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Happy Daze is a news website which helps you stay informed on all the good things happening in this great big world of ours. The big news networks predominantly feature negative news because the only thing they are after is more clicks and eyeballs (so that they can generate more advertisement revenue), and the unfortunate fact is that sad, tragic, and negative news just generate more attention. Happy Daze is run by a small team with no outside funding. We are not owned by a billionaire or a VC firm so we can publish news that we think is important with no ads. We strive to be different and non-divisive by showing people that there are plenty of positive stories and things happening which can help make one feel better about the world and humanity in general. via Reddit
posted by dancestoblue at 8:00 PM - 0 comments

Breaking Kitchen (SLYT) [more inside]
posted by obol at 4:05 PM - 6 comments

Line drying - everybody's doing it! [more inside]
posted by aniola at 3:27 PM - 28 comments

Danny McAskill's Postcard from San Francisco [more inside]
posted by oneirodynia at 3:25 PM - 10 comments

Noodle, the pug who made "no bones day" a thing, has passed at 14-1/2 years old, after a spell of TikTok stardom that raised him to the level of New York Times obituaryworthiness. (archive.today link)
posted by Etrigan at 2:33 PM - 15 comments

The December 2 2022 episode of The Sarah Silverman Podcast, "Chapelle, B*Face, Anything Goes", spends much of its 50m running time with Sarah talking about Dave, anti-semitism, racism, her own past with blackface, and what all this seems to mean to her. I found this interestingly reflective and nuanced, and was worth my time to go through twice. [more inside]
posted by hippybear at 2:31 PM - 6 comments

ChatGPT's transcripts were all the rage [more inside]
posted by dyslexictraveler at 1:45 PM - 38 comments

How far can you walk in 10 minutes? How about an hour? Or on a bike? How far can you go by train in Europe in 5 hours? (How about non-stop?) For USians: Amtrak Explorer. How to make your drive fun.
posted by gwint at 12:47 PM - 8 comments

"The End of Companion Television" Former CNN host Brian Stelter on the end of live programming on the Headline News (HLN) network (SLThe Atlantic, archive.org version)
posted by box at 9:30 AM - 19 comments

In Forests Full of Mines, Ukrainians Find Mushrooms and Resilience [The New York Times]

“The forests in areas that were occupied remain heavily mined. Mines and unexploded ordnance cover thousands of square miles of Ukrainian land, according to the interior minister, Denys Monastyrsky. The Ukrainian government pleaded with people not to pick mushrooms, and the government agency for forest resources imposed formal restrictions on walking in forests in nine Ukrainian provinces, including the region around Kyiv where Mr. Poyedynok goes. But specialists say it will take at least a decade to demine the forests — and many Ukrainians were not ready to wait that long before returning to their favorite hobby. Reports of mushroom hunters stepping on mines came regularly from all of the nine provinces where walking in the forest was banned.”

These misty and damp parts of the country have long beckoned to mushroom hunters with the promise of plenty, but now peril, too, lies beneath the earth’s surface.
posted by Fizz at 7:29 AM - 7 comments

Play as an early 19th century surgeon in a historically accurate and gruesome interactive text game (Twine) by The Old Operating Theatre Museum’ web volunteer Charlotte Regan.
posted by dorothyisunderwood at 7:00 AM - 8 comments

How to Find Dog Agility Trials (via https://dogagilitytrials.com/) UK, Australia, New Zealand, and Canada links inside. See pure happiness without having to talk to anyone! How could anybody have a better time than a very good dog who finally has something to do with all that energy and smarts? The hottest club in [your US state] is your local dog agility course. Culture and rules might vary at places and events – especially indoors, so check before going, but generally you do not have to own a dog to watch an agility trial. [more inside]
posted by amtho at 11:23 PM - 13 comments

The year is very very definitely 1971, and these are Rare Moog Dancers.
posted by cortex at 3:24 PM - 17 comments

Indiana Jones & the Dial of Destiny [Official Trailer] [more inside]
posted by chavenet at 2:22 PM - 63 comments

Andor: Star Wars for Grownups "But Andor is something new and astonishing: a Star Wars series written and filmed entirely for discerning grown-ups. It’s accurate but faint praise to call this the smartest Star Wars ever made; it’s one of the smartest shows anyone has made in recent years, and can reasonably be mentioned in the same breath as, say, The Wire. It’s better than this bloated and wildly uneven franchise deserves; that it was greenlit at all suggests, against all odds, that even endlessly recycled blockbuster intellectual properties have some room for artistry." (n.b. spoilers) [more inside]
posted by gwint at 12:41 PM - 59 comments

All I Want for Christmas is ... Bootie Mashup. The song you're going to hear 50,000 times this next month anyway, mashed up 41 times with other different songs.
posted by MollyRealized at 12:39 PM - 8 comments

Flash Forward with Rose Eveleth is a podcast that explores possible or not-so-possible futures, taking great care to examine how technology, opportunity, and adversity will be experienced differently by people of different identities. Typically, each episode begins with a short piece of audio fiction, followed by inteviews with experts. The current ongoing special series, Welcome to Vanguard Estates, kicks off a with a choose-your-own-adventure style nonlinear narrative, which you can experience in audio form or read as text. [more inside]
posted by BrashTech at 12:21 PM - 3 comments

How James Joyce Almost Became A Famous Singer. "Joyce was angry at his defeat in the competition—but in typical fashion, blamed the rules, not his own shortcomings. He complained about the pigheadedness of judges who evaluated contestants in singing music they had never rehearsed. Who cared how a musician learned a song, he argued, when the real measure of ability is what you do after you learn it?" [more inside]
posted by storybored at 11:18 AM - 5 comments

The family-friendly Holi-Drag Storytime event in Columbus, Ohio, co-hosted by the Red Oak Community School and the local Unitarian Universalist Church, was canceled early this morning. Last month, the Proud Boys, a domestic terrorist group, publicized their intent to disrupt the event. Columbus police stated that they would be present to'monitor the situation'. The organizer, in an emotional statement, details the actual lack of commitment or support. Posts attempting to communicate and build community support on the usually LGBTQ+-supportive /r/Columbus subreddit have been deleted and the poster shadow-banned. [more inside]
posted by Silvery Fish at 10:08 AM - 40 comments

Airport lounges being spoiled by the unwashed masses This is satire? Right? If you read it as White Lotus level parody it's brilliant.
posted by Keith Talent at 10:05 AM - 29 comments

From the youth game to emerging pro leagues, the sport is booming among women and girls (archive.today link)
posted by Etrigan at 9:34 AM - 2 comments

Here's Al Franken explaining why, by way of an anecdote involving Amy Klobuchar, as well as a harsh yet very funny observation by Lindsey Graham. Watch the whole video. It's worth it
posted by BadgerDoctor at 8:39 AM - 39 comments

In the latest proof of new legal requirements that all internet puzzle games must now end in "rdle," distinguished readers, I give you Murdle, a daily homicide-based logic / elimination puzzle game. A bit of fun for when you still want to kill somebody some time after the crosswordle and the sudokurdle, but before watching Jeopardle. [more inside]
posted by taz at 3:43 AM - 28 comments

Matt Parker contemplates the question: can the same net fold into two shapes?
posted by Pendragon at 12:03 AM - 11 comments

Something that is always “a little bit scary” is “particularly scary” right now. A confluence of factors, some structural and some cyclical, have aligned to make the current housing market among the most challenging, expensive, and stressful ones in recent years. Many Americans seem to share that sentiment: Half as many home sales occurred this past July as in the same month two years ago.
posted by folklore724 at 11:44 PM - 32 comments

It's like peeling back nearly 40 years of history. Holly Johnson performs just a few weeks ago in Switzerland, doing many Frankie Goes To Hollywood hits. Holly Johnson of Frankie goes to Hollywood - Baloise Session 2022 – @ARTE Concert [1h11m]. At age 62, he's still got the voice, and his band takes twice as many people to make up for The Lads.
posted by hippybear at 4:40 PM - 16 comments

Subtitles, rich lifeguards, heavenbanning, and gold-plated Morse Code keys: Tom Whitwell brings us 52 things I learned in 2022. (SLMedium)
posted by swift at 4:11 PM - 36 comments

Alice Guy-Blaché -- The Consequences of Feminism (1906)

Alice Guy-Blaché -- A Fool and His Money (1912) First Narrative film with an all black cast*

Alice Guy-Blaché -- Falling Leaves (1912)

Alice Guy-Blaché -- The Ocean Waif (1916)

Films - Alice Guy-Blaché

Alice Guy-Blaché: Cinema’s First Woman Director [more inside]
posted by y2karl at 4:06 PM - 3 comments

EU throws party in €387K metaverse — and hardly anyone turns up [Politico] [more inside]
posted by chavenet at 1:32 PM - 28 comments

People Hanging Christmas Trees from the Ceiling to Outsmart Their Cats season has arrived. Link goes to nitter.net version. Direct links to Tiktoks: ornament protection, ceiling tree, plexiglass barrier, a cat tree, and a tree cat. Original tweet by writer and local whale enthusiast s.e. smith (who just launched a link roundup tinyletter!).
posted by spamandkimchi at 1:18 PM - 19 comments

How Fondue Was Invented. Ok, but for real: How A Swiss Cheese Cartel Made Fondue Popular. Fondue in the 70s. The canonical fondue pot. Le Chalet, Restaurant of the Pavilion of Switzerland, New York 1964 World's Fair, dejeuner menu
posted by gwint at 10:20 AM - 40 comments

Did a parent, teacher, or unsympathetic friend ever tell you to "save your tears"? Use of this item is probably not what they actually meant: Debunking the Myth of 19th-Century ‘Tear Catchers.’
posted by taz at 9:50 AM - 10 comments

The system is structurally designed in favor of older members with more seniority. Can you, a young member of Congress, survive? [more inside]
posted by Etrigan at 9:27 AM - 18 comments

But we will! [more inside]
posted by Kitteh at 8:35 AM - 73 comments

Heritage out of Control: Disturbing Heritage, Birgit Meyer's essay on the idea of material waste in religious objects, thoughtfully compares Dutch and Ghana as religions, colonialism and modernity intertwine. Going from the academic to the practical, Decluttering Dilemma: What to Do With Religious Items (multi-religious) and a librarian for a Catholic collection on What can you do with unwanted holy cards and Grandma’s religious statues?
posted by dorothyisunderwood at 7:47 AM - 12 comments

Once a decade, the British Film Institute polls thousands of critics and directors to determine the best film of all time. Here is the newly-released critics list from 2022. The greatest film of all time? Chantal Akerman's Jeanne Dielman 23, quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles No other film made by a woman has ever reached the top 10. [more inside]
posted by vacapinta at 5:35 AM - 97 comments

How Wednesday Addams Birthed a Generation of Cynics Nearly 30 years ago, Christina Ricci’s version of the character reinforced millennials’ suspicion that “the bright side” is an illusion (Emily Alford for Longreads).
posted by box at 4:51 AM - 22 comments

"how many painters are having to basically become process artists and action artists instead and setting up a camera in order to film themselves doing the painting because actually, what the algorithm cares more about is the verb..." Gabrielle de la Puente, in the conversation "Instagram Has Ruined The Art World" (27 Nov 2022) on making alternative online venues for artists to display work. (via sliceofpearpie: "this isn’t about external validation.... these form part of our working conditions.") "You were trying to explain to an artist how they could reach ten times more followers online by adhering to certain principles. You felt like the devil when you explained it." A comic by Jaakko Pallasvuo about relatability and attention. "Not everyone presents well in 280 characters, especially in a space they don’t even want to be present." charlottemadison42 and largishcat on a similar issue for writers.
posted by brainwane at 4:33 AM - 9 comments

It's official: The world's biggest 4-day workweek trial proves there's no reason to work five days a week [ungated] - "The pandemic has proven that our modern notions of how the office and our week should look are not as set in stone as we might think, exposing our ideas of what is needed to ensure productivity. Now that we've discovered that work can be done from home just as effectively, the next step is questioning how many working days are actually needed."[1,2] [more inside]
posted by kliuless at 1:57 AM - 41 comments

Thomas Keyes sets out to reproduce the circa 800 CE Book of Kells from parchment making, to pigment finding/ foraging/ growing/ producing pigments (from scratch), forming and writing the text, to a complete folio. [Dark Mountain in case anyone's averse], Thomas also has a kickstarter [I have no affiliation, I simply love re-creation and experiential historical research for itself, and what we can learn from doing, I also value much of the though, work and ethos that is Dark Mountain]
posted by unearthed at 11:30 PM - 7 comments

A deeply trippy A.I. generated music video for a shortened sixteen-and-a-half minute cut of Pink Floyd's track Echoes (original track was twenty-three-and-a-half minutes) from their album Meddle. Be sure to watch at a high resolution.
posted by Hot Pastrami! at 9:58 PM - 15 comments

There are thousands of studies connecting religious belief and practise to health. However, much of this research has failed to include non-believers. In a recent study [paywalled] using data from almost 16,000 Canadians which included non-believers, the researcher "failed to find any evidence that religious believers had better levels of stress, physical health, life satisfaction or mental health compared to non-believers."
posted by clawsoon at 7:53 PM - 13 comments

“I thought I was so green, but then I realised I'm flying,” she says. [more inside]
posted by aniola at 4:47 PM - 125 comments

Returning after a seven month sabbatical, Jason Kottke brings us, via Open Culture, a engrossing, beautiful documentary about China's Van Goghs: The Village That Paints A Thousand Fakes A Year. [more inside]
posted by mhoye at 4:31 PM - 4 comments

The big search company that people have complicated feelings about
+ fantasizing about traveling somewhere, anywhere
+ a corporate tool for buying plane tickets
+ a fun interface design
= google.com/travel/explore
posted by Going To Maine at 1:34 PM - 7 comments

Secret 9/11 memo reveals Bush rewriting the history of the 9/11 attacks and the warnings he'd tuned out

On April 29, 2004, President George W. Bush hosted one of the most unusual meetings to ever take place inside the Oval Office. The 10 members of the 9/11 Commission got to ask him and Vice President Dick Cheney any question they wanted about the September 11, 2001, attacks. The words that were spoken in that room remained secret for nearly two decades. Now, we can finally read what Bush said.

[more inside]
posted by kirkaracha at 1:20 PM - 45 comments

Weakness, specifically literary weakness, is enlivening, challenging, and generally has the effect of compelling the reader to move, as we say, outside their comfort zone. Weak novels cause us to attend to fiction as strategy rather than as entertainment. from The Weak Novel by Lucy Ives
posted by chavenet at 1:08 PM - 6 comments

¡Hola Papi! (aka J.P. Brammer) offers a meditation on "the gay bar."

But sometimes, after spending too much time outside of one, I get that familiar urge for an overpriced well drink and shitty pop music, for the sharp, judgy, lustful glances of faggots, for the near-darkness and the sticky floors and the people who, while not in perfect accord, have at least resolved to find each other.

posted by spamandkimchi at 10:48 AM - 7 comments

Pattern Collider is an interactive tool to explore Penrose (and other "quasi-periodic") Tilings. (here's another webtoy) minutephysics on YT: Why Penrose Tiles Never Repeat. [more inside]
posted by gwint at 9:39 AM - 12 comments

The embodied energy just of the construction materials of the Seagram Building is estimated at 173 million kWh – almost four times the amount of energy that workers put into building the Great Pyramid at Giza (46 million kWh, approximately 78 million days of manual labour).

Barnabas Calder and Florian Urban compare the energy profile of Mies van der Rohe’s iconic Seagram Building with Waugh Thistleton’s 6 Orsman Road, London. via
posted by Rumple at 9:24 AM - 35 comments