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Possibly the smartest voter information website on the internet. "In the middle of the pandemic, while many of us were out of work- we decided that we wanted to help influence the election! Angela, our fearless director, thought it would be a great idea to have exotic dancers from some of Atlanta’s finest gentlemen’s clubs to tell their patrons and fans to ‘Get their booties to the poll!’" [more inside]
posted by heyho at 6:53 PM PST - 15 comments

Techades quiz: guess the gadget from its illustration. Fair warning: the correct answers permit a broad category for some devices but require a precise manufacturer and model number for others. Discovered via Belong. [more inside]
posted by Monochrome at 5:05 PM PST - 49 comments

2020 has not been the best year in which to see live comedy. The anarchic atmosphere, audience feedback and off the cuff retorts are difficult to reproduce in an online stream. Some comedians have realised this and decided not to attempt it, instead working out new ways to create interactive comedy online. Sean Morley currently runs a crowd sourced 'Meme Machine' on Wednesdays and a fully democratised attempt to make the pope a bear in Crusader Kings II on Saturdays. Foxdog Studios have tried live interactive bolt sorting, and now perform live coding in 'Make a website in an hour' on Thursdays and tidying up a room in 'Sorting out the Banished Realm'. Jain Edwards is doing computer puzzles while drinking tombola wine. [more inside]
posted by asok at 2:56 PM PST - 7 comments

Two fantasy stories: "La Bête" by Leah Bobet (audio), published this year. "It would require work to make the château habitable; the Dowager had confined herself, in the end, to the library, kitchen, and a small suite of rooms, and the rest was in disrepair." "The Huntsman and the Beast" by Carrie Vaughn, originally published 2018. "Jack said, 'Then take me. I will serve. Let him go and take me instead, please.' The beast hesitated, and that told Jack he might have a chance. 'I swear to you I will stay in his place, but you must let him go free.'"
posted by brainwane at 2:02 PM PST - 10 comments

In the Land of Kush by Isma'il Kushkush, with photos by Matt Stirn, is an essay about the kingdom on the Nile that was the southern neighbor of Pharaonic Egypt. If you want to see more photos, Valerian Guillot has put pictures from his 2016 trip online. The Kushites spoke Meriotic, which had two scripts. Ibrahim M. Omer's Ancient Sudan website has a wealth of information about the history, people and the land of Kush. Archaeological excavations keep unearthing new material. Charles Q. Choi wrote about a recent find of Meroitic inscriptions and in 2009 Geoff Emberling wrote about the race to explore sites which were submerged when the Merowe Dam was constructed.
posted by Kattullus at 1:55 PM PST - 10 comments

"This is a web page that you just opened from an image file. Weird, huh? The image you loaded is a png image file, but it's a special kind of png. It's a powfile. POW stands for Packaged Offline/online Webpage. It turns out the png format includes ways to save metadata alongside the image file. A powfile has a metadata entry that contains a zip file that contains a full website. You're viewing this now in the Pow Player, which uses some handy modern browser features to treat this single file like a real website, with links, regular forward/back browsing, javascript, resource loading, etc. Ok, sure. But why?" [more inside]
posted by not_the_water at 1:22 PM PST - 41 comments

Cyrus Farivar on how casino-like apps have drained people of millions. Following a $155 million class-action settlement against Big Fish Games, two million players will be eligible to get a small part of their losses back, but the company is just one example of the convergence of the small-time harmless fun of video games and the rapidly expanding world of real-money gambling. [more inside]
posted by adrianhon at 1:16 PM PST - 24 comments

In a new video, Carlos Maza discusses the history and impact of something he calls "anti-politics" - the campaign to demonize the government as a threat to liberty in order to increase corporate power while disguising it. (SLYT) [more inside]
posted by NoxAeternum at 1:01 PM PST - 1 comments

In 2018, indie pop weirdos MGMT released "Me and Michael," which went on to be an instant chart-topping smash hit with licensed products galore: shampoos, pregnancy kits, bespoke pinkphones. Only it turned out the song was plagiarized from "Ako at si Michael," a classic track from True Faith, a band from Manila in the Philippines. The original track sparked a brief revival of OPM - original Pinoy music - which brought to light the blatant theft. Instead of bringing legal action against MGMT, True Faith reached out to the duo and proposed a collaboration on a new track titled "Me and Michael," a tribute to actor Michael Buscemi who stars in the video. CW: some graphic Cronenbergian body horror in the first link.
posted by Lonnrot at 12:05 PM PST - 9 comments

Confused about CA's propositions on the ballot? CalMatters has you covered. CalMatters is a non-profit, non-partisan newsroom committed to explaining California policy and politics. For 2020, they've created a guide to all of the propositions on this year's ballot. [more inside]
posted by toastyk at 9:11 AM PST - 38 comments

Last week, Chuck Feeney completed his goal of giving away his entire $8 billion fortune in his lifetime.
posted by jedicus at 7:57 AM PST - 26 comments

get in the van, we need to talk about computers [CW: clown masks, loud noises, inflatable penis]
posted by Ten Cold Hot Dogs at 1:27 AM PST - 45 comments