stable than a tent, Jeff Wilson is backpacking through deep woods. It’s a return to nature that brings him enjoyment and is a complete disconnection from society. But Jeff has no connection to the world at large and in this case, unaware of what is coming. He is deep in the forest when a loud series of beeps emits from his pocket. The small plastic rectangle continues to sound until Jeff pulls it out and silences it with a push of…

The Continued Resignation

Much has been made of The Great Resignation over the past year. This mass exodus of employees from their jobs has been of great concern to employers looking to retain a workforce. It is also indicitive of the fact that for the first time in decades, employees hold the upper hand in the workplace relationship between themselves and their employer. Generally, people dedicated themselves to a job at various levels and The Powers That Be would hire or fire as they pleased. Unspoken rules for the workplace cropped up over the years such as being undervalued or overworked was something…

Wordle Pays Wordle

If you’re not addicted to Wordle yet, it’s a surprise. The game has gone viral over the past month with players all over the world enjoying this one-a-day guessing game. What gets missed a ton in all of the reporting is that Wordle is not an app. Wordle exists solely on the web and it’s 100% free. However, Steven Cravotta who created an app called “Wordle!” 4 years ago noticed a ton of purchases of his old app. Cravotta’s app has been a big hit in the Wordle fever that’s been brewing. But what to do about this surprising newfound…

Boomer.Gif

Gifs are apparently going out of fashion. That’s according to Vice and their interviews with twentysomethings about the image format used all over the internet. The story explains that the younger generation sees gif usage as something older people use. As such, that makes it quite uncool. Gen Z might think GIFs are beloved by millennials, but at the same time, many millennials are starting to see GIFs as a boomer plaything.  And this is the first and easiest explanation as to why GIFs are losing their cultural cachet. Whitney Phillips, an assistant professor of communication at Syracuse University and author of multiple…

The Saga of Jorts

A month ago on Reddit, a unique and quite funny story went viral. It is a tale of two cats at a workplace and their human owner asking if he’s in the wrong by how he talks about them. A user with a throwaway username (as is common to do on the site) posted to /r/AITA, which is a section to ask if “Am I the Asshole” in a situation. In this particular case, a person describes two cats at their workplace named Jorts and Jean. Jorts seems to be a bit silly but a co-worker feels she needs to…

Driving Fish

Yes, a real story from NPR details how researchers in Israel are teaching goldfish to operate a fish tank on wheels. This team is looking to explore whether animals’ ability to navigate are present only in their native environments or if their abilities exist everywhere. Researchers created the “fish operated vehicle,” a set of wheels under the goldfish tank that uses an intricate camera system to record and translate a fish’s movements into navigational directions. The FOV changes its position based on the fish’s movement characteristics, location and orientation in the water tank. NPR While this sounds like a silly…

CDs Bounce Back

Leave it to the constant march of time to give CDs a nostalgic resurgence. News out of Pitchfork, like it’s 1999, shows that 2021 was the first time CD’s have increased in sales in 17 years. Madison Bloom has the scoop: The top-10 CD sales list also includes Taylor Swift’s Evermore (213,000 units sold), BTS’ Map of the Soul: 7 (210,000) and Be (187,000), Olivia Rodrigo’s Sour (195,000), and others. 2021 marked the first year that CD sales saw a gain since 2004, when revenue from the format was exponentially higher than it is today. Last month, vinyl saw its biggest sales week since at least 1991, with roughly 2.11…

Cats Hold Blender Hostage

From the slow-news pages of The Washington Post comes this tail of a Canadian couple whose cats have made a blender box their own. Back in November Jessica and Nikii Gerson-Neeves bought a blender and their cats claimed it. One is always perched on it and the blender remains in the box to this day. Treats, decoy boxes and toys have been used, all for naught. The Gerson-Neeveses moved the box to a less-central area of the kitchen, hoping the change in geography would end the stalemate. But a cat remained on the box, on guard at all times. Jessica…

Goodbye Danny Tanner

News broke late Sunday that Bob Saget had passed at the too-young-age of 65. It was a shock to me, and to most I’m sure. Of course Saget was known as the straight-laced dad on Full House but he also was a really funny stand-up comedian. And he was the host of America’s Funniest Home Videos, which was basically TikTok long before the internet was invented. The man never stopped working though. Variety has a nice list of the work Saget did in the years since his most-notable roles: Besides “Full House” and “AFHV,” Saget was also known for narrating…

And We’re Calling it iPhone

It’s been fifteen years since Steve Jobs spoke those words. A lot of grand claims were made at MacWorld 2007 at the iPhone’s unveiling. Some were seen as laughable. Some were seen as revolutionary. Nearly all of it came true. I (among many others) believe this was Jobs’ pinnacle performance on stage. I remember watching it and being floored over and over with the (LIVE!!) demo. Something as simple as the Slide to Unlock feature garnered amazed reactions. If you didn’t experience the event, even remotely, at the time it is hard to put into words how important it felt.…

Chip Shortage Forces Canon to Call BS on Themselves

Canon makes printers. Printers suck. They have been awful for so long, as I’ve mentioned before. Every company who makes them tries to pull some nonsense regarding price, lock-in and ink levels. For years, ink and toner cartridges have shipped with chips in them. It was a form of security that forced customers to only buy their ink or toner. If a printer doesn’t see the chip (because you’ve chosen to buy 3rd party ink), it gives you a hard time or will stop printing. That’s worked fine and dandy… until we’ve hit a global chip shortage. Canon can’t source…

NYT Remembers Sports Exists

The NY Times is a fantastic publication, however if you’re a sports fan it’s not a place to go. The surprising hit since 2016 has been The Athletic. The Athletic is an online sports-focused site with a dedicated reporter for every North American team. For teams that have traditionally been under-covered or in markets where local newspapers have gone out of business, The Athletic has been a breath of fresh air. Now, it’ll become part of the New York Times for a cool $550 million. The deal brings The Times, which has more than eight million total subscriptions, quickly closer…

Wordle: The Un-Game

Games are insanely popular on mobile to the point where entire companies have been built around them. Many come and go, but some have a real impact. Angry Birds, Doodle Jump, Threes, Words With Friends, and more have become juggernauts on mobile. Now, we get a new contender: Worldle. Created by Josh Wardle, the idea is simple: guess a 5-letter word in six tries. But that’s where the game aspect of Wordle ends. This game is not an app. Wordle exists only on the web. It does not have ads. It doesn’t force you to watch videos, offer purchases, timers,…

Go, Ford Lightning

We seem to be reaching an inflection point for car manufacturers’ embracing of electric vehicles. Whether it’s for financial reasons, a response to customer’s embracing of Tesla, or other reasons we don’t exactly know, it’s great to see nearly every company make public statements. They are not designing prototype or “compliance” cars for California. They’re making full-fledged EVs for everyone. Personally, I believe a car needs to look normal. It should be electric as an “extra” in order to appeal to people. Nobody wants a Jetsons car. With the F150 Lightning, Ford is ready to make waves. Ford says its…

The Right Pucking Thing

The NHL expanded into Seattle, Washington over the summer with a new team called the Kraken. For a trainer on the Vancouver Canucks, this business decision for the league has literally saved his life. At an October game where the Canucks visited Seattle, Nadia Popovici, a Vancouver fan, spotted something wrong with Brian Hamilton’s neck. Popovici had written a note on her phone that said she was concerned about a mole she’d noticed on his neck. She made the text on the screen large and colourful, obviously hoping he’d notice it. He finally saw it but didn’t think much of…

YouTube TV Loses The Mouse

For many cord-cutters out there, YouTube TV has been a good option as a replacement service. The Alphabet-owned streaming service carries a bunch of live channels for $65 a month. Unlike cable, there’s no contracts or hoops or bundling or any other nonsense. One thing however that has carried over from cable-land are disputes with networks. As of today, YouTube TV lost access to all Disney channels it was carrying. Jon Brodkin as more at Ars Technica. YouTube TV was seeking a most-favored-nation (MFN) clause from Disney. “Our ask to Disney, as with all our partners, is to treat YouTube…

Cooking Gasless

Little by little, cities and towns across the US are enacting stricter regulations to help the environment. Sometimes they offer incentives to builders to construct better spaces. Rebates and tax credits are a big part as well for getting alternative energy into real use. On the opposite side is eliminating the use of machines and devices that pollute. New York City has come close to making that reality this past week. Emily Pontecorvo over at Grist has the details. The New York City Council voted to pass a bill on Wednesday that will address the Big Apple’s biggest source of…

Blinding Lights

Have you noticed lately that every single time you’re driving at night, you can’t see behind you? No it’s not from fog or heavy rain or even someone moving your mirrors out of alignment. I’m talking about cars with headlights so bright they nearly burn your retinas out of your skull. Finally, something is about to be done with that. Peter Holderith writing for The Drive explains that a provision buried in the recently-passed infrastructure bill is a provision to address the scourge of blinding headlights The text that enables this change is relatively straightforward. Under section 24212 of the bill, which…

It’s Glitter Time

December now can mean one sure thing on YouTube: Mark Rober puts out a Glitter Bomb video. This year has him iterating on his designs and rolling out version 4 of his Porch Pirate Bait. The idea is simple: invent a package that tempts thieves to steal it. When it opens, it wreaks havoc on those scummy people who stole it. Plain and simple. Oh and it records everything. Mark Rober has a great channel that makes science and engineering fun. This video in particular is always a great one. It’s now a December tradition.

Closing the Window

A common theme lately is the fight between streaming services and movie theaters. COVID changed a lot with films coming out on Day 1 as a movie in the theatre. Over on VOX’s YouTube channel, they have an interesting explainer as to why theaters are still a viable business. Vox does a good job of explaining the release window. This is an exclusive time a movie is in theaters before it goes onto be available elsewhere. This exclusive time period is essential for the theater to make money. Studios make money still from theaters and also gain some ground by…

It’s a Subscription… For Your Toyota

Year after year we are being pushed into a culture of renting. We don’t own things like purchased movies, digital video games, Kindle books, and lots of software. Car manufacturers, smelling blood in the water, are looking to cash in with subscription services too. Enter Toyota who includes a remote start feature on many cars since 2018. If you’re one of those lucky owners, Toyota can require a subscription after a trial to continue using this part of your car. If you don’t, it gets disabled. A Toyota spokesperson confirmed to The Drive that if a 2018 or later Toyota is equipped…

T2: The Modern Recut

Storytelling for movies have come a long way over the decades. Specifically when you see movie trailers, you can tell how a studio’s methods change when enticing you to see a film. Some movies that stand the test of time would benefit from a modern take on their trailer. That’s exactly what Michael Edwards has done with Terminator 2: Judgement Day. He’s taken this classic sci-fi action-drama and cut a trailer worthy of the modern era. It’s gorgeous and looks pro AF. Have a look for yourself: Two things strike me as excellent attention to detail. First, the omission of…