Share some links (before they get tariffed, too)

February 1, 2025 10:52 AM

LinkMe, February '25: Come across an interesting link recently that you'd like to share, but don't want to work it up into a full post? Share it here for our perusal, nbd. And if you'd like to post something but need some inspiration, check out the links here to see what other members have found interesting and would like to read more about! Just tag the resulting post "LinkMe" and include a nod back to the original suggestion. No self-linking and usual site rules apply, but otherwise feel free to post whatever you like! Look inside for a round-up from last month.

pandemic news [via otherchaz]

The "greenhouse effect" is a terrible misnomer [via SaltySalticid]

How a child becomes bilingual — and what can be done to help them get there [via chavenet]
Things we learned about LLMs in 2024 [via chavenet]

Taskmaster New Years Treat 2025 [via lock robster]
The Dome Paradox: A Loophole in Newton's Laws [via lock robster, posted by flabdablet]
How I Fooled Penn and Teller [via lock robster]
Coffeezilla investigates Counter-Strike underage gambling - Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3 [via lock robster]

Roper Romp [via rekrap]
Rita Payes Tiny Desk Concert [via rekrap]

China announces new high-speed train, the CR450 [via CheeseDigestsAll]

The Bexhill 1940 Winter Wartime Model Railway [via chrisulonic]
The Izzard Family Model Railway [via chrisulonic]

Gangs tearing subway fabric in specific patterns for kickbacks [via autopilot]

Empire Wreckers video comparing Superman teaser trailers [via TheophileEscargot]

Kia Ora lady wins right to answer phone with greeting [via Art_Pot]
Discussion on Maori language usage [via Art_Pot]

The Militia and the Mole [via Rhomboid, posted by adamvasco]

New baby pygmy hippo at Metro Richmond Zoo [via the primroses were over]
Pygmy hippo naming poll [via the primroses were over]

Dr. Rohin Francis discusses the sadness doctors feel about losing patients [via effluvia]

When A Woman Is Married to Multiple Brothers [via bannana]

Chrome Web Store is a mess [via Rhomboid]

How disaster girls cash in on the digital economy [via box]
Why we have prison gangs [via box]
The 'Annex Canada' stuff is a test and you're failing [via box]
The school shootings were fake. The terror was real [via box]
How jukeboxes made Memphis music [via box]
The spectacular burnout of a solar panel salesman [via box]

Louis Rossmann introduces a consumer protection wiki [via Rhomboid]
Consumer protection wiki cataloging erosion of rights [via Rhomboid]

Rolligon: Big low-pressure tires that roll over anything [via TheophileEscargot]

Sam Harris talks about his falling out with Elon Musk [via mittens]

posted by Rhaomi (31 comments total)

Sammy "The Bull" Gravano describes ADX Florence Supermax: A very bad man remembers a very bad place.
posted by Lemkin at 10:55 AM on February 1

Make a small world in a flask.
posted by chavenet at 11:11 AM on February 1 [2 favorites]

The Dan Da Dan opening, except it's One Piece.
posted by SPrintF at 11:12 AM on February 1

MeFi cult favorite Todd in the Shadows has a new video: The Top Ten Best Hit Songs of 2024.

Hate new music? Not a problem: The Top Ten Worst Hit Songs of 2024.
posted by box at 11:13 AM on February 1 [2 favorites]

I've been half-meaning to post this article about an underground trans surgery clinic that's been going around tumblr, so I guess I'll leave it here for peer review?
posted by dick dale the vampire at 12:21 PM on February 1 [1 favorite]

Time Cube: The RPG - The game where you explore 4 rotations of Nature's Harmonic Time Cube
posted by Lemkin at 12:43 PM on February 1

Some farmers in Wales who are raising a herd of guinea pigs to mow their blueberry orchard document the relentless experimentation they do to figure out how to make it work. Their dog helps round up the little piggies when they escape.
Why We’re Raising 100+ Guinea Pigs to Mow Our Blueberry Orchard!
Can 100+ Guinea Pigs REALLY Mow Our Half Acre Blueberry Orchard?
and more
posted by polecat at 12:54 PM on February 1 [2 favorites]

Sex Differences in Sport Are Hugely Controversial Right Now. Here’s What Science Does (and Doesn’t) Know.
posted by Mr.Know-it-some at 1:09 PM on February 1 [2 favorites]

Making the Video That Made Gorillaz - Sophie Kuebler interviews Pete Candeland, who spent almost two decades as a Gorillaz director, animator and more. The two of them dove into his process and origins, and particularly into one of the century’s most recognizable music videos: the one he did for Clint Eastwood (2001).
posted by JoeZydeco at 1:27 PM on February 1

A wiki of the world's highest bridges. With plenty of photos.
posted by maxwelton at 2:46 PM on February 1 [1 favorite]

The rise of plant poaching: how a craze for succulents is driving a new illegal trade (Financial Times, on conophytums, rare succulents native only to small parts of South Africa and Namibia)
posted by box at 3:16 PM on February 1 [1 favorite]

Thanks to this week's ep of Jordan Jesse Go, I present 90 Funniest Monkey Puns You’ll Ever Hear, from englishleaflet.com. I don't know how this compares to other AI slop, but precious little of this can be mistaken for a pun. If you scroll down to the section of "Question and Answers About Monkey Puns", the AI tells all about its creative process! I didn't notice anything particularly porny about the page on 140 Funny Tentacle Puns | Squid’s Got Jokes, but I was impressed how it has every occasion covered: Tentacle Appearance Puns, Funny Tentacle Dad Puns, Tentacle Puns for Instagram...
posted by polecat at 4:40 PM on February 1

In college, I used to amuse myself by building houses of cards in the student lounge, common areas of my dorm, and living room of my house. People would come and go and the opening of doors, vibrations, and general movement of their passing would knock down the cards. There was a certain pleasure to be had in succeeding at getting multiple layers going under those circumstances, but but there was also pleasure in the inevitable destruction, and most of all, I enjoyed overcoming the frustration caused by both the building and destroying. I did not, in general, try to build for stability.

I've been thinking about that frustration today while watching the news about the Trump administration's bull in a china shop approach to governing. I feel a certain optimism when I remember that those easily destroyed card stacks could be built again, with difficulty.

Anyway, here are some links to a set of paintings by Jean-Siméon Chardin from the 1730s or so. They depict children making card houses.

Boy Building a House of Cards, 1735 at the Louvre. This is, I think, the earliest one of these paintings.

Boy Building a House of Cards, 1735 at Waddesdon Manor, UK.

The House of Cards, probably 1737 at The National Gallery of Art in Washington DC.

The House of Cards, 1740 at the National Gallery in London.

For all of these, if you click around, you should be able to get a big zoomable version of the painting.
posted by surlyben at 5:51 PM on February 1 [2 favorites]

I love stories about small towns being small towns. So here’s a tiny story about that time a local dentist blew up a cycle shop.
posted by SunSnork at 6:10 AM on February 2

AI slop is already invading Oregon’s local journalism
posted by soelo at 8:10 AM on February 2

In 1966, Ed Ruscha drove along the Sunset Strip in West Hollywood, Los Angeles. Using a motorized camera mounted on the back of a pickup truck, he methodically photographed all of the buildings on each side of the street. He assembled the photos in the artists' book Every Building on the Sunset Strip, which challenged how people thought about Los Angeles, art and photography.


Drive the strip in 1985
posted by mmrtnt at 12:21 PM on February 2

World Radio History
posted by wheelieman at 4:09 PM on February 2

Farscape has been uploading full episodes to their official youtube (and also something called Jim Henson's The Storyteller which I don't know anything about). I don't hate farscape but it's not really my fandom, otherwise I'd have done it because it seems like it'd be a pretty big deal for people who are into it. full episode playlist here.

In other news, ubuweb has reactivated in light of the current political moment. There's not much there in terms of a post (ie no new content yet afaik), but yeah ubuweb is great.
posted by juv3nal at 6:11 PM on February 2 [3 favorites]

They’ve come up with the latest—and most comprehensive—estimate of the number of ants in the world: 20,000,000,000,000,000.
posted by JoeZydeco at 12:53 PM on February 3

The Metropolitan African Methodist Episcopal Church in Washington has been awarded control of the Proud Boys trademark in response to 2020 vandalism.
NYT archived
CBS
posted by droomoord at 1:33 PM on February 4 [2 favorites]

this was an interesting article to read on dementia and robots and working to get people with dementia involved with their design. Found via pocket from wired in jan 4 2024
posted by Art_Pot at 7:58 AM on February 5

Warner Brothers is inexplicably uploading entire movies to YouTube for free viewing.
posted by JoeZydeco at 11:44 AM on February 5 [2 favorites]

I'm trying to think of a way to FPP this, but I can't find any decent links or news articles beyond one Washington Times one and a bunch of Reddit posts. Doesn't seem like NYT or WaPo or AP are covering it.

The President just signed the following Executive Order:

https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/02/ensuring-accountability-for-all-agencies/

"Therefore, in order to improve the administration of the executive branch and to increase regulatory officials’ accountability to the American people, it shall be the policy of the executive branch to ensure Presidential supervision and control of the entire executive branch. Moreover, all executive departments and agencies, including so-called independent agencies, shall submit for review all proposed and final significant regulatory actions to the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) within the Executive Office of the President before publication in the Federal Register."

This is a power grab unlike any other: "For the Federal Government to be truly accountable to the American people, officials who wield vast executive power must be supervised and controlled by the people’s elected President."
posted by jenfullmoon at 12:16 PM on February 19

This spells out a lot.
posted by jenfullmoon at 12:27 PM on February 19

NPR has an article on it.
posted by soelo at 12:33 PM on February 19

(Brennan Center analysis, NYT, WaPo)
posted by box at 1:02 PM on February 19

I don't think any of this is FPP material, exactly, but I enjoyed reading:

Donald Trump removed the Resolute Desk after X Musk wiped his boogers on it
Octavia Spencer offers poop pies from ‘The Help’ to all DOGE employees
posted by jenfullmoon at 10:10 AM on February 21

"Name the greatest rapper of all time."
posted by box at 12:44 PM on February 21

I can't post this because I just posted, but Michelle Trachtenberg just died.
posted by jenfullmoon at 10:09 AM on February 26 [1 favorite]

Duo the owl mascot has resurrected. What was the point of this, again?
posted by jenfullmoon at 2:43 PM on February 26

‪@quantanaut.bsky.social‬: VIRTUE v2.2.0 is online! This is a free particle collider display for desktop and VR I've been working on for a while, please check it out! 🧪⚛️ (free steam link) (earlier writeup from Brookhaven national lab)
posted by mittens at 11:05 AM on February 27