February 27

Help. Police. Murder.

Chaotic off-brand Willy Wonka pop-up exhibit ends with police intervention
Obviously, when the poor Charlie And The Chocolate Factory enthusiasts showed up at Box Hub Warehouse, the event looked nothing like what the event description suggested. Instead, they were confronted with a sad-looking, mostly empty warehouse with a bouncy house and some ramshackle decorations. Jack Proctor, a dad who took his kids to the event, told STV News that “we stepped inside to find a disorganized mini-maze of randomly placed oversized props, a lackluster candy station that dispersed one jelly bean per child, and a terrifying chrome-masked character that scared many of the kids to tears.” [...] "The Oompa Loompa from the knock off Wonka land experience looks like she’s running a literal meth lab and is seriously questioning the life choices up until this point."
The face behind Willy Wonka 'scam': How Billy Coull 'conned' kids by using AI generated images to sell 'immersive' experience - More shocking pictures emerge of ‘shambles’ Willy Wonka experience - Employee contracts signed with "erasable ink" - Actor hired as Willy Wonka for cancelled event called it a place 'where dreams went to die' - 'Willy Wonka' chocolate experience boss 'truly sorry' after 'chaos' - Read the ChatGPT-generated event "script" [PDF]
posted by Rhaomi at 1:03 PM - 66 comments

I know you will probably put it up again

just to tick me off. In the early 2000s, gaming magazine GameNOW spent two years sneaking the same screenshot of Final Fantasy VIII into every issue, just to needle a single irate reader.
posted by signsofrain at 12:14 PM - 11 comments

Eugenics Powers IQ and AI

What kind of intelligence is valued in AI? Writing for Public Books in 2021, Natasha Stovall (previously) asked us to consider whether the claim that conceptually undergirds IQ—that "human intelligence is universal, hierarchical, measurable"—is reified in the development of AI. The answer seems clear from today's perspective; we use the same terminology to talk about AI advances as we do "gifted" individuals (e.g., verbal comprehension, perceptual reasoning, processing speed, working memory.) More provocatively, Stovall charges that such a "reductive definition of human ability" has a coherent lineage from eugenics through the popularization of IQ and on to today's version of AI—and that all of the above are rooted in whiteness.
posted by criticalyeast at 12:00 PM - 43 comments

To the Moon (eventually) but with great food!

Victor Glover will be the first African-American to eat maple cream cookies and smoked salmon while traveling to and from the Moon on the Artemis II mission
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 11:42 AM - 11 comments

A Closer Look at Self-immolations in Freedom Struggles

Dying in the Truth: Self-immolation is an unthinkably costly and tragic method of last resort sometimes used by those striving for justice and freedom in asymmetric conflicts. The first person to perform this fiery protest as a modern political tactic is Thich Quang Duc, who sat in the lotus position at a busy intersection in Saigon in 1963 and set himself on fire to decry Buddhist suffering under a pro-Catholic regime. Since the birth of the tactic in 1963, the world has witnessed some 3,000 incidents of self-immolation, according to sociologist Michael Biggs. About 160 of these occurred in Tibet between 2011 and 2018, marking one of the greatest waves of suicide protests in history. Considering the extent of the practice, we, scholars and practitioners of nonviolent resistance, must ask ourselves: Why do some people prefer to die in the truth, rather than to live in a lie? And does the involvement of death, in and of itself, automatically place any tactic in the camp of violence?
posted by infini at 8:27 AM - 128 comments

"I wake up later and I can’t pretend anymore."

Maureen F. McHugh (previously) wrote two short scifi stories recently in which folks navigate modern uncertainty with a fantastical twist. In "The Goldfish Man" (2022), "Before everything went to hell I was making double vases." In "Liminal Spaces" (2024) (which feels in conversation with Ursula K. Le Guin's Changing Planes), "There was a broad corridor going off to the left that she definitely didn’t remember. It shook her out of her ruminations." [more inside]
posted by brainwane at 7:44 AM - 6 comments

A new emergency procedure for cardiac arrests aims to save more lives

A new emergency procedure for cardiac arrests aims to save more lives – here’s how it works. New Zealand is just the second country to approve a novel defibrillation procedure for some patients. With current survival rates very low, it is hoped the new method will save many more lives.
posted by chariot pulled by cassowaries at 6:26 AM - 15 comments

Who told them to seek escapism instead of an escape?

The “Disney adult” industrial complex The grown-up Disney superfan has become a much-mocked phenomenon online. But creating these consumers was always part of the corporation’s plan. [more inside]
posted by knownassociate at 6:02 AM - 59 comments

Not every prediction came true

The top thinkers of 1974 were gathered together in the pages of “Saturday Review,” for a special issue celebrating that magazine’s 50th anniversary. In a series of essays, each one tried to imagine their world 50 more years into the future, in the far-away year of 2024 ... The future they’d hoped for — or feared for — is detailed and debated, offering readers of today a surprisingly clear picture of the future they’d expected in 1974. from 50 Years Later: Remembering How the Future Looked in 1974 [The New Stack]
posted by chavenet at 1:46 AM - 49 comments

February 26

Donald Trump's Rhetoric

The Unique Rhetoric of Donald Trump [20m] Dr. Jennifer Mercieca, professor in the Department of Communication and Journalism at Texas A&M University, discusses the unprecedented rhetorical devices Donald Trump has used to build a cult-like following, capture the attention economy, and allowed him to avoid accountability despite major political controversies and legal challenges. [more inside]
posted by hippybear at 7:06 PM - 37 comments

Pilot program using ancient cultural burning technique

Pilot program using ancient cultural burning technique to prepare for future bushfires in NSW. Residents on NSW's South Coast were trapped with nowhere to flee to but the beach when Black Summer bushfires advanced on their towns, but a new cultural burning program aims to keep key roads open during emergencies.
posted by chariot pulled by cassowaries at 6:45 PM - 6 comments

Barney the Tv Border Collie watches Jurassic Park 'n Stuff

On YouTube, Barney the Tv Border Collie wants to save Bella from the werewolves in Twilight.*
*My God, what is this doing to Barney's brain!?

See also, Barney the Tv Border Collie watches Dances with Wolves
same * as above
And don't get me started on skateboarding Frenchies in China
Seriously, what hath Dog Named Stella Wrought!?
posted by y2karl at 5:43 PM - 14 comments

Detroit Coney

"While no one place can definitively claim to be the birthplace of the Coney dog, Michigan, by sheer volume and duration of its Coney restaurants, makes a strong bid. Detroit’s famous Coney dog restaurants, American Coney Island and Lafayette Coney Island, followed Todoroff’s Original Coney Island in Jackson, Michigan, which dates its beginning to 1914." 'The Cult of the Detroit Coney Dog, Explained.'
posted by clavdivs at 2:36 PM - 44 comments

Like Jo Jo's and Devil Strips

Suaerkraut balls are a hometown favorite here in Akron, so much that we even named our baseball team after them (well, for only one day), and have our own local sauerkraut ball factory. Of course you can make your own, but they're just not as good. [more inside]
posted by slogger at 2:16 PM - 22 comments

Death of an airliner

While reviewing the handful of 747 accidents caused by airframe failings, the narrator mentioned that the United Airlines 747-122 – which had lost its cargo door out of Honolulu on February 24th, 1989 – was repaired and returned to service... I was just curious about what became of United Airlines’ N4713U after the media intensity surrounding that fateful night. Was it was still flying? At the very least, I thought I’d find a story that got more and more “interesting” as the airliner aged. . . And I wouldn’t be disappointed. [more inside]
posted by ShooBoo at 12:13 PM - 34 comments

Did firearms render armour obsolete in the late Middle Ages/Renaissance?

The short answer is… It’s complicated.
posted by AlSweigart at 8:07 AM - 20 comments

I thought it was a laugh but people in the audience cry a little

From Sniffles The Mouse to Bugs Bunny to The Grinch... Chuck Jones: Extremes and InBetweens - A Life in Animation [1h24m] (Originally recorded on VHS from Australian TV in 2000.) [more inside]
posted by hippybear at 6:38 AM - 6 comments

It's your Monday Morning free thread feat: House Plants

I have two spider plants in my office, of the just plain green leaf variety. What are you keeping green in your place? Or talk about anything you like, it's a free thread!
posted by seanmpuckett at 5:48 AM - 124 comments

The food is not what it seems

While Minnesota sushi can ostensibly be found in restaurants, and has appeared on television, its origins are both obscure and humble. The "Minnesota" part of the claim is, however, base calumny. The European mode is another variant. The dish may share some DNA, cultural or otherwise, with molded salmon mousse. Could it be traced back to the Roman tradition of "concealed food?" Probably knot, that would be stretching it. Order falls, chaos reigns. [more inside]
posted by cupcakeninja at 4:14 AM - 31 comments

What Australia's climate was like 350,000 years ago

This "underground library" shows what Australia's climate was like 350,000 years ago. Naracoorte Caves study shows Australian ice age was wetter, more animal-friendly, than first thought.
posted by chariot pulled by cassowaries at 3:29 AM - 2 comments

The changing political cleavage structures of Western democracies

The causes of populism are at the heart of the most significant political and social science debates. One narrative contends that economic globalization resulted in real suffering among less-educated working-class voters, catalyzing populism. Another narrative contends that populism is an adverse reaction to cultural progressivism and that economic factors are not relevant or only relevant symbolically through perceptions of loss of cultural status. Even though the evidence suggests that the generational change argument suggested by the canonical book of Norris and Inglehart does not hold empirically, the cultural narrative nevertheless seems to be particularly influential. from The Populist Backlash Against Globalization: A Meta-Analysis of the Causal Evidence [Cambridge University]
posted by chavenet at 1:41 AM - 57 comments

Non-binary Oklahoma student dies after school fight

16-year old Nex Benedict died on February 8th (wiki), a day after being beaten unconscious by 3 other students in their Owasso High School bathroom. [more inside]
posted by rubatan at 1:31 AM - 119 comments

February 25

Live those dreams, Scheme those schemes

Todd In the Shadows undertakes an epic troll of Brits with ONE HIT WONDERLAND: "Relax" by Frankie Goes to Hollywood
posted by rongorongo at 11:16 PM - 40 comments

Listing was definitely a symptom of patriarchy.

Genevieve Hudson: "I was not feminine enough to have an eating disorder, I told myself."
Content warning for disordered eating and body dysmorphia.
I eat no muffin with my coffee. I drink no milk. I pull a tough hat over short hair. I scribble lines of tough ink over tough skin. I see thin, nonbinary bodies that have sprouted wings.
posted by spamandkimchi at 8:38 PM - 14 comments

Evolution of La Cage Aux Folles

Terrific explaination of the evolution of the hit musical La Cage Aux Folles. Beginning with a modest British play titled "Staircase" in the early 60's to a movie of the same title starring Richard Burton and Rex Harrison a few years later. They on to becoming a hit musical decades later. Along the way we discuss Hollywood contracts, copyright laws, President Regan, Harvey Fierstein, Nathan Lane, Canadian laws regarding drag queens removing their wigs, and so much more....its a fun listen to.
posted by Czjewel at 8:05 PM - 5 comments

Image generation as fast as you can type

While the generative AI scene is transfixed by trillion-scale chipmakers and bleeding-edge text-to-video models, there's plenty of work being done on simpler, more efficient open-source projects that don't require a datacenter to run. In addition to homebrew-friendly text options like Mistral, Llama, and Gemma, the makers of image generator Stable Diffusion have also experimented recently with SDXL Turbo, a lightweight, streamlined version that can generate complex images significantly faster. Previously, this required a decent graphics card and a complicated install process, or at least registration on a paid service -- but thanks to a free public demo from fal.ai, you can now generate and share constantly updating images yourself in real time, as fast as you can type. The quality may not be quite as good as the state-of-the-art stuff, but DALL-E Mini it ain't. No word on what it's costing the company to host or how long it might last, but for now the real-time responsiveness makes it easier than ever to get an intuitive feel for how modern image diffusers interpret text and what exactly they're capable of. [more inside]
posted by Rhaomi at 2:15 PM - 125 comments

Those seams we are seduced into not seeing

Let me offer a couple examples of how the arts challenge AI. First, many have pointed out that storytelling is always needed to make meaning out of data, and that is why humanistic inquiry and AI are necessarily wed. Yet, as N. Katherine Hayles (2021: 1605) writes, interdependent though they may be, database and narrative are “different species, like bird and water buffalo.” One of the reasons, she notes, is the distinguishing example of indeterminacy. Narratives “gesture toward the inexplicable, the unspeakable, the ineffable” and embrace the ambiguity, while “databases find it difficult to tolerate”. from Poetry Will Not Optimize; or, What Is Literature to AI?
posted by chavenet at 1:41 PM - 4 comments

The ABCs of Book Banning

The ABCs of Book Banning [27m, MTV Documentary Films] Centenarian Grace Linn confronts a Florida School Board, opposing book banning in local schools. Children express disappointment over losing access to vital titles on LGBTQ and racial issues, wars, and the realities of growing up.
posted by hippybear at 8:59 AM - 11 comments

Men & women responded differently to a positive fortune telling outcome

"Fortune telling is a widespread phenomenon, yet little is known about the extent to which people are affected by it—including those who consider themselves non-believers. The present research has investigated the power of a positive fortune telling outcome (vs. neutral vs. negative) on people’s financial risk taking. In two online experiments (n1 = 252; n2 = 441), we consistently found that positive fortune telling enhanced financial risk taking particularly among men. Additionally, we used a real online gambling game in a lab setting (n3 = 193) and found that positive fortune telling enhanced the likelihood that college students gambled for money. ... Thus, positive fortune telling can yield increased financial risk taking in men, but not (or less so) in women." [more inside]
posted by cupcakeninja at 6:03 AM - 33 comments

Oxygenation method usually used in emergencies trialled in Darling River

Oxygenation method usually used in emergencies trialled in Darling River to prevent mass fish kills. Tens of millions of native fish have perished along the Darling River over the past five years following a series of mass kills. In an attempt to mitigate future deaths the NSW government are trialling technology that pumps pure oxygen into the water.
posted by chariot pulled by cassowaries at 4:52 AM - 5 comments

there's no goddamn way this can get any dumber

Pangeos Terayacht: An $8 Billion Engineering Disaster (Adam Something, YouTube/Piped, 12m40s) [more inside]
posted by flabdablet at 4:30 AM - 42 comments

They Should Have Sent a Porpoise

I asked Gruber himself what he would say to the whales. He said that he has been taking requests. Most people tell him that we should start by saying “Sorry,” for the bloody rampage that was industrial whaling. He agrees. “We pulled the oil out of these animals’ heads,” he said. “We used it to make lipstick.” Perhaps now we can atone. from How First Contact With Whale Civilization Could Unfold [The Atlantic; ungated]
posted by chavenet at 1:19 AM - 18 comments

February 24

China's vet shortage

China has less than one-third the number of vets per capita as the United States or European Union. My cat had a health emergency this week and I had to call about 30 different animal hospital/clinics to see which one had a surgeon and a free OT to operate on my cat that afternoon. Thankfully, one out of the 30ish were able to take us at short notice. [more inside]
posted by antihistameme at 8:37 PM - 11 comments

Wide Awake

Donald Trump may be hoping to strike a knockout blow against Nikki Haley in today's South Carolina primary, but he spent the better part of the day up north in Maryland, as the keynote speaker at this year's Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC). The annual right-wing gathering has declined in prestige, attendance, and relevance since its heyday in the Tea Party era, losing big corporate sponsors and seeing chairman Matt Schlapp slapped with a multi-million dollar sexual assault claim. But it still serves as a useful window into the pathology of the modern Trump-MAGA Republican Party: turning against Ukraine and towards Putin two years into the war, welcoming failed world leaders decrying the "deep state" (and current ones that are dictatorial or arguably insane), featuring Pizzagate boosters calling for the overthrow of democracy, and tolerating self-identified Nazis openly mingling with conservative influencers and spreading racist and anti-semitic conspiracy theories. Does anybody really know what time it is?
posted by Rhaomi at 3:12 PM - 113 comments

A new modified clay from Western Australia could help stop algal blooms

A new modified clay from Western Australia could help stop algal blooms. Modified clay helping reduce algal blooms by binding to phosphorus which causes phenomenon. Large-scale fish deaths caused by harmful algal blooms could be a thing of the past if positive trials of a specially developed clay that absorbs phosphorus are anything to go by. Developed by Western Australian environmental scientists, the treatment is sprayed, in a slurry form, from a boat onto the surface of estuaries, lakes and other water bodies, sinking down and taking the phosphorus with it. Even though phosphorus is a natural plant nutrient required by plants to grow, an excess of it fuels extensive algal blooms which can lead to low oxygen concentrations in the water that can harm fish and other species. [more inside]
posted by chariot pulled by cassowaries at 2:33 PM - 11 comments

We Haven't Got The Americans Here Tonight

Here's a panel of British writers for Succession, including Tony Roche, Jon Brown, Lucy Prebble, and Georgie Pritchett. Creator and show-runner Jesse Armstrong also joins, and it is hosted by Adam Buxton. Held at Southbank Centre in Sept 2023, so after the series ended. Succession: an evening with the writers [1h42m]
posted by hippybear at 2:32 PM - 1 comment

Mychal Threets’ library joy

Solano county librarian wants everyone to feel welcome and love the library. [more inside]
posted by St. Peepsburg at 9:30 AM - 26 comments

"This is America, and it's playing out like America."

Legal weed in New York was going to be a revolution. What happened? (Jia Tolentino for The New Yorker (archive.is)) [more inside]
posted by box at 8:10 AM - 68 comments

Every Transaction an Ad, Every Machine a Spy

When a student at University of Waterloo waited for a vending machine to reboot after a crash, they noted a curious error message for an app titled Invenda.Vending.FacialRecognitionApp.exe. They posted a Reddit message "Hey, so why do the stupid M&M machines have facial recognition?" which eventually led the school to disable the vending machine software until the machines could be removed. [more inside]
posted by CheeseDigestsAll at 7:27 AM - 63 comments

The long tail of war

Yesterday, 'one of the largest UK peacetime evacuations' took place in Plymouth, Devon, after an unexploded World War 2 bomb was found in a residential garden. [more inside]
posted by atlantica at 6:22 AM - 20 comments

Flaco, NYC's favorite Eurasian eagle-owl, has died

Flaco, the Eurasian Eagle Owl, Has Died When someone vandalized his enclosure in the Central Park Zoo a little over a year ago, Flaco escaped. No one was sure if he could survive on his own, but survive he did, becoming a favorite of not only locals who went to see him in the Park but a world-wide audience who read about him. He recently moved to the Upper West Side where residents loved spotting him from their windows. Last night, he hit a building and died. Other links: NYT, Washington Post [more inside]
posted by AMyNameIs at 6:11 AM - 27 comments

Tarot futures up

Tarot Cards Market to grow by USD 214.34 million from 2021 to 2026 claims yahoo!finance. Over at SCAD's student-run online fashion publication, they're here for it. PW says that "publishers are attuned to the thriving marketplace for guides to the magic of crystals, flowers, elaborate tarot cards, and imaginative oracle decks." Tarot has taken on new meaning in recent times for the RPG world. Finally, Anastasia Murney has things to say about "Tarot as affective cartography in the uneven Anthropocene" [PDF]. [more inside]
posted by cupcakeninja at 5:22 AM - 54 comments

The Lost Meteorite

A giant meteorite has been lost in the desert since 1916—here’s how we might find it "Captain Gaston Ripert was in charge of the Chinguetti camel corps. One day he overheard a conversation among the chameliers (camel drivers) about an unusual iron hill in the desert. He convinced a local chief to guide him there one night, taking Ripert on a 10-hour camel ride along a "disorienting" route, making a few detours along the way....The 4-kilogram fragment Ripert collected was later analyzed by noted geologist Alfred Lacroix, who considered it a significant discovery. But when others failed to locate the larger Chinguetti meteorite, people started to doubt Ripert's story."
posted by dhruva at 5:10 AM - 6 comments

Vice media to shutter, letting go of hundreds

The company will be ceasing operations of Vice.com as it is "no longer cost-effective" to do so. NYT published an article recently: The News About the News Business Is Getting Grimmer
posted by antihistameme at 3:30 AM - 47 comments

Researchers celebrate frog conservation win decades in the making

Biologist Deon Gilbert says this month's Victorian release of 70 juveniles from a spotted tree frog breeding pool is incredibly heartwarming. Researchers have bred 800 spotted tree frogs from 26 they collected in north-east Victoria in 2021. They have released the first 70 of those frogs into the wild.
posted by chariot pulled by cassowaries at 2:47 AM - 4 comments

Even with all the efforts, loopholes remain

Bowmouth guitarfish amulets are just one example of the boundless number of protected wildlife products sold online, where a global Grand Bazaar of seedy vendors hawk their wildlife wares, and anyone with internet access can find products from rhino horns to exotic orchids to tiger claws with just a few clicks. With lax regulations, even weaker enforcement, and a lack of legal culpability, not only is wildlife trafficking able to fester online, but algorithms actually amplify sales, boosting the platforms’ profits. from For Sale: Shark Jaw, Tiger Claw, Fish Maw [Hakai]
posted by chavenet at 2:25 AM - 3 comments

February 23

The AI gift economy

Help, My Friend Got Me a Dumb AI-Generated Present - WIRED. A thoughtful reply to what art means when it’s ‘personally’ generated for you with a dive into Lewis Hyde on gift economies.
posted by dorothyisunderwood at 7:40 PM - 43 comments

The beauty of everyday things

For the past hundred years we’ve had people championing machine manufacture and value-adding design for objects that did perfectly well without it. [Yanagi] had several criteria for these everyday miscellaneous things and all of them are worth revisiting because we now know that some things are best when precision machined and manufactured and other things benefit from showing signs of a human hand at work.
posted by johnxlibris at 7:23 PM - 7 comments

Tiny endangered turtle twins hatch from same egg in 1-in-3000 event

Tiny endangered turtle twins hatch from same egg in 1-in-3000 event amid efforts to save the species. When scientists discovered seven baby Bell's turtles in a batch of six incubated eggs in the NSW Northern Tablelands recently, they were initially stumped.
posted by chariot pulled by cassowaries at 3:39 PM - 5 comments

The Hot New Luxury Good for the Rich: Air

The wealthy have different houses, different cars, different lifestyles from the rest of us. These days, they also want to breathe different air. [more inside]
posted by MrVisible at 1:54 PM - 37 comments

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