December 14, 2024

THE CRITICAL DRINKER ON THE BEST AND WORST MOVIES AND TV SERIES OF 2024 (Video):

Posted at 10:14 am by Ed Driscoll

DAVE FRIEDMAN WROTE A SCIENCE FICTION STORY USING AI: Here’s the prompt: “Write a 10,000 word1 short story about an asteroid miner marooned on an asteroid. Narrate in first person. The miner has a wry, ironic, and detached demeanor, but he really pines for his family back home. He has a number of robots to keep him company, including one which helps him with sexual needs, but as he becomes more aware of how inextricably marooned he is, he starts to think about descending through Dante’s circles of hell. The overall message is one of increasing existential despair, akin to Sartre’s No Exit. Now, this is a science fiction story, but I want it to be a well-written, *literary* science fiction story–think something akin to Alastair Reynolds’ style.” Story at the link.

Posted at 9:21 am by Glenn Reynolds

SPEAKING TRUTH TO POWER ON X:

Posted at 9:16 am by Glenn Reynolds

CHRISTIAN TOTO: NY Times Declares The Woke Movies Era Is Dead.

The New York Times uncorked a withering attack on woke Hollywood movies. The piece flexes its progressive bona fides, but large swathes of the article could have been written by The Critical Drinker or Film Threat’s Chris Gore.

The headline and subhead are stunning and brave in their bluntness.

Is the Awkward ‘Diversity Era’ of Hollywood Behind Us?

The past decade’s clumsiest attempts to cram new faces into old stories now feel like a moment, and a genre, of their own.

The same paper that erupted in fury over a Sen. Tom Cotton op-ed let this missive through?

The biggest takeaway? The woke movies era is over. Done. Kaput. And The New York Times appears happy to report it.

But how can Hollywood even put out product in 2025, what with all of the stars who promised to leave the country if Trump won in November…

Posted at 8:45 am by Ed Driscoll

SUCCESS:

As the most politically balanced site on the Internet, X seems “right wing” to the left.

Posted at 8:38 am by Glenn Reynolds

I HAVE NO INTEREST IN MLB, THE NFL, OR THE NBA THESE DAYS:

Posted at 8:24 am by Glenn Reynolds

GERMANY’S SCHOLZ NEARS HIS ENDGAME. HERE’S WHAT’S GOING TO HAPPEN:

Few other countries can choreograph a government collapse that’s as painstakingly slow and deliberate as Germany is doing right now.

Monday’s vote of confidence in Chancellor Olaf Scholz in the German parliament, which he’ll almost certainly lose, is just the latest step in a process that started in early November and culminates in a snap election on Feb. 23.

And even though the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) is bound to try to throw a spanner in the works in the coming week, what happens next is largely predictable.

The constitution, designed to prevent the kind of tumult experienced during the Weimar Republic — which helped enable the rise of the Nazis — contains a series of provisions intended to make the unravelling of a government as stable and orderly as possible.

Here’s our guide to what to expect.

As Glenn insta-quipped right around this same time nine years ago, “We have the worst political class in our history. The Germans, at least, can say that’s not true for them. . . .”

Posted at 7:45 am by Ed Driscoll

HEH:

Posted at 7:30 am by Glenn Reynolds