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She’s always been an A-lister. But her new film, Those Who Wish Me Dead, reflects Hollywood’s impulse to stifle female action heroes once they hit a certain age. And though she’s continually made the case for herself as an action hero, even now, reviews for Those Who Wish Me Dead question the effect of her “ice-sculpture perfection” on the film’s believability—as if a film featuring Hannah getting hit by lightning needs to be believable—and whether audiences can “get past the miraculously dewy complexion and on-point smoky-eye look.” In the past decade, Jolie has used her fame to elevate the story of the Cambodian Civil War, co-author a book on protest rights geared toward teenagers, and even criticize the United Nations, where she advocates for the rights of refugees. She hasn’t played a seductress since Salt. How are her good looks still such a sore spot?
posted by folklore724 at 10:17 PM PST - 36 comments

Neopets (which is 21 years old) is preparing for a comeback, with an animated show in the works. Polygon covers a thriving black market within the cutesy JPEG distribution system, in newly-made, but old-style, "unconverted" pets that management long claimed weren't possible, in an entertaining video story on the whole affair, and which also provides some background on the site's history. [more inside]
posted by JHarris at 9:03 PM PST - 10 comments

The "p-factor" may be the invisible, unifying force behind a multitude of mental disorders. While other specialities of medicine have drastically reduced mortality rates from heart disease, cancer and stroke, there haven’t been similar successes in mental healthcare. As a paper from 2013 put it, ‘mortality has not decreased for any mental illness, prevalence rates are similarly unchanged,... and there are no well-developed preventive interventions.’ Psychiatry appears to be stuck. Perhaps it’s because the diagnostic system is faulty.
posted by MiraK at 8:08 PM PST - 30 comments

Husband and wife Justin and Julia host I Pray You Put This Journal Away, a podcast based on the couple’s experiences growing up in the fundamentalist Christian church, with Justin reading from his teen diaries about his struggles “growing up with the Duggars, fundamentalism, and undiagnosed autism.” If you prefer to read instead of listen: in the last few weeks, since the news broke about Josh Duggar’s arrest for possession of child sexual abuse images, Justin has done two Reddit AMAs shining a thoughtful spotlight on the ways fundamentalist Christian culture justifies, enables and covers up abuse. [Content warnings: trauma; sexual, physical, emotional, and spiritual abuse.]
posted by hurdy gurdy girl at 4:10 PM PST - 9 comments

“None of our records show that Richard was involved in any capacity in the Flamin’ Hot test market,” Frito-Lay wrote in a statement to The Times, in response to questions about an internal investigation whose existence has not been previously disclosed. “We have interviewed multiple personnel who were involved in the test market, and all of them indicate that Richard was not involved in any capacity in the test market. ... “That doesn’t mean we don’t celebrate Richard,” the statement continued, “but the facts do not support the urban legend.” from The man who didn’t invent Flamin’ Hot Cheetos [LAT, alternate link] [Previously]
posted by chavenet at 3:20 PM PST - 29 comments

Baelin's Route. A 30-minute epic film complete with sweeping shots of New Zealand landscapes, a one-shot fight scene with a gang of orcs, and an NPC protagonist who's incapable of saying anything other than, "Morning! Nice day for fishing, ain't it?" From New Zealand comedy group Viva La Dirt League (previously).
posted by russilwvong at 2:34 PM PST - 11 comments

Another US military UFO video clip surfaces. In 2019 sailors recorded an unidentified object flying around the littoral combat ship USS Omaha before vanishing into the sea. [more inside]
posted by doctornemo at 1:25 PM PST - 102 comments

BTS - IDOL on 2 calculators
Beethoven - Fur Elise on 3 calculators
Radiohead - 2 + 2 = 5 on 4 calculators
Pinkfong - Baby Shark on 5 calculators
Among Us BG Music on cat piano [more inside]
posted by carsonb at 10:13 AM PST - 16 comments

The filing cabinet was critical to the information infrastructure of the 20th-century. Like most infrastructure, it was usually overlooked (Places Journal): "But if it appears to be banal and pervasive, it cannot be so easily ignored. The filing cabinet does not just store paper; it stores information; and because the modern world depends upon and is indeed defined by information, the filing cabinet must be recognized as critical to the expansion of modernity. In recent years scholars and critics have paid increasing attention to the filing systems used to store and retrieve information critical to government and capitalism, particularly information about people — case dossiers, identification photographs, credit reports, et al. But the focus on filing systems ignores the places where files are stored. Could capitalism, surveillance, and governance have developed in the 20th century without filing cabinets? Of course, but only if there had been another way to store and circulate paper efficiently. The filing cabinet was critical to the infrastructure of 20th-century nation states and financial systems; and, like most infrastructure, it is often overlooked or forgotten, and the labor associated with it minimized or ignored." via things magazine [more inside]
posted by not_the_water at 8:23 AM PST - 36 comments

Poison Ivy has Underappreciated Superpowers. (SLNYT)
posted by storybored at 7:08 AM PST - 35 comments