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What the size of your book collection - potentially - says about you "Are you a minimalist or a mini-librarian? Do you let your books pile up around your home, or do you treat your collection like a carefully curated gallery of your best self? Time to find out." [more inside]
posted by Faintdreams at 2:22 PM - 47 comments

You may be wondering: What makes a villain “best”? That, friends, is really up to you. You can vote for the most iconic villains, the most memorable villains, or the most villainous villains. You can vote for the villain you enjoyed reading about the most, or the one that kept you up at night. You can vote for the cutest villain, if that’s your thing. The point is, there are no rules. Villains are rule-breakers, and so are we. from The Best Villains in Literature Bracket: The Not-So-Sweet 16 [LitHub]
posted by chavenet at 1:22 PM - 22 comments

After a very positive reception at the Cannes Directors' Fortnight, Carson Lund's directorial debut Eephus is opening this week to very good reviews, touted as "the best baseball movie since ‘Moneyball’". [more inside]
posted by smcdow at 12:41 PM - 2 comments

A short doc about a musical obsession, perseverance and git'n r done ...The Mystery of the Dirty Cowboy
posted by foodeater at 12:17 PM - 1 comment

In a triumph of graphic design and branding, Major League Baseball’s new ‘Overlap’ hats are going viral for all the wrong reasons.
posted by mbrubeck at 10:57 AM - 41 comments

AT&T Workers: Drugged, Bugged and Coming Unplugged; Moving the Indiana Bell Central Office; History of Engineering and Science at Bell Labs; How the Telephone Helps the Farmer; and much more of the lore of telecommunications from the library of Telephone Collectors International.
posted by ContinuousWave at 8:45 AM - 9 comments

A six minute video illustrating Hilbert’s paradox of the Grand Hotel with cute blobby monsters.
posted by Lemkin at 6:33 AM - 47 comments

Why don't you come down to Galley House this Saturday evening?… I have recently acquired something to keep you interested if you decide to come. It's not perfect, but sometimes when you close your eyes, it's like someone else is in the house… Type Help is a new, free, browser-based, text-based deductive mystery game by William Rous. [more inside]
posted by bcwinters at 5:49 AM - 5 comments

Fukuyama’s pining for past ideological struggles suggests that the Last Man would eventually get bored with technocracy, consumerism, and the stultifying constraints of middle management—and seek new monsters to fight. America’s flirtation with an authoritarian leader who promises he alone will fix the nation’s problems and restore the country’s past glory is a manifestation of this phenomenon. The greatest challenges to liberal democracy would not come from new ideological competitors but rather from complacency. from Francis Fukuyama Was Right About Liberal Democracy [The New Republic; ungated]
posted by chavenet at 2:03 AM - 20 comments

Following up last month's post on the development of the Lifesling, two sailors participating in the Possession Point Race were rescued from Puget Sound (Seattle Times, archive) after falling off one of the contending boats, while videoed from a ferry. [more inside]
posted by ShooBoo at 11:04 PM - 6 comments

One of Australia's smallest skinks has undergone a big genetic change in an attempt to fight the risk of extinction due to climate change. Biologists bred and released four tiny genetically modified Guthega skinks in an outdoor enclosure on Victoria's High Country in December. It is one step away before the tiny lizards are released into the greater wild when biologists are hopeful the offspring of the critters can be set free in about a year.
posted by chariot pulled by cassowaries at 7:36 PM - 6 comments

From The Ringer: The Best Sports Moments of the (last) Quarter Century
posted by saladin at 6:55 PM - 31 comments

The Roland TR-808 had a larger impact on commercial music than any other branded musical instrument except perhaps the Fender Stratocaster. So someone made a documentary about it. [more inside]
posted by Lemkin at 5:25 PM - 13 comments

Kevin Drum, one of the earliest left wing political bloggers, has passed away after a long battle with cancer. [more inside]
posted by NoxAeternum at 4:51 PM - 36 comments

If there's one thing McDonald's is known for among its American customers, it's its uniformity. Almost all McDonald's from Maine to California look the same and have the same offerings. And when McDonald's began to open restaurants outside the States over the course of the later 20th century, the standard menu of the United States McDonald's held an exotic appeal for non-Americans. McDonald's was exporting America. ...Now with over 40,000 restaurants across the planet, the McDonald's of each country can look and taste as different as the cultures in which they are embedded. from McAtlas documents, analyzes, and celebrates the international multiformity of McDonald's [BoingBoing] [more inside]
posted by chavenet at 3:00 PM - 51 comments

Oh sure, there's always the usual mainstream things every article trots out, blah blah blah. But what unusual/surprising/interesting hobby, activity, or task do you find works as a creative outlet? Or talk about anything else - it's our weekly free thread!
posted by Greg_Ace at 1:30 PM - 77 comments

The first season of Andor is now streaming on Hulu and Disney has uploaded first three-episode arc to YouTube. This is done to build momentum for the April 22nd premiere of the second, and last, season. A day which happens to be, as Damien Walter notes in a recent video essay, Lenin’s birthday. This fits Walter’s argument that Andor is a Marxist story. Others, such as Sage Hyden and Phoebe Wagner, maintain it should be understood as anti-fascist. Either way, left-wing science fiction magazine Red Futures released a whole issue devoted to Andor analysis.
posted by Kattullus at 12:28 PM - 42 comments

Baroness Von Sketch was a sketch comedy show by women for women! [more inside]
posted by Kitteh at 11:13 AM - 22 comments

Emily and Amelia Nagoski discuss how to cope when you've either lost your hope or never had any. Emily and Amelia made the Feminist Survival Project podcast in 2020. In 2025, they brought it back. In a recent episode, they discuss what to do when you don't have hope. [more inside]
posted by jenfullmoon at 10:01 AM - 13 comments

Is a bone a viable weapon when combating a Rancor? Estimating the bite force of an intergalactic mega-predator. S. Lautenschlager and T. Clements, Journal of Geek Studies, volume 12, issue 1, pages 25-36 (2025).

The ability of the Rancor to snap the femur with apparent ease poses interesting questions: (1) how much dorso-lateral force is required to snap a femur of the size used by Luke to stave off the Rancor in ROTJ? (2) Could the Rancor generate such force with its jaws? Lastly, (3) could any other extinct or extant organisms generate such force? Despite the fact that Rancor exist(ed?) a long time ago in a galaxy far, far, away, there are techniques employed in paleontological research that can answer the questions outlined above.

[more inside]
posted by fantabulous timewaster at 8:41 AM - 7 comments

Please enjoy this POV video of the winner of this year's Cerro Abajo Valparaiso race. 2km descent through the streets, sidewalks, stairs, rooftops, and houses of the hills of Valparaiso.
posted by signal at 8:03 AM - 41 comments

The Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest is ending. "It is with deep regrets that I announce the conclusion of the Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest. Being a year and a half older than Joseph Biden, I find the BLFC becoming increasingly burdensome and would like to put myself out to pasture while I still have some vim and vigor!" — English professor Scott E. Rice at San Jose State University [more inside]
posted by zaixfeep at 7:23 AM - 27 comments

COLD - a film about a dead lady [via mefi projects] [CW: body horror]
posted by chavenet at 3:56 AM - 9 comments

Key to survival for one of the world's rarest creatures. Conservationists say the lessons learnt from the northern hairy-nosed wombat could help save other animals around the globe.
posted by chariot pulled by cassowaries at 12:14 AM - 3 comments

AOC responds to Trump's Congressional Address - "It's all about Medicaid. It's all about what they're not saying. Don't you find it interesting that Donald Trump, if you listen to that speech, Donald Trump said a lot of things, he said a lot of random things about studies and waste and all this other stuff. He did not talk about Medicaid. Not once. And as a certain right-wing operative likes to say: MAGA's on Medicaid. And MAGA Trump is coming for your Medicaid. MAGA Republicans are coming for your Medicaid. And the reason they are rattling off all of these things because -- listen, where there is waste, we should address it, where there is corruption, we should address it, where there's fraud and abuse, we should address it -- but don't you think that if you found a bunch of money in the couch cushions that you would put that to expanding Medicaid, improving schools, fixing our roads, right, but that's not what they're planning on doing." [more inside]
posted by kliuless at 11:59 PM - 77 comments

The Elephant Graveyard delivers wry, witty, scathing critiques of wayward comedians like Joe Rogan and Jerry Seinfeld. Their newest piece, How Comedy Became a Dystopian Imperial Hell World, explores deep into the alt-right comedy podbro pipeline of the Roganverse. If you need a further palate cleanser, there's always Professional Joke Explainer Myles Anderson, who whimsically breaks down the "comedy" of right-wing comedians such as Theo Von, Tony Hinchcliffe, and Dave Smith, among others.
posted by Christ, what an asshole at 9:01 PM - 11 comments

STEM Romance Books and Their Hidden Importance
posted by Lemkin at 8:03 PM - 9 comments

Mark Carney wins race to replace Trudeau. “We didn’t ask for this fight,” Carney said, referencing Trump’s threats to annex Canada. “But Canadians are always ready when someone else drops the gloves.” “So Americans should make no mistake. In trade, as in hockey, Canada will win.” [more inside]
posted by Kitteh at 4:14 PM - 119 comments

I can’t describe in detail how the upstairs dining room at Sharmilee in Leicester has changed since last I visited. After all, 26 years is a long time. Sharmilee was the second restaurant I reviewed when I started writing this column in the spring of 1999 and it’s the only one of the first six that is still trading. — Jay Rayner, of many previous posts here, writes his final restaurant review for The Observer. And is delighted, as he much prefers to be. [more inside]
posted by ambrosen at 2:45 PM - 9 comments

I have collected here many (85) color palettes of Retro CRTs, LCDs, CROs, VFDs, Nixie Tubes, Numitrons, Calculators, Terminals, and Computers (in text mode). Most of these are high contrast and are easy to read. When configuring software on modern PCs (such as your text editor, email client, etc.) or when creating web pages (in HTML, CSS), or other types of documents (graphics), you can use these color palettes to mostly relive displays of the past on today's high resolution flat panel displays.
posted by chavenet at 2:10 PM - 9 comments

The most common variant of pancreatic cancer is very deadly with a five year survivability of just 15%. Promising news on two fronts in the fight against it: Oregon Health and Science University scientists have developed a simple blood test using protease activity-based assay using a magnetic nanosensor (PAC-MANN) that can detect it early. And Memorial Sloan Kettering doctors are testing a mRNA vaccine that shows promise as a treatment.
posted by Mitheral at 9:51 AM - 23 comments

"The Pearl’s icy elegance, sumptuous beauty, and mesmeric pace form the Platonic ideal which all post-classical piano-ambient has since imitated. Hearing it feels like retreating into a snow globe where there is nothing to think about, but everything to feel." – Brian Howe (h/t holmesian) [more inside]
posted by Lemkin at 8:59 AM - 10 comments

Hockey in Minnesota borders on being a religion. This past week was the state high school hockey championship (souvenir tournament program).
For the final game on Sunday, over 20,000 were in attendance to see East Grand Forks win over St. Cloud Cathedral. No word on how many watched the live stream.

Perhaps you read about it in the New York Times - ‘Archaeologist of Hockey Hair’

That’s all good, but The Video is now available – bring your own dressing for the salad. Here is the All Hockey Hair presentation (YT)
posted by fluffycreature at 7:55 AM - 16 comments

“I accept the charge. Dangerous. Cult. Leader. A flash of lightning that appears and then disappears in this brief instant of timeless time called a human life. Crackling and alive. Dangerous to those that don’t want to burn. Electrifying to those that do. A propagater [sic] of storms. An experiment in new culture.” from ‘We All Have Predators Inside Us’ [The Cut; ungated; CW: rape, sexual abuse, psychological abuse, cults]
posted by chavenet at 3:05 AM - 25 comments

Who wouldn’t want to be woken in the middle of the night, as Simon Kimmins was by his flatmate Ventris, and asked whether they would like to be ‘the second person in four thousand years to read this script’? In July 2022, the French scholar François Desset and a team of co-authors published what they claimed was proof of a decipherment of Linear Elamite, a writing system used on the Iranian plateau around four thousand years ago.

– Beyond Mesopotamia is an essay by Tom Stevenson on the decipherment of the Linear Elamite script and subsequent controversies.
posted by Kattullus at 12:38 AM - 21 comments

Laura Cumming in The Guardian: "Tirzah Garwood (1908-51) is as original as she is – so far – almost entirely unknown. If you have never seen any of her works you won't be alone." Rachel Cooke: "How the forgotten art of Tirzah Garwood finally came to light." Video from the exhibition: ~5 minutes by Katy Hessel; ~25 minutes by Art Gallery Explorer. Tirzah Garwood's embroideries, marbled papers, and (available for checkout) autobiography.
posted by Wobbuffet at 7:11 PM - 6 comments

The surprisingly subtle ways Microsoft Word has changed how we use language [more inside]
posted by Lemkin at 6:53 PM - 32 comments

Killing Baby Boomers Will Save the United States Government Trillions by Katie Botkin, McSweeney's [more inside]
posted by medusa at 6:22 PM - 25 comments

It is as if you were on your phone Look at you! On your phone! But you’ve got a secret! And you won’t tell! You’re not on your phone! It is only as if you were on your phone! You’re just pretending to be on your phone! On your phone!
posted by Ten Cold Hot Dogs at 3:42 PM - 6 comments

Corey Robin in n+1. Too wide-ranging for a single pull quote, here is a smattering of topics: the cruelty is not the point, McCarthyism compared to Musk, the role of institutions and elite resistance, fighting as the best solution to fear, the current assault on government as a continuation of the neoliberal project, virtue as a failure state of society.
posted by ropeladder at 3:15 PM - 10 comments

A Flamin’ Hot Cheeto Shaped Like a Pokémon Just Sold for $90,000 [Art News]
posted by chavenet at 1:34 PM - 22 comments

Yo La Tengo are once again playing requests for pledges beginning at 3pm ET TODAY on WFMU (at 2000 UTC on Sat March 8th). Every year, Yo La Tengo perform requests live on-air in exchange for pledges, to help keep freeform noncommercial radio station WFMU (91.1 FM in Jersey City, NJ) on the air. They will play listener requests for three hours, and it is always a guaranteed riot of a listen. The show will not be archived by the station, so live is the only way to hear it -- old school appointment listening. Previously on MeFi via the wfmu and yolatengo tags -- a MeFi tradition!
posted by intermod at 11:09 AM - 9 comments

Retired hens revitalise Cyprus olive groves. Organic farmers in Cyprus have recruited hundreds of retired hens to fertilize olive groves in a pilot project they say boosts yields, counters disease, and helps to manage food waste. Saved from slaughter after their egg-laying years, hens peck and poop to their hearts' content among olive trees at the organically certified Akaki Grove, on the green foothills of the Troodos mountains west of Nicosia.
posted by chariot pulled by cassowaries at 10:03 AM - 18 comments

Update on the Illinois flag competition: the current flag is the winner.
posted by Mitheral at 8:41 AM - 20 comments

"Though it may have felt as if it ended just as soon as it started, Definitive Jux remains relevant even in the modern context of hip-hop through its influence. ...Definitive Jux tried to keep it true to its roots while also developing an alternative lane for artists that is still flourishing today." [more inside]
posted by Lemkin at 7:49 AM - 2 comments

TerraCollage "Roman De Giuli is a German photographer and filmmaker, specialized in practical effects and experimental fluid art. His compositions mainly consist of fluids, powders and colors which are applied on paper to create vivid, three dimensional scenes" [via]
posted by dhruva at 7:07 AM - 2 comments

On March 8, 2022, I went to celebrate International Women’s Day with my colleague. On the way back, I visited an acquaintance. If I hadn’t stayed there, I would have died because there was an airstrike in our area. [g/truthhounds.org (content note: war inside)] [more inside]
posted by HearHere at 3:48 AM - 1 comment

You’re probably familiar with the tone accompanying these, of gentle incredulity and deep sighs: photos of (gasp) Karachiites drinking alcohol in bars, women in (OMG!) short skirts, hippies in hostels (wow) smoking weed; look, look at how we used to be, how we were so not what we are now. Smartphones no doubt ping similarly in Kabul or Tehran. The majority of the people who came to Captain Akeel’s were those who had lived and experienced the real thing. And here I was, pity-laughing at dad jokes and searching for a dead man. Well, I was looking for a trace, a whiff, a rumor—anything that would bring alive the greatest guitarist you’d never heard about. from Iggy [Guernica]
posted by chavenet at 1:30 AM - 4 comments

An invasive species from South America is decimating California's crops. Nutria, rodents originally from South America, have been eating their way through Delta vegetation. The mammals can eat up to 25% of their body weight — between 15 and 20 pounds for full-grown nutria — in a single day... Federal wildlife authorities advised those in states with nutria populations to check local regulation for hunting rules and “capture and then ultimately, cook these nuisance critters.” [more inside]
posted by fubar at 9:50 PM - 39 comments

75 yo Tom Waits performs "Tom Traubert's Blues" for Italian television, as part of the documentary Ultima Fermata, broadcast in February 2025. Here he plays it 48 years earlier. [more inside]
posted by growabrain at 2:10 PM - 15 comments