March 31, 2024
Eartha Kitt campaigned on Australian causes
Blacklisted for speaking out at home, Eartha Kitt campaigned on Australian causes. Long before Leonardo DiCaprio lent his voice to environmental causes in Tasmania, legendary American musician and actress Eartha Kitt joined the fray — and it wasn't the only cause close to her heart in Australia.
Tomorrow's World
From the BBC Archives: Schoolchildren in 1966 Predict Life in the Year 2000 [6:17]
"If something's gone wrong with their nuclear bombs, I may be sort of coming back from hunting in a cave." "I don't like the idea of sort of getting up and finding you've got a cabbage pill to eat for breakfast or something." "Computers are taking over now, computers and automation. And in the year 2000, there just won't be enough jobs to go around, and the only jobs there will be will be for people with high IQ who can work computers and such things, and other people are just not going to have jobs." "I don't think I'll still be on Earth. I think I'll be under the sea."[transcript, via Tildes] [more inside]
Whatever else Farley’s work is, it isn’t AI—even when it barely seems I
Why Did This Guy Put a Song About Me on Spotify? [NYT] by Brett Martin [archive link] is an essay about Matt Farley, who we last met ten years ago when he had released 14 thousand songs on Spotify, earning him 23 thousand dollars per year in royalties. Now he’s pulling 200 thousand dollars from 25 thousand songs. He’s also made multiple movies. Farley’s website, Motern Media, has a decent overview of his creative output.
Guess my RGB
"I wasn't really happy, you weren't really happy"
Derek Gerard interviews people in a library, albeit quietly, over at The Library Show on YouTube. The latest episode is with LysiL, his ex from 3 years ago. What follows is a sometimes uncomfortable, yet honest and often humorous look back at their relationship and why it failed.
I am a sleeper, a spook, a man of two faces.
Viet Thanh Nguyen's Pulitzer-prize winning debut novel The Sympathizer is now an HBO Max mini-series helmed by legendary director Park Chan Wook and executive-produced by Robert Downey, Jr., which will premiere April 14. [more inside]
Magpies are among the best of the sound-sampling songbirds out there
This Brisbane magpie can make the sound of a blaring siren — but that's not unusual.
When we think of birds mimicking sounds, we typically think of some kind of parrot, lyrebird or maybe even a cockatoo. However, Australian magpies (Gymnorhina tibicen, no relation to British/European magpies) are among the best of the sound-sampling songbirds out there.
The relation between what we see and what we know is never settled
Based on the 1972 BBC series and comprised of 7 essays, 3 of which are entirely pictoral, Ways of Seeing by John Berger is a seminal work which examines how we view art.
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