July 24, 2019

The Accidentally Couture Life of a Samurai

How do you dress for a dance with death? If you were a 14th century Samurai, the pressure was on to go into battle with a kabuto (helmet) that subscribed to a fiercely maximalist vision. These incredible creations varied in form and detail depending on the owner and era, but they were always big, bedazzled, and meant business on the battlefield.
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 9:56 PM PST - 23 comments

A 45-minute, naked, miserable affair

Let's try out the Apollo program's tool for defecating, shall we?
posted by Chrysostom at 8:21 PM PST - 35 comments

Overwatch artist says Sigma’s bare feet meant to ‘sell the asylum look’

Yesterday, the new Overwatch hero, Sigma, went live on Blizzard's test servers. Fans soon found themselves "confused and horrified by Sigma’s bare feet," and questioned their presence in the hero's design. Today, an artist who worked on the design had a comment. [more inside]
posted by Caduceus at 1:10 PM PST - 46 comments

Summer Vacation in An Age of Concentration Camps

Dr. Charli Carpenter is spending her summer "vacation" visiting migrant concentration camps. Follow her blog posts (individual links below the fold) at Lawyers, Guns & Money, and her Twitter feed for more frequent updates. [more inside]
posted by tonycpsu at 12:26 PM PST - 6 comments

Cold Cash: What to Do When Unexpected Money Pours In

The Ice Bucket Challenge, a grassroots effort that went viral, brought a sudden $115 million to the ALS Association. Five years later, it’s out to tell the public what it’s accomplished with all that money.
posted by Etrigan at 12:10 PM PST - 13 comments

"vortex realm world of a father who treated an airplane like a bus"

The Man with the Golden Airline Ticket "My dad was one of the only people with a good-for-life, go-anywhere American Airlines pass. Then they took it away. This is the true story of having—and losing—a superpower." by Caroline Rothstein
posted by readinghippo at 10:59 AM PST - 52 comments

All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain. Time to die.

Rutger Hauer, star of Blade Runner, dies aged 75 [more inside]
posted by chavenet at 10:52 AM PST - 132 comments

Indigenous Food Security is Dependent on Food Sovereignty

New research shows that hunting, fishing, and foraging for traditional Native foods help nourish tribal members—but first they need access to their ancestral lands. [more inside]
posted by poffin boffin at 10:16 AM PST - 4 comments

Farewell to the Dog That Launched a Thousand Pets

The family dog of Gideon Kidd, the 10-year-old Iowa boy behind the popular Twitter account I've Pet That Dog, has gotten his last pets. "Walter loved everything except baths and vegetables. He had the ability to swallow a cheeseburger in one gulp, while simultaneously spitting out the lettuce and tomato intact. He would do anything for bacon or ham." [more inside]
posted by drlith at 9:37 AM PST - 16 comments

Deconstruction not to criticize, but to defend

If Capitalism is not sustainable and always trends towards monopolies or greater control of market share by a single entity, can we use late stage capitalism to explain why the recent Disney live action remakes are terrible? Sure, why not: LATE STAGE DISNEY by Renegade Cut ( 20:41)
posted by The Whelk at 8:43 AM PST - 32 comments

Codecademy vs. the BBC Micro

Two-Bit History praises how the BBC’s Computer Literacy Project and the legendary BBC Micro demystified computers by explaining the principles that computers rely on to function – in contrast to Codeacademy, where “after a course or two … you understand some flavors of gobbledygook, but to you a computer is just a magical machine that somehow turns gobbledygook into running software.” [more inside]
posted by adrianhon at 8:12 AM PST - 25 comments

This Artist Makes Cheese from the Mould That Landlords Won't Remove

Avril Corroon has been collecting samples of mould from rental accommodation and using it as bacteria starter culture to make cheese. "The idea is to juxtapose precarious living standards with that of wealth, gentrification and thinking about where money is invested and where it is disinvested, and how often products are all made from a type of exploitation."
posted by Amberlyza at 8:02 AM PST - 23 comments

Benny and Jenny, they were called, when they were little.

Jill Lepore, professor of American History at Harvard, wrote about Jane Franklin, and her mother. (In October, 2013, Lepore’s “Book of Ages: The Life and Opinions of Jane Franklin” was published; it would become a National Book Award for Nonfiction finalist, and was ranked one of the best books of the year on rosters from The Boston Globe to NPR to The New York Times to Time magazine.) [more inside]
posted by Cozybee at 7:34 AM PST - 2 comments

The Credibility Conundrum of Bigfoot Research, in Ohio and beyond

I found Bigfoot ... maybe -- I spent a weekend with the Bigfoot Field Research Organization searching for the large primate. We didn’t find the elusive creature. Or did we? Matt Blitz writes for Popular Mechanics, documenting his experiences, and recapping the research efforts of others, to find Bigfoot in Ohio, home to Bigfoot enthusiasts (Cincinnati Refined), if not the sasquatches themselves. Ohio is "teeming" with sightings (Travel Channel), from amateurs and the Sasquatch Research Team at Bigfoot Ohio.
posted by filthy light thief at 7:27 AM PST - 27 comments

Beth Ditto was there all along, I just wasn’t ready to let her in.

A love letter to Beth Ditto
posted by mippy at 7:08 AM PST - 4 comments

Unquiet Ground: Whitefield's Soul Trap

It started with an anonymous letter to the St Pancras coroner in North London. Wasn’t there something a little odd, the writer asked, about just how hastily Elizabeth Thomas had been buried? Elizabeth was only 27 years old when she died on October 28, 1808, and was buried next day at St Mary’s parish church in Islington. By November 1 – just three days after her death – a headstone was already erected on the grave, Elizabeth’s date of death carved firmly into its surface. “She had no fault, save what travellers give the moon,” the stone read. “Her light was lovely, but she died too soon.” [via mefi projects]
posted by ellieBOA at 5:07 AM PST - 12 comments

Something to be looked at

Yushi Li, a photography-focussed artist talks about two of her projects, My Tinder Boys and Your Reservation is Confirmed, which allow her to use her work “to explore sexual desire”. (NSFW) [more inside]
posted by greenhornet at 2:54 AM PST - 8 comments

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