Log – Page 16 – Angry Robot

Crazy footage from super tiny drone. (thanks, y!) More about the drone here.

•

•
Special counsel Robert Mueller is investigating Donald Trump for possible obstruction of justice, officials say

Trump had received private assurances from then-FBI Director James B. Comey starting in January that he was not personally under investigation. Officials say that changed shortly after Comey’s firing.

Hahahahahaha

•
Forgotify | Discover a previously unheard Spotify track

•
The Apocalypse According to “The Leftovers”

A much more powerful description-cum-endorsement here courtesy Emily Nussbaum:

The first season, which was adapted from a novel by Tom Perrotta, struck many viewers, not unreasonably, as a huge downer. It was gorgeous and ambitious, but watching could feel like listening to Portishead while on codeine, recovering from surgery. (Which I’ve done; it has its charms.) A switch flipped in the sixth episode, a wrenching, witty gem called “Guest,” which focussed on Nora (played by Carrie Coon), a woman who lost her entire family in the Departure. “Guest” had a dreamlike plot—Nora, who works for the Department of Sudden Departure, realizes that her identity has been stolen—that felt newly confident, imagistic and musical. In the second season, the show levelled up again, injecting dark humor and a rude visual playfulness, much of it the contribution of directors like Mimi Leder. Now, in Season 3, “The Leftovers” has become the everything bagel of television, defying categorization. It’s at once intimate and epic, giddy and gloomy, a radical emotional intoxicant. It’s still a hard sell. You try telling people that a drama about dead children and suicidal ideation is a hilarious must-watch, then get back to me. But, as an online acquaintance put it, it’s gone from a bummer to “a bummer party.”

•
How ‘The Leftovers’ Evolved From Good to Canon-Worthy Great

Don’t read too far into this as there be spoilers. But consider this link notice that you should be watching (should have watched?) this amazing show, especially if you ever liked Lost.

Interesting half-hour doc featuring Christopher Hume talking about streets, cars, bikes, downtown and suburbs. Article here.

•

•
Tim Cook Says Apple Focused on Autonomous Systems in Cars Push – Bloomberg

Sure but no way Apple will sell some system that goes into someone else’s car models. So this is like a half-assed denial that they are making a car, despite all the permits they are applying for.

•
The 2017 Polaris Music Prize Long List Is Here

•
Russian Cyber Hacks on U.S. Electoral System Far Wider Than Previously Known

Hmmm.

In Illinois, investigators found evidence that cyber intruders tried to delete or alter voter data. The hackers accessed software designed to be used by poll workers on Election Day, and in at least one state accessed a campaign finance database. Details of the wave of attacks, in the summer and fall of 2016, were provided by three people with direct knowledge of the U.S. investigation into the matter. In all, the Russian hackers hit systems in a total of 39 states, one of them said.

•
Prozac Nation Is Now the United States of Xanax

On anxiety as a sociological and cultural phenomenon

•
Corbyn Won Because Hope Turned the Unthinkable Into Reality

The gleeful anti-Corbyn Cassandras were wrong – deafeningly, magnificently wrong – because they thought that politics was first of all about numbers, rather than people: a dead Newtonian science, the calculation of inert bodies.

•
Nope. Comey’s Assurance To Trump Was Far From a Clean Bill of Health

•
Comey lays out the case that Trump obstructed justice

Legal analysts said Comey’s testimony clarified and bolstered the case that the president obstructed justice — adding rich new color about the former FBI director’s interactions with the president.

•
Top-Secret NSA Report Details Russian Hacking Effort Days Before 2016 Election

The report raises the possibility that Russian hacking may have breached at least some elements of the voting system, with disconcertingly uncertain results.

•
Toronto’s ambitious bike plan, one year later

As you might expect, a little disappointing

•
Story titles, invented by neural network

I’m going through the Lewis and Quark archives because this shit makes me cry with laughter. Here’s a good one, that had me fantasizing about making trailers for:

Pirates: A Fight Dance Story
Cannibal Spy II
American Midnight: Swear Dragon
Swords and Batman: Summer Party ?
Indiscreet Maidman

•
The Addicts Next Door

Devastating look at a town hard hit by the opioid crisis

•
Letting neural networks be weird • The neural network will name your next band

A lot of potential here, especially if you want a shark-themed band – and why wouldn’t you?

•
How to Talk to Your Kid About Ja Rule

There is a day in every parent-child relationship that all mommies and daddies worry about, and that is the day their child starts asking about Ja Rule. Here’s how to deal with it.

Angry Robot