March 21, 2017
There was no putting the jelly back in the jar.
Tigers are the teetotalers of the cat family.
With 100 different cats, he rubbed the plant matter on a sock or a square of carpet, and set the material in the cats’ line of sight. Then he waited.
Catnip Ain’t the Only Plant That’ll Send Your Kitty to Blissville [more inside]
Give me absolute control over every living soul
How a Christian movement is growing rapidly in the midst of religious decline A Christian movement led by popular independent religious entrepreneurs, often referred to as 'apostles,' is changing the religious landscape of America.
A very impressive likeness
He would later bribe a French morgue attendant to slice off a bit
An early 20th-century journalist and travel writer, William Buehler Seabrook was once among the most successful wordsmiths of his day. He joined camel raids in Arabia, attended voodoo rites in Haiti, and supped with cannibal kings in Africa. Along the way, he became friendly with Aleister Crowley, James Joyce, Gertrude Stein, and many of the other most notorious figures of his era.
Sorgmæddi beinirinn - "Stave for fast Wifi"
"Take your router and carve this stave onto it using the tip of a narwhal tusk. Place the router in a bucket and fill the bucket with Brennivín. Leave the router soaking in the bucket for twenty four hours. Your Wifi will always be super-fast and your house will smell of caraway." [more inside]
What annoyances are more painful than those of which we cannot complain?
The Most Unsatisfying Video In The World Ever Made [soothing music, oddly] (unsatisfying video previously). Cleanse your emotional palate with this Previously Satisfying Video.
Rebecca Loops
Watch a nerdy girl with a Dad Joke personality do Biggie Smalls with just her voice and iPad. All of Rebecca's videos.
"boring ollie north down in the subway dealing drugs and guns"
30 Years Ago: A Look Back at 1987 "Three decades ago, the long-fought Iran-Iraq war had reached a deadly stalemate, the stock markets took a huge hit on Black Monday in October, American politicians were gearing up for the 1988 presidential race, Baby Jessica was rescued from a well, broadcast live on CNN, and much more. Photographers were also busy documenting the lives of Pee-wee Herman, Menudo, Mikhail Gorbachev, Howard Stern, Princess Diana, Donald Trump, Bernie Goetz, and many others. Take a step into a visual time capsule now, for a brief look at the year 1987." (Alan Taylor, The Atlantic)
it might just be the penguin idols
I wasn't even paying enough attention to the announcements or the upcoming anime charts to know that what would become the Japanese anime fandom's biggest anime of Winter 2017—a moe animal girls show based off of a defunct mobile game rendered in exceedingly poor CG—even existed. But here we are.Trying to explain the weird charm of Kemono Friends. [more inside]
The Glass Bank
Those with a penchant for 1960's futuristic designs would find a lot to like in the building at 505 North Orlando Avenue. It's swooping glass walls on all four sides gave it a unique profile that seemed thematically linked to nearby Cape Canaveral. Yet this result of the Cocoa Beach development boom would lead a very strange existence for the next fifty years involving unfortunate elevator designs, the savings and loan crisis, hurricanes and a climactic suicide. Welcome to the Glass Bank.
Unhappily Ever After
"New York animation artist Jeff Hong has created less-than-rosy portrayals of Disney characters as they might fare in today’s world. They are not cheery images, but they are poignant in their depictions of very real challenges, from animal testing and ocean pollution to drug addiction and teen suicide."
Chop and Steele
The Fake Strongmen of Morning News Explain How They Get Away with It -- A chat with Chop and Steele.
The Facebookuette Cube
A paper model designer has created a simple tool about posting on Social Media based on an algorithm by Federico Cerioni. Paper model designer, Giuseppe Civitarese, known in the paper model community as Paperpino, has created a simple paper model as a guide for posting on social media. It might even be useful to us here at MetaFilter. The model is based on an algorithm created by italian communications and digital media consultant, Federico Cerioni.
A play on uncertainty
1941: Werner Heisenberg—aging wunderkind, formulator of quantum mechanics, key scientist in Hitler's nuclear program—has traveled to Denmark to seek out Niels Bohr, his old mentor. Why has he come? What can the two have to say to each other? How much of the world can be preserved or destroyed in the course of a ten minute walk?A radio adaptation of Copenhagen, by Michael Frayn. With Simon Russell Beale as Niels Bohr, Greta Scacchi as Margrethe Bohr, and Benedict Cumberbatch as Werner Heisenberg. [more inside]
Let me live in the house by the side of the road and be a friend to man.
Henry Warren retired from tobacco farming in 1968 and wanted to amuse himself. He started with a single miniature building, but midway through decided to build something more. For the next nine years, he spent every day with a cigarette in his mouth and a Coca-Cola in his hand, building an idealized miniature country town: Shangri-La. [more inside]
World Poetry Day
In honor of UNESCO World Poetry Day, I offer up a poem that has been a part of my life for decades: Ithaka, by C.P. Cavafy [translation from Greek, with additional translations linked on the page]. [more inside]
I think the secret to doing things is just doing things
Day 87 of Mark Baumer's vlog and blog of walking across the country barefoot is laugh out loud funny. Two months ago, on day 101 of his walk to raise awareness about climate change, the day after the presidential inauguration, he was struck by an SUV and killed. "We would have been better off electing a barrel of burning tires," read the inscription on the photo he had posted to his website the previous day, the last photo he would ever publish. [more inside]
California super bloom: the desert is never the same
California, including the southern desert region, has received record rainfall this winter, which has lead to a once in a decade "super bloom" that is bringing visitors from as far as Europe, Africa and Asia. If you want to head into Anza-Borrego, California's largest state park and about a four-hour car drive from Los Angeles, KCET has directions to some sights to see, and Desert USA has a wildflower report plus more resources. If you were ever considering a spontaneous trip to the desert, now is your time. Peak bloom for Anza-Borrego wildflowers is expected to occur mid-March and last until the end of the month.
I've been thinking about you a lot lately.
Hi Stranger is a brief animated film by Kirsten Lepore. It features sincere affirmations and also a totally benign claymation butt.
Bubble Wrap
Supa Hot Fire is still not a rapper but today he's delivering some scorching new flames. [more inside]
Lifetime Not Guaranteed
They Used to Last 50 Years
Now refrigerators last 8–10 years, if you are fortunate. How in the world have our appliances regressed so much in the past few decades? ... Now, many appliances break and need servicing within 2-3 years and, overall, new appliances last 1/3 to 1/4 as long as appliances built decades ago. ... Why is this happening, and what’s really going on?[more inside]
Head-mould-shot
"Romances and Play-books too much gratifie the Humours of the Populace; but humble and sincere Christians, with Delight recall to minde Gods Mercies, and with Awfulness tremble at His Judgments," quoth the anonymous editor of London's Dreadful Visitation, a compilation of the weekly bills of mortality collected in the year 1665. While intended to provide a record of the course of that year's plague, these bills inadvertently provide a cross-section of the ways people died in a 17th-century metropolis, including Kingsevil, Grief, Wormes, Lethargy, Griping in the guts, Purples, French-pox, Livergrown, Stone, and Suddenly. [more inside]
Gender Budgeting
Why national budgets need to take gender into account - "The government does not set out to discriminate, says Diane Elson, the [Women's Budget Group]'s former chair. Rather, it overlooks its own bias because it does not take the trouble to assess how policies affect women. Government budgets are supposed to be 'gender-neutral'; in fact they are gender-ignorant. Ms Elson is one of the originators of a technique called 'gender budgeting'—in which governments analyse fiscal policy in terms of its differing effects on men and women. Gender budgeting identifies policies that are unequal as well as opportunities to spend money on helping women and which have a high return. Britain has declined to adopt the technique, but countries from Sweden to South Korea have taken it up." [more inside]
Reuniting the lost sheep
You are ruining my beautiful voice!
Bob Robertson, one half of the duo that taught a generation of odd Canadian children their politics on Saturday mornings, is dead.
Dodododoo dodododoo dodododo doooooo
2 sonic branding experts talk about the psychology of famous sounds - from Nokia and T-Mobile ringtones to intros for Sega and EA Games and even the MGM lion. (SLYT)
« Previous day | Next day »