Items for October 2022

4 Twitter features Mastodon is better for not having

Tags: social media, software, design

Notes on Twitter

So, last night Elon Musk bought Twitter! Let’s talk a little bit about what I think the future holds.

Tags: social media, business

The History of Creepy Clowns, Explained

Before the 20th century, clowns in American circuses were largely considered a form of adult entertainment, writes this historian.

Tags: culture, history

Recycling plastic is practically impossible — and the problem is getting worse

Tags: environment, disaster

How the Sacheen Littlefeather Controversy Exposes the Complexities of Identity and Who Gets to Call Themselves Native

Tags: america, representation

Why we're leaving the cloud

Tags: internet, business

Meghna Jayanth is switching the narrative

Video game writer and narrative designer Meghna Jayanth talks about a career spent battling colonialism - and why this helps you get better games

Tags: games, politics

More Mastodon Scraping Without Consent (notes On Nobre Et Al 2022)

Tags: social media, science, ethics

Intel Is Laying Off Workers After Billions of Dollars in Federal Subsidies

Tags: big tech, work

Revisiting the Playground

Tags: youth, cities, history

The humble roundabout

A thought-provoking write-up, doubly so as it's written by someone living in South Africa. (Well, we have the same problem with beggars at traffic lights in Romania.) But it's also flawed: you can so tell it's written by a driver. Not a word about traffic light queues being caused by way too much traffic, for example. Also, you got the meaning of "implicit" and "explicit" backwards. An explicit rule would be mandating lower speed limits. You know, like cities in France and Belgium have been doing for years now.

Tags: cars, cities

France's president gave ordinary people the power to formulate national climate policies. He got more than he bargained for

Tags: france, climate, politics

The Web Was Originally Responsive

Tags: web, design

Meta Could Layoff 12,000 Employees, Despite Claiming It Wouldn’t

Tags: big tech, work

New York judge rules in favor of polyamorous relationships

Tags: sexuality, law