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"A physicist-turned-farmer left L.A. for a mountain getaway. You can visit for goat cheese and cajeta." A mile high in the San Gabriels, on the far northern edge of the Angeles National Forest — about 1,000 square miles of looming mountains that fill the horizon northeast of downtown Los Angeles — a herd of Nubian goats forages amid the chaparral. It’s a small herd, as herds go, about 60 goats rustling through sagebrush and desert almond, buckwheat and scrub oak trees. Gloria Putnam is the goatherd of this motley tribe, and she walks among them, picking mistletoe tangled in an oak to feed the matriarch of the herd, an 11-year-old named Rosie. Piñon Ridge rises above them, bandaged with clouds. A trim red barn in the distance is the only spot of color.
posted by Celsius1414 at 3:48 PM - 0 comments

Stephen Colbert in conversation with Sopan Deb of The New York Times. Previous TimesTalks.
posted by growabrain at 2:28 PM - 0 comments

A solid list. The list takes in some of the early entries in the popular sub-genres (zombies, werewolves, vampires) but also includes cosmic horror, short story collections and others.
posted by Werod at 2:24 PM - 9 comments

On this day three years ago, webcomic author Ryan North and his dog got stuck in a hole. (previously)
posted by queen anne's remorse at 2:24 PM - 7 comments

Pete Tong looks back at classic dance hits with from decades past with History of House, talking with the musicians behind those timeless tracks. There are currently 12 segments online: Kings of Tomorrow - "Finally" ֍ The Shapeshifters - "Lola's Theme" ֍ Inner City - "Good Life" ֍ Josh Wink - "Higher State of Consciousness" ֍ Roger Sanchez - "Another Chance" ֍ David Morales - "Needin' U"* ֍ Reel 2 Real - "I Like To Move It" ֍ Mylo - "Drop the Pressure" ֍ MJ Cole - "Sincere" ֍ Felix Da Housecat - "Silver Screen (Shower Scene)" ֍ Candi Staton - "You Got The Love"* ֍ Ultra Naté - "Free" ֍ Bonus links inside [more inside]
posted by filthy light thief at 1:44 PM - 4 comments

The US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) filed a discrimination complaint against Facebook today for letting landlords target protected attributes for ads on the Facebook platform. Should we let Facebook slide by on this one? Tarleton Gillespie wants us to take a closer look at what we're really expecting out of platforms. His thesis: by letting platforms turn moderation into a commodity, we've let that conversation shift away from duties and responsibilities. [more inside]
posted by redct at 12:49 PM - 6 comments

There’s something fascinating about an actress who has made her name not through sex appeal, but the way she moves, punches, and scorpion kicks. Hollywood rarely allows women to be powerful like this. To be taken seriously, they must be EMOTIONAL and FRAGILE. Instead, Michelle Yeoh is STRONG and PLACID and GOOD AT BEATING PEOPLE UP. Michelle Lhooq interviewed Michelle Yeoh for GQ.
posted by ChuraChura at 11:51 AM - 10 comments

3D character artist Miguel Vasquez brings fairly innocuous-looking cartoon characters into disturbing 3D "life," like he did with Homer Simpson, here. (SLBoingBoing)
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 11:35 AM - 2 comments

In the 1930s and 40s, jazz pianist Hazel Scott was a child prodigy, the star of Cafe’ Society, a fighter for civil rights, Hollywood strike leader, and the first African-American woman to solo host her own TV show. So what ever happened to The Queen of Jazz?
posted by The Whelk at 9:51 AM - 2 comments

Harvard's James Mickens (previously) recently gave the keynote address at the 27th USENIX Security Symposium. The title? Q: Why Do Keynote Speakers Keep Suggesting That Improving Security Is Possible? A: Because Keynote Speakers Make Bad Life Decisions and Are Poor Role Models [more inside]
posted by Cash4Lead at 8:34 AM - 9 comments

Geoscientist Mika McKinnon felt hurt by the viral tweet mocking rock licking for science, so she explained (threadreader) why you might lick rocks, noted which rocks will kill you, and judged pop culture rock-licking technique. Bonus Last Jedi content (threadreader).
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 8:25 AM - 16 comments

Scooby Dos and Scooby Don'ts is a podcast that aims to review every single episode, special, movie and other narrative-based product in the Scooby Doo franchise (including stat counts and property damage tallies). Currently, they're up to the chaotic and nostalgic 'wilderness years' of the 90's and early 00's, but still have many movies/special and four (going on five) entire TV series to go, and plan to pick up the podcast whenever new media is released thereafter.
posted by BiggerJ at 2:11 AM - 18 comments

Williamsport, Pennsylvania was once a booming lumber town that claimed to have more millionaires per capita than anywhere else in the world. The city is now primarily known as the home of the Little League Baseball World Series, but a pro team also calls Williamsport home. The town's minor league baseball history, which includes the infamous "potato incident", traces back to the late 19th century.

Nowadays, the New York-Penn League's Crosscutters, a Phillies minor league affiliate at the Class A Short Season level, play ball in Williamsport between June and September. With the Phillies and Mets coming to town to play in Major League Baseball's second annual Little League Classic, Phillies blogger Justin Klugh tells the story of a small town minor league franchise looking to add its own chapter to Williamsport's proud baseball history.
posted by tonycpsu at 11:02 PM - 4 comments

WWE, the company that dominates professional wrestling in the U.S. (and most of the world), mostly hasn’t allowed men and women to face off in the ring for more than a decade. But intergender wrestling is thriving on the independent scene, 170 fans at a time.
posted by Etrigan at 7:26 PM - 7 comments

Jimmy Carter finishes his Saturday night dinner, salmon and broccoli casserole on a paper plate, flashes his famous toothy grin and calls playfully to his wife of 72 years, Rosalynn: “C’mon, kid.” She laughs and takes his hand, and they walk carefully through a neighbor’s kitchen filled with 1976 campaign buttons, photos of world leaders and a couple of unopened cans of Billy Beer, then out the back door, where three Secret Service agents wait.
posted by octothorpe at 7:11 PM - 53 comments

"With the bases loaded and no outs in the top of the fourth, David Fletcher scorched a ground ball to Jurickson Profar at third base, setting off one of the quickest, oddest triple plays you’ll ever see."
posted by bondcliff at 5:02 PM - 32 comments

Why did Laurence Olivier return so often to Shakespeare's Othello? Why did Ansel Adams keep photographing the Grand Canyon? Cellist Yo-Yo Ma brought his great inspiration, and in turn part of his own life story, to an enthusiastic audience packed around the Tiny Desk on a hot summer day... [NPR]
posted by jim in austin at 3:45 PM - 14 comments

The wasp nest was seemingly out of the reach of the invading army ants... but the ants would not be denied. [twitter] [more inside]
posted by Halloween Jack at 1:50 PM - 53 comments

What If English Were Phonetically Consistent?
posted by not_the_water at 1:29 PM - 23 comments

“He went home and composed an email to Mr. Odo. “I love your food, I respect you and I love this restaurant, but I hate the music,” he remembered writing. “Who chose this? Whose decision of mixing this terrible roundup? Let me do it. Because your food is as good as the beauty of Katsura Rikyu.” (He meant the thousand-year-old palatial villa in Kyoto, built to some degree on the aesthetic principles of imperfections and natural circumstances known as wabi-sabi.) “But the music in your restaurant is like Trump Tower.””
posted by brokeaspoke at 11:59 AM - 27 comments

Film Dialogue from 2,000 screenplays, Broken Down by Gender and Age. "...we Googled our way to 8,000 screenplays and matched each character’s lines to an actor. From there, we compiled the number of words spoken by male and female characters across roughly 2,000 films, arguably the largest undertaking of script analysis, ever." Besides presenting aggregate stats, the article allows you to drill down into individual movies. [more inside]
posted by storybored at 11:30 AM - 13 comments

Where even Walmart won't go: how Dollar General took over rural America (The Guardian). As the chain opens stores at the rate of three a day across the US, often in the heart of ‘food deserts’, some see Dollar General as an admission that a town is failing. There are more Dollar General locations than McDonalds locations in the United States, and the company's growth doesn't show any sign of slowing down (Retail Dive). [more inside]
posted by filthy light thief at 11:25 AM - 60 comments

The statue of Baphomet... is seated and accompanied by two smiling children. The Satanic Temple (previously) has deployed a statue of "a goat-headed, winged creature" in Little Rock, Arkansas, right near the Capitol building. The idea is to challenge the government for recently erecting a Ten Commandments statue. [more inside]
posted by doctornemo at 10:37 AM - 42 comments

• David Lee Roth as microwave popcorn.
• Ozzy Osbourne as windshield wipers.
• Michael Stipe getting a friend’s attention in a busy restaurant.
• Prince sips a cup of really bad coffee.
• Stevie Nicks as a VCR, rewinding a tape.
• John Mellencamp enjoying a summertime snack. [potentially NSFW]

More at Show Bits: "Animated Nonsense. Literally (and lovingly) objectifying celebrities." posted by Atom Eyes at 10:27 AM - 19 comments

Crypto developers and investors are moving to Puerto Rico, attracted by lucrative tax regimes They plan to regenerate the island using blockchain technology. But not all of the locals support their bold plans. SLGuardian, leading to SLYT.
posted by carter at 10:23 AM - 20 comments

One tribe caught up in Colombia’s armed conflict [more inside]
posted by poffin boffin at 10:21 AM - 0 comments

Here's the First Trailer for the Next Star Wars Animated Series, Resistance [YouTube] Take to the skies.
posted by Fizz at 10:20 AM - 20 comments

The spirit of the dead must live its life one more time in an accelerated fashion before departing to the realm of the ancestors. . . . It is believed that doing what was once done frees the living from the dead and vice versa.

Ancestor Work In Street Basketball, an excerpt from Black Gods of the Asphalt: Religion, Hip-Hop, and Street Basketball by African-American scholar Dr. Onaje X.O. Woodbine (interview).
posted by Rumple at 10:02 AM - 1 comment

“The prison organizing has coincided with a movement that has taken hold across the country as teachers go on strike and protest slashed education budgets in their states. The hope is that the prisoners may eventually be able to build a coalition with the teachers and potentially even coordinate their strikes.” - LOUISIANA PRISONERS DEMAND AN END TO ‘MODERN-DAY SLAVERY’. Another nationwide Prison Labor strike planned for August 21st.
posted by The Whelk at 9:20 AM - 16 comments

Classic: I’ll take the polls, plus all the "fundamentals": fundraising, past voting in the district, historical trends and more."

538's new forecasting models for the 2018 House elections are out. [more inside]
posted by nangar at 9:07 AM - 86 comments

Sean T. Collins writes: ALL HAIL THE MONUMENTAL-HORROR IMAGE - "How striking scenes from ‘The Shining,’ ‘The Wicker Man,’ ‘The Exorcist,’ and other iconic horror movies make an indelible mark on us." [more inside]
posted by the man of twists and turns at 8:57 AM - 35 comments

25 years ago this month, Ian Murdock announced a brand new Linux release. Today, it's one of the most important projects in the free software movement. That's right, Debian/GNU Linux is 25 years old! [more inside]
posted by Juso No Thankyou at 7:58 AM - 45 comments

Among aficionados of the music of Jonathan Round there is some debate over where his particular genius is best exemplified by his transformation of already popular songs into his unique style, or through his own songwriting where his own lyrical gift is given full voice. Either way, Round's music is something not to be missed. [more inside]
posted by gusottertrout at 1:38 AM - 4 comments

How to Talk to Your Kids About Sex.

Use pop culture as a springboard for talking about your values... Is there any better song for talking about toxic masculinity than “Grenade” by Bruno Mars? My son and I had an interesting talk about the song “Tell Me You Love Me” by Demi Lovato: Why are girls taught “you ain’t somebody ‘till you got somebody” and is that really true?

[more inside]
posted by spamandkimchi at 2:54 PM - 37 comments

Our measurements confirmed what every woman already knows to be true: women’s pockets are ridiculous. [slThePudding] [more inside]
posted by atlantica at 2:46 PM - 164 comments

The Northeast Document Conservation Center recently conserved an 1848 Mathew Brady daguerreotype image of Dolley Madison found in a trunk in 1956. [via] [more inside]
posted by jessamyn at 1:28 PM - 11 comments

Scientists Calculate the Speed of Death in Cells, and It's Surprisingly Slow: A new study [abstract] shows that death travels in unremitting waves through a cell, moving at a rate of 30 micrometers (one-thousandth of an inch) every minute. [more inside]
posted by not_the_water at 1:21 PM - 17 comments

The technology of tomorrow is being used by insects today. Wired has a summary of six scientific investigations into biomimicry that may make their way into the phones of the future: sugar-powered batteries, wide-angle camera (and more!), waterproof coating, exoskeletal body, anti-glare screen, and directional mic (CES 2018 demo story). [more inside]
posted by filthy light thief at 10:56 AM - 12 comments

The conversation of murdered and missing native women is not one North America wants to have - but it must [more inside]
posted by poffin boffin at 10:14 AM - 17 comments

This nose hair ripper-outer I bought in Tokyo works great. (SLBoingBoing)
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 10:14 AM - 63 comments

“Despite their many shapes and forms, these different anticompetitive plots have one thing in common: a commitment to strengthen the firm’s hold over market, consumers, and workers. Consumers pay for this concentration of power at the checkout line. This is because firms tend to decrease production numbers after merging. Having few to no competitors gives them even less reason to lower their prices. Market power also stymies innovation and quality, as competitors are thwarted from supplying better, affordable products. Sometimes, the outcome is mere inconvenience. In others, it’s the difference between life and death. “ THE RULES OF MONOPOLY by Vanessa A. Bee - mergers, stock buybacks, market control, price fixing and other strategies of anti-competitive behavior. (Current Affairs)
posted by The Whelk at 9:10 AM - 15 comments

Elon Musk's Boring Company is "proposing to build Dugout Loop, a zero-emissions, high-speed, underground public transportation system from the Los Feliz, East Hollywood, or Rampart Village neighborhoods ("western terminus") to Dodger Stadium in the City of Los Angeles." [more inside]
posted by the man of twists and turns at 8:51 AM - 100 comments

Aretha Franklin died today at 76 from complications due to pancreatic cancer. Beginning singing at New Bethel Baptist Church in Detroit, she went "secular" in 1960 with Capitol Records, but her fame took off in 1967 with Atlantic, where she would record such hits as "Respect", "Natural Woman", and "Think". She signed with Arista in 1979 and appeared in "The Blues Brothers" in 1980. Among her many standout moments, one that was surprising and immensely memorable was her 1998 Grammy performance of "Nessun Dorma", filling in for Pavarotti. She had 18 Grammies, 75 million record sales, and was the first woman to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (in 1987). Rest in peace.
posted by WCityMike at 7:40 AM - 235 comments

Ruby Rose (Orange is the New Black, John Wick: Chapter 2, The Meg) has been cast as Batwoman in an upcoming crossover event in the CW's "Arrowverse." [more inside]
posted by Halloween Jack at 6:55 AM - 56 comments

My father's death spurred a reflection on growing up Asian Australian. [slLennyLetter]
posted by ellieBOA at 5:10 AM - 10 comments

A four-part BBC World Service documentary series based on listening to four different environments around the world. The first half-hour is The Sounds Of The Maasai Mara, in which wildlife sound recordist Chris Watson explores the sounds of the African Plains. [more inside]
posted by hippybear at 3:58 AM - 4 comments

National Geographic: At 18, Katie Stubblefield lost her face. At 21, she became the youngest person in the U.S. to undergo the still experimental surgery. Follow her incredible story. [CW: Extremely graphic images and descriptions of facial injuries and reconstruction; suicide; overdose]
posted by reductiondesign at 7:59 PM - 32 comments

Blessed redeemer! It's the piebald moose. Friends Nancy Andrews and Roxanne Rowsell captured a piebald (ghostly white) moose on video. The footage of the rare moose is interesting, but it's the women's Newfoundland accents and their charmingly goofy commentary that have sent it viral.
posted by hurdy gurdy girl at 7:43 PM - 26 comments

Does what it says on the tin. SLYT
posted by 922257033c4a0f3cecdbd819a46d626999d1af4a at 7:07 PM - 30 comments

In Pennsylvania, a state with 500 school districts, the funding crisis of public education is not a breaking news story. It's been the reality for years. Students study in decaying buildings, can only dream about art classes and fight the stigma of being from "that school." The crisis of funding public education is imminent as the court is set to look into how Pennsylvania funds public education and if it violates the State Constitution. In this series, we explore deepening inequities across school districts and ask: Will the school funding crisis in Pa. ever be solved? [more inside]
posted by soren_lorensen at 6:19 PM - 28 comments