Various and Sundry

A Cold War that’ll Give You an Ice Cream Headache

By Bjorn Munson | by Bjorn Munson

Running contrary to the New Year’s notion of doing better for several years running is the McDonald’s Ice Cream machine, a notoriously finicky piece of equipment that has its own online dashboard of failure. And if the efficiency experts in your life don’t gnash their teeth at that, they likely will when they read Andy Greenberg’s article in Wired. It’s really infuriating to see miserable experiences be standardized, but to see the lengths to which…

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Various and Sundry

Nudge Your Way to a Happier New Year

By Bjorn Munson | by Bjorn Munson

You can pretty much bet I’ll be thinking about planning and goals for the new year all this month. I was particularly struck by a friend who had a very productive 2021, but decided an overall goal for 2022 was to be happier. With that in mind, I liked this very British list from The Guardian overall, though –besides the very British parts needing some translation to one’s own country– there are some that I…

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Voiceover

Apollyon, Episode 4 “Unfamiliar”

By Bjorn Munson | by Bjorn Munson

I’ve mentioned previously I have a couple roles in Apollyon, a drama about dealing with a pandemic in a world 150 years from now. I can be heard in the first episode and, now, this one. If you’re a fan of thoughtful sci-fi, you may well enjoy this. I’m very happy to have been a part of it. This role was rewarding in a special way because, when I mention I’ve had to deal with…

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Various and Sundry

WTF NFT?

By Bjorn Munson | by Bjorn Munson

Non-fungible tokens or NFTs have been a bit a media rage this past year, as a trend, a new investment opportunity, and possibly a silver bullet that contains your daily recommended dose of antioxidants. I keep thinking, they can’t be as stupid as they sound, can they? You can find out the answer to this and many other questions about NFTs in this excellent article by Vicky Osterweil which, spoiler alert, is called “Money for…

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Various and Sundry

Where’s Alien Waldo?

By Bjorn Munson | by Bjorn Munson

Some days, do you ever wonder, what with all the exoplanets being discovered and concerted studying of the skies, where all the aliens are? And why haven’t we found any evidence of them? And do they make their spacecraft entirely out of the black box? Well, Jill Tarter is here to clear some of that up. And by “clear up,” I mean “tell you how much we don’t know.” Mind you, it might be good…

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Various and Sundry

Circle Back on Jargon and Put a Pin in It

By Bjorn Munson | by Bjorn Munson

Last Wednesday, I was in more meetings than not, so when it came to figuring out a good “wonky Wednesday post,” this article by Olga Khazan in The Atlantic resonated with me. Basically, the article points out how much of the jargon is not only used in business and office settings a form of the office culture, but that it’s also, shall we say, an act. Both from my background in theater and anthropology, I…

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Acting Voiceover

Desolate Dreams

By Bjorn Munson | by Bjorn Munson

Those of you who know I grew up listening to vintage radio will understand that I jumped at the chance to provide a radio announcer voice for that era… and I’m very happy that it’s part of the short film Desolate Dreams, being developed now by filmmaker Kiyoka Rhodes and a fantastic team. Besides the video, be sure to check out their website to learn more about the people working to bring this film to…

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Various and Sundry

The Root of Many a Conspiracy Theory via Ramsey Theory

By Bjorn Munson | by Bjorn Munson

I still remember reading Vernor Vinge’s A Fire Upon the Deep with the idea of the “net of a million lies,” which we may well have already reached without the bonus of having an interstellar civilization. Instead, we have an absurd amount of people around the globe thinking they’re on a flat Earth. I stumbled across this video that has a succinct explanation for a lot of conspiracy theories.. One of the concepts mentioned in…

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