McSweeney’s, normally a humor website, has been keeping tabs on what they call President Trump’s Worst Cruelties, Collusions, Corruptions, and Crimes. They’re up to 759 as of this post (June 26). It’s amazing, absolutely gutting, and makes me want to throw up.
This is pretty cool: a website featuring thousands of high-resolution searchable, downloadable historical artworks.
J.K Rowling has been making biased comments about transgender women for a while now, which is disappointing, to say the least. Daniel Radcliffe wrote an excellent rebuttal that is both respectful and informative, and it is a masterclass in tolerance and inclusivity.
To all the people who now feel that their experience of the books has been tarnished or diminished, I am deeply sorry for the pain these comments have caused you. I really hope that you don’t entirely lose what was valuable in these stories to you.
Trump sent the DC Police out 1/2 hour before the official curfew to clear the streets so he could walk down to St. John’s Episcopal Church and shoot a photo op holding a bible. One of the Reverends was handing out food and snacks on the steps, and she and her staff were tear-gassed and driven off by police in riot gear. Fuck. This. Guy.
Not that I need this, but I’ll save the link here: Fujifilm released software that allows the use of X-series cameras as webcams. I’d imagine you’d need a DC adapter to really make this work, as the batteries would drain in minutes, but it’s kind of cool. Update: I jut noticed it’s only compatible with the high-end X-series cameras and not my X-T10. Oh, well.
Here’s a brief history of the troubled evolution of the screenplay of Big Trouble In Little China, one of the most oddball—and best movies—of the 1980’s. Apparently the longstanding belief that this was originally meant to be a sequel to Buckaroo Banzai is just fiction, which makes sense to me. (previously)
Here’s a tip on how to enable the old startup chime on a newer Mac (I didn’t even know this was an option)! (via)
Lots of good unsolicited advice here from Kevin Kelly, the executive editor of Wired in its heyday and a bunch of other good things. Like these:
Buying tools: Start by buying the absolute cheapest tools you can find. Upgrade the ones you use a lot. If you wind up using some tool for a job, buy the very best you can afford.
Pros are just amateurs who know how to gracefully recover from their mistakes.
Separate the processes of creation from improving. You can’t write and edit, or sculpt and polish, or make and analyze at the same time. If you do, the editor stops the creator. While you invent, don’t select. While you sketch, don’t inspect. While you write the first draft, don’t reflect. At the start, the creator mind must be unleashed from judgement.
To make mistakes is human. To own your mistakes is divine. Nothing elevates a person higher than quickly admitting and taking personal responsibility for the mistakes you make and then fixing them fairly. If you mess up, fess up. It’s astounding how powerful this ownership is.
At the Atlantic, George Packer argues that we are living in a failed state:
A third of the country locked itself in a hall of mirrors that it believed to be reality; a third drove itself mad with the effort to hold on to the idea of knowable truth; and a third gave up even trying.
Totally pessimistic—you may need to day drink while reading this—but he makes a convincing point. Especially on a morning when the Great Pumpkin is telling people to inject disinfectant to clean their lungs.
Hooray! Unnamed Temporary Sports Blog is back up for all our COVID quarantine needs. To recap: it involves most of the best writers from Deadspin, who came together to cover the Super Bowl for a week, and then dissolved the site. Not necessarily sports content, not necessarily serious, but always good writing.