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Heardle
I watched someone else play Wordle and thought a.) This seems like fun and b.) I would suck at this, like really suck.
However, I found Heardle which is like if Name That Tune and Wordle had a baby. It seemed way more up my alley.
First opportunity to play, I had no clue at all what the song was. Ultimately, it told me it was “Ms. Jackson” by Outkast. The only Outkast song anyone knows is “Hey Ya,” so this was total crap.
If there was a version of this of just 80s songs, I’d kill.
Did Dua Lipa ACTUALLY Plagiarize Levitating?
I’m sure you’ve heard Dua Lipa’s song, “Levitating.” It’s super catchy and set some Billboard records. You may have heard a band called Artikal Sound System saying that “Levitating” was ripped off from their song “Live Your Life.” They absolutely sound the same with practically the same chords and definitely the same melody.
Adam Neely explains in this video that there are certainly some mitigating factors on this whole plagiarism lawsuit.
I’m pretty convinced what happened was not plagiarism, but someone independently coming up with a strikingly similar chord progression and melody. What clinched it for me was the Song Exploder podcast breakdown of the creation of Lipa’s song.
I expect Artikal Sound System will lose its lawsuit. However, I think Outkast’s “Rosa Parks” influence in this song merits a songwriting credit and royalties. Not because it’s plagiarized, but because of the similar melody/structure.
Marketing Designer for Publishing
This is a really interesting and useful article: the job of a marketing designer at a book publishing house. It is not book cover design. It is all the promotional and branding work that wraps around that cover and that book.
Death Don’t Wait
Chris Farren has put together a (mostly) instrumental soundtrack for a Bond-esque spy movie that exists entirely in his head. I love everything about this project.
Peter Helman, writing on Stereogum, has the story.
“I thought about what every action movie has,” Farren says. “There’s usually at least two car chases, maybe a boat chase, hand-to-hand combat, a heist scene. So I just chose 15 different types of scenes, and I’d watch those types of scenes in different movies. I watched a lot of bank heist scenes and scenes of people diffusing bombs, and tried to pay attention to what the music was doing, and thought about how I could do that in my own way.”
While 11 of the 12 tracks on the album are instrumental, Death Don’t Wait (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) does have its very own Bond theme ballad: “Death Don’t Wait (Main Title),” sung by the inimitable Laura Stevenson. “I didn’t want to sing on it,” Farren says. “I thought it would take away from the concept of the record if I sang on it. And the nature of the song, it wasn’t meant for my voice. It’s meant for more of a classic voice, and Laura has one of the great voices of our time, I say.”
Why Russia Invaded Ukraine
RealLifeLore and Open Culture have made a tremendous video explaining everything leading up to the invasion of Ukraine by Russia.
Why did Russia launch an unprovoked war in Ukraine and risk creating a wider global conflict? If you haven’t closely tracked the ambitions of Vladimir Putin, this primer offers some helpful context.
In progress before the Russian invasion of Ukraine and completed as Russian troops began their advance into the country, this 30-minute video covers the geopolitical, economic and environmental backstory. Take some time to watch.
Musical Jenga
Musical jenga is when strangers on the Internet take turns adding another level of music to each other’s creations.
Sometimes they sing about muffins or procrastination.
Sometimes they duet with frogs or dryers.
Sometimes the original participants know they’re leaving space for a duet partner to join in… and sometimes they don’t.
Sometimes they’re short and sweet.
Often, they’re original, but occasionally they cover John Williams or Nirvana.
If you aren’t on TikTok, where many of these originate, Mimo on Youtube sometimes edits together the best TikTok jengas.
(H/T yankeefog)
Zero to Possible
Nicholas Bate gifts us all with a new list:
Zero soda; maximum water.
Zero in-box; maximum filed to category and action list.
Zero lifts/escalator; maximum stairs.
Zero processed food; maximum fresh, local and cooked by self.
Zero blackberry-at-table; maximum great uninterrupted conversation.
Zero mall; maximum small, local & inspiring shop-keepers.
Zero can’t; maximum all things are possible.
He might need to update that Blackberry reference.
The Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser
To be crystal clear, I would never pay $6,000 to pretend to be an inhabitant of the Star Wars universe for two days. Maybe in 1978, but not in 2022. If you love LARPing, more power to you. It is not my thing.
Joel Cunningham, writing for Gizmodo/io9, outlines what you get for that crazy sum. Disney is expensive across the board, but this seems outrageous. Still, you get what you pay for according to Cunningham.
I wonder how long they can maintain that price?
Hard Truths
Casey Newton wrote a lengthy piece about Donald Trump’s new social media app, Truth Social. It’s really good.
What else is there to say about Truth Social? It’s based on technology from Mastodon, the open-source social network. Its parent company, Trump Technology & Media Group, hopes to go public this year through a lucrative SPAC. Its terms of service document, like its user interface, appear to be largely copied and pasted from elsewhere. It prohibits “false, inaccurate, or misleading content,” a policy whose successful enforcement would represent a first in the history of the internet.
I’m sure the spin is they are a network for everyone, but no one believes this nonsense. It’s a social network made by Trump people for Trump people. Guess what? That is not a lot of people. Also, no liberal would ever sign up for Truth Social (even if they could, but they can’t right now because the app sucks). It is a waste of their time. Just like the other “conservative” social media apps.
That leads to these apps’ second problem: their market is smaller than they think it is. To hear Farmer and Miller tell it, the world is desperate for a less restrictive approach to content moderation. But TikTok, the most popular social network around, is also arguably the most restrictive — certainly in terms of which posts are allowed to go viral. The world is voting with its eyeballs, and the majority of people clearly prefer apps with robust moderation.
The free market wants moderation because most people don’t want to have to deal with the trash. That’s why people get banned and de-platformed and the like. I’m not a fan of engagement with Trump people. I don’t find it fun, amusing, or entertaining. I find it sad. I would jump on a social media site filled with smart, intelligent, progressive liberals. Of course, that would fail just as quickly as one designed for Trumpists.
Just like Truth Social.
Sally Kellerman Dies at 84
Sally Kellerman, best known for her role as Margaret “Hot Lips” Houlihan in M.A.S.H. and Dr. Elizabeth Dehner in the Star Trek episode, “Where No Man Has Gone Before” has died at the age of 84.
She was obviously great in M.A.S.H and Star Trek, but I think I liked her performance in Back to School best.
Hanlon’s Razor
From Patrick Rhone:
These days, Hanlon’s razor is about the only way I can make sense of the world.
Unfortunately, I share this sentiment.
The Anti-Trilogy
Star Wars YouTube scholar So Uncivilized dives into the sins of the sequel series from The Force Awakens devolving Han Solo into an anti-hero, The Last Jedi subverting itself, and The Rise of Skywalker existing, and in doing so, creates an anti-trilogy intrinsically tied to the past while opposed to it.
His insight is spot on.
My hope is Dave Filoni can “fix” it all.
TWOsday
It’s TWOsday!
Today (February 22, 2022) is both a palindrome and an ambigram in some formats, which is cool.
I’m also afraid, 2/22/22 will be remembered as the start of a massive European land war.
Or maybe just as code for urgently needing a public restroom.
Nightbirde has Passed
Nightbirde, who went viral after her performance on America’s Got Talent has died after a cancer battle.
Her story and performance of her original song are amazing.
Her line, “You can’t wait until your life isn’t hard anymore before you decide to be happy” was inspirational.
She was brave and positive.
She was just 31.
A Full Hall of Fame Career Player Away
Kevin Wildes has an ice-cold take that should settle the Michael Jordan versus LeBron James GOAT debate once for all. It’s just brilliant.
"I'm going to invent a player here: guy w/ 2 titles, 2 Finals MVP, league MVP, 3 All-Defense teams, DPOY & 9 scoring titles. That's the difference between LeBron & Jordan. Everyone's says it's close, it's not. It's a full HOF career better. LeBron's still chasing." — @kevinwildes pic.twitter.com/3liYzaECK2
— First Things First (@FTFonFS1) February 21, 2022
If NFTs Were Honest
Cracked’s “Roger” is a real straight shooter known for telling it like it is in their Honest Ads series. So, he’s been enlisted to share the truth about the “exciting world of non-fungible tokens.”
This whole series is smart and funny.
Lockout Timing
The Athletic has everything the casual professional baseball fan might need to know about the lockout they might have only just started noticing.
MLB and the players association met for 15 short minutes Thursday, but the sides will likely reconvene soon to go over the players’ latest proposal. The details are tedious but they show progress in the negotiations. Key date to keep in mind: February 28, the deadline the league has set to get a new CBA done if they want the season to begin on time.
Seems stressful. And impossible.
You Need to Be Watching Ayo Dosunmu
Kevin O’Connor breaks down why the Bulls rookie’s game is advanced beyond his years, how he fits on this team, and what he needs to do to become a star player.
Steal of the Draft. Illinois fans knew.
Our Country is Filled with Problems; Reading Too Many Books Isn’t One of Them
Ryan Holiday has an essay that speaks directly to me personally even though it was written for everyone.
America has many problems. Reading too many books is not one of them. In fact, I would argue that our problems stem from the exact opposite. We spend too much time online. We watch too much real-time (partisan) news. We have a poor understanding of history and our founding principles. We say experience is a great teacher and neglect the hard won experiences of the people who came before us and did us the service of writing that all down.
Read the whole thing.
In the Dark
Eliza Strickland and Mark Harris, writing at IEEE Spectrum, outline a trend I never would have thought possible. Hundreds of recipients of retinal implants will be “in the dark” after the company makes them goes out of business—an outcome expected imminently after layoffs at Second Sight, which no longer makes the devices. The story is horrifying.
These three patients, and more than 350 other blind people around the world with Second Sight’s implants in their eyes, find themselves in a world in which the technology that transformed their lives is just another obsolete gadget. One technical hiccup, one broken wire, and they lose their artificial vision, possibly forever. To add injury to insult: A defunct Argus system in the eye could cause medical complications or interfere with procedures such as MRI scans, and it could be painful or expensive to remove.
For me, this is the story of the week. I am blind in my right eye and I always look at technological developments surrounding “bionic” eyes. The Six Million Dollar Man notwithstanding, medical technology has not advanced enough to reconnect the optic nerve so I quickly move on when the story is about “fixing” retinal blindness. Still, the ramifications of this is uncharted. Smart patients will start demanding rights to service, repair, and upgrade these kinds of implants and the technology has to become available when company’s go belly-up.
What do heart transplant or cochlear implant recipients do?