- Porch Cameras and Facebook Groups Are Turning Streets into Surveillance States.
The online neighbourhood group is akin to a gated community within a community: an enclave for those with the time, means, and know-how to keep an area pure. There is an obvious logic to it. If you cannot put up literal gates, put up virtual ones.
#
- Want to See a Modern Country Commit Suicide? Take a Hard Look at Britain. It's kind of incredible how big of an own goal Brexit was. #
- Cancelled Toronto. It's impressive how much transit this city manages to not build. #
- A Deep Cut: The Green Knight. A long review and analysis of the movie. The film departs from the original story in some interesting ways. #
- Inside the rise and fall of the Buca empire. This article is really fascinating. #
- Living While Black, in Japan. It speaks to just how dark things are in America that people will happily brush aside some of the casual ignorance that comes with living in such a homogeneous place. Everyone is so happy to be in Japan. They feel free in a way they never did in the US. Such an interesting little video. (via Kottke) #
- Did a University of Toronto Donor Block the Hiring of a Scholar for Her Writing on Palestine? This feels like a real own goal for the University of Toronto. #
- Is Trump Actually Still in Control? It's funny to me that Trump is too dangerous to be on Twitter, but apparently not too dangerous to be the president of the United States of America. That guy has nuclear launch codes. #
- Twitter, Facebook, etc, have finally removed Trump from their platform. This newsletter opens with a great discussion of this topic.
I am tired of letting these companies try to convince us that their violent and racist users with hundreds of thousands of followers creating content shared millions of times are somehow not indicative of what these websites fundamentally are. Trump is a not unique outlier on Facebook and Twitter, he is Facebook and Twitter.
#
- Who Did J.K. Rowling Become? An interesting look at Rowling, and her transformation into an angry online twitter TERF. #
- The Friend by Matthew Teague. This story is being turned into a movie now. A hard read, about cancer and friendship. #
- No Crying at the Dinner Table. Oh man: this short film is good. #
- The Not So Hidden Israeli Politics of 'The Last of Us Part II'. The sequel to Last of Us is far more muddled than the original, but I still love it. There is a lot of criticism directed at the game, and it's interesting to read people's thoughts about where it fails. I didn't pick up on these parallels to the conflict in Israel, but it certainly feels like a viable take on things. #
- The "Collection or the Best of Everything". A history of Tap Phong, one of the most iconic stores in Toronto. #
- Until we get the Vanity Fair oral history of the Four Seasons Total Landscaping boondoggle we all have this video to tide us over. Whenever i'm feeling down, I just watch this clip. #
- Voting Trump Out Is Not Enough. The Democratic party really needs to figure out what its deal even is. Maybe you can win as not-quite Republicans against Trump during a pandemic, but i'm not sure how far that will get you in the long run. They also need to undo all the advantages the Republican Party has at the moment. #
- Activists Turn Facial Recognition Tools Against the Police. From the article, this project by French artist Paolo Cirio is quite cool. #
- Facebook leaks show Mark Zuckerberg defending his decisions to angry employees. Facebook's employees seem so spineless and useless. It shouldn't take anyone till this moment to realize the site is kind of garbage and is destroying the world. And it's not like there isn't a shortage of high paying jobs for tech workers in San Fran. #
- Leaked Messages Show Far-Right Group's Plans for Portland Violence. That this sort of discussion (and action) isn't treated as some form of domestic terrorism (which it certainly would be if it was Muslims organizing like this) really tells you a lot about what the American state values (or does not). #
- We have 5 Years of Demi Adejuyigbe’s ‘September 21’ Videos. Some joy in 2020. #
- Where the Amish Go on Vacation. Some fantastic candid photography. Comment