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The Aftershocks Seven of Italy’s top scientists were convicted of manslaughter after a catastrophic earthquake. What the hell happened in L’Aquila?
posted by gottabefunky at 10:31 PM PST - 31 comments

Three and a half years after the most devastating nuclear accident in a generation, Fukushima Daiichi is still in crisis. Some 6,000 workers, somehow going about their jobs despite the suffocating gear they must wear for hours at a time, struggle to contain the damage. So much radiation still pulses inside the crippled reactor cores that no one has been able to get close enough to survey the full extent of the destruction.
posted by Chrysostom at 9:39 PM PST - 73 comments

776 - 778 - 780 [via mefi projects]
posted by oceanjesse at 6:33 PM PST - 26 comments

Known to one generation as Bartlett in The Great Escape and to another generation as John Hammond in Jurassic Park (plus many roles in between), actor Richard Attenborough has died at the age of 90.
posted by AlonzoMosleyFBI at 6:10 PM PST - 68 comments

Tomorrow is a long time
Suze and The Twerp
Ballad In Plain D – Bob and Suze
We were both overly sensitive and needed shelter from the storm
Previously: I gave her my heart, but she wanted my soul
posted by joseph conrad is fully awesome at 5:41 PM PST - 2 comments

Is Kink a Sexual Orientation?
BDSM As A Sexual Orientation, and Complications of the Orientation Model
SL Letters of the Day: Coming Out Kinky & BDSM as a Sexual Orientation
A conversation about kink with Natalie Zina Walschots
posted by davidstandaford at 3:54 PM PST - 162 comments

In 1942, the US and Mexican governments created the Bracero Agreement, allowing Mexican agricultural workers to come into the United States for a limited time, to provide farm workers while the US was involved in World War II. The program was extended as a series of a series of laws and diplomatic agreements that finally ended in 1964. Probably the most famous popular memorial to the broad program was a poem by Woodie Guthrie, "the last great song he would write," after hearing about a plane crash in Los Gatos, which was reported as a flight full of nameless "deportees." A decade later, a young school teacher/folk singer named Martin (or Marty) Hoffman put the words to music, and Pete Seeger made the song popular, with numerous covers performed and recorded since. 65 years after the crash, those "deportees" were finally named, and that tombstone for "28 Mexican citizens" replaced with the names of those who died. [more inside]
posted by filthy light thief at 3:00 PM PST - 7 comments

30 year ago last week, on August 18, 1984, Careless Whisper reached the top spot on the UK music charts, ending Frankie Goes To Hollywood's 9-week reign with their single Two Tribes. The debut solo track from George Michael, it ushered in the career of a global music superstar that continues to this day. [more inside]
posted by hippybear at 1:16 PM PST - 79 comments

When I took a closer look I realised I caved in half his face.
posted by Foci for Analysis at 12:50 PM PST - 71 comments

"EPA defines environmental justice (EJ) as "the fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all people regardless of race, color, national origin, or income with respect to the development, implementation, and enforcement of environmental laws, regulations, and policies." To effectively address EJ concerns, the Agency recognizes that communities must be the driver for local solutions. However, far too many communities lack the capacity to truly affect their environmental conditions." [more inside]
posted by xarnop at 12:33 PM PST - 4 comments

In 1972, long before eBay or Amazon, students from Stanford University in California and MIT in Massachusetts conducted the first ever ecommerce transaction. Using the "Arpa-net" account at their artificial intelligence lab, the Stanford students sold their counterparts a small amount of marijuana. Ever since, the net has turned over a steady but small trade in illicit narcotics. But last year approximately 20 per cent of UK drug users scored online. The majority of them went to one place: the dark net markets. [more inside]
posted by bookman117 at 10:37 AM PST - 36 comments

Pierce Brosnan Plays GoldenEye 007 with Jimmy Fallon [SLYT] Jimmy Fallon fulfills a childhood dream by playing the Nintendo 64 video game GoldenEye 007 against former James Bond actor Pierce Brosnan.
posted by Fizz at 8:53 AM PST - 54 comments

Buzzfeed reports: The Life and Death of 22 year old Karyn Washington, creator of the "For Brown Girls" blog and the #darkskinredlip project.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 8:31 AM PST - 42 comments

If white characters were described like people of color in literature. (SLBuzzfeed)
posted by erstwhile ungulate at 7:45 AM PST - 112 comments

Fifteen years after "The Death of Cinema", Matt Zoller Seitz talks with Godfrey Cheshire about his prophetic series of articles in the New York Press predicting the effects of the coming death of film and the rise of digital video.
posted by octothorpe at 6:48 AM PST - 33 comments

The Major, or Motoko Kusanagi, is the protagonist of each incarnation of the Ghost in the Shell manga-anime-merchadise franchise. If you care to google, Motoko Kusanagi is autocompletes to “a man” and “is hot,” then “in bed with a boy” and “in bed.” For a science-fiction philosophy character named for her military position, we (the audience — although I don’t limit this to those who have experienced the fiction, as the Major is iconic) sure are caught up in thinking about her gender and sexual status. Why could that be?

In a still ongoing series, Claire Napier looks at the Major's body throughout the various Ghost in the Shell mangas and anime series. NSFW, some spoilers. [more inside]
posted by MartinWisse at 5:07 AM PST - 29 comments

Mike Myers' recent appearance on Marc Maron's WTF podcast is thoroughly entertaining. Myers is promoting his film Supermensch, but he and Maron lengthily discuss Myers' career to date. They cover Myers' TV commerical work as a child, his membership of Second City, The Comedy Store Players and Saturday Night Live, and highlights of his film career (Wayne's World, Austin Powers and Shrek). Full of delightful anecdotes and vocal impressions, it's a revealing, amusing and engaging interview.
posted by paleyellowwithorange at 1:17 AM PST - 38 comments