Leftovers & Links #53

I had to work at the office this Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, instead of from home. The horror, the horror.

At work, my printer is on one side of the room, and I’m on the other. There’s a wall in the middle, so to get to the printer I can either walk to the left, which takes me through a hallway, or walk to the right, which takes me past two co-workers.

I always, always walk to the left and through the hallway. Less chance of human interaction, don’t you see.

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Had a conversation with one of the temps yesterday, about her last job, with Disney. She says she answered phones for theme park tickets and reservations, and that she was required to say “Have a magical day” at the end of every phone conversation. That’s fairly typical tyranny, but her second anecdote caught my attention:

She was working from home, here in Wisconsin, where the weather is often quite different from Florida. If anyone asked, though, she was supposed to say that she was working in Florida, and she could even talk about the weather, based on current Florida weather reports — provided by Disney for exactly this scenario.

What an amazingly petty thing Disney forces employees to lie about.

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Unmasking the most viral page on Facebook.

Quote: Facebook flipped a switch, favoring comments and reactions over shares, and suddenly a food blogger from Utah became the largest publisher in the country, if not the world.

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Police can’t demand you reveal your phone passcode and then tell a jury you refused.

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The Blackfoot language is imperiled, as more and more young natives speak only English, so they’ve filmed a movie in Blackfoot. Seems like a brilliant idea to me, but it won’t be much help if the movie sucks. It’s Sooyii (Creatures), and the preview has me intrigued and goosebumped.

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Look, I approve of this wholeheartedly — a memorial bench, to honor a man killed by random gunfire — but since America won’t do anything about the endless gun violence, can everyone who’s killed in a nonsensical drive-by shooting have a memorial bench, please?

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Blade Runner, as a TV series?

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This is the brightest idea I’ve heard for combating climate change:

Quote: City governments should purchase an electronic bicycle for every resident over the age of 15 who wants one. They should also shut down a significant number of streets to be used only by bicycles and a small number of speed-regulated, municipal electric vehicles.

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Lobsters and crabs are sentient beings and shouldn't be boiled alive, UK report says.

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In this black-and-white interview from 1975, Tim Curry was a little-known actor, promoting his then-current low-budget movie, Rocky Horror Picture Show. He was the sweet transvestite, you might remember. The movie, of course, is awesome in every way, but it flopped in its first release, before gradually making its fame as the perennial midnight movie.

It’s amusing how un-enthused Curry seems to be about it. “I was hesitant in that if it worked, it might be a difficult image to shake off.”

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Historical figures brought to life through old photos touched up with high-tech and animation. My favorites are Nikola Tesla smiling (5:44) and doomed grand dutchess (6:54).

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OK, let me get cranky for a moment. I saw this graphic somewhere a while back on the NASA website, and it’s undeniably cool in concept, but I didn’t post or link it because it mildly annoyed me. What I know about graphic design is barely more than nothing, but even enlarging the image on my fairly huge monitor, small beige text on a dull blue background remains difficult to read.

There's really nothing wrong with black text on a white background.

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Sorry, one more moment of crankiness. I’m a member of a credit union because All Banks Are Evil, and in an email yesterday they announced that they’re merging/being acquired by some other credit union. Sigh.

In the small print at the bottom of the announcement, they’re required by law “to disclose certain increases in compensation that any of the merging credit union’s officials or the five most highly compensated employees have received or will receive in connection with the merger.” Which is where I learned that the President of my credit union will be paid $1,239,112 in severance as she retires, to make way for the other credit union’s President to take over.

Since it’s a credit union, they need a majority vote of all members. I'm sure they'll get it, but I've already mailed in my ballot, voting no, and I’m looking for a new credit union.

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Mystery links — Like life itself, there’s no knowing where you’re going:

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Sing along with Doug:
Your Mind Is On Vacation, by Mose Allison
Sincere tip 'o the hat:
BoingBoing
Captain Hampockets
Follow Me Here
Hyperallergic
LiarTownUSA
Messy Nessy Chick
National Zero
Ran Prieur
Vintage Everyday
Voenix Rising
EXTRA SPECIAL THANKS:
Becky Jo
Name Withheld
Dave S.
"Stay hungry. Stay foolish."
11/24/2021
Leftovers & Links