June 23, 2015

Alltha Smoll Theengs / Troo Kair Trooth Breengs

Dan Nosowitz, Stanford linguist Penelope Eckert, UCSB linguist Robert Kennedy, and Lookout! Records owner Christopher Appelgren each attempt to explain Tom DeLonge's singing accent and how it may have evolved.
posted by Copronymus at 10:37 PM PST - 36 comments

Espionnage Elysée

François Hollande calls emergency meeting after WikiLeaks claims US spied on three French presidents. [more inside]
posted by standardasparagus at 9:19 PM PST - 62 comments

The (profane) language of birds

Max the cockatoo hates his !@&!?#$%# carrier. Max does not want to get his !@#?^*! nails clipped. Not the !@$(^#$%@! carrier again! Max will tell you exactly what he thinks about his @%!?@!?*! cage. [more inside]
posted by Kat Allison at 6:56 PM PST - 40 comments

Keep talking and take my money.

23 Games from E3 2015 with Badass Playable Female Characters - Sam Maggs for The Mary Sue
posted by joseph conrad is fully awesome at 5:58 PM PST - 42 comments

That's my Daddy!

Watch the joy in this little boy's face when he realizes....
posted by pjern at 5:17 PM PST - 28 comments

Tell me how all this, and love too, will ruin us

Richard Siken (previously) published his second book of poetry, War of the Foxes, in April. Supernatural fans thought it was fanfic - specifically Wincest - and have used many lines to fuel their own slash. Meanwhile, Siken himself has become involved in Sherlock slash. The Awl's Adam Carlson interviews Siken about all this and more, including I Can Haz Siken.
posted by Athanassiel at 5:14 PM PST - 14 comments

U.S. won't prosecute hostages' families who pay ransom.

The U.S. government will no longer threaten to prosecute families who try to pay ransom to win the release of American hostages held overseas, and the United States will directly negotiate with militants holding them but will not pay ransom, officials said on Tuesday. The change is one of many that are intended to fix what the administration has acknowledged is a broken policy on United States captives, a senior administration official said.
posted by Sir Rinse at 2:23 PM PST - 34 comments

the essential work of art is to magnify the ordinary

As with anything in this world, excess is excess, but inadequate is inadequate. A writer must know when the weight of the words used to describe a scene is bearing down on the scene itself. A writer should develop the measuring tape to know when to describe characters' thoughts in long sentences and when not to. But a writer, above all, should aim to achieve artistry with language which, like the painter, is the only canvas we have. Writers should realize that the novels that are remembered, that become monuments, would in fact be those which err on the side of audacious prose, that occasionally allow excess rather than those which package a story — no matter how affecting — in inadequate prose.
Chigozie Obioma for The Millions: The Audacity of Prose.
posted by divined by radio at 2:22 PM PST - 9 comments

Bring the fat back

The 2015 Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee (DGAC) report, submitted to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the U.S. Department of Agriculture, makes a historic change: for the first time since 1980, the report no longer recommends the restriction of dietary cholesterol nor of total dietary fat. An article published today in JAMA calls on HHS and USDA to heed the DGAC report. The article goes on to praise the report's new emphasis: reducing consumption of sugar and refined carbohydrates, and increasing consumption of whole foods (even those high in fats).
posted by overeducated_alligator at 1:52 PM PST - 124 comments

Lotho Sackville-Baggins does not make the list

The Most Metal Deaths in Middle-earth, Ranked
posted by Chrysostom at 1:14 PM PST - 43 comments

"For a time, there were maybe 50 dubstep tracks in the whole world."

The VICE Oral History of Dubstep
posted by azarbayejani at 12:15 PM PST - 43 comments

10 years, 1,715,454,785 comments (.36% of which mention cats)

Reddit, the other front page of the internet, turned 10 today (best comment on the anniversary "We made it 10 years without drama!") and celebrated with a look back. It addition to the most liked posts, it also revealed some other interesting posts and replies. Some of the most gilded ever are well-written responses to Reddit's/the Internet's own problems (links go to responses, not topics): attacks on PUAs/MRAs, racism, and jokes about Asians. Of course, more true to popular form, the most gilded ever are about League of Legends and a NSFW thread that combines pranks with too much homophobic subtext. The most saved threads on Reddit tell you how to get free things on the internet, how to study, and where to go before you die. And, of course, there are good old standbys like "what is the best picture on the internet" and "what gif reduces you to laughter every time." Reddit now faces many challenges for its next 10 years.
posted by blahblahblah at 12:02 PM PST - 71 comments

Not even vindictive perverts will use Bing

Better late than never? John Oliver's roughly 16-minute take on online harassment features a 20-year-old AOL commercial, a reworked version of the commercial at the end, and the news (to some of us) that victims of revenge porn may be forced to send pictures of their bodies to the US copyright office in order to get the porn taken down. Oliver's Bing joke occurs at about 13:35.
posted by Bella Donna at 11:58 AM PST - 61 comments

Mousestar Runner

'The Brothers Chaps', creators of the web's iconic Homestar Runner, have been doing odd jobs for Disney's TV toons lately (on "New Mickey Mouse" shorts, "Gravity Falls," "Wander Over Yonder," and "Star vs. The Forces of Evil") and have just begun a series of shorts for the Disney XD website and YouTube Channel: "Two More Eggs (Tuesdays)": Trailer, Introducing Dooble Dooblie Doo, Introducing CGI Palz and a word from a sponsor: Hot Dip: Not For Momz! Not Strongbad, but still part of an absurdist breakfast. (About)
posted by oneswellfoop at 11:19 AM PST - 17 comments

I'm Getting Really Tired Of My Mysterious Flakey Friend

Everyone has that one friend, the one you meet in college before you’re better at choosing friends. The one friend who’s simultaneously fun and exciting and overwhelming and unreliable. Jen is my flaky friend.
...
Once she wore an eyepatch for a month. Never explained why. Classic Jen.

She was a good friend, but her friendship was always a one-way street. She’d call you on the phone, or send you an email, or slip a letter into your shopping bag without you noticing. Inviting her places was a crapshoot; either she wouldn’t show or she would crawl in through the window hours after everybody else had left. Sometimes I wouldn’t hear from her for weeks, and then bam! She’d call me out of the blue to say I’ve got two tickets to the summer opening of the MoMa, do you wanna go? I’d always say yes, partly for the free stuff, and partly to hear her say You’re such a good friend.
It was flaky, but it was friendship. But even friendship has limits. [via mefi projects]
posted by filthy light thief at 10:59 AM PST - 97 comments

“It is an artist's duty to reflect the times.”

What Happened, Miss Simone? [YouTube] [Trailer] Helmed by Oscar-nominated director Liz Garbus (Bobby Fischer Against the World, Killing in the Name), the fully authorized doc incorporates concert footage, archival material, and interviews taking place over three decades. The movie will be available on Netflix June 26. [more inside]
posted by Fizz at 9:16 AM PST - 15 comments

"I have a people-powered campaign"

The Green Party's Jill Stein announces her presidential candidacy. She is running as a third-party candidate.
posted by the_blizz at 9:10 AM PST - 112 comments

Petting Cthulhu

Creature rises from the deep, befriends children [2] [3]. For several years, chuchos negros have been visiting the small fishing town of San Sebastián de la Gomera, Canary Islands (original article in Spanish). [more inside]
posted by elgilito at 6:13 AM PST - 30 comments

A note from our future President

About seven months after pulling her music from Spotify due to low royalties (previously), Taylor Swift posted a note to her Tumblr asking Apple to pay royalties for songs streamed during the free trial of its upcoming Apple Music service. Within 24 hours, Apple agreed.
posted by almostmanda at 6:00 AM PST - 203 comments

Procedural justice

Calabrese was using what have become the four principles of procedural justice: first, that people who come before a judge trust that the process is impartial; second, that they are treated with respect; third, that they understand what is going on and what they are expected to do; fourth, that they have a voice. Defendants find the procedure fairer when they are allowed to state their views. Experimental evidence shows that this is true even when they are allowed to speak only after the judge has announced their decision. No one likes to lose a court case. But people accept losing more willingly if they believe the procedures used to handle their case are fair.
How Newark and Red Hook are trying out this one simple trick that could transform US criminal courts for the better.
posted by MartinWisse at 3:54 AM PST - 22 comments

James Horner 1953-2015

Academy Award-winning composer James Horner died in a plane crash Monday. He was known for the scores to Titanic (the soundtrack for which sold 27 million copies), Braveheart, Apollo 13, and A Beautiful Mind among many others. [more inside]
posted by zachlipton at 12:07 AM PST - 86 comments

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