Following up on my obsession with title sequences... As I've said before, I find the decisions about what stories they choose to tell, and under such constraints, fascinating. So every time a new season of a show starts, I pick them apart to see what subtle changes they made.

Monarch, Legacy of Monsters has a fantastic title sequence. Since the show takes place in two timelines, they split the titles between the past on the left and the present on the right, contrasting similar events in each timeline. And season 2 keeps up this conceit, but it was completely rebuilt!

So here are all four quadrants from seasons 1 and 2, stacked.

Also, this show is still killing it.

Previously, previously, previously.

This is so much fun... Craig S. Kaplan:

In my online undergraduate P5.js course, students are about to begin the module on motion and physics, including a bit of physics simulation using Matter.js. It suddenly occurred to me that I had never seen anybody put together this particular demo before, and I realized it had to be done. Messy source code here.

Previously, previously, previously, previously, previously, previously.

By the way, I have just been informed that "Peter Thiel" is an anagram for "Hitler Pete".

The articles, produced in collaboration with the investigative collective WAV, detailed a years-long, multi-ministry charm offensive by Palantir to sell its software to Swiss federal authorities. The campaign was, by all accounts, a comprehensive failure. Swiss agencies rejected Palantir at least nine times, with concerns ranging from data sovereignty to reputational risk to the simple fact that nobody needed the product. [...]

So how does a sophisticated data intelligence company respond to well-sourced investigative journalism based on official government documents?

By suing the journalists, of course.

Previously, previously, previously, previously, previously, previously, previously.

Dear Lazyweb,

I have this pulley wheel, 50mm inside diameter, 4mm groove. I need a rubber traction ring to go inside it. I cannot find anyone who will sell this to me.

The ring must be flat or concave, not round like a typical gasket seal O-ring, or the string its pulling will just slide off the track.

Alternately, any similar-sized metal pulley wheel that comes with a friction surface pre-attached, 8mm axis hole with set screw.

I have tried coating it with sugru, but that is too soft and wears off after not-very-long.

Update: If you're going to say "why don't you just" or "have you searched for" without a purchase link to a product of the correct size, please know that you are not helping.

Previously.

"This movie needed to be graphic, so I had a prosthetic butthole," Seyfried explained.

Yes, naturally, you would need a prosthetic butthole for this movie about a celibate religious sect, Amanda. I completely agree.

"I was pregnant and naked, but I wasn't naked at all, and at the end of the movie, I'm standing in front of a burning building with just a merkin," she explained. "I felt so free."

Unfortunately, she did clarify: "You cannot see my butthole in the scene, but I swear there is a prosthetic butthole there." Release the butthole cut.

Previously, previously, previously.

Spencer Coppens was DNA Lounge's general manager in the 1980s and 1990s. He was also a singer, an MC, and pretty much single-handedly started the "Swing" revival in the 80s. He passed away a few months ago, and as his friends were cleaning out his place, they came across a big pile of VHS tapes of old DNA Lounge shows!

Jason Scott of Internet Archive was kind enough to digitize them for us. And these nearly-40-year-old VHS tapes turned out to be of surprisingly high quality! The very high resolution scans of the raw tapes are at Internet Archive.

I've also split them apart and uploaded them to YouTube, so here's a playlist of more than 24 hours of live performances at DNA Lounge spanning the years 1988 through 1992! Plus some other stuff.

We are also hosting a memorial for Spencer on the afternoon of Sat, Apr 4. If you knew him, please stop by!

Every now and then I make the mistake of of posting something on Mastodon that really should have gone on the blog first. This is one of those, from last week. It did some numbers.

Everything written by AI boosters tracks much more clearly if you simply replace "AI" with "cocaine".

I shall demonstrate!

(Not linking to OP, because it's trash.)

"Let's pretend you're the only person at your company using cocaine.

You decide you're going to impress your employer, and work for 8 hours a day at 10x productivity. You knock it out of the park and make everyone else look terrible by comparison. [...]

In this scenario, you capture 100% of the value from your adopting cocaine."

Previously, previously, previously, previously, previously, previously.

Judge forced to slash SF jury pool over hate for Elon Musk:

One candidate said, "In a criminal trial, I would feel morally obligated to convict, however, in a civil trial I could set those views aside," adding, "I believe it would be to the benefit of the human race for Mr. Musk to be sent to prison." [...]

"I don't believe the loss of several hundreds of millions of dollars in civil trial will be even a drop in the bucket to his wealth," he reportedly said. "So it doesn't really matter."

He did not make it onto the jury, and neither did a woman who said Musk has "no moral compass" and "used his wealth to buy votes." The judge also dismissed a candidate who said they disagree with the "existence of billionaires" and another who noted their dislike for Musk's firing of Twitter content moderators.

Previously, previously, previously, previously, previously, previously, previously, previously, previously, previously.

Across the US, people are dismantling and destroying Flock surveillance cameras:

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25 years ago today, Bad_CRC posted the primordial meme video "All Your Base Are Belong To Us" on Newgrounds.

In honor of this important anniversary, I downloaded the original Flash SWF file from Internet Archive, played it using Ruffle in a full-screen window, and replaced the audio with the original MP3 of "Invasion of the Gabber Robots" by The Laziest Men on Mars. So this is probably the highest fidelity encoding possible, without going back to the original forum GIFs.

Make your time.

Previously, previously.