Items for August 2023

Boston’s transit agency used one weird trick to increase bus driver job applications by 356%

Spoiler: pay them fair wages and they'll suddenly want to work again.

Tags: work, cities, finance

We are not empty

The concept of the atomic void is one of the most repeated mistakes in popular science. Molecules are packed with stuff

Tags: cool, science

You're Not Going to Make It

Tags: society, disaster

The Revitalizing Power of Indigenous Typography

Typefaces express sovereignty. Here’s how Musqueam found just the right type for its language.

Tags: computers, language

Fusion Foolery

Tags: energy, science

Colonialism Set the Stage for the Wildfire Destruction of Maui

Transformation of the island for mass tourism helped turn it into a tinderbox that has claimed 96 lives so far.

Tags: disaster, politics

How 2023 changed the summer blockbuster game

Will this year's hits and bombs change how studios approach the season?

Tags: movies, attitudes

UK crews in crisis as SAG-AFTRA strike thwarts production: “Is the UK industry really our own?”

How did the UK's legendary film industry come to depend on Hollywood for work? Just a few years ago they were churning out excellent TV series of their own.

Tags: uk, movies, business

ChatGPT's odds of getting code questions correct are worse than a coin flip

But its suggestions are so annoyingly plausible

Tags: computers, language, attitudes

Death Spiral of Hollywood Monopolies

Too big to fail? Not so fast. A showrunner's cautionary memo

Tags: internet, movies, business

Hackers manage to unlock Tesla software-locked features worth up to $15,000

Tags: cars, security

Perpetual copyright

Tags: uk, books, law

Justine Bateman on the Destruction of the Film Business

Amid the SAG-AFTRA and WGA strikes, studio heads are scorching their own legacies, Justine Bateman writes.

Tags: movies, business, disaster

We’re now finding out the damaging results of the mandated return to the office–and it’s worse than we thought

Ignoring the fact that it's basically an ad, and the condescending tone towards the end, it's a good summary of the situation. Gee, you mean people have figured out they're being abused, and are voting with their feet?!

Tags: work, attitudes