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Sometimes something so entirely foreign at the time influences everything that comes after it. This argument could easily be made about David Byrne and Brian Eno's 1981 collaboration My Life In The Bush Of Ghosts. Based on repetition and vocal samples, it strongly foreshadows an entire branch of the development of pop music. Back then, it might have been used to clear people out at the end of a party. Today, it feels like it belongs. Side A: America Is Waiting, Mea Culpa, Regiment, Help Me Somebody, The Jezebel Spirit [more inside]
posted by hippybear at 7:53 PM PST - 40 comments

Microsoft's Official Examples Of "Acceptable Trash Talk" Are A Joy [Kotaku] “Microsoft updated the company’s “Community Standards for Xbox” earlier this week, and while this is normally not news, the content is so damn wholesome that it’s worth a closer look. [...] The company has gone way beyond simply listing rules you should follow, and has provided a ton of examples of not just what you shouldn’t be doing on Xbox Live, but also what you could be doing if you want to be a cool and fun person to be around.” [more inside]
posted by Fizz at 7:27 PM PST - 102 comments

Aaron Gordon, transit journalist and author of the MTA-focused newsletter Signal Problems, has ended his newsletter to take a job at Jalopnik. All of the Signal Problems archive is now available
posted by the man of twists and turns at 3:01 PM PST - 6 comments

Seanan McGuire writes novels and stories usually classified as urban fantasy. There are 33 novel-length works currently listed on the bibliography page of her website, which is not quite up-to-date and doesn't include her books published under the pseudonym Mira Grant. "The crazy part? She didn't turn to full-time writing until about three years ago."

Middlegame, her latest novel, will be released Tuesday. [more inside]
posted by still_wears_a_hat at 2:47 PM PST - 49 comments

The Murder Accountability Project algorithm has identified a pattern in Chicago: over the last 20 years women, primarily black, were being strangled, with evidence of sexual component, and their bodies dumped. [more inside]
posted by wellifyouinsist at 1:40 PM PST - 27 comments

Rachel Held Evans, who emerged from a conservative evangelical background to become a voice for progressive Christianity, has died at age 37 after being hospitalized in mid-April for flu complications. [more inside]
posted by ArbitraryAndCapricious at 10:47 AM PST - 68 comments

In 2016, Anna Merlan reported from her time At Sea with America's Largest Floating Gathering of Conspiracy Theorists for Jezebel (previously). Three years later, she writes for The Guardian and considers Why we are addicted to conspiracy theories, looking at the rise of Alex Jones, InfoWars and Trump. Related: Why conspiracy theories are getting more absurd and harder to refute, an article by Sean Illing for Vox, interviewing Harvard politics professor Nancy L. Rosenblum. "Democracy requires a minimum amount of mutual trust among citizens, and conspiracism destroys it."
posted by filthy light thief at 10:39 AM PST - 43 comments

Mozilla is very sorry for the inconvenience. Slashdot and Techcrunch also discuss.
posted by Little Dawn at 7:48 AM PST - 233 comments

Crispy-gone-soggy is the finest texture of food there is. Fight me.
posted by Gin and Broadband at 3:13 AM PST - 99 comments