I’ve been watching *so* many movies lately, but I haven’t been writing longer reviews for them. I’ve been too busy doing the actual work required in fulfilling a Kickstarter, launching a new horror novel, and editing another book of mine…while trying not to burn out. That means aggressively allocating time to Normal Life as well as Work and Work-like Things. That means fewer reviews!

Still, I am watching lots of new-to-me favorites! I loved the original Night of the Living Dead. Although it wasn’t as good as the first one, Scream 2 was a hoot that made me want to watch the rest of the franchise. And I can’t stop thinking about Rec!

Also on my list of worky stuff: trying to get a TikTok account to the size that I can actually put links in my bio.

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There’s a new 4K restoration of Tarsem Singh’s The Fall that we need to watch. (The Film Stage)

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Apparently Cape fur seals have an outbreak of rabies. (AJE) This is kinda scary to read. The seals bit five people before they identified them as rabies-infected. Luckily, no humans contracted rabies from the bites, but still.

The interaction between diseases in animals and diseases in humans is generally scary. Smithsonian Mag notes that infant mortality is higher in places where bats have white nose syndrome.

Also, someone caught H5-type bird flu without animal contact in Missouri. (Ars Technica) Bird flu has reached California dairies. (Ars Technica)

And salmonella has been found in some eggs (NPR), but not in Nevada, so I’m still eating raw cookie dough.

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A study suggests that vaping screws up your lungs just as much as smoking. (The Guardian)

As a piece of total anecdata, I definitely found this was true for me. Sometimes vaping was way worse for my lungs. Kinda depends on the vape.

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“Can You Feel the Love Tonight?” almost stayed on the cutting room floor of the Lion King. (Variety) It’s bananas to consider we almost didn’t have the sequence with the horny lioness gaze.

Other strange cinema history: The sexy piano scene with Julia Roberts and Richard Gere in Pretty Woman was improvised. (Vanity Fair)

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Selena Gomez is a billionaire so we gotta eat her too. (Variety)

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We might as well note that The Graveyard Book has been delayed (Variety) because of allegations against Neil Gaiman because I predict there will actually be no long-term consequences for his predatory behavior.

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Bad news for publishing. Apple Books has had one of the best teams in the industry, but Apple failed to recognize it and laid off a bunch of staff. (Ars Technica)

This is my second favorite time of year. Shifting from winter to spring is the biggest relief (by end of winter, I am dying), but shifting from summer to autumn is downright magical. There’s fruit everywhere for me to pick and eat. The days are finally cooling off so I can be out in sunlight again, not just walking at night (although that’s nice too).

I think spring and fall might be when I injure myself most often, too. I’m outside having way too much fun. Bruises abound. I’m kind of a mess today after going flying off my scooter yesterday. Guess it’s nice to feel alive?

A couple years back, I had a *much* worse fall just walking around on my own two feet. My knee was injured for a full year. This time, I think I’m just very bruised. I’ll take it. I’m not sure if I’ll be back in the gym until my wrist feels better, though.

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I’m not surprised to hear that the Cybertruck is the bestselling vehicle in its price range. (Jalopnik) Like they say, bad press is still press. It’s basically a viral car. All this attention can’t be beat as far as marketing goes.

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This is the kind of news I care about: there was a groundhog in a toy claw game. There’s pictures. (The Guardian)

Colonel Custard was returned safely to the Pennsylvania wilderness.

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California state IDs can go in Apple Wallet now. (Engadget) I actually…don’t like this? I know it’s really convenient. But if you hand a law enforcement officer your unlocked phone, they can look through it. I don’t really want CHiPs able to check out my nudes just because I was going 80 in a 70.

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I’ve been thinking about this Psyche article on “opposite action” quite a lot since reading it. It’s specific to getting over feelings for your ex, but it’s using a dialectical behavioral therapy (DBT) concept that can be applied more broadly.

Basically, if you’re feeling something undesirable for the moment, how could you act in a way that would be opposite to that feeling?

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It’s a low-selling year for Burning Man. (The Guardian) Honestly, pandemic and climate change have been kind of a gift for Burning Man. It got out of hand. All the classic Burners would much rather have the big organization vacate the playa permanently and just have an old-style camping trip.

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In fun disease news, mpox is a global health emergency (AJE) and I’m keeping an eye now on oropouche (NPR) as climate change allows it to leave its usual stomping grounds. Slapped cheek virus is also spreading. (Ars Technica) I actually know someone online whose family dealt with this, and it sounds nasty.

Mpox requires intimate contact to spread; oropouche is spread by insects. We don’t need to be alarmed about either just yet.

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The clustercluck of Starliner continues. (Quartz)

Experts are now concerned that any attempt to bring the craft back to Earth before the thrusters are fixed could result in it spinning out of control and hitting the ISS.

I wonder if NASA’s gonna keep working with Boeing? I’m sure they have a contract that says whether they have to do that or not, so it’s not really a rhetorical question.

Meanwhile, SpaceX is planning to do a couple orbits to conduct observations on Earth’s polar regions. (Scientific American) I wish they would suck a little less so I could feel more supportive. They’re polluting the heck out of Texas. (Quartz)

I also keep hearing that there’s a lot of liquid water under Mars’s surface. (AJE) We just can’t access it.

It’s the end of summer break for my kiddos. Looking back, I had a lot of fun. I also completely drowned under it. Being full-time mom while trying to work and do…basically anything…completely blew me out of all my rhythms.

I didn’t really have rhythms, though. I’ve been struggling and scraping by without motivation, purpose, or desire for quite a while. Every time it seems I’m going to get traction on something again, I slip. It’s like 2020 absolutely ruined me.

Summer was especially messy, but it wasn’t *that* different from my psychological state these past few years.

I’m nothing if not stubborn though. I’m going to make good use of the time my kid is in school. I’m going to get stuff done, honest.

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Biden has been talking about dropping out of the race. (The Guardian) I don’t like authority figures in general, nor do I like presidents, but in a sort of neutral way I think the mythology of Joseph R Biden is interesting. He worked next to America’s first Black president and seemed to take a lot of pride in supporting him. He also chose a Black running mate for 2020 and helped usher in the first mixed race VP. By stepping aside, he’s also made Harris a contender as the first woman president — a Black woman, an Indian woman, from a migrant family.

I say this is his mythology because there are political machinations behind all of this. There are cynical, pragmatic reasons supporting and overwhelming the sentimental ones. Yet many presidents (none other than him) have chosen to have this mythology as their narrative. He’s the first to have committed to this kind of allyship. It says something that he wanted it, on some level.

Likewise, from the article:

Biden became emotional as he recalled a promise he made to his late son Beau about remaining in politics. “He said, ‘I know when it happens, you’re gonna want to quit. You’re not gonna stay engaged. Look at me. Look at me, Dad. Give me your word as a Biden. When I go, you’ll stay engaged. Give me your word.’ And I did.”

Biden and his team also chose this noble, family- and grief-driven narrative for his story as president. Essentially, Biden didn’t go for the strong-arm president, the wartime president, the anti-terrorism president, the “business leader in politics” president. He went for a particular American narrative I’ve always found least unappealing. The idea that we are, idealogically, a country aspiring to be a “more perfect” union. A pluralist society that can overcome its systemic apartheid-like biases within its borders.

Not everyone is willing to do this, so it does matter that this is what he chose…even while America does a lot of its usual nastiness everywhere else.

Just something I’m thinking about.

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No matter who gets elected in November, both main presidential candidates have promised to stop taxing tips. (The Guardian)

Which means it will no longer be illegal to pretend you didn’t get tipped, the way most people do.

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The fact Deadpool & Wolverine has done so well (to the tune of a billion dollarbucks) (Variety) reminds me of the way Iron Man 1 did well for Robert Downey Jr. In both cases, the movies were partially based around redemption arcs *outside* the movie.

Deadpool redeems the MCU by being honest about its massive flaws ad limitations.

Iron Man redeems RDJ by giving the Tony Stark character a redemption arc akin to RDJ’s, giving us the feeling of a shitty drunk dude stepping up to be a hero.

MCU seems to do well when it monetizes a sense of honesty, whether or not that honesty is authentic. It doesn’t do as well when it gets its head up its own butt about its mythology. They’re probably learning from this for a few projects, but they’ll get their heads firmly back up their butts in no time.

In generally terrible news for the movie industry, theaters are now just for people willing to pay a premium (Quartz). Less people are going overall. Those who do are paying more. In case you thought that anyone in the industry was in it for the art, let this be a reminder that overall, this is about investment.

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Smithsonian Mag talks about geoengineering Mars to make it more habitable. This time, it’s talking about putting more metals into the atmosphere to reduce the extreme temperatures.

This idea is meant to emulate global warming on Earth, but for benevolent reasons. As a storyteller, not a scientist, this sounds like a real bad idea.

Related to Earth’s climate change (not Mars), Utah has lost one of its famous interesting geographic features because of it. The “Double Arch” has collapsed. (The Guardian)

The popular arch in the Glen Canyon national recreation area fell on Thursday, and park rangers suspect changing water levels and erosion from waves in Lake Powell contributed to its demise.

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Psychedelic therapies have been on the rise in popularity, but the FDA has smacked down clinical use of MDMA for now. (NPR)

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Nothing gold can stay. Warner Bros reign of terror continues by demolishing the Cartoon Network website (Engadget), where kids could enjoy free episodes of shows. Everyone’s gotta go on Max now.

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I haven’t been posting Sara Reads the Feed lately, yet the Starliner saga continues. Astronauts remain stuck on ISS because Starliner isn’t safe to come down. (Quartz) Worse, it’s probably bricking one of the docking ports on ISS because Boeing removed its autonomous docking software.

So are you surprised to hear Boeing’s rockets are being built by an unqualified workforce? (Ars Technica)

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It has long been an issue that pain isn’t taken seriously for babies, nonwhite folks, and women. The fact that the CDC is only *just* recommending pain relief for IUD insertions (The Cut) is another reminder that we’re still dealing with these Victorian ideas in the year of our glorb 2024.

Several studies found that doctors underestimate the pain associated with getting an IUD. One study of 200 women found that while most women said the pain was about a 65 on a scale of 100, most physicians ranked it as a 35.

Woof.

It’s been twenty years since the advent of Salad Fingers, and a new episode doesn’t feel the same. It’s not bad or anything. (YouTube) It just got me reflecting on how the different experience of the twenty-years-ago internet changed how it felt to experience Salad Fingers.

Back then, we didn’t have high-speed internet. It still went “wheeee bzzzz badongy dongy dong grrrr” when you got online. If you wanted to watch a Flash video — which Salad Fingers was, back then — you had to be terribly patient. I seem to recall download rates at 5mb/minute, which is boggling nowadays.

Often we’d wait for some mb to download, then watch a few seconds or a minute of the video before it stuck again. That meant having loads of time to ruminate on what strangeness we were seeing. It drew out the experience in an excruciating way. This was also before internet horror took off as it is now (influenced in large part by Salad Fingers!), so the liminal spaces and chaotic Millennial randomness of it was still unfamiliar territory, and you didn’t really know what was going to happen next.

You still don’t know what’s going to happen, but it happens quickly, and you don’t have to devote your attention to it for any length of time. You don’t get immersed in those empty planes and hungry groans.

The episode didn’t do much to me except make me reflective and nostalgic, which is eerie in its way.

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Having all our belongings dependent on apps means that we have a lot of real life objects rendered useless because their ephemeral software on our phones is abandoned by companies. You really, really can’t just use a thing you got until it breaks anymore.

Two recent examples from Ars Technica: Amazon’s bricking its weird expensive security robot. And also, those self-lacing Nike sneakers? Bricked.

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On NPR, a former astronaut insists that the astronauts stranded by Starliner are not abandoned, which is indeed what I’ve been hearing. More detail somehow makes it sound more suspect. They want to be able to certify Starliner for regular use despite its malfunctions, is what they say. They won’t go home until they’re certified. I don’t really understand why they’re eligible for certification *at all* if it’s to the point that they’re stuck on the ISS for a while because the vessel malfunctioned. It really feels like they’re stuck because they want to make sure it’s safe to bring the astronauts home. But my feelings really don’t mean anything, I guess.

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I think we’re all well past The Avengers movie at this point (and MCU at large), but it’s cool to hear that they’ve done a Lakota dub with the original cast. (Reactor Mag) The actors worked with Lakota-speaking coaches to get it right.

Keeping languages alive with popular media is cool no matter how ya slice it. Sixty two Lakota-Dakota speakers got some of that Disney money for the project.

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I’ve heard people saying “plants are the new pets, pets are the new kids,” so it shouldn’t surprise anyone that 1/3 of Millennials would take a pay cut to spend more time with their pets. (Quartz) I bet a good chunk of the other 2/3 just can’t afford a pay cut.

As I amble through my thirties, I understand the drive. Our pets are ephemeral, beautiful things. When you’re young, knowing you’ll have a dog for 8-12 years sounds good, but then 8-12 years pass and it was never enough. Cats can live to be 20, but they usually don’t. Who wants to be at work, making capital for other people, when you’ve got something so lovely at home? Plus, our kitty- and doggy-friends are just happier when we’re home, period.

When you understand pets are family, it really doesn’t sound weird to say that people want more time with their families.

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Record-breaking heat in the United States is taking lives. Four folks in Oregon have died (The Guardian) and a motorcyclist died in Death Valley (also the Guardian). These two articles popped out at me, but I doubt these are the only losses we’re experiencing from the heat.

It’s sad news. I’ve been thinking a lot about how climate change news has changed a lot over the last couple decades, and how they used to make it sound like we’d just hit a wall and the planet would turn into cinder or whatever. Nowadays it’s like, “Yep, the climate is more extreme, and we’re in the process of watching it take lives.”

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Someone died, and many more have been sickened, after eating magic mushroom candy bars. (Ars Technica) The mushrooms themselves are about as safe as any. But it was earlier this year that people got extremely sick (with two deaths) from eating another safe mushroom, morels. To quote myself:

Some of the symptoms sound like what happens when you just eat raw mushrooms. The chitin isn’t digestible by humans. Simply eating raw mushies in volume can cause diarrhea and vomiting like that. But that doesn’t sound like the only factor at hand here. They’re having a hard time figuring out exactly what happened.

Obviously psilocybin and morels aren’t the same thing, but I’m struck by the way that we’re eating these things en masse and the consequences that follow. I feel like humans aren’t taking fungus as seriously as we should? I don’t know the doses involved, but generally speaking, neither of these mushrooms are meant to be bountiful all year round and easily consumed whenever you want. Hallucinogenic mushrooms aren’t candy. Morels are seasonal. I don’t think anyone can safely eat loads of uncooked mushrooms, and even cooked mushrooms should mostly be a small-quantity thing, no matter how delicious.

Consuming with respect won’t necessarily spare you unpleasant side effects, but…you really gotta consume with respect. I feel like that’s missing from the dialogue here.

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Tom Cruise and Doug Liman still discuss making an Edge of Tomorrow sequel. (Variety) It’s a really good movie. I don’t feel a need for a sequel, personally, but I’d absolutely watch the heck out of it. For all his faults and horribleness, Cruise has good taste in sci-fi projects.

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Ozempic et al have been previously linked to severe gastric problems. It has also recently been linked to sudden blindness. (Quartz) The condition is nonarteritic anterior ischemic optic neuropathy (NAION).

The study’s researchers analyzed medical recorders over the past six years from over 16,000 patients in the Boston area.

Of those patients, 710 where diagnosed with type 2 diabetes with 194 being prescribed semaglutide. Of the patients in this cohort that were given semaglutide 17 ended up developing NAION. For comparison, there were only six cases of NAION among the patients who were not prescribed semaglutide. This translated to a slightly over 4% higher risk of diabetic patients taking semaglutide developing NAION.

The risk was even higher for obese patients. In separate cohort of 979 patients with obesity, 361 were prescribed semaglutide. There were 20 patients in this cohort that were given semaglutide and developed NAION. And only 3 patients who were not prescribed semaglutide developed NAION. This indicated a 7.6% higher risk for semaglutide patients.

They haven’t determined causality yet.

This magic drug has spread quickly. They’re projecting that 9% of the population may be taking it by 2035. (Quartz) I worry about how it’s going to impact a population that is taking it so much. Democrats want prices cut so more people can have it. (Quartz) Novo Nordisk is investing $4bn into meeting American demand. (The Guardian) It’s not going anywhere, but are we really sure it’s safe?

I’m delighted to report I’ve ruined Sibling’s life by drawing them into The Boys, an Edgy McEdge show about Bad Superheroes and contemporary American politics. We’re only on the beginning of season 2 together, but they’ve also been sitting in while I watch season 4 week by week, which is weird. It’s so weird going back and forth!

This week’s episode has some material that could be seen as especially dark, since one character just lost a parent and then gets [spoiler’d]. I was wondering how that tone was supposed to be read. I thought it was funny until the character’s breakdown at the end. Welp, I guess the darkest part is that the showrunners think it’s supposed to be funny too.

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I loved this Bright Wall, Dark Room post about Furiosa. I liked the movie but had mixed feelings about the amount of detail it added to a character journey where I felt detail wasn’t necessary. The point they make is this: “Furiosa exists to show us how a drive for revenge can turn into a drive for redemption.” That really made something click for me.

I’m looking forward to watching it again.

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The American president has been cracking down on border crossings, ostensibly to appease the right wing who hates him. He’s been successful. (WaPo) You know who still hates him? The right wing.

Engaging in their cruelty to make them happy is never going to work. It’s intensely frustrating to watch Democratic presidents try this again and again.

One good move is that Biden did pardon military veterans convicted for being gay. (Digby’s Hullaballoo)

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I thought I’d never be That Guy who wallows in nostalgia, but I really do miss old computers so, so much. Apparently I’m not the only one. If you have “$200-ish” you can have a new laptop with a 386 and Windows 3.1 (Ars Technica)

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Sometimes the justice system gets it right. In California, a man who tried to kill his family is going to therapy instead of jail. (The Guardian) This is one of those knee-jerk issues where it’s tempting to say “send him straight to hell,” but I want to believe compassion is truly the better route. I hope the family (who survived) is going to find a way through this trauma too. I don’t think imprisoning the man would help anyone.

But usually, the justice system isn’t right, and it does things like imprisoning a man for four months because he was carrying a Zelda sword around. (WaPo) This one is in the UK, where there have been spates of knife killings recently. I can get why people would be spooked. It nonetheless seems ridiculous to go so far on such a case. Take the tiny sword away and send him home, maybe? I think it was only “sharply pointed” and not actually sharpened.

Amusing to see The Guardian reporting on the US justice system and WaPo reporting on the UK justice system, btw.

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I wondered why the AQI has been so bad in the Reno area lately. It might be thanks to the Thompson Fire in Northern California, which has displaced 16,000 people. (NPR)