Angelina Jolie Is Rebuilding Her Life
After years of healing, the actress is starting a new fashion venture and paring back her Hollywood presence: “I wouldn’t be an actress today.”
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Scarlet Witch - Wikipedia
Marvel licensed the filming rights of the X-Men and related concepts, such as mutants, to 20th Century Fox, who created a film series based on the franchise. Years later, Marvel started their own film franchise, known as the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), which focused on characters that they had not licensed to other studios (see below). At the time, the rights to Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch were disputed by both studios. As they both held the rights to the characters, with Fox citing the characters' mutant status and being children of Magneto and Marvel citing the twins' editorial history being more closely tied to the Avengers rather than the X-Men, the studios made an agreement wherein both of them could use the characters on the condition that the plots did not make reference to the other studio's properties (i.e. the Fox films could not mention the twins as members of the Avengers while the MCU could not mention them as mutants or children of Magneto).[215] The arrangement became moot following the acquisition of 21st Century Fox by Disney – the parent company of Marvel Studios, and the confirmation that future X-Men films will take place within the MCU.
Feeling so empty after my trip to Taiwan
Explore this post and more from the taiwan community
The Silence Is the Loudest Part of Renaissance: A Film
No star is better at positioning themselves as apolitical than Beyoncé.
From the start, Beyoncé preaches her desire to create a “safe space.” “Renaissance means a new beginning,” she says; it’s a balm “after all we’ve been through in the world.” But what exactly is she referring to? The onslaught of death and illness brought on by the continuing pandemic? The laws aimed at criminalizing trans children and adults? The rising misogyny, homophobia, and anti-Blackness that leads to grave violence? The various, ongoing genocides? Beyoncé gives us no context for what she’s referring to or how it touches the shores of a life dominated and driven by the kind of wealth that insulates her from harm. Her words reflect broadly liberal pablum meant to give the appearance of care and mean just enough that her fans can project radicalness upon her but not so much that she would ruffle anyone enough for her to lose money or be forced to stand for something.
there is no star of such magnitude who more cunningly positions themselves as apolitical than Beyoncé. Her performance as an icon is meant to connect with the broadest number of people possible. To do that, her refusal to stand for anything specific beyond the watered-down treatises on Black excellence must be maintained.
More than anything, Renaissance is a testament that Beyoncé is a brand that stands for absolutely nothing beyond its own greatness
Photoshop for text
In the near future, transforming text over an entire document will become as commonplace as filtering images.
On Really Trying
AI Summary of part of this page: The webpage discusses motivation and willpower in problem-solving through various anecdotes and stories about famous mathematicians and scientists. It describes how giving researchers a clear goal or deadline, or confirming that a problem has a solution, can dramatically increase their motivation and productivity compared to conventional approaches. Examples are given of breakthroughs happening quickly when scientists know for certain that current theories are wrong. The stories suggest that intellectual ability alone is not always the limiting factor - providing proper motivation through circumstances can unlock greater achievements.
Rick Owens interviews ‘the master’ Yohji Yamamoto - System Magazine No. 14
Love how concise his responses are here
Announcing iA Writer 7
New features in iA Writer that discern authorship between human and AI writing, and encourages making human changes to writing pasted from AI
With iA Writer 7 you can manually mark ChatGPT’s contributions as AI text. AI text is greyed out. This allows you to separate and control what you borrow and what you type. By splitting what you type and what you pasted, you can make sure that you speak your mind with your voice, rhythm and tone.
As a dialog partner AI makes you think more and write better. As ghost writer it takes over and you lose your voice.
Yet, sometimes it helps to paste its replies and notes. And if you want to use that information, you rewrite it to make it our own. So far, in traditional apps we are not able to easily see what we wrote and what we pasted from AI.
iA Writer lets you discern your words from what you borrowed as you write on top of it. As you type over the AI generated text you can see it becoming your own. We found that in most cases, and with the exception of some generic pronouns and common verbs like “to have” and “to be”, most texts profit from a full rewrite.
we believe that using AI for writing will likely become as common as using dishwashers, spellcheckers, and pocket calculators. The question is: How will it be used? Like spell checkers, dishwashers, chess computers and pocket calculators, writing with AI will be tied to varying rules in different settings.
We suggest using AI’s ability to replace thinking not for ourselves but for writing in dialogue. Don’t use it as a ghost writer. Because why should anyone bother to read what you didn’t write? Use it as a writing companion. It comes with a ChatUI, so ask it questions and let it ask you questions about what you write. Use it to think better, don’t become a vegetable.
AI Alignment in the Design of Interactive AI: Specification Alignment, Process Alignment, and Evaluation Support
AI alignment considers the overall problem of ensuring an AI produces desired outcomes, without undesirable side effects. While often considered from the perspectives of safety and human values, AI alignment can also be considered in the context of designing and evaluating interfaces for interactive AI systems. This paper maps concepts from AI alignment onto a basic, three step interaction cycle, yielding a corresponding set of alignment objectives: 1) specification alignment: ensuring the user can efficiently and reliably communicate objectives to the AI, 2) process alignment: providing the ability to verify and optionally control the AI's execution process, and 3) evaluation support: ensuring the user can verify and understand the AI's output. We also introduce the concepts of a surrogate process, defined as a simplified, separately derived, but controllable representation of the AI's actual process; and the notion of a Process Gulf, which highlights how differences between human and AI processes can lead to challenges in AI control. To illustrate the value of this framework, we describe commercial and research systems along each of the three alignment dimensions, and show how interfaces that provide interactive alignment mechanisms can lead to qualitatively different and improved user experiences.
Computers Are Magical; Computers Are Awful
many small issues and frustrations they experienced with their various computers and apps throughout one day, such as lag, bugs, unexpected behavior, and things not working as expected. While none of the individual problems were major, the accumulation of constant small issues robbed them of confidence in the technology. The author acknowledges the hard work of developers but feels users deserve more reliable and predictable experiences given how much we rely on computers daily. They hope companies will focus more on fixing bugs rather than just new features.
Nina
Blockchain network for music distribution and publish
Nina v2 provides: - a permanent archive of your music - 100% of sales go to artists - profit splits can be programmed in - paid writers - interlinked discovery Everything people have been calling for in the wake of the bandcamp debacle
One-third of Israeli Holocaust survivors live in poverty, advocates say
Several dozen impoverished elderly Israelis, among them Holocaust survivors, received food donations from a charity ahead of International Holocaust Remembrance Day.
Abandoned babies found decomposing in Gaza hospital weeks after it was evacuated
“No child should have to die alone,” a charity said in response to a widely shared TV report that has sent shockwaves on social media.
May December
Reverse Shot writers' complete coverage of the feature film output of the great American filmmaker.
Haynes has here made a film that might seem comic to one, irretrievably tragic to another, possibly within the same scene, line reading, or surprising camera gesture—appropriate for a film about the derangement of living one’s life as an idea, an outline, an empty vessel on which others project expectations and judgments that only reflect their own biases.
On Cultivating Taste
Be picky so you can focus on what matters
Taste, by definition, is the ability to be decisive about what you like and what you don’t like, and exclusively seek out the first. In other words, good taste is a sign of good judgment. Want to have good taste? Get comfortable with saying ‘no’.
What I learned getting acquired by Google
Our 10 person startup gets acquired by Google, we rebuild our product the Google way, and begin to understand that amazing things are possible at Google, if you play the Google game
Bottoms review – undercooked, unfunny teen romance
Two unpopular lesbians attempt to start a fight club at their high school in Emma Seligman's disappointing follow-up to Shiva Baby.
Opinion | Bernie Sanders: Justice for the Palestinians and Security for Israel
How do we balance our desire to stop the fighting with the need to address the roots of the conflict?
we must demand an immediate end to Israel’s indiscriminate bombing, which is causing an enormous number of civilian casualties and is in violation of international law. Israel is at war with Hamas, not innocent Palestinian men, women and children. Israel cannot bomb an entire neighborhood to take out one Hamas target. We don’t know if this campaign has been effective in degrading Hamas’s military capabilities. But we do know that a reported 70 percent of the casualties are women and children, and that 104 U.N. aid workers and 53 journalists have been killed. That’s not acceptable.
Mr. Netanyahu’s Likud party was explicitly formed on the premise that “between the Sea and the Jordan [River] there will only be Israeli sovereignty,” and the current coalition agreement reinforces that goal. This is not just ideology. The Israeli government has systematically pursued this goal. The last year saw record Israeli settlement growth in the West Bank, where more than 700,000 Israelis now live in areas that the United Nations and the United States agree are occupied territories. They have used state violence to back up this de facto annexation. Since Oct. 7, the United Nations reports that at least 208 Palestinians, including 53 children, have been killed by Israeli security forces and settlers. This cannot be allowed to continue.
The blank check approach must end. The United States must make clear that while we are friends of Israel, there are conditions to that friendship and that we cannot be complicit in actions that violate international law and our own sense of decency. That includes an end to indiscriminate bombing; a significant pause to bombing so that massive humanitarian assistance can come into the region; the right of displaced Gazans to return to their homes; no long-term Israeli occupation of Gaza; an end to settler violence in the West Bank and a freeze on settlement expansion; and a commitment to broad peace talks for a two-state solution in the wake of the war.
The problem of other minds
the solitude of subjectivity
Making your heart bigger
Loving those who can’t give you what you want
the heart is a muscle: you can make it bigger by training it, and the bigger it gets the less it cares for symmetry or saving face. Instead of repetitions of lifting weights, you train your heart with repetitions of directing compassion at things, like that friend who's less available to see you than they used to be, or the crush who ghosted you after several nice dates.
someone saying no to you is your opportunity to show yourself who you really are. Because it strains your capacity, in the moment, to feel love. The moment when you hear sorry I'm booked the whole weekend once again when calling a friend about dinner plans. When you learn an old friend is in town and hasn’t reached out to see you. When you notice that your best friend is prioritizing their developing relationship to the detriment of your friendship.
The trouble with wisdom is that it's easy to forget. In my more sober moments I'm fully aware that we're all manifestations of the same thing, that however many followers or expensive things or famous friends you have, you are nothing more than a frail primate in a decaying body. I know that climbing any of these ladders brings a fleeting and unsatisfying happiness. But in the moment that someone says no, in the moment that someone I admire fails to show up when they had promised to, the world morphs back into something I know it isn't: this individuated, transactional competition. This zero-sum game that promises that if I just got a bit further ahead I’d be content and never feel bad about myself again.
The problem of long-term close friendships
Interesting to think of levels of alignment in life planning as something that helps distinguish levels of closeness in friendships. Also the continued theme of friends as family
“I yearn for best friends that I’ll still be best friends with in 30 years.”I was convinced that this must be possible because I had read the book A Little Life which follows a group of best friends from college until old age. Until that point I don’t think I had ever imagined—in that much detail—what it would be like to grow old with your friends, but I decided it was something I absolutely wanted.A year and a half later, this vision seems harder than ever. One best friend is in a relationship and is leaving the city soon, another best friend has become harder to reach; the roommates are still there but one of them is moving out soon too. Everyone is always moving somewhere new, dating someone new, working somewhere new.
People talk about how in the strongest friendships, even if you go on separate paths and only see each other once a year, it always feels the same and you can just pick up from where you left off. I appreciate these friendships, but I much prefer consistent presence over the long haul (studying together, cooking dinners, sharing memes) rather than annual hourlong catch-up calls and barely ever talking in between.
Am I willing to make major life decisions in partnership with my friends? To choose, together, which city (and which neighborhood) I’ll be living in, when I’ll settle down, how much I’ll prioritize my career? We are used to expecting this level of alignment out of a relationship, but not friendships.It seems like the only person you can rely on to be there indefinitely, and with whom you can build something long-term, is your partner, and this is nice, but I do find the concept of a nuclear family—two parents on their own raising a few kids in a suburban house—a little depressing, when contrasted with a bustling extended family, many of them living together in the same building, hosting boisterous family dinners and monthly trips to a cottage. How do you build that as an adult, when your actual extended family is on a different continent?
Americans need an extra $11,400 today just to afford the basics
Compared with 2021, the typical household must spend an additional $11,434 annually just to maintain their standard of living, analysis shows.
Feeling through emotional truths
To gain insight into emotional truths, Kasra recommends feeling into strong emotions rather than overthinking them. Some techniques include sentence completion exercises, imagining emotions as characters to dialogue with, focusing on body sensations, and identifying underlying beliefs.
In general it's adopting a mindset of curiosity rather than doubt when exploring one's emotions.
Your emotions are a signaling mechanism. They are your subconscious mind’s toolkit for protecting you from dangers, improving your circumstances, and navigating an otherwise incomprehensibly complex world. Every emotion has some adaptive purpose: fear keeps you safe; anger enforces your boundaries; sadness slows you down; joy speeds you up.
The first step towards living better is to recognize that your subconscious mind is trying to tell you things you don’t yet know (primarily through your emotions, but also via other channels like your dreams). A lot of people struggle to realize even this basic fact; they think of emotions as a disruption: a distraction from, say, their career development, or an impediment to their capacity to “be rational.”
your emotions are worth heeding because they carry wisdom your conscious mind doesn’t have access to. And at that point you must embark on the second step—the much harder step—of figuring out what it is that your mind is trying to tell you.
an attitude of curiosity rather than doubt. Embodiment rather than intellect. You find the answer by allowing yourself to be playful, generative, and spontaneous; not by being methodical, intentional, and constricted. Sit back and feel your way to the answer
For Hollywood, Chinese Villains Move Behind the Scenes
by Abram DylanBack in May, when the original English report came out that China had censored Men In Black 3, it put the amount of cut material at 13 minutes.* A day later, when the Los Angeles Times picked ...
Illuminating: an illustrated guide to some of the world’s most remote lighthouses
José Luis González Macías became fascinated by the buildings when researching a design project and has published an ‘atlas’ of the most striking examples
Nibble and your appetite will grow
The most reliable way to create motivation is to start doing the thing. Actions precede feelings, not the other way around.
There’s a French expression I like:
L’appétit vient en mangeant
Appetite comes when you eat
Interview with Leo Chang, Staff Designer at Darkroom Studios, on Visual Design
There are certain design principles you can apply to this like composition, hierarchy, color theory, and so on, but to the regular consumer, it’s the gestalt of all your design decisions that ultimately makes an emotional connection. We know emotion is so much of what drives purchasing behavior so the more nebulous goal of visual design is often pulling those levers in just the right ratio to elicit a desired connection to your product.
ven something as foundational as increasing white space in your design can instantly improve a customer’s perception of your brand’s worth when it’s done intentionally.
almost all clients agree that they need better look and feel in their digital experience, that they are looking to add some type of emotional signal that’s missing. But when it comes time to accept changes that address those problems, I’ve had several instances where clients are resistant to solutions that depart too significantly from what they’re already comfortable with. Usually that reservation is overcome when I correlate the visual changes to the ways in which the user experience is improved and the resulting impact on business performance.
There will be also times when a client expresses to us that they’ve never been satisfied with their brand or website and they point to competitors that evoke certain emotional qualities that they are aspiring to capture. In those cases it’s quite rewarding to be able to translate those more nebulous feelings into concrete terminology that gives us specific visual principles to bring in or improve on.
Interview with Jeremy Elder on Visual Design
I think most of the clients knew that good design would provide value, but ultimately I think they thought of it as the expression of the passion that fueled their business to begin with. It was something that made their vision tangible. A way to package (for lack of better term) their product or value to their prospects or market.
In marketing, I think visual design is used to guide a decision, while in applications it’s to isolate a decision. A marketing site might have one task in a flow, while an application can have many. With marketing, I might see it once, so a more liberal use of color or embellishment drives a more memorable or emotional guidance. In an application I (potentially) use it more frequently and am more task driven than emotionally driven, so something more plain is less fatiguing over time.
the most successful tools do both well, and understand the complimentary relationship. Take Linear’s recent popularity in the design community for example. The app is considerably plainer than the marketing site, but there’s a common undercurrent and degree of polish that is present in both and when you use the application there’s a degree of subliminal appreciation for how the design is simplified.
I believe recent macOS and iPadOS updates directionally point towards touch interaction and easier context switching more than they point towards the importance of “glassmorphism” or a soft and friendly vibe with larger border radius. Similarly, the return of skeuomorphism can hint at the need for more affordance. Focusing on the lighting, material effect, noise, or composition without understanding why they’re being used just leads to chasing aesthetics, but not usability.
Jigsaw
Jigsaw is a unit within Google that explores threats to open societies, and builds technology that inspires scalable solutions.
Five Case Studies On Politicization
[Trigger warning: Some discussion of rape in Part III. This will make much more sense if you’ve previously read I Can Tolerate Anything Except The Outgroup] I. One day I woke up and they had …