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The New York Declaration on Animal Consciousness, signed by 88 researchers, asks us to consider more non-human creatures as capable of subjective experiences. [more inside]
posted by doctornemo on Apr 25 at 4:42 PM - 33 comments

Brightline West is ready to start breaking ground this week, according to The Washington Post. The southwest endpoint will be in Rancho Cucamonga, where it will connect to Metrolink. (Which is definitely better than Victorville, which had been suggested a few years ago.) Connecting to the existing lines here will make it simpler to build than trying to connect all the way to Los Angeles proper. (gift link) [more inside]
posted by KelsonV on Apr 22 at 12:44 PM - 60 comments

“ So my editor, and I, would like me to bring Garak into this.” - “ That’s interesting. There is an interesting angle for that.” - Star Trek’s Alexander Siddig interviewed for Arab-American Heritage Month
posted by Artw on Apr 25 at 1:34 PM - 25 comments

Large-scale listening: To ensure that DSS-43 can still place the longest of long-distance calls, the antenna underwent a round of updates in 2020. A new X-band cone was installed. DSS-43 transmits radio signals in the X (8 to 12 gigahertz) and S (2 to 4 GHz) bands; it can receive signals in the X, S, L (1 to 2 GHz), and K (12 to 40 GHz) bands. The dish’s pointing accuracy also was tested and recertified. 1200 words from Willie D. Jones for IEEE Spectrum. Small-scale listening: The sounds being produced are within the lower range of human hearing, so it’s possible there are sounds in the soil we haven’t heard yet. Early research from Switzerland shows soils were producing the most complex sounds in spring and summer, which declined in autumn and winter. Phoebe Weston writes 1000 words for The Guardian.
posted by cgc373 on Apr 23 at 10:20 PM - 2 comments

I am a professor of medicine and public health who researches the government’s response to addiction. I also spent more than two decades as a police officer. If cities expect to help reduce our nation’s overdose crisis and not simply ride a policy pendulum back and forth between election cycles, their leaders need to enact compassionate, effective drug policies and ensure fair access to public space at the same time.
posted by Winnie the Proust on Apr 25 at 5:38 AM - 30 comments

The act of trying to keep things the way they are is insanity. It’s an illusion. Trying something new means touching the unknown. It can be frightening and cause you to either fight or flee, rather than say yes. It takes courage to change. Then again, why change when you don’t have to? But when you don’t change, everything appears to stay the same. And this is the antithesis of life. Life is change. Life is always changing. [more inside]
posted by JohnnyGunn on Apr 25 at 12:25 PM - 7 comments

Venomous snake brought into hospital in lunchbox prompts plea from doctors — "please don't do this." Hospital staff came face-to-face with one of the world's most deadly snakes after a patient brought it to the emergency department in a snap-lock lunch container. Snake catcher Jonas Murphy has relocated several snakes brought into the Bundaberg Hospital. Mr Murphy said the snakes were in plastic containers or bags and posed a big danger if they had escaped. "You are risking a follow-up bite and you're putting everyone around you in danger as well," Mr Murphy said. "Snakes are one of those things that scare a lot of people, we definitely don't want them in the hospital." [more inside]
posted by chariot pulled by cassowaries on Apr 24 at 10:41 PM - 43 comments

Researchers in WA's north have discovered that northern quolls, thought to be nocturnal, take regular midnight naps. Researchers believe the naps may be related to digestion. Northern quolls in captivity are set to be studied further to understand more about why they take regular naps.
posted by chariot pulled by cassowaries on Apr 25 at 7:02 PM - 6 comments

The backside of the moon as it transits across Earth. That is all.
posted by Tell Me No Lies on Apr 24 at 1:32 PM - 38 comments

The Caesar’s mission creep toward absurdity began long before the tequila and the fava beans. In fact, it has been going on for decades—first slowly, then quickly, swept along by and reflective of many of the biggest shifts in American dining. from Something Weird Is Happening With Caesar Salads [The Atlantic; ungated]
posted by chavenet on Apr 23 at 1:53 AM - 86 comments

I used to want to be a part of the media party circuit so bad. As a young person aspiring to be a writer, I would zoom into certain Instagram Stories of interest, wondering how everyone there got to go. Now, as a person attending them, I am pissed off! I was lied to. Bamboozled. Swindled. Hoodwinked
posted by sammyo on Apr 5 at 3:52 AM - 49 comments

How Phish turned Las Vegas’ Sphere into the ultimate music visualizer "Some moments last night felt like you were seeing enormous versions of the old visualizers from Winamp or iTunes. Others brought the crowd into intricate, dazzling scenes."
posted by dhruva on Apr 20 at 3:15 AM - 59 comments

3 new tracks: Die Spitz - I HATE WHEN GIRLS DIE | The Warning - S!CK | [XG TAPE #4] Million Cash (MAYA)
posted by signal on Apr 25 at 4:33 PM - 4 comments

When you often notice people "why-don't-they-just"-ing their way into a proposed solution to a gnarly problem, you might turn your criticisms into a checklist. "Your post advocates a [( ) technical ( ) legislative ( ) market-based ( ) vigilante] approach to fighting spam. Your idea will not work. Here is why it won't work." These templates often offer a summary of the problem space and a glimpse of experts' frustrations. Solution rejection checklists exist for fixing the housing crisis, beating the CAP Theorem, protecting against DDOS attacks, improving pharmaceutical drug discovery success rates, creating new programming languages and distributed social networks, and (MeFi comment!) saving journalism. [more inside]
posted by brainwane on Apr 25 at 7:30 AM - 69 comments

Little Workshop is an award-winning French studio specializing in high-quality immersive 3D experiences for the web. Their portfolio contains many charming and fun projects you can try out yourself, including endless city generator Infinitown, cute procedural dungeon crawler Keep Out!, pulsing geometric music visualizer TRACK, and Arde Madrid, a multi-scene recreation of Ava Gardner's home in Francoist Spain. Their latest and most ambitious project: EQUINOX, a slick, stylized adventure game set in a failing starship in deep space, complete with a full soundtrack and voice acting in a mobile-friendly interface. Read the case study on their website, or check out their other projects (including the dearly-departed Mozilla MMORPG BrowserQuest).
posted by Rhaomi on Apr 23 at 9:57 AM - 5 comments

Adult Swim is celebrating the 30th anniversary of Space Ghost: Coast To Coast by showing all the episodes in no particular order on YouTube right this very moment. Relive the early days of Cartoon Network's dimwitted dadaist superhero insanity, or become enthralled for the first time.
posted by The Pluto Gangsta on Apr 18 at 8:45 PM - 26 comments

Dune the Broadway Musical [Showtunes] - Baby On Board [Barbershop] - Carolina-O [Indie Country] - Sabrosito Amor [Latin] - Rising Sun Gospel [Soul] - Allegro Consort in C [Classical] - You Spilt a Coffee on my Dog [R&B] - Potion Seller [60s Folk] - I'm Not Your Star [Screamo] - SNES Greensleeves [Chiptune] - Syncopated Rhythms [Jazz] - Tavern Serenades [Fiddle] - My Tamagotchi died in '98 [Country Pop] - Senna Tea Blues [Bluegrass] - Unexpected Item in Bagging Area (A Cowboy's Lament) [Americana] - Herb's Whisper [Hip-hop] - Metropolis Pt. 3 [Prog metal] - F**k You Elmo [Acoustic Guitar] - Lorem Ipsum Dolor Sit Amet [Orchestral] - ムーンライト【.】【3】【1】[Vaporwave] - Dreaming Miku [Vocaloid] - The Deku Tree’s Decree [Broadway] - Website on the Internet [50s A Capella] // Meet Udio — the most realistic AI music creation tool I’ve ever tried [more inside]
posted by Rhaomi on Apr 13 at 3:17 PM - 32 comments

Experts left scratching their heads as wombat wanders into ocean. A couple holidaying in Tasmania's remote north-west have captured a wombat foraging in the ocean. The footage has surprised wombat experts, who say the behaviour is highly unusual.
posted by chariot pulled by cassowaries on Apr 24 at 8:49 AM - 30 comments

Minneapolis Land Use Reforms Offer a Blueprint for Housing Affordability: Rents stayed flat as more apartments were built, even as the rest of Minnesota saw increases. [more inside]
posted by showbiz_liz on Apr 25 at 7:35 AM - 12 comments

Making Real Music for a Fake Band [43m] is from Slate's Decoder Ring podcast that digs pretty deep into a particular Broadway play that is the current Hot Ticket In Town [Playbill, Stereophonic]. It also digs into making real things for fake things. The episode looks at a multitude of excellent fake things you already know, and then the playwright David Adjmi and Will Butler formerly of Arcade Fire get into the show itself... A fictional Fleetwood Mac-esque band in the studio struggling to record an album of songs like this [1m45s] in the mid-Seventies. Here's a "retrospective trailer" looking back at its developmental run at Playwrights Horizons. [43s] [more inside]
posted by hippybear on Apr 24 at 7:50 PM - 5 comments