August 14, 2023
Trump Indictment #4 - This Time It's RICO
Yelling is not journalism
Why can’t triple-A games come out with perfect polish from day 1? A response by Brandon Sheffield to IGN's Baldur’s Gate 3 is Causing Some Developers to Panic video which itself was a response to Xalavier's (of Hypnospace Outlaw fame) twitter thread about "gently, pre-emptively pushing back against players taking that excitement [about Baldur's Gate 3] and using it to apply criticism or a "raised standard" to RPGs going forward"
Well-Tuned, Actually
La Monte Young's The Well-Tuned Piano (previously) is an series of extended improvisations with a piano tuned to 7-Limit Just Intonation. While LMY is very protective of his work, and recordings are almost completely absent on streaming sites and YouTube, there is a 5 hour recording available on archive.org. [more inside]
Cat-Scam
Yet the case still might have fizzled if not for the presence, in Tulsa’s Riverside Street Crimes Unit, of an officer with the improbable name Kansas Core ... the cat racket was hardly a choice assignment. “There’s this ‘We don’t care about catalytic converters, because it’s a property crime’ ” camp at the department, Staggs says. “It’s not a sexy crime. It’s not the robberies and the homicides.” When the previous commander gave Core the case, it wasn’t exactly hazing, but it wasn’t far off. “I’m pretty sure that lieutenant basically was like, ‘Core, you’re the up-and-coming guy,’ ” Staggs says. “ ‘Your last name is Core, and all the criminals call these cores. Here you go.’ ” from How Tulsa cops brought down a $500 million catalytic converter crime ring [Bloomberg; ungated]
Judge rules in favor of Montana youths in landmark climate decision
‘This is a monumental decision,’ said a lawyer for the young plaintiffs, and could influence how judges handle similar cases in other states [previously]
How America Got Mean
How America Got Mean (archive link) is David Brooks' musings on why Americans are so sad and why Americans are so mean. [more inside]
Nobody drives in San Francisco, there’s too much traffic
One day after California green-lighted a massive expansion of driverless robotaxis in San Francisco, the implications became clear.
At about 11 p.m. Friday, as many as 10 Cruise driverless taxis blocked two narrow streets in the center of the city’s lively North Beach bar and restaurant district. All traffic came to a standstill on Vallejo Street and around two corners on Grant. Human-driven cars sat stuck behind and in between the robotaxis, which might as well have been boulders: no one knew how to move them. [more inside]
At about 11 p.m. Friday, as many as 10 Cruise driverless taxis blocked two narrow streets in the center of the city’s lively North Beach bar and restaurant district. All traffic came to a standstill on Vallejo Street and around two corners on Grant. Human-driven cars sat stuck behind and in between the robotaxis, which might as well have been boulders: no one knew how to move them. [more inside]
First study on menstrual products using blood published this year
An important study for uterus-carriers and period-havers... but also cw: discussion of body stuff. "The study was conducted by Dr Bethany Samuelson Bannow and a team of colleagues, in an effort to demystify and destigmatize heavy menstrual bleeding (HMB) which, as it turns out, actually affects around one third of people who menstruate." [Marie Claire: The First Ever Period Product Study Involving Actual Blood Just Proved Why We Needed It]/[Link to BMJ study (free)] [more inside]
You don't know about Only Semantic Migrations?
97 keys, one octave
Bösendorfer’s legendary Model 290 Imperial concert grand piano has 97 keys that cover a full eight octaves. Sauter’s Microtone upright piano also has 97 keys, but they only cover a single octave. It’s one of 15 “metamorphoser” piano designs patented by microtonal music pioneer Julián Carillo; the prototypes, built by Sauter, were introduced at the Brussels World Fair in 1958. This Microtone piano is tuned “with only 1/16 step between the keys so that on this instrument what appears to be a fifth actually sounds 1/16-step less than a half-step,” i.e. 96 steps per octave; the other designs had 36, 48, 60 or some other number of steps per octave. See and hear the Microtone in action in this performance of Bruce Mather’s Étude pour piano en seizième de ton (2001).
What Happened To The Microfinance Company Kiva?
In MIT Technology Review Mara Kardas-Nelson looks at organizational changes that have been made since 2019 to Kiva.org, the well-known microlending organization, including multi-million dollar salary hikes for executives, charrging fees to the borrowers, and a lenders' strike organized by contributors who were disturbed by the changes.
(MIT Tech Review allows some free articles, but you might hit the paywall)
Different strokes: How modern MLB players develop their autographs
An autograph is a personal thing, a marker of someone’s identity, a few dashes of ink that can help preserve a legacy. Short or long, sloppy or neat, every player has a story behind their signature. There are more demands on athletes’ time than ever, so there’s a balance at play when it comes to the art of signing. (archive.today link)
Spaghettieis is the way to a Free Thread
BBC: "At ice cream parlours around Germany, you might come across a perplexing menu item, simply labelled Spaghettieis." Some pictures on Flickr. Metro: "5. Optional: grate some white chocolate over the top for ‘Parmesan’." (Previously) And what's your favourite regular or combo or speciality ice cream, or just talk about everything because it's your .
Sad, lonely losers or indulging a pleasure
Why solo diners are being judged A Michelin restaurant in London charges single diners double, which has led to opinions in The Guardian by Jay Rayner and Megan Nolan.
But others have given thought to the pleasures of dining alone this year, and earlier. [more inside]
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