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Tim Wong is an aquatic biologist at the California Academy of Sciences, but in his off-hours he raised pipevine swallowtail butterflies in his back yard in San Francisco, where the butterfly was now hard to find. His efforts have been successful to reintroduce Battus philenor to a region where the species is much less common than it used to be. You can join Tim and the folks in the North American Butterfly Association in improving backyard biodiversity by creating butterfly habitats, or even raise your own swarm or kaleidoscope of butterflies. [more inside]
posted by filthy light thief at 9:47 PM PST - 17 comments

In this time of tragedy, #carefreeblackkids2k16 offers some comfort. [more inside]
posted by Deoridhe at 7:35 PM PST - 19 comments

Kanye West has released the new music video for his song "Famous," (warning: explicit, NSFW) featuring disturbingly lifelike wax likenesses of celebrities lying next to eachother naked in a large bed. The celebrities? Taylor Swift, Donald Trump, George W. Bush, Chris Brown, Rihanna, Ray J, Caitlyn Jenner, Bill Cosby, Amber Rose, Anna Wintour, and, of course, Kim & Ye himself. The video has unsurprisingly garnered strong reactions. Kanye's equally unsurprising Twitter response? "Can somebody sue me already #I'llwait". [more inside]
posted by bologna on wry at 5:36 PM PST - 231 comments

In a national investigation, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution examined documents that described disturbing acts of physician sexual abuse in all 50 US states. What they found was a broken system that forgives sexually abusive doctors. Everywhere.
(Some may find descriptions of abuse in the links in this post disturbing.) [more inside]
posted by zarq at 2:59 PM PST - 28 comments

Caesar, now: a man angry, valourous, fair, bulky, madly-bold, high-spirited, very difficult, haughty, dour and grievous, vehement-natured, firm, strong, contemptuous, self-willed, unsimple, severe, keen, unloved, famous, wrathful, cunning, eloquent, unashamed, indefatigable, venomous, hostile. A king in kingship and a soldier in deeds of valour and bravery, a battle-tower in courage, a soldier in activity. In the floodtide of his grace and his age was he then.

In Cath Catharda is a medieval Irish epic about the Roman civil wars. [more inside]
posted by Iridic at 2:57 PM PST - 15 comments

Nivea is worried that your kids aren't wearing enough sunscreen and their new ad aims to fix that from above.
posted by Clinging to the Wreckage at 1:50 PM PST - 67 comments

Long Ma Jin Shen, a "large-scaled production where a dragon-horse encounters a giant spider in a downpour of sound and special effects," created by French production company La Machine, will be making its first North American appearance in Ottawa during Canada Day celebrations in 2017. [more inside]
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 12:39 PM PST - 20 comments

A/V Artifact Atlas [more inside]
posted by the man of twists and turns at 12:30 PM PST - 14 comments

A Simple Truth [via mefi projects]
posted by aniola at 11:50 AM PST - 20 comments

The Arabian Sea has a special place in Indian business history. For centuries the cities and settlements on the Arabian Sea littoral traded with each other, exchanging Indian textiles for horse, armaments, pearls and ivory. In turn, some of the textiles were passed on to the Atlantic slave trade in Africa as a medium of exchange, or sent overland to European markets. Coastal merchants* indigenous to the region bordering the sea engaged in this business and developed sophisticated systems of banking and shipbuilding to support the mercantile enterprise. The Hindu and Muslim traders of Kachchh were examples of such groups of people. text via [more inside]
posted by infini at 11:06 AM PST - 7 comments

Police, Prosecutors, and Judges Rely on a Flawed $2 Drug Test That Puts Innocent People Behind Bars [more inside]
posted by poffin boffin at 9:44 AM PST - 33 comments

Fakespot uses an algorithm to spot fake product reviews on Amazon. To use it just paste in your Amazon product listing link. Watch it in action. Here are the products with the worst fake reviews. A search engine for the best products with the most authentic reviews. [more inside]
posted by storybored at 8:20 AM PST - 74 comments

A glimpse into the world of independent professional wrestling [more inside]
posted by misskaz at 7:53 AM PST - 4 comments

The board game Clue (a.k.a. Cluedo outside North America) is a perennial favorite, a first-ballot entry into the Games Magazine Hall of Fame, with more than a hundred variant versions. It is even arguably the first game to spin off a movie, complete with three different endings and eventual cult status. But even good things must change, and original suspect Mrs. White (played by Madeline Kahn in the movie) has been replaced by the enigmatic Dr. Orchid, who a Hasbro VP called "a brilliant new character with a rich backstory and links to the Black fortune." (Mr. Black is the owner of the mansion in which the game takes place, and in Cluedo versions is the victim of the murder that drives the "plot" of the game.) [more inside]
posted by Etrigan at 7:19 AM PST - 84 comments

"We can and should have a moratorium on trade agreements. The process by which they’re negotiated is undemocratic, they uplift investor rights over sovereign rights, they reverse the order in which certain challenges should be tackled, and they fail to deal with currency issues. But globalization cannot nor should not be stopped. Done right, it delivers great benefits to advanced countries through the increased supply of goods, and it helps improve the living standards of workers in developing countries through profits made from trade with wealthier nations. [...] So how can we best realize that potential?"
posted by OnceUponATime at 5:20 AM PST - 64 comments

Okay, so Amy Grant is a bit insecure on her first album 1977's Amy Grant, with the song I Know Better Now. Written by an angst-filled 17 year old who is couching her insecurity within her faith in Jesus, it's only one in a long line of songs Amy has written and/or recorded that show true struggle with being human in a difficult world. [more inside]
posted by hippybear at 4:02 AM PST - 56 comments

Five years ago, comic/singer Danny Roque wrote a song about his favorite part of his daily routine and started performing it. However, it took him a while to get permission to make the accompanying video on location. But now here it is: "Lunch at Costco".
posted by oneswellfoop at 1:43 AM PST - 15 comments