March 23, 2018

Canadian Miscellania

Watch as a Saskatchewan woman saves the day for a perplexed porcupine. Feel your heart swell as an Ontario photographer shoots a very special wedding on 24-hour notice. Cringe as cars whiz by a Quebec Welcome Beaver (he isn't harmed). Finally, enjoy Canada.com's favourite cute animal pictures.
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 10:24 PM PST - 27 comments

a specter is haunting the employment market ...

Why Democrats Should Embrace a Federal Jobs Guarantee
To explore the possibility of Democrats’ running on a guaranteed-job plan, we asked the respected data analytics firm Civis Analytics to not only poll guaranteed jobs, but poll it in the way that would be most likely to gain opposition from voters. They asked respondents: “Democrats in congress are proposing a bill which would guarantee a job to every American adult, with the government providing jobs for people who can’t find employment in the private sector. This would be paid for by a 5 percent income tax increase on those making over $200,000 per year. Would you be for or against this policy?”
"52 percent in support, 29 percent opposed, and the rest don’t know." [more inside]
posted by the man of twists and turns at 9:34 PM PST - 92 comments

The most obvious and potentially lethal flaw

In August 2016, a ten-year-old boy was decapitated while riding the tallest waterslide in the world, the Verrückt, at Schlitterbahn Waterpark in Kansas City, KS. The indictment has just been released, and it is damning. [more inside]
posted by vegartanipla at 9:09 PM PST - 110 comments

Lawyer Up, Delete Facebook, Hit Kim Jong-Un

Day 248: Trump has, after much whining and the threat of a veto, signed the House spending bill, keeping the US government open until September. Early reports (because, of course, it was put together and shoved through in a rush) are that it's not great, with way too much irresponsible spending on the military, but it's much better than could be expected given this administration. A policy solution for DREAMers is not included, which Trump tried to blame on Democrats, leading to Trump supporters confusingly calling for American residents who aren't citizens to be looked after by the government. [This is an American politics thread: to keep it manageable for mods, please read and abide by these instructions.] [more inside]
posted by Merus at 7:59 PM PST - 2405 comments

“...but hot damn can Makoto Shinkai draw some fine looking vegetables.”

Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner // Supercut [YouTube]
posted by Fizz at 6:24 PM PST - 3 comments

Forgive, sounds good; forget, I'm not sure I could.

After 3 years out of the public eye, Dixie Chicks released their seventh album in 2006, Taking The Long Way. It was quite a statement after what they'd been through during and after their 2003 European tour. It won numerous awards, including Grammys and a Juno for International Album Of The Year. CD tracklist: The Long Way Around, Easy Silence, Not Ready To Make Nice [video, Ed. Note: OMG THIS VIDEO], Everybody Knows, Bitter End, Lullaby, Lubbock Or Leave It, Silent House, Favorite Year, Voice Inside My Head, I Like It, Baby Hold On, So Hard, I Hope
posted by hippybear at 6:18 PM PST - 15 comments

The Rogue 99

Tien Nguyen, Katherine Spiers, and LA Taco protest the embattled LA Weekly’s annual Essential 99 list of restaurants: The last year hasn’t been a great one for many of our local media institutions. With the fragility of those institutions in mind, we didn’t want such a vital list to disappear. In the spirit of the first one, we decided this year to create our own. As with the original, the Rogue 99 is intended to be a guide to the culinary soul of the city. It is not, to be clear, a list of the “best restaurants” in Los Angeles; rather, it’s a showcase of places to eat if you want to be fluent in the language of Los Angeles. These are restaurants, taco stands, and food carts that have been the lifeblood of the city and the county for at least a year, if not considerably longer.
posted by Room 641-A at 4:48 PM PST - 15 comments

"It takes an idiot to do cool things - and that's why it's cool."

Adult Swim has dropped the longform trailer for the upcoming new FLCL seasons - FLCL Progressive and FLCL Alternative, with clips from the new themes by The Pillows. (SLYT) [more inside]
posted by NoxAeternum at 4:10 PM PST - 21 comments

k.d. lang on her "ingenue" tour

A really good interview about her current tour and coping with middle age. Here's a video of the kickoff of this tour: Constant Craving [more inside]
posted by MovableBookLady at 12:24 PM PST - 24 comments

"Have I offended you? Do you find me offensive?"

What in God’s Name Happened to Ricky Gervais? A look at the decline of the once great comedian who has gone from creating The Office to having his own David Bowie song to reflexively defending shitposters online.
posted by Artw at 9:59 AM PST - 165 comments

You're it!

"I've played a game of tag for 23 years" - now coming to a cinema near you.
posted by Stark at 8:55 AM PST - 28 comments

The Fundamental Power of Explanation

In "Philosophy of Science" Brett Hall provides a non-mathematical and jargon free summary of David Deutsch's 2016 paper "The Logic of Experimental Tests, Particularly of Everettian Quantum Theory". [more inside]
posted by Ipsifendus at 8:14 AM PST - 10 comments

Hyping one thing after the other

With nationalism on the rise, we ask: can philosophy enable us to think differently about our true identity? Question everything.
posted by Juso No Thankyou at 8:10 AM PST - 0 comments - Post a Comment

Craigslist Just Shut Down Its Infamous Personals Section

Craigslist just got rid of its entire personals section, which was reportedly one of the most used parts of the site, thanks to a new law aimed at cracking down on sex trafficking. [more inside]
posted by MrVisible at 8:02 AM PST - 67 comments

Mack the Beeb

UK Drama Pitch Generator By James Henry (Smack the Pony &c) via @calbo
posted by hawthorne at 6:08 AM PST - 18 comments

Come gather round people, wherever you roam...

On March 10th 1964, Canadian TV viewers tuned to Quest, a show created to inform and entertain. Often controversial and never one to pull its punches, Quest had been branded 'corrupt and immoral' in Parliament. Facing cancellation, show producer Daryl Duke decided to go out with a bang: 27 minutes of nothing but Bob Dylan, his guitar and So. Much. Background smoking. [more inside]
posted by garius at 3:07 AM PST - 20 comments

“Now I am in the silent zone.”

When Aleksander Doba kayaked into the port in Le Conquet, France, on Sept. 3, 2017, he had just completed his third — and by far most dangerous — solo trans-Atlantic kayak trip. He was a few days shy of his 71st birthday. He was unaccustomed to wearing pants.
Alone at Sea by Elizabeth Weil (SL NYT) [more inside]
posted by lesser weasel at 1:06 AM PST - 12 comments

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