December 13, 2022

Remember, it’s not cool to overreact.

How Normalcy Bias Will Define Our Future. Many of us have encountered this attitude daily over the last few years. It’s infuriating. We’ve tried to get those around us to take various threats seriously, whether it’s the coronavirus or climate change. Our friends and family wave us off. It leaves us feeling isolated and unbalanced, wondering if we’re the ones with the problem. We’re not, and normalcy bias shows just how weird people act in the face of threats. Most of the time, they’re predisposed to shrug it off. [more inside]
posted by Bottlecap at 10:10 PM PST - 69 comments

your in a bathroom looking in a mirror looking back? is a SKELETON!

You Are a Skeleton & That Is a Problem, a Gameboy homebrew game made by Nicky Flowers. There is a Good Ending, and there is a BEST ENDING!!!, and there are a whole lot of bad endings. It's short though! It was made for Bad Game Jam, and you might like these other entries.
posted by JHarris at 3:22 PM PST - 13 comments

when life was cold and love was weird

A chronicle of 9 different christmases from the life of Tim Rogers I struggle to do justice to what Rogers has written here. It's a handful of snapshots from his life, linked to living abroad, sex, romance and the holidays. It's beautifully written in that inimitable Tim Rogers style, and it's sad in a way that I think a lot of us will recognize from our own lives. If you're in the mood for a bit of Holiday Melancholy, click on through.
posted by signsofrain at 1:08 PM PST - 3 comments

The Freedom to Walk Act

The US state of California, where car culture is so ingrained that it spawned its own Saturday Night Live sketch series, has made jaywalking legal starting in 2023 in the Freedom to Walk Act. [...] Pedestrians can only be ticketed for jaywalking – or crossing outside of an intersection – if there is “immediate danger of a collision". The cost of a jaywalking ticket in California could be as much as $250, compared to $1 in jaywalking-friendly Boston. (jaywalking previously and previouslier)
posted by meowzilla at 12:17 PM PST - 84 comments

RIP Mike Leach, the most interesting man in college football

Mike Leach died today at the age of 61, a couple days after suffering a heart attack. Best known as a college football coach, currently at Mississippi State (but also an author of a biography of Geronimo), Leach was one of the more interesting public figures in American life at a time when public eccentricity isn't appreciated as much as maybe it once was. Someone once asked Leach how he'd like to be remembered in his obituary. Leach responded "well, that's their problem. They're the one writing the obituary. What do I care? I'm dead." Stories and memorable moments inside. [more inside]
posted by kevinbelt at 11:27 AM PST - 14 comments

spread the herb and soap mixture on 'lamb skinne on the fleish side'

Early Modern Recipe Online Collective is celebrating 10 years of collective transcription and pedagogical collaboration. Historian Elaine Leong on last month's transcribathon of manuscripts from the archives of the Royal College of Physicians, including Lady Sedley's receipt book (dated 1686). The 17th and 18th centuries were the period in which recipe books flourished as literacy was becoming more widespread and households sought the ability to produce many of the necessities and luxuries of life at home. 5 minute talk titled Lost in Transcription: EMROC, Recipe Books, and Knowledge in the Making. [more inside]
posted by spamandkimchi at 11:18 AM PST - 5 comments

Ah, yes, the [complex plane coordinates] genders

Get all your baffling gender-selection webforms at genders.wtf. Curated by effy.
posted by cortex at 10:57 AM PST - 37 comments

Talking Points Memo releases Mark Meadows' text messages

TPM has received copies of Mark Meadows texts related to Jan 6. In a series of articles, TPM is releasing text messages that were turned over to the House committee investigating Jan 6. All told, he was in contact with 34 members of Congress. [more inside]
posted by Eddie Mars at 10:15 AM PST - 73 comments

Absentee Godhead

On the day when "SBF" is arrested and charged with criminal fraud and money-laundering and his rival "CZ" remains the target of a federal probe and Binance's audit is questioned [despite badly-timed efforts at PR [ungated]], it's a good day to revisit the "true believers of the bitcoin cult" in this article by David Golumbia from 2018.
posted by chavenet at 9:31 AM PST - 49 comments

You gotta promise, Miles.

The Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse trailer is out now.
posted by gauche at 9:24 AM PST - 34 comments

Web log

A web-based yule log (ylog?), presented in several styles. Planetary asked some people to reinterpret the original Yule Log video, and put it online. Josh Gross on Twitter gives a few more details.
posted by brentajones at 9:15 AM PST - 4 comments

Tropical marsh bird found lost in New York state

The limpkin, a tropical marsh bird commonly found inhabiting Louisiana and Florida, was recently spotted for the first time in New York state. The lone bird was filmed along the Niagara River in Lewiston, and later captured by wildlife specialists to be relocated back South. More details on the case available from regular citizens in the Google Group community forum Geneseebirds. For more information on limpkins, listen to BirdNote or read an overview on the Audubon website.
posted by rcraniac at 8:15 AM PST - 6 comments

Can I eat this? Probably.

Expiration dates are basically bullshit
posted by jacquilynne at 8:09 AM PST - 62 comments

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