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The SB Nation video series Weird Rules, and its second season, are generally great, telling us of the time when a basketball team tried to block a free throw, the time a ref in a soccer match scored a goal and it counted, the rule preventing goal-tending against field goals in NFL games, and many other entertainingly ridiculous circumstances. A British player in a bicycle race crashed on purpose to get a restart in the 2012 Olympics, an European League basketball team tried to tie to force the game into overtime because for playoff purposes they wanted to win by at least 11, and Barbados in the Caribbean Cup played to tie once because the overtime "golden goal" used to be worth two points there.
posted by JHarris at 11:14 PM PST - 25 comments

RADwood touts itself as "the premiere automotive lifestyle event celebrating the 80s and 90s," now a world-wide collection of gatherings, where old-ish cars, both fancy and "normcore," are on display (Instagram). Folks revel in the rides (YouTube), and participate in what they see as an expression of resistance (New Yorker). Those are likely members of the Human Driving Association, who see increased computerization in cars, particularly autonomous vehicles, as "the war on driving."
posted by filthy light thief at 7:56 PM PST - 33 comments

50 years ago, the Daily Mail commemorate the 50th Anniversary of the first trans-Atlantic crossing by John Alcock and Arthur Brown with an air race between New York and London. Each runner would start at the top of either Post Office Tower or the top floor of the Empire State Building. Cross the Atlantic and reach the top of the other building. [more inside]
posted by Z303 at 6:54 PM PST - 8 comments

"In 1964, Susan Sontag defined camp as an aesthetic “sensibility” that is plain to see but hard for most of us to explain: an intentional over-the-top-ness, a slightly (or extremely) “off” quality, bad taste as a vehicle for good art. “Notes on ‘Camp,’” her 58-point ur-listicle, builds on that inherent sense of something being “too much,” and also fences it in. Camp is artificial, passionate, serious, Sontag writes. Camp is Art Nouveau objects, Greta Garbo, Warner Brothers musicals and Mae West. It is not premeditated — except when it is extremely premeditated. [...] The essay is also the founding document of this year’s Met Costume Institute exhibit and its attendant gala." The New York Times asks: Is It Camp?
posted by everybody had matching towels at 6:38 PM PST - 40 comments

If you read enough reviews of the music of Bibio one thing you'll come across is repeated use of the word "gauzy". [more inside]
posted by aloiv2 at 11:53 AM PST - 5 comments

Blackpink (stylized BLΛƆKPIИK), the first K-pop girl group to perform at Coachella just added episode 8 (yt) to their group's vlog "Blackpink Diaries" covering their experience at the festival. Be sure to check out their mystery fan at around the ~2 minute mark. [more inside]
posted by forforf at 11:18 AM PST - 19 comments

Jaime Hernandez returns with a new graphic novel, Is This How You See Me? based on his classic Love and Rockets characters Maggie and Hopey, and reflects on life’s changes to Carolina Miranda of the L.A. Times in a thoughtful interview.
posted by larrybob at 11:06 AM PST - 15 comments

Premier Doug Ford has been getting his revenge on anyone who ever told him to drink less, pay attention in class, slow down, stop dealing drugs, pollute less, and watch the kids.
posted by clawsoon at 9:20 AM PST - 59 comments

“The scribe Amennakht, who also seems to have served as a kind of shop steward, negotiated with local officials for the distribution of corn to the workers but this was only a temporary solution to an immediate problem; the underlying cause of the failure in payment was never addressed.” The First Labor Strike in History
posted by The Whelk at 7:51 AM PST - 11 comments

Ground broke on December 27, 1892, and almost immediately it became clear just how many unknowns the project would hold. Workers discovered that - unlike at St. Luke's across the street - there was nothing solid to build on. Excavation revealed loose rock, compressible earth, and underground springs. Workers had to dig 72 feet down before they hit bedrock, by which point said springs had turned the hole into a lake. It would take ten years before they drained the hole and built back up the foundation. [more inside]
posted by smcg at 5:27 AM PST - 13 comments