May 20, 2019

September 16, 1977, ABC

The Making Of Star Wars [49m]
posted by hippybear at 9:22 PM PST - 32 comments

The Art of Making in Antiquity

"The Art of Making in Antiquity is an innovative digital project designed for the study of Roman stoneworking. Centred on the photographic archive of Peter Rockwell, this website aims to enhance current understanding of the carving process and to investigate the relationship between the surviving objects, the method and sequence of their production and the people who made them."
posted by jedicus at 8:37 PM PST - 3 comments

How to ride a mechanical bull

Mechanical bulls start off easy enough, then the'll buck you, but Anthony "PRB" Smith makes it look easy, like really easy, hopping back and forth. Here's an interview he did for German TV ahead of his appearance on Germany's Got Talent.
posted by filthy light thief at 7:53 PM PST - 12 comments

18xx games, now in musical form

Maybe you've heard of the 18xx family of railroad stock-market boardgames? It all started with the game 1829, and today comprises a huge range of games, lasting from 2 to 10+ hours, mostly set in the nineteenth century, in locations all around the world. The market for these games has always been tiny, so there's a thriving niche community of amateur design/printing. Well now, 18xx meets Les Miserables, in a ten song musical version by podcaster Ambie Valdés. [more inside]
posted by LobsterMitten at 7:50 PM PST - 13 comments

"Two ears, one mouth, don't talk too much."

Political geographer Anja Kanngieser discusses the movements for climate and environmental justice in the Pacific and building atmosphere through sound recordings. "Many of the [Pacific Islands] activists I spoke with said, "We are doing this not only for us, but for you, because after we go, you go too"." [more inside]
posted by trotzdem_kunst at 7:02 PM PST - 1 comments

Even Wizard Colleges Have Sports Scholarships

Quidditch is so 20th Century. The new hot shit is the wizard sport of Fireball, brought to you by the homebrew adventure tabletop gaming blog A Blasted Cratered Land, with game mechanics written for the GLOG rules-lite homebrew system family. (A Blasted Cratered Land also has a quick rundown of what the GLOG is.) [more inside]
posted by Caduceus at 4:05 PM PST - 6 comments

Teachers in crisis

New Zealand's public education system, as in other countries, is under intense pressure. On 29 May it faces what's being described as a once-in-a-generation mega-strike. Journalist Toby Morris has produced a short comic that explains the crisis from both an individual and a larger perspective. [more inside]
posted by reshet at 3:07 PM PST - 24 comments

Knitting Is Coding

Yarn Is Programmable (SLNYT by Siobhan Roberts)
posted by bq at 1:59 PM PST - 16 comments

unsuck Unsuck DC Metro

From Watchdog To Attack Dog: The Story Of Unsuck D.C. Metro [more inside]
posted by peeedro at 12:24 PM PST - 35 comments

She disappears for exactly 22 minutes at a time

Five hours of life inside Janet's Void. Hey The Good Place fans, ever wonder what not-a-person not-a-woman humanoid-appearing sentient database Janet does when she pops back to her void? Wonder no more. Fun fact: When she leaves the void, she returns after exactly 22 minutes. A (SLYT) bit of existential whimsy for your Monday.
posted by zaixfeep at 11:56 AM PST - 12 comments

Your lifespan is related to that of your inlaws

Using 400 million records from Ancestry.com, researchers have determined that assortative mating (previously; not previously) has an influence on longevity. Their work has lowered the estimate of the impact of genetics on longevity from 15-30% to 7%. Paper. [more inside]
posted by clawsoon at 10:52 AM PST - 16 comments

Everything's going fine. No trouble. Just get set and get going, amen.

The vocal group* 180 Gs released 180 D'Gs to the Future - an entire album of a cappella covers of Negativland songs, in a variety of styles from gospel to work song to just weird. And! They also covered all of The Residents' 1980 Commercial Album. And Cardiac's album Sing to God [previously, previously]! [more inside]
posted by moonmilk at 9:53 AM PST - 13 comments

We’re all “mutants”.

The Lazy Design Aesthetic of Misrepresenting Genetic Conditions [Plenty of Minds]
“In books, films and video games, “mutant” is often used interchangeably with various terms that essentially mean “other”: “freak,” “monster,” “beast,” et cetera. However, it isn’t completely interchangeable because everyone understands that “mutant” has something to do with genetics and biological development. Therefore, the choice to use the term “mutant” implies that there is some biological, likely genetic, basis for why these “monsters” are the way they are. [...] It appears to me that the designers were just cribbing dysmorphic features that occur in real life and applying them to the game’s monsters, then naming them “mutants” and going on their way. Why do they look the way they are? Because they’re “mutants.” No additional thought went into that.”
Michael California draws upon his background as a geneticist to compliment a discussion of Rage 2‘s industry-standard ableism with an explanation of why the “mutant” tropes of disfigurement and disability widely perpetuated in popular media make no scientific sense whatsoever. [YouTube][Rage 2 Launch Trailer] [more inside]
posted by Fizz at 9:12 AM PST - 14 comments

whatever happened to the space between the notes?

Speed Up Your Podcasts for More Efficient Listening
Speeding Up Your Podcasts Won’t Solve Your Problems
Meet The People Who Listen to Podcasts Crazy-Fast
Stop listening to podcasts at 1.5x
[more inside]
posted by the man of twists and turns at 8:23 AM PST - 122 comments

Authenticity is for tourists.

"“My grandmother made tacos with peas and with potatoes,” Lopez said, and added it was because she couldn’t always afford ground beef. For some Mexican Americans, this gets at the essence of the way we eat. Pretending otherwise means suppressing our lived realities and histories. I can’t think of a better example of the fraud of authenticity, which is more interested in the aesthetics of poverty than in poverty itself, more invested in the feeling of realness than in any kind of truth." John Paul Brammer for the Washington Post: I’m Mexican American. Stop expecting me to eat ‘authentic’ food.
posted by everybody had matching towels at 7:21 AM PST - 87 comments

Danny Macaskill: Danny Daycare (feat. Daisy)

Expert trials cyclist Danny Macaskill is looking after his friends' daughter and can't resist taking her for a wee bike ride around Scotland. (No children were involved in these stunts!) [more inside]
posted by EndsOfInvention at 1:52 AM PST - 24 comments

that Butterfly song will never die

DanceRush Stardom is a rhythm/dancing game from Konami. The machines have a built-in camera that can record movements (and blur out background figures). Unlike Dance Dance Revolution, DanceRush operates on a large, touch-sensitive pad divided into long columns. This allows for a certain freedom of choreography. [more inside]
posted by automatic cabinet at 12:55 AM PST - 7 comments

« Previous day | Next day »