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"Hi, welcome to Under a Rock with Tig Notaro. I'm Tig Notaro. I'm a comedian and I don't follow pop culture. I don't watch a lot of TV or movies. So I have a really hard time recognizing famous people. And on this show I interview famous people to try and figure out who they are. Please welcome… this person."

[more inside]
posted by Lexica at 5:05 PM PST - 119 comments

A review of 36 years of data on pods of killer whales in the Pacific Northwest has found that "grandmothers who were no longer able to reproduce had the biggest beneficial impact on the survival chances of their grand-offspring." Press release, paper. Previously.
posted by clawsoon at 4:09 PM PST - 7 comments

Mackenberg investigated more than 300 psychics and seers in the two years she worked for Houdini and many more after that. Gavin Edwards for the NYT
posted by bq at 2:45 PM PST - 18 comments

He didn’t know what it might be, but it sounded cool, like something a person might explore even though it was dangerous.
posted by gryftir at 1:27 PM PST - 58 comments

When I think about the current rules of engagement/consumption for fandom and what they’ve evolved into, I do sometimes wonder if there’s a room for the person I am now: a “lightly geeky,” casually interested fan with a history of being more highly engaged. [more inside]
posted by storytam at 11:01 AM PST - 56 comments

Smash Mouth’s “All Star” played with melons and Toto’s “Africa” played with sweet potato and squash by YouTuber Pupsi.
posted by Fizz at 10:34 AM PST - 20 comments

Remembering Los Angeles' 'wizard of compost': Working steadily for decades, Tim "Zeke the Sheik" Dundon turned a suburban yard into a green oasis and the base for a massive composting operation before his death this past summer. [more inside]
posted by ryanshepard at 9:55 AM PST - 4 comments

Verizon announced (previously) that December 14 is the deadline to archive all Yahoo Groups content, and is actively preventing archival efforts. Verizon has blocked semi-automated scripts, disabled the PGOlffine backup tool, and banned the email addresses of volunteer archivists. The Archive Team estimates that will result in an 80% loss of the total Yahoo! Groups they where attempting to rescue. Once again, Yahoo! has found a way to destroy the most massive amount of history in the shortest amount of time with absolutely no recourse. [more inside]
posted by zenon at 9:51 AM PST - 29 comments

“Your Honor, Can I Tell The Whole Story?” - A murder in New Orleans, a trial that lasted less than a day, and the lives they entangled for the next three decades. Nick Chrastil at The Atavist and The Lens [more inside]
posted by the man of twists and turns at 9:18 AM PST - 4 comments

The American Prospect devotes an entire issue to the Green New Deal, focusing on topics including - Getting the Carbon-Free economy - How the first New Deal remade America - The role of Public Capital - How cities can lead the way - Green Economic Development for old-industry workers - Fixing Public Works - Turning Trade Green - and more.
posted by The Whelk at 8:54 AM PST - 2 comments

From 2014 to 2018, the Office of the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction conducted a deep investigation into the failures of the US war in Afghanistan, entitled "Lessons Learned". The investigation included candid interviews with more than 600 people with firsthand experience in the war. After multiple FOIA suits, the Washington Post has now published those interviews, revealing that the public was consistently lied to about the state of the war from its inception. [more inside]
posted by jedicus at 8:25 AM PST - 53 comments

New York City is one of the most linguistically diverse places in the world. The Endangered Language Alliance has just published a map of 637 of them, just in time for the end of the UN's International Year of Indigenous Languages. [more inside]
posted by damayanti at 6:53 AM PST - 13 comments