Friday assorted links

1. Watch the Pioneer presentations!  Wednesday, 2 p.m. (EST), register by Tuesday evening.  All sorts of stars and budding stars will participate.  Here is basic information on Pioneer.

2. The evils of motion-smoothing.

3. “The finals of the Fortnite World Cup are taking place in a stadium in New York, with the winner set to earn more prize money than Simona Halep and Novak Djokovic won as Wimbledon champions.”

4. MbS plans for Neom, the new Saudi city.  Here is the full WSJ piece, recommended, and this: “Building Neom will require money Saudi Arabia doesn’t have. The country has recently run budget deficits, and MBS has committed to bets like a $45 billion investment in a Softbank Group Corp. fund. The kingdom has used money borrowed from abroad to fund Neom’s first stages, according to people familiar with the matter.”

5. Who supports animal rights?

6. “In Hong Kong protests, faces become weapons” (NYT).  “The police officers wrestled with Colin Cheung in an unmarked car. They needed his face.

They grabbed his jaw to force his head in front of his iPhone. They slapped his face. They shouted, “Wake up!” They pried open his eyes. It all failed: Mr. Cheung had disabled his phone’s facial-recognition login with a quick button mash as soon as they grabbed him.”

7. When animals interrupt sports (photo gallery).