#wirecutter

[smashjewels]

🔌🔪 chalant x nonchalant (og by @/nasykuching on twt

[contract-crawdad]

Look Outside Pacifism Concepts: Part 3

It's time for the taxidermy menagerie!

Little Helpers (Wirecutter, Needles, and Scissors)

During battle, tossing any kind of animal product to one of Taxidermy’s little helpers will cause them to snatch it up in delight, immediately ending combat. This includes obvious things like hamburger or raw pork but also extends to anything made out of leather or wool.

It seems hard at work performing taxidermy on your gift, working its viciously sharp parts in a blur of determined motion. If it notices your continued presence, it gives no indication.

Giving all of them an offering and then returning on day 14 will show the results of their work: a vaguely humanoid taxidermy figure made entirely out of the cobbled together bits you gave them.

Crow

Using pretty much any healing food in Crow’s room will cause the birds to be whipped up into a frenzy once you start the battle.

“Ah for da love a- look whatcha did! With your gotdamn snacks! Ya got em all woiked up… ahhh fuggetaboutit. Dey don’t fight woith a crap when dey’re like dis.”

You can either continue to fight Crow, who will have a heavy accuracy debuff for the rest of the battle or flee from the fight with a guaranteed success rate. At which point, Crow will not re-engage and can be spoken to.

“Dis handsome mug o’ mine? It’s all thanks to da boss! He’s great. On da one hand, he did murderize me, and I gotta say dat dat wasn’t fun. But on da otha hand, he patched me up afterwoids. Even gave me all dese boids for free. Dat’s da boss for ya… all considerate-like!”

Crow will then peacefully wander the room and is willing to trade you a Bundle of Feathers in exchange for food items to appease his birds (can only be done once per day).

Bundle of Feathers: a clump of molted bird parts. The wings still flap and the beaks still open and close. Can be used in battle to draw an enemy's attack but is too flimsy to stand up to more than one instance of damage. Inflicts disease on the enemy that breaks it.

Crocodile

If you begin the battle with Joel in your party, Crocodile will exclaim:

“Hey, little guy, the one with the teeth! Can I borrow some? Just a few molars.”

Using any of Joel's offensive teeth skills at this this point immediately ends the combat. Croc wanders about the room aimlessly and can be spoken to.

“Thanks pal. You’re a lifesaver, my reptile side loses teeth faster than I can grow them back. I’ll have my roomie stitch these onto me later. He's not a bad guy, really. Just devoted to his craft, you know?”

He then gives you an IOU note. It serves no purpose.

Limbs

If you’re missing either arm when you fight Limbs, the combat music quickly dies down and goes silent before either party can attack.

“…Oh! My mistake, it looks like dad already took the parts he wanted from you, so... ah... I guess we're cool? I’m, uhhh, not really used to having guests… want some gum? I’ve got gum.”

If you respond with ‘yes’, they will give you one stick of gum for each member of your party, causing combat to end.

“Don’t tell the others, it’d make me feel so weird if they knew, but… I don’t think I was ever a person. I’m just the spare parts dad had laying around, you know? Ah, that’s better. I had to tell somebody, just to get it off chest…s.”

Tiger

It seems the tiger is the one in control. Literally just a confused and scared animal that will not pursue you so long as you don’t get within two tile’s worth of distance and don't smell too badly.

Taxidermy

If you equip a single character with EVERY piece of the ‘leather’ set, instead of roaming hostilely, Taxidermy will be stationary and blocking the exit when you attempt to leave.

“Could it be…? Could you be another connoisseur of the leather arts? You recognize quality craftsmanship. You wear it well.”

At this point, they will allow you to ask a few questions.

> Who did you used to be?

"An amateur. A blind pedant. An insect, unaware of even my own ignorance."

> What did you do to all these people?

"Yes! Yes!! That is exactly the question I want my work to evoke in an observer! Oh, that is very validating to hear. Thank you."

> Can I help you or them in any way?

"An artist wants for naught but two things: recognition, and... materials."

> ...Are you going to make me into 'art' too?

"Excited by the possibility, eh? I must admit, I'm thinking about it."

Once you attempt to say goodbye, Taxidermy cuts you off. There’s only one way to really tell whether you're a fan or just a thief: a quiz, of course! About their various creations.

Each question has one correct answer accompanied by two wrong answers, as well as one blatantly incorrect and very rude answer. The exception is the final question, which has no wrong answer (aside from 'Your mother.').

“What did you use to unlock my private display? I hope you appreciated the detail work; it took hours stitching actual hairs into the scalp, and even longer to find a brain that fit inside…”

> A jar.

> A taxidermy dog.

> A beautiful recreation of a human head.

> A cheap Halloween decoration.

“Which creation lacks a brain? I was as surprised as they were when they came to life.”

> Limbs

> Crocodile

> Crow

> You

“How many eyes does Crocodile have? Surely you counted each masterfully preserved eyeball.”

> One

> Three

> None

> Those were supposed to be eyes?

“How many beautiful animals decorate my foyer? Minus, of course, the ones you took.”

> Seven

> Two

> (Correct answer, varies)

> Just one, and that's only if you count me.

“…Which of my creations is your favorite?”

> Crow

> Crocodile

> Limbs

> Tiger

> Your mother.

Answering incorrectly twice chases Taxidermy to fight you as normal. But choosing the purposely rude option even once causes them to immediately attack you out of fury. They’re crying, enraged, and blinded for the first three turns of combat. Additionally, they're backed up by two random creations.

Answering correctly at least three times causes Taxidermy to relent.

“As certain as I am that you would make a superb pair of jeans, it would not be right to turn my biggest fan into art.”

They will then move aside, freeing up the exit and offering to create an 'even better' version of any non-leather piece of leather gear... but only one, and it takes an entire day to complete. The resulting equipment has +5 defense, +5 ballistic defense, and +5% bonus to max HP on top of its original stats.

------------------------------------------------------------------

And that concludes the residents of apartment 30! I wanted to get to the frozen folks in apartment 34 in this post as well, but things just went too long, both lengthwise and timewise! They'll be the next one, and they're even mostly finished (I swear)!

Part 1

Part 2

Part 4

Part 5

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Skinnamarinkstump Linkdump

I'm on a 20+ city book tour for my new novel PICKS AND SHOVELS. Catch me TODAY (Feb 15) for a virtual event with YANIS VAROUFAKIS, and on MONDAY (Feb 17) for an event at KEPLER'S in MENLO PARK with CHARLIE JANE ANDERS. More tour dates here.

It's Saturday and I'm on a book tour, and the world is in chaos, and there are more links to write about than I could fit in to this week's newsletter, so time for a cubic linkdump, the 27th such:

https://pluralistic.net/tag/linkdump/

Let's start with the best thing I saw all week: a 3D-printed, spring-loaded, clockwork chess pawn that uses a magnet to sense when it has reached the end of the board and SPROING! turns into a queen:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CSOnnle3zbA

The whole video is a fascinating account of the design process, from idea to prototype to finished item, but if you're impatient and want to skip right to the eyeball kick, it's at 12:27-12:35. And if you want to print your own, the files are $12 (cheap!):

https://www.patreon.com/WorksByDesign/shop/queen-pawn-3d-printing-files-614491?source=storefront

Regrettably, not every tech project is a good one. This week, Google abandoned its AI ethics pledge. Unlike most AI ethics pledge, which are full of nonsense about not accidentally creating a vengeful god that turns the human race into paperclips, Google's AI pledge was actually very important, in that the company promised not to make AI that violates human rights, international law, or privacy. There comes a point where harping on Google's abandoned "don't be evil" motto can feel a little hacky, but in this case, I'll make an exception. My EFF colleague Matthew Guariglia tears Google a much-deserved new AIhole over this latest heel turn:

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2025/02/google-wrong-side-history

Not all bad technology is evil. Some of it is merely very, very stupid. How stupid? Check out Thom Dunn's Wirecutter review of The Heatbit Trio, a space-heater that uses Bitcoin-mining GPUs to generate some of its heat, very slightly offsetting the cost of warming your room – but at a rate that would take decades to recoup the $700 price-tag. Thom got some spicy quotes from Molly White for this one – possibly the first time she's been cited in a home appliance review:

https://www.nytimes.com/wirecutter/reviews/heatbit-space-heater-review/

Staying with crypto freaks for a moment here, Adam Levitin dissects the cryptocurrency "industry"'s latest chorus of aggrieved whining over "debanking":

https://www.creditslips.org/creditslips/2025/02/debanked-by-the-market.html

As Levitin writes, banks aren't kicking cryptocurrency "companies" off their books because the government wants to punish them. Banks have a very good reason to want to avoid doing business with high-dollar scams that have highly correlated implosions, which is to say, times when everyone wants their money back from the cryptocurrency "company" the bank is handling charges for. For a longer explanation that gets into the nitty gritty of bank supervision, check out Patio11's excellent, detailed explainer:

https://www.bitsaboutmoney.com/archive/debanking-and-debunking/

As all the real heads know, "crypto means cryptography," and cryptographers continue to contrive privacy marvels. This week, Kagi – the best search engine, a million times better than Google – released a Privacy Pass authentication plugin, which lets you login to Kagi and run searches without Kagi being able to connect any of the searches you make with your account:

https://blog.kagi.com/kagi-privacy-pass

As an sf/crime writer who sometimes (often) searches for information on committing ghastly crimes and 'orrible murders, the fact that my favorite search engine will be technically incapable of tying those searches to my identity is quite a relief. Read my review of Kagi here:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/04/04/teach-me-how-to-shruggie/#kagi

If you're one of those marvel-contriving hackers, cryptographers, security researchers or tinkerers, you should really consider attending this summer's Hackers on Planet Earth (HOPE), 2600 Magazine's (now) annual (formerly biennial) hacker con. They've just posted their CFP – get those submission in!

https://www.hope.net/cfp-talks.html

Well, I have to post this and get ready for this morning's virtual book tour event with Yanis Varoufakis:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xkIDep7Z4LM

But before I go, one more link: Kevin Steele's 2005 essay on Hypercard, "When Multimedia Was Black & White," an absolute classic, and a beautiful meditation on the art and promise of early hypertext:

https://web.archive.org/web/20240213190609/http://www.kevinsteele.com/smackerel/black_white_00.html

I've known Kevin for most of my life, long before he helped found Mackerel, the pioneering Toronto multimedia company. Long after Mackerel, Kevin went on making wonderful things. In 2023, he published a monumental act of portraiture – a "sequential art" time-series of panoramas of Toronto's hip, ever-changing Queen Street West strip:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/09/13/spadina-to-bathurst/#dukes-cycle

Comparing Kevin's more recent work with that lovely old essay reveals deep correspondences and the progress of a unique and creative soul.

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2025/02/15/intermixture/#debunking-debanking

[porterdavis]

And people are fighting over them...

[left-hand-of-dorkness]

quick list of new york times properties for your strike solidarity reference (non comprehensive! double check your media!)

right now with holiday shopping and the baseball free agent moves, remember that WIRECUTTER and THE ATHLETIC are NYT properties.

NYT also owns Serial Productions (podcasts) and makes a ton of podcasts like The Daily, Modern Love etc.

The New York Times

The New York Times International Edition

The New York Times International Weekly

T: The New York Times Style Magazine

The New York Times Book Review

The New York Times Magazine

The New York Times Licensing Group (NYTLicensing)

NYTimes.com

TimesDigest

Other properties

Times Books

T Brand Studio

The New York Times Idea Lab

Times Wine Club

Times Film Club

Times Journeys

NYTLive

The New York Times Thought Leadership Conferences

The New York Times Travel Show

TimesTalks

Live Read

The School of The New York Times

The New York Times Store

TheTimesCenter

Other assets

Abuzz Technologies

The Athletic

Audm

Blogrunner

Wirecutter

Wordle

[johnschneiderblog]

Not just a better one - the best one

You know fall is coming when the New York Times devotes 26 hours of a reporter’s time to researching and rating mousetraps.

But the newspaper, through its product-review website Wirecutter, did just that: 18 hours of interviews with “industry experts,” plus eight hours of baiting, setting and “detonating” (springing, I guess) mousetraps, then rating them on their effectiveness and convenience.

The Times published the results in Sunday’s edition. As the owner of both a rural home and northern Michigan cottage (neither of which is exactly a fortress against a critter that can fit through a quarter-inch crack), I read with interest.

 “We are confident,” the story said, “that the Tomcat Press ‘N Set Mouse Trap is the proverbial ‘better’ mousetrap. It’s easier to set than the competition without hurting your fingers and easier to empty without touching a dead mouse—and it traps mice just as well as anything else we tested.”

I’ve always used the old-school Victor contraption, baited with peanut butter, but have, indeed, suffered a few sore fingers over the years.

Read the story by clicking on the photo.

Photo: Michael Hession

[purple-comet-hurricane]

Y’ALL LIKE OCS?

i made a group of TFA ocs because out of all the cartoons i LOVE tfa the most and also because tfa has the easiest art style to draw in but y’know

these are my girls (left to right): Trickshot, Underglow, Ceedee and Wirecutter.

(info under the cut)

Wirecutter and Underglow work as partners, Wirecutter being a Communications Officer and Underglow a Surveillance Officer. They’re both triple changers, Wire is a Helicopter/Mouse and Underglow is a Car/Keyboard. 

Wirecutter is a gremlin and pissed 24/7, Underglow is a goblin and always causing trouble 24/7they even each other out

Next is Trickshot, a Decepticon-Turned-Autobot Informant. essentially she's complying with the Elite Guard to avoid going to jail. she also knows Longarm's secret identity because Former High Ranking Decepticon and has kept quiet about it even though she's in Autobot custody, while she tells Sentinel some truths, she has ways to make it so her lies aren’t as noticeable. She resents the Autobots but has learned to play nice.

Lastly is Ceedee, a Micro Cassette player who acts as a spy for the Autobots, sent to Earth under Sentinel's request to observe and keep track of Optimus's team using her Micro Cassettes while she herself has set up her own little camp to monitor the area for Decepticon movement as well as track down any rogue Autobot soldiers sent to Earth.

[kentwang]

Perennial favorites and bestseller, the Keyhole Sunglasses in tortoiseshell. Order a pair today and see why @wirecutter called them “the most comfortable pair of sunglasses we tested”.

📷: @notyourbasicbs