Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Darth Marenghi @darthmarenghi.bsky.social · 3h

The plush Monkey on your dashboard has made me wonder what the PG Tips mascot is up to these day - apparently he's married to Emily Atack from The Inbetweeners now?

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Jonn Elledge @jonnelledge.bsky.social · 3h

how it started / how it's going

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Slurmsadako MacKenzie @slurmsmackenzie.bsky.social · 8h

GenAI truly was the worst technology to come along at this moment.

An energy and water guzzler when we most urgently need to take climate action.

A disinformation machine as our journalism fails.

A bias machine as fascism takes root.

A job killer in a cost of living crisis.

Bria "tries to write a book" Horses @thevoidencore.bsky.social · 5d

The "cognitive decline and brain damage from repeat COVID infections" and "easy to use robot that makes slop and melts your critical thinking skills" is a hell of a combo in a post-fact media ecosystem

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Darth Marenghi @darthmarenghi.bsky.social · 4h

Considering that 90s PCs were horrible beige boxes - an accidental self-own by the capitalist pig-dogs of the West here.

Stuart Webb @inflatabledalek.bsky.social · 16h

I love Tomorrow Never Dies. I think it's an underrated banger of a 90s action film, and certainly the best ever movie that's title is a typo.

But this is the first time I've got the painful joke that the Red Army PCs are red.

Even their Windows 95 is communist.

Wai Lin works at a group of late 90s PCs that are all red in colour rather than the usual white.

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Stuart Webb @inflatabledalek.bsky.social · 18h

Continuing to celebrate 30 yesrs of the Green Bros Code Man as Bond with my first 007 film at the cinema!

Teri Hatcher, Michelle Yeoh, feeding Rupert Murdoch into a mincer...

Classic cinema.

Pierce Brosnan looking cool as fuck in the Tomorrow Never Dies precredits.

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Ed Morrish @edmorrish.bsky.social · 5h

you know that critique of ai that says it’s like taking a forklift to the gym and expecting to get stronger? well this bit of that guardian article about people using chatgpt in dating apps kinda proves it correct

Which is why the man who greeted her inside the pub – polite, pleasant but oddly flat – felt like a stranger. Gone was the quickfire wit and playful rhythm she’d come to expect from their exchanges. Over pints he stumbled through small talk, checked his phone a little too often, and seemed to wilt under the pressure of her questions. “I felt like I was sitting opposite someone I’d never even spoken to,” she says. “I tried to have the same sort of conversation as we’d been having online, but it was like, ‘Knock, knock, is anyone home?’ – like he knew basically nothing about me. That’s when I suspected he’d been using AI.”

Rachel gave her date the benefit of the doubt. “I thought maybe he was nervous,” she says. But she’d been “Chatfished” before, so when the gap between his real and digital selves failed to close on their second date, she called it off. “I’d already been ChatGPT-ed into bed at least once. I didn’t want it to happen again.”

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Tits McGee @scientits.bsky.social · 5h

How people who use AI for everything think they sound:

"I used ChatGPT to come up with some cool lines to use on dates"

How they actually sound:

"I used a machine to do my thinking for me"

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Mrs. Betty Bowers @mrsbettybowers.bsky.social · 18h

And people tell me the libs have no knack for messaging.

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Helen O'Hara @helenlohara.bsky.social · 19h

RIP to Diane Keaton. Not only a woman who made extraordinary films but someone who always seemed to be exactly herself, and to be enjoying the experience very much.

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Helen Rosner @hels.bsky.social · 15h

My 2yo just informed me that her favorite food is gummy bears wrapped in salami. Then she held eye contact while wrapping a gummy bear in salami and eating it.

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Tom Reagan’s Hat @rufustsuperfly.bsky.social · 18h

RIP Diane Keaton
My favourite picture of her where everyone else is giving it their best Blue Steel & she looks like she’s just wandered in off the street looking super cool.
She was allowed to wear her own clothes & her wonderful personality shines out.
What a unique talent & human being.

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Tits McGee @scientits.bsky.social · 16h

TIL...

Jesse Hawken @jessehawken.bsky.social · 20h

Diane Keaton directed this banger music video on top of all her other achievements, RIP to a legend

youtu.be/NOGEyBeoBGM

Belinda Carlisle - Heaven Is A Place On Earth (Official Music Video)

YouTube video by BelindaCarlisleVEVO

youtu.be

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Darth Marenghi @darthmarenghi.bsky.social · 18h

Not to tread on anyone's toes, but speaking as a punter who goes to his local 1.43:1 IMAX cinema regularly, both DUNE and MAVERICK looked as amazing on that screen as OPPENHEIMER did. It's not the camera that matters, it's the artist using it.

Todd Vaziri @tvaziri.com · 1d

what is "filmed for IMAX"? good, short explainer here:

youtube.com/shorts/uxPzP...

The Difference Between "Shot in IMAX" and "Filmed for IMAX"

YouTube video by Jennifer McDonnell

youtube.com

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Todd Vaziri @tvaziri.com · 4d

Vanity Fair asked me to talk about visual effects, and it was my great honor to show off some of ILM’s terrific work over the years.

Todd Vaziri on Vanity Fair VFX
youtu.be/ERKEsIzTFas?...

ILM's VFX Secrets Behind Star Wars, Transformers & More | Vanity Fair

YouTube video by Vanity Fair

youtu.be

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Jesse Hawken @jessehawken.bsky.social · 11d

My favourite John Woo movie is my first, THE KILLER, which I saw in 1989. It’s Douglas Sirk meets Sam Peckinpah by way of Hong Kong and I was levitating out of my seat the entire time, this movie in particular is a must see as part of the Criterion HK series

youtu.be/BPMKmzZnDfg

The Killer (1989) | Chow Yun Fat action scene 2/4 | Movie Clip

YouTube video by Lettle Clips - Movie Clip

youtu.be

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Todd Vaziri @tvaziri.com · 6d

Woo action: the combination of lens choices, camera movement, stunts and pyrotechnics is all so incredibly unpolished, seemingly unpredictable, seemingly horrifically dangerous (plus Chow Yun Fat being the most charismatic man to ever live) makes these movies so darn special.

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Todd Vaziri @tvaziri.com · 6d

It's not all bad news out there. A whole slew of classic John Woo movies just landed on Criterion Channel.

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Rick Burin @rickburin.bsky.social · 21h

You can argue that Militant didn’t believe in basic democracy (possibly true), but the party of organised labour being recaptured by corporate interests is no less dodgy as fuck, just because those doing it dress smartly and are allowed on the breakfast shows

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Rick Burin @rickburin.bsky.social · 21h

And Kinnock’s famous conference speech is so famous largely because he was, for perhaps the only time in his life, playing politics on ‘easy’ setting.

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Rick Burin @rickburin.bsky.social · 21h

Lewis Goodall’s interview with Neil Kinnock was memorable. It’s not really political journalism, in the sense that he gives him the gentlest ride I’ve ever heard, but Kinnock breaking down in tears when he talks about Glynis was very moving