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Muptown Funk (previously) keeps rolling along, recently with two longer videos concerning Sesame Street: ranking every Waiter Grover sketch (50 minutes), and a deep dive into the stomach history of ^the Cookie Monster (20 minutes)!
posted by JHarris on Apr 14 at 9:27 PM - 8 comments

OJ Simpson dead at 76 Remember the slow white suv LA chase?
posted by robbyrobs on Apr 11 at 7:44 AM - 107 comments

To self-censor, he says, would mean “I start second-guessing myself and don’t trust my own instincts.” (slTheWalrus) [more inside]
posted by Kitteh on Apr 10 at 7:11 AM - 115 comments

Autonomous car racing is a rapidly advancing field that combines cutting-edge technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), fast mobility stacks, innovative sensor technologies and edge computing to create high-performance vehicles that can perceive their surroundings, make decisions, and race competitively without human intervention. [more inside]
posted by chavenet on Apr 13 at 12:14 PM - 16 comments

“The toughest reservation in France, it turns out, is not at a Michelin-starred destination like Mirazur or Septime. It’s at an all-you-can-eat buffet situated in a municipal rec center in the smallish city of Narbonne.” Not exclusive, but exclusively serving French cuisine, it served 380,000 people last year for €52.90 each (plus drinks, sold at retail price), but there are 9 types of foie gras, a pâté en croûte made with 7 different meats, and a record breaking 111 varieties of cheese on the cheeseboard. The place settings and silverware and gilt and chandeliers deserve to be seen – they are not of your ordinary buffet restaurant. (New Yorker, archive)
posted by ambrosen on Apr 14 at 5:43 AM - 24 comments

A sophisticated backdoor in Linux's xz compression tool, apparently inserted by a long time contributor, was fortunately discovered yesterday in the latest unstable distribution of Debian, before it could be spread more widely.
posted by lucidium on Mar 30 at 2:21 PM - 65 comments

Cool suburban dads can ask for nothing more: Adam Granduciel, genius frontman of The War on Drugs is touring with The National this fall and really loves to golf (registration-free version).
posted by MattD on Apr 14 at 7:35 AM - 17 comments

What if your Wordle strategy was to always start with the same 4 words, all with unique letters? That would use 20 letters, with the exception, of J, K, Q, V, X, Z. Slate's "The Fastest Wordle Winning Strategy Ever" (archive). [more inside]
posted by ShooBoo on Apr 14 at 12:51 PM - 70 comments

After a failed adaptation in 2017, Netflix has finally released the home-streaming adaptation of Cixin Liu's Three Body Problem trilogy. How will the slow build to epic scope that prevented some readers from finishing the book series fare in the hands of the same showrunners that brought you Game of Thrones? Binge ready for the weekend (trigger warning: starts with violence). [more inside]
posted by rubatan on Mar 22 at 11:52 AM - 95 comments

In the wake of SPD shutting down (previously), here is a books roundup focusing this time on recent releases from small presses. [more inside]
posted by joannemerriam on Apr 14 at 8:20 PM - 5 comments

As further argued by the authors in a forthcoming Berggruen Press volume, “the Planetary as a scientific concept focuses on the Earth as an intricate web of ecosystems, with myriad layers of integration between various biogeochemical systems and living beings — both human and non-human. Drawing on earth system science and systems biology, this holistic understanding is being enabled by new planetary-scale technologies of perception – a rapidly maturing technosphere of sensors, networks, and supercomputers that collectively are rendering the planetary system increasingly visible, comprehensible and foreseeable. This recently-evolved smart exoskeleton — in essence a distributed sensory organ and cognitive layer — is fostering an unprecedented form of planetary sapience.” The open question is how, and if, human governance in the late-stage Anthropocene can align with the knowledge we are now attaining. from The Third Great Decentering [Noema]
posted by chavenet on Apr 14 at 1:51 AM - 5 comments

North America is just hours away from its second major total solar eclipse in seven years, with the path of totality tracing a long arc from Mexico and Texas northeast through Ohio, New England, and Canada. Eager eclipse watchers have snapped up hotels and rentals and embarked on epic road trips, scrutinizing cloud forecasting models and taking an anti-stormchaser attitude to avoid a late-breaking spate of bad weather. How many MeFites are among the madding crowd? Where are you based, and what's your plan for seeing the spectacle? Have you witnessed any eclipses in the past, or do you have plans to see more in the future? What are your tips and fun facts for making the most of the experience? You're welcome too discuss these topics and more in your Monday Free Thread!
posted by Rhaomi on Apr 8 at 5:43 AM - 253 comments

Rejection isn’t the same as heartbreak, which entails a past acceptance. A rejection implies that you don’t even warrant a try. From the reject’s perspective, the reciprocity of heartbreak looks pretty appealing. And if you’re going to suffer, it may as well be exciting. Who would choose the flat desolation of rejection over rough-and-tumble drama, especially if they end the same way? The cliché—tis better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all—is comforting to the heartbroken, but damning to the rejected. No matter how unpleasant or unequal, a breakup is at least something you share with someone else. Rejection makes only one reject. from The Rejection Plot by Tony Tulathimutte [The Paris Review; ungated]
posted by chavenet on Apr 12 at 12:37 AM - 30 comments

“So when I started working on the story that turned into All Systems Red, I realized right away I wanted to write an AI that didn't want to be human…I was thinking a lot about what an AI would actually want, as opposed to what a human might think an AI would want…. I think it would want that connection to other systems, that vast, astonishing, multiplicity of vision.”—Martha Wells, from her keynote speech at the annual Jack Williamson Lecture at Eastern New Mexico University in Portales, New Mexico.
posted by MonkeyToes on Apr 12 at 5:28 PM - 40 comments

I'm the Draft List at This Brewery, and No, You Can't Have a Light Beer "Sure, we made a 'normal' IPA once. But then we were like, why make a beer that's enjoyable to drink when we could make a beer that's not?" [McSweeneys]
posted by cozenedindigo on Apr 12 at 4:25 PM - 75 comments

meow.camera lets you watch live feeds from hundreds (thousands?) of cozy and custom-decorated cat feeders set up throughout various cities in China. [more inside]
posted by nobody on Apr 12 at 7:32 AM - 13 comments

Death of the Follower & the Future of Creativity on the Web [46m] "Patreon CEO Jack Conte explains how the current internet algorithms are killing the traditional "follower" for creators, threatening their creative freedom and livelihoods." [more inside]
posted by hippybear on Apr 13 at 3:09 PM - 10 comments

a webcomic by max graves. tumblr softboy cancelled for involvement in "heavenly creatures" style murder. darkly hilarious exploration of internet fame, isolation, transness and trauma. goes deep into various kinds of internet damage. really can't recommend this enough. [more inside]
posted by _earwig_ on Apr 10 at 5:10 AM - 20 comments

Voices of Mourning by Hannah Gold. An interesting personal essay on the book About Ed by Robert Glück, exploring grief and mourning. It also raises the question - whose life is allowed to be remembered for the person they were rather than their surrounding political context?
posted by colourlesssleep on Apr 12 at 9:08 AM - 3 comments

"The History of Sci-Fi Film from 1900 to the Present." Under the title Robots and Rayguns, Mars Wants Movies [YT channel] is methodically reviewing the history of sci-fi on film – the classics along with the forgotten. (At the time of posting, it is at Episode 16, for the year 1936.) From Episode 1: "In this ongoing series, I will delve into the history of science fiction cinema. …This introductory episode sets the stage for the history of the genre that dominates Hollywood today. But in the early 20th Century, the genre was a mix of science fiction, fantasy, adventure, and experimentation that evolved with the technology of the 20th Century." The series also looks at other contemporary milestones in movies, plus the scientific, cultural, and historical events of the times. "From interstellar adventures to dystopian futures, the genre has captivated audiences, allowing them to contemplate the possibilities of technological advancements, extraterrestrial life, and the consequence of our own scientific pursuits."
posted by McLir on Apr 14 at 7:05 AM - 7 comments