It's really incredible that so many people fell for normal companies acting like software start-ups. That anyone thought wool shoes were going to go up in value like a payment app is very funny.

tweety fish@sifu.tweety.fish · 6mo ago

The thing people need to realize about allbirds is that it was a zirp-era startup play based on “what if we just make one kind of shoe” and they never had any ideas past that and everybody who cared cashed out what they could after the SPAC merger so now it’s just… nothing. A shade. A memory.

"The 45-second film, made around 1897, was the first appearance on film of what might be called a robot" HELL. YES.

Lost 19th century film by Méliès discovered at the Library | Timeless

Library conservators recently made a startling discovery in a batch of decaying film reels -- a long-lost 1897 film by early cinema icon George Méliès. The French magician-turned-filmmaker's

blogs.loc.gov

In solidarity with today's ICE OUT OF MINNESOTA blackout, MinnMax is donating $1 to the Immigrant Law Center of Minnesota for every share of this Bluesky post for the next hour.

One of my favorite side projects this year was my story for @technologyreview.com about the history of the Armatron robotic toy. I had one as a kid, and it is a miracle of mechanical engineering. I got to interview its inventor, retired toy designer Hiroyuki Watanabe. ter.li/JKeegan (gift link)

How a 1980s toy robot arm inspired modern robotics

The tasks taken on by the Armatron aren’t so different from the ones AI is tackling today.

ter.li

listen, we gotta live. we have to outlast them. we have to turn their graves into trans inclusive toilets.