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Nice trick, but what's with that truck? The Tool Tank!
posted by Chuckles at 10:49 PM PST - 56 comments

This is an album I listen during every New Year's season because it has a bittersweet New Years song on it, and I love those. It's also about the pressures of fame and a document about couples breaking up. It's heartbreaking and beautiful and bittersweet and ABBA only did one more (very surreal) album. it's worth a listen. ABBA -- 1980 -- Super Trouper [YouTube playlist, ~40 min]: Side 1 [22m30s] -- Super Trouper; The Winner Takes It All; On And On And On; Andante, Andante; Me And I [more inside]
posted by hippybear at 10:35 PM PST - 17 comments

The Enduring Power of Stevie Nicks
posted by the man of twists and turns at 9:40 PM PST - 40 comments

Outlandish and stupendous costumes from the 1920s for stage and screen. Many of these designs were by Erte, the quintessential Art Deco designer. Here's a link showing his fashion designs for everyday, which are almost as outre as his designs for movies. Erte Haute Couture. Everything is a feast for the eyes and also illustrates the rapid changes in women's fashion from the corseted years to the flapper era and beyond.
posted by MovableBookLady at 5:48 PM PST - 10 comments

With Minecraft, with the economy, for us, there was no story to tell. There was only money.
posted by bq at 5:11 PM PST - 34 comments

Sue Grafton, a prolific author of detective novels known for an alphabetically titled series that began in 1982 with “A Is for Alibi,” has died on Thursday night in Santa Barbara, Calif. She was 77. [more inside]
posted by not_the_water at 4:02 PM PST - 67 comments

Over the past few months, VCV Rack has been gaining an enormous amount of buzz and excitement in the electronic music production community. What is VCV Rack? It's a modular synthesizer (think: someone hunched over a mess of cables, patching them into jacks on an arcane-looking device to alter and modulate sound signals in complex ways). But it's virtual, and it runs entirely in your computer. If you want to get started with VCV right away, you're in luck: here's a gentle primer suitable for people who are new to modular synths. Or read on for more. [more inside]
posted by naju at 2:24 PM PST - 44 comments

Who killed Benazir Bhutto? 10 years after the assassination of former Prime Minister of Pakistan Benazir Bhutto, the first woman to head a democratic government in a Muslim majority nation, EOS Magazine (a division of Pakistan's Dawn News) has published an investigative report into her death, concluding that she was killed by Al-Qaeda. The report appears to largely rely on a confession made by retired Pakistani special forces commando and former Al-Qaeda operative Major Haroon Ashiq. Ashiq allegedly planned the November 2008 terrorist attacks in Mumbai and is described as “one of the most influential Al Qaeda strategists and ideologues in the organisation’s history.” Via. [more inside]
posted by zarq at 1:31 PM PST - 6 comments

Sorry if... sorry you... - A 12 step guide to a perfect non-apology. (Toby Morris, The Spinoff) [more inside]
posted by Start with Dessert at 1:08 PM PST - 15 comments

Even in these trying times, there is a constant: doggos. They help Baltimore kids improve their reading skills and compassion. One helps a girl with a rare genetic disorder get around (video). They help the families of children with disabilities live more comfortably in a challenging world (video). And one helps an autustic child simply be comfortable.
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 12:37 PM PST - 16 comments

The Most Expensive Mile of Subway Track on Earth How excessive staffing, little competition, generous contracts and archaic rules dramatically inflate capital costs for transit in New York. (SLNYT by Brian M. Rosenthal)
posted by crazy with stars at 12:15 PM PST - 38 comments

Marvel wants you to write comics with no farts, death, aliens, gossip, or ‘social issues’ [The Verge] “In a press release today, Marvel announced Create Your Own [YouTube], a new platform that allows fans to create original comic strips using Marvel characters and stock background illustrations. The tagline is “Your Own Marvel Universe.” Fans don’t have access to the platform yet, though details are “coming soon.” Whether the version of the Marvel Universe you create is “Your Own” is arguable, however, given that the terms and conditions state that users are forbidden from distributing the content off-platform or using it for any commercial enterprise.” [more inside]
posted by Fizz at 11:16 AM PST - 107 comments

How to persuade Evangelical Christians to take Climate Change seriously.
posted by Artw at 10:33 AM PST - 33 comments

“Yes, 2017 went off the rails. But what pushed it? We asked 29 of our favorite journalists, writers, and thinkers: What were the most important events of the past 12 months, and what were the least?” - The Morning News on the year was and wasn’t (previously)
posted by The Whelk at 9:12 AM PST - 19 comments

Russian Artist Makes Huge Sculptures Out Of Animal Farm Poo
posted by orrnyereg at 7:02 AM PST - 22 comments

The scoreboard for the 3rd annual Self-Published Fantasy Blog-Off has been updated to show that a 10th novel was chosen as a finalist this morning. A denser page charts the history of the event, linking to reviews of the 300 submissions, noting semi-finalists with a + sign, and highlighting finalists in green. The event is administered by Mark Lawrence, whose novel Red Sister (Tor.com review) is among the most popular traditionally-published fantasy novels of 2017. 10 fantasy fiction bloggers work throughout the year to select 10 self-published novels that all 10 will read. Their criteria can be quirky. Their favorites in the end can be near unanimous or a bit mixed.
posted by Wobbuffet at 5:37 AM PST - 2 comments

National Geographic reveals how biologists feel about animal emojis. [more inside]
posted by Stark at 2:56 AM PST - 36 comments