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Next week is International Stoic Week. Seven days of seeing what it feels like to live following Stoic principles. Questions? 24 Common Criticisms of Stoicism — and Some Answers.
posted by storybored at 5:19 PM - 0 comments

MONSTER FACTORY is a long-running, beloved comedy video series that is a strong contender for one of the funniest goddamn things ever published on the internet. Each episode features brothers Griffin and Justin McElroy (of MBMBAM fame) diving headlong into the character creator of a random game -- Griffin controlling the sliders, Justin providing color commentary. Over the next half-hour or so of relentlessly quotable banter, strange noises, and *painfully* hilarious shenanigans, they sculpt weirdly beautiful creatures of bizarre and improbable proportions, inventing a rich (and loving) backstory along the way. (Some personal favorites: The Final Pam [Fallout 4] - Truck Shepard [Mass Effect 2] - Knife Dad [Champions Online] - Trüllbus the Crime Eater [Saints Row 3] - Super Saiyan Dennis Farina [Tiger Woods '08] - Dr. Sexgun [SoulCalibur VI] - jIM jELLY [Pro Gymnast Simulator] - Snack Braff [WWE 2K20] - Pismokio [Woodworking Simulator] - Count Beetlejuice-Beetlejuice Beetlejuice [Crusader Kings 3] - the phenomenal "Boy-Mayor of Second Life" saga). The series inspired a wave of animations, supercuts, think pieces, and art from adoring fans. Sadly, production slowed after the brothers left original host Polygon, with only the occasional new entry once or twice a year... until now. Prepare for eight straight weeks of new Monster Factory episodes every Wednesday across three different games, starting with a livestream edition played earlier today on the latest McElroy Family Clubhouse.
posted by Rhaomi at 1:24 PM - 6 comments

17th Century Death Roulette ☠️. What it says on the tin. Click twice to find out how you died. The death options are taken from the reports of deaths London in the 1600.
posted by gentlyepigrams at 12:55 PM - 38 comments

Mike Jeffries, the former CEO of Abercrombie & Fitch, has been indicted on 16 federal counts of sex trafficking and international prostitution in New York, and is accused of leveraging “a network of employees, contractors and security professionals” while he led the retailer. [more inside]
posted by NoMich at 12:47 PM - 26 comments

Scrambled maps
posted by chavenet at 12:32 PM - 15 comments

"All nonfiction writers can end up writing incorrect or controversial things, but why does every Gladwell book push half-formed and inaccurate theories?" A modest proposal: Forget Gladwell. [W. David Marx in Culture: An Owner's Manual] [more inside]
posted by Halloween Jack at 9:22 AM - 58 comments

A Queensland-first solar panel recycling plant to stop 240,000 panels going into landfill annually. The Pan Pacific plant on Brisbane's southern fringe is expected to take apart the panels, recycling each individual element, which is essential to the future of renewable energy in Australia.
posted by chariot pulled by cassowaries at 8:42 AM - 7 comments

Who's that standing on my lawn?
Who's that fellow with the LCD eyes?
A 12-foot Home Depot Skeleton!
(A song from Louie Zong and Kitsch Club.) [more inside]
posted by JHarris at 7:35 AM - 21 comments

How elderly dementia patients are unwittingly fueling political campaigns (slCNN, warning: it is an interactive article)
posted by Kitteh at 6:51 AM - 28 comments

Shelved by Genre is a podcast [Apple link and RSS feed] where Cameron Kunzelman, Michael Lutz and Austin Walker discuss science fiction, fantasy and horror fiction books (and the occasional movie), in great detail. The first season was on Gene Wolfe’s Book of the New Sun, the second on Ursula K. Le Guin’s Earthsea Cycle, followed by a season on Junji Itō, and they have now started on Mercedes Lackey’s Last Herald-Mage trilogy. The hosts are fans, but also discuss the works critically.
posted by Kattullus at 6:08 AM - 4 comments

Start off strong with Sixth Wonder - BRUTAS, then get a little more melodic with HURANOVA - TAKE ME FIRST and REEBZ - "Hallucination", bump up the intensity with THE HELLFREAKS - Weeping Willow, and end with an oldie that really should have gotten more traction: Straight Line Stitch "Remission".
posted by signal at 1:11 AM - 8 comments

Every Friday morning, dozens of children ride their bikes to school as one large, highly organized group. They call it the bike bus and it's been a huge hit for kids, parents and teachers. Kids ride to school in the fresh air in NYC, Boston, Los Angeles, Portland, Fairhaven, MA, and...maybe your school district? [more inside]
posted by daveliepmann at 12:39 AM - 14 comments

At first, zero caused confusion. “Its ability to represent ‘nothing’ and enable complex mathematical operations challenged deeply ingrained theological and philosophical ideas,” Nieder said. Particularly due to the influence of the church, philosophers and theologians associated “nothing” with chaos and disorder and were disinclined to accept it. Many even feared it, considering it “the devil’s number,” Barnett said. from How the Human Brain Contends With the Strangeness of Zero [Quanta Magazine; ungated]
posted by chavenet at 12:30 AM - 23 comments

OCTOBER 22 IS INTERNATIONAL CAPS LOCK DAY!!! EVERY YEAR WE GET TOGETHER AND MAKE SALMON FOR TOAST, EVERY YEAR WE GET A CROCKETY BLOAT, EVERY YEAR WE GET DRUNK ON THE DOCKS, AND EVERY YEAR WE HAVE SEX WITH OUR CAPS LOCKS!11!!
posted by a humble nudibranch at 10:00 PM - 73 comments

A study, a scare and a long silence. How menopause became a health crisis for Canadian women. Women in their 40s and 50s are suddenly being hit by menopause symptoms at the peak of their careers — and finding little help in the health system.
posted by chariot pulled by cassowaries at 9:00 PM - 24 comments

Have A Cigar as performed by the most excellent LA funk band The Main Squeeze. [more inside]
posted by swift at 6:41 PM - 11 comments

free thread! Ada Lovelace wrote of early computing “The Analytical Engine weaves algebraic patterns, just as the Jacquard loom weaves flowers and leaves.” [scienceandindustrymuseum] do you weave, knit (or are you a fan of knitting), fabric, or theory? or, write about whatever you wish, it's your free thread 🧵free thread🧵
posted by HearHere at 4:34 PM - 30 comments

The story of GHQ, a war-based strategy game by the famously war-averse author. After Player Piano was published to critical but not commercial success, Kurt Vonnegut turned his hand to board game design. The results have been re-discovered and released. Via Geoff Engelstein's substack gametek, itself a rabbithole of gamey meat. Plus a how to play video via BoardGameGeek.
posted by Sparx at 4:06 PM - 8 comments

"Harris seems to be adopting a gimmicky new strategy every day, from embracing cryptocurrency to announcing that as president she’ll run all policy through a bipartisan council of advisors. She’s throwing everything against the wall, hoping that something, anything, will put her over the edge. There’s one tactic Harris doesn’t seem keen to try, though. She won’t embrace the kind of antiwar sentiment and economic populism that might appeal to many currently unenthusiastic voters, but which would infuriate the Democratic establishment and the donor class." Ben Burgis in Jacobin, "The Strangely Empty Politics of Kamala Harris."
posted by mittens at 1:49 PM - 313 comments

In 1973, Roe v. Wade granted a nationwide right to abortion and helped create a path to access. But, abortion access has rarely been a straight line — it’s full of twists, turns, and roadblocks. And these barriers have only gotten more complicated since the US Supreme Court gave states the power to ban abortion in 2022’s Dobbs ruling. While 13 states completely outlawed abortion, with many additional states dismantling access in other ways……other states have moved to strengthen their protections, creating a complicated patchwork of laws across the country. To illustrate how difficult it is to get abortion care, we built a maze for each state where the difficulty is calculated by the state’s abortion policies. [The Pudding]
posted by chavenet at 1:21 PM - 10 comments

Just in time for fall, the 52nd Mersenne prime has been discovered by the Great Internet Mersenne Prime Search (GIMPS). It's 41,024,320 digits long. [more inside]
posted by The Pluto Gangsta at 11:18 AM - 25 comments

Metafilter's own L. Fitzgerald Sjoberg has started a new serialized novel, featuring Sean and Wormwood, the Friendly Satanists, with episodes each Monday on his substack. [more inside]
posted by jacquilynne at 10:58 AM - 10 comments

Two short stories about yearning, beauty, and craft. "What Tempts Our Wives" by Sarah Horner (published this year): "My wife no longer washes her hands when she comes in from the garden." "Free Art" by Meg Elison (published this year): "Breathing deeply and moving past my annoyance, I opened up the Little Free Art Gallery. Inside, there was only one piece aside from the old ugly ashtray. In that same marble again, there he stood. David." (Meg Elison, previously.)
posted by brainwane at 8:46 AM - 3 comments

Insects are the little things that run the world. Now you can help choose Australia's favourite. The Australian Broadcasting Corporation has begun its quest to find out which native six-legged marvel is Australia's most popular insect for 2024. Six experts have selected their finalists for an online poll.
posted by chariot pulled by cassowaries at 7:59 AM - 9 comments

The sequel to Gamestop-- people convinced to invest in BB&B even as the company was going bankrupt. It was orchestrated by a man who got out, tanking the stock. A bunch of people kept buying it, losing their life savings and sometimes their marriages. The investors (at least a fair number of them) kept trusting. They were giving each other tremendous emotional support. They still have hope. [more inside]
posted by Nancy Lebovitz at 7:03 AM - 55 comments

A driver who ran over a cyclist following an altercation in central Paris has been charged with murder in a case that has shocked France. [more inside]
posted by daveliepmann at 6:33 AM - 84 comments

AI Audiobook Narrators in OverDrive and the Issue of Library AI Circulation Policy. Librarian Robin Bradford found that some audiobooks in her library were AI-read. Then she and Smart Bitches, Trashy Books went down a rabbit hole about whether the authors themselves are real.
posted by paduasoy at 5:19 AM - 28 comments

We gathered 57 of the most powerful people in media — and rather than simply anoint them, we put them to work. What follows is a tour through the state of journalism, assembled from dozens of hours of extremely candid conversations. (Bypass NY Magazine’s business model here). WARNING: a 14,000-word article.
posted by 1970s Antihero at 5:17 AM - 29 comments

For years, Moldova—a country similar in size to the US state of Maryland, sandwiched between the EU and Ukraine—has complained of Russian meddling. But more recently, as this former Soviet state prepares for a pivotal presidential vote and referendum on whether to join the EU, the country has become a cautionary tale about how the world’s biggest social media platforms can be exploited to create and fund a complex disinformation operation that sows discord around some of a society’s most divisive subjects. from The Disinformation Warning Coming From the Edge of Europe [Wired; ungated] [more inside]
posted by chavenet at 2:04 AM - 13 comments

A folk-pop mischief-maker who goes by Catbreath has collected hundreds of thousands of streams by giving his songs prankish titles like “Chill Music,” “Gym Bangers,” and “My Discover Weekly.” [more inside]
posted by i_am_joe's_spleen at 10:06 PM - 10 comments

Tourists urged not to feed wildlife after spate of bin-diving kangaroo rescues. Wildlife rescuers in Victoria's Grampians region are reporting multiple cases of kangaroos getting their heads stuck in domestic kitchen bins and say it's because tourists are feeding them.
posted by chariot pulled by cassowaries at 7:32 PM - 5 comments

Rookie washashore wins historic derby prize! The annual derby always has great memories... [more inside]
posted by vrakatar at 3:55 PM - 0 comments

This had to mean something. I thought about the prophecies of ruined cities in the Bible. Nineveh and Babylon, empty of human life, inhabited only by birds: “The cormorant and the bittern shall lodge in the lintels; their voice shall be at the windows; desolation shall be at the threshold.” Ruined granaries where a few sparrows still peck for the last wedged-in flecks of grain. Most of the people around me walked in silence. Ahead of us, in the distance, the Arc de Triomphe gleamed in the darkness of the city like a pulled molar. I wondered how many of these people were suddenly realizing that they couldn’t actually remember anything that had just happened. How the blaring brightness of fame and the oblivion that’s coming turned out to be exactly the same thing. from Forgetting Taylor Swift by Sam Kriss
posted by chavenet at 2:58 PM - 92 comments

At the 2024 World Crokinole Championship Series, Justin Slater (fresh off his win in the World Crokinole Doubles Division) and Connor Reinman (the defending World Crokinole Champion) met in the semi-finals and managed a double perfect game. Confused? The Pudding has an interactive explainer. [more inside]
posted by ChurchHatesTucker at 11:59 AM - 21 comments

Toilet lines are longer for women than men, but simple changes could reduce loo queues. Queuing is never a pleasant experience, especially if you're desperate to go — and while new research has revealed it's an issue that disproportionately affects women, experts say that tweaks to building codes could help reduce the problem.
posted by chariot pulled by cassowaries at 8:13 AM - 70 comments

+++ATH0: Ward Christensen, co-inventor of the computer bulletin board system (BBS), has died at the age of 78. Christensen, along with Randy Suess, created the first BBS in Chicago in 1978, leading to an important cultural era of digital community-building that presaged much of our online world today. [more inside]
posted by JoeZydeco at 7:38 AM - 51 comments

Why did everyone fall for the J1407b myth? is 12 minute video essay that starts off as discussion about a cool astronomical mystery but becomes a measured, well-argued rant about knowledge in the age of Google and LLMs. It is by YouTuber Kyplanet who makes weekly videos about cool astronomical things, mostly exoplanets.
posted by Kattullus at 4:51 AM - 9 comments

"I read the words Gibbet Hill and I knew that wasn't a Bram Stoker story that I had ever heard of in any of the biographies or bibliographies." [more inside]
posted by cupcakeninja at 4:49 AM - 4 comments

The human body is almost always at the centre of artist Joyce Lee’s work, often transformed into psychedelic penis-shaped mushrooms or vulvic flowers exuding sticky pearls. These surreal metamorphoses move the viewer away from reality and into imaginary spaces, where desire and the body’s experience of pleasure are the main focus. Over-the-top sexuality is combined with visual gags to lend the images a bizarre and obscene sense of humour. The exaggerated campness of Lee’s work is joyful, mixing comedy with sex and working against the idea that art has to be serious. from Erotic nuns and pubic plaits: Inside Joyce Lee’s surreal, sensual world [Dazed] [Images & text NSFW] [more inside]
posted by chavenet at 2:41 AM - 8 comments

William Shakespeare on mass deportation, performed by Ian McKellan

On May 1, 1517 — now referred to as Evil May Day — riots broke out in London as a response to an influx of immigrant workers. A young Sir Thomas More spoke to the crowd, and Shakespeare (a few decades later) wrote his version of that speech. [more inside]
posted by PlusDistance at 8:28 PM - 8 comments

The Facebook of Margery Kempe. [more inside]
posted by chariot pulled by cassowaries at 8:14 PM - 7 comments

Without Battery storage (by way of slashdot): MIT engineers have built a solar-powered desalination system that "ramps up its desalting process and automatically adjusts to any sudden variation in sunlight" [more inside]
posted by aleph at 3:52 PM - 13 comments

Despite the huge variation in how autistic people experience the condition, they can be divided into just four subgroups, according to a preprint. The people in these groups—who share similar traits and life outcomes—carry gene variants that implicate distinct biological pathways, the researchers found. from Untangling biological threads from autism’s phenotypic patchwork reveals four core subtypes
posted by chavenet at 12:55 PM - 7 comments

First time my baby hears Clair de Lune - violin - viola - guitar - drums - fiddle - Moonlight Sonata - Hans Zimmer - Pavarotti - headphones - reggaeton - Johnny Cash - harp and violin - a storybook - opera singing - string quartet - Backstreet Boys - Elvis - Beat It - Guns N' Roses - the bassoon - the paper towel dispenser - bubble wrap
posted by Rhaomi at 11:51 AM - 12 comments

A big day for bird nerds as falcon chicks seen hatching in real-time. Melbourne's famous peregrine falcons are giving their live stream followers something to squawk about, with two tiny chicks hatching and another on the way.
posted by chariot pulled by cassowaries at 7:51 AM - 7 comments

Q: Are we immortal? A. If you trust the mathematics, yes. But it is not an immortality in the sense that after death you will wake up sitting in hell or heaven, both of which – let’s be honest – are very earthly ideas. It is more that, since the information about you cannot be destroyed, it is in principle possible that a higher being someday, somehow re-assembles you and brings you back to life. And since you would have no memory of the time passing in between – which could be 10¹⁰⁰ billion years! – you would just find yourself in the very far future. from Sabine Hossenfelder, physicist: ‘If you trust the mathematics, we are immortal’ [El Pais] [more inside]
posted by chavenet at 1:21 AM - 106 comments

They may look like ant hills, but Western Australia's Pinnacles are 100,000 years old, study suggests. Western science has long debated when the towering pillars of the Pinnacles came to be. A new study suggests most of the spires formed when a particularly wet period dissolved the surrounding rock.
posted by chariot pulled by cassowaries at 8:39 PM - 5 comments

British Columbia goes to the polls [Global]. A rather complicated situation in BC: the old opposition party, BC United, quit (or at least its leader did)[CBC], and handed things over to the Conservatives. A bunch of BC United's candidates are running as independents [CBC]-- this includes five incumbents. So the Right-wing vote is split. Meanwhile, the Green Party seems to be doing okay (14% in the polls, leader doing well in her riding [Pollara]). The governing party right now is the New Democratic Party, which is social democratic. [more inside]
posted by CCBC at 5:43 PM - 69 comments

“Andy Capp is often dismissed as nothing but the exploits of a wife-beating drunk,” Paul Slade says. “It deserves better." ... The Redemption of Andy Capp is an appreciation of Andy Capp’s creator, Reg Smythe and his skills as a world-class cartoonist. There was far more to the strip than people realise today.” [via mefi projects]
posted by chavenet at 1:18 PM - 43 comments

On the University of Michigan's DEI initiative. Nicholas Confessore (previously) reports on UM's diversity, equity, and inclusion strategy. (Gift link; X/Twitter thread introduction) [more inside]
posted by doctornemo at 12:38 PM - 22 comments