August 18, 2016

"I think you should take that money, tie it up, and hang it on the wall"

Artsy presents a well-edited 4-part series of videos on The Art Market: Auctions, Galleries, Patrons, and Art Fairs
posted by Theta States at 9:22 PM PST - 3 comments

Cats and dogs, living together, mass adorableness

Side effects of growing up with Bull Mastiffs, this cat thinks she is one. She's cute, but she's no Rosie. As a kitten, she was save by the maternal Lilo the Husky (Facebook), a cat-loving Husky (YouTube) who lives in a household (Instagram) with other feral cats that are trapped, neutered and released (TNR) or raised and a couple more Huskies. Now a much larger cat, Rosie likes to walk and hike with the Huskies.
posted by filthy light thief at 9:07 PM PST - 26 comments

"There's No Good Reason to Support Nate Parker"

"They believed the power of a film, and the potency of Parker’s narrative, would be enough to “deflect” from the events “17 years” in the past. . . . But a different mode of accountability is necessary: on the part of those who perpetuate the abuse, but also from those within the industry whose machinations have, in the past, made it disappear and, in so doing, effectively enabled its continuation. To “spin” a story, after all, is to discredit, erase, or deflect so that one’s client’s viability within the industry remains unfettered — which is exactly what has happened to victims of sexual assault for decades." Anne Helen Peterson on Nate Parker's Alleged Rape and The Limits of Hollywood Damage Control (tw: rape, suicide) [more inside]
posted by sallybrown at 4:40 PM PST - 92 comments

Gawker.com, 2003-2016

"After nearly fourteen years of operation, Gawker.com will be shutting down next week." [more inside]
posted by alexoscar at 2:52 PM PST - 118 comments

Reasons I'm fat

Why Am I So Fat? Sara Benincasa answers a fan's question.
posted by Uncle at 2:50 PM PST - 74 comments

“Pesticides and beekeeping have been butting heads for 50-plus years”

The world’s most popular pesticide probably killed England’s wild bees [more inside]
posted by not_the_water at 1:11 PM PST - 21 comments

Did you know, Mom? Dad?

New Merck ad for Gardasil is sparking controversy - do they tell the hard truths, or are they guilt-tripping parents? Earlier this summer, Merck began airing new commercials for Gardasil. These commercials (which show an adult man and an adult woman talking about how they had cancers caused by HPV, and then show video clips in a "rewind" to a child actor who asks if their parents knew that their cancer could have been prevented), have upset some who say that the ad bullies parents. Proponents of the ads say the ads give parents the facts necessary to hold them accountable. [more inside]
posted by honeybee413 at 11:52 AM PST - 90 comments

From Jingoism to Feelings - the aesthetic response to collective trauma

Lindsay Ellis' (previously) new video series 'Loose Canon' (Previously) takes a look at the different media takes on the same cultural character or property. She takes on the longest and most detailed one yet with the media reaction to and portrayal of the 2001 9/11 attacks. Part 1 (21:21) Part 2 (27:37) (Warning for photos and video of attacks)
posted by The Whelk at 11:28 AM PST - 2 comments

The Art World Is Like Being In Mafia: Some Things Aren't Discused

I'm going to imagine you have the basics: over ₤10M in the bank, a yacht, luxury London apartment, second home in Monaco, offshore bank account, and if not a private jet, at least access to one. Good, are you sitting comfortably in your designer Italian armchair? Then we can begin. -The Banker's Guide To Art
posted by Pirate-Bartender-Zombie-Monkey at 10:54 AM PST - 13 comments

solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.

Justice Department to end use of private prisons. The Justice Department plans to end its use of private prisons after officials concluded the facilities are both less safe and less effective at providing correctional services than those run by the government.
posted by blue_beetle at 9:58 AM PST - 64 comments

Because who has time to read whole articles?

Explain To Me is an automatic text summarizer, that utilizes TextRank, a graph based algorithm to scan through the contents of a website and extract a concise machine generated summary. Python Code
posted by signal at 9:03 AM PST - 23 comments

Going undercover against extremism

"A long-running undercover police operation in the Bedfordshire town of Luton, which has contributed evidence to two recent counter-terrorism trials, helped build up an incredibly detailed picture of the depths of loathing for Britain felt by the men at the heart of the investigation. Kamal switches on the recorder and speaks into the microphone, stating the date, the time and where he's about to go. And then he leaves the house, leaves his true self behind, and walks towards danger."
posted by marienbad at 8:10 AM PST - 8 comments

Troubling, enduring work of New England’s strangest son

A new wave of Lovecraftian stories confront, rather than ignore, the racism and antisemitism that permeated Lovecraft's work, and, indeed, served as the basis for much of the horror. This roundtable of authors discussing how they address the problems of Lovecraft is worthwhile. Some authors are explicitly using Lovecraft as a lens on contemporary racism, such as in Matt Ruff's Lovecraft Country [PDF preview], while others mine Lovecraft's fear of the other to examine bigotry, as in Ruthanna Emrys's lovely Litany of Earth [full story] (Emyrs is also part of the Lovecraft Reread, which looks at both the Mythos-building and uncomfortable aspects of Lovecraft's stories). Previously, on the World Fantasy Awards and Lovecraft.
posted by blahblahblah at 8:05 AM PST - 34 comments

American Beauty: Our Hair, Ourselves

Candacy Taylor spent seven years studying American beauty shop culture. Her 20,000-mile journey among salons catering to African-American, Appalachian, Cajun, Dominican, Gullah, Jamaican, Japanese, Orthodox Jewish, Lumbee Indian, Pakistani, and LGBT communities led her to this conclusion: "[R]ace matters, you know? And more specifically it's about hair texture....Practically every ethnicity has developed a specialized product or procedure to change their hair texture, and as a result, beauty shop culture is a window into contemporary understandings about race, segregation, and integration." Transcript [txt doc] of her 2014 lecture, from the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress. [more inside]
posted by MonkeyToes at 7:27 AM PST - 5 comments

I needed to finally find Carmen Sandiego once and for all.

My 20-Year Quest To Find Carmen Sandiego
posted by Faint of Butt at 6:49 AM PST - 31 comments

Our show is 100 percent African

“An African City” features music from Ghanaian hip-hop artists like Jayso, chic home décor from Ghanaian interior designers highlighted in detail on the show’s Instagram page, and clothing from fashion designers like Christie Brown, Archel Bernard, Kiki Clothing, Osei-Duro and Afrodesiac. The vibrant colors and pop patterns have been the toast of the series, especially as members of the African diaspora have begun to incorporate kente cloth crop tops into their wardrobes and wear traditional patterns to big events like prom. Vogue cannot get enough of them. Previously
posted by infini at 6:42 AM PST - 2 comments

Tanks for Sale

The Normandy Tank Museum is selling it’s entire collection.
posted by dfm500 at 6:35 AM PST - 32 comments

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