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How a Ukrainian Computer Game Transfigured Folkloric Processes of Remembering [more inside]
posted by glonous keming at 6:38 PM PST - 14 comments

"When somebody asks me how I got to where I am, there are a few words I use generously: luck, serendipity and kind people. .... But that mythology I find myself trying to build up is probably harmful to others as well as myself." Zara Rahman (previously) thinks about the work she's done to make career success more likely, and how eliding those efforts in her narratives of "how I got to where I am" is "charming, but not threatening. It’s also an incredibly gendered approach to talking about myself." and says, "I want to be more fair to myself, and to others, about the stories I tell myself."
posted by brainwane at 6:19 PM PST - 9 comments

"The neighbours just put the house up for sale. Couldn't resist checking it out on Zoopla." [Photo of orange kitty, stretched out on a bed in a staged room.] "That's our bloody cat." A Twitter thread full of pictures and stories of cats making themselves at home wherever they please. [more inside]
posted by MonkeyToes at 3:29 PM PST - 33 comments

Like most events these days, the Eurovision Song Contest's 2021 edition has been uncertain. The European Broadcasting Union plans to go ahead with "Scenario B", a modified in-person contest with guidelines that permit "live on tape" entries (recorded live staged performances). [more inside]
posted by daisystomper at 11:13 AM PST - 12 comments

The forgotten medieval fruit with a vulgar name - "The polite, socially acceptable name by which it's currently known is the medlar. But for the best part of 900 years, the fruit was called the 'open-arse' – thought to be a reference to the appearance of its own large 'calyx' or bottom."
posted by kliuless at 9:41 AM PST - 44 comments

Mexican president Andrés Manuel López Obrador quietly rocked the agribusiness world with his New Year’s Eve decree to phase out use of the herbicide glyphosate and the cultivation of genetically modified corn. His administration sent an even stronger aftershock two weeks later, clarifying that the government would also phase out GM corn imports in three years and the ban would include not just corn for human consumption but yellow corn destined primarily for livestock. Under NAFTA, the United States has seen a 400% increase in corn exports to Mexico, the vast majority genetically modified yellow dent corn. [more inside]
posted by WalkerWestridge at 9:27 AM PST - 41 comments

The Suicide Squad trailer has dropped.
posted by computech_apolloniajames at 8:43 AM PST - 62 comments

"In a 13-minute video posted to YouTube by user 'AI Addict,' we see a Tesla Model 3 with Full Self Driving Beta 8.2 fumbling its way around Oakland. It appears hapless and utterly confused at all times, never passably imitating a human driver."
posted by clawsoon at 7:40 AM PST - 145 comments

Like everybody else this time last year, Irish Film Twitter was newly in lockdown, bored and scared. So #BeyondFriday was launched, a celebration of cult classics and genre movies. To celebrate the 50th instalment last week, Dean Van Nguyen ranked all fifty movies featured.
posted by MartinWisse at 4:49 AM PST - 8 comments