I should probably be berated admitting this in c/RaygunGothic, but somehow I had never seen Forbidden Planet... until last night. (On PeerTube. Thanks, Fediverse, for finally making it happen!)

I'd kept meaning to see it year after year, decade after decade, without it ever happening. I even went to the namesake shop a few times back in the 80s and 90s.

• https://peertube.wtf/w/ehQReF6uWnXNmCLZwsEhV3
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forbidden_Planet

I thought it would be cheesy, but it actually maintained a great atmosphere of suspense, thanks not only to the interesting story and wonderful cast, but also to the still spooky fully-electronic score.

• "Leslie Nielsen all serious... and with hair that's not white!!!"
• "So this is where it all began: we are all part of the Robby the Robot Cinematic Universe."
• "That's Honey West!" (I.e. Anne Francis, dare I say it, the US Honor Blackman.)

[Looking things up on Wikipedia today]

• "Holy Moly, Earl Holliman (Cookie) was still with us until a few months ago!"
• "Banned in Spain?? Oh right, this was 1956, not 1966. Miniskirts were truly shocking then."

Found some high quality images of posters, lobby cards etc here:

• https://www.doctormacro.com/Movie%20Summaries/F/Forbidden%20Planet.htm

Overall, a great film. Two robot thumbs up! Or five out of five ray guns. Whatever the top score here is ;)

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.bestiver.se/post/363725

Comments

• Megayacht: $300 million.
• Megayacht support vessel: $30 million.
• Avoid law limiting helicopter pollution by landing on megayacht's helipad, not Norwegian soil: priceless!

The story of Mississippi Goddam

• https://bittersoutherner.com/from-the-southern-perspective/mississippi-goddam
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mississippi_Goddam

https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2025/05/02/elon-musk-spacex-texas-starship-00317693

Right now, this roughly 1.5 square mile community is technically unincorporated Boca Chica Village. But on Saturday, the 200-odd residents — the vast majority of whom are SpaceX employees — will decide whether the land surrounding Musk’s massive rocket launchpad should become its own city: Starbase, Texas. It is an election that the region has been marching toward since December, when several dozen residents submitted a petition to South Texas’ Cameron County asking it to schedule an election that would incorporate Starbase as its own municipality. The move would give SpaceX increased autonomy, virtually its own government, and greater ability to build where and how it wants.

(...)

The measure’s passage could lead to possible land grabs through eminent domain, diminished public beach access and less oversight of the company’s activities.

(...)

Now, 100 years after the era of the company town, the richest man on Earth appears set on reprising the concept for the space age.

(...)

As SpaceX was making moves toward a vote on Starbase, Musk’s company was also supporting a legislative package, one bill for the House, the other for the Senate, in the Texas statehouse. The identical bills would give municipalities with “spaceports” the ability to limit access to public beaches, a move which seemed specifically targeted at Boca Chica. That would mean SpaceX would have the right to close Highway 4 in Cameron County for any activity that involves space flight. Currently, only the county can close the highway.

The incorporation of Spacebase seems to be primarily a question of control for SpaceX. The new city would directly manage its building and permitting, eliminating regulatory hurdles it might have to jump through at the county level. It would control its own land use laws and local taxes, and would also allow it to apply for state and federal grants. Although the ability to shut down the highway for launches is helpful, a Starbase city would have autonomy that extends far beyond that.

To activists like Hinojosa, the bills are just the first step in a series of power grabs that will likely define the era of Starbase, Texas, which she views as part of the slow colonization of her hometown by the tech oligarchy.

(...)

Within 15 minutes [of trying to canvas voters and campaign against incorporation], an unmarked white truck filled with what Treviño described as “mall cops with bullet proof vests” confronted the group and told them that they were on private property. Treviño challenged the men, who identified themselves as SpaceX security, asking why they had the right to boot canvassers off a public thoroughfare. The volunteers said security refused to answer their questions and again forcefully told them to leave. The group returned to their cars, surprised and scared, as they drove back toward Brownsville. (SpaceX did not respond to multiple requests for comment.)

EDIT:

The vote's in. 212 for, 6 against. Musk gets his city.

• https://apnews.com/article/elon-musk-starbase-texas-city-7863bf3bac65e9718eef19b27978933b

Collection of Creepy magazines, uploaded by Warren Publishing.

• https://archive.org/details/creepy_warren

Creepy was an American horror comics magazine launched by Warren Publishing in 1964. Like Mad, it was a black-and-white newsstand publication in a magazine format and did not carry the seal of the Comics Code Authority. An anthology magazine, it initially was published quarterly but later went bimonthly. Each issue's stories were introduced by the host character, Uncle Creepy.

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creepy_(magazine)

Featuring the work of creators like Jim Warren, Archie Goodwin and Steve Ditko.

cross-posted from: https://lemm.ee/post/62916893

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ca/post/43232519

I had a couple of issues of this 3 decades ago (I think Tower Records in the UK sometimes had it).

A magazine for English-speaking learners of Japanese, using snippets from manga popular in Japan (not just the usual suspects known abroad). Explaining vocabulary, grammar, pronunciation, writing systems, culture, politics, history and more, in a fun and memorable way.

The full run from 1990 to 1997 has been uploaded by Mangajin, Inc. to the Internet Archive.

Collection on Archive.org

• https://archive.org/search?query=creator%3A%22Mangajin%2C+Inc.%22

Wikipedia

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mangajin

Found via Language Log

• https://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=68979

Editor's note from Volume #1, June 1990

The MANGAJIN project has been brewing for quite some time now, but when the Japanese language “boom” started around the end of the 80's, we decided that the time was right to put the plan into action. In order to develop the concept, we talked to a lot of people and did as much research as we could, but it was impossible to do any real quantitative research. Now that MANGAJIN has been launched, we hope to use it as a research instrument to find out more about what type of material you want to see in this publication.

When we select material for publication in MANGAJIN, we consider suitability for language study — we look for a representative mix of slang and polite speech forms, and for sentence structures likely to be useful. We try to pick material which, although “comic” in nature, reflects popular Japanese culture and values, The final criterion, however, is whether the story has entertainment value.

Because so many people seem to be interested in Japanese for business reasons, we selected a business-related story (Hotel, by Shotaro Ishinomori) as our feature manga for this issue, but we're open to suggestions for future issues. There is certainly plenty to choose from in the world of manga—it's estimated that comic books and magazines accounted for more than 30% of all books and magazines published in Japan in 1988. Let us know what you'd like to see.

Although preferences vary, most people agree that manga are one of the few ways that students of Japanese can access “real” colloquial Japanese and get a glimpse of contemporary Japanese pop culture. Because we provide the readings for the Japanese text in English letters, along with translations and notes, you won't have to spend so much time flipping through the kanji dictionary that you lose interest in the story.

1 hope you find your own method of using and enjoying MANGAJIN, and please let us hear from you.

I had a couple of issues of this 3 decades ago (I think Tower Records in the UK sometimes had it).

A magazine for English-speaking learners of Japanese, using snippets from manga popular in Japan (not just the usual suspects known abroad). Explaining vocabulary, grammar, pronunciation, writing systems, culture, politics, history and more, in a fun and memorable way.

The full run from 1990 to 1997 has been uploaded by Mangajin, Inc. to the Internet Archive.

Collection on Archive.org

• https://archive.org/search?query=creator%3A%22Mangajin%2C+Inc.%22

Wikipedia

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mangajin

Found via Language Log

• https://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=68979

Editor's note from Volume #1, June 1990

The MANGAJIN project has been brewing for quite some time now, but when the Japanese language “boom” started around the end of the 80's, we decided that the time was right to put the plan into action. In order to develop the concept, we talked to a lot of people and did as much research as we could, but it was impossible to do any real quantitative research. Now that MANGAJIN has been launched, we hope to use it as a research instrument to find out more about what type of material you want to see in this publication.

When we select material for publication in MANGAJIN, we consider suitability for language study — we look for a representative mix of slang and polite speech forms, and for sentence structures likely to be useful. We try to pick material which, although “comic” in nature, reflects popular Japanese culture and values, The final criterion, however, is whether the story has entertainment value.

Because so many people seem to be interested in Japanese for business reasons, we selected a business-related story (Hotel, by Shotaro Ishinomori) as our feature manga for this issue, but we're open to suggestions for future issues. There is certainly plenty to choose from in the world of manga—it's estimated that comic books and magazines accounted for more than 30% of all books and magazines published in Japan in 1988. Let us know what you'd like to see.

Although preferences vary, most people agree that manga are one of the few ways that students of Japanese can access “real” colloquial Japanese and get a glimpse of contemporary Japanese pop culture. Because we provide the readings for the Japanese text in English letters, along with translations and notes, you won't have to spend so much time flipping through the kanji dictionary that you lose interest in the story.

1 hope you find your own method of using and enjoying MANGAJIN, and please let us hear from you.

My image viewer (Xviewer) is sufficient for converting still images to still Webp by just "Save as...", but Xviewer and Pinta only produce still single-frame webps from animated GIFs.

cross-posted from: https://lemm.ee/post/62810203

Marc Andreessen is predicting that at least one job is safe from the rise of AI: his own.

Marc Andreessen says that VCs may escape the rising tide of AI automation. On a recent podcast, he said the relationship-driven art of venture capital may make it one of the last remaining fields that people are still doing when other jobs are automated.

cross-posted from: https://beehaw.org/post/19703068

Chumbawamba wrote this in 1994, and it's still just as relevant today.

And it was just another day in Chatham House, a giant and raucous Signal group that forms part of the sprawling network of influential private chats that began during the fervid early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, and which have fueled a new alliance of tech and the US right. That same week in Chatham House, Lonsdale and the Democratic billionaire Mark Cuban sparred over affirmative action, and Cuban and Daily Wire founder Ben Shapiro discussed questions of culture and work ethic.

This constellation of rolling elite political conversations revolve primarily around the venture capitalist Marc Andreessen and a circle of Silicon Valley figures.