July 15
Trump's Pick for Vice-President
James David Vance, a junior United States senator from Ohio elected in 2022 and author of a 2016 memoir, Hillbilly Elegy, who has previously said in reference to Donald Trump, "I'm a never Trump guy", "never liked him", "terrible candidate", "idiot if you voted for him", "might be America's Hitler", "might be a cynical a-hole", "cultural heroin", "noxious", and "reprehensible", has just been announced as Trump's running mate for 2024.
Right now, it’s hard to see that future
Sci-fi is an amazing genre. It helps us explore our feelings about the unknown, the future, and the possible. It lets us imagine “what if” scenarios, and then build out rich worlds that our minds can occupy. It depicts dystopias we should fend off and utopias we should seek – and it teases us with the scintillating possibility that humans may actually be able to build the world we want. But over the last few generations, it’s been harder for us to imagine this better world – and our sci-fi reflects that. from who killed the world? [The Pudding]
Pee Wee Herman: The Documentary
Pi is now 202,112,290,000,000 digits
Storagereview Lab breaks Pi calculation world record with over 202 trillion digits That’s a lot. But why stop there?
“But Aquaman, you cannot marry a woman without gills.”
if you understand this youre a giant nerd
A deliciously detailed 13th century plan. And a Tudor one, too
A New Map Of Medieval London Matt Brown for Londonist writes about work by the Historic Towns Trust. “Today, I’d like to share with you a newly created map of medieval London that is, quite frankly, astonishing in its detail.”
Judge Dismisses Classified Documents Case Against Trump
U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon Dismisses Case Against Trump WASHINGTON (AP) — By ERIC TUCKER
Updated 10:20 AM EDT, July 15, 2024
The federal judge presiding over the classified documents case of former President Donald Trump in Florida dismissed the prosecution on Monday, siding with defense lawyers who said the special counsel who filed the charges was illegally appointed.
The decision by U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon brings a stunning and abrupt conclusion to a criminal case that at the time it was filed was widely regarded as the most perilous of all the legal threats that the Republican former president confronted. Trump faced dozens of felony counts accusing him of illegally hoarding classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida, and obstructing FBI efforts to get them back. [more inside]
archaeoacoustic bird & jaguar
“The Initial Period is important because it’s when we first start to see evidence of an institutionalized religion in Peru,” says Muro Ynoñan in the statement. “The bird creature at this temple resembles a figure known from the Chavín region, nearly 500 years later.” [smithsonian] [more inside]
OnStar just stopped being special
As consumers in general, we've gotten very good at completely disregarding things that don't offer us anything worthwhile, even when they want to be noticed. "Banner blindness" is a particularly acute form of this adaptation to capitalism. Our almost subconscious filtering of our perception to things that seem worth the intellectual effort allows a lot of ubiquitous features of products to fly under the radar. Buttons that we just never press, because sometime a decade ago we got the impression they were useless. from the contemporary carphone by j.b. crawford [computers are bad]
nom + nom = nomtastic ... and it's your free thread
The Gonster is a fusion (though not literally, if made right) of Guinness and Monster. The Every Sauce is a blend of 14 sauces. Someone has created a new frontier in Midwestern excellence. But have you ever mixed two (or more) drinks, or ingredients, or foods, and created something delicious? Or, perhaps not quite delicious? ... Or write about whatever is on your mind, in your heart, on your plate or in your journal, because this is your weekly free thread. [Most lastly-ist] Bonus: over on MetaTalk, you can stuff your cheeks with CakeTalk...
July 14
The saddest creatures in late-stage capitalism
Nearly 250 years after the publication of Adam Smith’s ‘The Wealth of Nations’ and the West has lost the economic plot
Survey of the ocean floor discovers submarine canyons
First-of-its-kind survey of the ocean floor discovers submarine canyons full of unique marine life. Ever wondered what the ocean floor around Australia's coast looks like? A first-of-its-kind survey has uncovered new information about underwater canyons.
Historonic
"Changing nominees at this point has literally never happened before—not even once. Richardson’s assertion that “in the whole picture of American history, if you change the presidential nominee at this point in the game, the candidate loses”—so clear, so forceful, so authoritative—is totally invented."
'Is the Age of the Resistance Historian Coming to an End?
(via A&L Daily) [more inside]
A small nice thing in these trying times
As far as we are aware, Ralf Schumacher is now the winningest gay driver in the history of Formula 1. [more inside]
savoir faire
our real question is: Are you still up? [McSweeney's]
✔
Follow the Crypto
Molly White, independent journalist, maintainer of the site Web 3 is Going Great and the newsletter and podcast Citation Needed (not the podcast about Wikipedia), has a new project called Follow the Crypto. In 2024, the cryptocurrency industry has raised hundreds of millions of dollars to influence races across the US, more than the health or energy sectors despite being a much smaller fraction of the economy. Follow the Crypto reveals what's been learned about their enormous pile of lucre and the ways it is being wielded to distort the United States' political processes, by organizations like FairShake, "Defend American Jobs," and "Protect Progress."
"One of the links you entered was found in 24 previous threads"
Cat-Scan.com is one of the strangest sites I've seen in some time. I have no idea how these people got their cats wedged into their scanners, or why. [more inside]
Robert Towne, 1934–2024
Robert Towne, who wrote the script for Chinatown, punched up the script for The Godfather, and had numerous other writing and a few writer-director credits to his name, died July 1. [more inside]
A dance to the music of death
Death and the human A look at how the artistic figure of death taking people has changed over centuries, with links to sources. (SLPublic Domain Review)
A black hole 20,000 times bigger than the Sun
A black hole 20,000 times bigger than the Sun could help us understand how galaxies evolved.
Astronomers catalogued 1.4 million stars to find the black hole, 18,000 light-years from our Solar System, in the Milky Way.
Charmed
Shannen Doherty has passed away from cancer at age 53 (NYT, BBC, People, Variety). The actor is known for roles in, among other things, Heathers, Beverly Hills, 90210, and Charmed.
I hate Adams for his success, too.
TheGamerFromMars presents a thorough history of Scott Adams’s rise and fall, including his interactions with the blue. [slyt]
Hey, you guys!
Morgan Freeman, DJ (SLYT)
Bird flu--not just for birds
Bird flu has been found in an ever-expanding variety of species and it likes the brain Also, for the first time there has been a rabies outbreak in marine mammals. I expect there is going to be more fun on the horizon for all of us soon. [more inside]
"He is not a forgiving cat"
Woody Harrelson reads a letter on stage, from novelist John Cheever to a friend who had burdened him with a cat, who would then become... vivid (6 minutes). From Letters Live, which has many such missives.
A great mosaic – a great False Self – is itself a work of art
Did Sontag and Steiner get along? Don’t be silly. Like two positively charged particles, they were kept apart by powerful forces of repulsion. They ‘disliked and mistrusted one another,’ Boyers says; ‘the loathing they came to have for each other clearly had much to do with the sense that there was room on the current scene for only one such person.’ It seems hardly worth saying that Sontag and Steiner were alike not just as critics but as psychological case studies. Two False Selves, two mosaic-builders, busily building. If there is one true thing about a False Self, it’s that it loathes and despises other False Selves, perceiving in them, of course, the falseness that it can perceive in itself only at the cost of its existence. from The Devouring Mind by Kevin Power [Dublin Review of Books; ungated] [more inside]
“Happy birthday, happy birthday...”
Happy Birthday, a 1981 song by Scottish band Altered Images, reached #2 in the UK singles chart. Altered Images also released "I could be happy", and "Don't talk to me about love", while lead singer Clare Grogan forged a career in film and TV, most notably in Gregory's Girl. Altered Images are still touring, playing in Worcestershire this summer alongside The Levellers, Holly Johnson, The Wurzels, David Essex, Bananarama and Jason Donovan.
July 13
Rangers find six surprise joeys in pouches of endangered rock wallabies
"Phenomenal news": Rangers find six surprise joeys in pouches of endangered rock wallabies.
The tiny new brush-tailed rock wallaby arrivals were discovered by elated rangers during an annual check as part of a breeding program at the Barrington Wildlife Sanctuary on the New South Wales Mid North Coast.
Season Liberally.
Anti-MAGA spice company Penzey's is hoping their special deal - just $35 for a $50 Choose Love gift card - and their free Twilight Revolution sample bags and January 6 gift boxes - "keep hope alive and vote (and cook)" - will help spread their message about the importance of stopping the right-wing Republican agenda. [more inside]
Shots fired at Trump rally in Pennsylvania
NYT Live: Former President Donald J. Trump was escorted off the stage by Secret Service agents and into his motorcade just minutes into his rally in Butler, Pa., on Saturday, after a series of pops that sounded like gunshots rang out. The exact source of the noises was unclear, but Mr. Trump’s ear appeared to be bleeding heavily as he was rushed off the stage. Mr. Trump ducked quickly after the noises began, with the sound coming from the bleachers to the left of where he was standing. As members of the crowd began screaming, Mr. Trump was tackled by Secret Service. Officials shouted for the crowd to duck and cover, whisking members of the news media off the press riser where they had been watching Mr. Trump’s speech. After a brief pause, Mr. Trump rose, surrounded by a group of uniformed Secret Service members. He pumped his fist to the crowd, and then was rushed off the stage and ushered into his motorcade, which quickly left the venue, the Butler Farm Show.
Livestream of the earth, running (almost) 24/7
ISS High Definition Live Streaming Video of the Earth.
The High Definition Earth-Viewing System concluded its mission on August 22, 2019. In retirement, it has been showing a livestream of the earth from its spot on the International Space Station External Payload Facility of the European Space Agency’s Columbus module. [more inside]
Fitness guru Richard Simmons dead at 76
Fitness guru Richard Simmons dead at 76 Fitness guru Richard Simmons dead at 76
He just celebrated his birthday on Friday.
Life is too short to have bad sex.
Dr. Ruth Westheimer - 1928-2024 Dr. Ruth, America's diminutive Jewish Grandmother with sex on the mind, has passed. With a life that started with being sent to Switzerland from Nazi Germany and then to Israel and the brand new IDF, Dr. Ruth eventually achieved fame as a radio host, author and popular talk show guest as she sought a frank and open discussion of sex and relationships.
"In those days television could be more didactic"
In the 1980s, the BBC explored the world of computing in The Computer Literacy Project. They commissioned a home computer... and taught viewers how to program. The Computer Literacy Project chronicled a decade of information technology and was a milestone in the history of computing in Britain, helping to inspire a generation of coders. This site contains all 146 of the original Computer Literacy Project programmes plus 121 related programmes, broken down into 2,509 categorised, searchable clips.
"I can honestly say I've never had a complaint about any of her rides."
Top Canadian jockey Emma-Jayne Wilson made history in the fifth race at Woodbine July 11, breaking Hall of Famer Julie Krone's all-time purse earnings record for a female jockey, and you couldn't have scripted it any better.
The way is more important than the act
“Does this country have any heroes?” Gatalo asked. “We do not,” came the reply. A minute later there was another answer. They did have a hero. His name was Bruce Lee. from The Wild True Story of the Bruce Lee Statue Heist [DailyBeast]
The Age of Dip
I have thoughts about dip. Particularly the 4-way ‘Dip Selection’ that became popular in Britain in the mid-1990s. And therefore I also have thoughts about the specific context of class narratives and family economies that emerged then. Holly Pester on dip for dinner [Vittles] CW: Eating Disorders
Not a bad list to be on
Adrienne Westenfeld at Esquire enumerates the 75 best sci-fi books of all time. Metafilter's own™ jscalzi says "well this doesn't suck" and that it's "not a bad list to be on". [more inside]
Caturday
The City’s Crawling With Feral Cats Volunteers are the only thing standing between the city and a stream of sick cats. They’re barely making a dent. They’re barely making a dent. By Molly Osberg For New York. Please support your local TNR: As she introduced me to each cat, she ran down her daily routine: Clean half a dozen litter boxes, feed the cats, dole out medication in “nine to 15 little bowls,” send a round of emails to vets in the hopes of getting discounted checkups and scans. “And then, of course, I’ll try to get some content,” she says. “Because if there’s no content, we’re not getting people’s freaking coffee money to donate towards our, like, exploded eyeball surgery.”
Save the Dog
Stunningly rare shade of tree frog found on a bench in the Kimberley
Out of the blue: Stunningly rare shade of tree frog found on a bench in the Kimberley. A pigment mutation in the magnificent tree frog has resulted in a rare scientific discovery.
Scissors paper rock but keep on guessing
What beats rock? Keep on guessing and an AI will assess if your given x defeats the proceeding y. Each thing can only be used once.
Rave Positive Mixed Pan
Book Marks, a Literary Hub project, is a book review aggregator--like Rotten Tomatoes, for books.
"Our Creator's voice in colour"
Artist Alex Janvier has died at 89. His art uses a visual language reminiscent of Miró & Kandinsky to express the cultural & spiritual traditions of his Dene heritage. A survivor of residential schools, Janvier's career stretched over five decades, culminating with a major retrospective at the National Gallery of Canada in 2017. His conversation with a NGC conservator is available on YouTube. Samples of his work can be found on his website and on his Instagram feed. His most prominent works include a massive ceiling mural at the Canadian Museum of History and a floor mosaic at Rogers Place (home of the Edmonton Oilers.) [more inside]
The Great Lightbulb Conspiracy
Back in the day, planned obsolescence was something not to take lightly. Meet the Phoebus cartel.
on edge?
Once we move away from the idea that borders mark the edge of territory, we can see how immigration controls create divisions and hierarchies within individual nation-states [g: against borders] [more inside]
Boys Don't Cry
Where are all the sad young men in literature, then? The male equivalent of My Year of Rest and Relaxation’s droll narrator? The modern-day Holden Caulfields? As far as the Internet is largely concerned, there aren’t any. Or at least very few of them receive the same hype as books by and about women. Perhaps it’s because there’s a certain stigma surrounding male vulnerability, but in contemporary fiction, the subject is wildly overlooked. This discrepancy isn’t just a matter of representation, though: It’s reflective of wider attitudes toward masculinity. If social norms dictate that men should embody strength and stoicism, there’s little space left for those who don’t. Ultimately, fiction plays a crucial role in shaping our self-image and reality; it’s why the relative absence of young men in recent fiction profoundly affects how we perceive and understand the emotional lives of men more broadly. from Where Is All the Sad Boy Literature? by Katie Tobin [Esquire; ungated]
July 12
If you're here for Euclidean Doom, you're in the wrong room
Non-Euclidean Doom: A 2022 talk by Luke Gotszling about taking the already-very-slightly-wrong value of pi encoded in iD Software's seminal 1993 title Doom and pushing it into actually-quite-wrong values to see what will happen. (Nothing good will happen.)