MetaFilter

Tiny ants are changing the diet of Kenya's lions. Invasive ants are affecting how lions hunt. The insect invasion has led to the loss of cover for lions to ambush zebra from and forcing them to target buffalo instead. An army of big-headed ants is changing the food chains of the savannah. Though they’re little, these ants are fierce. Their arrival in parts of Kenya has decimated populations of local ants which usually live in and protect the whistling-thorn tree. Without the insects’ protection, these trees are increasingly being eaten by elephants, providing less shelter for a range of species. One animal this has had a particular impact on is the African lion. These big cats usually use the shelter of trees to sneak up on zebras. But with fewer trees, this strategy becomes increasingly risky.
posted by chariot pulled by cassowaries at 11:32 PM PST - 7 comments

As you may know, your elected officials in Texas are requiring us to verify your age before allowing you access to our website. Not only does this impinge on the rights of adults to access protected speech, it fails strict scrutiny by employing the least effective and yet also most restrictive means of accomplishing Texas’s stated purpose of allegedly protecting minors. While safety and compliance are at the forefront of our mission, providing identification every time you want to visit an adult platform is not an effective solution for protecting users online, and in fact, will put minors and your privacy at risk. [...] We believe that the only effective solution for protecting minors and adults alike is to verify users’ age on their device and to either deny or allow access to age-restricted materials and websites based on that verification. We call on all adult sites to comply with the law. Until the real solution is offered, we have made the difficult decision to completely disable access to our website in Texas.

Ars Technica: Pornhub blocks all of Texas to protest state law—Paxton says “good riddance” [more inside]
posted by Rhaomi at 9:58 PM PST - 74 comments

Tucker Carlson Duped By YouTubers Into Interviewing Fake Kate Middleton Whistleblower
posted by chavenet at 1:33 PM PST - 32 comments

Top 100 CG animations of an Eternal Ascent from 2800 submissions [more inside]
posted by Gyan at 12:34 PM PST - 17 comments

Free Mixed Media Art Supplies Compatibility Chart by Artist, Designer and Educator Nela Dunato: "Behold: the most detailed free art mediums compatibility reference! The chart shows how different art mediums interact together and whether they can be safely layered on top of each other." [more inside]
posted by Faintdreams at 9:43 AM PST - 16 comments

Which animals cause the most deaths in Australia? Horses: 172 total deaths between 2001 and 2017, many of them from falling off a horse. [more inside]
posted by chariot pulled by cassowaries at 7:53 AM PST - 82 comments

Shigeichi Negishi, the inventor of the world's first commercially-available karaoke machine, has died in Japan. He was 100 years old. [more inside]
posted by snofoam at 4:06 AM PST - 24 comments

This list includes 45 debut novels, nine winners of the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, and three children’s books. Twelve were published before the introduction of the mass-market paperback to America, and 24 after the release of the Kindle. At least 60 have been banned by schools or libraries. Together, they represent the best of what novels can do: challenge us, delight us, pull us in and then release us, a little smarter and a little more alive than we were before. from The Great American Novels [The Atlantic; ungated] [CW: a list which almost by definition lacks your favorite American author or novel]
posted by chavenet at 2:19 AM PST - 73 comments