10284 MetaFilter comments by mediareport (displaying 1 through 50)

Former Senator and Vice Presidential candidate Joe Lieberman has died at 82 from complications from a fall.
comment posted at 4:29 PM on Mar-28-24

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.”
comment posted at 12:48 AM on Mar-27-24
comment posted at 10:34 AM on Mar-27-24

Princess of Wales says she is undergoing cancer treatment
The princess's statement explains that when she had abdominal surgery in January, it was not known that there was any cancer. "However tests after the operation found cancer had been present. My medical team therefore advised that I should undergo a course of preventative chemotherapy and I am now in the early stages of that treatment," said the princess. The chemotherapy treatment began in late February. The palace says it will not be sharing any further private medical information, including the type of cancer. [...]

There have been calls for privacy from the palace after weeks of speculation and conspiracy theories about the royal couple. This had intensified after the withdrawal by photo agencies of a photograph of the princess for Mother's Day, on 10 March, because of concerns over digital alterations, for which the princess subsequently apologised.
Full statement [transcript + video] - Related: King Charles diagnosed with cancer, Buckingham Palace announces
comment posted at 5:33 AM on Mar-23-24
comment posted at 6:31 AM on Mar-23-24

Kevin Roose writes in today's NYT about how content moderation made Reddit what it is today - a successful IPO "Today, Reddit is a gem of the internet, and a trusted source of news and entertainment for millions of people. It’s one of the last big platforms that feel unmistakably human — messy and rough around the edges, sure, but a place where real people gather to talk about real things, unmediated by algorithms and largely free of mindless engagement bait. " No, really. Just ignore the porn, and everything is great. Really.
comment posted at 6:11 PM on Mar-21-24
comment posted at 10:14 AM on Mar-22-24

Solving for the feminist roots of crossword puzzles in a fun article by Sophia Stewart and what looks like a great book by Anna Shechtman on how crossword puzzles, those traditional cultural touchstones in Western English media that are becoming more diverse and contemporary.
comment posted at 10:31 AM on Mar-16-24
comment posted at 7:19 PM on Mar-16-24

In about 24 minutes from, Space X will attempt the third launch of its Starship rocket. YouTube Live, Space X live feed
comment posted at 7:12 PM on Mar-14-24

Reported by the BBC. "The Charleston County coroner confirmed his death to the BBC on Monday. It said the 62-year-old had died from a "self-inflicted" wound on 9 March and police were investigating. [...] At the time of his death, Mr Barnett had been in Charleston for legal interviews linked to that case. Last week, he gave a formal deposition in which he was questioned by Boeing's lawyers, before being cross-examined by his own counsel. He had been due to undergo further questioning on Saturday. When he did not appear, enquiries were made at his hotel. He was subsequently found dead in his truck in the hotel car park."
comment posted at 8:16 PM on Mar-12-24
comment posted at 8:38 PM on Mar-12-24
comment posted at 6:47 AM on Mar-13-24
comment posted at 8:30 PM on Mar-13-24
comment posted at 6:48 AM on Mar-14-24
comment posted at 10:31 AM on Mar-14-24
comment posted at 10:44 AM on Mar-14-24
comment posted at 5:06 AM on Mar-18-24

Kate Middleton, Duchess of Cambridge/Princess of Wales, hasn't been seen since Christmas. Kate was announced as having "planned" abdominal surgery in January, with a two week period of time in the hospital and resuming her royal duties has so far been postponed to at least Easter (a notice saying she'd be at an event in June was forcibly recalled). Kate has not wanted her medical issues disclosed (fair, since the most likely medical issues that take that long might be TMI), but after over two months of her not being seen in public, people started to get concerned. Kensington Palace refused to say much of anything on the topic and nobody seems to know anything. Finally, "proof of life" photographs were produced, BUT....
comment posted at 4:32 AM on Mar-13-24
comment posted at 12:01 PM on Mar-22-24
comment posted at 6:54 PM on Mar-22-24
comment posted at 6:33 AM on Mar-23-24


The Art and History of Lettering Comics is available free on letterer Todd Klein's blog. Originally planned as a print book, he's posted the whole thing online. From the early 1900s to today, Todd covers the evolution of word balloons, special effects lettering and comic book and newspaper comic letterers known and unknown and much more.
comment posted at 1:44 PM on Mar-5-24
comment posted at 1:45 PM on Mar-5-24
comment posted at 9:17 AM on Mar-7-24

Ezra Klein calls for Biden to step aside. Decrying the seeming inevitability of the Biden nomination, Klein calls for a hard look at Biden's many weaknesses (Gaza, age, polling against TFG), and points out that a candidate can be selected at the convention. Subsequent discussions focused on historical convention selection and answering a wide range of listener questions.
comment posted at 4:40 AM on Mar-3-24

16-year old Nex Benedict died on February 8th (wiki), a day after being beaten unconscious by 3 other students in their Owasso High School bathroom.
comment posted at 4:43 AM on Feb-26-24
comment posted at 4:44 PM on Mar-13-24

The 2023 Hugo Awards: A Report on Censorship and Exclusion by Jason Sanford and Chris M. Barkley. The latter received from Diane Lacey copies of e-mails that were exchanged between her and Kat Jones and Dave McCarty, fellow volunteer administrators of the 2023 Hugo Awards at the Chengdu Worldcon, showing that the three of them made dossiers of Hugo Award nominees deemed to be potentially troubling to local business interests and authorities. Jones, the 2024 Hugo Administrator, has resigned from her position, after releasing a statement. Diane Lacey has apologized for her part. There have been many responses to these revelations, including by Cora Buhlert, Camestros Felapton and MeFi's Own John Scalzi.
comment posted at 10:53 AM on Feb-16-24
comment posted at 10:28 AM on Feb-17-24
comment posted at 4:45 PM on Feb-18-24
comment posted at 4:47 PM on Feb-18-24
comment posted at 5:28 PM on Feb-18-24


Why Deleting and Destroying Finished Movies Like Coyote vs Acme Should Be a Crime
Whatever the technical legality of writing off completed films and destroying them for pennies on the dollar, it’s morally reprehensible: Oller memorably calls it “an accounting assassination.” Defending it on grounds that it’s not illegal is bootlicking. The practice also has a whiff of the plot of Mel Brooks’s “The Producers”. The original idea of Brooks’ hustler protagonists Max Bialystock and Leo Bloom was to mount a play so awful that it would close immediately, and they can live off the unspent money they raised from bilking old ladies. When the show unexpectedly becomes a hit, they blow up the theater. The biggest difference between the plot of “The Producers” and what happened to “Batgirl” and “Coyote vs Acme” is that in “The Producers,” the public got to see the play.
Background: The Final Days of ‘Coyote vs. Acme’: Offers, Rejections and a Roadrunner Race Against Time, in which WB executives axe a completed and likeable film they've never even seen for a tax write-off after a token, bad-faith effort at selling it.
comment posted at 6:33 PM on Feb-12-24

"It is almost impossible to believe that these paintings have been overlooked. The qualifying statements people often make about their so-called domesticity and how Morisot did the best she could within a limited sphere, even when meant as a defence of the work, are entirely unconvincing: what is ‘the domestic’ but the core of life, of eros, and of work?"
comment posted at 6:24 AM on Feb-10-24

Biden wins South Carolina primary (NYT, WaPo, Post and Courier (Charleston, SC), carrying 96% of the vote and gaining 55 delegates in the first-in-the-nation Democratic primary.
comment posted at 5:34 AM on Feb-6-24
comment posted at 5:45 AM on Feb-6-24

It would be far too dramatic to extrapolate from the disastrous week that journalism itself is dying. The New York Times is healthy. Thanks to good management and demographically vigorous readerships, the Boston Globe and Minneapolis Star Tribune carry on. Cable, network and local TV news still toss off profits. But no matter how many heroic nonprofit newsrooms like the Baltimore Banner and Daily Memphian take root, no matter how many Substack-like newsletters blossom or creators emerge to drop their videos on YouTube, you can’t deny the journalism business’ decline. from The News Business Really Is Cratering [Politico]
comment posted at 7:27 PM on Feb-1-24

Welcome to the fallow week between the final game of the Conference Championships and the Super Bowl between Kansas City and San Francisco. You could watch the Pro Bowl in Orlando, but filling the air with analysis, predictions and odds is an absolute must to keep the hype train rolling, but this year the Internet has stepped in to help keep the conversation going....
comment posted at 3:18 PM on Jan-31-24
comment posted at 4:06 AM on Feb-1-24
comment posted at 4:12 AM on Feb-1-24
comment posted at 4:32 AM on Feb-1-24

For about three weeks, folks living in Corvallis, OR have had their sleep disrupted by a sound of mysterious origin. Retired software engineer K Lars Lohn engaged in some clever acoustic detective work to pinpoint the source.
comment posted at 4:15 AM on Jan-30-24
comment posted at 4:50 AM on Jan-30-24

The Charge of Genocide - Darryl Li writes for Dissent Magazine: "Israel and its supporters have responded to the ICJ case with accusations of antisemitism (describing the case as “blood libel”), attempts at distraction (arguing over quantities of humanitarian aid it allows into the Gaza Strip), and technical legal objections. But South Africa’s willingness to file the case is a sign that the old tactics used to police discourse about genocide have lost much of their power."
comment posted at 4:04 PM on Jan-26-24

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