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Toronto Blue Jays win first American League East division championship in 22 years with victory over Baltimore Orioles [National Post]
comment posted at 8:22 AM on Oct-1-15

[The Big Lebowski's] most important contribution to the study of information seeking behavior is its illustration of how a highly complex information search is not about finding the “answer,” but rather is about an individual's ability to make sense of, and create meaning from, the process of information seeking. . .

“New shit has come to light”: Information seeking behavior in The Big Lebowski (PDF) by Emily Dill and Karen L. Janke.
comment posted at 10:29 PM on Sep-8-15

Twenty-five years after the strip was purchased by Donald Trump and the staff fired, Bloom County will return.
comment posted at 11:00 PM on Jul-12-15

Real-estate mogul and reality-television star Donald Trump said Tuesday he will seek the Republican nomination for President of the United States. [New York Times]

The garrulous real estate developer whose name has adorned apartment buildings, hotels, Trump-brand neckties and Trump-brand steaks, announced on Tuesday his entry into the 2016 presidential race, brandishing his wealth and fame as chief qualifications in an improbable quest for the Republican nomination.

comment posted at 8:40 PM on Jun-17-15

"I think we might have made a little bit of history tonight." Alberta, Canada's most conservative province, the home of the oil/tar sands, and most of Canada's oil and gas industry, has elected a majority NDP government. And one run by a woman, at that.
comment posted at 1:53 AM on May-7-15

Beyond Josh Lyman Politics: How The West Wing Miseducated My Political Generation
comment posted at 11:23 AM on Feb-28-15

American Chop Suey (aka Goulash) gets the Food Lab treatment from MeFi favorite J. Kenji López-Alt. (American Chop Suey was the subject of two recent questions on The Green.)
comment posted at 10:40 AM on Oct-5-14
comment posted at 10:57 AM on Oct-5-14

Every Canadian Novel Ever
comment posted at 1:42 PM on Aug-12-14
comment posted at 1:42 PM on Aug-12-14

How Ronald Reagan Used An 'Invisible Bridge' To Win Over Americans - "Rick Perlstein's new book describes how Reagan emerged as the leader of a potent political movement during the turbulent mid-'70s. He says the soul of Reagan's appeal was how he made people feel good."
comment posted at 10:11 PM on Aug-5-14

"The Star Wars team is thrilled to announce the cast of Star Wars: Episode VII."
comment posted at 11:35 AM on Apr-29-14

Failed Philosopher King Michael Ignatieff confirms Machiavelli in the latest edition [direct link to mp3] of the Philosophy Bites Podcast.
comment posted at 9:39 AM on Apr-13-14

US secretly creates 'Cuban twitter' for purpose of undermining the communist government and gathering data on its citizens' political leanings
comment posted at 12:21 PM on Apr-3-14
comment posted at 12:43 PM on Apr-3-14

Silicon Valley has become one of the most ageist places in America. Tech luminaries who otherwise pride themselves on their dedication to meritocracy don’t think twice about deriding the not-actually-old. “Young people are just smarter,” Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg told an audience at Stanford back in 2007. As I write, the website of ServiceNow, a large Santa Clara–based I.T. services company, features the following advisory in large letters atop its “careers” page: “We Want People Who Have Their Best Work Ahead of Them, Not Behind Them.” And that’s just what gets said in public. An engineer in his forties recently told me about meeting a tech CEO who was trying to acquire his company. “You must be the token graybeard,” said the CEO, who was in his late twenties or early thirties. “I looked at him and said, ‘No, I’m the token grown-up.’ ”
comment posted at 10:25 PM on Mar-24-14

"A man is sobbing fat salty tears into his hot ham water, knowing that tonight just like any other night he’ll been dining alone in front of repeats of Doctor Who." I give you...Dimly Lit Meals for One. (SLTumblr)
comment posted at 8:08 AM on Jan-29-14

Stephen Harper, the Prime Minister of Canada, has become notorious for the way his government treats science. The latest news concerns the shutting of 7 of 9 regional DFO libraries across the country. Despite claims that the collections have been digitized, alarming reports are emerging that a lot of the materials, some dating back to the 19th century, were simply junked.
comment posted at 9:47 AM on Jan-6-14

Nelson Mandela has died peacefully at home at age 95. The Globe and Mail has a good roundup of information and resources about his life. The PBS Newshour already has a show online about his life and moments after the news broke even The Onion chimed in. Rest in peace, Madiba.
comment posted at 5:19 PM on Dec-5-13

How we think of and use The Simpsons on a daily basis comes in the form of jokes, bits, and memorable sequences. The Simpsons travels in these bite-sized chunks, and the value of The Simpsons in the age of online streaming should ideally reflect this. What I've long proposed is an online app that allows you to create your own clips based on classic Simpsons episodes.
comment posted at 11:57 PM on Nov-20-13
comment posted at 6:42 AM on Nov-21-13

Breaking Bad - the alternative ending. The Bob Newhart ending - Breaking Bad / Malcom in the Middle version.
comment posted at 9:50 AM on Nov-17-13

Raveena Aulakh of The Star got hired at a sweatshop in Bangladesh. Her boss was a 9 year old girl named Meem.
comment posted at 2:30 PM on Oct-12-13

The 29 Stages of a Twitterstorm
comment posted at 12:20 PM on Oct-11-13

"But Bryzgalov still has one more fan-fiction story than Cliff Lee, Allen Iverson, Evan Mathis and most other Philadelphia professional athletes that do not play hockey. Because this phenomenon doesn’t happen for baseball, basketball or football." The Philadelphia City Paper on Flyers Fan Fiction.
comment posted at 10:19 AM on Oct-10-13
comment posted at 10:20 AM on Oct-10-13

“I’ll tell him how important education is, and that I even want education for your children as well. And I would tell him, ‘That’s what I want to tell you, now do what you want.’” - Malala Yousafzai (previously), shot by the Taliban a year ago, talks to the Daily Show's Jon Stewart about what she would do if a gunman came to shoot her again, as they have promised.
comment posted at 8:47 AM on Oct-10-13

"In New York City, if you yell “where do I get the F train?” at someone they will tell you, they might even STOP to tell you. If you ask them “Excuse me, I was wondering if you have a moment, I’m from out of town and my trying to find the F train, so if you could possibly…” If you set up your question with all that, they will have walked away from you after the fifth word.
In Seattle, if you are pushing your car for some reason, men will appear without a word and help you push. You’ll be pushing, and the next thing you know, there are men on either side of you." -- Cultural Secrets that I Know
comment posted at 2:02 PM on Oct-6-13

Deadly Asian giant hornets - aka Vespa mandarinia - kill at least 41 people in China. Hundreds more have been hospitalized by these 2+ inch beasts with a sting that packs a human-tissue dissolving neurotoxin. Survivor stories are terrifying. Think you are safe in the U.S. or Britain? Nope and nope. (via @BitterOldPunk)
comment posted at 10:32 AM on Oct-3-13

With the momentous series finale of Breaking Bad just hours away, fans of the show are hungry for something, anything to wile away the time before the epic conclusion tonight. So why not kick back and chew the fat with your fellow MeFites with the help of a little tool I like to call "The Periodic Table of Breaking Bad."
comment posted at 4:15 PM on Sep-29-13
comment posted at 3:28 PM on Sep-30-13
comment posted at 1:04 PM on Oct-1-13

The first time I tried a Jetstream, it was one of a friend’s pens, and I completely derailed all conversation around me to drool wide-eyed at the writing experience and reverently whisper ‘WHERE DID YOU GET THIS PEN?’ - The web's leading pen bloggers on what is the best pen.
comment posted at 12:29 PM on Sep-27-13
comment posted at 12:34 PM on Sep-27-13

The most Irish island in the world. Booker Prize winning author Anne Enright travels to the edge of Newfoundland. (single page version, may trigger printer).
comment posted at 11:18 AM on Sep-25-13

Justin Timberlake and Jimmy Fallon do #hashtags
comment posted at 11:30 AM on Sep-25-13

Nathan Rabin reviews the Kiss autobiographies for the A.V. Club. The memoir of Kiss drummer Peter Criss is endearingly needy and sleazy: "Makeup To Breakup positively vibrates with rage toward Criss' former bandmates, Kiss' management, and everything Kiss represents." Gene Simmons' Kiss And Make-Up lets The Demon speak for himself: "To critics who ask how he could have treated core members of his group so coldly, he responds, "Would you want to be in a group with Criss and Frehley?"" Spaceman Ace Frehley offers his bland version of Kiss’ story in No Regrets: "For better or worse, No Regrets, Frehley's curiously underwhelming 2011 memoir, is the product of an author who can also now assure himself that no matter how debauched or crazy he might get, at least he isn't Ace Frehley-in-the-'70s-level debauched or crazy."
comment posted at 10:41 PM on Sep-24-13

"Ted Cruz: The Distinguished Wacko Bird from Texas"
comment posted at 8:29 AM on Sep-23-13

Seriously impressive fourteen-year-old Rachel Parent debates Monsanto investor Kevin O'Leary about genetically modified foods. Parent, who is the founder of the anti-GMO organization Kids Right To Know, takes on O'Leary (best known for playing the antagonist in shows like Shark Tank) in an unexpectedly solid debate, countering him point-by-point and cutting him off when he attempts, in his typical Mr. Wonderful way, to condescend to her.
comment posted at 9:37 AM on Sep-22-13

Louis C.K. explains to Conan O'Brien why he hates smartphones. "You need to build an ability to just be yourself and not be doing something. That's what the phones are taking away, is the ability to just sit there. That's being a person." (via)
comment posted at 11:26 AM on Sep-20-13
comment posted at 11:31 AM on Sep-20-13

In the aftermath of one of the strangest political scandals ever to plague the mayor of a major North American city, Rob Ford oversees the unveiling of a high-profile portrait of himself by a sitting councilor, made at the request of Ford's mother. The artist describes the piece as complex, but a lot remains unsaid regarding the weight Ford's personality carries into the realm of portrait.
comment posted at 7:26 PM on Sep-19-13

The Book Globe has mapped the settings of all the 267 novels nominated for the Booker Prize since 1969.
comment posted at 8:08 AM on Sep-17-13

The Steve Miller Band had a number 1 song (for one week) in 1974 with The Joker, a terrific song about a picker, a grinner, a lover, and a sinner all rolled into one. One of the most famous lines in the song deals with The Joker's various nicknames - the Space Cowboy, the Gangster of Love, and Maurice (an odd nickname for sure). The nickname Maurice is allegedly earned due to the singer's tendency to "speak of the pompatus of love." Putting aside why you would call a guy Maurice for that reason - and why the existing alternative nickname The Gangster of Love would not cover it - the lyric raises the question of just what the heck the "pompatus of love" is. (The "pompatus of love" lyric was not limited only to The Joker, it also features in another of Steve Miller Band's oeuvre, Enter Maurice, and it is spoken by Wolfman Jack in The Guess Who's "Clap for the Wolfman").
comment posted at 8:23 AM on Sep-11-13

"Brigitte Höss lives quietly on a leafy side street in Northern Virginia. She is retired now, having worked in a Washington fashion salon for more than 30 years. She recently was diagnosed with cancer and spends much of her days dealing with the medical consequences. Brigitte also has a secret that not even her grandchildren know. Her father was Rudolf Höss, the Kommandant of Auschwitz."
comment posted at 12:33 PM on Sep-10-13

So the Toronto International Film Festival is going on as I write this. Their twitter hashtag is #TIFF13. But if you'd rather, Patton Oswalt and his followers have been making a little mischief with it, firing off a string of hilarious and brilliant never-to-be-made movies.
comment posted at 1:04 PM on Sep-8-13
comment posted at 4:06 PM on Sep-8-13
comment posted at 6:49 PM on Sep-8-13

The famous $500 Sourtoe Cocktail features a human toe at the bottom of it. When drinking this famous Dawson City cocktail at the Downtown Hotel, it is traditional to kiss the toe. It is not traditional to swallow it. CBC Radio's As It Happens interviews the bar's "Toe Captain" to get the full story. [audio only]
comment posted at 5:18 PM on Aug-27-13
comment posted at 5:22 PM on Aug-27-13