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@RobotHugsComics has created a twitter thread [threadreader] full of great information on how to write image descriptions in twitter for those with visual impairments who are using text readers to engage with the site. It's full of in-depth tips on how to write image descriptions which will be useful for those who cannot see the images, in a way which makes them a part of the tweet content.
posted by hippybear at 9:02 PM PST - 15 comments

American Psycho [NSFW]

Yet American Psycho would not be a comedy unless Mary Harron set out to make it one. Her bravery and generosity may go unnoticed, but it was heroic work. Harron — working with a female screenwriter and frequent collaborator, Guinevere Turner — didn’t quiver in fear or cry her eyes out over Ellis’ misogyny. She simply refused to take it seriously. Ellis wrote a book about his pain and how it could only be assuaged by punishing women for being dumb bitches, and Harron, the director assigned to do this little manifesto justice, essentially rolled her eyes and made jerk-off motions at it for two hours. She didn’t just save us from Ellis’ awful book, she did the man himself a favor: In finding comedy where there was only self-pity, Harron gave American Psycho a better name and a more enduring place in the canon than Bret “No Good Female Directors” Ellis could ever manage for himself.

Black Swan
Us
Birdbox
(non-horror) Game of Thrones
posted by coolname at 7:51 PM PST - 61 comments

Catherine Fung for Dismantle Magazine: The Complicated Fun Of Being Into Historical Costume & Not White
posted by jedicus at 7:49 PM PST - 15 comments

Lakin Ogunbanwo photographs Nigerian women dressed for bridal ceremonies "to document the complexity of my culture, and counteract the West’s monolithic narratives of Africa and women." (SLNewYorker, here's a This is colossal link for those with paywall troubles.)
posted by smoke at 5:57 PM PST - 4 comments

On August 14, the Supreme Court of Hawai‘i recognized the constitutional obligation of the Hawai‘i state government to provide reasonable access to immersion language education in the Hawaiian language (‘ōlelo Hawai‘i), under Article X Section 4 of the Hawaiian Constitution. [more inside]
posted by Not A Thing at 5:30 PM PST - 6 comments

Fortnite Disappeared Over the Weekend [YouTube][Live] “On Sunday evening, more than 6 million people gathered online via streaming services such as Twitch and YouTube to watch the end of the world. Not our world, thankfully, but the world of Fortnite, which was sucked into a black hole, taking the whole game and all player characters with it. If you try to load Fortnite today, you’ll be presented with a blank screen. When developer Epic Games called the finale of Fortnite Season 10 “The End”, it wasn’t kidding. OK, before confused parents start celebrating, let’s be clear: Fortnite will be back, it’s just that Epic has closed out the first chapter of the game, which has amassed 250 million players since the launch of its Battle Royale mode in September 2017.” [via: The Guardian] [more inside]
posted by Fizz at 1:55 PM PST - 39 comments

Professor [Harold] Bloom (July 11, 1930 - October 14, 2019) was frequently called the most notorious literary critic in America. From a vaunted perch at Yale, he flew in the face of almost every trend in the literary criticism of his day. Chiefly he argued for the literary superiority of the Western giants like Shakespeare, Chaucer and Kafka — all of them white and male, his own critics pointed out — over writers favored by what he called “the School of Resentment,” by which he meant multiculturalists, feminists, Marxists, neoconservatives and others whom he saw as often betraying literature’s essential purpose. --NYT Obituary [more inside]
posted by chavenet at 1:26 PM PST - 59 comments

Megan Devine was a psychotherapist until the summer day in 2009 when she watched her fit, healthy partner Matt drown. All her professional experience felt meaningless in the face of tragedy. She quit her practice that day, and found that real help with grief was nearly impossible to find, so she created Refuge In Grief. She offers help for those who are grieving as well as those who know someone who's grieving.
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 1:04 PM PST - 7 comments

Orange Grove Tool Sheds and Utility Boxes of Oliva, Spain [via mefi projects] [more inside]
posted by exceptinsects at 10:28 AM PST - 12 comments

Before science debunked the link between video games and real violence (Tallahassee.com), the concern that video games are detrimental to people, particularly youth, has come up again and again (Penny Arcade wiki entry on Jack Thompson). But before the heady days of video games in the homes, arcade games were corrupting the youth in the 1980s (Smithsonian Magazine), and before them, pinball machines were a source of moral decline (previously). But the fear of gaming didn't start there ... (The Conversation) [more inside]
posted by filthy light thief at 8:13 AM PST - 38 comments

QUITO, Ecuador (AP) — President Lenín Moreno and leaders of Ecuador's indigenous peoples struck a deal late Sunday to cancel a disputed austerity package and end nearly two weeks of protests that have paralyzed the economy and left seven dead. (Us News and World Report) Analysis: The empire strikes back in Ecuador, and what it means for Scotland (Common Space) Baghdad (AFP) - Iraq's deadliest wave of protests since the 2003 ouster of dictator Saddam Hussein has made the country vulnerable to a battle for influence between its two main competing allies, the United States and Iran, analysts say. (Yahoo) Crises in Iraq and Haiti Expose the Failure of Militarized Neoliberalism: American installed governments face opposition around the word (Common Dreams) Journalist's killing fuels ire of Haiti protesters (Euronews) “After an earthquake struck in 2010, the US pledged to help rebuild the Caribbean country. A decade later, nothing better symbolises the failure of these efforts than the story of a new port that was promised, but never built“ The Failure Of US Aid (Guardian)
posted by The Whelk at 7:53 AM PST - 7 comments

Frustrated by the dismantling of democratic norms and by increasingly transparent racism and authoritarianism, Hungarian voters dealt a major blow to Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orbán, unifying behind single opposition candidate Gergely Karácsony to retake the office of mayor in Budapest, along with wins that give them 10 of Hungary's 23 largest mayorships and 13 of Budapest's districts.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 7:44 AM PST - 14 comments

With Category Theory, Mathematics Escapes From Equality - "Two monumental works have led many mathematicians to avoid the equal sign. Their goal: Rebuild the foundations of the discipline upon the looser relationship of 'equivalence'. The process has not always gone smoothly." [more inside]
posted by kliuless at 6:09 AM PST - 40 comments

Irish man leaves a message from beyond the grave for his funeral. (Direct reddit video). (NSFW for Irish language)
posted by growabrain at 3:39 AM PST - 7 comments