>> Yankovic’s request for “Black or White” was rejected because Jackson wanted to preserve the message of the song, and the request to do a “Live or Let Die” parody (“Chicken Pot Pie”) was turned down because of McCartney’s long-time vegetarian status. https://www.saturdayeveningpost.com/2021/02/40-years-of-weird-al-yankovics-biggest-moments/

"This would be more challenging than mastering a game like Go or poker because just about anything that can be imagined can happen in a game."
https://www.wired.com/story/forget-chess-real-challenge-teaching-ai-play-dandd/

Flim is a smart database of keyword-searchable movie screenshots. https://beta.flim.ai/

"If you’ve ever visited a Fry’s anytime in the past two to three years, none of this will come as a surprise." https://www.theverge.com/circuitbreaker/2021/2/24/22298616/frys-electronics-going-out-of-business

"One explanation given for why TikTok is an ideal medium for chanties is that the songs are meant to be sung in unison, and the app includes a feature that allows one user to layer their voice on top of another's recording."
https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/chantey-shanty-sailor-song-word-history-spelling

In a recent paper, Gott began considering "envelope polyhedra," with regular shapes glued together back-to-back, which led to the breakthrough idea for the double-sided map.
https://phys.org/news/2021-02-astrophysicists-re-imagine-world-distorted-radically.html

"The trouble with programmers is that you can never tell what a programmer is doing until it’s too late."~ Seymour Cray

Strangers are mailing each other snacks to remind them of home. https://www.theguardian.com/food/2021/feb/17/like-penpals-but-with-snacks-unable-to-travel-strangers-mail-each-other-tastes-of-home

Reminder: "The U.S. was famously backfooted by Sputnik, and the Soviets were the first to put a human in space. But when the massive engine of U.S. science, industry, and government ramped up, there was no stopping it." https://noahpinion.substack.com/p/the-us-vaccine-rollout-is-world-beating

If you enjoy retro-tech art, you might like to check out ChipScape artworks https://chipscapes.com/collections/the-intel-4004-the-first-microprocessor-50th-anniversary

Blessed are the scene makers https://www.bbc.co.uk/archive/terry_gilliam_cutout_animation/zbqdcqt

"Disagreement is a way of thinking, perhaps the best one we have, critical to the health of any shared enterprise, from marriage to business to democracy." #longread https://www.theguardian.com/society/2021/feb/16/how-to-have-better-arguments-social-media-politics-conflict

"Understanding computer code seems to be its own thing. It's not the same as language, and it's not the same as math and logic.”
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/12/201215131236.htm

10 minutes of pets interrupting newscasters who are trying to work from home.
I laughed so hard that I cried. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RP0yrfmn5Pc

On Elizabeth Barrett Browning, who was forced to live her life in isolation, and how to cope with living in lockdown. https://www.theguardian.com/books/2021/feb/15/what-we-can-learn-from-elizabeth-barrett-brownings-years-in-lockdown

Declassified spacecrafts and orbital weapons of the USSR https://www.xissufotoday.space/2018/04/declassified-spacecrafts-and-orbital.html

TIL that Josephine Baker was a Résistance fighter, spying for France. She was an ideal candidate, as her work kept her traveling and took her to rarified air where she could pass along sensitive information, often through codes in her sheet music. https://us.france.fr/en/dordogne-valley/article/josephine-baker-chateau-des-milandes

Hive mind: At some point, many people will return to office life, at least part time. How do you think that'll affect work behavior and the tools for it (Slack, Zoom, etc.). What product features would you hope the vendors would add in preparation for that eventuality?
[Note, this isn't meant for discussion of "I'm never going back!" Looking for input for soon-to-be-hybrid teams.]

Turns out, a surprising number of crime-writing careers begin during maternity leave. https://crimereads.com/maternity-leave-noir/