March 25

“Time slip” stories are fairly common

The story was so extraordinary that they decided to document a full account in book form. That account, titled An Adventure, was published in 1911. It became the literary sensation of its day, running to numerous editions. As incredible as the tale was, perhaps the most astonishing part was yet to be revealed, for Morison and Lamot did not exist. The real authors of An Adventure were Eleanor Jourdain and Charlotte Moberly, the Principal and Vice-Principal, respectively, of St Hugh’s College, University of Oxford—two highly esteemed academics hiding their names to protect their identities. from The Respected Oxford Professors Who Say They Time Traveled [Atlas Obscura]
posted by chavenet at 1:50 AM - 16 comments

March 24

Dr. Ala Stanford

Winter 2021: Philadelphia native Dr. Ala Stanford had been all over the city, administering free COVID-19 tests with her staff to anyone who wanted them. [more inside]
posted by bq at 10:10 PM - 2 comments

Researchers over the moon as puggle is born in Royal National Park

Researchers over the moon as puggle is born in Sydney's Royal National Park. (A puggle is the word for a baby platypus.) The six-month-old female platypus is the first-known animal of its kind to be born in Australia's oldest national park in more than 50 years, and its arrival comes despite a series of recent pollution scares in local waterways.
posted by chariot pulled by cassowaries at 6:36 PM - 12 comments

The Matrix Has You

In the film, one of the representatives of the AI, the villainous Agent Smith, played by Hugo Weaving, tells Morpheus that the false reality of the Matrix is set in 1999 because that year was “the peak of your civilization. I say your civilization, because as soon as we started thinking for you it really became our civilization.” Indeed, not long after “The Matrix” premiered, humanity hooked itself up to a matrix of its own. There is no denying that our lives have become better in many ways thanks to the internet and smartphones. But the epidemic of loneliness and depression that has swept society reveals that many of us are now walled off from one another in vats of our own making.
25 Years Later, We’re All Trapped in ‘The Matrix’ [more inside]
posted by Rhaomi at 5:30 PM - 55 comments

The Tapa Room Tapes - Hawaiian music, Hawaiian Village Serenaders, 1950s

The Tapa Room Tapes are a collection of recorded performances by various Hawaiian artists (includingi Alfred Apaka and Jules Ah See) from the Tapa Room of the Hawaiian Village in the late 1950s. Originally uploaded by British steel guitarist Basil Henriques. The sound quality can be variable, but the music is hot Hawaiian swing with plenty of steel guitar.
posted by wellvis at 4:33 PM - 8 comments

Ritual is part of my nature. I would call all of my pieces “rituals"

We hear from Budapest that the eminent composer Peter Eötvös died today. He was 80 and had endured a long illness. After an apprenticeship with Karlheinz Stockhausen, Eötvös emerged in the 1980s as a leading voice in late and post-modernism. Four of his operas were internationally premiered – Three Sisters at Lyon, Love and Other Demons at Glyndebourne, The Tragedy of the Devil at Munich and Sleepless (2021) in Berlin. His final opera Valuska, was premiered in Budapest on 2 December last year.
posted by chavenet at 2:07 PM - 5 comments

The first time they made a Fantastic Four movie....

I'll just put this here. Maybe people will enjoy it. Doomed: The Untold Story of Roger Corman's The Fantastic Four (Full Movie) 2015 [1h24m]
posted by hippybear at 1:42 PM - 31 comments

"...If you love a story, let other people know!"

A Bronx Teacher Asked Tommy Orange to Visit His Class. “In our 12th-grade English classroom, in our diverse corner of the South Bronx, in an under-resourced but vibrant urban neighborhood not unlike the Fruitvale, you’re our rock star. Our more than rock star. You’re our MF Doom, our Eminem, our Earl Sweatshirt, our Tribe Called Red, our Beethoven, our Bobby Big Medicine, our email to Manny, our ethnically ambiguous woman in the next stall, our camera pointing into a tunnel of darkness.” [more inside]
posted by storybored at 8:00 AM - 17 comments

A Scottish landscape painter living in Shetland

Ruth Brownlee's evocative work is described as 'very much about Shetland and its elements' [more inside]
posted by cupcakeninja at 6:52 AM - 5 comments

Punk beetle's chance discovery was almost disregarded as bird droppings

Punk beetle's chance discovery was almost disregarded as bird droppings. Researchers investigating the discovery of the spiky-haired specimen say nothing of its kind has been seen in Australia before.
posted by chariot pulled by cassowaries at 6:40 AM - 7 comments

A fleeting personal pleasure to be had mainly alone

But the underlying online vs. real life opposition is harder to dispel. Here it is attached to consumerist identities, like an exploded version of the chain stores vs. mom-and-pop stores opposition from the No Logo era. There is a genuine, authentic way to make a spectacle of the self, but it needs to tap into a rooted habitus and recondite practice (a “context”), and not simply reflect haphazard free play with readily available cultural signifiers (mere “content”). That is, the correct and real self is rooted in distinction (in Bordieu’s sense) and not differentiation. The internet is supposedly undermining the kind of distinction that should matter and proliferating the kinds of differences that are superficial rather than culturally binding. from Spacing the cans by Rob Horning
posted by chavenet at 2:58 AM - 23 comments

March 23

This Was Village Life in Britain 3,000 Years Ago

The superbly preserved remains of a Bronze Age settlement offer a glimpse of a “colorful, rich, varied” domestic life circa 850 B.C. Franz Lidz for the New York Times
posted by bq at 8:18 PM - 17 comments

Piloted with precision

Parents Are Highly Involved in Their Adult Children’s Lives, and Fine With It New surveys show that today’s intensive parenting has benefits, not just risks, and most young adults seem happy with it, too. [more inside]
posted by Toddles at 7:08 PM - 50 comments

Or, random facts about Imperial China

“The Apothecary Diaries” is an anime (/web novel/novel/light novel/manga/other manga) that takes place in a fictional kingdom based on Imperial China. Youtuber LibeliumDragonfly, a Chinese-Canadian translator, provides an episode-by-episode “viewing appendix” to separate the facts from the fiction. (SLYTPL)
posted by ChurchHatesTucker at 4:54 PM - 14 comments

Who Does Ian McKellen Think He Are?

As the 'last of the McKellens', Sir Ian admits to a degree of melancholy as he delves into his family history [1h]. But the results pay off richly for one of Britain's greatest actors and civil rights champions. Ian's journey uncovers a theatrical ancestor, a Victorian political activist and a link to an ancient druidical landmark in the Lake District. [more inside]
posted by hippybear at 2:45 PM - 11 comments

Society for Fantastical Computer Anachronism

Welcome to Picotron: Picotron is a Fantasy Workstation for making pixelart games, animations, music, demos and other curiosities. It has a toy operating system designed to be a cosy creative space, but runs on top of Windows, MacOS or Linux. Picotron apps can be made with built-in tools, and shared with other users in a special 256k png cartridge format. [more inside]
posted by SaltySalticid at 1:36 PM - 16 comments

It's spaceships all the way down

Need some mesmerization in your life? Gaze deep into Life Universe, a zoomable, infinitely-recursive Game of Life simulator [technical explanation]. Inspired by the classic video Life In Life and the OTCA Metapixel (previously). From shr, the developer behind Bubbles (previously), Blob (previously), and a wide variety of other fascinating and fun physics web toys.
posted by Rhaomi at 12:30 PM - 6 comments

"I have not seen a group of attorneys general target a fellow AG before"

What happens when an AG dares to investigate Leonard Leo’s network (Heidi Przybyla, Politico, 2024-03-23). [more inside]
posted by Not A Thing at 9:49 AM - 48 comments

Prince Demah, limner, free Negro

“Negro Artist. At Mr. McLean’s, Watch-Maker, near the Town House, is a Negro man whose extraordinary Genius has been assisted by one of the best Masters in London; he takes Faces at the lowest Rates. Specimens of his Performance may be seen at said Place.” [more inside]
posted by bq at 9:13 AM - 4 comments

Couldn't find a '70s trucker song for this story

We attempted and succeeded in, as far as we know, the first ever wireless drive-by attack on a truck. In the paper Commercial Vehicle Electronic Logging Device Security: Unmasking the Risk of Truck-to-Truck Cyber Worms [PDF], researchers from Colorado State take over a transport truck and outline the risk of self-spreading fleet-wide infections. An article in Fleet Maintenance Magazine puts this risk in broader perspective.
posted by clawsoon at 5:39 AM - 39 comments

The scenes he paints are ghostly and dream-like

Ukrainian painter Vachagan Narazyan is an inspiration to many, including artist Vanessa Lemen, who has written about him a couple times. He's shown at various galleries, including just pre-pandemic at James Yarosh. He came of age as a painter as a Soviet nonconformist artist. His work has been described as "symbolic visions of a deeply personal nature." If video is more your thing, check out this video that James Yarosh shared on YouTube that evokes the feel of Narazyan's work. [more inside]
posted by cupcakeninja at 4:48 AM - 7 comments

Closet logic

"I could watch Carrie and her pig blood, Pam on a hook in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. I didn’t mind Seth Brundle spouting wings and pus, Regan MacNeil going from twelve-year-old girl to devil spawn. But when Tom gets bolder, when he transforms, I found it hard to stomach. I didn’t watch the movie again for years. Conceiving of Tom as only a murderer—sociopathic, obsessed platonically—I could ignore how queer he really is." from My Funny Valentine, an essay about The Talented Mr Ripley and realization by Michael Colbert
posted by chavenet at 2:20 AM - 8 comments

March 22

#smalleuropeanwoman

This week, Jasmin Paris became the first woman to complete all five loops of the Barkley Marathons (NYT, gift link) a mere 99 seconds ahead of the 60-hour cutoff time. Only twenty competitors have ever completed the (absolutely bananas) Tennessee event often called the "World's Hardest Race." [more inside]
posted by charmedimsure at 11:41 PM - 21 comments

The fish doorbell

Welcome to the Fish Doorbell. Will you help fish pass the city boat lock? Every spring fish migrate upstream, in search of places to spawn. They swim through the centre of the city of Utrecht. Unfortunatly, the boat lock is closed during spring. You can help the fish. Do you see a fish? Press the Doorbell! All the photos are collected. When there are enough fish waiting, the lock will be opened. This is the link to a cartoon about it. This is the link to the official doorbell site.
posted by chariot pulled by cassowaries at 8:18 PM - 19 comments

For a 15% increased efficiency in exposure times

Dr. Fatima presents a video essay on decolonizing astronomy. (slyt, 2h 51m) She focuses on the proposal to build the Thirty Meter Telescope on Mauna Kea, but is able to wind her way through several heavy topics with grace. She dives into the scientific efficacy of the site, the history of colonization on Hawaii, and an aside on Palestinian liberation and solidarity, before finishing with both pathos and praxis. [more inside]
posted by crossswords at 3:16 PM - 7 comments

50 years of Austin City Limits

Backstage with Austin City Limits (ACL): Five Decades of Music | SXSW 2024 [1h] is a panel of people who create the legendary music show talking about the history of the music show. [more inside]
posted by hippybear at 3:02 PM - 0 comments

Rabbit Hole Central

Hi! I’m Noel – an archaeologist from Singapore living and working in Bangkok. I’ve been involved with Southeast Asian archaeology for over a decade now, and have been interested in it for a lot longer. Growing up in Singapore, there was not much opportunity to learn about archaeology in a formal setting – there are no archaeology degrees offered in the country, and the closest was in high school history. So I began this website in 2006 to collect news about the archaeology of the region, mainly as a way for me to learn what was going on in the region, and since then the site has grown to become an educational resource for the public
posted by infini at 1:44 PM - 4 comments

"For everyone facing this disease ... You are not alone"

Princess of Wales says she is undergoing cancer treatment
The princess's statement explains that when she had abdominal surgery in January, it was not known that there was any cancer. "However tests after the operation found cancer had been present. My medical team therefore advised that I should undergo a course of preventative chemotherapy and I am now in the early stages of that treatment," said the princess. The chemotherapy treatment began in late February. The palace says it will not be sharing any further private medical information, including the type of cancer. [...]

There have been calls for privacy from the palace after weeks of speculation and conspiracy theories about the royal couple. This had intensified after the withdrawal by photo agencies of a photograph of the princess for Mother's Day, on 10 March, because of concerns over digital alterations, for which the princess subsequently apologised.
Full statement [transcript + video] - Related: King Charles diagnosed with cancer, Buckingham Palace announces
posted by Rhaomi at 12:35 PM - 115 comments

The 3 Body Problem is out!

After a failed adaptation in 2017, Netflix has finally released the home-streaming adaptation of Cixin Liu's Three Body Problem trilogy. How will the slow build to epic scope that prevented some readers from finishing the book series fare in the hands of the same showrunners that brought you Game of Thrones? Binge ready for the weekend (trigger warning: starts with violence). [more inside]
posted by rubatan at 11:52 AM - 92 comments

An amazing African-American artist you may not be familiar with

AN EXHIBITION BY Houston-based artist David McGee is always a cause for celebration. A master of portraiture, modernism and abstraction, with works in the permanent collections of museums across the country, McGee, like many artists, clung to his practice like a lifeline throughout the worst months of the pandemic and the political upheaval that still plagues the country today. His new and highly anticipated show at Inman Gallery, The Tarot Cards and The Gloria Paintings (Sept. 16 – Nov. 1), is infused with that resilience, and is his most politically charged, and deeply personal exhibition to date. [more inside]
posted by bq at 11:00 AM - 2 comments

“I actually think that AI fundamentally makes us more human.” (BOOOO)

Ted Gioia: "Tech leaders gathered in Austin for the South-by-Southwest conference a few days ago. There they showed a video boasting about the wonders of new AI technology. And the audience started booing." [Xitter link] Gioia argues that users are becoming much more wary, not only about "AI," but about tech in general. [more inside]
posted by JHarris at 9:05 AM - 110 comments

Kermitops, the newly discovered prehistoric creature named after Kermit

Meet Kermitops, the newly discovered prehistoric creature named after Kermit the Frog. There were definitely no muppets 270 million years ago, but there was a Kermit — or at least an ancestor of modern amphibians, according to scientists who uncovered its fossilised skull.
posted by chariot pulled by cassowaries at 5:46 AM - 16 comments

The Rise of Wishful Verbiage

What we’re witnessing is the rise of Wishful Verbiage, a use of language which is replacing the old-fashioned lie. A lie was something someone said which they knew wasn’t true. Wishful Verbiage is something someone says because it sounds better than what’s true, even if it’s the opposite of the truth, and that’s OK because it conveys aspirations that are more valid than accuracy. By Armando Iannucci
posted by h00py at 5:11 AM - 33 comments

The idea that it was mostly white guys was totally true

I don’t think it has anything to do with the audience for this stuff. I don’t think it has anything to do with the buzziness or the culture surrounding the site itself. I think it is just these money people coming in and making bad decisions. If they’re going to lay off people in Boeing and cut safety protocols or whatever, they’ll do it to anyone. from The Oral History of Pitchfork [Slate]
posted by chavenet at 1:45 AM - 9 comments

March 21

Ugh more censorship

Books on Black history, immigration found in trash by Staten Island school, sparking investigation. Gothamist obtained photos from a Brooklyn book lover that showed boxes of kids’ books left with the garbage at PS 55, known as the Henry Boehm School. Some had sticky notes on them detailing themes and content in the books, which appeared to be part of a 2019 initiative to diversify school materials. The city education department launched an investigation after Gothamist shared the images (Jessica Gould for Gothamist) [more inside]
posted by bq at 7:46 PM - 11 comments

This is one of the best Blake's 7 fan fictions that I have ever read

This is one of the best Blake's 7 fan fictions that I have ever read. Avon and Blake both survive Gauda Prime - but can Blake ever trust Avon again? and can they win the war against the Federation? In the Bleak Midwinter by x_los.
posted by chariot pulled by cassowaries at 6:20 PM - 16 comments

Moon Train

DARPA has asked for proposals to build an American train on the moon, to compete with proposed Chinese base proposals, and Northrop Grumman has responded with a concept study. But will this be a levitational railway, or a more standard broad-gauge one to suit the lower lunar gravity?
posted by Fiasco da Gama at 5:17 PM - 96 comments

Trying to follow the doctor's orders

From February, two pieces on learning and adhering to medical instructions. Zareen Choudhury's short comic "Fasting or No Fasting?" starts: "Last year, I had to take a blood test for Lupus during Ramadan." (Image descriptions are available for each cartoon panel.) And "Doctor's Orders: Making the most of the best care you can get", by an anonymous trans woman, is about the necessity and difficulty of following one's care plan after gender-affirming surgery.
posted by brainwane at 4:33 PM - 6 comments

An Anarchist’s Guide To Dune

A long time ago in a place called Olympia, Washington… The Transmetropolitan Review places Frank Herbert’s Dune within the anarchist history of the Pacific Northwest.
posted by mbrubeck at 2:30 PM - 31 comments

AI futures, meet Net Zero futures

The IPCC, the world authority on climate science, advises we need to cut greenhouse gas emissions by more than half by 2030, and get emissions down to net zero by 2050, if we want a chance of limiting average temperature rise to 1.5 degrees. Actually, we've already crossed that threshhold, kind of. Information Technology itself may contribute as much as 5% to global greenhouse gas emissions. Internationally recognised methods and standards for assessing the environmental impacts of AI don't yet exist, although they will. Are AI revolution futures compatible with net zero futures? Are science and technology still on the same team? [more inside]
posted by scissorfish at 11:33 AM - 40 comments

Hotel Fred's back - but Luna's not well.

Roger Langridge's wonderful Hotel Fred diary strips have been away for a few weeks while he got on with other projects. A new sequence of ten strips appeared this week about the recent illness of Luna, his family's much-loved dog. I think you'll like them. [more inside]
posted by Paul Slade at 11:00 AM - 4 comments

How to Draw Webcomics

Korean webtoon platform Bomtoon has made available a guide on creating webcomics as a series of 5 YouTube videos. Videos are in Korean with English subtitles. [more inside]
posted by needled at 10:53 AM - 2 comments

"Sometimes you make a video out of spite."

Ian Danskin (of Innuendo Studio and creator of the Alt-Right Playbook) dusts off a video script he's had kicking around, and explains in detail why everybody but him is wrong about Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg's Cornetto Trilogy. [more inside]
posted by NoxAeternum at 9:48 AM - 25 comments

PSA For World Down Syndrome Day

For 3/21 World Down Syndrome Day, the NDSS created "Assume That I Can So Maybe I Will" A video PSA which is a short course in the importance of presumed competence starring Madison Tevlin, who was in the 2023 movie Champions.
posted by plinth at 8:54 AM - 11 comments

“I’m a patriot. Weapons are part of my religion.”

'Stay Strapped or Get Clapped' How the media misses the story of companies seeking profit by keeping traumatized veterans armed and enraged (Rick Perlstein (previously), The American Prospect)
posted by box at 8:45 AM - 25 comments

Government of Ontario faces class action lawsuit from scrapped UBI pilot

"When you make a promise like that, you have to keep it. It's a contract." More about the positive impact the project had on struggling Ontarians. [more inside]
posted by Kitteh at 8:29 AM - 11 comments

Better Tablet Games for Parrots

If animals are going to use touchscreens, how should we design for them? New research from Rébecca Kleinberger’s lab at Northeastern University delves deep into the data on how parrots use touchscreen devices, with the help of a bespoke gaming app. [more inside]
posted by Hypatia at 8:09 AM - 8 comments

Since we're all going in the same direction, might as well go together.

Ambigram(Wiki): a calligraphic composition of glyphs that can yield different meanings depending on the orientation of observation. MakeAmbigrams will take a word or pair of words and generate an ambigram that reads the same right side up or upside down (or mirrored).
posted by Mitheral at 7:13 AM - 7 comments

They Owe it All To Clean Living

Kevin Roose writes in today's NYT about how content moderation made Reddit what it is today - a successful IPO "Today, Reddit is a gem of the internet, and a trusted source of news and entertainment for millions of people. It’s one of the last big platforms that feel unmistakably human — messy and rough around the edges, sure, but a place where real people gather to talk about real things, unmediated by algorithms and largely free of mindless engagement bait. " No, really. Just ignore the porn, and everything is great. Really.
posted by briank at 6:36 AM - 61 comments

Like a grid, but for movies

moviegrid.io - "Select a movie for each cell using the clues that correspond to that cell's rows and columns... Each game, you have nine movie guesses to fill out the grid. Each movie, whether correct or incorrect, will count as one of your nine guesses. If a movie poster pops up, congratulations -- you got it right you little cinephile." [more inside]
posted by quintessence at 6:30 AM - 10 comments

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