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The US is withdrawing more than half its staff at the US embassy in Cuba after 21 diplomatic staff and their families have suffered mysterious attacks. [more inside]
posted by Athanassiel at 11:50 PM PST - 93 comments

Never forget that night. It was wonderful. One minute he was almost dead next terrified. Then picked up by strangers then after He had a power nap in the car, the next he’s walking with his bandy leg John Wayne strut under the strip lighted aisles of this massive pet store happy and playful. He wore a red bandana that night and from then on and drank religiously from the toilet throughout the night despite having a few bowls of water in the apartment he was every inch a survivor.

Tom Hardy talks about finding, raising and losing his beloved dog Woodstock.
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 11:31 PM PST - 6 comments

L.A.’s palm trees are dying and it’s changing the city’s famous skyline [more inside]
posted by the man of twists and turns at 10:44 PM PST - 24 comments

For the centenary of Robert Mitchum's birth, Film Comment offers a podcast that looks back at what made Mitchum such a unique star in motion picture history. [more inside]
posted by gusottertrout at 10:41 PM PST - 13 comments

How long does it take to beat your favourite games? “...the brainchild of Minnesota IT technician Randy Gleason. Gleason started HLTB in 2011, when his game backlog grew long enough that the lack of length information frustrated him. “I’d be going through a game and be like, ‘God, how long is this going to take me?’” Gleason says. “A lot of times it was just looking at my Steam game list and [thinking], I’ve got like three or four hours to burn here — what can I get through? What can I knock off my list?”” [via: The Ringer]
posted by Fizz at 7:28 PM PST - 28 comments

Alheira is a sausage used by Portuguese Jews to fool the Inquisitors. It's now considered one of the jewels of Portuguese cuisine, though it's strayed considerably from its early recipe of no pork and bread filler. In the 16th century, a Foole arose as a dessert in England, usually a custard with gooseberries. Very recently, a historian and a re-enactor made a Fool to sample and share. [more inside]
posted by MovableBookLady at 6:46 PM PST - 17 comments

The Magus of Paris is an article by Alex Ross about Symbolist author and art impresario Joséphin Péladan, and the artists he championed in his The Salon de la Rose+Croix in the 1890s, which is the focus of the Guggenheim exhibition Magical Symbolism. The website has various articles, including one about Symbolist poetry (with an accompanying SoundCloud page with readings) and another by Nat Trotman on putting on a 19 hour concert featuring only a single piece three and a half minutes in length called Vexations, by the best known participant in Péladan's salon, Erik Satie. New York Times' critic Joshua Barone staid for the whole duration. The first full performance of the piece was in 1963, organized by John Cage in New York and the Times covered it then too.
posted by Kattullus at 4:53 PM PST - 7 comments

The New Democratic Party of Canada - descended from the socialist CCF - is about to choose a new leader, after more than a year of campaigning. Policies on offer include universal basic income, a worker cooperative option for closing businesses, a national carbon budget, mixed-member proportional representation, recognition of the distinct need of Aboriginal people in the justice system, legalization of all drugs, and more. Four candidates - Jagmeet Singh, Charlie Angus, Guy Caron and Niki Ashton - remain in the race. [more inside]
posted by clawsoon at 3:19 PM PST - 45 comments

Queery is a hour-long weekly (or biweekly or...) podcast where standup comedian Cameron Esposito talks about queer life with a guest, usually someone from the entertainment industry. [more inside]
posted by GenjiandProust at 3:15 PM PST - 3 comments

AMAZING NATURE (twitter) for a carefully calibrated dose of fuzz-aw: one of the best things | dolphins go squirrel! | cat cuddle quartet | stray dog samaritans | dog reconsiders life choices while cat concurs
posted by spamandkimchi at 12:55 PM PST - 17 comments

We knew since she was a toddler that she was different. Although we saw her as a boy, she played with girl toys. She had a solid obsession with the color pink. She always wanted to put on my sister’s dresses. At first maybe we thought she would be gay and we were totally fine with that- we have a lot of gay relatives on my mom’s side. We didn’t force the issue either as she grew up. We didn’t want her to come up with answers that she didn’t have or needed to have. But we knew one day she would figure it out. [more inside]
posted by Major Matt Mason Dixon at 5:47 AM PST - 21 comments

Bill Maher takes 8m13s to lay out the Russia connection with our President and his business empire.
posted by hippybear at 5:23 AM PST - 98 comments

What’s exotic to me isn’t food gilded with turmeric and six-day weddings — it’s grits and rodeos. How much time did I have left to experience them? I have a strong respect for choreographed mass dancing; I grew up with the understanding that seminal moments in Bollywood films must be commemorated with synchronized hip shaking. The Wildhorse was a divine revelation — white people, they’re just like us! There I was, a Yankee of Indian extraction who had always dismissed country music without a second listen, tearing through Nashville’s Lower Broadway — swaying along to cover bands at Tootsie’s and Robert’s Western World and perusing star-spangled cowboy gear at Boot Country.
posted by stillmoving at 2:47 AM PST - 3 comments

Poor Kristen Wiig. Every time she's booked on The Tonight Show she's bumped for other celebrities, like Peyton Manning, Khaleesi from Game of Thrones (previously), JoJo from The Bachelorette, and Michael Jordon, who are all definitely not Kristen Wiig in disguise.
posted by Room 641-A at 2:16 AM PST - 11 comments

"The View from the Top of the Stair" by E. Lily Yu (Hazlitt, 2017): "Upon hearing of the death of my father ... my second thought, I am sorry to say, was that at long last I could gratify my passion for stairs." "Blue Funk" by Rikki Ducornet (Fairy Tale Review, 2006; recently posted online): "People love my city for its brasseries like hothouses, ardent and perverse, its breezes that smell of coffee and of the sea. But when I am in my blue funk I see nothing of all this."
posted by Wobbuffet at 1:04 AM PST - 3 comments

Provide a Twitter handle to Poetweet and get back a sonnet or a rondel.
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 10:50 PM PST - 25 comments

And now settle back for an unusually calming pair of new Homestar Runner shorts that's right Strong Bad teaches you to draw familiar-looking "cartoon characters", and then it's time for an episode of the unusually soothing children's show characters from yonder website, or rather, 𝓬𝓱𝓪𝓻𝓪𝓬𝓽𝓮𝓻𝓼 𝓯𝓻𝓸𝓶 𝔂𝓸𝓷𝓭𝓮𝓻 𝔀𝓮𝓫𝓼𝓲𝓽𝓮, far out. [more inside]
posted by JHarris at 10:45 PM PST - 8 comments

Married couples still enjoy preferential treatment in a number of areas, from tax to childcare, and marriage is still the most straightforward way to be acknowledged not only as a person but also as a citizen. In that respect the following holds true: what marriage equality has begun to provide the gay and queer community – that is, recognition and legal status – self-marriage might offer to a group often demonised and discriminated against: single women. [more inside]
posted by Lycaste at 7:58 PM PST - 63 comments

The first thing counselors tell sex addicts is to stop watching porn, and we really shouldn’t be watching this much HGTV during our rehab. Although it’s a soothing experience, it is also a fomenter of deep feelings of discontent about one’s living arrangements, which began to hit me hard around week two. Why have I allowed my attic “bonus room” to remain covered in the exact type of wall-to-wall carpet that repulses Joanna Gaines, Christina El Moussa, and both Property Brothers? And what failure of character is revealed by my closed-plan kitchen?
posted by Grandysaur at 6:43 PM PST - 128 comments

Photon induced photoacoustic streaming um... er... Blue (via SyFyWire).
posted by AlonzoMosleyFBI at 5:15 PM PST - 10 comments

Mediaversity: TV & Film Graded on Diversity “Mediaversity was launched this past April as a passion project by Li Lai, a New York-based visual designer, who originally posted her reviews to Tumblr in December 2016. The site’s contributors review popular film and TV around 80 percent of the time, and lesser-known indie shows around 20 percent of the time. Lai, whose family is from Taiwan, tells The Verge that her social awareness is a result of “simply being alive for 32 years in this world as a woman of color and growing up with LGBTQ friends.” The site’s grading is evidence-based but often subjective, just as film and TV reviews are. Contributors assign numerical scores on a 5-point scale to various categories like writing quality, gender, race, and LGBTQ representation. A 3 out of 5 score means that while underrepresented minorities were portrayed respectfully, they still had less screen time and complexity than their non-minority counterparts. Then, the numerical scores are averaged to give each series an overall letter score from A through F.” [via: The Verge]
posted by Fizz at 4:38 PM PST - 16 comments

In 2015, the novelist Catherine Nichols sent the opening pages of the book she was working on to fifty literary agents. She got so little response she decided to shift gender and try as 'George' instead. The difference amazed her. 'A third of the agents who saw his query wanted to see more, where my numbers never did shift from one in 25.' The words, as written by George, had an appeal that Catherine could only envy. She also, perhaps, felt a little robbed. 'He is eight and a half times better than me at writing the same book.'

Anne Enright's Irish Laureate for Fiction lecture about sexism in publishing. [more inside]
posted by Kattullus at 4:16 PM PST - 4 comments

Advertising your specialty store required clever items, and here's an exhibit of them. They're very clever, indeed, and witty sometimes. The 4-foot long comb is my favorite. The Mingei Museum in San Diego is holding an exhibit of the signs that will close on 8 Oct. The text keep mentioning Edo Japan, but the dates given for some of the items seem to be in Meiji-era to me. Here's a link to the museum's main page for the exhibit: Exhibitions Kanban
posted by MovableBookLady at 3:20 PM PST - 14 comments

A flareup of lupus in 2014 left Stacey Kozel without the use of her legs, but she strapped them into specially made braces that allow her to traverse the trails and go for long distances. She’s completed the 2,189-mile Appalachian Trail as well as the 2,650-mile Pacific Crest Trail, and she’s done it all as a functioning paraplegic. After ABC News covered her recent completion of the PCT; her story was picked up by news outlets around the world, and she said that she was planning on writing a book about her experience. However, shortly after news broke that she’d completed her thru-hike and arrived at the north terminus of the PCT along the Canadian border, the hiking community began to examine her claims, and came away more than a bit suspicious.
posted by Clustercuss at 2:25 PM PST - 53 comments

In 1973, at the age of six, Phyllis Webstad was separated from her family and sent to what was called "Indian residential school." There, the new orange shirt her grandmother had saved up to buy her was stripped off her body and never returned. Today is Orange Shirt Day in Canada, when First Nations, Inuit and Metis people and their allies put on orange shirts to honour residential school survivors and to remember those who did not survive. You can read Phyllis' complete story here and learn why, for her, the colour orange is an important symbol for her experience in residential school: "The color orange has always reminded me of that [first day] and how my feelings didn’t matter, how no one cared and how I felt like I was worth nothing. All of us little children were crying and no one cared." [more inside]
posted by hurdy gurdy girl at 1:48 PM PST - 10 comments

Can't stand it any more? Try a bit of Shaitaan Dil (Naughty Heart) from Chicago-based Hindi-Jazz singer/songwriter Subhi. Here's the full track. Here's her Soundcloud. Indian Fusion Previously.
posted by growabrain at 1:33 PM PST - 11 comments

The Data Viz Project is a visually scrumptious dictionary of over 150 data visualization techniques. From the donut chart to the radial line graph, to the violin plot. Best of all it allows you to list the techniques based upon your input data (select "Input" from the top-level menu and match your data set with the offered choices). You can also choose a technique based on the message you would like to convey. (Select Function from the top menu). E.g. for Concept visualization, how about using an exploded view? For trend over time, how about a hanging rootogram?
posted by storybored at 1:33 PM PST - 13 comments

Back in 2015, the British Museum ran a contest to choose its new Youtube series. The selection was Curator's Corner, which features interviews with...well, curators. It's now on its second season. Most recently, Irving Finkel discussed the Lewis Chessmen (the Lewis Chessmen previously on Metafilter). [more inside]
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 1:08 PM PST - 5 comments

But to WIXAPOL, this change in attitude is “a perversion. You’re going to go to the club and get drunk or take drugs and be ridiculous, but at the same time feel better about yourself because it’s a ‘better type of party’, which is bullshit,” says DJ SPORTY SPICE. “You can’t categorize music in that way—especially club music. We were sick of that when we started, so we tried to do something completely different. We tried to do something raw, untasteful and ‘not good.'”

In Poland, they're reviving Gabber, led by a trio of djs called DJ SPORTY SPICE, DJ TORRENTZ.EU and MIKOUAJ REJW.
posted by MartinWisse at 12:31 PM PST - 14 comments

In 1921, a teenager died alone in Kentucky and was buried without a name. A century later, a team of sleuths set out to find his identity. [more inside]
posted by poffin boffin at 12:03 PM PST - 15 comments

The island that bought itself
posted by Dim Siawns at 9:28 AM PST - 8 comments

3D Printing concrete for Crossrail. Crossrail is a big fancy new rail route through London and surrounding counties. In the process thet're also building a load of lovely new stations. Here's a nice short article about the 3D printing process used to make exciting futury curved concrete panels.
posted by Just this guy, y'know at 8:12 AM PST - 20 comments

L7, the all women punk rock group, have released their first single in 18 years... 'Dispatch From Mar-a-Lago'. [more inside]
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 7:35 AM PST - 26 comments

Birdman debuted fifty years ago this month, on NBC on September 9, 1967, paired with unrelated segments of The Galaxy Trio. Three segments ran as a single episode, with a total of 20 episodes, and that was that. Except Birdman was revived through syndication and repackaged with other vintage cartoons in the 1980s, then being redefined not once but twice by Cartoon Network, first as guest host on Space Ghost Coast to Coast in the mid 1990s, then as the moderately competent attorney, Harvey Birdman, from 2000 to 2007. And it's all online, one way or another, linked up below the break. [more inside]
posted by filthy light thief at 7:05 AM PST - 28 comments

For the music lovers and the racing fans, here is a fine, superfine performance from Memphis Slim & Willie Dixon with a song about a horse.
posted by valetta at 5:43 AM PST - 6 comments

Learn Regency etiquette or indulge in scurrilous gossip in Jane Austen-themed MMO, Ever Jane. [more inside]
posted by Stark at 2:45 AM PST - 23 comments

In the midst of Australia carrying out a non-binding survey on whether same sex marriage should be legal, the Grand Finals of the National Rugby League will take place in Sydney this Sunday. Scheduled to perform at the half time show is US rapper Macklemore, who has declared he will be playing Same Love in support of legalisation, igniting a firestorm of opinion on Macklemore and politics in sport from all sides of the political spectrum and from seemingly every living Australian politician.
posted by PenDevil at 11:59 PM PST - 23 comments

Dolls can play a big part in the self esteem of young children. If they see a toy that looks like them, it can make them feel more accepting of who they are. For kids (and even adults) that have vitiligo [NSFW], this is a challenge....While not life threatening, it can affect a person’s confidence, and they might be subjected to taunts or bullying. Kay Black, aka Kay Customz, is an artist encouraging those with vitiligo to be proud of who they are; she’s doing so through inclusive custom dolls that have the same condition.

posted by Johnny Wallflower at 10:23 PM PST - 13 comments

You may have heard of 24 Hours of Le Mans, one of the most prestigious automobile races in the world. But what if you only have $500? Then 24 Hours of LeMons is the race for you! ~ The Top 44 Lemons of 24 Hours of LeMons! ~ $500 for Glory - A LeMons Story (30:00)
posted by Room 641-A at 8:21 PM PST - 24 comments

...which isn’t sitting well with the Canadian Safe Boating Council. The law has long been a sore point among drunken Canadian canoeists, who enjoy their cabrewing.
posted by clawsoon at 6:51 PM PST - 61 comments

In the TLS this week, Samuel Earle reviews two books on literary theorist Roland Barthes. Neil Badmington's book is discussed further in Rhys Tranter's interview with the author, who is editor of the open access Barthes Studies. Philippe Sollers's book includes material available online in French. At architecture / theory blog The Charnel-House, "The Marxism of Roland Barthes" covers an element of Barthes's background and links to primary sources suitable as introductions, e.g. Mythologies, Camera Lucida, "The Death of the Author," and S/Z— a dissection of Balzac's Sarrasine (included as an appendix).
posted by Wobbuffet at 5:24 PM PST - 18 comments

In the latest installment of Pretty Good, Jon Bois discusses the Philadelphia Eagles, the 1987 NFL strike, and how to use a football play to metaphorically give owners the bird. (SLYT) [more inside]
posted by NoxAeternum at 3:04 PM PST - 19 comments

“I’m the new Lenny Bruce,” Brad Stine, a conservative Christian comic who’s been likened to Sam Kinison and George Carlin, told me. “That’s how ridiculous this is. They’re not arresting me like they did Lenny; they’re just not allowing me on their TV shows.” Why can't rightwing comics break into US late-night TV?
posted by Artw at 2:45 PM PST - 163 comments

The New Yorker's covers are among the most iconic aspects of one of America's most iconic magazines. Many of the most famous feature allusions to the eponymous city. But what if the magazine didn't call New York home? Groups of illustrators have proven that the quality of the covers, at least, wouldn't suffer at the Parisianer and the Tokyoiter.
posted by perplexion at 2:19 PM PST - 15 comments

Microtransactions Are Hurting and Devaluing Video Games by Taneli Palola [VG Chartz] “Over the last few years microtransactions have become increasingly more commonplace within the video game industry, popping up in a huge number of high profile games as video game companies have realized the potential profits that can be made from them. This system is understandable in free-to-play games where microtransactions are the only source of income for the developer. A good example of a game like this would be something like Dota 2, where the main purpose of microtransactions is to buy cosmetic changes to the various characters in the game, while the game itself and all of the characters remain free-to-play for everyone. However, the use of microtransactions in games becomes an issue when they are used in full priced premium titles. We already have to deal with things like pre-order bonuses, season passes, barely justifiable DLC, content cut from the base game to later sell as said DLC, and so on. It's been a long time since the video game you bought was the one you got and that was it.” [more inside]
posted by Fizz at 1:51 PM PST - 58 comments

Notorious (CW: lots of brutal skater wipeouts) and longrunning NYC noise rock outfit Unsane are back with a savage new record, Sterilize, currently streaming at Noisey. Classic Unsane sound, with hardcore shouting over grinding distorted bass, throbbing drums, and bluesy guitar leads.
posted by Existential Dread at 1:45 PM PST - 5 comments

Five Guardian critics choose their favourite film of the decade, from Charlie Kaufman’s surreal journey into John Malkovich’s mind to Baz Lurhmann’s Shakespearean tragedy with guns and Hawaiian shirts. [more inside]
posted by ellieBOA at 12:03 PM PST - 170 comments

Explanations of common cat behaviours. What your cat is really trying to tell you.
posted by angiep at 12:02 PM PST - 17 comments

A very nice New York Times profile of the legendary John McPhee
posted by OmieWise at 11:01 AM PST - 30 comments

This may be the most circular exposition on The Blues I've ever read. This two-part essay is entitled The Curses, which may give you pause in re The Blues, but eventually it will begin to make sense. The first part of Part I is some discussion of when the descriptor "blue" began to be attached to a certain type of music, and traces it back to the 1870s. The rest of Part I uses a colorful character by the name of Rev. Columbus Sylvester Clifton Bragg, an early music critic, to be the linchpin for the history of the Blues. [more inside]
posted by MovableBookLady at 10:26 AM PST - 6 comments

It's nearly time. As summer ends, with Essex and Worcestershire division champions, Nottinghamshire also promoted, and Warwickshire and Middlesex relegated, along with last minute drama, so the great battle nears. The 65th Ashes is five matches of up to five days each, in The Gabba, Adelaide Oval (under lights), WACA Ground, Melbourne Cricket Ground and the Sydney Cricket Ground. Problems? England's star player and vice-captain arrested (track record), injuries and a lack of top batting. And for Australia, some poor recent results are ominous. KP has opinions! England are better poised to regain the Women's Ashes, which begins soon. Bookies lean towards Australia; as cricket becomes more violent (off-pitch Ashes fighting), new rules. Post title, and let the mind games begin...
posted by Wordshore at 9:46 AM PST - 11 comments

The government could have been smarter. The best way to divert our youth from politics would have been to give them free, unlimited internet access a few days before the protests, and drop the price of beer and condoms – all the while playing “Be safe, live long” songs on the radios. The youngies would have been watching porn, WhatsApping and YouTubing, and would have been too distracted to think about politics.

posted by infini at 9:39 AM PST - 18 comments

The Repressive, Authoritarian Soul of “Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends” [SLNewYorker] Realizing that the day’s workflow is irrevocably disrupted, Fat Controller decides that Henry must be punished—for life. “We shall take away your rails, and leave you here for always and always,” he tells Henry. As Henry’s face contorts into anguish and the background music toots a series of Oompa Loompa faux-glum flourishes, railway employees build a brick prison around Henry, leaving only half of his face visible.
posted by quaking fajita at 9:21 AM PST - 80 comments

"Women Aren't Nags—We're Just Fed Up: emotional labor is the unpaid job men still don't understand." [more inside]
posted by zarq at 9:20 AM PST - 276 comments

“There needs to be a Yelp for psych wards.” Kit Mead launched Psych Ward Reviews, a review site for psychiatric hospitals, after conversations with friends about the difference in treatment quality between different psych wards. While the site is on temporary hiatus, the 100+ user-submitted reviews remain accessible.
posted by spamandkimchi at 4:05 AM PST - 18 comments

Playboy founder Hugh M. Hefner, the pipe-smoking hedonist who revved up the sexual revolution in the 1950s and built a multimedia empire of clubs, mansions, movies and television, symbolized by bow-tied women in bunny costumes, has died at age 91. [more inside]
posted by not_the_water at 9:23 PM PST - 176 comments

“Thomasson: noun \ to-ma-son \ a preserved architectural relic which serves no purpose”. #トマソン is the Instagram community hashtag for the The Inexplicably Fascinating Secret World of Thomasson (previously.)
posted by Room 641-A at 6:29 PM PST - 40 comments

Interspecies friendships? FUCK YEAH! KnowYourMeme has some better-known ones. The titular kittens. (Interspecies love previously and previously.)
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 4:13 PM PST - 17 comments

“I am not sleeping too well at the moment and that’s because all those things keep running through my head,” says Marcio. But his actions on the night were key to their escape. He was calm and organised, filling the bath, wetting towels, giving clear instructions to the others about how they might make it out of the building. Six of the seven people who escaped from the 21st floor that night did so under his guidance. - Interviews with and the stories of people who did and didn't escape from the 21st story of Grenfell Tower. (previously)
posted by ambrosen at 4:05 PM PST - 19 comments

It's February of this year and California has been drenched by a number of pounding storms filling its reservoirs. No better time to pull out our drones and take a mesmerizing ride into the mouth of Lake Berryessa's vertical spillway as it drains for the first time in over a decade. [more inside]
posted by Ogre Lawless at 3:27 PM PST - 32 comments

"I don't consider myself a martial-arts star." One-time Rinpoche. Victim of Mafia shakedowns. Former reserve deputy sheriff. Alleged sex criminal. Would-be Chechnya tour guide. Would-be governor of Arizona. Friend of Vladimir Putin. National-security threat to Ukraine. Steven Seagal has led many lives.
posted by box at 2:11 PM PST - 103 comments

The Czech harpsichordist Zuzana Růžičková has died aged 90. Růžičková survived a childhood bout of tuberculosis; terrible years in Terezin, Auschwitz and Bergen-Belsen; and, as a Jew who refused to join the Communist Party, persecution by the authorities in post-war Czechoslovakia. Despite all this, she established an international career playing the harpsichord, becoming the first person to record the complete keyboard works of J. S. Bach on that instrument. [more inside]
posted by misteraitch at 12:46 PM PST - 12 comments

Annihilation (slyt) - trailer for the forthcoming movie by Alex Garland (Ex Machina, Dredd), based on the Southern Reach Trilogy books by Jeff VanderMeer.
posted by Artw at 12:30 PM PST - 76 comments

A Helping Hand, but Whose? by Betsey Steeger [The New York Times]
posted by Fizz at 10:42 AM PST - 14 comments

Ain't It Cool's Harry Knowles is stepping back from his website after sexual assault allegations have come to light. More women have come forward. This comes hot on the heels of Devin Faraci's re-resignation from Austin's Fantastic Fest. Faraci had been dismissed from the Alamo Drafthouse's blog Birth.Movies.Death last year after allegations regarding his own conduct were made, but was apparently brought back into the fold quickly afterwards. /film has perhaps the best available rundown of these events and the issues facing the Drafthouse and Austin film community going forward.
posted by yellowbinder at 9:40 AM PST - 193 comments

Because sea levels rise and fall over time, geological definitions of continents consider the continental crust and not just the part above sea level today. Over the past twenty years, mounting evidence has pointed to a lost continent straddling the Australian and Pacific plates: Zealandia. This week, findings from a drilling expedition suggest that it may have been closer to land level than once thought, providing pathways for animals and plants. [more inside]
posted by rory at 5:05 AM PST - 10 comments

Lady Lucan has died, 40 years later than her husband intended. Sandra Rivett wasn't so lucky. [more inside]
posted by Perodicticus potto at 11:14 PM PST - 53 comments

Speak English? YOU FIRST! Almost 20 Words/Expressions You Need to Humanely Euthanize Now. Featuring Deven Green. Written by Andrew Bradley. [more inside]
posted by hippybear at 11:05 PM PST - 71 comments

To to mark Canada's 150th anniversary (previously), Jana Dempsey, who created Hand Maiden Fine Yarns in Halifax, made a collection of yarns dyed in the colours of 13 national parks across Canada [Facebook], one for every province and territory.... Dempsey said the idea for the yarn collection grew out of her love for camping and knitting while camping. To pick the colours, she and her staff highlighted features of each park and chose the different yarns' hues based on that. (CBC.ca)
posted by filthy light thief at 8:11 PM PST - 12 comments

Surround magazine takes a longform look at the music of improv rockers Bill Orcutt and Adris Hoyos, founders of the 1990s free rock/improvised hardcore band Harry Pussy. [more inside]
posted by porn in the woods at 4:55 PM PST - 5 comments

There was a new hole in the ground, which led to an ancient tunnel, which led to unseen wonders. This fabulous exhibit opens in San Francisco on 30 Sept. And it's a pretty spiffy website, too.
posted by MovableBookLady at 4:10 PM PST - 18 comments

How Do You Do was an absolutely bananas TVOntario series for ESL students with Billy Van (previously) playing a robot learning English. Pt.2, Pt.3, Pt.4. (Yes, the Billy Van of House of Frightenstein fame). As brought to you by the good folks at Retrontario (previously).
posted by Capt. Renault at 3:07 PM PST - 27 comments

Mr Biz Stone drops the revelation that the 2006 launched social media network known as 'Twitter' is experimenting with 280 character 'tweet' limits, as opposed to the current limit of 140 (which about 9% of tweets apparently are). This will apparently be for all languages except Japanese, Chinese, and Korean. More details on their 'blog post' by Aliza Rosen and Ikuhiro Ihara.
posted by Wordshore at 2:19 PM PST - 124 comments

What The U.S Can Learn From The NHS About Healthcare Part 1’ - - Part 2 - Libby Watson of The Splinter talks to Martin McKee, professor at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and research director of the European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies and Rebecca Givan, an associate professor at the Center for Work and Health at Rutgers University, where she studies privatization in the NHS, labor relations and unions. [more inside]
posted by The Whelk at 1:13 PM PST - 27 comments

How a 3-Ton Mess of Dead Pigs Transformed This Mississippi Landscape (for SCIENCE!)
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 12:21 PM PST - 45 comments

The FBI has arrested 10 individuals on charges of fraud and corruption in NCAA D1 men's basketball. Assistant coaches at Arizona, Auburn, USC, and Oklahoma State have been arrested and charged in a variety of corruption and bribery schemes, including paying prospects to attend schools sponsored by Adidas and taking bribes to direct collegiate players to specific agents and financial managers. [more inside]
posted by Existential Dread at 11:06 AM PST - 56 comments

Three short films that bridge the gap between the original Blade Runner and it's soon to released sequel Blade Runner 2049: 2036: Nexus Dawn, 2048: Nowhere to Run and 2022: Black Out (The latter directed by Shinichirô Watanabe the creator of Cowboy Bebop) (mlyt)
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 10:31 AM PST - 66 comments

A definitive list of video game bosses, accurately ordered by difficulty Nothing to discuss.
posted by BuddhaInABucket at 10:06 AM PST - 135 comments

TierZoo is a YouTube channel dedicated to ranking various combatants and highlighting lesser known competitors with strong builds in the high-stakes 3D persistent-world fighting game/RPG hybrid better known as Outside. This cat species tier list is a good introduction to the format, answering important questions like "Are cheetahs low-tier?" and "Are jaguars OP?" [more inside]
posted by Copronymus at 10:02 AM PST - 11 comments

A ten-minute history of where it went wrong [slyt]
posted by ellieBOA at 8:40 AM PST - 58 comments

Street View of '80s NYC
posted by the man of twists and turns at 7:22 AM PST - 15 comments

The Oral History of Dunkin Donuts
posted by josher71 at 6:43 AM PST - 88 comments

VELCRO's lawyers would like you to stop misusing their brand (slyt)
posted by fremen at 8:33 PM PST - 96 comments

The making of Devo's "Satisfaction".
posted by Chrysostom at 8:33 PM PST - 44 comments

casting call woes
posted by spamandkimchi at 6:00 PM PST - 54 comments

The soul singer Charles Bradley died on Saturday morning, in Brooklyn. He was sixty-eight.
Obituary at the New Yorker
Trailer for the documentary Charles Bradley: Soul of America
A live set from 2011 recorded by KEXP Radio
posted by juv3nal at 4:53 PM PST - 28 comments

"That's interesting," said the scientist observing a memory-like persistence in an atomic switch. Flash forward to a 2-millimeter-by-2-millimeter mesh of silver nanowires connected by artificial synapses. Unlike silicon circuitry, with its geometric precision, this device is messy, like “a highly interconnected plate of noodles,” and exhibits similar criticality to other complex, natural processes. (Bonus links to a related paper and an an earlier LA Times piece with some nice photos).
posted by Sparx at 2:08 PM PST - 18 comments

Interrupt Request (Bandcamp) is the newest release from MetaFilter's Own MASTER BOOT RECORD, with more of that very heavy synthy metal. Here's a YouTube preview (previously on MeFiMusic) of what he calls his first proper full-length album, and more ASCII mystery on Tumblr (hint hint).
posted by filthy light thief at 2:02 PM PST - 11 comments

On its Second Anniversary, Heroes of the Storm Has Finally Turned a Corner by Kat Bailey [USGamer] “You could hear the Overwatch fans moaning as they were dragged kicking and screaming into Heroes of the Storm a couple weeks ago: "Oh, I have to play this lousy game just to get a D.Va skin?" The irritation shown by a broad swath of Overwatch fans is symptomatic of the general attitude toward Heroes of the Storm. On one side, you have DotA 2 and League of Legends fans insisting that Heroes of the Storm is too basic and too casual. On the other, you have people who seem to consider the entire genre to be poison. Such attitudes have resulted in Heroes of the Storm being seen as something of a red-headed stepchild in the Blizzard family. While Overwatch has received all the criticial acclaim and success over the past year, Heroes of the Storm has been quietly motoring along in the background, building up bit by bit. Now that hard work is starting to pay off. ” [Cinematic][Gameplay] [more inside]
posted by Fizz at 1:08 PM PST - 23 comments

Researchers observe sleep-like behavior in jellyfish, a brainless organism. Quote: (T)he revelations about jellyfish sleep are important, he said, because they show how basic sleep is. It appears to be a “conserved” behavior, one that arose relatively early in life’s history and has persisted for millions of years. If the behavior is conserved, then perhaps the biological mechanism is too. Understanding why jellyfish, with their simple nerve nets, need sleep could lead scientists to the function of sleep in humans.
posted by King Sky Prawn at 12:11 PM PST - 23 comments

Bill Cassidy still is a liar / Tom Price is a luxury flier / And Kim Jong-un’s aim / He says, is to tame / The POTUS, a dotard, with fire.
“My earlier invite’s withdrawn!” / Insisted the president, Don. / “Steph wouldn’t have come; / He told you, u bum,” / Observed a 3rd-party, LeBron [more inside]
posted by Anonymous at 9:36 AM PST - 2238 comments

The post title could be the most hip-hop lyric ever. No doubt you've all sat on your stoop on a long summer's evening and wondered... just what is the most hip-hop word? Which specific item of vocab is found more often in hip-hop lyrics than elsewhere? Your ramblings probably started to wander into questions of how the vocabulary of different hip-hop artists and groups compared. Someone obviously segued into the question of hey, how similar are all of the Wu? And of course, one nerd wondered whether Aesop Rock should be considered or if he was an outlier just because he has too many words.
posted by giraffeneckbattle at 9:20 AM PST - 12 comments

Dmitri Shostakovich was born 111 years ago today. Later this week, the autograph score* of his opera Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk will go on public display for the first time as part of the Victoria and Albert Museum's exhibition Opera: Passion, Power and Politics. That opera was banned after the famous denunciation in Pravda, "Muddle Instead of Music," and several of Shostakovich's friends and family members were arrested, although the composer himself was not touched (he may or may not have had a near miss). Shostakovich never completed a serious opera again, but he did attempt to write one based on Chekhov's story "The Black Monk." A new drama by Philip Setzer of the Emerson Quartet portrays his struggles with that work. [more inside]
posted by Perodicticus potto at 6:02 AM PST - 15 comments

From the team behind the 2006 fair use comic Bound by Law (pdf) comes a new fair use comic, Theft! A History of Music (read online, pdf). Created by James Boyle and Jennifer Jenkins, two law school profs from Duke University, Theft! A History of Music is "a graphic novel laying out a 2000-year long history of musical borrowing from Plato to rap." (via Open Culture)
posted by sapagan at 4:22 AM PST - 5 comments

Comics and Cowardice: a twine essay about how those in comics lie about their own work, ignore, excuse, or even celebrate bigotry, and quietly tolerate harassers in their field. Furry writer and comics critic Colin Spacetwinks comes for the comics industry, with receipts, in a 75,000-word Pay-What-You-Want Twine essay.

Cowards made by complicity, cowards made by dishonesty, cowards made by a desire to be praised and an even greater desire to avoid all negative response. Comics runs on cowardice, because it is run by cowards. And I'm hardly the first person to point all this out. This piece doesn't exist without dozens of people pointing out all the problems in comics, on the page and off of it, that have been ritually, systematically, ignored. When you say "comics has problems", people in comics will nod their heads and agree. When you say "and these are specifically the things and people contributing to those problems", everybody can't run away fast enough.

[more inside]
posted by nicebookrack at 10:06 PM PST - 34 comments

There are two instantly recognizable recording studio sounds: Sun & Muscle Shoals. This first link is a playlist from the manager of Sun Studios of the most important songs recorded there. Then there's a CMT series about the nascent days of Sun Studio CMT series, showcasing the glory days with Presley, Perkins, Howlin' Wolf, Jerry Lee Lewis, and more. Then there's the Muscle Shoals studio that drew all sorts of musicians from all the world and now (2013) there a documentary about it Muscle Shoals All music and people I grew up with and still love.
posted by MovableBookLady at 6:24 PM PST - 30 comments

According to detailed analysis of skeletal measurements, Homo floresiensis (previouslies) is most closely related to Homo habilis. "Although the remains of H. floresiensis date to the relatively recent past (roughly 60,000 years ago), their closest relatives appear to have lived two million years ago in Africa." Original paper.
posted by clawsoon at 5:32 PM PST - 6 comments

Translation Fails (SLBFL)
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 3:49 PM PST - 41 comments

dCode is a French and English site that is hundreds of en/decoding, de/cyphering, and other mathematical and puzzle making/ solving tools, from Alberti cipher (Wikipedia) and Navajo code (Wiki), to inverse of a matrix and Knuth's arrows (Wiki).
posted by filthy light thief at 2:00 PM PST - 5 comments

Updated your mental image of a dinosaur to include feathers? You're probably still not picturing a plausible animal, much less a realistic depiction of a dinosaur. Artist C.M. Kosemen points out that paleoart historically has just "skinned" the fossiled remains, creating improbable creature designs that lack all kinds of soft tissue and features that wouldn't show up in most fossils. To illustrate our collective failures of imagination, he's re-envisioned swans, baboons, elephants, zebras, hippos and rhinos as if they were drawn by future paleontologists working only from fossilized remains.
posted by deludingmyself at 12:35 PM PST - 35 comments

Germany's federal election was held today. Latest projections (in English) indicate drastic losses for chancellor Merkel's Christian Democrats and her coalition partner Social Democrats. Far-right Alternative for Germany is to enter federal parliament for the first time. [more inside]
posted by blasser duenner Junge at 11:54 AM PST - 78 comments

Allison Page for Medium: Honest Theatre Awards
posted by Faint of Butt at 7:55 AM PST - 28 comments

Several dozen tradition-minded Roman Catholic theologians, priests and academics have formally accused Pope Francis of spreading heresy with his 2016 opening to divorced and civilly remarried Catholics. In a 25-page letter delivered to Francis last month and provided Saturday to The Associated Press, the 62 signatories issued a “filial correction” to the pope — a measure they said hadn’t been employed since the 14th century. [more inside]
posted by aqsakal at 6:01 AM PST - 62 comments

A Short Trip is an interactive illustration by Alexander Perrin. Use left and right arrows to move. Requires WebGL so may not work in all browsers.
posted by gwint at 6:00 AM PST - 30 comments

The hooded grebe is a bird found in isolated lakes in the most remote parts of Patagonia. Sadly, it's critically endangered, but certainly not for lack of an awesome courtship dance (SLYT with rare footage)
posted by Harald74 at 12:15 AM PST - 17 comments

Is beaming down in Star Trek a death sentence? In this Ars Technica long read, Xaq Rzetelny looks to Trek's past to suss out specifics of how transporters work.
posted by Room 641-A at 11:52 PM PST - 171 comments

Did you know September 24th is World Cassowary Day? We all need to think more like Cassowaries Why not meet Snitty in his gig as an annoyed Australian psephologist. And to finish up this glorious day. Just how dangerous are Cassowaries anyway?
posted by michswiss at 11:38 PM PST - 8 comments

My mom died because she was too poor to afford a doctor [via mefi projects]
posted by curious nu at 9:01 PM PST - 49 comments

100 Must-Read Bisexual Books
15 Must-Read Bisexual Non-Fiction Books
37 Books By, For, or About Bisexual or Otherwise Non-Monosexual People
The Bi-Bibliography
Bi Book Club, which recommends Deadpool, among others.
posted by Grandysaur at 7:55 PM PST - 15 comments

"When the Received Wisdom is Wrong" by Mike Glyer: "This month fanhistorians were turned on their ears when a previously unknown shortlist of 1956 Hugo nominees came to light ... As the official Hugo Award site explained when they updated the entry for 1956 – 'We thank Olav Rokne for bringing to our attention an article on page 15 of the 1956 Worldcon Progress Report 3 ...'" Several previously unacknowledged fiction nominees are available online. [more inside]
posted by Wobbuffet at 6:33 PM PST - 36 comments

Tangs for the Memories
posted by jjray at 4:58 PM PST - 43 comments

Mr. Autumn Man
posted by koavf at 2:55 PM PST - 22 comments

So Why Do We Keep Insisting That It Can? An interview with historian Harvey Kantor, the author, with Robert Lowe, of a 2013 paper on the history of Educationalizing the Welfare State (8.4MB PDF).
posted by clawsoon at 1:23 PM PST - 46 comments

The U.S. Navy's most advanced submarines will soon be using Xbox controllers [The Virginian Pilot] “The control room of one of the Navy’s most advanced submarines is filled with sophisticated computers, flat-screen monitors and sailors who grew up in a digital world. At times it can look a bit like a video game arcade, and not just because of the high-resolution graphics. The Navy is beginning to use an Xbox 360 controller – like the ones you find at the mall – to operate the periscopes aboard Virginia-class submarines. [...] [more inside]
posted by Fizz at 1:03 PM PST - 35 comments

Mr. Altizer is part of a backlash against the women in technology movement. While many in the tech industry had previously dismissed the fringe men’s rights arguments, some investors, executives and engineers are now listening. Though studies and surveys show there is no denying the travails women face in the male-dominated industry, some said that the line for what counted as harassment had become too easy to cross and that the push for gender parity was too extreme a goal. Few were willing to talk openly about their thinking, for fear of standing out in largely progressive Silicon Valley. [more inside]
posted by Bella Donna at 12:39 PM PST - 157 comments

Please Do Not Pet the Radioactive Puppies of Chernobyl.
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 12:27 PM PST - 44 comments

Well, it happened again. When Lillian Ross died earlier this week, the New York Times ran an obituary written by someone who was also dead. It's not a secret that celebrities -- especially long-lived ones -- have "advance" obituaries, but the NYT (thanks partially to its rigorous byline practices) is often noted as having obits that seem to be "ghost"-written. Via Kottke. Open NYT links in Incognito or Private mode.
posted by Etrigan at 9:29 AM PST - 26 comments

British PM Theresa May has finally made her big speech on Brexit... to little acclaim. Best coverage, as it often is, comes from Marina Hyde. [more inside]
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 9:28 AM PST - 63 comments

The foundation that administers the .cat domain for Catalonians just got raided by the Spanish police, but all the media wants to talk about is cats. The office was raided because Catalonia hopes to hold a referendum on October 1 to decide if it should secede from Spain, and in an effort to quash the referendum, the government of Spain ordered puntCat to “block all .cat domain names that may contain any kind of information about the forthcoming independence referendum,” according to a press release from the foundation.
posted by Sys Rq at 3:28 AM PST - 128 comments

Wild Wild West is a American steampunk western action comedy film from 1999, featuring Will Smith as U.S. Army Captain James West and Kevin Kline as U.S. Marshal Artemus Gordon, who together face off against a giant robotic spider and other mechanical menaces. But did you know the movie wasn't (just) an attempt to blend nostalgia for rollicking westerns and a more contemporary fascination with steampunk, but a remake of a TV series that was intended to capitalize on the then-contemporary 1960s spy thriller trend? It's true. Behold: The Wild Wild West, a western series with gadgets that ran on the CBS television network for four seasons, with 104 episodes that aired from September 17, 1965 to April 4, 1969. [more inside]
posted by filthy light thief at 11:11 PM PST - 95 comments

Note that the company’s knowledge about its users isn’t used merely to target ads but to shape the flow of news to them. Since there is so much content posted on the site, the algorithms used to filter and direct that content are the thing that determines what you see: people think their news feed is largely to do with their friends and interests, and it sort of is, with the crucial proviso that it is their friends and interests as mediated by the commercial interests of Facebook. Your eyes are directed towards the place where they are most valuable for Facebook.

-You Are the Product, John Lanchester for the London Review of Books
posted by joedan at 10:33 PM PST - 41 comments

Hllary Clinton's book What Happened set sales records amid a mass fake review campaign. She's on tour to support her book. So what did happen? "I understood that there were many Americans who, because of the financial crash, there was anger. And there was resentment. I knew that. But I believed that it was my responsibility to try to offer answers to it, not to fan it. I think, Jane, that it was a mistake because a lot of people didn't want to hear my plans. They wanted me to share their anger. And I should've done a better job of demonstrating 'I get it.'" [more inside]
posted by the man of twists and turns at 9:11 PM PST - 368 comments

The Linguistics of AAVE - Linguist enthusiast Xidnaf breaks down why African American people (sometimes) have a very different accent from non-African American people, despite growing up in the same area. Note that this accent is not always the same everywhere you go.
posted by Slap*Happy at 4:47 PM PST - 67 comments

Karin Pfeiff Boschek is an artist, cook, and photographer who creates beautiful graphic pies.
posted by Room 641-A at 4:07 PM PST - 16 comments

Netflix yanks episode of kids’ show after finding a huge hidden penis.
posted by Literaryhero at 3:44 PM PST - 46 comments

Artist Masayoshi Matsumoto makes balloon animals, and balloon animal skeletons.
posted by jeather at 1:19 PM PST - 14 comments

The Sorrow and the Shame of the Accidental Killer. How do you live after unintentionally causing a death? There are no self-help books for anyone who has accidentally killed another person. An exhaustive search yielded no research on such people, and nothing in the way of therapeutic protocols, publicly listed support groups, or therapists who specialize in their treatment. But there is AccidentalImpacts.org, a support group site started by social psychologist and educator Maryann Gray, who at age 22 struck and killed a child with her car.
posted by showbiz_liz at 1:02 PM PST - 41 comments

But the real gem of the library, in Lannon’s view, is the stuff that you can find only in boxes like the ones now strewn across the table. “You can get a book anywhere,” he said. “An archive exists in one location.”
posted by ellieBOA at 12:09 PM PST - 6 comments

Echo Is A Terrifying Game Where You Teach Enemies How To Kill You by Riley MacLeod [Kotaku] “The Palace is populated by beings En calls Echoes. They are copies of her who form from some black muck in the beginning of the game. As En moves through the Palace, picking up keys or orbs to unlock doors, the Echoes start learning. The Palace moves on a light-dark cycle; when it’s light, anything En does is recorded by the station. Vault over a low wall, for instance, and you’ll leave a brief, blurry ghost behind you that means the Palace has logged your actions. After you’ve performed a few actions, the Palace goes dark, and then reboots. On this round, the Echoes can do anything you did during the last light cycle until another reboot wipes the slate. Between the light and the reboot is a brief period of darkness.” [YouTube][Gameplay Trailer] [more inside]
posted by Fizz at 11:56 AM PST - 52 comments

US Trade Publishing by the Numbers. An intensive dissection of the book industry with breakdowns by digital vs print, traditional vs indie, price-points and genre. Bonus: A Definitive Study of Amazon Author Earnings (2016). [more inside]
posted by storybored at 10:07 AM PST - 12 comments

THREAD: My dispute with a billionaire Texan GOP donor, the exotic dancer he nearly killed, and the photo he does not want people to see.

Single link twitter thread from @RespectableLaw. Some descriptions of sexual violence. Sorta previously on mefi.
posted by postcommunism at 9:43 AM PST - 49 comments

With Star Trek: Discovery, CBS Discovers That TV Ain't Easy Anymore - CBS All Access is about to have it's most important day ever this Sunday. As for the show itself, a review embargo has raised fears of a stinker, but reportedly early reactions are good.
posted by Artw at 9:39 AM PST - 177 comments

Activist investors are everywhere. [pdf] This is a parody powerpoint deck, with jokes about finance and parenting. You have been warned.
posted by thedaniel at 8:22 AM PST - 32 comments

It makes your “we encourage diverse voices” statement utter bull** You say you want diversity, which means POC, members of the LGBTQ+ community, women, and folks without MFAs living paycheck to paycheck in tiny rooms…but you want money to read their work? You’re a hypocrite. (Warning, curse words used. Many.)
posted by Toddles at 8:19 AM PST - 55 comments

Australia's parliament is in the grip of the world's most ridiculous constitutional crisis. The situation threatens the country's democratic process, which is reason enough for politicians and courts to work to unpick it. More importantly, though, it raises questions the rest of the world would do well to ponder. [more inside]
posted by girlgenius at 5:36 AM PST - 59 comments

The Tui is an endemic passerine bird of New Zealand. It is one of the largest members of the diverse honeyeater family. What many people don’t know is that the Tui has a remarkable facility for mimicry. [more inside]
posted by Start with Dessert at 4:01 AM PST - 12 comments

In a statement today TfL said it has concluded that Uber is “not fit and proper to hold a private hire operator licence”. Uber has 21 days to appeal the decision. [more inside]
posted by roolya_boolya at 3:57 AM PST - 91 comments

Location History Visualizer does what it says on the box, using Google location history json files. So if you have an Android device, and location tracking switched on (or have ever had this) you can view your own movements around the world over time as a heat map. [more inside]
posted by lollusc at 10:59 PM PST - 21 comments

Voiceover artist Paul Rugg demonstrates why the best way to relax is petting your dog.
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 10:34 PM PST - 32 comments

Simon the Magpie makes noises, makes things that make noises, and makes things that make noises that make music. He will also bend your circuits. Oh, he also makes noises with his cat.
posted by Cat Pie Hurts at 3:43 PM PST - 12 comments

The Republican attack on the Affordable Care Act has returned, in the form of the Graham-Cassidy bill. Think Progress reports that the bill, will, among other things, gut Medicaid and throw 32 million people off of insurance. The Center for American Progress says that premiums for those with preexisting conditions will skyrocket: for instance, a $17,320 surcharge for a "preexisting" pregnancy and a $142,650 for a 40-year-old with metastatic cancer. Graham-Cassidy seems to have a good chance to pass. Or maybe it can still be stopped, says Politico. Late night host Jimmy Kimmel is fighting the good fight against the bill. There is still time to contact your Senators and Representatives. [more inside]
posted by migrantology at 3:31 PM PST - 264 comments

The only possible motive connecting all three cases was money. Hupp, who’d held several jobs in the insurance industry, was the beneficiary of both her friend’s and mother’s policies. But would somebody really stab a sick friend and shove her own mother off a balcony to get cash she’d receive in a few years anyway, then shoot a perfect stranger just to twist the plot?
posted by Chrysostom at 2:29 PM PST - 30 comments

The Jesuit priest and writer James Martin, S.J., has had three recent talks cancelled after a coordinated campaign by the "Catholic alt-right," because of his recent book on connecting the Catholic church with LGBT Catholics. As in the secular sphere, web sites, Twitter, and FaceBook groups are being used to organize actions to promote alt-right agendas, as described by the NYT here. [more inside]
posted by wenestvedt at 1:26 PM PST - 55 comments

My destination is the ultrarich haven called Aspen, Colorado. This makes perfect sense because I’m a long-haul mover at the pinnacle of the game, a specialist. I can make $250,000 a year doing what is called high-end executive relocation. No U-Hauls for me, thank you very much. I’ll take the movie stars, the ambassadors, the corporate bigwigs. At the office in Connecticut they call me the Great White Mover. This Aspen load, insured for $3 million, belongs to a former investment banker from a former investment bank who apparently escaped the toppled citadel with his personal loot intact. [more inside]
posted by the man of twists and turns at 12:56 PM PST - 35 comments

The Spa Car is the latest mad creation of Colin Furze. On commission for a Google ad, an E30 was sealed, and equipped with a grill, leaf bubble blowers and turf exterior. (* Single Link to a Colin Furze YouTube Video)
posted by Laotic at 12:37 PM PST - 12 comments

As the fall season in TV picks up steam (don't forget to check FanFare), Flashbak takes a look at the September 1989 TVGuide season preview. [more inside]
posted by lmfsilva at 12:31 PM PST - 63 comments

Wes Anderson's latest movie is a stop-motion animation, set in a future Japan where dogs have been banished to an island made of trash. Trailer #1
posted by chaoticgood at 11:30 AM PST - 87 comments

Do you remember?
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 11:30 AM PST - 29 comments

Boil The Frog finds the path between two musicians based on AI and magic "stuff". [more inside]
posted by Annika Cicada at 11:22 AM PST - 51 comments

This Post is Intentionally Left Blank "Common in all areas of publishing, the phrase “This Page is Intentionally Left Blank” has been found in peer-reviewed academic articles costing $30 to access. To the best of our knowledge, this paper represents the first known review of Intentionally Blank Pages (IBPs)." [more inside]
posted by dhruva at 10:23 AM PST - 32 comments

“This is the building of the new society,” he said, adding later: “For so long Mississippi has been known as the symbol of limits. It has been known as a haven for oppression, for some of the most horrible suffering in the history of the world. So it is only fitting that we should become the leaders of that change.” - In Jackson Mississippi, a new vision of society istaking root with its bold new mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba - The Socialist Experiment - Oxford American
posted by The Whelk at 9:44 AM PST - 6 comments

Well there's brutal and then there's *brutal* Nicolas Cole, Founder & Editor-in-Chief of Digital Press bares his soul to reveal the hardships he endured growing up as a child of 1%ers.
posted by humph at 9:36 AM PST - 142 comments

An article from internet magazine Paper that champions bassist Tina Weymouth as the most valuable but still under-recognized member of the Talking Heads was Tweeted by Brian Eno, who knows a thing or two about the subject at hand. [more inside]
posted by layceepee at 8:52 AM PST - 66 comments

‘I wake up in the morning and I just realise that I am chaos.’ Marilyn Manson interviewed by the Guardian.
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 8:33 AM PST - 50 comments

BBC: "...the Canadian province of Quebec has relaxed its guidelines around some common 'anglicisms'." The Register: "Quebec takes mature approach to 'grilled cheese' ban. It's for the grater good." The Globe and Mail: "...the agency gives the green light to technical words from English such as mayday and humidex, along with bluegrass and haggis." CBC News: "...and mot-clic as an alternative to hashtag." National Post: "And tennis players can take satisfaction from a well hit “smash” after the Office acknowledged that its recommended replacement - “coup d’écrasement” - just hasn’t caught on." Fromages Du Quebec, cheeses of Quebec, Best Quebec Cheeses, On the Quebec cheese trail, and Cheeses from Quebec. [previously]
posted by Wordshore at 8:10 AM PST - 42 comments

Valve aims to combat Steam review bombing with new 'histogram' charts by Andy Chalk [PC Gamer] “Valve looked at a few possible solutions to the problem, including the elimination of review scores altogether, although that was pretty much a non-starter since they were added in response to user demand in the first place. Thought was also given to locking down reviews temporarily when "abnormal behavior," which is to say a review-bombing campaign, was detected. But that was rejected as well, because Valve doesn't want to "stop the community having a discussion about the issue they're unhappy about, even though there are probably better places to have that conversation than in Steam User Reviews." Ultimately, the decision was to do nothing, at least with regard to the review scores themselves. Instead, Valve is now providing consumers with more information about the reviews by way of a histogram that compares the ratio of a game's positive to negative reviews over its lifetime.” [more inside]
posted by Fizz at 7:47 AM PST - 28 comments

From Paris to New York, we’ve matched metro maps against versions that only include fully accessible stations. The results are discouraging – but are any cities doing it right? [slGuardian]
posted by ellieBOA at 7:24 AM PST - 29 comments

"Five times in the past 542 million years, more than three-fourths of marine animal species have vanished in mass extinctions. Each of these events is associated with a significant change in Earth’s carbon cycle. ... The modern critical size for the marine carbon cycle is roughly similar to the mass of carbon that human activities will likely have added to the oceans by the year 2100. ... Although the uncertainty of [these predictions are] considerable, all scenarios for cumulative uptake at the century’s end either exceed or are commensurate with the threshold for catastrophic change." [more inside]
posted by jedicus at 6:48 AM PST - 9 comments

Welcome to Centrism.biz We oppose extremists on the right who want to murder all non-whites, ground their bones into dust and build a perfect Aryan union fueled by a hatred unimaginably pure. We also oppose equally extreme movements on the left who want a higher tax rate on incomes over $200,000. [more inside]
posted by mediareport at 4:50 AM PST - 70 comments

"Of course, the angels, being angels, feel no relief as they piss. They get their celestial jollies by raining a little holy water on us, but they know nothing of urination as a physical urge. If you want to enjoy some real salt-of-the-earth pissing, Lebensztejn reports, you have to skip ahead to 1600." [more inside]
posted by chinese_fashion at 9:10 PM PST - 24 comments

Bernie Casey, NFL player, actor, painter, and poet, has passed at the age of 78.
posted by hanov3r at 8:19 PM PST - 15 comments

A cop called Brady drives up in his electric car, determined to kill someone. He enters a gambling joint, walks up to the barman – whose surname is Duncan – and tells him he’s under arrest. Duncan responds by shooting Brady in the chest at point-blank range, killing him instantly. The only explanation we get for any of this is that Brady’s “been on the job too long”. That’s the tale told by the classic murder ballad Duncan & Brady, and it contains a lot more truth than you might imagine. The date was October 6, 1890, and here’s what really happened. [via mefi projects by Paul Slade] [more inside]
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 7:26 PM PST - 4 comments

32 years to the day after the infamous and memorable September 19, 1985 earthquake, and two weeks behind a recent one in Oaxaca called the "strongest in 100 years" , Mexico suffers a deadly earthquake that has severely affected Mexico City, plus towns in the states of Puebla, Morelos and Estado de Mexico. [more inside]
posted by CrazyLemonade at 7:04 PM PST - 11 comments

Turns Out Spiders Have Tiny Paws, And It May Change The Way You Look At Them (adorable paws only, no full spider images)
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 6:43 PM PST - 38 comments

Alexis Okeowo in the New Yorker on West Africa's most daring designer:

Osakwe’s collection earlier this year was inspired by what she described as a “middle-class Nigerian girl going on a booty call.” In Lagos, that girl usually travels by the yellow danfo buses that career through the streets, and has practical problems to consider...“What is seduction to her? It’s not a pretty journey,” Osakwe said. “How does that middle-class girl get it on? Because sex is so taboo, but we know we’re all fucking like rabbits.” The answer, Osakwe reasoned, is clothing that is erotic but protective—not a short skirt and heels but a long, strapless red dress, evoking the traditional wrapper, that can easily be dropped in the act of seduction. Though she hesitates to tell Nigerian buyers that she draws inspiration from sex workers, clients see her clothes as an illicit escape: a chance to feel more exciting, less restrained.

[more inside]
posted by Diablevert at 6:22 PM PST - 5 comments

Following a tease on Instagram last night, it's been confirmed that HBO placed a pilot order for a Watchmen series. Somewhat controversial screenwriter Damon Lindelof heads the writing room. [more inside]
posted by entropicamericana at 5:43 PM PST - 91 comments

To wrap up the discussions of Pournelle and his ilk and the so-called "golden age" of SF, here's an interesting essay.
posted by MovableBookLady at 5:33 PM PST - 66 comments

Today a retrospective of the art of Martin Wong (1946-1999) opens at the Berkeley Art Museum. The touring show originated at the Bronx Museum (NYT review), and its travels to the Bay Area represent a homecoming for the art of Wong, who was raised in San Francisco's Chinatown. He did set design for Cockettes spinoff the Angels of Light. He moved to New York in 1978, collaborated with his partner, writer Miguel Piñero, collected graffiti art (that collection is now at the City Museum of New York), and collected thousands of items including ceramics. He moved back to San Francisco after he was diagnosed with AIDS. His legacy is commemorated by the Martin Wong Foundation.
posted by larrybob at 2:18 PM PST - 2 comments

On the eve of The Good Place's season 2 premiere, Kristen Bell has released the video of the rest of the gang responding to finding out about the finale. Spoilers in the link/video.
posted by jeather at 1:30 PM PST - 80 comments

Winamp 2.9, lovingly recreated in HTML5 and Javascript (GitHub)
posted by OverlappingElvis at 1:23 PM PST - 82 comments

David Shepherd, artist and conservation activist, has died aged 86. Best known for his depictions of African wildlife such as The Ivory is Theirs, he was also a renowned aviation artist and painter of steam engines. [more inside]
posted by Major Clanger at 12:35 PM PST - 6 comments

Want to spend a few hours on a wargame? Well, you definitely do not want to unroll the 10-foot board that comes with The Campaign for North Africa, because not only will you need to find nine friends, but y'all are likely to spend upwards of 1500 hours playing what Richard Berg, the game's designer, called "wretched excess... but it was designed specifically as such." [more inside]
posted by Etrigan at 12:02 PM PST - 43 comments

Lillian Ross, who became known as the consummate fly-on-the-wall reporter in a six-decade career at The New Yorker, died on Wednesday in Manhattan. She was 99. [more inside]
posted by ALeaflikeStructure at 11:39 AM PST - 16 comments

Card skimming (previously) is a practice where thieves will place a secondary card reader over the primary card reader of a gas pump, which will then collect and store the information of any card used at that pump. As this scam proliferates, more and more scammers are using cheap skimmers that they buy off of the Internet, which they do not configure, making them detectable through the Bluetooth capabilities of your average smartphone. An open source (GitHub) app called the Skimmer Scanner (Android only, available through the Play Store) automates this process even further, and its author provides an in-depth tutorial about card skimming, and how to avoid it.
posted by codacorolla at 11:31 AM PST - 38 comments

JeffHK makes videos about being the Third Mate aboard the OOCL Atlanta. [more inside]
posted by alby at 11:28 AM PST - 8 comments

25-year-old Patrik Hermansson went undercover with American and British Nazis for a year. He presented himself as ”Erik Hallberg”, a political refugee from the left-wing dictatorship of Sweden. [more inside]
posted by rpn at 11:20 AM PST - 19 comments

Appalachia has the greatest diversity of salamanders in the world, but since they largely live underground, many of the people who live in the region are barely aware of how many of the amphibians are around them. The US's National Zoo had an exhibit a few years ago on Appalachian salamanders, including this short film on salamanders, their role in the ecosystem, and how threats to the environment affect them.
posted by Copronymus at 9:40 AM PST - 9 comments

Two things emerged from the rubble of Mexico City after the devastating 1985 earthquake that killed 30,000 people: the first one is the national spirit of solidarity and compassion that compels every Mexican to drop everything and rush to help those in need. The second one is the Topos. [more inside]
posted by Cobalt at 9:29 AM PST - 6 comments

Understanding the brain using topology: the Blue Brain project. The brain is one of the main mysteries of medical science so this is huge! For me the most exciting part of this is that the researchers build their theory through the lens of Algebraic Topology and I will try to explain the main players in their game here. [more inside]
posted by Wolfdog at 8:40 AM PST - 10 comments

Since 1958, a small department of Germany’s government has sought to bring members of the Third Reich to trial. A handful of prosecutors are still tracking down Nazis, but the world’s biggest cold-case investigation will soon be shut down.
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 6:18 AM PST - 14 comments

Tomb Raider [YouTube][Official Trailer] “From Warner Bros. Pictures and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures, Tomb Raider is the story that will set a young and resolute Lara Croft on a path toward becoming a global hero. The film stars Oscar winner Alicia Vikander (Ex Machina, The Danish Girl) in the lead role, under the direction of Roar Uthaug (The Wave), with Oscar-winner Graham King (The Departed) producing under his GK Films banner. The film¹s production begins on the heels of the 20th anniversary of the wildly popular videogame franchise from Square Enix, Crystal Dynamics and Eidos Montreal.”
posted by Fizz at 4:53 AM PST - 72 comments

Colin Stokes is welcoming but has concerns about the sharing economy in The New Yorker
posted by Going To Maine at 12:07 AM PST - 54 comments

Ever wondered what a comptroller does? Crimefighting, at least if you're Susana Mendoza, comptroller of the State of Illinois, who leapt off her bike to chase down mobbed-up felon Johnny "Quarters" Boyle to prevent him from getting away with a hit-and-run.
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 10:59 PM PST - 15 comments

Bethany Yellowtail is a fashion designer from the Crow and Northern Cheyenne Indian Reservations in Montana. Her designs are influenced by her grandmother's beadwork, elktooth dresses worn by powwow dancers on the Crow Reservation, old black and white photos of her family, and her political activism. "For me, it's about showing people in the mainstream fashion world -- our buyers may not be Native -- sharing a way that our women wear their regalia". [more inside]
posted by Grandysaur at 9:15 PM PST - 12 comments

The Gentle Oraclebird is a Twitterbot that dispenses beautiful tarot-style readings from an original deck designed by Shing Yin Khor, aka @sawdustbear.
posted by snortasprocket at 7:34 PM PST - 6 comments

“This has been my go-to brownie recipe for 30 years. In the ’80s, an acquaintance in Germany to whom I brought some of the brownies, and who considered herself a great cook, asked for the recipe but was never able to get it to work. She kept asking me what she was doing wrong and I was never able to solve her problem. Eventually, she moved to the U.S. and stole my husband!” The Story Behind the Greatest Internet Recipe Comment of All Time
posted by everybody had matching towels at 4:42 PM PST - 61 comments

Not drinking or driving, teens increasingly put off traditional markers of adulthood. "...teenagers are increasingly delaying activities that had long been seen as rites of passage into adulthood. The study, published Tuesday in the journal Child Development, found that the percentage of adolescents in the United States who have a driver’s license, who have tried alcohol, who date and who work for pay has plummeted since 1976, with the most precipitous decreases in the past decade."
posted by MythMaker at 4:32 PM PST - 183 comments

Autumn arrives and with it comes a cornucopia, but pumpkins, real pumpkins! Utah oh, and maybe everywhere has a fascination with large pumpkins, and the Utah State Fair has a yearly contest. Usually these pumpkins are not so much pumpkin like, but rugged and gnarly, not the pumpkin of a Halloween doorstep. However, this one is a ~2000 lb chunk of punkin' perfection, grown in a hot house not by a farmer, but by a guy with a passion.
posted by Oyéah at 4:13 PM PST - 5 comments

The online people-who-love-to-smoke community is one of the most supportive and kindly corners of the internet I have ever encountered, especially for a group entirely preoccupied with the abetting of a habit that is the leading cause of preventable death worldwide. I’m not sure if this is a particularly illuminating observation, whether it says something profoundly terrible about humanity and where it is headed, or whether this is something we should find solace in. I change my mind about it a lot.

*present company excluded
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 3:30 PM PST - 36 comments

Don't eat the random melons growing in the middle of Amsterdam Avenue. That is all.
posted by Mchelly at 2:12 PM PST - 79 comments

Deadspin: There’s no use trying to skirt around this, so let’s cut straight to the chase: A Colorado Springs woman has been taking big craps in front of someone’s house for a few weeks now. They’re calling her the Mad Pooper and she won’t stop. The cops are involved. It appears to be some sort of revenge pooping. I hope you enjoy this report from local CBS outlet KKTV as much as I did. [more inside]
posted by rewil at 11:37 AM PST - 155 comments

Kirk vs. the Gorn is one of the all-time great fight scenes. Therefore, it starts with the future's greatest offensive hand-to-hand maneuver: the double-punch.
posted by Etrigan at 11:15 AM PST - 61 comments

Just a few months shy of 50, Rolling Stone has been put up to sale by co-founder and publisher Jann Wenner. Better known as a reference in music journalism, it also fostered a number of political writers, becoming one of the main features on the magazine during the second GW Bush term and the 2008 Financial Crisis, as smaller internet outlets occupied their place as trendsetters in music.
posted by lmfsilva at 7:45 AM PST - 66 comments

Scientists Can Now Repaint Butterfly Wings - "Thanks to CRISPR, scientists are studying animal evolution in ways that were previously thought to be impossible." [more inside]
posted by kliuless at 3:11 AM PST - 29 comments

The Vietnam veterans who became the crafting kings of the county fair "The first time Rod won a blue ribbon at the Montgomery County Fair, in 2010, it was Nathan who had secretly submitted Rod’s handmade blanket. After that, Rod submitted entries on his own every year. He had never mentioned anything about entering his final project at the fair. But seven months after he died, Nathan decided to do it anyway."
posted by halcyonday at 1:13 AM PST - 34 comments

The footage, courtesy of Hirola Conservation Programme. Reporting in The New York Times, with more photos of white animals.
posted by Going To Maine at 11:48 PM PST - 8 comments

Australians are receiving a special postal survey from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS). The survey asks one simple question that can only be answered yes or no: "Do you support a change in the law to allow same-sex couples to marry?" The postal survey is a first for Australia - and not only is it not mandatory to vote in the survey, the results will not be legally binding. [more inside]
posted by Athanassiel at 11:28 PM PST - 87 comments

What if colonialism.... was good?[PDF] Bruce Gilley makes The Case For Colonialism. A nice timeline at The Daily Nous of some responses, as well as how the original piece failed peer review. [more inside]
posted by the man of twists and turns at 9:50 PM PST - 76 comments

As the 1800s dawned, 22 orphans boarded a Spanish ship, under the care of their orphanage director and a team of doctors and nurses. As they set sail across the Atlantic, the plan was set in motion: they infected one of the children with cowpox. Over the following months, they passed the virus from one child to the other, in carefully spaced succession, to create a living transmission chain that would reach the Americas. They thus carried the smallpox vaccine to the new world in what became known as the Balmis Expedition.
posted by Cobalt at 9:15 PM PST - 23 comments

Shoog McDaniel, is a southern, queer, non-binary, fat photographer and artist living in Gainesville, Florida. "My work is about highlighting bodies and lives that are often overlooked by popular society. I enjoy photographing fat bodies, trans bodies, and queer bodies. People`with gap-toothed smiles and missing buttons. I capture images of my friends. With little exceptions, I have a connection with the humans in my photos and I intend to show that through the intimacy of my portraits. I strive to connect the viewer of each photo to beauty within themselves, through understanding the brilliancy of diversity, by showing them that there are many ways to be beautiful." (ALL LINKS VERY NSFW) [more inside]
posted by Grandysaur at 8:48 PM PST - 17 comments

Beautiful images from the Astronomy Photographer of The Year awards.
posted by smoke at 8:12 PM PST - 12 comments

It's been a teeth-gnashing irritant since there's been paper maps that folding and refolding them is so difficult but inventors to the rescue! Sort of. More or less. Here are some patents to solve the problem. Sort of. More or less.
posted by MovableBookLady at 7:58 PM PST - 15 comments

The popular disc cleaning software CCleaner's most recent version is a payload for malware. Bleeping Computer has more detail.
posted by codacorolla at 6:53 PM PST - 24 comments

"September 1997: Kid Rock had just landed a major-label record deal. Little-known Eminem was about to catch Dr. Dre’s ear and land his own. The face-painted duo Insane Clown Posse was grabbing headlines and hitting the charts amid controversy. Within 15 months, all would be household names in the wider music world, a strange bit of synchronicity that sparked magazine essays, cultural analysis and no small amount of head-scratching: Detroit had not only managed to produce three white rap acts. It had produced three of the most prominent of all time."

20 years in, Kid Rock, Eminem and ICP are politically relevant — and culturally divided [more inside]
posted by mannequito at 4:07 PM PST - 73 comments

This is an amazingly detailed and smart overview of what to do in the face of identity theft.
(pre,viou,sly posts on business and programming from kalzumeus)
posted by spbmp at 4:00 PM PST - 12 comments

66 year old Bodybuilder William Reed sees color for first time (slyt)
posted by A Terrible Llama at 3:28 PM PST - 36 comments

The Sphinx - Scotland's longest lasting patch of snow - is about to vanish... it has only done so six times in the last 300 years.
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 3:24 PM PST - 5 comments

Schuyler Bailar is a decorated swimmer who was recruited to Harvard as a female, but has found peace after transitioning to a male. (SLYT)
posted by The Minotaur at 3:05 PM PST - 5 comments

Eastern Washington is officially the hop capital of the world. It's that time of year again, fresh hop harvest season. One of our favorite little cones growing on a bine is making it's way across the US into kettles to make the beer we all love. This year Eastern Washington toppled Germany as producing more hops than anywhere else in the world. As part of a hop growing family this makes my heart swell with pride. Washington is a really neat state. Lots of news tends to focus on the Seattle area, but the Yakima area of the state is unique and a really cool experience. Also be sure to check out Fresh Hop Festival!
posted by KingBoogly at 2:26 PM PST - 20 comments

Kern County got a $200,000+ grant and started using closed-source software to perform a new kind of DNA testing for criminal forensics. Now, the principle at stake in California v. Johnson (California's 5th district court of appeals): does due process require that the defendant be able to examine the evidence used to convict them, which includes auditing forensics software to check for bugs? The American Civil Liberties Union and the Electronic Frontier Foundation, among others, have filed amicus curiae briefs. [more inside]
posted by brainwane at 12:43 PM PST - 28 comments

"Today, the W3C bequeaths an legally unauditable attack-surface to browsers used by billions of people. They give media companies the power to sue or intimidate away those who might re-purpose video for people with disabilities. They side against the archivists who are scrambling to preserve the public record of our era. The W3C process has been abused by companies that made their fortunes by upsetting the established order, and now, thanks to EME, they’ll be able to ensure no one ever subjects them to the same innovative pressures." [more inside]
posted by jeffburdges at 12:16 PM PST - 39 comments

Casey Johnston, writer and Swole Woman, writes about disordered eating, dealing with a friend's thoughtless comments, and the pernicious idea that "Nothing tastes as good as skinny feels." [more inside]
posted by coolname at 12:07 PM PST - 24 comments

The Bill and Melinda Gates foundation has released their first annual report, called "Goalkeepers," focused on 18 indicators of global health drawn from the Millennium Development and Sustainable Development goals set by the UN. Through measurements, projections, and case studies, the report showcases many recent advances and ingenuity while contrasting them with signs of donor fatigue and risk of regression. The report is timed for the UN General Assembly meeting this month, as Mr. Gates fears the world is losing its focus on global health. [more inside]
posted by mosst at 11:56 AM PST - 2 comments

Getting to the Bottom of Tracer's Derrière By Laura Kate Dale [Kotaku] “It feels like a hell of a lot longer, but it was only a little over a year ago that Tracer from Overwatch became the most newsworthy butt in gaming. [#buttgate] Her posterior, which was undeniably shapely, made a stir when developer Blizzard changed one of her in-game poses to reduce the emphasis placed on her buttocks. The replacement pose still showed her butt, and said butt was still perky and visible, but the new pose was intended to fit better with the character's backstory as a pilot, as well as echoing traditional pin up images from the previous century. What was not, however, covered at this point was something more fundamental. Why is Tracer's butt so pronounced no matter the pose it's hanging off? Even after an alteration of poses, the butt remains eye-catching.”
posted by Fizz at 11:46 AM PST - 25 comments

Wind energy used to mine cryptocurrency to fund climate research Taking the form of a 2m wind turbine with environmental sensors, weatherproof computer and 4G uplink, HARVEST ‘feeds’ from two primary symptoms of our changing climate: wind gusts and storms. It does this by transforming wind energy into the electricity required to meet the demanding task of mining cryptocurrency (here Zcash), a decentralised process where computers are financially rewarded for their work maintaining and verifying a public transaction ledger known as the blockchain. Rather than filling the digital wallet of the artist, all rewards earned by the HARVEST mining machine are paid out as donations to non-profit climate change research organisations such that they can better study this planetary-scale challenge.
posted by dhruva at 11:34 AM PST - 15 comments

R.I.P., the man who saved the world. Cold War hero Stanislav Petrov died at 77. Previously.
posted by doctornemo at 11:11 AM PST - 122 comments

The self-proclaimed biggest toy store there is (gee whiz!) could file for bankruptcy as soon as this week. [more inside]
posted by hanov3r at 10:49 AM PST - 55 comments

"There are lots of reasons why a person might decide to wear a chest binder; chiefly, I think, you should try it if the idea of wearing a chest binder, even once, appeals to you. I fear this may sound more facile than gently encouraging, which is not my intention." - Product Review: When Every Bra Size is Wrong by Mallory Ortberg
posted by I'm Not Even Supposed To Be Here Today! at 9:50 AM PST - 49 comments

The coalition government ruling Iceland has collapsed over restoring legal status to convicted rapists. New elections for the Alþingi (Icelandic Parliment) have been set for the end of October. Warning: Some articles describe sexual abuse of minors. [more inside]
posted by GenjiandProust at 8:58 AM PST - 39 comments

Spomenik Database: An exploration of Yugoslavia's historic and enigmatic endeavor into abstract anti-fascist WWII monument building from 1960 to 1980. During the zenith of communist Yugoslavia under Josip Broz Tito, over a thousand monuments, or spomeniks, were commissioned to not only honor the many who died in the fight against fascism in World War II, but to help forge a new national identity that transcended ethnic and religious divisions, while also rejecting Soviet-inspired socialist realism in favor of abstract postmodernism. The endeavor did not survive long past Tito's death in 1980, and many spomeniks were abandoned or destroyed after the breakup of Yugoslavia in the early 1990s, though others have been either maintained or repurposed. [more inside]
posted by Cash4Lead at 8:54 AM PST - 7 comments

In search of Les Rallizes Dénudés: A writer's search for more information on the enigmatic Japanese psychedelic noise-rock collective, who released no official studio recordings (going into semi-seclusion in the 1970s after their bassist hijacked a plane to North Korea and emerging to play the occasional secret gig, years apart) and are known mostly from a variety of live bootlegs with liner notes of varying reliability.
posted by acb at 6:25 AM PST - 15 comments

Do couples that cook together, stay together? [slGuardian] [more inside]
posted by threetwentytwo at 3:11 AM PST - 95 comments

An interview with backpacking guide Marjorie "Slim" Woodruff on the costs of egocentrism in the backcountry:

Education only works if people are open to change. I think hikers have to undergo a personal epiphany which changes their paradigm. Dog owners are so emotionally caught up in their animal, it is difficult to convince them to change.

posted by Johnny Wallflower at 11:34 PM PST - 185 comments

Bobby "the Brain" Heenan, widely considered to be both the greatest manager in professional wrestling history and the greatest colour commentator in professional wrestling history, has died following multiple battles with cancer. He was 73. [more inside]
posted by mightygodking at 9:32 PM PST - 22 comments

April 1990 - Video I shot of my typical day of a high school student [slyt]
posted by jjray at 9:02 PM PST - 20 comments

You remember the 1950s atomic era of midcentury design. Most people think of George Nelson when they see the Marshmallow Sofa or the Ball & Sunburst Clocks, and of course Herman Miller Company. Hardly anybody knows about Irving Harper, who actually created these designs in collaboration with Nelson sometimes, and sometimes solo but Nelson was head of the design firm (though not a designer himself) and so he got all the credit. A few years ago, however, Harper was rediscovered. And to the delight of all, he was also discovered as the creator of charming and delightful paper sculptures. A book came out in 2013, and a video by the Herman Miller Co. has given credit to Harper's iconic designs.
posted by MovableBookLady at 7:50 PM PST - 3 comments

Hal Holbrook is still alive, but has decided to end his 63-year run as Mark Twain in a one-man show Holbrook created and has toured around the world. Mark Twain Tonight! won Holbrook a Tony in 1966 and an Emmy nomination in 1967. Holbrook was scheduled to tour the show again this fall until he abruptly announced its end, cancelling the remaining performances. [more inside]
posted by Etrigan at 5:20 PM PST - 21 comments

Susan Sarandon posted on instagram the first photo from the shooting of "Going Places". Going Places is an upcoming crime comedy written, directed by, and starring John Turturro, acting as both a remake of the 1974 French film of the same name by Bertrand Blier, and a spin-off to the 1998 cult film The Big Lebowski, from which Turturro reprises his role as Jesus Quintana.
posted by growabrain at 1:59 PM PST - 36 comments

The East German secret police went to extraordinary lengths to track down people who wrote letters to the BBC during the Cold War. Those found were often arrested and jailed, like Karl-Heinz Borchardt, who wrote the following: I have only just started listening to your programme, 'Letters without signatures', but I like it a lot, since it airs opinions you don't find in our media. I am 16 years old. I will write to you regularly, mainly about young people and their views on world affairs. In my view, the west did not intervene strongly enough in Czechoslovakia. Does a country which fought so hard for its freedom have to carry on marching to the tune of the Soviets? Warm regards from a schoolboy
posted by stillmoving at 12:44 PM PST - 17 comments

In Jervis Bay, off Eastern Australia, researchers recently spotted 15 gloomy octopuses congregating, communicating, dwelling together, and even evicting each other from dens at a site the scientists named “Octlantis.”
posted by sammyo at 11:24 AM PST - 27 comments

My name is Miles (hence the name of the blog), and I'm obsessed with the MBTA. One man's four and a half year epic quest to ride and review every single bus route serviced by Boston's MBTA.
posted by AndrewStephens at 11:22 AM PST - 23 comments

Meet Nazo Dharejo: The toughest woman in Sindh. [more inside]
posted by bardophile at 11:14 AM PST - 9 comments

The Mega Builder of Garry's Mod by Craig Pearson ““How did they do that?” isn’t something you often ask yourself when looking at a Garry’s Mod screenshot. It’s generally obvious how it's done when you can see the joins. But I asked myself that when I came across Vioxtar’s [DeviantArt] work, because he doesn't build typical Garry's Mod contraptions. He builds worlds. Asking myself wouldn't get me any answers, so I took an extra step and asked him. His answers are as detailed and impressive as the work he produces, and gave me a whole new perspective on what it takes to turn Garry's Mod into art. He's broke the game more times than you can imagine, lost sleep, and worked for months on a single scene trying to bring the sandbox to life. I hope you enjoy his story.”
posted by Fizz at 10:53 AM PST - 8 comments

The Detroit Free Press' John Carlisle rides along on the Salvation Army's Bed and Bread program food truck. Here are the stories of some of the people he met. [more inside]
posted by Preserver at 9:29 AM PST - 3 comments

The Cryptocurrency Universe - an infographic
posted by storybored at 7:27 AM PST - 100 comments

Moon Phases 2017 [5 relatively soothing minutes] This 4K visualization shows the moon's phase and libration at hourly intervals throughout 2017, as viewed from the Northern Hemisphere. Each frame represents one hour. In addition, this visualization shows the moon's orbit position, sub-Earth and subsolar points, distance from the Earth at true scale, and labels of craters near the terminator. Production music provided by Killer Tracks.
posted by Wolfdog at 6:05 AM PST - 21 comments

A dam fusegate is a non-mechanical method for automatically triggering water release when a reservoir fills to capacity. Basically a very large pivoting metal or concrete bucket that is tripped by inlet flow at high water, it’s like an electrical fuse, only for water, and can be bigger. Much, much, bigger, as the can be seen at the Terminus Dam Spillway of Lake Kahweah in California. [more inside]
posted by carter at 5:52 AM PST - 29 comments

My Father, the Werewolf
When I was a kid, my Dad taught me all about werewolves. Little did I know he was preparing me to understand his depression.
posted by Joe in Australia at 4:36 AM PST - 18 comments

A new short film has been released by Kenzo, created by first time director Natasha Lyonne. The short stars Maya Rudolph as Chastity with Fred Armisen, Greta Lee, James Ransone, Matt Lucas, Macaulay Culkin, Waris Ahluwalia and Leslie Odom Jr. also making appearances. The 13 minute short pays homage to the eponymous characters played by Giulietta Masina in Federico Fellini's Nights of Cabiria and Shirley MacLaine in Bob Fosse's Sweet Charity, his take on Fellini's film. [more inside]
posted by gusottertrout at 12:04 AM PST - 3 comments

A neural network learns to create better D&D spells. After an unsuccessful (previously) attempt to get a computer to make new D&D spell names by feeding it 365 spells, computer researcher Janelle Shane fed it a database of all 1300+ spells from 4th edition, with much better results. Things have gone from Glasp to Song of the doom goom.
posted by CrunchyFrog at 11:53 PM PST - 45 comments

This one time? At Irish camp? Students in the Irish language immersion summer school Colaiste Lurgan have become YouTube stars for their Irish-language covers of pop hits. Here, as Gaeilge, for your viewing and listening pleasure: An Laisc Is Mó (Blurred Lines); Ar Mo Thaobh (Stay With Me); An tÁdh 'Nocht (Get Lucky); Africa (le Toto); Func Anseo (Uptown Funk); Síoraí Spraoi (Cheerleader); Na Cuimhní (Somebody That I Used To Know); and of course, this summer's blockbuster, Despacito. [more inside]
posted by Miko at 9:47 PM PST - 30 comments

After years of work, a group of dedicated enthusiasts will finally apply to have the first Dark Sky Reserve in the US. The International Dark-Sky Association has certified only 11 other reserves across the globe, and only one other in the Americas, at Mont-Mégantic national park in Québec. Each Reserve covers at least 700 square kilometers, and light pollution is so imperceptible that it is possible to see the interstellar dust clouds of the Milky Way. As one of the mayors involved said: "It's nice to look up and see something greater than ourselves."
posted by Cobalt at 9:20 PM PST - 23 comments

One of the original five elements of hip-hop culture, breaking (also known as breakdancing) never quite attained the ubiquity of rap, but it quietly remains an international phenomenon. If you're curious about the modern state of this art/sport hybrid, you could do worse than to start by watching the winning team showcase at last year's Battle of the Year, the biggest breaking crew tournament in the world. Or, for something a little less traditional, 2015's winner is a beautiful fusion of Spanish and hip-hop culture. Or perhaps you're one for the classics: Ichigeki's winning show from 2005 is often cited as the best showcase in the tournament's history. But if you restrict yourself to watching showcases, you'll be missing most of what makes breaking great. True breaking takes the form of improvisational dance-offs between opponents, each responding to, and one-upping, the other's moves. Last but not least, while breaking is an overwhelmingly male art form, there are also some seriously talented bgirls to keep an eye on. [more inside]
posted by perplexion at 8:54 PM PST - 10 comments

Virginia Oldoini, Countess of Castiglione (1837 – 1899) was an Italian aristocrat, a secret agent/courtesan sent to plead the cause of Italian unity with Emperor Napoleon III, and a photographic artist whose association with French photographer Pierre-Louise Pierson from 1856 to 1895 resulted in about 700 portraits of herself (Metropolitan Museum, Réunion des Musées Nationaux), many of them extravagant, excentric, and truly fascinating, such as the famous Game of madness (Scherzo di follia). Those in a hurry can click on Buzzfeed's top 25 Castiglione pictures. Others pictures and explanations can be found below the fold. [more inside]
posted by elgilito at 7:37 PM PST - 10 comments

On August 30th seven current and former faculty members of the University of Rochester's Brain and Cognitive Sciences department, as well as one graduate student, filed an 111-page complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission against the university for "failing to act appropriately against a faculty member who has engaged in sexual harassment and has created a hostile environment for graduate students, and for retaliating against those of us who filed and pursued a complaint through university procedures." [more inside]
posted by galaxy rise at 7:27 PM PST - 28 comments

Ross Macdonald is now being published by the The Library of America, an accolade. The main link has an very nice article about him and his Lew Archer novels. And I fully agree that he's a fine writer. However, I want to present some reminiscences about Ross Thomas, equally as good as Macdonald but sadly overlooked. The first link from the LA Review of Books is Are the Fools in Town Still on Our Side?, which is the title of one of his best books about politics and crime and corruption and sleaziness and chicanery with wonderful dialogue and sarcastic humor. [more inside]
posted by MovableBookLady at 5:15 PM PST - 14 comments

Kinji at Cheetah Experience likes meerkats but they don't like him back. However, he gets good scritches anyway. Another meerkat makes a brief appearance (as does a serval and an African wild cat) in this cheetah video from VolunteerSA. [h/t Miss Cellania]
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 3:45 PM PST - 12 comments

EEYGAAH!! WHEEEEOOH! HRROOGA!
posted by Room 641-A at 3:22 PM PST - 8 comments

The Secret History of Dune - Islamic theology, mysticism, and the history of the Arab world clearly influenced Dune, but part of Herbert’s genius lay in his willingness to reach for more idiosyncratic sources of inspiration. [more inside]
posted by the man of twists and turns at 1:49 PM PST - 7 comments

The Week My Husband Left And My House Was Burgled I Secured A Grant To Begin The Project That Became BRCA1
posted by jjray at 1:04 PM PST - 50 comments

Actress Amber Tamblyn: I'm Done With Not Being Believed (SLNYT)
posted by The Gooch at 12:57 PM PST - 20 comments

Cuphead Reignites the “Game Journalists Should Be Good at Games” Debate by Paul Tamburro [Game Revolution] “A video uploaded by the tech website VentureBeat shows one of its employees struggling to do just that [YouTube] ['Dean's Shameful 26 Minutes Of Gameplay']. Taken from Cuphead's Gamescom 2017 demo, the video sees GamesBeat lead writer Dean Takahashi struggling with just about everything the game throws at him: he experiences difficulty in attempting to jump onto a high platform in the opening tutorial; he routinely bumps into enemies running towards him; he falls down a hole to his death. The resulting footage is hilarious, playing out like a 26-minute slapstick comedy sketch in which poor Cuphead is forced to meet his demise over and over again. But rather than being viewed as a funny half-hour struggle experienced by one writer, the video has instead been used to undermine games journalism as a whole.” [more inside]
posted by Fizz at 10:44 AM PST - 104 comments

What the Hell Happened at the Mexico City Marathon?
posted by Etrigan at 7:29 AM PST - 71 comments

Reviews of Frankenstein, Wuthering Heights, Moby-Dick, Huckleberry Finn, and Dracula show the sometimes surprising reactions of 19th C. readers to 19th C. literature in English. In a letter from 1888, Nietzsche points toward the sometimes surprising coverage of another source, suggesting that The Main Developments in Literature during the Nineteenth Century by the Danish critic Georg Brandes "is still today the best Kulturbuch in German on this big subject": v. 1; v. 2; v. 3; v. 4; v. 5; v. 6. [more inside]
posted by Wobbuffet at 2:27 AM PST - 24 comments

The study of languages has long been prone to nonsense. Why is linguistics such a magnet for dilettantes and crackpots?
posted by Chrysostom at 10:57 PM PST - 85 comments

Leo Pelligrino is an energetic baritone sax player. Here he is at the BBC Proms [more inside]
posted by Gorgik at 10:07 PM PST - 27 comments

Top Boffins looking at whether cats are liquid or solid, why old men have big ears, and the effects of playing the didgeridoo have on sleep apnea were among the laureates at the 2017 Ig Nobel Prizes. (Previously) [more inside]
posted by Ranucci at 10:06 PM PST - 15 comments

McDonald's Store is a family business in the town of Hot Coffee, Mississippi. They sell shoes and brooms and ice cream and PVC fittings and hoop cheese and souse. They've been open since 1967. They just repainted.
posted by escabeche at 8:00 PM PST - 25 comments

Harry Dean Stanton died peacefully Friday afternoon at Cedars-Sinai Hospital in L.A. The legendary actor's career spanned more than 6 decades. His credits also include "Repo Man," "Cool Hand Luke," "Paris, Texas," "Alien," "Wild at Heart" and "Twin Peaks."
[more inside]
posted by shockingbluamp at 4:41 PM PST - 155 comments

We know about Calibri and the Pakistani government, but there's a lot more. There are font detectives and there are repository of fonts and their histories. Fascinating stuff.
posted by MovableBookLady at 2:43 PM PST - 12 comments

Almost nobody watches Emmy-nominated shows: A new survey of 500 people finds that of this year's Emmy-nominated shows that don't air on broadcast TV, Netflix’s “Stranger Things” was the most-watched, viewed by 21% of respondents. Netflix’s “Master of None,” Hulu’s “The Handmaid’s Tale,” and FX’s “Atlanta” tied at 5% each for the least-watched of all nominees — although “Master of None” exceeded all nominees in “never heard of” responses, at 76%.
posted by Clustercuss at 2:23 PM PST - 101 comments

To this day, the company insists, “we don’t know exactly why it works—it just does!” That folksy answer is charming, but a scientific one can foster even greater admiration for this curious ball and the sport that makes use of it. "The Contentious Physics of Wiffle Ball" from The Atlantic via Object Lesson
posted by chavenet at 2:16 PM PST - 10 comments

Max Landis, known for writing Chronicle, American Ultra, and Victor Frankenstein (as well as being John Landis' son), has written a 150 page living document detailing his Carly Rae Jepsen conspiracy theory. Click here to take a long, deep dive into the world of the Jepsen Pattern. [more inside]
posted by gucci mane at 2:10 PM PST - 42 comments

In a lengthy tweet chain beginning here, author Matt Wallace digs into Middle Earth's ugly secret: Seriously, though, can we finally talk about how Lord of the Rings is one epic PR story covering up Middle Earth's secret drug wars?
posted by Lexica at 12:30 PM PST - 35 comments

With the advertising budget slashed recently by 90% for the Affordable Care Act, and the enrollment period cut nearly in half, volunteers are using social media and state-by-state grassroots organizing to get out the word about the changes, hoping to go viral with a few key details before enrollment starts on Nov. 1st. There are concerns that vital information, particularly about the change in enrollment closing date (now Dec. 15th in most states, versus Jan. 31st last time around), won't be available widely enough. Some states are targeting barbers, bartenders, and radio shows in hopes of reaching the public. A strongly-worded letter has been sent to the administration. [more inside]
posted by TreeHugger at 12:30 PM PST - 10 comments

The Internet Health Report is an open-source initiative from Mozilla to "document and explain what's happening to the health of the internet" across five indicators: open innovation, digital inclusion, decentralization, privacy and security, and web literacy. Release 1.0 of the living document is scheduled for 2018.
posted by mosst at 11:57 AM PST - 6 comments

"His behavior is familiar. He ponders, he puzzles things out. While he eats he eats at a table; where he sleeps he sleeps in beds. If attended to in hospital, it’s by a doctor, not vet. Since the ape and homo sapiens may claim a common ancestry, he and his audience are kin. This is not so much a matter of the gene-pool as of attitude: his moods are moods we share. The well-meaning mischievous monkey, the child whom curiosity imperils but cannot kill, the creature from another world so much at home in the human one... The narrative starts with displacement; George has to cross the sea. Born in Africa, he cannot stay. That Hans Augusto Reyersbach and Margarete Waldstein, his Jewish co-creators, had a narrow escape from the Nazis, fleeing across the ocean in 1940, is surely no coincidence." [more inside]
posted by ChuraChura at 11:27 AM PST - 23 comments

It’s Schrodinger’s President! Chuck and Nancy have a deal with Trump on DACA…or do they? Republicans are outraged at Trump’s unilateral caving…or are they? Trump likes to wait for the facts before commenting on a terrorist attack…or does he? Back channels are working on cooling down the North Korea nuclear crisis…or are they? The GOP attempt to repeal the ACA is dead…or is it?
posted by darkstar at 10:34 AM PST - 2208 comments

Brexit’s Irish Question
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 10:25 AM PST - 19 comments

A slab, in surfer jargon, is a nearly unsurfable wave that occurs when a swell moves abruptly from deep water across a shallow reef or rock. The result is a fast-moving, immensely powerful tube that breaks below sea level, with a lip that's sometimes 10-foot-thick or more. When a swell is big enough, slabs produce waves that defy imagination, beautiful monsters capable of flinging surfers like toy dolls in a hurricane. [more inside]
posted by not_the_water at 9:57 AM PST - 31 comments

Nearly 20 years ago, four seniors vanished in Ontario's cottage country. Now, a joint investigation by CBC's The Fifth Estate and The Walrus magazine into recently unsealed documents offers new insight into one of Canada's most notorious cold cases. [Disturbing content]
posted by figurant at 9:45 AM PST - 7 comments

Happy PARK(ing) Day, everybody! Every third Friday in September, people around the world reclaim metered parking spaces and transform them into public space. Why? To "call attention to the need for more urban open space, to generate critical debate around how public space is created and allocated, and to improve the quality of urban human habitat." Check out the #parkingday and #parkingday2017 hashtags for more!
posted by showbiz_liz at 9:14 AM PST - 14 comments

"I have not seen the Red Cross out in the field doing any work in any way. I have seen Black Lives Matter Houston out doing what are called "muck and gut" operations at homes. I know unions have been out doing the work. The AFL-CIO here has been coordinating some efforts, as well as individual unions like the Texas State Employees Union and UNITE HERE. I have also seen churches out and about. A lot of people delivering food." Sarah Jaffe interviews Amy Zachmeyer about how the Houston Democratic Socialists of America are providing Hurricane Harvey aide and support as part of a larger Truth-Out series of interviews with activists.
posted by The Whelk at 9:08 AM PST - 29 comments

Indians, One Strike From a Streak’s End, Rally to Win 22nd Straight by Benjamin Hoffman[The New York Times] “In their bid for sole possession of baseball’s longest winning streak in the last 101 years, the Cleveland Indians found themselves a strike away from losing on Thursday. They trailed the Kansas City Royals by 2-1 in the ninth inning, but a familiar cast of characters pulled Cleveland back from defeat: Francisco Lindor tied the score in the ninth with a run-scoring double, Jose Ramirez led off the 10th with a double, and Jay Bruce drove him home for the remarkable win. The hallmark of the Indians’ streak had been almost total dominance, which made their desperate rally in Thursday’s game seem all the more impressive. In the first 21 games of the streak, the Indians had trailed their opponents for a grand total of four innings, but with Lindor at the plate in the ninth inning, they were down to their final strike before rallying.” [more inside]
posted by Fizz at 8:28 AM PST - 36 comments

Michelle Jones is a new doctoral student at NYU this fall. Her BA is from Ball State, but her most recent institution was the Indiana Women’s Prison.
posted by Etrigan at 7:22 AM PST - 38 comments

Go catch a skunk! The Golden Book of Wild Animal Pets harkens back to a very different and not-all-that-long-ago era. [more inside]
posted by fimbulvetr at 7:08 AM PST - 13 comments

The Long Solo Flight of Harrison Ford | Since the dawn of Hollywood, no movie star has seemed to need stardom—or movies—less than Harrison Ford. Chris Heath crisscrosses the country with the 75-year-old legend to find out why indifference has made all the difference in the world. [more inside]
posted by I_Love_Bananas at 6:57 AM PST - 47 comments

For three weeks in 1972 and then again in 1974, the sea captain, communist, farmer, prisoner of war, adventurer, local politician and peace activist Anders Jenius Smedsvik was a household name in south-west Norway. Then he disappeared and has been forgotten ever since. This is the first time his story has been told in full.
posted by Clinging to the Wreckage at 6:30 AM PST - 12 comments

For fans of spectacle, the most anticipated fight of the year was Mayweather-McGregor (previously). For fans of boxing, it happens this Saturday. [more inside]
posted by clawsoon at 3:13 AM PST - 32 comments

Not for sillytonians, this: words long forgotten to prompt merry-go-sorry. I do not betrump or coney-catch. These words have been hugger-muggered too long by nickums and losengers. Do not listen to momists, especially those rouzy-bouzy ruffs inclined to fumish. Up, slug-a-bed! Don't swerk - there is no ear-rent here to trembable you.
posted by giraffeneckbattle at 1:59 AM PST - 30 comments

Disney imagineer and legend Francis Xavier "X" Atencio has died. Starting work at Disney in 1938, he worked on such films as Pinocchio, Fantasia, and Mary Poppins, but he is best known for his work on Disneyland, the theme park, several decades later. Of particular note are his lyrics to the songs of two classic Disneyland attractions: The Haunted Mansion's "Grim Grinning Ghosts (The Screaming Song)" and The Pirates of the Caribbean's "Yo Ho (A Pirate's Life for Me)." (both links YouTube.) [more inside]
posted by Karlos the Jackal at 11:46 PM PST - 22 comments

While BBC staff are embroiled in an ugly cheesecake theft incident, a Dorset baker gets on with making a Victoria sponge cake weighing over 300 kg and using 700 eggs. Popular online, sometimes refered to as a Victoria sandwich (the difference explained), and sometimes difficult to bake, this consists of two sponges mortared with a layer of raspberry jam and a layer of whipped double cream, buttercream or vanilla cream. The WI offers a standard recipe though there are variations; some people are alleged to use electric mixers. The cake was named after Queen Victoria, who was known to like a nibble around tea time (4 o'clock in the afternoon). The advice for entering a Victoria sponge cake in a village show is often extremely debatable (and tips). [more inside]
posted by Wordshore at 9:35 PM PST - 30 comments

Rjyan Kidwell (not a typo) has most commonly gone by the stage name Cex, but his sound has changed in the 20+ years he's made music, from pastoral to glitchy IDM to spoken word-ish rap (?), the dark, messy side of Cex, and even experimental/tribal looping sounds. The death of Cex was speculated and denied in 2006. Six years and ten albums later, he was again presumed dead, this time a self-imposed label. This summer, he released an album of "original stage adaptations of science fiction novels." Cex is clearly not yet dead. [more inside]
posted by filthy light thief at 7:06 PM PST - 12 comments

Hold My Mead: A Bibliography For Historians Hitting Back At White Supremacy A collection of academic articles examining the questions of ethnic and cultural diversity across the ancient Roman and Medieval European worlds.
posted by supermedusa at 6:46 PM PST - 22 comments

Lolita is the oldest orca in captivity, having lived at the Miami Seaquarium since 1970. As Hurricane Irma blew through southern Florida, she was not transported out of her open tank to a more protected area. In an article in the Miami New Times, former SeaWorld trainer Dr. Jeffrey Ventre calls this "criminal animal negligence or animal cruelty." The Miami Seaquarium did not respond to Dr. Ventre's claims, but after the hurricane they posted a Tweet stating all animals were safe. [more inside]
posted by whistle pig at 4:17 PM PST - 9 comments

Two Motel 6 locations are under fire for reporting Latino guests to ICE, resulting in at least 20 deportations. [more inside]
posted by shoesietart at 2:46 PM PST - 52 comments

Mefi's own Linda Holmes reviews the original cast recording for "Spongebob Squarepants", the musical.
posted by Ipsifendus at 2:29 PM PST - 7 comments

EVE Online is infamous for its scammers, pirates, and ne’er-do-wells, but this week all their scams were put to shame. A member of the game’s Council of Stellar Management and head diplomat of the Circle of Two alliance named The Judge stole all of the holdings of the 4,000-person alliance for himself. He took their money, took their ships, and sold their Death Star-esque space citadel to their most hated enemies.

Another story about backstabbing & betrayal in EVE Online for your enjoyment. (But if you want something more meaty, The Empires of EVE podcast is right up your street.)
posted by MartinWisse at 2:28 PM PST - 37 comments

Teaser to the new series starring David Mitchell and Robert Webb, named Back. [more inside]
posted by Laotic at 1:44 PM PST - 36 comments

When crimes begin to pile up they become invisible.
Accused of Genocide; Nobel Peace Prize winner Aug San Suu Kyi's (wiki) armed forces are pursuing a scorched earth policy towards the Rohingha in Rakhine state.
What created the blueprint for Rohingya genocide in Myanmar? Western colonialism.
Borders, Bureaucracy And The Rohingya Crisis – Analysis.
posted by adamvasco at 12:27 PM PST - 30 comments

Your task is to build a cellular automaton using the rules of Conway's game of life that will allow for the playing of a game of Tetris.
posted by gauche at 11:31 AM PST - 24 comments

raubdruckerin is an experimental printmaking project that uses urban structures like manhole covers [dub-like music], grids, technical objects and other surfaces of the urban landscape to create unique graphical patterns on streetwear basics, fabrics and paper. Every piece is hand printed, mainly on-site in the public space, as a footprint of the city.
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 10:50 AM PST - 14 comments

"I am a musician from Europe living in United Sates. I do music full time, that includes solo and band performances. This video is from a gig I did on August 16th of 2017. It was a Tuesday night at Motorworks Brewing in Bradenton, Florida. August is off season in that part of Florida so attendance for live entertainment is low everywhere. The first hour was empty, I played for myself, took some video, made up music. [...] Second hour was when a party of three people showed up and that was my first audience of that slow Tuesday night. I greeted them and began interacting in between songs. And after building up a rapport one lady felt comfortable enough to through [sic] out a request. The rest you can see in the video." [more inside]
posted by mosk at 10:19 AM PST - 21 comments

It started with a simple question on Twitter: "Who would win in a staff battle between @sciencemuseum (The Science Museum) and @NHM_London (Natural History Museum) what exhibits/items would help you be victorious? #askacurator"

The Natural History Museum was the first to weigh in: "We have dinosaurs. No contest."
The Science Museum was quick to respond: "@NHM_London is full of old fossils, but we have robots, a Spitfire and ancient poisons. Boom!"

What followed was a donnybrook for the ages. (Or for the Twitter-averse, a recap via the London Evening Standard.)
posted by Atom Eyes at 9:38 AM PST - 26 comments

For years the airlines have been allowed to steadily shrink the size of coach class seats and the space between seat rows without regulators considering the impact of this on safety. In a case brought by the non-profit activist group Flyers Rights and heard by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, a judge said there was “a plausible life-and-death safety concern” about what is called the “densification” of seats in coach. The court ordered the Federal Aviation Administration to respond to a petition filed by Flyers Rights to promulgate new rules to deal with safety issues created by shrinking seat sizes and space in coach class cabins.
posted by Emmy Rae at 8:58 AM PST - 90 comments

Professional Clowns Plan Rally Outside NYC Movie Theater, Blaming Movie 'It' for Drop in Business John Nelson, who runs Clowns in Town with a partner, says his business has gotten several cancellations in the last couple of weeks, and he's blaming the supernatural horror movie for scaring the public.
posted by grobertson at 8:39 AM PST - 81 comments

J. P. Donleavy, the expatriate American author whose 1955 novel “The Ginger Man” shook up the literary world with its combination of sexual frankness and outrageous humor, died on Monday at a hospital near his home in Mullingar, County Westmeath, Ireland. He was 91. [NY Times] [more inside]
posted by chavenet at 8:09 AM PST - 14 comments

PewDiePie Posts Apology Video After Using Racial Slur by Julia Alexander [Polygon] “Felix “PewDiePie” Kjellberg has posted an apology video [YouTube] for using a racial slur during a recent livestream [YouTube] almost two days after the initial video was posted. “I’m disappointed in myself because it seems like I’ve learned nothing from all these past controversies,” Kjellberg said. “It’s not like I think I can say or do whatever I want and get away with it, that’s not it at all — I’m just an idiot. But that doesn’t make what I said or how I said it OK. I’m really sorry if I offended, hurt or disappointed anyone with all of this. Being in the position I am, I should know better. “I can’t keep messing up like this.” Kjellberg’s comments resulted in backlash from the streaming community and game developers. Sean Vanaman, developer on Firewatch and co-founder of Campo Santo, tweeted that he would be filing copyright issue takedowns of any video Kjellberg posted playing through the studio’s present and future games.” [Previously.] [more inside]
posted by Fizz at 7:58 AM PST - 161 comments

For 13 years, the orbiter has been sending back to Earth images of its extraordinary discoveries at Saturn. It has documented the possible birth of a moon, tasted an extra-terrestrial ocean and watched as a giant storm encircled the entire planet.
posted by lungtaworld at 7:50 AM PST - 44 comments

Stephen Fry hates dancing. "I hate dancing more than I can possibly explain," he explains. Canada-born, Los Angeles-based dancer, choreographer, and filmmaker Jo Roy (sorry, autoplay music) performs a spirited terpsichorean response to Fry’s monologue.
posted by goatdog at 7:35 AM PST - 29 comments

Dancing on the ceiling, the floor, the walls, the parade float, the everything... 80's style The mash-up of 80's movie dance sequence moments you never knew you needed. Sure, you've got your Footloose, your Madonna, your Dirty Dancing, but stay for your Stayin' Alive, your Xanadu, and all the other clips you forgot you loved.
posted by I_Love_Bananas at 6:46 AM PST - 16 comments

Hüsker Dü drummer Grant Hart dead at 56. The McCartney to Bob Mould's Lennon, Hart's drumming and songwriting anchored some of the most influential music of the post-punk/proto indie era, both with seminal hardcore band Hüsker Dü, solo and side projects.
posted by tim_in_oz at 5:30 AM PST - 84 comments

For a time in the 1860s there were more British troops in New Zealand than almost anywhere else in the empire outside India. And the Waikato war was the defining conflict in New Zealand history – a battle between two competing visions of the nation’s future. British victory paved the way for settler and European hegemony, casting aside Māori aspirations for partnership and shared prosperity for at least the next century. Instead, sweeping and indiscriminate land confiscations pushed Māori tribes to the margins of colonial society, condemning generations to lives of poverty. [more inside]
posted by Start with Dessert at 5:26 AM PST - 11 comments

How Not to Land an Orbital Rocket Booster SpaceX shares bad launching and landing experiences, with a soundtrack. (SLY) (via)
posted by doctornemo at 4:34 AM PST - 25 comments

For a first-time festival, the Newport Contemporary Music Series boasted a program that might make even Tanglewood blush: a star-studded lineup featuring appearances by Philip Glass, four-time Academy Award winner André Previn, and “Lord of the Rings” composer Howard Shore. The festival hired more than 100 professional musicians to form the Newport Contemporary Arts Orchestra, which over six weeks starting in July was to perform challenging works by some of the titans of contemporary music. The man behind it all: Paul Van Anglen, a 25-year-old impresario who managed to present just three concerts before his grand dream cratered amid charges of broken promises, rank amateurism, and an estimated $120,000 in unpaid orchestra musicians fees, plus tens of thousands more for unpaid soloists and other costs.
posted by showbiz_liz at 4:30 AM PST - 30 comments

The Metaphysics of the Hangover (Mark Edmundson, The Hedgehog Review).
posted by sapagan at 3:17 AM PST - 13 comments

The ultrawealthy have 10% of global GDP stashed in tax havens — and it's making inequality worse than it appears
Annette Alstadsæter, Niels Johannesen, and Gabriel Zucman offer a new working paper about the composition of wealth held in offshore tax havens. Quick summary: "10% of world GDP is held in tax havens. The top 0.1% own 80% of that. The top 0.01% own 50%." [more inside]
posted by kliuless at 3:11 AM PST - 29 comments

Fast Company: Two Ex-Googlers Want To Make Bodegas And Mom-And-Pop Corner Stores Obsolete — Called Bodega, this startup installs unmanned pantry boxes in apartments, offices, dorms, and gyms. It promises convenience, but also represents competition for many mom-and-pop stores. [more inside]
posted by tonycpsu at 9:48 PM PST - 142 comments

Fran Blanche shares with us about one of her favorite things: the 45rpm record!
posted by vespabelle at 9:33 PM PST - 15 comments

An insatiable and invasive green monster is eating the picturesque bayous and rare wetlands of Caddo Lake, on the Texas-Louisiana border.
The Creature From The Green Lagoon [more inside]
posted by the man of twists and turns at 8:52 PM PST - 4 comments

In 2004 Rafi B. Levy released his first solo cd, Desert Cruising in a Dub State of Mind. That cd was a mix of Latin, Reggae, Middle Eastern, guitar instrumentals. In 2009 he moved to Seville, Spain to study Flamenco and spent three years emersed in the music. In 2014, after deciding to stay with the electric guitar, he released the album Uplift Your Soul. I just happened to see him today playing on the Santa Monica Pier and I wanted to share. [more inside]
posted by Room 641-A at 6:28 PM PST - 7 comments

"The solid mass of congealed fat, wet wipes, nappies, oil and condoms formed in the Victorian-era tunnel in Whitechapel, London." The 'fatberg' is 250 meters long and estimated to weigh over 130 metric tons. An eight-member team will break up the fatberg with high-pressure hoses.
posted by needled at 5:35 PM PST - 74 comments

...most everyone (including the people that made the show) assumed Survivor would be a fad — something akin to a pet rock or a mood ring — and would burn bright yet burn out quickly. Instead, it launched an entire genre of reality TV and still, 18 years later, remains the most-viewed television show on Wednesday nights. With season 35 —that is not a typo — debuting on Sept. 27 when CBS launches the Heroes v. Healers v. Hustlers installment, I thought it time to pay tribute to one of television's biggest mainstays with 35 reasons to love Survivor.

Dalton Ross with 35 Reasons to Love "Survivor" in Honor of the 35th Season
posted by The Gooch at 5:19 PM PST - 23 comments

Top 10 most re-watched episodes of Star Trek on Netflix [more inside]
posted by kittensofthenight at 5:13 PM PST - 81 comments

From the stately (and infamous) Little Rock Central High to the Art Deco stylings of Will Rogers High, Architectural Digest picks The Most Beautiful Public High School in Every State in America.
posted by mediareport at 1:52 PM PST - 51 comments

This is the Pizza Hut I remember. It was a destination restaurant for a moderately expensive family dinner, or a date.
posted by COD at 1:34 PM PST - 145 comments

"In America, the world’s richest country, hookworm, a parasitic disease found in areas of extreme poverty, is rampant, the first study of its kind in modern times shows." (SLGuardian) [more inside]
posted by cooker girl at 12:41 PM PST - 16 comments

In july Jerermy Scahill interviewed Alfred McCoy, Harrington professor of history at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the author of “The Politics of Heroin: CIA Complicity in the Global Drug Trade.”
In a wide-ranging interview, they discuss Trump and Russia, the history of CIA interference in elections around the world, the Iran-Contra scandal, the CIA and the crack-cocaine epidemic, U.S. proxy wars, narcotrafficking in Afghanistan, and much more.
Transcript and podcast.
The Collapse of Empire is also acknowleged by the Pentagon but not by others.
posted by adamvasco at 11:46 AM PST - 41 comments

It’s hard to imagine that any high school would require boys to swim naked today. But for more than 50 years (even until 1980, by some accounts), this was standard policy. Girls were required to wear simple, single-color suits, usually of wool.
posted by stillmoving at 11:22 AM PST - 65 comments

So many of us want to get involved but aren't sure what our roles should be. How do I as a Asian American straight man engage in the reality of Anti-Blackness and struggle? How do I as a white queer woman stand humbly and bravely in the indigenous struggle? How can I as a black woman share safely about the stories I face on a daily basis in the broad movement of all women in our country? How do we understand those working with us -- the people we see marching with and for our communities? [more inside]
posted by infinitefloatingbrains at 11:07 AM PST - 8 comments

How to live on a climate changed world: Can we move from a Class IV ("thick biosphere") to a Class V planet: Planets in which an energy-intensive technological species establishes a sustainable form of cooperation with the biosphere that increases the productivity of both? [more inside]
posted by yoga at 11:03 AM PST - 8 comments

The atmosphere is literally changing the food we eat, for the worse. And almost nobody is paying attention.
posted by MrVisible at 10:23 AM PST - 29 comments

What does it mean to have a 2018 spring/summer line in dogswear? The Guardian's Mona Chalabi journeyed to a former synagogue in Manhattan to find out.
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 9:50 AM PST - 10 comments

Since 2004, the Brainwashed Podcast has been delivering an engaging mix of independent musics. [more inside]
posted by sandettie light vessel automatic at 9:43 AM PST - 5 comments

The story of Tom Corbally, a private investigator whose career crisscrossed continents and spanned decades, is its own secret history of the 20th century.
posted by ellieBOA at 9:34 AM PST - 11 comments

The Indexer is published by the Society of Indexers in the UK. It includes articles on the history of indexing, discussion of how to index names from around the world, ongoing reviews of indexes published elsewhere, and, of course, an index. All issues/articles older than 3 years old are available for free.
posted by carter at 9:34 AM PST - 8 comments

If you were ever curious how Andri Ragettli trains to do this, well, wonder no more.(dlyt)
posted by selfnoise at 6:54 AM PST - 17 comments

Colin Kaepernick Has a Job: Inside the past, present and future of this country's most inconvenient truth, by way of the most controversial black man in America
posted by OmieWise at 5:39 AM PST - 33 comments

Metroid: Samus Returns [Polygon] “Metroid: Samus Returns [YouTube][Trailer] is the remake no one was asking for. Sandwiched between the birth of the franchise and the beloved Super Metroid, Metroid 2: The Return of Samus was the first portable entry in the series. And it was a very solid, if safe, follow-up to the original game. Which is why no one was really demanding that it be remade. But thank god it was. Metroid: Samus Returns reforges the broad concept of the Game Boy original while adding modern gameplay mechanics and the best graphics yet seen on the 3DS, making it an essential part of the Metroid catalog.” [more inside]
posted by Fizz at 5:12 AM PST - 27 comments

On the southern edge of Paris, a five-thousand-square-foot basement houses the city’s lost possessions. The Bureau of Found Objects, as it is officially called, is more than two hundred years old, and one of the largest centralized lost and founds in Europe. Any item left behind on the Métro, in a museum, in an airport, or found on the street and dropped, unaddressed, into a mailbox makes its way here, around six or seven hundred items each day.
posted by Chrysostom at 11:01 PM PST - 22 comments

Back in 1982 I was dealing acid at Jim Morrison’s grave and that’s when I first met Vladimir Putin.
posted by Sebmojo at 5:00 PM PST - 106 comments

Edith Windsor, the gay-rights activist whose landmark Supreme Court case struck down the Defense of Marriage Act in 2013, has died. Death is sad, but this sentence, near the top of the Time obituary, made me happy: Her wife, Judith Kasen-Windsor, confirmed the death but did not specify a cause.
posted by ALeaflikeStructure at 4:17 PM PST - 61 comments

We recently did seersucker but cooler weather means it's time for corduroy. There's seems to be a resurgence of corduroy, which has happened many times before. Lots of info on its history, beginning in ancient Egypt.
posted by MovableBookLady at 3:59 PM PST - 41 comments

Spot On: A period and birth control-tracking app powered by Planned Parenthood. Transpose: A modular airplane design from Airbus. Pro Hijab: Nike's breathable, lightweight performance hijab for Muslim women athletes. The Willow Pump: An all-in-one smart breast pump that works inside a bra, collects milk in an internal bag, and tracks volume through an app, without any dangling cords or bottles. Dyson Supersonic: Dyson's hairdryer engineered for balance in the hand and to protect hair from heat damage. These are just a few of winners of Fast Company’s sixth annual Innovation By Design Awards. [Note: article annoyingly doesn't link to products.] [more inside]
posted by Room 641-A at 3:02 PM PST - 16 comments

"Whatever happens with the charts will be frosting on the cake for us." Sparks are back in the UK Top 20 album chart for the first time in 42 years with their new album Hippopotamus. The album has been garnering generally excellent reviews. Videos for the title track, "What The Hell Is It This Time?" and the terrific "Edith Piaf (Said It Better Than Me)" (a stop-motion animation video) were released this past summer. Previously.
posted by Joey Michaels at 2:16 PM PST - 27 comments

Author Rose Christo is publishing her memoir, Under the Same Stars: The Search for My Brother and the True Story of My Immortal, in which she claims to have co-written My Immortal, the legendary worst fan fiction ever. [CW: second link contains discussion of child sexual abuse and exploitation] [more inside]
posted by Halloween Jack at 1:04 PM PST - 27 comments

Despite “Car Wash” and other investigations, many Latin American elites have continued their corrupt habits.
“Equality before the law is probably forever unattainable. It is a noble ideal, but it can never be realized, for what men value in this world is not rights but privileges.”
Odebrecht: the largest corruption network in Latin America.
As corruption scandals spread through Latin America, its new middle class is fighting back. The scandals involving presidents are indeed serious, but drug cartels today penetrate the lower echelons of government, sawing the foundations of the state and the rule of law.
posted by adamvasco at 10:34 AM PST - 4 comments

Today, live from the new Steve Jobs Theatre at Cupertino, Apple will likely release the highly anticipated iPhone X. [more inside]
posted by standardasparagus at 10:03 AM PST - 315 comments

How do you feed a zoo during a disaster?
posted by ChuraChura at 9:54 AM PST - 13 comments

...said Paul Young in 1978, shortly before mislaying his hat. But toast is a food which raises many questions. What is toast? Where did the word come from? What is a cruminal? Are British people strange or normal? What do some Brits accompany their breakfast toast with? What is French toast? And Texas toast? Is the avocado on toast (thanks, Gwyneth) thing over yet? Is marmalade only eaten on toast? Is burnt toast a health risk? Is salad cream on toast nice? Or combining chocolate spread and cheese (police)? Has every conceivable variation of Nutella on toast (and French toast) been explored (so good)? Can toast be safely made in space? Can (or should) a bagel be toasted? Seriously, a jaffa cake filling? And is toast research influenced by Big Butter? [more inside]
posted by Wordshore at 9:25 AM PST - 70 comments

What do the rich think of the world? "When I used the word “affluent” in an email to a stay-at-home mom with a $2.5 million household income, a house in the Hamptons and a child in private school, she almost canceled the interview, she told me later. Real affluence, she said, belonged to her friends who traveled on a private plane." What The Rich Won't Tell You - how the wealthy view themselves by Rachel Sherman (NYT). Meanwhile, "Dream Hoarders", a new book by Richard Reeves making the lofty claim that the real drivers of inequality are the upper middle class, is being savaged by critics.
posted by The Whelk at 8:58 AM PST - 131 comments

Hot on the heels of Lord & Miller being ousted from the Han Solo solo film mid-shoot and replaced by famous narrator and occasional actor/director Ron Howard, Colin Trevorrow recently parted ways with Star Wars Episode IX. Today, LucasFilm announced his replacement for the final film in the trilogy of trilogies.
posted by entropicamericana at 8:43 AM PST - 87 comments

Ira Lightman was no ordinary poet – he was also the poetry sleuth. And it looked as if this might be his biggest catch yet.
posted by dfan at 8:10 AM PST - 20 comments

What are the two houses in the UK with the same street address closest to each other? An investigation.
posted by DoctorFedora at 6:11 AM PST - 57 comments

NYU Student Graham Dunn has written a short essay about a serious problem.
posted by Going To Maine at 10:52 PM PST - 105 comments

With just an ordinary ballpoint pen, the kind we’ve all used to scribble down classroom notes or phone numbers for possible Friday night dates, Toronto-based artist Rebecca Yanovskaya creates exquisite, magical worlds filled with mythical beings and characters out of creepy old folktales which she then blings up with a lot of 22 karat gold leaf.

posted by Johnny Wallflower at 10:19 PM PST - 11 comments

The 25 Best Space Movies, Ranked [more inside]
posted by the man of twists and turns at 8:36 PM PST - 309 comments

The Last Mile ---UPS Manny making a delivery. "The last mile" is used to describe the most inefficient and costly portion of any delivery service....getting that package to the door. [more inside]
posted by shockingbluamp at 7:20 PM PST - 13 comments

Under Cover in Temp Nation by Sara Mojtehedzadeh and Brendan Kennedy [The Toronto Star] “There are two dozen of us crowded around a conveyor belt, bodies twisting to snatch dough off the line. The floor is strewn with raw pastries that seem to accumulate faster than anyone can sweep them up. They collect in bloated masses at our feet. It is my first day as a temp at Fiera Foods, an industrial bakery that reeks of yeast and is alive with the constant drone of machinery. We are forming and packing raw, circular pastry dough into wet plastic trays — a shoulder-crunching task called pinching. These may well be the croissants you eat for breakfast. Supervisors shout at us to wake up. They shout at us to move faster, pinch nicer, work harder. No one talks through the noise and exhaustion. The factory relies heavily on temporary help agency workers. Its health and safety record is checkered; three temps have died here or at Fiera’s affiliated companies since 1999. Across the province, more and more people are relying on temp agencies to find work. When they do, statistics show they are more likely to get hurt on the job. I am undercover to investigate why.”
posted by Fizz at 7:19 PM PST - 15 comments

The demise of Senior House is emblematic of a larger shift on campuses across the US. Last year my own alma mater, Wesleyan University, closed down its countercultural house Eclectic, which had existed for a century. A few years ago Caltech kicked students out of its countercultural dorm Ricketts. “If it were just Senior House I would be upset and sad,” says alumna Christine Corbett Moran, an astrophysicist and engineer who, after graduation, helped write the code for the encrypted chat app Signal. “But I really see it as a harbinger of MIT and other colleges homogenizing and corporatizing.” — A Weird MIT Dorm Dies, And A Crisis Blooms At Colleges (Emily Dreyfuss, Wired)
posted by Room 641-A at 1:39 PM PST - 94 comments

Crime and Punishment is a Letter from Washington on the Harper's blog that details the current state of play of a court case that "...grew out of a suit filed in 2002 on behalf of bereaved family members and other victims of the attacks...". The post also ranges over the history of the investigation of the 9/11 attacks during all three of the presidential administrations involved, as well as the relationship of each administration with Saudi Arabia.
posted by kingless at 1:38 PM PST - 12 comments

The Efficacy of Reddit’s 2015 Ban Examined Through Hate Speech

In 2015, Reddit closed several subreddits—foremost among them r/fatpeoplehate and r/CoonTown—due to violations of Reddit’s anti-harassment policy. However, the effectiveness of banning as a moderation approach remains unclear: banning might diminish hateful behavior, or it may relocate such behavior to different parts of the site. We study the ban of r/fatpeoplehate and r/CoonTown in terms of its effect on both participating users and affected subreddits.

posted by a snickering nuthatch at 1:35 PM PST - 45 comments

The People's Bank of China (PBoC) has drafted instructions banning Chinese platforms from providing crypto-currency trading services, the Wall Street Journal's Chao Deng reported citing people familiar with the matter. The move comes just a week after Beijing announced it was banning initial coin offerings, a virtual currency-based method of fundraising.
posted by Chrysostom at 1:06 PM PST - 13 comments

Seven Days of Heroin: This is What an Epidemic Looks Like The Cincinnati Enquirer sent more than 60 reporters, photographers and videographers into their communities to chronicle an ordinary week in this extraordinary time.
posted by OmieWise at 12:14 PM PST - 66 comments

Ten thousand Finns participate in the sport of hobby horsing
posted by starfishprime at 12:12 PM PST - 15 comments

To live meaningfully in a meaningless universe, you must first make your own meaning. Existential nihilism , the philosophy that life has no intrinsic meaning or value. Optimistic nihilism, the view that, once one accepts that life lacks any intrinsic meaning or value, one can find joy and contentment by attributing their own sense of meaning or value to existence. [more inside]
posted by houseofleaves at 11:16 AM PST - 86 comments

Allergan, maker of eye drug Restasis, tries to sidestep a patent challenge by transferring the drug's patent rights to the St. Regis Mohawk Indian Nation, under the theory that the tribe's sovereign immunity will prevent the patent from being invalidated. An expert wonders if this will open a new chapter in IP law where "“The validity of your patents is subject to review, unless you pay off some Indian tribe”.
posted by w0mbat at 10:46 AM PST - 41 comments

In 1928, the Great Powers came together and formally renounced war as an instrument of national policy in a treaty known as the Kellogg-Briand Pact. Given the terrible blood-letting overseen by the signatories over the next twenty years, the general view of the Kellogg-Briand Pact has been that it was a hopelessly naive exercise. But a forthcoming book by two law professors argues that it was an important step in changing the way nations thought about war and guaranteeing the relative peace that has reigned since 1950. Of course some disagree. And the New Yorker puts the argument in the context of the debate between "Realists" and "Idealists" in International Relations.
posted by firechicago at 7:43 AM PST - 21 comments

Procedural Generation is a tumblr that collects procedurally generated content. [more inside]
posted by zamboni at 6:26 AM PST - 8 comments

All the objects you will see in this website are deliberately designed to annoy you.
posted by still_wears_a_hat at 5:54 AM PST - 55 comments

What do jumping spiders and the North Korean army have in common? Moving their feet to The Bee Gees! (jumping spiders previously)
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 9:57 PM PST - 9 comments

Uncompromising in her designs and single-minded in her approach, it was said that the word "decoration" was like a swear word to her. But Minnesota has benefited from her clean lines. And midcentury modernism has an open-air museum in Columbus Indiana which is full of outstanding buildings by architects lured there by the head of the Cummins Engine Company. And it's celebrating itself with Exhibit Columbus.
posted by MovableBookLady at 9:35 PM PST - 9 comments

A Roman cavalry barracks has been found near Hadrian’s Wall, containing thousands of military and personal items left there some time before 122 AD. The early second century building was built and abandoned before the wall was constructed. So far, the excavation has found pottery, textiles, hair combs, wooden spoons, bowls, and two complete cavalry swords. [more inside]
posted by ALeaflikeStructure at 8:44 PM PST - 35 comments

Good evening. Does anyone know how to get a slug out of an iron? [SLFB]. One of those rare times it's worth reading the comments.
posted by Mchelly at 7:18 PM PST - 36 comments

Len Wein, Co-Creator of Wolverine and Editor of Watchmen, Dies at 69. He leaves behind numerous comicbook creations such as Swamp Thing, Human Target as well as being responsible for the best known incarnation of the X-Men, his impact on comics and popular culture was incalculable.
posted by Artw at 3:28 PM PST - 52 comments

(C) 1981 Sinneslöschen Inc.
An hour long documentary (SLYT) covering the arcade urban legend. By Ahoy, who also made Nuclear Fruit. [more inside]
posted by FJT at 3:08 PM PST - 18 comments

Michael Friedman was the composer-lyricist of Broadway's Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson, numerous off-Broadway musicals, a founding member of The Civilians, and the newly-named artistic director of New York City Center's Encores! Off-Center series. He died yesterday at age 41 from complications due to HIV/AIDS. [more inside]
posted by Zephyrial at 2:38 PM PST - 17 comments

321+ Times Animals Did Things For The First Time, And Had The Funniest Reactions [SLBored Panda]
posted by Room 641-A at 12:35 PM PST - 14 comments

Multiple groups of academics have come to the same conclusion: Borrowers in the middle and top of the distribution are the ones that contributed most significantly to the increase in mortgages in default after 2007. During the whole time period, even at the height of the housing boom, sub-prime was never more than 20% of the market. And while it’s true that these types of borrowers usually default at relatively higher rates, they didn’t after the 2007 housing collapse. ... It was wealthy or middle-class house-flipping speculators who blew up the bubble to cataclysmic proportions, and then wrecked local housing markets when they defaulted en masse.
posted by clawsoon at 10:02 AM PST - 67 comments

While serving as foreperson on a grand jury, Susana Morris confronts power and privilege in the criminal justice system.
posted by bardophile at 9:44 AM PST - 15 comments

What it’s like to be fat in France: Gabrielle Deydier’s book about being obese has ignited her native France. [more inside]
posted by ellieBOA at 4:13 AM PST - 59 comments

New DNA evidence uncovered by researchers at Uppsala University and Stockholm University shows that there were in fact female Viking warriors. The remains of an iconic Swedish Viking Age grave now reveal that war was not an activity exclusive to males – women could be found in the higher ranks at the battlefield. [more inside]
posted by Too-Ticky at 2:04 AM PST - 34 comments

Seth MacFarlane’s The Orville isn't the spoof Fox advertised. It’s much weirder — and worse. [more inside]
posted by the man of twists and turns at 10:24 PM PST - 206 comments

As people evacuate the state of Florida, staff and cats remain to protect Hemingway's Key West Home The granddaughter of legendary author Ernest Hemingway called it “heartbreaking and absolutely wonderful” that Jacqui Sands, the 72-year-old manager of the Ernest Hemingway Home and Museum, has vowed to ride out the deadly storm for the sake of the 19th-century residence and its 50-plus cats, but she wants Sands to hit the road. [more inside]
posted by Toddles at 10:09 PM PST - 26 comments

The Last Sea-silk seamstress "It takes about 100 dives to harvest 30g of usable strands, which form when the mollusc’s secreted saliva comes in contact with salt water and solidifies into keratin. Only then is Vigo ready to begin cleaning, spinning and weaving the delicate threads. Known as byssus, or sea silk, it’s one of the rarest and most coveted materials in the world."
posted by dhruva at 9:31 PM PST - 13 comments

eat the ice cream eat the ice cream eat the ice cream eat the ice cream eat the ice cream eat the ice cream eat̸ ̴the̛ ̶i͠ce ̡c҉r̨e͝am ̕ea͢t t͟he͢ ice c̢ream͜ ̶e̶át ҉th͘e íce ̀c͡re̴am ęat t͏he͢ ̛i͏c̸e͝ cr̷e͞am e̸a̢t͟ t͞he͘ i̶c͞e̴ ͞crea͢m ͞e͜at̡ th͞e ̴i̶ce̷ ćre͢a͠m̷ ̷eat͠ ̸the ic̴e cr̨eám̨ ̀eąt͝ t͞h̨e҉ ̡i̛c҉e ͘çr͢e̶am ̗̲̤̖̜́e̴̫a͉͙̭̥͕t ̴̬̰̠̗͇̙t̜̺͈̹̰̘̪́h͙͈͟e̱͔̬̻ͅ ̵͓̩̼ic͎̣̮̹̤e͚͇͈̦̥͖ ̱̯̞c̦̝̖̯͎r̻͈͎e͈̬͎̫̫a̦͔̦̗̮̻m̞ ̹̱͟e̗̙̙̩̮a̯̜̰ͅț̖̦͟ ̟̪̞t̥̲̕h͕̕e̘ i̴͙c̗̭͖̠̤̖e̺̩̪̺ ͍̝͍̝͞c̘̫̮̣̰r̳̬͕̖̩ȩ͈̩a̳̯̜̟̯̖m̜͍ ̸ea̠̩͖̖t͓̪ ͠t̬̤̲̮͕̼͢h͕͕̳͉̙ẹ͢ ̶̫͈̱͉i̵̦̮͎͕̹̟c̟̙̦̗͓̘̺͝e̺̩̯̹̕ ̺̠̤͜c҉͕͕̠̫̘̖̤r̖̝͍͍̣̹ḙ͚͎a̮m̬̮͍͉̻̜ ̸ea̠̩͖̖t͓̪ ͠t̬̤̲̮͕̼͢h͕͕̳͉̙ẹ͢ ̶̫͈̱͉i̵̦̮͎͕̹̟c̟̙̦̗͓̘̺͝e̺̩̯̹̕ ̺̠̤͜c҉͕͕̠̫̘̖̤r̖̝͍͍̣̹ḙ͚͎a̮m̬̮͍͉̻̜
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 8:39 PM PST - 89 comments

A single-serving twitter account of Dwarf Fortress bug descriptions
posted by kenko at 8:20 PM PST - 13 comments

Most of us are "meh" about celery, but oh there was a time . . . And of course it was the Victorians who celebrated celery. And had special containers to show it off. There's a recipe at the end for a slaw, but I've added a link for Alton Brown's Braised Celery. A friend once made this for me and I was enchanted with it, especially since she burned it just a tad, which seemed to enrich the flavor somehow.
posted by MovableBookLady at 5:07 PM PST - 74 comments

Empire Liquor Mart (9127 S. Figueroa St.) [9m11s] is a track from Gabriel Kahane's song cycle about Los Angeles, The Ambassador [10 track YT playlist, complete lyrics (pdf link)]. The track blends modern styles with German lieder and other classical music forms to give an imagined first person account of the death of Latasha Harlins.
posted by hippybear at 4:05 PM PST - 7 comments

Beautiful and absorbing four minute video of Cassini's life one week before it burns into Saturn.
posted by plexi at 3:09 PM PST - 40 comments

Brooklyn Is Pizza Heaven is the first episode of The Pizza Show, from Vice's Munchies. In season one, the show examined everything from New Haven style pizza, the thickness of pizza dough, and pizza robots. Host Frahk Pinello returns for season two with shows about pizza in Las Vegas and Los Angeles.
posted by Room 641-A at 12:32 PM PST - 29 comments

Facebook can shift elections. That’s why, with rumors swirling that the social media CEO might run, transparency is needed now more than ever.
posted by adamcarson at 11:00 AM PST - 82 comments

Meghan McCarron on how Japanese chefs and traditions have shaped global luxury cuisine for the past 50 years. [more inside]
posted by gen at 8:06 AM PST - 19 comments

In Strange Parts 2nd YouTube video Scotty Allen adds a functioning headphone jack to his iPhone 7. [more inside]
posted by zinon at 7:42 AM PST - 27 comments

Jerry Pournelle, 1933-2017. Jerry Pournelle (Wikipedia) has died. He was an influential science fiction writer and editor, technology columnist, blogger, and political activist. [more inside]
posted by doctornemo at 7:25 AM PST - 90 comments

Colin Kaepernick kneeling during the National Anthem as a protest against injustice inspired imitation across the United States. Those protests were matched by vehement opposition from fans and equivocation and denial by the NFL, where, to little surprise, Kaepernick remains unsigned. The NBA, however, has taken a decidedly different approach to the issue: “None of us operates in a vacuum. Critical issues that affect our society also impact you directly,” the letter reads. “Fortunately, you are not only the world's greatest basketball players — you have real power to make a difference in the world, and we want you know that the Players Association and the League are always available to help you figure out the most meaningful way to make that difference." [more inside]
posted by gusottertrout at 10:11 PM PST - 48 comments

Vulture lists 100 great dystopian novels.
posted by Chrysostom at 9:16 PM PST - 71 comments

38 Dog Bios That Will Definitely Remind You of Someone You Know
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 8:22 PM PST - 11 comments

Plants seem to have memory. And it seems more animal-like than I would have guessed. "In her first experiments with plant learning, Gagliano decided to test her new subjects the same way she would animals. She started with habituation, the simplest form of learning. If the plants encountered the same innocuous stimulus over and over again, would their response to it change?" Spoiler: It did
posted by aleph at 6:13 PM PST - 18 comments

Airman Our Pal is mostly the work of New Orleans musician Paul Marinaro, with cello by Heather Marinaro, who made one album (Soundcloud set) some years back, hopping between Pogo-like Disney editing in Shelter, medival music blended into modern instrumentals ... plus some Angelo Badalamenti? And Björk? Influenced by Amon Tobin, Brian Eno, DJ Shadow, and Four Tet, for further reference. [more inside]
posted by filthy light thief at 5:18 PM PST - 0 comments - Post a Comment

During the First World war, Parisian shopkeepers taped their windows with elaborate and often stylish designs to prevent passersby from being hurt by flying glass splinters during Zeppelin bombings and Big Bertha shellings. [more inside]
posted by elgilito at 4:53 PM PST - 9 comments

“The first one I did was from my friend Matt, who told me about this time he was trying to romance this girl when he was at Villanova, and they drove to South Philly. He parked on the median, and they sat on the roof and ate pizza, and that was something he would always think about when he went to Broad and Snyder.”

plaque2thefuture is an art project by Lily Godspeed (via 99% invisible)
posted by rebent at 4:45 PM PST - 14 comments

"The Drone King" is a newly discovered short story by Kurt Vonnegut: While reading through Kurt Vonnegut’s papers in the Lilly Library, at Indiana University, as they worked on the first comprehensive edition of his short fiction, Vonnegut’s friend Dan Wakefield and Jerome Klinkowitz, a scholar of Vonnegut’s work, came across five previously unpublished stories. Klinkowitz dates “The Drone King,” one of those five, to the early 1950s, when Vonnegut hadn’t yet written a novel and was only beginning to publish short fiction. Complete Stories will be published this month by Seven Stories Press. Soundcloud audio version of "The Drone King" and "The Drone King:" An Animated Excerpt.
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 2:58 PM PST - 9 comments

is a great animal control team. Deadspin rides along with San Francisco Animal Care & Control, of Officer Edith fame. Previously.
posted by Hypatia at 2:48 PM PST - 8 comments

Allegedly, it could do just about anything. You could eat its stalks. You could dry its sap and sprinkle it on food. You could make perfume from its blossoms. You could feed it to sheep and make their meat "delectably tender." It was a medicine; it was an aphrodisiac; it was birth control. And it no longer can be found. [more inside]
posted by Guy Smiley at 1:30 PM PST - 45 comments

In the words of The New Republic The feminist intellectual died on Wednesday at 82. Her unapologetic utopianism offers lessons for all of us.
NYT Obit
Wikipedia
New Yorker Postscript
posted by theora55 at 11:55 AM PST - 21 comments

"Salvation via the imposition of a sweeping, unified vision—whether grounded in religion, the promise of digital technology, or plain old unfettered capitalism—is easy to imagine from the distance of Silicon Valley, or France. But here in the Midwest small utopias are being envisioned and built—and deconstructed and rebuilt again—every day." - Utopia Parkway, on the various planned societies of the Rust Belt, both past and future - Martha Bayne , The Baffler.
posted by The Whelk at 9:23 AM PST - 8 comments

Feline Finds from the Archives of American Art. "This exhibition explores the myriad ways in which cats are represented in rare documents like sketches and drawings, letters, and photographs from the nineteenth century through early 2000s." Article about the exhibition: A cat is an artist's best friend. Smithsonian blog post about comparing staff cats with cats from the exhibition. [more inside]
posted by paduasoy at 9:18 AM PST - 4 comments

Criminals gained access to the private information held by Equifax on 143 million Americans from May through July 2017. The data includes names, birthdays, drivers license numbers, and social security numbers, sufficing to open new accounts in the victims names. Equifax hid this data breach for over a month while three executives dumped shares. Also, Equifax information site about the breach attempts to trick victims into giving up their rights to sue or to be part of a class action lawsuit and the information site looks extremely insecure itself.
posted by jeffburdges at 7:52 AM PST - 374 comments

Nova Victoria, a mixed use scheme in London has won the 2017 Carbuncle Cup. [more inside]
posted by lmfsilva at 6:31 AM PST - 33 comments

Voice-controlled assistants by Amazon, Apple and Google could be hijacked by ultrasonic audio commands, according to researchers in China and the US. Amazon and Google say they are reviewing the claims.
posted by clawsoon at 5:38 AM PST - 16 comments

The next time you cosplay at a con, don't be too surprised to suddenly hear your character's theme tune playing behind you.
posted by divabat at 3:48 AM PST - 16 comments

The earthquake occurred near Chiapas and is expected to accompany 3m tsunami waves along the coast of Mexico, with smaller waves expected to hit Latin American countries and across the Pacific. Occurring at a depth of 33km, the earthquake was felt hundreds of miles away in Mexico City. Reports are still coming in.
posted by darkstar at 10:58 PM PST - 38 comments

Emma Healy asks if there is Truth in Jest? -"Louis C.K. would rather ignore those assault rumours, but at this point, he can’t just let his art do the talking." [more inside]
posted by the man of twists and turns at 9:41 PM PST - 146 comments

A Few Bad Scientists Are Threatening to Topple Taxonomy "By the numbers, Hoser is a taxonomy maven. Between 2000 and 2012 alone, Hoser named three-quarters of all new genera and subgenera of snakes; overall, he’s named over 800 taxa, including dozens of snakes and lizards. But prominent taxonomists and other herpetologists—including several interviewed for this piece—say that those numbers are misleading. According to them, Hoser isn’t a prolific scientist at all. What he’s really mastered is a very specific kind of scientific "crime": taxonomic vandalism."
posted by dhruva at 9:33 PM PST - 23 comments

Wild dog packs vote on whether to go hunting: The "ah-choos" have it. And bacteria use brainlike bursts of electricity to communicate. I, for one, welcome our new biofilm overlords and their democratic canid shock troops.
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 7:17 PM PST - 13 comments

A visualization of every triple play in major league history. If you prefer spreadsheets, here's the database from SABR of all 715 plays. Triple plays previously on MetaFilter.
posted by escabeche at 6:56 PM PST - 21 comments

Review of Jelly Belly's Pet Rat Gummi Candy
posted by stinkfoot at 6:49 PM PST - 22 comments

Ukrainian pastry chef Dinara Kasko uses her architectural and 3D modelling background to create desserts like geometry the figure, cake "chocolate block", and many others. Kasko has recently collaborated with Miami-based kinetic artist José Margulis to create geometrical kinetic tarts. More of Kasko's work on Instagram.
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 2:55 PM PST - 22 comments

Queso Is the World’s Most Perfect Food: How the rich, melty cheese dip conquered Tex-Mex in America (Amy McCarthy, Eater) [more inside]
posted by Room 641-A at 2:55 PM PST - 68 comments

Asks The Guardian, analysing a divisive debate currently gripping the Mumsnet website. Comments include “I just don't like wearing something that has been that close to my bare bum for more than one night” versus “I'm with the mingers. I don't have the time, energy or desire to launder 5 pairs of pjs every night”. Others are also daily changers, while factors include health, and the environment. A poll in The Pool gives widely varying frequency. The Good Housekeeping Institute says once a week - but Cosmopolitan says change frequently. Maybe wear silver or copper jimjams? Complications: British people who go shopping in pyjamas, wear while taking the kids to school, work from home while wearing them, or just generally, though all weekend can be guilt-inducing. Pyjamas or pajamas? [more inside]
posted by Wordshore at 2:43 PM PST - 140 comments

How the aristocracy preserved their power. (slTheGuardian) [more inside]
posted by Kitteh at 2:01 PM PST - 16 comments

Automobile automation has been promoted as a boon to safety since 1939, though for much of this time, the plan for vehicle guidance relied on in-road guides, with public demonstrations of wire-guided roads continuing into the late 1990s. As recently as 2014, Volvo promoted the value of embedded magnets in roadways to help with autonomous vehicle guidance. Meanwhile, "self-sufficient" autonomous vehicles have been discussed, and designed, for decades, but it wasn't until DARPA offered millions in three successive contests, starting in 2004, that the autonomous vehicle industry really took off. With hundreds of companies now involved in vehicle automation, the U.S. House of Representatives are trying to standardize and streamline rules governing self-driving cars. [more inside]
posted by filthy light thief at 1:28 PM PST - 87 comments

Paper Girls is a comic book published by Image Comics. It's written by Brian K. Vaughan, creator of the famous and excellent comics Saga, Y: The Last Man, and Marvel's Runaways. The art is by Cliff Chiang of Wonder Woman fame. Coloring is by Matt Wilson-- ordinarily a thankless job, but his work here is truly excellent. [more inside]
posted by 4th number at 12:03 PM PST - 15 comments

"The foundation of Donald Trump’s presidency is the negation of Barack Obama’s legacy." Ta-Nehisi Coates in The Atlantic on Trump and the history of the denigration of blacks to shore up the social position of (especially, poorer) whites. [more inside]
posted by praemunire at 11:55 AM PST - 94 comments

RiffShare is a 3-d music sketching platform. Edit, share and play music, with the arrangement converted to a unique URL. [more inside]
posted by klangklangston at 11:47 AM PST - 1 comment

Unendurable Line. "There’s simply no compelling way to describe this unusual short film from director Daihei Shibata which attempts to plot the movement of everyday objects such as a light switch or a spring as a real-time graph. Sibata explains this as a film that expresses “the various thresholds hidden in everyday life.” OK, interesting enough, but when paired with a score by the EX NOVO Chamber Choir—turn up the volume—it suddenly becomes completely amazing. "
posted by storybored at 9:31 AM PST - 5 comments

Amazon has announced plans for a second headquarters in North America. [more inside]
posted by JoeZydeco at 8:40 AM PST - 162 comments

Gov. Jerry Brown now has a 120-day period to affirm, reverse or take no action on the decision. In his 2009 book 'Role Models', John Waters included a chapter concerning his relationship with Van Houten that I found very interesting.
posted by mr. digits at 8:39 AM PST - 30 comments

This is the way it had to end! With Skeletor triumphant at last! | Bonus video: And now he feels...EPIC
posted by Fish, fish, are you doing your duty? at 7:33 AM PST - 32 comments

Nile Rodgers was working with George Michael on remaking Fantasy, an outtake/b-side from 1990's Listen Without Prejudice sessions, when the singer unexpectedly died last December. The remade track Fantasy ft. Nile Rodgers was just released. [more inside]
posted by hippybear at 6:05 AM PST - 11 comments

If You Build It, the Dutch Will Pedal
posted by Pendragon at 5:59 AM PST - 35 comments

Laura Harring explains Mulholland Drive.
posted by Sebmojo at 5:02 AM PST - 13 comments

Jia Tolentino on Louis Sachar and his kids books: "It’s high-concept, slightly menacing world-building—Shel Silverstein with hints of Barthelme and Borges. In one chapter of “Sideways Stories,” the children swap names and lose the ability to tell one another apart. In another, a new kid turns out to be a dead rat wearing a dozen raincoats. A ball is tossed up and doesn’t come down; three bald men with briefcases materialize out of the air."
posted by ChuraChura at 4:14 AM PST - 45 comments

Lynch, Time, and Comedy by Elise Moore (Bright Wall/Dark Woom).
posted by sapagan at 2:45 AM PST - 2 comments

A convincing explanation of the mysterious Voynich manuscript is offered by Nicholas Gibbs in the TLS. Previously and many previouslier. [more inside]
posted by Segundus at 11:29 PM PST - 61 comments

Macedonian ‘Moby-Dick’ Translator Ognen Čemerski, 42, Was a Meticulous Linguist and Engaged Educator, passed away last month. - "By far the biggest challenge faced by Čemerski was the lack of Macedonian vocabulary for everyday terms used by American sailors to designate parts of the ships, which had become commonplace words in the English language." [more inside]
posted by the man of twists and turns at 9:34 PM PST - 6 comments

Celebrating the art of the cover song, which often surpass the original, such as what happened when Aretha Franklin got ahold of Otis Redding's R E S P E C T. And to accompany these twenty covers is an interview with Lyle Lovett, whose latest album is all covers, some of which he's been playing in his live concerts for many years The Long Road Home
posted by MovableBookLady at 9:28 PM PST - 18 comments

Watering a Flower (花に水) is a cassette of ambient synthesizer music by Haruomi Hosono, commissioned by MUJI in 1984 for use as store background music. Well, sort of. [more inside]
posted by theodolite at 8:14 PM PST - 31 comments

Boston Red Sox Used Apple Watches to Steal Signs Against Yankees by Michael S. Schmidt [The New York Times] “For decades, spying on another team has been as much a part of baseball’s gamesmanship as brushback pitches and hard slides. The Boston Red Sox have apparently added a modern — and illicit — twist: They used an Apple Watch to gain an advantage against the Yankees and other teams. Investigators for Major League Baseball have determined that the Red Sox, who are in first place in the American League East and very likely headed to the playoffs, executed a scheme to illicitly steal hand signals from opponents’ catchers in games against the second-place Yankees and other teams, according to several people briefed on the matter. The baseball inquiry began about two weeks ago, after the Yankees’ general manager, Brian Cashman, filed a detailed complaint with the commissioner’s office that included video the Yankees shot of the Red Sox dugout during a three-game series between the two teams in Boston last month.” [more inside]
posted by Fizz at 7:42 PM PST - 36 comments

The Emergency Pupper Service featuring patented Scroll-to-Smile™ technology. For when you're plumb out of evens. (h/t Miss Cellania)
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 5:51 PM PST - 26 comments

Tucked into an article about The Violet Hour, a popular sipping spot, is a photo essay about Chicago Chocolate Cakes Underneath the cool bar story, and I cannot separate the two, is a photo essay about Chicago's ten best chocolate cakes. This is cakes, to think about, cakes to attempt if your are intrepid and talented, at interpretive baking. The images, drove all politics out of my being, for a short while. Oh yes. The Violet Hour sounds pretty cool. San Francisco and its cakes. Here is some New York City action.
posted by Oyéah at 3:33 PM PST - 15 comments

The effects of climate change are already upon us. Here's what the 2020s and 2030s will look like if we fail to change things.
posted by standardasparagus at 3:25 PM PST - 69 comments

Pauline Dakin believed her family was fleeing the Mafia. Then she uncovered the real story (Transcript available here). By the time she was 11, Dakin had attended six schools in seven years: "I knew there was something very strange about my family all the time I was growing up. My brother and I would talk about 'what do you think it is?' A couple of times we had moved away without telling anybody and turned up thousands of kilometres away and picked up the pieces again." [more inside]
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 2:49 PM PST - 18 comments

As Brits eat through gin-flavoured yoghurt - 0.25% alcohol - and crisps, so the legendary drink revival gathers pace. Made in many places, from Viking islands and the Hebrides to Worcestershire and the South West, it's the return (post title) of "mother's ruin" - though, allegedly anti-ageing. There's good and bad gin festivals, and 'Breach of the Peace' (Buckfast), or add Irn Bru to make the 'Nedgroni', rhubarb crumble gin, 'magic' gin, marshmallow gin, and others. More substantive? Try ice lollies (4.5% alcohol), chocolate, popcorn, cupcakes, bigger cakes, cheese or cheesecake. Or watch gin and tonic battered fish being made (recipe), or try many recipes galore. Perhaps a tart or America's dish or add to tea? There's a gin truck! Previously, and with Christmas getting ever closer...
posted by Wordshore at 2:38 PM PST - 50 comments

From the Encyclopaedia of Art Education. Starting with c.40,000-25,000 BCE: the Venus of Hohle Fels, the Lion Man of Hohlestein Stadel, the Chauvet cave paintings, Kimberley rock art and the Burrup Peninsula rock art. [more inside]
posted by Catseye at 1:22 PM PST - 7 comments

Jenny Odell investigates the provenance of a "free" watch (PDF) for the Museum of Capitalism.
posted by selfnoise at 12:04 PM PST - 40 comments

"Whenever African writers get together on our own, we talk about glossaries." In "Glossing Africa," Namwali Serpell looks at the work glossing does at the sentence-level, story-level, and sociopolitical level in African fiction.
posted by mixedmetaphors at 11:13 AM PST - 4 comments

With its horrible writing, shoddy effects, and budget cosplay costumes, it’s hard to understand why Inhumans is even on TV, never mind getting a high-profile IMAX release. Imagine if Marvel had spent this much hype on the delightful Agent Carter! Is it possible they had to make Inhumans for some reason? Was it a tax thing? Marvel CEO Ike Perlmutter's pet project has launched in IMAX to almost universal disdain. Will it's failure hurt the Marvel Cinematic Universe?
posted by Artw at 10:27 AM PST - 97 comments

Stanford press release: "A new survey of DNA fragments circulating in human blood suggests our bodies contain vastly more diverse microbes than anyone previously understood. What’s more, the overwhelming majority of those microbes have never been seen before, let alone classified and named..."
posted by aleph at 10:18 AM PST - 35 comments

"If you agitate cream enough, you will make whipped cream. Continue agitating it and skim off the liquid, and you will make butter. Put that your coffee, and you have now wasted a lot of energy to put cream into your coffee." Gizmodo considers the science and health claims behind bulletproof coffee.
posted by jenkinsEar at 10:09 AM PST - 67 comments

9 years ago last week, my all-time favorite video of amateur strength, courage, and stupidity was posted by user carjumper2008 to the video-sharing website YouTube. I present it here without further commentary. "Insane Jump by a Buick La sabre".
posted by stinkfoot at 9:36 AM PST - 33 comments

Binging with Babish is a cooking show "dedicated to discovering what the delectable (and occasionally horrible) foods from fiction actually taste like." The website includes both video and written instructions for recipes such as Chocolate Babka (Seinfeld) and Blood Pie (Game of Thrones). More videos, like The Moistmaker (Friends) and Tampopo Ramen (Tampopo) can be found on his YouTube channel. Bonus: Title reference.
posted by Room 641-A at 9:32 AM PST - 14 comments

The 21st century has seen some amazing discoveries and inventions so far: the the Higgs boson, Gravitational waves, potentially habitable exoplanets, self driving cars, gene editing tools and many other amazing and wonderful things. Today we can add one more that that list of epic human achievements: a fourth form of chocolate.
posted by auntie-matter at 8:47 AM PST - 36 comments

"He big, he beg, he only have three leg." A surprisingly underrated YouTube channel in which a man named Matt chronicles his ongoing adventures with the various stray cats of his neighborhood, including an ongoing, unrequited and increasingly bold affair with a stray calico behind the back of his own feline.
posted by mdash at 10:15 PM PST - 32 comments

Today marks the trial of Lawson v Grubhub, whereupon the State of California will decide if food couriers and their ilk are henceforth defined as employees or contractors.
posted by Philipschall at 7:37 PM PST - 86 comments

"The Netherlands is a small, densely populated country, with more than 1,300 inhabitants per square mile. It’s bereft of almost every resource long thought to be necessary for large-scale agriculture. Yet it’s the globe’s number two exporter of food as measured by value, second only to the United States, which has 270 times its landmass. How on Earth have the Dutch done it?" [more inside]
posted by storybored at 6:24 PM PST - 59 comments

Nine years ago, MeFi music nerds celebrated Holger's 70th birthday. Today, a Cologne newspaper announced his death (original German) (English Google translation) (Pitchfork) Holger's CAN bandmate Jaki Liebezeit died in January of this year; Holger's wife Ursula died in July. This is terribly sad, but won't you come on in and celebrate him one more time? [more inside]
posted by maudlin at 5:50 PM PST - 51 comments

Celebrating the 10th anniversary of The Witcher [YouTube] Time flies when you’re in great company. Join Geralt of Rivia as he reminisces about the 10 years it’s been since you’ve first joined him on his adventures in The Witcher series of games.
posted by Fizz at 5:44 PM PST - 27 comments

Which lucky city will take the 2017 title of Sorriest Bus Stop in America? Coming out of round one, Tampa's (probably) alligator infested stop defeated Prince George's County, and looks to take on Chapel Hill's freeway bypass framing stops (which thoroughly trounced San Juan's sad strip mall stop). [more inside]
posted by Tentacle of Trust at 4:50 PM PST - 36 comments

Hurricane Irma is now a record Category 5 storm (Ars Technica), becoming "... [the] strongest Atlantic hurricane outside Gulf and Caribbean ever recorded" (Miami Herald). Forecasts are such that where landfall happens is very uncertain and officials in Florida are calling for evacuations. [more inside]
posted by ZeusHumms at 4:15 PM PST - 684 comments

A family attempts to subdue a bat on the loose in their kitchen (SLYT).
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 2:29 PM PST - 54 comments

Following on from the success of the left wing pro-Corbyn organisation Momentum, young Tories have tried to launch a similar campaigning group called Activate.... it's not gone terribly well so far.
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 1:13 PM PST - 34 comments

* Step one: start fire. * Step two: heat boulder. * Step three: download documents from piratebox. [more inside]
posted by Ogre Lawless at 12:30 PM PST - 13 comments

The Bristol Post tells the story of a first date that ended, erm, badly: She climbed in head first after her own turd, reached deeper into the window, bagged it up, and passed it out, over the top and back into the toilet from whence it came. She called out to me to help her climb out from the window, I grabbed her waist and I pulled. But she was stuck. Stuck fast. She was stuck fast, upside down in the gap. [more inside]
posted by ambrosen at 12:23 PM PST - 72 comments

An episode of the UK childrens show Peppa Pig [previously], has been pulled off the air in Australia again for advocating playing with spiders. The 2004 episode was previously removed for saying that spiders can't hurt you. In the banned episode, Daddy Pig is seen repeatedly picking up the spider by a string from its web. The episode ends with Peppa declaring: “We are all going to have tea with Mister Skinny Leg". The cartoon’s comments that spiders are “very very small” was also judged to be inappropriate. Related: an analysis of the Peppa Pig in London episode and the politics of Peppa Pig.
posted by Wordshore at 12:16 PM PST - 34 comments

baby goat gets a bath | baby sloth hanging out | baby frog being tough
posted by phunniemee at 12:03 PM PST - 9 comments

In 1951, Anna May Wong was TV’s first Asian-American leading actor. And then her groundbreaking show disappeared... The Search for Madame Liu-Tsong.
posted by Artw at 10:24 AM PST - 10 comments

After suffering serious brain injuries, Scott Routley spent 12 years in a vegetative state. But his family were convinced that he was still aware – could a pioneering ‘mind-reading’ technique prove them right? [slGuardian]
posted by ellieBOA at 10:16 AM PST - 20 comments

St. Catherine's Monastery, built c.550, houses an astonishing array of manuscripts. New research is being carried on all the time, especially on palimpsests. Languages are being recovered/discovered, and one scientist blogged about what it was like to work there UC Berkeley Conservator. Ohio State Univ. is also doing research into the slavic connections Scriptoria Slavica. The monastery has been a pilgrimage site for centuries and a crossroads meeting place for many faiths St. Catherine's Monastery
posted by MovableBookLady at 9:16 AM PST - 7 comments

Just a lion who can sing. (Slyt)
posted by Grandysaur at 9:08 AM PST - 14 comments

The Pack Horse Library initiative , which sent librarians deep into Appalachia, was one of the New Deal’s most unique plans. [more inside]
posted by carter at 8:42 AM PST - 7 comments

Opera Singers Dubbed With Dial-up Modems. (this is a link to a single 19-second YouTube video. Don't @ me.)
posted by bondcliff at 7:19 AM PST - 28 comments

Vidal Sassoon: Anti-fascist warrior-hairdresser. Towards the end of his life, the famous hairstylist recounted his days as part of the 43 Group, a group of Jewish British ex-servicemen who fought the fascist organisations they encountered at home on their return from the Second World War. The UK was the only country in Europe other than Franco's Spain to allow fascist parties after 1945. [more inside]
posted by rory at 6:35 AM PST - 7 comments

Watch a live stream of Los Angeles Airport's main runways. Actually, an incredible simulation. Actually, it's a simulation of a live stream. Actually, it's a large-scale 3-D rendering of LAX (and its sky conditions) rendered with accurate airplane models (and airline livery) arriving and departing based on their transponder data and other info (the YouTube description provides a complete list of resources with links). LAX air traffic control provides the soundtrack. [more inside]
posted by ardgedee at 4:24 AM PST - 14 comments

Two guinea pigs discuss the merits of Pumpkin Spice.
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 11:06 PM PST - 43 comments

A week ago, in the face of Hurricane Harvey, a “fight of the century,” and the conclusion of the monoculture’s last true symbol, the box office turned in its worst performance since September
posted by the man of twists and turns at 5:52 PM PST - 175 comments

A seven-year-old girl found a four-foot sword in Cornwall, England, in "the same lake where King Arthur's Excalibur was said to have been hurled."
posted by mbrubeck at 4:26 PM PST - 81 comments

Is Mario a human? Yes. There is some disagreement. Is Mario a plumber? Not anymore, he's retired. Is Mario Italian or Japanese? Italian. What is Mario's last name? Mario. Are Mario and Wario related? Maybe? Not. Is Mario older or younger than Luigi? They're fraternal twins. And Mario is older.
posted by Fizz at 3:47 PM PST - 28 comments

On Sunday, reports leaked of President Trump's plan to end DACA for hundreds of thousands of immigrants, with likely a six-month phase-in of the enforcement. Rebuking North Korea for their latest nuclear test, he also criticized South Korea for "appeasement" and on trade, and suggested he would cease trade with any country that continued to trade with the DPRK. Meanwhile, the Justice Department just admitted in court that Trump's much-disputed accusation that "Obama wiretapped Trump tower" was indeed false.
posted by darkstar at 10:57 AM PST - 2467 comments

The Catio Is a Patio for Your Cat Because You Win, Cats. You Win. A what? The basic idea is to build a frame-and-wire enclosure that opens to a window or door in a home. From there, cats can let themselves in and out, but will not be able to roam beyond the enclosure boundaries. Take a look for yourself with 11 outdoor enclosures purr-fect for cats: Portland Catio Tour. Some catios are equipped with separate restroom facilities. Some cats aren't so keen on the catio in the winter.
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 9:07 AM PST - 55 comments

Happy Labor Day USA! The holiday came about due to the 1894 Pullman Strike and Boycott in which national guardmen shot into a crowd and killed 4. Today, thousands take to the streets to demand higher wages (Twitter moment) as McDonalds workers in the U.K. enact their first ever strike. Canada wants the USA to get rid of union-breaking 'Right-To-Work' laws as part of NAFTA talks and the People's Policy Project (previously) presents a simple bill to pre-empt any Right-To-Work action. Also, was there a strike in space in 1973?
posted by The Whelk at 8:40 AM PST - 21 comments

What Is Toxic Masculinity? - Doctor Nerdlove - part of what makes toxic masculinity so damaging: it ignores and diminishes anyone who doesn’t fit that narrow range of “man”. The only measure of worth is pain; who causes it and who endures it. We worship the hero but we ignore the caregiver. We praise the person who rescues the endangered, but not the ones who give to the needy. We admire soldiers, but spare few thoughts for the people who make sure that those soldiers don’t need to go to war.
posted by CrystalDave at 6:17 AM PST - 50 comments

Life-sized piñatas representing some of the grotesque, odd, and intriguing figures of Hieronymous Bosch's painting, The Garden of Earthly Delights. (Website of the artist, Roberto Benavidez is here).
posted by terooot at 4:22 AM PST - 8 comments

The trailer (post title), and The Guardian review of Ex Libris: New York Public Library: "The most prominent theme is the divide between rich and poor, and what the NYPL means in different neighbourhoods. The gorgeous main branch on Fifth Avenue with its marble lions serves a different function than the outposts in the economically disadvantaged outer boroughs. On Fifth Avenue, a “Books at noon” guest like Richard Dawkins will wax about the Enlightenment; off Kingsbridge Road in the Bronx, the community huddles up for job interview tips ... More than any other civic institution, it is a place for the betterment of everyone in every conceivable way, and if this ends up being Frederick Wiseman’s last film I can think of no better swan song." [more inside]
posted by Wordshore at 3:34 AM PST - 13 comments

John Lewis (the British one) have taken the decision to remove gendered labels from all children's clothes. There has been some backlash. Piers Morgan weighs in, whilst others point out that this isn't new. [more inside]
posted by threetwentytwo at 2:02 AM PST - 59 comments

"I’m going to repeat that dictate: 'In democratic times, one ties the poor to oneself more by manners than by benefits.' As the front row acts more like aristocrats, their ability to win the goodwill of the populace wanes. Period. You can’t just institute, say, a universal basic income and expect the rabble to shut up at last and love you. ... To the extent that scientists and researchers are enveloped in front-row culture, I think many of them are deeply unable to see this. A lot of my exasperated scientists friends wring their hands about the need to explain things to regular people. Few of them think about the need to connect with those people, on a democratic basis – not through representative politics, but through democratic interactions, as equals." [more inside]
posted by clawsoon at 1:50 AM PST - 51 comments

Lets take a ride back in time thirty years and catch the train to to Coney Island! Ankh necklaces! Big hair! Gnarly fashion and grungy train cars. On this, the last day of the summer high season in the United States lets get sentimentally throwback like we should at the end of summer. [SLYT: 7:18, a foreign and familiar America]
posted by Ogre Lawless at 1:21 AM PST - 25 comments

Lessons from camels
A ten-day camel trek through the South Australian outback. With your parents.
posted by Joe in Australia at 11:40 PM PST - 12 comments

If you take a stroll around Redwood City, California, you might get the sense that something isn't quite right. Pay particular attention to the shadows. Notice how they seem to misbehave? Flowers sprout from the shadows of bike racks, mailboxes turn into shadow monsters, and shady monkeys hang around atop parking meters. What's going on?

Damon Belanger: Art — Design — Instagram
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 9:58 PM PST - 14 comments

cats ringing bell for treats
posted by cjorgensen at 7:30 PM PST - 33 comments

Back in May, it was announced that Netflix would be producing a limited series prequel to the classic Jim Henson film The Dark Crystal. And in keeping with the spirit of the original, the new series will feature all new puppetry and animatronic characters. For fans of the original film who also have an artistic bent, the filmmakers have decided to hold a very unique contest: Design your own creature for the series and Jim Henson's Creature Shop will bring it to life.
posted by AlonzoMosleyFBI at 5:31 PM PST - 25 comments

Long-haul trucking, forensic investigation, innovative cooking, endurance racing—by women. Even though women have been in the haulage industry for a long time, people are still surprised when a woman drops out of a semi's cab. In a university, there's a club whose members study and investigate real crime cases; there's only one young man in the group Girl Detectives. In Nashville, there's a restaurant owner who's been confounding the local food style for quite a while A Woman's Kitchen. And there an all-woman endurance race in the desert Rebelle Rally.
posted by MovableBookLady at 5:19 PM PST - 5 comments

10 years later, 2007's The Polyphonic Spree: The Fragile Army 12 tracks
posted by hippybear at 3:50 PM PST - 17 comments

Poet John Ashbery has died. [more inside]
posted by Joseph Gurl at 3:30 PM PST - 40 comments

IT’S BEEN M0RE THAN 13 YEARS SINCE A P0ST AB0UT Y0UNG-HAE CHANG HEAVY INDUSTRIES
(IT WAS AB0UT THEM MENTI0NING US! MENTI0NING THEM HYP0THESIZING AB0UT THE DPRK ATTACKING THE ROK!)
SINCE THEN, THEY’VE PERSISTED IN THEIR L0VE 0F M0NAC0 & FLASH ANIMATI0NS 0F TEXT 0VER SWEET, RHYTHMIC JAZZ. NEW WORKS INCLUDE BUT ARE NOT LIMITED TO:
BACK IN THE R.0.K • AH • SUPER SMILE • THE AXIS 0F THE UNIVERSE RUNS THR0UGH Y0U • WANT T0 D0 G00D? KN0W H0W T0 SH00T A SEMIAUT0MATIC HANDGUN? • LET A HUNDRED ARTW0RKS BL00M, WILT, AND DIE • SUBJECT: HELL0 • AOMARI AMORI
posted by Going To Maine at 1:15 PM PST - 13 comments

"I don't really [portray] many people who I don't think are abusing their power. I chart these guys... My mercury is rising and when it gets to a certain point, I'll start drawing." -- Robbie Conal: Meet the Godfather of Guerrilla Street Art (Sarah Linn, KCET) [more inside]
posted by Room 641-A at 12:36 PM PST - 3 comments

Raise your hand if you suffer from Seasonal School Supply Shopping related depression. You are not alone.
posted by pjsky at 11:59 AM PST - 71 comments

• Why Does Everyone Hate Mercy? by Apple Cider [Medium] Despite Mercy being posed as the angelic medic of the popular team shooter Overwatch, she, or the people who play her, might as well be the Devil with the way that many complain about her at every opportunity. Their ire covers a multitude of sins but a lot of it centers around her being a female character, a popular support hero, as well as one that exemplifies peacefulness and collaborative team effort. However, these same design choices, as well as the playerbase that have followed her in, have made Mercy a lightning rod for the obvious derision in the competitive gaming community about who plays support, as well as what we assume about their abilities. It is incredibly gendered at times, and that’s not a coincidence.

A thread on the official Overwatch forums [Blizzard] reads with a giant headline in the familiar font face of the game, “Why aren’t there more female eSports (sic) players?” A forum-goer could believe that it is a serious question and would be further explored with nuanced, respectful discussion. Instead, the first post is the dry fart of a punchline: “because they are all Mercy mains.”

[more inside]
posted by Fizz at 10:48 AM PST - 46 comments

An update to an old tech of just using high pressure. They've known that high pressure (hundreds of MPa) can inactivate a number of microorganisms (through some Bacterial spores survive) since the late 1800s. Also called Pacalization. New tech called Microwave Assisted Thermal Stabilization (MATS) was developed at Washington State University for the Military. Benefits is it only takes minutes at an elevated temp with the pressure where current pressure cooker method takes an hour which severely degrades the taste, texture, and nutritional content. They're talking about things like Beef Stew in a sealed pouch that lasts for a year with a taste/texture worth eating. Another link states that Europe has a project called "HIPSTER" that is examining the same tech.
posted by aleph at 10:18 AM PST - 8 comments

Magnitude 6.3 Seismic Event in North Korea from largest nuclear weapon tested by DPRK to date. Experts suggest the nuclear detonation may be as high as 120 kilotons, possibly a boosted atomic (fission) bomb or a small hydrogen (fusion) device (as reported by the DPRK). Seismic data suggest a cave-in related to the explosion, raising fears of a release of radioactive material. Most global leaders have been responding to the nuclearization of the DPRK with sober caution. Kim Jong Un and Donald Trump have not been among them.
posted by darkstar at 9:25 AM PST - 160 comments

Things are a bit rough these days. Do you need some exceedingly happy music? Then The Happiest Guys In The World may be a cure for what ails, with their 1999 summer jam Hey Hey It's The Vegetable Man. Come inside for further info and highly unique synthesizers! [more inside]
posted by Frobenius Twist at 9:20 AM PST - 2 comments

Steely Dan’s Walter Becker Dead at 67 | Becker was born Feb. 20, 1950 in Queens, N.Y., and was raised in the borough community. Initially a saxophonist, he took up the guitar as a teen. He encountered his future partner Donald Fagen as a student at Bard College in Annandale-on-Hudson, NY, while playing a gig at the local club the Red Balloon. [more inside]
posted by I_Love_Bananas at 8:19 AM PST - 150 comments

A road trip through west USA - This is the remembering of 3,500km journey in west United States in 2013. This [movie] is made of 344,118 Google StreetView images, fetched with some home made scripts and a lot of patience. [more inside]
posted by Wolfdog at 4:51 AM PST - 9 comments

"... The Joker’s catchphrase was the most common response to BBC Culture’s poll of 177 critics last year to determine the 100 greatest films of the 21st Century. Very few comedies made that list, apart from Wes Anderson’s confections and a few Pixar romps. That canon of modern classics showed how very often ‘what makes us laugh’ is neglected when assessing cinematic greatness. [...] So this year BBC Culture decided to get serious about comedy. We asked 253 film critics – 118 women and 135 men – from 52 countries and six continents a simple: “What do you think are the 10 best comedies of all time?”" The result: The 100 greatest comedies of all time. [more inside]
posted by sapagan at 4:49 AM PST - 130 comments

Can your best friends be books?
posted by invisible ink at 11:33 PM PST - 16 comments

Seattle artist Briar Bates had one final wish before her death from cancer; for her friends to perform a water ballet entitled "Ankle Deep" in the wading pool at Volunteer Park.
posted by ActionPopulated at 8:40 PM PST - 12 comments

"Venezuelan women stripped off their pants and threw them at riot police, taunting the already demoralized young men to “man up” and put them on. Jeering crowds laughed at the confused paramilitary forces, chanting for them to “wear some pants” and side with the people against the tottering Maduro dictatorship. Suddenly, the truncheon-wielding, helmeted police and their armored vehicles didn’t seem quite so menacing." An essay on the potential military uses of ridicule.
posted by clawsoon at 7:57 PM PST - 25 comments

Little Horribles were a series of collectible porcelain statues produced by the figurine producer Hagen Renaker. Although more famed for their animal statuary, the horribles were a line of grotesque (but endearing) monsters, often with surreal and cartoony looks. Designed by the artist Nell Bortells (a brief memorial here), you can take a look at the creatures at a number of online galleries from collectors. One blogger does a deeper dive on a specific figurine, showing how it's a direct reference to Salvador Dali's Soft Construction with Boiled Beans (Premonition of Civil War).
posted by codacorolla at 5:38 PM PST - 7 comments

A Team of Women is Unearthing the Forgotten Legacy of Harvard’s Women 'Computers' by Alex Newman. From 1885 to 1927 over 80 women computed and analyzed astronomical data for Harvard University. Said data, mostly in the form of glass plate photographs, is in the process of being digitized by the Harvard Observatory as part of the DASCH Project. If you would like to know more about pioneering female astronomers such as Williamina Fleming or Henrietta Swan Leavitt, the Harvard Observatory has compiled some links. If you would like to take part in making their work available to the public, take part in Project PHaEDRA and transcribe their logbooks.
posted by Kattullus at 5:05 PM PST - 5 comments

Oncologists have to give bad news. But we can’t help it when our imaginations are held captive by a particular patient.
posted by smoke at 3:42 PM PST - 10 comments

How much more creepy can you get than a wasp nest built around a baby doll? Bonus: toddlerpedes! (Jon Beinart previously, previouslier)
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 3:38 PM PST - 24 comments

Doot! Doot! The One and Literally Only Nardwuar: He calls himself the Human Serviette. We call him one of the brightest, weirdest stars in the world of CanCon. His show, Nardwuar the Human Serviette (previously), has been airing on CiTR 101.9 FM since 1987. To mark the show's 30th anniversary, the station will be broadcasting a 20-hour marathon of Nardwuar’s interviews ("ranging from Jay-Z to Michael Gorbachev, from Destiny's Child to Wesley Willis to everything in between") starting at 9:00 p.m. on September 21 until 5:00 p.m. on September 22. [more inside]
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 2:54 PM PST - 22 comments

"In the early morning hours of June 30, 1995, a fire sparked to life in Kristine Bunch’s mobile home. It fanned out across the floor and climbed up the walls, then formed an impassable barrier across the middle of the trailer. Bunch, 21, snapped awake in the living room. Her three-year-old son, Tony, shrieked for her on the other side of the flames." (Mother Jones) [more inside]
posted by strelitzia at 2:39 PM PST - 6 comments

55 of the best free fonts for designers. Sometimes in the world of free fonts, you get what you pay for. But Tom May (at art and design blog Creativebloq.com) has found the best free fonts by professional designers from a range of countries including Spain, Argentina, Indonesia, Brazil, Sweden, Greece, Latvia, the UK, Uruguay, Finland, the US, Ireland, and Canada. The fonts are arranged into eight categories: serif, sans serif, handwriting, vintage and retro, brush, tattoo, graffiti and "unusual". [more inside]
posted by hurdy gurdy girl at 2:17 PM PST - 12 comments

Teaching white students showed me the difference between power and privilege. Southern black boys like me were more likely to end up incarcerated than working beside white faculty at so-called elite liberal arts colleges. [more inside]
posted by roolya_boolya at 10:24 AM PST - 10 comments

"Even after World War II, a conflict we typically characterize as an unambiguous moral necessity, veterans disrupted an emerging nationalist, anti-communist consensus. Robert Saxe, the author of Settling Down: World War II Veterans’ Challenge to the Post-War Consensus, told the New Republic, “A lot of World War II veterans came back and had some pretty significant critiques of America.” Those critiques ranged from dissatisfaction with the military itself, where the divide between officers and enlisted men reflected broader class tensions, and with civilians, who benefited from a wartime economic boom without risking their lives in battle." The Invisible Veterans Of The Left [more inside]
posted by The Whelk at 10:10 AM PST - 6 comments

University of Copenhagen makes low noise breakthrough They make a micro-membrane (with deposited aluminum) that is one side of a capacitor in a resonant circuit. So radio signals at that resonance are *much* larger than the noise floor. They then pick up the radio signal by bouncing a laser off the membrane => radio signal turned into optical "The numbers are impressive. The new device has a room temperature sensitivity of 5 picoVolts per (Hz)^1/2 at a frequency of 1 Mhz. In other words, it does the same job at room temperature that physicists could only dream of doing at the temperature of liquid helium."
posted by aleph at 10:01 AM PST - 12 comments

Kaitlyn Tiffany read her first Stephen King novel, IT, this summer... she kept a diary. [more inside]
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 9:03 AM PST - 93 comments

New Millennium Falcon is Lego’s biggest set ever [Polygon] [Star Wars Lego Blue] “Lego has revealed a new Millennium Falcon set for their Ultimate Collector’s Series line. Tipping the scales at 7,541 pieces, it’s Lego’s largest set ever released. When built, the new set is eight inches high, 33 inches long and 22 inches wide. That’s really big. Don’t believe us? Here’s Lego designer Hans Burkhard Schlömer cradling it in his arms.” [image gallery: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7]
posted by Fizz at 8:52 AM PST - 38 comments

Glue is at least 200,000 years old. That's before ceramic pottery existed to make it in. So how did humanish folks that far back do it? A team from the University of Leiden decided to take a crack at making their own batch of Neanderthal tar. Working with the resources available to Neanderthals, experimental archaeologists figured out ways to create useable amounts of tar from birch-bark—no sophisticated ceramic pots or controlled temperatures needed. [more inside]
posted by lucasgonze at 8:36 AM PST - 9 comments

The Definitive Sandwich Family Tree - a taxonomy by MeFi's own The Whelk.
posted by Artw at 7:40 AM PST - 55 comments

Martin a short documentary by Donal Moloney "Martin has not slept in a bed for many years. He doesn't consider himself homeless. He is one of the most content and happiest individuals I have ever met. This short documentary explores the development of our relationship over the last few years but more importantly the search for happiness and what it means to different people." [more inside]
posted by Fence at 7:19 AM PST - 6 comments

The last couple of months have seen two new entries in the growing genre of Reanimations - shot-for-shot fan-remakes of cartoons set to the original soundtracks. In late July, 164 animators came together to reanimate an episode of Steven Universe. And just a few days ago, after over a year, over 227 artists re-animated the one, the only: MAMA LUIGI. More reanimations inside - if you know of any not listed here, please link to them in the comments! [more inside]
posted by BiggerJ at 5:23 AM PST - 4 comments

"Navigating the steep staircase and walking down to the rocks that guard the harbour of St. John’s, it is still possible to see the rusted remnants of the vast wire anti-submarine nets that once guarded the narrows. Its a small reminder of the vital battle that once stretched across the Atlantic, that kept Britain from being forced into starvation, and would eventually bring supplies for D-Day. And overlooking the entrance to the harbour, is an anonymous brick building with a German periscope on the roof, that might be the most remarkable, secret bar you might hope to find."
posted by bryon at 4:59 AM PST - 6 comments

The Big Bang Theory provides a perfect lens through which to deconstruct a popular media trope I like to call the Adorkable Misogynist. Adorkable Misogynists are male characters whose geeky version of masculinity is framed as comically pathetic yet still endearing. Their status as nerdy “nice guys” then lets them off the hook for a wide range of creepy, entitled, and sexist behaviors.
posted by Blasdelb at 2:49 AM PST - 94 comments

On Friday, a University of Utah Burn Unit nurse, Alex Wubbels, found herself in a precarious legal position: trapped between a police detective and his watch commander insisting upon taking an illegal blood sample of one of her patients on the one hand, and the clearly stated (and constitutionally legal) policy of denying them their request as a violation of her unconscious patient's 4th Amendment rights. She was professional and respectful throughout, and maintained her composure admirably. Then they arrested her. Bodycam videos from a second officer shows the event. [more inside]
posted by darkstar at 1:57 AM PST - 95 comments

The history of baking powder Is incredibly dramatic. And before baking powder hit the scene in 1856, making cake was not a piece of cake . Read about it in the book, Baking Powder Wars.
posted by ShooBoo at 11:12 PM PST - 17 comments

Rowan Atkinson Sketch - single link youtube
posted by growabrain at 9:49 PM PST - 10 comments

Found in a NYC junkshop, these postcards were sent to Cor Van de Huevel, a noted haiku poet, by another noted haiku poet named Arizona Zipper. Well, I couldn't resist the lure of those names, could I? Cor was well-known for his readings in the beat clubs of the 1960s. But Arizona Zipper! Now, he's also known for his haiku, especially in the looser form he and Cor used, not so strict as the 5-7-5 format. The first thing I found about A.Z. was Renku Jazz-ku an article about a collaboration between Bob Richardson, jazz drummer, and A.Z. trying to meld haiku and jazz; they both loved Ella Fitzgerald's scat. [more inside]
posted by MovableBookLady at 6:51 PM PST - 5 comments

The Ace of Cups were contemporaries of all the big late-60s bands from San Francisco's Summer of Love that you've heard of. They were an all-women band and they opened for Jimi Hendrix. They were never signed and didn't release music at the time, but there's a 2003 CD release of old recordings. Four members of the band are playing together again and recording a new CD, 50 years later, as shown in this 8-minute video from KQED.
posted by larrybob at 5:27 PM PST - 8 comments

THE RADICAL COPYEDITOR’S STYLE GUIDE FOR WRITING ABOUT TRANSGENDER PEOPLE
posted by Joseph Gurl at 5:13 PM PST - 19 comments

A beautiful collection of bird pics from all over the world.
posted by smoke at 3:26 PM PST - 8 comments

"America has this back-ass-wards Calvinist streak where calling for the expulsion and genocide of non-white races is just a difference of opinion," Boivin said. "But making a sex joke at a corporate mascot who paid money to advertise to you is cause for censure."

This Guy Was Suspended From Twitter After He Sexually Harassed Tony The Tiger (Buzzfeed)
posted by Atom Eyes at 3:17 PM PST - 49 comments

Wes Siler, Outside magazine's lifestyle columnist, writes about what it takes to be a good owner:

People love to tell me how lucky I am to have a good dog like Wiley. But they’re dead wrong—there was no luck involved. Wiley’s good behavior and good temperament are products of four years of hard work, nothing else. The more people who understand this, the more people there will be who have "good" dogs too.

posted by Johnny Wallflower at 3:10 PM PST - 32 comments

That blob may in fact be a bryozoan. In Vancouver, British Columbia, bryozoans - also known as "dragon boogers" - were recently found in Stanley Park's Lost Lagoon. [more inside]
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 2:38 PM PST - 26 comments

Decrypting the Alt-Right: How to Recognize a Fascist [slyt]
posted by indubitable at 2:02 PM PST - 24 comments

African Literary journal Brittle Paper interviews the director of the documentary Someone Clap For Me. Director Luciana Farah describes making the film about the youth poets as "observing young birds teaching each other how to fly." Originally a 10 minute short film, the feature film (official trailer) was supported in part by director Mira Nair's Maisha Labs, a non-profit training initiative for emerging East African filmmakers. (via) [more inside]
posted by spamandkimchi at 1:02 PM PST - 0 comments - Post a Comment

Nathan Rabin looks back at a fascinating portrayal of the power of delusion and the dangers of instant fame.
posted by Pyrogenesis at 12:40 PM PST - 14 comments

After the think tank incident, Josh Marshall at Talking Points Memo reflects on running a business at the mercy of behemoths: Google can say – and they are absolutely right – that every month they send checks for thousands and millions of dollars to countless publishers that makes their journalism possible. But Google’s monopoly control is almost comically great. It’s a monopoly at every conceivable turn and consistently uses that market power to deepen its hold and increase its profits. [more inside]
posted by RedOrGreen at 12:39 PM PST - 11 comments

National treasure Spencer Hall's annual musings on college football. This year covering Hurricane Harvey, life amid racism, isolation within the crowd, and "an Ivy League bankruptcy case from Queens."
posted by Abehammerb Lincoln at 12:19 PM PST - 4 comments

Sometimes damage to a lens or camera body can be hard to detect. But then sometimes the damage is caused by the nuclear furnace of a star.
posted by selfnoise at 12:17 PM PST - 16 comments

Biologist George Church talks about his narcolepsy and the benefits of neurodiversity He is thinking more and more about the huge, and healthy, variation in how human brains function. The neurodiversity movement argues that brains that differ from the norm are not necessarily disordered and in need of treatment. He hasn’t tried any of the drugs typically prescribed to treat narcolepsy. Stimulants help patients work harder but seem to reduce creativity. “I decided I already work hard enough, and creativity is everything for me,” Church said.
posted by stillmoving at 12:15 PM PST - 21 comments

"Despite the advance scheduling and little room for change or spontaneity that Access-a-Ride demands of its customers, lack of predictability is the service’s hallmark trait. .. Access-a-Ride users have no idea which direction our rides will travel in or how many stops will be made before our destinations. In picking up and dropping off passengers on those rides, a meandering city tour is not uncommon — including riding past your destination only to ride back down to it." (via Longreads)
posted by Lycaste at 11:10 AM PST - 10 comments

Octopuses are the closest we can come, on earth, to knowing what it might be like to encounter intelligent aliens. Amia Srinivasan in the LRB. (Previously on the strangeness of octopi.)
posted by Cash4Lead at 10:21 AM PST - 40 comments

Lyd Fama draws comics about her girlfriend Meg's unfair advantages, being ace and having Paul Hollywood sealed in their closet. Together they also have a gay let's play channel on Youtube.
posted by MartinWisse at 10:19 AM PST - 6 comments

Neoliberalism is an old term, dating back to the 1930s, but it has been revived as a way of describing our current politics – or more precisely, the range of thought allowed by our politics.
posted by roolya_boolya at 10:08 AM PST - 35 comments

Elements, an abstract experimental art film of abstract experimental (virtual) art by Maxim Zhestkov. More here.
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 8:54 AM PST - 3 comments

At sea level, air is 78% nitrogen and 21% oxygen; at hyperbaric pressures, nitrogen becomes a narcotic, but continues to have effects at lower pressures. Substitute nitrogen with another breathable gas, such as helium, and human reaction times to visual and auditory tests improve by 9.3%. Conclusion: breathing air leaves everyone slightly intoxicated at every moment.
posted by Bora Horza Gobuchul at 8:36 AM PST - 51 comments

"Once upon a time, Brookman shared his talents—which along with breathing fire included pantomiming, accordion playing, juggling, and acrobatics—at local carnivals, weddings, and children’s birthday parties across England. What led him to Mogadishu more than three decades into his career was an idea so far-fetched that it just might be true: There are some things only clowns can do."
posted by the man of twists and turns at 8:14 AM PST - 2 comments

RIP longtime character actor Richard Anderson, 91. First appearing in movies including Forbidden Planet, he then spent all his time running between the Six Million Dollar Man and the Bionic Woman. Bionic wiki previously. Variety obit.
posted by Melismata at 8:04 AM PST - 21 comments

A prominent anti-vaccination speaker has been denied a visa to enter Australia. "These people who are telling kids, telling parents that their kids shouldn't be vaccinated are dangerous people," said Immigration Minister Peter Dutton. He previously refused a visa to person Chris Brown, based on his domestic violence record. Applicants for a visa to enter Australia are subject to a character test.
posted by adept256 at 6:09 AM PST - 55 comments

The Blind Traveler: How James Holman felt his way around the world to become history's most prolific explorer.
posted by Memo at 5:24 AM PST - 4 comments