July 11, 2018
"See ya later, suckas! — The Great Garrett Underpants"
It's sad when a five-year-old dies of cancer, but this is the most fun funeral and obituary you have ever heard of. Garrett Michael Matthias died at age 5 after a nine month battle with cancer, but he's going to have the best funeral ever. [more inside]
papajohnendammerung
Papa John has fallen. John Schnatter, aka Papa John, aka Great AllFather John, aka Pepperoni Paterfamilias, has been brought low by a racial slur and graphic descriptions of violence against minorities during a conference call. In his resignation he has sloppily slid away from his pizza empire, like cheese from an ill-baked slice, leaving only the failure-doused crust of what had once been.
Schnatter and his corporation have had a long and storied history of pointless antagonism, horrific racism, consistently terrible politics, and not paying delivery drivers minimum wage. [more inside]
"Night Trap will never appear on a Nintendo system."
"Ever since its inception, the video game industry and controversy have gone hand in hand. Custer’s Revenge, Death Race, Grand Theft Auto, Sam Fox’s Strip Poker… these titles and many more like them have secured their position in the history books by stirring up trouble, but few have instigating the kind of furore that results in the industry-wide adoption of a ratings classification system. When it comes to notorious video games, Night Trap – recently confirmed for release on the Nintendo Switch – is in a league of its own; the real irony is that its iniquitous status as highly subversive 'video nasty' is almost entirely undeserved." [more inside]
When Your Muse is Also a Demonic Dominatrix
10,000?! We could buy Photoshop for less than that!
I wanted to make a part of myself into something wonderful.
I Turned My Own Jawbone Into Earrings by writer, poet and podcaster merritt k. CW: descriptions of dysmorphia, surgery.
City planning history, in histograms
Urban planner Geoff Boeing has calculated some lovely polar histograms of the orientations of American city streets, and further of various cities around the world, along with explanations of the context and methods. [via mltshp]
‘No. Not here. Not in my space,’” she said.
Inside the Guild Wars 2 meeting that’s shaken gaming [Polygon] “Jessica Price, who was fired by ArenaNet last week for arguing with fans of the company’s Guild Wars 2 MMO, said she feels betrayed by how the company “folded like a cheap card table” when confronted by toxic fandom. In an interview with Polygon, she talked about the meeting in which she was fired, and castigated ArenaNet managers for their “highly unprofessional” reaction to a social media controversy.” [more inside]
Wow
Clickhole's "Well Played" tag follows the ordeals of a mild-mannered man dealing with quiet maladies: struggling with groups and their frequent casual miseries, handling chance encounters with strangers, suffering the minor cruelties of workplaces, failing to romance, sitting wrongly, and just generally being alive. But there's something hidden among those videos. What is it? Just reload those pages a few more times, and try to watch those videos again...
(Explanation here, if you're not seeing it. Discovered through this Clickhole AMA.)
(Explanation here, if you're not seeing it. Discovered through this Clickhole AMA.)
Is meat the muscle of an animal? Or is it the remains of a living thing?
Is Lab-Grown Meat Really Meat? Cultured-meat manufacturers like Just Inc. and Memphis Meats are hoping to provide consumers with meat that is just like its predecessor, that tastes and looks and feels and smells exactly the same as something you might get in stores today but will be more sustainable. Whether that will turn out to be true won’t be clear for some time. But there’s another, more immediate battle heating up between the cattle industry and these new entrants into the meaty ring. So buckle up and put on your wonkiest hat, because the labeling war is about to begin. [SLSlate] [more inside]
Two men cannot look after a baby. Next time bring a woman.
Sexism was the last thing I was expecting when I became a daddy. It was homophobia. (SL BBC) The lack of specific gender roles is confusing for some. Mothers I've met have asked if I am somehow the "mummy" - assuming my role as the primary carer conforms to the traditional gender stereotype of a mother. I am "daddy" and my husband is "papa" - we haven't set any ground rules other than to love and care for our daughter come what may.
mai nam is jane
Lik the bone I know this is very thin but I couldn't resist my urge to share. a little something to smile about in these grim times.
Lolth, Spider Queen of the Drow
In 1979, Queen of the Demonweb Pits debuted at the Origins game convention. This Dungeons & Dragons adventure pitted the party against a minor god, Lolth, in her home plane of the Abyss. It was published the next year as module Q1, the finale to the G (Against the Giants) and D (Descent into the Depths of the Earth/Vault of the Drow) series of modules. [more inside]
Modern Florida Man Odyssey
Helena Fitzgerald on how Magic Mike XXL both follows and transcends Joseph Campbell’s traditional Hero’s Journey: Campbell’s hero appeals both to capitalism and to the misogyny built into our capitalist society and others like it. Magic Mike, on the other hand, is a story about men doing great things that manages to avoid all the traps of the great man narratives, and the specific ways in which it deviates from these narratives demonstrates exactly what is so useful and maybe even revolutionary about it... Magical Michael is but a simple furniture maker, trying to run a business, attempting to gain enough financial stability to provide healthcare to his one employee. But then — he hears the call.
We went down / Lit up the shack
They Meet Up in Motels Across America…to Trade Old Beer Cans: "We’re at the Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania, Park Inn by Radisson. Collectors from around the United States have gathered to trade, buy and sell beer cans at the annual Spring Thaw Brewery Collectibles Show — also referred to as 'Spring Thaw,' 'Canvention,' or 'Crownvention' — crown being slang for a beer bottle cap." [more inside]
"Exploiting the 19th century panorama craze with tales of the high seas"
A Spectacle in Motion: The Grand Panorama of a Whaling Voyage ‘Round the World North America's longest painting is going to be shown in all its restored glory in New Bedford this weekend. It is a quarter mile long, meant to be shown as a scrolling moving picture (PDF). If you can't visit. there's a stunning GIS-enabled digital version which includes a thoughtful article about Globalization and Diversity of Maritime Industries from New Bedford.
Let Someone Other Than The QB Throw The Ball
In a surprisingly Jon Bois-less episode of Dorktown, the discussion turns to looking at the efficiency of passers in the NFL who aren't the guy whose job description is "throws the ball". Turns out, letting someone other than the QB throw is more effective than you'd think. (SLYT) [more inside]
Percentiles of Vividness
The dashing and grizzled reader rubbed his angular, bestubbled chin. The site had yielded its content without objection - part craven drum beating for a product, yet perhaps just compelling enough to stroke the fires of interest amongst the percipient denizens of Metafilter. Who cares about the best novels? Or the most influential? What if you could automatically rank 5000 novels by vividness?
The American Middle Child is now an endangered species
The Middle Child is Going Extinct By Adam Sternbergh "... here’s a suggestion as to how you can spend the next National Middle Child Day [August 12]: contemplating the extinction of the middle child. Because, like the mountain gorilla and the hawksbill turtle, the American Middle Child is now an endangered species. As the ideal number of children per family has shrunk to two — that’s not me speaking, it’s demographics — the middle child, in a very real sense, is disappearing."
"Do I look busy?" becomes more important than "Am I doing my best work?"
A pair of studies by Ethan S. Bernstein and Stephen Turban of the Harvard Business School tracked conversations between employees before and after their office was converted to to an open plan configuration. They found that -- "... conversations by email and instant messaging (IM) increased significantly [...], while productivity declined, and, for most people, face-to-face interaction decreased." [more inside]
Lede-Buried Voicemails from Your Mom
Hi, sweetie. It’s Mom. Do you remember Mr. Levert? He lived behind the high school with that garden. You’d do yard work over there sometimes? He loved you; I’m sure you remember. Anyway, he was in a car accident. Died on impact. Call me back.
A Guinness and Sprite, please. (Is a thing)
The Guinness and Sprite is a thing, at least in one bar in Seattle. Apparently “It's very English”. It's been made before; the Guinness goes on top as it is less dense. Guinness can also be half-and-halfed with other alcoholic drinks such as Blue Moon, Sam Adam's Cherry Wheat and Magners Cider. In a bar in Romania, a Dark Radler consists of a Guinness and Sprite ('Radler' being shandy in Germany). The Crown Float is half Guinness, half Strongbow. There's also the Guinness Martini, the St James’s Flip (Guinness, egg, condensed milk, rum, nutmeg), the Guinness Chocolate Float and Nutella Guinness stout chocolate milkshakes, the Badger (Guinness and Smirnoff Ice), and the Guinness Bloody Mary, containing Worcestershire Sauce.
Popcorn that passes itself
« Previous day | Next day »