“This venue –and every publication is a venue with its own dress code and decor, its favoured clientele and font-choice aesthetic –felt more like the Garrick than a youth club: deep-chaired, wood-panelled, its resident critics ruthless and assured, unafraid to skewer whatever video game everyone else was busily fawning over. Edge’s writers became my tutors;…
Month: January 2024
“Why Women Hate the Pill” – Nicole Schmidt (The Walrus)
“When it comes to birth control, while the most sought-after effect may happen in the reproductive system, the hormones that contraceptives contain are picked up by receptors throughout the entire body—which is why the medications have the ability to change not just your weight or your skin but also your very sense of who you…
“The Vision Pro” – Daring Fireball
“This first-generation Vision Pro hardware is severely restricted by the current limits of technology. Apple has pushed those limits in numerous ways, but the limits are glaring. This Vision Pro is a stake in the ground, defining the new state of the art in immersive headset technology. But that stake in the ground will recede…
“The Complicated Legacy of Doc Rivers” – Michael Pina (The Ringer)
“Rivers has had a winning record in 16 straight seasons despite different teams, schemes, coaching staffs, and personnel. Not bad! But barring a title in Milwaukee, the persistent buildup of postseason disappointment will be the second, third, and fourth sentences of his coaching legacy” https://www.theringer.com/nba/2024/1/29/24053682/doc-rivers-milwaukee-bucks-coaching-history
“The Fertilizer Oligopoly Stinks” – Boondoggle
“studies show that fertilizer prices move alongside food prices, rather than reflecting any underlying change in the inputs required to manufacture it, meaning fertilizer manufacturers aren’t constrained by any real market discipline. They’re just opportunistically gouging farmers. And some of that increased cost is inevitably going to wind up in the prices of the food…
“Video-Game Companies Make Workers Relocate, Then Fire Them” – Jason Schreier (GameOn, Bloomberg)
“Blizzard canceled its survival game Odyssey after six years in development largely due to its struggling technology. One factor behind those struggles may have been the company’s inability to retain or attract senior engineers, in part, because of a lack of remote-work flexibility. But the hardest impact of this policy is that both companies asked…
“Out of Stock – Instacart, Elon Musk, Cruises, and Crabs” – A Scammer Darkly
“Instacart lost two billion dollars last quarter, which somehow beat Wall Street expectations. The markets have decided that gig grocery delivery is something society needs so badly it’s worth blowing billions and grinding a dwindling independent workforce into dust to make it happen” https://newsletter.scammerdarkly.com/archive/out-of-stock-instacart-elon-musk-cruises-and-crabs/
“I hated going back to games – until The Last of Us Part II Remastered came along” – Keith Stuart (Pushing Buttons, Guardian)
“Replaying a linear narrative game is like rereading a favourite novel: nothing changes apart from you. The way you feel, the age you are, the experiences you’ve had – these all contribute to your new experiences with the text. Vladimir Nabokov once said, “One cannot read a book; one can only reread it. A good…
“January 24, 2024” – Letters from an American
“In his resignation letter, DeWit claimed the recording had been “taken out of context” and said he had been “set up.” He noted that Lake has “a disturbing tendency to exploit private interactions for personal gain,” calling out “her habit of secretly recording personal and private conversations. This is obviously a concern given how much…
“The libertarian developer looming over West Maui’s water conflict” – Anita Hofschneider & Jake Bittle (Grist)
“Tremble’s letter implied that a state official key to implementing local water regulations — and the first Native Hawaiian to lead the state water commission — had impeded firefighting efforts. He soon walked back the claim, but his first letter had immediate effect. The state attorney general launched an investigation into the official, the governor…