[A Pleasurable Headache] almost wantonly unreadable
Links, links, nothing but the links.
Good Luck Finding a Stranger, More Interesting Game in 2021 Than 'Cruelty Squad'
This sounds ridiculous, hard to parse and incredibly interesting all at the same time.
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Sonic the Hedgehog (Mega Drive)
<https://superchartisland.com/smcp-sonic-the-hedgehog-mega-drive/>
Sonic, speed and modern life.
"Sonic’s fixation is Dr. Eggman/Robotnik’s evil plan, and so he’s traversing zones at high speeds to get to the end of this very important thing, that if he finishes will improve his life and the lives of the whole world, and everything will seem fresh and new once he does the dishes… but hold up what’s all this bullshit in his way? Spiky caterpillars and wikipedia pages on the history of New York’s water supply? Crab hazards and unreturned Tinder messages? I’ve dropped all my gold rings in the lava and I’m in my overdraft? Again?!"
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Twenty Years Ago, the Saudi Government Got Away With the Crime of the Century
<https://jacobinmag.com/2021/09/9-11-attacks-saudi-arabia-government-ties-cover-up-war-on-terror/>
"Since the release in 2016 of the redacted “twenty-eight pages” of the 9/11 Commission report George Bush had tried to keep secret, Saudi government culpability for the attack has gone from mere smoke to a wildfire. We [found out](https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2016/07/read-28-declassified-pages-about-potential-saudi-involvement-911/) that, in 1999, two Saudi nationals who claimed their tickets from Phoenix to Washington had been paid for by the Saudi Embassy they were traveling to, and who the FBI later determined had “connections to terrorism,” did a “dry run” for the attacks, forcing their plane to make an emergency landing because of their suspicious behavior."
Also see this piece over at The Intercept.
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A Brief History of Giallo Fiction and the Italian Anti-Detective Novel
<https://crimereads.com/a-brief-history-of-giallo-fiction-and-the-italian-anti-detective-novel/>
"Taking a cue from his predecessor, Sciascia breaks from the classic tenets of crime fiction. He refuses to provide the reader with a neat resolution and further upsets the formula of the genre by almost making a mockery of the exercise of reason. Laurana’s tactics are intentionally stereotypical and shopworn. The author makes it a point to let the reader know that the mystery is somewhat solved in spite of Laurana’s best efforts. Moreover, Sciascia ingeniously subverts the very idea of suspense. The reader, half-way through the novel, is able to guess who the culprit is. This lack of suspense gives way to another kind of suspense as the reader anxiously awaits to see where Laurana’s childish curiosity will lead in the end. Contrary to the reader’s expectations—in To Each His Own, the uncovering of truth is not in the least restorative; quite the opposite, it proves to be a pointless exercise, leading nowhere."
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‘Aggressively, almost wantonly unreadable’—Richard Poplak reviews Jordan B Peterson’s new book Beyond Order: 12 More Rules For Life
Always here for dunks on Doctor Lobster.
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From Micro to Macro: How Counter-COVID Influencers Evade Moderation
<https://www.logically.ai/articles/how-counter-covid-influencers-evade-moderation>
An interesting piece on how anti-Covid and anti-vaccine 'micro influencers' dodge moderation on platforms like Facebook. Spoiler: it's Telegram groups where they are free to espouse even more extreme and outlandish theories with no-one to call bullshit on their madness.
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88 Tactical, Militarized Police, and a Looming Coup in Brazil
<https://seeingrednebraska.com/fascism/88-tactical-militarized-police-and-a-looming-coup-in-brazil/>
This is a fantastic bit of local journalism but absolutely terrifying in its ramifications and suggestion.
The article suggests that an increasingly unpopular Bolsanaro has close-knit links with a company in Nebraska that has trained law enforcement personnel in the US, and Bolsanaro loyalists (including members of his family).
The same group, 88 Tactical, also has links to the well known Gracie family.
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OK, Seriously
<https://www.cjr.org/special_report/ok-seriously-teen-vogue-mccammond-wintour.php>
An excellent piece over at CJR on the changes afoot at Teen Vogue and the tensions that come with extolling the virtues of socialism and Marxism to young girls whilst simultaneously selling shit to them.
"But what was overlooked, amid the magazine’s ideological transition, were the many ways in which the politics of its fashion coverage could be just as controversial as the politics section itself—_Teen Vogue_ would call in broad terms for capitalism to be dismantled without anyone batting an eye, yet the magazine placed less emphasis on reporting that scrutinized the labor conditions of garment workers. The same tension could frequently be found in Duca’s writing; the spectacle around her “gaslighting” piece belied the fact that her takes (obvious at best, reductive at worst) were actually behind the times. (“Duca exemplifies a trend typical in contemporary feminist thinking: the belief that any woman in power must be a good woman,” as Haley Mlotek wrote in a review of Duca’s book.) The superficiality of the pussy-hat moment was already being drowned out by Teen Vogue’s sharpening political voice."
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Lebanon as We Once Knew It Is Gone
<https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/03/opinion/lebanon-economy.html>
An absolutely devastating and soul-destroying piece on the current status of Lebanon, a country coming apart at the seams since the infamous port explosion last August.
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Finally, I enjoyed this bit of web design to show how broken and bloated the modern web page is.
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I'm off to beat the Green Hill Zone in record time. See you in two!