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Anyone who was a teen in the 1990's probably climbed out of a bedroom window with one of these in the pocket of their JUNCO's, In the mid 1990's midwest, teenage rebellion wore body glitter, platform shoes, and danced all night in abandoned warehouses to electronic music. It had piercings, and tribal tattoos, and despite the passage of time that so often makes one regret those choices, still looks badass in pictures. [more inside]
posted by Sequined Ballet Flats at 6:04 PM PST - 56 comments

The Endless Stream of New Game Releases Is Exciting, but Also Exhausting [Waypoint] “E3 or Gamescom or any of the other major video game events are really just places where companies compete to stay in the same place in the minds of their audience. They release trailers and gameplay demos, sometimes one after another, at an unbelievable pace, simply to stay in the minds of their audiences. [...] The speed of releases; the speed at which we are meant to come to judgment; the speed at which we need to consume these games is hyper-fast. We need to assert that they are good or bad, worth our time or total wastes of it, six months before they even exist. And lets not forget the massive expenditures of time, labor, development money, advertising dollars, and sheer attention that go into games that are declared to be good or bad before they even exist. Funding a race to stand still and to remain in the mind of a potential consumer audience. A constant and eternal war, a contestation in all domains, and for what?” [more inside]
posted by Fizz at 4:18 PM PST - 54 comments

"I tried to collect all these radars - past, current, and future - in one place, or, rather, one Google Earth file. Here it is - Russian Early-Warning Radars 2018.kmz." Via Russianforces.org: "The goal of the project is to provide Russian citizens and policy makers with information about nuclear weapons, arms control and disarmament based on open scientific analysis" (previously on Metafilter, and h/t @sovietvisuals).
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 3:17 PM PST - 3 comments

"A bone-marrow transplant essentially reboots the immune system. Chemotherapy kills off your old white blood cells, and new ones sprout from the donor’s transplanted blood stem cells. It’s unwise to extrapolate too much from a single case study, and it’s possible it was the drugs the man took as part of the transplant procedure that helped him. But his recovery suggests that his immune system was somehow driving his psychiatric symptoms."

posted by mhoye at 1:41 PM PST - 24 comments

Pentester Bill Sempf refurbed an old joke for a current problem he was working on:

QA Engineer walks into a bar. Orders a beer. Orders 0 beers. Orders 999999999 beers. Orders a lizard. Orders -1 beers. Orders a sfdeljknesv.

Twitter responded.
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 1:01 PM PST - 81 comments

Everyone talks about the country falling apart in November 2016, but maybe it fell apart in November 1996, when America went to see The English Patient. What if we had all turned to each other and said, “This garbage is our idea of rave-worthy cinema? Anyone else see a big problem here?”, and then there had been a massive riot?
posted by chappell, ambrose at 12:18 PM PST - 131 comments

Herregud! "Sandwich cake" is a Swedish dish, also popular in Estonia (as "võileivatort"), Finland (as "voileipäkakku") and Iceland (as "brauðterta"); also sometimes Norway (as "smørbrødkake"). It sometimes looks like a cake but it's a good way of using a lot of bread. It can be colourful, vegan, fish or meat based, fruity, modern, creative, pretty, sophisticated, bar-shaped, square, circular, a birthday cake and have many variations and divide opinions. You "...make a huge sandwich, cover it with more filling and decorate it, then cut it like a cake and eat it by the slice". Recipes: [1][2][3][4][5]. Other Nordic variations exist. Previously: [1][2][3]
posted by Wordshore at 11:03 AM PST - 34 comments

"This sounds weird, but as you can see, it is actually extremely cool." Chicago-based artist Aleia Murawski (aleia on Instagram), creates imaginative, dollhouse-scale worlds populated with live snails as the vignettes' surprisingly expressive denizens. [more inside]
posted by merriment at 9:28 AM PST - 6 comments

He helped develop West Side Blues and was a key figure of the city’s 50s and 60s blues resurgence Legendary Chicago blues guitarist Otis Rush, whose passionate, jazz-like music influenced artists from Carlos Santana and Eric Clapton to the rock band Led Zeppelin, has died at the age of 84. Here's an article from 1990 about his influence on Chicago and the West Side Blues: Otis & the West Side Blues [more inside]
posted by MovableBookLady at 9:19 AM PST - 16 comments

"The French have given us a hard nut to crack." One hundred years ago this week began the Meuse-Argonne Offensive, the largest (1.2 million soldiers) and most costly (110,000+ casualties) American military campaign in history. Commanded by John Pershing (previously), the United States First Army attacked in the Verdun area (previously), aiming for Sedan. The successful offensive ended with the November 11th armistice that also concluded the First World War on the western front. [more inside]
posted by doctornemo at 7:52 AM PST - 6 comments

Give a duo of horny 70-year-olds the world's most basic video-editing software and a Google image search for ancient statues, and you get this: the puerile, delightful music video for the song Missionary Position, by Sparks.
posted by rorgy at 11:14 PM PST - 12 comments

Mefi's own Jordan Ellenberg profiles John Urschel, who walked away from an NFL career to pursue his PhD in math at MIT. [more inside]
posted by LobsterMitten at 8:17 PM PST - 27 comments

Kotringo is an alumna of the Berklee College of Music who is best known for composing the music to the 2016 animated film In This Corner of the World. She is also known for recording piano-and-vocal covers of pop songs. There are basically two kinds of Kotringo cover: the super melancholy ones and the super cute ones. See what I mean below the fold. [more inside]
posted by J.K. Seazer at 5:38 PM PST - 8 comments

Varun explains American culture in Hindi (with English subtitles) for his audience back home, visiting farmer's markets in Omaha, dollar stores in Miami, and touring Harvard Yard. But much of his journey is formed by his quixotic insistence on hitchhiking, and his encounters with truckers both Indian and native-born. [more inside]
posted by serathen at 1:50 PM PST - 12 comments

Black leaders came together from all across Latin America in order to begin to establish and consolidate ways to address identity, the identification as Afro-descendent and not just Black — not just a classification of color imposed by the colonial rule, not an identity that would be just racial or racialized, but an identity grounded on a culture.
posted by infini at 12:46 PM PST - 2 comments

Tha Carter V Is Lil Wayne’s Best Album in Years [Vulture] “Lil Wayne is one of the most successful rappers of all time by any measure, a mercurial once-in-a-lifetime talent who found his calling before he hit puberty and has been a public figure since he was a teenager. The reign was never a cakewalk; it’s possible to live your dreams and still be racked with adversity and doubt. Wayne’s Tha Carter V, the latest installment in the Louisiana rapper’s running series of epochal blockbuster studio albums, should be a celebration, and it often is. The lengthy legal proceedings that tied the album up for the last four years are over, and Wayne is rapping with the bullish bluster of someone who has rediscovered his purpose.” [Don't Cry (ft. XXXTentacion)][Mess][Mona Lisa (ft. Kendrick Lamar] [more inside]
posted by Fizz at 11:43 AM PST - 10 comments

The Crying Of Lot 55: The Unsolved Mysteries And Alternate Realities Of Andrew W.K. A really lengthy deep dive into the universe of someone who may or may not exist, possibly because he chooses to/not to.
posted by hippybear at 9:54 AM PST - 49 comments

It would be difficult to make the case that the “guy who died in the round barn” joke, a classic Midwest joke, is funny in its own right—though I would argue it’s pretty funny how much my dad still loves telling it. Which makes it a shining example of one of America’s great familial oral traditions: the dad joke. (Ashley Fetters, The Atlantic) [more inside]
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 8:02 AM PST - 87 comments

Oopsie! The conference of the governing Conservative party begins tomorrow in Birmingham, where topics for discussion include the 'ease' of solving the Ireland border issue using technology. Meanwhile, the app for attendees (which anyone could download) has a privacy policy and 'complies with ...GDPR'. Unfortunately, while the conference is known for having strict security - well, sometimes - the app ... perhaps less so. How bad? Really bad. Naturally, as soon as The Twittersphere was alerted, lots of people decided to be the UK Prime Minister, or perhaps a Cabinet Minister, for a while. The app is also gamified, though it is unclear how Tory Party conference attendees earn points. It's also unclear by how much this falls foul of GDPR . Also, balloons. [Independent] [more inside]
posted by Wordshore at 7:36 AM PST - 31 comments

Marty Balin was co-founder of Jefferson Airplane. He was 76. It was emblematic of the turbulent path San Francisco’s Jefferson Airplane navigated in the 1960s and ‘70s that when the group showed up to play a 1969 festival that was supposed to be the West Coast version of Woodstock, founding member Marty Balin got knocked out cold. The event was the Altamont Festival, cooked up and headlined by the Rolling Stones. Held four months after Woodstock outside of San Francisco, Altamont failed to replicate that event’s touted “three days of peace and music” and turned tragic when a concert-goer was stabbed to death by a member of the Hells Angels motorcycle club, which the Stones had hired to provide security.
posted by MovableBookLady at 6:58 AM PST - 48 comments

(Circa 2038) The Future of Money (also btw Europe Finally Has an Excuse to Challenge the Dollar)
posted by kliuless at 5:55 AM PST - 20 comments

combophotos are surreal photo composites by stephen mcmennamy. combophoto on Instagram has more.
posted by readinghippo at 10:45 PM PST - 14 comments

The Many Lives of Ayn Winters: My TV Pilot With Sony PlayStation [via mefi projects] [more inside]
posted by sardonyx at 10:28 PM PST - 1 comment

All the Rage: What a literature that embraces female anger can achieve. Rebecca Solnit: "Instead of a theory of male anger, we have a growing literature in essays and now books about female anger, a phenomenon in transition..." [more inside]
posted by homunculus at 8:08 PM PST - 19 comments

Antique Swiss Blowtorch. 1930s German Spiral Jack. 1940's Two Speed Enclosed Breast Drill. 100+ Year Old Joseph Lucas Bicycle Carbide Lamp.
posted by carter at 6:34 PM PST - 15 comments

With legalization imminent in Canada, the RCMP has been working out procedures for a roadside pot sobriety test. [SLYT]
posted by clawsoon at 4:36 PM PST - 37 comments

After a chaotic morning of anteroom discussions, the Senate Judiciary Committee voted 11-10 along party lines to recommend Judge Kavanaugh's nomination to the Supreme Court (Roll Call). Senators Flake (R-AZ) and Murkowski (R-AK) joined Democrats in calling for a one-week delay while the FBI investigates the nominee. But would it make a difference if the FBI were to investigate Kavanaugh allegations? (NPR) What happens now? An FBI investigation lasting up to one week, but the Senate will move forward with a vote on Saturday on the Motion to Proceed. Here’s where Kavanaugh’s sworn testimony was misleading or wrong (Washington Post); every time Ford and Kavanaugh dodged a question, in one chart (Vox); every time Kavanaugh mentioned beer; the most telling moment: Kavanaugh goes after Sen. Klobuchar (Washington Post) [more inside]
posted by zachlipton at 2:39 PM PST - 2337 comments

The United States Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit has released an opinion (pdf) in Michael Skidmore v. Led Zeppelin (which alleges that "Stairway to Heaven" contains copied portions of the instrumental song "Taurus" by the band Spirit), ordering a new copyright infringement trial. A previous jury trial denied the copyright infringement claim. Video of arguments in the appeal of that decision leading to today's appeal court decision (heard in March 2018) are available on the 9th Circuit website. [more inside]
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 2:11 PM PST - 43 comments

Mexico’s drug cartels are moving into the gasoline industry — infiltrating the national oil company, selling stolen fuel on the black market and engaging in open war with the military.
posted by Chrysostom at 1:38 PM PST - 8 comments

Ongoing analysis of the LiDAR in the Maya Biosphere Reserve finds more than monuments. Previously.
posted by clew at 1:32 PM PST - 6 comments

and are freaked out by the shock of how amazing it. one, two, three, four, and probably even more out there.
I don't know why. for some reason, such videos really excite me.
posted by avi111 at 1:06 PM PST - 105 comments

Aged 78, Song Peilun has created a hidden utopia on a hillside in Guizhou province, where commercial endeavours are kept at bay and art and indigenous culture thrive
posted by infini at 12:33 PM PST - 3 comments

Edible water bottles (video). Ohoo are little bubbles of water enclosed in an edible seaweed and plant membrane. Pop one in your mouth. Drink the water and eat or discard (biodegradeable) the membrane.
posted by If only I had a penguin... at 12:18 PM PST - 36 comments

Facebook annouced today that 40 million accounts were attacked through a flaw in the "View As" function, enabling the attackers to use access tokens to potentially take over accounts. Facebook has reset the access tokens for up to 90 million accounts. The full implication of this has not been made clear.
posted by MrGuilt at 10:12 AM PST - 77 comments

To understand how climate change is affecting Greenland’s polar bears, scientists turn to the hunters who know them best. [more inside]
posted by poffin boffin at 9:20 AM PST - 1 comment

In January 1973, new cable channel Home Box Office broadcast the heavyweight championship boxing match between Joe Frazier and George Foreman. Over the next 45 years, many of the most memorable ring moments of the last half-century came to American homes via HBO, including the Rumble in the Jungle, Buster Douglas's upset of Mike Tyson, and Manny Pacquiao taking the torch from Oscar De La Hoya. But as of next month, HBO will no longer regularly air boxing. HBO Executive Vice President Peter Nelson says "audience research informs us that boxing is no longer a determinant factor for subscribing to HBO."
posted by Etrigan at 8:43 AM PST - 16 comments

“His vision is for Amazon to become the underlying infrastructure that commerce runs on. Already, Amazon’s website is the dominant platform for online retail sales, attracting half of all online US shopping traffic and hosting thousands of third-party sellers. Its Amazon Web Services division provides 34 percent of the world’s cloud-computing capacity, handling the data of a long list of entities, from Netflix to Nordstrom, Comcast to Condé Nast to the CIA.” Amazon Doesn’t Just Want to Dominate the Market—It Wants to Become the Market (The Nation) - Amazon’s Next Frontier: Your City’s Purchasing (ILSR)- A new analysis by the Economic Policy Institute looking at employment in counties that managed to land a fulfillment center in the last 15 years found no evidence that overall employment increased, and in some instances employment even fell relative to comparison counties. (Huffington Post) - Amazon is doling out raises of as little as 25 cents an hour in what employees call ‘damage control’ (Washington Post) Amazon’s aggressive anti-union tactics revealed in leaked 45 minute video (Gizmodo)
posted by The Whelk at 6:55 AM PST - 67 comments

It's been Yet Another Exhausting Day, and it's time for bed. But you're too snoozy to just stand up and walk there. You don't want to just fall asleep in the middle of the floor like a slob... but you're so tired. Maybe if you don't stand up, but just sort of slide along the floor to the bedroom.... (It's a computer game! Here's a playable demo, and here's the game's Twitter. Sadly, it's Windows only for now. Thanks to Alpha Beta Gamer and Jupiter Hadley for the find.)
posted by JHarris at 2:34 AM PST - 9 comments

Wright loved cars, understood their coming importance, and had a favorite color, Cherokee Red. Wright was one of the few architects and planners to realise very early on in the 20th century that the car, even in its crude, spidery, pre-1910 form, would transform life in the decades to come. Wright developed some of the first buildings that acknowledged the influence of the car. He realized that the humble petrol station could be a center of travel and community life, and designed a prototype in the late 1920s. [more inside]
posted by MovableBookLady at 7:47 PM PST - 23 comments

Be Better at Listening by Pomplamoose. Pomplamoose previously (which has more previously)
posted by Caduceus at 6:16 PM PST - 26 comments

After a remarkable 33-year run, Broken Arrow, the venerable journal of all things Neil Young, ceased publication four years ago. Now, every single issue of Broken Arrow has been indexed, catalogued, and made available for free browsing and downloading at the equally venerable Neil Young setlist site Sugar Mountain. [more inside]
posted by Dr. Wu at 3:22 PM PST - 12 comments

Why Casting Nagini as an Asian Woman in 'Fantastic Beasts' Is So Offensive [Vice] “There is no way to anticipate the plot of a movie that has been kept so tightly under wraps, but the trailer itself already perpetuates a number of harmful stereotypes about Asian women. Nagini, played by Claudia Kim, is in a cage while an audience watches her transform into a snake, echoing historical strains of the sexy, dangerous "dragon lady.” She also quite literally houses a piece of Voldemort’s soul, acting as a guarantor of his immortality, thus reifying the trope of Asian women as submissive. It is doubly hurtful because Nagini will be the second character of significance in the Harry Potter universe to be of East Asian heritage, following Cho Chang as Harry’s early love interest.” [YouTube][Trailer] [more inside]
posted by Fizz at 1:01 PM PST - 116 comments

Maimouna Youssef aka Mumu Fresh is an artist that any fan of gospel, jazz, soul and hip-hop needs to know. The Grammy-nominated singer, songwriter and emcee is often playing a supporting vocalist role for The Roots, Femi Kuti, Common (and previously on NPR Tiny Desk) and many other big names in music. However, judging by her recent NPR Tiny Desk appearance, her talent definitely stands on its own. Want some more? Great! She has posted more than a dozen solo and group releases on Bandcamp. [more inside]
posted by filthy light thief at 12:38 PM PST - 2 comments

The United States House of Representatives has introduced a resolution invoking the War Powers Act and directing President Donald Trump to withdraw US support for the ongoing War in Yemen. A similar measure was blocked by the United States Senate last March.
Trump's Dirty War In Yemen. [more inside]
posted by the man of twists and turns at 11:04 AM PST - 13 comments

This Podcast Can’t Legally Tell You Amway Is a Pyramid Scheme. The Dream is a new podcast that explores "pyramid schemes, multi-level marketing, and all the other businesses that require their members to recruit their nearest and dearest in hopes of a commission." The first episode covers the "Airplane game," a prominent 1980s pyramid scheme. [more inside]
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 11:01 AM PST - 43 comments

I will be ranking the sled dogs from least to most soft, on a scale of 1-10. To do this, I will use a scientific scale known as the SDSI, or Sled Dog Softness Index. Each dog’s score is based on two categories: the softness of individual hairs, and overall fluffiness.
posted by BuddhaInABucket at 10:43 AM PST - 20 comments

How BBC Africa investigated a recently gone viral war crimes video (slTwitter) and found where it took place, when it took place and who committed them. CW: the video is included in the Twitter thread with the actual murder omitted. [more inside]
posted by MartinWisse at 9:42 AM PST - 7 comments

"Shula" was a 1990 hit of the israeli salsa fusion band "Atraf", that probably was about not falling in love with, but using the services of, a prostitute. The lyrics were so obscene but the band members were so desperate to have a prime TV airtime, that they were forced by the executives to change the lyrics. The clean lyrics were so lame and out of context, but who cares as we have this neat looking anti-mohawk bald mullet bassist? [more inside]
posted by avi111 at 8:25 AM PST - 9 comments

"While naming and arranging corals in the Natural History Department of the British Museum, William Saville-Kent daydreamed of seeing the beautiful grey organisms in front of him “in their native seas and wonderful living tints.” Years later he would realise his dream at the Great Barrier Reef in Queensland" - here are 16 full-colour lithographs from William Saville-Kent’s The Great Barrier Reef of Australia (1893).
posted by ChuraChura at 8:20 AM PST - 3 comments

MeFi's own Countess Elena reflects on how the sex scenes in Jean M. Auel's The Valley of Horses "depicted something I had never imagined: truly safe sex—respectful, reverent, healthy. Auel envisioned a world in which life was dangerous, but men were not, and a woman could lead a life of adventure with a partner, not for him or against him."
[via mefi projects]
posted by ITheCosmos at 7:52 AM PST - 60 comments

(Left) Neoliberalism "vs." Democratic Socialism (also btw Hayekian communism)
posted by kliuless at 6:24 AM PST - 13 comments

"The first building, named Alku (Finnish for “beginning”), was completed that year. Within a decade, there were almost 30 Finnish-owned co-op buildings in Sunset Park, with carrying costs (a monthly maintenance fee paid by each household) around half the rent of similar apartments in privately owned buildings. Members were forbidden from selling their units at a profit to ensure lasting affordability. In a pattern that would be repeated for decades to come, the housing co-ops became part of a local co-op ecosystem that included a restaurant, bakery and grocery store."The NYC labor movement built 40,000+ units of low-cost co-op housing for workers- So what happened? What can we learn? (In These Times) Next System Podcast on community control of land and housing, which includes a discussion of actionable policies that cities can take to push back against gentrification and build community wealth. (Transcript and Report available) In North Carolina, co-ops are building a more democratic economy.
posted by The Whelk at 6:19 AM PST - 10 comments

Thanks to the ubiquity of modern digital photography, this type of tall tale is now backed by evidence. Seal slaps kayaker in the face with an octopus in New Zealand.
posted by adept256 at 2:29 AM PST - 45 comments

Ventriloquist Nina Conti In Therapy - 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 (nsfw swearing)
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 2:27 AM PST - 16 comments

“How can you hate maple syrup?” the hordes asked, as they banned me from Vermont and declared me persona non grata throughout Canada. Revolted by a New York Times article celebrating ranch dressing, I had tweeted: “Plays to everything that’s wrong with the typical American palate. Even worse than maple syrup if that’s possible.” (SLWaPo)
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 10:14 PM PST - 122 comments

"This complex socio-political reality of the U.S. is key to understanding how the cultural void of white society is intimately mixed with white supremacy, capitalism, and globalization; and it is within these oppressive structures that cultural appropriation and the yoga industrial complex flourishes." - Yoga and the Roots of Cultural Appropriation
posted by Errant at 9:38 PM PST - 15 comments

During his presidency, Barack Obama read 10 letters from members of the public every day. He reveals what they meant to him... [more inside]
posted by dfm500 at 8:02 PM PST - 31 comments

Where would Southern culture be without the tomato? One of the earliest references in American cookery appears in the private journals of Harriott Pinckney Horry of Hampton Plantation. By 1770, she was collecting receipts in a journal that became an invaluable household document about colonial life in the Santee Delta of South Carolina, especially during the Revolution, when she managed the property. Her house served as a refuge for women and children fleeing the British occupation, and it was in her fields where Brigadier General Francis Marion, known as the Swamp Fox, hid when enemy troops arrived at her door to search for him.
posted by MovableBookLady at 7:15 PM PST - 12 comments

What happens when you have a bar that combines beer, ax throwing, drinking shots straight from bottles and maybe some tightrope walking or juggling before throwing axes? A severe liquor license suspension. (SL)
posted by a non mouse, a cow herd at 6:46 PM PST - 48 comments

Ektachrome is back. Kodak's 2nd most popular color reversal (slide) film is available now in 35mm and will be available in Super 8 and 16mm motion formats later in the year. [more inside]
posted by hwyengr at 2:15 PM PST - 72 comments

Larry Boyce knocked on the door of San Francisco's Old First Presbyterian Church, explaining that he had AIDS and wanted to do some painting in exchange for a place to stay. First Presbyterian put aside its apprehension and opened its doors to Larry Boyce, sending him and the entire congregation on a spiritual and artistic odyssey (S.F. Gate, 1996). Before that, in the spring of 1989, Boyce was in Tucson, AZ, where he offered to decorate the lobby of the Congress Hotel in exchange for a place to park his bike, and he did (Google street view). In 1988, itinerant ceiling painter had arrived in NYC (NYT, 1988). Larry Boyce was an energetic, optimistic cross-country bicyclist and the late 20th-century’s greatest champion of the stenciled frieze (Collector's Weekly, Sept. 7, 2018).
posted by filthy light thief at 11:55 AM PST - 19 comments

The Open Notebook is a website dedicated to the art of science writing. Although the ostensible audience is science writers, the site is also a treasure trove for readers who love science writing. It features interviews with authors of prominent pieces about their process in writing the piece, profiles of days in the life of science writers, discussions of the elements of science writing craft including annotated breakdowns of award-winning stories analyzing how they work, and more. [more inside]
posted by Cozybee at 11:18 AM PST - 5 comments

An untold number of indigenous children disappeared at US boarding schools. Tribal nations are raising the stakes in search of answers. [more inside]
posted by poffin boffin at 10:55 AM PST - 17 comments

Creed II [YouTube][Trailer]
posted by Fizz at 10:37 AM PST - 19 comments

Michael Champion’s journey through healthcare in the U.S.

Every year, an untold number of patients undergo duplicate procedures — or fail to get them at all — because key pieces of their medical history are missing. Why? We know it’s not a perfect system. We know there will be gaps. But what choice do we have?
posted by hydra77 at 9:37 AM PST - 19 comments

A Spy Story: Sergei Skripal Was a Little Fish. He Had a Big Enemy.
Russian spy: What happened to Sergei and Yulia Skripal? [more inside]
posted by the man of twists and turns at 8:23 AM PST - 15 comments

Michael Holick, a renowned scientist turned expert witness, relies on his own controversial theory to help alleged abusers avoid prison and regain custody of the babies they were accused of harming. CW: child abuse, description of physical injuries. [more inside]
posted by jeather at 7:56 AM PST - 29 comments

“Having a little island of affluence in the midst of this crisis? The more hidden it is, the better. When people find out, they will say, ‘Motherfucker, why can't the government find some programs to help me?’ ” “Well,” I said, “they claim a few percent of something is better than 39 percent of nothing.” “If I am a beggar in the street,” Bernabe shot back, “and they give me ‘something,’ I will say thank you. But it would be better if I wasn't a beggar.” Jesse Barron writes in GQ about How Puerto Rico Became the Newest Tax Haven for the Super Rich. [more inside]
posted by RedOrGreen at 7:44 AM PST - 16 comments

“When the survey, “Working for the Mouse,” was published in February 2018, Glynndana went to a press conference at Occidental College to hear the results. She picked up a copy of the 132-page report and flipped through its pages. “When I was looking at the graphs, it smacked me in the face,” she said. Out of the 5,000 people who completed the survey—one-sixth of Disneyland Resort’s workforce—73 percent reported that they didn’t earn enough money to pay for basic expenses like rent, food, and gas. The survey also revealed that, when adjusted for inflation, average wages in the park had declined 15 percent between 2000 and 2017. More than one in ten respondents said that, at some point in the past two years, they did not have a place of their own to sleep. This is serious, Glynndana thought. It’s not only you.“ The Real Cost of Working in the House of Mouse (Topic)
posted by The Whelk at 5:57 AM PST - 47 comments

The Surprising History (and Future) of Fingerprints "It is true that every print is unique to every finger, even for identical twins, who share the same genetic code. Fingerprints are formed by friction from touching the walls of our mother’s womb." [more inside]
posted by carolr at 9:54 PM PST - 24 comments

The Death and Life of the 13-Month Calendar: Apropos of alternate time/calendar discussion in MetaTalk, check out CityLab's article on the International Fixed Calendar, which Kodak used for decades. (Previously: AskMe and MeFi calendar posts.) [more inside]
posted by limeonaire at 6:26 PM PST - 45 comments

Some Fortune 500 companies are using tools that deploy artificial intelligence to weed out job applicants (wsj). HireVue uses machine learning algorithms to analyze facial expressions for companies such as Unilever and Hilton. DeepSense use ML to analyze an applicant's LinkedIn, Twitter and other social media accounts.
posted by adept256 at 5:34 PM PST - 62 comments

The Donkey Refuge Where Burros Become Coyote-Kicking Livestock Guardians.
posted by MovableBookLady at 5:19 PM PST - 12 comments

[NYT] [Guardian] [Bloomberg] [Economist] Brazilian women are faced with a direct threat in the October 7th elections: presidential candidate Jair Bolsonaro is leading the polls with 28% of voting intentions. He is a dangerous figure who spreads explicit hate speech towards women, blacks, LGBTs, indigenous and other minorities; his proposals for economic, health, climate change and environmental issues are senseless. He wants to arm the population and increase police violence towards black youth. He is a drugs prohibitionist that promotes fascist ideas and practices. For the past few weeks, women in Brazil have organized via social media groups and have called for public demonstrations that will take place on September 29. [more inside]
posted by Tom-B at 5:14 PM PST - 15 comments

A year after Leonard Cohen's death on November 7th, 2016 (previously), musicians ranging from Courtney Love to Elvis Costello to Adam Cohen gathered with Cohen's longstanding backup singers The Webb Sisters and Sharon Robinson for a Memorial Concert. [more inside]
posted by Rumple at 3:40 PM PST - 25 comments

Joe Iconis writes songs. Songs about outcasts and misfits and people who aren't comfortable in their skins. George Salazar is one of the people who sings them.
Iconis's latest musical, Be More Chill has become an underground sensation. It is wildly adored by its teen fan base. With no traditional advertising, it sold out its off-Broadway run entirely. Its cast album has received over 160 million streams. [more inside]
posted by still_wears_a_hat at 3:24 PM PST - 15 comments

One of the "most poorly known mammals in the world" and previously considered to be extinct, the Wondiwoi tree kangaroo of New Guinea has finally been spotted (and photographed) for the first time in 90 years.
posted by fight or flight at 2:14 PM PST - 11 comments

"My son has parked his bike by this lamppost just about every day for the last year. This morning, this sticker had appeared. Absolutely made our day. People can be so brilliant. Thank you, whoever did it" (STL)
posted by growabrain at 12:53 PM PST - 24 comments

Skulls and snuffboxes, tombs, bankers, umbrellas, devils, pins, babies... Baroness Mathilde de Rothschild collected skull art, which she then donated to a Parisian museum. The Fondation Bemberg Musée is now hosting an exhibition of this cranial creativity, entitled Même pas peur! [more inside]
posted by doctornemo at 12:43 PM PST - 4 comments

Mind Control Made Easy (or how to become a cult leader), a short film by Carey Burtt, who shared more offbeat, lo-fi, "underground" works on YouTube.
posted by filthy light thief at 11:52 AM PST - 7 comments

Let’s just SAY I was writing a Wrath of Khan musical... and let’s just SAY I finished the song where Khan ambushes Kirk’s Enterprise... let’s just SAY—ok here it is [SLYT]
posted by Servo5678 at 11:26 AM PST - 42 comments

Mystery Science Theater 3000 returns to the air with its twelfth season, dropping on Netflix on Turkey Day.
posted by Chrysostom at 11:04 AM PST - 36 comments

Smart Design’s Davin Stowell shares the origin story of the OXO Swivel, one of the great icons of 20th-century industrial design. [more inside]
posted by poffin boffin at 10:49 AM PST - 56 comments

Arctic Cauldron. "Across the Arctic, lakes are bubbling and hissing with a dangerous greenhouse gas, methane, as the Arctic thaws. And one lake is behaving very strangely." [more inside]
posted by homunculus at 10:22 AM PST - 55 comments

Portals in Science Fiction & Fantasy [Kirkus] “The most obvious definition of portals—doorways to other places—is too simplistic to convey the true nature of them. Sometimes those places are real, but far away. Sometimes they are fantasy worlds that shouldn't exist but do. Sometimes they are physical, sometimes metaphorical, mere plot devices to advance the story. They could take many forms, from holes in the ground, to mirrors, to large constructs big enough to fly a starship through. Sometimes they aren't about traveling distance at all, but instead are about traveling through time. In fantasy novels, portals tend to be ways for characters to pass from their world (usually our own) to a fantastical secondary world.” [more inside]
posted by Fizz at 6:54 AM PST - 48 comments

With a very short proof, mathematician Michael Atiyah claims to have solved the Riemann Hypothesis
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 4:12 AM PST - 30 comments

The days of “fauxmosexual” singers playing gay for the male gaze are (mostly) gone. But as more out queer woman pop stars rise, what kinds of representation do we want from them? [slBuzzfeed Reader] [more inside]
posted by ellieBOA at 2:49 AM PST - 20 comments

Unwrapping a viper: Twitter | Threadreader | reddit (no sound) [more inside]
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 9:40 PM PST - 31 comments

Tens of thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands of women around the world have had pelvic exams while under anesthesia, without their consent or being informed, sometimes with multiple medical students doing an exam each on a single patient. In 2014, The American College of Physicians released a paper suggesting that pelvic exams were not an effective diagnostic tool, and yet, hospitals continue to let medical students get inside any woman under anesthesia, including procedures unrelated to reproductive health. [more inside]
posted by SecretAgentSockpuppet at 6:54 PM PST - 87 comments

Firefox 62.0 removes bookmark descriptions from the UI. Go to Bookmarks, Show All Bookmarks. Notice anything missing? Firefox 62.0 has removed the "Description" free-text field. This has been in the works for some time, as the long-standing existence of this data was flagged as a bug about a year ago. Currently, descriptions are only hidden in the UI; current plan is to delete them from the user's bookmark database altogether in Firefox 64.0 on December 11, 2018. [more inside]
posted by Huffy Puffy at 5:32 PM PST - 124 comments

The Fascinating History of the Iconic Mysore Sandal Soap
posted by infini at 3:55 PM PST - 20 comments

In a recent Nintendo Direct discussing the Switch port of New Super Mario Bros. Wii U, a new item was brought up - the Super Crown, which allows Toadette to become Peachette, who looks like Princess Peach and grants her many of Peach's usual platforming abilities.
Then, a Twitter user posted a comic of Bowser using the Super Crown to turn into a Peachesque bombshell...and the Internet was off and running. [more inside]
posted by NoxAeternum at 1:26 PM PST - 79 comments

Seven year old Malea Emma gives a rousing performance of the US National Anthem at an MLS game (article).
posted by roaring beast at 1:23 PM PST - 16 comments

Arthur Mitchell co-founded the Dance Theater of Harlem, a world-renowned company. A star of New York City Ballet and the co-founder of Dance Theatre of Harlem, Arthur Mitchell was also the first African American principal dancer in any major ballet company. Mitchell, who has died aged 84, had classical lines, buoyant energy and a palpable joy in movement. In NYCB, where he danced from 1955 to 1968, he gained renown for two roles he created: the startlingly modernist Agon pas de deux, choreographed for him and Diana Adams by George Balanchine, and the mischievously bounding Puck in Balanchine’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. According to his fellow NYCB dancer Jacques d’Amboise, “every time we toured Europe, he was a sensation … There would be hundreds of fans at the stage door.” [more inside]
posted by MovableBookLady at 1:12 PM PST - 11 comments

“So, fun fact: birds and insects show up on radar. Often. As in, pretty much every day.” (link to Twitter thread; you can also read the same thing on Thread reader)
posted by Bloxworth Snout at 11:57 AM PST - 26 comments

On the exploitation of traditional native knowledge [more inside]
posted by poffin boffin at 10:47 AM PST - 15 comments

Brett Kavanaugh, nominee to the Supreme Court, faces more and more allegations of sexual assault. Michael Avenatti has entered the fray. Something's up with Deputy AG Rod Rosenstein. A UN General Assembly Meeting is this week, and Trump is set to chair a Security Council meeting. And among other things, the Trump administration seeks another tightening of immigration rules. [more inside]
posted by Rainbo Vagrant at 9:20 AM PST - 2131 comments

"The Philadelphia Flyers have unearthed something amazing, and also possibly horrible they are now unleashing on the world. Meet Gritty."
posted by everybody had matching towels at 8:52 AM PST - 104 comments

The trend of Nice Media seems to be the sun-filled, hopeful answer to the negativity and division offered nearly everywhere else. No single video game series encapsulates that sense of safe, intentional and welcoming niceness like Animal Crossing, and it has been doing it for almost 20 years.
posted by Memo at 8:07 AM PST - 22 comments

This week is Sea Otter Awareness Week. A few things about otters floating around out there include the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's Sea Otter Recovery Plan (pdf), the USGS California Sea Otter Surveys and Research page , complete with northern sea otter and southern sea otter colouring pages, the Oregon Zoo's 20-year-old rescued sea otter Eddie, and the Elkhorn Slough otter cams. [more inside]
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 7:38 AM PST - 24 comments

"3 friends try to have a conversation but can’t stop looking stuff up." A stand-alone episode by Cazzie David. [previously]
posted by Wordshore at 7:23 AM PST - 20 comments

"The idea of LETTERS LIVE is simple: we ask talented, inspiring and high-profile artists from various disciplines to read letters out loud to our audiences. LETTERS LIVE celebrates letter writing and the art of correspondence first and foremost." [more inside]
posted by specialagentwebb at 7:06 AM PST - 2 comments

Self-solving Rubik's Cube
posted by ook at 6:03 AM PST - 29 comments

While the number of opioid overdose deaths nationwide has doubled since 2008, the number of those victims who have become organ donors has quadrupled. Partially as a result of the newly available organs from overdose deaths, the list of people waiting for transplants — nearly 124,000 at its peak in 2014 — has begun to shrink for the first time, after 25 years of continuous growth.

posted by Etrigan at 5:58 AM PST - 10 comments

Police have called off the three year investigation into the 'Croyden Cat Killer' as they believe they now know the answer. But some locals are not happy and want the hunt to continue (Video possibly nsfw, other links have potentially disturbing descriptions)
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 3:29 AM PST - 35 comments

One of the few things that could raise anger — real, intense anger — in Mister Rogers was the willful misleading of children. Superheroes, he thought, were the worst culprits. An excerpt adapted from The Good Neighbor: The Life and Work of Fred Rogers by Maxwell King, on Longreads.
posted by Svejk at 1:04 AM PST - 29 comments

Pastry Chef Attempts To Make Gourmet Twizzlers (SLYT)
posted by not_the_water at 12:15 AM PST - 27 comments

Art History for All is a young podcast by independent scholar Allyson Healey (pronouns they/them), devoted to making visual art accessible by exploring "a global history of art and material culture in a casual, conversational way. [...] This podcast is dedicated to accessibility in the practical sense, as well, providing episode transcripts for those who find the podcasts difficult to listen to or understand in audio form, or those who want to be able to access citations and sourcing. Both audio podcasts and transcripts will include verbal descriptions of the central works discussed, for the benefit of those who cannot view them." Podcast listening bonus: the soothing sounds of ambient electronic music and Healey's calm, crisp voice. [more inside]
posted by nicebookrack at 11:10 PM PST - 9 comments

I am here to tell you the professional wrestler turned movie star Dwayne The Rock Johnson is going to be president, but before that happens, we are going to make a book, to make a movie, to make a mind.
posted by Zed at 10:52 PM PST - 14 comments

What’s worse than nosy neighbors? How about noisy neighbors? The Washington Post's John Kelly recently asked readers to share tales of strange noises they’ve heard from their neighbors.
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 8:21 PM PST - 56 comments

Finish It! is a completionist Choose Your Own Adventure podcast, focusing on one book at a time. Each week, Matt and Chris get one attempt each at this Choose Your Own Adventure until they read every single ending. Will they ever choose every adventure? Will anyone listen?! Join them on their descent into a madness of their own design. [more inside]
posted by meese at 7:53 PM PST - 5 comments

"Amos was responsible for one of the three major conversions in my life. Two were intellectual and religious: a conversion to the study of religion and an experiential conversion to the conviction that God is real. The third was political: from the conservative political orientation I absorbed while I was growing up to what I have learned from the Bible and Jesus. Amos was the trigger. In my junior year in college in a political philosophy course, we spent a week on Amos. The encounter stunned me. Speaking in the name of God, he passionately indicted the powerful and wealthy of his time because they had created an economic system that privileged them and inflicted misery and suffering on most of the population." [more inside]
posted by clawsoon at 4:38 PM PST - 17 comments

How To Make a Hand-Engraved Hammer with Simple Tools Uri Tuchman & his cat show us how to do it. (SLYT)
posted by supermedusa at 2:20 PM PST - 29 comments

Hardy Fox, composer for Avantgarde music group, The Residents is not dead, but is near death. The Residents and The Cryptic Corporation "prefer to celebrate his life rather than dwell on his impending exit. And to respect his actions, we will not share any details he himself does not make public." [more inside]
posted by SansPoint at 11:53 AM PST - 38 comments

"The list is the origin of culture," said Umberto Eco About the exhibition on the history of the list he curated at the Louvre. "It's part of the history of art and literature. What does culture want? To make infinity comprehensible. It also wants to create order — not always, but often."
posted by MovableBookLady at 11:11 AM PST - 9 comments

Don't vote for our brother. A series of ads were released this week featuring 6 of Arizona Rep. Paul Gosar's 9 siblings endorsing his opponent Democrat David Brill. (The NYT reports that their mom supports Paul.) [more inside]
posted by k8t at 9:04 AM PST - 40 comments

Giant spiders' web covers Greek beach [The Guardian] “A Greek beach has been turned into an arachnophobe’s worst nightmare, as spiders have covered it in a web some 300 metres long. The web has been built by spiders of the Tetragnatha genus. They are often known as stretch spiders, as they have elongated bodies – and in another worrying development for those who fear spiders – Tetragnatha extensa are small enough and light enough to be able to run across water faster than they can move on land.” [YouTube]
posted by Fizz at 5:24 AM PST - 34 comments

“Lithe as the animal she takes her cognomen from, and strong and supple as steel, she presented an extraordinary picture as she awaited the onset. When the signal was given the heavy blades cut through the air like flashes of lightning, and steel rang on steel in a series of movements so rapid in execution as to defy being followed by the eye.

Ben Miller writes about colonel Thomas Hoyer Monstery, one of the few fencing instructors to teach women to not just fence, but fight -- including the proper use of umbrellas in self defence -- and his greatest student: Ella "Jaguarina" Hattan, America's greatest ever swordswoman.
posted by MartinWisse at 4:09 AM PST - 11 comments

A fan-made trailer for an anime version of Star Wars (slyt)
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 3:09 AM PST - 18 comments

Chris Chibnall is a British TV writer, perhaps best-known for the drama, Broadchurch. Now he's the showrunner of Doctor Who, for which he has previously contributed episodes including Ten and Eleven. So now, perhaps it's a good time to review all of Chibnall's previous Doctor Who episodes. (SLYT, NSFW) [more inside]
posted by Juso No Thankyou at 1:56 AM PST - 54 comments

An aural experience in which the NY Times explores the soundscape of the earth and its inhabitants.
posted by standardasparagus at 6:22 PM PST - 8 comments

If Peter Capaldi had not gotten the Doctor Who gig, the only time travel he would have been known for would be as a tipsy sidekick to a self-proclaimed tight-suited, unfunny fat bastard (previously) in a drunk Time Tunnel parody. Also featuring Jenny Agutter. From The All-New Alexei Sayle Show. Definitely not the best of the web. MLYT. [more inside]
posted by zaixfeep at 6:00 PM PST - 17 comments

No look, behind the back, toothbrush in the cup, no rim. BAM. This kid wins.
posted by not_on_display at 5:19 PM PST - 10 comments

September 22nd - Brock Berrigan [SLYT], because everyone needs a break.
posted by Freeze Peach at 5:00 PM PST - 3 comments

How a small company in Malden created the Greatest TV Commercial Ever Made At this point — if you haven’t done it already — it might be time to watch this thing again. But I’ve already been over it like it’s the Zapruder film. I know that the dogwalker in the background was a happy accident; I know that the lemonade at the end is weirdly clear because the pitcher was full of real ice on a very hot day; I know that Dodd’s shirt-tug at the beginning was ad-libbed. So I’m going to sit this viewing out and I’ll see you in two minutes.
posted by schoolgirl report at 4:17 PM PST - 84 comments

Every year on or around 22 September, people from around the world get together in the streets, intersections, and neighbourhood blocks to remind the world that we don't have to accept our car-dominated society. In support of the idea that going car-free shouldn't just be one day, The Guardian has a series of posts on Walking the City, including life in the Spanish city of Pontevedra that banned cars; an exclusive essay for Guardian Cities: David Sedaris has walked through cities all over the world and the worst, by far, is Bangkok; and Vision Zero: has the drive to eliminate road deaths lost its way? [more inside]
posted by filthy light thief at 2:07 PM PST - 38 comments

Murdered man's body found after tree 'unusual for the area' grew from seed in his stomach.
posted by Cash4Lead at 12:59 PM PST - 25 comments

The story of an asteroid, one space probe, and two robot rovers. About 200 million miles from Earth the JAXA space probe Hayabusa2 (Japanese language site; English language site; Wikipedia) has landed two tiny rovers on top of a very small asteroid, 162173 Ryugu. The rovers (named 1A and 1B) are now hopping on Ryugu's surface, taking photos, and sending them back to Earth via Hayabusa2 in orbit. [more inside]
posted by doctornemo at 11:44 AM PST - 13 comments

One hundred years before e-mail inboxes crowded with pictures of cats adorned with text like “I CAN HAS CHEEZBURGER?” and “CEILING CAT IS WATCHING YOU,” lolcats (and loldogs and lolrabbits) were already at the height of fancy. The rise of postcards at the turn of the century enabled Pennsylvanian Harry Whittier Frees to build a career out of photographing cute animals donning hats and britches.
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 10:47 AM PST - 9 comments

Distance between the highest and lowest point in each country. [SLVC]
posted by chavenet at 9:35 AM PST - 20 comments

Greek architect Viktoria Lytra has created a set of images exploring the relationship and interaction between architecture and fashion. FormFollowsFashion investigates the common purpose of architecture fashion, to create shelter for the human body, placing aesthetic as a common factor in novel approaches to the design of clothes and buildings. Lytra’s series features various movements and styles, such as minimalism, deconstructivism, and postmodernism, playing on common geometric characteristics such as folks, pleats, curves, prints, and twists.
posted by MovableBookLady at 8:38 AM PST - 3 comments

Tony Hawk gets recognized a lot, but he also... doesn’t.
posted by Etrigan at 7:22 AM PST - 40 comments

EF-2 tornado rips through Canada's capital. 170,000+ people without power in Ottawa-Gatineau, six people hospitalized. Damaged projected to be worse than the crippling ice storm of 1998.
posted by Mitheral at 6:53 AM PST - 26 comments

Sailor's rape confession uncovered in 17th-century journal [The Guardian] “A 17th-century sailor’s confession about a rape, of which he became so ashamed that he sought to cover it up for ever, has been exposed by conservation workers who discovered the note hidden under a rewritten version in his journal. The confession went unseen for more than 300 years because the sailor pasted his second account so neatly over the top of the original that scholars missed it.”
posted by Fizz at 5:12 AM PST - 9 comments

How Auto-Tune Revolutionized the Sound of Popular Music
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 3:07 AM PST - 41 comments

Japanese companies plan to build moon colonies - "In collaboration with NASA, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) has announced plans for the construction of the first human colony on the moon, a little more than a decade in the future." [more inside]
posted by kliuless at 10:40 PM PST - 29 comments

Animator, and father of two, Thomas Romain turns his young sons' drawings into finished, professional pieces, sprinkling art advice from a veteran throughout. The results include a Half-Dead Demon Lord, a Pill Boy, and a Time Octopus.
posted by perplexion at 6:28 PM PST - 10 comments

Researchers discover a pattern to the seemingly random distribution of prime numbers. A link to the paper. There is talk of fractal patterns.
posted by Rufous-headed Towhee heehee at 5:30 PM PST - 18 comments

Pioneering narrative game studio Telltale Games has laid off the vast majority of its employees today and is expected to close entirely. [more inside]
posted by selfnoise at 5:16 PM PST - 35 comments

For those in need of a 2018-strength unicorn chaser, today's Google Doodle celebrates the 51st anniversary of the first episode of Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood.
posted by nonasuch at 5:11 PM PST - 7 comments

Every Episode of Sports Night, Ranked
posted by still_wears_a_hat at 12:43 PM PST - 54 comments

It had been hiding in plain sight. The original letter — long thought lost — in which Galileo Galilei first set down his arguments against the church’s doctrine that the Sun orbits the Earth has been discovered in a misdated library catalogue in London. Its unearthing and analysis expose critical new details about the saga that led to the astronomer’s condemnation for heresy in 1633.
posted by verstegan at 12:29 PM PST - 9 comments

In a similar vein to their listing of the saddest desperation cocktails made by readers, the folks at Deadspin asked for the readership's best quitting stories.

And they delivered. [more inside]
posted by NoxAeternum at 12:18 PM PST - 63 comments

Cornell University's “world-renowned eating behavior expert," Brian Wansink, has resigned (WaPo link) following the news, per Vox, that 13 of Wansink’s studies "have now been retracted, including the six pulled from [the Journal of the American Medical Association] Wednesday. Among them: studies suggesting people who grocery shop hungry buy more calories; that preordering lunch can help you choose healthier food; and that serving people out of large bowls encourage[s] them to serve themselves larger portions." [more inside]
posted by MonkeyToes at 12:10 PM PST - 39 comments

Gold seekers are flooding into the Yukon and wreaking havoc on its rivers [more inside]
posted by poffin boffin at 12:06 PM PST - 8 comments

Skippy the wirehair fox terrier: Hollywood's Top Dog
posted by emjaybee at 11:49 AM PST - 5 comments

Released from the vaults: How Do You Sleep? (footage of Takes 5 & 6, Raw Studio Mix Out-take) - John Lennon & The Plastic Ono Band with their "diss track" (Beatles Bible entry) in response to Paul McCartney's apparent jabs at John in his tracks Too Many People (YT; BBe) and Back Seat of My Car (YT; BBe). The video was released as a teaser for the forthcoming Imagine: The Ultimate Collection (BBe), which the official johnlennon YouTube account has been promoting with a series of videos and clips, including some annotated videos (turn on the captions), for Crippled Inside (evolution mix), Jealous Guy (raw studio mix, film excerpt), and Jealous Guy (Elements Mix) featuring Nicky Hopkins.
posted by filthy light thief at 10:53 AM PST - 12 comments

She stresses how many “lovely” colleagues at Marvel, including her editor Wil Moss, expressed shock and compassion after both Mockingbird and Vision’s cancellations. “I don’t think that it was part of some kind of like, sexist conspiracy,” she says. “I think it was some really smart, funny, friendly boys in a room making a decision and it never occurred to them that this was important, or that these kinds of comics needed a place.”

Chelsea Cain talks about Marvel, the comics freelancer life and the lack of support she received after being targeted by rightwing assholes. Note that Marvel's editor in chief used to pretend to be Japanese in order to get jobs reserved for actual freelancers rather than editorial staff.
posted by MartinWisse at 10:52 AM PST - 17 comments

Barnaby Dixon is a puppeteer and animator who makes YouTube videos featuring his amazing finger puppets. [more inside]
posted by bondcliff at 10:40 AM PST - 8 comments

Visiting a Syrian refugee camp with Save the Children, [Samantha Cameron] describes how “as a mother, it is horrifying to hear the harrowing stories of the children I meet today”...Is Cameron suggesting that mothers have a special sensitivity that non-mothers lack? That the latter would be less horrified?...If I’m honest, becoming a mother has made me more likely to be upset by images of children in pain. However, this says less about the virtues of motherhood and more about my own moral failings, such as an inability to empathise with others unless their experiences are closely aligned with my own. As a mother, I've learned the phrase "as a mother" is divisive and indulgent (Glosswitch, The New Statesman)
posted by hurdy gurdy girl at 10:38 AM PST - 56 comments

Meet Sjors Horstman. He has spent the last 31 years of his life at the bottom of the Grand Canyon as a volunteer for the National Park Service. [more inside]
posted by cichlid ceilidh at 10:30 AM PST - 10 comments

We've been waiting all year. [more inside]
posted by rewil at 10:13 AM PST - 27 comments

“The FBI issues a memo instructing their informants (of which there were hundreds) going into that convention to vote with the national office because it is far preferable for the national office — Bill Ayers, Mark Rudd, Bernardine Dohrn, the people who would go on to form Weather Underground — to assume power of SDS. Because they’re going to go off. They’re going to commit acts of violence. They’re going to be on the other side of the law and they can be marginalized much more quickly, alienated from US society. Progressive Labor Party, on the other hand, is a disciplined, democratic-centralist organization and if they have power, that’s not going to be good.” Infiltrating the Left - an interview with Aaron J. Leonard, co-author of A Threat of the First Magnitude: FBI Counterintelligence and Infiltration from the Communist Party to the Revolutionary Union — 1962-1974 about how the FBI secured informants and actions against the American Left (Jacobin)
posted by The Whelk at 9:03 AM PST - 31 comments

Palau is an nation made up of a chain of islands in the western Pacific Ocean. It has just 21,000 citizens, and hosts more than 150,000 tourists each year. But how can a nation with such a heavy reliance on tourism protect itself to maintain the beauty that those tourists are looking for? Perhaps by making each visitor sign a pledge in their passport upon arrival. [more inside]
posted by Etrigan at 7:13 AM PST - 7 comments

How the magazine industry’s identity crisis is playing out on its front page: Print may be dying, but the magazine cover still plays an essential role in defining—and sustaining—a media brand. Can the cover outlive the magazine?
posted by ellieBOA at 6:49 AM PST - 8 comments

Human culture is now a Google search Our retention of information and our ability to pass it down changes traditions. Now we rely on Google to tell us about our people’s and how we react and act towards events and what we traditionally do.
posted by Yellow at 6:13 AM PST - 14 comments

John Lewis are introducing a pick 'n' mix style display to allow you to select your own personalised tin of Quality Street. Meanwhile the 'controversial' Honeycomb Crunch is being dropped from ordinary tins after only being introduced a couple of years ago.
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 3:02 AM PST - 29 comments

An ROV from the Exploration Vessel Nautilus has a remarkable encounter in Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument.
posted by Bloxworth Snout at 1:28 AM PST - 34 comments

Rooms and what they smell like. I don’t know what else to tell you. (SLInstagram)
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 12:02 AM PST - 13 comments

An exhibition of photographs held in Harlem in 2017, and a documentary film about LA cowboys (upcoming). A quick internet search of “American cowboy” yields a predictable crop of images. Husky men with weathered expressions can be seen galloping on horseback. They’re often dressed in denim or plaid, with a bandana tied ‘round their neck and a cowboy hat perched atop their head. Lassos are likely being swung overhead. And yes, they’re all white. Contrary to what the homogenous imagery depicted by Hollywood and history books would lead you to believe, cowboys of color have had a substantial presence on the Western frontier since the 1500s. In fact, the word “cowboy” is believed by some to have emerged as a derogatory term used to describe Black cowhands. [more inside]
posted by MovableBookLady at 7:15 PM PST - 10 comments

One Small Step is a new animated short about a young girl inspired to follow her dreams by Taiko Studios. It's directed by former Disney animators Andrew Chesworth and ​Bobby Pontillas.
posted by Mr.Encyclopedia at 6:47 PM PST - 14 comments

Three Contestants + A Billboard + Radio Station [slpodcast]
posted by 922257033c4a0f3cecdbd819a46d626999d1af4a at 6:41 PM PST - 6 comments

Max Richter's "On the Nature of Daylight" has now been turned into a short film. Originally released on the 2004 album The Blue Notebooks, contemporary composer Max Richter's stirring "On the Nature of Daylight" has been featured in a number of films and television shows, including Arrival (spoilers!) and Castle Rock. This summer, on the eve of its fifteenth anniversary, the piece was made into a short video starring Elisabeth Moss.
posted by Synesthesia at 4:53 PM PST - 13 comments

Paedophile cult leader Warren Jeffs tore this town apart. Now his victims are putting it back together
posted by Uncle at 4:16 PM PST - 5 comments

This coming Saturday, September 22, 2018, more than 1,500 museums will open their doors for free as part of Museum Day. Organized by Smithsonian magazine, the annual event includes free admission to museums and cultural institutions in all 50 states. Participating museums range from large, popular institutions like the Zoo Miami to quirky and fascinating specialty museums, like the National Barber Museum in Canal Winchester, Ohio. Visitors are allowed to download one ticket per email address, and each ticket provides free general admission for two people. [more inside]
posted by Bella Donna at 3:15 PM PST - 16 comments

Scientists Gave MDMA to Octopuses—and What Happened Was Profound - "The results of their experiment, in which seven octopuses took MDMA, were 'unbelievable.'" (NPR, NYT, HuffPo, LS, NG, Graun, Vice, WaPo)
posted by kliuless at 2:34 PM PST - 62 comments

Going All In: An Oral History of 'Rounders'. How two first-time screenwriters, a guy from Montana, and a pair of up-and-coming movie stars made the greatest poker movie ever.
posted by rocket88 at 1:39 PM PST - 25 comments

An alum looks back at the storied alt weekly [The Baffler]: "When I think about my two stints at the now-shuttered Village Voice—for which I freelanced regularly from the late seventies to the late eighties, returning as a staff writer from 1994-1999—one unexpected but apt word that keeps popping to mind is 'fecund.'" THE VILLAGE VOICE (1955–2018) [Art Forum]: "The destruction of the Village Voice—in the spirit of the paper itself, let’s not mince words about the nature of its ending—may not have been a surprise, but it was still a shock to the system." The demise of the Village Voice, previously: "Today is kind of a sucky day."
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 11:39 AM PST - 3 comments

After a nice dinner, selling the Chequers plan is not going terribly well for Theresa May, prefering her own plan to Michel Barnier's (which Jeremy Corbyn isn't fond of either). Donald Tusk says it "will not work". Nicola Sturgeon wants Brexit delayed. Jacob Rees-Mogg wants to 'Chuck Chequers'. Leanne Wood is otherwise occupied, Keir Starmer is pretty negative and Vince Cable will oppose it. Michael Gove thinks it is temporary, Boris Johnson refers to 1066, Lynton Crosby is busy plotting, while Mike Penning refers to the dodo. And Emmanuel Macron exclaims that "those who explain that we can easily live without Europe, that everything is going to be alright, and that it's going to bring a lot of money home, are liars". The clock ticketh.
posted by Wordshore at 11:22 AM PST - 172 comments

The Struggle For A New American Gospel

This past May, I found myself in the packed auditorium of the First United Methodist church in downtown Austin, listening to Bible stories. The creak of the wooden pews and the smell of hymnals summoned a rush of memory. Yet the hundreds of mostly young, tattooed people surrounding me suggested I’d ventured far from the old religion. The tales about Elijah, Mary, and the Roman centurion that evening were part of a live recording of The Liturgists, one of the country’s most popular podcasts on spirituality, with over four million listeners per month. Its creators, Michael Gungor and Mike McHargue, both based in Los Angeles, are former evangelical Christians who had abandoned their faith only to return via the teachings of mystics, and by embracing science, philosophy, and social justice. While they insist their show isn’t explicitly Christian, McHargue told me, “Helping Christians deal with feelings of marginalization, oppression, and alienation is part of our work.” It explains how I came to find them, and why I still felt itchy in the pew. For me, to sit in a church is to be vulnerable, and no passage of time could stop that.

[more inside]
posted by the man of twists and turns at 11:12 AM PST - 32 comments

Since March 2016, hundreds of thousands, if not more, credit cards and other details have been stolen during payment from dozens of online shops worldwide (ClearSky Cyber Security), due to JavaScript code injections that RiskIQ dubbed Magecart. In June 2018, Ticketmaster UK's credit card processing partner, Inbenta, was compromised and Magecart code injected (Security Week). But this was just a small part of a larger effort. As of July 2018, at least 800 e-commerce sites are said to be affected, after they included code developed by third-party companies and later altered by hackers (ZDnet). [more inside]
posted by filthy light thief at 10:40 AM PST - 17 comments

After 11 years of intelligent writing about fashion, beauty, shopping and other topics traditionally coded as "female," Racked ceased publication on September 14th. [more inside]
posted by kimberussell at 10:30 AM PST - 14 comments

Elizabeth Crane's short story, "Training Module." CW: sexual assault/harassment
posted by gladly at 9:52 AM PST - 12 comments

Is there a humane way to boil lobsters alive? One woman thinks it’s by getting them high. [Vox] “Charlotte Gill, the owner of Charlotte’s Legendary Lobster Pound in Southwest Harbor, Maine, is getting lobsters high before boiling them alive, according to a report by the Mount Desert Islander. “I feel bad that when lobsters come here there is no exit strategy,” Gill, who has a state-issued medical marijuana license, told the publication. “It’s a unique place and you get to do such unique things but at the expense of this little creature. I’ve really been trying to figure out how to make it feel better.”” [more inside]
posted by Fizz at 9:21 AM PST - 42 comments

We just passed the four-month anniversary of her death. It was a loss we all saw coming, but grief exploded through us anyway. It is a powerful, relentless thing. It is wrong to wake up in a world where she no longer exists. It is wrong to watch our mother bend over her grave, our father talk about her in the past tense. It is wrong that we were four sisters, and now we are three. Her death is a hole in our bodies because a piece of us is gone. We are sad, heartbroken, and angry that she is gone — yes, angry too, because there was more that could have been done, and because we are not alone. [tw: cancer, death]
posted by perplexion at 9:07 AM PST - 40 comments

My Way is the sixty-eighth studio album by Willie Nelson. It was released on September 14, 2018, by Legacy Recordings. The album is a tribute to Frank Sinatra, who was a close friend of Nelson's
posted by growabrain at 9:05 AM PST - 8 comments

Adam Levine and the boys from Maroon 5 have reportedly been named as the headline act for the Super Bowl LIII halftime show. Music fans aren't thrilled, with many pointing out that a Super Bowl in Atlanta would be the perfect opportunity to highlight local talent. All of which provides a great reason to revisit Sports Illustrated's Mark Bechtel epic recasting of every Super Bowl halftime show, featuring an era-appropriate roster of superstars.
posted by DrAstroZoom at 8:23 AM PST - 46 comments

The horses of Imam Hussain. As Muslims commemorate the martyrdom of Hussain, the Prophet's grandson, the white horses that form part of the Ashura procession in many Shiite commuities in South Asia take their rightful place.
posted by tavegyl at 8:14 AM PST - 3 comments

The actress and comedian [Maya Rudolph] can move up and down the scales of race, age and gender with hilarious ease — a talent that grew from finding her place in a world where no one looked like her. [slNYT]
posted by ellieBOA at 6:39 AM PST - 22 comments

In the industry of graphics accelerators, Nvidia enjoys market dominance. Today, their latest GPU microarchitecture, Turing, is available to the public in their RTX series of implementations of the new chip. Benchmarks show modest improvements over their predecessors, while new features supporting ray-tracing and deep learning offer innovation in the way real-time computer graphics are created.
posted by adept256 at 6:16 AM PST - 26 comments

Manitoba Indigenous Doula Initiative Empowers Women, Helps Keep Kids Out of Welfare System. [more inside]
posted by poffin boffin at 5:27 AM PST - 2 comments

The U.S. Agriculture Department scientists who gave us the Bradford pear thought they were improving our world. Instead, they left an environmental time bomb that has now exploded. [more inside]
posted by peeedro at 4:21 AM PST - 41 comments

Somewhere in the Yarra Valley, a secretive orchardist has developed a little apple-but now needs to find a way to pass this on. [more inside]
posted by freethefeet at 3:42 AM PST - 30 comments

Jeanne Safer and Richard Brookhiser have been deeply in love for almost 40 years while being passionately committed to opposite sides of the abortion debate. [SLSlate]
posted by clawsoon at 3:28 AM PST - 38 comments

Nicolas Cage reminisces about some of his most iconic roles.
posted by smoke at 1:09 AM PST - 14 comments

When the Tweedys bought a zoo in Borth, west Wales, it was a dream come true. But it soon turned into a nightmare of escaped animals, deaths and family feuding
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 1:04 AM PST - 9 comments

Picture the keypad of a telephone and calculator side by side. Can you see the subtle difference between the two without resorting to your smartphone? Don’t worry if you can’t recall the design. Most of us are so used to accepting the common interfaces that we tend to overlook the calculator’s inverted key sequence.
posted by eotvos at 12:43 AM PST - 24 comments

We invited some of the best musicians in the world to create songs inspired by each of the 27 amendments; a kind of “Schoolhouse Rock!” for the 21st Century. [more inside]
posted by Pyrogenesis at 11:02 PM PST - 3 comments

Ranked: 10 Paintings of Judith Beheading Holofernes (SLListicle).
posted by Capt. Renault at 10:19 PM PST - 29 comments

Toronto resident Jenny Serwylo had enjoyed a quiet evening at home Tuesday and had gone to bed when she was startled awake by noises coming from her kitchen. [more inside]
posted by Secret Sparrow at 9:25 PM PST - 19 comments

Robert Venturi, famed-postmodernist and icon of American architecture, passed away Tuesday at the age of 93. [more inside]
posted by q*ben at 8:44 PM PST - 10 comments

The online reader reviews I found varied between naked revulsion and sheepish endorsement. One Amazon reviewer claimed he had given a copy of the 1198-page novel to each of his friends and promised that if they finished, he would pay for their children’s college education. “I’ve paid for no one’s education!” he wrote.
posted by Chrysostom at 8:42 PM PST - 33 comments

Alan Abel, notorious hoaxer and director of Is There Sex After Death? is dead ...again, this time at 94. Previously, previouslier
posted by dannyboybell at 8:38 PM PST - 5 comments

The 74-year-old comedy star is sober and ready to work. The problem is nobody wants to work with him. [Washington Post]

"Chase can be arrogant, unpredictable and mean. He is a masterful put-down artist. He can be blunt or tone-deaf, depending on what he fesses up to, and he doesn’t always seem to understand the fine line between comic provocation and publicity disaster.

But Chase can also be hilarious, sensitive and surprisingly supportive. Sometimes, he’s all of these things at once."

posted by riruro at 4:35 PM PST - 112 comments

"My return to the refugee camps, 30 years on": Dina Nayeri was eight when she and her family fled Iran. Are today’s refugees treated with more dignity? (SLGuardian)
posted by praemunire at 2:04 PM PST - 2 comments

WorkMarket is a "payment processor" that Huffington Post, Yahoo, and many other media companies use to pay freelancers. WM offers a super-convenient feature called "FastFunds" that gives those freelancers the "opportunity" to be paid immediately, rather than after the usual few weeks that a megacorp will make a freelancer wait, in return for an 8% cut, which works out to about a 200% APR. They won't call it a payday loan, though. [CW: Pointless picture of injured bird at top of article]
posted by Etrigan at 1:58 PM PST - 27 comments

With an investigation Golf Digest helped open, an Erie County court vacated Valentino Dixon's murder conviction after he had already served 27 years in jail
posted by vespabelle at 1:22 PM PST - 12 comments

Reusing huge abandoned Sears buildings across urban America. A few years back, I [author] moved into a Sears building — no, not that famous skyscraper in Chicago, or one of those department stores in the suburbs, but a city block-sized brick behemoth just south of downtown Minneapolis, Minnesota. Formerly known as the “Sears, Roebuck and Company Mail-Order Warehouse and Retail Store,” it was a distribution center for an empire that revolutionized commerce in the 20th century. Today, it plays a new role in the post-industrial age, as do a series of similar-looking Sears “plants” in cities around the United States. [more inside]
posted by MovableBookLady at 12:48 PM PST - 35 comments

Nine Plums (by listing-to-port; previously, originally)
posted by Halloween Jack at 12:01 PM PST - 8 comments

"I was inspired by the news that Harriet Tubman would replace Andrew Jackson on the $20 bill, and subsequently saddened by the news that the Trump administration was walking back that plan. So I created a stamp to convert Jacksons into Tubmans myself. I have been stamping $20 bills and entering them into circulation for the last year, and gifting stamps to friends to do the same." [more inside]
posted by not_the_water at 11:22 AM PST - 46 comments

Get your KPOP dose for the day with the KPOP IN PUBLIC challenge, including my fave Taiwan. Need more?
The Seoul Shinmun sponsored a 2018 K-POP Cover Dance Festival in June 2018. The video of the finals include groups from MEXICO | UNITED STATES | RUSSIA | INDONESIA | THAILAND | PHILIPPINES | JAPAN [more inside]
posted by spamandkimchi at 11:04 AM PST - 5 comments

Musical instrument goes flat in presence of adulterated medicine (Ars Technica). Heran C. Bhakta, Vamsi K. Choday, and William H. Grover at the Grover Lab in the Department of Bioengineering, University of California, Riverside have figured out a way to modify an mbira to turn the instrument into or allow people to make an inexpensive sensor, when paired with a digital audio recorder, such as an iOS or Android phone, and the lab's online sound analysis tool. Full description in their paper Musical Instruments As Sensors (ACS Omega, 2018, DOI: 10.1021/acsomega.8b01673). [more inside]
posted by filthy light thief at 10:27 AM PST - 9 comments

The Guardian: Workers at McDonald’s restaurants in 10 cities [across the United States] walked off the job on Tuesday to demand that the company address sexual abuse and harassment....Organizers said this was the first nationwide strike ever called specifically to protest sexual harassment. According to a 2016 survey, at least 40% of American women in the fast food industry have been sexually harassed on the job, and 20% of these women experienced retaliation from supervisors after reporting the harassment--higher for women of colour. In May 2018, the national US labour organization Fight For $15 backed ten women from different American cities who filed a federal suit against McDonald's for failing to respond to harassment or retaliating after a harassment complaint.
posted by hurdy gurdy girl at 10:26 AM PST - 11 comments

Life on a steam railroad in the 21st century. [SLYT] 26min
posted by pjern at 9:53 AM PST - 3 comments

The Dirty Secret Of The World's Plan To Avert Climate Disaster - Abby Rabinowitz and Amanda Simpson, WIRED.

The UN report envisions 116 scenarios in which global temperatures are prevented from rising more than 2°C. In 101 of them, that goal is accomplished by sucking massive amounts of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere—a concept called “negative emissions”—chiefly via BECCS. And in these scenarios to prevent planetary disaster, this would need to happen by midcentury, or even as soon as 2020. Like a pharmaceutical warning label, one footnote warned that such “methods may carry side effects and long-term consequences on a global scale.”... Today that vast future sector of the economy amounts to one working project in the world: a repurposed corn ethanol plant in Decatur, Illinois. Which raises a question: Has the world come to rely on an imaginary technology to save it?

[more inside]
posted by the man of twists and turns at 9:38 AM PST - 30 comments

“Apple’s revenues come from purchases made by consumers across the entire wealth distribution, but the moment that money hits Apple’s ledger it comes under the control of the elite: most shares of Apple, like most shares of stock in general, are owned by the wealthy. While stock markets have reached record highs in recent years, fewer Americans own stock than ever before, with the top 10 percent of the wealthiest households owning 84 percent of all stock in 2016. (According to economist Edward Wolff, this is up from 77 percent in 2001.) The bottom 80 percent of households, by contrast, own just 7 percent of stocks. The preponderance of Apple’s income is transferred to shareholders, who largely fall into the upper echelon of the economy. - Apple redistributes more wealth upward than any corporation or country on the planet.“ Think Different ( Boston Review)
posted by The Whelk at 9:34 AM PST - 33 comments

Where's the country music on Pitchfork's Best Albums of the 1980s?
posted by naju at 9:19 AM PST - 56 comments

I reviewed police documents, interviewed witnesses and experts, and made several pilgrimages home to Texas to try to understand what exactly happened to Wyatt — not just on that night, but in the days and months and years that followed. Making sense of her ordeal meant tracing a web of failures, lies, abdications and predations, at the center of which was a node of power that, though anonymous and dispersed, was nonetheless tilted firmly against a young, vulnerable girl. Journalists, activists and advocates began to uncover that very same imbalance of power from Hollywood to Capitol Hill in the final year of this reporting, in an explosion of reporting and analysis we’ve come to call the #MeToo Movement. But the rot was always there — even in smaller and less remarkable places, where power takes mundane, suburban shapes.
posted by perplexion at 8:59 AM PST - 17 comments

Hannah Bryndís Proppé-Bailey talks about how stand-up comedy and football help her deal with schizophrenia (autoplaying video, may blow dust into eyes) for UEFA’s Equal Game project. Earlier this year Hannah Jane Cohen interviewed her about her comedy.
posted by Kattullus at 8:54 AM PST - 1 comment

Every Keanu Reeves Whoa In Chronological Order (1986 - 2016) [YouTube]
posted by Fizz at 8:46 AM PST - 18 comments

You Might Have Earned It, But Don't Forget That Your Wealth Came from Society - "The distribution of that wealth doesn't rest on markets or on social perceptions of who deserves what but on the ability of the powerful to use their power to retain whatever of the value society generates that they can." (via) [more inside]
posted by kliuless at 6:14 AM PST - 14 comments

In a new longform piece, Laurie Penny explains why debate is not going to save us from fascism, that arguments defending bad faith debate are disingenuous, and why she won't debate those operating in bad faith. (SLLongreads) [more inside]
posted by NoxAeternum at 5:17 AM PST - 88 comments

25 Restaurants That Seriously Need To Chill TF Out
22 Crimes Against Food Serving Committed By Restaurants SOME OVERLAP DON'T @ ME
25+ People Who Never Figured Out How Food Works
20+ Memes For People Whose Religion is ‘Food’
21 Of The Laziest Things People Have Ever Done To Food LAST THREE ARE NOT LAZY FOR SOME FOLKS
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 11:45 PM PST - 87 comments

I overheard a young man on the train on the way home today, talking to another young man. Holding hands. In college, I guessed. About that age anyway. Much younger than I am. He was talking about AIDS, in a scholarly way. About how it had galvanized the gay community. How it had spurred change. Paved the way to make things better, in the long run. The long run.
posted by gwint at 9:44 PM PST - 36 comments

"I know that sounds absurd, like PC culture gone amuck. Men are, on average — and I don’t mean to disparage the capability of individual men here — less competent on the battlefield. Their higher center of gravity makes them less stable. Their voices are too guttural and low to carry well across the din of battle. Testosterone makes them prone to irrational behavior and leaves them poor candidates not just for leadership roles but even subordinate roles. Their larger body mass makes them easier targets for missile weapons and less capable of the sorts of guerrilla tactics that vikings favored on their raids. To say nothing of how men are socialized to constantly bicker with other men."

- Some Viking Warriors Were Probably Men
posted by Aya Hirano on the Astral Plane at 6:50 PM PST - 19 comments

Bent Knee's phenomenal album Land Animal is a study in contradictions: haunting at once effervescent, and metal and poppy and contemplative all at the same time. In short, it is a fantastic time.
posted by rorgy at 5:51 PM PST - 14 comments

New Zealand women won the right to vote on 19 September 1893 - 125 years ago today*. In doing so, New Zealand became the "first self-governing colony in the world in which all women had the right to vote in parliamentary elections." Join us to celebrate Suffrage 125: Women, the Vote, and Activism [more inside]
posted by Paragon at 3:53 PM PST - 8 comments

It is no wonder that old ideas of the masculine persist, in a kind of camp afterlife, transmitted largely via jokes we really mean and ironies that aren’t fully ironic.

Philip Christman writes an essay on contemporary masculinity, "What Is It Like to Be a Man?"
posted by Rumple at 3:07 PM PST - 93 comments

Last year, Rob Delaney (of Catastrophe and Deadpool 2) started writing a book proposal about his two-year-old son's brain cancer. He never finished it, because Henry died in January. This week, Rob published some of what he had written. Content Warning: medical description of childhood cancer
posted by Etrigan at 1:26 PM PST - 23 comments

The usual jerks (internet mobs, shaky governments, lickboot capital) attack female ASMR artists.
posted by clew at 11:55 AM PST - 23 comments

Fake miniatures depicting Islamic science have found their way into the most august of libraries and history books. How? [more inside]
posted by standardasparagus at 11:48 AM PST - 11 comments

"You can't love me anymore if you don't answer. I will now stop writing. I give up." A cache of 160,000 letters, posted between 1652 and 1815 but seized by British warships and never delivered, will be scanned and posted online for all to see. A large percentage have never been opened. For many that were, it's tragic to imagine that they were never received: an indentured servant writing to her father, apologizing for whatever she did wrong and begging him to send clothes because she doesn't have any, or a wife writing to her distant husband saying that he must not love her any longer because he is not responding to her letters.
posted by quarantine at 11:44 AM PST - 26 comments

The first Haida language film could have lasting impacts [more inside]
posted by poffin boffin at 11:20 AM PST - 6 comments

Frank Oldfield was the Postal Inspector who took down America’s first organized crime ring, The Society of the Banana (Politico). The Black Hand or "Society of the Banana" terrorized new Italian immigrant communities in parts of the US by mail. An Ohio history writer contends that organized crime didn't start in the U.S. in Chicago or New York, but in Marion (Marion Star). The grip of "la mano nera" spread across the Mid-west, as tracked by postal inspectors (Littleton Independent, 1909). The story of how a postal worker brought them down was almost lost forever (Vice) -- in part because Oldfield's family feared retribution, generations later.
posted by filthy light thief at 10:18 AM PST - 7 comments

The Life, Forking, and Death of Great Data Exchange Formats or TwoBitHistory on RSS. [more inside]
posted by cichlid ceilidh at 8:53 AM PST - 47 comments

The remarkable obituary of Freddie Oversteegen, hero of the Dutch Resistance. [more inside]
posted by saladin at 8:34 AM PST - 14 comments

In 1999, Channel 4 sent Pulp's Jarvis Cocker around the world to investigate outsider art and interview its creators; the result was a fascinating three-part series: Part one (France). Part two (US). Part three (Mexico, Belgium, Germany, Switzerland, and India). A full list of the featured sites (some of which no longer exist) is posted here.
posted by carrienation at 8:32 AM PST - 5 comments

Illustrator Quentin Blake imagines Matilda at 30. “I am sure that someone who had read so many books when she was small could easily have become chief executive of the British Library, or someone exceptionally gifted at mental arithmetic would be perfectly at home in astrophysics. And if you have been to so many countries in books, what could be more natural than to go and see them yourself?”
posted by ChuraChura at 8:21 AM PST - 16 comments

Pick a number, any number and this fun little site will show how it is the sum of three palindromes! It doesn't seem like it should be possible, but it always is, in any base, and most of the time there's more than one way to do it.
posted by a snickering nuthatch at 8:08 AM PST - 14 comments

Sesame Street writer Mark Saltzman confirms the that characters of Bert & Ernie were written as a gay couple.
posted by seanmpuckett at 7:12 AM PST - 140 comments

The first trailer for Captain Marvel has dropped.
posted by dinty_moore at 6:22 AM PST - 175 comments

СКАЗКА / FAIRYTALE is the latest song from Moscow's IC3PEAK [more inside]
posted by griphus at 6:01 AM PST - 3 comments

What’s the best way to cut a sandwich? [The Takeout] “Today, we focus on the most vexing question to confound mankind since whether a hot dog is a sandwich.” [more inside]
posted by Fizz at 5:38 AM PST - 88 comments

Blair Braverman (previously) came home to some minor tornado wreckage last July, so she decided to recruit some of the pups for a clean-up party: Twitter | Threadreader

Read to the end for a bedtime story.
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 11:12 PM PST - 14 comments

Eileen Gray’s E-1027 French villa hasn’t lived a charmed life: It has survived desecration by Le Corbusier, target practice by the Nazis, a drug den etc. The house certainly had optimistic—and idealistic—beginnings. “One must build for the human being, that he might rediscover in the architectural construction the joys of self-fulfillment in a whole that extends and completes him,” Gray wrote in the 1929 issue of L’Architecture Vivante. “Even the furnishings should lose their individuality by blending in with the architectural ensemble.” The villa was intended as a peaceful retreat for Gray and her then lover, Romanian architect, critic, and editor of L’Architecture Vivante, Jean Badovici, who had partially contributed to the project’s design.
posted by MovableBookLady at 6:50 PM PST - 7 comments

The Epic Task Of Breeding Fruit Flies For Life On Titan, Drosophilia Titanus, Andy Gracie
posted by the man of twists and turns at 6:49 PM PST - 11 comments

Anaana's Tent, a Canadian children's show that broadcasts in Inuktitut, the language of the Inuit peoples of eastern Canadian Arctic, has just added an English version to its programming that teaches Inuktitut words throughout. This, one of the executive producers, Neil Christopher, told Huffington Post, is "for those Inuit and others whose first language isn't Inuktitut but want to learn". Can't access Canadian TV? You can still learn a few things! [more inside]
posted by Aya Hirano on the Astral Plane at 5:28 PM PST - 12 comments

The European Commission rules to abolish Daylight Saving Time in 2019, in response to a survey that showed 80% opposition to the twice-annual changing of clocks. Assuming that the move passes the European Parliament and local parliaments, EU member states will decide in April 2019 whether to permanently remain on summer or winter time. [more inside]
posted by acb at 3:46 PM PST - 118 comments

Denise Korenek just set a 'paced bicycle land speed record' - essentially cycling behind a vehicle and using the drafting (slip-streaming) to achieve very high speeds.
posted by Stark at 1:42 PM PST - 62 comments

Some groups affected more than others (surprise). When researchers first discovered a link in the late 1990s between childhood adversity and chronic health problems later in life, the real revelation was how common those experiences were across all socioeconomic groups. But the first major study to focus on adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) was limited to a single healthcare system in San Diego. Now a new study — the largest nationally representative study to date on ACEs — confirms that these experiences are universal, yet highlights some disparities among socioeconomic groups.
posted by aleph at 11:49 AM PST - 16 comments

“In Manheim Township, a historically conservative area where Weaver canvassed for LSU, Democrats won all 6 school board seats. Dianne Bates, a progressive millennial, won her Borough Council race in arch-conservative Millersville. Elizabethtown hadn’t had a Democrat on the town council since the 1970s, but last fall they elected an IBEW member, Bill Troutman.” A Grassroots Uprising In Amish Country Begins To Find Meaning In Politics.
posted by The Whelk at 9:50 AM PST - 14 comments

Ten miles south-east of New Orleans are some World War II structures (Google streetview), including 29 concrete bunkers. You can go hiking in the area, or you could visit 7 or 8 million dead fish in two of those bunkers. They are the Royal D. Suttkus Fish Collection, the largest fish archive in the world, which has only grown in recent years as it took in at least part of University of Louisiana at Monroe's fish collection, which that university was divesting due to reduced funding. [more inside]
posted by filthy light thief at 8:50 AM PST - 8 comments

In a quiet pen in B.C.’s northeast corner, pregnant caribou cows and their calves are fed hand-picked old growth lichen, provided 24-hour armed security and are the subject of one of Canada’s boldest and most experimental efforts to save a species from extinction. [more inside]
posted by poffin boffin at 8:48 AM PST - 5 comments

Boing Boing: “Spiders blamed after broken siren played creepy nursery rhymes randomly at night to UK townsfolk. The Ipswich Star reports on what one local described as 'something from a horror movie.'” BBC: “For several months she would hear the rhyme, which would go away only to come again another day.” Ipswich Star: “It was waking me up in the night, it was absolutely terrifying. I heard it at all times of the night - 1am, 2am, 4am - it was sporadic, sometimes it would play once, other times it was over and over.”
posted by Wordshore at 8:19 AM PST - 69 comments

Falling prices and a trade war mean small farmers are struggling to stay afloat [slEater]
posted by Freelance Demiurge at 7:04 AM PST - 49 comments

"Haunters Against Hate had its genesis in some very negative speech from a group who reviews haunted attractions in the Ohio Valley area referencing the Orlando Pulse nightclub shooting tragedy in the summer of 2016. They decided to take a stand in opposition to such speech; and more importantly, in support of LGBTQ actors, staff, friends and family. Haunters Against Hate stands by, always watching for hate speech or discrimination against anyone on basis of race, color, gender, national origin, age, religion, creed, disability, veteran’s status, sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression and responding appropriately: Because hate is the scariest thing of all." [more inside]
posted by 80 Cats in a Dog Suit at 6:59 PM PST - 8 comments

Why you should throw your children's art away. Mary Townsend writes: If it’s the act of making the art that’s useful and good for children, then let this part of the art live, and then let its results die. Like its aesthetic quality, the output of children’s artistic efforts is incomplete. Throwing it away actually does everyone a favor. It completes the artistic life-cycle, allowing ephemera to be just that: actually ephemeral.
posted by Cash4Lead at 5:54 PM PST - 104 comments

Entranced emperor tamarins! turn off the sound, it is annoying
posted by ChuraChura at 5:38 PM PST - 21 comments

10 Brilliant Retellings of Classical Myths by Female Writers [Literary Hub] “There’s something about our oldest stories that never gets old. Rereading classical mythology is for me an exercise in surprise and recognition mixed together. There are things I’ve always missed in a myth, the previous time around, that strike me as utterly vital to understanding its meaning. I believe that myths hit us somewhere below the brain, at some irrational, dreamlike level that somehow feels truer than ordinary stories. When I read Ovid’s myth of Apollo pursuing Daphne, “one made swift by hope and one by fear,” and the nymph metamorphoses into a laurel tree to escape the amorous god forever, it disturbs and thrills me in ways I find hard to explain.* [...] The books in this list are the smartest, most beautifully wrought adaptations of classical myths I’ve ever encountered—and they all just happen to be by female writers.” [more inside]
posted by Fizz at 4:32 PM PST - 21 comments

Linus Torvalds:

"This week people in our community confronted me about my lifetime of not understanding emotions. My flippant attacks in emails have been both unprofessional and uncalled for. Especially at times when I made it personal. In my quest for a better patch, this made sense to me. I know now this was not OK and I am truly sorry."

The Linux Kernel has adopted a formal code of conduct.
posted by jenkinsEar at 3:46 PM PST - 150 comments

The Billion-Dollar Mystery Man and the Wildest Party Vegas Ever Saw Tom Wright and Bradley Hope just shared an excerpt from the prologue of their book, "Billion Dollar Whale: The Man Who Fooled Wall Street, Hollywood, and the World", touted as the definitive account of the 1MDB scandal. (previously), focusing on the man still at-large, Jho Low. (twitter link to the article) Naturally, he's not taking it standing down, and his lawyers have been sending out legal letters to bookstores around the world. Back home, the book is selling fast and pirated PDFs are being freely shared. At the same time, Clare Rewcastle-Brown has also launched her own book of her investigative journalism on the scandal, in Malaysia no less, a fact unimaginable before the last election. Welp, Happy Malaysia Day!
posted by cendawanita at 1:46 PM PST - 23 comments

Alejandro Durán created an art installation on the Mexican shoreline using mountains of trash.
posted by queen anne's remorse at 1:37 PM PST - 6 comments

The reckoning, however, will not be the same for everyone in its path. Location is an obvious differentiator—but not the only one. Factors like socioeconomic status, age, whether a person has a disability, whether or not they own a car, and what languages they speak will also determine how easy or difficult it is to survive and recover from disasters like Florence. [more inside]
posted by MovableBookLady at 12:16 PM PST - 2 comments

Science Twitter presents the DnD-style alignment chart we never knew we needed: the nine types of 'Reply Guys.' [more inside]
posted by deludingmyself at 9:59 AM PST - 50 comments

For generations, people have imagined life on the Martian surface in extraordinary detail, from how drinking water will be purified to how fresh food will be grown, but there is another question that remains unanswered: How will Mars be policed?
posted by Artw at 8:45 AM PST - 49 comments

Super Typhoon Ompong [international name: Mangkut] leaves at least 29 dead in Philippines as it moves on to make landfall at the Pearl River Delta near Hong Kong and Macau
posted by the man of twists and turns at 8:28 AM PST - 16 comments

Kenyan runner Eliud Kipchoge set a new men's marathon world record at the Berlin Marathon today with a time of two hours, one minute, and 39 seconds. His new record is one minute and 18 seconds faster than the previous record set by Dennis Kimetto at the same race in 2014. Fellow Kenyan Gladys Cherono won the women's race with a time of 2:18:11, with the top three women's competitors all finishing in under 2:19, a first.
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 8:08 AM PST - 16 comments

"It would not be good for the whole world to become New York." A thousand yurts -- "the Czech Republic delegation, for example, was a group of male friends who fished around for an easy sport." -- "The American kok-boru team, some waving their own cowboy hats, brandished the flag of Wyoming" -- "The British ambassador to Kyrgyzstan, Robin Ord-Smith, was a bit flummoxed about how his country could participate in the Games. “We don’t really do nomads,” he said. Then, an inspiration: Scotsmen!"
posted by Hypatia at 7:48 AM PST - 12 comments

Berlin based artist Ben Roth has a slightly different blog which he calls Door of Perception inviting the viewer down a rabbit hole.
From Paul Wunderlich's Everything You Can Imagine Is Real and Mati Klarwein to Robert Steven Connett's Miracles Of Life On Display and Ernst Haeckel and oh so very many more.
(Caveat: This is an art post so there is bound to be NSFW in there.)
posted by adamvasco at 7:46 AM PST - 8 comments

‘I Want to Burn Things to the Ground’ [The Chronicle of Higher Education] “Just last month the Center for Open Science reported that, of 21 social-behavioral-science studies published in Science and Nature between 2010 and 2015, researchers could successfully replicate only 13 of them. Again, that’s Science and Nature, two of the most prestigious scientific journals around. If you’re a human interested in reliable information about human behavior, that news is probably distressing. If you’re a psychologist who has built a career on what may turn out to be a mirage, it’s genuinely terrifying.”
posted by supercrayon at 1:53 AM PST - 68 comments

Why 95.8% of Female Newscasters Have the Same Hair Hair politics from InStyle magazine, of all places
posted by pH Indicating Socks at 10:07 PM PST - 30 comments

Sung in a grain bin.
posted by HuronBob at 6:43 PM PST - 30 comments

THIS MAN FLEW TO JAPAN TO SING ABBA IN A BIG COLD RIVER (SLYT)
posted by sunset in snow country at 4:56 PM PST - 10 comments

From The New Yorker's Annals of Entomology: What Termites Can Teach Us — Roboticists are fascinated by their “swarm intelligence,” biologists by their ability to turn grass into energy. But can humans replicate their achievements? Amia Srinivasan looks back on people's interest in termites, from The Soul of the White Ant (translated) by Eugène N. Marais and the earlier Some Account of the Termites, Which are Found in Africa and Other Hot Climates. In a Letter from Mr. Henry Smeathman (Archive.org), to the new review of modern scientific inquiries, Lisa Margonelli's new book, Underbug: An Obsessive Tale of Termites and Technology (Goodreads; Amazon).
posted by filthy light thief at 4:41 PM PST - 3 comments

If a Leap Baby born in 2000 commits a crime on February 28, 2018, should they be tried as a minor or an adult? One girl challenged the Australian courts with just this conundrum when she chose February 28, 2018 for her crime, resulting in incredibly complicated discussions of what exactly a "month" is and an initial ruling overturned on appeal. [more inside]
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 3:55 PM PST - 46 comments

Many educators don't know the science of reading and, in some cases, actively resist it. Research shows that children who don't learn to read by the end of third grade are likely to remain poor readers for the rest of their lives, and they're likely to fall behind in other academic areas, too. People who struggle with reading are more likely to drop out of high school, to end up in the criminal justice system, and to live in poverty. But as a nation, we've come to accept a high percentage of kids not reading well.
posted by MovableBookLady at 11:24 AM PST - 68 comments

Some tips she shared in advance of the proposed blog launch included stowing all morning and evening skin care products in a nightstand basket, setting up a coffee-making station within reach, and avoiding the shower. “Showering requires being upright, as well as being SPRAYED with WATER!” she points out. “You can lay down in the bath, throw some bubbles in, almost as good as bed.” The homebody economy, explained.
posted by Juso No Thankyou at 9:13 AM PST - 49 comments

Presenting "Brown Spot Blues,", an extempore paean to a boogie-woogie bulldog. Nirvana fans may prefer the remix. [more inside]
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 9:08 AM PST - 3 comments

danah boyd (previously) delivered a keynote speech (available as text or video) to the Online News Association. It’s about manipulation of the media and how extremists and conspiracy theorists try to get their phrases covered so that they can get people to search for their terms and be indoctrinated.
posted by larrybob at 6:35 AM PST - 29 comments

Ace guitarist Marc Ribot has a new album out collecting resistance songs both old and new - and it's terrific. Guest vocalists on the disc include Tom Waits (in his first new recording for two years) and Steve Earle. And here's Ribot himself performing one of the songs live.
posted by Paul Slade at 5:51 AM PST - 13 comments

It takes hard work to say, “This is how I am" | From Heather Havrilesky's upcoming book of essays, "What if this were enough?" [more inside]
posted by I_Love_Bananas at 5:34 AM PST - 10 comments

What Women Want From Jian Ghomeshi by Anne Thériault [Flare] “In the autumn of 2018, almost exactly four years after the allegations of sexual assault and abuse made against Jian Ghomeshi were published in the Toronto Star, we have finally reached the contrition stage of this particular narrative. In a lengthy essay for the New York Review of Books—accompanied by a Edvard Munch painting of a man deep in thought, entitled Melancholy—Ghomeshi takes 39 meandering paragraphs to say that he feels sorry; mostly for himself, but also a little bit for the women he hurt. Women, he explains, that he didn’t actually hurt in any of the specific, horrible ways that you’ve heard; mostly he hurt them by being thoughtless and a bit full of himself, which, he’s sure you’ll agree, is perfectly understandable given how famous and beloved he used to be. But anyway, enough about these women! What Jian really wants to know is, What it will take for you to finally stop hating Jian?” [more inside]
posted by Fizz at 4:55 AM PST - 143 comments

It's January 1983 and Prince is sitting at the piano in his home studio in Minneapolis. He has a cassette recorder, some spare time and a bunch of songs in his head. direct soundcloud link [more inside]
posted by jouke at 3:03 AM PST - 8 comments

I crossed the Alps on a space hopper
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 1:53 AM PST - 17 comments

Daniel Nexon writes for Foreign Affairs: Toward a Neo-Progressive [US] Foreign Policy - The Case For An Internationalist Left [more inside]
posted by the man of twists and turns at 11:11 PM PST - 44 comments

Voice teacher, Sam Johnson has a YouTube channel where he reacts* to ( analyzes) compilations of singers on youtube including:
"worst" contestants on American Idol,
pop singers who can't reach those high notes anymore,
k-pop best and worst,
k-pop high notes

* note: reactions are caring, kind and informative!
posted by vespabelle at 10:02 PM PST - 27 comments

If you, like me, think about romantic comedies the way other people think of cigarette breaks—self-soothing with self-destruction—you already know the best part is what happens in our heads.
posted by cosmic owl at 7:50 PM PST - 18 comments

South Carolina officials don’t plan to move at least 650 inmates from a prison located in a county that's under mandatory evacuation order as Category 4 Hurricane Florence approaches. [more inside]
posted by ErisLordFreedom at 7:01 PM PST - 26 comments

ABC TV Interview with Mrs 'Manx' Morgan (SLyoutube) who in 1969 surprised her husband by driving from Sydney to Adelaide to be with him- with all 55 of her cats. (2 minutes, black and white, no subtitles.)
posted by freethefeet at 6:04 PM PST - 13 comments

One year ago, writers Chuck Wendig and Sam Sykes did a goofy Twitter thing. (previously) Today, they unveiled the first trailer for the feature-length slasher movie parody based on their goofy twitter thing, YOU MIGHT BE THE KILLER, starring Fran Kranz as Sam and Alyson Hannigan as Chuck. [more inside]
posted by Holy Zarquon's Singing Fish at 3:16 PM PST - 13 comments

Serial Season 3 is coming on September 20th. You can play the trailer on their website. A year inside the criminal courts in Cleveland, Ohio.
posted by hippybear at 2:51 PM PST - 12 comments

You’ve only got to look at the names of the most famous bushrangers – Jack Donohoe, Ned Kelly, Dan Morgan – to see this Irish lineage show through. It’s also noticeable how many of the bushranger ballads are composed to fit old Irish tunes: and often old Irish rebel tunes at that. Jim Jones, for example, can be sung to the music of Skibbereen.... Both Bold Jack Donohoe and The Wild Colonial Boy are written to fit the music of the Irish nationalist anthem The Wearing of the Green. “I’ll fight but not surrender”: Bushranger ballads, from MeFi's own Paul Slade. Too many stories of the lads? Skip to the appendix for Daughters of the Rum Rebellion, true tales of Australia's colonial women via original songs [Facebook] by Gleny Rae & Ilona Harker. [via mefi projects]
posted by filthy light thief at 2:48 PM PST - 9 comments

Trump Campaign Manager and convicted felon Paul Manafort will plead guilty to avoid a second trial and has agreed to cooperate with federal investigators (CNBC). In an unusually lengthy superseding criminal information document (PDF), the Special Counsel's office charges him on two counts: conspiracy against the United States from 2006 to 2017, with Rick Gates and GRU operative Konstantin Kilimnik (FARA conspiracy), and conspiracy to obstruct justice (witness tampering). In a 17-page cooperation agreement, Manafort promises to give interviews and briefings to the Special Counsel, turn over documents, and testify in other proceedings—and he has waived right to have lawyers representing him present at any interviews. In exchange, the agreement calls for a 10-year cap on Manafort's prison sentence and for concurrent time served for his separate Virginia and Washington cases (Politico). Manafort will also give up $46 million in criminal and civil forfeitures, making his plea deal effectively pardon proof. From the courthouse, CNN reports: “He's not smiling at all. He's glum and quietly responding, 'yes, your honor'” [more inside]
posted by Doktor Zed at 2:16 PM PST - 2055 comments

It’s been ten years since America’s largest bankruptcy filing- how have things been going? (The Nib) cw: suicide
posted by The Whelk at 1:57 PM PST - 46 comments

A 1,500 year old Mayan altar discovered in a small archaeological site in northern Guatemala is drawing comparisons to popular fantasy drama television series "Game of Thrones" for its descriptions of the Kaanul dynasty's political strategies aimed at bringing entire cities under its control. [more inside]
posted by orrnyereg at 12:21 PM PST - 2 comments

Each day of World Childless Week 2018, writers in the childless-not-by-choice community have responded to a different theme related to involuntary childlessness. Today's theme is "Comments That Hurt," specifically the comment, "You never know true love until you have a child." There are essays, video responses, and survey results that end with an email from a supportive parent.
posted by Secret Sockdentity at 10:29 AM PST - 119 comments

On the challenges of defining Latinidad and the intersections of identity in queer & trans Latinx communities. (cw: domestic violence, child abuse, lgbtq hate crimes) [more inside]
posted by poffin boffin at 9:54 AM PST - 3 comments

Pierre Menard's The Asteroids: Like Menard, I didn't want to merely copy or emulate, and I wrote it using relatively modern tools, but at the same time, the closer I could get to the 1979 game, the better. Also, like Menard's Quixote, my game is a failure in the sense that it isn't exactly Asteroids. [via mefi projects]
posted by chavenet at 9:46 AM PST - 5 comments

How Well-Intentioned White Families Can Perpetuate Racism
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 9:04 AM PST - 47 comments

Rihanna closed NYFW with a plush body positive fantasia upending the traditional lingerie show. Featuring music by Sevdaliza, Catnapp, Shygirl, LAPs, and Nicolas Cage. Semi NSFW because, you know, lingerie.
posted by nerdfish at 5:29 AM PST - 14 comments

Regency rendezvous: inside the world of Jane Austen fandom [more inside]
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 1:49 AM PST - 26 comments

The 2018 awards honor research on cursing while driving and cannibalistic calories. Ever wondered why so many people don't read instruction manuals, or how many calories are in the human body? Or whether stabbing a voodoo doll representing your horrible boss with pins could help reduce workplace tension? The winners of this year's Ig Nobel Prizes have got you covered. These and other unusual research topics were honored tonight in a ceremony at Harvard University's Sanders Theater.
posted by MovableBookLady at 10:14 PM PST - 13 comments

Culinary innovator and podcast host Georgia Hardstark asked the Internet "What’s a weird thing your family did that you thought was normal till you moved out?"
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 10:10 PM PST - 466 comments

Cypress Hill spitting hard bars over a slinky Pearl Jam groove and dank Sonic Youth noise, Mudhoney and Sir Mix-A-Lot sharing a dirty Seattle scumbag sesh, Helmet’s taut riffs slowing down for steely-eyed House of Pain verses, Teenage Fanclub bummer jangle matching with De La Soul’s reflective rhymes... An oral history of the ‘Judgment Night’ soundtrack
posted by Artw at 9:50 PM PST - 9 comments

Muses. Photographer Christy Lee Rogers recently photographed multiple people wearing long-flowing clothing underwater in a swimming pool after sunset.
posted by myopicman at 9:27 PM PST - 5 comments

[F]or reasons I may never be able to fully explain, when Lucas Wiley tells the camera, “Uh, yeah. He shits at Priceless Moments,” to explain why Dylan refuses to use the bathroom at Lucas’ mother’s house, because “squishy toilet seats are like pressing your butt against someone else's butt,” I was struck by two immediate and inexplicable thoughts:

1. This show is going to win a Peabody Award.
2. I am going to transition before I grow another year older.

From the incomparable Daniel Ortberg, A Taxonomy of Dudes as Inspired by American Vandal.
posted by rorgy at 8:09 PM PST - 7 comments

This summer, the fifth anniversary of Edward Snowden’s revelations about NSA surveillance passed quietly, adrift on a tide of news that now daily sweeps the ground from under our feet. [more inside]
posted by standardasparagus at 7:27 PM PST - 45 comments

A young narwhal has been hanging out with a pod of beluga whales, about 1000 km south of where he should be hanging out. But they're friends. [more inside]
posted by ChuraChura at 6:30 PM PST - 28 comments

Basically a comparison of the entire Universe. (slyt)
posted by curious nu at 6:00 PM PST - 30 comments

Over half a decade since the last full version, and the more recent mis-steps of the mobile version, at the end of a game-packed Nintendo Direct which included the teaser of Isabelle joining Super Smash Bros, Tom Nook appears to herald the announcement of Animal Crossing for the Switch in 2019. The Internet is happy. Questions, some previous life advice and post title.
posted by Wordshore at 4:18 PM PST - 28 comments

The Race of Gentlemen (TROG) is a vintage hot rod and motorcycle festival. To qualify, cars must have been produced before 1935 and motorcycles before 1947. This year nearly 20,000 spectators watched almost 200 cars and bikes racing down the sandy beach. [more inside]
posted by kimberussell at 11:32 AM PST - 3 comments

So You Think You Can Dance judge Nigel Lythgoe has come a long way in Season 15. Nine years after he made homophobic comments about two men dancing together, enforcing his very strict views on gender roles in dancing (previously), Nigel was quietly applauded for not freaking out when Miss Estranja danced and showed off her signature death drop, though he he referred to Laganja by her performer’s first name, “Jay.” But perhaps more impressive was Nigel's pick for favorite dance number for the season: Taylor & Darius performing to "It Takes A Lot To Know A Man" by Damien Rice (extended clip). Choreographer Travis Wall talked about the dance, wanting SYTYCD to tackle gender and masculinity, and getting Rice to approve of the use of the song. [more inside]
posted by filthy light thief at 11:30 AM PST - 29 comments

Acusaciones de robo y censura centran la víspera del voto europeo sobre el ‘copyright’ [El Pais] Que peut changer la directive européenne sur le droit d’auteur pour les internautes ?[Le Monde] What’s in the sweeping copyright bill just passed by the European Parliament [Ars Technica] Europaparlament für Urheberrecht mit Leistungsschutzrecht[Die Zeit] EU approves controversial Copyright Directive, including internet ‘link tax’ and ‘upload filter’[Verge] Diritto d'autore, il Parlamento europeo approva la direttiva sul copyright: ecco cosa cambia [La Repubblica, video] EUROPE'S NEW COPYRIGHT LAW COULD CHANGE THE WEB WORLDWIDE [WIRED] [more inside]
posted by the man of twists and turns at 10:46 AM PST - 50 comments

A World Music legend. Taha is considered as one of the godfathers of what we call today "worldbeat / global fusion", as he blended Algerian Rai and rock early from the 80s as a member of the Carte de Séjour band through his diverse Solo career as an international music star. He has suddenly died yesterday, just six days before his 60th birthday. [more inside]
posted by avi111 at 9:55 AM PST - 24 comments

Native American farmers plan moves to global market, greater sustainability [more inside]
posted by poffin boffin at 8:39 AM PST - 1 comment

Actor Bill Daily has died at age 91. He was best known as Roger in I Dream of Jeannie and Bob Newhart's neighbor. He also appears in this early episode of "My Mother the Car." How he landed the role in I Dream of Jeanie. Episode of Match Game featuring Bill Daily shenanigans. I Dream of Jeannie reunion interview. Variety obit. Hannah's Bill Daily web site.
posted by Melismata at 8:39 AM PST - 39 comments

Netflix’s Chilling Adventures of Sabrina [Teaser Trailer] “The new series stars Mad Men’s Kiernan Shipka as Sabrina Spellman, a teenage girl whose 16th birthday is more scary than sweet: She has to decide whether to sign the Devil’s book and become a Bride of Satan. If she does, she becomes a full-fledged witch. If she doesn’t, she’s reduced to a mortal life, but gets to hang out with her cute boyfriend Harvey Kinkle (Ross Lynch). Of course, things don’t go exactly as planned, as her favorite teacher Mary Wardell (Michelle Gomez) is possessed by the Devil’s handmaiden and becomes Madame Satan, a vengeful spirit determined to destroy Sabrina and everything she holds dear.” [via: io9]
posted by Fizz at 7:48 AM PST - 75 comments

Immortalized by folk singer-songwriter Steve Goodman as the "Lincoln Park Pirates", the infamous Lincoln Towing Service has had their license revoked by the Illinois Commerce Commission, effective immediately. The firm vows to appeal.
posted by kgander at 6:19 AM PST - 23 comments

Around one year ago, a journalist I know came across a standard pro-Trump trolling/bot account on Twitter. These are sometimes called “MAGA-head” accounts or similar, and they have bio descriptions that are flavoured with a distinctive soup of patriotism. This account was named @GuntherEaglemann, and Gunther was putatively “Fighting the good fight! #BackTheBlue and Support our Troops, USMC, Conservative | Helping the confused Left turn Right – one at a time”. His location was listed as Texas, USA, and he had 2335 followers. The journalist knew that Gunther Eaglemann did not exist because the picture of “Gunther” was a picture of himself. Once challenged, the account disappeared. [more inside]
posted by the duck by the oboe at 4:39 AM PST - 60 comments

The Team Coco channel just posted The First Episode Of "Late Night With Conan O'Brien" to YouTube, 25 years after it aired. It is pretty interesting to see how far both he and the format of the late night talk show have come.
posted by dominik at 4:09 AM PST - 13 comments

If the pop culture of the 1950s onwards was premised on wealth – the modest affluence of having pocket money was the cornerstone of “youth” culture – its transcendent emotional pull was built on a kind of poverty: namely, the severely restricted access to the means of producing and disseminating media. It is an axiom of political science that fanaticism thrives on poverty – the kind of deep, obsessive engagement made possible by the near-total absence of other outlets for one’s emotional and intellectual energies.

Houman Barekat contemplates how music stopped meaning everything.
posted by MartinWisse at 1:38 AM PST - 41 comments

"I've Got Chills": Dream acceleration a week out from top surgery is an essay written by Daniel Mallory Ortberg a week out from having top surgery.
posted by Going To Maine at 9:43 PM PST - 25 comments

During the first phase of most romantic relationships, we try to look as desirable as possible, even if that means ignoring some of our bodily urges. Like, letting out a fart, for example. Sooner or later, however, most couples realize that there’s no need to blow against the wind and deny their biology, sharing their first fart. [more inside]
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 9:27 PM PST - 26 comments

The Pulitzer Center is pleased to announce the launch of the Rainforest Journalism Fund, a five-year, $5.5 million initiative focused on raising public awareness of the urgent environmental issues facing the world’s tropical forests. [more inside]
posted by adamvasco at 2:12 PM PST - 7 comments

Over the weekend, a Facebook group dedicated to one of the most innocuous hobbies possible—houseplants—briefly turned contentious after a user posted a photo of himself holding an orchid while shirtless. But just as quickly, the drama became an “I am Spartacus” moment for trou-dropping plant owners, with other group members posting plant pics in a state of undress in solidarity against body-shaming. [more inside]
posted by roger ackroyd at 1:07 PM PST - 21 comments

A 17 year old solo student pilot loses part of her landing gear at takeoff. ATC audio/radar SLYT. Some days you're the geese. Some days, though, you're Sully.
posted by Devonian at 1:05 PM PST - 92 comments

The decentralised web, or DWeb, could be a chance to take control of our data back from the big tech firms. ...a group of 800 web builders and others – among them Tim Berners-Lee, who created the world wide web – were meeting in San Francisco to discuss a grand idea to circumvent internet gatekeepers like Google and Facebook. The event they had gathered for was the Decentralised Web Summit, held from 31 July to 2 August, and hosted by the Internet Archive. The proponents of the so-called decentralised web – or DWeb – want a new, better web where the entire planet’s population can communicate without having to rely on big companies that amass our data for profit and make it easier for governments to conduct surveillance.
posted by MovableBookLady at 12:37 PM PST - 42 comments

We’ve all been steeping in a culture lousy with entertainment that regularly presents female complaining as an expected baseline — as natural and annoying as a swarm of mosquitoes.
posted by trillian at 11:59 AM PST - 36 comments

Colorado Sports Fan's Plan To Rob Vape Store Falls Apart After He Drops Gun And Pants

This guy here, by appearances an avid Broncos and Rockies fan, spectacularly failed to rob an E-Cig of Denver store in Colorado on Sept. 2. Fumbling his gun over the counter was a bad start, and failing to secure his pants was a bad follow-up, although he did redeem himself somewhat with a super cool karate kick to spur his getaway.

SLDeadspin/video
posted by kirkaracha at 11:34 AM PST - 14 comments

Stella Bowles was 11 years old when she first donned her rubber boots to test for water contamination in the LaHave River, which runs beside her home on the South Shore of Nova Scotia, Canada. With her mentor, Dr. David Maxwell, she found unsafe levels of fecal contamination. She posted warning signs, started a Facebook page, and entered a science fair, and helped convince the federal, provincial, and municipal governments to spend $15 million (Canadian) to install septic systems. Now she's using her award money and donations to create an army of activist kids to test local waters. Stella is one of 25 Top Canadian Environmentalists under 25.
posted by filthy light thief at 11:25 AM PST - 4 comments

The jarring spectacle of an Apple Keynote in 2018 . (Live stream link)
posted by gwint at 9:27 AM PST - 183 comments

Humanity has left a world-wide mark on the planet, in trees, rocks, coral, and lifeforms. We can call this era the Anthropocene, a period of time distinguished by our presence and effects. And one of most terrific results is our head-long plunge into the Sixth Mass Extinction. [more inside]
posted by the man of twists and turns at 8:59 AM PST - 35 comments

Morphology of the Folktale - "Propp set out to identify the basic elements of the plots of Russian fairy tales, working at a level of abstraction where "it does not matter whether a dragon kidnaps a princess or whether a devil makes off with either a priest's or a peasant's daughter". He came up with 31 such "functions". Just listing them (chapter 3) has a certain folkloric quality..." (via)
posted by kliuless at 6:32 AM PST - 16 comments

This post is intended to keep a record of the airports from/to which I have walked, as well as some reviews, in case anybody reading this wants to give it a shot! I will try to keep this list up to date as I collect more airports. There is some low-hanging-fruit out there (looking at you, Burbank, Las Vegas, and San Diego).
posted by curious nu at 6:24 AM PST - 83 comments

The cookbook was made in 1945 by Hungarian-Jew Edith Peer (nee Gombos) when she was an inmate at Ravensbrück concentration camp for women, located in northern Germany. The cookbook is the only object of its kind in Australia and one of six known 'fantasy cookbooks' written by Holocaust concentration camp prisoners in the world. [more inside]
posted by freethefeet at 5:23 AM PST - 7 comments

YouTube’s top creators are burning out and breaking down en masse [more inside]
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 3:20 AM PST - 106 comments

There’s one basic ingredient to living online that Sweden still lacks. They don’t have access to Amazon.
posted by Vesihiisi at 11:18 PM PST - 27 comments

The 200 Best Albums of the 1980s [Pitchfork Media] “Our list still reflects the realities of the ’80s—many great artists worked more successfully in singles than in full albums, for example—but we hope it represents the best of what this innovative decade has to offer, as well as how people consume music now. Tune in.”
posted by Fizz at 9:25 PM PST - 158 comments

Human Rights Watch has compiled a stunningly long and detailed report on China's persecution of Uyghurs in Xinjiang: "You either die there, or you go crazy. Two people did go mad, including a young man in his 20s. Every day, I had to tell myself that I have to survive, I must not go crazy, I pray silently inside myself."
posted by reductiondesign at 8:23 PM PST - 10 comments

Fatima Abu Shedeq has been undergoing intensive swimming training three days a week, six hours a day inside the sports club in Beit Lahia, in the northern Gaza Strip. Her first goal is to make the Palestinian national swimming team and go to Tokyo for the 2020 Summer Olympics. [more inside]
posted by standardasparagus at 6:02 PM PST - 1 comment

Archaeologists unearthed a pot of gold coins dating back to the 5th century AD under an abandoned theater near Milan, Italy. "The find site is just a few feet away from the forum of the Roman city where merchants, banks and temples would have done brisk cash business. It was also an elite residential neighborhood, however, so it’s not out of the question that a private individual rolled up his own wealth."
posted by grobertson at 2:29 PM PST - 14 comments

We asked five experts if we have to poop every day. Five out of five experts said no. (Alexandra Hansen, Quartz) [more inside]
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 2:04 PM PST - 186 comments

We've already covered if pizza and burritos are sandwiches. Now there's a silly Buzzfeed quiz that will allow you to air your opinions and see how wrong everyone else is.
posted by coppermoss at 1:02 PM PST - 98 comments

Not Another Women in Rock Article: A new generation of rising young women rock stars—including Mitski, Soccer Mommy, Snail Mail, Waxahatchee and Camp Cope—has emerged. And they’re redefining what it means to own the room. "Female" is not a musical genre, it's a strength. Lindsay Zoladz, writing for The Ringer, finds inspiration in a quote from Mitski: "When I say [that my album is a] feminine album, immediately the perception is that it must be soft and lovely, but I mean feminine in the violent sense." [more inside]
posted by filthy light thief at 11:13 AM PST - 41 comments

Towards a Critical Edition of "If You're Happy and You Know It"
posted by nebulawindphone at 10:47 AM PST - 31 comments

The Trump administration proposes, in its Fiscal 2019 budget to Congress, cutting $26.6 million and 136 jobs from NIST’s fundamental measurements, quantum science and measurement dissemination activities. That includes the closure of shortwave stations WWV, WWVB (Fort Collins, Colorado) and WWVH (Kekaha, Hawaii) which have provided a free audio and digital time signal to the Northern Hemisphere for over 50 years. [more inside]
posted by JoeZydeco at 7:38 AM PST - 42 comments

What your new roommate's favorite book says about them
posted by holmesian at 6:08 AM PST - 133 comments

Terry Davis, creator of TempleOS (originally called LoseThos) - the biblically-themed operating system discussed previously, previouslier, and previousliest - passed away in mid-August while travelling on "his Great Western Adventure" through Nevada, Arizona, California, Washington and Oregon. [more inside]
posted by Pinback at 5:28 AM PST - 48 comments

The United States Air Force needs (wants?) a kraken costume. Release the RFP! Requirements include: [more inside]
posted by COD at 5:22 AM PST - 34 comments

Fan Bingbing: Vanished Chinese star 'not socially responsible' The 2017-2018 China Film and Television Star Social Responsibility Report, carried widely by state media outlets, ranks Chinese celebrities according to three criteria: professional work, charitable actions and personal integrity. [more inside]
posted by Faintdreams at 3:36 AM PST - 21 comments

How we made Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 2:59 AM PST - 56 comments

The new book Deviant Desires explores the vast and complex facets of human sexuality. NSFW, obviously. Content warning: kink, bdsm, bondage, fetishes, etc. In her new book, Deviant Desires: A Tour of the Erotic Edge, researcher Katharine Gates explores the vast and complex facets of human sexuality. At the center of the book is her "kink map," a visual outline as complex as the human psyche which connects every kink from feet fetishes to superhero bondage. Still, each kink is always explored with mutual consent among like-minded adults and a shared excitement for breaking sexual taboos.
posted by MovableBookLady at 9:56 PM PST - 36 comments

Most of MetaFilter has had little political news from Toronto since its, er, colourful mayor Rob Ford (previously) declined to run for re-election due to ill health before passing away at age 46. But wait, there is a sequel: Rob's brother, one-term Toronto city councillor Doug Ford, became premier of Ontario early this summer and is three months into a tempestuous term that is drawing comparisons with that of Donald Trump. Here is an update on what you need to know: [more inside]
posted by ricochet biscuit at 9:48 PM PST - 160 comments

In the chaos of hurricanes, toxic politics, climate change, divided nations, and global conflict, there are still points of light. Jake Shimabukuro's "Hallelujah". Just close your eyes, clear your mind and listen.
posted by HuronBob at 8:01 PM PST - 16 comments

It seems absurd that something as simple as changing your sitting posture in a vehicle travelling at up to 1200 km/h groundspeed could make a difference to your odds of surviving a crash, but the results are in. The brace position works, and you will do yourself potentially a very great favour by knowing how and when to adopt it.
posted by paleyellowwithorange at 7:48 PM PST - 28 comments

SMS Siemag turns hot metal into really, really big gears (slyt)
posted by fremen at 7:45 PM PST - 9 comments

Game of Thrones is coming to an end, and soon the real struggle for succession begins... amongst the 46 new nerd-shit shows that would seek to claim its place.
posted by Artw at 7:04 PM PST - 129 comments

me and my friends dancing to “mr. brightside” (sltumblr)
posted by curious nu at 4:32 PM PST - 18 comments

Some mesmerizing cookie cutter manufacturing gifs for your Monday. one, two, three, more .
posted by quaking fajita at 2:55 PM PST - 30 comments

In 2011, there were brief, tantalizing articles about a model of San Francisco made in the 1940s. The model measured 40x40 feet and had detail down to individual houses, including their shape and color. And then no more was heard about this, until now... [more inside]
posted by vacapinta at 1:25 PM PST - 12 comments

The remote Pacific atoll of Niue, a three and a half hour flight from Auckland, has a population of 1,600 humans and, as of early this year, one duck.
posted by readinghippo at 1:05 PM PST - 31 comments

The Kodiak Queen is about the ground-breaking transformation of a decorated WWII warship that survived Pearl Harbour, into an artificial reef and dive site by Richard Branson in the British Virgin Islands. The essence of the project was to inspire a generation of ocean lovers. But it soon revealed itself to be about something much bigger.

On the 6th of September 2017, Hurricane Irma released its ferocious power across the Caribbean and Florida Keys. Irma left behind a trail of unimaginable destruction, devastating the lives of thousands of people. In this haunting film, Academy Award winner Kate Winslet and award winning filmmaker Rob Sorrenti remind us of the momentous task ahead restoring the British Virgin Islands. (BVI Art Reef previously.)
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 1:00 PM PST - 2 comments

The Mapuche have long defended their region, first against Incas at the end of the 1400s, then for more than three hundred years (PDF), against the Spanish shortly after they arrived to the area in the 1540s, and later Chilean military forces, until the early 1880s, when the Chilean government won decisive battles. In the midst of this ongoing fight, a French lawyer named Orélie-Antoine de Tounens traveled across the Atlantic with dreams of being a king, and in doing so, played a role in the birth of what he called the Kingdom of Araucanía and Patagonia, as portrayed in Rey (trailer). The story is also notable because that "kingdom" was the only post-colonial Native American country, the Mapuche Nation – except it is not only found on old maps. [more inside]
posted by filthy light thief at 10:15 AM PST - 7 comments

Does mustard ever belong on a pizza? [The Takeout] “Pizza toppings can be contentious, especially if those toppings involve pineapple. But move over, spiky tropical fruit, because there’s a new ’za controversy in town. Lions & Tigers & Squares, a Detroit-style pizzeria in New York, has announced a pizza that replaces tomato sauce with mustard and tops it with corned beef, sauerkraut, and cheese. Inspired take on a classic? Or the most disgusting thing ever created? Without tasting, hard to say.” [VIDEO: via: Twitter @foodinsider This pizza uses mustard instead of tomato sauce ] [more inside]
posted by Fizz at 9:39 AM PST - 213 comments

The Most Controversial Comic Strip by Matthew Wills [via LitHub] [more inside]
posted by chavenet at 8:43 AM PST - 35 comments

Economic struggle in the post-scarcity world(s) of science fiction series The Expanse (no spoilers) What happens to everybody when a technological revolution opens up the whole solar system to exploration -- and economic exploitation? What does it mean to struggle in a post-scarcity world? [more inside]
posted by rue72 at 8:25 AM PST - 53 comments

While expensive space-age materials make up the newest and lightest camping tents, sometimes all you need is a tarp (and cord, and stakes, and walking sticks). Pitches range from the simple A-frame to the origami-like Open Bin to pyramids, tetras, hammock-specifics, and other useful shapes. David Macpherson has more. [more inside]
posted by the man of twists and turns at 8:23 AM PST - 20 comments

Indigenous-led bicycle tours aim to combine First Nations and Métis history with sport [more inside]
posted by poffin boffin at 6:37 AM PST - 4 comments

OS440 (Glen Oykel and Glen Cassley) is the UK's worst selling Ordnance Survey map
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 2:53 AM PST - 30 comments

This weekend was the ceremonies for Creative Arts Emmy Awards, which basically included everything that will not be presented at the Primetime Emmy Awards Ceremony. Of importance was that black actors swept all four major guest actor/actress awards (Kat Williams* for Atlanta, Ron Cephas Jones for This is Us, Tiffany Haddish* for SNL, and Samira Wiley for The Handmaid's Tale), as well as RuPaul winning as host of a Reality-Competition Program, for the third year in a row. Also of note is that Queer Eye* won 3/4 awards it was nominated for, including Outstanding Structured Reality Program. [more inside]
posted by numaner at 11:14 PM PST - 17 comments

“... [T]he records do suggest that having spent the war as fake German spies, Perigoe and Kohout finished it receiving Nazi medals that were forged by the world’s most famous Jewish bank.”
posted by chappell, ambrose at 9:32 PM PST - 21 comments

Professor of Social Geography, Alastair Bonnett, presents a stunning testament to how mysterious our planet still is. From forgotten enclaves to floating islands, from hidden villages to New York gutter spaces, ‘Off the Map’ charts the hidden corners of our planet. [more inside]
posted by MovableBookLady at 8:02 PM PST - 4 comments

Werner's Nomenclature of Colours (previously) is an 1821 system of describing colour shades designed by Abraham Werner and Patrick Syme, and was used by used by scientists such as Charles Darwin to accurately and reproducibly describe the natural world. There is now a beautifully-produced online version by Nicholas Rougeux.
posted by Rumple at 5:43 PM PST - 11 comments

Arrested Development: "In his predominately aerial photographs, Daniel Kariko evaluates the landscape of Florida’s many stalled residential developments, most of which were initiated and abandoned in the previous decade’s housing crisis." SpeculationWorld: Topography of Real Estate Crisis in Florida, a photography series. [more inside]
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 3:54 PM PST - 15 comments

The Netherlands has been restoring bee habitat and seeing more bees. [more inside]
posted by clew at 12:51 PM PST - 17 comments

This cat saved a puppy stuck in a ditch 😭😭 Twitter | non-Twitter. Comic Cerrome Russell added a voiceover (Twitter).
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 12:37 PM PST - 20 comments

You Can Tell A Lot About A Person Based on Their Slang for Vomit, Money or Semen (SLMel)
posted by not_the_water at 12:07 PM PST - 99 comments

At the end of August, Yves Tumor released a new song and video, titled Licking An Orchid (ft. James K), following the earlier single Noid (audio with static images), two cuts of weird, dare I say experimental, R'n'B. That’s old news! But wait what’s this? Tiny Mix Tapes is telling me that they were just singles for a new album? A new album that’s out now?!?!? Yes, it's a full set of ten tracks, sounding somewhere between Blood Orange (whose touring with Yves Tumor) and Croatian Amor (who is featured on a track). Full set of 21 second audio-visual samples from Yves, and a full, official track playlist for Safe in the Hands of Love.
posted by filthy light thief at 9:59 AM PST - 4 comments

Cinema Cats is a website dedicated to listing as many appearances of domestic cats in films and tv shows as it can. [more inside]
posted by dng at 9:03 AM PST - 23 comments

The Cornbread Manifesto is such a coupling of traditional and contemporary leftist promotion created through the collective labor of all walks of Appalachian life: Black, anti-racist womanists; queer syndicalists; leftist-organizing coal miners’ daughters; agrarian anachro-communists; and the like. (PDF, Google Drive)
posted by The Whelk at 8:48 AM PST - 8 comments

Gary Shteyngart's View From Hedge Fund Land - "I grew up in a socialist country—not Danish-style socialist, but idiot-style socialist in the Soviet Union. That doesn't work. Venezuela doesn't work, either. There has to be a compromise. But it has to be capitalism with humane characteristics. And it works! Certain components of it are always there; there're always strong unions, for example. There's always a strong social sector, in terms of free education and free health care. These are not poor societies. I know the right-wing media is going bananas with it and trying to smear all of these things, but those things all work. I'm not a socialist; I think making money is fine, and there are certain incentives. But people have to recognize that, beyond a certain amount, there will be no more pleasure derived from that money, other than keeping a scorecard, the same way you keep a scorecard in a sport. But life isn't a sport; there are people whose lives are impacted by your game-playing." [more inside]
posted by kliuless at 7:42 AM PST - 73 comments

'The Dragon Prince' Is What 'The Last Airbender' Fans Have Been Waiting For [Vice News] The dynamic duo of Aaron Ehasz and Justin Richmond, the minds behind Avatar: The Last Airbender and the Uncharted franchise, respectively, have created what just might be Netflix’s most engrossing original series this fall—and the show The Last Airbender fans have waited ten years to see.

“The Dragon Prince is set in the kind of epic, elemental world that will be familiar to anyone who’s seen an episode of The Last Airbender. The land of Xadia is dominated by the six primal sources of magic: the sun, the moon, the stars, the earth, the sky, and the ocean. But humans have invented dark magic, which steals from the essence of magical creatures, and the elves and dragons exile them to the eastern half of the land. When the humans slay the dragon guarding the eastern border and steal its only egg, Xadia is launched into factional war.”

The Dragon Prince [YouTube][Trailer] [more inside]
posted by Fizz at 5:58 AM PST - 48 comments

Ramos had rescued his ego and, in the act, taken something from Williams and Osaka that they can never get back. Perhaps the most important job of all for an umpire is to respect the ephemeral nature of the competitors and the contest. Osaka can never, ever recover this moment. It’s gone. Williams can never, ever recover this night. It’s gone. And so Williams was entirely right in calling him a “thief.”

Sally Jenkins for the Washington Post on how the umpire at the US Open Final robbed Naomi Osaka and Serena Williams of their match.
posted by MartinWisse at 4:05 AM PST - 133 comments

Don’t panic! Meet the experts with a steady hand when catastrophe strikes
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 2:02 AM PST - 4 comments

5 Minutes that will Make you Love Classical Music. "I posed a deceptively simple question to our writers and editors, as well as some artists we admire: What are the five minutes or so — longer than a moment, shorter than a symphony — that you’d play for a friend to convince them to fall in love with classical music?" - Zachary Woolfe, NYT classical music editor. [more inside]
posted by storybored at 9:07 PM PST - 91 comments

The Amazon Echo as a map of human labor, data and planetary resources. [more inside]
posted by oceanjesse at 4:36 PM PST - 13 comments

In the far eastern edge of the desolate Taklamakan Desert, hundreds of kilometers from the nearest settlement, a clump of dense wooden stakes mark the spot of a 4,000-year-old cemetery. The cemetery was discovered in the early 20th century by a local hunter named Ördek. The Uighur hunter was wandering through a patch of the inhospitable desert when he stumbled across the forest of wooden poles with human bones and ancient religious artifacts littered around. Believing the place to be haunted, he hurried away never to return again.
posted by MovableBookLady at 4:25 PM PST - 9 comments

“Awaiting his day in court, Martinez, who has a round, friendly face and a frequent smile, remains courteous and solicitous. The guards assigned to him in jail say he is a model inmate. He listens to people when they talk, and nods and laughs at all the right moments. Moreover — as many cops have noted with appreciation — he is funny, a witty, wry observer of the world around him. Sitting in his cell, he writes to his beloved granddaughters and other family members, dispensing advice and showering praise. He has also written his life story, twice. He suggests headlines for this article, including, in one letter over the summer: “True Evil has a face you know and a voice you trust. El Mano Negra.”” - “I Killed Them All.” The Life Of One Of America’s Bloodiest Hitmen [SLBuzzfeed] [more inside]
posted by supercrayon at 2:37 PM PST - 8 comments

“The hardest thing has been getting people who dislike the Daily Mail to take one. Quite a few people seem to think that miniature versions of newspapers is just a thing that is happening now." In partnership with satirical "cultural experiment" Rapid Response Unit, Darren Cullen created a parody edition of the Daily Mail, giving out copies in Liverpool.
posted by Juso No Thankyou at 2:04 PM PST - 15 comments

Florence is expected to strengthen to a Category 4 hurricane by the time it arrives at the east coast of the United States, probably targeting the Carolinas, around Thursday or Friday (Sep. 13/14). About the same, Tropical Depression Nine is expected to pass the Lesser Antilles as a hurricane (Isaac) as it passes on into the Caribbean, final destination unknown. Puerto Rico is in the range of potential landfalls and the hurricane should pass and hopefully miss the island near the one year anniversary of Maria. [more inside]
posted by dances_with_sneetches at 1:45 PM PST - 94 comments

Our children’s abusers justify themselves by promising that hurting young bodies can save the souls within. Perhaps it can, but only in the way that drying meat into jerky can save the deer.

Dr Katherine Crocker (@cricketcrocker) is a biologist and member of the Kaw (Kanza) Nation, writes a powerful, beautifully-written essay on history, genocide, epigenetics, and grandmother crickets.
posted by Rumple at 1:23 PM PST - 6 comments

The English-speaking receptionist is a vicious-looking dinosaur, and the one speaking Japanese is a female humanoid with blinking lashes. “If you want to check in, push one,” the dinosaur says. The visitor still has to punch a button on the desk and type in information on a touch panel screen. From the front desk to the porter that is an automated trolley taking luggage to the room, this hotel in south-western Japan, aptly called Weird Hotel, is “manned” almost totally by robots to save labour costs. TripAdvisor rates it #1 of 5 Specialty lodging in Sasebo.
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 10:53 AM PST - 22 comments

With the dangers of cycling in Toronto in the news, some are turning to an unconventional safety measure.
posted by selfnoise at 9:22 AM PST - 77 comments

Kitāb al-makhzūn jāmiʻ al-funūn or The treasure that combines all arts is a fifteenth-century illustrated treatise on the art of warfare from Mamluk Egypt. The Historical African Martial Arts Association (HAMAA) is promoting modern martial-arts analysis of the treatise. [more inside]
posted by yarntheory at 9:21 AM PST - 1 comment

Rob Dubbin (creator of Scripto and formerly a writer for the Colbert Report and the Late Show with Stephen Colbert) has a story to tell about a peach tree, bears, and the Reply All podcast. (Threadreader link)
posted by Cash4Lead at 8:58 AM PST - 5 comments

Do you want to see some bonkers fashion? Laurence & Chico are not known for restraint in their design style. If you're in Vancouver, and want to feel like you're wearing one of their dresses without actually wearing one of their dresses, you can also visit their cafe.
posted by jacquilynne at 8:58 AM PST - 11 comments

I’m 93, and, as extremism sweeps across Europe, I fear we are doomed to repeat the mistakes which created the Holocaust by Stanisław Aronson
posted by infini at 8:57 AM PST - 24 comments

@scarytoilet (SL Twitter) [more inside]
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 8:27 AM PST - 26 comments

2013 Reunion - "In 1996, a student film followed a group of punk-feminist eighth graders in Santa Monica called the 'dirty girls'. Uploaded to YouTube years later, it became an instant cult sensation." (via via; previously)
posted by kliuless at 6:48 AM PST - 4 comments

The real Goldfinger: the London banker who broke the world. The true story of how the City of London invented offshore banking – and set the rich free.
posted by adamvasco at 5:52 AM PST - 5 comments

Was She J.D. Salinger’s Predator or His Prey? by Joyce Maynard [The New York Times] “It has been said of me, in the pages of this newspaper, that I am a predator. The author of those words was hardly alone in her assessment. In 1998, nearly 20 years before the #MeToo movement, I published a book about my relationship with a famous and revered writer who sought me out when he was 53 and I was 18. [...] My crime — which earned me the dubious distinction of being, in the opinion of one prominent critic, the author of possibly “the worst book ever written” — lay in my decision, after 25 years of silence, to write a memoir in which I told the story of my relationship with a powerful older man.” [more inside]
posted by Fizz at 5:34 AM PST - 26 comments

Do you encounter a lot of people accusing you of cultural appropriation?
A few. But funnily enough it's usually more from the black metal side of things.

Zeal & Ardor's album Stranger Fruit is a follow-up to last year's Devil is Fine [previously], continuing with its practice of fusing nu- and black metal with spirituals and just as wildly good. The music videos to the first two sings, Intro and Gravedigger's Chant, do a wonderful job of setting the mood.
posted by rorgy at 5:16 AM PST - 14 comments

Diane Cox: “Our ancestors used to call cheese graders ‘fortune tellers of cheese’ and they had an almost mythical status - you need to be able to smell the cheese and predict its flavours in 18 months or two years’ time.” Richard Green: “I originally came into the cheese world in 1977, joining Crump, Way and Sons.” Olive Murray: “I will grade anywhere from 100 to 300 cheeses a day.” Craig Gile: “I carry my cheese trier in a holster.” Mark Pitts-Tucker: “My cholesterol is not enviable but my bone structure is - my calcium levels are fantastic!” Modelling the grade value, and some cheese grading terms. “There are no two pieces of cheese that are exactly identical.” Cheese graders will probably not be replaced by robots. The Guild of Cheese Graders and the Academy of Cheese.
posted by Wordshore at 12:55 AM PST - 26 comments

On the 15th anniversary of his death, Warren Zevon would seem ripe for the kind of revisionism that typically bolsters the legacies and streaming numbers of deceased musical icons. But even with the feel-good patina that The Wind cast on his career, Zevon resists easy canonization, especially now, when critics and music historians tend to recoil against the thornier aspects of classic-rock mythology. [more inside]
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 12:34 AM PST - 35 comments

Twitter Users Revealed Celebrities’ Full Names via Google searches [Uproxx compilation of Twitter goofiness]
posted by filthy light thief at 8:56 PM PST - 13 comments

For your viewing pleasure, the group fursuiter photo from the recently held Megaplex XVII in Orlando, FL. Total Attendance was 2,602, I am not sure how many fursuiters are in this photo. (On desktop browsers, at least, you can get different sizes of the photo available by putting the mouse into the "bring up low menu bar" zoneand clicking on the far right icon.)
posted by hippybear at 7:58 PM PST - 26 comments

"Why should I have to make one film?" Terrence Malick says that the new, 188-minute edit of his 2011 drama The Tree of Life is another movie entirely. [more inside]
posted by Iris Gambol at 7:32 PM PST - 17 comments

"The Reference Elevation Model of Antarctica (REMA) provides the first, high resolution (8-meter) terrain map of nearly the entire continent." Check it out online with the REMA Viewer. "If you’re someone that needs glasses to see, it’s a bit like being almost blind and putting on glasses for the first time and seeing 20/20."
posted by reductiondesign at 6:14 PM PST - 5 comments

The Enablers On September 6, 2018, Hudson Institute’s Kleptocracy Initiative held a discussion on “The Enablers: How Western Professionals Import Corruption and Strengthen Authoritarianism,” a new report examining what policies are needed to close the loopholes commonly exploited by foreign kleptocrats and their professional facilitators in the United States. [more inside]
posted by RuvaBlue at 5:38 PM PST - 3 comments

Commute Discrimination is a Thing
posted by aniola at 4:03 PM PST - 42 comments

It’s a bonding exercise, yes, but also a unique chance to study the female body in extremis. The group of women were hand-selected for this this trek—the Women’s Euro-Arabian North Pole Expedition—by the mission’s creator, Felicity Aston, and as part of the mission the group allowed scientists to study their vitals to learn more about the effects of cold exposure on the female body. The women came from all corners of Europe and the Middle East—Qatar, Sweden, Oman, Iceland, France, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Cyprus, Slovenia, Kuwait, and the UK—and their ages ranged from 28 to 50.
posted by MovableBookLady at 2:36 PM PST - 10 comments

Having it wind up in permanent form, sort of like a Chinese Wall in cyberspace… anybody who wants to can go and read it, if they take the trouble. Free copies to everyone. So that it became, really, at the last minute, the opposite of the really weird, elitist thing many people thought it was.

Digital Antiquarian (Jimmy Maher) goes deep on Agrippa (A Book of the Dead) [more inside]
posted by juv3nal at 1:43 PM PST - 3 comments

The 50 Best Final Shots in Movie History
posted by sapagan at 1:25 PM PST - 77 comments

The Smithsonian Collections Search Center is an online catalog containing most of Smithsonian major collections from our museums, archives, libraries, and research units. There are 13.5 million catalog records relating to areas for Art & Design, History & Culture, and Science & Technology with over 3.1 million images, videos, audio files, podcasts, blog posts and electronic journals. This catalog is regularly updated as catalog records are being added and revised. Thanks, Jessamyn!
posted by not_on_display at 1:13 PM PST - 3 comments

A Security Expert Tied to WikiLeaks Vanishes, and the Internet Is Abuzz (NYT): "In a remote Norwegian town north of the Arctic Circle, a cybersecurity expert with ties to WikiLeaks checked out of a hotel, dressed in khaki hiking gear and carrying heavy baggage. That was on Aug. 20. No one has reported seeing him since." [more inside]
posted by Too-Ticky at 12:24 PM PST - 35 comments

Mexican historians prove authenticity of looted ancient Mayan text [more inside]
posted by poffin boffin at 9:38 AM PST - 11 comments

My Boyfriend Tried a “Miracle Cure” For Heroin Addiction - "Later that night, we met up for a coffee. Instead of speaking in slogans or wanting to talk about the Steps, it was during that first date that Mark introduced me to ibogaine." [more inside]
posted by the man of twists and turns at 9:22 AM PST - 37 comments

GOD MODE UNLOCKED - Hardware Backdoors in x86 CPUs (slyt, 50m) A conference talk on sleuthing out a processor vulnerability, from patent-speak to payload.
posted by fleacircus at 2:04 AM PST - 24 comments

Huntington's Legacy - "The world today is not converging around liberal democratic government, as it seemed to be for more than a generation." [more inside]
posted by kliuless at 1:56 AM PST - 20 comments

"...but it is under the flourescent light of our grocer's deli section where we can look at a rainbow on a slice of beef and know the natural diffraction grating responsible for it is shared with very few things, including the antennae of seed shrimp, and the shells of animals that haven't lived for hundreds of millions of years."
posted by redsparkler at 6:28 PM PST - 79 comments

Jocelyn Bell has won the Breakthrough Prize Dame Jocelyn Bell Burnell has won the Breakthrough prize, worth $3 million dollars, for discovering radio pulsars. 42 years after being slighted for 1974 Nobel prize in Physics, which went to two men, one of whom was her thesis supervisor but who did not discover pulsars, Burnell says she will donate the money to fund a scholarship for women and minorities who are interested in science. Bonus sounds of millisecond radio pulsars for your mind emblowment.
posted by Rufous-headed Towhee heehee at 5:05 PM PST - 13 comments

Victorian-Era Orgasms and the Crisis of Peer Review: A favorite anecdote about the origins of the vibrator is probably a myth.
posted by Cash4Lead at 3:25 PM PST - 28 comments

See manatee. See manatee roll over. See manatee checking out a new friend. See manatees chasing kayaks. Good manatees! (Via Imgur) If you want to play with ocean doggos, head over to Three Sisters Springs in Crystal River, Florida (Google maps), a winter shelter from colder ocean temperatures, one of the only places in the world where humans are encouraged to interact with these curious creatures. And good news, everybody! The manatee population is on the rise! [more inside]
posted by filthy light thief at 2:51 PM PST - 34 comments

Unmanned sailboat successfully crossed the Atlantic. A battery-powered glider did it in 2009, and gliders are busy with research. No completely autonomous sailboat has made it across yet, but the 2018 contest is underway -- and there might be a winner.
posted by clew at 2:46 PM PST - 12 comments

The joke I most regret asks famous comedians (Cameron Esposito, Weird Al, Patton Oswalt) about the jokes they regret, which provides a fascinating and thoughtful look at how comedy is evolving. For something a little more traditionally funny, also check out the list of jokes that comedians wish they could steal, with lots of good YouTube videos and audio.
posted by blahblahblah at 1:52 PM PST - 56 comments

(Obviously NSFW) Esquire: "Google searches for 'cockwomble' levelled out to roughly 20 or 30 a week in the UK in the first half of this year, but then spiked in the 70s in mid-July." Pleated jeans: 18 British swear words. Mirror: "...to which Manon replied: "Yeah, well it's you [Noel] fast asleep and Sandy is f***ed off because you’re late." Listen and Learn: 10 Old English swear words. indy100: British swear words ordered in terms of offensiveness. Malcolm Tucker is upset. Talk in French: 20 French curse words. The Culture Trip: 15 Spanish swear words. And the intersection of Four Weddings and a Funeral and The Wire. [Previously and previouslyer]
posted by Wordshore at 1:40 PM PST - 29 comments

The legendary Burt Reynolds has passed away. [more inside]
posted by rhizome at 1:24 PM PST - 122 comments

It costs about a dollar. A day after Heather Heyer was killed during the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville last year, the event's neo-Nazi organizer, Jason Kessler, held a stomach-turning press conference where he blamed her death on the cops. But as you might remember, Kessler was forced to cut his own press conference short after a protester bum-rushed the white supremacist and punched him in the head. On Tuesday, a jury decided that his punishment for punching a neo-Nazi would only amount to a paltry $1 fine, local NBC affiliate WVIR reports.
posted by GoblinHoney at 12:09 PM PST - 58 comments

Have you had ENOUGH? What are you going to do about it? (SLVimeo)
posted by dobbs at 12:05 PM PST - 10 comments

“When Doves Cry” (Minneapolis, MN - September 4, 2018) by Metallica's Kirk Hammett and Robert Trujillo [YouTube] Arguably the world's worst Prince cover.
posted by Fizz at 11:38 AM PST - 69 comments

A detailed examination of the Genoa bridge collapse disaster.
posted by Chrysostom at 10:06 AM PST - 13 comments

The mystery of Tucker Carlson
posted by backseatpilot at 8:52 AM PST - 51 comments

Blue light excited retinal intercepts cellular signaling is the paper by Kasun Ratnayake, John L. Payton, O. Harshana Lakmal & Ajith Karunarathne that launced a thousand headlines: Is Blue Light From Your Smart Phone Harmful To Your Eyes? Chemists discover how blue light speeds blindness [more inside]
posted by the man of twists and turns at 8:49 AM PST - 23 comments

Celebrations erupted in India on Thursday as the country’s supreme court unanimously ruled to decriminalise homosexual sex in a landmark judgment for gay rights. [more inside]
posted by MartinWisse at 8:34 AM PST - 12 comments

Threats. Violence. Criminalization. Murder. Governments and corporations around the world are making it increasingly difficult — and deadly — for Indigenous Peoples and local communities to protect lands and forests. [more inside]
posted by poffin boffin at 8:24 AM PST - 2 comments

What Would a Socialist America Look Like? Politico asked leftist figures such as David Duhalde, Maria Svart, Ryan Cooper, and Sean McElwee what a vision of a democratic socialist America would be. - “Late capitalism addressed the “profit squeeze” by transferring wealth and power from the people to private individuals, especially large firms, which, again, are best adapted to ensure large profits. The process of “wealth transfer” isn’t just transactional—it’s violent. ” What Is ‘Late Capitalism’?” From Primer Red (Previously) - These are the core principles and objectives of Black Socialists of America; this is what we stand on. - One panel for every 250 years since 30,000 B.C (Cat and Girl)
posted by The Whelk at 8:22 AM PST - 19 comments

Arcadia is a low budget short film that was broadcast on the 5th January 1990 on the UK's Channel 4. Music by Hans Zimmer. Slightly nsfw. (slyt, 240p, low quality conversion of a VHS recording of an analogue TV broadcast, with french subtitles).
posted by memebake at 8:07 AM PST - 6 comments

Poor Human Olfaction is a Nineteenth Century Myth
"Strangely, the idea that humans have tiny olfactory bulbs and a poor sense of smell is derived in part from the religious politics of nineteenth century France."
via [more inside]
posted by solotoro at 6:37 AM PST - 45 comments

One day Vadim Kirilyuk, director of the Daursky Biosphere Reserve in Russia, found a manul kitten in a rusty train carriage. The kitten had been abandoned by its mother, so he did the only right thing – took her home and named her Dasha. [more inside]
posted by Vesihiisi at 2:34 AM PST - 29 comments

How to Save the Troubled American Heartland - "Some places can't be rescued. Those that can need help from business, government and nonprofits." [more inside]
posted by kliuless at 11:42 PM PST - 47 comments

How all of this looks and feels—whether it’s clever or profane—depends on how you feel about the deindustrialization of the waterfront. One sunny afternoon about a year ago, I rendezvoused with two old friends for a beer. Each of us arrived on a CitiBike from our respective neighborhoods. We convened at a newly opened outdoor bar—really, just a line of picnic tables—in front of the swank hotel near the Old Fulton Street entrance to Brooklyn Bridge Park. [more inside]
posted by MovableBookLady at 10:21 PM PST - 12 comments

The Happeners was the most promising TV pilot of 1967 that never got the chance to be a series. Created by Plautus Productions (fresh from completing the final season of seminal courtroom drama The Defenders, The Happeners was a show about a trio of young folk singers (two guys, one gal just like Peter, Paul, & Mary) looking to make it big in Greenwich Village, where the show was filmed on location. The show got rave reviews from Variety before it even aired, but ABC refused to air the pilot after sponsors stayed away. The pilot aired once on syndicated station WPIX-TV and a copy still exists in The UCLA Film & Television Archive, but cannot be found online, although you can hear an audio soundtrack from the pilot episode on YouTube. That's weird enough, but what happened to the title trio, played by Craig Smith, Chris Ducey, and Suzannah Jordan, after the show got cancelled is when it really starts to get weird. [more inside]
posted by jonp72 at 8:45 PM PST - 15 comments

Here are the 8 final dives in this year's World Championships in Death Diving. (SLYT)
posted by Frobenius Twist at 3:56 PM PST - 31 comments

Tired: dumpster diving for sustenance. Wired: dumpster diving for fun and profit, and to make a dent in the sheer volume of electronic waste. Frugal for less: how to make money dumpster diving and garbage picking.
posted by filthy light thief at 2:41 PM PST - 57 comments

Daffodil considers a Walk Around the Neighborhood, 90's Teen Heartthrobs, and Rhetorical Questions. [more inside]
posted by endotoxin at 2:21 PM PST - 2 comments

The rise of psychiatry was funded by America’s Gilded Age industrialists. Their aim: to cast society’s ills as problems of individual "mental health." (Zola Carr, Jacobin). [more inside]
posted by sapagan at 1:23 PM PST - 55 comments

"If you would have told me to pick who my father was, there's no way I would have picked him because I might have thought I wasn't worthy for him to be my father. I felt like my blessings came full circle because I'd always wanted to be somebody like him." Kansas City Chiefs running backs coach Deland McCullough went searching for his biological parents. He found them where he never would have expected: Runs in the Family. (Sarah Spain, ESPN, via)
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 12:55 PM PST - 36 comments

Rapper and gourmand Action Bronson reviews the internet's most popular food videos for Bon Appetit's Food Film School (poorly-censored NSFW language).
posted by uncleozzy at 10:57 AM PST - 28 comments

Spider-Man Spinning An Amazing Web [Game Informer] “Insomniac Games’ Spider-Man is a triumph of superheroes and storytelling. Within a beautifully realized version of New York City, Spider-Man soars across the skyline with awe-inspiring grace, ducking into darkened alleys to pummel criminals in spectacular ways. The wall-crawler is front and center for most of this journey – spitting out quips and making a flashy show of heroism – but his mask frequently comes off to focus on Peter Parker’s struggles with relationships and the unpredictability of life. This complicated web is what separates this Spider-Man experience from the rest of the superhero games on the market. The story has a soul...” [YouTube][Gameplay][Trailer] [more inside]
posted by Fizz at 10:30 AM PST - 19 comments

The professors with real influence — those who could push through a new program or direct the department to hire in particular areas — were those with stock high enough to be poached by another university. In effect, they were worth more. McNaughton believed he was such a professor. He had been courted, albeit informally, by other institutions. What was the real difference between these flirtations, he pondered, and a genuine offer from another university? Not much, he decided. So he made one up.
posted by If only I had a penguin... at 7:22 AM PST - 91 comments

All 131 Van Halen Songs, Ranked From Worst to Best

The pop landscape had changed so radically that appreciating the musical style pioneered by Van Halen has become akin to appreciating recent breakthroughs in blacksmithing. To many people born post-grunge, the difference between David Lee Roth and Glenn Miller is negligible. It’s easy to imagine an engaged teenage music fan unfamiliar with 130 of Van Halen’s 131 songs. Which, both predictably and paradoxically, is part of the reason I wanted to compile the following list. This material deserves deeper, detailed contemplation.

[more inside]
posted by kirkaracha at 7:11 AM PST - 140 comments

Pantsuit Sasquach, by Molly Lewis. A song about a lady who just wants to be left alone to walk in the woods. A song about looking back and moving forward. (Molly Lewis previously)
posted by bondcliff at 6:29 AM PST - 5 comments

How Israel Spies on US Citizens( The Nation) A never-shown Al Jazeera documentary on the pro-Israel lobby in the United States reveals possibly illegal Israeli spying on American citizens, and the lobby’s fear of a changing political mood.
– so why won't they air it? (Independent)
THIS IS NOT AN I/P THREAD
posted by adamvasco at 5:09 AM PST - 11 comments

You wake up at 6 am feeling achy and chilled. Unsure if you’re sick or just sleep-deprived, you reach for a thermometer. It beeps at 99°F/37.2°C, so you groan and roll out of bed and get ready for work. Because that’s not a fever. Is it? Yes, it is. Forget everything you know about normal body temperature and fever, starting with 98.6°F/37°C. That’s an antiquated number based on a flawed study from 1868 (yes, 150 years ago). The facts about fever are a lot more complicated. [slWired] [more inside]
posted by ellieBOA at 5:00 AM PST - 52 comments

As the Swedish election season draws to a close, with early voting in progress and official balloting in all precincts on Sunday, the far-right nationalist Swedish Democrats are leading foreign reporting on the election to the consternation of the established Swedish media (in Swedish). The far right party will likely be the second largest party by representation in parliament on Monday morning, but are unlikely to build sufficient alliances with the established party blocks to be able to build a government. Both the ruling Red-Green alliance (the Social Democrats, Left, Green and Feminist parties) and the center-right (Moderaterna, Liberalerna(formerly Folkpartiet), Center, Kristdemokraterna party alliances are each currently polling at about 40%. Will bot accounts meddling in social media affect the outcome or will Sweden buck the trends of recent elections? [more inside]
posted by St. Oops at 2:31 AM PST - 19 comments

Soo, this made me tear up on the way to work this morning, so y'all get to do so as well: a short comic about going back in time to talk to your younger self by Samantha Richardson, found via.
posted by MartinWisse at 11:16 PM PST - 27 comments

Bookhunter , Jason Shiga (previously) . Officer Bay tracks down heinous criminals and rare volumes for the Oakland Library, 1973.
posted by the man of twists and turns at 9:49 PM PST - 9 comments

Music lover, but don't know much about Australian music? Specifically, Brisbane music? Well, this Guardian "Songs of Brisbane" poll will hook you up with some tunes from South East Queensland's surprisingly diverse, and sometimes even excellent, musical history.
posted by turbid dahlia at 8:50 PM PST - 27 comments

The Supreme Court confirmation hearing continues Wednesday with the questioning of nominee Brett Kavanaugh. Despite low popularity, views out of step with the majority of the country, tens of thousands of pages of documents produced at the last minute, and over 100,000 pages of documents withheld from the Senate (with all the documents reviewed not by the National Archives, but by a lawyer who represents the Bush Library, White House Counsel Don McGahn, Reince Priebus, and Steve Bannon), his confirmation appears to be on cruise control. The Times examines How Brett Kavanaugh Would Transform the Supreme Court. SCOTUSBlog offers a liveblog of the hearings and a 16-part series on Kavanaugh's record. Wednesday's questioning can be streamed live on C-SPAN starting at 9:30 ET. [more inside]
posted by zachlipton at 8:49 PM PST - 2069 comments

Psychedelic Science 2017 was a week-long conference held in Oakland that brought together 3,000 participants - neuroscientists, psychiatrists, anthropologists, artists and healthcare specialists. The goal was to share and discuss the latest research on psychedelics and medical marijuana. Here are videos of the lectures from the event. [more inside]
posted by storybored at 6:55 PM PST - 7 comments

Kenny Shopsin, famously foul-mouthed and cantankerous proprietor of Shopsin's General Store, has died. Kenny Shopsin ran the place with his wife, Eve, until her death in 2003; their children still run the place now, though the location has moved several times over the years. The menu at Shopsin's is a hell of a thing, and may be perused online -- although not at the door of the restaurant; that, among many other infractions, is Not Allowed. Shopsin banned most critics and press from the place for years, but Calvin Trillin managed to write the place up for the New Yorker back in 2002, and the 2004 documentary I Like Killing Flies gives further insight into the institution. A cookbook, appropriately titled Eat Me, was published in 2008. Shopsin's daughter Tamara confirms that they will be open Wednesday.
posted by halation at 3:09 PM PST - 64 comments

A "dooms day painting" or "doom painting" is a term for an image of the Last Judgment in Christian eschatology when Christ judges souls to send them to either Heaven or Hell. The largest remaining mural is in St. Thomas's Church in Salisbury, and they have a nice guide to the images. Then there's the Church of St James the Great, South Leigh, and "The Doom" in the Guild Chapel, Stratford upon Avon was recently restored and digitally revitalized, allowing for a better look at the mural. There are numerous churches with notable "Dooms", though many are faded or barely present. These are the last hold-outs from before the (English) Reformation, when images in church were frowned on.
posted by filthy light thief at 12:19 PM PST - 13 comments

How BoJack Horseman Got Made, an oral history. Excerpted from the new book(!!!) BoJack Horseman: The Art Before The Horse [more inside]
posted by Gorgik at 12:10 PM PST - 24 comments

Victoria Beckham: A Decade of Elegance | British Vogue (SLYT)
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 11:40 AM PST - 13 comments

It’s been said that “well-behaved women seldom make history”, but the handful of white boys who wrote our History books conveniently left most of them out. To rectify this situation, Hannah and Eliza Reilly are unearthing the forgotten stories of the badass women of Australian History. Nancy Wake - Hard driving, hard flirting, Nazi killing Bad Ass. Fanny Durack - Hard swimming, never gave up, Bad Ass. Mary Ann Bugg - Hard Shooting, Bush Ranger, Did it all while raising a kid, Bad Ass. Merele Thornton - Just wanted a drink, Chained herself to the Bar, Took no Flak, Bad Ass. [more inside]
posted by stilgar at 11:32 AM PST - 6 comments

911 days of beard growth time lapse. My wife and I traveled around the world for 2.5 years. I didn't shave the whole time.
posted by growabrain at 10:19 AM PST - 71 comments

Good Riddance to the Red Delicious, an Apple That Sucks [Slate] “The Red Delicious is no longer the dominant apple in American orchards, the U.S. Apple Association said last week, after lasting five decades in the top spot. The Gala apple [wiki] is now first; Red Delicious second; Granny Smith third. By 2020, the Honeycrisp, which so prized by consumers that they’ll pay higher prices for the privilege of eating one, may crack the growers’ top three.” [more inside]
posted by Fizz at 9:28 AM PST - 137 comments

How Funny Does Comedy Need to Be?
posted by Artw at 9:08 AM PST - 21 comments

The biggest independent wrestling show of all time took place Saturday. Here’s what it means to the wrestlers who created it, the fans who cheered it on, and the industry it's disrupting.

posted by Etrigan at 9:01 AM PST - 8 comments

Meet the ‘Fanatic’ Breeding Colored Cotton, Growing Heirloom Wheat, and Building Soil Carbon. (Civil Eats)
posted by The Whelk at 8:43 AM PST - 9 comments

"It’s unclear if the HAGS understood what a spectacle they were in the queer-dyke landscape of 1990s San Francisco. When they poured into a bar my breath caught in my chest."

In The Believer, Michelle Tea shares the story of a circle of friends who bashed back against homophobia and creepy dudes, and how ultimately addiction and a rare and devastating illness ended some of their lives. [more inside]
posted by ITheCosmos at 7:16 AM PST - 12 comments

The 2018 winner, runners-up and dishonorable mentions of the Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest for bad opening sentences of non-existent novels have been announced. (previouslies)
posted by BiggerJ at 4:47 AM PST - 28 comments

Finding silence online is difficult, but the pursuit is worthwhile [SLTheVerge] [more inside]
posted by not_the_water at 10:02 PM PST - 26 comments

What follows is a story of aftermath —of a community forced to navigate the emotional wreckage wrought by a wave of shock, anger, and confusion. Within a few weeks of Scout’s death, several of their friends were arrested. Within three months, two were dead. Now, almost a year after the shooting, the official narrative of the event is still being written. But by whom? [more inside]
posted by storytam at 8:51 PM PST - 31 comments

As skies (maybe) cool and pantomines practice, so we near the big day. Supermarkets install storage and put up trees, grottos take bookings, chains reveal themes, cheese selections and lots of baking, while delighted shoppers can buy seasonal cards, puddings, wrapping paper, more puddings, chocolate reindeer and, of course, mince pies [Asda][Morrisons]. Or avoid the rush and buy Lego advent calendars online before a train ride, or go down the pub (also Bristol and Plymouth) or to your works do. As Christmas foods swiftly sell, will the i-Top be a popular toy, bubble and squeak be a popular sandwich, will Brits decorate rainbow trees, and will the brussel sprout smoothie return? In Australia, Woolworths defend their mince pies, but in Cork City, Ireland you'll have to wait.
posted by Wordshore at 8:38 PM PST - 69 comments

The men who have taken Wiffle ball to a crazy competitive place
posted by Chrysostom at 8:33 PM PST - 3 comments

Don Draper vs Jenny Schecter: The Sexist Battle of the TV Anti-Heroes Heather Hogan of Autostraddle breaks down the white male anti-hero, and extroplaits on the double standard for the female anti-hero. [more inside]
posted by momochan at 5:35 PM PST - 46 comments

Plastic objects in museums are falling apart. [more inside]
posted by clew at 5:21 PM PST - 22 comments

About five years ago, the longest known mule deer migration was discovered, a 150-mile route in Wyoming (video features soothing music, beautiful landscapes). But the recapture of a collared doe known as Deer 255 showed that the migration corridor is even longer. [more inside]
posted by compartment at 3:18 PM PST - 4 comments

RIP Jacqueline Pearce, actress, best well known for playing the main villain, Supreme Commander Servalan, in the BBC space opera Blake's Seven. [more inside]
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 11:37 AM PST - 45 comments

Sex, steroids, and Arnold: the gym that shaped America The original Gold’s Gym was a squat sweatbox that Joe and a few of his pals built from cinder blocks. Gold himself crafted the equipment that he and his fellow “Muscleheads” used to shape their flesh into cathedrals of strength. The gym spawned Pumping Iron, one of the most popular and critically acclaimed documentaries in modern times; redefined the masculine look in everything from commercials to modeling to movies; helped establish Southern California as the nation’s fitness capital; and shaped the ascent of one Arnold Schwarzenegger.
posted by MovableBookLady at 9:28 AM PST - 29 comments

How video game music waltzed its way on to Classic FM [The Guardian] “Gamers have really enjoyed hearing the music that they hold so close to their hearts, and it’s also drawn in an entirely new audience of non-gamers who have been impressed and surprised by the quality and variety of the music that is available in the genre. What’s been lovely is that other Classic FM presenters have played music that they’ve heard on High Score on their own shows. There is definitely not only an acceptance of video game music but, I would say, an increasing sense of celebration and pride.” [more inside]
posted by Fizz at 9:00 AM PST - 60 comments

Ode to the Prickly Pear: Say if on your property there was something that year round produced a green bean/okra tasting vegetable, a fruit less acidic than kiwi, vials of vitamins, seeds for flour, medicine, a natural burglar fence, insect repellent, water treatment resource, materials for mortar, a brilliant magenta dye, and a hair conditioner, would you run a bulldozer over it? Now is the time that Opuntia fruit (Indian fig or tuna) is in season, so eat up!
posted by filthy light thief at 8:27 AM PST - 38 comments

In an industry marred by its lack of self-awareness, one project is creating a more inclusive vision of the world. [more inside]
posted by poffin boffin at 8:21 AM PST - 5 comments

Sarah Gailey (@gaileyfrey): Who wants to hear a story of the Worst Party Guest Ever? I hope you do because this is happening.

In which reference is made in the comments to the infamous "Party foul, or reason for jihad?" AskMe. (Sarah Gailey previously.)
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 8:12 AM PST - 89 comments

In a Historic Move, Los Angeles Educators Vote To Strike (With Washington and more possible) ( In These Times) - Three steps for organized labor to survive in the 21st century (LEO Weekly) - Who wants to join a union? A growing number of Americans (The Conversation) - Democrats Need to Show a Whole Lot of Solidarity With Labor in 2018 (The Nation) - How two-tier unions turn workers against one another (And the looming UPS strike - Wash Post) - Labor Board backs software start up engineers fired for forming a union (Wired) - Brooklyn Wireless Workers Vote to Save Their Union (Dissent) - How New York Taxi Workers Took On Uber and Won (Labor Notes) - Two years ago this month, the NLRB extended union rights to teaching and research assistants at private universities - Union membership in Texas grows (Dallas News) - #Prisonstrike: A Rebellion Inside America’s Profitable Gulag Archipelago (Village Voice) Incarcerated Worker Protest Spreads To 11 States (Democracy Now) - What A Labor Union Is And How It Works (Teen Vogue )
posted by The Whelk at 6:57 AM PST - 27 comments

Our tabula is still rasa | The fantastic Caitlin Moran talks about sex, baby. [more inside]
posted by I_Love_Bananas at 6:48 AM PST - 14 comments

The Alice Fraser Trilogy is a series of three stand-up specials where Australian comedian Alice Fraser tells the story of when her mother died, with digressions into her past and other subjects. It's available as a podcast [iTunes link]. For regular listeners of The Bugle, Alice Fraser will be familiar, but for those who aren't her comedy is a mix of absurdism, earnestness, wordplay and pessimism.
posted by Kattullus at 2:42 AM PST - 10 comments

The fire at Rio de Janeiro’s 200-year-old National Museum began after it closed to the public on Sunday and raged into the night. There were no reports of injuries, but the loss to Brazilian science, history and culture was incalculable, two of its vice-directors said. “It was the biggest natural history museum in Latin America. We have invaluable collections. Collections that are over 100 years old,” Cristiana Serejo, one of the museum’s vice directors, told the G1 news site. Marina Silva, a former environment minister and candidate in October’s presidential elections said the fire was like “a lobotomy of the Brazilian memory”. Luiz Duarte, another vice-director, told TV Globo: “It is an unbearable catastrophe. It is 200 years of this country’s heritage. It is 200 years of memory. It is 200 years of science. It is 200 years of culture, of education.”

posted by non canadian guy at 12:03 AM PST - 72 comments

Under certain circumstances, granular solids can undergo liquefaction, and start acting like a fluid. If this happens to the cargo you are carrying on your ship, the results can be very bad.
posted by Chrysostom at 7:42 PM PST - 37 comments

What Was Really Happening In Crazy Rich Asians Pivotal Mahjong Scene , Jeff Yang
posted by the man of twists and turns at 7:04 PM PST - 14 comments

Playwright and podcast writer Mac Rogers asked his Twitter followers, "Has anyone actually *literally* thrown a book they disliked across a room? So far, there are more than 2,500 replies, with a lot of Chuck Palahniuk, Donna Tartt, Outlander, and The Awakening.
posted by Etrigan at 6:34 PM PST - 199 comments

July 5, 2018 marked the 25th anniversary of the release of U2's often forgotten album Zooropa [Discogs]. Begun as an EP release to support the ZooTV tour, it remains the bridge [YT playlist] between the creative outburst that was Achtung Baby and the at-the-time self-combustion of POP (which has improved with passing time). It's an odd, bold , sonically adventurous artifact of mid-90s music which looks forward and backward and straight ahead, and deserves another listen. Side A: Zooropa [video], Babyface, Numb [video], Lemon, Stay (Faraway, So Close!) [video] (U2.com video link) [more inside]
posted by hippybear at 6:14 PM PST - 80 comments

"No major American crime requires as much travelling as that of stealing rare books from libraries." Rare book-theft expert and author Travis McDade "can name dozens of famous and lesser-known book thieves but here are his top five." [more inside]
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 11:47 AM PST - 35 comments

Childish Gambino - Feels Like Summer Come for the chill vibes, stay for the celebrity cameos. Illustrated by Justin Richburg.
posted by zabuni at 10:33 AM PST - 35 comments

Inside the Swift, Deadly History of the Spanish Flu Pandemic. "One hundred years ago, the virus infected a third of the world’s population, killing 195,000 Americans in October 1918 alone." [more inside]
posted by homunculus at 10:00 AM PST - 38 comments

Last year, Vice's Motherboard debuted a podcast with science reporter Kaleigh Rogers devoted to talking to the scientists about mysteries they've solved, from the "Sailing Stones" of Death Valley to Antarctica’s Blood Falls. Links to the episodes, their source articles and bonus links below the break. [more inside]
posted by filthy light thief at 7:51 AM PST - 14 comments

Other Places by Andy Kelly [YouTube] Other Places is a series of short films celebrating beautiful videogame worlds.

“Other Places is a celebration of video game art. A way to appreciate the work of artists, designers, and coders, free of gameplay distractions. The method for producing the videos varies from game to game. The most important thing is accessing a free camera, which allows for bespoke angles and tracking shots. Some games have this built-in – Skyrim [YouTube] and Alan Wake [YouTube], for example – while others require fan-made hacks or config file editing. For Dishonored, which has no freecam hack, I set the game's gravity to 0 and teleported into the air using the 'blink' power. Once I've recorded a lot of raw footage, I edit it together in Adobe Premiere and select a piece of music from the score that I think evokes the game's mood.”

[via: Video Game Tourism] [more inside]
posted by Fizz at 5:26 AM PST - 40 comments

Enterprise™ is a non deterministic unnecessarily statically typed Turing-complete programming language. Following on the footsteps of Rockstar, if we make Enterprise™ a real thing, then recruiters and hiring managers won't be able to talk about 'enterprise developers' any more. On top of that, articles about the "Best Programming Languages for Enterprise Development" will lose their meaning.
posted by XtinaS at 3:44 AM PST - 41 comments

Indy Neidell, one of the people behind the very ambitious Great War Youtube Channel, has launched his even more ambitious World War II channel (first video covers September 1 1939 - The Polish German War). As usual the war will be documented week-by week in real time (for the next six years!) and there will be tons of specials on a myriad of WW2 topics. This time, however, Indy and friends will team up with other historians on Youtube to better cover history's largest and most complicated war.
posted by Foci for Analysis at 1:40 AM PST - 8 comments

Dinosaurs get all the attention, but Cenozoic mammals can give them a run for the money. And they were big, too. Also by the same animator: Marching Dinosaurs - Animated Size Comparison
posted by Transl3y at 12:50 AM PST - 18 comments

The typeface of choice for the late-stage capitalist. Creatives at digital agency Hello Velocity have developed Brand New Roman, a font comprised of 76 corporate brand logos. The Idiocracy-style project is partly parody, but you can actually download the font and use it—and artists have already been playing around with it, too.
posted by MovableBookLady at 11:27 PM PST - 39 comments

Why the Future of Data Storage is (Still) Magnetic Tape
posted by Chrysostom at 7:32 PM PST - 49 comments

Just a Kid From Seattle directed by JJ Augustavo [more inside]
posted by Become A Silhouette at 7:13 PM PST - 10 comments

Cursed Commercials brings us a tale of forbidden love. (twitter gif link, 1m30s, requires sound) [more inside]
posted by hippybear at 6:02 PM PST - 13 comments

"The Importance of Reaching Out To Old Teachers" , from "People Watching", a Web Series created by Winston Rowntree. Here are the complete Season 1 and Season 2
posted by growabrain at 5:12 PM PST - 12 comments

Ash Koosha explains why robots won't actually kill us all: “I’m a radical technologist. I might dismiss some emotional facts about expression,” admits Ash Koosha when I sit down with him for lunch in London. Koosha has lived a life in tandem with technology since his parents bought him a Commodore 64 when he was 8 years old. His latest project, Yona, is an “auxiliary human” that uses a complex text-to-speech process to convert the generative software she is comprised of into human-sounding singing. In her current state, Yona is still very obviously a machine, but Koosha’s ultimate aim is to get to a point where you won’t be able to tell if the voice is human or computer-generated. “The goal is to replicate the voice of a pop singer," he explains. "My hypothesis is that singers will become redundant, because this machine will be able to convey every range of the human voice — an anti-pop manifesto of sorts.” [more inside]
posted by sapagan at 1:22 PM PST - 33 comments

We, the graduate application committee, want to know how we can make our program more inclusive without going through the process of hiring more faculty of color, accepting more students of color, or just making more attractive offers to both parties.

Sincerely,
Your graduate application committee
posted by MartinWisse at 12:53 PM PST - 13 comments

Todd Bretl takes close up photos of sharks. His website has other amazing photos of sea life. Courtesy of Kottke.
posted by arcticseal at 12:06 PM PST - 10 comments

Sea level rise already causing billions in home value to disappear - "A recent slew of studies show how the housing market is responding to the increasing risk of coastal flooding — with billions in value disappearing as investors wake up to the systemic risk." [more inside]
posted by kliuless at 10:04 AM PST - 55 comments

“Reece couldn’t have known that what she created would become the most durable anthem of the labor movement, and a template for protest songs for decades to come. “Which Side Are You On?,” written from acute personal trauma, has been universalized, both in lyric and musical modality. After making its way out of Harlan County and into a New York recording studio, it got modified to fit the message of countless underdog protagonists.” The history of ‘Which Side Are You On.’ (Longreads). Florence Reece’s original recording. As performed by Pete Seeger, Ani DiFranco, Dropkick Murphys, The Weavers, Billy Bragg, sampled by Talib Kweli
posted by The Whelk at 9:09 AM PST - 7 comments

Clive James on his new epic poem: ‘The story of a mind heading into oblivion’ [more inside]
posted by chavenet at 3:12 AM PST - 11 comments

The limits of reason: Philip Pullman on why we believe in magic
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 2:52 AM PST - 45 comments

Michaela Coel, writer and performer of 'Chewing Gum' delivers an incredible talk at the James MacTaggart Lecture as part of the Edinburgh TV Festival 2018 (pdf link here).
posted by h00py at 2:45 AM PST - 4 comments