March 28

Oh my gosh, no. Don't even, no. Go to Vegas.

Are the Middle Ages a good destination for a bachelor party? What backstory should you use to avoid saying you're a time traveler? Will you be instantly identified as a witch and burned at the stake? Here's some advice for time traveling to medieval Europe (and an addendum with the answer to some common questions)
posted by simmering octagon at 12:44 PM - 14 comments

"How pathetic it looked, how unable for life."

I have been pregnant five times, and intimately involved in two pregnancies not my own. My experiences of pregnancy have led me to a conclusion that has not been stated clearly or often. The word “pregnancy” must always be preceded by the definite article this. (archive.org link, cw for some detailed talk about a miscarriage) [more inside]
posted by kensington314 at 12:00 PM - 3 comments

WELCOME TO THE WOOORLD OF TOMORROW

March 28, 1999: Futurama. It seems to go on and on forever. In fact, the pilot episode of the original run aired 25 years ago tonight, kicking off what would become one of the smartest and most hilarious comedies in TV history. So celebrate with an overview of character intros, ★ key scenes, clips, ♫ songs, and other links, why not? [more inside]
posted by Rhaomi at 11:59 AM - 13 comments

Richard Serra (1938-2024)

Richard Serra (1938-2024) -- Archive link
posted by falsedmitri at 10:30 AM - 25 comments

And also an insurance company, which is a non-magic criminal.

The latest victim of a criminal magician.
posted by jacquilynne at 10:20 AM - 19 comments

SBF sentenced to 25 years in prison

BBC article. He is planning to appeal. Failing that, I believe he should (under US federal-crime sentencing guidelines) have to serve at least 21 years of the 25. [more inside]
posted by humbug at 10:07 AM - 37 comments

They are risen

The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence began in 1979 when a small group of gay men in San Francisco donned the habit of Catholic nuns, and used camp to subvert expectations & promote social and political change in San Francisco. Sacrilege or serious parody? Illicit joy or elicit compassionate apraxis? The Sisters have grown into an organization of queer joy with 65 houses in 10 countries. This Sunday Easter in the Park: Hunky Jesus and Foxy Mary Competition is set to attract 10,000+ attendants, but the works of a Sister is never done. [more inside]
posted by rubatan at 9:51 AM - 7 comments

These should make quite a loud bang

"Discover the evolution of explosive chemical experiments, with the maestro of chemistry Andrew Szydlo." Explosive chemistry - with Andrew Szydlo [1h] [more inside]
posted by hippybear at 8:59 AM - 15 comments

Exposed The true story of a lost documentary.

Secretly filmed inside the IRA, it then vanished.
posted by Ideefixe at 8:36 AM - 14 comments

Spacefaring, or How We Decide How We Expand into the Solar System

Moonshot mania is already blasting off (previously, previouslier), but scientists are worried our celestial neighbor will be strip-mined and built out before it's fully studied. The cosmic land rush to build moon bases and harvest space helium-3 has researchers pleading to protect lunar zones that could hold the key to alien life and the universe's deepest secrets. [more inside]
posted by criticalyeast at 8:28 AM - 15 comments

Folks from round ere ain’t from round ere

Searching for the American Folk Horror Zine: An Investigation
posted by Artw at 7:42 AM - 5 comments

Why Is Our Culture So Obsessed With Individual Experience?

"If you stand before a Van Gogh painting, its meaning is not self-evident; maybe the shoes on the floor are the point, maybe the angle of perspective is the point, maybe something about the market for yellow pigment is the point, and so we have to process what is before us. If you stand in a yoga pose at the Immersive Van Gogh Morning Class, contemplation isn’t the goal; total sensory fusion is. This shift from contemplation to intense experience is sold as liberating, but it parallels other social and economic shifts that aren’t so great." A Jacobin interview with Anna Kornbluh, author of Immediacy: Or, The Style of Too Late Capitalism.
posted by mittens at 5:46 AM - 26 comments

Ma,Ma,Ma...Ma,Ma...Look what I can do!

You might be more likely to send a text or email these days, however, some people still use letters to send fan mail. While plenty of celebrities receive messages of adoration, it turns out that you can also send fan mail to the “Mona Lisa.” Thanks to a special mailing address as well as a mailslot in the Louvre that’s located in the area of the famous artwork that was created by Leonardo da Vinci in 1503, those who feel inclined can write a message to the beloved masterpiece. What could they possibly say in their notes? Artnet explains: [more inside]
posted by Czjewel at 2:17 AM - 5 comments

“Every day, there were fewer and fewer kings.”

The Achilles Trap doubles as a surprisingly sympathetic study of a man who, as his powers slipped away, spent the last decade of his life jerry-rigging monuments of his own magnificence. Coll draws much of his material from extensive interviews with retired American intelligence officers and former members of Saddam’s bureaucracy, as well as from a previously unavailable archive of audio tapes from Saddam’s own state offices. What emerges is a portrait of Saddam as an eccentric in the mold of G.K. Chesterton—if Chesterton were bloodthirsty, paranoid, and power-mad—a man driven ultimately by deep reverence for the sense that hides beneath nonsense. from Saddam’s Secret Weapon, a review of The Achilles Trap by Steve Coll [The American Conservative]
posted by chavenet at 1:42 AM - 8 comments

The Devil - a Life

"In the past nine years, [Nick Cave] has lost two sons – an experience he explores in a shocking, deeply personal new ceramics project. He discusses mercy, forgiveness, making and meaning." A longish interview from this morning's Guardian.
posted by Paul Slade at 1:09 AM - 5 comments

Animal Hybrids That Exist in Nature

Animal Hybrids That Exist in Nature, From Narlugas to Grolar Bears to Coywolves [Smithsonian Mag]
posted by chariot pulled by cassowaries at 1:08 AM - 7 comments

March 27

Shani Mott, Black Studies Scholar, Dies at 47

Her work looked at how race and power are experienced in America. In 2022, she filed a lawsuit saying that the appraisal of her home was undervalued because of bias. [more inside]
posted by praemunire at 7:47 PM - 22 comments

May this meme never die

How many days are in a week? The debate began on 2008, on the forums of bodybuilding.com, when a user asks ‘ Is it safe to do a full body workout every other day?’ The answer is yes…the question is, if you do that, how many times a week are you working out? (Trigger warning for words some people thought it was ok to use in 2008, and fatphobia). [more inside]
posted by bq at 6:49 PM - 65 comments

Joementum Comes To A Halt

Former Senator and Vice Presidential candidate Joe Lieberman has died at 82 from complications from a fall. [more inside]
posted by NoxAeternum at 5:14 PM - 68 comments

Arachnophobia

The Spider Within: A Spider-Verse Story
Miles Morales struggles to balance his responsibilities as a teenager, friend, and student while acting as Brooklyn’s friendly neighborhood Spider-Man. After a particularly challenging day living with these pressures, Miles experiences a panic attack that forces him to confront the manifestations of his anxiety and learn that reaching out for help can be just as brave an act as protecting his city from evil. The Spider Within: A Spider-Verse Story was developed and produced in the inaugural year of Sony Pictures Animation (SPA) and Sony Pictures Imageworks’ (SPI) Leading and Empowering New Storytellers (LENS) program, a 9-month leadership training program that provides candidates from underrepresented groups with an opportunity to gain valuable leadership experience in animation.
Sony Unveils First Look At Spider-Verse Short Film Tackling Mental Issues & Showing Miles Morales Suffering An Anxiety Crisis
posted by Rhaomi at 11:57 AM - 13 comments

Chasing the orange fish, no net

Explore the undersea world of the Florida Keys off the dock in eight feet of water. I love a good snorkeling experience and this live webcam fits the bill. Bonus points for the VIVA THE KEYS spreadsheet that confirms my fish I.D. book sightings over the past several months. Yes, those are double-breasted cormorants diving after the gray snappers and parrot fish (trigger warning because they do occasionally catch their meals). [more inside]
posted by TrishaU at 10:46 AM - 5 comments

whereas, the alt right prepper alone in his basement with tons of food

Zoe, The Leftist Prepper, on supporting one another after disaster. From the Struggle Care podcast, with an auto-generated transcript. It's this rugged individualism that I think combined with gun love, because they are in my comments every single day... 'Oh, I'm gonna come to the blue state when the apocalypse hits and just take all your stuff.' And it baffles me... like, don't you care about the old granny next door who may need help opening her cans? I just, I don't get it. [more inside]
posted by spamandkimchi at 10:15 AM - 65 comments

"Yes, well, their poster child doesn't know it yet, but she's into me."

Jenny Hagel on the queer joy of D.E.B.S. [more inside]
posted by Kitteh at 8:06 AM - 4 comments

Phenomenal aurora australis thrills observers across southern coastline

Phenomenal aurora australis thrills observers across southern coastline. A camera is often required to get a glimpse of the southern lights, but the display recently was so powerful it could be seen with the naked eye.
posted by chariot pulled by cassowaries at 7:48 AM - 9 comments

Lil Jon has a guided meditation YouTube stream

10 different 10-minute guided mediations by crunk progenitor Lil Jon. Lil Jon is very serious about meditation, and sharing its benefits. These 10 guided mediations include ones focusing on boosting focus, gratitude, grief, deep sleep, and much more.
posted by Shepherd at 5:14 AM - 13 comments

A lot of the best Graeber has an “undeniable” quality

It has taken a little while and repeated readings for it to sink in, but I think that Graeber was reaching the point of rejecting, or at least severely (if implicitly) qualifying, almost all of these positions by late in his authorship. Particularly in On Kings (2017), his collaboration with his mentor Sahlins, and The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity (2021), co-written with the archeologist David Wengrow and completed just a couple of weeks before his death, Graeber’s politics grew more “mainstream” in a number of respects, even as his narrative of the origins of political authority and economic hierarchy remained fresh, radical, and richly documented, and even as his prose style retained all its charm. But perhaps LSE professorships, FSG book contracts, and the approval of the Financial Times have moderating or even co-opting effects after all. from What Happened to David Graeber? [LARB, ungated] [more inside]
posted by chavenet at 12:41 AM - 20 comments

March 26

The right side of history (and the cost curve)

"We learned when somebody's back is up against the wall, they come up with a lot of creative solutions. And if they don't have a lot of money, like Ukraine doesn't, they can figure it out." As crucial American aid remains tied up in Congress, Ukrainian defenses have been forced to improvise with cheaper, lower-tech, but surprisingly effective countermeasures, from bleeding-edge first-person piloted kamikaze drones and repurposed Soviet tech to pickup truck-mounted MIRV launchers and "FrankenSAM" hybrids to Project Safe Skies: a donation-driven network of 8,000 cellphones and mics on sticks whose crowdsourced acoustic monitoring detected 84 out of 84 Russian UAVs in one day and shot down 80 of them with anti-aircraft fire -- at a cost of only $500 a pop.
posted by Rhaomi at 8:42 PM - 38 comments

What is Australia's most commonly spotted bird?

Lorikeet, miner or magpie — what is Australia's most commonly spotted bird? Last October, 60,000 people spent at least 20 minutes outside to identify the country's bird species and submit their tallies into the Aussie Bird Count app
posted by chariot pulled by cassowaries at 8:39 PM - 10 comments

Generative audio processes by Mirko Ruta

Lucid Rhythms is a Youtube channel with long, slow, calm videos and streams generated by audio synthesis software written by sound designer Mirko Ruta. Ruta also has a separate YouTube channel for music synthesized by hardware- synths, sequencers, and modular contraptions.
posted by a faded photo of their beloved at 2:10 PM - 9 comments

on television, CPR works about 70% of the time

GeriPal podcast has over 300 episodes on geriatrics, hospice, and palliative care (with transcripts!) that are accessible to the layperson and feature a wide range of interviewees. One standout episode is The Language of Serious Illness with Sunita Puri, Bob Arnold, and Jacqueline Kruser: "[doctors] just offer options without context. And given that the culture of medicine is always to do more, the context will always push people to try something." [more inside]
posted by spamandkimchi at 11:29 AM - 6 comments

EU opens non-compliance investigations on Apple, Alphabet, Meta, etc...

The European Commission opened non-compliance investigations under the Digital Markets Act into Alphabet's rules on steering in Google Play and self-preferencing on Google Search, Apple's rules on steering in the App Store and the choice screen for Safari and Meta's 'pay or consent model, as well as Amazon self-preferencing own branded products in searches -- all in violation of the requirements of the DMA. [more inside]
posted by seanmpuckett at 8:15 AM - 62 comments

Bridge Collapse in Baltimore

The 1.6-mile-long Francis Scott Key Bridge opened in 1977 as an outer crossing of Baltimore Harbor, over the Patapsco River, according to the Maryland Transportation Authority, its operator. It was struck around 1:30 am EDT by a container ship on its way out to sea. “What’s been indicated is the vessel lost power, and when you lose power you lose steering,” Cardin said. “But they’re doing a full investigation.” [more inside]
posted by hydra77 at 7:18 AM - 206 comments

The ultimate goal of all this micro-design and shuffling about malarkey

"Procedural narrative is the design strategy, emergent narrative is the goal, the player’s experience." Game design previously.
posted by cupcakeninja at 4:17 AM - 2 comments

We may live in chaos, but there are mechanisms of control

According to Sarah, Andrew’s rage intensified with cohabitation. He fixated on her decision to have children with another man. She says he told her that being with her was like “bobbing for apples in feces.” “The pattern of your 11 years, while rooted in subconscious drives,” he told her in December 2021, “creates a nearly impossible set of hurdles for us … You have to change.” ... A spokesperson for Huberman denies Sarah’s accounts of their fights, denies that his rage intensified with cohabitation, denies that he fixated on Sarah’s decision to have children with another man, and denies that he said being with her was like bobbing for apples in feces. A spokesperson said, “Dr. Huberman is very much in control of his emotions.” from Andrew Huberman’s Mechanisms of Control [NY Magazine; ungated] [CW: abuse & manipulation]
posted by chavenet at 2:19 AM - 138 comments

March 25

What it looks and sounds like when a crocodile is humanely relocated

Have you ever wondered what it looks like and sounds like when a 3.9 metre (12.7 feet) crocodile is humanely trapped for relocation? [more inside]
posted by chariot pulled by cassowaries at 10:48 PM - 16 comments

“I don’t ask questions. I answer them.”

Who was Jack Lord. "When Jack Lord died, he left 40 million dollars to charities in Hawaii. There is Jack Lord's Special Memory of Elvis.' 'Stoney Burke' fan? Jack Lord has a collection of selected works. "This is a critical lesson for any young writer. We want our characters to be “real.” We want our heroes to be “relatable.” But characters are not real and heroes are not normal. They can’t be. If they were, they wouldn’t be heroes." 'The Jack Lord Rule'
posted by clavdivs at 10:44 PM - 16 comments

A celebration of Paris café culture returns after more than a decade

Thousands of spectators gathered to watch more than 200 servers compete in Sunday's "Course des Cafés," the newly-revived version of a century-old race. Waiters and waitresses traversed a 1.2-mile loop starting and ending at City Hall, suited up in traditional crisp white shirts, black trousers, neatly tied aprons and in some cases, bow ties. They each carried a tray loaded with a croissant, a full water glass and an empty coffee cup.
posted by ActingTheGoat at 10:20 PM - 5 comments

Central Park Zoo Releases Postmortem Testing Results for Flaco

[newsroom.wcs.org] "The identified herpesvirus can be carried by healthy pigeons but may cause fatal disease in birds of prey including owls infected by eating pigeons. This virus has been previously found in New York City pigeons and owls. In Flaco’s case, the viral infection caused severe tissue damage and inflammation in many organs, including the spleen, liver, gastrointestinal tract, bone marrow, and brain. [...] Toxicology testing also revealed trace amounts of DDE, a breakdown product of the pesticide DDT, but the levels detected in Flaco were not clinically significant and did not contribute to his death. Although DDT has been banned in the United States since the early 1970s, it and its breakdown products are remarkably persistent in the environment, and this finding is reminder of the long legacy of DDT and its dire effects on wild bird populations." Previously and previously.
posted by AlSweigart at 5:46 PM - 15 comments

Babar is not quite happy

Laurent de Brunhoff, ‘Babar the Elephant’ author, dies aged 98 [CNN]; Laurent de Brunhoff, l’un des pères de Babar, est mort [Le Monde]; Décès de Laurent de Brunhoff, père d’un Babar controversé [Le Soir] [more inside]
posted by chavenet at 2:36 PM - 37 comments

the wombles could not be reached for comment

Woman mistakes bobble for baby hedgehog and rushes it to Cheshire animal hospital. "Volunteer Danielle Peberdy, 36, said the kind-hearted woman had done the right thing in not ignoring a hedgehog out in the day. She said: "Hedgehogs shouldn't be out in the day so she did the right thing; the only problem was that it was a bobble.""
posted by fight or flight at 1:17 PM - 46 comments

une famille centrale sur laquelle agissent au moins deux familles

"You will probably never read all twenty of Les Rougon-Macquart. I know that. You know that. Let us accept this truth between us. If I had to send you on your way with some minimally sufficient quantity of Zola, let me propose the following, which to me are the greatest examples of Zola’s art..." Brandon Taylor in the LRB, on his two-year project of reviewing Zola's cycle of novels: Is It Even Good?
posted by mittens at 12:33 PM - 12 comments

DJ Set recorded on February, 2024 on the island of Florianópolis

"I was at a party in space with creatures of all kinds and shapes you can imagine, and this was the music playing, the vibe was unbelievable. Influenced by the 1970s space disco, with its synthesizers, funky grooves, and a certain psychedelia, the space DJs know what they're doing, it's time to listen to the voice that comes from beyond, or rather, from the infinite and beyond." COSMIC GROOVES - A Funky, Disco & House Grooves MIX from Outer Space [2h]
posted by hippybear at 11:16 AM - 6 comments

Families in cars, driving all night with the heat on to keep kids warm

A new report on on rural homelessness Finding Home: A True Story of Life Outside (full report) and press release. Of the hundreds of homeless Oregonians interviewed for the report, roughly 60% are employed but cannot earn enough money to meet income requirements, credit scores, and security deposits necessary to re-enter the rental housing market. Interview with report author and former mayor of Ashland Oregon Julie Akins: At what point do we accept that? That you can be a working person and still homeless? That you can be a retiree who worked your entire life — and now you’re unhoused because your wife died, and only one Social Security benefit is not enough? [more inside]
posted by spamandkimchi at 8:48 AM - 47 comments

A Digital Twin Might Just Save Your Life

Equations are just a way of describing nature [...] Air is a fluid and blood is a fluid, so the same equations that model the air around an aircraft are the ones used to model the blood inside your body.” Joe Zadeh writes 6500 words for Noema magazine [via Arts & Letters Daily] [more inside]
posted by cgc373 at 4:57 AM - 29 comments

Free as in Dive. Here's your free thread!

Freediving is a style of underwater experience gated by breath-holding. Do you swim? Do you dive? How low? Or talk about anything you like!
posted by seanmpuckett at 4:41 AM - 79 comments

Some hold that the spice produces a learned-flavor reaction

"Dune - Melange Spice" is about attempting to create a spice blend mimicking the flavor of the geriatric spice described in Frank Herbert's Dune. It discusses flavor profile, descriptions in the novel, and coloration: "There are accounts in Herbert’s later novels of the spice giving off a blue glow, or of the sand where a spice eruption had taken place being a deep purple color. I really like the idea of that, visually, but as it’s complicated enough to get the flavor right, let’s just focus on that for the time being." It's from The Inn at the Crossroads, the noted fantasy cookery website (previously).
posted by cupcakeninja at 4:23 AM - 27 comments

“Time slip” stories are fairly common

The story was so extraordinary that they decided to document a full account in book form. That account, titled An Adventure, was published in 1911. It became the literary sensation of its day, running to numerous editions. As incredible as the tale was, perhaps the most astonishing part was yet to be revealed, for Morison and Lamot did not exist. The real authors of An Adventure were Eleanor Jourdain and Charlotte Moberly, the Principal and Vice-Principal, respectively, of St Hugh’s College, University of Oxford—two highly esteemed academics hiding their names to protect their identities. from The Respected Oxford Professors Who Say They Time Traveled [Atlas Obscura]
posted by chavenet at 1:50 AM - 16 comments

March 24

Dr. Ala Stanford

Winter 2021: Philadelphia native Dr. Ala Stanford had been all over the city, administering free COVID-19 tests with her staff to anyone who wanted them. [more inside]
posted by bq at 10:10 PM - 2 comments

Researchers over the moon as puggle is born in Royal National Park

Researchers over the moon as puggle is born in Sydney's Royal National Park. (A puggle is the word for a baby platypus.) The six-month-old female platypus is the first-known animal of its kind to be born in Australia's oldest national park in more than 50 years, and its arrival comes despite a series of recent pollution scares in local waterways.
posted by chariot pulled by cassowaries at 6:36 PM - 12 comments

The Matrix Has You

In the film, one of the representatives of the AI, the villainous Agent Smith, played by Hugo Weaving, tells Morpheus that the false reality of the Matrix is set in 1999 because that year was “the peak of your civilization. I say your civilization, because as soon as we started thinking for you it really became our civilization.” Indeed, not long after “The Matrix” premiered, humanity hooked itself up to a matrix of its own. There is no denying that our lives have become better in many ways thanks to the internet and smartphones. But the epidemic of loneliness and depression that has swept society reveals that many of us are now walled off from one another in vats of our own making.
25 Years Later, We’re All Trapped in ‘The Matrix’ [more inside]
posted by Rhaomi at 5:30 PM - 55 comments

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