August 2016

mostly OK gif history from popular mechanics

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You probably already know much of this stuff from a history of GIF animation in this month's Popular Mechanics -- yes, that Popular Mechanics...

vintagepopmech

...but it's worth a read. It gets the tech details and web politics of GIF usage mainly right without going too near the Duchampian, Barthesian "art" aspect -- the closest it comes is a consideration near the end of a Reddit whiz's "carefully crafted" movie loops.

As for the web politics, the piece is an extended infomercial for Giphy (pronounce it with a hard G and feel good about yourself) as a solution for cross-platform GIF delivery. The idea is you have this persistent animation filetype that works across browsers in a world dominated by "social" companies that want to keep you in their walled gardens, with their own proprietary video-delivery methods. Giphy aspires to be the go-to "cloud" storage place for GIFs that preserves them in their native format but also transcodes them so the social giants can all access them. Once GIFs have a reliable central location where they can be created, stored, and tweaked, people will stop saving them to their individual devices. Then, the GIF as a free-floating entity will finally shrivel up and die -- there will only be Giphy. There are still some awkward copyright issues to be worked out, as in, those GIFs you thought you were perma-linking might be suddenly replaced by YouTube-like take-down notices.
One thing I learned was that Nick Hasty, who was Rhizome's tech guy for a while, is now Giphy's tech guy. He's quoted with some old school fervor about what makes GIFs great but I doubt anyone else at Jiffy (or their tech backers) cares about any of that. Hasty says:

GIPHY believes in the experiential magic of viewing an infinitely looping series of images. While we have encoded all our GIFs into the most popular video formats and make those available on our site, the fact that GIFs play everywhere, can be copied and pasted, dragged and dropped, and don't force you to open a different interface or app for viewing, make them a better choice for what we're doing than any alternative formats.

They're changing GIF consumption in order for it to stay the same, or something. Monetize me, baby.

(hat tip EP)

you will be enjoying this

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ping_BW

Apologies for the blinking, usually try to avoid it, but when hate is pure desperate measures must be taken.
I suppose if you use the browser address bar for search you never have to see the main Google search page with its aggressively insipid daily theme drawing. Trust me, it's bad and needs to be destroyed, improved, or in the above case, both.

Salon magazine Trumpalooza

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Just to remind myself in future years how awful Campaign 2016 became after Sanders rolled over, I copied all the headlines currently on the front page of San Francisco-based online rag, Salon, that dealt with the Evil Boogeyman of the hour, Donald Trump. This coverage sells magazines, and sells the supposed lesser-evil candidate, who has so many negatives she can only win by demonizing her opponent well beyond his own obvious negatives.
So here is a collection of mediocre headline writing in the service of bald propaganda, a kind of Day in the Life in Hell of 21st Century journalism. Hard to believe but each of these headlines has an associated article, that you are expected to read!

[photos of Paul Ryan, Mitch McConnell, Trump]
Trump's illegal & insane plan
Donald Trump's "extreme" immigration plan is pretty clearly illegal, and GOP leaders need to answer for it

[photo of Trump]
It’s not Bernie backers: If the U.S. elects Trump, this is who is responsible
It’s convenient to blame Berners for a possible Trump win, but they are the last ones responsible for this mess

[photos of Trump and Trevor Noah]
Trevor Noah on Katrina Pierson: “I really feel bad for her and all of Donald Trump’s surrogates”
"CNN should hire her — that's what they should do," Noah said

[photo of Charlie Sykes]
The danger of the right’s noise machine: Years of misinformation led to Trump’s rise
"Where do you go to have any sense of the truth?" right-wing radio host Charlie Sykes told MSNBC

[photo of Trump]
Trump’s voter intimidation plan: Deploying poll watchers to fight nonexistent voter fraud is a November dirty trick
Trump's camp is calling for "monitors" at polling places to ensure "Crooked" Hillary doesn't rig the election

[photo of Trump]
Of psychopaths and presidential candidates: To what degree do modern candidates resemble psychopaths?
Analysis shows where some of this year's aspirants rank on a standard assessment of psychopathic traits

[photo of Clinton and Trump]
Sad! Breitbart commissions poll to unskew “mainstream media filter,” still finds Trump losing to Clinton
So much for claims of media bias -- even Trump's biggest media booster has Clinton beating him nationally

[photos of Trump and Stephen King]
“If Jesus were around today, he’d turn Trump out with the rest of the money-changers”: Stephen King’s anti-Trump Twitter campaign hasn’t lost steam
America's most prolific author and perhaps Trump's most entertaining Twitter critic never manages to disappoint

[photo of Paul Manafort]
Trump campaign lashes out at New York Times following report of cash payments from Ukraine to top aide, Paul Manafort
Even former Trump campaign head Corey Lewandowski tweeted a story on Manafort‘s work with the former pro-Putin ally

[photo of Trump]
Trump walks back claim Obama “founded” ISIS, says its rise “a direct result of policy decisions made by” administration
The GOP nominee reiterated his call to ban immigrants from "volatile regions," coining the term "extreme vetting"

[photos of Trump and Betsy McCaughey]
Team Trump is a disaster: It’s not just the candidate — his entire staff is ill-equipped for a presidential campaign
Trump has filled out his economic policy team with a long list of wealthy donors and female right-wing cranks

[photo of Trump]
The Trump vote: New data reveals hints as to who is most likely to pull the lever for Trump
A new Gallup analysis undermines some assumptions about Trump voters, and confirms that race plays a huge role

[photo of Trump]
The GOP after Trump: Don’t kid yourself — another candidate with his destructive platform can rise again
Even if Donald Trump is defeated, the xenophobic and bigoted goals of Trumpism will live on

[photo of Trump]
Donald the Terrible: If Trump had a selfie stick, we’d all be in the picture
Trump is the modern incarnation of Narcissus — a terrible-to-behold mirror image of America’s worst public face

Inside the Croculus

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oculus500

The Oculus -- or, the Croculus, in honor of its slit eye design and reptilian vibe -- is filling up with high-end mall stores. Breitling, Hugo Boss, Mont Blanc, etc.

When it first opened, grey panels lined the walls where future stores would be. It was so creepy and sterile (if spectacular) that the Port Authority hung an enormous American flag inside the vault, spoiling the architect's design but warming up the mood and reminding us that We Are Still At War. The flag disappeared as the mall stores began opening, giant photos of bony fashion models being a good-enough equivalent of Old Glory. Orcs are currently erecting some kind of giant bandshell/kiosk thing inside the vault. If the idea is to have music in there, the acoustics will probably be horrendous. Will keep you posted.

Update: The bandshell/kiosk thing was erected for a Grand Opening event for the Croculus. Some kind of terrible live R&B/jazz/lounge group boomed inaudibly in the interior. If you walked in to hear the music you were greeted with signs saying this was a public event and you consented to any use of your likeness captured by photo or video. People packed under the dome seemed to be enjoying themselves. Food was on sale courtesy of Pret a Manger.

Here they are setting up for the event (via AM NY):

croculus_grand_opening_via_amNY