CATEGORIES

The Puppet Masters - Compulsion, complicity, and the art of Bunraku.
The New Yorker

The Puppet Masters - Compulsion, complicity, and the art of Bunraku.

The National Bunraku Theatre, in New York recently for the first time in more than thirty years, presented an evening of suicides. The performance, at the Japan Society, consisted of excerpts from two of the company’s most celebrated productions. In the Fire Watchtower scene from “The Greengrocer’s Daughter,” by Suga Sensuke and Matsuda Wakichi, from 1773, the titular character sacrifices herself to save a temple page boy she loves. In a scene from “The Love Suicides at Sonezaki,” by Chikamatsu Monzaemon, from 1703, two lovers are driven to take their own lives. Both plays were inspired by real events, and Chikamatsu’s was followed by a wave of double suicides that led to a ban on further performances. This mirroring of life and art is all the more astonishing given the fact that the actors are not people but puppets.

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6 mins  |
November 04, 2024
The Convert - The sudden rise of J. D. Vance has transfixed conservative élites. Is he the future of Trumpism?
The New Yorker

The Convert - The sudden rise of J. D. Vance has transfixed conservative élites. Is he the future of Trumpism?

Vance’s selection as Trump’s running mate had punctuated an astounding rise. Born in the small manufacturing city of Middletown, Ohio, he was raised by a drug-addicted mother and his beloved Appalachian-born grandmother, Mamaw. He worked his way up through storied American institutions: the Marine Corps, Yale Law School, Silicon Valley. “Hillbilly Elegy,” the best-selling memoir Vance published in 2016, made him famous, and his denunciations of Trump as “cultural heroin” for the white working class even more so. A few years later, he was a senator from Ohio, the Republican Party’s most effective spokesman for Trumpism as an ideology, and—both improbably and inevitably—the VicePresidential nominee. “If you think about where he came from and where he is, at forty years old,” the conservative analyst Yuval Levin, a Vance ally, said, “J.D. is the single most successful member of his generation in American politics.”

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10+ mins  |
November 04, 2024
TAKE ME HOME
The New Yorker

TAKE ME HOME

The filmmaker Mati Diop turns her gaze on plundered art.

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10+ mins  |
November 04, 2024
THE BIG DEAL
The New Yorker

THE BIG DEAL

Joe Biden's economic policies are starting to transform America. Will anyone notice?

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10+ mins  |
November 04, 2024
EACH MORTAL THING
The New Yorker

EACH MORTAL THING

What other creatures understand about death.

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10+ mins  |
November 04, 2024
THE LAST MILE
The New Yorker

THE LAST MILE

The aid workers who risk their lives to bring relief to Gaza.

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10+ mins  |
November 04, 2024
A PIECE OF HER MIND
The New Yorker

A PIECE OF HER MIND

Does the Enlightenment’s great female intellect need rescuing?

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10+ mins  |
November 04, 2024
SONGS OF WAR
The New Yorker

SONGS OF WAR

Early on in “Blitz,” Rita Hanway (Saoirse Ronan), a London factory worker, puts her nine-year-old son, George (Elliott Heffernan), aboard a train. Rather, George puts himself aboard; he twists angrily free of his mother’s grasp—“I hate you!” he cries—and tears off down the platform.

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6 mins  |
November 04, 2024
From the Wilderness
The New Yorker

From the Wilderness

One morning in the rainy season, I went to bed at 6 a.m. after working all night and was on the verge of falling asleep when I was startled by the sound of my father’s voice coming through the air-conditioner next to my bed.

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10+ mins  |
November 04, 2024
STAR-CROSSED
The New Yorker

STAR-CROSSED

“Sunset Blud.” and Romeo Juliet,” on Broadway.

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5 mins  |
November 04, 2024
You Are Going to Die - Oliver Burkeman has become an unlikely self-help guru by reminding everyone of their mortality.
The Atlantic

You Are Going to Die - Oliver Burkeman has become an unlikely self-help guru by reminding everyone of their mortality.

"The average human lifespan," Oliver Burkeman begins his 2021 megabest seller, Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals, "is absurdly, terrifyingly, insultingly short." In that relatively brief period, he does not want you to maximize your output at work or optimize your leisure activities for supreme enjoyment. He does not want you to wake up at 5 a.m. or block out your schedule in a strictly labeled timeline.

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10+ mins  |
November 2024
Catching the Carjackers - On the road with an elite police unit as it combats a crime wave
The Atlantic

Catching the Carjackers - On the road with an elite police unit as it combats a crime wave

On August 7, 2022, Shantise Summers arrived home from a night out with friends around 2:40 a.m. As she walked from her car toward her apartment in Oxon Hill, a Maryland neighborhood just southeast of Washington, D.C., she heard footsteps behind her. She turned and saw two men in ski masks. One put a gun to her face; she could feel the metal pressing against her chin. He demanded her phone, wallet, keys, and Apple Watch. She quickly handed them over, and they drove off in her 2019 Honda Accord.

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10+ mins  |
November 2024
Washington's Nightmare - Donald Trump is the tyrant the first president feared.
The Atlantic

Washington's Nightmare - Donald Trump is the tyrant the first president feared.

Last November, during a symposium at Mount Vernon on democracy, John Kelly, the retired Marine Corps general who served as Donald Trump's second chief of staff, spoke about George Washington's historic accomplishments— his leadership and victory in the Revolutionary War, his vision of what an American president should be. And then Kelly offered a simple, three-word summary of Washington's most important contribution to the nation he liberated.

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10+ mins  |
November 2024
The Elite College Students Who Can't Read Books - To read a book in college, it helps to have read a book in high school.
The Atlantic

The Elite College Students Who Can't Read Books - To read a book in college, it helps to have read a book in high school.

Nicholas Dames has taught Literature Humanities, Columbia University's required greatbooks course, since 1988. He loves the job, but it has changed. Over the past decade, students have become overwhelmed by the reading, College kids have never read everything they're assigned, of course, but this feels different. Dames's students now seem bewildered by the thought of finishing multiple books a semester. His colleagues have noticed the same problem.

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9 mins  |
November 2024
The Most Remote Place in the World - Point Nemo is Earth's official "middle of nowhere." A lot seems to be going on there.
The Atlantic

The Most Remote Place in the World - Point Nemo is Earth's official "middle of nowhere." A lot seems to be going on there.

It’s called the “longest-swim problem”: If you had to drop someone at the place in the ocean farthest from any speck of land—the remotest spot on Earth—where would that place be? The answer, proposed only a few decades ago, is a location in the South Pacific with the coordinates 48 52.5291ᤩS 123 23.5116ᤩW: the “oceanic point of inaccessibility,” to use the formal name. It doesn’t get many visitors. But one morning last year, I met several people who had just come from there.

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10+ mins  |
November 2024
LoRaWAN Goes the Distance at Low Power
Circuit Cellar

LoRaWAN Goes the Distance at Low Power

IoT’s Versatile Protocol for Long-Range, Wide-Area Connectivity

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10+ mins  |
November 2024
No Blues with Bluetooth!
Circuit Cellar

No Blues with Bluetooth!

Part 6: Bluetooth Cybersecurity Basics

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10+ mins  |
November 2024
Industrial Computers Boost Machine Vision Systems
Circuit Cellar

Industrial Computers Boost Machine Vision Systems

GPU and CPU Performance Drive Rugged Industrial Platforms

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6 mins  |
November 2024
Datasheet: Power Up With DC-DC Converters
Circuit Cellar

Datasheet: Power Up With DC-DC Converters

Application Types Drive Parameters Beyond Efficiency and Density

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3 mins  |
November 2024
As a 'Matter of Fact
Circuit Cellar

As a 'Matter of Fact

Inside atest Home Control Consolidation Attempt via Google Home and Matter-over-Thread

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10+ mins  |
November 2024
Entertainment On Wheels
Circuit Cellar

Entertainment On Wheels

In-Dash Panels Control Head Units, Multiple Displays, Cameras and Sensors

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10+ mins  |
November 2024
Catching Lightning in an IMU
Circuit Cellar

Catching Lightning in an IMU

Simulating Diffusion-Limited Aggregation with a Raspberry PI RP2040 MCU

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10+ mins  |
November 2024
D&D Die Roller with Raspberry PI RP2040
Circuit Cellar

D&D Die Roller with Raspberry PI RP2040

Fantastical Project Built with MCU TFT Display and LVGL Graphics

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10+ mins  |
November 2024
Microchip Makes it Easier to Build Sophisticated GUIs for MPLAB Harmony v3 and Linux Environments
Circuit Cellar

Microchip Makes it Easier to Build Sophisticated GUIs for MPLAB Harmony v3 and Linux Environments

Designers are incorporating Graphical User Interfaces, or GUIs, into more electronic devices to enhance the user experience by providing intuitive and visually appealing interactions with today's modern applications.

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1 min  |
November 2024
Infineon Introduces Industry's First 20 Gbps Universal USB Peripheral Controller
Circuit Cellar

Infineon Introduces Industry's First 20 Gbps Universal USB Peripheral Controller

Infineon Technologies announced the addition of the EZUSBTM FX20 programmable USB peripheral controller to its EZ-USB product family.

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1 min  |
November 2024
Using Amazon Alexa to Control Custom IoT Gadgets
Circuit Cellar

Using Amazon Alexa to Control Custom IoT Gadgets

Integrating Voice Recognition for Smart Home Projects

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10+ mins  |
November 2024
KUWAIT BANS 'CALL OF DUTY: BLACK OPS 6' VIDEO GAME, LIKELY OVER IT FEATURING SADDAM HUSSEIN IN 1990S
Techlife News

KUWAIT BANS 'CALL OF DUTY: BLACK OPS 6' VIDEO GAME, LIKELY OVER IT FEATURING SADDAM HUSSEIN IN 1990S

The tiny Mideast nation of Kuwait has banned the release of the video game “Call of Duty: Black Ops 6,” which features the late Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein and is set in part in the 1990s Gulf War.

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1 min  |
October 26, 2024
BIG OFFSHORE WIND PROJECT PROPOSED FOR NEW YORK AS OTHER SITES ARE EVALUATED IN 3 STATES
Techlife News

BIG OFFSHORE WIND PROJECT PROPOSED FOR NEW YORK AS OTHER SITES ARE EVALUATED IN 3 STATES

Offshore wind energy projects in New York, New Jersey and Maryland are moving forward, as federal regulators examine the proposals and opponents escalate their legal challenges to the work.

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2 mins  |
October 26, 2024
PELOTON PLANS TO SELL ITS DELUXE STATIONARY BIKE AT COSTCO TO REACH HOLIDAY SHOPPERS
Techlife News

PELOTON PLANS TO SELL ITS DELUXE STATIONARY BIKE AT COSTCO TO REACH HOLIDAY SHOPPERS

Peloton plans to sell its deluxe stationary bike at Costco this holiday season as the struggling connected-exercise company seeks to broaden its customer base.

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2 mins  |
October 26, 2024
LOCAL NEWS SOURCES ARE STILL DRYING UP, BUT THERE'S GROWTH IN DIGITAL SITES IN METRO AREAS
Techlife News

LOCAL NEWS SOURCES ARE STILL DRYING UP, BUT THERE'S GROWTH IN DIGITAL SITES IN METRO AREAS

Newspapers in the United States closed at the rate of more than two per week during 2023, but a burst of activity among digital entrepreneurs illustrated some tiny shoots of growth in what has become a desert-like climate for local news.

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2 mins  |
October 26, 2024