News ⚡ — 30 October Wednesday

Media outlet Eldorado uses shoes to fund its documentary. A new anti-meme law is introduced in the US. The Apple Airpod Pros are great but are destined for landfills.

1. 🥑 Avocado Rise is a documentary by sustainable footwear company Tropicfeel and Eldorado | Kickstarter
In an interesting partnership, media outlet Eldorado has partnered with sustainable footwear company Tropicfeel to release a shoe that will subsequently fund a documentary. The documentary focuses on the destruction of Sierra De Bahoruco, listed as a Biosphere Reserve by Unesco, all in the name of farmers looking to expand their avocado farms.

2. 💸 Why a meme could soon cost you $30,000 | Dazed
American creators now have a new law on their side that would allow small claims to be made for works they had created and subsequently used without their permission. The law titled the Copyright Alternative in Small-Claims Enforcement (CASE) Act has been dubbed the “anti-meme” law. The new law’s difference is that it now allows a more affordable approach for creators to protect their IP versus traditionally expensive avenues.

3. 📱 The initial AirPod Pro earn positive reviews but you still can’t fix them | 9to5 Mac
Apple’s latest and greatest Airpod Pros have arrived in the ends of the tech elite (aka influencer reviewers). For the most part, the reviews have been positive, except one big issue, they are once again ripe for the garbage can when things go astray. Like the previous generation, the Airpod Pros are nearly impossible to fix.

4. 📱 Netflix wants to let people watch things at twice the speed, but Hollywood is pushing back | The Verge
The company is experimenting with letting a select group of Android users adjust the playback speed of their videos — something Netflix claims is part of its ongoing experiments with improving the viewing experience.

But directors including Judd Apatow voiced their opposition, saying that it would mean the platform supports filmmakers and creators on one hand but utterly destroys the presentation of their work on the other.

5. 🥢 Sarula Bao’s Real Chinese Food is a zine about take-out, shame and diaspora identity | It’s Nice That
The zine is an exploration of the shame ethnic diaspora often feel towards their heritage food, a by-product of internalized racism and assimilation, through the eyes of a Chinese-American woman and her complicated relationship with take-out.

6. 🦿 Chinese University experts develop a device that can generate power from the motion of your knee joint as you walk | SCMP
The lightweight device, developed at Hong Kong’s Chinese University, attaches to the user’s thigh and shank to generate enough electricity to charge a smart band or Apple Watch through the some 10,000 steps a healthy person takes a day.

Professor Liao Wei-hsin, who led the team that developed the “prototype harvester”, says that the device would especially be useful for mountaineers and other wilderness travelers who get lost and said companies have already reached out hoping to incorporate it into clothing.

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