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US Rep. Katie Porter lets loose with Desus & Mero [YouTube 18m30s] (from the sanctuary of her minivan) about constantly juggling roles, her potty mouth, being a single mom and congresswoman during quarantine, and also about grilling Ben Carson and other idiots in Congressional hearings.
posted by Burhanistan at 4:17 AM - 2 comments

Solar's Future is Insanely Cheap (2020) [thread] - "This incredible pace of solar cost decline, with average prices in sunny parts of the world down to a penny or two by 2030 or 2035, is just remarkable. Building new solar would routinely be cheaper than operating already built fossil fuel plants, even in the world of ultra-cheap natural gas we live in now. This is what I've called the third phase of clean energy, where building new clean energy is cheaper than keeping fossil fuel plants running." [more inside]
posted by kliuless at 1:23 AM - 12 comments

QAnon is a pro-Trump conspiracy theory, yes, but it’s also more important than you might think. Adrienne LaFrance, The Atlantic's executive editor, spent more than a year trying to make sense of the movement and its followers and has a long and disquieting full report. [more inside]
posted by k3ninho at 1:14 AM - 4 comments

A podcast series by Lindsay Hansen-Park of Feminist Mormon Housewives that "follows the Mormon faith through the lens of “The Principle of Plural Marriage” from its genesis in 1831 with its originator Joseph Smith, through the hidden history and governmental pressure, to today and contemporary practicing Fundamentalist Mormons. [...] Polygamy is dissected through a feminist viewpoint, with attention given to the experiences of the women [...]. Their experiences, along with interviews with experts, scholars, historians, and those still affected directly by the practice, paint a new portrait of how the west was shaped, by the hard work and toil of these invisible women, hidden away through controversy." [more inside]
posted by mosessis at 10:18 PM - 2 comments

In The New York Times, Molly Fitzpatrick reports on some spooky situations: “Quarantining With a Ghost? It’s Scary”

For those who believe they’re locked down with spectral roommates, the pandemic has been less isolating than they bargained for.

posted by Going To Maine at 8:18 PM - 11 comments

In a half-century, The Brady Bunch has evolved from sitcom to cartoon to variety show to drama to parody to reality series, molding and re-molding itself to fit the prevailing styles, tastes, and sensibilities of multiple eras. By Gwen Ihnat for AVClub.
posted by valkane at 7:36 PM - 3 comments

REMAIN INDOORS (SLYT) [more inside]
posted by jojo and the benjamins at 7:33 PM - 9 comments

Shelter In Place is a miniature gallery, measuring 20 by 30 inches and exhibiting scaled-down works in a model structure created using foam core, mat board, balsa wood, and plexiglass. Artists can submit works at a 1:12 or one inch to the foot scale, allowing them to create and show even ambitious, seemingly large-scale pieces. Valentina Di Liscia reports for Hyperallergic.
posted by bq at 2:59 PM - 11 comments

Earle E. Spamer, a (now retired) member of the editorial board of the Annals Of Improbable Research, archivist of the American Philosophical Society and longtime researcher in and supporter of The Grand Canyon asks, over a long career: What Grand Canyon?
Is The Grand Canyon A Fake? [PDF], Spamer 2006, AIR 12-2 [PDF], see also Spamer's Other Grand Canyons, ibid.
What Lies Behind The Grand Canyon? (AIR 16-5 [PDF]) [more inside]
posted by the man of twists and turns at 2:37 PM - 10 comments

Remember when Red Sox/Fenway Park organist (and librarian!) Josh Kantor bought the White Sox Comiskey Park organ [eta: oops, the organist's organ] and brought it home in 2015? Well now he's stuck at home but he's still doing a Seventh Inning Stretch there, with his wife Reverend Producer Mary. Watch every day on FB at 3 pm EDT.
posted by jessamyn at 12:55 PM - 10 comments

Shakespeare may have written King Lear while under quarantine, but Gui Khury did even better than the Bard during his coronavirus pandemic school closure, pulling off the first-ever 1080 (three revolutions) on a standard vertical skateboard ramp.
posted by Etrigan at 12:12 PM - 26 comments

Because 2020 couldn’t get any weirder, residents in San Jose, Calif., came face to face with about 200 goats wandering through their neighborhood Tuesday evening. The scene, which looked like some bizarre version of the first few minutes of Dawn of the Dead, was captured on video by new local hero Zach Roelands. “This is the craziest thing to happen all quarantine,” he wrote in a tweet sharing the footage. We’re not sure that’s completely accurate, but it’s definitely up there on the list.
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 11:41 AM - 22 comments

Y'all! Donald Shoup has a WEBSITE! Please enjoy these parkumentaries. [more inside]
posted by aniola at 11:28 AM - 6 comments

SnowRunner [Game Trailer] “SnowRunner puts you behind the wheel of a huge roster of 40 customizable off-road vehicles from manufacturers like Chevrolet, Caterpillar, Freightliner and more in some of the world’s most untamed, unforgiving environments. [...] Master extreme hazards like snowbanks, ice, rivers and mud — each with their own unique challenges and physics — to get your mission completed as efficiently as possible. Huge variety of mission types await, and you can take on the elements alone or with friends online in fully synchronous four-player co-op multiplayer! Plus, with mod support.” [Available via Epic Games Store, Xbox One and PlayStation 4] [more inside]
posted by Fizz at 10:35 AM - 31 comments

Meet this super-spotter of duplicated images in science papers.
posted by Literaryhero at 6:24 AM - 17 comments

1985 was a ridiculously strong year for music releases. May 15, 1985 was when Dead Or Alive released their debut album [YT playlist] Youthquake. It wasn't a giant release but it had a giant single and a lot of people bought it. Side A: You Spin Me Round (Like A Record) [video], I Wanna Be A Toy, D.J. Hit That Button, In Too Deep [video - dailymotion link], Big Daddy Of The Rhythm [more inside]
posted by hippybear at 5:43 AM - 16 comments

Life in Quarantine: Witnessing Global Pandemic.
A public historical archive documenting how the extreme new conditions are changing the routines, expectations, and dreams of people from all walks of life, nationalities, communities, genders, and aged groups across the globe. Archives have to be made.
A doctoral student from Colombo, Sri Lanka. A winemaker in Denman, Australia. An ultra-marathoner from Piracicaba, Brazil. A retired special ed. administrator from Normal, IL.
Go ahead and Share your Story.
posted by adamvasco at 5:42 AM - 4 comments

The Story Behind Dylan Thomas’s “Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night” and the Poet’s Own Stirring Reading of His Masterpiece Written in 1947, Thomas’s masterpiece was published for the first time in the Italian literary journal Botteghe Oscure in 1951 and soon included in his 1952 poetry collection In Country Sleep, And Other Poems. [more inside]
posted by dancestoblue at 2:52 AM - 3 comments

Covid-19, or how the West was undone by its assertion of civilizational difference bordering on provincial narcissism, by Mukul Kesavan "It is as if best practice in policy and civil society behaviour was discounted because it didn’t originate in the West, as if city streets filled with masked citizens represented an assimilation of the individual into the herd. What began as an assertion of civilizational difference turned out to be no more than provincial narcissism."
posted by dum spiro spero at 11:34 PM - 81 comments

It was supposed to be "91 'Til Infinity," but the Souls of Mischief were in high school, sending demos out and trying to land something. Two years later, they were pulling together an album and A-Plus pulled some samples from a Billy Cobham track (Who Sampled) for a more uptempo version that would become the East Oakland group's sleeper hit track 93 'Til Infinity (YouTube). This is a sampling of the oral history of the title track of a fantastic album (YouTube playlist), one of three albums to come out in 1993 from the Heirogliphics crew, the others being Del the Funky Homosapien's No Need for Alarm (YT pl) and Casual's Fear Itself (YT pl). [more inside]
posted by filthy light thief at 10:47 PM - 11 comments

Is the British Museum's collection...homesick?

On one occasion a guard bolted the double doors and moved on to the next room, only to be informed by a CCTV operator that the doors stood wide open again. Video footage of the gallery showed them moving spontaneously. Sometimes it’s a sudden drop in temperature, like the unnerving patches of cold air that linger next to the winged, human-headed bull of Nimrud at the entrance to the Assyrian galleries. Sometimes it’s the sound of footsteps, or music, or crying, where no obvious source can be found.

“These stories seem to suggest that the objects themselves are restless.” (sl1843Magazine/The Economist)
posted by Fish, fish, are you doing your duty? at 7:36 PM - 38 comments

As Stevie Wonder turns 70, a look at how he wrote the soundtrack for a fragile America: "Signed to Motown’s Tamla imprint at the age of 11, the artist then known as 'Little Stevie Wonder' landed his first Billboard Hot 100 hit at 13 with 'Fingertips – Pt. 2.' By the time that original Motown contract ended in 1971, the 21-year-old Wonder had already amassed 13 studio albums (15 total). But over the next five years, Wonder unleashed five albums in a peerless display of both musical excellence and social conscience. It started with Music of My Mind and Talking Book in 1972, Innervisions in 1973, and climaxed with Fulfillingness’ First Finale in 1974 and Songs in the Key of Life in 1976." [more inside]
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 3:53 PM - 26 comments

Once you become one of the approximately 275 people have done the Seven Summit challenge, climbing the tallest peaks on seven continents, what's next? How about becoming the first person to reach the deepest depths of all the five oceans? [SLNewYorker]
posted by ShooBoo at 3:47 PM - 18 comments

In Sleepless Domain, a webcomic about brave magical girls confronting demons (outer and inner), a transgender magical girl is eventually mentioned, and a few months later is established as an existing character who gets her own adventure and has flower-themed magic powers. She discusses transitioning, having wanted to become a magical girl, her excitement over having a girl's name, and the time before she was "out as a girl," but none of these moments define her. [more inside]
posted by one for the books at 2:59 PM - 5 comments

David Lynch used to record short video weather reports for his website, then he stopped. Now, he’s started again, using YouTube.
Weather Report 5/11/20
Weather Report 5/12/20
Weather Report 5/13/20 [more inside]
posted by Going To Maine at 1:35 PM - 21 comments

THIS LONG CENTURY
posted by the man of twists and turns at 12:47 PM - 3 comments

Here at Time, we’ve made a few changes you may already be experiencing that we think you should know about. (SLMcSweeney's)
posted by Etrigan at 12:09 PM - 25 comments

Every episode of The Office (US) recreated in Slack, live.
posted by OverlappingElvis at 11:46 AM - 6 comments

The holy trinity of tambourine according to musician Jack Stratton of funk band Vulfpeck
1. Sandra Crouch (tambourine solo queued up)
2. Jack Ashford
3. Norman Whitfield
Also in the Holy Trinities series:
Minimalist Funk Arrangers
(Rhythm) Guitar [more inside]
posted by spamandkimchi at 11:11 AM - 13 comments

"Yet, this past January, that’s precisely what University of New Hampshire assistant philosophy professor Subrena Smith’s paper tried to do. 'Is Evolutionary Psychology Possible?' describes a major issue with evolutionary psychology, called the matching problem." [Gizmodo] [more inside]
posted by Ouverture at 11:07 AM - 61 comments

Calvin and Hobbes and quarantine [Polygon] “Calvin was looking for a way out. He was trying to escape. He didn’t like school, so he fled it as Spaceman Spiff. Bathtime, a nightmare for small children, saw Calvin turning into a tub shark or being attacked by a bubble-bath elemental. He escaped the corporeal form of a kid’s (arguably limited) body with the Transmogrifier, and most importantly of all, escaped loneliness by befriending a stuffed tiger who Calvin knew was actually real. A tiger who listened to him, who challenged him, and who ultimately loved him. Because that’s the thing, isn’t it? Calvin went to school, had a loving family, but even still, he felt alone. And his imagination gave him a way not to feel that anymore.” [more inside]
posted by Fizz at 10:12 AM - 17 comments

Lessons from Jeju: Freediving and Motherhood with Kimi Werner (Youtube) "Seven months pregnant and apprehensive of the effect motherhood would have on her career as a professional freediver, Kimi Werner took a trip to the island of Jeju in South Korea to meet her heroes, the haenyeo – a group of freediving and fishing women often regarded as Korea’s first working mother’s whose culture dates back centuries." Related: Meet Kimi Werner: The Woman Who Rode a Great White Shark [more inside]
posted by not_the_water at 9:32 AM - 7 comments

Hamilton coming to Disney+ on July 3. That’s it. What a time to be alive. It did not seem right for the news to go unremarked on here.
posted by mwhybark at 5:44 AM - 75 comments

Bart the other Mothman is in lockdown with hundreds of giant atlas moths. Farmed moths from the Philippines, meant to be shipped to customers, they've now hatched all through his house. Come for the chaos, stay for the delightfully furry moths and conservation behind collecting and breeding winged butterflies and moths. Also disco. Bart's website breeding butterflies will help turn you into the lepidopterist you've always hoped to be. Hat-tip to vacapinta who posted an earlier moth science project by another Bart.
posted by dorothyisunderwood at 1:28 AM - 20 comments

Robert Pattinson was interviewed by Zach Baron for GQ to promote the upcoming Christopher Nolan film Tenet, but everybody’s talking about Pattinson’s “pasta which you can hold in your hand”.
posted by Kattullus at 1:19 AM - 33 comments

From WIRED: "The Confessions of Marcus Hutchins, the Hacker Who Saved the Internet" A level headed account of the man who stopped the WannaCry ransomware, and his subsequent arrest.
posted by benoliver999 at 12:45 AM - 34 comments

Big Finish Productions, producers of Doctor Who audio plays and audiobooks since 1999 (including New Series content since 2015, definitely not thanks to the murder of an obstructive BBC higher-up by a dimension-hopping Master because people need to know about the Doctor's hubris dammit) has announced the Fifth Annual Paul Spragg Memorial Short Trip Opportunity (previously), your chance to write a forty-minute Doctor Who audiobook and make your mark on the franchise's canon (Such As It Is^TM). Entries are due by 30 June 2020. Rules are on the page; additional rules are here (of particular note are character usage limitations and the entry format: a roughly 500-word summary and a roughly 500-word beginning). Previous winners, all downloadable for free, are below the fold. [more inside]
posted by BiggerJ at 11:42 PM - 0 comments

Recreating childhood photos, set to Simple Plan's "I'm Just a Kid" [more inside]
posted by Gorgik at 8:47 PM - 4 comments

1985 was a ridiculously strong year for music releases. We recently discussed The Hooters' Nervous Night (May 6), so let's look at May 13,1985, when Dire Straits' album Brothers In Arms came out. This peculiar tone poem of an album became an international success around the world, with several hit singles. Side A: So Far Away [video], Money For Nothing (original album track with problematic verse) [video (same problematic verse), radio edit without problematic verse] , Walk Of Life [video, original UK video], Your Latest Trick, Why Worry [more inside]
posted by hippybear at 7:21 PM - 65 comments

The Carmina Quartet performs Boccherini's Fandango, complete with castanets...
posted by jim in austin at 6:12 PM - 4 comments

Everything you see is really happening, there’s no green screen.

I grew up on all the “Mad Max” movies — they’re very popular in South Africa. I remember being 12 and my dad letting me watch it with him. So I was like, “Oh yeah, I wanna be in a ‘Mad Max’ movie. Are you kidding me?”

posted by kirkaracha at 4:34 PM - 47 comments

Artist and their Cats is but a page.
GatosyRespeto has many, many more. (Pages all in Spanish, but hey Cats am i rite?)
There is Eugene Delacroix, photographer Henri Cartier Bresson , the surrealist Remedios Varo and her friend Leonora Carrington and cat queen Leonor Fini (Mefi Previous.)
Just click around and enjoy, it's 100% Gatos.
posted by adamvasco at 3:44 PM - 4 comments

Can a "regular" human hit a home run in a major league ballpark? A few years back, Sports Illustrated's (45-year-old writer) Michael McKnight decided to find out.
posted by maxwelton at 3:15 PM - 31 comments

Ben Stiller announced yesterday that his father, Jerry Stiller, passed away of natural causes. He was 92 Stiller began his acting and comedic career as part of the comedy duo, Stlller and Meara, with his wife, Anne Meara. Popular in the 60's and 70's and performing on variety shows such as the Ed Sullivan Show and The Carol Burnett Show, Stiller and Meara were considered the workingman's Nichols and May. In the 70's and 80"s, Stller moved with ease between Broadway, film, and television [more inside]
posted by goalyeehah at 2:04 PM - 51 comments

Even as to disinformation, the best-known and perhaps most overrated of their tactics, they have innovated, finding new ways to manipulate Americans and to poison the nation’s politics. Russia’s interference in 2016 might be remembered as the experimental prelude that foreshadowed the attack of 2020. - Franklin Foer in The Atlantic. [more inside]
posted by tommasz at 12:47 PM - 40 comments

The Life of Brian & The Apocalyptic Jesus. Bart D. Ehrman [wiki, blog], gives a talk in 2014 on the use of parody as a historical method. [more inside]
posted by the man of twists and turns at 12:40 PM - 10 comments

I don’t know when it will be safe to sing arm in arm at the top of our lungs. But we will do it again, because we have to. Dave Grohl writes for The Atlantic's "Uncharted" series about the changes coronavirus is wreaking and will continue to wreak on the world.
posted by Etrigan at 11:44 AM - 30 comments

Drew Magary writes for SFGate about his diet:

I eat pancakes for breakfast every morning now. This is not because of quarantine.

posted by Going To Maine at 10:54 AM - 48 comments

This chip plays ‘Doom’ and nothing else [Engadget] It’s been over 25 years since Doom was unceremoniously released on a university FTP server. And despite its age, the classic first-person shooter has become a mainstay, not just for gamers, but also for programmers. The game has shown up on a ridiculous amount of hardware, from ATMs to printer screens to iPods. Graphics and game development enthusiast Sylvain Lefebvre [@Sylvain] , though, has created a machine that only plays his custom port of Doom. [Twitter thread linked below.]

The DooM-chip! It will run E1M1 till the end of times (or till power runs out, whichever comes first). Algorithm is burned into wires, LUTs and flip-flops on an #FPGA: no CPU, no opcodes, no instruction counter. Running on Altera CycloneV + SDRAM. Everything is described in a language I am working on: SDRAM controller, divider, BSP traversal, texture unit, etc. Main renderer (w/o data) is 666 lines of code (!). A great test case, made quite a few improvements, fixed some issues, learned a lot on CycloneV + Quartus.

posted by Fizz at 9:33 AM - 14 comments

While we wait for the first pitch of the 2020 season, take a couple of minutes to learn more about the mysterious, rare, junky eephus pitch. [more inside]
posted by chavenet at 8:46 AM - 14 comments