MetaFilter

How to get good horses in medieval China
posted by Chrysostom at 9:55 PM PST - 16 comments

Ike White had the kind of life that sounds too outrageous to be true. Given a life sentence for murder at the age of 19, he spent his time writing songs with his fellow prisoners and was soon discovered by Jerry Goldstein, a record producer and affiliate of Jimi Hendrix. They managed to record Ike’s debut album, Changin’ Times (YouTube playlist), from a mobile studio in prison in California in 1974. By 1978, Stevie Wonder had caught wind of the socially conscious, funky record and secured a new attorney for White, who petitioned for his release that year. Set free, White was poised for stardom and had just had a child with his new wife – Goldstein’s secretary. Then he disappeared. Murder, mystery and a hit record: the unbelievable story of Ike White (Ammar Kalia for The Guardian) [more inside]
posted by filthy light thief at 9:34 PM PST - 2 comments

Our nation is not like imperial Germany, and great as our dangers are, they can’t be compared to the horrors of that earlier time. But there may be a distant lesson from a country whose rulers in war, quarrelling among themselves, inflicted unimaginable harm to their people and to the world with their mendacity, secrecy, and paranoia. The consequences of their leadership—bolstered as it had been by claims of divine guidance, shrouded in chauvinism, and fortified by the cunning manipulation of pervasive fear—became fully manifest only later, as the people of an aggrieved nation turned against each other, almost reveling in their deep political and moral divisions and hatreds. It took a worse catastrophe, a world-historical scourge, to teach a lesson to these affected people. By distant analogy, we too might learn a lesson about the dangers and follies of imperial hubris.

Imperial Hubris: A German Tale
posted by MoonOrb at 9:25 PM PST - 23 comments

1985 was a ridiculously strong year for music releases. June 10, 1985 saw the release of Talking Heads' Little Creatures. Their best selling album [YouTube playlist], it was on many end of year best lists, and it spawned two hit singles. Side A: And She Was [video], Give Me Back My Name, Creatures Of Love, The Lady Don't Mind [video], Perfect World [more inside]
posted by hippybear at 7:29 PM PST - 48 comments

Confessions of a Former Bastard Cop [Content Warning: Discussion of violence, abuse, killing].

I know what you’re thinking, “What? We need the police! They protect us!” As someone who did it for nearly a decade, [...] understand that by and large, police protection is marginal, incidental. It’s an illusion created by decades of copaganda designed to fool you into thinking these brave men and women are holding back the barbarians at the gates.

Via.
posted by glonous keming at 5:00 PM PST - 95 comments

This blog post provides an in-depth look at accessibility features from The Last of Us Part 2, due for release June 19. [more inside]
posted by Alensin at 4:37 PM PST - 6 comments

Bill & Ted Face the Music [Official Trailer]
posted by Fizz at 3:28 PM PST - 62 comments

The 100 greatest UK No 1 singles is a Guardian listicle ranking songs that reached the top of the UK singles chart from the 1950s until today. But there is much more than just the list, including essays by Guardian critics about each track in the top twenty.
posted by Kattullus at 11:57 AM PST - 56 comments

'She still lives!' Famed Yellowstone bear emerges from winter – with cubs
posted by Slinga at 10:44 AM PST - 19 comments

"Quisieron enterrarnos, pero se les olvido que somos semillas."
The history of ‘They tried to bury us. They didn’t know we were seeds.’

I first encountered this Mexican dicho in the mid-90’s reading poems and graffiti from Zapatistas. Then, when we lost the Ayotzinapa 43, the refrain came back as if a whole crop of teachers were about to burst from the earth in Iguala.

[more inside]
posted by the man of twists and turns at 10:42 AM PST - 5 comments

Itch.io's bundle for racial justice and equality ($5+) already includes 1000 projects at the time of this post, with more to come, with all proceeds being donated to the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund and Community Bail Fund. Not only does it includes indie heavy-hitters like Night in the Woods, Cook Serve Delicious 2, Minit and Oxenfree but it also includes a selection of LGBT friendly games like A Mortician's Tale, Highway Blossoms, EXTREME MEATPUNKS FOREVER and Serre; tabletop rulebooks like Glitter Hearts, Blades in the Dark and Lancer; along with many many other games and software. (Previously) [more inside]
posted by simmering octagon at 9:54 AM PST - 84 comments

Last night, protestors captured several blocks of the Capitol Hill neighborhood in Seattle after police abandoned the East Precinct, which had been the epicenter of the worst police-vs-protestor clashes over the past week. Mutualists, voluntaryists, and other anarchists are now supplanting police and other city services in the "Free Capitol Hill" autonomous zone.
posted by Jacqueline at 9:47 AM PST - 49 comments

Yori is the CMD replacement you never knew that you needed.

Featuring:
* Suggestions as you type
* Ctrl+Click to select values
* Better tab completion
* Background jobs

and more! Add it to your Windows Terminal.
posted by Your Childhood Pet Rock at 9:05 AM PST - 27 comments

Matthew Hockenberry has thoughtfully compiled a list of source material on topics in the critical study of logistics, including: "Logistical Media; Mining and Extraction; Production and Assembly; Shipping, Storage, Distribution; Speculations on Supply; Activism and Resistance; Logistical Histories; Commodity Communications; Migration, Mobility, and Movement; Corporations and Capitalism; Computational Production; Infrastructures and Spaces; and Consumers and Consumption." But first, let's set the stage. A Supply Studies Syllabus, from Supply Studies (via The Prepared newsletter).
posted by MonkeyToes at 8:36 AM PST - 3 comments

So when word started to circulate that a Black Lives Matter rally was being planned in Vidor, many people on social media thought it was a trap. On Saturday, 150 people showed up in Texas’s “most hate-filled town” to turn their backs on Vidor’s past. [more inside]
posted by jozifd at 7:09 AM PST - 8 comments

The queerness of Bruce Springsteen.
posted by Etrigan at 6:48 AM PST - 9 comments

Overfishing on the rise as global consumption climbs: U.N. agency - "More than a third of the fish stocks around the world are being overfished and the problem is particularly acute in developing countries, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said in a report on Monday." (pdf) [more inside]
posted by kliuless at 4:26 AM PST - 5 comments

Adam Rapoport, the editor-in-chief of Bon Appetit has stepped down and most stars of the Bon Appetit youtube channel have refused to appear in further videos pending action after a brownface picture of Rapoport surfaces, Sohla El-Waylly shares information about major pay disparities at BA, and other BIPOC youtube stars share their own stories of poor treatment at BA. (All reddit links as most updates are happening in instagram stories. Current roundup here.).
posted by mosst at 3:04 AM PST - 98 comments

Former workers at Cards Against Humanity, the popular and controversial party game, have spoken up about the company's toxic work environment. Beginning with Theresa Stewart's story of casual racism and bullying, others added their stories of "the unethical, racist ... predominantly white, upper-middle class [writers'] room" and how "we tried to write cards calling out abusers or punching up at rape culture and we're told they would never be in the game because of the accusations against Max Temkin." Anita Sarkeesian has declared, "by publicly associating with Max, I allowed him to take cover via tacit approval from me and my nonprofit. I am not willing to do that anymore." [more inside]
posted by adrianhon at 2:41 AM PST - 100 comments