April 4, 2018

Farts are simply gas that comes out of the end opposite the mouth

Last year PhD zoology student Dani Rabaiotti and Virginia Tech ecologist Nick Caruso created the Twitter hashtag #DoesItFart (previously). The resulting database informs the just-published book Does it Fart? A Definitive Field Guide to Animal Flatulence. Bonus: Everybody farts. But here are 9 surprising facts about flatulence you may not know. (h/t ChuraChura)
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 11:01 PM PST - 44 comments

“...more games, more sales, more gamers.”

Steam Spy has put together an interesting collection of stats and figures on Steam’s 2017, showing everything from the biggest games to the fate of indie sales. [via: Kotaku] [more inside]
posted by Fizz at 9:21 PM PST - 34 comments

You say then how come out of love, is all this cruelty arising?

It sort of started with 1985's song Don't You (Forget About Me), a stadium-sized surprise US hit for Scottish band Simple Minds. They decided on Jimmy Iovine's big sound and Robin Clark's powerful vocals for their follow-up album 1985's Once Upon A Time [full album ~40m], and delivered an album that I feel should be included in the Every Track Is Perfect Club. Side A: Once Upon A Time, All The Things She Said, Ghost Dancing, Alive And Kicking [video] [more inside]
posted by hippybear at 9:09 PM PST - 19 comments

So there was a MYSTERY at the library today.

A wee old women came in and said "I've a question. Why does page 7 in all the books I take out have the 7 underlined in pen? It seems odd." "What?" I say, thinking she might be a bit off her rocker. She showed me, and they did. (twitter thread)
posted by curious nu at 8:12 PM PST - 70 comments

And you thought bridge and tunnel people were bad

Why several trainloads of New Yorkers' poop has been stranded for months in Alabama is the question on everyone's mind in the little town of Parrish. New York Magazine calls the train's contents "New York's shittiest export."
posted by GuyZero at 4:37 PM PST - 43 comments

"...adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars."

In honor of the 50th anniversary of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., his hometown NPR station, WABE, has organized content devoted to his memory and the memory of those events: ATL1968 [more inside]
posted by hydropsyche at 4:37 PM PST - 8 comments

Diss Pair and Hurt Rendang Outcry

MasterChef contestant Zaleha Kadir Olpin was eliminated last week when her chicken rendang — a traditional, slow cooked coconut and meat dish — didn't have crispy skin. People were not pleased with the decision. [more inside]
posted by lucidium at 3:57 PM PST - 88 comments

Make America Grodd Again

Q: Can someone explain what’s going on with the DC superhero shows on the CW
A: This week's episode of DC's Legends of Tomorrow, "Guest Starring John Noble" [sic], as summarized by mordax (SPOILERS!): "So the team saved a young Barack Obama1 from a telepathic gorilla from the future, [more inside]
posted by nicebookrack at 2:42 PM PST - 78 comments

Ugly Medieval Cats

The bad looking cats of classical painting [Content warning: Ugly is in the eye of the beholder] [more inside]
posted by chavenet at 2:00 PM PST - 46 comments

"Not the best-looking girl in her class but definitely in the top five."

"Film is a visual medium, and a screenwriter might have plenty of reasons to describe a female character’s look beyond simply flattering an actress or enticing the reader. Still, it’s striking to see how often and how thoroughly the female characters’ physical attributes are dissected {...] Take this description by Quentin Tarantino of the first woman we see in his film Death Proof, the radio DJ played by Sydney Tamiia Poitier:
A tall (maybe 6ft) Amazonian Mulatto goddess walks down her hallway, dressed in a baby tee, and panties that her big ass (a good thing) spill out of, and her long legs grow out of. Her big bare feet slap on the hard wood floor. She moves to the cool rockabilly beat as she paces like a tiger putting on her clothes. Outside her apartment she hears a 'Honk Honk.' She sticks her long mane of silky black curly hair, her giraffish neck and her broad shoulders, out of the window and yells to a car below."
How 50 Famous Female Characters Were Described In Their Screenplays [Kyle Buchanan and Jordan Crucchiola, Vulture] [more inside]
posted by Atom Eyes at 11:17 AM PST - 100 comments

Insert glitterbomb joke here...

Sparkly pizza, bagels and gravy - Nothing is safe from edible glitter’s reach: First things first: There is a difference between “edible” and “nontoxic” glitter. This is an important distinction you will need to remember if you want to participate in what is shaping up to be one of 2018’s biggest and most controversial trends: decorating everything from cookies to pizza with a sprinkling of shiny sparkles. And no, it’s not the kind you buy in the craft aisle. Glitter pizza. Glitter bagels. Glitter beer. [more inside]
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 11:12 AM PST - 47 comments

welcome to WUBRG

How can we use the Magic: The Gathering color wheel (White, Blue, Black, Red, Green) as a fake framework to "draw interesting connections, make surprisingly useful predictions, identify deficits and growth areas, and increase empathy for ways of being that are different from your own"?
posted by the man of twists and turns at 9:29 AM PST - 41 comments

"Lost Penis" is not really a good name for a song

"['Detachable Penis'] was a nice little New York underground art-poetry scene thing that somehow burbled up into your MTV/SPIN world." [more inside]
posted by J.K. Seazer at 8:03 AM PST - 67 comments

The day England won the Olympics was one of the worst days of my life

Gentrification, white elephants and overpriced social housing: six years later, Dr Penny Bernstock and Dr Juliet Davis try to answer the question, who are the real Olympic winners?
posted by Juso No Thankyou at 7:59 AM PST - 24 comments

Kitten Season: Chloe, Ramona, & Rula kitten watch

Meet Chloe, Ramon, and Rula, three pregnant feral cats, all due in the next two weeks. (YT live cam) They come from a colony of more than 230 feral cats, where 90% have been spayed/neutered thanks to Trap-Neuter-Return (TNR) efforts. Grandpa Mason, a terminally ill, battle-scarred feral cat, requested a litter of kittens, and the universe answered in a big way. (Previously) Grandpa Mason has already met Chloe, and they get along very well. (link to FB video)
posted by gladly at 7:29 AM PST - 105 comments

Safety Not Guaranteed

The Rise in Self-Proclaimed Time Travelers: They’ve come from the future for two reasons: 1) To save us from ourselves; and 2) to make YouTube confessionals.
posted by Cash4Lead at 6:02 AM PST - 45 comments

How do you make art for lawyers?

Animator Rory WT was commissioned to make art for lawyers in London. But what's it all about? What kind of stuff do they like? This is his story.
posted by nerdfish at 5:31 AM PST - 4 comments

Have You Herd? Farmer Writes A Memoo Using Cows And Satellite Imagery

Letter art with whole Kansas cows. As seen from space. [more inside]
posted by Transl3y at 4:27 AM PST - 17 comments

There's nothing super about 'super gonorrhoea'

Another victory for the bugs in today's antibiotics arms race Few people today have experience of life just a century ago where infections we now regard as mundane would often be fatal or seriously debilitating. And the jury is still out as to whether we can avoid going back there. If we get this wrong the impact on health and burden of disease is hard to imagine. Having to live with untreatable chronic gonorrhea could make life thoroughly miserable. Even worse, perhaps, is the spectre of treatment resistant syphilis - with its effects on both the body and the mind. Before antibiotics rendered it treatable tertiary syphilis was responsible for a large proportion of long-term psychiatric hospitalizations.
posted by Neil Hunt at 3:30 AM PST - 27 comments

Mongosity

Silly mongoose.
posted by Bloxworth Snout at 12:48 AM PST - 9 comments

« Previous day | Next day »