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The Race to Alaska: the rules are simple: captain a boat from Port Townsend to Ketchikan along the Inside Passage of British Columbia, with no motors and no support. Don’t get eaten by a bear. The first boat wins $10,000 cash. The runner-up gets a set of steak knives. [more inside]
posted by MoonOrb at 11:35 PM PST - 19 comments

Electronic music couple Matmos have continued their career-defining run of making music by sampling weird and/or thematic sounds
(various stuff, “western” instruments, medical devices and procedures, martial instruments, things related to the lives of famous gays and lesbians)
by recording Ultimate Care II, a single piece of music made entirely of samples recorded from the selfsame Whirlpool washing machine.
A Pitchfork interview on the process. Music videos for excerpts three, five, and nine. A live performance on their own washer.
posted by Going To Maine at 10:36 PM PST - 16 comments

A short story by Shrilal Shukla, translated from Hindi by Daisy Rockwell. Wherein a politician enters the real world of his constituents.
posted by bardophile at 10:25 PM PST - 4 comments

PBS newsmagazine Frontline devotes two hours to exploring the massive rise in the abuse of street opiates like heroin, how the United States started prescribing more and more legal opiates, and how programs like drug courts and diversion programs are being used to treat the problem in Seattle. Chasing Heroin. (slfl)
posted by fireoyster at 9:06 PM PST - 41 comments

Artist Agnes Martin on Inspiration, Interruptions, Cultivating a Creative Atmosphere, and the Only Type of Person You Should Allow Into Your Studio (by Maria Popova, Brain Pickings) [more inside]
posted by joseph conrad is fully awesome at 8:42 PM PST - 5 comments

Boston Dynamics presents the 'next generation' Atlas robot. (Previously)
posted by fings at 6:54 PM PST - 109 comments

The St. Louis Archdiocese of the Roman Catholic Church has some issues with the Girl Scouts , particularly, "in regards to sex education and advocacy for “reproductive rights” (i.e. abortion and contraceptive access, even for minors)" (2-page PDF). Don't worry, though -- Archbishop Robert J. Carlson isn't telling you not to buy cookies: "Each person must act in accord with their conscience." [more inside]
posted by Etrigan at 5:47 PM PST - 111 comments

ACA International is a national trade group for collection agencies, debt buyers, and third-party debt collectors. This is their legislative tool kit, including talking points. The ACA scored a recent victory in the Wisconsin state legislature, which voted this week to ease lawsuits by third-party collectors against Wisconsin residents alleged to be in debt.
posted by escabeche at 3:36 PM PST - 28 comments

A forest kindergarten is a type of preschool education for children between the ages of three and six that is held almost exclusively outdoors. Whatever the weather, children are encouraged to play, explore and learn in a forest or natural environment. The adult supervision is meant to assist rather than lead. Amos Roberts, reporting for SBS Australia, gets a first hand impression of what this means in practice when he visits one in Denmark.
posted by brokkr at 2:54 PM PST - 51 comments

LABOUR markets are hotbeds of inequality. For every dollar a white American man in full-time work earns, the average white woman earns 78 cents and the average Latina only 56 cents. Marriage is a boon for male earnings; motherhood drags female earnings down. Likewise, gay men earn about 5% less than heterosexual ones in Britain and France, and 12-16% less in Canada and America, even after controlling for things like education, skills and experience. Yet one minority appears immune to this scourge: Lesbians (SLEconomist, semi-permeable paywall).
posted by Diablevert at 2:36 PM PST - 58 comments

The Setup Wizard, a blog about being the Hogwarts IT Guy. Relatively recent, and yet fairly brilliant blog about what it's like to be the muggle IT guy for a bunch of wizards and witches. Nice shoutout to Bowie in there too.
posted by koroshiya at 2:32 PM PST - 24 comments

A Map of 90 of the "Other" Capitals of the World
posted by backseatpilot at 2:11 PM PST - 17 comments

Frog Imperial March Instructions (proper keyboard/numpad may be necessary):
- Play this video
- With your cursor focused on the video, type the following: 6 6 6 8 56 8 56, 3 3 3 2 56 8 56 8 56, 2 7 2 3 4343 7 4 6565 87 8 56 8 56 [more inside]
posted by numaner at 2:10 PM PST - 16 comments

I was made to recite the story of my greatgrandmother, to the extent that I knew it: Her name was Sujaria, and this was her village. The British took her away in 1903 to work their sugar plantations in a place now known as Guyana. She sailed on a ship called The Clyde. My grandfather was born on that ship.

Gaiutra Bahadur traces the story of her great grandmother's singular journey as indentured labour meant for the sugar plantations of the Caribbean, shedding light on the lives of women in British India over a hundred years ago.
posted by infini at 1:41 PM PST - 11 comments

When a medical journal shared some "unflattering" observations about childbirth in Texas (contraception down, childbirth up), two years after Texas defunded Planned Parenthood, it caught the attention of the state Senate. Especially since two of the authors were employees of the Texas Health and Human Services Commission. One of these two has since retired, although the particular verb describing his departure varies from publication to publication. [more inside]
posted by colex at 1:24 PM PST - 7 comments

Is K Records a 'Broken, Sinking Ship'? Legendary Olympia Label Struggles to Stay Afloat as Kimya Dawson and Other Artists Demand Unpaid Royalties--- Where to start with the indie charm of Beat Happening and K Records
posted by josher71 at 1:02 PM PST - 16 comments

Historically, the phrase debtors’ prison refers to any detention facility in which people are incarcerated for their failure to pay a debt. Today, the “debts” that lead to incarceration take the form of monetary penalties established and enforced by municipal courts. (slTheAtlantic)
posted by Kitteh at 11:46 AM PST - 18 comments

Lithub commends twenty undeservedly neglected writers to our attention. Stephen Sparks offers two lists: Ten Great Writers Nobody Reads and 10 More Writers Nobody Reads. The authors, men and women, of various races, come from all over: Brazil, France, Britain, Honduras, the United States, the Maghreb, Italy, Germany, and Zimbabwe. [more inside]
posted by doctornemo at 10:30 AM PST - 33 comments

Richard Prince's new "portraits" are a reminder that someone else can sell your Instagram pictures for $100,000. When does appropriation go too far? Richard Prince sucks, but his Instagram paintings [prints] are genius trolling. Why the latest copyright lawsuit matters, from experts. [more inside]
posted by the man of twists and turns at 10:26 AM PST - 127 comments

The moment of truth: We must stop Trump "Democrats, your leading candidate is too weak to count on as a firewall. She might be able to pull off a general election victory against Trump, but then again she might not. Too much is uncertain this year. You, too, need to help the Republicans beat Trump; this is no moment for standing by passively. If your deadline for changing your party affiliation has not yet come, re-register and vote for Rubio, even if, like me, you cannot stomach his opposition to marriage equality. I too would prefer Kasich as the Republican nominee, but pursuing that goal will only make it more likely that Trump takes the nomination. The republic cannot afford that."
posted by OnceUponATime at 9:26 AM PST - 1602 comments

Brace Yourself: Why we want — and how we get — straight teeth. by Rose Eveleth [Racked] [more inside]
posted by Fizz at 9:13 AM PST - 44 comments

Mienfield, a massively multiplayer online minesweeper.
posted by slater at 8:02 AM PST - 27 comments

"Until last year, I was considered something of a champion of social conservatism in Canada and was well known among politically active Christians. I hosted a nightly show on Crossroads Television for twelve years, was a syndicated Sun columnist, and wrote briskly selling books with such titles as Why Catholics Are Right. Today, as a decade of same-sex marriage waves its arms at Pride parades, I am working away at a new book, Coming Out: A Christian’s Change of Heart and Mind over Gay Marriage. Oh, dear. How and why did it go so terribly wrong?" Michael Coren discusses how he changed his mind about same-sex marriage.
posted by mightygodking at 7:09 AM PST - 98 comments

RIP Captain Eric "Winkle" Brown, Royal Navy officer, Battle of Britain survivor and test pilot who flew a record breaking 487 different types of aircraft. [more inside]
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 6:47 AM PST - 13 comments

Sandra Bae covers Queen's "Don't Stop Me Now" on guitar. [more inside]
posted by Shmuel510 at 5:25 AM PST - 19 comments

After many months, Something Awful (and now also The Bad Guys Win) comedy/insanity writer Zack Parsons (previously) has finally confirmed the long-promised finale of his and Steve Sumner's series of Call of Cthulhu 1990's Handbook campaigns starring Kurt Cobain, Lisa "Left Eye" Lopes and Eazy-E as they battle forces beyond human ken: the custom module Hard Ticket to Baghdad. (He also eventually finished the Tooth Tooth series because word is bond, god.) Beneath the fold: the entire story so far, including the recent 'solo project' campaigns. [more inside]
posted by BiggerJ at 5:09 AM PST - 16 comments

Much like Steven Spielberg and his longtime collaboration with John Williams, it’s incredibly difficult to imagine a Coen Brothers film without the indispensable work of Carter Burwell: [more inside]
posted by AlonzoMosleyFBI at 4:02 AM PST - 14 comments