Featured Links - January 22, 2024

Links to things I found interesting but didn't want to do a full blog post about.

CJ in a box

• The Self-Checkout Nightmare May Finally Be Ending. "Self-checkout is a failed experiment, and a growing number of stores are backpedaling on these cursed machines." They're OK if you just have a couple of items, but replacing most or all of regular checkouts with them is not consumer friendly. 
• Source Code in TV and Films. "Images of the computer code appearing in TV and films and what they really are. See https://behind-the-screens.tv for video versions of some."
• We spoke with an expert on building with wood as a climate-friendly housing solution. "One such innovation is mass timber construction, which means building with wood as the primary material. With projects built using mass timber being able to reduce carbon pollution during construction by up to 45 per cent, using wood to build our cities, including homes, schools, and infrastructure, has a host of environmental benefits."
• ‘Super cool’: 27-year-old Sault producer wins two Emmys. "Algoma University graduate Hannah Rowswell is part of a California-based animation company recognized twice during the Creative Arts Emmy Awards in Los Angeles." The awards were for work on two of my favourite shows: The Last of Us and For All Mankind.
• All the Big Horror, Sci-Fi, and Fantasy Films We're Excited for in 2024. "In io9's 2024 movie preview, we run down the big (and small) genre titles coming to theaters this year." I found ten movies that look promising. What about you? Leave a comment,
• Long COVID expert at US Senate hearing. "The burden of disease and disability from long COVID . . . is on par with the burden of cancer and heart disease."
• Lighting up Long Covid. "An important new mechanistic study and a blitz of other reports that help our understanding."
• The Ransom Center's Movie Poster Collection at the University of Texas at Austin. "Consists of an estimated 10,000 posters and spans the entire history of film from the silent era to the present day. All sizes of American film posters are represented."
• A Reporter’s Journey Into How the U.S. Funded the Bomb. "Watching “Oppenheimer,” a journalist wondered (perhaps a bit obsessively): How did the president get the $2 billion secret project past Congress?" A rather interesting bit of history.