Delicious Digest #25 - Frog Vomit, Space Travel, and Cube Juggling
A tasty newsletter of what I’ve seen in (mostly) tech & games and thought was interesting. This week: Frog vomit, Space Travel, and Cube Juggling.
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😳 Must reads of the week
◼ Fascinating research into how stage magicians use priming techniques to influence choices. Psychology meets magic. Link
◼ “A Powerful Lesson in Discrimination”. If you’ve never watched any of Jane Elliott’s lessons, you absolutely should and now is better than never. Link
🗞 News
◼ Facebook is using AI to simulate spammy and scamming users – let’s hope it leads to positive results to reigning in such activities on the real network. Link
◼ Meanwhile in the real world, Facebook considers climate change “a matter of opinion” and drops it from fact-checking. I have some strong opinions on that. Link
◼ So does Disney: one of the largest FB advertisers reportedly has put a pause on its ad spend on Facebook. A drop in the ocean, but still noteworthy. Link
◼ The US government is looking at banning Chinese social media apps, including TikTok. Link
◼ Great summary on the current antitrust inquiries into Google. Link
◼ Twitter is suspending over 7000 accounts spreading right-wing QAnon conspiracy theories. Link
◼ Intel is contemplating outsourcing its chip production after announcing further delays in their roadmap. How the mighty have fallen. Link
◼ Mulan, Tenet, Star Wars, James Bond, and Avatar… lots of delays and unknowns for major blockbuster. A tough year for the movies. Link
🕹 Games
◼ “Sony Plans To Ship 10 Million PlayStation 5 Units This Year”. Ambitious. Then again, I will preorder just to get faster load times on Destiny 2 asap. Link
◼ “Worldwide digital games market: June 2020”. Superdata’s nice summary of another >$10b month, including figures on Last Of Us 2 and Valorant. Link
◼ “Why organizing is so much more fun in video games”. TL;DW: We all have a base-level OCD. Link (Video)
◼ “Ubisoft ties employee bonuses to creating ‘positive and inclusive workplace'”. Interesting direction, if not for nothing. I wonder how they will measure that. Link
◼ Riot has some learnings on this too: “Lessons learned guiding Riot Games through a cultural crisis”. Link
◼ More new meta to an old recipe: “Rovio’s Small Town Murders is a story-based match-3 puzzle game”. Link
◼ Andreessen Horowitz, one of Silicon Valley’s biggest venture capital firms, is ramping up its investment in games. Interesting interview with a16z partner Andrew Chen. Link
◼ Rocket League is going free-to-play. What took you so long? Link
😋 Tasty Tidbits
◼ Kepler writing to Galileo about space travel – in 1610. Link (via Abel Fernandez)
◼ “Today, you are an Astronaut. You are floating in inner space 100 miles above the surface of Earth. You peer through your window and this is what you see.” Link (via Cara Ely)
◼ This kid solves three Rubik’s cubes in 5m – while juggling them at the same time. I can do neither… Link (Video)
◼ “What we never hear about extremism, it’s its advantages!” John Cleese at his best – 30 years ago but more prescient than ever. Link
◼ Losing the “finger on the app” challenge because of Siri. An Oscar for the best troll of the year. Link (Video)
◼ Isaac Newton’s “frog vomit” recipe. Delicious. Link
I work for King. All views in this newsletter are personal and my own. They do not represent the views of King or ActivisionBlizzard. This newsletter is provided for informational purposes only and no investment advice. This newsletter links to other websites and information obtained from third-party sources and I cannot ensure nor verify accuracy of the information or its appropriateness for a given situation.