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The 50 Best RPGs of All Time. [alt link for anyone who may be blocked]
posted by Artw at 10:09 PM PST - 81 comments

Over the summer, comedian, musician, and voice actor Kate Micucci of Garfunkel & Oates (NSFW... also an ancient previously), Steven Universe, and one of my personal PBS Kids favs, Nature Cat, committed some light vandalism on what she thought was a temporary fence around a construction site. As it turns out, she had marked up the walls of what was to become a restaurant. She chronicled her attempt to square her trespass with the establishment on her TikTok, and as with most things she does, it is extremely adorable.
posted by Maaik at 9:19 PM PST - 8 comments

Long-beaked echidna rediscovered in remote Papua mountains after 60 years. Scientists rediscover a long-lost species of mammal described as having the spines of a hedgehog, the snout of an anteater and the feet of a mole, in Papua's Cyclops Mountains more than 60 years after it was last recorded.
posted by chariot pulled by cassowaries at 8:32 PM PST - 13 comments

The Secrets of the JFK Assassination (single link New York Magazine's Intelligencer). A dogged journalist finds evidence relating to Lee Harvey Oswald's involvement with intelligence agencies has been hidden, and public disclosure purposefully stymied. But some question if he goes too far theorizing beyond the new facts.
posted by Schmucko at 5:28 PM PST - 91 comments

Rushad Eggleston aka "The Cello Goblin" aaka Rushadicus has for no good reason escaped attention on the blue...but just until today! Ear to the Ground: Rushad Eggleston —part mad-scientist, part musical genius. This mini-documentary explores the creative inspirations of a mind-boggling, genre-bending talent. [more inside]
posted by Fupped Duck at 2:59 PM PST - 18 comments

The latest video (YT) from Kurzgesagt, "We’ve scaled the complete timeline of our Earth’s life into our first animated movie! Every second shows about a million years of the planet’s evolution. Hop on a musical train ride and experience how long a billion years really is." Animation and music with occasional narration. [more inside]
posted by indexy at 1:23 PM PST - 30 comments

The Year Without Sunshine is a new story by Naomi Kritzer. It's about what happens after the really big disaster. Kritzer is perhaps best known for Cat Pictures Please, but her other works have been lauded on MetaFilter previously (previously; previously; previously - So Much Cooking; previously - Better Living Through Algorithms, plus her election guide); previously - Paradox; previously; all the previouslies).
posted by kristi at 12:49 PM PST - 20 comments

"Inside the small world of simulating other worlds" by Sarah Scoles examines the challenges for analog astronauts of emulating space habitats as well as the difficulty of re-entering society after their artificial isolation.
posted by autopilot at 7:21 AM PST - 4 comments

It's that rare thing - a New Yorker humour piece that's actually funny!
posted by Paul Slade at 6:54 AM PST - 54 comments

We're sorry we created the Torment Nexus. By Mefi's own Charles Stross [more inside]
posted by TheophileEscargot at 5:29 AM PST - 68 comments

Seen through devices such as ground-penetrating radar or magnetometry, it is preservation, not ruin, that is the rule. Even the most temporary village or house—even the briefest of human lives—leaves a signature behind in the soil. The unexpected lesson of these new instruments is that none of us ever fully disappear. from Scientists Have an Audacious Plan to Map the Ancient World Before It Disappears [Wired; ungated] See also: Agency of the Subsurface [Geoff Manaugh's BLDGBLOG]
posted by chavenet at 12:23 AM PST - 7 comments