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Toto's Africa played on Japanese traditional instruments - koto, tsugaru-shamisen and steel drum (via NHK Blends). [more inside]
posted by His thoughts were red thoughts at 11:44 PM PST - 25 comments

To Zombie Land Saga's Lily Hoshikawa, The Best Trans Girl I've Seen In Anime: I’ve been watching anime for as long as I can remember and I never really found a character I could relate to over my gender troubles. That’s why I’m so grateful to know that you’re here. These days, I’m settled a little more comfortably as a trans person, but I saw a lot of myself in you and the turmoil we shared. You gave me a little push to be more expressive with my gender identity. I’ll always appreciate that. [more inside]
posted by one for the books at 9:57 PM PST - 11 comments

National Treasure Alexandra Petri (previously and ubiquitously) has compiled a list of 100 holiday songs, ranking them from Most Especially Heinous to Best. (She expounded upon the worst holiday song of all a few years ago.)
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 9:15 PM PST - 190 comments

Just in time for the MetaFilter Cookie Swap, the Washington Post has put together a Holiday Cookie Generator!
(Or, really, an ingredient-based cookie search.)
Mmm, cookies.
posted by Going To Maine at 7:59 PM PST - 19 comments

The artist’s most recent series Illuminated Piñata pulls characters from the Luttrell Psalter (c. 1325-1335). Works from his Bosch series will be on view at the Riverside Art Museum in Riverside, CA in the group exhibition BEAST, opening February 2, 2019.
posted by MovableBookLady at 5:40 PM PST - 7 comments

Lemon, lime, and bitters - a staple of golf, bowling and other clubs in Australia, could be considered the default non-alcoholic beverage. But how did it get this way when most other countries are unfamiliar with its piquant delights?
posted by smoke at 4:48 PM PST - 55 comments

The Offside Rule and The Guardian name the best 100 female soccer players of 2018.
posted by Tentacle of Trust at 2:13 PM PST - 18 comments

In 2015, Microsoft announced Internet Explorer would no longer be actively developed, in favor of their new web browser, Edge featuring a new proprietary rendering engine, EdgeHTML. In 2017, MS ported Edge to Android and iOS; instead of EdgeHTML they used Chromium (on Android) and WebKit (on iOS), both wrapped in Microsoft's UI. Chromium is an open-sourced browser platform for which the development is lead by and the project is hosted by Google.

Yesterday, Microsoft announced the termination of their proprietary browser technology in favor of Chromium. [more inside]
posted by ardgedee at 11:06 AM PST - 86 comments

Who Wore It Best? US book covers vs. UK book covers for 2018 (SLLitHub)
posted by not_the_water at 10:09 AM PST - 29 comments

"For decades, the standard instruction was that drivers should hold the steering wheel at the 10 and 2 positions, as envisioned on a clock. This, it turns out, is no longer the case. In fact, driving that way could cost you your arms or hands in particularly gruesome ways if your airbag deploys." Get with the times: You’re driving all wrong (NBC news) [more inside]
posted by joseph conrad is fully awesome at 9:52 AM PST - 73 comments

Botnik feat. Morrissey – Bored With This Desire To Get Ripped
posted by josher71 at 9:39 AM PST - 13 comments

Disney Has a Horrifying New Method to Create Video Game Teeth [YouTube] “The ideal teeth appearance depends on the social and cultural context of the subject, as well as on their age since teeth appearance changes over time,” Disney researchers said in a paper titled Appearance Capture and Modeling of Human Teeth [.pdf]. “We present a system specifically designed for capturing the optical properties of live human teeth such that they can be realistically re-rendered in computer graphics. To capture the beauty of both the teeth and the oral cavity, Disney researchers needed their volunteer to remain still while a barrage of 54 different lights blasted at his face for 10-15 second intervals while a camera snapped pictures.” [via: Motherboard]
posted by Fizz at 8:47 AM PST - 39 comments

The Special Counsel's office has been busy lately, beginning with Michael Cohen's surprise court appearance last Thursday to plead guilty to lying about the Trump Tower Project in Moscow (PDF) and then Michael Flynn's heavily redacted sentencing memo on Tuesday (PDF). While Cohen's guilty plea filing was expansive—finally linking "Individual 1" (Donald Trump) formally to the Special Counsel investigation (WaPo)—here's how to read between the lines of Mueller's blacked-out memo on Flynn (CNN). Mueller’s sentencing memo for Flynn doubles as a warning to Manafort (Natasha Bertrand, The Atlantic), and it should worry Kushner and Trump (Bloomberg). But what's behind those lengthy redactions? One clue: As Flynn case winds down, investigation of Turkish lobbying persists (NYT). It's all leading up to a big day Friday (CNBC), with expectations of Michael Cohen's sentencing memos, new details in Paul Manafort's case, James Comey's closed-door testimony on Capitol Hill, and George Papadopoulos's release from prison. [more inside]
posted by Doktor Zed at 8:10 AM PST - 2531 comments

King of the Night is a short documentary about Imad Khachan, the owner of Chess Forum, the only remaining chess shop in New York City. (SLYT, published by The Atlantic)
posted by carter at 6:19 AM PST - 16 comments

Avengers: Endgame The epic conclusion to Avengers: Infinity War
posted by Fleebnork at 5:53 AM PST - 152 comments

Thursday night, BioWare's official blog posted a teaser for the next game in the Dragon Age series, possibly subtitled "The Dread Wolf Rises."
posted by seanmpuckett at 5:16 AM PST - 63 comments

Two images of the miners' strike, an instant apart: so which is the classic? The great photographers Don McPhee and Martin Jenkinson both shot a miner in a policeman’s helmet confronting cops at Orgreave – but whose image became iconic, and who decides? (previously)
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 3:13 AM PST - 6 comments