September 24
The Captain and Tenebrous Spiels
MeFi's Own Andy Baio is tracking a mystery over on waxy.org: A mysterious voice is haunting American Airlines’ in-flight announcements and nobody knows how
¡No Controles!
It pairs well with garum.
This miracle plant was eaten into extinction 2,000 years ago—or was it? is an article in the National Geographic by Taras Grescoe [previously] about the potential rediscovery of the favorite herb of the Romans, silphion, [prev & iously] in Turkey by Prof. Mahmut Miski. Grescoe put a bit more info in a Twitter thread, and if you have access, you can read Miski’s scholarly article here.
"Isn’t Star Trek: The Next Generation just a remake of The Smurfs?"
Stephen Lindholm's Smurf Research Center lists a treasury of Smurfy miscellanea. It has all the episodes of the show with plot synopses, speculates about the existence of gay Smurfs (with only one adult female, how could there not be?), and also records systematically whatever the hell it is that Gargamel wanted them for. The title of the post comes from their "magnum opus," The Exegesis of the Smurfs. [more inside]
Star Trek: The Motion Picture is finally complete
After 1500 or so edits, Star Trek: The Motion Picture is a film that finally feels properly paced, looks stunning, and, after long last, no longer keeps the viewer at arm’s length.
"So there's one in the breach?"
It started with a tweet highlighting an episode from On the Air, a series of short animations from BBC Northern Ireland of talk radio from The Gerry Anderson Show dating back to the 2000s. The hypno-hen soon went viral, and now the late broadcaster's family have set up a website in his honour. [more inside]
The World We’re Losing by Larissa Diakiw
The first time I saw these swaths of burnt-pumpkin, dead forest, I felt a pain in my chest, though I will admit that I still hadn’t accepted or allowed myself to reveal this to others, consider it legitimate, or let myself feel it, so it became a stunted obscure pain. A pain I considered immature, juvenile, weak. This is the first time I can remember my own eco-grief. An elastic tight feeling inside my chest. I will always equate the orange colour of dead pine needles with the colour of death.
September 23
What if your friends’ art sucks?
We were here to “Make friends, not art!” Well, that sounds fun. But what if your friends’ art sucks? Documenta was always a pacesetter — and this year’s edition certainly put its finger on a larger shift, seen too in our museums, our art schools and our magazines, away from aesthetic ambition and intellectual seriousness and toward the easier comforts of togetherness, advocacy and fun. If your friends’ art sucks, that’s actually no big deal — because being together matters more than doing something well. And if the German press say your friends’ art sucks, that’s OK, too — reassuring, actually, as evidence that this rotten colonizers’ world has no place for us. [more inside]
"Warmth, Björk"
Björk (wiki) has a podcast: "In the conversations on this podcast me and my friends try to capture which moods, timbres, and tempos were vibrating during each of my ten albums...I hope you enjoy it." -from the trailer to Sonic Symbolism. [more inside]
Women in Comics
Vultures Prevent Millions of Tons of Carbon Emissions Each Year
A food for unmarried men who didn’t know how to cook
Sometimes it takes a clown to make you cry
Why does Adam Sandler's 'Click' make men cry? Despite being widely recognized as a bad movie, Adam Sandler's Click apparently makes a lot of men cry. Even men who acknowledge the movie's many failings still admit to weeping at the end. Some go so far as to mention crying at the end of Click on their dating profiles. [more inside]
Ukraine war month seven, Russia mobilizes
Russia has been on the receiving end of the Ukrainian counter offensive for about four weeks now, and things have not been going well for them. During the retreat from the Kharkiv area, the 1st Guards Tank Army, the most prestigious major unit of the Russian Army, was for all intents and purposes routed. Russia's major reinforcement unit, the 3rd Army Corps, was moved into theater and practically melted away.
In reaction to these events, the Duma has pushed through a new conscription law, and the Kremlin has announced a partial mobilization. How many people will be called in is unclear, as one clause of the order is secret. Russian industry has also been urged to ramp up production. [more inside]
i tried to think of a Hellraiser joke about drum machines and souls but
Can I offer you a fully operable web implementation of the Roland TR-909 drum machine in this trying time?
Making Brazil '64 Again
With Brazil's Presidential election first round on October 2nd. The Department for Making Brazil '64 Again has authorised a tourism ad which is surprisingly honest and informative!
UOL who first printed the story of Jair Bolsonaro’s murky family finances claiming the Brazilian president and close relatives used cash to pay for more than 50 properties worth millions of dollars have just had a judicial order to remove the stories.
UOL who first printed the story of Jair Bolsonaro’s murky family finances claiming the Brazilian president and close relatives used cash to pay for more than 50 properties worth millions of dollars have just had a judicial order to remove the stories.
It Won't Be the Last Time Baboons are Mentioned, Either.
Trombones. Hot dogs. Baboons. Collectible cards. Lore. Trombone Champ has it all. [PC Gamer] [more inside]
The life so short, the craft so long to lerne
Dame Hilary Mantel, author of (among others) the Wolf Hall trilogy about Thomas Cromwell, has died of a stroke at age 70. Among previous appearances on Metafilter: discussing historical fiction, describing life in the court of Henry VIII, and recounting her own history with endometriosis. [more inside]
Were you a ‘parentified child’?
Content warning: emotional abuse. The parentified child who supports the parent often incurs a cost to her own psychic stability and development. The phenomenon has little to do with parental love, and much more to do with the personal and structural circumstances that stop parents from attending to the immense anxiety and burden that a child may be experiencing on their behalf. The parent is often unable to see that their child is taking responsibility for maintaining the peace in the family, for protecting one parent from the other, for being their friend and therapist, for mediating between the parents and the outside world, for parenting the siblings, and sometimes for the medical, social and economic stability of the household. A long read from Nivida Chandra, a psychologist and research scholar specializing in the emotional abuse of children in India. [more inside]
The DALL·E 2 of MUSIC?
Systems such as OpenAI's DALL·E 2 have shown impressive progress recently in generating images from text-based descriptions. Composer David Bruce looks at how these trends are starting to impact the world of music composition. [more inside]
September 22
Have I Got Ever So Much News For You!
Have I Got 30 Years For You [57m] is a retrospective of BBC series Have I Got News For You, covering its run beginning in 1990 and running even until the present day. For Much More News, here is a YouTube playlist that has "best of" compilations from each series (minus a couple), running 30m-1h+ each. Up to 62 series now, and I assume still counting!
Go ahead and stare at my prosthetic arm. I know it’s awesome.
I didn’t want a so-called natural-looking limb, so getting it right involved a lot of design research. Googling “Sailor Moon glitter holographic Infinity Gauntlet” led me nowhere, but further searches revealed a concept called uncanny valley... (archive.ph link)
As the palm is bent, the boy is inclined.
Born in San Juan, Puerto Rico and an alumnus of NYC's Art + Disability Residency, interdisciplinary artist Kevin Quiles Bonilla considers his work to be rooted in the experience of living in/leaving a colonial environment. An interview with Bomb Magazine on Quiles Bonilla's solo show "A tropic squall blew in, while you dried in the sand." Recent work on the structures of colonialism, the childhood memory of acknowledging queerness, and the blue tarp as embodied trauma. [more inside]
The South Asian polycrisis
The South Asian Polycrisis. Economist Adam Tooze writes in his substack newsletter about the multiple crises affecting South Asia, particularly Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.
Exceeding 1.5°C global warming could trigger multiple climate tipping points
Every tenth of a degree that we can avoid warming the planet is important: Climate tipping points. (research paper)
Shaved Down by Hyperreality into Fungible Nubs of Non-Meaning
On the internet, then, we find an increasing polarization between objects represented as pure exchange-value and pure use-value. ASMR, TikTok, and floating houses do something of the latter—by showing us only the imagistic form of these objects, and withholding their more mind-numbing and tangible pleasures, the online photo reacquaints us with a material world outside capitalist production. Paradoxically, the disembodied image, which usually puts us at automatic remove, awakens the body’s possible responses to the object. It takes us beyond the abstract plane of price; it reacquaints us with matter. from The Apocalyptic Sublime by Zoë Hu
Dreams. Nature. Personal experiences.
September 21
USGS Water Data For The Nation Blog
In Lebanon, People Are Holding Up Banks to Access Their Own Money
Is it really a crime if it’s your own money? In Lebanon, the lira has lost 90% of its value even as the price of everything soars with global inflation. As a result, banks have frozen their customers assets, only allowing them to withdraw a small amount each month in US dollars or local currency. Fed up, ordinary citizens are holding up banks in order to withdraw money to support their families or pay for loved ones’ medical care. [more inside]
Do you remember?
Demi Adejuyigbe is conspicuously not doing anything extraordinary today, for once. He said last year was going to be the final iteration, and this year we all have to do our own silly dances if we want silly dances. Previously, previously, previously, previously, and previously
Some dispute over T-shirt sales
That time Ministry trolled their record company and it paid off.
For a long time, the word "condom" was unprintable.
I had no intention to deal with this word, but a few days ago, one of our correspondents asked me whether the information on the etymology of condom one finds on the Internet can be trusted. The answer is "on the whole, yes." A few websites provide debunked hypotheses, but most are reliable, especially if they cite the relevant bibliography. I may have a richer database on condom than some authors, because it contains references to such old English and German medical journals as Human Fertility, but I have not unearthed any information unknown to my predecessors. I am writing this blog post only out of deference to our reader.
P.S. THIS IS THE MOST FUN WE'VE HAD ON JUNK MAIL IN A LONG TIME! THANKS!
What was it like working at Atari between 1983 and 1992? I dunno, but if you want to know what sort of emails employees sent each other you should browse atariemailarchive.org
includes rule covering "Unspecified Winter Celebration"
Any ex-lovers of residents of Spirit Falls must file, in writing, their intent to enter city limits ninety days before an intended visit. The paperwork must include a notarized affidavit of intent to not participate in, instigate, or be the recipient of romantic gestures. "We Are a Picturesque Small Town and We Refuse to Be the Setting for Your Romantic Comedy" by Rachel Mans McKenny, a short humorous piece in McSweeney's.
"The number of grossly inflated asset values is staggering."
If you find a strange puzzle box: NO TOUCHY
New Hellraiser movie trailer has come to tear your soul apart. The titular of Pinhead will be played by Jamie Clayton, and is Clive Barker approved.
VoteRiders fight
In fewer than 50 days, the midterm elections will be held in the US. According to a new analysis by Democracy Docket, there has been a steep jump in voting and election lawsuits filed by Republican-affiliated groups in 2022 compared to 2021. In 2021, GOP-affiliated groups and individuals filed 7 lawsuits, or 13% of the total voting cases tracked in 2021. As of September 16, 2022, GOP-affiliated groups have filed 41 lawsuits, or nearly 54% of all voting cases tracked in 2022.
These cases are intended to shorten or end early voting periods, end or limit mail-in ballots, attack the use of drop boxes, or add voter ID requirements that make it challenging for the elderly, the poor, the unhoused, those without cars, the disabled, and other folks to vote. Happily, several organizations are working to protect voters. [more inside]
The Ability to Find Beauty in Unpromising Places
September 20
Capitalism and extreme poverty
A global analysis of real wages, human height, and mortality since the long 16th century. twitter summary [more inside]
Mary L. Proctor: Painting the Way
"I was on my way to interview an artist whose work I admire, a woman who upholds long-held cultural traditions, while using her art to heal, to connect and to communicate the philosophical and religious principles of a purposefully simple life. That life, she says, is all about raising a family, honoring God and preserving the dead — all the while making a living as an artist. How did she share herself without exploiting herself? Could she? Can any of us?"--Don't Ignore Signs: The Art of Missionary Mary Proctor (by Katherine Webb-Hehn; The Bitter Southerner) [more inside]
Cindy Gallop is not a relationship person, and can't wait to die alone
Cindy Gallop discusses her website Make Love Not Porn and her aversion to marriage and relationships Cindy Gallop, age 60, discusses her sex life, her aversion to relationships and marriage pressure, and her website, Make Love Not Porn (NSFW-ish)
“Do you want to make love to a sad old man?”
“Northern Boy”, by The Northern Boys. Liverpudlian Norman Pain and his mates Patrick and Kevin are having feelings. (SLYT, NSFW)
You say you want una revolución
Revolution Will Not Be Televised - La Revolución No Se Televisará - La Revolución No Será Televisada - La Revolución NO Va A Ser Televisada.
Well, it's no "Faith of the Heart"
The best kind of plastic debris from the ocean?
Thousands of expensive Yeti coolers are washing up on shore after a cargo ship spilled 109 containers of them near Washington’s Olympic Peninsula last year. One greedy collector has reportedly nabbed 20 of them. Why this Alaska man needs the kind of cooler space that could keep 1,140 beers cold eludes us, but it sounds like a great time.
Broadway's Longest-Running Show Sets Closing Date
Cooked with Love: World Recipes Without Borders
Cooked with Love is a recipe book collated by 30 unaccompanied minor asylum seekers, with help from social workers, carers, and city officials in Leeds, UK. Featuring recipes from Afghanistan, Iran, Sudan, Ethiopia, Eritrea and Chad, the book is downloadable for free from the first link. [more inside]
Tories are only found in the most humididulous jungles of the Vorp
Nearly completely forgotten in this age is an early Rankin/Bass cartoon that aired on NBC in 1970, The Tomfoolery Show (WIKIPEDIA), which animated nonsense works from Edward Lear, Ogden Nash, and Lewis Carroll, as well as containing original silliness. Seventeen were made, but most seem to be lost. Four episodes are preserved on Youtube by video rarities collector Anthony Gonzalez: one, two, three, four. Here's a playlist I made with all four. Some highlights are inside. WARNING: contains puns, limericks, and things that don't fit into traditional systems of logic. [more inside]
Busby Berkeley en 2021 et en français
Musical artist Camille's recent works include MANDALALÀS, a series of experimental dance videos shot from above accompanied by new compositions.
September 19
Biden says pandemic is over
Politico: Biden's "60 Minutes" remarks surprised his own health advisers, and came as the administration seeks more Covid response funding. [more inside]