MetaFilter

1985 was a ridiculously strong year for music releases. June 1, 1985 saw the release of Sting's first solo album The Dream Of The Blue Turtles [YT playlist]. It was inescapable for months, with massive hit singles. And it has Branford Marsalis on saxophone! Side A: If You Love Somebody Set Them Free [video], Love Is The Seventh Wave [video], Russians* [video], Chidren's Crusade, Shadows In The Rain [more inside]
posted by hippybear at 6:02 PM PST - 70 comments

It's been about four hundred years since the Imp Girls landed at Hot Lumpy Rock. Here's a map of what eventually became the Much Sass State. [avi: Orgy Pant Hobos]
posted by not_on_display at 5:26 PM PST - 18 comments

Leontyne Price is the legendary American soprano and the first African American to become a lead performer at the Metropolitan Opera. On Jan. 1st, 1985, at age 58, she sang her farewell performance on the Met Stage in the role of Verdi's Aida. In this highly emotional video from that night, she sings the iconic aria O Patria Mia and the audience responds with a rapturous applause. (slyt) [more inside]
posted by beisny at 4:46 PM PST - 9 comments

If you've walked past the corner of 7th Avenue South and Christopher Street in New York City, you might have noticed a little triangular mosaic in front of Village Cigars (Google streetview) that reads "Property of Hess Estate which has never been dedicated for public purposes ▽". This is the tiny "spite triangle" that marks a century-old grudge against New York City (Mentalfloss). At 500 square inches, it is the smallest piece of private property in the city (Atlas Obscura). Bonus: 10 NYC Streets from the Original Dutch Colonial Street Grid (Untapped Cities).
posted by filthy light thief at 3:43 PM PST - 19 comments

Artist Christo has died. He and his wife, Jeanne-Claude, created massive environmental installations. [more inside]
posted by theora55 at 3:00 PM PST - 71 comments

Centroid Towns is an anthology documentary project using photography, oral history interviews, and local archive research to study the twenty-five cities that have been the mean center of population of the United States. This symbolic center is calculated every ten years to accompany the U.S. Census, first located in 1790 near Chestertown, Maryland, and moving steadily westward, currently residing near Plato, Missouri. The project puts a face to statistical data, chronicling these towns and their inhabitants to illuminate the ongoing social and political transformation of America. [more inside]
posted by klausman at 10:22 AM PST - 3 comments

How RuneScape is helping Venezuelans survive [Runescape]

“Against this cataclysmic economic and societal backdrop, millions of people have fled the country in search of better lives, with many more desperately trying to find their own means of escape. In November 2019, the number of Venezuelan refugees and migrants reached 3 million. Those who remain in the country have been forced to find innovative ways to survive. While some craft bags out of worthless bolivars — Venezuelan currency — to sell at markets, others look to a virtual land of opportunity, spending hours in front of computer screens and mobile phones hunting green dragons* in the online multiplayer role-playing game RuneScape.”

*A quick and common way to earn vast amounts of RuneScape’s currency, gold, is to kill “Green Dragons.” Players can collect items dropped by the dragons and sell them on the in-game marketplace for “gold.” Then, this gold can be sold on third-party sites for money that works in the real world (often in the form of cryptocurrency like Bitcoin). [more inside]
posted by Fizz at 6:47 AM PST - 17 comments

Henry Cyril Paget, 5th Marquess of Anglesey (1875 – 1905), styled Lord Paget until 1880 and Earl of Uxbridge between 1880 and 1898, and nicknamed "Toppy", was a British peer who was notable during his short life for squandering his inheritance on a lavish social life and accumulating massive debts. Regarded as the "black sheep" of the family, he was dubbed "the dancing marquess" and for his Butterfly Dancing, taken from Loie Fuller, where a voluminous robe of transparent white silk would be waved like wings.
He inherited some £73m. But in the space of just over five years, he had blown the lot, been declared bankrupt, and died from complications of tuberculosis in Monte Carlo. Newspapers in March 1905 declared his death a "wasted life".
Paget's style has often been compared to that of Freddie Mercury.
(via)
Previously on M-F
posted by growabrain at 4:48 AM PST - 14 comments

During a week's break from A Daily Social Distancing Show, Trevor Noah has been thinking. He shares his thoughts in an 18 minute video, George Floyd, Minneapolis Protests, Ahmaud Arbery & Amy Cooper. [more inside]
posted by hippybear at 5:58 PM PST - 61 comments

Maya Dukmasova has been writing about police abolitionist community organizing since 2016: "It’s easy to dismiss prison and police abolition as unrealistic and out of touch, but if one is seriously interested in figuring out how to keep communities safe while reducing violence and other crime, abolitionists offer a plethora of practical ideas. As many of them have pointed out to me over the years, prisons and police don’t do anything to make many neighborhoods safer and more stable, so here are some stories about other ways we could be using our time and resources." [more inside]
posted by Ouverture at 5:33 PM PST - 43 comments

"My all-time favorite map-based data visualization was created in 1944. Harold Fisk, working with the US Army Corp. of Engineers, mapped the length of the Mississippi River. What sets his visualization apart from others is that he maps the river through time, and manages to do so in a way that is both beautiful and surprisingly effective. I want to pay homage to his series of maps by creating my own system for procedurally generating maps of meandering rivers." With that, Robert Hodgin made Meander, a procedural system for generating historical maps of rivers (plus adjacent roadways and developments) that never existed. [via Mltshp]
posted by filthy light thief at 3:09 PM PST - 18 comments

Robert Evans, Bellingcat reporter, hosts the podcast Behind the Bastards. The formula is simple: Robert researches a terrible person (usually from recent history) and relates his research to a rotating cast of comedians who try to crack wise in the face of duplicity, misery, degradation, and death, while Producer Sophie tries to a) keep them on track adn b) stop Robert from wrecking the studio. [more inside]
posted by GenjiandProust at 1:54 PM PST - 49 comments

America's Never-Ending Battle Against Flesh-Eating Worms - "Inside the U.S. and Panama's long-running collaboration to rid an entire continent of a deadly disease." (thread/reader: "Screwworms were eradicated from the U.S. decades ago. But how? In the 1950s, the U.S. began growing millions of screwworms in a factory, sterilizing them with radiation, and dropping them out of planes. And this still happens today! Everyday!"; the USDA's screwworm eradication collection; merch/stickers; via)
posted by kliuless at 9:06 AM PST - 16 comments

BBC Arts Editor Will Gompertz reads E.M. Forster's 1909 novella The Machine Stops. "The Machine Stops is not simply prescient; it is a jaw-droppingly, gob-smackingly, breath-takingly accurate literary description of lockdown life in 2020. [...] It's not lost on me that you are reading this on the internet on a man-made device over which we just about still believe we have mastery." [more inside]
posted by Major Clanger at 5:56 AM PST - 22 comments

Pelada (90 mins youtube) is a 2010 documentary/travelogue in which two American collegiate soccer players who couldn't make the leap to the professional level investigate the culture of pickup football around the world across 25 countries.
posted by juv3nal at 12:37 AM PST - 8 comments

A little new listening for your weekend: Indigo Girls have a new album out, Look Long. It's full of collaborators old and new. Here's the official YouTube playlist. Here are the lyrics at lifeblood.net. [more inside]
posted by hippybear at 4:58 PM PST - 11 comments

Tony Goldmark has spent his quarantine time compiling a key archive of the ages: I figured out the precise chronological order of all the MCU movies (so far) BY SCENE. Start with the first three minutes and forty-five seconds of Thor: The Dark World, then switch over to 1:19:43-1:19:54 of Thor: Ragnarok, and a hundred and sixteen steps later (thanks to Goldmark going back to separate some of the time heist scenes), with all of Spider-Man: Far From Home, you will have Uatu'd the 23 MCU movies, hopping across all of reality to get the story in one kind-of-continuous narrative.
posted by Etrigan at 4:55 PM PST - 39 comments

We all know that our pets love us. They snuggle up to us when we’re cold. They cheer us up when we’re feeling down. And the looks that they sometimes give us can make our hearts melt—sometimes it seems like they’re looking straight into our souls. (SLBuzzFeed, h/t Miss Cellania)
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 4:46 PM PST - 20 comments

Global deaths due to various causes and COVID-19 - a sobering data visualization that puts the pandemic in greater context
posted by They sucked his brains out! at 4:38 PM PST - 50 comments

Forty years ago a small group of activists formed Food Not Bombs during the Occupation Attempt of the Seabrook Nuclear Power Station. Since then, chapters of the organization (all-volunteer, always free, consensus based) have been serving reclaimed vegetarian food to those in need all over the world, frequently getting arrested for doing so. A planned anniversary celebration involving free outdoor concerts has been scuttled in favor of stepped up action to help feed those affected by illness and economic uncertainty. One of the founders reflects. [more inside]
posted by bq at 4:30 PM PST - 4 comments

Rediscovering The Small Web, by Parimal Satyal [more inside]
posted by the man of twists and turns at 1:18 PM PST - 33 comments

“I can’t think of anything I could have improved. I’m an old party-giver. To do something like this takes certain people to cooperate with one another. Nobody spilt any drinks. That’s unusual,” he says. “I spilled a lot of drinks in my time.” Bliss Broyard, daughter of Anatole Broyard, pens a lovely vignette about Vincent Livelli, who has lived a very full & fascinating life, and just turned 100.
posted by chavenet at 12:33 PM PST - 0 comments - Post a Comment

YouTuber Curious Reviewers examines the top bathrooms in video games. [**WARNING: many of the clips depict nudity, violence, fecal subject matter.**]
posted by Fizz at 11:28 AM PST - 23 comments

Trump’s executive order against Twitter, targeting Section 230, is reminiscent the message boards and aggrieved trolls of the early 2000s. As Matt Haughey says: “Every bad thing at MetaFilter happened with someone who had been testing the rules for a year or two.”
posted by Revort at 11:27 AM PST - 68 comments

When indigenous peoples (IPs) have no information on the mining activity going on in their community, they are unable to hold others accountable for the use of their resources. They are denied the benefits of the mining activity even as they face major disruptions to their way of life and their environment. To address this, one organization has tried to explain the concepts of open data and mining governance to a community that hosts mining operations in Palawan province in the Philippines.
posted by Mrs Potato at 10:50 AM PST - 1 comment

Catherine Wood, owner-operator of Planetwood Productions in Los Angeles makes the case for maintaining recording credits. There is a good argument to be made that artists, particularly studio artists, lose out when recording credits disappear. Producers can't track studio bands as easily, and you the listener can't follow artists along their steps away from the studio to live performances and independent careers. [more inside]
posted by drossdragon at 10:42 AM PST - 13 comments

A sudoku based tribute to the Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
posted by rollick at 10:14 AM PST - 21 comments

Tall Tales With Dwight Yoakam: An intimate night of conversation and tunes with the hard-charging, mile-a-minute pioneer of honky-tonk himself (GQ) [more inside]
posted by not_the_water at 9:05 AM PST - 5 comments

While quarantine has its difficulties, it has also shown to be a great opportunity to catch up on media that one perhaps didn't have time for under a normal work/life schedule. With video games, the amount of time and money potentially invested, however, can leave a potential player asking a lot of questions beforehand, such as "Is it any good?" or "Is is appropriate for my kids?" but most importantly, "Can you violate the Geneva Conventions?"
posted by Navelgazer at 7:54 AM PST - 40 comments

In 1972 Al Green wrote and recorded Love and Happiness. The Reverend C.E. Hodges was manning the Hammond B-3 (previously). After the intro, listen for co-author and guitarist Teenie Hodges to set the tempo by tapping his foot on a cardboard box...
posted by jim in austin at 6:30 AM PST - 8 comments

Connected Coastlines is a nationwide reporting initiative on climate change and coastal states, hosted by the Pulitzer Center. [more inside]
posted by carter at 6:09 AM PST - 1 comment

Planting Trees Won't Stop Climate Change - "Not only are planted trees not the carbon sinks you want, but tree planting frequently ends up doing more harm than good." (*The Forest Unseen)
posted by kliuless at 12:48 AM PST - 33 comments

TreeTV is a five-hour video from Adult Swim of footage of trees and mellow music.
Created adjacent to Relaxing Old Footage With Joe Pera.
“Axolotl” by Julio Cortázar
posted by Going To Maine at 10:47 PM PST - 3 comments

“It’s a one-time shift in technology. After this, it’s going to stay like this forever,” says Saurabh Bajaj, CEO of Swiftlane, a Silicon Valley touchless startup using facial recognition. He says that Covid-19 had enabled technology to leapfrog into an immediate future of touchless elevators, doors, and trash cans. Our Economy Was Just Blasted Years Into the Future (Marker.Medium.com) More than interacting with the physical world at a distance, the article covers the increased focus on, and fights against facial recognition technology (STAT News), work-from-home becoming more widely adopted and supported (The Guardian), but researchers estimate that 42% of recent layoffs will result in permanent job loss (NBER). [more inside]
posted by filthy light thief at 10:33 PM PST - 27 comments

T. Greg Doucette, regular member of #LawTwitter and Vic Migonga/Ty Beard commentator par excellence, gets asked what might we do to stop the takeover of the police and the judiciary by white supremacy. Greg replies with an epic 15 point thread.
posted by Your Childhood Pet Rock at 6:24 PM PST - 42 comments

The listing for this forest-encircled house in California includes some interesting photos. The reclusive resident generally keeps to herself, but trying to shift a property in these times means you have to put yourself out there.
posted by smoke at 6:23 PM PST - 22 comments

In February, the Canadian Museum of Nature asked Canadians to vote for their favourite lichen. Behold the star-tipped reindeer — Canadians' top pick for a national lichen. Watch Dr. Troy McMullin, lichenologist at the Canadian Museum of Nature, present the Star-tipped Reindeer Lichen as the top vote-getter from the national lichen vote. [more inside]
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 5:12 PM PST - 12 comments

An oral history of Who Framed Roger Rabbit. (sli09).
posted by a non mouse, a cow herd at 4:55 PM PST - 21 comments

This Word Does Not Exist. Thomas Dimson, former Instagram engineer, and interpreter of emojis, brings us computer-generated plants, chemical technobabble, fashion trends, and more.
posted by CrunchyFrog at 4:51 PM PST - 7 comments

Lessons From Operation "Denver," the KGB’s Massive AIDS Disinformation Campaign: Historian Douglas Selvage talks about what the Russian government did in the 1980s to spread a conspiracy theory about the origins of HIV, and how that reverberates to the effects of misinformation campaigns currently promoted about the novel coronavirus
posted by They sucked his brains out! at 2:26 PM PST - 2 comments

A nothing short of triumphant stop motion renovation of an engine [SLYT]. LKW-Werksatt in Niederlauer, Germany, rebuilds a Mercedes Benz Actros OM471LAtruck engine.
posted by bouvin at 1:32 PM PST - 37 comments

Harry Lee Kassen at Comics Bookcase looks hard at the structure of layouts in The Wild Storm by Warren Ellis & Jon Davis-Hunt
posted by the man of twists and turns at 12:55 PM PST - 6 comments

In a veritable firework display of digital self portraits, hundreds of quaint, embarrassing and dread-fully disturbing selfies were arranged in a unique short film composition. Single photos, artistically reworked, consolidate to form a ghastly grin that outshines the abyss of human existence. [Possibly NSFW]
posted by dobbs at 12:51 PM PST - 7 comments

Why now is the time to embrace video games for kids [CNN] “Before the pandemic, video games were a weekend-only activity in our house, allowed for one hour a day, Saturday and Sunday. It was a compromise that worked for our family. My 7-year-old had a chance to dig in to his favorite games, and we parents felt like we were putting reasonable limits on an activity about which we were somewhat ambivalent. But now he's playing them daily — and I wouldn't have it any other way. In this lonely pandemic world, we still want our kids to get together to play, and they do, too. Unlike us boring grown-ups, they don't get much out of chatting in group texts or through FaceTime (or even those work Zoom meetings). They want to enter collective imagined spaces and discover the elastic possibilities that await. Only there, somewhere deep in the unreal, are they likely to start exploring, creating and, importantly, connecting. Like most kids around the world, it's been a long time since my son has been able to battle bad guys, travel to faraway lands or rescue animals with his friends in person. But, thanks to video games, all is not lost.” [more inside]
posted by Fizz at 10:41 AM PST - 43 comments

Hello son, this is booking agent Bobby Romeo and I'm calling to offer your band Yo La Tengo an opportunity to open for the reunited Beatles! [more inside]
posted by carsonb at 10:23 AM PST - 10 comments

In 1998, Lucy Lawless brought down Studio 8H with an impression of the Fleetwood Mac frontwoman imagined as the owner of a bad Mexican restaurant. The sketch is not one of ‘SNL’s’ most famous, but in the two decades after its airing, it has garnered a cult following.
posted by Etrigan at 7:27 AM PST - 77 comments

Vote Save America, a project from Crooked Media, has developed the Adopt A State program, which allows Americans in blue states (and elsewhere) to help win the Senate and White House in 2020 by working remotely to help get out the vote and support Democratic candidates in additional ways. [more inside]
posted by Bella Donna at 6:13 AM PST - 30 comments

"I will say, it is something I'm a little hesitant to canonise, because, honestly, I would have cast a trans actor if that was something I wanted to [do]. If I wanted that character to be very canonically trans, I think that would have been a really cool thing to do," she said. "It's just something I want to be a little cautious around, because I don't want to be adding to things after the fact"

She-Ra showrunner Noelle Stevenson responds to the fan theory of Bow as a trans man. [more inside]
posted by MartinWisse at 3:09 AM PST - 30 comments

If you believe in 5G conspiracy theories but aren't comfortable committing arson, there is an alternative - a device which claims to protect against the 'negative health effects' of 5G. It's a USB stick and it retails for £339 (three hundred and thirty-nine pounds sterling). [more inside]
posted by Cardinal Fang at 12:47 AM PST - 77 comments

Happy birthday to Siouxsie Sioux, one of the Queens of British Pop* (docu offline currently, clip on Siouxsie), from her start as a member of the Bromley Contingent alongside the Sex Pistols, who she played alongside in 1976, as seen in the London Weekend Show, to a big send-off show in 2008 when her style and sound was much less of a riot, and more of the moody and ethereal end of goth/alt rock. [more inside]
posted by filthy light thief at 7:35 PM PST - 19 comments

Larry Kramer, AIDS activist, co-founder of ACTUP and The Gay Men's Health Crisis, playwright of The Normal Heart, has died at 84 (NYT) Obituaries are plentiful on the web, and tributes on Twitter. [more inside]
posted by tzikeh at 5:45 PM PST - 71 comments

Marga Griesbach , 92, made it through the Holocaust, and set off for a cruise around the world in February.
posted by BigHeartedGuy at 4:03 PM PST - 13 comments

Mercator: Extreme, by Drew Roos. “A single map encompassing the entire surface of the Earth, yet containing both human scale and global scale.” [more inside]
posted by oulipian at 2:59 PM PST - 8 comments

Just how many people are in this random picture in the 1940 film, "The Great McGinty"? It takes a bit of research.
posted by Chrysostom at 2:32 PM PST - 12 comments

John Barth Deserves a Wider Audience by John Domini for LitHub
posted by chavenet at 2:24 PM PST - 13 comments

The Aromas of Trees: Five Practices. A set of invitations for sensing trees at Emergence Magazine by David G. Haskell, author of The Songs of Trees: Stories from Nature’s Great Connectors.
We begin at home: "Coffee. Pencil shavings. Almond milk. Honey laden with aromatic memories of tree nectar and pollen. Inhale, and remember that we live in the forest, even when this truth is hidden from the eye." [more inside]
posted by spamandkimchi at 2:19 PM PST - 2 comments

GCN tests just how hard was the first ever Tour de France? The 1903 edition of the race started with a 467km stage between Paris and Lyon, a real test of endurance.
posted by rebent at 2:02 PM PST - 21 comments

What is Roam Research and why are researchers and writers losing their minds over this note-taking/knowledge management/productivity app based on Zettelkasten and still in closed beta? [more inside]
posted by Foci for Analysis at 1:33 PM PST - 43 comments

Demo-2 is go for propellant load. At T-45 minutes, the signal was given to start the propellant load and start on a new era of commercial space transportation. For the first time in nine years, a crewed spacecraft will launch from American soil.
posted by Your Childhood Pet Rock at 12:49 PM PST - 85 comments

The hidden demonic horrors of UMass Dartmouth
Paul Rudolph worked in the Brutalist style in his sweeping plans for UMass Dartmouth (then Southeastern Massachusetts University) But was the honored, 'acclaimed and confounding', maligned and forgotten, volatile and visionary Rudolph secretly a Satanist? [more inside]
posted by the man of twists and turns at 12:20 PM PST - 18 comments

Matt Stoller writes about Varsity Brands, and its stranglehold on cheerleading: "The most unpopular extractive arrangement for many of its contests is “Stay to Play,” where non-local teams must book a high-priced Varsity-approved hotel to play in the competition. Staying with a friend or a cheaper place gets a team kicked out of the tournament, and the gym owner fined. These tactics inflated prices in the primary market for cheer competitions, and in the secondary market of apparel and equipment. They also just make cheerleading less fun, or as one person told me, they “kill the spirit of cheer.” [more inside]
posted by benoliver999 at 11:59 AM PST - 14 comments

Wholesome Games Direct 2020 [YouTube][37:09][Trailers & Showcase] “A digital games showcase called the Wholesome Games Direct aired yesterday, dedicated to cute and colorful games. It put the spotlight on over 50 upcoming indie games that run the gamut from train sims to augmented reality adventures. Games showcased will be playable on a variety of gaming platforms.”
posted by Fizz at 10:25 AM PST - 3 comments

Bending Lines: Maps and Data from Distortion to Deception "Instead of ranking maps on a linear spectrum with “true and objective” on one side, and “false and biased” on the other, Bending Lines instead encourages you to pay attention to the social, cultural, and political context in which every act of communication is situated. Just because every map is distorted in some way or another doesn’t mean that it’s no longer possible to speak about honesty and accuracy. Thinking carefully about motivations, meaning, persuasion, and presentation helps us to construct trust in an informed, critical manner." from the Boston Public Library's Leventhal Map Center
posted by everybody had matching towels at 10:16 AM PST - 1 comment

Anti-fascist news site Unicorn Riot has 2 hours of raw footage taken at the scene of last night's protest of the police killing of George Floyd. @TheQueerCrimer was live-tweeting police radio broadcasts. It's Going Down has a good summary article of what happened. Four officers present at the killing have been fired. What we know about Derek Chauvin and Tou Thao, two of the officers caught on tape, including info about their previous use-of-force incidents, one of which resulted in a $25,000 out-of-court settlement. [more inside]
posted by mediareport at 9:16 AM PST - 1548 comments

I quickly ducked into my bedroom closet, grabbed a small wooden hut filled with 60 buzzing bees, and returned to the group. Sitting under a floor lamp, I used a pair of long, delicate tweezers to grab a squirming insect, then asked Risha to pull up her sweater and straighten out her back. Using the knuckle of my thumb to measure one inch from Risha’s spine, I carefully placed the bee to her skin and gave it a light tap. As the tiny barbed stinger went in, Risha inhaled sharply and I slowly counted to 10. I scraped out the stinger with my fingernail, then turned to my guests, who had come to my house to learn about using live bee stings as a treatment for Lyme disease. “Who’s next?” The Secret Society of Self-Stingers (Narratively)
posted by not_the_water at 9:03 AM PST - 32 comments

General Electric exits the lightbulb business after finally finding a buyer for its lighting unit and will be selling off its last consumer-facing business after more than 120 years of operation. The lighting business is GE's oldest segment, dating all the way back to the company's founding through a series of mergers with Thomas Edison's companies in the late 1880s and early 1890s. [more inside]
posted by JoeZydeco at 8:54 AM PST - 40 comments

Alcohol Funnycar wrote and recorded the song "Someday" from separate homes. The music video shows masked musicians Ben London and Tommy Simpson (separately) visiting Seattle music venues and a lot of pandemic murals & messages.
posted by Margalo Epps at 8:52 AM PST - 1 comment

Earlier this year, a first-time academic author published a new mathematical study in the journal Research in Number Theory. The twist? The researcher, Christopher Havens, is also serving a 25-year sentence in the Washington Department of Correction following a murder conviction.
posted by Etrigan at 6:40 AM PST - 18 comments

[The 100 Hour Board] is a BYU online forum of volunteer students who answer any question they are asked within 100 hours. It is also a place where diverse personalities can interact in a forum relatively free of a social judgments, a place where sensitive and personal questions can be addressed anonymously and given doctrinally-centered answers by a group of caring peers, and a place to learn the history of the billboard, how many pages a Word document will hold, and how to get a locker in the RB locker room. It's funny, friendly, and fascinating.
Qualifications and Requirements [to answer] · Current Aliases
Question Archive · Quote Archive · Podcast Archive
Popular Questions
posted by Going To Maine at 10:48 PM PST - 14 comments

A subreddit devoted to birds taking public transit. In case you were missing your usual commute.
posted by dinty_moore at 8:22 PM PST - 14 comments

Starting in January, Mongolia executed a perfect public health response, and they have never let up the pressure since. COVID-19 did not just leave Mongolia alone. Mongolia kicked its ass. COVID Underdogs: Mongolia by Indi Samarajiva
posted by chavenet at 2:11 PM PST - 39 comments

Officials say rats have resorted to open warfare and eating their young as closures reduce edible waste. “Many of these rats in our cities depend on their nightly food, which is the restaurants and hotels and bars and doughnut shops and everything that we consume on the go,” rodentologist Bobby Corrigan told The Washington Post.
posted by stillmoving at 11:16 AM PST - 58 comments

The coronavirus pandemic has inspired a grassroots movement that is connecting people who need help with donors who can offer financial assistance. So far, contributors have passed $13 million through more than 100,000 matches. Shelly Tygielski came up with the idea that she named Pandemic of Love. […] "As the pandemic started, I started to see the fear bubble up on my social media feeds and from friends," Tygielski told CNN. "I wanted to turn from this environment of fear to an opportunity for us to create connection, community and strengthen the bonds of love between us."
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 10:51 AM PST - 10 comments

Eaters Of The Earth - "Phosphate rock allowed farmers to stop using manure fertilizer, kicking us into the modern era of agriculture. But those who live near the mining industry’s epicenter fear its huge towers of radioactive sludge will pour into their backyards." [more inside]
posted by the man of twists and turns at 9:30 AM PST - 11 comments

Steve Buscemi has seen it all. He was hit by a car and a bus as a kid, was once stabbed in a bar fight, volunteered as a firefighter during 9/11, and somewhere along the way became one of the most accomplished film actors of his generation. And then tragedy struck: In 2019, Buscemi lost his wife of over 30 years. In a rare interview, Hollywood's most beloved misfit opens up about anxiety, loss, and the hard work of getting through it all. [SL GQ]
posted by ellieBOA at 8:51 AM PST - 50 comments

Quemoy or Kinmen County (Wikipedia) is two groups of islands governed by the Republic of China and located just off the southeastern coast of mainland China. In the late 1960s, Taiwan made use of this proximity (Google maps) to set up four structures to reach out to mainland China. One of the remaining structures is a 30-foot-tall concrete block, honeycombed with 48 large holes with a speaker inside each (Google streetview panorama). The Beishan Broadcast Station was used to blast anticommunist messages across the Taiwan Strait, from Kinmen into China (Atlas Obscura). Now it is periodically used at a much lower volume (YouTube). [more inside]
posted by filthy light thief at 7:21 AM PST - 3 comments

Minecraft Dungeons [YouTube][Launch Trailer] “Minecraft Dungeons, out May 26 on Xbox One, PS4, Switch, and PC (where I’ve been playing it), takes Minecraft’s characters and blocky aesthetic and maps it onto an isometric dungeon crawler where you mash cooldown abilities while running through mob-infested forests, swamps, and volcanic caves. The story sees you save a village from malevolent forces, but really the goal is to kill lots of stuff, get stronger loot, and then kill even more stuff.” [via: Kotaku] [more inside]
posted by Fizz at 7:12 AM PST - 33 comments

Plus: How OJ Simpson helped kill the show, and much more from creator Greg Weisman
posted by Etrigan at 6:10 AM PST - 6 comments

Former Army sergeant Peter Sessum explains why not to thank vets for their service on Memorial Day, and why he's cool with BBQing and online deal-hunting ("a sound military strategy").
posted by splitpeasoup at 10:05 PM PST - 21 comments

Given these days and these times, I found myself this weekend listening to Henryk Górecki's Symphony No. 3 "Symphony of sorrowful songs". (27m, 10m, 17m, 54m total) The opening movement was rather famous for a while when this 1992 recording was released and a BBC DJ played the full movement even though it was outside of the station's format. (Or so the urban legend goes.). It's a slowly building ocean of grief, a central wail, and then gradual decline. My heart was happy to have it tonight. [more inside]
posted by hippybear at 7:54 PM PST - 13 comments

History’s first draft is almost always wrong — but we still have to try and write it. "This year has been a blur, but I remember one day clearly: Sunday, March 8. It was the last day I ate at a restaurant, the last day I went to a concert (Red Baraat at the Sinclair in Cambridge, Mass.) and the last day I hugged a friend. It was also the first time I thought that I should begin writing about what was going on." Teju Cole opens his COVID-19 diary to all.
posted by Ahmad Khani at 5:27 PM PST - 30 comments

Stacie Ponder of Final Girl, a blog from Portland, ME and Anthony Hudson of Queer Horror, a film series in Portland, OR, together are The Gaylords of Darkness. Most weeks, they discuss a horror movie from the ridiculous to the sublime with a mix of queerness, feminism, enthusiasm, frantic humor, and running jokes. Occasionally they discuss non-horror films. Quite frequently, they discuss Susperia (2018).
posted by GenjiandProust at 1:38 PM PST - 5 comments

Library of Congress app lets you make hip hop with century-old samples (Engadget): "The US Library of Congress has unveiled Citizen DJ, a digital tool that allows you to remix sounds from its massive collection of film, television, video and sound recordings. It was created by "innovator in residence" Brian Foo to recapture the '80s and '90s golden age of hip-hop sampling." You can explore collections using the web interface, use a simple music-creation app to remix beats, and download "sample packs" with thousands of audio clips from a particular collection that can be used in most music production software. Explainer video (Vimeo). See also: Library of Congress Needs a Few Citizen DJs (LOC)
posted by not_the_water at 10:47 AM PST - 16 comments

In backyards around the world, a vicious resource war is being fought between the avians and the rodents. Are you tired of standing idly by? Do you prefer the lilt of birdsong to the screech and chatter of tree-rats? Then perhaps you should look at the latest in birdfeeder anti-squirrel technology: an extensive, squirrel-scale backyard obstacle course created by YouTube science guy Mark Rober (previously). The results may surprise you. They definitely won't.
posted by ZaphodB at 8:32 AM PST - 39 comments

3Blue1Brown known for beautiful visualizations of complex mathematical topics gives a go at livestreaming high-school level math with a 'Lockdown math' series. Brush up on things you probably forgot from math class. [more inside]
posted by zengargoyle at 8:04 AM PST - 13 comments

According to a 2015 profile in Venture Beat, Star Stable Entertainment broke a lot of rules when it launched (in 2011, according to various sources other than Venture Beat). "It created an online horse game, Star Stable, for girls and young women. It charged a subscription fee and built its own game engine. And it stayed online rather than diving into mobile with a million other competitors." [more inside]
posted by Bella Donna at 7:27 AM PST - 23 comments

From homeless refugee to chess prodigy, 9-year-old dreams of becoming youngest grandmaster. Follow up on a Nicholas Kristof story from last year on M-F
posted by growabrain at 6:50 AM PST - 6 comments

Zoom sucks, we started having editorial meetings in Red Dead Redemption [Rock Paper Shotgun] “Mostly we were just having a really crap time,” said Viv when I spoke to them, about their meeting life before Cowboys. “We were having to deal with all those Zoom and Skype meetings and emails and phone calls… and we were just feeling worse and worse and more annoyed all the time.” Minecraft was considered, apparently, but people tended to just wander off and start digging, or dumping gravel on the meeting table, “so picking the most ludicrous game to meet in seemed good.” But then, as it turned out, it wasn’t quite as ridiculous as expected. “The thing is,” Viv explained, “the Cowboys just look right when they’re sitting around the campfire? They look like they’re in a meeting: scratching noses and frowning, and occasionally gesturing.”
posted by Fizz at 6:36 AM PST - 36 comments

I feel like you’re in a safe place, your own bubble of coziness. All forts, according to fort expert David Sobel, share common traits: They are handmade, somewhat secretive and “you can look out, but others can’t see in.” They are safe — physically and emotionally. “It’s your place where you want to be just you, observing but unseen,” he says. One fort-builder comments, “Everything is wrong right now, but it’s a safe space where no one worries about you...if you locked yourself in your room, people would worry, but if you hide in your fort all day, no worries.”
posted by stillmoving at 6:25 AM PST - 24 comments

[Content Warning: death, suicide, self-harm] Last week was a tragic one in the world of professional wrestling, with former WWE wrestler Shad Gaspard giving his own life to save his son from drowning and second-generation joshi star Hana Kimura dying of suicide. Between Gaspard and Kimura's death, Vice on TV aired the last episode of the second season of Dark Side of the Ring, which told the story of the death of Owen Hart live on pay-per-view on May 23rd, 1999. Colette Arrand notes, "there are few forms of art and entertainment that breed tragedy at the same rate as professional wrestling." [more inside]
posted by Etrigan at 6:05 AM PST - 10 comments

Humorous mistranslationfilter, SLT - Twitter user @vladadraws had an appeal to her followers yesterday: "So my mother's friend's husband is stuck in a hotel in Saudi Arabia and this is the order menu they gave him, Do I have any Arabic speaking followers that can help make sense of this?" The Arabic-to-English translations on said menu are....unconventional. [more inside]
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 4:09 AM PST - 38 comments

Before there was a viral crisis whose reality forced itself on our notice, there were reports of declines of life expectancy in America, rising rates of suicide, and other “deaths of despair.” This is surely evidence of another crisis, though it was rarely described as such. The novel coronavirus has the potential for mitigation, treatment, and ultimately prevention. But a decline in hope and purpose is a crisis of civilization requiring reflection and generous care for the good of the whole society and its place in the world. We have been given the grounds and opportunity to do some very basic thinking. Marilynne Robinson, The New York Review
posted by blue shadows at 10:57 PM PST - 5 comments

Giant Military Cats, a Twitter account. Just giant cats with military hardware and/or in military scenes.
posted by filthy light thief at 8:33 PM PST - 12 comments

David took his first sip of warm, flat Pepsi about eight years ago at a Christmas party. As bored 12-years-olds are wont to do, he recalls “constantly fiddling around” with his Pepsi bottle the entire night, to the point that the soda lost all carbonation and turned into syrup-y sugar water. Still, he swigged away nonetheless. “I enjoyed the taste so much more, and the carbonation didn’t upset my stomach or burn my eyes and throat,” he says. The Absolute Masochists Who Love Drinking Flat Soda (Quinn Myers, MEL Magazine)
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 3:31 PM PST - 108 comments

Richard Scarry's classic What Do People Do All Day, further revised to reflect our current societal roles in The New Now. | Sanctioned Revisions to Richard Scarry texts previously on MeFi
posted by not_on_display at 11:10 AM PST - 28 comments

The Museum of Ridiculously Interesting Things is the blog of curator and art historian, Dr. Chelsea Nichols. The collection includes such treasures as sexy weasels in Renaissance art, how to scare children in the 1920s, and hidden mothers in Victorian portraits. There are also occasional guest posts, on topics including Ivan Bilibin’s Illustrations of Russian folklore by Claire Atwater, Robert Liston, a surgeon and a showman by Mike Crump, and a make-your-own-bat-colony activity sheet by Alice Fennessy.
posted by Kattullus at 9:09 AM PST - 14 comments

Novelist Maaza Mengiste speaks to Africa is a Country about photography as a weapon, her novel The Shadow King and Project 3541: a photographic archive of the 1935-1941 Italo-Ethiopian war. [more inside]
posted by spamandkimchi at 8:58 AM PST - 3 comments

Merle Oberon’s Remarkable Life. "In 1935, Merle Oberon became the first biracial actress to be nominated for a Best Actress Oscar, an incredible achievement in then-segregated Hollywood -- except that nobody in Hollywood knew Oberon was biracial. Born in Bombay into abject poverty in 1911, Oberon's fate seemed sealed in her racist colonial society. But a series of events, lies, men, and an obsession with controlling her own image -- even if it meant bleaching her own skin -- changed Oberon's path forever." [more inside]
posted by storybored at 8:00 AM PST - 5 comments

There's a medical association that supports Trump's misinformation.

Among the most ardent proponents of these claims is the American Association of Physicians and Surgeons (AAPS), a fringe group of less than 5,000 doctors. The group was recently cited by Trump’s campaign manager, Brad Parscale, to explain the president’s stunning announcement that he is taking the drug hydroxychloroquine in an attempt to protect himself against Covid-19 despite a lack of evidence of its effectiveness.

[more inside]
posted by Kirth Gerson at 7:14 AM PST - 39 comments

"The last German prisoner of war"
posted by gregoreo at 6:47 AM PST - 10 comments

NPS graphics encouraging best practices for health and safety in national parks.
posted by vespabelle at 11:09 PM PST - 19 comments

"Do you like Fun & Adventure? See this One of a Kind Brick Ranch, Converted into a 2 Story. Enter the Door to a 13th Century Castle Décor Sunken Living Rm, w/ Dramatic, High, Oak Beamed Ceiling, Hardwood Floor, Brick Fireplace, a Ladder to an Elevated Library. Time Travel at Warp Speed to the 25th Century Starship. A Talking Space Alien greets you as you walk toward the Floor to Ceiling, Outer Space Wall Mural." And that's not all! But if you have a bigger budget and are looking for something woodsy, browse this listing, though it's not clear if the forest resident is included with the home.
posted by filthy light thief at 7:51 PM PST - 30 comments

Karen Tongson reflects on the Indigo Girls for NPR's Turning the Tables, a "series dedicated to recentering the popular music canon on voices that have been marginalized."
posted by ferret branca at 7:32 PM PST - 6 comments

Joy Thomas recalls her school shutting down for the 1925 polio epidemic, and how she did remote learning by mail. It was a positive experience for her. (I definitely recommend the video, but the article covers the basics). She also has some good advice for students doing remote learning today.
posted by Salamandrous at 6:53 PM PST - 9 comments

On May 24, 2020, the New York Times' front page will contain only one article, a list of 1000 names of Americans who have died from COVID-19 [tweeted image of front page], distilled from the nearly 100,000 deaths in the United States attributed to the virus this Memorial Day weekend. [more inside]
posted by ZeusHumms at 6:29 PM PST - 66 comments

Maker Faire is having a virtual global event today. Videos all over the place...literally. Schedule here. I am unfortunately late to mention it, but it looks like anything that wasn't a Zoom or Zoom equivalent still has watchable videos up today.
posted by jenfullmoon at 2:17 PM PST - 4 comments

A Feud in Wolf-Kink Erotica Raises a Deep Legal Question (NY Times, possible paywall, possibly NSFW depending on how your work feels about sexy wolves) [more inside]
posted by betweenthebars at 10:23 AM PST - 73 comments

Ruin a journal name by changing one letter. sltwitter
posted by Pyrogenesis at 9:31 AM PST - 54 comments

How To Get Into Final Fantasy XIV In 2019 2020 [Kotaku] “I’ve seen a lot of curiosity from co-workers and friends about how to get started with the game. With hours and hours of content, tons of jobs to choose from, and multiple places to hop in, it can seem daunting, but it’s still well worth the time. Here’s some advice for curious adventurers eager to start their adventures. Final Fantasy XIV first launched in 2010 to a disastrous reception before being revamped into Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn in 2013. It was an immediate improvement, bringing faster combat and a more focused storyline, and the three expansions that followed brought further refinement. The most recent of these, “Shadowbringers,” came out just last week, and there are often fun events that keep things fresh, from crossovers with other games to the sudden arrival of new job classes. [...] Final Fantasy XIV offers spectacle, cool player events, tough boss fights, and more. Soak it all in and embrace the chance to really grow, not just as a Dragoon but as a person.” [more inside]
posted by Fizz at 9:03 AM PST - 42 comments

So I tried to support another Black Owned Business for lunch today. It’s called Ava’s Kitchen, just opened end of April. It’s a very clean establishment, but whewww let me tell you about this owner.
posted by Evilspork at 8:11 AM PST - 15 comments

Kathleen Ryan explores the beauty in decay by making oversize sculptures of mold-covered fruit.
posted by Slithy_Tove at 6:40 AM PST - 8 comments

Five hours of the shipping forecast on BBC Radio 4. Sleep well!
posted by Going To Maine at 10:44 PM PST - 17 comments

The hyper-local social media platform Nextdoor is winning over local law enforcement and other government officials in the U.S., alarming civil rights advocates. [more inside]
posted by aniola at 4:36 PM PST - 80 comments

Obama Aurelius: on undead imperialism, Laurie Charles
posted by the man of twists and turns at 4:33 PM PST - 28 comments

Ferris Jabr critiques bird nests and the personalities that build them in Bird Nesting Styles: A Critical Review, via (appropriately enough) Twitter (Part 1, Part 2) or Threadreader (Part 1, Part 2). Just some lighthearted Friday fun.
posted by Greg_Ace at 4:28 PM PST - 6 comments

Axios reports that according to a recent poll, Republicans are less worried about the coronavirus than Democrats or independents, even as it spreads out from primarily urban areas into suburban and rural Republican-leaning areas. [more inside]
posted by katra at 4:11 PM PST - 418 comments

The game that ate the world: 40 facts on Pac-Man's 40th birthday [Grauniad] [more inside]
posted by chavenet at 2:40 PM PST - 23 comments

Legendary world music superstar and one of the most influential died at 70. Seriously how could anyone vote this as the worst, not the best, song of the 80's? However, his 70's career as the vocalist of Super Rail Band made his name. 2020 is bad for world music so far.
posted by avi111 at 2:00 PM PST - 7 comments

People were dreaming of what the year 2000 might hold for well over a century, including illustrator and futurist Albert Robida (French fan site; works digitized on Internet Archive), whose illustrations and ideas seemed to foretell the future (Art Kaleidoscope / vsemart.com). Many focused on his visions of future wars (previously), but he also had a view of leaving the opera by air in 2000, as displayed and described by Public Domain Review, who also have a collection of other 19th century French visions of the year 2000. But now, looking back 20 years might be a bit of a future-past shock. 2000, the Year Formerly Known as the Future (Medium.com).
posted by filthy light thief at 1:12 PM PST - 4 comments

Scary northeast Minneapolis ice cream truck has heavy metal, no ice cream. The truck displays images of metal band logos on ice cream sticks but does not actually sell ice cream. The owner has been known to participate in art car parades.
posted by larrybob at 9:53 AM PST - 27 comments

Paige Alms is one of the best big-wave surfers on the planet (Surfline). Watch her win the 2019 Jaws Big Wave Championships, get an enormous barrel at Pe'ahi, and a few of her other massive waves -- plus this brutal wipeout -- from last year (Youtube). A new documentary titled “Paige” (trailer, Amazon) chronicles her remarkable career. If you don't want to pay for the latest film, check out the full-length documentary "The Wave I Ride: Paige Alms' Story" (Red Bull).
posted by not_the_water at 9:46 AM PST - 1 comment

The idea of “bafflement” about science that shows up in headlines does tell me that someone truly IS baffled. But, it’s not the scientist in this equation. It’s the writer.
posted by Clowder of bats at 8:53 AM PST - 33 comments

Remember Yesterday - the movie about how the Beatles never existed save one guy who remembered? Interviewed a year after it's release Jack Barth relates how his first feature film script, which he sold after working in comedy biz for 40 years, turned into a serious of disappointments. From getting cut from writing credits, to paying his own way to the premier, Barth ultimately gets erased from the whole project. The irony - the main difference appears to be that Barth's screenplay was a "meditation on professional disappointment", while the movie turned out to be a romcom about a fella who had to decide between global fame and his a childhood crush.
posted by zenon at 8:05 AM PST - 40 comments

Earlier this month singer/songwriter/producer Butch Walker released the rock opera (or concept album if you prefer) that he wrote in the wake of Trump's election and the horrifying events in Charlottesville VA back in 2017. He originally shelved it because he didn't think he could tour or promote around it given that it's a concept album and some songs don't make much sense individually, and in fact can be downright offensive if taken out of context. But since we are stuck at home with time to invest in listening to the whole story... [more inside]
posted by COD at 8:04 AM PST - 8 comments

To drum up delivery businesses, big restaurant chains are rebranding themselves in apps like Grubhub. That could mean more competition for local joints.
posted by Etrigan at 8:02 AM PST - 34 comments

The Unexpected Solace in Learning to Play the Piano During Quarantine (illustrated) "Playing the piano is the opposite. I know I will never produce anything at the level of a talented 8-year-old on Youtube. But when I stumble into a moment of unexpected beauty, I have no choice but to enjoy it...because it disappears the moment it is created."
posted by storybored at 7:42 AM PST - 7 comments

Herd-Like Movement Of Fuzzy Green 'Glacier Mice' Baffles Scientists "'They really do look like little mammals, little mice or chipmunks or rats or something running around on the glacier, although they run in obviously very slow motion,' says wildlife biologist Sophie Gilbert."
posted by moonmilk at 7:24 AM PST - 18 comments

With a cute twitter video, Carly Rae Jepsen announced and released a new album: Dedicated Side B
posted by everybody had matching towels at 7:21 AM PST - 7 comments

Maneater [Game Trailer] [13 Minutes of Gameplay] “Maneater is an open-world-action-game with some RPG elements, starring an unnamed shark on a revenge mission. At the start of the game, you play as a big and powerful shark who is captured, then brutally killed and gutted by a shark hunter named Scaly Pete. During the gutting, he literally rips out a baby shark, but that pup bites Pete’s arm off and escapes. For the rest of the game, players take on the role of that baby shark and level up, growing bigger and stronger in the process. The end goal is to kill Scaly Pete and get revenge for what he did to your mother.” [via: Kotaku] [more inside]
posted by Fizz at 6:32 AM PST - 20 comments

The Case for Letting the Restaurant Industry Die
posted by BekahVee at 6:30 AM PST - 58 comments

How the Pandemic Splintered the Appalachian Trail. (Single link New York Times - possible paywall.)
posted by loquacious at 12:32 AM PST - 7 comments

While bar trivia, quiz apps, and other online sources garner fame and millions of fans, LearnedLeague largely flies under the radar. But to its players, it’s more than just a game.
posted by Chrysostom at 9:45 PM PST - 58 comments

Time to lick some doorknobs. Charlie Booker's offers a fresh Newswipe, antiviral edition. Guest appearances by Philomena Cunk and Barry Shitpeas. (SLYouTube) [more inside]
posted by doctornemo at 6:15 PM PST - 21 comments

Frances Goldin, longtime East Village/Lower East Side housing activist who ultimately out-persevered even the Speaker of the New York State Assembly, died this weekend at age 95. "[W]hile she was most visible as a protester, provocateur and spokeswoman for various lost causes, her stubbornness, forbearance and ultimately her backstage bargaining produced substantive victories." [more inside]
posted by praemunire at 4:58 PM PST - 9 comments

Peter Fitzek is part of a movement that denies Germany’s existence. He founded his own kingdom and bank—then the government started asking where the money went.
posted by 922257033c4a0f3cecdbd819a46d626999d1af4a at 4:22 PM PST - 28 comments

Dr. Leonora Neville was a guest on the podcst The History Of Byzantium to talk about Anna Komnene, the daughter of Emperor Alexios I Komnenos and a historian and author herself: Anna Komnene with Leonora Neville

Professor Leonora Neville about Anna's life and writing and how she overcame the obstacles facing a woman trying to write history.

[more inside]
posted by the man of twists and turns at 3:34 PM PST - 3 comments

After 60 years of stagnation, it’s possible a nuclear-powered rocket will be heading to space within a decade. This exciting achievement will usher in a new era of space exploration. People will go to Mars and science experiments will make new discoveries all across our solar system and beyond.
posted by sammyo at 1:16 PM PST - 29 comments

As fans of Armin Van Buuren, Paul Van Dyk, Tiesto, Ferry Corsten and others can tell you, Trance has been around a long time, but it’s been a while since it’s been at the forefront of the dance music consciousness. But how long has it been around for and how did it get here? We here at EDMTunes would like to take you on a brief trip, from Trance’s humble beginnings, through its boom around the millennium, and all the way up to [2014]. The Rich and Long History of Trance is EDM Tunes' relatively succinct summary of the global genre. If you want to dig in more, Give Trance a Chance has a more detailed history, going back to 1988, as well as mixes on Soundcloud, including focuses on specific years, like 1999, "arguably one of the greatest years in dance music history." [more inside]
posted by filthy light thief at 12:05 PM PST - 16 comments

The men of Middle-earth as bad ex boyfriends who ruined your life. Alex Arrelia catalogues the men of Middle-earth (who aren't antidepressants).
posted by gladly at 10:46 AM PST - 61 comments

Benedict Spinoza has been triggering intense response for centuries. Now his moment to shine has come. [more inside]
posted by No Robots at 10:04 AM PST - 21 comments

TikTokers have recently started saying that you should wash your strawberries in salt water because bugs live inside them. And, as someone who has always washed my strawberries with water only, I thought this was total BS...UNTIL I TRIED IT (Krista Torres, BuzzFeed)
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 8:27 AM PST - 138 comments

“What am I supposed to do, strap a GoPro to my head and have people call in?”
posted by Etrigan at 7:27 AM PST - 14 comments

Enter Shikari's "live" online-collab performance of satellites* * from their new album Nothing is True & Everything is Possible [YouTube playlist]. [more inside]
posted by glonous keming at 7:23 AM PST - 4 comments

David Lynch's 2015 animated short film "Fire (Pozar)" available online. Also on David Lynch Theater: weather reports. [more inside]
posted by sapagan at 2:04 AM PST - 11 comments

Capt. Tom Moore Sir Capt.Tom Moore, a 99-year-old veteran set himself a goal to raise money for Britain’s widely cherished but chronically underfunded National Health Service during the deadly coronavirus outbreak. He set up a fundraising page and decided to walk the 82-foot length of his garden back and forth 100 times, using his walker for support. [more inside]
posted by bendy at 12:31 AM PST - 54 comments

Nine Inch Nails - Live: Cold and Black and Infinite 2018 [1h30m] is a fan-made multi-cam document of NIN's 2018 tour. As Trent himself says about the project, "P.S. HOW IN THE FUCK DID YOU PULL THIS OFF??" [more inside]
posted by hippybear at 7:47 PM PST - 18 comments

Does making order calm you down? Do you enjoy seeing how other people organize their stuff? Do you have a soft spot for Lego Classic Space parts, like the 1x2 with the arrow swooshing across a planet? Then Adam Savage's One Day Builds: LEGO Sorting and Storage System might be just the thing for you (SLYT, plus Savage's sorting superstar mom).
posted by MonkeyToes at 4:23 PM PST - 38 comments

Some inspiration from those who came before you. You may have heard of Jack Lalanne, Tamilee Webb/Buns of Steel, or Jane Fonda but you may not have encountered The Chippendales workout or Debbie Drake. Workouts combined with, well, something else. (via Jezebel)
posted by bluesky43 at 3:40 PM PST - 14 comments

A shapeshifting fungus lives in the dust. It’s infecting across the American West, Lauren J. Young
Coccidioides is a fungus endemic to the western USA that causes (San Joaquin) Valley Fever, or coccidioidomycosis. It thrives in hot, dry environments and is carried along in dust. [more inside]
posted by the man of twists and turns at 2:38 PM PST - 15 comments

An eye-opening article in the Washington Post tracks a bold experiment unfolding in Minnesota, where scientists are giving forests a head-start to help them outrun climate change. [more inside]
posted by Gray Duck at 2:37 PM PST - 10 comments

A celebration of Britain’s diversity and cultural magnificence #FuckBoris #FuckBrexit #FuckFascism.”
Christopher Spencer aka Cold War Steve is a visual satirist.
A Former Probation Officer Whose Viral Political Collages have Become an International Symbol of the nonsense of Brexit to Covid-19 and Britains inept politicians.
Already compared with the satire of William Hogarth channels visions from Breugel, and Bosch and always with a few favourite characters and started as a kind of therapy, following a bit of a breakdown and issues with alcohol. (previously).
posted by adamvasco at 2:30 PM PST - 7 comments

Meet 90-year-old Hamako Mori, the world's oldest video game YouTuber [CNN] “A Japanese woman who built a cult following online with her video game skills has been recognized as the world's oldest YouTube gamer — at the age of 90. Hamako Mori, known as "Gamer Grandma" to her 250,000 YouTube subscribers, started gaming 39 years ago. Her YouTube channel launched in 2015, and she posts up to four videos a month. In her clips, she does everything from unboxing new consoles to broadcasting her gaming prowess. And now Mori, who counts the "Grand Theft Auto" series among her favorites, is officially the world's oldest gaming YouTuber, according to Guinness World Records. [...] Mori has also collected an array of consoles over the decades. The first one she owned was Cassette Vision, which was released in Japan on July 30, 1981. "It looked like so much fun, and I thought it's not fair if only children played it," Mori said.”
posted by Fizz at 1:44 PM PST - 4 comments

Text for Proofing Fonts, by Jonathan Hoefler (previously). The allure and impracticality of pangrams, and proposed improved text for proofing fonts, based on the distribution of letters in English and various design considerations: a farewell to the Quick Brown Fox. [more inside]
posted by miles per flower at 1:21 PM PST - 10 comments

A funny Star Trek: The Next Generation fanvid by avocet, celebrating Deanna Troi. [via mefi projects]
posted by brainwane at 1:09 PM PST - 4 comments

Spain makes face masks obligatory in public for everyone over the age of 5. Colombia joins Argentina in banning all international flights. Gilead, maker of remdesivir, has a safer, more effective and easier to manufacture version of the drug, patented in 2009, but is not developing it. [A continuation of last month's thread of non-Trump links to international pandemic news and analysis.]
posted by mediareport at 11:58 AM PST - 303 comments

"The three movements of this deep and soulful piece have been virtually recorded by more than 500 enthusiastic participants in isolation from their homes and farms." via Alex Ross (New Yorker).
posted by ferret branca at 11:02 AM PST - 16 comments

Gritty's Tiktok channel has been a beacon of sanity in these trying times. Did you know he squeaks when he performs beer pong trick shots? My faith in human(gr)itty is renewed.
posted by not_on_display at 10:49 AM PST - 8 comments

Inside the Flour Company Supplying America’s Sudden Baking Obsession | How King Arthur Flour found itself in the unlikely crosshairs of a pandemic
posted by Chrysostom at 9:47 AM PST - 72 comments

When Bad Things Happen in Slow Motion (Nautilus): "Retired fire chief Richard Gasaway refers to this apparent slowing down of time in tense situations as tachypsychia, which roughly translates as “fast mind.” “This phenomenon afflicts many first responders,” Gasaway claims, based on hundreds of interviews he has conducted for his research, blog, and speaking engagements on “situational awareness.” Bolstered also by what he judges to be personal experiences of tachypsychia, Gasaway has come to consider it as a sometime component of the overall stress response. For first responders, the phenomenon is dangerous, he says, because it can warp situational awareness and decision-making processes. But is tachypsychia real, or an illusion?"
posted by not_the_water at 9:47 AM PST - 16 comments

(SLYT) Crowds are gone and clubs are closed - so, like most other comics, NYC comedian Emily Walsh is out of work. Unlike most other comics, Emily made an adorable stop-motion animation of herself performing a set at a club she made out of Legos.
posted by chinese_fashion at 9:14 AM PST - 5 comments

What’s happening is not one crisis, but many interconnected ones. As we shall see, it will be harder to come to terms with such a crisis. It will be harder to bring it to heel. And it will be harder to grapple with the historical legacies that have shaped today’s patchwork. America’s Patchwork Pandemic Is Fraying Even Further by Ed Yong in The Atlantic
posted by chavenet at 8:15 AM PST - 13 comments

It took Lisa Piccirillo less than a week to answer a long-standing question about a strange knot discovered over half a century ago by the legendary John Conway. [more inside]
posted by Etrigan at 7:16 AM PST - 36 comments

In the 90s, anti-choice activists presented what they thought was a coup in their favor - that Norma McCorvey, the titular "Jane Roe" of Roe v. Wade, had come over to the anti-choice side and "repented" her role in the legalization of abortion in the US. But in a new documentary on the fight over abortion, video of McCorvey on her deathbed has her making a stunning revelation - her conversion was false, paid for by anti-choice groups like Operation Rescue. (SLLA Times)
posted by NoxAeternum at 6:37 AM PST - 34 comments

Last August six white-tailed eaglets were transplanted from Scotland to the Isle of Wight, in a bid to reintroduce the species to England. They were carrying GPS trackers, so if you have any curiosity about what an eagle might get up to during a typical day, or how far it might roam, you can satisfy it here. [more inside]
posted by mokey at 4:08 AM PST - 2 comments

Wandering around Britain, one might notice the grand theatres of the turn of the 19th/20th centuries and think they had a lot in common - a very particular, ornate style is immediately noticeable. This is because they were largely designed by the same hand: Frank Matcham, who died a hundred years ago last Sunday. [more inside]
posted by Grangousier at 12:48 AM PST - 7 comments

Google Doodle honoring the birthday of Israel Kamakawiwoʻole, who would be celebrating his sixty-first birthday today. In addition to his ukelele music, Kamakawiwoʻole was known for his activism for Hawai'an independence.
posted by praemunire at 11:47 PM PST - 13 comments

"Welcome to McBang ASMR eating show. This is an ASMR MUKBANG video channel. If you enjoy eating sounds, then you are in the right place." Let me tell you this, Metafilter: that is not the right place for me. But, more interestingly, NPR's Short Wave science podcast investigates the awfulness of autonomous sensory meridian response.
posted by Evilspork at 8:29 PM PST - 29 comments

A tremendous collection of Grateful Dead tapes at the Internet Archive. It might go without saying that there are five more recordings added since the headline. [more inside]
posted by Nancy Lebovitz at 8:11 PM PST - 22 comments

The story of Maxis Business Simulations and SimRefinery
posted by SansPoint at 2:09 PM PST - 19 comments

Esther Kim In Conversation with Friend Translator Immanuel Kim [more inside]
posted by Not A Thing at 1:43 PM PST - 4 comments

A sublime 25 minutes of watching someone solve a Sudoku puzzle with some extra restrictions - starting with a grid containing just two numbers.
posted by Stark at 1:34 PM PST - 36 comments

PLEASE STOP TELLING ME MRS. POTTS SHOULD BE IN THIS. I DIDN’T FORGET ABOUT HER. I’M NOT AN IDIOT. THAT’S THE WHOLE REASON I CHOSE TO COMPARE ANGELA LANSBURY TO TEAPOTS. [twitter thread] SHE’S DELIBERATELY NOT INCLUDED AS IT WOULD JUST BE COMPARING ANGELA LANSBURY TO HERSELF. PLEASE. JUST. STOP. [more inside]
posted by hippybear at 1:06 PM PST - 20 comments

A Eurasian eagle-owl has nested in the planter in front of Jos Baart's window and hatched three chicks. Jos Baart seems to be enjoying his new companions immensely.
posted by ChuraChura at 12:42 PM PST - 27 comments

A soprano warms up. The less I say, the better. SLYT.
posted by wittgenstein at 12:30 PM PST - 9 comments

On May 21, 1998, the Los Angeles reported on the Galaxy IV satellite that suffered an on-orbit failure three days prior, which resulted in a massive telecommunications disruption on Earth. Around 45 million pagers went out of service that day, among other communication outages (L.A. times mentions radio listeners and gasoline buyers). The failure was attributed to tin whiskers (The Brown Daily Herald), a topic on which NASA has extensive documentation. [Previously: Lead-Free Solder - friend or foe?]
posted by filthy light thief at 12:27 PM PST - 22 comments

BioShock Infinite Ambience.
posted by Foci for Analysis at 11:01 AM PST - 15 comments

Paper Mario: The Origami King [Announcement Trailer] [Gameplay] “Nintendo announced a new Paper Mario game coming to Switch July 17 called Paper Mario: The Origami King. It’ll be the sixth game in the series and the first on the new console. The story looks like it’ll revolve around trying to liberate Princess Peach’s castle from a new paper-based menace called King Olly, who, according to Nintendo’s press release, wants to “fold the entire world.” Exploration will be based on a new ability called “1000-Fold Arms” in which Mario extends his appendages in weird ways to solve puzzles and navigate environments. It sounds like you’ll be able to team up with a few allies at various points as well, including Bowser.” [via: Kotaku]
posted by Fizz at 9:50 AM PST - 18 comments

Can you guess if the word is an antidepressant drug or a Tolkien character?
posted by ShooBoo at 9:39 AM PST - 75 comments

The blue circle's animation is quite complex. It consists of multiple stages. (1) The circle grows in size. (2) It continues to grow in size at a faster rate, as it shoots off to the right. (3) It pauses. (4) It moves to the middle. (5) It pauses again. (6) It shrinks to nothing.
posted by cgc373 at 9:19 AM PST - 17 comments

Are you a macOS user that also works in Windows and misses the Spotlight way of launching apps? Never fear because Microsoft has released PowerToys 0.18 which includes Spotlight PowerToys Run.
posted by Your Childhood Pet Rock at 9:06 AM PST - 25 comments

Canada’s largest city was politely abiding by a strict coronavirus lockdown. But when a family of foxes set up a den in a prime Toronto location, all bets were off: NY Times | non-Times link
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 8:58 AM PST - 9 comments

"Prince and the Revolution: Live" is streaming on YouTube (SLYT) as a benefit for the WHO's COVID-19 Solidarity Response Fund. For more, see Rolling Stone. (The article says that it will be available for three days from the 15th, but it is still available, so don't delay.) [more inside]
posted by Grinder at 6:48 AM PST - 12 comments

ⓄⓇⒷ ⒻⒶⓇⓂ [more inside]
posted by Ten Cold Hot Dogs at 4:53 AM PST - 16 comments

Mathowie (of Metafilter fame, etc.) shares his experiences as an early investor in Giphy, an online short video/ meme maker, which was acquired by Facebook for $400M earlier this week.
posted by zeikka at 2:32 AM PST - 55 comments

8 Types of Grilled Cheese from the Bon Appetit Test Kitchen Crew (slyt)
posted by curious nu at 8:18 PM PST - 96 comments

Ted Woodford is a luthier and guitar repairer in Hamilton, Ontario, who has a YouTube channel. Slow, gentle tv at its very finest. Exactly what I needed to stumble over. [more inside]
posted by Grangousier at 1:37 PM PST - 11 comments

No, that that Octomom. This is a Radiolab episode that runs about 35 minutes about exactly what a deep sea octopus mother does to brood her eggs. It's an astonishing story that is moving and surprising. There's also a transcript.
posted by hippybear at 12:55 PM PST - 9 comments

Drama On The Internets this weekend as Reddit's admins ousted the mods and top users of a popular satirical subreddit, /r/PresidentialRaceMemes. The wrinkle this time? Most of those banned are the same person. As outlined in this exhaustive report from /r/Digital_Manipulation [mirror], redditor /u/AlarmedScholar (best known for his "It Is Time" memes saluting the end of each Democratic campaign) was at the center of a web of literally dozens of alternate accounts, aggressively spamming his own subreddit networks into popularity and using questionable moderation tactics to steer PRM from cheeky fun to unceasing vitriol against presumptive nominee Joe Biden (alongside fervent support for Bernie Sanders Howie Hawkins Jesse Ventura Howie Hawkins again). Shades of Unidan, shades of Digg Patriots, shades of various the_donald purges... with 92 of the top 500 subreddits controlled by just four users, is Reddit the next battleground in the social media manipulation wars? [more inside]
posted by Rhaomi at 12:40 PM PST - 55 comments

If you’ve ever done an escape room, you know that you can pay to be stuck in a room - except that you get to choose your own form of peril and there’s generally less time spent baking and watching shows. In case we run out of ways to be trapped in a room, Jesse Morris, an actual escape room designer, sent me the names of about 1100 existing escape rooms so I could train a neural net to generate more. Escape rooms, from AI Weirdness (previous AI weirdness).
posted by filthy light thief at 12:15 PM PST - 9 comments

Ip Man 4: How to Write Racism A thoughtful video essay from Accented Cinema (prev)
posted by hopeless romantique at 11:27 AM PST - 10 comments

"nobody:

me: in the history of disney animated movies there have been exactly 18 types of songs, and i'm going to tell you about each of them" (SLTwitterThread) [more inside]
posted by brentajones at 11:13 AM PST - 30 comments

Beirut's Dalloul Art Foundation, featuring contemporary and modern art from across the Arab world, has now placed much of its collection of over 4,000 works online. Fantastic, abstract, conceptual, timely and political, the works are sortable by country, medium and artist (scroll down to see more images on most pages). Detailed bios are being added, many with neat video. Basel Dalloul, whose father Ramzi began the collection 50 years ago, says he's being careful to include "an equal balance of male and female artists." [more inside]
posted by mediareport at 9:52 AM PST - 3 comments

Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1 and 2 remastered [YouTube][Announcement Trailer] “The first two Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater games are coming to modern platforms with a remaster called Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1 and 2, publisher Activision announced Tuesday. Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1 and 2 will be released on PlayStation 4, Windows PC, and Xbox One on Sept. 4. Vicarious Visions, which remastered the first three Crash Bandicoot games for 2017’s Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy, is developing the new Tony Hawk collection. The remastered collection will include the original levels, pro skaters, and tricks from Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater and Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 2, as well as tricks from later games, like the revert, lip tricks, and wall plant.” [via: Polygon] [more inside]
posted by Fizz at 9:34 AM PST - 20 comments

"So it might seem that my friend was skirting some dangerous ground in suggesting that we need new metaphors. “The healthiest way of being ill,” Sontag advised, “is one most purified of, most resistant to, metaphoric thinking.” But this underestimates the role metaphor plays in helping us make sense of a world that has fundamentally shifted around us. The term’s origin is in the Greek expression to be carried across. Metaphors make meaning by substituting one term for another. Since the pandemic arrived we have all found ourselves carried across into a new reality, the world we knew replaced by one that resembles it but is also radically changed." With Apologies to Susan Sontag, We’re Going to Need Metaphor to Get Through This Global Illness (LitHub)
posted by not_the_water at 8:57 AM PST - 14 comments

Whistleblower: Wall Street Has Engaged in Widespread Manipulation of Mortgage Funds (Heather Vogell, ProPublica, 15 May 2020) [more inside]
posted by Not A Thing at 8:13 AM PST - 44 comments

Twenty years ago, Britney Spears did it again with her sophomore album, the final classic of the teen-pop era and a goodbye to the gilded years of the record industry. This is the story of how it was created—and its planetary impact.
posted by Etrigan at 6:24 AM PST - 28 comments

“If someone could pay Doordash $16 a pizza, and Doordash would pay his restaurant $24 a pizza, then he should clearly just order pizzas himself via Doordash, all day long.” A restaurateur and his friend discover that the Doordash delivery app is willing to lose venture capitalists’ money if they can expand their middleman business. Doordash previously and previously.
posted by Monochrome at 8:29 PM PST - 120 comments

Listen to the soothing tones of Ogmios as he demonstrates how a true master navigates the streets of London, with the Ogmios School of Zen Motoring [SLYT]. With bonus Purim content!
posted by i_am_joe's_spleen at 7:15 PM PST - 21 comments

Some of us are being told that we shouldn’t concern ourselves with the pandemic. We’re privileged enough to not care, while others have to shoulder the burden of worrying all the time. This is ableist.
posted by katra at 7:06 PM PST - 35 comments

Kana Chan TV is a Japanese youtuber/vlogger like many others, she records herself preparing and eating food or playing video games like American Truck Simulator (badly).
oh yeah, as of about a week ago, she's also the current WWE RAW Women's Champion
posted by juv3nal at 6:23 PM PST - 4 comments

Inspired by Daniel de Bruin's "universe's biggest gear reduction," the Brick Experiment Channel constructed a googol:1 gear reduction with LEGO.

Bonus: what happens if you turn de Bruin's gear assembly from the other end—Will It Hit Lightspeed?
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 4:49 PM PST - 22 comments

Toddler sings the blues (SLTwitterVideo) Does what it says on the tin
posted by Gorgik at 3:55 PM PST - 17 comments

Roger Waters raises the game on lock down Zoom jam sessions. "...reminds me just how irreplaceable the joy of being in a band is."
posted by rongorongo at 3:02 PM PST - 19 comments

The Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam has posted an extraordinary image of Rembrandt's The Night Watch (1642) on its website. ".....Click again and you're propelled towards the outstretched hand of Captain Frans Banninck Cocq. Another click, and you're face-to-face with the leader of this group of not-so-merry-men. Once more, and you can see the glint in his eye and the texture of his ginger beard. At no point does the image start to pixilate or distort, it's pin-sharp throughout. And it remains so as you continue to click, getting further and further into the painting until the Captain's paint-cracked eyeball is the size of a fist, and you realise that tiny glint you first saw isn't the result of one dab of Rembrandt's brush, but four separate applications, each loaded with a slightly different shade of paint."
posted by storybored at 2:41 PM PST - 18 comments

"In all this struggling to imagine, I encounter a certain irony: The more I know about birds, the more inaccessible their perceptual world seems to me." Jenny Odell reviews two books on bird behavior. [Previously: How to Do Nothing.]
posted by kaibutsu at 2:09 PM PST - 18 comments

Why does this commercial have a better plot than half of the shows y’all be watching? asks Dripjutsu on twitter. [more inside]
posted by MartinWisse at 12:44 PM PST - 33 comments

There had been movies about computer hacking before 1995, most famously in John Badham’s Cold War classic WarGames (YT trailer) (1983), where Matthew Broderick almost triggered World War III after hacking a supercomputer to “play a game” of intercontinental nuclear armageddon, but Iain Softley’s Hackers (YT trailer) is more interesting for being released at the brink of the Internet Age. It seems crazy now, but this movie was released barely a month after Windows 95 debuted (YT clip). 1995 doesn’t seem that long ago, but [25] years has been an ice age in technological terms. Surf on in for more links, critiques, music and actual hackers. [more inside]
posted by filthy light thief at 12:11 PM PST - 29 comments

The U.S. Space Force has unveiled its service flag, based upon the logo approved in January; the design remains oddly familiar. [more inside]
posted by Iris Gambol at 11:07 AM PST - 39 comments

Yoko Kanno's band Seatbelts reunite for a virtual session to play Tank! [SLYT], the beloved theme from the anime (and soon to be live action series) Cowboy Bebop.
posted by dephlogisticated at 10:52 AM PST - 15 comments

Researchers from the ETH Zurich university have discovered a sweet gimmick: Iridescent Chocolate. [more inside]
posted by Eleven at 10:21 AM PST - 8 comments

Welcome to Jstris, a simple online multiplayer block game. Jstris is known for its fast gameplay and is attracting talented players from all around the world. This guide will introduce you to the basic features of the game.
posted by aniola at 9:35 AM PST - 9 comments

The Story Of Donkey Kong In Manga Form! [YouTube][26:59] A brilliant retelling of the 1981 and 1994 Donkey Kong story.
posted by Fizz at 9:10 AM PST - 2 comments

Singer-songwriter Raquel Castro wow-ed the judges on Songland with her original song Wrong Places. Judges Ester Dean, Ryan Tedder and Shane McAnally gave Raquel some suggestions, including words to switch up the refrain "looking for love." The Journey to the Music Video includes the session (time stamped link) when Raquel and Ryan fine-tune the song further and add in other instruments, Raquel's performance (time stamped link) with the full band in front of Songland guest judge and multi-instrumentalist H.E.R. who (spoiler) chooses Raquel's song to record. H.E.R. recorded a studio version for the lyric video but posted an (even better) acoustic quarantine-at-home version.
posted by spamandkimchi at 9:04 AM PST - 2 comments

An oral history of SisQó's “Thong Song” (As told by SisQó, and no one else.)

Then I was gonna come up with a second verse, but the first verse was so good I was like, "Yo what if I just sang the same verse but made it sound like it was a different verse?" That's lowkey genius. It's a sing-a-long. It's like complex simplicity.

posted by Going To Maine at 8:49 AM PST - 12 comments

AWARE - Archives of Women Artists, Research and Exhibitions.
Paris based; the goal is the creation, indexation and distribution of information on women artists of the 20th century.
Together with Research, Reviews, Interviews and reports together with extensive links for further consultation.
posted by adamvasco at 8:04 AM PST - 1 comment

Article in German about the negotiations Friday, the third round of Brexit negotiations ended, and nobody outside the UK seems to have noticed (links under the break in English) [more inside]
posted by mumimor at 3:48 AM PST - 36 comments

Actor Fred Willard has died of natural causes at the age of 86. His lengthy career included an extensive mockumentary run through roles such as the base colonel in This Is Spinal Tap, Buck Laughlin in Best in Show, Mike LaFontaine in A Mighty Wind, Chuck Porter in For Your Consideration, Ron Albertson in Waiting for Guffman. But he also occupied a whole host of other film and TV roles over the years. Willard on "Real People" from his three-and-a-half hour Television Academy Foundation archive interview.
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 3:32 PM PST - 85 comments

Cimafunk has no wikipedia entry yet! (But not for long).
They played NPR's Tiny Desk concert last week.
Their YouTube channel has only 21 tracks at the moment.
posted by growabrain at 1:55 PM PST - 6 comments

It has become common knowledge that 1959 (previously) was an outstanding year for jazz: but it was no freakish outlier, as a quick perusal of the music produced in any of the neighbouring twelvemonths will show. For no better reason than it’s 60 years since 1960, why not sit back, relax, & take time to enjoy some slices of the jazz released in that year, starting with five ‘essential’ albums picked by Matt Micucci for Jazziz Magazine: Giant Steps by John Coltrane (the title track); Blues & Roots by Charles Mingus (“E's Flat Ah's Flat Too”); Sketches of Spain by Miles Davis (“Concierto de Aranjuez (Adagio)”); The Incredible Jazz Guitar of Wes Montgomery (“West Coast Blues”) and Soul Station by Hank Mobley (“This I Dig Of You”). [more inside]
posted by misteraitch at 1:28 PM PST - 10 comments

Why do dogs sneeze? There are many reasons, but the important thing is that it's funny as hell. Another example. The aquatic variant. Many more.
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 12:42 PM PST - 9 comments

This package provides an essential feature to LaTeX that has been missing for too long. It adds a coffee stain to your documents. A lot of time can be saved by printing stains directly on the page rather than adding it manually. LaTeX Coffee Stains is over a decade old, but perhaps of increased use as more people learn to work from home. Probably easier than making your own, but if you'd like variety, here are some free stock images (and some that aren't free).
posted by filthy light thief at 11:30 AM PST - 13 comments

NPR bought the rights for $1, and created an expanded story using original music, original sound effects, original actors, and truly brought the Star Wars universe into everyone's headphones in a glorious manner. Star Wars: The Original Radio Drama (podcast link, 13 half-hour episodes). [more inside]
posted by hippybear at 11:10 AM PST - 32 comments

Forty years ago, DEVO released their third album, Freedom of Choice. The album would be their commercial breakthrough, thanks to the hit single "Whip It" and its accompanying music video. The album peaked at 22 on the Billboard charts, with "Whip It" reaching 14 on the Hot 100. [more inside]
posted by SansPoint at 10:54 AM PST - 23 comments

Armour? Mobility? Firepower? No, the most important thing in a tank is how easy it is to make tea, as the good people at The Tank Museum's Youtube channel explain.
posted by MartinWisse at 10:30 AM PST - 6 comments

Heinrich Heidersberger was a German photographer noted for his work on architectural subjects.
In 1949 Stern magazine published Kleid aus licht involving projected light and shadows and naked women.
In the mid 1950's he was experimenting with luminography building a series of room-sized kinetic machines to trace complex spaces, surfaces, and patterns onto photographic plates with a single concentrated ray of light.
These went on to be called "Rhythmogramm".
Some more of his work.
posted by adamvasco at 7:31 AM PST - 7 comments

Cast members (including Kristin Chenoweth, Martin Short, Ricki Lake, Harvey Fierstein, Sean Hayes, Andrea Martin, Matthew Morrison, Michael Ball, Nikki Blonsky, Billy Eichner, Andrew Rannells, Alex Newell, Jenifer Lewis, Derek Hough, Marissa Jaret Winokur, Laura Bell Bundy, Kerry Butler, and Linda Hart) from various stage and screen versions of the musical adaptation of the John Waters movie-that-became-a-musical-that-became-a-movie-and-was-also performed-live-on-TV Hairspray were edited together from their homes to act, sing, and dance the show's finale number "You Can't Stop the Beat" as a fundraising celebration to support the Actors Fund, and frankly, the beat cannot be stopped, and the video is an editing triumph.
posted by MCMikeNamara at 2:41 AM PST - 31 comments

Lost Together. CBC Music's Canadian national sing along, featuring Blue Rodeo, is a big wistful hug . If you need a bit of quarantine solidarity, this is for you, world. xo.
posted by chapps at 12:14 AM PST - 8 comments

Way back in 2019, in honor of World Oceans Day, XPrize supported 18 writers and 18 artists from all 7 continents (well, if you count writing a story while on an Antarctic expedition as being "from" there -- I suppose it's the closest most of us will ever get) to create Current Futures: A Sci-Fi Ocean Anthology. The stories wander -- there's a surface-world of artificial storm-resistant islands; communicative cetaceans of the abyss; growing your island home back from the ravages of storm surge and rising seas; mental hitchhiking with pinnipeds; self-replicating cleanup technology that 3D prints copies of itself from the oil it harvests; and perfect deep-sea view to entertain your dead holographic relatives. Each one's its own truly weird dive to a new and strange sea-changed submersible realm.
posted by cnidaria at 12:07 AM PST - 1 comment

CBS All Access today announced a series order for Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, based on the years Captain Christopher Pike manned the helm of the U.S.S. Enterprise. The series is a spinoff from Star Trek: Discovery, which in its second season featured three characters dating back to the original unaired* pilot of Star Trek -- Captain Christopher Pike (James T Kirk's predecessor as captain), Number One (his executive officer), and Spock, whom you may have heard of before. [more inside]
posted by ricochet biscuit at 9:00 PM PST - 85 comments

On the popularity of cooking and recipe videos: Cooking Food On The Internet For Fun And Profit
posted by simmering octagon at 6:28 PM PST - 11 comments

Would you please write a prequel to The Giver so we could find out how all that happened? Dear Reader: guess what. You don’t need a prequel. You’re living in one. [more inside]
posted by pjsky at 6:08 PM PST - 12 comments

White people are protesting against being trapped at home. Black people know what it feels like to really be trapped. [more inside]
posted by Ahmad Khani at 2:52 PM PST - 12 comments

For one week only, a free stream of The Encounter ("please wear headphones to watch"), a uniquely immersive theatrical work created for binaural audio. "The Encounter tells the story of National Geographic photographer Loren McIntyre who, in 1969, became lost in a remote part of the Brazilian rainforest while searching for the Mayoruna people. His encounter was to test his perception of the world, bringing the limits of human consciousness into startling focus." Directed and performed by Simon McBurney and awarded a Special Tony Award for Sound Design for Gareth Fry and Pete Malkin. [more inside]
posted by zachlipton at 1:08 PM PST - 5 comments

Scooby-Doo’s invention was no happy accident; it was a strategic move in response to cultural shifts and political exigencies. The genesis of the series was inextricably bound up with the societal upheavals of 1968 – in particular, the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy.
posted by Etrigan at 12:17 PM PST - 40 comments

Amid the coronavirus lockdown, a group of six teenagers come together to make a young gamer's birthday special in Fortnite. [Game Rant] “A group of six young men playing Fortnite made one mother so proud that it left her in tears. Her teenage son, who has been playing games regularly during the coronavirus lockdown with his friends over the net, booted up Fortnite. Soon enough, the group met a player going by the name JamMaster who seemed "pretty chill," as mom Tiffany Pitts puts it. After playing together for a short while, the teens learned that JamMaster was only 10, but about to become 11 the very next day. While this would normally be a pretty exciting day for a little kid, JamMaster would be stuck spending the day without friends or a party due to the coronavirus. Apparently, Pitts has a good son with good friends, as they decided they couldn't let this stand. The group of teenagers swiftly pounced upon the opportunity to help celebrate the younger player's birthday, taking him on "a bunch of adventures," by fighting together, sharing loot with him, and keeping him up until midnight so they could officially sing him the Happy Birthday song.”
posted by Fizz at 10:39 AM PST - 9 comments

Before the lockdown, the tattooing began: COVID 19 Tattoos: The Best Coronavirus Tattoos (Mr. Inkwell). Coronavirus Is Temporary But Coronavirus Tattoos Are Forever (Ruin My Week). Tattoos On The Theme Of Coronavirus Covid-19 (InkPPL). Don't Let Coronavirus Tattoos Get Under Your Skin (Mel). Related: Tattoo Artists Are in Crisis as COVID-19 Devastates Their Industry (Vice).
posted by not_the_water at 9:45 AM PST - 10 comments

Horror Has a Leadership Problem Director Adam Donaghey was arrested last month for raping an underage girl working on one of his films. Scene stalwart Joe Bob Briggs repeatedly "punches down" at LGBTQ folks and other marginalized groups. Did major horror companies like Shudder and Cinestate look the other way even after the problems were pointed out to them? Queer Mutants Deserve Better. [more inside]
posted by mediareport at 9:05 AM PST - 34 comments

Akiva Goldsman (Batman and Robin, Lost in Space, The DaVinci Code) is writing a pilot for Ringworld to be directed by Alan Taylor (Thor: The Dark World, Terminator Genisys). [more inside]
posted by GCU Sweet and Full of Grace at 8:08 AM PST - 74 comments

John Peel (Wikipedia) was an English DJ and selector on BBC Radio 1, recording more than 2,000 artists and bands in more than 4,000 sessions, known as Peel Sessions. Over the years, many were released (Discogs), and are now available on streaming services, but there are still plenty of recordings not yet officially available online. With that, Dave Strickson created an alphabetized roundup of around 1,000 Peel Sessions that he found on YouTube. (John Peel, previously)
posted by filthy light thief at 7:51 AM PST - 17 comments

A guide to dating your Down Under [more inside]
posted by dancestoblue at 6:17 AM PST - 10 comments

1985 was a ridiculously strong year for music releases. May 15, 1985 also saw the release of Christian artist Amy Grant's first record on A&M, a non-Christian Music label: Unguarded. Walking a fine line with its subject matter but fully embracing 80s pop, it was a Top 40 album [YT playlist, ~45m] and did yield hit songs and began to redefine CCM for a generation. Side A: Love Of Another Kind, Find A Way [video], Everywhere I Go, I Love You, Stepping In Your Shoes [more inside]
posted by hippybear at 5:56 AM PST - 7 comments

Solar's Future is Insanely Cheap (2020) [thread] - "This incredible pace of solar cost decline, with average prices in sunny parts of the world down to a penny or two by 2030 or 2035, is just remarkable. Building new solar would routinely be cheaper than operating already built fossil fuel plants, even in the world of ultra-cheap natural gas we live in now. This is what I've called the third phase of clean energy, where building new clean energy is cheaper than keeping fossil fuel plants running." [more inside]
posted by kliuless at 1:23 AM PST - 86 comments

QAnon is a pro-Trump conspiracy theory, yes, but it’s also more important than you might think. Adrienne LaFrance, The Atlantic's executive editor, spent more than a year trying to make sense of the movement and its followers and has a long and disquieting full report. [more inside]
posted by k3ninho at 1:14 AM PST - 61 comments

A podcast series by Lindsay Hansen-Park of Feminist Mormon Housewives that "follows the Mormon faith through the lens of “The Principle of Plural Marriage” from its genesis in 1831 with its originator Joseph Smith, through the hidden history and governmental pressure, to today and contemporary practicing Fundamentalist Mormons. [...] Polygamy is dissected through a feminist viewpoint, with attention given to the experiences of the women [...]. Their experiences, along with interviews with experts, scholars, historians, and those still affected directly by the practice, paint a new portrait of how the west was shaped, by the hard work and toil of these invisible women, hidden away through controversy." [more inside]
posted by mosessis at 10:18 PM PST - 2 comments

In The New York Times, Molly Fitzpatrick reports on some spooky situations: “Quarantining With a Ghost? It’s Scary”

For those who believe they’re locked down with spectral roommates, the pandemic has been less isolating than they bargained for.

posted by Going To Maine at 8:18 PM PST - 15 comments

In a half-century, The Brady Bunch has evolved from sitcom to cartoon to variety show to drama to parody to reality series, molding and re-molding itself to fit the prevailing styles, tastes, and sensibilities of multiple eras. By Gwen Ihnat for AVClub.
posted by valkane at 7:36 PM PST - 5 comments

REMAIN INDOORS (SLYT) [more inside]
posted by jojo and the benjamins at 7:33 PM PST - 15 comments

Shelter In Place is a miniature gallery, measuring 20 by 30 inches and exhibiting scaled-down works in a model structure created using foam core, mat board, balsa wood, and plexiglass. Artists can submit works at a 1:12 or one inch to the foot scale, allowing them to create and show even ambitious, seemingly large-scale pieces. Valentina Di Liscia reports for Hyperallergic.
posted by bq at 2:59 PM PST - 11 comments

Earle E. Spamer, a (now retired) member of the editorial board of the Annals Of Improbable Research, archivist of the American Philosophical Society and longtime researcher in and supporter of The Grand Canyon asks, over a long career: What Grand Canyon?
Is The Grand Canyon A Fake? [PDF], Spamer 2006, AIR 12-2 [PDF], see also Spamer's Other Grand Canyons, ibid.
What Lies Behind The Grand Canyon? (AIR 16-5 [PDF]) [more inside]
posted by the man of twists and turns at 2:37 PM PST - 13 comments

Remember when Red Sox/Fenway Park organist (and librarian!) Josh Kantor bought the White Sox Comiskey Park organ [eta: oops, the organist's organ] and brought it home in 2015? Well now he's stuck at home but he's still doing a Seventh Inning Stretch there, with his wife Reverend Producer Mary. Watch every day on FB at 3 pm EDT.
posted by jessamyn at 12:55 PM PST - 12 comments

Shakespeare may have written King Lear while under quarantine, but Gui Khury did even better than the Bard during his coronavirus pandemic school closure, pulling off the first-ever 1080 (three revolutions) on a standard vertical skateboard ramp.
posted by Etrigan at 12:12 PM PST - 29 comments

Because 2020 couldn’t get any weirder, residents in San Jose, Calif., came face to face with about 200 goats wandering through their neighborhood Tuesday evening. The scene, which looked like some bizarre version of the first few minutes of Dawn of the Dead, was captured on video by new local hero Zach Roelands. “This is the craziest thing to happen all quarantine,” he wrote in a tweet sharing the footage. We’re not sure that’s completely accurate, but it’s definitely up there on the list.
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 11:41 AM PST - 22 comments

Y'all! Donald Shoup has a WEBSITE! Please enjoy these parkumentaries. [more inside]
posted by aniola at 11:28 AM PST - 8 comments

SnowRunner [Game Trailer] “SnowRunner puts you behind the wheel of a huge roster of 40 customizable off-road vehicles from manufacturers like Chevrolet, Caterpillar, Freightliner and more in some of the world’s most untamed, unforgiving environments. [...] Master extreme hazards like snowbanks, ice, rivers and mud — each with their own unique challenges and physics — to get your mission completed as efficiently as possible. Huge variety of mission types await, and you can take on the elements alone or with friends online in fully synchronous four-player co-op multiplayer! Plus, with mod support.” [Available via Epic Games Store, Xbox One and PlayStation 4] [more inside]
posted by Fizz at 10:35 AM PST - 36 comments

Meet this super-spotter of duplicated images in science papers.
posted by Literaryhero at 6:24 AM PST - 19 comments

1985 was a ridiculously strong year for music releases. May 15, 1985 was when Dead Or Alive released their debut album [YT playlist] Youthquake. It wasn't a giant release but it had a giant single and a lot of people bought it. Side A: You Spin Me Round (Like A Record) [video], I Wanna Be A Toy, D.J. Hit That Button, In Too Deep [video - dailymotion link], Big Daddy Of The Rhythm [more inside]
posted by hippybear at 5:43 AM PST - 17 comments

Life in Quarantine: Witnessing Global Pandemic.
A public historical archive documenting how the extreme new conditions are changing the routines, expectations, and dreams of people from all walks of life, nationalities, communities, genders, and aged groups across the globe. Archives have to be made.
A doctoral student from Colombo, Sri Lanka. A winemaker in Denman, Australia. An ultra-marathoner from Piracicaba, Brazil. A retired special ed. administrator from Normal, IL.
Go ahead and Share your Story.
posted by adamvasco at 5:42 AM PST - 4 comments

The Story Behind Dylan Thomas’s “Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night” and the Poet’s Own Stirring Reading of His Masterpiece Written in 1947, Thomas’s masterpiece was published for the first time in the Italian literary journal Botteghe Oscure in 1951 and soon included in his 1952 poetry collection In Country Sleep, And Other Poems. [more inside]
posted by dancestoblue at 2:52 AM PST - 4 comments

Covid-19, or how the West was undone by its assertion of civilizational difference bordering on provincial narcissism, by Mukul Kesavan "It is as if best practice in policy and civil society behaviour was discounted because it didn’t originate in the West, as if city streets filled with masked citizens represented an assimilation of the individual into the herd. What began as an assertion of civilizational difference turned out to be no more than provincial narcissism."
posted by dum spiro spero at 11:34 PM PST - 116 comments

It was supposed to be "91 'Til Infinity," but the Souls of Mischief were in high school, sending demos out and trying to land something. Two years later, they were pulling together an album and A-Plus pulled some samples from a Billy Cobham track (Who Sampled) for a more uptempo version that would become the East Oakland group's sleeper hit track 93 'Til Infinity (YouTube). This is a sampling of the oral history of the title track of a fantastic album (YouTube playlist), one of three albums to come out in 1993 from the Heirogliphics crew, the others being Del the Funky Homosapien's No Need for Alarm (YT pl) and Casual's Fear Itself (YT pl). [more inside]
posted by filthy light thief at 10:47 PM PST - 12 comments

Is the British Museum's collection...homesick?

On one occasion a guard bolted the double doors and moved on to the next room, only to be informed by a CCTV operator that the doors stood wide open again. Video footage of the gallery showed them moving spontaneously. Sometimes it’s a sudden drop in temperature, like the unnerving patches of cold air that linger next to the winged, human-headed bull of Nimrud at the entrance to the Assyrian galleries. Sometimes it’s the sound of footsteps, or music, or crying, where no obvious source can be found.

“These stories seem to suggest that the objects themselves are restless.” (sl1843Magazine/The Economist)
posted by Fish, fish, are you doing your duty? at 7:36 PM PST - 46 comments

As Stevie Wonder turns 70, a look at how he wrote the soundtrack for a fragile America: "Signed to Motown’s Tamla imprint at the age of 11, the artist then known as 'Little Stevie Wonder' landed his first Billboard Hot 100 hit at 13 with 'Fingertips – Pt. 2.' By the time that original Motown contract ended in 1971, the 21-year-old Wonder had already amassed 13 studio albums (15 total). But over the next five years, Wonder unleashed five albums in a peerless display of both musical excellence and social conscience. It started with Music of My Mind and Talking Book in 1972, Innervisions in 1973, and climaxed with Fulfillingness’ First Finale in 1974 and Songs in the Key of Life in 1976." [more inside]
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 3:53 PM PST - 26 comments

Once you become one of the approximately 275 people have done the Seven Summit challenge, climbing the tallest peaks on seven continents, what's next? How about becoming the first person to reach the deepest depths of all the five oceans? [SLNewYorker]
posted by ShooBoo at 3:47 PM PST - 19 comments

In Sleepless Domain, a webcomic about brave magical girls confronting demons (outer and inner), a transgender magical girl is eventually mentioned, and a few months later is established as an existing character who gets her own adventure and has flower-themed magic powers. She discusses transitioning, having wanted to become a magical girl, her excitement over having a girl's name, and the time before she was "out as a girl," but none of these moments define her. [more inside]
posted by one for the books at 2:59 PM PST - 7 comments

David Lynch used to record short video weather reports for his website, then he stopped. Now, he’s started again, using YouTube.
Weather Report 5/11/20
Weather Report 5/12/20
Weather Report 5/13/20 [more inside]
posted by Going To Maine at 1:35 PM PST - 21 comments

THIS LONG CENTURY
posted by the man of twists and turns at 12:47 PM PST - 4 comments

Here at Time, we’ve made a few changes you may already be experiencing that we think you should know about. (SLMcSweeney's)
posted by Etrigan at 12:09 PM PST - 27 comments

Every episode of The Office (US) recreated in Slack, live.
posted by OverlappingElvis at 11:46 AM PST - 6 comments

The holy trinity of tambourine according to musician Jack Stratton of funk band Vulfpeck
1. Sandra Crouch (tambourine solo queued up)
2. Jack Ashford
3. Norman Whitfield
Also in the Holy Trinities series:
Minimalist Funk Arrangers
(Rhythm) Guitar [more inside]
posted by spamandkimchi at 11:11 AM PST - 13 comments

"Yet, this past January, that’s precisely what University of New Hampshire assistant philosophy professor Subrena Smith’s paper tried to do. 'Is Evolutionary Psychology Possible?' describes a major issue with evolutionary psychology, called the matching problem." [Gizmodo] [more inside]
posted by Ouverture at 11:07 AM PST - 79 comments

Calvin and Hobbes and quarantine [Polygon] “Calvin was looking for a way out. He was trying to escape. He didn’t like school, so he fled it as Spaceman Spiff. Bathtime, a nightmare for small children, saw Calvin turning into a tub shark or being attacked by a bubble-bath elemental. He escaped the corporeal form of a kid’s (arguably limited) body with the Transmogrifier, and most importantly of all, escaped loneliness by befriending a stuffed tiger who Calvin knew was actually real. A tiger who listened to him, who challenged him, and who ultimately loved him. Because that’s the thing, isn’t it? Calvin went to school, had a loving family, but even still, he felt alone. And his imagination gave him a way not to feel that anymore.” [more inside]
posted by Fizz at 10:12 AM PST - 17 comments

Lessons from Jeju: Freediving and Motherhood with Kimi Werner (Youtube) "Seven months pregnant and apprehensive of the effect motherhood would have on her career as a professional freediver, Kimi Werner took a trip to the island of Jeju in South Korea to meet her heroes, the haenyeo – a group of freediving and fishing women often regarded as Korea’s first working mother’s whose culture dates back centuries." Related: Meet Kimi Werner: The Woman Who Rode a Great White Shark [more inside]
posted by not_the_water at 9:32 AM PST - 7 comments

Hamilton coming to Disney+ on July 3. That’s it. What a time to be alive. It did not seem right for the news to go unremarked on here.
posted by mwhybark at 5:44 AM PST - 76 comments

Bart the other Mothman is in lockdown with hundreds of giant atlas moths. Farmed moths from the Philippines, meant to be shipped to customers, they've now hatched all through his house. Come for the chaos, stay for the delightfully furry moths and conservation behind collecting and breeding winged butterflies and moths. Also disco. Bart's website breeding butterflies will help turn you into the lepidopterist you've always hoped to be. Hat-tip to vacapinta who posted an earlier moth science project by another Bart.
posted by dorothyisunderwood at 1:28 AM PST - 20 comments

Robert Pattinson was interviewed by Zach Baron for GQ to promote the upcoming Christopher Nolan film Tenet, but everybody’s talking about Pattinson’s “pasta which you can hold in your hand”.
posted by Kattullus at 1:19 AM PST - 34 comments

From WIRED: "The Confessions of Marcus Hutchins, the Hacker Who Saved the Internet" A level headed account of the man who stopped the WannaCry ransomware, and his subsequent arrest.
posted by benoliver999 at 12:45 AM PST - 34 comments

Big Finish Productions, producers of Doctor Who audio plays and audiobooks since 1999 (including New Series content since 2015, definitely not thanks to the murder of an obstructive BBC higher-up by a dimension-hopping Master because people need to know about the Doctor's hubris dammit) has announced the Fifth Annual Paul Spragg Memorial Short Trip Opportunity (previously), your chance to write a forty-minute Doctor Who audiobook and make your mark on the franchise's canon (Such As It Is^TM). Entries are due by 30 June 2020. Rules are on the page; additional rules are here (of particular note are character usage limitations and the entry format: a roughly 500-word summary and a roughly 500-word beginning). Previous winners, all downloadable for free, are below the fold. [more inside]
posted by BiggerJ at 11:42 PM PST - 0 comments - Post a Comment

Recreating childhood photos, set to Simple Plan's "I'm Just a Kid" [more inside]
posted by Gorgik at 8:47 PM PST - 4 comments

1985 was a ridiculously strong year for music releases. We recently discussed The Hooters' Nervous Night (May 6), so let's look at May 13,1985, when Dire Straits' album Brothers In Arms came out. This peculiar tone poem of an album became an international success around the world, with several hit singles. Side A: So Far Away [video], Money For Nothing (original album track with problematic verse) [video (same problematic verse), radio edit without problematic verse] , Walk Of Life [video, original UK video], Your Latest Trick, Why Worry [more inside]
posted by hippybear at 7:21 PM PST - 66 comments

The Carmina Quartet performs Boccherini's Fandango, complete with castanets...
posted by jim in austin at 6:12 PM PST - 4 comments

Everything you see is really happening, there’s no green screen.

I grew up on all the “Mad Max” movies — they’re very popular in South Africa. I remember being 12 and my dad letting me watch it with him. So I was like, “Oh yeah, I wanna be in a ‘Mad Max’ movie. Are you kidding me?”

posted by kirkaracha at 4:34 PM PST - 50 comments

Artist and their Cats is but a page.
GatosyRespeto has many, many more. (Pages all in Spanish, but hey Cats am i rite?)
There is Eugene Delacroix, photographer Henri Cartier Bresson , the surrealist Remedios Varo and her friend Leonora Carrington and cat queen Leonor Fini (Mefi Previous.)
Just click around and enjoy, it's 100% Gatos.
posted by adamvasco at 3:44 PM PST - 4 comments

Can a "regular" human hit a home run in a major league ballpark? A few years back, Sports Illustrated's (45-year-old writer) Michael McKnight decided to find out.
posted by maxwelton at 3:15 PM PST - 34 comments

Ben Stiller announced yesterday that his father, Jerry Stiller, passed away of natural causes. He was 92 Stiller began his acting and comedic career as part of the comedy duo, Stlller and Meara, with his wife, Anne Meara. Popular in the 60's and 70's and performing on variety shows such as the Ed Sullivan Show and The Carol Burnett Show, Stiller and Meara were considered the workingman's Nichols and May. In the 70's and 80"s, Stller moved with ease between Broadway, film, and television [more inside]
posted by goalyeehah at 2:04 PM PST - 51 comments

Even as to disinformation, the best-known and perhaps most overrated of their tactics, they have innovated, finding new ways to manipulate Americans and to poison the nation’s politics. Russia’s interference in 2016 might be remembered as the experimental prelude that foreshadowed the attack of 2020. - Franklin Foer in The Atlantic. [more inside]
posted by tommasz at 12:47 PM PST - 40 comments

The Life of Brian & The Apocalyptic Jesus. Bart D. Ehrman [wiki, blog], gives a talk in 2014 on the use of parody as a historical method. [more inside]
posted by the man of twists and turns at 12:40 PM PST - 10 comments

I don’t know when it will be safe to sing arm in arm at the top of our lungs. But we will do it again, because we have to. Dave Grohl writes for The Atlantic's "Uncharted" series about the changes coronavirus is wreaking and will continue to wreak on the world.
posted by Etrigan at 11:44 AM PST - 30 comments

Drew Magary writes for SFGate about his diet:

I eat pancakes for breakfast every morning now. This is not because of quarantine.

posted by Going To Maine at 10:54 AM PST - 47 comments

This chip plays ‘Doom’ and nothing else [Engadget] It’s been over 25 years since Doom was unceremoniously released on a university FTP server. And despite its age, the classic first-person shooter has become a mainstay, not just for gamers, but also for programmers. The game has shown up on a ridiculous amount of hardware, from ATMs to printer screens to iPods. Graphics and game development enthusiast Sylvain Lefebvre [@Sylvain] , though, has created a machine that only plays his custom port of Doom. [Twitter thread linked below.]

The DooM-chip! It will run E1M1 till the end of times (or till power runs out, whichever comes first). Algorithm is burned into wires, LUTs and flip-flops on an #FPGA: no CPU, no opcodes, no instruction counter. Running on Altera CycloneV + SDRAM. Everything is described in a language I am working on: SDRAM controller, divider, BSP traversal, texture unit, etc. Main renderer (w/o data) is 666 lines of code (!). A great test case, made quite a few improvements, fixed some issues, learned a lot on CycloneV + Quartus.

posted by Fizz at 9:33 AM PST - 14 comments

While we wait for the first pitch of the 2020 season, take a couple of minutes to learn more about the mysterious, rare, junky eephus pitch. [more inside]
posted by chavenet at 8:46 AM PST - 15 comments

People keep creating stuff! Get inspiration for your own creations, or simply marvel at the amazing makers. [more inside]
posted by Stark at 7:47 AM PST - 5 comments

In response to the pandemic the US Supreme Court began hearing oral arguments via conference call, and it was only a matter of time before the inevitable happened. From Ashley Feinberg at Slate: Who Flushed? A Supreme Court Investigation.
posted by jedicus at 7:44 AM PST - 26 comments

Move over Leeroy, May 2020 is the 15 years anniversary of a much more important and gayer cultural anthem. Previously, (even more previously).
posted by MartinWisse at 6:38 AM PST - 14 comments

Shoot the breeze, and sit in the wind, with the Esteemed Character Actress. Kevin Fallon at The Daily Beast talks to Martindale about playing Bella Abzug, staying grateful, and not liking the hats at all. [more inside]
posted by Gin and Broadband at 6:24 AM PST - 14 comments

World renowned vulnerability expert Brené Brown chats with long-time psychologist and author Harriet Lerner about the subject of her latest book, on the latest episode of Brown’s new podcast, ‘Unlocking Us.’ Together they delve into, and sort through, the intricacies of a good apology, and the often misunderstood art of making one effectively.
posted by TruthfulCalling at 5:29 AM PST - 2 comments

So, what does self-improvement look like during a global pandemic and widespread economic disaster under a corrupt fascist authoritarian regime? Maybe therapy isn’t enough.
posted by seanmpuckett at 3:42 AM PST - 60 comments

Perhaps the strain of maintaining the nation's COVID-19 liveblog got too much for the Australian national broadcaster today, as the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's local Facebook pages went to war... with themselves [slFB, very silly] [more inside]
posted by prismatic7 at 11:36 PM PST - 11 comments

The history of Soviet jazz began on Oct. 1, 1922, when the first jazz concert with amateur musicians was held in Moscow. Several years later the popular American jazz bands of Frank Witers and Sam Wooding (Archive.org recordings) visited the Soviet Union, giving a series of concerts with huge success. [...] At first, Soviet jazz bands played American jazz, but gradually more works by Soviet jazz composers became popular. However, soon the Soviet leadership’s relation towards jazz changed. In the 1930s jazz was proclaimed as an example of bourgeois culture and hugely criticized. Why American Jazz was first welcomed and later banned in the USSR (Boris Egorov for Russia Beyond) [more inside]
posted by filthy light thief at 10:15 PM PST - 9 comments

Step-by-step tutorial on the Hands Challenge for the viral clapping rhythm that got popular on Tik Tok a few years back. Are you rhythmically untalented? Did you never figure out the cup song from 2013's Pitch Perfect? Now's your time to shine!
posted by spamandkimchi at 8:48 PM PST - 4 comments

In the wake of yet another food personality showing themselves to be problematic, Buzzfeed's Scaachi Koul (pre vious ly) profiles Guy Fieri, the last unproblematic food person.
posted by thecjm at 7:46 PM PST - 68 comments

As summer nears, a Swedish chicken company rolls out a TV ad that celebrates “grilling for the next generation.”
posted by Bella Donna at 2:55 PM PST - 24 comments

Wolgang Grasse was a temporal misfit.
His metaphysical and magical realistic , often apocalyptical and disturbing, work can be traced back to Bosch, Bruegel and Max Beckman
A gallery with provenence. (This is an Art post so some pictures are NSFW)
posted by adamvasco at 1:58 PM PST - 4 comments

15 years ago, a certain video was uploaded to the internet "documenting" a raid in World of Warcraft going horribly wrong with the exuberant cry of "LEEROY JENKINS!" [more inside]
posted by NoxAeternum at 1:53 PM PST - 46 comments

Meet Mojo Lens, a smart contact lens with a built-in display. (digital trends)
posted by adept256 at 1:15 PM PST - 42 comments

How Chris Hayes Makes Sense of the “World-Historical Cataclysm” — The New Yorker's Isaac Chotiner interviews MSNBC's Chris Hayes on a wide range of topics, including the impact of COVID-19 on the informational value of cable news and the difficulties of bringing leftists and liberals together after a divisive Democratic primary.
posted by tonycpsu at 12:14 PM PST - 3 comments

Cancer has taken his voice, but the unlikeliest movie star in Hollywood history still has a lot he wants to say. Content Warning: This story is not about coronavirus, but it is very much informed by the pandemic.
posted by Etrigan at 11:33 AM PST - 51 comments

Elon Musk Meets Mlon Eusk (SLYT)
posted by splitpeasoup at 11:31 AM PST - 14 comments

The Old Town of Ghadamès, an ancient city in the Libyan desert, is a beautiful and excellent example of a "desert urbanism," of a pre-Roman oasis town on the caravan routes across the Sahara. [more inside]
posted by the man of twists and turns at 11:30 AM PST - 6 comments

“Double Rainbow Guy” Paul Vasquez / yosemitebear has passed on at 57. (Modesto Bee, Washington Post, CNN)
posted by Going To Maine at 10:20 AM PST - 33 comments

A preemptive eulogy for the cassette adapter: As we move into an era of increasingly convoluted and exclusionary music-playing options, a moment of recognition is in order for the last great car stereo equalizer. (The Outline) The Car Cassette Adapter: A Legend of Technology: The car cassette adapter is one of the most underrated pieces of technology ever devised. (Interesting Engineering) Aux to Cassette Adapter Teardown and Explanation (Youtube), How to make a Bluetooth Cassette Adapter (Youtube)
posted by not_the_water at 9:26 AM PST - 46 comments

Twitch roulette helps you find the loneliest streamers “The site randomly shuffles live Twitch.tv streams and connects you to ones with empty rooms and no other viewers. This breaks out of the algorithmically-selected and most popular streamers you've probably already watched, and allows for something new.” [via Vice]
posted by Fizz at 9:06 AM PST - 20 comments

Philadelphia native Gene Demby reports for NPR on the day the day the Philadelphia police bombed 62nd and Osage Avenue in West Philadelphia. "I started revisiting the story of MOVE in earnest when the issue of race and policing in the United States had again become a regular focus of the national news. Almost every chord from that larger metastory — the mutual distrust between the police and black communities, the militarization of local law enforcement agencies, incidents of police brutality — seemed to play out in the particular story of the MOVE bombing — except in the case of MOVE, the volume and scale was ratcheted way up: Philadelphia's police had killed nearly a dozen people and, in the process, leveled an entire swath of a neighborhood full of middle-class black homeowners."
posted by ChuraChura at 9:05 AM PST - 20 comments

Yahya Hassan is / was a young Danish-Palestinian poet.
His most notable work, Yahya Hassan, was the best-selling debut poetry collection in Denmark, and has been printed in more than 120,000 copies.
He died last week at the age of 24.
Here's Poems of Rage, an interview with English subtitles
posted by growabrain at 4:30 AM PST - 6 comments

Suzelle demonstrates how to get fluff off a jersey. I don't know how well known Suzelle DIY is outside of South Africa. I love these early videos of hers, that all have a bit of a twist to them. How to chop an onion and How to change a plug
posted by Zumbador at 12:47 AM PST - 13 comments

Re-runs in Pantyhose Presents: Carrie in Quarantine, Mommie Dearest in Quarantine, Golden Girlz in Quarantine and Three'z Company in Quarantine. Featuring Sherry Vine, Jackie Beat, Alaska Thunderfuck, and an occasional guest, usually with salty language.
posted by filthy light thief at 9:02 PM PST - 3 comments

Sable is a new game development system which just entered alpha testing. The main thing which distinguishes this from many similar tools is that it is explicitly intended to be used by developers who are blind. [more inside]
posted by Alensin at 7:01 PM PST - 2 comments

The Politics and “Pretentiousness” of Reading James Joyce
posted by Chrysostom at 6:56 PM PST - 30 comments

Shipwright Louis Sauzedde demonstrates the art of ship plank caulking. I had no idea that caulking could be done with anything besides the caulking that comes in a tube. The world is an endlessly fascinating place!
posted by KleenexMakesaVeryGoodHat at 4:46 PM PST - 35 comments

Ísland á filmu (Iceland on Film) is your opportunity to gallivant around Iceland in space and time, via the medium of nearly three hundred old films, of varying age and length, stored and digitized by the Icelandic Film Museum. Many are home movies, but there are also documentaries and newsreel footage. For example, this 1939 black and white clip of a farmer taking care of sheep and horses, a feature length silent color documentary from 1946 about life in Reykjavík, and a 1965 documentary about a hiking trip in the Icelandic highland desert. All this can be navigated from the map of Iceland. If you tire of that particular North Atlantic Island, zoom the map out and you can watch old films from Greenland, the Faroe Islands, and Denmark, all from the Danish Film Institue.
posted by Kattullus at 3:28 PM PST - 5 comments

In classical chamber music the standard string quartet line-up of two violins, viola & cello when joined by a fifth player (typically a second violist or cellist; less often a double-bassist or a third violinist) naturally forms a string quintet. Perhaps the single most recognisable piece for string quintet (on this occasion including a second cello) is the 3rd movement of Luigi Boccherini’s Quintet in E major, op. 11 no. 5, aka The Celebrated Minuet, which, for example, features prominently in The Ladykillers; serves as background music in the restaurant scene in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off; and even turns up, re-arranged, performed by Spinal Tap. But Boccherini wrote over a hundred quintets: if you feel inclined, look inside to find one of them, plus a couple of dozen quintets by other composers... [more inside]
posted by misteraitch at 1:38 PM PST - 6 comments

The story of how computers infiltrated our homes is not one of technology, but one of marketing and design, according to writer and journalist Alex Wiltshire, whose new book, "Home Computers: 100 Icons that Defined a Digital Generation," tells the industry's early history through its most influential models.
posted by Mrs Potato at 12:56 PM PST - 41 comments

In Canada, Mother’s Day weekend of 1970 was the site of a historic reproductive rights protest: the members of the Abortion Caravan would eventually shut down Parliament—the only group to ever do so. Fifty years ago this weekend, hundreds of women from across Canada arrived in Ottawa to protest an abortion law passed by Pierre Elliott Trudeau's government in 1969. They arrived in a convoy led by a Volkswagen van with a black coffin strapped to the roof. They argued that the existing law was too restrictive, forcing women to seek unregulated abortions by unqualified practioners that resulted in hundreds of deaths each year. After government representatives refused to meet with them, dozens of protesters chained themselves to chairs in the visitors' galleries of the House of Commons. [more inside]
posted by hurdy gurdy girl at 11:02 AM PST - 1 comment

Have you seen Have You Seen This Dog? [more inside]
posted by Lirp at 9:21 AM PST - 24 comments

Mom Hid My Game! [Game Trailer] “Mom Hid My Game for Switch was known as Hidden My Game By Mom on phones. It’s pretty simple. Your mom hid your Nintendo DS, and you need to solve some puzzles in order to find it. By tapping on the screen to move things around or to pick up and use items, you can find where your mom has hidden your game. If your mom sees you looking for it, it’s game over.” [via: Kotaku][Available for purchase on the Nintendo Switch, but free to play on Apple iOS & Google Play Store.] [more inside]
posted by Fizz at 8:32 AM PST - 4 comments

It's hard to describe Brian Wright and The Sneakups' new album, Lapse Of Luxury. Maybe "Dylan and The Beatles did LSD in Nashville and hired a studio" hits the mark. The lead off track Patrick's Crossing only starts to hint at the rest of the album. Here's a live performance of the track Tractor Beam. Unfortunately not much of this truly inventive album is available on YouTube, but it's available on streaming services. Here's a Spotify link. One of the most interesting albums I've heard in a long time.
posted by hippybear at 7:47 AM PST - 8 comments

The more closely geneticists look at complex traits and diseases, the harder it gets to find active genes that don’t influence them. [more inside]
posted by clawsoon at 7:23 AM PST - 29 comments

Wingspan is a pretty popular board game. It got a NYT piece (and a MeFi FPP) after its first two print runs quickly sold out, and last week it came almost as close as a game can to sweeping the BoardGameGeek.com Golden Geek awards, winning (takes breath) Board Game of the Year, Best Artwork Presentation, Best Card Game, Best Solo Game, Most Innovative, Best Family Game, and Best Strategy Game. [more inside]
posted by Etrigan at 6:53 AM PST - 27 comments

Folk musicians Kate Rusby and Damien O'Kane are currently posting a home-recorded song each week. Playlist. 1. Walk the Road (and karaoke version). 2. As the Lights Go Out. 3. Blooming Heather. 4. Hunter Moon. 5. Greenfields. 6. The Yorkshire Couple. 7. We Will Sing. 8. Until Morning. [more inside]
posted by paduasoy at 3:45 AM PST - 5 comments

About 30 yeas ago, self-identified "grebo" rockers (Guardian; previously) fused ramshackle punk, folk, electronic and hip-hop, plus some rave piano into the unofficial theme for the 1990 FIFA World Cup (Wiki), titled "Touched By the Hand of Cicciolina" (YT). Pop Will Eat Itself, or PWEI, included a card with some singles (Discogs) for folks to petition FIFA that the World Cup should be presented by Cicciolina, the Hungarian-Italian porn star turned politician (Daily Kos). OK, we've touched on some of this previously, so let's (re)visit the rest of the Poppies' videography! [more inside]
posted by filthy light thief at 5:56 PM PST - 35 comments

A food columnist for the New York Times has come under fire for her remarks calling organizational expert Marie Kondo a "bitch" who sold out, and accusing cookbook author Chrissy Teigen of getting people to run "a content farm for her." [more inside]
posted by Borborygmus at 5:22 PM PST - 170 comments

What does 'mild' mean in the context of Covid-19? Geographer Felicity Callard details the multifarious meanings of mildness in this pandemic; how the term is used by different actors and what it comes to mean to those experiencing 'mild' cases. The mild, Callard argues,

will likely continue to be used for multiple Covid-19 purposes – whether adjudicating clinical symptoms, assessing the virus’s impact on the body, determining the need for formal healthcare services, or judging the likely time of return to functional normality, whether inside and outside the labour market. I therefore predict on-going epistemological, ontological and political contestation over the scope and definition of the mild.

posted by 3zra at 9:19 AM PST - 19 comments

Little Richard, rock’n’roll pioneer, dies aged 87. Richard Penniman began performing in his teens but didn’t find success until his 40s when he released a string of wildly popular singles— Tutti Frutti, Long Tall Sally, Rip It Up, The Girl Can’t Help It, Lucille, Keep A-Knockin’ and Good Golly, Miss Molly, among others. He was known for his outrageous performance style – eyes lined with mascara, brightly coloured clothes – which was echoed later by Prince.
posted by stillmoving at 7:50 AM PST - 98 comments

What happened when six boys were shipwrecked for 15 months [more inside]
posted by Grangousier at 7:37 AM PST - 66 comments

Techmoan looks at a unique music format from Poland - records pressed into thin plastic, originally with a cardboard backing. They were designed/intended for mailing. More from PRX. [more inside]
posted by carter at 5:55 AM PST - 11 comments

1985 was a ridiculously strong year for music releases. One minor anniversary we missed was March 25, 1985 which saw the release of The Power Station. A supergroup with Robert Palmer, Chic drummer Tony Thompson, and Andy Taylor and John Taylor from Duran Duran, the conceived one-off project yielded several hit singles (one now considered a classic), some strong covers, and helped leapfrog Palmer's solo career into high gear. Side A: Some Like It Hot [video], Muderess, Lonely Tonight, Communication [video via DailyMotion] [more inside]
posted by hippybear at 5:48 AM PST - 17 comments

Brian May hospitalized after injuring buttocks in 'over-enthusiastic' gardening incident.
posted by Literaryhero at 11:39 PM PST - 46 comments

The Beatles guitarist visited his sister in southern Illinois just months before he’d become world famous.
posted by ShooBoo at 7:34 PM PST - 19 comments

Kiss From A Rose, by Seal...by seals.
posted by ilana at 4:19 PM PST - 28 comments

"Fuck the Bread. The Bread Is Over." Sabrina Orah Mark reflects on fairy tales, the academic job market, and being a mother during the COVID-19 pandemic. (SLParisReview)
posted by doctornemo at 2:52 PM PST - 27 comments

"The black feminist Combahee River Collective manifesto and E. Franklin Frazier’s Black Bourgeoisie share the diagnosis that the wealthy and powerful will take every opportunity to hijack activist energies for their own ends." [more inside]
posted by Ouverture at 1:32 PM PST - 2 comments

Hello everyone! We're the Clark family. Colt (the Dad) is a professional musician and Aubree (me, the Mom behind the camera) is a photographer. Together we home school our three children (even when we're not in the middle of a pandemic). :) We're keeping busy during our time at home by
posted by growabrain at 1:16 PM PST - 18 comments

Dad: “Remind me again what you will do with a degree in conservation biology?”
posted by Bloxworth Snout at 12:26 PM PST - 11 comments

"Gold Bond Liqui-Shaq" (TV Sheriff Video Remix) [YouTube]
posted by Fizz at 11:50 AM PST - 8 comments

im losing my mind. there is no way you're going to be able to predict what this ad is trying to sell you

finally, now more than ever, women can buy our product [more inside]
posted by Etrigan at 11:43 AM PST - 83 comments

Tired of seeing socialist messages in games compromised by both-sideism and wanting to make an unapologeticially left wing game, the developer collective Pixel Pushers Union 512 have created Tonight We Riot (available on Steam and the Switch), a side-scrolling beat um up where the player controls a proletariat mob bent on tearing down the old order, focusing not on the actions of one character, but having the player needing to control a group movement to succeed. [more inside]
posted by NoxAeternum at 10:54 AM PST - 16 comments

Snowskating is like snowboarding, except it incorporates skateboard tricks done in the snow. That sounds difficult enough, but even a cat can do it. (h/t Miss Cellania)
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 10:50 AM PST - 11 comments

The Spirit of Detroit is a monument featuring a 26' bronze statue holding a family group in one hand, and a sphere symbolizing God in the other. Created by Michigan sculptor Marshall Fredericks in the second half of the 1950s, it's located at the Coleman A. Young Municipal Center (formerly the Detroit City-County Building) on Woodward in Detroit. Since 1997, it's occasionally been dressed in sports jerseys when local professional teams make playoffs, as well as in other clothing marking notable local events. It's currently showing support of Henry Ford Hospital's White Ribbon Campaign to recognize and thank essential health-care and other workers.
posted by still_wears_a_hat at 10:31 AM PST - 3 comments

Dirt Doesn't Smell like Dirt: It smells like bacteria. But why? (Scientific American) [more inside]
posted by not_the_water at 10:01 AM PST - 16 comments

Chair Times - A History of Seating – From 1800 to Today. "In the focus are 125 objects from the Collection of the Vitra Design Museum. Arranged according to their year of production, they illustrate development from 1807 to the very latest designs straight off the 3D printer, forming a timeline to modern seating design. [more inside]
posted by dobbs at 9:07 AM PST - 11 comments

A century ago, Iceland banned all alcoholic drinks. Within a decade, red wine had been legalised, followed by spirits in the 1930s. But full-strength beer remained off-limits until 1 March 1989. Megan Lane asks why it took so long for the amber nectar to come in from the Icelandic cold. Why Iceland banned beer (BBC). Bonus video: Female-run microbrewery celebrates "witching" history (AP News clip), adding some female representation to Iceland's male-dominated beer scene (Grapevine.is). [more inside]
posted by filthy light thief at 8:52 AM PST - 12 comments

The great novelist Thomas Pynchon (born 1937) is also a sometimes thoughtful, sometimes irreverent lyricst. Sprinkled throughout all of his novels are many tunes that surprise the reader. The NYC band Visit recorded fourteen of them and Philadelphia-based composer Peter Price put together some interstitial material. Released on 8 May 2020—the 75th anniversary of the end of World War II but also Pynchon’s 83rd birthday—the album ... adds to the growing list of music inspired by the American writer. “Now everybody—” Visit Interprets Songs by Thomas Pynchon [more inside]
posted by chavenet at 5:25 AM PST - 10 comments

Mose Allison performs The Seventh Son from his 1958 album Creek Bank...
posted by jim in austin at 8:44 PM PST - 7 comments

When I got back home and was trying to write about Jah B., doing my best to stake out some understanding of what was going on musically in Kingston in the late Fifties and early Sixties, I ran into the riddle that bedevils every person who gets lost in this particular cultural maze, namely, where did ska come from? That strange rhythm, that chop on the upbeat or offbeat, ump-ska, ump-ska, ump-ska... Did someone think that up?

That Chop on the Upbeat [more inside]
posted by y2karl at 2:47 PM PST - 43 comments

The Fabulous Forgotten Life of Vita Sackville-West.
Vita was as famous for her affairs as for her writing. [more inside]
posted by adamvasco at 2:39 PM PST - 10 comments

Indycar's Virtual Race Crashes Sparked Real-World Controversy Among Drivers [Vice Gaming] “With about three laps to go in the First Responders 175, the final race of the virtual, quarantine-inspired sim racing series featuring pro Indycar drivers, it was shaping up to be a classic finale at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. F1 driver Lando Norris was in a battle for the lead with Oliver Askew, Patricio O’Ward, and Marcus Ericsson, and caution was going out the window as the drivers went three-cars wide through corners, completely filling the width of the track with no margin for error. [...] Then, as the lead pack of cars whipped through a corner onto a straight, Norris’s car piled into the back of the slow-moving, highlighter-yellow car of 2019 Indy 500 winner Simon Pagenaud. [...] Pagenaud’s deliberate wrecking is an annoying troll within the context of a video game, but it’s a betrayal of the highest order in the context of real-world, professional racing. An inherent tension in F1 and Indy racing is that drivers are in ruthless competition at the same time that they are all trying to prevent crashes that can easily turn deadly. Now that these same drivers are competing in a space where the deadly physical consequences are no longer an issue, the sport is changing fast, and in ways that can carry over to real-world tracks when drivers are able to race on them again.” [Explainer][Simon Pagenaud Full Incident][Santino Ferrucci Crash with Oliver Askew]
posted by Fizz at 11:11 AM PST - 40 comments

Click to orbit. In space no one can hear you click...(previously) [SLFridayTimeWaster]
posted by Ministry of Truth at 10:54 AM PST - 79 comments

Probably it was no way to run a business, and things only got more confusing after Brian got a partner in the store who was also named Brian. The floor was rarely swept by anything more than the dragging belly of the store cat, and the unheated back room stank of vinegar from the old 35mm film prints that were stored there alongside accumulating boxes of unsorted VHS rarities that came to resemble the final shot of Raiders Of The Lost Ark. This was all some time ago, more than a decade. But it’s no bold assertion on my part to say that much of what we feel nostalgia for is the kind of inconvenience that creates a more eclectic and interesting reality.

"The Death of a Video Store," on Chicago's much loved and recently shuttered Odd Obsession Movies.
posted by alexoscar at 10:33 AM PST - 36 comments

The silver lining of social distancing is that reduced carbon emissions have led to a resurgence of wildlife in human settlements as diverse as London, Chicago, Manhattan, Buffalo, Indianapolis, Peterborough, New Jersey, Japan, Scandinavia, Athens, Antarctica, cabbage farms, and Toronto. Nature is also totally healing on the Thames, the Hudson, other urban rivers, the ocean floor, and Crystal Lake. Reduced air pollution means you can even get a better view of the Moon, or Zoom. Maybe we were the virus all along?
posted by HeroZero at 9:20 AM PST - 53 comments

[PREVIOUSLY] From the Navy Times, here's the latest news for the USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN-71): • Fired Theodore Roosevelt commander Brett Crozier reassigned to San Diego, 5/5/2020: Capt. Brett Crozier arrived at Naval Air Forces Monday night, officials confirmed. • Carrier Theodore Roosevelt prepares to go back to sea after coronavirus outbreak, 5/5/2020: More than 4,000 crew members went ashore last month...more than 2,000 are back on board...at least 1,000 are still testing positive for the virus and remain on land. • Navy halts daily COVID-19 updates for stricken ships Theodore Roosevelt and Kidd, 5/6/2020: The service announced Thursday they will only announce "significant changes" aboard those ships.
posted by cenoxo at 8:54 AM PST - 29 comments

The Cast of Characters at Chelsea’s Legendary Flea Market. Michael Rips writes about the people in the Antiques Garage (closed 2014) of the Chelsea Flea Market (closed 2019) in New York City. "He became so obsessed with collecting certain species of objects, of whose existence he first learned at the flea, that he would periodically have to put the collection in storage and issue himself an edict against approaching Sixth Avenue. He enjoyed the funding and leisure time to become a full-time flea-market rat without also becoming a picker or a vendor." [more inside]
posted by the man of twists and turns at 8:47 AM PST - 4 comments

"We can’t have a functioning society again if we don’t trust public toilets."
posted by ferret branca at 8:23 AM PST - 31 comments

The future of Toronto's waterfront is still unclear, but Sidewalk Labs will no longer be involved. [more inside]
posted by Fish Sauce at 8:02 AM PST - 26 comments

You must not go outside! Since the first day of the UK's lockdown, this blog has provided a daily dose of everything the government wants you to know ("YOU MUST NOT GO OUTSIDE!"), along with advice that the author thinks you probably ought to know. It started sensibly enough, with daily tips on washing your hands. But then, with a distinctly British sense of humour, it quickly devolved into sarcastic, sometimes surreal, additional tips: why not use oven gloves to handle incoming parcels, teach your dog to speak English to exploit dog-walking freedoms and deliver messages, or take the opportunity to count all of the pens in your house.
posted by avapoet at 7:49 AM PST - 12 comments

From The Young Ones to Swap Shop and of course Doctor Who and The Queen Vic, the BBC's empty sets collection has a neat new Teams/Zoom/Skype background for everybody.
posted by MartinWisse at 6:39 AM PST - 19 comments

'If anything has changed since the early years of Rule 34, it’s been in the opposite direction. While groups like the bronies were making the connection between porn and kids’ TV animation almost mainstream, the link was growing inside the industry as well. Today, online porn, whether created by fans or by the staff themselves, hasn’t just become a normal part of the children’s TV community. It’s become acceptable.'
posted by low_horrible_immoral at 12:37 AM PST - 81 comments

In the last year on the blue we have seen neural nets name kittens, auth some lyric poetry, send us troubling holiday greetings, and produce some dubious recipes. Can one generate more of Rick Astley?
posted by ricochet biscuit at 11:31 PM PST - 12 comments

What To Check Before Taking Your Machine To The Shop
posted by aniola at 10:42 PM PST - 30 comments

Government, as experienced for much of the 20th century, is largely absent from the lives of characters in cyberpunk stories. Police are a durable feature, but government services and functions beyond the security state are absent. ¶ Yet for all the aggressive visibility of politics in our daily lives, we’re not that far off from the powerlessness of a cyberpunk future. Cyberpunk speaks to the present because the conditions that inspired cyberpunk remain largely unchanged. We’re on the Brink of Cyberpunk -- It’s not just the technology, surveillance, and dystopian vibes—it’s the culmination of decades of deliberate governmental erosion. (Kelsey D. Atherton for Slate's Future-Tense)
posted by filthy light thief at 10:04 PM PST - 19 comments

A quarter-century ago, a really big soda company attempted to subvert itself to reach Gen X. The problem? Coca-Cola’s OK Soda was a couple of decades too early. By Karen Corday.
posted by valkane at 8:19 PM PST - 59 comments

Wild fox cub saved from menacing wheel, given drugs.
posted by Evilspork at 7:48 PM PST - 14 comments

Fifteen years ago this week: the 'Best Table Tennis [match] comeback EVER'. Michael Maze(Denmark), ranked #19 in the world at the time comes back from the brink against Hao Shuai(China), #28. In a best-of-7 match in the quarterfinals at the 2005 World Championships in Shanghai, Hao has convincingly kicked Maze's butt the first 3 games, and the fourth game looks like he's got it sewed up. You can watch the whole match- it's pretty good, but let's start the video with Maze down 3 games to none, 5-9. Hao needs to only win 2 of the next 7 points to win the match. [more inside]
posted by MtDewd at 7:32 PM PST - 4 comments

An excellent story recounting the thrills and spills of overcoming bureaucracy, the sad tale of the Finnish Ambassador's parrot, and packing up early to go to lunch, to export a pair of horses gifted to the British government by Saparmurat Niyazov - former leader of Turkmenistan - from the Soviet Union in 1993. Read the whole story on Twitter. [more inside]
posted by eddieddieddie at 5:17 PM PST - 13 comments

Kraftwerk Co-Founder Florian Schneider Dies at Age 73. [more inside]
posted by SansPoint at 1:28 PM PST - 85 comments

Game designer Holly Gramazio ran a survey to find out what floors were made of.
posted by curious nu at 11:34 AM PST - 33 comments

How big are dicks in Skyrim? [Reddit] “Since my friend and I have been fiercely debating this, I would like to see the community's thoughts on what we have come up with. All of this is open for discussion, but I would prefer that you use evidence rather than personal bias. [...] As for the question about the shape of a Khajiits’ appendage raised by user Mrvalenti2000, it seems actual official Elder Scrolls lore has got that one covered – according to this Daggerfall: The Real Barenziah, Part III extract, their penises have “tiny little barbs”.” [via: PCGamesN] [Warning NSFW: discussion of dick.] [more inside]
posted by Fizz at 10:28 AM PST - 35 comments

On Twitter, reporter J. David McSwane reports on "one of the most bizarre stories of his career," as he travels via private jet with the CEO of two-year-old company Federal Government Experts LLC, which had previously advertised "block chain" AI procurement solutions, chasing down vanishing leads for N95 facemasks, trying to fulfill a no-bid contract with the VA for procuring masks. Here's the complete story at ProPublica.
posted by JHarris at 9:26 AM PST - 26 comments

The Rocky River Ohio School of Rock absolutely killing Fugazi's Waiting Room
posted by gwint at 9:25 AM PST - 51 comments

Managers turn to surveillance software, always-on webcams to ensure employees are (really) working from home , Washington Post, Drew Harwell, 4/30/2020 — Always-on webcams, virtual “water coolers,” constant monitoring: Is the tech industry’s new dream for remote work actually a nightmare? With nearly half of office employees working from home to avoid COVID-19 exposure, management tracks their work using: digital avatars in virtual offices; always-on webcams/microphones; productivity stats; monitored web browsing and active work hours; multiple daily check-ins (via email, calls, text messages and Zoom video calls); not-so-optional company happy hours, game nights and lunchtime chats; hidden screen captures; logging of apps used and websites visited; key word flagging; keyboard/mouse usage; unscheduled video conferences; and endless online meetings, meetings, meetings.
posted by cenoxo at 8:30 AM PST - 89 comments

Oregon Zoo penguins Nacho and Goat went for a hike in the woods yesterday. Twitter | Threadreader
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 7:03 AM PST - 16 comments

Air Cargo's Coronavirus Problem. Wendover Productions does an in depth dive into the recent history of the Covid-19 pandemic from the perspective of air cargo, aviation and logistics.
posted by loquacious at 1:17 AM PST - 5 comments

Stormtrooper attracts the wrong kind of force as Star Wars promotion takes a turn [CBC] [more inside]
posted by chavenet at 1:07 AM PST - 64 comments

MeFite odinsdream recently came across some old abandoned police sketch software for Macintosh systems from the 1980s, then wrapped it up in a web-based emulator, and now you can play with it in your browser! Make your own face sketches. [via mefi projects]
posted by filthy light thief at 9:42 PM PST - 29 comments

He threw two no-hitters -- 21 years apart. He was once signed by the Philadelphia A's, but he also pitched as recently as the Reagan administration, a career span that roughly coincides with the two time-period settings of "Back To The Future." He once issued five bases-loaded walks -- plus a hit-by-pitch -- in a single inning. It's probably the worst inning in Major League history, but it's hard to say if that's better or worse than the time he went more than a month in the Minors and over 50 innings without his team scoring a run for him.
posted by Chrysostom at 8:43 PM PST - 14 comments

The Exciting of Trains A short documentary (?) film by Obvious Plant (previously)
posted by aubilenon at 8:04 PM PST - 6 comments

The Korea Baseball Organization (KBO), "the wildest, most outlandish baseball league in the world," opened its season today. In addition to the baseball, it is known for bat flips, breakdancing dinosaur mascots (Dandy and Seri of the NC Dinos), and passionate fans (Lotte Giants fans singing "Busan Seagull" and "Come Back to Busan Port"). Sadly games will be played in empty stadiums due to COVID-19. [more inside]
posted by needled at 7:33 PM PST - 15 comments

Results show promising leads and a whole new way to fight COVID-19 The Conversation has a round-up of two months of coronavirus structure research and the pathways that different drugs might use to work against the virus.
posted by hippybear at 6:23 PM PST - 26 comments

According to Vanity Fair, there are many troubling allegations contained in the "blistering, 63-page complaint" that Dr. Rick Bright, former head of the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA), filed today with the U.S. Office of Special Counsel. Among other things, "He was pressured to invest in drugs and vaccines that lacked scientific merit, because the people selling them had friends in the Trump administration, up to and including the president’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner." [more inside]
posted by Bella Donna at 2:09 PM PST - 50 comments

Team Deakins podcast is a conversation between acclaimed cinematographer Roger Deakins and his collaborator, James Deakins. We start from a submitted question and end .... who knows where! We are joined on some episodes by friends and colleagues. For further discussion on these topics, check out our website at www.rogerdeakins.com
posted by sapagan at 1:27 PM PST - 2 comments

The Scaredy Cats Horror Show is a new Gimlet podcast from the hosts of Reply All, where PJ Vogt (self-declared scaredy cat and non-horror movie watcher) watches a horror movie and then discusses it with Alex Goldman (horror fan) in an attempt to see if PJ can possibly learn to enjoy scary movies. First episode: The Exorcist, with guest host Jason Mantzoukas. Next week will be Nightmare on Elm Street.
posted by hurdy gurdy girl at 12:19 PM PST - 35 comments

Tenant Uprisings and the Women Who Led Them
posted by latkes at 11:33 AM PST - 2 comments

The Doom Eternal OST Controversy Explained [IGN] “Id Software and Doom Eternal executive producer Marty Stratton has issued a public statement about its current relationship with Doom Eternal composer Mick Gordon after weeks of speculation that there was some kind of trouble between the two parties over the recently released Doom Eternal soundtrack. After a slight delay, the Doom Eternal soundtrack part of the game’s collector’s edition was released on April 20, a month after the game was released. But fans quickly found something amiss with the sound mixing leading to a backlash against id Software and in particular id’s lead audio engineer Chad Mossholder. The controversy began in April when a viral Twitter thread highlighted the sound-mixing for the newly released Doom Eternal soundtrack. Twitter users @thatADCDguy posted side-by-side visual comparisons of the BFG Division track from Doom 2016 and Doom Eternal and noted that the mixing for the Doom Eternal version was less dynamic.”
posted by Fizz at 10:07 AM PST - 17 comments

[many links may be NSFW]

In his inaugural food column, Beowulf Thorne included recipes for gingerbread pudding, Thai chicken curry, and vanilla poached pears, plus a photo of a naked blond man spread-eagled in a pan of paella. Eat your cereal with whipping cream, he advised readers, and ladle extra gravy onto your dinner plate. “Not only does being undernourished reduce your chances of getting lucky at that next orgy, it can make you much more susceptible to illness, and we’ll have none of that,” Wulf wrote. “Get Fat, Don’t Die,” the first cooking column for people with AIDS, ran in every issue of Diseased Pariah News, the AIDS humor zine that Wulf started and edited from 1990 to 1999.

Beowulf Thorne’s cooking column for people with AIDS claimed the right to pleasure, but in each recipe was embedded an urgent appeal, Jonathan Kauffman [more inside]
posted by the man of twists and turns at 9:31 AM PST - 12 comments

Writer Dmitry Orlov, who witnessed firsthand the collapse of the Soviet Union, gave a lecture (in 2006) "Closing the ‘Collapse Gap’: the USSR was better prepared for collapse than the US". His message is perhaps more prescient now than ever.
Orlov previously on Metafilter, including his article Social Collapse Best Practices
His Wikipedia.
Via mltshp
posted by growabrain at 7:24 AM PST - 114 comments

Frontman of "the world’s favourite East London singalong political folk punk band," Steve White is writing a song a day while he's stuck away from the rest of the team. [more inside]
posted by lucidium at 1:57 AM PST - 2 comments

Four functions of markets - "The period from 2008 until now has been a kind of undead neoliberal era. Post Great Financial Crisis, neoliberal ideas have been discredited among much of the public and are actively contested even within governing elites. But, absent consensus on some new set of social heuristics, not much has actually changed. Material interests in the continuity of institutions shaped by neoliberalism remain strong."[1] [more inside]
posted by kliuless at 11:59 PM PST - 21 comments

When corruption threatened the administration of Chester A. Arthur, one ordinary woman put pen to paper. Julia Sand’s passionate letters caught his attention, and rewrote history. The Pen Pal Who Changed a President (Narratively) | At a time when few women could vote or hold public office, a thirty-one-year-old New York woman took it upon herself to write at least twenty-three letters to President Chester A. Arthur, judging, advising, praising, and reprimanding the sitting president of the United States. This article introduces you to that woman and what she had to say. (Library of Congress)
posted by filthy light thief at 9:27 PM PST - 7 comments

Matthew Ryan has released a recording of "Heaven is A Place On Earth" (yes, that one). It's not your average cover.

We did this in the hope of offering something beautiful during this hard and strange time. This video was directed and edited by Tom Sierchio. The footage here was gathered by Tom via "Found Home Video" footage. We hope that if by some small chance there's some that you know and love in here that it brings a smile. Our intent again was to offer unguarded beauty. I love what Tom did. His inspiration was the last scene of Cinema Paradiso. My favorite movie. I suspect one of his as well.
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 9:17 PM PST - 14 comments

Terri Windling (03/2020), "Once upon a time in Paris...": "As the vogue for fairy stories evolved in the 1670s and '80s, Madame d'Aulnoy emerged as one of the most popular raconteurs in Paris ... she soon formed a glittering group around her of nonconformist women and men, as well as establishing a highly successful and profitable literary career ... So how, we might ask, did Perrault become known as the only French fairy tale author of note?" Elizabeth Winter (12/2016), "Feminist Fairies and Hidden Agendas": "the term contes de fées ... was coined by ... d'Aulnoy in 1697, when she published her first collection of tales." Volker Schröder (2018-2019): this collection "is often described as 'lost' or 'untraceable'" and its "sequel has become just as scarce"; but d'Aulnoy's tales are available online, and mixed reviews such as those of the Brothers Grimm may call to mind her childhood marginalia: "if you have my book and ... don't appreciate what's inside, I wish you ringworm, scabies ... and a broken neck." [more inside]
posted by Wobbuffet at 8:50 PM PST - 3 comments

DJ techno/trance mixes - good. Swiss train driver pov videos - good. Swiss train driver pov videos set to techno mixes - double plus good! From Thomas H.
posted by carter at 5:19 PM PST - 21 comments

173 years ago, the Choctaw Nation extended great generosity to the Irish people by donating famine relief during the Irish Potato Famine, despite having only recently survived the Trail of Tears themselves (previously). Today, the Irish people are paying that generosity forward by donating to the Navajo and Hopi nations en masse to support their struggles against the current coronavirus.
posted by sciatrix at 5:01 PM PST - 16 comments

Half a century ago, before “Sesame Street,” and long before the age of quarantine, kids under the age of six spent a crazy amount of time indoors, watching television, a bleary-eyed average of fifty-four hours a week. In 1965, the year the Johnson Administration founded Head Start, Lloyd Morrisett, a vice-president of the Carnegie Corporation with a Ph.D. in experimental psychology from Yale, got up one Sunday morning, at about six-thirty, a half hour before the networks began their day’s programming, to find his three-year-old daughter, Sarah, lying on the living-room floor in her pink footie pajamas, watching the test pattern. She’d have watched anything, even “The Itty-Bitty, Farm and City, Witty-Ditty, Nitty-Gritty, Dog and Kitty, Pretty Little Kiddie Show.” Jill Lepore writes for The New Yorker on How we got to Sesame Street.
posted by ChuraChura at 4:43 PM PST - 44 comments

A dinner at Modern Toilet, a poop themed restaurant with three locations in Taiwan. [more inside]
posted by ardgedee at 4:41 PM PST - 11 comments

Five Months of Apples Out of Your Back Yard
posted by aniola at 3:39 PM PST - 13 comments

Ward is the latest long-form serialized superhero web fiction from author Wildbow, aka John McCrae. It is a sequel to Worm (previously), though different characters take center stage. Where Worm was a story of power and the responses thereto, Ward is a story of trauma and - eventually! in some extremely unlikely ways! - rebuilding in the aftermath. [more inside]
posted by Fraxas at 12:40 PM PST - 20 comments

Inkscape 1.0 . After 15+ years (give or take), the free alternative to [redacted commercial vector graphics editor] has gone 1.0. This version includes long awaited native MacOS support. Download links for Linux, Windows, and Mac.
posted by gwint at 11:40 AM PST - 33 comments

I am very sorry to hear of the passing of Dave Greenfield. He was the difference between The Stranglers and every other punk band. His musical skill and gentle nature gave an interesting twist to the band. He should be remembered as the man who gave the world the music of Golden Brown.

Hugh Cornwell on the death of Dave Greenfield, due to a covid-19 infection. [more inside]
posted by MartinWisse at 11:16 AM PST - 32 comments

We could see people with reduced infection risk by merging `bubbles' while they're healthy, re-splitting when one of them has a case. That link is a fairly general description of how big our `bubbles' would be, how we would decide to merge and re-split them. It's based on pre-2020 data suggesting that a lot of people spend most of their time in a small geographical region already.
posted by clew at 10:49 AM PST - 34 comments

"Firing whistleblowers isn’t just a side-effect of macroeconomic forces, nor is it intrinsic to the function of free markets. It’s evidence of a vein of toxicity running through the company culture. I choose neither to serve nor drink that poison." Tim Bray, VP and Distinguished Engineer at Amazon, resigns. [more inside]
posted by clawsoon at 10:16 AM PST - 71 comments

'Chaos Walking' Author Patrick Ness Tackling 'Lord of the Flies' Adaptation (Hollywood Reporter): "'Call Me by Your Name' director Luca Guadagnino is already on board to helm the adaptation of the influential 1954 novel for Warner Bros. [...] The studio at one point was developing a female-skewing version of Lord of the Flies but has changed course and is aiming to hew closer to the original novel with this feature project. ¶Ness has twice won the Carnegie Medal, which recognizes literary work for children and young adult, for Monsters of Men, his third book in the Chaos Walking trilogy, and A Monster Calls. Both stories focused on young adults and children facing impossibly adult situations and forced to take on unbearable burdens." [more inside]
posted by not_the_water at 10:07 AM PST - 16 comments

Star Wars Crawl Creator [May the 4th be with you!]
posted by Fizz at 9:43 AM PST - 15 comments

Devo’s Jerry Casale Looks Back at Kent State 50 Years Later: ‘Time Stood Still’ CW: State violence, blood, gore, death
posted by SansPoint at 9:08 AM PST - 25 comments

One of Canada’s oldest women, Foon Hay Lum, who was separated from her husband for more than 30 years by the Chinese immigration ban and later helped secure a formal apology and compensation for all Chinese Canadians who paid the head tax, has died. She was 111.
posted by Etrigan at 7:28 AM PST - 19 comments

Becoming Ruby follows Brooklyn Bell, a Pacific Northwest based artist, mountain biker, and skier. A short flick that focuses on race, gender, and mountain bikes. [more inside]
posted by yeahwhatever at 1:45 AM PST - 3 comments

So you're trying to spice up your video conferences and looking into custom backgrounds (Zoom tutorial; Microsoft Teams guide; Skype guide), but what image to pick? Studio Ghibli shared 8 suitable movie backgrounds [via Spoon Tamago and Mltshp], or you can get official Star Wars scenery [via Mltshp]. Or you could browse through One Perfect Shot, a Twitter account from Film School Rejects [also via Mltshp]. Or get artistic and pick up something from the The British Museum's “major revamp” of its digital collection, with nearly 1.9 million images free to use for anyone under a Creative Commons 4.0 license [via Open Culture, who link to more interesting and educational resources; via Mltshp].
posted by filthy light thief at 9:07 PM PST - 29 comments

Stuck at home and feeling a bit punchy? Stuntwoman Zoë Bell was. So she challenged a few friends to a little Boss Bitch Fight Challenge
posted by Mchelly at 8:58 PM PST - 21 comments

Can you read your grandma's handwritten recipe cards, or your great-grandfather's old letters? Turn your cursive skills to something useful -- help an archivist transcribe a document! The United States National Archive's "Citizen Archivist" initiative seeks volunteers to help out with documents from a wide range of areas, from correspondence from job-seekers at the Schyuylkill Arsenal during the US Civil War to the 1975 trial of Leonard Peltier: https://www.archives.gov/citizen-archivist But if these topics don't interest you, there are lots more projects under the fold. [more inside]
posted by pleasant_confusion at 8:53 PM PST - 21 comments

"In studies of people isolated in submarines, space stations or polar bunkers, researchers have found there appears to be an inflection point where the frustration and hardship of being cooped up inside gets suddenly harder to bear." Welcome to third quarter phenomenon. [more inside]
posted by Athanassiel at 5:53 PM PST - 49 comments

“I’m Emerson. You may know me as the person that lives here that writes a lot of letters & decorated the envelopes. Emerson likes sending letters. A story of an eleven-year old girl and the USPS in a time where sharing can be hard. (link to Twitter thread)<
posted by PussKillian at 5:10 PM PST - 12 comments

'Murder hornets' spotted in the US for the first time [CNN] [more inside]
posted by Halloween Jack at 4:09 PM PST - 84 comments

Metallica - Master of Puppets
posted by Pendragon at 4:00 PM PST - 16 comments

Percival Everett Has a Book or Three Coming Out [NYT] [more inside]
posted by chavenet at 3:37 PM PST - 3 comments

Leo Tolstoy’s Children’s Stories Will Devastate Your Children and Make You Want to Die "In 1988, the children’s novelist and Russia expert James Riordan translated several of these for a collection called The Lion and the Puppy: And Other Stories for Children, published first by Henry Holt and Company. The cover has a nice picture of a lion and a puppy; the illustrations by Claus Sievert are lovely throughout. My children fell in love with that picture, and they wanted me to read them the book."
posted by betweenthebars at 2:50 PM PST - 36 comments

Plague is a re-occuring historical event.
Public health officials might not have understand viruses, but they understood the importance of keeping a distance and disinfecting.
Hoping to halt the advance of bubonic plague, in 1377 the city of Ragusa issued a ‘trentino’, for anyone trying to enter the city. [more inside]
posted by adamvasco at 1:50 PM PST - 11 comments

"I was still shocked by how much had changed, and how quickly." After climbing out of the Grand Canyon, Kim Stanley Robinson reflects on how culture is and may be changing under the impact of COVID-19, from charismatic mega-ideas to societies within societies. [more inside]
posted by doctornemo at 8:51 AM PST - 29 comments

My [six-year-old] kid wrote a song called, “I Wonder What’s Inside your Butthole” Quite honestly, it slaps. Twitter | Threadreader (Be sure to check out the remixes)
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 8:27 AM PST - 42 comments

In 2016 the Museum of London held an exhibition about computer games set in London. Here is an interview with the curator, Foteini Aravani, and a post by her about London in video games. There were reviews of the exhibition from St John Street News and Londonist. Dave Curran, who was involved in restoring the hardware for the exhibition, also wrote about it.
posted by paduasoy at 8:04 AM PST - 10 comments

AI Designs Computer Chips for More Powerful AI - "The designs are as good as, or even better than, what humans can manage... a machine learning algorithm that can turn a massive, complex netlist into an optimized physical chip design in about six hours. By comparison, conventional chip design, which is already highly automated but requires a human in the loop, takes several weeks." [more inside]
posted by kliuless at 7:56 AM PST - 29 comments

In Defense of Dark Souls 2 [YouTube] “I know a lot of readers are already sharpening their pitchforks just from looking at that headline, so let me be super clear: I’m not just saying this to be controversial. I love this series. In fact, I’ve been on the Souls train from the very beginning. [...] his is in stark contrast to the general opinion of the wider Dark Souls community, which often considers Dark Souls 2 to be sort of a black sheep, the weakest entry in the series with tons of flaws. Notably, it’s also the only entry in the series not directed by Hidetaka Miyazaki, though that famed head of the Souls franchise did have some hand in the game’s creation. So why do I love Dark Souls 2 so much when other hardcore Souls fans are more or less indifferent to it? The above video from YouTube essayist H. Bomberguy explains in far greater detail than I ever could.” [via: Polygon] [more inside]
posted by Fizz at 7:52 AM PST - 11 comments

According to The Atlantic, The filmmakers of 1942's Arabian Nights were forced to remove depictions of dancers wearing belly-baring costumes. Some later movies sought to exploit censorship rules by adorning an exposed navel with a piece of jewelry, such as in Follow That Camel, featuring Anita Harris. Marilyn Monroe's final film, Something's Gotta Give, delayed from its original 1962 release, would also have been the first picture to show the actress's belly button. "I guess the censors are willing to recognize that everybody has a navel," she said before her death. When the TV show I Dream of Jeannie first aired in 1965, Barbara Eden was told to cover up her navel with high-waisted pants. [more inside]
posted by Bella Donna at 6:09 AM PST - 16 comments

Goonies Never Say Die Josh Gad, of Olaf the Snowman fame, gets the entire cast and creative team behind The Goonies on a group chat, including the Fratelli Brothers. The Goonies are indeed good enough.
posted by Slap*Happy at 3:26 AM PST - 7 comments

"The Great Realisation". A poem / bedtime story, written and performed by Tomos Roberts, about a worldwide spiritual awakening resulting from COVID-19. From TomFoolery.
posted by New Frontier at 10:02 PM PST - 9 comments

In the fall of 1928, George D. Hay opened the newly syndicated WSM Barn Dance, following a classical performance that attempted to mimic a train* by saying “for the past hour we have been listening to music taken largely from the Grand Opera, but from now on we will present the Grand Ole Opry.” DeFord Bailey then stepped onto the stage and played “Pan American Blues,” one of his trademark tunes, emulating the sound of a locomotive speeding down the tracks on—making him Grand Ole Opry's first musician, and first artist to record in Nashville (Tennessean). Despite making these and other country music landmarks, Bailey has become largely forgotten. Towards the end of his life, he had two wishes: a proper gravestone (Find a Grave) and for someone to tell his story (Narratively). [more inside]
posted by filthy light thief at 8:44 PM PST - 3 comments

Nvidia have released a beta of RTX Voice, an app which remove unwanted noise like traffic, rain or fans from your microphone input using hardware accelerated machine learning. While it is branded RTX, it is possible to run it with GTX cards.
posted by adept256 at 6:43 PM PST - 35 comments

A high-pressure ventilator prototype developed by NASA engineers to help coronavirus patients was approved by the Food and Drug Administration on Thursday, according to NASA. The approval is for use of the ventilator specifically for coronavirus patients under the FDA's ventilator Emergency Use Authorization, established by the agency on March 24. It's named VITAL (CNN)...
posted by jim in austin at 12:54 PM PST - 24 comments

"The number of ways that humans use numbers .. .doesn't even make sense"
posted by dhruva at 12:33 PM PST - 43 comments

The Imperial dream database of Charles Gabriel Seligman of the LSE was the result of a huge project to gather and interpret the dreams of the subjects of the Empire. The results were not exactly as expected.
posted by Segundus at 9:04 AM PST - 11 comments

The New Bedford Whaling Museum takes its popular annual 25-hour Moby-Dick reading marathon online, with chapters read during a YouTube "Story Hour" each night since April 17. Volunteers from across the US signed up to read a chapter from home (NYT). [more inside]
posted by Miko at 7:58 AM PST - 8 comments

GTA Online Players Are Picking Sides In A Giant Alien War And There Are Memes [Vice] “Here's a very 2020 sentence: a gang war between purple and green aliens is taking over GTA5 Online, and the memes about it are the hottest thing on TikTok. GTA Online's extraterrestrial gang war has been entirely player directed. In late April, players started dressing up as green aliens, and then surprising other players with beatdowns. Now it appears that a rival gang, dressed as purple aliens, are going after the green aliens, causing an alien gang rivalry. The annals of this gang war are being documented on TikTok, usually accompanied by the music of snitch and dummy who picked a fight with Chief Keef, Tekashi 6ix9ine.”
posted by Fizz at 7:12 AM PST - 29 comments

Galgos are a Spanish dog breed similar in appearance to Greyhounds. They are a notoriously mistreated animal, often discarded when their Galgueros consider them useless for hunting or racing. There are numerous rescue groups in Spain that focus on the breed -- my favorite being Galgos del Sol. In 2018, after 4 years of work, filmmaker and Galgo-owner Yeray López Portillo finished Yo Galgo (trailer), which is free to watch online, this weekend only. (CW: animal abuse; hunting/racing culture; slaughterhouses)
posted by dobbs at 7:01 AM PST - 17 comments

How cities are reshaping streets to prepare for life after lockdown - "Milan is beginning to transform 22 miles of local streets, adding temporary bike lanes and wider sidewalks, and lowering the speed limit. In Berlin, some parking spots have also become pop-up bike lanes. Paris is fast-tracking long-distance bike lanes that connect suburbs to the city center. And in Brussels, on May 4, the city center will become a priority zone for people on bikes and on foot." (previously) [more inside]
posted by kliuless at 12:12 AM PST - 30 comments

Fit for the Apocalypse with Alice Bag: What it says on the tin. More than enough content in these videos, but more about Alice Bag below the fold: [more inside]
posted by frumiousb at 7:54 PM PST - 4 comments

Every night, Kate Bowler tucks her six-year-old son into bed. And, every night, he asks her questions to try to keep her from leaving. Questions like, "Have you ever eaten pumpkin seeds?" or "Are raccoons awake right now?" or "Do you know anyone with one eye?" or "MOM. IS GOOGLE A PERSON?" or....
posted by JHarris at 7:49 PM PST - 30 comments

This is a music challenge, testing how well you recognize historic hits.
posted by Literaryhero at 5:01 PM PST - 98 comments

Japanese aquarium urges public to video-chat eels who are forgetting humans exist Sensitive creatures are starting to hide when keepers walk past, as a result of the lack of visitors. (SLGuardian)
posted by hippybear at 3:28 PM PST - 30 comments

"Lovecraft Country" , based on the book by Matt Ruff, and adapted by Misha Green, will premiere on HBO this August.
posted by Ipsifendus at 2:10 PM PST - 25 comments

Bored Panda is running monthly articles featuring photographs of rescued pets.

January (example)
February (example)
March (example)
April (example)
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 2:05 PM PST - 12 comments

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has announced new additions to the country's prohibited weapons list. Saying Nova Scotia victim's "families deserve more than thoughts and prayers. Canadians deserve more than thoughts and prayers." approximately 1500 models accounting for 125,000 previously legal semi-automatic rifles owned by Canadians have been banned (with a two year amnesty for currently owned weapons). Newly prohibited "assault-style" weapons placed on the prohibited list include the Mini-14 (used by Ecole Polytechnique shooter) and the popular AR-15 platform. [more inside]
posted by Mitheral at 1:56 PM PST - 53 comments

Review of time spent with our toddler on his nightly screen time sessions with Cars (2006)

During week 1, we estimated that we were getting through roughly 20% of the movie Cars (2006) every night, leaving us five days to get through completion of the 117 minute movie (roughly 109 minutes if you don’t include all of the credits and accompanying John Mayer song/gag). As the quarantine continued into week seven, we estimate that the Toddler has now cumulatively seen Cars (2006) a total of 19 times.

posted by jenkinsEar at 1:01 PM PST - 14 comments

Robeson County in North Carolina is called a tri-racial county, with members of Lumbee Tribe in a liminal space. Despite being very much assimilated into white culture as evident from their speech and religious practices, Lumbees still faced much injustice (UNC), similar but different from the experience of blacks. The decision of Brown v. Board of Education, and state recognition of the Lumbees Tribe, were likely justifications used by the Ku Klux Klan to burn crosses, then drive around town, broadcasting racial slurs and promoting their “anti-Indian” rally. What happened is now known as the Battle of Hayes Pond (Wikipedia), or the day the Native Americans drove the KKK out of town (Narratively). [more inside]
posted by filthy light thief at 12:16 PM PST - 6 comments

Samin Nosrat wants everyone to make lasagna on Sunday The wonderful Samin Nosrat suggests that we all make a Sunday lasagna and have an online party. She wrote about it at the NYTimes, but if that is paywalled you can hear about it on the corona-times podcast she does with Hrishikesh Hirway [more inside]
posted by mumimor at 12:12 PM PST - 26 comments

With the real NHL season postponed, an Ontario family of hockey fans decided to recreate the season and the excitement of the Stanley Cup playoffs in their basement. Highlights include the humming of the classic Hockey Night in Canada theme, 2-on-2 game clips, player interviews, colour commentary, and studio visits from some fans who are real animals (like Tuna the cat). Game Five right here if you just want to see who takes home the Cup.
posted by hurdy gurdy girl at 12:00 PM PST - 5 comments

Mask, Gloves, Soap, Scrubs (SLYT) Previously
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 10:28 AM PST - 25 comments

With each wave that crashed on shore, an bright blue flash lit up the whitewash on the dark beach – like a pulse of electricity zapping the surf just off shore (OC Register). The bioluminescent waves (Youtube) that have been putting on surprise shows at select beaches is a mesmerizing sight (LA Times), a rare phenom that has been moving around Southern California’s coastline (Smithsonian) and drawing fans when word spreads that a red tide – a funky copper color during the day (Surfer) – is turning the waves neon after the sun goes down. Glowing Dolphins After Sunset! (Facebook)
posted by not_the_water at 9:07 AM PST - 18 comments

How Long Will it Really Take to Develop a Covid-19 Vaccine? "Our record for developing an entirely new vaccine is at least four years — more time than the public or the economy can tolerate social-distancing orders. But if there was any time to fast-track a vaccine, it is now. So Times Opinion asked vaccine experts how we could condense the timeline and get a vaccine in the next few months instead of years." The timelines charted in the article show the consequences of telescoping the development schedule by compressing academic research times, starting trials early, using concurrent Phase trialing, building factories before vaccines are proven effective, and fast-tracking FDA approval.
posted by storybored at 8:54 AM PST - 97 comments

A visualization of extreme wealth shown to scale.
posted by BuddhaInABucket at 8:16 AM PST - 113 comments

The Fremen Mirage, Part I: War at the Dawn of Civilization - a term I’m creating to encompass a set of related pop-history theories which are flourish, evergreen despite not, perhaps, holding up so well under close examination. [more inside]
posted by the man of twists and turns at 8:11 AM PST - 35 comments

The Man Who Thought Too Fast: "Frank Ramsey—a philosopher, economist, and mathematician—was one of the greatest minds of the last century. Have we caught up with him yet?" Anthony Gottlieb writes for the New Yorker about Frank Ramsey, the philosophical phenom who died at age 26, and the new and first full biography of him, “Frank Ramsey: A Sheer Excess of Powers” by Cheryl Misak. [more inside]
posted by homunculus at 7:47 AM PST - 18 comments

For the thirthieth anniversary of Good Omens: the Lockdown version.
posted by MartinWisse at 7:37 AM PST - 13 comments

I Used The Sims To Perfect My Apartment is not what it says on the tin. Instead, this 15 minute video from gaming site Polygon.com unravels into a bizarre meditation on depression, loneliness, and friendship which in These Trying Times scratched an itch I didn't know I had. (However, it will almost definitely not help you perfect your apartment.)
posted by showbiz_liz at 7:10 AM PST - 8 comments

Tony Oladipo Allen, self-taught drummer of legend, has passed away in Paris. His meteoric path - from the creation of Afrobeat with Fela Kuti, to the distillation of Afrofunk with King Sunny Adé, Manu Dibango and Ray Lema, up to his myriad later collaborations with the likes of Susheela Raman, Sebastien Tellier, Air, Damon Albarn, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Jarvis Cocker, Flavia Coelho, Jimi Tenor, Zap Mama, Flea, Oumou Sangaré and Jeff Mills - was that, in the words of Brian Eno, of "perhaps the greatest drummer who has ever lived." Here's an hour of interview and excerpts with Allen, from Raymond Dumas' documentary "Legends of Afrobeat": Tony Allen (Paris).
posted by progosk at 3:42 AM PST - 34 comments