Reading List

The most recent articles from a list of feeds I subscribe to.

Something is happening with the Oblivion remaster tomorrow

A new post by the official Elder Scrolls account on X (formerly Twitter) indicates Bethesda is finally ready to say something about the Oblivion remaster that keeps leaking all over the place. The post is a simple image of what appears to be the knight from the original Oblivion cover, overlaid with the Roman numeral […]

How Tim Cook Navigated Out of Trump’s Tariffs on China, For Now

Jeff Stein, Elizabeth Dwoskin, and Cat Zakrzewski, reporting for The Washington Post:

As President Donald Trump’s enormous new tariffs on China rippled through global supply chains, Apple CEO Tim Cook went to work behind the scenes.

Cook spoke to Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick last week about the potential impact of the tariffs on iPhone prices, two people familiar with the phone call said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to reflect private conversations that were previously unreported. Cook spoke with other senior officials in the White House, the people said. And he refrained from publicly criticizing the president or his policies on national television, as many other executives have over the past several weeks.

By the end of the week, the Trump administration agreed to exempt from import duties electronic products that Apple produces in China, an action that also granted a reprieve to other large U.S. firms, including HP and Dell. Trump did so despite the recommendations of senior White House aide Peter Navarro, who had wanted the taxes to remain in place, the people said.

Three points:

  1. Tim Cook manages this dance with aplomb. This is not a “good system”. But given the way Trump operates, what Cook managed here is not merely good for Apple but better policy, period.

  2. Howard Lutnick is a lickspittle moron with the demeanor of a used car salesman who knowingly sells overpriced lemons to suckers. Here he is on Meet the Press a few weeks ago bragging that “The army of millions and millions of human beings screwing in little screws to make iPhones — that kind of thing is going to come to America.” Keith Olbermann mentioned in a recent episode of his podcast that Lutnick is a dead ringer for Morrie Kessler, the bookmaker of “Morrie’s Wigs” fame from Goodfellas, and I can’t un-see it.

  3. Peter Navarro is such a profound dope and abject fraud — seriously, he’s not even good at making up phony names — that he makes Lutnick seem like a credible, responsible official.

Bethesda confirms Oblivion remaster’s imminent reveal

Xbox has confirmed the Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion remaster. After years worth of rumors, Bethesda has finally acknowledged that the Oblivion remaster is real. In a post on social media, Bethesda revealed a simple image featuring the roman number IV — alluding to the fact that Oblivion is the fourth in the Elder Scrolls series […]

Andor’s second season traces the long arc of Star Wars’ revolutionary history

Star Wars, an epic story about rebellious heroes fighting back against power-hungry fascists hellbent on enslaving an entire galaxy, has always been deeply political. But there are few pieces of the franchise that have ever come close to Disney Plus’ Andor series in terms of thoroughly unpacking what being locked in endless cycles of conflict […]

Roblox is letting creators fine-tune their prices by country

Roblox is rolling out a new feature that will let creators on the platform choose to offer in-game items at region-specific prices. This means that an item’s specific price will vary to reflect a user’s local region so that it’s equivalent around the world. Right now, in-experience prices are the same globally (the platform is […]