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It all started with a found footage video [9m13s] that since early January has gotten over 38 million views. Purportedly discovered in 1996, what starts out as friends goofing around with their video camera turns into an exploration of strange yellow corridors and something lurking therein. Just a few days later, a second video, this time from 1988, showed some kind of scientific test [1m48s] going on that does a something... Shortly after that, First Contact [1m57s]. What is going on? [more inside]
posted by hippybear at 8:22 PM PST - 37 comments

To Improve a STROAD: How One City Is Reimagining an Orphan Highway // Aurora Avenue in Seattle - CityNerd (20m) So today's video is a case study on an orphan state highway, State Route 99 in north Seattle, AKA Aurora Avenue. We'll do a field visit and look at all the ways Aurora fails the people who live, work, and play there, examine the legacy of north Seattle's substandard urban infrastructure, and look at recent improvements to transit that might be a starting point for a better future. Finally, we'll talk about how advocacy groups, the City, WSDOT, and King County Metro are coming together to reimagine the street, and how Aurora attracted $50 million in this year's state infrastructure package to make real changes on one of the street's most challenged segments.
posted by CrystalDave at 7:03 PM PST - 23 comments

The agencies of the United States government often have procedures for unusual situations. For example, the Forest Service winds up with the issue of dealing with a dead pack animal in the field, where a carcass could potentially attract the wrong sort of attention. The agency's solution - high explosives, in large quantities.
posted by NoxAeternum at 4:59 PM PST - 32 comments

AI wins state fair art contest, annoys humans. Want to try generating images at home? Stable Diffusion, an AI image-gen model like DALL-E 2 and Midjourney, was publicly released last week, and can be run on any computer with a decent GPU, a google collab, or run through their own servers. [more inside]
posted by simmering octagon at 4:48 PM PST - 59 comments

[title] is both more and less than a novella; but mostly more. Caustic, biting, brutal, puzzling and punishing. Riddled with lapses, pockmarked with gaps and schisms, though overdetermined with nearly any and every cliché and esoteric allusion imaginable, [title] is too much and too little, a surplus of negativity, an excess of void. [title] refuses to stand still, its pages quivering restlessly between its covers, its scope unbounded despite only 87 pages. from [name of author]’s [title], Reviewed by Anthony Ballas [more inside]
posted by chavenet at 3:50 PM PST - 10 comments

It seems a lot of people didn't quite expect the upcoming Weird Al Yankovic biopic to be this serious about faithfully depicting the story of his life and career. [Link to YouTube trailer.]
posted by straight at 2:12 PM PST - 103 comments

Buying a fake musician profile on Apple/Spotify in order to get a blue check on Instagram is a way for numerous non-musicians to gain cred and boost their brand: "The verification scheme identified by ProPublica exploited music platforms like Spotify and Apple Music, as well as Google search, to create fake musician profiles. The songs uploaded to client profiles were often nothing more than basic looping beats or, in at least one case, extended periods of dead air. They credited composers with nonsense names such as “rhusgls stadlhvs” and “kukyush fhehjer.” The Meta employees tasked with reviewing the musician verification applications apparently failed to listen to the tracks or look too closely." [more inside]
posted by oneirodynia at 2:08 PM PST - 18 comments

The Origins of the Elite EdgeLords: I never met Epstein; I didn’t know that some Edgies jetted around in the zillion-dollar private plane known as the Lolita Express. But over the years I got eyefuls of what I was excluded from when Brockman, in our meetings, showed me photos of events packed with men he said were billionaires, Nobel laureates, or somehow both. A bowling league for übermenschen, that Edge: Sergey Brin, Yuri Milner, Jacqui Safra, David Brooks, Nassim Nicholas Taleb, Jeff Bezos. [more inside]
posted by mecran01 at 12:28 PM PST - 22 comments

slyt Does as it says in the title.
posted by Webbster at 11:47 AM PST - 16 comments

The U.S. copyright on A.A. Milne's classic children's book expired at the end of 2021. It only took eight months for Rhys Frake-Waterfield to write, produce, and direct Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey, a horror movie complete with a bikini-clad woman in a hot tub. The Disney animated version remains under copyright, so the murderous Pooh and Piglet of this story aren't quite how they're popularly remembered. But Christopher Robin is there, and Eeyore (after a fashion), and the 100 Acre Wood.
posted by Etrigan at 10:45 AM PST - 78 comments

It’s not an easy job. Each year, hundreds of people try out for a spot on the U.S. Open Ball Crew, those speedy attendants who run around the court and retrieve wayward tennis balls during the U.S. Open without interrupting a match. Applicants must perform rigorous drills that test court awareness, agility and the ability to roll, catch and toss a tennis ball. (SLWaPo) [more inside]
posted by Kybard at 10:43 AM PST - 8 comments

As the Colorado River dries, the US teeters on the brink of a larger water crisis. A depressing but well written article featuring an in depth interview with climate scientist Jay Famiglietti. [more inside]
posted by mygothlaundry at 10:04 AM PST - 22 comments

August is Falling is back! The EP lands September 2nd. [more inside]
posted by Your Childhood Pet Rock at 9:23 AM PST - 17 comments

22 Goals is series of 19 podcast episodes, each focusing on a single goal (sometimes two) scored at a men’s World Cup, but ranging widely, hosted and written by Brian Phillips. Each episode can also be read as an essay. So far there have been four episodes, on Diego Maradona’s two goals against England in 1986, Ronaldo’s World Cup final double in 2002, Kylian Mbappé’s goal in the 2018 final, and Dennis Bergkamp’s goal against Argentina in 1998.
posted by Kattullus at 8:07 AM PST - 2 comments

"When fasting insulin and the natural logarithm of c-reactive protein were included in the model, an inverse association between BMI and mortality was present" Risk is overestimated for fat people, some of whom don't have the real risk factors and underestimated for thin people, some of whom do have the risk factors.
posted by Nancy Lebovitz at 7:33 AM PST - 21 comments

The Unsent Project is a collection of unsent text messages to first loves. CW: A mix of sweet, sad, and disturbing. It's a fairly unfiltered collection of thoughts that anonymous people put into a textbox on the internet. [more inside]
posted by wesleyac at 6:25 AM PST - 19 comments

The Rise of 'Stealerships' and the Shady Economics of Car Buying (SLNPR)
posted by box at 4:49 AM PST - 101 comments

My Weekend as a 28-year-old in Chicago Illinois (SLvideo)
posted by vverse23 at 9:15 PM PST - 15 comments

Why Don’t Chinese People Talk About the Dead? When I ask my relatives why we don’t talk about the dead, they cannot answer confidently. “Because you never asked,” my mother says. “Talking brings back unhappy memories,” one aunt suggests. Perhaps my dentist in Vancouver gave the most telling response. [...] She sat back and, narrowing her brows, said, “We just don’t.”
posted by Rora at 6:08 PM PST - 12 comments

10 years after Netflix released David Gelb's documentary "Jiro Dreams of Sushi", Eater takes a look at how the film has impacted our perception of authenticity, a boom of omakase restaurants in the US, and its influence on a decade of food documentaries.
posted by noneuclidean at 5:22 PM PST - 17 comments

Mikhail Gorbachev, last President of the Soviet Union, has died aged 91.
posted by Fiasco da Gama at 5:06 PM PST - 73 comments

Pakistan, which produces less than 1% of the world's carbon emissions but is ranked as the eighth most affected nation by climate change, is experiencing devastating floods affecting around 33 million people. High levels of flooding are expected to continue in the next days and as much as one quarter or one third of the country could be underwater before the extreme weather event ends. Sherry Rehman, Pakistan’s climate change minister, said towns had become “oceans and rivers” but, due to climate heating, she expected the country to go straight into a drought in upcoming weeks. “We are on the front of unfolding climate catastrophe.”
posted by roolya_boolya at 4:33 PM PST - 18 comments

Unlike some time sinks, Wordle is a great way to stay connected with people, because its the same for everyone. I can’t stop playing Wordle! by Bill Gates
posted by chavenet at 3:46 PM PST - 48 comments

Comedian Sandy Honig has a stomach condition called gastroparesis, “which causes me to vomit almost everything I eat”. The condition can be managed with a Botox shot to the pyloric sphincter. Unfortunately Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield denied her claim for this treatment on the grounds they don’t cover “cosmetic procedures." So Sandy went to appeal in person... (CW: A LOT OF REAL VOMITING. SERIOUSLY, A LOT.) [more inside]
posted by Lentrohamsanin at 2:44 PM PST - 22 comments

AI-Generated Birds. A new side-hustle from the developer of BirdNET. [more inside]
posted by kaibutsu at 1:04 PM PST - 8 comments

The Squeaky Wheel: your top news source for disabled people, by disabled people. [more inside]
posted by MetaFilter World Peace at 12:04 PM PST - 12 comments

The last remaining member of an uncontacted indigenous group in Brazil has died, officials say. The man, whose name was not known, had lived in total isolation for the past 26 years.
posted by Etrigan at 10:35 AM PST - 28 comments

Lori Teresa Yearwood interviews Salvador Chacon: I asked Chacon if he is ever tempted to go back to the streets. “All the time,” he said. “It was a lot easier for me on the streets—I knew how to cope better. Now I got this apartment and I’m stuck in my own mind.” [more inside]
posted by Carillon at 7:45 PM PST - 44 comments

Metafilter forgot about this place, but it's still there, being a community that halfbakes inventions. What is the halfbakery? The halfbakery is a communal database of poorly thought-out ideas for inventions. Its users can post their inventions and add links and commentary to other people's posts. [more inside]
posted by aniola at 7:39 PM PST - 25 comments

It is a madcap, romantic thing to try to document the entire Earth, an undertaking so ambitious and so hopeful it must be delusional. And yet, faced with the crisis of a rapidly changing world at the start of the 20th century, that is precisely what Albert Kahn sought to do. Between 1909 and 1931, he dispatched a team to distant lands to record the world in photography and film exactly as it was: its people, landforms and ways of life. But what the Archives de la Planète makes clear is how much is at stake for us today. It preserves in great antique beauty much of what was then crumbling and vanishing.
posted by blue shadows at 6:40 PM PST - 4 comments

Making an OnlyFans for Saucy Victorian Ankle Pics. Historical costumer Bernadette Banner turns a prank idea into the real thing. Totally safe for work, except for mention of OnlyFans and exactly how one signs up to use and what happens when you produce ankle pictures. Also, how did this whole historical ankle obsession come about, anyway? [more inside]
posted by jenfullmoon at 5:53 PM PST - 23 comments

Chiptune wizard Linus Åkesson builds a theremin out of a Commodore 64, a spoon, and a clamp and talks through its workings. [more inside]
posted by cichlid ceilidh at 3:14 PM PST - 14 comments

No one enjoys getting a shot at the doctor, including lions! Training helps us give our lions the injections they need. When we say, “line up,” and move our hands along their enclosures, the lions lay down with their sides and hips pressed against the mesh. More from the Smithsonian Zoo on animal care (gorillas, elephants and more!)
posted by spamandkimchi at 3:02 PM PST - 13 comments

Six months into the Russian war on Ukraine, after weeks of seeming stalemate, Ukrainian forces launched their long expected counter offensive in the Kherson region north of the Dnipro river. Over the last month Ukraine has degraded the major river crossings, blown up Russian weapons depots and used American provided HARM missiles to destroy Russian air defenses. Meanwhile Russia has rushed 25,000 troops into the region to be ready to defend the region.
posted by interogative mood at 10:35 AM PST - 580 comments

A mint condition Mickey Mantle baseball card sold for $12.6 million Sunday, blasting into the record books as the most ever paid for sports memorabilia in a market that has grown exponentially more lucrative in recent years.
posted by Etrigan at 9:50 AM PST - 40 comments

New Metatalk post reveals the first members of the Metafilter Steering Committee!
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 9:12 AM PST - 4 comments

Hate [hit?] the lupine, love the lupine [more inside]
posted by clawsoon at 8:44 AM PST - 14 comments

Hannah Jensen is a New Zealand artist who first builds up dozens of layers of acrylic paint on a board and then carves through them to reveal intricate designs, wild animals and beautiful botanicals. Her Instagram contains a lot of process videos and some recent more colourful works.
posted by jacquilynne at 7:10 AM PST - 18 comments

This thread is the next best thing to be ... [more inside]
posted by taz at 2:56 AM PST - 79 comments

The Cookie Monster but it's a custom car audio enclosure powered by a square 18" subwoofer
posted by glonous keming at 8:10 PM PST - 25 comments

“SPACE!” [more inside]
posted by chavenet at 3:36 PM PST - 28 comments

On 27 August 1961, a BBC reporter interviewed four Australians boarding a ship in Melbourne for Tilbury, Essex, about what they expected to find in England. The answers included Tudorian houses, dirty petticoats, the world's last remaining class society with drawing-room manners and a population of neuter men and their suety womenfolk sitting in the fog eating crumpets. (SLTwitter)
posted by acb at 1:16 PM PST - 47 comments

Robin Sloan noticed something odd going on with his spotify radio and made a playlist.
posted by forbiddencabinet at 1:04 PM PST - 26 comments

Emma Goldcoin (EGX) is an easy to use and totally secure cryptocurrency with zero environmental impact. [via mefi projects] [more inside]
posted by aniola at 9:44 AM PST - 43 comments

Fastball [1h27m] is a documentary about that blink of an eye showdown between batter and pitcher. How fast is fast? What is it like throwing or facing a big league fastball? This 2016 documentary by Jonathan Hock is a history of baseball through this lens.
posted by hippybear at 8:34 AM PST - 12 comments

Chiac is a French/English dialect from the Canadian province of New Brunswick, fluidly mixing English loaner words into principally French speech. Listening to chiac as song lyrics can be a delightful -- or disorienting -- experience for people, especially those with passing knowledge but not fluency in French. There are a lot of opportunities to find out, as there's no shortage of bands and musicians who record in chiac, from rap like Radio Radio's "Cliché Hot" to Lisa LeBlanc's "Gossip" to the bonkers brilliance of P'tit Belliveau's "Income Tax". [more inside]
posted by Shepherd at 5:16 PM PST - 39 comments

Progressivism is less a coherent doctrine than a mode of vanity, a wanting-to-be-seen-thinking-the-right-thing, and “linguistic minority,” “oppressed culture,” and “self-determination” all have a rousing sound to them. True, the Catalan language was not only thriving but had become requisite for entry into many professions and spheres of society; true, the people who looked most oppressed in Catalonia were not the Catalans themselves, but the Africans and Maghrebis working for peanuts in the fields or slaughterhouses, or the Latin American cleaning women and caretakers; true, the logic of self-determination had been used to justify Russian military intervention in South Ossetia and the Crimea, not noted liberal causes, and taken to its extreme could just as well rationalize Texas secessionism or white-majority Buckhead’s current scheme to break away from black-majority Atlanta. But beyond all this, it is curious that a movement led by Artur Mas, a conservative whose major policy initiatives had been the opaque privatization of Catalonia’s health care system and parts of its water supply, could be seen as an embodiment of progressive values––the same Artur Mas who had been hand-picked by Jordi Pujol, Catholic founder of the scandal-plagued center-right party Convergència Democràtica de Catalunya. from Hell, or Catalonia by Adrian Nathan West [more inside]
posted by chavenet at 3:28 PM PST - 38 comments

Super Smash Brothers director Masahiro Sakurai has started a YouTube channel on how to make games, an extention of previous educational efforts he has done in other media. (SLYT) [more inside]
posted by NoxAeternum at 10:40 AM PST - 5 comments

Mike Salcedo decided to try and animate one thing a day. So he chose the alphabet. It got somewhat out of hand.
posted by Lorc at 5:07 AM PST - 23 comments

I just discovered a new site that reviews films; graphic novels and books and I really like it. I found out about some cool new graphic novels I hadn't heard of, and I've heard of most of them. The site is by an Australian but not, to the best of my knowledge, by anyone who I know.
posted by carriage pulled by cassowaries at 11:25 PM PST - 8 comments

How long has it been since we had a Flash Friday?
The Mellow Mushroom is a chain of pizza restaurants based and primarily set in the U.S. state of Georgia. What else is owned and operated in Georgia? Homestar Runner! Back in 2001 these two semiagrarian planets shared an orbit for a time: the Brothers Chaps made a website for Mellow Mushroom that will look and sound very familiar to fans of Strong Bad and friends. The site changed design in 2007, but the Chaps' version is still hosted on the company's website, and although Flash is dead, if you install the Ruffle browser extension you can see the site largely as it existed back when it was active. More information is on the Homestar Runner Wiki. [more inside]
posted by JHarris at 2:41 PM PST - 25 comments

SolarProphet is a youtube creator who's recently been on a kick of "[song] but every lyric is an AI generated image". A fun example of human creativity with AI images. ("Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny" is possibly my favourite.) SLYTChannel.
posted by Shark Hat at 1:18 PM PST - 25 comments

The utterly delightful site dedicated to classifying plastic bread tags is an article by Annie Rauwerda about The Holotypic Occlupanid Research Group [previously], or horg.com (horg.org is squatted upon), where John Daniel classifies occlupanids, or plastic bread tags, with biological rigor, taxonomizing the 208 types into 17 families, as well as discussing pseudo-occlupanids.
posted by Kattullus at 12:19 PM PST - 27 comments

And if the camera were to pull back to show me lying on my bed on this July day in 2022, you would see beside me a copy of Industry Of Magic & Light by David Keenan. And a copy of Love And Let Die by John Higgs... This letter to you, dear reader, is not a commentary on these books, let alone any sort of review. This letter to you is my response to them lying on my bed while my body is being battered by the Covid. From Corrugated Iron: Bill Drummond On David Keenan, John Higgs And The 1960s
posted by chavenet at 12:13 PM PST - 2 comments

Diversity and creativity in LGBTQ+ young adult books is thriving. Authors told The 19th why that’s important and recommended some of their favorites.
posted by Etrigan at 10:43 AM PST - 29 comments

A list of things people blamed on jazz (SLTwitter)
posted by vverse23 at 10:38 AM PST - 84 comments

Street life is what makes the places we live feel alive. From grand avenues and shopping strips to pedestrianised backstreets and leafy squares, these streets are manageable microcosms of the world’s most exciting cities – each one chock-full of independent businesses, creative humans and everything else that makes urban life brilliant. Ready to take a stroll? TimeOut asked more than 20,000 people the question: what’s the coolest street in your city?
posted by Laura in Canada at 8:28 AM PST - 83 comments

Every A24 Movie, Ranked (Nate Jones for Vulture) [more inside]
posted by box at 6:03 AM PST - 49 comments

French artist Vaskange uses infinitely zooming images to tell stories: the story of a robot, or his holidays, or a dream . The animations (made with the app "Endless paper") are reminiscent of work like 3 Secondes by fellow Frenchman Marc-Antoine Mathieu. Look out for the reflections!
posted by rongorongo at 5:32 AM PST - 6 comments

The 10-minute pilot episode of the 1994 Live-Action US version of Sailor Moon [more inside]
posted by one for the books at 12:52 AM PST - 7 comments

Shark Side of the Moon (2022). Shark Side of the Moon (2022). [more inside]
posted by swift at 4:20 PM PST - 51 comments

Macron sounds gloomy. The founder of Huawei sounds a bit doom-y. In these trying, potentially recessionary times, the Daily Beast's Cherie DeVille offers advice in A Porn Star’s Guide to Surviving the Recession. "Whether you’re a porn star, a secretary, or a freelance copyeditor, diversify now. Nobody will have a safety net to catch you besides yourself. Diversification is your safety net." [more inside]
posted by Bella Donna at 11:12 AM PST - 15 comments

With the announcement by transgender activist Clara Sorrenti that she is leaving Canada in response to a coordinated abuse campaign directed at her by the notorious alt-right forum Kiwi Farms, there is now a call out for online DDOS protection service and web host CloudFlare to drop Kiwi Farms as a client. [more inside]
posted by NoxAeternum at 10:43 AM PST - 152 comments

For those three decades, planet China revolved around a mysterious sun — the United States. Cunning, baffling and powerful, America as an idea (much more than as an actual place) allowed Chinese to redefine themselves and their expectations of life .... Capitalism, on the other hand, has changed the country utterly, down to every city, town, village and family. Shanghai has always been the capital of that revolution — the altar where prayers to the power of global wealth and enlightenment were cast off in the direction of distant America. With a certain vision of Shanghai vanishing, what’s next for the country? from The Rise And Fall Of Chimerica by Jacob Dreyer [Noema]
posted by chavenet at 10:14 AM PST - 13 comments

For the developing world, refrigeration is growth. In Rwanda, it could spark an economic transformation.
posted by Etrigan at 9:07 AM PST - 14 comments

"There’s a large piece missing to many of the conversations around gun violence ... We are not sufficiently talking about the role that misogyny — and, often, its collision with white supremacy — plays in gun violence." CW: domestic violence, guns
posted by Lycaste at 8:53 AM PST - 16 comments

In the first half of the 2000's, LEGO created two experimental toy lines. One saved it. That was Bionicle. The other almost bankrupted it. That was Galidor. (Documentary video, 26m39s) And here's the complete experimental 26-episode TV series from the creator of Alex Mack. [more inside]
posted by BiggerJ at 6:17 AM PST - 4 comments

"From what I understand, right now, this state has a purple, purple heart." Between her sets, Gaga called Texas a "special place" where a lot of "conversations, a lot of dialogue, a lot of opinions, even some division" happens. "I want to celebrate you all tonight in the name of love," she added. "I want to celebrate the importance of these hard conversations. From what I understand, right now, this state has a purple, purple heart. I think I'm hoping that that purple is gonna go blue." [more inside]
posted by dancestoblue at 9:28 PM PST - 7 comments

The Best Mobile Game You Can't Play looks at Infinity Blade, which was originally released for iPhone 3GS (on Unreal 3!) in 2010. The video covers all three videogames and the two interstitial novels. It's quite a journey for the hero and their bloodline, forward and backward through time across generations. And a fascinating look at a very well developed game and story that is now basically lost.
posted by hippybear at 7:07 PM PST - 23 comments

What working at a used bookstore taught me about literary rejection. I find a book by my undergrad professor. It’s inscribed with a lovely personal note to someone named Katherine. I guess she didn’t want it anymore. I tell myself maybe she died, but that doesn’t make me feel any better. [more inside]
posted by craniac at 6:18 PM PST - 45 comments

With the release of Nona the Ninth less than a month away, it's time to revisit Tamsyn Muir's Gideon the Ninth and Harrow the Ninth. Given Muir's heady blend of mystery, lore, humor, teenage queerness, memes, horror, romance, oblique references to Homestuck, and baroque science fiction, you might need some help (note: many spoilers). [more inside]
posted by GenjiandProust at 3:45 PM PST - 114 comments

What We Do In the Shadows' Harvey Guillén (Guillermo de la Cruz) reflects on his own time living in the shadows—and the moment everything changed.
posted by ShooBoo at 3:01 PM PST - 4 comments

5 Ridiculous Representations of Jonah and the Whale in Art History “In the Book of Jonah, God has an apocalyptic vibe going on and tells Jonah to go preach to the city of Nineveh and get all the citizens to repent before He destroys them all. Jonah tries to run from his responsibilities by booking a cruise, apparently not remembering the whole ‘God is omnipresent’ thing.
...
Here are five artist representations of the story of Jonah and his whale. Please note that these images have been selected for composition, technical execution, and comedic value.” [more inside]
posted by kirkaracha at 2:54 PM PST - 35 comments

An English translation of the transcript of a trial of a 17th Century werewolf held in Swedish Livonia, modern Latvia. The defendant, a peasant known as Old Thiess, claimed to be a hound of god, fighting the devil to safeguard the Earth’s fertility. The judges, Bengt Johan Ackerstaff and Gabriel Berger, were perplexed. This case has fascinated historians, and two of them, Carlo Ginzburg and Bruce Lincoln, discuss the trial of a Latvian werewolf on Susannah Lipscomb’s podcast, Not Just the Tudors, where a couple of years ago Jan Michelsen discussed the trial of a teen werewolf in 17th Century Basque Country.
posted by Kattullus at 12:43 PM PST - 11 comments

Can You Ever Trust a Former White Nationalist?
posted by Ten Cold Hot Dogs at 10:55 AM PST - 65 comments

The Biden Administration has officially released their student debt forgiveness program in an announcement today. [more inside]
posted by NoxAeternum at 10:07 AM PST - 214 comments

For almost two months Crikey has faced the threat of legal action by Lachlan Murdoch over an article about Fox News, Donald Trump and the Jan 6 Washington insurrection. Last night, Lachlan Murdoch finally issued his writ. We welcome it. Today, we continue our coverage of Mr Murdoch’s legal letters and related issues. The letters show how media power works in this country. Crikey will not be silenced. [CW: contains Trump & Murdochs]
posted by chavenet at 3:50 AM PST - 16 comments

Long long ago, before the search for things buried in images proliferated on mobile platforms, there was this classic early example. A true test of your observation skills, it will keep you going for some time. The editor of this image has cleverly hidden within it a can of Spam. Can you find it? It has stymied tens of thousands of searchers for over twenty years. Good luck to you, internet user, and find that spam!
posted by JHarris at 10:27 PM PST - 25 comments

"In addition to being a tribute to Sherlock’s wide-ranging curiosity, it’s a vastly more effective virtual museum of Victoriana than the real one that stands at that London address today. Spend some time here just rummaging about, and maybe follow some of its leads with some independent research of your own, and you’ll begin to feel the frisson of life in this amazing city, the melting pot of the Western world circa 1885." [more inside]
posted by mhoye at 7:59 PM PST - 3 comments

Sue Perkins reads a tribute to her beloved dog Pickle (slyt from Letters of Note)
posted by Etrigan at 5:28 PM PST - 19 comments

The more your employer doesn’t want to lose you, and the more willing you are to leave over it, the stronger the position you’re in for this discussion.
posted by folklore724 at 2:42 PM PST - 142 comments

"We find a form of pluralistic ignorance that we describe as a false social reality: a near universal perception of public opinion that is the opposite of true public sentiment. Specifically, 80–90% of Americans underestimate the prevalence of support for major climate change mitigation policies and climate concern. While 66–80% Americans support these policies, Americans estimate the prevalence to only be between 37–43% on average. Thus, supporters of climate policies outnumber opponents two to one, while Americans falsely perceive nearly the opposite to be true." An article on how what we believe others believe, can encourage inaction.
posted by mittens at 2:04 PM PST - 33 comments

This NYTimes story about doppelgängers is really fun, the photographs that prompted it are fascinating and the science is interesting.
posted by theora55 at 12:47 PM PST - 52 comments

"I was asked to give a talk about anything at all, and thought about how there's a twenty-sided die in the Louvre from ancient Egypt, but none from the middle ages. Yet somehow in the 21st century, everyone seems to know what a d20 is. How did that happen?" (slyt, 4:44)
posted by curious nu at 11:42 AM PST - 23 comments

Researching, reconstructing, and re-imagining wearable technoscience , mostly adaptable bicycle skirts. [more inside]
posted by clew at 11:16 AM PST - 8 comments

What is 'quiet quitting,' and how it may be a misnomer for setting boundaries at work Popularized on TikTok, 'Quiet Quitting' is closing your laptop at 5 p.m. Doing only your assigned tasks. Spending more time with family. [more inside]
posted by Toddles at 10:53 AM PST - 107 comments

I'm not sure what serpentwithfeet is all about, but in his KEXP performance he mentions that he was inspired by D'Angelo's "Voodoo" and Bjork's "Homogenic". He first got attention for his EP Blisters in 2016. He has gone on to sing with Bjork on Blissing Me and release albums Soil and Deacon, and notable singles Cherubim, Redemption, and Bless Ur Heart.
posted by clawsoon at 9:36 AM PST - 4 comments

Peiter "Mudge" Zatko spills all to SEC. It's a tale as old as time in infosec, sadly. Organization hires infosec star. Star criticizes organization's infosec. Organization fires star. Star speaks out publicly and brings lawyers and receipts. What impact this will have on the Twitter takeover bid is as yet unclear, but Twitter users as well as shareholders certainly deserve answers about Twitter's security practices.
posted by humbug at 9:00 AM PST - 60 comments

We just missed the 200th anniversary of passing the Cruel Treatment of Cattle Act 1822 in the UK; sponsored by Richard “Humanity Dick” Martin MP for Galway. It’s still celebrated locally as Martin’s Day on 22nd July. The first prosecution was later that year when costermonger Bill Burns was convicted of wanton cruelty to his donkey: prosecuting attorney, Richard Martin MP. The RSPCA was founded two years later. That's the donkeys, for lobsters . . . [more inside]
posted by BobTheScientist at 6:30 AM PST - 9 comments

Why are success and failure so unpredictable? On one view, the simplest and most general explanation is best, and it points to quality, appropriately measured: success is a result of quality, and the Beatles succeeded because of the sheer quality of their music. On another view, social influences are critical: timely enthusiasm or timely indifference can make the difference for all, including the Beatles, leading extraordinary books, movies, and songs to fail even if they are indistinguishable in quality from those that succeed. from Beatlemania [PDF] by Cass Sunstein
posted by chavenet at 3:17 AM PST - 26 comments

Lahore born, NYC based, Salman Toor is quickly becoming one of the most recognizable painters working today. Recently profiled in The New Yorker, Salman Toor is not just having a moment but a long series of them. [more inside]
posted by Corduroy at 10:57 PM PST - 11 comments

📩 Hi folks, this is a note about the voting for the Steering Committee! 📩

A couple of candidates have removed themselves from the Steering Committee ballot, so please check out this comment for details to see if you need to change some of your votes on the ballot!

Voting ends at 5pm GMT on August 25th!
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 2:47 PM PST - 8 comments

Why women receive less CPR from bystanders. Separate studies explore why women are less likely to receive bystander CPR. A small survey found that people may worry that chest compressions by bystanders will seem improper or may hurt women. A virtual reality study found that even female avatars were less likely to receive CPR from bystanders in a virtual simulation.
posted by carriage pulled by cassowaries at 2:28 PM PST - 61 comments

France is facing a widespread dearth of Dijon mustard, which news outlets wasted no time in attributing to the war in Ukraine. But the story is a whole lot spicier than that.
posted by Etrigan at 12:52 PM PST - 87 comments

Tube on strike, I dawdled to Paddington on Friday. Passing the old wrought iron sign for Pizza Express, I was reminded of an event 30+ years ago, when I got caught up in a drama that resulted in a divorce, two marriages and many changed lives.

It began with a heart attack... (SLTwitter)
posted by MartinWisse at 11:41 AM PST - 34 comments

Enjoy 3 multi-part physics documentaries by BobbyBroccoli. With animation and charts openly inspired by Jon Bois, and storytelling that is informative and compelling enough for the physics-illiterate among us: America's Missing Collider: A Tale of 3 Presidents; The Rise, Lies, and Demise of Jan Hendrik Shon; The Bogdanoff Odyssey.
posted by wellifyouinsist at 10:24 AM PST - 7 comments

OLE, OLE, OLE, this thread is bending it like Beckham! The goalkeeper will never even see us coming. [more inside]
posted by taz at 2:32 AM PST - 50 comments

RIP buys the debts just like any other collection company would — except instead of trying to profit, they send out notices to consumers saying that their debt has been cleared. To date, RIP has purchased $6.7 billion in unpaid debt and relieved 3.6 million people of debt. The group says retiring $100 in debt costs an average of $1. from This group's wiped out $6.7 billion in medical debt, and it's just getting started [NPR]
posted by chavenet at 2:13 AM PST - 47 comments

As we come up on Ukraine's independence day on the 24th, we have seen very little movement in the actual front lines during the last month, but several other developments. Ukraine has been able to target a number of installations deep behind Russian lines, both in Crimea and Russia proper. Responsibility for the assassination of Daria Dugina has been claimed by a previously unknown anti-Putin group inside Russia called NRA. [more inside]
posted by Harald74 at 11:08 PM PST - 101 comments

Psychologist Greg Matos, PsyD believes that, "Men need to address skills deficits to meet healthier relationship expectations." In what is not a post on the Onion, but instead Psychology Today, Dr. Matos suggested that, "Dating opportunities for heterosexual men are diminishing as relationship standards rise. Men need to address skills deficits to meet healthier relationship expectations." More here on Dr. Matos' analysis of women unwilling to date duds and Men's Rights Forums on Reddit trying to parse what the article means.
posted by Word_Salad at 9:16 PM PST - 164 comments

A roundup of July and August 2022 in humanity's exploration of space. Humans and robots explored, rockets ascended and descended, various preparations are under way, and many plans were aired. [more inside]
posted by doctornemo at 5:59 PM PST - 18 comments

Unvarnished This digital history project reveals a comprehensive history of housing discrimination and segregation across the US' North and West. Complicating the notion that most racist policies existed only in the Jim Crow south, Unvarnished includes a national narrative on how racist policies and practices created a segregated nation, along with six "local spotlight" stories for Appleton, WI; West Hartford, CT; Brea, CA; Naperville, IL; Oak Park, IL; and Columbus, OH. [via mefi projects] [more inside]
posted by aniola at 5:38 PM PST - 7 comments

BookRiot delves a little deeper into the most recent Barnes & Noble changes. According to YA award-winning author Kelly Yang, Barnes & Noble has a new, unwritten policy of no longer stocking new hardcovers unless they are top 1-2 for their publishers. BookRiot notes that the unofficial stocking policy has been confirmed by other authors and publishers. [more inside]
posted by toastyk at 1:09 PM PST - 25 comments

From In “The Private Library,” Mr. Byers goes to the heart of why physical books continue to beguile us. Individually, they are frequently useful or delightful, but it is when books are displayed en masse that they really work wonders. Covering the walls of a room, piled up to the ceiling and exuding the breath of generations, they nourish the senses, slay boredom and relieve distress.... Mr. Byers coined a term — “book-wrapt” — to describe the exhilarating comfort of a well-stocked library. The fusty spelling is no affectation, but an efficient packing of meaning into a tight space (which, when you think of it, also describes many libraries). To be surrounded by books is to be held rapt in an enchanted circle and to experience the rapture of being transported to other worlds. A written and visual tribute to home libraries by Julie Lasky in the New York Times (December 2021; non-paywall version without images here).
posted by Bella Donna at 11:38 AM PST - 26 comments

Outdoor Sound Propagation in the U.S. Civil War. "In each of these seven battles listed above, the inability of commanders to hear and interpret the sounds of battle was directly responsible for the outcome. One might even go so far as to say the acoustical shadows determined the course of the entire war."
posted by kaibutsu at 10:37 AM PST - 21 comments

“It’s Either Going to Be Really Funny, or They’re Going to Be Horrified”: An Oral History of Superbad [Vanity Fair / Archive / via]
posted by ellieBOA at 9:32 AM PST - 16 comments

On Friday, journalist Jon Brady discovered via freedom of information laws that Scotrail (the Scottish national railway operator) had published a 2-hour-long MP3 containing every speech fragment used in their automated station announcements. Before long, it had been split into 2,440 individual MP3s and a crowdsourced transcription process had begun (with notes about the more peculiar phrases). Now, you can get (very) random announcements in your Twitter feed, make your own with an online soundboard, or even listen to ambient lo-fi beats with ScotRail announcements. Alison McKay, the voice artist who uttered the original announcements, is very much amused.
posted by acb at 5:38 AM PST - 38 comments

Craig Walsh’s Monuments is a site-responsive, outdoor video installation… (that) evokes a haunting synergy between the human form, natural environment, and the act of viewing. Night-time projections transform trees into sculptural monuments, surveying the immediate environment.
posted by signal at 4:55 PM PST - 3 comments

Andrea Long Chu talks to gender studies and political science scholar Paisley Currah about trans rights, official definitions of gender and his new book Sex Is as Sex Does.
When Currah was on a NYC Dept of Health committee to figure out a new birth certificate policy, at one point the committee had agreed to define sex by gender identity. The city was like, “No, that won’t work for prisons,” or “Yes, it will work for homeless services,” or “It’ll kind of work for drug rehab but not for the facilities that are residential.” The city just cared about how sex was operationalized, what effect it would have on the government, and not the fact that sex as a biological concept is really messy.
posted by spamandkimchi at 1:09 PM PST - 6 comments

100 Years Of LGBT+ Music: From Ma Rainey To Lil Nas X [42m58s] comes from YouTube's AreTheyGay and, while it curiously skips over the 80s Europop gay invasion, draws a line from the early 1900s to today. Meanwhile, Kat Rowe has Terror And Vice: LA's Painful Gay History [35m], which covers the same time period, but has much more to do with the direct effect of the dominant culture on the queer underclass. [more inside]
posted by hippybear at 1:06 PM PST - 5 comments

Warner Bros. Discovery’s HBO Max is removing 36 movies and TV series from its platform. There are three main reasons why it’s happening.
posted by Etrigan at 10:05 AM PST - 104 comments

Guessing C For Every Answer Is Now Enough To Pass The New York State Algebra Exam "The state exam scores also matter to school districts because a school with terrible test scores will be under NYSED’s spotlight — they call it a “focus” school — and come in for mountains of additional paperwork, meetings, and ultimately a humiliating loss of local control. NYSED also prides itself on “data-driven” decisions about what research to pursue, what grants to award, and what programs to fix or update or terminate. Care to guess what data is in the driver’s seat in that data-driven car? You guessed it, test scores. Picture Toonces the Driving Cat, except Toonces is named Test Scores. The bottom line is that because the Regents exams are important, NYSED is very careful to produce high quality tests that challenge the students and accurately measure and report student progress. Ha, just kidding. That cat is driving you right off a cliff."
posted by storybored at 9:25 PM PST - 29 comments

Social Media Was a C.E.O.’s Bullhorn, and How He Lured Women Dan Price was applauded for paying a minimum salary of $70,000 at his Seattle company and criticizing corporate greed. The adulation helped to hide and enable his behavior. CW: sexual assault [more inside]
posted by Toddles at 8:46 PM PST - 44 comments

MWP and The Space Taxi. [more inside]
posted by clavdivs at 7:21 PM PST - 3 comments

The Rifftrax guys did their show for The Return of Swamp Thing last night, and to commemorate it they did a novelty bluegrass song:
Your Ever Lovin' Swamp Thing. [more inside]
posted by JHarris at 1:33 PM PST - 11 comments

In an effort to overcome my inability to convey (in words) the emotional rush of mosh pits to people who would never step foot into one, in 2016 I started taking my medium-format film camera into metal shows at St. Vitus in Brooklyn, New York.

Photojournalist and Anthropology student Ryan Jones looks at mosh pits.
posted by Rumple at 11:18 AM PST - 26 comments

Michael Heizer’s City, a 1.5 mile x 0.5 mile monumental artwork in the Nevada Desert is finally open for visitors in September. Write for an invite! Benjamin Sutton has a brief story in The Art Newspaper, and Michael Kimmelman, Todd Heisler, and Noah Throop have a deep dive at The New York Times. (No paywall)
posted by Going To Maine at 10:57 AM PST - 72 comments

Look closely at a map of Massachusetts and you’ll notice the southwestern corner doesn’t square off. It’s as if someone chopped off a corner of the state and gave it to New York. Well, that’s exactly what happened when Boston Corners moved from the Bay State to the Empire State.
posted by Etrigan at 9:57 AM PST - 14 comments

Jared Kushner's 'Breaking History' (NYT, archive.org) is a soulless and very selective memoir [more inside]
posted by box at 7:34 AM PST - 69 comments

How England fought to become women’s Euro 2022 champions [The Athletic / Archive]
posted by ellieBOA at 4:18 AM PST - 5 comments

Stronger Than Steel, Able to Stop a Speeding Bullet—It's Super Wood! - "Simple processes can make wood tough, impact-resistant—or even transparent." [more inside]
posted by kliuless at 11:42 PM PST - 45 comments

"I find the entire situation pretty infuriating. For those who carry the bulk of the unpaid labor load, it’s a root cause of burnout. ... I’ve seen this sort of inequality fester and create relationship-breaking resentment; I’ve seen people complain and then gradually, over the years, reconcile themselves to it. And no matter how much theory you read, no matter how much you believe in cultivating a different way of dividing labor than your parents or grandparents did, so many relationships ... fall into these bullshit rhythms and norms that, once established, are incredibly difficult to change."
posted by Lycaste at 10:19 PM PST - 50 comments

People do not generally become famous for designing bikes, but if anyone ever did, it's Mike Burrows. Always an iconoclast, he contributed important designs and innovations to cycling. He died on August 15 from lung cancer. [more inside]
posted by adamrice at 8:49 PM PST - 16 comments

How Christian fundamentalist homeschooling damages children

Why did she stick with homeschooling for so long, despite her difficulties? “We were convinced that it would be better for our kids not to have an education than to be educated to become humanists or atheists and to reject God,” Garrison says.

[more inside]
posted by brook horse at 8:05 PM PST - 76 comments

Are you looking for a definitive timeline on the history of email, along with references? Here you go.
posted by Runes at 6:07 PM PST - 12 comments

Want to hear (a version of) the world's oldest known complete song? Germanic-Nordic experimental folk collective Heilung have recorded a version of the Hymn to Nikkal, a paean to the Moon Goddess Nikkal which is the only complete piece among the 3,400-year-old Hurrian Songs. The songs were inscribed with both words and musical notation in cuneiform on clay tablets, and were excavated from the ancient Amorite-Canaanite city of Ugarit in northern Syria. Vocalist Maria Franz says "The rhythm in that text is just so weird; it’s so alien. I’ve never heard anything like it.”
posted by kyrademon at 4:49 PM PST - 29 comments

There was a bunya nut on the side of the road next to a bunya bunya (or, false monkey puzzle tree) the other day. I knew monkey puzzle tree nuts are edible, so I took it home and read up on it and checked a sledgehammer out from my local tool library and cracked it open and harvested its kernels. It's unusual around these parts (California) and, like me, my neighbors had questions, so I thought you might, too. Here's some articles on the bunya nut and its trees and history. [more inside]
posted by aniola at 1:51 PM PST - 19 comments

We made this for you if this is your thing [from The Onion, at a stretch it's "NSFW"]
posted by chavenet at 1:19 PM PST - 11 comments

We cannot afford to lose more voices In their newsletter “Things that Don’t Suck” Andrea Gibson writes “I am a poet and author who has been speaking on social justice issues for the past two decades. Since social media became a thing, messing up and accounting for my mess-ups publicly is a part of my daily life, and I am intimate with the ways non-stop public criticism can erode any individual's wellness. Below are ten of my personal perspectives that support me when navigating call-out culture. My hope is that this will reach people whose feedback tactics are detrimental to the wellbeing of others, as well as those who have grown so afraid of making a mistake they have decided to make nothing instead. We cannot afford to lose more voices in the fight against facisim. To take down systems of oppression, we must stop taking down each other––so let’s chat this through.” [more inside]
posted by Bottlecap at 10:48 AM PST - 48 comments

At the heart of all this motion is a lust for crawling through someone else’s ambiguity, in staring at a post or profile for longer than the machine’s trained you to, in the toothsome frustration of trying to figure out what’s a revelation, what’s a dark joke, and what’s just the result of a chemically imbalanced brain and an eternally available keyboard. […] You can’t really make a name for yourself as an authenticity-poster and then pivot to posting unhinged textsprawls. Well, you probably can, and people probably will as this type of online life drips into the mainstream, but it will be in mimetic microdoses.

— Intimacy and the Machine: Godposting – or: New Internet Esotericism, by Biz Sherbert (Sept 2021) [more inside]
posted by wesleyac at 10:12 AM PST - 10 comments

The Ghost of Workshops Past: How Communism, Conservatism, and the Cold War Still Mold Our Paths Into SFF Writing by S.L. Huang is a long, historically grounded critique of creative writing workshops that follow the University of Iowa model. While the examples Huang takes come primarily from the science fiction and fantasy workshops, her criticisms and proposals are widely applicable. Over the next few days Huang will be sharing various facts and observations she had to cut out of her essay on her Twitter feed, starting with this thread.
posted by Kattullus at 10:00 AM PST - 10 comments

Most people are familiar with basic thunderstorm safety, such as avoiding standing under trees or near a window, and not speaking on a corded phone (mobile phones are safe). But did you know you should avoid taking a shower, a bath or washing the dishes during a thunderstorm? James Rawlings, Physics Lecturer for Nottingham Trent University, explains why it's not safe to shower during a thunderstorm for The Conversation.
posted by Bella Donna at 9:57 AM PST - 71 comments

A comic about wealth inequality in New Zealand, but applicable almost everywhere else as well. "Imagine you're invited to a dinner. There are 10 guests, 10 seats at the table, and 10 plates of food. But then you all sit down to eat and one person gets served nearly 6 meals. 5.8 meals to be precise..."
posted by carriage pulled by cassowaries at 8:40 AM PST - 25 comments

Editor and writer Max Read investigates the wild story of the man who bought Pine Bluff, Arkansas. [more inside]
posted by Ten Cold Hot Dogs at 6:00 AM PST - 31 comments

My daughter went for a routine chiropractor appointment. Now she’s paralysed. “Our main form of communication right now is, we’ll go through the alphabet, and she’ll let me know when I’ve gotten to the right letter, and I just spell everything out. She can also nod and thumbs up, and she can mouth things; sometimes I can get it, sometimes not. Really, right now, [we are] spelling everything out. Thankfully, she’s a very good speller. But, yeah, we just spell everything out painstakingly.” [more inside]
posted by dancestoblue at 11:24 PM PST - 103 comments

"I peered up the street, toward Lexington Avenue, and saw garbage bags piled in front of each building. It was trash day. All of this would be landfill in a matter of hours. It made it all the way from 1883 to 2021. I shook out my bad shoulder as best I could, sighed, and picked up a box." How Christopher Bonanos rescued the 170-year history of The Church of the New Jerusalem from a New York City curb.
posted by How the runs scored at 6:45 PM PST - 13 comments

"theGrio's celebration of Black Comedy Month begins with the history of the Black artists who created modern comedy", and continues with "How Richard Pryor killed the white comedian"
posted by Etrigan at 6:31 PM PST - 9 comments

Can a Tennis Player Share His Heart, and Courts, With Pickleball? It’s a turf war that’s become common nationwide in recent years as the pandemic drove demand for both sports. Pickleballers are clamoring for respect, more resources and courts, creating a sensitive balancing act for parks and recreation departments around the country.
posted by geoff. at 4:16 PM PST - 16 comments

The Crypto Geniuses Who Vaporized a Trillion Dollars by Jen Wieczner in New York Magazine [archive]
posted by chavenet at 1:13 PM PST - 36 comments

Back in 2020, by a small margin, Alaskans passed a ballot referendum to change the state's voting rules to ranked choice voting. Last night, in a special election to fill the US Congress seat vacated when long-time Alaska Congressman Don Young passed away earlier this year, the new voting method had its first major test in a tight contest to see who will be Alaska's new Congressperson. [more inside]
posted by Nerd of the North at 12:44 PM PST - 34 comments

Warning! Drunk Mel Gibson Arrest Diorama can make you contemplate Life, The Universe and Everything. (via B3ta)
posted by Kosmob0t at 10:53 AM PST - 44 comments

Map showing the spread of dumplings (r/MapPorn) [more inside]
posted by kliuless at 7:11 AM PST - 51 comments

Adam Beedle (previously, creator of a robot that shoots nerf darts at your face) has invented a robot that shoots legos under your feet.
posted by mhoye at 6:25 AM PST - 15 comments

Emma Hayes writes on "How to bake successfully, even when you're feeling foggy." From King Arthur Baking.
posted by brainwane at 5:47 AM PST - 35 comments

Meet the Kowari. They weigh up to 175 grams (less for females) and hunt invertebrates, small mammals, reptiles, rodents and even birds. And they're cute as fuck. Arid Recovery has just translocated 12 kowaris from the Birdsville Track to its reserve near Andamooka Station in an effort to conserve the species. It is the last known population of the species in the state. [more inside]
posted by carriage pulled by cassowaries at 2:30 AM PST - 7 comments

The Department of Education said Tuesday that it will cancel $3.9 billion in student loan debt for 208,000 students who attended the now-defunct for-profit ITT Technical Institute – bringing the total amount of loan discharges approved under President Joe Biden to nearly $32 billion. [more inside]
posted by darkstar at 6:32 PM PST - 74 comments

After a season that featured three 20-plus-game-winners, the producers of Jeopardy! must have felt some pressure to supersize the Tournament of Champions as well. So they decided to put 21 contestants in, give the three superchamps a bye to the semis, and make the finals a first-to-three (similar to the GOAT tournament of January 2020). The TOC will also have a “play-in” Second Chance Tournament.
posted by Etrigan at 5:01 PM PST - 13 comments

"Here is a thread of cats destroying our stuff throughout history, because they've always done it and they always will and for some reason we will keep loving them for it." (single Twitter thread) [more inside]
posted by escape from the potato planet at 3:15 PM PST - 21 comments

Fran Blanche (previously, previouslyer) goes into detail about the history of the film cameras and film recovery pods used in the early Apollo missions. SLYT, main video runs about 10 minutes, with raw footage after the credits.
posted by wesleyac at 2:31 PM PST - 4 comments

A Louisiana school librarian is suing two men for defamation after they accused her of advocating to keep "pornographic" materials in the parish library's kids' section. It's a rare example of an educator taking legal action against conservatives who use extreme rhetoric in their battle against LGBTQ-themed books. From Tyler Kingkade for NBC News. [more inside]
posted by Bella Donna at 1:06 PM PST - 22 comments

‘Fast Times at Ridgemont High’ Turns 40
posted by chavenet at 12:31 PM PST - 31 comments

On Twitter, Sarah Baird describes a visit to where Cabbage Patch Dolls are "born." (Wayback Machine) It’s adorable, terrifying, and bonkers!
posted by Pronoiac at 12:22 PM PST - 19 comments

Cats on Synthesizers in Space [more inside]
posted by Orange Dinosaur Slide at 11:38 AM PST - 9 comments

11 Questions about the Dr. Oz crudités video (New York) [more inside]
posted by box at 11:25 AM PST - 82 comments

Somedays, a gender-inclusive period pain relief company, demonstrated a period pain simulator at the Calgary Stampede. People who don’t get periods tested it out, with illuminating results. “This is awful,” said one cowboy. Two healthcare workers tried it out to find out what some of their patients experience. This guy gave his honest opinion on how it compared to being kicked in the testicles. At a pop up in Vancouver, a man with four daughters tried out the simulator to see what they go through. [more inside]
posted by hurdy gurdy girl at 8:10 AM PST - 80 comments

A critical vulnerability in Zoom for Mac OS allowed unauthorized users to downgrade Zoom or even gain root access. It has been fixed, and users should update now. If you're using Zoom on a Mac, it's time for a manual update. The video conferencing software's latest update fixes an auto-update vulnerability that could have allowed malicious programs to use its elevated installing powers, granting escalated privileges and control of the system. [more inside]
posted by dancestoblue at 8:04 AM PST - 11 comments

Virginia "Frozen Face" O'Brien (previously) sang in a unique deadpan style in MGM musicals. Her style was apparently originally born out of stage fright, but the audience found it hilarious. Watch Rockabye Baby, Did I Get Stinkin’ at the Savoy, Say That We’re Sweethearts Again, In a Little Spanish Town and Salome.
posted by TheophileEscargot at 6:38 AM PST - 10 comments

Lucy Crick is a painter in oils, based in Suffolk. Inspired by golden age Dutch still life paintings, she does detailed portraits of cups of tea, cakes, biscuits, confectionery, eggs and other things.
posted by Grangousier at 5:17 AM PST - 9 comments

WeWork’s founder is back with a billion-dollar venture. Neumann’s new company Flow wants to transform the residential rental real estate market. Notably, it has the financial support of Andreessen Horowitz, the prominent Silicon Valley venture capital firm that was an early investor in everything from Facebook to Airbnb. The backing of Andreessen Horowitz, considered royalty among early-stage investors, is a powerful sign of support, and perhaps a rebuke to Neumann’s critics, who have described his leadership of WeWork as a cautionary tale of corporate hubris.
posted by geoff. at 11:18 PM PST - 57 comments

Australia's former Prime Minister, Scott Morrison, famous for saying "that's not my job" about everything that a Prime Minister was supposed to do, and running away to Hawaii for a holiday when Australia was on fire, has just been caught awarding himself FIVE additional portfolios while he was in office. The way in which he did so may have been illegal - portfolios are supposed to be public knowledge, and he kept it secret.
posted by carriage pulled by cassowaries at 8:25 PM PST - 59 comments

Saul Goodman started as a joke -- a sleazy, motormouthed "two-and-a-half-dimensional" take on TV lawyers, a bit of comic relief brought on for a four-episode stint to help guide Breaking Bad protagonists Walter White and Jesse Pinkman into the criminal underworld. Brought to life by Bob Odenkirk, Saul proved to be one of the show's most popular characters, and in the wake of the show's blockbuster ending AMC announced a prequel spinoff series: Better Call Saul. But what was conceived as a 30-minute case-of-the-week sitcom quickly developed into a compelling legal drama and deep character study of Goodman's past as "Slippin'" Jimmy McGill, his evolution, and bleak future at an Omaha Cinnabon -- "we don’t want to get to Saul Goodman … and that’s the tragedy." Supported by vice-tight writing, masterful cinematography, and impeccable performances by Michael McKean, Patrick Fabian, Jonathan Banks, Michael Mando, Tony Dalton, Giancarlo Esposito, and especially breakout star Rhea Seehorn as Kim Wexler, the series has only grown more acclaimed as it progressed and, with its last batch of astonishing episodes, arguably surpassed its predecessor to become one of the greatest dramas in television history. Now, after seven years, six seasons, 62 episodes, one Peabody Award, multiple hiatuses, a COVID pause, and a brush with death, Better Call Saul is set to air its long-awaited series finale tonight at 9PM Eastern. It's showtime, folks. [more inside]
posted by Rhaomi at 4:31 PM PST - 72 comments

Accordionist extraordinaire and revered costumed street performer Frank Lima, AKA The Great Morgani, is hanging up the squeezebox and spandex after decades of busking. [more inside]
posted by subocoyne at 1:17 PM PST - 7 comments

In this light-hearted vein, let’s discard conventional games as the relics of the past that they are. If we really want to equip ourselves for competition with other great powers (an imperfect framework to understand twenty-first-century geopolitics but probably the least imperfect of all the contenders), then the type of game to play is “real-time strategy,” and the name of the game is StarCraft. from StarCraft as Statecraft
posted by chavenet at 11:22 AM PST - 18 comments

🗳Hey there!🗳 Voting has begun for the inaugural Steering Committee (SC) for Metafilter! Come on over to MeTaTalk for a list of candidates and explanation of the voting process and help determine the future of the site!
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 10:33 AM PST - 4 comments

The gender binary is holding us back from truly great hair. The gender binary too often limits what people imagine possible for themselves, or for their clients. Hairrari, which opened its first location in Williamsburg in 2011 and now operates three shops across New York City and one in L.A. (with another one on the way for Portland, Oregon), was among the first barber-salons to formally challenge the gender binary. “We’re not just looking at hair, we’re looking at the whole person when they come in,” says Granberger. A lot of it has to do with gauging feeling too, Ryczko adds. “When some people come in, they say, ‘what do you think, what do you think?’ And I always kind of ask them, ‘how do you feel? Do you feel you like it’s better longer? Or do you feel better with shorter here in the back or longer on your neck?’” Ryczko says. “I think that has a lot to do with it, how we feel. The better we feel, the stronger and more confident we are.”
posted by folklore724 at 10:32 AM PST - 54 comments

The treasure trove of Birds Online videos and projects is available online at birdsonline.cz. Since developing the Smart Nest Box, which furtively films its tenants, ecologist Markéta Zárybnická has had a front seat to the daily dramas of avian families...for example, a Eurasian Blue Tit removing a fecal pellet from a nestling’s bottom. One female Boreal Owl had a particular interior design aesthetic; she arranged dead mice and voles in neat rows, placing the heads in the corners of the nest box. In contrast, a European Starling spruced up a bed of grass with a buttercup.
posted by spamandkimchi at 10:07 AM PST - 2 comments

"When I began making baskets in the 1980s, I made very useful baskets. Now I make very useless baskets." Lois Russell is a basketweaver, but this is definitely not basket weaving 101. [more inside]
posted by jacquilynne at 8:20 AM PST - 11 comments

Strike! How 80s post-punk band Lining Time crystallised a moment in feminist protest history by Tayyab Amin is a profile of the early 80s all-woman band from Totnes in Devon, whose only album, Strike!, has been reissued on Bandcamp and is available in full on streaming services, including YouTube Music. The reissue of the album was at the behest of Les Amis de Cathy Josefowitz, an organization devoted to safeguarding the artistic legacy of one of Lining Time's founding members, the others being Claire Bushe, Cathy Frost, Lisa Halse and Mara de Wit.
posted by Kattullus at 5:05 AM PST - 3 comments

Attention, please! There will be absolutely no smoking, dirty joking, or whistling in this thread. And furthermore, if you should choose to chew, you'll be pursued. [more inside]
posted by taz at 2:41 AM PST - 122 comments

A megaflood that threatens California and the West Coast, could be the most expensive natural disaster in history. It has happened before, The Great Flood of 1862, caused by an atmospheric river from the Pacific Ocean, first loading the coastal mountains with snow that was then melted by heavy warm rains. [more inside]
posted by Bee'sWing at 2:12 AM PST - 53 comments

Opplopolis (Twitter, previously) has begun updating again. It is a comic about a weird anachronistic city in which the fates of multiple people - and a completely different science-fiction setting - become entwined with something called Marvedyne. [more inside]
posted by BiggerJ at 6:23 PM PST - 7 comments

R.I.P. Ann Shulgin: Radiant Nexus of Psychedelic Community ... matriarch of psychedelic-assisted therapy, widow of and co-conspirator with legendary chemist Alexander “Sasha” Shulgin, and anchor of an extended community of therapists, scientists, scholars, and explorers of the worlds opened by psychedelic substances, died at home in the company of people who loved her on July 9, 2022. She was 91.
posted by protorp at 2:16 PM PST - 23 comments

Venture capitalists invest in union organizing [more inside]
posted by clawsoon at 12:47 PM PST - 36 comments

City officials hired a Bay Area industrial firm to custom-design the pricey trash can along with two other prototypes that cost taxpayers $19,000 and $11,000 each.
posted by folklore724 at 10:19 AM PST - 71 comments

Is There a Way Out of Hawaii's Housing Crisis? - "The Aloha State is drowning in a flood of the same factors creating a housing crisis all over America. It will either become a model for solutions or a cautionary tale." [more inside]
posted by kliuless at 7:21 AM PST - 28 comments

“Earth, I love ya! Thanks for letting me stay a while.” This was Kate McKinnon’s way of saying good-bye to SNL during her final episode in May 2022, dressed up as her recurring character and alien abductee Colleen Rafferty. With an 11-season stint that makes her one of the five longest-tenured SNL cast members and nine straight Emmy nominations for her work on the show (including two wins), it’s hard to argue that McKinnon didn’t have one of the most tremendous runs in SNL history. Vulture interview / Archive - Good One podcast on Spotify / Apple Podcasts / anywhere. [more inside]
posted by ellieBOA at 4:36 AM PST - 19 comments

PGA Tour vs. LIV Golf: Why the ‘nuclear’ strike option for players might be a bad idea. PGA Tour vs. LIV Golf: Why the ‘nuclear’ strike option for players might be a bad idea. (Archive)
posted by geoff. at 3:53 AM PST - 31 comments

Not your typical plate of beans [SLYT]
posted by 922257033c4a0f3cecdbd819a46d626999d1af4a at 10:27 PM PST - 41 comments

Taking Out Trash That Was Someone Else’s Treasure [SLNYT] “The majority of hoarders have lived in the same place for decades, in some cases their whole lives. For the most part they’re very smart, successful, well traveled, with degrees from elite universities. No one knows what they’re like at home, and in some cases alcohol plays a major role.” [more inside]
posted by bendy at 6:47 PM PST - 31 comments

How many apples? [via mefi projects] [more inside]
posted by aniola at 5:03 PM PST - 33 comments

University of Nebraska-Lincoln's Extension educator and fair judge John Porter gives tips on entering horticultural competitions, including why correct preparation matters with links to pdf guides on how to harvest and prepare vegetables/fruits and flowers, e.g. "leave a ¼ inch piece of stem on cucumbers." Porter also plugs UNL's television show Backyard Farmer which first aired in 1952 in black and white (Youtube channel, Apple Podcast).
posted by spamandkimchi at 4:32 PM PST - 1 comment

Jean-Jacques Sempé, Cartoonist of Droll Whimsy, Dies at 89 [NYT] [more inside]
posted by chavenet at 12:59 PM PST - 18 comments

Rebecca Giggs (Emergence Magazine, 06/27/2022), "Noiseless Messengers": "THE MOTHS, when they came, were said to appear first like sea fog massing above the ocean." ABC News - Australia (12/11/2022), "Why bogong moths are now being classified as an endangered species." ABC Indigenous (07/04/2019), "This Place: The Journey of the Bogong Moths." Birgitta Stephenson, et al., (2020), "2000 Year-old Bogong moth (Agrotis infusa) Aboriginal food remains, Australia." Eric Warrant, et al., (2016), "The Australian Bogong Moth Agrotis infusa: A Long-Distance Nocturnal Navigator." David Dreyer, et al. (2018), "The Earth's Magnetic Field and Visual Landmarks Steer Migratory Flight Behavior in the Nocturnal Australian Bogong Moth." Ken Green, et al. (2021), "Australian Bogong moths Agrotis infusa (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae), 1951–2020: decline and crash" [PDF].
posted by Wobbuffet at 11:53 AM PST - 3 comments

How the Bass Pro Shops Pyramid Became a Memphis Icon
posted by box at 10:46 AM PST - 34 comments

A therapist and a filmmaker examine narcissism via The LEGO® Batman Movie. [more inside]
posted by ChurchHatesTucker at 10:04 AM PST - 3 comments

At last! After a weird series of issues finding a streaming home that resulted in it almost being a VRV exclusive before they backed out (they're still listed as its home on the show's website), Bee and Puppycat: Lazy in Space will be airing as a Netflix series on September 6, 2022. Here's the trailer. it seems to also include remakes of the original episodes with updated animation! Previously: 2013, 2014, 2018, Fanfare
posted by JHarris at 9:04 AM PST - 14 comments

Twitter has been on a recruitment drive of late, hiring a host of former feds and spies. Many former FBI officials hold influential roles within Twitter. For instance, in 2020, Matthew W. left a 15-year career as an intelligence program manager at the FBI to take up the post of senior director of product trust at Twitter. [more inside]
posted by sammyo at 8:04 AM PST - 29 comments

A sharp rise in the number of encounters with great whites and other predators is being blamed, in part, on climate change
posted by folklore724 at 10:34 PM PST - 38 comments

"This is a big problem, that no one person understands all of. But in this video you're going to go from understanding more than like, 80 or 90% of people, to understanding this more than 99% of people. And it's only going to take you like 15 minutes". (SLYT 22:23) [more inside]
posted by Glinn at 7:54 PM PST - 38 comments

Have you ever wondered what's happening when the pilot comes on the intercom and says they're being held by the tower? The US FAA's National Airspace System status dashboard provides a behind-the-scenes peek at the factors* and policies that drive flight delays, cancellations, and other traveler annoyances as controllers manage the nation's vast and complex airspace. [more inside]
posted by redct at 7:39 PM PST - 11 comments

A New Weight-Loss Drug Really Works - Raising Huge Questions. "Wegovy, made by Danish drugmaker Novo Nordisk, is the first in what is shaping up to be a new generation of obesity treatments, which use a hormone to regulate appetite....The average patient in the study in which Robillard participated lost 15 per cent of their body weight, about three times more than on previous drugs. Nearly a third of them lost almost as much as they would after weight-loss surgery. Robillard lost 57 pounds. The US Food and Drug Administration approved Wegovy for general use in June 2021." This is big and it's coming fast. Other pharma companies have taken notice and a stream of incretin drugs will soon hit the market. [more inside]
posted by storybored at 6:45 PM PST - 63 comments

There are people out there who have never watched LOST, who have LOST once, and who have LOST way too many times. YouTube's Billiam falls into the third camp, and he's bringing us recap episodes of the series. These aren't normal recaps, these get into the entire web of interconnections and intrigue and even the details of the production of the show, and give you the most complete picture of the series you might ever find. Season one is covered in LOST Was Weird: A Show No One Wanted To Make [3h], and seasons two and three in LOST: TV'S GREATEST MESS [6h20m]. I assume the remaining three seasons will be covered over the next year or two. 9 hours of YouTube recap is way shorter than three seasons! [more inside]
posted by hippybear at 3:07 PM PST - 51 comments

A photograph of schoolchildren, taken at sea, their pinched faces registering the roll and pitch of the Harmony as she makes her way between the mission stations. Settler children. Inuit children. Dual-heritage children with fathers from Scotland or Norway or Nova Scotia. Hybrid lifeways. Seal children sewn into the sleek dappled skins of harbour seal and harp seal, the fur running down the body, gut sewn, shedding all the waters of the world. The seal’s gift to the hunter. The mother’s gift to the child.

Photographs from the Moravian Church Mission Ship to Labrador "Harmony" in the early 1900s and the global epidemic of 1918-1919, a visual essay by Jonathan Westaway. First in a series Visual Cultures of the Circumpolar North from the Network in Canadian History and Environment's (NiCHE) diverse blog.
posted by Rumple at 2:09 PM PST - 4 comments

A wonderfully surreal dune sea shanty. If you don’t know the backstory, just accept that the universe is a strange and wonderful place. If you do, this just ups it a notch. [more inside]
posted by JustSayNoDawg at 12:09 PM PST - 8 comments

Author Salman Rushdie attacked on lecture stage in New York [AP] [more inside]
posted by chavenet at 12:08 PM PST - 47 comments

(Thread posted by Ned - @ned_potter - on Twitter) OBIT 🧵 “Daisy Boo Biscuit Potter today departed for the great litter tray in the sky, aged 18. Daisy was voted ‘objectively worst cat in the world’ 3 years running, and her hobbies included vomiting and ignoring us...” [more inside]
posted by Wordshore at 9:28 AM PST - 24 comments

This is a story about my wife
My sweet wife, her name is Grace
I met her in 1953,
she had freckles on her face
a poodle skirt: it was navy blue
saddle shoes: they were black and white

posted by If only I had a penguin... at 8:33 AM PST - 5 comments

It may come as a surprise, but the song "You'll Be Back" is not actually about Jesus
posted by Etrigan at 8:19 AM PST - 53 comments

Ancient Animals. A fun way to learn how to work with clay. [via mefi projects]
posted by aniola at 8:12 AM PST - 8 comments

The Falconer

‘You care for birds, and they heal you’: film profiles world of a Black falconer

Rodney Stotts Used to Hustle Drugs in Southeast DC. Now He’s One of the Few Black Master Falconers in America.8

Hunting with Falcons: How One City Man Found His Calling in the Wild

Game Hawker: A Wild Journey to Falconry

Facebook: Shawn Hayes Falconry [more inside]
posted by y2karl at 10:55 PM PST - 10 comments

Will splitting monkeypox vaccines in five work out? And yet the FDA has charged ahead “completely based on” that 2015 study, says Alexandra Yonts, a pediatric infectious-disease physician at Children’s National Hospital. In a statement, the agency explained that it had “determined that the known and potential benefits of Jynneos outweigh the known and potential risks” for green-lighting the intradermal route. Delivering vaccines into skin leaves little room for error. The tuberculosis skin test is also administered intradermally; Marrazzo has seen “dozens of those messed up.” People have bled or been bruised. Needles have gone too deep—a mistake that can slash effectiveness—or too shallow, letting liquid ooze back out. Intradermal injections are an uncommon and difficult procedure, requiring additional training and specialized needles. “There is going to be some degree of error,” says Kenneth Cruz, a community-health worker in New York. “People are going to wonder if they’re protected, and it’s going to be difficult to check.”
posted by folklore724 at 10:31 PM PST - 17 comments

How do you solve a problem like an Ezra? As The Flash star Ezra Miller continues on their multi-state crime spree (which includes assault, burglary, weapons, grooming of teenagers and a cult), what on earth is it going to take for DC to realize they need to do something about The Flash movie? Will a recent arrest for burglary finally be the last straw, or does worse have to happen? Hollywood Reporter reports three possible plans for how to handle the star of their movie likely being in jail long before the movie comes out in (supposedly) June 2023. [more inside]
posted by jenfullmoon at 4:52 PM PST - 75 comments

"Shy little frog singing along to this fun tune." The full song by @sushisingz and a reaction video for shy little frog TikTok additive video as new musicians join the original frog. #FrogTikTok hashtag has 1 billion views including over 6 million views for this frog getting a shower. TikTok also has terrible frog-related ideas too.
posted by spamandkimchi at 12:32 PM PST - 5 comments

The co-host of “Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend” talks about the best Girl Scout cookies and adulting at Disneyland. I started off like a lot of people do in television where I was like, “I’m going to take over the TV world,” you know, become an executive with a suit with shoulder pads, and walk around the hall wearing heels. Then, sometime in my time working for Conan, someone was like, “What are you going to do after you’re done with Conan?”, and I was like, “You know what? I just really like it here.” It sounds weird, but it was really liberating for me to get to that point. If we’re going to talk about the downfall of my ambition, I think it really was rooted to a point where I was like, “Hey, I like where I am right now. I don’t need to go anywhere else,” and that’s pretty much it. [more inside]
posted by geoff. at 10:58 AM PST - 15 comments

After a summer of ER closures across Ontario and the rest of Canada with no end in sight, the Ford government's Health Minister Sylvia Jones has not ruled out the possibility of privatizing some services, saying "all options are on the table." (Except for paying healthcare staff--especially nurses--what they're worth.) [more inside]
posted by Kitteh at 5:05 AM PST - 49 comments

1st synthetic mouse embryos — complete with beating hearts and brains — created with no sperm, eggs or womb - "For the first time, scientists have created mouse embryos in the lab without using any eggs or sperm and watched them grow outside the womb. To achieve this feat, the researchers used only stem cells and a spinning device filled with shiny glass vials." [more inside]
posted by kliuless at 4:32 AM PST - 37 comments

Who Was the First Person Ever to Die in a Car Crash? (Medium) [more inside]
posted by aniola at 12:32 AM PST - 29 comments

The 2022 American Sociology Association Conference has had some drama, between podium tipping, security calls for gang affiliation, and most notably, a presentation about The Paper. What is The Paper? Which to be precise was a 'Research Note'. Content note: masturbation, depictions of CSA in fiction, CSA and CSEM [more inside]
posted by geek anachronism at 7:01 PM PST - 28 comments

Wisconsin primary wins set up key fall confrontation over democracy

Who controls the election machinery in deeply polarized Wisconsin could help determine who wins the White House in 2024—Democratic President Joe Biden or a successor versus Republican predecessor Donald Trump or a clone—and in turn whether democracy nationwide survives Republican perversion and destruction.

[more inside]
posted by brook horse at 6:47 PM PST - 13 comments

An old thing, but a good thing.
CommonMark [is a] strongly defined, highly compatible specification of Markdown[, …] a plain text format for writing structured documents, based on formatting conventions from email and usenet… the following sites and projects have adopted CommonMark: Discourse, GitHub, GitLab, Reddit, Qt, Stack Overflow / Stack Exchange, Swift (Markdown for MeFi)
Reference Card and Interactive Tutorial
posted by Going To Maine at 1:22 PM PST - 62 comments

Tom Cardy wants to make it clear: he doesn't work here (SLYT). Tom Cardy previously.
posted by fight or flight at 12:01 PM PST - 13 comments

I’ve been reluctant to admit that I have to move on from playing tennis. It’s like a taboo topic. It comes up, and I start to cry. I think the only person I’ve really gone there with is my therapist
posted by Etrigan at 10:32 AM PST - 13 comments

"Someone hears you work on films, so they ask you, 'What movie made you cry?' The artist will respond, 'In theaters or in the office?'" Linda Codega does a deep dive into how the visual effects industry has become a late-stage capitalist hellscape, as studios constantly underbid each other, cater to outlandish last-minute demands from production houses (especially Marvel), and put the squeeze on the VFX artists who are burning out on the front lines. [more inside]
posted by j.r at 9:52 AM PST - 44 comments

What this means is that the door a writer could step through to make a career 50 or even 20 years ago, the one opening onto a life where someone who works hard and does well could buy a house on the strength of that work alone, has been slammed shut. Defector's Kelsey McKinney writing about the uproar directed at Sydney Sweeney's interview with the Hollywood Reporter on how difficult it is to make a living as an actor (or musician, or model) without wealth, connections, or both. (DefectorFilter) [more inside]
posted by Ghidorah at 8:41 AM PST - 48 comments

HERE IS WHAT DOESN’T GO VIRAL: Ángel worked as a housepainter for decades but had a stroke three years ago that paralyzed the left side of his body. Now, his favorite spot is the recliner in his living room. From his perch, he can reach some essential items that he stores on a table to his right: a power screwdriver, painter’s tape, and a clipboard with paper and pen. ... Here is what does go viral: braille decoder rings, sign-language-translating gloves, “haptic footwear” for blind folks, stair-climbing wheelchairs. In other words, a preponderance of innovations, unveiled to great fanfare, that purport to solve disability-related problems. ... In contrast to what gets churned out in glossy promotional materials for corporations and tech start-ups, disabled people find creative ways to make their worlds accessible every day. Laura Mauldin writes on disability hacks for The Baffler.
posted by Bella Donna at 5:50 AM PST - 31 comments

Today marks the 90th anniversary of Danish toymaker Ole Kirk Kristiansen founding a small manufacturer that would, after the development of a system of interlocking plastic bricks, become an iconic brand shaping the childhoods of millions of people - LEGO. [more inside]
posted by NoxAeternum at 2:14 AM PST - 90 comments

Take a trip back in time, perhaps you knew it, perhaps it's new to you: The Kings Of Cape Cod. The party destination from the 60s to the 80s told through the perspective of the Cape Cod Happy Hour. See lots of historic fashion, a lot of wild parties, the power of a person with a guitar in front of a bunch of drunk people... and all in only 46m!
posted by hippybear at 8:48 PM PST - 13 comments

Polyamory Is Not Too Good To Be True: Lindy, Roya, & Aham On The Best Relationship Of Their Lives Lindy West and her husband Aham, along with their other partner, Roya, discuss their unfolding relationship and how they all came to love one another, and how Lindy and Aham's relationship evolved from an open "don't ask, don't tell" one to one of full transparency and romantic love between three people.
posted by bearette at 3:49 PM PST - 44 comments

Maximalism is alive and well; it’s just under a wider and more eclectic stewardship from Does the Maximalist Novel Still Matter? [Archive]
posted by chavenet at 12:23 PM PST - 65 comments

The Gnarly Frank Zappa Essay (parts one, two, and three): An Experiment in Rock Criticism by Ted Gioia
posted by box at 11:21 AM PST - 19 comments

Kate Lindsay writes in a newsletter for The Atlantic about how Gen Zers (and some generational traitors) have been identifying and skewering the online practices of millenials: “Are You Sure You’re Not Guilty of the ‘Millennial Pause’?”

After hitting “Record,” I wait a split second before I start speaking, just to make sure that TikTok is actually recording. Last year, @nisipisa, a 28-year-old YouTuber and TikToker who lives in Boston, coined the term in a TikTok about how even Taylor Swift can’t avoid the cringey pause in her videos.

posted by Going To Maine at 9:43 AM PST - 143 comments

Lamont Dozier, the prolific songwriter and producer who was crucial to the success of Motown Records as one-third of the Holland-Dozier-Holland team, died on Tuesday. He was 81. [more inside]
posted by praemunire at 7:22 AM PST - 32 comments

“If you go into labor and the hospital is closed, you’re SOL,” she says. “Or say you deliver when the hospital is open, but it’s closing in seven hours. Do we just discharge a 7-hour-old baby? That’s what we’re doing. Our back is against the wall.” A Very Dangerous Place to be Pregnant Has Become Even Scarier. [Bloomberg]
posted by Mchelly at 6:01 AM PST - 48 comments

The arrival of a large, complicated and possibly important painting to the studio was a perfect opportunity to introduce a young conservation apprentice to the highs and lows of working with problematic paintings. Julian Baumgartner of Baumgartner Fine Art Restoration (previously 1 and 2) takes on an apprentice named Kit -- and finally tells us what fish gelatin tastes like -- in this new four part series: The Conservator, The Apprentice, and The Problem [part 1, youtube, 27minutes] [more inside]
posted by lazaruslong at 4:25 AM PST - 15 comments

Fulu Miziki is a collective of artists who comes straight from a future where humans have reconciled with mother earth and with themselves. FULU MIZIKI roughly translates as “music from the garbage”, which in a literal sense is an accurate description of the thrillingly chaotic eco-friendly Afro-Futurist collective. The instruments they design, build and play are masterclasses in upcycling. [more inside]
posted by Gorgik at 8:51 PM PST - 7 comments

Remember this thing you totally don't remember? Dynasty, one of the biggest prime time soaps that debuted in 1980, featured the Carrington family, and in the pilot episode, Stephen comes out to his father Blake as gay. In 1980. Debuting right after Reagan was elected. This fascinating story of show creators and show runners fighting against prevailing public opinion and ABC network executives is told very well in Dynasty's Gay Journey - Killer Dads, Shoulderpads, and the Kiss that Rocked Hollywood [33m25s], from YouTube's Matt Baume. [more inside]
posted by hippybear at 8:26 PM PST - 3 comments

Olivia Newton-John has died at age 73. What better way to celebrate her life and career than to revisit this absolutely bananas 20 minute medley featuring Olivia, ABBA and Andy Gibb from her 1978 ABC special Olivia! (previously)

An indispensable pop icon of the 70's and 80's, she will be missed. [more inside]
posted by Laura Palmer's Cold Dead Kiss at 5:38 PM PST - 108 comments

"The search, according to two people familiar with the investigation, appeared to be focused on material that Mr. Trump had brought with him to Mar-a-Lago…Those boxes contained many pages of classified documents."
posted by orange swan at 4:57 PM PST - 1071 comments

"The History of Advertising Trust Ghostsigns Archive is a free, searchable, online collection of hundreds of ghost signs from across the UK and Ireland." [more inside]
posted by MonkeyToes at 3:35 PM PST - 12 comments

Spiders Seem to Have REM-like Sleep and May Even Dream "Jumping spiders discovered sleeping suspended on a silk line experience muscle twitches and eye movements similar to the REM sleep phase associated with dreaming in humans. Scientists revealed the eye movements by recording the sleep of baby spiders with translucent exoskeletons, revealing movement of the tubes that control the position of their retinas inside their heads."
posted by dhruva at 3:22 PM PST - 18 comments

Rivendell Bike Works started a "Black Reparations Fund" offering a 45% discount on bikes for Black people. Right-wing lawyers forced them to stop. [more inside]
posted by sibilatorix at 2:08 PM PST - 26 comments

Eba is a mixed-breed rat terrier rescue dog with a special talent: at her job with the SeaDoc Society she can sniff out orca poop at 400 metres and lead researchers to the source for sampling purposes. Using these samples from Eba's Salish Sea study area, it's possible to determine if an orca is suffering effects from pollution, harmful algal blooms, stress or even determine whether a female in the pod is pregnant.
posted by Rumple at 1:34 PM PST - 3 comments

David McCullough, master chronicler of American history, dies at 89 [Washington Post]

"He was also a gifted teacher who taught me about history and writing, and allowed me to escape my many limitations in those areas. I'll forever cherish the time we spent together, and I'll miss my friend dearly."- Ken Burns [Twitter] [more inside]
posted by riruro at 12:21 PM PST - 23 comments

Excel Esports: All Star Battle is on ESPN2. The battle streamed live this past May 24, but don't fret. You have not missed your chance to shine in the arena of spreadsheet battle. Courtesy of the FMWC - Financial Modeling and Excel Competitions, the 2022 Open is still accepting new competitors up until August 12: A Chance to Prove Your Excel Mastery …Or Just Learn Some More Excel.
posted by ursus_comiter at 12:08 PM PST - 19 comments

Ampelography is the art and science of grapevine identification, an activity revolutionized by modern genotyping and DNA analysis techniques known as 'Molecular Ampelography'. For even more technical detail see 'A Modern Ampelography: A Genetic Basis for Leaf Shape and Venation Patterning in Grape' by Daniel H. Chitwood et al. [more inside]
posted by misteraitch at 11:23 AM PST - 5 comments

Corn is the best, that is all.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 9:53 AM PST - 48 comments

Making a watermelon chair from green wood [via mefi projects]
posted by aniola at 9:19 AM PST - 12 comments

Looking for Clarence Thomas (Mitchell S. Jackson for Esquire)
posted by box at 8:53 AM PST - 19 comments

Hey, kid, wanna make an air raid siren? Further details on the process.
posted by cortex at 8:12 AM PST - 12 comments

Genesis is an interpreted, procedural, and Turing-complete Paleo-Hebrew programming language. Move over, APL; Genesis code is written almost entirely in a Unicode block which pretty much nobody uses. Other than the linguistic elements, though, it's not structurally too esoteric, and has the usual selection of data, flow-control, and subroutine structures (no objects or classes, though). Found via Language Log.
posted by jackbishop at 6:47 AM PST - 25 comments

It's been nearly a month since the launch of GameStop's NFT marketplace. While some sources are calling it a success and "an early hit among JPEG collectors" others are saying it "is in the odd position of being a relatively major player in a rapidly shrinking market." Either way it should come as a shock to precisely nobody that in its first week—and despite requiring an application process to mint/sell NFTs—a Creator* was stealing the work of indie game devs and profiting from it. [more inside]
posted by Mister_Sleight_of_Hand at 4:22 AM PST - 12 comments

Moving 1,000 trees, made up of 60-70 native species, including alder, ash, elm, maple, oak and willow, planted in 800 wooden containers around the Dutch city of Leeuwarden, landscape architect Bruno Doedens and his longtime collaborator, the late Joop Mulder, want to show a vision of a greener future with their Bosk programme.
posted by Harald74 at 3:17 AM PST - 4 comments

Like speech 🗣 and beer 🍺 (and some intersections thereof) this thread is confusingly free 🗝. [more inside]
posted by taz at 3:00 AM PST - 71 comments

A deeply reported story about the Trump Administration’s policy of separating immigrants illegally crossing the border from their children. SL Atlantic story delving into the drivers, mistakes, intentions, and lies comprising the Trump Administration’s policy of taking children from immigrants crossing the border, regardless of whether the parent legally requested asylum or crossed outside of a port or legal crossing location. The policy was planned and implemented by “Hawks” who needed to shut out the “squishies” and “bleeding hearts” in the bureaucracy so that the policy could be implemented without planning or concern for the impact on the victims or on other departments who would be blindsided with having to deal with the resulting separated parents and children.
posted by Warren Terra at 6:56 PM PST - 35 comments

Disability Inclusion Activist Molly Burke was recently on The Daily Show with Trevor Noah, Dispelling Misrepresentations Of Blindness [7m31s]. Much more fun, however, is Molly's own video I Was Interviewed by Trevor Noah on The Daily Show! [31m] which shows the whole process for her the day of the show. There's so much fun and humanity in that half hour, that's really the part I wanted to share the most!
posted by hippybear at 2:26 PM PST - 8 comments

Small Kansas town became a top travel destination after years of decline. Here’s how. (archive.ph) A music venue. A brewery. A book shop. A cocktail bar. A honky-tonk bar. A golf-simulator bar. A five-room luxury hotel. A fitness center. A gift shop. A coffee shop. A confectionery. All have either opened in recent years or are coming soon to this southeast Kansas town of 2,000. NYT, "52 Places for a Changed World: 36 Humboldt, KS
posted by geoff. at 11:36 AM PST - 36 comments

Tamika L. Butler's 2017 keynote "I'm Not Your N*****: Can Vision Zero Work in a Racist Society?" for transportation safety conference Vision Zero Cities is a brutal indictment of "color blind" bike advocates and transportation planners who embraced increased police enforcement as a key element in Vision Zero's push for zero pedestrian fatalities. In the wake of 2020's worldwide Black Lives Matter protests, many bike and pedestrian safety advocates spoke of the need to drop police enforcement from traffic safety initiatives like Vision Zero. Title quote is from mobility justice organizers at the Untokening who argued for an inclusive and equitable understanding of public safety in a pandemic. [more inside]
posted by spamandkimchi at 9:53 AM PST - 35 comments

“So much of the art we love is really just about our loyalty to and softness toward our own memories; so often loving an album or a book or a song is really just a way to love an obsolete version of ourselves.” - Helena Fitzgerald on August and Everything After, without really discussing the album itself at all, pointing out that it might just be a perfect album.
posted by Ghidorah at 7:25 AM PST - 31 comments

The new Primus EP, Conspiranoid is a triptych on disinformation. Conspiranoia, Follow the Fool, Erin on the Side of Caution. Bass Magazine review. Bonus: Claypool's fundraising collab Zelensky: The Man With the Iron Balls.
posted by adept256 at 8:59 AM PST - 6 comments

French namesakes fight national mockery - Film project highlights stories of class-based prejudice over name made popular by Kevins Costner and Keegan. It was once the most popular boy’s name in France, inspired in part by Hollywood films and boybands. But for the more than 150,000 French Kevins, the name has become so targeted by mockery, comic sketches and class prejudice that a new documentary is hoping to set the record straight and “save the Kevins”. [more inside]
posted by bitteschoen at 5:23 AM PST - 101 comments

"You're expected to work 10 hours a day, seven days a week, all for a whopping 20 cents an hour. On top of this, there's an hourly quota of license plate tags that you're expected to reach. If you can do this adequately enough on a consistent basis, then you'll be eligible for a raise every six months. The raise is (drumroll, please) … a nickel. You can get a nickel raise every six months up until you reach the maximum threshold of 55 cents per hour. " The Marshall Project asked prisoners to track their earning and spending — and bartering and side hustles — for 30 days.
posted by If only I had a penguin... at 9:52 PM PST - 35 comments

We’ve had people buy say a Pista pump and take [out] the leather gasket, rubber chuck seal, piston glide ring, gauge… all the internal replacement parts that you can buy separately, and then put it back together and return. The owner of a 107-year old, made-in-USA bike pump company discusses how the Amazon marketplace, blatant fraud, changing customer expectations, and social media have forced them to change their previously generous return policy. They are far from the first.
posted by meowzilla at 7:02 PM PST - 54 comments

The Department of Justice’s antitrust suit against Penguin Random House is underway. You can get your information about the trial from sources such as trade journal Publishers Weekly, industry expert Jane Friedman, a live-tweet series by John Maher, and snarky meme accounts xoxopublishinggg and publishersbrunch.

Or you can enjoy this collection of fanfics and poems from an anonymous author. Meet a little P&L sheet just doing its best, follow a day in the life of the CEO of Avian Arbitrary Abode, and witness the NSFW encounter between the CEO of Unnamed Publishing Company and a man-sized penguin with a strap-on made of solid gold. [more inside]
posted by shirobara at 3:34 PM PST - 17 comments

In Hawaii, there’s a common question posed in the pidgin language of the islands: “Where you went grad?” (archive.today link)
posted by Etrigan at 1:55 PM PST - 31 comments

It may go down as one of the most iconic images in English sporting history: Chloe Kelly whirling her England shirt above her head as she sprints across the pitch in a white Nike sports bra. But if those cups could talk, they might claim a share of the Lionesses’ victory for themselves. Ahead of the Euros, breast biomechanics experts provided personalised bra prescriptions to the England players to improve their comfort and ensure they were getting the right support. According to their latest data, the bras may have boosted the players’ athletic performances as well. Linda Geddes writes about the custom sport bras prescribed to the Euro 2022-winning English soccer team.
posted by Bella Donna at 11:19 AM PST - 35 comments

My Mom has no friends. On the surface, the article is accurate, her mom has no friends. But if you ask me, the article is really a love letter from a daughter to her mother. An acknowledgement of how much she appreciates her mom now. Quite frankly, being born in NYC (and raised on LI), her mom sounds like a pisser. A pistol even at 80. During my divorced dating phase, I wish I had a date with someone wearing that brown leather skirt.
posted by JohnnyGunn at 10:59 AM PST - 19 comments

Notable people shows an interactive globe of most notable person born in locations around the world (for some values of "notable"). [more inside]
posted by swift at 9:10 AM PST - 43 comments

Damien Hirst’s ‘The Currency’ Was a Referendum on NFTs Vs. Traditional Art. The Result? A Resounding Preference for Traditional Art - Hirst's collectors aren't so sure NFTs are the future of art, it seems—even if Hirst himself is. [more inside]
posted by bitteschoen at 4:15 AM PST - 51 comments

French scientist Etienne Klein(Wikipedia) apologises after 'James Webb Telescope' image revealed as slice of chorizo (Australian ABC) [more inside]
posted by freethefeet at 3:54 AM PST - 57 comments

An interview with Midjourney founder David Holz - "AI-powered image generators like OpenAI's DALL-E and Google's Imagen are just beginning to move into the mainstream. [Holz] explains how the technology works and how it's going to change the world." [more inside]
posted by kliuless at 1:49 AM PST - 37 comments

Time for a slice of John Scalzi‘s Schadenfreude Pie “My word, what is this dark and vaguely sinister-looking pie you see before you? Well, I’ll tell you. It’s the world’s first Schadenfreude Pie, the pie to enjoy while you are reveling in the horrible misfortunes of others.”
posted by Bottlecap at 10:25 PM PST - 25 comments

"Today, we're going to be looking at the hottest neighborhood in San Francisco--Austin Texas!" Brimming with crypto, billionaire robber barons in cowboy cosplay, and the cleanest Crocs you'll ever see, the hippest up-and-coming San Fran neighborhood of Austin, TX is undoubtedly a "vibe."
posted by mecran01 at 2:04 PM PST - 71 comments

The bait (or assignment). [more inside]
posted by aniola at 10:46 AM PST - 14 comments

For gay men who grew up in the ’90s, there are two distinctive eras: the time before we saw Kevin Bacon’s full-frontal scene in "Wild Things", and the time after. "Near the end of the movie, after Sam has double-crossed Suzie and Kelly, he returns to his beach bungalow to find someone in the shower. The figure emerging from the steam isn’t Suzie or Kelly, both presumed dead, but a fully nude Ray Duquette. It’s a pivotal moment that reveals both Ray’s complicity in Sam’s plot and, also, Bacon’s penis ... But it also feels like much-needed confirmation to those who watched Wild Things suspecting there was something gay about it all along. The major twist is that a movie that seemed all about the male gaze is actually about the male gays." Revisiting Wild Things, "As a rule, movies like Wild Things fight an uphill battle with critics would want to seem above titillation. But this was one of those rare films whose underlying smarts couldn't be denied." [more inside]
posted by geoff. at 8:10 AM PST - 39 comments

For every £1 fetched by a male artist’s work, one by a woman gets a mere 10p – and its value plummets further if she signs it. The creator of Recalculating Art, a shocking new radio exposé, reveals her findings
posted by Etrigan at 7:58 AM PST - 16 comments

Guardian longread. A story on the deteriorating water quality in British rivers.
posted by Ned G at 5:21 AM PST - 6 comments

Climate scientist John Kennedy explains via an anecdote involving himself, an orange, and hubris that the phrase "some scientists think" should be taken with a shaker of salt. (SLTwitter)
posted by NoxAeternum at 4:20 PM PST - 45 comments

The Northern Hail Project (also on Twitter), is a "spinoff" of the Northern Tornadoes Project. It has announced the recovery of "A Canadian record-breaking hailstone [...] following a storm earlier this week near Markerville, Alta. The record-breaker weighs 292.71 grams, eclipsing the previous title holder – a hailstone weighing 290 grams, collected nearly 50 years ago in Cedoux, Sask. on July 31, 1973. With a diameter of 123 millimetres, the hailstone has a slightly larger span than a standard DVD (120 mm)." See also: "Grapefruit-sized hail" fell Monday in Alberta, and it may break a record.
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 3:50 PM PST - 30 comments

"Today, when someone is sick, they’re often sicker, or sick for longer than we are used to." "The new normal of staffing, conferences, and work" is a post by Heidi Waterhouse (disclaimer: a friend). "We have to change how we think about staffing and add in a lot of expensive redundancy. I thought about this originally in the context of in-person events, but it’s honestly true for every part of work and life."
posted by brainwane at 2:01 PM PST - 28 comments

"...The observation that bees are most likely sentient beings has important ethical implications. It’s well known that many species of bees are threatened by pesticides and wide-scale habitat loss, and that this spells trouble because we need these insects to pollinate our crops. But is the utility of bees the only reason they should be protected? I don’t think so. The insight that bees have a rich inner world and unique perception, and, like humans, are able to think, enjoy and suffer, commands respect for the diversity of minds in nature. With this respect comes an obligation to protect the environments that shaped these minds..."

Bumblebees can create mental imagery, a 'building block of consciousness', study suggests [more inside]
posted by y2karl at 1:18 PM PST - 25 comments

SIX DAYS WITH A BIG LOLLIPOP: I completed America's most disgusting treat
"By this point in my journey, it was clear to me that my best bet for finishing the lollipop sooner rather than later was to continue to work on it while doing activities that didn’t require my hands. On Sunday afternoon, I brought the SWIRL POP™ to a 2:45 p.m. showing of Stanley Kubrick’s 1962 Lolita at the movie theater. I did this not because Lolita is a noted part of the lollipop canon, but because I had made a devil’s deal to eat a giant lollipop that was ruining my life." [more inside]
posted by Atom Eyes at 12:38 PM PST - 60 comments

She imagined transforming human remains into soil, “ready to nourish new living beings.” "If we begin to imagine ourselves as beneficial contributors to the earth in death, rather than as agents of sickness and damage, maybe we can start to see that possibility for our lives." Lisa Wells writes about death, compost, climate change and life. [more inside]
posted by spamandkimchi at 12:03 PM PST - 12 comments

Baby Mantis Shrimp Strikes Captured in Slow Motion "A behind the scenes look at how the ultra-fast strikes of larval mantis shrimp are filmed and studied" [bonus video: cavitation bubbles]
posted by dhruva at 11:27 AM PST - 4 comments

Todd in the Shadows' One Hit Wonderland gives a not-necessarily fond retrospective of the 1996 global phenomenon that was "Macarena" by Los Del Rio. It includes vintage footage of people of all walks of life dancing to the Macarena, and he was very right that "there was nowhere safe." There is also some much needed background context of the Spanish artists Los Del Rio and Fangoria, remixers The Bayside Boys, and the unforgettable dance. But if you are reading this and are over 30 years old, you already know the song and know it all too well. (SLYT)
posted by Down10 at 11:14 AM PST - 50 comments

"You and I have been friends for a long time, but I know in my heart that I’ve always needed you more than you’ve needed me, and I’ll miss our time together more I can say. But you know what — there will be a new day, and eventually a new year. And when the upcoming winter gives way to spring, rest assured it will be time for Dodger baseball. So this is Vin Scully, wishing you a very pleasant good afternoon, wherever you may be." [more inside]
posted by Gray Duck at 9:31 AM PST - 48 comments

The Elusive Origin of Zero Maybe a Southeast Asian civilization originated this numeral, instead of an Indian one? [more inside]
posted by cendawanita at 5:34 AM PST - 26 comments

The story so far: So until some random assortment of matter and energy somehow arranged itself into what we think of as 'life', the universe was just that: a random assortment of matter and energy. After life, life began to arrange matter and energy, according to life -- creating life (and death) at least on the third rock from some star... [more inside]
posted by kliuless at 1:23 AM PST - 13 comments

Psynwav BLFC 2022 EDM mashup set From the mashup artist who gave us Slamilton (previously), a fresh set of EDM mashups which covers musical ground like you won't see coming. Setlist inside, but I find it fun going in fresh. [more inside]
posted by CrystalDave at 10:56 PM PST - 5 comments

A very amusing Rube Goldberg Machine.
posted by dobbs at 7:54 PM PST - 14 comments

Tinder Hearted: How did a dating app become my longest running relationship? After nearly a decade of online dating, Allison P. Davis takes stock at New York Magazine's The Cut.
posted by Iris Gambol at 5:01 PM PST - 66 comments

Everything Everywhere All At Once is an Overwhelming Experience [27m] is an analysis of the film that really digs deep and, for me, brought out a lot that I hadn't realized about the film. Quality film essay, worth a watch (it uses scenes from the film to illustrate its points). [more inside]
posted by hippybear at 4:51 PM PST - 73 comments

Lost Ollie (SLYT Netflix Trailer) From the creator of Kubo and the Two Strings, the producers of Stranger Things, and the director of Spiderman: Into the Spider-verse. [more inside]
posted by Glinn at 3:02 PM PST - 20 comments

The Chancellor of the Exchequer, Nadhim Zahawi, has been sending threatening letters, drafted by expensive lawyers, to people investigating his tax affairs. The letters are designed to intimidate, and say they are confidential and can't be published. One was sent to me. I am publishing it. [more inside]
posted by smcg at 11:46 AM PST - 11 comments

Bill Russell, winningest champion in American pro sports history, first Black head coach in the NBA, outspoken advocate for racial justice, has died. (Washington Post obituary)... The family's announcement from his twitter; His friend Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's tribute (substack)... 1987 NYT article by his daughter Karen Russell about the racism they faced in Boston when he was bringing 11 NBA titles to the city. [more inside]
posted by LobsterMitten at 9:15 AM PST - 40 comments

After four years of development, a new, modernized version of Winamp has been released, whipping up frenzy in old school digital music enthusiasts and Andean pack animals alike. (SLBleeping Computer) [more inside]
posted by NoxAeternum at 9:10 AM PST - 39 comments

"This film contains flashing lights, themes of trauma, and an unlikable female protagonist" "Hulu issued a faux content warning joking that influencer satire film “Not Okay” features an “unlikable female protagonist,” and viewers took to social media to share their puzzlement at… not getting the joke." It is now being called a "meta-joke" ... "it’s meant to be cultural commentary about disagreeable women characters being worthy of a mature-content disclaimer on the order of, say, exploding-head violence or graphic nudity." (Variety) Plot summary within. [more inside]
posted by geoff. at 7:06 AM PST - 45 comments

Why do spiders curl up when they die? Apparently it's because of internal hydraulics. Graduate student Faye Yap and her colleagues "transformed a dead wolf spider into a gripping tool with just a single assembly step" and invented a new research field they are calling "necrobotics". [more inside]
posted by toastyk at 9:26 PM PST - 54 comments

Dancing Cat Figure - Stop Motion Animation (4:08) slyt
posted by emmling at 8:34 PM PST - 4 comments

Dan Olson updates the spicy Jodorowski Dune nft saga. [more inside]
posted by pepcorn at 2:47 PM PST - 60 comments

As a publicity stunt, Fancy Feast will be opening (and closing) the Gato Bianco Trattoria in New York City for two days and serving food “prepared in ways that help cat owners understand how their cats experience food — from flavor, to texture, to form — in a way that only Fancy Feast can.”
posted by Going To Maine at 2:35 PM PST - 26 comments

Middlesex - and the UK as a whole - is home to thriving leagues and park teams that exist with little support from official bodies. This has led to a farcical situation in which some traditional, predominantly white clubs complain about a lack of new players, while oversubscribed Asian teams struggle to find grounds. It might seem obvious for the former to hire out their pitches, or follow the example of Crouch End (and other clubs such as East Lancashire) by involving Asian players in their organisation and outreach. However, Ankit Shah, co-chair of Middlesex's equality, diversity and inclusion committee, told me he does not see this happening. "This conservatism, protectionism, whatever you want to call it, is out there," he said. "It's not just the clubs - it's the private schools, too. They often have three or four pitches that aren't used from July to September. And you're talking about some of the best facilities in the country." [more inside]
posted by smcg at 5:01 AM PST - 20 comments

Cocaine Bear (2023) tells the story of a drug runner whose plane crashes with a load of cocaine that's found by a black bear, who eats it. "Its stomach was literally packed to the brim with cocaine. There isn't a mammal on the planet that could survive that. Cerebral hemorrhaging, respiratory failure, hyperthermia, renal failure, heart failure, stroke. You name it, that bear had it." It is currently on display, stuffed in a mall in Kentucky.
posted by geoff. at 3:18 AM PST - 64 comments

This thread is wandering down the Champs-Élysées, going café to cabaret, thinking how it'll feel when it finds that very good friend of theirs. [more inside]
posted by taz at 2:26 AM PST - 99 comments