King Street pilot project wins city council approval
Good… I think? The plan is a little confusing. Simpler to just make it transit / bike / pedestrian only.
RED’s ‘Holographic Media Machine’ Feels Like an April Fools’ Joke
Red is weird. So it seems like they want to release a smartphone-based camera system. Makes sense given their business and the state of the industry (smartphones have eaten the low- and even mid-range camera market). But the press release-cum-pre-order says its “modular” and what you’re buying for $1200 here isn’t actually a camera, it’s a fancy phone gussied up with features and/or marketing buzzwords like “holographic”, “nanotechnology”, and “multi-dimensional audio”. Further “modules” not available at launch (Q1 2018).
But I still remember how skeptical people IN THE CAMERA INDUSTRY were about the Red One before it came out, and they delivered. (thanks Karim!)
Russia-born dealmaker linked to Trump assists laundering probe
Felix Sater be snitchin’ (in a probe of Kazakh money laundering, not specifically on Trump, but still)
Ming-Chi Kuo Predicts iPhone 8 Will Omit Touch ID Entirely, Come in Limited Color Options
No Touch ID? Interesting.
I smashed my phone recently now and am using a backup iPhone 5s, and find myself reading iPhone rumours with much more eagerness.
How the iPhone Was Born: Inside Stories of Missteps and Triumphs
Test post
The best movies of 2017 so far, ranked
Good list (thanks, y)
Apple’s AR is closer to reality than Google’s
ARKit hasn’t been out for long and already some pretty crazy things are going down
Lessons From the Great Male Skirt Rebellion of 2017
Canada Doesn’t Know How to Party
This is the most Canadian thing I will ever write, I know, but I’m proud of my country for its lack of pride.
The Most Wanted Man In History: An Oral History Of the Hunt for Osama bin Laden
I don’t know where to begin with this masterful ClickHole piece. So, here:
Dick Cheney: One day I was watching a PBS telethon to raise money to send the California Raisins to massage school. It was a very enjoyable program, and at one point one of the California Raisins came on stage and talked about how he hated singing and he wanted to become a masseur so that he could give a massage to his whole family. Suddenly, the camera cuts to the people taking calls, and I gasp because one of the people working the phones at this PBS telethon was Osama bin Laden.
Obama’s secret struggle to retaliate against Putin’s election interference
Epic, frustrating reporting on the Obama Administration’s failure to deal with Russian election interference
Maps of choose-your-own-adventure books
•Death when it comes will have no sheep.
Syfy Rebrands as Science Fiction Content Hub
So this is the US cable channel formerly known as SciFi, which rebranded as SyFy to get away from messy associations with nerdy sci-fi, which now wants the nerds back
Trump, Russia, and Those Shadowy Sater Deals at Bayrock
Fairly juicy longread about Felix Sater, the Trump associate with ties to Russia, the mob and the FBI.
[An ex-Bayrock employee] says that it was Arif and Sater who pitched the future president on the idea of launching an international chain of Trump-branded, mixed-use hotels and condominiums. And Bayrock got to Trump at a time when his “brand” could help get a little extra attention for a condo project, but didn’t amount to much more than that.
Trump Stumbling into War in Syria
The U.S. now finds itself in a much more dangerous situation in the Middle East, where the war against ISIS, which has broad bipartisan support, could become a wider regional conflict of the type that Trump specifically promised to avoid.
Subterranean home for 400 found in Beijing basement
I once had a dream, when we were renovating our basement, that we discovered a sub-basement with an extended family living in it, subsisting on “night potatoes”
Power Causes Brain Damage
Subjects under the influence of power, he found in studies spanning two decades, acted as if they had suffered a traumatic brain injury—becoming more impulsive, less risk-aware, and, crucially, less adept at seeing things from other people’s point of view.
The Persistence of Prog Rock
Hot take: any proper history of prog would include Radiohead, regardless of what they say
A Very, Very Dangerous Situation
What would happen if Trump fires Mueller & Rosenstein
US cable could lose 1 million subscribers in one quarter.
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