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94 yo puts in a pool for the neighborhood kids. Who needs a thousand lakes when your neighbor lets you use their pool? [more inside]
posted by AugustWest at 11:08 PM PST - 31 comments

Sonic Mania: The Return to Form You've Been Waiting For [The Verge] “For years, Sonic has been in need of a shake-up. Ever since the 16-bit era ended, the iconic mascot has struggled through one console generation after another. Some of his post-Genesis adventures were terrible, a handful were good, but most were aggressively mediocre — a sorry state for one of the biggest names in the medium. While Super Mario evolved over the years with inventive new takes on platform games, its longtime rival stagnated. Sonic has remained an enduring brand, thanks to comics and cartoons, but it hasn’t been an important force in gaming for some time. Sonic Mania has been billed as a return to form for the series. It’s far from the first game to claim that mantle, so it’s easy to be skeptical. But Mania is different than its predecessors. Most notably, it brings the series back to what made it so popular in the first place: blazing-fast side-scrolling action.” [YouTube] [Trailer] [more inside]
posted by Fizz at 7:06 PM PST - 50 comments

I just got back from the Travelers' Rest music festival, two days of music in Missoula, Montana curated by The Decemberists. The main stage acts were all great, but I want to laud their second stage acts, starting with the first band to play all weekend, opening Saturday, Caroline Keys And The Lanesplitters and a sample track: Fort Benton. [more inside]
posted by hippybear at 3:24 PM PST - 7 comments

It's been a while. And now, just as they are about to launch their biggest rocket so far, Copenhagen Suborbital's founder Peter Madsen has been arrested for murder.
posted by rikschell at 1:06 PM PST - 56 comments

Femtasia: The Artwork of Femke Hiemstra

The narrative of my ‘painted stories’ involve characters and (anthropomorphic) flora and fauna and is part real and part fictitious. The characters interact in a figurative surrounding yet all is cast in a surreal light. Although I don’t paint the human figure very often the creatures in the scenes behave like them, with the same glory or shortcomings. Furthermore I’m attracted to contrasts. Humour is part of my stories but I’m also drawn to darker themes that involve strong emotions like battles, a hunt, the loss of a loved one or the ‘romantic’ death.

[h/t Dangerous Minds]
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 12:40 PM PST - 3 comments

The Auralnauts present How To Make A Blockbuster Movie Trailer in 2017. [more inside]
posted by schmod at 12:27 PM PST - 42 comments

Women swept nearly every category at the 2017 Hugo Awards - the annual SF award won an award of its own and managed to be largely free of the slating problems of recent years, whose instigators have largely moved on to the Dragon Awards. Worldcon, host of the Hugo Awrds, was without some controversy though, with the withdrawal of A Home for the Old (dropbox PDF) a planned LARP dealing with Alzheimer's disease.
posted by Artw at 11:59 AM PST - 77 comments

The children had one thing in common: all had been orphaned, and most were among the poorest of the poor. Such were the children that John Ballou Newbrough hoped would inherit the earth.
 [more inside]
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 10:44 AM PST - 3 comments

Chronicle of the Berlin Wall - a detailed timeline from 1961 to 1990, supported with recordings, photos, letters, transcripts of speeches, and more. (The text is available in German or English, but most of the supporting materials are German-only.) [more inside]
posted by Wolfdog at 9:27 AM PST - 6 comments

Trumpy Bear: Born on flag day... find the secret zipper, simply style his trademark hair. SLYT, unless you order one.
posted by bendybendy at 7:25 AM PST - 38 comments