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In 2011, former 7 Action News Reporter Julie Banovic did a story about a car smashing through an Arby's in Royal Oak, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit. Then in March 2016, the story circulated again, this time with a much more entertaining interview. "I thought perhaps the end of days was upon us. But it turned out it was just a disoriented old lady in a champagne-colored Toyota Avalon, crashing into my world like DNB circa 1996," said the fake Arby's employee. That "weird Arby's guy" is Andrew Bowser, who also edited himself as "weird satanist guy" in a WDIV story on the satanic statue unveiling in Detroit. [more inside]
posted by filthy light thief at 9:36 PM PST - 4 comments

Lucas the Spider is a test character being developed by animator Joshua Slice, voiced by his nephew (also named Lucas). He has produced two brief videos so far: in which he introduces himself and in which he politely asks to come inside.
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 9:34 PM PST - 23 comments

A 13-year-old girl managed to become a writer for on-line sports publications. She pretended to be a man and kept up the masquerade for eight years. [more inside]
posted by CCBC at 4:47 PM PST - 51 comments

MIT's Sherry Turkle writes about the new wave of "sociable robots" we're seeing. "These machines are seductive and offer the wrong payoff: the illusion of companionship without the demands of friendship, the illusion of connection without the reciprocity of a mutual relationship. And interacting with these empathy machines may get in the way of children’s ability to develop a capacity for empathy themselves."
posted by forza at 3:42 PM PST - 70 comments

A baumtorte, or baumkuchen, is a traditional German cake, so-called because the thin layers of batter resemble tree rings when sliced. This 'king of cakes' is traditionally made on a cake spit, or rotisserie, the baumkuchen is one of several so-called "spit cakes": "The exact origin of Baumkuchen, like that of so many other food specialties, seems murky. One theory is that it began as a Hungarian wedding cake. Another is that it was invented in the German town of Salzwedel, in the early nineteenth century, where it quickly became a favorite of the visiting Prussian king. Polish sekacz, Lithuanian sakotis, and Swedish spettekaka are other regional versions of what are classified as spit cakes, a term that might give pause in this era of blood-and-guts chefs. Fortunately, “spit” here refers to a horizontal rotisserie (now powered by electricity) that spins constantly above or in front of a wood or gas fire as the baker ladles over it anywhere from ten to thirty-six layers of sunny batter, which has the consistency of a foamy liquid custard." [more inside]
posted by the man of twists and turns at 2:30 PM PST - 44 comments

"[Songs from the Edges] is a playlist of this week's top 100 or so fan discoveries from the 1500+ microgenres I help track at Spotify. Some of the styles you will know, some you won't. Some you won't like. Some may make you lunge towards the Skip button after 4 seconds. But see if you can keep yourself from hitting it quite yet. That song may sound weird, but there's a group of people somewhere for whom it's the most exciting thing happening right now. Maybe they have a point. " [more inside]
posted by peppercorn at 2:12 PM PST - 24 comments

Researchers at the Montreal Institute for Learning Algorithms present ObamaNet, the first architecture that generates both audio and synchronized photo-realistic lip-sync videos from any new text. Contrary to other published lip-sync approaches, theirs is only composed of fully trainable neural modules and does not rely on any traditional computer graphics methods. [more inside]
posted by sockermom at 1:35 PM PST - 74 comments

Mega Man 11 Announced [YouTube][Video Game Trailer] “Mega Man 11 is coming to Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Windows PC and Xbox One in 2018, Capcom announced today. The game is a side-scrolling action platformer in the vein of the previous 10 Mega Man games, but with 3D visuals. Capcom said Mega Man 11 will be released in “late 2018,” in time for the Blue Bomber’s 30th anniversary. Working on the title are producer Kazuhiro Tsuchiya and director Koji Oda, both veterans of Capcom and the Mega Man series. The pair talked about their goals for the new Mega Man, referring to the game as something of a rebirth for the character. The game’s art director and character designer, Yuji Ishihara, created a new look for Mega Man, which “leaked” earlier this year on the Mega Man Legacy Collection 2 release. Here’s a peek at the character art for Mega Man 11.” [via: Polygon] [more inside]
posted by Fizz at 1:22 PM PST - 14 comments

Dancer, French Resistance spy, Philanthropist, Civil Rights activist: she did it all. Her story is full of astonishing events. The main link is a good overview with some good videos, illustrating her spoofing stereotypes of "savages" and her comedic style. Then there's her cheetah, her rainbow tribe, her secret messages, her castle, her speech at the Washington March with Dr. King, her honors from the French government, and more. This next link is from a magazine for teenagers but the story on Ms. Baker is well done with a few details not in the main link. Hero [more inside]
posted by MovableBookLady at 11:49 AM PST - 5 comments

Jon Bois, author of MeFi-celebrated multimedia narrative 17776 and creator of Breaking Madden, Chart Party, and Pretty Good, has written dozens of pieces (fictional and nonfictional) about class, feminism, aging, sports, politics, wonder, education, and art. Following the jump, a collection of links. (previously) [more inside]
posted by brainwane at 11:27 AM PST - 25 comments

Centerpoint: Poetry And Music For Christmas [Bandcamp link, album can be streamed there] is an album by musician Jeff Johnson and poetry by Keith Patman read by Dallas McKennon. It's meditative and quiet and insightful and perfect for the Advent season.
posted by hippybear at 10:08 AM PST - 1 comments

The Muppet Christmas Carol is a beloved holiday classic, but many may not be as familiar with A Muppet Family Christmas, a television special broadcast in 1987 and 1989, but never released on home media in its original and complete version due to various rights issues. It's noteworthy as one of the few Muppet vehicles with appearances and references to characters from the four major franchises (The Muppet Show, Muppet Babies, Sesame Street and Fraggle Rock) and for featuring a cameo by Jim Henson as himself. You can watch John Lagomarsino explain why the special is extremely his shit. You can watch a version of the special via YouTube.
posted by girlmightlive at 8:31 AM PST - 80 comments

Simon's Cat has the right spirit And, as always, they do love the wrapping paper. (If you must resort to the easy out of wrapping for the holiday with cat help, gift bags are acceptable diversions, too.) [more inside]
posted by mightshould at 7:10 AM PST - 9 comments

The Atlantic's top 25 News Photos of 2017, 2017: The Year in Photos 1, 2, 3 (some possibly nsfw)
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 4:29 AM PST - 17 comments