Topic · across the network

Insects

Most of the animal biomass, currently disappearing.

29: briefs
7: subjects
9:47: average
284 min: in total

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film.briefs Film

All 2 in film →

13:00

Genocide

Kazui Nihonmatsu · 1968

Genocide (1968), directed by Kazui Nihonmatsu for Shochiku, is a science fiction horror film set on a fictional Japanese archipelago where weaponised insects emerge in the wake of a crashed H-bomb. Blending Cold War paranoia, post-nuclear trauma, and ecological unease, it follows biologist Dr. Nagumo, islander Yukari, and American soldiers as they confront biological invasion, espionage, and the looming threat of nuclear cover-up. Shot by Shizuo Hirase with a sparse score by Shunsuke Kikuchi, it is austere in execution and ambitious in theme — Shochiku’s final horror release, and a singularly uneasy artefact of its time.

13:00

The Insect Woman

Shohei Imamura · 1963

Shohei Imamura’s 1963 drama follows Tome Matsuki from rural childhood to post-war Tokyo madam across thirty-two episodic chapters. Sachiko Hidari’s unsentimental performance, Shinsaku Himeda’s unadorned cinematography, and Toshiro Mayuzumi’s sparse score serve a vision of class and gender as material forces — not backdrops, but shaping pressures. Entered in Berlin, where Hidari won Best Actress, it remains a benchmark of socially grounded Japanese cinema.

science.briefs Science

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10:34

Karl von Frisch

Bees don’t just react — they compute direction, time, and identity with senses we lack.

13:00

Plasmodium

Plasmodium spends part of its life dormant in the liver for over a year before it ever reaches the blood, a hiding strategy this brief follows alongside the parasite's steady, documented history of outlasting every drug built against it.

13:00

Trypanosoma brucei

Trypanosoma brucei swaps its surface coat faster than the immune system can catch up, and this brief follows that trick from a 1901 Ugandan epidemic that killed a quarter of a million people to a single-dose drug approved a little over a year ago.

games.briefs Games

All 3 in games →

10:40

Centipede (video game)

Atari · 1981

Centipede is a fixed shooter arcade game developed and published by Atari, Inc. in 1981. The player controls the Bug Blaster at the bottom of the screen with a trackball and shoots upward at a segmented centipede descending through a field of mushrooms. Shooting a segment turns it into a mushroom and splits the centipede; the rear piece grows a new head. The centipede moves horizontally until hitting a mushroom or screen edge, then drops one level and reverses. Mushrooms take four shots to destroy and award one point each. Their accumulation speeds the centipede’s descent. A 1998 Windows PC remake was released by Hasbro Interactive.

9:00

Millipede (video game)

Atari · 1982

Millipede is a fixed shooter arcade game developed and published by Atari, Inc. in 1982. The player controls Archer, an elf, using a trackball and fire button to destroy a descending millipede and other insect enemies while avoiding collisions. The millipede moves horizontally, drops one row upon hitting obstacles or edges, and splits when shot — its rear segment growing a new head. Gameplay includes varied enemy behaviours, special items like DDT bombs, bonus swarm levels, and dynamic mushroom field changes inspired by Conway's Game of Life.

9:21

Hollow Knight

Team Cherry · 2017

Hollow Knight is a 2D side-scrolling Metroidvania. The player controls a silent insectoid warrior exploring the underground fallen kingdom of Hallownest. Core gameplay involves attacking enemies with a sword-like Nail, gaining Soul from combat to fuel abilities like Focus (mask regeneration) and offensive spells, and using Soul for charm-based boosts. Hit points are represented by masks; losing all masks results in death and spawns a Shade at the death location, marked on the map. The game features nonlinear exploration, ability-gated progression, fast travel via Stag Stations, and a charm system that consumes limited charm notches. It was developed and published by Team Cherry, released first on Linux, macOS, and Windows.

culture.briefs Culture

All 1 in culture →

10:37

Michel Foucault

Foucault mapped power so precisely he left no room for politics.

audio.briefs Audio

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7:58

Wasp

Electronic Dream Plant

The Wasp is a 1978 monosynth defined by its copper-plate keyboard, black-and-yellow casing, internal speaker, and proprietary interconnection. It was EDP’s best-received product but flawed in execution: unreliable live, prone to autonomous triggering, and technologically isolated. Its sound is inseparable from its limitations.