September 16, 2023
“The punch line is worth the fictionalized premise,” he said.
Writing for the New Yorker, Clare Malone has fact-checked a number of stand-up comic / Daily Show alum / Patriot Act host / Obama-interviewer Hassan Minhaj’s stories of his experiences as an Indian-American and fond them short on accuracy: “Hasan Minhaj’s ‘Emotional Truths’”
Or, as Minhaj puts it, “[S]eventy per cent emotional truth—this happened—and then thirty per cent hyperbole, exaggeration, fiction.”
Or, as Minhaj puts it, “[S]eventy per cent emotional truth—this happened—and then thirty per cent hyperbole, exaggeration, fiction.”
NES Strider was not programmed well
When people mention Strider, they tend to think of Capcom's flashy classic arcade platformer, with Strider Hiryu slashing apart fur cap-wearing robots with his plasma sword. Hardcore Gaming 101 has its history. The arcade game was a classic; the NES game, somewhat less so. It was extremely badly implemented, and not even released in Japan. Displaced Gamers' Behind The Code series currently has two videos about it, about why it displays garbage sprites (15m) and its awful physics (19m), which let you wall jump, but only with frame-perfect timing, and not even the right frame. It's rather technical, but I trust that you can fast-forward through the bits you're not interested in.
Kansas man upset he can’t buy mini Toyotas ‘like the Taliban and ISIS.’
The Taliban has fresher trucks than us. The Honda Fit is dead. U can’t find a sauced-out 2-door to save your life. How did we get here?? [more inside]
"The height of this surprising bird is 2 feet!"
The Naturalists Companion, Containing drawings with suitable descriptions of a vast variety of Quadrupeds, Birds, Fishes, Serpent and Insects; &c accurately copied either from Living Animals or from the stuffed Specimens in the Museums of the College and Dublin Society "This volume, of a miscellany of museum artefacts, natural history specimens, and material culture, exemplified the way many Europeans encountered natural history from the new world: not with Enlightenment rigour but with eclectic and unsystematic enthusiasm." An article about this unusual book from the State Library of New South Wales and, of course, all the photos in one Flickr album and a keyword searchable set of page scans. [via]
Nobody Will Tell the Ugly Reason Apple Acquired a Classical Music Label
But you need to know, because it offers a glimpse into the dark future of streaming (archive.today link)
Francisco Franco Is Dead. Allahu Akbar.
The origins of Granada's resplendent Mezquita Mayor. The Mezquita Mayor of the Spanish city of Granada traces its beginnings to a curious meeting on Portobello Road in London, on the very same day in 1975 that Francisco Franco died. [more inside]
Master of puppets.
Lies of P carves a singular space out of the Soulsborne genre [Polygon] “Lies of P is the latest addition in the ever-growing lineup of Soulsborne-inspired games. On paper, it definitely dresses the part. It’s a hack-and-slash game with obtuse mechanics; challenging areas delimited by sweet, sweet checkpoints; and dramatic entrances for each and every boss encounter. The standout element is its narrative, which sets the tale of renowned lying apologist Pinocchio against the Belle Époque era.” [Gameplay Trailer][Story Trailer][1 Hour of Midgame Gameplay] [more inside]
You can check out anytime you like
“We saw people were upset and we just wanted to try and fix it." A trio of tourists went to Nashville for a birthday celebration, only to find themselves temporarily running the La Quinta hotel they were supposed to be staying at, in a saga that has captivated TikTok. [more inside]
Perhaps the revolution was the pair of running shoes all along
Yet if the generational pop sociology of The Big Chill has enduringly shaped both cultural constructions of American generations and our political understanding of the baby boomers, it obscures as much as it reveals. from You Can Always Get What You Want: On “The Big Chill” and American Politics [LARB]
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