Incidental Comics
Sunday, October 31, 2021
Saturday, October 30, 2021
Friday, October 29, 2021
Facebook has ruined our reality, now it’s coming for the metaverse too, Imogen West-Knights
After 17 years, billions of dollars in profit and some minor controversies involving the erosion of world democracy, Facebook has changed its name.
From now on, the parent company will be known as Meta, to reflect the company’s shift in focus to the next digital frontier: the metaverse (or virtual reality to non-nerds).
Facebook knows that our associations with it are less than favourable these days.
The Wikipedia page “Criticism of Facebook” has a forbiddingly long contents list, including entries on tax avoidance and copyright violation, right through to traumatising its employees and allowing the publication of content that denies various genocides.
Founder Mark Zuckerberg and his company have been busy trying to revamp its image, particularly in the wake of the platform’s Cambridge Analytica scandal. This renaming probably demonstrates their awareness that the whole thing has become toxic – that making noises, as they have been lately, about factchecking posts and shutting down sources of disinformation isn’t going to cut it PR-wise.
There is a long tradition of companies renaming themselves after a scandal.
Facebook seems to want a slice of that pie.
Mark Zuckerberg Changes Name to Mother Teresa
Mark Zuckerberg has legally changed his name to Mother Teresa, Mother Teresa confirmed today.
In an official statement, Mother Teresa said that he had changed his name to better reflect his mission of charity and kindness.
“The name ‘Mark Zuckerberg’ did not accurately describe my function: to be a force for good, spreading love and kindness throughout the metaverse,” he said.
Mother Teresa admitted that it might be difficult for some Meta employees to get used to his new name, but he said that he would give them until the end of October to do so.
After that, he said, any employee who refers to him as Mark Zuckerberg will be immediately “expelled from the metaverse.”
“Sometimes you have to be cruel to be kind,” Mother Teresa said.
Dog Halloween Costumes That Dogs Would Find Scary
Self-reflection, and, soon, a sudden wave of higher consciousness, bringing with it all the existential dread that comes with a greater understanding of the self. A glimpse at mortality and one’s fleeting presence on Earth, which, too, will eventually be erased and brought to meaninglessness by the inevitable death of the sun. All this, but seven times faster than for humans.
By Colin Stokes and Ellis Rosen
Wednesday, October 27, 2021
A moose crashes a hangout and doesn't want to leave
According to Storyful, the YouTube channel that posted the video, none of the guys had ever seen this moose before, but he turned out to be a clingy guest that hung around for the entire weekend.
Donnie Darko at 20
A 20th anniversary is an odd one for Donnie Darko to celebrate: if any film should be granted eternal teenagedom, Kelly’s vastly ambitious debut feature is it.
Monday, October 25, 2021
Union Square Art Installation Honors George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and John Lewis
Part of a public art installation called SEEINJUSTICE, the 10-foot-tall statues were crafted by artist Chris Carnabuci in collaboration with Confront Art and its charity partner We Are Floyd Inc.
When People Carved Turnips Instead of Pumpkins for Halloween
The spooky tradition was part of Samhain, an ancient pagan festival that marked the end of summer and the beginning of the Celtic new year and long winter ahead. Kicking off at sundown on October 31 and continuing through November 1, Samhain ushered in the transition from the autumn equinox to the winter solstice. During those two days, ancient Celts believed that the veil between life and death was at its narrowest, allowing spirits to roam freely between both realms.
Celts approached this turning point with both anticipation and dread, fearing that they would unknowingly cross paths with wayward fairies, monsters or ancestral spirits.
A particularly ominous entity was Stingy Jack, who was believed to have “tricked the devil for his own monetary gain,” writes Cydney Grannan for Encyclopedia Britannica. Because of this, God banned him from heaven, and the devil banned him from hell, forcing him to “roam earth for eternity.”
For protection from Stingy Jack and other apparitions, people in the British Isles began carving faces into pieces of produce—particularly turnips, but in some cases potatoes, radishes and beets.
Celebrants placed lit candles inside the cavities, similar to the pumpkin jack-o’-lanterns of modern Halloween.
These Singing Lemurs Have Rhythm
They have fluffy ears, a penetrating stare and a penchant for monogamy.
But it turns out that indris – a large, critically endangered species of lemur – have an even more fascinating trait: an unexpected sense of rhythm.
Sunday, October 24, 2021
Tompkins Square Halloween Dog Parade, , New York City, is Back.
The Tompkins Square Halloween dog parade returns after it was cancelled last year due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Compiled by Michael Williams
Sleeping Bus Tour
That was the spark that gave birth to this genius business idea: a 5-hour bus tour for people to take a nap on wheels.
A study from Finland found that children's immune systems improved from only a month with regular time playing in the forest.
The study followed children ages three to five across 10 daycares. The 75 kids played in different environments: some had classic gravel yards while others took the kids to play in a natural forest everyday. Four daycares revamped their old gravel yards to be forest-like.—grass was rolled out, and heather and blueberry plants found in forests were added. Children were encouraged to garden.
The microbiomes of the children's skin and guts were tested before and after a 28-day period.
Over a month of exposure to the forested outdoors, the children's skin biomes became more diverse.
They also saw an increase in T-cell count in the blood. Both of these findings are signs of a strengthened immune system.
These quick changes impressed the researchers, but further studies will be needed to determine the exact causal mechanisms. Why is it that nature seems to benefit children's health?
It seems that trees may help brain development and a forested environment boosts the immune system.
Read more
Friday, October 22, 2021
Halloween Light Show Is Perfectly Choreographed to ‘The Matrix’ and “Rage Against the Machine”
Tom BetGeorge (of Magical Light Shows) transformed a local family shelter into a spooktacular light show, inspired by The Matrix and Rage Against the Machine’s song, Wake Up.
Tuskless elephant evolution linked to ivory hunting
The study published in Science magazine found that in Gorongosa National Park a previously rare genetic condition had became more common as ivory poaching used to finance a civil war pushed the species to the brink of extinction. Before the war, about 18.5% of females were naturally tuskless.
But that figure has risen to 33% among elephants born since the early 1990s.
Some 90% of Mozambique's elephant population was slaughtered by fighters on both sides of the civil war that lasted from 1977 to 1992. Poachers sold the ivory to finance the vicious conflict between government forces and anti-communist insurgents.
As in eye colour and blood type in humans, genes are responsible for whether elephants inherit tusks from their parents.
Elephants without tusks were left alone by hunters, leading to an increased likelihood they would breed and pass on the tuskless trait to their offspring.
The heat is on
Spectacled flying-foxes, orphaned during a mass die-off caused by heat stress, at Tolga bat hospital in Queensland, Australia. Photograph: Dave Pinson/Alamy
Global heating affects fertility, immunity and behaviour – often with lethal results – and the problems are getting worse.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)