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Lutheran Insulter [more inside]
posted by Confess, Fletch at 8:34 PM PST - 69 comments

US transit projects are way more expensive than those in similar countries. Addressing the reasons why could help us build more transit.
posted by jason's_planet at 7:14 PM PST - 79 comments

Paul Kantner, guitarist, lyricist, and founding member of the Jefferson Airplane, Jefferson Starship, KBC, and the Planet Earth Rock and Roll Orchestra has passed at age 74. [more inside]
posted by mosk at 6:10 PM PST - 73 comments

Scientists find evidence of mathematical structures in classic books. [The Guardian] James Joyce’s Finnegans Wake has been described as many things, from a masterpiece to unreadable nonsense. But it is also, according to scientists at the Institute of Nuclear Physics in Poland, almost indistinguishable in its structure from a purely mathematical multifractal.

“The absolute record in terms of multifractality turned out to be Finnegans Wake by James Joyce. The results of our analysis of this text are virtually indistinguishable from ideal, purely mathematical multifractals,” said Professor Stanisław Drożdż, another author of the paper, which has just been published in the computer science journal Information Sciences.

posted by Fizz at 4:29 PM PST - 28 comments

Stays at boutique hotels featuring rooftop pools, private soirees at members-only, jacket-and-tie clubs and fundraisers at the Four Seasons, the St. Regis and the Mandarin Oriental.

How Jeb Bush blew through his warchest.
posted by four panels at 2:05 PM PST - 248 comments

An Oral History Of The Space Shuttle Challenger Disaster
posted by brundlefly at 1:13 PM PST - 105 comments

After

the collection of DNA from more than 100,000 people, detailed analysis of complex genetic variation in more than 65,000 human genomes, development of an innovative analytical strategy, examination of postmortem brain samples from hundreds of people, and the use of animal models to show that a protein from the immune system also plays a previously unsuspected role in the brain

researchers have concluded that a complex variant of the C4 gene is a major risk factor for schizophrenia. C4 is involved in synaptic pruning, which helps explain why the disorder often begins in adolescence or young adulthood. [more inside]
posted by clawsoon at 12:33 PM PST - 30 comments

Donald Trump begins and ends each of his presidential campaign rallies with “The Music of the Night” from The Phantom of the Opera and “Memory” from Cats. [more inside]
posted by justsomebodythatyouusedtoknow at 10:47 AM PST - 106 comments

An African City, frequently described as "Sex and the City meets Americanah," is a web series (ep. 1) that follows five glamorous young women living in Accra, Ghana, who were raised or educated abroad, navigating the pitfalls of life in the modern city -- work, money, housing, men, and the special problems of the "returnee." [more inside]
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 10:22 AM PST - 8 comments

Controvertial former mayor of Providence and convicted felon Vincent "Buddy" Cianci is dead at 74
posted by Slap*Happy at 9:27 AM PST - 54 comments

Deforestation and tree farming in northern Scotland.
posted by Chrysostom at 9:24 AM PST - 9 comments

Time Lapse Cicadas. Time Lapse Cicadas. Time Lapse Cicadas. And, finally, Time Lapse Cicadas (last is Globe & Mail video with popup cicada factoids).
posted by AlonzoMosleyFBI at 9:10 AM PST - 23 comments

Jared and Jerusha Hess, co-creators (in varying capacities) of Napoleon Dynamite, Nacho Libre, and Austenland, have signed up to write and direct NickToons, a shared-world movie featuring Nickelodeon-owned cartoon characters including Rugrats, Ren & Stimpy, Rocko’s Modern Life, Aaahh! Real Monsters, and The Angry Beavers. [more inside]
posted by Etrigan at 7:38 AM PST - 65 comments

Fair sharing, the Thue-Morse sequence, infinitely long chess games, and related ideas. [A light, 10 minute video]
posted by Wolfdog at 7:07 AM PST - 17 comments

Members voted to dissolve the Association at a Special General Meeting on January 27. Their intent is to form a new "Federation of Library Associations" to create a "strong national voice" for libraries. The full proposal for the creation of the Federation is here. This is, obviously a hot topic at the Ontario Library Association OLA Superconference happening now in Toronto.
posted by Shepherd at 5:35 AM PST - 25 comments

The Guardian has been running news stories that highlight the UK healthcare system. [more inside]
posted by Kitteh at 5:24 AM PST - 20 comments

Adventures of a pine cone spider collector
posted by bismol at 3:42 AM PST - 8 comments

The 6-Pack Band, a collaboration between Bollywood composer Shamir Tandon and Indian tea brand Brooke Bond Red Label, consists of 6 women from the hijra community in India. They have two singles out: Hum Hain Happy, a remix of Pharrel Williams's Happy, and Sab Rab De Bande (with playback singer Sonu Nigam) based on a central Sikhism tenet of "we are all children of God".
posted by divabat at 1:02 AM PST - 15 comments