Links Archives – Waxy.org

September 23, 2020

The Election That Could Break America — Trump continues to undermine the election and will never concede, setting the U.S. up for a constitutional crisis #

How Reddit squashed its QAnon problem — enforcing their doxing and harassment policies by wiping out entire subreddits turned out to be pretty effective #

Leaked messages show far-right group’s plans for Portland violence — open discussion about hurting or killing Black Lives Matters protestors and violence towards elected leaders #

No officers charged for “wantonly and blindly” killing Breonna Taylor — a disgusting miscarriage of justice for what Louisville's police chief called an "extreme indifference to the value of human life" #

Da Vinky?? — learned about the Vörös twins in the latest Garbage Day newsletter #

Casey Newton leaves The Verge to launch Platformer — a new publication covering dedicated to covering social network companies and holding them accountable #

Mark in the Middle — Casey Newton got access to months of revealing internal Facebook Q&As with Mark Zuckerberg and Sheryl Sandberg #

September 22, 2020

Blacklight — real-time website privacy inspector from Surya Mattu and The Markup, with accompanying pieces on why and how they made it #

Final Cut – Ladies & Gentleman — feature-length mashup of clips (some NSFW) from 451 movies, used without permission to tell a single love story #

New Art City — new platform for virtual 3D art exhibitions by d0n.xyz #

September 21, 2020

RIP Longcat — longcat was long 😭 #

Vulture interviews Demi Adejuyigbe about his September 21 videos — "a source of pleasant nonsense in a world increasingly full of a more malicious chaos" #

Richard — Allie Brosh posted a chapter from her new book, which comes out tomorrow #

Justice Department threatens to cut federal funding to Portland, Seattle, and NYC over protests — blatantly unconstitutional, but that's hardly stopped this administration before #

Schitt’s Creek sets an Emmy record, sweeping comedy categories — just using this as an excuse to tell you not to sleep on this show, which has a big heart and is so much more than its title suggests #

9/21/20 — Demi Adejuyigbe is back, and this time, accidentally DDOSed the fundraising site #

September 20, 2020

TikTok and WeChat both managed to avoid Sunday app store bans — a useless Oracle/Walmart deal delayed TikTok's removal by a week, and a federal judge blocked WeChat's removal #

Twitter’s image previews appear to favor white faces — inadvertently discovered as part of a thread about Zoom's failure to recognize Black faces #

Reply All on the origins and identity of QAnon — [email protected]! #

September 18, 2020

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, champion of gender equality, dies at 87 — I can't even begin to process this loss #

Fast Times At Ridgemont High virtual table read — with Morgan Freeman, Jennifer Aniston, Matthew McConaughey, Julia Roberts, Brad Pitt, John Legend, Sean Penn, Ray Liotta, and Shia LaBeouf as Spicoli #

Monster Mash — playful sketch-based modeling and animating of 3D organic shapes in a 2D domain (via) #

ACLU, Instagram CEO slam WeChat and TikTok bans — the EFF similarly filed a brief against the ban, arguing it censors speech and violates First Amendment rights #

Trump administration bans WeChat, TikTok from app stores beginning Sunday — they're also ordering U.S. networking companies to end support for WeChat on Sunday and TikTok on November 12 #

September 17, 2020

Magma Studio — powerful multi-user painting/drawing tool, free for public drawings for up to 30 people #

Hope — a free game about "learning to rely on others and fighting against hopelessness, together" #

Open Mike Eagle’s “Bucciarati” — video features Paul F. Tompkins, directed by Demi Adejuyigbe; new album out October 16! #

Song Exploder becomes a Netflix series — coming October 2 with Alicia Keys, Lin-Manuel Miranda, R.E.M., and Ty Dolla Sign #

September 16, 2020

PIFuHD — make 3D human models from a 2D photos with a Google Colab demo to try it yourself (via) #

In Search Of A Flat Earth — Dan Olson's incredibly well-researched deep dive into QAnon and conspiracy theories (via) #

Nova, Panic’s successor to Coda, is out now — native macOS code editor from the best in the business, with a free 30-day trial #

September 15, 2020

Annabel Scheme and the Adventure of the New Golden Gate — Robin Sloan released his serialized detective story with a lovely UI and open-sourced the code #

Never post photos of your boarding pass online — Qantas was exposing passport details, phone numbers, and staff comments in JSON, but it's patched now #

How Did MTV Become the ‘Ridiculousness’ Network? — in late June, MTV aired the comedy clip show for 113 of its 168 hours of programming #

Dave Grohl escalates drum battle with 10-year-old Nandi Bushell — the ongoing social media war between these two is incredibly adorable #

Scientific American endorses Joe Biden — the first presidential endorsement in their 175-year history because of Trump's damage to science, health, and truth #

Whistleblower alleges mass hysterectomies, medical neglect at ICE detention center — The Intercept has more information in their coverage #

Polygon reviews Spelunky 2 — it's out today for PS4, Steam release on September 29 #

City of Louisville agrees to $12M settlement, police reforms with Breonna Taylor’s family — the officer who blindly shot her apartment and killed her was fired, but none of them have been charged #

windows 95 dreamscapes — Louie Zong used made a bunch of 3D landscapes with Windows 95 programs and set it to a Windows 3.0 MIDI #

Bill and Melinda Gates say “shocking” US pandemic response is due to “terrible leadership” — Bill Gates is a constant target of ridiculous and dangerous conspiracy theories #

Cameron Hunter’s gesture-triggered comic book messages for video calls — made with Snap Lens Studio and the Snap virtual camera for PC/Mac #

September 14, 2020

Super Mario Bros 3 three-minute speedrun explained — fascinating breakdown of manipulating enemy positions to change values in memory #

Facebook ignored global political manipulation, says data scientist turned whistleblower — she posted the 6,600 word memo on her last day after being fired this month #

NYT tracks USPS mail delivery times — delivery times are better than during the public outcry in July and August, but still slower than earlier this year (via) #

Biome Online — multiplayer pixel art space based on the Online Museum of Multiplayer Art #

It’s A Bird — Christian Cooper wrote a comic inspired by his racist encounter while birdwatching in Central Park, available free #

Feds seize OnePlus Buds, mistaking them for “counterfeit” AirPods — their excited tweet and press release are still up #

Russell Brandom on Oracle’s bizarre TikTok deal — ByteDance refused Microsoft's offer and won't sell the code or algorithm, raising questions about Oracle's "partnership" #

September 11, 2020

A Monster’s Expedition — charming and chill new puzzle adventure from the creator of Cosmic Express and A Good Snowman #