e394 — Immersive Ronto Experiences

immersive lifesize reproduction of Van Gogh's bedroom painting — Photo by Michael Martine, Raleigh 25 November 2022

Andy and Michael start off this episode with the Van Gogh immersive experience. Michael and his family went to check this out as part of their Thanksgiving, and were thoroughly impressed. A specific quote from Van Gogh caught Michael’s attention: “If you hear a voice within you say, ‘you cannot paint,’ then by al means, paint, and that voice will be silenced.” This reminded Andy of his friends Iris Fritschi-Cussens and Tamara Sagathevan’s “Not a Real Artist” – check out the link in the show notes below. Sticking on the immersive theme, a toot from Daryl White points to mynoise.net with many fantastic soundscapes. These soundscapes are designed to achieve specific goals like needing to focus, meditating, ambiance for role playing games and many more.

Turning to creating reality, the co-hosts consider a story about a joke on wikipedia which had lasting repercussions on the supposed inventor of the electric toaster. Then, a story about Private Relay being used as a cover. And then a superb story about new metric prefixes, along with one that was considered and unfortunately not used. The ones that were introduced are pretty good, though.

Following on the automotive subscription stories covered in earlier episodes, an article from Autoblog highlights how the State of New Jersey has introduced legislation to prohibit for a motor vehicle dealer or manufacturer to offer a subscription service that among other considerations, “utilizes components and hardware already installed on the motor vehicle at the time of purchase or lease but the consumer;”. Check out the link below for the draft act.

Rounding out the episode, Andy and Michael share their appreciation for the website that puts order to all of the Marvel Cinematic Universe movies. One may select the timeline of what movies to watch in a specific particular, and keep track of those films you have already watched. Given all the time travel in the recent movies, staying on the appropriate glorious timeline is more important than ever.

And — if our dear listeners heard any glitches during the audio recording, it was from Michael M’s family, who were all downloading the amazingly large captchas from the Thanksgiving Cards Against Humanity 200% off sale. Identifying the photos of under 40 Keanu Reeves was a tough one, but after the show recording completed, Michael managed to prove he was not a bot and achieved a 31% off code.