August 27, 2015

John Scalzi Is Not A Very Popular Author And I Myself Am Quite Popular:

"How SJWs Always Lie About Our Comparative Popularity Levels Kindle Edition" In the wake of this year's kerpupple surrounding the Hugo awards, Alexandra Erin has created a Kindle book in response to Theodore Beale's (Vox Day) Amazon release of "SJWs Always Lie: Taking Down the Thought Police". [more inside]
posted by AGameOfMoans at 5:42 PM PST - 208 comments

"I just want this type of support to be normalized."

The Rise of the Abortion Doula
As Abortions Become Harder to Obtain, Pro-Choice Activists Eschew Policy Debates for Flesh and Blood Activism

The Job of an Abortion Doula
My Year As an Abortion Doula
True Story: I’m An Abortion Doula
On Being an Abortion Doula: The range of emotions involved in helping women terminate pregnancies
posted by andoatnp at 5:27 PM PST - 19 comments

Forever and Ever: Losing My Husband at 24

Did Andy have two weeks left or was his rapid decline of this morning merely a temporary problem that was easily fixed? Unsure, Andy turned to me and said, “Two weeks? I’m not ready for this ‘A Walk To Remember’ shit.” He had been fighting to live, but now it seemed he was merely fighting for a year.
Sarah McBride writes beautifully about losing her husband. She was 24. He was 28.
posted by kate blank at 3:50 PM PST - 32 comments

"What Is His Doctorate In? Being an **bleep**?"

The Black Tapes Podcast started when Alex Reagan of Pacific Northwest Stories profiled Dr. Richard Strand of the Strand Institute about his rigorous career debunking claims of the paranormal. During the interview, she discovered that he had files on cases that he had not yet debunked. [more inside]
posted by GenjiandProust at 3:35 PM PST - 26 comments

100 great films by female directors

100 great films by female directors. Part 1: 1912-1953, Part 2: 1962-1975, Part 3: 1975-1981, Part 4: 1982-1991, Part 5: 1991-1997, Part 6: 1998-2001, Part 7: 2002-2009, Part 8: 2007-2009, Part 9: 2010-2012, Part 10: 2012-2014. (This is not "The" 100 Great Movies By Female Directors. It's merely 100 movies we love and honestly think you will too.) [more inside]
posted by dng at 3:33 PM PST - 40 comments

“The wheel weaves as the wheel wills.”

The 51 Best Fantasy Series Ever Written [Buzzfeed]
Whether you’re a Swords and Sorcery type of fantasy reader, a fan of battles and betrayal, or you just want a few more goddamn elves in your life, there’s something for you here. These are the truly great fantasy series written in the last 50 years.
posted by Fizz at 2:53 PM PST - 157 comments

Dr. Dunkenstein. Sir Slam. Lovetron. Chocolate Thunder.

One of the most influential sports figures you've never heard of, Darryl Dawkins has passed at the age of 58. Dawkins was an NBA star in the flashy, no-defense, pre-Michael Jordan days, an early Nike-splashed icon, with multiple self-styled nicknames, although "Chocolate Thunder," was bestowed on him by Stevie Wonder. Think of the image of a basketball player shattering the backboard glass. You're thinking of Dawkins.
posted by Cool Papa Bell at 2:08 PM PST - 27 comments

putting 'feminist' in your online dating bio is a good misogynist filter

Last year, Laura Nowak used Instagram to document the responses she got when she asked men on Tinder about their views on feminism. Nowak said she started the project because “I don’t want women thinking they have to settle for being objectified if they want casual sex, and I don’t want men on Tinder being systematically categorised as creeps.” In February 2015, Instagram deleted her @feministsontinder account, stating that it violated their guidelines. Now Nowak is back on Instagram with @feminist_tinder, recording the responses she received when she put the phrase "hello I am a feminist" in her Tinder profile. [more inside]
posted by hurdy gurdy girl at 12:33 PM PST - 188 comments

The Other Paper

Meet The Indie Newspaper Man Who Documented The East Village In The 1980s [more inside]
posted by poffin boffin at 12:17 PM PST - 5 comments

Mapping the beautiful chaos of informal transit

As transit systems go, the matatus in Nairobi exist somewhere between underground gypsy cabs and MTA bus service. The minibuses themselves aren't owned by any government agency. The fares aren't regulated by the city. The routes are vaguely based on a bus network that existed in Nairobi some 30 years ago, but they've since shifted and multiplied and expanded at the region's edges... Riders who navigate the matatu system rely on it in parts, using only the lines they know and the unofficial stops they're sure actually exist. As for the network as a whole – there's never even been a map of it... In the absence of a formal public transit system in Kenya's capital, people have created a comprehensive – if imperfect – one on their own. And now we know that it looks like this. [more inside]
posted by ChuraChura at 11:01 AM PST - 21 comments

Upgraded Medium Chain Snake Oil

The founder of Fitocracy explains how consumers fall for dubious fitness fads, with special emphasis on the work of Dave Asprey, "The Bulletproof CEO" (previously and previously).
posted by chrchr at 10:28 AM PST - 82 comments

Mormon breast implants and Jewish Dowries

Dateonomics: What two religions tell us about the modern dating crisis.
posted by jacquilynne at 10:02 AM PST - 103 comments

Orsini's Sacro Busco, or the Park of Monsters

Count Pier Francesco Orsini (Google auto-translate) was a man much given to melancholy. The premature death of his wife, Giulia Farnese, and other troubles contributing to the decay of the once proud Orsini dynasty, darkened his outlook on life. Like the world-hating Jacques in Shakespeare's As You Like It, he seems to have come to regard the world around him with a somewhat self-advertising disgust. Orsini retreated noisily from the world of human affairs into nature, albeit a nature much improved by art (Google books preview). Those improvements came in the form of larger-than-life sculptures, some sculpted in the bedrock, which populated Sacro Bosco ("Sacred Grove"), colloquially called Parco dei Mostri ("Park of the Monsters"). [more inside]
posted by filthy light thief at 9:04 AM PST - 7 comments

No, I Am Not Crowdfunding This Baby

How I’m slightly terrified of the oncoming mix of motherhood and art….and how judging and terrifying me further isn’t going to help me. (slMedium, NSFW) [more inside]
posted by Kitteh at 8:11 AM PST - 114 comments

When did we all become 'curators'?

"how did curating, a highly specialized line of museum work involving the care, accessioning, and exhibition of artworks, come to mean, as cultural policy scholar Amanda Coles puts it, “just picking stuff?”" - Miya Tokumitsu [more inside]
posted by the man of twists and turns at 7:47 AM PST - 99 comments

He's singing!

Cuzzie the puggle loves his hot tub (SLYT)
posted by griphus at 5:53 AM PST - 9 comments

Don’t be afraid or embarrassed to stare at it

Artist Teresita Fernández muses on the creative process.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 5:31 AM PST - 5 comments

Estimated American veteran suicides per day: 22

The staggering reality of America's post-9/11 era of perpetual war: For every active duty soldier killed in combat, twenty veterans died by their own hand. This is Daniel Wolfe's story. (This story discusses self-harm, suicide and suicidal ideation. Some readers may find the content disturbing.) [more inside]
posted by zarq at 4:35 AM PST - 67 comments

From Chaplin to Zuckerberg

The Evolution of Magazine Covers
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 4:30 AM PST - 15 comments

My God, it's full of dots!

The globe of economic complexity is a beautifully trippy interactive dot-based map of $15.3 trillion or world trade, each glowing dot encoding $100 millions worth of exports (poster). It is based on the Atlas of economic complexity by Harvard University Data Visualisation Fellow Romain Vuillemot and developed by WikiGalaxy creator Owen Cornec.
posted by elgilito at 2:28 AM PST - 10 comments

Engineering the BART System

Engineering Geology of the Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) System, 1964-75 (J. David Rogers & Ralph B. Peck, published 2000) chronicles the construction of the subterranean components of BART.
posted by DrAmerica at 1:04 AM PST - 17 comments

Leaving Everywhere

I've looked at the US Census Bureau data, and the numbers don't lie. They paint a dire picture. On top of all that they closed one of my favorite mac & cheese joints. Look, I still love this place. Sometimes. But I'm done with wherever I am. Best of luck to those who stay wherever they are.
posted by a lungful of dragon at 12:47 AM PST - 34 comments

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