Weekend Reads (Mar 5): Responding to Russia, Volodymyr Zelensky, Bandcamp, Comic Sans, Halo
Recommended weekend reading material for March 5, 2022.
Every week, I compile a list of interesting and thought-provoking articles to offer you some enjoyable weekend reading material.
The world’s response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has been swift, decisive, and diverse, spanning the worlds of politics and economics as well as technology, pop culture, entertainment, and sports. For example:
Facebook and Instagram have announced a crackdown on content from accounts tied to the Russian government. Twitter is flagging tweets coming from Russia state-affiliated sources. YouTube has blocked Russian news channels in Europe. (In response, Russia has blocked Facebook and Twitter as part of their crackdown on dissent.)
Apple is suspending the sale of physical products in Russia. They’ve also placed limitations on Apple Pay for Russian customers, pulled Russian news apps from the App Store for non-Russian users, and turned off Ukrainian traffic information in Apple Maps.
Disney, Sony, Warner Bros. and Paramount have pulled upcoming releases from Russian theaters, including Turning Red, The Batman, and Sonic the Hedgehog 2.
Netflix has paused all Russian productions and acquisitions. According to Variety, the streaming service had four Russian titles in the works.
The Cannes Film Festival, which opens on May 17, will ban Russian delegations and anyone associated with the Russian government “unless the Russian invasion ends with conditions acceptable to Ukraine.”
Video game developer CD Projekt Group (Cyberpunk 2077, The Witcher series) is stopping all Russian sales. Meanwhile, at least one tabletop game publisher has severed their ties with Russia.
Russian athletes have been barred from competing internationally in soccer, hockey, and ice skating. (That last one feels particularly apropos given the controversy surrounding Russian ice skating at the 2022 Winter Olympics.)
There’s little doubt that we’ll see even more announcements like these in the days and weeks to come, especially as Russia has, to date, shown zero signs of backing down or retreating.
The response to Russia’s invasion has also revealed how warfare is changing in the social media age. Various internet sleuths have taken to posting the location of yachts and airplanes belonging to Russian oligarchs, presumably to shame them and highlight their condition compared to that of the average Russian. Meanwhile, others have been tweeting urban warfare tips and tricks. Via Morning Brew.
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky has emerged as an improbable hero as he leads his country through the invasion, and his popularity reveals that we are “desperately starved for heroism,” writes K. B. Hoyle.
[T]he unlikely war-time president of Ukraine has captured the heart of the world for one particular reason: he is what a hero should be, and we are overwhelmed to find that a man like him lives and breathes in the real world today. He’s like someone who has stepped out of a storybook or off a movie screen. We love him for his goodness, bravery, and self-sacrifice. And he causes us all to feel — maybe more than anything else — solidarity with the Ukrainians in their plight.
David French wrote something similar in his most recent Sunday newsletter.
[E]xtraordinary times are also when ordinary men can become heroes. We’ve become accustomed to dealing with brand-managed politicians — men and women who sometimes act more like messaging machines than leaders or legislators. We’re just as accustomed to moral cowardice. Politicians fold to Twitter mobs. They say one thing in green rooms and another thing on television because they’re terrified of the activist base, or mean words from Mar-a-Lago.
I really, really hope that you’re not using one of these passwords. But if you are, you should probably change it ASAP.
Your go-to password might be easier to guess than you think.
That’s according to a new report from mobile security firm Lookout, which recently published a list of the 20 passwords most commonly found in leaked account information on the dark web. The list ranges from simple number and letter sequences like “123456” and “Qwerty” to easily typed phrases like “Iloveyou.”
I’d like to believe that in the year of our Lord, 2022, nobody is actually using “Password” as their password, but here we are. 🤷♂️
Nelson Minar lost nine years’ worth of information when Goodreads “lost” his account.
Goodreads lost my entire account last week. Nine years as a user, some 600 books and 250 carefully written reviews all deleted and unrecoverable. Their support has not been helpful. In 35 years of being online I’ve never encountered a company with such callous disregard for their users’ data.
Via Kottke. Cloud services have become as ubiquitous and invisible as public utilities. Just as we expect the water to flow when we turn the faucet, or the lights to come on when we flip a switch, we never give a second thought to services like Goodreads, Gmail, etc. We just expect them to be available all the time.
Minar’s post is a good reminder that that’s not always the case, and to consider alternates or backups for truly important services.
Bandcamp (aka, my favorite place to buy music online) is joining Epic Games, the creators of Fortnite and the Unreal game engine.
Bandcamp will keep operating as a standalone marketplace and music community, and I will continue to lead our team. The products and services you depend on aren’t going anywhere, we’ll continue to build Bandcamp around our artists-first revenue model (where artists net an average of 82% of every sale), you’ll still have the same control over how you offer your music, Bandcamp Fridays will continue as planned, and the Daily will keep highlighting the diverse, amazing music on the site. However, behind the scenes we’re working with Epic to expand internationally and push development forward across Bandcamp, from basics like our album pages, mobile apps, merch tools, payment system, and search and discovery features, to newer initiatives like our vinyl pressing and live streaming services.
This is big news, and completely unexpected. Bandcamp has been profitable for years now, so I wonder what led them to merge with a giant tech company like Epic. I do trust Bandcamp but I’m always leery of mergers like this. I sincerely hope their identity and services remain untouched.
Related: Nick Heer considers the announcement in light of Epic’s ongoing feud with Apple and Google. The Future of Music Coalition tweeted out some helpful context as well as a list of good questions and things to keep in mind.
The Gizmodo Media Group Union, which includes writers for Jezebel, The Root, and Gizmodo, have gone on strike.
The union’s contract expired Monday night, and workers claim that G/O Media has tried to stall negotiations. They are asking for trans-inclusive health care coverage, higher salaries, work-from-home flexibility, additional parental leave, caps on health care costs, a “robust diversity hiring initiative” and protection against forced relocations.
The strike comes after several senior staff members at The A.V. Club, which is also owned by G/O Media Inc., quit after being told they needed to move to Los Angeles without any cost-of-living adjustments.
In totally unrelated related news, Great Hill Partners, the private equity firm that owns G/O Media Inc., recently raised $4.65 billion for its investment fund, which targets software, digital commerce, financial technology, healthcare, and digital infrastructure companies.
When Steven D. Greydanus publishes something, I always read and recommend it. In light of yet another Batman film, Greydanus considers the legacy of cinematic caped crusaders and what they say about our society.
These questions recur partly because they resonate beyond the imaginary worlds of Zorro and Batman. To what extent can we trust our social institutions or our ruling elites? To what extent can we trust ordinary people to advocate for the common good? Is society better served by democratic participation or by strong leadership? What are the obligations of the very wealthy and powerful to the common good? We don’t look to comic-book movies to answer these questions for us, but their varying answers tell us something about ourselves and the times in which they were made.
Related: Critics weigh in on The Batman.
Finally, Eric Bailey has something to say to those dunking on Comic Sans.
Let me be clear: disdain for Comic Sans usage is both elitist and ableist. Usually, criticism on Comic Sans hatred stops here. I’d like to take it one step further.
Preventing legibility is an access barrier, yes. There is also another important aspect to consider: infantilization.
Via Frontend Focus.
From the Blog
Given that Halo is arguably my favorite video game franchise, I had to write something after recently completing — and obsessing over — Halo Infinite’s campaign. I discuss what’s good about the campaign and what’s not so good, and what might be awaiting the Master Chief in his future adventures.
While that’s a bit disorienting at times, it also means that Halo Infinite has potentially freed the franchise from the “baggage” of previous games. The future’s finally wide open for Halo, even more so than at the end of Halo 3. Whether 343 Industries will be able to actually do something with this potential (e.g., deliver something interesting with the Endless in future installments) obviously remains to be seen, but I look forward to returning to Zeta Halo and finding out for myself.
Prior to Halo Infinite’s release last December, I wrote several posts ranking the various Halo campaigns, exploring the franchise’s dense and convoluted mythology, and revisiting its predecessor.
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