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Reimagining the Suburban Yard to Reverse Pollinator and Insect Decline
posted by the man of twists and turns at 8:48 PM PST - 39 comments

This dog is very excited. Perhaps he has heard of solutions to a problem he contributes to.
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 7:05 PM PST - 31 comments

A comprehensive case made for accusations of image theft.
posted by unliteral at 5:13 PM PST - 38 comments

But there’s no word for “dinosaur” in Zulu. Nor are there words for “Jurassic,” “fossilization,” or “evolution.” [more inside]
posted by clew at 5:06 PM PST - 13 comments

The hardest part of video game Scum was learning how to pee/poop. [Polygon] “Tossing turds around is nothing new in the survival genre. Ark: Survival Evolved launched with poo for you and your dinosaur mounts to boot, but their flavor of feces didn’t really serve much of a purpose. In Scum, however, everything matters. By simulating human frailty, they’re trying to bring competition and fairness back to one of gaming’s most competitive multiplayer genres. And they’re doing it with an absurd amount of complexity. [...] The developers say that they’ve created the most realistic simulation of the human metabolic system ever made, the end result of which is a fairly regular requirement that my avatar urinate and empty his bowels. But why?” [YouTube][Gameplay Footage][NSFW] [more inside]
posted by Fizz at 4:29 PM PST - 30 comments

Ryan Adams dangled success. Women say they paid a price. Multiple women, including ex-wife Mandy Moore, and one whose interactions with Adams began at age 14, "described a pattern of manipulative behavior in which Adams dangled career opportunities while simultaneously pursuing female artists for sex." Adams responds.
posted by waitingtoderail at 3:17 PM PST - 95 comments

For Will Pemble, it all started when his son asked "wouldn't it be awesome if we had our own roller coaster." Five seconds later, he thought "Yes, yes it would," and that's the origin story of CoasterDad, the guy who built a roller coaster in his back yard (Wired Video, YouTube alt. link), and his front yard, and another friend's back yard, and for the Maker Fair in San Francisco. He has more videos on his YouTube account, specifically in the the CoasterDad Project playlist. If that's all a bit too loosey-goosey for you Coaster 101 talks to Paul Gregg about building and testing safe back yard roller coasters, as he discusses on his website Backyard Roller Coasters dot org, which has his two books about DIY coaster-making.
posted by filthy light thief at 1:46 PM PST - 8 comments

Here's an interactive map of the 2,032 sounds humans use to communicate without words. Based on new research [PDF] that found brief vocal bursts can convey at least 24 distinct kinds of emotion. Previous studies had estimated the number at around 13.
posted by not_the_water at 1:34 PM PST - 25 comments

"To the robot who turned 90 days into 15 years of exploration: You were, and are, the Opportunity of a lifetime. Rest well, rover. Your mission is complete. (2004-2019)"
Sarah Kaplan, WaPo: Opportunity, NASA’s record-setting Mars rover, is declared dead after 15 years. Opportunity’s mission was planned to last just 90 days, but it worked for 5,000 Martian “sols” and traversed more than 28 treacherous miles — two records for NASA. (Previously, and more at NASA's Mars page.)
posted by RedOrGreen at 11:25 AM PST - 157 comments

Saskatchewan resident Dave Assman, denied a personalized license plate, finds a backdoor solution.
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 10:44 AM PST - 39 comments

How hard is it to have a conversation on Twitter? So hard even the CEO can’t do it. Here's a transcript of the interview.
posted by Foci for Analysis at 9:00 AM PST - 58 comments

LOOK FOR ME, PLEASE: How indigenous women work to help each other when authorities turn a blind eye. [more inside]
posted by poffin boffin at 8:57 AM PST - 3 comments

[NYT] Nutrition experts have long debated whether there is an optimal diet that humans evolved to eat. But a study published this month adds a twist. It found that there is likely no single natural diet that is best for human health. The research, published in the journal Obesity Reviews, looked at the diets, habits and physical activity levels of hundreds of modern hunter-gatherer groups and small-scale societies, whose lifestyles are similar to those of ancient populations. They found that they all exhibit generally excellent metabolic health while consuming a wide range of diets.
posted by ellieBOA at 7:26 AM PST - 80 comments

Day Care for All - "Free public college, health care for all, a living wage: These are all important causes that will improve life for millions. But there's another proposal that belongs on the progressive to-do list: universal affordable high-quality child care. In fact, I would put it ahead of free public college: It would help more people and do more to change society for the better." (via) [more inside]
posted by kliuless at 4:11 AM PST - 97 comments