May 20, 2020

Cold and Black and Infinite

Nine Inch Nails - Live: Cold and Black and Infinite 2018 [1h30m] is a fan-made multi-cam document of NIN's 2018 tour. As Trent himself says about the project, "P.S. HOW IN THE FUCK DID YOU PULL THIS OFF??" [more inside]
posted by hippybear at 7:47 PM PST - 18 comments

Savaging the Lego System

Does making order calm you down? Do you enjoy seeing how other people organize their stuff? Do you have a soft spot for Lego Classic Space parts, like the 1x2 with the arrow swooshing across a planet? Then Adam Savage's One Day Builds: LEGO Sorting and Storage System might be just the thing for you (SLYT, plus Savage's sorting superstar mom).
posted by MonkeyToes at 4:23 PM PST - 41 comments

Working out from home?

Some inspiration from those who came before you. You may have heard of Jack Lalanne, Tamilee Webb/Buns of Steel, or Jane Fonda but you may not have encountered The Chippendales workout or Debbie Drake. Workouts combined with, well, something else. (via Jezebel)
posted by bluesky43 at 3:40 PM PST - 14 comments

The mysterious desert dwellers

A shapeshifting fungus lives in the dust. It’s infecting across the American West, Lauren J. Young
Coccidioides is a fungus endemic to the western USA that causes (San Joaquin) Valley Fever, or coccidioidomycosis. It thrives in hot, dry environments and is carried along in dust. [more inside]
posted by the man of twists and turns at 2:38 PM PST - 15 comments

Climate Change Migrants: Oaks, Maples, Pine.

An eye-opening article in the Washington Post tracks a bold experiment unfolding in Minnesota, where scientists are giving forests a head-start to help them outrun climate change. [more inside]
posted by Gray Duck at 2:37 PM PST - 10 comments

My Eyes! - The Nightmare - My Eyes!

A celebration of Britain’s diversity and cultural magnificence #FuckBoris #FuckBrexit #FuckFascism.”
Christopher Spencer aka Cold War Steve is a visual satirist.
A Former Probation Officer Whose Viral Political Collages have Become an International Symbol of the nonsense of Brexit to Covid-19 and Britains inept politicians.
Already compared with the satire of William Hogarth channels visions from Breugel, and Bosch and always with a few favourite characters and started as a kind of therapy, following a bit of a breakdown and issues with alcohol. (previously).
posted by adamvasco at 2:30 PM PST - 7 comments

“I feel more than ever playing games for this long is the right choice.”

Meet 90-year-old Hamako Mori, the world's oldest video game YouTuber [CNN] “A Japanese woman who built a cult following online with her video game skills has been recognized as the world's oldest YouTube gamer — at the age of 90. Hamako Mori, known as "Gamer Grandma" to her 250,000 YouTube subscribers, started gaming 39 years ago. Her YouTube channel launched in 2015, and she posts up to four videos a month. In her clips, she does everything from unboxing new consoles to broadcasting her gaming prowess. And now Mori, who counts the "Grand Theft Auto" series among her favorites, is officially the world's oldest gaming YouTuber, according to Guinness World Records. [...] Mori has also collected an array of consoles over the decades. The first one she owned was Cassette Vision, which was released in Japan on July 30, 1981. "It looked like so much fun, and I thought it's not fair if only children played it," Mori said.”
posted by Fizz at 1:44 PM PST - 4 comments

Satisfyingly, schnapps is itself is a schnapps-word.

Text for Proofing Fonts, by Jonathan Hoefler (previously). The allure and impracticality of pangrams, and proposed improved text for proofing fonts, based on the distribution of letters in English and various design considerations: a farewell to the Quick Brown Fox. [more inside]
posted by miles per flower at 1:21 PM PST - 10 comments

Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - Deanna (TNG edition)

A funny Star Trek: The Next Generation fanvid by avocet, celebrating Deanna Troi. [via mefi projects]
posted by brainwane at 1:09 PM PST - 4 comments

Non-Trump coronavirus news and analysis

Spain makes face masks obligatory in public for everyone over the age of 5. Colombia joins Argentina in banning all international flights. Gilead, maker of remdesivir, has a safer, more effective and easier to manufacture version of the drug, patented in 2009, but is not developing it. [A continuation of last month's thread of non-Trump links to international pandemic news and analysis.]
posted by mediareport at 11:58 AM PST - 357 comments

Cats and Friends Choir

"The three movements of this deep and soulful piece have been virtually recorded by more than 500 enthusiastic participants in isolation from their homes and farms." via Alex Ross (New Yorker).
posted by ferret branca at 11:02 AM PST - 16 comments

GRITTY IS NOT BORED

Gritty's Tiktok channel has been a beacon of sanity in these trying times. Did you know he squeaks when he performs beer pong trick shots? My faith in human(gr)itty is renewed.
posted by not_on_display at 10:49 AM PST - 8 comments

But even stranger was how many of the callers seemed, well, clueless

Inside the Flour Company Supplying America’s Sudden Baking Obsession | How King Arthur Flour found itself in the unlikely crosshairs of a pandemic
posted by Chrysostom at 9:47 AM PST - 73 comments

tachypsychia

When Bad Things Happen in Slow Motion (Nautilus): "Retired fire chief Richard Gasaway refers to this apparent slowing down of time in tense situations as tachypsychia, which roughly translates as “fast mind.” “This phenomenon afflicts many first responders,” Gasaway claims, based on hundreds of interviews he has conducted for his research, blog, and speaking engagements on “situational awareness.” Bolstered also by what he judges to be personal experiences of tachypsychia, Gasaway has come to consider it as a sometime component of the overall stress response. For first responders, the phenomenon is dangerous, he says, because it can warp situational awareness and decision-making processes. But is tachypsychia real, or an illusion?"
posted by not_the_water at 9:47 AM PST - 16 comments

Desperate Times, Desperate Measures

(SLYT) Crowds are gone and clubs are closed - so, like most other comics, NYC comedian Emily Walsh is out of work. Unlike most other comics, Emily made an adorable stop-motion animation of herself performing a set at a club she made out of Legos.
posted by chinese_fashion at 9:14 AM PST - 5 comments

A Much Older, Deeper Patchwork

What’s happening is not one crisis, but many interconnected ones. As we shall see, it will be harder to come to terms with such a crisis. It will be harder to bring it to heel. And it will be harder to grapple with the historical legacies that have shaped today’s patchwork. America’s Patchwork Pandemic Is Fraying Even Further by Ed Yong in The Atlantic
posted by chavenet at 8:15 AM PST - 13 comments

Graduate Student Solves Decades-Old Conway Knot Problem

It took Lisa Piccirillo less than a week to answer a long-standing question about a strange knot discovered over half a century ago by the legendary John Conway. [more inside]
posted by Etrigan at 7:16 AM PST - 36 comments

The McCorvey Purchase

In the 90s, anti-choice activists presented what they thought was a coup in their favor - that Norma McCorvey, the titular "Jane Roe" of Roe v. Wade, had come over to the anti-choice side and "repented" her role in the legalization of abortion in the US. But in a new documentary on the fight over abortion, video of McCorvey on her deathbed has her making a stunning revelation - her conversion was false, paid for by anti-choice groups like Operation Rescue. (SLLA Times)
posted by NoxAeternum at 6:37 AM PST - 36 comments

GPS-tracking the movements of eagles

Last August six white-tailed eaglets were transplanted from Scotland to the Isle of Wight, in a bid to reintroduce the species to England. They were carrying GPS trackers, so if you have any curiosity about what an eagle might get up to during a typical day, or how far it might roam, you can satisfy it here. [more inside]
posted by mokey at 4:08 AM PST - 2 comments

Velvet wonderlands

Wandering around Britain, one might notice the grand theatres of the turn of the 19th/20th centuries and think they had a lot in common - a very particular, ornate style is immediately noticeable. This is because they were largely designed by the same hand: Frank Matcham, who died a hundred years ago last Sunday. [more inside]
posted by Grangousier at 12:48 AM PST - 7 comments

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