September 17, 2018

You have teamwork and courage and magic in your blood

Blair Braverman (previously) came home to some minor tornado wreckage last July, so she decided to recruit some of the pups for a clean-up party: Twitter | Threadreader

Read to the end for a bedtime story.
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 11:12 PM PST - 17 comments

The E-1027 House: Scandals and Death

Eileen Gray’s E-1027 French villa hasn’t lived a charmed life: It has survived desecration by Le Corbusier, target practice by the Nazis, a drug den etc. The house certainly had optimistic—and idealistic—beginnings. “One must build for the human being, that he might rediscover in the architectural construction the joys of self-fulfillment in a whole that extends and completes him,” Gray wrote in the 1929 issue of L’Architecture Vivante. “Even the furnishings should lose their individuality by blending in with the architectural ensemble.” The villa was intended as a peaceful retreat for Gray and her then lover, Romanian architect, critic, and editor of L’Architecture Vivante, Jean Badovici, who had partially contributed to the project’s design.
posted by MovableBookLady at 6:50 PM PST - 7 comments

Drosophila Titanus

The Epic Task Of Breeding Fruit Flies For Life On Titan, Drosophilia Titanus, Andy Gracie
posted by the man of twists and turns at 6:49 PM PST - 11 comments

ᑐᙵᓱ

Anaana's Tent, a Canadian children's show that broadcasts in Inuktitut, the language of the Inuit peoples of eastern Canadian Arctic, has just added an English version to its programming that teaches Inuktitut words throughout. This, one of the executive producers, Neil Christopher, told Huffington Post, is "for those Inuit and others whose first language isn't Inuktitut but want to learn". Can't access Canadian TV? You can still learn a few things! [more inside]
posted by Aya Hirano on the Astral Plane at 5:28 PM PST - 12 comments

Spring forth, but don't fall back

The European Commission rules to abolish Daylight Saving Time in 2019, in response to a survey that showed 80% opposition to the twice-annual changing of clocks. Assuming that the move passes the European Parliament and local parliaments, EU member states will decide in April 2019 whether to permanently remain on summer or winter time. [more inside]
posted by acb at 3:46 PM PST - 119 comments

Cycling at 183.93 miles per hour

Denise Korenek just set a 'paced bicycle land speed record' - essentially cycling behind a vehicle and using the drafting (slip-streaming) to achieve very high speeds.
posted by Stark at 1:42 PM PST - 62 comments

New study released for effects of ACE (adverse childhood experience)

Some groups affected more than others (surprise). When researchers first discovered a link in the late 1990s between childhood adversity and chronic health problems later in life, the real revelation was how common those experiences were across all socioeconomic groups. But the first major study to focus on adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) was limited to a single healthcare system in San Diego. Now a new study — the largest nationally representative study to date on ACEs — confirms that these experiences are universal, yet highlights some disparities among socioeconomic groups.
posted by aleph at 11:49 AM PST - 16 comments

Lancaster Stands Up

“In Manheim Township, a historically conservative area where Weaver canvassed for LSU, Democrats won all 6 school board seats. Dianne Bates, a progressive millennial, won her Borough Council race in arch-conservative Millersville. Elizabethtown hadn’t had a Democrat on the town council since the 1970s, but last fall they elected an IBEW member, Bill Troutman.” A Grassroots Uprising In Amish Country Begins To Find Meaning In Politics.
posted by The Whelk at 9:50 AM PST - 16 comments

Royal D. Suttkus Fish Collection: swamp bunker with 8 million dead fish

Ten miles south-east of New Orleans are some World War II structures (Google streetview), including 29 concrete bunkers. You can go hiking in the area, or you could visit 7 or 8 million dead fish in two of those bunkers. They are the Royal D. Suttkus Fish Collection, the largest fish archive in the world, which has only grown in recent years as it took in at least part of University of Louisiana at Monroe's fish collection, which that university was divesting due to reduced funding. [more inside]
posted by filthy light thief at 8:50 AM PST - 8 comments

The caribou guardians

In a quiet pen in B.C.’s northeast corner, pregnant caribou cows and their calves are fed hand-picked old growth lichen, provided 24-hour armed security and are the subject of one of Canada’s boldest and most experimental efforts to save a species from extinction. [more inside]
posted by poffin boffin at 8:48 AM PST - 5 comments

Not all nursery rhymes are nice nursery rhymes

Boing Boing: “Spiders blamed after broken siren played creepy nursery rhymes randomly at night to UK townsfolk. The Ipswich Star reports on what one local described as 'something from a horror movie.'” BBC: “For several months she would hear the rhyme, which would go away only to come again another day.” Ipswich Star: “It was waking me up in the night, it was absolutely terrifying. I heard it at all times of the night - 1am, 2am, 4am - it was sporadic, sometimes it would play once, other times it was over and over.”
posted by Wordshore at 8:19 AM PST - 69 comments

American Farmers Are in Crisis

Falling prices and a trade war mean small farmers are struggling to stay afloat [slEater]
posted by Freelance Demiurge at 7:04 AM PST - 50 comments

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