July 2014 Archives

July 31

50 Female-Directed Movies You Should Watch

"DISCLAIMER TIME! 50 is a very small number. I make no claims to any of these lists being either comprehensive or some sort of objective analysis of the 'best' films directed by women. I make selections based on on what I've seen, what I like, and the position of the stars. One film per director. Ready? Let's go." [more inside]
posted by joseph conrad is fully awesome at 11:12 PM PST - 64 comments

So many [adult swim] bumps.

[bump worthy] - A vast repository of Adult Swim bumps dating back to 2001, including audio and video downloads, live streaming, and musical artist information for each bump.
posted by not_on_display at 10:26 PM PST - 10 comments

"Two girls can often do what one on her own cannot."

British romance novelist Ida Cook (1904-1986) wrote over a hundred books for Mills & Boon under the name Mary Burchell, including the thirteen-book, opera-focused Warrender saga. The passion she and her sister, Louise Cook, shared for opera carried them across oceans and countries in the years prior to the outbreak of WWII, and when Ida took account of her writing career's financial success, she was by struck by a "terrible, moving and overwhelming thought--I could save life with it." So beginning in 1937, she and Louise helped save dozens of lives by entering Germany disguised as themselves: eccentric opera fanatics. Louise Carpenter's "Ida and Louise" looks into the lives of these two sisters, these "lives which swung dizzyingly between the purest fantasy and the utterly real." [more inside]
posted by mixedmetaphors at 10:21 PM PST - 6 comments

I just never want to let my gender down

As a single woman, I received a lot of attention. ... It felt that I was either pissing people off with my bubbly attitude or breaking hearts. All that said, the most difficult part of all was having everyone think I was bad at Magic simply by looking at me—and them being right. This was by far what drove me the most.
There and Back Again: A Wizard's Tale — Feminist gamer/producer Tifa Robles writes candidly about her journey in, out, and around the world of competitive gaming. [more inside]
posted by annekate at 10:10 PM PST - 11 comments

The Confidence Gap

Why are women so less self-assured and why are men so overconfident? The Atlantic takes on what they are calling the "confidence gap," the tendency of women to underplay their expertise to lack confidence in both their achievements and their potential. [more inside]
posted by amanda at 9:30 PM PST - 56 comments

This is a story about the tiny trails of history the beads have left us.

Trade Tales and Tiny Trails: Glass Beads in the Kalahari Desert
posted by the man of twists and turns at 9:17 PM PST - 5 comments

To Swerve and Deflect.

On July 29, 2014, the City of Chicago released to the public a set of documents long sought by journalists and civil rights lawyers. Here they are. [more inside]
posted by stinkfoot at 8:53 PM PST - 25 comments

O Último Banquiero

Banco Espírito Santo, Portugal's second largest bank by assets held, was nationalized "through the back door" several days ago after the shocking revelations of money laundering and tax evasion by the bank's founding family which had become public over the past few months caused the bank to post a recordbreaking loss of 3.6 billion euros. [more inside]
posted by librarylis at 8:42 PM PST - 4 comments

Cowtown Keeylocko, AZ - population 5, most of the time

"The difficult ... you're supposed to do right away. The impossible ... that'll take you a few days longer." Building your own town out near Tuscon, Arizona probably falls in the category of "the impossible," but Ed Keeylocko did that, a pickup truck of materials at a time. This is the story of Cowtown Keeylocko, built by an African-American with red hair and swamp green eyes, who was abandoned by his mother, a self-proclaimed minority of minorities. He served in Korea and Vietnam, and he returned to the US, where he took up ranching in Arizona. In December of 1974, he founded Cowtown Keeylocko, a western ranch that is "an odd mixture of the real and the fanciful." The ranch/town expanded by 1989 to have a mayor, citizens, its own zip code, fourty-six head of cattle, three ranch hands, 10,800 acres of land, and five buildings (Google books preview). The March/April 1996 issue of American Cowboy has a short article on Ed Keeylocko and his cowtown, and here's a more recent (but still dated) website on the mayor and trail boss of Cowtown Keeylocko, with stories from visitors and photos from a roundup.
posted by filthy light thief at 8:28 PM PST - 6 comments

You Are a Bear

You are a bear. You wake up in a dimly lit cave. [more inside]
posted by drlith at 7:03 PM PST - 49 comments

"I look like her, and she looks like me."

Disney Junior's Doc McStuffins is an animated children's show about 6-year-old Dottie McStuffins, who wants to be a doctor like her mother, and pretends to be a doctor to her toys. Doc McStuffins has done well as a TV show, but it's as a doll that Doc's success has been stratospheric, with over $500 million in sales last year. “'When little white girls embrace Doc McStuffins, for them Doc McStuffins is a girl, and Doc McStuffins is powerful,' Dr. [Margaret Beale] Spencer said. 'For a little black girl, it may be all of those things, but also that she’s black.'”
posted by ocherdraco at 5:22 PM PST - 36 comments

Lies, damn lies, and negotations

Women are more likely to be lied to at the negotiation table
Women are more likely to be lied to at the negotiation table, according to a recent study led by UC Berkeley researchers at the Haas School of Business. The study, published online July 14, determined that women are more likely to be lied to than men from a series of face-to-face negotiations among about 300 MBA students at Haas.…The cultural stereotype is that women are “too nice” to accuse someone of lying, but the study found that whether or not women were lied to was rooted in how their competence was perceived by their negotiating partner, [lead researcher] Kray said.
[more inside]
posted by Lexica at 5:19 PM PST - 22 comments

War + communicable disease = the greatest pandemic ever known

The Great War helped create the influenza pandemic of 1918, which eventually brought an early end to the Great War. "I had a little bird, Its name was Enza.  I opened the window, And in-flu-enza. ~ Children's Skipping Rhyme, 1918"
posted by Dashy at 4:30 PM PST - 14 comments

Armored and Adorable

In case of cute emergency, here is a three-banded armadillo named Rollie playing with his favorite toy.
posted by Orange Dinosaur Slide at 3:43 PM PST - 25 comments

social inequality breeds game

Cockblocked by Redistribution: A Pick-up Artist in Denmark [more inside]
posted by flex at 3:36 PM PST - 30 comments

TV: Rewind and Rehash

Are you combing Netflix trying to find all the TV shows you missed the first time around? Or maybe you just want to take a nostalgia trip and revist all of the great television that is gone but not forgotten? So much good TV! Problem is, it's not like you can stand at the office watercooler chatting about that awesome episode you saw last night...especially if it first aired in 1994. So what do you do when you want to really mull over an episode you just watched? You listen to some great podcasts with fans discussing in depth your favorite shows, that's what. [more inside]
posted by BeBoth at 3:20 PM PST - 19 comments

FPP: Foundation Paper Piecing

Many types of quilt blocks can be built by stitching together simple geometric shapes. Then there’s paper (sometimes called foundation) piecing. [more inside]
posted by heyforfour at 2:11 PM PST - 13 comments

Where Techy Meets Pretty

Who knew structural engineering could be so sweet? Justina Yang is the "paper engineer" behind Fiber Lab, a design studio located in her sunroom. She creates paper art, décor, bracelets, bowties, and lamp shades. In her short videos, she demonstrates how to make your very own dodecahedron; a whimsical carousel that produces beautiful waves and teaches you about wave interference; a mesmerizing interactive kinetic wave sculpture; a string art geometric love story; and a delicious-looking paper croissant.
posted by fundip at 1:48 PM PST - 4 comments

Smackdown 1973

Behold the five Oscar-nominated Supporting Actresses of 1973: a "bitchin' babe" (Candy Clark), a pint-sized con-artist (Tatum O'Neal), a possessed teenager (Linda Blair), a selfish carnival dancer (Madeline Kahn), and a vinegary New York institution (Sylvia Sidney). A roundtable discussion at The Film Experience. [more inside]
posted by troika at 1:34 PM PST - 15 comments

R.I.P. Harun Farocki

Legendary experimental filmmaker Harun Farocki, whose films and installations critiqued institutions of power and explored complicated relationships with the image, passed away yesterday at the age of 70. [more inside]
posted by AtoBtoA at 12:51 PM PST - 4 comments

Are you a horrible person, or only pretending to be a horrible person?

The Case against Cards Against Humanity
posted by garlic at 12:06 PM PST - 296 comments

"Capturing scenes of others 'not making it' as well"

Hollywood Streets, 1979-1983 "I went to Hollywood to 'make it', but didn't, and ended up taking pictures of Hollywood, capturing scenes of others 'not making it' as well."
posted by scody at 11:59 AM PST - 21 comments

Veto bunnies

Who uses their veto in the UN Security Council the most, and what for?
posted by tavegyl at 11:39 AM PST - 16 comments

an apple a day keeps Putin away

Russia bans apples from Poland due to health regulation violations. Ukrainian cornmeal and McDonalds are also on the hit list. Russia has a pattern of banning the products of countries it has disputes with — under the guise of sanitary violations — in order to impose political pressure. [more inside]
posted by St. Peepsburg at 11:30 AM PST - 56 comments

Beauty As Duty during WW2

Putting on a brave face. It isn’t easy to do without, but to do without while giving the impression that little has changed offers necessary courage to one living in an otherwise terrifying situation. Women had no power over the volatile state of the world, and after conscription was introduced, they also lost control over which jobs they held and where these jobs took them; if they could succeed in appearing strong and unruffled on the outside, perhaps on the inside they might also feel capable of succeeding in the midst of the uncertainty that had become their lives
posted by ellieBOA at 11:19 AM PST - 12 comments

Mayor Jane Byrne

Jane Byrne was the first, and, so far, only, female mayor of Chicago, serving from 1979-1983. [more inside]
posted by macadamiaranch at 11:09 AM PST - 7 comments

Plain Vanilla

VanillaReview.com provides reviews of online vanilla bean sources. If you want to give homemade vanilla extract to your friends and family this Giftmas, now's the time to get started. But don't stop there -- you can also learn about vanilla frost, vanilla bean grading, vanilla growing, and even vanilla tattoos, which are used to prevent vanilla rustling. [more inside]
posted by pie ninja at 10:35 AM PST - 12 comments

Die PARTEI hat immer recht

On the 25th of May, 2014, Martin Sonneborn of Die PARTEI became the first member of his party to enter the EU parliament.

Currently using the slogan, "Inhalte überwunden" or "Overcome substance", the Partei für Arbeit, Rechtstaat, Tierschutz, Elitenförderung und basisdemokratische Initiative (Party for Labour, Rule of Law, Animal Protection, Promotion of Elites and Grassroots Initiatives) was founded in 2004 by the staff of Titanic, a satire magizine. [more inside]
posted by frimble at 10:27 AM PST - 11 comments

Get Off My Internets

Inside the Internet’s Craziest Destination for Blogger Hate "I just like to point and laugh at the absurdity of personal blogging as a career," A. continues. "I mean, people quit well-paying jobs to become personal bloggers. They get book deals so they can put their ramblings in print. They make hundreds of thousands of dollars per year through sponsorships and partnerships. It's all so insane to me, and my only motive is to point, shrug and go, 'WTF?'" [more inside]
posted by danabanana at 10:10 AM PST - 107 comments

We're sending help immediately, Mrs. Fletcher

If the true measure of an ad's popularity is the afterlife it enjoys through parody and satire, then this 1989 LifeCall ad — featuring Mrs. Fletcher and her infamous line, "I've fallen and I can't get up!"may be the best-loved commercial of all time.
posted by Mchelly at 10:03 AM PST - 57 comments

i think my photos feel more like paintings to me

Hobbes Ginsberg is a 20-year-old photographer from Los Angeles who takes gorgeous, color saturated, studio composed photographs of herself and others, most often her girlfriend Chloe (NSFW). Buy her photozine, see photos from an exhibition, or read her text blog. [more inside]
posted by Juliet Banana at 9:54 AM PST - 12 comments

And someday you will die too.

Every Upworthy video ever in just over two minutes. (SLYT)
posted by gman at 9:28 AM PST - 6 comments

HODOR

HODOR HODOR
posted by cjorgensen at 8:35 AM PST - 55 comments

Everyone loves infographics!

A link to Good Magazine's infographics. Some of my favorites: How powerful is your passport, Being bike friendly in America, What foods are most susceptible to food fraud. [more inside]
posted by Kitteh at 8:05 AM PST - 19 comments

"Just A Phase"

30 Bisexual Women Discuss Their Long-Term Relationships With Men. Even though more people self-identify as bisexual than gay and lesbian, there is a widespread belief that those who identify as bi are either in a transitional stage or are lying to themselves or others.
posted by showbiz_liz at 7:40 AM PST - 147 comments

Give and take

DakhaBrakha electrifying vocal harmonies, beats and funky basslines. [more inside]
posted by asok at 6:50 AM PST - 7 comments

thesis - by king avriel

Thesis is the latest Long Player by R&B singer and songwriter King avriel. Linked is an interview with her and a soundcloud stream of her new album.
posted by zoo at 6:50 AM PST - 2 comments

Catnip Camera

Bad day? week? month? Try the foster kitten cams. Currently eighteen different kittencams are available on one page.
posted by MartinWisse at 6:30 AM PST - 28 comments

A very vector story

The Adobe Illustrator Story. Watch the Illustrator story unfold, from its beginning as Adobe’s first software product, to its role in the digital publishing revolution, to becoming an essential tool for designers worldwide
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 5:57 AM PST - 43 comments

Bush-era wimp heroes

Why Everybody Hates 'Garden State' in 2014. "When they burst forth in 2004, simply being non-masculine was a bit of a political gesture. It imagined itself as a refusal to play the game of (party) politics. But now it literally looks like guys standing around thinking. Watching any of those films, we’re right to ask ourselves: Why was this supposed to mean anything to us? The culture has shifted since 2004." See also, "In Defense of Garden State."
posted by Sticherbeast at 4:40 AM PST - 187 comments

A few alternatives to Dr Google

Dr Google always thinks it's cancer, except when it's lupus. So how do you find reliable health information online? The (US) National Institute on Aging has some good rules of thumb, and the National Library of Medicine has a simple tutorial. Many of us, though, might prefer a list of general trustworthy resources. Here are some of my favorites, including some Australian and UK resources that American MeFites might not know. [more inside]
posted by gingerest at 1:33 AM PST - 21 comments

July 30

TL;DR

Simon and Martina, of the joint blog Eat Your Kimchi, are a married Canadian couple that moved to South Korea in 2008. They have a YouTube series called "TL;DR" in which readers can submit questions about living in Korea, and they will answer them to the best of their ability. In short: "You ask questions. We make videos answering them!" Here's a couple: The Threat of North Korea, Korean Food Etiquette. [more inside]
posted by joseph conrad is fully awesome at 11:06 PM PST - 11 comments

Five Things You Learn Growing Up In (And Escaping) North Korea

Cracked interviews a NK escapee, an ambassador to NK's grandson, and a journalist covering NK. Want more, without any humor (Cracked is pretty restrained for their piece)? BBC on the people smuggling industry, Yeonmi Park on growing up in North Korea, the Guardian on an ordinary day in Pyongyang, Al-jazeera explains how the Kims rule with an iron fist and some recent photographs of ordinary people in North Korea.
posted by viggorlijah at 10:17 PM PST - 11 comments

A raccoon of my own

Only a handful of all the animal species on earth can be tamed, but that doesn’t stop a homesick girl of 15 from trying
posted by Joe in Australia at 9:15 PM PST - 29 comments

being the other

World War 3 Illustrated is "an anthology series with a left-wing political focus." [more inside]
posted by the man of twists and turns at 9:11 PM PST - 2 comments

"There's no easy way to say this... I'm pregnant Trevor."

Test footage from a Deadpool project looks to be awesome. [more inside]
posted by quin at 6:52 PM PST - 60 comments

Alone

The Center for Investigative Reporting conducted a year-long investigation into the problem of teens held in solitary confinement and chronicles what it found in the short documentary “Alone.” [more inside]
posted by drlith at 6:48 PM PST - 18 comments

On, Wisconsin History!

African American Bowling Shirt. Bra Flag. Liberace's Performance Jacket. The Oscar Mayer Wiener Banjo-Ukulele. A Bull Semen Parachute. These artifacts and their stories are part of the wonderful online exhibit of objects held by the Wisconsin Historical Museum. Enjoy browsing the collection!
posted by MonkeyToes at 6:27 PM PST - 14 comments

World War I in photos

A 10-Part Series By Alan Taylor. "One hundred years ago, in the summer of 1914, a series of events set off an unprecedented global conflict that ultimately claimed the lives of more than 16 million people, dramatically redrew the maps of Europe, and set the stage for the 20th Century."
posted by Librarypt at 5:20 PM PST - 10 comments

lucid dreamscapes of plants, creatures, space and earth elements

If you've walked along Broadway between 15th Street & 17th Street in downtown Oakland recently, your eye may have been caught by the colorful zodiac animals and enigmatic faces painted on the sides of two utility cabinets in front of 1542 Broadway. They're the work of Oakland-based artist and musician Thailan When. 2010 interview.
posted by Lexica at 5:17 PM PST - 3 comments

"He's been in the black earth now for a thousand years"

Deaths in the Iliad is an infographic by Laura Jenkinson presenting every death in Homer's Iliad. In her book of poetry Memorial Alice Oswald did something similar, writing about all 213 named men who die in the epic poem. You can read excerpts of the poem and listen to her read these excerpts at the Poetry Archive (1, 2). Or you can listen to her discuss Memorial on the Poetry Trust podcast (iTunes, mp3).
posted by Kattullus at 4:48 PM PST - 19 comments

Note how at no point does she look turned on. At all.

Janet looks at 89 dicks. (SLYT) Janet, who has never seen a dick pic, is presented with a slideshow of 89 such pictures. This video is of Janet's reactions. (SFW visuals-wise, but contains close to four minutes of Janet saying "dick" and describing "dicks" over and over.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 4:10 PM PST - 63 comments

Somewhere there's music.

"How High the Moon": Drag duo CoLo and Desarae Demuir warm up to Ella Fitzgerald.
posted by mykescipark at 3:56 PM PST - 6 comments

When Dutch and English Collide

Dunglish Kind of like Engrish. Only from the Netherlands. [more inside]
posted by Michele in California at 3:24 PM PST - 43 comments

Female octopuses have the saddest life spans

"For many a female octopus, laying eggs marks the beginning of the end (pdf, 1.11MB). She needs to cover them and defend them against would-be predators. She needs to gently waft currents over them so they get a constant supply of fresh, oxygenated water. And she does this continuously, never leaving and never eating. (via)."
posted by ChuraChura at 3:16 PM PST - 27 comments

Q: How is a drum solo like a sneeze? A: You know it's coming....

Three-year-old can-can drum. And then some.
posted by mudpuppie at 2:54 PM PST - 6 comments

traditional urbanism

A Traditional City Primer [more inside]
posted by flex at 2:22 PM PST - 23 comments

Did you know that Hawkeye has impaired hearing?

Hawkeye, lost 80% of his hearing in West Cost Avengers #1. When a 4 year old boy refused to wear his hearing aids since no super hero wore them, this was used to help convince him. Matt Fraction has revived this story element and has dedicated the issue to Leah Coleman of Signing Time.
posted by plinth at 1:57 PM PST - 32 comments

The American Room - Behind the nation’s closed doors, with YouTube.

It’s a standardized room. "Like Diet Coke or iPhones, American rooms are a kind of product, built as quickly and cheaply as possible to a standardized specification. " Article describing the standard American room as viewed through youtube videos.
posted by amitai at 1:48 PM PST - 51 comments

Charmingly Antiquated comics, about love and loss, and other odd things

Charmingly Antiquated is a tumblr of the usual random sort, plus original art by Sam, which includes three one-shot short comics: a little love story about a mermaid and tattoos, a morbid little comic about a banshee, and a silly, silly little comic about a princess. If you like longer stories, you might enjoy Granted, which is also by Sam.
posted by filthy light thief at 1:40 PM PST - 7 comments

DIY Law School: Learn the Law Without Law School

"'Attorneys trained in this way will be able to be average people,' Ms. Orsi said, 'not just because they don’t have debt, but because law school tells us that we’re really special.'” [NYT]
[more inside]
posted by Sparkling Natural Mineral Water at 1:00 PM PST - 32 comments

We Spelled This City

In Lexicopolis, buildings are constructed from the letters that make them up. Construct buildings by typing words like "HOUSE," "OFFICE," or "PARK."
posted by Iridic at 12:40 PM PST - 70 comments

What if there was a Robot cheering for those fans?

The Hanwha Eagles, a much beleaguered South Korean major league baseball team have introduced Fanbots, jersey-clad robots who lead cheers, display messages (and selfies where the robot would otherwise have a blank screen) sent in from fans at home, and generally stand in for fans who aren't there. [more inside]
posted by julen at 12:17 PM PST - 13 comments

No stakes, not relatable. I think I'm realizing: Shakespeare sucks.

Ira Glass tweeted that John Lithgow was "amazing" as King Lear in Central Park, but added, "Shakespeare: not good. No stakes, not relatable. I think I'm realizing: Shakespeare sucks." Then ProPublica reporter Lois Beckett had an idea: This American Lear.
posted by Etrigan at 11:24 AM PST - 272 comments

You must be this tall to Ride or Die

There's a lot of tragedy in the world lately. Please enjoy a video of DMX on an amusement park ride.
posted by MisantropicPainforest at 10:57 AM PST - 26 comments

“Uncouth, untuneful, and unmusical.”

Sean-nós singing: a bluffer's guide. While the future of the Gaeltacht is in question, sean-nós singing is alive and well in Ireland and beyond. [more inside]
posted by Sheydem-tants at 10:32 AM PST - 24 comments

For just the price of a cup of coffee you can buy a dude a cup of coffee

Actress and writer Melissa Hunter's Youtube channel is worth a look for her Adult Wednesday Addams series in which the grown-up Addams explores life in contemporary LA. Bonus: 1-800 Adopt A Dude
posted by The Whelk at 10:23 AM PST - 9 comments

Bad Mothers Anonymous

Motherhood is not all sunshine and jellybeans, and sometimes you do it badly. Bad Mothers Anonymous is a collection of confessions. [more inside]
posted by Grlnxtdr at 8:53 AM PST - 84 comments

"I'm attempting to be the Episcopalian Guy Fieri."

Going Deep with David Rees (yes, that David Rees) is a TV series about mundane things examined in a far from mundane manner. Episodes to date have explained how to tie one's shoes, how to make ice, and how to dig a hole, among other things. In an interview in The Atlantic, Rees explains his philosophy for the show: There are NO fake facts in our show. The humor comes from my interactions with the experts, who have all been incredibly good-natured and (sometimes) silly without compromising the integrity of the information they're sharing with me. That's important to us, because we really do want this show to be a celebration of everything that's right under our noses—and for that mission to succeed, we need to honor the topics by not bullshitting our way through them.
posted by Cash4Lead at 8:14 AM PST - 31 comments

How We F*** Now

BuzzFeed LGBT editor Saeed Jones joins journalists Steven Thrasher and Dave Tuller to discuss sex, gay men, and what we are (and aren’t) doing. (SL Buzzfeed)
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 7:19 AM PST - 37 comments

Argentina and the future of sovereign debt

In 2000, Argentina defaulted on international debt, and then renegotiated with most of its bondholders. Some of the rest of the bonds were snapped up by hedge funds at deep discounts. Recently a U.S. district court judge, Thomas Griesa, ruled that Argentina couldn't pay the renegotiating bondholders -- and no bank or other agent could help it pay them -- without paying the hedge funds, too, in full. The 2nd circuit affirmed, the Supreme Court denied appeal, and the ruling could have a major impact on the future of sovereign debt and on the role of the U.S. as a world financial center. If a solution is not found, Argentina will default again today.
posted by shivohum at 7:11 AM PST - 83 comments

Bill Clinton Swag Generator

What are Bill Clinton's favorite records? The actual answer is immaterial, since you can generate your own with the Bill Clinton Swag Generator.
posted by codacorolla at 7:07 AM PST - 15 comments

The ethics of animal aesthetics

From toygers to GloFish This author says harm to the animals and risk to the environment are more important factors than means the of modifying an animal's appearance. So "docking" the tail of a horse or dog is worse than making a GMO pet. Surprise, genetically modified GloFish are already on sale in pet stores. (Previously.)
posted by Lorem Ipsum Wilder at 7:00 AM PST - 26 comments

the statement that stands in for physicality

The cameras faded out and wrestling fans exhaled. It was more than just a promo; it was a virtuoso performance for the ages. It was shocking on several levels: that a monologue could have so much more power than a match; that WWE was launching the promotion of the main event of its second-biggest show of the year without either of its competitors speaking; and, perhaps most surprising, that Paul Heyman was doing the heavy lifting.
David Shoemaker does a close reading of the WWE SummerSlam promo to try and explain the rise of Paul Heyman as the face of WWE.
posted by MartinWisse at 6:10 AM PST - 34 comments

I wouldn't know where to begin.

"A Truncated Story of Infinity," a short film about the infinite possibilities contained in a day. [more inside]
posted by jbickers at 5:31 AM PST - 3 comments

Markov chains explained with interactive simulations

An interactive explanation of Markov chains
posted by a snickering nuthatch at 3:48 AM PST - 18 comments

Now you can make the Kessel Run in less than 12...hours

YouTube user crysisknife007 has apparently spent the last several weeks compiling 12 hour clips of various ambient (and some transient) sounds. Hits include 12 hours of keyboard typing, a hair dryer, and various alarm sounds, each lasting for 12 hours. But the real draw here is his collection of Extended Ambient Space Sounds. Many of your favorite spaceship sounds are here, from both the Star Trek and Star Wars universes, as well as Alien and 2001. Also notable: Jabba The Hutt laughing for 12 hours.
posted by ShutterBun at 1:41 AM PST - 11 comments

"This is why white people are so healthy"

What happens when some Ivory Coast cacao farmers get to taste the end product of their labors for the first time? A rather touching mini-doc shows their reactions.(SLYT)
posted by Purposeful Grimace at 12:16 AM PST - 50 comments

July 29

Feminism, stereotypes, and Nicki Minaj's album cover (NSFW)

Nicki Minaj (autoplaying video) is a singer, rapper, songwriter and actress who is known for her outlandish outfits, makeup, and wigs, and gutsy, lyrically skilled rapping. She creates personas or "masks" in her music and videos to communicate her message. Recently, she released an album cover online to promote her new release, Anaconda, and to create buzz. Boy did it. (All links NSFW.) [more inside]
posted by joseph conrad is fully awesome at 10:57 PM PST - 320 comments

The poem that defined a town

Come friendly bombs and fall on Slough!
It isn’t fit for humans now,
There isn’t grass to graze a cow.
Swarm over, Death! [more inside]
posted by We had a deal, Kyle at 10:54 PM PST - 12 comments

How the World Looks to Your Hubcap

Ryan Fox attached a camera to his hubcap. (seizure warning)
posted by Bugbread at 10:31 PM PST - 19 comments

“brighter than a thousand suns"

What happens if you get hit by the main beam of a particle accelerator like the LHC?. "Well, fortunately (unfortunately?) we don’t have to guess, as this exact scenario actually happened to Anatoli Bugorski, a Russian scientist, way back in 1978."
posted by thatwhichfalls at 10:26 PM PST - 43 comments

Cat countries, dog countries

Where cats are more popular than dogs in the U.S.—and all over the world. We all know there are only two types of people in the world: cat people and dog people. But data from market research firm Euromonitor suggest that these differences extend beyond individual preferences and to the realm of geopolitics: it turns out there are cat countries and dog countries, too.
posted by whyareyouatriangle at 8:54 PM PST - 54 comments

A Walk on the Wild Side

Will Self and Robert Macfarlane Walk Wild Britain
We met on the sea wall beneath the lowering weirdness of Bawdsey Manor and bonded over the bizarre extent of its rock garden: how had it come to be there? Xenoliths – Robert said – that was the technical term for rocks brought from another place. He was indeed handsome, fit and disarmingly charming; and as we loped on along the shingle crunching and chatting it became abundantly clear that our problem that day was not going to be an awkward silence. There are two main types of walk so far as I’m concerned – and I expect Robert would agree: the determining factor is not a walk’s length, whether up hill or down dale, if it is sleeting or shining, but only accompanied/unaccompanied.
[more inside]
posted by the man of twists and turns at 8:47 PM PST - 11 comments

No lump of clay needed.

“If you lose sight of your keys for the better part of 20 seconds, you should consider them lost,” says Jos Weyers, a Dutch lockpicking guru and security consultant. “If you find them later, consider them a souvenir.” The App I Used to Break Into My Neighbor’s Home
posted by fings at 8:03 PM PST - 54 comments

The achievement that couldn't be unlocked

Christine Love prankishly included an achievement in her visual novel Hate Plus that could not possibly be achieved. But gamers have refused to take no for an answer.
posted by Chrysostom at 7:05 PM PST - 33 comments

Im kiddinf lol

Creepy texts get even creepier when they're read out loud. Creepy Text Theater [NSFW SLYT]
posted by FirstMateKate at 5:55 PM PST - 20 comments

Dinnertime cosplay

Multiple websites are out there to help you dine like an anime character. Typically, they consist of anime screencaps plus either adapted or invented recipes that attempt to replicate the dishes. Okonomiyaki, dainty strawberry cakes, gyoza, Ponyo's ramen, coffee jelly, you name it! There's the earnest Real Anime Food. Then there's the sillier Recipes for Weebs, which has functional indices. Anime Recipes hasn't updated in a year, but it has a long list of recipes, including the fish pie from Kiki's Delivery Service. [more inside]
posted by wintersweet at 5:28 PM PST - 11 comments

Incredible truths and barely credible lies

"Welcome to The Unbelievable Truth, the panel game show about incredible truths and barely credible lies. I am your host, David Mitchell. The rules are as follows: each panelist will present a short lecture that should be entirely false save for five pieces of true information which they should attempt to smuggle past their opponents – cunningly concealed amongst the lies. Points are scored by truths that go unnoticed while other panelists can win a point if they spot a truth or lose points if they mistake a lie for a truth."
Having recently concluded its 13th series, the show has amassed 81 episodes. For your listening pleasure: [more inside]
posted by Lexica at 5:14 PM PST - 43 comments

This Book

"Back in May 2014, the Baileys Women’s Prize for Fiction launched the #ThisBook campaign. The aim was simple: to find out which books, written by women, have had the biggest impact on readers." The results were announced today. Check out the final Top 20, agree or disagree on Twitter, or discuss your personal lesser-known favourites on the Guardian's Books Blog.
posted by billiebee at 4:12 PM PST - 35 comments

the purity myth

Female 'Purity' Is Bullshit [more inside]
posted by flex at 2:00 PM PST - 134 comments

Living Books About Life

"... a series of curated, open access books about life — with life understood both philosophically and biologically — which provide a bridge between the humanities and the sciences." Although they offer "frozen PDFs," these books—on topics like biosemiotics, animal experience, and air—are curated collections of links to open access science articles, reviews, interviews, podcasts, sometimes with embedded sounds and videos. They have ISBN numbers and editors vetted by the Open Humanities Press, which is generally a gold mine of interesting books and journals. They feel perfectly at home on the open internet, evoking hope and nostalgia for a flourishing academic world wide web, without paywalls and login screens. [more inside]
posted by mbrock at 12:57 PM PST - 7 comments

The Beauty of Iran

23-year-old Mohammad Reza Domiri Ganji takes some amazing photographs and 360° shots of Iran's historical sites. [more inside]
posted by gman at 12:36 PM PST - 10 comments

Navicular! Strobilaceous! Pandurate! Botryoidal!

Whether your object's shaped like a ship, a pine cone, a violin, or a bunch of grapes, this handy cheat sheet from Barbara Ann Kipfer's Flip Dictionary will tell you the suitable Latinate adjective. [more inside]
posted by Iridic at 12:35 PM PST - 17 comments

The New Face of Hunger

“This is not your grandmother’s hunger,” says Janet Poppendieck, a sociologist at the City University of New York. “Today more working people and their families are hungry because wages have declined.”
posted by ellieBOA at 12:08 PM PST - 92 comments

Imogene Coca : Sid Caesar :: Ginger Rogers : Fred Astaire

Imogene Coca was the hilarious counterpart to Sid Caesar on Your Show of Shows, the ground-breaking 1950s sketch comedy show. (Here they are in the classic Auto Smashup.) She won an Emmy and a Peabody for her work on the show, had a long career in television, and later made an impact as Aunt Edna in National Lampoon's Vacation, as Ms. Dipesto's mother in Moonlighting, and on the stage. [more inside]
posted by julen at 12:04 PM PST - 8 comments

Her Noise - The Making Of (2007)

Her Noise - The Making Of (2007) - running time ~60 minutes. The video documents the development of Her Noise between 2001 and 2005 and features interviews with artists including Diamanda Galas, Lydia Lunch, Kim Gordon, Jutta Koether, Peaches, Marina Rosenfeld, Kembra Pfhaler, Chicks On Speed, Else Marie Pade, Kaffe Matthews, Emma Hedditch, Christina Kubisch and the show's curators, Lina Dzuverovic and Anne Hilde Neset. The documentary also features excerpts from live performances held during Her Noise by Kim Gordon, Jutta Koether and Jenny Hoyston (Erase Errata), Christina Carter, Heather Leigh Murray, Ana Da Silva (The Raincoats), Spider And The Webs, Partyline, Marina Rosenfeld's 'Emotional Orchestra' at Tate Modern, and footage compiled for the 'Men in Experimental Music' video made during the development of the Her Noise project by the curators and Kim Gordon, featuring Thurston Moore and Jim O'Rourke. [more inside]
posted by Ufez Jones at 11:46 AM PST - 3 comments

For a foot stompin' Tuesday

Lizzie Miles (1895-1963) was a blues singer from New Orleans. (Her music was recently featured during the closing credits of Blue Jasmine.) Less well-known are her two half-siblings, blues singer Edna Hicks (1895-1925), and jazz trumpeter and vocalist Herb Morand (1905-1952). [more inside]
posted by Orange Dinosaur Slide at 11:18 AM PST - 4 comments

Sponge cake for everyone!

I Accidentally Started a Wikipedia Hoax: A stoned college prank involving the history of the children's book series Amelia Bedelia takes on a life of its own.
posted by naoko at 10:55 AM PST - 86 comments

Ebola reaches Nigeria's largest city

A man has died in Lagos of Ebola virus. What's worrying is how he got there - by plane, with 100 other people. [more inside]
posted by Happy Dave at 10:25 AM PST - 259 comments

The Tough Realities Behind Vinyl's Comeback

If we’re talking about vinyl in 2014, we have to talk about Jack White. In April, rock‘n’roll’s self-appointed analog evangelist celebrated Record Store Day by teaming up with United Record Pressing in Nashville to put out the “World’s Fastest Released Record.” At 10 a.m., White and his band recorded a live version of his new album Lazaretto’s title track at his own Third Man studios, then drove the masters to United, where it went immediately onto a 7” press, before ending up in fans’ hands at the Third Man store. From start to finish, the process took 3 hours, 55 minutes, and 21 seconds.
posted by josher71 at 10:05 AM PST - 82 comments

Staying dry in the one of the wettest cities in North America.

Writer Jules Bentley writes about being (and staying) sober in New Orleans.
posted by Kitteh at 9:57 AM PST - 30 comments

"One of us has to go back. Would you go back?"

As North Vietnamese forces marched towards Saigon in 1975, Citibank employee John Riordan (Warning: Autoplaying video) was ordered by Citibank to burn everything important and evacuate. In Hong Kong, he and his manager discussed the situation of their Vietnamese coworkers, who were in grave danger because they had worked for an American company. [more inside]
posted by Blue Jello Elf at 9:47 AM PST - 11 comments

Mother Fair Trade

Drinking a mug of fair trade coffee? Give thanks to the memory of Edna Ruth Byler, mother of the fair trade movement in the U.S. [more inside]
posted by MonkeyToes at 9:27 AM PST - 8 comments

“Norm is a setting on a dryer, and reality is a mass hunch."

As part of their State of Sex issue, Dazed and Confused magazine presents an oral history of the trans magazine Original Plumbing [previously]. Amos Mac, co-founder and editor, asks five people in NYC who identify on the trans spectrum what being "trans in America" at this moment in time means to them. Dating columnist Arisce Wanzer discusses the challenges of dating as a transwoman of color (nsfw). Legendary NYC drag den mother Flawless Sabrina talks the ethics of identity politics and her mentorship of gay and transgender youth. [more inside]
posted by Juliet Banana at 8:52 AM PST - 8 comments

After the App Goldrush

The app market is becoming a mature, developed industry, with vastly increased commoditization compared to its early days. Competition is ubiquitous, relentless, and often shameless, even in categories that were previously under-the-radar niches. Standing out requires more effort than ever, yet profits are harder to come by than ever. Full-time iOS indie developers — people who make the majority of their income from sales of their apps, rather than consulting or other related work — are increasingly rare.
App Rot: Marco Arment (creator of Instapaper and early Tumblr CTO) wonders if the heyday for app makers is over even when Apple and Google have paid out a combined $15B to developers in the last 12 months.
posted by gwint at 8:27 AM PST - 49 comments

A good guy with a gun

In 1963, Robert Dowlut was convicted of shooting two people: a shopkeeper during a robbery, and then his girlfriend's mother later the same night. Six years later, he was released from prison by a ruling from the Indiana State Supreme Court, due to a flawed police investigation. Today, Dowlut is the general counsel of the National Rifle Association. As the NRA's top lawyer, he has been a key architect of the gun lobby's campaign to define the legal interpretation of the Second Amendment.

The NRA's Murder Mystery: a great longread from Mother Jones.
posted by (Arsenio) Hall and (Warren) Oates at 7:57 AM PST - 67 comments

Prepare for a significant decline in gang activity.

This person made a giant spirograph and it's actually pretty awesome. [more inside]
posted by phunniemee at 7:10 AM PST - 37 comments

Yeah, that's right.

The location of the photograph used on the Boards of Canada - Music Has The Right To Children album cover has been found. See it on Google Maps.
posted by davebush at 6:40 AM PST - 45 comments

"If you care about WisCon, rebuild it."

Last year at WisCon 37, I told a Safety staffer that I had been treated by another attendee in a way that made me uncomfortable and that I believed to be sexual harassment. One big reason I did was that I understood from another source that he had reportedly harassed at least one other person at a convention. I learned that she didn’t report him formally, for a lot of reasons that aren’t mine to say. I was in a position where I felt confident I could take the hit from standing up and telling the truth. So I did.

I didn’t expect, fourteen months later, to have to stand up and tell the truth about WisCon’s leadership as well.
Elise Matthesen talks about what happened after she reported being harassed at Wiscon 37, in a post also posted at C. Lundoff, Mary Robinette Kowal, Stephanie Zvan, Sigrid Ellis and John Scalzi's respective blogs. [more inside]
posted by MartinWisse at 5:37 AM PST - 296 comments

‘Put anything you want in me’ said Space to Time, ‘and you'll see.’

Leo Vroman, a Dutch scientist, artist and poet who lived in the US for many years, died in February of this year. Elsevier Connect did a great article back in 2012. It's rare that we see people who are great poets as well as passionate scientists. Leo Vroman was both; he needed more than just one outlet for an exceedingly curious and creative mind. His was an extraordinary life; he was a survivor of a Japanese prisoner-of-war camp, who managed to be reunited with his fiancée Tineke after the war. They married and remained together until his last day. [more inside]
posted by Too-Ticky at 4:33 AM PST - 2 comments

From Above

How the US Stumbled into the Drone Era [WSJ] As ubiquitous as Predators, Reapers, Global Hawks and their ilk may now seem, the U.S. actually stumbled into the drone era. Washington got into the business of using drones for counterterrorism well before 9/11—not out of any steely strategic design or master plan but out of bureaucratic frustration, bickering and a series of only half-intentional decisions.
posted by modernnomad at 4:25 AM PST - 6 comments

Virginia is for Lovers

The 4th Circuit Court of Appeals upholds the decision overturning Virginia's ban on Same sex marriage:
"We recognize that same-sex marriage makes some people deeply uncomfortable. However, inertia and apprehension are not legitimate bases for denying same-sex couples due process and equal protection of the laws. Civil marriage is one of the cornerstones of our way of life. It allows individuals to celebrate and publicly declare their intentions to form lifelong partnerships, which provide unparalleled intimacy, companionship, emotional support, and security. The choice of whether and whom to marry is an intensely personal decision that alters the course of an individual’s life. Denying same-sex couples this choice prohibits them from participating fully in our society, which is precisely the type of segregation that the Fourteenth Amendment cannot countenance."
[more inside]
posted by peeedro at 1:48 AM PST - 82 comments

Even The Stars

Even the Stars is a game about wandering through space without a purpose [more inside]
posted by hellojed at 12:51 AM PST - 26 comments

July 28

A metaphor for the tensions and hopes of the entire city

Mr. Phelan's Building. Medium's Sarah Agudo and Marcin Wichary investigate the building they work in: "Ancient and modern at the same time; multiple slices of time meeting under one penthouse-sporting roof." [more inside]
posted by We had a deal, Kyle at 9:40 PM PST - 9 comments

|/

Build your own Universal Multi Dial Solar Time Device.
posted by Mitheral at 9:21 PM PST - 5 comments

"They weren't human. They were monsters." "All monsters are human."

The Devil In Disguise: Modern Monsters And Their Metaphors [more inside]
posted by the man of twists and turns at 8:13 PM PST - 20 comments

Jane Marie and The Secret Life of Marrieds

Jane Feltes was a producer for This American Life. She changed her name, left TAL, and became a coeditor at The Hairpin, where she created the How to Be a Girl series that included Beauty Q&A; the Friday Bargain Bin, in which Jane told us how to spend our weekly allowance; and a collection of beauty tutorial videos, the highlight of which might possibly be The Cat Eye Tutorial for its use of office supplies and magic. Office supplies as magic? Jane also came up with Women Struggling to Drink Water (previously). Jane left The Hairpin in 2013 and currently writes a beauty column for Rookie as a well as the occasional longer piece, such as the inspirational and practical (for teens and adults) A Guide to Finding Yourself. She also has a weekly column with Cosmopolitan in which she talks to married couples and gets them to share insight into their lives together: The Secret Life of Marrieds. [more inside]
posted by danabanana at 7:38 PM PST - 15 comments

How Gary Gygax Lost Control of Dungeons & Dragons

The Ambush at Sheridan Springs. How Gary Gygax Lost Control of Dungeons & Dragons.
posted by chunking express at 7:23 PM PST - 74 comments

see if you can guess this month’s fossil from the underside of the box

"It’s underwhelming fossil fish of the month again. That wonderful time of the month where we take a look at one of the underwhelming fossil fish specimens in the Grant Museum collection. By staring at and reading about unloved, unspectacular fossil fish specimens I hope to increase global fishteracy as well as explore the question, why do we have material like this in museums? What is the point? What is the value? Maybe we also learn something important about ourselves. Something like, ‘I don’t find bad fish fossils particularly fascinating’. Which isn’t a bad thing at all. It’s the journey not the destination that matters right?" [more inside]
posted by moonmilk at 7:05 PM PST - 10 comments

On balancing career and family as a woman of color

Michel Martin, in her last week as host of NPR's "Tell Me More," responds to conversations about work/life balance such as Anne-Marie Slaughter's much-commented 2012 "Why Women Still Can't Have It All", (previously) where "the discussion too often ends where it began: with privileged, mostly white women at the forefront." [more inside]
posted by drlith at 6:45 PM PST - 11 comments

Carla Bozulich

"So, my life was not too bad. It was during the period where I was still panhandling daily and doin' good at that due to looking much younger than my eighteen years. It was weeks before I went to jail again and became straight up regular homeless and got all the way sunk into street prostitution and then severe mental illness. It was before the years when I was utterly severed from even one note of music I liked. So, in other words, at that moment, I was somewhat holding it together." (link goes to a magazine article scan). Carla Bozulich (of Evangelista, The Geraldine Fibbers and others) has a heart-rending epiphany in the wire magazine. (via | previously)
posted by dng at 6:21 PM PST - 25 comments

Piety and Perversity: The Palms of Los Angeles

Parisians claim that in Paris, one is never more than 400 yards away from a Metro station. In Los Angeles, I am equally certain that one is always within 400 yards of a palm tree. Scores of streets are lined with them; they are ubiquitous in domestic and public gardens; they rise from hilltops; they tower above cemeteries; they front museums, movie studios, hotels, hospitals, municipal buildings, modest apartments, and lavish villas; they are clustered around swimming pools; they dominate the skyline — they are everywhere, and have never been more popular. The city’s 200-year love affair with palms has never ceased, and rather than waning, the affair is waxing. From the first palms planted by Spanish padres to the city of Beverly Hills, which recently, in an act of cosmetic alteration, created a palm-lined, palm-bisected thoroughfare on upscale Rodeo Drive, the palm has been the tree of choice for Angelenos. [more inside]
posted by whyareyouatriangle at 5:50 PM PST - 38 comments

Shouldn't that second one be "xyr", not "xyrs"?

Practice with Pronouns is a site that lets you practise subject, object, possessive, and reflexive forms of English third person pronouns. It comes with a few of the most common options, but you can also fill in whatever pronouns you like. Useful for both English learners and people wanting to practise using nonbinary pronouns.
[more inside]
posted by Lexica at 5:00 PM PST - 22 comments

(OH MY GOSH)

"Marilyn Myller" - a stop motion short by Mikey Please [previously]
posted by brundlefly at 4:57 PM PST - 4 comments

If only the real thing had only taken 5m55s.

A day-by-day map of World War I. [more inside]
posted by absalom at 3:25 PM PST - 16 comments

How To make a shoe, kill a bear, and mix a Widow's Tears

Mental Floss links to free How-To guides from a hundred years ago that are still helpful if you need to mesmerize someone or name a baby
posted by The Whelk at 3:07 PM PST - 34 comments

To burn, to burst, to blaze

Katie Crouch writes beautifully on suicide, Sylvia Plath and San Francisco
posted by Sebmojo at 2:52 PM PST - 10 comments

"He alone was real."

Philby's boss was Sir Stewart Menzies, who, we are told, "rode to hounds, mixed with royalty, never missed a day at Ascot, drank a great deal, and kept his secrets buttoned up behind a small, fierce mustache. He preferred women to men and horses to both." Menzies was an amateur at a time when his adversaries were professionals. Philby's fellow Soviet spy Donald Maclean was a mess. But since he was a mess with the right accent and background he easily found a home in the British spy service. At one point, Macintyre says, Maclean "got drunk, smashed up the Cairo flat of two secretaries at the U.S. embassy, ripped up their underwear, and hurled a large mirror off the wall, breaking a large bath in two. He was sent home, placed under the care of a Harley Street psychiatrist, and then, amazingly, after a short period of treatment, promoted to head the American desk at the Foreign Office."
Kim Philby, the Soviet spy who infiltrated MI6, is the subject of a Malcolm Gladwell article in The New Yorker. Gladwell argues that Philby's story is not about spying but "the hazards of mistrust." He is interviewed on a New Yorker podcast about his article. Gladwell's article is also a review of Ben Macintyre's book on Philby, A Spy Among Friends. Gladwell reviewed Macintyre's previous book, Operation Mincemeat and argued that spy agencies might be more trouble than they're worth.
posted by Kattullus at 2:13 PM PST - 24 comments

N O N C H A L A N C E

In 2008, strange flyers started showing up in the streets of San Francisco. If you followed up on them, they led you to a discreet office in the financial district. Inside was the Induction Center for the Jejune Institute. Sit in the lounge chair provided, watch the induction video (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3), and then…. Well…. And then things really got weird... [more inside]
posted by meese at 2:10 PM PST - 24 comments

Datagenetics

DataGenetics is "a technology consultancy specializing in unlocking the value stored in large databases" and which runs an interesting blog. [more inside]
posted by alby at 1:59 PM PST - 2 comments

Star Wars Elevator Prank

SLYT of some guys exploiting causal perception in order to do something funny.
posted by Jonathan Livengood at 12:05 PM PST - 37 comments

The New Face of Richard Norris

"Since the first face transplant, in 2005, only three American hospitals have performed the procedure. Many of the twenty-eight transplants were partial, sections of the face transplanted from deceased donors. Richard's transplant was a full face and is said to be the most ambitious ever. Rodriguez likens the medically complex procedure to the Apollo moon landing." (previously, previously) [note: contains before and after photos]
posted by trillian at 12:03 PM PST - 41 comments

Definitely an E Ticket

This 3 minute video of Boeing's 787 Dreamliner rehearsing for the 2014 Farnborough airshow is notable for the performance takeoff, sure, but hey check out those slipping turns, and the forward slip to a landing, in a jetliner. Remember the Gimli Glider? [upbeat pseudo-techno music warning]
posted by pjern at 12:03 PM PST - 53 comments

Pierdom, Simon Roberts' photographic survey of England's pleasure piers

The first British pier opened 200 years ago this month in Ryde, on the Isle of Wight. Photographer Simon Roberts spent three years documenting the country's remaining piers. (The Guardian) Roberts describes his collection of photographs, Pierdom, as "a comprehensive survey of Britain’s Pleasure Piers," and he captures the current state of powerful reminder of the achievements of Victorian engineers and entrepreneurs. The Telegraph has a bit more on how he set up his process. The Photographers' Gallery has a slideshow of some of Simon's photos, and Lens Scratch has a still series of his photos.
posted by filthy light thief at 11:50 AM PST - 8 comments

Cages, craniums, and giant scary eyes

Psychiatric magazine ads from the seventies.
posted by Iridic at 11:37 AM PST - 27 comments

Hail the Traveler

Margot Adler, most widely known as a journalist and New York correspondent for NPR, passed away this morning at 10:30 am at the age of 68 from complications related to endometrial cancer, according to a Facebook post from her son Alex. In addition to being a successful journalist and correspondent, Adler was a Wiccan priestess and a member of the board of advisers of the Covenant of Unitarian Universalist Pagans. Adler is well known in the pagan community in America for her seminal 1979 book Drawing Down the Moon: Witches, Druids, Goddess-Worshippers, and Other Pagans in America. [more inside]
posted by Ben Trismegistus at 11:31 AM PST - 47 comments

Shocking news: personality doesn't matter when dating online

OkCupid: we experiment on human beings! But by comparing Love Is Blind Day to a normal Tuesday, we learned some very interesting things. In those 7 hours without photos...people responded to first messages 44% more often, conversations went deeper...in short, OkCupid worked better. When the photos were restored at 4PM, 2,200 people were in the middle of conversations that had started “blind”. Those conversations melted away. The goodness was gone, in fact worse than gone. It was like we’d turned on the bright lights at the bar at midnight.
posted by shivohum at 10:09 AM PST - 95 comments

Distillers vs. Bottlers

Your ‘Craft’ Rye Whiskey Is Probably From a Factory Distillery in Indiana. The Daily Beast covers the phenomenon of a large list of whiskey brands serving only as bottlers, purchasing their spirits from a "hulking factory in Indiana". Thirdhand hattip to blogger SKU for leading the charge on this. [more inside]
posted by staccato signals of constant information at 10:06 AM PST - 167 comments

Indians are God's rotis, cooked "just right"

A right-wing Indian politician's racist, xenophobic, and anti-Muslim books are making their way to schools in Gujarat. [more inside]
posted by Ragini at 10:02 AM PST - 35 comments

DIIV’s Zachary Cole Smith Rolls On

Smith doesn’t really have an hour to spare tonight. He and his bandmates are scrambling through what might be their only rehearsal for their first US headlining tour, which launches later this week. The goal is to road-test new material for the follow-up to DIIV’s 2012 debut album, Oshin, an underground breakout hit that marked them as one of indie rock’s most promising bands on the rise. Tomorrow he has to take care of countless logistical matters for the tour such as picking up borrowed gear and buying a van, which would be stressful enough for a random Tuesday. But tomorrow is also the 22nd birthday of Smith’s girlfriend, the model and acclaimed pop singer Sky Ferreira, and he needs to make it special after spending much of her 21st birthday stressing out about an impending European tour. “Last year I blew it,” Smith says. “She was so upset.” On top of all that, he’s also supposed to meet with his probation officer upstate, one of many unpleasant consequences of being arrested for heroin possession and other crimes last September in upstate Saugerties, New York.
posted by josher71 at 8:58 AM PST - 11 comments

"I like sardines so this was a good dinner."

Former Ohio Governor Ted Strickland, Rep. Tim Ryan (OH), Rep. Jan Schakowsky (IL), and Rep. Barbara Lee (CA) are among those have been participating in the Live the Wage Challenge, posting on social media about their experiences. The Challenge (pdf) "asks elected officials, community leaders, advocates and anyone concerned about the growing inequality in this country to walk in the shoes of a minimum wage worker by living on a minimum wage budget for one week. That’s just $77."
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 8:31 AM PST - 93 comments

"Shiny Happy Voters"

Why R.E.M.’s Out of Time Is the Most Politically Significant Album in U.S. History (Hint: It's not the music).
posted by AlonzoMosleyFBI at 8:10 AM PST - 100 comments

The thin end of the whip.

Toni Bentley on the most famous dominatrix in France, and her companion.
posted by Mistress at 7:38 AM PST - 12 comments

Pennsylvania Six Five Oh Oh OH!

The oldest still-working telephone number in New York City is at least 80 years old. And you've probably heard of it: Pennsylvania 6-5000. It's the number of the Pennsylvania Hotel. Built in 1919 as a grand luxury destination, it has inspired a movie and a Bugs Bunny cartoon, Dada artwork, and of course became immortalized in song. [more inside]
posted by Mchelly at 7:16 AM PST - 39 comments

The genius of Michael Bay

This summer's Transformers 4 have seen its fair share of negativity, considering it's a master class in economics and its predecessor is Michael Bay's first art movie (last linked discussed previously.)
posted by Harald74 at 6:41 AM PST - 51 comments

It's like a ritualised dance - or the surprised kitty.

Every month or so there is a new scandal - mass snooping by the NSA, allegations of price-fixing by giant energy companies, major banks corruptly rigging interest rates, giant modern bureaucracies like Serco and G4S ripping off the taxpayer, children's entertainers from the past charged with sexual abuse.

But these stories never seem to add up to a bigger picture. They are isolated events . And our reaction is always the same - shock and horror, and then it all subsides and we are ready to be shocked and horrified when the next scandal comes along.
Adam Curtis may be the only person who is able to use the ousting of Tamara Mellon from Jimmy Choo, the age of the American muckracking journalist and the light entertainment career of Diana Dors -- amongst other diversions -- to explain the need for a new journalism to investigate the new structural powers ruling us.
posted by MartinWisse at 5:24 AM PST - 21 comments

How to Invent a Person Online (Is online anonymity even possible today?)

On April 8, 2013, I received an envelope in the mail from a nonexistent return address in Toledo, Ohio. Inside was a blank thank-you note and an Ohio state driver’s license. The ID belonged to a 28-year-old man called Aaron Brown—6 feet tall and 160 pounds with a round face, scruffy brown hair, a thin beard, and green eyes. His most defining feature, however, was that he didn’t exist. I know that because I created him.
posted by spock at 4:44 AM PST - 34 comments

Bollywood Hamlet

Welcome to Haider, a Bollywood version of Hamlet set for a controversial, much anticipated release this autumn. Vishal Bhardwaj's latest Shakespearian adaptation turns the Prince of Denmark into a philosophy student from Kashmir, the former Himalayan princedom, who returns home from university after hearing that his doctor father has disappeared and his mother is in a new relationship. View the trailer here - captions available. [more inside]
posted by Ziggy500 at 3:41 AM PST - 19 comments

July 27

The Lasting Impact of World War I

"The Wall Street Journal has selected 100 legacies from World War I that continue to shape our lives today." You can sort according to your interest via the tabs at the top of the page. [Previously]
posted by joseph conrad is fully awesome at 10:40 PM PST - 12 comments

The future is Barbie in a blender

Is Race Plastic? My Trip Into the "Ethnic Plastic Surgery" Minefield The writing is delightful, the subject is unsettling and the advice not to google any of the proceedure images should be heeded.
posted by viggorlijah at 10:04 PM PST - 35 comments

Editing photos as if they were audio files

"Masuma Ahuja and Denise Lu for the Washington Post applied a technique called databending to a bunch of photos. The idea is that computer files — even though they represent different things like documents, images, and audio — encode data in one form or another. It's just that sound files encode beats, notes, and rhythms, whereas image files encode hue, saturation, and brightness. So when you treat image files as if they were audio, you get some interesting results. Jamie Boulton has a detailed description on how to do this yourself with Audacity Effects." [via]
posted by Room 641-A at 9:48 PM PST - 15 comments

The Chee-Chee Girl

Born in 1913, Rose Murphy was an imaginative and percussive jazz pianist and singer nicknamed "the Chee-Chee Girl" for obvious reasons. Although she didn't make many recordings, she continued to perform up until her death in 1989. [more inside]
posted by Orange Dinosaur Slide at 8:20 PM PST - 8 comments

"Pizza with a Bisquick crust? Sounds like ’60s home ec to me."

King Arthur Flour's Flourish blog investigates America's Love Affair With Pizza from the home cook's perspective. In The Beginning asks "When did Americans start making their own pizza at home, from scratch, rather than piling into the Studebaker to drive down to the pizza parlor for takeout?", and answers by reproducing pizza recipes from 1945, 1954, and 1961. [more inside]
posted by We had a deal, Kyle at 7:30 PM PST - 60 comments

"the how of politics is as important as the what of politics"

Evgeny Morozov, for The Guardian: The rise of data and the death of politics
This "smartification" of everyday life follows a familiar pattern: there's primary data – a list of what's in your smart fridge and your bin – and metadata – a log of how often you open either of these things or when they communicate with one another. Both produce interesting insights: cue smart mattresses – one recent model promises to track respiration and heart rates and how much you move during the night – and smart utensils that provide nutritional advice. In addition to making our lives more efficient, this smart world also presents us with an exciting political choice. If so much of our everyday behaviour is already captured, analysed and nudged, why stick with unempirical approaches to regulation? Why rely on laws when one has sensors and feedback mechanisms? If policy interventions are to be – to use the buzzwords of the day – "evidence-based" and "results-oriented," technology is here to help.
[more inside]
posted by the man of twists and turns at 7:03 PM PST - 28 comments

It began with an itch I just had to scratch.

Doesn’t every adventure begin that way? I was lying in bed reading on a Saturday evening, and without even looking I idly scratched a spot on the right side of my chest –- at that point I had a chest, not breasts. As I did, my fingers rode over a small something, a little like a speed bump about an inch below and two inches to the left of my right nipple. “That’s a lump!” I thought, and suddenly I had a right breast. With a lump in it.
posted by michswiss at 5:35 PM PST - 30 comments

Marilize Leguana

The New York Times came out today endorsing marijuana legalization. The New York Times’ editorial board on Saturday called on the federal government to legalize marijuana. Citing alcohol prohibition, social costs and states’ movements, the board argued “after a great deal of discussion” that “the balance falls squarely on the side of national legalization.”
posted by toastchee at 5:27 PM PST - 153 comments

Taking Back the Wheel

A riposte to the bros: duo Maggie & Tae take on bro country in "Girl in a Country Song" - “Like all we’re good for is looking good for / You and your friends on the weekend, nothin’ more / We used to get a little respect / Now we’re lucky if we even get / to climb up in your truck, keep our mouths shut, and ride along.” [more inside]
posted by sallybrown at 5:13 PM PST - 55 comments

Art as armor

Linda Stein's wearable sculptural avatars
Linda Stein wants people to armor themselves in her art. She creates full-length wearable sculptures embedded with all manner of found objects, including driftwood, engraving plates, steel wire, zippers, pebbles and comic book imagery of superheroes.
  [more inside]
posted by Lexica at 4:51 PM PST - 4 comments

A hundred years ago Europe was in the midst of the July Crisis.

The BBC will be covering World War One in great detail over the next four years. They've already started, with podcasts, interactive guides, online courses, programs new and old plus much, much more. Perhaps it's best to start at the beginning, with Professor Margaret MacMillan's Countdown to World War One (podcast link) or the account of her fellow historian Christopher Clark, Month of Madness. Of course, how the war started is still contested by historians, as recounted in The Great War of Words. The latter two are also part of the main WWI podcast. Or you can dive into the Music and Culture section, go through an A-Z guide or look at comics drawn by modern cartoonists.
posted by Kattullus at 1:23 PM PST - 42 comments

Fantastic 4-Song Concert - Neil Finn at KEXP

Fantastic 4-Song Concert - Neil Finn at KEXP
A few months old, but still worth a listen. Neil visits the KEXP studio in Seattle and plays 4 songs from his latest album, Dizzy Heights.
posted by dotgirl at 12:27 PM PST - 4 comments

Apparently Miller couldn't just walk away.

After over a decade in development hell, George Miller's return to the Mad Max franchise, Mad Max: Fury Road, has emerged at San Diego Comic-Con with a teaser trailer. [more inside]
posted by brundlefly at 12:21 PM PST - 147 comments

Comatose Potato Salad

"Since first opening in 1934 in a converted sheepfold off 67th Street, on the western edge of Central Park, the storied franchise (which is still licensed by the Parks Department) has been a reliable hit. Joe Baum put the restaurant on the national culinary map during the 1960s, and when Warner LeRoy doubled the capacity several years later and added the famous Crystal Room, it became one of the great circus-dining destinations in the world. LeRoy’s heirs ran the profitable old production for years (in 2006, it was still the second-highest-grossing restaurant in the USA, behind Tao Las Vegas), until the great crash of 2008 brought their company to its knees. Now, after years of drama and delay, Tavern on the Green has opened its doors once again, this time under the direction of a hospitality operation originally from Philadelphia called the Emerald Green Group. " So begins Adam Platt's zero star review of the re-opened Tavern On The Green. Others have not been glowing. Even the Post got a few kicks in. Peter Wells' scathing takedown in the New York Times might be better experienced with some happy sheep.
posted by The Whelk at 11:59 AM PST - 69 comments

"Life is breaking up the team"

Brat packer sends brat packing... [more inside]
posted by drlith at 11:24 AM PST - 30 comments

-STILL- RITUALLY MUTILATED

A macabre-sounding headstone leads investigators to uncover a fascinating slice of American history. From the endlessly fascinating, and surprisingly long-running, Straight Dope message board.
posted by low_horrible_immoral at 11:21 AM PST - 20 comments

No Hints, No Spoilers, and No Mames

NESMania is one man's quest to conquer every NES title, or at least all 709 officially seal-of-quality-licensed ones released in the West. [more inside]
posted by wanderingmind at 11:13 AM PST - 29 comments

Multiple Lovers, Without Jealousy

Polyamorous people still face plenty of stigmas, but some studies suggest they handle certain relationship challenges better than monogamous people do. The Atlantic Monthly takes on the subject of polyamory, and seems to mostly be respectful and get it right.
posted by hippybear at 10:52 AM PST - 70 comments

Does what it says on the rectilinear box.

It's Sunday, and maybe you've got nothing better to do than lie in bed and play A Game About Squares.
posted by egypturnash at 9:55 AM PST - 48 comments

Buzzfeed Benny's downfall

Weird Twitter users @BLIPPOBLAPPO and @CRUSHINGBORT posted a blog entry on July 24th titled "3 REASONS BENNY JOHNSON SHOULDN’T CALL OUT PLAGIARISM: HE’S A PLAGIARIST, HE’S A PLAGIARIST, AND HE’S A PLAGIARIST" Ben Smith, the editor in chief at Buzzfeed responded to these allegations in an email to a Gawker employee calling Buzzfeed Benny "one of the web’s deeply original writers". @Crushingbort and @Blippoblappo responded with a blog post the next day with even more instances of Buzzfeed Benny's plagiarism. Buzzfeed editors started looking at all of Benny's posts and after finding 41 instances of plaigarism decided to fire him.
posted by josher71 at 8:57 AM PST - 64 comments

To her, an editor’s life was one of constantly renewed fulfillment.

More than any other editor except Harold Ross himself, Katharine White gave The New Yorker its shape, and set it on its course. -- William Shawn. Almost 20 years ago - and almost 20 years after her death - the New Yorker profiled its legendary editor in Lady with a Pencil. [more inside]
posted by julen at 7:38 AM PST - 5 comments

Lyft now allowed in NYC but as a fully-regulated livery service

Regulators 1, Lyft 0 (or perhaps 0.5). After trying to launch its unlicensed "ride sharing" model in New York City, Lyft has capitulated to the regulators' demands and will instead launch as an ordinary livery car service -- using only TLC-licensed cars with TLC-certified drivers. [more inside]
posted by MattD at 6:38 AM PST - 42 comments

"We're inspired and inspiring teachers. Schools don't let us teach!"

Originally published in 1962 as a short story in the Saturday Review, under the title "From a Teacher’s Wastebasket", Up the Down Staircase stands as the seminal novel of the American public school system. Its author, Bel Kaufman, died this week at age 103. Turned into a movie in 1967, the book and its author have an impact on teachers decades on.
posted by wheek wheek wheek at 5:55 AM PST - 15 comments

Sweden’s School Choice Disaster

It’s the darker side of competition that Milton Friedman and his free-market disciples tend to downplay: If parents value high test scores, you can compete for voucher dollars by hiring better teachers and providing a better education—or by going easy in grading national tests. Competition was also meant to discipline government schools by forcing them to up their game to maintain their enrollments, but it may have instead led to a race to the bottom as they too started grading generously to keep their students.
So it turns out that the good results of the Swedish school voucher system of "free" school choice, long the benchmark for those wanting to disrupt public schooling were created by, well, cheating.
posted by MartinWisse at 4:56 AM PST - 41 comments

What Is Public?

Anil Dash reflects on the changing meaning of public content online.
posted by ellieBOA at 12:40 AM PST - 32 comments

July 26

Cromagnon’s only album: a jumble of sounds, shouts, and one actual song

Depending on one's point of view, Orgasm (later reissued as Cave Rock) is either a ridiculously self-indulgent artifact of the '60s counterculture or an underground gem that was way ahead of its time -- and it's probably a little bit of both. The basic idea behind Cromagnon, an obscure East Coast group led by vocalists Austin Grasmere and Brian Elliot, was psychedelic rock combined with the sticks and stones of prehistoric cavemen, as well as with traces of folk-rock; it's a bizarre concept, certainly, but at times, it works. You can hear the whole crazy album on YouTube, or stick with the most song-like track (featuring bagpipes, tribal beats and some sort of scream-singing), Caledonia, seen here with an unofficial video. [more inside]
posted by filthy light thief at 11:23 PM PST - 6 comments

"This order alone exceeds the capacity of 10 tractor trailers"

Keen to win the contract to supply The State of New York with office supplies, Staples offered to supply many expensive items at one cent apiece, on the theory that profits on the sales of full-priced items would cover the losses on the one cent stuff. Um...not exactly.
posted by w0mbat at 10:57 PM PST - 64 comments

Korean fashion and design that is Having a Moment

Korean fashion and design is having a moment, but what is fueling it? It's complicated. Let's explore the K-wave. [more inside]
posted by joseph conrad is fully awesome at 10:36 PM PST - 23 comments

The cycle continues

The Elephant's Garden
posted by boo_radley at 9:15 PM PST - 9 comments

The most important battle you've probably never heard of

The Battle of Bouvines was fought 800 years ago on July 27, 1214 and its outcome directly led to the Magna Carta and also to the national identities of both England and France. Some historians claim this date should be remembered after the Battle of Hastings in 1066 as one of the defining moments in English history. King John attempted to retake lands in Normandy employing an alliance army including Otto of Germany. John attacked from the south, but more importantly Otto was decisively defeated at Bouvines. Humiliated in defeat John was forced to consent to the Magna Carta, and the Anglo-Norman realm came to a final end allowing both England and France to develop their separate national identities. More background.
posted by caddis at 7:54 PM PST - 14 comments

that might explain his perpetual whiny attitude

The Horrible Truth About Spiderman's Anatomy [more inside]
posted by We had a deal, Kyle at 7:18 PM PST - 25 comments

"I see you're using the clever 'not moving' ploy..."

Kitten vs Statue. [slyt | cute]
posted by quin at 6:34 PM PST - 41 comments

NSFW (so keep those headphones in)

In a public radio world that turns a blind eye and blushing cheek to sex, we give you Audio Smut. We are a show about your body, your heart, and your junk. Every 2 weeks we deliver honest and emotionally engaging stories that read like a diary and sound like a dream. Our mission is to educate and initiate public discourse about gender, sex, and relationships from a sex-positive, queer, and feminist perspective. Our work portrays sexuality in a diverse and honest light.
[more inside]
posted by kagredon at 6:22 PM PST - 3 comments

"If they’re watching TV, I ask, “Where are the brown girls?”"

Black Girls Hunger for Heroes, Too: A Black Feminist Conversation on Fantasy Fiction for Teens.
What happens when two great black women fiction writers get together to talk about race in young adult literature? That's exactly what happens in the conversation below, where Zetta Elliott, a black feminist writer of poetry, plays, essays, novels, and stories for children, and award-winning Haitian-American speculative fiction writer Ibi Aanu Zoboi decided to discuss current young adult sci-fi.
posted by Lexica at 4:50 PM PST - 29 comments

run-of-the-mill work friendship

Pink Collar
Modern public relations has, in its own parlance, an image problem. As an investigation copublished by the Columbia Journalism Review and ProPublica put it, the industry was literally birthed from a train wreck.... In stark contrast to newsrooms, in which women have never exceeded 38 percent, public relations operates as a solidly pink-collar sector of the creative industries and comprises a labor force that is currently over 85 percent female. The palpable distaste for PR practitioners that continues to swell — spearheaded by the very same members of the media with whom publicists theoretically enjoy a symbiotic relationship — requires, then, a deeper look at how gendered assumptions about work continue to shape our contemporary notions of creative labor under capitalism.
posted by the man of twists and turns at 4:48 PM PST - 23 comments

To life.

50 years ago tonight, Fiddler on the Roof began performances at the Fischer Theatre in Detroit. Sheldon Harnick, the lyricist, says: "I remember one audition for Fiddler. As people left I heard someone say dismissively 'Oh once they run out of Hadassah benefits there'll be absolutely no audience for it'. At the time I feared maybe they were right." [more inside]
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 4:32 PM PST - 25 comments

How I learned to start worrying and hate the bomb.

Diary of an atomic bomb technician. "I will not be responsible for my actions if you keep me here in this programme."
posted by bitmage at 3:15 PM PST - 19 comments

Dilemma in Tromsø

The Challenge of Celebrating Ramadan in the Land of the Midnight Sun "Six years ago, Sandra Maryam Moe and the sheikh spent months exchanging emails. Is it allowed to eat and drink even though it isn't yet dark outside, Moe wanted to know? And if it is, when does the daily fasting period begin and end? When are the prayer times? Moe described in detail the dilemma facing her community and the sheikh sent her question after question. He too was wary of becoming the originator of a new practice."
posted by Omnomnom at 2:19 PM PST - 52 comments

Between dreams & reality

Satoshi Kon - Editing Space & Time A short video on Vimeo which explains the editing techniques of the late anime director Satoshi Kon used in his works by Tony Zhou. [more inside]
posted by chrono_rabbit at 2:12 PM PST - 8 comments

L.A. noir to now

A visual tour of downtown Los Angeles, now and then:
[more inside]
posted by Room 641-A at 1:14 PM PST - 22 comments

I love life and I love me, but I don’t want to live like that

Kim's Choice: How One Family Confronts a Genetic Time Bomb. A moving article from the Globe and Mail about Kim Teske's decision to end her life, and a portrait of a family as they gather one last time to say goodbye. "[Kim] has Huntington’s, an incurable genetic disease that combines aspects of Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s and schizophrenia. At 52, she is still living on her own, but fears that, if she doesn’t act now, she will end her days in an institution. “I love life and I love me, but I don’t want to live like that..... And I have a plan.” Two of Kim's siblings also share the genes for Huntingdon's; of her four nieces and nephews, one has tested positive, one negative, and the status of the other two is not yet known.
posted by jokeefe at 12:49 PM PST - 41 comments

Magnetorheological fluid - nine syllables for "Huh"?

A magnetorheological (MR) fluid is a fluid that changes the way it flows in the presence of a magnetic field. [more inside]
posted by vapidave at 11:37 AM PST - 19 comments

Ten Landmarks of the Chinese Cryosphere

“The Price of Cold”— the story of my recent adventures exploring China’s artificial cryosphere — is now online in The New York Times Magazine. In it, I visit the world’s first and only frozen dumpling billionaire, hang out with the chef leading a one-man refrigeration resistance movement, and visit refrigerated warehouses and R&D labs across the country. Meanwhile, for those of you for whom that is not enough refrigeration for one weekend, I compiled this list: ten stand-out destinations for the armchair Chinese cryotourist, based on my own travels while reporting the story.
posted by infini at 10:48 AM PST - 15 comments

Carlo Bergonzi has joined Luciano Pavarotti in Opera Heaven

Carlo Bergonzi was one of the 20th century's greatest operatic tenors Bergonzi's reputation was one of the great (if not THE) Verdian tenor of mid-late 20th century opera. Here is an outstanding performance by Begonzi, of "Quando le sere al placido" from Verdi's opera, "Luiza Miller"; Bergonzi is in his late 50's in this performance; here is Bergonzi singing the same aria at 70 (in 1996) - an amazing performance for that age! [if you don't know this aria, let it develop - it's one of the most lyrical and dramatic in all of Verdi's work) [more inside]
posted by Vibrissae at 10:25 AM PST - 7 comments

In a not too distant cocktail lounge, about 5PM A.D

A tumblr collection of cocktails inspired by Mystery Science Theatre 3000 episodes
posted by The Whelk at 8:26 AM PST - 43 comments

Aftertaste

"In peace or war, the ultimate refuge—the sanctuary of all that is humane—lies distilled within the warmth of the kitchen." Journalist Paul Salopek pauses in the middle of his 21,000-mile Out of Eden Walk from Africa to South America -- Ethiopia to Tierra del Fuego -- to reflect on the food shared with him during his time in Israel and Palestine. "Watching the women of Nablus move briskly, efficiently, purposefully about their tasks, chatting, often joking (about men, politics, life), I am reminded of all the meals that admitted me briefly into the conflicted lives of Israelis and Palestinians." [more inside]
posted by Celsius1414 at 7:57 AM PST - 1 comment

We are not poor. We are stuggling to make ends meet

Bill Moyers: Question? A major finding of your research was that many of the 106 million Americans living at 200 percent of the Federal Poverty Line ignore political debates about them because they do not identify with the language used by policy makers, the media and others to describe them. What does this tell you about our messaging?. And stop talking about the economy as if it was the weather.
posted by rmhsinc at 6:10 AM PST - 56 comments

Havin' a ball

The 2014 edition of the quadrennial FEI World Equestrian Games will be taking place next month in Normandy, France. In addition to the game's 8 medal disciplines, there will be two demonstration sports. You're probably familiar with polo. But have you ever heard of horse-ball? [more inside]
posted by drlith at 6:01 AM PST - 9 comments

Moon Animate Make-Up!

250 animators took an episode of Sailor Moon and divided it into 6-second pieces, and then each animator re-animated one of those pieces. Here is the result: Moon Animate Make-Up!
posted by Chocolate Pickle at 5:56 AM PST - 5 comments

Chocolate Mill

Chocolate Mill was comprised of a giant cylindrical chocolate block that was carefully organized in 10 stacked layers, with flavored shapes used to create different geometric patterns. As a crank-turned blade similar to a cheese slicer grazed shavings off the top, the hidden layers were slowly revealed.
posted by frimble at 5:20 AM PST - 20 comments

Mindbogglingly naive

In my three years at Bleacher Report, I covered the San Jose Sharks while studying in the Bay Area, and the Twins, Wild, Timberwolves, and Vikings upon returning home to Minnesota. I wrote over 500 articles, generated nearly three million page views, and received $200 for my services.
Tom Schreier: the top 200 ways Bleacher Report screwed me over.
posted by MartinWisse at 3:25 AM PST - 67 comments

La Course - The Race

On Sunday 27 July, history will be made when a group of professional cyclists rides the Champs-Elysées. Among the riders who have never before been allowed in the Tour de France, is an athlete The Guardian has called "the finest cyclist of their generation" and who Bicycling Magazine recently touted as one "who could be the most naturally gifted, hardest-working cyclist who ever lived", Marianne Vos. Also riding will be writer, filmmaker, former figure skater and triathlete Kathryn Bertine. Triathlete and marathoner Emma Pooley described her expectation for the event: "On a scale of one to 10, I'd say that La Course is 11 on the excitement levels." Along with the athlete who holds/held all three Ironman world and championship records (including the overall world record), Chrissie Wellington, they created the campaign Le Tour Entier, whose motto is Liberté, Égalité, Cyclisme, a play on the French national motto. [more inside]
posted by fraula at 1:50 AM PST - 18 comments

July 25

George Martin - In My Life

In 1998, after over 40 years in the music studio, orchestral arranger and music producer Sir George Martin (the 5th Beatle, or maybe the 6th, or possibly the 7th, depending on how you count or where your priorities lie) decided he was going to retire with a selfish project: recording an album (mostly) entirely of Beatles songs. This ~50 minute BBC documentary recorded many moments from the creation of this swan song, In My Life. The film features interviews with and studio footage of Phil Collins, Robin Williams, Bobby McFerrin, JohnWilliams (classical guitarist, not Star Wars composer), Goldie Hawn, Jim Carrey, and Céline Dion. [more inside]
posted by hippybear at 11:08 PM PST - 18 comments

A hard stare from a public bench bear

"London has become a literary playground: a project by the National Literacy Trust has scattered 50 book-shaped benches across the capital for the whole summer, each dedicated to an iconic London-related author or character." (The Guardian). The BBC report about the literary benches; the full list of benches from the Books about Town website. CNN has a slideshow that includes a nice photo of the Paddington Bear bench in use.
posted by joseph conrad is fully awesome at 10:26 PM PST - 11 comments

How Much Does "Does Poetry Matter" Matter?

This Weekend, The New York Times went all in for poetry. In addition to six — count ‘em — articles about poetry in the Review, the Times also included an entire panel in its “Room for Debate” section in which the mostly white and mostly male panelists responded to the essentially rhetorical question “Does Poetry Matter?” with some version of the expected answer: yes. [more inside]
posted by whyareyouatriangle at 5:51 PM PST - 38 comments

NONE of the visual & audio materials in this film were made by me

NOT MINE by Guy Trefler. [slvimeo, somewhat nsfw]
posted by cthuljew at 5:46 PM PST - 12 comments

New study: Pronation does not predict injury when using standard shoes

Researchers from the Netherlands invited 927 novice runners with different pronation types to run in the same model of neutral shoes. After a year, they found that "Foot pronation is not associated with increased injury risk in novice runners wearing a neutral shoe." There's always research skeptics who rely on a meta-analysis finding a weak relationship between pronation and injury.

So you pronate, what can you do? Corrective exercises to strengthen the muscles can help. [more inside]
posted by rebent at 5:34 PM PST - 22 comments

Don't think 'What's Hot?'

Jason Blum—producer of Paranormal Activity, Insidious, Sinister, The Purge, The Bay, and Oculus—participated in an interesting interview at SXSW Film 2014 about his model of producing high-quality low-budget horror films for wide release. The video is almost an hour long, but worth watching if you're interested in contemporary mainstream horror.
posted by EXISTENZ IS PAUSED at 5:14 PM PST - 3 comments

"I think it's the person inside that matters"

Shatteringly Beautiful: The Glass Dresses of Diana Dias-Leão
Diana Dias-Leão combined her fashion design and glass making skills to create couture dresses made of glass, ceramics, wire and silken yarns to stunning effect. Beautiful, but how do you wear a breakable dress? Well, you don't. These were created as art pieces to explore serious issues around personal identity, beauty and human behaviour. The artist believes that anorexia, bulimia, self harm and body dysmorphic disorder are connected with issues relating to image and lack of confidence.
[more inside]
posted by Lexica at 4:48 PM PST - 16 comments

Freemanic Paracusia

To help us all relax before the weekend - have a few links celebrating the dulcet tones of Morgan Freeman. [more inside]
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 4:37 PM PST - 14 comments

An ounce of prevention is an administrative violation

Relieving poverty is charitable, but preventing it is not. Oxfam Canada, while renewing its charitable status, got into an argument with the Canadian Revenue Agency over its purpose. [more inside]
posted by Lemurrhea at 3:52 PM PST - 40 comments

We have a special bike!

Dratch & Fey's 1999 two-woman show. (SLYT) The audio is terrible, the video's no better, the tracking on the VHS tape should have been adjusted... and it's still well worth the 45 minutes.
posted by Shmuel510 at 3:27 PM PST - 7 comments

Re: Applicability of Federal Criminal Laws and the Constitution

In May, David Barron was confirmed as a judge in the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, after a half-hour filibsuter by Rand Paul, and opposition stemming from a confidential memo (previously) he wrote, justifying the use of targeted drone strikes against terrorists, e.g. Anwar al-Awlaki (previously).
After a court ruling in the FOIA lawsuit filed by the ACLU and New York Times, Court Releases Large Parts of Memo Approving Killing of American in Yemen. [more inside]
posted by the man of twists and turns at 1:19 PM PST - 27 comments

Naughty Nuns & Flatulent Monks: Surprises of Sacred Medieval Manuscripts

The images vary widely, but they tend to be very strange and even disturbing—overt sexual acts, defecation, monsters, human-monster hybrids, animals acting like humans. There’s also examples of clergy behaving very badly, the sort of thing you would not expect to see in the margins of a sacred book.
Kaitlin Manning of B & L Rootenberg Rare Books and Manuscripts talks to Collector's Weekly (previously) about the exquisitely detailed religious texts surrounded by all manner of illustrated commentary, known today as marginalia.
posted by Room 641-A at 1:05 PM PST - 13 comments

But then I suppose we have all read the reviews. We can talk about those

"So what is going on here? Should we be reassured that critics are sticking loyally by a work they admire regardless of sales, or bemused that something is being presented as a runaway commercial success when in fact it isn’t?" Tim Parks: Raise Your Hand If You’ve Read Knausgaard. [more inside]
posted by RogerB at 1:05 PM PST - 32 comments

Leia ambivalence

Reelgirl: Slut-shaming Princess Leia or protecting childhood from adult sexuality?
HitFix: The Terrible Unspoken Implications Of Star Wars' Slave Leia [more inside]
posted by flex at 12:24 PM PST - 99 comments

Reason magazine and racism

Last week, Pando.com's Mark Ames posted an article on the efforts of the GOP to recruit in Silicon Valley using libertarianism as a wedge and the history of libertarian links, particularly through Reason magazine, to racism. Reason responded, calling Ames a "conspiracy theorist". Ames, who has a history of digging into the seedy history of libertarianism, has responded by posting a copy of Reason's holocaust denial and revisionist history issue, along with profiles of its contributors and their involvement with Reason and late 20th century libertarianism.
posted by Pope Guilty at 11:18 AM PST - 179 comments

Flag Flags and Furl On

The North American Vexillogical Association [previously] guides you through the 5 Basic Principles of Flag Design, citing examples of good and bad flags. Badflags, however, focused on the latter -- "the most vexing examples in vexillology."
posted by not_on_display at 10:38 AM PST - 90 comments

a series of "whoas" strung together

The success of “24” was just one innovation of the ‘00s that helped change the TV landscape into what we’re living with today. Another was the rise of the premium cable drama. “The Sopranos” wasn’t HBO’s first original series, but it was its first to draw comparisons to Shakespeare. Broadcast networks, seeing all that prestige flowing higher on the dial, started pushing the boundaries of what kind of language and imagery they could get away with in order for network series to be as dark and transgressive as premium-network fare. Or at least, I assume that’s how I came to see a human corpse turned into a cello on NBC’s “Hannibal” last year.
Tara Ariano on Why Jack Bauer Is to Blame for ‘Bonkers TV’
(Article contains some SPOILERs for Game of Thrones, Salem, Scandal, and American Horror Story.)
posted by Atom Eyes at 10:36 AM PST - 55 comments

A Day in the Life of Asian Pacific America

The Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center presents an experiment in cultural democracy – the first crowdsourced photo gallery of the Asian Pacific American experience around the world as lived on one day: May 10, 2014. [more inside]
posted by sarahnade at 10:35 AM PST - 7 comments

[Suit not actually available]

A PSA by St John Ambulance illustrates the cost of overprotective parenting. [SLYT]
posted by gottabefunky at 10:30 AM PST - 10 comments

Treading Water

Prinna Boudreau tells the story how she and her husband became the focus of a police investigation after the loss of their infant daughter (audio - Boudreau's story begins at 20:17). From The Moth. [Warning: No graphic details but this is a very harrowing story]
posted by Mchelly at 10:23 AM PST - 14 comments

Uncontrolled Orbital Lizard Sex Satellite

On July 18th, Russian researchers launched a Foton-M satellite in hopes of study how reptiles reproduce in a zero-g environment. They lost the ability to send commands to the biosatellite later that same day.
posted by quin at 9:35 AM PST - 78 comments

It’s not like she walked in here for a Diet Coke and I broke her arm

The New Yorker talks with “Rowdy” Ronda Rousey, the worlds best female fighter, about why she loves to be hated. [more inside]
posted by misskaz at 8:44 AM PST - 34 comments

WAF? More like WTF.

Still shaking your head over that ridiculous "Women Against a Feminism" tumblr? The inimitable Bloggess weighs in with some welcome comic relief. (Time, right on schedule, helpfully pops up to explain it all for you).
posted by misha at 8:18 AM PST - 241 comments

Our nation’s preschool-to-prison pipeline

"My son has been suspended five times. He’s 3." [more inside]
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 8:10 AM PST - 104 comments

The turmoil of the day freezes in a thousand absurd postures.

Samuel Beckett Cats
posted by Navelgazer at 8:05 AM PST - 9 comments

Not Unlike Gretchen Weiners' Hair

The Down and Dirty History of TMZ: Anne Helen Peterson (previously) recounts nine years of gossip site TMZ.
posted by almostmanda at 7:49 AM PST - 9 comments

Inventor of the high five

When the high five subsequently exploded in popularity in the 1980s, historians, critics, and journalists all traced its origins back to this moment. Glenn Burke was championed as its inventor, and his story slowly emerged.
...
Then, at the onset of the 1977 season, Burke’s teammates learned that he was gay when one of Burke’s friends accidentally revealed the fact at a dinner party with the team. Burke watched his career unravel in a spire of prejudice, intolerance, and misdirected anger.
The story of Glenn Burke, who invented the high-five during a Dodger game on October 2, 1977
posted by I am the Walrus at 7:19 AM PST - 39 comments

A Child Booster Seat Built Into Its Buttocks

On July 27th, the cross Canada journey of hitchBOT will begin in Nova Scotia and make its way to BC as part of an experiment that looks at the interaction between people and increasingly ubiquitous technology.
posted by gman at 6:31 AM PST - 18 comments

Elmo Can't Sleep. Ricky Gervais Sings a Celebrity Lullaby.

Elmo can't sleep and Ricky Gervais offers a Celebrity Lullaby. Poor Elmo. Ricky Gervais is no Brad Pitt.
posted by kinetic at 6:13 AM PST - 15 comments

Did all dinosaurs have feathers?

A fossil found in Siberia shows that an early ornithiscian dinosaur had feathers. [more inside]
posted by Chocolate Pickle at 5:47 AM PST - 38 comments

Why taunt me? Why upbraid me? I am merely a genius, not a god.

In the pantheon of fictional detectives, Rex Stout's Nero Wolfe is among the best. If you haven't met the fat, cranky, sedentary, orchid-loving gourmand of a detective, and his street-smart, wise-cracking, witty right-hand of an assistant, Archie Goodwin, this introduction to the pair may be of use. Between 1935 to 1974, Wolfe and Goodwin solved mysteries, captured criminals of all ilks, and on one notable occasion, got the upper hand on J. Edgar Hoover. The books are very much of their time. [more inside]
posted by julen at 4:55 AM PST - 32 comments

The truth is stranger than fiction

From behind the New Yorker's temporarily removed paywall, a postmodern murder mystery from Poland in 2007.
posted by ellieBOA at 4:42 AM PST - 10 comments

The Norwegian for 'Museum Filter' might be 'Museum Filter'

Norway seems to be particularly good at making interesting museums. If you're touring, the museum of magic is spell-binding. The museum of knitting is a real purl. The petroleum museum is a gas. The Lofoten Stockfish museum is off the hook. And the Norsk Hermetickk-museum is about the history of sealing things in cans. [more inside]
posted by Joeruckus at 3:02 AM PST - 9 comments

July 24

Prove your music nerd cred

Slate wants to know if you can name those 70s, 80s, 90s or more recent hits from hearing just the first second of them.
posted by MartinWisse at 11:40 PM PST - 57 comments

Big Hair is like so 1770s

Wigs filled with maggots, hair filled with mice and tiny battleships - twonerdyhistorygirls have The Truth About the Big Hair of the 1770s and How they Did It. Inspired to make your own bone powder and pomatum? You can use the original recipe or these recipes, or just buy some pretty lemon-lard at Etsy, or pick up a modern substitute from the drugstore.
posted by viggorlijah at 11:14 PM PST - 23 comments

Recreating everything in Sun Records sound

Studio engineer Matt Ross-Spang wasn't even born when most of Sun's most famous records were cut. Nonetheless, he's thought a lot about what makes them sound the way they do (transcript). Matt has been buying up old gear for a few years, returning the Sun Records studio to a vintage state (with a few exceptions), and he is still practicing "sonic archaeology," trying to figure out how Sam Phillips made records sound like Sun Records. There's more to it than the Sun tape echo. [more inside]
posted by filthy light thief at 10:59 PM PST - 11 comments

Mid-climb. What of it?

"A set of towers, spread across the globe, have given goats the opportunity to make good on their evolutionary heritage and farmers a chance to leave an unforgettable impression on visitors. And don't worry—there hasn't been a single report of the goats falling." From Modern Farmer. [Previously]
posted by joseph conrad is fully awesome at 10:24 PM PST - 36 comments

Ever wonder what it feels like to be old?

Ever wonder what it feels like to be old? "I am the same age as Sean Connery and Clint Eastwood. In Dog-years that is really really ancient..."
posted by banished at 10:10 PM PST - 44 comments

Jeff VanderMeer interviews Bronson Pinchot about audiobooks

"I gently lay my mind on the text as if the text is a Ouija board and let it move me around. And my eye circles the page precisely the way your eye circles the landscape when you are anxiously looking for someone in a crowd: You scan for red hair, for a hat, for someone towering above the others, whatever it is. I pick up adverbs out of the corner of my eye. "How wonderful to see you, Jeff" may be the opening of a chunk of dialogue that ends with "... she muttered hostilely." You look for that like a helicopter rescue team looking for a dehydrated Cub Scout in the mountains."
posted by colt45 at 10:01 PM PST - 21 comments

He Who Loves an Old House Never Loves in Vain

CIRCA's "You Should Move to ..." series is a charming exploration of "beautiful, under-the-radar old house towns where big charm can be had for little cost." [more inside]
posted by batmonkey at 9:38 PM PST - 19 comments

1.5 meters of segmented NOPE

Stephen "Hoppy" Hopkins reports finding a large-bodied earthworm, tentatively identified as Martiodrilus crassus, in Provincia de Napo, Ecuador. The internet weighs in: real or fake? [more inside]
posted by We had a deal, Kyle at 8:57 PM PST - 19 comments

Burger King Is Run by Children

Burger King's CEO is 33 years old. Its head of investor relations is 29 and its CFO is 28.
posted by Jasper Friendly Bear at 8:46 PM PST - 79 comments

Mr. Ed's Elephant Museum

Who wants elephants and candy? Inspired by the post on the troll museum... if you're ever driving Route 30 in Pennsylvania, heading towards Gettysburg, you may pass by Mister Ed's Elephant Museum and Candy Emporium. [more inside]
posted by jenfullmoon at 8:06 PM PST - 4 comments

I Don't Get These Birds For Free

Mary Poppins Quits with Kristen Bell
posted by nadawi at 7:23 PM PST - 44 comments

Imagen all this ppl

Finally the important question of our time is answer: What if Jary Senfild were emoji on i-phone toady? [more inside]
posted by Potomac Avenue at 7:01 PM PST - 18 comments

Do you think it's getting weird around here?

The fragments of information that have filtered out make it clear that the building houses one of the largest fusion experiments now operating in the United States. It is also one of the most unconventional. Instead of using the doughnut-shaped 'tokamak' reactor that has dominated fusion-energy research for more than 40 years, Tri Alpha is testing a linear reactor that it claims will be smaller, simpler and cheaper — and will lead to commercial fusion power in little more than a decade, far ahead of the 30 to 50 years often quoted for tokamaks. The Fusion Upstarts.
posted by Ghostride The Whip at 5:44 PM PST - 37 comments

"It's a nice reminder of the impermanent nature of our flesh."

How to put on your face: in which youtuber Anna Akana shares her beauty routine. [SLYT]
posted by ocherdraco at 5:25 PM PST - 15 comments

"the sorry state of “default” imagery"

no more “put a skirt on it”
In a historical vacuum, we would not project gender onto images with no visible gender signals. But we’ve inherited, and perpetuated, the idea that a blank person is a Man. Unless you add decorations. Then you have yourself a Woman. Yes, it’s 2014, many women have short hair, pants, and no makeup. We know this intellectually. But it doesn’t seem to translate into how we actually represent men and women.…

Good news: the next time you draw a person or create a user avatar, you have an opportunity to fight the sexist patriarchal bullshit! Like many instances of patriarchy-smashing, it’s not actually that hard once you get the principles down.
posted by Lexica at 4:46 PM PST - 49 comments

Current marketing buzzword: Feminism

Not too long ago feminist ideals and other (mainly) women's issues like body image, street harassment or double standards in the workplace would have left most advertisers and brands running for the hills. The current fourth wave made feminism so popular that major brands discover it's actually a great way to sell stuff and are joining in with feminist messages in their advertising. Dove, Nike or Special K are fairly successful. Others not so much. Their "new and improved approach to gender equality [is] packed with 83% more cliches, 92% more hashtags, and 103% less meaning."
posted by travelwithcats at 4:39 PM PST - 25 comments

Finding the Dinosaur: A 'Step Brothers' Appreciation

"[F]rom the vantage point of a 12-year-old, adulthood is something best avoided. The key question, then, is how long can you run?" Rolling Stone launches their new monthly feature, "Be Kind, Rewind" with a new look at Step Brothers. [more inside]
posted by Tevin at 3:35 PM PST - 27 comments

Time magazine explains it all to you.

Yesterday, Time magazine apparently felt it important to inform its readership what the slang term "bae" means. Black Twitter has responded with #timetitles. A few examples:
Let me HOLD SOME MONEY...Asking for a loan from someone who clearly has it with no intentions of paying it back. #TimeTitles
I Can't Even: understanding the Black community's bias for odd numbers #TimeTitles
"Don't Make Me Come Up There: Is Time-Out Not Working For Your Child?" #TimeTitles
In case you've been wondering, according to Time, "A good rule of thumb for now at least: if you would use the words boo or babe in some circumstance, you can probably use bae." [more inside]
posted by fuse theorem at 2:57 PM PST - 109 comments

Are the baby sandwiches made from free-range babies?

Here's What Every Trendy Restaurant Menu Looks Like
posted by rtha at 2:56 PM PST - 157 comments

"I mean, what does real liberation look like?"

Mey from Autostraddle interviews actress and advocate Laverne Cox on her Emmy nomination, the epidemic of violence against trans women of color, and how to create a more supportive and loving community. [more inside]
posted by Juliet Banana at 2:54 PM PST - 3 comments

'gave me joy to be able to remember and know how beautiful life can be'

Windows from PrisonMark Strandquist asked hundreds of prisoners a straightforward question—if your cell could look out on one scene, what would it be? [more inside]
posted by yeoz at 2:46 PM PST - 3 comments

"Sharing is not a crime"

Colombian student Diego Gomez faces four to eight years in prison for sharing an academic article online. [more inside]
posted by sockermom at 2:25 PM PST - 22 comments

FREEDOM vs #DONTTALK

Greg Abbott is running for governor of Texas. He's campaigning in Regal Cinemas as a pre-movie ad. Alamo Drafthouse, a competing chain, has a long history of making PSAs asking patrons not to talk or text during a movie (previously). They felt they had to respond. [more inside]
posted by Lemurrhea at 12:48 PM PST - 55 comments

Reinhart at Rest

RIP Thomas Berger. If you know only one book by Thomas Berger, it's probably Little Big Man, which was made into an Oscar-winning film starring Dustin Hoffman. [more inside]
posted by Francis7 at 12:09 PM PST - 19 comments

...is what brings us together, today.

Misleading on Marriage: how gay marriage opponents twist history to suit their agenda - "Much of what you hear about the purpose of marriage is ahistorical. Lisa L. Spangenberg on what the institution was traditionally fit for."
As someone in a same-sex relationship, I followed arguments for and against the overturn of DOMA with some interest. As a medievalist, my attention was particularly caught by arguments against DOMA on Twitter and elsewhere that asserted that Christianity and history unilaterally agreed that marriage means one woman and one man and coitus. This simply isn't historically accurate even within the context of Christianity and European history.
posted by the man of twists and turns at 11:53 AM PST - 45 comments

'I wanted to put a stop to it'

Betrayed by Silence — In a four part investigation, MPR News details the cover up of child sexual abuse in the Catholic Church in Minneapolis and St. Paul. [more inside]
posted by supermassive at 11:34 AM PST - 17 comments

"I don't want to be a girl."

A young girl's questions about the Boko Haram abductions reveal an increasing consciousness of a misogynist world. How can her mother—a survivor of kidnapping and abuse—respond?
Lacy M. Johnson writes for Dame Magazine: "I Don't Want to Be a Girl."

[TW: graphic recountings of gendered violence] [more inside]
posted by divined by radio at 10:03 AM PST - 43 comments

A quantum leap in computer games from Protovision.

1980s computer hacking supercut. [more inside]
posted by Chrysostom at 9:40 AM PST - 49 comments

Draculas? Draculae? Draculii?

The gals at Anglo-Filles have an entertaining (and epicly long) talk about the history of Dracula and vampires as characters and symbols throughout the ages and throughout fiction - topics discussed include Varney The Vampire, The Vienna Vampire Scare, Where Does Sunlight Killing Vampires Come From, The Secret Spanish Dracula, and Jonathan Harker As An Abuse Survivor.
posted by The Whelk at 9:27 AM PST - 30 comments

Fashion Solutions for Hiding from SkyNet

In Anti-Surveillance Camouflage for Your Face, technology reporter Robinson Meyer details an experiment in which he tried actually going about his day to day life in downtown Washington DC while wearing CV Dazzle, (previously on MeFi) makeup and hairstyles to confuse facial recognition software. The technique is inspired by the old naval technique of dazzle camouflage, which sought not to conceal a ship, but to confuse viewers as to its size and heading. Similarly, CV Dazzle aims to confuse software by making your face look less like a face and more like a confusing collection of shapes. This proves to have unanticipated effects on how Robinson is perceived by humans as well, leading to insights about how our appearance signals our privilege and place in the social hierarchy, and how that can overlap or conflict with the digital wakes we leave.
posted by Naberius at 9:25 AM PST - 77 comments

Warning: Here be trolls

In a sixth floor walk-up on New York City's Lower East Side, you'll find The Troll Museum. Run by a woman in elf ears named Reverend Jen Miller, along with her pet chihuahua, Reverend Jen Jr., it's dedicated to her admitted obsession with vintage Troll Dolls and memorabilia. Admission is free, however there is a suggested donation of $3000. [more inside]
posted by Mchelly at 8:29 AM PST - 24 comments

Make reservation by phone for the greatest dinner of your life

Where Restaurant Reservations Come From: Why did the practice develop? In the startup terms of our day, what problem did the institution of restaurant reservations solve? Well, the answer boils down to... sex and propriety.
posted by Cash4Lead at 8:11 AM PST - 36 comments

“I think it was such a fluke that I got published at all,”

You Are Now Entering the Demented Kingdom of William T. Vollmann: [The New Republic] Home to goddesses, dreams, and a dangerously uncorrupted literary mind.
posted by Fizz at 6:44 AM PST - 27 comments

Roman à clef

David Simon runs into Governor Martin O'Malley on the Acela. O'Malley, current governor of Maryland and former mayor of Baltimore, was one of the inspirations for Tommy Carcetti, the ambitious Baltimore politician in Simon's series The Wire. O'Malley hates this connection, and has let Simon know. Still, both Simon and O'Malley were able to put aside differences and share a beer and a photo. [more inside]
posted by spaltavian at 6:02 AM PST - 45 comments

The Guardians of the Bay

Narrowly saved from the scrapyard just a few years earlier by then-mayor Dianne Feinstein, San Francisco's historic fireboat Phoenix has been credited with saving the Marina District from a blaze in the wake of the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake. Following this heroic feat, two anonymous residents donated $300,000 towards the purchase of a second fireboat, Guardian, and a $50,000 gift from a Buddhist temple in the Marina funded her refurbishment. While Guardian's 1,200-mile journey from Vancouver did not go entirely smoothly, the crew arrived safely to a hero's welcome in San Francisco, including a water display from Phoenix. Now, with a recent vote, city supervisors have approved funding to build the city's first new fireboat in 60 years. [more inside]
posted by annekate at 3:11 AM PST - 18 comments

I had been in the arms of my best friend's wife

Unlike most murder ballads, The Long Black Veil doesn't retell the story of an actual murder. Danny Dill and Marijohn Wilkin borrowed bits of stories about Valentino and a murdered priest and a Red Foley chorus and crafted their own story in 1959 to create what he hoped would be a folk song for the ages. [more inside]
posted by julen at 1:39 AM PST - 44 comments

A Man From The Future

Pet Shop Boys, still going strong after over 30 years, and still as inventive as ever, debuted their "orchestral pop biography in eight parts for electronics, orchestra, choir, and narrator" at the BBC Proms last night. A Man From The Future [audio only, BBC3 recording, available for 4 weeks, 1h55m] is an exploration of the life of Alan Turing. The performance includes Chrissie Hynde performing classic PSB accompanied by a full orchestra in the first half, and the premiere of AMFTF as the second half.
posted by hippybear at 12:30 AM PST - 24 comments

July 23

"Crack Mississippi, and you crack the whole South."

In 1964, less than 7% of Mississippi’s African Americans were registered to vote, compared to between 50 and 70% in other southern states. In many rural counties, African Americans made up the majority of the population and the segregationist white establishment was prepared to use any means necessary to keep them away from the polls and out of elected office. As Mississippian William Winter recalls, “A lot of white people thought that African Americans in the South would literally take over and white people would have to move, would have to get out of the state.”
This summer fifty years ago well over a thousand volunteers went to Mississippi to help register as many African-Americans as possible to vote, in the Freedom Summer, which would end with at least seven people murdered for their support for the campaign. For PBS's American Experience series, director Stanley Nelson has created a movie about the campaign, which you can watch online. A transcript, introduction and other resources are also available.
posted by MartinWisse at 11:29 PM PST - 10 comments

"a whisper of perfection in an otherwise cruel and inhumane world"

Beyoncé's "Rosie the Riveter" Instagram photo is causing internet waves. The Independent has a more substantive, historically concerned article.
posted by joseph conrad is fully awesome at 10:22 PM PST - 268 comments

Geraldine Ferraro, first woman nominated as a major party VP, in 1984

There were a number of notable firsts for women elected to office as early as the late 1800s, and there is a significant history of women running for president and vice president in the United States, but until 1984, no woman had been nominated to as vice president in one of the major parties. 30 years ago, the Democratic presidential candidate Walter Mondale announced Geraldine Ferraro as his running mate, and she accepted the nomination to resounding roar of excitement (another version, on YouTube; transcript). [more inside]
posted by filthy light thief at 9:31 PM PST - 15 comments

Comedians in Cars Getting Cocaine

"The Soup" host Joel McHale takes a classic 1959 Ford Skyliner to new heights with "Veep" star Tony Hale. Comedians in Cars Getting Cocaine.
posted by paleyellowwithorange at 6:16 PM PST - 27 comments

"wait for a bunch of old ideas to die in order for a church to live"

A Church Divided Over Marriage Equality
The Church’s rules against homosexuality have divided Methodists for forty years. Attempts to abolish or even soften these rules have failed at every General Conference, the quadrennial meeting of the denomination, since they were first added, in 1972, to the Book of Discipline, which contains the Church’s laws and doctrine.

"And They Will Know We Are Christians by Our Love"
"Methodists should call meeting on gay divide, pastor says"
"Ranks of defiant United Methodist clergy rise"
"Defrocking of Minister Widens Split Over Gays"
posted by davidstandaford at 4:56 PM PST - 22 comments

"Be excellent to each other" is not a code of conduct

Why Silicon Valley Needs The Coder Grrrls Of Double Union, The Feminist Hacker Space
The lack of women in the tech world isn't just a pipeline problem--it's one of rampant sexism. Enter the haven of Double Union.
[more inside]
posted by Lexica at 4:44 PM PST - 82 comments

Cardboard Stories

Rethink Homelessness asked a bunch of homeless people from Orlando to write down something about themselves that people who walk by them wouldn't otherwise know.
posted by gman at 3:41 PM PST - 42 comments

Lasciarti non è possibile

"Ancora Tu" is an Italian phrase roughly translating to "You Again". It's also the name of a classic 1976 pop song by Lucio Battisti and Mogol. [more inside]
posted by rollick at 2:39 PM PST - 1 comment

slurp!

inside Sun Noodle, the secret weapon of america's best ramen shops29 ramen shops serving sun noodles across the US

but, have we taken ramen too far? [more inside]
posted by yeoz at 2:32 PM PST - 82 comments

I am a natural sportsballer. Right here. Built to sportsball. Watch out.

Which sport are you physically most suited for? Find out with some help from the BBC!
posted by phunniemee at 1:56 PM PST - 128 comments

Guy Walks Into a Bar

And the bartender's, like, "No kidding. You think I wished for a twelve-inch pianist?" So the guy processes this. (SLNewYorker) [more inside]
posted by Metroid Baby at 1:51 PM PST - 137 comments

Theater Map of Ukraine

"...it's social media that has helped build the public case against Russia" in Ukraine. One example is liveuamap.com, who "gather information from open sources and put it on the [Google] map" using familiar Google Maps markers for a Reds (Pro-Russian) vs Blues (Pro-Ukraine) theater map. Shaded regions indicate the Donetsk People's Republic (DNR; Red), Lugansk People's Republic (LNR; Purple), the MH17 crash site (Yellow), and the MH17 ceasefire zone (green). The posts linked to by each marker include a link to the source via a chain icon at the bottom of the post.
posted by jwells at 12:55 PM PST - 10 comments

Never Give Up! Never Surrender!

Galaxy Quest: The Oral History
posted by Nimmie Amee at 12:54 PM PST - 143 comments

This place is full of Raphaels

"I was a nervous wreck because I was about to betray my beloved grandmother and visit her darkest secret. Her secret had a name, and I was going to see him." (SLNYTimes: Modern Love)
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 12:35 PM PST - 14 comments

The nation's top colleges are turning our kids into zombies.

It's hardly breaking news, but more and more people are questioning the race to the Ivy League that in some cases begins as early as preschool. And in addition to perpetuating the increasingly-rigid class structure in the US, the Ivy League colleges are inadvertently creating and admitting students who have no idea how to really take advantage of the resources available to them. So writes William Deresiewicz in his article, "Don't Send Your Kid to the Ivy League" from the New Republic:
So extreme are the admission standards now that kids who manage to get into elite colleges have, by definition, never experienced anything but success. The prospect of not being successful terrifies them, disorients them. The cost of falling short, even temporarily, becomes not merely practical, but existential. The result is a violent aversion to risk. You have no margin for error, so you avoid the possibility that you will ever make an error. Once, a student at Pomona told me that she’d love to have a chance to think about the things she’s studying, only she doesn’t have the time. I asked her if she had ever considered not trying to get an A in every class. She looked at me as if I had made an indecent suggestion.
See also Deresiewicz's earlier article, "The Disadvantages of an Elite Education" from American Scholar, previously discussed on the blue.
posted by math at 12:34 PM PST - 138 comments

“the Journal that Blunts the Cutting Edge"

All of The Baffler's back issues are available online, for free. [more inside]
posted by the man of twists and turns at 11:30 AM PST - 30 comments

No one wants nothing written about what they’ve written.

Look: it’s not that I’m a dick when it comes to this stuff. It’s that I like to think that I have standards based on exposure to the interdependent duo of lit and life. But if I decide not to wuss out and instead uphold my particular notion of standards, I’m a dick, and being a dick could lead to dickish reviews of my own stuff from Shane Jones, his friends, and friends of the publisher. George Saunders told us all to “err in the direction of kindness.” But is this essay/review I’m writing unkind? Is it selfish? Is it generous? Is a kindness policy maybe too simple?
Lee Klein worries about small-press book reviewing in an ambivalent, lukewarm take on Shane Jones's new novel Crystal Eaters (excerpt) that others have, all the same, called cowardly and dickish.
posted by RogerB at 9:49 AM PST - 37 comments

U Remind Me of a Year That I Once Knew...

Throwing a theme party? Need some background music whilst checking out your ex's facebook pics? Do you pine for times gone by? Step into the Nostalgia Machine!
posted by stinkfoot at 8:35 AM PST - 101 comments

Robot, Heal Thyself

A robot with a broken leg learns to walk again.
posted by tocts at 8:28 AM PST - 16 comments

Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and the Short Life of the Moreland Commission

A "pulled-back subpoena was the most flagrant example of how the commission, established with great ceremony by Mr. Cuomo in July 2013, was hobbled almost from the outset by demands from the governor’s office." (SLNYT, ~6800 words)
posted by Chutzler at 7:57 AM PST - 33 comments

It's pure bullshit, sweetie.

On its 15th Anniversary, Buzzfeed takes a look back at cult comedy Drop Dead Gorgeous while Bustle compares Drop Dead Gorgeous pageant moments with real life pageant moments.
posted by jacquilynne at 7:07 AM PST - 55 comments

Stimulating cross-border Cupertino sea sponge

The History of Autocorrect
...some of the calls were quite tricky, and one of the trickiest involved the issue of obscenity. On one hand, Word didn't want to seem priggish; on the other, it couldn't very well go around recommending the correct spelling of mothrefukcer. Microsoft was sensitive to these issues. The solution lay in expanding one of spell-check's most special lists, bearing the understated title: “Words which should neither be flagged nor suggested.”
posted by frimble at 6:40 AM PST - 76 comments

July 22

Lewis Macleod reads Little Red Riding Hood (NSFW)

Impressionist and voice artist Lewis Macleod tells the story of Little Red Riding Hood with the help of some famous names. (NSFW, SLYT)
posted by Dragonness at 10:39 PM PST - 13 comments

How the burrito became a sandwich

NPR's Planet Money explains the history of the sales tax in the United States by tracing what kinds of sandwiches get taxed and why: How the Burrito Became a Sandwich. Bonus: In-N-Out Burger history in the podcast.
posted by joseph conrad is fully awesome at 10:19 PM PST - 153 comments

Columbo himself was never this stylish.

Columboldies is a tumblr featuring furniture/clothing/etc. from the tv show Columbo.
posted by Room 641-A at 8:34 PM PST - 30 comments

The Man Who Shot The Man Who Shot Lincoln

An animated interpretation of the strange life of Boston Corbett, the man who killed John Wilkes Booth. It was animated in charcoal, pastels and crayon on the pages of 12 paperback books. [more inside]
posted by bq at 8:17 PM PST - 5 comments

you are all human

Doing his best Orson Welles impression, Ze Frank administers a Voight-Kampff Test to a Vancouver TED audience.
posted by kliuless at 8:08 PM PST - 29 comments

The adventures of Agnes Quill, the Victorian era young lady, and ghosts

Sixteen-year-old Agnes Quill has inherited an ancient family curse, brought about by the loss of her parents. Several of our key scholars have accounted for and confirmed that she has the ability to see and communicate with spirits trapped between worlds. In several confidential journal entries, Agnes describes the events of her parents’ funeral, where the ghost of her Grandfather, Ages Quill, visited her. It was then that he explained the nature of specters and how he used his connections with them to great advantage throughout his career. Ms. Quill's stories are written by Astronaut Academy creator Dave Roman, and illustrated by a growing collection of artists. (via io9)
posted by filthy light thief at 7:27 PM PST - 3 comments

Before anybody wanted K West beats, me & my girl split the buffet at KFC

"Saying "Hey, I like Kim" isn't as inspiring to people as us getting married. And anyone that's in a relationship knows that in order to get to the point to get married and then to be married and to then carry on, it needs that work put into it. Right now, people look at it and it's like, "Wow, that's inspiring." Meaning that love is infectious. You know, God is infectious—God flowing through us and us being little-baby creators and shit. But His energy and His love and what He wants us to have as people and the way He wants us to love each other, that is infectious. Like they said in Step Brothers: Never lose your dinosaur. This is the ultimate example of a person never losing his dinosaur. Meaning that even as I grew in cultural awareness and respect and was put higher in the class system in some way for being this musician, I never lost my dinosaur." GQ interviews Kanye West. [more inside]
posted by porn in the woods at 7:08 PM PST - 29 comments

The Fates- Furia

Una Baines' unreleased album with her band The Fates has been reissued by Finder's Keepers on vinyl. You may know Una Baines as the first keyboard player in the Fall, as a founding member of Blue Orchids or from a short lived stint in Nico's backing band. The Fates were a "women's group" operating at the intersection of post-punk, english mysticism, indie and folk. (Link goes to an interview at the defunct online Fall zine Reformation!) [more inside]
posted by kittensofthenight at 6:44 PM PST - 5 comments

On Lionfish, research, and science fairs

Last month, a twelve-year-old girl named Lauren Arrington was credited with research showing that lionfish, an invasive species, were surviving in water with a much lower percentage of salinity than was thought possible. [more inside]
posted by PussKillian at 6:10 PM PST - 79 comments

Beyond The Arab Spring

Stories of Change: - Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Morocco and Tunisia.
An inside perspective from local visual storytellers on everyday life in North Africa.
The Storytellers.
Timeline.
The Stories.
posted by adamvasco at 4:54 PM PST - 3 comments

"It made me proud of my town to see everybody come out for her"

Small South Carolina town rallies for fired lesbian police chief
LATTA, S.C. (AP) -- When openly gay police chief Crystal Moore was fired by a mayor who condemned her lifestyle as "questionable," she feared her two decade career in law enforcement in this town was over. Then, this conservative, small town rebelled.

The people of Latta, who voted overwhelmingly for a state amendment banning gay marriage eight years ago, turned against the mayor, stripped him of his powers and the town council rehired Moore. They said her dedication to the town mattered more than her sexual orientation.
posted by Lexica at 4:43 PM PST - 62 comments

Tuesday afternoon sportz journalizm chuckles

An Oral History of the 1989 Cleveland Indians. It was 1989, and no one knew that the usually predictable world of Major League Baseball was about to get as topsy turvy as it could. Here's the story of a plucky band of misfits, fighting against the entrenched baseball establishment, to obtain success in their efforts against their playing opponents, and an evil owner bent on relocation. [more inside]
posted by LoRichTimes at 1:13 PM PST - 31 comments

The Judgment of Paris (and a neck that can bend 140 degrees)

Mallory Ortberg of The Toast continues the fine tradition of providing not-so-serious narration to very-serious art. This time, she tackles the Judgment of Paris, a theme "based on a legend where three supremely powerful goddesses asked a worthless male mortal to rank them in order of attractiveness in order to win a sculpture of a fruit." [more inside]
posted by Ouverture at 1:03 PM PST - 53 comments

I Know Where Your Cat Lives

Only 15 million, riiiight. A data experiment out of Florida State University maps the location of 1 million of the 15 million publicly available online images tagged with the word "cat." Using a supercomputer and the map coordinates imbedded in their metadata, I Know Where Your Cat Lives shows where each image was taken, to within an estimated 7.8 meters accuracy. [more inside]
posted by gottabefunky at 12:19 PM PST - 71 comments

Mexican DREAMers - Life after return

They grew up in America, were deported or returned to Mexico for other reasons and faced challenges and opportunities alike. A recently funded kickstarter for a book called "Los Otros Dreamers" tells the struggles and hopes of the other DREAMers. Nancy Landa, a deported honors graduate of California State University, who has lived in Tijuana and London since her deportation in 2009, is about to begin a research project collecting the experiences of voluntary and involuntary returns to Mexico after a long time in the U.S. To help in a country that is foreign to them the Mexican nonprofit Dream in Mexico supports young people who just arrived in Mexico. The German Der Spiegel interviewed three young deportees and how returning to Mexico after a lifetime in the U.S was both, a culture shock and an opportunity for a better life. [in German]
posted by travelwithcats at 11:55 AM PST - 3 comments

considering & rethinking bathrooms

Why the modern bathroom is a wasteful, unhealthy design (The Guardian):
"Piped water may be the greatest convenience ever known but our sewage systems and bathrooms are a disaster" [more inside]
posted by flex at 11:52 AM PST - 180 comments

Abbreviated "Family Feud"

What do you get when you subtract all the extraneous banter from an episode of "Family Feud"? About three minutes of actual game show. (SLYT).
posted by AlonzoMosleyFBI at 11:39 AM PST - 70 comments

You want a juicy industry to disrupt? How about your own?

It's astonishing how many of the people conducting interviews and passing judgement on the careers of candidates have had no training at all on how to do it well. Aside from their own interviews, they may not have ever seen one. I'm all for learning on your own but at least when you write a program wrong it breaks. Without a natural feedback loop, interviewing mostly runs on myth and survivor bias. "Empirically", people who wear suits don't do well; therefore anyone in a suit is judged before they open their mouths. On my interview I remember we did thus & so, therefore I will always do thus & so. I'm awesome and I know X; therefore anyone who doesn't know X is an idiot. Exceptions, also known as opportunities for learning, are not allowed to occur. This completes the circle.
According to Carlos Bueno, Silicon Valley is not a meritocracy, it's a mirrortocracy where startups hire the people that resemble them the most. [more inside]
posted by MartinWisse at 11:35 AM PST - 62 comments

Science science science science science science science

Musical proof that Scully Likes Science.
posted by mudpuppie at 11:33 AM PST - 9 comments

Replaying the Tape

Carl Zimmer writes for Quanta: The New Science Of Evolutionary Forecasting [more inside]
posted by the man of twists and turns at 11:14 AM PST - 3 comments

No Skin Thick Enough

The Daily Harassment of Women in the Game Industry. "It’s telling that men in the gaming industry, or simply commentators, refuse to listen to the reality of these situations and try to help. They’d rather talk over women and convince themselves of a fictional reality that’s more comforting."
posted by Librarypt at 11:13 AM PST - 16 comments

Morph is Back

Morph is a plasticine man , star of many short animated films made for the BBC from the 1970s onwards by Aardman Animations, who would later use the similar techniques for Wallace & Gromit. A Kickstarter campaign last year has paid for 12 new one minute episodes. [more inside]
posted by DanCall at 11:12 AM PST - 4 comments

“U.S. citizens here?” - “U.S. citizens.”

Arizona’s Checkpoint Rebellion
Liberals, libertarians, retirees, and activists protest against immigration patrols far from the border.

Previously:
DHS Checkpoint Refusals
Am I being detained? Am I free to go?
posted by davidstandaford at 10:57 AM PST - 39 comments

You realize your body is bespoke.

There are many reasons people start sewing their own clothes: to break out of some of the cycle of fast fashion’s humanitarian and ecological issues (MF link), to be creative, to make quality clothes, to support local fabric shops and independent pattern designers, and to express their own style. A sometimes-overlooked benefit, though, is that of examining body acceptance. [more inside]
posted by umwhat at 10:43 AM PST - 30 comments

Frankly, my dear, I do give a damn

Meet Scarlett, North America's Top ranked Starcraft player. A complex, real-time strategy game with exquisitely balanced opposing forces, Starcraft is so popular that men can and do make a career out of playing the game. All but one of the top 20 ranked players in the world live and play in Korea. And all of them are men. So maybe it is not surprising that Scarlett, a 20 year-old transgender woman from Canada , is making huge waves in the gaming community.
posted by misha at 10:35 AM PST - 37 comments

Basement shows, kittens, pink hair, zines, flowers and pizza.

Ellen Rumel plays in the band The Nunnery and takes 35mm photographs of the underground music scene in Boise, Idaho.

Alexander Miranda plays in the band Underpass and takes 35mm photographs of the DIY punk scene in Vancouver, British Columbia.
posted by Juliet Banana at 9:45 AM PST - 21 comments

Come for the Cap'n Jazz, stay for Desaparecidos

Thirty Essential Songs from the Golden Age of Emo Including, of course, and with all sincerity, a late-era Jawbreaker song that opens with a clip of Christopher Walken's monologue from Annie Hall.
posted by MisantropicPainforest at 9:41 AM PST - 32 comments

women-owned worker coops & the fight against the feminization of poverty

Sarah McKinley and Violeta Duncan for Community Wealth: Worker Cooperatives Address Low-Wage Work and the Feminization of Poverty.
Women of color working low-wage jobs must often navigate unregulated work conditions, as much of their work is domestic labor—caregiving, house cleaning, child care—an industry that, historically, is not only low-paid but also exploitative. The National Domestic Workers Alliance (NDWA), a 10,000 membership-based organization for nannies, housecleaners, and caregivers, describes, in its 2012 Home Economics: The Invisible and Unregulated World of Domestic Work [PDF] report, the substandard conditions of domestic work, including lack of employment benefits, meager wages, exposure to toxic chemicals, and physical abuse.

Such unhealthy work environments and insufficient pay have led a number of these low-wage women to take matters in to their own hands. Many have formed women-owned worker cooperatives that ensure good pay and healthy working conditions, help women overcome the isolation and vulnerability of domestic work, and empower women to build wealth for themselves, their families, and their communities.
[more inside]
posted by divined by radio at 9:05 AM PST - 15 comments

In order to win at life, you need some Kim K skills.

Are you playing Kim Kardashian: Hollywood yet? Pretty much everyone is, including the EPA Office of Water. Your mission is simple: become an A-list celebrity through networking, flirting, modeling, promoting vodka, avoiding landlords and poking birds for money, and dating assholes in fedoras. Oh, and plenty of in-app purchases. Or you could just cheat.
posted by Metroid Baby at 9:00 AM PST - 70 comments

OK: Now explain midichlorians.

With growing fascination for the large land vertebratomorphs that are so startlingly diverse on Tatooine, I secured Imperial funding for an expedition to Tatooine, to survey the exotic megafauna and search for fossils of Tyrannodraconis that might further illuminate their evolution. My ensuing report summarizes my trilogy of investigations and discoveries from this “holiday in the suns." [more inside]
posted by ChuraChura at 8:48 AM PST - 5 comments

Iron Horses

Iron, Steam and Coal. Photographer Matthew Malkiewicz captures the timeless beauty of the steam locomotive and steam trains - the steam, the tracks, the folks who run them and just the folks who love them. (Via Petapixel)
posted by caddis at 8:13 AM PST - 4 comments

An illustrated guide to the worst computer viruses in history

Computer Virus Catalog (NSFW) shows artists' renditions of famous computer viruses.
posted by codacorolla at 8:08 AM PST - 8 comments

Rube Goldberg wept

A Republican panel of the D.C. Circuit has ruled [.pdf opinion] in the case of Halbig v. Burwell that a drafting error in the Affordable Care Act provides subsidies exclusively to state-based exchanges and not to federally-facilitated ones, even while subjectively intending to provide subsidies in both cases. The ruling threatens to take away federal subsidies for insurance sold on Obamacare exchanges in 36 states.
posted by T.D. Strange at 8:02 AM PST - 91 comments

The death of Eric Garner

Last week, a 43 year-old man named Eric Garner died during an arrest on Staten Island, New York, when he was put in what looked like a choke hold. The NYPD claims that Mr. Garner was selling illegally cigarettes outside a store. The entire encounter, which was videotaped and posted to YouTube, (graphic) has so far resulted in the removal of the badge and gun from the arresting officers, as well as the suspension of two EMTs and two paramedics who were seen on another video taking Garner's pulse but apparently doing little else for about two minutes. [more inside]
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 6:56 AM PST - 159 comments

We use tortoise diplomacy ... like the Chinese use panda diplomacy

"...With China’s growing economic weight, disposable income and willingness to engage internationally, its ability to radically transform the fortunes of small countries has seen many governments re-orientate their diplomatic endeavors away from traditional bases in the West.
"But with so few resources available to them, and so little political capital to bank on, these lonely diplomats face a struggle against limited budgets as they scrap for crumbs from the giant’s table."
posted by frimble at 3:47 AM PST - 2 comments

July 21

Bloggers review the It-bag of the moment: the Michael Kors Selma handbag

Michael Kors has been causing a bit of a sensation in the fashion world recently, as the popularity of the designer's handbags, and in particular, one handbag—called "the Selma"—threatens to dethrone Coach as the luxury brand to buy (some say it already has). The Guardian notes that in the Kors line of handbags, "The details are right: the gold studs on the base, a practical touch so that you can rest the bag on the floor; a printed silk lining; a phone pocket. But the most important detail is very, very simple: the magic £300 price tag." Obsessions and the internet go hand in hand, so here are some of the best reviews of Selma handbags from bloggers who want to share their knowledge with other handbag enthusiasts. [more inside]
posted by joseph conrad is fully awesome at 10:17 PM PST - 435 comments

Ansel Adams--Photography-The Incisive Art

The grandeurs and intimacies of nature will, I hope, encourage the spectator to seek for himself the inexhaustible sources of beauty in the natural world around him. Fortunate is he indeed who can see Mount McKinley against the summer midnight sky.... From a 1962 documentary about the photography of Ansel Adams produced by THIRTEEN/WNET. [more inside]
posted by MoonOrb at 9:27 PM PST - 3 comments

the iconic mailbox

In 1915, dissatisfied with the many competing designs for rural mailboxes, the US Post Office Department decided to specify its own box. The result, designed by postal engineer Roy Joroleman, was the iconic tunnel mailbox. Unpatented and easily manufacturable, it would be become ubiquitous along America's roadsides and would often serve as a blank canvas for homeowners' artistic expression. [more inside]
posted by We had a deal, Kyle at 8:23 PM PST - 53 comments

Teddy Gray's

Teddy Gray's Sweet Factory is a short and sweet documentary by Martin Parr about a traditionally owned and run confectionery factory in the British Midlands. [via kottke]
posted by carter at 8:18 PM PST - 16 comments

#MightyKacy

Kacy Catanzaro is 5 feet tall and weighs 100 pounds and she is a total badass. The former Towson University gymnast recently became the first woman to qualify for the finals of American Ninja Warrior. Esquire has an after event interview. [more inside]
posted by cwest at 8:00 PM PST - 109 comments

Who owns the Moon?

Margaret Wise Brown willed the copyright to 'Goodnight Moon' to a friend's young son. Did she ruin his life? [more inside]
posted by bq at 7:46 PM PST - 13 comments

World Health Organization quietly endorses drug decriminalization

"The United Nations approves of the criminalization of narcotics. But the World Health Organization, a branch of the UN, apparently disagrees. The Economist has flagged a report on prevention and treatment for HIV in groups most likely to contract the disease. In the report, the WHO quietly recommends decriminalizing drugs — specifically, injectable drugs that spread HIV." [more inside]
posted by bookman117 at 7:20 PM PST - 15 comments

Portland, Oregon's Annual Disaster Relief Trials

150 pounds, 35 miles, 4 eggs, dozens of cargo bicycles, and one skateboard trailer [more inside]
posted by aniola at 6:45 PM PST - 28 comments

Upstate Girls Project + Slate + Facebook = Internet Rage

Slate's article on the photojournalist Brenda Ann Kenneally's Upstate Girls project article sparks huge internet backlash. Brenda spent ten years documenting the lives of five women in Troy through photography. Slate published an article about the project and then the Facebook comments rolled in. For perspective, take a look at the interview with Brenda about the project and New York Times original showcase of the project.
posted by ichimunki at 6:17 PM PST - 63 comments

What could have been

Seven crazy ‘Harry Potter’ theories we wish had come true This week marks the seven-year anniversary of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. To celebrate, we pick out the seven best fan theories that never came true.
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 5:59 PM PST - 45 comments

Library of Emoji

OBVIOUSLY ANGULAR PETRIFICATION BENEATH CHARLOTTETOWN. TWO SCABS. OVAL WITH PLATO. These are...the emoji of the future. (Maybe.) Library of Emoji [via mefi projects] randomly generates descriptions for the Unicode characters we never knew we wanted.
posted by capricorn at 5:51 PM PST - 7 comments

"a new Tumblr where your big sister has got your back"

i believe you | it's not your fault. The "What are we doing here?" post explains the origin: [more inside]
posted by Lexica at 4:41 PM PST - 8 comments

“Remember it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird.”

The Decline of Harper Lee: [Vulture] The iconic 88-year-old author is involved in [another] messy tussle over a new biography. Does this mean she'll never tell her own story? [more inside]
posted by Fizz at 4:40 PM PST - 12 comments

"Transmogrification event caused by incorporation of alien bacteria!!!"

Alien viruses from outer space and the great Archaeopteryx forgery [more inside]
posted by brundlefly at 3:43 PM PST - 14 comments

Getting to the Moon was only half the job

On July 21th, 1969 Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin waited within paper thin walls on the surface of the Moon. Hours ago they had made history by being the first humans to land and walk on its surface. Now the only thing left to do was take off. All that entailed was performing the final test of the Lunar Module: launching from the lunar surface with no on-site support or possibility of fixes if something failed. [more inside]
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 2:57 PM PST - 67 comments

More pictures of radiation than you can shake a stick at.

Three albums filled with hundreds of pictures of Pripyat and Chernobyl before and after the disaster.
posted by ilama at 2:53 PM PST - 10 comments

REQUIEM FOR A FRONT PAGE POST - A Quinn Martin Production (In Color)

15 Main Title Sequences From Quinn Martin TV Shows. [more inside]
posted by Room 641-A at 1:44 PM PST - 14 comments

Ladies and gentlemen: DIGITAL SPORTS

Defense of the Ancients is a MOBA (what's a MOBA? | comprehensive history of MOBAs) that has skyrocketed in recent years from a humble Warcraft multiplayer mod to a genre-defining megahit whose worldwide competitive bracket The International (whose finale airs tonight) boasts a prize pool of more than $10 million dollars. While publisher Valve is determined to help mainstream the esports craze with helpful noob newcomer-friendly broadcasts of the final and a simulcast on ESPN, the community has been dogged by accusations of hostility and a very steep learning curve. Luckily, you don't have to know anything about DOTA to enjoy the best thing to come out of it so far: 45 minutes of witheringly sarcastic in-game meta-commentary [playable transcript] in the dulcet tones of Kevan Brighting, the very charming (and very British) narrator of beloved metagame The Stanley Parable. Once you're finished with that delightful deconstruction of esport tropes, you might also enjoy perusing similar announcer packs for Portal's GLaDOS, Bastion's Rucks, and... a pirate. DIGITAL SPORTS!
posted by Rhaomi at 12:36 PM PST - 47 comments

Just one more question

Columbo - that much loved TV show - might be the latest candidate for a Hollywood remake - confirmed by its proposed star Mark Ruffalo on twitter. The Guardian argues that this is an inherently poor idea. Meanwhile Empire says "this is a project that every right-thinking human being would like to see happen". [more inside]
posted by Chipeaux at 11:48 AM PST - 221 comments

"Publishing the best work possible remains our aim."

Today, The New Yorker announces a redesign, temporary free access to their archives for all web visitors, and a soon-to-be implemented paywall, modelled on that of The New York Times. The New Yorker website--which now publishes 15 original stories a day--has been steadily expanding their offerings (and increasing their traffic) under online editor Nicholas Thompson. Perhaps TNY seeks to finally answer the question: what's an old magazine to do on the internet? Capital NY digs into the history of the relaunch and how striving for timeliness on the web may affect the publication. Others maintain that a remaining problem is Andy Borowitz, whose vague satire accounted for 6% of traffic to the website last year.
posted by youarenothere at 11:27 AM PST - 46 comments

Girl Bilbo and rewriting classic books

Stories are waves: My daughter insists that Bilbo Baggins is a girl and I'm her willing conspirator in updating the classics for our times [more inside]
posted by the man of twists and turns at 10:53 AM PST - 47 comments

Transformers: The Premake

"What role then does the amateur image-maker play in a pre-made consumer reality? If people are allowed to make their own versions of Transformers, will they be able to veer from that script, or will they just feed the corporate giant?" Renowned video essayist Kevin B. Lee's latest work, Transformers: The Premake, uses amateur behind-the-scenes footage found on Youtube to investigate the phenomenon of the contemporary global blockbuster. [more inside]
posted by Awkward Philip at 10:44 AM PST - 2 comments

Want free Lego? Head to Cornwall

"Let me see if I can find a cutlass," says Tracey Williams, poking around some large rocks on Perran Sands with a stick.

She doesn't manage that, but does spot a gleaming white, pristine daisy on the beach in Perranporth, Cornwall. The flower looks good for its age, seeing as it is 17 years old.
Seventeen years after being swept overboard, one container full of Lego pieces still regularly spills its treasure on a Cornish beach. That sounds cute but it points at a hidden world of oceanic currents and the threat of plastic and its durability to the ocean's health.
posted by MartinWisse at 10:25 AM PST - 21 comments

A movie to keep you warm through a long winter

Film Muffler is a stop motion animation knitted into a scarf. [via]
posted by jacquilynne at 9:48 AM PST - 15 comments

Bouncer turned Businessman

The nightclub insurer promised to fight for its clients — its promotional material shows a man socked in the face with a boxing glove. But founder Jeffrey B. Cohen fights everything. He went after competitors, clients, former employees and even neighbors, filing dozens of lawsuits around the country. The Reisterstown man once sought a restraining order to keep a rival company from attending an adult industry convention.
posted by josher71 at 8:23 AM PST - 13 comments

5 Retro Consoles, 1 HDMI Cable

Hyperkin's Retron 5 hardware plays real cartridges using original controllers from a variety of 8-bit and 16-bit consoles (including the NES, SNES, Sega Master System, Sega Genesis, and Game Boy Advance), converts the output to HDMI for moderns TVs, and includes all the advanced options you usually only find in software emulators. It's winning over even the most skeptical retro gamers.
posted by 256 at 8:01 AM PST - 46 comments

A grocery store strike decades in the making

If you like cheap groceries and live in Massachusetts, you may have noticed this weekend that the shelves were bare at Market Basket. Employees of the company staged a walkout on Friday to show their support for Arthur T. Demoulas, the company's recently ousted president. Many people have questioned the sudden change in management. [more inside]
posted by banjo_and_the_pork at 6:17 AM PST - 83 comments

This is important, because it is animated

19 U.S. Maps that Will Blow your Mind Or, um, not. If you love beautiful infodata, you'll really something this.
posted by Mchelly at 6:04 AM PST - 67 comments

the three-day workweek

Carlos Slim calls for a three-day working week "We've got it all wrong, says Carlos Slim, the Mexican telecoms tycoon and world's second-richest man: we should be working only three days a week." also btw: The four-day work week (previously)
posted by kliuless at 5:32 AM PST - 82 comments

I have no Smash Mouth, and I must mash.

Hot on the heels of his mindblowing mashup extravaganza Mouth Sounds (prev. on MeFi), resident internet demiurge Neil Cicierega (also prev.) has released a "prequel" album: MOUTH SILENCE. [more inside]
posted by Strange Interlude at 3:56 AM PST - 32 comments

July 20

How an organ transplant changed my life

John Faherty tells his story of undergoing a pancreas transplant in a bid to cure his type-1 diabetes. [more inside]
posted by soelo at 9:14 PM PST - 33 comments

What in the hell is country funk? Here are 33 tracks for reference

Here's a song I didn't know existed until summer 2007, when Lemon Jelly's Fred Deakin released an impeccably curated three-CD mix (full 4 hours on Mixcloud). Halfway through the first disc, the music slipped into an easy, loping groove, sunburned and hungover, and a regretful voice offered Otis Blackwell's lonesome lyric: "You know I can be found/ Sitting home all alone …" [Billy Swan's version of "Don't Be Cruel" is] a beautiful record, though, and utterly different from Elvis's 1956 recording. And it opens a fantastic collection of country funk songs, collected and remastered by Zach Cowie of Light in the Attic Records. More sounds below the break. [more inside]
posted by filthy light thief at 9:13 PM PST - 26 comments

NYC's push to change elite high school admissions

NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio has called for changing the admissions criteria of NYC's elite high schools, arguing that relying solely on a single exam (the SHSAT) "creates a “rich-get-richer” dynamic that benefits the wealthy, who can afford expensive test prep. However, the reality is just the opposite. It’s not affluent whites, but rather the city’s burgeoning population of Asian-American immigrants — a group that, despite its successes, remains disproportionately poor and working-class — whose children have aced the exam in overwhelming numbers." [more inside]
posted by gemutlichkeit at 9:05 PM PST - 73 comments

Loooooooooooooo​ooooooooooooo​ooooooooooo​ooooooooooo​ooooooooooo​ooooooooong

Dave's Classic Limousines is dedicated to documenting Limousines prior to the Super-Stretch era and features pictures and descriptions of Custom Coachworks cars and one offs (home built and commercial) plus a page devoted to presidential limos. [more inside]
posted by Mitheral at 8:21 PM PST - 10 comments

HD Available

Test Pattern: Downscaling 2997fps 10Min. Reviews are streaming in for Test Pattern: Downscaling 2997fps. Test Pattern: Downscaling 2997fps. Test Pattern: Downscaling 2997fps. Test Pattern: Downscaling 2997fps. Satisfied viewers are saying "Not as good as the book" but still a "A start to finish THRILL RIDE!" and "Deeply. Riveting". It's currently the most popular Netlix movie on Instant Watcher and destined to be a classic.
posted by four panels at 8:16 PM PST - 20 comments

Touching the Art

Touching the Art "Ovation’s newest digital series tackles the contemporary art world’s least favorite subject – art. Host Casey Jane Ellison asks her panel of insiders all the dumb questions, so you don’t have to." [more inside]
posted by danabanana at 7:43 PM PST - 4 comments

Organic Lawn Care for the Cheap and Lazy

Organic Lawn Care for the Cheap and Lazy : What it says on the tin.
posted by bq at 7:35 PM PST - 43 comments

useful websites

101 Useful Websites is "a frequently updated list of lesser-known but wonderful websites and cool web apps. Here are some of the most useful websites on the internet that you may not know about. These web sites, well most of them, solve at least one problem really well and they all have simple web addresses (URLs) that you can memorize thus saving you a trip to Google." [more inside]
posted by flex at 6:39 PM PST - 16 comments

Built to last

“San Francisco's Fire Department is one of the few left in the United States that still uses wooden ladders. Each is made by hand at a dedicated workshop. Some have been in rotation for nearly a century.” [more inside]
posted by rtha at 6:11 PM PST - 25 comments

#3

Kali couldn’t hold her gaze. Her eyes rolled back into her head. She had an appointment for 3 p.m., but around noon, Traci called her husband, Joseph. “I got her in, but I don’t know if she’s going to make it that long.” This is the story of how Kali Hardig became the third known survivor of the naegleria fowleri amoeba.
posted by threeants at 6:02 PM PST - 25 comments

An excellent programming language for data analysis

"Julia is a high-level, high-performance dynamic programming language for technical computing." The language is elegant (homoiconic, multiple-dispatch, consistent and extensible type system), but with easy-to-learn syntax. The standard library includes a wide array of fast and useful functions, and the number of useful packages is growing. [more inside]
posted by vogon_poet at 5:48 PM PST - 33 comments

Mario Kart 8: The Wii U's ultimate power-up?

Could Mario Kart 8 be the Bullet Bill that propels Nintendo's Wii U from its slump? Outstanding reviews, a free game with purchase, plus the Luigi stare of death meme, helped make MK8 the best-selling game in June and boosted Wii U sales tremendously. An arcade version - featuring Fusion Carts - is forthcoming.

Hop over to MetaTalk and share your Nintendo Network ID. [more inside]
posted by porn in the woods at 4:54 PM PST - 75 comments

"And we're dancing with the dead / that are dancing in our head"

Bringing Wes home.
How Sound is a podcast on radio storytelling on Public Radio Exchange that focuses on the story behind the radio story, and this episode is called "Bringing Wes home". I'd recommend listening to it cold with no more information than that, but if you'd like to know a bit more, the episode description is below the fold. [more inside]
posted by Lexica at 4:39 PM PST - 1 comment

YOU WERE MADE FOR LONELINESS

You Were Made for Loneliness is a Twine text adventure by Tsukareta that explores the idea of love in different situations. Since it's release back in June reviews have been overall positive. [more inside]
posted by chrono_rabbit at 3:53 PM PST - 7 comments

There's a lagoon, and it's blue. Surely this will work.

The Real Castaway (2001; 48:13) is a tense and awkward but sometimes beautiful documentary about a teenage boy moving to the Ulithi Atoll and seeking companionship to fulfill a romantic fantasy. [Via.]
posted by Monsieur Caution at 3:03 PM PST - 3 comments

Wow, Did You See That? Nope, I Did Not.

Person Swap (SLYT) This is one of those "awareness test" things but done more with more of the flare of a magician's trick. There are a lot of interesting details in how they pulled it off. [more inside]
posted by Michele in California at 2:19 PM PST - 23 comments

Mount Rainier Magma Mapping

A team of geologists and geophysicists have imaged the path of a Pacific Northwest volcano's molten rock, from the subducting slab to the upper crust. [more inside]
posted by Secretariat at 1:32 PM PST - 18 comments

"Beating the Globetrotters is like shooting Santa Claus."

Red Klotz, who led basketball’s biggest losers, the Washington Generals, dies at 93. In his time with the Generals, Mr. Klotz lost at least 14,000 games, or 15,000, or, according to some estimates, more than 20,000. “That sounds about right,” Mr. Klotz would shrug whenever someone tried to calculate the number. “I don’t count the losses,” he told the Washington City Paper in 2007. “It’s easier to keep track of the wins.” Mr. Klotz won six games, his biographer concluded. Or maybe it was four. Possibly just two. But definitely, beyond the shadow of any doubt, his team won one game for sure.
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 1:13 PM PST - 24 comments

The benevolent alien invasion/hyperdriven arcade sounds of Oorutaichi.

Oorutaichi, an electronic musician from Osaka, “makes drifter music, strung through with expert percussion and electric rays, flowing on a river of magical chants, inspired loops and choruses written in an invented language, undiscovered country left and right.” Oorutaichi has several really, really good animated music videos. [more inside]
posted by vathek at 11:27 AM PST - 5 comments

"Lessons I have learned from my dad and marathons"

"In my life, I’ve figuratively and literally spent years at one aid station or another. We get hurt and we get injured and we have to do what it takes to recover."
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 10:24 AM PST - 4 comments

Folk is 2014's heaviest music

What makes folk even heavier, however, is how much harder it has to work. Volume can be a crutch, and the back-to-basics ethic of folk isn’t anti-technology so much as it’s a reconnection to an older source of power. Without amplifiers cranked to 11, bands like Barren Harvest, Blood And Sun, and Musk Ox carry a different kind of weight: a heaviness of subject, a heaviness of scope, and a heaviness of intensity. More than that, they break free of the pseudo-hillbilly preciousness that folk has been reduced to in this post-O Brother, Where Art Thou? century. That contrast alone is both crushing and liberating.
posted by MartinWisse at 9:36 AM PST - 37 comments

“I’m surprised that you’re offended.”

This Woman Has Been Confronting Her Catcallers — And Secretly Filming Their Reactions The videos aren’t meant to highlight specific dramatic confrontations, but the “cumulative daily impact” of street harassment, Lindsey said. Since she began filming, the “only interactions I haven’t been able to capture are car honks.” Earlier this summer, Lindsey began handing out cards to Minneapolis men, explaining what’s wrong with street harassment. (via Buzzfeed). [more inside]
posted by sweetkid at 9:17 AM PST - 254 comments

"Who knows whether we'll be the next victims", they say.

"A girl has to fight for her rights from the day she's born until the day she dies" , explains Nargis. She and her friends bravely spread the message of equality in a country where the hanging and beheading of women remains commonplace. Facing conservative jibes for walking out without head scarves or for driving a car, these girls must also deal with the bigger worry of random terrorist attacks: "Who knows whether we'll be the next victims", they say.
posted by katrielalex at 7:33 AM PST - 10 comments

How Dungeons & Dragons Influenced a Generation of Writers (SLNYT)

For certain writers, especially those raised in the 1970s and ’80s, all that time spent in basements has paid off. D&D helped jump-start their creative lives. When he was an immigrant boy growing up in New Jersey, the writer Junot Díaz said he felt marginalized. But that feeling was dispelled somewhat in 1981 when he was in sixth grade. He and his buddies, adventuring pals with roots in distant realms — Egypt, Ireland, Cuba and the Dominican Republic — became “totally sucked in,” he said, by a “completely radical concept: role-playing,” in the form of Dungeons & Dragons. [more inside]
posted by magstheaxe at 7:01 AM PST - 35 comments

How women got in on the Civil Rights Act.

For twenty years, the belief that the sex provision was a monkey wrench that unintentionally became part of the machine was the conventional wisdom about Title VII [of the Civil Rights Act of 1964]. But when scholars—including Michael Gold, Carl Brauer, Cynthia Deitch, Jo Freeman, and Robert Bird—dug into the archives they not only learned that the real story of the sex amendment was quite different; they essentially uncovered an alternative history of women’s rights.
The Sex Amendment by Louis Menand tells the story of "how women got in on the Civil Rights Act." It focuses especially on the role of the National Women's Party, led by septuagenarian suffragette Alice Paul. Here is a long interview with her which focuses on her activist youth.
posted by Kattullus at 4:35 AM PST - 5 comments

R.I.P. James Garner

James Garner, star of two classic television shows ("Maverick" and "The Rockford Files") and a wide slate of films including "The Great Escape", "The Americanization of Emily" and "Victor/Victoria", has died at the age of 86.
posted by AlonzoMosleyFBI at 3:41 AM PST - 149 comments

Tiny birthday for a tiny hedgehog

They even piped icing onto the birthday cake. SLYT. Previous appearance of birthday guest.
posted by Athanassiel at 12:45 AM PST - 12 comments

July 19

Boyhood

Richard Linklater's newest film, Boyhood (trailer), breaks new ground by condensing 12 years of filming one cast into a single three-hour film and is receiving almost uniformly glowing reviews. "And yet the story in 'Boyhood' is blissfully simple: A child grows up." (Manohla Dargis, NYT). [more inside]
posted by sallybrown at 10:22 PM PST - 36 comments

Do true blondes have more fun?

"The residents of Denmark regularly report the highest levels of life satisfaction in the world. Economists Eugenio Proto and Andrew Oswald of the University of Warwick cautiously submit that there is a genetic component to this high level of contentment."
posted by Chocolate Pickle at 10:12 PM PST - 43 comments

the default Internet feeling: ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

The life and times of ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
After seeing the light of ¯\_(ツ)_/¯, it's hard to not notice it everywhere. Han Solo makes the gesture in Star Wars, as Reddit noticed in 2012. Daily Dot writer Miles Klee caught the Spider-Man super villain Mysterio doing it. In 2013, it appeared in a Reddit post that commanded users "lol idk just upvote." "Lol idk" seems like a fairly apt description of the shruggie's meaning, but it also doesn't begin to describe the nihilism that ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ embodies today.
posted by joseph conrad is fully awesome at 10:04 PM PST - 63 comments

The Miura fold: art and mathematics of origami

The Miura fold, a type of rigid origami that works by folding flat, rigid sheets with hinges, has a number of uses. For instance, It's great for folding a map, because Interdependence of folds means that it is very difficult to reverse them and the amount of stress place on the map, and can be used on solar panels that need to be folded and unfolded by automation, as deployment only requires one motor, and to transport materials for telescope lenses that originally would be too big to fly into space. Here's one schematic for duplicating the Miura fold (PNG), and a simplified version (YouTube). More information and fun with scientific origami at Robert J. Lang's origami website.
posted by filthy light thief at 7:53 PM PST - 17 comments

García Márquez and Kurosawa.

In October 1990, Colombian novelist Gabriel García Márquez visited Tokyo during the shooting of Akira Kurosawa’s penultimate feature, Rhapsody in August. García Márquez, who spent some years in Bogota as a film critic before penning landmark novels such as One Hundred Years of Solitude and Love in the Time of Cholera, spoke with Kurosawa for over six hours on a number of subjects.
posted by shakespeherian at 6:34 PM PST - 8 comments

Saving Haiti

"The current list of the "25 most interesting people in the Caribbean," published by the magazine Carib Journal, lists names such as Usain Bolt and Rihanna, but it also includes two Haitians: Mario Joseph and Stéphanie Villedrouin." "Human rights attorney Mario Joseph and Tourism Minister Stéphanie Villedrouin are both trying to improve Haiti, but they are following radically different paths. The one wants justice, the other wants tourism."
posted by travelwithcats at 6:04 PM PST - 1 comment

"'Aha' Moments: Biblical Scholars Tell Their Stories"

On his blog, biblical scholar Peter Enns is hosting a series of guest posts by other scholars about their "Aha!" moments--the "moments that convinced them they needed to find different ways of handling the Bible than how they had been taught." He has ten posts in the series so far, with more on the way. [more inside]
posted by Pater Aletheias at 5:24 PM PST - 81 comments

Cross-cultural experiences of schizophrenia

A new study by Stanford anthropologist Tanya Luhrmann and others found that voice-hearing experiences of people with serious psychotic disorders are shaped by local culture – in the United States, the voices are harsh and threatening; in Africa and India, they are more benign and playful. This may have clinical implications for how to treat people with schizophrenia, she suggests.
posted by Rumple at 4:51 PM PST - 23 comments

Frozen fruity goodness

The Science of the Best Sorbet
Though it's just as easy to make as ice cream, sorbet is a little less forgiving—its lack of fat and eggs mean you have to be more careful with your recipe. Now the good news: sorbet has a science like anything else, and once you learn a few things you'll be ready to turn any fruit into fresh, full-flavored, and creamy sorbet—something so creamy you might confuse it for ice cream.
[more inside]
posted by Lexica at 4:36 PM PST - 11 comments

loop-the-loop

Loop Findr
posted by the man of twists and turns at 3:57 PM PST - 23 comments

Exobiotanica

Botanical Space Flight [more inside]
posted by BlooPen at 3:12 PM PST - 8 comments

People first

The Editorial Team of Substance Abuse make[s] an appeal for the use of language that (1) Respects the worth and dignity of all persons (“people-first language”), (2) Focuses on the medical nature of substance use disorders and treatment, (3) Promotes the recovery process, and (4) Avoids perpetuating negative stereotype biases through the use of slang and idioms. We ask authors, reviewers, and readers to carefully and intentionally consider the language used to describe alcohol and other drug use and disorders, the individuals affected by these conditions, and their related behaviors, comorbidities, treatment, and recovery in our publication. [more inside]
posted by rtha at 2:48 PM PST - 43 comments

Well, that settles that.

Tip The Pizza Guy is the most exhustive, detailed, old-school website about Tipping and Pizza Delivery I have ever seen. (last seen in 2001 and still being updated.)
posted by The Whelk at 2:32 PM PST - 54 comments

Magazine covers you wanna lick

Coverjunkie celebrates creative magazine covers. Classic covers, sexiest, typographical, controversial. [more inside]
posted by Foci for Analysis at 2:09 PM PST - 11 comments

Twitter: More Educational Than You Thought

The Race Swap Experiment What happens when a black woman uses a white male avatar on Twitter? Something a lot more positive than what usually happens for her when she uses a picture of herself. [more inside]
posted by Michele in California at 10:37 AM PST - 38 comments

W56.22xA Struck by orca, initial encounter.

V91.07xD Burn due to water-skis on fire, subsequent encounter I did not know water skis can catch on fire. Presumably, somebody's water skis did catch on fire, resulting in a trip to the hospital. [more inside]
posted by otto42 at 10:24 AM PST - 19 comments

"Perhaps not white, but white enough"

How Turbans Helped Some Blacks Go Incognito in the Jim Crow Era (SLNPR)
posted by Ndwright at 8:46 AM PST - 29 comments

Currency Wars

Currency Wars, or Why You Should Care About the Global Struggle Over the Value of Money In October 2010, the Brazilian Finance Minister made news by claiming an 'international currency war' had broken out. The term 'currency war' promptly became a buzz phrase with commentators and public officials warning about the dangers of these wars and their historical roots in the Great Depression. The U.S. government, in turn, has applied the idea to China, which it has accused of currency manipulation for the better part of a decade. So why does this matter? And how unusual is this all? Historian Steven Bryan puts currency wars in historical perspective and reminds us that currency policy is inextricably linked to national interests and that manipulation is the historical norm, not the exception. [more inside]
posted by infini at 8:16 AM PST - 25 comments

You Died. Again: A Review of Dark Souls by Someone Who Didn’t Play It

To be fair, I did watch someone play most of the game. Many of those moments repeatedly. And if I wasn’t in the room, the plaintive “Nooooo” that would echo from the living area told me that I’d be able to see whatever it was in another ten minutes. And probably again another twenty after that. And another twenty after that.
Kristin Bezio reviews Dark Souls through her husband's gameplay
posted by MartinWisse at 6:40 AM PST - 112 comments

July 18

New research: Reduce your carbon footprint by reducing meat consumption

An Oxford University study of over 50,000 participants, published this month in the open-access, peer-reviewed journal Climatic Change: Dietary greenhouse gas emissions in meat-eaters are twice as high as those in vegans.
posted by paleyellowwithorange at 11:57 PM PST - 142 comments

Mythos I, II, & III

As a summation of his life's work, mythologist Joseph Campbell went on a speaking tour during the last decade of his life. The filmed three-part series Mythos, over fourteen hours, is available on YouTube. Mythos I Mythos II Mythos III. The series is also available on DVD. [more inside]
posted by cwest at 11:26 PM PST - 10 comments

Big Mac

Before the world knew him as Dr. John, Mr. Mac Rebennack was, as a very young man, already cooking up some utterly groovy, rollicking, jazzy and soulful R&B instrumentals that could've only come from New Orleans. One particularly delightful one was The Point, and another was Feedbag. Just let 'em hit ya, man, you're gonna love it.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 10:48 PM PST - 13 comments

And the truth of the matter is Arnold and I are old. I mean, really old.

True Lies is a 1994 action comedy film directed by James Cameron and starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jamie Lee Curtis, and Tom Arnold. The film was a huge hit, and is noteworthy in that it featured visual special effects considered impossible only a few years prior. It's been 20 years since it was released. Time for a revisit, then. [SPOILERS if you haven't seen this movie.] [more inside]
posted by joseph conrad is fully awesome at 10:02 PM PST - 95 comments

I, for one, welcome our new...

Meet the electric life forms that live on pure energy
posted by jojomnky at 9:51 PM PST - 24 comments

The many crimes of baseball's Mel Hall

"What was his weapon? Trust. Over and over again, he shook the hand of a parent and said, 'It's OK. I'll take care of them. I'll make her a better person.' Instead what he did was rob them of their innocence and change the scope of their lives."

SB Nation on Mel Hall - "a flamboyant baseball player, a charismatic coach, and a sexual predator."
posted by porn in the woods at 8:59 PM PST - 15 comments

Math, myths, and Vikings: storytelling and social networks

"An unusual article recently appeared in the magazine of the Royal Statistical Society and American Statistical Association. It featured web-like diagrams of lines connecting nodes, a hallmark of research that analyzes networks. But each node, rather than being a plain dot, was the head of a burly, red-bearded Viking sporting a horned hat, his tresses blowing in the wind." [more inside]
posted by gingerbeer at 7:30 PM PST - 11 comments

Ah yes, the old rumpscuttle and clapperdepouch (aka "fadoodling")

31 Adorable Slang Terms for Sexual Intercourse from the Last 600 Years Lexicographer Jonathon Green’s comprehensive historical dictionary of slang, Green’s Dictionary of Slang, covers hundreds of years of jargon, cant, and naughty talk. He has created a series of online timelines (here and here) where the words too impolite, indecent, or risqué for the usual history books are arranged in the order they came into fashion. (If you don’t see any words on the timelines, zoom out using the bar on the right.) We’ve already had fun with the classiest terms for naughty bits. Here are the most adorable terms for sexual intercourse from the last 600 or so years.
posted by mikeand1 at 7:19 PM PST - 30 comments

"it is wise to be appropriately pessimistic here"

How we end up marrying the wrong people [more inside]
posted by flex at 7:10 PM PST - 55 comments

Of course, correlation does not imply causation

Early in 1994, Christie and Schultz published "Why do NASDAQ Market Makers Avoid Odd-Eighth Quotes?" noting that although the minimum price variation was an eighth of a dollar, the vast majority of quotes and executions occurred on quarters of a dollar. Later the same year, Christie, Harris, and Schultz published "Why did NASDAQ Market Makers Stop Avoiding Odd-Eighths Quotes?" with the following abstract: "On May 26 and 27, 1994 several national newspapers reported the findings of Christie and Schultz (1994) who cannot reject the hypothesis that market makers of active NASDAQ stocks implicitly colluded to maintain spreads of at least $0.25 by avoiding odd-eighth quotes. On May 27, dealers in Amgen, Cisco Systems, and Microsoft sharply increased their use of odd-eighth quotes, and mean inside and effective spreads fell nearly 50 percent. This pattern was repeated for Apple Computer the following trading day. Using individual dealer quotes for Apple and Microsoft, we find that virtually all dealers moved in unison to adopt odd-eighth quotes."
posted by d. z. wang at 6:53 PM PST - 10 comments

Where there are no people

Animal Land where there are no people was a children's book released in 1897, written by Sybil Corbet, who was four years old, and illustrated by her mother, Katharine Corbet. "Animal Land where there are no People is quite near, only you can't see it... They live by the North Pole and in the leafy places near. It is always light there, always day, they climb the poles and always play." [more inside]
posted by dng at 5:57 PM PST - 6 comments

Anyone, Anything, Anytime

24/7/365: The Evolution of Emergency Medicine A documentary film made by an emergency medicine resident that describes the history of emergency medicine as a specialty has been made publicly available. This documentary reviews how the landscape of healthcare in the United States has changed over the past 50 years, with a specific focus on emergency medical care, its availability, how and where it is delivered. [more inside]
posted by treehorn+bunny at 5:49 PM PST - 6 comments

Kindle Unlimited

Amazon announced today a service called Kindle Unlimited, giving access to over 600,000 books and audiobooks (on any device) for $.9.99/month. There are other services similar that exist (like Scribd and Oyster), but Amazon may have an advantage with its audio service. Is it worth it? Perhaps if you are in the habit of buying more than the average five books per year. In any case, there's a 30 day free trial "so you can test your binge-reading capabilities before committing to pay for the service."
posted by SpacemanStix at 5:01 PM PST - 68 comments

"This is business, not charity."

"We haven't found a disability we can't employ."
"Let me tell you a story,” says Randy Lewis, former senior vice-president at US retailer Walgreens, in a Texan drawl. And it’s quite a story. It’s the tale of how a man who led logistics at America’s largest drug-store chain, supporting it as it grew from 1,600 to 8,000 outlets with the most advanced logistics network in its sector, did so while giving job opportunities to thousands of disabled people. In Walgreens’ distribution centres today, an average 35% of the workforce comprises people with disabilities, and it has set targets to make sure one in every 10 in-store hires is also disabled.
[more inside]
posted by Lexica at 4:35 PM PST - 32 comments

"I forget to breathe sometimes"

AskReddit asks What's a strange thing your body does that you assume happens to everyone but you've never bothered to ask? In response, Slate's Medical Examiner column invites doctors to explain 13 of them.
posted by We had a deal, Kyle at 3:46 PM PST - 156 comments

I'll see you on the pocked side of the moon.

NASA discovers hundreds of pits on the surface of the moon.
While the moon's surface is battered by millions of craters, it also has over 200 holes – steep-walled pits that in some cases might lead to caves that future astronauts could explore and use for shelter, according to new observations from NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) spacecraft. (Previously.)
[more inside]
posted by Atom Eyes at 3:18 PM PST - 23 comments

I'd Like To Throttle Verizon

Colin Nederkoorn used the Netflix test video to show Verizon's horrendous throttling versus running his connection through a VPN.
posted by gman at 2:15 PM PST - 49 comments

"Foursquare with Space Noises" comes to iOS

Ingress, the popular GPS-Enabled Android game from Google's internal tech startup, Niantic Labs, winner of Top Game of 2013 at the Google Play Player's Choice Awards, was released for iOS 7.0 devices this week. [Previously on MeFi] [more inside]
posted by radwolf76 at 1:43 PM PST - 50 comments

Tozai Mystery Best 100

In 1985, the Mystery Writers of Japan (plus "508 people who love mystery novels") assembled two separate lists of the 100 best mystery novels: one each for the books of the East and West. A revised list came out in 2012. Both Western lists are remarkable for their comparative lack of overlap with the "100 best" lists produced by the American and British mystery writers associations. The Eastern lists are remarkable for the fact that fewer than a quarter of their entries have been translated into English. [more inside]
posted by Iridic at 1:41 PM PST - 14 comments

The Grotesque Apple, the Ridiculous Potato, the Hideous Orange..

Declaring 2014 the European Year against Food Waste, the European Parliament has adopted a non-legislative resolution that called for action to halve food waste by 2025 and improve access to food by the needy. French grocery store Intermarche got on board with a delightful campaign aimed at convincing people that appearances don't matter when it comes to great tasting foods and increasing awareness of food waste. The video is particularly charming.
posted by VioletU at 12:47 PM PST - 41 comments

Greater Access for Down Syndrome Information

Pennsylvania Governor Tom Corbett is expected to sign Chloe's Law. Chloe's Law, or the Down Syndrome Prenatal Education Act, requires medical practitioners to provide up-to-date and accurate information about Down syndrome with the accompanying diagnosis. Similar laws were passed in Massachusetts and Kentucky. Why is this necessary? Ask a parent or two and you find out how most doctors aren't up to the task. Fortunately, there are parents who will help them out (if they would listen).
posted by plinth at 12:10 PM PST - 91 comments

Mothers

Long-Lost Photos Show What Hasn't Changed About Motherhood In 50 Years. Is a collection of 50 year old photos from around the world by Ken Heyman. Taken originally for the pulitzer-nominated book Family (co-authored with Margaret Mead), they were left sitting in a storage container for decades.
posted by blue_beetle at 11:27 AM PST - 16 comments

ORBIS TERRARUM

In 1909, American architect and cartographer Bernerd J.S. Cahill published An Account Of A New Land Map Of The World (and at The Internet Archive), in which he described a novel way of projecting a map. [more inside]
posted by the man of twists and turns at 11:26 AM PST - 5 comments

All kinds of genius

Today the lyrics and annotation site previously known as Rap Genius officially expanded its scope to allow users to annotate anything, renaming itself Genius.com. [more inside]
posted by bleep at 11:07 AM PST - 28 comments

The Weird, Scary and Ingenious Brain of Maria Bamford

Sara Corbett profiles comedian Maria Bamford for The New York Times Magazine.
posted by Lorin at 10:59 AM PST - 31 comments

1:35 p.m. For the first time, I heave.

Figuring that honesty is the best policy, and that, at some point, it will become extremely difficult to conceal from the waitstaff the fact I have been sitting in the restaurant for 14 hours slowly eating mozzarella sticks, I decide beforehand that I will be up front with the TGI Friday's employees about the nature of my undertaking...
-My 14-Hour Search for the End of TGI Friday's Endless Appetizers
posted by griphus at 10:20 AM PST - 124 comments

Don't listen with your kids. There will be swears.

One Bad Mother is a comedy podcast about motherhood and how unnatural it sometimes is. Hosted by Biz Ellis and Theresa Thorn (MeFi's own Tren), each week OBM covers some aspect of parenthood, like "the ramifications of teaching our kids fart jokes and songs about poop," "babies: still not relaxing," or, more seriously, things like partner resentment, and postpartum depression. Each week, in the "Call A Mom"* segment, Biz and Theresa talk to a guest who's got relevant experience or expertise on the topic at hand. But the best part of the show is the listener call-ins: Genius/Fail Time is "the part of the show where we share our genius moment of the week, as well as our failures, and feel better about ourselves by hearing yours"; and the "mom rant" allows exhausted parents to vent their spleen. The call-ins are so great because they're all about supporting other people in their day to day lives—it's through the lens of parenting, but the overriding philosophy ("this shit is hard and no one cares") is applicable to everyone's daily grind. [more inside]
posted by ocherdraco at 10:04 AM PST - 9 comments

Life inside San Francisco's vanishing Single Room Occupancies (SROs)

There are approximately 530 single resident (or room) occupancy (SRO) hotels in San Francisco. San Francisco has hundreds of SRO hotels that are home to more than 30,000 tenants or approximately 5% of the city, the majority of whom live in low-income neighborhoods such as the Tenderloin and Chinatown. As San Francisco’s cost of living continues to leap upwards and SROs get demolished or converted to condos, many housing activists worry about what will become of the vulnerable SRO population. Life has always been precarious for these residents and far from idyllic in even the best-managed buildings. Here are the stories of six people trying to survive in a city that’s increasingly out of reach. [more inside]
posted by filthy light thief at 9:13 AM PST - 22 comments

Imma let you finish

An informal study of interrupting on LanguageLog finds that men interrupt more than women and that women hardly ever interrupt. Except if you're a senior woman in tech and then you interrupt all the time.
posted by hydrobatidae at 8:57 AM PST - 32 comments

The Modern American Man, Charted

"This summer, All Things Considered is looking at the lives of men in America. By some measures, not much has changed over the past few decades — girls still do better in school, and men still make more money. In other areas, the shifts are profound." They made some charts.
posted by cmchap at 8:52 AM PST - 49 comments

I've got a little list of links

Angry Asian Man sets the scene: "The Bagley Wright Theatre in Seattle is currently staging Gilbert & Sullivan's 'classic' comic opera The Mikado, which has historically required actors to perform roles in yellowface, and a bunch of shitty made up stereotypes for comic effect. This version is no different, with all forty Japanese characters played by white actors.". The Seattle Times weighs in with a negative op-ed. The Seattle Gilbert and Sullivan society had a response to the Times Op Ed: "I get it because as a black woman I am often confronted by issues of racism and sexism, be it blatant, subtle, institutionalized, or perceived. I too have reacted in a knee-jerk fashion. I believe when confronted with these issues I have always dug a little deeper, checked other sources, and did some research on my own before taking action. Given what I, and the Society have been through in the last few days, I hope to God that my actions were indeed merited. The idea that I may have caused the kind of damage that we are experiencing to some other organization, individual or institution because I took a head long rush to judgment based on a headline, or an opinion piece, and regarded those things as fact sickens me to my soul."
posted by josher71 at 8:50 AM PST - 171 comments

Broken English

Jamila Lyiscott: 3 ways to speak English [SLYT] [more inside]
posted by divined by radio at 8:45 AM PST - 4 comments

The Terminator at 30: An Oral History

"Doing the full-body life cast of Arnold Schwarzenegger—wow, that took a lot of plaster bandage." Entertainment Weekly brings us a lengthy oral history about James Cameron's The Terminator, featuring many of the films stars, director, production crew, and special effects creators.
posted by hippybear at 6:40 AM PST - 36 comments

Hmm, how does S. Fry sound as England's new captain and opening batsman?

Stephen Fry understands that non-believers don't get it. So here are some videos explaining the various laws of cricket, produced in collaboration with Lord's, the home of cricket. [more inside]
posted by mysticreferee at 6:37 AM PST - 29 comments

What happens when you accidentally legalize prostitution?

Rhode Island legalized prostitution accidentally in 1980, but nobody noticed until 2003.
posted by zeikka at 6:30 AM PST - 15 comments

The Forgotten Internment

"On June 3 and 4, 1942, Japanese military forces conducted air strikes on U.S. Army and Navy facilities at Dutch Harbor, in what is now the city of Unalaska. Several days later, they occupied Kiska and Attu islands, the latter the location of an Unangax village. Within a short time, the 42 Unangax residents of Attu and a non-Native teacher were taken to Japan, where they served as laborers for the Japanese for the duration of the war ... For the Unangax [or Aleut] of most other villages, World War II brought a different fate:" internment camps in the United States [more inside]
posted by ChuraChura at 6:30 AM PST - 7 comments

Did you know that cashews come from a fruit?

Cashews come from a fruit! The cashew fruit is very rarely seen in grocery stores because its skin is very delicate so it's hard to transport. Cashews, however, are ubiquitous and popular because of their tastiness and distinct shape. Here is someone eating a cashew fruit and pondering the cashew underneath. And here is how the cashew nut is processed by the Peace Corps Ghana Cashew Initiative. This fellow will tell you how to grow a cashew tree. Cashew fruits protect their precious nut well so be careful if you start from scratch.
posted by h00py at 6:18 AM PST - 30 comments

The cuteness. It burns.

Yesterday, (and apparently several times in the past) super popular twitterer @darth kicked off the kind of love-in that only the Internet can provide. #hugadog [more inside]
posted by DigDoug at 6:04 AM PST - 27 comments

Ex Africa semper aliquid novi

Kenya's Okwiri Oduor has won the 2014 Caine Prize for African Writing for her short story, "My Father's Head." Many stories by other winners and nominees are available online. [more inside]
posted by Monsieur Caution at 4:16 AM PST - 6 comments

In The Jungle, The Space Gun Points Its Mouth At The Sky

Project HARP (not to be confused with HAARP, the perennial favorite of conspiracy theorists) was a joint project between the US and Canadian defence departments to develop a non-rocket spacelaunch system, one designed to fire vehicles above the atmosphere in order to study their re-entry. [more inside]
posted by Bora Horza Gobuchul at 3:53 AM PST - 7 comments

Comics has an outrage problem

We use the presence of passion to first diminish and then dismiss arguments. The offended must play by the rules of the unoffended, or even worse, the offenders, in order to be heard. You have to tamp down that pain if you want to get help or fix it. You can see it when people say things like “Thank you for being civil” when arguing something heated with someone they disagree with. Civility is great, sure, but we’re forcing people who feel like they’re under attack to meet us on our own terms. In reality, passion shouldn’t be dismissed. Passion has a purpose.
David Brothers on outrage, passion, civility and being made to feel welcome or unwelcome in the comics community.
posted by MartinWisse at 3:40 AM PST - 46 comments

July 17

Beyond "Scarface" and Cigars

How to Eat Like a Cuban
"It wasn't until I was adopted into an enormous Cuban-American family, thanks to my fiancé , that I learned how to spot the Cubans—and now that I can, I see them everywhere. In three years, my extremely white self has gone from not being able to pronounce dulce de leche (don’t match those ch sounds—that’s a basic move) to knowing that I like my arroz con pollo asopao (a soupier preparation that ends up almost risotto-like).

Some of the stereotypes are true: Cubans love to party, and they can eat. Backyard pig roasts are the traditional way to celebrate pretty much any special occasion—this is a country whose two greatest exports (if they could export them) are cigars and sugar.

Bottom line: If you find some real Cubans, it's in your best interest to make friends, fast. Here's what you need to know to keep up without looking like a chump."
[more inside]
posted by joseph conrad is fully awesome at 9:42 PM PST - 31 comments

"... If your hat is correct, it can compensate for a world of faults."

Lilly Daché (c.1893-1989) was one of the most prolific and influential milliners of the twentieth century. Her hats adorned almost every star in Golden Age Hollywood - from Marlene Dietrich to Carmen Miranda to Loretta Young, setting millinery styles for decades. [more inside]
posted by julen at 9:33 PM PST - 12 comments

Equal parts righteous indignation and pickle juice

A brief history of houses built out of spite.
posted by ThatFuzzyBastard at 9:13 PM PST - 33 comments

No Joy In Baseball World

For 20 years, he was the biggest name in youth baseball. His coaching popularized a new wave of analysis, while his instructional videos entranced a generation of professional players and fans. And those iconic TV commercials turned him into a pop-culture phenomenon. Then, as suddenly as he arrived, Tom Emanski was gone.
posted by Ghostride The Whip at 9:11 PM PST - 4 comments

"People are being told 'what happens in the field stays in the field"

NPR reports on a recently-published PLOS ONE article describing sexual harassment and assault perpetrated on (overwhelmingly young, female) researchers in the field.
In a survey of scientists engaged in field research, the majority — 64 percent — said they had personally experienced sexual harassment while at a field site, and 22 percent reported being the victim of sexual assault.
posted by deadbilly at 7:24 PM PST - 38 comments

Illustrated Skills of the Traveller, Physician, Sailor, Martial Artist

The Art of Shen Ku is a rambling, eccentric website displaying pages of an illustrated instructional book of the same name. The site is roughly divided into four topics: Traveller, Physician, Sailor, and Martial Artist. It features heavily notated illustrations that demonstrate everything from using healthy breathing techniques and using aloe vera to learning martial art hand strikes, avoiding shark attacks, making survival shelters, and navigating. The author, Zeek, seems to be a sailor who spent much time in Asia. [more inside]
posted by ShanShen at 7:21 PM PST - 10 comments

Get 'Soused' with ScottO))) - firing back at Lou Reed & Metallica?

Pitchfork: "A few weeks ago, 4AD confirmed that musician Scott Walker and drone metal outfit Sunn O))) would release a collaborative album. Today, the two parties have announced that album. It's called Soused, and it's due out September 22 in Europe and 23 in North America." [more inside]
posted by porn in the woods at 7:13 PM PST - 28 comments

A People's History of Tatooine

"What if Mos Eisley wasn’t really that wretched and it was just Obi Wan being racist again?"
posted by gauche at 7:02 PM PST - 39 comments

A1 vs. A2 milk

You're Drinking the Wrong Kind of Milk: "The A1/A2 debate has raged for years in Australia, New Zealand, and parts of Europe, but it is still virtually unheard of across the pond. That could soon change..." [more inside]
posted by flex at 7:00 PM PST - 41 comments

There may not be money in the future, but you will live on Likes

Gamasutra describes one indie game developer's experience of creating a game (Redshirt) that satirizes social networking, and includes a playable race of 'sexy alien babes' who can suffer sexist comments from NPCs. When a player complained that this was unwanted and triggering, and the developer apologized and added a trigger warning tothe game, the developer received criticism as if she'd compromised her creative vision. [more inside]
posted by AaronDaMommio at 6:46 PM PST - 10 comments

Last week in my email to you I synthesized our strategic direction

Microsoft Just Laid Off Thousands of Employees With a Hilariously Bad Memo , Robotic letter is an unfortunately normal example of how companies talk to employees.
posted by KokuRyu at 6:22 PM PST - 90 comments

Artist Recreates Childhood Scribbles

Artist Telmo Pieper created digital paintings of drawings he made at age 4.
posted by Bugbread at 6:12 PM PST - 6 comments

How much more black could this be? The answer is none. None more black.

One step closer to the Disaster Area stuntship. "It's so...black!" said Ford Prefect, "you can hardly make out its shape...light just seems to fall into it!"
posted by paleyellowwithorange at 5:45 PM PST - 73 comments

TRIBES. TRIBES. TRIBES.

Before the release of Tribes 2, IGN interviewed the band Motley Crue about the theme song that they'd been contracted to do: "Then this new game came up, Tribes 2, and it was very up Motley Crue's alley. It was high-energy, very intense. We actually wrote music specifically for the game, as well as taking a few tracks off of the new album, and we're extremely excited about it. Now they're actually going to digitize us and put us in the game." The deal appeared to fall through, and the song was lost to time. However copies still exist on the Internet.
posted by codacorolla at 5:18 PM PST - 10 comments

Evolution is wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey stuff.

Understanding creationism: An insider’s guide by a former young-Earth creationist [more inside]
posted by brundlefly at 4:46 PM PST - 13 comments

Cool drinks for hot weather

Summer Drinks Around the World: 12 Regional Specialties You Might Not Know
When choosing a summertime bracer, it's all too easy to fall in the same old ruts: I know that I, for one, tend to chug ice-laden seltzer like it's going out of style, opting for a chilled Negroni when I want to go the booze route. But this summer, I've vowed to branch out and explore some of the other refreshing drinks that are enjoyed around the world. From a Colombian beer-and-soda refresher brightened with citrus to a palate-cleansing South Indian yogurt drink, here are twelve lesser-known hot-weather libations from around the world.
posted by Lexica at 4:33 PM PST - 28 comments

Social Media Meets Genetic Research

What do you do if your child has a condition that is new to science? After describing the effects of his blog post, he told the crowd that it was inevitable that parents of children with other newly discovered diseases would form proactive communities, much as he, Cristina, and the Wilseys had done. Vandana Shashi believes that such communities represent a new paradigm for conducting medical research. “It’s kind of a shift in the scientific world that we have to recognize—that, in this day of social media, dedicated, educated, and well-informed families have the ability to make a huge impact,” she told me. “Gone are the days when we could just say, ‘We’re a cloistered community of researchers, and we alone know how to do this.’ ” [more inside]
posted by Michele in California at 3:30 PM PST - 6 comments

"Because your wardrobe is a pretty complex organism."

How to assess the quality of garments: a beginner's guide (part 1, part 2, cheat sheet).
Why you don't have anything to wear.
How to build the perfect wardrobe: 10 basic principles.
Building a capsule wardrobe 101.
And much, much more at style blog Into Mind.
posted by Metroid Baby at 2:05 PM PST - 79 comments

All hail the Owl Liberation Front of Central Iceland!

Which early Christian heresy are you? [more inside]
posted by gingerbeer at 12:46 PM PST - 112 comments

The Proceedings of the Oxford Symposium on Food and Cookery

The Oxford Symposium on Food and Cookery is an annual weekend conference discussing food, its history, and culture. Since 1981 the papers presented at the Symposium have been collected into a conference volume called the Proceedings of the Oxford Symposium on Food and Cookery, most of which have been made available for free in their entirety via Google Books. Each volume consists of about 25-40 papers surrounding the theme of that year's Symposium (e.g. Eggs, Authenticity, or The Meal). [more inside]
posted by jedicus at 12:04 PM PST - 8 comments

"It's the only thing that I've really been good at."

He played with everyone from Muddy Waters to John Lee Hooker, and played a midnight set at Woodstock. American blues guitarist and singer Johnny Winter died Wednesday, he was 70.
posted by BigHeartedGuy at 11:47 AM PST - 40 comments

this is all just theory

The Freedivers Who Eavesdrop On Whales
posted by the man of twists and turns at 11:22 AM PST - 12 comments

And now it's Florida \o/

Monroe County Circuit Judge, Luis Garcia, has ruled that a provision in the Florida Constitution that outlaws same-sex marriage violates the U.S. Constitution. [more inside]
posted by Sophie1 at 11:01 AM PST - 68 comments

Here's to the Lady Who Lunched

Elaine Stritch, star of stage and screen, has died at the age of 89.
posted by rmd1023 at 10:08 AM PST - 89 comments

Bras for Trans Women: Controversy and Resources

Award-winning Austin lingerie shop Petticoat Fair specializes in hard-to-fit bra sizes. Recently a trans woman was turned away from the shop and started social media protest and boycott campaign, swamping the store's Yelp page with negative reviews. The owner issued a controversial apology and plans to meet with the Transgender Education Network Of Texas to work out a better policy. The story started to percolate through national news and commentary and sites. Meanwhile, the original complainant has called off the official boycott and the store has promised to issue a new policy in the near future. [more inside]
posted by Juliet Banana at 9:54 AM PST - 117 comments

Mobile Phones

In 1929, the Indiana Bell Telephone Company decided to build a new office building. Rather than demolishing the old building, on the advice of Kurt Vonnegut, Sr., they moved it. [more inside]
posted by zamboni at 9:53 AM PST - 18 comments

I Don't Care If You Like It

Rebecca Traister writes at the New Republic on being tired of women's choices, accomplishments, and existence being measured by barometers which are "calibrated to dude," as exemplified by a recent Esquire piece. [more inside]
posted by Stacey at 9:43 AM PST - 58 comments

The CD Case: like discovering that Hollywood is financed by VHS hoarders

The Case for CDs -- as CD sales continue to plummet, Grantland's Steven Hyden takes a "glass-half-full perspective" on those numbers, discusses format nostalgia, and the five types of albums that justify the continued existence of CDs. [more inside]
posted by filthy light thief at 9:08 AM PST - 98 comments

MH17

According to Malaysia Airlines, they have lost contact with flight MH17, in Ukraine, near the Russian border. The plane is reported to have originated in Amsterdam, with 280 passengers and 15 crew members on board. Multiple news organizations are reporting that the plane was shot down in an area where "the Ukrainian government has been fighting pro-Russian rebels."
posted by helloknitty at 8:58 AM PST - 1156 comments

"Jesus, What a Tramp!"

"I'm Not a Tart: The Feminist Subtext of Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men" - Actress Leighton Meester examines Steinbeck's intent in writing, and audience reaction to, her role as Curley's wife in Of Mice and Men: "If this woman is purely a victim, why is she so hated? And if she is truly harmless, why is she so threatening?"
posted by sallybrown at 8:56 AM PST - 10 comments

Don't lick the paintbrush

Journal of Art in Society tells the story of the most unusual pigment: The life and death of Mummy Brown. [more inside]
posted by We had a deal, Kyle at 7:21 AM PST - 13 comments

Gordon College and the city of Salem, MA

In the wake of the Sebelius v. Hobby Lobby ruling (previously), Gordon College -- one of the most conservative colleges in Massachusetts -- became the only higher educational institution to request a presidential exemption from current nondiscrimination laws against LGBTQ people. This action has not been without controversy, both from within the college community and without. Most notably, Salem mayor Kim Driscoll has terminated the school's contract to maintain the Old Town Hall building due to the school's discriminatory stance (PDF).
posted by pxe2000 at 7:05 AM PST - 81 comments

The Destruction of the Triabunna Mill

In the July issue of The Monthly, John van Tiggelen tells the tale of “The Destruction of the Triabunna Mill and the Fall Of Tasmania's Woodchip Industry,” detailing how “How the end of Gunns cleared a new path for Tasmania.” [more inside]
posted by ob1quixote at 6:55 AM PST - 12 comments

Scientists name new species of Puerto Rican water mite after JLo

The music of the Bronx, New York-born entertainer who has Puerto Rican roots was a hit with the group while they wrote about their findings, biologist Vladimir Pesic said. via
posted by ellieBOA at 4:24 AM PST - 6 comments

I never master these skills, because I am the wrong man for the job.

I killed At The Movies. The dueling critics format outlived Siskel, the more natural on-air presence of the two. So why didn’t it outlive Ebert?
posted by Sticherbeast at 4:02 AM PST - 38 comments

8 Irresistible Food Blogs From Sub-Saharan Africa

Food is life. It unites us all. Here at Global Voices, we love food, so we bring you eight yummy food blogs from Sub-Saharan Africa.
posted by infini at 2:33 AM PST - 20 comments

A tale of two tubas

A series af amusing vignettes, filmed by the National Youth Orchestra of the USA. [YTPL]
posted by pjern at 1:55 AM PST - 10 comments

July 16

An honest open discourse concerning this silly love of Disney

"I mean, seriously we're adorable. How could we have a blog that didn't feature us up front and center? ;)" Meet Adam and Andrew. They blog about the aesthetics of Disney. Those little details that are found in all aspects of Disney parks (and related materials): bathroom signs, murals (bathrooms again), vintage Dumbo book illustrations, Epcot's UK (part of their Shake to Randomize series), Theming At Animal Kingdom's Serka Zong Bazaar, and Six Things I DON'T Hate About The Italy Pavilion At Epcot. (In fact The whole month of June 2012 is a treasure.) There's also a podcast.
posted by joseph conrad is fully awesome at 9:40 PM PST - 21 comments

A moment of nonsense for the easily amused

Joaquin Phoenix's Forehead (SLYT)
posted by EXISTENZ IS PAUSED at 8:12 PM PST - 20 comments

"I prune everything."

Two 30 year old guys lip syncing a conversation between two 60 year old women: "I recorded a random conversation between my mom and my aunt and we acted it out."
posted by bookman117 at 7:43 PM PST - 16 comments

Black France

A three-part series looking at the history of France's black community and their long struggle for recognition. French President Francois Hollande ran on a platform promising to eliminate the word 'race' from France’s constitution. But critics were quick to point out the disparity between constitutional reform and actual practice. [more inside]
posted by whyareyouatriangle at 7:41 PM PST - 6 comments

"You! -- you whale-killing, blubber-hunting, light-gathering varmint!"

"Moby Dick" can be an intimidating read, so why not whet your appetite with some source material? "Mocha Dick" was a giant sperm whale in the early 1800's who destroyed over 20 whaling ships. You can read the original 1839 article written by explorer Jeremiah Reynolds that helped inspire Herman Melville in the creation of his masterwork. If even that is too much for you, author Brian Heinz and artist Randall Enos have created a striking children's book based on the original story.
posted by AlonzoMosleyFBI at 6:22 PM PST - 30 comments

Real or Magic

Sometimes the best thing about David Blaine's magic tricks are the reactions he elicits. A rather Regarding Henry-ish Harrison Ford: "Get the fuck outta my house." A predictably overwrought Ricky Gervais: "Oh for fuck's sake!" Or maybe you just enjoy seeing someone manhandling George W. Bush while the President maintains a look of childlike wonder.
posted by paleyellowwithorange at 5:43 PM PST - 57 comments

"I don’t need a purse to buy comics online"

Attack of the purse snatchers: gender and bag policies in U.S. comic book stores
What could a clerk at a comic book store possibly say to a new female customer to make her feel as alien and unwelcome as possible? Would it be some sort of overtly sexist slur, or an inappropriate comment about her appearance? Or could it perhaps be something as presumably innocuous as: "I’m going to need to take your bag before you go any further."
posted by Lexica at 4:33 PM PST - 126 comments

Mapping the Moon

The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera, or LROC, is a system of three cameras mounted on the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) that capture high resolution photos of the lunar surface . . . .The LROC team assembled 10,581 NAC [narrow angle camera] images, collected over 4 years, into a spectacular northern polar mosaic.
posted by insectosaurus at 4:28 PM PST - 5 comments

"A system that serves no penological purpose... is unconstitutional."

A federal judge declared California's death penalty unconstitutional Wednesday, saying delays of 25 years or more in deciding appeals and carrying out occasional executions have created an arbitrary and irrational system that serves no legitimate purpose. Executions in California have already been on hold since 2006, due to problems with the procedures associated with lethal injection. If the ruling is upheld, California will join 18 other states (plus D.C.) that have abolished capital punishment. (Read the court's opinion here.)
posted by scody at 4:22 PM PST - 46 comments

Beta or VHS? You make the call.

[PATRYK FILMS] is video artist Patryk Ludamage making videos for some of his favorite music, spinning gold from fuzzy videotape footage.

Oneohtrix Point Never: Sleep DealerKGB NightsRememberPower of Persuasion

Chuck Person (0PN's Daniel Lopatin): Eccojam A3
[more inside]
posted by porn in the woods at 4:14 PM PST - 3 comments

A Trip Through The Looking Glass to Eradicate Phantom Pain

The Mirror Man Surgery and medication have been found to be only slightly or not at all effective when dealing with phantom pain... In 2008, Stephen ... had a particularly agonising bout of phantom pain. “I was not presentable for 72 hours,” he says. He was aware of mirror therapy from having looked online for treatments, and he decided to give it a try. He got into his truck and drove two-and-a-half hours to the nearest Home Depot to buy a mirror. He tried it right there in the parking lot, and in five minutes the pain was gone. [more inside]
posted by Michele in California at 2:55 PM PST - 15 comments

Nightmares in Photos

Haunting Surreal Photographs from the 60s Inspired by Children’s Nightmares
Noted American photographer Arthur Tress is known for his strangely posed and articulated surrealist work. Born in November of 1940, he was merely in his twenties when one of his most poignant collections of work came to life. Depicting the dreams of children in the eeriest of forms, he dives into the subconscious side of children’s minds and draws out their biggest fears in the haunting photos that follow.
[more inside]
posted by aka burlap at 1:28 PM PST - 16 comments

*Screams Forever*

This Makes Me Uncomfortable - A Pinterest Board for innocently disturbing things (Slightly Not Safe For Work, Certainly Not Safe For Sanity)
posted by The Whelk at 1:03 PM PST - 81 comments

Many workers are, in fact, getting stiffed—especially Women and PoC.

When the Boss Says, 'Don't Tell Your Coworkers How Much You Get Paid'
posted by yeoz at 12:37 PM PST - 70 comments

"JIBO can’t wait to meet you."

JIBO: The World's First Family Robot [more inside]
posted by overeducated_alligator at 11:53 AM PST - 78 comments

Lorin Maazel, 1930-2014.

Maestro Lorin Maazel died at his home in Castleton, Va. on July 13, following a brief illness. Called to the podium and handed the baton by the great Toscanini as a child, Maazel's career spanned decades and saw him to the podium of most of the world's great orchestras. Maazel was legendary for his ruthlessness of the execution: "A conductor must lead, and people want to be led; that's why they're there."
posted by Dashy at 10:59 AM PST - 17 comments

flipping the script

A viral video series uses role reversal to humorously highlight casual insensitivities & stereotyping: If Asians Said The Stuff White People Say - If Black People Said The Stuff White People Say - If Latinos Said The Stuff White People Say (YouTube; each video ~2 min.) [more inside]
posted by flex at 10:42 AM PST - 194 comments

Rarely is the question asked: is our kids competing?

"We sort our kids. We rate them. We chart them, and we measure their progress against the rest of the country and pray that they come out on the high end of the curve. And frankly, it's all horseshit. Every last bit of it. The competition industry is crushing us all." Drew Magary, at Deadspin, unloads on the idea that "these kids today" are little ninnies made soft by participation trophies and unscored soccer games. [more inside]
posted by escabeche at 10:41 AM PST - 49 comments

Mile (Legal) High Stadium

"If I had done this in either of New York's baseball stadiums I would have bankrupted myself by the sixth inning."
posted by snottydick at 10:40 AM PST - 29 comments

Orphan Black: "the TV embodiment of modern feminism"

While the New Republic praises Orphan Black for its portrayal of the Female Gaze and avoidance of the usual male orientated titillation:
As a show chiefly concerned with the ways women’s bodies are commodified and controlled, “Orphan Black” is careful not to view its female characters with that same hungry eye. This is a triumph: On so many shows, the camera works at cross-purposes to the high-minded themes. “Game of Thrones” depicts women and girls straining against a world that abuses and sexualizes their bodies—then it glamorizes and fetishizes that abuse. “True Detective” criticizes men who violate girls, then lovingly reduces women to bouncing breasts or artfully posed corpses.
(Spoilers inside) [more inside]
posted by MartinWisse at 10:36 AM PST - 47 comments

The Only Miracle Jesus' Mother Asked For Was Wine

How New World Wine Resurrects Old Religion
I used to be a regular at a wine bar in San Clemente, a beach town in California where my wife and I lived when we were first married. The ‘Tuscan’ decor of the place was a little too vivid for my taste, but the wine was priced right and the owner was a great conversationalist. He would tell us stories from behind the bar about his travels to vineyards in Chile and New Zealand, and he had a charming populist streak. When people got too pretentious about the wine, he would roll his eyes and say: ‘Relax, it’s just a beverage.’ He was wrong about that, of course. Since its invention more than 8,000 years ago, wine has always been more than just a beverage.
posted by the man of twists and turns at 10:34 AM PST - 11 comments

The crater is large enough for several Mi-8 helicopters to fly into it.

An enormous hole has appeared (YouTube, 0:34) in Russia's Yamal Peninsula, near the Bovanenkovo natural-gas field. 'We can definitely say that it is not a meteorite. No details yet,' said a spokesman.
posted by theodolite at 10:11 AM PST - 144 comments

Problematizing the Rape-Stove Nexus

What may help lower the incidence of rape in Darfur? Stoves. "Collecting firewood for cooking puts women in Sudan's conflict-plagued and impoverished Darfur region at risk of rape. But a simple stove that replaces traditional open fires has cut the time they spend on potentially dangerous missions looking for wood, while also helping the environment and boosting their finances, the United Nations World Food Programme says." However, scholar Samer Abdelnour criticizes "the role advocacy can play in transforming far-away crises into “manageable problems” that can be solved through simple technical solutions. A telling example is the portrayal of efficient cookstoves as a tool for preventing rape and other forms of gender-based violence, first in Darfur and now globally." [more inside]
posted by MisantropicPainforest at 9:42 AM PST - 37 comments

Democratic Theory and Mass Incaceration

The new issue of the journal The Good Society is about "Democratic Theory and Mass Incaceration." All articles are available online.

From the Introduction: The United States is the “world champion” in incarceration, to borrow Nils Christie's words, and United Kingdom jurisdictions, though some distance behind, are persistently among the European countries with the highest per capita rates of imprisonment [...] This symposium of the Good Society seeks to catalyze an engaged, multi-disciplinary discussion among philosophers, political theorists, and theoretically inclined criminologists on how contemporary democratic theory might help us think beyond mass incarceration. Rather than viewing punishment as a natural reaction to crime, and imprisonment as a sensible outgrowth of this reaction, we will frame these as institutions with deep implications for contemporary civic identity, which present unmet demands for public oversight and reflective democratic influence.

The rest of the issue can be read online here. [via mefi projects]
posted by OmieWise at 9:31 AM PST - 9 comments

2014 won't be like '1984' either

CNBC: Apple, IBM in massive enterprise hardware, software partnership Tech behemoths Apple and IBM announced a partnership Tuesday that could make Apple—traditionally a consumer brand—a major player in the business market. IBM said it would create a class of more than 100 business applications exclusively for iPhones and iPads to run on Apple's iOS platform. In return, IBM will sell Apple's products with 100 industry-specific apps to its clients worldwide. [more inside]
posted by Herodios at 9:29 AM PST - 61 comments

The Green Turtle, the first Asian American super hero returns to comics

If you heard the recent NPR's Codeswitch segment on The Green Turtle, the first Asian superhero created in the United States, you heard descriptions of the 1940s comic. But there's more (so much more!) online. Start with the entire run of The Green Turtle on the amazing Digital Comic Museum, which hosts public domain Golden Age comics (late 1930s until the late 1940s or early 1950s). If you want to know more about Chu F. Hing, the artist behind the original Green Turtle, here's an extensively researched biography on the astounding Chinese American Eyes blog, which covers "famous, forgotten, well-known, and obscure visual artists of Chinese descent in the United States." [more inside]
posted by filthy light thief at 9:05 AM PST - 6 comments

The orchestra was his instrument

When he beat the first bar of a great work, in his mind he was already in the last. In 2011, BBC polled leading conductors about the greatest conductor of all time. The winner? The German-born Austrian conductor Carlos Kleiber. Kleiber was an incredibly hard-working perfectionist. Some of his many seminal performances include a 1992 New Year's concert with the Vienna Philharmonic, a production of Verdi's Otello, and definitive recordings of Beethoven's 5th and 7th symphonies.
posted by shivohum at 8:59 AM PST - 7 comments

who hoard the air & hunt the hare with the ox & swim against the torrent

Troubadors! [more inside]
posted by Iridic at 8:41 AM PST - 9 comments

The insatiable Rupert Murdoch

Twenty-First Century Fox Inc. is willing to pay more than $85 a share for Time Warner Inc., reports Bloomberg News, which deems it "a sign Rupert Murdoch is undeterred after being rebuffed in an initial offer... To appease antitrust regulators, the companies would sell CNN...since Fox already has Fox News." Murdoch's rationale: "A Fox-Time Warner deal should be allowed to go through given consolidation in the cable industry, including the proposed deal to combine Comcast and Time Warner Cable." [more inside]
posted by GrammarMoses at 7:41 AM PST - 66 comments

Tower of Power

"Brandon Sheffield, Gamasutra editor and director of Necrosoft Games, took to Vine last night to show the world what exactly happens when 13 Sonic & Knuckles cartridges are plugged into one another in a Human Centipede-esque disaster." (Warning: 30 Vine videos playing in one browser window.)
posted by griphus at 7:14 AM PST - 24 comments

Look, R2, it's our large yellow bird friend!

What's the intersection between Star Wars and the Muppets? Chances are you'll think of Yoda. Maybe you knew that Jim Henson & his creature-makers had nothing to do with the original Star Wars movie. And sure, you probably knew that some of the Star Wars cast were featured on the Muppet Show (watch on YouTube). But wait, there's more. [more inside]
posted by Mchelly at 6:32 AM PST - 24 comments

Having found the Minotaur, he killed him by smiting him with his fists

"In 1972 I created the concept of Mazes & Minotaurs, the world's first roleplaying game. Inspired by my fanatical interest in ancient Greek and Macedonian wargaming, coupled with a love of Greek myth and the 1963 movie, Jason and the Argonauts, it took the gaming world by storm." -- Paul Elliott. [more inside]
posted by Monsieur Caution at 5:09 AM PST - 13 comments

The *first* revelation this week, at least

This week's Glenn Greenwald revelation is that Britain's GCHQ JTRIG intelligence organization offers its agents and planners tools with abilities to increase the search ranking of chosen web sites, “change outcome of online polls”, “masquerade Facebook Wall Posts for individuals or entire countries”, and accomplish “amplification of a given message, normally video, on popular multimedia websites (Youtube).” [more inside]
posted by XMLicious at 4:22 AM PST - 51 comments

Sorprendente motociclo!

Stupendo! Meraviglioso! Spettacolare! Stunning synchronized motorcycling! Rome Police Hold Anniversary-1953
posted by flapjax at midnite at 3:31 AM PST - 5 comments

Merry Christmas (Nymwars are over)

Google Plus apologises and reverses its real name requirements. Violet Blue pots the history of this front of the nymwars. Previously
posted by Sparx at 12:07 AM PST - 78 comments

July 15

"You need to DROP the HATE."

"Why don't you read your own book, and actually follow the teachings to the letter of GOD? And learn to support and love?" [SLYT] Drag queen Mama Tits spontaneously walks up to religious anti-gay demonstrators and confronts them at the recent 40th annual Seattle Pride Parade. Demonstrators were attempting to block the start of the parade.
posted by joseph conrad is fully awesome at 9:38 PM PST - 52 comments

"C'est good for you, c'est bad for me"

"C'est La Vie" an ABBA parody by French and Saunders. A tiny bit of pitch-perfect delightful fun for your Tuesday evening.
posted by ocherdraco at 9:37 PM PST - 23 comments

Not the Mario you were expecting

Mario: animated short An animation of a chilling Italian children's (?) song, created by painting frames on glass! [via mefi projects]
posted by ignignokt at 7:55 PM PST - 3 comments

The ABC's of Theology

Atonement, Baptism, Christology, Deconstruction
The ABC's of Theology, an ongoing blog series from the folks at Homebrewed Christianity. (previously) [more inside]
posted by womprat78 at 7:10 PM PST - 6 comments

The State of the American Dog

Reviled, pit bulls have become representative. There is no other dog that figures as often in the national narrative—no other dog as vilified on the evening news, no other dog as defended on television programs, no other dog as mythologized by both its enemies and its advocates, no other dog as discriminated against, no other dog as wantonly bred, no other dog as frequently abused, no other dog as promiscuously abandoned, no other dog as likely to end up in an animal shelter, no other dog as likely to be rescued, no other dog as likely to be killed. In a way, the pit bull has become the only American dog, because it is the only American dog that has become an American metaphor—and the only American dog that people bother to name.
posted by latkes at 7:02 PM PST - 144 comments

DIY Sexism, Subverted

Sexist 60's embellish-your-own-suggestively-posed-women notepads, subverted. David Jablow takes vintage novelty doodle pads with the outlines of nude women and gives them awesome contexts. (Original image is arguably NSFW)
posted by jzed at 6:22 PM PST - 11 comments

We get off the Number 10 bus at a pub called 'The Fox and Hounds'.

MeFi favorite David Mitchell ("Cloud Atlas," "Ghostwritten," "Number 9 Dream") is this week publishing a new short story, "about a boy tripping on his mother's Valium pills." He is publishing it in a series of 280 tweets. [more inside]
posted by jbickers at 6:19 PM PST - 14 comments

Japanese design magazine, circa 1902

Shin-Bijutsukai, The new monthly magazine of various designs by the famous artists of to-day, 1902. View gallery of selected pages; download full PDF.
posted by not_the_water at 5:46 PM PST - 6 comments

Happy Rex Manning Day!

'Dance party USA teeny bopper' type of shit: Rex Manning, "Say No More, Mon Amour"
posted by paleyellowwithorange at 5:40 PM PST - 36 comments

Why do we have blood types?

"Isn't it amazing?" says Ajit Varki, a biologist at the University of California, San Diego. "Almost a hundred years after the Nobel Prize was awarded for this discovery, we still don't know exactly what they're for."
Popular science writer Carl Zimmer investigates: Why do we have blood types? [more inside]
posted by divined by radio at 5:01 PM PST - 64 comments

The Ebb and Flow Of History

A dynamic map of world history since 3000 BC. Link starts at 338 BCE, the year before the first conquests of Alexander.
posted by Bora Horza Gobuchul at 4:59 PM PST - 25 comments

Mysteries that will not collapse into solutions

Tao Lin became very interested in Terence McKenna over the past two years, and now he's writing a weekly column about the man and his ideas for Vice. Part I: Beyond "Existentialism". Part II: Terence McKenna's Memes, featuring 30 of Lin's favorite memes propagated by the philosopher-explorer, touching upon entheogens, consciousness, evolution, belief, language, the internet, and mankind's search for meaning. If you have time on your hands, here's over ten uninterrupted hours of McKenna as referenced in the first column.
posted by naju at 4:45 PM PST - 14 comments

He actually is a rocket scientist

Bored with salad? The Willy Wonka of edible leaves offers help
Graham Clarkson talks about salad as though it were the new rock'n'roll, uttering sentences like: "I get too excited about rocket", "I eat salad bags like they're crisps" and "I have a PHD in baby leaves" (thus making him a "rocket scientist", geddit)? Clarkson is keen to show off his contenders for next year's salad crops – "the future of salad" – and is full of leafy inspiration.
[more inside]
posted by Lexica at 4:30 PM PST - 21 comments

Like Taking A Step Into a Sci-Fi Future

Captain's Log: June 30, 2014 "There are times when human language is inadequate, when emotions choke the mind, when the magnitude of events cannot properly be conveyed by the same syllables we use to navigate everyday life. Last night, the evening of June 30, 2004 was such a time." [more inside]
posted by Michele in California at 2:40 PM PST - 4 comments

The Headbanger's Library

The eleven best metal songs about literature. [more inside]
posted by gingerbeer at 2:12 PM PST - 56 comments

Before Google maps: Six hundred miles of highways

The photographs in this set depict roads and highways in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts from 1892 to 1893. The photos accompany the "Report of the Commission to Improve the Highways of the Commonwealth" published in February of 1893. [more inside]
posted by jessamyn at 1:51 PM PST - 25 comments

I never could have imagined how that phrase would explode

"I’d like to take this opportunity to apologize to pop culture: I’m sorry for creating this unstoppable monster. Seven years after I typed that fateful phrase, I’d like to join Kazan and Green in calling for the death of the “Patriarchal Lie” of the Manic Pixie Dream Girl trope. [more inside]
posted by ActionPopulated at 1:43 PM PST - 107 comments

Urban Inclusivity: Women's Mobility in the City

What does a city for women look like? "In the city for women, a woman can sit alone in parks, linger, run, jog, without much diminished fear at any time of the day. Women too can be flaneurs and have the right to loiter. Rather than just prioritise safety and freedom from harassment, women can prioritise speed and convenience of mobility. Women’s mobility is not just about getting from point A to B, but also about social mobility. Greater physical mobility for women is conducive for social mobility and self-actualisation." [more inside]
posted by rue72 at 12:50 PM PST - 23 comments

Whosoever wields this hammer, if she be worthy...

Marvel Announces New Thor In an interview on The View, author Jason Aaron and artist Russell Dauterman announced a new ongoing Thor series. [more inside]
posted by kagredon at 12:17 PM PST - 127 comments

“I went with the mustard instead of the ketchup.”

What Happened When We Gave Our Daughter My Last Name [more inside]
posted by supermassive at 11:26 AM PST - 145 comments

Don't hate this post, make this post hate you

Artist Leaves Cute Motivational Sticky Notes On The Train
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 10:44 AM PST - 14 comments

what if a 40-something secretary was secretly James Bond all along?

Ed Brubaker on Velvet (his new comic book series with Steve Epting): “I loved the idea of flipping the typical male-oriented spy story, and doing one about a woman who was also a mature, middle-aged woman.” [more inside]
posted by flex at 10:35 AM PST - 32 comments

Haiku Salut

Haiku Salut are an English instrumental band who make Yann Tiersen-esque pop. Their current touring show utilises "20 or so vintage lamps which are programmed to flash, flicker and fade in time to the music".
posted by dng at 10:22 AM PST - 4 comments

The only IDs I have: Philippine passport and my pocketbook Consitution

Pulitzer Prize winner Jose Antonio Vargas has been detained attempting to leave McAllen Airport in Texas. As Mr. Vargas wrote in Politico on July 11, he had traveled to Texas to document the crisis of undocumented immigrants before realizing that he might, in fact, be stuck there. His film, Documented, which just began airing on CNN last month, "chronicles his journey to America from the Philippines as a child; his journey through America as an immigration reform activist; and his journey inward as he re-connects with his mother, whom he hasn't seen in person in over 20 years."
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 9:55 AM PST - 95 comments

Church of England approves women bishops

"The General Synod today gave its final approval for women to become bishops in the Church of England," paving the way for appointments in the near future, and perhaps as soon as later this year. The vote comes after a long and contentious debate on the subject. The Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby: "My aim, and I believe the aim of the whole church, should be to be able to offer a place of welcome and growth for all. Today is a time of blessing and gift from God and thus of generosity. It is not winner take all, but in love a time for the family to move on together." A round-up of responses can be found here and here. NPR coverage.
posted by MonkeyToes at 9:37 AM PST - 24 comments

Able was I, ere I saw Elba ROCK THE FUCK OUT!!!

'Some bands are ambitious. And then there’s Lazer/Wulf. The concept behind the prog-metal trio’s new album, The Beast Of Left And Right, is more than ambitious; it’s kind of insane. Guitarist Bryan Aiken, bassist Sean Peiffer, and drummer Brad Rice have constructed an entire, full-length work of technical yet melodic metal that forms a palindrome.' They've also attracted attention for having a very famous and unlikely fan. [more inside]
posted by MisantropicPainforest at 9:29 AM PST - 26 comments

"we’re not used to seeing fat people represented positively in media"

Doing this – fucking the programming – is actually really freeing. It means I can stand up at a reading and give a performance in a loud, snarky voice. It means I can sit on and moderate panels without fear. Because I know how fat shaming works. I know that if somebody wanted to try and shame me using the “fat” call-out, the same person would say that whether I was 70lbs lighter or 70lbs heavier.
Science fiction writer Kameron Hurley on public speaking while fat.
posted by MartinWisse at 9:16 AM PST - 143 comments

Babe Didrikson Zaharias, the mostly forgotten groundbreaking sportswoman

Mildred Ella "Babe" Didrikson Zaharias has, in many ways, become America's all-but-forgotten sports superstar. You might have seen the round brick museum built in her tribute as you zip along Interstate 10 in Beaumont, Texas (Google maps), or remember she ranked #10 on the ESPN SportsCentury top 50 athletes of the 20th century, but that was back in 1999. So if this is all news to you, here's a bit more about Babe. [more inside]
posted by filthy light thief at 9:01 AM PST - 13 comments

Another way the school testing regime is rigged against the impoverished

Meredith Broussard at The Atlantic discusses another way the system of standardized testing is rigged against the underclass - thanks to the incestuous relationship between testmakers and textbook manufacturers, the tests are easy to pass - if the students are taught from the right textbooks, which many poorer districts simply cannot afford. [more inside]
posted by NoxAeternum at 8:43 AM PST - 36 comments

Single-body horror

Metafilter favorite David Cronenberg (previously, previously, previously) has lately been making short films for festival exhibition. Most are aggressively simple, with only a few actors and even fewer locations. But they're all unmistakably Cronenberg films. [more inside]
posted by ThatFuzzyBastard at 8:39 AM PST - 7 comments

Yeah, hail Satan!

The Pulp Zine explains how to do a stick and poke tattoo.

Pink Tapes does stick and poke tattoos of whimsical subjects such as pretzels, pizza, ghosts and treasure maps, and kitties.

Marissa Paternoster of the band Screaming Females talks about drunkenly giving DIY tattoos in comic form.

posted by Juliet Banana at 8:09 AM PST - 29 comments

The Other Major Sport Signing Last Week

While everyone was distracted by LeBron James returning to Cleveland, World Wrestling Entertainment pulled off an even bigger coup* by signing seven-time Global Honored Crown champion KENTA. Kenta Kobayashi (he capitalizes his ring name to differentiate himself from his mentor, Kenta Kobashi) was one of the biggest stars of Japan’s Pro Wrestling Noah promotion before resigning in April, leading some to wonder whether he would be returning to the bigger All Japan Pro Wrestling. Instead, Hulk Hogan personally signed Kobayashi to a developmental contract while on a WWE event in Osaka. [more inside]
posted by Etrigan at 7:32 AM PST - 28 comments

It Ain't No Fairy Tale

42nd St., NYC ca. 1988-1991 (Vaguely NSFW)
posted by griphus at 7:11 AM PST - 69 comments

. . . is an A̶m̶e̶r̶i̶c̶a̶n̶ ̶j̶o̶u̶r̶n̶a̶l̶i̶s̶t̶ Russian propagandist

congress-edits (@congressedits) is a Twitterbot broadcasting anonymous Wikipedia edits made from Congressional IP addresses. [more inside]
posted by ryanshepard at 6:58 AM PST - 30 comments

Our Schizoid Culture

Read Bain, professor of sociology at Miami University in Ohio and a founding editor of the American Sociological Review, wrote these words in 1935. We praise competition, but practice merger and monopoly…. We praise business organization but condemn and prevent labor organization…. We give heavier and more certain sentences to bank robbers than to bank wreckers. We boast of business ethics but we give power and prestige to business [disruptors]…. Everybody is equal before the law, except … women, immigrants, poor people.…We think of voting as the basis of democracy, but … seldom find more than fifty per cent of eligible voters actually registering their ‘will.'… We value equality, but tolerate greater inequality of wealth and income than has ever existed in any other society…. We drape nude statues and suppress noble books…. We try to foster participative recreation, but most of it is passive, much of it vicious, and almost all of it flagrantly commercialized…. This is the age of science, but there is more belief in miracles, spirits, occultism, and providences than one would think possible…by Debra Morris
posted by lazycomputerkids at 5:51 AM PST - 8 comments

we’re not going to see that on tv

In an interview during the Television Critics Association’s press tour on Sunday, Daniel Cerone, executive producer of NBC's Constantine, has revealed that there are no plans for John Constantine to be bisexual in the upcoming series. While Constantine's sexuality may come as a surprise for many casual DC fans, it has been a more-or-less stated fact throughout his canon. Many LGBTQ comics readers consider Constantine to be an important and iconic bisexual character and were hoping for a better result.
posted by fight or flight at 3:47 AM PST - 73 comments

They all have optimal strategies but pursue different victory conditions

Big Game Theory! Board games that tell stories. The Bored Gaymer. A girl likes games. HiveGod's Yell Matrix. QWERTYUIOP. 365 Days of Gaming. Those are a few of the most favorited current blogs on BoardGameGeek, and these are a few of their most favorited posts. [more inside]
posted by Monsieur Caution at 3:25 AM PST - 17 comments

July 14

The Boring Generation

The staid young: Oh! you pretty things. The Economist on how young people are not the alcohol ridden hooligans they were thought to be (and how changing parenting styles, amongst other factors, may have contributed).
posted by tavegyl at 11:52 PM PST - 56 comments

A Half-True Game About Half-Truths

Nicky Case wrote The Coming Out Simulator for Nar8 Game Jam [more inside]
posted by the man of twists and turns at 10:45 PM PST - 10 comments

After a decade!

8 minutes of trying to cancel Comcast
posted by letitrain at 10:04 PM PST - 193 comments

Bug spray. Don't forget the bug spray.

Welcome to Utopia. On a remote island, a former airline executive and his wife are preparing for the world to end. Others are starting to join them. By Trent Dalton.
posted by valkane at 9:55 PM PST - 49 comments

A bristling unbroken current of mongoose-osity

Writing in Slate, James Parker pronounces Rudyard Kipling's Rikki-Tikki-Tavi The Greatest Short Story of All Time. "To read it as an authoritarian fable is to miss the real action of the story, which is down in the unconscious, down with the prima materia, down by the bathroom sluice, where the creepy-crawlies hiss and fiddle and not even Father, the big man, can keep you safe." [more inside]
posted by We had a deal, Kyle at 9:36 PM PST - 16 comments

A dance between math and intuition: Beer pricing

When you go out to a bar or restaurant, have you ever wondered why your beer costs what it does? Here's your chance to find out. [more inside]
posted by joseph conrad is fully awesome at 9:35 PM PST - 19 comments

If Horses Were People

If Horses Were People: an equestrian sketch comedy series. [more inside]
posted by jedicus at 9:19 PM PST - 13 comments

24. A house designed by a three-year-old is built.

1. A book describes works that the author has conceived but not brought into being. 2. The world is drawn from memory. There are missing countries, altered borders. [more inside]
posted by whyareyouatriangle at 7:11 PM PST - 12 comments

Japanese Artist Megumi Igarashi Arrested for 3D Printed Artwork Based on

Japanese Artist Megumi Igarashi Arrested for 3D Printed Artwork Based on Her Vulva (nsfw) [more inside]
posted by KokuRyu at 5:54 PM PST - 60 comments

Designs for sitting

The exhibit Fashion Follows Form: Designs for Sitting, at the Royal Ontario Museum through January 25, 2015, showcases the work of designer Izzy Camilleri, whose company IZAdaptive features chic, stylish, comfortable clothing — all of it designed for seated people who use wheelchairs. [more inside]
posted by Lexica at 4:29 PM PST - 10 comments

The Princess of Hammersmith

"Micronations" have been founded for many reasons -- to pursue libertarian ideals, or progressive ones, or fetishes, or simply to make fun of the whole idea. It is not often, however, that a micronation is founded entirely in order to make a seven-year-old American girl a princess. [more inside]
posted by Countess Elena at 4:16 PM PST - 200 comments

X-Rays of Toy Robots

X-Rays of Toy Robots [link via Laughing Squid]
posted by drezdn at 2:59 PM PST - 15 comments

Pinboard Turns Five

Five years ago, a new bookmarking service called Pinboard was launched. To commemorate the occasion Maciej Cegłowski, the creator and sole caretaker of the 24,000 subscriber service, ruminates:
"Avoiding burnout is difficult to write about, because the basic premise is obnoxious. Burnout is a rich man's game. Rice farmers don't get burned out and spend long afternoons thinking about whether to switch to sorghum. Most people don't have the luxury of thinking about their lives in those terms. But at the rarefied socioeconomic heights of computerland, it's true that if you run a popular project by yourself for a long time, there's a high risk that it will wear you out."
Pinboard featured on the blue previously, here, here, and here. [more inside]
posted by Doleful Creature at 2:52 PM PST - 30 comments

There’s lots of brutality...Horrible brutality.

Rikers: Where Mental Illness Meets Brutality in Jail [more inside]
posted by jammy at 2:15 PM PST - 11 comments

1. Write your mistake 2. Ingest one mushroom 3. Go to sleep 4. Wake anew

Four years after finishing his incredibly successful comic book series, and its somewhat less successful movie adapatation, after a prolonged delay, Bryan Lee O'Malley is back with a new graphic novel, Seconds. [more inside]
posted by 1970s Antihero at 1:21 PM PST - 35 comments

Dance of life and death

On Sunday, July 13th 2014, Africa's Nobel Laureates in Literature balanced the eternal dance of life and death. On that day, Nigerian poet Wole Soyinka celebrated his 80th birthday with Presidents and paeans, even as South African author Nadine Gordimer passed away that night at age 90. Each, in their own way with words, took on the challenge of race and colour.
posted by infini at 12:27 PM PST - 14 comments

Fear is the highest fence.

After years of debates, notoriously contentious public meetings, and the looming specter of a civil rights lawsuit, a federal mediation agreement between the Town of Hamden and the City of New Haven, Connecticut resulted in the removal of a 10-foot chain-link fence that separated New Haven's West Rock public housing projects from Hamden's Woodin Street neighborhood for nearly half a century. NYT's Benjamin Mueller reports: In Connecticut, Breaking a Barrier Between a Suburb and Public Housing. [more inside]
posted by divined by radio at 12:25 PM PST - 9 comments

Animated Women

The infamous letter denying women creative work at Disney Animation in the 1930s (previously) has an interesting addendum in a 1941 announcement by Walt Disney that the studio would be starting to admit women into the animation training program. Disney ends with a shoutout to "little Rhetta Scott, of whom you will hear more when you see Bambi."Rhetta Scott was to be the first credited female animator at Disney and drew the complex sequence of attacking hounds.Women's progress in the industry since has been slow but is recently accelerating quickly, so here is a random roundup of dazzling hand-drawn animated shorts by women: [more inside]
posted by Erasmouse at 12:00 PM PST - 10 comments

“Go buy everything from 1984 out of Minneapolis" -- Tommy Stinson

Prince's Purple Rain (previously) celebrating its thirtieth (!!!) anniversary, but the skinny MFer with the high voice wasn't the only great thing coming out of the Twin Cities in the mid-1980s. Bob Mould of Husker Du, Babes in Toyland's Lori Barbero, singer-songwriter Craig Finn, Tommy Stinson of The Replacements, and up-and-coming MC Lizzo take a look back in Noisey's documentary Made in Minnesota. [more inside]
posted by pxe2000 at 11:59 AM PST - 31 comments

"Tacky"

"Weird Al" Yankovic is back with his new album "Mandatory Fun". To help with the launch, he's releasing a video a day for eight straight days starting today with "Tacky", which captures the infectious fun of of Pharrell's "Happy" with a suitably Weird Al twist.
posted by AlonzoMosleyFBI at 11:20 AM PST - 264 comments

Go to bed, old man. I am working out like Olivia Newton-John!

Slavoj Žižek Welcomes You To The Gym
posted by davidjmcgee at 10:58 AM PST - 26 comments

Spending eternity with Miles Davis

Fans book burial plots to be near jazz greats. "Nearly all the 70 burial plots which were advertised for sale earlier this year in 'Jazz Corner' – right behind the shiny, granite gravestone of Miles Davis, etched with his trumpet and bearing the honorific 'Sir' to mark the knighthood bestowed on him by the Knights of Malta – have already been taken." Other jazz greats interred at Woodlawn: Celia Cruz, Illinois Jacquet, Duke Ellington. Jazz at Woodlawn, June 11, 2014; Photos from the concert. (Previously and previously, in comments.)
posted by GrammarMoses at 10:04 AM PST - 1 comment

Hey, Taxi!

NYC Taxis: A Day in the Life - A Data Visualization displays the data for one random NYC yellow taxi on a single day in 2013. See where it operated, how much money it made, and how busy it was over 24 hours. [more inside]
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 9:40 AM PST - 29 comments

A New Underground Railroad?

A group of American Quakers say they are offering a way out for some desperate Ugandans fleeing the country’s new Anti-Homosexuality Act. If their account is accurate, it is a remarkable feat for a handful of individuals with very little experience in international aid.... Most Ugandan activists and international human rights groups are discouraging LGBT Ugandans from fleeing, since they largely go to Kenya and wind up in enormous refugee camps that are often just as dangerous for LGBT people as Uganda itself.... But the stories of people fleeing arrest or attack tug at the hearts of foreigners who want to offer direct help to people in crisis. The complex reality on the ground makes that hard to do through established channels — and the donors may never know the individuals they’ve helped. [more inside]
posted by Cash4Lead at 9:22 AM PST - 30 comments

A red cent on the red planet: the story of a semi-rare 1909 coin on Mars

The Mars Science Laboratory (MSL), aka the Curiosity Rover is something of a robotic geologist, so it makes sense to include the tools of the trade in some form, including a calibration target. For giving a sense of scale with smaller geologic features, pennies are often used for scale, as a common item with a standard dimension. But why is there a 1909 penny on the Rover? That's thanks to Kenneth Edgett, the Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) principal investigator and an amateur coin collector who appreciates the history of the controversial 1909 V.D.B. Lincoln Cent.
posted by filthy light thief at 8:56 AM PST - 18 comments

Happy Birthday, MetaFilter

Cat-Scan.com is one of the strangest sites I've seen in some time. I have no idea how these people got their cats wedged into their scanners, or why.
posted by Rock Steady at 8:44 AM PST - 165 comments

Wrong Answer

In an era of high-stakes testing, a struggling school made a shocking choice. A look inside the standardized-test cheating scandal in Atlanta.
posted by zeptoweasel at 6:56 AM PST - 108 comments

Stan Lee and Jack Kirby’s Akira

Ever wonder what some very well known anime/manga characters would look like had they been designed by American cartoonists?
posted by MartinWisse at 6:46 AM PST - 16 comments

Medical student syndrome

I was once CONVINCED I had Boerhaave syndrome, an extremely rare condition where your esophagus is ruptured and acid and air spill into your chest, because my chest tickled after a small bout of coughing. I spent two hours in the dark, unable to sleep, listening to my chest with a stethoscope, and UpToDate-ing (our version of WebMD) the various ways in which I'd be dead before morning. I ran to the Emergency Room and told them I needed a stat Gastrografin Esophogram, stat as in: yesterday. The attending took one look at me and said, “Congratulations, you're a cliché! Go Home.”
posted by ellieBOA at 6:08 AM PST - 48 comments

'Death will not correct / a single line of verse'

Tadeusz Różewicz (1921-2014) was a renowned Polish ‘poet, playwright, screenwriter, novelist, satirist and translator.’ Reckoned by Seamus Heaney as ‘one of the great European poets of the 20th century,’ he died in April at the age of 92: Guardian obituary; NYT obituary. [more inside]
posted by misteraitch at 6:02 AM PST - 6 comments

The Saga of ‘Sambo’s

Not too long ago, Sambo’s had 1,117 locations in 47 states—and a reputation for pushing racist iconography along with its breakfasts.
posted by josher71 at 5:23 AM PST - 119 comments

Poor sanitation and childhood stunting

New research on malnutrition, which leads to childhood stunting, suggests that a root cause may be an abundance of human waste polluting soil and water, rather than a scarcity of food. (SLNYT) [more inside]
posted by Dip Flash at 5:20 AM PST - 11 comments

damn, that's a lot of light pollution

what does your city look like from space?
posted by yeoz at 4:55 AM PST - 29 comments

The End of Unrestricted Celebrity Medicine?

A policy before the Medical Society of the State of New York to regulate celebrity medical expertise
posted by Renoroc at 3:11 AM PST - 36 comments

An increasingly-frustrated Google Guy

What if Google was a guy? [part 3]. Includes special guest Siri. [more inside]
posted by paleyellowwithorange at 1:10 AM PST - 23 comments

July 13

a “Bill of Rights for G.I. Joe and Jane”

How the GI Bill Became Law in Spite of Some Veterans’ Groups
posted by the man of twists and turns at 10:31 PM PST - 7 comments

in-con-venient

DashCon and Las Pegasus Unicon imploded in front of a live international audience. Tentmoot never even happened. Running a con is difficult business.
posted by divabat at 9:40 PM PST - 301 comments

The crossover is what monumental, generational change looks like.

Why Crossovers Conquered the American Highway
Last year, roughly speaking, two crossovers were purchased for every three cars. It's tough to compare apples to apples, but in April, IHS Automotive analyst Tom Libby noted that small crossovers were the single best selling segment of any type of vehicle, including midsize sedans, which are the staple crop of the automotive industry.

"If the trend we have witnessed in the first two months of 2014 continues for the remainder of 2014," Libby wrote, "it would mark the first time in recent memory—if not ever—that a car segment did not lead the industry."
posted by joseph conrad is fully awesome at 9:28 PM PST - 111 comments

"Staying alive became my full-time occupation."

I Am The Eggplant: This American Life tells the bizarre story of one man's unwitting stint on the Japanese reality show Susunu! Denpa Shōnen. [more inside]
posted by We had a deal, Kyle at 9:26 PM PST - 30 comments

Eloise: An Update

I am Eloise. I am forty-six. (Previously, kind of.)
posted by SkylitDrawl at 8:29 PM PST - 26 comments

The Long Way Home

"Normal return route canceled. Proceed as follows: Strip all company marking, registration numbers and identifiable insignia from exterior surfaces. Proceed westbound soonest your discretion to avoid hostilities and deliver NC18602 to marine terminal La Guardia Field New York. Good luck." [more inside]
posted by jedicus at 7:10 PM PST - 27 comments

Seven roses later ... each rose opens like an ideogram, like a gate

In an essay reflecting on translation, Yoko Tawada reads the poems of Paul Celan as if he had written in Japanese. The essay's translator, Susan Bernofsky, offers context, and in an earlier piece, Rivka Galchen considers "Yoko Tawada's Magnificent Strangeness." More conventional introductions to Celan are available via the Poetry Foundation page on Celan, 14 poems from Breathturn, and a video of Celan reading "Allerseelen" (English sub.; alt. trans.). Tawada's own poetry includes "The Flight of the Moon" (video in Japanese). [more inside]
posted by Monsieur Caution at 6:01 PM PST - 1 comment

The Burning of the Ursuline Convent

In the late 1700's, when the US constitution was ratified and the first Catholic diocese was established in the US in Baltimore, the vast majority of Christians in the US were Protestants - only something like 30,000 Catholics called the new country home. This number rose dramatically within a few decades to over a million with the influx of Irish and German Catholic immigrants in the early 1800's. Simmering anti-Catholic feelings that dated back a hundred years or more occasionally boiled over - one of the most notable incidents, the burning of the Ursuline Convent, happened in sight of Bunker Hill in August 1834. [more inside]
posted by rmd1023 at 5:55 PM PST - 19 comments

Put a Bat on it

Batgirl of Burnside Cameron Stewart, Babs Tarr, and Jordie Bellaire are taking over Batgirl (October 2014, #35). More from Project Rooftop
posted by device55 at 5:43 PM PST - 29 comments

“We want to make the rules, the theory”

In 1968, Agnès Varda was living in Los Angeles with her husband, director Jacques Demy, who was there to begin filming his first Hollywood film, Model Shop (1969). Although initially hesitant about living in the United States, the couple quickly became caught up in the wave of dissent sweeping the country in the late 1960s. Indeed, amid the finger pointing in France about the perceived failure of the events of May ’68 to bring about revolution, many members of the French intelligentsia looked across the Atlantic for alternative models for political change. Varda became part of a growing contingent of French artists and intellectuals, including sociologists Edgar Morin and Jean-François Revel, and writer Jean Genet, who were attracted to the ways in which cultural revolt, social criticism and political contestation were intertwined in the United States. These French thinkers were attracted to the expansiveness and creativity of the American counterculture as opposed to the political deadlock that many believed was the undoing of the events surrounding May ’68. A revolt against American hegemony was taking place within the United States itself, and many leftist French thinkers were enthralled. [more inside]
posted by whyareyouatriangle at 4:44 PM PST - 5 comments

"Identity is always something to be cherished."

I Am Loveworthy: How a Transgender Woman Found Love. (Previously, by the same writer.) Useful resources for participating in the discussion: Ohio U's Trans 101* : Primer and Vocabulary guide; GLAAD's Transgender Media and Education Program
posted by Lexica at 4:12 PM PST - 17 comments

You Can't Get There From Here Unless Your Plane Malfunctions

Midway Atoll is full of history and unique fauna. It has been completely closed to visitors since Fish and Wildlife Service budget cuts in 2013. A United Airlines flight made an emergency landing there last week. Fortunately, Pete has been on-island giving us an inside perspective on both history and nature. Pete has moved on, but you can still keep up with Midway at FOMA.
posted by Xurando at 3:57 PM PST - 14 comments

I'm Just Sittin' Here Watchin' the Wheels Go Round and Round

Watching Wind Turbines in the Snow turns out to be a clever solution to the practical reality that wind farms are simply too large to study in a wind tunnel. This holds promise for improving the efficiency of wind farms, which are steeply on the rise in the U.S. in recent years. Curiously, the rise in wind power is being facilitated by more flexible gas power plants that can pick up the slack on a moment's notice, helping to make up for one of wind power's biggest problems: It's lack of consistency. [more inside]
posted by Michele in California at 3:51 PM PST - 9 comments

Hope you're happy, Sandy Allen / Hope your garden is blooming

I’m struck by how perfectly her grave reflects her life: at once dilapidated, lonely; and yet unique, inviting, nearby to children. What are all those other little graves with their knickknacks compared to this one off here on its own? I sit on the white bench. I look at the expanse of earth before me, trying to picture the enormous woman below. I say, "Hello." The Sad, Strange, True Story of Sandy Allen, the Tallest Woman in the World (previously) [more inside]
posted by scody at 2:16 PM PST - 16 comments

Reporting a Rape, and Wishing She Hadn't [SLNYT]

The New York Times examines the case of a student raped by football players at Hobart and William Smith Colleges. The colleges are under investigation by the Department of Education [Not Alone, previously] [more inside]
posted by MoonOrb at 1:46 PM PST - 58 comments

Short Term Relationship that expires quick!!!

A friendship that lasts 24 hours unless you opt to extend. An app where you can find interesting people who will disappear in 24 hours unless you'd like to keep the connection going.
posted by Yellow at 12:50 PM PST - 53 comments

Metro System Ambiance

Algiers Athens Bangkok Barcelona Beijing Berlin Buenos Aires Cairo Caracas Chicago Copenhagen Delhi Dubai Glasgow Guangzhou Istanbul Lima London Kolkata Kuala Lumpur Madrid Manila Mecca Mexico City Milan Montreal Moscow Munich New York Oslo Paris Philadelphia Prague Pyongyang Recife Rome Saint Petersburg Santiago Seoul Shanghai Shenzhen Singapore Sofia Sydney Stockholm Taipei Tehran Tokyo Vienna
posted by Foci for Analysis at 10:30 AM PST - 47 comments

Law and Order is the old Orange

(nearly) Every actor from Orange is the New Black in their roles in Law and Order. From the bittiest of bit parts to some fairly substantial recurring characters. Contains very mild spoilers for S2 of OitNB.
posted by KathrynT at 10:09 AM PST - 22 comments

Inviting the adorable nine-banded armadillo north

An armored invasion is underway across the midwestern and eastern United States: Armadillos are moving into new territories once thought unsuitable for the warm-weather creatures. Sure, they're adorable as babies, they can leap 3 to 4 feet in the air, inflate themselves to float through the water or sink down and walk underwater for up to 6 minutes (as seen to a limited degree in this video from a kid's alphabet song, sorry about the music), and these ZeFrank true facts might persuade you to love them even more (somewhat NSFW). But keep in mind, Europeans pretty much invited them northwards -- as settlers, ranchers, and farmers spread southwest through the United States, they facilitated the invasion of D. novemcinctus by transforming the landscape into one that it would find both more accessible and more hospitable.
posted by filthy light thief at 8:55 AM PST - 40 comments

Rebuilding Prodigy, one screen at a time

Where Online Services Go When They Die
posted by motorcycles are jets at 8:44 AM PST - 32 comments

charming dancing duo morph

Pas a Deux - award-winning 1988 animated short of pop culture icons dancing. A collaboration between Gerrit van Dijk en Monique Renault. Via Your Daily Cartoon (via Mefi's own) [more inside]
posted by madamjujujive at 8:19 AM PST - 2 comments

The Health Benefits of Smelling Farts

From TIME Magazine
posted by SillyShepherd at 7:48 AM PST - 65 comments

Web culture's revolutionary celebration of powerful female leaders

"The ability to present women like [Ruth Bader] Ginsburg, [Hillary] Clinton and [Wendy] Davis as bone-crushingly robust yet simultaneously appealing, revered—practically adorable!—in their rugged severity, is a crucial expansion of the American imagination with regard to powerful women." (via librarina) [more inside]
posted by flex at 6:14 AM PST - 37 comments

"Transformers 4: I am drunk and I must rage pee"

If you’ve read anything about this movie, you’ve probably heard about the rightfully infamous “Romeo and Juliet law” scene. Nothing I have read as of yet does actual justice to how absolutely fucking creepy this scene is. Cade and Shane (Tessa’s boyfriend, played by Jack Reynor) have been pissing on each other’s legs since the moment they met about, frankly, just to whom Tessa belongs. Then Cade finds out that Shane is 20; well, Tessa is a minor. Without so much as blinking, Shane launches into a lecture about the Romeo and Juliet law of Texas, and has the text of the law on a laminated card in his wallet. He is carrying it the way one might expect a young man to carry a freaking condom.
If you're going to read only one profanity laden review of Transformers 4, make sure it's this one. The profanity because not even the power of alcohol was enough to protect Rachael Acks from this movie, after her readers were so kind as to donate $400 to charity to force her to see it. Bonus: PDF of the notes taken during the movie and for those who like less swearing, the io9 FAQ hits many of the same notes.
posted by MartinWisse at 5:56 AM PST - 220 comments

July 12

Where Have You Gone, Easily Recognized References?

"The Joe DiMaggio line was written right away in the beginning. And I don't know why or where it came from. It seems so strange, like it didn't belong in that song and then, I don't know, it was so interesting to us that we just kept it. So it's one of the most well-known lines that I've ever written." An analysis of Simon and Garfunkel's 1968 hit, "Mrs. Robinson". [more inside]
posted by joseph conrad is fully awesome at 9:26 PM PST - 64 comments

Buffy Stunts

Revelations. Dopplegangland. The Wish. Graduation Day. This Year's Girl. [more inside]
posted by a fair but frozen maid at 7:56 PM PST - 37 comments

while my guitar not-so-gently weeps

Weeping, wailing Japanese politician inspires copycat guitarist to dizzying heights of emotional expression.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 7:22 PM PST - 27 comments

An ornithologist, an editor, & a VP walk into a conference room...

"We ornithologists, with our Important Capitals, continue to look Curiously Provincial" : copy-editors and ornithologists fight a very pilkunnussija-esque war over conventions of bird names.
posted by divabat at 6:54 PM PST - 15 comments

Ho Ho Ho Ho Ho

Japanese Doctor Who (SLYT). A highlight clip from the long-running tokusatsu series which featured a multitude of actors, in addition to a variety of period costumes and wood-and-resin models, and location shots mostly based in a public park or rock quarry. The program's haunting soundtrack can be heard in the later portion of the piece.
posted by Smart Dalek at 6:19 PM PST - 16 comments

Playgrounds as nightmare fuel

Creepy masterpieces of sculpture and landscaping masquerading as children's playgrounds. Part 1, Part 2, Part 3.
posted by Room 641-A at 5:55 PM PST - 21 comments

I rode my mountain bike over the continental divide and it was so Galaga

"Galaga" is an excerpt from Michael Kimball's book of the same name about the classic arcade game of the same name. Kimball is also the author of the heartbreaking novel Us and the experimental non-fiction Michael Kimball Writes Your Life Story (on a postcard), his selected favorites from which are 45, 46, 51, 52, 54, 66, 70, 75, 86, 98, 99, 100, 101, 102, 103, 112, 114, 118, 128, 129, 131, 133, 160, 165, 167, 171, 192, 195, 199, 209, 216, 221, 225 and 240. Postcards 54, 75, 98, 114, and 225 feature non-human subjects. 131 is Tao Lin, and 128 is Kimball himself. [Via.]
posted by Monsieur Caution at 5:50 PM PST - 21 comments

A Life In Bits

For the past 105 days, I've been tracking everything about myself.” Anand Sharma shows the progress of his life through a beautifully designed site. [more inside]
posted by Bora Horza Gobuchul at 4:54 PM PST - 25 comments

Fascinating Articles About Mental Illness With Misleading Titles

MIT Technology Review summarizes new directions in medical research, while a Pacific Standard writer experiments with Botox to treat depression.
posted by StrikeTheViol at 4:45 PM PST - 4 comments

The Many Faces Of Commuter Fustration

Attention Tim O'Toole : You are the CEO of First Capital Connect and my train is late almost every day. I'm going to change your face every time my train is delayed. (SLTP)
posted by The Whelk at 3:53 PM PST - 48 comments

Stay. Stay. Nope! Nope! Nope! Nope! NOPE!

Pets Interrupting Yoga. [more inside]
posted by quin at 3:48 PM PST - 23 comments

Kate Davies visits the Great Tapestry of Scotland

The Great Tapestry of Scotland is an embroidered artwork of 160 panels illustrating the whole history of Scotland in the style of the Bayeux tapestry. Over a thousand stitchers collaborated to make the panels, and the design is the largest of three large-scale embroidery projects by Andrew Crummy. Kate Davies visited the Great Tapestry of Scotland at the Scottish Parliament and took some amazing close-up pictures... [more inside]
posted by clavicle at 2:03 PM PST - 15 comments

Charlie Haden has gone Home

Charlie Haden, one of the most influential jazz musicians of our time, is going home Here is Charlie, singing the old ballad Wayfaring Stranger - a fitting song for this occasion. Previously (somewhat repetitive, for background [more inside]
posted by Vibrissae at 11:49 AM PST - 57 comments

No Mozart Tonight

"Ladies and Gentlemen, I would like to apologize from the bottom of my heart...for this appalling breach of taste." Julie Andrews and Carol Burnett made three television specials together and, from the looks of it, had an absolute blast. (PDF) [more inside]
posted by Orange Dinosaur Slide at 10:24 AM PST - 26 comments

Who owns a gesture?

On July 8, the Daily Mississippian published Sierra Mannie's Op-Ed, "Dear white gays", which was then picked up by Time Magazine, and has spurred discussion on whether white gay men are stealing the culture of black women.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 9:26 AM PST - 160 comments

The Ghetto Is Public Policy

Ta-Nehisi Coates writes in The Atlantic:The Effects of Housing Segregation on Black Wealth. As the wealth gap widens between whites and blacks in America, and after reading this list and this list, he concludes The Ghetto Is Public Policy. [more inside]
posted by the man of twists and turns at 9:15 AM PST - 31 comments

The Scandinavians love it!

The Umbilical Brothers are the best mime with words duo act you might ever have the chance to see. Their performances combine mime with ordinary dialogue and vocal sound effects. They use puppetry, slapstick, mimicry and audience participation, and make scant use of props and lighting. [more inside]
posted by h00py at 9:04 AM PST - 14 comments

John Legend Says You're Beautiful

Singer John Legend's latest video, "You and I," celebrates all kinds of beauty. And he's getting all kinds of press for it. From Laverne Cox removing her makeup to Tig Notaro fixing her hair, the video features four minutes of women contemplating their reflections while Legend sings that they're beautiful. [more inside]
posted by kinetic at 7:54 AM PST - 68 comments

Farm Tools for Women

Farming and gardening tools that are actually useful for women.Women play a critical role in producing food,” she says. “Our philosophy is to build on the strengths of women.”
posted by what's her name at 7:52 AM PST - 32 comments

An interactive paper sculpture

“Every time the paper blade falls a camera will be triggered to capture the expression of the those who have put their neck on the line for an art experience like no other. Each fearful facial expression, forever immortalized on the PaperCuts-Exhibtion.com.”
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 7:50 AM PST - 10 comments

Rocklopedia Fakebandica, the wiki of Fake Bands

If you've ever found yourself reading or watching something that references a particular band or musician and you've wondered "is that a real group?" then Rocklopedia Fakebandica (aka FakeBands.com) can help you out. The old site was (and still is) categorized alphabetically, from The A-Men and The Ace Tones (IMDb) to The Zits and Zorak. The new site is wiki-based, so anyone can submit new musicians, but the organization is a bit different. There is no alphabetical grouping (yet), but you can browse by Years, Medium, and other Categories. So you can take a jaunt back, way back, to 1700 and learn about Pietro Caraffa, the musical quack, or find a really obscure reference to Slab Hauler.
posted by filthy light thief at 7:20 AM PST - 24 comments

Dilma Rousseff's Political Future and the World Cup

Dilma Rousseff is the current president of Brazil and the first woman to hold the office. She faces re-election in October this year. While by the end of her first year in office she held higher approval ratings than any of her directly elected predecessors (59%), by early June of 2014 her approval rating had fallen to its lowest point (33%) since she assumed office in January 2011. A major contributor to this decline in approval ratings has been the country's hosting of the World Cup, plagued by cost overruns and accidents during hasty infrastructure construction. Estimated to have cost the country between $11 and $14 billion, the World Cup sparked protests up to the opening game (previously). Stadium construction was carried out in 12 instead of the required 8 cities, resulting in white elephants projects in Brasília and Manaus. Brazil's crushing 7-1 loss to Germany in the World Cup semifinals generated speculation about its impact on Dilma Rousseff's political future. While some sports moments are attributed to have changed the course of national politics and identity, how the World Cup loss will affect Dilma Rousseff's re-election chances remains murky.
posted by needled at 7:01 AM PST - 757 comments

A Tale of Internet Spaceships

A Tale of Internet Spaceships - A crowd funded documentary on the video game, Eve Online. Filmed at the annual CCP FanFest, a look at the unique world of spaceships, spreadsheets, diplomacy, community, and inevitable betrayal.
posted by Argyle at 6:42 AM PST - 4 comments

The Singh Thing

Jason Singh is a "beatboxer and vocal sculptor" who creates music using only multi-layered recordings of his voice. Watch him perform Tiberian Sun live at Music TechFest, using software to loop and mix samples of breath, beatboxing and vocal techniques. [more inside]
posted by billiebee at 6:08 AM PST - 2 comments

Zwarte Piet wiedewiedewiet

Amsterdam mayor Eberhard van der Laan has been told by a court in the capital to reconsider the licensing of the Sinterklaas parade through the city last year, which became mired in controversy because of the Zwarte Piet character. The administrative court says the mayor has six weeks to look again at the decision to allow the parade to go ahead last year and determine if the correct one was taken. The administrative court said in its ruling the Zwarte Piet character a negative stereotype which is insulting to black people and the mayor must decide which interest is more important: that of black Amsterdammers or society in general, news agency ANP reported.
It's official: Zwarte Piet (previously) is a racist, negative stereotype according to the Amsterdam courts. [more inside]
posted by MartinWisse at 5:10 AM PST - 17 comments

1-2-3-4... and yet all the Eagles are still alive

The last remaining member of seminal 1970s New York punk act, Tommy Ramone, has died, aged 65. [more inside]
posted by Mezentian at 3:30 AM PST - 93 comments

July 11

The man who saved the dinosaurs

Dinosaurs were lumbering, stupid, scientifically boring beasts—until John Ostrom rewrote the book on them.
posted by brundlefly at 11:50 PM PST - 12 comments

Meet the fuckers

The more things change, the more they stay the same: "Your great555m grandfather was a sponge and spent his life bored as fuck."
posted by paleyellowwithorange at 10:44 PM PST - 25 comments

Blood in the Streets: A Conversation About Gun Violence in Chicago

"...writing for The Daily Beast, Roland Martin proposed a solution to the surging violence on Chicago's South and West Sides: Send the National Guard to Chicago." "This idea of the powerful causing the problem and then swooping in to benevolently gift us the "solution" is offensive. You can't make up for systemic deprivation through law enforcement. Law enforcement doesn't have the nuance, it doesn't have the tools, and it doesn't actually work." - Josie Duffy in conversation with Ernest Wilkins, Jamilah Lemieux, Jason Parham, and Kiese Laymon. [more inside]
posted by artof.mulata at 9:55 PM PST - 60 comments

The Mighty Atom

“No-one ever passed me in time trials, I used to chase and catch. It was a great thrill, it really was.”

The celebrated Eileen Sheridan rode her bicycle from Lands End to John o' Groats in 2 days, 11 hours, 7 minutes, breaking gender rules and speed records until retirement. In her own words.
posted by latkes at 9:26 PM PST - 3 comments

Well-honed weltschmerz and mesmerizing monotony

Lana Del Rey: Why a Death-Obsessed Pop Siren Is Perfect for Late-Stage Capitalist America (mirrored at Salon.com)
Lana Del Rey is pushing the envelope, and here's her message, delivered with a languid pout: 21st-century America is a rotting corpse, deadlocked culturally, economically, and politically. Since there's nothing we can do about it, let's enjoy ourselves as the body-politic disintegrates, perhaps by savoring some toothsome bites of the past: candy-colored Super 8 films, juicy jazz tunes and clips of sultry screen sirens. The future is a retrospective.

All of this echoes the ancient danse macabre, the dance of death, the motif that sprang out of the medieval horrors of war and the plague. It's a plea for fevered amusement while you've still got time.
posted by joseph conrad is fully awesome at 9:16 PM PST - 58 comments

"Find your dream. It's the pursuit of the dream that heals you."

One of the greatest upsets in Olympic History happened in Tokyo in 1964: Billy Mills came from behind to win the 10,000m gold (YT: race edited down to 4 minutes). Mills, a member of the Oglala Lakota Sioux, remains the only American to win this race in the Olympics. Here he is talking to Here and Now on NPR about how he ran the race (it's riveting), the name of the Washington, DC NFL franchise, and in an extra on this page, about Native American history.
posted by julen at 8:59 PM PST - 4 comments

Las Corsas Piu Bellas del Mondo

"Less a race than a celebration of motorsports heritage," the Mille Miglia classic car rally takes place every May. Its thousand-mile course wends from Brescia through Verona and Padua to Rome and then back north to Brescia by way of Bologna. (PDF) First staged in 1927 with 77 entrants, the now-annual event draws driving enthusiasts from around the world. [more inside]
posted by GrammarMoses at 7:20 PM PST - 5 comments

Silly time with Johnny Carson and Weird Al

Travel back in TV time to 1985 when Weird Al Yankovic appeared as a musical guest for the first and, tragically, only time on Johnny Carson's Tonight Show. [more inside]
posted by Smells of Detroit at 7:12 PM PST - 34 comments

trashy photos

7 Days of Garbage is a photo portrait series by Gregg Segal. His subjects are surrounded by the garbage they accumulate in a week. (More of his work: Gregg Segal. )
posted by madamjujujive at 6:19 PM PST - 12 comments

Murderpeg

"Winnipeg is the capital of Manitoba, Canada — and for 16 of the past 33 years, it has also been the country's murder capital. The prairie city is home to just under 800,000 people, about 10 percent of whom are Aboriginal, meaning Winnipeg boasts the largest urban Aboriginal population in Canada. Largely impoverished and facing continual discrimination, the community has given rise to violent Aboriginal street gangs." Vice reports (17 mins).
posted by stbalbach at 5:46 PM PST - 30 comments

"Dance the Slurp"

July 11th (7/11!) is the perfect day to read this Priceonomics piece on the invention of the Slurpee.
Did you miss Free Slurpee Day today? This year 7-Eleven's Free Slurpee Day has been supersized into a freebie week. (previously: 2005 & 2008)
(And bonus CanCon from the Wall Street Journal - This Isn't a Brain Freeze—Manitoba Wins 'Slurpee Capital' Once Again: Chilly Canadian Province Is Hottest Market for the Ice-Cold Beverage from 7-Eleven for 15th Year)
posted by flex at 5:38 PM PST - 9 comments

Is There a Special Day for Cute Videos?

Black bear sow and cubs released. slyt
posted by vansly at 4:49 PM PST - 8 comments

Gaming has its own Nikola Teslas

Five Genre-Defining Video Games Forgotten by History (SLYT, 53min.)
posted by ChurchHatesTucker at 4:30 PM PST - 35 comments

A Little Bit of the Pacific Ocean Bottom, That You Can Walk On

Beautiful rocks. On the east side of the San Andreas Fault is mainland California. On the west of it is Point Reyes. The geology of Point Reyes is rather unique. It thus fosters a unique local ecology and is home to relatively unique animal species [more inside]
posted by Michele in California at 4:29 PM PST - 19 comments

Left to Our Own Devices

After dropping sweet synthwave tunes for two years, Le Cassette have released their first album "Left to Our Own Devices," available on (of course) cassette tape
posted by rebent at 4:09 PM PST - 4 comments

It looks like you're trying to get in the robot.

Neon Genesis Windows 98 [SLYT]
posted by emmtee at 4:07 PM PST - 20 comments

That's a lot of decaying plant matter

Word association time: I say "peat", you say… "Scotland", right? Not necessarily! Peat is found around the world, including in many African countries. Earlier this year, scientists trekked through a Congo swamp, braving gorillas, elephants, crocodiles, and more. Their reward? Discovery of a peat bog the size of England. The team estimates that the bog covers between 100,000 and 200,000 square kilometers (40,000 to 80,000 sq miles), with the peat-layer reaching up to 7m (23ft) beneath the ground.
posted by Lexica at 3:53 PM PST - 28 comments

San Francisco 1955

A cinemascope film of San Francisco in 1955. "Highlights everything from the Cliff House (and the adjacent but long-defunct Sky Tram) to Fisherman’s Wharf — along with Telegraph Hill, City Hall, the Cable Car turnaround, a very squeaky ride down Lombard Street, the SF zoo, Golden Gate Park… and everything in between the (once record-breaking) spans of the Golden Gate and the San Francisco-Oakland Bay bridges." (The tour of the city picks up again at 15:40.)
posted by DarlingBri at 2:36 PM PST - 12 comments

'that's so stupid that one can only cry at the foolishness of it.'

In the past week, Germany has found and fired an American mole in their intelligence agency, investigated another suspect in their defense ministry, and asked the CIA station chief to leave the country. Media reports offer an interesting view of a post Cold War world grappling with the unexpected* - spy vs spy among friends and allies, while traditional intelligence targets Russia and China play the part of bemused bystanders. [more inside]
posted by infini at 1:32 PM PST - 55 comments

In the tradition of Owen, Graves, Sassoon, et al.

14-18 NOW is a project commissioning contemporary artists to commemorate the centennial of the First World War and explore its resonance and effects today. For three summers (2014, 2016, and 2018), the organization is presenting a summer season of events. This summer's opening act was curated by Billy Bragg at Glastonbury; live performances can be found on the site. Other events include a radio series of essays on the theme of Goodbye to All That, cartoons, recreating Dazzle Ships, and letters to an unknown soldier (including the opportunity to write your own).
posted by immlass at 1:26 PM PST - 3 comments

Oops, you got your music in my katamari!

Team Teamwork has released Katamari Da-Emcee, a mashup album of the wonderful soundtrack from the 2004 Playstation 2 cult hit Katamari Damacy with various hip-hop songs from artists including Kanye West, 50 Cent, and Big Freedia, the New Orleanian queen of bounce music. [more inside]
posted by Corinth at 12:57 PM PST - 36 comments

'Nothing' was one thing, but guns? Nopenopenope

Remember that early episode of Seinfeld where Elaine buys a gun, her father makes his second appearance, and we finally find out that Kramer's first name is Conrad? Well, neither does anyone else who wasn't working on the show during its second season, specifically in December of 1990, when the table read for "The Bet" was held. [more inside]
posted by Etrigan at 12:27 PM PST - 21 comments

There is no such thing as concrete, binary "biological sex."

Secular trans feminist Zinnia Jones debunks the myth of biological sex and the inaccurate ways the concept has been used to invalidate trans people.

Mey from Autostraddle explains why it’s time for people to stop using the social construct of “biological sex” to defend their transmisogyny.

Inter/act explains that intersex people, despite having disorders of sex development (DSDs) that contribute to what doctors define as a "biological sex other than male or female," may identify as male, female, or somewhere else on the gender spectrum. [more inside]
posted by Juliet Banana at 12:00 PM PST - 92 comments

For those with things worth turning down for

"Turn Down for What": a Guide
posted by ardgedee at 11:43 AM PST - 40 comments

Glamour Shots 2.0

The NYT Style section reports that "image-conscious digital natives" are paying for expensive and elaborate portrait sessions to get one-of-a-kind shots to use in social media profiles and on professional websites. These photos (which the Times incorrectly calls "glamour selfies") are not your professional headshots; instead the subjects are depicted in a warehouse, in a field, in a pickup truck, etc. The motivations? Enhancing a personal brand, celebrating a milestone birthday... and, of course, getting lots of "likes" on Facebook. Slate's XX Factor blog defends the trend (if you can call it a trend) by suggesting that the portrait subjects are trying to avoid age discrimination.
posted by trillian at 11:23 AM PST - 101 comments

Things not to say

A list of things I don't want you to say by Carlie Lazar
posted by josher71 at 11:11 AM PST - 207 comments

Let the rain wash away

After weeks of speculation, angst, and predictions from odd places, the world's best basketball player has announced he is returning to the team he started with, in the state where he grew up. The reactions, and bits, have just started to roll in. Meanwhile, in Cleveland...
posted by Potomac Avenue at 10:58 AM PST - 81 comments

Say Cheese

"Is it OK to take a selfie at Auschwitz?", asks archaeologist Paul Mullins. Selfies are people in places, not objects in spaces, says Katie Warfield.
posted by Rumple at 10:56 AM PST - 75 comments

For a moment the darkness is lighted

Didn't get enough fireworks on the Fourth? Got fogged out? US holidays irrelevant anyway? "長岡花火大会2012年2日間の総集編 Fireworks the most beautiful in the japan" is 30 minutes of HD fireworks from the Nagaoka fireworks festival, one of several fireworks festivals in Japan. It has two segments, one each from the first and second night of the fireworks. According to Japan Guide, "both nights feature two straight hours of fireworks...The show's finale covers nearly two kilometers of the riverbank and is the widest span of fireworks in the world." [more inside]
posted by wintersweet at 10:55 AM PST - 5 comments

2042 man!

Hari Kondabolu on Why You Can’t Be ‘Obsessed With Race’ in America. “Saying that I’m obsessed with race and racism in America is like saying t hat I’m obsessed with swimming while I’m drowning. It’s absurd.” Hari Kondabolu of “Totally Biased With W. Kamau Bell” fame on race in America. [more inside]
posted by sweetkid at 10:36 AM PST - 25 comments

Russian home movies... in Space!

Ирина Плещева: Russian cosmonaut Max Suraev (@Msuraev) youtubes day-to-day events from the International Space Station.
posted by loukasven at 9:38 AM PST - 2 comments

Annabel Lecter's curious cakes and confections

"Welcome to the CONJURER'S KITCHEN,  where  Annabel de Vetten (aka Annabel Lecter) performs her culinary wizardry. Leaning towards more unusual and creatively decorated cakes, our creations range from artistic to anatomical, and from creepy to occasionally cute. The more unusual the request, the happier we are. Nothing is too weird for the Conjurer's Kitchen! Seriously...."

- lifesized cake of Dexter to commemorate the show's final season
- Codex Serafinianus cake
- Creepy Cat With Hands cake
- controversial white chocolate baby heads
- "I often get asked what's inside the decorated cakes, what they taste like. So I thought I would create a cake to answer that question."
posted by danabanana at 9:24 AM PST - 14 comments

BALLS BALLS BALLS

In "These Aren't the Droids" Neko Case (previously) and Kelly Hogan (previously) imagine a future designed by teenaged fanboys, and Ellie Kemper plays the unlucky wife of a Stromtrooper. [SLYT] [more inside]
posted by Room 641-A at 9:14 AM PST - 23 comments

The Life and Times of the Dog-Man

"Casually, I click in a compilation of clips I've never seen before. I think it's another video like other thousands of thousands, but I soon realize it's not. The clips are not Messi goals, his best runs, nor his assists. It's a strange compilation: the video shows hundreds of clips, two or three seconds long each, in which Messi receives strong fouls and doesn't fall to the ground." Messi es un perro is a short essay by Argentine writer Hernán Casciari on Lionel Messi. You can read an English translation on Reddit, Messi Is a Dog. Perhaps the best way to enjoy it is to listen to the original as read by Norberto Jansenson with English subtitles. [via this Deadspin article about Messi by Billy Haisley which you should also read]
posted by Kattullus at 9:13 AM PST - 23 comments

21st Century Wiener

Norbert Wiener: The Eccentric Genius Whose Time May Have Finally Come (Again) - "The most direct reason for Wiener's fall to relative obscurity was the breakthrough of a young mathematician and engineer named Claude Shannon." [more inside]
posted by kliuless at 7:11 AM PST - 12 comments

A lotta hot air

YouTube user lem0ns2lime aka Carlos C. likes supercuts. Let's start with Muse - Explorers (5:49), which was cut down to 20 seconds without lyrics, just breaths. Then the video of Muse in concert was truncated down to 15 seconds long. That really built up the tension and energy, so let's amp it up with a bunch of gasping WWF and WCW wrestlers from the 1980s (previously), and there's the sequel, Absolutely No Words 2. If you like your wrestlers with laughing (via rough edits), you might enjoy Jim the Laugh Machine (aka Jim the Anvil Neidhart, with extra laughter).
posted by filthy light thief at 7:08 AM PST - 12 comments

National Gay Blood Drive

Today is the National Gay Blood Drive, a campaign dedicated to bringing attention to the fact that the FDA still bans any men who have had sex with other men (MSM), at any time since 1977 from becoming blood donors.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 7:08 AM PST - 96 comments

A vast amount of little pieces

Watch a Young Terry Gilliam Explain How He Makes Monty Python Animations
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 7:03 AM PST - 6 comments

Mosselsmurfen Go!

Vader Abraham [previously] is a beloved Dutch singer, who at the ripe age of 79 has been credited with a staggering 1600 songs and is best known for singing the original Smurfs theme song. De Mosselman [previously] is a 90s-era Dutch happy hardcore artist who's most famous work is... well, this. What do you get when you bring the two together? Possibly the weirdest, most wonderful dance collaboration of the century.
posted by Itaxpica at 7:02 AM PST - 6 comments

Hell toupee

Did you ever get the feeling people are brushing you off? It could be the way you part your hair. [more inside]
posted by Mchelly at 6:38 AM PST - 73 comments

As always, don't read the comments.

Unless they're the article itself.
posted by Curious Artificer at 6:03 AM PST - 58 comments

Orientation Police

"I’m gay. I date men. Some of those men have vaginas."
A short comic about dating trans men by cartoonist Bill Roundy, previously featured for his Brooklyn bar review comics. (You may also like his gay romance comics, e.g. this unauthorised Northstar romance.)
posted by MartinWisse at 2:33 AM PST - 86 comments

1326 Animals On Parade

July 5, 2014: Anthrocon Fursuit Parade [~27m]. 1326 animals of various species and styles pass before your eyes. [more inside]
posted by hippybear at 1:22 AM PST - 31 comments

Not All Photographs Are Real

Erik Johansson creates incredible illusions through photography. [more inside]
posted by Deoridhe at 12:24 AM PST - 14 comments

July 10

I’m really grateful that one of my first speakers was badass Jason Momoa

"I had been creating languages for 10 years. But everybody else applying was equally skilled. So I figured the edge that I had was pretty much an endless amount of time—I was unemployed. I just decided: Well, let's just try to create the whole thing. In those rounds of judging, I created about 90 percent of the grammar—which is ridiculous for two months. Then I created 1,700 words of vocabulary—which is equally ridiculous for two months. Overall, I produced about 300 total pages of material. I figure that was probably what put it over the top."
posted by joseph conrad is fully awesome at 9:12 PM PST - 23 comments

"the conflation of money and heroism"

The rise and fall of Lance Armstrong is not simply a story of one man’s moral failures. To understand Armstrong you have to understand the people who use their money and power to shape the culture of competitive sports. And if you follow the trail of money and power in this particular case, it will lead you to Thomas Weisel, which is where the real story begins.
posted by the man of twists and turns at 7:59 PM PST - 79 comments

Heart of the Amazon, City of the Forest

For 350 years Manaus has stood sentinal at the dramatic Meeting of the Waters, where the dark Rio Negro and the sandy Rio Solimões (or the Upper Amazon) meet to form the headwaters of the Amazon River. [more inside]
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 7:29 PM PST - 10 comments

two slugs hanging in a cave

Last night, popular Twitter user @rachelmillman asked her followers for their best and funniest stories about their first kiss. She got a big response. This morning, Twitter user @connorcook collected most of the tweets she received in a Storify.
posted by Rustic Etruscan at 7:11 PM PST - 40 comments

#yesallthesingleladies

Beyoncé Voters (SLTumblr) [more inside]
posted by kagredon at 6:27 PM PST - 26 comments

Treasure Trove of Archived Concert Footage

Music Vault - The world's greatest collection of live music. [billboard]
posted by unliteral at 5:58 PM PST - 18 comments

"A Very Long Routine Compared To .. The Others Foot-Juggling Acts"

Selyna Bogino (facebook, twitter) is an Italian circus performer and antipode (foot) juggler. One of her practice videos, involving five basketballs, has almost two million views on youtube since 2011. In an interview about the video, she noted that she's a fifth generation circus performer and has been practicing since she was 8 years old. She can also do amazing things with hula hoops, and with clubs (another practice video).
posted by VioletU at 5:31 PM PST - 10 comments

Moon Hooch

NPR's Bob Boilen (host of All Songs Considered): "People ask me all the time to name my favorite Tiny Desk Concert. It's my desk and I've seen almost all of the nearly 400 concerts up close. So you'd think this would be easy. Moon Hooch have made it a lot easier." (video) [more inside]
posted by flex at 5:30 PM PST - 41 comments

Drawing all the buildings in New York City.

All the Buildings in New York. James Gulliver Hancock, an Australian illustrator living in Astoria, draws buildings in New York City. Lots and lots of buildings. (NYTimes interview -- more press) (via) [more inside]
posted by Ufez Jones at 5:14 PM PST - 7 comments

We Deserve Better Dressed Billionaires

"You're a rich white man. You're used to being listened to. But while you're jabbering away, all anyone can see is your garbage shirt that you bought for twenty bucks and have been wearing all year, shoved nastily into your shiny off-the-rack suit. Why would you do this to your brand?" - Shirterate, a clothing consultation service for tech moguls by opinionated homosexuals.
posted by The Whelk at 4:58 PM PST - 75 comments

Salvage, Without the Punk

“but are we not all wreckers contriving that some treasure may be washed up on our beach, that we may secure it [...]?” - Henry David Thoreau, Cape Cod | A beginning: beating the meteorological odds. Fernand Braudel writes, in his famous study of the Mediterranean in the Age of Phillip, of the “Mediterranean victory over bad weather” – i.e. the advent of year-round shipping. Prior to this win over the seasons, risk could be countered only by physical division: many small ships, so that when things went bad, there was less to be lost. Yet the “victory,” emerging with the Genoese consolidation of maritime dominance and “fairs of exchange” prior to being surpassed by the Dutch, had less to do with new naval technologies than the substantiation and spread of robust insurance underwriting. This both backed riskier ventures (and therefore opened up the chance of larger-scale wrecks) and gave underwriters the rights to that wreckage, to lay “claim to any salvage.” [more inside]
posted by whyareyouatriangle at 4:43 PM PST - 1 comment

“Some people call it super gun. I’m OK with that,”

The U.S. Navy has just unveiled two rail-gun prototypes that it will be testing in 2016. [video] [more inside]
posted by quin at 4:39 PM PST - 69 comments

Heavy metal...with a traditional touch!

Fans of history, mythology, language, and music: allow Metsatöll's Lauri Õunapuu to present his arsenal of traditional Estonian instruments. Then continue below the fold for an introduction to the world of folk metal. [more inside]
posted by gueneverey at 4:35 PM PST - 16 comments

Guaranteed fondant-free

Naked Wedding Cakes Bare It All For the Summer.
Gone are the days when hot Summer weather makes icing drip down your wedding cake! Naked cakes — the trendy cakes that are mostly unfrosted — are great for warmer outdoor weddings and add a simple, elegant style to any sweet spread. By layering the cake and using a minimal amount of frosting, mainly to stick layers together or add a decorative touch, these wedding desserts offer a light sweetness in each bite. If you think that less icing means your cake will lack flair, then add fruity or flowery touches to accent the frosting and flavor. Check out these naked cakes below for inspiration!
posted by Lexica at 3:52 PM PST - 90 comments

Go ahead. Make him a vampire. Make them ALL vampires.

The Worst Muse is here to help.
posted by bswinburn at 3:26 PM PST - 51 comments

Living in Sudden Valley

Need temporary housing? Want to live large for less? Showhomes matches high-end vacant houses for sale with people who have beautiful furniture and need temporary housing. If you are moving from one city to another, are building a home or simply want to live in a beautiful home for a fraction of what it would normally cost, consider becoming a Showhomes Home Manager. You can enjoy a Showhome as if it were yours while it remains on the market for sale. In exchange for keeping it clean and letting buyers view the home, you get dramatically reduced monthly fees.... [more inside]
posted by mudpuppie at 3:01 PM PST - 33 comments

So this was where God lived.

Tucked beneath the Brooklyn side of the Brooklyn Bridge, beyond the serviceberry trees and hedgerows of the Bridge Park Greenway, across the blacktop of Furman Street, the House of God awaits. Nearly 7 million Jehovah’s Witnesses throughout the world call the collection of buildings Bethel, transliterated from the Hebrew, Beth El, "House of God." Its tall red sign, a city landmark for decades, looms over the skyline: WATCHTOWER. The building is also home to thousands of volunteers who live on the premises, all in the service, among other things, of printing the most widely circulated magazine on the planet: 46 million every month. I was supposed to live there, too. God Lives on Lemon Street: An ex–Jehovah’s Witness visits Watchtower headquarters
posted by davidjmcgee at 2:59 PM PST - 13 comments

TREASURES!

A Piece of Monologue is a treasure trove of modern, contemporary, and avant-garde expression in literature, philosophy, art, design, painting, music, theater, and more. A smattering of insides: Flannery O'Connor on Ayn Rand. An online guide to the life and work of Samuel Beckett. Twin Peaks Behind the Scenes Photographs. Rare photographs of John Coltrane. And wow.
posted by whimsicalnymph at 1:55 PM PST - 2 comments

Fear and Loathing of the English Passive

Geoffrey Pullum talks about the passive voice [pdf]. (via) [more inside]
posted by nangar at 1:52 PM PST - 37 comments

Boardrooms Still Lack Women

Gender_Map by Data Morphosis and TWO-N demonstrates that women make up just 10.7% of all US company board members. They are best represented at Avon, where more than half the board is female. Eighteen S&P 500 companies have male directors exclusively. (Via Forbes, where the article is adorned with a pink [!] bar graph.)
posted by GrammarMoses at 1:02 PM PST - 6 comments

"Confession doesn't just allow – it incites."

...if it felt like an author had already come into your life, already seen some aspect of your experience then it would be natural to want to extend this intimacy into conversation. The impulse to contact a confessional writer – whose writing has already revealed something private – is something else. Perhaps it is still a desire to translate one kind of intimacy into another, but the terms are different. With confessional writing, the disclosure has already happened – now the reader wants to confess something back, make a reciprocal exchange. So whenever people talk about confessional writing as navel-gazing or self-involved, I think about those voices, and their offerings.
Author Leslie Jamison (previously, previouslier) explains why confessional writing is not self-indulgent. [more inside]
posted by divined by radio at 12:29 PM PST - 5 comments

One subway to rule them all

Artist William Puck creates a set of LOTR-inspired notices for the New York Subway. [more inside]
posted by gingerbeer at 11:39 AM PST - 30 comments

"new, innovative ways to convey our findings"

The US GAO Flickr page features selected photos and graphics from US Government Accountability Office reports that are searchable, viewable, and downloadable by visitors to their site. [more inside]
posted by jessamyn at 11:32 AM PST - 5 comments

Weekend at the Cabin? Sure!

io9 offers a straight forward guide of 13 tips to help you survive a night in a cabin in the woods. [more inside]
posted by Atreides at 11:14 AM PST - 59 comments

hens in, goats out

Urban Farming in Boston (Hens and Honeybees); Growing Rice in New York City; Growing Lettuce Indoors in Japan; Goats Evicted in Detroit.
posted by and they trembled before her fury at 11:11 AM PST - 16 comments

I've never seen a solo cup in the flesh

Lorde's Royals, covered on plastic cup and voice
posted by frimble at 10:33 AM PST - 12 comments

CYNK Technologies

"[I]t is nothing short of a testament to just how broken this excuse for a market is that a company with no assets, no revenues, no website, and one employee can go from zero value to nearly $5 billion in market cap in a few days, adding 150%, or over $2 billion in market cap today alone." The strange story of CYNK Technologies. And while news of CYNK began spreading yesterday, the stock was, at one point today, oddly up another 57%, hitting a market cap of over $6 billion.
posted by (Arsenio) Hall and (Warren) Oates at 10:21 AM PST - 50 comments

"Eventually, years later, I eat eggs again."

A touching sad comic about how one woman dealt with her sexual assault. (slMedium) (TW: recounting of rape)
posted by Kitteh at 10:19 AM PST - 15 comments

One Doctor’s Quest to Save People by Injecting Them With Scorpion Venom

A scorpion-venom concoction that makes tumors glow sounds almost too outlandish to be true.
posted by ellieBOA at 10:00 AM PST - 15 comments

Revenge from Planet Ape

In the mid-70s, some sly film distributors decided to turn Amando de Ossorio's Tombs of the Blind Dead, a Spanish horror film, into something tangentially related to the popular Planet of the Apes franchise in order to turn a quick buck. The only problem: there are no apes in the movie. Easy fix: a new intro tacked on to the film turned the undead Knights Templar from the original version into time-traveling undead apes. [more inside]
posted by doctornecessiter at 9:53 AM PST - 19 comments

The House of Worth

150 designs from the House of Worth. Charles Frederick Worth dominated fashion in Paris in the second half of the nineteenth century. Vogue describes the House of Worth as the first great maison de couture.
posted by immlass at 9:47 AM PST - 17 comments

Speaking

Last month, Shanley Kane, founder of Model View Culture, (previously, previously,previouslyier, previousliest) accused a journalist of stalking and harassing her. [more inside]
posted by bq at 9:10 AM PST - 64 comments

The Museum of Middle School

The avant garde tweener, now 14 and headed to high school, has opened an online museum devoted to "honoring a rather ignored stage in anthropology-- Middle School" [more inside]
posted by zymoglyphic at 8:41 AM PST - 18 comments

Open with this then

Billy Hanshaw is a VFX artist, who being also a Whovian, decided not to wait to create a new opening title for the the next Doctor. It caught the attention of Radio Times, Huffington Post, BBC America, SFX magazine and members of the Doctor Who production team
posted by pjern at 7:51 AM PST - 34 comments

Universal Typeface Experiment

Averaging the world's handwriting to create a universal typeface. Bic is collecting handwriting samples of the Roman alphabet. You can contribute a sample on your mobile device.
posted by ChuckRamone at 7:36 AM PST - 31 comments

Learn about societal norms by violating them and seeing how people react

Since 2010, Breanne Fahs, associate professor of women and gender studies in ASU's New College of Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences, has offered her students extra credit to personally challenge body hair norms, and document their experiences for the ten weeks during the class: men shave all their body hair from the neck down, while women don't shave. Comments from the public at large are mixed, as you might expect. But if you want to read something with more content, Fahs recently published a research article on imagined experiences of women compared to the documented experiences of her female students, titled Perilous Patches and Pitstaches: Imagined Versus Lived Experiences of Women’s Body Hair Growth (PDF)
posted by filthy light thief at 7:03 AM PST - 200 comments

I draw on mirrors and windows

"[Helene] Meldahl said that in the mornings she used to leave small drawings on the bathroom mirror for her roommate. One day she turned a drawing into a selfie and posted it online. She enjoyed doing it, and people enjoyed looking at it, so creating more seemed like a no-brainer." (via)
posted by juliplease at 7:01 AM PST - 9 comments

If Amy Winehouse was Ghanaian ... and flanked by a bike gang

Ghanaian R&B singer Y'akoto bemoans her lack of Perfect Timing - and the same bikers support Ghanaian/Brookylnese rapper Blitz the Ambassador reminiscing about his Ghanaian childhood in Make You No Forget (via).
posted by ChuraChura at 4:27 AM PST - 19 comments

"Ugliness, Empathy, and Octavia Butler"

Estrangement and unfamiliarity, particularly in relation to ugliness and the repulsiveness of the alien body, are central to her work. And this is what gets me. The non-human creatures she imagines make me cringe and their relationships with humans in her fiction are even harder to stomach. My first reaction to the Tlic race in Butler’s 1984 short story, “Bloodchild,” was disgust, made all the more unnerving because of the great care Butler seemed to take in the description of the strange species; the serpentine movements of their long, segmented bodies resemble giant worms with rows of limbs and insect-like stingers.
For The Hooded Utilitarian's roundtable on Octavia Butler Qiana Whitted looks at how Butler uses revulsion and disgust to make the reader work to find empathy with the Other. [more inside]
posted by MartinWisse at 2:18 AM PST - 23 comments

The CIA is a prescriptivist scold

Writing tips from the CIA’s ruthless style manual:

Strunk & White, it turns out, were CIA sources. The authors of The Elements of Style, a classic American writing guide, are cited alongside Henry Fowler, Wilson Follett, and Jacques Barzun in the Directorate of Intelligence’s Style Manual & Writers Guide for Intelligence Publications, whose eighth edition (from 2011) was quietly posted online (pdf) by the legal nonprofit National Security Counselors a little over a year ago, following a Freedom of Information Act request. [more inside]
posted by moody cow at 12:54 AM PST - 30 comments

Professor Shyguy chiptunes Tightrope

Chiptune musician Professor Shyguy does a cover of Janelle Monae's Tightrope, and pretty much nails it.
posted by hippybear at 12:01 AM PST - 7 comments

July 9

I beseech you all... Fellow Cookie Addicts... do not click at work.

"I discovered Cookie Monster and the Cheat interface bookmarklets. What harm could it do? They're just local bits of java. No harm, no foul. So I got greedy... I couldn't have enough cookies. Let the cookies run, I thought. Nobody uses my desk when I'm not here..." From Reddit user LivingDeadSquirrel.
posted by joseph conrad is fully awesome at 9:08 PM PST - 49 comments

Beautiful East African Brides

Welcome, this blog is dedicated to all the beautiful brides hailing from the East of Africa. Enjoy! [more inside]
posted by jaguar at 9:06 PM PST - 21 comments

When it comes to China stories, people will believe almost anything.

Westerners are so convinced China is a dystopian hellscape they’ll share anything that confirms it. [more inside]
posted by gemutlichkeit at 8:43 PM PST - 44 comments

I guess they weren't so big after all

Tilt/Shift filter applied to Hubble photos.
posted by Chocolate Pickle at 8:21 PM PST - 28 comments

look who thinks he's clever dan

"Homestar Runner" creator says he's bringing his internet cartoon back soon
posted by DoctorFedora at 8:13 PM PST - 51 comments

Frozen Is The New Black

Frozen Is The New Black [more inside]
posted by bleep at 7:57 PM PST - 4 comments

Wear

Verschleif
Mit einer Tischler-Kantenschleifmaschine wird vom Werkstück (Holz, Walnuss, Trafo, Schädel oder analoger Kamera) immer ein halber Millimeter abgeschliffen und fotografiert. Aus ca 650 Aufnahmen entsteht ein Kurzfilm, der die innere Struktur von Natur und Technik gegenüberstellt.
[more inside]
posted by the man of twists and turns at 7:56 PM PST - 8 comments

Ping City

A tour of the physical internet infrastructure of New York City From r/nyc. Also Previously.
posted by lalochezia at 7:45 PM PST - 7 comments

One more time

Why do we love repetition in music? Elizabeth Hellmuth Margulis explains how repetition and musicality work in our minds.
posted by gladly at 7:38 PM PST - 31 comments

What if Homer Simpson smoked weed? It's not that crazy to imagine.

For the last few weeks, the Twitter account @Homer_Marijuana has been publishing a bizarre piece of long-form fan fiction about The Simpsons, family, America's wars in the Middle East, and marijuana, vast amounts of all sorts of marijuana. Now, 5,015 tweets later, Marijuana Simpson has concluded, and is available to read on an easier-to-follow Scribd document.
posted by Small Dollar at 7:25 PM PST - 28 comments

For the night is dark and full of t̶e̶r̶r̶o̶r̶s̶ VFX

A making-of look at the visual effects in Season 4 of Game of Thrones (SLVimeo)
posted by cozenedindigo at 5:51 PM PST - 27 comments

The gods are trying to tell the truth but the truth is hard to say

Brand New Ancients is a spoken word performance (review) by poet, singer and playwright Kate Tempest that won the Ted Hughes Award For New Poetry in 2012. Early this year, to coincide with a wider tour of the show, Kate Tempest and the Battersea Arts Centre produced three short films based on the performance. One. Two. Three (trigger warning, as this one is terrifying).
posted by dng at 5:09 PM PST - 4 comments

Women, Pants, and the Backlash

Margaret Perry's review of Women in Pants provides an interesting overview of those women (in the Western world) who chose to wore pants in the 19th and early 20th centuries when the standard gender norm dictated dresses for girls and women. R.S. Fleming has a great collection of Victorian women-in-pants images, particularly in non-American military garb. See also: Welsh pit miners, women fighting in the US Civil War (and support-staff), this cattle thief/gunfighter, some cowgirls, and Dr. Mary Walker - here she is in more traditionally masculine dress (second picture). In France, the artist Rosa Bonheur had to get permission from the police to wear pants (picture) while sketching in public (her license), while adventurer/archaeologist Jane Dieulafoy got a lifetime exemption to wear pants from France. [more inside]
posted by julen at 4:51 PM PST - 25 comments

Petition for cert.

On the same day that a Colorado judge struck down that state's ban on same-sex marriage (pdf), the Utah Attorney General’s Office announced it will take the issue of same-sex couples’ marriage rights back to the Supreme Court, bypassing a 10th Circuit en banc review. All of this news comes just one day after several prominent LGBT groups announced they will no longer support the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, as written, due to the religious exemptions therein. President Obama is facing pressure from religious groups to write a religious exemption into his promised executive order to protect LGBT federal contractors and workers from discrimination.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 4:33 PM PST - 39 comments

Fitness is feeling great!

#HuskyTwitter may have started out as a dog appreciation tag, but got a boost in recent days after ESPN Magazine revealed that Texas Rangers first baseman Prince Fielder, at a fit 275 pounds, would be featured on one of the six covers of the 2014 Body Issue (possibly NSFW). previously
posted by psoas at 4:29 PM PST - 12 comments

The Writing on the Wall

Papyrus Turin 55001 is code for "the erotic papyrus." Then there's the 2,500-year-old erotic graffiti from Greece, with a rude claim about who did what where. If you're amid graffiti of a more recent vintage -- specifically that of the American public restroom -- you might want to consult "Here I Sit -- A Study of American Latrinalia" (.pdf) by Alan Dundes (obit, previously). Good reading!
posted by MonkeyToes at 4:16 PM PST - 8 comments

a party game for horrible people... online

You can play Cards Against Humanity online using a free webapp: Pretend You're Xyzzy is a CAH clone that allows you to join a game with random strangers -or- you can set up a password-protected game for you & your friends only. [more inside]
posted by flex at 4:14 PM PST - 56 comments

"Another search warrant 'for pictures of his erect penis'"

A 17 year-old Virginia teenager who is under investigation for sending a consensual sext to his 15-year-old girlfriend may be forced to have an erection in front of police as evidence in the case. [more inside]
posted by porn in the woods at 4:08 PM PST - 84 comments

Who knew "predatory remodeling" was a thing to worry about?

I bought my first home, only to become a victim of predatory remodeling.
This is the story of how I got tricked by malicious criminals into buying a house that had been illegally remodeled to cover up multiple building code violations. 50% of the house is unusable, and will require as much as $100,000 in repairs to undo the faulty work.

Yes, the home was inspected before it was purchased, and the inspector did find some problems as expected. But most of the problems described below were cleverly hidden behind finished drywall, carpeting, and concrete where the inspector couldn't see them. All of this was done intentionally by the house "flipper" and remodeler to turn a profit on a house that is riddled with code violations.
[more inside]
posted by Lexica at 3:49 PM PST - 101 comments

Faking Galileo

Art forgeries have long been the stuff of thrillers, with fake da Vincis or Vermeers fooling connoisseurs, roiling the art world, and moving millions of dollars. We don’t think of ancient books driving such grand forgery, intrigue, and schadenfreude. This is changing thanks in part to a clever forgery of Galileo’s landmark book Sidereus Nuncius, published in Venice in 1610. Arguably one of the most extraordinary scientific publications of all times, Sidereus Nuncius turned Galileo into the brightest new star of Western science. Four centuries later, a faked copy of this book has disarmed a generation of Galileo experts, and raised a host of intriguing questions about the social nature of scholarly authentication, the precariousness of truth, and the revelatory power of fakes.
posted by whyareyouatriangle at 3:33 PM PST - 9 comments

We’re infecting the healthy

In the wake of the Corcoran's difficulties, which have now spawned more legal disputing, should we allow failing arts organizations to die?
posted by PussKillian at 2:46 PM PST - 16 comments

"The most endlessly fascinating specialty in all of medicine."

Dr. Mark Crislip is a Infectious Disease specialist—an ID doc. He's also the master of a vast* multimedia empire, all parts of which are inflected with his insistence upon scientific evidence and many with a dry, sarcastic sense of humor: the president of the Society for Science-Based Medicine, he also writes articles for the affiliated website Science-Based Medicine; he runs the Quackcast, a podcast that reviews Supplements, Complementary and Alternative Medicines (SCAMs) from an evidence-based perspective; the Persiflagers Infectious Disease Puscast, which reviews the infectious disease literature; and his blog on Medscape, Rubor, Dolor, Calor, Tumor, is the basis for the third of his podcasts (and my favorite): A Gobbet O' Pus. As Crislip puts it: "A cool ID case, a stupid joke and a factoid you can use. What more do you need?" *For certain quantities of vast. [more inside]
posted by ocherdraco at 2:05 PM PST - 14 comments

Ghosts out of the machine

Kirlian photography techniques used to capture electrical discharges and made famous in parapsychology research are revisited in the Digital Ethereal project to manifest the ghosts of wireless networks.
posted by loukasven at 1:33 PM PST - 4 comments

Big, Furry Asymmetrical Balls

"Bear", she cried, "I love you. Pull my head off." In 1976, the prestigeous Governor General's Literary Award went to Canada's arguably most controversial book: "Bear", by Marian Engel, describes a woman's "journey towards inner freedom and strength", via her erotic relationship with...a bear. [more inside]
posted by Omnomnom at 1:09 PM PST - 109 comments

Eventually Pam Fires A Rocket Launcher At Them So They'll Shut Up

"When True Blood premiered on HBO almost six years ago, in 2008, the final Twilight book had just been published, breaking records left and right. The gleam's come off since then, off vampires in general and but especially this show, but I believe it still has some things to tell us. Things about philosophy, America, the existence of faith in a secular world. People fucking all kinds of different ways. Sometimes all of these topics at the same time." Jacob Clifton recaps and reviews the Six and a half seasons of True Blood so far, trying to suss out what we can learn from Sookie Stackhouse's many boyfriends.
posted by The Whelk at 12:50 PM PST - 61 comments

INSTANT EVOLUTION

Evolve FASTER, easier, without years of study. A new way to QUICKLY experience The Infinite One-ness. Discover a "mental" body, MYSTIC powers, ECSTASY. No meditation, no denials, no positive thinking. Reveals world's GREATEST living teacher. Send for free information. INSTITUTE OF ADVANCED THINKING [more inside]
posted by ardgedee at 12:32 PM PST - 19 comments

ZooHannibal

"Your quarter doesn't buy you a handful of food for the billy goat. It buys the forgiveness of all the billy goats you are unable to feed" #HannibalAtTheZoo (SLT)
posted by FirstMateKate at 11:32 AM PST - 49 comments

How lucky are we

Sorry You Were Tricked Into a C-Section What disapproving friends don’t understand about cesarean births
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 11:15 AM PST - 132 comments

NSA spies on mainstream muslim US citizens

In one of the most damning Snowden leaks yet revealed, Glenn Greenwald and Murtaza Hussain show that the NSA targets prominent Muslim-Americans under the FISA secret court program. The Office of the Director of National Intelligence has in response issued a denial that any Americans were targeted for exercising their constitutional rights via its tumblr.
posted by p3on at 9:55 AM PST - 90 comments

Dogs At Work :: Hey Mister, what's in the bag? RESPONSIBILITY!

How SparkFun has maintained a high dog:human ratio as the company has grown up.
posted by zamboni at 9:43 AM PST - 31 comments

poverty is a circumstance, not a value judgment.

this is what happened when I drove my mercedes to pick up food stamps
posted by and they trembled before her fury at 9:43 AM PST - 106 comments

A less intellectually lazy atheism?

Atheist bashing or tough love? A thought-provoking review by Michael Robbins of Nick Spencer's new book on the history of atheism in Slate magazine. It reads like an autopsy of the recently murdered religious/atheist dialogue, with the "intellectually lazy" new atheism atop the list of suspects. [more inside]
posted by cross_impact at 9:02 AM PST - 353 comments

It's as easy as that. Guess we better start movin' back now, huh?

The Redneck Rocket Launcher: 8,500 bottle rockets launched in just under a minute.
posted by shiu mai baby at 8:45 AM PST - 32 comments

Marvel Cinematic Universe Timelinefrom 2987BC to March 2014

The Interactive Marvel Cinematic Universe timeline. Are you a fan of the Marvel Cinematic universe? Ever scratch your head over what happened when and how events in the past link to consequences in the current times? Well wonder no more! A huge fan of the Universe, Anthony Norfolk created a nice picture filled timeline to pinpoint all the important elements of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. [more inside]
posted by Faintdreams at 8:26 AM PST - 28 comments

18 and Life

How Birth Year Influences Political Views A new model of presidential voting suggests President Obama’s approval rating — currently in the low 40s — will inform not only the 2016 election, but also the election in 2076. Events at age 18 are about three times as powerful as those at age 40, according to the model. The Upshot: Why Teenagers Today May Grow Up Conservative [more inside]
posted by MisantropicPainforest at 7:57 AM PST - 69 comments

Horrible Band Photos with helpful hints

Your terrible gig photographs – and how they could be improved
posted by josher71 at 7:53 AM PST - 19 comments

DUDE, You have got to stop listening to your mom.

Lindy West Re-Watches Forrest Gump So You Don't Have To.
posted by Navelgazer at 7:13 AM PST - 177 comments

The Gang Meets Putin

The City Paper looks at a Russian adaptation of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia.
posted by Lemurrhea at 7:09 AM PST - 16 comments

Virtual tip jars and tours: digital-age music outreach and fan support

There are numerous ways that bands reach out to potential and current fans, and you can add a few more to the list with Noisetrade, Stageit and Concert Window. Noisetrade allows artists and bands to give away music, like a few tracks and covers from Dr. Dog and Saint Rich, to the whole First Album Live from They Might Be Giants, and now e/audio books, too, in trade for an email address and zip code. If you prefer live music, Stageit and Concert Window allow fans to watch unrecorded, streaming shows from bands anywhere in the world, for whatever price fans see fit. [more inside]
posted by filthy light thief at 6:23 AM PST - 4 comments

Craptastic Cetaceans

The whales are back and they'll poop us all to safety! Not ambergis, actual poop. Also carcasses, which support whole ecologies (pdf) Rates of recovery actually vary, though several populations have made good progress.
posted by Segundus at 6:06 AM PST - 24 comments

Boldly going where no feminist has gone before.

Trekkie Feminist. Feminist fans of Star Trek take a look at what Star Trek gets wrong (and gets right) about gender issues, with individual episode reviews and series Bechdel test results.
posted by Librarypt at 5:27 AM PST - 71 comments

Your Kindness Is Good For You

Why we could all use a little more self-examination. [more inside]
posted by ellieBOA at 5:05 AM PST - 11 comments

Look what I can do with my two hands.

Roxane Gay, author of An Untamed State and the upcoming Bad Feminist, has a lot to say about relationships and sexuality and self esteem. Also about how to bake a pie and a killer summer pasta recipe.
posted by Stacey at 5:02 AM PST - 11 comments

The American Doctor Who

50 Years of American Doctor Who (slyt) ORiginally from this list part 1 part 2
posted by Just this guy, y'know at 4:59 AM PST - 54 comments

Taxi Medallion Boom May Be Coming to an End

Until recently, taxi medallions have been a lucrative and secure investment in the U.S., increasing 500-700% since 2000, and 1000% since 1980. The taxi medallions are big business, with many single-medallion owner operators, but most medallions are concentrated in a small number of hands. In Chicago, the majority of its 6800 taxi medallions are owned by less than 200 entities. In Boston, 49% of all medallions are owned by just 51 entities. [more inside]
posted by Atrahasis at 1:18 AM PST - 107 comments

HR Antipatterns at Startups

The devaluation also stems from the underlying belief that HR is NOT a specialized function requiring domain knowledge and experience, but rather a "supplemental" part or outgrowth of other jobs. That HR serves merely to save the company from extreme situations or intervene when employee relations have broken down in a catastrophic way. That HR is a matter of filling in a checkbox, rather than worthy of the same care and nurturing as the technical areas of the business. That HR is just another "soft skill" largely irrelevant to the founding and building of technology. That "anyone can do it" and that the roles and responsibilities typically taken on by HR - and the problems it addresses - will magically be taken care of by the startup's "meritocratic" culture.
Shanley Kane talks about the lack of proper HR at many startups and why this is a problem.
posted by MartinWisse at 12:13 AM PST - 62 comments

"So, like, what are you?"

A microaggression is defined as "a question, a comment, even an intended compliment, sometimes, that nevertheless suggests something demeaning." (More from NPR.) The Microaggressions Tumblr publishes experiences with all kinds of microaggressions. [more inside]
posted by NoraReed at 12:02 AM PST - 97 comments

July 8

Radio Ambulante

Radio Ambulante [Español] has been called "This Latin American Life". It is long-form non-breaking-news documentary journalism from across Latin America. It was recently featured in an episode of On The Media which looked at Latino and Hispanic media in the US. While the majority of its content is in Spanish, they do have some stories en Inglés.
posted by hippybear at 11:40 PM PST - 3 comments

Brown bear, brown bear, what do you see?

I see the internet looking at me. Just like last year and the year before, you can once again stare at bears staring at water as they wait for salmon to swim upstream in Katmai National Park. [more inside]
posted by deludingmyself at 11:29 PM PST - 14 comments

Moving to a Wealthier Neighborhood Is as Traumatic as Going to War

Over the past few decades, urban policy has focused on breaking up clusters of poverty, planning cities so that poor residents could live in areas that also had middle-class people. Does this new research mean projects like MTO are actually a bad thing? “When we first showed these results, somebody said, ‘Well, don’t send them to new neighborhoods,’” says Kessler. “Well wait a second, you’re now dealing the girls some pretty bad outcomes. But if you do send them, the boys are getting bad outcomes. What if you have one boy and one girl?”
posted by surenoproblem at 10:33 PM PST - 9 comments

Juggalos Vs. The FBI, The Verdict

The FBI will continue to get to refer to Juggalos as a gang. "A federal judge has dismissed Insane Clown Posse's lawsuit against the FBI and the Justice Department, allowing the agencies to continue classifying the group's fans, called Juggalos, as a "gang." According to the Associated Press's Tuesday report, U.S. District Judge Robert Cleland ruled last week that because a 2011 FBI report on gangs is "descriptive," and not " prescriptive," it doesn't break any laws." Violent J plans to appeal. [more inside]
posted by jenfullmoon at 10:29 PM PST - 42 comments

Whaaaaat's thhhhe deeeeeal wiiiiiith aiiiirliiiiine peeeanuuuutttss?

The theme from Seinfeld, slowed down 1200%. [SLYT]
posted by Room 641-A at 10:11 PM PST - 18 comments

Aunties with swag

Upping the Aunty, a photography project by Indian-born, Toronto-raised artist Meera Sethi [more inside]
posted by Ragini at 9:47 PM PST - 7 comments

■ ■ ■ ■

The History of the Cubicle [SLYT] [Previously]
posted by joseph conrad is fully awesome at 9:02 PM PST - 14 comments

BAD ROBOT

Four animated gifs of robots behaving badly. (via kottke and many layers of reblogging)
posted by We had a deal, Kyle at 9:00 PM PST - 15 comments

44 tiny teeth

A hedgehog goes to the dentist (a story in photos)
posted by moonmilk at 8:18 PM PST - 25 comments

Pizzendämmerung

Monaghan and Ilitch barely know each other. The Domino’s founder says in an interview he can’t recall ever tasting a Little Caesars pizza, “though I must have a long time ago.” A sculpture hanging in the archives at Little Caesars’ headquarters makes fun of a Domino’s slice as having “hard, tasteless crust, topped with artificial, flat, and runny cheese.” It’s a fluke that the chains emerged from the same corner of Michigan at roughly the same time more than 50 years ago. Yet, in different ways, Domino’s and Little Caesars changed the way Americans eat pizza, helping to make it one of the country’s most popular foods. The pizza barons were great at selling pies. Now one wants to save Detroit, and the other wants to save everything else.
[more inside]
posted by the man of twists and turns at 7:37 PM PST - 33 comments

Wheel turnin' 'round and 'round

Jason Mitchell, a scientist in the Harvard Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience Lab recently published an essay on his website titled "On the emptiness of failed replications". In the essay he makes several controversial arguments, the most notable of which may be his assertion that studies designed to replicate previous work have no inherent scientific merit:
Because experiments can be undermined by a vast number of practical mistakes, the likeliest explanation for any failed replication will always be that the replicator bungled something along the way. Unless direct replications are conducted by flawless experimenters, nothing interesting can be learned from them.
[more inside]
posted by wintermind at 7:31 PM PST - 34 comments

Three-Legged Recycling

Sea Chair (SLVimeo)
posted by computech_apolloniajames at 7:21 PM PST - 7 comments

Tsilhquot’in victory in the Supreme Court

On June 26, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled in favour of the Tsilhquot’in people in their title claim to more than 1700 square km of land in British Columbia. The case is a landmark, and was a unanimous decision, supported 8-0 by the justices. The decision, is the first time the Canadian courts have recognized full aboriginal title to a specific tract of land by, and experts in the field expect the ruling to have an impact on future title questions worldwide (from Vancouver Island to New Zealand, or, one might say, from PKOLS to Aotearoa) [more inside]
posted by chapps at 6:26 PM PST - 36 comments

legO, Canada!

The 50 States of Lego. The Great Lego North (alternate link). More Canada. [more inside]
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 6:25 PM PST - 25 comments

Show Boat in the hands of its makers

The New York Public Library has posted four original typescripts from Show Boat, the 1927 musical by composer Jerome Kern and lyricist and bookwriter Oscar Hammerstein, along with a blog post for some historical background.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 4:27 PM PST - 4 comments

Like Mortal Kombat, but in real life

Imagine if you could toss two trained fighters into a ring, give them whatever weapons they want, and and let them go full-on Spartacus on each other without anyone getting seriously injured. With the death element removed, even the most die-hard pacifists would have to admit that it’d be pretty damn entertaining. With their new carbon fiber damage-measuring armor, that’s exactly what Australian startup Unified Weapons Master wants to do.
posted by shivohum at 4:05 PM PST - 59 comments

"it was clear, immediately, they wanted to be together"

For these endangered lemurs, it was love at first sight
There's puppy love, there's muskrat love, but there is nothing like the love of two middle-aged, critically endangered lemurs.… Dern, 17, had lost her mate at the Waco, Texas, zoo several months ago, and Anthony, 16, had recently been separated from his brother when he was sent to another zoo. Although both were accustomed to living with ring-tailed lemurs, it wasn't the same…. Both were lonely.
posted by Lexica at 3:41 PM PST - 13 comments

www.pranksters.gop

The Republican Party began selling new web domains ending in .gop today at www.join.gop. Public interest has definitely been sparked, but perhaps not for the reasons Republicans have hoped. [more inside]
posted by porn in the woods at 3:16 PM PST - 201 comments

Traction Park, redux

The World's Most Dangerous Amusement Park Opens Its Gates Again: (Class) Action Park, perennial MetaFilter favorite, is back in business! [more inside]
posted by flex at 1:04 PM PST - 55 comments

Nature's Perfect Killing Machine Can Be Killed With Soap

Ebola is nightmare fuel: a biological doomsday device conspiring with our bodies to murder us in uniquely gruesome fashion. It’s also killed fewer than 2,000 people. How has a virus with such a modest body count so fiercely captured the darkest corners of our imagination? - Leigh Cowart for Haziltt.
posted by The Whelk at 12:41 PM PST - 56 comments

Israel bombing Gaza again

"Israel and its Palestinian adversaries in Gaza sharply escalated the latest deadly resurgence of hostilities on Tuesday, with the Israeli military conducting an intense aerial bombardment that targeted at least 50 Gazan sites, including homes, and militants in the enclave responding with a long-range missile volley aimed at Israeli population centers, including Tel Aviv." [more inside]
posted by Noisy Pink Bubbles at 12:13 PM PST - 1740 comments

Audio to make the Kessel Run seem a little shorter

SF Signal today finished a top 50 countdown of short SF/fantasy podcast fiction: 50-41, 40-31, 30-21, 20-11, 10-1. The Parsec Awards for SF podcasts honor many other stories annually, as well as related non-fiction, comedy, and music: 2014 nominees; 2013; 2012; 2011; 2010; 2009; 2008; 2007; and 2006. And since 2012, the Hugo Award nominees for Best Fancast have been two-time winner SF Squeecast!, plus The Coode Street Podcast, Galactic Suburbia, SF Signal, The Skiffy and Fanty Show, StarShipSofa, Tea and Jeopardy, Verity!, and The Writer and The Critic with the popular Writing Excuses podcast often appearing in another category. [more inside]
posted by Monsieur Caution at 12:07 PM PST - 11 comments

Social Justice and Language

Several recent articles draw attention to the power of demonisation, outrage and weaponised language within contemporary activist culture - and question whether this focus is doing more harm than good. Jack Halberstam, director of the Center for Feminist Research at University of Southern California: When groups that share common cause, utopian dreams and a joined mission find fault with each other instead of tearing down the banks and the bankers, the politicians and the parliaments, the university presidents and the CEOs? Instead of realizing, as Moten and Hearny put it in The Undercommons, that “we owe each other everything,” we enact punishments on one another and stalk away from projects that should unite us, and huddle in small groups feeling erotically bonded through our self-righteousness. [more inside]
posted by Another Fine Product From The Nonsense Factory at 11:56 AM PST - 143 comments

Dumbledore's Army Reunites at Quidditch World Cup Final

The famous lightning scar has company: Potter is sporting a nasty cut over his right cheekbone. Requests for information as to its provenance merely produced the usual response from the Ministry of Magic: ‘We do not comment on the top secret work of the Auror department, as we have told you no less than 514 times, Ms. Skeeter.’ So what are they hiding? Is the Chosen One embroiled in fresh mysteries that will one day explode upon us all, plunging us into a new age of terror and mayhem? Rita Skeeter reporting: J.K. Rowling has today published a return to the world of Harry Potter, a 1500-or-so-word short story that catches up with Harry, now 34. It's behind a registration wall at Pottermore, but NBC got permission to run it in its entirety here. [more inside]
posted by jbickers at 11:43 AM PST - 95 comments

Your bike is never going to be a car, but you can pretend.

Ride like a girl. Ever wanted to know what it’s like to be a woman? Go get your bike. All set? Great. Go ride to work. Ride everywhere. [...] No matter where you are, you know that the cars around you could really mess you up if something went wrong. Welcome to being vulnerable to the people around you. Welcome to being the exception, not the rule. Welcome to not being in charge.
posted by Memo at 10:38 AM PST - 115 comments

Judges Explaining Technology

"As a matter of science, traditional adoption does not provide a woman with the opportunity to be pregnant.” Reber v. Reiss, 42 A.3d 1131, 1138-39 (Pa. Super. Ct. 2012). Judges Explaining Technology.
posted by dzkalman at 10:28 AM PST - 25 comments

Squueee....wheeeeeeeeeeee

Pandas on a slide (SLYT).
posted by arcticseal at 9:49 AM PST - 30 comments

You remind me of the babe.

Toby Froud may not be a household name, but you've probably seen him before - as the baby from Labyrinth. Now thirty, Toby continues to work with magical creatures: his short live-action puppet film, Lessons Learned, recently premiered in Portland. [more inside]
posted by Metroid Baby at 9:29 AM PST - 20 comments

Gyo Fujikawa, Godmother of #WeNeedDiverseBooks

What do vintage ads for Beech-Nut, Q-Tips, and Eskimo Pie have in common with some of the earliest depictions of multiethnic babies in children's books? They were all the work of pioneering illustrator Gyo Fujikawa. [more inside]
posted by MonkeyToes at 9:18 AM PST - 12 comments

Cheatbook

New research finds a correlation between social network use and divorce rates. "We don't know whether Facebook is causing divorce or divorce is causing the use of Facebook," said a study author. A Facebook spokesman says it's "ludicrous" to suggest a link between the social network site and divorce. [more inside]
posted by stbalbach at 8:32 AM PST - 100 comments

The Beautiful Moments in the Beautiful Game (Game Day Edition)

The World Cup is hardly an unmitigated joy - bone crushing injuries, protests in Brazil, FIFA being FIFA, backshoulder biting. But lets forget all that and embrace the feel good moments of World Cup 2014. Friends helping a deaf and blind fan experience the World Cup. The victors comforting a heartbroken opponent. A player stopping to tie the shoe of his child escort. The Greek team returning their bonuses to build a new training center. The Brazilian team being generally awesome with starstruck fans. [more inside]
posted by 26.2 at 7:58 AM PST - 1305 comments

“Living in a Trailer”

James Jones, the author of From Here to Eternity, wrote about life as a trailerite for Holiday magazine in 1952. [more inside]
posted by thursdaystoo at 7:22 AM PST - 14 comments

"She was actually not even in the United States on Sept. 11."

The Woman Who Wasn't There. Her husband died in the attacks. She barely escaped from the south tower. But a new book chronicles the (literally) unbelievable story of 9/11’s most famous ‘survivor.’ [more inside]
posted by MisantropicPainforest at 7:12 AM PST - 75 comments

Give Respect to Get Respect

Cotton + Steel is five Southern women - fabric design artists - who convinced "an industry giant to let them build an entire new division of the company according to their own particular vision." Tough, creative women making beautiful fabric in a time of renewed interest in sewing and quilting, and succeeding in business. interview with company founder Melody Miller here.
posted by tizzie at 6:05 AM PST - 15 comments

N’existe Pas

For many years Bruce Sterling has been writing about the battle for freedom on the internet, a subject he first wrote about in the highly acclaimed book The Hacker Crackdown in 1992. In this book, Sterling predicts that the term “privacy” may already be obsolete, along with those who once thrived on violating the integrity of others. Like spies, the paparazzi, rumour mongers—who actually has the most to lose in this transparent world?
posted by infini at 5:55 AM PST - 7 comments

Yes, yes, hadouken, but why hadouken, and when?

"How to play Street Fighter: a fighting game primer for everyone" explains the dynamics of how 2D fighting games work and why.
posted by Pope Guilty at 5:27 AM PST - 28 comments

Laaaarge collection of Legally Free Microsoft Books.

FREE Microsoft eBooks! Who doesn’t love FREE Microsoft eBooks? Ymmv - but, Did I mention FREE! MSDN (Microsoft Developer network) writer Eric Lightman provides links to approximately 150 free ebooks, that anyone interested in MSDN matters might find useful. [more inside]
posted by Faintdreams at 4:55 AM PST - 33 comments

July 7

Holy moly Soviet cars

Soviet concept vehicles. "GAZ-A-Aero, designed by Alexei Nikitin Osipovich, 1934" is the first in the line-up, but I like the "Cyclops-like ZIS-112 with a single headlamp and an experimental 6005 cc engine, that could run the car with 126 mph (204 kmh) in 1951," and the Moskvitch G2, which once reached the speed of 139 mph and looks like it will bite whatever's in front of it. [more inside]
posted by goofyfoot at 11:26 PM PST - 27 comments

Hollywood Magic: impossibly young mothers, ageism against women

Hollywood is tough on older women -- it's like they're filed away in a folder simply marked "old" — and it’s a problem their male counterparts rarely have to contend with. To prove it, we’ve rounded up some recent examples of age-inappropriate casting, then imagined what would happen if some of these believability-busting pairings got a gender flip. [more inside]
posted by filthy light thief at 9:45 PM PST - 158 comments

I get all steamed up

I love your poise
Of perfect thighs
When they hold me
in paradise ...
If I had you today, I’d kiss and
fondle you into my arms and
hold you there until you said
‘Warren, oh, Warren’

Warren G. Harding, perhaps the worst chief executive in U.S. history, was a poet to longtime mistress and possible German spy Carrie Fulton Phillips.
posted by four panels at 9:31 PM PST - 47 comments

By hook or by crook, we will.

A man wearing a dark blazer with white braiding steps out from behind what looks to be a giant white balloon. A penny-farthing sits in the foreground. Cheerily, he addresses the camera: "Hi, I'm Scott Apel, video critic for the San Jose Mercury News, and I'm here to welcome you again to The Prisoner, one of the most intriguing and most talked about television series ever made..." (YT) [more inside]
posted by joseph conrad is fully awesome at 8:57 PM PST - 27 comments

I'm your best friend. I am your Lucky Strike.

The secret history behind the science of stress. Hans Selye, the "Father of Stress," first coined the idea of "stress" and wrote 1700 articles and 39 books, was nominated for the Nobel Prize 10 times, and received the Order of Canada, one of the country's highest honors. He also, Mark Petticrew discovered, received major funding from the tobacco industry for his research. Tobacco executives hoped he might offer reasonable scientific alternatives for the link between heart disease and smoking. He obliged, writing, "While some scientists have associated cigarette smoking with heart disease, it is reasonably [here, the word “reasonably” has been deleted, and the word “certainly” inserted] clear that a number of other factors including life-style, blood pressure, biochemistry, genetics and in particular, stress, may also be involved." [more inside]
posted by jaguar at 8:52 PM PST - 25 comments

A True and Affecting History

From the early modern period to the nineteenth century, one of the most popular forms of inexpensive literary entertainment was the chapbook. (The phenomenon was not limited to English-speaking countries.) Encompassing everything from nursery rhymes to shocking tales, chapbooks (also known as "small books." among other things) were targeted at both adults and children. Frequently, as in the case of Gothic chapbooks, these ephemeral books provided readers with (much shortened) access to popular novels. (Other chapbooks were more wholesome and/or educational in intent.) McGill Library and Ball State University have some of the most extensive chapbook collections now online.
posted by thomas j wise at 7:41 PM PST - 3 comments

"a thousand libraries were lost"

Bob Abrahamian was a Chicago DJ, record collector, and chronicler of Chicago's soul history whose death in June at age 35 shocked soul music lovers around the world. The Chicago Sun-Times' Mark Guarino says: "He left behind tens of thousands of 45-rpm records, but to those who knew him, it was the generous spirit in evangelizing the music that made the greatest impact." His work lives on on the site for his radio show, Sitting in the Park, which features exclusive music from and extensive interviews with 60s and 70s Chicago soul musicians. [more inside]
posted by carrienation at 7:34 PM PST - 10 comments

Smell-o-Vision

Last month, an oNote was sent across the Atlantic via the oPhone, and the recipients were treated to the scent of champagne and macarons. [more inside]
posted by the man of twists and turns at 7:32 PM PST - 23 comments

This land was never given up, this land was never bought and sold

It's NAIDOC week in Australia. NAIDOC stands for National Aborigines and Islanders Day Observance Committee, which dates from the 1920s. NAIDOC Week is held in the first full week of July. It is a time to celebrate Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures and an opportunity to recognise the contributions that Indigenous Australians make to our country and our society. ... Music and more inside. [more inside]
posted by valetta at 6:46 PM PST - 7 comments

Eldfell Volcano

The Vestmannaeyjar Archipelago, off the south coast of Iceland, was first settled in 874 AD. Heimaey, the only populated island, was home to both a center of the Icelandic fishing industry, and a volcano which had never erupted during nearly a millennium of continuous human settlement. Then, in 1973, all hell broke loose. [more inside]
posted by Blue Jello Elf at 6:16 PM PST - 21 comments

Everything Pasolini did, he did as a poet.

But what was it, precisely, that Pasolini did? In 1970, five years before he was murdered on a beach near Rome, and about a decade after his first movie, Accattone, had made him notorious as a filmmaker, Pier Paolo Pasolini sat down to write a preface to a new book of his selected poems.He called this little essay “To the New Reader,” and in it he wanted to explain to this new reader—who perhaps only knew him as a filmmaker, or novelist, or polemical essayist—why he was always, in fact, a poet. His first poem, he observed, was written when he was seven. His first collection had come out when he was twenty. The volume of selected poems was taken from three books: Gramsci’s Ashes, which appeared in 1957, when he was thirty-five; The Religion of My Time, from 1961; and Poem in the Shape of a Rose, which was published in 1964, the same year that his movie The Gospel According to St. Matthew came out. And so he had really made his films, he argued, “as a poet.” Not that a film and a poem were exactly equivalent, but still: “I think one can’t deny that a certain way of feeling something occurs in the same identical way when one is faced with some of my lines and some of my shots.” [more inside]
posted by whyareyouatriangle at 4:52 PM PST - 14 comments

Look sharp? Keep your edge!

The Commandments for Making Your Suit Last Advice from Rachel Tutera (The Handsome Butch) of clothier Bindle & Keep (previously).
posted by Lexica at 3:40 PM PST - 46 comments

Utility, welfare, and efficiency

  1. Welfare economics: an introduction
  2. The perils of Potential Pareto
  3. Inequality, production, and technology
  4. Welfare theorems, distribution priority, and market clearing
  5. Normative is performative, not positive

posted by kliuless at 3:33 PM PST - 7 comments

A Supposedly Fun Thing You'll Maybe Click Around Once

Google Street View your way through a Royal Caribbean Cruise Ship. [more inside]
posted by davidjmcgee at 3:16 PM PST - 42 comments

Inked in White

Gorgeous White Ink Tattoos Pictures of white ink tats. [more inside]
posted by Michele in California at 3:05 PM PST - 28 comments

En Fläsh

What if Ingmar Bergman Directed The Flash? [Via]
posted by homunculus at 2:08 PM PST - 21 comments

Super Pixel Quest

Super Pixel Quest. (By Emmanuel Espinasse.)
posted by archagon at 1:51 PM PST - 9 comments

Adventures in Time and Space

Little did Maria E. Alonzo know back in the eighties when she started tracking down her grandfather's missing brother -- lost to the family since 1913 -- that he would turn out to have been one of science fiction's most influential early editors.
posted by MartinWisse at 1:35 PM PST - 4 comments

Soothing Sounds of Jazz... with rain

Jazz and Rain Feeling stressed? Listen to some cool jazz and the relaxing sound of rain.
posted by maggiemaggie at 1:27 PM PST - 19 comments

loaded questions

The loaded meaning behind 'What do you do?': [Deb] Fallows says the questions are meant to tease out socioeconomic status, political viewpoints, and cultural background. “You know that somebody’s kind of digging for information to put you into their world – how do you fit into my world?” [more inside]
posted by flex at 1:00 PM PST - 349 comments

Women in archaeology, geology, and palaeontology

"TrowelBlazers is a celebration of women archaeologists, palaeontologists and geologists who have been doing awesome work for far longer, and in far greater numbers, than most people realize." [via]
posted by brundlefly at 12:51 PM PST - 4 comments

Crush? Kill? Destroy? What would you like your robot to do?

21st Century Robot: Intel Corp. debuts "Jimmy" an open-source 3d printed home robot to launch later this year.
posted by loukasven at 12:36 PM PST - 19 comments

Alfredo Di Stefano RIP

BBC: Real Madrid legend Alfredo Di Stefano , regarded as one of the greatest players of all time, has died. The 88-year-old suffered a heart attack on Saturday and had been in an induced coma in Madrid's Gregorio Maranon hospital. Real Madrid confirmed the news, saying Di Stefano, their honorary president, died at 17:15 CET (16:15 BST). The forward won five straight European Cups, scoring in each final between 1956 and 1960. Tim Vickery Article on Di Stefano.
posted by marienbad at 12:24 PM PST - 5 comments

What The Poor Deserve

"When our donors met the actual people they were helping they often didn’t like them. During our Secret Santa drive, volunteers sometimes refused to drop gifts at houses with TVs inside. They got angry when clients had cell phones or in some other way didn’t match their expectations. Other times, the donations we got were too disgusting to pass along—soup cans that bulged with botulism and diapers so dry rotted they crumbled in our hands. One Thanksgiving, a board member called from the parking lot, requesting help carrying a frozen turkey from her trunk to our office. “Can you find a deserving family?” she asked. I lugged the bird up three flights of stairs. Somewhere near the top, I noticed the expiration date. It was seventeen years old." Anya Groner talks about working for Hudson Outreach in up-state New York and the sobering, chilling effect it had on her idealism.
posted by The Whelk at 12:21 PM PST - 90 comments

How to craft pop perfection

You Look Sexy When You Do That (SLYT) by Brett Domino
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 11:58 AM PST - 26 comments

Food from Algeria to Zimbabwe

Food in Every Country provides information on the foodways of several dozen countries (not all of them, despite the site's name), with brief explanations of their culture and history -- and recipes! [more inside]
posted by mudpuppie at 11:57 AM PST - 24 comments

Magma Monday

Not many bands can claim to have inspired whole genres of music from a single track. But in addition to wholly inventing Zeuhl from scratch, Magma laid the basis for what evolved into the Brutal Prog scene populated by bass-heavy acts like The Flying Luttenbachers, Lightning Bolt, and Ruins by recording "De Futura" in 1976 for their Üdü Ẁüdü release. [more inside]
posted by mediocre at 11:54 AM PST - 15 comments

The Millions' Most Anticipated: The Great Second-Half 2014 Book Preview

A well-curated list of 84 upcoming books organized by month. [more inside]
posted by danabanana at 11:16 AM PST - 21 comments

Birds with arms.

Does what it says on the tin.
posted by feckless fecal fear mongering at 10:44 AM PST - 33 comments

"Best Site On The Web!" - Mother Teresa, Mark Twain, and George Carlin

“Those who are awake live in a state of constant amazement.”-Fake Buddha Quotes is your one-stop shopping for all quotes misattributed to The Buddha.
posted by Navelgazer at 10:36 AM PST - 48 comments

“The instructor is just there to deliver the content”

Southern New Hampshire University (SNHU), a small non-profit school, has gained a reputation for its adoption of for-profit marketing and operating techniques, relying on prolific advertising and a faculty of low-paid adjuncts to teach its online courses. More recently the school earned the unenviable title of "The Amazon of Higher Education". [more inside]
posted by Librarypt at 9:59 AM PST - 24 comments

"If you give a girl a different toy, she will tell a different story."

Frustrated with the modern toy market's focus on female characters with uncomfortable costumes, uninspiring back stories, and unrealistic body proportions -- "most are created for the adult male collector, decidedly more Hooters than heroine" -- Wellesley alumnae Julie Kerwin and Dawn Nadeau joined forces with the legendary creative team at EleventyPlex to crowdfund a new line of fierce, Joan of Arc-inspired action figures, designed to encourage girls to embrace their inner strengths and imagine themselves as self-made superheroes: I Am Elemental. [more inside]
posted by divined by radio at 9:55 AM PST - 71 comments

A ‘Band-Aid’ for 800 children

Nora Sandigo is guardian to hundreds of U.S. citizens born to illegal immigrants who are subject to deportation. [more inside]
posted by zeptoweasel at 9:25 AM PST - 33 comments

THUS SPOKE CARLY RAE: a song of friedrich nietzsche

My name is Nietzsche, hello,
A sort-of-nihilist bro,
Hey, God is dead, did you know?
What is morality?

posted by one teak forest at 9:12 AM PST - 13 comments

That’s technology for you, always making an ass out of someone.

Sarah Wendall, of the romance book blog Smart Bitches, Trashy Books, discovers a disturbing quirk of optical character recognition used to digitize older texts: the word "arms" is converted to "anus". [more inside]
posted by almostmanda at 8:47 AM PST - 76 comments

We go forward

We go forward, a short and poignant comic about life challenges. [more inside]
posted by jbickers at 8:04 AM PST - 22 comments

Classic Rock Peaked (By Song Plays) in 1973

Why Classic Rock (Radio) Isn't What It Used to Be (SL538)
posted by box at 7:47 AM PST - 142 comments

The "Light-Blue" Puppy

The Light-Blue Puppy is a visually extraordinary India Ink-animated Soviet musical children's cartoon made in 1976, only recently translated into English. It tells the tale of a small, sad puppy who has been rejected by his peers for his unusual color, but nevertheless manages to find his way in the world (with some help from a few other colorful characters, of course). On its surface it appears to be a cute, cleverly-animated story with a simple message of tolerance. [more inside]
posted by Ndwright at 7:09 AM PST - 6 comments

She's Still Dying on Facebook

It’s been five years since my best friend from high school died, but her death happens over and over online.
posted by motorcycles are jets at 7:03 AM PST - 40 comments

#peakedinhighschool

In March, Lawrenceville School Student Body President Maya Peterson, the first Black woman to be elected to that position, posted a photo to her Instagram account where she depicted what she described to be a “Lawrenceville boi”: white, Republican, and cockily holding a hockey stick. She used the hashtags “#romney2016,” “#confederate,” and “#peakedinhighschool." In response to the backlash from the photo, Maya, who is headed to Wesleyan in the fall, chose to step down. [more inside]
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 6:54 AM PST - 309 comments

Mary's Gone Wild

At her "Visionary Folk Art Garden & Doll Village" in Holden Beach, North Carolina, Mary Paulsen has built a "bottle house", multiple houses for more than 6,000 dolls, and a standalone gallery to showcase the relentlessly colorful paintings she makes on discarded window glass. No surface goes unembellished. [more inside]
posted by GrammarMoses at 5:43 AM PST - 7 comments

Murder, She Wrote

Calvin Trillin profiles Edna Buchanan, Pulitzer Prize-winning crime reporter for the Miami Herald during its heyday.
posted by valkane at 5:11 AM PST - 6 comments

What an incredible smell you've discovered.

Are you in Leipzig with €10 burning a hole in your pocket? You probably shouldn't spend it on this hilariously crappy Star Wars exhibition. [more inside]
posted by Faint of Butt at 4:14 AM PST - 35 comments

Your voice still echoes in my heart

Not quite 11 years old at the time, Jackie Evancho performs the song "Lovers" on her Dream With Me concert tour. Revel not only in Evancho's rapturous vocals, but also in the sublime accompaniments on zither, 2-string fiddle, bamboo flute and taiko drums.
posted by paleyellowwithorange at 2:28 AM PST - 27 comments

July 6

The quick brown fox has a twitter account

PangramTweets automatically finds and retweets tweets which include all of the letters of the alphabet. [more inside]
posted by gingerbeer at 10:02 PM PST - 37 comments

HAPPY FIRST BIRTHDAY BIG DOG PEPERONIE!!!!

Blue-Tongued Skink is serenaded during his birthday feast. (SLYT)
posted by zscore at 9:56 PM PST - 22 comments

Looks like I picked the wrong week to stop posting to MetaFilter.

The Dissolve's Movie of the Week discussion series (previously 1 2 3 4 ) takes Airplane! for a spin:
posted by Room 641-A at 9:49 PM PST - 60 comments

The geese are all facing in angles

Pianist Jeremy Denk has been living in a state of emergency. Instead of consulting a professional, I have come up with a three step solution. Recalibrating my life solution. The first step is to ignore all existing emergencies. Now, this—I can already hear you saying it—can’t last, this is not a workable solution. It sounds in fact like the opposite of a solution. Patience! Wait till you hear my next two steps. Step two—the real genius hinge of the whole thing—is then, in the absence of all emergencies, in the vast plain of false calm left after the tyrannical banishment of all the old emergencies, to choose to treat the smallest things as emergencies.
posted by shivohum at 8:54 PM PST - 13 comments

It's a very reasonable way to eat out.

"I enjoy buffets. I wouldn't say love buffets, but it's a very reasonable way to eat out." (SLYT) [more inside]
posted by joseph conrad is fully awesome at 8:39 PM PST - 64 comments

World of Objects - Found product photography from eBay & Craigslist listings

World of Objects - Found product photography from eBay & Craigslist listings [via mefi projects]
posted by xingcat at 8:16 PM PST - 12 comments

All the good stuff is in the first 26 pages...

What aren't you reading? By looking at the top 5 most highlighted passages via Kindle in each book, Jordan Ellenberg has figured out which books are most unread: Take the page numbers of a book's five top highlights, average them, and divide by the number of pages in the whole book. He calls the result the Hawking Index, after the much-unread Brief History of Time, though Piketty seems to have knocked Hawking off his throne (all five top highlights come in the first 26 pages, out of 700). Also, everyone finishes The Goldfinch. Previous attempts to figure out what is least finished have been conducted by Goodreads (#1: Catch-22), and by the Guardian in 2007 (which may explain why Vernon God Little is #1), which included helpful summaries. What have you not finished recently?
posted by blahblahblah at 8:13 PM PST - 101 comments

I'll have s'mores.

The Girl Scouts published the first recipe for Some Mores in 1927, and it just took off. The s'more has become an All-American campfire treat … and the combination of warm gooey marshmallow, melty chocolate, and crisp graham cracker has inspired a bunch of other s'more-inspired recipes. I give you: Triple dipped apples. Pie. Popcorn. Mini donuts. Stuffed cookies. Dip. Ice cream. Chocolatier ice cream. Homemade pop tarts. Macarons. Cups. Fudge. Krispies Bar. Truffles. Cheesecake. Pie pops. Bites. Milkshake. Empanadas. Trifles. Frozen. [more inside]
posted by julen at 7:57 PM PST - 25 comments

Woot? Meh.

This Internet Millionaire Has a New Deal For You
So there sat Bezos at the breakfast table, faced with a question for which he was apparently unprepared. Many painful seconds passed without an answer. Rutledge let the pause lengthen as long as he could bear it and was just about to tell his host to forget it, when Bezos finally spoke. He looked down at his plate. Bezos had ordered a dish called Tom’s Big Breakfast, a preparation of Mediterranean octopus that includes potatoes, bacon, green garlic yogurt, and a poached egg. “You’re the octopus that I’m having for breakfast,” Rutledge remembers Bezos saying. “When I look at the menu, you’re the thing I don’t understand, the thing I’ve never had. I must have the breakfast octopus.” Not until Rutledge had returned to Dallas and related the story to his anxious employees—now Amazon’s employees—did he realize just how absurd that explanation sounded. Before it can be eaten, generally, the breakfast octopus must be killed.
posted by the man of twists and turns at 7:13 PM PST - 38 comments

Trans Women's Lit

Trans women writers Jeanne Thornton, Imogen Binnie, Red Durkin and Casey Plett read from their recent works for Talks at Google. [more inside]
posted by emmtee at 7:04 PM PST - 11 comments

TRIBBLES ARE A THING

Mark Oshiro starts his biggest project yet: Mark Watches Star Trek. All of it. In airing order. HE IS SO UNPREPARED.
I knew I should watch it and I wanted to watch it, but… good lord, HAVE YOU SEEN HOW MANY EPISODES THERE ARE? So when it was proposed to me years ago that I should journey into the great beyond that is Star Trek’s canon, I knew that this would be the only way I could see all of it – from beginning to end – and to try and appreciate it for what it did and what it is.
[more inside]
posted by We had a deal, Kyle at 6:43 PM PST - 58 comments

watching

On weekends, we walk out to where the past used to be and where its stories remain.
posted by oinopaponton at 6:43 PM PST - 12 comments

A story, a force, a tale that means something

The Pulp Magazines Project is an open-access digital archive of all-fiction pulp magazines from 1896-1946, such as The Argosy, Amazing Stories, and Weird Tales. In addition to the archive, it features a cover gallery, a collection of articles and contextual material (including "So What is Pulp?", publisher index card files, and an office dummy), and links to dozens of related or similar resources such as the Speculative Fiction Collection at Virginia Tech, the Anarchist Periodicals archive at Pitzer College, and the Digital Dada Library.
posted by Monsieur Caution at 4:36 PM PST - 14 comments

10 Words Every Girl Should Learn

10 Words Every Girl Should Learn "Stop interrupting me." "I just said that." "No explanation needed." [more inside]
posted by triggerfinger at 4:31 PM PST - 72 comments

Rolling Coal: Everything Else About It Is Pretty Good

Slate: "Prius Repellent is a perfect introduction to one of the Obama era’s great conservative subcultures: the men and women who “roll coal.” For as little as $500, anyone with a diesel truck and a dream can install a smoke stack and the equipment that lets a driver “trick the engine” into needing more fuel. The result is a burst of black smoke that doubles as a political or cultural statement—a protest against the EPA, a ritual shaming of hybrid “rice burners,” and a stellar source of truck memes." [more inside]
posted by porn in the woods at 3:52 PM PST - 134 comments

The case for banning fireworks

They're a threat to the environment and dangerous as hell. There's got to be a better way to celebrate.
Look, I’m an environmental reporter, and as such it is practically in my job description to be a killjoy. For this I am sorry. It’s not like I won’t personally be enjoying the fireworks over the East River — which at least can’t get any more polluted than it already is — but I won’t be able to do so without nagging self-admonishments about how fireworks are actually kind of stupid.… Now, as is my professional duty, I pass these nagging thoughts on to you.
posted by Lexica at 3:36 PM PST - 100 comments

Just Leave.

How should you respond when a guns-rights activist carrying a firearm walks into your vicinity? PQED.org suggests a possible response. Meanwhile, Don't Shred on Me held a mocking Open Carry Guitar rally.
posted by emjaybee at 2:39 PM PST - 347 comments

Amsterdam Noord is seventh?

The twenty most hipster neigbourhoods in the world or, where to live if you're sick of Williamsburg.
posted by MartinWisse at 1:29 PM PST - 72 comments

look, Mum - no hands!

"YouTube user Now 夠了沒 has broadcast a genius method of putting on pants.
It is one that forgoes the often irritating and time-consuming use of hands.
No doubt this is why the internet was invented."
(Buzzfeed link - includes animated .gifs & embedded video; soundtrack: "The Final Countdown") [more inside]
posted by flex at 11:25 AM PST - 23 comments

Living in a Fool’s Paradise

San Francisco must change. "...the current state of permitting regulations for building and the glacial pace of infrastructure projects in San Francisco benefit very few people and risk turning it into a caricature of its former self for tourists and residents rich enough to live in a fantasy, not a living city. If there was ever a time when San Francisco needed to embrace a dynamic, expansive policy for building housing, offices and transportation, it is now." (Previously: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5.)
posted by ambrosia at 11:15 AM PST - 72 comments

NSA gathers more data from non-targeted people than we thought.

In Snowden’s view, the PRISM and Upstream programs have “crossed the line of proportionality.” [SLWAPO] [more inside]
posted by feckless fecal fear mongering at 10:27 AM PST - 58 comments

Think of mistakes as proof that you're trying your hardest.

Forget your magic eight balls, your I-Chings, your tarot cards, and your oblique strategies: Augur is an iPhone app that predicts the future by using the communal (sub? super?)conscious that is Twitter. [via mefi projects]
posted by Going To Maine at 10:26 AM PST - 7 comments

musical mathematical journeys

Trio for Three Angles (1968) is one of many beautiful acclaimed visually-oriented short films with music by mathematical filmmakers Bruce and Katharine Cornwell, some animated by hand and some using early digital technology. It inspired three sequels: Similar Triangles (1975), Congruent Triangles (1976), and Journey to the Center of a Triangle (1978) (previously). [more inside]
posted by beryllium at 10:26 AM PST - 5 comments

Offshoring has simply become a reflex

Your good American job has left the building. Your factory is extraordinarily productive. But workers in poorer countries can do your job for less, so you can't compete. Or maybe they can't, because of higher transportation costs and worse infrastructure. It doesn't matter, because offshoring is the thing to do.
posted by lukemeister at 9:18 AM PST - 95 comments

Location: Desert; Status: Forgotten

When international organizations declare a crisis over and refugee camps are closed, what happens to those who remain?” Close to one million people fled Libya as the violent fights of the Arab Spring began and a civil war ensued in 2011. Choucha, a refugee camp close to the Libyan border in Tunisia, housed many of them and was officially closed in June 2013. Roughly 400 refugees still live among the remains of the UN-camp. A short glimpse into their lives. [Vimeo. Partly German, English starts at 1:18] [more inside]
posted by travelwithcats at 8:38 AM PST - 2 comments

Ey Up Le Tour

The Tour de France has arrived in Yorkshire. [more inside]
posted by emilyw at 7:55 AM PST - 44 comments

The Internet's Own Boy: The Story of Aaron Swartz

Brian Knappenberger's The Internet's Own Boy: The Story of Aaron Swartz is available to watch for free in its entirety thanks to the Internet Archive. [more inside]
posted by gman at 7:49 AM PST - 18 comments

Not as equal as advertised.

Black Women of Brazil
From the ‘mammy’ to the Carnaval ‘mulata’, black women’s representation on Brazil’s airwaves remains very limited.
Although Brazil is a multi ethnic society some have remarked on the whiteness of the teams’ coaching staffs and fans in the stands of the 12 Brazilian stadiums.
Earlier in May there had been a particularily Brazilian protest of “somos todos macacos
Brazil has a long history of constructing discourses of national unity, while simultaneously pushing their black and indigenous populations to the margins.
posted by adamvasco at 6:50 AM PST - 4 comments

Justin Bieber: A Case Study in Growing Up Cosseted and Feral

Vulture feature that is weirdly sympathetic to the life of a billionaire popstar. (Bonus: no country for true beliebers, the real estate guide)
posted by viggorlijah at 1:04 AM PST - 82 comments

29 Celebrity Impressions, 1 Original Song

Rob Cantor (link to Bandcamp page) performs an original song in 29 perfect celebrity impressions... including a dolphin! (SLYT) Previously: 10 Second Songs
posted by Philby at 12:10 AM PST - 19 comments

July 5

Switched-on Classics

Digital Classicists: Scholars who study the ancient Greek and Roman empires are creating a growing array of 21st-century interactive, multidimensional presentations about people, places and events from the world of antiquity. If you dig around you'll uncover some deep and meticulous work by geographers, historians, archaeologists, and art historians working in digital space. [more inside]
posted by GrammarMoses at 8:52 PM PST - 34 comments

Truth, Justice, and Reconciliation

7 countries' attempts to grapple with their troubled pasts , and move beyond them.
posted by smoke at 8:35 PM PST - 3 comments

Happy birthday, Joe Bell

World War II veteran Joe Bell — who gained internet fame when a video of runners shaking his hand went viral — was honored as grand marshal in the San Jose 4th of July Parade yesterday; he led the parade in a motorcycle sidecar driven by his son, Matt. [more inside]
posted by joseph conrad is fully awesome at 8:28 PM PST - 1 comment

Evolution of the PC, 2004-2014

A Decade of Computer Design [SL-Engadget]
posted by modernnomad at 8:04 PM PST - 61 comments

"You think I want to live like I'm somebody's throwaway?"

Walter Dean Myers, a best-selling and deeply respected children's author and tireless champion of literacy and education, died on July 1, 2014, following a brief illness. He was 76 years old. [more inside]
posted by magstheaxe at 6:41 PM PST - 17 comments

Important Public Service Announcement

Idaho and Iowa are two different states. Here is a song to help you tell them apart. [more inside]
posted by ArbitraryAndCapricious at 5:20 PM PST - 76 comments

What Phish sounds like to people who don't like Phish.

Occasional nonsense with bits of individual instruments, some canned applause, and tons of laughter..coming from people watching this. Also: don't forget Harris Whittles continuing to try and make Scott Aukerman (Comedy Bang Bang) love Phish!
posted by Kitteh at 4:41 PM PST - 34 comments

This video achieves “Shepard Smith watching True Blood” gayness levels.

Dave Holmes (yes that Dave Holmes) re-vists the hit songs and music videos of July 1983
posted by The Whelk at 4:24 PM PST - 40 comments

I Am the Real Nick Cave

An NYT profile on Nick Cave's career and the new film about his life, 20,000 Days on Earth.
posted by porn in the woods at 3:44 PM PST - 22 comments

DIY Magic Shell and more

If hot weather has you in the mood for an ice cream treat, Serious Eats has you covered* with a recipe for DIY Magic Shell and five suggestions for how to use it, including faux Klondike Bars, dipped soft-serve cones, ice cream pops, and something they call a King Cone but which looks a lot more like a Sundae Cone or Drumstick to me.

*depending on how much of a messy eater you are     
posted by Lexica at 3:34 PM PST - 16 comments

Birth of the International Touring Organ

Cameron Carpenter is a classical organist who takes his instrument very seriously. If you want to hear him play, check out his versions of Schubert's Erlkönig, Chopin's Revolutionary Étude, and his mostly Bach program at the 2012 BBC Proms (Toccata and Fugue in D minor excerpted here). For more background, see this NYT interview. But please watch that first video at least once -- you won't regret it.
posted by rollick at 2:58 PM PST - 13 comments

Police testilying costs the Big Apple millions

The expensive consequences of New York City’s heavy-handed approach to policing protest have been on display lately. In December, the city finally settled most of the lawsuits stemming from its mass arrest of protesters during the 2004 Republican National Convention. Earlier this month, falsely arrested Occupy Wall Street protesters announced the largest settlement yet between participants and the powers that be, with the city poised to shell out nearly $600,000 in damages. NYC already paid $350,000 last year to settle a suit over its destruction of media equipment and Occupy’s library during the 2011 eviction of Zuccotti Park, $82,500 this past December to settle an Occupier’s suit claiming that police beat him up across the span of three arrests, and $50,000 the month before to settle a suit by people arrested on suspicion that they might later attend a protest.
Nick Pinto reports on the consequences for New York of the heavy handed police approach to e.g. the Occupy Wallstreet movement
posted by MartinWisse at 1:06 PM PST - 35 comments

Designing a Perfect Summer

Kiel James Patrick and his fiancée Sarah Vickers spend much of their time meticulously photographing the many splendors of a certain strain of New England life - the world of "prep". But are the people who appear in Sarah and Kiel's photos really their friends? Do Sarah and Kiel own these incredible homes? Or are they just taking social media marketing to a whole new level?
posted by SkylitDrawl at 12:17 PM PST - 54 comments

Mine is the beige house. No, the other one. No, the one next to that.

In his new book Ciphers, German photographer Christopher Gielen (previously) reveals haunting images of our endlessly repetitive development through aerial views of American urban sprawl. [more inside]
posted by Room 641-A at 11:26 AM PST - 50 comments

Muskrat Love: "Every time I sing this song, I think of Henry Kissinger"

Toni Tennille informed an audience that she and the Captain performed Muskrat Love at the dinner in honor of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II (PDF) as part of the Bicentennial celebrations at the White House, much to the intrigue and/or confusion of Henry Kissinger. Though there doesn't seem to be any video of the performance, there is some photographic evidence (description of photos (PDF)). The Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library and Museum tumblr has a post on the event, with a higher quality image of Captain and Tennillee in action. For better or worse, there aren't any people in muskrat-type costumes to be seen.
posted by filthy light thief at 11:14 AM PST - 31 comments

Walter Tull, on the new UK £5 coin

Walter Tull was the first ever Black officer in the British Army, and the first black officer to lead white men into battle. He was also only the second black player to compete in the top division of football, playing for the Tottenham Hotspur and Northhampton Town. An unassuming pioneer, his life has inspired a play, a documentary and a petition. As part of a series of coins on the centenary of the Great War, The Royal Mint has begun a programme of commemoration that will continue over the next five years, telling the emotive story of the journey from outbreak to armistice through a series of United Kingdom £5 coins, arranged in six-coin sets. Passed over for the Military Cross, allegedly due to the Army's institutional racism that banned "negros and other persons of colour" advancement to officer ranks, Walter Tull has his own coin at last.
posted by infini at 10:53 AM PST - 13 comments

Tales from the Victorian Press

The man killed by an automation. The man attacked for getting a shave. The 3,000 mile long alcoholic bender. The angry mob attacking the seller of How to Correct Woman. The man driven insane by tarantulas. The escaped polar bear in Scotland. The monkey who learned how to make a noose. All this and more discovered by Jeremy Clay, author of The Burglar Caught by a Skeleton: and Other Singular Tales from the Victorian Press and regular writer for BBC News's Magazine Monitor. Also: "There are living in the small village of Leyton, Essex, four persons of the name of John Swan, not at all related, and all with wooden legs, although not one has been in the army or navy."
posted by Katemonkey at 10:20 AM PST - 14 comments

killing them with kindness

Farm Confessional: I Raise Livestock and I Think It May Be Wrong - "[Bob] Comis talked to Modern Farmer about the self-doubt he feels while raising animals for slaughter and his desire to see humanity evolve into a species that does not kill to eat." [more inside]
posted by flex at 9:32 AM PST - 95 comments

The Valley of the Shadow

The Valley of the Shadow is a digital archive of primary sources that document the lives of people in Augusta County, Virginia, and Franklin County, Pennsylvania, during the era of the American Civil War. Here you may explore thousands of original documents that allow you to see what life was like during the Civil War for the men and women of Augusta and Franklin. Presented by the Virginia Center for Digital History at the University of Virginia.
posted by disclaimer at 8:31 AM PST - 4 comments

Cultural Cannibal: The journalism of Gabriel García Márquez

“Would I want to read the young García Márquez’s journalism if it didn’t happen to be written by García Márquez?” I asked myself while speedwalking toward Bocars Libros in the Barracas neighborhood of Buenos Aires, and again while shelling out 150 pesos for the three-volume Obra periodística with an introduction by Jacques Gilard. Back home, reading his work, my anxiety was quickly dispelled. Gabriel García Marquez (1927–2014) is known in the English-speaking world for his lyrical, densely descriptive novels, but as a journalist he was acerbically funny, charming, and slightly bizarre. The young García Márquez devoured what surrounded him. Everything was raw material for his newspaper columns—film adaptations of Faulkner, nudism, dancing bears, the letter X, a woman he saw in an ice cream parlor who may have been the “ugliest I’ve ever seen in my life, or, on the contrary, the most disconcertingly beautiful.” [more inside]
posted by whyareyouatriangle at 8:26 AM PST - 7 comments

"Welcome to a show about things you can see..."

Produced by Kansas City PBS affiliate KCPT, Rare Visions & Roadside Revelations is a TV series spotlighting "outsider artists, grassroots art environments and offbeat attractions of all kinds." [more inside]
posted by Nat "King" Cole Porter Wagoner at 8:00 AM PST - 6 comments

The Pimps and Prostitutes of 1970s Times Square

From 1972 to 1982, Sheldon Nadelman worked as a bartender at the “roughest bar in town”—Terminal Bar, directly across from the Port Authority. When he wasn’t pouring drinks, Nadelman was taking photographs of his patrons. He had good material: as one regular put it, “through these doors pass some of the most miserable people on Earth.”
posted by josher71 at 7:14 AM PST - 8 comments

Girls, Gills, and Great Whites

Last year, the Atlantic White Shark Conservancy launched the Gills Club, a STEM project to jump start girls' interest in sharks and science. It's going swimmingly. For those who can't make it to club activities, Ocearch's Shark Tracker offers an opportunity to follow the travels of tagged sharks (previously). Gills Club blog.
posted by MonkeyToes at 7:11 AM PST - 5 comments

Do you have a plan to harm yourself or anyone else?

If I were going to pull a Virginia Tech or a Columbine,” he said, “I wouldn’t tell you about it, would I?
posted by and they trembled before her fury at 7:00 AM PST - 50 comments

Inconceivable!

Imagine a world where Fezzik was played by Aaaarnold, and Buttercup turned out to be an alter ego of Monica, because that almost happened. Bonus: imagine a world where a reunion movie happened.
posted by Dashy at 6:45 AM PST - 34 comments

"And you think Mark ignored you because you're a woman?"

The Ping Pong Theory of Tech Sexism by Ariel Schrag. A web comic about the subtleties of workplace sexism in male-dominated industries.
posted by Librarypt at 6:09 AM PST - 117 comments

Colorado is playing smart

Six months after legalizing cannabis , Colorado is cashing in money while Denver crime rates have suddenly fallen. Meanwhile, in the rest of the World...
posted by LetsKa at 3:11 AM PST - 38 comments

Deliberately wasting your time

Diehard fans of Blackadder, Bottom, The Young Ones and/or Monty Python, do you know your lines? Resting in a quiet, dusty corner of the web is a comprehensive repository of the scripts in plain text. The first Blackadder episode is hard to read, it's a solid wall of text, the next is slightly better. After that things improve. [more inside]
posted by valetta at 1:48 AM PST - 20 comments

No, YOU'RE going to need a bigger boat

"Jaws" ridiculous, say kids who owe everything to "Jaws." Richard Dreyfuss's kids re-visit film history. [alt url]
posted by looli at 12:35 AM PST - 37 comments

July 4

Knit me a nest

"We use these nests primarily for the song birds," said Alison Hermance, WildCare's communications manager, as she gestured toward a blue knitted nest carrying baby finches and a gray and white nest full of tiny and eager chestnut-backed chickadees, their beaks wide open in anticipation of a feeding. [more inside]
posted by gingerbeer at 9:25 PM PST - 21 comments

Google & Glen Keane - a Duet For the Ages

In March 2012, legendary animator Glen Keane sent out a letter to his colleagues at Walt Disney Animation Studios that outlined his resignation from the House of Mouse, where he'd worked for over 38 years on beloved Disney characters like Ariel, Aladdin, Pocahontas, Tarzan, and the Beast. His departure left many Disney fans wondering what was going to happen to the great master, whom many believe is one of the greatest character animators alive today, and for a while it seemed that his retirement might be permanent. Last week, however, Keane debuted his first hand-drawn animated short, Duet, which he produced with Google's Advanced Technology and Projects group in San Francisco. As you might expect, it's an absolutely breathtaking artistic and technical achievement. And it hasn't even been released in its final interactive mobile format yet. [more inside]
posted by Hermione Granger at 9:02 PM PST - 53 comments

Eichler, Cliff May and the invention of the California Ranch Style home

The post-war boom gave rise to new concepts of modernity in domestic architecture and, of course, massive suburban development. One such concept was the California ranch-style home, pioneered by Cliff May (1909-1989). Another contemporary architect, Joseph Eichler (1900-1974), had his own vision of modernity in America's new suburbs, but both styles used similar language. At the time, these new designs for living were seen as modern and at the cutting edge of sophistication, but sophistication within reach of the average professional, middle-class family. They were designed to have a practical as well as an aesthetic value. Welcome to mid-century modern. [more inside]
posted by joseph conrad is fully awesome at 8:21 PM PST - 29 comments

"None of this is going to matter"

Landon "Dadhacker" Dyer reminisces about Patching the Newton: "How do you fix bugs in a ROM, if you can’t change the image?"
The patches live in the battery protected low-power RAM of the Newton, and they’re theoretically immortal as long as power holds out. This is why the battery compartment has a wacky mechanical locking system meant to discourage people from simultaneously removing both the main and the backup batteries. It’s a byzantine contraption of sliders and buttons molded in Holy Shit Yellow, and it’s meant to scare people into being cautious.
[more inside]
posted by We had a deal, Kyle at 6:05 PM PST - 16 comments

“With animals, we often don’t know the reason for a behavior,”

Zoo Animals and Their Discontents [New York Times]
posted by Fizz at 5:59 PM PST - 20 comments

What could be more American than Drones+Fireworks?

Quadcopters filming while flying through/near fireworks. That is all. [more inside]
posted by Muddler at 4:06 PM PST - 23 comments

the shades were down as always and it was quiet.

"the man with the beautiful eyes" by Charles Bukowski, animated by Jonathan Hodgson. [via]
posted by kjh at 3:36 PM PST - 3 comments

"It reveals what we as a culture consider sexy and decadent today."

Did Hollywood Give the 1920s a Boob Job? 'Gatsby' Costume Designer Tells All
Breasts are everywhere in 2013’s new "Gatsby"… They’re pushed up to create cleavage, peeping out of frocks and fringed flapper dresses, and hugged tightly by clothes cut to show off curves. As Daisy Buchanan, Carey Mulligan is clearly wearing some sort of shapewear or bra under even her most modest clothes, to make her breasts seem perfectly perky.

Catherine Martin, the producer, production designer, and costume designer of "The Great Gatsby," says that she simply took the styles of the 1920s and amped up the sexy quotient—and made the dresses fit more like the designers intended.…

"Frankly, I am a bit shocked by Martin’s quotes regarding the 1920s—that she considers the clothes frumpy looking," [co-founder of the Fashion History Museum Jonathan] Walford says. "She was the wrong costumer to get the job if she can’t see the beauty in the real 1920s silhouette."
[more inside]
posted by Lexica at 3:28 PM PST - 46 comments

The Manos, the Hands of Fate of pop singles

Think's "(Things Get a Little Easier) Once You Understand" has been called the worst hit song of all time. [more inside]
posted by vathek at 3:03 PM PST - 74 comments

Armchair Travel to Vietnam and Cambodia

Rusty Compass is a travel website that focuses on Vietnam and Cambodia. It is the work of one man, Australian Mark Bowyer, who has lived in Vietnam since 1993. There are the usual reviews of hotels, restaurants and tourist sites, travel tips and advice, but what makes it really special are videos and blog posts about local people and events, fascinating stories told with charm. [more inside]
posted by maggiemaggie at 2:38 PM PST - 1 comment

"The war in Vietnam and the Selective Service Act are unconstitutional."

Carl Wilson: soul of the Beach Boys, voice of God Only Knows and Good Vibrations, and... draft dodger.
posted by paleyellowwithorange at 2:18 PM PST - 22 comments

All I'm really saying is "Sebald is great"

In "Walking, Researching, Remembering: W. G. Sebald's The Rings of Saturn as Essay," Patrick Madden reaches a simple conclusion but visits along the way several points of wider interest in a discussion of essays in general. [more inside]
posted by Monsieur Caution at 1:49 PM PST - 2 comments

Today, I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the earth

Lou Gehrig's farewell speech at Yankee Stadium on its 75th anniversary. It was immortalized by Gary Cooper in the 1942 film Pride of the Yankees, although the speech as delivered in the movie differed a little bit from the actual speech. The Historic Films Stock Footage Archive has this video of the speech on Youtube. Today, Major League Baseball pays tribute to Gehrig by putting together a video in which contemporary players recite the speech. (Video of this is embedded in the first link).
posted by obscure simpsons reference at 1:10 PM PST - 8 comments

"the Embuggerance is finally catching up with me"

I have been putting off writing this announcement for quite some time and on good days thought I wouldn’t have to write it at all. However, it is with great reluctance that I have to tell you all that I will not be able to attend the upcoming Discworld Convention in Manchester. I am very sorry about this, but I have been dodging the effects of PCA and have been able to write for much longer than any of us ever thought possible, but now The Embuggerance is finally catching up with me, along with other age-related ailments. I know people will have already made plans far in advance and some will be travelling a long way, but this is the first time ever that I have been unable to attend a UK convention and I really am very sorry. They say time marches on, and it does, even though I have been running very fast to keep one step ahead of it. I really was looking forward to seeing your smiley, happy faces. Have fun everyone. Yes, on this occasion, have lots of fun.
After the happy news Tuesday that sir Terry Pratchett was well along with the fifth Tiffany Aching novel, it came as a shock to hear only a day later that he he had to cancel his appearances at the Discworld con because of his Alzheimer's disease. [more inside]
posted by MartinWisse at 12:30 PM PST - 44 comments

Mini and free libraries may be nearer than you think!

One of the best things about libraries is that they are free. Many are in your own neighborhood. Some will even come to you! (previously)
posted by Lynsey at 12:22 PM PST - 25 comments

Benjamin Sniddlegrass and the Cauldron of Penguins

In 2010 Mark Kermode reviewed Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief, and described it as so similar to Harry Potter it could have been called "Benjamin Sniddlegrass and the Cauldron of Penguins." On the other side of the globe, Australian music video director Jeremy Dylan was inspired. [more inside]
posted by Orange Dinosaur Slide at 11:58 AM PST - 2 comments

"I draw with paper instead of on it"

Yulia Brodskaya is a Russian artist/illustrator now living in England whose quilled paper pieces are increasingly in demand. Her website is rich with her work - jump right into the illustration or art sectons - or browse the news section to see a roughly reverse chronological listing. Design Taxi has collected a group of images highlighting her quilled typography. [more inside]
posted by julen at 11:54 AM PST - 7 comments

And the Pulitzer for "Best Recipe" Goes To....

Looking for American recipes to take to tonight's 4th of July party? It's easy to find historic recipes. But why not look to America's great fiction writers instead? [more inside]
posted by magstheaxe at 11:36 AM PST - 7 comments

"Can you deal with the fact that I'm not in love with you?"

Without You I'm Nothing: The Believer looks at the memoirs of the wives and girlfriends of rock stars.
posted by The Whelk at 10:48 AM PST - 20 comments

Tales from a Fireworks Tent

Reddit user FredFltStn runs a fireworks tent. He has some stories: [more inside]
posted by the man of twists and turns at 9:47 AM PST - 18 comments

The Princess Effect

"It is often said that “Washington is Hollywood for ugly people,” but the adage is only half true. Women are not allowed to be ugly people because women—and nowhere more than in such women’s magazines that reduce female political leaders to their supposed fashion and lifestyle choices—are not really allowed to be people at all."
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 9:36 AM PST - 40 comments

Micturation and Merchandising

The tasteless history of the peeing Calvin decal
posted by figurant at 9:33 AM PST - 48 comments

Get your game on! Sex and Sports

Abstinence is not a new tactic when it comes to sports competitions. Ancient Greeks restricted sex ahead of major events and some athletes still do it today. But does sex really affect athletic performance? Judging by the current World Cup, a strict sex ban doesn’t help to win. “All the teams known to have banned that kind of scoring in Brazil have been knocked out.” Specific sex rules seem to have less negative impact. In today’s quarter finals, France vs. Germany and Brazil vs. Colombia, different guidelines come into play. [more inside]
posted by travelwithcats at 8:30 AM PST - 963 comments

Native Americans and Independence Day

In the spirit of this post, about Frederick Douglass's classic speech "What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?", what is Independence Day for the Native American? Some folks have powwows on this day and/or march in parades, proudly wearing the uniforms of the US Military. NPR's 2008 story on the topic is worthwhile.
posted by GrammarMoses at 7:30 AM PST - 3 comments

"I saw my first shadow play & he watched his first DVD of 'Star Wars.'"

Star Wars as a shadow play (article + video) Character creator Tintoy Chuo collaborates with tok dalang (master puppeteer) Pak Dain to bring Star Wars: A New Hope to the literal screen of the wayang kulit (shadow play). Follow the journey of young Perantau Langit (One Who Walks the Sky) as he meets Puteri Leia (Princess Leia) and faces off Sangkala Vedeh (Powerful General Vedeh) in this Peperangan Bintang (War of the Stars). A preview video. Tintoy Chuo at TedxKL. It was a match made in Facebook, so quite rightly, here is their FB page.
posted by cendawanita at 7:29 AM PST - 9 comments

What "Up" Did In Ten Minutes, We Can Do In Three

We've looked before at the trend of tear jerking commercials in Thailand. They are still at it, with this, and this, and this, and--oh God--this.
posted by Pater Aletheias at 7:04 AM PST - 27 comments

Not a fig leaf in sight at the Crested Butte, CO 4th of July Parade

For 30 years, scientists at the Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory (aka RMBL - pronounced 'rumble') have chosen an odd way to get the word out about their work -- covering themselves in skunk cabbage and marching through the streets during Crested Butte's Fourth of July parade. Direct link to video story.
posted by gudrun at 4:21 AM PST - 11 comments

The Passing of the Vast Right-Wing Conspirator

The New York Times reports the death of Richard Mellon Scaife, the Mellon heir and noted financial backer of conservative organizations and publications such as the Heritage Foundation, The American Spectator, and the Institute on Religion and Democracy, following his battle with cancer. Scaife is perhaps best known for funding a staggering number of anti-Clinton projects in the 1990s that set the stage for the Whitewater investigation, efforts which won him derision from some quarters and approbation from others. [more inside]
posted by kewb at 4:15 AM PST - 42 comments

Light blooming ground flower, then back away

Every year, one of the founders of Panic, makers of fantastic Mac software, ventures forth to the dueling fireworks tents in Vancouver, WA to capture the very best/worst of fireworks packaging. The 2014 offering is now available. [more inside]
posted by fifteen schnitzengruben is my limit at 12:05 AM PST - 38 comments

July 3

The 1812 Overture and fireworks, as American as ... waitaminute

Every Fourth of July, Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture is heard all over the United States, timed to the burst of fireworks. How did this Russian composition, celebrating the Russian victory over the French in that War of 1812 (not the war between England and the US), become a staple of the United States' Independence Day celebrations? We can thank the Boston Pops. [more inside]
posted by filthy light thief at 11:11 PM PST - 29 comments

Olympian, war hero, Louis Zamperini passes away at age 97

Louis Zamperini [previously], subject of Laura Hillenbrand's popular biography Unbroken, died on July 2 at age 97 (link to NYTimes obit). A movie of Unbroken, with a screenplay by the Coen Brothers and directed by Angelina Jolie, is set for a Christmas release. Zamperini was an Olympic distance runner who survived weeks at sea in the Pacific and a Japanese prisoner of war camp after being shot down while serving in WWII. [more inside]
posted by MoonOrb at 10:12 PM PST - 4 comments

Star Trek: The Next Generation's Night Crew

2:22 min of extreme silliness from Robot Chicken, voiced by Chris Pine and tweeted by the Captain himself: there is no justification for this except to paaaaarty!
posted by viggorlijah at 8:54 PM PST - 20 comments

Costco: "It's a water-cooler conversation company."

Costco Wholesale, or just 'Costco', is a membership warehouse store and the second largest retailer in the United States. Here are some notable blogs, fan communities, articles and commentary (mostly U.S.-centric). [more inside]
posted by joseph conrad is fully awesome at 8:12 PM PST - 161 comments

At some point you give up and admit that it's really a squirrel feeder

Most backyard bird enthusiasts have felt the frustration of fuzzy-tailed thieves filching from their feeders. But for some, just watching the gymnastics squirrels go through to get to the goods is gratification enough.
posted by Jacqueline at 7:12 PM PST - 41 comments

A Canadian perspective on the Memphis Crisis Intervention Team model

The Walrus magazine looks into Toronto police shootings of the mentally ill and the Memphis Crisis Intervention Team model:

Memphis, one-quarter of Toronto’s size but with a homicide rate nine times higher, has developed a progressive approach to de-escalate high-tension confrontations, improve police attitudes toward those suffering from mental illness, and divert them from the criminal justice system. The Memphis Crisis Intervention Team model centres on dispatching specially trained beat cops to emergency calls as quickly as possible, and giving them the authority to take charge of the scene. That approach triggered a revolution in policing that has now been emulated in 2,700 jurisdictions across the US, including large urban centres such as Chicago and Los Angeles. A handful of Canadian cities, among them Hamilton and Vancouver, have also adopted the CIT model. While the TPS has not, senior officials claim that all of its 5,500 uniformed officers receive some training in how to handle mental illness, which makes the recent proliferation of shootings that much more perplexing.
posted by porn in the woods at 7:11 PM PST - 11 comments

Sky rockets in flight, afternoon delight

Daylight Firework Compilation from around the world, a very different display. If rain or hurricanes are putting a damper on your Independence Day pyrotechnics, check out Sergio Paolelli, Festival San Trifone - Adelfia 2013 for a spectacular 25 minute daylight show with a breathtaking finale. Also from Adelfia 2013, a grounds-eye view of the wild Batteria Sanseverese.
posted by madamjujujive at 6:48 PM PST - 12 comments

"Clarence" Creator fired from Cartoon Network after Harassment

Skyler Page has been fired from Cartoon Network. The Clarence creator and voice of the title character has been fired for groping a co-worker on the show. The news broke yesterday from Maré Odomo (her work previously on the blue), and Emily Partridge came out shortly after as the person Odomo was talking about. And Partridge had been talking about an unnamed incident since June 29th. This morning, it was rumored that Page had been fired from Cartoon Network and banned from the premises, and later today, Cartoon Brew confirmed that this was the case. Pen Ward, creator of Adventure Time -- which Page had worked on prior to Clarence -- met with Partridge and the two talked about how to set up an online safe place for women in her situation. [more inside]
posted by Rev. Syung Myung Me at 5:16 PM PST - 44 comments

For the winner in all of us

10 tricks to appear smart during meetings " Like everyone, appearing smart during meetings is my top priority. Sometimes this can be difficult if you start daydreaming about your next vacation, your next nap, or bacon. When this happens, it’s good to have some fallback tricks to fall back on."
posted by mooselini at 5:05 PM PST - 84 comments

"There are specific instructions when Isaac Hayes comes on."

Wattstax [SLYT] is a 1973 documentary film about the 1972 Wattstax music festival, held at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum to commemorate the seventh anniversary of the Watts riots. Featuring performances by Isaac Hayes, Albert King, Rufus and Carla Thomas, The Staple Singers, The Emotions, The Bar-Kays, and other greats of soul, R&B, and gospel, Wattstax also incorporates relatively unknown comic Richard Pryor's musings on life for black Americans in 1972, "man-and-woman-on-the-street" interviews, and audience footage. [NSFW] [more inside]
posted by Room 641-A at 5:03 PM PST - 23 comments

Storytelling in worlds of swords & sorcery

After two years of public playtest and discussion, the fifth edition of Dungeons & Dragons makes its debut today. The Basic Rules are now available as a free PDF. [more inside]
posted by graymouser at 3:55 PM PST - 120 comments

Left on your own in the jail of your mind

Electric shocks preferable to being left alone with your own thoughts, study suggests
posted by prize bull octorok at 3:26 PM PST - 57 comments

None of the many men I spoke to had mentioned her name.

"At one point, Whitney Wolfe was promoted as Tinder’s “inventor” and co-founder in fashion magazines like Harper’s Bazaar. She named the app, and her marketing savvy was often cited as the reason it found an audience among young women. Her role in the company was widely touted as an exception to male-dominated startup culture. According to the lawsuit, [Justin] Mateen told Wolfe, who was 24 years old at the time, that “he was taking away her ‘Co-Founder’ title because having a young female co-founder ‘makes the company seem like a joke’ and ‘devalues’ the company.” Mateen had also been designated a co-founder of the company despite joining after the fact, and argued that Wolfe’s title undermined him." Tinder Co-founder files sexual harassment lawsuit. [more inside]
posted by emptythought at 3:24 PM PST - 93 comments

"Maybe I’ll start a fly and broke tumblr or something."

Fat-Booty Butch Buys A Suit On A Budget.
I’m a brown dyke living in the Bronx, working 40 hours a week at an non-profit arts center. I’m finally with it enough to pay all my bills on time, if at all. I’ve got a roof over my head and some change in my savings account. I’m not complaining. It’s been worse for me but fuck, just having a job feels like a blessing sometimes. Living in this city makes it feel like I’m scraping by with every penny just to live. My play money is tight and I don’t know how to sew. I wear clothes until they’ve given up on life and I’m not ashamed. I often wonder how regular people buy new clothes all the time. Clothes in the hood and at super-low discount shops never seem to last very long. Fancy clothes cost so much, like why isn’t everyone just running around in cloth diapers? What is someone like me supposed to do when they need to look good in real life?
[more inside]
posted by Lexica at 3:14 PM PST - 26 comments

Fresh Air or Times Square?

Where do the smartest people move? A new report finds that higher intelligence is linked with rural-to-city migration, and with city-to-suburb movement.
posted by pearlybob at 2:34 PM PST - 14 comments

Not just decorative bikini armor

A props and armor designer for film, Samantha Swords takes her work seriously. Very seriously. In February of 2013 she won the Harcourt Park World Invitational Longsword Competition . There appears to be a growing interest in competitive european sword fighting in the US.
posted by korej at 2:08 PM PST - 16 comments

Shit just got real.

What is Bayhem? [previously from Tony Zhou]
posted by brundlefly at 2:08 PM PST - 13 comments

The amazing teeny tiny books by the Brontes

The amazing teeny tiny books by the Brontes. In 1829-30, Charlotte Bronte was 13 and her brother Branwell Brontë 12. Creating fantasy worlds they called Angria and Glass Town, the siblings made teeny tiny books.
posted by sweetkid at 1:57 PM PST - 13 comments

Having babies...with science

Evidence Based Birth is a blog with articles by Rebecca Dekker, a PhD nurse and faculty member at the University of Kentucky, summarizing the best medical evidence for childbirth practices. To start, check out the table summarizing the state of US maternity care to see the differences between current standard childbirth practices and evidence based care. The topics page lists the currently available articles. [more inside]
posted by medusa at 12:50 PM PST - 37 comments

Robben was robbed.

Who won the World Cup of Arm-Folding?
posted by DynamiteToast at 12:27 PM PST - 36 comments

A Living Sea of Spaghetti

Nat Geo Snake Dens of Manitoba (video 3:43) Every year, thousands of snakes gather at the Narcisse Snake Dens in Manitoba, Canada. It's billed as the largest gathering of snakes anywhere in the world. Manitoba’s climate and geology make it the perfect place for red-sided garter snakes to live and mate. It has become a tourist attraction, but it’s not for the faint of heart.
posted by srboisvert at 12:12 PM PST - 34 comments

Like QWOP, but more evil

What has four arms, four legs, a tiny mustache, and a penchant for painting? Double Hitler.
posted by backseatpilot at 11:40 AM PST - 11 comments

The strange stories behind our most famous gifs

Okay, so you've watched a lot of funny or strange animated gifs. But do you know what's behind the gifs?
posted by MartinWisse at 11:40 AM PST - 17 comments

To make a call the writer had to travel 18 miles

A visit to George Orwell's house on the remote Scottish island of Jura.
posted by Chrysostom at 11:32 AM PST - 14 comments

You have 0 gunk

Because today is effectively Friday afternoon for those of us in the U.S., here is Space Lich Omega, an "incremental RPG" inspired by previous MeFite favorite Candy Box. [more inside]
posted by jbickers at 11:13 AM PST - 94 comments

NSA: Linux Journal an 'extremist forum'

Use Linux or Tor? Search for information about online privacy? The NSA is keeping an eye on you [more inside]
posted by ryanshepard at 10:26 AM PST - 55 comments

I'm leaving my body to science, not medical but physics

Let's Talk About Science is a blog devoted to discussing the world of science and technology communication with clear, beginner-friendly language, written and compiled by nanoscientist/physicist Jessamyn Fairfield and science educator ErinDubitably. [more inside]
posted by divined by radio at 10:16 AM PST - 4 comments

Older lay-dees!

…and if that’s the reason that you don’t love me then maybe that’s not love. Older ladies having a ball: Complete with dirndls and lederhosen and yodeling in the meadow. Not to mention dancing chickens and swimsuits and ballgowns. (SLYT)
posted by evilmomlady at 9:47 AM PST - 7 comments

If you build it, they will come

Building Bigger Roads Actually Makes Traffic Worse [more inside]
posted by the man of twists and turns at 9:35 AM PST - 58 comments

we are all the same inside

what burger king's proud whopper tells us about marketing to LGBT consumers
posted by and they trembled before her fury at 9:30 AM PST - 44 comments

Pants and Trousers, Breeches and Pantaloons, Jodhpurs and Slacks, Oh My!

With the recent discovery of the world's oldest known trousers in China, it may be time to look at the history of that two legged garment invented in response to a specific need: to make travel by horseback far more comfortable. [more inside]
posted by julen at 9:12 AM PST - 15 comments

Cheesy Feet

Fondue slippers , that is all.
posted by arcticseal at 9:12 AM PST - 21 comments

Beating the heat, SE Baltimore-style!

Row houses fill the streets of southeast Baltimore. Before air conditioning, there was little privacy and a lot of heat in the narrow, brick-lined streets. A green grocer accidentally found a solution. [more inside]
posted by QIbHom at 9:04 AM PST - 10 comments

men as feminist allies

35 Practical Tools for Men to Further Feminist Revolution: "This list entails suggestions for some practical tools all men can apply in their day-to-day lives to foster equality in their relationships with women, and to contribute to a culture where women feel less burdened, unsafe, and disrespected." [more inside]
posted by flex at 8:00 AM PST - 327 comments

No Bullshit Hiring Histories

"Pastry work takes a level of skill, precision and rigor that I lacked in spades. I could’ve maybe become a decent pastry cook, with months of practice and a patient boss, but I was in no way qualified to be a pastry chef. I gave it my best effort, for three days, until the chef-owner realized her mistake and fired me. The place closed in less than 6 months. I never got paid." Laurie Woolever at The Billfold talks about how she went from Botantical Garden Intern to Anthony Bourdain's assistant.
posted by The Whelk at 7:59 AM PST - 26 comments

Everyday exploration of chemical compounds

Compound Interest makes infographics [index] covering chemistry basics and the chemistry behind every day phenomena, like the aroma of books, cilantro, and cell phones. In time for the 4th of July, the chemistry behind fireworks: gunpowder and color. Over on tumblr, Compound Interest answers questions about chemistry, dispels myths (glowsticks, MSG), promotes science (bad science, the dose makes the poison ) and other... things. Compound Interest has also teamed up with the American Chemical Society to make videos (why does bacon smell so good?). [more inside]
posted by bobobox at 6:57 AM PST - 8 comments

Rely on SSRI and say 'hi-ho' in the coffee shop

Susumu Hirasawa is a Japanese musician who has been doing electronic composition since 1972. [more inside]
posted by Librarypt at 6:47 AM PST - 11 comments

"They are sending my son to die and I will never forgive them for that."

Orashia Edwards, a bisexual man seeking asylum in the UK due to persecution in Jamaica based on his sexual orientation, has had his petition denied and was scheduled to be deported yesterday. The immigration court concluded Orashia has been “dishonest” about his sexuality, but has not stated why. Speculation about the reasons includes the existence of his 14-month-old daughter, or the possibility that his responses to some of the detailed and intrusive questions sometimes asked of bisexual asylum seekers in the UK were not persuasive enough. It may just be that “the box one needs to fit in to ‘deserve’ support and asylum is so tiny as to be almost non-existent for bisexual people.” [more inside]
posted by Stacey at 6:18 AM PST - 41 comments

Wait for it...

A stick of butter, left out at room temperature, melts in summer heat.
posted by frimble at 6:02 AM PST - 74 comments

Mapping Census Data

Datashine: Census is a site from UCLs Big Open Data: Mining and Synthesis project which provides an easy interface to map UK population data. [more inside]
posted by Just this guy, y'know at 5:28 AM PST - 2 comments

Yes, we get it, the bloody parrot is dead.

"The slickness, the cosiness, the lack of spontaneity, the inevitable gallery-playing, Eric Idle's bloody songs (just what we needed, a slightly edgier Richard Stilgoe)... this is the kind of schlock they once stood up against, and worse, it will just compound the modern perception of Python as something unthreatening and whimsical, a posh boys' lark, an "icon of Britishness", a zany figleaf for the humourless and the deeply conventional, like brightly-patterned socks." On the back of mixed reviews on the Python reunion, Taylor Parkes looks at the other side of Monty Python.
posted by mippy at 4:07 AM PST - 97 comments

Toronto Needs More Shirtless Joggers

Toronto Needs More Shirtless Joggers [more inside]
posted by modernnomad at 3:50 AM PST - 98 comments

Two-speed America

How much separates ADHD drugs from street meth? Not much. And where is it all going? "Aside from some foul cutting material, Winnebago methamphetamine and pharmaceutical amphetamine are kissing chemical cousins. The difference between them boils down to one methyl-group molecule that lets crank race a little faster across the blood-brain barrier and kick just a little harder. After that, meth breaks down fast into good old dextroamphetamine, the dominant salt in America’s leading ADHD drug and cram-study aid, Adderall."
posted by imperium at 3:49 AM PST - 99 comments

Poems in Conversation

3 poems about language. 9 poems without language. 4 poems of language on the edge. 3 poems from languages on the edge. 3 poems about zombies. 2 poems about mermaids. 6 poems drawn in color. 1 poem erased from black and white. 3 dreams by Zurita. 16 dreams by Bolaño. Something about bricks. Something about America. Wot kynde horse brayne spoile our cheery meal. wurrrghc brggguhdrvl.
posted by Monsieur Caution at 2:37 AM PST - 4 comments

Math is Hard!

Inspire Her Mind [more inside]
posted by kagredon at 1:56 AM PST - 12 comments

Early Days on Street View

Ian McClatchie, the Ambivalent Engineer, reminisces about his time on the Google Street View project. "At the time I was hired, we had two copies of the first camera set, which I dubbed R1. These had been assembled by bolting five 11 megapixel CCD based book-scanning cameras (shown below) to a plywood board, and bolting that to the roof of a car, much of which was accomplished by Elliot Kroo when he was, if I'm not mistaken, 14 years old (youngest intern ever at Google). Neither R1 worked much, due to problems with the cameras, not Elliot!"
posted by daisyk at 1:48 AM PST - 20 comments

July 2

Aux armes, et cætera

From the album of the same name recorded in Jamaica in 1979, Serge Gainsbourg smokes, samples and sings "La Marseillaise" to a loping reggae beat, leaves out some words and titles it "Aux armes, et cætera", thereby deeply offending some of his co-citoyens. I was recently discussing the Marseillaise with a French person, who linked me to Gainsbourg's version. My friend agreed that musically his country's national anthem was wonderful, but said the violence of the lyrics disgusted him. It's interesting to consider a nation's official anthem in the cultural and political setting of its birth, and then contrast with the present day. [more inside]
posted by valetta at 11:51 PM PST - 13 comments

"She had led them into and out of some mighty thrilling episodes."

“Would you like to – solve mysteries? belong to a secret club? ride, swim, travel, go to parties with the best friends in the world? Then the wonderful adventures of Trixie Belden are written just for you. Don’t miss a single one!” [more inside]
posted by szechuan at 10:44 PM PST - 26 comments

The Vietnam Center and Archive

The Texas Tech Vietnam Center and Archive "collects and preserves the documentary record of the Vietnam War, and supports and encourages research and education regarding all aspects of the American Vietnam Experience." It includes vast sections of digitized material, including audio, video, maps, as well as all manner of documents. [more inside]
posted by MoonOrb at 9:51 PM PST - 7 comments

Maps and info about New York's other MTA

The New Yorker investigates the routes, drivers, and ridership of NYC's "dollar vans" [SLNew Yorker]. (Dollar Vans, previously)
posted by Itaxpica at 9:44 PM PST - 9 comments

Stephen Gaskin bought the farm

Stephen_Gaskin founder of The Farm, husband of renowned mid-wife, Ina May Gaskin died July 1st. Here's a good obituary. The search for the spiritual community life that culminated in the purchase of land outside Summertown, Tennessee began with Gaskin's Monday Night Class held in San Francisco in 1969 & 1970. [more inside]
posted by readery at 9:19 PM PST - 20 comments

I really just wanted to post cute pictures of doggehs

(All links are safe for everyone unless you don't like cute things.) Pit bulls in a photo booth. Pit bulls being true to type. Pit bull fight! Pit bulls true to type part 2: Yes, they suddenly snap. Gratuitously cute Pinterest board of pit bulls.
posted by librarina at 9:07 PM PST - 25 comments

Rule number one is: young men die. And rule number two is...

Doctors can't change rule number one.

The televisions series, M*A*S*H, developed by Larry Gelbart and Gene Reynolds, was broadcast on CBS for over a decade, from the pilot on September 17, 1972, to the highly-rated final episode on February 28, 1983. Yet reports of its demise are fictional, M*A*S*H is alive and well. [SPOILERS within if you haven't seen the series.] [more inside]
posted by joseph conrad is fully awesome at 7:46 PM PST - 128 comments

The Sexiest Baritone Hunks from Opera

Barihunks. A blog about hunky baritones. That is all.
posted by Orinda at 7:29 PM PST - 9 comments

The original fugitive

July 4, 2014, will mark the 60th anniversary of the murder of Marilyn Sheppard. Her husband, Sam Sheppard, a prominent doctor in the prosperous Cleveland suburb of Bay Village, Ohio, claimed that her killer was a "bushy-haired intruder." The trial at which he was convicted was a media spectacle that was at the time unrivaled; it inspired the 1960s TV series The Fugitive and the 1993 movie of the same name. What better way to mark the occasion than by exploring the complete collections now online courtesy of the Cleveland-Marshall College of Law, including the crime scene photos, the coroner's report, the 1954 trial transcript, and the masterful summation by F. Lee Bailey that won Doctor Sam an acquittal 12 years later?
posted by How the runs scored at 6:57 PM PST - 13 comments

This cat really likes Q-tips

Part One, Part Two. [more inside]
posted by Jacqueline at 6:56 PM PST - 34 comments

Talking Folklore in the Digital Age

"When most people think of 'folklore,' they tend to think of fairy tales and urban legends. Trevor Blank thinks of photoshopped memes and dark humor." The Signal, a blog from the Library of Congress, has posted a two-part interview (part 2 is here) with Blank, who studies creepypastas, LOLs, demotivational posters, and other dynamics of "folk culture in the digital age." [more inside]
posted by MonkeyToes at 6:45 PM PST - 6 comments

That group is men.

"There remains, however, one important group that the show barely, and inadequately, represents." Noah Berlatsky writes in the Atlantic about the portrayal of men in Orange is the New Black. [more inside]
posted by Ruki at 6:21 PM PST - 148 comments

SUCCUMB TO THE CRUMB

Lucifer capers in an unaired vaguely Kenneth Anger-y commercial for Cadbury's flake bar.
posted by nicolas léonard sadi carnot at 5:59 PM PST - 22 comments

This is serious.

The man, the writer, and his cigarette. Part II. Part III.
posted by The corpse in the library at 5:58 PM PST - 13 comments

"The movies are like a machine that generates empathy."

Life Itself. The documentary based on Roger Ebert’s memoir, by Hoop Dreams’ director Steve James, premiered at Sundance in January and is now rolling out in theaters and on demand.
posted by scody at 5:11 PM PST - 6 comments

Don't Leak National Secrets Unless It's For Wall Street

"What could he possibly have that's worth $1 million a month other than classified information?" Former NSA head Keith Alexander goes directly into consulting for large financial associations, with a potential Congressional investigation to follow.
posted by blankdawn at 4:52 PM PST - 43 comments

The Wikipedia Entry for Guam, Retold as a YA Novel

The Wikipedia Entry for Guam, Retold as a YA Novel This is just one of several awesome literary parodies on The Toast lately. Some others: Ever French Novel Ever My Prestigious Literary Novel and Just A Normal Bestselling Teen Novel
posted by pocketfullofrye at 4:44 PM PST - 17 comments

The Mother of Dark Matter

Vera Rubin and Dark Matter Vera Rubin has been quoted as saying "Does Sex Matter? Of course it does. But does it matter enough to Matter? That's a different question." She is an astronomer and mother of four who successfully combined a serious career with raising a family. She is one of the discoverers of dark matter. [more inside]
posted by Michele in California at 3:54 PM PST - 6 comments

How to turn Barbies into Doctor Who Weeping Angels

"Six Barbies, two cans of primer, two cans of Stone paint, four bags of feathers, less than half a yard of fabric, (a Dremel), miles of hot glue, and a shit-ton of patience." The result: Weeping Barbie Angels.
posted by DarlingBri at 2:40 PM PST - 41 comments

I Punch First

On 22nd May 2014, Gia Milinovich awoke to discover an intruder in her house. This is what happened next.
posted by chrimble at 2:16 PM PST - 107 comments

"A and not-A are mutually exclusive. That’s negation."

Welcome to Night Vale: where even “not” isn’t what it seems. All Things Linguistic considers how MeFi favorite Welcome to Night Vale  (previously) achieves its humor through violating certain deeply-held beliefs.
posted by Lexica at 2:00 PM PST - 52 comments

Tic Tac Toes in My Mouth

A worksheet to help you talk to your partner about sex
posted by cute little Billy Henderson, age 4 at 1:57 PM PST - 37 comments

What Happens When 350 Musicians Meet For The First Time In Brooklyn?

What Happens When 350 Musicians Meet For The First Time In Brooklyn?
posted by chunking express at 1:46 PM PST - 20 comments

The Discovery of Oneself: An Interview with Daniel Mendelsohn on Proust

“What is the lesson you draw from your own existence?” This is the philosophy that Proust teaches us. Last year, the French magazine La Revue des Deux Mondes published an interview with Daniel Mendelsohn about his experiences reading Proust as part of a special issue on “Proust vu d’Amérique.” Translated from the French by Anna Heyward. [more inside]
posted by whyareyouatriangle at 1:17 PM PST - 9 comments

Sailor Moon: The Explainer

On July 5, 2014, Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Crystal will premiere on Japanese streaming site Nico Nico Douga and on Hulu Plus 17 years, 4 months, and 27 days after the final episode of Sailor Moon: Sailor Stars aired in 1997. No disrespect to J.J. Abrams, but this is the most important resurrected franchise of the decade. Any questions? The opening and transformation sequence have been leaked and can be seen here.
posted by leesh at 12:58 PM PST - 38 comments

Tibetans breathe thin air because of extinct cavemen ancestors?

A new paper in Nature suggests the gene variant that allows Tibetans to thrive at high altitudes may have arisen in the mysterious Denisovans, an extinct branch of hominid that co-existed with modern humans and Neanderthals. Denisovans were discovered through DNA analysis of a single bone from a cave in Siberia. Popular article in Slate. Just as Neanderthal ancestry contributed 1-4% of genes to modern people with ancestry outside of sub-Saharan Africa, Denisovan ancestry lives on in Southern Asia, and as the new research suggests, conferred benefits to the people of Tibet. From links here and here you can download the DNA letters for the first Denisovan discovered, along with a report generated based on personal genomics analysis.
posted by Schmucko at 12:41 PM PST - 12 comments

Stash Pad

Why New York real estate is the best place to hide your millions.
posted by ellieBOA at 11:22 AM PST - 86 comments

Everybody get up, it's time to slam now

Maybe you know everything there is to know about Space Jam. Maybe you've still got the lovingly-preserved official website (previously) in your bookmarks folder. And you may have already seen the creepy Space Jam-themed mod of NBA 2K14. But if you really wanna jam, listen to the many, many, many mashups featuring the Quad City DJs' theme song. So, come on and slam! And welcome to the jam! [more inside]
posted by Metroid Baby at 10:58 AM PST - 21 comments

By the creek I heard a voice: O woe, O woe, I had no choice

The hole the fox did make , a comic by Emily Carroll. [more inside]
posted by zeptoweasel at 10:27 AM PST - 11 comments

Tell me behind what door your treasure lies

149 previously-unknown Bob Dylan acetate recordings were recently discovered in two boxes labelled "Old Records" in the back of a closet on W. Houston Street in New York City. [more inside]
posted by sockermom at 9:53 AM PST - 41 comments

We Shall Overcome

Today is the 50th anniversary of the signing of the civil rights act, and to commemorate, the Lyndon B. Johnson Presidential Library hosted in April a Civil Rights Summit, featuring dozens of civil rights luminaries as well as Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and President Barack Obama. [more inside]
posted by Ndwright at 9:52 AM PST - 11 comments

Summer Is for Skinny People

For some of us, summer is the season of dread, because, for all its many charms, it's also the season during which taking off one's clothes in public becomes customary, at times even compulsory. While I am spiritually and voyeuristically 100 percent on board with partial and total public nudity among those who choose to engage in it (a segment of the population I envy as deeply as some people envy millionaires), my own relationship to bodily exposure is a joint-freezing, breath-seizing nightmare. To couch it in terms of the ranking phobias in American life, I would rather address a large audience while sealed in a coffin aboard a free-falling airplane infested by poisonous spiders the size of Alaskan king crabs than take my shirt off at the beach.
posted by josher71 at 9:50 AM PST - 107 comments

"Local films for local people"

"The Lost World of Mitchell & Kenyon": In 1994, workers demolishing a toy shop in Blackburn, England stumbled on hundreds of films of Edwardian-era daily life made and collected by Sagar Mitchell and James Kenyon. This BBC series describes their rediscovery and historical significance, revisits filming locations, and includes interviews with relatives of some of the films' subjects. [more inside]
posted by ryanshepard at 9:49 AM PST - 7 comments

Daily affirmations from a time before this: a fanzine trawl

Do you miss the music fanzine culture of the 1980s and 1990s, when publications like Forced Exposure, Bananafish, Conflict, Superdope, Crank, Siltbreeze, Matter and Lowlife cataloged the under-the-counter culture? Fuckin' Record Reviews brings you highlights from all of these zines and more!

Check out the early writings of musicians like Steve Albini, Bill Callahan, Alan Licht and David Grubbs, as well as veteran rockcrits like Byron Coley, Gerard Cosloy, Tom Lax, etc.
posted by porn in the woods at 9:47 AM PST - 8 comments

How can you do justice to all? You can't.

While interviewing Indra K. Nooyi, the CEO of PepsiCo, at the Aspen Ideas Festival Monday, David Bradley, who owns The Atlantic, asked two questions that elicited as frank a discussion of work-life balance as I've seen from a U.S. CEO. Pepsi CEO's Mother Had A Brutally Honest Reaction To Her Daughter’s New Job. (Previously)
posted by naju at 8:21 AM PST - 193 comments

Accounting by, and for, the Dutch

The Vanished Grandeur Of Accounting, in which Jacob Soll argues that it was the Dutch, and certainly not the Venetians or Florentines who are responsible for the spread of that moral and mathematical revolution: double-entry accounting. [more inside]
posted by the man of twists and turns at 7:57 AM PST - 15 comments

"I create forms and ideas, but I'm not responsible for them."

In Search of Moebius [SLYT]
posted by Fizz at 7:52 AM PST - 8 comments

Why the Civil Rights Act couldn’t pass today

"Although the Civil Rights Act passed the Senate by 73-27, with 27 out of 33 Republican votes, one of the six Republicans who voted against it was Barry Goldwater of Arizona, who weeks later became the GOP’s presidential standard-bearer and started the long process by which the Party of Lincoln became the party of white backlash, especially in the South. Today, Republicans hold complete legislative control in all 11 states of the Old Confederacy for only the second time since Reconstruction." [more inside]
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 7:47 AM PST - 19 comments

"A Subtlety" & We Are Here

Why I Yelled at the Kara Walker Exhibit: "Anger shot up my body like a hot thermometer. Face flushed, I walked to the Mammy sphinx. Couples posed in front of it, smiling as others took their photos. So here it was, an artwork about how Black people’s pain was transformed into money was a tourist attraction for them... Something snapped... I yelled that this was our history and that many of us were angry and sad that it was a site of pornographic jokes." [more inside]
posted by flex at 7:46 AM PST - 168 comments

Where it went wrong for African teams at the World Cup

As the last of the African teams exits at the Round of 16, filmmaker and columnist Farai Sevenzo looks at the state of African football, bedevilled by the perennial problems of poor organisation, tactical indiscipline and rows over money. [BBC]
posted by marienbad at 7:27 AM PST - 10 comments

"It's a privilege to want less."

The last decade has seen an explosion of interest in farmer's markets, healthful cooking, and dismantling the industrial food system, spurred in large part by Michael Pollan's 2006 book The Omnivore's Dilemma. But the "food movement" of today tends to be dominated by affluent urbanites, and messages from Brooklyn and San Francisco often don't reach--or resonate with--the majority of places in between.
Guernica contributor Meara Sharma interviews food journalists Jane Black and Brent Cunningham about the juxtaposition of American working-class culture, Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution, and the idealized pastoral leanings of the modern-day food movement: Servings of Small Change. [more inside]
posted by divined by radio at 7:10 AM PST - 100 comments

Why am I screaming for Ice Cream again?

NYT Dining & Wine's Ice Cream Issue:
posted by and they trembled before her fury at 6:38 AM PST - 59 comments

Space without the space

The solar system's solid surfaces stitched together. If you want some more detailed imagery, you can always browse around NASA's planetary photojournal archive.
posted by curious nu at 6:32 AM PST - 17 comments

"Lime tainted with the sour taste of racism"

“We pride ourselves on our multiculturalism and inclusiveness, but what kind of message are we sending to visitors and new Canadians from that region (South Africa) when they see this racial slur being used for a trendy ingredient with no thought as to how hurtful it might be to a segment of our own population?”
The Vancouver Sun reports on the increasingly popular southeast Asian lime with the shockingly racist but obscure in Canada name. [more inside]
posted by MartinWisse at 6:07 AM PST - 108 comments

The 50 Greatest Summer Blockbusters

At The Dissolve: 12 critics narrowed down a list of more than 650 movies, all released between May 1 and August 31 between 1975 and 2013, to arrive at the 50 greatest summer blockbusters. [more inside]
posted by valkane at 5:00 AM PST - 72 comments

"Iconography"

Back in March, the AV Club premiered a new feature called Iconography, which is an illustrated column by Nick Wanserski examining "pop culture's most fascinating objects". Though the updates have been very sporadic since then, here are the first three entries for your enjoyment: The golden idol from "Raiders of the Lost Ark", The spinning top from "Inception", and Link's floppy hat from "The Legend of Zelda".
posted by AlonzoMosleyFBI at 4:58 AM PST - 7 comments

The Decade Between Rise and Dawn

Three short films depict the spread of simian flu during the decade between Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes and Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes: Spread Of The Simian Flu: Quarantine (Year 1) [6m25s], Struggling To Survive: All Fall Down (Year 5) [5m10s], Story Of The Gun: The Gun (Year 10) [13m40s]. [more inside]
posted by hippybear at 12:44 AM PST - 23 comments

"Daddy is exercising his demons."

Peter and Jane: the Lost Episodes Artist Jon Bentley revisits images from his youth.
posted by mecran01 at 12:32 AM PST - 11 comments

July 1

Alone, in an aqueous atmosphere where distant bells linger

Diseased Gardens offers a selection of 20th C. weird fiction from Belgium and France as well as a checklist of strange fiction in translation. [more inside]
posted by Monsieur Caution at 11:13 PM PST - 4 comments

Routine Pelvic Exams are Unnecessary

The American College of Physicians admitted Monday that pelvic exams are not a useful screening tool for healthy women, and can even be harmful. Although these exams are often still required for hormonal contraception, there is no medical reason to do so, and pelvics are often a significant barrier to birth control access. They are not an effective way to diagnose ovarian cancer either, and urinalysis is a better way to detect STIs. The American College of Obstetricans and Gynecologists disagreed, but acknowledged that the case for pelvic exams "lacks data." Pelvic exams are so anxiety-inducing, uncomfortable, or painful that they can even cause some people to avoid medical care altogether, yet both clinicians and patients are so resistant to change that it's likely millions of women will continue to be screened despite the lack of evidence of benefit.
posted by Violet Hour at 10:59 PM PST - 95 comments

Sometimes you just have to pick up a pen.

Calligraphy-skills.com is a wonderful throwback to the early days of the Web, when someone would just helpfully organize and present a wealth of information on a given topic for free, simply because they were that into it. [more inside]
posted by DoctorFedora at 10:34 PM PST - 8 comments

When it's not March but you still want the Madness

The NCAA On Demand You Tube Channel features the NCAA Vault, which houses the complete game broadcasts of dozens of NCAA tournament games from as far back as 1976 up through 2011. Jimmy V's NC State team defeats Phi Slamma Jamma, some freshman named Michael Jordan sinks the game winner, Bird vs. Magic, Christian Laettner steps all over Kentucky, etc., etc. Lots of shining moments in there.
posted by MoonOrb at 9:18 PM PST - 3 comments

Practice makes perfect

No one who's ever seen film footage of Adolf Hitler giving his rousing speeches could have failed to notice the importance of Der Führer’s wildly exaggerated gestures and body language. Well, it turns out Hitler worked very carefully on that aspect of his public persona, very carefully indeed. During his rise to power, Adolf Hitler had his private photographer, Heinrich Hoffman, shoot him while he practiced those gestures, so that his speeches might have the dramatic impact upon his audiences that he sought. Here are the photos.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 8:22 PM PST - 79 comments

Hey, dummy!

Retail Therapy: What Mannequins Say About Us
Like the larger fashion industry, mannequin design echoes seasonal styles that come and go, both in regard to technological improvements and the way we view our bodies. “It’s often the body attitudes and facial expressions that reflect what’s going on socially,” says Hale. Accordingly, the stiff, unnatural bodies of early mannequins were well-matched for the Victorian Era‘s restrictive ideas about women’s rights and fashions, which dictated they wear many layers of heavy fabric over tight-fitting corsets.
[more inside]
posted by Room 641-A at 8:19 PM PST - 14 comments

Making a life on the margins of society

After Koovagam, India's Largest Transgender Festival: "Some of the transgender women you see on the street were training to be lawyers or engineers," says Rangeela, who is one of a handful in her circle who did not drop out of school. "I hope in that in 10 years those people can go on with their careers and not be stuck into a life of prostitution." [more inside]
posted by Ragini at 8:01 PM PST - 2 comments

They Might Be Giants

TMBG: First Album Live
posted by roll truck roll at 7:48 PM PST - 19 comments

Murder, She Wrote. And Played.

"But I’m getting ahead of myself. First, let me tell you a story: a story about a board game. The Murder, She Wrote board game. You didn't know such a thing existed? Neither did I, before my friend Sarah brought it one summer to camp. (For the sake of clarity: I mean camp in the upstate New York sense, i.e., a small un-insulated cottage on a freshwater lake that has a preponderance of mismatched glasses and forks with wonky tines and maybe exposed studs but is the greatest place to family-vacation on earth.) Sarah and I met in day care, and had been friends for years—but this year, when she came to visit, she unknowingly brought the one thing that would enflame my jealousy." [more inside]
posted by joseph conrad is fully awesome at 7:28 PM PST - 35 comments

" . . . but women hold the power of story."

Women make up roughly half of the 42 million Pashtun people in the borderland. The kind of hardship they know is rare. Some are bought and sold, others killed for perceived slights against family honor. But this doesn’t render them passive. Most of the Pashtun women I know possess a rebellious and caustic humor beneath their cerulean burkas, which have become symbols of submission. This finds expression in an ancient form of folk poetry called landay. Two lines and 22 syllables long, they can be rather startling to the uninitiated. War, drones, sex, a husband’s manhood—these poems are short and dangerous, like the poisonous snake for which they’re named.
posted by jason's_planet at 5:52 PM PST - 12 comments

Lionel Messi is impossible.

Lionel Messi is impossible. Benjamin Morris of 538 uses statistics to prove that Lionel Messi is the best footballer on Earth.
posted by OmieWise at 5:43 PM PST - 77 comments

“...like Michael Moore, only not mean.”

Rick Sebak, Pittsburgh’s resident documentarian and the inventor of the scrapbook documentary, has a brand new documentary out: A History of Pittsburgh in 17 Objects. Don’t know about the quirky joys of Rick Sebak, or of Pittsburgh? This is your lucky day. [more inside]
posted by Stacey at 4:38 PM PST - 30 comments

The wistful specter of what might've been if only he'd been listened to

From his time in Cairo, Lawrence was aware of the extravagant promises the British government had made to Hussein in order to raise the Arab Revolt: full independence for virtually the entire Arab world..............His first act of sedition — and by most any standards, a treasonous one — was to inform Faisal of the existence of Sykes-Picot.....The True Story of Lawrence of Arabia . Previously and Previously
posted by lalochezia at 4:18 PM PST - 11 comments

my brain my brain my brain

Engine - Rachel McKibbens on bipolar disorder.
posted by Mistress at 4:11 PM PST - 3 comments

"Rooms We Die In," by Migueltzinta C. Solís

"Now that aunt #6 was dead, we could be a hand. If we are a hand, my grandmother is the cupped palm at the center of her five remaining children. If we are a hand, my mother is the thumb, and the other fingers are her brothers and sisters.... Mamá is the thumb, and I am her fingernail."
posted by muddgirl at 3:57 PM PST - 6 comments

an overconfident autodidact’s imitation of a Lewis Lapham essay

“Moldbug.” The name sounds like it belongs to a troll who belches from the depths of an Internet rabbit hole. And so it does. (SLTheBaffler) [more inside]
posted by Rustic Etruscan at 3:39 PM PST - 67 comments

Let Freedom Ring...and Be Mapped

Esri Enables Federal Agencies To Open GIS Mapping Data To The Public ESRI is the world's leading maker of GIS software. Their initiative is incredibly important in making mapped/mappable data available to the world. They are basically giving government agencies an Easy Button for opening this up to the public. [more inside]
posted by Michele in California at 1:37 PM PST - 34 comments

20,000 voices, singing as one

The Latvian Song and Dance Festival has existed in some form or another since 1873, held roughly every five years. Along with similar festivals in Estonia and Lithuania, it has been recognized by UNESCO as one of the world's Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity. The approximately 35,000 amateur singers and dancers who travel from all around Latvia to perform the weeklong festival comprise 1.5% of the country's entire population. The centerpiece of the festival is always the final night, when the full complement of roughly 20,000 singers perform the most iconic Latvian folk songs a cappella. In 2013, a song performed on the final night was "Līgo" (a word meaning both "sway" and "summer solstice festival"). But for sheer spine-tingling pleasure, 2008's "Gaismas pils" ("Castle of Light") can't be beat.
posted by ocherdraco at 1:33 PM PST - 17 comments

RIP Trampas

Trampas, aka StudBook 424, passed away this week, leaving behind over 770 descendants, at the ripe old age of 13, the longest life known for a loggerhead shrike. [more inside]
posted by gingerbeer at 1:09 PM PST - 13 comments

To read Spark is always to read about reading.

Describing Dame Muriel Spark's oeuvre as "a body of work singular in its violence, formal inventiveness, and scorching opening lines," Parul Sehgal's What Muriel Spark Saw examines the enduring appeal and the mystery of Spark's fiction, particularly the "monstruous" women: "What hash Spark's characters make of those eternal debates over unlikable characters or unlikable women." [more inside]
posted by mixedmetaphors at 12:56 PM PST - 5 comments

English explodes in India

English words are becoming more popular in various Indian languages (Hindi is the language that's predominantly discussed in the article). Vise versa: words that English owes to India (again, predominately discussing Hindi).
posted by Shouraku at 12:46 PM PST - 17 comments

Penny in Your Pants

Cycling in a skirt? Avoid flashing onlookers by putting a Penny in Your Pants. Alternately you could buy or DIY a bike garter - or simply perfect your mounting technique with this super sick trick.
posted by susanvance at 12:27 PM PST - 73 comments

"I can keep it on my bookshelf without worry of remote recall."

"E-book backup is a physical, tangible, human readable copy of an electronically stored novel. The purchased contents of an e-book reader were easily photocopied and clip-bound to create a shelf-stable backup for the benefit of me, the book consumer." [more inside]
posted by jessamyn at 12:19 PM PST - 31 comments

We sit together, the mountain and I, until only the mountain remains.

MOUNTAIN: A "Mountain Simulator, Relax 'em up, Art Horror" game by David OReilly (previously).
posted by Cash4Lead at 11:56 AM PST - 13 comments

30 Years of PG-13

When the 1984 blockbuster “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom,” which features a man holding a still-beating heart in his bare hands and other visual delights, was too gory for its original PG rating, Steven Spielberg contacted Jack Valenti and proposed the PG-13 rating. "Any drug use will initially require at least a PG-13 rating. More than brief nudity will require at least a PG-13 rating, but such nudity in a PG-13 rated motion picture generally will not be sexually oriented. There may be depictions of violence in a PG-13 movie, but generally not both realistic and extreme or persistent violence. A motion picture’s single use of one of the harsher sexually-derived words, though only as an expletive, initially requires at least a PG-13 rating. More than one such expletive requires an R rating, as must even one of those words used in a sexual context."
posted by keli at 11:51 AM PST - 38 comments

Is 100 the right number?

Astronaut Sally Ride and the Burden of Being The First. 'Tampons were packed with their strings connecting them, like a strip of sausages, so they wouldn’t float away. Engineers asked Ride, “Is 100 the right number?” She would be in space for a week. “That would not be the right number,” she told them. At every turn, her difference was made clear to her. When it was announced Ride had been named to a space flight mission, her shuttle commander, Bob Crippen, who became a lifelong friend and colleague, introduced her as “undoubtedly the prettiest member of the crew.” At another press event, a reporter asked Ride how she would react to a problem on the shuttle: “Do you weep?”'
posted by kmz at 11:48 AM PST - 95 comments

"This is no very striking resemblance of your own character, I am sure."

Manfeels Park
Manfeels Park is an exercise in flogging a pun for all it’s worth. The male dialogue in this webcomic is all taken word for word or adapted only slightly from web commentary by hurt and confused men with Very Important Things To Explain, usually to women. Artistic license is exercised in editing commentary for brevity, spelling and grammar, but the spirit of the original comment is always faithfully observed. Witty rejoinders are also ‘found dialogue’ where possible.
[more inside]
posted by Lexica at 10:23 AM PST - 125 comments

The Patron Saint of Defense Attorneys

Ted Kaczynski. Jared Lee Loughner. Eric Rudolph. Susan Smith. And now, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. They all stood (or stand) accused of committing heinous crimes. They all faced (or face) the death penalty. And they all have something- or rather, someone- else in common. [more inside]
posted by showbiz_liz at 10:15 AM PST - 17 comments

Good Thread Post

For 37 years, Bothwell, a small town in Tasmania, has hosted an international competition to determine who can hand spin the longest 2-ply thread using 10 grams of wool. [more inside]
posted by tchemgrrl at 10:09 AM PST - 14 comments

The Sun Shines Bright On My Old Kentucky Home!

Gays have right to marry in Kentucky, judge rules [more inside]
posted by magstheaxe at 10:00 AM PST - 40 comments

Drew Nowhere


Drew Chessie Nowhere is a bike punk who regularly takes leave from his job as a chef in NOLA to go on epic bicycle tours, full of camping with his dog in the woods, dumpster diving, and campstove cooking. He is covered with tattoos from artist Pauly Lingerfelt. He is also a fantastic photographer.

bike touring tumblr

bike touring F.A.Q.

flickr

posted by Juliet Banana at 9:39 AM PST - 15 comments

The Fox, The Madien, The River, And The Witch

Leigh Bardugo writes haunting, Eastern-European inspired fairy tales (Previously) often highlighting the experience of women in a unfair world. Tor.com presents two new stories, the somber "The Too-Clever Fox" and the subversive "Little Knife."
posted by The Whelk at 9:35 AM PST - 8 comments

Insuring the Dead

Inside the business of South American corpse-repatriation insurance [more inside]
posted by ellieBOA at 8:34 AM PST - 3 comments

The Other Net

The Energy Sciences Network is a private Department of Energy network operated by Lawrence Berkeley National Lab, that links research institutions in the United States and the world. In 2011 researchers acheived 91+ Gbps disk-to-disk on their 100 gbps network. The Shadow Internet.
posted by the man of twists and turns at 7:48 AM PST - 16 comments

Justice and identity

Yesterday, President Obama announced that in addition to the already announced executive order regarding protecting federally contracted workers from discrimination, the White House is preparing an executive order banning job discrimination among federal employees on the basis of gender identity. Department of Labor Secretary Tom Perez wrote in a blog post yesterday that DOL will be "updating enforcement protocols and anti-discrimination guidance to clarify that we provide the full protection of the federal non-discrimination laws that we enforce to transgender individuals" to comply with the EEOC decision in Macy v. Holder. [more inside]
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 7:36 AM PST - 21 comments

Canadianisms

55 Canadianisms You May Not Know or Are Using Differently
A (non-scientific) survey providing a thorough & fascinating look at words in Canadian English [more inside]
posted by flex at 7:26 AM PST - 244 comments

Tax dollars hard at work around Saturn

Ten years ago, the Cassini–Huygens spacecraft became the first to orbit the planet Saturn. After dropping off Huygens on the moon Titan, Cassini proceeded to spend its time exploring the Saturn system, watching the birth of a new moon, photographing water vents on Enceladus, discovering methane lakes on Titan, spotting hurricanes on Saturn, confirming aspects of general relativity and all sorts of other stuff. Enjoy these stunning photographs, explore the timeline of its exploration and marvel at the complex orbital mechanics that keep Cassini flying in Saturn's system with a tiny fuel supply.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 6:58 AM PST - 32 comments

Marianne North: The Flower Huntress

Where most other naturalists took samples, she used her paints to make a "unique snapshot of the world’s natural habitat more than 100 years ago." Although she didn't take up oil painting until she was nearly 40, North became a prolific painter of flora (and sometimes fauna) from around the world, often capturing not just the plant but the landscape around it. [more inside]
posted by pointystick at 6:39 AM PST - 11 comments

and thus began my morbid fascination

The Morbid Anatomy Museum, a treasure trove of pathological and funereal curiosities, antique medical models, and anatomical art pledged to "exploring the intersections of death, beauty, and that which falls between the cracks," has opened its doors to the public in Gowanus, Brooklyn. [more inside]
posted by divined by radio at 5:24 AM PST - 17 comments

The Sahrawis never had a country

Photojournalist Micah Albert and I made the 1,000-mile journey from the Algerian capital, Algiers, to Rabouni to see if we could find evidence of this purported hotbed of extremism in the Polisario-controlled camps. After months of investigation, including two weeks spent in the camps last September, we didn’t uncover a wellspring of terrorists in the desert. Instead, we found a SADR government desperate to maintain its claim over the shores of the Western Sahara and whatever resources might lie there — like the rich fisheries and the mines that provide most of the world’s phosphate. We found a population, inclusive of the Polisario army, that the U.S. government is indirectly, and perhaps unknowingly, spending millions of dollars each year to feed through a multimillion-dollar aid package provided by the United States Agency for International Development’s Office of Food for Peace.
For Foreign Policy David Conrad reports about the forty year struggle for independence in the Western Sahara and the impact the War on Terror, not to mention the threatened discovery of oil have had on the Sahrawi and their struggle.
posted by MartinWisse at 5:04 AM PST - 6 comments

that’s fine. i’m going to figure out a way to do this on my own

the rise of the DIY abortion in texas
posted by and they trembled before her fury at 4:14 AM PST - 104 comments

Run Like a Girl Means I Can Also Win the Race

Previously, Hello Flo, created this hilarious video about spunky young girls at summer camp and then First Moon Party, a celebration of a young woman's first period, which she fakes with glittery red nail polish on a pad, so desperate is she to begin menstruation. And now, another feminine hygiene product gets in on the image of powerful young women who menstruate by asking what it means to say someone does something "like a girl." Yes, I kick like a girl, and that's a good thing. [more inside]
posted by kinetic at 3:17 AM PST - 34 comments