The Dark Knight

Hi again, I’m Steve Makofsky and this is a semi-whenever list of interesting articles, podcasts and videos that I come across during the week. Hopefully you’ll enjoy it, have something new to think about, and share it with your friends. In case you forgot, this is in your inbox because you asked me to send it to you. You can easily unsubscribe by clicking the link at the bottom of this email.

This week, not only did I rewatch The Dark Knight, but the entire Nolan Batman trilogy of films (side note: I also watched Batman v Superman, which remains a terrible movie). But for this week's Deep Links, I'm going to focus on the middle film, The Dark Knight, which in all respects revolutionized superhero storytelling in modern cinema.

What makes this movie even more wonderful - take away the comic book elements; this is still a fantastic nail-biting crime drama that often reminded me of another movie which inspired it, Heat. Good vs Bad. Right vs Wrong. The movie is seeded in realistic struggle with imperfect heroes and brilliant storytelling.

I could spend an entire page just writing about Heath Ledger's performance as the Joker, the thin line that is drawn between chaos and order, the tragedy of heroes or the central themes of "guilt" and "faith" that are drawn throughout the entire canvas of the film. Or perhaps mention another incredible Hans Zimmer score that is the undertone for the entire trio of movies (I'm noticing a pattern).

In the end, I can't say it's just a fantastic movie that remains one of my favorite films to this day.

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This weeks "Deep Links"

Have you ever wondered what it's like to do a TED Talk? Tim Urban goes into humorous detail about his talk (which is also a must watch) in "Doing a TED Talk: The Full Story" - More

I have fond memories of The Far Side from when I was a kid, laughing my through every collection and each new one that showed up in the daily paper. He retired in 1995 for "fatigue and fear that if I continue for many more years my work will begin to suffer, or at the very least ease into the Graveyard of Mediocre Cartoons". Imagine my surprise this week when Gary Larson decided to start publishing new work (for the first time in 25 years). What's most interesting is that his new work is "the result of my journey into the world of digital art" - More

Proudly, I still have my Newton MessagePad 100; this week there was a really interesting look at the UI components that made it special. - More

As we are enter the 4,938th day of COVID, a look at how gaming has become a new normal during the pandemic - More

Every week, there's another article around data privacy and the information companies (especially data brokers) are gathering about you. Jordan Wright, a R&D engineered at Duo Security decided to write up his experience around requesting his data and what detailed information he received from bulk data collection of his private life. - More

Speaking of privacy and security, a look inside Have I Been Pwned; a website that is designed to check if you have an account that's been compromised in a data breach. My personal email is now been 11 data breaches, which is why I've been using a password manager for years and recommend 1Password to anyone who is on the Internet. - More

"Masterclass is selling credibility", and it's not really about "mastery" - More

My inner 9 year old loved this, but I never knew that 'Butt' is an actual unit of measurement - More

I never heard of "Encrochat" before reading this article. Encrochat's phones are modified Android devices; installed with its own encrypted messaging programs which route messages through private servers, and even physically removed the GPS, camera, and microphone functionality from the phone; becoming a global phone network for organized crime - More

Beautiful to watch: NASA releases a 10-Year Time Lapse video of the Sun - More

Some amazing tips on taking a different approach to reading. I've started to implement some of these, and agree that "Everything I Knew About Reading Was Wrong" - More

The Apple Watch, IMHO, from the beginning has been a quiet revolution that is slowly evolving a new era of "personal" computing. One thing is for sure though, the future of health care is already sitting on most people's wrists - More

End Thoughts

They need you right now, but when they don't, they'll cast you out, like a leper! You see, their morals, their code, it's a bad joke. Dropped at the first sign of trouble. They're only as good as the world allows them to be. I'll show you. When the chips are down, these... these civilized people, they'll eat each other. See, I'm not? a monster. I'm just ahead of the curb.