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Is beaming down in Star Trek a death sentence? In this Ars Technica long read, Xaq Rzetelny looks to Trek's past to suss out specifics of how transporters work.
posted by Room 641-A at 11:52 PM PST - 173 comments

Did you know September 24th is World Cassowary Day? We all need to think more like Cassowaries Why not meet Snitty in his gig as an annoyed Australian psephologist. And to finish up this glorious day. Just how dangerous are Cassowaries anyway?
posted by michswiss at 11:38 PM PST - 8 comments

My mom died because she was too poor to afford a doctor [via mefi projects]
posted by curious nu at 9:01 PM PST - 51 comments

100 Must-Read Bisexual Books
15 Must-Read Bisexual Non-Fiction Books
37 Books By, For, or About Bisexual or Otherwise Non-Monosexual People
The Bi-Bibliography
Bi Book Club, which recommends Deadpool, among others.
posted by Grandysaur at 7:55 PM PST - 15 comments

"When the Received Wisdom is Wrong" by Mike Glyer: "This month fanhistorians were turned on their ears when a previously unknown shortlist of 1956 Hugo nominees came to light ... As the official Hugo Award site explained when they updated the entry for 1956 – 'We thank Olav Rokne for bringing to our attention an article on page 15 of the 1956 Worldcon Progress Report 3 ...'" Several previously unacknowledged fiction nominees are available online. [more inside]
posted by Wobbuffet at 6:33 PM PST - 36 comments

Tangs for the Memories
posted by jjray at 4:58 PM PST - 44 comments

Mr. Autumn Man
posted by koavf at 2:55 PM PST - 22 comments

So Why Do We Keep Insisting That It Can? An interview with historian Harvey Kantor, the author, with Robert Lowe, of a 2013 paper on the history of Educationalizing the Welfare State (8.4MB PDF).
posted by clawsoon at 1:23 PM PST - 46 comments

The U.S. Navy's most advanced submarines will soon be using Xbox controllers [The Virginian Pilot] “The control room of one of the Navy’s most advanced submarines is filled with sophisticated computers, flat-screen monitors and sailors who grew up in a digital world. At times it can look a bit like a video game arcade, and not just because of the high-resolution graphics. The Navy is beginning to use an Xbox 360 controller – like the ones you find at the mall – to operate the periscopes aboard Virginia-class submarines. [...] [more inside]
posted by Fizz at 1:03 PM PST - 35 comments

Mr. Altizer is part of a backlash against the women in technology movement. While many in the tech industry had previously dismissed the fringe men’s rights arguments, some investors, executives and engineers are now listening. Though studies and surveys show there is no denying the travails women face in the male-dominated industry, some said that the line for what counted as harassment had become too easy to cross and that the push for gender parity was too extreme a goal. Few were willing to talk openly about their thinking, for fear of standing out in largely progressive Silicon Valley. [more inside]
posted by Bella Donna at 12:39 PM PST - 170 comments

Please Do Not Pet the Radioactive Puppies of Chernobyl.
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 12:27 PM PST - 44 comments

Well, it happened again. When Lillian Ross died earlier this week, the New York Times ran an obituary written by someone who was also dead. It's not a secret that celebrities -- especially long-lived ones -- have "advance" obituaries, but the NYT (thanks partially to its rigorous byline practices) is often noted as having obits that seem to be "ghost"-written. Via Kottke. Open NYT links in Incognito or Private mode.
posted by Etrigan at 9:29 AM PST - 26 comments

British PM Theresa May has finally made her big speech on Brexit... to little acclaim. Best coverage, as it often is, comes from Marina Hyde. [more inside]
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 9:28 AM PST - 63 comments

The foundation that administers the .cat domain for Catalonians just got raided by the Spanish police, but all the media wants to talk about is cats. The office was raided because Catalonia hopes to hold a referendum on October 1 to decide if it should secede from Spain, and in an effort to quash the referendum, the government of Spain ordered puntCat to “block all .cat domain names that may contain any kind of information about the forthcoming independence referendum,” according to a press release from the foundation.
posted by Sys Rq at 3:28 AM PST - 128 comments