Mangela Lansbury

I haven't read through Nintendo's software licenses, but if they're predominantly going after tool-assisted runs, that would count as a modification of their software, and modifying their software is probably against their license agreement. As long as the decision is within the 5th Circuit's jurisdiction, they are basically guaranteed that it's within their legal rights. Otherwise, they could argue that the Let's Play is an unlicensed non-transformative public performance of licensed work, and again, as long as they argued within the 5th Circuit's jurisdiction, they are basically guaranteed that it's within their legal rights. Copyright law is hugely fucked up in America. I can't imagine a situation where a company like Nintendo would go to court outside the 5th Circuit, and corporations are essentially guaranteed wins in that circuit.

Definitely. xir, the only feedback I can provide about Gaming is a 4 Letter Word is to maybe tap the brakes on some of the audio cues. You've put together a great podcast with some impressive interviews and stories -- you don't need some of the little audio interruptions in them. The work is high quality, so let it breathe a bit.

I am imagining that you had a friendly Ikea employee named Markus come by at night and make you dinner and do some cleaning, maybe leave a few fresh flowers in the vase on your table every Sunday, just because he was a nice guy and wanted to help you succeed. Ikea's Markus is a really swell guy.

Film Critic Hulk is very much in love with Hollywood style films and tends to give them the most enthusiastic and charitable reading. I might be misreading his all caps for enthusiasm, but the charity is definitely always there when I manage to read one of his long-winded, gushing essays. Saying that the scene is wholly decontextualized does a disservice to the plotting up to that point. The main villain is obviously doing something at the church to try something out. It's set up very well. That you don't know the specifics of how this is happening doesn't mean you don't know the specifics of why this is happening -- it's happening because the villain has set it up to happen and he has won in this moment, and because this is the lead-in to the all-is-lost moment so the hero can prove himself. It's isn't decontextualized and meaningless violence unless you, like, ignore the lead up to it, ignore any fore-knowledge of the structure of modern film, and ignore the culture that it exists in and has been made to appeal to. I guess in a vacuum, you could consider what he says to be true, but nothing exists in a vacuum. At the very least, this scene exists within the movie, and the movie gives meaning to the violence it portrays. I don't agree with his read on the scene at all. But, again, I haven't watched it in long enough that I can't really argue with it meaningfully. I just don't think the movie is good art, so it's not worth the effort to put that much thought into it.

In Atlanta, riding your bike on the sidewalk was a great way to get fined a couple hundo. In my little Detroit suburb, you're supposed to ride your bike on the sidewalk sometimes -- they've been made wide enough for it and there is no bike lane (or in winter, when snow lives in bike lanes). I got a stern talking to about safety from a cop once, and he basically said that if I didn't feel safe on a stretch of road and there was a sidewalk, I should absolutely move to the sidewalk. Laws are weird and I don't get them.

Fitbit's pedometer stuff is helpful for me. It reinforces the development of good habits. I have a desk job, and keeping track of my steps helps me make sure I get up and move around enough in any given day, even when I'm not going out of my way to work out.

Oh, you weren't being obnoxious! I'm just a person who likes to point out "this is not a productive thing to talk about, so maybe place your energies elsewhere" because, uh, I do that in meetings with doctors for a living, kind of.

BMI is a fairly meaningless statistic, and has largely fallen into disuse (or, at least, should). http://blogs.plos.org/obesitypanacea/2015/04/30/30-of-people-with-a-healthy-bmi-are-actually-obese/ I also don't really think it's worth arguing over whether clinical obesity or chronic sedentarism are worse for you. Travis Saunders is a good person to look to for research in this, as is PLoS in general and Obesity Panacea specifically. Here's an article from there about recent developments in sedentary behavior research http://blogs.plos.org/obesitypanacea/2015/03/11/the-latest-findings-on-sedentary-behaviour-and-mortality/

I don't know how I feel about Kingsman. It never really sat right with me. It seems like it's intended in part to be a satire on violence's role in culture, but it sincerely revels in some extreme violence, using it as a lighthearted, fun centerpiece. The film as a text treats scenes like the church scene like they're supposed to be mega rad, even if the characters themselves don't. There's some dissonance there that I never put the effort into voicing well, and now it's been so long since I've seen it that I can't. But the dude is super cute and he takes off his shirt, so I give it two thumbs up, would use A-B function on DVD, great movie.

Nope. I'd just started commuting by bike every now and then so I wasn't used to it yet, and I was very tired.

Had the second dumbest fall on my bike today. Some undergrad tapped my back wheel with his car while he was coming to a stop. I managed to gracefully fall into the grass on the side of the road, which hadn't been mowed in a while but still left grass stains on my shirt. Very exciting way to spend my relaxing afternoon bike ride to the park. The most embarrassing fall I ever had on my bike was when I was commuting to work at 6am, stopped at a red light, and just fell. Just... didn't do anything to stay upright, and fell right the fuck over. Embarrassing. Now I have an excuse to lie in bed all evening though, so I'm very excited about the rest of my night.

I apologize for lying to everybody. Pumpkin beers still really aren't that good.

I kind of stopped paying attention, but I'll chime in a minor contribution here: there are plenty of interesting arguments over what is sufficiently transformative, but there is no good argument completely against a transformative standard.

No matter how many times I try to listen to the new Carly Rae Jepsen album, I just can't make it past that listen to track 3 on repeat forever stage.

Sometimes. It depends on the company and the game. FFXIV has a Materials Usage License that originally didn't allow for monetizing on YouTube, but was amended to allow it. Activision has a standard User Generated Content provision in its license agreements, which is just bullshit legal stuff that grants them a lot of rights and you not very many. The example below is from a PS4 license agreement, so the "content sharing features" include streaming and video capture. Activision used to have a boilerplate UGC policy in the legal section of their web site, but I can't find it now. I guess that's what they've got instead. EDIT: From above: ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Kojima is the George Lucas of video games?

That is a myth, but it's understandable that you think that because copyright is really fucking confusing. There's a good amount of commercial fair use cases, and they boil down to transformation and cultural contribution -- mainly, has the appropriated work been transformed enough in its use for the resulting work to be considered an original cultural contribution? If the resulting product is distinct enough in this highly specific but highly ephemeral way, the use is fair. But I actually think the best thing to model Let's Play licensing on is the play distribution model (you license a set of rules and create an original performance), so what do I know

I don't think enjoying Mexican food is appropriative, like how I don't think eating sushi is appropriative -- they're foods, and you can freely enjoy them and love them. I think a good way to start thinking about appropriation is to look at the way that cultural appropriation has affected the West's relationship with Middle Eastern, African, and Asian people, especially in the context of orientalism. Stereotypes like the Japanese as honorable people, or the weird mishmash representations of Indian spirituality that result in truly bizarre Muslim/Buddhist/Hindu mixed iconography, or people thinking that there are no modern cities in Africa all come from appropriative (mis)representations of those places. The aspects that make a unique place and a unique people are glossed over because we like this one thing, so we take it and ignore the things that aren't that. Edward Said's Orientalism is a really good book that has informed my views on cultural appropriation.

every visual novel ever made

Yes, but the YouTube DMCA takedown process is largely divorced from the law. There are no real checks in place to make sure that it's not being abused, or even used properly. This is why you see so many ridiculous takedowns -- YouTube gets a notice from a company, and they automatically comply. There are no courts and no real law involved. Just fancy corporate procedures masquerading as law to offset risk of actually violating the DMCA. Edit: Also, Fair Use is not a checklist. Those criteria are a useful guideline, but there are cases that don't fit any of the points and cases that fit all of the points. There are a lot of ways to argue that Let's Plays are legal though, so that's beside the point.

The law hasn't remarked on Let's Plays, which are probably fair use exceptions or original performances, and using copyright law as an example of something that makes sense and is worth paying attention to is pretty reaching. DMCA takedowns also rarely actually have anything to do with law. A form letter gets sent to YouTube and they take unilateral action.

I'm a huge fan of Chris Marker, and the French guy I was seeing until recently had no idea who he was. I made him watch a lot of Chris Marker, some of which I hadn't seen myself. You should watch all of it. Also I'm a big fan of French new wave cinema, so if you want any recommendations in that line, I am happy to help.

For Windows 10 eBooks, when you tell Cortana to download a Halo novel about the Flood to the Library, a little flood Bonzi Buddy shows up on your desktop. This is the sign that it's begun.

I switched to a new wallet today and it's significantly slimmer than my old wallet. I keep thinking I don't have it and freaking out for a second.