December 10
Stamps Back
Wired called it the 'The Shadow Internet'. Inverse Phase (Previously) talked about 'How Software Piracy Birthed an Underground Art Scene' at HOPE 2018. A recently released full-length documentary (website) details how teenagers ignited a computing revolution in the 1980s with illegally copied video games. [more inside]
Congratulations to the California Golden Chanterelle
when a disney adult learns about capitalism
when people say "enshittification", it's as if their core complaint about capitalism is the customer service, rather than the systematic exploitation of other people. people don't talk about union busting as "enshittification", or wage theft as "enshittification", let alone deeper systematic issues. [...]
enshittification is someone experiencing the systematic problems of capitalism for the first time, and not seeing the tip of the iceberg for what it represents. it's walking past a picket line to complain to the manager. it's being mad that the star wars show got cancelled and hoping awareness will fix it.
Coffin Ships revisited
Challenging the ‘received wisdom’ about mortality rates aboard Irish emigrant ships during the Great Famine can open our minds about the past, while also influencing how we think about the present. (1,700 word essay, RTE 8th Dec 2023) [more inside]
“Suddenly, I had this huge pile of body parts.”
“It’s something that we’re not supposed to like, we’re not supposed to be interested,” she says of the broad appeal of guts and gore. But she found that thinking about actual bodies in all of their vital carnality really brought the historical characters she had been studying to life. from History’s Five Best Body Part Stories [Nautilus; ungated] [CW: body parts, amputation, gore, history]
December 9
GOATed
Remember Lyle in Cube Sector? The game's developer is back after seventeen years with the extremely personality-filled 00's-style (Hot Topic aesthetic and all) low-poly 3D collectathon platformer Corn Kidz 3D, the world's second low-poly 3D platformer about a dreaming anthropomorphic goat (CK3D's dev is aware - there's a picture of the other game's protagonist somewhere in the game).
Octopus quicker to train than a dog: insights of underwater photographer
Octopus quicker to train than a dog: The insights of an underwater photographer. Underwater photographer David Hannan is on a mission to document the beauty of sea life. Along the way, he's had incredible encounters with some of the ocean's most playful, elusive and curious creatures.
Trains are made out of steel, you are made out of feelings
Laurence Hewson has charmed commuters at Flinders Street Station in Melbourne, Australia with his irreverent station announcements. He has become a local and international celebrity despite only being in the job for 3 weeks thus far.
Saturday Night Musical: Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812
This is maybe the worst possible filmings of one of the best musicals of the past decade. Here is Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812 (Original Broadway Cast), a YouTube playlist of each song in this sung-through musical assembled from various audience cameras from across its run. Here's also the entire musical assembled out of these individual clips [2h14m], with slight tweaks to improve the flow. Bonus: Original Cast Album [YT Playlist] [more inside]
Blast from the past
Gilbert Archiniega's Youtube Channel has content he recorded in the 80s, 90s, and early 2000s. Most of the videos are 15 minutes to an hour long where he simply documents his life in the moment. It's like a Youtube time capsule.
GIVE ME STRONG JAZZ HANDS, EVERYONE.
"Hands Down" movement advent calendar from Katy Bowman with some ideas on how to strengthen and take care of our fingers, wrists, hands, and forearms. Bowman previously on MeFi.
Endangered Fox?
A somewhat obscure guideline for developers of U.S. government websites may be about to accelerate the long, sad decline of Mozilla’s Firefox browser. There already are plenty of large entities, both public and private, whose websites lack proper support for Firefox; and that will get only worse in the near future, because the ’fox’s auburn paws are perilously close to the lip of the proverbial slippery slope. [via Hacker News]
December 8
Bling your walking boot
Crafters Make Custom Medical Device Covers, Giving Patients a Boost - by Roberta G. Wax with links to the patterns and shops featured for a little bedazzling of slings, oxygen tanks, eye patches, ostomy bags and more.
Pink to give out 2000 banned books at her Florida concerts
A Name For The Now
In a meta-analysis of Kyle Chayka’s New Yorker essay about “what to call our chaotic era”, MetaFilter / Kuro5hin’s own Rusty Foster goes (slightly) long in his Today In Tabs newsletter about how the right name for the current era is “the Jackpot” -pace William Gibson-, Cormac McCarthy, and keeping going.
How animals beat the heat
While the northern hemisphere is heading into winter, in Australia we are gearing up for a long, hot summer. Australian animals have some surprising ways of beating the heat, including mucus, saliva and tree-hugging. [more inside]
The Cybertruck from the perspective of a cultural critic
How millennials learned to dread motherhood
To our generation, being a mom looks thankless, exhausting, and lonely. Can we change the story? [Vox]
The Eternal Jukebox
This web app lets you search a song on Spotify and will then generate a never-ending and ever changing version of the song. [more inside]
"A functional (but expensive) cure".
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved two new gene therapies treating sickle-cell anemia, called Casgevy and Lyfgenia. [more inside]
Space Alien Ponies
It only costs $1,000 to get your name on the presidential primary ballot in New Hampshire, a far lower barrier to entry in other states. So, there's no shortage of lesser-known candidates.
Texas judge allows abortion for woman whose fetus has fatal disorder
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton's office issued a statement saying the temporary restraining order "will not insulate hospitals, doctors, or anyone else from civil and criminal liability.
The letter was sent to three hospitals where Damla Karsan, the doctor who said she would provide the abortion to Cox, has admitting privileges. [more inside]
"an epistolary novel in the form of twelve folksongs"
Correspondence was a project where Swedish musicians Jens Lekman and Annika Norlin (a.k.a. Hello Saferide) wrote and sent each other songs in English on alternating months over the course of 2018. You can listen to the original versions on the website but the pair also rerecorded many of the songs with strings and released it as an album which is available to buy from Bandcamp or stream on various services.
First of all, how dare you come for Root Boy Slim
Let's get ready to goo it again
Hello! It's been awhile
15 years in fact!
I hope you've been well
Me? I don't like talking about myself
Not directly anyway
The goo balls are doing fine
Better than that, they have a new game
Coming in 2024
WORLD OF GOO 2
I hope you'll enjoy it, I'll see you soon
Signed, the Sign Painter
15 years in fact!
I hope you've been well
Me? I don't like talking about myself
Not directly anyway
The goo balls are doing fine
Better than that, they have a new game
Coming in 2024
WORLD OF GOO 2
I hope you'll enjoy it, I'll see you soon
Signed, the Sign Painter
Mama's got a squeezebox
Accordion Noir has posted its 2023 Christmas Special podcast episode. It includes a few artists you've heard of (The Pogues, EC Ball, The Tiger Lillies) and many more you haven't (Duckmandu, Southern Scrach, Christmas Jug Band). If you want a change from the usual musical drivel that dominates this time of year, give it a listen.
Army employee indicted for stealing $100 million
The rate of catastrophes appears roughly constant over time
One argument against using historical base rates is that the present is so different from the past (e.g. due to technology) that base rates are meaningless. While today’s world is indeed different from the past, base rates can help sharpen rather than neglect these differences, by clarifying what’s actually new. For instance, the mere presence of technology cannot move us far above the base rate, because many technologies have been developed throughout history and none has caused a catastrophe in the sense defined above. Instead, we should look for technology that shares properties with the historical drivers of catastrophe: epidemics, famines, wars, political turmoil, climate changes, natural disasters, invasive species, and humans. from Analyzing the Historical Rate of Catastrophes
December 7
Number of Dry Eyes in the House: Zero
Twenty-one red handfish hatched in successful breeding program
Twenty-one critically endangered red handfish hatched in successful Tasmanian conservation breeding program. A lot is riding on this group of tiny baby fish — so much so, they'll be put through school to get them street smart before release into the wild in Tasmania. [more inside]
Really CGI
"No CGI is really just INVISIBLE CGI" part 2 [SLYT] The first part took apart Top Gun Maverick (among other things). This part focuses on Christopher Nolan's Inception (among other things). The point about invisibility is a generous way of saying that it's just outright lying.
"I'm not going to let anybody see you"
The Kids are Alright
Stairway to Heaven. (YouTube via Invidious so you aren't tracked.) At the annual prize-giving ceremony at St Andrews College in Ōtautahi (Christchurch) in Aotearoa, the music department covers Led Zepplin's 'Stairway to Heaven' and absolutely nails it. It's going viral here but deserves a wider audience.
Trapping Jughead
She spent a month trying to help stray dog whose head was stuck in a jug [CW: happy ending]
2023 (Taylor's Version)
This was the year she perfected her craft—not just with her music, but in her position as the master storyteller of the modern era. The world, in turn, watched, clicked, cried, danced, sang along, swooned, caravanned to stadiums and movie theaters, let her work soundtrack their lives. For Swift, it’s a peak. 'This is the proudest and happiest I’ve ever felt, and the most creatively fulfilled and free I’ve ever been,' Swift tells me. 'Ultimately, we can convolute it all we want, or try to overcomplicate it, but there’s only one question.' Here, she adopts a booming voice. 'Are you not entertained?'"For building a world of her own that made a place for so many, for spinning her story into a global legend, for bringing joy to a society desperately in need of it, Taylor Swift is TIME’s 2023 Person of the Year." [more inside]
Sometimes a finger is just a finger
Guardian: “As a BBC licence payer I demand more of this type of behaviour.” Huffington Post: “Undeterred by the faux pas, the newscaster simply composed herself and began reading from the autocue about the latest updates in the Boris Johnson Covid inquiry. Fortunately for Maryam, the moment took place when the UK feed was showing Prime Minister’s Questions, so only international viewers saw the moment play out live.” CBS News: “Maryam Moshiri, the chief presenter at the British network, said she was "joking around a bit with the team" when she stuck up her middle finger just as the broadcast went to air.” In the Metro, further BBC news mishaps.
If you can ask for help, do.
Most of us will experience the death of a parent. That experience is unique for everyone, yet there is so much we can learn from each other. Sumana Harihareswara has created an extraordinary collection of resources about Eldercare, Family Caretaking, and End-of-life Logistics: Stuff I Learned. It is full of detailed advice, good sense, and compassion. (created by brainwane, found at MeFi Projects)
Poet and activist Benjamin Zephaniah dies age 65
One of the important voices of modern Britain, Benjamin Zephaniah was not much like other poets teenagers get introduced to. [more inside]
Costa da Coastal
The village of Hemsby has been on the East coast of England since Hemer the Viking started farming there over 1,000 years ago. Two weeks ago, a rather modest storm, which didn't even merit a name, carried away the road [BBC] which services a number of houses which used to be (safe) behind the dunes. Context below the fold. [more inside]
One-Vote Wonders From Sight and Sound's Greatest Films Poll
BFI: 101 Hidden Gems: The Greatest Films You’ve Never Seen. “Hailing from every continent but Antarctica and spanning more than 120 years, this selection is, in its way, as representative of the riches of cinema history as that other list we released at the end of last year. Fiction rubs shoulders with nonfiction, films made by collectives sit alongside hand-crafted animation, and a healthy dose of comedy sidles up to heartbreaking drama – and then there are the films that defy all categorisation.” [more inside]
Ken Gun Min's Gay Utopia
"Ken Gun Min is a daydreamer. 'I have one foot in reality and the other in fantasy,' the painter says as he sits on the floor of his Koreatown studio and sews beads onto a finished canvas. 'I have a fantasy-oriented brain. I am constantly daydreaming and creating stories'" The LA Times presents a story on the artist and his big, gorgeous, sumptuously gay paintings/collages/beadwork. But also, because I cannot get enough: Ken Gun Min’s Vision of Gay Utopia (Hyperallergic). And from his 2022 show (ArtNet).
When Robert Met Barbara
I've watched a lot of these Actors On Actors videos from Variety, but none of them have felt as truly interesting to me as Cillian Murphy & Margot Robbie meeting for the first time and talking about the phenomenon that was Barbenheimer. 45m
Live shamelessly
The ancient Cynic outlook was negative, but the Cynic did not become trapped by their negativity, or use a negative outlook on life as an excuse for doing nothing, for giving up on life, or for giving in. Cynic negativity was not associated with the idea that if everything is bad, nothing can be done, so let’s do nothing. Rather, Cynic negativity spurred the Cynic into action. Negativity was employed in a quest to become free of unnatural restraint, and to conjure a less servile state of mind. Negativity released the Cynic from social obligations, and social ties, and allowed the Cynic to think differently about the world around them. from How to live like a Cynic
December 6
right to vote
Pressley, Welch introduce legislation to guarantee right to vote for people with felonies on record [more inside]
Here Hold My Kid
Here Hold My Kid (SLRedBull). Watch two of the best skiers on the planet compete for a sponsorship over the course of a winter season. [more inside]
Audio search engine can identify Australian wildlife by sounds
Never been done before: This audio search engine can identify Australian wildlife by the sounds they make. Australian researchers and Google have launched a first-of-its-kind search engine that analyses and identifies wildlife sounds.
TV legend Norman Lear dies at 101
The Crimson Tide washes up some guppies
Tonight at 8PM Eastern: The fourth Republican presidential debate -- and the last one before next month's Iowa caucuses. Currently winnowed to just four candidates (and once again missing its runaway favorite), the NewsNation-hosted debate at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa (roll tide), will feature Gov. Nikki "Koch Fiend" Haley, Gov. Ron "Poop Map" DeSantis, Gov. Chris "Just Happy to Be Here" Christie, and entrepreneur Vivek "Pharma Bro Bro" Ramaswamy. You can catch the debate live on NewsNation (or The CW), stream it for free on the NewsNation site, download their app, or check out a minimal-commentary livestream from YouTuber David Pakman.
experiencing diaspora as an unexpected concentration of connections
There are foods I don’t associate with a specific memory so much as with the act of remembering. If all my favourite breakfast foods were laid out before me—smoked salmon and capers, ful mdammas, soft goat cheese and honey—I would reach for labaneh and zaatar first.
Sentenced to a job in fast food
The woman who threw a burrito bowl in a Chipotle employee's face back in September has been sentenced to a fine and 180 days jail time, with that time reduced to 60 days in exchange for working 20 hours per week at a fast food restaurant for two months. "She got exactly what she deserved. She’s gonna walk in my shoes,” Russell said. [more inside]