January 19, 2016

"How did my father die?"

Obi-Wan Remembers The Truth
posted by paleyellowwithorange at 9:53 PM PST - 47 comments

Sports person did a sports thing!

“the eleven most boring conversations i can’t stop overhearing” (in which a liberal white male american san francisco bay area resident possessive of the auditory acuity of a baby chihuahua learns to scream).
posted by blue_beetle at 9:23 PM PST - 149 comments

The Likely Persistence of a White Majority

In The American Prospect, Sociologist Richard Alba discusses two reasons why the Census-projected relative demographic decline of White Americans may prove illusory.
posted by save alive nothing that breatheth at 7:52 PM PST - 52 comments

Holding the T

Holding the T "By far, squash is the toughest, most brutal, most complete sport there is. It takes everything out of you. It takes every mental and physical effort you have. And if you do your best you have a fifty-per-cent chance to win.”
posted by dhruva at 7:47 PM PST - 13 comments

Grim Reapers

More U.S. military drones are crashing than ever... Driving the increase was a mysterious surge in mishaps involving the Air Force’s newest and most advanced “hunter-killer” drone, the Reaper, which has become the Pentagon’s favored weapon for conducting surveillance and airstrikes against the Islamic State, al-Qaeda and other militant groups. From the Washington Post, January 19, 2016.
posted by cenoxo at 7:40 PM PST - 32 comments

Diminished professor

Pediatrician Hans Asperger is known worldwide for the syndrome he first diagnosed. The rest of his story – in Vienna during WWII – has only recently come to light: The Doctor and the Nazis
posted by Joe in Australia at 6:44 PM PST - 14 comments

House for Sale. 8 Bedroom Villa near Siena. Previous owner Michelangelo.

Art lovers take note: a sprawling villa once owned by the artist and sculptor Michelangelo Buonarroti is on the market. And if you have a few million to spare, the masterpiece could be yours. The eight-bedroom villa, located near Siena, was bought by the Renaissance master in 1549 and remained in the Buonarroti family until 1867 - more than 300 years after his death. The home, surrounded by the vineyards of Chianti and views of Tuscany’s rolling hills, could be yours for €7.5 million. [more inside]
posted by pjsky at 6:09 PM PST - 27 comments

Afghanistan 1970 – 1975 Images from an Era of Peace

A Collection of Vintage Photographs from The Heart of Central Asia - By Joseph Hoyt. His Tales and Travelogues with a very good map. [more inside]
posted by nickyskye at 5:05 PM PST - 12 comments

"'Say it with me people. Pulitzer. Motherf***ing. Prize'"

Kevin Dawes: searching for a missing American in Syria. A young American man and sometime SomethingAwful goon, self-taught as a medic and aspiring to journalism, maxes out his credit cards and heads for Syria, on his own. His contacts and friends increasingly fear he is mentally ill. The last report of him is from 2013. (GQ, 1/15/2016) [more inside]
posted by Countess Elena at 2:59 PM PST - 19 comments

“Falafel is a meal that transcends socio-economic backgrounds—”

A Falafel House Divided by Mohamad Yaghi and Jack Crosbie [Roads & Kingdoms]
“They work meters from one another every day, preparing falafel the way their father taught them. But instead of sharing a kitchen, Zouhair alone inhabits the original Damascus street shop. One store over, Fouad has a new shop, emblazoned with red signs that read “Falafel M. Sahyoun.” A single white tile wall separates them, a boundary that is never breached. The brothers no longer speak. Lebanon has long been a country defined by divisions, and though the brothers’ rift is not sectarian, the uneasy relationship between two falafel makers competing in close proximity is a reflection of the problems that still haunt the country.”
posted by Fizz at 1:52 PM PST - 17 comments

The language is completely case insensitive

Code with TrumpScript, and make programming great again.
posted by Gin and Broadband at 1:34 PM PST - 43 comments

I've Always Been Hungry

Growing up poor, there were times when I only ate what I could manage to steal. As a well-fed adult, I still can’t turn down a good meal…or a bad one. This moving memoir piece is by Zen monk and author Barry Graham, who also blogs at No Mean Preacher.
posted by katie at 1:13 PM PST - 22 comments

Going faster miles an hour

What holds Wile E. up in the air long enough to understand his mistake—what propelled that boulder back into the rock face, what blew up the detonator and left the dynamite unscathed—isn’t anarchy, but its exact opposite.
How Wile E. Coyote explains the world (slds)
posted by thecaddy at 12:55 PM PST - 18 comments

wake up little boy, daddy's looking for you

A family living in Washington is speaking out about the horrors they experienced while operating a baby monitor inside their 3-year-old son's bedroom. [more inside]
posted by ChurchHatesTucker at 12:25 PM PST - 69 comments

MLKNOW

Partly organized and hosted by Creed director Ryan Coogler, MLKNOW was an all day event that celebrated Martin Luther King Jr Day with a string of stars reciting his and other black activists still all too relevant words at Harlem's Riverside Church. A full archive of the event is available. (Actual event starts at around 39:45.) Non-chronological Program. More timestamps below, with individual links where available: [more inside]
posted by kmz at 11:56 AM PST - 2 comments

Worst. Tablecloth. Pulling. Gig. Ever.

They misunderstood my ability to be a dick, when correctly inspired. Juggler and comedian Mat Ricardo describes a nightmare gig in Beijing, starting with a (supposed) world record attempt and ending with a mad dash for the airport.
posted by gottabefunky at 10:36 AM PST - 60 comments

Her Story

Her Story is a 6-episode new-media series that looks inside the dating lives of trans & queer women as they navigate the intersections of desire & identity.
The show is co-written, co-produced, and co-starred by writer and One Billion Rising organizer Laura Zak and founder of The Trans 100 and We Happy Trans Jen Richards, and also stars Angelica Ross, founder of Trans Tech Social Enterprises. (CW: One of the side characters is hella transphobic, and there's smatterings of casual transphobia.)
posted by divabat at 10:12 AM PST - 11 comments

We are still living in Moynihan’s moment.

Coates sees the mass incarceration of African Americans as the “national action” that America chose to undertake to address the problems Moynihan described. Moynihan’s framing of poverty as a problem of black families—of black people—has enabled political leaders for half a century to look away from restitution and towards punishment as a way to address social problems. We are still living in Moynihan’s moment.
The Moynihan Report Resurrected, by Sam Klug [more inside]
posted by graymouser at 10:06 AM PST - 13 comments

The Polaroids of the Cowboy Poet

“I’ve heard about people gripping the rails of their deathbed, thinking the void awaits them. But that can’t be it, can it? (SLWAPO)
posted by PussKillian at 10:00 AM PST - 2 comments

Superstition...

Peter Huttlinger, who died on January 15th, was an American guitarist known for impressive fingerstyle arrangements, in particular this one [SLYT]
posted by 43rdAnd9th at 8:30 AM PST - 25 comments

Univision buys The Onion (no, really)

Even NPR couldn't resist making a joke, but it's it's true: the largest Spanish-language broadcaster in the U.S. has purchased a controlling interest in satirical news site The Onion and its subsites, legit pop-culture site AV Club and clickbait parody site Clickhole. [more inside]
posted by Etrigan at 8:25 AM PST - 38 comments

The Keeper

Gay City News profiles Robert Woodworth, on his retirement after thirty-two years at New York’s LGBT Community Center.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 8:17 AM PST - 1 comments

British People on Top of Tour Buses Look Generally Displeased

There are benefits to exploring a new city on a bus tour—you get ferried around to all the best sites, you have an overly enthusiastic guide who will regale you with fun facts and helpful information, and, at the end, there will be a great place to buy souvenirs. The downside? The point when you realize you’re one of those people who take bus tours.
posted by veedubya at 7:32 AM PST - 48 comments

A113

Tim Burton, John Lassiter, Genndy Tartakovsky, Brenda Chapman, Brad Bird, and many more of the biggest names in animation all went through the animation program at CalArts, taking classes in room A113. As a thank-you gesture, the number A113 is included every Pixar Film. Even The Good Dinosaur. And quite a few other movies and tv shows as well. [more inside]
posted by Mchelly at 7:10 AM PST - 13 comments

The DIY Scientist, the Olympian, and the Mutated Gene

It seemed absolutely crazy. The idea that an Iowa housewife, equipped with the cutting-edge medical tool known as Google Images, would make a medical discovery about a pro athlete who sees doctors and athletic trainers as part of her job? via
posted by ChuraChura at 6:52 AM PST - 63 comments

the classical music of now

I hate myself, a 4 second song by Bill Wurtz [more inside]
posted by Potomac Avenue at 6:35 AM PST - 13 comments

Your Home Is Filled With Bugs

Census Finds Lots of Bugs in 50 US Homes Aside from pets, family members, or roommates, many of us often go weeks without seeing another living thing in our homes. But appearances can be deceiving. We are, in fact, surrounded by arthropods—insects, spiders, centipedes, and other animals with hard external skeletons and jointed legs. They are the most successful animals on the planet, and the walls that shield our homes to the elements are no barriers to them. In the first systematic census of its kind, a team of entomologists combed through 50 American houses for every arthropod they could find, and discovered a startling amount of diversity. [more inside]
posted by narancia at 6:20 AM PST - 80 comments

tasty delicious coffee making recipes

Brew Methods is a collection of coffee brewing guides.
posted by zamboni at 5:39 AM PST - 54 comments

Highest Annual Mileage Record

How many miles can you cycle in a year? British cyclist Tommy Godwin’s "unbreakable" 1939 record of 75,065 miles has just been beaten by American Kurt “Tarzan” Searvogel, who achieved 76,156 miles, or 208.6 miles a day, between January 10, 2015 and January 9, 2016. [more inside]
posted by grahamparks at 5:31 AM PST - 42 comments

I feel like I’ve finally gotten to know Ada Lovelace

Untangling the Tale of Ada Lovelace - by Stephen Wolfram; a good read, even if you're generally familiar with the story of Lovelace, Babbage, and the Difference Engine.
posted by Wolfdog at 5:06 AM PST - 13 comments

Do Londoners have it in their nature to stand on the left?

"London’s commuters have learned to withstand vast and unpredictable challenges: track closures; signal failures; engineering works. And they have developed a thick skin. But on that particular Friday, the 11,000 of them who got off at Holborn station between 8.30 and 9.30am faced an unusually severe provocation. As they turned into the concourse at the bottom of the station’s main route out and looked up, they saw something frankly outrageous: on the escalators just ahead of them, dozens of people were standing on the left."
posted by MartinWisse at 2:47 AM PST - 108 comments

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