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I did not realize that Godspeed You! Black Emperor had been playing new songs on their current tour. There’s a playlist on YouTube with really great bootlegs of all three of them. New album soon, I hope.
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The new owners of The Onion are being hilariously aggressive and I love it. (And it’s the entire homepage right now.)
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If you’ve got $1200 and a crippling toy robot addiction, the new Self-Transforming Megatron is for you!
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While I’m sure most will be drooling at the Artemis Space Launch System set from today’s LEGO announcements, I’m most intrigued and enthused about the Milky Way art set. SO cool.
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Great Polygon interview with writer Ram V regarding his current Dark Horse series, Dawnrunner. I read issue one and adored it – a great concept met with incredible art from Evan Cagle - and I cannot wait for the trade!
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“Uh, sir, you might get people turning against you for the TikTok ban.” “Time to fuck with the airlines.”
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I swear, I’m not trying to be Old Man Who Yells At Cloud, but this whole TikTok thing just underlines that if you are running a business online, you need a direct voice to your customers which you own. Mailing list, your own site, all of it.
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The Crumminess of Google Search Falls to the Hands of One Man
Edward Zitron, Where’s Your Ed At?:
This is the story of how Google Search died, and the people responsible for killing it.
The story begins on February 5th 2019, when Ben Gomes, Google’s head of search, had a problem. Jerry Dischler, then the VP and General Manager of Ads at Google, and Shiv Venkataraman, then the VP of Engineering, Search and Ads on Google properties, had called a “code yellow” for search revenue due to, and I quote, “steady weakness in the daily numbers” and a likeliness that it would end the quarter significantly behind.
A blistering read from Ed Zitron breaking down the managerial changes and overall focus on profits before people which has – perhaps irreparably – ruined Google search.
I feel like the term “enshittification” has become an overused shorthand for “thing I don’t like”, but this is the term at its purist. A focus on Fuck Yours, Got Mine on a massive level, which trickles down across the web as a whole.
A reckoning is coming, of this, I am sure.
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I’ve discovered World Chase Tag, and I’m sorry, I think I’m going to make this my personality moving forward.
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The announcement graphic for next month’s Apple (presumed) iPad Event is really well done. Kudos to the illustrator.
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Of COURSE, an AI Bot Has Been Developed to Game Reddit Comments for Marketing Purposes
For years, people who have found Google search frustrating have been adding “Reddit” to the end of their search queries. This practice is so common that Google even acknowledged the phenomenon in a post announcing that it will be scraping Reddit posts to train its AI. And so, naturally, there are now services that will poison Reddit threads with AI-generated posts designed to promote products.
A service called ReplyGuy advertises itself as “the AI that plugs your product on Reddit” and which automatically “mentions your product in conversations naturally.” Examples on the site show two different Redditors being controlled by AI posting plugs for a text-to-voice product called “AnySpeech” and a bot writing a long comment about a debt consolidation program called Debt Freedom Now.
This here is why we cannot have nice things.
That said: the name of the tool being “Reply Guy”? Honestly, no notes. What a perfect assessment of this internet ruining tool.
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Anyone else really love the recent “Add-to-Dock” functionality for making websites sandboxed “apps”? They’re great for streaming services.
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DEAPOOL & WOLVERINE Trailer 2 Drops
Marvel Entertainment on YouTube:
LFG.
Watch the new trailer for Marvel Studios’ #DeadpoolAndWolverine. Only in theaters July 26.
I’ve always been in a state of liking the Deadpool films, but not loving them. (Prefered 2 to 1, for whatever that’s worth.)
Turns out what Reynolds’ version of the character needed was a really strong opposite, which Hugh Jackman appears to have in spades.
Bring on the X-Men.
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The “For You” section of Threads is the most baiting, triggering horseshit. So glad I can just follow those I care about over there through Mastodon.
…provided that they’ve turned on federation…
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They say kill the part of you which is cringe, and to just be you, right?
Here goes: The first two Coldplay albums are good and might be what Radiohead would’ve been if they were more commercial.
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I align with Elizabeth Warren on many things, but she is way too far out of her element when it comes to discussing Apple / iMessage. We really need more of the tech generation in office.
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Deb JJ Lee Delivers a Surreal and Gorgeous DUNE Poster for Mutant
The best art inspires more incredible art and Denis Villeneuve’s Dune films have certainly done that. In addition to the artistry in the films themselves, graphic designers from all over the world have been moved to create gorgeous Dune posters—and the latest may be the most unique, and quite possibly the best, one yet.
Korean American artist Deb JJ Lee has created just a sumptuous, stunning poster for Dune: Part One, which is being released Friday April 19 by the team at Mutant. It’s their first collaboration together and, after seeing this full image, you have to imagine it won’t be their last. io9 is honored to exclusively debut your first look at Deb JJ Lee’s Dune: Part One from Mutant.
Goddamn, what a print. You can click through the source link to view the variant.
It’s been a while since I’ve had a print I was enthused about, and having the ex-Mondo crew deliver here shines all the stronger for it.
Granted, I don’t have the wall space, but I have the enthusiasm.
If you have the wall space, along with the cash ($75 for the standard, $100 for the variant), head to MadeByMutant.com tomorrow, April 19, 2024 at 1pm Eastern to pick one up. And I’ll be keeping an eye on Deb JJ Lee moving forward.
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Go Back to the Beginning in the New TRANSFORMERS ONE Trailer
Paramount Pictures on YouTube:
Every Transformer has an origin. Watch the new trailer for #TransformersOne - only in theatres September 20.
TRANSFORMERS ONE is the untold origin story of Optimus Prime and Megatron, better known as sworn enemies, but once were friends bonded like brothers who changed the fate of Cybertron forever. In the first-ever fully CG-animated Transformers movie, TRANSFORMERS ONE features a star-studded voice cast, including Chris Hemsworth, Brian Tyree Henry, Scarlett Johansson, Keegan-Michael Key, Steve Buscemi with Laurence Fishburne and Jon Hamm.
I’m not sure what I expected from a CG animated Transformers movie, but I definitely don’t think it was this.
It might just work? Either way, I’ve landed on intrigued. Of note, it’s the director of Toy Story 4 behind this, so the pedigree is strong.
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Glen Powell Is Your HIT MAN for Netflix This June
Inspired by the unbelievable true story, a strait-laced professor (Glen Powell) uncovers his hidden talent as a fake hit man in undercover police stings. He meets his match in a client (Adria Arjona) who steals his heart and ignites a powder keg of deception, delight, and mixed-up identities.
From Academy Award-nominated writer/director Richard Linklater and co-written by Glen Powell, HIT MAN comes to select theaters in May and only on Netflix June 7.
Oh boy, this looks like a great time.
Get ready for maximum Glen Powell this Summer, by the way, with this and Twisters hitting over the warm months.
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Quentin Tarantino's THE MOVIE CRITIC Has Been Scrapped
Quentin Tarantino’s movies are always full of surprises, and here is one about The Movie Critic we did not expect. Deadline can reveal that Tarantino has dropped the film as his 10th and final project. He simply changed his mind, Deadline has been told.
Tarantino was going to have Brad Pitt as the principal star, which would have marked their third teaming after Inglourious Basterds and Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. There were rumors that many from the casts of his past films might take part, and Sony was preparing to make the film after doing such a superb job on the last one.
Word is that Tarantino had rewritten his script, which delayed the start of production. But this is his 10th and final film, and Tarantino simply decided The Movie Critic will not be it.
This is a genuine surprise. Things sounded like they were moving pretty quickly on the project, and QT ending his career with how he started, with a project observing and critquing movies, felt like a great full circle move.
Alas, another project gets added to the pile.
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iOS folks – the Delta emulator is FINALLY available on the App Store. I cannot wait to dig into this when I get home.
Edit: More of a write up on it is available now at The Verge.
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The Tech Review Discourse, And What Its Really About
This, I think, is what’s actually pissing the AI people off about Brownlee’s Humane review. He is clear that he has no fealty to them or their stock prices (“I literally don’t care what the stock price is of any company, of any product I review,” he says.) He even says in his video that “my reviews are technically not for” these products’ makers, which must be infuriating to our new Gilded Age robber barons who need constant reassurances of their genius. Because Brownlee isn’t in the business of promoting them or even talking to them, he’s not required to tout AI’s potential.
If you’ve missed The Discourse™ about MKBHD’s review of the Humane AI pin, Congrats! You’re not Extremely Online. But for those who do have a stake in the conversation, I think MacLeod’s piece I’ve linked above does a great job of summarizing both the situation and my personal beliefs on it.
I’ve expressed privately my confusion of the number of companies which grew to massive size not on the work they’ve delivered or the contributions they have made to our day-to-day lives, but more on the potential of doing so.
These reviews – and more specifically, the pearl-clutching of those who are insulted by reviewers, well, reviewing work – are the beginning (in my opinion) of a much needed reckoning.
Potential means nothing. Actions and reality are everything. I’m sorry that it took interest rates changing for a slue of folks to realize this, but you’re only worth what you actually do.
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Read the reviews for Guy Richie’s The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare, and there are a lot of comparisons to his The Man from UNCLE remake, which pretty much means: I’m gonna love it.
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Not that I disliked my prior car (Toyota CH-R), but I actively get excited about driving my new car. Dang hybrid has some zip in it!
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Follow up to my post about how Disney+ should have “channels”…per a paywalled post at The Information, they’re in progress and should launch soon. You’re welcome, Bob.