September 27, 2016

My sign name is Emma, I love to dance

Emma Watkins, best known as the current Yellow Wiggle, dances Justin Timberlake's Can't stop the Feeling for World Deaf Day (September 24.) (SLYT) (Emma is Australian and I believe she is using Auslan.)
posted by freethefeet at 11:39 PM PST - 18 comments

Famous and Infamous Census Records

Famous and Infamous Census Records — Find out where they lived from 1790 to 1940: presidents; celebrities; authors; human rights activists and social reformers; industrialists and inventors; politicians and public servants (including U.S. Census Bureau luminaries); American Indians, Alaska natives, and native Hawaiians; military personnel; scientists; artists, cartoonists, and animators; adventurers; musicians; other notable Americans; sports stars; and of course, the truly infamous.
posted by not_on_display at 11:29 PM PST - 8 comments

Shimon Peres dies at 93

PM Peres, "one of the last surviving pillars of Israel’s founding generation", passed away in a Tel Aviv-area hospital on Wednesday. Peres was hospitalized after a stroke recently. He served as prime minister and president of Israel, as well as a minister of defense, foreign affairs, finance, and transportation. He was jointly awarded with the Nobel Peace Prize in 1994, a champion of strong Israeli defense and peace in the region. Coverage from The Jerusalem Post, Haaretz, BBC. Live reactions compiled by The Guardian.
posted by redct at 7:37 PM PST - 34 comments

Nightsatan and the Loops of Doom

Nightsatan and the Loops of Doom. The ultimate post-apocalyptic synthesizer short film. [NSFW]
posted by chunking express at 6:17 PM PST - 17 comments

Abe was just a kid who loved clothes.

His clothes were not on the outside of his body; they were—for now—the outside of his body. They were the visible form taken by the way he chose to define himself. None of the gawky young models, standing around flat-footed and hunch-shouldered with their assigned coats and jackets and baggy shorts hanging off them like drop cloths thrown over a dining room set, could say that.

My Son, The Prince Of Fashion
posted by Windigo at 3:34 PM PST - 38 comments

Heavy flow

Ever wonder what it would be like to flush a toilet with mercury instead of water?
posted by Rhomboid at 2:17 PM PST - 80 comments

After One Match And 67 Days It's All Over For Big Sam

BBC: "Sam Allardyce has left his post as England manager by mutual agreement with the Football Association after one match and 67 days in charge. It follows a newspaper investigation claiming he offered advice on how to "get around" rules on player transfers. Allardyce, 61, is also alleged to have used his role to negotiate a deal worth £400,000 to represent a Far East firm." Alan Shearer: "England a Laughing Stock."
posted by marienbad at 2:05 PM PST - 39 comments

"Let me ‘splain… no, there is too much. let me sum up."

Why The Princess Bride Is a Perfect Fantasy Movie. Discuss. [more inside]
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 12:13 PM PST - 128 comments

it is better to speak / remembering / we were never meant to survive

The final week of September comprises the fourth week of the latest iteration of Black Lives Matter: Race, Resistance, and Populist Protest, a 14-week interdisciplinary seminar taught by NYU Professor Frank Leon Roberts. Texts, videos, and reflective writing prompts for each class are being made available online. Next week's readings are Nobody: Casualties of America's War on the Vulnerable, From Ferguson to Flint and Beyond by Marc Lamont Hill and the U.S. Department of Justice Report on the Ferguson, MO Police Department (previously); this week's reading is A Vision for Black Lives: Policy Demands for Black Power, Freedom, and Justice (previously). [more inside]
posted by amnesia and magnets at 10:40 AM PST - 7 comments

"It's about more than pho and sombreros"

"Cultural appropriation: It's about more than pho and sombreros." Viet Thanh Nguyen, recent winner of the Pulitzer Prize for his novel The Sympathizer, presents the 101 basics of Cultural Appropriation for a general audience and then addresses how to move forward.
posted by Celsius1414 at 9:42 AM PST - 45 comments

Too interesting to not attempt a landing there

Europa, the moon of Jupiter made famous by the movie 2010: The Year We Make Contact, appears to have plumes of water at its south pole. This will make it easier to figure out what's in the ocean underneath all that ice. [more inside]
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 9:30 AM PST - 30 comments

"Crocodilians are the most vocal of the reptiles."

Alligators hiss and bellow, and crocodiles, same thing. If you can hear them, they're around... [more inside]
posted by blnkfrnk at 8:58 AM PST - 9 comments

C.R.E.A.M. (Class Rules Everything Around Me)

Why class won't go away (slTheGuardian) [more inside]
posted by Kitteh at 8:14 AM PST - 28 comments

"No, it was urine. It was mine."

David Wartinger is a urologist, a professor emeritus, and a guy who is willing to ride Big Thunder Mountain with a backpack full of urine and kidney stones... for SCIENCE. The upshot is, roller coasters might help you pass kidney stones. [more inside]
posted by Etrigan at 6:58 AM PST - 20 comments

“What we need now is more information, more voices, and more speech.”

Banned Books Week Launches With Call to Read Books the 'Closed-Minded' Want Shut [The Guardian] ““But librarians would argue that the best way to guide your children’s reading is to read with them, and talk about what you read. For every parent convinced that a book is evil, there are two other parents who think it’s wonderful. So you have the right to guide your own children’s reading – but not to dictate or suppress someone else’s,” said LaRue. “The truth is, [these] issues are already a part of many children’s lives, and suppressing books about them doesn’t help anyone. In fact, these books may tell children that they are not alone, that what’s happening to them is not unique, and it can be survived. The world can be a dangerous place, but reading about it makes it less so.”” [more inside]
posted by Fizz at 5:57 AM PST - 17 comments

Dubstep's great-great-grandad

More famous for helping to crack the Enigma code during World War 2, Alan Turing also created the first ever computer-generated musical notes in 1948. In 1951, a recording - the first ever of computer-generated music - was made at the BBC. The recording was restored this year at the University of Canterbury in new Zealand and can be heard here [mp3]. via @v21
posted by EndsOfInvention at 3:01 AM PST - 21 comments

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