How lesbian escort agencies became a form of self-care in Japan. [more inside]

"The liberal democratic nation-state is on the decline in the West as a result of globalisation, regionalisation, universalisation of minority rights, multi-culturalism and the rise of ethno-nationalism. While Western countries are decoupling the nation-state and shifting toward multicultural civic democracy, other countries are consolidating an alternative non-civic form of a democratic state that is identified with and subservient to a single ethnic nation."

[more inside]

'Chuck Woolery, game show host of 'Love Connection' and 'Scrabble,' dies at 83'

Inside this site you'll find lots and lots of information, photos, videos and diagrams from NASA's moon landing programme, Project Apollo. There's also lots of material from the Mercury, Gemini, Skylab and Apollo-Soyuz projects. All of the material on this site is from NASA sources. Although most of it is available from various NASA sites, the pages on this site have all been reformatted and arranged to make finding and browsing as easy as possible.

A music video for Sade's 'Young Lion,' dedicated to her trans son Izaak. From the TRAИ​ƧA compilation (previously), it's her first new song in six years.

The Magnetic Fields: NPR Tiny Desk Concert "The band, featuring the complete original lineup, performed without drums and an almost entirely acoustic set, with the exception of Sam Davol's electric cello."

Who was Alice Brock you might ask? None other than Alice of Alice's Restaurant fame. Arlo Guthrie announced that Alice Brock, his dear friend and inspiration for his song Alice's Restaurant died a week before Thanksgiving. Born Alice May Pelkey in New York City, Brock was a lifelong rebel who was a member of Students for a Democratic Society among other organizations. [more inside]

"When the icebreaker breaks the ice and it flips upside down, it's covered with beautiful golden algae, and krill feeding on the algae. It's colourful and full of life, like a coral reef." [bbc]

After spending years probing authors’ lives for clues to their work—and, far more often, fielding requests from writers who would kill for an ounce of media attention—I find myself most in awe of those who insist on never explaining themselves. from What the Internet Age Is Taking Away From Writers [The Atlantic; ungated]

A Radical Approach to Flooding in England: Give Land Back to the Sea. The idea was to turn what had been farmland into salt marsh, an ancient ecosystem that soaks up water as the tide comes in and releases it as the sea retreats. The marsh acts as a natural and hugely effective bulwark against flooding, absorbing and slowing tides before they can encroach inland. Even last winter — the wettest anyone in the area could remember — the village at one edge of the peninsula did not flood. Paths through the marsh remained passable. A steep bank, covered with grass and significantly higher than the old flood wall, now borders the river. [more inside]

Giant Pacific Octopus is captured on video battling currents created by BC's recent bomb cyclone. Longer video from CBC and an excerpted video from Global cut with an interview with a representative from Ocean Networks Canada which captured the footage. [more inside]

What this thing is, is an artifact of the sharpening that these apply to the video, where there can become sort of ripples in high-contrast areas. And when you point a camcorder at a TV, there is a lot of high contrast going on. It creates almost terrain-like structures, and if you hold the camera at the right angle, it sort of looks like you're flying through them. It's like a flight simulator, and it's really neat and very weird [...] So yeah, just turn on the TV, make sure it's on the right channel and junk, and then just point your camcorder at the TV, and you'll get a magical game.

YouTuber @DeclanDoesCameraThings explains how to turn a vintage camcorder into a hypnotic makeshift fractal flight simulator. [more inside]

How decentralized is Bluesky really? Christine Lemmer-Webber, co-author of the ActivityPub standard, wrote about ATProto, the protocol underlying Bluesky. [more inside]

SpendTheirMoney.com is a simulation game where players spend a wealthy individual's fortune in a virtual marketplace. This content is for entertainment and educational purposes only. The simulation uses fictional representations of wealth associated with public figures. Any resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

This plane flight from the Western Australian town of Broome was going to be delayed because of a wild snake onboard, until a passenger identified it as a harmless species of python and gently removed it. (Stimson's python - Antaresia childreni - is often kept as a pet worldwide due to its small size, docile temperament, strong feeding response, resiliency and easy captive care. It is often seen as a good beginner species for keeping reptiles, particularly snakes.)

Archaeologists discovered a carefully engineered combustion structure, or hearth, used to produce tar from resinous plants such as rockrose [nih] (Cistus genus). Tar served as a critical adhesive, enabling Neanderthals to attach stone tools to wooden handles—an innovation that predates similar techniques by Homo sapiens by over 20,000 years. [archaeologynews/sciencedirect]

How I Got My Laser Eye Injury Phil B. - Funranium Labs [more inside]

How did we come to believe that what was codified in the notion of extra virginity captures the essence of what olive oil is and always was? The underlying assumption is that oil production has a timeless quality, and is based on practices and technology that have stayed constant for centuries, if not millennia, only to be corrupted by new industrial methods between the 19th and 20th century. It’s another version of the misleading narrative that portrays traditional practices as static, non-creative and destined to be wiped away by modern technological innovation. In Silicon Valley’s lore, disruption and radical innovation are positive values. In the case of oil, and food more generally, it’s come to be the opposite: innovation corrupts venerable traditions and threatens people’s health and identities. But the model of change underlying both narratives is similar. And it’s wrong. from The flavour of mechanisation [Aeon]

In the year 2096, spacefaring teenagers Roxette and Trip (possibly playing a VR simulation) stumble upon an SOS signal from an uncharted world inhabited by large-headed, high-strung humanoids (and a supernatural menace played by Tim Curry). Assigned to a space station they rechristen Hacker Command and overseen by the AI S.A.L., they remotely scour this strange new world for accidents, disasters and terrorist attacks, and report them to International Rescue, the organization popularly known as... the Thunderbirds!? These are seven of the thirteen episodes of Turbocharged Thunderbirds, the bizarre 1994/1995 repackage of the classic 60's puppet (aka SUPERMARIONATION) series Thunderbirds. More info can be found here and here. [more inside]

On Nov. 15, web discussion forum Soylent News completed its transition from proprietary ownership to community control. Site admin janrinok reported, "After almost 2 years and a lot of hard work by many people, we have finally achieved what we set out to do. On Wednesday, the Linode servers were decommissioned, and the site is now completely independent and running on its own hardware. All the site data and the domains belong to the community - yes, you own this site." [more inside]

Police find shoe thief at a Japanese kindergarten is actually a weasel. Police in southwest Japan installed cameras after nearly two dozen children’s shoes went missing from Gosho Kodomo-en kindergarten in Fukuoka. The culprit? A weasel.

Jeremy Allen White lookalike contest in Chicago draws more than 50 participants, won by Glenview therapist [more inside]

Baby Evacuation Aprons. You need to "grab your vest and just stuff as many babies as humanly possible in its giant kangaroo pockets before running out the door." (Hat tip: Scopeofwork.net)

Robert Lindsay showing how they do the Lambeth Walk. Performing the song at a Tony awards show, sometimes in the mid 80's. [more inside]

An emperor penguin found malnourished on an Australian beach has been released into the Southern Ocean after a period of recovery. (Including 20 days of free fish, and a veterinary check.) The text article at the link includes a cheerful 2 minute video of the release itself. [more inside]

'I still believe the puzzle of U.S. (non-state) political violence, particularly far-right political violence, is not “why is there so much,” but why, given our relative legal leniency towards violent speech, freedom of association for radicals, the widespread availability of firearms, and a long, violent history of rightist street action against racial minorities and leftists, is there still so little.' In Will the Streets Run Red?, Dan Trombly examines the tensions between Trumpism and a more traditionally violent fascism.

How to Write about Africa is a posthumous collection of essays by Binyavanga Wainaina. The satiric title essay, which went viral in 2005, began as "rambling email to the editor" of Granta, as he recounted in How to Write About Africa II: The Revenge. After publishing a celebrated memoir in 2011, he published a "lost chapter" from it in 2014, I am a homosexual, mum. He was interviewed about that essay on NPR. He died in 2019. The posthumous collection was reviewed by Alexis Okeowo in the New Yorker and Jeremy Harding in the London Review of Books. The latter discussed Wainaina on the LRB podcast with Thomas Jones, highlighting the piece It’s Only a Matter of Acceleration Now, about interviewing Youssou N'Dour. [Many previouslies: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7]

Satire is just dark comedy’s alibi, a way for critics to render their attraction to the genre compatible with morality and self-respect. War is a satire on war in the same sense that getting shot is a satire on guns, or being trampled to death by a hippo is a satire on evolution, or junkies are a satire on drugs, or a piss stain is a satire on clean pants. from Céline's War [The Point; ungated] [CW: problematic writer]

“They did what they were supposed to do. This is why we need them,” said Monica Simpson, executive director of SisterSong, one of the groups challenging Georgia’s abortion ban in court. “To have this abrupt disbandment, my concern is what we are going to lose in the process, in terms of time and data?” [propublica]

'The Reluctant Dragon and Mr Toad Show. 1970. (slyt, 22:59) [more inside]

Most of Australia’s First Nations languages don’t have gendered pronouns. Here’s why. Australia’s 460 First Nations’ languages see the world in unexpected ways, revealing perspectives on the natural and spiritual worlds.

"In the coming days, I will personally eat the banana as part of this unique artistic experience," Mr Sun was quoted as saying.

“We can look to one another to solve the most intractable problems we encounter in our lives.” An essay mostly about a book on forming mutually supportive economic structures. Examples of past successes; no details on the laws that changed to make them harder, though the outline of Reagan and roll-ups is clear; suggestions for what is needed now. [more inside]

Bluesky, but just the blue bits. (NSFW)

Linemates to Lifemates: A Hockey Love Story With logos and jerseys revealed and the start of the new PWHL season imminent, a heartwarming story from the CBC. If you don't have a team in your city, perhaps they're stopping by for a neutral site game during their Takeover Tour? If so, you might want to catch up on the innovative rule changes for the new season [more inside]

Daily Mail mocked for claiming Gen Z are "waging war" on sandwiches by choosing "fancy woke fillings" like chicken, and (shudder) continental cheeses. [more inside]

Jula is listening through her late father's record collection one album at a time on TikTok and Instagram under the name Soundwaves Off Wax. In an interview with Discogs, where you can see which records she's listened to, Jula explains the origins of the project, and talks about her dad. She has made a playlist on Spotify of her favorite songs, as well as one with all the albums. To give a flavor, the records are by artists such as Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band, Pointer Sisters, Culture Club, Connie Francis and Lou Reed.

[Scientific American] The headline: "Forcing a Smile Using Electrical Stimulation Can Boost Your Mood" Buried in the middle: "The well-known study was challenged, however, in 2016, when a team of researchers—including Korb—tried to replicate the findings across 17 labs, each of which conducted a study with more than 100 participants. In contrast to the original study, the researchers’ results did not reveal any significant evidence that supported the facial feedback hypothesis." [more inside]

Here's the Battle Jacket Project

To my mind, this is the ultimate “realist utopian” image. If somebody says the word “Utopia” to you, you should think of an adult woman smuggling the severed head of her father away from an execution. from Utopian Realism, a speech by Bruce Sterling

What is unusual is that Cnut’s bath seems to be the first in English history that a (fairly) reliable written source, Osbern of Canterbury, chooses to pin to a particular time and place.

Three million Australians are considered at risk of homelessness. The total population of Australia is 27.5 million, so that's 10.9% of the total population. Services say they're turning new clients away. The number of Australians at risk of homelessness has increased more than 60 per cent since 2016, a new report says. [more inside]

Two Americas: Why is American political discourse so radically different than the daily life of Americans? "...that ordinary Republicans and Democrats both think ordinary people in the other camp are more extreme than they actually are. That delusion is depressing but unsurprising. It gets stranger, however, when you break the numbers down to distinguish between degrees of partisan affiliation and involvement. When the NGO “More In Common” did that, it discovered that partisanship and delusion were highly correlated: The greater the political commitment, the greater the delusion. And then there’s this astonishing fact: There was one group whose perceptions were hardly skewed at all, meaning they had a pretty good grasp of the real views of Democrats and Republicans. That group? The “politically disengaged.” "

Why Aztec “death whistles” sound like human screams "Archaeologists have discovered numerous ceramic or clay whistles at Aztec sites, dubbed "death whistles" because of their distinctive skull shapes. A new paper ... examines the acoustical elements of the unique shrieking sounds produced by those whistles, as well as how human listeners are emotionally affected by the sounds."

"When we initially reached out to scores of chefs, recipe writers, historians, and food luminaries for nominations for their most important American recipes of the past 100 years—Which written recipes were the most influential, pivotal, or transformative for American home cooking between 1924 and 2024?—we expected strong opinions, but we didn’t anticipate the philosophical quandaries that adjudicating and assembling them would bring up."

The 25 Most Important Recipes of the Past 100 Years, from Dan Kois and J. Bryan Lowder at Slate. [more inside]

Last week, bible scholar, author, vlogger (and owner of one of the finest t-shirt collections in town) Dan McClellan posted a video asking the question Did God choose an adulterous man to rule his nation? Apparently some viewers took issue with Dan’s message, so he immediately posted a followup video, On the intersection of some of my research & politics making abundantly clear what he meant.

Cormac McCarthy’s Secret Muse Breaks Her Silence After Half a Century: “I Loved Him. He Was My Safety.” by Vincenzo Barney [more inside]

In the sixteenth century, new printing technology meant that the works of one author could be bound, identified, and replicated. The idea of an autonomous, original creator became central to our culture. Gone were the collaborative days of monks accreting their manuscripts collectively. A century or more of audio-visual technology has slowly eroded that idea. Ever since radio, we have become increasingly less bound to books, and created a more multifaceted oral culture. Wikipedia is our new monkish collaboration. And this means, as Jarvis says, that what had once been public conversations in print now became radio programmes, talk shows, and Twitter. “Conversation became content.” from The modern discourse novel [The Common Reader]

Oculi Mundi is a digital heritage destination: the home of The Sunderland Collection of world maps, celestial maps, atlases, globes and books of knowledge. The project now includes a podcast, What's your map, which starts with William Dalrymple's exploration of an 18th century Jain cosmological map.

Enter your date of birth and a guess at your life expectancy, then choose from a list of movies. Memento Movi then shows a frame from that movie that represents your place in your lifespan. So, for instance, a twenty-year-old who selects Star Wars will likely get a frame from Tattooine, but a sixty-year-old who selects Jaws will be on the boat. [via condour75's post as seen on mefi projects]