April 10, 2016

You know it's--it's great for, uh, women's equality.

ROBELINE, LA (KSLA) - A Robeline native is making armed forces history as the first woman to enlist in the infantry in the United States Army.
posted by J.K. Seazer at 9:47 PM PST - 34 comments

The Road Home

“Treated right, poems don't just ‘work’ on radio, they can rock your world.” The Road Home, Bob Chelmick’s weekly broadcast of poetry and music, is perfect for winding down on Sunday night (and do male voices get more relaxing?). Each month the Road Home website cycles through 27 hours of past shows (playlist). Or listen to the live program on Sundays at 8-10 pm MST via the CKUA website. About Bob Chelmick.
posted by sylvanshine at 8:43 PM PST - 4 comments

Most (and least) meaningful jobs

Payscale asked a couple of million workers whether their jobs made the world a better place, and presented the results by job category. 24/7 Wall St. provided the specific job titles for the 20 most meaningful and 16 least meaningful jobs from the same data. Payscale provided the list of job titles whose workers are most likely to think that they're actively making the world worse.
posted by clawsoon at 8:01 PM PST - 73 comments

Growing up with Star Wars

I Grew Up Star Wars had been collecting and posting photos of people growing up with Star Wars for almost a decade now. It is chock full of photos of kids with amazing retro toy collections, fake looking Darth Vaders signing autographs and a ton of Christmas and birthday photos. While it is fun just to look at the old photos, the site also demonstrates the influence this franchise has had on people over the years. [more inside]
posted by metaboy at 7:38 PM PST - 27 comments

Meet Newt Scamander

Meet Newt Scamander in the first trailer for Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them
posted by hippybear at 7:24 PM PST - 38 comments

Flickr Photobomber Tagged Image Game

Solve simple puzzles using tagged images from Flickr. That's it.
posted by MoonOrb at 5:54 PM PST - 17 comments

"How to Become Famous on the Internet"

The memorable URL damn.dog hides a game where you try to guess the titles of WikiHow articles by one of their illustrations.
posted by JHarris at 3:15 PM PST - 28 comments

A tangled web of rock and roll survivors

The most dangerous band in the world is back (almost). What could possibly go wrong? But there's a twist. And another. [more inside]
posted by raider at 2:49 PM PST - 59 comments

Conan O'Brien and Steven Yeun K-pop Style

Conan O'Brien and Steven Yeun go to Korea and end up in J.Y. Park's "Fire" music video along with the Wonder Girls and Twice. [more inside]
posted by needled at 12:38 PM PST - 21 comments

We're Gonna Need A Bigger Remote

Some say that we are currently in a new Golden Age of TV, where quality and popularity of shows are at an all time high. Some would also say that we're in an age of Peak TV, popularized by John Landgraf (FX Networks CEO) in 2015. It refers to the amount of quality television programming, which gives even TV critics pause. Backing this up, FX Networks researched and released list of all 1400 plus primetime shows in 2015, including all 409 original scripted series that aired in 2015 between 8 PM to 11 PM Eastern (direct download).
posted by ZeusHumms at 12:36 PM PST - 41 comments

38.0000,-97.0000

How an internet mapping glitch turned a random Kansas farm into a digital hell: For the last decade, [Joyce] Taylor and her renters have been visited by all kinds of mysterious trouble. They’ve been accused of being identity thieves, spammers, scammers and fraudsters. They’ve gotten visited by FBI agents, federal marshals, IRS collectors, ambulances searching for suicidal veterans, and police officers searching for runaway children. They’ve found people scrounging around in their barn. The renters have been doxxed, their names and addresses posted on the internet by vigilantes. Once, someone left a broken toilet in the driveway as a strange, indefinite threat. All in all, the residents of the Taylor property have been treated like criminals for a decade. And until I called them this week, they had no idea why.
posted by Cash4Lead at 12:08 PM PST - 143 comments

Dave Spector, Gaijin Tarento: Big in Japan, unknown in the US

Tarento, a Japanese rendering (gairaigo) of the English word "talent," or actors, though often is used to refer to actors who take part in more comedic panel shows. Gaijin tarento are "foreign talent," non-Japanese actors who speak Japanese and often represent a stereotyped view of their given nationalities. One of the best-known and longest operating gaijin tarento is David Spector, a relative unknown in his native Chicago, but a household name in Japan (NYT, 2014). The strange cult of the Gaijin Tarento (YT, 5:41) [more inside]
posted by filthy light thief at 11:44 AM PST - 30 comments

History Lesson - Part II

On the 15th anniversary of its publication, The A.V. Club interviews author Michael Azerrad and others on the creation and impact of Our Band Could Be Your Life. [more inside]
posted by soundguy99 at 11:04 AM PST - 14 comments

“Dancing saved my life.”

Sal “Doc Lock” Barcena is a member of the GroovMekanex, a Bay Area group dedicated to preserving popular local dance styles from the 70’s, like Strutting and Locking which he does with fellow dancer “O.G.” Mike Predovic, a member of the Boogaloo Conservatory. Sal started dancing as a 16 year old in 1978. [more inside]
posted by jessamyn at 10:41 AM PST - 5 comments

Still Making Weight

A year ago, Des Moines Register columnist Daniel Finney was about to turn 40 and weighed 563 pounds. After he was offered a wheelchair when he became short of breath on a routine reporting assignment, he made up his mind to try to lose weight. When the column he wrote about his decision went viral, he decided to chronicle his efforts in a blog called Making Weight. A year later, 95 pounds lighter, and significantly fitter and healthier, he looks back on the effort in today's paper. Previously [more inside]
posted by ArbitraryAndCapricious at 10:02 AM PST - 31 comments

Imagining 'The Life of Pablo'

Pigeons and Planes: With both Spotify and Tidal yet to launch in the East Asian market, a lot of listeners have been left in the dark when it comes to Kanye West’s latest album, 'The Life of Pablo', which remained exclusive to Tidal from February 14 until April 1. Kyoto-based producer TOYOMU (Bandcamp, Soundcloud) has been creating his own lo-fi music for some time now, and as a fan of Kanye he was upset when he learned he could not listen to the album without illegally downloading it. So he decided to make the whole album himself without listening to it, using sample credits he found on WhoSampled and lyrics he grabbed from Genius. You can listen to TOYOMU's Imagining 'The Life of Pablo' on Bandcamp.
posted by sapagan at 9:25 AM PST - 21 comments

So, *that's* why we have 4-H.

Fetishizing Family Farms Broken families, underground vice, and sexual variance - not stability - characterized the American family farm for most of its history, argues historian Gabriel Rosenberg. [more inside]
posted by Miko at 9:02 AM PST - 89 comments

There is no ending to that thought.

"But theirs is a loss that never can be recovered." John DeShazier on the death of former New Orleans Saints Defensive End Will Smith. Smith was 34.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 8:59 AM PST - 8 comments

Sunday Morning Woodworking

Butterfly room divider A video showing the making of a butterfly room divider. More videos inside... [more inside]
posted by troll on a pony at 7:07 AM PST - 20 comments

The Flying Forest

"While crows and ravens get most of the attention, smaller members of the corvid family like jays and nutcrackers are out in the world busily building and rebuilding forests. Not on purpose, of course, but through a behavior charmingly called “scatter hoarding,” which basically involves stashing seeds around in various places for later devourment." And this allows the trees - oaks, chestnuts, beeches, hickories - to "borrow the wings of birds." [more inside]
posted by ChuraChura at 5:38 AM PST - 19 comments

Dragon Panda King's Golden Garden Asian Wok Buffet House and Kitchen

Wonkblog analyzed the names of almost every Chinese restaurant in America. As expected, certain words were very commonly used. [more inside]
posted by oneswellfoop at 1:18 AM PST - 102 comments

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