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Tom Smothers, Comedian, Musician and Scourge of CBS Censors, Dies at 86. [Hollywood Reporter] "He and his brother, Dick, "turned television upside down" on 'The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour' before they were canned." Tom was actually the one that was pushing the envelope. He was deliriously funny and always confrontational and hated the term "cancelled", preferred to use "murdered" to what happened to them. Here is the documentary Smothered - The Censorship Struggles of the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour (2002) [1h32m] from Internet Archive. Smothered from previously this year.
comment posted at 3:18 PM on Dec-27-23
comment posted at 3:47 PM on Dec-27-23

"Put simply, one does not have the right to self-defence against a territory that one occupies." - Avi Shlaim writes for Prospect magazine || Jewish Currents: Israel’s “Humanitarian” Expulsion || WashPo: How Israel pushed over a million Palestinians into a tiny corner of Gaza (ungated) || NYT: Skepticism Grows Over Israel’s Ability to Dismantle Hamas || Guardian: Benjamin Netanyahu refuses to discuss postwar plan for Gaza Strip || CTV News: Israel's forces raid a West Bank refugee camp as its military expands Gaza offensive || Democracy Now: As Phone Line Breaks Up, Palestinian Journalist Akram al-Satarri Describes "Dire" Conditions in Gaza; Palestinian Christian Pastor [Rev Munther Isaac] Slams Western Silence on Genocide in Gaza & his Christmas sermon, "Christ in the Rubble"
comment posted at 3:46 PM on Dec-27-23

Natural disasters are costing the US insurance industry a fortune. What happens when no one wants to pick up the tab?
comment posted at 3:45 PM on Dec-1-23

Retired Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, the first woman to serve on the court, died Friday in Phoenix, Arizona. She was 93 years old. As noted on Wikipedia: O'Connor most frequently sided with the Court's conservative bloc but demonstrated an ability to side with the Court's liberal members. She often wrote concurring opinions that sought to limit the reach of the majority holding. Her majority opinions in landmark cases include Grutter v. Bollinger and Hamdi v. Rumsfeld. She wrote in part the per curiam majority opinion in Bush v. Gore and was one of three co-authors of the lead opinion in Planned Parenthood v. Casey.
comment posted at 3:49 PM on Dec-1-23

The rise and fall of AppHarvest, a startup promising to gainfully employ blue-collar Appalachians, provide sustainable produce, and address the problems of agriculture in a changing climate. In the end, it did none of those things, employing contract migrant workers, letting the work environment reach unsafe temperatures, using considerable amounts of power to control the grow environment, and training their workers so poorly that yields of usable produce were low. (slGrist)
comment posted at 4:57 PM on Nov-25-23

As part of their investigative journalism on the social media platform once known as Twitter, Media Matters For America reported that ads were being served by the platform next to hateful, bigoted, antisemitic, and white supremacist content on the platform, resulting in advertisers such as IBM pulling their ads from the platform. Which led to the service filing a defamation lawsuit against MMFA over their reporting.
comment posted at 3:05 PM on Nov-22-23

The list is as much a cultural signifier as it is an accurate index of what the public is reading. The tagline makes it easier for readers to find a book within today’s info glut and makes it easier for an author to convince a publisher to let them write another one ... “It becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy,” she says. “It has a cumulative, rich-get-richer effect, if you’ve managed it successfully.” Sales come and go, but a NYT bestseller bio line is forever. from The murky math of the New York Times bestsellers list
comment posted at 5:05 AM on Nov-15-23

There's a whole community of professionals online who trade tips about juggling jobs on the sly. They describe themselves as "overemployed" — and, they seem to be getting away with it. At its core, overemployment represents a new social contract being forged in an era that has left the old, unspoken agreement around work — "stick with us for life and we'll treat you like family" — in tatters.
comment posted at 5:00 AM on Nov-14-23

Erin Kissane has some criticisms of Mastodon's culture and technology Since Elon Musk's enshittification of twitter, many new social platforms have sprung up. Mastodon, Bluesky, Cohost, Threads; to name a few. Even Metafilter got in on it by spinning up a MeFi Mastodon instance. Do you agree with the author's assessment of the state of Mastodon? Have you joined one of the new social media sites? How do your experiences stack up next to the author's?
comment posted at 5:50 AM on Nov-14-23

Bitter but true; her writing is not much taught or studied. A couple dozen dissertations center on her work, about a tenth as many as those analyzing Roth. “‘Fear of Flying’ had seemed an apprentice work to me when I wrote it,” Jong recalled, “and now it was to be my tombstone.” from Fear of Flying at 50 [NY Times; ungated]
comment posted at 4:45 AM on Nov-13-23

Seen through devices such as ground-penetrating radar or magnetometry, it is preservation, not ruin, that is the rule. Even the most temporary village or house—even the briefest of human lives—leaves a signature behind in the soil. The unexpected lesson of these new instruments is that none of us ever fully disappear. from Scientists Have an Audacious Plan to Map the Ancient World Before It Disappears [Wired; ungated] See also: Agency of the Subsurface [Geoff Manaugh's BLDGBLOG]
comment posted at 4:05 AM on Nov-10-23

Wisconsin couple has tens of thousands of old phones — and nobody to buy them. From the Wisconsin State Journal, the story of Ron and Mary Klappen, who've been selling vintage phone and phone equipment since 1971. But their business may now be at the end of the line.
comment posted at 4:18 AM on Nov-10-23

Jury finds Sam Bankman-Fried guilty. Not a big surprise for anybody who has been casually following the whole crypto "industry" or trial. For newcomers, FTX is (was?) a cryptocurrency exchange well known for their explosive growth and valuation and Sam Bankman-Fried (commonly abbreviated as SBF) was hailed as the genius CEO. A lot of people wondered how they managed it, and unsurprisingly, it turns out the magic ingredient was fraud. Some previous hits involving FTX include SBF describing their business model as essentially a ponzi scheme and being hailed as a visionary by Sequoia Capital for hit pitch while playing League of Legends. His inability to shut up and dig himself into a deeper hole can't have helped.
comment posted at 5:28 AM on Nov-3-23

Washington D.C. Attorney General Brian Schwalb is suing RealPage and 14 of the city's biggest landlords, which he dubbed a "cartel," for allegedly inflating rent costs based on calculations from RealPage Revenue Management Software. Big landlords are colluding to raise rents, D.C. lawsuit alleges, April Rubin, Axios. Previously.
comment posted at 5:39 AM on Nov-3-23

Six years ago, white supremacists marched (ostensibly) to defend a statue of Robert E Lee in Charlottesville, Virginia. Today, two Washington Post reporters documented the process of cutting that statue up and melting the pieces down into ingots. (gift link)
comment posted at 1:37 AM on Oct-27-23

I’ve known since I was 11 who these people, this Eyebrows McGee and this languagehat, are. After graduating from college, I still thought of Metafilter as a rarified club of experts that I’d somehow snuck into. I also thought of Metafilter as a perfect window onto the world. I was sure I could better understand different life experiences because I read strangers’ thoughts, freed by anonymity to be honest. I knew I lived in a tiny bubble, and Metafilter seemed my best defense against that insularity.
comment posted at 5:49 AM on Oct-22-23
comment posted at 6:08 AM on Oct-23-23
comment posted at 10:22 AM on Oct-23-23
comment posted at 12:22 PM on Oct-24-23

Sidney Powell Pleads Guilty in Georgia Trump Case (NYT gift, WaPo gift, The Atlantic gift, AP, Reuters)
comment posted at 4:16 AM on Oct-20-23

“What they’re trying to do offends me at the root of who I am and what I’m about.” - LeVar Burton Wants You to Read Banned Books
comment posted at 4:00 AM on Oct-14-23

Rising mortgage rates have made it even more unaffordable for many people to buy homes.
comment posted at 3:53 AM on Oct-14-23

“We went from two women senators when I ran for office in 1992 to 24 today – and I know that number will keep climbing.” Dianne Feinstein, whose three decades in the Senate made her the longest-serving female US senator in history, has died. [CNN]
comment posted at 4:55 AM on Sep-30-23

A farmer set a trap to catch whatever was killing his chooks. He caught a tiger quoll (marsupial carnivore that reaches up to 3.5 kilograms/7.7 pounds) that had been thought to be extinct in South Australia for 130 years. When farmer Pao Ling Tsai set a trap to catch the predator that had been killing his chooks, he expected to catch a feral cat or fox. Instead, he caught a species that was thought extinct in South Australia more than 130 years ago. The quoll has now been vet checked, had DNA samples taken, treated for mange, and will be released into the wild.
comment posted at 3:11 AM on Sep-29-23

Again and again, we search for the moderate streak in the extremist, tell ourselves we can find common ground with people who are explicit in their desire to do us harm.
comment posted at 3:06 PM on Sep-28-23

A private US citizen was responsible for rescuing thousands of women from the Taliban's takeover of Afghanistan.
comment posted at 3:16 AM on Sep-26-23

'Poetic Justice' at 30: Reflecting on the Film and its Impact on the Black Community [ONE37] “On July 23, 1993 music icons Tupac and Janet Jackson came out with a movie that will forever remain a cult classic—Poetic Justice. It's hard to believe that so much time has passed since its original release as Poetic Justice has seemed to be the gift that keeps on giving in the Black community. For us millennials, the film is one of those "right-of-passage" must-see ones that was shown to you by your parents when you were a kid/teenager, and in turn, you are supposed to pass it down to your children and younger siblings/relatives. And don't get us started on Halloween—you can't go a Halloween season without seeing loads of girls dressed as Poetic Justice Janet (and their S/Os as Tupac when they want to team up), and "Janet Jackson braids" are very much a real thing and a real requested hair style. With it being the films 30th anniversary, we figured it would be a good time to take a look back at the impact the movie had at the time of its release, and the impact it continues to have today.” [Poetic Justice (1993) | Film Trailer]
comment posted at 11:39 AM on Sep-23-23

Tim Scott's Girlfriend (slWaPo)
comment posted at 4:22 AM on Sep-13-23

Americans Are Losing Faith in the Value of College. Whose Fault Is That?
comment posted at 4:53 AM on Sep-12-23

Coercion versus care. The problems that always develop when an organization deliberately deprives their employees of the ability to make things right in favour of funding the ways to enforce compliance with the policies as written, or as predatorily enforced.
comment posted at 4:55 AM on Sep-7-23

A semester inside the siege: New College professor defends her progressive haven from DeSantis’ conservative coup. “If I just walk away,” she thought, “who will stand up for this place? ... I want to try to preserve the things that make New College unique and wonderful." Amy Reid, a professor of French language and the director of the gender studies program, has worked at New College of Florida her whole career — nearly half her life.
comment posted at 2:13 PM on Aug-22-23

"Saudi border guards have killed at least hundreds of Ethiopian migrants and asylum seekers who tried to cross the Yemen-Saudi border between March 2022 and June 2023. Human Rights Watch research indicates that, at time of writing, the killings are continuing. Saudi border guards have used explosive weapons and shot people at close range, including women and children, in a pattern that is widespread and systematic." Saudi Arabian Mass Killings of Ethiopian Migrants at the Yemen-Saudi Border (HRW report) (One of the many consequences of the Tigray War where it's "estimated 162,000–⁠600,000 people were killed" between 2020 and 2022)
comment posted at 3:51 PM on Aug-23-23

In a nearby town square, a skinny child in a Steph Curry T-shirt climbs a tree. A few blocks away, a three-wheeled mototaxi whizzes by, a San Francisco Giants sticker affixed to its bumper ... More extravagant emblems of San Francisco appear unexpectedly and often, alongside crumbling adobe huts, stray roosters and heaps of singed garbage. Handsome new homes, some mansions by local standards, some mansions by any standard, rise behind customized iron gates emblazoned with San Francisco 49ers or Golden State Warriors logos. from This is the Hometown of San Francisco’s Drug Dealers [SF Chronicle]
comment posted at 5:01 AM on Aug-16-23

Territorial hawks in a South Austin neighborhood are attacking residents and mail carriers Eric Klein has positioned himself as a vigilante of sorts in his Austin, Texas neighborhood. He caught an attack on camera, and he’s actively plotting methods to keep himself and his neighbors safe. But Klein isn’t fighting a person. His ire is drawn by a group of swift, winged perpetrators who have made their homes in the trees high above his. Klein said he’s heard of at least six people who were attacked. He and his neighbors have taken to using umbrellas and colorful streamers to deter the birds. Del Barrio said he believes the hawks don’t attack people walking in groups or with dogs.
comment posted at 11:38 AM on Jul-18-23

Mark Zuckerberg is ready to fight Elon Musk in a cage match [The Verge] Here we go. After Elon Musk recently tweeted that he would be “up for a cage fight” with Zuckerberg, the Meta CEO shot back by posting a screenshot of Musk’s tweet with the caption “send me location.” I’ve confirmed that Zuckerberg’s post on his Instagram account is, in fact, not a joke, which means the ball is now in Musk’s court. “The story speaks for itself,” Meta spokesperson Iska Saric told me. After this story was published, Musk responded with two words: “Vegas Octagon.”
comment posted at 5:15 AM on Jun-24-23

Cormac McCarthy, a critically acclaimed author with a singular voice, has died. McCarthy was awarded a Pulitzer Prize for The Road.
comment posted at 6:25 AM on Jun-15-23

Silvio Berlusconi è morto, aveva 86 anni: domani la camera ardente a Mediaset [Corriere della Sera]
comment posted at 6:30 AM on Jun-15-23

If you’re not using ChatGPT for your writing, you’re probably making a mistake. About 10 minutes into my interview with Ethan Mollick, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton business school who has become a prominent evangelist for AI tools, it became clear that he was going to use Bing to interview me. He started by asking the Microsoft search engine, newly infused with a generative AI model from OpenAI, “Can you look at the work of Dylan Matthews of Vox and tell me some common themes, as well as any strengths or weaknesses.” In a couple seconds, Bing had an answer: “Dylan Matthews is one of the senior correspondents at Vox. He covers topics such as effective altruism, philanthropy, global health, and social justice.” (So far, so good.)
comment posted at 4:00 AM on May-25-23

Technologists warn about the dangers of the so-called singularity. But can anything actually be done to prevent it? [New Yorker]
comment posted at 5:31 AM on May-18-23

If there is one thing that I want you to take away from this article, it’s that venture capital firms and other heavily invested players in the crypto space should not be trusted to give us the facts on the industry they desperately need to promote. They will produce superficially objective-looking reports full of numbers and charts, but a critical reading shows just how blatantly they are manipulating numbers to arrive at the conclusions that fit their narratives. from Andreessen Horowitz's State of Crypto report: Narrative over numbers by Molly White
comment posted at 5:02 AM on May-10-23

Pod Save The UK is an American-style political chat and humor show that just launched. Hosted by comedian Nish Kumar and journalist Coco Khan, their premiere episode Is the UK Ready to Ditch the Monarchy? [1h2m] brings in Amelia Hadfield from Surry University and Labour MP Clive Lewis to discuss the role of the monarchy in the UK in the 21st Century and how, if at all possible, they might get rid of the crown.
comment posted at 5:06 PM on May-8-23

The real reason for the Supreme Court's corruption crisis - "Roberts's 2011 report and the Court's more recent statement on ethics portray the Supreme Court as a unique institution that cannot be constrained by the same ethical rules that apply to less powerful judges, especially when it comes to recusals." (previously)
comment posted at 4:11 AM on May-6-23

Belgium crushes 2,000 cans of Miller High Life over ‘champagne of beers’ slogan
comment posted at 6:01 AM on Apr-23-23

A ProPublica news piece has just dropped examining the relationship between Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and Texas Real Estate Developer Harlan Crow, and the frequent travel-related gifts Crow has showered on Thomas for 20 years - all of which Thomas has failed to disclose.
comment posted at 4:34 AM on Apr-6-23

The Texas Observer, a liberal newsmagazine in a state that has grown increasingly hostile to its point of view since its founding in 1954, is closing. The news apparently came as a surprise to Observer staff, but the well-researched story in the Texas Tribune about the closure, like an obituary written before a person's death, suggests that perhaps it shouldn't have.
comment posted at 5:24 AM on Mar-28-23

Abortion pill mifepristone ruling in Texas case could hinge on 1873 Comstock Act - "A federal judge in Texas may try to invoke an obscure 19th-century law called the Comstock Act to roll back mail delivery of the abortion pill mifepristone." (previously)
comment posted at 4:01 AM on Mar-22-23

IPCC 2023: All global modelled pathways that limit warming to 1.5°C (>50%) with no or limited overshoot, and those that limit warming to 2°C (>67%), involve rapid and deep and, in most cases, immediate greenhouse gas emissions reductions in all sectors this decade. If you were born after the 80s, you will experience 1.5°C temperatures.
The Guardian: Scientists deliver ‘final warning’ on climate crisis: act now or it’s too late
The New York Times: Climate Change Is Speeding Toward Catastrophe. The Next Decade Is Crucial, U.N. Panel Says. Wired: Warnings About Humanity’s Future Don’t Get More Dire Than This
comment posted at 4:19 AM on Mar-22-23

Moooove over: How single-celled yeasts are doing the work of 1,500-pound cows "Dozens of companies have sprouted up in recent months to develop milk proteins made by yeasts or fungi. ... The companies’ products are already on store shelves in the form of yogurt, cheese and ice cream, often labeled 'animal-free.' The burgeoning industry, which calls itself 'precision fermentation,' has its own trade organization, and big-name food manufacturers such as Nestlé, Starbucks and General Mills have already signed on as customers."
comment posted at 12:31 PM on Mar-13-23

In 2016 Anthony Novak decided to create a Parma, Ohio Police Department parody page on Facebook. They tracked him down and jailed him for four days. The alleged crime was the "use of a computer to disrupt, interrupt, or impair police services.” He was acquitted at trial. Novak sued, and the district court eventually granted the officers qualified immunity. The Supreme Court refused to hear his appeal.
comment posted at 3:39 AM on Feb-23-23