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Chiara Vigo is the last master of weaving the sea-silk cloth bysso [byssus]and showcases her art at Museo del Bisso in Sant'Antioco, Sardinia. [more inside]
posted by the man of twists and turns at 10:14 PM PST - 11 comments

Welcome to Bloom — a literary site devoted to highlighting, profiling, reviewing, and interviewing authors whose first major work was published when they were age 40 or older. Bloom is also a community of artists and readers who believe that “late” is a relative term, not an absolute one, and who are interested in bringing to attention a wide variety of artistic paths — challenging any narrow, prevailing ideas about the pacing and timing of creative fruition. (via Ask)
posted by You Should See the Other Guy at 7:40 PM PST - 10 comments

Eat By Date: A Shelf Life & Expiration Date Guide. The answers to all your AskMe food safety questions on one website.
posted by immlass at 6:29 PM PST - 31 comments

Scientifically minded bulldog seeks to answer the age-old question: "Is it possible to walk around holding a box in front of your face?" [more inside]
posted by mudpuppie at 4:03 PM PST - 51 comments

Larry Page announces, in a blog post, a massive restructuring of Google. Google is now a subsidiary of Larry and Sergey Brin's new company "Alphabet", and Sundar Pichai Google's new CEO.
posted by sutt at 3:53 PM PST - 165 comments

Richard Cooke visits Rohingya refugees in Malaysia and looks at Australia's history of collaborating with human-rights abusers: "There’s a strange feeling in the room. An unusual aspect of being subjected to a 21st-century genocide-in-progress is that there are templates, blueprints, precedents. They know the fate of the Bosnian Muslims, of the Vietnamese boat people, of the Tutsis. They know this will take a long time, that their fate is uncertain. There is patience, and much more humour than I anticipated." [more inside]
posted by Ouverture at 2:39 PM PST - 26 comments

"Julie Ingersoll‘s new book, Building God’s Kingdom, is a meticulous account of this movement’s history and its aims. Founded by Rousas John Rushdoony in the early 1970s, Reconstructionism asserts the primacy of the Bible from the home to local government to national political life. While Rushdoony’s views were as alienating to the right as to the left in some aspects, many of his ideas did find traction among Christian conservatives. I began my conversation with Ingersoll last week by asking her to elaborate on the history of that influence."
posted by sciatrix at 1:58 PM PST - 38 comments

"The twins’ mother, Sandra King, held her sons tightly, then returned to her post at the Grant Aviation ticket counter. She said she’d be joining them in California later. The rest of the family went out to the tarmac. Kremer was left leaning against an educational display detailing the natural wonders of the Izembek Lagoon. “Well,” he said. “I guess I’m the last kid in Cold Bay.”
posted by anastasiav at 1:46 PM PST - 12 comments

Can you solve the code in the sword? (dailymail.co.uk) British Library appeals for help in cracking an enigmatic 'NDXOXCHWDRGHDXORVI' inscription on a mysterious medieval blade. Curator Julian Harrison writes a bit more on his blog.
posted by sidereal at 1:09 PM PST - 134 comments

Walking Dead: How Wasp Overlords Control Spider Zombies No, this isn't science fiction; it's the somewhat terrifying (but very real) tale of the orb-weaving spider Cyclosa argenteoalba and the parasitic wasp Reclinervellus nielseni, two species that carry out a strange relationship in Hyogo prefecture, Japan. [more inside]
posted by Michele in California at 1:04 PM PST - 12 comments

‘Bring It On': The Complete Oral History
posted by signal at 8:58 AM PST - 61 comments

This is the music video for “Sapokanikan” by Joanna Newsom, directed by P.T. Anderson. These are its lyrics.
posted by Going To Maine at 8:43 AM PST - 54 comments

The BBC asks, "Why do wrestlers so often die young?" After aggregating the multiple studies of professional wrestler mortality, a Manchester University researcher points the finger at "cardiovascular disease". One of the studies he examined was a grim University of Eastern Michigan mortality study of 557 former wrestlers which showed that wrestlers aged between 45 and 54 had a mortality rate 2.9 times greater than the rate for average men the same age. And the prognosis for professional wrestlers is even worse when compared to athletes in other American sports. Even when compared to NFL football. [more inside]
posted by MrJM at 6:46 AM PST - 43 comments

New Zealand is considering a new national flag design. The Flag Consideration Project recently published the group of forty flags which made the long list from more than 10000 subscriptions. The official website also has resources on what makes a good flag design; and presents the results of public polling on "What New Zealand stands for." [more inside]
posted by seyirci at 5:42 AM PST - 83 comments

To promote the “Straight Outta Compton” movie, Dr. Dre and his Beats (which are technically Tim Cook's Beats now) put up a meme-building webwidget at StraightOuttaSomewhere where you can fill in the last word and add a background pic. Everybody's* doing it.
*for certain values of Everybody [more inside]
posted by oneswellfoop at 2:38 AM PST - 54 comments

A guitarist captures visible sound waves by placing a camera inside his guitar, pointing it towards the Sun, and making the strings dance.
posted by banal retentive at 12:53 AM PST - 17 comments