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There are hundreds of instructional videos on YouTube, but if you ever wanted to learn how to draw some of your favorite characters, like Spongebob Squarepants and Mario, or build a Jurassic fort or a string art sun clock, then Character Corner and Forts and Crafts are places you could go.
posted by Room 641-A at 11:10 PM PST - 3 comments

While whole States are legalizing marijuana, Canada is still struggling with the medical marijuana issue. Canadian Health Minister Rona Ambrose is outraged by the Supreme Court Ruling as, despite recent court rulings in favour of the use of marijuana, her government maintains that cannabis has never been proven safe and effective as a medicine. The head of British Columbia Doctors Association says doctors across Canada are being bombarded with information on medical marijuana by the same companies producing the drug, a clear conflict of interest. Supreme Court ruling here in case anyone missed the link in first URL
posted by smudgedlens at 10:21 PM PST - 44 comments

Video Essayist Jacob T. Swinney edited 3 dozen supercuts, many of which went viral on Slate and indieWire: Each tackling a single motif from recent movies: The Jonathan Demme Close-Up, Hearing Tarantino (or Paul Thomas Anderson), A Rorschach Test from The Master, Movies’ First and Last Shots, Etc. All 36 videos are on his Vimeo page. Among them is his own 2014 demo reel.
posted by growabrain at 10:02 PM PST - 2 comments

I fell in love with Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain the moment I tranquillised a goat and then kidnapped it. [more inside]
posted by grobstein at 7:36 PM PST - 42 comments

Panda Cubs Wrestle with Breeder to Avoid Medication (SLYT)
posted by Joe in Australia at 7:22 PM PST - 42 comments

Procedurally generated Magic: The Gathering cards More example output. Interestingly, the program generating these cards had no hand-coded knowledge of what Magic cards should look like — it learned everything it "knows" from a collection of real cards. And for nerds of the non-MtG variety, here's a fascinatingly thorough post on Recurrent Neural Networks, the technology behind all this.
posted by nebulawindphone at 6:57 PM PST - 52 comments

Transportation Studies Weekly Seminar hosted by U.C. Davis.
posted by aniola at 6:53 PM PST - 4 comments

450 painted, sculpted, cut, fired, and sewn artworks made from matchbooks by 225 artists from around the world. More photos at #strikeawayshow on Instagram. Currently on exhibit at Paxton Gate's Curiosities for Kids. (via Lustik)
posted by madamjujujive at 5:25 PM PST - 5 comments

Overloaded by too many happy animals on the internet? Enjoy some sad animal facts.
posted by backseatpilot at 1:13 PM PST - 40 comments

After last month's vow to curb targeted harassment and make the site a safer platform for all users, the admins of Reddit began making good on that promise yesterday by banning five offensive subreddits deemed guilty of doxxing, brigading, and otherwise tormenting others, including /r/fatpeoplehate -- a militantly anti-HAES forum whose attacks had recently extended to the admins of popular image host Imgur. In reaction, the 150K subscribers of FPH and their sympathizers in other fringe subreddits went on a rampage, creating countless clones (all banned), filling the front page with hate posts, and disregarding the veneer of free-speech activism to viciously slander Reddit CEO Ellen Pao personally. The dissenters advocate a mass exodus of the hate subs to Voat.co [obligatory_wonka.gif], a moderation-free clone of Reddit that has already crashed under the traffic. Ongoing coverage by the enlightened popcorn-munchers of SubredditDrama. [more inside]
posted by Rhaomi at 1:08 PM PST - 507 comments

How a history of eating human brains protected this tribe from brain disease After years of eating brains, some Fore have developed a genetic resistance to the molecule that causes several fatal brain diseases, including kuru, mad cow disease and some cases of dementia. [more inside]
posted by Michele in California at 1:00 PM PST - 25 comments

The fantastic Cornell Lab of Ornithology offers two ways to identify that bird you saw, if you were bird watching in North America, with Merlin. You can download the free app for Android or iPhone and go through a series of prompts to ID that bird, or upload a photo from your desktop, note where and when you took the photo, tag the tip of the beak, the eye and the tail of the bird and like magic (and with use of the eBird database), you can learn about the birds you see.
posted by filthy light thief at 11:52 AM PST - 45 comments

The hard-working son of a plumber, who dined with kings and queens and slept in alleys and ate pork n' beans, the man of the hour, the man with the power, the hit-maker, the record-breaker, who had style and grace, a pretty face, made backs crack and livers quiver, the "American Dream" Dusty Rhodes, a multiple time world champion of professional wrestling, father of two sons who themselves have become talented wrestlers, has gone to his final ten-bell count.
posted by mightygodking at 11:16 AM PST - 39 comments

Jane Marie says, "Don't tell me not to get a fucking neck tattoo." Second generation tattooer Tim Hendricks responds: "Holding a job at a shop that has a long standing good reputation means that you have to follow by certain unwritten laws, a code of ‘tattoo ethics’ if you will. One of these codes is to try and be a good judge of whether or not someone might regret a tattoo or not." [more inside]
posted by Juliet Banana at 10:00 AM PST - 324 comments

Ornette Coleman has died at 85. Free Jazz. Lonely Woman, from "The Shape of Jazz to Come". What Reason Could I Give?. Skies of America, with the London Symphony Orchestra. Gunther Schuller interviews Coleman; Ethan Iverson on Coleman.
posted by kenko at 9:49 AM PST - 104 comments

Michael Erard, in Aeon: "To design metaphors, it helps to have a metaphor for metaphor. I think of it as a room: the windows and doors frame a view toward the reality outside. Put the windows high, people see only the trees. Put them low, they see the grass. Put the window on the south side, they’ll see the sun. Sometimes the room can be empty. Sometimes the views from the room are a bit forced. Or perhaps they’re new and therefore uncomfortable. In those situations, you have to direct people’s attention. You have to give them furniture to sit on that makes your architectural choices unavoidable."
posted by mittens at 7:18 AM PST - 27 comments

Tilting the Streets of San Francisco (Via) [more inside]
posted by zarq at 7:10 AM PST - 19 comments

Paul Ford (yes, yes, MeFi's Own) has created a juggernaut of an article / lived experience / beautiful time-sink about coding. At this point I'll shut up so you can pack a lunch and go immerse yourself now.
posted by maudlin at 6:59 AM PST - 95 comments

A fan takes a look at the downturn of Sonic the Hedgehog, and presents some ideas on how to breathe new life into the franchise. [SLYT]
posted by tocts at 6:40 AM PST - 50 comments

RIP Sir Christopher Lee, actor most famous for playing Dracula in numerous horror films but also notable roles as Lord Summerisle in The Wicker Man, Scaramanga in the James Bond film The Man with the Golden Gun and Saruman in The Lord of the Rings and Hobbit film trilogies [more inside]
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 4:58 AM PST - 198 comments