How do you think the switch from passive to active TV consumption has affected the medium? I wonder if it helps explain the rise of infinite sequels and catering to fandoms?
On the other hand, how do you balance that definition against the "second screen" phenomena?Where people watch TV, but stare at a phone at the same time. A lot of script notes allegedly tell writers that they need to make plot points clearer, because people are more likely to be distracted while watching now.
@sellathechemist@njr
Last I read a government tech celebration thingy (Report? Festival? I forget the details...) it was Uber and Deliveroo that were being hailed as the great tech innovators to imitate.
I'll not insult anyone's intelligence by elaborating on why that was garbage. But I think it does illustrate their priorities for what "innovation" means.
Hey musicians - I was listening to a thing about Spotify being crappy in terms of rev share. This is a familiar experience for cartoonists on other platforms! SO, if I want to support musicians, what's the best way to consume? Website? YouTube? Physical media?
@ZachWeinersmith
Forget where, but I've read that it's reached the point where literally pirating the music is better for artists, then you throw the Spotify Premium cost at a random patreon every month instead.
It's very rude and has lots of cringe comedy, but the first two minutes of S1E1 will tell you everything you need to know about if you'll enjoy the rest of the show
The writing is so tight, all the performances are great and the soundtrack is spectacular - all bangers, all the time
Today I learned that disgraced former Prime Minister Liz Truss got a smaller book advance than me. And my book's got more dick in, so infinitely better value all round.
I think it was a mistake to ever focus on English tuition fees as being a "bad" thing. It was an excuse to introduce a graduate tax by stealth, in a way that could be charged to overseas students.
Meanwhile, maintenance has converted from grant to loan, failed to keep up with inflation, and has effectively become a scam to transfer massive amounts of public funds to private landlords, since it no longer even covers basic rent.
Not that fees are "good", just that focusing on them has been the problem. Because that casts academic staff as the Bad Guy, and drives an unnecessary wedge between students and their HEIs that the government can jam its claws into. "Value for money" is now a threat, and it's unobtainable in a world where for some people £9k is the cost of the annual family holiday, and for others it's a significant chunk of the total family income.
While inability to afford to live has destroyed many students' ability to actually study and focus.
Chuds are, like, "study a proper subject!"
Yeah, dude, sure. Those "proper" subjects are a 40 hour work week and the rest, and I've got people who can't afford to commute in for it or start passing out because they can't eat -- all because rent is £170 pcw when (if it just tracked inflation from when I was an undergraduate) it shouldn't even by £90.
I went down a Voyager rabbit hole again. And I came up with a factoid that entertains me.
The original Grand Tour program was canceled in late 1971, due to congressional pressure over cost. Voyager was the cheaper mission to just Jupiter and Saturn.
Voyager and its team are incredible, and they managed to pull off the entire grand tour anyway, and then 34 years and counting more science after that.
There's a good chance Voyager might outlive the entire congress that killed the grand tour.
Have we (rich people) created a hell world where "the economy" doing well means us getting richer by stealing as much as possible from working people, leaving them poor, with little hope for the future?