June 8, 2018

Everybody Wanted a Sinful Canoe

Before the youth of America fooled around at drive-ins and necked on Lover’s Lane, they coupled in canoes. It didn't last very long, because automobiles started showing up everywhere, but while the craze was on, it was cra-a-a-zy.
posted by MovableBookLady at 11:54 PM PST - 85 comments

Curriculum for sale to the highest bidder?

The Ramsay Centre for Western Civilisation has been desperately trying to get an Australian university to accept part of a $3 billion bequest that entails the creation of a degree in Western Civilisation. [more inside]
posted by lollusc at 10:43 PM PST - 77 comments

Let's Cook History -- in five parts

I found this 5-part series Let's Cook History, which is just short of an hour each episode exploring cooking in different eras. You might start with the first episode (perhaps misnamed for $REASONS) The Roman Banquet. [more inside]
posted by hippybear at 9:28 PM PST - 18 comments

"it had a sensibility that seemed soothing and warm"

Starting out singing Misfits covers in a local punk band, then moving onto producing her own electronic tracks and making a name for herself in Cairo’s underground scene, Nadah El Shazly’s backstory is not that unusual. Her debut album on the other hand, is an entirely unexpected story.

The album's final track, "Mahmiya (Protectorate)," now has a mind-bending video by the cover artist, Marwan El-Gamal. [more inside]
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 9:07 PM PST - 8 comments

Whichever I choose, it amounts to the same

"For someone who once sang “It doesn’t matter if we all die”, Robert Smith has an endearing relish for the bathetic comedy of life."
posted by spaceburglar at 7:19 PM PST - 24 comments

🥊

Kangaroo: A Love-Hate Story [YouTube][Documentary][Trailer] “Are kangaroos a great icon for Australia? Or a natural resource? Or, perhaps, even a pest? A new documentary explores this complicated relationship, and exposes some shocking secrets.” [via: Geographical Magazine] [Note: NSFW scenes of animal violence, severed limbs]
posted by Fizz at 4:50 PM PST - 18 comments

The Week in Wildlife

For some time now, the Guardian has been publishing a Week in Wildlife series, collating terrific wildlife photography from all over the world. Every week there are some absolutely fantastic photos.
posted by smoke at 3:58 PM PST - 5 comments

In Academia, Professors Coming On to You Is on the Syllabus

In a longform piece for Splinter, Dan Solomon and Jessica Luther discuss sexual harassment in academia, and how #MeToo has begun to shift things, if slowly - and how much more work is to be done. (SLSplinter)
posted by NoxAeternum at 3:50 PM PST - 33 comments

High-speed data security

World's fastest paper shredder, carefully engineered to optimize GDPR compliance. [more inside]
posted by ardgedee at 2:40 PM PST - 32 comments

Freddish

Mr. Rogers’s placidity belied the intense care he took in shaping each episode of his program. He insisted that every word, whether spoken by a person or a puppet, be scrutinized closely, because he knew that children—the preschool-age boys and girls who made up the core of his audience—tend to hear things literally. Maxwell King, former director of the Fred Rogers center, describes the late great Mr. Rogers's approach to writing the show. (SLttAtlantic) [more inside]
posted by dismas at 12:05 PM PST - 55 comments

Workers at Google just scored an impressive victory

And we stood up because we believe a strong ethical framework that values human life and safety is inseparable from positive technological progress.
posted by infini at 11:03 AM PST - 39 comments

Happy (almost) Birthday, Donald

Donald Fauntleroy Duck, lifelong second banana to Mickey Mouse, star of the Academy Award-winning Der Fuehrer's Face, and wearer of many hats (not just his signature sailor cap), turns 84 years old on June 9. [more inside]
posted by uncleozzy at 9:58 AM PST - 37 comments

If you try to take on the adventure, good luck

Raccoons are cute, but raising one up can be more work and worry than you might think. Here's one man's blunt assessment of his first year of fostering Tito: https://youtu.be/JQ66M5houqw [SLYT] Includes ear bites, sewer rescues, and selfie-stick video. [more inside]
posted by wenestvedt at 9:36 AM PST - 24 comments

The lost lingo of those bright boys behind the marble counters

In the 1930s and 1940s, one of the most coveted jobs in bustling diners and drugstores where one might find a soda fountain was that of the soda jerk, or jerker, master of displays and puns (the title of the position itself a play on "soda clerk"). But with increased corporate control, the linguistic concoctions of the soda jerker (paywalled scholarly article, first page preview) largely fizzled up, but Gastro Obscura rounded up some prime slang in The Lost Lingo of New York City’s Soda Jerks. Just don't be a George Eddy, tip the jerk!
posted by filthy light thief at 9:11 AM PST - 35 comments

After you die....surprise!

Friday Flash Fiction: "Sum" by David Eagleman. "In the afterlife you relive all your experiences, but this time with the events reshuffled into a new order: all the moments that share a quality are grouped together. You spend two months driving the street in front of your house, seven months having sex. You sleep for thirty years without opening your eyes. For five months straight you flip through magazines while sitting on a toilet. You take all your pain at once, all twenty-seven intense hours of it. Bones break, cars crash, skin is cut, babies are born. Once you make it through,..." [more inside]
posted by storybored at 8:59 AM PST - 20 comments

How queer comics are making their mark in America

Today’s generation of queer comics, having stormed through the doors left ajar by DeLaria and company, are no longer the butt of the joke. And standup comedy, for so long the preserve of straight white men, is being refashioned in their image. “My generation is the first that’s able to talk about our lives in a way that’s normative but also accessible,” says Cameron Esposito, a standup whose first special, Rape Jokes, debuts later this month. “Ten years ago when I was starting I was always able to be out, but only because a bunch of folks did it before I got there.” [more inside]
posted by Emmy Rae at 8:28 AM PST - 3 comments

Anthony Bourdain has died.

CNN obit. The cause was suicide. He was 61. [more inside]
posted by GrammarMoses at 4:48 AM PST - 429 comments

Millennial discovers Rage Against the Machine

What happens when a millennial hears Rage Against the Machine for the first time. I am such a sucker for reaction videos, especially when kids or millennials discover something that I love. But this takes the cake; a millennial hip hop fan listens to the very first Rage Against the Machine Album. In hindsight, I wish my first Rage Experience were "Evil Empire." I need more of this in my life today.
posted by HiPhiNation at 4:30 AM PST - 130 comments

Moonset

Big, Bigger, and how. The moon also rises. (Stay for the credits.) More, skyward, and previously.
posted by gregoreo at 4:11 AM PST - 2 comments

Faux festival

David Farrier, journalist and film maker (Tickled), investigates a mysterious film festival. Part 1, Part 2, Part 3
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 3:19 AM PST - 5 comments

pls no derailling the thread

Mike Sweatman writes in the Guardian about ten historically important derailleurs in the development of modern cycling.
posted by Dim Siawns at 2:18 AM PST - 48 comments

Magic Advice in D&D 5E for Players and DMs

For you D&D 5th edition fanatics out there, Youtube animator Zee Bashew makes a series of short cartoons illustrating different aspects of and ideas for the game (especially magic) called the Animated Spellbook. Spellbooks - Save Spells vs. Attack Roll Spells - Spell Levels and Cantrips - Casting Times and Rituals - Weak Characters are Better - Prestigitation - Sleep - Feather Fall - Goodberry - The Deadliest Thing in D&D - Detect Magic
posted by JHarris at 1:59 AM PST - 28 comments

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