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Toy Story 4’s Forky Has Haunting Metaphysical Implications for the Toy Story Universe (Slate) "A new Toy Story movie is in theaters this weekend, and as audiences all over the world emerge from another thrilling Pixar adventure with Buzz, Woody, and a newly-independent Bo Peep, one question is on everyone’s lips: “What does the introduction of ‘Forky,’ a homemade toy fashioned from pipe cleaners, googly eyes, and a spork, imply about the nature of consciousness in the sentient toys of the Toy Story universe?” Fortunately, the films offer enough evidence to reach a definitive conclusion. Unfortunately, that conclusion is too awful to contemplate. So let’s contemplate it!" (Spoilers for Toy Story 4) [more inside]
posted by lesser weasel at 11:37 PM PST - 58 comments

Gov. Gavin Newsom issued an executive order (PDF) Tuesday (June 18, 2019) apologizing on behalf of the citizens of California for a history of “violence, maltreatment and neglect” against Native Americans in a rare move that some tribal leaders said could begin a healing process for their communities. (Los Angeles Times) Now it’s Los Angeles’ turn to offer an apology. No other city in the state went further in the 1850s to strip away the rights of Indians, make their labor available to whites, and hasten the devastation of the Native American community in the city. (L.A. Times op-ed) But the enslavement of indigenous people was not a practice only in California, but throughout the Americas (Wikipedia), for hundreds of years, under various names and methods. [more inside]
posted by filthy light thief at 10:02 PM PST - 9 comments

Happening right now, live: The Investigation: A Search for the Truth in 10 Acts. A cast that includes Annette Bening, Kevin Kline, John Lithgow, Michael Shannon, Jason Alexander and many more as they perform The Mueller Report.
posted by dobbs at 6:36 PM PST - 13 comments

Frida, a rescue dog in the Mexican Navy (SEMAR), hung up her goggles today after nine years of service. She is celebrated and beloved for her contributions to rescue operations in Mexico, Haiti, Ecuador and Guatemala, and will help train future rescue dogs. Here is a clip from her retirement ceremony. Gracias Frida, you are truly a 15/10.
posted by Orange Dinosaur Slide at 5:54 PM PST - 7 comments

This summer marks the 10-year anniversary of Kesha's insanely earwormy Tik Tok! Celebrate it with Kesha by overthrowing the classist patriarchy, why don't you?
posted by rorgy at 4:12 PM PST - 59 comments

The making of Samurai Shodown [Polygon] “Known as Samurai Spirits in its native Japan, as it always has been, SNK’s latest is the first mainline Shodown game in more than a decade. Part prequel, part reboot, it’s an attempt to revitalize a series born nearly 26 years ago in the smoky arcades of the early ’90s. Fighting games have a sentimental relationship to the past; any significant degree of change, however innovative, is met with a certain mistrust. They work well in two dimensions, for the most part, and have since the heydey of two-player cabinets like Street Fighter 2 and Mortal Kombat. So maybe it’s not too surprising to see the new Shodown hewing to the traditions of its predecessors: 2D combat, manga-inspired art, a special emphasis on melee weapons, the 18th-century Japanese setting.” [YouTube][PAX East Panel][Gameplay Trailer] [more inside]
posted by Fizz at 2:33 PM PST - 30 comments

Over 100 Years Ago, the US Government Commissioned 7,500 Watercolor Paintings of Every Kind of Fruit in the Country "The Pomological Watercolor Collection comprises over 7,500 paintings, drawings, and wax models commissioned by the USDA between 1886 and 1942....About 65 American artists contributed to the collection, tasked by the USDA to document the thousands and thousands of varieties of heirloom and experimental fruit cultivars sprouting up nationwide."
posted by apricot at 12:06 PM PST - 29 comments

A set of identical brothers ambivalently attends the world’s largest gathering for twins. (slTheNib)
posted by Etrigan at 10:59 AM PST - 38 comments

So if type I fun is things that are fun while they are occurring, and type II fun is things that feel bad in the moment, but are looked back on fondly, and type III fun is things that are no fun at all, why would anyone deliberately seek out type II (or 'latent') fun?
Project Y tries to find out [more inside]
posted by the man of twists and turns at 9:04 AM PST - 81 comments

Against the backdrop of cultural differences as a current axiom of academic (and other) discourse around the world, and against the very real, very-not-academic protests in Hong Kong as Hong Kong people advocate loudly for their independence from the Chinese legal system, Qu Weiguo addresses the 2019 graduating class of Fudan University with a speech about individual freedom, the problematic nature of 'cultural differences', and who gets to (or doesn't get to) claim freedom as an ideal.
posted by cirgue at 8:43 AM PST - 8 comments

Writer Ocean Vuong publishes his first novel : as noted by the American Booksellers Association, "On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous is a portrait of a family, first love, and the power of storytelling and an exploration of the American stories of race, class, masculinity, immigration, as well as of addiction, violence, and trauma." As Lucille Clifton said, poetry should comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable; Ocean Vuong's writing certainly does that. [more inside]
posted by wicked_sassy at 7:31 AM PST - 6 comments