Hypertexthero / Linked List / April 2025

Linked List: April 2025

Monday, 28 April 2025

Aviassembly ✶

New plane building and flying game with a cartoon flat graphic style by Jelle Booij.

Could this be a contender for a roguelite flight sim?

I’ll be trying it soon and comparing it with KitHack Model Club.

Via M0rt75.

Sunday, 27 April 2025

A Dao of Web Design ✶

Written by John Allsopp 25 years ago, this is still my favorite text concerning web typography, even though it doesn’t have the word “typography” in it.

If you want to read the Tao Te Ching, referenced in the article, I can recommend Gia-Fu Feng’s and Jane English’s English translation.

This is in reply to Jeffrey Zeldman’s Web typography: a refresher and history.

Wild Geese ✶

You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
for a hundred miles through the desert repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves.
Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.
Meanwhile the world goes on.
Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain
are moving across the landscapes,
over the prairies and the deep trees,
the mountains and the rivers.
Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,
are heading home again.
Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting—
over and over announcing your place
in the family of things.

By Mary Oliver.

Monday, 21 April 2025

Goodbye, Jorge Mario Bergoglio ✶

You were better than most in your position.

I pray free thought prevails, and maybe for robots, bugs, and aliens to attack, so humans stop fighting each other and join forces to combat them, instead.

Sunday, 20 April 2025

Pink Floyd at Pompeii MCMLXXII ✶: One of my favorite musical performances of all time. Catch it on IMAX before the end of the month if you can.

Wednesday, 16 April 2025

When not to obey orders ✶

Andrew Milburn, former commanding officer of the Marine Raider Regiment and Combined Special Operations Task Force-Iraq, writing at War on The Rocks:

It may seem that the question of dissent in terms of loyalty to the Constitution is of academic importance to most officers, the vast majority of whom will never rise to the rank that will allow them to have a say in matters of policy. But whether obeying civilian masters or a military chain of command, the question of agency — of having an obligation to exercise your own moral judgment — remains the same.

It’s not a topic that fits well into the curriculum of any school — there is no handy acronym that will teach an officer when to disobey orders. Discussions on the subject tend to gravitate to a very binary focus: the differentiation between legal and illegal orders. As officer candidates, regardless of service, we learn that we have a duty to obey all orders that are not illegal, yet many of us learn that it’s not quite as simple as that.

Tuesday, 15 April 2025

General strike ✶: It’s time to organize.

Saturday, 12 April 2025

The Emperor’s New Clothes ✶: The tale concerns an emperor who has an obsession with fancy new clothes, and spends lavishly on them, at the expense of state matters. One day, two con-men visit the emperor’s capital. Posing as weavers, they offer to supply him with magnificent clothes that are invisible to those who are either incompetent or stupid. The gullible emperor hires them, and they set up looms and pretend to go to work. A succession of officials, starting with the emperor’s wise and competent minister, and then ending with the emperor himself, visit them to check their progress. Each sees that the looms are empty but pretends otherwise to avoid being thought a fool.

Finally, the weavers report that the emperor’s suit is finished. They mime dressing him and he sets off in a procession before the whole city. The townsfolk uncomfortably go along with the pretense, not wanting to appear inept or stupid, until a child blurts out that the emperor is wearing nothing at all. The people then realize that they have all been fooled. The emperor is startled, but opts to continue the procession.

Wednesday, 9 April 2025

QR codes ✶: Lots of information, along with an open source QR code generating website.
Sound in space ✶: Matthew Florianz’s work with Frontier Developments’ audio team for Elite: Dangerous. See also his video, Creating ambient environment soundscapes.

Monday, 7 April 2025

♫ Mermaid Muse Speaks ✶: Haunting song from Amos’ new album, The Music of Tori and the Muses. Brings to mind Vangelis’ Tales of the Future.

Sunday, 6 April 2025

What democracy looks like ✶: Protect people, defend civic institutions, build alternatives, disrupt and disobey.

Friday, 4 April 2025

Amazon Conservation Association donation drive complete ✶

Since it was my birthday the other day I decided to give a present to the trees and complete my first livestream charity drive on Twitch to raise $100 for the Amazon Conservation Association!

HyperTextHero · $50
Camble · $16
BadMojo11 · $15
Niborius · $9
Schippah · $5
Sokolas · $5

Thank you to all the donors.

A little goes a long way.

Tuesday, 1 April 2025

How you can protect democracy ✶

There is good news: Regular citizens are the ones best suited to strengthen our democracy. This is especially true at the local level, where our sphere of influence is greatest.

…

To defeat authoritarianism, we must commit to a healthier information diet. Doomscrolling can increase anxiety or have a numbing effect that impedes our ability to act in the real world.

Shifting your information consumption away from social media, cable networks, and pundits and toward more in-depth, and — above all else — accurate information is a useful first step in protecting democracy (and feeling better about the world).

Make no mistake: the Trump Administration’s punitive and unjust actions are wrong even if — especially if — they prove effective at silencing lawyers. Might does not make right. Indeed, these actions are particularly dangerous when they succeed in intimidating lawyers into abandoning their fundamental role in our justice system.

All lawyers must condemn these actions targeting the legal profession and stand up for the rule of law. Doing so is essential to keeping ours a country of laws, not of men.