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Dinosaurs were lumbering, stupid, scientifically boring beasts—until John Ostrom rewrote the book on them.
posted by brundlefly at 11:50 PM PST - 12 comments

The more things change, the more they stay the same: "Your great^555m grandfather was a sponge and spent his life bored as fuck."
posted by paleyellowwithorange at 10:44 PM PST - 26 comments

"...writing for The Daily Beast, Roland Martin proposed a solution to the surging violence on Chicago's South and West Sides: Send the National Guard to Chicago." "This idea of the powerful causing the problem and then swooping in to benevolently gift us the "solution" is offensive. You can't make up for systemic deprivation through law enforcement. Law enforcement doesn't have the nuance, it doesn't have the tools, and it doesn't actually work." - Josie Duffy in conversation with Ernest Wilkins, Jamilah Lemieux, Jason Parham, and Kiese Laymon. [more inside]
posted by artof.mulata at 9:55 PM PST - 61 comments

“No-one ever passed me in time trials, I used to chase and catch. It was a great thrill, it really was.”

The celebrated Eileen Sheridan rode her bicycle from Lands End to John o' Groats in 2 days, 11 hours, 7 minutes, breaking gender rules and speed records until retirement. In her own words.
posted by latkes at 9:26 PM PST - 4 comments

Lana Del Rey: Why a Death-Obsessed Pop Siren Is Perfect for Late-Stage Capitalist America (mirrored at Salon.com)

Lana Del Rey is pushing the envelope, and here's her message, delivered with a languid pout: 21st-century America is a rotting corpse, deadlocked culturally, economically, and politically. Since there's nothing we can do about it, let's enjoy ourselves as the body-politic disintegrates, perhaps by savoring some toothsome bites of the past: candy-colored Super 8 films, juicy jazz tunes and clips of sultry screen sirens. The future is a retrospective.

All of this echoes the ancient danse macabre, the dance of death, the motif that sprang out of the medieval horrors of war and the plague. It's a plea for fevered amusement while you've still got time.

posted by joseph conrad is fully awesome at 9:16 PM PST - 60 comments

One of the greatest upsets in Olympic History happened in Tokyo in 1964: Billy Mills came from behind to win the 10,000m gold (YT: race edited down to 4 minutes). Mills, a member of the Oglala Lakota Sioux, remains the only American to win this race in the Olympics. Here he is talking to Here and Now on NPR about how he ran the race (it's riveting), the name of the Washington, DC NFL franchise, and in an extra on this page, about Native American history.
posted by julen at 8:59 PM PST - 5 comments

"Less a race than a celebration of motorsports heritage," the Mille Miglia classic car rally takes place every May. Its thousand-mile course wends from Brescia through Verona and Padua to Rome and then back north to Brescia by way of Bologna. (PDF) First staged in 1927 with 77 entrants, the now-annual event draws driving enthusiasts from around the world. [more inside]
posted by GrammarMoses at 7:20 PM PST - 5 comments

Travel back in TV time to 1985 when Weird Al Yankovic appeared as a musical guest for the first and, tragically, only time on Johnny Carson's Tonight Show. [more inside]
posted by Smells of Detroit at 7:12 PM PST - 34 comments

7 Days of Garbage is a photo portrait series by Gregg Segal. His subjects are surrounded by the garbage they accumulate in a week. (More of his work: Gregg Segal. )
posted by madamjujujive at 6:19 PM PST - 12 comments

"Winnipeg is the capital of Manitoba, Canada — and for 16 of the past 33 years, it has also been the country's murder capital. The prairie city is home to just under 800,000 people, about 10 percent of whom are Aboriginal, meaning Winnipeg boasts the largest urban Aboriginal population in Canada. Largely impoverished and facing continual discrimination, the community has given rise to violent Aboriginal street gangs." Vice reports (17 mins).
posted by stbalbach at 5:46 PM PST - 31 comments

July 11th (7/11!) is the perfect day to read this Priceonomics piece on the invention of the Slurpee.
Did you miss Free Slurpee Day today? This year 7-Eleven's Free Slurpee Day has been supersized into a freebie week. (previously: 2005 & 2008)
(And bonus CanCon from the Wall Street Journal - This Isn't a Brain Freeze—Manitoba Wins 'Slurpee Capital' Once Again: Chilly Canadian Province Is Hottest Market for the Ice-Cold Beverage from 7-Eleven for 15th Year)
posted by flex at 5:38 PM PST - 10 comments

Black bear sow and cubs released. slyt
posted by vansly at 4:49 PM PST - 9 comments

Five Genre-Defining Video Games Forgotten by History (SLYT, 53min.)
posted by ChurchHatesTucker at 4:30 PM PST - 35 comments

Beautiful rocks. On the east side of the San Andreas Fault is mainland California. On the west of it is Point Reyes. The geology of Point Reyes is rather unique. It thus fosters a unique local ecology and is home to relatively unique animal species [more inside]
posted by Michele in California at 4:29 PM PST - 19 comments

After dropping sweet synthwave tunes for two years, Le Cassette have released their first album "Left to Our Own Devices," available on (of course) cassette tape
posted by rebent at 4:09 PM PST - 4 comments

Neon Genesis Windows 98 [SLYT]
posted by emmtee at 4:07 PM PST - 20 comments

Word association time: I say "peat", you say… "Scotland", right? Not necessarily! Peat is found around the world, including in many African countries. Earlier this year, scientists trekked through a Congo swamp, braving gorillas, elephants, crocodiles, and more. Their reward? Discovery of a peat bog the size of England. The team estimates that the bog covers between 100,000 and 200,000 square kilometers (40,000 to 80,000 sq miles), with the peat-layer reaching up to 7m (23ft) beneath the ground.
posted by Lexica at 3:53 PM PST - 28 comments

A cinemascope film of San Francisco in 1955. "Highlights everything from the Cliff House (and the adjacent but long-defunct Sky Tram) to Fisherman’s Wharf — along with Telegraph Hill, City Hall, the Cable Car turnaround, a very squeaky ride down Lombard Street, the SF zoo, Golden Gate Park… and everything in between the (once record-breaking) spans of the Golden Gate and the San Francisco-Oakland Bay bridges." (The tour of the city picks up again at 15:40.)
posted by DarlingBri at 2:36 PM PST - 12 comments

In the past week, Germany has found and fired an American mole in their intelligence agency, investigated another suspect in their defense ministry, and asked the CIA station chief to leave the country. Media reports offer an interesting view of a post Cold War world grappling with the unexpected* - spy vs spy among friends and allies, while traditional intelligence targets Russia and China play the part of bemused bystanders. [more inside]
posted by infini at 1:32 PM PST - 56 comments

14-18 NOW is a project commissioning contemporary artists to commemorate the centennial of the First World War and explore its resonance and effects today. For three summers (2014, 2016, and 2018), the organization is presenting a summer season of events. This summer's opening act was curated by Billy Bragg at Glastonbury; live performances can be found on the site. Other events include a radio series of essays on the theme of Goodbye to All That, cartoons, recreating Dazzle Ships, and letters to an unknown soldier (including the opportunity to write your own).
posted by immlass at 1:26 PM PST - 3 comments

Team Teamwork has released Katamari Da-Emcee, a mashup album of the wonderful soundtrack from the 2004 Playstation 2 cult hit Katamari Damacy with various hip-hop songs from artists including Kanye West, 50 Cent, and Big Freedia, the New Orleanian queen of bounce music. [more inside]
posted by Corinth at 12:57 PM PST - 36 comments

Remember that early episode of Seinfeld where Elaine buys a gun, her father makes his second appearance, and we finally find out that Kramer's first name is Conrad? Well, neither does anyone else who wasn't working on the show during its second season, specifically in December of 1990, when the table read for "The Bet" was held. [more inside]
posted by Etrigan at 12:27 PM PST - 21 comments

Secular trans feminist Zinnia Jones debunks the myth of biological sex and the inaccurate ways the concept has been used to invalidate trans people.

Mey from Autostraddle explains why it’s time for people to stop using the social construct of “biological sex” to defend their transmisogyny.

Inter/act explains that intersex people, despite having disorders of sex development (DSDs) that contribute to what doctors define as a "biological sex other than male or female," may identify as male, female, or somewhere else on the gender spectrum. [more inside]
posted by Juliet Banana at 12:00 PM PST - 109 comments

"Turn Down for What": a Guide
posted by ardgedee at 11:43 AM PST - 42 comments

The NYT Style section reports that "image-conscious digital natives" are paying for expensive and elaborate portrait sessions to get one-of-a-kind shots to use in social media profiles and on professional websites. These photos (which the Times incorrectly calls "glamour selfies") are not your professional headshots; instead the subjects are depicted in a warehouse, in a field, in a pickup truck, etc. The motivations? Enhancing a personal brand, celebrating a milestone birthday... and, of course, getting lots of "likes" on Facebook. Slate's XX Factor blog defends the trend (if you can call it a trend) by suggesting that the portrait subjects are trying to avoid age discrimination.
posted by trillian at 11:23 AM PST - 101 comments

A list of things I don't want you to say by Carlie Lazar
posted by josher71 at 11:11 AM PST - 208 comments

After weeks of speculation, angst, and predictions from odd places, the world's best basketball player has announced he is returning to the team he started with, in the state where he grew up. The reactions, and bits, have just started to roll in. Meanwhile, in Cleveland...
posted by Potomac Avenue at 10:58 AM PST - 88 comments

"Is it OK to take a selfie at Auschwitz?", asks archaeologist Paul Mullins. Selfies are people in places, not objects in spaces, says Katie Warfield.
posted by Rumple at 10:56 AM PST - 76 comments

Didn't get enough fireworks on the Fourth? Got fogged out? US holidays irrelevant anyway? "長岡花火大会2012年2日間の総集編 Fireworks the most beautiful in the japan" is 30 minutes of HD fireworks from the Nagaoka fireworks festival, one of several fireworks festivals in Japan. It has two segments, one each from the first and second night of the fireworks. According to Japan Guide, "both nights feature two straight hours of fireworks...The show's finale covers nearly two kilometers of the riverbank and is the widest span of fireworks in the world." [more inside]
posted by wintersweet at 10:55 AM PST - 5 comments

Hari Kondabolu on Why You Can’t Be ‘Obsessed With Race’ in America. “Saying that I’m obsessed with race and racism in America is like saying t hat I’m obsessed with swimming while I’m drowning. It’s absurd.” Hari Kondabolu of “Totally Biased With W. Kamau Bell” fame on race in America. [more inside]
posted by sweetkid at 10:36 AM PST - 29 comments

Ирина Плещева: Russian cosmonaut Max Suraev (@Msuraev) youtubes day-to-day events from the International Space Station.
posted by loukasven at 9:38 AM PST - 2 comments

"Welcome to the CONJURER'S KITCHEN,  where  Annabel de Vetten (aka Annabel Lecter) performs her culinary wizardry. Leaning towards more unusual and creatively decorated cakes, our creations range from artistic to anatomical, and from creepy to occasionally cute. The more unusual the request, the happier we are. Nothing is too weird for the Conjurer's Kitchen! Seriously...."

- lifesized cake of Dexter to commemorate the show's final season
- Codex Serafinianus cake
- Creepy Cat With Hands cake
- controversial white chocolate baby heads
- "I often get asked what's inside the decorated cakes, what they taste like. So I thought I would create a cake to answer that question."
posted by danabanana at 9:24 AM PST - 14 comments

In "These Aren't the Droids" Neko Case (previously) and Kelly Hogan (previously) imagine a future designed by teenaged fanboys, and Ellie Kemper plays the unlucky wife of a Stromtrooper. [SLYT] [more inside]
posted by Room 641-A at 9:14 AM PST - 23 comments

"Casually, I click in a compilation of clips I've never seen before. I think it's another video like other thousands of thousands, but I soon realize it's not. The clips are not Messi goals, his best runs, nor his assists. It's a strange compilation: the video shows hundreds of clips, two or three seconds long each, in which Messi receives strong fouls and doesn't fall to the ground." Messi es un perro is a short essay by Argentine writer Hernán Casciari on Lionel Messi. You can read an English translation on Reddit, Messi Is a Dog. Perhaps the best way to enjoy it is to listen to the original as read by Norberto Jansenson with English subtitles. [via this Deadspin article about Messi by Billy Haisley which you should also read]
posted by Kattullus at 9:13 AM PST - 23 comments

Norbert Wiener: The Eccentric Genius Whose Time May Have Finally Come (Again) - "The most direct reason for Wiener's fall to relative obscurity was the breakthrough of a young mathematician and engineer named Claude Shannon." [more inside]
posted by kliuless at 7:11 AM PST - 12 comments

YouTube user lem0ns2lime aka Carlos C. likes supercuts. Let's start with Muse - Explorers (5:49), which was cut down to 20 seconds without lyrics, just breaths. Then the video of Muse in concert was truncated down to 15 seconds long. That really built up the tension and energy, so let's amp it up with a bunch of gasping WWF and WCW wrestlers from the 1980s (previously), and there's the sequel, Absolutely No Words 2. If you like your wrestlers with laughing (via rough edits), you might enjoy Jim the Laugh Machine (aka Jim the Anvil Neidhart, with extra laughter).
posted by filthy light thief at 7:08 AM PST - 12 comments

Today is the National Gay Blood Drive, a campaign dedicated to bringing attention to the fact that the FDA still bans any men who have had sex with other men (MSM), at any time since 1977 from becoming blood donors.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 7:08 AM PST - 101 comments

Watch a Young Terry Gilliam Explain How He Makes Monty Python Animations
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 7:03 AM PST - 6 comments

Vader Abraham [previously] is a beloved Dutch singer, who at the ripe age of 79 has been credited with a staggering 1600 songs and is best known for singing the original Smurfs theme song. De Mosselman [previously] is a 90s-era Dutch happy hardcore artist who's most famous work is... well, this. What do you get when you bring the two together? Possibly the weirdest, most wonderful dance collaboration of the century.
posted by Itaxpica at 7:02 AM PST - 6 comments

Did you ever get the feeling people are brushing you off? It could be the way you part your hair. [more inside]
posted by Mchelly at 6:38 AM PST - 73 comments

Unless they're the article itself.
posted by Curious Artificer at 6:03 AM PST - 58 comments

"I’m gay. I date men. Some of those men have vaginas."

A short comic about dating trans men by cartoonist Bill Roundy, previously featured for his Brooklyn bar review comics. (You may also like his gay romance comics, e.g. this unauthorised Northstar romance.)
posted by MartinWisse at 2:33 AM PST - 93 comments

July 5, 2014: Anthrocon Fursuit Parade [~27m]. 1326 animals of various species and styles pass before your eyes. [more inside]
posted by hippybear at 1:22 AM PST - 32 comments

Erik Johansson creates incredible illusions through photography. [more inside]
posted by Deoridhe at 12:24 AM PST - 14 comments