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Every year during Lent, Episcopalians and other liturgically minded Christians participate in Lent Madness, which pits saints, martyrs, and other holy people against one another in sometimes brutal mano-a-mano fantasy smackdowns. Past champions include Florence Nightingale (who ultimately vanquished Franz Jägerstätter), Dietrich Bonhoeffer (prevailing in a thrilling faceoff with Julian of Norwich), and perennial favorite Francis of Assisi (in a nail-biter with fighting Irish Brigid of Kildare). [more inside]
posted by filthy_prescriptivist at 9:32 PM PST - 9 comments

A boy pretends he's a woman on an online gaming website. Then the game changes.
posted by oprahgayle at 6:10 PM PST - 10 comments

Sassafras Lowery wrote at Older Queer Voices
We Know How To Do This - “If you don’t remember a time when your government hated you, those of us who do will help you learn how to survive it.” [more inside]
posted by the man of twists and turns at 3:41 PM PST - 24 comments

The Space Shuttle has been compared to a flying brick. How do you practice landing a flying brick? In a customized Gulfstream II with thrust reversers all the way down. [more inside]
posted by compartment at 3:15 PM PST - 10 comments

Troy Hurtubise's dream of fighting a grizzly in home-made armour still haunts him. So does his fame (cw: some talk of suicidal ideation). Previously: Troy Hurtubise and his inventions. [more inside]
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 1:59 PM PST - 29 comments

Glory to Arstotzka! Papers Please is now a short film (10 mins) (Previously)
posted by saucysault at 12:47 PM PST - 14 comments

The Tolstoy family recipe for macaroni and cheese and some tips for preparation [more inside]
posted by blixapuff at 12:26 PM PST - 8 comments

Hazel Scott was piano genius and prodigy, star-performer, civil-rights activist, and first black person to host a television show in America. Whatever Happened to Hazel Scott? is a video essay on her life, career, and cultural impact. [more inside]
posted by mrjohnmuller at 11:52 AM PST - 3 comments

Disney's musical adaptation of Frozen opens on Broadway. Twelve new songs. A darker tone than the animated movie. Will it find success on broadway? Probably.
posted by Mr.Encyclopedia at 9:44 AM PST - 21 comments

“As soon as we called the work stoppage for Thursday and Friday our locals took it upon themselves to start working with churches and food banks and different places to provide day care for the parents who needed it, to provide meals for the many students who get their hot meals at school.” West Virginia Teachers Walk Out (Dissent) - All public schools in all 55 counties of West Virginia are closed until at least Tuesday as the teachers strike for smaller class size, higher pay, and benefits. Local support is high (The Guardian). An Open Letter to the State of West Virginia From Its Students (The Nation).
posted by The Whelk at 9:06 AM PST - 70 comments

When birds steal food, they usually get away with it, but now the kids are fighting back.
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 8:30 AM PST - 29 comments

Collective Nouns for Humans in the Wild by Kathy Fish. A list of collective nouns for these times.
posted by Daddy-O at 7:28 AM PST - 28 comments

First look: All 150+ Emojis for 2018 [YouTube] “The final emoji list for 2018 has now been published, and we here at Emojipedia have created images to show how we think these might look! 🙌 All 157 new emojis for 2018 are in this video, and we created our designs in an Apple-like style. Popular additions include redheads, curly hair, softball, kangaroo, and more. All humans support skin tones. The list for Emoji 11.0 was finalized on February 7, 2018 and these emojis should hit phones in the second half of 2018.” [more inside]
posted by Fizz at 7:01 AM PST - 40 comments

Vangelis took a bit of a sideways step when he built a studio and recorded his 1975 album Heaven And Hell, a single unified work which draws strongly from classical music [full album ~43m] than progressive rock. Heaven And Hell Part I [~22m]: Bacchanale; Symphony To The Powers B (Movements 1 and 2); Movement 3 (from "Symphony To The Powers B); So Long Ago, So Clear (featuring Jon Anderson) [more inside]
posted by hippybear at 4:59 AM PST - 16 comments

Inside the OED: can the world’s biggest dictionary survive the internet?
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 4:00 AM PST - 17 comments

Everyone needs a hobby. Dave Curran's is trying to drive the Irish postal service mad. Me versus An Post: Featuring bricks, puzzles, hand drawn maps, invisible ink, scratch offs, cheerful and accommodating ringmasters (literally) and an attempt to resolve a territorial dispute between Canada and the US via postcard.
posted by Diablevert at 3:06 AM PST - 14 comments

Perhaps nothing that would be any more illustrative than seeing the images yourself. So here's A Time in Film: 1878-1899, 1900-1909, 1910-1912, 1913-1914, 1915-1916, 1917-1918, 1919, 1920, 1921. These may not contain clips from all the great movies from the era, but they provide an excellent start and the videos are worth seeing even if only as an end in themselves. An ongoing series of 3 to 5 minute videos covering the silent era and perhaps beyond.
posted by gusottertrout at 1:31 AM PST - 15 comments