A month old, but I'm testing something..
The Independent Variable
Posts on page 5
The Fanfare Around the Band Geese Actually Was a Psyop
musicEssentially, the firm creates networks of social media pages (typically on TikTok) and uses them to drive the band’s music into the recommendation algorithm. Songs are dropped into the backgrounds of videos. Live clips are shared. Sometimes, burner accounts, comments, and whole ecosystems of interactions can be fabricated out of digital cloth, stoking—and in some cases, completely manufacturing—discourse around an artist
In a perfect world we wouldn't have to resort to this to get the word out about good music, but unfortunately that's the world we live in. So I really don't have a problem with this. I mean, if their music was crap, it wouldn't matter how much they pushed it on social media—people wouldn't listen to it.
Are there some people influenced by the repetitive visibility of something? Sure. But I think the proof is in the pudding when it comes to the music and the people who actually go out to shows and spend real dollars. They're not doing that for music they don't like, but were fed constantly through the algorithms. Unfortunately, the algorithms are a necessity in today's world if you want to get the word out about something.
NBA Europe draws host of bids, including $1 billion offers
sportsThe NBA was said to be seeking a sliding scale of investment, depending on the market, between $500 million and $1 billion for a “license,” or permanent entry into the new European league, and two sources familiar with the bids said several came in meeting or exceeding the $500 million threshold.
I'm a bit nervous about American sports ruining some of the tradition in Europe. I'm not sure how basketball leagues works today, but relegation is incredibly important to soccer. The NBA expanding to Europe probably won't have relegation—If anything, we should bring relegation into our sports. If you want to prevent people from tanking, that's the perfect way.
ByeDoom — Give a Link → Get a Feed
internetAdd any public Instagram profile, YouTube channel or X account to quickly get an RSS feed for your favorite reader.
I feel like I've seen a few of these tools before. I'm always skeptical that following something like Instagram through an RSS feed won't break eventually, but this one does look like one of the more well-polished versions, so I'm not opposed to giving it a try.
The Internet's Most Powerful Archiving Tool Is in Peril
internetThere is no widely available public tool comparable to the Wayback Machine, and if it continues to lose access to major news sources, its preservation efforts could erode to the point where early digital records of history become much harder to access, or are even lost altogether.
On the one hand, I get it—you don't want your stories to come out from behind the paywall and you don't want it to be used by AI (although I bet most of these publications have deals with AI companies—so that's the real reason). But no one is really reading everything via the Wayback Machine—since it's a snapshot, it's not a pleasant experience—and if they are, you are failing at presenting your journalism in a meaningful way.
Angine de Poitrine - Full Performance (Live on KEXP)
musicAngine de Poitrine performing live at ESMA in Rennes, France, during Trans Musicales 2025
I am fully obsessed with these guys. Are the outfits and stuff a gimmick? Sure. But they still jam. I said it before, but they feel like a mix of Khruangbin and King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard and it's just a blast. It also has that GWAR performative nature to it, but it only adds to the music—it doesn't take away.
