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In which we meet an adorably-described Mac SE/30 known as the Mother Gopher. The rise and fall of the Gopher protocol.
posted by duien at 9:42 PM PST - 56 comments

PBS Frontline Powerful film using cell phone video and interviews following five stories of desperation and hope. [more inside]
posted by readery at 8:39 PM PST - 9 comments

Edge.org asks: WHAT SCIENTIFIC TERM OR CONCEPT OUGHT TO BE MORE WIDELY KNOWN? The Responses: a genetic book of the dead, negative evidence, enactivism, and gravitational radiation, among others.
posted by the man of twists and turns at 8:14 PM PST - 19 comments

New Years is celebrated in different ways in different countries but my fave is the area around Romania. Behold the Capra [more inside]
posted by boilermonster at 6:55 PM PST - 4 comments

It must be startling to look out of your window and see a centuries-old church rolling by. Even more so if you are in communist Romania in the 1980s, where news is state-controlled and everyday items rationed. Between 1982 and 1988 almost a dozen churches, as well as other buildings, were moved hundreds of metres in order to save them from destruction.
posted by ambrosen at 6:32 PM PST - 3 comments

On January 1, 2017, Norway ceased to be one of the remaining small handful of European countries with a state church, with the formal disestablishment of the Church of Norway (Lutheran). Norway became Lutheran in the 1530s when Denmark, which then ruled Norwegian territory, broke with the Holy See. [more inside]
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 5:00 PM PST - 42 comments

Cracked.com offers a fan theory for why Rory Gilmore is so terrible in "Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life." (SLYT) [more inside]
posted by lunasol at 4:49 PM PST - 23 comments

The most recent is first. The rest are sorted by duration, company, and title. Those that are a minute or less are below the fold.

• “Come Together” for H&M (3:52)
• “Castello Cavalcanti” for Prada (7:45)
• “Prada Candy”, parts 1, 2, and 3 for Prada (3:45)
• “My Life. My Card.” for American Express (2:00)

[more inside]
posted by Going To Maine at 2:00 PM PST - 20 comments

Welcome to Nerdville: Joe Bonamassa and his personal guitar and amp collection
posted by dfm500 at 1:41 PM PST - 39 comments

Classical Pieces You’ve Probably Heard but Might Not Remember the Name Part 1, Part 2, Part 3
posted by infini at 11:42 AM PST - 51 comments

The New York Times has published excerpts from Richard Nixon aide H.R. Haldeman's notes proving that during the 1968 Presidential election, Nixon did in fact, as he always denied doing, sabotage peace talks that could've ended the Vietnam war years early, saving thousands of unnecessary deaths and potentially giving Hubert Humphrey an edge in the election.
posted by Pope Guilty at 10:37 AM PST - 78 comments

Charlie Brooker Newswipes 2016 Black Mirror's creator takes a whack at a shitmungous year, accompanied by Philomena Cunk and Alt-Git Barry Shitpeas. The 2016 wipe features Pokemon Gove, an epic if brief puddle, horse pleasuring, Brexit breakfast, Yorkshire-bashing, the pocalypse, and an epic Trump mashup. Don't miss the Wendy Carlos soundtrack and a new fake news channel. (SLYT) [more inside]
posted by doctornemo at 9:35 AM PST - 31 comments

'Lost City': The expedition that uncovered the fabled 'Monkey God' civilization buried in the jungles of Honduras The team traveled with three former British special forces members. Andrew Wood, who went by the name “Woody,” stepped up. The snake “exploded into furious action . . . striking in every direction, spraying venom.” [more inside]
posted by Michele in California at 8:03 AM PST - 15 comments

Here is the cimbasso, also sometimes known as the bass valve trombone. According to Wikipedia, the cimbasso is a brass instrument in the trombone family, with a sound ranging from warm and mellow to bright and menacing. [more inside]
posted by 43rdAnd9th at 6:58 AM PST - 15 comments

New Year's Eve: Illuminati Declares "Case WISTFUL CRANE;" Orders All Units Activated -- This tweet, plus subsequent tweets in response, describe the end of 2016 as it could have been in the alternate universe where Approved News 6 reigns supreme. [more inside]
posted by XtinaS at 5:19 AM PST - 17 comments

On BBC Radio 4 throughout the day today, Jeremy Irons reads (almost) all the poetry of TS Eliot. A new year's day treat. From the BBC website: "At the end of a year in which so much that had been taken for granted seemed to fragment, our guests explain why Eliot, himself a poet of fragments, can steady us for a journey into the unknown, and for transformation ... There may be no better preparation for the coming year." [more inside]
posted by genesta at 4:24 AM PST - 17 comments

In "Poor People," anthropologist Andrew Beatty recalls his fieldwork in Indonesia and portrays specific impacts of poverty easily obscured by generalized references to the poor. In "Return to the Field," he evokes what it's like to revisit the two scenes of his earlier research, encounter changes in individuals, families, and social/religious life, and learn the stark facts about how some things turned out. [more inside]
posted by Wobbuffet at 2:15 AM PST - 3 comments