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“I find myself reflecting on other women depicted as monstrous for their hunger; Pandora and her box, Snow White and her apple. The appearance of lacking desire goes beyond the bounds of etiquette or being ‘ladylike’ and instead crosses into the realm of a moral imperative. Which is to say, a just, good, decent woman is a woman who is free of any type of hunger, be it physical hunger for food, hunger as desire, or hunger as ambition. Conversely, a woman sickened with sin is one who is riddled with said hungers, reduced to a gaping mouth never satisfied.” Nina Li Coomes on faith and desire. CW: contains descriptions of disordered eating
posted by Grandysaur at 11:21 PM PST - 7 comments

"What's in a name? An analysis of American baby naming trends from 1918 to 2018", by Jay Lewis, is a series of interactive info-graphics on everything: [more inside]
posted by sylvanshine at 9:25 PM PST - 46 comments

After years of erasure and dehumanization, Indigenous youth will finally have something for themselves in Molly of Denali, the first nationally distributed children's show to feature an Alaska indigenous person as the main character and protagonist (US PBS show website, Canadian CBC show website). [more inside]
posted by inflatablekiwi at 8:18 PM PST - 18 comments

Whether boxed or from scratch, traditional or modern, mac and cheese is a renowned American comfort food. [more inside]
posted by hilaryjade at 7:29 PM PST - 49 comments

Trying to hide out from the heat wave? Here's a little project -- the "Escape From The Haunted Mansion" Board Game. It's a paper craft project which is a 3D Haunted Mansion that is also a board game. So you can build it, and then you play it! Multiple pages of PDF files get printed, cut, glued, and then admired while you try to escape! [more inside]
posted by hippybear at 7:09 PM PST - 7 comments

Greig Johnson (previously) offers a beginner's guide to playing the ancient, elegant instrument known as the shenanigan. More of his work can be found on YouTube, Facebook and Twitter.
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 6:53 PM PST - 8 comments

Star Trek: Picard The full trailer for the new Star Trek: Picard series has been released. [alternate US-accessible link] [more inside]
posted by crossoverman at 3:07 PM PST - 159 comments

The mayor of Idyllwild, California, was born into public service. He took office at just 11 weeks old and spends nearly every day engaging with his constituents and spreading his hopes for world peace. He does it largely in the nude, though he wears a tie and an array of hats. Mayor Maximus Mighty-Dog Mueller II, age six, is a golden retriever on a mission: “In his heart, he would like to see peace on Earth in his lifetime.” [more inside]
posted by roger ackroyd at 2:09 PM PST - 17 comments

He did the monster mash, he explained why bird is the word, and now…
Fish heads, fish heads, roly-poly fish heads. Fish heads, heads heads, eat them up, yum!
David Buck returns to Tedium to write about Barnes & Barnes’ classic weirdo tune: “Eat Them Up, Yum!”
Tired of reading? Perhaps you’d like to watch the band’s semi-autobiographical / music video collection VHS tape: “”Zabagabee: The Best of Barnes & Barnes”
posted by Going To Maine at 2:00 PM PST - 14 comments

Three artists and a pair of curators came together at The New York Times to attempt to make a list of the era’s essential artworks.
posted by Ahmad Khani at 11:13 AM PST - 25 comments

Patriotic Singing Group Responds to Trump’s “Go Back to Your Country” Amber Ruffin (of "Amber Says What", more on that inside) and the Go Back to Your Country Girls perform their hit song about people telling them to go back to their country despite them all being American citizens. From Late Night with Seth Meyers. [more inside]
posted by Glinn at 10:07 AM PST - 19 comments

In the race to make the continent teched-up, there are numerous cautionary tales that the continent needs to learn from. Otherwise we run the risk of repeating them and the cost of doing so is too high. To that effect, this piece outlines three major lessons that those involved in designing, implementing, importing, regulating, and communicating technology need to be aware of.
posted by Mrs Potato at 9:37 AM PST - 6 comments

“The idea is to stress the samples from both healthy and ill patients using salt, and then compare how each sample affects the flow of the electrical current. Changes in the current indicate changes in the cell: the bigger the change in current, the bigger the change on a cellular level. A big change is not a good thing; it’s a sign that the cells and plasma are flailing under stress and incapable of processing it properly. All of the blood samples from ME/CFS [myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome] patients created a clear spike in the test, whereas those from healthy controls returned data that was on a relatively even keel.” [more inside]
posted by jocelmeow at 7:19 AM PST - 13 comments

Emily Short thinks about games made for specific recipients or small groups of friends. “Many of my favorite games to write have been written for specific people … The first computer game I ever completed, I wrote for my little brother because he was bored with math. It was a dungeon where the monsters asked you arithmetic questions as a form of combat. Astonishingly he liked it, which shows you something about the power of personalization. [more inside]
posted by adrianhon at 6:42 AM PST - 13 comments

The Life Scientific is a BBC radio program where Professor Jim Al-Khalili talks to leading scientists about their life and work, finding out what inspires and motivates them and asking what their discoveries might do for us in the future. [more inside]
posted by poxandplague at 1:55 AM PST - 2 comments