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Blair Mountain is the closest thing to Gettysburg that the American labor movement has. Its historic significance is immense. It also happens to sit in the poorest region of a state that is in desperate need of tourism dollars and economic development. Drive on Route 17 to the speck of a town called Blair, though, and all that you will find is a single historic marker for the battle, along with a trailer-sized post office, two churches, and a handful of houses. There is no museum. There is no trail. You cannot even wander up Blair Mountain yourself, because it is private property, owned by coal companies and patrolled by their private security. In fact, those coal companies have, since 2009, been waging a legal battle to prevent the Blair Mountain site from being added to the National Register of Historic Places, so that they can strip mine it instead of preserve it.

- How West Virginia Lost the Workers' Revolution [more inside]
posted by the man of twists and turns at 9:44 PM PST - 5 comments

This weekend, Chicago-raised, New York-based free music trumpeter Jaimie Branch released Fly Or Die, her debut album as a leader. Interview [via Aquarium Drunkard]. Feature article [via the Chicago Reader]. Nice introductory video by her label International Anthem.
posted by LeLiLo at 9:28 PM PST - 5 comments

BROCCOLI HAS CAUSED SYSTEM FAILURE
When the massage is too strong
CAT likes HUGS
oh my god, please take 3 seconds out of your day to watch this.

And many more at Baby Animal GIFs.
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 7:01 PM PST - 34 comments

An instagram account of homemade bike crates in Amsterdam. Or you can buy one already made. Or, re-watch one of the most touching Dutch shorts about bicycles.
posted by growabrain at 6:13 PM PST - 20 comments

A beginner’s guide to Scientist, dub reggae’s experimental genius -- A truly outstanding practitioner who thrived on innovation, Scientist helped dub reach some of its greatest heights of creativity. He became one of Jamaica’s most sought-after engineers at a very young age, his mixing artistry rising up in tandem with the Roots Radics in the late 70s and early 80s. Because of the incredible dub works he fashioned as an apprentice engineer at King Tubby’s studio, many dub fans consider Scientist to be the last of the classical Jamaican dub mixers, yet his overall contribution to the evolution of reggae is far more multifaceted than most realise. [more inside]
posted by Room 641-A at 5:21 PM PST - 8 comments

“You Don’t Own Me” is a song by Lesley Gore.
“You Don’t Own Me” (Featuring G-Eazy) is a modern cover by Grace.
This one-minute video in a tweet is the best music video for the cover.
posted by Going To Maine at 12:39 PM PST - 31 comments

The BMW Art Car Collection
Exactly what it says on the box.
Olafur Eliasson
Jenny Holzer
Alexander Calder
Jeff Koons
posted by dfm500 at 10:06 AM PST - 5 comments

Cool video of the latest in computer graphics research and computer wizardry from this year's SIGGRAPH.
posted by Foci for Analysis at 7:59 AM PST - 28 comments

Inside the fake news capital of the world. [more inside]
posted by roolya_boolya at 5:28 AM PST - 27 comments

With a few months left until the IAAF World Championships begin, the European Athletic Association is proposing a reset of all European and World records set before 2005, as anti-doping testing was not to modern standards. [more inside]
posted by lmfsilva at 4:17 AM PST - 24 comments

Among the books recently published with support from the still funded NEH, six are prizewinning history books, each of which has related material online. For example, Mark G. Hanna wrote a short piece on his book Pirate Nests and the Rise of the British Empire, 1570–1740 for the NEH's own Humanities magazine: "A Lot of What Is Known about Pirates Is Not True, and a Lot of What Is True Is Not Known." [more inside]
posted by Wobbuffet at 3:35 AM PST - 13 comments

Polling stations across France opened this morning for the presidential election's second round of voting between Emmanuel Macron and Marine Le Pen (though the vote began in the Pacific). The final turn of a twisty campaign was a leak of emails from the Macron campaign on Friday. The opinion polls, historically quite accurate in France, indicate that Macron is the overwhelming favorite. His party, En Marche, is also polling well in the June legislative elections. Though the establishment has flocked behind Macron against the far-right Le Pen it has not gone as smoothly as was expected, which is Jeremy Hardin's topic in the essay Whose Republican Front?
posted by Kattullus at 12:10 AM PST - 159 comments