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Jerry O'Connell loves North Bay, Ontario... and North Bay seems to love him back. Jerry spent last summer in Ontario's "Gateway to the North" filming the TV series "Carter" and became a local favourite and a city ambassador. [more inside]
posted by sevenyearlurk at 9:20 AM - 0 comments

Matt "Guitar" Murphy, one of the last links to the heyday of Blues Scene in the 40's and 50's Chicago, passes away. [more inside]
posted by indianbadger1 at 9:13 AM - 1 comment

Many chain restaurants have tabletop tablets that let restaurant customers rate their servers. But what happens when you give your waiter 4 stars ("satisfied") instead of 5 ("highly satisfied")? Their hours can get cut, and they can be moved to less lucrative roles in the restaurant, which can lower their weekly paycheck by hundreds of dollars. What about when you rate an Uber driver 4 stars? The driver can be put on probation, and eventually deactivated. If the service wasn't perfect, what is the morally right thing for the consumer to do? (Spoiler: You rate drivers 5 stars. Always. Unless they truly, royally suck.) (previously) [more inside]
posted by AFABulous at 9:07 AM - 13 comments

It's time for another episode of Dorktown, and in this episode, SB Nation editor/national treasure Jon Bois and compatriot/fellow stats dork Alex Rubenstein discuss the Houston Rockets' love for the trey, how it got them to the heights of the NBA...and how it broke their heart in Game 7 of the conference finals. (SLYT) [more inside]
posted by NoxAeternum at 9:02 AM - 0 comments

Tumblr user alloverthegaf plunks down $4AUD to watch "The Fellowship of the Ring" for the first time and liveblogs it. [more inside]
posted by hanov3r at 8:36 AM - 8 comments

A shelter in Golden Valley, Minnesota is testing out housing for dogs where they can interact with each other, instead of being housed separately. "Instead of housing animals individually, the new space allows for up to six dogs to live together in a shared room. Each still has their own den, where they rest and eat, but for much of the day they live and mingle with one another in an open play area. And when potential adopters visit, they're more likely to see a dog's true personality." [more inside]
posted by Emmy Rae at 7:43 AM - 18 comments

On Tuesday the 19th of June, the US Patent Office granted it's 10,000,000th patent. Inventor Joseph Marron and patent assignee Raytheon Company received this patent for a “Coherent LADAR Using Intra-Pixel Quadrature Detection,” which improves laser detection and ranging (LADAR). A new patent cover was released at SXSW in anticipation of this event, originally anticipated to occur at some point this summer. The USPTO has created a special website, 10 Million Patents, with a timeline of the intellectual property process (sliced bread, Hedy Lamarr, the Slinky!). [more inside]
posted by librarianamy at 7:14 AM - 13 comments

Portraits of Children and their Toys Around the World - From China to Zanzibar, kids proudly pose with their treasures.
posted by like_neon at 7:11 AM - 2 comments

Multimillion-dollar lawsuits, a haze of booze and hash, a marriage gone very wrong and a lifestyle he can’t afford - The Trouble With Johnny Depp
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 6:31 AM - 49 comments

A man saves a kitten stranded on a flooded street in Tallinn. A cat is pulled up from the river Liffey by a lifebuoy. A fisherman catches two kittens swimming in the Warrior River in Alabama. A Swedish seaman rescues a cat stuck on the HSC Gotlandia II.
posted by Vesihiisi at 6:11 AM - 11 comments

This Is Where Internet Memes Come From
On the Origins of Memes by Means of Fringe Web Communities(arxiv.org) [PDF]
Researchers Studied 160 Million Memes and Found Most of Them Come From Two Websites [more inside]
posted by the man of twists and turns at 11:36 PM - 19 comments

Four-year-old Léa Langumier has accompanied her father, Raphael Langumier, 40, on multiple plane rides near their Lachute, Que., home since she was two years old but always had one rule — her father was not allowed to put the plane upside down. Last Sunday, the girl overcame that fear — gleefully — when she took part in her first aerobatic plane ride. [more inside]
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 10:51 PM - 7 comments

Who is Wilbur Sargunaraj? He's a world-traveling Simple Superstar out to up your Cultural IQ. Come along as he showcases Tamil village life for NPR, tests out latrines (eastern, european, african pit, and Airbus A 380-800 varieties), eats Chicago soul food, feels "genki" in Tokyo, sings about a chicken dish, cooks an egg on a hot road, learns about sanitary pads and condoms in Uganda, expresses his devotion to love, demonstrates how to fly for the first time, experiences an Ethiopian coffee ceremony, and tells us that dark is beautiful. [more inside]
posted by cichlid ceilidh at 10:39 PM - 11 comments

Australia's been having a bad week with several high-profile violent assaults on women. An eyebrow-raising police response urging people (women) to 'have situational awareness' and 'be aware of your surroundings' sparked another angry wave of calls nation-wide for the onus to be placed on (cis) men to not assault women.

With men asking what they can do, Victoria Against Violence's Call It Out videos (first one was BBQ released two months ago) gains fresh attention with two new videos this week (Public Transport, Bar) (links all go to FB) [more inside]
posted by womb of things to be and tomb of things that were at 10:30 PM - 23 comments

Unlikely Hikers is a diverse and inclusive Instagram community featuring the underrepresented outdoorsperson. The outdoors industry and outdoors social media tend to display a very narrow definition of who is “outdoorsy.” We feature fat people, people of color, queer, trans, gender nonconforming folks, people with disabilities and so on.
posted by Anticipation Of A New Lover's Arrival, The at 9:06 PM - 11 comments

Way back in 1989, I found this Windham Hill compilation that completely rocked folked my world: Legacy: A Collection Of New Folk Music. Side A: Pierce Pettis - Legacy, Cliff Eberhart - My Father's Shoes [not compilation version], Rebecca Jenkins - Through The Leaves, David Massengill - My Name Joe, Blue Rubies - When You Were Mine [Prince cover], Bill Morrissey - Handsome Molly, Lillie Palmer [Not information, anyone have anything?] - Insanity Street [more inside]
posted by hippybear at 8:46 PM - 10 comments

DMK is a Depeche Mode cover band from Bogotá, Colombia. The group comprises Dicken Schrader and his two children, Milah and Korben. [more inside]
posted by escape from the potato planet at 6:58 PM - 14 comments

Parallax: space opera for the New Sincerity. "Imagine you're watching funny-animal Star Trek. Except every other episode is from the point of view of the Borg." - a new comic series (and maybe someday animation?) from MeFi's own egypturnash. Previous projects include Decrypting Rita (previously) - the complete story of a robot lady dragged out of reality by her ex-boyfriend, 5 Glasses of Absinthe - smutty adventure fun (WIP), and the Silicon Dawn Tarot (previously). [via mefi projects, which has much more detail]
posted by Artw at 5:56 PM - 12 comments

How I Broke, and Botched, the Brandon Teena Story. Twenty-five years after the murder of Brandon Teena, queer cis journalist Donna Minkowitz looks back at her Village Voice article that inspired the film Boys Don't Cry and writes a mea culpa for how '90s biases and her own transphobic ignorance and personal projections shaped the story she wrote about Brandon. [more inside]
posted by nicebookrack at 5:43 PM - 8 comments

The Prime Minister of New Zealand, Jacinda Ardern, has given birth to a happy baby girl. [more inside]
posted by Paragon at 5:40 PM - 10 comments

• 73 Books to Read While the Sun Is Out and the Days Are Long [The New York Times] [more inside]
posted by Fizz at 4:53 PM - 8 comments

The Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation unveiled a new "3D Laboratory" virtual tour of Taliesin West yesterday [article in Quartzy]. FLW 3D Laboratory (scroll down to "Taliesin West Explore 3D Space"; I suggest going full-screen and hitting the play button to be taken on a virtual fly-through the entire compound. Click to stop anywhere and poke around, a la google maps. Less impressed with the "Doll House / Floor Plan" views, they're pretty rough.)
posted by Bron at 3:27 PM - 2 comments

Spite buildings: when human grudges get architectural (SLGuardian) "Feuding brothers, thwarted lovers, and a lot of spoiled views: ‘spite buildings’ are our smallest human pettiness made manifest in bricks and mortar."
posted by chimpsonfilm at 3:02 PM - 15 comments

Good evening. This ... is HNN, the Hopeful News Network. Our top story tonight: President Carter helps his birthplace get a doctor. Stories later in our program: McDonald's UK is banning plastic straws, South Bend's mayor marries his love during Pride Month, Lyft partners with the American Cancer Society for free rides, South Korea outlaws killing dogs for meat, a diabetes cure may come from the tuberculosis vaccine, and stories of very large donations to public radio and to mental health organizations in Kate Spade's memory. Remember our motto!
posted by WCityMike at 1:05 PM - 24 comments

GitHub, Medium, and Twitter take down database of ICE employee LinkedIn accounts. The database's creator, Sam Levigne (previously, previously, previously), is a Brooklyn artist whose work often deals with data and technology. [more inside]
posted by enn at 10:24 AM - 199 comments

A collection of links for educating oneself or others about the impacts of trauma on the very youngest of us. What forcible separation does to children: brains, bodies, nervous systems. [more inside]
posted by fairlynearlyready at 10:03 AM - 17 comments

An Illustrated Linguistic Tree.
posted by storybored at 9:49 AM - 26 comments

“On Monday, Task & Purpose reported that Army 2nd Lt. Spenser Rapone was slapped with an other-than-honorable discharge (and potentially $300,000 in West Point tuition repayments) after a photo went viral last September of him as a West Point cadet with the words “Communism Will Win” written in his cover.” Why Did The Military Keep A Neo-Nazi Marine But Boot That ‘Commie Cadet’? (Task And Purpose) The ‘Commie Cadet’, Spenser Rapone, in his own words “My actions overseas did not help or protect anybody. I felt like I was little more than a bully, surrounded by the most well-armed and technologically advanced military in history, in one of the poorest countries in the world.” (Interview with Rapone on the leftist veteran podcast What Hell Of A Way To Die) While The “Neo -Nazi Marine”, Vasillios Pistolis , at the Unite The Right Rally in Charolettville is likely to be pushed out, he’s only one of many veterans found to be active in or training with white nationalist or Neo-Nazi groups.
posted by The Whelk at 9:19 AM - 20 comments

"I am here to tell you: most people in your family will never buy your book. Most of your friends won’t either. " [more inside]
posted by veggieboy at 8:10 AM - 75 comments

Pickle carving. Not this Pickle. Getting closer. Gorgeous, but still not there. No, I'm talking about the instructions here for carving not just any pickle, but the CHRISTMAS PICKLE. [more inside]
posted by schroedinger at 8:01 AM - 20 comments

"There is nothing stronger than a broken woman who has rebuilt herself," Australian comic Hannah Gadsby says in her new Netflix special. Hannah Gadsby’s Nanette Will Change The Way You Think About Comedy, says Anna Silman in The Cut, which has MANY SPOILERS. (CW for sexual abuse, rape, assault in Netflix special.) "...Perhaps the power of her performance will open the door for a richer and more humane kind of stand-up – one that sets an example for future young women deciding how they want to tell their stories to the world." [more inside]
posted by Bella Donna at 7:37 AM - 23 comments

From cartoonist Gale Galligan comes Jon, a Garfield fancomic considering the life of Jon Arbuckle, cartoonist. Part 1, 2.
posted by Maecenas at 6:10 AM - 41 comments

Give Everyone Government Bank Accounts - "A new report co-authored by two Treasury Department veterans, 'Central Banking for All: A Public Option for Bank Accounts', argues that Americans should have an account at the Federal Reserve, just as banks do. They believe this would solve a vast array of problems at once, ensuring that everyone is included in the financial system, driving down retail costs for businesses and consumers, and even making recessions less likely." [more inside]
posted by kliuless at 6:09 AM - 33 comments

How we speak can reveal where we are from: not just our accent, but the language we use. Words and phrases particular to a city, region, or country are a distinctive part of English, and we at the OED are asking you to help us identify and record them.

The Oxford English Dictionary (previously) has put out an appeal to help find and define regionally distinctive English words around the world. The official hashtag (added June 2014) is #WordsWhereYouAre. [more inside]
posted by Vesihiisi at 6:00 AM - 12 comments

In celebration of its 30th anniversary, KEXP presents the latest in our series of album breakdowns, dissecting the classic platinum-selling Public Enemy record It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back. Over the course of 12 hours for this live radio event, the station will play every discernable recording sampled on the album, along with exclusive interviews with Public Enemy co-founder Chuck D, the producer of the record Hank Shocklee of the Bomb Squad, Ishmael Butler of Shabazz Palaces and Digable Planets, former KEXP DJ Larry Mizell, Jr., professor, writer, and historian Dr. Daudi Abe, and more. It’s a celebration of Public Enemy, Thursday June 21st, only on KEXP, where Public Enemy really matters.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 5:54 AM - 17 comments

The proposed Obi Wan and Boba Fett films have been put on hold.
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 5:53 AM - 114 comments

The DIY ethos is alive and well in music. Whether you are self-releasing your music or organising your own tours, it requires serious tenacity. At a recent member event in Perth, two of Western Australia's most prolific live acts shared a treasure trove of knowledge and tools on DIY Touring.
posted by paleyellowwithorange at 5:12 AM - 1 comment

The Gorilla Foundation has announced the passing of Koko. [more inside]
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 4:59 AM - 71 comments

Game of Our Lives is a podcast about football, and as such its sights are currently set on the World Cup. The latest episode goes over the first few days of games, but the most interesting bit is the interview with Mani Djazmi, a blind British-Iranian football journalist. If you dip into the archive you’ll find that the focus of the host David Goldblatt, a football writer and sociologist, is on interviewing people from around the world with a perspective on football not often found in British or American sports pages. The first interview subject is Werner Herzog on football cinema, but you might also be interested in interviews with Supriya Nair on football in India, John Foot on Italia and football, and Shireen Ahmed on Muslim women and football.
posted by Kattullus at 12:43 AM - 2 comments

2018 Nature Conservancy Photo Contest Winners. Also, here's the link to the 2018 Underwater Photography Contest Winners: Underwater Photos. I see the link says "2017" but the text says "2018"
posted by MovableBookLady at 11:37 PM - 7 comments

This is Kellar. He is a three-year-old English Springer, and he was born completely blind. And this is Kellar playing fetch. [h/t Miss Cellania]
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 10:28 PM - 18 comments

The Machine Fired Me, Ibrahim Diallo
posted by the man of twists and turns at 8:49 PM - 14 comments

HAU is dead, long live OA initiatives
Open Secrets: On Power and Publication
chronology
#hautalk
meaning and pronunciation
posted by unliteral at 8:40 PM - 8 comments

Short fiction and poetry by Déwé Gorodé and political writings by Jean-Marie Tjibaou offer intimate views of New Caledonia unavailable in a political history. Memoirs and biographies convey the stories of a man from the Solomon Islands and a Japanese woman who married an Australian soldier in the years following WWII, plus women's narratives of war and peace on Bougainville and numerous aspects of the Indo-Fijian experience. These are just a few intriguing books digitized as PDFs at The Australian National University's Pacific Institute. [Via.]
posted by Wobbuffet at 6:40 PM - 7 comments

When occasional journalist Max Robinson filmed his town being devastated by floods the video went viral -ending up on television, including some places he didn't want it. On getting caught up in the news cycle, treatment of sources, and FOX not taking "fuck off" for an answer.
posted by Artw at 2:51 PM - 8 comments

"When I look back on it now, it’s hard to understand how I, a highly educated feminist, ended up devoting myself to Michael to the detriment of my own productivity and financial security."
posted by Lycaste at 1:42 PM - 88 comments

Hollywood Reporter followed a comedy agent around Los Angeles for a night and breathlessly reported that "A newer comic just breaking into the L.A. circuit can earn anywhere from $1,250 to $2,500 per week...". Comics -- newer and less so -- were somewhat surprised at these numbers .
posted by Etrigan at 1:40 PM - 21 comments

Why are game companies so afraid of the politics in their games? [Polygon] “Game publishers are lathering their productions with the stark imagery of modern political divisions, while at the same time denying any topical intent. Their strategy, according to industry sources ranging from developers to publicists, is to profit from emotive societal divisions, while ducking difficult conversations about what their works might signify. Their games garner publicity and a sense of cultural relevance, but the companies avoid the challenge and expense of controversy. In the words of one senior game industry publicist I spoke to, under conditions of anonymity: “It’s bullshit. They want to have their cake and eat it too.” In the past few years, we’ve seen repeated examples of the quasi-political AAA game. ” [more inside]
posted by Fizz at 12:30 PM - 41 comments

How to decorate like a viking
posted by PussKillian at 11:25 AM - 25 comments

Couldn't your indie film use a touch of Werner Herzog? Well, the folks at Truthteller think all filmmakers, regardless of their status, should have the chance to work with The Master, so they developed WernAcular (Vimeo), a highly sophisticated speech synthesizer that analyses your voice and turns it into Werner Herzog’s. The WernAcular audio plug-in was released in early April.
posted by kristi at 9:48 AM - 15 comments