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I’ve watched my dad gut a lot of deer, but this time it was different. It’s different when it’s your own deer. Everything was really interesting, how all the organs fit together and how they all come apart. How much blood is inside a deer…--11 year-old Iris, reflecting on her first deer hunting season. [more inside]
posted by MoonOrb at 10:31 PM PST - 26 comments

Researchers find software repository GitHub approved code written by women at a higher rate than code written by men, but only if the gender was not disclosed. (slGrauniad) [more inside]
posted by coolname at 9:59 PM PST - 46 comments

Finally, the article on your favorite spy who sews that you always wanted. Also, he saved George Washington twice and Washington stopped in the middle of a parade to have breakfast with him. [more inside]
posted by jenfullmoon at 8:42 PM PST - 41 comments

Bear Bellinger writes about his experiences as a black actor in the Chicago Theatre Scene.
posted by JustKeepSwimming at 8:12 PM PST - 18 comments

Why is it so hard to squash a cockroach? "Insects, whether they creep or fly, live in a world of hard knocks. Who has not stepped on a cockroach, then raised her shoe to watch the creature get up and scoot under a door? Bees and wasps, for their part, face a never-ending obstacle course of leaves, stems, and petals—bumblebees crash their wings into obstacles as often as once a second. Now, researchers are learning how these creatures bend but don’t break."
posted by dhruva at 8:11 PM PST - 26 comments

FIRST, there was the Benedict Cumberbatch Name Generator.
NOW? If you have Python installed, there is module cumberbatch.

> pip install cumberbatch
[...]
>>> cumberbatch.full()
'Fragglerock Cabbagepatch'
>>> cumberbatch.full()
'Bendandsnap Covergirl'
>>> cumberbatch.full()
'Bakery Capncrunch'

[more inside]
posted by JHarris at 5:34 PM PST - 44 comments

Premier League leader Leicester City entered the season as a 5,000-1 underdog -- the same chance as a bet on Elvis being alive -- which is why the English soccer team could become the undisputed champion of beating the odds. [more inside]
posted by Cool Papa Bell at 4:33 PM PST - 40 comments

Last year Regal Cinema started checking bags and backpacks in their theaters. [more inside]
posted by kittensofthenight at 4:14 PM PST - 200 comments

In the deep stillness of a forest in winter, the sound of footsteps on a carpet of leaves died away. Peter Wohlleben had found what he was looking for: a pair of towering beeches. “These trees are friends,” he said, craning his neck to look at the leafless crowns, black against a gray sky. “You see how the thick branches point away from each other? That’s so they don’t block their buddy’s light."
posted by Hermione Granger at 4:02 PM PST - 9 comments

How to brick an iPhone: Set the date to January 1, 1970. [more inside]
posted by Chocolate Pickle at 3:35 PM PST - 140 comments

With the highly-anticipated release of two King Hu masterpieces on home video by the Masters of Cinema organization, as well as the critical success of Hou Hsiao-hsien’s The Assassin last year, it seems like the wuxia film is making some inroads into the Western critical consciousness. So I thought I’d put together a guide to some of the essential films of the genre. - 30 Essential Wuxia Films
posted by Artw at 3:01 PM PST - 32 comments

"I changed the quotes in my AOL Instant Messenger profile almost daily, and fretted over the right combinations of font and color to make my IM voice look as bright and edgy as I wanted to be in real life. I started conversations with acquaintances who made me feel shy in person. I imagined I had inner beauty and wit, and that in chatrooms and AIM was where I could shine until that outer beauty showed up. And slowly, the IRL me started to become more like the me I allowed myself to be online... Matt and I built our relationship over AIM. We used AIM because it was our most practical option; like many teenagers in the year 2001, we didn't have cell phones. We did have computers in our respective bedrooms, though, and parents who weren't expecting phone calls after dinner hours."
posted by ChuraChura at 2:24 PM PST - 28 comments

They do not just behave like Flipper Dolphins are clever and sociable, but they also have a dark side that will make your hair stand on end
posted by cwtell at 2:05 PM PST - 43 comments

"Violence and nurturance are two sides of the same coin. I struggle to understand this even as I write it." From Nora Samaran, author of Dating Tips for the Feminist Man (previously).
posted by Catchfire at 1:51 PM PST - 20 comments

An algorithmic education, despite all the promises made by ed-tech entrepreneurs for “revolution” and “disruption,” is likely to re-inscribe the power relations that are already in place in school and in society. Whether it's annotating the scholarly web, creating connected copies through wikity or domain of one's own, alternatives to algorithmic education are offered by the indie edtech movement.
posted by typecloud at 1:33 PM PST - 12 comments

Why I had to become a snail farmer According to a site dedicated to looking at France through data, Snails production in France is limited to 191 farms. Don't miss all the gory details of snail farming. [more inside]
posted by Michele in California at 1:17 PM PST - 30 comments

"Patients assume doctors are omnipotent and they know everything there is to know about the universe."
posted by trillian at 1:11 PM PST - 31 comments

If asked to think of the lasting legacies of Ronald Reagan, you might conjure up the long shadow of US military intervention in Central America or the coordinated attack on organized labor and public-sector programs. Probably few of us would think about the spectacle of Shrek hawking Twinkies. But one lasting consequence of Reagan’s reign is felt by every parent in the country every day: As president, Reagan opened the floodgates to targeted junk food marketing to children and teens.

What Ronald Reagan has to do with Dora on your Popsicle package: the backstory behind Shrek hawking Twinkies (and everything else) [more inside]
posted by filthy light thief at 1:09 PM PST - 19 comments

Rick Rubin: My Life in 21 Songs
posted by josher71 at 1:03 PM PST - 5 comments

The 4.5-foot-tall, 185-pound chimpanzee is built like a high school wrestling coach with a gray beard and a small bald spot just above his brow. Keepers have called him ugly, but he doesn't care. He's come a long way since hanging on Michael Jackson's hip. Bubbles' moonwalking days are over. [more inside]
posted by narancia at 12:01 PM PST - 20 comments

Anchor, which seems to be to audio what Twitter is to writing or Instagram to photography, launched a few days ago as a new "truly public" radio where everyone can contribute and comment. [more inside]
posted by cubby at 11:47 AM PST - 35 comments

During the course of a project to produce a detailed 3D model of the Apollo 11 Command Module Columbia, we were able to observe and record some hand-written notes and markings in areas of the spacecraft that have been hidden from view for more than 40 years.

[more inside]
posted by Etrigan at 10:43 AM PST - 14 comments

PUP - DVP (Official Video) (SLVimeo)
posted by slater at 10:42 AM PST - 3 comments

For the moment, the fate of the Clean Power Plan — and the question of just how capable the United States is of self-governance — remains uncertain. The Supreme Court ordered the Plan to be temporarily halted, most likely until the Court hands down an opinion on the legality of the Plan in June of 2017. If the Plan survives the next presidential election, and if it is ultimately upheld by the Court, then Tuesday’s order will only succeed in delaying the new rules. If the Court ultimately strikes down the Plan, however, the United States could be left impotent in the face of a looming catastrophe — and not just with respect to this particular catastrophe. The states challenging the Clean Power Plan call for sweeping changes to the balance of power between the regulator and the regulated. Indeed, if some of their most aggressive arguments succeed, it’s unclear that the federal government is permitted to do much of anything at all.

-Ian Millhiser for ThinkProgress, "Inside The Most Important Supreme Court Case In Human History"
posted by zombieflanders at 9:52 AM PST - 57 comments

How Video Games Are Changing The Action Movie - "It’s evidence in the case that videogames have started showing a strong influence on cinematography beyond goofier incarnations such as CGI, tie-ins, or critically derided adaptations. Instead, the movies leading this charge across mediums are rooted in physicality and often adored by cineastes."
posted by the man of twists and turns at 9:40 AM PST - 26 comments

Why Are Black Women Makeup-Shamed So Heavily?
posted by girlmightlive at 9:25 AM PST - 35 comments

"Pretty please, with a cherry on top." The Curzon is one of the best cinemas in London, but it's under threat from plans to redevelop its Soho home. In its bid to survive, the cinema has produced this original, inventive (and very sweary) video (SLYT).
posted by Paul Slade at 9:19 AM PST - 5 comments

SoundCloud has lost more than $70 million over the last two years. Recently released financial statements paint a grim future for the streaming service, as despite an increase in investment they still struggle to capitalize on a userbase close to 200 million. FACT presents five reasons why.
posted by lmfsilva at 8:08 AM PST - 104 comments

This short film follows a diver on a search below the ice (SLNYT video). [more inside]
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 8:02 AM PST - 7 comments

The New York Times has obtained and published a video of a first grade teacher at the Success Academy, a charter school in Cobble Hill, Brooklyn, berating and ripping up the paper of a six year old after the child could not explain to the class how she solved a math problem. [more inside]
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 7:13 AM PST - 192 comments

Death Cab For Yeezy (SLSoundcloud. Does what it says on the tin)
posted by schmod at 6:13 AM PST - 18 comments

In the short hush right after, I think about something Chris said: "It is such an emotional journey to train for your first fight, even if you are a totally stereotypical dude." I am surprised to find myself so overwhelmed with gratitude that I tear up... And then they call my name.
"Why Men Fight" — a beautiful longform story about manhood, trauma and amateur boxing, by Thomas Page McBee.
posted by nebulawindphone at 5:39 AM PST - 86 comments

Hardcore Henry trailer (NSFW)
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 4:15 AM PST - 51 comments