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Refugees are not a swarm, or a flood, but people. Cartoonist Toby Morris reports the story of 16 year old Hussam and his flight from Syria. Previously
posted by i_am_joe's_spleen at 7:49 PM PST - 12 comments

When Jen (of Cake Wrecks fame) and her husband John learned DragonCon was planning a Labyrinth Ball, they decided to get to work on a costume -- to re-create the junk lady from Labyrinth. Finished costume. [more inside]
posted by fings at 7:27 PM PST - 29 comments

John Ernst Worrell Keely was an inventor from Philadelphia who claimed to developed a machine that was motivated by a new and hitherto unknown force, based on the musical vibrations of tuning forks and that music could resonate with atoms or with the aether. His demonstrations were good enough to garner significant financial support and public interest, but he was debunked by Scientific American after his death in 1898. That hasn't stopped people from believing in sympathetic vibratory physics (Straight Dope forum discussion) and discussing Keely's other claims (on Pure Energy Systems Wiki). One of the most ardent supporters of Keely's theories is Jerry Decker, operator of KeelyNet, a long-running collection of articles and research on (free) energy, gravity control and other alternative sciences, with a section devoted to Keely.
posted by filthy light thief at 7:20 PM PST - 28 comments

The Trailers for Ghostbusters (2016) and the Art of Editing Comedy
posted by Artw at 6:11 PM PST - 79 comments

INSANE Domino Tricks! [more inside]
posted by bq at 5:54 PM PST - 19 comments

How the Toronto Symphony Orchestra uses graphic design to guide its audiences though its music [more inside]
posted by damayanti at 5:52 PM PST - 9 comments

Dropbox Wants More Access to Your Computer, and People Are Freaking Out [Motherboard] [Vice] On Tuesday, Dropbox published more details about upcoming changes to the company's desktop client that will allow users to access all of the content in their account as if it is stored on their own machine, no matter how small the hard-disk on their computer. In other words, you can browse through your own file system and have direct access to your cloud storage, without having to go and open a web browser nor worry about filling up your hard-drive. Sounds great, but experts and critics have quickly pointed out that Dropbox Infinite, as the technology is called, may open up your computer to more serious vulnerabilities, because it works in a particularly sensitive part of the operating system.
posted by Fizz at 5:49 PM PST - 57 comments

Sarah E. Farro, an African-American woman, published a novel calledTrue Love in 1891. "The reason for 'True Love’s' disappearance might be simple: it takes place in England, a place Farro probably never visited, and all of its characters are white." It's been digitized and is available here and here.
posted by wendyfairy at 5:11 PM PST - 2 comments

A winged thief tries to make off with evidence
posted by sardonyx at 5:01 PM PST - 21 comments

Couples who have sons are more likely to stay together. But why?
posted by R.F.Simpson at 4:44 PM PST - 77 comments

This week at a show in Paris, Radiohead performed a live version of Creep for the first time since 2009. Cameraphones were there. [more inside]
posted by carter at 4:29 PM PST - 13 comments

Is this Greek hilltop the 2,400-year-old burial place of Aristotle? "Greek archaeologists at Ancient Stagira, Central Macedonia, say they have found Aristotle’s tomb. Addressing the Aristotle 2400 Years World Congress, they point to the 2,400-year-old tomb as the most important finding from the 20-year excavation."
posted by homunculus at 4:09 PM PST - 22 comments

Google prevails over Oracle: APIs are copyrightable but Android is fair use, jury says
posted by Monochrome at 2:17 PM PST - 74 comments

"Who me? But I can only dance! And throw trip mines..." (SLYT.) [more inside]
posted by lonefrontranger at 2:00 PM PST - 4 comments

Shirley "Cha Cha" Muldowney "was the first woman to receive a license from the National Hot Rod Association (NHRA) to drive a Top Fuel dragster. She won the NHRA Top Fuel championship in 1977, 1980, and 1982, becoming the first person to win two and three Top Fuel titles. She won a total of 18 NHRA national events." She is ranked fifth on the NHRA top 50 drivers of all time. [more inside]
posted by cwest at 12:46 PM PST - 23 comments

Kill some time building a production line with factoryidle, an idle game about factories.
posted by cortex at 12:37 PM PST - 232 comments

Every single terrible hat Rory and Lorelai wore on "Gilmore Girls" (note: is in fact every hat, terrible or no)
posted by Etrigan at 12:19 PM PST - 25 comments

This NBA season was overtaken by Stephen "Steph" Curry. After winning it all last season, this year he led the Golden State Warriors to the best regular-season record in the history of the league. Rising from relative obscurity in his early years, Curry won a second MVP award on the strength of his otherworldly play, and as he began to regularly surpass superstar Lebron James, his team seemed easily headed for more glory. But tonight Steph's team faces elimination from the NBA playoffs, brought on by an Oklahoma City Thunder team few thought would compete for a championship with a first-year coach and a star player possibly leaving the team after this year. Here is how it is happening.
posted by cashman at 11:27 AM PST - 77 comments

I miss my mom and dad and brother, my friends, my dog and cat, my giant redwood trees, and tacos.
Tor developer isis agora lovecruft is the latest developer to seek self exile and tells her story of FBI harrassment.
[more inside]
posted by adamvasco at 11:12 AM PST - 28 comments

In the continued fallout of the Wall Street Journal's expose on Theranos' struggles to deliver accurate medical test (previously), it has now been reported that Theranos is throwing out all Edison results from 2014 and 2015 (WSJ [paywalled], Reuters). The company reported completing about 890,000 tests per year, and "...has told the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services that it has issued tens of thousands of corrected blood-test reports to doctors and patients, voiding some results and revising others, according to the person familiar with the matter." [more inside]
posted by Existential Dread at 11:08 AM PST - 63 comments

Baylor University has fired football coach Art Briles and demoted university president Kenneth Starr upon receipt of an independent report detailing how the football program concealed rape, sexual abuse, and domestic violence accusations against Baylor football players. The announcement has come as a shock, as it had seemed that Starr would be the scapegoat for the scandal, with his demotion used to protect Briles, the most successful coach in the school's history. However, increased media scrutiny due to the 2016 campaign season bringing up Starr's role in the Whitewater investigation, drawing greater attention to what happened at Baylor.
posted by NoxAeternum at 10:58 AM PST - 71 comments

Unflattering animal pictures. Yup.
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 10:53 AM PST - 22 comments

Take a breath, make a sound, keep going | The wandering haunting music of Doug Koyama
posted by Potomac Avenue at 10:35 AM PST - 1 comments

Neanderthals built mysterious cave structures 175,000 years ago which have been recently discovered in southwestern France. Walls were fashioned from stalagmites, and the area lit up with fireplaces. The French National Scientific Research Centre has released photos and a video about the site.
posted by Kattullus at 10:30 AM PST - 48 comments

At 9.45 a.m. each day, more than 1,000 Indian Runner ducks are released for the first of two sorties at South Africa’s Vergenoegd vineyard in Stellenbosch. [more inside]
posted by fight or flight at 10:07 AM PST - 26 comments

In Beep Baseball (length 4:48), there are two bases, the pitcher is with the hitting team, batters are allowed 4 strikes, and the ball beeps. Oh, and all of the hitters are visually impaired. [more inside]
posted by nicodine at 9:59 AM PST - 2 comments

Everything you think you know about Street Sharks is a lie.
posted by specialagentwebb at 9:02 AM PST - 44 comments

"More than 38 million American women have experienced intimate partner violence in their lifetimes. Many of these women develop coping mechanisms to placate their abusers and protect themselves." How about we stop policing women's language?
posted by xarnop at 8:33 AM PST - 71 comments

Combine the thrill of old-school formation dancing videos e.g. Janet Jackson with tap dancing, add in a Purple Salute, and you get Syncopated Ladies Salute A Legend.
posted by hippybear at 8:31 AM PST - 12 comments

Fair Warning [more inside]
posted by the man of twists and turns at 7:29 AM PST - 18 comments

As 2nd Lt. Alix Schoelcher Idrache stood at attention during his West Point commencement on Saturday, he was overwhelmed with emotion. [more inside]
posted by sallybrown at 7:28 AM PST - 7 comments

Twenty years after Jonathan Larson’s posthumous triumph arrived on Broadway, the cast and creative team relive the rise of a musical that changed theater.
posted by trillian at 7:20 AM PST - 10 comments

Fans don’t need to get what they want, and much of the time, they probably shouldn’t. Sometimes, they will; it’s unrealistic to expect that every piece of art or pop culture with any kind of dedicated following can find a way to satisfyingly sidestep or subvert the expectations of every person in that following. (slAVClub)
posted by Kitteh at 7:09 AM PST - 138 comments

Rebecca Burgess' Comic Redesigns the Autism Spectrum to Crush Stereotypes : “I want people to understand that autistic people don’t all fit a stereotype, and show people the consequences of stereotyping,” Burgess, from the U.K., told The Mighty in an email. “[Stereotyping leads to] underestimating the skills of autistic people or not believing someone [who is on the spectrum].”
posted by jillithd at 6:57 AM PST - 13 comments

What three decades in journalism has taught me about the persistence of racism in the US [slGuardianLongRead]. [more inside]
posted by ellieBOA at 4:21 AM PST - 13 comments

"I was asked recently by a friend to meet some people from her church in the US who were visiting Uganda on a mission trip. The aim of the meeting was to convince them that supporting and visiting orphanages was doing more harm than good." [more inside]
posted by Catseye at 2:54 AM PST - 68 comments