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Beginner fly-tying videos: The Pheasant Tail Nymph Euro Style, The Infamous Mop Fly ("The Mop Fly has this really bad reputation because it's tied from strands from a mop. I have to admit, I don't like it. yet it catches fish, so here it is"). More beginner fly-tying videos here. More advanced fly-tying videos: Latex Scud, Chewie Trout Streamer, Schroeder's Parachute Caddis Fly, Sonic Boom Fly, Darling Darting Damsel, Sugar Pop Fly, and Slab Crappie Hyperactive Minnow.
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 9:18 PM PST - 13 comments

Caterpillars – the shapes and sizes that they come in and for many the urge to touch, pick up and hold is almost irresistible. Yet although most butterfly and moth larvae are quite harmless, preferring to curl up in a ball when threatened, some will make it quite plain that they do not like to be touched. They will sting: here is a selection of the stinging caterpillars of the United States.

posted by Johnny Wallflower at 8:27 PM PST - 27 comments

An Appalachain Trail: A Project In Regional Planning - But the original concept for tracing out a hiking path along the spine of the Appalachian Mountains, dreamed up almost a century ago by the planner, forester, and idiosyncratic social reformer Benton MacKaye, was so radical that MacKaye himself feared it would be dismissed as “bolshevistic.” What MacKaye envisioned when he first proposed the trail in a 1921 article for the Journal of the American Institute of Architects was something far beyond a woodsy recreational amenity. This “project in regional planning,” as MacKaye called it, was meant to be a thoroughgoing cultural critique of industrial modernity
posted by the man of twists and turns at 8:19 PM PST - 6 comments

They are likely the only NBA dance team "presented by AARP" (tweet with short video clip), but that's because the Wizdom members are all over 50 (NPR). The Road to Wizdom (YT playlist) was tough, taking more than 50 applicants and narrowing it down to 19 women and one man, who range in age from 50 to 76. [more inside]
posted by filthy light thief at 4:39 PM PST - 9 comments

Although the S/360 models shared a common architecture, internally they were completely different to support the wide range of cost and performance levels. Low-end models used simple hardware and an 8-bit datapath while advanced models used features such as wide datapaths, fast semiconductor registers, out-of-order instruction execution, and caches. These differences were reflected in the distinctive front panels of these computers, covered with lights and switches. [more inside]
posted by jenkinsEar at 2:26 PM PST - 52 comments

New York Times Magazine editor Nitsuh Abebe compiled this spreadsheet which catalogs cover versions of ’80s and ’90s indie rock songs, performed by other ’80s and ’90s indie rock bands. (hat tip: Spin)
posted by Drab_Parts at 2:00 PM PST - 22 comments

A Personal Anthology: "Each week a guest is invited to pick and introduce twelve of their favourite short stories and, where possible, link to them online." [more inside]
posted by thatwhichfalls at 1:49 PM PST - 2 comments

"The original pokerap is a travesty" — Brian David Gilbert, Unraveled LIVE. (previously) (even more previously)
posted by Memo at 12:10 PM PST - 27 comments

The Barely Hidden Flaws in Jordan Peterson's Scholarship "Simply reading the books you find in the religion section of your local used bookstore does not make you a religious scholar, no matter how many YouTube videos you post." [SLMedium]
posted by heatherlogan at 10:49 AM PST - 97 comments

The Tea Dragon Society is a short (46 page), cute webcomic created by Katie O'Neill. Set in a friendly world of high fantasy, it tells the story of how Greta, a young blacksmith's apprentice, joins a circle of friends dedicated to art of raising tea dragons. [more inside]
posted by CrunchyFrog at 10:27 AM PST - 19 comments

La Petite Mélancolie
Killing time with beauty one click at a time (NSFW) mainly in french but hey pictures don´t need words!
I'm not even going to start. Just get in there and enjoy your timesink.
posted by adamvasco at 9:30 AM PST - 5 comments

In another example of collective action at work, the Writer's Guild of America (WGA) is not backing down in its fight with the major talent agencies. Representatives from four major talent agencies blinked three hours ahead of a midnight deadline, conceding that their common business practices constitute a conflict of interest in exchange for an extension until April 12th. David Simon explains the evils of the major agencies' practices as inherently at odds with an agent's fiduciary duty to their clients, in the way only David Simon can, by telling the story of how he got screwed on Homicide: Life on the Street. He also thinks it's a major RICO case waiting to happen. [more inside]
posted by schadenfrau at 9:26 AM PST - 23 comments

Decades before the anti-slavery movement took root in the US, radical Quaker Benjamin Lay published his book All Slave-Keepers That Keep the Innocent in Bondage, Apostates, which demanded an immediate and unconditional end to slavery. Lay arrived at the 1738 Yearly Meeting of Philadelphia Quakers three weeks later with a message for his Friends. Declaring slaveholding the gravest sin in the world, Lay ran his sword through a book--rupturing a concealed animal bladder filled with red pokeberry juice and showering nearby slaveholders with fake blood. Writing for Aeon, historian Marcus Rediker examines the origins of Lay's radicalism and asks why so few have heard of him today. Eugene Grant (previously) looks at Lay's legacy as an activist and dwarf.
posted by duffell at 6:22 AM PST - 13 comments

Producer and musician Claudio Passavanti - from Doctor Mix - recreates Part 4 of Jean-Michel Jarre's Oxygène. [more inside]
posted by rongorongo at 1:03 AM PST - 9 comments