The IMDb pre-dates Amazon by a year or two, and it took a few more years before Amazon bought it. I guess Amazon just wanted a little more money from the deal. Certainly moving content to the IMDbPro pay section looks like a cash grab.
Gee, and I was just thinking about finally making myself famous by uploading my info.
The Firefox add-ons I installed don’t allow IMDB pages to load. If I’m too lazy to copy and paste the URL and open a different browser I default to Wikipedia as well.
I don’t understand corporate “let’s make the site less usable” directives. A supermarket chain here does that, only the site text declares that any browsers it doesn’t support are “out of date.” All of my browsers are open source, they’re not “out of date.” All the browsers its site supports are corporate-developed. I am old enough to look to a site for information, I don’t think “oh they better have Flash or Silverlight or heaps of third-party tracking cookies or I’ll use another site!”
I know, but it became the household name it is today during the Amazon years. By web standards 1998 is ancient history.
Most sites contain animation and/or sheer effects these days. It’s not the style to let people scroll the whole page, without trouble. It seems to be the style to have a large top section which changes size and shape as readers start to scroll, and refuses to scroll out of the way as readers continue to scroll. I have to block Javascript just to use the Internet Archive, which unfortunately breaks certain tools on the site too. It’s also the style to punch users with zooming animation if we mouse across certain images.
CanTire did that for a while on the mobile version. I suppose “futuristic compared to the site” could qualify as “out of date”.
Then I think that they got enough complaints that they realised how much money they were losing and updated their site.
Means they’re out of date in their design, period. Especially if they’re using those plugins you mentioned. Even Netflix dropped Silverlight.
I drive by here quite a bit and have always wondered about it…
Good to see there are still some happy mutants who haven’t been gentrified out.
There’s an error in the article. The Incas did leave behind written records. They had writing. They had history. Their history was destroyed by the Spanish.
Well, I was wrong. They never developed writing.
https://www.savacations.com/quipu-ancient-writing-system-used-incas/
It was the Maya who had writings that were destroyed.
:𐍃𐌹𐌻𐌳𐌰𐌻𐌴𐌹𐌺𐍉𐍃·𐍅𐌴𐌹𐌷𐌰𐌳𐌰𐌲𐍉𐍃:
Wonderful weohidays!
On the Roman Calendar (h/t to Pharyngula):
In Civilization, Superstition is a disaster card. At times, Roman society seems like a player who decides it’s their lucky card, and would really like some way to buy it as a Civilization advance so they can get Superstition every turn. But the rules don’t allow that.
Ancient Rome was the kind of place where the legislature might randomly pass a law that said “OK everybody we’re going to have an extra month this year” so they could collect more taxes 
For those of you into punk history, the Sex Pistol’s last UK show was a benefit for striking firemen:
A few of the less pleasant regulars made a concerted effort to ensure that did not happen.
EDIT: nope, thinking of someone else.
it was on BB today. the footage of the kids was such a joy to watch.
And the disputed Luwian inscription has been published!
http://militera.lib.ru/h/civilwar_blacksea/index.html
From the abstract:
The Beyköy inscription contains 50 phrases and is thus the longest known Bronze Age hieroglyphic document. It outranks by far any documents known from western Anatolia. The inscription was commissioned by great king Kupantakuruntas of Mira. It commemorates his deeds, and in so doing provides a detailed account of his realm and conquests. The text dates back to the upheavals of the Sea Peoples, ca. 1190–1180 BC. It relates the maritime conquests in the eastern Mediterranean under the command of great prince Muksus from the Troad. The western Anatolian naval forces proceeded all the way to Ashkelon in southern Palestine, bordering on Egypt. The memory of this endeavor was preserved in Greek literary tradition in the form of the legendary tales about Mopsos. In short, the Luwian hieroglyphic text from Beyköy gives us a fascinating insight into the history of a region and a period which has thus far been shrouded in darkness. It is reproduced and discussed here together with three more substantial Luwian hieroglyphic documents and four fragments from Mellaart’s estate.
By studying both Christian and Muslim countries, researchers have determined that it’s major holidays, not cold weather, that causes a baby boom in certain months:
Maybe this will help us understand the Etruscans. We can always hope.
The Strange Death of Sigurd Eysteinsson, 2nd Earl of Orkney
His death was said to have been caused by the severed head of Máel Brigte, whom Sigurd defeated in battle. As he rode a horse with Máel Brigte’s head attached to his saddle as a trophy, one of Máel Brigte’s teeth grazed against Sigurd’s leg. The wound became infected, later causing Sigurd’s death.