November 14, 2018

when you move, I'm moved

After performing a breathtaking solo dance to Hozier's hit Take Me to Church in a video directed by David LaChapelle, ballet dancer Sergei Polunin stars in the official music video to Hozier's newest single Movement (dir. Chris Barrett and Luke Taylor), only this time, he's not quite dancing by himself. [more inside]
posted by yasaman at 9:43 PM PST - 13 comments

Fursona reveal included

Jello Biafra’s Incredibly Strange Interview and dance party with furries
posted by Artw at 8:01 PM PST - 14 comments

Tim Berners-Lee, Act Three

Tim Berners-Lee, the man who created the World Wide Web, has some regrets. He has seen his creation debased by everything from fake news to mass surveillance. But he’s got a plan to fix it. "The power of the Web wasn’t taken or stolen. We, collectively, by the billions, gave it away with every signed user agreement and intimate moment shared with technology. Facebook, Google, and Amazon now monopolize almost everything that happens online, from what we buy to the news we read to who we like. Along with a handful of powerful government agencies, they are able to monitor, manipulate, and spy in once unimaginable ways. Shortly after the 2016 election, Berners-Lee felt something had to change, and began methodically attempting to hack his creation." [more inside]
posted by homunculus at 7:15 PM PST - 44 comments

hardy, keeps well in winter, loads o' vitamins

Descendants of the field mustard, call 'em cole crops, brassicas, crucifers, or one of their many, many names, "It is the cabbage which surpasses all other vegetables":
Of Cabbages and Kings. [more inside]
posted by the man of twists and turns at 7:11 PM PST - 31 comments

Pseudoarchaeology and the Racism Behind Ancient Aliens

Where, exactly, did the idea of ancient aliens building the pyramids begin? Since the late 19th century, science fiction writers have imagined Martians and other alien lifeforms engaged in great feats of terrestrial engineering. Earlier alien theories surrounding Atlantis may have spawned fantasies about alien building. The most substantial evidence for non-earthly creatures arrived in the wake of H.G. Wells’s success. Capitalizing on the fervor surrounding Wells’s The War of the Worlds, astronomer and science fiction writer Garrett P. Serviss penned a quasi-sequel titled Edison’s Conquest of Mars in 1898.
posted by MovableBookLady at 6:58 PM PST - 30 comments

between fabulousness and death

Trans Women, Glamour, and Death by Denny discusses the space she occupies as a trans woman and how small the space between being fabulous and being dead can get.
posted by bile and syntax at 6:43 PM PST - 3 comments

The Competitive Book Sorters Who Spread Knowledge Around New York

Inside an annual contest of brains, brawn, and library logistics. For the sixth time, an elite squad of 12 professional New York sorters—the fleet-fingered men and women who feed books into the machine—will compete with their counterparts from Washington State’s King County Library System to see who can process the most books in an hour. [more inside]
posted by cynical pinnacle at 4:51 PM PST - 14 comments

Now in color...

Vivian Maier, known mostly for her black & white photography, also did color...
posted by jim in austin at 2:45 PM PST - 14 comments

THE WIZARDING WORLD IS AT RISK OF EXPOSURE – WE NEED YOUR HELP – WIZARD

Harry Potter: Wizards Unite [YouTube] Here's Your First Look At Pokémon GO Dev Niantic’s Upcoming Harry Potter AR Game.
“Please resist the urge to panic. Traces of magic are appearing across the Muggle world without warning and in a rather chaotic manner. We worry it is only a matter of time before even the most incurious Muggles catch wind of it. We call on all witches and wizards to help contain the Calamity or risk the worst of times since You Know Who. Brush up on your spells, get your wand ready, and enlist immediately.”
[Official Website]
posted by Fizz at 1:11 PM PST - 42 comments

Nels!!!

RIP Katherine MacGregor, 93, best known as Harriet Oleson on the Little House on the Prairie TV show. Interview posted in 2012. She had an uncredited role as a mother in "On the Waterfront." Nellie offered her condolences, as did Laura. Fun fact: the character was never given a first name in the book, and was Margaret Owens in real life.
posted by Melismata at 11:46 AM PST - 22 comments

infuse my humble brush with POWER

Cartoonist Matthew Thurber (...) takes on the art world in his latest book Art Comic, a series of interrelated stories about the trials and tribulations of would-be artists. Megan Liberty reviews for Hyperallergic.
posted by bq at 11:41 AM PST - 1 comments

Kurt was really into those lilies. He had them all over the stage.

The best television episode of the 1990s starred a short, blond man and his band. On November 18, 1993, at Sony Music Studios in New York City, Nirvana took on MTV Unplugged. That night, the biggest group of the decade staged one of the most hypnotically intimate rock concerts ever captured on film.
posted by Etrigan at 10:54 AM PST - 83 comments

The light at the end of the "tunnel" is a Eurostar

At the time of writing, Theresa May's cabinet is meeting to discuss a draft Brexit deal between the UK and EU, that has emerged from the "tunnel" of secret negotiations. Will it be acceptable to her cabinet, or will there be resignations? Will it pass parliament, or will it fall afoul of, well, pretty much everyone? (DUP; Scottish Tories angry over fisheries; Moderate remainer Tories; Labour; frothing crazy ERG Tories; LibDems) [more inside]
posted by chappell, ambrose at 10:15 AM PST - 591 comments

Let's talk turkey.

It's that time of year when a young person's fancy turns to thoughts of turkey. It's important to note, then, that brining turkeys is out. Low on oven space? Maybe cook that turkey outdoors. Or skip roasting it entirely. Or a bunch of other ways. Should you buy a fancy new gadget to fry your bird? Just be careful, there's a salmonella scare going around right now.
posted by backseatpilot at 9:53 AM PST - 79 comments

something something virtue something

Here's 17 minutes of an old steel vice being quietly, painstakingly restored.
posted by cortex at 9:36 AM PST - 36 comments

"You leave Tamara without ever having discovered it."

There are interesting attempts to procedurally generate realistic cities, though it turns out to still be a hard problem, as all the most famous cities in games are built by hand. The exceptions are often interesting to play with, like Wave Function Collapse [PC only] which lets you walk through an infinite and beautiful Mediterranean-style city. If you prefer overhead maps, here is an interactive in-browser fantasy generator or this approach, which generates random navigable cities. Developers keep teasing new approaches to city building however, you can see some animated GIFs generated by another interesting approach to creating a cyberpunk city, along with some procedural brutalism.
posted by blahblahblah at 8:10 AM PST - 12 comments

A fruit bats documentary

Getting in a Van Again (A Fruit Bats Documentary) A short film about the making of the Fruit Bats new album, featuring unwatered plants percussion and a Bastards of Young video homage in front of curtains.
posted by malphigian at 7:45 AM PST - 1 comments

A Dream of Spring

With a new preview trailer HBO have announced the date of the final season of Game of Thrones as April 2019. George R R Martins' Wildcards series of books is to get a couple of television adaptations... and the next book in A Song of Ice and Fire...? Er... er... well, there's a new history of Westeros book!
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 7:44 AM PST - 109 comments

Why Doctors Hate Their Computers

"Something’s gone terribly wrong. Doctors are among the most technology-avid people in society; computerization has simplified tasks in many industries. Yet somehow we’ve reached a point where people in the medical profession actively, viscerally, volubly hate their computers." (SLNewYorker) [more inside]
posted by Stark at 5:45 AM PST - 115 comments

God is in the Gaps

You know about Fallout 1 through 4, but what else happened on the long road to Fallout 76? Rock Paper Shotgun, a PC gaming news, review and article site since 1873, has asked actual real games historian Nate "Regular "FrogCroakley" Frog" Crowley to write, one tweet at a time, the history of Fallouts 5 through 75. Even if he weren't already two tweets in, we'd still be getting in a few floors above the ground floor, because of your previously-mentioned knowledge of Fallout 1 through 4.
posted by BiggerJ at 4:27 AM PST - 13 comments

30 years of American anxieties

For more than half a century, Dear Abby—America’s longest-running advice column, first penned by Pauline Phillips under the pseudonym Abigail van Buren, and today by her daughter, Jeanne—has offered counsel to thousands of worried and conflicted readers. Syndicated in more than 1,200 newspapers at the height of its popularity, it offers an unprecedented look at the landscape of worries that dominate US life. The column has been continuously in print since 1956. No other source in popular culture has elicited so many Americans to convey their earnest concerns for so long.

A data-driven analysis of 30 years of 'Dear Abby'.
posted by secretdark at 12:48 AM PST - 24 comments

“I have no compunction about filling my pockets with croissants”

Eggs Benedict for later? Or tiny packets of Nutella? Adam Buxton asks Louis Theroux “What about twenty rolls?” While non-guests eating the hotel buffet are less shameful, is there exhilaration in filling ziploc bag and tupperware (or a holdall and trouser pockets) with cheeses and waffles? (where you can, unlike here and here) If you are more buffet and less fine dining, with a nod to a 2008 mumsnet debate, opinions are divided. For: logistics and room service charges make this the only fair option for some; better milk than in your hotel room; excess food left is thrown away or rehashed. Against: “It's all you can eat, not all you can fit in your car.”; moderation and nutrition. Related: other hotel items (slippers: yes, but flatscreen TV: no) and airport lounges with buffet-style food.
posted by Wordshore at 12:02 AM PST - 49 comments

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