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Ghosts and Hells: The Underworld in Asian Art Phantasmagoric delicacy marks the best of Enfers et fantômes d’Asie (Ghosts and Hells: The Underworld in Asian Art) at Musée du quai Branly. This sprawling show encompasses a wealth of sepulchral, shrouded spirits meandering Asia’s cultural purview: ranging from shadow puppetry, to ultra gory, Thai horror flick clips, through minimal Yase-otoko Noh masks of emaciated men, and flamboyant Kabuki theatre costumes. And much much more. At the Musée du quai Branly (37 Quai Branly, Paris) through July 15th, 2018.
posted by MovableBookLady at 10:34 PM PST - 2 comments

A List of the Many Things Stressing out Your Bartender.
posted by storybored at 7:38 PM PST - 41 comments

Kathy Loves Physics is a relatively unknown youtube channel. It tells the story of how humans developed a scientific understanding of electricity, and how we invented the fundamental electric-powered devices. The technical content is supplemented with lots of history about the people and the societal context. Special focus is given to the female researchers whose contributions were often written out of textbooks. Kathy explains the concepts clearly with plenty of humor and not much math. There are dozens of videos already, and she hasn't even gotten to transistors yet!
posted by scose at 5:34 PM PST - 10 comments

Scorpion is a whole shitload of Drake [The A.V. Club] “It is the album-length equivalent of the “get you a man who can do both” meme, and it is longer than hell: over 90 minutes of ceaseless, unyielding Drake, always being Drake as hell, complaining about Instagram and ex-girlfriends and the travails of being Drake. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing. He’s always had a penchant for the ridiculous, and part of liking Drake is making fun of Drake. But Scorpion is serious about it.” [more inside]
posted by Fizz at 4:39 PM PST - 19 comments

"I watched 'The Simpsons' for the first time ever and I couldn't stand it." [more inside]
posted by buzzkillington at 4:22 PM PST - 88 comments

I myself am probably too washed to pinpoint the moment that “washed”—an existential description that has become ubiquitous in the past few years, as the American empire ebbs and exhaustion sets in—first entered the culture. It's not quite “washed up,” with its connotations of lounge singers in Vegas reflecting on their glory days. It's more about that transitive moment: There you are in the train station of life, waving goodbye to your edge and your youth as they depart. You are Eli Manning, and you are no longer a plausible NFL starter in the eyes of some, but you are not yet ready to go to the bench. You haven't been to that particular new restaurant yet, but you've heard it's nice. People tend to use the word “washed” as a pejorative, or as a mild, self-deprecating admission of defeat. But I'm not so sure. In fact, I'm beginning to suspect the word describes something far more ecstatic: In Praise of Being Washed
posted by not_the_water at 3:54 PM PST - 41 comments

#WhatTheFluffChallenge is an adorable Twitter hashtag: humans do a disappearing trick for their pets, mostly dogs. Results are usually amusing and sometimes poignant. Here's a compilation of some of the better ones [overly-chipper sountrack] and here's one on dog logic in general.
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 3:02 PM PST - 36 comments

Marissa Lingen, "My Favourite Sentience" (Nature, 25 April 2018): "Jessa, age 9. Yorknet is my favourite sentience because it is dependable, protective and wise." Premee Mohamed, "More Tomorrow" (Automata Review, 13 March 2018): "Day 5. Anyway, it turns out trilobites aren't very good eating even if you haven't eaten in days." Sarah Hutto, "Modern Tips For Looking After Your Human Husband" (McSweeney's, 1 June 2018): "Get yourself ready. Put on your skin suit." Rachael K. Jones, "Five Functions of Your Bionosaur" (ROBOT DINOSAURS! anthology, May 2018): "Your parents first activate your bionosaur when they bring you home from the hospital."
posted by Wobbuffet at 2:50 PM PST - 11 comments

Juggalos figured out how to beat facial recognition
posted by the man of twists and turns at 2:32 PM PST - 21 comments

On Shikoku, the smallest and least visited of Japan’s four main islands, one woman has had a mind-spinning response to a common crisis (BBC). Ayano Tsukimi moved back from Osaka to her rural hometown of Nagoro or Nagoru (Wikipedia) in Iya Valley, where the population is decreasing. It's a a rugged place of thatch-roofed farmhouses, barley fields, vine bridges (Atlas Obsura) and Anayo's scarecrows, made in memory of former residents and neighbors (Reuters Wider Image), also known as Nagoro Dolls Village (Google streetview), thanks to Anayo's creations. [more inside]
posted by filthy light thief at 1:38 PM PST - 9 comments

One key reason why we struggle to see progress in the world today is that we do not know how very bad the past was. Both are true at the same time: The world is much better than in the past and it is still awful.
posted by cgc373 at 1:02 PM PST - 40 comments

Queer lives are notable for their lack of “chrononormativity,” starting in childhood. "The sociologist Pamela Aronson suggests that the five 'objective life events' still frequently used in mainstream discourse to measure the entrance into adulthood—'completing education, entering the labor force, becoming financially independent, getting married, and becoming a parent'—are based on outdated assumptions about class and gender."
posted by AFABulous at 12:41 PM PST - 33 comments

For USD 2500 per month, Fin simulates the assistant from Her using a 24x7x365 team of humans. Its Feed broadcasts directly from the wants and needs of bi-coastal, telepresence-robot-renting, tiny-home-buying, infant-leather-jacketing, relative-cremating busy people.
posted by drdanger at 12:23 PM PST - 20 comments

Missing Thai Youth Soccer Team Found Alive in Flooded Cave 9 Days After They Went Missing. After a desperate 9 days of searching, rescue operations finally reached the boys and their coach inside the cave. But their ordeal is not yet over - they still need to be removed from the cave. Dive teams are working around the clock, including the Thai Navy SEALs and experts from the US, China, Australia and the UK.
posted by agregoli at 12:19 PM PST - 72 comments

Volcanoes and Patagonia by Francisco Negroni. Featuring Volcano Lightning, which is a thing. [more inside]
posted by mrjohnmuller at 12:01 PM PST - 6 comments

2 Percent Of New York City’s Buildings Emit Half Its CO2 Pollution. They’re Luxury Towers. -- Alexander C. Kaufman (SLHufPost)
posted by MartinWisse at 11:10 AM PST - 21 comments

Last June, NPR Music's Lars Gotrich tweeted just one word: "roséwave." Then, a follow-up that was more like a challenge: "Y'all can already list 5 bands for which roséwave rings true, c'mon." He wasn't exactly describing a genre — more a lifestyle that deserved (or, perhaps, inherently contained within it) its own soundtrack.
posted by Cash4Lead at 10:47 AM PST - 22 comments

Dude isn't just a flamethrower-wielding sushi chef who only needs ice water to handle the food with his bare hands, he's a great showman too. [more inside]
posted by Foci for Analysis at 10:17 AM PST - 5 comments

“Sometimes I feel a knife floating above my right shoulder. I know it’s not real, but I want to know what it means.” cw: intrusive thoughts [more inside]
posted by roger ackroyd at 10:14 AM PST - 13 comments

From the human end, Duplex's voice is absolutely stunning over the phone. It sounds real most of the time, nailing most of the prosodic features of human speech during normal talking. The bot "ums" and "uhs" when it has to recall something a human might have to think about for a minute. It gives affirmative "mmhmms" if you tell it to hold on a minute. Everything flows together smoothly, making it sound like something a generation better than the current Google Assistant voice. Talking to Google Duplex: Google’s human-like phone AI feels revolutionary [ArsTechnica] [more inside]
posted by chavenet at 9:57 AM PST - 38 comments

"Good morning, sir, how can I help y—" I'm looking for a copy of All-Star.
"Certainly, I think we have a few copies of—" Done as a Bach choral.
"Oh. Yes, Here's a Bach chorale, can I—" No, but—I meant with a vocoder.
"Vocoder Bach chorale, abso—" Wait wait no actually can you make it Ligeti?
"Ligeti. Legeti? Okay. All-Star as Ligeti, here's a—" I meant jazz, sorry, I'm sorry, have you got jazz?
"I—yes. Yes, we have All-Star as jazz. Is there anything else I can do for you today, sir?" Nope, that's it, thanks so much.
"You're very welcome, have a nice d—"
oh wait have you got any Despacito
posted by cortex at 7:43 AM PST - 43 comments