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Philip Roth and the sympathetic biographer: This is how misogyny gets cemented in our culture This is how a misogynistic culture is conceptualized, created, cultivated and codified. It doesn’t happen because one dude does a bad thing. It happens when like-minded dudes are allowed to be one another’s gatekeepers, and the gatekeepers of broader culture, when faults are allowed to go unexamined, and so they instead spread: Harvey Weinstein dictated the content of movie theaters for decades; it turns out he was abusing women all along. Roger Ailes, Charlie Rose and Matt Lauer shaped coverage and discussion of sexual misconduct scandals throughout the 1990s and 2000s; they were later accused of sexual misconduct themselves.
posted by Toddles at 8:22 PM PST - 74 comments

From the NYTimes: Scientists "say that excessive hygiene practices, inappropriate antibiotic use and lifestyle changes such as distancing may weaken those communities going forward in ways that promote sickness and imperil our immune systems. By sterilizing our bodies and spaces, they argue, we may be doing more harm than good."
posted by coffeecat at 1:52 PM PST - 96 comments

High-speed bike tour of the Paris catacombs, via a helmet-mounted go-pro. Featuring: a lot of graffiti. Not for the claustrophobic.
posted by FirstMateKate at 1:19 PM PST - 16 comments

Researchers at Purdue University have developed a new ultra-white paint that reflects 98.1 percent of sunlight and can keep surfaces up to 19 degrees Fahrenheit cooler than their ambient surroundings. This new paint, which may become available for purchase in the next year or two, could someday help combat global warming and reduce our reliance on air conditioners. [more inside]
posted by gusottertrout at 12:56 PM PST - 48 comments

The Truth about Lying. "Police thought that 17-year-old Marty Tankleff seemed too calm after finding his mother stabbed to death and his father mortally bludgeoned in the family’s sprawling Long Island home. Authorities didn’t believe his claims of innocence, and he spent 17 years in prison for the murders. Yet in another case, detectives thought that 16-year-old Jeffrey Deskovic seemed too distraught and too eager to help detectives after his high school classmate was found strangled. He, too, was judged to be lying and served nearly 16 years for the crime. One man was not upset enough. The other was too upset. How can such opposite feelings both be telltale clues of hidden guilt?" [more inside]
posted by storybored at 11:00 AM PST - 40 comments

The Endless Acid Banger is a website that will generate an endless and surprisingly-danceable 1990s PC game soundtrack.
posted by schmod at 10:50 AM PST - 22 comments

It’s Friday. Take a break with an excellent vid for Pygmalion (1938) set to a cover of “No Scrubs” by Bastille ft. Ella Eyre. (SLYT)
posted by Quasirandom at 8:42 AM PST - 24 comments

A 6th-grader tackles the age-old question. With lipstick.
posted by mpark at 7:03 AM PST - 69 comments

Greg “Shock G” Jacobs, founder of 90s rap group Digital Underground, passed away aged 57 in a hotel room in Tampa, Florida. Digital Underground started in the late 80s; their sound leaned heavily on P-Funk, while their lyrics often dealt with fanciful themes, such as Sex Packets, a concept album about a drug that induces sexual hallucinations. [more inside]
posted by acb at 6:01 AM PST - 61 comments

“I walked into this lounge full of women,” she remembers, “and someone up in the front of the room was talking about the clitoris, orgasm and masturbation, and I was just so embarrassed. I just sank down to the floor and listened really hard. This was stuff that I had never heard said out loud before.” At one point, Sanford remembers, the speaker held up a lifesize picture of a woman, with legs apart, to show the location of the clitoris, and to explain how, contrary to Freudian thinking, it is the major organ of female sexual pleasure. “Who knew this before?” she asked the group, who sat largely blank-faced. “That’s my point,” she told them. “We should know these things. These are our bodies.” The clitoris, pain and pap smears: how Our Bodies, Ourselves redefined women’s health, a long read from The Guardian. [more inside]
posted by Bella Donna at 4:23 AM PST - 25 comments