In memory of George Romero and the filming of "Night of the Living Dead", an allegory of Vietnam in space, the sleeping aliens, Google as humanity's great confessional, and the oldest pages still online, among many other things. As always, in this week's recommended links.
In memoriam - George A. Romero: "Romero always said he wanted to film an adaptation of I Am Legend, Richard Matheson's science fiction novel. Since that wasn't within his reach, he changed the novel's mutant vampires for the living dead, simply so Matheson couldn't tell him: 'Hey, you stole my idea.' Which he had. When the two met, the first thing Romero did was raise his hands ('As if I were going to hit him,' Matheson recalled) and assure that he hadn't earned a dollar with his successful film. Matheson never held a grudge. He told him: 'Well, as long as you haven't become rich, it's fine.' If Romero wasn't remembered as a plagiarist, it's because he wasn't one. Romero's death has a certain poetry, as he will live on through his dead."
The filming of Night of the Living Dead: "With a budget of $114,000, Night of the Living Dead was a great success that grossed more than $30 million worldwide, instantly becoming a cult film despite receiving numerous criticisms for its explicit 'gore' scenes. It is the directorial debut of George A. Romero, who came to be recognized as the pioneer of zombie films and notably influenced the horror genre. The film was selected by the United States Library of Congress for preservation for being considered 'culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant.' Its success also led to several remakes and five other films directed by Romero. The details inside."
'The Forever War': an allegory of Vietnam in space: "In the history, sending the young to colonize stars and to war was the best the government had thought of to avoid revolutions on Earth. Both colonization and combat occur in brutal conditions. I don't know if it's because of the author's war experience, the fact is that these are tremendously exciting and merciless vignettes. Even the prompter dies. A special point of cruelty of these armed forces is that each soldier is equipped with hypnotic suggestion. They can make him hate at a distance and turn him into an indiscriminate killing machine. A nice and accurate allegory of our media." Speaking of fiction with social content...
Google, the great confessional of humanity: "Stephens-Davidowitz's skeptical nature led him to contrast this information with his favorite testing ground: Google. He started with something as simple as the number of times people search for 'jokes about niggers.' He chose to use the word nigger because it's the most derogatory and offensive way to refer to an African American citizen. He continued testing with phrases like 'I hate niggers' or 'niggers are stupid.' What he found turned his stomach. The number of searches related to this word was comparable to searches related to 'Los Angeles Lakers,' the country's most popular basketball team. 'We are talking about millions of people,' he explains." Where the beast is unleashed: Google's search bar.
Svalbard, Arctic dystopia: "The administration of Svalbard cannot be an economic benefit for Norway, so taxes and fees collected in the territory cannot increase the state's coffers. In other words, Norway cannot charge taxes beyond what is needed for Svalbard's own administration. To avoid the development of a conflict, the prohibition of permanent military bases was established, making it a demilitarized territory. Early environmental awareness was also established: the treaty forces Norway to ensure the environmental preservation of the archipelago. Today, a century later, this treaty still marks Svalbard's future. It constitutes one of the few agreements signed in Paris in 1920 that are still in force."
The future is not what TED talks tell us: "This market of motivating and empty ideas has a massive audience. Some authors have specialized in this type of dissemination that is nothing more than self-help coated with the candy of science. Prestigious authors like Malcolm Gladwell or Parag Khanna generate their discourse from the tricky selection of data (the fallacy of suppression of evidence or cherry picking) and create a mirage of understanding of reality with a sleight of hand laden with voluntarism. A very profitable and quite deceptive trick, since it generates in society the feeling that we have a wonderful future around the corner and forgets that the history of progress does not always move in a straight line." I hate TEDx talks.
The man who survived 60 hours in an underwater cave without sleeping, light, food, and with scarce oxygen reserves: "When Mascaró left, Gràcia took most of his equipment and explored the chamber. It was about 80 meters long and 20 wide, with a space of 12 meters between the water and the ceiling. He realized that the surface water of the lake was drinkable. He also discovered a large flat rock and got out of the water and lay there to rest. Gràcia decided it was better to stay in the dark: two of his three flashlights had stopped working and the third had little battery. 'I only turned it on when I needed to urinate or to go down for water,' he recalls. There wasn't much he could do, just wait in complete darkness, hoping they would come to rescue him." Ugh, what a nightmare.
10 video games you can finish this afternoon: "Today I bring you a selection of ten short games that you can download for free on itch.io for when you have a dead afternoon but little desire to start a game you'll have to devote days to. I chose free games that can be played on both Windows and macOS so no one is left out (although not all can be played on Linux). All these games give the option to donate to the author (something I encourage you to do since they are usually amateurs or developers who are starting out, any support is welcome). As usual in these lists, the selection is based simply on my tastes and I don't doubt that there will be games you may like more or less, but these ten are some of the ones I consider most interesting." To escape for a little while longer.
"The aliens are out there, but they are asleep" - The latest solution to the Fermi Paradox will keep you up at night: "In principle, it would be an intergalactic version of Waiting for Godot (although in this case, Godot would be a temperature that never arrives). But no, according to the authors, in a few trillion years the temperature will drop to a point where it no longer makes sense to wait longer. Therefore, they suggest that it seems reasonable that an advanced civilization can come to the conclusion that the universe is too hot to efficiently use its resources. Better to wait. After all, what are a handful (of trillions) of years?"
The successes and failures of bringing 'Dungeons & Dragons' to video games: "And that something is human interaction. Humans among themselves, not with an artificial intelligence. Companionship, rivalry, and above all, the feeling of building a communal fiction with the ingenuity and imagination of several people is something a machine cannot replicate. Neither with the most fun multiplayer (like the classic Capcom beat-'em-ups inspired by the franchise) nor with the most faithful adaptation of the original rules. It's similar to when a movie adapts a video game: some are faithful to the letter, some to the spirit, and some, very few, to both. There are treacherous ones and despite that, good movies. There are good movies based on bad games and vice versa." Complete report.
Passion for analog photography in the digital age, why is it still alive?: "The passion for film photos not only reaches industry specialists, but also users who want to start in these techniques. This has caused the return of a classic market that was thought dead by sector advances, and in which new specialized stores gradually open their way. This is the case of Sales de Plata, a place in Madrid exclusively dedicated to enthusiasts of film images. "My partner, Cristóbal, started it, creating a blog where he talked about the analog cameras he was buying," explains Marta Arquero, store administrator, to eldiario.es. Thus, after noticing the growing public interest, "he realized that there was a gap in the Spanish market for a space exclusively dedicated to chemical photography," adds Arquero." Long live the romantics!
The 13 oldest pages on the Internet that still work today: "The Internet already has its own fossils. Here are some of them: websites from the mid-90s that still work. One of them even keeps getting updated!" And that's all the description the author wrote before listing the sites. I'm not going to extend it. Good selection, though.
Videos: The cat that hugs the tree, cat and cow super friends, flying on the same flight as a Nigerian king, inside a beaver's house, sudden flood, dancing with a robot, small tornado, dog saves a deer, the home of the future in 1999, kittens playing hide and seek, taking refuge from the city in the city itself, Zelda Metal Medley, how hummingbirds fly, an airbag inside a microwave, storm darkens the day completely, NASA videos, boy doesn't know how to finish race, drone crashed by toilet paper, the not-so-impossible puzzle, kids who won a toy in those claw machines, the deadly trap of the antlion, the cost of free parking in the US, horse vs toy pony, 10,000 Jedi vs 40,000 Spartans, 'Sweet Child O' Mine' on piano, if you can't walk and text..., boat surfing, cat that carries its bed up the stairs because it likes to sleep upstairs.
Galleries: The Complete Collection of Galaxy Magazine, airline food from 1950 to 1980, the mystery of the melted duck, twisted wooden figures, badly drawn cats, this lady's cosplay is awesome, animal crossbreeds, portraits of desolate places, photographically rescuing animals on the verge of disappearance, and the scariest "face swaps on the web".
This week on NeoTeo: RGB-Pi connects your Raspberry to a SCART TV, an old intercom with Google Voice, a Raspberry Pi 3 as a security camera, the silicon lottery, what Netflix "loses" because you share your password, how much artists earn from streaming services, the best sites for making 3D paper toys, the four types of Facebook users, why the internet cuts out, Nikola Tesla's eugenic ideas, a pink so pink you can't see it correctly, the reason cats' eyes glow in the dark, chilling face swaps, tardigrades will be the last creatures on Earth, Kingsman: The Golden Circle, Blade Runner 2049, Full Metal Alchemist (the movie), Ataribox, and the 10 most unusual devices that run Doom.
The end, c'est fini, chau chau.
