December 9, 2015

Ceres gets Salty

Cloudy, with a chance of cryovolcanoes - unraveling the secrets of the surface of the dwarf planet Ceres, including the mysterious bright spots.
posted by Artw at 11:11 PM PST - 9 comments

4:45:26

Barbiephonic, an audio experiment from mhoye
Of the six attempts [to listen to the whole file] I’m aware of, four were called off when the death threats started, one due to the near-breakup of the couple making the attempt, and one person drinking themselves to unconsciousness at about the 90 minute mark. I’m not saying that to make a joke. I’m telling you because this is real and it’s an SCP-grade psychic biohazard. No highly esteemed deed was committed here; this is not a place of honour.
[more inside]
posted by frimble at 9:43 PM PST - 57 comments

The U.S. School That Trains Dictators & Death Squads

The dictators and death squad leaders, who committed acts of genocide, were trained within the gates of Fort Benning, at the School of the Americas – otherwise known as the “School Of Assassins.” Abby Martin investigates this notorious school that is largely hidden from the American public; it’s crimes around the world, its star graduates, why it exists and the movement to shut it down.
posted by AElfwine Evenstar at 9:24 PM PST - 22 comments

“I just need to be me now, because I’ve had enough.”

What is actually going on with men, right now? What are they afraid of and unwilling to talk about? How do the inner lives of men affect women, other men, our culture? We see men struggling to define themselves at a time when gender definitions are expanding. We see men dealing, sometimes gracefully and sometimes not, with the weight of their power. And we learn that what it means to be a modern man is just like everything else: complex, messy, and always changing. Medium presents: The Men Issue [more inside]
posted by triggerfinger at 5:43 PM PST - 119 comments

Ork records: the hidden side of New York punk

Everyone knows the Ramones and Talking Heads, but a host of obscure bands were integral to the CBGBs scene – and now their records have been rediscovered.
posted by josher71 at 5:02 PM PST - 14 comments

Book the death star for your holiday!

Airbnb comes to a galaxy far, far away.
posted by pombe at 4:45 PM PST - 5 comments

When the intersection of sport and patriarchy turns ugly.

"When I started taking EPO, he told me, 'if you say that to anyone I'm going to kill you" In an exclusive Cyclingnews podcast, Canadian cyclist Geneviève Jeanson details the abusive coach-athlete relationship that she alleges led to her career-long doping. [more inside]
posted by lonefrontranger at 4:08 PM PST - 48 comments

Art if isolated and specialized can't create culture. It needs a Cult.

The long life of the incredibly prolific Austrian artist Ernst Fuchs has come to an end.
He was baptised a catholic to save him from the camps and went on to became the most prominent member of the "Vienna School of Fantastic Realism.
A graphic artist, painter, sculptor, designer, stage designer, architect, composer and poet.
He was influenced from an early age by Klimt and later hints of Dali which resuled in a rare interview.
He was rarely mentioned in the British media.
posted by adamvasco at 2:56 PM PST - 11 comments

It's not too much, is it?

Design an 18th century wig. Pile on the flowers, plumes and ships to recreate -- or surpass -- the opulent, impractical hairstyles of the French court, thanks to the Victoria and Albert Museum. [more inside]
posted by shirobara at 2:24 PM PST - 11 comments

KOUIGN-AMANN

Listen, I don’t care if they were made in Buckingham Palace by whipping egg whites between Kate Middleton’s asscheeks. They’re still marshmallows.
posted by Sophie1 at 1:54 PM PST - 94 comments

Cyberattacks are increasingly common. The power grid is vulnerable.

Cybersecurity is an increasingly important concern. The Washington Post recently ran a great special series on the issue. The rate of major hacks is growing. The power grid is especially vulnerable, and a hack on it will be especially damaging. It's not a question of if, but when. [more inside]
posted by Sleeper at 1:54 PM PST - 44 comments

Devil's Hole Pupfish, the tiny, tenacious desert fish

Go about 50 miles east of Death Valley and you'll find Ash Meadows National Wildlife Refuge, a detached unit of Death Valley National Park. This complex of desert oases includes one significantly protected tiny body of water, both physically and legally. Known as Devil's Hole, a small portion of this underwater cave is home to the tiny Devil's Hole Pupfish, the smallest of the desert pupfish and one of the world's rarest fish with a wild population of 35 at it's low point in 2013. [more inside]
posted by filthy light thief at 1:15 PM PST - 11 comments

RIP, Doug Tompkins

Conservationist and North Face founder Doug Tompkins died Tuesday in a kayaking accident in Patagonian Chile. [more inside]
posted by Dashy at 1:01 PM PST - 10 comments

60 years of dropping bombs on America's enemies with little effect

Ground crews scouring the aging frames for rust often find graffiti in hidden nooks by previous generations — a recent discovery, perhaps commenting on the age of the planes, featured primitive cave-style animal paintings.
-- With at least one pilot whose father and grandfather also flew it, the B-52, Big Ugly Flying F...ellow is now in its sixtieth year of active service.
posted by MartinWisse at 12:31 PM PST - 67 comments

Shock and Awe

How we made 2000AD [more inside]
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 11:37 AM PST - 29 comments

Candid Camera in the Soviet Union

Everyday Soviet citizens, he figured, were more than likely filled not with militant hatred, but with "amusing and identifiable foibles that Americans could relate to." They, too, would surely react with chagrin to someone reading a newspaper over their shoulder, or gallantly try to help a woman carry a suitcase full of concrete. So why not film those reactions and broadcast them to Americans, to show them that Soviet had a vulnerable and hilarious human side?
posted by veedubya at 11:24 AM PST - 22 comments

Murphy Bill Controversy

Mental Health Groups Split on Bill to Overhaul Care: "The result: more people treated earlier, and more treated against their will." A Psychiatrist Opposes The Murphy Bill and Here's Why. [more inside]
posted by xarnop at 11:07 AM PST - 65 comments

"All of you Americans are fired"

"The H-2 guest worker program, which brought in 150,000 legal foreign workers last year, isn’t supposed to deprive any American of a job. But many businesses go to extraordinary lengths to deny jobs to U.S. workers so they can hire foreigners instead." [more inside]
posted by the man of twists and turns at 11:04 AM PST - 33 comments

I feel like I know Britney... but sometimes my arms bend back. Oops!

This mashup of Britney Spears and the theme from Twin Peaks is really good. (SLYT)
posted by schmod at 10:16 AM PST - 15 comments

“MAKE THE GALAXY GREAT AGAIN!”

Darth Trump [YouTube] [Auralnauts]
posted by Fizz at 10:04 AM PST - 19 comments

The Machiavelli of Maryland

'If there’s one point on which I agree with the leftist weaklings, it’s 1) that McDonald’s must go and 2) that American citizens should be forced en masse to take a course in phenomenology, so that they can develop the proper philosophical disposition necessary for understanding the incarnate evil of the chicken nugget.' Thomas Meaney profiles Edward Luttwak, strategy consultant, historian, rancher, right-wing bloviator, classicist and LRB contributor. [more inside]
posted by Mocata at 9:54 AM PST - 21 comments

...but they can never stop Napster - the idea!

Taxster reviews all of today's hottest P2P programs: KaZaA, Morpheus, Limewire, eDonkey2000, and more! [more inside]
posted by theodolite at 9:50 AM PST - 56 comments

Guys, this angry, hungry bear in our house is a big problem.

What If Bears Killed One In Five People? You wouldn't put up with that. So don't put up with this. 1 in 5 women will be sexually assaulted by the time they finish college. [more inside]
posted by Blasdelb at 9:36 AM PST - 31 comments

Holy shit this is going to change poetry forever

Texts from John Donne (SL TheToast) [more inside]
posted by Dorinda at 9:34 AM PST - 5 comments

Minter needed, must own straightedge, compass, and additional tool.

An Alphabet of Heptagons By heptagons, I mean seven-sided coins. OK, it won't be a full alphabet - it will have a few gaps, and I may have to cheat in some cases. When I've finished the alphabet, I'll open up the topic to comments.
posted by Wolfdog at 9:01 AM PST - 10 comments

after all this / tell them about the water / how we have seen it rising

Kathy Jetnil-Kijiner is a poet and climate activist from the Marshall Islands. Recently, she performed her poem Tell them at a protest calling for fossil fuel divestment at the 2015 Paris Climate Change Conference. Transcript on Democracy Now. [more inside]
posted by sively at 8:30 AM PST - 2 comments

"He never touched the world..."

The New York Times looks back on the boy in the bubble.
posted by graventy at 7:42 AM PST - 32 comments

I heart u chubby squirrels

A mild winter thus far has given us chubbier cuter squirrels (slTorontoStar) [more inside]
posted by Kitteh at 7:22 AM PST - 38 comments

"We decided to give a significant portion of the proceeds to charity.”

Remember when the Wu Tang Clan decided to sell only one copy of their latest album? And remember when some asshole bought a pharmaceutical company and jacked up the price on a drug by 5,500%? You can probably tell where this is going -- Martin Shkreli was the guy who bought Once Upon a Time in Shaolin. [more inside]
posted by Etrigan at 7:19 AM PST - 194 comments

Spoiler: the top three are correct

Looking for a reading list for 2016? The BBC has polled over 80 book critics from outside the UK to find out what they think are the 100 greatest british novels [more inside]
posted by Cantdosleepy at 5:23 AM PST - 107 comments

Thomas Piketty seminar

Discussion of Piketty's book on Crooked Timber On December 7 Crooked Timber began posting a seminar on Thomas Piketty's Capital in the Twenty-First Century. 2 responses to the book so far with 10 more to come, followed by the author's response.
posted by kingless at 1:50 AM PST - 45 comments

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