January 8, 2018
Where women carry rifles and govern alongside men
Syrian Kurds turn to Arab women to cement hold on power - " 'Who does the state beat down?' Reyhan Loqo asks her students. 'Man!' they shout back. 'And who does man beat down?' the 21-year-old instructor says. 'Woman!' the pupils reply." [more inside]
Some people talk to animals. Not many listen though. That's the problem.
MeFi's own Miss Cellania posted several end-of-year lists on her blog. This one is about animals. [more inside]
"He fought, and won, his battles."
Henry VII's is possibly the most extraordinary story of them all. With a hunger for power, and an iron determination to hang on to the throne at all costs, he would rewrite history, seizing the crown and rebuilding the monarchy in his own image. He would become paranoid, described later as an "infinitely suspicious' ruler, a 'dark prince', his reign seen as a bleak and wintery landscape. For years I've explored his murky story of spies and informers, intrigue and extortion. And I've found that the deeper you go, the more you discover fascinating glimpses of this manipulative king who created one of the strangest regimes in history; magnificent, oppressive, and terrifying. This is the story of Henry VII, the first Tudor. [more inside]
BBC Reporter Mobbed By Lemurs
BBC reporter Alex Dunlop mobbed by lemurs while attending an animal count at the Banham Zoo. He was nipped a couple of times, but overall results were ADORABLE. (Warning: autoplay in link.)
Box breathing box
Box breathing box - I wanted a device for box breathing, the technique where you breath in/hold/out/hold for 4 seconds. A device that wasn't a phone or computer. I built one, out of wood, plexiglas, metal, transistors, and a tiny bit of code. Then gave it the photo studio treatment, shared the code, and wrote about the experience.[via mefi projects]
Google sued over 'male discrimination'
James Damore, the Google employee who was fired in August for posting an anti-diversity memo to an internal forum, has filed a class-action lawsuit claiming that Google "unfairly discriminates against white men whose political views are unpopular with its executives.". [more inside]
Their lawyers have been relentless, so we will deal with it in court.
Radiohead are suing Lana Del Rey over her song Get Free, which they say bears similarity to their 1993 breakthrough hit Creep. [more inside]
Better Health Through Housing
A year after a pilot program by The University of Illinois Hospital & Health Sciences System in Chicago to house homeless frequent ER patients to reduce costs, the results are in and “If every hospital in the area agreed to house 10 chronically homeless patients, which would be a relatively modest investment, we could collectively make a huge impact on reducing homelessness, and it would be near cost-neutral to every hospital,”
A New Day is On the Horizon
Oprah Winfrey for president? - after her speech at the Golden Globes (transcript), it seems a bit more possible. Gayle and Stedman are split on the issue.
For such arrangements and covenants we are willing to fight
100 years ago today, Woodrow Wilson publishes the Fourteen Points. In a speech to Congress, the president laid the groundwork for ending the First World War and establishing a new world order. The points range from secret treaties to national details to a call for what will become the League of Nations. (Yale Law, WikiSource) [more inside]
The Chats
Dance like goat body's watching
Jay Lavery at the Dancing Farm is back at it again. With temps below zero, how else are you going to keep the goats warm but some hot tropical moves? [more inside]
The Tattooist of Auschwitz
Also featuring: birds; turds; moles; voles
Spend ten minutes exploring the strange circle-of-life adventure of Rabbit Game, a game where you are a rabbit. There is also some non-rabbit content.
How segregated is your school district?
School segregation is as bad now as it was 50 years ago. Long-form article heavily saturated with infographics and those blocky pixel people Vox loves to use. Includes an interactive map of many of the school districts across the country, showing percentage of integration of Black and Hispanic students in each school district. Worth taking a look at. [more inside]
"It would be silly if it were still this vocally pure soprano"
Joan Baez on Her First Album in a Decade, and Retiring From the Road (SL Rolling Stone)
“...the mundane becomes terrifying.”
Doki Doki Literature Club is an uncontrollably horrific visual novel [Polygon] “ It’s a slow burn that begins with you and group of cute girls who must prove that their literature club is worth becoming an official school organization. Of course, your protagonist is hoping to forge new bonds with some of them along the way. The game encourages you to pick a girl to write a poem for, and depending on your choices, you may draw closer to the club’s charming, sweet members. Eventually, true to the game’s advertised content warnings (which you should take seriously, by the way), Doki Doki Literature Club leads you down a dark path, leading to the shocking and emotional death of one character. But in the same moment that it rips your heart open, the game instantly takes a much more unusual twist.” [more inside]
jeweled tailed slug
Caterpillar cameos "Predators have driven the evolution of many of these characteristics, weeding out individuals that lacked sufficient defenses. Generation after generation of natural selection has given rise to caterpillars that mimic fallen leaves or raindrops, species with eyespots that scream snake, or bright hues that warn of poisonous spines." [via]
Swords and Sarcasm
Comedian Ben Elton explores fantasy RPGs and LARP on the 80s documentary series South of Watford (1, 2, 3) (mlyt) [more inside]
the ashen lady
James Risen writes about My Life As A New York Times Reporter In The Shadow Of The War On Terror [more inside]
'How I let drinking take over my life'
I have the same feelings about alcohol that I had when I was 10. It’s dangerous; it’s disgusting; it causes cancer; it rots your liver and makes you look, and smell, like a much older and sicker person. Still, I’ve never stopped wondering why it grasped me so firmly, and for so long, why I allowed it to ruin parts of my life, parts I will never get back. What did drink offer me that was so much better than sobriety? What, exactly, was its magic?
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